My Big Old Lubber Dubber

I kept on falling asleep watching evening TV and apparently I wasn't the only one. The Mister took this picture of Si.

Si's Wall

Somehow his scratch pad was upended, and he started to take a liking to sitting behind it. Like he can't be seen. So catlike.

I happy to report despite all his weight loss and muscle mass depletion, that he currently seems in pretty good shape. Jumping up on his towers and jumping from the table to his towers and jumping up on the bathroom sink. I still worry about him and occasionally he slips, but he seems to have grown into this stage of his life.

He will be 13 years old on the first day of Spring.

Shrinking Si

The fecal test came back negative, so he doesn't have worms. All other tests have shown him to be in completely good health. He plays. He naps. He eats. All is normal except that he is losing weight.

Now the vet wants to neuter him. So I did an almost exhaustive search on the web and found some indication that intact males might get thin as they age, and the metabolic changes with neutering might help him to gain weight. So it is a potential.

I have to say that I was opposed to neutering Si because many years ago I had a darling cat named Clancey. I was pushed by a vet to neuter him and I really wished I hadn't. His sweet disposition and rag doll affection would have been a wonderful gift to future generations.

I have wondered if Si's intelligence and tenacity would be beneficial to future generations of cats too.

More Tests For Si

Last night's Supermoon was quite impressive. I took a bunch of pictures but didn't like the way they came out. So I present this sunset photo. We have having lots of monsoonal clouds this summer which make nice cloud pictures, and the California fires help tint the sky as well.

Tomorrow I take Si to see Dr. Ann. He continues to shrink despite a good appetite and good digestion. Yesterday was a very good day as far as being playful and active and his typical goofy self. So that's why I made the appointment. I mean if he was sick, wouldn't he act sick?

I started to wonder if the thyroid test was a false negative. Or if he did get thyroid medicine, would it hurt him if he didn't have hyperthyroidism? Just to see if it would help him. Frankly it is a bit scary to see him get thinner day by day.

Dr. Ann will take more blood, and give him a cortisone shot, and probably traumatize him a bit. And we'll get back the results and go from there. I simply don't agree that he has cancer or irritable bowel disease because he shows no poopy problems or appetite issues. And I just read that up to 10% of cats with hyperthyroidism have normal T4 levels.

I Wish I Knew What To Do

It's hard to believe that I'm wearing a sweater at the moment. It's suppose to be over 90 degrees today, and the ants are storming the house, and everything growing in the garden would like a nice long drink of cool water, and I'm wearing a sweater.

Friday the thirteenth Fullmoon Friday the 13th. I'll probably take a picture of it.

I just microwaved some bacon and ate a half of an orange. The bacon smell brought Si out, so I fed him again this morning. He is losing weight and we don't know why. He's been tested and his liver, kidneys, and thyroid are normal. His CBC is normal. The ultrasound, for which he had to have his tummy shaved, shows no lumps or anything abnormal. The next test is to have a tube shoved down his throat to take a look around and biopsy his intestines. Assuming there is cancer or irritable bowel disease.

It started earlier this year. He stopped jumping up. His hind quarters were wasting away. I took him and he was x-rayed and drugged up because man was he pissed. All these smelly people cooing at him to get him to comply. No way he hissed. Now his chart says "Caution!" My cat Silas. The doctor said he curled his tongue when he hissed at her. A sure sign he wasn't kidding. They gave him a double dose of sedative and when he came home, he was messed up.

But we received a diagnose. Si has severe arthritis in his tailbone. Cortisone is the treatment. So he was given a shot, and then when it wore off, I started giving him liquid doses in his food or shot into his mouth. Let the dance begin. Si is no fool. Picked up on the tone of voice, the body language, the cupboard door opening. A month later I call the doctor. The drug seems to be working, but what can we do to fatten him up.

That's when they tested his thyroid. And weighed him. He had lost 13 more ounces. My shrinking Si.

The thing about the next test is if they find cancer or IBD, there is no cure. The palliative drug is cortisone. If they don't find anything, the next test is cut him open and biopsy a cross section of his colon. Talk about invasive. And the other thing that really bothers me is he hasn't been barfing, or had any poopy problems at all. And since he has been on cortisone, he will jump up on the desk and play with his toys.  In other words, he is not acting like he's sick. He is just turning into a skeleton.

