Tomorrow, we buy candy

ITEM!: I may have come up with an idea for Sydney's birthday party. Is it weird that I'm nervous about it? I mean, here we are, at seven years old, and we've never hosted a school-friends birthday party. We've had plenty of parties out in California with my friends and their kids, but never an event just with Syd's school friends. I'll check out the venue this week, and then get to planning.
ITEM!: We're having toilet issues in the master bathroom. First of all, the arm that connects the flushing handle inside the tank snapped, so it needed to be replaced. Then, the bolts at the bottom of the tank are rusted and leaking. I've texted my landlord to find out who their plumber is, and am waiting to hear back from them.
ITEM!: Tomorrow is October 1. And what do we do on October 1? We decorate for Halloween! I'm super excited. I've got a lot of actual work this week, so I did what I have to do to get to Wednesday, and clear up my morning tomorrow. I have tons to decorate and figure out in the new house, and not much time to do it. Unfortunately, Daisy has a doctor's appointment, and then I have to get Syd. So, I'll probably get most of it done. Let's see how quickly I can work, and if I can avoid distraction (not possible).
ITEM!: I should have been asleep a long time ago. I'm so tired lately. And having headaches. I think I'm fighting a bit of a stuffy nose, and that stuffiness is the reason behind my headaches. I need some cold medicine. Yeah, cold medicine makes everything better.

I watched some "Breaking Bad"

It's always such a treat for me when I can find a new and exciting way to drive my husband a little bit crazy. As of lately, it has been my watching Breaking Bad with him. I've never watched the show, which I understand goes against my being an entertainment junkie, but I just never was that intrigued by it. Brian started watching when we were in Houston, and has been obsessed for a couple years.
As this is the final season of the show, and in fact, the final few episodes, I started watching with him after we'd finished True Blood or The Newsroom. The last couple episodes have been very good, so I've been totally enjoying them. Brian's positive spin on this: Now I'm watching the show with him. Brian's negative spin on this: Now I'm asking a whole bunch of questions that if I'd been watching since the beginning, I wouldn't have to ask. I'm not asking deliberately obtuse questions or anything; it's just that I honestly don't know almost all of the back story. And then he answers them, and then I have more questions. The entire exercise is really quite entertaining.
But, now the show is over. And I have no desire to backtrack and watch it from the beginning. So, I'm done.

In the desert, latte in my hand

Mom and I went to the park to visit Auntie Donna's cactus today. It's a stunning saguaro cactus in a protected place, and I'm incredibly happy that we found it for her.
Sure, it's completely illegal what we did more than five years ago, but it's certainly a beautiful spot, yes? And don't we all take our loved ones someplace lovely that we maybe shouldn't at some point?
Anyway, the walk is perfect, and the sky was an awe-inspiring blue this afternoon as we made our way up the hill and through the desert. The visit was Mom's idea, and it was a good one, since neither of us had been by to visit since before I left Arizona for The Place That Must Not Be Named. We saw a couple lizards, saw a couple cool little plant-life anomalies, and we were warmed (to say the least) by the sunshine and slight breeze. [Editor's note: I actually got a little bit of a sunburn on my shoulders. No biggie.]
But my actual moment of brilliance came more than an hour earlier, while I was on my way to pick up our Starbucks before getting Mom at the airport. I bought Auntie Donna a latte.
So, while there, we poured one out for our homey, and had a few moments, appreciating the awesomeness that was my Auntie Donna. It's very gangsta, right? I'm straight up, my friends.
She'd have loved the cactus we picked. She'd have loved seeing the two dragonflies we saw humping in midair while we walked back to the car. And she would have loved that I said, fuck the calories, and got her 2 percent milk in her drink.
That woman was incredibleness in a fantastic package, and I miss her terribly. It's a pretty place. I think she likes it there.

Today is Mom's birthday!!

Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday, dear Mommy!
Happy birthday to you!

Also, I think, a double-decker haiku:

I say "awesome" lots,
But for her, it is so true,
My hero, and role model.

