12 January, 2010

The Earthquake in Haiti 

   ~~ victoria on 9:39 PM ~~    0 comments

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10 January, 2010

Simon Sunday: Yup. 

   ~~ victoria on 10:07 PM ~~    0 comments

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03 January, 2010

An Update on Floyd 

You may recall, I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I was going to sorely miss two of the kitties that were moving away, Marlowe and ol' Grampa Floyd. Well, as it turns out, his human was told she couldn't take him to their new home, so he's going to stay here at the apartment complex, the only home he really knows. Between my two upstairs neighbors and me, we're going to make sure he's well cared-for.

I'm sad for our former neighbor, but I'm kinda glad Floydie will be sticking around. He's a sweet, if shy, fella.

Posted via web from vicster's posterous

   ~~ victoria on 8:40 PM ~~    0 comments

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Simon Sunday: Cat Sitter 

As I mentioned last week, we got a new television set over the holidays. Even though the screen is smaller than the 36" Quasar c.1983/4 set that has been working faithful since shortly after my high school graduation, it is quite an upgrade. There are some frustrations with it, pertaining to my cable hook up (seriously, I though having a cable-ready TV meant not needing the converter box and RF modulator! GRRRRR!). However, Simon is quite happy to spend hours watching his Cat Sitter DVD on the new TV:

He's also a hockey fan. Here's a photo of him watching the Sharks/Stars game. Go Sharks!

I expect that soon he will request a TV tray and a dish of Greenies be placed next to his scratch post seat.

Posted via web from vicster's posterous

   ~~ victoria on 12:38 AM ~~    1 comments

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27 December, 2009

Simon Sunday: The Return 

Yes, yes I know: Thinking Out Loud was sorely neglected in 2009. I'm going to try to change that in the New Decade. Specifically, I intend to keep up my Simon Sunday posts, since I know there are some of you out there who have missed his antics. To kick things off again for Simon Sunday, here's a photo of him dressed as the most adorable reindeer ever!

Simon has been doing well since his pancreatitis attack earlier this year. He remains on a very strict diet of Prescription i/d (dry and canned), with a very occasional tiny bite of cheese or bread (shhhhh! Do NOT tell his vet, plskthx). I'm still amazed that he and Billie will devour canned food now when less than a year ago they would give me the hairy eyeball if I ever tried to serve it to them. I'm glad that their diet is better balanced between the two, since having good, quality wet food can help to ward off UTIs and kidney issues (fingers crossed).

We have a new addition to the household. After hemming and hawing for a year or so, I finally upgraded my 1984 Quasar to a new Samsung television. One of the first things we watched was the Cat Sitter DVD and was Simon ever bewitched and beguiled! I parked his scratch post (with a top platform) near the front of the TV and he couldn't get enough of all the critters frolicking on the TV. I decided to go with the 26" model and, after viewing the DVD I'm glad I did: Had he been suddenly confronted by a 42" rat, I'm afraid Simon would have crapped his bloomers! I took some photos from his DVD extravaganza that I'll post once I download them from he camera.

Sadly, we've lost some buddies the last quarter of 2009. Simon's darling (ex) girlfriend Samantha got ill and passed away at the beginning of September and, just days later, her brother, Baby was hit and killed by a car. Thankfully, their sister Simone is still with us, though she rarely comes outside since her brother and sister died so suddenly. The Elder Statesmen of our complex, Mr. Floyd and Mr. Marlowe (who I never could get a decent photo of because he preferred nosing the camera to posing for he) recently moved away to a new home and, while Simon and Billie tend to be anti-social with other kitties and remain ambivalent, I miss all of them terribly.

Posted via web from vicster's posterous

Labels: furkids, Simon Sunday

   ~~ victoria on 12:06 AM ~~    0 comments

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26 December, 2009

Looking Forward 

I bought myself a Moleskine Daily Planner for 2010. I decided over the weekend that I want to do a photo-a-day project in the coming year. Since I shoot so much film and as awesome as Arthur Cox (my Nikon F2) is, he doesn't add metadata to my negatives, LOL! So I bought the calendar to keep track of my shots and ideas for shoots.

