Again!

Once again, we have a Package Shark product which requires the use of a Package Shark in order to open the package.

If I could open that kind of package easily, I wouldn't need a Package Shark, now, would I?

It's a Sign

It's a sign. Mini the Chihuahua not only likes cats and lived with them in her original home and foster home, she is actually litter trained.

:-)

I'm telling you, this is absolutely meant to happen.

The fact that she's calm around cats will definitely help Captain and Stanley acclimate. It also means that I don't have to worry about the dog freaking out when the cats go into their Kitty Stampede mode, which happens several times per week. They can go careening around the house sounding like a herd of elephants, and the dog will have seen it all before.

Litter trained. I love this. Someone actually had the wit to litter train their small dog. GENIUS. I still have a hard time dealing with the idea that anyone could bear to part with their pet of ten years, because I assure you it would kill me to be put in that position, but I do tip my cap to their ingenuity.

The latest and greatest

Both my yarn orders arrived today, including two different brands of glow-in-the-dark yarn. My goal is to make an EPIC baby blankie for my great-niece/nephew-to-be. :-)

John R. came through the angioplasty on Tuesday with flying colors, much to everyone's great relief. There's a certain amount of risk inherent in the procedure for a diabetic, but in this case, they HAD to do something. Thank God for the number of teaching hospitals in Philly, because they're willing to do procedures here that other areas' hospitals (cough WEST CHESTER cough) refuse to even attempt. I knew that John's move to the city would be a good idea, and it's paying dividends less than a month into his residence here.

I talked Mark into letting me inquire after adopting that 10-year-old Chihuahua that I was completely smitten by at the dog adoption fair at Sunday's Flyers game. So I emailed the shelter, and now we'll see what happens. They said that she's housebroken and is OK with cats. If they're correct about the "OK with cats" part, in particular, I'll start filling out the forms immediately. I was impressed with how calm she was even in the face of the chaos on the Wach Center concourse... most dogs, other than service dogs, are not exposed to that level of stimulus on a regular basis, and she handled it better than I'd have expected, considering her age and the fact that many of her breed are high-strung dogs.

She seems pretty low-key, and she's half the size of Stanley/one third the size of Captain. If she's as calm around them as she was on Sunday, she shouldn't intimidate them too much.

So we'll see what happens. I hope the shelter doesn't take too long to respond to my email.

I found glow-in-the-dark yarn online. No, that's not a typo. I ordered a small amount, and I like it, so I just ordered some more.

My nephew and his wife are expecting a baby, and I'm thinking that this yarn would be an ideal addition to the baby blanket that I wanted to make for them anyway. :-)

Cue Barry Manilow's It's a Miracle; the SUN is out for the first time in forever! We've been hammered with rain, flash floods, downed trees, and wind damage for nearly a week, so it's about time we got a visit from Mister Sun. Now I hope it stays out long enough to de-waterlog everyone and everything. Enough already with the freaking clouds and rain.

Took care of the latest Medical Test this afternoon. Results should be back to my docs within the week. At least this test doesn't hurt, nor does it require a needle. It does, however, require a full bladder, which occasionally made life a tad more interesting than I'd prefer. Oh, that and the fact that I'm ticklish. That made life interesting, too. Sigh. But all in all, this was pretty easy as tests go. Here's to finding easily-resolved answers. Keep me in your prayers.

Spring is nearly here, and with it, the live bird's nest webcams I follow are back online!

Hummingbird cam (the nest of an endangered Channel Island Allen Hummingbird in CA:
Live video by Ustream

Hawk cam (this one's based in Philadelphia at the Franklin Institute):
Streaming Video by Ustream.TV

LMHO!

BWA HA HA HA!

Someone at Nestle is a flat-out genius, and I want to be just like them when I grow up. Yes, I followed the attached instructions. I'm still giggling. If it's busy, which it might well be because this is probably spreading all over the internet even as I type, keep trying. It's worth the effort if you need a laugh, and who doesn't need a laugh? :-D

TAKE A MINUTE AND DO THIS! Call the Nestle Hot line at 1-800 295-0051 When asked if you want to continue in English or Spanish, wait quietly for about 10 seconds and you will smile. Keep going and press 4. Then press 7. Don't give away the surprise. Whoever thought of this at Nestle deserves a raise…if its busy…keep trying! it was funny!! Try it, BRILLIANT!

WOW. My refurb HP laptop arrived today. OMG is this screen amazing. And huge. Almost exactly a year after Mark got his 17" refurbished HP, I ordered this one, which is the same size and has similar features.

Three cheers for HD screens, and for Windows 7.

I'm enjoying setting it up and using it. For a person who spends more time on a 5.6" netbook than anything else, a screen this large feels like I'm computing on a Jumbotron. :-)

I've finished downloading all the software that I get from the internet (antivirus, anti-spyware, Open Office, Paint.net, to name a few). But I have a few things that need to be installed from the CDs. I'll do that after I get some sleep.

