cats. they think they own the placepart deux

cat's back. kinda skittish, scaredy cat. won't talk to anyone right now. we'll just have to torture her back into submission, dammit.

welcome home, cat.

* * * * *

part trois here.

cats. they think they own the place, and then they leave

damn cat. been in the house now for 5 years. thinks she's queen of all she surveys. and what does she do? she leaves!

my 10-year-old's favorite cat vanished today. into thin air. walked away from the house. now the other cat is howling, my daughter is maudlin, and my wife is in tears. and i have this sort of emotional detachment that's kind of creepy.

don't get me wrong, i like my cats a lot. i hope my cat comes back. for my daughter's sake, for my wife's sake. i do miss the creature. i miss the way she crawls on top of my chest and head-butts my chin to wake me up in the morning.

damn cat.

* * * * *

part deux here.

birth. school. work. death. (reprise)

cancer is such a pisser. was then, still is now.

if you remember from last month, one of my oldest and dearest friends has leukemia. diane is 40, the sweetest, most generous person you could ever want to meet. 2 kids, nice husband. good christian woman who would never think an evil thought or hurt another being.

diane was in line for a new leukemia protocol in seattle, but then she got pneumonia and an infection of the pancreas a week or so ago, and that pretty much nixed her chances of going to seattle for the treatment. seems you have to be infection-free for at least two weeks to start the protocol.

diane's running out of options, kids. i'm afraid she might not last much longer and i will lose my other best friend.

thanks, diane, "blueeyes", for lighting up my life the way you did and the way nobody else could. it's been a heckuva 22 years with you in my life. we had our ups and downs as most friends do, and i dread the day you aren't around to make all things seem good in the world. you have given so much love to this world, and i hope i am capable of giving even a tenth of it back the way you have done.

if a tree falls. . .

physics question du jour:
if a stealth bomber crashes in a forest, would it make a sound?

if a tree falls, part deux

physics questions du jour:
if milli vanilli fell in the woods,
would someone else make a sound?

you know you live in 2005 when. . .

1. you accidentally enter your password on the microwave.

2. you haven't played solitaire with real cards in years.

3. you have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3.

4. you email the person who works at the desk next to you.

5. your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don't have e-mail addresses.

6. you go home after a long day at work you still answer the phone in a business manner.

7. you make phone calls from home, you accidentally dial "9" to get an outside line.

8. you've sat at the same desk for four years and worked for three different companies.

10. you learn about your redundancy on the 11 o'clock news.

11. your boss doesn't have the ability to do your job.

12. you pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home.

13. every commercial on television has a website at the bottom of the screen.

14. leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn't have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it.

15. you get up in the morning and go online before getting your coffee.

16. you start tilting your head sideways to smile. :)

17. you're reading this and nodding and laughing.

18. even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this message.

19. you are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list.

20. you actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a #9 on this list.

thanks to my good friend chuck jeffcoat
for sharing this with me

tom peterson says "wake up! wake up!"

it's the year of the rooster. happy new year.

to my sister in providence:

新 年 好

and on the seventh day. . .

theological question du jour:
can atheists get insurance for acts of god?

when the cat's away. . .

carrie has gone off to a teacher's conference in the columbia gorge for the next two nights, leaving me home alone with the kidz. should be fun. i wonder what i'll fix for them for dinner tonight?

i'll wager dollars to doughnuts they want macaroni. That'll be four- and ten-year-old girls for you now.

after the dinner it'll be piano practice and reading for the girls, and then off to nighty-night. then, since there is no west wing or alias on tonight, maybe i'll get a little reading done myself.

sounds exciting, no?

in a way, it is. for those of you who have no kids, you know not what you are missing.

i'll sign off on that note and wish you a jolly good night.

regret (v.)

Pain of mind on account of something done or experienced in the past, with a wish that it had been different; a looking back with dissatisfaction or with longing; grief; sorrow; especially, a mourning on account of the loss of some joy, advantage, or satisfaction.*

*merriam-webster online dictionary

a cousin of mine is on the brink of the end of his days. he is in pennsylvania, i in oregon. worlds apart, through no fault of his.

i suppose i could've moved back east in my younger days and found gainful employment there, but the risk was great enough that i stepped back from the opportunity and remained where i was comfortable, and therefore lost the chance to live close to the bulk of my extended family.

but at what cost? to move away from hearth and home, mother, dad, brother? (sister was already gallavanting across the globe, seemingly footloose and fancy-free.) to uproot wife and child and tear them away?

why not? we were already 65o miles away in california. why not east?

were my notions of living among the family fold east of the mississippi realistic, or folly?

