Workman's Comp Displays of Wisdom

Tara hurt her back at work unloading the delivery truck a few weeks ago. It hurt when she originally strained it but didn't seem life altering. Last week it really started to hurt to the point that she willingly went to the doctor.
Since the original injury is work related she contacted workman's comp. After the usual run around, poor attitude from the rep, disbelieving snide comments, etc. they set Tara up to go to their doctor today. Gave her an address in our town to get checked out.
This morning she goes to the address and finds..."For Pet's Sake Animal Hospital" The doctor they were trying to send her to moved offices two years ago. His old building is now a pet hospital....some times you just have to laugh...

Samwise the Defiant

Most commonly heard phrase in the house right now? "SAAAAAAMMMM....NO!"
He has turned into quite the little spitfire and has already established himself as the alpha cat.
He loves all the cat toys, attacking anything from plastic bottle caps to balls to shadows to the other cats to my feet to the phone charger to the lamp shade to oh just about anything.
And he is still well named because he shows no fear...he is immune to water spray and will stop doing what he shouldn't be doing for as long as it takes you to say "NO" before blithely continuing on.
My favorite bad Sam routine right now is his attempts to get on the kitchen counter. The house has an open floor plan so the space between the back of the couch and the edge of the counter is very small. If I am in the kitchen washing dishes or preparing dinner he will climb up on the back of the couch to watch and then ever so slowly try to inch up on to the counter. When the inevitable, "Saaaammmm...NO!" is uttered he quickly backs up the the back of the couch before resuming his efforts.
We have had to resort to shutting the bedroom door at night. I hate to do it but he does not sleep as much as most cats and spends most of the night attacking anything that shifts under the covers or trying to attack the lamp or phone charger on the night stand next to my head. So for now all three cats spend their nights in the rest of the house. as he calms a bit (hopefully) we'll try to let them back in.
He is really persistent..attacks lamp on night stand- gets picked up told NO and placed on floor...immediately hops up and attacks lamp again...repeat 12 times...he's like one of the moles from the Whack - A - Mole game... just keeps popping up again.
Samwise the brave, defiant, energetic and smart is truly a one-of-a-kind addition to our household.

Famous Losses

Ed McMahon passing was sad but not that shocking....
Farrah Fawcett was another loss that is sad but in light of her 3 year battle with cancer, not that suprising.
Michael Jackson is definately a shock.
May they all rest in peace...

Meet the New Addition

It's a funny thing. You realize when you lose a pet that you can never, ever replace them in your heart but oddly enough your heart can grow and have room to love a new one. Meet Samwise or Sammy our latest addition. He was one of 6 kittens that a local woman was trying to find a home for. He isn't all black, there is a white spot high on his neck under his chin and white hair in his ears.

We named him Samwise after Samwise Gamgee in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. J.R.R. Tolkien described Samwise as the bravest character in the series and "stout of heart" and very loyal. Our little Samwise is very brave and virtually fearless and is already taking over the house. He has displaced Curious George from the top of the cat tree and Callie from the back of the love seat, attacks anything, never backs down and is very cuddly when he chooses to be.

Callie at first treated him like a day old kitten and George attempted to ignore him. Now they all play Thundering Herd of Elephants and seem to be getting along fine. Samwise initially was flea infested. The poor things first experience in our home was a Dawn soap bath in the bathroom sink and tweezers. He is flea free and fiesty now. The woman said they were 8 weeks old but judging from his size I would say he was closer to 6 weeks. He is litter trained and loves dry and wet cat food. He and George share the wet food in the morning.

Samwise is quite a delight to have around.

Max Cat Food Recall

We went to buy cat food on Friday and the shelves in PetSmart where the Max Cat formula dry food usually is were bare. We went and asked and associate and she explained that there was a voluntary recall on almost all Max Cat food due to potentially high levels of zinc and potassium in the food.
This hit us like a sledge hammer. We switched to Max Cat last year and last winter switched to the indoor weight loss formula (one of the types recalled). And a few months later Charles was starting to lose some weight. Then the week between Christmas and New Years when we had a house full he got kind of run down and a couple days later was jaundice and one day later we had to send him over the rainbow bridge. The vet stated there were a few potential causes for his condition and one at the top of her list? Zinc poisoning.
If you have any Max Cat food take it back to PetSmart immediately! They will refund your money, exchange it for a different brand or give you store credit.
We are now in the process of getting all our information in order before contacting the makers of Max Cat and processing through a lot of what ifs (like what if we hadn't switched food?). Charles was barely 6 years old. We can't change what happened but it brought the loss of Charles right back to the front. The paperwork we have on the recall states that to their knowledge no cats have died but I think it is more likely that more cats were like Charles...hard to figure out without expensive testing that wasn't going to save him anyway.
The Facts:
Nutro Dry Cat Food Recall began May 21, 2009. Contact Nutro customer service at 1-800-833-5330 or visit www.nutroproducts.com. You can contact PetSmart at 1-888-839-9638 or on Twitter at @PetSmartTLC.
This recall includes just about every brand of Nutro Max Cat and Nutro Naturals brand cat food.

