Wednesday, August 25, 2004

Radioactive Feline

So we're back! Scotland was awesome, rainy, crowded, beautiful...

Today Scotland isn't on my mind, though, it's my cat who has hyperthyroid and we are dropping her off at some crazy radiation clinic this morning to get injected with radioactive iodine. It's our last hope as the medication she has been on for four years or so stopped working about 6 months ago.

I think the weirdest thing is that she is 14 and we really don't know how many years she has left, but we just couldn't put her to sleep. It was a hard, crappy choice, but we felt we had to try everything we could before giving up on her.

When she gets home, she will be radioactive, just a little, but enough that we should limit our touching her to an hour a day and we have to flush her cat litter down the toilet for two weeks until she "cools down." Visions of Silkwood... She is becoming the 6 Million Dollar Cat. Worth every penny.

My car's in the shop to be repaired from when the guy hit it and drove away. I have a turquoise blue Nissan rental -- it's hideous and huge compared to my two door Civic. It turns out, according to my insurance company that if we had NOT gotten his license plate number as he drove away, I would only be responsible for $100 deductible, but since Jon had the presence of mind to get his license has he was driving away down the street, it's technically a collision and I have to fork out $500 if he has insurance and $300 if he does not. What's up with that??!? I will appeal the decision.



Thursday, August 05, 2004

Beware of Begbies

Two people have now told me about the "scene in Trainspotting where Begbie beats up the yank tourists during the fringe festival. Remember that??"

Yes. Thanks.

Jon and I joked about putting Canadian flag pins on our backpacks, but we've been told by two Scottish co-workers that it wouldn't make any difference, the Scots hate everyone. We'll just steer clear of the football games and try to blend into the other 50 thousand tourists that are there this week.

Our cat sitter, when we interviewed him, told us the urban legend of the cat dying while the owners were away and the cat sitter puts the cat in the freezer, not knowing what to do with the body, and the folks return home a day early and find it in the freezer...huh! What a great story to tell people who are hiring you to watch their cats...

I just got my new fleuvogs (www.fleuvog.com) they are so pointy. I cannot wear them to Scotland. Funny! They are called Tokyo Gibsons. Yes they are.


Tuesday, August 03, 2004

Shut up and blog

It's raining. I am happy for my lawn. How weird is that? Happy for the rain so we don't have to pay for water. We haven't gotten a water bill yet, so that will be interesting to see.

My friend Gibson went to Thailand and returned to work yesterday. He seemed high from the adventure of it all. I asked him to tell me his one favorite thing -- what was the best experience he had and he said it was the white water rafting. "They would never run this river in the US" he said.

The guide's name was Tip (!). He was missing his front two teeth because someone had hit him with an oar. The only English he knew was "Paddle forward" and "Paddle backwards." Gibson and Ellen's raft was the first to shoot down the rapids and then they got to wait and watch everyone else's follow. They saw 2 rafts flip over. You couldn't pay me money to get in Tip's boat! Gibson and Ellen are in a different class than I am when it comes to adventure.



Sunday, August 01, 2004

To the Races!

Sunday mornings are made for yard work now. Go figure.

Jon is out with the rake, the apple tree trimmings and the yard waste containers. It's amazing what we find out we can do.

I made a salad to take to the racetrack. We're meeting the fam there for a variation on the Sunday Family Dinner. I am not a racing fan. Poor horses. I can't imagine anything I would like less than being beaten with a stick and being told to run as fast as I can. That's no fun at all. Jerry likes the races. The rest of us are clueless, happy that there will be lunch.

The mental list of things to do grows by the minute. I found out that the old wooden fixtures in the bathroom are not screwed to the wall, they are glued, with some crazy ass industrial glue that is tearing the wall apart when I try to peel them off. Yay for owning our home. How much will it cost to replace a toilet paper holder now?? I bought new fixtures, but I don't think they will be put into use for some time now. We want to paint the outside of the house and the upstairs and get new lights for many of the rooms. It never really will end, I don't think.

The other day we were leaving a bar in the late afternoon and this guy who looked like Michael Moore asked if I would buy a poem for $1. I agreed and then he said, "Would you like a poem or an anecdote?" I was like, "Hey! An anecdote sounds great." He gave me a piece of typed paper and I gave him my dollar. The page had two anecdotes on it. They were short and pointless. Jon commented that buying boring anecdotes from a man who looks like Michael Moore is a pretty good anecdote.