In Which We'll Be Visiting A Lot Of Waiting Rooms

February looks like it's gearing up to be a month of appointments; Connor will have an audiology, dental and neurology appointment, and Eden will have a dental appointment and, once I get it set up, her annual well-check visit as well.  So we'll be plenty busy in the next few weeks.

Connor's due for a new pair of hearing aids; his current ones are five years old and are starting to drain batteries faster and faster.  Hearing aids have changed a lot in the past few years, so it will interesting to see what he ends up with.  I'm curious to see what color he'll pick out if he has a choice; he pretty consistently chooses orange and blue for his AFOs, so we'll see if he follows that trend again for his hearing aids.

I'm fine with whatever color so long as they stand out against our wood floors.  Every once in a while if I get lazy and leave them on the coffee table when I take them out for Connor's nap, one of the cats thinks they make a great toy and runs off with them.  So I need something high contrast to find them under whatever piece of furniture they've been shoved underneath by a little kitty paw.

Anyway, hopefully whatever hearing aids the audiologist recommends will be as robust as these have proved to be over the years.  They've been dropped, thrown up on, chewed on by a cat and a teething toddler, and thrown up on, among other things.  I'm still amazed they've lasted this long!

~Jess

In Which My Cats Display Their Elegance And Dignity

So we bought a second cat bed for the cats, because I was tired of listening to them fight all day over which one got to sleep in the bed in front of the fire.  Basically what was happening is that Cricket, who fits perfectly in the bed and who is getting old and crabby so deserves it more anyway, kept getting kicked out of the thing by Loki, who would then only put about a third of his body in it.  I'll admit that he is a really big cat and doesn't quite fit completely in it even when he makes a strenuous effort, but I suspect he did it mostly so Cricket couldn't use it.  Loki is kind of a jerk.

Anyway, so the local pet store had their cat beds on sale and I picked up a larger one so that Loki would actually be able to fit his entire body inside the thing.  I stuck it next to the fireplace and turned the fire on.  Both cats completely shunned it and continued fighting over the smaller, evidently far superior original bed.

So then I had the bright idea of sticking the wool guinea pig bed inside the new cat bed, as it's basically Cricket's Favorite Thing In The Entire World.  This means neither one fits in their bed of choice, and I can now present to you the Most Dignified Cats Ever:

Way to go, cats-- you are a credit to your species.  Good thing you didn't belong to Charles Baudelaire, or he would have written some seriously different poetry.  

Crazy cats.

~Jess

In Which The Kids Are Doing Well And Loki Hogs The Bed

The kids are pretty much settled back into their school routine now, which is nice.  Connor's been making some recent strides in physical therapy; yesterday he stood up leaning against a play area with his knee braces on but without any other support for almost a minute, and he actually spent some time playing with his toys, which is more than we've seen out of him for a while.  It's hard to hold the kid's attention long enough to motivate him to work on something, so I'm happy to see him making some progress!  We'll keep working on his standing with braces for a while and see how far he goes, and when he gets bored we'll switch to something else.

Eden's been making some incredible progress in PT as well; she's currently working on hopping on one foot, which is really awesome. She's come a long, long way in the past year!  She decided she wanted to try on my high heels today and went wobbling around the room laughing; it made me remember trying on my mom's heels as a kid and doing the same thing, though I was quite a bit younger at the time.  I'm so glad I get to make some of the same special memories with her.

We've been keeping the gas fireplace turned on quite a bit, and the cats have spent most of the past week fighting over who gets to sleep in the cat bed in front of the fire and who has to take the blanket, which is clearly inferior in every way.  Loki, who almost always wins because he's about twice Cricket's size, likes to  stretch out on the blanket and then put just his head in the bed while Cricket plops down on the bare floor next to him and looks pitiful.  This is because Loki is kind of evil.  An adorable striped fuzzy ball of evil.  Apparently sharing was not one of the lessons Loki got high marks on in kitty etiquette school.

Crazy cat.

~Jess

In Which Cricket Attempts To Shrink And Connor's Chair Gets A Tune Up

Seriously, cat.  This is not going to work.

Today Connor went to school sans wheelchair-- I had to take it in for repairs.  Recently it developed this annoying habit where the brakes spontaneously deploy every ten to fifteen feet with this huge clang.  This, as you might imagine, has been driving me absolutely up the wall, not to mention that it's been seriously impeding getting places in any kind of a hurry.

