The saga of medicating my cat

My darling little furball started sneezing on Monday, and when it hadn't gone away by Thursday, I took her to the vet. Turns out she most likely has feline herpes, and now we are going through the usual song and dance routine to get her to take her meds. I have learned from past mistakes and opted NOT for drugs in pill form when the vet gave me the options. One of them (Lysine) comes as treats, which started out okay. I put a few in her dish Thursday night and she gobbled them right up. But she's refused to eat anymore since then despite coating them in cream cheese (I dunno, it was the vet's advice), soaking them in milk, or mixing them with tuna.

Medicine number two (antibiotic), on the other hand... oy. It's a liquid that I'm supposed to feed her via dropper. The first dose wasn't so bad, once I'd bribed her with catnip so she'd even come close to me (she knows when something's up), chased her around the apartment a few times, finally tackled her and squished her between my legs while trying to pry her mouth open, and only spilled a little bit on my carpet. :\ Friday morning... well, I sort of squirted it in her face by accident (OMG NOT MY FAULT SHE WOULDN'T STOP WRIGGLING!), which makes it highly unlikely she'll ever let me try THAT again. I tried mixing this one with tuna, too, but no dice. Wouldn't even go near it. She spent most of yesterday hiding under the bed, and pretty much runs away every time I come close to her, so I'm thinking there will be no more medicating until she's less traumatized.

Meanwhile, I have been nursing a cold of my own. The sore throat started last weekend and progressed into full-on nasal congestion over the course of the week. I have gone through an obscene amount of tissues. And I'm only a little ashamed to admit that when Chelsea started sneezing, I thought, "Is it possible for cats to get human colds?" Our new nicknames are Sneezy and Sniffles.

However, I did get a new camera recently (actually, it's a hand-me-down from my parents, and my mother took the liberty of taking pictures of herself and Patches before she gave it to me. "I knew you'd want them," she said), and have been taking pictures of Chelsea being adorable, so expect another kitty picspam soon.

Family stuff

My parents were here last weekend. My mother, of course, brought with her cheeseburgers, broccoli salad, and corn on the cob, which is pretty much a trifecta if she were trying to kill me. :-P If she'd included bran flakes and strawberries, she'd have had Crohn's bingo. On the plus side, I finally managed to go eight weeks without my symptoms coming back (with the exception of certain foods), so we may have finally found the right dose on the Remicade.

While they were here, we finally (FINALLY) went to the Verizon store to get new phones. My parents have been complaining about their phones not holding a charge forever, and I couldn't get a new phone on my own because I'm on a family plan, which means my dad had to be there to sign the contract. Anyway, I ended up with an LG en-V Touch. I don't really know how it works yet. I almost got a Droid, but I didn't want to pay for the more expensive data plan.

A couple days later, I got a voice mail from my mother: "Hi, it's me. I got your call but I couldn't figure out how to answer my phone."

*sigh* Oh, Mother...

Happy anniversary to me!

Well, this is quite a landmark weekend for me. First, July 3rd was the one-year anniversary of my move to DC. Yay! Second, obviously, was the 4th of July. I celebrated by going to the pool, then heading to Becky's house for a barbecue and watching fireworks on the Mall, which was pretty awesome.

I tried a new stir fry which was simple and delicious - Honey Walnut Shrimp. I started with this recipe and made some modifications. I used 12 oz. of shrimp, 1 cup of carrots, 2 cups of sugar snap peas (I don't like zucchini), and maybe a 1/4 cup of walnuts, which made about 2 servings. I also ended up adding extra honey (maybe another tablespoon?) when it was in the pan because all I could taste was the soy sauce. I probably could've added even a little bit more, but it still tasted good as is. I served it over rice.

Also, I finished season 1 of Rome. I liked it, but I have very little to say about it. I will admit, I had a lot of trouble following it in the beginning, because I couldn't tell the characters apart. The only people I recognized were Polly Walker (from Caprica), Suzie from Torchwood (whose real name I don't remember), and Kevin McKidd (whom I completely can't buy as an ancient Roman. He's just so... Scottish). Everyone else was a jumble (too many old guys, mostly), and so I had to follow along with the Wikipedia episode summaries to know what was going on. After a while, it got easier, once they used people's names enough times to match them up with faces. (Am I the only one who thinks that the guy playing Caesar looks like Alan Rickman, lol?)

