Minor Blog Change

Changed the blog picture - it's not my "chain lynx fence" anymore.
In this current time and place in our nation, I think it's quite fitting.
I've been meaning to switch to this one for ages. Shows ya how long it's been since I've spent any meaningfully long time on my PC other than to check emails and fix sht that I have no idea how it got ON in the first place!

I've been thinking....

Howdy folks.
You know I've been thinking (shut up, I know what you're thinking, "oh no she's at it again..." - bah humbug lol) - I really need to come up with a new, original introductory greeting, or just shut up and cut to the crap - erp - blog. LOL...
Anyways...
Nimbus is doing better. Still not where we'd like him to be, but slowly and steadily coming down. He did take a good drop yesterday after I boosted his insulin a bit as he was adapting to the level he was at. I will try to schedule another vet appointment soon, but probably not before the first of the year when I have all the other bills covered. Curzon and Jadzia are doing better as well, the moodiness is fading. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean MY moodiness is fading! But that comes from my lack of decent sleep this MONTH. It started before Nimbus was diagnosed, and even IF it was Nimbus related, I'm not blaming a CAT for MY sleep issues. I just worry too damn much, even Mr. Cat will tell you that. I worry about shit I have no business worrying about, people I have no business worrying about - but because I care so daggum much! It's what made me insist on getting a vet to see what I was seeing, what I was hearing, and not just dismissing me because of his previous condition. I'm not a worrywart without cause. I see serious and then worry. I wouldn't have worried had he only coughed a couple times and been done with it. Cats get colds... But when it continues and continues... I worry. Or when a cat pukes but only pulls up water (have seen it), I worry. But worry doesn't do too much unless you learn to feed off that worry and make things happen. That's why worrying doesn't affect me like most people. I feed off of it, act on it, and fix it. I don't take NO for an answer, and I will drop a doctor (or vet) in a heartbeat if he or she doesn't provide a reasonable answer. Oh and please, don't think you can lie to me. That doesn't work. I have the internet, for pete's sake. I'll catch you quick. Plus I know people, people who KNOW. (It's the main reason I like working retail sometimes - it's the networking, stupid!) I was up well past my bedtime when Nimbus came home from the vet the first time researching, reading, asking on a message board - getting the information I needed, verifying what I'd been told. I am still doing that. I cross-check everything I see and hear, and not just with one person, but several.
Many of you have kids. What I am doing for my cat I know all of you would do for your kiddos. My cats are my children and are treated as such and are also protected as such. Animal torturers aren't allowed in this house, and neither is anyone who would even gently smack my cats. Disciplining my cats is the responsibility of me and Mr. Cat - and NO ONE else. And besides, smacking a cat is pure torture. That's not how they learn. A water bottle will suffice, trust me. I might tap one to get its attention. I might throw a sock at them too. But I never EVER let anyone hurt my cats. I wouldn't if they were dogs, hamsters, anything. Even IF they weren't mine... So I guess that means I'm just the animal protector. LOL Ok I'll take on that role happily. I just can't take people being mean to animals. That's why I couldn't be a humane society cop. I'd break into houses to rescue the animals. I'd probably have to hurt some people pretty quickly. I just have no patience I guess. Hmmm... Wait. I already knew that. Like mother, like daughter.
Anyways, back to my babies...
As I was saying before I got off of my train of thought and onto my soapbox, Curzon is doing so much better with his moodiness. As I'm (trying) to type this, he's giving himself a bath while laying on my right arm - needless to say it's hard to move it! Perhaps I was so focused on getting Nimbus better I was neglecting the bonding level that Curzon is used to. Bonds don't just happen, they're nurtured along. Me and this cat may be inseparable, but I do have to remind him - as well as the other two - of that fact. It's just like a human-human relationship. Hm, there's a thought - do I treat my cats too much like humans? Or am I onto something? LOL. Wait, nope, can't deny a paw THAT friggin big is a cat of all cats. Sheesh! Glad the cat loves me, or I'd be getting killed in my sleep! Sorry guys, just got showed the paw... Not like I ain't seen 'em a million times, but every time it blows me away just how big a DOMESTIC cat's paws can be. But hell, a small paw on such a big cat WOULD be quite freaky.
Geez I gotta quit talkin' 'bout these cats before I chase ya'll off!
So what else is new... Let's see, I finally got a good night - erm day - of sleep today for the first time in ages... I finally caught up on my laundry on Monday, well except for a few summer pieces I found hiding... Got through the holiday fairly quietly and without a lot of hooplah... I voluntarily worked all week, raking in the money and keeping my mind off of the holiday (the best way to get through a holiday is to forget it IS a holiday, right? LOL)... Dang my life is getting boring! Even politics is back to boring. I really don't give a rat's ass about who's doing what right now. I want to see what the man does AFTER he has the power to effect change. I want to see if Bush finally gets the balls to clear Ramos and Campean and get them out of prison when they did nothing wrong in the first place. Beh... But I guess no news is good news, right?
Anyways guys, I'm off for now. I've caught up on blog reading but I do fear I've lost my replies to the abyss that is my brain. I am thinking of you all though and I promise I'll try to catch up with each one of you as soon as I can.

