These things always come in threes

So, I've been away for a while. Occupied with what may be the worst two weeks ever. Let me count the ways these 2 weeks totally sucked. They are three fold.

#1) The power cord to my laptop (and only home computer) got completely severed. I noticed that it was shorting out from time to time, but mostly ignored it. Until I heard popping & cracking one night while on the computer in my front room. I actually thought it was rain. But when I got up to get something from the kitchen & looked out the window & saw it wasn't raining, I went back to the front room to find out what the noise was. And then I could smell something hot (you know what I mean, everyone does, but everyone always looks at me weird when I say something smelled hot.) I eventually traced it to the plug where the laptop was plugged in, which was scorched. The next day, Charlie said the power cord was completely severed & laying in 2 pieces in the floor. I don't know which was the cause & which was the result, but I got a new cord via ebay & we don't use that plug any more.

#2) My cat Steve blocked. Meaning he couldn't pee. Early that morning (8 am IS early for us 2nd shifters) he jumped in bed with me (totally normal) and growled (totally NOT normal.) I was half asleep & didn't think about it much. I went to work & came home, thinking everything was fine. About 1 am, he jumped in my lap & started breathing weird and kind of groaning. I sat forward in my chair & hugged him. He cried & growled again. I KNEW something was wrong now. Being the good vet tech I am, I felt his bladder & it was huge. I called work & thankfully the dr was still there. She said to bring him on in & we got him unblocked by 2 am. He had some high kidney values, but his electrolytes were pretty normal. He stayed in hospital for 3 days & by the middle of day 3, we took some more blood & everything had returned to normal. He's doing well at home now, he'll have a recheck with the dr next week.

#3) I got bit in the finger at work on Saturday. We had replaced an IV catheter on a cat that was having difficulty breathing. We got it in, but he had started to stress a little more than I like to see, so I put him back in his oxygen cage. I was stroking his fur, hoping to calm him down a bit. Suddenly, he lept up, latched onto my finger, and went completely stiff! He had gone into caridac arrest with my finger firmly clenched in his mouth. He held on for at least 10 seconds until he finally relaxed, I removed my finger & passed him to the dr. The dr did get him back, but only until later that evening, when I was there by myself, he went stiff and died. I couldn't get him back. I started taking some left over antibiotics on Sunday, but today when I removed the bandaid at work, pus started dripping out of the wounds. Figuring that this could in no way be a good sign, I went to the UTC down the street. The dr there said he thought it looked ok for now, but if I get any streaking or swelling down towards my hand, I'll have to go to the ER & get in lanced! He started me on some new antibiotics and told me to soak it in warm water to draw out the pus. And I will be following his directions to the 'T'. Lacing does not sound like my idea of a good time.

So, the only good news I have from last week is that Jack is doing well! He will probably get neutered tomorrow & hopefully go to the rescue soon! I love him, but he needs to find his forever home.

I hope to have some better news to post next week!

Birthday & a new baby

Trying to think of what to write about for the past week. I'm already half way through the next one, so it's getting harder & harder to remember what I did 10 days ago! Work is still work. While it's nice to have a job & be paid for being there, I'm finding it rather stressful lately. I think that I am there whole-heck-of-a-lot-of-hours so that's not helping. I also think that there is a lot expected of me & while my boss seems happy with my performance, the day to day of it becomes rather grating after a while. Clientele is picking up, we've got a couple new employees, so hopefully when I get enough staff trained up & stop getting so many questions, I'll start to feel a little better.

My birthday was last Friday. I had the best day you could imagine! It was warm & breezy, which was nice because having a March birthday means never knowing exactly what kind of weather you'll get. My friends Janet & Liesl were able to go yarn shopping with me (we went to Knit Wits which is a lovely little store!) and then we got sandwiches at a cute little deli near the shop. I came home after that to wait on my brother & his girl friend to arrive for dinner. Now I must admit I was feeling a little slighted that my own mother had not called me on my birthday. When Josh got to my house, I asked him if he had heard from her lately. He replied that he had not spoken to her in probably a week & didn't know what was going on with her. At that point I knew I wouldn't get to talk to her on my birthday since she was already at work. I was bummed. I mean, I know I was turning 29, but talking to my mom on my birthday & letting her tell me (as she does every year) how proud of me she is, is one thing that I always look forward to. And then someone opened the back door. I assumed it was Josh's girlfriend who drove up separately & kept knitting. But it wasn't. It was my momma! And that right there made it the very best birthday ever! We went to dinner at Indigo (which is quickly becoming a birthday tradition for Charlie & me) and just had a wonderful evening with my family.

So Sunday I acquired a new foster baby. His name is Jack & he may be the sweetest thing ever. A 10 year old girl sat on him & broke his pelvis. The family couldn't afford to care for him & were going to euthanize. Well, needless to say that an orange, 8 week old, face-licking, tail chasing, constantly purring kitten is currently residing in a cage in my guest room. He's freakin' adorable. He'll recover for a couple weeks here, and then be taken in by a rescue for placement in his forever home.

Hope everyone had a safe & happy St. Patrick's Day!

It's a square!

Not a whole heck of a lot happened this past week. Had a truly stressful week at work as the temperatures were on the rise, so were the number of people coming into the clinic in the evenings. Last Monday, I didn't leave until 1:30 in the morning. That's a long day!

Charlie's mom is in the hospital. They admitted her into the heart failure ward at Christ Hospital for having fluid in her lungs. After a few tests have been run, they are thinking now that it's just pneumonia, which is a good thing because we most definitely don't want heart failure.

In knitting news, I joined a swap on Ravelry to make squares similar to Ron's Blanket that appeared most notably in GoF. It's going well, I am able to complete a square in just under 2 hours, which makes it a wonderful mindless knit! Still completely & totally sick of the lace ribbon scarf so I'm using this as a diversion!

And then something sad actually happens

I have to say that I was totally bummed this week to find out that lead singer of one of my all time favorite bands, Barenaked Ladies, is leaving the band! Steven Page, ladies and gentleman, has the voice of a god. Now, let it not go unnoticed, that as of late Steve Page has fallen prey to some of the less desirable follies of stardom, and those are likely the reason for his departure from the other Ladies. But, I say forgive and forget. After all, how can you not love that voice?

In other news, I both cast on & even finished an object this week!
A lovely cowl that I'm really enjoying. It's dropped all the way down to 20 degrees here today, so I'm staying toasty warm! I really just had to take another break from that never ending lace scarf. I'm still working on it, & even though it's making me crazy I just keep telling myself that I have to be getting somewhere on it & this ball of yarn can't last forever.

Oh, MY Steven wants to say 'hi.' And yes, he is a name-sake of the afore mentioned Steve. I am that big a fan, and that big a geek.