CritterKeeper

Last night, at a Mensa games event ( which usually means board games, card games, word games, trivia, and Werewolf), one of the guys brought a VR setup. Goggles go over your eyes, headphones over your ears, and you hold a handle with a glowing tip in each hand. And suddenly you're holding a blue lightsaber in your right hand, a red lightsaber in your left. Boxes come flying towards you and you have to hit each box with the same-colored lightsaber, in the direction indicated by an arrow on the box. When you hit a box, or when the lightsabers hit each other, you can feel the handle vibrate and see them spark. And it's all synchronized with music, so you're swinging in synch with the beat and almost dancing. I am in love. Where is there an arcade with one of these? How much is a Playstation 4 and the VR gear? I didn't even start with my first try until about 11:30pm, and took turns with a few others until maybe 2:30am. And then kept playing without interruption until almost 4am when most folks had gone to bed. (It's an all-weekend event, so people were playing various stuff 24 hours, but I was only there Saturday night.) It was a surprisingly good workout, and I enjoyed the electronic/techno music, which was a great match for the game. I endorse this product and/or service!

A pound of turkey would have been a bit much for this dog even withiut the liver issue, because he only weighed about ten pounds himself. ;-P Carbs aren't exactly health food for a cat, and proportionately three fries for him is a large pile of them for you. Maybe break off the tip of one or two fries? In my experience, pets get almost as much enjoyment from a small amount of treat as from a large amount, especially if the small amount is spread out among multiple pieces. If I break a dog biscuit into six or eight pieces, and make the dog sit or otherwise earn each one, they get a lot more enjoyment than when one of the receptionists casually tosses the same dog a whole biscuit that they gulp down in half a second!

Glad he's stable enough to send him home, even if it is for home nursing care! Those esophagostomy tubes are very popular these days, they seem to help a lot of cats especially. When I was in vet school, I saw a cat on my Oncology rotation with a tube through the abdominal wall that went right into the stomach, but apparently they don't do that nearly as much any more. That cat was an odd case; usually the tube is taken out as soon as they're eating reliably on their own again, but that particular cat decided it meant he didn't have to bother eating any more, and he never wanted to eat more than a nibble or two since -- he'd had it in a full year! Meds were very easy to give, just suspend them in water and squirt them in, then a bit of plain water to make sure it's all in the stomach. (It's funny, you'd think cancer would be horrible to have to deal with every day, but I think the Oncology rotation was one of the happiest! The staff werre great people, the clients were all devoted loving owners, and the pets were usually getting some extra time of a good quality of life being with their humans.)

Eek! My heartfelt sympathies. My Pippin got into dark chocolate twice, xylitol gum once, and oatmeal raisin cookies once. Oh, and an entire pound of turkey once, and this was the dog with the shunt on a low-protein diet. A vet I know, her newly adopted dog ran out the front door and got hit by a car right in front of her. It can happen to anyone! The important thing is that she took good care of him and is taking steps to make sure it doesn't happen again. Pancreases are funny things, sometimes they go through bad stuff directly and are fine, sometimes you just look at them funny during surgery and they get inflamed. The section of gut where the pancreas is may have gotten folded up and pinched the wrong way, or they may have needed to make an incision in a place they couldn't help but handle it. I'm glad he's at a place he can get such good care, with ultrasound and 24-hour staff and all that. I'll be sending good wishes his way in hopes it's not too bad and he recovers soon!

Good clear sky here, just way too cold to stay out very long at a time. Mickey got walked several times in quick succession, giving me several brief looks at different stages. Very cool sight!

Sounds like the lead suit is because of the fluoroscopy used to guide needle placement -- that's sort of a continuous real-time x-ray. We wear lead any time we take even one x-ray with us in the room, so I can understand them suiting up for a whole series, even if they're very focused (I'm guessing they are, like a dental or mammography image, rather than a big area like a chest rad).

The year, or even number, 1783, always makes me think of this scene: I do love that movie! Always watch the extended version, with Rachel's scenes, whenever possible. :-)

Medical Update of the Day: Cramps suck. Thank you, modern medicine, for the variety of analgesics available today! If only they took effect instantly instead of taking up to an hour. Still, bless them and their inventors. That is all.

Thanks for the reminder! I saw the full moon rise bright and clear an hour or two ago. Now there's a bit of haze visible around it. Fingers crossed that it will stay mostly clear long enough to see the eclipse!