Aww

From Yahoo News:

Calif. family finds $10,000 in box of crackers (AP)
IRVINE, Calif. - The box of crackers Debra Rogoff bought from the grocery store had some crackerjack in it -- an envelope stuffed with $10,000.
Yet the Irvine woman was more curious than ecstatic about her daughter's find. After all, who would leave money in such a place?
"We just thought, 'This is someone's money,'" she said. "We would never feel good about spending it."
Rather than go on a shopping spree, the family called police and was initially told the money could be part of a drug drop.
Police later heard from store managers at Whole Foods in Tustin that an elderly woman had come in a few days earlier, hysterical because she had mistakenly returned a box of crackers with her life savings inside. In a mix-up the store restocked the box rather than composting it.
The Lake Forest woman, whose identity was not released, had lost faith in her bank and decided the box would be a safer place for the money.
Luckily for her, the box of Annie's Sour Cream and Onion Cheddar Bunny crackers were bought by the Rogoffs, who discovered the crisp $100 bills in an unmarked white envelope on Oct. 10.
The Rogoffs never heard from the woman and didn't receive a reward, but Rogoff did return to Whole Foods a couple weeks later.
"I asked them if I could have another box of crackers," she said with a laugh. The store obliged.

'Ello

Hey guys and gals. I was right in the last blog. The celebration was a bit premature. It seems to have been quite a fluke actually. But we are making progress towards getting him closer to normal. We will see how this goes for now. I'm happy to say though he's showing no more signs of lethargy etc. He's just tired of getting poked etc. His last antibiotic pill is tonight, and I think tomorrow I'll give him a break from his other pill as well (as I need to figure out a way to give him the pill with the shooter that'll be medically safe for him and physically safe for me!
We've been putting a few ice cubes in the water bowl now and then for Nimbus to "chase" (to make him drink more - very effective for a cat fascinated with water lol). I wish everyone here could've seen it - Nimbus chasing the ice cubes around with his tongue, Curzon sitting next to him looking at him as if saying "WTF are you doing?" It was hilarious, perhaps you needed to be there to see it first-hand.
Anyways folks I'm off, I just wanted to say hi and let ya'll know the Boo is ok.
And fyi, I'm not ignoring anyone. I'm TRYING to keep up on blogs, but not having too much luck.
And I hear SimonSays is back (thanks K), so WB!!

CELEBRATION! Well, maybe it's premature...

Nimbus is making HUGE strides AND might just be on his way to proving ANOTHER vet wrong. Time will tell but his fasting (pre-shot) level yesterday vs today looks VERY promising!!
I'll keep everyone posted. Here's a toast and a prayer that my Boo proves another vet wrong - in a GOOD way!

Update.