Pretty much my entire knowledge of Roman history comes second-hand from my college friends who were classics majors (um, I remember Catullus), so I don't know how historically accurate it is, but the costumes and sets sure look spectacular.

So how was your week?

With the drama out of the way, here's how my week has gone:

I went to DSW on Sunday to return a pair of shoes (because they hurt my feet), and came home with three new pairs of shoes - one of which, it turns out, hurt more than the ones I returned. I swear to God, the women's shoe industry has ceased to make footwear and is now deliberately constructing torture devices. I love DSW for their wide selection, because for every three pairs of shoes I buy, I return two of them.

A big storm on Tuesday night knocked out the power in the whole area for about four hours. I happened to be watching an episode of Doctor Who at the time (the one with James Corden) and the power went out just as time went wonky, which was a bit freaky. The batteries were dead in my flashlight, and I didn't want to light candles after last time (I ended up with a singed and traumatized kitty cat), so I wandered around using my laptop as a source of light, lol. (My mother commented on the fortuitousness of having a pet who can see in the dark. Ha! She tried to trip me!) I woke up around 1:30 to find the power had kicked back in (and, thank goodness, the A/C was back on), so I went around and turned off all the lights and went back to sleep.

I had an impromptu shopping trip on Wednesday. As I may have mentioned, my boss is out of town this week, and so, assuming I wouldn't have to go anywhere (and since it's 95 degrees out), I declared it casual Wednesday and decided to go to work in a T-shirt and capris. *sigh* My boss called to say there was an event on the Hill that he wanted me to go to this afternoon, which necessitated proper attire. So off I went to Dress Barn, trying on anything that might match my purple shoes. After ruling out several ill-fitting dresses, I eventually decided that the capris were fine and went with a dressier top.

The event, btw, was Micky Dolenz of the Monkees, who was in town to support our lobbying campaign and performed with three musically talented members of Congress. I was impressed; they were pretty good. They did "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone" and "I'm a Believer," which Micky made it a point to mention that he was singing that song way before Shrek, lol.

Also, I was talking to my mother yesterday, and I mentioned that I'd been reading Budget Travel magazine and now I want to take a cooking class in Italy. We also talked about work a bit, and then this happened:

Mom: "So, did you pick a class yet?"
Me: "Uh... no."
Mom: "Don't you need to do that?"
Me: "Not right now. It's kind of... early."
Mom: "When's the deadline?"
Me: "Um, I think they pretty much have them all year round. There aren't any deadlines."
Mom: "Well, we have classes all year round, too, but we still have deadlines."
Me: "...Are we talking about the same thing?"
Mom: "I'm talking about your [grad school] class that got canceled. What are you talking about?"
Me: "The cooking class in Italy!"
Mom: "Well, you probably want to wait until you've booked airfare before you choose a class."
Me: "I know! That's why I thought you were so weird. Weren't we just talking about Italy?"
Mom: "Oh. I move quickly. Try to keep up."

*sigh* I should never have introduced her to witty banter.

The final straw

I finally deleted my Facebook account. Not that I really used it ever, except as a glorified address book and source of birthday reminders. I have been increasingly annoyed at their encroachments on privacy, and the last straw was today when I logged in (to deny a couple friend requests from people I don't know) and was confronted with another change to profile settings. Apparently, you are now required to link any information on your profile (particularly education, work, and interests) to their Facebook pages. If you don't, then you can't fill in anything and you have a blank profile. Which is bullshit, because I don't mind telling people that The Princess Bride is my favorite movie, but I don't think I should be OBLIGATED to link to its Facebook page on my profile. So, goodbye, Facebook. I probably won't miss you.

Also, unsettling news. Our president lost his election this week, which means that we're getting a new overlord. Who may want to clear out the old staff and replace them with his people. No one really knows what's happening or when, but I'm updating my resume. The most likely scenario seems to be that I'll keep my job, but my boss will be replaced, which is still somewhat worrisome.

Because rape isn't a crime, you see...

My parents were here this weekend, and since the only time I do anything touristy is when my parents come to visit, we went to the National Museum of Crime and Punishment. The museum itself was really interesting and fun, but I was most fascinated by the glaring omission of anything to do with rape IN A CRIME MUSEUM. As we were walking up the steps to enter the museum, I thought, "I wonder if they'll address rape at all." And... no. They didn't.

