Miscellaneous Manure Pt 9

Here's the kids on the first day of school. Notice the heads hung low because of their sadness. Ha, just kidding! I had them do it because Hus still doesn't like pics of the kids faces posted on my blog. I wasn't sad either.

E spent the summer doing sit-ups twice a day, swimming and running. Now she really looks like a pre-teen.

T spent the summer talking. I mean he did stuff too, just talked the whole time.


The cat's are getting along better now. Cokee, the Siamese Princess, doesn't hiss at Summer anymore but still doesn't seem to care much about him.

This is how I ruin a perfectly sexy cute nightgown. I wear it with my kitty cat socks.

Well, my feet were cold.

Boy, my knee's look really old. (Hey that rhymes!)

I have a new favorite TV show. I bought the first season of Supernatural on DVD because the show was recommended to me by several people. So far I love it, although I have a problem watching it because I spend a lot of time just trying to figure out which brother is cuter. Who has the nicer eyes? Hair? Chin? Lips? I usually can't make up my mind.

Do you understand the difficulty I face?

I won't be around any computers for a few days but then I'll be back to visit all of you.

Poor sex symbols.

Saturday Sounds 13 or Mama Yelling

Okay, I didn't really yell, just spoke loudly enough for everyone in the Verizon Wireless store to hear me complaining. I was without Internet service since Wednesday. For the second time in 9 months, my Verizon Wireless device broke. The last time it broke I got a replacement in the mail but had to pay my $50 copay for it. This time I didn't want to pay another $50 for the same piece of crap device.

I mean what the hell? I'm paying a monthly fee with a two year contract for my Internet service. I shouldn't' have to replace my device so frequently.

Well, I told the employee that very same thing while holding up said piece of crap and shaking it to demonstrate the broken pieces inside rattling around. She told me there really wasn't anything she could do and that they didn't even carry that model in the store. She told me I also couldn't upgrade my device unless I paid the full retail price or I had my service for another year!

So I threatened to just pay the penalty fee and cancel my remaining contract with Verizon. Even though it would cost me about the same as two months of service, Verizon would be losing 15 months of my money.

So, guess what? I was referred to the manager who, while turning red and grinding his teeth, because he probably wanted to tell me to go to hell, gave me a replacement device exactly like mine for FREE! It turned out they did have it in stock. Dumb salesperson.

So I asked "What should I do when it breaks again in a couple months?" Gotta look that gift horse in the mouth. Then I said thank you and left.

So I'm off to catch up on emails and blog visits. Thank you to everyone for wishing T well. He is feeling better but is unusually moody probably because of the steroids.

Poor Verizon sales people.

Pneumonia Again

Poor T, my six year old son, has pneumonia again. This time they think it is Mycoplasma Pneumonia, otherwise known as "Walking Pneumonia". He started Monday night with a runny nose then woke up Tuesday with a wet cough but didn't feel feverish so he went to school. When he came home his cough was even worse and he had a low grade fever. I listened to his lungs and did hear some wheezes and other abnormal sounds. I encouraged rest and fluids and planned to take him to the doctors today, Wednesday.

He spent the night on the couch with me, coughing and having feverish nightmares. His temp was only as high as 102 and thankfully he agreed to take Ibuprofen. (last spring when he had Pneumococcal Pneumonia his fever was as high as 106!)

Today he looked a little better but his lungs still sounded bad. His temp was almost down to normal too.

The Pediatric Nurse Practitioner checked him out and gave him two nebulizer breathing treatments and because they didn't do much good, also had a chest Xray done. I wondered out loud if three chest Xrays were bad in one year for a 6 year old. The NP was more concerned that if we didn't do one and just treated him like an asthmatic with a virus with steroids and breathing treatments he might get worse. After she checked him out she had our usual doc check him out too which I thought was nice of my doc to take the time to do. But so far after three years of going to her, she is still the best doctor we've ever had.

I know better than to argue if I am told my child needs antibiotics as they are not frequently ordered anymore. On the other hand I am not sure I want him to have the steroids she prescribed. I know it will help his wheezes, but steroids, I just don' t know if he really needs them.