She's inspiration,
motivation, a big fan,
and she rocks the house.

ITEM!: And because today is Mom's birthday, I treated myself to a pedicure. I celebrate her life by having a callous removal treatment. And now, I can spend time with her this weekend with no issues at all in regards to how gross my feet were. It's a happy birthday for both of us!
ITEM!: Christian Bale does a lot of low-voice yelling in The Dark Knight Rises. I mention this because the movie is on in my background right now, and he just yelled, "Where is the trigger," like seven times and the TV is louder than I want it, so I heard that really well.
ITEM!: My dogs are lying next to each other on the bed, back to back. I know it's unintentional, and that they don't do it because I think it's super cute, but still, I love it. It makes me feel like they are doing it to make me so happy.
ITEM!: And because it bears repeating, callous removal treatments are awesome.

Big brother is definitely watching

This would be our view of Jupiter, if it was as close to Earth as the moon.
These kinds of pictures are frickin' awesome to me, and I like sharing them with you. Brian doesn't believe that I'm interested in the solar system and universe, chiefly because I don't sit and watch hours and hours of documentary shows on Discovery and Science with him, but this kind of thing is pretty fascinating.
Although the eye looks kind of creepy right there. Watching over us. Silently judging.

Autumn is my favorite season

Autumn is here, and we could feel it in the air this morning. The first cool morning of the season greeted us with the sunrise today, and it was fantastic. In fact, I was able to open my windows and get a breath, if only a breath, of fresh air in the house. The windows stayed open until about 1 p.m., when the air conditioner thermostat hit 79 degrees inside. No a/c all morning was pretty awesome. They say that it should be as nice tomorrow.
Of course, we know that this is a bit of an anomaly for this time of year; it's typically warmer for a while longer. But cool air is cool air, and I look forward to taking advantage of Mother Nature's cooler winds whenever I can. (I just reread that last sentence, and it is LAME. How cheesy. In fact, I'm bugged by the entire second half of this post. I'm going to sign off right now before I write anything else ridiculous. It's too late to be trying to come up with something clever anyway. I think tomorrow I'm going to take myself to Krispy Kreme.)

My feet need maintenance

ITEM!: The first thing I am going to do when my paycheck drops in the checking account is get a pedicure. I need one ... BADLY. My feet are messed, all rough and calloused, and unfit for human eyes. They need to be scraped, moisturized, pampered and nail painted like no one's business, and it can't happen soon enough.
ITEM!: I somewhat enjoyed the Emmys tonight. Or, you know, the death parade. I hate how the time chunks are divided, and how most are used. I don't think anyone cares to see song and dance numbers. It's for certain there does not need to be an interpretive dance in the middle of the show. I think it's a travesty that they play off award winners, and give time to excessive memorial pieces, and dancing, and "humorous vignettes," etc. We're there to see the award winners. Let them speak.
ITEM!: Sydney must be growing up, because we wandered through Toys R Us today, and we left, without buying anything. She saw a couple things that were okay, but nothing that she needed to bring home with her. I think that's kinda sad. But still, even though she was too big for toy shopping, she still wore a dress-up princess dress all day.
ITEM!: I've made the first cut from my television viewing agenda; Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which stars Andy Samberg, has been removed from my DVR schedule. I got through the first 15 minutes, but then turned off the show. It wasn't funny, and Samberg was ... how to put it ... irritating. It gave me blahs in a powerful manner. I'm not wasting time on such as that, so it's out. Sleepy Hollow is still on the DVR though, and I'll get to that tomorrow, before the second episode airs tomorrow night. This week is the beginning of the heavy rotation of television. I need to be ready.

