anotheranon: (busy)
I've not posted in almost a month, so here's the quick and dirty version of what's been up:


  • Health: The "bunion" turned out to be just bursitis, and now I have custom orthotics to keep it from getting worse.

    Fun tip: stick-on velcro in the sole works well for holding orthotics in place.

  • Media: have been sucked into Sleepy Hollow (makes free and loose with the history, but the characters have good chemistry) and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (a couple of strong episodes but still finding it's feet).

    Saw Thor 2; thought the world/main characters were better than in the first one plus more Loki and Darcy = yay. Saw Ender's Game; I enjoyed it but never read the book so I didn't have nostalgia/expectations going in (yes, I know. I rationalize because D. loved the book as a kid before we all knew what a 'phobe Orson Scott Card is).

    Watched "Goonies" and "Beetlejuice" for the first times since…high school? [livejournal.com profile] jlsjlsjls: Beetlejuice may have showcased the first documented pair of swants (scroll down), and Delia's other costumes definitely pioneered Japanese designers.

  • Sewing: bwahaha! Writing has eaten my sewing time.

  • Writing: still consumes me though I did not do NaNoWriMo; had good writing days both alone and with [livejournal.com profile] dustdaughter.

    Teaching myself Scrivener because I'm rapidly losing track of multiple Word files.

  • Reading: mostly crunchy academic tomes for the book sprinkled with occasional fiction so my brain doesn't explode. See: Hollow City, Ooomph: A Little Super Goes a Long Way, Halo Effect.

  • Thanksgiving: we spent with [livejournal.com profile] kiya and [livejournal.com profile] lady_masque and friends with tons of food.

    Played Arkham Horror for the first time and am staggered at the complexity of the game play.

    Turned everyone on to Alton Brown's cocoa brownies (which I've linked to before but are so good it's worth doing again).

  • Cats: routine vaccination updates turned into clearing up an aggressive ear infection for Spice; she is deaf now, though we don't know whether this is because of infection or treatment :( Due to the stress of repeated vet visits she didn't eat for a week and we're now plying her with tuna and canned food to bulk her back up.

  • Fencing: competed a couple of weeks ago and am proud I was only defeated 10-6 by a scary B rated vet in my final direct elimination.

    Arrogantly(?) think I stand a chance of getting my D this season if I can keep my head on straight.

  • Holiday: only thing planned so far is D.'s office party which is 1) 1920s themed and 2) in CA. So costume and slightly warmer weather = win.

  • Whisky: hoo boy yeah!


I'm very slowly catching up with y'all. I probably won't comment much but know I AM reading.
anotheranon: (cats)
Spice has had a bad week.

She'd been listless all day Sunday, and when she wouldn't eat her favorite canned catfood, we knew something was up. So D. took her to the vet Monday.

She was very dehydrated and her bloodwork showed a massive infection with no known source - all of her organs looked good. They kept her overnight with IVs of saline and antibiotic, and Tuesday morning the vet took an x-ray to see if he could find out just what was going on.

Turns out she got hold of...something. Something that showed up as a y/"wishbone" shaped thing in her colon. Sparing gory details, the vet helped her pass it and we STILL don't know what it was, or how she might have got hold of it.

She's home now but the poor little thing is bony and very nervous. It's sweet how friendly she is (she's never been a lap cat, but DAMN she has been for the last 3 days) but I think it's mostly just happiness to be home and please don't take me to the place with needles and other cats and dogs EVER EVER AGAIN. She's on a massive regimen of antibiotics, appetite enhancer, vitamin supplement and prescription canned food (so as not to irritate her bowels) for the next week, when D. takes her back.

D. has been a big damn hero all week - dealing with the hardest cat to take to the vet plus damaged A/C and finding someone to fix it.

Gotta go sit with my munchkin...
anotheranon: (busy)
Just looked at the ol' LJ and doG, it's been awhile since I updated:

Christmas prep moves along. I am *mostly* done with gift selection. I kept meaning to add more to the "tree" but given that we're traveling next Wednesday I've resigned myself to further decoration just not happening. I WILL be celebrating with chocolate chip cookies this weekend.

