I have been off the board since I got back from Denver last week, trying to catch up to life, work without a boss or a smonster, and getting ready to go see Kate P. in Nashville, which I'm on the way to do right now! (TEN THOUSAND YAYS.)

Much ~ma to everyone, as I ask for some of my own. My sister-in-law called as I was leaving for the airport this morning to say that my brother has to go in for emergency surgery either tomorrow or Monday. The tumor is growing much more rapidly than they expected, and he's not only completely lost speech, but the use of his right arm. She said that if they don't do surgery ASAP, he's possibly going to go into a coma. I asked if she wanted me to come to NY right away, and she said she'd call tomorrow and let me know. This is the first time she hasn't said she doesn't need anything. So there's a possibility that I'll be flying directly from Nashville to NY.

I would very much appreciate some outcome ~ma for my bro for the surgery. Beyond that, selfishly, that I get to see him again before it's too late. Thanks, as always.

Thank you all so much for the ~ma! It worked, beyond all of our expectations. I was quietly going crazy because I hadn't heard anything, and it had been seven hours since my brother had gone in for his surgery, so I called my SiL's cell phone, and her brother picked up and said that she's in the recovery room with my brother right now, and he came through the surgery very well, and he's speaking. Her brother said that he's in really good spirits.

I'm so relieved, I can't even express it. I called my other brother, and it turned out that he had called our SiL's cell at the exact same time, and it went to voice mail. Heh.

Anyway, yay!!!

Ok, finally worked my way through the backlog. New photos of Ryan! They start from here: [link]

A couple of highlights, teasers if you will: [link]

The Hunger overtakes him: [link]

Resistance? Still futile. [link]

If you could spare a little starting~ma for DH, that would be great. Right now, they're stuck in NC (Elizabeth City Airport) because the APU on the jet is not cooperating. If they can't fix it themselves, they'll be there until morning when the FBO reopens.

edit: Four hours--and a whole lotta ~ma later--it magically started. They were so eager to get home they had the throttle at 102% flying at 548 knots. They made it from Elizabeth City, NC to Georgetown, DE in 14 minutes. Now to tear the jet apart to figure out what the hell is going on...but not tonight. They just want to drive home and get some sleep. Thanks again everyone! We should figure out how to bottle this stuff.

After a long time, I started a new LJ under Pharaby.

Please be to be befriending me, so I can write more.

OK, thanks!

I'll be going mostly dark again for a while (not that I've been super-talky any time recently). I'm still trying to sort through a lot of really bad emotional stuff, and I just haven't felt at home here (or anywhere) for a while now.

My email inbox will always be glad to see Buffista pixels, and if I ever get a phone again, I'll be sure to let people know what it is.

We put Max to sleep yesterday. He was 12.

We took him to the hospital on Friday because he was no longer able to walk. The hospital found that he was diabetic (glucose level over 500 and went over 600 later that day), and his already-bad liver values became terrible. By Saturday morning, it looked clear that he no longer had a chance, but we decided to give him one more day. By Saturday night, he began to have difficulty breathing.

We brought him home on Sunday, and the vet agreed to come to our house so Max could end it at home. When Max got home, he threw up and started convulsing and moaning in pain. We calmed him down with a dose of his pain medicine (thank God for Buprenex) and waited with him for the vet. The vet put him to sleep while Hubs and I petted him and told him how much we loved him.

Did I ever mention the Buffista connection with how we adopted Max and his sister, Marie? We planned to go to the NOLA F2F, and our regular cat sitter couldn't make it that weekend. We decided to check out a local boarder. While the boarder was showing us the facilities, they introduced us to two Himalayans that had been abandoned there a year earlier. Max took one look at us, walked to the front of the cage, and said, "O hai. Yoo iz owr hoominz naow." And, well, we couldn't resist.

A lttle it's-ok-ma for my teammate La Femme Assbeata. I crashed into her tonight at practice and am now at the ER with her. She may have a dislocated shoulder.

Update: No dislocation but her arm is broken. She'll be ok but some quick healing~ma.