A Quick Funny Video

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

I really enjoyed this video. I think it's great to see celebrities showing some support for gay people, and the video is really funny too!

Important PSA

Everyone, look out for small (30 cents or less) charges from a company called Adele Services. My cards are OK, but I found this article that I wanted to pass on to everyone. Apparently some scammers have gotten ahold of a lot of credit card #s through either breach or random card number generation, and are first testing the waters, and then cleaning out accounts.

Question about the Xbox 360

I'm trying to buy an Xbox 360 for Christmas. I'd prefer to buy it online- I absolutely HATE standing in line for things especially near Christmas.
I want to get the 60GB Pro Holiday Bundle (or really even just the 60GB, I don't care about Kung Fu Panda or Indiana Jones). The best I have seen so far is WalMart selling it for 298.00 instead of 299, or of course I can get it with Guitar Hero for 199, IF I get up at 5am on Friday and am the first person there and don't get beat up for it. Yeah, no doorbuster sales for me, thanks.
If anyone knows of like a $20 off coupon code for orders off of Amazon, Best Buy, or Walmart, or something similar, I'll just order it online- much easier. Or if you know of a really good Black Friday deal that isn't a "doorbuster", I'd check that out too.
Thanks!!!

Funniest Video Evar!

I think this is a really funny video.

PhotoHunt: Blue

This week's PhotoHunt theme is Blue.

Niko has lots of blue things.
Ham-mick....

Collar...

He has a blue foodbowl too, but no picture of that. Did not realize that until now. Hmm.

What the...?

Ok, Republican or Democrat....does THIS make any sense to you?
Paying a stylist more than a foreign policy adviser?!?!

Photo Hunt: Family

Uncle F. hanging out with Texas shortly before Tex went off to the bridge.


Momma, Daddy, and Tex's last family portrait.


Niko and Cloud using Dad as a napping spot.

b12 question

Well, the past week or so I've been feeling really dizzy and lightheaded. Actually it goes back on and off to just a few weeks after starting Weight Watchers in July, but the last week was by far the worst. When I started weight watchers, dairy and (of course, they are fortified) breads were the first to get cut from my diet. Well, anyone wanna guess where the best places for a vegetable-tarian are to get B12? Yup. Went to the doc Monday, doc drew some blood, and I got a letter today telling me my B12 is low and to come get stabbed ASAP, so I'll be visiting her this Monday for that. I've went out and got some B12 tablets for now though, obviously not ideal but I hope they will help at least a tiny bit until then.

I've found a lot of conflicting info on the best methods for vegetarians like me to get B12. Anyone got any good recipes or thoughts? Also, does anyone know if skim milk reduces B12 at all? Google wasn't very helpful when I tried to ask it, hehe.

Oh, and a belated congratulations to my angel Texas' Momma C and almost-Dad! (For anyone who doesn't know, my first cat Texas was adopted from friends at work) They had an absolutely beautiful wedding this weekend which I was totally thrilled to attend. Absolutely delish cake too, totally worth the half a day's worth of WW points I spent on it, hehe!!

CEO of drug manufacturer refusing to allow use of experimental drug

Please go to this link. The short story is that the FDA has granted special approval for a last ditch effort at treating someone's cancer, all the CEO of the drug company has to do is Say Yes, yet he will not allow the treatment. This person probably only has days to live without this drug, at most.

UPDATE:Now that I've been home from work, I've had time to research this more. I am noticing all sorts of holes in the story. Many people have pointed out on the other blogs that it seems unsual that the CEO's approval would be needed. Others have mentioned that the dying person was supposedly a lawyer who sued drug companies his whole life. I am leaving this post up because I don't know for sure that this story ISN'T true. I do want to apologize to my readers for not verifying my facts on this before passing this along. I get quite irritated at people that pass on stupid chain emails warning of ridiculous dangers without researching the facts. I fear I may have done something similar today, but I simply did not want another person or animal, whether it turns out this guy is some crooked lawyer or a philantropist or something in between, to die of cancer. If this all turns out to have been some strange hoax, please accept my sincerest apologies.

