While I was in California, Chris reported that Paco had attempted to jump off the couch and had injured his back leg. As this has happened before, I wasn’t too worried. Paco usually gets over it within three days without any visible pain or discomfort.
This time, though, Paco didn’t get better. He fluctuated between better and worse, and then decided his front leg was the one that hurt. Some days, both the front and back leg seemed to bother him.
Over the weekend Paco seemed to be in some discomfort, so I took him to the vet today. This veterinary practice was one that we’d been to a few years ago and had stopped visiting when we had last moved. Because I wanted a second opinion on Mina’s stomach issues, I’d taken her back to this vet practice a month ago, and eventually had them do a dental cleaning and extraction.
We were nervous about putting her under anesthesia because her health hasn’t been great lately and her semi-advanced age might have caused problems. But her teeth were really terrible, and she ended up getting six teeth removed. That was last Thursday, and since Mina is still alive today, I figured that was as good a recommendation as any.
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by Susan Beth Pfeffer
ONE LINE SUMMARY: In a series of diary entries, Miranda relates her life when an asteriod knocks the moon out of orbit which results in worldwide devastation.
I’ll be honest with you. I know Pfeffer solely from the book Kid Power which is great, but covers about as many serious topics as the Ramona Quimby books by Beverly Cleary. This book came as a total surprise to me, even though with the book summary, I kind of figured it was not going to be as light-hearted as Kid Power.
This is engrossing, deeply moving, and utterly fascinating. I would love to know what happens next (will there be a sequel?), because this is not one of those books that gives you a tidy ending with all the loose ends wrapped up. I normally love tidy endings but as much as I wanted to know what would happen to Miranda and her family, I also thought the ending was perfect, for this kind of story.
After I finished this, I crept around my house, feeling like the world was coming to an end.
I just got the Keyspan bill.
We owe $278.94 for our gas. Added to our Nstar electric bill, this means we are now paying over $400 a month in utilities.
And the house is still fucking FREEZING.
Maybe it’s time to go outside and shovel some snow. At least I’d get warmer.
I hate leaving my house, especially when the weather is cold. So if I’m taking the car out by myself, it’s usually because I either have to earn some money or I’m going to the library.
I go to the library at least twice a month. I’ve always suffered from a strange compulsion to return books as soon as I’ve finished them, and when I’ve taken out a stack of, say, nine books from the library, I begin to feel that I have to go to the library again as soon as I’ve polished off three or four of the stack. Because, you see, other people may want the books I’ve already finished, and I would be really mad if the book I was waiting to check out was lying in someone’s house, underneath the bed, completely abandoned and ignored simply because the person doesn’t feel like returning it just yet.
Yesterday I happened to check my online library account because I wanted to see if some of the books I’d requested had come in yet. Of the four items I currently had on request, two were “in transit.”
Today I checked my account again to see if the two items had arrived. They were still listed as in transit, but oddly, I only had a total of three items on request. Where had the fourth one gone? And what the hell had I even requested as the fourth item?
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I normally don’t listen to Fiona Apple, but on my JetBlue flight on Monday, I was idly flipping through channels of DirectTv when suddenly I saw… Zack Galifianakis on the screen.
Zach is a stand-up comedian Chris and I have seen on tv, as well as in the Comedians of Comedy that was re-run on Comedy Central. He plays the piano in some of his stand-up.
He was dancing and gyrating to what was clearly a music video. I couldn’t hear much of the music though, since I use the freebie JetBlue headphones. But there he was.
And wait…was that…FIONA APPLE sharing the screen with him?
Yes, it was.
Note that the above video starts with Fiona talking about Zach. Oddly, I swear I can hear Brian Posehn in the background asking her questions.
And here is the miming of “Torn,” well, just because.
Does anyone living nearby have extra newspapers they’re done with that they can give us? We are in desperate need of paper for the dogs!! They’ve been using so much with the cold weather that we are running out.
My parents are my usual supplier when things get low, but now that my mom’s in California, my father has reverted back to his natural state of miserliness, and cancelled all his newspaper subscriptions. Too bad, because the chinese papers were the PERFECT size for the dog trays.
UPDATE: Papers have been located. Thank goodness there are people who don’t clean out their cubicles!
