Feline Chronic Renal Failure

Thank goodness for a wife who is learning to be a nurse. We've been suffering with a chronically sick cat, who apparently has kidney's that are failing him. It's a painful disease that usually come on older cats, but Rusty has contracted at age 8. Basically, his kidney's are failing to function properly and so he needs lots of water and care to keep him going. There is a whole slough of related issues as well, including constipation, frequent urination, weakness, et cetera, et cetara. It's not nice, and the worst thing is that it hurts him, he's not comfortable and not even his old self.

We know that it may only be a matter of time, maybe not even a long time, and we'll lose him. It's hard when we have nights like last night where he was really sick, and we don't know what to do. The crazy thing is we can't even take him to the vet and get them to do something, because there is very little they can do as well. There are kidney transplants, but that may not do much for him, including even whether he'll make it through the surgery let alone the recovery. That and he'd be on anti-rejection drugs the rest of his life, which is hard for a little cat. So we keep working with him.

Thankfully my wonderful wife is good at giving IV's and force feeding, because we've been doing alot of that lately. Rusty gets sub-cu fluids every day (may be more than that soon) and is right now being syringe fed vet food. He doesn't like it, but it usually makes a difference, and we thought he was picking up again, until last night he turned for the worse. It's so frustrating because there is so little you can do, even though you want to do a whole lot.

So it may mean we may lose our little guy in the near future. I hate the thought of that, because he's been so important to us, and we like to think to him. I guess I care too much, because I've known lots of people who have no problem getting rid of their cats when they move, or because they become inconvenient (ever tried finding a rental that allows pets!!). But I guess I'm not that kind of person, and I've never lost a pet before, so I don't even know how I'm going to deal with it, especially when we have to make the choice about whether to put him down because he's so sick.

Anyways, I know this is a kind of sad post, but I needed to get a bit of it off my chest. I try to be upbeat even when I don't feel that way (well, most of the time) but my Sis-in-law said it's ok sometimes to say what you are really feeling, and I think this is one of those times.

E

Heroes, Top Gear, Rebus and Computer Science

I'm currently sitting in my CPSC 331 class, terribly boring class, explaining why to use a Dynamic List versus a Static list, I actually much prefer a Generics List. It's so much easier to deal with the underlying objects rather than being returned an open ended object you need to cast. Bah, child's play, much to boring.

So, my cultural life has unfortunately taken a turn for the worse. So much for watching the IMDB top 250, lately it's been whatever looks not boring at the video store (and sometimes what is boring). Pulp Fiction is the only recent Top 250 movie, and why it got #6 is beyond me. Tarantino may be brilliant, or he might be an overgrown kid with a desire to make odd, violent, and slightly drug induced movies. If I wanted to see that (less the violent) I would be watching Kevin Smith, fluff I know, but he knows how to make a really funny bad movie. Pulp Fiction (that came out Pulp Function, how can you tell I'm in CPSC!).

So, rather than watch movies we know watch TV shows. It works better scheduling with four people that way. So that means a whole lot of Top Gear. Ah, British Television, so much better than pretty much any of the US networks and by far better than our US copycat Canadian stations. It doesn't hurt either that they talk about cars, all sorts of cars, but typically exotic cars. Though my two favorites so far are the Toyota Hilux (which we can't get new in Canada) and the Tomcat. It's sad but true, the other day we drove by two Ferrari's and I was much more interested in the restored Land Cruiser across the road. If you haven't seen the Top Gear Arctic special, and can put up with the British version of a red neck, you should definitely see it.

So, the only other thing I've seen lately is Heroes, which I'm not sure was worth the 2 hours of TV (getting spoiled by ad removed TV). What can I say, good premise, but it sucks. Chris has even said he's not likely to watch anymore, which I can't say I blame him. So more Top Gear it is!

The only saving grace right now is that I'm reading a Barbara Kingsolver and Ian Rankin book. Kingsolver's series of essays (I'm sorry, can't remember the name of the book!) is quite good, though not at all the escapist novel that I typically like. Fortunately Ian Rankin's "The Black Book" is very escapist and good work. I know the Scots may say it's fluff, but I've read alot of mystery/crime drama and this is night and day from most other books. I can really in many ways relate to Rebus (which I'm not sure is always a good thing!) and he is very human. Sometimes I think the books are more studies on human feelings and characteristics than a crime drama.

