Who is next?

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Jakie with her feeding tube

Usually I write about Riley, my crabby ol' man cat.  He's old, he's crabby, and he has a thyroid condition. But he's not who I wanted to write about today.  Today - it's Jake.  Jake is a girl.  She's the kitty that has always been the favorite because she is so sweet and friendly.  She will climb on anybodies lap, and tends to gravitate to people who don't like cats or do not want contact with cat hair.  She's nice like that.


Back in 2006 Jakie developed hepatic lipidemia.  Lipidosis.  Something like that.  She stopped eating and drinking and we finally had to resort to a feeding tube to get her to eat again.  Not too long after the feeding tube was removed, she went right back to her full figured self again and all was well.  

Yesterday after being
 manhandled by the vet.

Recently my daughter pointed out to me how tiny Jake was looking.  Me - huh?  What are you talking about?  Well when you see them every day .. and when you use rationals like - well she's getting old, she's shrinking - you just don't realize what's happening.  And I knew she was eating - I have made sure of it ever since her episode of anorexia.
  


Took her to the vet yesterday, Jakie weighed 11 lbs last time she was there, now she is only 6 lbs.  I am such a BAD fur-mommy!!!  Got the results of her blood tests today, turns out she too has a thyroid disorder.  Actually pretty common in older cats.  Sheesh.  And actually, that's the good news because I was worried it was diabetes which is much more complicated to treat in a cat.  


The doc is calling in a prescription for Jake, I gave her one of Riley's pills tonight and will pick up her script tomorrow.  Hopefully she will gain some weight and be her old Jakie self again, and just maybe I will start paying closer attention to my kitties.  BAD FUR-MOMMY!!!
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Maxine Monday

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House selling tip #2

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If you want to sell your house, especially in this market when the odds are in the buyers favor, GET OUT OF YOUR HOUSE when someone wants to see it!!  


Many of the homes I've looked at have been unoccupied, no furniture, nothing.  And some have people still living in them, but no one was there when we went through.  But then there are those houses where the owner just insists on being there. 


Let me tell you it's awfully uncomfortable looking at someones home with them right there.  You don't open closets, don't comment on the floors or cabinets you hate, you wonder about things you are not comfortable enough to ask about or look at with the owners there.  Good manners tells you to take your shoes off (a good idea anyway) and to tell someone what a lovely home they have.  But that is not what you are there for. You are there to evaluate the home by your own standards, which may mean talking out loud about what changes you would want or need to make whether it is paint colors to removing walls or ripping out some of the homeowners hand picked light fixtures.  Not easy to do when the people who picked those light fixtures are within earshot.


There is one home, a cute cape cod that I have been wanting to see.  We have asked 3 times and each time the owner would have to be there.  After seeing 2 other homes with people in them, I am not willing to do it again.  FINALLY I have a couple of days off and the owner has agreed to be home to let us in (no lock boxes for her!) and then she will leave - at noon on Tuesday.  


I do not know if she always wants to be there because she thinks we will steal her blind or what, but to me it feels like she really doesn't want to sell her house.  Still ... it's on the market and I finally have a chance to see it!  Bad side though, trying to see it so many times - I'm bound to be disappointed by what it actually is - but we will see.  At least I actually get to go inside!  SHEESH!!


So the actual tip is - if you want to sell your house - don't make people BEG TO SEE IT!
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During the best of times ..

... and the worst of times

There is always something to be thankful for.

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Maxine Monday

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Br-r-r-r-rrrrrr!!!!!

If you're selling your house and have moved out, please leave the heat on.  You don't have to leave it on 70 degrees but can you at least leave it in the 60's?  I mean .. unless you don't want to sell your house.  


I cannot speak for anyone else but for me, it's hard for me to picture myself making a home out of an empty house when I  AM FREEZING MY TOOKUS OFF while seeing it!!!


Just sayin'.

Good enough

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When I was married, the money was handled by my husband.  I was so conscious about saving money, I never shopped or bought so much as a diaper without asking him first.  He went out and bought himself $800.00 suits (in the early 80's) but I wouldn't even buy myself new socks without running it by him.  We had children, I grew up in a house, I wanted my children to grow up in a house.


