So, from my reading tonight, yes this has all the makings of chronic sinusitis, and I guess it’s well passed the time for me to see an ENT doc.  Add that to the to-do list.

I have an appointment Wednesday at lunch to test drive a potential new vehicle, which I’m strangely excited about. I really think Spyhunter has gone on it’s last mission. Changing the air filter did nothing to stop the running very hot it’s been doing since the wedding, it’s sputtering even more, and as of the last leg of this weekend’s trip we can add in intermittent A/C. I’m just SO glad that I’m already driving a car with an average mpg of 22 so I don’t qualify for this clunker credit, though, let me tell you.

The reunion went so well, though there were still a lot of faces missing that I’d like to see again. There’s always next year… so yeah, the suggestion was thrown out that we try this simple, inexpensive picnic notion every year and maybe work on something “special” for the 25, which we can plan together in the upcoming picnics. It’ll give us time to gather more faces and figure out what we’d enjoy doing together… maybe even a group trip someplace. I’m genuinely excited at the notion of it all!

Kitty was once again pretty freaked out when we got home. Second time we’ve left her alone, and she’s going right back to the pre-Smudge crazy behavior. I guess she just misses us, but she really did seem less desperate for attention when she’d had company while we were gone. Though, talked to sis and they left three cats home while they vacationed and all three were attention-whores when they got home, each one jealously vying for lap time.

It may or may not be apparent that we stayed in a hotel for this trip up for the reunion, and certainly enjoyed some pool time while we were there. We did, however, have to stop by mom’s, and I’m sad to say things were no better. Worse, actually, though I don’t think I have the inclination to spell it all out here right now — must be the TheraFlu kicking in, as I’m getting sleepy finally, though I still can’t really breathe through my nose. I’m attempting to be kind to JamesT tonight by sleeping in the guest bed instead of keeping him up all night like last night.

There are actually a couple things from this weekend I need to set down someplace, but I’ll wait for a clearer head. Just hope this sinus funk doesn’t get in the way of dinner with Maggie and her folks when they get to town. Still haven’t really processed that by Friday she won’t be living here anymore, but heck we’ve been so busy it seems we rarely chat other than via the internets anyway. Can’t see as Texas or Oklahoma or wherever will make much difference, other than perhaps a little more planning involved for when we DO want to get together in person. Anything’s doable, though, and with a new car on the horizon, I’m sure I’ll be itching to hit the road and start putting the miles on…

http://www.cdkitchen.com/

Serves/Makes: 4
Ready in: < 30 minutes

* 4 1/2 pounds salmon fillets, skin removed
* 1 tablespoon premium curry powder (more if desired)
* salt and pepper to taste
* 1 jar (9 oz. size) mango chutney
* 1 medium mango, skinned and cubed
* 3 tablespoons chopped cilantro
* 1 red bell pepper, chopped
* 1 tablespoon butter
* 3 tablespoons apple vinegar
* 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
* 1/2 bottle cheap white wine (leftover wine is fine)

First, season your fish fillets by rubbing both sides of curry powder, salt, and pepper. Set aside at room temperature for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, saute your red pepper with butter in a sauce pan; when soft, add cilantro, mango, and the whole jar of mango chutney, lime juice, and vinegar. Bring to a boil, then set on low to simmer and stay warm.

To cook the fish, heat the white wine in large skillet or iron frying pan to about 250-300 degrees F. Cook the fish on both sides in the hot wine (approximately 5 minutes a side) until the fish is well done in the middle (light pink and no longer red). Serve each piece by ladling about a half cup of mango sauce on top. Garnish with cilantro!

So, when the autofeeder drops food it makes a loud sound that used to call Smudge from wherever he was in the house, much like an electic canopener sound used to bring Sam in from the outdoors — though that canopener may or may not have been opening a can of precious tuna for Sam. The autofeeder, though, always rewarded the Smudge-sickle with food. It had become a phenomenon that Kitty quickly learned to get out of the way of. Now, the sound seems to be a trigger for her to start searching the house again.  She’s also been all over us again, constantly demanding attention, and I’m sure I’ve been handling her more lately than usual and likely feeding my allergies. In general, James and I are both pretty conscious of washing our hands after petting animals, but lately I think we’ve been slacking just because Kitty has been trying to be near us non-stop.

