A real update

So It's been a while since I did a real update.

January has been an intersting month. Pretty busy here at work, but not busy enought to stress me out. My major stress as you all probably know is Jenny. She is back to her normal piggish self and meow's constantly at you until you feed her. She is a lovely cat though ;). She had her follow-up appointment at the vets on Saturday and all of her blood levels came back normal and the vet thinks that she won't have any lasting side effects. She won't have to be on the kidney food forever (thank god, it is expensive!) but she will have to switch to "mature" cat food. Normally cat's would be 8 before they would switch (Jenny is 4 or 5) but apparently it is easier on the kidneys and lower in calories than the normal kidney food.

In other unrelated news, my laptop screen died yesterday and A can't fix it. He looked up things online and it could cost as much at $200 + labour to have it fixed. I don't have that kind of money (mostly due to Jenny's Vet bills), so I don't know what I'm going to do. A is going to call HP and see if they will fix it for me for free. It is just a few months out of the manufacturer's warantee and apparently they will sometimes fix things like this. I did nothing wrong, it was probably just a bum part. For now I have it set up with my old CRT monitor so at least I have a computer at home.

I got some sad news last night. My dad's Cat that we got when I was in highschool died last week when he was on vacation. She was sick over christmas, but when dad was going to take her into the vet she was better. She took a down turn right before he went skiing when he didn't have the time to take her into the vet (like friday night before leaving sunday afternoon). She was truly a wonderful cat and I will miss her dearly. She was the first cat I ever really loved and was the one that made me turn into a cat person. When I had my knee surgery and was feeling VERY sick afterwards she would curl up on my lap and stay with me all day. She was cuddly and kind, and a killer. Seriously, best hunter I've ever seen. Not afraid to kill the odd weasel (including the week of Sarah's Wedding). She had a wonderful life and lived to the ripe age of 11. Lizzie, I will miss you.

100 Things about me.

I saw this on another blog and thought it was cool. I've been working on it for a couple of weeks. kind of hard to come up with 100 things!!!

