Meow's first illness

Meow is in the midst of her first real kitty illness. She hasn't eaten or drank since last Saturday, and has been vomiting. Last night Jay and I took her to the vet here in Los Angeles. It took two vet techs, 4 towels, and a vet to draw blood and give her fluids. That's my kitty... sick as I've ever seen her and still willing to kill someone. She seemed to be better that evening, but today is again lethargic and refusing to eat or drink. We are wating for test results right now, and may be making another trip for x-rays (she wouldn't allow any examination or even her temperature to be taken last night). I will keep everyone posted, but if you are trying to reach us and not getting any replies, we are very busy taking care of the wee one.

UPDATE: We went back to the vet today (Thursday) where they sedated her and did x-rays, physical exam, gave more fluids, an anti-inflammatory shot, trimmed her nails, and shaved around her tail. She has been prescribed an appetite stimulant, but will be force-fed if necessary, starting tomorrow. All labwork and x-rays look normal, so we can't figure out why exactly she is not eating. She has eaten some on her own today, so we really, really hope we don't have to syringe feed her. That will be very painful. For us.

Stuff

Okay, I know. We know. It's been slow going with the updates. We have been busy. Yes, I know. So have you. And you still find time to update your blog. I get it.

Anyway, here's a quick update:

We made it through the holidays well (see happy new year Post) and have launched into 2009 at full speed. April is doing well at the lab, and work is going well for me also. We spent 4 days in Cancun in early January on a w0rk trip. That was nice. We spent a day in Solvang/Santa Ynez with Helen, Alias, and Elijah last weekend. That was also nice.

We are planning a trip to Georgia in Feb. to visit with family, as I have not been back since we moved to California. Mom's cancer treatments are going well, and are actually almost done, and she is excited about seeing us. Actually I am looking forward to getting back, even though it will be rushed, hectic, and stressful with not enough time with anyone. But that's how it goes, right? Any time with family is worth it.

Our travel schedule is quickly filling up this year. We really want to get to San Antonio to see my brother and his wife and her kids. We figure we should probably meet them! I plan to call him tonight and see when a good time to come would be- likely end of March for us.

We are also heading up to Ontario to spend some time with the McArthur-Wilson clan. We cannot wait! It's been too long between visits.

In addition, our niece Jessica, in Montana, is graduating from High School and getting married this summer. We have to figure out the schedule for those two events as well.

We are also anticipating doing some camping this summer in the amazing parks in Cali- Yosemite, Joshua Tree, etc., etc., and need to make those plans, too.

So hopefully I can actually post some pictures soon. No promises. You know how I am with promises on this blog...

Happy 2009!

Jason, Meow and I send our best wishes for a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year to all our wonderful friends and family who are scattered around the globe! We love and miss you all so much. It means the world to us to have so many precious people in our life, who go out of their way to keep in touch with us and share their lives with us.

We have had a very busy first year in Los Angeles, and to celebrate the start of another year we are having some of our friends here over for a true southern New Year's dinner. Jay is busy making black-eye peas, greens, roast pork loin, and a baked pear sweet potatoe casserole. I made brownies, and the wine and cocktails are chilling. The only thing to make it better would be to have all our friends and family join us!

The Nutcracker

This year Jay and I attended the Nutcracker. This is something I have wanted to do for a very long time, and hopefully we will make it a tradition for future Christmas celebrations together. As you can see by my collection in the picture to the left, I have a bit of thing for Nutcrackers! The ballet we attended was performed by the Los Angeles Ballet at Royce Hall on the UCLA campus. The hall was beautiful, and the ballet was magical. It was a wonderful evening, despite my poor husband's cold!

Jay was sick, but a very good sport. He even posed for pictures for me before the ballet began! Isn't he handsome?

He made me pose also, despite my pitiful self-inflicted haircut. Please just disregard this picture.

Some of the dancers posed for pictures following the performance. From the left is Marie, danced by Melissa Barak, her prince, danced by Peter Snow, Clara, danced by Lilit Hogtanian, and the Nutcracker, performed by Erik Thordal-Christensen. They were all incredibly talented!