It's complicated by the fact that while the brakes slowed the chair down, the wheel treads have worn down enough that they didn't actually stop the chair if it's on any kind of an incline at all.  Since large portions of the streets in the Pacific Northwest run down steep hills that end in things like major traffic intersections or you know, the ocean, this had the potential to be really exciting.  So I made an appointment and took it in.

So I spent an hour and a half or so tootling around in Gig Harbor while the repairs were done, and I'm now happy to say that Connor has a chair that goes when it's supposed to go and stops when it's supposed to stop-- sans the giant clanging noise.  Hooray!  It's amazing what a difference a simple tune-up of equipment can make; I didn't realize just how annoying the problem was until I wasn't dealing with it anymore.  Connor seems to enjoy the smoother, quieter ride too.

Eden leaves for her first ever church retreat tomorrow, which is pretty exciting.  It will be the first time she's slept away from home without me there, so she's a bit nervous about it.  I think she'll have a pretty great time once she gets out there though; she'll know quite a few people and it's only for one night.  I think it's a good way to ease into getting used to some independence, and I think it might make her more open to the idea of a summer camp some time in the future.  I have some really fond memories of the camps I attended as a kid, and I'd love for her to have some similar experiences.

It's been getting colder here, and the cats have started spending as much time as they can on laps or burrowed under warm laundry as I'm folding it.  I have seasonal lap cats-- they condescend to sit on me only in the winter time, probably because they think I make a good heating pad.  Then they get really huffy every time I want to move because my legs have fallen asleep or something.

We had a pint sized wool-lined bed we'd bought for Eden's guinea pigs a while back that they didn't care for, so I washed it in anticipation of putting it away.  It was sitting out on the couch for all of five minutes before it became Cricket's new favorite happy place-- despite the fact that it's about three times too small for her to fit inside.  I ended up buying her a more appropriately sized snuggly cat bed so she wouldn't look so pathetic and could fit her entire body inside the thing, but I had to stick the guinea pig bed inside it because otherwise she completely ignored it.  Every once in a while I take it out and wash it and she waits by the dryer until it's done and she can attempt to stuff her entire body into the thing again.  I think she's convinced that if she tries hard enough, someday she'll fit.

Crazy cat.

~Jess

In Which I Find A Possibly Hazardous New Hobby

Things have been settling down a wee bit over here; I'm finally getting used to the routine of things and not wanting to go to sleep at seven at night.  So that's nice.  The kids are both in full-day school five days a week, the Christmas decorations are put away and the house is more or less (mostly less) in order.  This means I'm ready to start finding a bit of a personal outlet again.

Derby is not in the cards right now, I am sad to say.  If roller derby practices were some time between ten and two on week days I'd be golden, but since unfortunately most of the derby gals have this crazy thing called work that they do in the daytime and for some absurd reason won't reschedule everything for my convenience, that's not really an option.  Currently evening time and weekends are Family Time.  So I need something I can do during the day sometime between Monday-Friday.  I have sewing and crafting and whatnot of course, which I will continue to do, but I also need something that involves other people.  And by other people, I mean Adult People. 

Anyway, first I looked into continuing education classes at the local college.  I loved college.  I am the kind of person who, if I hadn't gotten married and had children and stuff, would probably still be in college.  I would be eight gabillion dollars in debt since that would mean I would have been in college for thirteen consecutive years, and probably have extremely poor personal hygiene and be living on ramen and dryer lint, but I would be learning, dang it.  But unfortunately all the continuing education classes seem to be targeted at those aforementioned working people, and so are on evenings and weekends. 

Next I thought maybe I could find a creative writing or literature class that I might be allowed to audit, but apparently if you want to do that they make you pay full tuition and fees unless you are over sixty or you, you know, actually work for the university or something.  Or possibly if you know the professor who is teaching the class, and sadly I seem to be fresh out of English professor contacts-- probably since the last college class I took was over nine years ago and on the complete other side of the country. 

There are online classes of course, but they would leave me once again sitting in front of a computer writing and talking to my cats, which is pretty much what I do all day right now for free so there's no point in paying for it.

So then I thought about volunteering at one of the kid's schools.  I always enjoy teaching, and mentoring or helping out kids might be fun.  But then I realized that right now pretty much all I do is mentoring or helping out my kids, and I don't really want to spend my free time right now doing it with anyone else's offspring.  This kind of makes me sound like a jerk, but oh well: them's the facts.

After a bit of floundering around on various volunteering websites, I finally drove down to the local animal shelter and put in an application to help out one or two days a week.  If I volunteer there I'll still be spending most of my time talking to cats, but at least I'll be getting some exercise in the process; those huge bags of cat food are heavy.  And also I might have the occasional interaction with an actual adult human being.  I find this idea to be very exciting.

