My weather widget tells me it is 18 degrees outside without windchill. I'm so glad I still have a warm coat I can close around my expanding abdomen.

ION, my husband had a shaving accident this a.m. and ended up shaving off his beard. My husband has a beard, so the bare-faced fellow walking around my house freaks me out a little lot.

I hope your back feels better soon, Nora!

Oh, Kristin, how scary. Hope we hear good news soon.

Hil, hang in there! Hope it's better this morning. Take it easy!

Nora! Ugh! You take it easy too!

ION, my husband had a shaving accident this a.m. and ended up shaving off his beard. My husband has a beard, so the bare-faced fellow walking around my house freaks me out a little lot.

Oh, that would totally freak me out too.

On pet food...I read WS's essay...I do agree about the thriftiness of using higher quality pet food in decreasing vet bills. I have had many conversations with my vet over this--especially since Toto is an extremely picky eater (only when it comes to dog food. He'll happily eat any people food!). With my vet's approval, I've kept him on the highest quality food I can buy in the grocery store. We actually went through the ingredients, and it's very similar to the prescription version of the same brand. So, I feel ok doing that. But, I did do research and all that.

And, when he gets overly picky and doesn't eat for several days, I throw baby food in it, rather than wet food (a trick my vet taught me).

vw, for me, it is all about reading the ingredients list, and putting back anything that makes me say WTF. And baby food can be a very good treat/sick day meal/appetite-inducer - though with cats at least, one has to watch out for onions and garlic, as ingesting those can cause Heinz body anemia.

And speaking of pet food, here is a Cheezburger YouTube video of a kitteh who is starving to death, never been fed, doesn't even know what food is, just knows he wants to try some [link]

though with cats at least, one has to watch out for onions and garlic, as ingesting those can cause Heinz body anemia.

Gotta watch out for those with dogs too. Again, it's all about checking the ingredients list, as you said.

Kitteh! God, that was adorable.

With Puck, our first cat, we had no idea what we were doing and fed him wet canned food. His teeth were a mess by the time he died, and we used to worry because he almost never drank water (which the vet said he probably didn't need, given the wet food). With Cortez we're sticking to dry kibble, and he seems perfectly happy with it.

Of course, Cortez was also a stray who has been known to hunt and kill and EAT mice, so. He's used to a bit of crunch?

Kitteh was adorable ... and VERY determined.

Our first cat ended up eating specially cooked chicken livers most of the time, although there was ONE kind of cat food she'd eat. Expensive and hard to find, of course. She lived to be 15+, although her teeth were a mess, she was obese, and she succumbed to a stroke.

Second cat? didn't like canned food, LOVED her dry food (or anything her people were eating), lived to be 17+ with excellent teeth and stayed slim and active until the last few months.

Cats - they're as different as people.

ION, my husband had a shaving accident this a.m. and ended up shaving off his beard.

DUDE

Also, PICTURES.

Perkins, flight is booked!

When I was 3, my dad became the commander of his American Legion post. They required him to shave off his beard for the position. When he did, my twin sister and I cried in terror at his shorn face.

AWESOME!

Heh. My friend, who I stayed with in St. Thomas last year, just e-mailed me to complain about the weather. It's been getting down to 68 degrees at night! I e-mailed her back and said that we're UP to 9 degrees, with a windchill of -8. We'll see what she says to that!