One of those really long catch up posts
Wow, it’s been forever since I did a regular post.
The first thing I need to do is something that’s coming about two months late. I never said a proper thank you to everyone involved with the CSI FanFic Awards or to everyone who voted for my Brass/Annie fic, "Forgiveness". I also never said congratulations to everyone who won and to those who were nominated.
Part of the reason it's taken me so long to acknowledge this is because I feel like my fic shouldn't have won. It won in the Brass/OC category but it's really not Brass/OC. Annie Kramer is an established, canon character. I might have given her some background but the CSI writers gave her a name and a nominal background. So, yeah, I feel like it shouldn't have won.
The kitty drama continues, this time with my youngest male, Tucker. He's had a very bad bladder infection for over a month now. When I first took him to the vet, she gave me this orange liquid antibiotic because he was being very, very naughty about taking pills. We thought liquid would be better. We thought wrong. More liquid went on the floor, on me and on Tucker than went in Tucker. A few days later I noticed that Tucker was still showing the same symptoms (going to the litterbox every few minutes and only producing a speck of urine) so I called the vet, I dragged him back in and this time she gave him this mega antibiotic shot that lasts two weeks. Obviously, whoever invented this shot had cats who hate to take medicine. Tucker was still showing symptoms towards the end of the two weeks so I called the vet and took his furry butt in again. She wanted to X-ray his bladder to make sure he doesn't have a stone or four. Nothing showed up but she gave him more pain meds and that seemed help. A couple of days later though and I just happened to look in the bathtub. Tucker has gone in there to pee and his pee is probably 90% blood. Off we go to the emergency vet. It’s 11:30 at night and we didn’t get home until 2:30am. The ER vet sends the results to his regular vet and a couple of days later, I get a call telling me he doesn’t have anything growing in the culture they took so the good news is no blockage and he’s free of infection. The bad news is that he probably has this condition called Inflammatory Cystitis. It mostly went away for about a week and a half but then I had a contractor in to do some work and I think that stressed Tucker out because he started peeing blood in the bathtub again last week. I was able to get a urine sample to the vet without having to take him in so that was good. We also know he’s not got any crystals or infection so it’s the inflammation again. He’s on pain meds and something to deal with the inflammation and after four days, he seems to be doing better. I just feel so bad for him. Anyone who has ever had a bladder infection knows how miserable the feeling of having to pee and then not can be. Imagine if you’re a cat and don’t understand what’s happening. One morning I actually found him sleeping in the litter box.
And speaking of cats, for a few years now there's this stray cat, Pudgy, that hangs out around my house. Actually, she hangs out at a lot of houses but mostly at my place and my neighbor's because we feed her (mostly my neighbor but I'm a sucker too). And despite her name, she's really a skinny cat but in the winter, her coat fills out and she looks pudgy, hence the name. She's such a sweet girl who magically appears every night when I get home and escorts me to my front door. I really wish someone would give her a permanent home but she'll always be an outside cat and needs to be in a place where she can at least have the protection of a barn or a garage or something. Last winter I made this little hut for her (complete with a fleece blanket) so she could have some protection from the snow and cold rain. She loved it so when it started getting warm, I kept it instead of throwing it out. It hasn’t really gotten cold here until the other night so I put it out for her again. She hasn’t used it yet but I hope she will. It really does stay toasty warm in there.
I have to use four holidays before 12/18 or else I’ll lose them so Wednesday, Thanksgiving and Friday were holidays. Thanksgiving was mostly uneventful. Cowboys won and food was good. My dad, sister and I got into this great conversation about crime, criminals and the death penalty. Since I knew I was going to be off on Friday, I decided to use some of my Elizabeth Arden gift certificates that I got last Christmas and for my birthday. I had two gift certificates and one gift card with an unknown value. I made an appointment for the Ultimate Arden facial. It’s an hour and a half and includes a hot stone massage. It was wonderful! I love facials. In some ways I think they are more relaxing than a massage--maybe because I always get a deep tissue massage and that can be brutal. When I went to check out, I was amazed to find that the value on the gift card was $100 so between that and one of the gift certificates, I paid for the entire facial and even got a $20 gift card back!
I’m actually a little ahead of Christmas for once. I got the soldier care package (my company is sponsoring this) filled and mailed and then got a whole bunch of stuff ordered online. The next three weeks at work are going to be horribly busy so I knew I had to get a lot done now, especially since most of it has to be mailed.
CSI has been pretty good so far this season. I’m liking the amount of Brass and the bits of backstory we’re getting. Plus, there was a butt shot. Although the writers mostly dropped the ball in the episode where the cop shot another cop, at least we got a mention that Brass shot a cop. We’ve found out that he has an older brother who is/was a cop and an uncle who was a cop. We’ve also found out that he tweets. I always knew Brass was technologically savvy; he knows too much about current things not to be. Now if they would just give us a bit more Brass/Catherine...
