Thanking all of my friends for their prayers and thanking God for answering them.  Church came home this evening.  While he was supposed to be sedate he was himself and very happy to see us, rubbing on us and wanting petting.  I have medicines to administer for a while, which includes some wee hours, but I will gladly do it.

This sucks.

It's true. I have long since admitted this - I love the cat.  Church is the best cat in the world

Tonight my eyes are beyond puffy and my boy is at the emergency clinic.  Long story short he has a urinary blockage.  This weekend I thought he was constipated. Late on Sunday night he threw up.  Monday (a holiday mind you) he was not himself.  He even looked off.  He didn't want water or food.  I cleaned both liter boxes at the same time as to be able to monitor better.  Over the coarse of that day we had one poo and not a single.. pee.  When he was sitting on my lap he started to grumble like he does when his nails are being trimmed.  That's how I really knew he wasn't happy.  I tried to get him to drink.  I tried to get him to eat and the best he did was part of a moist treat.

I had done my googling and after Avery had gone to bed and was starting to be convinced of what is our current diagnosis.  It had me going back and forth on getting Avery up in the middle of the night to take him to an urgent clinic.  I was up most of the night, checking on him at least 4 times.  He was pretty lethargic, but still moving around the house.  Right at 7, when they opened I called the vet and they scheduled us for 11am.

The 11am appointment had me leaving him behind there at the vet.  I was home by noon and had a call from them before 1pm suggesting we transfer him to an emergency vet where he could be monitored all night.  His blood pressure was low, potassium high, and kidney tests off the charts among other worrisome results.  Before he was transferred they drained his bladder with a needle.

After he got settled at the emergency clinic and got some pain meds I got to hold him and love on him a bit before leaving.

I am beating myself up and it is justified.  I should have gone to the ER straight away.  Yesterday.  Late last night.  First thing this morning.  I definitely shouldn't have waited the 4 hours for his appointment.

Regardless, no news is good news - so they told me.  Now we wait.  If you're reading this I ask for your prayers that his levels might get to a place where it is safe for them to sedate him to deal with the urinary blockage.

If Church comes home and I pray that we are so blessed, damn straight it is going to look like that movie Signs in here w/ water every which way to lure him to drink more.  The last time he had moist food he threw it up, but we'll be working him over to more moist and putting water on all other food.

We love you Kiki.  Get well and come home sweet boy.

I try.  I swear I do.  But my patience wears thin at times.  Some days I just want to say "I'm not the idiot here."  But that is frowned upon in polite society.

Dance class spins up next week.  Payment due Sept 1.  Check the site by the 25th for your balance.  Nope.  Gotta get the bank processing that check or it won't get there in time. Received 3 emails each indicating an amount.  Tried to call and no one answers.  Sent a check for those 3 invoices since I am paying "by semester".

Get an email today "the amount you sent doesn't match up with anything" and this is what you owe.  First, it would have taken you 10 seconds to realize that's the total for 3 months minus the $10 balance I had on the account.  Ok, so a semester is apparently (in what friggin world) 5 months even though ya'll end the first week of June and have several weeks w/o lessons in between.  At BEST you're giving 9 months of lessons, but let's be honest it's more like 8 1/2 months since there is a week that is for photos, and a week off for holidays.  Regardless a semester being some screwed up number like 5 months MIGHT be info you want to convey.  Hell, you might even want to bill for those 5 months.  If I log in today I still do not see a balance, only the credit for what I did send.  Get your sh*t together, don't waste my time, I don't like guessing games.

I have picked a few more peppers and continue to get some cherry tomatoes, although not as many.  The roma plant and green onions I snagged from the $1 table at our hardware store are doing quite well - there are 2 tomatoes growing at this point.  Lettuce has petered out.  Next year I need to plant smaller batches each week for a while.

On a whim I took a cut from the bottom of a cabbage and got it to start growing.  Similarly I got an onion that had started growing in my onion bin to start rooting.  Gotta get some practice in where I can before it is desperate times to have some type of produce.

I even bought a few things to do some water bath canning. I type the rest of this paragraph with the caveat that I need to do more research.  I see some folks saying you can do the following without needing to pressure can... but.. I'm paranoid.  I'm hoping the guy across the street offers us peaches from their tree again.  I am also watching for a decent price on tomatoes to do some meatless sauce.  I had bought beets from the farmers market a few weeks ago and made an amazingly delightful batch of pickled eggs and beets.  I'd like to do some of those as well.

I did get a bit of purging of Avery's old toys and smaller clothes done in preparation for her birthday gifts.  I also did a bit of cleaning and reorganizing in my bathroom (under the sinks and in that closet).  It felt good. I need to do more of that.  As I have bought a little extra of food I need to do some organizing in the basement too.

I also still need to get the limoncello bottled.  I filtered it again as it had a bit of yellow at the top.

The other time consuming thing has been the foster family of cats.  They're quite the sweethearts and their personalities are shining.  We have a cuddler, a scaredy cat, a sweetie-petite, and a bitey-mcscratchy.  They are scheduled (at long last) for vetting (spay/neuter) midSept, so the time is quickly growing short before they'll be available for adoption and moving on to their forever homes.