1. I’m engaged to a wonderful man
2. I have a masters degree in Civil engineering
3. If I didn’t go into Engineering, I would have gone into either physics or Music.
4. I played the piano and flute well in highschool but rarely touch either now
5. I lost my $2000 flute on one of the many co-op moves in undergrad
6. I love photography. It is by far my favorite form of visual art.
7. My Iron Ring is my grandfathers and was the first titanium cast in Canada
8. I’ve almost lost my Iron Ring 3 or 4 times now. The most recent being last night at the gym.
9. I’ve only ridden my bike once since July.
10. As a kid I had aspirations of being a world class skier, but my parents never let me race
11. I lost my first tooth in Kindergarten on a class trip to the zoo. I was eating an apple on the bus and it fell out.
12. I love almost every kind of fruit there is. Except the ones that I like to call Vegetable fruits – tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, etc.
13. I’ve eaten a banana almost every day since my first co-op term.
14. I dislike most cooked vegetables when they are on their own.
15. I hate beans. Except chickpeas.
16. I get upset when A eats the last banana and screws up my week.
17. In 99% of my habits I’m a classic Type A, but I can’t keep anything tidy. My desk, my home, anything (I do keep it clean though).
18. Once I get in the habit, waking up at 5:30 am isn’t hard for me.
19. My perfect Sunday would be going for a run in the morning, coming back and snuggling up with a good book and falling asleep on the couch.
20. I would much prefer to nap than sleep in.
21. I love love love being hot. I don’t ever have trouble falling asleep when it is hot outside.
22. I find myself cold every day at work and they keep the heat set at 72F whereas we keep our home set at 68.
23. I was the 5th grade champion at my school in the shot put.
24. I was decently good at shotput and made it to the county level in grade 8 but didn’t continue in highschool because I didn’t want to be butch.
25. I was the last kid cut from every team in elementary school. I ALMOST made the soccer team, I ALMOST made the basket ball team, I ALMOST made the Vollyball team, etc.
26. I quit trying for team sports in Grade 7 because I babysat after school when the practices were.
27. I had three cabbage patch kids – Sophia Manda, Lauren, and Elmira. Sophie was my favourite.
28. I hate American spellings – color, neighbor, favorite, etc.
29. My favourite comfort foods are cottage cheese with cinnamon and sugar and bologna and ketchup roll-ups (has to be schneiders blue ribbon).
30. I was the worlds pickiest eater as a kid.
31. Number 27 was the basis for 75% of my dinners as a kid.
32. In grade 1 my teacher thought I was hearing disabled and made me get tested. I had perfect hearing, but just didn’t listen.
33. In grade two I had to get my eyesight tested. The teacher thought I couldn’t see because I always had my book propped up on my desk. It was to keep the kid next to me from copying.
34. I was a mediocre student as a child until about grade 4 or 5 when I started to excel at math.
35. I almost had to have eye surgery as an infant. My tear ducts were blocked so my eyes would weep. I still get watery eyes now sometimes for no reason.
36. My cat also has weepy eyes. The vet said the only way to fix it would be for her to have the surgery I was supposed to have when I was 3 months old.
37. When I was 6 I got lost skiing and had to hike up a 3 km run to get back to the main mountain. My sister (8 at the time) abandoned me to save herself.
38. When I was 11 I got lost skiing off piste and had to hike out in waist deep snow. I left my skies in the woods and the ski patrol resuced them.
39. When I was 12 I got stuck on a chairlift for 2 hours in -30 degree weather. I got frost bite on my feet and ever since then my feet have been super sensitive to the cold.
40. I had my first kiss after my 19th birthday
41. I have only kissed 4 guys and the 4th will be the only one I kiss for the rest of my life (god willing).
42. I’m agnostic. I believe in the whole big bang thing but I’m not sure I believe in superstring
43. I’m a science geek. When I was in kindergarten I watched science shows on TVO during the day. I remember asking my mom how big an atom was.
44. I hated reading until highschool. I thought because I was slow at it, it meant that I wasn’t any good (despite scoring really well on reading comprehension tests because when I read I have to make sure I understand every single word.
45. Highschool English taught me one thing. How to BS.
46. I quit the highschool cross country team in favour of the swim team. (practices at the same time).
47. I was a pretty good swimmer. My stroke was the breast stroke which does nothing to help me with front crawl in triathlons.
48. I quit the swim team in favour of the rugby team (practices at the same time)
