Sporadic Ramblings about Nothing in Particular

Sad

lilith665@hotmail.com — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 17:19:40 GMT

Dieter went to kitty heaven on Friday - end-stage renal failure. He wound up in emergency on Sunday as he got very sick and growly with us, and he had a very high fever. Monday he went back to the regular vet - another round of blood tests and an ultrasound showed that he wasn't getting better and that the kidneys were toast. The vet told me that once he stops eating, then it's pretty much it. I didn't want to let it get to the point where he'd be screaming in pain or something horrible like that, so when he wouldn't eat, I took him in.

It's possible that he didn't get into anything poisonous, that this was just a congenital defect. It must have been, because we can't figure out what he may have got into (still suspicious about that bag of food - I'm certainly not putting it out for the other two)

A seventeen month-old cat with renal failure........

Such an awesome cat.

My poor sick kitty Dieter

lilith665@hotmail.com — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 05:28:40 GMT

Everyone please think positive thoughts for the Cat - he was in hospital from Monday until today with severe kidney problems, either a bad infection or he got into something toxic. He's home now with us, doing much better, but certainly not out of the woods yet - they sent us home with 3 different medicines and we have to administer sub-q fluids to him as well. But he's eating and purring and was a very good boy when we gave him his medicines (giving pills to animals is no easy feat). As for what he may have gotten into to poison himself, I have no idea - maybe I spilled some cleaner and he licked it. Nothing in the cupboards seems to have spilled or leaked that he may have gotten into, and I've never seen him attempt to eat silly things. I'm not entirely unconvinced that it's not a particular bag of food that I had just opened before he got sick - I would leave out a handful of kibbles of a dental formula that only Dieter usually eats, and me putting it out coincides with him feeling sick, getting better, and getting sick again. If it is the food, then thank god that not all three cats got sick. However, there's been no recalls, but after that whole awful pet food thing last year, who knows. I believe the vet is still waiting on one more test to see if it's an infection (I think). I'm exhausted from worrying and stressing about the whole ordeal - I just hope he gets over this - as the vet said, the fact that he is young is on his side.

am still alive, yes

lilith665@hotmail.com — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:40:30 GMT

most recent exam done June 12th - now have free time.
working a smidge too much as we are a bit short handed at regular work and I am still doing moonlighting work.
my man was an unemployed bum for a bit, but is now about to be working - for the co. that's doing the IT stuff for VANOC - guess I have to like the Olympics now.
today, finally did a Vancouver thing I had yet to do in my time here- the Grouse Grind. I don't know why I thought it would be easy - you think you're nearly there and then the 1/4 mark appears and you're all like COME ON (a lot of people did that) - took us three hours to finish, as Jay has knee issues and I'm not as fit as I figured. We saw a deer, too, it came pretty close - we assumed it assumed it would get some snacks from somebody as it was not scared at all.
and then, the drive home sucked as the 2nd narrows was closed due to a "police incident" (which usually means a jumper, I understand). We eventually just stopped to eat in North Van and by the time we were done, traffic was reasonable again.

that's it

lilith665@hotmail.com — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 04:47:42 GMT

We are now back to being a 3 cat household. Pictures to come if I can get the new guy to sit still for a minute.

lilith665@hotmail.com — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 04:32:56 GMT

The Simpsons Movie was pretty much on par with the last few seasons. meh.

lilith665@hotmail.com — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 19:41:43 GMT

I totally have no ass today because I danced it off last night! That was nice. It was also nice to see peeps I haven't seen in, well, forever. And it was nice to hear Seabound played at the club!!

It looked like it was going to be one of those nights were a cab was not to be had. Not a problem living on Davie, real big nuisance living in the burbs. (It was pointed out to me last night that Burnaby isn't really the burbs, and not really that far, but w/e...) So I decided to try to catch the Nightbus, which was not entirely unpleasant. Just long. I was a little apprehensive, assuming that there would be obnoxious belligerent Granville Street club patrons on it that would want to beat me up or something, but everyone was pretty subdued and napping. And it goes right to Kingsway/Edmonds, essentially at my doorstep. Handy.