Posted via email from vicster's posterous

   ~~ victoria on 8:57 PM ~~    0 comments

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A Christmas Eve Story 

I had a Border's coupon burning a hole in my email in-box, so I printed it out and headed toward Alameda Town Center (actually, it's written Alameda Towne Centre but I that is so hilariously pretentious I can't bear to spell it like that). On Christmas Eve day. I should stop typing this post right now and make an appointment to have my head examined, I know. Anyway, I had given myself the "just hold your shit together" pep talk, trying to prepare myself for the hoardes that were surely descending on the mall. I didn't make it very far in before I found myself blasting my horn and flipping off some nasty cow in a silver Infinity who ran the stop sign and cut me off. Happily, I managed to get a decent parking spot near the book store. I switched off the motor and got out of the car.

As I walked toward the entrance to Borders, I saw two cars in the lane, clearly at a stand off over a soon-to-open-up parking spot. Only trouble was, neither driver would move and the poor woman in the parking spot couldn't back out because there wasn't enough room. I watched this for several seconds, then looked at the woman in the parking spot. She just shook her head. So I made an appeal to the two drivers.

"Look," I said, "Both of you want this spot, but since you're both here, this woman can't back out, so neither of you can have this spot! So you all lose, here. One of you is going to have to let this go and back off so she can get out!" I indicated the woman still trying to back out of the parking spot. Both drivers stared at me, neither one willing to budge even an inch.

I tried again. "ONE of you needs to move!" I made a separation gesture with my hands. "Come on, someone here must have some holiday spirit! Please, let this woman get out of the spot, then you can fight over it!"

They both backed up! "THANK YOU!" I called out to the drivers. The woman smiled and thanked me as she backed out of the parking spot. I didn't even look back to see which driver ended up with the parking spot. A guy in a Jeep who had watched the whole thing smiled at me and gave a thumbs-up as I passed him. "That was fuckin' awesome!" he said.

I bought my 2010 Photographers' Market with my 30% off coupon and got the hell away from the mall as fast as I could.

Fin.

Posted via web from vicster's posterous

   ~~ victoria on 8:56 PM ~~    0 comments

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10 August, 2009

Minor Furniture Shifting 

I have shuffled my Visual Cues photoblog off of the Blogger platform and into WordPress and given it a new name. (Thinking Out Loud may also be moving into WP but probably not until later in the year.)

Fresh Pixels can be found at www.vicster.net/photography. I've brought over all of your favorites from Visual Cues but I'm leaving the old Visual Cues stuff in place because y'all still get directed there from the search engines.

(Shameless Plug) A selection of prints is available for sale at www.victoriaklum.com. If you saw something on the blog that you don't see there, email me.

Labels: furniture shifting, photography, upgrading

   ~~ victoria on 5:44 PM ~~    0 comments

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26 July, 2009

Simon Sunday: Cheer Up, Big Guy! 

So last Wednesday Simon had a follow-up appointment to have his eye re-checked and it was a good thing he did. He experienced a setback on Saturday when, after I had taken the e-collar off so he could groom and get a decent nap, his eye became irritated again and teared up. By the time he finished his supper he was really trying to dig at that eye with his paw, so I had to shove the e-collar back on him. It did not come off again until he went into the carrier before his appointment.

He seemed to steadily improve for the next few days, though he whimpered a couple of times when I tried to pick him up. Since both times were just prior to putting ointment in his eye, it was hard to tell if he was in pain or if he was dreading another eye-gooping. When we got up Wednesday morning, outside of the pre-treatment whimper, everything seemed fine until he barfed up his breakfast. I felt so horrible for him and was trying to not show how worried and dismayed I was. I had given him a little bit of Prescription i/d canned food (about 1 tsp. Monday night and another tsp. Tuesday night). It was supposed to be easy on his stomach, though. I couldn't believe that small amount would upset his system like that! I went to work and proceeded to worry all day long.

When I came home from work I did my now daily Barf Check. I found that, after I left for work, Simon had horked up a hairball. A very very HUGE hairball.

"OH MY GOD, YOU ATE BILLIE!" I cried. But then she meowed behind me, so I knew she was safe and wholly intact. I reckoned that that hairball was the likely culprit for this morning's mess and felt quite relieved. A few minutes later we were off to the vet's office, Simon singing a tragic opera aria in his carrier in the back seat. (Damn, that cat can hold a note!)

I reported the recent events to the vet and she agreed with me that it must have been the hairball that triggered the morning's Barf-O-Rama and she said to go ahead and continue feeding him the canned i/d. She then took him in the other room so she could examine his eye. While they were in the back, I remembered he was getting low on kibble so I got a bag, wondering if it would really be terribly uncouth to request some sort of Frequent Buyer plan where I could get a packet of Advantage or a free visit for every $1,000 I spend there (I think we're at $1,500 for this year already).

