Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Pudge's Stones

Pudge has stones in her bladder. They are called "stones", but they are actually crystals -all pointy and sharp. They form because Pudge doesn't drink enough water, and the urine becomes too concentrated and thick. So crystals start to form, and they irritate the lining of the bladder because they are all pointy and sharp and cause problems.

What's to be done? One obvious thing is to get her to drink more water. Yeah, right! Ever tried to get a cat to do something you want it to do and the cat has no intention of doing? Trickery is called for - like adding a little extra water to the canned food (which so far is working quite well). The Vet also suggested getting a "cat water fountain" - a continuously recirculating water fountain that seems to catch cats' attention and attracts them to drink. Of course, we couldn't find one locally, but GolfGuy got on the handy dandy internet and ordered one; it should be here tomorrow.

Another suggestion was to switch food to one with no magnesium - one of the three elements of the crystals; no magnesium, no crystals form. We found the dry food (expensive stuff) and switched it out with the previous chow. They seem to like it all right - always a concern as cats are such picky eaters, unlike most dogs who wolf anything down without pausing to taste it. We haven't as yet found the right canned food - I would just as soon avoid having to purchase the extremely expensive brand at the vet's office (and which most cats would rather cover up than eat). I will do more looking today.

Getting her into the carrier for the trip to the vet's office was classic cartoon "Bill the Cat" action. The cat spread-eagled over the opening and the humans trying to pry loose the feet and legs and stuff them and the body in. I expected the same scenario at the vet's office, but he just turned her around on the table and she headed right back in the carrier. We think she decided it was better to be in there then out on the table where that man kept pushing on her bladder, trying to make her pee.

We expected her to really "punish" us when we got her home. She has a very long memory and harbors a good grudge quite well. But after a short disappearing act, she emerged her usual self, wanting GolfGuy to groom her, settling on "her" chair by ours to nap. At least we don't have to give her a pill - "pilling" a cat is NOT a pretty sight - or try to squirt liquid stuff down her throat. I just wish there was a quicker fix for the problem; it really bothers me to see her so uncomfortable.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

The Big 1-1

Bubby's birthday was Friday; he's now officially 11 years old. He'll be in the 5th grade in the fall - top dogs in the school (next year, the class will be at the bottom rung again, such is the cycle of life). I suspect one of the things he's proudest of at this moment is that he's "almost as tall as me", which I remind him is not much of an accomplishment as most everyone in the world is taller than I am.

His birthday party was yesterday - lots of kids and lots of noise. And the biggest inflatable water slide I have ever seen. I am so glad that I did my "bucket list" water slide thing last year at Pi's birthday party - there is no way I would have climbed up that thing. Mamie said she wouldn't even try it, and Mrs. Igor admitted that she had fallen backwards off it 2 times trying to go up. The kids didn't seem to have any problem though, scrambling up like monkeys and screeching back down.

Bubby is growing into a good person - a little lacking in focus at times, but basically a really good kid and really nice to have around. I hope the coming teen years don't change him too much; change is inevitable but hopefully the basics are strong enough to remain strong through the turmoil of adolecence. In the meantime, we'll just enjoy our good kid, interspersed with moments of exasperation.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Plain or Polka Dots?

If Mamie is involved, the answer ALWAYS will be "Polka Dots". There is nothing plain about our Mamie.

A few years ago, she had me make a "sleeve" for her laptop out of fleece so she could put it in her tote and not get it all scratched up. The fleece she choose was a BRIGHT smeary rainbow stripe - totally her.

The sleeve has served her well, but she recently decided that she needed something more "professional" in appearance. I happened to be going to newWalmart the day I spoke with her, so she asked me to scout out the selection of fleece - looking for dark gray or black or brown or navy. NewWalmart had a very limited selection of fleece - all "sherbert" colors (pale green, pale yellow, pale pink, pale blue, pale lavendar), definitely not Mamie. The next day, I was going into the BigTown, so I stopped in OldWalmart. They had an extensive selection of fleece, including a nice medium dark gray that looked like what she said she wanted. This information was duly conveyed to Mamie.

Last Friday, she showed up for dinner bearing the piece of fleece she had purchased. Not sedate medium dark gray, but black background with polka dots in good bright greens, purples, pinks, yellows, blues. She claims she "had" to buy it - once she saw it, she didn't look at anything else.

So polka dots it is. It's not as in your face as the smeary rainbow stripes, but it is still completely Mamie.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Mea Culpa

Last Friday, I let GolfGuy go to Costco on his own. Any wife worth her salt knows this is a BIG mistake. He did quite well his first go-round there - only ended up with a watermelon and a bag of Mrs. Mays Ultimate Crunch (really good stuff) in addition to the ibuprofen that was his original intended purchase.

