August 22: Sam is Sick

Bad news, everyone: my cat, Sam, is sick. Really sick. Not sure why, exactly, but he's been all pukey for more than a week and lost oodles of weight. Last night when Mom came home from work, he was too weak to stand up, so we rushed him off to the Metro Animal Emergency Clinic to have him looked at. Unfortunately, the bill for full diagnostics was gigantahuge. Vets are expensive. We opted to just keep him there overnight with an IV to re-hydrate him, and took him to the normal vet this morning. So far, without diagnostics, it's cost us, well, a lot. There's a line you have to draw somewhere with pets. It's sort of hard to balance out the whole loving them thing with the reality of finances.

Hopefully he'll pull out of whatever he has and start eating again. The vet said that it was possible that he was just stressed out over me moving and the house having people tromping through to look at it at random. We decided to set him up here at my place, where he is contentedly napping on my bed. It's hard to tell how he feels, obviously, but he certainly looks better than he did last night. Wish him luck.

In other news, life's going well. Mom turned fifty (!) last Thursday, and we went out for a big dinner at Salty's. The food was really, really great. Tomorrow, it's Grammy's 78th birthday, so we're taking her out somewhere (possibly Jamieson's, the Irish pub of yore). August is birthday season, I guess. Life in the apartment is good — I'm trying to eat more “real” food now that I'm here and not eat out so much. Part of the solution for this is to take TV dinners to work with me, which isn't real food, but is a lot better/cheaper than eating out every day. The other part is actually learning to cook. Janet made an amazing curry chicken dinner last night that I had to run out on a few minutes prior to completion for Sam's vet trip. At some point this week, I'm going to make chicken cannelloni. It's exciting!

Anyway, I've got some programming to do (joy), so I'm off. Ciao!

August 14: Fajitas! And Soufflés!!

Joy of joys, I just had the best supper in aaages: Janet and Katie are over, and they made fajitas. I haven't had fajitas in a long time (original plan: burritos — the bean/no-bean ratio was deemed to be unfavourable for the burrito). We're waiting a few minutes before Katie prepares some chocolate soufflé action, which will be epic. In the meantime, we're watching Hard Candy*
(Fun fact: the main actress, Ellen Page, is from Halifax. Go Halifax.)
. So far, it's pretty good.

General life status update: things are good. I bought a toaster today, which is the domestic highlight of my week. We had our Science Symposium on Saturday night, which Katie won. I barely managed to get my wonky homemade electric motor going in time for the presentation, which was pretty cool. I'd like to make a nicer version of it sometime — it'd be a fun project. Katie's presentation was on “neanderfoot”. Everyone did a pretty god job, and the snacks were great. I think we're going to do a full-fledged science fair next time.

Anyway, I'm losing track of what's happening in the movie, so I shall bid you good day. Until next time, world.

August 07: The Fabulous Science Symposium

OK, here's a fun fact I could've predicted: Mark is bored bored bored without Internet in his place of residence. I had everything nicely orchestrated to get my Internet connection set up on moving day, but things never work right the first try, and it got screwed up. So, I have no Internet until this Thursday, at which point I will read so much reddit my face will fall off. Of course, I haven't had much time to spend loafing on the Internet anyway. I got things mostly set up at the apartment (which much help from everyone), and I bought a very cool 60s style loveseat. Saturday, I went to the Natal Day fireworks with the usual crew + Sean and Jen, and Monday I went on a really nice drive through the valley with Mom, Joey, and Grammy. It was a busy weekend.

This week is stuffed full of some contract work I'm doing on the side and research for my bristol board project. Oh, what's that you say? What bristol board project? Why, it's just my entry for the fabulous Science Symposium, being hosted by Katie. It all sprang out of a conversation she and I had last week about how much fun bristol board projects were in elementary school, and it was quickly decided that we needed to recreate the experience. There are twelve of us taking part, with such wonderful subjects as pumas, electric motors (mine), Egypt, and optics. It's going to be a solid dose of ridiculous fun.

Anyway, I'm just out at the house to spend some time with Mom and Sam and get the lawn mowed. Supper will be done soon, so I should get going. Until we meet again, Internet — until we meet again.