Woman shot in leg by stove

Wow, This is just hilarious!

Photo Hunt: Sad

Well, this was an easy theme for me, since I am still very sad over losing Texas. My kittens,as it were, just posted these photos as well on their blog about 2 weeks ago, but I figured I should post them here in Texas' honor.

For those who don't know, we lost our cat Texas to lymphoma just over a month ago.

Here is one of his last photos.



Here is his grave in the backyard, with the beautiful flowers his first Mommy and housemates sent him. His first Mommy is a friend of ours from work. When she moved several years ago, she gave us one of the best cats in the whole world.

A different kind of Netflix?

Has anyone ever used Greencine?
I saw it mentioned on another blog. I haven't had time to check it out yet, but it looks quite interesting. If anyone's tried it, please leave me a comment!

Oh, and as for World Vegetarian Day, we had potatoes and vegetables. I know, fascinating. We were both exhausted. And my Evil Professor Of Doom just dropped TWO large assignments on us, and I'm behind in my other night class, so I doubt I'll be doing any noteworthy cooking marathons this week.

Happy World Vegetarian Day!

Here is a link for more info on World Vegetarian Day.
The carnivore husband has agreed to let me attempt to "convert" him just this one dinner.
I will let you know how it goes tonight, but I'm pretty sure he'll be back to eating nothing but pepperoni and ramen and hot dogs by tomorrow. (And he weighs A LOT less than me...sigh..)
Also, I found an article last night on "Flexitarianism". Although I call myself a vegetarian for simplicity sake, "Flexitarian" is probably much more accurate. Hubby and the in-laws call me a "pretenditarian". I probably average 1 or 2 meals with meat a month. (strangely, I actually only eat red meat, when I do eat meat. I can't stand the smell of seafood, and I simply cannot overcome the psychological barrier to eating poultry when I have 3 pet birds at home.)
Either way, it means that I try to eat meat-free, but if I'm stuck in a restaurant where my choices are week-old salad or hamburger, I'm going to deal with it and eat the hamburger. This article mentions what I have observed myself, that "flexitarians" encounter a lot of negativity. I've had people accuse me of being a "liar" when they see me eating meat. Most of the time they are just joking around, but it's still annoying. I mean, if they'd prefer, I could have said "Well, I rarely eat meat, but sometimes I will, if I'm in the mood for it, and there are no convenient vegetarian options, and depending on what it is", but that's just so hideously long-winded!
Oh, if you check out this article on it, be sure to read the lovely PETA quote. I think that there are a lot of people that mean well at PETA, but so many of them really don't seem to understand concepts of moderation and balance and end up making all environmentalists and vegetarians and animal lovers seem like complete nutjobs. I cringed when someone called me a "PETA-girl" because I try to avoid wearing leather. Oy.

Photo Hunt: View

This week's Photo Hunt Theme is View.
Here is the View from Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.

Photo Hunt: Road

Lotsa roads here...it's the view from Sears Tower.

Suspicious! (updated)

Thanks for the tips on the wraps. I think I'll have to definitely try a lettuce leaf as the wrap, but hubby had made some tortillas and I needed to figure out what to put in them. I ended up making some tofu veggie chili and used that this time.

Anyways, I'm stuck at work and hubby just emailed me asking what time I got off tonight. Actually, he asked when I get home. I told him, and asked why, and he said "because".
Hmmm....I am...suspicious!!!

Oh, Cloud might be coming home tomorrow. Niko still sneezes but otherwise seems much healthier so we will probably just bring her home tomorrow and keep them quarantined a bit.

OK, so this might be disappointing to my average reader, but the surprise was a nice romantic home cooked dinner! Woot!! (I wonder what he broke/ did wrong.... hehe just kidding)

Recipes with tortillas?

Well, Niko and Cloud's blog has a link in the previous post, so I'm back to using this as my regular blog. Or not using it, as may be more accurate, we shall see.
But if anybody still reads this, does anybody know any good recipes for any healthy wraps I can make with minimal ingredients that is low-calorie by any chance? Either email me at ravenkatie at gmail dot com or put a link in comments, if you have any ideas....

