Ju has some kind of stomach thing, possibley rotavirus, and is pukey, feverish, and generally cranky and whiney. We travel tomorow; 18 + hours on planes, 4 airports, to go visit my parents for a month. I hope we can deal with the issues. It's too bad, because he is usually wonderful on flights, one of those kids who everyone sees and dreads having on their flight, and then compliment his behaviour afterwards. He doesn't want to eat much, and won't really sleep very well either, and generally cries a lot. He has been drinking pedialyte out of a medicine dropper because most things won't stay down, but we won't be able to take it with us on the plane, so I am not sure what we will do for him.
At the moment he is laying passively on the couch, watching Looney Toons. I am not an advocate to plugging your kid in, but when he's this whiney, it's a life saver to have him loose his focus on the uncomforable feelings he's having and just veg for a bit so I can type or pack suitcases. I'm not sure how much of his whining is due to genuine pain and discomfort and how much is due to the fact that he has percieved he is getting a lot more attention since he's been sick. Yesterday he got to be in my lap the whole day and slept in our bed with me and has been carried around all day. He's getting spoiled.
quinta-feira, junho 21, 2007
domingo, junho 17, 2007
I decided to dig out and photograph some old photos today (scary, huh?). This one is sophomore year of college, when my hair was pink and blue and I had gained a bit of weight because of allergies. I know there are more I should do, but it takes so long to get a decent shot, it's kind of discouraging. Besides, I should be finishing the giant wire mermaid I started a month ago, or doing the other lembrançinhas for the wedding. Should should should....
quarta-feira, junho 13, 2007
The saga of Ona-key has been quite long. I got her at the Capital Area Humane Society the day after I moved into the first apartment I could find that would allow me to have cats. I showed up in search of a cat and there she was.
The process of getting her down here with me is well catalogued here on this blog, as is her immediate sudden disappearance behind the fridge. About 2 years ago she started to go down hill. It began as a sudden fur loss on her back end that the vet attributed to stress because of the new baby (Ju was just born at that time). A few months later we found a lump under her front leg. The lump continued to grow and we had all her mammory glands removed, thinking it might be breast cancer. She recovered fine and seemd to be doing better, and then started to limp. It began as a slight hop on the back leg and we began giving her a small dose of pain killer to help her walk - the vet thought it might be a weak muscle which would correct itself if she was able to use it without pain. She didn't improve and we eventually stopped giving her the medication.
The limp became worse and worse until it was apparent both back legs were giving her trouble, becomming boney and sticking out at odd angles on the joints. She started laying on only one side, causing her wiskers to grow crooked on that side, and seemingly making the crookedness of her back end worse. For a while she stopped walking at all, hardly moving, and we discovered that her claws had begun to grow into the pads of her feet because she was not sharpening them. I trimmed them and she improved. He decline seemed halted and she hobbled around the house like an old woman, hopping up and down the stairs with difficulty, but full of life, and trying to hide from Ju most of the time.
The suddenly last night, she freaked out. At first we thought Lela was bothering her - she suddenly woke us up at 1am, yoweling on the veranda. We chased Lela away and brought her inside. She started again and I became worried that she was in pain, but she would immediately stop when I went to talk to her and pet her, so I thought it must be something else. She repeated the yowel again at 2am, then 3am (waking up Ju and scaring the heck out of him), and then at 4am, and again at 5am. Through all this, it seemed that she was yoweling at imaginary things, hallucinations, and that there wasn't much I could do to help her. At 6:30, I was making coffee and she began again, waking up Ju, who then came down stairs, telling me that "Ona-kay tah chorando" - Ona-key is crying.
She spent all day hiding in various places, and the nanny dutifully checked on her to make sure she was okay. She started doing frequent yoweling again when she went to go eat, but it's hard to judge why. I petted her for a while and brought her in here with me on my lap. She hopped up on the shelf next to the computer and now is sleeping where the cooling fan blows hot air on her face. She seems quite contented at the moment. The vet said we might start giving her anti-psycotic drugs tomorow, but I think she should be examined first. I keep remembering when my mom's cat died, how he came and told her he was in pain, and I wonder if Ona-key is trying to do the same.
The process of getting her down here with me is well catalogued here on this blog, as is her immediate sudden disappearance behind the fridge. About 2 years ago she started to go down hill. It began as a sudden fur loss on her back end that the vet attributed to stress because of the new baby (Ju was just born at that time). A few months later we found a lump under her front leg. The lump continued to grow and we had all her mammory glands removed, thinking it might be breast cancer. She recovered fine and seemd to be doing better, and then started to limp. It began as a slight hop on the back leg and we began giving her a small dose of pain killer to help her walk - the vet thought it might be a weak muscle which would correct itself if she was able to use it without pain. She didn't improve and we eventually stopped giving her the medication.
