Ordinary Day

This morning I had a very unpleasant dream which involved having to put my poor kitty down because she'd developed some sort of weird tumor that was going to kill her. The weird parts were that somewhere in the middle of the dream Polly stopped being a cat and started being a little white chihuahua--and that the vet told me that while the procedure to remove whatever it was she had would take only ten minutes, it'd also cost a HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS. I told to the vet that solarbird and I could not afford this, which of course meant that we'd have to put Polly down. When I woke up, I remember, I was in the middle of trying to find out how long Polly had to live and whether or not I could let her live out the rest of her days without having to actually put her down. Also? At no point during the dream do I actually remember asking the vet WHY a procedure that would take only ten minutes would cost so much.

When I told Dara about this upon our awakening, she pronounced that the vet was going to use transporter technology to remove the tumor from Polly non-invasively, and because of the energy draw, it would cost that much in electricity. "I have an answer for EVERYTHING," she informed me proudly. She DOES.

But at least I was sleeping heavily enough to have that intense of a dream before awakening, which means I've won back some more of my brain, which I need to get through the rest of the week. (I was certainly missing my brain yesterday evening when I left work--I discovered a few blocks away from Real that I'd actually left my handheld computer back in my cube. So I mean that almost literally! I had to go back and get it, if nothing else because I'd written a few words of Lament on it and I needed to take it home and sync it up with my laptop for the night's writing work.)

And I still have a kitty. Kitties are good.

Tuesday evening miles: 2.1
Wednesday morning miles: 2.1
Miles out of Hobbiton: 857.1
Miles out of Rivendell: 399.1
Miles to Lothlórien: 64.9

Went down to Third Place Books this afternoon to hang out with technoshaman for a bit, which was pleasant; we had BBQ sandwiches and fries, and we yakked, and that was in general Good.

While I was waiting for him to show up I read through Tanith Lee's "Heart of the Moon" in Winter Moon, which I liked better than Mercedes Lackey's "Moontide". Her heroine Clirando was interesting and complex, and I liked the conflict set up for her. I also liked her love interest, who was a good strong character without being obnoxious. The only part of the story I didn't like as much was the ending, which had a bit too much of a handwave-y "make everything okay again" rushed feel to it, and which felt tacked onto an otherwise excellent story.

Not too long after that, I had to haul Polly off to the vet. Polly was surprisingly sanguine about this on the way there, but once we arrived and I got her into the examination room, I heard another cat yowling at the top of its lungs nearby. So did Polly, which freaked her out and made her pretty much impossible to handle. The doctor only managed to get a urine sample because my kitty--shall we say--issued a strongly worded communique on the examination table. ;P But that was enough to let the doctor determine that there was some blood in there, so we're proceeding with the theory that she might be suffering some kind of transient infection. I've got an antibiotic I'm supposed to give her over the next two weeks, a liquid to mix in with her other meds into her wet food. At this point she's getting almost more meds than food!

I had to wait a while at the vet while the sample was being analyzed, so while that was going on, I read through Kit's "Banshee Cries" in Winter Moon--which is why I bought that book in the first place. Picoreview: w00t! I liked the followup on Jo's relationship with her mother, Gary and Billy both had great supporting character mileage, and there were some nice little bits furthering the attraction between Jo and Morrison. I'm really hoping that Morrison will get to have more active involvement in future plots, though!

Tonight there is pizza and poker, and hopefully I will be able to sneak in some wordage in the middle of it all!

Friday evening miles: 1.85
Saturday miles: 2.0
Miles out of Hobbiton: 621.45
Miles out of Rivendell: 163.45
Miles to Lothlórien: 300.55

Well, the excitement of the snow seems to have died down, as it's warmed up considerably and what precipitation I've seen so far today has been in the form of rain. Ah well, it was fun while it lasted! Here's hoping we'll get a few more snow showers like this; it'd be nice to see a bit more snow during the winter for once.

I went over to the Starbuck's by the QFC in Bothell this morning to have a chat with a recruiter from Chameleon Technologies, and that was pleasant. She bought me a hot cocoa (mmm, peppermint) and we discussed the sorts of contract opportunities I'd like to pick up in case the thing with Google doesn't go through. (On this recruiter's behalf, also, I will note that if there are any tester types local to the Seattle area out there, Chameleon has positions they're looking to fill. Talk to me if you'd like a referral.)