My 3 Season Bar

This little nook is where my three season bar resides. I have a shaker and an ice bucket. I include a couple of bottles of my high end liquor, some interesting glasses, and bar tools. It's so Mad Men.

Underneath is the wine selection, that is during the three seasons. Upon the fourth season, which I will deem the season of hell called Summer, this area is transformed into a nice spot for the fern, my amazing Jester. All the wine is moved to the summertime cellar saved from the inside temps of 85 degrees or so.

I guess that fern does have a jester-like splay of fronds (see the jester example below). Also notice the baby fern jester in front and to the left. He is still attached to the mama jester. Awww.

By the way, Si never wore this hat. That is the cardboard cat the hat came with. Si has green eyes anyway. Si has never wore a collar either. He's an au natural kitty. Plus try to put anything on him makes him into a ball of pointy nails and teeth. Guess who wins that battle?

Anyway The Three Season Bar has a goose neck wine bottle opener. Well. It works. But. It is so much easier to hand him the bottle and say, "Here. Open this." Because he will and immediately, knowing the just reward for doing so.

Notice on the goose neck opener there is a butterfly. That was my father's. It has a sensor in it that makes the wings move ever so slowly like a butterfly resting on a branch. The sensor, I am told, is the same sensor used in artificial fingers to stimulate touch and movement. And because it moves so gently and quietly, the butterfly can be on for hours, sometimes days before I remember I turned it on. 

Thank you for visiting my little bar. When I fill it back up with wine and booze, I'll take another picture.

The Yawn

Si is used to me with a camera since I'm always taking pictures of my food. He comes up to me like "whatcha doing?" and then ignores me. So here's the yawn.

And here's "time for a nappy" face. 

My Organic Cat and My Progressive County

It was decided that our county will go plastic bag free at supermarkets, convenience stores, and box stores over 10,000 square feet large, like Walmart and Target. So if you need a bag, these stores will sell you a paper bag for 10 cents each. This is mandated.

This new law has been met with piss and vinegar around these parts, as one might imagine seeing how this county is mostly conservative and backwards. I'm surprised it even passed, to tell you the truth. And I'm even more surprised it hasn't been appealed. It just irks the hell out of people.

Everyone has something to say about it, and the grocery store people get this look like they want to punch your face if you say anything about it, good or bad. It's kind of funny.

Anyways - I'm glad we are so *very* *very* progressive here in the dusty old cow country.

Alfiero Maccanti

I saw these Italian clogs on the blog Every Clog Has Its Day as an Etsy vintage item for sale. Turns out they were the perfect size and felt wonderful to wear. Sold!

I sort of stopped doing high heels in my old age, even though I fall down wearing flats more than I ever fell down wearing platforms or heels. So these shoes are a little bit out of my comfort zone. But whoa! Being four inches taller is empowering!

The Mister noted that I seem to have a thing for Italian shoes, so I stayed till 3am looking at Pivettas. My old hiking boots. Apparently they have a cult following.

Si and I showing off our toes

Calling Cards!

I am a Cloud Junkie. This is a fact that I have come to accept as part of my whole being. Clouds make break out in song. Clouds make me look like fool as I jump out of vehicles to photograph them. Add a sunset and I'm likely to dance a jig too. So what's a happy girl to do.

Make calling cards of my cloud photos!

This is the word side covered up.

Name.

Phone number.

Email address.

with my icon!

Speaking of which, here he is with his stuff. Catnip and crackers. What a mess!

And I know I haven't really blogged about notebooks much or at all, considering this is Judy's Notebook. But I do collect them and fill them up with words and pictures and other things. I guess you could call me a "journaler." Personally I am so glad I did not call this blog, "Judy's Journal." But if I were to rename it what would you suggest?

On the left is Martha Stewart's newest line with Staples. Totally bringing out the office nerd in me with a selection of file folders and labels and notebooks. I told The Mister "Get me outta here before I spend money on one in every color!"

On the right is the fabulous cult Rhodia lined notebook. It even smells good.

And I just blogged these postcards on Judy's Bento Box. These are postcards that I had made by Moo. There are 20 different photos from my Flickr account and I did some bento, some food, some clouds, some Si. A real assortment.