Wheel of Time Controversy

I am a big fan of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. There were 11 books plus a prequel written as of the time of the author's death in 2007. He was working on the final volume, tentatively titled A Memory of Light when he died leaving some extensive notes and sections of the book written.
Brandon Sanderson, an author and fan, was chosen by Jordan's widow to finish the book. Originally, the hope was to have the book published this year and have all the little loose ends tied up.
If you know anything about the series, Jordan wrote about many main characters and more than numerous smaller characters. There are almost too many plots and sub plots to count. In the past, every time a new book came out I would spend the months leading up to the release rereading the previous volumes. Sanderson began researching, rereading the original 11 books, reviewing Jordan's notes and preparing to write and realized the enormity of this project. He had two choices as an author:
1. Cram everything into one book, leaving many of the smaller loose ends unresolved and not giving proper due to some of the main characters and basically all of the smaller characters and plots.
2. Write it as truly as he could.
Sanderson chose to tell the complete end to the story, tie up all the loose ends, and try to stay true to Jordan's vision. He admits he can never really fill Jordan's shoes but he wants to do justice to the work. So now the whole think is looking to go upwards of 800,000 words.
The decision was made to split the final novel into three books for a few reasons.
1. Its been 4 years since the last book: we fans want to read something.
2. It is now too big to publish as one volume anyway.
3. The whole thing still isn't written though Sanderson is working his tail off and if we wait for him to finish writing it all and for it to be edited, etc, it could be 2 or 3 more years. He's written over 400,000 words to date and if you know anything about writing that is impressive.

I'm pretty happy with the decisions made all around. I commend Sanderson for being true to the work despite the enormity of the task. I'm happy they are splitting it. I want to read something soon.
It will be an epic end to an epic series instead of a cheap flimsy wrap up.

The Memory of Light is now coming out in three pieces. Part one: The Gathering Storm, will be out November of 2009 and I can't wait.
To Brandon Sanderson I say thank you for keeping the characters and world of the Wheel of Time alive to the best of your ability. And thank you for pouring your heart and soul into doing it right.
You can keep track of Sanderson's progress and get more info on his website: http://www.brandonsanderson.com

Continued Signs of Spring

My Black Pearl Slate colored Escape is currently a lovely shade of yellowish green. Spring has officially arrived with the OVER abundant production and release of tree pollen that has begun to coat everything.
At least the bare patches of my yard look like something is growing there since they too are covered in bright yellowish green pollen...

Sure Signs of Spring

The sure signs of spring I've encountered or experienced over the past two weeks:

1. Illness - the upper respiratory infections are rampant right now. Most of my coworkers and friends and finally me have all gone through what I like to call 'The Crud."

2. Lots of stuff is blooming and starting to turn green. We have a lot of trees that start with white flowers. Very pretty and uplifting to see.

3. Birds, lots of them. I've got finches, robins, sand pipers and I don't know what else keeping the cats glued to the windows.

4. Carnival stuff. I had a bunch of carnival food booths go past me on I95 the other day. You could see the advertisements for Italian Sausage! Elephant Ears! Blooming Onion! It just made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

5. Potholes. Potholes are not nearly the issue in NC as they are in PA but they appear nonetheless.

6. Construction. The surest sign that spring is really here is a flashing sign that says "ROAD WORK NEXT 5 MILES" and a lot of orange and white barrels.

Star Trek TNG Reuniting

Okay, I'll admit it....this made my inner geek squeal like a 10 year old girl...


http://io9.com/5160294/st-tng-cast-reunite-in-cartoon-form

The entire main cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation including Denise Crosby and Wil Wheaton will be voicing themselves on a March 29 episode of Family Guy. I admit it...I'm a Star Trek fan and a Family Guy fan so I'll be setting the DVR for this one.

Bookish

Buddy the Bearded Dragon is now tucked in under the new bookshelves.

When we moved to this house in September we made the decision to upgrade the bookshelves. What we had wasn't enough so we sold off the old ones in a yard sale and planned for new shelves.
For the past few months the books -- all 500 or so -- have been stacked floor to ceiling in a small closet in the office. Reading became more than just an intellectual adventure. There was also the very real chance of being buried in books when you attempted to get one out.

Two weekends ago we were debating on dinner and a movie and instead went to Lowes. Four 12 foot planks, a few l brackets, some sheet rock screws, a stud finder and our circular saw and sander with a little time and effort turned into 63 glorious feet of bookshelves.Getting all of the books out of the closet and vaguely organized was a challenge but we've got shelves!!!! The books fill all 63 feet but they aren't double stacked and by my count there is some room left to add another shelf on one wall if I need to later.

The wrap around shelves have all fictional books.
This wall is all non-fiction with the exception of the entire Left Behind series in with the religion section and the Sweet Pickles books on the top shelf. The little closet to the left now has shelves built in as well and is being used to store office supplies.