A great start to a fabulous Labor Day weekend...

Saturday:
6:07 am - wake up call from Zoe meowing and demanding food
9:30 am - phone call with friend Brenda in Minnesota, learned the meaning of the word "gitchy"
10:42 am - drive Zoe to Acacia for her monthly catupuncture session
12:24 pm - finally leave Acacia after learning that Zoe has lost 3/4 lb. (down to 5.4 lbs) and opting for a full panel blood test
1:09 pm - arrive at Joanne's to figure out what to sew for class; pick out easy pattern for a closet organizer and black fabric featuring skulls and roses
1:54 pm - scarf down a chicken pita pocket prior to sewing class
2:00 pm - sewing class starts
3:14 pm - realize that I fucked up and cut large strips of fabric only half the width they were supposed to be
3:16 pm - realize that I knew I was going to fuck up and breathe a sigh of relief that I had purchased lots of extra matching fabric
4:42 pm - leave sewing class a little early
5:00 pm - walk into apartment as vet calls, telling me that Zoe's blood sugar is extremely high and that she's definitely diabetic and that she needs to get to California Vet Specialists asap for insulin
5:42 pm - arrive at CVS with Mom and a very pissed off Zoe
8:17 pm - finally leave CVS with Mom and even more pissed off Zoe, who has had an insulin shot and been taken off her cancer meds, along with instructions to come back Sunday morning for another blood glucose check
9:08 pm - give up on finding anything good on tv, read in bed, sleep

Sunday:
7:02 am - wake up call from Zoe, feed her food she doesn't want to eat
8:17 am - take Zoe back to CVS
10:30 am - retrieve Zoe from CVS, who has been given fluids and instructions to come back again on Monday for another recheck
Current time - blog blog blog, realizing that I spent almost $600 on Zoe's medical needs in the past 24 hours

Stay tuned for more excitement!

My Pacific Northwest "Vacation"

So last week I used 40 of my hard-earned annual leave hours to fly up to Portland. I had originally planned on simply visiting my mom and brother (it was his birthday on the 19th - happy birthday, Paul!), his wife, and new daughter Adelaide. However, additional vacation duties also included helping my mom pack up her house, clean it, and drive back down to Escondido for her move back down to SoCal. I still had a good time though, even though Mom's cat, Leo, had to be put down the morning I arrived in Oregon. Leo will definitely be missed, although I don't think we could have fit him into the car for the long trip south considering that the parrot and dog took up the majority of the available space.

Other activities involved visiting two (!) REI stores, walking around Lacamas Park in Camas, initiating a corruptive influence on my beautiful and awesome niece (I bought that ABCD onsie for her when she was only a fetus!), celebrating Paul's 33rd birthday at Deschutes Brewery in downtown Portland, and spending the better portion of a day walking around the Pearl district.

Lacamas Park in Camas

Corruption Phase 1 Initiated

Packing for the trip home...

The drive back down to Escondido was fairly uneventful, and let me tell you that the landscape only gets MORE BEAUTIFUL as you travel south, leaving the lush green fresh scenery of Washington and Oregon for the shriveled brown smog-laiden traffic-scape of our urban coastal community. Sigh. And, to make things even better, Michael (Mom's parrot, severe macaw, actually) took the opportunity to fly away the evening of our arrival home. She went missing for two days, but Mom miraculously recovered her after plying her with wheat thins, peanuts, and a squeaky ball. I'm thinking that with this experience, Mom now has the know-how for earning supplemental income recovering rogue feathered pets.

Then it was back to work on Monday...it will only take another five months of work to gain those 40 hours of annual leave back, so I'd better get on that I guess.