So, on Saturday morning the plow did indeed come to my Court shortly after 7:15am, giving me plenty of time to shovel out the surprisingly minimal ridge behind my car, the fluffy snow from there to my back tires, and enough of the drifts to the side, to be able to load up Mickey and get to work only a few minutes late. To learn that my 8am had just cancelled. So, still being in my boots and coat, I left Mickey in the office and went outside to shovel a path in the grass over to and around a tree. Our patients have their needs, after all. I rather enjoy shoveling, it's good exercise and accomplishes something readily visible and useful. Sort of HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) if you shovel and them take short rests. Mickey doesn't seem to mind going through deeper snow, but it's a little difficult to find a place to do his business in it, The plow was still working on the office lot. I had actually set up a security webcam (we got it for free with points from purchases) facing the parking lot, so I knew there had been no sign of anyone clearing any snow within its view until 7:30am, which I'm sure thrilled the breakfast restaurant next door that opens at 6am. The building is L-shaped, with us on the end of the L away from the main road, next to an entrance off a smaller side road with a Citibank in the other side. There are three rows of parking, two with parking spaces on either side and one along the other leg of the L with spaces only on the other side. The plow looked like it had just finished plowing one half of the section in front of us, so that's where I and a few others who arrived around the same time parked, to allow them to plow the other sections. When snow is coming, we usually try to park all in the middle area so they can plow ours, then we move our cars to the cleared area while the plow is still there. That way we minimize the spaces not plowed due to having a car in them. Well, there was one plow width cleared along our leg of the L, with ridges of snow with a few brave souls' tire ruts in them along the rest of it. The bank across the street was worse, and there were ridges of deep snow on the road next to us, too. Whie I was shoveling, along comes a guy in, of all things, a Camaro! He tried to turn into the Citibank lot and, of course, got stuck in the snow ridges, spinning his wheels endlessly at high speed. So, I brought my shovel over and offered to help, shoveling out the snow from around and behind his rear wheels so he could get some traction. I had to tell the guy to please not try driving while I was still back there in case he, you know, actually got traction, and again while I was shoveling out his front wheels, in case the car slid around. Apparently, people who try to drive a Camaro in Chicagoland in fresh snow are not very good at seeing potential bad outcomes to their actions. Who would have guessed? So, I get the snow out of the way, so he can pull out of the ridges and head down the side road back to the main road that's actually plowed. Instead, he tries to back into the entrance to our lot, and neatly misses completely the area that's actually plowed, instead going directly into the deep ridges where more snow capable vehicles drove, getting himself solidly stuck again. Right in the way of the plow still working on our lot being able to actually clear them away. This time I handed him the shovel and watched HIM shovel out his tires. And took the shovel with me back inside when he was done, being rather cold by then. If he needed it, he could come get it. Shed my coat and boots, left them in the office, came back out to the front to join the staff watching as he'd almost immediately gotten himself stuck again. This time, the plow driver got out and gave him a push to get him going out towards the road, and he finally kept on going and got out of everyone's way. I guess he gave us some entertainment, until the appointments finally started arriving once the roads were better plowed and salted. My boss took a turn at shoveling, too, clearing a bit more grass and some sidewalk, before the landlord's crew came to finish the sidewalks. I think she enjoys shoveling just like I do. :-) Of course, if I had to clear an entire driveway in order to get my car out of a garage, I suspect I'd be a lot less happy with it, especially if I was in a hurry. The temperatures have plunged today, and last I heard they're predicting more snow tonight, so clearing it tomorrow may not be as much fun, but it's not supposed to be much more, so maybe I'll only have to brush my car off. We'll see!

It shows how good Dan is at showing expressions and mannerisms, that you can still clearly tell who is who.

Forecasts are for five to nine inches of snow between now and noon tomorrow. Last time we had any significant snow, they took until almost 9:30am to plow my court enough for me to get out. My first Saturday appointment is at 8am. I'm really hoping they do better this time around. They say they will, but my confidence is not high. If the central street of our complex is plowed but my court isn't, I may call my boss and see if her four wheel drive can pick me up at the intersection. There's also a part of me that just wants to stay in the office all night and not have to deal with it. It's not that silly, we have a nice air matress stored here for emergencies and/or patients needing frequent overnight care (and a couple of times a very anxious owner paid a tech to sleep at the hospital while her darlings were boarding). Since they weren't sure when the snow would start and whether it would be bad by the time I'm done for the night, I did bring a change of clothes, and I keep some food handy at work to make it easier to resist the yummy junk clients give us. I gave my kitty an extra half-can on my lunch break, so she should be fine until Saturday mid-day if worse comes to worst. I'm not worried about this storm, I'm more annoyed.

Except among veterinarians -- the woman was the public face of an ad campaign that drilled into peoples' heads that taking their dog to the vet is a huge hassle and should be avoided whenever possible. The dogs mostly love getting to go in the car, saying hi to lots of nice people, getting petted (albeit in strange ways sometimes), and getting treats from the nice people. Shots are barely worth registering for most dogs. But no, taking your dog to see their vet is awful and you should avoid them! Just buy your pet's medications online, supporting a massive corporation instead of your vet, and yet expect the vet's prices to stay ridiculously low compared to human medicine for everything else when a health problem (that's been brewing for months and might have been diagnosed sooner if you'd brought them in) becomes an emergency and suddenly you realize you do need your local veterinarian.... Sorry. Bit of a sore spot. She may be a very nice lady, but the very thought of her is forever poisoned by her being in those commercials.