The museum chronicles the history of crime (though it's more of a highlights version than a comprehensive history) that includes medieval times, the Salem witch trials, the Wild West, the "public enemies" of the Depression era, mafia families, and notorious serial killers, as well as sections on crime scene investigation and forensics, imprisonment and famous prisons, capital punishment, cold cases, and America's Most Wanted. There were exhibits about murder, kidnapping, robbery, arson, identity theft, counterfeiting, assassinations, fraud, terrorism, and more - and yet, the only mentions of rape were incidental references in, say, the bio of a serial killer who also raped his victims. No exhibit, no statistics, no profiles of cases. Nothing about other forms of sexual assault or domestic violence.

Not exactly a surprise, but still a disappointment. And unfortunately, completely representative of society's attitudes toward rape.

The Story of Maude

Lately, my mother has taken to calling or emailing me to tell crazy stories about my aunt's cat, Maude. Have I ever talked about Maude before? I don't think so, so let me give you some background.

Maude is (was) my cousin's cat. Maude is a Bad Kitty. My cousin and her boyfriend at the time found her as a stray in an alley in Chinatown, and decided to take her home before she ended up as somebody's dinner. She wasn't much more than a kitten at the time, and obviously had never been spayed, so they took her to the vet and got her fixed. A couple days later, my cousin came home from work to find Maude (and the floor of the apartment) covered in blood - she'd ripped out her stitches and was bleeding all over the place. So they took her back to the vet and got her restitched - which she proceeded to tear out again.

The trouble with Maude is that she's a revenge pooper. My cousin has moved apartments a couple times since she adopted Maude, and has on occasion come home to find feces smeared on the wall of her new apartment. Yes, smeared. Maude didn't just poop outside the litter box, she actually smeared it on the wall with her paws to express her displeasure. She's also been known to vomit on my cousin's brand new (expensive) boots, there was an incident where she fell in the toilet (and was blow-dried with a hair dryer for her efforts), and she has managed to completely terrorize my cousin's poor other cat.

My cousin has had Maude for several years now, and understandably is rather fed up with her. In fact, back before I got Chelsea, I had mentioned I wanted a cat, and my cousin said, "You want mine?" I, of course, replied, "Not with the stories you tell!" Finally, things came to a head when my cousin moved in with her fiance, who has a really dumb dog, and so the cats, rather unhappy with this situation, went to live with my aunt (which worked out well, really, because my aunt needed a pet or two to keep her company).

So, the other day, I'm talking to my mother on the phone, and she says (apropos of nothing), "Oh, did I tell you? Aunt Donna had to spray Maude with Pam."

"Pam?" I reply, completely befuddled. "Like... the cooking spray?"

"Yeah."

"Um. Why?"

"Because she was stuck in a jar."

O_O

Keep in mind, Maude has a history of such things. She once got her head stuck in a wine glass. (She also had a habit of tipping over full wine glasses, which did not go over well with my red-wine-drinking cousin and her white carpet.) This time, she'd managed to get her entire head, one leg, and a shoulder stuck in a large jar, and my aunt couldn't get her unstuck. Apparently, wetting her down with water didn't work, and she contemplated trying to break the jar, but she was afraid of hurting Maude with the glass. So she opted for the "grease her up" method and sprayed her with Pam (which worked, btw, in case anyone ever encounters this situation).

Then, the other day, my mother emailed me to tell me that one day, Aunt Donna was in the car on her way to work and Maude popped out of her tote bag, which of course scared her to death, and then she had to turn around and take her home.

Bad. Kitty.

What is with Facebook continually trying to encroach on my privacy?

So, after hearing about the latest privacy-violating feature that's been made opt-out rather than opt-in, I'm about ready to delete my Facebook account. WTF Internets?? Why is it so hard to understand that some of us might enjoy limited social networking without having our personal information automatically shared with every other site we use? Like that Google Buzz thing. That was horrifying.

I also saw this Evolution of Privacy on Facebook feature today, which is similarly disturbing. And even though the OP says, "I hope your takeaway from this infographic isn't 'I'm deleting my account;' rather, I hope it's 'I'm checking my privacy settings right now, and changing them to a level with which I'm comfortable,'" I can't see how making "OMFG I have to check my privacy settings RIGHT NOW" a typical response to policy changes is a GOOD thing. I don't want to feel threatened every time a website I use introduces a new feature. And I DON'T want to have to rush to the site to opt out in order to protect myself.

Gah!