Niko has a blog!

His blog (and Cloud's) is http://catsinmd.blogspot.com.
Scroll down on this page to see some pictures of him, and then head over to his site for more. His site is obviously a bit under construction, but we will work on it more as soon as I get him back from his first V-E-T visit.

1 home, 1 to go...

NIKO IS HOME!!!
Hopefully Cloud will be home soon, the shelter lady says she is still improving, but not ready yet. Cloud still hasn't gotten her appetite and energy back yet; she might go to the v-e-t tomorrow if still not 100%.
But Niko is just fine, he also has to go to the v-e-t tomorrow, but just for a baseline checkup and also to verify his Coccidia is gone.
I'm going to set up their blog soon. Right now Niko is downstairs getting settled. Here are some more pictures of him that we just took.

New Update

We are going to visit with them tomorrow. Niko is in purrfect health now, completely recovered. Cloud is much improved, but not quite 100% yet, so we might have to wait til Monday with her. I am hopeful that we can take Niko home tomorrow, but we and the shelter lady both aren't sure that it's in their best interest to take one without the other, even for a day.
I really hope I get to take both of them home tomorrow. I absolutely hate not having a cat at home.

Kitten Update

Niko continues to improve by leaps and bounds. He still shows some minor signs of his illness, but is clearly on the mend and should still be ready to come home Sunday.

Cloud is also doing OK, but she did not get spayed today. She had her shots Wednesday, and last evening started getting lethargic, and is still about the same, mildly lethargic and sleepy today. As far as I know she is still eating OK and not showing any other symptoms. From what I gather, this is a relatively normal response, especially in kittens when they get so many shots at once and are so young, but with all we've been through with cat health lately I worry just the same. The shelter lady is only mildly concerned, she assumes she should improve by tomorrow and if not will take her back to the vet for a check-up. As long as she improves and Niko keeps improving too, we should still be on schedule for a Sunday pickup. Fingers crossed!

Names, and more good news

The Kitten Formerly Known As Callie had her shots yesterday with no problems, and The Kitten Formerly Known As Mallie is improving dramatically. TKFKA Callie will be getting spayed tomorrow, and we will be letting TKFKA Mallie continue to recover. I will be taking him for his surgery when he is much stronger. Both kittens should be arriving here on Sunday and then getting a checkup and possibly TKFKA Mallie will get his shots then as well on Monday or Tuesday.
So, what's with all this TKFKA business? We have picked out names for them....TKFKA Callie is now known as Cloud, and TKFKA Mallie is now known as Niko.
But yes, dear readers, I promised a contest to name them. Well, I decided that hubby and I really should pick out the names together, but a compromise was possible...They can have middle names! So, start thinking of middle names for little Cloud and Niko, and once they are here a contest will be started. I've also possibly picked out a blog nickname, but I'm not setting it up until they get here and settled.

Good News!

Since Mallie wasn't using the litterbox, the shelter lady took him back to the vet for an enema. When this was performed, the results were disgusting to say the least. They did a stool sample, which was positively FULL of Coccidia! This is actually good news, because Coccidia is highly treatable! Hopefully he will be doing much better by tomorrow!

And another problem...

So now Callie has a runny nose, and so she did not go for her spaying today, and there has been no real change with Mallie, apparently. This is from a voice mail we got this morning. As of this evening, Mallie still isn't vomiting anymore, which is good, but he's not making poop and he's still very very lethargic. She did end up bringing him to the vet this morning and they couldn't get a specific diagnosis.
As for Callie, she has stopped sneezing, is bright and alert, and will be getting her shots tomorrow, and then being spayed next week it seems. I just can't help but be paranoid, because Mallie had sneezed for a day and then stopped before this happened. I just hope everything works out...more waiting...

Please pray for Mallie...