So I guess I'm lacking in the culture, though funny enough, anything I've discussed isn't getting funding from Harper's Fat-Cats :-)

Next time I promise I'll edit a bit more, and have a direction to my post. Not just a dump of words!

Cheers,
Eric

University Library

So, this is my 5 or 6th semester of University, depending on whether you count the two courses I took in 2003. I'm not a big university person, to me it's really one of those necessary evils, I have to go to get my degree. I haven't done much university type stuff, being involved with anything, gone to a single frat party (which I'm sure are nothing like Animal House), or any of that. I'm really a very sad example of a university student.

One thing I do use a lot though is the University Library. I spend most of my in between class time here, reading, working, posting a long overdue blog post. About the only thing I don't do is read books, at all, ever. Haven't even cracked one open, and I've probably sat hours in this library.

I think my primary problem is that they don't have enough pictures - which I'm sure again would just describe how much I'm a sad university student. But it's true, I'm a very visual person, I like to see how things work, I like to see how things look, I remember so much better based on pictures then I do words. And if a book has both, well then! Now don't get me wrong, I'm an avid reader (or at least when it's not just textbooks), I've gone through my fair share of books - but never one from the University library.

But I'm here all the time, typically because I find somewhere that I like to sit, and it's so much quieter not listening to people walk by, and talk about their "like horrible" sociology class. My current sitting place is the 6th floor, Southwest corner, where I can watch them build the new Taylor Digital Library. Which I'm hoping will still have lots of nice quiet places to sit, but I'm not holding out on more books with pictures :-)

So, in case my Sis-in-law K is reading this, who I know has read at least 2 full floors of books out of this library and who may argue that there are books with pictures, I promise one day I will look at the books. But until then nobody steal my seat on Friday's 10:00 to 11:00 AM, because I kind of like it, but there is two seats, so if you want to discuss Danish made crane's and the latest XKCD, come join me.

PS > My wonderful wifey has a blog, but I don't know if she wants me to link to it yet, so I might in the near future, and you can read someone who is more eloquent and will probably post more often.

New Basement, Dishwasher & Backyard Cont'd....

More pics of the new house.

The living room with Keira looking on.

The dining room with way more space then our last one (a few less boxes though!)

The new kitchen with the dishwasher!!!!

Keira enjoying the backyard, she's really liked it so far as there is lots of stuff to explore and a few peices of wood to chew on. She actually asks to be let outside so she can sit in the sun and explore. We just have to watch her digging!

New Basement, Dishwasher & Backyard

The three most important things for us - a basement, backyard and most important a dishwasher!

This as you can see is the basement, it's 3/4s painted with a tan (Pyramid is the name) epoxy garage floor paint. Very nice, much better than the yucky floor that was there before.

Our new washbasin, which I very much like as it means I don't have to clean paints or other stuff in the kitchen sink - which means Becky really likes it too.

All the crap that we had to move to paint the floor - some of it is garbage, but alot of it will be moved back after 72 hours of curing time.

Painting the inside of the kitchen drawers with Killz - much needed, it may actually need two coats of Killz to cover all the grease and crap. Man is that stuff thick, it's got to be as bad as painting in Mexico in 30 degree weather.

More Pics to come as apparently Picasa only uploads 4 at a time :-(

New House, Here We Come!

Today is the day... we get possession of our new house and it's great!

It has everything we are looking for, backyard for Keira to run around in, a dishwasher to wash dishes and a basement to play trains in. And all for a low, low price... well maybe not that part, but this is Calgary!

So today we take possession, and at 1:30 we get the keys - and at 2:30 we start scrubbing the basement floor to paint :-) No rest at all, but we can do it, simply because it's our house, and we aren't painting someone else's property - no more rentals for us!

As you can tell, we are excited, which is the best we've felt over the last few weeks - buying a house is a lot of work. But today it's ours, so we can really, truly feel excited.

And so everyone who reads this blog can come see it (all six of you, which we can all fit, all at the same time, even with a dog and a cat!)