Now of course, this plan could potentially backfire in a major way.  I have done a lot of volunteering or working in various animal shelters and veterinary centers in the past during my pre-children years, and absolutely adored it.  Except for that one time when I worked for a person with ninety cats and obsessive compulsive disorder.  Really.  That was not fun.

But otherwise I enjoyed it, and even though I desperately wanted to on several occasions, I never took any cats home because I was not in a situation to do so.  I either lived with my parents, in a dorm, or in an apartment that did not allow pets.  Though I did convince my parents to adopt a gigantic gorgeous fluffy marshmallow of a tabby that snored, drooled when she was petted and shed copious amounts of orange fur on every available surface, so I guess that statement about not ever taking any cats home isn't completely true. 

All that has changed, though.  Now I am a Big Grownup Person and I have a house and everything, and if I want to adopt eight cats there's nothing to stop me.  Except Jer threatening to divorce me of course, which is probably what would happen if I came home with eight cats.  And I don't need any more cats; not to mention Loki and Cricket would probably be Slightly Put Out about it.  I suppose I might foster the occasional kitten though, which I know the cats are okay with due to the time I bottle fed those four kittens I found abandoned in my carport one year which I then foisted off on friends and relatives-- including my long-suffering parents.  They got the one with poor personal hygiene and a tendency to bite ankles at random moments.    No doubt they are still thanking me for that one.

The major advantage of fostering, though, is that once the kittens get old enough they actually leave your house instead of staying and growing into larger sized cats with correspondingly larger intake and, um, output.  Yes.  In my case they left for my friends and relative's houses, but I'm pretty sure if you foster in an official capacity the animal shelter has some people other than my parents who I can foist them off on.  

Anyway, while I might foster on occasion I in no way need permanent additions to the household.  So your job, gentle readers, is to whack me over the head if I look like I'm in imminent danger of doing something like adopting eight cats.  I probably won't listen to you, but then after the divorce papers are served you can at least say "I told you so."  

~Jess

In Which I Continue Preparing And The Cats Help

Five days and counting!

Connor had a quick little seizure today, but otherwise he was fine.  He hung out with me while I ran errands, got a much-needed massage and continued to check things off my list.  He seems to be taking our out-of-routine days pretty well.

The cats are not adjusting nearly as comfortably to me hauling stuff around, going through drawers and working on my packing.  Loki and Cricket are creatures of habit, and when I change stuff on them they react by trying to kill everything. 

At least I did laundry today, so Cricket had a place to relax when she ran out of juice after bolting around the house for half an hour with her pupils the size of marbles while I was trying to clean off the laundry room table.  Apparently she believes that my laundry isn't really finished unless it has a liberal coat of cat hair to provide the proper lived-in effect.  I'm just glad that I could provide such lovely turndown service for her.  I try to run a reputable establishment around here, though I draw the line at leaving mint-shaped catnip treats on her chosen pillow.

Crazy cat.

~Jess

In Which We Have Guests

One of my best friends is visiting us from out of town for the next few days, which is pretty exciting!  I've known Ruth since fourth grade, so we're not so much friends as relatives by this point.  So I was pretty excited to finally meet her little guy for the first time.  He's almost a year old now, so the meeting is long overdue!

So they got in fairly late tonight, and the baby spent some time exploring the house before bed.  Connor is not particularly thrilled with this whole development.  The cats are not particularly thrilled either.  The baby seems to be delighted with all of them-- especially the cats-- and so we'll see how the next few days go!  I suspect that Cricket and Loki will be spending a whole lot of time in the laundry room behind the baby gate.

Of course, the way Jer explained the visit to Connor didn't help matters.  I believe the quote was something like "Mommy's going to the airport and bringing home a baby today!"  I believe Connor thought his daddy meant that the baby would be moving in permanently.  He was not excited. 

Anyway, I'm looking forward to catching up with Ruth this weekend and getting to know her little guy!  It would be pretty neat if he and Connor could be as great friends as Ruth and I have been over the years, though with as far away as they live it's sadly not likely.  I just need to convince them to move up this way, right?

~Jess

In Which Loki Helps With Everything

Loki has been going nuts today for some reason.  He keeps following me around the house helping with everything.  And by "helping," I mean "sticking his nose into the middle of whatever I'm doing."  Apparently he feels neglected or something.  This is absurd since he demands petting at least once an hour.  I oblige because if I don't he'll start doing something like ripping pages out of my books with his teeth. 

