Quick Pained Post

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Instead of getting lots of reading done, doing Christmas cards and catching up on the Tivo, I've spent the last several days writhing in pain, and once I got stronger meds, sleeping all darned day. This knee surgery sucked, and the recovery is nothing like I expected. I took (or was given) my first shower yesterday and it was lovely, lovely I tell you. I feel so clean...as I typed that Lily walked out of the litter box and scooted her dirty butt on the carpet. I guess she is feeling clean now too.

It's been an interesting couple of days, filled with nice phone calls from friends, lots of gentle cuddling with Fern and Lily, several terrifying doorbell rings where I prayed the doors were locked. (They were, and it was actually an edible arrangement delivery from work which was super cool)

My post isn't all that great, but I wanted to move the poor Olive picture down a little ways and bring some good cheer. So GOOD CHEER TO ALL and I hope that everyone has a great Thanksgiving. I will be enjoying some stuffing and mashed potatoes that were promised to be vegan. I can't trust Mircea's mom on that sometimes, but at least they'll be vegetarian. I've been on an interesting diet the past few days. Since I can't move anywhere and Mircea is working 12 hour days he just leaves me with a weird grab bag of food. Yesterday it was a pretzel and a bag of assorted (disgusting) crackers. Today I got some cold perogies and really watery coucous, but it was better than the nasty grab bag. He's so sweet trying to be my nursemaid and work all those hours so I am trying to think of a good "thank you" surprise when I am finally mobile again. Somehow I have a feeling it will involve a lot of summer sausage and cheese, but we'll see. I may find another way to his heart.

Goodbye Tiny Baby

She came to us on a beautiful day, her little meows heard through the wind. Today, the day we lost her, was also a beautiful day, but so much sadder than when we saw her little face for the first time.

Poor little Olive was with us for 12 days. She was so little and sickly, but so sweet and loving despite her pain. I took her to the vet for the second time on Friday because she still wasn't eating, and they'd suggested our best option was put her down if she didn't pass her blood tests because she seemed very ill. Her blood came back fine so they put her on an IV try to get some fluids into her little system. It seemed to work and she came home happy as a clam. We had a great day full of cuddles yesterday and this morning, and then things went really really badly. I just held her and helped her the best I could, and she passed away peacefully in my arms, the sweet little angel that she was. We never wanted 4 cats, but now my heart feels empty without her.

This is such a depressing post that I just want it to be over with. I am having knee surgery tomorrow and although I'll have a ton of free time I'm not sure I'll be able to balance the computer on my lap without a lot of pain. Hope everyone has a great Tofurky Day (ha ha) and enjoys great time with friends and family.

I'm Ranting a Bit...

I'm in a mood tonight. I just feel like blogging because I am too lazy to look for my journal, so here it is.

• I am ridiculously nervous about my knee surgery. I have my pre-op tomorrow and my surgery is the 24th. I just don't like the whole idea of it, other than the feeling better and being more active again. There is no reason to be scared but I am terrified.
• I am going to San Diego tomorrow for approx 36 hours. I'm very annoyed to fly all the way there and back just to witness 12 hours of lab testing...which by the way if from Noon-Midnight. Which is like 3 pm to 3 am to my tired body, so I'm just thrilled as hell. On a positive note I get to see George, Rebecca, John and Allison, so that is great, but I'll be really tired b/c it's 11 pm for me. But I'll man it out b/c I love them!
• Olive (the new kitty) is even more high maintenance than Lily. She isn't eating nearly as much as she should be, and most of the time I'm encouraging her to eat, I've even hand fed her nasty little balls of wet food. And she got her tests all back from the vet and she's fine, so I don't know what her deal is. She has been pretty good with the other cats, but she's mostly lethargic. I don't know why I'm being so impatient with her-it's only been 5 days, but I'm used to my "seasoned" pussy cats.
• I'm a little frustrated with all the painting. I want it done so it's all over and the house can look pretty. But man, I'm so sick and tired of painting that I just want to leave the Bratz dolls up forever. Mircea is working hard on the other house and I feel pressure to get this one done perfectly, but that's my fault
• Mircea went to the Cowboys-Redskins game tonight with a friend. And the friend's girlfriend and her family. Am I the only one that thinks there is something wrong with this picture? For you couples out there, don't you usually do things as a couple? I'm not annoyed that Mircea went, I'm annoyed that once again his friend only thought of a ticket for him. He did this for a concert too, and it's not that he didn't have other tickets, he gave them to other people. I like that Mircea and I do things seperately but at the same time I'm also sick of all Mircea's "american firsts" are experienced with others. I think I'm just in a bad mood and I'm mad about this for no reason. But a little annoyed nonetheless.
• I'm irritated with my waistline. I'm not looking forward to wearing a bathing suit on the cruise, but I know it will be fine b/c it's just me and Lindsay and Lord knows that I won't be wearing a two piece. I'd like to do some activities but I baby the hell out my knee b/c I think I'm sort of saving it up for the flight of stairs at the house. I dread those stairs like you don't even know.
• I feel better having typed this out. I have no reason to be too whiney, I'm just a little frustrated and I try to hide that from Mircea b/c he gets annoyed (b/c he can't help me). I laugh at myself sometimes that I let this little crap get to me when there are so many bad things in the world, but man, if I focused on those I'd probably never come out of the bathtub.