No more padiddling around

And yet, once again, I am struck with how awesome the Internet is.
The day after I got my car back from that ridiculously large visit at the dealership, a new alert light blinked on in the dashboard. I have a bulb failure. I was all, "Are you f*cking KIDDING me?!?!"
But I've been living without caring, since the last thing I want to do is take the car in for a bulb before having the money to take care of the water pump. This afternoon though, as we were preparing to back out of the garage, Brian looked over, and was all, "What's that light?"
He got out and checked the front of the car, and we discovered that it was the driver side daytime running light bulb that was out. It was at this moment when I pointed out to Brian that I was driving a "padiddle." He had no idea what that was, and after I explained that it's a car with only one working headlight, he was horrified that there was such a stupid word for something like that.
Well, give Brian a random task and access to the Internet, and he can figure anything out. It wasn't long before he found a video on changing the bulb in the driver side headlamp. He went to the auto parts store and bought the bulb, came home, and replaced it in the car. And you know what? The alert light is gone!
The Internet is an awesome wealth of information. And Brian is pretty awesome, too.

I feel dirty

To my shame, I just clicked on one of those "Worst Celebrity Beach Bodies" links, and I'm so disgusted with how rude the paparazzi is that I clicked off as quick as I could because I didn't want their stuff soiling my computer. I hate that there is a market for such violations of privacy. I read one description, and did such a fast about-face that I think the Internet is suffering from whiplash. Talk about your bullies. There's nothing worse. I'm never doing that again.

Aw, c'mon; she's cute!

Today, we welcome an Random Numerical Milestone.
Give a nice, warm welcome to blog post number 2,300!!

[The Dating Game music, please!]
Number 2,300 likes long walks in the desert, eating bean and cheese burritos, drinking cheap cognac, and playing Beethoven on the ukelele. Her favorite movie is Spaceballs, and she loves watching police procedurals and shows about difficult and sometimes ridiculous jobs done by people living in the middle states. Also, she uses an alias at Starbucks, it's Countess Batling Lindencherry.

In all honesty, I did not think that I would get to this number. Pretty crazy. September 13 was my eight-year anniversary doing the blog. Eight years and 2,300 posts. Still though, even with that amount of time, it feels like 2,300 is a whole lot of blogging.

Ugh. I hate it

Oh my goodness, you guys, the new iOS 7 is ugly.
It doesn't look sleek at all. Instead, it rather looks like a pile of kids' stacking blocks, with so many different colors and primary shapes. Also, the icons have changed for so many of the Apple-specific apps, that it is hardly even a familiar phone.
To top it off, I have a bunch of cell phone-only contacts in my text app that I now have no idea who they are. I mean, they're numbers certainly, but I have no idea who they belong to. They aren't listed in my Contacts, because if they were, they would correlate. Rather, they are just numbers. And I'm an anal-retentive weirdo, so I delete the conversations once they're done, and now I can't even figure out who they are based on those.
HEY APPLE!! What's the point of having larger folders on the phone if I still have to flip a page to get through them?!
I just feel like everything is so big. It's like the phone is all of a sudden designed for someone who reads large-print books. And the zooming motion to the opening and closing of apps is like an uninvited 3-D movie in your hand. There's too much inconsequential movement with this operating system, and it's making me seasick.

But is there a headless horseman?

I missed Sleepy Hollow last night.
I totally dropped the ball on the first night of fall television, and I am utterly disappointed in myself.
I mean, fall TV premieres are like my year's worth of television viewing in a big ball of optimism. It's like a baby being born: a baby that will demand my attention, my emotion and my neuroses until next summer.
Fall TV is a demanding mistress, and I missed our first date. And now, I'm forced to make it up to her. The series premiere of Sleepy Hollow will be on TV again Friday night. I have some catching up to do.
And because I do love my television, and because I am a ridiculous control freak, I spent two hours tonight going through my Entertainment Weekly Fall TV Preview and scheduling my season and series premieres over the next two months. Now, my calendar is all marked up. I won't bail on my dates again.
I love TV.