Now I go to meet up with my bro for lunch, who just moved here a few weeks ago.

I'm copying uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

lilith665@hotmail.com — Wed, 16 May 2007 02:00:34 GMT

Aaaaaaaaaand I have also jumped on the Facebook bandwagon. I had signed up for it, forgot about it, and someone I hadn't talked to in about 10 years found me! Pretty cool.
I've actually uploaded some pics too.

dammit

lilith665@hotmail.com — Sun, 06 May 2007 02:22:22 GMT

I totally though the God Module show was tonight.
D'oh.

lilith665@hotmail.com — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 23:47:27 GMT

The dry cat food they just added to the recall is the one my cats have been eating.
That's just fucking awesome.

Very bad day yesterday

lilith665@hotmail.com — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 04:42:31 GMT

I had to let my puddin go to kitty heaven yesterday.

He was too sick. I knew he wasn't doing great, but I kept hoping I could regulate the diabetes. We took him to the emergency clinic on Sunday, cuz I though he had a urine blockage, but he had a urinary tract infection, so we were given antibiotics for that. Yesterday morning, he was doing just awful, he peed on my bathmat, sorta violently puked up water, would not eat a thing, was very lethargic so I took him to the regular vet. Turns out he had ketones in his urine (very bad) even with lower blood sugar levels (didn't have any at the emergency clinic), and the vet took x-rays and found some mass around his pancreas (explaining the difficulty in regulating him) and something in his lungs. Any further treatments and exams would probably not have helped much, and I couldn't torture him with all this anymore, so I made the unfortunate decision to let him go. It was peaceful for him, he was too sick put up a fight, so we spent a little time with him and were with him when he went.

This is really hard. It's so weird him not being here.

Bby + Cat

lilith665@hotmail.com — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 07:13:45 GMT

So far I'm not really missing the west end as much as I figured. I mean, I really didn't take advantage of it in the past couple of years. I don't go out nearly as often, rarely trekked down to the seawall and Stanley Park, and I have all the amenities (liquor store, 24hr Shoppers Drug Mart, Save-On-Foods, a pet store, the new vet) all within a few blocks over here. The only bad thing is the Skytrain rides during rush hour, being packed in like a can of sardines. If I leave work later than 4:30 then it's almost impossible to cram myself onto the train. But that's about it.

I'm having a hell of a time regulating my poor old cat with his diabetes. About a month ago I brought him to the vet for a fructosamine test (tells how well he is regulated) and a blood glucose test indicated he was dangerously low at that point in time. Yet the fructosamine test at that time indicated that he was not well controlled. So we dropped the insulin dose and this past Monday's fructosamine was way worse (which I figured it would be) so we upped the dose a bit and we'll see again in three weeks how he is. The plan is to stay at a certain dose for three weeks at a time, rather than changing every week which is what was happening before, with the previous vet and weekly glucose tests. In the meantime, this new vet has been urging me to try to home test him for glucose levels, to see where he is during certain times during the day. This is something I figured I would never be able to do, given this cat's temperament. But I figured I would give it a try, so I went out, bought the glucometer and strips and actually managed to do it tonight! I'm crossing my fingers that he'll keep letting me do it AND still let me near him anyways, because I still have to give him injections and an antibiotic cream on the inside of his ears (because we also suspect a possible underlying infection that's affecting the insulin working). Anyhoo...

Moved!

lilith665@hotmail.com — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 03:16:39 GMT

FINALLY in our new place. Just got internets working. And know I need to finish & submit my assignment!

lilith665@hotmail.com — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 02:18:41 GMT

The Simpsons line stuck in my head right now:

"It's not the mayor's fault that the stadium collaaaaaaaapsed"

lilith665@hotmail.com — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 16:51:30 GMT

HowManyOfMe.com

There is:
1
person with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

lilith665@hotmail.com — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 22:24:59 GMT

Ladytron was good last night. I stood in the crowd at the front for a bit, but got tired of the pushy people (and had to go to the bathroom) so I stood back at our table. I took a few pictures with my phone but they didn't really turn out too well.