So, James had a dream, where he opened the patio door to go water and Kitty ran out. He stepped back in to grab her harness, and when he came out he found her just sitting up by Smudge’s grave. I think it was a sweet dream, and probably us projecting that Kitty misses him, too.  It’s one of those things that is weighing on us as to whether to get another cat right now or not. We have to go out of town again to do two fireworks shows for the 4th, so I guess whether or not she’s all crazy again after our absense will help us decide. I don’t think we really want another kitten though, and –speak of the devil, I’ve sat still here for 5 minutes so it’s time for Kitty to be crawling on me — instead I have been looking for 2-3 year old cats on craigslist, hopefully as grown as they’ll be and already used to people and other pets. James, I’m sure, is looking for Savannah cats again.

So, mom called yesterday. She hadn’t gotten my letter yet, but had talked to Joyce and heard about Smudge. She could hear me making dinner over the phone, so she wouldn’t talk long. Nothing was resolved. She told me she was sorry about Smudge, sorry she hadn’t called sooner, and sorry she had to lie to Dennis about driving down to Alabama for the 4th. We hung up with our “usual” I love yous, but I’m still not going to be calling her. We probably will just stay there for my reunion, but I’m not sure I’ll even call until we’re in town.

So, this is week 3 out of bootcamp. I was going to start back today, which is probably why my sinuses went nuts. Instead, I’ll do next week. I have to get back in the habit. Two weeks of crappy sleep, crappy food, too many desserts, forgetting vitamins, booze instead of water, and of course the fabulous emotional roller-coaster, well, they’ve left me pretty vulnerable.

So, we’ve recently watched Road House, Top Gun and Independence Day with rifftrax, and I watched Crossroads, which needs a rifftrax. I’ve also had a desire to watch Beastmaster, Krull, and Ice Pirates. This leads me to believe I must have an incurable brain fever which is causing me to crave and enjoy crappy 80s movies. Oooh… yes, maybe even a little Pirate Movie would be good. I clearly need help.

So, as may or may not be apparent now, Smudge’s sudden potbelly was not afterall the result of nearly a week unattended at the auto-feeder as we had initially thought. It was confusing at first because he seemed fine, just fat, as in he was his usual self, playful, sweet, wanting to be around/on you all the time, tormenting Kitty, so we didn’t worry. Then nearly overnight he seemed to stop eating and just wanted to sleep all the time. Of course, about this time we got company, so we weren’t sure if he was just being his usual shy self around people so we still didn’t really worry. Then as company was leaving and I was trying to carry Smudge around a little just so he could be seen, he really started to groan a lot at being held, which was very unlike him. Then we noticed he wasn’t just fidgety, that he seemed to only want to lay down when he could be propped up instead of lying flat, as if his pot-belly was uncomfortable. He still didn’t really fuss or groan if you touched his belly, but it was more than enough to cause us to want him checked.

As it happens, the vet told us he had FIP, Feline Infetious Peritonitis, which he very likely had since we got him, since he’s always been “running hot” aka a little feverish. Cats can carry the virus for months or years without symptons, but his pot-belly was a sign that it was finally kicking in for him.  It was fluid buildup in his abdomen, which was actually fortunate as the least instantly deadly symptom to develop. If it had been his chest or brain, in all likelyhood we would have come home last weekend to find him dead instead of just fat. Unfortunately, the buildup of fluid at all was a sign that the virus had kicked in and he was terminal, as it would soon progress to his chest or brain.

I guess we were as fortunate as we could be to have a sweet new kitten for the 3 months we had him. It’s still hard to believe it was only 3 months, since he was just so social and inserted himself into our lives so completely. We were also fortunate that he was still alive with the least afflicting sympton, still loving and playful and in very little pain, right up until he was diagnosed. The vet told us that Smudge wouldn’t last more than a few days more and would only be in more and more discomfort, brought us piles of booklets on the illness so we could see the studies showing there has of yet been no successful treatment of the illness, and urged us to put him out of his misery. We certainly didn’t get up Saturday morning thinking we would be making this kind of decision, and even in the face of all the facts and Smudge’s obviously worsening pain it was still such a difficult one. It seemed like forever that we just stared dumbfounded at each other hoping one would pinch the other to wake them up. How do you even say your goodbyes to a pet? I decided to stay with him while it was done, though they wouldn’t let me hold him, and we considered ourselves fortunate again to be homeowners, to have land, so we could take his body home and bury him. We both had the same spot in mind. It’s a nice spot, that I can see from the deck as I write this. Part of me just finds it absurd that one could be so upset over the loss of a pet, and want to have a nice grave and a nice marker and plant something pretty over it, maybe even put a little solar light out so you know right where to look in the evening, but I don’t think we could have done it any other way. I only hope we made his short life a happy one. I think we did. Last night sleeping without him curled up between us was pretty strange, though I know when Kitty finishes checking the house for him she’ll make her way back up to sleep with us. I’ve said it a million times, that I’d never seen a cat so happy to just see you get home that he would start purring loudly just at the sight of you. He was just so loving, so happy to be around us. He is sorely missed already.