Really.  A lot of my favorite books have little wedge shaped sections torn out of the corners.  Loki is a weird mix of really smart and really dumb, but he's definitely got my number.  If he can't get what he wants by being ridiculously cute, he has no compunction about getting my attention in some other fashion. 

Anyway, today he was nicer about it and simply sat right on top of whatever I was working on.  Right now I'm having to type around him, as he is draped over my keyboard.  There he is with the book I was trying to study from earlier, looking so ridiculously adorable I can't help but pet him even if he is being really annoying.  How could I possibly resist that face? 

Also, when the heck did I adopt a tabby colored seal?  I don't remember that happening.

Anyway, so when he wasn't helping me read, he helped me out with many other important things, for my own good of course.  There was absolutely no way I could possibly use the restroom without his help, for example, so he rammed the door until he managed to pop it open and provided a Helpful Audience completely with meowed commentary.  He also went through my shopping bags, helped me file my receipts (on the floor) and made sure that all of my clean laundry had an appropriate coating of cat hair.  Cricket just watched him cavort around me like a maniac every time I tried to go down the hallway with a vaguely disgruntled look on her face, as if he was a disgrace to feline kind everywhere by acting in such an undignified fashion. 

Both cats abandoned me the second our night nurse got here, though, and Cricket's concern with feline dignity goes out the window.  They are completely convinced that instead of hiring a nurse for Connor, I actually got them a Personal Petting Assistant.  They've taken to hanging out by the front door in the evenings waiting for her to arrive.  They aren't allowed in Connor's room, so they sit outside the door all night and every time the nurse leaves the room they start flinging themselves at her ankles.  They seem to be trying to convince her that they are Horribly Neglected and that she must remedy this At Once by petting them or they will Surely Perish. 

The only way I think they would possibly be more intrigued by her is if she was allergic to cats.  If you are allergic to cats and you come to my house, my cats are instantly convinced that they must be your best friends in the whole wide world.  They're just nice like that.

Crazy cats.

~Jess

In Which My Sister Takes Off And I Do Creative-Type Things

My sister had to leave today, which was sad.  I miss her already!  We always have such a great time when we're together, so I was sorry to see her go. 

We got word today that the nursing agency might have found another respite care worker for us, which is pretty exciting! She'll be doing her orientation next week. Hopefully things will go better for us this time around; it would be so, so nice to be able to hit a bookstore or coffee shop every once in a while. 

Other than a lovely walk around the park and a drive around town to delay having to take Mary to the airport, we otherwise spent a quiet day at home.  Connor seemed to be feeling a wee bit under the weather, so he snuggled up on the couch with a blanket while I got out my art supplies and sketched up a series of stockings inspired by botanical prints just for fun. 

The butterfly stocking I'm working on is moving right along, and I figure it will be nice to have something fun to work on when I'm not doing other projects.  This is what happens when I spend too much time leafing through our Alphonse Mucha coffee table book; I go all crazy and start needing to create elaborate projects for myself.  I haven't gone so far as to start wanting to craft elaborately draped art nouveau gypsy women out of felt yet, but that's probably because I've been getting enough sleep lately and aren't working in my customary half-delirious state. 

I'd gotten out another sewing project to finish up today; I wanted to sew the monster felt applique I made a while back onto Connor's flannel poncho.  Cricket had other ideas, though-- apparently she finds this poncho just as warm and snuggly as Connor does.  Also she and the monster needed to hold hands for some reason. 

Crazy cat.

~Jess

In Which We Chill Out And Enjoy The View

Thank goodness, today was so much cooler!  I spent most of the day trying to catch up on dishes, laundry and all the other chores I needed to catch up on.  It's amazing how quickly things can pile up when you aren't running any of your appliances!

Connor spent the day loudly protesting the fact that I was doing chores; even the old "laundry on the head" ploy didn't last him more than a few minutes.  I think he was protesting the contrast between our stimulation-filled mall time of the last few days and the boring quiet time of today.

It wasn't all boring.  The neighbor's cat kept getting into our yard and eating my birds, using my blooming astilbes as cover to pounce from, so I moved the feeder into the middle of the yard on clear ground so that the birds could see her coming. 

Apparently I just exchanged one set of predators for another; we have now become Large Predatory Bird Central as a result.  Not only has our barred owl taken to visiting every single night, but a juvenile Cooper's Hawk has apparently decided that my bird feeder is the perfect place to figure out how to hunt.  He spent a good portion of the morning high up in the tree, taking the occasional break from yelling for mom to try an experimental swoop or two at the feeder.  Once down he'd hop around on the ground, peering in at all the birds hiding in our bushes.  He didn't catch anything, but it wasn't for lack of trying. 