It rose; the parbuckling was successful

ITEM!: As predicted, I spent my entire day with the Costa Concordia parbuckling operation on an open browser window on my computer. I didn't stare at it every moment, as the movement of the ship itself was like watching paint dry, but I did keep a super close eye on its progress through the hours. As of now, the ship is upright. It took about 19 hours, I think, for the ship to go vertical. For the next couple weeks, the salvage company will make some repairs, attach floats to the sides, and buoy and anchor the ship. Then it will rest there until next spring, when they'll tow it to a dry dock for scrap.
ITEM!: I got my car back earlier today. Turns out that I did need the transmission fluid flush and service, or whatever. Apparently, this particular service should be done every 40,000 miles. I've never done it on my car, which is at 69,000 miles. Sure, it made for a more expensive day, but I have to tell you guys, the transmission and gears are so much smoother right now than they have been lately. And it's weird because Brian and I were complaining about how my car felt like it hesitated a lot over the last few months. This afternoon, after I picked it up, I was delighted to discover that it doesn't hesitate any more. I was surprised to honestly feel a difference in the car.
ITEM!: I've discovered that I can record my own text alerts on this app on my phone. I'm trying to figure out which movie line I want to use. Right now, it's a tight race between Sam Rockwell's "rudimentary lathe," and Care Elwes' "as you wish." I don't know. Or something from Grease? So many options, and I'm insane enough to spend hours and hours over the next several days recording and discarding many, many, many potentials.
ITEM!: I had wanted to read a book last weekend. That plan went to total shit. Duly noted that my Summer Reading List is just as long as it was in April and May. I'm disappointed, to be sure. I'd like to get to reading again. Maybe tomorrow?

The ship rises tomorrow ... hopefully

You know how every year there's something random that intrigues me for hours on end? That one time it was the discovery of the Liberty Bell capsule, and the rescue and cleaning up. And then, of course, the 33 Chilean miners.
Tomorrow's bizarre obsession will be the live feed for the salvage of the Costa Concordia cruise ship in Italy. The ship's sinking is ridiculous, since it's all because the captain is a bit of a prat, and it's a tragedy that more than 30 people died. Another tragedy has been the ship's carcass lying on its side in this pristine Italian bay for almost two years.
But tomorrow, the salvage company is going to lift the ship onto its hull, float it, and then tow it away. The act of bringing the ship upright should take about 12 hours, according to the man in charge, which is perfect, because I'm about to sleep for the next seven hours.
I would rather sit and watch the video all night, but I do actually need to sleep. There is a good chance that it may not go as well as they want it to, and that the ship may not be able to hold itself up once it's upright. So many factors, and the great human ingenuity to get it done. I'm so curious how it'll go!

Ugh. Fix my car, please

My Jetta pulled a Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction today, and was all, "I won't be ignored!"
The check engine light flipped on yesterday while I drove home from work, but since it was the same light that meant nothing a few weeks ago, I ignored it. But the car felt weird this morning when we went to Costco. And then, when Sydney and I got in the car to head to the dinosaur museum, it just wouldn't start. It's a battery thing, which is annoying, because that's a lame thing to happen, but in conjunction with the check engine light, and the 70,000-mile service that's due, we had it towed to the dealer as a precaution.
Happily, the dealer's service department is open until 4 p.m. on Saturdays. But that means the car is chilling at the dealer for the rest of the weekend. Brent, who is taking care of me for this visit, thinks it should be ready by 2 p.m. on Monday. If it's not though, they'll have a loaner for me.
Car issues were not on my Wish List for the month of September. I'm bummed.

Caution: Internet wormhole ahead

I just pulled myself out of a Cute Animal Internet Video wormhole. I got sucked in via the kitten who wanted to "test" the bath water. And there is nothing better than watching a dog video in which there is barking, and to see it wake up Oliver and Daisy, who are like, "What? Who's barking?"
But I also like the random stuff. Praying mantis jumps onto phone, scaring people. Cat attacks horse. Raccoons in a pool party. Piglet oinking at cats. Dog on trampoline. Cat in box. Cat attacks bag. Cat steals dog's food. Dog plays with hen. Cat hangs from screen door. Parakeet spews pop culture phrases. Baby bunny sneezes.
No joke, cats seem like such fun to have around. Dogs don't give a shit about an empty paper bag. Nor are they intrigued by cardboard boxes, or birds on television. They don't chase laser pointers, either.
Dogs do cuddle like champs, though. Also, they growl. And stretch a lot. And roll over for tummy rubs. And chase squirrels in their sleep.