There were just so many things to coordinate for this wedding that I’m surprised more didn’t fall through the cracks. In essence, though, only the send-off went poorly, when as predicted, the groomsmen didn’t think to decorate the car so we had no where to “send” them off to. And, so much for allowing the bride to help tie the bird-seed packets… guests could barely get through the knot to get them open. Smart bride.

The 97 degree heat apparently cut our numbers despite the RSVPs, and it was commented that mostly local folks didn’t show. Our anticipated 150 turned into about 90, and left us with much food — though amazingly we went through the booze PDQ. The pavillion setup worked out great, and the combo concrete-sand dance floor was perfect. And I guess for never having run a wedding rehersal or ceremony before, I did okay. Figuring out how to walk down the aisle to non-traditional music was fun, and I owe a big “sorry” to Angela for messing with her plan for the girls. Angela had to walk first, and when I threw in the “try the traditional walk to slow things down” she did it great… then of course, nobody else could figure out how to do it, though at least they all walked slower than in rehersal.

Got tons of comments about how smooth everything went, and how beautiful it all was. Myself, the caterer, the DJ and the bartender were all invited to put together another party soon, and all but me apparently took the job gladly. My reply: “Am I related to the person this party is for? Otherwise, hell no. You can’t pay me enough.”

There are a million little gripey-bitchy-moany-whiny things I’d like to relate, but I think I’m just going to let things go. I’m still worrying about things relating to the event as if I could go back and fix them, even though I doubt anybody even noticed. More than anything I wish we’d had more hired help for the night as the help we had was kept pretty busy shuttling folks back and forth to their cars.

Honestly, I have no idea what family p0ses were made, though I hope the photographer was on top of those. Not sure why Jessie elected to let the photographer leave so early in the night and blow our chance of any good night shots with the fireworks, but was really too tired to care. Don’t think anybody got good shots of the fireworks really, but maybe there is video. I have 2 tapes left by Steven’s mom which need to be converted to digital so I can go through them.

Overall, caterers: wow! food was awesome! DJ: yeah, awesome. Nobody expects that many costume changes and for him to jump in and be dancing, too. He was hilarious! Cake lady: Um yeah, when I mentioned the cake would be in the sun, I meant the cake would be IN THE SUN. And she didn’t even leave us a box to save the cake top. I do hope somebody got pictures before we had to slice up the leaning-tower that it became in the sun. Dumbass.

And finally I was impressed at how many people just jumped in and worked their butts off to make things come together and to keep everything going. I guess it just goes to show how much Jessie is loved for the whole family to pull together in such a way to make the day the best it could be. I couldn’t be happier to have planned things and even to be HBIC for the day. It was sort of amazing to be running around materializing fans and water and safety pins and bobby-pins and whatever anybody needed without them having to ask twice in the midst of setting things up. I can’t wait to get more pictures to go through!

My Wedding Weather for: Jess & Steven
Location: Winfield, AL
Date: June 20, 2009
Time: 6:00 PM
Sunset: 8:05 PM
Moon Phase: Waning Crescent

I’m not even IN this wedding and I have just picked up yet ANOTHER possible dress I want to wear to it. I’ve got quite the array, and should be able to cover whatever mood I’m in day of the event. I even have them narrowed down so James only has to bring two ties to match any and everything I have. So, I know at least WE will be dressed…

24 days. This weekend, Alabama trip. Staining/finishing the floor in the pavilion. Joyce has picked up our “big-ass roll” of fabric, and it’s time for the final assessment of what we still might need to order or buy while we still have the time to do it.

Next weekend, “Girl’s weekend” for James’ mom’s birthday, where hopefully I can manage to relax and maybe even borrow some nice jewelry to wear with my array of dresses. We’ll likely get a mani & pedi and I’ll see if there’s a chance in heck I can maintain it for two weeks. Shyeah. Need to color my hair, too.

Then the following weekend, June 13 I leave for “week of wedding”, which I have mostly off work, with the promise to check on things daily a couple times, and will attempt to keep sis and myself sane as we finalize things and set up the event. Most of the rest of the family will be arriving on Wednesday, so we should have a lot of help.

James is downstairs soldering cables for the new fireworks firing system which will debut at this show. Actually, sis talked to the caterers today to confirm and see if they’d leave us some items to return the next day and they’ve said that if we’re doing fireworks and having an open bar, that they might just stick around for the whole party.