Hope you all have a nice beginning of the week. I'll be on a plane-hopefully sans snakes!

I Don't Even Know How to Title This Post

I'm experiencing a sense of dread as I type up this post. Dread because I know that I will be called the Crazy Cat Lady and laughing because I know I deserve it. A little background might hopefully let you all go easy on me.

Mircea and I were over at the old house on Veteran's Day to do some demo to another room. We were working for about an hour or so and I was taking some stuff out to the truck when I saw this weird creature in the yard across the street. It was just yelling it's little head off, so I got a closer look (those who know me well know I'm blind but refuse correction) and saw it was a cat. A little tiny cat who looked similar to the cat who had been snitching Yukon's food a couple weeks prior. So I went inside and got some cat food that we still had there and went across the street to offer it. The cat was timid at first but then started eating so hungrily that I almost cried. Even Lily doesn't eat like that! I gingerly picked the cat up and just felt all bones. This cat is literally vertebrae. So I walked the cat across the street and said to Mircea, "well, we've got to do something" so we put the cat in one of the cat carriers (that is still in the shed) and took it back to the house and got it warmed up away from the other cats. We took a quick look at it's privates, saw it was a boy, so we named it (the original) Maverick, as our old house was on Maverick road and that's where we found him. So I called the vet and they said I could bring the cat over. We sat at the vet together for about an hour b/c there was an animal emergency and I let Maverick out of the cage and we cuddled for awhile. The receptionist was like "oh let me see him" and then she looked at his privates and said "This is a girl silly, but it was hard to see". We all had a good laugh that I didn't know the difference between a girl and a boy and I sighed in relief that I still only had one baby boy. But what to name the cat? Hell, I didn't even know if the cat had a disease or not, but I was thinking of names. Turns out, she checked out fine in the initial tests and I'm waiting to find out if she has worms, so I bundled her up and brought her skinny butt home. She really is sweet and she seems to be getting stronger with every day, so that is good. We named her Olive because it just suits her. I'm enjoying getting to know her and I'm glad to be able to help her get healthy. Here's a picture of our little sweetie, that we're still trying hard not to get attached to just in case something happens.

New House Photos

I know you are all just besides yourselves waiting for pictures of the house. Well, wait no more, at least for before pictures. Mircea and I have been hard at work repairing, painting, cleaning, etc. So I'll have some after pictures pretty soon to share as well. I'll start the photo tour with the good, but it gets pretty ugly pretty quickly (but nothing a little paint can't fix).

Supporting our teams. Go Colts!

The view from the front of the house. You can see the Chesapeake Bay from the house and we can see more and more everyday as the leaves fall. I'll take it!

The fireplace...I'd already started priming the room.


In a sad turn of events, I hadn't started priming this room. We think they ran out of paint while they were painting it. Love the pink carpet too. The previous owner had two little girls.

Mircea should be ashamed of this picture. It doesn't show that gorgeous Bratz doll wall border on the wall. I'll retake that one later so you can see. It's crazy.

The dining room. Which we will use approx 1x a year, but it's nice to have the space. I had a blast steam cleaning all of the carpet. And it still needs replaced, but alas, I'd need a second job to afford that.

The master bath. My favorite room in the house. It's about the size of our old master bedroom so we definitely appreciate all the room that we have. It also has a two person soaking tub, and Mircea actually got it to work. So we used it once...but man if it didn't take so much hot water I'd be in there daily!

A not so exciting picture of the master. I told Mircea he is fired as photographer. Chantelle, wanna come over?

The kitchen, a total mess b/c it was cleaning central.

The living room, which is actually our office because what the heck would we do with a formal living room. It's nice to have the big office space too.

Well, that's all I have. The after pictures will be slightly more exciting, and I'm sure this is just so thrilling for everyone, but I'm so happy to get to share this experience with my friends. I thank you for all your support through this roller coaster ride (and the many I seem to allow myself to be a part of) and listening to me vent. You're the best, and there's a hot pink guest room with your names on it!

Teaser Update

I only have about 5 minutes to make a quick update so here goes.

• Despite the slight delay we are getting all settled into the house. I've done a ridiculous amount of painting and have a huge arm muscle to prove it. Next week is the kick-off for "getting the old house done" so we'll be very busy, just not at the new house. I know that I owe everyone pictures but our home computers aren't set up and darned if my camera doesn't hook up to the Navy computers.
• I am enjoying spending ridiculous amounts of money. Ok, that isn't really true, but there are certain things that I have had to purchase which despite the cost bring mass amounts of joy. My new washer and dryer literally make me sing with happiness, I may even include a picture when I do the house tour. We also bought a King sized bed. We have not slept in it yet because we don't have the frame and box spring yet (we're getting them tomorrow) but we tested it out by me doing a somersault and Mircea couldn't feel me moving so I think we may actually be able to share a bed without killing each other.
• The cats are adorable in the new house. Yukon hasn't been begging to go outside (nor peeing on anything stationary) so he has just been a little bundle of joy. Fernie has always loved stairs so she is happy, and Lily is still completely confused and acts brain damaged so pretty much everything is normal.
• It was great to see that so many people voted in this election. Regardless of political affliation it is great that the American people exercised their right to vote and made history with their participation as well as their selection. But boy oh boy, the doomsday attitude in my office is starting to crack me up.
• Hope everyone is doing well and I'll catch up with your blogs when I have some free time. I miss my online buddies!