The limp became worse and worse until it was apparent both back legs were giving her trouble, becomming boney and sticking out at odd angles on the joints. She started laying on only one side, causing her wiskers to grow crooked on that side, and seemingly making the crookedness of her back end worse. For a while she stopped walking at all, hardly moving, and we discovered that her claws had begun to grow into the pads of her feet because she was not sharpening them. I trimmed them and she improved. He decline seemed halted and she hobbled around the house like an old woman, hopping up and down the stairs with difficulty, but full of life, and trying to hide from Ju most of the time.
The suddenly last night, she freaked out. At first we thought Lela was bothering her - she suddenly woke us up at 1am, yoweling on the veranda. We chased Lela away and brought her inside. She started again and I became worried that she was in pain, but she would immediately stop when I went to talk to her and pet her, so I thought it must be something else. She repeated the yowel again at 2am, then 3am (waking up Ju and scaring the heck out of him), and then at 4am, and again at 5am. Through all this, it seemed that she was yoweling at imaginary things, hallucinations, and that there wasn't much I could do to help her. At 6:30, I was making coffee and she began again, waking up Ju, who then came down stairs, telling me that "Ona-kay tah chorando" - Ona-key is crying.
She spent all day hiding in various places, and the nanny dutifully checked on her to make sure she was okay. She started doing frequent yoweling again when she went to go eat, but it's hard to judge why. I petted her for a while and brought her in here with me on my lap. She hopped up on the shelf next to the computer and now is sleeping where the cooling fan blows hot air on her face. She seems quite contented at the moment. The vet said we might start giving her anti-psycotic drugs tomorow, but I think she should be examined first. I keep remembering when my mom's cat died, how he came and told her he was in pain, and I wonder if Ona-key is trying to do the same.
segunda-feira, junho 11, 2007
I think I have figured it out - it's not the kids that stress me out. It's the parents. Is it at every school that teachers are constantly questioned in our abilities to teach? Parents want their kids to go to our school, yet they come in with stories about how "the children don't learn anything" or that "there were a lot of complaints about the teachers this year." What I keep wondering is if they don't trust any of the teachers, why enroll your child with our school? If we can't teach, why are you here bugging us to make an exception just this once to let your child pass when they have not shown that they know the material? Why not just save us all the head ache and take your child to another school? Is it just because these are rich people's kids? People who are used to getting their way all the time? Is that what they think they are paying for? I am starting to get the impression that we are just supposed to do whatever they say, no matter what our professional opinions as educators are. The school sporatically backs us up there.... No wonder the kids show a HUGE lack of respect for us and their fellow classmates and the school grounds. I bet they are told at home that the teacher is wrong, that the problem is the teacher, and that the child should not worry about their behaviour or lack of learning, the teacher should be FORCING you to learn. Because we can just wave our magic wands and make the info appear in their heads. Poof! No wonder we have an almost complete staff turn over every 4 years - no one would want to sit here and deal with this when they could be working elsewhere for more money, in a country where they speak the language...
domingo, junho 10, 2007
terça-feira, junho 05, 2007
So they caught the SPAM king, or one of them anyway. And, in fact, my spam level is much much lower than it ever has been since college. I used to get at least 25 a day in my account I have had since 1998. I even went so far as to open another account because the spam was so bad that my inbox would fill up if I didn't check it 20 times a day. And now it has dropped off to about 2 or 3 a day. That's a pretty good track I think.
sexta-feira, junho 01, 2007
Great quote for the day - "my sperm are like the borg...a collective intelligence.
200 million minds. Plotting...learning the reproductive tract's weaknesses.....and waiting to strike.
Sounds like I have a terrorist in my pants" - Brian
Another interesting tidbit from school I forgot to mention - after all our hard work fund raising, begging, and cutting supply orders, our new music room was finally completed, with it's fancy sound proofing to prevent the echo-chamber effect, complete with a fancy double door to keep all sound inside and outside separated. We were all so excited, and then off went the piano (so lovingly stored in the computer room for so long) on it's cart, trailed and pushed by several maintenence men to make it's debute for the first class with piano music played by the music teacher since 2 years ago when this whole construction thing began. And oops, well, the engineers forgot that a music room needs to have a door way that instruments can fit through, and well, so the piano can't get into the music room. I guess we should have known to build the room around it, since doors are never a sure thing in this country, especially not in our school...
200 million minds. Plotting...learning the reproductive tract's weaknesses.....and waiting to strike.
Sounds like I have a terrorist in my pants" - Brian
Another interesting tidbit from school I forgot to mention - after all our hard work fund raising, begging, and cutting supply orders, our new music room was finally completed, with it's fancy sound proofing to prevent the echo-chamber effect, complete with a fancy double door to keep all sound inside and outside separated. We were all so excited, and then off went the piano (so lovingly stored in the computer room for so long) on it's cart, trailed and pushed by several maintenence men to make it's debute for the first class with piano music played by the music teacher since 2 years ago when this whole construction thing began. And oops, well, the engineers forgot that a music room needs to have a door way that instruments can fit through, and well, so the piano can't get into the music room. I guess we should have known to build the room around it, since doors are never a sure thing in this country, especially not in our school...
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