Li'l Momma's Rant-O-Rama

found this video clip on youtube of jonathan coulton doing "mister fancy pants" at one of his shows, using a zendrum. the crowd went crazy when he did this at his world cafe show last week, i laughed my butt off. for those of you who missed the show, this is a pretty good example of the awesomeness that is jonathan coulton.

this has been one bitch-slap of a night. seriously.

came back from a lovely evening out to find angus not really acting like himself. this morning he hadn't been too keen on his breakfast, and he'd spent most of the day sleeping up on my bed... but when we came home to find him still on the bed, food untouched, and rather lethargic, i started to get worried. when jack went downstairs and found 5 or 6 puddles of blood-tinged vomit, i got really worried. called the vet, and they told me i needed to bring him in right away.

spent an hour at the ER with him, and had to leave him overnight for observation and tests. (but i didn't go home empty-handed... i had a snazzy sky-high estimate to read over. yay.) cried the whole way home, worried about my poor little man. came home, called jack with a status update, and put on my jammies to wait for an update call from the vet.

and suddenly heard the sound of duck vomiting downstairs.

yep, duck is the bloody vomit culprit. (which he had been a week ago when we discovered the roundworm, but he's on antibiotics to clear it up.) yet he is bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, while angus is lethargic (but, assuming now, non-barfy.) what the heck is going on with these little guys? i called the vet again, and of course they want me to rush duck back over... i'm waiting for the call from the vet so we can figure out what to do.

sigh. this is insane.

managed to get a vet appointment for duck this afternoon, so we can start to get rid of his completely disgusting worm issue. i came home at lunchtime to pick him up, and discovered angus with very irritated eyes -- pus-y, raw and red. thank goodness the vet had an opening right in front of duck's appointment... so both of them went in their carriers, and i carried 24 pounds of cats off to the animal hospital.

90 minutes later, i came home with 24 pounds of cats, and:

anti-worm meds for duck
anti-worm meds for angus (since they've been sharing litterboxes)
oral antibiotics for duck (his digestive system is inflamed from the worms)
eye ointment for angus (he has a feline herpes infection in his eyes)

sigh. these cats are going to HATE me for the next 2 weeks... every time they see me coming they're going to freak out and run.

i did snap some cute shots at the vet's with my iPhone though. :) ( clicky to see the cute. )

my stylist has been on maternity leave since early summer, and her assistant has been cutting my hair in her absence. she's done an OK job, but not great (hence the cuts in boston on my 2 trips there this fall). she was due back around now, so i called last week to make an appointment... and was told that she's decided to stay home full-time. awesome for her, sucky for me -- it's always been really hard for me to find someone who "gets" my hair and can make it look good.

so, i'm trying a new salon this weekend. i got a recommendation from someone in the philadelphia community who says she has hair like mine, so hopefully i'll walk out happy. i read reviews of the guy online, and he's been lauded for his high-fashion work, let's see if that translates into him making me look half decent. the whole experience will be a trade-off for me -- with my old salon, it was right down the street from me and was one of the "hot" suburban salons to go to (i always saw executives from work there)... now i'll be traveling into the city for my hair appointments, not as convenient but it allows me to get my city-fix every couple of months. it'll be nice to be down there, freshly coiffed, and be able to grab coffee or lunch or window shop. i'm excited about that.

oh, and because i'm not going to my old salon for cuts now, i can't go in for massages and facials (the place is a spa as well) because i'd run into the assistant and feel guilty. that almost hurts more than losing my stylist, the fact that i'll lose my masseur too. this guy was awesome. sigh. so if any of my philly peeps know a good spa, throw a name my way.

i really am 12 years old at heart. this was so freaking funny.

[VIDEO] - Fart Spelling Bee - College Humor - Preston and Steve - Main | 93.3 WMMR: Everything That Rocks

Shared via AddThis

(or i guess the correct grammar is "things for which to be thankful"? i dunno. revoke my mensa membership.)

after the stress of yesterday, i woke up feeling a bit better this morning. someone in my WW online group suggested that we all start each day for the rest of this month posting what we're thankful for that day... so i'll do that here, in the hopes that the universe will take it and magnify it back. :)

* despite my being completely stressed and upset yesterday, i stuck to my new eating habits. especially hard considering our cafeteria was advertising a "build your own double-decker cheeseburger" special. *drool* instead i went to the salad bar, and got a salad and a yogurt. didn't even go crazy at dinner, even though i ate right after the bad angus news.