Oh, and while I was looking for something, I went off on a totally unrelated tangent and found this regarding PG:
"…I spotted him cruising around Grand Central station, dressed like an upscale hobo I thought to myself, “Is that the dude from Striptease?” Everyone would recognize him if they saw him, but not be able to tell you what he’s from, and those are the best spots there are. The best part is that it would’ve been easy to mistake him for a homeless person; he was wearing raggy old jeans, a flannel shirt at looked like he hadn’t showered in days. Looks like he’s on CSI now. Good for you Paul, steps in the right direction."
Yeah, I would totally pay for a picture of PG looking like "an upscale hobo" in raggy old jeans.
Haven’t done any writing lately. I was hoping to get motivated this weekend but the list of things I need to get done, including this post, are weighing me down. I thought I had everything worked out in this fic but the fic has other ideas. Part of what’s holding me up is that I can’t decide whether to scrap a WIP and use parts of it in this fic or to keep the WIP and eventually finish it. I hate being indecisive.
Back in August I contacted a contractor to do some work on my townhouse. Lenny and his two man crew finally started work in early November. In four days I have new interior doors and one new shed door, new door handles (replaced the knobs), new trim, crown molding, ceiling cracks repaired, new lights and two new ceiling fans. I love this guy because they don’t get here until around 10 in the morning and they’re gone when I get home. I told him it’s like elves have been here. Apart from now needing a coat of paint, the house looks amazing. The doors alone have completely transformed the place. The economy might be bad but if you’re a contractor with a good reputation in Northern VA, business is booming. A woman I work with is giving room and board to a contractor friend from the VA Beach area in exchange for him doing work around her place. She says he does great work and wants to move up here because work is plentiful. She mentioned him to a few co-workers and already he has enough interest to keep him busy for a couple of years. I want Lenny to do my kitchen but that means I’ll have to get on his list again and that might mean a wait of another couple of months or more. I wouldn’t mind being a contractor. I like to tear apart and build things.
And lastly, anyone need any computer speakers? They are Harmon/Kardon, about 7 inches tall, 4 1/2 inches wide, dark gray, and have very good sound. If you want them, let me know. I’ll be happy to send them to you.
The first thing I need to do is something that’s coming about two months late. I never said a proper thank you to everyone involved with the CSI FanFic Awards or to everyone who voted for my Brass/Annie fic, "Forgiveness". I also never said congratulations to everyone who won and to those who were nominated.
Part of the reason it's taken me so long to acknowledge this is because I feel like my fic shouldn't have won. It won in the Brass/OC category but it's really not Brass/OC. Annie Kramer is an established, canon character. I might have given her some background but the CSI writers gave her a name and a nominal background. So, yeah, I feel like it shouldn't have won.
The kitty drama continues, this time with my youngest male, Tucker. He's had a very bad bladder infection for over a month now. When I first took him to the vet, she gave me this orange liquid antibiotic because he was being very, very naughty about taking pills. We thought liquid would be better. We thought wrong. More liquid went on the floor, on me and on Tucker than went in Tucker. A few days later I noticed that Tucker was still showing the same symptoms (going to the litterbox every few minutes and only producing a speck of urine) so I called the vet, I dragged him back in and this time she gave him this mega antibiotic shot that lasts two weeks. Obviously, whoever invented this shot had cats who hate to take medicine. Tucker was still showing symptoms towards the end of the two weeks so I called the vet and took his furry butt in again. She wanted to X-ray his bladder to make sure he doesn't have a stone or four. Nothing showed up but she gave him more pain meds and that seemed help. A couple of days later though and I just happened to look in the bathtub. Tucker has gone in there to pee and his pee is probably 90% blood. Off we go to the emergency vet. It’s 11:30 at night and we didn’t get home until 2:30am. The ER vet sends the results to his regular vet and a couple of days later, I get a call telling me he doesn’t have anything growing in the culture they took so the good news is no blockage and he’s free of infection. The bad news is that he probably has this condition called Inflammatory Cystitis. It mostly went away for about a week and a half but then I had a contractor in to do some work and I think that stressed Tucker out because he started peeing blood in the bathtub again last week. I was able to get a urine sample to the vet without having to take him in so that was good. We also know he’s not got any crystals or infection so it’s the inflammation again. He’s on pain meds and something to deal with the inflammation and after four days, he seems to be doing better. I just feel so bad for him. Anyone who has ever had a bladder infection knows how miserable the feeling of having to pee and then not can be. Imagine if you’re a cat and don’t understand what’s happening. One morning I actually found him sleeping in the litter box.
