yay I’m first on page 7
smokey scared me tonight - she didn’t greet me at the door - she was right where I left her this morning, on the pillow on my desk
why is there a pillow on my desk? for smokey to sleep on, of course.
anyway, I hope she’s okay - she purred and nuzzled me - I think she’s fine
EC, you cannot leave the MMP. That goes for the rest of you too! Sheesh! Everyone wants to start dropping like flies around here.
Rigs, sorry about your “assignment”. I wish you the best of luck.
Bobbio, good on you! That’s really cool!
FCM, I’m glad to hear the dog has been washed. While growing up, I had a dog who loved, loved, loved to roll in smelly stuff. I was always the one stuck bathing him.
cello guy, I hope you still enjoy your trip. Just focus on the fact that you’ll be seeing your brother.
Okay, I’m just too down to pit this, and I know this is not the place for terrible swearing, but… FUCKITY FUCK FUCK! FUCKING CANCER!
Dammit! My MIL called with bad news. The cancer in her breast is too far gone and they’re probably going to have to remove the breast. I am hoping against all hope that it has not spread further. She is to go in on Wednesday to find out more. The only good news she was able to give us is that the fluid that is in one of her lungs is NOT related to heart failure. She’ll be seeing a lung specialist very soon. Her heart is slightly enlarged, though.
Mr. Taters is understandably upset and has gone into his stand-offish mode. My daughter happened to be standing there in the kitchen when we received the news and is very upset. I had to go upstairs and comfort her. I explained that cancer treatments have come a long way and all we can do is think positively and hope for the best.
So, last month my mother, this month, the hubby’s mother.
I’m sorry to be a downer. I’m going to think positively, it’s all I can do. I feel so badly for my MIL, though. She had already lost one breast to cancer. This is such an awful blow.
I’m so glad tomorrow is Friday. I need some downtime…bad.
I love all of you, but I am not awake enough to reply to everything. Sorry. I am drinking a pre-bed adult beverage, and tomorrow I’m supposed to fabric shop for and construct a friend’s Hallowe’een costume. In the evening Mr. Lissar and I are supposed to spend time together- possibly without other people in the room, possibly doing something like dinner or going for a walk. Alone.
Weird.
Is it okay to ask for expensive jewellery for my four-year anniversary? 
The religion thing is part of it, but as of late we have getting on better again (which is nice because my father is generally fun to hang out with and I was missing that) and I think you may be right that the trip could help to heal that rift a bit more. The downside is that it means less time just hanging out with my brother, which usually involves book shopping, watching pretentious movies, and talking about literature, political theory, or philosophy. I know, we are a couple of wild and crazy guys. But I still expect to have fun so alls well in the end I suppose.
{{{Taters}}}
No amount of swears and cusses could accurately describe how much cancer sucks. Here’s hoping that it hasn’t spread any further.
On poms and kitties taxi, the old man, Kazzpurr, came to us before the first pom, as a five month old shelter kitty in May '99. My first pom, Mischa, came in August '99. Mischa was a tiny little puppy weighing almost a pound, so from the beginning Kazz mostly ignored the poms. He is a big cat, and stands taller than they do. Sometimes they will get brave and rush him, but at most he will bop one of them on top of the head (claws retracted) if they annoy him too much. The new kitties are a mixed bunch. Callaloo takes no dissing from the poms, heck, she will even sneak up on Kazz to sniff him, and if he notices her, she will bop him on the head! Jack alternates between ignoring them and running from them. Since he taunts them into chasing him before he runs, and always jumps the gate and sits on the other side preening, I think he is playing them! Bo hasn’t really made a stand either way yet, but he looks as though he is gonna be huge like Kazz, so I suspect that he will choose to ignore them as well. The poms, with the exception of Jewel, will happily run with any cat who will oblige them with a bit of sport, but they do it in play. Jewel is a little girl I recently took back from a woman I had sold her to who decided that she was uncomfortable breeding such a small dog out in the village. Jewel was raised in a catless home, and knowing the husband of her previous owner I am certain that the chasing of cats was encouraged, :mad: and she hits both maximum velocity and sound in a nano second when a cat is spotted. She is having that behavior modified, and is showing improvement.