Good thing the cat wasn't around today.  That could have been unpleasant.
It kind of reminded me a little bit of the trip Jer and I took to a B&B on Whidbey Island a few years ago that fed the wild rabbit population.  As a result they had nearly 100 rabbits living in their yard, and every snag, tall tree and power line ringing the property sported a very fat, very happy hawk.  This guy shouldn't stick around too much longer before he starts his migration south, but he's pretty neat to watch now as long as he doesn't eat all of my other birds! 

I swear we live in the suburbs, so I don't know where the heck all this wildlife is coming from.  I love it though, and I hope we see more soon, though to tell you the truth I could do without the aforementioned cat leaving it partially decapitated on my porch.  At least the hawk would eat whatever it is he caught-- once he figures out the whole 'catching it' part of the equation, that is.

Oh well.

~Jess

In Which I Garden And The Cats Go On Patrol

Connor and I spent some time out in the yard today, and once I got most of my small projects done out there I just had to go down to the nursery and get some more plants so I could create twice as many projects as I had before.  Because that's how I roll.

With all the outdoor things I was doing today after Connor's bedtime I spent quite a bit of time going in and out our screen door at twilight, and I seem to have invited every bug in the general vicinity in with me.  So the cats are going absolutely nuts right now; they take their role as the Bug Destroyers of the house very seriously, and the war is on. 

Cricket has been stalking a crane fly for the last twenty minutes, and so she's been alternating between stalking the bug, leaping wildly into the air, and sitting beneath it making little chirping noises to coax it down so she can kill it.  She completely ignores bugs on the other side of our windows (unlike Loki, who is convinced he can eat them through the glass) but she will methodically hunt down absolutely every insect that dares venture into our house.

Loki is a bit more direct with his bug catching.  His strategy is to run pell-mell after the bug until it either flies too high, he loses interest, or he skids into a wall.  Loki is not a subtle creature by any stretch of the imagination, but somehow he still seems to get lucky.  Maybe the bugs are laughing too hard to get out of his way.

Seriously-- despite their different strategies, these two are so good at catching bugs that they keep the house pretty much insect free.  I have no idea how the heck the gerbil managed to survive not one, but two escape attempts with our cats on the job.  Maybe it's because the crane flies aren't intelligent enough to hide under the couch.

Crazy cats.

~Jess

In Which Tut Tut It Looks Like Rain

Today while the guys played their various video games and Connor pounded on his keyboard in his stretching chair I took the opportunity to do a little sewing.  The bed we found Ellen is a wrought iron daybed with a trundle, and it needs lots of pillows so it can work as a seating area for her during the day. 

I visited the remnants section of a couple of fabric stores in the area and picked up five fabrics in various shades of blue, white and soft green (they aren't purple-- that's due to my camera and poor indoor lighting), and I'm making her some cloud pillows because, what the heck, clouds are neat. 

If she doesn't like them or wants something else (which is perfectly fine-- it's her room!) I can always use them in Connor's room, but at least with these she'll have some place to lounge comfortably right away.  I grabbed some fun buttons to use on a couple of them and I might pick up another fabric or two at some point because they're so simple to make.  I've got three of the shells for the pillows done so far-- they just need to be stuffed.  This is a super quick and easy sort of project. 

Loki helped, of course.  I've had to set aside pretty much all of my more complicated projects due to his overly helpful nature because when I go to the bathroom he takes the opportunity to run off with important bits of whatever I'm working on. 

I really need to get cracking on my cat-free garage studio! 

~Jess

In Which It Is Sicky Times Around Here

Connor was a snifflekin today, and Jeremy felt so lousy he ended up coming home from work early.  He said he felt like it was some sort of flu bug, and he actually seems to be sicker than Connor at the moment.  That's probably a first around here. 

The little guy did all right until early afternoon, when he had a couple of seizures and then crashed.  He's been asleep since about three today, though he wakes himself up every once in a while because he's snoring too loud. 

I'm still feeling fine, though I was a little achy and tired today so I'm wondering if I'm just starting to catch it.  These days it's hard to tell pre-flu achiness apart from my roller derby bruises.  Either way we'll be taking it easy tomorrow so that the Connor can get some good recovery time in and I can head off being sick. 

