cat poisoning drama

Winter Gipsy has several links on her blog. I like to check them out. links are like side roads while you driving without a time limit. Explore them and see where you end up.

Any how, I clicked one and got here.

I read them, they are very good.

Then, I started to read the comments. It turns out that this one causes all sort of reader anger.

Should it?

The rationale of many of the nasty comments is that how could someone with a pet they love poison it.

I don't know, I like cats and I don't want to crucify this person. If it said dogs I wouldn't be more upset and I love my two dogs (did you see the cute dog pic post?).

I seems like the commenting crowd (that are amassing pitchforks and torches) should calm down for the following reasons:

1) it might not be true. it seems untrue.

2) lending credence to number 1, how do you force a cat to drink anything? let alone bleach.

3) the cat didn't die. or at least that isn't indicated here. It would be a bigger secret if he/she killed their cat to see the vet.

4) having just noticed that the mouse I tried to poison ate some tulip bulbs of mine I put down more poison. If that kills the mouse should I be sad? maybe I should force it to drink bleach instead of green chunk poison bait.

But, I will say that I don't understand the level of the action. There are less drastic things that can be done to a cat to get the vet's attention. poisoning is stupid. some ipecac and that is going to be over. go with allergies, that means you have to bring the cat back in again.

this person wasn't very smart, but worth burning at the stake? perhaps not.

Inspired

This guy's blog (found via Next Blog button) inspired me.

These dogs are ADORABLE!

Another way they are trying to drive me insane

Here is a sign I spotted in a hospital. Notice how it indicates that the only smoking allowed in the entire world is in this building.

No one else in my party got as worked up as I did.

This has me more enraged than Christina B Harmon did. And you know how upset I was about that.

My new love - One Note

I don't want to be one of those crazies in love with a software program. You know those people.
But, I can't help it. One Note by Microsoft is awesome.
One of the people on my team proselytized to the team about it. I made him do a demo in the team meeting.
*warning - if you don't want to listen to me go on about the wonders of this software - or suspect that you will be forced to listen to me verbally run through this in person, feel free to stop reading now.

Here is the deal -it is a note taking software - it allows you to organize your notes into notebooks, then tabs in the notebook and then pages within the tab. You can even add another level of organization by making subpages and grouping pages.
You can use colors (I love colors to visually group things).
You can move things around easily.
You can effortlessly jump from page to page and to different note books. - no longer waiting for four Word docs to load up.
Searching is Very cool, you put in the word and then the pages with the word are highlighted as well as the word itself in the page.
It integrates with your Outlook tasks - you can tag something in two seconds as a task and even indicate when it is due.
Not just tasks - there are all sorts of other tags, I have one for tasks for other people on my team, one for tasks for my customer, one for things to blog about, one for definitions, one for books to read, one for ideas, etc.
Then you can pick a tag and the program pulls up every single tag of that type in a list.
I also love that I can use it for personal stuff as well as the work stuff. I can password protect all the personal stuff.
It has the ability within Explorer to send a page to OneNote, it just copies the info into a page and puts it in the unfiled notes area so you can comment on it or move it later.
It has a small pop up window to take notes on that will stay above whatever other document you are doing. - so, I can be reviewing a document and taking notes on it.
You can check out a free demo/trial here: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/onenote/default.aspx

lack of comments and pillows

two things today -
One, where are the comments people? Here I am blogging nearly every day now. and no comments (well one about bugs). I am further befuddled because these posts are longer and have better subject matter than those in the past.
folks, I am agog at your lack of commentyness.

Two, I found myself wondering something yesterday. Something really odd.
What kinds of things can be used as pillows when you don't have a pillow?
here is my list, but feel free to contribute - via COMMENTS!!!!

