Our First Child

As Dear Readers know, I lost Leo not long ago after a devastating battle against a chronic long-term illness. I was very sad. Pele was bored and sad. So, I have thought about a new kitty for a long time, to help Pele, ayup. But I have stopped at adoption events and either cried or the cats didn't really like me all that much, and so I didn't take any home. After Boxer moved in, we would also stop and the cats at the adoption sites were starting to warm up to me, but we still hadn't really found one that Boxer liked as much as I.

This last week, we saw a pretty Bengal mix that Boxer adored while looking online, and we went on Saturday to check her out and, just our luck, she had already been adopted. So, we looked around and saw some we liked but not enough to really want to take home. And then one of the techs said, "Did you see Jody over there?"

And there, hidden in the window behind a sign, staring out into the mid-morning sun, was a little grey cottonball of fluff with dark gold eyes. Obviously yearning to break free. We went over and opened up her cage and she grabbed onto me and instantly turned her belly up to me for scritching. Then she grabbed onto Boxer and noodled all around his chest.

And so it comes to pass that Boxer and I have been adopted by our first child, a squirmy wyrm of a beastie who was stuck with the terrible name of Jody.

Now named Kalidas (meaning either "Servant of Kali" in Hindi or "Most Beautiful" in Greek), our kitty was born sometime in the height of winter and brought to the shelter on February 2, when her human family moved and decided to take the mom with them and leave the kittens, sadly not long after they were born. Little Kali (as she is nicknamed) was apparently not the cutest of kittens, what with the flyaway fur and all. Long after her brothers and sisters went to new homes, she languished at the shelter and then in foster care and then back to the shelter.

Kali is currently residing in our guest room, where she will have to stay until she has her Feline Leukemia test in September when she is spayed. As much as she is a good kitty, if she is positive, she will have to go back to the shelter, and I will cry. However, she and Pele can at least look at each other, if not really interact at this point. And, she and Pele have seen each other. Kali could care less; Pele was offended.

Boxer and I take turns going in and visiting with her. She uses the litter box well. Her current favorite toy is a dried leaf. I am using Lion Mother Goddess techniques to train her to not insist on snuggling next to my face. This mainly involves using a gentle paw to push her over and firmly hold her when she is doing something I don't want her to do. Nova - it is a wonderful thing....

I know Boxer really had his heart set on a Bengal or Bengal mix, but that day will have to wait, as a little squirrel has wiggled her way into our hearts.

Very Sick

Update: The triage nurse, after some new symptoms deevloped yesterday, is fairly certain I have salmonella. Joy! Boxer stopped at Walgreen's on the way home from work and got me some Pedialyte, which is surprisingly not horrid. And it seems to be working some. Pains in stomach is not as bad. And I am not living on the toilet, but, man, this is terrible. If this is a mild case, I can't imagine what a bad case is like. Must be like death!

Yours Truly is very sick. So sick that I called the triage nurse yesterday to see if I should go to the ER. Diarrhea, extreme bloating in my stomach, a killer headache, lack of appetite, and such pain in my entire abdomen - pain like I have never felt before, except for maybe after my gastric bypass when they, you know, cut my guts into multiple pieces. The pain was so bad I was thinking not stomach flu or anything mundane like that. I was thinking gall bladder attack, stomach rupture, ovarian cyst rupture, bowel obstruction, stomach stricture, appedicitis, something awful requiring surgery.

Well, the triage nurse, after making some snide comments about my medical knowledge ("Not many people know terms like "abdominal rigidty. Do you spend a lot of time at the doctor's office?"), seemed fairly certain I wasn't having any of those serious problems but she was worried about me becoming dehydrated and recommended I go home, have some flat ginger ale and perhaps some chickie soup, and rest, calling back if I spiked a temp or had any other symptoms indicating that I was, essentially, dying.

So, I managed to get home at 5:30 and went right to the store, thinking I would be home by 6, and so I didn;t leave a message for Boxer as to where I was.

Well, I didn't get home until almost 7 and Boxer was understandably worried, as he knew I was feeling really awful and didn;t think I should have gone into work at all yesterday.

I will admit to being a bad girlfriend, and I made sure to bring my cell with me to work today.

And yes, I am working today. Which is probably stupid. I am feeling better, although I am running a temp of 100.5 (my regular body temp is 97.8), but I can at least walk upright today without hunching over and my stomach doesn't hurt when touched gently. But I have a meeting this morning and 70 letters to get out and a letter of support to write, and then I can go home and rest. Maybe.

I Forgot ...


my 2 year blogoversary ..... which was on July 19.

Happy Blogoversary to me!!!

Post 200 - Garden Update

So, on this, the occasion of my 200th post, I am providing a mid-July garden update!

Things are beautiful. Huge. Green. Tons of blossoms. But I am also not seeing a lot of fruit setting, and what fruit is setting, especially on my kheera cukes and squash are dropping early. The drop I am attributing to the tremendous amount of damn rain we have had, but I am worried that I don't have enough pollinating insects. Next year, I may need to buy some bees.....


The front garden - there are extreme amounts of peppers and the snow peas have also been prolific.

The spaghetti squash plant that ate New York has relocated to my garden.

