geminigirl | (no subject)

Having not been home in six months, and with impending surgery this summer making it more difficult than usual to get home, I decided that I should go for Mother's Day. I hate travelling to my parents' home in the summer months-it's nothing but beach traffic all the way between here and there and takes far longer than at most other times. Mom had no idea that I was coming...all the better for a Mother's Day gift, although Dad, little brother and little sister all knew. The three of us conspired (as we often do) on a Mother's Day gift, which we decided would be the silly scratch off lottery tickets that she likes. Since I was driving up, we ended up agreeing that I'd stop in the four states I pass through (Va, Md, De and NJ) and my sister would pick up tickets from New York. Many, many hours later (I'd figured an extra hour for all the stopping, and that was about right, but it took far longer than anticipated for the driving-the traffic was extrahorrible, the weather was bad and so on.) The Mom wasn't there when I arrived-which was even better. She'd gone over to the University" to feed her cats. (She feeds them in addition to the eight cats they have that live with them, plus the ninth one who she feeds who hasn't moved into the house yet.) So she and my sister arrive at the house, and Mom hasn't yet realized that I'm there-the neighbors had a lot of company and therefore there were many cars parked in the street. So I'm standing in the kitchen with her Mother's Day cards/gift. She was overwhelmed. And happy. She scratched off her lottery tickets, we ate dinner, Mom and I went to the movies, and hung out. She got her back scratched, the usual. And she took the next day off-we shopped-her least favorite activity...but she heard me say that I wanted to make sure to take a ride over to Kohl's since they have the chinos I like, half the ones in my closet are too big and there isn't really a store convenient to where I live. So she bought me clothes, which is always nice (a couple of pairs of chinos, a couple of shirts and a skirt.) And she bought herself clothes...which she almost never does unless I make her. And groceries...she picked up a few groceries for me, and in typical mom fashion, she sent me home with lots of food (leftovers from dinner, spaghetti and meatballs, kasha varniskes, corn, chicken.) All in all, she was surprised and happy.

And she decided to hand all her lottery winnings over to me (a nice chunk o cash) to buy myself a birthday gift with...I'm torn between a sewing machine, filing cabinet or PDA, though I'm leaning towards a PDA. The sewing machine I'll almost certainly buy soon either way, and the filing cabinet can wait a bit. So I'll probably buy a PDA soon-any suggestions/advice?

It was nice to see Mom. I also discussed whether or not she should or shouldn't come down for the surgery...and I didn't tell her not to, but I did make it abundantly clear that it was totally okay for her not to.

Non-productive cough. Wheezing. Sneezing. Sleeping. I'd call the doctor but I'm annoyed with her over that whole stupid not wanting to give me a referral to the ENT.

Feh.

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I'm sorry this is totally off topic but- I noticed your icon (the one you're using in this entry) in a community and I wanted to saw how gorgeous s/he is!

I used to have a ginger tabby like that, but he was HUGE. Massive paws & face, and a well built body. I have about 400 piccies of him on my PC.. lol.

Anyway, i'll stop rambling now. I just wanted to tell you that s/he's real cute. :)

That's Beta. He's seven weeks in the photo (the day I got him) although he's nine and a half months old now. And he's destined to not be a small cat-when I got him neutered back in February he'd gained nearly two lbs in two weeks between getting vaccinations and his surgery. He's yet to grow into his ears-I often look at him and notice how big his ears are. He is a nice, sweet, active and fun cat who loves to cuddle and to play, sometimes to the disdain of my other cat, Oblivion. Most of the time he's not too bright, although he's figured out how to open the screen door, which means I have to watch him carefully if I'm doing anything on the balcony and don't want him there. One of the nicest things about Beta is his eyes; he's got yellow eyes which blend in so well with the rest of him; I worried that they would go green like many cats as he got older but they didn't, so his shis sort of uniformly orangy cat.

But now that I've babbled about my cat...thank you.

I'm so impressed with the feral program they have set up at SB! And go Mom for helping out. I'm such a sucker for stray and pathetic-looking kitties.. It sounds like your visit went so well!

Have they ruled out allergies for the cause of your sickness? I feel so bad that you are so sick.

I've actually been blaming allergies, except it's hanging around too much to make me happy...one would think the Zyrtec does enough, but I'm wondering if I should go back for shots again. I don't want to do that. It sucked the first time, I was miserable and sick and unhappy doing it. Claritin didn't work, Allegra made me sick, and the Zyrtec has done a good job until the last three or four weeks (peak of spring allergy season-unbearably high pollen levels-like in the thousands plus.) If I weren't feeling stubborn about hating my gp, I'd call. I'm going to get around to calling and changing GPs soon; pre-surgery I think.

My visit with Mom was nice-short, pleasant, and not enough time to get messy. Mom and I are quite close, but when we have it out we really get into it. I don't have the energy for it nor the desire to do it.

Mom is a sucker for animals of most sorts-almost anything that's not a reptile. My parents have eight cats in the house, four of whom were neighborhood strays who moved in, plus the cats they feed outdoors. They also feed squirrels and birds, and the raccoons. Several years ago, before some of the new cats had moved in, they were getting fed in the garage, and in the backyard. The coons were coming and stealing the cat food in the yard though-regularly enough that we recognized them, and Mom decided she wasn't going to put food out there before, just in the garage. Until of course, this emaciated coon wandered by...an obviously nursing mother coon. Mom decided she couldn't stop feeing a nursing Mom coon, so they continued to get food. Some of the adult coons would even take food (cookies, grapes etc.) from your hand. And the Mom coon brought the litter of babies when they were old enough. And the cycle continues. They eat dog food, peanuts and cookies, along with just about anything leftover that doesn't get eaten. They don't knock over trash cans anymore. And there are photos of my Mom with a baby coon in her lap, in the kitchen. There are also photos of a family of coons washing paws in the pool. There have been as many as fifteen coons in my parents yard all at once.

One of the kitties in the ferral program that Mom works with lives with a friend of mine down here. They've done wonderful work on campus, and I wish I could find a foundation that would give them a grant to do more...if you hear of any, let me know.

Have they checked you for enviromental allergies too? My MIL had a bazillion and one allergies that developed after she had a hysterectomy in her late-40s, including latex and most plastic products. (We also have suspicions of her being just plain wack, but that's another posting.)

I think I get my animal-friendliness from my parents as well -- all of our childhood cats were strays that adopted us. The two left are quite elder -- a 21 year old male tuxedo cat and a scrawny female 18 year old maine coon who weighs about 6 pounds when wet. Both are indoor/outdoor in a quiet neighborhood. ...I dread the day I get the phone call that they've passed away.

Because they keep crunchies in the garage, they get a lot of "visitors" when they forget to close up at night... including raccoons, skunks and voles. :)

Skyler just bought a Palm Zire71. It's pretty spiffy--they've upgraded the handwriting-recognition so he can write at a normal pace. It has a built-in camera (he's become a total shutterbug), and comes with the software to be an mp3 player (though you need an expansion card to store the mp3's). Plus most of the minor things that annoy me about my older Palm--like that I have to attach a time to an event if I want the weekly or monthly calendar view to indicate that there's something on the day--have been fixed.