Sophie Marie - Update

Well, praise GOD!  Sophie is doing much better.  She's even eating!!  Of course, finding a food she would eat was a labor suitable for Hercules himself.  The food the vet originally sent us home with made her physically recoil, making a face similar to that which my sister makes upon finding a hair in her food, as if she were going to hurl everything she'd ever eaten in her (soon to be – hahahaha!) 50 years!  I should have been suspicious when even Winifred and Gizmo weren't interested in it. 

 

That was the dry food.  There was complete disinterest in canned food.  If it weren't going down a tube, we'd have never gotten her to eat all that she has in the past month.

 

But miracle of miracles, last week, Sophie started eating the Meow Mix that Wini and Giz eat.  This is a huge irony (I don't know if I'm using that term right and I don't care) because four years ago, when I first got them, I tried to lure her over to the slightly less expensive dark side of cat food (Meow Mix) and she would have nothing to do with it.  But now, we have to go through hoops to keep her out of the others' food.

 

So I emailed, then called, Dr. Rizzo in Louisville advising him that she's wanting to eat, but we need something that he's ok with her eating otherwise she's going to eat Meow Mix.  He emailed me a list of seven different foods (mostly canned) that we could get at pet stores (and therefore, hopefully, somewhat less expensive).  Mom and I Googled the food brands, planned our attack, and Saturday we drove around town buying a variety of cat food.

 

Against my better judgment, I tried a canned food for Saturday afternoon.  In my defense, people keep telling me that canned food is better for cats; they get more water in their diet that way.  We tried "Cowboy Cookout" – from the description on the manufacturer's website, it looked fabulous – mom and I thought WE might like it.  I opened it and it didn't smell bad.  But despite being hungry, Sophie just was not interested.  I gave it to Winifred who licked all the gravy off, and ended up giving the remains to Blackie (outside), who was not as picky as the indoor bunch appears to be. 

 

Saturday night, before our regular tube feeding, I tried one of the two dry foods we'd gotten.  It sounded yummy (not!) – Herring and Salmon.  I poured some out and put the bowl in front of Miss Pickykins and then nonchalantly started putting away clean laundry.  Next thing I know, I hear subtle crunch, crunch, coming from Sophie's general area.  I almost cried, but I played it cool and just kept on wandering around the room.  The crunching continued.  So I quietly exited the room to go tell mom and we jumped around the living room in excitement for a while.

 

Ever since then, about an hour before each tube feeding time, we put the food down and Sophie munches merrily!  Very happy times at the ol'homestead!  Monday, we decided to cut back, slightly, on the amount going into the tube feeding sessions.  Last night, I talked to Dr. Rizzo – I had a long list of questions.  Most importantly, how and when to transition from all tube to all dry food.  He said to just try it and see how much she'll eat and if not enough, give her some tube before bed.

 

This morning, we woke up, I put the dry food down, and she munched.  Probably not as much as I'd have liked, but she most likely was expecting the tube food, too.  I'm guessing that by the end of the day, that food'll be GONE!!  Tee hee! 

 

Again, per Dr. Rizzo, after about a week of her eating well on the dry food, we can have the tube REMOVED!!!  Well, maybe that shouldn't get three exclamation marks.  After all, without the tube, we'll be responsible for getting the pills and liquid meds down her scrawny gullet.  But hopefully, she'll be more amenable in that area.  Our next appointment is on Monday, so we're crossing our digits that Monday we will see the last of the tube!

Review - The Bounty Hunter

(Disclaimer: If you haven’t seen this movie, there may be information in this review that might be considered a “spoiler” - although I consciously try not to put major spoiler info in my reviews. Proceed with caution.)

The Bounty Hunter is Gerard Butler's most recent movie and my regular readers know that my best fiend, Jennifer and I ALWAYS go out to eat and then go see the new GB movie – it’s a tradition! So Friday night (opening day), with full tummies and tickets in hand, we were ready for the movie!

First, let me interject that his last several movies have not been my favorites.

• The Ugly Truth – well, I don’t really care for Kathryn Hiegel, and I didn’t really like his character, although I liked him somewhat by the end of the movie, but frankly, the two characters spent so much of the movie being rotten (in general and to each other) that I didn’t care if they got together in the end or not. That’s not to say there weren’t funny moments - I did buy the DVD to place in the Gerard Butler wing of my DVD collection.


• Next came The Gamer – and it wasn’t bad. In fact, I recently watched it for the second time (this time on DVD) and I enjoyed it more. But again, it wasn’t as good as the movies that I fell in love with him were. (Did that make sense?)


