Snooze?

This morning my alarm was due to go off at 6:00am, but Tai went off at 5:50. Why don't babies have snooze buttons?

The Price of Love?

I love my pets. But how much should you really pay for your pet's medical treatment? This question is on my mind at the moment. Not only are my friends paying alot of money to get their dog radiation treatment for her cancer, but Nibbles is currently having some health issues that we are trying to investigate.

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that Arrow's treatment is unnecessary or frivolous or anything like that. I'm certain I would do the same for Buttons. I mean, come on....I'm the person who paid thousands of dollars to have a bezoar removed from my cat's intestines only to have him die of heart failure 18 months later. And let's not forget about the huge sum of money we paid to have Nibbles' penis removed in order to save his life (despite the fact that, given the choice, I'm sure most males would choose death over penis removal).

Anyway, Nibbles is hungry all the time and losing weight, which our vet was certain was either caused by a thyroid problem or diabetes. Of course, blood and urine tests proved her wrong--it's neither of those things. Which means it could be something much worse. Possibly. Another blood test simply confirmed that things are slightly off and that could be a sign of cancer or more bladder stones. Or it may be nothing at all.

This far, we've spent a couple hundred on tests that tell us nothing. The vet, of course, prescribed more tests. A chest x-ray ($110) and then, if that comes back clear, an abdominal ultrasound ($250). So, do we get the tests? I know this is not thousands of dollars, but what if the x-ray finds a big tumor? Then what do we do? If we aren't going to spring for expensive treatment, then why even get the x-ray? Very logical, right?

Of course, part of me feels like a horrible person for considering just letting him live and lose more weight and, possibly die soon. But part of me knows that, at this point in our lives we can't be spending our savings on a 9 year old cat. Anyway, I'm not really seeking advice, though you can offer it if you like. This is just what's on my mind these days.

Daredevil

After putting a new medicine cabinet in our guest bathroom, I decided...."hey, let's re-paint the walls!" As you may know, I periodically get really excited (and ambitious) when it comes to painting projects. And then while in the midst of the project I think "this is a pain in the ass....I'm not painting any more rooms ever." But then, here I am again.

So this weekend I convinced Minh to let me paint the bathroom red. Well, not strictly red. It's called daredevil and it's a deep, pink-ish-purple-ish red. It's intended to play off the colors in the shower curtain and a painting we have up in the bathroom. If you want to see it, you can use the "color smart" tool here and search for daredevil.

So last night we put in the first coat. Woah. It's really.......red. And putting dark color on over light walls is tricky (alot like painting your toenails red). It's not covering all that well yet so it's looking streaky and weird. We may need three coats before we decide whether this was a great idea or a disaster.

We also bought some "magic spell" blue and are thinking about a horizontal stripe all the way around the top, like a border. Yes, more stripes. And this time it was Minh's idea, I swear. He thought the presence of the blue might soften the harshness of the red. Though we now realize that putting stripe up near the ceiling may just draw your eye to the no-so-clean transition between the red walls and the white ceiling. Oops. At this point, we may or may not go through with the blue stripe. I guess we'll just wait and see how the red looks after one or two more coats.

What have I gotten us into this time?.....

Hello! What's This?

Tonight, while in the bathtub, Tai found his penis and strummed it like a guitar.*



*I must give credit for this phrasing to Minh. It is an amusingly accurates description of Tai's behavior.

Tai and His Tree

As promised (ages ago) here's a picture of Tai and his Placenta Tree. It might be kind of hard to see, but the tree is a Japanese Maple (look for the dark red leaves against the green ferns in the background). Right now, the tree is only about 2-3 feet tall with a skinny little trunk. Tai has no idea yet that it is "his" tree. But he was thoroughly interested in playing with the mulch all around it.

Surviving South Hadley

Last night we attended yet another cookout at our neighbors' house. I swear, these people have a party every couple weeks. Anyway, we were pleased to be invited over for food, drink, and conversation with a broad spectrum of folks. Including Dawn the Dinosaur.

About 15 minutes after we arrived we realized that Dawn was not going to be the hottest celebrity at the party. Dan The Man was there. Sure, he's a retired astronaut and all that. But more importantly, he was on Survivor. And he lives in South Hadley.

I restrained myself from saying anything to Dan about his stint on Survivor, as I'm certain he's sick of hearing all that. (Even though I secretly wanted to hear all about his experience and perhaps even ask for his autograph.) We chatted briefly about what a calm, good-natured baby Tai is and how lucky we are to have scored such a good little boy. And that was it.

We'll be sure to continue to attend our neighbors' parties in the future, because you never know who you are going to meet!