The trip was great! Brenda arrived a bit after 5 on Thursday. She went down to mom's store first so she could follow mom home haha. Them Sheridan folks, they always get lost when trying to find our house. And you can't rely on the GPS navigator either. We had dinner at Sanfords, good stuff!

I accidentally set my alarm for 5:45 instead of 4:45, whoops.. Brenda got me at 5. I got up and got dressed quickly, and off to the airport we went! Checked in and got our tickets. Went through security... Brenda forgot she still had her water bottle in her bag hahaha. So they confiscated that. Eventually we boarded and ended up in Salt Lake City. We had donuts from Krispy Kremes for breakfast. I also got a Dr Pepper. whoa, talk about a green airport! This one gift shop they had, everything in there were recycled. And the cup I had for my Dr Pepper, made from corn! And the straw was paperish. Weird! We roamed around, and I got a deck of Salt Lake City playing cards since I collect playing cards of all sorts. We found a clear spot on the floor and played a game of Scrabble, and I beat Brenda BAD haha. Boarded and flew to Atlanta. When we got off the plane in Atlanta, we immediately saw a Pizza Hut, so of course we grabbed a couple of small pizzas, then went to find the concourse we needed to be at to catch the final plane of the day. Boarded the train, got off at... uh C I think.. maybe it was B. I don't remember. We ate up our pizzas, then boarded. Flew into Gulfport, got off the plane and there was my grandparents waiting for us. We went and visited with great aunt Elaine for a bit, then went to the hotel for the night.

Friday, breakfast at the iHop, and we spent the day scoping out Ocean Springs. Had lunch at Pleasant's Grill or something like that. Excellent catfish, had a bit of a spice to it though. But was still good! We hit up a toy store and I bought Bananagram! We also scoped out a candy shop and a small dog/cat accessories shop. We even hit up the local doughnut shop and got some doughnuts. Oh, they were so so so good! Boy I really stuffed myself FULL that day. We went back to Elaine's, and Brenda and I stayed and played Bananagram while the grandparents went to get Clinton and Chris from the airport. Everyone came back, and Chris joined us for Bananagram. Then we had some dinner that Elaine had cooked up. Hung out for a bit, then went to the hotel for the night.

Breakfast and a bit of shopping at the Cracker Barrel on Saturday. Went back to hotel for a bit, then made our way over to the Catfish Charlie for the family reunion. Was kinda fun squishing all 6 of us into 1 car ha. As usual, reunion was noisy and I couldn't really keep up with any conversations. Flipped through Elaine's photo album, and just hung out. Eventually we all got to eat lunch, and everyone else socialized some more. Soon enough we all left. We managed to make our way to the mall for a bit, then over to Elaine's house again so Grandpa could have dinner (the rest of us just munched on fruits) and Elaine served up her blueberry cheesecake for dessert. Then back to the hotel for the night!

Sunday, breakfast at Cracker Barrel again, then went over to Elaine's. We borrowed her car so all 6 of us wouldn't be squashed into 1 car. Then we made our way over to Mobile, Alabama. Toured the U.S.S. Alabama battleship, and boy did we do a lot of roaming around that ship and going up and down these ladders. Ouch my poor knees! Went into the snackbar and had ice cream cones, then checked out the planes and a submarine. Then we headed over to a science museum. Well, Brenda and I proceeded to the museum, the rest wanted to go find some lunch. Brenda and I had fun checking out the human body stuff! They had this set up where you get a card and you go to different stations to find out your pulse rates before and after exercise, approximately how much blood you have in your body, etc. Different stuff like that. Was kind of fun. Made our way upstairs and grandparents joined us. Clint and Chris checked out a nearby fort and museum. Brenda got the grandparents to do the health check thingy, and I roamed around and checked out the gift shop. Then we walked over to a nearby Quiznos so Brenda and I could eat. Met up with Clint and Chris and left Mobile, heading back to Elaine's to return the car. We hung out a bit there, then went back to the hotel.

