or, more trials and tribulations of yet another fallen angel

Ah, for a storm that fizzled out to almost nothing by the time the strong outer bands hit NewEngland, it sure managed to pack a wallop. Thought we were going to get by unscathed, but power went out yesterday before 8 am. And is still out. Where I am, that means no water (i.e., toilet flushing) either. Luckily, I had over-prepared.

Still, I will have to go home and empty the contents of my fridge into the trash this afternoon. Truthfully, it needed to be cleaned out, so there is something nice about starting fresh.

It will likely be the weekend until we have power again, given the damage I've seen in the neighborhood. Didn't look l like much from around my house, but as I popped in the car yesterday evening to drive around a fussy baby, holy wow, there is some serious damage out there.

Luckily, parts of the next town over have power, and the library has wifi \0/ And food establishments are open. That Dunkin Donuts pumpkin swirl coffee never tasted as wonderful as it did this morning.

in preparation of the great Snowpocalypse of 2009 this past Saturday, i slept hard and late. sure i had a ton of office work to do, but i also had to try and get my house in basic working order (ie, clean cat boxes, wood easily accessible for any lack of heat, snowblower actually working).

in the midst of me running in and out of the house, mom and i were having a fine came of voice mail phone tag which boiled down to thus:

Sophie, one of the feral cats from the Volunteer Services for Animals that we relocated to our barn a few years ago had an abscess on her neck. mom managed to catch her (Sophie has become quite the sweetie, and would often consent to being pet by mom). mom was headed to the vet with her.

but, upon arriving at he vet, Sophie freaked out and bit mom quite soundly. mom was rushed in back where the techs applied betadine for a good 15 minutes, and she was sent of to the Urgent Care to get antibiotics. Sophie would be sedated and examined. and animal control would have to be call since it was more than 2 years since the last vaccination for rabies (i.e., when she had been health screened by VSA and placed to us -- all involved know that these cats are not likely to be caught again and taken in for routine physicals). i'm now on call to possibly pick up Sophie in case mom is delayed.

until of course mom calls and we actually get to talk, and she's headed to Target, do i need anything. i can tell immediately that she is crying and ask what's wrong. she just heard from the vet -- Sophie tested positive for feline leukemia. she would have to be put down. poor mom and really bonded with this sweetheart, and yes, she had tested negative when we got her, but given the population of strays (and not-so-strays who are not properly looked after) that rotate through our area, Sophie had ended up infected. so now we have the question of do we have to keep her alive for the rabies quarantine (two weeks) or can we be kind and put her down and have a post mortem performed.

luckily, we were able to go with the later.

not so luckily, the morning of the Snowpocalypse (sunday) mom called to see if i needed to be plowed out. i assured her i was fine -- did they need me to come down and shovel? no, though mom wasn't able to do much since her hand was now hugely swollen. i asked if the driveway was clear and when was she leaving for the ER. "i'll call the doctor tomorrow." cue my yelling and protesting.

at least dad has more sense than her and packed her up later that afternoon as she tried to put up a brave front as her hand was throbbing and she could not move her fingers (!!!). this is what happens when one is raised by a hypochondriac (my grandmonster, her mother).

so she has been in the hospital on high dose antibiotics since sunday afternoon. she is hoping she can come home today -- she was told she would be released when she could make a fist, and she is pretty much there as of this morning. of course, they would love to be able to start treating her for rabies if needed, but there is a problem. no test results for Sophie yet, though the state does have her body. so now we are trying to get in touch with former vet of ours from eons ago who is now state vet for the SPCA and see if he can move along the 2-3 week process (dude! what's up with that?) and possibly get all implications of trying to be a good person to animals handled in one fell swoop.

in the meantime, mom has sworn off any outdoor cats as she cannot bear to have to put one down before their time again. even Rory (ancient man who showed up on my doorstep last year and now living with them) is no longer allowed to take a turn around the garden under supervision as has been his recent pleasure. he shall have to content himself to the four bedrooms, two couches and one cardboard box of his very own in the indoor confinement.

whew. as i said yesterday, it's winter solstice, mom's in the hospital. welcome to our new tradition we started with last year's pneumonia fun at this time....

... earache still raging. now joined by sore throat and non-productive yet painful cough.

fuck.

so don't need this.

i'll be taking mucinex when i get home and trying to do as little as possible around the house tomorrow.

i'm breaking all the rules and eating a donut this morning, dammit. every now and then these things must be done.

sadly, they only had chocolate frosted coffee rolls. i gave them my stink eye and lecture about the necessity of having maple frosted coffee rolls available at all times.

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prynne12's tweets from D*Con are hysterical and keeping me amused this morning.

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i finally splurged and bought myself a pair of MBT shoes. i've wanted a pair for years since first reading about them and how wearing them makes you really used your legs and core muscles much more effectively, but $250+ for a pair of shoes i'm not sure would live up to the hype? ouch! but tactile mentioned she had gotten a pair and loved them, so i nosed around and landed on zappos.com where they were expensive, but not that much more so than my usual Danskos.

they arrived yesterday, and omg, i am in love! i was crazy and wore them around the house last night, and walked for 15 minutes on the treadmill. oddly enough, the area where i felt it most and really had to struggle was my shoulders and neck, right where my stress usually builds up. hmmm, how much of that is exacerbated by poor posture when walking, i wonder?

anyway, i have groovy rocker-bottom feet today. and these will make me put my funky sock collection to use as they are a maryjane style shoe am seriously considering a trainer version next so that even if i can't run, i can feel like walking on the treadmill is actually make me work.

