Lisa Sparkle

Lisa died.
She was the best cat ever. She has been with us almost since we moved into this house.. over 10 years. She was always the sweetest cat, and put up with my sister and I while we were young, annoying, and not so pet-friendly, never holding that against us. She loved being scratched under her cream-colored chin, and had a purr you could never hear, but always feel. She loved to curl up in the dining room chairs, under the table, and also in piles of paper in my mom's office. She'd climb up the front door to look in the window when she knew we were in the living room watching tv, and she'd sit on her towel on the couch with us through Law and Order marathons. She came in every morning to sit with my mom in the kitchen while each of us came in and ate our breakfast. She was timid around strangers, but she was always ready for her family to give her a pet.

She's been with us a long, long time. We've had a lot of 'second' cats, but none of them hold a twig to what Lisa was. She was sophisticated and thoughtful, but friendly and loving.

Only a few weeks ago, knowing she was getting old, I took out my camera and took three pictures of her.. the only three pictures we have of her. I meant to take more later, but I've never been so glad that I took pictures in my life. I'm so glad I didn't put it off.







We love you, Lisa. You'll always be remembered.

Fun Things You Might Not Want to Read While Eating

First, I'll define some of the stuff I saw yesterday:
(Warning: May not be fit for the light at heart)

Endometrial ablation - Done by an instrument called Novasure. This is done to treat people with heavy bleeding (aka menorrhagia) who no longer want to have kids. The cervix is dialated with some metal probes (pretty much, they stick in a small one, then a bigger one, then a bigger one, etc, until your cervix is big enough.. I can't imagine this isn't painful, but luckily you're under general anesthesia) and then the Novasure is stuck in. A triangle-shaped metal net comes out of the end of the Novasure and expands to fit the uterus, then creates a vaccum that pulls the uterus walls in to fit snugly against the net. Then an electrical current is passed through the net until all the tissue is dead (aka cooked). To see an animation of this, go here. (This guy goes on about how he does it in his office with local anesthesia.. It is a super fast procedure, completely automatic, and fairly simple, but personally I'd go with the operating room and general anesthesia.) (The dr I observe with also used an endoscope inserted through the cervix to examine the uterine lining before and after the ablation to ensure it all went smoothly.)

Genital wart removal with laser - Not much to say, pretty much what you'd expect. Everyone puts on special laser glasses and the dr uses a pair of binocular-type-things with a laser attached, and fries the warts. They pop and fizz, and then turn black.

Laparoscopy - This was my favorite. They make a small incision in the belly button, punch through your abdominal wall with a big spike, then fill your abdominal cavity with air until you look nice and rounded. The air pushes the abdominal wall out and allows space between organs, so you can actually see things when you go in to look around, instead of just being trapped between some squished-up organs. They insert an endoscope through the incision, so the picture shows up on the tv. It really is an amazing view of the human body. The dr showed me the uterus, ovaries, intestines, appendix, and liver. She tried to find the ureters, but they were hiding. Everything was very colorful and lovely. She then found some endometriosis, and burned that off with the laser. They make a second very small incision just above the pubic bone (and use another spike) so they can put probes, scissors, etc in to manipulate things with. At the end of it, the air is allowed to escape, and the dr pushes on the abdomen to make sure as much as possible is out, or it can form bubbles in your shoulder joints and be pretty painful. (A little like 'the bends' but not so severe.) The incisions require only 1-3 stitches.



Tubal ligation - Starts out like a laparoscopy, then they stick a long probe with little clamp-like jaws at the end into the second incision. They clamp it round a fallopian tube and send a burst of electricity to it, which kills off the tissue of the tube. They do this until there a 2 to 3 cm section of the tube is nicely browned, then do the same to the other. Then scissors are sent in, and the tubes are cut (note: only the tube is cut, not the tissue that runs along the bottom of the tube, so the ovaries are still attached to the uterus through that, not just randomly banging around your body) and then the ends of the cut are re-electrocuted. (I couldn't find any pictures that were close enough to what I saw for my taste.)

