Update, now with 33% less random!
Or maybe more random. I haven't decided yet.
Update on Princess Wigglebutt: She handled the rescheduled endoscopy quite well, and everyone at the vet specialist office loved her. Apparently she was very happy to see them. Someone forgot to tell her that they're veterinarians, I'm guessing. Anyhow, we're hoping the samples get through the lab work by Wednesday, as the doc that's been working the project is out Thursday and Friday, so we won't know what's going on 'til Monday.
The best guess at the moment is the canine version of irritable bowel (though further north in the intestinal tract), and my understanding if that's confirmed is that she'll be on prednisolone (a steroid) for a week or two to get the inflamed duodenum back into factory spec, and then from there we'll adjust diet to keep it that way, possibly with some added pharmaceutical encouragement.
We thought she might be having a bit of a relapse this morning, as she just picked at her breakfast, but then we realized that she was just picking the chicken out from the rice and the vegetables-- apparently she's no longer fooled, and this stuff is now merely dog food.
If it snows again, it's my fault. I switched the tires back again. This year I'm skipping over the three-seasons and going straight from the snow tires straight to the summer tires. I've got a set of Kumho touring tires that I usually use for spring and fall since it's often wet out, but this year, I don't think I'll be driving the Miata unless it's nice and sunny.
My other near-term plans for that car include a cheap Harbor Freight or similar trailer to shlep around a toolbox and autocross tires on, and I've been wading through various rulebooks to determine what I need to do to get the car legal for me to run a few track days in the not too distant future (Specifically, I need to get a thinner seat installed such that my head is well below the roll bar even with the helmet). It looks like if I intend to do this using the racing seat I already have in the storage area of the basement, the car isn't migrating to a street-tire autocross class anytime soon, since my race seat weighs only 13 lbs, and STR requires a seat that's at least 25 lbs after all the mounting hardware. I don't think I can figure out how to do 12 lbs worth of mounting hardware, especially since part of the plan here is to get the sliders out of the picture so I can get my butt down lower. So for autocross, the car will stay in CSP. This isn't a huge deal-- I'm not a spectacular driver either way, but I would prefer the car were legal in case I accidentally win something one day. Plus, it's just more polite that way.
Now, this is not to say I expect to do any track days this year-- but I do intend to get in at least a half dozen or so Solo events.
I spent almost $75 on a tank of gas today-- the truck wants mid-grade, so it was $3.499 a gallon. While some folks would hate the rising price of gasoline, if it'll get a few more people off my roads, I'm all for it. It should also reduce the price of Amy's horse-hauler, should she ever find the thing. Unfortunately, the plan is to sell Rabies to help pay for it, and it'll also reduce the value of the truck I have, but I'm guessing the net benefit will be positive.
My thoughts on the horse trailer shlepper are that we probably don't need to step all the way to a full-ton dualie pickup-- if we find one in the right price range (and I don't even know what that is), it may be worth the extra pain to register it here in Maryland (once you step to a full-ton truck, you're renewing tags yearly instead of every other year, for example, and they're more expensive). A relatively recent (past ten years or so) 3/4 ton should be plenty beefy to drag around any two-horse trailer Amy can find with a nice large safety margin. I suspect we should be looking into a 4x4 flavor-- while the softer springs in a 4x4 model tend to reduce trailering capacity, farms are often not paved. That said, simply ensuring the truck has a limited-slip rear differential may well be sufficient.
I have no idea what her thoughts are regarding how big a cab she wants on the truck or anything like that. I know that the trailer needs to have a tack room built into it, so I'm guessing we'll be looking at standard cab trucks, probably with an 8' bed.
Eventually.
The kittenball is developing their own personalities. Dory is the affectionate one and loves to hop into peoples' laps to snooze. (Though she's unfortunately also the one who has absolutely no clue that you're not a big fan of her sinking her claws into you for traction) Oliver is the playful one. He loves to throw toys around and bat at them in the air. He's also fond of the dog's dinner, should she be having a bad tummy day. Oliver will also die young, probably taking me with him since he loves to be under foot, including on staircases. Nazca is the scaredy cat. He's now finally OK with coming to sit on a lap or get petted, but only if you're sitting down. Standing people are very scary.
Assume if you're ever in our house and you see a black cat that it's Oliver. Even sitting down, people Nazca doesn't know are also very scary. He's hiding under the dog's chair.
Today's plan is to head down to East Moon with some friends; the past few years, Amy and I have had a tradition of taking some friends out to dinner as her birthday present to me, which works great for me 'cause I do like getting together with friends over yummy dinner. And we seem to keep going to the same place, a little "Asian Bistro" that does some excellent food. I'm looking forward to it. She's been out hiking all day, I went and helped DeLee finish up her move and then came home to relax with some coffee and an electric impact wrench. (Hey, I'll relax my way, you relax yours.) I even got to video chat with Mom this morning even though she's on a boat in the southern Atlantic ocean-- ain't technology cool?
Tomorrow, my actual birthday, I'll go head into the office. Yay. But I'll at least drive the birthday present to me that I found a month and a half earlier than I was intending...