Rolled up blanket
Stuffed animal
Another human - honestly the better parts are thigh(lap), and the shoulder. Perhaps arm, but then you get that whole guilt thing about cutting off circulation. No good pillow gives you guilt. paper towel roll

Drunken innuendo, never as sly as you think

Yesterday was much better with the cold. I got to do all the things that I wanted to do. Except the FM, but since I am traveling again next week I can't really buy fresh produce. However, last night at the Finnish shindig there might have been beer and mead drinking. Yeah, mead.
Anyhow, this morning the cold resurfaces. I am beating it back with multivitamins and strawberries.
In an attempt to not mow my lawn, I am watching a movie, Looking for Kitty (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0401593/plotsummary), I haven't decided whether the movie is good or not, but something that just happened made me laugh.
So the main character, Abe, is a man whose wife just ran away, and he seems to be in NYC on some sort of conference, but secretly he is working with a private investigator to find his wife. Anyhow, Abe runs into a coworker, Rachel Dratch (formerly of SNL) in his hotel's lobby on his way in from his first "international" food ever, Chinese. Anyhow Rachel is a bit toasted from the mini bar on her way out to a company dinner and she blathers on to Abe including many thinly veiled references to wanting him. Including "room service", should she call him when she gets back in, something about seeing him without his shirt on, etc. It was sort of painful in that I have done this. I know probably all of my girlfriends have done it. In fact, my first thought was oh, she is going to have to relay this encounter to her friends in the morning, and it is going to be painful.
I know what the problem is - when you are drunker than the person you are hitting on it is likely that you are going to make a fool of yourself.
But how to prevent? other than just not ever getting drunker than anyone you are going to hit on, which I find impossible. what to do?

getting sick on a sunny summer weekend

I used to never get sick. like ever. ask my mother.
However, I have had a rough voice for a week and then something I did yesterday seems to have lowered the resistance just enough so that my neck is achy and my throat is sore. gnnrrr.
getting sick is just fine on a weekend in the winter. or if it is raining. But this weekend I have a lot of stuff I want to do.
Tomorrow I am going to the farmers market, strawberry picking and to the Finnish Solstice party. I will not miss these things!
I have taken two multivitamins and I plan for these (as well as the two I will take tomorrow morning) to jump me right out of this craziness. I might even drink a glass of orange juice if it comes down to that. or a smoothie... ooo that sounds good with my throat hurting.

This reminds me, someone was going on about how when they are sick they just want their mother to take care of them. I found this puzzling. I certainly don't wish to demean my mother or her motherskills, but she didn't dote on us much when we were sick. I remember many times when she let me stay home from school for mental health days (probably why I didn't go to an Ivy League college, those were the days when they taught you to actually do your homework), but not very many actual sick times. I don't recall any soup being made for me.
Perhaps this is because I just wasn't ever sick as I said in the beginning.
Perhaps she actually did these things for my sister (who was sick more than me) or brother and I blocked it out.
Perhaps her brand of motherly doesn't include doting on sick children.
honestly I can't picture the Old Bird (my mother's mother) doting on any sick children or grandchildren either.

am I decended from fertile but non-motherly women? Humph, I am who I am. There is too much bullshit with the whole soup, thermometer waving, and tucking in blankets thing. Apparently the non-doting works for me.

Lucia's thoughts on bugs

1. The worst bug: Silverfish
2. Killing an ant with Raid - very horrible to watch. I did it last night and I am traumatized. It wandered about in agony, oh I am just going to stop there, when it gets caught in the dog hair dustbunny it gets real awful and I don't want you guys to have nightmares.
3. My screened porch - the door doesn't close right, so I propped it open. This is fine except that bugs seem to wander in and then get stuck in the Northeast corner. (why that corner? The door is in the Southeast corner, why can't they make it over there?)
4. The bugs in the screened porch are slightly annoying, sure. And they defeat the purpose of a screened in porch. But, the biggest problem came yesterday when there were butterflies and butterfly corpses in the screened in porch
5. It is sad that a Monarch butterfly flew all the way from Mexico just to die in the Northeast corner of my screenporch.
6. I am pretty bad at catching butterflies. But I did it. Twice. Two butterflies are now out and about in the community thanks to me.
7. One has a little less of one wing, but it does have a chance.
8. Did I mention silverfish are the worst bugs? Not that I have ever had a cockroach in my house. Or lived in Texas or Florida where they have all sort of horrible giant bugs. But still.

