Coby, one day after his surgery. His mouth is still very swollen and he didn’t want to eat today. The vet gave us anti-nausea medication and an anti-depression medication that apparently works as an appetite stimulant in cats. The first worked, the second was too much for his system. The drug warned it could cause dizziness and/or drowsiness and about two hours after we gave it to him, his pupils were dilated and he was shaking and nervous. He’s since settled down, but no more of the appetite stimulant. He did eat some food this evening and didn’t get sick after having his daily pain meds and antibotics.

He and JS are resting in the bedroom.

I, on the other hand, will be taking up smoking before too long

*bimbles off*

UPDATE: 4/18/08 – Coby came through surgery fine. He lost nine teeth, with four left. The vet had warned us there was the possibility of him losing all teeth, so the worse-case scenario was avoided.

He was home last night, still a little druggy and his mouth is very swollen from the surgery and packing. The front of both his legs were shaved. I’m assuming they couldn’t get the IV started in one leg and had to switch to another. He was eating baby food last night (Yeah, baby food) and drinking water. Generally doing well. The worst thing is having to give him pain meds and antibotics every day. It’s liquid, but it’s still a fight.

Now we spend a couple of days getting him to eat more and let him recover.

Continued good thoughts and fairy dust for the little guy, please. He was looking a bit grim last night and he requested no pictures be taken until the swelling went down.

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The fabulous Mr. Coby will be going into surgery between noon and 2 p.m. today to have several – possibly all – of his teeth removed. His age plus the fact he has chronic kidney failure make any type of surgery a risk and, added to that, is having to change his whole eating routine once he has recovered. It’s going to be another stressful few days in our little household.

Please keep Coby and JS in your thoughts today… especially JS. It’s been a hard week for him.

A lovely picture of Coby while we wait…..

*bimbles off*

Will someone please explain to me why the leader of a religious organization – the same organization responsible for hundreds of cases of hushed-up pedophilia and the categorical denial of women’s rights – is welcomed like a head of state, with all the pomp and celebration, by our nation’s leader?

* Dr. Zachary Smith (Gary Oldman), Lost in Space, 1998

*bimbles off*

To the poor, poor mothers of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints compound in Texas:

Here’s the deal. You get your children back when you stop handing over your underage daughters to grown men without a whimper or pause. Because, under the law, that’s called statuatory rape. That’s government law, ladies, not the insane rambling of men who have you in thrall, convinced some fairy in the sky said it was okay for men to treat grown women as slaves and rape little girls. It’s legal law, not some twisted fantasy called “god’s law.”

When you start acting like mothers and protecting your children… when you stop being brainwashed and act like thinking adults… when you prove you are REALLY concerned about your children’s wealthfare… then you get your 13-year-old daughters who were married off and pregnant back.

K. Thanks. Bai.

*bimbles off*

JS and I have finally found one thing we can agree on politically – Hillary Clinton should step out of the race. Step out. Quit. Move on. Leave. And, take all your reactionary, mean, lying, brittle sense of entitlement bullshit with you. That means staff as well. The lot of you. Just go. Find a village to scare or something.

Coming to this conclusion is not easy for me. It pains me as a female to wish the only viable female candidate EVER in our history would just vanish into the ether, never to haunt our lives again. Having listened to the utter bullshit of some people in this country who possess the screaming, knuckle-dragging ignorance to suggest a woman cannot do anything so difficult as lead a country (Margaret “Stone Cold” Thatcher, anyone?), I thought this was finally it. A tough woman with experience behind-the-scenes who had been dragged through the mud and back and survived. Finally. Maybe we could win this one.

I watched as this woman had her every item of clothing scrutinized, her emotions picked apart relentlessly and walked a gauntlet of sexual mug-slinging that should have made Americans deeply ashamed. And, for a while, she was doing us proud. She is, if nothing else, tough.

Then, something snapped. She morphed from a self-assured, tough politician with a sense of humor into this shrill harpy who has thrown everything at her opponent short of the kitchen sink to save a campaign that, after a few key primaries, was technically lost. Instead of stepping aside with some dignity… some ounce of control and gratitude to those who supported her, we have this circus that is doing nothing but dividing the party and giving the Republicans their talking points for the convention. I mean, seriously… I would be taking notes everyday if I was in McCain’s camp. Clinton is their holy grail for the moment.

I wanted women to finally have a moment of triumph. To show we are equal, even to the walls of the White House. But, I couldn’t want that so bad I’m willing to overlook the PERSON inside the woman. To simply vote for Clinton because she’s a woman is taking the same action I have preached against in others. I have to support the person – not the gender or the race.

I believe there are women who are perfectly capable of holding the highest office of leadership in this country. I believe they will make decisions to the best of their ability, they will cry when they are so moved, be able to laugh at themselves and will handle criticism with the grace or tenacity that is required. I believe this woman will be as smart as her male counterparts. I believe she will set an example for our daughters. Sadly, I don’t believe Hillary Clinton is that person.

Our time will come. It’s just not this time.

*bimbles off*

UPDATE: JS called me at 11:15 a.m., less than two hours after his Mom went into surgery. They were able to do it under a local, with pain treatment and a Valium-type mix, which greatly reduced the risks for her. The surgery turned out to be less complicated than they thought. Although the biopsy results pointed to a malignant mass, once they got in, they found out the tissue may have been old scar tissue from a fall JS’s Mom took years ago. The mass is being sent off for further testing. However, rather than having to remove a lot of tissue, only one mass was taken and most of the breast was left intact.