• Law Abiding Citizen – to be honest, Jennifer and I didn’t go see this one. I bought the DVD, but haven’t watched it yet. I can’t judge. But the reviewers weren’t kind.

So back to The Bounty Hunter. I’ve seen previews for this movie, seen GB on Letterman and Regis, and I had very high hopes. And I like Jennifer Aniston. I even figure that if GB isn’t going to come sweep me off my feet and run away with me, I can be the bigger woman (after all, I AM the bigger of the two of us) and let her have him. What was my point? Oh, yes, I like her, so already this movie has more going for it than The Ugly Truth and P.S. I Love You (great book, so-so movie).

Now that I’ve rambled on sufficiently, how was the movie, you ask. It was really very good. It was funny, and touching, and not horribly predictable. We got to see GB wearing nothing but a towel!

Jennifer Aniston played Nicole, a reporter who was arrested for assaulting a police officer (don’t worry, there were very extenuating circumstances) and when the pursuit of a news story results in her missing her court hearing, her bail is revoked and GB’s character (Milo) is the former cop/current bounty hunter assigned to bring her in. As it turns out, Nicole and Milo also used to be married to each other and are now divorced. As you can see, there is plenty of room for hilarity to ensue!

By now, I’m sure everyone’s seen the clip of him finding her at the race track, but that was just one of the many funny moments in the course of his trying to catch her: he laid in wait for her at her apartment and tracked mud all over, ate Doritos and smudged Dorito fingers on her pristine white bedspread; he stuffed her in the trunk of his car; she lit his trunk on fire with a flare (who actually keeps flares in their trunk?), etc. While Milo is bringing her back to custody, bad guys make their appearance and try to kill Nicole, thus dragging Milo into her news story investigation.

Long rambling review short, The Bounty Hunger was a really good movie. It will definitely be a welcome addition to the Gerard Butler wing of my DVD collection. Two opposable thumbs up!

10 Reasons Why Rose Needs an iPhone

1) I’ve never been on the cutting edge of technology, but I like to think that I’m no more than a step or two away from the edge. However, in today’s world, technology advances along at speeds so great that I’m getting farther and farther away from the edge, telephonically speaking, and I feel that if I were to get an iPhone, I’d make a nice leap back to just being a step or two away from it.

2) I would like to be able to surf the net anywhere and at any time be able to update my Facebook status to say something perspicacious such as: “I am currently contemplating the life of the kumquat.”

3) There are cool apps that I just KNOW would make my life more simpler. Like my friend Kathy was showing me her phone and she has a flashlight app. I just know that sometime between now and when AT&T will begrudgingly allow me to upgrade my phone, I’m going to be caught in the dark somewhere, and I’m gonna wish I had a flashlight with me. And if I had an iPhone, I’d be prepared!

4) Another cool app that I’ve been told about has the word “Dragon” in the title… I don’t recall exactly what it’s called, but I could speak into it and it would automatically type what I say. I think this would be great because the world at large has no idea of what it misses out on because I’m nowhere near a computer when I have a blog-related epiphany and of course, since my 40^th birthday, my memory has more holes than a sieve so most of my brilliance never makes it to paper, so to speak.

5) If I had an iPhone, I'd be able to better organize my life. In one place I'd have my phone address book, my calendar where I could put entries about my non-existant social life, my music, my video of the piano stripper (tee hee), and my current audio book! It would be like my iPhone was my assistant, and you know, it would almost be as good an assistant as I am to Steve! (Even better -if that's possible- as it wouldn't have the mind like the aforementioned sieve.)

6) I'd never be without a camera. So the next time some twit runs into my car while I'm in Noble Roman's having a nice lunch with a friend and trying to decompress from the morning at the office before I have to go back to the office for the afternoon!!! Where was I? Oh, yeah, I'd have a semi-decent camera handy to take pics of the damage.

7) Or, video! When I'm ambling down the street, hanging out in my own world (because they understand me there), and I witness a evil deed perpetrated by the foul Prince Romero and/or his enormously bosumed wife on some wealthy victim, I'd be able to whip out the phone and take video, provide it to the police, have the detective fall for me (remember, I have a thing for men with guns and badges), get the reward from the wealthy victim for helping catch the aforementioned Prince Romero and his wife, and become famous! All because I had an iPhone handy.

8) My level of coolness would skyrocket. Now don't get me wrong. I'm already way cooler than most people I know. But geesh!, imagine the heights my coolnessocity would reach if I had an iPhone! I'd be ice, ice, baby!!