Hey friends.
Here's the update.
The infection is going.
Blood counts are down - unfortunately both red and white blood cell. He's still "normal", but if the one goes down much more, it's anemia. So let's pray that we can kick that out.
Insulin increased, and gave him some fluid to help push out a minor case of dehydration (I feel it's probably a side effect of him fighting the infection). Glucose levels are improving, but still WAY out of normal. We're pushing forward though.
So, as Mr. Cat would say, "The CNN version: the visit went good."
I won't say it went GOOD, but it went ok. We still have a lot of work to do. But he's starting to show signs of life. We can do this... we MUST do this... He's willing and able, so we should be also - and we are.
I'll keep everyone posted.

PS: I feel like I'm almost Nimbus' vet now. Insulin shots, antibiotics, daily testing... sheesh. What we do for our "babies" eh?

Oh Dear...

You know I've been busy today when it's 730pm and I STILL have yet to check my email. I'm writing this blog before I check it because I know once I get into my email, I'm not going to want to write any. I haven't checked my email since 430am after I gave Nimbus his shot. Work called this morning and wanted me to go in, but I couldn't as I didn't have any clean work clothes and couldn't wash them until the bank opened at least. Never mind I was tired and didn't WANT to go. Thank goodness the roommate answered the phone instead of me! I started laundry around 10am or so, and just pulled out the last load and got everything put up around a half-hour ago. Nimbus even got his pills early because I wasn't about to haggle with him AFTER the laundry. But Mr. Cat was nice enough to give the cat his pills for me - whew! I did six loads today, and just in cleaning the bedroom I found another load's worth! But that's for another day, as I got blankets to wash still too. Six loads was enough, as I had work clothes to wash, towels, tshirts, bed linens, jeans, and sweaters to wash! And tomorrow is supposed to be a nasty, cold day (which will feel even colder as today was so BEAUTIFUL outside, 55 felt like 70 as it's been so cold lately) with sleet and snow most of the day. But hey, I got laundry done and my side of the bed looks a LOT better! I still haven't gotten to the whole side, but I can walk over there now! Horray for me! And yesterday I cleaned the desk (though I'm rarely on the desktop anymore) and took out a LOT of trash - so much so I had to get help to get it all out! I still have so much to do, but it felt good to do what I did. Saturday (I think it was), I stopped by Linens and Things (as they're going out of business and I was waiting for the right discounts) and got two pillows for $6! I was going to get more, but considering I was walking and it was raining, I couldn't carry more than two! But we needed at least one, as one of my oldest pillows had to get thrown out (the stuffing was all but pouring out of all the holes). We still have our two main pillows though, but 4 pillows isn't enough for us for some reason.
Anyways, I'll write more later when I have more time to - probably tomorrow!

Thought of the Day post LOL

Hello my friends. I hope this blog finds all of you well.
I was having a conversation earlier today with a friend of mine online that have known for years and years. We go back further than Mr. Cat and I do even. She's always been a friend to me, and at times, one of my more trusted advisors on things personal and spiritual. She's one of those people that won't jump your shit but you know where she stands. She tries to make you see why YOU stand where you do. That's one of the reasons I like her so much.
We often talk about my struggle to find my way on the religious path. Several times we've discussed the BS the church fed us growing up. She's found her way for the most part, and my journey still continues. It's a three-pronged path, two leading away from the one I'm on now. Walter also knows this journey and how difficult it is for me to figure out sometimes.
But my friend did point something very telling out - a lot of Christianity, especially in America, has become very selfish, in more ways than one.
That makes us all think, doesn't it? Are we so stuck in what we believe that we're convinced everyone who disagrees is doomed to hell? Some believe Catholics are going to hell, some believe the Jews will, many believe other denominations or religions are cults (without probable cause to believe so). God teaches us all to love one another, regardles of our religious affiliations. Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist... Do you REALLY think God gives a crap? I don't... to a point. God cares more about our relationship to Him and how we treat one another, and preaching hate is not the way to go! As my friend says, "In the United States especially, Christians have this culture of superiority, Americans the best in everything, Christians the most righteous, but its a lie of Satan. A true Christian does not believe he or she is better, more knowledgeable, or closer to God than anyone else, all that kind of talk is spiritually and morally prideful, and God does not take well to pride. Being a loving human being is far more important to God than being a better Christian than anyone else. And most of us carry around a heavy load of 'Christian' baggage -- which is not of Christ at all."
Lest we all be reminded why Lucifer was thrown out of Heaven. It wasn't because he lied, cheated, or even killed. It was because he got prideful. He thought he could do a better job of being God than God. He thought he had the better answers, the "righter" right answers so to speak. He was out to divide Heaven's multitudes of angels. Now God isn't inclined to be so strict that it's my way or else, but even God can't have an open rebellion amongst His closest beings. God tried to give him a chance, Lucifer was too stuck in his belief. So he was cast out, along with all of those who went along with him.
We must not allow ourselves to become the same thing. While national and religious pride is great, we must not get to the point where we're saying we're better than everyone else and they're doomed. Our mission, while we're here on this planet that can sometimes pass as hell, is not to beat each other down. It's to support each other on this journey, no matter what street they're on. All streets lead to the same address. Will you help your fellow humans get there? Or will you throw a boulder from your road onto theirs?
And by the way, thanks to both my preacher pals for inspiring this blog.

