janxAngel...... I also send you praise for your banner. My such talent on this ci forum!!! ,,,bettes

Well, it is now 10:00 AM and I've been at work since 7. The candy is FLOWING around here. I think I have a buzz going on. I told my manager that everyone will be passed out in their cubicles by 3. Actually, it probably won't take that long.

The real work that went into the banner was fixing the pic I used for Rule 76. It was grainy and the color wasn't great. His skin was too blue and the black wasn't real rich black, not to mention the edges of him were raw and jaggy. Lassos are your friends when doing multi-layer corrections. It looked like the original came from a small newspaper photo. Now it looks like it did when it came from the photographer. Or close enough to it at least.

All the other stuff on my banner I found in various places and just composited it together. I really need to redo the left section to look better.

I reported the spammer....did someone say candy???? From what I hear, no candy eaten on Halloween contains calories or fat- - so off I go, I hear Snickers calling my name!

No calories? This is great news--I'll let all my coworkers know. So how about that piece of Marie Callendars pumpkin pie I had for breakfast (no wait--pumpkin is a vegetable, eggs, milk, crust--it has all the food groups!)?

And now for the unveiling of Rule 79....

*fanfare*

Very cool, JC. Very cool.

Good thing it's almost 2pm here on the East Coast, eh JC? And isn't pumpkin technically a fruit?

It is indeed. Imma take a crack at a rule 79 myself JC. Probably be up later tomorrow though. I was up till 2:30 am finishing a halloween costume for a friend. After 8 hours of straight sewing (6pm to 2am) then 30 min drive home... My brain hurts... Seriously had medium-bad headache and face ache and neck ache all day. Sleep deprevation hurts.

After I'm done at work today: Going home. Taking Nap. Eating dinner and watching The Monster Squad w/ my roommates.

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) starts tomorrow everyone!

Fruit--of course! My bad. Fruit is good for breakfast--so pumpkin pie still works as a breakfast food, right?

I'm terrible with waking up in the mornings. Anything that I can put together with minimal fuss and won't upset my stomach is breakfast to me. Pumpkin pie w/ the whipped cream is acceptable, if not the best choice.

Milky Way, the best candy made, IMO!`

Reese cups are my favorite, but I don't like the regular ones, only the holiday shapped ones, and I like to put the in the freezer, then just eat the chocolate part first then share the peanut butter part with my dog. So at Halloween, Easter and Christmas, I treat myself to Reese cups. lol.

Okay I need to vent y'all (in a weepy emotionally upset kind of way and not in an argumentative smart*ss kind of way) so bear with me and if you need to avoid feeling sad on Halloween, well then skip this post okay? No hard feelings intended here.

The younger of my two cats is *seriously* sick. He's not eating or drinking, he's jaundiced, he's having trouble breathing, he's staggering around, his pupils are dilated, etc. I was up with him all last night worried (I don't live very close to an emergency vet, the cat first aid books and the Cornell Feline Vet book seemed to indicate that I could wait a few hours before seeking out the vet and last night he wasn't as bad off as he is now), I'm grouchy and punchy from not sleeping, I'm thinking about my mom's death in a car accident back on June 30th of 2005 and how ineffectual I was there and so I got the cat into the vet first thing this morning. The vet says his liver enzyme levels are bad, his glucose level is high and frankly he's not really sure what's wrong with the cat (could be cirrhosis of the liver or possibly liver cancer, the high blood sugar could be due to the liver trouble or it could also be diabetes or possibly a whole bunch of other things including a somewhat rare parasitic infection...it's a real mess). The vet suggested that I have 2 options: either put the cat down or go ahead and let the vet try to push IV fluids and see if he can get the cat's liver to start working like it should.

I spent 90 minutes alone with the cat at the vet's office trying to figure out what I should do, crying, sobbing and generally being irrational (which is not how I like to feel or behave but there you have it...I am a part of the human race after all). The thing is my cat as bad off as he seems to the vet kept acting as if he's not ready for me to let him go...he kept trying to get off the exam table (5 different times...I kept count), snuggling up against me, he leaned into my hands and fingers as I petted him, etc. This may sound stupid or like magical thinking, but I think if the cat could have told me his opinion in words he would have said "I want you to try everything you can" and not 'I'm ready for you to let me go".