But it was the second visit that was the kicker. And for that I must take the blame. I had called him on his cell to ask him to stop at the grocery store to pick up something for me. He told me about this really great deal he had seen on a 19" Sony flat-screen TV; so good you just KNEW those things would fly out of there and be gone before the next day. A few minutes of conversation had me agreeing completely that we had better take advantage of the opportunity to replace one of the ancient TVs in the bedroom or our "workrooms". So after finishing his other errands, back to Costco he went to get this great deal.

I must admit that I really like having the new, way smaller TV in my workroom - a space that is so stuffed with stuff that I have to sidle sideways in some places to get around. I was feeling so guilty about ending up with the new TV in my space that I was seriously entertaining the thought of going back for a SECOND one for his room. After letting me stew on the thought until the next morning, GolfGuy graciously said that he "would rather not spend the money now and put it toward a new set of irons" (when his elbow is better - yet again). Have I been manipulated or what?

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Dad's Day Dinner

We did the Dad’s Day Dinner thing last night so Mrs. Igor could be there (she works weekends, usually). It was a good evening – funny cards and nice presents - except for a couple of glitches.

Glitch #1 – just as I finished putting the vegetables in the crock pot with the pot roast to cook for the last three hours, the phone rang and GolfGuy hollered it was for me. It was a friend from Silver Sneakers exercise class, and we chatted for a while. Then I went on to the next thing that needed to be done. Several hours later I checked the crock pot to see if I needed to turn it back down to low and discovered that the I had not put the lid back on securely and there was a slight gap along one side. By the time we ate, the food was cooked but not done the way we like it. As Mamie said, it was good but certainly not my best effort. Apparently I can’t talk and cook at the same time.

Glitch #2 – GolfGuy had requested Lemon Cream Pie for dessert, which is finished off with a layer of whipped topping. Mamie was passing a plate with a piece of pie to Bubby – and telling me to check the tiny print in the book she had given to Igor – when she let out a gasp. We all looked at her and she was sitting there with a horrified look on her face, a big glob of whipped topping sliding down her front, and an empty plate in her hand! Apparently she can’t talk and pass a plate at the same time.

Of course, we all collapsed in hysterics – how could we not? But all’s well that ends well. While Mamie was scraping the pie off the floor, GrandmaT offered to split her piece in two. I took her up on the offer, and we each had half a piece of pie while Mamie got to eat a piece as well as wear it.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

No More Chicken?

The San Diego Chicken is thinking of retiring – says so right in the SinCity newspaper. If you don’t know who or what the Chicken is, then you’re either not from San Diego or haven’t been to a minor league baseball game in many, many years. The Chicken was perhaps the first and certainly the most iconic of baseball mascots. All the others – the Fanatics, the dinosaurs, the Indian chiefs, the bratwursts, etc. – have one thing in common: they owe their existence to the Chicken.

MLB was floundering around, trying to rebuild flagging fan interest; NFL teams had their cheerleaders in skimpy get-ups a la Dallas Cowgirls to catch attention. Ted Giannoulas convinced the San Diego Padres that his crazy Chicken would boost attendance and fan loyalty, and it did. So much so that it was his undoing. Other MLB teams began developing their own mascots – some good, some lame, some really bad – and frequently hired the Chicken to “train” the newcomers. Even the San Diego Padres came up with a fat Friar as a mascot (who, by the way, was one of the really bad ones).

The Chicken soon found himself relegated to minor league games, county fairs, second-tier rodeos, and other similar events. But for 35 years, the quality of his performances has never suffered – just look at the faces of the hordes of children who trail after him and reverently reach out a small hand, just for a quick little touch. Over 100 of his gags are copyrighted and remain fresh and funny each time he uses them.

Our family spent many happy hours at the San Diego stadium, watching baseball and laughing at the Chicken. In later years, after GolfGuy and I became thoroughly disenchanted with MLB and the spoiled, drug-abusing, money-grubbing brats employed by it, we would travel about an hour to attend minor league games at a small town north of us. By then, that team had its own mascot – something that was supposed to be a tornado, as I recall – but NOTHING could replace the Chicken as far as we were concerned.

If the Chicken does decide to hang up his feathers, he will be missed by more people than he could possibly imagine.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

I am so bummed

Mamie and Igor are planning a road trip of their own. They are going to Western Kansas to see Grammie. They need to go see her; she is in her mid-90's. They are taking Bubby and Pi with them. Four very important people in my life, in the same vehicle, hurtling down the highway at high speed, pushing hard. I don't like it; I don't want to think about it.

They plan to leave on a Thursday and return on Sunday - one day out, two days there, one day back. Long way, short time -really don't like it.

