Oy, meara, that doesn't sound like fun. I have no advice to give, except staying away, which you've already tried. Sometimes things are just shit, is my philosophy. I can offer hugs and booze, if you feel like a trip to London.

Happy Empress Day!

Matilda is absolutely a precious princess.

I'm sorry meara. I hope that you can find a way to either avoid seeing her, or find a way to enjoy her company without the torture part. Also, Vienna and Prague! Woo!

The arms crossed thing is interesting. On occasion I go with my parents and feel bad about staying in the pew. I think going with the flow and crossing arms would be easier for me.

Guess I should get some work done. After more coffee.

I know about the 'crossing arms in front of the priest' thing in the Catholic church, from being Anglican and once enquiring as to whether I could take communion in a Catholic church (the answer is no). And I'm used to lots of unconfirmed people in my church doing a similar thing. I've never done it, though, because it seems weird, and I'm not sure I'd always want a blessing. Two of my cousins got married in Catholic churches, ours being an Irish family, and both times I stayed in my pew during communion. Anyway, I hope it's not too stressful, Steph. At least you know it's a well-known practice, now!

Well, if that's what his dad would like us to do, that's fine. I don't want to add undue stress at his wife's funeral, and it's not like the arms-crossed thing offends me on an existential level, so it costs me nothing to do it.

Although now I'm afraid I'm going to pull a Wonder Woman: [link] Which is really not what they want you to do.

Happy Birthday, Empress!!!

I meant to say last night that Matilda is so adorable! But I was a little tipsy, as you may have noticed.

meara, I'm sorry.

Happy Birthday, Empress!

I don't know how much of the saga of Maggie's Not Eating I shared here, so here's the summary.

She wasn't eating. The vet felt around, felt a mass, did an ultrasound, said it could be one of a few things, let's try antibiotics and see if it helps. She's only 3 or 4, so let's try that, and if it doesn't, we'll do exploratory surgery.

It helped a lot, and then about a week later she went back to not eating. So, we got more antibiotics last week, see if it was a recurrence. She's been throwing those up pretty consistently and still not eating.

So, I took her in today, and the mass is much bigger, and she looks a little jaundiced, and, yeah, he could do the surgery, but even if he was able to take the probable-lymphoma out, it's not a long-term cure, just a time-buyer, and not much time, at that. She's still herself, and doesn't seem to be in a lot of pain. She's also still drinking water. So, we'll probably wait until she starts showing signs of distress and then take her in and say goodbye.

Fuck cancer, you know?

Totally fuck cancer. I am so sorry, Debet.

And thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes! I wish I had a sparkly hat.

Aw, damn it, I just need to vent. This is such a fucked-up day. I'm working until 3 and then going right to the funeral home for the visitation. My IBS has returned with a vengeance (I haven't eaten gluten, so I'm assuming it's stress).

And -- while I understand the good intentions behind it, the logistics make it impossible for me to deal with -- the Facebook-style kinky social media site we belong to has a system to send mail, like Facebook does. And like Facebook, if you reply to a message, you have to go through the site itself.

Well, someone just messaged me asking for the details for the visitation tonight, and I CANNOT reply to them from work. Not to that Web site. No fucking way.

I don't know her e-mail, because we're not e-mailing buddies, and I don't have her cell phone number.

Like I said, I understand that the person's intentions are nothing but the best, but I can't get her the info, and I don't have the time to e-mail all of our friends to find out if anyone knows how to get in touch with her.

I texted Tim to tell him, because he *might* have her number. But he's ALSO at work, and shouldn't have to stop what he's doing to deal with this. Grrr.

Cereal:

Debet, I was typing while you were posting. Fuck cancer, indeed.