Surgery!

Silvio is scheduled for surgery tomorrow morning.


UPDATE (10/14 6:20pm) - Silvio had his surgery and everything went well. He should be able to come home tomorrow. Thanks for all the good wishes and concern!

Yet another UPDATE (10/15 7:20pm) - Silvio is home now. I wish I could say that he was resting comfortably, but he isn't. He is trying like hell to lick his privates. The Elizabethan collar he is wearing will not allow him to lick anything. So he is put out about it. Plus he looks ridiculous. More later (with pictures!).

Silvio, again.

He's back at the emergency vet with another urinary blockage. The kid has a knack for dramatic timing. Once again, this happened when we were scheduled to travel. Fortunately, it was only an overnight trip, and Mom was here to take care of him. Silvio was showing a few symptoms yesterday morning. We took him to our vet for a quick look-see. His bladder was empty. So Mom came over, and we left for Montgomery. His distress just got worse. He didn't pee all day, in spite of constantly trying to. Then he started puking. Off to the vet! (Thanks, Mom.)

He is catheterized and is doing well. We'll take him to his regular vet Monday morning and figure out a plan for his treatment. That "turn him into a girl cat" operation is looking very likely. We don't want him to keep going through this.

Thanks, Zima. No, really.

Zima knocked over a container of sugar this past week, right next to the stove. Of course the sugar went damn near everywhere, including between the stove and cabinets. *sigh* So we had to pull the stove out in order to get to the spilled sugar. And found out that we have spilled a lot more than sugar over the two years we've had it. There was a lot of gunk that ran down the sides of the stove. The episode turned into a big deep cleaning exercise. So thanks, Zima. No, really. We mean it. Turns out we really needed to pull that stove out and give everything a once-over. Maybe more often than once every two years.

Rain!

Getting any sort of rain here in Atlanta is, sadly, now a noteworthy event. It has been a bone dry September. Great for sports, but not so good for gardeners. The yard is a dry, dusty wasteland of crunchy weeds and dead grass. Trees are stressed, and smaller plants are comatose. We got less than an inch of rain last month, and no significant rainfall since the remnants of Fay passed through. Hearing the rain once again make music on the roof overnight was a welcome sound. Gray and rainy? No complaints here. It was a nice, cool change of pace.

Toilet-Shopping Misadventures and Other Hazards of Home Improvement

It turns out that shopping for a temporarily tax-exempt item on the last day of a sales tax holiday is a very bad idea. Who knew there would be such a run on high efficiency toilets? The timing seemed perfect. The State of Georgia was offering a sales tax holiday on energy- and water-efficient items for a few days, ending today. Our old toilet is in the dumpster and we needed to get a new one anyway, so off we went. Holy crap! There was a feeding frenzy going on in the toilet aisle. People were buying them two and three at a time. It was impossible to find anyone to answer questions or to look up stock. We went somewhere else and ended up coming back to the first place, where they had the bowl we wanted, but not the tank. We decided not to be so damn picky about it and got a similar model. It's just a toilet, right? As long as it does a decent job with #2 and isn't a pain to clean, we're happy.

One of the downsides to large home improvement projects is losing the use of the room you are renovating. This was really a problem when we had the kitchen done. Not such a big deal this time - we still have 1.5 baths that are usable, and only two of us live here. What's the problem, you ask? The problem is that the 1.5 baths are located adjacent to each other and neither has a fan or any other type of noisemaker. So if the urge strikes both of us simultaneously... lets just say that it gets awkward. We would both prefer to preserve a little mystery, and there are definitely some things you don't want to know and/or think about regarding your spouse. One of today's many purchases? An exhaust fan for the new bathroom.

Saturday was more enjoyable than Sunday, except for the early start and sitting in the sun for most of the game. (Yes, it is still really freaking hot here.) It was a defensive battle for much of the day, with Tech ahead 3-0 at the half. But by the middle of the third quarter when the shade of the upper deck finally reached us, Tech's offense started to heat up. It ended up not even close. I am happy that Duke's fortunes in general have changed this year and wish them luck with their new coach. And how about Vandy's excellent start? It has been a good season for academically challenging schools so far. Of course, some things never change -- even though Tech won and Georgia did not play this week, the Atlanta newspaper devoted half the cover of the sports page to Georgia, with Georgia Tech and the Atlanta Falcons splitting the remainder. We're still not getting any love from the polls either.

Whazziz?

Moxy and Silvio check out the destruction.

The shower walls and tile floors, along with a lot of drywall, are now in the dumpster in our driveway. We'll be shopping for a sink and toilet this weekend. In the "good timing" department, this weekend is a statewide tax holiday for energy efficient and water saving appliances. So we won't be paying any sales tax for the toilet. Somehow this does not make me excited about toilet shopping. Never done it before. Not really looking forward to it. I'll probably have a hard time getting through the experience without making a lot of sophomoric jokes.

And speaking of sophomoric jokes, we'll be tailgating early for the Georgia Tech vs. Duke game on Saturday. The early start means two things: mimosas and sausage balls. Guess what happens when I drink a few mimosas and am around sausage balls? That's right! Raunchy sophomoric "ball jokes". I've got a million of 'em! PDM is already practicing rolling his eyes in advance. He does not share this aspect of my sense of humor. He's not a fan of ball jokes, salty or not.

Deconstruction

Sink - gone.
Toilet - gone.
Shower wall and door - gone.
Wallpaper - gone.
Medicine cabinet - gone.

Cats - wondering what the hell?!?