T was a great kid through the whole four hours at the office and I treated him to renting two movies and ice cream. Of course I got ice cream for myself too.

So, WTF, why did he get pneumonia again? I mean he does his best to wash his hands, as best as a six year old can do, when reminded.

Hope you and yours are feeling well.

Saturday Sounds 12 or Time Traveling

I recently read the book The Time Traveler's Wife and I loved it. I think it is the perfect combination of romance, science fiction, drama, humor and sadness and I highly recommend reading it, no matter what your favorite type of book is.

Last week I saw the movie and while I was prepared to be disappointed by it, I was instead pleasantly surprised. Of course it wasn't as good as the book, but it was still an enjoyable film. I really didn't expect to like Eric Bana as the lead, but aside from his unfortunate profile, he's pretty hot, and well, Rachel McAdams, 'nuf said.

One of the things I liked about the book were the references to some of the '80's music I used to, and still do, listen to. I was a little disappointed that the movie didn't really use more of these references.

During one scene in the movie, the lead characters dance to a live band doing a remake of the song featured in the video I'm sharing today.

The band does a remake of a Joy Division song, one of my favorite bands from my punk rock days of the '80's. I started listening to Joy Division in the mid '80's, a few years after the lead singer Ian Curtis committed suicide. They were one of my favorite "Death Rock" (or nowadays referred to as "Goth") bands. The lead singer suffered from major depression and epilepsy for most of his short life. After his death the remaining band members became the more widely known New Wave band New Order.

This song is still played on the radio.

Don't Make Eye Contact

We have been adopted.

A few months ago we started receiving daily visits from a little black kitty. Not a newborn, but probably less than a year old. Every time we stepped out the door onto the porch we would hear her meowing to us from the woods. Slowly she started getting closer and closer to the house until she was living under and on our porch. She always talked to us and would try to rub up against us and purr. She also, it seemed, thought that our house was her house. I mean if these other felines could go inside, why couldn't she? She would actually sit down in front of the front door effectively blocking our other cat's from entering until we shooed her away. Normally stray cat's come and go and are too scared to come close to the house so this was very unusual.

I asked my farming neighbors if they were missing any barn cats, which they denied. So possibly some butt hole dropped Summer off nearby, it wouldn't be the first time.

Hus warned us not to acknowledge her, talk to her or especially not to feed her. So much for my sweet Cat Whisperer. You could tell that "Summer", named by my daughter, was starving. She was matted fur and bones and when I looked close I noticed she had bits of tapeworm on her. Another disturbing thing she had was a sneeze that produced green snot. Yuck.

Some other things Hus ,The Cat Whisperer said to us...

"You can't save them all, she's a stray."

"Cokee will be jealous and might run away."

"We don't want our cat's catching anything."

"He's not a handsome cat."

"I don't want to be crazy cat people."

One evening during dinner, Summer stood outside the window looking in while we ate. She meowed and meowed; She was pathetic.

Hus said "Don't make eye contact. Pretend she isn't their."

Well of course the next day I fed her. She loved the food and purred the whole time she was eating. I also combed out her matted hair and wiped her nose.

That evening, Hus and I were on the porch and Summer was lying next to our male cat Arthur when she suddenly jumped up and walked over to Hus and started yelling at him.

I looked at Hus and said "So how long have you been feeding her?"

"Couple weeks."

So that night I gave Summer tapeworm medicine, combed her matted hair again, wiped her nose and made an appointment for her at the vets.

We took her for her shots and well, surprise, Summer is a boy!

It's been a couple of weeks since the visit to the vet and Summer is now part of the family. He is worm free and hasn't sneezed in weeks. Cokee still hisses and swats at him if he gets too close. Arthur is always looking over his shoulder with a look on his face like "Why is this crazy cat following me around." I think Summer likes Arthur.

Before food, love and attention. Note the dull hair and bloated belly.

After, resting on the couch in his new home. Note the bright eyes and shiny coat.

We still don't understand how such a lovable gentle cat made it for so long on his own. We have Coyotes and Foxes around who love to eat cat's. What makes me really sad is how lonely he must have been all by himself.

Poor worms.