Monday, breakfast at the Waffle House. Brenda and I had the same thing, and boy was it great! Excellent bacon, yummy waffle! Mmm. Returned to the hotel for a bit. Grandparents took Clint and Chris to the airport first, then returned. We all packed up, checked out and Brenda and I were dropped off at the airport. Checked out the gift shop, bought quite a few things... boarded. Landed in Atlanta and roamed around a bit. I had a small chicken sandwich, and a Ben and Jerry's ice cream cone, and Brenda had a smoothie. Boarded the plane, flew into Salt Lake City. Hung out for a couple of hours or so, wandering and sitting. We even ate a bit too. Boarded the plane, flew back into Casper and YAY! Found Brenda's car and we managed to make our way back to the house and went to bed. What a trip!

Whoa! I actually went out and hung out with some people for a bit! That doesn't happen too often. There was a deaf coffee social at Starbucks, so I went. Of course, I was the first one to arrive, and I showed up early. So I hung out and waiting for others to show up, listening to Tinted Windows on my iPod. Slowly others showed up, 1 by 1. For about the first hour, it was just th3 6 of us, 4 of us being deaf, 1 being an interpreter and 1 was one of the guys' daughter. At about 6, interpreter left to go home, and finally 2 more showed up (I guess 1 forgot about the coffee social, which is funny because he's the one sending out reminders!). We all chatted for a bit. Then dad and his daughter left, and the rest of us drove to Johnny J's for dinner. We ate, and chatted some more, just hanging out. Was fun! I definitely need to join them more often. I forgot about the last couple of deaf coffee socials. Usually I don't realize it is THE last Sunday of the month so I'm still in my PJ's all day or just really focused on the computer. Oops. I have it set on my sidekick's calendar to remind me a couple of hours before each coffee social for the last Sunday of each month so that should be taken cared of. Also there's a deaf bowling social event on June 13. I'm going to try to go, of course. But we'll see what happens by then!

Yesterday I had a headache for most of the day, it sucked. I got up and I was fine for a bit. But then there was this aching on the right side of my head, either above or behind my right eye, I couldn't tell for sure. Took some ibuprofen, grabbed a Dr Pepper and made my way to work. Of course, I stopped at Peaches and got a grilled chicken sandwich to go. Ate the lunch at work, stayed deaf for the whole afternoon, got home and just chilled out. Headache presisted, and I took more ibuprofen. It never did really go away last night. I went to bed with the headache even.

But today, it seems to be gone. But I'm going to be deaf at work anyway, I'm not going to take any chances of having that headache come back.

Anyway, while I was lazing about at home... I rememebered we had whole carrots in the fridge. Yes, WHOLE carrots, not the baby ones. Well, we still have some baby carrots, but I wanted a whole one! So I took one out of the bag in the veggie drawer, and peeled it. It was pretty fun peeling the carrot! Then I just munched away. Just the whole thing made me feel giddy and happy. Messaged mom on MSN messenger and told her that peeling your own whole carrots are so much better than the already peeled and cut baby carrots. I don't know why, but I definitely prefer the whole carrots. Baby carrots are dull and boring, but the whole ones are just kinda fun. I know, I'm weird, but what can I say? I really did enjoy that carrot though, woo! Told mom to not buy baby carrots ever again, at least not while I'm still living at home with her and Rob.

Going to Mississippi next week, woo! Am going to relay-call the vet and inform them that I want Bryan to be boarded with them while I'm gone, just get that arranged. I'm still pondering the packing situation. I am almost positive I'll take my backpack, as I have all sorts of electronics I want to take with me (my netbook, Nintendo DS and games, and my digital camera as well as my iPod). And I like my backpack cause it has different pouches for different stuff. As for the clothes, hm.. Will I be able to take a small suitcase and have that as a carry on (but they put it with cargo or whatever as you board the plane, and you can get the suitcase back when you unboard the plane). Or will I be able to fit all my clothes and stuff into a small enough carry on bag? Hm. I'll have to think about this and figure stuff out.

Well, I'm going to dive into this Subway sandwich I just picked up, and continue on with my work.