Other stuff... a bought of dizziness kicked in yesterday.  The only time I've had severe dizziness was due to anxiety (like back when my world fell apart).  I'm stressed, but not that bad, so I dunno what's up.  I almost toppled in the shower last night too.  This morning I can add twitchy eyelid to my list of symptoms.  I guess the watermelon margarita I made last night did not in fact cure what ails me.

Peppers!  I have tried to grow peppers a few times through the years with pretty abysmal results.  This year on a whim I bought plants at Simmon's farm -- a 3 pack of bell peppers and a 3 pack of cubanelles.  I had a woman with a very thick accent stop me and offer some advice on picking my pepper plants, which caused me to swap them out for other plants.  Well, the woman was right.

Granted, only 1 of the 3 bell peppers is actually bell peppers, the other 2 are also cubanelles, but the plants are going crazy.  I pulled 4 good sized cubanelles last night to stuff and they turned out amazing.  There are prb another 7 cubanelle peppers and 5-6 bell peppers out there getting to size.  One of the cubanelles also toppled over weeks ago (before it was growing fruit), breaking the top, which set it back -- I'm hoping it will give me fruit in a few weeks.

I continue to harvest lettuce.  I should have started more of it a few weeks ago to take us into the fall, but I'm a slacker.  The basil plant I thought was done resurged and is giving me more fresh basil.  Most of the tomato plants are killing it (except the roma).  Even the dwindled $1 discount roma and scallions are starting to grow nicely and may provide a nice later crop.  The potato tops are large, dark green, and strong.  The mint is flowering, I need to pull the leaves and dry them (I know, I know, I'm late on that).  The carrots never seemed to root down, but they have lovely tops.  Same with the turnips, but I am finally seeing a few little bumps at the top of the soil that make me think I might have something there.  (35 days from germination to fruit?  yeah more like 70.)

Long story short, not bad for a bunch of buckets in the back yard.  Next year I may need to clear a spot in the flower bed above to do some zucchini or other large viney plant.

Also - we have a volunteer sunflower that took up shop with the lettuce.  She is in bloom and looking beautiful.

At long last I got myself in for a fresh pedi.  It was bad.  All but my big toes were grown out.  I took the opportunity after I got in and out at my mammo crazy fast and the place I prefer was able to take a walk in.

I should have stopped to top up my gas tank too.  The station closest to my house was reading $4.25.  Yeah, I think they messed up too.  Everyone else around here is $4.5something right now.  Granted that's down from where it was, but still not as nice as $4.25.

Since my previous post I also managed to get on a bakery's schedule for Avery's birthday cake and cupcakes.  Batman it is!  I also bought a few of the mega millions lottery tickets, so if I disappear you know what happened ;) gotta indulge those "what would I do if" thoughts for a moment or two every now and again, it really reminds you of what and who is important.

I hate birthdays.

Starbucks messed up my free drink - I don't know why, but they don't bother reading/following the customizations on free drinks.

A VM that used to work and pull from Gitlab suddenly has stopped working for no friggin reason while a similar VM continues to work fine.

I'm rocking a cold or allergies that have my nose running and my throat sore.  I took a test, it isn't the wu-flu.

And if I don't already feel marginalized enough, I told kiddo it was my birthday this morning and she asked me if Daddy was coming today.

My happy birthday call from my insurance company has been the highlight of my day so far.  At least I have a massage scheduled to try and improve my morning.  I really want to take the rest of the afternoon off and get a pedi; I only have polish left on my big toes at the top 1/3 -- but ooooh no, there are, of course, meetings.

Someday I will learn to just stay miserable in the comfort of my bed on this day.

Throws self on floor and has tantrum.

I am filtering my limoncello that steeped with strawberries and adding simple syrup today.  It smells pretty darn good and the color is mild but very pleasant.  Back into the container for another couple of months.

I should be upstairs -- I'll explain why in a second -- but instead I am trying to stay busy downstairs whilst Avery is off w/ our favorite egg at the trampoline park.  They don't go do a lot just the two of them, so I am glad we convinced him.  Normally I would have also gone, but again, I need to be downstairs.

Saffy has had a few days of loose bowels.  It was once a day at an odd time during the work week so I had a few messes to clean up - fortunately in the hall and not on the carpet.  Yesterday while we were gone earlier in the day she didn't have a problem but on our later venture out for a wedding she had a few blow outs.  The increased amount/frequency is troubling.  I had her out in the middle of the night and first thing.  She still didn't get through while we were at church w/o another accident.  I made her some rice and she seems a little bit happier at the moment. I realized quickly that I don't have any minute rice here, so I'll be picking some up ASAP.

Now, why should I be upstairs?  Well, I'm crazy you see.  We officially have our first cat fosters here - a Mama and 4 of her 8 week old babies (a 5th was given away before they came to rescue).  Everyone is set up in the spare bedroom.  Gosh they're cute.  Fortunately everyone seems to be eating, drinking, and using the litter, so that's a good start.  Mama is a bit apprehensive, but you can tell she's a nice girl.