Mmmm… open bar. Which reminds me… must go liquor shopping. Wonder where I can find a site to help me scale up a drink recipe to mass quantities so I can mix up a gallon or so of things. So much work to be done still.

But now, time for tv and a workout.

Los Loros, Decatur - Monday night – though we didn’t try the margaritas, all of us burned out on too sweet drinks and opting for beer – it was a nice, chill reminder that girls nights keep us sane.  We must do it more often.  This weekend… LONG weekend in Kentucky and home via Bristol. Busy busy busy… meanwhile FYI:

Do you have feelings of inadequacy?
Do you suffer from shyness?
Do you sometimes wish you were more assertive?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, ask your doctor or pharmacist about Margaritas.

Margaritas are the safe, natural way to feel better and more confident about yourself and your actions.

Margaritas can help ease you out of your shyness and let you tell the world that you’re ready and willing to do just about anything.

You will notice the benefits of Margaritas almost immediately and with a regimen of regular doses you can overcome any obstacles that prevent you from living the life you want to live.

Shyness and awkwardness will be a thing of the past and you will discover many talents you never knew you had. Stop hiding and start living, with Margaritas.

Margaritas may not be right for everyone. Women who are pregnant or nursing should not use Margaritas. However, women who wouldn’t mind nursing or becoming pregnant are encouraged to try it.

Side effects may include: Dizziness, nausea, vomiting, incarceration, Erotic lustfulness, Loss of motor control, Loss of clothing, Loss of money, Loss of virginity, Table dancing, Headache, Dehydration, Dry mouth, And a desire to sing Karaoke.

WARNING: The consumption of Margaritas may make you think you are whispering when you are not, may cause you to tell your friends over and over again that you love them, may cause you to think you can sing, make you think you can logically converse with members of the opposite sex without spitting.

Almost didn't drag out of bed today… stupid History channel keeping me up until 2am. Was feeling sort queasy and weak, so skipped breakfast but went on over. It was once again very nearly just Shannon and me, but one of the newbie girls also showed. It was gusting and cold so instead of  doing our weights in the pavillion, we took off walking on the trails with them. It was a lot nicer in the shelter of the trees, that's for sure. It was a pretty intense arm workout, with some squats and lunge walking thrown in. Where we crossed the granite path and it was wet, though, we just walked and held our weights, so we ended up talking. Shannon asked me about what else I was doing besides bootcamp now, and I told him about trying the 100 pushups, 200 situps, 200 squats programs, but was taking it slow since pushups especially tended to blow out my arm strength for bootcamp.  He was keen on the 100 pushups program, and decided we needed to do 100 pushups right then. I had to remind him that you do them in sets as you work the program with a GOAL of 100 in a row, and perhaps we shouldn't subject our newbie to 100 in a row just yet. So, instead we did 4 sets of 25 with a minute break between each. Even still I think the newbie girl was ready to kill me for even mentioning it.

And ended the day with Shannon asking me "my intentions" for the rest of the summer. Next week is an extra week for this month, and except for Monday, he's going to go ahead and run classes for anybody who wants to show up without worrying about charge.. bonus week for the existing people. I told him I'm planning to just keep coming all summer, and would probably just do the 90-day commitment starting in June.

Talked my way out of a regular Tuesday meeting and only have a call at 11, so I will make it to class tomorrow, too. So glad, since I'm already likely missing Thursday morning this week as we head out of town for a long fireworks/Bristol trip with the sis.

So, I "double-dipped" and went to morning and afternoon bootcamp yesterday based on Shelly's request, but didn't end up needing to be there. Shannon had gotten back and was there to whip this week's slack-asses into shape and give them the hard time they deserved for hassling his trainers in his absence. NOT the best day for me to show up for a 2nd class, but, c'est la vie… I was there already.

To warm up… once around the triangle, which I jogged completely non-stop for the first time ever. In fact, I was so in awe of what I'd just done when we got back to start that I was looking around waiting for somebody to notice and give me a way-to-go, but instead I was just another person in the group to make it all the way around non-stop. Big whoop.

Then we did sprints and that lame-ass horse & carriage run again. That so hurts, and I did encounter one of the slack-ass people who decided she'd had enough and walked off to talk on her phone leaving her partner hanging, where-in I jumped in and did another run so she could get her turn.