This rain is making me feel really blah. I need to get motivated to clean because we have an unidentified smell in here that we can't locate the source of, so hopefully I can locate it. We are wondering if it is coming up from the sinks, if that's possible. We will see.

The best thing I saw yesterday on my way to work was a six week old kitten out for a walk with their person. It had a little pink harness. Although it wasn't really walking, more like sniffing everything. Very cute.

needles

lilith665@hotmail.com — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 14:46:34 GMT

I have managed to successfully give my cat his insulin needles 3 times so far.
They don't feel it, it just goes in the skin at the scruff.
Thank God. I was afraid he wouldn't let me do it. I was in panic mode all week until the vet visit Thursday.

lilith665@hotmail.com — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 00:11:07 GMT

I took my furry little man to the vet today. He was pretty tubby and has lost a lot of weight in a short period of time, is drinking a lot of water, and his fur isn't looking as shiny. What I was afraid of happening has happened.

He is diabetic.

I'll know 100% for sure tommorrow after results come back from the lab, but it's pretty certain.

How the hell am I going to give him insulin injections? He is NOT co-operative. I'm glad they didn't have to sedate him to get blood & urine samples, which I expected they would have to, but he sure didn't make it easy for them. If you live in the neighborhood you probably heard him scream.

I'll do my best to keep him healthy, but.......well, I'm not prepared for him to go if he won't let me. He's only 12. I know that's somewhat old (64 in people years, apparently), but I just assumed he'll live until he's 20 and die of old age.

I wish you could reason with animals and make them understand that you need to do certain things to them for their own good.

lilith665@hotmail.com — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 03:49:34 GMT

Well, for those of you that didn't jump the gun and buy tickets for Pet Shop Boys in Seattle thru a ticket broker for a grossly marked up price, and you wish to go, they are on sale thru ticketbastard now, for a more normal price.

See, when I bought them, they didn't show up on the ticketmaster site, so I assumed this was a different ticketing outfit, as they do exist (like when I bought Cirque du Soleil tickets through some other company). Even last week I checked ticketmaster and it wasn't listed as coming up.

Oh well. I knew I was paying a premium, and I felt loserish for a bit when I saw how much more I paid when I got my tickets today. But ultimately, it's not going to break me (especially since it's my future birthday present from Jay, but it wouldn't have anyway). Ultimately, live and learn.

I saw the tickets were available, I got excited, I bought them as soon as I could, because I figured it would sell out, especially since it's at the Paramount, which is a pretty small venue for them, IMO.

Pet Shop Boys are one of those bands that I have consistently liked since day one. "Please" was in my walkman frequently as a teenager. I haven't always kept up with them faithfully over the years, but I haven't heard anything of theirs I really dislike.

So that's that.

Obligatory Post about Mr. Fucktard Montreal School Shooter

lilith665@hotmail.com — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 17:20:40 GMT

Of course, If it was a fucking jock asshole, they wouldn't be all like "OMG all jocks are mass murderers". Now I'm not one that ever gets called upon to defend goths and gothiness, but man, this shit makes me feel defensive, even though I'm seriously toned down from 10 or 15 years ago and not so heavily immersed in it anymore. FFS.

I mean, seriously. When you really think about it, he was probably such a big loser that he was probably even shunned by his local goth community anyway for being too weird even for them.

*Awaits all the What Is Goth newspaper and TV stories, the blaming of Marilyn Manson, and the usual suspects to be trotted out to say "We're just like everyone else with careers and RRSPs and children and mortgages blah blah blah but we just like dark stuff."

This shit's becoming tiresome.

lilith665@hotmail.com — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 19:22:42 GMT

Am doing reasonably well considering I stayed to the bitter end. I did stop having drinkies about 12:30 or 1:00, and then danced off the alcohol. Then went home and ate chips.