Christmas baking

Every year, one of the traditions Jason and I have is baking cookies. This first started with my college roommate, Danielle. I am very happy to continue this tasty tradition. Now, Jay helps me bake the cookies and we distribute them to our co-workers. This year we made brownies, orange-cranberry bread, linzer bars, peanut butter gingerbread, and others. Jay also made a roast for his office Christmas party.

Jay is cooking his very tasty roast...

While I am mixing the peanut-butter gingerbread cookies and other assorted goodies.These cookies are chilled, then rolled out and cut into shapes before baking. Lots of fun!

Turkey Trot

For Thanksgiving this year we had planned a large dinner at the home of our friends Alias and Helen. Because several pies were involved, Jay wanted to workout. On Turkey Day. So, I signed us up for our first race, a 5K in Long Beach, CA called the Turkey Trot. The race started at 9:30, so we showed up bright and early to pick up our numbers and our T-shirts. This is Jay in his number, looking very handsome if I do say so myself!

I ran also, and here I am in my number. As soon as we started the race, Jay had to stop for a bathroom break. I waited for him, and when we began running again he promptly took off like a shot and left me. He waited further down the beach, and we finished the race together. We crossed the finish line at just under 40 minutes, holding hands! It was a great way to start off the holiday. The race raised over $120,000 for local charities, and had over 4500 runners. Below is a shot of the crowd at the start line:


We then headed home for a nap (Helen had banned all grumpy people from attending dinner), cooking, and then a great time with our hosts and friends. Thanks to Helen and Alias for hosting the event, and to Gil, Alex, Jenny, and Dan for the wonderful food and fun! We hope all our friends and family we couldn't be with also had a great Thanksgiving. And congrats to my Aunt Faye for surviving her bout of appendicitis and emergency surgery.

Tales from the bus, part deux

We have had a lazy few weeks, not doing much besides working and cleaning the apartment. The fires are again quite bad, but we are out of harm's way. Besides all the smoke in the air and trying to help those who were affected, we have not had any problems. So I thought I would give you another sampling of bus stories.

I've had two "screamers" in the past few months. The first one was panhandling as I got on the bus. Since Jay was kind enough to get me an iPod, I mostly just listen to it to drown out all the crazies. So I didn't realize at first that he had ask me for money (rather, mumbled at me for money) so I sat down in the seat across the aisle. He was dressed all in black, eyes dilated, and rather scruffy. As I sat down, I pulled out my cell phone to text Jay and let him know I was on my way to work. The dude immediately started screaming at me, "Are you calling your f*@%$in' credit card?!" over and over again. I kept ignoring him, and he finally got off a stop or two later.

The second screamer was on a trip home. I again was wearing the iPod, but the battery was dead. Nevertheless, it makes me more comfortable ignoring people when I have it on, so I was wearing it. I had sat in the first seats on the bus, near the driver, facing forward. Dude gets on, and starts an argument with the bus driver, since he does not have the fare. The drivers here are incredibly patient, and will often let you ride without fare if you give a good sob story and aren't obnoxious. While obnoxious, the guy was flashing a hospital ID bracelet and claiming to have just been discharged minus his wallet. Okay, bus driver lets him on. He sits in the seats directly in front of me, however these seats face to the side and he can turn and look at me. Which he does. He then begins a very loud rant about being forcibly admitted to the hospital, but he told "those f*@%ers he was not staying, he was leaving," etc. The story continues at the top of his lungs, profanity included, the entire time he is on the bus, which isn't long because the bus driver put him out a few stops later. A lady across the aisle then slides into the seat next to me, and all the way to my stop proceeds to complain to me about people on the bus who cannot behave, and try to make you listen to them even if you don't want to. Yes, I am still wearing my iPod...

Today's dude was at least funny. He showed up at the bus stop this morning, singing at the top of his lungs. When someone looked at him, he screamed at them, "Yeah, I know I'm off-key! I've been off-key all my life, motherf*@$er!!" He didn't get on the bus, luckily, he went into the McDonald's, still singing. I don't know if they threw him out, as the bus appeared just moments later. Always something on public transportation!