I thought some of you might be interested in these fun facts about the body that I discovered yesterday:
- the cervical canal is white with red splotches and dots
- the inside of the uterus is white
- inter-uterine polyps look like sea anemones pulled in (except white)

- ablated human organs look just like cooked beef
- ovaries are white
- the uterus is not a flat triangle. From the top, it looks like an apple, very hard and very round. (It's also red.)
- the fallopian tubes don't stick out nicely from the top corners of the uterus, nor do they start out much wider and get skinnier. They look like very skinny, floppy arms sprouting out of the uterus and hanging down by it's sides. Not straight down, since there's organs and such, but not nice and stretched out either.
- ovarian cysts are big black evil-looking balls (and are not always signs of bad things)
- small intestines look fun to touch

Owl pictures to come soon. Watch this space.

Tubal Litigation

(This is what I accidently told my mom I saw today, which I am never going to live down. If you don't get the joke:
litigation - to engage in legal proceedings
ligation - the state of being bound
'Tubal ligation' is what I was referring to, or 'having your tubes tied.')

Anyway, on Saturday my mom and I found a baby owl in the middle of the road outside our house, so we caught it in a towel and put it in a little basket, since it's wing was badly injured. It was the cutest owl, with big green-yellow eyes. Its wing was really bad though - very infected. We took care of it outside in the heat for a few hours while we called up every animal-related place in the metroplex to try and find out who to call (that was still open) to pick him up or take him to. We ended up taking him to an emergency animal clinic in North Richland Hills (or at least, we had to drive through North Richland Hills to get there) as darkness fell, but when we got there and they looked at him, they said his infection was too bad, and they'd have to put him down. Poor little owl. I'll post some picture of his cuteness soon.

In other news, it's fairly obvious from the opening to this post that I'm doing obervation. I'm observing with a ob/gyn at USMD and it's great fun. She's really nice, and I'm seeing lots of interesting things, and also some sad things. Today, as I said, I saw a tubal ligation, two laparoscopies, genital warts being burned off, and two endometrial ablations. Maybe I'll define those later, I'm lazy now. The laparoscopies were my favorite. *Does a little dance of excitement*

Hartlepool! I'll be leaving this Friday to fly to England to watch the final, and arriving back ~2pm Monday, I expect. I'm flying American instead of the usual BA so the times may be a little off, but they should be about right. I'm hoping to go early and have a ride on that new SkyLink thingy.

The condo stuff is going so/so. I'm having one hellova time getting my money from the UK to the US in order to actually purchase the house. Closing will probably be June 2nd or 3rd. I have less than 24 hours to pick out a water softener, and I'm driving down Thursday to inspect the house a last time and make sure all problems we noted last time have been fixed. This whole thing has been such a stressful, pain-in-the-ass experience, I'm very glad when it'll be over. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to be getting this wonderful condo, and I'm glad for the experience, but good lord - I'm so tired of all this contract reading and relaying stuff back and forth between Georgetown, Arlington, and the UK!!!

I bought a new book today:

Stiff by Mary Roach
It's good, I'm enjoying it. Heheheh (evil laugh).

The end.

H'Away the Lads!!!!!!!!!!! (cont)

Goood news! Hartlepool won the second-leg of the semi-finals for the playoffs! Now they're playnig Sheffield Wednesday in the final at Millenium Stadium in Cardiff on May 29th. If they win, they're going up to the first division, which is big-time! This is pretty exciting. Hartlepool is climbing the charts super-fast. : ) I might or might not fly over for that weekend to see the final (and also Kenneth & the twins).
From the Hartlepool Official Site:

We're There!
Pools will compete in their first-ever Play-Off Final after winning through their tie with Tranmere Rovers.

Martin Scott's men will now face Sheffield Wednesday at The Millennium Stadium on Sunday May 29th with a place in the Coca-Cola Championship the prize for the winner.

Pools will be taking 25,000 tickets for the Final and details on how to get your hands on a ticket will be available on the Official Website very soon.

Come on Pools!

You can also read about it on the BBC Sports Site.

Let's see... in other news, I woke up the other day to my computer talking and whistling to/at me. And yes, I checked all running programs, and I have no viruses or spyware (checked). Nothing was running that was making noise. I have just decided I'm a schizo. Oh well. Observation is going well, nothing wonderfully exciting, but interesting. Condo things are going fairly good. I think that's about it...