49. I tore my ACL playing rugby.
50. After teaing my ACL I can’t do breast stroke well anymore.
51. My grandfather held the British record in a breast stroke event in the 1940s for a few weeks. He would have gone to the Olympics in 44 but they were cancelled due to the war.
52. I lived with my torn ACL for 5 years due to being misdiagnosed by a stupid doctor in Belleville.
53. I lived in the same house from the day I was born to the day I went off to University.
54. I love dogs, but I have a cat.
55. My cat’s full name is “Jenny-any-dots” but no-one ever calls her that.
56. My favorite fast food is a McDonalds Quarter Pounder. So greasy, but oh so good.
57. I started doing triathlons as a stepping stone for Adventure Racing. 7 years later I’ve only done one adventure race.
58. Up until the Winter of 2000 I had never run more than 6 km. I remember feeling very proud of myself after running for 7 whole kms one night.
59. I haven’t run by myself at night since 2002 when I promised my mum I wouldn’t anymore.
60. If I were independently wealthy I would train all day long.
61. I would love to be on the biggest loser although I don’t have that much weight to lose. I just think it would be FUN to train with the trainers on the show.
62. I’m an extrovert in most ways, except when it comes to dating I’m an introvert.
63. I love Microsoft Excel.
64. I’ve had lice twice once in grade 1 and once in grade 10.
65. My Mum volunteered in my grade three classroom.
66. My first crush was on a boy call Mark in the 4th Grade.
67. Donnie was my favourite NKOTB. The only time in my life I liked ‘the bad boy’
68. My favourite Authors are JK Rowling and Minnette Walters
69. My favourite TV shows are Ugly Betty and Grey’s Anatomy.
70. I like the mean girls. My favourite characters are Amanda on Ugly Betty and Christine on Grey’s anatomy.
71. I have a tattoo of a sun on the inside of my left ankle.
72. I would only get another tattoo if I did an Ironman. I would get the Mdot tattoo.
73. I’m a people pleaser. I don’t like to make decisions that other people might have a problem with.
74. Model Calibration is the bain of my existence.
75. I never kept a journal consistently until I started blogging.
76. I have a love hate relationship with Wedding Magazines. They make me feel like I’m the worst bride ever.
77. I love to bake, but I end up eating way too many sweets when I do.
78. Everyone who has ever eaten my gingerbread cookies compliments me.
79. When I go to Subway I often eat more calories worth of cookies than I do of sandwhich.
80. My favourite colour is red.
81. By grade 10 I was lead flutist in our highschool band
82. My grandma had the highest scores in Ontario in standardized testing when she was in highschool.
83. I get complimented by total strangers (men and women alike) on my glasses.
84. When I was a kid I used to want glasses so I would read in the dark.
85. I had braces in grade 9 and half of grade 10 to correct an overbite. I had nearly straight teeth before hand. I also had to wear head gear at night for a few months.
86. I love aspartame sweetened products. I’ve been having them since I was a kid since we didn’t have any sugar drinks in the house. We made Koolaid with half sugar and half equal.
87. I learned to ski a few months after my third birthday.
88. Despite be a good swimmer now, I had to take my yellow badge (the first one) three times before I passed. Twice I wasn’t technically old enough then the third time I was afraid to put my face in the water.
89. I clearly remember moments of my young childhood. Like when I was 3 and 4.
90. I have a pretty good memory. I read something once and it sticks with me for ever.
91. I tried out for my highschool’s version of cheerleading – the Dance Squad. I did it because D didn’t want to try out by herself. I had no interest in joining.
92. I like to eat my skittles and m and ms by colour. But not in a certain order. I eat the colour I have the least of first leaving the one with the most till the end.
93. Except, I don’t like yellow skittles as much, so I always eat them first.
94. I have been to: South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Domican Republic, England, Whales and the US.
95. My dream trip would be to go to Patagonia. Partly so that I could say I was “living like a king in Patagonia”
96. I never skipped a class in highschool. I was a good two shoes. Well, more accurately, my father taught at our highschool and would find out in a heartbeat
97. I get frustrated and distracted when computers are slow.
98. I get corrected on English grammar by my ESL fiancé. Who knew “boughten” and “gotten” weren’t words? That being said, spell check isn’t picking up gotten. Perhaps I was right all along.
99. My favourite flower is the daffodil.
100. My guilty pleasure if fluffy novels.