Do you like to get mail from your postal person? Email me your mailing address and I'll send you a postcard.

A Few Things in March

 The rain total to date is 7.1 inches, so the couple of storms we had in March helped a little.

My car turned 34567. A thrill to be sure but even better this grand occasion happened out on a country road at one of favorite houses.

Silas is doing a drum roll.

There is this magazine slash gas station slash buy your lottery ticket and junk food type places in town. I'm kind of a magazine junkie, just so you know. I once asked them to carry Bust magazine, but the women thought I meant a girlie rag. Uh no

Artificial Meat and Mags

More Meat and Mags

 Clouds are too few and far in-between that I must take pictures. The local goat said hello!

My cat has the prettiest feet.

Caption Blog

going into town

Valentine's Day wine

Cockpit at night

I'm a passenger.

Herringbone clouds

Gosh, I love this cat!

Watertank sunset

I took a trip and ended up going nowhere

Kitty in the cupboard

So far this year has been kind of so-so. It all started around Christmas, well no, it all started last September when I hurt my neck by freaking out due to a wildfire accidentally discovered at my work place. I think I wrote about it. That took months to heal. X-rays and physical therapy and pain.

Then on Christmas Eve I twisted my ankle. I almost fell at this very spot about six times prior. Six times! You'd think I have rocks in my head not to fix the trip hazard. But no. And finally the trip happened.

There is nothing more annoying then not being able to walk and then being in pain with every damn step when you finally can hobble around. So looking forward to being well again.

I feel better today. The repeated application of ice probably really helped me turn the corner. I think when I am completely well again, I'll start with the walking/hiking regimen. Not to put forth resolutions, but just to say it aloud.

Swimming too would be good as I have stiff joints due to side effects of a prescription drug. I guess the idea is to start slow and keep it up.

And get rid of trip hazards.

Christmas Tree Time

Currently it is really really windy here. I'm sure that is why the Christmas tree place ties these large trees to this merry-go-round device.

We bought two trees this year - a live one that is little tabletop size, and a smaller than our usual living room size - a five footer. Both are Nordman firs. I haven't photographed the smaller one yet. I think I might try to bonsai it. Most live trees don't make around here. It's too hot and too dry and the soil is too clayey too. And you think you can alter some of those things, but in the end you just watch the poor plant suffer.

This aloe vera plant on the other hand loves this sunny window. 

Pay no attention to that cat in the background. 

This plant literally saved its own life. He was once in a different pot and sat on top of a six foot bookcase. Pretty much ignored, I dare say. He grew towards the light and one day became so heavy on the lit side that he fell out of his pot, roots and all.

I came home from work and saw all this dirt and plant on the floor. I asked The Mister just what the heck happened. He hadn't a clue, although he said he thought he heard something around noon.

Well, I repotted the aloe with fresh soil and a bigger pot and gave him the sunniest spot in the house. You can almost hear him say ahhhh!

Here's my Christmas tree at the lot. 

Wishing for Autumn Weather

After years of conditioning, it's pretty much a given that this time of year always makes me want to buy clothes. And because it's getting to be fall and back-to-school is on everyone's mind, I always lean toward tweed jackets and corduroy slacks and sweaters with fur collars and wool peacoats and tall boots, well you get the picture. This is mid August and I live in the mid state area and it is going to be 97 degrees tomorrow. So a turtleneck is not happening so matter how sick of summertime I am.

This well-heeled feline always wears a turtleneck though.

Cheers to the Five Year Mark!

A Nice Sauternes and Salad

Here's to Judy's Notebook, a five-year old blog about nothing in particular. Here's to everyone who has followed this blog, which I consider an anchor to my other blogs, which are many. Here's to everyone who has unfollowed this blog, just to prove I'm not spiteful, even though I am, traders. Here's to being a columnist to 25,000 people per week, then becoming a blogger to a few people per month, ouch. Here's to starting then stopping then starting then stopping then starting this blog. Here's to not dying along the way. Here's to all you crazy Snapple Rain affectionados. Here's to Googling Snapple Rain and seeing my photos in the number one and two spots on the Google images. Here's to my favorites bloggers, listed on the left side, the list may have changed over the years but I still love you all. Here's to trying new things right here like GoodReads or starting a book club or Twitter or Tumblr, which I still love, and thank you, you know who you are, for introducing me to these fun activities. Here's to my first post, not much really, but has totally reminded me of my wood rat, so sad, and how much work it was to live out at the ranch. And finally here's to Silas, who should probably have his own fan club, his own limo, and his own personal chef, oh wait, he does have his own chef, that would be me.

