Happy New Year!

...Robbie Maddison is in need of therapy. Seriously. And if I hear
that Soulja Boy song one more time, I will not be responsible for what
i do. Just wanted to get in one last post for this year. I'll be a
better blogger in 2008. Swear. ;-) now i have to get out there and
drink. Woo-hoo

love and joy come to you...

Ok, thank god that's over-ish.

First off, at Eviljob there is a kitten with a birth defect -- it has no back right leg past the knee area therebouts. Don't worry, Little One is fine, and staying at a co-worker's home until the Holiday stuff is over. It is a black cat, and since black cats are usually names 'Lucky' or somesuch, this one has been christened 'Not-So-Lucky'.

Not-So-Lucky will be just fine. We thought he had been hit by a car. :-) It took forever to catch it, but at least I did not have to do it this time. I guess Not-So-Lucky has been hiding out. Can't say as how I blame him. If I had known I was getting suckered into tending a team at Eviljob on Xmas Eve, I would have hid, too. Good going, Not-So-Lucky.

Butsoanyway. Because I was working for a goodly chunk of Christmas Eve, Meg and I are going to go look at Christmas lights on Thursday. Yay.

Meg missed some tournament 'cos Mom pitched a fit, and so we've had her here the whole time. My brother has actually been nice to me, which is weird; first, I got three huge boxes from Bath and Body Works delivered to me -- B&BW was the return address, so I did not know they were presents, and I opened them. He had to have bought fricking EVERYTHING. I am *serious*. I have every freaking product known to Man, including some I have never seen, like the Japanese Cherry Blossom Shimmer Duster. Very cool.

On a related, if trivial, note, I am in love with B&BW's Chocolate Amber and Blackberry (?) Amber stuff; it smells wonderful!

So those came on (I think) Saturday, or Friday. And I phoned him to say thanks, and he went on and on about how he hoped I did not think what he got me was less then what he got Meg (a leather briefcase-thingy). I told him that it was great, because I love that stuff. Meg already has somewhere around six leather briefcases -- everyone gets her one (and usually with the engraved plate (plus-sized) proudly declaring her to be Dr Megadocious Anastasia Regine Elizabeth Chiquita Banana Hannah Montana Benedek bat Yakov von Weltschmerz -- okay, I am exaggerating, but ours are names which are a tad unwieldy, and much to my parents' irritation, Meg and I have abbreviated somewhat (and each differently), both of us around the time that we started getting asked if we were registered with the AKC -- and Meg *hates* that; she just wants to be called 'Meg'. But this is what happens when two people who should have never been wedded in the first place try to 'compromise' on the names of their children to make each other, as well as their respective families, happy), although this is a nice briefcase. It's burgundy, which is a colour she didn't have, and it has a zip-opening thing for her carry-on handle. And no nameplate, because my brother feels somewhat the same way as we, though he cut out all Mummers' contributions to his name. For some reason, when people think of Meg, they think of leather briefcases. No Big Deal -- I would rather the B&BW bonanza, anyway!

And, for what it's worth, I would not have minded being named Pop Tart's Momentary Lapse of Reason in the slightest.

But back to my brother, John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt of Ulm Benedek ben Yakov von Weltschmerz:

Then, he phoned again for no reason when he was waiting for National Treasure to start (at the theatre) with two of his kids, as he'd let his wife go do personal shopping and gadding about whilst a sitter (hopefully heavily-armed or -sedated) took on their youngest two; I told him he must be missing me to go see a movie about me, and he did not start in with his usual acid-tongued crap. :-) He's been sending me IMs on gmail (which shows up as regular mail if I'm not logged in), and after he again apologised via IM for the B&BW and I assured him (also via IM) that it was Just Wonderful, then I got this IM:

Glad you like it. Interestingly, you were not featured in any part of the movie. I lodged a complaint with the theater manager explaining the true value, in fact treasure, that you represented to this nation. He told me to bugger off and threatened to ring the police as he had become suspicious about my activities, being alone at a theater with two small boys and all. Anyway, Merrry Christmas! Will phone you later today or tomorrow.

Ok, so why is he being nice? Is he terminal with something? Am I? Maybe he was visited by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future? Meg and I have long thought he was the inspiration for Bill Murray's character in Scrooged, so I guess anything is possible... Gosh, I wonder what happens to me in the future? Do I end up looking like Joan Rivers?