Update on the Kitty

Still isn't eating a whole bunch, but she is feeling much better. Back to her normal self I would think. We have to take her back next weekend to get her blood checked again. Hopefully, her levels will be 100% back to normal and she can go off the kidney diet then.

I'm playing around with my blog format right now, so stay tuned, I will hopefully get something I like soon.

Jenny...

Ate all the food that was given to her this morning and seems to be getting better.

A and I are going to visit her this evening - the vet is open until 8 pm so we should be able to get a good little visit in :)

update on any-dots

So I am at home now. I was a wreck and wouldn't get anything done this afternoon. I talked to my boss and have come home. Good thing I have some banked overtime.

I stopped at the vets on my way home and cuddled with Jenny for about half an hour and talked to the Vet for a bit. Basically there are two types of Kidney failure in cats, Acute and Chronic. Based on the symptoms the vet is positive that Jenny has Acute kidney failure. I have read over the symptoms and I agree 100%. I think she must have got into something at my dad's house that she shouldn't have.

So the other part of any good medical diagnosis is bloodwork. Her blood levels of Urea and Crea-whatever are definitely elevated above the levels that you would see in a normal functioning liver but actually well below what the average cat has with Kidney Failure.

Now. The prognosis with Acute Kidney Failure is usually worse than with chronic failure since the levels of the blood markers are usually much higher. But, in Jenny's case they aren't. Here are a description of the normal symptoms: suddun anorexia (check), listlessness (check), vomitting (only once), diarrhea (nope), strange odour (nope), seizures (nope), frequent urination (a bit, not enough to have raised alarm bells - I was keeping track of it because of Smokey. And here is the clincher... Many cats are in systemic shock by the time thy reach the veterinary hospital. Jenny definitely wasn't in systemic shock. So given that the vet thinks it is acute, but that the levels are relatively low (her "crea" measurment was around 460 which is higher than the normal range that caps out at 330, but the vet said most cats with kidney failure are in the 600 to 700 range and that she has seen as high as 1100), the prognosis is good. She is on an IV for 48 hours and they are going to recheck her blood levels on friday. If they are still high, then she will probably have to go to a 24 hour clinic.

Jenny... the New Smokey

Kidney Failure it is. She is at the Vets right now and they are going to put her on an IV for 48 hours. The Vet is hopefull, but she will likely have to be on Kidney Diet for the rest of her life.

I'm devestated. Sitting here at my desk at work crying my eyes out.

Can we talk about the Weather?

What the heck is going on? The temperature in London yesterday reached a day time high of 14.8 degrees. No joke. This morning I ran outside in a long sleeve shirt and shorts and wished I had a short sleeve shirt on. Today at work we had the “First Annual Global Warming Barbeque” a bbq in January. What the heck. I mean I love warm weather as much as the next person. In fact I would MUCH rather be to warm than too cold. I can sleep no problem in 30+ degree heat, but when it’s a little chilly out come the fleece PJs, down duvet and socks to bed. But 15 degrees in January? That is a little excessive. For the heat not to come on at all in the night in January? Bizarre.

And yet people STILL don’t want to believe in Global Climate Change. The federal government STILL refuses to do anything significant to reduce greenhouse emissions. And people STILL drive one person in an SUV on the 401 at 8:15 am where I know that they are commuting. Drives me NUTS!



Other than that. Jenny is Sick :(. Has been for about a week. She seems to be doing a little better but she still doesn’t want to eat. If I can’t get her to eat anything meaningful (i.e., not chicken off my dinner plate) by tomorrow morning I’m going to take her into the vet. Poor Kitty. She has gone from 14.5 last week to 12 something this week. Funny thing – she stopped eating all out last week – around New years day, so we have been joking that she decided to lose weight as her new years resolution ;). The reason why I haven’t taken her sooner is that a) she is starting to get back to her normal self and b) Dad’s cat lizzie was sick over Christmas and she is back to normal now.

A Year in Review

So first things first… My Christmas vacation

21 – drive to airport to pick up sister K
22 – Drive to London to show K London Dress, A buys Tuxedo. Drive to Belleville
23 – Drive to Ottawa
24 – Drive to Castleton to Sister S’s. S&W have food poisoning, need to take care of E.
25 – Merry Christmas and back to Belleville
26 – Was going to avoid boxing day madness but watch breaks and we made our way to the mall. Saw I am Legend. I too cried with the dog bit, A made fun of me.
27 – A wakes me up in the middle of the night to ask for the garbage can. He has the flu.
28 – Go in to Belleville to make a purchase (see my other blog!) Go to Toronto to pick up future M-I-L after S-I-L birthday party. Back home at last.
29 – Lazy bums. But we did get new blinds for the bay window.
30 – Partay Chez L&A. Q&R are back in Southwestern Ontario and we had a get together.
31 – By to MIL, open joint account. Lazy Lazy Lazy. A fell asleep at 11:00. I stayed up, but was reading.
1 – More lazyness.

January
I was very lonely at school being the only one left. Burger had a Goodbye party for Q&R which was really Sad :( I also had my first real bout of the flu. It wasn’t all that fun let me tell you ;)

February
I searched far and wide for a job. Ha! Just joking. I kind of fell into interviews with my current company through Burger. Didn’t even really apply to them. Just sent her my resume one day. And Bam, here I am 8 months later ;).