And the Nimbus update... Because I know everyone is concerned.
Nimbus is doing better. I don't think we're anywhere close to the right insulin level, but we expected that. He's still hovering near the water bowl a lot, but he's starting to venture away a little more, which is a good sign. His coughing is improved, as is the sound of his breathing overall. He's definitely feeling better, as he's not taking to being held as much as he was and is squirming harder and more vigorously than he was, much to my dismay - I loved having a cuddleboo! But I am optimistic for now, though the having to shove two pills down his throat at night and giving him insulin injections twice a day isn't so comforting. But at least, just like his heart condition (which is still inaudible at least), we caught this early. So, now it's one more trial for us to go through, one more mountain to see this cat through, and don't think we won't! We will NOT give up on the BooCat!

Nimbus News

Too shaken right now and trying to make sense of it all... had a blog written, but can't even think now.

Nimbus is diabetic.

I'll write more later once I've processed this.

It's Official: US Economy in Recession

Directly from CNN website.

It's official: Recession since Dec. '07

The National Bureau of Economic Research declares what most Americans already knew: the downturn has been going on for some time.

By Chris Isidore, CNNMoney.com senior writer

Last Updated: December 1, 2008: 1:02 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The National Bureau of Economic Research said Monday that the U.S. has been in a recession since December 2007, making official what most Americans have already believed about the state of the economy .

The NBER is a private group of leading economists charged with dating the start and end of economic downturns. It typically takes a long time after the start of a recession to declare its start because of the need to look at final readings of various economic measures.

"The committee views the payroll employment measure, which is based on a large survey of employers, as the most reliable comprehensive estimate of employment," said the group's statement. "This series reached a peak in December 2007 and has declined every month since then."

Employers have trimmed payrolls by 1.2 million jobs in the first 10 months of this year. On Friday, economists are predicting the government will report a loss of another 325,000 jobs for November.

The NBER also looks at real personal income, industrial production as well as wholesale and retail sales. All those measures reached a peak between November 2007 and June 2008, the NBER said.

In addition, the NBER also considers the gross domestic product, which is the reading most typically associated with a recession in the general public.

Many people erroneously believe that a recession is defined by two consecutive quarters of economic activity declining. That has yet to take place during this recession.

This downturn longer than most

The current recession is one of the longest downturns since the Great Depression of the 1930's.

The last two recessions (1990-1991 and 2001) lasted eight months each, and only two of the 10 previous post-Depression downturns lasted as long as a full year, according to the NBER.

In a statement, White House Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto said that even though the recession is now official, it is more important to focus on the steps being taken to fix the economy.

"The most important things we can do for the economy right now are to return the financial and credit markets to normal, and to continue to make progress in housing, and that's where we'll continue to focus," he said. "Addressing these areas will do the most right now to return the economy to growth and job creation."