Q and A

Updated: I just added the link for "pinging" your blog right above the blogrolling list. The automatic function is often not working, so go ahead and manually "ping" it so that we can all use this list to tell what is new. :o)

Hi, my friends! Sorry I have been very absent lately. I have recovered pretty fully from my cold/bronchitis and have more energy again. Phoebe is eating pretty well and is holding her own on the new medication. She's gained a bit of weight, but is still skinny. Her personality is more like her old self, but she's still very grumpy with the other cats.

Anyway, you all asked some questions in the last post's comments. First of all, the buttercream frosting is very yummy. It was a little complicated to make, but it would be easier if I had a candy thermometer. I may have cooked the sugar a bit further than it was supposed to be. I also think that I didn't beat the egg whites quite as long as I should have. So the end result was a bit softer than I think it could have been. It's nice and creamy, though, and has held up well. I found the recipe by doing a google search for buttercream frosting. If you do so, you will find some are the egg white based recipe, and others are making a milk sauce first. Very interesting.

Secondly, the list of blogs that shows when there is a new post is hosted by "blogrolling". It takes a bit of work to set it up and it doesn't always work. But you can get to the blogrolling website by clicking on the link under my list. Once there, you register for the service, name you list and then add the links. After you have it made, you have to get your html code that you can put on your blog. You will add the blogrolling list as an element on your blog. Instead of picking "list" you choose "html code".

Now the downfall is that this service was sold by the developers to some bigger organization which does not maintain it very well. In order for your links to show up as "updated", the blog has to get "pinged" as updated. It's supposed to do that automatically, but sometimes that part gets broken. When the system is not working, you can still "ping" your blog manually at the blogrolling site. On the cats' blog, I have a link to the "ping" form for everyone to easily go ping their blog when the system is down. (most of the cat blogs use blogrolling for their lists, so it's handy). I've never put that link on here, but if you all like that feature of seeing when everyone has a new post, I'm happy to put the link here too. Then, when you post a new item, you can just come here, click on the link, enter your blog info (it's very quick) and hit "ping".

Life

Life ticks on. Here's what we've been doing lately:
1. Running a kitty hospice: Phoebe's blood work was not much improved last week. We stopped the pills and are only doing treatments that do not bother her. A steroid compound that is rubbed on her ear twice a day we hope will increase her appetite and may help the liver failure a little. Also subcutaneous fluids to keep her hydrated - she doesn't seem to mind them much at all. She's been staying the night over at my mom's house so she gets a break from Joey and has constant access to any food that she might eat. We bring her back home during the day. It's a real up and down thing emotionally. She's a bit more like herself, but still skinny. Some days she eats pretty well and then others doesn't eat much.
2. I've been home sick from work: I started getting sick with a cold Thursday at work and by evening was really coughing and called in sick for Friday. By Friday PM, it had turned into bronchitis, so I called Denis at work and had him bring me home a prescription for antibiotics. Today is day three and I'm starting to breathe better now.
3. Watching Ace of Cakes with my mom while I go visit Phoebe. It made me crave cake, so I baked a banana cake from scratch and made real buttercream frosting (the kind with egg whites, cooked sugar and real butter).
4. Denis worked two extra days for a coworker - Friday and Sunday. Now he has just today off. It's a really strange week for him.
5. Playing an Amazing Race geography game - you get more points the closer on the map to an exact town in the world that you click. At the end of the game they calculate a "traveler IQ". My first try was an IQ of 73. I finally made it all the way through the game and got an IQ of 116!

That's about it. It's cloudy and dark around here today.

Funny Video!

Check out this music video about a kitten! He looks just like Joey and it's hysterical. I hope you enjoy it.

Thanksgiving

Denis and I went to the house of a family from our church on Thursday. They annually invite several people and this is the first time that Denis and I have both been able to attend. It was really fun - visiting with folks that we knew and some that we had just met, eating wonderful food very little of which I had to prepare.

I have so many blessings to be thankful for this year. I'm so thankful for my husband, he is a faithful, kind and gentle man and I'm honored that he's in love with me. I'm thankful for my health and the well-being of all our extended family. I'm so thankful for this job that I really enjoy. We also have a new praise - Denis has accepted an on call position in the occupational health department of our health care system. We hope that will turn into a part time position that will be less stressful for him than the ER where he works now. I'm thankful that we have a strong church body that we belong to and have some good friends in.

All of these blessings come from the hand of the great God of the universe. He has blessed me with these insignificant material things in addition to the greatest gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. I'm so thankful that I can trust in His loving care for me.

I have been feeling pretty down since Phoebe got sick. This is really good for me to "count my blessings". Phoebe's hanging in there, not really getting worse or better. I made an appointment for Tuesday to have her bloodwork repeated. We will have a difficult decision to make based on the results.

