still alive -- if you call this living ;)
Still alive but the weather's changing and that means I've had a long couple of weeks. I have about 400 LJ notifications to catch up on *sigh* and I will just as soon as my hands let me read and reply without frustration. Thinking of dropping out of the trial again (the Celebrex is hell on my stomach and taking it means I'm stuck with only Tylenol or narcotics for pain ... i used to mix ibuprofen and tylenol and not have much more pain than I do now) and still wondering if I should drop out of the role-play. I'm just sick of being perennially absent from it. I'll have to see
fanfic and original fic progress has been non-existent. the muses are chattering but I can't get my brain unscattered enough to write anything
still no joy on the job front but i'm hoping the seasonal crunch will make someone desperate. once i have a job for a few months, i think I'll have an easier time getting something longer term
I got a new shipment of beads in the mail. Mood beads ftw. they're very pretty and look just great with obsidian and silver beads. I'll play around some, make some bracelets, and those'll probably be some of the first things I sell on Etsy
The colors are so rich and vibrant. I really like them.
I also got a bead spinner so I can work with seed beads more (will also, with luck, help me get over my neurosis about random non-patterns, lol).
And the cats. They were starting to get pretty infested with fleas (probably Spider got them from her mother and Betty got them from Spider) and the flea collars weren't doing jack squat. So I got fed up and fed them the pills that sterilize adults fleas. Which was interesting.
Spider'll eat anything she thinks a human has eaten (I have no idea where she picked this up since neither my sister nor I feed cats table-scraps) so it was easy to hide hers in a piece of cheese and slip it to her while I was eating some cheese and crackers *iz sneaky* I swear I could have just offered her the pill and she would have scarfed it, the lovable little glutton.
Betty, on the other hand, knew exactly what I was trying to do (no clue how since I've never had to feed her pills before) and wouldn't touch anything she'd seen me touching including a plate of wet seafood-type Fancy Feast. Apparently my habit of only feeding her dry food and treats backfired there because she wouldn't even take the pill in a piece of ground beef. So: towel, pill, syringe of water, Betty pinned under arm, one hand on her mouth to keep it shut and one hand massaging her throat to force her to swallow. She was making "I will kill you in the night and eat your remains, you filthy human" noises the entire time. Second I let her go, she turned into a love-bug and spent the next three hours sitting on my lap purring. Schizo!kitty is schizo. She slept with me last night, too, and I am happy to report that there were no assassination attempts :D
But those pills don't work right away so the poor kitties are still contending with flea bites. Poor Spider is so bitten up that she had these nasty scabs (i think she may be slightly allergic) so I decided on a short-term solution. I am not, however, nuts enough to try to bathe two very self-confident, assertive, STRONG kitties who already have me covered in scratches. So I got a bottle of Skin So Soft instead. Yup, the Avon bath oil. Did you know it's a bug repellent? I learned that one in Girl Scouts and, after some research around the internets, I found a lot of sites talking about how, being non-toxic and all, it also works as a bug repellent for dogs and cats. So, I diluted one part Skin So Soft with 5 parts of water and massaged it in all the way down to the skin. Which they weren't thrilled about but was still less traumatic for all three of us than flea baths would have been. Cue a bunch of really unhappy fleas jumping ship like rats on the Titanic.
So the kitties are finally flea free and have... erm, shiny coats. They also could totally front a grunge band called The Barn Kittehs. I am not used to my girls not being all sleek and immaculate:
They've gotten over the indignity of it all and are back to making threatening noises at the outside birdies and critters. Said creatures aren't taking them very seriously given how mangy and pitiful they look. But they also aren't having to stop and scratch every two minutes which I"m sure is a relief to them. There's nothing more amusing than a kitty stopping mid-growl to purr. No wonder the chipmunks aren't afraid of them...
The Feds knocked on my door the other day. Apparently one of my neighbors is getting his security clearance (or getting it renewed or getting it challenged) so they wanted to know what my impressions of him as a neighbor were (is he quiet, is he nice, do strange people with Eastern European accents or Afghanis with mysterious packages come and go at three in the morning sorts of questions) but they lost interest when I told them how long I'd been living there. Was weird, though. When my brother-in-law had his security clearance increased this last time, I think they interviewed a total of three or four people in all (granted, active-duty military guy doesn't exactly have lots of long-term neighbors and I'm sure they talked to all his coworkers as well as the civilians they talked to).
For the record, those official badges with their government seals and serial numbers and the holograms if you hold them at just the right angle do not look NEARLY as intimidating when you see "Department of Human Resources" under the individual's name :D
School started for the girls who, unsurprisingly are keeping themselves and their mother as busy as humanly possible. Other than that, not much new to report except that my sister's rooster is an aggressive SOB whose neck I will break if he doesn't stop running at me every time I step foot outside over there. I was farm sitting a few weeks ago and he ruined my favorite pair of jeans.