Sometimes the world seems so cruel. The shelter lady just called, although Mallie hasn't been sneezing anymore, he started vomiting and stopped eating yesterday. She switched his antibiotic to amoxicillin, and started giving subq fluids too. She insists that at this young of an age a vet just wouldn't be able to diagnose him- she thinks it is simply fading kitten syndrome and she is just going to do everything she can for him at the shelter and hopefully he will pull through. She said he still doesn't look good, but at least he has stopped vomiting for now. I just can't believe this--maybe I'm just not supposed to have cats.
Callie is still getting her surgery tomorrow and we can pick her up either Wednesday or Thursday.
I will post again tomorrow night with how Callie's surgery went and an update on Mallie's condition.

Question about caring for kittens

Does anyone know any good websites or books or have tips about caring for young kittens? Texas was my first cat, and we got him when he was 3 years old. These little guys will only be 11 weeks old when we get them. We know I need to go get kitten food as Texas' adult food won't have enough nutrients for them to only eat that, and I know that they need booster shots soon and I have to watch them much closer than I did with Texas...but beyond that, am I missing anything? I'm quite nervous, lol..

Kittenz update!

So the shelter lady called and said that Mallie (I was confused- it was the boy who sneezed) is no longer sneezing, and had only sneezed once yesterday. Once??? and she gave it antibiotics for ONE sneeze??
I have no idea if it is still on antibiotics, but she thinks it is OK now, and she made the appointments for their hoohaectomies on Tuesday. My feeling is that they will hopefully notice any URIs/ worms (the girl kitten had horrid flatuence issues) when doing any preliminary checkup before the surgery, but I also intend on taking them to the vet for a wellness check within days of receiving them. I am not going to wait until the shots 4 weeks from now because I think that while this lady really means well, she might not have the knowledge, time, or money to take the best care of them, and even if I did think it was the best-run shelter, I would want to do that anyway, since even the best-run shelters are inherently disease-infested environments.
So, is it Thursday yet? Figures they will be being dropped off while I am stuck at night school, letting hubby have them all to himself most of the evening! Harrumph!
Anyone who hasn't done so yet, scroll down a few posts to see their blurry cuteness!

Possible Delay in Kitty Retrieval...

So, I just called to find out what food they eat so I can pick some up on my weekly trip to the store, and the the lady from the shelter told me, but also says that the hoohaectomies were delayed because the girl kitty is sneezing. She gave the cat some antibiotic and says she hasn't sneezed anymore today, and hopefully the appointment can be made for sometime next week.

Seems odd to me the shelter lady just apparently has some antibiotic on hand that she just randomly gives to the cats without consulting a vet...

Oh, and that girl cat had some serious farting issues yesterday! It stunk to high heaven! I would gather that it was just nervous and that she just has a run of the mill upper resp. infection or maybe the herpesvirus that 9 bajillion cats have, but after all I've been through with Texas, it makes me uneasy.

I hope that she stops sneezing and that they will still be healthy and ready on Wednesday!

Dare to help cure cancer!

The Cat Realm is having a "Dare to Get Involved" contest. Basically, on each cat blog you would dare The Cat Realm cats and staff to do something for charity, for the community, or whatnot and they are having a contest to see who gets to decide what dare they do. Well, Texas was very sick, and entered the contest quite late, but he asked that they do something to kick feline cancer's butt. This was inspired by a challenge Petey'sowner made after Petey died from feline lymphoma in March of this year. Although Texas was excluded from the judging due to being so late, they have honored him by posing his dare to everyone anyhow today. Please go over to The Cat Realm today and check out the dare!

Also, cancer is just as icky in humans, so if you'd prefer to donate to kicking human cancer's butt, go here. The event is called "Stand Up 2 Cancer". This organization is apparently having some sort of telethon tonight too. Details are on that site.

I have decided that I will be adding these sites to my linkroll shortly. As I know there are some woofies in the blogosphere with cancer, I would like to add a woofie cancer site, but don't know of any. Perhaps Jackson or someone else knows of a good site?