Today I made a turkey for the first time all on my own. My mom is in Ohio visiting my brother. Since we went to someone else's Thanksgiving, I missed having left-over turkey, stuffing and gravy. So I bought a turkey on Friday. I'm not good a price comparison, so I hope that I got a good price... It came out really good. I'm pretty proud of myself... :o)

Worried

Here is what has been occupying my thoughts and time lately. My precious kitty Phoebe is sick. We noticed about 3 weeks ago that she was getting pretty thin and at her annual physical one week ago today that was confirmed. She had lost 6 lbs in the last year and was 1 lb underweight. Lab tests and an ultrasound showed some low grade liver failure possibly caused by a gallbladder infection and anemia. We started a two week course of antibiotics which is almost halfway through now, as well as vitamins and a gallbladder medicine.

The trouble is that there is no noticeable improvement in Phoebe after a week of treatment. She still is eating very little and is not her usual self at all. As you may remember, Phoebe has always been the very social cat, generally following me around all day to be in the same room and watch what I'm doing. In the last week, she has been withdrawing, hiding much of the day. The more I try to get her to eat, the more she pulls away. It's been very sad. I have to force those vitamins down her twice a day and I give her one pill in the AM and the other in the PM. I've been trying to consolidate the bad stuff and not bug her too much the rest of the time so that she won't withdraw even more.

On the positive side, she does still want to cuddle with me at times, particularly at night. She still grooms herself from time to time and she's still interested in going outside. As long as there is hope that she will improve with this, than I'm willing to continue, but i don't want to distress her if it's not going to make her better. We'll know more next week when we repeat the blood work. We made an appt. to take her in today and see if another boost with subcuatneous fluids might help.

New Haircut

My hair was getting pretty long and it was frazzled at the ends, so I decided it was time for a big change. I went darker with the color and got it cut much shorter. Here it is still styled by my hair stylist. I really like how nice and smoothly straight she gets it. Fortunately, Denis actually prefers it the way I do it, which is without much effort put in! It took me several attempts at self-portraiture to get one I was satisfied with.

Recent pics

Well, I'm going to try to make these worth the wait... Here are some scenic and family pictures from the past couple of weeks. We had my brother Jim visit for a week and took him up to Crater Lake. I hadn't been there in a few years. It was a beautiful day, so the lake was reflecting the blue sky. The Mt. Hood pictures are from a couple of weeks ago. Enjoy!

One Week

Okay, it's been 7 days since I posted anything on my blog. Seems like it's been even longer... Here's a quick update on what's going on around here:

I worked an extra day on Monday doing another chart review for my work project. It's going a bit slow this time around, but it is interesting. At this rate, it will take another couple of extra days to get it done.

My brother is in town for a week. He flew in from Ohio on Wednesday and is staying in our lovely guest room! My mom's best friends from Yakima, WA are also in town and staying at her house. So the last two nights, we've had dinner all together here where there is more room to sit around a table (than at my mom's house). Tomorrow, we will go to the United Methodist Church to here my brother present his mission work in Nicaragua and preach. After church, Denis, Jim and I are going to the coast. We won't have to hurry back since we are all late night people.

I took Joey to the vet today for a follow up visit. He got his second round of shots and a de-worming pill. He should be good for a year now unless we notice any problems. The official verdict is that he is still small for his age, but he is growing nicely now. Phoebe and Monica seem to be a little under the weather, so I'm keeping an eye on them. They will each get two de-worming pills in the next day or so (really looking forward to that.... NOT), just to be sure that those nasty creatures don't just make the rounds between the three of them. We are also going to be vigilant on kitchen cleanliness to be sure they aren't getting any food stuffs besides their prescribed stuff.

So that's it. You're up to date. I'll probably still be a bit absent the next few days with family in town.

Greetings from Hood River

Hi there! Denis and I are up in Northern Oregon for the weekend. I had a conference to attend for work in Vancouver, WA and we decided to extend our time. We are staying at the historic Hood River Hotel and getting in touch with my roots. I was born here and lived in a small town at the foot of Mt. Hood until I was 11. It's a beautiful area. Today we are going to drive around visiting the local farms and hunting for "good apples" (Denis has specific tastes in apples) and admiring the mountains. I will take pictures. I hope your weekend is going well.

House for Rent

Well, the rental house is on the market for new occupants. Denis put a lot of sweat and tears into that place. It's so nice to have it done and off our shoulders (as far as work goes). The cat pee smell is gone and it all looks pretty nice now. We would like to continue to make some improvements each year. Hopefully, that will be appealing to new renters and inspire longevity and responsibility. We'll see.

The ADA walk is this weekend. This is why I have not been posting anything lately. I've been running errands and a bit stressed out. When I'm home, I just haven't felt like putting much effort into thinking about what to write... But I have some good news to report. I went to my Nurse Practitioner about my allergies. She was able to get me in the day after I called! I now have both Allegra and the same fancy-schmancy nasal spray as Denis. I'm also doing a sinus rinsing thing that is not too much fun, but seems to be helping with the runny nose business. I feel like my nose is normal more of the time in the last two days. Not all of the time, but more of the time - it's an improvement anyway. I'm withdrawing from Afrin spray. It causes "rebound" stuffiness. I'm not sure how long that will last.

well, I think I'm going to sign off now. I'll write more after Saturday and let you know how the walk turns out this year.