Aw man! I got up as I got sick of Bryan nagging at me to get up... and oh no... BRYAN!!!!!!!!!!!! books under the bed and scattered about on the floor, and they've been chewed on. This has been going on all week! He gets bored and attacks them while I'm still sleeping. Grrr. To make it worse, he attacked a library book that I've had for oh maybe a couple of years (sorry Jo!). I completely forgot I had this book, and there it was under my bed, cover ripped up. It's still readable and all, but...... I feel so bad so I ordered a new copy online to replace it. Grr, so frustrating. ALL books are on my bookshelf now, but.... I just may have to do some rearranging of the bookshelf so that he can't actually pull the books off the shelf. These were books that were piled up under my short bedside table where they have been for MONTHS and MONTHS, but he's never attacked them until this past week! I know he gets bored and stuff, but come on. He's got toys in my room that he could attack when he gets bored. That poop!

I've actually missed all of the current season of House. I have watched seasons 1-3 on DVDs, but haven't managed to catch up to the current season yet. But, when I discovered last week that last night's episode of House would be dealing with deafness and cochlear implants, I had my Nebraskan friend remind me to tune in, just so I could catch this episode.

I have to say, last night's episode was very interesting, although not entirely accurate with the cochlear implant issue. A standard hospital doctor wouldn't be telling a standard surgeon to go ahead and implant a teenager while he's still in the OR. You have to go through testings and evaluations before you can even get a cochlear implant, to make sure the cochleas and nerves are intact and all that jazz. Also, one's implant wouldn't be activated right after surgery and that person wouldn't right off the bat be understanding speech (some people are activated as soon as a day after or a week after surgery nowadays, or 3 weeks for some, it depends on the surgeons; and it takes TIME for an implant user to even understand speech and make sense of what he/she is hearing, it's not immediate). It was just a bit odd how they played out the implant deal. But it was interesting to see they used the Harmony device from Advanced Bionics. And for the teenager to rip the implant out of his head, that's just not right either, as the implant nowadays is stutured in so it doesn't get dislodged, and the incision in the skin is stitched/stapled up.

It's weird, because usually the people involved with creating House do their research and even consult with professionals about certain illnesses, disabilities, medications, procedures, etc. (although I have no idea how accurate the other episodes are) so I'm surprised at the amount of inaccuracies with last night's episode. Did they just not do a thorough research or something? Could they not get in touch with cochlear implant specialists? Hm. But it was still interesting to watch.

And there are people saying that cochlear implant surgery is brain surgery. Well, it's NOT brain surgery at all! Just 100% ear surgery and that's it. No brain involved at all. So they drill a hole into the skull to gain access to the inner ear and thread the electrode of the implant into the cochlea, and drill a small well into the skull to hold the implant in place... that's it really. No brain surgery or brain involved. I get annoyed when people make this assumption. I read a few blogs regarding to last night's episodes and a few mentioned the implant surgery being brain surgery.

I'm pretty sure I mentioned that the Texas Childrens Hospital was working on a vaccination project and they interviewed various families that have been affected by illnesses that could have been prevented by vaccines on here. I can't remember for sure, exactly... but anyway. On Tuesday, I came home from work and came across a box on the front door step. I remebered I had ordered some stuff from the ADCO hearing products website, but thought the packaging was too big. I completely forgot about the vaccination project. Took the box in and was surprised at how heavy it was. I opened it up, and there's 8 copies of the book "Vaccine-Preventable Disease: The Forgotten Story". Wow! I flipped through it, and found my story in there. I read through the whole book and was impressed with it. I really do hope people read this book and realize just how serious the consequences could be if they don't get their children vaccinated against certain illnesses. Even I learned some new stuff from the book that I didn't know of before. A very powerful book, with powerful stories from different families affected by different illnesses (chicken pox, polio, different types of meningitis, flu, etc.).

http://www.texaschildrens.org/carecenters/vaccine/Default.aspx I would assume the book will be available for order/purchase from this website soon enough. They did an excellent job.


If I ever have kids, they will definitely be vaccinated. Even if some ingredient in some vaccines has the possibility of causing autism in kids, I still woulc choose to vaccinate my own kids anyway. I'd rather deal with a child that has autism over risking losing him/her to a deadly illness that could have been prevented by a vaccine. I just wish there wasn't such a NEGATIVE view on vaccinations out there. Vaccines are there for a reason, and I wouldn't want for my kid to possibly contract meningitis, or who knows what and possibly die from it or be worse off than before. It's kind of hard to explain, but after thoroughly reading the book, wow. Even just the chicken pox can be so deadly or damaging, and that's scary.