Sort of a twist on the trope of a guy being turned into a woman, and immediately checking out his new boobs. Note that the trope says "In front of a mirror, if one is available." I suspect that's the sort of ideas that made Sarah blush.

Hmm, tricky situation for Grace if she doesn't want to go telling other peoples' secrets. Maybe just tell him to talk to Sarah about it, but not say why, and let Sarah decide whether to tell Sam she's got a mark too. As for Tedd, asking if she can tell a friend with a similar ability about Sam so they can meet, could backfire given how Sam was observant enough to suggest the name Tess to Tedd, and he would likely make the connection himself just from that. If they do talk, what will Tedd tell Sam about how long they've been able to transform and how long they've had a magic mark? It would be very easy to let slip that the two are not the same, opening up a whole new can of question-worms.

Went to a meal with the Ethnic Dining group, to Korean BBQ. It was fun, got to grill lots of meats at the table, tried some new things. It was pretty busy, which is good for the restaurant but meant getting water glasses filked or more meat was sometimes a bit slow. There were eight of us at the table and three grilling things along it, so lots of passing things back and forth. Unfortunately about half the meat options were pork, which I don't like, and while we tried squid and baby octopuses, no one went for weird stuff like Large Intestine. ;-)

Although, by that time she knew Magic was in danger of resetting, mostly because she'd been marking too many people, so it doesn't seem likely she would casually give out another one. Not saying she didn't make an exception, just that she'd have thought hard about the plusses and minuses. But then, if Sam was in a male body on that date, why the wave?

Of course, they could have used liking roller coasters, or skydiving, or joining the military or police force, or becoming a firefighter, or any of so many other ways a reduction in fear and in avoidance of dangerous situations might manifest. It was purely for titillation they chose being into BDSM.

Another one I knew about from being a sci-fi fan, in this case an episode of The Tomorrow People (the real one, not that CW travesty). The more recent equivalent being a supposed law that ordinary citizens are not allowed to communicate with extraterrestrials. Not actually a real law, just a very loose misinterpretation of one. Correct!. (By the Gregorian calendar it would be Monday, but that wasn't introduced until 1582.) A fw years ago in Arlington Heights, IL, a bat, which turned out to be rabid to boot, got into the the town hall, and wound up of all places in the crime lab.

The open shirt definitely confirms for me that Sam is transformed into a physically male body now. His expression and body language in the first and second panels he's in here confirm it for me. It's smart of him to keep wearing the same shirt, just as an outer layer now -- someone with such a trademark look would draw a lot of attention if he suddenly stopped dressing that way, even if the pockets did originally serve to help mask the presence of unwanted body parts and are thus no longer needed. I expect lack of pockets in female clothing would be a big one of the many things he'd hate about having to present as female, seeing as how he's overcompensating so much! ;-) Wanna bet he's going to be ready to start snuggling and kissing on his next date with Sarah? And good thing Grace is going to let him know Sarah knows about magic, so he won't hesitate to come out to her just for fear she wouldn't believe him!

Is it this one? 'Cos that's definitely my favorite! I may have mentioned here before, for many years on the internet newsgroups I frequented, there was a gentleman by the name of Brian Woodcock, whose signature file at the end of his messages read, "Yes, splinterlips, that *is* my real name!"

A new study claims that people who own cats are more likely to be into bondage.

They are if they're moving around under their own power! Yeah, if he set up the account with, say, Gil, and had to show ID to do it, then the account itself may boil down to 1) a name on a clipboard listing who has which titles reserved, and 2) any more personally identifying info may be locked in a filing cabinet (if there are credit card numbers, they are legally required to be locked up), to be pulled out only if someone fails to come in for their comics. George and Gordon may never have seen anything but "Sam Lastname" on a clipboard or box. Then Sam just has to worry about whether the one person who set up the account is present. Heck, maybe it's even Justin's uncle, or someone who doesn't work there anymore. That would kinda be ideal for Sam.

Yet another post to this thread that leads to fascinating info. I knew she was from a village called Domrémy but I hadn't realized that they didn't even use apostrophes in surnames in her days. Her father was a tax collector, and the only thing she asked of Charles VII in thanks for putting him on the throne was that her commune be exempt from taxes, because taxes are a burden on the people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_Joan_of_Arc

I would have gone with "Isaac Asimov is born and immediately picks up a pen. He will not stop writing for over 72 years." Bu tthen, I've always appreciatee his mysteries and essays more than his robot stuff. Black Widowers FT And he was considered extremely conservative back then. These days no Republicans would even talk to him. To be fair, not only did she not do any breaking herself, it's generally agreed that she didn't know about the scheme until after the fact. Her offense was not reporting it when she found out what they had done. So that's where River's name came from! ;-) Am I the only one who read this, and wondered how murdering someone would make him Emperor and what good it would do anyone to put a dead man on the throne?