Musings on a Small Life

Actually, it's been a pretty easy week. Several of our staff are away, either on vacation or out for medical reasons, so it's been nice and quiet, a great time to plug away at a couple of projects that are due soon. Mom called last night to tell me that there's a bed for Harry in a publicly-funded nursing home in the city, at her preferred choice, in fact. (Really good care of the patients, great staff.) So I think she'll go early next week to sign all the papers, then Harry will move on whatever day they indicate, presumably next week also. He'll have an adjustment, especially since it's a shared room (one other person), but once he's settled he can go on the wait list for a private room. Each floor has its own doctor, who comes in every week to check on the residents, there are social activities, etc. Far, far better than Harry's current circumstances. The huge bonus is that this will save Mom $22,000 in annual costs, compared to what she's...

I had to take Nicki in today for his anal glands. I had them take a blood sample for his T4 (not checked for a year), but didn't do the ionized calcium test for possible hypercalcemia. (He wasn't fasting, which is necessary.). I also had his weight rechecked, as he had been down slightly (about half a pound) in August, and it was that weight loss, coupled with the at-top-normal calcium level that put me into a such a state of worry and fuss. Well, his weight is back up again, to 5.8 kg (12.76 pounds), so I guess I can stop stuffing his face with as much canned food as he wants.  :-D Anyway, he survived, though he made his unhappiness known VERY, VERY loudly and nastily when the anal glands were being done. Half of me wanted to cry for him, the other half wanted to crawl into a hole out of embarrassment. LOL. Now he's alternately chowing down on his favourite Weruva and cleaning off the vet stink. I'll get the T4 results next week, and hope that will be no...

Nicki in the examining room at the vet clinic this morning. NOT coming out of the carrier and making sure everyone knows how he feels. LOL.   Not that I blame him...Who wants their anal glands expressed? All in all, it was a "quick" in and out, just the glands, claw-clipping, and Advantage. We got home around 10:30AM and I left right away to run a few errands. He steered cleared of me for a while when I got home in the afternoon (it's the Advantage, it always freaks him out, which is why I get the vet/techs to do it), but he was fine later, and we all snoozed on the bed for a bit after a late lunch. It was nice to have an extra day off, in spite of the pouring rain and chilly temps, and I had a productive day. Plus I checked work email only once, very early this morning. I'm not checking again until Tuesday evening, to clear out the spam before going back to work on Wednesday.  The long weekend beckons! Too bad the family next door is around, but what...

It feels like it's taking forever to chug through this week, and it feels like the sanding was done about three weeks ago, not three days ago. My cleaning is at a standstill until I get the priming and painting done. I had thought to get two coats of primer on the main walls on Saturday, then paint on Sunday, but I'm revising that agenda to just getting two coats of primer done over the course of the weekend. I have other things I want/need to do that mean leaving the house in a semi-presentable state. I started to patch the drywall anchor holes in my walls last night, will have a few coats of that to do before it's all paint-ready. And I had a go at the back of my stairs yesterday too--the risers were stapled to the steps at the back. Over time, the stairs have separated, creating a lot of creaks and squeaks, so I hammered in some nails to close those gaps. Should have waited till the neighbours were home to do it. :-p Anyway, my stairs aren't squeak-free,...

Yes, I have but one more year to go before I qualify for the McDonald's senior coffee discount. Their discount starts at 50, and I was 49 yesterday, as most of you already know. I'm not sure who let it slip it was my birthday, but thank you all very much for the well wishes.  :-) The day was spent like this: Nicki had his anal glands expressed (yippee!), though they actually weren't full at all this time. After I dropped him off at home, I headed out to run a few errands and to treat myself to dessert(s): Oh, and I had picked up a small Lindt chocolate bunny too, at half price or less, no pic. I ate the head right away! The tulips I bought on the weekend, my once-a-year fresh floral treat:     I'm back at work today, was treated to a lovely lunch at a downtown restaurant by my cubicle-mate and her co-worker, two truly wonderful people. They're not in my department, but I just couldn't ask for better work companions. And yes, I had two dess...