So I told the vet to go ahead and try and do what he can for my younger cat (IV fluids and antibiotics and sending off the blood for more exotic testing). I'm hopeful that he'll make it at least through the night but unfortunately that's not entirely up to me. Logicially I know I'm probably insane for going through the heroics (and this vet is an extremely stoic country vet and hard for me to read so I can't tell whether he thinks I'm some crazy cat-obsessed ex-city girl who should have given up already or whether he really is glad I'm pursuing a chancy course of action) and I know that people are suffering and dying around the world in far more horrific circumstances but frankly right now I give a bigger crap and feel more strongly about this cat than them (that might make me an awful person, but damn it, that's how I feel). And so far my older cat is perfectly healthy and is not upset that his buddy kitty isn't home (my vet and I are somewhat worried that the younger cat's illness might be catching so I have further motivation to figure this out) but I know that that could change (either he could get sick or he'll catch on that someone's missing).

Oh and it's Halloween...great. Why does crap like this always happen to me on important days or holidays? I'm just asking that for once no one I care about get sick, injured, die or get killed within 5 days of a holiday...is that asking too much?

Oh well...I'm getting off line for now...must put on a happy face for the neighbor's grandmother who is bring her two grandsons over later and not spoil their fun (normally I would be really looking forward to this, but sh*t it's hard to get motivated to have fun under circumstances like these)

So will you all try and have my share of Halloween fun for me tonight?

The Vault (I'll be offline unloading on my friends over the phone...thank goodness for them because they do such a great job putting up with me)

aww. sorry to hear about that vault

I'm thinking and praying for you. KR

Wow, Vault--I'm so sorry about your cat. For what it's worth, I think you did the right thing. You know your cat and you know if he is ready to go or wants to try. I spent $400 on my 8 y/o cat last summer when she came home one morning with the last 4 inches of her tail stipped off to the bone (well, its not bone--more like the extension of their spinal column). The vet amputated to just above where it happened. I REALLY, REALLY could not afford that much, and my family and friends thought I was crazy. One coworker (who used to bob her puppies' tails) told me she would "chop it off and cauterize it for free". EXCUSE ME?!!! This has been a really good, loving cat--I'm not going to subject her to that or put her down just because she needs an expensive surgery. Oops, now I'm venting--sorry. Anyway, I think when we take on the responsibility of a pet, we commit to them "in sickness and in health". I hope your cat gets well soon.

And most of all, I am so sorry about your mother. I know what it is like to lose a parent, but not in those circumstances. I wish I had some wonderfully profound words of comfort, but I don't. All I can say is I'm sorry for your loss and I will pray for you (and for your cat!).

Do you guys think my avator of Bobby looks as though he has heartburn? Just curious! Maybe he needs some Nexium or tums.

no, I think he looks like he needs to "come over and see me sometime". lol

vault, i know how you feel. i just recently lost my cat whom i have had since i was very little. its was very hard, i think my mother took worse than anyone else. but pets are a member of the family and its hard to see them in pain. my thoughts are with you! *huggles*

The Arrowhead water guy delivered the water for our office this morning, and after he left we discovered that one of the sealed bottles has a branch in it! I keep trying to tell everyone that its sterilized, so its OK--no one's buying. lol One of the other girls said that when they held the bottle in the river to collect the water, they let a branch float in!

Vault - I'm sorry to hear about your kitty. We went through a similar situation w/ my roomie's cat a couple years ago. Even though she didn't care for me too much (she loved her daddy and that was it) I still felt very strongly about it. I hope your little one gets well soon!

On another note. Check my new avi! You like it? Made it myself. When i get a few more made up I'll post them all.

Your avi is pretty cool...good job ...

I couldn't make it EXACTLY the way I wanted cause of the size limit... Had to cut a frame to make it fit. I'm going to try reworking some of the pics so I can sneak it back in and still be under 30Kb total size.

how could they miss a branch in the water?! was it a big one? i wouldnt have bought it enough even if you told me was sterilized, but thats pretty fun story! lol!! ^__^

OK, are the writers on strike today, or what?