I forgot to wish Megan a happy birthday! It was Thursday. I can't keep my days straight. My Mother's Day cards are all going to be late, too.

Have more Zachary Levi singing!

Freedom!

I am officially DONE with this semester - emailed my last paper to the professor last night. Which means I'm free... for a whole two weeks, and then the summer session starts. Oh well.

Anyway, it's that time of year, so if you're curious whether your favorite shows will be back next year, here's the chart for you. I'm happy to see that only two of my shows are "on the bubble" - Chuck, as ever (eat more Subway!), and Life Unexpected, which was cute, but I probably won't miss it. Getting the axe are 24, which I knew about and am ready for the end, and Dollhouse, which was canceled in the spectacular chaos of "let's cram five seasons worth of plot into the last six episodes" six months ago, so I'm not sure why it's even worth mentioning.

Food post!

Oi. This has been the busiest week EVER. Between trying to put together a big event for work and writing final papers for school and my friends deciding to be social this weekend, of all times, I am about ready to fall over dead.

I haven't had much time for cooking experiments, but I did try this recipe for Halibut with Mustard-Nut Crust earlier this week. It was really good. I used the key lime mustard that I bought in Key West. I emailed the recipe to my mother, and she replied back, saying, "Did you shell, skin, and toast the hazelnuts??" No, Mother, I did not. I did what any sane person would do and bought a bag of chopped hazelnuts (already shelled and skinned) and then smashed 'em up with a salt shaker.

I think I need to invest in a set of stovetop pans that can go in the oven. For this recipe, I had to start out cooking it in a pan on the stove, and then transfer the whole thing to a baking dish to put it in the oven. Which wasn't awful, but it's one more thing to clean, you know? It took quite a bit longer to cook than the recipe said - I think I baked it for about 17 minutes, because it wasn't even close to done when I checked it after 10 minutes.

Also, halibut has bones in it. Consider that lesson learned.

New computer!! And 24

After a week of angsting about it, I went out this weekend and bought myself a new computer. I've hated the Dell since I bought it (two and a half years ago), and although I very much dislike change, I think I'm going to be happy with my Samsung R480.

Also, I've been a few hours behind for a few weeks now, but I finally managed to catch up and... wow. I know 24 is even more merciless than a Joss Whedon show when it comes to killing characters, but two silent clocks in a row? Damn.

Hassan's death was rather well done, I thought. I have to give them credit, they've gone to the "terrorists use a live internet feed and a hostage" well many times before, but the pre-recorded thing was clever, and seeing Hassan with his throat slit while the recording was still playing? Jesus. I felt as bad as Jack did.

Renee, on the other hand, was sad but predictable - as soon as she and Jack kissed, I thought, "Well, she's dead." (Thank you, Joss Whedon, for ruining that for me forever.) I admit, I didn't feel like their relationship was very well established. The development was okay over the course of the season, but I definitely felt like there was a big leap forward in intimacy between last season and this one, which we didn't get to see and was very conspicuous in its absence. But the other thing is, when she and Jack first kissed, it struck me as odd (but, um, still kind of hot) to see Jack kissing someone, and I realized that for a male action star, Jack hardly ever gets any, y'know, action. And then Renee got shot and I remembered why Jack never gets any. Because anyone he loves always gets kidnapped or killed or both. The man is like relationship kryptonite, seriously. (Has anyone checked on Kim lately?)

Anyway, there is one cool thing that's come out of the last episode. I've never really thought much of the way 24 portrays women - even having a female President, I don't know what it is about her, but I can't stand President Taylor. And don't even get me started on the travesty that is Dana Walsh. But then Dalia Hassan stepped up to the plate, and she just rocks my world, man. I kind of am in love with the idea of her taking her husband's place and seeing his vision through, especially in a Muslim country where hard-liners just assassinated the president for daring to negotiate with the West. Apparently, martyrs' wives taking up leadership is a kink I never knew I had. (Unfortunately, her daughter really kind of sucks. Her lines sound like they were written for a five-year-old character, and they're delivered by a truly terrible actress.)

Ugh, Charles Logan. That guy is so slimy, and I'm tired of him popping up all the time. But OMG when the camera panned over and Reed Diamond was standing there, I literally pumped both fists in the air and said, "Dominiiiiiic!!!" Granted, all he did was get kicked out of a room without saying a word, but it made me grin like an idiot to see him again. Even if he is working for a slimeball.

