Back on the Home Front
Dec. 7th, 2006 04:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cleolindaAll right, now that I've cleaned out my linkspam pile, back to shenanigans chez Cleo:
After some discussion with my psychiatrist, we've decided that I've done well enough on 75 mg Lamictal for a month that I'm going to go ahead and go back up to 100 mg. Remember, the last time I did this--except that it was a jump from fifty to a hundred--there was itching and existential despair. This time, I was very, very cautious. Also, we talked about decreasing my Zoloft from 150 to 100 in January, and after I got off the phone I thought better of it--I decided to immediately drop down, so that basically I was exchanging one medication for the other, kind of like Indiana Jones with that golden idol thing. And so far, it's worked: I have noticed absolutely no side effects at all, which is astonishing. I mean, usually there's any kind of medication change, I at least feel a little dizzy or flushed or buzzed for a day or so. This time? Nothing. Outstanding.
Meanwhile, my mother is stroking the hell out over the 556 packages due at the house. Never mind that the UPS guy is here every single day; he's not bringing enough. ("More boxes, mule!" WHP-CHAAA!) I mean, yes, we have two birthdays coming up, plus Christmas, but emailing me every six minutes to see what's arrived isn't going to make them get here any faster, for God's sake.
Most of the stuff coming in has been for my sister, who wanted "a knife and a dog" for Christmas. The latter is actually a point of great controversy, as she wants a husky and my mother most emphatically does not. And since Sister Girl's on the verge of moving out but not quite ("roommate" problems yet to be sorted out), Mom is dead set against getting the dog, because she's convinced it's simply going to be living with us, and since we have two pomeranians already, she'd rather we had something the size of, say, a Norwich terrier, not a puppy that's already bigger than Sam. There have already been several fights on this subject, and what I'm really afraid of is that Sister Girl's just gonna up and get the dog for herself.
As for the knife, it's a ten-inch Global. She's in cooking school, as you'll recall. Maybe this means something to you; all I know is, she chose a Global over a Wüstof (pronunciation: WOOSTOFF. Roll it around for a moment: WOOOOOOOSTOFF), which makes me sad, because "Wüstof" is a fantastic word. ("Oooooh, say it again!" "WOOOOOSTOFF!" "Oooooh!") Actually, we're probably supposed to be saying it "Voostoff," but I kind of don't care. I put the umlaut in--what do you want from me?
Anyway, it arrived yesterday, and she was so excited that she ran past me and opened it, even though it was her big Christmas present (Woostoffs: not cheap), and took it to school to show off. So I was extra-careful to hide the martini glasses she wanted for her twenty-first birthday, which is on the 17th. She also wanted some chocolate from Vosges, particularly the Volcano Island honey truffles, which I got her last year as well. Going to cooking school apparently gives you extremely expensive taste.
Me, I'm waiting for a package I ordered for someone else, and we still have a couple of Amazon things outstanding, I think. Meanwhile, we are at a complete and total loss as to what to get my stepfather for Christmas. He does like books about politics (he's an anti-Bush, anti-O'Reilly Republican) and recent military history, but he needs them in large print; he likes WWII movies, but we've pretty much run out of those; he likes musicals on DVD, particularly stuff like Smokey Joe's Cafe or Phantom of the Opera, but we're running out of those, too. He'd like some live performances on DVD, but again: running out of those. (Anyone know if there's a DVD of Swing?) He's really not very fond of Christmas in general (whereas we backstroke through the ornaments and the decorations and the presents like those Disney executives in their money), and he's just not very into stuff. "I've got everything I need, and there's nothing I want." ARGH. How are we supposed to keep the economy going without the wanton, unnecessary acquisition of goods? I ask you.
Finally, from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
stardustshine: "I just noticed there is a link at the very bottom of the news story regarding James Kim: http://jamesandkati.com. It includes a link for monetary donations, an e-mail address for thoughts, and a physical address for other donations people would like to make to the family."
After some discussion with my psychiatrist, we've decided that I've done well enough on 75 mg Lamictal for a month that I'm going to go ahead and go back up to 100 mg. Remember, the last time I did this--except that it was a jump from fifty to a hundred--there was itching and existential despair. This time, I was very, very cautious. Also, we talked about decreasing my Zoloft from 150 to 100 in January, and after I got off the phone I thought better of it--I decided to immediately drop down, so that basically I was exchanging one medication for the other, kind of like Indiana Jones with that golden idol thing. And so far, it's worked: I have noticed absolutely no side effects at all, which is astonishing. I mean, usually there's any kind of medication change, I at least feel a little dizzy or flushed or buzzed for a day or so. This time? Nothing. Outstanding.
Meanwhile, my mother is stroking the hell out over the 556 packages due at the house. Never mind that the UPS guy is here every single day; he's not bringing enough. ("More boxes, mule!" WHP-CHAAA!) I mean, yes, we have two birthdays coming up, plus Christmas, but emailing me every six minutes to see what's arrived isn't going to make them get here any faster, for God's sake.
Most of the stuff coming in has been for my sister, who wanted "a knife and a dog" for Christmas. The latter is actually a point of great controversy, as she wants a husky and my mother most emphatically does not. And since Sister Girl's on the verge of moving out but not quite ("roommate" problems yet to be sorted out), Mom is dead set against getting the dog, because she's convinced it's simply going to be living with us, and since we have two pomeranians already, she'd rather we had something the size of, say, a Norwich terrier, not a puppy that's already bigger than Sam. There have already been several fights on this subject, and what I'm really afraid of is that Sister Girl's just gonna up and get the dog for herself.
