Finishing the Small Cat Story

So I realized that in my hiatus from posting I never finished the cat acne story. We left off with the part where I was going to try to give Benedryl to the Small Cat. Now this guy is squirmy and hard to pill anyway, we've had major problems in the past. For some reason I decided to attempt it by myself anyway. I got the pill in his mouth, but he immediately spit it out and began foaming at the mouth. Apparently he didn't like the taste of it and was trying to create as much saliva as possible to clear it out. I didn't at first realize what was going on, so I let him walk away. Then I realized he was dripping on the floor. Blech. I grabbed him and threw him in the bathroom (wiping down the floors of course), and then sat in there with him. I figured since I had him in there anyway, I might as well try the pill a second time. Bad idea. This time he got even more of a taste of it, and some of the pink coating came off in his mouth. Now he's foaming serious amounts of pink froth out of his mouth, and I have a deeper-than-it-looks gash in my finger from an escape attempt. We sat in the bathroom glaring at each other while I put pressure on my wound and he dripped pink drops. Eventually we both dried up a little and I let him go.

When ehs came home that night, we tried again, only to create a spectacular repetition of the previous performance. Twice actually. The three of us sat in the bathroom for a while, Small Cat banished to the tub while he frothed.

The next day I tried grinding up a Benedryl and putting it on a treat. He got within smelling range of the treat and began to foam. We've created a Pavlovian foaming effect.

So, we're currently ignoring the allergies. We're going to see how much of a problem it really is, possibly try switching the food. We can also pay to have a topical antihistamine created. We noticed some chin acne on the Monster Cat as well, so now they both get to have their faces washed (although as you may guess, I don't lock myself in the bathroom with the Monster Cat and attempt to wash his face. I let ehs take that job).

And the final note (for the moment) is that one night I decided to take a Benedryl for my potential allergies. I don't know what's wrong with those pills, but Small Cat was right. Those are some of the worst tasting pills I have ever had to ingest.

Cat Acne

Today is feel sorry for Small Cat day. First of all, he was forced to go to the vet, which he didn't expect at all and was very disgruntled about. Then it turns out he's actually GAINED weight since the last visit, a solid 16lbs at the moment. Even though he's eating out of the yogurt containers, and some of what he's eating is diet food. Oops.

And most tragic of all, the cat has been diagnosed with chin acne. Very embarrassing, I would imagine. The big pustule kind too. Maybe we should change his name to "Pizza Face." Also, he has allergies. Our house is not as bright as the vet's office, and it wasn't until we were there that I realized he's pretty much pink. His ears, nose, eyes all have a bright pink color to them, but additionally the back of one leg and his tummy are noticeably pink. So he's allergic to something. The dust kicked up on the outside of the building from all this work? The diet food? Fleas we could have gotten from other people's dogs? Who knows? He's got a dose of Frontline on him now, and he does not yet know this but we now own something called a "Pill Gun" which we will hopefully be using to successfully feed him Benedryl. Also, I have to go to the drugstore and buy him some acne cream to wash his face. Seriously.

I also have a dose of Frontline to put on the Monster, but I'm not sure that's a job I'm willing to tackle by myself.

inspirations

Look, it's Ian, on the front page of Edge Magazine!!

And then there's Alec, a fellow at the Center for Cartoon Studies, self-publishing, teaching, working on his graphic novel.

Kristen and Joe with beautiful baby Maddie, who laughs and smiles and is a joy.

Lindsey's at grad school studying bats. Living in New Jersey for pete's sake!

My parents are busier than ever in their retirements. They are doing things for themselves and volunteering to help others.

All these things help me stay focused and moving forward. Look at the great things all these great people are doing. I have to keep motivated so I can be on this list too!

home again home again, jiggity jig

It was great to see so much family in Georgia this past weekend: our new niece, an aunt and uncle we hadn't seen since our wedding (!), and all the other wonderful family down there. The weather wasn't as stifling as we had expected either, which was a welcome surprise.

Last night we managed to see The Dark Knight. I missed all the commercials and all but two of the previews (stupid 151 bus), but I made it. It was good, definitely scary, and somehow knowing that Heath Ledger is dead made his performance even creepier. It's really neat to see all the Chicago places in the movie. A lot of the action was on a street very close to where ehs works, and it was exciting to see those familiar buildings and streets.

ehs has borrowed a bike to see if he likes biking to work, which it turns out he does. The bike itself is not the right one for him, but he's enjoying the exercise and the breeze I guess. It's fun to send him out on errands, although the first night I told him I felt like I was sending a toddler to play in traffic. Which he reassuringly responded, "You are." But he's fine, wears his helmet and is cautious.

We've talked in the past about Working Bikes, which is an organization that refurbishes bikes and also uses the proceeds of selling bikes to bring bikes to other places in the world. So maybe we'll try to check them out at some point. We're still in the process of selling our car, and he may be taking it around for people to test drive this weekend.

