Pictured above is Princess and Lancelot. We had to rush Lance to the vet tonight 🙁 For a month or so now he’s been pulling his hair out. This happened last year at this time, but he got over it. Not sure if it’s a food he’s allergic to or perhaps the dry winter air (we just turned on our humidifiers this week). Along with the ripping out of hair, he’s been making the hairball wheeze sound. I just assumed the two were related.

Well tonight he made the sound then went down, his breathing became rapid, he was gurgling and eventually coughed up fluid. We got him to the vet, where they realized it was his heart. Sure enough, his heart is enlarged, he has fluid all around it and he even may have punctured his diaphragm wheezing tonight with this attack. They said he probably suffers from what a lot of large male cats suffer from, some enlarged heart syndrome.

They gave him a shot to help expel the fluid from his lungs and he is in an oxygen tank where he’ll stay overnight. By time we left he was actually looking and doing much better. She’s going to call us in the morning to let us know how he is. We need to have a kitty cardiologist look at him to determine the best course of treatment (if it can be something that can be managed or not, probably kitty pills for the rest of his life I’m sure). That will be on Monday, though she said if something happens in between (something worsens) we might need to take him elsewhere to bee seen before Monday.

I of course am feeling loads guilty. I kept wondering if I should have taken him in before now because of what I thought was the hairball cough. Had I, we might have caught this before now 🙁 We have two other fairly big kitties I will be taking in ASAP to be tested and checked out. Basically the entire crew of animals has to go in at this point for yearly check-ups. Cha-Ching!

I am just hoping tomorrow morning brings good news. I will otherwise not be able to concentrate on what I need to be concentrating on. Though we won’t know the long term prognosis till Monday really. I’m at this moment praying this supposed big snowstorm heading our way in fact does hit hard on Tuesday so I have a work snow-day.

For the second time this winter, it seems our heat is about to go kerplunk . . . kerplooye!

Back in October when we first turned it on, it made a horrible smell (more than the normal just turned on the heat smell) and was dead within a day. The man came to fix it and basically said we had a buildup of suet in the heater and ducts (we have oil heat). We had been bad and not had it cleaned in a few years it seemed (since they installed the new system). He was also concerned that a bird may have built a nest in the chimney/output and it might be clogged. He said we needed to drop a brick down it tied to a string or something to try and clear it.

Dustin does not climb ladders and does NOT go on the roof, that is John’s job. He’s the handy one, he’s the one always cleaning the gutters out. So I told him to do this . . . apparently he never did.

So surprise, we wake up today and the house wreaks of suet and oil. Yeah, it seems the heater is going to break again. John’s cousins installed it and cleaned it out last time, so I was waiting for him to call them. Oops he got too busy to do so. So now we get to pay them overtime tomorrow! Assuming they can make it out that is. Right now I turned the heat off, as the smell was over-riding the benefit of the warmth.

I also suggested we clean the chimney or whatever if that is why this was happening. “And how does one do that?” was his response . . . . This from a man who owns the special edition DVD of “Mary Poppins.” YOU CALL A CHIMNEY SWEEP!

Grrrrrr. I want him HERE when his cousins come again to fix this heater so they can tell him what is wrong and how to fix it. They can scold him this time 🙂

Needless to say, I will be hitting La Tar Jay tomorrow to pick up a few small space heaters. We have 2 big flameless “As Seen On TV” Amish ones upstairs (John bought them) and they do work very well. However one is in our room, the other in the guest room. We’ll probably have to bring the second down stairs at some point. However Emily comes tomorrow, so she’ll need that one in her room if the heat is not fixed by tomorrow evening. So I need to pick up a small dinky 25 dollar one for the living room to suffice. I have one as is (from my old Philly apartment), I just need another as it’s not enough for the space. Given this is the 2nd time this has happened this season, I want some extra heaters in case March rolls around and the heat breaks yet again.

We finally got almost all of Christmas put away this week, after returning from vacation. I still have to take the lights down out front (they are unplugged at least) and my one last nativity has to be put away. We also have to pull everything out that was put away to put Christmas out and get it set back up. Knick knacks and stuff 🙂

It’s swiftly driving me insane! I like a bit of order to things around me, and when I get stressed it’s one of the things I focus on. I will end up deciding the house needs to be clean and waste the day cleaning. Yes it’s one of those ways I procrastinate too I will admit. However I also have allergies, so it serves to help me breath easier, especially in the summer and fall when pollen is terrible.

However between the job and the dissertation, I just don’t have the time to keep up with the cleaning as I would like to right now. The house needs it, but as I look down the next few days and whats on my list to get done, even a half day of cleaning isn’t in the cards.

I’ve talked a lot about hiring Merry Maids or something. Those who have read me long enough know I, well John, had a housekeeper at one point (which ended in disaster when I and the dogs came along). Today we had the discussion again. His mom has housekeepers (it’s a group of women who work together, they cycle their houses and duties between them, so you might not have the same woman each week). We may ask them how much it would cost to clean every other week or so.

Of course I looked around and said, well first I have to clean up! For me that’s always been the issue, I need to clean before the housekeeper comes, so why am I paying a housekeeper? Well I’ve decided over the next week or so I’ll take an hour every other day and just straighten up a room. Eventually at some point the house will be picked up enough to be cleaned I hope!

The chore of course will be keeping John to keep his desk/corner clean! That’s the biggest hurdle, and I will begin to just throw his piled up mail and magazines out if he starts ignoring them again (oh yes, I’ve done it before, if you have months of magazines you aren’t looking at, they go in the recycle bin!).

