it would totally be her magic lasso.

Then she could make him tell the truth.

WW: "So...do you have fantasies about me."
Bats: "Gggggg....uhhhh. Yes.
WW: "Do you fantasize about me tying you up?"
Bats: "yes."

And then sometimes, he wraps around my arm. Feh.

I'm sorry this is hard, sarameg. How long has he been on the antib's?

I have to take Kittenish in for a checkup and blood labs next week and I am freaked - even with her eating well and honestly kinda plump.

"don't let daddy lick me again"

An old ad for children's laxatives. It's a little disturbing.

Before I clicked the link, I thought it was licking as in tongues. Which wasn't less disturbing, just problematic in a different way.

Basically, since Monday/sunday night. It's the crash and insulin change I'm not sure about. He's eating and all that. He just seems less umph and less affectionate and tolerant. Hard to explain. He's... restless. His eyes are deeper and I don't know how to explain that (yes, I did the skin check for dehydration, not that.)

I'm in the grey zone. I hate the grey zone. Damnit.

Slinky, who is our little black cat, is 14 years old. In the past 3-4 months she's started getting ravenous, begging for food and trying to steal food off our plates any time we eat. Every time we go in the kitchen she follows and meows for food.

She's also lost weight, which we only really realized this week. And she's drinking more water (we think), and is increadingly irritable and fights with Toke at the drop of a hat. We don't know if her urine output is higher, since the 2 cats share the litterboxes, but Tim thinks it is.

So, we have to get her in to see if it's diabetes or thyroid or what.

Sara, I think about how well you've cared for Mister Kitty, and how well he's done, and it makes me less worried about Slinky's prognosis (although she's not a young cat anymore; she's not even a teen cat). I'm sorry Mister Kitty isn't bouncing back. It's so hard.

I'm glad MK provides some buoy for hope even as I fret.

The grey zone is so hard. I hope you get some clearer signals soon.

I hope Slinky feels better soon.

Seriously, watching other Buffistas take care of cats with health problems and having them do so well and have such a quality of life was what gave me hope when Kittenish was first sick. And she's had, so far, another six years of pestering me and snuggles.

Historical Thursday: Octopus Wrestling

I had no idea such a sport existed:

Springing into popularity in during the 1960s, the sport was a feat of strength pitting man against creatures of the deep. While many know that octopi are shy creatures, they become extremely aggressive when cornered. Their strength, weight and tentacles made them formidable opponents. Octopus wrestling became so popular that annual world championships were held. The 1963 event was televised, and attracted almost 5,000 onlookers. Although the logistics of the event isn’t exactly clear, it seems the most common method was to corner an octopus in shallow water and use any tactics to bring it to surface or shore. Trophies were given to individuals who successfully subdued the largest specimen. And if all this wasn’t manly enough, the divers would then cook and eat their fallen foes.

Huh.

Unfortunately, the heyday of octopus wrestling seems to be lost to the ages. There aren’t a lot of records of the events, and it seemed to come out of vogue after the 1960s. Adding to its mystique is its origin; the sport was allegedly created by a man known only as O’Rourke. An article in True Magazine appears in 1964 describing the man and his technique. What started as a lucrative business in octopus fishing turned into a heroic feat of strength. O’Rourke would dive into the water with a line attached, acting as human bait. When an octopus would envelope him, his partner would pull him back onto the boat where he would wrestle it off.

He knew full well, many years ago, what today’s octopus wrestlers are just beginning to learn—that it is impossible for a man with two arms to apply a full nelson on an octopus; he knew full well the futility of trying for a crotch hold on an opponent with eight crotches.

I have a new hero.

And I have a new tagline.

Does the octopus have genitalia at the meeting of every pair of legs? Where are the octo-goolies?

Can women's sizing be simplified? I think one of the reasons men get more practical sizing is because the range of clothes and fits is narrower, and the clothes are asked to do less. Fit at the waist, be decent at the hips, break properly at the ankle. Shirts a bit more complicated. But it's not like hugging cleavage or hips or not.

I have one size gold standard--I'm a six, sometimes petite at Ann Taylor Loft, but that doesn't always work for pants. But they don't sell the cut I best like anyway.