Baby Noah has made his appearance today! My sister was due to have a scheduled c-section on Monday at 7 a.m., but Noah decided he was going to arrive earlier. He has arrived, and it sounds like they're doing just fine. I've been sent a couple of pictures of him on my Sidekick, but with T-Mobile, you have to log in online, go to your Album and get the pictures. But I'm at work and can't get into the album due to the limitations of the browsers here, so that stinks. So I'm rather anxious to get my work done so I can get home and get the pictures.

I got home from work and was just hanging out upstairs, watching some TV. My mom has been sick for a few days now, and has been at home all this time. Well, today, she took a hot bath to warm her up (she's had the chills). For a while I didn't take notice of anything sounding weird or unusual, as I was watching TV. Eventually though I made my way down the stairs so I could get some food for my dog (the bucket of dog food is kept in the storage room downstairs, it's hidden away). That was when I noticed the sound. I couldn't figure out what the heck that sound was. But it was louder when I got close to my bathroom downstairs, but then it clicked. 'Oohh, is that the bath tub running upstairs?' What do you know, it was! I myself prefer to take baths over showers and bathe quite a bit, but I have never heard the water running from the bathtub faucet as I was always deaf every time (I always take my hearing aid off and leave it on my dresser in my room before even going into the bathroom to take a bath).

Well today was quite an adventure! Right at 10 a.m., my Sonic Boom alarm clock went off, causing my bed to vibrate. Whooooaaaa. Shoved my dog off (he was on my legs) and got up and going. Got the dog outside, and HOLY CRAP! SNOW! No! Got dressed and proceeded out to my car to clean the snow off. My snow brush wasn't doing the job so I got a broom from the garage. Much better! Went back inside, got the dog down in the kennel after drying him off with a towel, made sure I had everything, including the money to pay for the CT scan. Finally I was on my way.

I drove like an old lady, driving at 20 for the most part. It's that bad outside. Visibility is bad, you can't see very far. Finally made it to Rocky Mountain Hospital/Clinic in McMurry Park, and went in. Filled out some paperwork, paid for the scan, and was taken back to the CT room. The radiologist techniction explained to me how the machine worked, and of how I should be laying still, yada yada. Ok, cool. Took hearing aid off (left my glasses in the car) and laid down. He put these little pillows next to my ears, and strapped my head down, then went into the computer room. Machine moved. I tried to watch the swirly x-ray go, but I couldn't. So I just focused my eyes on the ceiling instead, trying to keep my head as still as possible. Five minutes and it was all done. Darn, that was fast and short! I kinda enjoyed it, for some odd reason... They will be sending the CD disc of the CT scan images via Fed-Ex to Dr. Kelsall in Denver so he can review them and figure out what sort of shape my ears are in, if the auditory nerves are intact, how much ossification there are in the cochleas, etc. Another step ahead in the implant process done. Next would be another hearing test, and an appointment with Dr. Kelsall to go over the CT scan results, and figure out the next steps (have already gotten a response back from someone at Rocky Mountain Ear Center and we're working to get the hearing test AND appointment with Dr. Kelsall scheduled in 1 day... but doesn't seem like it'll be possible until July due to holidays, weddings and proms and graduations in May, my trip and sis and her fam moving back in June, etc.). And surely he'll help me with the application for the CNI Cochlear Implant Assistance Program somewhat too.

I bundled up again, and got out to my car. Grabbed the snow brush and cleaned off the car again. Then I got going. Once again, drove like an old lady, keeping my eyes out on the road, watching for any other vehicles. Slipped and slid a bit here and there, since the roads are a bit slick. Made it all the way down to Wolcott (after a bit of a hold-up, a vehicle up ahead got stuck). Turned left, waited at red light, then turned right. Proceeded on slowly, and turned off at the Hardees. Got my lunch, then cleaned off car again (back and right side windows got covered due to the wind blowing snow). Pulled out of the parking lot and slowly inched my way back to the highway so I could get to work, but a van up ahead was having trouble turning and ended up sliding around quite a bit. I kept my distance, then finally made my way to work. Ugh!

