Ahh Eric you really were a drag queen. I look back at these pictures from nearly twenty years ago and think good lord I wasn't a drag queen but I kind of looked like it. Check out the hair!

Jaan Pehechaan Ho

One of my favorite You tube videos

The Needle-nosed Food Eater

(Lola's official scientific designation since her haircut)

House Update

Our first fire in the fireplace Our first dinner party in the new dining room

Happy 100 Baba!

We should all look so good at 100!

I Hate Flying!!

All my blogger friends are traveling lately and I am painfully jealous. There are so many places that I would like to visit. The problem is I love being there but I hate getting there. I hate to fly.

Let me rephrase that...I hate to sit...still. Actually I am completely incapaple of sitting in one position for any period of time. So in addition to flying I hate movies or anything that requires me to sit still in close proximity to other people that I may annoy. Oh and watching TV in bed flat on my back doesn't either.

Oh I will annoy you...trust me. I can't help it. I have broken my tailbone twice. The first time was at Christmas. I had a little home decor store I mananged for about ten years. One day we were very busy and I ran back to use the restroom, flushed and ran back out. About a half hour later I ran back again to the store room to find something and it had flooded. I slipped, fell and broke my tailbone. The next time I was walking down a hill holding a small dog in my arms. I stepped on a wet metal plate on the sidewalk, slipped, fell and broke it again.

The thing about this kind of injury is that there isn't a damn thing you can do about it but treat the pain and try to stay comfortable. They say it healed eventually but I'm left not being able sit in one position for longer than about twenty minutes. I have to shift and change slightly to stay comfortable particularly on hard surfaces.

So planes are hell for me and those sitting next to me. In addition to this malady I am also incapable of sleeping on planes...joy huh? I took valium on my last flight and it helped a little but I think deep coma would be the best for me and all around me.

But then I'd probably snore:)

God Hates Fags

Holy Shit! Awhile back I heard the daughter of this Reverend Phelps creature on Komo talking about Christmas. I decided to rent a documentary about her father and family. Let me repeat...

Holy shit...

Apparently this Bapist church in Kansas consists of this Phelps family and they travel around protesting at soldiers funerals who were killed in the Iraq war. They say the soldiers killed by IED's are killed because someone threw an IED at their church. These people seriously think they are the center of the fucking universe (sorry but I just finished watching it and I am enraged) They stand across the street from the funerals and shout at the soldiers families.

Mark and agreed that if we were the mother or the father of these boys that probably we would fly across the street as if on wings to try and kill these people. Not a very noble thought but I am really surprised no one has done this already.

Their mission is to let everyone know that homosexuality is wrong. I think...okay well that's what it seems to me that they have unnaturally fixated on this one thing and nothing else matters. They are all very very angry. So much so that they seem to have genetically altered faces own to the smallest Phelps. Even the six year olds have these simian looking furrowed brows.

So strange...

I know this is a slightly incoherent post but I'm just so angry at these people and I feel somehow sorry for them. It must feel horrible to have that much hatred boiling around in side of you. The poor children were saying all these hideous things. The narrator asked them what it meant and they had no idea.

So sad...

A Tribute

Okay so if feel like a bad blogger. I've been consumed by our cat issues for about three weeks now. It's over now, we had my friend a vet come out a put him to sleep on Friday night. He hadn't eaten in five days so it was time...probably past time.

I'm a big proponent of euthanasia, Mark was a little harder to convince. He was there for the shot to make him sleep but not for the overdose of anesthesia...he couldn't do it. So I sat with him. I'm glad I did. The needle went in and before the vial was emptied he was gone. I find that very comforting. I've been a part of this decision (or indecision) three times before but never been present for the death. It made me more sure it can be the right thing to do.

The first time was my childhood dog Snickers

We got him at the him at the Humane Society when I was ten. I had BEGGED for a dog for about two years. He lasted until I was twenty-two. By this time he had congestive heart failure, coughed constantly and fainted frequently. We took him to a doggie heart specialist in an attempt to "save" him. I was against it after a point but lost the fight. I kind of checked out on him at some point because I couldn't bear to watch it anymore but couldn't convince anyone else he was suffering. He finally died one day curled up in his dog house. I swore I'd never do that again.

The next time was a friends cat. I lived with them at the time. He was 19 and in kidney failure. They had a port surgically implanted in his back to give him fluids. He spents months with it flopping around on his back. He howled when they gave him the fluids. He had seizures too. Finally they were going on vacation and leaving him in my care. I said no, that I wouldn't do it and they needed to find him other care. He too finally died.

