Happy Birthday CBLMW, I hope you have a wonderful day. This next year is going to be your best yet.

A quick update on Gotham...

As recommended by the vet, I took my handsome boy in for more tests (thanks to Sam for driving us, so I could try to keep him a little bit calm on the way to/from the appointment).

Turns out, according to the tests: in addition to his kidney issues, Gotham has hypertension as well. We’re starting him on a prescription for the hypertension and the new special prescription food for the kidney stuff. Fingers-crossed this stuff works. He’s too handsome to be sick. I’m so thankful he’s not in any discomfort and probably doesn’t know anything is amiss. The vet caught most of it so early, he probably just feels a little run down.  We’ll adjust.

Not that we’ve got much of a choice, this is our new reality...me trying to give him heart pills and food most cats hate. Yay? How do you give a cat a pill?

Updates at the end.

Wow, so here I am at Gallifrey. Again. I don’t know how many years we’ve been coming, but I think it’s year number 12.  I know I keep saying I’m never coming back, but it keeps pulling me back in!

To be honest, the programming for this year is awful. Don’t get me wrong —They have good guests, but crummy panels. Everything seems like a mish-mash or something you had to get additional tickets for or pay extra.  PLUS, who the fuck came up with “The Cornell Collective”??!!?? Is that a joke?  My nemesis gets a panel?  He was also the first person I saw when I got here. Lucky me!!  LOL!!!

Not much to do downstairs, but I’ve already made time to go down to the dealer room and bought a cd box set. I’m sure I’ll pick-up a few more things tomorrow, but I wanted to make sure I got this set before they sell out.

By the time I saw the programming schedule, it was too late to cancel the hotel reservation, so I’m just enjoying staying in a hotel, which I rarely, if ever, do any more. It’s kinda nice being in a fancy room. A little cold though. I haven’t figured out the a/c properly yet. BAH!  I just turned it off. Seemed to be the easiest course of action.

It’s weird, sitting here watching the Winter Olympics in this VERY hotel. Last time I did this was the convention where I met CBLMW.   I found myself thinking about him all of a sudden a little while ago. I had this enormous sense of de ja vu, the only things missing are the Twitter DM’s and then text messages.  <Sigh>  if he’s reading this “I hope you’re doing well, and maybe we can catch-up one day soon”.

Now, if only curling could come on (I LOVE CURLING!!!).

Well, I’m getting kind of hungry. I’ll post later.

Updates:

We walked down the street and picked-up sandwiches and stuff to bring back to the room.  Figure Skating was on, plus some ski jump stuff. Curling finally came on sometime around 1am and was AWESOME!! I think I got to sleep sometime after 2am and got up around 6am and watched more curling, skiing and (I think) biathlon (skiing and shooting). Not in a hurry to get downstairs, plus my head hurts a little from the couple of cocktails I had last night (I’m not used to that anymore).

I’ll head down to the convention later.

Sunday Morning:

Not much of interest here today programming-wise. There is a panel later today I’d like to attend, but it’s not until around 4:30pm, so I think I’m just going to do another turn around the dealer room and then head home. I don’t feel like sitting on my ass, killing time for 8 hours just to see one panel.

So, I’m going try and pick up a couple of things, then leave.  I want to hang some pictures and do a little cleaning today at home, so I can relax tomorrow (holiday Monday). I also want to drop by Marshalls and Home Goods at some point....

I got home a little while ago and it’s so nice to just relax and take stock of things. I have a huge amount of document shredding to do and a ton of stuff to put away in cupboards/trash (I moved furniture around), but it’s so nice to be home!

I got a little bit of distressing news yesterday, I’ll post about it later. It played a part in me deciding to head home.

The news: Okay, so around December I thought it looked/felt like Gotham was losing weight. I wasn’t sure, so I decided to keep an eye on him.  I measured his collar and it was getting looser and looser. He’s been on prescription food for a few years, so I thought maybe he was bored with it and not eating as much. I did some research and found a food he liked that was good for him in his situation. He gained some weight back, but I wanted to take him in to the vet to get checked out and to have his teeth cleaned (he’s never had it done). The vet said his teeth looked good and there was no real rush for the cleaning, but he was concerned about the weight loss and a couple of other things, so we did a full senior blood and urine panel. I got a call from his vet Saturday with the results and he’s got kidney issues. Luckily, we caught it early and we are hopeful that a change in diet will keep it under control, but I guess a lot of cats don’t really like the prescription food, so we’ll see what happens.

While I was typing this, the vet called again to let me know that they need to run another urine test. I have to take him in Saturday to get his blood pressure and other things tested, so I guess we will do yet another test then.

I’m grateful all this was caught early and I understand it’s pretty common, but I’m still upset. Gotham has been with me for almost 12 years and is just about the most important thing to me. The thought that, in addition to his normal immune system issues, he has something else to battle breaks my heart.  I just want him happy and healthy and around for a long time to come. My poor baby. At least it doesn’t hurt him (I asked if it causes pain/discomfort and the vet said no). 🙁

Happy New Year to everyone out there!!

I spent a quiet NYE at home. I was supposed to go out with my friends Samantha and Terry, but decided in the end to stay in. Even though my hangover the day after Christmas was fairly minor, I didn't particularly feel like a repeat. Besides, I started the project of cleaning out and organizing my bedroom closet in the afternoon and really wanted to start the New Year with it done..... and I did!!!  It looks great!

Today, I spent the day trying to keep the momentum going. I cleaned the bathroom, changed the bed linens (okay, I usually do that every Sunday anyway, but STILL, it's a new year.....the bed deserves new sheets. ) I also got some of the kitchen done AND I managed to sneak in two loads of laundry at 6am.... it's weird, my neighbors have been doing laundry every day for the past 6 weeks and I have to try and do mine at weird hours if I want the machines to be free. I'd planned on sleeping in today!!! As soon as I was done though, they were off and running washing clothes. I wonder if they are moving?