WGA West says only (from Oct 31):

“Today, just hours before the expiration of our contract, the AMPTP brought negotiations to a halt.

The Companies refused to continue to bargain unless we agree that the hated DVD formula be extended to Internet downloads..."


Any news?


spook

How they missed it is a mystery to me! Its really thin--maybe more of a twig? But its very long--its curved into the bottle so its longer than the bottle. It almost seems like it was pushed in the bottle. But what do I know. Its still here, providing laughs for the office. The water guy is supposed to replace it today. The person in charge of our water club (the County stopped paying for water coolers years ago so the employees took it over) wants to talk to him when he gets here--I think she's going to hit him up for a free month as compensation.

You have to check out the SVU forum there is an entire thread on the strike and up-to-date news on what is going on... Hollywood, Contract Negos & Potential Strikes

Thanks, Irish! They have some more current info than I got at the WGA site.

And since this is the Off topic thread for LOCI, look at the OFF topic pic I found on that SVU thread: ;-))




spook - who is Irish, too. ;-)

That's a nice picture. His eyes are really pretty there.

His ears look a little Spockish, though.

His ears ain't as cute as VDO's. ;-)

But what a body!



spook

LOVE IT!

Vault--where are you? Are you OK? Is your kitty OK?

Yeah he is hot...I am glad you got the info you wanted from the other thread...

like it was pushed in?! i hope not! i wonder who thought that would be a good idea to put a branch in drink water hehe! i think a compensation is in order.

It looks like it was pushed in to me. We are still waiting for the owner to show up. We have some questions about their filtration system--and their QA system! Then we will have a vote on whether to change companies.

Just out of curiosity, who do you use? Is it nationally known or local? The reason I ask is that a few months ago, we got a thing of water here at work that was yellowish from a well-known national company. Three syllables, rhymes with mulligan. Needless to say, we switched companies.

MMB

Hey Irisheyes,
Manny is going to be on Jay Leno tonight (Friday). It could be interesting. LOL
BTW I loved this quote from him when asked about a sweep: "We don't want to eat the cake before your birthday".

Another plus for Quality Control!!!!

Thank you

so, does anyone have any plans for the weekend?

this saturday my friends are having a halloween party. we didnt have one on halloween night cuz we had a test to study for ~_~

besides that, i have to finish a paper. i only have like one page written. maybe i should spend less time here...^__^()

oh yea! this sunday is daylight savings time. so dont forget to fall back! ^_~

Work all weekend. I work at a turkey processing plant and we are working every day approx. 10 hours a day in prep for Thanksgiving. I have LOTS of time, because I work in the medical office and am mostly here just in case someone loses a limb. Have fun at your party. What are you studying in school?

The water bottles say Arrowhead, but its a local company. They must bottle it locally because the owner said he was coming to pick up the bottle to take to his QA department. I say they need to hire the QA person in our office--believe me, nothing like that would get past her!

I have started watching a show called "The First 48". I think its on A&E and it follows real-life homicide detectives as they investigate a murder. On one episode, the lead detective carried a big black leather notebook. I told my cat (no one else wants to hear it!)--"Hey he has a notebook just like Bobby's!" But he wasn't wearing a tie clip. In fact he wasn't wearing a suit, he was wearing a polo shirt and slacks. Definately not as hot as Bobby.

This is my favorite weekend of the year! Sleep--can you ever get enough?

We are going into summer here and are now on daylight saving time. We lost an hour and you guys gained an hour. Enjoy your sleep-in.

Spudgy falls asleep while he's sitting up.
Sleepy

After viewing this vid did anyone find it as disturbing as I did. I just wanted to give him a cuddle.

I lost my $300 phone somewhere in the middle of nowhere...very sad.

Hopefully I'll be able to use some of my student loan money (which is sitting in a money market and not being used on school incidentally) to get a replacement. And this time I'm going to get it insured (which I should have done the first time, but I felt bad b/c the insurance is expensive and my husband had already spent so much)