I seriously absolutely positively HATE driving in the snow! But today is just a bad day to drive, period, with the blizzard. It's windy, winds blowing up to 30 MPH, maybe more. Snow getting blown all about, caking onto the windows so you can't even see that well. Very low visibility cause of the windy snow/white out. Oy. I did make sure I had my headlights turned off before I came into the Tribune building though. Otherwise, I probably would have had another dead battery and that would've been bad. I learned from THAT lesson the last time.

So not looking forward to driving home after work. Oh no. This weather is supposed to continue until about midnight according to the weather report. Nasty!

It's snowing, like crazy! NOOOOOOOO! Man, I hate the snow. It stinks. And I don't think Bryan much cares for it either. That crazy mutt.

Broke my glasses somehow yesterday. Mom and I were at Walgreens when I discovered they were broken. The frame right around the lense, close to the bridge. Just like the last time, but on the opposite side. Just dandy, ain't it? Pft. It's about time I got some new glasses, I've had this pair for what, 2, 3 years? Something like that. Got them fixed today (hey, I gotta have my glasses when I'm at work! Or else, I'm gonna be screwing things up and it won't be pretty). I also picked out new frames, since my prescription for new glasses (which was written LAST year) is good until 2010. Might as well get new glasses. Red frames! Ooo.

Mom and I had a girls day yesterday, and saw Marley and Me. Good movie! I really liked it. Makes me glad Bryan isn't as destructive or insane like Marley was (although Sunny was close enough to the destructiveness.... not as bad as Marley though... must've been the Lab part of her). Makes me glad Bryan hasn't chewed up anything too important (although he did kill one of my Nintendo DS games, which I still have yet to replace, that punk!). But he's managed to stay away from shoes for the most part, (well, he's tried to chew on mom's but I've stopped him). Nah, he seems content on shredding his toys.

Drove by a couple of houses yesterday that are for sale. Mom's helping Riece with the house hunting. Riece will look up the houses online, and they'd talk about the houses over the phone and Mom will go check them out for her.

Snow needs to go away. Man oh man.

Ok, I need to get back to work. Whoops! Enough sidetracking.

Wowza! When I went to work at about 1ish yesterday, I had no idea anything big had happened. I just went about my usual routine... Checking email and printing off stuff I needed, grabbing printed emails and sorting the mail out since my supervisor hadn't done so and she was out for the rest of the afternoon, hunted down the public records, yada yada yada and got about to getting to work.

Last night while lurking around on facebook, I notice one person's status mentioned of chaos that had happened at the Trib from that morning. WHAT?! So I got more info from the person, and even caught it on the news on TV last night.

Apparently, someone had mailed some coke on a dollar bill at the Trib, but since it was white powder that no one knew of, employees were evacuated for about 3 hours while the powder was investigated. Was just cocaine. But still, wow. And no one said a word to me about this yesterday... Well obviously, no harm done but... woo!

http://trib.com/articles/2009/01/31/news/casper/05ac8232fe7a2b338725754f0005054e.txt Read all about it, and watch the blog video.

And the comment that was posted on that article made me laugh for some reason. I'm so weird!

Well... that was nuts. I was in the living room, playing around with my netbook. Mom was in the other living room watching TV. Bryan was outside. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, there came a crash-like sound, and what sounded like a bunch of gumballs falling to the ground. What in the world was mom doing?! I put the netbook down on the loveseat and went to investigate. Oh my... What a mess. The top shelf of the wine rack, which Mom had gotten for Rob a few years ago, had completely shattered without any warning. The mechanical wine bottle opener was hanging up-side-down, bottles everywhere, and broken glass all over the place. Two bottles were broken (which included the Wild Turkey bourbon). Yipes!

How exactly the shelf had shattered, we're not sure. It must have been bearing just enough weight all this time that it just couldn't hold anymore, that's what I think. I put my shoes on so I wouldn't hurt my feet on the glass, and helped mom clean up the mess. Grabbed the two clean dog towels (ok, they're hotel towels Rob stole long ago, and they're perfect use for the dog since no one cares if it gets stained or filthy). Mom soaked up the Wild Turkey and wine with them, and dumped them into a trash bag. We swept up the pieces of glass that had gone everywhere, moving the table, chairs and even the fridge in the process. Never have we had a huge mess of broken glass like this before.