Of course I also still have those rooms and cabinets that one day I’ll eventually go through, throw have of the stuff out and clean it up. We are talking CDs and books from computers I no longer have or are dead. Why I’m keeping some of this crapola I don’t know, it needs to go.

Make your own at ObamIconMe

Again I wish I had more to blog about, but I don’t right now. I guess I’m in a blogging slump? I’ve been twittering a lot, you can always find them in the left side bar. You can choose to follow me on Twitter to so you don’t have to log onto the blog to read them.

Finding my balance between my new job/work and my own scholastic work still. All in all both compliment each other as they both deal (in part) with my interests in ancient religion, so I’m finding they both in a way self-motivate the other :). Plus I think getting me out of the house 2 days a week is very good for me! I have been locked up too long and that tends to make one go stir crazy 😛

In three months time I’ll be in HotLanta for the big archaeology conference presenting a paper with my adviser. Ack! This time I am going to sit on the sidelines I think and let him present it, especially after the fiasco in October I had! April 25th seems so far off, but it will be here before I know it. It’s also my new deadline for wrapping up my own work (clearly the paper is in large part based on what I’m doing!).

Okay that’s all I have right now, back to work. Hopefully soon I’ll have some fun posts 🙂 Planning a girls night with a few friends sometime in the next few weeks, as I know I’m going to need a fun night by then!

PS: Lot’s of good horror movies coming out over the next couple of weeks. I plan to get out of the house to see a few of them, so I’ll post some reviews. I know it’s been ages since I posted any movie reviews, or could recommend something for you all to see.

So as I had tweeted and posted while on vacation, one of my goals was NOT to gain weight back. I had been doing really well with getting to the gym, until my mood soured and I started drinking cokes and going to Johnny Rockets (3 times)!

When I got off the ship I was almost up near 160. I thought no way jose, I still had minded what I ate and never had dessert. A few days back, no more non-diet sodas and a lot less red meat has paid off. I weighed in at 153 this morning, so that makes me happy 🙂

Now I have to keep working to stay here, even drop a few more, and tone up.

That’s unfortunately what I got. I started my new job this week, which of course I can’t talk about on here 🙂 So far so good is about all I can say. Basically hoping by next week I’ll have found my grove between working and finishing up my own school work.

Soon I hope to have some more cheerful and entertaining blog posts up. My PS3 hard drive crashed, I lost everything, so I have to re-download all my singstar songs. Once I get them back and can sing again, I should be happier.

Oh on a positive note, we got FIOS today. No more Comcast! Not only is the picture amazing, the internet speed is fantastic!

. . . and honestly I’ve never been so happy to see one come to an end! After this trip I’ve just decided I cannot do anymore vacations when I know I shouldn’t be going away. Every year I know I have too much to do, so I shouldn’t be going off for an extended period of time. From now on if I’m not in a position where I can walk away from work, where I know it can do without me, where I know I won’t obsess over what I’m not doing and what I should be doing, where I don’t have some kind of deadline . . . well I shouldn’t be going away! I will have to limit any trips to day trips or quick over night ones until then.

Now that I’m back I have to quickly get back into the swing of things as I have lots to do and lots to catch-up on. I’ve turned the daily twitter posts back off for now. I was simply using them while I was away and knew I wouldn’t have time to write full out blogs.

I did take a good 150 some photos, so as soon as I can I’ll upload them and get a link to them for you all.

• Getting ready to get off the ship now. Will be sitting in the airport for hours. Fun! #
• Getting off the ship was a Nightmare. Customs held the while ahip up for 2 people. Then almost 2 hours taxi wait. #
• Next time I mention a vacation idea, someone remind me to just stay home and drink #
• Yes spelling poorly again. I am typing with my thumb. Standing in a hellish line for security. #
• Now I am standing in an equally long line for food LOL. #
• Classic. The people in front of me are ordering so much food I now have to wait for them to bake more LOL. #
• Finally. Almost about to get on the plane. This airport is a nightmare. Angry people because of delays. Giving me a migraine. #
• Looks like it will be a full flight. Everyone going to see Obama I am sure, so they think. He’ll be bigger on my tv I am sure. #
• Shocker. We are already running late. The plane is here at least. We probably don’t have a crew LOL. #
• Just landed in Dulles. Now we have to get to my moms. Then if we can drive home tonight. Getting around 495 could be insane. #
• On our way home to jersey. Have been informed by my brother that my Ps3 “crashed or something” #
• I had an angry whopper for dinner. In 15 minutes I’ll probably have an angry stomach. #
• 20 miles from home. So nice, till I see a mess if mail to go through haha. #
• Around the corner from home. Yay! #
• Back on the diet tomorrow. I can’t believe what I did those few days I drank sodas and ate at Johnny Rockets lol. #
• Lost my entire PS3 hard drive. A perfect end to this vacation! #

• Status update. They had time warp. But inlet fabulous gays which I dragged to the club lol #
• FINALLY up. It was a really late night, and I did not have my nap yesterday. Today is the first day I’ve woken up with a headache too. #
• Internet is horridly slow today, so not many updates. We were in Haiti. I just had a massage and the guy destroyed my calfs. Holy crap! #
• In the spa a little old man was filling out his wife’s spa questionare. He said “Do you smoke? Yes” She corrected him and said “for now!” #
• Tomorrow is the last day. How sad that I am finally in a better mood now that the while thing is over. #