Good show/bad show

It's like good cop/bad cop, but with TV. First, Chuck. Well, that definitely felt like a season finale, didn't it?

Hahaha, I love Chuck being a real spy and leading a tactical assault, only to find out it's completely unnecessary. "And the tank. Uh, cancel the tank."

Sarah totally broke my heart with her "I was a good spy" line. Yvonne does play emotion so well, so finding out she killed Shaw's wife was nicely done. I just wish she hadn't been drugged and helpless for so much of the climax. That bugged me, even though Chuck/Sarah is basically a gender reversal - she's been kickass for three seasons now, while Chuck was more often the one in distress. So I understand that it had to be Chuck who saved the day all by himself, and that the only way it'd be okay for him to kill someone is if it was to save Sarah's life. (But I still like Sarah being awesome!)

Speaking of which, I'm still kind of bothered by Sarah's hypocrisy on the killing thing. She thinks Chuck killed someone and she can't be with him, because he's not the Chuck she knew (he's the Chuck he thought she wanted him to be). Then she finds out he didn't and suddenly it's all okay again. She does realize he's a spy, right? And that sooner or later, he's going to have to kill somebody? That, in fact, at some point their lives might depend on it?

...like, oh, fifteen minutes later with Shaw?

I'd feel better about it if they were playing more subtly, if it was about Sarah's guilt for turning Chuck into a killer, rather than just being morally offended that Chuck might do the same thing she's been doing for five years. And I don't feel like it was resolved at the end, with Sarah suddenly okay with it because he killed someone to save her. It just seems too easy.

Anyway, I'm kind of skipping all over the place. I never realized just how tall Adam Baldwin is until he walked through the door at the Buy More and his head was almost touching the door frame. Has he always been that tall? Have I never noticed?

OMFG is there some kind of law that Mark A. Sheppard must appear in every show I like? I'm kind of getting sick of him. Loved the hostage thing in the elevator, though, lol.

Drunken Guitar Hero and Morgan tied up with the gaming cables! LOL, between this and the cheese ball obsession early in the season, depressed!Chuck is kind of awesome.

General Beckman and Morgan - hee!! First of all, who knew Casey had a soft spot for Morgan? And Morgan as a spy? "I gotta go quit my job!" "Don't do that." I'm curious how they're going to integrate Morgan into Team Bartowski. Part of me thought it was just a way of humoring Morgan, letting him think he's a spy but not letting him near anything actually dangerous, but I have to give Morgan a little credit - I think he'd catch on to that at some point.

Casey giving Chuck a pep talk on the plane, aww. I did like the reminder that Chuck is more than just the Intersect, that he does have his own skills and he's a damn intelligent guy.

But the best part is... SIX MORE EPISODES YOU GUYS!

And now, "how to write really badly," brought to you by last week's Bones.

Holy crap, heavy handed much? I feel like too often this show uses a sledgehammer to get their point across. Did we really need Sweets to talk to a guy who was cured of cancer and then immediately killed? Surely something a little less over the top could've caused Sweets to reevaluate his life. My God, talk about a walking cliche.

I also rolled my eyes heartily at Daisy being cluelessly self-confident and never having been dumped before. She's just a little mini-Brennan, isn't she?

And the whole book plot wasn't really any better, with the ridiculous caricature of a reporter. It's like they have something against nuance. What did nuance ever do to you, Hart Hanson? Did nuance kill your wife and now you're out for revenge or something? (See what I did there?)

Hopping down the bunny trail

Hope everyone had a good Easter. My parents came to my house this year, in order to avoid a big family gathering of future in-laws at my cousin's house. :) We did some sight-seeing - went to the Cherry Blossom Festival, which was kind of a let-down, and two museums, the Freer Gallery and the Museum of African Art, which were also let-downs. Then we went to Georgetown and ate outside on the waterfront and I got a sunburn.

Anyway, so this was my first time cooking a holiday dinner. I made a couple of my favorite recipes of the ones I've tried, which came out very well. My mom also made her pineapple casserole, which I'd love to give you the recipe for, except she didn't exactly have it written down.