Speaking of kitties, the three young ones had their spay/neuters done today, along with the last of their vaccines. They came home at 4:30 and have been napping ever since. I “get” to give them their pain meds later. The vet sent home three doses each, already loaded in syringes. At first glance it looked like sub-cu medication, but no, it’s oral. I would prefer administering it sub-cu, quite frankly!
and where, kai, are pics of the critters?
I already have a wicked bod! 
Nah, nothing so exciting. Teaching Assistant, et cetera, et cetera. Since I’m up, here’s the last pun of the week a bit earlier than usual.
If you guys are really good, I’ll share something else I posted to my livejournal just now. Or you could just go there now and read it there.
Taters - my sympathies. I wish you and yours the best in working through the tough times.
I also request critter pics! Get on it kai!
Jahdra I have two brothers who do the dissapearing thing too, you have my empathy. We know where both of them are right now, but that is subject to change at any moment.
I sure hope that Mr. SCL gets a doc to check out his itchies, and hopefully it’s minor, treatable, and not contagious.
VB I have been meaning to give you kudos for your involvement with the anaphlactic woman at your shrimp feed, but for an even longer time I have been meaning to ask you about the apples. You talk about alot of stuff on your property, including peh/CAHN trees, (living in the Bush I know what a pee-can is, and that’s just gross! :D) but never a word about apple trees. What’s up??? I miss apple trees…I miss a lot of trees and other growing things which can’t handle our climate. But I am not understanding all the sticks and apples under the peh/CAHN trees!
Taters I am so very sorry. You will all be remembered in my daily thoughts and prayers, I only wish there was something more meaningful I could say.
While I am commenting on sad things, my friend Ron was removed from life support yesterday. He lived a full life, although he left much too soon. It’s a sad situation.
rosie my digital camera died, and I am only waiting for my husband’s skipper to settle the salmon season to buy a new one. When I get another you will come to cringe every time I post pic links! I promise! (You too, spats!)
Camping, there is photographic evidence that I was taken camping (Cle Elum, Washington) when I was still a non-walking-sun-bonnett-wearing infant, and enjoyed camping clear up until I lived in Larsen Bay. My friend, another white woman in a Native village, agreed that village life was like camping 24-7-365. These days I still enjoy the outdoors, getting out into the real Bush and all that, but I wanna be home in time to take a nice warm shower and go to bed in my own comfy, lots of pillows and comforters bed!
Oh, and swampus, my sinuses are the major pain in my life at the moment. I am combining benedryl with sudafed, along with tylenol and ibuprophen, and yet my teeth hurt, which means the stupid sinus abcess is trying to become a problem again. Push clear fluids, get lots of rest, and feel better soon.
Now I am going to try and lie down. Skiffman is on a different sleep schedual than I am, and I am having a difficult time getting used to having him in my bed again! I think I’ll put a movie in and fall asleep halfway through it.
I know that I have missed people, so please know that I pay attention while I am reading and think appropriate posting material, but my short term memory ain’t what it used to be. Also, please excuse typos, punctuation, etc. I am on medication! (benadryl makes me fuzzy headed)
{{{Taters}}}
I went to the doctor last week. She asked about family history. One grandfather died from stomach cancer, several of his brothers died from other kinds, my two aunts (one from each side) are both breast cancer survivors, the other grandfather’s intestines got chopped away in bits and pieces due to polyps and cancers until he doesn’t have any left (he’s 92 and gets taken for late-70sh, though), dad died from pleural cancer… but, like I told the doc, nowadays what’s rare is finding a family where nobody has had it. She stared and said, “true that”.
I hope your tailbone heals well, Drae. The only broken bones I’ve ever had were ribs, so the treatment was the same as yours… “don’t hit it again until it heals”. They don’t even bother me or anything, so I guess they healed right 
Good wishes to everybody else who’s got booboos. I’ve got a horrible cold (nose congestion my ass, what’s congested is my brain) courtesy of a coworker. Half the office is coughing, fun fun!