Butsoanyway.

So I cooked Christmas Din-Din-turned-late-lunch ('cos I'm all about not timing a damn thing) at Mummers', and it all came out in spite of her near-constant criticisms; everyone loved it. I usually step away from Holiday Stuffs, or try to, but this year feels so extremely un-like a Holiday Season that I am in distress enough to do damn near anything to pick it up a little; I will be trying to make spiced apple cider later in the week, so stay tuned. I ended up going to both jobs' main holiday parties this year, and they were both ok -- not Christmassy, though. I had a date for one, and went staggish for the other, but the Holiday Feeling was low, period. At least, not high enough for my tastes. One person at Job 2-sub-1 I think has a drinking problem; they got completely roasted (like Bad Santa roasted), and this particular party was The Big One (there are other, smaller group ones that I didn't do) at J2-s-1, the one with both the academics and the military, so any way one turned, a paycheck-signing hand could be seen. Very bad choice of drinking times. Tres-way bad. I don't do it, 'cos I plan to hit them up for items that are on my Christmas list shortly, so I am on teh good behaves; I may not be leaving in January after all...which means that I will STILL HAVE THREE JOBS, butsoanyway. Plus, I do not like crying in public; I would probably like it even less if I were doing it and I were a boy.

Butsoanyway.

Romeo is doing really well -- he came and slept with me about a week ago, and he kissed me. He has done neither since before the exploding kidney, so that is cool. The Val syrup stuff with the extra crap in it seems to really be working! Though I still am not sure what Val syrup actually is; Meg somehow got the idea that it had blood in it, but she is just kooky that way sometimes. I know the base is Val (or VAL, rather), but Doc puts other stuff in it for anaemic patients, like potassium and stuff. He also compounded cyproheptadine and the two antibiotics into VAL, so Rome is on a *lot* of VAL, but...it's working. Can't fault that.

I am currently, despite having overeaten all day today, having a massive craving for something steak-y with something salad-y. I'm not going to so anything about it, but wow; one would think I would be over food; we had to compromise and have turkey this year, and the damned thing was *huge*.

Oh! Cutest thing! I brought home turkey for my cats, and they went completely crazy-happy. Especially the left-over giblet part; Romeo particularly liked that.

I have to go to sleep (we are *still* tying up a project at J2-s-1), because I have to be in early. Bwaah. And we all know that's unlikely to occur.

Merry Christmas!

.

Oh, shit -- it's Upgrayedd!

Ok, so I suck...it has been a busy week. I'm just updating a draft, so
here goes...

On Friday:

I am waiting for Meg and some other friends to join me at Morty's Meat
Pit. It's actually Tony Roma's, but I like to annoy by calling it
Morty's.

holy shit...she's early. More later.

ok; butsoanyway.

I had the spinach chicken thingy, and I guess I will be having that
tomorrow, 'cos i had a breast and a half left. And let me tell you
here, 'cos everyone there seemed to think this was some elaborate
dish: it would be painfully simple to make this yourself, at home,
for less. Steam some nice veggies (just a little less than Morty's,
'cos it's nicer when they are still kind of raw and crunchy-ish), and
put those in a bowl with Rice-A-Roni. Take two chicken breasts, and
grill them just enough to taste grill-y. Then plop some frozen creamed
spinach on top, and bake them. Then put the chicken on top of the
Rice-A-Roni. And I really *do* think they used Rice-A-Roni, despite
the withering, 'noooooo, pezzint!' look our server gave me. Srsly.
R-A-R. Promise.

Our esteemed guests (at Job 2-sub-1, the ones for whom we were running
a quick-and-dirty benchmarking study) are gone...thank god. We did the
Entertaining Them dinner last night (boring). It was fabulous
(boring).

Meg and I have matching sister laptops (mainly 'cos I bought hers and
mine at the same time a few years ago when I turned down the Eviljob
laptop 'cos I was doing a lot of travelling back then, but wanted to
not have to worry about my personal stuff turning up on corporate
property) but Meg's just blew up. So tomorrow, after I get off work,
we are going shopping for her new one. Which makes *me* want a new
one, 'cos mine is now horribly out-dated, though it was cool when I
bought it. I just do not have the budget to swing another laptop like
I want right now. Sigh.

ok...now on Saturday, Meg and I went shopping after work. She bought
an HP something-something and, well, so did I. So we have matching
sister laptops again. The one I have now is way-lighter, so that is
awesome. We have named our laptops Upgrayedd. Two Ds at the end for a
double dose of dis pimpin'.