Red raspberry jam is the only way to go

It's a SANDWICH thing: Why does eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch make me feel like I can eat pretty much anything else I want for the rest of the day? Tootsie Rolls. Chips. Hummus. Candy. Thank goodness I haven't found any zingers in my grocery stores yet. But really, my sandwich was delicious this afternoon. I made sloppy Joes for dinner, too, but Brian came home with hamburgers, so the Joes are in the fridge ... for lunch and dinner tomorrow.
It's a URINE thing: Update on testing Daisy's pee, because I'm sure you have all been waiting with bated breath for the conclusion to last night's post cliffhanger. She allowed me to wave the stick under her pee stream. I told you, she's a focused peer. She didn't even know I was back there. But the best news is that the result was: negative. Which is good with the diabetes, so I'm super pleased! It means that the insulin is working as it should, and that her body is responding to it. (Right? I mean, I think that's what the vet said that means. She talks really, really fast, so I missed what exactly a negative reading means, but I do know that she said that "negative" is the result that we're after.)
It's a JOB thing: I applied for a senior proofreader position close by my house today. As Brian said, the job requirements in the listing read like my resume. This makes me confident, but I'm still hopeful and generally wishful. It's a full-time gig, too.
I wonder if I can work through the standard lunch hour, and take my lunch time in the afternoon to pick up Sydney, and then make her sit quietly in my desk area until I'm done for the day. Hmmm. This sounds ridiculous when I say it out loud. But in my head, it was logical. I promise.
It's a FOOTBALL thing: My goodness, you guys, my Patriots are going to make me have kittens this season, I can feel it. Sure, they won tonight, but it was such an ugly game that I am genuinely concerned for the season. I need a solid set of receivers, and I just don't have that with all the rookies out there. My extensive coaching experience leads me to think that Mr. Kraft needs to get Randy Moss on the phone tomorrow. Or anyone with some experience who can actually catch and hold on to the ball.
It's a BABY thing: So, what do you do when your kid's new school picture isn't the cutest? Do you still have to put it out?

Time to catch the pee

So, it turns out that I can be quite good at giving insulin shots. But tomorrow begins the big activity: checking Daisy's pee for glucose levels. I finally found some ketone strips to soak in urine to discover her levels, and in the morning, I get to follow my puppy outside and try to catch some pee on a strip.
All good intentions. But let's see if it'll work. The strip is about three inches long, and she's a focused peer, so I may just be able to do it. The vet suggested using a ladle or spoon to catch the pee and then test it, and I did buy a spoon for just that purpose today, but I want to try to catch it "fresh from the source" first. If she allows this, life just got a tad bit easier.
And if her levels are good, that's a big, huge bucket of frosting on my cupcake of a dog, because that means we won't have to mess around or try different prescription amounts and all that. Now, why I would think that this one thing would work out well for us, I don't know. But anything is possible. Even a relatively uneventful solution to our problem.

Andrea's birthday post

Today is Andrea's 40th birthday! I traveled out to California last weekend to celebrate with her, and was asked to contribute to a memory book in her honor. As she is a fan of the blog, I thought that honoring her with her very own ITEM! list would be cool. It spotlights some of my favorite moments with Andy. And it turned out pretty great. It follows.

