When Lili had been injured, one of the things the vet and I had talked about was her eosinophilic granuloma. Feel free to look that up but I do not recommend it. The pictures associated with it are very graphic and often disgusting. Poor animals. Anyway, her issue is in her mouth, at the lip and pushed up against the nose as well as the roof of her mouth.

We haven’t quite discovered a treatment yet because I haven’t liked any of the vets that I have brought her to. Everyone wants to retest her and do their own thing and I have no patience for the year-long processes that they want to put her through. This vet? Suggested we try the food first. Get her off the steroids and try a hypo-allergenic diet.

So I picked up a small bag of food today to start the weaning process for both she and Charlie. I am leery of this only because Charlie has a sensitive stomach. One would think that a hypo-allergenic diet would be good for him as well, less things to upset his tummy but he’s an odd cat. If they can both stomach the mixed food (old and new brands) then I will feel more comfortable with buying a larger bag and weaning them off of the Science Diet (specifically the Sensitive Stomach formula). If that helps Lili, I think I will cry with relief. If they can’t handle the food, I will just try another brand. I don’t even care about the cost as long as they are eating, are healthy, are not throwing up what they eat, and it helps Lili’s mouth. My fear is that it gets so bad that she needs surgery to remove parts of her mouth or to open up her nose. On her bad days, I can tell that it is hard for her to breathe through her nose.

The other thing that I liked about this vet is that I was not accused of not getting her the proper treatment. I did not feel defensive. I did not feel like I had to explain my actions. I did as I was told by the previous veterinarians and they were not happy with her progress, accusing me of not giving her the right attention and care when I did exactly as I was told. This vet was concerned for her, listened to me, and understood where I was coming from. I think she is completely worth the drive and will probably be bringing Lili back in specifically to start up a good treatment for the EG if the food switch doesn’t make any sort of positive difference. She had other ideas but the easiest to try first was the food.

Fingers crossed.

Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I had seen the movie about a year ago and wound up picking this book up at a library sale for cheap. Generally I find that I can handle a book-to-movie novel if I have seen the movie first; I am usually disappointed by a movie if I have read the book first. Unfortunately, this also makes me draw comparisons while reading the book instead of just enjoying it.

Once I got past the movie idea, I was able to enjoy the book for what it was. The character is hugely flawed but that is what the book is all about. She has an obsession with shopping. It was kind of fun, though frustrating at times, to be in her head while she was rationalizing why she just needed these things. As someone who can use logic when it comes to purchases, it was something very new to me.

I will admit that I’ve made some purchases recently that I did not need. Finishing this book sort of reminded me of my goals and what I wanted for myself financially. Certainly, I do not have an issue like Rebecca but I should still remember to crack down on myself. Splurges are all fine and dandy but in moderation.

Awesome picture, right? I love Creative Commons and their ability to give me awesome pictures for my posts.

I’ve spent the last hour updating some things, tweaking some code, installing some plug-ins and scripts, and just in general making myself a happy, happy webmistress. I have plans! PLANS! I have desires. There are things I want to do with my newfound “open and honest” website. No more hiding behind a moniker or friend-locked posts. Oh, that doesn’t mean I will go off the deep end. It just means that I am forcing myself to be willing to share pieces of me that I usually did not share.

Do you hide behind internet anonymity? Why?

One of the reasons I used to do so was because of my ability to pick up stalkers online. It’s not like I set out to gather them. But when they started breaching my very carefully separated circles, because they figured out how to find me, I quickly renamed myself and reinvented the way I presented myself online. I never changed my personality but I made it near impossible to invade the territories I had created for my various ongoings online. Swaps had one set of information, role-playing games had another, message boards had still another form of identity.

I still have a separation between role-play and everything else. I prefer the anonymity because I still have not quite opened myself up to share my creative writing in any form. Slowly, carefully, I am trying to bring in a few grayed areas; if a couple friends join a game I am in, which is in desperate need of new blood, it will mark a milestone for me. Message board meets RPG. Real-life, “person I see every day” friend meets my creative writing in an aspect that most have never seen.

We shall see what happens.

In the meantime, I am quite content with getting my things set up in preparation for my new projects. What are they? They are secrets for now! I cannot show you an unfinished product! That is like showing off my new outfit and walking out stark naked. I bet you’d like that. Wouldn’t you. Perv.

Got up early today in anticipation of my mother wanting to meet up with me while she and her husband drove back from Texas. I wound up driving an hour South of me, which was fine because it was only ten minutes out of their way when it came down to it. And they had done a lot of driving over the past week.

We went to Golden Corral which is just pure LOVE. Usually. I was really disappointed this time; the Awesome Pot Roast didn’t live up to its name for once and the delicious rolls with honey butter were not right-out-of-the-oven fresh. It made me sad. Oh well.