A few minutes later the vet brought him out and said his eye was completely healed (much to MY relief) and that we didn't have to have any more ointment or e-collar (much to SIMON'S relief). Then they tallied the bill. They only charged me for the bag of food, so I got that free office visit after all! WIN!

Simon is pretty much back to his old self, now. He's been having his nightly cat crazies, he'll randomly walk over and slap Billie and he's back into full swing with his Wake-Up-Routine, even using an old favorite tactic of his (brushing the hair from my face with his paw then grabbing a chunk in his mouth and yanking on it).

So, at least for today, Simon is healthy, Billie is eating well (in fact, as I write this, she is yelling at me for more food!), and I'm feeling more human and less dizzy. May this last for a very very long time.

Labels: Billie, cats, furkids, Simon, Simon Sunday

   ~~ victoria on 6:30 PM ~~    0 comments

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19 July, 2009

Simon Sunday: Give Us Strength! 

What a freakin' horrible week!

Last Monday morning, Simon woke up barfy. It happens once in a while and the culprit is usually an impressively-sized hairball, so I didn't think too much of it at the time. But, a few minutes later when he was bumping my alarm clock (which he does when he wants me to get up), he cried out a little when I picked him up and moved him. That started my Spider Sense tingling.

We got up and went through the morning routine, but I noticed that Simon was especially quiet. I tried to pick him up again and again he cried out. I picked up the phone and called his vet's office (they weren't open yet, so I asked them to phone me if I could get him in that morning). I only fed Simon 1/2 of his breakfast, which he ate, though not with nearly the vigor and passion that he usually attacks his food bowl. While he ate, I got his carrier out of the closet and quietly unlatched the top hatch. I wrote an email to my co-workers saying I'd be in if/when I could and left to get my shot.

While I was en route to Kaiser, the vet's office phoned to say I could bring him in at 9:30. That would be cutting things pretty close with the allergy shot, since they expect patients to hang around for 30 minutes afterward. When I got to the clinic, I explained my situation to the receptionist and she basically told me that they won't even give me the shot if I can't/won't wait the FULL 30 minutes, and besides that, the nurses who were supposed to be there at 8:30 to give shots weren't going to be there until at least 8:45. (My displeasure with Kaiser is a much longer post for another day...). So I schlepped back home and sat quietly with Simon and Billie for a few minutes before I gingerly lifted Simon and put him in the carrier. As bad as he was feeling, his lungs worked really well! He howled the whole trip (which, thankfully, is only about 10 minutes).

We waited in an exam room for what felt like an eternity, Simon curled up on my lap, hidden under his blanket. His vet came in and checked him. She didn't feel anything wrong in his abdomen and she wanted me to leave him for at least a couple of hours so they could take blood and urine samples and watch him. I figured I should go into the office, so I asked if it would be OK if I left him until 5:00 or 5:30. The vet said it may be better as she'd have more time to watch him. So I flew back across the island to the ferry dock and caught the 10:50 boat. Obviously, I was a wreck the whole day and tried to dive into work to take my mind off of my little Schmoopie and wishing I had just taken the whole damn day off so I could have just brought him home after a couple of hours.

Around 4:30, the vet left me a voice mail, asking if I had noticed anything wrong with one of his eyes, because his left eye had suddenly teared up and was bothering him and she noticed an abrasion on his cornea. I phoned her back from the ferry (with a boat full of very rude tourists) and told her I had not noticed anything like that before. She was baffled as to how he might have hurt his eyes, as he only had his blanket, a towel a food and water bowl (with smooth edges) and a litter tray. There didn't seem to be anything in there that he could have scratched his eye on. The only thing I could think of was, the vet mentioned that Simon had been hiding in the litter tray and he may have kicked up a piece of litter in his eye. At any rate, when I got there to take him home, we brought a container of ointment with us that I have to put in his eye three times a day. She mentioned I may need to come back and get an Elizabethan collar for him if he tries to scratch his eye, though he hadn't tried to worry it while he was at the vet's office.

I don't know why I didn't get an e-collar on the spot: About a minute after Simon came out of his carrier at home, he started rubbing his eye. So I drove BACK across the island to the vet's office and plunked down another $23 for a small e-collar.