We swept as best as we could. Mom vacuumed, and even swiffered up the wine/Wild Turkey stickyness. Then we went back to relaxing. I left Bryan outside, and fed him his dinner outside too (oh he always eats outside for the most part anyway!). After a while, I let him in, as I couldn't see anymore glitteryness from the floor. Soon enough Rob came home, "it smells of wine in here!" Then he saw all the bottles and whatnot on the breakfast bar. "What happened here?!" Mom and I told him what happened, and he was surprised.

We're just glad the shattering happened tonight and not during Christmas when we had the kids around. That would have been bad. Mess is cleaned up, we still have the rack, it just doesn't have the glass shelves on it (one survived the shattering). The breakfast bar is still a mess of wine bottles of all sorts.

It's time for a new wine rack!

I took my time getting around and getting ready to go to work, and I really took my time hahaha. Munched a bit here and there, finished off a bottle of water I had opened yesterday, got Bryan into his kennel, yada yada yada. Finally made my way out to the car and got in. Car struggled a bit to start up, but it started. Yay! Backed out of the driveway with no problem (apparently mom nearly got stuck backing out this morning), and managed to get going. Got to Kingsbury, and was headed down to 15th Street. I had just passed Linda Vista and started pumping on the breaks to slow down so I could stop at the stop sign... whooooooooooa! Slidey slide! I even did a half circle and the front end of my car ran right into the snow drift that's smack in the middle of Kingsbury. Whew, good thing that snow drift was there and caught me, and that there were no other cars coming. I backed up a bit, but there was no way I'd be able to turn the car around so I was facing the right direction. Oh crap! Oh hey wait, I'll just drive up to Linda Vista and turn, and get out onto 15th from there! Way far up ahead, there's a car coming, oh boy. But no worries, I made it to Linda Vista before the car came close enough, so no wrecks or anything. Boy the neighbor streets are slick, terrible!

But I did make it to work without any other issues. Just a bit of sliding here and there, but no more wrecks into the snow drifts. Man I hate winter and the snow, I really do! Not looking forward to driving home after work, of course. And I just may have to re-shovel Bryan's path out in the backyard, thanks to the WIND.

Oh lardy, what a day today has been so far.

Sitting upstairs with the netbook, watching TV. Its cold downstairs, and I dont want to deal with cold hands if I can avoid it.

Snowed all weekend, it was insane. So when I went out to clean off my car, my car was buried. Oh man. I grabbed the spare broom (it's been used in the garage and outdoors, which annoyed mom cause then she can't use it inside!) and swept the snow off my car. Hey brooms are handy for that! Then I got the car running, and let it run for a bit.

Went to Hardees and grabbed lunch (had to wait like half an hour though for them to make my ham and cheese sandwich...) and got to work. Did the public records, calendars and letters.. then left. Wasn't even 4 hours but I didn't care. I didn't want to have to drive home on the streets in the dark, especially the neighbor streets that were full of snow instead of being plowed. AHH that was nuts. Almost didn't make it into t he drive way, but I got in ok. Went out back and shoveled off a spot on the back deck, then a path out in the yard for Bryan. The snow's almost as tall as he is! Poor guy! He's now got a clear spot to do his business. But it's still cold enough out, he gets cold. He has his sweater on but, he still gets cold cause of his feet getting cold. Oy! Mom took pics of me shoveling a pathway, which I think is funny haha.

Watching Little People Big World on TLC and enjoying it. Haven't watched any that were recorded last year I don't think. Been a long while.

Supposed to get real cold tonight, yuck. Good thing I have that electric blanket on my bed, very handy. Yep.

Just fed the dog about half an hour ago, I should probably let him back in. He's probably freezing his butt off again. Poor guy!

Well! That was quite the workout I got on the Wiifit tonight. Mom bought it like a week before Christmas, and tonight was the first time it was used. Mom complained that it hadn't been touched so I told her I'd try it out while they were out on their date! Whew. I always knew my balance was bad, but THAT bad? Whoa. Half the time, the balance on my left was horrible, and the other half, it was on the right that it was horrible. And there were some parts where I completely got 0 points, woooo! The push ups though, I somehow did excellent with that one, even though I was quivering and shaking the whole time. Oy. The balance games are kinda fun though, yep. I think I'm going to have to get up a bit earlier everyday just to play with the wiifit before going about the rest of my day.. At least I'll try to get some wiifit workout in somehow.