For a period of about a year or maybe it was 2, we lived in a one bedroom apartment. Our queen sized bed and a mattress on the floor for the kids along with 3 dressers were all crammed into one bedroom.  But to me - we were saving money for a house.


When we bought the house, it wasn't long before I found out my marriage was irretrievably broken, not even worth going to counseling (according to him) and I could not keep my house for long after that.  It was a few years in total, but I had to sell it or I would have lost it.


Since then my living arrangements, furniture, everything has been "good enough".  Not "good", but "good enough".  My $50.00 thrift store couch has lasted me for a number of years.  My car is 10 years old, the house I live in was not one I liked when I moved in but it was again, good enough.  


The guy I was dating for many years after my divorce would fix things or build things for me but it was always with that "good enough" attitude, not necessarily good, but good enough. It was what I was accustomed to.  Good enough, and not expecting more. 


It's only been in the last year or so that I've started to get fed up with "good enough".  I have worked very hard for a long time, why can't I have "good"?  If I have worked for it, if I am supporting myself and can afford it, why do I still feel guilty about wanting "good" now??


This is making finding a house very difficult.  (well, that and the fact that I am CRAZY!!!!)


Just sayin'.

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Maxine Monday

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Best things I've purchased on Etsy lately.

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This magnet.  I made my own magnet for the dishwasher but it wasn't nice and sturdy and was getting ratty and ready to toss.  This new one SO fit the bill.

Click the pic for the shop

This purse organizer.  I am always on the hunt for the perfect purse but it's mostly the inside, not the outside that fails me.  They all become a black hole for my stuff which I manage to rummage through and flip everything around so nothing is available at a glance.  Hoping an organizer will address my real issue with purses.

Click the pic for the shop

These beads.  Crackle agate, aren't they pretty?

Click the pic for the shop

I didn't buy this bracelet on Etsy, but it is what I made with the beads above - and am selling on Etsy.

Click the pic for the shop

I never get bored searching Etsy.  The creativity of people never ceases to amaze me!

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Sign me up!

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Spent most of Saturday running from one house to a townhouse to another townhouse to .. and in the middle of it and far from home the lady in my car who gives me directions decided to think a USB was plugged into her and would only wait for further instructions from a computer.  Nice.


Almost put an offer on a townhouse that was really nice, until the trek home took over a half hour and 2 tolls and I decided I didn't want to live in **Egypt.  It was really nice, though, backed up to woods with a deck upstairs and walkout patio below.  Nice.  But .. Egypt, remember.


Today was Riley's drinking day, getting out of work on time was difficult as it was and then after feeding the crabby old man cat I managed to corner him and get him in his carrier for the drive to the vet.  The drive ... the drive apparently required keys.  Funny, that.  Keys!  Who would have thought? 


You know how you're supposed to retrace your steps to figure out where you left something or even what you were thinking earlier?  Yeah.  Heh heh.  I released Riley from the carrier while on the phone with the vet, talking over the lady's hysterical laughter when telling her why we couldn't make it.  She said we still had some time if the keys showed up so when I hung up the phone I tried one more time.


Retrieving a fresh garbage bag to start transferring garbage from the half full can one piece at a time to the bag - hoping to find my keys - which you know would be at the bottom because they weigh more than paper towels and paper plates.  But for some reason I stopped before actually digging into my garbage treasure trove and went over to the counter where my mountain o' mail resides.

Well I'll be!  Of course!  The kitchen junk drawer!  Who DOESN'T keep their keys there!??


Mind you, I had only been home for about 20 minutes, and 18 of those minutes were spent looking in the pantry, the refrigerator, bathroom, bedroom, between the cushions on the couch, under the telephone table and chair by the door, in the Halloween candy, outside in my car ... in the cat carrier once I freed Riley, in the utility room .. but of course.  The junk drawer!


Why didn't I think of that???  I guess I did.  Ahem.


Is there a support group for losing your mind? 




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Maxine Monday

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C'est la vie!

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Whatever will be, will be .. oh wait.  That's que sera, sera .. they both mean the same thing anyway.  Basically.  So no, I did not get the townhouse.  There was already a contract on it and well .. it's time to look elsewhere.  They say things happen for a reason right?  I mean - it's not like I cook or anything, why do I need a perfect kitchen??


Anyway, onward and upward.  Something else will come along.