I quite liked what Djs Andy and Shaun played.

I've got the air conditioners on here at work, but I'm not feeling it. Bleh.

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

lilith665@hotmail.com — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 20:10:26 GMT

Ok, I just spent $440 USD for two ticket to see PET SHOP BOYS in Seattle on November 5th!!!!!!!!!!!!
I found out about by accident when looking for info on the Covenant/Rotersand/Imperative Reaction show. At first, I was like "$195 US FOR A TICKET WHAT THE HELL!" but Jay said he would make that my barfday present (which is Nov 8). And, in turn, my birthday present to him is that he doesn't have to go with me!!! heh. (He and I strongly disagree about the awesomeness of Pet Shop Boys). So Jeffy and I are going.

And hopefully we can go to the Covenant show, but we're not sure when the new place is ready. They're telling us now that it's the end of September, but who knows. You hear all sorts of stories about other people who's places were ready way behind schedule.

lilith665@hotmail.com — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 18:41:37 GMT

lilith665@hotmail.com — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 17:16:28 GMT

Auditing exam went ok, I think. I haven't looked back yet to see if I answered certain questions somewhat correctly, but I think I managed to spew out something vaguely correct.
Before the exam started, there was a girl who was in the wrong room, and the invigilator told her that the building she should be in was on the other side of campus (5 minutes before exams start). This prompted the lady behind me to tell me that one time during one of her exams, someone actually wrote the wrong exam. They did not realize this until 15 minutes before the exam was over. Seriously, how the hell do you do that? I can sorta see if say, you're supposed to write Management Accounting 2 and you accidently write Management Accounting 1, where the material is similar, but come on.
And on an exciting note, the gay husband and I are going to Vegas at the beginning of August! Only for three days though, apparently that's about as long as one can handle it before you go crazy. (My liver hurts just thinking about this trip. Especially since gay pride weekend is right after we get back. eep.)

Off to my Saturday Job now.

guh

lilith665@hotmail.com — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 01:44:25 GMT

I'm totally procrastinating in my studying. Let me reiterate, Auditing is BORING. It's really not something you get good at without actually going out into the field and doing it, anyways. Oh well.

I think I should have gone to the lectures this time (which I haven't been doing this year). I've been just listening to the online lectures whenever I like because I found that when I went to the live ones, I wound up struggling to stay awake. 7:00 pm is not a good time for me to learning stuff, that seems to be a sleepy time for me. And, the hour there and back to UBC is a pain in the ass if I can sit at home and listen to the same person online. This time, the online lecturer, well, sucked. Lots of "ums" and "uhs" and basically just rattled off the bullet points in the power point. Not a good speaker. I didn't even bother listening to the last few lectures. The live lecturer, though, was a different person (sometimes they are the same, sometimes not). I did go to the exam review last Saturday, and I think I would have liked this guy. A nice old English gentleman (who invited everyone to a garden party he and his wife were having the next day, by the way) who went beyond rattling off point form, acutally explained things, with examples to help you understand. Next time, I'm gonna make the effort to go, if I see the online & live lecturer are different people.

Ok enough, I'm gonna study now.

RevCo/Ministry

lilith665@hotmail.com — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 20:09:16 GMT

I am slightly deaf in my right ear from that show.

RevCo was awesome. It's always nice when these old timers can still put on a good show. Nowadays I tend to have low expectations for shows by these older band, due to their tendency to be hit and miss. But I always go, because, you know, many years ago I would have killed to see them, so I go hoping that I will see what I would have seen 15 or so years ago. I wouldn't have gone to this if it was just Ministry, as I am not so much into the newer stuff (yay Twitch-era stuff!) They do put on a good show, but the death-metally stuff is not my cup of tea. (after Psalm 69 I lost interest)

Also, Mr. Jourgenson isn't looking so hot nowadays. Beyond the fact that he's getting old, he was lookin' pretty zombified (and I am aware of his past drug issues). He's like the Keith Richards of the industrial set, I'm thinking.