Factoid I learned today:

The scientific name for ice cream headache, aka "Brain Freeze" is sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia.

A kernel of popcorn popping in super slow motion: [link]

anytime there are more than 150 new posts since I last caught up, there is at least a 30% chance that I will end up skipping.

this time i think i let it get to about 1800 or so. there was just no way.

should we pop popcorn for you while you are hunkered down under that desk, or just send booze and chocolate?

how about popcorn and chocolate? actually, it didn't turn out as bad as i thought. warehouse guys are still pissy, but there's really nothing that can be done when head honcho has established two opposing things for us to do and then tells us we're not to stop doing one of those things NO MATTER WHAT! they can just take it up with him when he comes in.

Who're You Calling a Maverick>

Students drive me crazy. I just got off of the phone with a baby student who has asthma. Apparently, she goes home to get her medication. But, she is busier this year and cannot do so. So, she calls me to find out what she should do. Really? You can't figure out that you should go to Student Health? When I tell her that, she says "oh, where is that again?" I tell her, then she wants to know if she is going to have to pay for her medication. DO I LOOK LIKE A DOCTOR? How the fuck should I know?

What is your job, Vortex? How do you get all these damn questions?

Vortex, obviously they think that in loco parentis means they should drive you crazy.

Taz is home from the vet- $400 to determine he has a fever of mysterious origins. They are analyzing a few tests and we'll see what we shall see. They gave him a subcuteneous fluid thing and a shot of penicillin.

Nora, this sounds a lot like what Amarna had back in May. One of her kidneys was also swollen and remained so for at least a week (I never did go back for a follow-up X-ray a month later), but her fever dropped back to normal within a few days (it was five degrees over normal, which was extremely high and worrying to the vet, who didn't tell me exactly how serious the fever was until she recovered). The fluids got her to eat as soon as I brought her back from her initial vet visit, so that was reassuring. She bounced back fine after the fever went down, which is why I never took her back for a follow-up later that month. (All the various treatments and diagnostic tests cost over $500 all told. Ouch!)

they are definitely checking for kidney and bladder issues. I remembered about Amarna when we first noticed Taz- thanks for reminding me of the outcome! I feel like we got him to the vet on the early side, so hopefully the recovery will be quick.

Getting him to the vet early was a good idea--I'm sending healing vibes out to him!!

Probably the best thing to happen after that scare was that I took the vet's suggestion and put a second water dish in the living room for her in addition to the one next to her food dish in the kitchen. Now, she hardly ever uses the one in the kitchen, and drinks a lot more water than she did before.

Of course, she also loves to play with the dish when it's mostly empty--one of her favorite things to do is to peer down into the dish, then whack it with her paw and watch the remaining water splash all over the carpet. She'll then look over at me as if to say, "Well, human, are you going to refill my dish or not?!?"