I have no recs because I have only stayed in Portland on work money. But enjoy, lcat!

Ok, who read billytea's Mother's Day entry to my cats? I woke up to not one, not two, but three puddles-and-hairballs .

I just got to meet my new niece. She's the most beautiful tiny little thing ever. Also the spitting image of her sister. Which could annoy them both as time goes on! I got to read three Peter Rabbit stories to my older niece, Flo - which was pure bliss. Wish I lived nearer them all.

Shir, I may need to postpone narratology phonecalls slightly - I've remembered I'm both house-hunting and having an interview next week. Oo er. Currently struggling to plan my interview presentation. I do not remember how I used to do this kind of thing daily as a teacher.

Kitty~ and doggy~ma to thems as needs it.

Thanks for the ~ma, y'all. Leo is doing better. Vet wants to keep him a while longer. There's no obstructions and no infection. Vet thinks it's pancreatitis, which is potentially very serious, but it's not severe so we've hopefully caught it early enough that it can be managed.

I feel guilty as hell, though. The vet said often the cause is never known, and Leo hasn't had any of the things they know can cause it like obesity (he's 14 pounds but lean - big tall cat) or recent trauma or pre-existing conditions, but I'm quite sure the reason is me letting him snack on the Purina cat chow. The vet assured me it's good food and many cats eat it and are fine, but. He always got food without grains in it, since he was a kitten, and I think his body just never got used to handling food with grain in it, and frankly I think that's what caused it, so it's my fault. He's never getting that food again, neither of them are, and I hope that will result in no more pancreatitis attacks. Dammit. My poor boy.

sigh I'm being craxy. It could just be a genetic predisposition. Cause is often never known, so I just need to focus on managing the problem.

Aw Zen, I totally understand how that feels. As loved as he is, Bartleby has suffered on occasion from choices I have made. And what you say is true, we just can't know sometimes and, in truth, it really doesn't matter. Managing the problem is all you can do. As important though, is forgiving yourself for doing the best you could in any given moment.

Bartleby will never get another big, raw bone after having the last one really, really aggravate his chronic condition. I SHOULD have known better, but I didn't think. And, on my birthday, I actually let him have a cooked beef bone. He had it down his gullet long before I facepalmed over what a stupid choice that was. Who doesn't know how dangerous cooked bones are? In the end, that particular bone didn't hurt him at all.

So, it seems you never really can tell.

You are a loving pet person and Leo is lucky to have you.

~ma, Zen.

Job~ma, Hil.

Woke up too late to really do anything before going to my parents, feh. And my coffee grinder seems to have died! It's only a couple of years old and was a gift from my parents, which means it probably wasn't cheap. Double feh.

You are a loving pet person and Leo is lucky to have you.

This, Zen. After all, you were alert enough to notice he was acting out of character and rather than blow it off, you went ahead and acted on your instincts. Leo's lucky to have you.

Oh, I'm going to hell.

I saw the next tweet: Why won't Israel allow Gazans to import coriander? [link] and only thought: "because coriander is evil?".

Long day. I deflowered on microfilm today (took the front page of the newspaper I did my field work on 20 years back (on leaps of 5 years), to analyze visual text/commercial/photography percent of usage of the page), and my mom told me on tonight the accounting people in her work did yet another grave mistake in calculating her salary, and she only got 60% of what she deserved. It's not the first time it happens. She took it to the heart, and she threatened resigning if it shall happen again (every time that happens, she spends hours in meeting and calls and not working to get the salary - which is ridic, btw). If you could send some get a clue!~ma to her employers, that would be great.

we're going to make a weekend of it and stay downtown. I want to park the car and walk or use public transportation (if something runs that late on a Sunday night) and it seems the closest decent hotel to Keller is one called Hotel Modera. Do you know anything about it?

I'll be honest, I don't know the hotel at all.

Our TriMet trip planner should be able to help you with the awesome public transport.

We stayed at the Hotel Modera. Very convenient location. The downside was that the A/C in our room was broken, which we didn't realize until that night when we were trying to go to sleep. The guy at the desk was not particularly apologetic.

Also, it's valet parking, which came as a surprise to my husband.