QUARANTINED!!

Last weekend, my ten year old cat wasnt feeling very well so Daniel and I decided to take her to the Vet. It was the weekend so we decided to go to PetSmart as a walk-in. That turned out to be a big mistake. Before the vet even looked at the cat he was already trying to order a bunch of tests including an ultra sound, It was like he was more concerned with the bottom line on our bill than the cat. You think he would have started with an exam and then maybe taken some blood or something, ruled out the minor stuff before assuming the worse. After dealing with that, we did decide to have him collect a urine sample and some blood. When I filled out the paperwork before the exam, it asked me if the cat bites. I wrote yes. The cat doesnt have a history of biting and she has never bitten a vet before but I believe that anything with teeth will bite if provoked enough or scared even the most docile human. Anyway, I guess they didnt read her chart and when they took her in the back room to collect the blood, she bit one of their vet technicians. Now I assume that the Vet Tech was licensed and trained to handle a situation such as a mischevious cat and it seems like if she had read the cat's chart she might have taken extra precautions. But I have no idea what happened in that back room and to tell you the truth I wish I had asked to see the bite because for some reason I doubt that it even happened. Thats how shady the PetSmart vet seemed to be. Since he wasnt our regular vet, I assumed I could just fax them her current shot records and chalk it up to a little accident but instead the Vet clinic reported it to the Portsmouth and Chesapeake Center of Disease Control. So we had a little house call by the CDC, they interviewed us and checked out the cat, requested her shot records and then quarantined her for ten days. I cant believe that my poor little sweet cat is quarantined, like she has some communicable disease and is going to attack all the little old ladies that walk by our house from the old folks home down the street. I dont think the cat really minded, she just layed around the house, napping and eating just like she always does.

Almost forgot V-Day

Well, since I let the major Holidays slip by without a post, I figured its not too late to back track and write something about Valentines Day, heck its still Febuary!
I have to say that I have never been too fond of Valentines Day, I have always thought of it as some silly holiday that retailers and flower peddlers made up to boost sales and make everyone out there feel obliged to give others gifts. Actually that goes for every holiday, I see them more as good for the economy and not necessarily good for the "soul", I know, I know everyone says the holidays are about family and friends coming together and spending time with one another but that doesnt explain the frantic throngs of people flocking to every shopping center across the country pulling their hair out trying to get the last Tickle Me Elmo. Anyway, the whole holiday thing still feels a bit foreign to me so bare with me.
Back to V-day, it actually was quite nice this year. I mean whats there not to like about a day of flowers and candy. Daniel sent me these beautiful flowers at work.
The lillies were beautiful and the red gerber daisies are my favorite!


I gave Daniel a basket of candy and some legos! Here is a pic of Daniel too busy trying to get his Rollo unwrapped to look at the camera.




Daniel as the Lego master in the kitchen. Who needs expensive dinners with long waits, we have Legos!

Cooper deligently watching, thinking that Daniel is cooking at the Kitchen counter and expecting some tasty morsels to hit the floor. See the sock in the background. Somehow those things seem to be attracted to him.

A finished V-Day Lego Man.

Manic Monday

It was only a couple of hours into today and I already knew it was going to be a crappy monday. This morning was the typical monday morning rush of trying to get to work on time, actually not on time because thats impossible, instead I shoot for 45 minutes late, anything over that and I think I might be pushing it. I was dressed and frantically looking for a pair of stockings that the dog hadnt dragged to his bed and mauled (between my stockings and Daniel's socks, Cooper has enough foot coverings in his belly for the whole neighborhood to hang from the mantle this year for christmas). In my hurry to get them on, I dragged my foot acrossed our bare and neglected hardwood floors that show every minute of their downtrodden 75 years of existence and got a splinter in my foot. We keep dreaming of new countertops for the kitchen but perhaps the floors need our attention first, the ugly pink countertops are just an assault on the eyes, not actually inflicting bodily harm on us. After 15 minutes of sitting on the edge of the tub trying to tweeze the sucker out and nervously watching the time tick closer to 9 am, I decided to live with the damn thing and just go to work. Of course it just had to be in my right foot which I need to drive. At that point I was late and in pain so I was driving a bit erratic. This is where the story gets a bit wierd. I am driving down the road to the light that leads out of my neighborhood and this beige pickup truck is coming towards me and as it approaches, I see what appears to be the driver practically climbing out the driver side window. He had his head, arms and most of his chest out of the window and he was waving his arms and shouting at me. I swerved a bit to make sure I didnt come anywhere near hitting him. I look in my rearview mirror and he is still waving like a maniac. I wondered if the guy was in trouble or hurt? If so I feel bad for not stopping but I have to watch out for my own safety. This is actually the second time that someone has tried to flag me down while I was driving in the past six months and both times within a mile of my house. I am just going to chalk it up to kooky Portsmouth people, I really think that the people on this side of the downtown tunnel have an extra chromosone or something.