I really need to stop watching Idiocracy. :-)

After we bought Upgrayedd, we swung by my home and dosed Romeo, fed
everyone, and I have been running around with Meg ever since. Right
now, we're heading back into town, 'cos I have to get an early start
tomorrow on finishing up a ginormous PITA project that was supposed to
have been done by now. Meg was intending to go to a WSOP event in New
Jersey, but changed her mind; now next up for her is a WPO/WSOP thingy
in (I think) Tunica. I guess that means she is spending her New Year's
at a circuit event. :-)

I wish I could go, but meh; I can't. I am afraid that I am stuck
working straight through the new year, practically. But I guess it
really doesn't matter; I don't need to be spending any money, and I
can't really do anything else constructive right now. Other than
having fun, or something. :-)

Ok...I am almost home and starting to get a ferocious headache. Time
for sleep after I dose Rome again, I think.

If I weren't so tired...

I would write something about how Romeo is hanging in there, how we
have loaned back some of our equipment at Job 2-sub-1 to the original
vendor to use in a bencharking process with some newer equipment 'cos
we are *the* facility to be doing this, so I am supposed to stand
around and look helpful all day, and I would write about how I really
wish Meg would stay for xmas and New Year's Eve, but she is about to
run off to a tournament, and I would write about how I have managed to
get all manner of shit in, not simply at the eleventh hour, but at the
eleventh hour-and-fifty-nine-minutes. Bwaah. And I would write about
spending four hours with Baby Bat shopping for her mom. And I would
write about how terribly tired I am, or perhaps I wouldn't. I do not
want to sound whiny. :-)

More Kitty Brawndo, Pleez!

Well, I have given up on sleeping, and Romeo appears to be a *lot*
better, and this is after just one dosing. Hmmm.

It has to be the electrolytes.

It's got electrolytes -- what Ancodias crave!

I just found this link: Feline CRF Information<http://felinecrf.com/index.htm>

I do not believe that I have seen this site before, though how I could have
missed it is beyond me.

Romeo is not doing all that well; he just finished a round of Flagyl and
loperamide, and we may be about to start on another...I think. I guess I
will decide tomorrow. He is a little anaemic -- I can tell by his gums --
and I put a warm towel over his bed for tonight. I guess we will see.

As far as class crap, I am largely done. Sigh.

I got a flu shot on Friday, and made the mistake of mentioning it at
Eviljob...argh. Christ almostmaybemighty, everything cannot be a
conspiracy. Seriously. It just cannot; it is logically *impossible*. I
was all explained-at that flu shots are going to make me autistic, turn my
children gay, give me shingles, and, plus, I will spend the next four months
sick, 'cos flu shots...

are you ready for this?

...flu shots MAKE YOU SICK. Yes. *MAKE* you sick. For months. And it is
INCURABLE during this period of time; there is nothing one can do other than
just wait it out. And, I suppose, hope one doesn't die. And all this --
the gay kids, the sneezing, the autism, the bodies piling up hither and
thither -- is allowed to go on because...

Are you *really* ready for this one?

...because the drug company lobbyists are paying off lawmakers to not only
look the other way, but to *encourage* people to get vaccines.

Oh, just shoot me. Are we all really that bored that we are making up
shit now? Is the whole world really *that* boring? There are no cats
to catch (more on that in a sec), no more homeless shelters to build,
and no more
reality TV to watch? Maybe the whole 'green M&Ms make you horny' was
just TOO, TOO unbelievable and out-there? Fuckaduck.

I used to have a bumper sticker on my car; it was on my first car, and I
generally hate bumper stickers, but I saw this one, and it was Love. It
said:

EVERYTHING IS CONTROLLED BY A SMALL, EVIL GROUP
TO WHICH, UNFORTUNATELY, NO ONE WE KNOW BELONGS.

Well, it made *me* smile.