Related note, there was a mouse outside my house that G was chasing around. I put out a big huge bait chunk in a place the dogs couldn't get to. I checked yesterday and can't find said bait chunk. Could a green chunk of poison really taste that good?
Also, the poison said that it kills Warfarin Resistant Norway Rats. I am horrified by that phrase Warfarin Resistant Norway Rats. I want to google it, but I don't want to read what I find.

One post a day

I don't want you to get too excited, but I am going to try to post one blog post every day.
this is good for several reasons:
1) good for you - a bit of Lucia fun each day is good.
2) I find this to be relaxing and also sort of like interacting with people, but without having to actually interact with any more people in my day. (I am a bit maxed out on the people interaction in my job)
3) I have figured out a way to easily write blog posts as I come up with brilliant ideas and then post them later.

this won't count as today's.

The Farmers Market - A spring highlight

A new treasure at the Farmers Market in the spring - plants and bulbs. Of course, this is far more exciting for me now that I have a yard to plant them in.
This year I got the following:

• Dalia - this is very exciting plant for me because I first heard about it in a book - you should read this book, very funny, Travels with my Aunt by Graham Greene. Greene described it as the only book he ever wrote for fun. The stuffy nephew raises dalias (dotes on them).
  http://www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=0143039008
• Gladiolas - they were 13 for some quantity of money, so I bought 26. Then I realized that they need full sun. humph. This is a bit of an issue as I don't have much full sun to be had in my yard. Privacy yes, but those trees and bushes do a great job of blocking sunlight.
  I had to spend at least 6 hours ripping out some evergreen bushes and prepping a bed to put the bulbs into.
  Oh, and did I tell you that they have to be dug up each fall and replanted in the spring… augh.
• Shade plants - I have shade. These guys should cover some of that currently boring area. These include a big very cool looking coleus, an oxalis, and something else…
• Tomatoes - yes, I lack sunshine. Tomatoes require sunshine. That is okay. I bought a patio type and some large pots. I moved the pots to the middle (smack dab) of the backyard. I fertilize a lot. I have been rewarded, I have three vigorous plants that are going to be big producers. - oh yeah, I also nearly killed all three of them before they had been planted when I was out for over a week and they didn't get enough water. So this is also about their desire to live and thrive.
  

Can't wait to see what the summer season at the market brings me.

A great day

my first day back from vacation - what a great day! (I hope the italics convey all the of the sarcasm and anger I feel)

I get to work at 7am
I can't get a single thing to print in TDS
I foolishly attempt to upgrade my computer to 07. Warning to all of you - this takes me over an hour and then my Outlook won't boot up when I am offline (which I discover as I head off on my trip)
I forget my credit card at home
I still have my debit card, but my bank account is mysteriously ridiculously low which I find out when,
I get stuck in Cincinnati unable to get a rental car
- did you know that Avis can't run a debit card more than once per 24 hr period of time? even when you have the bank clear the charge?
I spend 120 bucks on a cab from Cincinnati to Dayton.
I work for 5 more hours in my hotel room, one hour of which is waiting for Outlook to download all of my settings which I can only hope will make it work offline now.

The saddest moment in the day though is when I nearly start crying while I walk forlornly across the Avis parking lot back to the terminal bound bus because I can't get a rental car.