And I've officially got two interviews for contracts at Real next week, on Monday and Tuesday. I do have to say that my recruiter at Volt is really putting out the effort to find me a contract; I'm rather pleased with her. Even if she doesn't get me onto a contract, it's been a very pleasant experience working with her so far, and I'd recommend her for local geek types seeking contracts, too. (Again, talk to me if you'd like a referral.)

In kitty news, I am informed by Polly's vet that she's in decent shape thyroid-wise, so said vet will authorize continued refills of her thyroid meds. She's also showing signs of kidney annoyance and potassium shortages, which the vet says are kind of standard for old cats. (Polly's about 16 at this point, a venerable senior feline citizen!) Dr. Emery therefore recommended getting her some special kidney-friendly wet food and a potassium powder supplement as well, which I can just mix in with her other meds. She approves of the meds in wet food plan, too, so big kudos to mamishka for that suggestion.

Today there will be editing, as I see if I can knock out at least a thousand words from Chapter 2 of Lament, and then I will send out the first round of chapters to my shiny new bumper crop of beta readers. Hopefully also there will be new writing, on Chapter 19. And then tonight there will be rmd and claudia_ over at the Burning Hand, Chateau de kathrynt and llachglin. Yay!

Thursday miles: 1.2
Friday miles: 2.1
Miles out of Hobbiton: 521.5
Miles out of Rivendell: 63.5
Miles to Lothlórien: 400.5

First up, let me send out a HIYA! to tigrelisfleur, who joins my Friends list out of Great Big Sea fandom (and specifically off of greatbigsea), and who also shares my affection for Battlestar Galactica and Russell Crowe. arthur_denger is an old, old friend of both mine and solarbird's, out of the original Kentucky crowd that got me into SF/F fandom in the first place.

And, Tuesday. This morning I actually have work to do, which is a bit of a shocker, given how many days lately we haven't had testable builds. We'll see if this keeps up through the week. It'd be nice to have another full paycheck again. Especially since as of today, I have two weeks left on this contract.

Last night Dara and I went to see the local Serenity preview at the Oak Tree Cinemas, where we met up with mamishka and aerialscribe. It wasn't actually a planned group effort, since Dara and I expected not to get in due to the event being overbooked--but happily, once we got there, we discovered that they'd changed which screen they were using to accommodate the larger-than-expected crowd. And, Meems and Jeff got there early enough that they actually got in before the line officially formed--so they saved us good seats. Also, Meems won a prize for successfully answering one of the trivia questions asked before the film, though we don't know what she got yet since she has to go by the SF museum (I believe, since they were one of the sponsors) and pick up the item in question.

The film itself held up quite splendidly for me a second time around. I didn't notice too much different, except that this time there were actual credits and more music. It was definitely cool to see it with a big crowd, many of whom were established fans, but some of whom weren't--and as Meems has posted over on her journal, after the movie was over she chatted with this one guy who hadn't seen any of the show at all and yet found the movie perfectly easy to follow. So that bodes well for people who haven't seen the show yet to be able to enjoy the movie!

In other news, as per the recommendation of the vet, I've had to double the daily thyroid meds for my cat. And as per Meems' clever recommendation, I've started giving Polly her meds mixed in with a spoonful of wet cat food. This has gone over well with the cat. EXTREMELY well. In fact, she's started hanging out in her "treat spot" in the kitchen, around the times I give her her meds, demanding her new treat with even more vigor than she has historically demanded her usual treats. And, if given her usual treats, she does still eat them--but hangs around asking for the wet cat food too. ;)

Tonight: more writing, and fish dinner with spazzkat!

Monday miles: 0.05 (token)
Miles out of Hobbiton: 349.3
Miles to Rivendell: 108.7

I was sent this picture in email. What makes it especially funny for me is that the cat in that picture looks amazingly like my cat Polly--which leads me to believe she's obviously been sneaking around modelling for photographs behind my back.