Cats are doing much better. Spice was finishing up her medicine over T.giving and the pet sitter got scratched a couple of times :( Both are frisky because of the colder weather. Which works out, because the pet sitter also got them used to getting a treat of canned food every morning :P

I did finally finish cutting the vest out of the fashion fabric, but have been distracted by an ongoing intriguing stacks of books (sidebar: Goodreads is fantastic for keeping track of my reading, and doesn't have a puny 100 book limit like LibraryThing). I could share the saga of my extravagant wine spill on my copy of Moda a Firenze II(!! thank the publisher for slick paper, or it would be in much worse shape than it is).

Got D. "Hogfather" as an early Christmas present and we watched last night (see: yesterday's writer's block). We're planning on seeing the new Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy if I can pull D. away from Star Wars: The Old Republic long enough (I am a video game widow, at least temporarily. Which is fine with me as D. has been a fencing widower at least 3 times a week for years now :P).

Speaking of which: my improvement is slow, but does continue. I managed to have a good day at a big regional competition a couple of weeks ago despite having an asthma attack (or problem - I could breathe, just not well. Sidebar: dry air is definitely a trigger), and got some video at club this week per the gently insistent advice of my coach. I've also decided that instead of letting video back up I need to figure out how to burn it to disc. To that end I'm downloading video editing freeware. Hopefully in the new year I can make good on giving discs to my fencing buddies who get filmed along with me.

And I'll have time to do this because I have to use up excess leave before the end of the year, which gives me just over 2 weeks away from work, with travel bookended by free days on both sides - huzzah!
anotheranon: (busy)
Here's what's been going on:

Fencing club has a new space - high ceilings and more space between strips means no more accidentally parrying into the air ducts or taking one's life in one's hands to referee. S. seems a bit disappointed at how much the restrooms take up floor space, but I think it's pretty sweet. Especially considering that fencing is small enough of a sport that having a dedicated space (i.e., not a gym where we have to set up/take down every time) is a good thing in general.

Received Moda a Firenze II as a late birthday gift from my mother-in-law. It is GORGEOUS! I'm at the point of trying to remember the vocabulary.

Turns out that manhandling cats 3 times a day to give them medicine stresses them out - who knew? :( Spice is having to wear a t-shirt to keep her from scratching her healing back and slinks around like something is pressing down on her from above. She's taking out her stress by peeing out of bounds :( Happily she's not soiled anything that isn't washable, and while I'm tired of cleaning up after her I can't blame her terribly. Trying to remedy the situation with liberal sprayings of Feliway, a new huge, clean litter and not pushing myself on her, but petting gently when she comes over. Kisia is only having her ears done, which she hates but is weathering somewhat better.

In between fencing and cat wrangling I've finally managed to finish the Palmer/Plesched vest pattern. Turns out I have large bust, hollow chest, rounded upper back, sway lower back and forward shoulders. I'd be more upset about not mirroring the norm but then I remind myself that clothes should fit the person, not the other way around. I'm going to try drafting the rest of the pieces to match this evening and start construction sometime after Thanksgiving.

Speaking of which, T-Day has snuck up on me and I realized with a shock that we fly out Wednesday! So I have to bring the pet sitter up to speed, pack, and cat-proof what I won't be here to monitor.
anotheranon: (busy)
'Cos medicating 2 angry cats plus my normal routine makes it impossible to post more:

What can cat videos do for your business? [YouTube], hat tip [livejournal.com profile] vvalkyri.

DJ CatScratch is in the house, yo, courtesy [livejournal.com profile] geekchick, who clearly knows what the crazy cat ladies on my holiday list need this year.

More of substance later, I swear, after I visit fencing clubs new location and finish all this laundry. Really.
anotheranon: (strangelytroublesome)
Why being into cats is essentially the same as being into psychotic tweakers. Though the author starts from a faulty premise (cats are not like humans - they are better, and know it), this is screamingly funny. The illustrations make it. Courtesy [livejournal.com profile] geekchick

Black Blood of the Earth self-described "weapons grade coffee". Probably too dangerous for everyday but for my next con/symposium I've gotta get me some of this! Hat tip [livejournal.com profile] nminusone, who probably understands the distillation process.
anotheranon: (busy)
I did stuff other than sew this weekend:

  • After much (well, some) indecision I finally shelled out for Seventeenth Century Women's Dress Patterns and am so glad I did! I would even offer that the authors do Janet Arnold one better: the garments are x-rayed, the photos are in blistering high-res color, and in addition to the patterns, instructions (including painstaking hand-stitching how to photos) are included! The book is so densely packed that I'm reading it slowly, a couple of pages at a time and then breaking to "digest".