Meanwhile, this will be my only Sunday at home in the month of August, so I intend to spend it thoroughly. We'll be going to the Mythical Creatures exhibit at the Field Museum, and then ehs's first annual work picnic.

You always remember your first

ehs held his first baby this weekend. And he didn't drop her.

It was fun the first day to say that we had both failed baby. Madeline was hungry when I held her, and cried until I gave her a bottle. She was hungry when ehs held her too, so we both got to hold fussy baby. But the next day he held her after she woke up, and she smiled and laughed at him. Briefly. Until she realized she needed to spend the next 8 minutes trying to poop. When we figured out what her goal was, her dad was happy to take her back.

She's cute, and we love having a niece! Even if she's not always happy for us to hold her yet... That's ok, we'll be around forever!

August in Vermont

I can't believe it's August. I love my birthday, but I'm always a little bit sad though. Because it's at the end of July, whenever it's my birthday it means that summer is headed into the last month.

It's been raining a lot in Vermont, but I like that way too. It's not too warm, and when the sun is shining everything is green and beautiful.

Hutchie's service was really nice on Saturday, Dad said he thought there were about 500 people there. I hope everyone there felt as much as I did the desire to be a better, nicer, kinder person because Hutchie was. I also hope we can all remember to share the stories and tell people we love them before they're gone. I feel like this is a chance for me to reconnect with people who used to be very dear friends, and I'm glad to have them in my life again.

I'll be home on Tuesday, and on Friday we fly to Georgia, where there will be a new baby Maddie to see!

First Birthday Present of the Year

Hooray!

Today after work I was sitting on the couch with ehs. I'm doing well with the eating thing, but I do feel tired a little more than usual. He said that he had an early birthday present for me. Of course, then I had to try to find it right away. I looked in the closet downstairs, all the kitchen cabinets, and the fridge. I thought I'd looked everywhere, but he said there was still a place. I couldn't imagine what could be a present in the freezer, especially since I'm not eating a whole lot right now (sad about no ice cream).

He got me popsicle forms!! When I was a kid my mom would make popsicles out of juice, and as an adult I find popsicles the best and fastest way to cool down when I'm overheated. I've wanted to get my own popsicle forms for a while now, but I haven't sat down and looked for them, and he bought them today.

Even better, he brought them home, washed them, and MADE ME POPSICLES! He made banana, almond milk, and maple syrup popsicles, all items that are on the list. He used Mark Bittman's recipe from The Minimalist (the video is pretty funny). What a wonderful birthday present, popsicles now and popsicles for the future.

And also, the popsicles he made are wonderful. I would make them again, even when I can eat more items!

The 4th

Blogging seemed a little easier when not much was going on. Of course, it was also hard to explain that the big news going on was that we were flying to New England to surprise my Dad in honor of his retirement. It's hard to blog about a surprise...

We had a good, but busy time over the 4th. The weathr was amazing, just wonderful. We were worried it was going to rain, but it didn't until we were back in Chicago. We wore ourselves out some, lugging books, setting up tents, playing badminton, playing boccee ball, hanging out in the sun. The 7am flight this morning was a little tough on me after all the excitement and the lack of sleep.

It was great to see both sides of my family, including the 6-month-old twins we last saw when they were about 7 hours old.

I wish I'd figured out how to blog more over the weekend, then doing a wrap-up wouldn't seem so overwhelming. It was fun.

Happy Last Day of Work

Today's my Dad's last day of work at his job. Congratulations! I hear he wore a regular tie to work today, just to shake everyone up a little...

Thunderstorms

Yet another thunderstorm in Chicago this morning. Which means that during breakfast the monster cat came down and asked me to open my closet so he could hide. Ok, so really he hid behind my chair and meowed at me, but it's pretty clear what that means when the weather is bad. For being so scary to strangers he's a big coward in real life. So I got up from my eggs, scallions, tomatoes, toast and green tea, walked up the stairs, and he beat me to the closet door. He prefers to sit in my laundry basket, but sometimes when it's stormy that's not quite safe enough. He's currently wedged in the back corner with the lights off. I don't expect to see him for several hours.

Meanwhile small cat here is making all his normal cooing and snoring noises, attempting to sleep on ehs's office chair. And just like yesterday, now that the rain has passed, it looks like a beautiful blue-skied day.

Poorly Named Naps

If it's called a "cat nap," why can't I get my cat to leave me alone when I'm doing it? "Catless naps" seem far more effective.

Could you nap if you had to worry someone was going to take your glasses and throw them down the stairs or behind the bed? Me neither.

Although you know, when I'm not trying to nap, he's really quite good at it.

