Today I and ten other ladies will take a rental van to Hoodsport to tour the winery and generally have fun. 

Despite the rain I am excited and looking forward to hanging out with some of my pals.

Also there will be cupcakes.

:)

 Ah, the writing madness has started and I missed the FIRST DAY!

I blame my allergies. I dog sat for a friend of mine Saturday night and completely forgot to bring my plastic encased pillow. Thus my dust mite allergies had the freedom to frolic throughout my system, wreaking mayhem everywhere, especially my lungs.

I found out several years ago I had allergy-induced asthma. No allergens, no asthma. Dust mites were my worst nemesis. Therefor, I bought a plastic lined mattress cover and plastic pillow covers. Stopped the dust mites cold. Lovely, lovely, breathing.

Saturday I wheezed terribly, and ended up grabbing a Seattle Weekly to put under my head when I unexpectedly had to take the dog out in the middle of the night. The paper worked, and I got a few hours of sleep. 

Sunday was spent mostly in a zombiefied state. Pretty appropriate for the Day of the Dead. I crawled into my own bed about 8:30 pm and slept until about 6:30. Blessed allergy relief.

But now I must write madly to make up yesterday's missing words.

Curse you, allergies!

 CJ is sick...

 I've realized I have let a few of these people creep into my life, and now I must ease them back out. That's hard to do when they are likely to show up at public events you want to go to.

 I fell asleep with my bedside lamp on and he didn't scratch the bed or yowl at me once. Is he afraid of the dark?

 One of my friends is caught in one and is currently freaking out. I'm a little worried about her.

 Monday night I caught the Big Bang Theory. One of the story lines revolved around a Magic-like card game tournament, and who should be in that tournament, but Mr. Wheaton. 

Sheldon has a beef with Wheaton regarding a signing that Wheaton never showed up at and is determined to bring him down. Hilarity ensues.

I like that Wheaton can poke fun at himself. 

I like the Big Bang Theory in general, although I don't always sit down to watch it. 

 For the last few weeks, he has taken to scratching my bed at about 6 am, thus, waking me up, thus making me tired and crabby. Yelling and smacking him have no long-term effect. 

I love my cat, but I also love my sleep. Being woken up two hours before I have to be up is maddening.

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 I had to put my girl kitty to sleep yesterday. I already had an appointment for a bad eye scratch she had, but in the last couple of days she'd more or less quit eating.

When the vet examined her, the conclusion was that the fluid that was building up in her body had also built up around her stomach, making her not feel like eating. I could have done a pile of tests and tried to come up with something, but I knew it was a losing battle and I didn't see the point in putting Pocket through that.

So the vet gave her something to make her sleepy, and I talked to her and petted her while it took effect. When she was completely out, I held her on my lap. She hated to be held on my lap before, so this was the only time I got to do that. That's when I broke down and started sobbing. The vet gave her the final shot, and I pet her a few more times before they took her away. I'll get her ashes back in a couple of weeks.

It's remarkable how empty the apartment feels with the absence of one very quiet cat. Jasper, my other cat, spent lots of time sitting on me last night. He tends to do that anyway, but it was still comforting. 

I miss her, but I'm also relieved that I know she isn't suffering. As anybody who's had pets know, it's damn hard to watch them get worse, all the while knowing that they can't tell you what they want or how they feel, and that the ultimate decision when to end it is yours. I think I did okay by Pocket. She was still alert and didn't seem in actual pain, just uncomfortable. I think she enjoyed her last summer.

 The whole plastic bag debate has got me thinking about all the plastic that I have in my life. Some of it I will never get up - hello electronic goodies!

Others - like the inevitable plastic bags, I would be happy to do without if I can find alternatives. We all know about cloth/whatever bags for schlepping our groceries home, but what about when you buy produce or bulk items?

Lo and behold, you can buy little cloth bags for that purpose, or bring your own stuff, at least at the Greenwood Market, and presumably others. I had a quick chat with a couple of the employees there, and they are perfectly happy for you to bring whatever bag, bin or other container in which to pack your stuff into. They will even tare out a container for you, so you can load up your own flour container right at the store.

I'm also going to look into their bulk shampoos etc.  It would be nice to find more ways to reduce plastic if I can.

This does not solve my need for plastic bags to dispose of my cat litter, but I'm working on that. Perhaps I will experiment with composting - it apparently can be done: 

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1019500/how_to_compost_your_cats_litter.html?cat=32


I don't expect to get plastic completely out of my life, but these people gave me a few ideas to look into:

http://plasticisforever.blogspot.com/


But I have no intention of going as far as this woman who avoids medical care because of the plastic involved:

http://plasticfree.blogspot.com/

 On Facebook I have a bunch of people from high school as my friends. One of them recently posted pics of her daughter's wedding. The one that bothered me was of her daughter putting on her garter with the help of a bridesmaid.

