21 October 2006
Happy Cat, Happy Me
I've gotten nearly nothing done this week, ever since Monday night when my cat stopped eating or drinking and started hiding. This is a cat who loves nothing better than food, water, and good company, so I was immediately alarmed.
Two days later, he puked up some bile and I took him to the vet. He had a high fever, so they kept him overnight for an IV, antibiotics, blood tests, and x-rays. His fever still wasn't down by the end of the next day, but I took him home anyway with a bottle of antibiotics. Nearest they could figure, it was a respiratory infection.
He still refused to eat or drink, and insisted in hiding from me. Who can blame him? I kept peeking into his hiding place with a flashlight, dragging him out while he protested vociferously, then forcing pills and water down his throat and sticking a thermometer up his ass. Poor kitty! He was rumpled, he smelled funny, and he went back into hiding immediately after each bout. For four days he just wasn't getting better, and I was getting discouraged.
So imagine my joy this morning when, peeking at him behind the couch, I found him ready to purr and make cheerful noises at me. Soon after, I was able to coax him into drinking from his favorite spigot, after which he sat and purred about it. Here he is enjoying an open window and showing interest in the birds outside. And now he's dozing in his bed box instead of hiding. Soon he'll be eating again, and romping in the garden with his friends!
In other news, my favorite orchid is blooming.
14 October 2006
Pants, Pants, Pants
I blog belatedly due to tranferring servers, but better belatedly than never.
My wardrobe was suffering a pants crisis, so I arranged to skip ahead to the pants topic in my patternmaking class. Pants are hard! I learned how to draft and fit a pattern for each of 15 different kinds of pants, then completed two final projects: a pair of denim jeans with a button fly and a pair of lined wool slacks with cuffs and a zipper fly.
My wardrobe is once again teeming with pants that fit and look like I want them to. None of them are perfect: in my eagerness for pants, I made several pairs before I fully grasped the concept. Some of the pants will have to be re-made.
In another piece of sewing nerdiness, I'm psyched because today I learned how to use tailor's tacks. Awesome!
By now you're thinking that my life is excrutiatingly dull. But no: I did other things during my blog's downtime that were much more exciting than tailor's tacks:
- Kern County Fair (with thrilling rodeo video!)
- Travesties at the ACT Theater
- lots of poker