Lovely Lynder

Ren is not doing so well.  I was worried about him on Friday night, it seemed he was loosing weight Very rapidly.   Mikey and I decided I would call the vet Saturday and set him up an appointment for the following week, but in the morning we watched him pace by the water bowl and cry, and play in it but not drink, so we had to run into the kitty ER.  I was shedding a lot of tears at that point.  It turns out he has very bad teeth.  Ironically--or not so much so, this is something I have commented on for awhile but never realized to be an actual health-risk type problem.  Apparently it is, as a cat's teeth are so close to the sinuses that an infection in the mouth can lead to head-cold symptoms.  And if a cat can't smell, it won't eat its food or even drink water, because it doesn't recognize it as being edible (I can't say that i understand a cat's standards in this, considering the things they do put in their mouths even when they Can smell...)  So, they told us that he was very dehydrated and gave him a shot of fluids under the skin, which puffed him right back up to his normal size, and gave him pain meds and antibiotics to take home.  Which means twice a day for the next two weeks I get to wrestle him down and shove a syringe in his mouth, ah fun times.  Also, his new diet consists of gerber baby food.  Yup.  My baby kitty has truly and officially reached the status of a human baby.  We had a follow up appointment on Monday with the regular doctor and did some more bloodwork, of which I am still waiting on the results.  If all else comes back OK and healthy, he is going to have to go in for surgery and have his teeth pulled.  Possibly all of them, but they won't know for sure until they actually have him sedated and can get in there to poke around.  The very nice vet at the ER told me that even without teeth a cat is just fine, as they don't really bother to chew food anyways.  This could have just been an attempt at getting me to stop crying, I'm not really sure.  
On a lighter note, I am not really sure that a cat without fangs can bear the name of a vampire.  I think he may need to be re-christened after the surgery.  What do you think--Toothless Joe?  Gummi Bear?

Note:  "Vampire-type books" vs. actual  vampire books, because there is a lot of other weirdness going on with telepathy and portals to other worlds and such....
Brian Lumley: The Necroscope Series.   Totally and completely the best thing I've read in ages.  Tom (Finny) got me hooked on them about a year ago, he loaned me the first 3 in the set.  After i tore thru those, i immediately went and purchased #4 & 5.  Then I was forced to take a break for awhile, as #6 is out of print, and i was too lazy to ever make it to the library (it was a good stopping point for the summer though, as 6 jumps into a next-generation thing).  Well, finally about a week ago I bought the missing volumes on amazon, and wow.  I thought maybe the quality would begin to trail off as the series kept stretching out, but I'm half way thru 7 now, and it is as good today as it was 4,000 pages ago.
Highly recommended.  'nuff said.

I just returned from my first ever work-related road trip.  To lovely Iowa.  Mmm, Iowa.  Got to climb around in a factory with a hard hat and a tape measure.  You may call me lame, but I had a really good time, I swear.  I'm not quite sure why everyone seems to complain about traveling for work.  Free food and drinks, cable TV.  Ok, we did have to get going at 7am (which is way WAY earlier than my norm) and didn't return to the hotel until 9-ish at night...but seriously, free food!  And mixing things up every now and then really is a nice break from the monotony of staring at a computer all day.  Tomorrow is already Friday, the week just flies by when 2 of the normally most productive days of the week were spent doing nothing whatsoever, but rather just jammin' to tunes and BS'ing in the car...and, perhaps maybe a brief stint in a casino along the way (not that I'm saying I returned home with more cash in my pockets than when I left.  But well, yeah I guess I am saying that, so huzzah to a kind blackjack dealer!) 
A side note though, I am glad I was not the one having to drive.  There was a helluva blizzard down there yesterday, 14+ inches of snow in an area that really does qualify as the middle of nowhere, and thus without any sort of proper plowing response time.  (Cammy--I heard that same storm hit you guys pretty hard too, but haven't had much time to check the news-is all the craziness settled down in the Chi-town yet?)  All totaled, we counted 19 cars and 1 semi in the ditch on the way home.  I am going to blame poor driving skills on several of those, though.  There were 3 cars in the ditch in one particular stretch which was cleaned off quite well, and the folks were still sitting in their cars so you know they just went in minutes before.  Idjits.
 

 Well, Ive been delinquent at getting this out here..
Hey, what can i say?  I've actually been doing work while at work lately.  Novel concept for me, I know...
Anyhoos, Elise made it home from the hospital as of Oct 23.  She is now 4 lbs 8oz.  A link from Bill with more photos, and promises of more to come soon:  

 

http://www.our365.com/webnursery/webnursery/Baby/BabyPageDirect.aspx?CID=0017627288

Christa gave birth to a baby girl last night around 7pm.  Since it is early, it will be spending some additional time in the hospital, but all else seems well at this time.  More details to follow...

Is this too much? We may have gone overboard on the "Cuteness Attack" theme.

p.s. lovelylynder the keys to your new blog are in the mail.