The Good Girlfriend Prize

Several years ago, when we were still just dating, ehs's parents received an ipod nano for opening an account at a bank. They didn't think they'd use it, and they asked him if he thought I'd like it. So one day at their house they sat me down and told me how much the whole family liked me, how great I was for him, and how happy they were that he and I were dating. And presented me with a nano. I like to call it my "Good Girlfriend Prize," and I'm very happy to have it. Not only because it's always nice to know that you're a good girlfriend, but also because I have used it, quite a lot more than I expected to.

I didn't think I'd get a lot of use out of it, I don't listen to very much music. But then I learned about podcasts. First I realized I could listen to episodes of "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" that I had missed. Then back episodes of "This American Life" became available. That was a show I'd always wanted to listen to, but never seemed to catch. Now I could access my favorite things about NPR, but at my convenience. This seemed amazing!

So I spent some time wandering around the iTunes podcast library, just pulling everything that seemed interesting. For a while I was learning basic Japanese. I became a fan of the Irish and Celtic Music podcast. I found Podrunner, which has great music to exercise with. They even released an Interval series recently, which has helped make my mornings more interesting.

Recently I found Ayepod.net, which is my fix for traditional Scottish music. Sometimes I listen to plays through L.A. Theater Works, which I thought would be annoying but is actually very rewarding. They Might Be Giants has an amusing podcast that mixes older songs, live songs, and brand new songs all together. I've also been listening to some episodes of SpanishPod101 to supplement my Rosetta Stone Spanish lessons.

My two current favorite podcasts though are The Classic Tales podcast, and Zencast. The Classic Tales is a collection of stories out of copyright, read by a very skilled performer. I have found most of the stories engaging and entertaining. I just listened to "The Lurking Fear" by H.P. Lovecraft, which was very scary. He's read two Mark Twain short stories which were wonderful. And I've gotten to hear a lot of authors and stories I've never really appreciated. As an added bonus, his voice is very soothing. I don't have any problem listening to the stories as I'm walking around or doing things in the house, but some of them (particularly "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow") have been very helpful on long plane rides where I wanted to sleep. Assisted narcolepsy.

Zencast is a series of dharma talks and guided meditations from a variety of Zen Buddhist teachers. There have been talks on many things I had wanted to learn more about. I do appreciate the irony of listening to Buddhist lectures while I'm out walking instead of being fully in the moment of the walk. But it's given me a lot to think about in terms of relating to other people and how I can choose to interact with my emotions.

I especially enjoyed a lecture I recently listened to on the concept of Loving Kindness. There are four kinds of love in Buddhism: Loving Kindness, Sympathetic Joy, Compassion, and Equanimity. You can always find a way to see the best in someone and love them through one of these actions. I liked the description of Equanimity from the lecture, he called it grandmotherly love. It's love without attachment or judgment. The grandmother's been through it all before, so she isn't going to panic or get upset when the kid falls and scrapes her knee. She'll say, "Yes, it's about time that you scrape your knee, you're that age." Equanimity is saying "We may not agree, and I may not approve of your choices, but that doesn't affect how I feel about you." It's equality of love and emotion. Not indifference, it's caring with equality.

And recently in a lecture someone said Buddhists are still part of the world, they still experience emotions and feelings. But those feelings do not control their actions, they can act without being attached to the emotion.

So, many interesting things to think about, and I would definitely recommend Zencast to anyone looking to listen to engaging Buddhist lectures.

A Birth Day

Today after dinner we walked to the beach and flew a kite. We had bought a "travel kite" when we were in Washington State, it's very small, has no plastic support pieces, and fits in a little bag so you can pack it in your suitcase. We had never flown it before, so it was a day for firsts. I was happy we went today instead of yesterday as originally planned, because today it felt like it was a celebration for Madeline.

I have my first niece! Madeline Anne Ruhland was born today, 6 lbs 9 oz.


So we stood in the sand and sent up a small piece of fabric into the ever-present Chicago wind, to honor her first day in Georgia.

When I was a baby, my aunt called me "Baby Ceppy." As a kid, I thought it was just a funny story. But in college we all started using full names for everyone, and I became cep again. So initials started to mean more to me than they had before. Even though I like the name, I couldn't name a kid Madeline Elizabeth Sibbald, because then she'd be MES. But now we get to have MAR in the family, and we're planning to call her MARch, at least as long as she'll let us. She's been "Doodlebug" the whole time she's been in the womb, so maybe she'll see it as a step up, who knows. We've got a while before we'll start hearing any concrete feedback. And I think Doodlebug's going to be a name that sticks with her, we all have a great deal of affection for it.

The problem with a baby is you start to plan their whole life, and they're just figuring out things like temperature, and eating, and how to poop. It'll be a long time before they even figure out how to poop without making faces, much less what their favorite color is, what books they like, what they want to be when they grow up, and who they're going to vote for in November. So here I am, excited to meet and know her. She couldn't even make her eyes focus on my face, even if she wanted to. But I get to be around for at least most of the rest of her life, being the best aunt I can be. I guess I can wait for her to get to know me too.