  • 20 lunges before and after fencing practice, plus another 20 after a 45 minute lesson. My knees and arches are cranky but I'm not in agony, nor do I feel like I've been hit by a truck. I'm taking that as evidence that my endurance is improving.

  • Catching up on cheezy teevee: the second best part of watching the WTF-ery of True Blood is io9's Pro vs. Con recaps (spoilers abound). Have not seen Torchwood "Miracle Day" yet, but I am patient.

  • Little blue cat is on a timed feeding schedule because she is not quite so little as once she was :P Mostly she's adapted, but on weekends still dances around singing the "Food Now? Food Now!" song every time we approach the bowl. I'd feel worse, but this is the most active she's been in months! Running around all day also means she's too tired at night to play her favorite new game, "boop" (in which she sticks her paws in my nose and mouth in order to wake me up - eeeew!)

  • Turned in a groupon for an upper body massage and my first ever facial. The former was VERY good, though she couldn't quite work out the marble-like knots in my shoulders, they're looser than they were. The facial left my face soft and moisturized and quite relaxed (scalp massage!) but I'm not sure it did much to shrink my pores, but then one can't have everything.
anotheranon: (Default)
In Praise of Helena Bonham Carter, fashion tragedy - do check the links. I may not love every outfit, but I LOVE that she wears what she damn well pleases, instead of being another overpolished Hollywood glamour girl. She's a Westwood fan, and it suits her.

StyleLikeU, unrepentant fashion eccentrics each and every one. I can only aspire to be this elegantly cool - they have more time than me, and likely less fussy feet.

Cats adore, manipulate women - and men! Won't someone think of the crazy cat men, and the cats who love them (like my little grey girl who seems to prefer men over women hands er, paws down)? Consolation: evidently our pet cats do like us for something other than working the can opener. They just don't hesitate to throw down the cute when it suits their purposes.

Showtime turns their attention from the Tudors to the Borgias. With Jeremy Irons as Pope Alexander. As with the Tudors, the history is colorful enough that they won't need to sex/gore it up, so I hope they don't.
anotheranon: (Default)

  • 09:48:25: RT @Alltop: "Love me, please": Cat versus computer http://om.ly/BGMYm
  • 12:56:42: RT @librarianbyday: The Four Most Valuable Lessons I Learned in 2010 http://t.co/SnkOkRQ
  • 16:51:18: RT @mactavish: RT @jamesmalach: Today I learned that Gary Numan is 13 days older than Gary Oldman - which makes Numan the Oldman and Old ...
  • 21:54:36: It's jarring how much I remember from #twinpeaks - enough to "get" the #psych tribute episode tho I never watched regularly (?!)

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anotheranon: (Default)

  • 00:01:05: RT @mactavish RT @TweetACritter: Cat protects owner by scaring off alligator http://lsnlw.com/t/937822914/ - cats are very tough. Or insane.
  • 12:06:26: RT @mactavish: RT @vixy: Hyundai has a car...named Equus? Do drivers end up getting naked & putting out other cars' headlights?
  • 12:25:01: Damn, I've let myself get drawn into an argument on the internet :(
  • 12:59:37: RT @danphilpott: <snark>I trust Facebook with my email. They have a great track record on privacy.</snark>
  • 13:01:03: Aw no - just discovered that not only did I miss the release of Connie Willis' 2 parter, also missed 2 local appearances.
  • 13:02:02: At least the books are both in the local library system. Mentally adding them to endless "to read" pile :P
  • 15:17:48: RT @zephoria: "#Bullying" Has Little Resonance with Teenagers: http://bit.ly/c7yaYj
  • 20:02:27: RT @geekfeminism: Quick hit: The enemy is not MEN. The enemy are a-holes.: Gina Minks responds to a post on our linkspam:

    I read... ht ...

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anotheranon: (Default)
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anotheranon: (Default)
A tiny cabinet, but I didn't want these to get lost:

Catios. Given abundant free time/$ I would likely do something like this for my princesses. But I'd never subject them to the indignity of a cat stroller.

