Don't Drink It!

Trust me... it's NOT good. We opened the bottle of sparkling shiraz tonight, to drink with our dinner of delicious Orville Redenbacher popped properly on the stovetop.

Mom poured while I supervised the stove. There was a rather pink froth in the glasses, which wasn't terribly appealing. We each took a drink, and said "Hmm, that's not very good." It occurred to us that we didn't chill the bottle at all -- the recommendation was that it should be just cooler than room temperature, basically. Being the high-end wine connoisseurs that we are, we opened the freezer and grabbed a couple of ice cubes (one for each glass)! It was slightly less bad on ice, but the general assessment was a strong thumbs down. It was extremely dry and vinegary. All but four swallows (two each) went down the drain.

Words

One rule - one word, that's it. I wasn't going to do this, but every time I read one, I learned something new -- and saw questions I hadn't seen before!

1. Where is your cell phone? purse
2. Your significant other? none
3. Your hair? colored
4. Your mother? helping!
5. Your father? home
6. Your favorite thing? quilting
7. Your dream last night? none
8. Your favorite drink? lemonade
9. Your dream/goal? happiness
10. The room you’re in? dining
11. Your ex? sweet
12. Your fear? many
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? smarter
14. Where were you last night? home
15. What you’re not? nice
16. Muffins? yum!
17. One of your wish list items? sanity :)
18. Where you grew up? Michigan
19. The last thing you did? cleaning
20. What are you wearing? jeans
21. Your TV? off
22. Your pet? George-the-cat (hyphens make it one word, right?)
23. Your computer? Dell
24. Your life? crazy!
25. Your mood? overwhelmed
26. Missing someone? family
27 Your car? Saturn
28. Something you’re not wearing? contacts
29. Favorite Store? LQS
30. Your summer? working...
31. Like someone? yup
32. Your favorite color? red
33. When is the last time you laughed? constantly
34. Last time you cried? recently

Thanks to Kate, Colene and Dorothy

PS - the shreds add up to 8 grocery bags, one shopping bag and the box my Christmas tree came in. Plus a laundry basket and trash bag full of the paper that didn't have to be shredded. Why-oh-why do I procrastinate?!

Update on George -- and a Winter Warning

George-the-cat is basically fine -- his hunger strike seems to be driven by anxiety. He's still not eating as much as normal, but he's eating some and he's definitely "himself."

That said, my aunt's cat Amos -- who is even bigger than George, and is indoor-outdoor -- ALSO quit eating. My aunt took him to the vet, where they did the same lab tests, but with a more conclusive (and unfortunate) result. Amos has pancreatitis, and he's not doing terribly well. Her vet has seen several cases of it in cats recently, and says it is caused by the cat licking shoes or lapping up snow melt from shoes or boots or shovels or whatever has come in contact with road salt and ice melt products.

I encourage you to be aware of this if you have cats yourself.

Shredding...

So, you know I'm trying to pack and organize for my move -- which is definitely a downsizing in terms of personal space! Of course I'm also a packrat, so that just makes this take longer.

One of my friends recommended just packing (no sorting or discarding), and then doing the sort/discard thing on the other end, when unpacking. I sort of get the logic -- the packing would go faster, and since there IS a deadline, that could be helpful.

My problem is that I'm moving from 1300 square feet with plenty of storage to 800 square feet with minimal storage. I'm pretty sure that if I just boxed up EVERYTHING and took it with me, there wouldn't be room to actually unpack anything in my new apartment!

To that end, I'm trying to sort as I go -- I have piles or boxes for pack, trash, donate/sell. Then I hit an ancient filing cabinet that has outlived it's usefulness. (I would have dumped it in the last move, but I needed it as a nightstand in the guest bedroom!) I emptied just one drawer of it today, and it took me TWO HOURS to shred everything in it -- most of which is 5-9 years old. Now I'm drowning in shreds!

Here's hoping George-the-cat doesn't decide to jump in the box and play with them... :-)

PR update

I knew it was a "reunion" week... but still. What is the point, other than to drag out the finale? Boring.

It's going to be a long four weeks...

At least :)

• George is eating a little -- not his usual amount, but his personality is back in full force, so I'm much less worried. The vet gave us an appetite stimulant on Saturday, and he actually ate quite a bit last night. I can't believe he didn't want the chicken I made him for dinner, but he's still picking at the (nasty) canned food. He's still overly skittish, which isn't really a problem as long as I remember not to drop things!
  
• I've spent a LOT of time in the sewing room this weekend... not sewing, but packing. Sigh. I'm down to mostly odds and ends. I'd like to get that wrapped up tonight if I can so I can fold up the tables and make room to take down the peg board and the design wall. That should be an easy evening project one night this week (I hope -- just have to ask dad how to get at the nails in the peg board. I'm sure we screwed the spacer strips to the wall, so that's no problem... or so I say right now!)
• If I don't call moving companies tomorrow, I'll probably have to carry all these boxes to NJ myself! And that will not be fun.
• In between the vet appointments on Friday, I went to the doctor myself... the sinus infection I had in January didn't completely go away, and it's back in full force this week. He prescribed three weeks of a different antibiotic, which hopefully will do the trick. I'm allergic to so many of them that I won't take them unless I REALLY need them...
  

On a completely different note: have you ever had Sparkling Shiraz? Someone gave me a bottle, and I'm not sure if it's a parting gift or a parting salvo! Apparently they're relatively popular in Australia... I found these notes, but would love to hear your experience

He ate...

Not a lot, but he did eat last night -- some of the canned food the vet gave us. He turned his nose up at it again this morning, but I'm definitely less worried today... right now he's sitting in one of his favorite spots in the living room (on the arm of the sofa, looking out the window), and he's been on my lap and running around a bit -- more like his usual self. I suspect the sub-q fluids yesterday (he was a little dehydrated) made a big difference, and maybe the antacid.