It is Wednesday, and I might actually have my shoes, ID badge, cell phone and lunch money here at work. I did not accidentally leave the kid at home sleeping.

Maybe I am back in the swing of things?

To put this all in context, a very wonderful human friend of mine named Tatyana died today as well, far too young. Apparently while I was taking care of my cat, she had pneumonia. I hadn't seen her for a while and had no idea she was ill. I am *so* done with this month.

Is there anyone that's having a good start to this year? Just wondering.

Tech support forums are bad enough without tons of "helpful" posts written by people who clearly didn't read the posts properly the first time. Yes, we know it is possible to back up the data via the backup utility, but that's only if you can get the damn thing turned on to start with. Wouldn't it be easier to read the posts first and seeing if that's been covered instead going to the trouble of writing your post?

EDIT: This is directed at actual forums, not LJ. Just for clarification.

I am really getting tired of the neighbors cats crapping on my driveway. Because I shovel, there is a little sheltered area next to my car, so they just come and do their business there. I tried laying down pepper, but that had no effect. If I don't shovel, I am afraid they will move to under my car.

Any suggestions?

Not really cranky, but may be after I shovel. Just had to test the new icon! :-)

My thanks to an exemplary cat, my companion for a huge part of my adult life.

Christmas is now put away. I am sad. It was a very nice tree.

People used to ask me "how do you get so much done", and I never knew why they thought I got a lot done. This vacation, I may have figured it out. I get a lot done by being totally anti-social. These last two weeks I celebrated Christmas three times - twice at my house meaning I had to shop and cook - went to a party, saw two movies, visited with an old friend, went to lunch with another.

And I am a wreck. All I have done is talk to people and do dishes! It is a wonder that social butterflies ever get anything done at all!

Welcomed in the new year with some old friends and made some new ones. Discovered I am pretty bad at flip cup. Maybe next year, I won't be driving! But it was a great time.

Eek's numbers are significantly worse today, so I'm going to bring him home. He doesn't have any significant tumors, but unfortunately he doesn't have any any significant kidney function either. I'm going to continue to treat him at home, but it looks like he's on the way down.

As years go, it was sort of . . . meh. But the good things:

- Several adorable babies were born.
- My son got to be in an amazing musical - a life changing experience for him.
- I fenced better than in 2008 and was honored to be offered a spot as an alternate on the Champions team at Pennsic.
- A lady who has long been on the list of "she would make a great Queen someday" got to prove everyone right be being amazing.
- My boss recognized my worth and good things happened.
- I have remained employed with wonderful coworkers; I have most of my health and my son remains a great kid.

Now, perhaps 2010 can try to top that. Happy New Year all!

So I went to the Ballachlagan practice this past Sunday. There were only a few fencers, but we had plenty to do. It was an interesting mix of weapons, mostly focused on two-handers of various forms. I got to play wannabe-ryu kenjutsu, which is always fun. Much practice needed.

Towards the end of the day, we played a local favorite melee game. Two people stood within a 10' circle. Everyone else stood outside. Those two groups tried to kill eachother. If someone outside died, they went to one of two rez points. If someone inside died, they left the circle and their killer took over on the inside. Repeat forever. DFBs were allowed. Outside fencers could not enter the circle, so the inside fencers always had some room to maneuver.

I had an amazing time with it. By this point, I was using a pair of katana. Between that and having attacks from every direction, I was pretty amped. I enjoyed being in the circle; it reminded me of what I love about melees. I am more prone to hero behavior on a field, so this game played to my strengths. Theoretically, you could team together with the other fencer in the circle. I found that the most productive use of him/her was placing them between your blind spot and an outside fencer. In the end, I have to watch my own tail and I can't feel bad about using another fencer to secure that. Having to track 5 fencers (1 inside and 4 out) kept my mind sharp. Every little motion counted, even more so with the katana. Lots of "wall" clears with slash in the wake. I did pretty well, I think. The game is very tiring. I could hardly control the katana after 10-15 minutes. I'd be curious to try it again with a rapier and dagger.

I will definitely be heading down to that practice again, if only for that game.

I like "Into the Woods", but the music can just be weird and unsingable. Sigh.

The times comes...
The times comes...
The times comes...
The times comes...
The times comes...
The times comes...
And then it goes . . . then it goes away. . . .

So what are some things we can do to make 2010 better? Certainly, in some circles, we could include tips like "wear underwear when leaving the house" and "don't marry Charlie Sheen", but what about our little circle?

Well, I'm sure everyone has been on edge waiting for further news on my suddenly-very-expensive cat. As usually seems to happen with these things, last night's good news is followed by today's even worse news. He's more comfortable now that all that fluid is out of his lungs, but he's still got terrible renal function plus congestive heart failure. The evidence is growing that he has an abdominal mass; we're waiting for ultrasound and needle aspiration on that one. However, unless something unexpectedly good happens on the kidney-vs-heart front he probably won't live long enough for the mass to do him in.

The standard treatment for renal failure is fluids, and the standard treatment for congestive heart failure is diuretics, so the two problems require opposite treatment plans. A very nice kitty internist is trying to find a drug combination with will improve the current balance. Eek has probably been getting nauseous from the renal problems, and that is believed to be the cause of his loss of appetite over the past couple of weeks.

So that's the balance of things. The goal is to tweak his meds and get him home, possibly this evening but more likely tomorrow. He won't last terribly long once he's back, but I think he and I would both prefer that he spend what time he has in familiar surroundings.

Update: I just got a call from the vet saying that it looks more like liver inflammation than an abdominal mass, and saying that there is some evidence he has an infection in one of his kidneys. That could be treated with antibiotics, possibly getting us out of this heart-vs-kidneys bind. So, we end the day on good news. He'll be in another day at least; you may be able to hear the giant sucking sound of my wallet being vacuumed out.

Maybe my company doesn't count. We are at 181 on the Fortune 500 list with about $14B in revenue. Not sure how many employees we have at this moment, but it is tens of thousands. Over time, we have laid people off, cut health benefits, and have hired lobbiests in Washington. The company has also:

- reduced emissions coming out of diesel engines in amounts that are astounding
- this year we have increased fuel economy despite another reduction in emissions
- decreased our energy usage
- increased how much we recycle and reduced packaging significantly. If I read it right, we no longer send anything from our local plant to the landfill.
- was one of the first companies to offer benefits to domestic parters (of any gender)
- fired people for inappropriate treatment of others - including high performers that we really needed
- fought off foreign competition to keep jobs here.
- employed tactics like voluntary layoffs and reduced hours to keep from laying off people in bad times

One thing about "big business" is that they hire a lot of people. They can afford to offer things like "sick days" and health benefits.

They are not all evil.

Enjoyed watching Avatar with the kid and his friend yesterday. Visually stunning and all that. The story was very Hollywood, and it may inspire a rant or two. The "horrible big business is killing the trees and all they care about is profit" theme is getting a little old - especially when you work for a company like mine. I am really getting tired of "big business is evil". I am also getting tired of seeing that every beautiful, exotic race of people is taller and thinner than humans. God knows they would *never* be rounder. That would be totally unacceptable.

But it was a good movie.

An interesting thought on health care:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/OPINION/12/28/frum.unhealthy.habits/index.html