9) My 42nd birthday is coming down the pike. Since 42 is my favorite number, you just know that my 42nd year will be faboo! And the gift I receive for this birthday (even if it is a gift from myself) has to be equally faboo!

10) There's an app that translates your cat's meows into English! I truly NEED this! Living with three cats, as I do, there is constant communication going on between them, and I just KNOW that they're plotting against me. Either that or they're complaining about my treatment of them. But then they all live the life of Reilly (I don't know who Reilly was, but he must've been a cat), so they really don't have much to complain about, so it must be that they're plotting to overthrow my regime.

Sick Kids

I’m sitting on the loveseat with my baby girl at my side and I’m very happy. She’s been very sick. As I wrote about back in January, she was sick back then with a respiratory-type sickness. She was sneezing and having to breathe through her mouth and it took about three weeks before she started acting back to her normal self. Of course part of the problem seemed to be that she wasn’t eating. I just assumed she’d lost her appetite and when she got better, she’d resume eating.

She never resumed eating and lost more weight. Before I went on vacation, I took her to the vet in Ft. Branch and she’d lost 2 pounds and they wanted to hospitalize her. While I was in Alabama, she spent four days in the hospital on IV and, presumably, nutrition. Mom went and picked her up from the hospital and brought her home to recupe. But she still wasn’t eating.
By the time Natalie and I returned from Alabama, Sophie skin and bones. I took her back to the vet and they gave her some steriods and antibiotics, and we were instructed on how to force feed her. Despite our best efforts at feeding her, she was still losing weight. Although she was very cute with her "poodle paw," as Natalie called it. I guess the vet had to shave her leg for the IV.

Holly talked to her vet friend and got me the name of another vet in town that she recommended. I called and got an appointment, had her records faxed to him, and he saw her. Baby girl was turning yellow with jaundice (or the feline equivalent) and he recommended taking Sophie to a "specialist." I, of course, had never even realized that there were such things. But he gave us the info and mom, Natalie, Sophie and I headed to Louisville, Kentucky.

Sophie had never been on a car ride longer than, say, 35 minutes. So frankly, I wasn’t sure how this 2-hour trip was going to go. About 30 minutes into the ride, Natalie opened the carrier to pop a hand in to pet Sophie, but instead baby girl’s head popped up out of the carrier and before I know it, she’s out and motoring around in the back seat checking things out. At one point, we had to stop at a rest area for mom to potty, and Sophie hopped up into the front passenger seat and she just made herself perfectly comfy. I truly think she was bummed when mom came back and she had to go back into the back seat with Natalie. But she snoozed beside Natalie in the backseat for most of the way and before we knew it, thanks to the 75 mph speed limit on I-64, we got there before too long.

The hospital was very nice and the initial doctor that we saw took time to discuss Sophie and his initial evaluation of her condition. Turns out that baby girl was one sick puppy, er.. kitty. Seems that when she stopped eating due to the respiratory ick from January, her body started converting fat and muscle tissue to energy. But in a cat’s body, the liver doesn’t process fat cells like the human body does. Instead they just stay in the liver and gum up the works, preventing it from doing its job of filtering toxins out of the blood stream. This results in a condition called "Fatty Liver." Then there’s this snowball effect. They kept Sophie there for five days, inserted a feeding tube, started her on insulin due to her elevated blood sugar, and (Natalie was happy to hear) they had to shave her other foot for the IV, so now she has matching poodle paws!

We’ve had her home since Monday and we’ve been feeding her through a feeding tube four times a day, including the horrendous midnight feeding. Of course we’d love it if she’d start eating on her own so we didn’t have to feed her through the tube, but nothing yet. There’s also the $250 in prescriptions that she’s getting, and the insulin shots. All of which we (including Sophie) are handling remarkably well. The worst part of the whole shebang is that we have to sprinkle these little test stripsin her litter box and when she’s peed we sift through it to find the test strips and see what color they are. We’re testing the glucose level in her pee. Again, the fact that we’re having to sift through the litter, to me, is not that worst part. It’s the responsibility of it all to make sure we figure out what color the strip is. I don’t like pressure!!

I’ve created a lovely chart in Excel and we have all the medicines she takes and when charted out, and I chart out the results of the pee strips. And I email this chart to Dr. Rizzo everyday. We have a follow-up appointment this coming Monday with Dr. Branson in Evansville, who’ll be coordinating with Dr. Rizzo from here, and I’m sure they have all sorts of vile medical tests stored up for the poor girl.