Then, to cool down? How about another run around the triangle, eh? Was doing great, non-stop again until Shannon actually stopped us near the top to do fire hydrants in the grass until everybody caught up. Then we started off again, and I was going non-stop down the hill thinking only of stopping and walking it in since I was in the lead group with most of the class far behind me… but then I heard Shannon's voice counting down for something, and I hadn't heard what it was for and it scared me… so I sprinted to the finish coming in ahead of him and his countdown.

So glad I did. Everyone who finished over 6 minutes aka behind him had to do 25 of his horrible ticondaroga runs (sp?) which is like a cross-climber in the down position of a wide-legged pushup. Nasty things.

Then it's Friday and I'm too lazy to get up for the early morning class, so I decide to just go once around the mountain. I take my pod-runner and my week 4 C25K workout and unfortunately get there about noon when it's hot hot too hot. Walked it to warm up until I got to about the quarry display, then it was kinda shady and I started my intervals. Managed to do two 8-minute intervals, up and down hills before I was just too fucking hot. Looked at my distance and saw I was about 2 1/2 miles in and thought whatever, it's only 5 around, I'll just keep going. Of course, that damned asphalt is hot through your shoes and it was a rough next mile or so. Had to stop at the playground and refill my water and take a break in the shade, then bumped it back to walking the uphills and jogging the downhills. With my couple stops it took me an hour and 10 minutes to go around what the pod registered as almost 6 miles. Pretty crappy time, but it did include some long jogging intervals, just a lot of walking recovery time, too.

Then, you know, why not do some more and talk JamesT into a bike ride. We had just been talking about it. I've been dying to take my bike around the mountain, but I'd forgotten how much I hate the ride from here to there…. especially when it starts raining on you and you get big splashes from passing cars. Nice! Oh, and then there's all those low-hanging branches that hang even lower when it's raining. But, we survived. Here to park, around to docks, back to walkup trail, then out and home… we figure about 11 miles, with the last 4 in the rain. At least it was cool!

Yup, definately feeling crazy today. So crazy I'm thinking about that 8am Saturday bootcamp, but I know I'm too lazy to get up that early.

So, I've slacked on posting about going to classes lately because our group has been so small, we're pretty much in a routine and not really doing any games or whatever. We jog, we do weights, and we do abs days. Shannon has been out this week, however, as he's out of town for a funeral. As such, Shelly's been running our mid-morning and the afternoon classes for him. Today it was originally her notion for us to jog all the way around the mountain, but we've got two vets in our class who have been showing up early and working out some before class. Today they'd decided to go all the way around, so Shelly didn't want to do what they'd just finished. So, instead we were going to do  a walking-warmup to "birthday hill", jog up the hill, then walk up the mountain trail to the pavillion, do some ab work there, then head back the way we came. We started out well enough, but from the beginning we had two girls who really complained from the get-go about working out today. I told them to be thankful we were only doing about 2 miles instead of the 5 she had planned, but they weren't having it. We got about 2/3 way to the pavillion, then they yelled for me to tell Shelly that they had their keys and were just going to head back because this day seemed like it would run long and they had places to be at 11.

Well, I made it to the pavillion, passed on their message, and the bitch fest began. Apparently our two vets often go to the afternoon class, too, and that set them off about the slow group in the afternoons. Not just slow, like beginners, but whiny complainers, apparently. Yuna, the girl I ended up jogging with last week on our "running from the cops" day is usually in that class and is in the group that just won't put forth any effort. These girls were going on about why someone would decide to pay so much for the class and then be hateful and lazy while they're there. Like they resent Shannon that he is encouraging them to workout. Shelly was telling us that for groups as big as that afternoon one is there usually does tend to be a fast group and a slow group, but this month, they have fast, slow, and no effort. Apparently their regular extra trainer who comes to help with the afternoon has been getting frustrated that he isn't getting his own workout in for having to hang back and deal with the no effort group.

So, when the two other girls from today mentioned that I had gotten Yuna to actually jog when she'd come to our class last week, Shelly said she wished I would come to the afternoon class and see if I could do it again for their no effort crew. I don't know if I'll have the energy today, but I guess I might try it. Afterall, it's just the no-effort crew… I'm sure I could blend right in especially tired.

And I realize we're working through my 3rd month here, but today I managed to run farther non-stop than I have ever done… down birthday hill and all the way back to our start point, non-stop. Then, our cool down turned into a further bitch-session, where we ended up sitting around almost a half-hour after class talking more about the no-effort crew MAINLY because on our way back, we passed the 2 girls who'd bailed on us earlier because they had "places to be". They were walking and talking and laughing their way back, and we just jogged right by and kept going. I think more slacker talk was inevitable after that!