-E

Future Shop Extended Warranty

So is it worth it? That's a good question, I've only ever bought it on two items - the first being a printer that I was using when I was contracting, the second on our 40" LCD (I still drool over the thought of it). So why do I question it's value?

Well, this morning I called Future Shop because we have a pixel that is shot, since pretty close to day one. What does Future Shop say? Well it's still under the Sony warranty - ok fine, please fix it - you have to call Sony. Ok, so I call Sony and say my TV has a dead pixel - Sony says you have 2 million pixels - we wont' fix one dead pixel - I say that's fine but it's Bright Green not black - Sony says ok, but you have to call Westpeak Electronics! Ok, so I call Westpeak Electronics, get the one lady at the shop who hasn't had her coffee this morning (or I think for the last week) and she says we'll send a guy tomorrow - we'll call you tomorrow to let you know when he's coming.

Ok, so why is Future Shop Extended, In Home Warranty worth it? Well, for one, to keep me happy (or make me happy as I have not typically had a good relationship with Future Shop) they could've arranged all this crap for me. They already probably know who is the repair shop that I'm going too, so take my information (which is on file, even though I didn't buy it at Northlands Edmonton) and route it through Sony to the Westpeak electronics. Is that hard? Nope - it's straight forward, and considering in Canada we only have a few really big electornics realtors (two of which is the same company) it should be really easy to implement. Sure it'll cost a few bucks, but you may not have to advertise as hard to get me to come back next time. And then everyone might just be a bit happier (including me). Service is becoming the most important thing now, not just price so these companies might want to pay attention to that. The shareholders are not the ones who are buying the majority of products, and keeping your company afloat, so it might be a good idea to consider someone besides just them.

But that's enough of my ranting - all I know is that I don't want to have to wait 6 weeks for it to be fixed and have no TV. I don't watch a lot, but if I don't get my Avatar before bed, I do get grumpy.

-E

Stacks

Just in case some of you didn't believe me that we have floor to almost ceiling stacks of boxes :-) No Mailbins this time!And the only one who is more excited to go to work than me:
Someone is not as helpful as he looks:

Dogg Tired...

Just in time for the spring time change, the one where we have to get up early so that we can drive to see our beautiful goddaughter Emma's 2nd birthday I thought I'd share Keira's feeling's on getting up:
Rusty, in general tends to concur:
Click on these for Holy Moses size for certain people's desktops :-) (Hint, Hint Mom)

Moving can be stressful....

For everyone except the pets apparently -

My Life in a Nutshell... that smells like french fries.

We are moving as you can see --

Pathophysiology if Phun

Phun, yes that is the word. Do not question it, just accept it.

Soooo, just finished my midterm for Patho and I think it went well (I'm sitting in the commons now outside Eric's last class listening to some crazy 18 year olds making really weird rap music...sort of sounds like armpit music and raspberrys, but it's all right because they're cool).

Eric wants me to promise that I won't post anything too disgusting, but I have to admit that I think the most interesting things I have learned have to be some of the most disgusting. For instance, did you know that with an electrical burn that the electrical charge will follow the nerve all the way until it terminates? It burns the tissue and causes necrosis all the way along the nerve which is not visible until basically the dead tissue eats it way out to the surface or becomes so infected that they need to do a fasciotomy to relieve the pressure (aka they cut you open). I have some great pictures...but I won't use them all up just yet. Gross hey?

I was thinking about that the other day. They actually have wound healing nurse specialists. Their job is to look after patients with wounds that are difficult to heal. Some people live with open decubitus ulcers for over a year before they close by secondary intention. Can you imagine what kind of agony they must go through? A gaping hole over their sacrum for a year? I can not fathom it myself. So who knows? Maybe I could look at doing something like that. I am beginning to develop an iron gut...if I can ever figure out what I want to be when I grow up, maybe that will be it.