Email from my dad of his experience clipping his cat Kirby. oooo!

Linda informed me this morning that Kirby is shedding large clumps of fuzz, so he needed a haircut. I had been delaying longer than usual as I needed to buy a new blade, and the process of the cutting involves my physical movement than I really like to do. I do it in my own time, which is usually after it should have been done. Bending over the bath tub trying to confine a cat that generally would rather do something other than having it's hair cut off, isn't high on my list of chosen things to do. Most times it isn't a terrible struggle. I am bigger than the cats and over a period of time, they have learned who they cannot directly confront. (Me). That fact, however, does not stop indirect displays of displeasure. They just do those things, when I am not looking. So I win the battle of the haircuts on a regular basis. Most times there isn't much struggle, but today, Kirby apparently decided that he didn't want his hair cut. He fought far more than he usually does.

Past practice has proved the bathtub as the best place, because there isn't anything for claws, (he only has back claws) to dig into, except me. Today I have multiple wounds inflicted by him. He only has one where I nicked him, his fault, not mine, if he had been still, the nick wouldn't have happened. The nick didn't happen until about 3/4 of the battle was over, so it wasn't the cause. He simply was not going to cooperate. There was yelling, mostly from him, a couple from me. (As if that was going to help). There was an enormous amount of wrestling. That is not normal. If I held him by the nap of the neck, which usually freezes him, he would pick his feet up off the ground, which meant that as I pressed the clipper against him, his body spun away from me. If I didn't hold him by the nap of the neck, I had to clip in short bursts between his efforts to get out of the tub. If I turned him one way, he turned the other. If I wanted him to stand, he was determined to lay down. Mostly I have to keep him trapped in the tub by moving back and forth the three or four feet, where he can escape. We stopped at one point, to let the clippers cool, as they get hot, the longer it takes. It was taking a long time. I was wise enough to know that if I let him out of the tub, the door better be closed, because finding him, was not going to be easy if I let him go. There was more yelling as we waited for the clipper to cool. (From him, by then I was doing my best to catch my breath). He did what he could to hide behind the toilet, depositing hair back there. Which meanth a complete cleaning of the bathroom was going to be needed. (Probably my least favorite job of all). In our house it is my bathroom, hence I clean it, or it doesn't get cleaned. I can handle a lot of dirt, but I do have my limits. So I take great pains to limit, where I deposit dirt, that will need to be cleaned up. Kirby was depositing hair everywhere, particularly it would seem, in places I took care not to deposit anything that would need to be cleaned.

Eventually I won, and he was clipped. There was hair everywhere, which again is not the usual course. There is always some that escapes the tub, but this time I had to change what I was wearing, for the amount of hair that was clinging to me, the floor, the sinks, the toilet, which is about 10 ft from the tub. That would be hair that floated to the front of the toilet, before the recess during which he left hair behind the toilet. I was sweating profusely, and wondering exactly why, we ever started doing this, and why, he was so determined, it wasn't happening today. I will give him this, he never bit, or offered to bite, but boy can he wrestle, and will liberally use the back claws if his claws make contact.

When I let him out, he went and found Linda and there was a lot of loud meowing at her. I guess he was telling on me. Now he is hiding somewhere to do his after haircut grooming. Amazing how strong a fifteen pound cat can be.

Don't tell me animals don't have a will, I don't think all of this fighting was instinct.

Oh goodness! My dog's INSANE! Apparently, the crazy guy pulled down full trashbags from our outdoor trash can... they were piled on top and the lid couldn't be closed down tight (holidays do result in quite a lot more trash than usual!), and really helped himself. It was like a buffet all for him! Oh gosh. No wonder he's been so stinky the last few days. I caught him in the act yesterday, and he was on top of the pile, looking mighty pleased with himself. After I came home from work last night, I pulled on some rubber gloves and cleaned up the mess he had made. No way was I going to pick up those dirty diapers with my bare hands! EW! Trash mess all gone now, all stuffed inside the trash can and the lid's all the way down so he can't get to any more.

