Author: Allegra

Born when atmospheric carbon was 316 PPM. Settled on MST country since 1997. Parent, grandparent.

I can haz dishwashr

Yes, indeed.  Jeff and I got in the car at 1 minute after 4, and in rush hour traffic we a) made it to our destination, a cash only appliance place just north of the Justice Institute on McBride b) parked c) examined three dishwashers d) made our choice e) split up while he made delivery arrangements and I deked south to the Shell station to get cash f) regrouped to pay for it g) burst out laughing simultaneously when the guy, who had already taken the delivery money but had no urge to deliver it, said, “What kind car you got?”so I said, “A sports car”  so he insisted on looking at the vehicle with a view to its suitability to have the dishwasher loaded onto it, triggering even more gales of laughter (you should have seen this guy’s face, it’s like buddy, where the bejabbers do you put a dishwasher in an MR2?) and h) drove home in 38 minutes.

Yes, I am concerned about Margot.  But I can still be enchanted by the world and crack jokes, c’est mon métier.

I only THOUGHT Miss Margot’s preop screen came back okay

Doc Mehdi says her platelet count is so low that if he operated now she’d bleed out.  Good thing I went for the pre-op screening.  One of two things is going on.  Either the results were f*cked up, AND they didn’t call me to tell us before Jeff took her in, or she’s genuinely sick (which, given her behaviour is virtually impossible to believe) and, I say again, how come nobody called? I quoted LM Montgomery when remonstrating with the doc this morning, “Sad mismanagement somewhere!”  So I have to pay for yet more tests but they are keeping her overnight for free.  Apparently no work is getting done in the office as all the assistants are ignoring the phone for a chance to play with her; she’s already giving orders and being carried about from place to place.  Nobody who has met Miss Margot will fail to see that it’s just as well somebody as heartless and callous as me got her, or she’d be ruling the world by now.  Honestly.  She’s not a cat, she’s a benevolent dictatrix in feline form.

Anyway, I am so heartless that if it turns out she’s a goner, I’m going to keep her skull.  It is an entirely remarkable shape, and I would mount it at the top of a staff as an extremely scary object.  I mentioned this to Jeff earlier and he was grossed out. Hope you are too.  Mind you, if she’s okay and they just screwed up her bloodwork, I’m going to find another vet, after the operation.  She has to be spayed, she’d die if she ever was bred to anything but a very tiny male purebred.  And in the meantime, if she doesn’t have cancer or untreatable thrombocytopenia, I guess I’m on the rack for a LOT of expensive vet bills.  Cazart.

Fluttery

I am feeling a bit fluttery about Miss Margot’s operation today.  She has a strong heart (Persians sometimes run to heart trouble) and her pre-op screen came back okay, but I’m still unhappy, and listening to her cry for her lost dinner and breakfast is making me sad.  Wait til she comes home reeking of anaesthetic, loopy as all get out, while the boys gather round goggling at her.  They’ll be happy to have her so subdued …. And so will the rest of us, she’s about to go into heat. (Noiser, more affectionate and really anxious to go out).

Jeff has just left with Miss Margot.  There was a flaw in my cunning plan… I didn’t give him my credit card to pay for it all, so I think I will just go there at the end of the day and Jeff can drive us both home.  Continue reading Fluttery

All roads lead back to dirty movies

I looked up Michael Moschen and hung around on his website for a while, and then decided that I wanted to find out what David Van Tieghem, the guy who did the music for the PBS special “In Motion”, was doing these days.  I found out that he scored some porn films (?!) and then stumbled upon this.  Reading Annie Sprinkle review her own movies put me in a very good mood.  Your mileage may vary.  To be fair to David Van Tieghem, he is an accomplished and energetic musician and if you read just what he’s done in the last two years you get breathless.  But if I didn’t like his music, I wouldn’t have ended up on Annie’s site.

So There.  Now I want Jeff to find out if some of those movies are available on Zip.ca; although really I’m more interested in the documentaries than the porn.  Really.

Anyway, it’ll be 10 am soon and time to quit playing and do some frakkin’ work.