In the mean time, my near future goals consist of washing the dog (who smells) and doing some laundry (so we don't smell) and then washing some dishes (which really smell!). Gots to right a journal tonight...another chapter in the "This is how I am feeling about you feeling about me thinking and feeling about you feeling" emotional-introspective-oh-please-don't-make-me-write-another-one journal for my nursing clinical course *sigh*. My last one was about the importance of accurate clinical documentation, maybe I'll write this one on the importance of not over emotionally-analyzing every aspect of my life :) Somehow I doubt that will go over well. Oh well, onward and forwards, if anyone thinks of some morally/ethically/tear jerking issue that needs writing about I would be pleased to hear it.

Until next time, Cheers.
-Rebecca

The Scrooge of Halloween!

We didn't have any candies tonite for Halloween, I dressed up as Scrooge - No Candy for You! Fortunately for us, we also didn't have anyone stop by. It might've been the dog barking everytime she heard someone on our steps out front, or it might've been the actual steps (not safe at the best of times!)

Someday we'll do the Halloween thing, not because I believe in ghosts, ghouls or goblins. Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings is about as close as I get to that stuff, but mostly because I think it'd be a lot of fun to build some kind of themed, automated Haunted House :-)

So. I'm feeling a tiny bit Emo tonite, I hope you can forgive me. Today was mid-term #1, Friday #2. This semester is limited in it's midterms (thank goodness), but still it makes me think. I love learning, there is just about nothing in the world I'd rather do, but I'm not sure I like school. It's odd, being in classes, learning to start a life that I feel I've already started. I know, I've done it bass-ackwards but still, it's harder going back then I expected. When I'm at work I'm where I am happiest (almost all of the time), when I'm at school I'm just sitting, listening, not doing anything. I enjoy learning, and, granted, there are lots of times I'm learning at school, but sometimes I feel like something is not right. So what to do....

I've already changed from a business major to computer science. That was definitely a step in the right direction, but is it right? I don't like learning without doing anything. I can read from a book all I want, listen to yet another theory lecture, but I'm at the point where I want to build, play, make. So where does that leave me?

School isn't going to be quick, I'm not going to give up, that's for sure, but it's going to take a while. My four year program might take five, but that's ok. (I need the time to learn the math!) That won't stop our lives. We are still going to SoCal next year (again!), we may be going to NY even, and who knows where else. Kids are coming, they can't wait too long! And we just need to enjoy our lives more. So what do we do?

Right now, that's the big question, we've spent so much time worrying about the future that we have, in some ways, missed out on life in the day to day. We need to figure that one out, and once we do I think we're set. Just how to do it is the question? That is to be seen....

We'll keep you filled in :-)

- E

I don't know what it is about space, but it's one of those things/places I find very cool. Must've been something from being a kid, or maybe just the sheer challenge of getting something to travel that far, through that harsh of conditions just to get it up there. But one of my favorite movies is October Sky, I love looking at High Altitude Rocketry, and anything just outside of the bounds of earth absolutely fascinates me.

So seeing the HALO project by Canadian Natrium42 was downright awesome. (Sorry, corny wording, but I can't think of any other way to say it!)

Check it out!

-E

What I read...

I've had a day. So to procrastinate/try and feel better I thought I'd blog. Of note, it is exactly one month since the last one!

I read lots of blogs (even though I don't blog often) such as the following:

I read lots of tech stuff, like:

• Coding Horror - A great blog with lots of interesting articles (at times rants) about stuff that I do quite often (ie: work). Lots of good architecture and design info...
• Joel on Software - Another one of those overall interesting tech blogs (though slightly boring at the moment now that he's on a promo tour).
• Scott Hanselman's Computer Zen- A M$ employee, but I did read him before then. Really great reading, especially the Weekly Source Code. Just goes to show you can be a programmer and be cool! (It's ok Mom, I've come to accept my uncoolness....)
• WebmasterWorld - This is how I know of stuff so soon that goes on, on the web. I've let out my secret. Though there are actually a lot of other places that are quicker to post news, this one is usually pretty good, and usually right on the money.
  

And when I'm feeling like I need a laugh:

• XKCD - But be careful ~
  

  Warning: this comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors).