ITEM!: Today was a great day! I started school at Pinecrest in Thousand Oaks! I was so nervous, and so scared. Mrs. White introduced me to this girl, Andrea, who’d only been at school a couple months over summer camp, so she was kinda new, like me. She showed me around, introduced me to a bunch of other people, and was super nice. She talks a lot.
ITEM!: Today was awesome! Andrea and I are in the drama club, and we were chosen to be Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum together! This is so much better than the Charlie Brown play where I was stuck being the girl with the curly hair. We have to learn this poem, The Walrus and the Carpenter, and it’s super long, but we’ll have fun. And it’ll be awesome when we’re done.
ITEM!: Today was so funny! As Andrea and I walked around the track at PE, she told me this joke from Bill Cosby, about Noah, and his conversation with God, about building the Ark. The way Andy told it, I was cracking up! I swear, I may make her tell it to me every day for MONTHS, because she does it so good.
ITEM!: Today, I’m super sad. It was our eighth grade graduation, and I’m scared I’ll never see any of these people again. I can’t imagine my life without all my girlfriends, and I’m having to face it without them. That’s sad. I cried a lot tonight.
ITEM!: TODAY WAS A GREAT DAY!! Andrea is Lisa’s wedding coordinator, and I finally got to see her after a really long time apart! It was so great to hug and catch up!! I think we may end up going out soon with Jeannine. Wouldn’t it be cool if we became super good friends again?!?!
ITEM!: I’m so wasted, but I had to tell you that Andrea ripped the rose off my bridesmaid dress tonight. It was fantastic.
ITEM!: I’m so wasted, but I had to tell you that I am having so much fun hanging out with JJ, Jeannine and Andrea! We went to the Yucatan, and had so much fun dancing with random guys, and drinking, and dancing with random guys and drinking! Honestly, this is the best time ever in my life. And I’m not saying that because I’m wasted.
ITEM!: Yay Andrea’s asked me to be one of her bridesmaids!! I’m so happy to stand up with her when she marries Ryan!!
ITEM!: YAY Andrea’s agreed to be one of my bridesmaids! I’m so happy that she’ll be standing up there with me when I marry Brian!!
DEAR ANDREA!: I can’t imagine me being me, without you being you. You are one of the best friends I could and will ever have, and it is my privilege to call you friend! I can’t believe that we can say we’ve been friends for more than 30 years, but there it is, and I’m proud of that fact. There’s too much that I’d like to reminisce about, and so many events I’d like to giggle about, but really, I’m looking forward to all the events, moments and laughs in our future. I look forward to us turning 50, 60 and 70 together! Thirty years of friendship down, 30 more to go (and more than that, too!). HAPPY BIRTHDAY, my dearest friend!

Things about today:

The job is being weird. My boss told me that the main social media client I have is in default for payment, so the accounts are on hold. This leaves me with two accounts to post for, and turning my monthly paycheck into a blistering $150. You know, until they give me more accounts, or until I quit.
Daisy's insulin isn't working fast enough. Honestly, after a full 24 hours, she should start gaining her weight back and being in better health, right? I'm starting to get super nervous about her general well being. Also, I need to find strips to check her urine for glucose and ketone levels. However, she is thoroughly enjoying the large and prepared breakfasts and dinners. As is Oliver, who is benefiting from this by finally getting a more elaborate diet.
Sydney is an "accelerated reader." I'm so glad, because she is far from being an "enthusiastic reader." Is it better for her to be good at something she doesn't seem to like doing? I'm going to be a happy camper the day she decides that reading aloud is not an excuse to whine, sigh and grumble. Listening to her be a punk throughout her reading of Pinkalicious tonight was painful.
I actually enjoyed Now You See Me. I know this movie got a lot of bad reviews, but I quite liked it. Perhaps the bad reviews lowered my expectations to such that there was nowhere to go but up. You know who bugs me for no real reason? Jesse Eisenberg. He goes on that list now. Woody Harrelson was awesome, as usual.

That's it. Time for bed

Oh my goodness, you guys, I'm still so tired from my weekend. I'm so glad we did it, because Andrea's birthday party was so awesome, but it's going to take me a few days to recover. During weeks like this, I totally realize that I am just not 25 years old anymore. Or even 35. Yikes.
I was in bed and asleep before 10:30 p.m. last night. Tonight, that also was a goal, but I'm late because ... I fell asleep downstairs. So now I'm going to have the lights out by 11 p.m., I hope, because that gives me 15 minutes, but still, it'll be early.
I don't even want to tell you how many times I had to backspace and re-type any of the above paragraph. Embarrassing.