I am excited about Hartlepool. You guys are going to have to deal with my blog-turned-Hartlepool-fan-site until this is all over : )

H'Away the Lads

I just wanted to update everyone on the fact that Hartlepool won the first leg of the semi-final playoffs to be promoted to the first division (aka CocaCola Championship) - one league down from the Premiership! The next few games decide if they'll be promoted or not. Hartlepool are the fastest climing football team that many can remember.. 6 years now they've been in 5 playoff games to get out of the 3rd division or out of the 2nd division, and the other year they weren't in the playoffs because they were automatically promoted. Hartlepool are working their way up to the top, and it's been so exciting to watch.

Hahahahaha

Bourbon Congratulations! You're 111 proof, with specific scores in beer (20) , wine (100), and liquor (78).

Screw all that namby-pamby chick stuff, you're going straight for the bottle and a shot glass! It'll take more than a few shots of Wild Turkey or 99 Bananas before you start seeing pink elephants. You know how to handle your alcohol, and yourself at parties.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 32% on proof You scored higher than 73% on beer index You scored higher than 96% on wine index You scored higher than 87% on liquor index

Link: The Alcohol Knowledge Test written by hoppersplit on OkCupid Free Online Dating

I know jack shit about alcohol. Apparently that's pretty good for my age/gender group, though.
I stole this from Blakerson
(For those of you who don't know me well, I don't drink)

Life is Busy But Not Exciting

Today I set up a meeting this Friday that will be the signing of the first of the contracts to buy the house and the inspection of the house: the beginning of the end of all this house stuff. Man, it has not been easy. I look forward to the reward of having my own room and kitchen (and bathroom!) when school starts next semester, though. I know Laura-Pop is excited to have a kitchen.

What else what else... looks like I'll be observing with an obstetrician in May/June and hopefully doing Highland dancing with a lady once or twice a week. I'll be leaving for the UK 16th or 17th of June this year, and returning 1st or 2nd of August.

Can't really think of much else exciting that is going on right now.. trying to get everything sorted out is keeping me busy... that and playing stupid games and watching too many dvds. I think a lot of people are finishing up finals this week, so good luck to everyone.

Hum. I am sorry this post is pointless. Maybe in a few days I'll post again with something a little more worthwhile.

Bye bye, Cooper

So my dad just fired Hartlepool United Football Club Mangager Neale Cooper (he is the chairman of this second division team in England, for those of you who don't know). Bit of a shock, right before a big game, and the club is giving nobody a clue as to why he did it. He won't tell me or Elizabeth over email since it's 'not secure' and he's afraid it'll leak out. He'll tell us over the phone next time he calls, but sorry, I probably won't be allowed to post it here (though - damn! - that would speed up my web traffic : ) ). Neale was a nice guy, and a good manager, as far as I know, so I have no clue what that was all about.. especially at the time it happened, seems like they should have waited until a quieter time. My sister speculates that "Neale was bringing everybody down." Maybe my dad had a huge explosion and started firing people left and right. Ha. Gotta love my dad.
If for some unknown reason you wish to explore further:
www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk
www.inthenet-hufc.net
www.hartlepoolunited.co.uk (will have to spend 5 minutes getting a username/password)

In other news, my sister just baked cinnamon rolls from scratch, and damn are they good.

There's No Place Like Home...

Home again. At last. YEY!

I got home about 1am yesterday after spending all day packing up with my mom and stepdad. About half my stuff went into storage. 1/6 is in my room, 1/6 is in the living room, and 1/6 is still in my car. Yes, I'm lazy. Hey! I'm tired. I just now got my desktop up and working, and I'm really glad to have EmXP going strong in her place here on my desk. Finding a place for all the stuff I ended up buying down in Georgetown for my dorm is going to be a challenge, since my room is full, since I'm OCD and refuse to throw anything away. Given some time, I have the power to develop an emotional attachment to just about anything.

Anyway, I am glad to be back in A-Town, and await the arrival of everyone else (I think I'm the first, right?) So, friends, let me know when you'll be coming back.

Being here brings back a lot of memories... I shall try to avoid them best I can, but I'd pretty much have to skip town once more, and I'm not doing that.

In between all the 'fuck horsese' and 'buttonaire' searches that have been finding my site, I found this one:

05 May, Thu, 04:34:35  Google: sunrise, sunset, birthday and daylight for Emma

For some reason that made me smile...

I'll have to meet up with amPod (or mamPob) sometime....

Oh, that reminds me: Here's the score on the official nicknames for everyone this year: amPod, mamPob, Laura-Pop, Shane, Shale, Chez-nek