Update on Princess Wigglebutt: She handled the rescheduled endoscopy quite well, and everyone at the vet specialist office loved her. Apparently she was very happy to see them. Someone forgot to tell her that they're veterinarians, I'm guessing. Anyhow, we're hoping the samples get through the lab work by Wednesday, as the doc that's been working the project is out Thursday and Friday, so we won't know what's going on 'til Monday.
The best guess at the moment is the canine version of irritable bowel (though further north in the intestinal tract), and my understanding if that's confirmed is that she'll be on prednisolone (a steroid) for a week or two to get the inflamed duodenum back into factory spec, and then from there we'll adjust diet to keep it that way, possibly with some added pharmaceutical encouragement.
We thought she might be having a bit of a relapse this morning, as she just picked at her breakfast, but then we realized that she was just picking the chicken out from the rice and the vegetables-- apparently she's no longer fooled, and this stuff is now merely dog food.
If it snows again, it's my fault. I switched the tires back again. This year I'm skipping over the three-seasons and going straight from the snow tires straight to the summer tires. I've got a set of Kumho touring tires that I usually use for spring and fall since it's often wet out, but this year, I don't think I'll be driving the Miata unless it's nice and sunny.
My other near-term plans for that car include a cheap Harbor Freight or similar trailer to shlep around a toolbox and autocross tires on, and I've been wading through various rulebooks to determine what I need to do to get the car legal for me to run a few track days in the not too distant future (Specifically, I need to get a thinner seat installed such that my head is well below the roll bar even with the helmet). It looks like if I intend to do this using the racing seat I already have in the storage area of the basement, the car isn't migrating to a street-tire autocross class anytime soon, since my race seat weighs only 13 lbs, and STR requires a seat that's at least 25 lbs after all the mounting hardware. I don't think I can figure out how to do 12 lbs worth of mounting hardware, especially since part of the plan here is to get the sliders out of the picture so I can get my butt down lower. So for autocross, the car will stay in CSP. This isn't a huge deal-- I'm not a spectacular driver either way, but I would prefer the car were legal in case I accidentally win something one day. Plus, it's just more polite that way.
Now, this is not to say I expect to do any track days this year-- but I do intend to get in at least a half dozen or so Solo events.
I spent almost $75 on a tank of gas today-- the truck wants mid-grade, so it was $3.499 a gallon. While some folks would hate the rising price of gasoline, if it'll get a few more people off my roads, I'm all for it. It should also reduce the price of Amy's horse-hauler, should she ever find the thing. Unfortunately, the plan is to sell Rabies to help pay for it, and it'll also reduce the value of the truck I have, but I'm guessing the net benefit will be positive.
My thoughts on the horse trailer shlepper are that we probably don't need to step all the way to a full-ton dualie pickup-- if we find one in the right price range (and I don't even know what that is), it may be worth the extra pain to register it here in Maryland (once you step to a full-ton truck, you're renewing tags yearly instead of every other year, for example, and they're more expensive). A relatively recent (past ten years or so) 3/4 ton should be plenty beefy to drag around any two-horse trailer Amy can find with a nice large safety margin. I suspect we should be looking into a 4x4 flavor-- while the softer springs in a 4x4 model tend to reduce trailering capacity, farms are often not paved. That said, simply ensuring the truck has a limited-slip rear differential may well be sufficient.
I have no idea what her thoughts are regarding how big a cab she wants on the truck or anything like that. I know that the trailer needs to have a tack room built into it, so I'm guessing we'll be looking at standard cab trucks, probably with an 8' bed.
Eventually.
The kittenball is developing their own personalities. Dory is the affectionate one and loves to hop into peoples' laps to snooze. (Though she's unfortunately also the one who has absolutely no clue that you're not a big fan of her sinking her claws into you for traction) Oliver is the playful one. He loves to throw toys around and bat at them in the air. He's also fond of the dog's dinner, should she be having a bad tummy day. Oliver will also die young, probably taking me with him since he loves to be under foot, including on staircases. Nazca is the scaredy cat. He's now finally OK with coming to sit on a lap or get petted, but only if you're sitting down. Standing people are very scary.
Assume if you're ever in our house and you see a black cat that it's Oliver. Even sitting down, people Nazca doesn't know are also very scary. He's hiding under the dog's chair.
Today's plan is to head down to East Moon with some friends; the past few years, Amy and I have had a tradition of taking some friends out to dinner as her birthday present to me, which works great for me 'cause I do like getting together with friends over yummy dinner. And we seem to keep going to the same place, a little "Asian Bistro" that does some excellent food. I'm looking forward to it. She's been out hiking all day, I went and helped DeLee finish up her move and then came home to relax with some coffee and an electric impact wrench. (Hey, I'll relax my way, you relax yours.) I even got to video chat with Mom this morning even though she's on a boat in the southern Atlantic ocean-- ain't technology cool?
Tomorrow, my actual birthday, I'll go head into the office. Yay. But I'll at least drive the birthday present to me that I found a month and a half earlier than I was intending...