Monday, October 27, 2003

Chewy Chewy Scroll Buttons

We found this great website called Homestarrunner.com. There is this guy called Strong Bad who reminds me of a grungier Space Ghost in attitude. He responds to email in a on-the-edge kind of way we all with we could. Check it out.

In other news...

Cappucine, at almost 14 years old (98 in dog years), is getting slow and beginning to show signs of physical decline. She's had canine old-age stuff going on for a couple of years, but this week its getting more difficult for her to manage the stairs. She won't even contemplate going down the 20 steps from the 2nd level deck to the ground. She just looks at it and says "no way, Jose." She's been leaning against the railing as she gets down stairs indoors, but this morning she lost her footing. Nick says she actually slid down five steps. Poor girl. She got right back up like nothing happened. Her time is coming, I think, and our intention, since she doesn't have any major disease other than arthritis, is to let her go quietly on her on time and terms. I hope it isn't this year. It was really difficult losing Bart to bone cancer last spring.

I have always had such mixed feelings about Cappucine. In my mind she has always been Kent's dog just a little more than she's been "our" dog. I'm not sure why. She's been physically so difficult over the years, what with her flea allergies and thyroid problems. We stopped all her meds about two years ago because neither of us really thought she was getting much benefit from them. She's no worse off now that she was so I still don't think it was necessarily a bad idea. She had a seizure a few months ago that lasted about 2 minutes. It was a really long two minutes, scared the crap out of all of us, and she was really out of it for another couple of hours. She hasn't had another one that we've seen. But, we don't see her from about 830 in the morning until 3 in the afternoon. (Update from 2005: She's still hanging in there!)

We'll all be sad, there's no doubt, but Nick and Kent are going to be the most affected when she passes away. She used to spend every night on Nick's bed when he was younger. He won't let her up now, though, because she farts so badly and regularly. And when her flea dermatitis is at its worst, she just plain stinks. It's really difficult to put any kind of anti-itch spray or steroid lotion on her to reduce the itching because she's so passionately against it.

I'm into my second week of school and damn is it hard! Networking isn't my forte and writing the two papers and the post for the discussion board this last week was the hardest I've worked in a really long time. I will say I've turned into a decent writer (not that THIS is any indication!) and I've learned better how to learn. Sometimes it pays to wait until you're almost 40 to return to school, but I'm not sure I recommend it for everyone.

Over and out, time to get ready for work.

Sunday, October 05, 2003

Isn't that a song?

Been a long time. Been a long, long time, been a long... Isn't that a song?

Ya, well, I dropped off the face of the earth, it seems like - at least in terms of this blog and my not-in-Virginia family. I had my first class at AIU-Online (got an A), a hurricane (Isabel), and a Toastmasters Competition in Baltimore (made it to the regional semi-final, didn't place for the finals). And that pretty much took up the bulk of my world from July through Now.

I'm not feeling very motivated or creative at the moment, either, mostly because I have two sprained ribs (probably, will see doctor on Monday) and they hurt like hell and make moving about somewhat uncomfortable, and sleeping is really awful. The doubly awful thing is K. Ok, I'm in pain and yet I'm STILL running around doing errands. Every try to drive with sprained ribs? It's no treat. So I'm pissed off after going to get cash and smokes, I come in the door and he offers to make breakfast for me. Dammit, there's the problem. I'm ready to get all mad and he goes and does nice stuff. Offers up his desk so I can use my laptop while he is out doing yardwork. I hate it when that happens.

I'd meant to sit here and do work - real work, work on the sharepoint portal server, work on the project tracking thing, but I've been up and around for four hours and I'm tired. My body is tired from compensating for these two or three ribs that are out-of-order. So I'm ready for a little nap. I feel like such a scuzzy lame-o. I hate hate hate being in pain.