Preparing

Today, we're spending the day preparing for our out of town guests for THIS month.

Last month, it was my sister and brother in law who visited. They stayed at a nearby hotel, but our guests this month are staying with us.

They are coming through here as part of a country-wide visiting tour. Cathy and Mike, a.k.a. BlueHeronDruid and hobbitt, will be here for a couple of nights. We can't wait to see them! (for those not in the know, I have known these folks for 16 years. Met them while they were living in Chicagoland. It was Cathy who introduced me, via the internet, to Dave)

This has made it necessary to actually clean the place! I know they couldn't care less, but I care, and it's been too long since this place had a really good cleaning.

We keep it up pretty well in general, but once in a while, you really need to have house guests to get it really clean!

This apartment now smells like "Pledge," "Murphy's Oil Soap," and incense!

Oh, and a note to my sister: The necklace is on it's way. The cookies you brought were REALLY GOOD, so if you've never tried them yourself, go get some! I love the hand motif ornament from Austin. It hangs on the wall in my office. And that whole wheat pasta from Barilla isn't bad!
Thanks again for everything you brought!!

In other news:

Jack the Cat continues to exhibit odd behavior. He has been crying in the night a LOT less since I put the puzzle pieces together, and figured out that he has been constipated.

He now gets two kinds of hair ball remedy, at different times of day. Hair ball remedy acts as a laxative, too. He now has a good poop every day, but, when he was having more trouble with his tummy, he started to poop in the bath tub for some reason, and he continues to do that.

Having asked for advice from other cat people, it was suggested that he now associates pooping in his box with some kind of discomfort. It was suggested we try a different box.

(Note: I am not against going to the vet, but our finances have been very tight with all of the medical bills, so I have been trying to avoid another costly visit to the vet. We already had an emergency visit to the vet back in May when Jack had a very strange episode that the vet thought may have been a seizure)

SO, yesterday we bought a new litter box (cheaper than a visit to the vet!), and set it up for him.

Last night, he pooped in the bath tub.

I put some of the poo in his new box, and hope that he will re train himself to use the box. He has been peeing in the box as per normal all along.

If this doesn't work, we will just have to go to the vet after all.

Nothing much else is new. I am possibly going to have a shift in my job description at work. Maybe this will make the job less mind numbing/soul sucking.

I have not been dealing with the heat very well. I have been having daily head aches, no matter how much water I drink, or how careful I am.

It will probably take me a few summers to get used to this crap. It's really bad down here. It was 100 while we were out doing grocery shopping yesterday, and that's just normal for this time of year.

It's only going to get hotter, too. Yay.

Anyway, back to chores. Got laundry to do, and some cooking. Gonna make Picadillo for our guests' supper for tomorrow. It always tastes better the second day!