I accomplished things today! I went to the farmers market where I got a ton of vegetables and some cookies; went to the Verizon store where I got a new phone; went to Wegman's where I got some sushi for lunch, plus pasta and tofu and a few other things to make my farmers market veggies into meals; and now I'm home and eating the sushi before I start cleaning the living room and kitchen. I've also got to call to make appointments for hair and glasses, and I just remembered that I meant to also stop at the sporting goods store while I was out, because I need to buy a bike pump.

---

Omnis, how's your father doing?

He had a doc appointment on the first. He said he'd call with the results of the tests. Either the results haven't come in yet, or he just isn't calling, which is normal for my family. Seems I'm the only one who calls anyone.

ION- That hole in the floor. Thursday the HOA board approved it's repair. Monday the construction comany is supposed to contact me. Today? Well. I woke up to a huge army of ants invading my house. Guess what the entry point is. Yup. That hole in the floor. Shocking, no? I sprayed with my citrus air freshner to stem the tide a little. It's slowed them down. Need to eat/shower and go out and get the real deal. Grrrrrr.

---

I went to the a 2D Needle Felting class and learned that and decorated the purse I made earlier.

Also went to the Farmer's Market and got okra for free. I bought some last week and it was really tough and woody, first time the farm had grown it and they sold it too large. Also met someone from Tallahassee and we exchanged numbers.

I was getting frustrated at the class because I was trying to get make things perfect and I'm bad at visualize certain things accurately but I think it turned out well. I just need practice. But it was fun and I saw a picture of a project I want to do.

---

Sibling News #1: My little sister sent me her Nano to replace my stolen Shuffle!! Now I have to figure out how to use the damn thing. I was literally minutes away from buying a new Shuffle when the mailman knocked on my door. And I was actually texting with my sister at the time. It was crazy.

Sibling News #2: My parents are meeting FSIL tomorrow. If they are cooperative, she would be okay with moving the wedding to March. We'll see how it goes.

(I hope my awesome wedding gift is still awesome in March. It should be, but it would have been MORE awesome sooner.)

---

So I need cat advice about Dean. Not about peeing this time.

I was petting him a few days ago and I thought I felt a knot. But then it "disappeared" so I thought I just imagined it. And then tonight I felt it again, on his right side right under his ribs and it's round, almost perfectly round and felt hard.

The lump moves and it's not always there. I'm not sure if I should be concerned or not.

Any ideas. Also note that Dean is a super skinny cat.

---

So I need cat advice about Dean. Not about peeing this time.

I was petting him a few days ago and I thought I felt a knot. But then it "disappeared" so I thought I just imagined it. And then tonight I felt it again, on his right side right under his ribs and it's round, almost perfectly round and felt hard.

The lump moves and it's not always there. I'm not sure if I should be concerned or not.

Any ideas. Also note that Dean is a super skinny cat.

---

Ugh. I have been feeling weirdly nauseated for the past couple days, no idea why. Have decided to bail on a friend's BBQ because it is too far away (y'know, like twenty whole minutes!!) and I just don't feel up to the effort. Which is pathetic, since today I have...gone to brunch. And napped. And sewed for about 10 minutes. Oy.

But yesterday while avoiding work (I got SO little done) I decided to be good and look at my free annual credit reports. Hadn't done it in a couple years, and the last two times, one of them had decided I was an 87 year old woman. Um, no. This time they freaked me out by asking as their verification questions about where I had taken out a home equity loan in 1998. I was like "What?!?!" fearing suddenly that someone had (retroactively?!?) stolen my identity. But no, apparently "None of the above" was the right answer.

Now to figure out if I want to try to refinance my house. It feels like it would be a big hassle, and is something I have NO idea how to do. But my mortgage is currently 5%, so the low low current rates would be pretty sweet...

---

We need to refi too, meara.

Moving sucks. Leaving the PNW sucks. The rest of it? Is really worth all of that.

Sending many hugs your way, Cass. Moving does suck, but so glad that you are with your family.

I have been a lump today. Mostly I've exercised and read The Hobbit to the kids. Now they are watching Hobbit production vids, and I made some lemon cordial. Someone else better be in charge of dinner is all I can say.

---

What an unholy fuckstick of a day this day has been.

Very long story short, in the last several days Matilda has had two things that were square and white and looked like teeth so she swallowed them. In her case, they actually both were teeth, but one of them left behind some ragged gum that has now gotten red and inflamed and abscessed, with nasty little blisters on her tongue and lips as a gift with unpurchase.

We spent the afternoon at urgent care, where the on-call pediatrician prescribed a clindamycin oral solution to beat back the abscess until we can get her in to the dentist on Monday morning. Unfortunately, it turns out that clindamycin oral solution is one of the vilest, bitterest substances on the planet and, Dr. Google tells me, is specifically not recommended for children because the taste and smell are so foul that almost no flavor can mask them.

The pharmacy (the third one we tried, because apparently this is an extremely rare formulation and practically nobody carries it) told me they were adding a banana flavor to mask the bitterness, but upon Matilda's first dose it became immediately apparent that either nothing had been added or banana was actually the worst possible flavor to add, as (a) the stuff smelled like Satan's rancid ass juice, and (b) she instantly vomited it back up, along with the bowl of soup that was the first thing her hurting mouth had allowed her to eat in almost a day. When my mom and I tried to coax her into giving it another go with her nose held and a cookie chaser, she went blind banshee screaming in panic.

I called the pharmacy back, and... it was 5:05, and it was closed for the weekend. So was my original pharmacy. So was the Walgreens up the street (which I hadn't used originally because they're having a fight with my insurance company and won't fill any prescriptions for anyone with this company). Finally I called the nearest 24-hour pharmacy I could think of, the 24-hour Walgreens on Castro. They immediately, bless them, told me to bring it over and they'd dose it up with better flavors.

Halfway there, it occurred to me that I was now officially insane, as I was voluntarily going out in search of parking in the Castro on a Saturday night (which I did find, five blocks away, but I was damn grateful). The Walgreens staff triple-loaded the clindamycin with pungent masking flavors, agreed that the other pharmacy were idiots, and charged me next to nothing, which practically made me cry. It now smelled vaguely like moist Smarties, not exactly delightful but such an improvement.

Home again, home again, jiggity jig, where Matilda screamed like a banshee for another twenty minutes (Plei and Jilli, it was exactly like Shiva's recent Event), finally calmed down enough to prove amenable to bribery with a Merida doll if she could get through the week's dosage, and then spent the next two and a half hours almost taking it and then stalling (I spent that time discovering reserves of patience I never imagined I had, not that it did any good). Finally, because the thought of an abscess inches from her brain was freaking my shit out badly and it was clear that she was never going to take it on her own, I bearhugged her while my mom dosed her. She shot out of my arms, gave me the hatingest hatestare in human history, and stormed out screaming, "I am REALLY ANGRY AT BOTH OF YOU! It tasted REALLY SUPER AWFUL, YOU KIDS!"

She raged in the bedroom a few minutes, came out to rage in the kitchen, and then settled down to cuddle with me on the couch, drink fizzy water, watch Alice in Wonderland and guzzle a bowl of chocolate pudding (no crunchy or even chewy food allowed until we get the all-clear from the dentist). And now she's happy as a clam, snuzzling and chuckling at Alice and I feel like the evillest mom ever. And we still have twenty more doses to get through.

Also, in the middle of this post I had to get up to fix the VCR, during the course of which I found that the pipe behind the kitchen sink has completely rusted through, and that the building (continued...)

---

( continues...) maintenance guy isn't answering his phone.

In conclusion, today is just stupid.

---