An Arizona Cheesehead's Thoughts

I lost my baby this morning. George woke me up at 2:30 with a little cry, the most noise she's made in days. She was lying in the doorway of my bedroom. I carried her into bed and held her as she took her last breaths. I'm so grateful I got to be with her as she left. The final blood tests results had showed it was very likely she had leukemia. However, the Vet wasn't sure if those results were skewed by the pancreatitis. I believe she had been fighting the leukemia for a while and it ended up being too much for her. Looking back, I can honestly say she didn't show anything amiss until the weekend before last when she started becoming very lethargic and stopped showing an interest in eating. I hope she wasn't in pain and hiding it but, if she were, she was a great actress and I'm comforted by knowing she didn't suffer a long time. Last night, she went to the patio door so I let her out. That must have been her last hurrah as she explored the great outd...

George has not perked up as I had hoped. She still wasn't eating or drinking by Saturday so it was back to the Vet. She was running the same fever and a physical examination showed she was sensitive in the kidney area. Very sensitive. The Vet said he suspected it could be pancreatitis and he wanted to do a blood test to verify it. They drew blood and gave her more fluids and we went home. As far as I could tell, she didn't eat or drink anything from that point on except I got her to take about four licks of yogurt. Which may have made her throw up a little while later. The blood test results were supposed to be back today and one of the Techs called me with bad news. The bad news being that the lab lost her sample. So, I bailed out of a meeting and broke many speeding laws to pick her up and get her back to the Vet before the current day's lab tests got picked up. I literally handed her off to the Tech in the parking lot and drove away. (BTW, the lab found her test late...

I watched the season finale of The Taste last night and came away inspired with a really great life lesson:  take advice from those that know more than you do. Seems like it should be a given but we see it all the time. Someone is 100% sure they have the perfect idea, plan, process, product, etc. and ignores a more experienced voice who is offering up constructive feedback. For those who aren't familiar with the show, four famous and very skilled chefs (Tony Bourdain, Nigella Lawson, Ludo Lefebvre and Marcus Samuelsson) assemble teams of four contestant chefs each and mentor them throughout the contest. Two contestants are eliminated every week and each week features a guest chef who mentors the team who wins the first challenge of the day. The ultimate winners gets $100,000 and a big trophy. The mentor for the winner also gets a big trophy. The finale came down to three contestants, Lee, Marina and Louise. They were all very different cooks and personalities. Lee was the...

I have a co-worker who is into beer as much as I am. Perhaps even more. We often chat about bars, restaurants and stores where we have find something especially delightful. When one of my friends' brothers was brokering a major purchase of a fantastic Croatian beer, I was all over getting a case. I don't know, nor do I care, if he bought it out of the back of a truck but I know I bought my case for cash out of the back of a car. Just sayin... So dee-licious! The case never made it past right inside my front door because I am that lazy but it was a good physical reminder to bring in a bottle for my bud. One morning, I thought to grab one on my way into work. It didn't occur to me until I was walking into the lobby that perhaps I should have brought it in a bag. "What me, bringing booze into the work place? Why, no, that would be inappropriate and I'm all about propriety." My next thought was a wish for a sticky note saying "It's not cold, ...

Work has been craptastic the last few weeks. Lots to do to begin with but then we spent several days dealing with a production server that decided to be a repeat a-hole. Computers are like that. It chewed through several hard drives and we have to completely rebuild it on Saturday. Of course, all that drama meant that the "lots to do" became "lots to catch up on plus new lots to do". Ugh. There were some nice things that came out of it. The team pulling together. The business users being very understanding. Shipping product coming to a grinding halt. Oh, wait, that part totally sucked. As I sat at my desk, I repeatedly turned to my right so I could look at my wall calendar. I made one for my parents for Christmas and, after seeing how much they really enjoyed it, I made one for myself. Here is February: All you need is love! Since I'm a single girl, I chose to focus on platonic love for Valentine's Day month. All the pictures are from last year...

Poor George. She started to look poorly on Monday night. Just not her usual perky self. Didn't greet me at the door, didn't sleep with me. Tuesday morning found her curled up on the couch with no intention of moving. I had fed her some treats and got her to drink a little water but she was clearly off. However, when I came home to check on her at lunch on Tuesday, she seemed better. She was walking around and ate some cheese I gave her so I thought maybe it was just an upset stomach that she needed to work through. Alas, Tuesday night when I got home found her unmoved from when I left her at lunch. She also hadn't used her litter box nor would she take any food or water. First thing this morning, I called the Vet and got their first available appointment which was this afternoon. I knew she was really not well when she barely fought getting into her carrier. She HATES that thing despite the fact that it's totally stylish and matches her fur. As usual, she cried ...