And speaking of cats, for a few years now there's this stray cat, Pudgy, that hangs out around my house. Actually, she hangs out at a lot of houses but mostly at my place and my neighbor's because we feed her (mostly my neighbor but I'm a sucker too). And despite her name, she's really a skinny cat but in the winter, her coat fills out and she looks pudgy, hence the name. She's such a sweet girl who magically appears every night when I get home and escorts me to my front door. I really wish someone would give her a permanent home but she'll always be an outside cat and needs to be in a place where she can at least have the protection of a barn or a garage or something. Last winter I made this little hut for her (complete with a fleece blanket) so she could have some protection from the snow and cold rain. She loved it so when it started getting warm, I kept it instead of throwing it out. It hasn’t really gotten cold here until the other night so I put it out for her again. She hasn’t used it yet but I hope she will. It really does stay toasty warm in there.
I have to use four holidays before 12/18 or else I’ll lose them so Wednesday, Thanksgiving and Friday were holidays. Thanksgiving was mostly uneventful. Cowboys won and food was good. My dad, sister and I got into this great conversation about crime, criminals and the death penalty. Since I knew I was going to be off on Friday, I decided to use some of my Elizabeth Arden gift certificates that I got last Christmas and for my birthday. I had two gift certificates and one gift card with an unknown value. I made an appointment for the Ultimate Arden facial. It’s an hour and a half and includes a hot stone massage. It was wonderful! I love facials. In some ways I think they are more relaxing than a massage--maybe because I always get a deep tissue massage and that can be brutal. When I went to check out, I was amazed to find that the value on the gift card was $100 so between that and one of the gift certificates, I paid for the entire facial and even got a $20 gift card back!
I’m actually a little ahead of Christmas for once. I got the soldier care package (my company is sponsoring this) filled and mailed and then got a whole bunch of stuff ordered online. The next three weeks at work are going to be horribly busy so I knew I had to get a lot done now, especially since most of it has to be mailed.
CSI has been pretty good so far this season. I’m liking the amount of Brass and the bits of backstory we’re getting. Plus, there was a butt shot. Although the writers mostly dropped the ball in the episode where the cop shot another cop, at least we got a mention that Brass shot a cop. We’ve found out that he has an older brother who is/was a cop and an uncle who was a cop. We’ve also found out that he tweets. I always knew Brass was technologically savvy; he knows too much about current things not to be. Now if they would just give us a bit more Brass/Catherine...
Oh, and while I was looking for something, I went off on a totally unrelated tangent and found this regarding PG:
"…I spotted him cruising around Grand Central station, dressed like an upscale hobo I thought to myself, “Is that the dude from Striptease?” Everyone would recognize him if they saw him, but not be able to tell you what he’s from, and those are the best spots there are. The best part is that it would’ve been easy to mistake him for a homeless person; he was wearing raggy old jeans, a flannel shirt at looked like he hadn’t showered in days. Looks like he’s on CSI now. Good for you Paul, steps in the right direction."
Yeah, I would totally pay for a picture of PG looking like "an upscale hobo" in raggy old jeans.
Haven’t done any writing lately. I was hoping to get motivated this weekend but the list of things I need to get done, including this post, are weighing me down. I thought I had everything worked out in this fic but the fic has other ideas. Part of what’s holding me up is that I can’t decide whether to scrap a WIP and use parts of it in this fic or to keep the WIP and eventually finish it. I hate being indecisive.
Back in August I contacted a contractor to do some work on my townhouse. Lenny and his two man crew finally started work in early November. In four days I have new interior doors and one new shed door, new door handles (replaced the knobs), new trim, crown molding, ceiling cracks repaired, new lights and two new ceiling fans. I love this guy because they don’t get here until around 10 in the morning and they’re gone when I get home. I told him it’s like elves have been here. Apart from now needing a coat of paint, the house looks amazing. The doors alone have completely transformed the place. The economy might be bad but if you’re a contractor with a good reputation in Northern VA, business is booming. A woman I work with is giving room and board to a contractor friend from the VA Beach area in exchange for him doing work around her place. She says he does great work and wants to move up here because work is plentiful. She mentioned him to a few co-workers and already he has enough interest to keep him busy for a couple of years. I want Lenny to do my kitchen but that means I’ll have to get on his list again and that might mean a wait of another couple of months or more. I wouldn’t mind being a contractor. I like to tear apart and build things.
And lastly, anyone need any computer speakers? They are Harmon/Kardon, about 7 inches tall, 4 1/2 inches wide, dark gray, and have very good sound. If you want them, let me know. I’ll be happy to send them to you.