Glut: Mastering Information Through the Ages - a history of how people organized and retrieved information before the internet. Gotta love that the author expanded the bibliography for his website.

Extremely late to the table, but writers! There's still time to enter if you're so inclined. Hint: it involves a unipegakitten, a clown sweater, and an orc.

Celebrity Gossip, Academic Style - an ongoing explanation of how and why the celebs on the front of tabloids got there and why so many people give a damn.
anotheranon: (Default)
  • 09:15 RT @qikipedia: Today's B word: Beckets. The little loops on a pair of trousers or a raincoat for a belt to pass through <- I did wonder #
  • 13:54 @GlitterFemme - Evidently. It was news to me! #
  • 16:44 RT @i_clavdivs: Please rt: Six Top Vaccine Myths: bit.ly/celIiB Kids who don't get vaccinated put the whole community at risk #
  • 19:50 Both cats "clothed" (collars). Neither happy. I suspect they'd prefer something designer rather than (gasp!) *polyester*... #
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anotheranon: (Default)
  • 17:02 Put collar on gray cat today to acclimate. Went about as well as expected. Removed bell for pending 2nd try. #
  • 23:19 RT @i_clavdivs attn: @daudi_g: #Leverage fans: my day has been made twitpic.com/1wl7ss #
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anotheranon: (Default)
  • 10:44 @briandgregory - might be doing a day trip - haven't decided yet. #
  • 10:46 RT @stephenfry: In memory of a dear friend and very great man. Today is Towel Day towelday.org/ #towelday #
  • 10:47 RT @FashionHistoria: Learn to take patterns from historical garments at this #CSAWestern program near #Seattle bit.ly/NgAUU #
  • 10:54 RT @librarianbyday: Did you know it is Geek Pride Day today? bit.ly/aLfNuc #
  • 10:54 RT @librarianbyday: What is Privacy? a rant about Facebook & the open source movement bit.ly/aZ4XW9 #
  • 12:50 Oh my, @SamuelPepys is on Twitter. #
  • 18:54 @sofaemployed - No problem :) #
  • 18:55 Musing over whether it's daring or freakish to attempt wearing white skirt with black boots. #
  • 19:38 RT @i_clavdivs: #Guild fans: WATCH: Wil Wheaton (and Tinkerballa) In NASA Star Trek Parody “Bots of Both Worlds” tinyurl.com/2w867d4 #
  • 22:40 @racheline_m - Don't know how long you will be there, but if it's more than a week or so you might look at a short term apartment. #
  • 22:44 Coy cat is coy. No way am I getting to pick her up. #
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anotheranon: (cats)
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What do you mean, Jeeves isn't MY butler? I thought you both were!
see more Lolcats and funny pictures


I do not own my cats so much as I serve them. I am not their equal; they're higher forms of life and know it and I can only hope to better cater to their whims :P

On a more serious note, humans adopted/bred/otherwise adapted the species that became our livestock and companion animals to make them dependent on us, for food, health, cleaning, etc. In the case of cats, even the most accomplished mouser will lose when faced with a car. IMHO it's the responsibility of people to be responsible custodians to the creatures that we weakened so they could live with us.

Doesn't really answer the question, but I guess "owner" is a more suitable title for the custodian of a creature that is unlikely to have a safe, healthy life outside of your care.
anotheranon: (Default)
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anotheranon: (cats)
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I would ask them to please stop pointing and laughing when I stretch, just because I can't throw my leg behind my neck :P
anotheranon: (cats)
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This week it would have been "Hot. Uncomfortable. Do something", because the A/C was out (happily, it's now fixed).

The rest of the time it's "Hello, I want something. You should give me what I want right now because I'm cute, and cute animals should get whatever they want".

Tangential - I, and the rest of my family, talk not only to but for our pets. We are silly people sometimes :P
anotheranon: (Default)
  • 12:47 @daudi_g - Awesome, thanks! #
  • 20:07 It's a flat cat day - first warm day of spring/summer and the A/C doesn't appear to be working :/ #
  • 20:45 I think I'm the only person watching #smallville to comment on the hot Zod/Tess foe yay action. More of this and Chloe plz? #
  • 21:19 @SnarlingBadger - UniqueThrift really does have everything. #
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