Abscessing Over Cats

Rough week for my cat Charlie. I noticed last week that he was a bit droopy in the tail department and when I went to check it out, he freaked out, hissing and growling. Charlie is not like that, he is the most mellow of my 4 cats normally. I let him outside to use the potty (AKA the garden) and figured he must have gotten in a fight and been bitten. When he came back to door, I looked at him and said, hem, I think I need to take you to the vet. Charlie of course, being the smart cat that he is, turned tail and hid in the rose bushes. I called the vet and they said to bring him right in. Easier said than done.

I got my son to come outside with me to play the game of Capture the Cat. For a hurting and seemingly lethargic cat, he was moving pretty fast. After I had removed the rose bush and blackberry thorns from my ass that I got from scrambling after the cat, I called the vet and said the mission was NO GO. We made a tentative appointment for the next morning. Charlie did not show up again until just before 5pm. Did I mention that he can tell time? He knew the vet was now closing. He has done this before, showing up when he knew the vet was closed.

I decided that since he was in the house, I wasn't going to chance him disappearing again, so I set up a litter box. Charlie hates to use a box. He looked at me, climbing and promptly rolled around in the box. I think if he could have, he'd have flipped me off! He then went and hid out in my daughter's room for the night.

The next morning, Charlie was a sick kitty. The tail issue was bad and you could now see the abscess. I locked him into the bedroom and woke me son to help me with Capture the Cat Phase Two. It wasn't very hard this time, he just didn't have the energy although stuffing him into the carrier there was a bit of a scuffle.

He got to spend the day at the vet, they had to sedate him. He was not a happy camper. So $170 later, Charlie has a new poodle style shaved tail and is healing up. He is still avoiding me like the plague and gives me the stink eye. My daughter said she had never seen Charlie glare so darkly than when he is looking at me.

Our next step is to try and snip out the drain from his tail. Our first attempt was unsuccessful with Charlie peeing all over when we tried to hold him down. The vet said he may resist this procedure and it was okay to let him chew it off himself if need be. That's the route I'm voting for.

Everything is funny as long as it is happening to somebody else. ~Will Rogers

June is a Busy Month

I can't believe it's June already. So much is happening. I finally filled out my paperwork for the school district so they can officially hire me (meaning: start paying me). I've been volunteering in the drama dept as a costumer this school year and I must have done a great job since they now want to pay me. This means I'm accountable for all the costuming and no longer just the assistant. I'm hoping to find a kindred soul (aka a parent who sews) who can step in if I get overwhelmed. I did find a student who is willing to be my in school assistant. She is a great kid and lives, breathes drama. She was a little hesitant as she doesn't know what to do. I told her I was winging it also so we were prefect for it together. I've got my first meeting with my new boss on Saturday morning.

Last weekend Rob and I chaperoned about 60 choir kids to a trip to Idaho's Silverwood Amusement Park and Music in the Park Festival. Our kids didn't get the highest honors but they did have a good time. I had 2 groups of girls to keep an eye on. One group was well behaved and kept in touch with me all weekend. The others, well, I just hope nine months from now, we won't have any little reminders showing up. All their boyfriends are in choir also. I hated riding in a bus for 6 hours but otherwise it was a nice trip.

Tonight Nicole has her final choir performance for the year. Saturday I drop her off at a friend's grad party then I have my meeting. Right after that, I've been invited to a garden party at one of my Zumba buddy's house. She lives in a gated community. It will be nice to see how the other half lives. Saturday afternoon, I take Nicole to get her hair done as she's got a date to go to the Prom! Late night for us, waiting for her to get home. Sunday and Monday I will be sewing, sewing sewing. I've been taking in alterations from the Zumba ladies. It's bringing in some vacation money, woohoo! Tuesday night is the drama club banquet. Then there is more grad parties, banquets, end of year Girl Scout parties, dance recitals, etc.

On June 25th we leave on a much needed vacation to Southern California. We are throwing in a couple of college tours but really we just wanted to go to Disneyland with Nicole since she has never been. Lucky for us (her) our good friends will be in Anaheim the same time and Nicole will have a friend to go on rides with instead of her lame parents. And her lame parents can act goofy and go on rides without the eye rolling. Got some really good deals on hotels near Disneyland. I think the cost of admission is more than our hotel costs. I'm very excited to visit Disneyland again. Last time I was there I was pregnant and fat. It will be so much fun to not worry about fitting into the rides and being able to walk for hours without pain or fatigue. I'm liking being healthy.

I haven't had time to work on my jewelry designs much lately. I do have some things in the works and I'm thinking of applying to sell at the Mourning Market, a dark inspired craft show in Seattle in August. I'm not sure my Steampunk style fits their criteria but I'll see. I will need an outfit too. So much to do and so little time.

I'm Back!.....

It's been over a year since I last posted. Lots of things have changed in my life in the last 18 months. I've lost over 130 lbs. This has changed me completely. Not just in appearance but in my whole outlook on life. I'm not in constant pain from my joints that were protesting the abuse I was giving them being so heavy. My days had no purpose and I was wallowing in self pity.

Now I have a job at a local high school making costumes for the Drama dept. I love the sewing and creating for these kids. I'm making jewelry, always a passion of mine and have my own Etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/victoriouscat (shameless plug) I've been exploring the Neo Victorian Steampunk Genre and love working with vintage items and re purposing them into new things.