We’ve had problems in the past with the neighbor’s goldendoodle (big, white, fluffy as all get-out) racing into our yard to look at our dogs. A goldendoodle, if you don’t know, is a golden retriever/ standard poodle mix, bred specifically for the supposedly hypoallergenic qualities of a poodle, but with the adorableness/laid-back personality of other breeds. In other words, a family dog that doesn’t shed.
There are goldendoodles, labradoodles, cockapoos, schnoodles, and a bunch of other names that I would be embarrassed saying out loud, including something called the chi-poo that strikes fear into my heart (all I can say is that if they’re using a standard poodle for this mix, it better be the mother and not the father or the mother dog will explode upon giving birth).
As an aside, I’m all for strengthening the gene pool, but when “breeders” charge $1000 and up for what is essentially a mix, I get kind of angry. And by kind of angry, I mean in the way that the Hulk gets kind of green. If you want a large-sized mix, there are plenty in shelters looking for homes.
Our dogs are so small that often larger dogs (or “real” dogs as some people might say, but probably not in my hearing unless they want me to punch them) think that they are toys expressly designed for their enjoyment. Unfortunately, the way they play with these toys is to bark madly at them, attempt to chase them, and run away from me quickly when I try to grab their collars. Occasionally, they will conclude these actions with a giant poop on our lawn.
Fortunately, our problems with the neighbors’ dog stopped months ago when the neighbors put in an invisible fence. Now the dog just sits on their front lawn and stares mournfully at us when we drive into the garage.
This dog, whom I shall call The Fluffy Beast, is not terribly intelligent, but what he lacks in smarts he has in strength. Although he knows better than to knock down the children he lives with, he has no compunctions about rearing up as I approach, and then doing his enthusiastic best to drag me to the ground in a playful dance I like to call, “The Moments Just Before The Shark Eats You.”
However, now we have The Black Terror to deal with.
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I have just stepped off a five hour red-eye from California, and now realize that I hate plane rides, and not just because I am incapable of speedily collecting my luggage from the security belt while hopping in my socks on the dirty, dirty floor. What I really hate — and this may surprise you — are the people on the planes.
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Tomorrow I have to get on a plane for a business trip.
Just in case the rules had changed, I went onto the FAA web site and looked at the the list of what is allowed on the plane. It’s a good thing I did this, because otherwise I would have been in trouble.
My contact lens conditioning solution comes in a 4 ounce size, but 3 ounces is the limit for liquids on planes. So I have to run out shortly to buy a travel pack of contact lens solution which will cost as much as a full-size bottle of solution. But that’s okay, because I also need to buy a plastic bag since the FAA requires that not only must I restrict the volume of my liquids, I must also keep said liquids in a clear, quart-size zip-top plastic bag. Gallon-size bags are not allowed, and of course, the only zip-top plastic bags we have at home are gallon-size.
Remember, the terrorists will win if you use gallon-size bags.
The plastic bag must also be placed in its own bin at the security checkpoint, which means that when I get to security, I will not only have to put my watch and cell phone into my backpack, but I will also have to put my laptop, my shoes, my jacket, and the quart-size plastic bag each in their own bins.
I would be perfectly fine about checking in baggage and putting all the liquid items in there if I didn’t have several tight connections, and if the airlines didn’t insist on occasionally taking off without all the baggage onboard or sending your baggage to a new and unknown destination without you.
So since I fear losing my luggage and am traveling alone, I will have to control 4 bins, a backpack, and a carry-on suitcase by myself, all while in my socks and dehydrated from the lack of water which I am no longer allowed to bring through security.
Apparently, to successfully travel on a plane these days, you need several Sherpas.
I have just returned from my trip to two libraries, and I have good news and bad news.
The good news is that according to People magazine, high-waisted jeans are coming back this spring. I knew there was a reason I never threw away those Lee jeans from ten years ago!
The bad news is that my confidence in the library employees has been badly shaken.
At library #1, I went into the children’s department to return my books. This library does not have a drop slot for returned books, but instead just has a sign that says “Return here” underneath part of the counter that is also used to check out books. This is how both the adult and children’s section are set up.
I have never liked this system, because if you’ve heard one library employee ask another, “What are these books doing here?” while looking at the books that, per their direction, you have carefully placed directly above the “Return here” sign, then you have heard that more times than you should have.
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