Because everything went so well, she is going home tonight. They won’t know if she will have to undergo chemo or radiation until after the results on the mass are back, but things look a lot better now than before the surgery.

My thanks to everyone for their good thoughts and fairy dust for JS’s Mom.

—————————————————————————————————–

JS’s Mom goes into surgery in just a few hours. As Tom Petty said, “The waiting is the hardest part.”

*goes to sit by telephone*

Hey…. sex, books and blogging. I’m SO THERE!

April is Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month and blogger Kapgar has launched a contest to benefit the RAINN Organization AND promote “Sexography,” written by Carly Milne. The rules are pretty simple:

Even if you’re not a “sex writer” per se, we want to encourage you to explore the comedy, fear, silliness, scariness, million-and-one emotions and million-and-one experiences that are mental, physical, emotional and spiritual, all of which make up the rich tapestry of sexuality. So if you want to write about how your dog watches you masturbate or how you can’t stand porn or about your first time or what you think of sex in the media and how it affects you personally, you should. What you write about is up to you, just as long as it falls under the “sexuality” header. Personal stories about survival
are strongly encouraged.

For each Sexography blog entry you post, you’ll be soliciting donations for RAINN from the readers you entertain and engage with your commentary. But the best part? Not
only will you be helping an incredible cause, but the bloggers who come in first, second and third place for most funds raised will nab fabulous prizes.

What You Need To Do:

• Sign up (anyone can participate, but only those located in the United States of America and Canada are eligible for prizes).
  
• Place one of the two available GBBMC2008/Sexography/RAINN icons on your blog for the duration of the contest, April 1-30, 2008.
  
• Blog about sexuality as it relates to your life as many times as you like between April 1 and April 30, 2008.
  
• On each of these posts, link to the RAINN donation page.
  
• Make sure to tell people to reference the GBBMC2008 and include your name with their donation so you receive credit.

Go to Kapgar’s site for all the details.

Now, exercise those fingers and give us your best story. And, please don’t expect me to believe you don’t have one. Sexual naivety isn’t a common thread amongst my readers. All three of you.

(hat tip to Gadfly)

*bimbles off*

It’s been a rough week in my little household. But, when things are tough, you find out who your real friends are. If it hadn’t been from Army of Mom and KN stepping up to the plate and taking one for me this past week, I don’t know how I would have survived. Everyone should be so lucky as to have friends such as them. I would promise them my firstborn, but….

And, now, I need extra good thoughts and fairy dust sent our way. JS’s Mom has been diagnosed with breast cancer and is having surgery to remove it on Monday. She wanted a masectomy to remove any chance of it coming back, but her cardiologist refused. His worry is her chance to lose too much blood. So, she will have to have some follow up treatment – chemo or radiation – and this will put off her progress to get a pacemaker. If everything goes okay, she will be in the hospital one night. If not, it will be longer.

In addition, the fabulous Mr. Coby goes a week from Thursday to have teeth removed. This has been an ongoing issue since he was diagnosed with kidney failure nearly a year ago and it’s finally reached the point it can’t be put off anymore. He has quite a few bad teeth that will need to come out. His age plus the kidney issue make this surgery a bit riskier than normal. And, there’s a chance he would lose all his teeth. Our vet is confident he’ll survive fine and will return to eating normally, even if it’s soft food, once he recovers. Still, it’s a hard time for JS and Coby right now.

Gonna be a difficult week ahead. Whatever goodness you can send our way would be appreciated.
*bimbles off*

I was given two days to draft the nomination application for a national award for our department.

And, I’ve just reached the limit on synonyms for the words coordination, project, management and team.

*sobs quietly*

Note: The following contains spoilers for Sweeney Todd: Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

So, yeah…. after surviving a round-kick to the face by my sister last week, I decided to watch Sweeney Todd: Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Seemed to fit my mood. Not to panic, though. JS hid all the knives.

First, if you don’t like musicals, keep walking. I didn’t realize this movie is pretty much singing and dancing while branishing knives and grinding up people for nearly two hours. The trailers were kinda cagey about that. So, if this genre isn’t your cup of tea, forget it.

However, if you made it through Moulin Rogue (which I thought was a fairly decent flick), you can deal with Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and, for the love all everything sane, Alan Rickman managing not to blow your eyes apart during their musical numbers. On the other hand, Johnny Depp singing is Johnny Depp singing. It kinda blows the suspension of disbelief when all you are thinking throughout a movie is “Wow, he’s not doing a bad job.”

I actually never saw the original musical nor did I know the story, which helped. And, no one plays overgrown, gothic maniacs like Depp and Bonham Carter. It’s like The Nightmare Before Christmas brought to life, with more blood and bigger breasts.

It is violent, but in that exaggerated, overdone way like Kill Bill. Only a Monty Python sketch could get blood to spurt so far for so long. It’s so over-the-top, it’s cartoonish. And, it makes you wonder where Depp gets all the clean shirts. And, where he sleeps.

All in all, the movie is entertaining. The bad guys get it in the end, including Depp, and the two young, fresh-faced lovers are presumed to have lived happily ever after… no singing to knives for them. And, for the record, the song (presumably called “Friends” or something of the sort) where Depp sings to his knives like they are living beings is just fucking creepy. Fucking. Creepy.

*bimbles off*