There's nothing that makes life more interesting than placing a call to schedule medical testing, while a giant orange stripey critter hops into your lap, purrs loudly in your face and rubs his head on the cell phone where you're trying to add the appointment to your calendar. :-) Crazy cat.

Memories

I've discovered that when I crochet with the 70s Music Choice channel on TV as my audio wallpaper, I can resurrect very vivid childhood memories of crocheting while listening to WFIL (which used to be a rock station) on my transistor radio. Some of the other kids on my block also could crochet. So we would all sit on someone's front step and crochet with the radio playing in the background.

Some of the songs from the late 70s bring back other memories. I used to have a bike radio; songs that came out when I was in late grade school/early high school remind me of riding around the neighborhood on the bike, listening to the radio. (For the young whippersnappers: no, I don't mean with earphones. I mean listening to the radio through the mono speaker.)

It's pleasant to be able to bring back, if not the nice times themselves, then vivid memories of those times. Never mind the old Bell Telephone long distance service slogan... THIS is "the next best thing to being there".

Oh, and by the way... molasses is a good source of iron. So now I'm using it in my morning coffee. It's nice to think that my morning dose of caffeine is actually medicinal now. :-)

Hallelujah! My replacement cell phone is up and running. The original one was not charging, so my two batteries were both completely depleted. The new one is charging the batteries with no difficulty, and my info is restored from backup.

I was able to put one of the recharged batteries into the old phone, and it turned on. So I did a hard reset on it so that when it's returned, it will be back at the original factory settings. I didn't want to send it back with my phone contacts, personal information, and apps installed on it. (*cough*WMWiFiRouter*cough*).

So all is well now, and the Gremlns are exorcised. Hooray for getting problems resolved!

The Other Donna sent me a link to a yarn manufacturer's webpage for finding various crafting charities. The first one that caught my eye is called Chuck's Hats for Chemo. It's a charity that makes hats for chemotherapy patients.

I'm right in the middle of a different project right now, but I can easily see myself getting involved with that project. I've already made a hat, so I can vouch for the fact that the process is pretty straightforward. It also doesn't require tons of yarn,l so I'm thinking that I will now have a good use for the yarn that's left over from skeins after I've completed projects. And, of course, there's always the possibility of just picking up some yarn that's specifically FOR making a batch of hats, rather than simply waiting until I've made something else and have leftover yarn to use.

If my goal is to always have a project going at any given time, this is just the sort of thing that I can stay occupied with for the long haul, even at the times when I don't need to make any new items for myself or family/friends.

Arrrrrgh

Arrrrrrgh... they have to send me a replacement phone. Farg.

So I'm minus a cell phone for the next couple of days. Bear with me. Also, please send emails rather than texts until the replacement phone is up and running.

Doggone !*&@

I think I got my cell phone wet yesterday. It refuses to charge, and has drained my two batteries down to 0%. Prior to everything going to the dogs, I had set the phone to forward to my Skype phone number, so at least the calls will come IN, and I'll get them if I'm at my computer. However, if I'm already on a phone call and someone tries to call me, I think a busy signal will result. The likelihood of that happening is low, but if you call and it's busy, please call back later. (Or use the link on the left-hand side of this blog to leave a voice mail.)

Freaking Gremlins.

Good day!

You know what a good day is?

Crocheting a pillow with a purring cat parked on my lap (or at least as close to my lap as he can get), with a Phillies spring training game on TV. That makes a good day.

Substitute "Flyers game on TV and Phantoms game on the laptop" for the Phillies game, and we have the description of last night and the answer to the question, "You know what a good evening is?"

Would've been even better had the Phantoms or Flyers WON, of course. Here's hoping the Phillies find a way to do today what their hockey counterparts couldn't quite manage last night: take a W from this game.

I am reminded of when I first learned how to crochet, back when I was in grade school. I used to listen to a portable radio while I worked. (Misty didn't do laps, so that part of "what makes a good day" wasn't an option at the time.)

Anyway, Constructive Activity is good and creating tangible items is a satisfying occupation. We'll see how long these throw pillows take to create (there'll be a matching pair). Then I'll have an idea of how much time, effort, and yarn will be needed if I decide to make more pillows as gifts or for the consignment shop in Center City that I recently found out about.

The hematologist is pleased with my hemoglobin numbers. Considering I was off iron pills for 5 days recently, plus had a session of Mother Nature doing something that depletes iron naturally, it was good news to see that my numbers actually improved from where they were at the time of my previous visit.

Next up: an ultrasound. This, apparently, is the normal progression of testing when a patient with my symptoms comes in. First they check the GI tract, and if that yields no results of note, next is the ultrasound.

At least ultrasounds don't involve discomfort. This test might involve keeping a full bladder, which would be annoying, but I've had ultrasounds of other areas before and the worst that the actual ultrasound process does is tickle.

All this doctor stuff is no way to start a decade. Just sayin'.