As for the knife, it's a ten-inch Global. She's in cooking school, as you'll recall. Maybe this means something to you; all I know is, she chose a Global over a Wüstof (pronunciation: WOOSTOFF. Roll it around for a moment: WOOOOOOOSTOFF), which makes me sad, because "Wüstof" is a fantastic word. ("Oooooh, say it again!" "WOOOOOSTOFF!" "Oooooh!") Actually, we're probably supposed to be saying it "Voostoff," but I kind of don't care. I put the umlaut in--what do you want from me?
Anyway, it arrived yesterday, and she was so excited that she ran past me and opened it, even though it was her big Christmas present (Woostoffs: not cheap), and took it to school to show off. So I was extra-careful to hide the martini glasses she wanted for her twenty-first birthday, which is on the 17th. She also wanted some chocolate from Vosges, particularly the Volcano Island honey truffles, which I got her last year as well. Going to cooking school apparently gives you extremely expensive taste.
Me, I'm waiting for a package I ordered for someone else, and we still have a couple of Amazon things outstanding, I think. Meanwhile, we are at a complete and total loss as to what to get my stepfather for Christmas. He does like books about politics (he's an anti-Bush, anti-O'Reilly Republican) and recent military history, but he needs them in large print; he likes WWII movies, but we've pretty much run out of those; he likes musicals on DVD, particularly stuff like Smokey Joe's Cafe or Phantom of the Opera, but we're running out of those, too. He'd like some live performances on DVD, but again: running out of those. (Anyone know if there's a DVD of Swing?) He's really not very fond of Christmas in general (whereas we backstroke through the ornaments and the decorations and the presents like those Disney executives in their money), and he's just not very into stuff. "I've got everything I need, and there's nothing I want." ARGH. How are we supposed to keep the economy going without the wanton, unnecessary acquisition of goods? I ask you.
Finally, from
stardustshine: "I just noticed there is a link at the very bottom of the news story regarding James Kim: http://jamesandkati.com. It includes a link for monetary donations, an e-mail address for thoughts, and a physical address for other donations people would like to make to the family." 
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-12-08 01:32 pm (UTC)What I'm seeing is this - and feel free to go down this list with her if you so choose:
1. She's in cooking school. From what I understand, this can take up a lot of a person's time each day. An 8-week-old puppy of ANY breed will need to go outside for "business" every few hours at the very least so that it gets the idea that inside is NOT the place to do that. Who's going to take the dog out?
2. Huskies - hell, PUPPIES - chew. A lot. Is Sister Girl ready to either have her belongings chewed up or reimburse anyone for something Puppy gets into when she's not watching? Because believe me, they do get into stuff.
3. Huskies have thick double coats. This means that in Alabama especially, they shed like fiends for several months. Is Sister Girl ready to spend time each day grooming the dog and vacuuming up shed fur? Because a matted-up long-haired dog is a miserable, miserable creature.
4. Huskies are insanely energetic and clever. Does Sister Girl have the money to spend to enroll Puppy in ongoing training classes so that Puppy does not grow into Uncivilized Demon Hound of the Frozen North? Does Sister Girl have the time to spend each day in training sessions with Puppy to make sure they both understand what the trainer asks of them?
5. Puppies are expensive little beasts. There's the cost of the dog itself (and if you do your reasearch and get a good Husky to minimize vet expenses due to careless breeding, that's probably going to be several hundred dollars or more right off); then there's the cost of the first year's vaccinations, tests, heartwork preventative at about 6 months or whenever the vet says it's safe to start that, spaying/neutering, toys, bowls, collars, leashes, crate/kennel, etc. Where's this wellspring of cash going to come from? There will be probably one or two urgent vet visits in there because in my experience, the typical puppy worships at the altar of Murphy's law...and will get into things, usually the worst possible things for ensuring its future health and safety.
If Sister Girl can't give detailed answers to all of these questions, then she needs to a) wait till she has realistic plans in place for all of the above, or b) not get a dog at all, or c) look into getting an older dog from an animal shelter or rescue group. Shelter and rescue dogs are older, have, on the whole, fewer obnoxious puppy habits and c) NEED a home. They're not cute puppies anymore...and it's hard for an adult dog to get adopted. Just something for Sister Girl to consider as well.
And please understand I'm not flaming you, Cleo...just nothing gets under my skin like folks who think they can walk into a store, plunk down cash for a puppy, and walk out with Lassie - ta-daa! Raising a puppy to be a civilized member of society can be quite a lot of work...and sometimes folks forget that. And it's always the dog who pays for it when they do.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-08 02:02 pm (UTC)No, no! I totally understand where you're coming from. These are all things we've tried to impress up on her, but she always has (not entirely satisfying) solutions to everything we bring up. She's just one of these people who, when she gets a wild hair on, can't be unconvinced, and it's turned out badly before. (I mean, not badly-badly--she got a pair of bunnies that we ended up giving to a little girl and her family who really wanted them, so I don't mean that the bunnies suffered; I mean that we suffered while she had them.) I think this is why my mother and I are concerned that we're going to end up with the husky, because if my sister can't take care of it, or can't afford to, it's going to end up here with us, and we'd give it everything it needed, but it still wouldn't have a big yard to play in or lots to do.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-08 06:18 pm (UTC)Siberian Huskies have a tendency to be high prey-drive dogs. This means that, in Husky, "Pomeranian" would likely translate to "between-meal snack," not "housemate." And to the inevitable "Oh, but MY dog wouldn't do that!" How do you know for certain? A puppy is a gamble...and are you willing to take that risk with the lives of the dogs that already live in the house? Because in any physical argument between a Pom and a Husky...I think it should be obvious which dog would come out on the losing side.
It's for this reason that many greyhound rescue groups will not place a dog with even a hint too much interest in cats in a home with any small animals...it's not worth the gamble being made with the smaller pet's life.
Best hopes that you can get it all resolved with a minimum of drahmah and worry for all concerned. :)