Randomosity

There hasn't been too much going on around here this week that I felt was post-worthy so I put it off until today. Hmmmm. What to report . . .

Phoebe

Phoebe (baby girl kitten) evidently has a birth defect. She started limping around last Friday night and seemed to be in pain although I couldn't see an injury. Saturday morning I took her to the vet, a sub for my regular vet who was still on maternity leave for 3 more days). He thought she had sprained or strained something and gave her an anti-inflammatory shot and sent us home with pain pills (for her, not me). By Wednesday there had been no improvement so I took her back to see my regular vet. Turns out she has this weird knee defect that Dr. A has never seen in a feline - only in toy dog breeds. The groove in her leg bone that the kneecap slides back and forth in is too shallow to hold the kneecap where it's supposed to stay and so the cap slides out and strains the ligament it's attached to if she moves a certain way. The only way to fix it is via surgery where they go in and literally carve out a deeper groove and then I pay $2500 - $3000. Editorial comment added a few hours later - want to clarify that the previous surgery cost is not a problem. Not that I have this much floating around my checking account but I do have plenty of available credit because I keep my credit debt down for exactly these kinds of situations. Phoebe is only one year old, and I know the personal and spiritual value of a companion animal so $3000 is a very small investment in another 15 or 20 years of unconditional love and at least a few laughs every day and a warm, purring, happy body beside me while I sleep. Good God. It cost me about $28,000 to get rid of a husband after 2 years of emotional abuse! Husband = not worth it. Cat = very much worth it. I love my vet because she is fairly conservative when it comes to surgery on animals. Her philosophy, which matches mine, is that these species survived thousands and millions of years in the wild with no medicine and learned to adapt to physical challenges. She suggested that we let Phoebe heal and watch her and if it gets to the point where I'm in once a month for injections and pain meds it will be time to take the next step. Sister Page and her husband Paul (Super Vets) are on vacation but I'll get their take on this when they get back. In the meantime Phoebe is still limping but she seems to be taking it in stride:

Working Out
The other thing is that I've managed to get on the treadmill every day this week and according to my Polar Heartrate Monitor I've burned about 400 calories per session. What happened was I sat down and figured that if I can lose an average of 2 pounds per week by January 1 2008 I will have hit my goal. So I went at it. My goal is to work up to burning at least 3500 calories per week (=1 pound) and really watch my food portions. The result, with 2 days on the week to go, is that I've lost 3 pounds!!! On the one hand it's such a tiny drop in the bucket it's hardly worth mentioning but on the other hand I think it's a fairly awesome beginning.

Clothing, or Lack Thereof
I think I did let the 3 pounds go to my head a bit and so I decided to go out today and shop for clothing. I have a clothing problem. I don't have any. In fact, in the past year I have spent $30 on clothing. I bought a pair of men's cargo shorts at Target for $15 and I bought a pair of cheap $15 work boots at Target for the sole purpose of working in the jungle that is my backyard. Everything else I wear I've had for at least 3-7 years and that isn't much because as things become unwearable I toss them and don't replace. So I went to Macy's today and let me tell you I wasn't ready to shop. Everything I tried on was simply fabric covering my body. I need to wait at least a couple of months and keep up the working out before I think things looks halfway decent on me. And at this point I'm just not going to spend money on anything I don't at least feel some fondness for.

I suppose that's it for now although I'm sure I'll have more before the weekend is up. It's almost 100 today y'all! Hope wherever you are you are cool (or warm for my friends in the southern hemisphere).