The daughter was wearing a corset and underpants.

Why does this bother me? Mostly because she is clearly wearing undergarments  which I always considered to be private and shouldn't be shown in public. 

I don't get bothered by swimsuits because they are meant for public viewing. Panties aren't. Oddly enough, pantaloons don't bother me because, while they are undergarments, they aren't currently in use today.

I'm such a weird person.

 My 25 year old niece is a republican!

*writhes in horror*

 As a SF and Fantasy fan, I've seen a couple move and tv variations on this story, so when I ran across it at the library, I decided to read the original.

Doyle is an excellent writer (read his Sherlock Holmes stories if you haven't) and the book is interesting and engaging. 

Our hero and narrator is Edward Malone, a newspaper reporter. He gets an interview with Professor Challenger, who claims to have found a "Lost World" in South America complete with dinosaurs. Unfortunately, Challenger's evidence was mostly lost in a boating accident so he has become a laughingstock. However, Challenger convinces Malone that his Lost World exists, and invites Malone to a scientific meeting where he intends to present his evidence again.

The end result is that Malone volunteers to go to find this Lost World along with Professor Summerlee and Lord John Roxton, an adventurer, big game hunter, and all around buff guy.

About half the book is about the trip there, and the rest takes place in discovering the Lost World. The descriptions are vivid and exciting. The characters are entertaining.

The downside is there is a lot of racism and depiction of the white race as superior and the attitude of casual destruction and hunting to collect trophies that left me (a die hard nature conservative) feeling a bit horrified. 

However, by keeping in mind the book was first published in 1912 I was able to cope with these ideas and managed to enjoy the adventure.

I recommend reading this if you haven't already.

 Hi Everyone!

 

Petfinder.com has declared August 12th "Adopt-a-Less-Adoptable-Pet" Day.  The Seattle Animal Shelter will be joining with Petfinder.com to promote the day for a whole week!

 

Wednesday, August 12- Tuesday, August 18, all Seattle Animal Shelter pets with the "less-adoptable-pet" designation will have the adoption and microchip fee waived.  Licensing and spay/neuter fees will still apply.

 

Any animal that has been at the shelter for 2 months or more is eligible for the discount.  This promotion includes foster animals.  (For easy reference, any case number that is 09-7000 or lower qualifies.)

 

We hope the promotion causes adopters to give many of our older, special needs and special breeds a second look.

 

Please spread the word.  I can e-mail you a flyer if you'd like  We have lots of wonderful cats, dogs and critters that are looking for homes.

 

Thank you for supporting the Seattle Animal Shelter.

 I don't usually mind ads on web pages, any more than I mind them in magazines and tv. However, I've started to have find some web pages make you wait for the ads to load before you can do much with the page itself, including scroll down. I don't know if it's a part of using macs or an especially annoying tactic by advertisers, but I don't like it. 

I wish designers would remember that not everyone is on a T1 and plan accordingly. 

 I know, everyone is complaining, but really, 100 degrees and Pacific Northwest are two phrases that do not belong together.

Having grown up in Eastern Washington, I am not unused to heat, but the heat had the courtesy of going away when the sun went down. It was still over 80 degrees at 10:30 last night. Yeesh!

And WHY does my cat, Jasper, still want to sit on me when it is so ridiculously hot? Is he clinically insane? At 20 pounds, it's no small amount of fur and heat he's packing. Pocket has the good sense to stretch out on the floor and try to keep cool. I've been feeding them extra wet food to help keep them hydrated. 

Also, my skin is breaking out, which is annoying. At least there isn't any acne underneath where clothing rubs (touch wood).

I went to wander around the lower level of the Fred Meyer's to get a little cool last night. Some poor guy came in looking for fans, but they were all sold out, and so were every other Fred Meyer's, according to the clerk. My fans may spend most of their lives in the closet, but I'm glad they are there when it gets like this. 

Two more days and it should theoretically cool off. Tomorrow I'm supposed to meet some folks at an unairconditioned coffee house. I wonder if we can move to the library. They were cool when I went by yesterday.

 It was a huge party in a huge building. I'm talking huge ballroom-sized rooms. And it was a science fiction party. Part of it was that you could opt to become a vampire (for pretend). This was only mildly odd in that for some of the party I was speaking with some folks dressed in various Star Trek uniforms. 

I saw several of my friends there, including chantry (in her kilt) and botgrrrl (in her lab coat). Both had opted to become vampires. My other friend was moping over some guy and I was trying to tell her he was a waste of time. 

I suspect this dream has to do with my reading PN Elrod and pondering a science fiction ball in which people can dress up to go to a fancy ball.

Also in this dream I was trying to give my cat her oral medication and the syringe kept leaking. This was very stressful because she has to have her medicine, and it is expensive.

My brain likes to mix and match.