For dessert, I took a risk and tried two new recipes: The Best Chocolate Sheet Cake. Ever. and That's the Best Frosting I've Ever Had. The results? I am reminded of this quote: "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

The cake came out decently, and my dad thought it was better than a regular box cake, but my mom and I concluded that it tasted about the same, which in my book usually means it's not worth the effort to do it from scratch. I didn't make the frosting that goes with the cake, which in retrospect was possibly a mistake, but I took both of these recipes from Ree's blog, and when she made the Best Frosting Ever, this is the cake recipe she paired it with.

The frosting came out like crap. It didn't taste terrible - my mom liked that it wasn't too sweet - but it wasn't very good, either. The major problem was the look and texture, though. It did not look like frosting. My mom has no experience making her own frosting, so she couldn't tell me what went wrong, but she was suspicious of the flour in the recipe. I don't know if that's what screwed it up, or if it was that the sugar and butter weren't creamed enough, but the frosting definitely had a clumpy, grainy texture to it, and it didn't spread well at ALL. It was also really watery when I first made it, but I refrigerated it overnight, which made it firmer and somewhat more frosting-like, but still not enough to save it.

I really wanted to go to the store and buy a tub of frosting, but my parents insisted it wasn't that bad and we ate it. They are sometimes too kind. :) We did not, however, ice the entire cake, so I'll be tossing this frosting and using the store-bought stuff for the leftovers, that's for sure.

Vacation!

FINALLY have my pictures from vacation - I don't have a (working) camera, so we took all our pictures on my mother's camera. That meant I had to wait until they came to visit to get my pictures, since she wouldn't have known how to email them even if there weren't way, way too many to email without wrecking my inbox. The complete photo album is here.

We left on Saturday, and this trip started out slightly complicated, since I was flying from DC, my parents were flying from Philadelphia, we wanted to arrive in Ft. Lauderdale at approximately the same time, and I had to use a specific airline, since I was using my airfare credit from when I canceled my trip to San Francisco last year. And yet, somehow, we managed to get there with relatively no trouble. My flight was overbooked AND overweight, so they were actually kicking people off the plane (oddly, the plane was only half full when we took off, so there must have been some serious overpackers for us to be overweight).

We rented a car in Ft. Lauderdale and drove down the Keys to Key West. If you've never been to the Florida Keys, it's basically a 120 mile string of islands, many of them just wide enough for one road. US 1 runs the whole way, which made it kind of hilarious when my mother pulled out a map, as though it were physically possible for us to be lost without driving into the water.

We got to Key West around dinnertime, but since we'd eaten lunch so late, we weren't hungry for dinner and decided to go straight to dessert. My mom and I ordered key lime pie, of course, while my dad ordered this monstrosity known as the "Cookie Monster" from Caroline's on Duval St. And yes, he managed to eat the whole thing (with our help).

We stayed at this adorable bed and breakfast called the Curry Mansion Inn. We got a full breakfast AND happy hour, which was pretty awesome (my parents loooove happy hour, lol).

Sunday turned out to be too cold to go to the beach, so we visited the Hemingway House, where my mother took way too many pictures of the six-toed cats. Afterward, we stopped at Fat Tuesday's for drinks, a bar which I'm told was featured on The Real World, but I can't verify that since I've never watched it. We went to Mallory Square, the hotspot to watch the sunset, where they have all kinds of vendors and street performers - including the famous cats who jump through flaming hoops, which is about the only thing I remember from the last time I was in Key West about 15 years ago.

We ate dinner at a bar called Guy Harvey's, and Toryn Green, the former singer for Fuel, happened to be performing there, so I got pictures and an autographed CD. Then I had to explain to my parents who he was, which was pretty hopeless. :)

Monday was a beach day - we went to Fort Zachary Taylor State Park. The thing about Key West is that the beaches all kind of suck. (This is the other thing I remember from the last time we were there.) Someone explained to us that it's because they have a barrier reef, and you can't have both a barrier reef and good sand. The waves break on the reef and all the broken shells and rocks wash up on the beach. Every beach we went to was really hard, and the shells were so sharp it was painful to walk on, which made it hard to go in the water. Of course, the water was also pretty freakin' cold, so we didn't go in much anyway. Still got plenty of sun, though, and I have the freckles to prove it!

Monday was, of course, my 26th birthday, so we went to a French restaurant/bakery for dinner. This was, hands down, the best meal I had all week. My mother had called the bakery to order a cake, which was also awesome. Check it out - isn't it gorgeous? Anyway, after dinner we went to the bar on the corner of our street and watched Drunk Santa make friends with Drunk Graduate.