Sigh

After being here for a couple of hours including grabbing a bath and some shut eye, Katie left in the middle of the night and let all three cats out.  I heard squawking about an hour ago and got up to let them in, and Margot was soaked and FILTHY.  Considering you have to hold her underwater for about an hour to get her really wet (nothing seems to get through to her undercoat) most of it brushed off.  The bathroom floor is covered in debris that fell off her.

She’s going to be fixed on Friday.  O goodie.

Then Sunday, John’s memorial Pondfilk.  I’m not going there with Paul but with luck will get a lift back with him.  The rest of this week should be devoted to music and continuing to get the house organized.

busy day

Awake at 4:30, up at 6, made breakfast for me and Jeff, showered and headed off to Edmonds Skytrain Station, where I met up with Katie and went into the VCC to be the ‘living model’ for her three hour practical exam.  This won’t mean anything to anybody who hasn’t seen episode 2 of this season’s True Blood, but when Eric comes down the stairs with full salon regalia on, I just about died laughing.  And so did Kate when she saw it just now.  When she was foiling my hair this morning I couldn’t stop laughing.  Anyway, my hair is the same colour but curlier and shorter.  It’s a change. I’ll let others decide if it’s an improvement.

I bought a bed but it won’t be delivered until July 16.

Mike SLEPT through his dentist appointment, a ferociously bad state of affairs, and I’d talk about it more except my opinions are late and useless.

I cooked roast beef with steamed carrots, long beans, broccoli, cauliflower and baked potatoes; I made GRAVY.  Ser yum.  And I fed Jeff, Keith, Kate and Paul.  Mike would have come but he feels dreffle.

Finished John’s Song

Of course I played it through in Midi format and realized that I’m going to have to re-do it, but at least the main tune and chorus are written down.  Damn me for making the tune of every single verse different for dramatic effect. So that’s ONE song scratched off, if not perfectly.  Tomorrow, something else!

Now I’m off to Mike’s to cook him lunch and render aid and comfort… he has toofache.  And no relief until Wednesday.  Must remember to pack beer for Mike, all the better to wash painkillers down with.

here comes the future

yech.

Miss Margot gets fixed on Friday.  It is possible this will affect my ability to go to Pondfilk, we’ll see.  Also, I have been invited to go to Hot Springs soon, and that may be interesting in terms of timing as well. I can’t put it off any longer, she could go into heat at any time.

The vet says Miss Margot will not grow substantially bigger than she is now.  This explains a lot.  Considering that she was born Dec 9, she’s tiny… she weighs in at 2.35 kilos.  So in addition to cute, smart and phlegmatic, she was bred to be pocket sized, thus her mother’s birthing difficulties and the breeder’s insistence she be spayed.

She advised us with regular bulletins on the way to the vet, one of which was actually Meow (she said meow, how odd) ’bout how very disturbed and unhappy she was about her mode of locomotion. After we got home I left the carrier out with the jailer’s peephole open and she jumped into it for fifteen minutes.  Gizmo watched with a look of disbelief and distaste.  Both the boys are learning to deal with her, as ignoring her is simply impossible.  Gizmo curled up on me the other day, only the third time that has ever happened.  Other cats make a big production of getting into your lap; Gizmo flows into your body heat like a furry puddle and evaporates with the same skill.

Jeff is steadily advancing his chief project “The Audio visual dungeon made of awesome” and the living room is now fit to sit in.

I have a number of appointments today

And so I cannot start off with my 10 – 5 routine of work which I have planned for myself as the best way to treat my year off. I will, however, be working in the middle of the day on something, probably a choon.  There certainly are enough of them, and John’s song is not written down yet, so that might be a good place to start.  Tomorrow…. up whenever, cook breakfast, to work at 10.

See how I took all the fun out of everything by making it all like work?  But I know only too well what will happen to me if I don’t put some new habits in place of the old one.  I’ll end up completely deranged in a big pile of paper, and that’s not too far from what things look like right now.

I am reading Austen’s Mansfield Park.  Fanny Price is a remarkable creation.  She looks like a prig but she’s just really really sensitive.  The description of how she feels when she goes back to Portsmouth to be with her noisy gross family is awesome.