Cat Scene Investigation is a popular game in our household, even though Brian and i are unwilling participants. the rules are simple: the cats do something, and we have to figure out whose it is, what it is, and/or where it occurred.
Whose Puke Is It is easy to solve. the puke belongs to whoever isn’t sniffing or eating it. sometimes, the perpetrator gives him/herself away by trying to bury the evidence.
What Is It goes hand in hand with Whose Puke Is It. it’s important to know what your cats are coughing up as an indication of their health. most of the time it’s only a hairball or scarf and barf (from eating kibbles too fast).
Where Is It is like this: when Brian and i are still asleep and the cats want their breakfast, Hopper or Basil will deliberately start coughing in an effort to make us get up. on occasion, they cough up for real–the splatter against a wood floor seems to echo in the early morning hours. then, it’s time to look for the evidence and hope you don’t step in it.
an even worse variation of Where Is It is when Hopper shits out of the box. trace evidence is easiest to find when it’s still fresh because the odor hits you so hard it’s like walking into a wall. however, there have been times when the crime was perpetrated long before it was detected and the only lead you have is a faint odor coming from…somewhere, and not from the location of the litter boxes. argh. this is the worst. one time, i could smell the scent all day, but no matter how hard or where i looked, i couldn’t find it. you can read the case file here. since Hopper is the only one who does that, at least we’re spared from having to play Whose Poop Is It.
the evidence never lies. 
i was all dressed and ready to go, even had my shoes on and everything. then the anxiety kicked in, i started feeling nauseous, and got the dry heaves. instead of asking Brian to call them to say i couldn’t make it, i fought that part of my anxiety and called them myself. too bad the line was busy both times i called. by then all i wanted was to take a nap (it was 3pm and i hadn’t fallen asleep yet, which was a surprise), so i did. Brian eventually got through to them, but we were unable to get an appointment for another month. meh.
months ago i began entering my Star Wars books into LibraryThing, which i thought was a great place to keep track of my Star Wars library. (read my post on LibraryThing here.)
Listal is even better. it allows you to catalog your music, DVDs, and games–not just your books. further, a free account doesn’t limit you to entering only 200 books (if you want to enter more than 200 in LibraryThing you have to pay $10/year or $25 for a lifetime membership).
other features include:
- the ability to track which of your items you’ve loaned out
- customized lists in which you can group items
- books that are read or unread
- items what you want
you can also join discussion groups for people with similar interests. i’ve created a group called Star Wars - Expanded Universe. so sign up (did i mention it’s free?), start listing your stuff, and join my group. 
you can see my Listal profile here.
there’s a Walgreens within walking distance from our apartment. the next closest one is a mile away. we stopped going to Nearby Walgreens because the pharmacy manager is a fucking cunt. i hate that word and hardly ever use it, but she is. long story. another reason we avoid Nearby Walgreens is because the cashiers are fucking idiots.
for being located only a mile away, i can’t believe the difference in IQs between the employees at this Walgreens and the ones near us. anyway, Mile-Away Walgreens has a 24-hour drive-thru pharmacy, so it makes more sense to fill prescriptions there. the sad thing is that they don’t sell decaf diet Cokes. unfortunately (or fortunately), Nearby Walgreens does.
after driving Brian to work yesterday, i stopped by Nearby Walgreens for a 12-pack. the cashier was “Paul.” ugh. i hate him. the last time i was there–months ago–he didn’t know how to make change, never mind that it says right on the cash register how much to give back. i figured that by now he should know his denominations.
right before he rings me up, he starts coughing into his sweater sleeve. several times. my total was $3.08, so to make things easy for him, i gave him a $5 and 8 cents. what does he do? licks his fingers before sliding 2 singles out of the drawer and handing them to me. fucking yuck.
December 1999. i had just finished cleaning my apartment in Columbus before heading home for winter break. Basil’s emerging from his hidey hole behind the dish rack to see if it’s safe to come out yet. “ebil” vacuum cleaners may be lurking, you know!
don’t forget to see more pet pics at this week’s Friday Ark. if you post your own pets’ photos, just leave them a trackback or comment and you’ll be listed there, too. 
i’ve been resmacked. the first time was last November. the second time was yesterday:
We?ve got a tweaked WordPress template. Not bad, not great. Eh.
Two sidebars. One is dedicated to links and junk with a couple of personal things tossed in. The second is all that blogroll and recent comments/posts/categories thing. Oddly, she has a rolled up blogroll but a huge category list that is not rolled up and more recent comments than recent posts. There are way too fucking many recent comments. I marvel at the brightness in rolling up the blogroll but leaving the categories sitting there hogging shit. I don?t get it. As far as double sidebars go, I?ve seen worse. I?ve seen better too so eh on that too.
Ok, she whores her Rent My Blog person which I guess is kinda nice. She?s got some medical problems. She?s bi-polar and a huge part of her blog discusses her experiences and feelings associated with it. (Categories show 132 posts regarding manic depression. The next highest is blogs and internet.)
She ?cat blogs.? ~swoons~ One of her cats looks exactly like my retarded kitten.
Now, I?ve seen some of the other bitches gripe about archives. I generally don?t because who the fuck really reads them anyway and because I sorta hide mine as well. However, I now see why this annoys the other bitches so much. Clicking on a category gives you a whole page of stuff ?mostly? about that thing but I don?t have enough minutes in my day to look at all categories. I guess this proves my ?who really looks? theory.