xoxo
Judy

Shall We Do Some Resolutions

I strongly believe if you recognize that you have a "bad" habit, then you should break it. Don't wait to the new year. Just go ahead and stop it. And if you want to develop "good" habits, there is no time like now to start.

I suppose that is why I started The Classics Book Club back in September, and yes I'm still trudging along although tardy with the December read, Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons. By the way, it is turning out to be a good one. A real woman's voice with a keen wit. After a couple of misses, at last I'm enjoying an old book.

Anyways I'm here to discuss some ideas on how I want to change for the better.

For the past couple of weeks I've been returning books to the library. I'm a real hoarder when it comes to books. I think "oh I'd like to read that" so then I check it out and renew renew renew. Now I haven't maxed out my card but even if I did, I have another one. Shh don't tell the librarian. Seriously this is something so insignificant to most people, yet I feel I must address my addiction to The Check Out.

So I've already started working on it by returning about half of my stash, thus far.

Another issue I need to work on is staying organized. Getting there is easy. Staying, not so. I discovered an empty surface has a half-life of 6 hours around me. I don't know why, but I need to pile things upon a clean table. And I have a ready available deluge of "things" to pile. So perhaps I need to get rid of the "things" to make this work. One of the "things" is library books (see above). So I'm working on that. Another "things" is catalogs sent in the mail. I don't often buy from catalogs, but I look at them, sometimes. Really when I look at how the catalogs can accumulate, especially during the holidays, I worry for all the trees. And you know all that ink just can't be good for any living thing.

So this past year I started Sake Sunday, which combines my love of Japanese food and drink with a sneaky once-a-week organizing trick. That is, every Sunday I clear off the dining room table to serve a small meal with hot sake. And I sometimes take photos of the event and blog them at Foodie Judy.

This was sort of working. At least I was semi-dealing with the table build up problem, but by the next day, shiny clean surfaces had new piles. This how I know about the half-life.

Anyway, I read that if you have basket (for your table), then you put "things" into the basket, and when you want a clear table you remove the basket. But I've lost a lot of important "things" doing this method than I care to say. So I'm still searching for way to keep my surfaces clear.

Another quirk I have is I'm obsessed with calendars. And I'm not going to change either. So the first of the year is a huge day for me. To put up brand new calendars in every room. "Superb Day!" I'll write in my engagement calendar because most years I keep an engagement calendar (book-style) where I write a couple of sentences about what happened on that day like the weather, a conversation, a plumbing problem, what was for dinner, and so forth.

This past year I also kept another engagement calendar (a "My Neighbor Totoro" from Japan. So cute!) where I would write only good things that happened on any given day. This has been great to review what I considered fun for any given month. "Played with Si." "Beatles night." "Stuffing!!!" This little calendar also verified that I was indeed happy whenever I pursued a sewing project or worked on a drawing, and that reconnecting with an old friend was the highlight of the year.

So if I am to build on my successes this year (and that is The Plan), I will gab more on the phone, eat lots of stuffing, draw silly pictures, and of course, play everyday with my Si.

Merry Christmas!

May the spirit of the holiday season

infuse your heart 

like the love of a furry creature.

A Silas Composition

There's something I like about this photo other than the obvious.

It's too light and it's too dark. The movement of the tail reflects the movement of the aloe plant. The rigid lines of the skeleton gazebo contrast the round tower.

And Si looks like he's thinking about something, like some memory in his head.

He's off in his own world.

My Favorite Things

Si's eyes, 
Totoro bento, 
Weird clouds, 
Pinwheel lunches, 
and Purple flowers.


Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things

Cream colored ponies and crisp apple streudels
Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings
These are a few of my favorite things

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Silver white winters that melt into springs
These are a few of my favorite things