last few days
Shabbat morning I went to the bar-mitzvah service to study it.
It's been a while since I've been to one of ours, and I wanted a
chance to see the stuff that isn't in the siddur -- the
extra little bits the rabbi does, managing all the family members,
choreography, how things are divided between the rabbi and cantor,
and so on. It was educational. Later, with the aid of the siddur,
I wrote up notes about what I had seen, including who did what. When
I met with the cantorial soloist to go over those notes and talk about
what changes we would make, she was astonished that I remembered all
of that. I'm not; if you're already fluent in the service,
the chunks are large enough to keep track of. (Later the two of us
met with my rabbi and she repeated the comment to him. He said
he's not surprised; he's read my blog and knows how attentive I am to
details. I don't know if he actively reads this; if so, hi. :-) )
Sunday I spent some quality time with friends' cats while said friends are out of town. It had only been a few days, so they were in the "casually interested in people" phase but not the "demanding every last bit of attention they can squeeze out" phase. I'll be seeing them again tomorrow; it'll be interesting to see what's changed. :-) (A few people are tag-teaming.)
Dani came home from Origins Sunday afternoon with a couple new games. We haven't tried them out yet, but we will soon. He spoke highly of Arkham Horror (a cooperative game), which wasn't for sale at the con but he mail-ordered it. He picked up Caylus (on recommendations), which was described to him as "Puerto Rico done right". (I like Puerto Rico to begin with, so I'm interested in similarly-structured games.) He also came home with Shadows Over Camelot, which he played at the con and liked. It sounds like, overall, he had fun at the con. Meanwhile, I appreciated the few nights of snore-free sleep.
Yesterday we joined friends for what was going to be a cook-out -- but there was so much food at the "pre-dinner" part of the festivities that the hostess decided that grilling would be redundant. I know the problem: when you invite people over you have to plan for the worst-case scenario, which is that everyone shows up and no one brings food, but of course that never happens. This group of friends is good about bringing food. :-)
My plans for yesterday included writing a first draft (or the bulk of one) of my sermon for next week, but I was feeling a little out of it and the synapses weren't firing, so I decided not to push it. I wrote some tonight and will write more tomorrow night, but the bulk of this is going to happen on Sunday, I expect.
Monday night Erik had a vet appointment. This was for a routine blood test, but that morning he got sick and wouldn't eat, and that night he had a fever of 103.8. Cats run a little warmer than people, but that's still high. (He was fine Sunday night.) So he's on antibiotics again, and getting fluids daily (even if his appetite picks up, the vet says). I took him back for a temperature check tonight and this time it was 101.6, which my vet says is quite reasonable.
However, when they were preparing the blood for the lab Monday night, they noticed something: the "white" part, which is supposed to be transparent, had a yellowish tinge. So my vet predicts that the bilirubins will be high. This could mean another blockage, she said, which in turn could be a "real" blockage or could be the result of inflamation (in which case the antibiotics should knock it down). Scary stuff, though. She wants to do an ultrasound, which will happen Friday. Sigh. I really hope Erik doesn't have to go through the strain of surgery again!
Sunday I spent some quality time with friends' cats while said friends are out of town. It had only been a few days, so they were in the "casually interested in people" phase but not the "demanding every last bit of attention they can squeeze out" phase. I'll be seeing them again tomorrow; it'll be interesting to see what's changed. :-) (A few people are tag-teaming.)
Dani came home from Origins Sunday afternoon with a couple new games. We haven't tried them out yet, but we will soon. He spoke highly of Arkham Horror (a cooperative game), which wasn't for sale at the con but he mail-ordered it. He picked up Caylus (on recommendations), which was described to him as "Puerto Rico done right". (I like Puerto Rico to begin with, so I'm interested in similarly-structured games.) He also came home with Shadows Over Camelot, which he played at the con and liked. It sounds like, overall, he had fun at the con. Meanwhile, I appreciated the few nights of snore-free sleep.
Yesterday we joined friends for what was going to be a cook-out -- but there was so much food at the "pre-dinner" part of the festivities that the hostess decided that grilling would be redundant. I know the problem: when you invite people over you have to plan for the worst-case scenario, which is that everyone shows up and no one brings food, but of course that never happens. This group of friends is good about bringing food. :-)
My plans for yesterday included writing a first draft (or the bulk of one) of my sermon for next week, but I was feeling a little out of it and the synapses weren't firing, so I decided not to push it. I wrote some tonight and will write more tomorrow night, but the bulk of this is going to happen on Sunday, I expect.
Monday night Erik had a vet appointment. This was for a routine blood test, but that morning he got sick and wouldn't eat, and that night he had a fever of 103.8. Cats run a little warmer than people, but that's still high. (He was fine Sunday night.) So he's on antibiotics again, and getting fluids daily (even if his appetite picks up, the vet says). I took him back for a temperature check tonight and this time it was 101.6, which my vet says is quite reasonable.
However, when they were preparing the blood for the lab Monday night, they noticed something: the "white" part, which is supposed to be transparent, had a yellowish tinge. So my vet predicts that the bilirubins will be high. This could mean another blockage, she said, which in turn could be a "real" blockage or could be the result of inflamation (in which case the antibiotics should knock it down). Scary stuff, though. She wants to do an ultrasound, which will happen Friday. Sigh. I really hope Erik doesn't have to go through the strain of surgery again!