Tomorrow, after work, I think I'm going to take down the tree and wreath and stuff. I was going to leave everything up until after we celebrate my friends birthday, but I think that might just be kind of silly.  This year I'm actually going to mark the boxes "ornaments", so I can find them again next year.

I'm also going to maybe un-box and use my new oven tomorrow. 😁  I hope I don't burn anything too bad!!!

Speaking of which, I need to go fix dinner.

Again, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Updated- Christmas was spent at my parents’ new home. They moved in about a month ago.  It was my first trip to their new digs and I really like the house. Everything is all on one level and very bright/open.

I had a really good holiday, I think I drank one cocktail too many (I was feeling a little bit “delicate” this morning).  My dad is NOT light-handed when it comes to pouring the vodka into cocktails... plus, I don’t normally have mixed-drinks and wine, but heck, it WAS Christmas!

Ugh, I really did feel crappy this morning.  We had quite a nice little party though, I believe a good time was had by all.  My uncle made a surprise appearance during my trip, so everyone was jazzed to see him.  Too bad he left in the middle of the night without saying anything! He drove-up, which means he had a 9 hour trip back home, so I don’t fault him for bailing.

The weather started out really cold and snowy when I arrived, but then it warmed-up to the 50’s, so it got to be really nice. Btw- if you ever see a restaurant chain called “Steak Shake” (I think), go in and get a double dark chocolate shake, they’re amazing! I’m not even a fan of shakes!! My dad made a point to ask for them to be extra chocolatey, and they were!  They kind of reminded me of the shakes we used to get at “Bob’s Big Boy” when I was a kid, more like ice cream than a drink. So good!

This is the longest number of days I’ve been away without someone checking-in on my cat, so I’m looking forward to heading home.  Plus, I got a sweet countertop Kitchen Aid convection oven for Christmas and I’m excited to get home to try and use it. 😝

I guess that’s it for now, I’ll try to add more later.

Okay, adding more!

Apparently, I asked my mom’s friend for a recipe on Christmas. I got an email from her and mentioned it to my mom that I wasn’t sure why. She replied “you asked her for it”. I said “really? Weird. I was drunk, so I don’t remember. What else did I ask for?”.  I also drunk texted CBLMW a Merry Christmas, but I knew I was doing that.  It was at cocktail number 3 when I wrote to him, lol.  Did he text me back? No, but that’s okay.

It’s weird to me that I drank that much, it’s been forever since I’ve been drunk. At. All.   I don’t plan on doing THAT again for a while.

I finally got a piece of pie from Christmas last night, yay! Delicious lemon meringue pie (that I peeled the meringue off of). I was too busy doing dishes on Christmas to have any (plus, I was really full!).

Going through the airport this morning (the departure part), I’d decided to check my bag and only take a small carry on. Smooth sailing, right? Not totally.  I got pulled aside at security because, apparently, the x-ray machines can’t see through delicious Trader Joe’s Trail Mix.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy they’re checking stuff, but it makes me laugh that it was trail mix that triggered my extra exam. Luckily, I got there a little before 6:30am for my 8am flight, so I had time to wait while security went through the backlog of waiting bags.

I got home a few hours ago and I’m glad to be back in my own place, albeit with an angry cat.  I took a hotel shuttle from the airport and then booked my first ever Lyft home. I got a really good fare, so I’m happy. It’s kinda far from the airport to my house, so I expected to pay more.

Now it’s time to relax. I have work tomorrow, but it will hopefully be quiet. Fingers-crossed!  I have lunch with my supervisor and Samantha scheduled, so I’m looking forward to that!

Now, what should I cook for dinner? All I’ve had today is super-safe TSA checked trail mix...

Wow, we're nearing the end of the year already!

Things have been busy, in a good way though. I'm forcing myself to keep busy!

Thanksgiving was okay. I went down to Orange County but got home early (work the next day). My boss was cool again this year and gave me a ham (instead of a turkey like everyone else). I love ham, but turkey, not so much. It's nice he remembers that stuff.

I bit the bullet and bought a 7-foot pre-lit Christmas tree a couple of weeks ago. It's going to be the first time I've had a tree this big in my place. I want to set it up this weekend (even though the weather is supposed to be in the 80's), the trick will be finding a good place for it. I wonder if Gotham is going to try and climb it?

My Christmas "To Do" list is still as long as ever! Hopefully, I'll get a chunk of it taken care of this weekend. I need to form a game plan though.....

Our work Christmas party is next week, I still don't know what to wear or how long I'm going to stay. I carpool in each day, so that complicates things. My friend may want to stay longer than I do. I guess she can catch the train if I decide to bail early. That's what we do with our normal days. I pick her up each morning at the train station (they have free parking) and drop her off there in the afternoon, unless one of us has to leave early, then she takes the train home. Hey, it works for us.

It really doesn't feel like the holidays yet.

There are some crazy fires out there right now. If you live in their vicinity, let me know you're okay.

I had something come-up yesterday, so I couldn’t make it to the Thrilling Adventure Hour. I’m sad I missed it, but it couldn’t be helped. I hope my friend enjoyed the show though.

I’m still dealing with my friend who is making poor choices, but I’m staying neutral. It’s difficult avoiding certain situations, but I just don’t feel right pretending that something is right when it’s not.  So, avoidance is the word of the day(s).

Jeez, am I the only one I know who can tell the difference between right and wrong? I guess I’m a dinosaur. Maybe it’s me that should change? Food for thought.