Scribblings from the Mitchy Side

...you can't remember the password to log into your PC, because you stupidly changed it on the Friday thinking "Oh I'll remember that, it's only 2 days!"

And then you find out that actually, you HAD remembered the right word for the password, you'd just forgotten that you incremented the number to reflect the new year. Because it's not 2014 anymore.

*FACEPALMS*

Other than that, had a decent day, was able to catch up having had to wait 50 mins for IT to reset my password and unlock my compy :P

Also, Rob's ashes came back from the crematorium and I collected them this evening. Going to keep them in a safe place and scatter them in spring, when there's leaves on the hedge and decent grass on the ground.

The vets visit was much lightened by making friends with an adorable 10 week old chocolate brown lab puppy who sat in front of me and begged me for ear rubs. I was very happy to oblige :)

And then I came home and was all domestic. Made a cottage pie from scratch for scoffing later this week. I don't know what came over me. *feels forehead*

First of all, thank you for your kind words re: Rob T Furball, much appreciated. *hugs*

Overall 2014 was actually awesome in places, with a couple of dire lows towards the latter half of the year. Positives first!

I had two fantabulous holidays, one in May when I spent 12 days in Scandinavia. I visited Copenhagen, Stockholm and Oslo and had a great time in all 3 places. Would happily visit all 3 cities again, no problem at all.

Second holiday was in November, 2 weeks in California, again with jenni411. First up was Bouchercon 2014 in Long Beach, where I saw my friends and had oodles of fun :) And, possibly, came home with oodles of books...



( Disneyland )

Prior to that, in August, there was the unplanned and very much unwanted 4 day hospital stay when I went in for an infection-related problem and ended up being diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. I'm happy to report that I'm on insulin now, it's being controlled and the next stage starts this month where the goal is to ween me off insulin and onto a different type of injection. So far so good. I had no issues with it while on holiday (occasional high here and there, there WAS cider after all!) and, apart from having to carry more crap in my hand luggage, had no issues with Customs on either side of the pond for carrying needles and whatnot, so that was good.

Biggest low of the year came right at the very end when I finally had to say goodbye to my beloved Rob T Furball. To be honest, he's been on borrowed time for about 12 months so I can't say it was exactly a surprise but bloody hell, I miss the little furry bugger. But it would have been selfish and cruel to try and prolong his life any further: he had stopped eating, wasn't interested in eating and was perilously close to being nothing but skin and bone. Still wanted to snuggle next to me but that's all he really wanted to do and that's all we did for the weekend before the last trip to the vets. I should get his ashes back next week from the pet crematorium and I'm going to scatter them under the hedge that runs down the side of my block of flats. He used to lurk in there when it was in full leaf and if I called him, I could hear mews coming from the hedge but not actually see him :) He didn't like it in winter when he couldn't hide in there any more!

Work ticked over steadily and is much the same. I have now been there for 2 years and change - doesn't time fly? Don't know how much longer I want to be there but there's a lot of plusses, mostly the people are great and I can walk to work, which saves a fortune on petrol. So we'll see.

And that's all the news that's fit to print!

Briefly surfacing just to let those of you not on Facebook know:-

Rest in Peace Rob T Furball
28th Oct 1995 - 23rd Dec 2014
It was time.

I love my cat, I really do. But he's woken me up at 1.30am, 2am, 1.30am (again) for the past 3 nights, by dint of sitting in the hall and yowling his head off. He's only alive because I couldn't actually bring myself to throttle him. However, last night, not only did he wake me up, but I couldn't get back to sleep, despite several attempts. Ended up getting about 2.5 hours sleep. I'm afraid I called in sick and went back to bed. I'll go to work on 4 hours sleep but 2.5 just doesn't cut it. That's the last time I'll do that, though. I want to TRY and make a good impression on the new employers :P

So today's been cancelled due to lack of interest. I did catch up on my sleep though so am a lot less homicidal. Now I just need to figure out what is UP with that furball.....

Went to the football last night, it was Round 2 of the (formerly League) Capital One Cup. Stevenage got a home draw against Premier League Southampton. I didn't expect us to win and we didn't but I have to say the final score of Stevenage 1 Southampton 4 really didn't do us justice. In the first half they played their socks off and really took the game to Southampton. Then in the second half, they had a dozy five minutes and gave away a goal.

The second goal was a complete travesty - the ref ruled a miss-kick by Mark Roberts was a back pass and gave an indirect free kick to Southampton inside the penalty area. They took it so fast, Stevenage were in disarray and their striker had a free shot on goal. 2-0. That upset Stevenage so much that they gave away another goal 2 minutes later *facepalms* We got one consolation goal back but then they scored a 30 yard screamer that was so good, even us Stevenage fans applauded. Still don't think the scoreline was a fair reflection of the game. Ah well. No disgrace in losing to a team two divisions above you.