She links to someone I cannot fucking stand, heh. Do I care? Why no, no I don?t.
What I do care about is the lack of uppercase lettering. As I regularly point out, only I can do the lowercase thing–only in comments and only if I?m on my ancient laptop. She says in one of her posts that she?s an excellent typist with only 2% error rate. I?m going for 99% error rate because capitalization is your friend. You can?t claim to be an excellent typist if hitting the shit key makes you break out in hives.
In summation, I kinda like this blog. I could probably read it every now and again. She does write reasonably well though it is a bit dry. It?s not completey terrible. It?s not great either. It?s just a person blogging about her life. Sometimes that?s interesting and sometimes it?s not. And that?s her blog, sometimes interesting, sometimes not.
However, as a Canadian born person who is less than thrilled with the US these days, I hate Chicago with a passion. (You?ll see where that statement makes no sense. Go with it anyway.) It?s where I developed my irrational fear of bridges. Do I care that she lives there? Why no, no I do not.
Constructive criticism: Roll up your categories. Reduce the number of people commenting. Get a better template. Never accidently get on the skylane at 3 AM. The ?last? year thing at the end of every post is kind of annoying. Do something about that.
i’m not complaining. i improved since the last review, and of the 3 total blogs reviewed yesterday, i was the only one who got smacked. go, me! and i love the post title: I’ll take the manic chick for $500, Alex. note that i submitted my blog for review knowing that it could get completely torn up.
Bitter Bitch, the reviewer, has brought up a lot of valid points, including a reminder for me to start looking for a designer. she’s right–my blog reflects my life: sometimes it’s interesting, sometimes it’s not. it was far more interesting before i was diagnosed, but not particularly stable, either. i don’t think my writing is normally dry, but i admit that lately i’ve had a hard time fighting my mood states to get anything done–including blogging. it’s like i have word constipation. just. can’t. get. themmmmmm……out.
i may be trying out different templates over the next few days, just to see how they look. what do you guys think about the double sidebars on one side? should i just have one sidebar? what about categories? i agree, there are way too many there and i’ve been in the (slow) process of combining some to delete others. do people really look at those, or at monthly archives? i would love any and all suggestions.
Almost an Angel is a lawyer, a mom, and supporter of our troops in Iraq–not of the war, mind you–of our troops. she also has a son stationed there. her current post is about the Adopt-A-Platoon Program, in which she participates. she will be blogging about her adopted soldier soon, so make sure you keep clicking on her thumbnail, ok? i have also known Almost an Angel for over a year and she’s a very good blog friend. go say hi!!!
as you all know, i can only have one tenant at a time. thanks to everyone who bid. if i didn’t choose you this time, please try bidding again, ok?
i’ve felt really “off” these past few days, and i can’t put my finger on it. it’s anxiety of some sort, that’s for sure, probably based on the whole sleep thing, and going to therapy. i’ve decided to take a break from therapy until the sleep issues are resolved. i can’t stand going to so many doctors/healthcare providers all the time.
that’s why i blew off seeing the ENT for so long. i guess it’s a good thing that i finally saw him because he caught my sleep problems, which is probably a big part of my depression. who wouldn’t be depressed if they didn’t get enough sleep? for years? i always thought the dark circles under my eyes were just part of how i look.
i feel bored and…empty. not spiritualy empty, just emotionally empty. i’m not sure how to describe it. maybe this is the “flat” feeling i’ve read other bipolars describe on their blogs? whatever it is, i don’t like it.
i’m looking forward to the new week.
don’t forget to see more pet pics at this week’s Friday Ark. if you post your own pets’ photos, just leave them a trackback and you’ll be listed there, too.
i have mild sneep apnea. the doctor thought i was tested for 2 nights instead of just one, so now i have to go back! argh. at least i know what to expect this time–and i’ll try to take better pictures. also, Omnibus Driver pointed out that the 2 straps they wrap around your torso, for which i couldn’t see any obvious purpose, actually measures “the rise and fall of your chest and abdomen to get a feel for how much oxygen you are or aren?t taking in.” in other words, they’re important.
as for treatment, instead of a CPAP machine, i may undergo the pillar procedure, which is a relatively new treatment that’s done in the doctor’s office. as it happens, my doctor is one of the guys who developed this. three tiny, little, pillar-shaped implants are inserted into your palate in order to stiffen it to lessen the vibration. a soft palate vibrates, which is what causes the snoring, and sometimes it collapses, which is what causes the blockage of airflow while sleeping. as i understand it, the pillar procedure is for people who have mild to moderate sleep apnea, and may not be covered by all insurance companies.
because of my constant sleepiness and lack of energy, the doctor thinks that i might have narcolepsy. when he said this, i twisted around in my chair to face him, and was like, “what?! i’ve seen movies in science class, and i’m not like that! i don’t fall asleep while i eat, or anything like that.” he and Brian laughed, and the doctor said those were the worst cases, that there are varying degrees of narcolepsy. um, ok.
now, i have to get yet another sleep test in which they put me in a dark room to see if i fall asleep. if i do, they let me sleep for 15-30 minutes. they wake me up, and i have to stay awake for 2 hours and read or watch TV. (this is done during the day, by the way.) then they put me in a dark room again to see if i fall asleep. repeat 3 more times. i have to have these tests done so the doctor will know the right way to proceed with my treatment. he mentioned the drug Provigil, which i only know about because the pdoc thought about prescribing it to me. instead, we tried the Ritalin first.
i just want all this to be over with!!!