Finally, one quick note about the kitties. I've edited the below post as well, but the kitties will indeed be getting their own blog. I haven't made it yet because 1- they aren't here yet, and 2- since we don't even know what to name THEM, I don't have a CLUE what to name their blog yet. So their blog will be here temporarily, and once they get named and settled in, I will link to their new blog from this site here.

Awwwwwz!

Meet Callie and Mallie. They need to be fixed, and aren't quite ready to go, so this gives us a little time to grieve Texie, but these little guys will be coming to live with us relatively soon, likely next Wednesday. I miss Texas so bad. But once we've recovered a bit, these two will be able to help us continue to recover, I think. We will be giving them new names, most likely. Yes, this is a blurry shot. They are only 10 weeks old,so they are sort of perpetually moving. I'm sure we'll get better shots once they move in- the shelter lady brought them over today so she could see our home and we could see if the cats were excessively interested in birds. The kittens did not seem dead set on eating our birds, and they are just amazingly adorable, so we put the deposit down today and should be getting them in a few weeks.

UPDATE: The kitties will indeed be getting their own blog. I haven't made it yet because 1- they aren't here yet, and 2- since we don't even know what to name THEM, I don't have a CLUE what to name their blog yet. So their blog will be here temporarily, and once they get named and settled in, I will link to their new blog from this site here.

UPDATE # 2: Someone suggested we have a name the cat contest. Although I can't guarantee we will pick a name from the entries, I'm definitely open to getting ideas from you guys, so we will definitely have a contest. I will wait until we get them and I can post some better pics of them, and can tell you about their personalities more, and then we will announce a contest. Also, speaking of contests, they will be running a Funny Picture Contest regularly, maybe not weekly, but at least monthly or biweekly, but it will be on a different day I think, probably Saturday or Sunday, and it won't be for a few weeks after we get them, so we can all grieve Texas and the new guys can get settled in and make their new bloggy.
Now, without further ado, I present....BLURRY CUTENESS!!!

Goodbye, Sweet Texas

We took him to the bridge today. I am so terribly crushed. I miss him so bad. At least he is not in pain or suffering any longer.

Updates

Well, the lump is apparently nothing to worry about, as my bloodwork was normal. As I know too well with Texie, that's no guarantee of non-lymphomaness, but it makes it less likely. Also, I've now had a total of 3 doctors feel the lump and they all say it seems normal.

Oh, I'm down 19 pounds now since starting WW. I want to be happy, but I'm so sad about Texas right now.

I don't use this blog much, I think I mentioned somewhere I just put this up so I had an outlet for the time when Texie goes until we get new cats.
Well, Tex might be going to the bridge tomorrow. His lymphoma came back last week. It is in his nervous system. Poor guy wobbles like crazy. It makes me so sad. We decided not to do further chemo. We just didn't think he wanted it anymore. I think he knows it's his time. He's been spending tons of time cuddling us.
Well, I might end up needing some time to recover from this, but I will soon be using this blog regularly, until the new cat or cats takes up blogging. Maybe I will let my birds take over this blog one day. I don't know. My head is sort of spinning here. We've had since March to prepare for this, but I'm not ready and don't think I ever will be.

Weight Loss...and a lump

Well, I was so happy today, I lost 4.2 pounds! My best ever week! Obviously I know this can't happen every week, but man was that nice! So I am officially down exactly 14 pounds!!

The not so good news was this lump I have had on the back of my neck has still not gone away, or shrank. Hasn't gotten larger either though, which is good..but it's been 2 months and no change. So the doctor drew some blood and will call me tomorrow. She hasn't mentioned a biopsy yet, which is good. She does think whatever it is a lymph node related growth, NOT just a fatty cyst :( But it could just be an inflammed lymph node for some other benign reason, which is the hope. We will find out tomorrow. I would hate to have lymphoma though, isn't it enough caring for a cat with it?!?