* house concert tomorrow! w00t! i can't believe mark erelli is going to be in my house, so much fun!

* angus is the best kitty big brother ever. duck is a complete pest to him, but he just hisses and walks away... given the size difference, angus could completely stomp him into the ground, but he never does. and he never acts jealous when i'm giving duck a snorgle, he just hangs out and waits his turn. he's such a good boy.

* i have my health. yesterday i saw the oprah episode where she interviewed charla nash, the woman who was attacked by her friend's chimpanzee and almost killed... charla removed the veil she wears to show her face, and it was staggering. (i'm not going to link to the photos because they're very graphic... a quick google search will bring up the story). this poor woman has no eyes any more, and not much of a face except for a small hole she can talk out of... yet she is able to perservere and find positives wherever she can. i have no right to complain about the wrinkles making their way into my skin as i age... that's miniscule compared to what she is dealing with.

so much more to be thankful for, i'll save that for another post tomorrow.

doing 1 load of laundry this morning turned into a complete winter wardrobe switchover. i was going to do it next weekend, but hanging up a few things in the closet led to taking out my summer work clothes, which then led to me pulling all my storage bins out of the other closet and bringing out all the turtlenecks and sweaters. i'm glad it's done early, but wow am i tired after 2 hours of that!

as part of the switchover, i was completely ruthless in putting aside clothes to give to goodwill. i keep my off-season clothes in giant plastic storage bins, and when all was said and done i'd gone from 3 bins of clothes to 2. i have an enormous pile on my bed now that needs to be bagged up and added to the spring clothes i still haven't brought over.

going through all those clothes was kind of sad for me. each piece of clothing has memories behind it... either memories of things i did when i wore them, or the ideas i had for where i'd wear some pieces. (unfortunately many of the items i'm giving away still have the tags on... i bought them thinking "ooh, i'll wear these pants out swing dancing once i lose 10 more pounds", or "this dress is cute, once i'm smaller i'll wear it out to dinner".) weeding out the clothes i'll no longer wear was admitting that too much time has passed for them to fit me, even if i lost the weight they're completely out of style now.

the one good thing is that, if/when i am able to drop a few pounds, i'll have an excuse to go out and get a whole bunch of new outfits. :) but it's still a bummer for now.

just got off the phone with my mom...

"hey, i just watched dr. oz... he had hula hoopers on!"

that's right. after making me wait to see when i'd be scheduled, and calling me 2 weeks ago to ask when i'm available this month, the producer booked someone else on for the hooping segment and didn't tell me.

i need to go punch something now.

not sure if i brought a bug home from LA as a souvenir, or if my allergies are going haywire. all i know is i feel like complete crap and want to go back to bed. i spent all day yesterday sneezing like crazy, and even antihistamines didn't help... woke up this morning exhausted and with my eyes all puffed up. lovely.

jack was full of awesome while i was away. not only did he stay at my house every night to look after the kitties (i thought he was just going to give them some food after work and go home)... but he also gave me an awesome birthday present -- he did a whole mess of fixin' around my house! i came home saturday night to find a new comforter cover on my bed, beautiful new blinds installed in my bedroom, and a new light fixture (that actually works) on the ceiling fan over my bed... the shower had a snazzy new massage showerhead, and a shower caddy installed up the wall that finally organized all of our shampoos and scrubs and bath gels. both those rooms look so much better!

i still need to post about thursday and friday in LA. they were awesome, the best 2 days of my trip. that'll have to happen tomorrow... somehow i need to pull myself together to go into work today, and then 2 hours of intense dance rehearsal tonight. oof.

oh, PS - somehow i managed to lose a pound last week. this is while eating 3 meals a day at restaurants. i guess i didn't do as bad as i thought!

all was peaceful yesterday as i worked from home, and duck stayed upstairs with me and angus the whole time... mid-afternoon i wasn't feeling all that hot and laid down for 15 minutes, and when i opened my eyes i saw this:



yeah, i think they're starting to get along. :)

duck is turning out to be a complete love-monster to anyone who is horizontal... if i'm lying down on the couch, or sleeping in bed, guaranteed he will snuggle up next to me and get all snorgly. woke up again in the middle of the night last night because i was feeling little needle sticks on my arm... it was duck, smooshed into my armpit and making biscuits on my arm with his face right in my face. *melt*

and oh -- the ringworm diagnosis from the other day was a false alarm. gah! oh well, just have to reschedule his neuter appointment now...