who knows?

i can only say this: i had a chance, and took it not. mea culpa.

gene, for what it's worth, my greatest regret is that i saw not nearly enough of you during your time here, and that i had the stupidity to remain out of touch as much as i did.

there'll be a hole where you once were, the depth and breadth of which i cannot fathom.

of this i am certain: for the support and love you gave my mother, especially in her time of grief, i am eternally grateful. you are the closest to a brother that my mother has in life, and you will be sorely missed, by more people and more than you can possibly know.

may God bless you, gene thompson, husband, father, doctor, healer. may He hold a special place for you in Heaven. say hello to josephine and john, to jeanne and hughie, to my dad, and to all of your other relations who i had not the pleasure to know in my lifetime. they are all waiting for you with open arms and hearts.

peace be with you.

voices inside my headechoes of things that you said

metaphysics question du jour
if you pay your exorcist, and your check bounces, do you get repossessed?

please change your pants. my ears are hurting.

at least my 4 year old isn't color-blind.

she thinks as long as both the pants and the shirt have blue in them, they
go together.

the problem is that the blue in the pants is part of a blue-red checkerboard
with green, white and red christmas trees splashed all over the place. quite
attractive. they would make a helluva pair of '70s golf trousers.

the shirt is pink with tiny blue hearts all over the place, and
little yellow and red flowers to complete the valentine's day motif.

can you say loud? I shudder when i even think of the combination.

a yellow LIVESTRONG bracelet can kill you

remember my friend who has cancer? (see birth. school. work. death.)

I was visiting her in hospital yesterday. in a casual conversation with her nurse I learned something very interesting.

if a patient has given the hospital a do-not-resuscitate (DNR) order, the patient is given a yellow bracelet.

some hospitals have taken to taping over LIVESTRONG bracelets (sold by the Lance Armstrong Foundation) on patients who wear them, and others insist the patient remove the LIVESTRONG bracelet entirely to avoid confusion in case of a catastrophic event such as heart stoppage.

just to confirm, i found this story on the AP wire:

----------------------------------------

Hospitals covering over LiveStrong bracelets, fearing a deadly mix-up

Friday, December 10, 2004

10:59 PST TAMPA, Fla. (Associated Press)

A hospital chain is taping over patients' LiveStrong wristbands because they are yellow -- the same color as the "do not resuscitate" bands it puts on patients who do not want to be saved if their heart stops.

(for the rest of the story, click here)

birth. school. work. donate marrow. . .life.

UPDATE : UPDATE : UPDATE

(see birth. school. work. death.)

For information on bone marrow transplants, start here:

American Red Cross or National Marrow Donor Program

Thank you.

one ringy dingy, two ringy dingies

heard on an answering machine today:

"this is Frank. you can leave me a message, but i must warn you i get annoyed with messages that are hard to read. please use your shift key appropriately, avoid overdoing punctuation, and spell-check your message, or i might ignore it."

science is so empirical, and by virtue of its methods, excludes metaphysics*

metaphysics question du jour
is jerry garcia grateful to be dead?

*steve martin
wild and crazy guy

seen on the westbound endof an eastbound car

bumper sticker thought du jour
make it idiot-proof and someone will make a better idiot.

is it possible to be half pregnant?

we had a bouncing baby boy.

let's try that again.

we just learned we had a bouncing baby boy. we just got the bill from providence medical center.

we didn't even know we were pregnant!

it seems another carrie mccarthy had a baby at providence, but she wasn't insured, so the bill went to my wife's account. briiliant accounting procedures, if ever I heard of them.

we've never been to ob/gyn or neonatal at providence. we only visited the ER when my wife broke her ankle two years ago.

can you get pregnant by breaking your ankle?

seen on the eastbound end of a carheaded westbound out of D.C. at 198 mph

in honor of yesterday's inauguration:
bumper sticker thought for the day:
If we quit voting, will they all go away?

birth. school. work. death.

cancer is such a pisser. really. what's the point of a 40-year-old who's never lived near a hazardous waste dump getting leukemia? or a 10-year-old for that matter? where does juvenile leukemia come from?

I'm rambling.

one of my oldest and dearest friends has leukemia. she's only 40, for crying out loud. one of the sweetest, most generous people you could ever want to meet. 2 kids, nice husband. good christian woman who would never think an evil thought or hurt another being.

what's the point?

billy joel sang it best, I guess. only the good die young.

not if I can help. a lot of prayer. a lot of visits while she is in hospital to keep her spirits up.

and I am signing up for the bone marrow registry. hope you'll do the same. the life you save might be. . .

your kid's?