Morning. I am consuming coffee. I had the windows open last night, so it is a cool 65 in the house. I woke up covered in pet hair this morning, most of which was still attached to the pets.
{{{Taters}}}}
LiLi, spend time with only one husband? That’s unnatural.
kai, my Mom’s pom likes to chase cats. She also found a dead kitten once. It was hard keeping a straight face, because my mom used the phrase, “killed a kitten”.
SCL, I’m not gloating, I’m just massively excited. Maggie is too. She isn’t big on the “watch the primate drink beer and scream at a small box for two hours” thing.
Taters, all my best wishes and good vibes to your MIL and Mr. Taters and you.
It’s Friday - yay! My new furnace and AC will be installed today - double yay! And if I can swing it, I’ll be cutting out early today - triple yay!
And one more yay for ceramics class starting again tomorrow. I’m taking a few of the pieces I made at home as samples to ask Tina what I did wrong. I’m pretty sure I know, but she’s the expert, so I want her input. And I’m going to try to make bigger pieces this session - significantly bigger - like large serving bowls and lidded cannisters and substantial planters. We’ll see how that goes.
And I learned a cat rule this morning. Any and all hands must be used to pet and skritch the resident cat when she deigns to visit, lest the possessor of said hands get smacked in the face. Her Royal Majesty decided about 4AM that she needed attention and she planted herself on my chest. Since I wasn’t sleeping anyway, I figured I could skritch her for a while. Well, whenever I stopped, I got a face full of paw, claws retracted, fortunately for her. Then she crawled under the covers for a while, and when my alarm went off, she raced me to the bathroom.
Meanwhile, Bernie-the-no-longer-stinky just lay crashed on the floor in front of my closet. Nothing like trying to spot a black dog on the floor in the dark. I’ve learned to shuffle rather than walk, this being the most effective trip preventative.
Obviously, there aren’t nearly enough animals in my household.
Lots of good thoughts and prayers headed from south Jawja to TatersMIL.
doggus it’s my civic duty to remind people. We have to keep things up.
Elle you most certainly MAY NOT drop out of the MMP. I have spoken. The matter is settled. So There!
Bobbio YAY! The Mayberry VFD is better already cause you’re there.
Everybody else, hope you’re better soon or congrats or everybody gettin’ on you’re nerves is a poopyhead, whatever I need to say.
Swampy, Jawja is Georgia? When you write it like that, it makes me think of the legendary Kingdom of Jauja (think romanticized South Seas with more food variety).
Old, predictable joke, so I’m spoilerizing the whole thing. If you’ve been with the MMP more than 6 months, you’ve heard it before from me. You’ve been warned…
[spoiler]
Why do Canadians like to do the deed doggy style?
So both can watch the hockey game…[/spoiler]
Nava, the unwritten policy in the MMP is to spell a geographic name the way it’s pronounced in the local vernacular. Jawja - Georgia, Etlanner - Atlanta, Nawth Carliner - North Carolina, and so on.
No big mystery. The peecan/peCAHN tree is old, so there’s a decent amount of deadfall whenever the wind blows hard. You see that with any mature hardwoord tree.
The apples wind up underneath it because the apple trees are nearby, and they fallen apples are mostly scooted there by the riding mower, altough Maddy the VunderDog also likes to think they’re balls, and will carry them around the yard, too.
Can I send you 50 lbs of apples? I sure as hell won’t notice them gone… 
Bobbio lies. I actually do live in the mystical, magical legendary kingdom of Jawja. I am it’s benovelent, yet stern dictator, supreme ruler and collector of big burly men.
. . . Lawn Guylandt . . .
{{{{{Taters & the TatersClan}}}}}
Taters, don’t interpret my silence as an indication of non-support. Cancer of all kind has claimed so many relatives, friends, and pets that I’m kinda bummed on your behalf…