I’m happy to say, though, that she’s doing better, she has a little bit of her spark back, and this evening, after dinner, she’s just been sitting here on the loveseat with me being a sweetheart. It’s almost time for elevensies, so I should wrap up here.

Vacation Blog '10 - Day Six - The Long and Winding Road

I told Natalie that we were getting up early to come home on Friday, but I failed to actually set an alarm. Fortunately my bladder was on its regular schedule and we awoke about 7-ish. We packed and and checked out (after a little flirting with Alex, the cute kid behind the desk), we were on the road by 8:30 am and feeling good about ourselves!

Just a couple of things prevented us from making the trip in a cool 11 hours like the trip down. First, mine and Natalie's bladders were not on the same schedule like they were on the trip down from Indiana, so our potty breaks were doubled. Second, we stopped for gas several times instead of just the once like on the trip down. And finally, there were a variety of side trips that had to be made. But I digress.

The mishap of the day happened about an hour into the trip when Natalie realized that she couldn't find her cell phone. So she used mine to call Alex at the front desk to see if they could look in the room to find it. After a couple of calls, supposedly housekeeping looked and didn't find it. Natalie thinks that it was in the bedlinens and that housekeeping probably accidentally washed it in with the sheets. And frankly that is a logical assumption in my book. However, just in case, we also called all of the restaurants that we visited since the last time she remembers having the phone. As of this writing, still no phone. I suppose I should have turned around and gone back to the hotel, but we were already an hour away and if we'd gone back, it would have added two more hours onto an already long trip. I still feel guilty though.

To make Natalie feel better about losing her phone, we stopped at what I think must be the official state restaurant of Alabama - Waffle House. I swear there were a good 20 Waffle Houses that we passed in Alabama! God alone knows how many we didn't see!

Back on the road, just past the Alabama/Tennessee state line, Gnarley pointed out that we probably ought to stop and get gas. I should have been able to see that he was up to something, but I stopped. When I get back in the car after filling up, he's gone! Where did we find him?? As you can see below, he was on his way across the parking lot to the Boobie Bungalow! Good thing Natalie can run fast! She caught and nabbed him, and I sped out of there. He spent the rest of the trip fuming in the back seat... didn't say much, but you could hear him muttering something about mutiny.

The remainder of the trip, I'm happy to say, was uneventful. We got back to Wadesville about 8:30, got all of our loot inside the house, and Rose was in bed by 10! Whew! A whirlwind trip if ever there was one and it's time for bed and to dream of the next adventure... of course, we'll have to keep a leash on Gnarley. G'night!

Vacation Blog '10 - Day Five - The Final Hurrah

Today was our last day at the beach and the forecast was for high 50's and sunny. Natalie was determined to get some sun or die trying. So we got up at a leisurely 9:30-ish and after a bowl of Peanut Butter Crunch, starting gathering our accoutrement for the beach. (Towels, flip-flops, books, phones, ipods, cameras, bucket, shovel, sunglasses, and sunscreen/oil.) As we arrived on the beach it felt nippy but good. We dumped our stuff for a walk on the sand and after like 3 feet, wimpy Natalie trotted back to the swimming pool/lounge chair area because it was warmer (less breezing) than the beach.

I braved the chill and took a lovely walk down the beach. I did not get my feet wet and that helped keep them warm. I found a bench made of sand and sat down to say a prayer for Sophie (that'll be another blog) and just generally absorb the waves, but then decided Natalie was right and it would be warmer by the swimming pool area.

This is a good time for today's Dear Tom, as it was on this walk that I found the subject of today's question. First the most recent word from Tom:

Natalie is correct, the holes in the sand when the tides goes out are air holes for little crabs (sand crabs, I believe). You can dig them out (they don't have shells) ... the sea gulls go nuts for them ... fine dining I suppose.

Thank you Tom. Now for today's question:

Dear Tom,

See this picture? Do you think this piece of flotsam/jetsom could be from the Dread Pirate Roberts' ship? Thank you for your assistance in making this week fun AND relatively educational. Now back to our blog...

So picture this (and no, I don't have any pics as I thought it would look creepy for me to be taking pics of Nat in a bikini), Natalie is in her bikini - covered in sunscreen/oil and all decked out on her towel, timing her laying out so she'll know when to flip over, doing everything she can for sun. I am sitting there, indian-style, fully-dressed (see above pic), with a hat on, reading a book. Guess who gets the sunburn. Yup, you guessed it. My nose is a shocking shade of red as is the skin that was above my neckline (fortunately not on my scarlet pimpernel, as I'm sure the dual itching caused by both would drive me to madness) and, oddly enough, the underside of my chin. Very weird. But we had a nice peaceful time listening to our pods and her snoozing and me reading my not-so-smutty book.