And to feed my Arm Chair Model Railroader hobby:

• CNJ Bronx Terminal - Tim Warris, of FastTracks fame, has lots of good tips on modelling in general. I remember the first time I saw his article in Model Railroader, it had to be one of my favorite layouts!
• Blood Sweat & Tears Railroad - The site showcases a great railroad (which unfortunately no longer exists) as well as links to many other great railroads.
• Carl Arendt's Micro Layouts Site - My current favorite, he showcases trackplans that squeeze a lot into small spaces. Not all of the micro layouts are the craftsman quality of some of the others seen here, but they are all very creative!
  
• Also Dan's Train Blog, The Körschtalbahn and the Clearwater Valley Railway. All very good, and interesting reads, though some aren't updated as often as I'd like
  

And to feed my other creative impulses:

• Makezine Blog - Art and engineering from all over the world. A great read, some of the coolest things I've seen shows up here! And the Faires are even better!
• Brass Goggles - My tiny foray into the real art world. Some very amazing stuff, my only complaint is that it isn't updated nearly often enough!

Last, but definitely not the least, is family (and friends who are family):

• Mom & Dad Bouwsema - A great way of keeping up when it's hard to keep up! Also, I regularly read the Train Station Saga's....
• Ambling Ramblings - A great name, from B&K, brother and sister-in-law, joint MST3K partakers. I don't know if I should link them though, they don't link me ;-)
• And Emma - The beautiful Miss Grose! Unfortunately no longer updated, too busy with a new little brother I think.
  

So, that's pretty much what I read. When I need a break, I look at most of theses blogs/sites and it makes me feel good again!

Dream House....

We were vegging a bit and watched the last bit of North by Northwest on Turner Classic Movies. What a movie in all of it's 1950's glory! Over the last few years Becky and I have been figuring out that we really quite like Mid-Century Modern style and design, and this was the epitome of it. The best part was the Frank Lloyd Wright inspired Vandamm house.




These pictures are courtesy of Flickr. We've decided that our future house should be inspired by this one, it would be great to have that space, wood and rock balance. And the cantilever, although not true Frank Lloyd Wright (that's not me who knows this, the JetSet guy said so, and I believe him) I would feel better knowing there were supports underneath it.

Unfortunately this house never existed, so we'll just have to build our own version, complete with modern, but mid-century modern inspired furniture.

And while we are on the topic, I really like this house-warming gift idea. Becky and I will just have to go and find more old Popular Mechanics and Life magazines till we find one almost as cool as that!

On the ideas of gifts (seeing as only family reads my rants called a blog), I wouldn't mind North by Northwest for Christmas!

I've been found out....

In fact, my code is compiling right now... :-)

(Kudos to XKCD)

Dog Names...

From my (our) sick and twisted minds. (Sorry Mom!)

So if you cross a Pomeranian and a Poodle we found out yesterday you get a PomPoo.

So that got us thinking, that wouldn't a pure bread Pom (one puppy with two Pomeranian parents) be a PomPom?

Or even worse, wouldn't a pure bread Poodle be a PooPoo?

But that's not even the worse of it. We figured that a Golden Doodle (A Golden Retriever and a Poodle cross) should then be a Poo Retriever.

But we know a Pit Bull, nice dog, but if you had one crossed with a Shitzu, well, you know what you would get.

Now if that Pit Bull/Shitzu crossed with a Standard Poodle, in Canada you would get the Standard Bull S#!t. Heaven forbid it was an American Pit Bull that crossed, or you might get...

Radio Paradise

If you can get past the asking for money... Radio Paradise is one of my favorite radio stations to listen too, a nice mix of everything. The Postal Service is currently playing, good band...

And if you feel guilty like me, buy a shirt :-)

http://www.radioparadise.com/

Oil Town

It's great living in oil town, did I ever mention that? All these fancy cars, huge houses, money coming out of everywhere. Including our pockets.

Found out today that our rent will go up 10-15% when our lease is up. Fan-freakin-tastic. As if we don't already pay enough? Oil town is great, for those who make money off of the oil, for the rest of us, especially students, it sucks.

But that is enough of my left wing rant...

It is Valentines, and we are home because of school, but on Sunday we are going out for breakfast. There are so many things I love about my beautiful wife, but two that were clear today is that she is ok with Breakfast as a fancy meal out!! And two she uses the word frackin' off of Battlestar Galactica. Yes, she can geek-speak, even better than me.

-Eric