erin, you can wash the spoon and food dish like normal. Dish detergent will kill any germs. Sponges are nasty. I use a washcloth (special stack of cheap washcloths bought for the purpose) to clean up those kinds of messes, and then throw the cloth in the washing machine with the towels - or throw it away if it's too gross even for me; that's why I get the cheapo ones!

Blood can carry bad things, but in and of itself it's not that bad. Old blood can smell horrific, but anything with a lot of protein will after a while, as I recall.

Speaking of gross things, I just cleaned out my fridge, in time for the trashman. I would like my thread-titled cookie now please. But alas, the SO left my girlscout cookies in the church sound booth yesterday. Woes.

I get a cookie too, but not as big as Liese's. I just cleaned out my obstructionist filing cabinet (this room doesn't work with that huge thing in it) and hid the remaining files we still use in a storage ottoman. I'd priced filing storage ottomans a while back and fainted. Then I found a website where they used a Target storage ottoman and a pair of $9 hanging file insert frames. I have more seating, and the filing cabinet is going away. Soon.

Steph and Zenkitty - The Editorial Enforcers (together they fight sloth!)

yup - been there, done that, had the white hairs to prove it (dye, like glitter, covers a world of sins).

Last week - after I'd sent three e-mails to people asking for input for our weekly e-newsletter, each with a note that I had to send it in noon on Tuesday - I had someone call me a little before 3:00 asking when I needed the info.

I get I giant cookie, because I just finished sending the last of the files for this godforsaken issue, and I am by god going home. Now. Before the snakes get out of the ceiling.

Some projects are cursed - anything that can possibly (and some things you think couldn't possibly) go wrong will.

You know, it may be possible that - after all these issues where you used the black box with white overlay and fake shadow it could be the printer had something that would automatically work with that and when you went to an actual checkbox, it couldn't deal. Or, as has been suggested, that some "helpful" person at the printer's went in and changed something.

Brilliant, Sox. You know, I have a big filing cabinet in my office that I need, but I also have a filing cart and a legal filing rolling cart. I wonder if I could convert the rolling cart to a storage ottoman. It would nest below my floating shelves bookshelf, and serve as guest seating, replacing both the file cart and the stool that are in there now. Hmm!

thanks for the cleaning info, hivemind. it is possible that i vastly overreact to the possibility of bloody food-borne contaminants. one of the benefit of being vegetarian: not having to worry about cross-contamination.

I haz a sad.

Okay, not really a sad, but a heavy heart.

The terrific new vet we saw last week...who took surgery off the table for Bartlby's chronic issue and made me a very happy woman as a result, has had to go back on that promise.

Unlike the other vets we've seen, she actually did research before throwing dartstreatments at the problem. In the end, it became clear that cutting is the ultimate answer. I can't even express how much I did not want to hear this.

There is a drug treatment that might significantly improve the situation...which would be required before surgery anyway...with some risks but not nearly as many.

Then, there is the cost. I took out pet insurance for the first time last week, but have no idea whether it would even cover the necessary procedures. I've asked the doc to see if there is anyone in the practice who can advise me.

If insurance won't cover it, it isn't even up for discussion.

It goes without saying that I want the best for the little guy. He is the center of my universe. I just want him to be safe.