And that's the news from Lake Woebegone. Hope everyone is doing well *hug*
fanfic and original fic progress has been non-existent. the muses are chattering but I can't get my brain unscattered enough to write anything
still no joy on the job front but i'm hoping the seasonal crunch will make someone desperate. once i have a job for a few months, i think I'll have an easier time getting something longer term
I got a new shipment of beads in the mail. Mood beads ftw. they're very pretty and look just great with obsidian and silver beads. I'll play around some, make some bracelets, and those'll probably be some of the first things I sell on Etsy
The colors are so rich and vibrant. I really like them.
I also got a bead spinner so I can work with seed beads more (will also, with luck, help me get over my neurosis about random non-patterns, lol).
And the cats. They were starting to get pretty infested with fleas (probably Spider got them from her mother and Betty got them from Spider) and the flea collars weren't doing jack squat. So I got fed up and fed them the pills that sterilize adults fleas. Which was interesting.
Spider'll eat anything she thinks a human has eaten (I have no idea where she picked this up since neither my sister nor I feed cats table-scraps) so it was easy to hide hers in a piece of cheese and slip it to her while I was eating some cheese and crackers *iz sneaky* I swear I could have just offered her the pill and she would have scarfed it, the lovable little glutton.
Betty, on the other hand, knew exactly what I was trying to do (no clue how since I've never had to feed her pills before) and wouldn't touch anything she'd seen me touching including a plate of wet seafood-type Fancy Feast. Apparently my habit of only feeding her dry food and treats backfired there because she wouldn't even take the pill in a piece of ground beef. So: towel, pill, syringe of water, Betty pinned under arm, one hand on her mouth to keep it shut and one hand massaging her throat to force her to swallow. She was making "I will kill you in the night and eat your remains, you filthy human" noises the entire time. Second I let her go, she turned into a love-bug and spent the next three hours sitting on my lap purring. Schizo!kitty is schizo. She slept with me last night, too, and I am happy to report that there were no assassination attempts :D
But those pills don't work right away so the poor kitties are still contending with flea bites. Poor Spider is so bitten up that she had these nasty scabs (i think she may be slightly allergic) so I decided on a short-term solution. I am not, however, nuts enough to try to bathe two very self-confident, assertive, STRONG kitties who already have me covered in scratches. So I got a bottle of Skin So Soft instead. Yup, the Avon bath oil. Did you know it's a bug repellent? I learned that one in Girl Scouts and, after some research around the internets, I found a lot of sites talking about how, being non-toxic and all, it also works as a bug repellent for dogs and cats. So, I diluted one part Skin So Soft with 5 parts of water and massaged it in all the way down to the skin. Which they weren't thrilled about but was still less traumatic for all three of us than flea baths would have been. Cue a bunch of really unhappy fleas jumping ship like rats on the Titanic.
So the kitties are finally flea free and have... erm, shiny coats. They also could totally front a grunge band called The Barn Kittehs. I am not used to my girls not being all sleek and immaculate:
They've gotten over the indignity of it all and are back to making threatening noises at the outside birdies and critters. Said creatures aren't taking them very seriously given how mangy and pitiful they look. But they also aren't having to stop and scratch every two minutes which I"m sure is a relief to them. There's nothing more amusing than a kitty stopping mid-growl to purr. No wonder the chipmunks aren't afraid of them...
The Feds knocked on my door the other day. Apparently one of my neighbors is getting his security clearance (or getting it renewed or getting it challenged) so they wanted to know what my impressions of him as a neighbor were (is he quiet, is he nice, do strange people with Eastern European accents or Afghanis with mysterious packages come and go at three in the morning sorts of questions) but they lost interest when I told them how long I'd been living there. Was weird, though. When my brother-in-law had his security clearance increased this last time, I think they interviewed a total of three or four people in all (granted, active-duty military guy doesn't exactly have lots of long-term neighbors and I'm sure they talked to all his coworkers as well as the civilians they talked to).
For the record, those official badges with their government seals and serial numbers and the holograms if you hold them at just the right angle do not look NEARLY as intimidating when you see "Department of Human Resources" under the individual's name :D
School started for the girls who, unsurprisingly are keeping themselves and their mother as busy as humanly possible. Other than that, not much new to report except that my sister's rooster is an aggressive SOB whose neck I will break if he doesn't stop running at me every time I step foot outside over there. I was farm sitting a few weeks ago and he ruined my favorite pair of jeans.
And that's the news from Lake Woebegone. Hope everyone is doing well *hug*