Tips about weight loss I learned while on vacation

1. Don't beat yourself up if you had a bad day. DO analyze why you had a bad day.
This was the hardest rule to learn. I finally figured out how to balance acknowledging a bad day but without beating myself up about it by imaging myself critiquing someone, like in an art class. You don't say "you screwed up" but you might say, "I would like to have seen more blue in the painting." Things like this focus specifically on COULD HAVE BEEN IMPROVED (not "Was wrong") without calling the artist, or in this case, weight-loser, a failure
2. Minimize the damage. Life isn't always all or nothing.
If you are stuck in a fast food restaurant, it might be unreasonable to expect you to eat a salad while your friends eat fries. There is a lot of gray area between tiny dressing free salad and 2 jumbo double cheeseburgers, large soda, large fries. If you can't get a salad, maybe you are OK with getting only one burger, medium fries, and a water? While not perfect, it's a huge improvement.
3. If you're having trouble watching what you eat, at least exercise.
The biggest thing saving me from weigh in disaster last week was walking 2 hours a day at museums. Not that you necessarily need to walk 2 hours a day, and of course you should consult with a doctor before starting any exercise program, but you get the idea.

Almost Down 10 Pounds!

Well, somehow during my vacation I managed to lose 1.4 pounds! A lot of that was water weight, but whatever it was, it's gone :)

Vacation was quite nice indeed...700 mile drive, but very very fun indeed.

Woot! My first star!

Awesome, I lost 1.6 pounds today and am down a total of 5.6 pounds since I started 3 weeks ago. Yaaaay!

Funny Musings

It is quite humorous to watch the husband give the cat medicine. Poor guy. There is one medicine we give the cat that is supposed to have a "palatable meaty flavor". Well, if it does, someone didn't tell our cat. Our maybe it tastes like turkey. Yes, our cat doesn't like turkey. But he eats crabs...or at least the crab flavored treats we give him. I think our cat is clinically insane. But anyway, it's sort of funny to watch the cat spit out the "meaty goodness" (what we call the iron supplement we give the cat) all over the hubby! Hubby doesn't think so, though.

I've tried to give the cat medicine. The best I can manage is to get the Pepcid AC in him using a Pill Pocket. At least he doesn't eat around the pill anymore.

Yeah, cats with cancer require a LOT of medicines! He's in remission now, as I think I mentioned yesterday, but it's still a lot of medicine. Problem is that the chemo really upsets his stomach. He doesn't usually actually vomit, but he licks his lips and refuses to eat, and also makes a swallowing gulping motion. That's how we know it's time to get him medicine. Usually we need to give him a Zofran shot if his Reglan (Metaclopramide) is not enough.

He's doing pretty good right now. Been just under 2 weeks since his last chemo. He goes every other week now. He's on the MadWis protocol. You can read more about it on his blog, by the way. I will take him in tomorrow for his next chemo, and then he gets two weeks off. I don't think he'll be happy though that the second week will be in a boarding facility. I feel bad about it, but we are going to the midwest to visit family and with all the medicines he takes, I wouldn't want to stick the roommate with that.

My First Real Post

So, here is my first blog posting. My cat already has a blog. I guess it seemed easier to start out blogging "as my cat". I'm a talkative but shy person, and I always have a lot to say, but never know how to say it. It was easier talking "as my cat". He will still have his blog, but I want to have mine too. Partly for practical reasons. See, he has lymphoma, and although he's in remission, it is very unlikely he will live for more than another year. I know that when he passes, it will be painful. It will be easier if I have somewhere else to keep blogging to fill that hole when he goes. I have three birds too, I suppose they can blog, but they don't move around the house and get into trouble quite the way the cat does.

I live on the East Coast. My interests include learning foreign languages (Currently studying Russian), swimming, reading, playing video games, and watching movies. I like to cook- but not out of a box, hubby would not allow that! :)
I am a tech support representative, currently working with wireless technologies. I have been providing technical support for 4 years now.

Another issue for me is my weight. I'm significantly overweight, and have recently joined Weight Watchers. I certainly hope it works for me. So far, I've lost 4 pounds in 2 weeks. I weigh in tomorrow morning- fingers crossed!

-Kat

Testing....