Tuesday was cold again - they told us this was an unusually cold winter, and it normally isn't this chilly this time of year - so we stopped by Harry Truman's Little White House and then went to the Shipwreck Museum. That night we did a ghost tour, which was super lame. Apparently, Key West doesn't have many ghosts, so much of the tour was spent taking random pictures of places that have "a lot of energy" to see if we could get orbs in the pictures. We were hoping for good ghost stories not an episode of Ghost Hunters, so we were pretty bored.

It rained on Wednesday, the only rain we had, so we went to this Nascar Simulation place (my dad's a big Nascar fan). My dad drove one of the races, competing against two little kids, a boy and a girl, both under the age of 10. My dad - who has, by the way, driven an actual race car on a real Nascar track - only managed to beat the little girl. It was kind of sad. :) After that, we went to Peppers for our sauce-tasting, and then visited Kermit, whose key lime pie was featured on the Food Network.

We had lunch at the Conch Republic Seafood Company, and then walked around the harbor. By that time, it was starting to clear up, so we decided to go on a dolphin watching cruise. OMG so awesome! We were the only ones to sign up, so we had the entire boat to ourselves. And we saw SOOOO many dolphins! We also saw a great sunset.

Wednesday was also St. Patrick's Day, which is why I am wearing green. :) My parents were a little afraid of the spring breakers, lol, so we stayed in the harbor area for dinner and drinks.

We left Key West on Thursday and drove to Bahia Honda State Park to go to the beach. Proof I went in the water, even though it was coooold.

On our way to Key Largo, we stopped at a little dive called The Wreck and Galley Grille in Marathon, right next to the Dolphin Research Center (that's where I swam with dolphins for the first time). We collectively decided that this was the best key lime pie we had all week - and then, of course, my mother insulted the place by asking the bartender, "Where do you get your key lime pie?" The bartender replied, "Uh, we make it." Oops?

Frday was another beach day, this time at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, which was definitely the worst beach ever. We lasted a couple hours, and then went back to our hotel, which had a little lagoon in the back. My dad made friends with a squirrel, whom he named Rocky and plans to teach to jump through a flaming hoop, so they can have an act in Mallory Square (get it? Rocky the flying squirrel, heh).

That night we went to dinner at a place called Ballyhoo's, and I have to recommend it because they were awesome. The food was great, but even beyond that, our waiter gave us free drinks, an order of crab claws, and key lime pie, AND gave us 50% off our check, because we told him it was my birthday and because we had to wait a little bit for our dinner to come out. Seriously, seriously awesome service.

Saturday we drove back to the airport, with a little detour through Hollywood while my parents picked out their retirement home, lol. As it turned out, we probably shouldn't have spent so much time driving around, since my parents almost missed their flight home. (Oops?) I was fine, since my flight wasn't for another two hours.

Wow, I am kind of exhausted all over again, just from writing that out, lol. And I still want to quit my job and move to Key West. Who's with me?

Two very different recommendations

First, Maureen Dowd on health care = required reading.

Second, I've been pretending I'm still on vacation, and wanted to eat something that reminded me of places more tropical, so I cracked open the Key West Bahama Village Jerk Sauce that I bought and marinated some chicken. (I also had a Malibu and Coke. I'm thisclose to breaking out the blender and making pina coladas.)

It only rained one morning, on our last day in Key West, so we occupied ourselves by going to a shop called Peppers of Key West, where you could sample lots of their products. Between my parents and me, we managed to come home with the jerk sauce, Key Lime Mustard Sauce, Raspberry Wasabi Mustard, and this Key Lime powder stuff that you mix with cream cheese to make a dip. I swear to God, it's like key lime pie on a bagel. Soooo good. I also liked the Pineapple Coconut Mango Tequila Sauce and I think one of the chutneys, but we tried to restrain ourselves.

Definitely check out their website, but be warned - a lot of this stuff is crazy hot! After we'd gone through about a dozen samples, the lady asked us if we'd like to try some of their hotter sauces. My mother said, mouth burning, "You mean... this wasn't the hot stuff?"

I'm baaaack!

Actually, I was back at work yesterday, but as is often the way in these tales, work was crazy busy, trying to make up all the things I missed last week. (Thanks, Congress, for passing health care reform while I was away. That didn't crazy things up AT ALL.)

Anyway, in one of the many gift shops we went in this week, my mom found a book titled, "Quit Your Job and Move to Key West." That's pretty much how I feel right now.