No doubt the cats will be thrilled with this plan.  At some point in the past few months they have evolved into aggressive lap cats.  I think it's a combination of getting into kitty middle age (Cricket is about seven years old now and Loki is about six) and it being winter time; the cats have apparently decided that I make a very pleasant rump warmer.  They prefer me to Jeremy, probably because I am squishier and therefore more comfortable.  Currently Cricket is occupying my shins, and I'm having to peer around Loki to see the computer screen, as he has decided he needs to sit on my chest and head butt me under the chin.  Loki is good at testing my typing skills.  I don't mind it except when they decide it's time to rumble with each other and I end up with a play-fighting ball of cats rolling around on my knees.  This makes for exciting times.

We'll see if this behavior continues when summer comes around and there are lovely sunny windows to lay in.  Crazy cats. 

~Jess

In Which We Have A Rainy Day

It was all cold and rainy again, so no Christmas lights came down.  I'm sure I'll take them down by, oh, July.  That's a realistic goal.

Due to the aforementioned cold wet weather we spent most of the day all snuggled up inside.  The cats thought this was a pretty good plan and offered themselves as official leg warmers and purr boxes.  While Connor and Jer hung out I had important work-- a nice stack of books to go through and a cup of tea to drink.  It was a real hardship, but I struggled through.

Connor's rash is completely gone except for one nasty area on his cheek, and we're not entirely sure if that's left over from the allergic reaction or if he's got a new skin rash going on.  Fun times!  We'll see what it looks like tomorrow before we decide whether or not to take him back to the doctor.

So really not too much happened today, which was kind of a relief to tell you the truth.  Connor's been keeping us on our toes entirely too much lately; it was nice to relax and have some quiet time!

~Jess

In Which We Were Snowed In

Hi!

I am extremely happy to say that our Internet finally came back on this morning.  Our power flickered off and on this week but thankfully mostly stayed on, but our Internet has been down since Thursday.  Apparently a tree hit something important. 

Trees hit a lot of things in our neighborhood; our house is actually one of the only ones on the street that didn't lose at least one tree to the heavy load of ice and snow.  A few pine trees bent and broke in half, but it was the maples and cherry trees that suffered the worst damage-- most of them either lost huge branches or in a few cases, simply fell over.  We ended up getting about eight inches of snow, and then we got freezing rain for two days, which formed a thick layer of ice over the snow.  If you were careful you could actually walk (or more accurately, skid) along on top of the snow without leaving footprints.  It was crazy. 


We got off pretty lucky; I'll need to go up and check the roof because some of the neighbors' overhanging trees dumped a massive load of ice and snow on it once temperatures rose and it started melting, but otherwise we didn't have any major issues.  We're on high ground, so the flooding currently going on shouldn't affect us either.  Connor has been off of school since Tuesday, and Jer ended up home from work most of the week too, so we kind of had a miniature vacation. 

The temperatures are back up above freezing and the snow and ice are melting (hence the flooding issues), so the streets are mostly clear now.  The biggest issue is the downed trees-- many of them blocked roads and did a lot of damage. 

The pets had a bit of an adventure too-- a couple of days ago Jer and I were startled awake by a tremendous crash.  At first we thought a tree might have gone through a window.  After searching the rest of the house and coming up with nothing, I opened the door to Connor's room.

The gerbil tank was on its side on the floor shattered into several hundred pieces.  Loki was balanced on three legs on the plastic frame of the tank.  He was using the fourth to fish around in the shavings inside.  Apparently he'd snuck into the room when Jer went in to give Connor his medication, managed to wedge himself between the tank and the wall and then shoved the whole thing off the table.  He's nothing if not persistent.

I leaned over as far as I could to avoid the broken glass on the floor and grabbed Loki, who was too busy trying to catch a gerbil dinner to try and get away, and deposited him outside of the room.  Then I went back to play a fun game of "Stick My Hands In Paper Shavings And Broken Glass" to see if the gerbils had survived their unplanned aerial adventure.  Amazingly, when I clicked my tongue at them like I usually do before I feed them, two little heads popped out of the shavings.  Cranston had a tiny cut on his heel, but otherwise they were completely unscathed.

Those are some seriously lucky gerbils.

So they spent some quality time together inside their gerbil wheel while I cleaned up the mess and braved the weather to find them a new tank.  They're lucky the worst was over by that point, or they would have been stuck in our bathtub or something until we could leave the house again. 

Crazy cat.

~Jess

In Which It Snows Some More And I Buy A Cat Bus

More snow today; we've got about two and a half inches on the ground now and we could apparently get six to ten more inches over the next two days.  No news yet on whether or not Connor's school will be closed tomorrow; they may be waiting to see just how much snow we get tonight before making the decision.  It was closed today because of the holiday, of course, and Jer was off of work too.  So we spent most of the day cozied up inside enjoying each other's company.  Oh, and cleaning of course.  I'll put this house completely to rights if it kills me.