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a long weekend looms ahead, and i am declaring it a WORK-FREE WEEKEND, dammit. i foresee much sleeping, napping, sitting like a lump in front of the tv and doing absofrickinlutely nothing. ZOMG. cannot WAIT!!!

and i should probably get to work now. head feeling a bit less foggy today thanks to the decongestant spray i finally broke down and used yesterday morning. documents ahoy!

::insert typical work rant here regarding lack of billing and big huge honking quota hanging over my head::

which is why i *really* appreciated spinning my wheels looking through study material for information that just simply wasn't there, and nearly 45 minutes later get a "nevermind, i found it somewhere else".

nervous breakdown over lack of billing in 3, 2, ...

which is why i am wasting another five minutes here instead of diving back into billable work.

i've been running out things to listen/watch on the iPod while at work. this is not good. as i've said before, iPod entertainment while at work keeps my inner 12 yo ADD self happy and entertained and not up on LJ producing posts. ahem. all 7 seasons of Gilmore Girls have been processed multiple times. Firefly has been watched over 3 dozen times. Pride & Prejudice, North & South, Wives & Daughters, Cranford, all multiple times. Bodies (UK drama) is good and juicy, but only for eps i've seen, and i'm down tot he final two, s i really want to be able to sit and *watch* those those process all the subtleties. podcasts tend to be bad because i have to pay too much attention.

so i've been poking around the dvd and download collection to see what else i have to convert and load up on that i can not have to pay too much attention to, and yet still enjoy. it's a tough balance.

someone uploaded the UK drama Sparkhouse a week or so ago, and hooked me with the mention of Richard Armitage. everything else should of had me fleeing in terror. why? it's remake of Wuthering Heights.

lemme explain. i loathe Wuthering Heights. i know, the hight of gothic romance, i should be all over it, but i've hated it from that summer before 9th grade when i had to read it. was there ever a more despicable and nasty set of characters on the face of the earth? before i even understood what it was to write and create characters that were relatable and redeemable, i smelled something rotten on that baby and wanted to stab my eyes out. i think in a paper i once wrote something along the lines of "and then Cathy died, and i danced around the room in glee."

then there was a spring break in college when a certain loser in my life had to read the novel as part of a remedial english lit class. (seriously, you get into Sewanee and you flunk English 101? with Willie Cocke? this was obviously my first clue.) there was an insistence on renting all the movied versions of WH that week as well since reading was so difficult. so i had to sit and suffer through the brilliance of Laurence Oliver playing the loser Heathcliff and deciding that i now hated him for all time. all the while, english-flunking loser and raving abut how this is the Best Story Ever, and this is True Love. i was back to wanting to stab my eyes out or stab the english-flunking loser. i should have gone with the later. especially as i missed the second big honking clue at this point that english-flunking loser found the fucked up abusive relationship of these despicable creatures True Love.

anyway. so i hate WH. and yet, yesterday out of desperation for something to keep me focused at work, i turned it on. i'm halfway through, and all i can say is there is not much Richard Armitage (yet), but this is a sick and twisted retelling in a good way. there is an edge and strength and promise in Carol/Heathcliff at least that makes me say you go, girl! instead of being despicable, the characters are broken, and we see why (why yes of course there is incest and the product of it!). Andrew/Cathy is a f'ing twit, and it looks like Carol has come to embrace that and lord i hope not move in that direction again (i'm deluding myself, aren't i?). of course i know this cannot end well and she is likely to take a tumble down into despicable depths -- and hello, this whole story has no hope of ending happy.

which is why i ripped Ferris Beuller's Day Off onto the iPod last night for a light and fluffy chaser.

have been insanely sick with a stomach bug of some kind (just not the 24 hour variety). i slept for large chunks of Sunday, thought I was better Monday morning, but by afternoon was clearly headed downhill again and fast. Monday evening/night was spent in fitful dozing, tormented with pain, nausea and fever. i crawled into work at 6.30 yesterday morning to get 3 things out that *had* to be dealt with. was back home in bed by 11. woke up around 6.30, was able to get some fluid in and staying in, and was back asleep at 9.30.

i'm now sitting at my desk yawning, and in that tingly/dizzy state that screams "nap, now!"

but, other than that, 100 times better than yesterday. oy!

the endless rain we've had for 90% of this season means that molds are rampant. though my allergies have improved recently, i'm clearly being attacked. it is the only thing explaining this fuzzy-headed-ness and constant need to sleep.

i was in bed at 7 last night, tried to read, and gave up a few minutes later. 10 hours of sleep and here i sit at work, tired and ready for more. more rain pounding on the uninsulated tin roof above my head is not helping.

also, too tired to eat. or remember what else i was going to say here.

zzzzzzzzzzz.............

i love this Neil Patrick Harris quip on his being asked to host the Emmy's and nominated for supporting actor:

"Being asked to host the show – terrific. Getting a third nomination – fantastic. Having the ability to scribble my name in the envelope backstage when no one is looking – priceless."

i hope he wins so this quote can come back to bite him. :)

paging deaver for geekiness

bwahahaha! my massage therapist and i were talking about the lack of Sex in the SYTYCD auditions this year. i guess we just hadn't waited long enough. from Nigel's tweets:

dizzyfeet: Two SYTYCD audition shows this week. Wednesday & Thursday. Apart from some outstanding dancers I love the Dance Battle in Seattle with Sex.

dizzyfeet: I promise all you SYTYCD fans that this is the final time Sex will appear on the show. You'll see why!!!?

ack! they promised us *last* year was the last year they would let him in! but, a dance battle sounds great. i hope it's with Nigel himself.

ETA: for those of you who are going "Sex? WTH?", enjoy some Crazy!People.

and check out this video i can't embed with bonus hysterical Mia Michaels' moments.