March
The only two things I remember from March are finishing the chilly half marathon which was, well, chilly and going to Vancouver. Although Vancouver wasn’t much of a “just” thing. We visited with Kelly and Quinn and my cousins, went to Whistler, the Sunshine Coast and Climbed a mountain. Ah. Perfect!

April
April was a good month. A very good month. Did my Seminar, went to visit Kate, got my thesis submitted to my readers and started working. A busy month, but so, so worth it.

May
And I’m Done! Finally. Almost three years, but I’m done. Who cares that I had to use 2 of my precious 10 vacation days to get there. Also starting to get settled in my new job. Liking the job, hating the commute. Pressure is on to start house hunting. Also got my half marathon PR that I’ve been pining for after years. Sub 2 hours baby!

June
We bought a house! After searching hard (for two weeks) we settled on our current house and got it. It is beautiful  well, I think so anyways ;) I also did two triathlons in which I placed first in my category. I’m a rockstar ;)

July
Two exciting things – and on the same weekend! On July 7, Dear Dad tied the knot and only July 8 I did my first half Ironman. I was sure afterwards it would be my last, but now? Who knows. The rest of the month I was fending off illness, which wasn’t very cool.

August
August was a busy month in Laura Land. At the beginning of the month we went to New York for C-dub Bachelorette weekend. Then it was moving into our house complete with plenty of renovations. A and I also got engaged on August 17, which also happened to be 1 year and 8 months together (we didn’t realize this fun little fact for several days).

September
Was C-dubs wedding which was beautiful. The rest of the month kind of passed in a blur of working. I went to Windsor for work for a week which took up a good chunk of the month.

October
Was the month I started trying on Wedding dresses. On thanksgiving weekend my sister S and D went shopping with me to some stores in Belleville. I found one dress that I loved, but wasn’t ready to commit. Late in the month C-dub and Nej came down to go shopping with me in London. Again found one dress that I loved, but wasn’t ready to commit because of the first dress. Argh! Decisions!

November
The beginning of November My dad had an engagement party for us. Sister K surprised us by coming down, which was nice. We also went dress shopping at more places in Belleville and I tried on the first dress again. The rest of the month was a blur of work.

December
More blur of work. I was insanely busy for the first half of the month and very much enjoyed my 10 day Christmas break, although it was also pretty busy.

Goals for 2007
1) Goal Races - Spring half marathon, summer half ironman, fall full marathon. well, yest on the spring half marathon – did two and PR’d (personal record) in both, and got my time down below 2:00 which has been a long standing goal, another yes on the summer half ironman but a big fat no for the fall marathon. After the half Ironman I needed some time away from working out. That lasted a month, then we bought a house and fall field word was crazy so I never really got back on the boat.
2) Finish school for good and get the hell out of here. I'm SO ready to be done. YOU BET!!!! I don’t even think of it anymore. I actually haven’t even picked up my bound thesis. Oops ;)
3) Be a happier person. I think school is really starting to get to me and bring me down. It is always this stress in my life and it doesn't help that people ask me all the time "So, when are you going to be done?" I think I heard it 10,000 times over the break. dude's it's a touchy subject, if I want to talk about school let me bring it up. Working on it. I’m not really a stressed person anymore, but I guess there are things we all struggle with. Right now my two man struggles are money and being away from home. I was away from home a LOT this fall – it made it really hard to get into a routine (healthy eating and excersize) and left no time for wedding planning. Moneywise I am struggling a little bit, between the Christmas season, buying a house, and a car, I feel like I’m living pay check to pay check. Actually, scrap that. I AM living pay check to pay check. I think I have $63 in my bank account right now (this is actually lower than it should be but I will explain that one else where). Hopefully I will be able to get out of this hole soon though.

Goals for 2008
1) continue to work on happiness
2) Get my ass back into shape. I hope to do a late spring marathon, but we’ll see how this goes. Next summer I want to focus on short triathlons again.
3) Lose the weight I have gained over the last 4 months (and it is a lot) and perhaps get down to my goal weight. The problem last time is that as soon as I got to within 10 pounds of my goal weight I felt I was content where I was, and stopped trying honestly.
4) Have a great time planning our wedding and enjoy the day as much as possible