I do not care if someone does not want to be vaccinated, as long as they do
not lecture me about it; my personal opinion is that things like
vaccinations have monkeyed too much with that whole Survival of The Fittest
thing, and these cockamamie beliefs are just Mother Nature's way of trying
to put things back the way they were before that smarmy know-it-all Jenner
came along. Meddling bastard; it was far better to have our lungs all full
of pneumonia and our children dead or retarded. That was WAY better than
the current situation, where not even a solid causal link can be
demonstrated, but damn it all...we know it is there. Seriously. Plus, if
it weren't this particular set of cockamamie beliefs, it would be some other
set. Mother Nature just does not like to be fucked with; try sometimes and
see. I firmly believe that my redneck neighbours -- the ones who let their
children play in traffic -- were supposed to be fertilising a lovely crop of
pine trees, or something, maybe growing a daisy or two. Rilly. That's how
Mother Nature works. The whole playing in traffic thing is just good old
Mother Nature trying to make it right.

Ok...I'll quit. I just get annoyed easily, and there are things I
would rather not know about my co-workers' belief systems. Sigh. Do
not even get me started on our discussion of bottled-versus-tap water
and the Evil of Flouridation.

'cos, you know, it makes boils on your ass and turns your kids gay. Or
something.

I started this post yesterday; since then, I finished writing one
journical article, and handed in two-thirds of all my crap for my
last-ish class (yay). I walked Kate through one of her finals (even
though she is older, Kate is a second-year), and got Romeo over to the
vet. Rome is now on VAL Syrup with some extra stuff in it (like
potassium and stuff), as he has become very anaemic, and an absolute
terror to pill. So now all of his meds are compounded (which sounds so
much more professional than my preference -- squooshed-up) into VAL.
He now takes Cyproheptadine (as-needed), Cipro (12 hrs), Flagyl (12
hrs), and Loperamide in a gel cap (12 hrs or as-needed). Oh -- and the
plain VAL Syrup with the extra electrolytes added (it's got
electrolytes...what cats crave! Sorry...had to toss in a little
Idiocracy).

LOL...my Siameasle is on Brawndo. HA!

Meg is over celebrating Chanukah with me (I promised her latkes, but
got held over at the vet, so it was our traditional kosher pizza rolls
instead; we're watching Elf, and Meg says the scene where Buddy phones
his dad from the kitchen is what *I* do...augh! Nooooo! Liar!), and I
think she thinks I am screwing around on email, or something.
Butsoanyway; she asked me why Cipro *and* Flagyl, and I cannot do
multiple browser windows on my PDA, but in case anyone is wondering,
my guess is one addresses gram-positive bacteria, and the other
gram-negative, though I am (1) only guessing, and (2) only parroting
things I have heard family say with close-to-zero comprehension. But
it does sound good, doesn't it? I mean, Meg bought it. :-D

butsoanyway.

Yesterday, I was fairly sure that I was going to be measle-less
tonight (well, other than Weebie), so I am happier. Doc said a
transfusion is out of the question, because it is too traumatic for
the cat if there are other alternatives, plus he did not get Romeo's
blood type last draw, does not trust Dr Vet's records, doesn't want to
draw more right now, and feels that an incompatible blood type might
cause unnecessary complications in an already bad situation.

To which *I* said, 'waitaminnit...cats have blood types???? Since when?'

I forgot to check that before just now...I will later. But Doc is
pretty convinced that they do, so ok. Every other vet I have ever been
to has had one, maybe two, 'bleeder' cats (lucky felines who live the
Life of Riley in exchange for sticking out a paw to help fallen
comrades when needed), and these donor cats handled anyone who came
by. During his nephrectomy, I am pretty sure Romeo got blood from Dr
Vet's bleeder cat, and he was ok then, so...?

Dunno.

So transfusing is out, and Doc said we can use Procrit on him, but
cats can (should?) only have that once or twice in their life, so he
would rather hold off on that until Romeo is in (or closer to) an
actual crisis, at which time I guess I would be smart to put him down.
Sigh.

Ok...back to Meg and our grading; I have to remind myself that every
day I am getting closer and closer to Uninterrupted Naptime.
Seriously. It helps me make it through all this crap. I am *soooo*
sleepy. Maybe I need Brawndo.