My mother and I talked a bit about… well, nothing really. Talked about the dogs she just gave to Rolando’s sister, talked about the ranch in Benson, talked about her uncle and her cousins, talked about other people, blah blah blah. Then I left them and headed back toward home. I stopped off at the Salvation Army that was right there and picked up an adorable recipe box that has strawberry designs on it. $1. And then a brass candle holder for $1. Sweet!

Stopped at Discount Tire and had my tires finally looked at. The balance is the only thing I haven’t had looked at. 45 minutes and $40 later, the sound is still there but like 80% better than it was before. So yay! And the guy I talked to seemed very honest and said that I don’t need to worry about replacing my tires yet. Minimum six months depending on my driving habits. Like if I drive long distances often and during mid-day when the pavement is at its worst. Which is lovely because I was worried someone was going to tell me that I need them replaced within the next month regardless of my driving habits. Nope! This pleases me.

It rained a lot in the morning which cooled everything down considerably. It was a very comfortable 85 degrees or so for a better part of the day. I loved it!

I do not dispute that my cat, Charlie, should have already been a part of Natural Selection. He is not the brightest of cats and, well, he is not the fittest when it comes to survival.

He managed to catch on fire tonight. Okay, “catch on” is a slight exaggeration. But he sat on a burning candle. One of those low, 4.9 oz jars that Glade put out. I burned it for the color today, rather than scent. I lit it again tonight when I sat down at my desk. Charlie decided that he wanted to be on my desk. He and I both realized, at about the same time, that he was burning. While Charlie tried to figure out what was going on, I moved him OFF the burning candle. Charlie quickly got a bath.

I really just have no words for what just happened.

The Mermaid’s Madness by Jim C. Hines

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The second in a series about kick-ass princesses, this book didn’t quite flop as a sequel. Which was a relief since I already have the third book ready and waiting for me. A constant complaint I have with books is the pacing. I had no issues with this while reading The Mermaid’s Madness. Though it was a hair slow getting started, almost painfully so, the action started up very soon and kept going.

The character of Danielle grated on my nerves and it was nice to see some development of Snow but the three main characters still seem shallow to me. Their “fairytales” seem to define them. It is not written so poorly that you wind up hating characters. You just wind up wishing for a bit more character development along the way.

I don’t actually have a whole lot to say about this book. I was bordering between neutral and vaguely pleased. At least I am not dreading the third book.

I spent the day playing Aion. No, it wasn’t quite how I meant to spend my day. But there is double experience going on until the release of the new expansion and I am desperate to get my characters leveled to a certain point. In fact, it is part of my Day Zero Project goal list: get my characters to level 25+. Anyway, I started out solo-ing with Mei, my Spirit Master, because my D-chan wasn’t around and Mei was my lowest level character on that server. I got her from level 13 to level 17 within 3 hours. Not bad, if I do say so myself. There was a lot of running around going on, too.

Let me pause here and explain the adorable picture shown first. Danika is my newest character, a Templar, who was a remake of the first character I played… a Ranger. I remade her because I just couldn’t get a feel for the ranger class and it made me sad to not play my most beloved character in her Aion glory. D-chan’s character, Angeni, looks eerily like Danika’s ‘soul mate’ from our story: Phantom. I caught a screenshot of the pair standing next to each other just as the Angeni character automatically turned. It looks like they are holding hands! So cute.

One of the things I like most about Aion is how much control I have over the way a character looks. Each of my characters in the game, save for one, was based off of a character from one of my stories or games. It brings the story aspect into the game with me and makes me really want to play more. It was hard to figure out which classes suited each character sometimes but I think I’m happy with the results. But part of the fun for me is running around with D-chan, who did the same thing, and our characters run around together in game much as they would in our stories or role-play sessions. When I can capture that random cap? I go all kinds of fangirl inside.

Then, of course, there are the random things in-game that wind up cracking me up. We went back to the citadel to turn in some quests, drop some inventory, et cetera before moving on. As my character is standing there, I see this stampede of Krall swarm in through the gates. That was not normal and not supposed to happen. Which meant that someone had gone out, collected these mobs from the next area, and managed to lead them all back into the citadel.

Twice. I cracked up when it happened the first time and I was in another area of the game when it happened the second time. D-chan was there and managed to get a picture for me. Good times. FUNNY times. I am so going to do that randomly later. Usually I just like to collect a few mobs and run them in. But I wind up getting bored halfway there and slaughter them.

… I told you there was much geekery abound!

Fairest by Gail Carson Levine

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I admit it. I am a sucker for princess-y books. I love fairytales. I love princess stories. I had picked this book up randomly at a library sale for a whopping 50 cents. By the author from Ella Enchanted? Sure. I’ll take that, thank you!

The writing was a little hard to follow sometimes but I wasn’t terribly annoyed because it IS a YA book and the parts that were most difficult were integral to the story itself; the main character comes from a land of people who sing. A LOT. They sing about everything. It is what they do. So the main character sang. A LOT. It was a bit hard to picture in my head but I understood the importance behind it.