Be careful; they're out there

There is no possible, logical context for this picture. Except to tell you that it came through on a tweet today, and it made me laugh out loud. It was listed under animal mash-ups, and it is called, Killer Penguin. See? It's funny! I tried ... VALIANTLY ... to make this a decent profile picture for Facebook, but I couldn't get the entire penguin body, and the feet, in the thumbnail. And without the entire body, there's no point to any of it. So then I thought, well, damn it, it's going on the blog.
Because it's funny.

Princess Daisy, love her like crazy

Last Friday, I woke up to the unpleasant reality that Daisy had a crazy bad anal gland infection. I took her to the vet, and we discovered a mass in her butt-ular area, that was about an inch wide, and inch deep and about six inches long, curling around her anus. The vet, amazed at the size of the mass, suggested that it looked much like a peri-anal tumor, a growth that is "typically very malignant." Needless to say, I freaked out. Brian freaked out. Mom freaked out. And Brian's parents freaked out.
She was given a hardcore injected antibiotic, as well as a secondary oral antibiotic and a pain medication. I was told to get some Metamucil, to help move things along and make pooping easier. The doctor aspirated the mass in her butt, and sent the sample out. She was subjected to x-rays, to see if she had any other masses in her body, which were negative. And a full blood sample was taken to be tested, as well.
Daisy had a rough day last Friday, as did we all. We spent the entire weekend staring at her, babying her and helping her as best we could. I slept on the futon cushion downstairs so she could sleep with me. She spent the entire weekend eating some and drinking, and sleeping on her cushion. On Sunday, she finally pooped. On Monday, she went out the doggy door on her own, and moved around downstairs more.
Tuesday, no word from the vet on the mass pathology. Wednesday, the vet closes its doors at noon, so no word on the pathology again. Finally, today, I got the news we were hoping for. The mass was not cancerous, and it was just "the biggest abscess" the vet had ever seen. So, yay!! We did not cope well with the possibility of losing our little princess, and the sense of relief in this house tonight is palpable.
Daisy still has a sensitive behind, but she's up and down the stairs with no problem (I finally slept in my own bed for the first time since last week last night), is pooping and peeing with no problems, and is her normal, healthy, attitudinal self. She still has three more days of oral antibiotic, and the injection will last for another full week. We're going back to the vet on Monday morning, because now that we don't have to worry about cancer, we can figure out ... the urinary stone, and, because why not, the diabetes that she's developed. Yes, diabetes. And now, it's insulin shots every day for the rest of her life.
But still, at least we get to keep her. And that's the best part of my day.

A labor, it certainly was

We've had a pretty rough few days out here, and I don't yet have all the information, so I don't want to blog about it tonight. But suffice it to say, Daisy isn't feeling well, and I've been sleeping on the futon cushion downstairs since Friday. I should know more tomorrow, and will therefore have a lengthy post (maybe?) then.
Meanwhile, in the Bat Cave:
We made chocolate cupcakes with bright, purple frosting, and they're delicious. I'm going to go eat one once I'm done blogging here.
Oliver has the farts right now, and is gassing us out of the house. He's had too much food today, I think.
Sydney had a boring weekend, and will happily tell you about how awful it was, but she got to pick Pei Wei for lunch on Saturday, we made cupcakes on Sunday, and she played video games all day on Monday. Not too bad, really.
Brian and I got to sit next to each other a lot.

At least I'm not in Houston

I tend to enjoy September. Or at least I did when September meant that the weather would be cooling down soon. Instead, September has become another Summer Month, and we all just have to deal with the warm weather for another several weeks. I'm not complaining, because, you know, at least I'm not in Houston.
I have no idea why I chose to roll with the farmer and the pig avatar for this particular September. But, here she is.