I exercise now! I'm off my butt and the aches I get now are from sore muscles. I didn't even know I had muscles. I'm loving Zumba and although I have 2 left feet (sometimes it looks like I have 3 left feet), I'm moving and jiggling and sweating and having a ball. Who knew it could be fun to exercise? Not this couch potato but I'm a reformed woman.
I'm not even sure if anyone even remembers that I had a blog but I'm going to try and keep up and post a bunch about my jewelry and other projects. I'm working on a Steampunk Frock Coat that I'm making from a gorgeous brocade jacket.

Isn't life fun?

Mirrors

Have you priced mirrors lately? C'mon, it's just a piece of glass with silver paint, right? I'd like to put a nice one over my mantel but I'm reeling over the cost of those I like.

So I've been thinking about mirrors. I like the dining room mirror since it is an antique but no one hardly looks in it. I use the bathroom mirrors to put on what little makeup I wear and brushing whats left of my hair. I try to use the bathroom mirrors to see to pluck those damn hairs that appear on my chin, which I check for constantly but don't seem to find until I'm somewhere in public and am sure everyone notices it. The bathroom mirrors in my house are not good for finding these chin hairs. The light is not good in any of the bathrooms. But if it is a sunny day, the car's vanity mirror in the visor is great for finding and plucking those hairs.

My teenage daughter is appalled that I go into the car in the driveway and groom my chin.

I lost my funny

About 9 months ago I was going thru a major anxiety issue and my doctor put me on Prozac. I'm not complaining, it did wonders for calming me down and stopped me from feeling like everyone was trying to put a knife in my back. But I do think it evened out my personality a bit too much. I can't seem to see the hilarity in life like I use to. I'm considering getting off the Prozac and will be discussing this with my doctor in a few weeks. I want my funny back.

I still find a lot of humor in everyday living but when I try to write about it, it seems too forced or more like a list of complaints (wait, isn't what this is? Shit, am I going to have to delete this too? AAARRGGH!)

It could be that I've lost my funny along with my fat. Perhaps I was one of those fat jolly people and as I've lost weight, I'm no longer jolly? Well, I should be damn funny still since I've got loads more fat to drop!

Cookies Galore

I took over the job of Girl Scout Cookie Manager for all of my town. There are about 30+ Girl Scout Troops with about 350 girls. My job is to supply all the troops with the 8 varieties of GS cookies throughout the sale. I keep a stock of cookies to parcel out and resupply as needed. My goal at the end of today, the last day of sales is to have an empty garage. So far my plan has failed.

Every year GSUSA changes the types of cookies we sell. They will always have Thin Mints, Samoas, Trefoils, DoSiDos and Tagalongs. Then they have 3 other types that they replace after 1-3 years. This year the 3 types we have are Lemon Chalet Cremes, Dulce de Leche, and Thank U Berry Munch. All three are not selling very well, with the Lemon hardly selling at all. The Lemons got bad press this year. The bakery recalled some lots of Lemons because the taste was "off". Now our council did not receive any of these packages but the local news reported it and people were leery. Many of my troops found they could not sell these so I took them back. The Dulces are selling because they changed them from the previous year and the Thank U's have cranberries in them and people are just not jumping at that.

My garage is full of Lemons, Dulces and Berries. Now we have a program to deal with left over cookies. We collect donations for Operation Cookie Drop. Our donations are used to buy our cookies to send to US military. People are very supportive of this drive and give generously. The cookies left in my garage are used for Operation Cookie Drop. I really hope that the military loves the taste lemon as I think the bulk of what they are getting will be these. Besides, the chocolate based cookies don't travel as well and melt in the heat of the desert.

Buy cookies!

New Year Resolution

I started swimming at the local pool yesterday. This doesn't seem like a big deal but I don't think I've put on a swim suit for a couple of years.

So I dig thru my dresser and find 4 swim suits. One is so old that I can see thru the thing so it's out. Another was old but looked okay. And 2 were practically new. Both the good suits were the same size so I figure I'm set...until I try them on. One is just a tad to big and the other cut circulation off in my legs.

I wear the one good suit that is a tad big and it's okay, a little low in the front but I didn't swim out of it. My friend Mary and I spent about 45 minutes in the pool and it was fun. I did about 6 lengths of the pool and a lot of treading and kicking and floating.

Today my suit was still a bit damp so I wore the one that looked okay. It was fine until I got into the water and the last of the spandex disappeared and I had saggy bottom. Not that I don't have saggy bottom all the time but this was ugly.

So now I have one suit that fits and one that will fit soon (I hope). I did 30 minutes in the pool today and I can't wait to go again. I got a 3 month pass to help keep me motivated.

Tiny Rocks

Every morning I swing out of bed and into my slippers and every morning there is tiny gravel in my slippers. Now I know that no one else in the family wears my slippers so where's the mysterious rocks coming from? My bed is not full of tiny stones as Rob would have a fit as he can't sleep if there is a wrinkle in the sheets much less a sand box.

You would think that I would shake out my slippers before putting them on each day to clear them of these tiny pest. But I don't.

Have a Rocking Christmas.

My Favorite Christmas Song