I did manage to make it out of the house to find a new laundry bin; I've been wanting one with casters so I can just roll my laundry back and forth across the house.  The one I found has three bins and a mesh shelf underneath, which the cats immediately decided was a little hammock just for them.  Loki has been quite happily lying on it and allowing me to push him between the bedroom, where all the interesting people are, and the laundry room, where his food is.  Basically instead of getting a rolling laundry hamper I seem to have actually invented a cat bus.

A bus for cats, I mean.  Not this kind of cat bus.

But other than providing feline public transportation services today was relatively quiet, which was a nice change.  His impetigo has almost completely disappeared, and he was in a cracking good mood so he's obviously feeling a lot more comfortable.  He's actually starting to take interest in his toys again and show a bit more initiative, which is something we haven't seen in a while. 

It's great to see him feeling so much better!

~Jess

In Which Connor Has A Sad Day And Is Growing Way Too Fast

Both cats are sitting on my lap right now, and Cricket is washing Loki's ears.  This can only end poorly.

Connor was kind of a sadkin today for some reason; I'm not sure exactly why.  He didn't have any seizures or anything; he just seemed to be kind of down in the dumps.  After we did his stander time today he actually had a little meltdown, and then he curled up on me and went to sleep.  I ended up taking a bit of a nap too.  Then he crashed hard when it was bedtime.  It could be that he's still recovering from being sick, and that's why he's sleeping so much.  Or maybe he's going through another growth spurt.  Who knows?

He's definitely grown by leaps and bounds in the past few months; he's actually on the growth chart for both height and weight for the first time ever!  He's in the 11th percentile for weight, and the 1.4 percentile for height.  Connor's g-tube has made such a difference since he had his surgery two years ago; he's more than proportionate now.  And he's got two more loose teeth, to boot.  I just can't believe how fast he's growing.  Can you believe he'll be six years old in April? 

It just doesn't seem possible.  I need to tie a brick to that kid's head or something.

And now as expected, the cats have decided to wrestle in my lap.  I am not thrilled by this development.  I'm trying to suggest they try play-fighting on the floor instead, but they keep flashing all these pointy bits at me when I try and push them off.  Glorious. 

Crazy cats.

~Jess

In Which I Bout Banked And Loki Has An Adventure Of His Own

I survived the banked track!  And I didn't break anything!  And also it was a ton of fun!

So the bout ended up being pretty close-- the final score was Killer Bs 184, Dockyard 150.  I'm not entirely sure how many lead changes there were, but we seesawed back and forth quite a bit, so it was probably a pretty exciting bout to watch.  It certainly was exciting to play!  I'll have some new bruises, but didn't end up with any major trauma. 

Jer wasn't able to make it to this bout because we didn't have respite care for the little guy and the bout was over an hour away, making it a pretty long trip for Connor.  So he took advantage of the lovely day and drove down to a local park for a long walk, just the two of them.  They weren't the only ones who wanted to enjoy a day outdoors, though-- Loki ran outside as Jer was bringing the wheelchair back into the house, and Jeremy was preoccupied with maneuvering the chair over the threshold and didn't notice.

So I got home around 11:00pm from the bout and was in the kitchen eating dinner when I started hearing this really pathetic meow.  It sounded like Loki was stuck somewhere, which happens pretty often as he likes to dart into closets right before the door closes and manages to trap himself inside our Lazy Susan at least once a week.  I started wandering around the house looking for him and finally realized that the sound was coming from outside our front door.  I opened it up and there on the porch was a thoroughly miserable and very cold cat.  He'd apparently spent about seven hours out there, doing who knows what.  Given the sheer destructive tendencies he exhibits we're probably lucky there wasn't an international incident or something.  This is the Cat That Could Topple Nations, which is one of the reasons we don't let him outside. 

At any rate, Loki is now running around the house on a complete tear, making sure that every single thing in the entire house is in the exact same place where he left it.  Cricket, who is convinced that Loki disappeared and was replaced by a Stranger Cat, is slinking around after him, hissing whenever he gets within three feet of her and trying to prevent him from, I don't know, making off with the silver or something.  After venturing outdoors he is obviously a cat who is Not To Be Trusted. 

So all sorts of new adventures happened in this house today! 

Crazy cat.

