more kitty trauma

To make a very long story short...

Cleo got sick again last week. Thursday night she was acting really strangely, and we took her to the hospital Friday morning. Her blood pressure was double what it should be and she may have had a small stroke episode.

The good news is that after a single dose of blood pressure medicine, her blood pressure came down. The bad news is that the doctors have no idea why she is hypertensive. They ran some more tests, but didn't come up with anything conclusive. They wanted to run an echocardiogram (sp?) but, according to the doctor, she was so full of "piss and vinegar" by that point, that she wouldn't let them do the test.

So, she's home now with a blood pressure pill and vitamin solution added to her daily regimen, but it's still not as bad as the six medicines, three times a day we were administering after her surgery.

Thankfully, she seems comfortable and alert. She's playful and eating well, and we've even been able to decrease her steroids to one pill every other day.

Hopefully we are on the road to recovery.

We have an appointment for a "meet and greet" with a pet sitter Brandon found online on Wednesday. She's licensed and bonded and insured and Lord knows what else, so hopefully she'll do a good job, and thankfully, she's not very expensive.

Pictures

My writing instructor and critique group leader posted some pictures of our group last Thursday on her blog. Check it out!

baby picture

Hey! There's a photo of Baby Seth on Eric's myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/tanglehead32 -- go see the baaaabeeee!

If you haven't seen this post on Cute Overload about a baby opposum in a toilet, then you are missing out.

Of course, now I look before I sit, too...

baby!

I'm an AUNT!!!

Seth Ian Justice was born at 2:11 this morning to my beautiful sister-in-law Heather and her husband Eric. Baby and mother are doing well, recovering from a C-section. (I assume dad and grandparents are doing well, too!)

He has blond hair like his mum. =)

As if the weather this week all over the country weren't strange enough, I am now sitting smack dab in the middle of an all out electrical storm. But not a drop of rain.

This is going to be great for fire season.

Must conserve computer battery, cos I'm sure as hell not plugging it back in until this blows over.

Update: RAIN! Curiouser and curiouser...

top of the top

Money Magazine has published its list of the 100 best places to live in the US, and Fort Collins, CO topped the list, with Longmont and Colorado Springs also making the list.

They also have a list of the top 50 best jobs -- "writer" came in at number 25 and "biotechnology research scientist" came in at 35.

Woot!

the blog hog

As many of you know, I am something of a blog hog -- I love 'em! I love to write blogs and read them.

Some of my favorites are on the left hand side of this page, but I don't update that list as often as I should. For a full list of what I'm reading, you can go to this page -- my del.icio.us account. Del.icio.us is a great web site for people like me who work on multiple computers, say home and work. Create a free account and you can create bookmarks, organize them by "tags" or keywords, and then access them from any computer with an internet connection! Pretty cool.

I also love useful websites like del.icio.us, and I just found this site called jobster -- sort of like a facebook for us worker bees! I'm kind of excited to see if it will grow into a useful networking tool. Registration is free.

Colorado or bust!

We spent the majority of the afternoon today working out our plan for our Colorado trip. Originally scheduled for June, it had to be postponed due to unexpected kitty craziness, so now we are planning to go the third week in August.

And I'm so excited! It's looking to be such a great trip. We're leaving Saturday the 12th and we're hoping to get as far as Zion National Park in Utah, where we plan to camp overnight. We're hoping to get in on one of their cool shuttle tours of the park before heading on to The Peck House in Georgetown, Colorado.

Georgetown is about 45 miles west of Denver, and one of Colorado's original gold mining towns, and The Peck House is a five star restaurant and bed and breakfast in the mountains. We're hoping for a really relaxing dinner and stay there Sunday night before heading to Rocky Mountain National Park on Monday morning.

We have a reservation at the Moraine Park campground and plan to spend Monday driving and hiking around the park. I am particularly excited about the prospect of summer "Campfire Talks" given by the rangers. Because I am a dork for stuff like that.

Tuesday we will head into Denver proper, probably by way of Boulder. We have a reservation at a hotel in Denver for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights. We plan to drive around the city, trying to get a feel for the different neighborhoods and where we might like to end up. We definitely want to spend some time downtown, probably in the area of the 16th Street Mall and LoDo, and we're also talking about making a visit to the zoo, the Natural History Museum, and probably at least one brewery.

Friday night we are hoping to stay in one of the camping cabins at the Garden of the Gods just outside Colorado Springs. They just look so kitschy and cute! We also hope to take the Pike's Peak Cog Railway to the top of Pike's Peak to get a panoramic view of the state before heading home.

Saturday we will head south, probably stopping in Flagstaff or Sedona, or wherever we happen to end up (no reservations for Saturday night) and on home by Sunday.

More details as we finalize them!

horoscope

Sometimes, I find it positively eerie how accurate my horoscopes can be. Take today for instance:

Pisces

You're continuing down a path of self-discovery. The trouble is that what you're searching for is still a bit unclear to you. It may seem like everyone but you has a passion in life, or a direction to follow. If you're feeling lost or a bit overwhelmed with your options, plan some alone time to figure it all out. It doesn't have to be a weekend getaway -- a simple hour or two alone, perhaps on a long drive or wandering through the park, will give you some distance from the stress.


Sounds like I need a trip to the beach!