Then I went with these same friends to Arizona to visit one of their friends. The first night their cat dragged himself home after a three day absence, yellow. Obviously in liver failure. They put it in a back bedroom. I burned all my bridges with these people, shrieked until they took the cat to an emergency vet and put it out of its misery. I had to get a hotel room by myself for the remainder of the trip and wasn't invited back.

I'll admit it, I pushed Mark a little bit into this decision when Bismark finally went downhill. He probably resents me a little for it. I know there are those who say that people have to make the decision in their own time.... I can't agree. I will not watch an animal suffer and will ALWAYS advocate on its behalf. I hope someone can do that for Lola if I can't..... in 20 years or so :)

Can you smell those bridges burning?

Bismark R.I.P

Shane Mercado

I want this man as my own personal gay (sorry for assuming but Puhleeze) I think he is sooo adorable!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGemjUvafBw#

Oh and I can't seem to get you tube vidoes to post, anyone else having this problem?

Newton

Okay sorry but now Newton had a seizure last night. So back to the vet but the good news is they think it's either Toxoplasmosis or a Fungal infection, both treatable. YAY! I mean how weird would it be that both cats have seperate neurologica issues?

Sidenote...

If I seem like the cat is all I have lately it's because I've been stuck in North Bend for TWO WEEKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lola doesn't care Bismarck is blind. He is still her warm fuzzy pillow. Actually he clambered up on the couch and laid down on her head. She didn't turn a hair just laid there and let him get comfy. He is in power wedge mode here in this picture. He likes to smoosh him self in small paces, or Lola's head.

He is doing well. He can find the couch, the litter box and his food. If he gets in a small space by accident like a closet he can take some time getting out :) He can spin a bit trying to find the door but everything I've read says not to help them...so I'm not...mostly. He never runs into things his whiskers warn him before he hits the wall and he turns at the last minute. My Dad was blind too and he could have used some whiskers too:)

We have decided against Chemo. From everything I've read that may delay the Lymphoma getting him but eventually it will get him. He is on steroids for the time being and as long as he eats, sleeps, drinks, uses the litter box and is social we are calling it good. If something changes will reassess the situation.

Lola needs her fuzzy pillow a little longer.

.

Updating the update

Well I took Bismark to a neurologist in Lynnwood today...recommended by the eye specialist yesterday. He has "Optic Neuritis" an inflammation of the optic nerve. It can be somewhat reversable with Prednisolone treatment but the problem is that it is probably caused by Lymphoma...sigh. So here is the ultimate question to treat or not to treat? The Prednisolone treatment might make everything shrink and give him more months possibly even more years. Or the cancer could figure out how to overcome that drug and come back.

Then there is chemo which could give him 2 to 4 more years but we all know what chemo does...it makes people and cats very sick. The thing this disease probably will eventually get him but which way do we go? He has already had x rays, blood tests, urinalysis, MRI, spinal tap. This would entail a needle biopsy of his eye and a sonograph of his body plus more blood test then chemo. He's the 4000.00 kitty but really Mark has lots it's not an issue. So what do we do?

Bismarck Update

Well ater al that we thought he was much better. Eating, drinking and all that but last night we noticed his pupils were different sizes and he was kind of staggering around. So after another vet appointment we now know that Bismarck is blind. I have no idea how or why but we will see a kitty opthamologist tomorrow.

My father was blind. So I'm pretty mellow about this news. I know people can be fine blind and animals do much better than we do. My only concern is that we are remodeling and things change around here daily. I don't think that is a good environment for a blind cat. I think we should give him back to his mother...sadly.

Sigh.....

Yikes!!

As you can see our icicles have turned from beautiful to kind of menacing:) It's like they are trying to get in and get us

I cannot get this video to post so here is the you tube link:)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXfkMGV3FdM&feature=channel_page#

The view out our new bedroom window this morning. This is my backyard:)

Lola the Snow Dog

Tuscan White Bean Soup with Prosciutto

So this is what I made tonight and I had an idea...for those of you who cook I'd love to see some recipes on your blog of things that worked well (this was ok not too noteworthy) or maybe even a common blog where contributors can post recipes or take recipes. I'm sure this is done somewhere but I've read a few of you talk about what you've made and I really would love to trade:)