Next match is on Saturday and I'll get to use the next ticket in my shiny, shiny season ticket book :D

In other news, Rob T Furball is off to the vets tomorrow night for a check up on his thyroid meds. I have to say, I think we've got the balance right but I hope Zoe the Vet will take blood and make sure. He's currently not speaking to me, I mean he's having a truly remarkable strop. It's lasted 2 days now. It started when I was dozing in front of the computer and he tried one of his "stealth" flying leaps up for fuss and attention. He missed the sofa and landed on me. There was yelling and owing and he panicked, flung himself off the sofa and right into the computer case. Must have hurt, poor thing. No damage but he hasn't come near me since. So I figured I'd make the vet's appointment and truly earn his displeasure :p

Treated myself to "The Complete Series of Two Fat Ladies" box set which arrived yesterday. Oh it's fab, I do so miss that show. Although I can't watch it without getting hungry! Also been having a re-watch of the Joan Hickson Miss Marple series. Blissful. Really were some of the best adaptations of the series ever committed to TV. I think Julia McKenzie is doing a good job in the current production but the Hickson series were superbly cast, well written, with excellent direction. Just a joy to watch :)

...still at HCC. EMT decided to keep me a couple of extra days so I don't finish there until tomorrow. Useful but boy, I picked the two wrong days to work, the weather forecast is glorious! *sulks*

( New Bathroom! )

( Computer woes )

( New Cooker! )

( Rob T Furball )

*falls over* I needs a time turner!

We're waiting on blood test results but the vet is a lil' frustrated. He agrees that Something Is Wrong but there really isn't any evidence of anything at all. The thyroid might be sliiightly out of whack but! While he has got some of the symptoms of that, with the increased appetite and thyroid not feeling right, he hasn't got the chronic weight loss that should accompany it. In fact, his weight has been remarkably consistent for over a year. Plus he's otherwise in excellent condition and in good spirits. So the vet was left scratching his head a bit. But he's given him a 10 day course of some capsules as a sort of pre-treatment on the grounds it will do no harm at all and if the tests show anything, it'll give us a head start.

Rob was superbly behaved again and the vet positively gushed about how good he was when he brought Rob back from having his blood taken. Good kitty :)

While I was waiting for the appointment, I made friends with an adorable dog in the waiting room. He was a six month old Norfolk Terrier who just loved everything and everybody. He took a shine to me and practically sat on my foot and let me fuss him for ages. Such a lovely dog :) Owner and I had a pleasant natter while we waited, which made the time go much quicker.

Should get the test results Saturday, although it being the long weekend, I may have to ring on Monday (when the vet I saw today will be on duty and will give me the results. Further bulletins as events warrant!

Gotta take Rob T Furball back to the vet's today. He was in early last week after he couldn't stop throwing up, but some anti-nausea meds set him right. Conclusion was that he'd possibly eaten some rubbish off the floor - validated a bit when I subsequently caught him chewing on a bread bag tie. (He had the audacity to complain when I removed it from his mouth, the ungrateful animal). Anyway, I said to the vet at the time that I thought there might be an underlying separate problem as he has been horking rather more than he should. It was averaging once a week but we've just hit the 3 times in 5 days point so I'm taking him straight back.

Vet couldn't find any obvious signs of blockage when he examined him last week but he agrees with me it could be a hairball that he can't shift. It could also be lots of other things so I'm going to insist on bloodwork and maybe an x-ray today. Hang the expense.

But 'm worried about him. On the plus side, he's cheerful enough, still yowling for fuss and attention, happy to curl up and be scritched for hours and he's eating and drinking just fine. So paws crossed all around it's just a hairball. On the minus side, he's 16, if he needs surgery that's not great and if it's more serious than a hairball, well.........

*cuddles the purring furry lump*

I will keep you all informed.

Went to watch Stevenage v. Chesterfield yesterday. Not a bad game, although Stevenage have apparently decided that they can't start playing football until they go two goals down. This was exactly like the Huddersfield game I saw last week, Stevenage went 0-2 down before clawing back to draw 2-2. Could have won it, probably should have, Chesterfield are not a good side and are in danger of being relagated. These are the teams Stevenage need to beat if they want to get in the playoffs.

Today, Leeds Utd are on tv, the BBC are showing their game at Middlesborough (dunno why, seems an odd game to be selected, it's not particularly special but I'm always happy to be able to watch my team). After that

GOALLLLL!! *boogies on down*

*cough* As I was saying, after that it's France v. England. I've convinced the cat that it would be smart if he curled up somewhere far away from me for the duration.

(He still hasn't slept in his igloo bed since I washed it, although he allllmost went in it earlier. Something about the smell is putting him off. I might dig out a couple of his old cat blankets and stick them in there, see if that helps.)

Dear Rob T Furball,

It's no good you looking at me like that. You were the one who threw up inside your igloo bed last night. Seriously, who does that? Dude, dash for the hall and hork outside my bedroom door or something - I'm used to that and it's easier to clean.

So now your igloo bed has been washed and scrubbed. No, you couldn't sleep in it last night, it was still wet. However, because I'm good cat Mum, I turned the heating on for a couple of hours specially so the cushion could dry out on the radiator. The outer bed is now all dry and the cushion is too, so your bed has been restored to its proper place in the lounge. I'm afraid the cushion inside is a bit lumpier than before but I'm sure you'll flatten it out again in a few hours. So stop sniffing it warily and then glaring at me. It's not my fault it smells all, well, clean.

Try not to do that again, it was vile.

Love,

Your Owner Slave