More proof I am an idiot with no capacity to keep things straight when under duress.  Today the kid and her dad were ready to go before I was.  In my haste to get out the door I blew it and once again Saffy was left outside.  Dangit, if she would just come in straight away when she's done.  Nope, it's my fault, I can't even say that.  I'm a jerk and an idiot.

Not only did she get left out, but the kid came to mow -- so the gate was open.  Imagine my surprise when I come home and cannot find her ANYWHERE in the house.  Long story short the telephone number on her collar worked and a guy down the road had her, so I was able to quickly pick her up (but not before someone posted her pictures on FB to help him find me).  I mean, I know that's a good thing... but I am so embarrassed and ashamed to screw up like that.  I would have been completely devastated if something had happened to her.  There is no excuse for screwing up like that.

If you recall the last time I screwed up with regard to Saf being outside was the day I went to pick up Zero.  There must be something about other critters or rescue related stuff that causes me to loose my mind.  One of the things we were out to do today was to drop some donations I picked up from a local donor to the folks from Merlin's (where Church came from).

I'm going to go ahead upstairs and continue in my embarrassment. I'll prb also have a nightmare or two as a result.

I will try to end on a good note and state that I spotted the first halloween goodies for sale out in the wild today.

Once again, I am cancelling a cruise (rather than making final payment).  It breaks my heart -- truly, the situation as a whole brings me down pretty hard.  The timing of the neighbors just returning from their cruise probably doesn't help my sadness on the whole thing.

Avery had her first dance recital last weekend.  She danced!  She wasn't over the top (we've all seen the viral videos of kids that get way into it), but she did her thing.  Speaking of which, wanna hear more about how poorly I juggle life lately?  I had it in my head that it was at a different high school auditorium.  We went to the wrong one -- which was also having a dance recital.  After a short period thinking "gosh, I don't recognize any of these people or costumes" we were enlightened and dashed out the door and 6 miles down the road with about 10 minutes to spare.  *smacks self*

The garden, which continues to be in individual containers, seems to be going well enough.  Even the tomato plant that fought it's way back from the brink of death a few times seems to be growing nicely.  The sweet 100s and the roma have started to develop fruit, but nothing turning just yet.  The carrots and turnips (both from seed) have gotten large enough that the second type/shape of leaf has started to form on each.  The potatoes look like they'll offer us a couple of meals.  There was a small pepper started but it has disappeared (glares around at the rabbits).  Basil (the third) and the mint are booming - so much so that I pulled and dried a small harvest of basil last night when I pulled some for an eggplant dish I was making.

Nothing else really to speak of other than work, which has me feeling exasperated all too often as of late.

Another sad example of how far I have devolved from being on top of things:  At 11am this morning my reminder went off on my phone that I was to be at a bridal shower at noon.  Oh crap.  Why didn't past me help future me out by setting a reminder the day before and for something earlier than an hour out?  Mind you, the event was nearly an hour away.  I dashed around getting myself and Avery dressed, slapped paper on the present (thank goodness I bought that a while ago) and we hit the road.  We managed to arrive a mere 10 minutes late, but dang.

This meant I didn't get the things done I wanted to today.  Not all of them anyhow.  I did get some done, which is why I am now completely exhausted.  There is some limoncello started and an ice batch of strawberry lemonade cooling in the fridge.  I also have some strawberry applesauce cooling on the counter at the moment.  To make myself feel a bit better I also got the vacuum out upstairs and down.  Here I sit for a minute with the massager on my lower back lamenting the end of my weekend and trying to get a bit of reading done for work.

Tomorrow is Avery's dress rehearsal for her first (and perhaps last) dance recital.  We haven't practiced.  It's my fault.  Fingers crossed for the event.

Somehow I have already been back to work for two weeks.  I have not, in that time, gotten basics achieved like I should - like cleaning and organizing.  I have had a few minor wins though.

I finally got a few more pictures up on the dining room wall - I mean, it's only been a year since everything was painted, what do you want from me?  I snagged a few sturdy shelves to help facilitate some organizing in the basement and put them together.  I also got prints of Avery's school photos and slid them into cards which got mailed out to my aunts and uncles.

I also got some gardening related things achieved, including getting some quick to grow seeds planted.  I already see sprouts from the lettuce and radishes starting.  Still waiting to see the carrots, which would be super fun if we got those to grow.  Today we snagged some pepper plants and yet another basil plant.  I say yet another because... I had two basil plants started from clippings that were doing well that both suddenly died off at the same time.  I assumed the cat was messing with it.  I bought another plant and hid it away in my bathroom while I was on vacation to avoid the cat issue.  It didn't come back out of the bathroom but it too has decided to die.  It never did start getting any bigger.  This time -- new soil for sure and in a pot outside instead.  The tomato plant that Zero tried to destroy early on was growing nicely but then something dug in the soil breaking off some roots and it looks like it is on life support right now.  If it continues to grow this plant is a miracle.

Today we also went and picked strawberries at a local farm and hit the local pool for the first time this season.  Yeah, I should be cleaning etc, but I sure prefer doing the fun stuff with the kid.  May as well while we still can right?