The book really is sort of a twist on the Snow White tale. The main character is described as having blood red lips, snow-white skin, and black hair. Among her people, she is seen as ugly. Complete with a jealous queen, a magic mirror, a charming prince, and a poisoned apple, it really was a broad take on a different type of Snow White story. None the less, even with it being a YA book, I did enjoy it for the easy read that it was.

My only real complaint, which is one I often have, is the pacing of the book. It builds up and builds up and then suddenly the peak is breached and everything comes crashing down quickly into a nicely resolved ending. It was almost like the author figured that no one would be interested in the real clean-up from the mess that had been created. I would have just liked to see -more- is all.

Still, I recommend this for the younger readers or those who are like me: we love princess stories.

Trying out a new padding on the images in the posts. Yes. I like posting images rather than just using an avatar system. Again, I am still trying to find my “voice” for this blog. Deal with it.

Ran around with Angel and Robby today. Went to lunch in town and had a lovely salad with romaine lettuce, green apples, crispy chicken strips, and bacon. Yum! Picked up my car from Aaron’s house (because I had been far too exhausted last night to drive home), went to Home Depot, Barnes and Noble, and Lowe’s before heading home again. I finally picked up Kushiel’s Mercy in hardcover to replace my paperback. I love when things go into B&N’s “Bargan Priced” section. Hardcover of an awesome book for my collection for less than $6? Yesplease. It almost completes the Kushiel series for me in the hardcovers. Unfortunately, Dart and Chosen are out of print and I have to pace myself in getting those. Scratch that. I just bought Kushiel’s Dart off ebay for cheap in “very good” condition and dustjacket in tact.

Found the paint colors I liked at Home Depot. I decided upon “Fresh Grape Juice” and “Smokey Charcoal” from Glidden. I love the purple and the grey has just a hint of a blue in it so it’s not completely washed out and ties in well enough with the purple that they look nice together.

I didn’t buy any paint while I was there because I wanted to be sure I liked these two colors specifically. I also wanted to figure out exactly what I wanted to do on my walls. I’ve known that I wanted one wall to be one color but I haven’t decided if I want to do 2:2 or 1:3 for the colors. And if I want to put the opposite color on the walls for designs of some sort. I abhor white walls. But I have an intense dislike for blank, boring walls. I’ve spent far too many years having to stare at blank walls and crappy furniture.

Whatever route I wind up going, I have to admit that I got incredibly excited to actually look for paint. When Angel decides on which red color she wants in the kitchen, I will pick up the paint for the bedroom when we head back to Home Depot for the gallons needed. So excited!

Nope. There was no post yesterday. I know! I was doing so well! I have a good reason, though.

Angel and I were supposed to be leaving and driving to our friend Aaron’s house for dinner and a party. In the morning, we’d head to Salt River for some innertubing. Well, there was quite a bit to do so I did not have the time before leaving to sit down and bang out a post. Oh well. Things happen. No one is perfect.

We got to Aaron’s house and Robby eventually met us there. Ate steak, had a couple drinks, and went to bed way later than anticipated. Even after Angel went to bed, Aaron and I stayed up and just talked. Did I mention that he is an ex-boyfriend? So we caught up a little bit, chit-chatted, and then I decided I needed sleep. His friend Ryan came back from a beer run and they decided to go out and have another drink on the patio. I got settled on the couch and tried to fall asleep. That’s about the time that they came back in and neither of them could be quiet.

One of my biggest pet peeves about someone in a living situation is the inability to properly turn a doorknob while opening and closing a door. There is no need to make noise. Especially when there are people in the house trying to sleep. Ryan, who had invited himself to stay the night, took about 30 minutes to finally get himself situated in the recliner with a fan blowing on him. He couldn’t be quiet. At all. I start to doze off and Aaron’s cat, Max, starts meowing obnoxiously. I get him to come back over to me and he curls up with me again. I doze off. About 30 minutes later, I am sweating it was so effing hot in the living room! I go into the bathroom, wash my face and drink some water from the tap, and then try to settle down again.

The rest of the night didn’t go that great, either. Then Ryan’s alarm goes off. Which is the obnoxious rooster crowing that Robby has on his phone. And Ryan doesn’t wake up right away. So it continues to go off. He tries to muffle it. Hello! Just turn the damned thing off!

We all get up and head to the river finally. I will spare you the details but instead go by bullet point:

• awesome group of people
• very calming experience
• hurt my left little-toe so bad that the nail fell off six hours later
• didn’t get TOO burned
• did get very, very drunk
• learned what my level of tolerance is for drinking alcohol

I have awesome friends who took care of me in my inebriated state. I never blacked out and I remember everything. Aside from the–nevermind. All in all, it was a good day.