Then, we waited for results. And waited. And waited. I was a complete wreck, even though Simon was steadily improving (per the vet's instructions, he now ONLY eats Prescription Diet i/d and gets Petromalt for hairball relief). He didn't really seem like himself until Thursday night (and his eye was still blinky and I had to fight to get the ointment in his eye). I hadn't slept much and was feeling like crap anyway and by Friday the not-knowing had made me very, very over-sensitive. By mid-morning Friday, I was convinced I should never be responsible for any living thing. I had a front stoop full of dead plants, I nearly let Billie waste away to nothing and now Simon was sick and I didn't know why and there wasn't anything I could DO about it.

The vet phoned around 12:30 p.m. The blood panel she ordered included a pancreatitis test and that was what held things up (and she also wanted to talk to the lab tech). Thankfully, his kidney functions were normal (since his misadventures with eating toxic-to-kidney things last year), no sign of diabetes, urine concentrated (which was good in this case), no parasites...all good. It turned out he had an attack of pancreatitis. The vet said it could be brought on by irritable bowel syndrome (which is why Simon got Prescription i/d in the first place, though his diet had strayed away from it over the years) or liver disease, and an attack is usually triggered by high-fat foods, though that tends to happen more in humans and dogs than in cats. I pointed out that I had fed Simon a pouch of Wellness Chicken & Salmon Sunday night and we agree that there is a possibility that that may have triggered the attack. (This is not to say that there is anything wrong with Wellness food! Billie eats it all the time and she's doing really well with it. It's very good food and I recommend it if you want your cat to eat a good grain-free diet with human-grade ingredients!). So Simon has been on a VERY STRICT diet of Prescription i/d and Petromalt and he seems to be almost back to normal.

His eye is still a concern. I think he let me believe he was going to leave his eye alone on Friday before I left for work so I'd leave the e-collar off, then bothered it while I was gone: It was a bit winky when I got home. We've continued the ointment treatment and I left the e-collar on all day Saturday and most of today. I finally took it off for a while this afternoon so that he could groom himself and take a decent nap without that damn thing getting in the way. He tried to wash his face, but stopped when I'd catch him wiping around his eye. He took a good, long nap and ate his "tea" (I gave him a little canned i/d as a treat) and his eye seemed to be doing very well. It was nearly fully open and he wasn't worrying it. Then at some point, something happened with it. A couple of hours ago, it was slightly teary and after he ate the rest of the wet food, he suddenly started trying to rub the eye hard. I immediately grabbed him and got the e-collar back on him and he hasn't tried to get at it since. I don't know if he somehow got food in it or what might have happened to have it suddenly bother him so much. He's resting now (on my pillow, just like in the photo above, except with the e-collar on now) and he's opening his eye again, though not all the way. He's due for another ointment treatment in a couple of hours and goes back for a re-check on the eye on Wednesday (unless he has another eye issue like today's).

I just wish the furkids and I could finally all be healthy. Yeesh!

Labels: cats, furkids, gah, grace, Simon, Simon Sunday

   ~~ victoria on 8:21 PM ~~    0 comments

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18 July, 2009

Lieutenant Vicster, Reporting 

Labels: personality quiz, whatever

   ~~ victoria on 9:05 PM ~~    0 comments

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17 July, 2009

And That's The Way It Is: RIP Walter Cronkite 

Walter Cronkite told America that President Kennedy was dead a year and a half before I was born, yet I still cannot watch that film footage without getting a massive lump in my throat. He was the consummate professional and he defined what it was to be a news anchor. Yet he set the standard so high that no single news anchor was ever quite able to live up to his standard (Chet Huntley and David Brinkley came close, but more as a news team than as individuals). I can only imagine how the deterioration of mainstream journalism left him disappointed, if not somewhat bitter.

Walter Cronkite narrated a great portion of my life, talking me, my family, and all of America through all of the most important events spanning nearly four decades. He inspired my interest in journalism: For a long time I wanted to be the Walter Cronkite of sports journalism. Because of Walter Cronkite I wanted to travel the world and tell its stories, yet he inspired me to tell stories right in my own back yard, as long as I told them with integrity and soul.

You have earned your rest, Mr. Cronkite. Thank you so very much for your steady voice and your inspiration.

Labels: in the news, passages, remember

   ~~ victoria on 9:06 PM ~~    0 comments

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