We didn't really go anywhere or do anything else for the rest of the day. There was a nap in the room, some more NCIS, and the playing of Treasure Madness. But along about 5-ish, the power of advertising wins us over and we decided that we really needed to find (and go to) an Olive Garden. We had two choices, Pensacola and Mobile. In retrospect, I may have been wrong, but I said the Pensacola one would be closer and easier to find. We were starving and therefore it made the trip all the more unbarably long, but thanks to Jason and the girl behind the counter at the Panera Breads in the mall at Pensacola, we found the Olive Garden. The two of us were seated at a lovely table for six! and we gorged ourselves on breadsticks, salad, and their newly advertised (thus our submission to the power of suggestion is complete) the Four Cheese Stuffed Pansotti with Chicken. It was delicious.

By the time we were ready to leave to go back to the hotel, Jason was ready to take a dirt nap. Frankly, we almost had to call Nat's parents and have them Mapquest directions for us back to the hotel. Fortunately for Jason, he was able to eek us back to a road that looked familiar before he died or else his dirt nap would have been long-term.

The day didn't hold much excitement, other than the potential for being lost in Florida, but we were tired and satisfied with our selves by the time we got back, so we watched Burn Notice and went to sleep. After all, tomorrow is another long car ride north!

Vacation Blog '10 - Day Four - Part Deux

Ok, so as predicted, a big part of the day was spent as depicted in this picture.

Except you have to picture the TV about three feet behind Natalie showing the NCIS marathon.

But we did go out in search of food. Lunch was at Moe's Original Bar B Que. We got pulled pork (Nat got the sandwich, I just got the platter), mac & cheese, and she got green beans and I got potato salad. Everything was scrumptious. Natalie could not finish her sandwich, so she packed it in her purse. It is still there. :)

We came back to the hotel, spent more time on the net and with Gibbs and his crack team. About 4-ish, I realized that the sun was out. So after that episode of NCIS was over, I put on my pants and went out for a walk. The sun kept the hypothermia at bay while I walked about 2o minutes, but then the sun set and each of my little piggies started freezing one by one. The eleven of us made it to the hotel just in time.

At this point, I'll interrupt to bring today's information from Dear Tom. Frankly, don't get your hopes up, I'm losing faith in the man... sigh...

Tom says: The Georgia pine went on vacation and left one of its offspring behind. Also, the shells belong to Gary and another family member. He clearly took a break from Spongebob.

Hmm.. Ok, another question for today. Dear Tom, while walking down the beach, we notice that as the water goes back out, little holes/air bubbles appear in the sand. Natalie says that this is due to tiny creatures living in the sand. Can you identify these Lilliputians for us? (Sorry, I do not have a picture to accompany this question, so I've attached a picture of Winifred peeking out from the blankets on the bed.)

Dinner tonight was at a restaurant recommended to Natalie by the "cute-sounding" guy at the front desk, the Harbour Grill. It was a lovely restaurant. We were seated beside a quartet of snowbirds and between us, Natalie and I now know enough about their lives to write their biographies. Our waiter was from Spain, and today was his first day. We were, in fact, his second table. This fact became obvious after Natalie and I ordered the crab and brie quesadilla only to have him and some woman (possibly the manager?) come tell us that due to the cold weather they were out of (and therefore not able to serve) crab. Then, after giving our order to the manager-type woman, he kept coming back to ask us questions like what salad dressing we wanted, and he asked Natalie if she wanted a salad (as her entree did not come with one) three times!

That we were his only table was obvious because he kept coming and just standing and chatting non-intelligibly with us. We learned about the nightlife in Orange Beach, specifically his preference for gay bars, although he made it clear that he was straight and his love of travel. We learned that his friend, who wanted to be a pilot, was at a tomato festival of some sort in Spain where people throw tomatos, and he got hit in the eye with a tomato, and he is now a mechanic.

Meanwhile, one of the snowbirds told everyone about her two brothers (including the twin) who are going bald, another told that he was getting his license taken away (due to his age, one presumes) and another told about her nephew, the Michael Jackson impersonator. This meal takes the prize for being the most memorable.

When we returned to the hotel, Natalie took this picture of the "License Plate of the Trip" - it tickled us to no end. Well, that's it for today. We're tucked in and watching Psych and Burn Notice before turning in.