whole lot o' nothin'

it's been the busiest do nothing weekend I think I've seen in a while. w007! was up til three or four last night watching Chinatown. today I watched Sisters (cause Treacher recommended it, oh, and go check out his response to Rosie's "fire doesn't melt steel" comment) and Diary of a Madman (cause I love Vincent Price and cheesy gothic movies from the 60's). got some knitting done at the same time.

also recorded/converted Gounod's Faust with Kiri Te Kanawa, Francisco Araiza, Evgeny Nesterenko, conducted by Sir Colin Davis. a bit lighter sounding Dame Kiri than I usually think of, the recording was made in '86. didn't pay a whole lot of attention to it, I decided to do some reading instead of following along with the libretto. who knows, maybe i'll learn this one for fun, in my free time, somewhere I've got a scary recording of me singing the Jewel Song. ;D

speaking of free time, i'm about to have less of it. upcoming performances (if anyone's interested) are The Tender Land with The Living Opera and then The Secret Garden with Repertory Company Theatre. (if you're free next weekend you might check out their annual fundraiser, Broadway's Best. you can see Susan there.)

and then somewhere in there, more than likely, RTO will come home. yipee!

kitties!!!!!

chairback perchin' maggie and


flower inspectin' Carlos.

it's a boy!

congrats to Rob B. and family at FIU.

just ignore this, it's for my own amusement...

I watched Amelie tonight and really enjoyed it, but of course this scene made me think of RTO. she's wondering why Nino hasn't shown up, maybe he didn't find her picture and put it together in time. or maybe he was in a hold up at work and maybe some thugs kidnapped him and he wound up in Afghanistan and joined the mujahadeen. the last bit translated to something like, "and how could she love anyone that would wear a tea-cozy for a hat?"

follow up on some weird news....

Fake general charged in fraud

but so far, not for being a fake general. *sigh* I call it weird cause RTO and I have met the guy, not as many times as some of our other friends, who had a bit more to contribute to the investigation, but still. weirdness.

more calico pics....

seems he like to come hang out on my front steps occasionally. I've debated getting him a new collar, he doesn't have any tags and the collar he's got is kinda tight and doesn't have any kind of safety release. but it has rhinestones, so, I'm torn.

important call!

ha, just got a call from a certain cable company that is supposed to be coming out Tuesday for installation. started out, "Please hold for this very important call from x" okay, usually I hang up on those kinds of things, but since i'm expecting a visit..... I hear a few clicks and then a dial tone. they hung up on me. nice. this is inspiring confidence.

maggie update

talked to the vet tonight. (I must have the hardest workin' vet, it was 8:15) anyhoo, no heartworms and thyroid is fine. maggie hasn't thrown up any more so I think we're just gonna keep her on the special food for now, see if she makes it through the weekend without ralphing. other choices include endoscopy and/or abdominal ultrasound to rule out any kind of tumor, but so far, the food seems to be working and she is chowin' down. (the food comes in these little pouches with 8 to a box and since everyone has to eat the same thing they go through a box in two days and the vet is rationing them because Purina is switching over to a dry variety and not distributing the pouch kind anymore. thankfully, the vet is less than a mile away.) the vet was telling me she'd consulted with some other vets and they agreed it could be some kind of irritable intestinal thing. so we'll just see how this weekend plays out.

thinking about it that makes sense, lately, maggie's been real sensitive about changing food, and I mean just between bags of the exact same thing. I've had to mix the end of one bag with the start of a new one to lessen the chances and length of time that she would be sick, this time around it didn't work. *sigh* the things we do for our little furry children.

Friday catblogging....

Ha ha! it's friendly neighborhood calico!

be sure to check out other cats at this week's Carnival of Cats at Scribblings.

waiting....

I took Maggie to the vet yesterday. she's been throwing up (more than is usual for a cat, three times Sunday night!)and everyone has noticed she's getting skinny (she used to hover around 13 lbs and she's currently at 10). she's still at the vet. not sure what's going on with her yet, they did x-rays and were going to do some bloodwork. seems she is not digesting food properly, but there doesn't appear to be any kind of obstruction. they called this morning to let me know she did fine overnight, ate and drank and didn't vomit, bout like normal for the last month or so, give her a day or two. I'm hoping to hear more this evening. we'll see.

update: of course, as soon as I post the phone rings. most stuff looks okay, but she has a very high count for some particular white blood cell. (looking at this page, i'm guessing eosinophils, notice the regular range there is 100 to 1200, maggie is close to 3000) I can pick her up in about an hour, she gets special food and some medication. they'll test for heartworms and check her thyroid to rule out the "easy" things first. I think she just likes to freak me out when RTO leaves. we were all set to nuke her for a thyroid problem the last time RTO was in Afghanistan, but the preliminary MRI didn't find any tumors. she's just odd.

fun at the airport.....

had to take RTO to the airport today so he could go back to Afghanistan. whee! anyway, they allow friends and family to go to the gate. had to fill out a little form and take it with me to the security check. I got pulled over because I had a tube of hand lotion in my purse. totally forgot that was in there. anyway the lady asked if I had any weapons or gels or liquids in my purse... oy. so she explained that even though I wasn't flying I still had to abide by the rules and I had an acceptable amount of lotion, but it needed to be in a plastic ziploc bag and outside of my purse as it went through the x-ray. she then put it in a ziploc for me and back in my purse. oooookay. so I'll remember that next time, and let this be a lesson to you all. ;D

so, RTO's flight didn't leave for a few hours so we had lunch and some coffee, checked out some gift shops. I left around three and stopped by Grapevine Mills Mall, nothing like a trip to the Sanrio store to cheer me up.