We went and saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button last night. Very interesting film. I came across the title online and did some research to find out more about it a few nights ago, and even read the short story, and I was really interested. Wow. Of course, there were differences between the film and the story, but both are good. Will definitely have to get this one on DVD when it's released.

Got to talking with my mom of maybe contacting other audiologists around Wyoming, especially the ones at the University of Wyoming's Hearing and Speech Center... find out if they have any experience with Phonak's Naida hearing aids. I got to wondering if perhaps my local audiologist just isn't experienced enough or qualified enough to really properly fix up the Naida to really fit my needs. He still struggles with the Supero from time to time. I'm not saying he's a bad audiologist, he's good. But, he more deals with customers that aren't as nit-picky about their hearing needs, and generally go for the ReSound hearing aids, as the whole center really does promote ReSounds in the papers and everything. And the Naida, it is really one highly techinal piece of equipment. Mom suggested cntacting E.J. at UW, thinking they will have more experience. I mean, they're at the UNIVERSITY, so therefore they must have a lot more research and such in terms of different technologies available. We've always been happy with the UW's services before, and have gotten all of my hearing aids through them (except for the Supero, which I got from Shane). Only thing is I don't like having to make trips down to Laramie for adjustments (that was the one thing I hated when I had the Claro, so I was glad when Shane opened his office locally). But, if they can actually really get the Naida working properly for me and it really does make more of a difference than the Supero currently does, it would be worth it. With Shane, it just got frustrating, I didn't feel like he was really understanding what I wanted out of the Naida and I just don't think he really knew what he was doing with the programming. It's a pretty extensive programming process, more extensive than the previous Phonak products. Hm. Hopefully I'll hear something back from the UW Center soon enough.

Oy, last night was just nuts. Jamie, Greta and the girls arrived last night. Was kind of fun watching mom talk on her cell phone, trying to help Jamie and Greta get to our house. They finally arrived. Bryan flipped out, got all excited cause there were new people! Sydney does not like Bryan at all so I've been trying to keep him distracted so he wouldn't get close to Sydney. Jillian doesn't mind him. I think Bryan's in love with Jamie, was funny.

Jamie and Greta went Christmas shopping, so mom and I were keeping the girls busy. Chased the dog away from Sydney, kept Jillian busy while mom made mac and cheese and wrapped presents. Ah, before Jamie and Greta left to do some shopping, mom wanted me to get the baby gate up. Took me like 15 minutes to figure out how to work the stupid gate! I managed to finally get it up in place so no kids went tumbling down the stairs.

Jamie and Greta eventually came back, and soon enough Mom and Rob took off for Walmart at midnight or so to get a playpen for Jillian. Who the heck goes to Walmart aftter midnight?! Was kind of funny. They came back and the boys got the playpen set up. Then we sat around and chatted for a while. We all went to bed pretty late, but hey that's normal for me! I was on the computer for a while before going to bed myself.

Today I'm at work, EW! I want to get through the public records and calendars as quickly as possible so I can get back home. I'd rather be at home helping mom bake and just hanging out. I might stop at Albertsons on the way home, grab some cheesecake stuff since I kind of have a craving for it. The jello cheesecake stuff. Mmm. With blueberries on top perhaps! Mmm. Maybe pick up some non-caffeinated soda of some sort too. We'll see.

Mom's gonna cook everything in crock-pots for tomorrow. After the chaos of Thanksgiving, she doesn't want to deal with putting food back into the oven then taking them out just because Rob's family can't make up their mind. Potato soup tonight, ooo. That was my request, since I didn't get any the last time mom made some.

I could take Friday off if I wanted to, since there'd be no public records. But nah, I'll still come to work anyway. I don't want to do 5 days worth of calendars in 1 day. No, I'll just do tomorrow and Friday's calendars today, then Sat-Mon on Friday. Gives me time to finish cleaning up the library a bit (this was how the library looked for a few days, that was a lot of Wyoming newspapers to sort through, huh!) and even do some archiving, since I'm waaaaaaaaay behind on that. And I could use the money too!

that made me laugh.