The weekend they plan to go happens to be the Fourth of July weekend. No Bubby and Pi to go to the parade with. No one to take me to the fireworks show - 10 pm is way too late for GolfGuy and Mrs. Igor has to work. I will have to make do with some televised thing from Boston or Washington.

I am really, really bummed!

Monday, June 15, 2009

Road Trip

GolfGuy and his BackNineBuddies are off on their annual golf jaunt. As usual, they are headed to the Four Corners area - Page, AZ; Farmington NM; Durango, CO; and Monticello, UT. Yep, they're hitting all four of the Four Corner states this time around. I could probably think of better places to go and better things to do - 4 states in 4 days and 4 rounds of golf with LOTS and LOTS of driving sandwiched in does not sound like a good time to me.

This is not the "road trip" of college days - a bunch of frat guys piling in a car with a cooler of beer and heading off for an away football game or spring break. This is 8 guys, 60+ years old, who will be too pooped to party at the end of each day. I suspect that by the end of the last round of golf, at least some of them will be barely able to drag themselves back to the vehicles for the trip home.

Fingers are crossed that they have a safe trip - those 2-lane highways are brutal. Well, the roads aren't so bad - it's the clueless and braindead other drivers that scare me witless, as described a few weeks ago after our Arizona trip.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Paintballs, Violins & Food Storage

Paintballs, violins and food storage. What do they have in common? Nothing that you or I or any semi-rational person could possibly conceive of. But someone in the BigTown has connected them all into one business.

We see the storefront of this business occasionally as it is in the same strip center as the pie shop we sometimes frequent (although now that I have found a really good lemon cream pie recipe we have no need to drive all that way and spend that much money on their justifiably famous Sour Cream Lemon Pie). And we have always commented on what a VERY strange combination paintballs, violins, and food storage is.

Today when GolfGuy and I were driving in to Costco, we passed the van belonging to that business and painted all over it was PAINTBALLS, VIOLINS, & FOOD STORAGE", with appropriate graphic images. Just to cap the whole thing off, the motto...slogan...whatever for the business was also included. "Your family still matters!" Not sure how that ties in, but then nothing else does either. Oh well.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Thief

I decided I needed a mid-morning snack, and since I didn't go to Walmart and buy cookies like I really wanted to do, I had to make do with cheese and crackers. One quarter of a slice of American cheese fits perfectly on one soda cracker.

I got out the cheese and the crackers and took the twist'em off the stack of crackers. I turned around to get a paper towel to put things on, and when I turned back, Pudge was on the counter with the twist'em in her mouth. She saw me looking at her and took off. I eventually got the thing back - not that I don't have others in the drawer that I could have used, but it was the PRINCIPLE of the thing.

I was not happy with the little thief. But then not nearly as unhappy as GolfGuy is going to be when he gets home from golf and discovers that she has totally destroyed the jigsaw puzzle he was working on (the majority is now on the floor under the dining room table) in her haste to get away from what she mistakenly thought was a chase by me.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

You'd think I'd learn...

But apparently not. For the second time in about three weeks, I grabbed the wrong bottle and tried to shampoo my hair with conditioner. Believe me, conditioner does not lather worth diddly!

Granted I can't read the labels without my glasses, which I don't normally wear in the shower, but the bottles are totally different shapes. Something should have dinged in my mind and said, "Oops, girl, wrong bottle". Instead, I just blindly grabbed the bottle on the LEFT and went for it. Because the shampoo is always on the LEFT and the conditioner on the RIGHT. Sometime in the few days since I last washed my hair, the bottles switched places. Of course, I am not the only one who uses that shower and those products, so draw your own conclusions.

I realize that in the big scheme of things, this is a petty annoyance. But it is not the happiest way to start the day.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Sunshades

Why don’t people use them? Those fold-up cardboard things or the spring-loaded fabric ones that have to be wrestled into submission (although once trained, they are fairly easy to deal with) that go in your car’s windshield. People in this area don’t seem to have caught on to the good things they can do. Such as keep the interior much cooler, protect the dash from damaging sun rays, keep the seat from burning your butt, and prevent the steering wheel from instantly blistering your hands.

I have noticed this phenomenon ever since we moved here, but in the last week or so I have been paying particular attention. Every time I have been in a parking lot – Walmart, Costco, restaurant, post office, health club, etc. – I have made note of how many vehicles actually have a sunscreen deployed in their windshield. Other than the vehicle I have been in, on only one or two occasions has there been even one other sunscreen in use.

We live in a high desert area where it gets scorching hot in the summer and the sun blazes relentlessly. You would think people would do whatever they can to ease the effects of the heat. But it doesn’t happen that I can see.

And they don’t tote water bottles with them everywhere – guess it’s only us wimpy transplanted Californians who are into the benefits of water. But that’s a rant for another day…