Snoopy update.....

he lost his beret a few days ago.

oh good grief....

now I'm getting reruns of PBS fundraisers. (they're showing the end of Vicar of Dibley again, and even the "live" people are the same as last week.) sigh.

this time, last week

finally got the pictures off the camera onto the computer.....

Scary cupcakes


Not scary cupcakes

birthday vignettes

MK: (looks in dryer) um, do you need to move some laundry?

RTO: you could do it, since you're right there.

MK: yes, well, it will be my birthday in a few minutes and I really don't want to risk doing any laundry on my birthday.

RTO: *sigh*

--------------------------------------------------------------

MK: (leaving office with a few leftover cupcakes) oh hey, would you like a cupcake?

Man who looks like he has never turn down a cupcake: um, sure.

MK:

Mwllhhntdac: wow, was it someone's birthday?

MK: yeah

Mwllhhntdac: who's?

MK: mine

Mwllhhntdac: *chuckle* you had to bring your own cupcakes?

MK: yeah, well, I'm only here two days a week.


--------------------------------------------------------------

MK and RTO stare are looking at their receipt for dinner at the Japanese restaurant where they earlier heard a lovely rendition of happy birthday with much annoying drumming.

MK: you have your wallet with you?

RTO:

MK: huh?

RTO: yeah, did you not bring your purse in?

MK: eh, it's my birthday, I don't want to go digging for stuff in there.

Waiter: Did you just say it's your birthday?

MK:

RTO:

MK: crap.

just checkin' in....

one more week before RTO heads back to the 'stan. havin' fun here. I think I'm gaining weight because RTO's cooking is so tasty. nuts.

well, we've finally been to Ikea.

or is it IKEA?

and we ignored most of it because we were on a mission to find something that would work as an entertainment center. but good lord you could make a day of shopping there. and then we (okay RTO) had a fun evening of assembling everything and trying to remember how all the electronic bits are supposed to be hooked together. tomorrow, we buy the large television. unless RTO's dental appointment goes terribly wrong.

For those of you just tuning in....

I think I can now talk about a few things now. see, yesterday was just the icing on the whole big cake of anxiety and anticipation that has been this week.

Sunday: RTO and I chat for a while he says, "hey don't tell anyone but I'm leaving tomorrow for R&R and I may be able to call you from Kuwait just so's you know where I am and when to come pick me up at the airport." yay!

Monday: nothing, but that's cool, cause well, it takes time to move around.

Tuesday: crap. (RTO would most likely be flying from there)

Wednesday: quiet most of the day, I had to work. about 11:30 that night RTO pops up online. yay! says, "I'm gonna be at DFW Tomorrow morning." yay! I'm thinking,"oh wait, there's a time difference" so I ask, "Thursday?" RTO says, "yep" W007!!!! I call the temp agency and the office, tell 'em I'll see them next week cause I'm going to the airport tomorrow. call the DFW flight info number they say flight ETA is 9:55. baked a lemon cake, RTO's fave.

Thursday: I wake up about 7:30 start getting ready, am just about to eat breakfast around 8 when I think, "I should call the number again like they recommend, in case the flight time changed" it did! to 8:55. I book it to the airport. Military people start showing up, no RTO. I chat with an Air Force guy from Camp Phoenix (same place RTO is coming from ). USO people leave. no RTO. Air Force guy gives me an 800 number to call, they say RTO was not on this flight. grrrrrrr. so I head back home, I'm cranky and gmail keeps playing with me, I can see that I have mail, I just can't read it. not a peep from RTO. I pay some bills, send RTO a nasty email, and watch some depressing movies. (knew RTO wouldn't want to watch them, so since I had an extra evening to do that.... )(oh, American Beauty and Requiem for a Dream.) decided not to set the alarm clock cause if RTO did happen to show up Friday he could call me, I wasn't going to be driving to the airport til I heard from him.

Friday: woke up about 10:30, ate breakfast, had some coffee, no word from RTO. hmmmm. according to the DFW site, flights typically arrive between 8 and 11 a.m. so i called the flight info line, they say it's arriving at 1 p.m. well, maybe RTO got his days mixed up. so I went ahead and went to the airport. aaaaand RTO showed up today! he was a bit confused as to why I wasn't looking for him. heh. and he thinks it's Thursday.

so, I may not be posting much the next couple weeks. or I might if he keeps conkin' out at 8 every night. but I'm guessing it has something to do with not sleeping since he left Bagram.

#$(%^*%^($#@!!!!

nothing is working right today. I'm just gonna go pass out now.