Vacation was AWESOME. I am so unbelievably freckled, it almost looks tan. (Seriously, WTF, parents? I am 3/4 Italian and I still ended up with the Irish freckle gene.) We had great weather, only one rainy morning, even if it was unusually chilly for this time of year and we couldn't really go in the water. I will probably be posting lots and lots about it once my mother sends me the vacation pictures, which are all on her camera.

Also - and I say this with no hyperbole - best birthday EVER. I think we should do this every year. :) (It's kind of surprising, actually, considering that this confluence of my birthday, St. Patrick's Day, and Spring Break happens every year, that I've never done a trip this time of year.)

Spring Break!!

Woo woo, vacation! I'm leaving tomorrow morning for Key West, and will be on vacation all week. See you when I get back. :)

Finally, good news to report!

Rejoice, gentle readers, for I am feeling BETTER. Of course, that was prefaced by me feeling abominably worse, but hey, I'll take it.

So, last time I posted I was on the toast-only diet due to some unexpected vomiting. Well, despite my best toasting efforts, the vomiting continued until last Monday, at which point I'd lost 7 lbs in two weeks, I wasn't really eating anything, and my doctor was like, "Get thee to a hospital!" It turns out that the walls of my intestines were so swollen, it was starting to block the pathway where the food is supposed to go. So I spent the night in the hospital, they pumped me full of fluids, started me on steroids, and gave me my first infusion treatment of the immunosuppressant that will hopefully put the Crohn's in remission.

And seriously, people, it's like a miraculous recovery. On Thursday, I was still on a liquid diet; by Saturday, I was eating crab linguini alfredo and Caesar salad (OMG I have missed salad). It's all because of the steroids - they're like a fire extinguisher, a quick blast to get rid of the inflammation really fast - but they only treat the symptoms, not the Crohn's itself, so of course as soon as I stop taking the steroids, all the pain and discomfort would come back. The plan is to stay on the steroids until the other meds have a chance to work.

I'm already kind of feeling the side effects of the steroids (I have a lot of trouble falling asleep at night, and I'm hungry ALL the time), but I can actually eat food, so for the moment, I'm like, "Steroids are the most awesome drug EVER." I started cooking this weekend - I've been watching the Food Network a lot (vicarious eating, yo) and feeling like I wanted to learn how to cook better, but there's not much point in cooking when all you can eat is toast. But now that I'm feeling better, I bought myself a cookbook and plan to start making meals for myself more often. I did a pecan-crusted apricot chicken for my parents (who came to stay with me when I went in the hospital, and just left yesterday), and made potato-leek soup and pasta salad with snap peas and squash (the leftovers of which I will be eating all this week), and it was all very tasty.

I'm still taking 13 pills a day, and there are still some foods I can't eat (anything greasy, spicy, or high in fiber), but compared to the last six months, this is like FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDOM!

Not dead yet

Though I'm starting to think it might be preferable to the alternative.

I am, as should come as no surprise, still f'ing sick. Worse, even, if the pukefest yesterday is any indication. Back on the toast-only diet. Am now reaching the point where losing more weight would no longer be seen as "the bright side."

I went to the doctor last week, and we're changing my medicine yet again. The new drug will require me to go in every few weeks for 2 hours to get medicine via IV rather than taking pills. If it works, I should see results in 1-2 weeks, which would be lovely, but I have to wait for pre-approval from my insurance before I can start treatments.

In other news, I went to my parents' house for Christmas, and we had our entire family over for Christmas Eve dinner. Christmas Day we went to my cousin's fiance's parents' house for dinner, which was slightly weird. Also, my grandmother spent 3 days at our house, and still has no idea that I'm sick. It's not like we're even trying hard to keep it a secret at this point; she's just completely oblivious.

I came home on Monday, and my mom came with me, since she has the week off between Christmas and New Year's. We had a lot more planned than we actually accomplished (mostly due to my not feeling well), but we did manage to get to the Botanic Garden to see their Christmas display, and the Renwick Gallery, both of which were very cool.

My dad came down for New Year's Eve, and we went out for what turned out to be a really horrible dinner at Bistro Bistro in Shirlington. Never going there again. Ah, well, we all agreed it was an appropriate end to a pretty crappy year. We did manage to make up for it with a nice dinner on Saturday, after going to see the movie "Up in the Air," which I highly recommend.