~Jess

In Which Connor Keeps The Heat On And It's Really Cold In Here

Connor had another feverish, seizure-filled day today, though thankfully it was a lot better than yesterday on both counts because his fever didn't have a chance to climb very high at all before we were throwing medication at it.  The highest temperature I clocked on him today was 101.7. 

He had six seizures and slept a good portion of the day, (which meant another ten hours sitting on the couch sewing for me), but towards the evening he perked up a little bit and even sat up on his daddy's lap for an hour or two before bedtime. 

 Because of all the sitting and sewing I've now almost finished the stocking I'm working on.  I've done everything on the front except for the polar bear, and I'm waiting on the felt for that to arrive in the mail.  So depending on when that gets there I might actually have the project finished by Thanksgiving.  Crazy. 

Another reason Connor's fever probably stayed lower today was that it's so darn cold in our house; the furnace decided to go out on us.  So we've got the furnace guy coming tomorrow too.  Right now I've got the gas fireplace going and we're all bundled up.  Connor's sleeping in our room tonight because his little room is pretty tiny and has a giant window, which means that it's freezing in there.  I've got a blanket over the gerbils' cage and they're buried down in their bedding; hopefully they'll be all right.

Look how mistreated they are.

Cricket demonstrated her feelings on the general temperature in the house by sitting down literally three inches away from the fireplace and refusing to move.  Every once in a while she'd shoot me a wounded look because obviously she was just freezing in her nice thick fur coat.  I finally put a blanket down in front of the fireplace for her, and she and Loki called a truce and spent the entire day curled up by the fire.  As far as they're concerned, I've turned the fireplace on specifically for their benefit. 

Anyway, I'm taking the little guy in tomorrow morning to the doctor's office, so we'll see whether or not he has some sort of an infection going.  We're still not seeing any coughing or congestion at all.  For a typical kid, having a fever like this wouldn't be a big deal, but with Connor it can quickly cause some major issues so we need to have him seen.  I tried to get an appointment for today, but they didn't have any so it was either wait until tomorrow or take him to the Emergency Room today where he could sit for a while and marinate in everyone else's germs. 

Whee!

~Jess

Connor jumped right back on the seizure bandwagon today; he had four total today.  Thankfully all of them were pretty small, but they succeeded in completely wiping him out.  He spent most of the day snuggling, when he wasn't napping in a postdictal haze.

We probably would have hung around the house today anyway; I think we've officially skipped fall and are fast heading into winter.  The temperature today was downright chilly, and the rain didn't help anything.  I feel kind of cheated, considering how late the summer was in coming this year.  Hopefully the rain will clear up soon and we'll have a few more of those glorious Indian summer days; I'm not ready to stop my outdoor skating sessions just yet, even if I do have to dodge more fallen leaves (and lately, the occasional fallen tree).

So it was a cleaning day for me again-- I did tons of laundry, which barely got a peep out of the boy today (and you know he isn't feeling good when laundry isn't funny anymore) and general pickup around the house.  The cats apparently didn't get the memo about it being a quiet day, though.  They apparently thought it was Run Around Like A Maniac And Get Into A Whole Heck Of A Lot Of Trouble day.

See, I've been working on all of my sewing projects at the dining room table, because it's nice and wide and I'm able to spread things out and really make a mess instead of having to be all contained in our guest room.  Of course, the guest room has the advantage of being a cat free zone.  The dining room table is supposed to be a cat free zone too, but apparently Loki decided he was going to forget all of his manners today because dang it, there were all sorts of fun and interesting things up on that table that he could jump up, knock off onto the floor, and quickly bat under whatever piece of furniture looked like it would be the most difficult to retrieve them out from underneath.  Every time I turned my back he'd jump up there again. 

Maybe it was the weather or something.  Who knows?

The real fun started when he managed to get up there and knock off my container of seed beads.  It broke open, spilling approximately 2,000 tiny, tiny beads (which had been neatly sorted by color, and no, that's probably not an exaggeration as far as numbers go) onto the laminate, where they skittered across the floor in every direction.  Loki went and hid under the bed.  I suspect he realized he'd reached his trouble quota of the day and knew it was time to go take a nap.

So after about half an hour of time on my hands and knees with a miniature dust pan, I now have a large jar of 2,000 beads of various mixed colors and, since I hadn't swept the floor yet today, also little bits of fluff, cat hair, dust, and things I don't want to look too closely at.  And now I'm also finding little seed beads in the most inexplicable places-- in my couch, in my socks, in Connor's hair-- I swear they're migrating.  I suspect I'll be picking them out of my food, clothing and furniture for the next three months.

Crazy cat.

~Jess