New Quest: Callouses

For several years, my physical activity has been all imposed upon me by myself. Typically in some sort of exercise routine.
Now that I have a house there are all of these chores/tasks and they are better than exercise.
One, I get a real free weights feel from the whole thing. my guess is that carrying 40lb bags of compost up my front hill does more than just one or two muscle groups.
Two, sense of satisfaction that very few of my exercise routines provided.
Three, accomplishment of chores/tasks around the house.
Four, callouses. - I am getting all tough. This is good. When someone shakes my hand I want them to think, god, she has a rough hand...

10 lb challenge update

The party is in 10 days.

I have good news and bad news.
Good News - I lost 5 lbs thus far.
Bad News - only 10 more days!

The news related to this topic and yet doesn't fit into category good or bad:
1) my right ankle is still messed up from Crazylegs. -this means I haven't restarted running. all of my progress lost. gnrrr.
2) my scale has moved over by two lbs. to the side that means I lost more. I haven't fixed it yet. That is sort of my two lbs in the bag. this is a pointless mind trick on myself.

I will keep you posted.

BTUs

Things I found out about BTUs:

1. 1 BTU = 1 055.05585 joules. - since joules are a measure of energy, BTUs must be a measure of energy not heat.
2. Since joules are the metric system version, this means that BTUs are the foot equivalent of the meter. or, for you SAT freaks: BTUs are to joules as _____ are to meters.
3. Neither of these are really helping me understand my grill's BTU number (and more importantly, that crucial brat explosion problem) - then I find this: A BTU is defined as the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit. ---- okay, if I had a pound of water on the grill at 0 degrees F, could I raise the temperature to 45,000? over how much time? this dosn't seem right. (and then the amount of heat, not energy?)
4. When checking the Wikipedia article for BTU (PS, there are no articles for my last name at all. If any of you adoring fans want to do up a brief description of me I could be persuaded to grant the necessary permissions) I spot something potentially bad for my number 3:

In North America, the term
"BTU" is used to describe the heat value (energy content) of fuels, and
also to describe the power of heating and
cooling systems, such as furnaces, stoves, barbecue grills, and air
conditioners. When used as a unit of power, BTU per hour (BTU/h) is
understood,
though this is often confusingly abbreviated to just
"BTU"

And now honestly, I reach what I like to call my intelligence
equilibrium. I am smart enough to 1) realize I am not doing this right 2) realize I am not
going to shed more clarity on this topic 3) understand this if someone else
explained it to me.

But, I am not smart enough to remember what I learned in chemistry
or physics about this sort of thing, and not smart enough to piece it together
from various internet resources.

Overall, this equillibrium can be summed up as this: I am smart
enough to want to know, but not smart enough to actually know.

What did I learn about BTUs? not much. Perhaps live field experiments on those brats this summer will shed more light on the BTU puzzle.

Hey everyone, you are invited over to my house for some cookouts. Bring brats!

Lucia y mama - out and about

Yep, my mother is visiting. and yes, I am still sane.
I like having her around.
I ask her stuff.

Hey Ma, why do you think my hostas aren't growing over on this side of the
house?
Ma, what else do you think you put into chicken salad?
Ma, is this outfit ugly?

that sort of stuff. and she cares.

We went shopping today. not earth shattering, but I did buy a grill.
This grill puts out 45,000 BTU. now, I know that a BTU is a British Thermal Unit, but I can't really get my arms around how much this is comparatively. I know that the other grills varied up to 70,000 BTU. Is that too much? How fast would a brat blow up at that level? and what is the BTU - energy or heat.
I need to research on the internet and get back to you.

Wow, great link to a great blog post

I am so into this post from 11Frogs' blog:
and witty repartee ensued ...: An interesting take on the impending Big 3-0

This is one of my favorite lines, but it was hard to choose just one:

My twenties are a battlefield littered with the corpses of ex-boyfriends, abandoned jobs, empty Jagermeister bottles, un-used gym memberships, feelings of self-loathing and fights with family. I can't tell you how proud I am to have made it to my thirties relatively unscathed by death, divorce, bankruptcy or spending time behind bars for the stabbing of an ex

yeah!