Welcome to the jungle.... the tomato jungle!


The first summer squash of the summer - a crookneck variety... it is bumpy and ugly but tasty good.... as is what can be made from this fantastic produce - a quinoa and snow pea salad, dressed with a homemade lemon and olive oil dressing:

How I Spent My Lunch Today

A list of my favorite movies - one for each year I have been alive, stolen from Boxer.

Oh, and I ate quinoa salad too... picture to come....

1974 - Animals Are Beautiful People, although it was hard to choose between this funny documentary that includes drunk elephants and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre

1975 - Jaws, another tough choice as 1975 is also the year of Monty Python and the Holy Grail as well as Picnic at Hanging Rock

1976 - Carrie

1977 - The Hobbit, the animated version. Scared the heck out of me as a child. We even had it on record, with it's little comic book included.

1978 - The Deer Hunter

1979 - What a year! Alien, The Jerk, Life of Brian, The Rose, Star Trek - Too hard, but I will have to say Alien.

1980 - Another hard year, but I will say The Shining, the Kubrick version.

1981 - Raiders of the Lost Ark

1982 - Another great year - I can't choose between Blade Runner and Tootsie

1983 - A great year for comedy - Trading Places and National Lampoon's Vacation

1984 - The Terminator

1985 - The Goonies!!! Love love love!

1986 - Blue Velvet - took me a long time to understand it, but it is truly great filmmaking

1987 - The Lost Boys

1988 - Scrooged - because of Carol Kane

1989 - The 'Burbs, although I also liked War of The Roses, watching kathleen Turner kick Michael Douglas's ass....

1990 - Jacob's Ladder

1991 - Thelma and Louise

1992 - Death Becomes Her

1993 - Army of Darkness

1994 - Heavenly Creatures

1995 - Tank Girl

1996 - Beavis and Butthead Do America - the rules didn't say it had to be a good movie!

1997 - Likewise, Romy and Michele's High School Reunion

1998 - Gods and Monsters

1999 - But I'm a Cheerleader

2000 - O Brother, Where Art Thou?

2001 - Fellowship of the Ring

2002 - About a Boy

2003 - Japanese Story

2004 - The Incredibles

2005 - The Descent

2006 - Thank You for Smoking

2007 - Ratatouille - I have seen almost no movies from2007, but I liked this one....


My god, have I really been alive that long?

Haha!


You are Jean-Luc Picard

Jean-Luc Picard 65% Will Riker 60% An Expendable Character (Redshirt) 60% Deanna Troi 50% Chekov 45% Geordi LaForge 45% Spock 40% Leonard McCoy (Bones) 40% Uhura 40% Beverly Crusher 35% Worf 35% Mr. Scott 30% James T. Kirk (Captain) 25% Mr. Sulu 25% Data 12%

Meeting the Family

So I took Boxer north this weekend to meet the family. He survived and hasn't run off yet, which is heartening.

We left early Friday morning, hoping to miss traffic. Which we did. Except we then hit major detours and construction. Par for the course in Wisconsin during the summer, I suppose, but what should have been a 5-6 hour trip ended up being an 8-9 hour trip. My god. Exhausting. Irritating.

We were met by a delicious cioppino, courtesy of mia madre, and the boxer and the Ikester got on famously and had a little dog loving going on, and there was a nice campfire and much laughter in the evening.

Saturday morning we went to my favorite place in the world, Big Falls County Park, and met up with my friend Donna and her husband Dana, both huge boxer lovers who now also like Boxer. We took the dog trail walking, chatted, ate some of Boxer's delicious chocolate bread and some of my delicious yoghurt cheese made from homemade yoghurt, and bitched about gas prices.

Saturday afternoon was the big family to-do. So we went and sat in lawn chairs and ate yummy food, and Boxer had them spinning because of course he had to explain the whole concept of pescheterian over and over and then confused them all by enjoying some homemade pork BBQ made by the 'Bama cousins. That evening we were supposed to go to my uncle's rock reunion, but we were both so tired and Boxer was having family overload, that we decided to have some quiet time, helping my stepdad haul the wood stove into the cabin and then taking a trip to the Wisconsin Concrete Park. Boxer has claimed the rights to blog about that, so watch his site for great photos!

We headed home on Sunday morning, and after another 8 hour trip, were we ever glad to see the old place. And so begins yet another work week, already exhausted.

We Made It Back


Well, Boxer and I finally made it back from the Great White North. 17 damn hours of driving. Damn construction.

An update will follow once we have recovered. In the meantime, enjoy this funny video of a cat who must feel just like I feel right now.


http://view.break.com/528932 - Watch more free videos

Garden Update

In the previous garden update, I featured pictures from the end of May and the beginning of June. Here is my garden as of July 1.

First, the front and the snow peas!


My first pepper, called a Great Stuff .....

My bicolor sage plant ....

My front woodland flower bed, comprised of wild lupines, columbines, and violas....


Now the back... as you can see things have gone berzerk. Here is my lettuce patch made up of deer tongue (left side) and Yugoslavian fire lettuce ......

My mix of mystery summer squash ....


Remember my little radishes? Not so little now! I ate the first one the other day. It was spicy.


I already have small maters and a million blossoms....