Since bad things generally run in threes, I wonder what is likely to happen next. Today I voiced the question “Where is the cat?” I hadn’t seen him for several hours and usually he’s a yo-yo. “Owwwwwwwt! I wanna go OWWT!” “IN! Lemme IN!” This goes on all morning long.
So, I was rather surprised that I hadn’t seen him for several hours. It was chilly out, and Ed’s getting to be a cat who likes his creature comforts. I asked Elegant Mother if she had seen the cat. No. That left Dear Husband, who said he had let the cat out early, and let him back in shortly thereafter.
I started looking in all the favorite snooze spots and found him under the table that holds the computer in the living room. He was still there a couple of hours later, so I called to him. He rose partway, and hung there, as if trying to decide whether he could make it the rest of the way. He wouldn’t look at me, and finally settled back down on the carpet.
I got down on my hands and knees, and gently ran my hand over him. He didn’t seem to have anything broken. He let me touch him without offering to bite or crying out. I let him rest through the afternoon, and then got him to eat some cat chow. Just a few moments ago he lapped up some water, so I’m hoping it will be safe to let him sleep through the night.
I have no idea what’s causing the problem. I’m not even sure what the problem is! It could be that he has been hurt in a fight, or that he’s eaten a bad mouse. I suppose he could have been poisoned, or perhaps he’s got a cat version of the flu. My stepson just looked him over, and we agree that he doesn’t seem to need a flying trip to the emergency vet, so the game plan is to let him rest, and check him out in the morning.
It’s really difficult when a pet becomes ill. You want to do your best for them, but they can’t tell you what’s going on. I hope he feels better in the morning.

Elegant Mother has been under the weather this week. Both she and I have had a very minor stomach upset, but what is minor to me, is a bit more debilitating in an 88 year old. We went to breakfast with our exercise group, to celebrate the birthdays in February on Wednesday, and that evening she was ill. I knew that this bug was worth noting when she canceled her hair appointment on Thursday morning.

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This time of year I have a mental countdown going on. Dear Husband puts the Arr!! into the water close to May 15th, but there’s a lot of work that needs to be done to the boat before he takes it back to water. I know I have a limited amount of time before he will be so tied up with the boat that I won’t have help on the grounds.

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Nothing is certain but death and taxes.
This week, I’ve been gathering information for my 2004 taxes. My CPA has sent me a planner with a list of questions to answer. Now it’s my job to pull together the information from various sources.
I have a storage box under my desk. When I have a receipt, a paid bill or a deposit slip from the bank, I toss it into the box. In a good year, I might sift through the box once or twice, organizing the contents. And there are times when I ignore it for the entire year, and go through it in time for taxes. The documents for our taxes have come in earlier than usual, so it’s time to get busy and go through the box.
I sat on the floor with the box on Wednesday night and did my first shuffle. The papers were divided into several stacks: banking, paid bills, insurance, services, major purchases, mementos, and trash. Today, I worked on organizing some of the stacks. Once I’ve culled information for taxes from the stacks of papers, I’ll pull things from the Quicken program on the computer. Doctors, medicine, charitable giving, dues…all sorts of things will show up there.
It’s amazing what we learn from this activity. I have to do a little research, but I’ll be able to figure out whether Dear Husband spends more to sail, or I spend more to quilt. (Want to take any bets??) I’ll be able to determine how much of our net is spent on books or magazines, and what portion of our income goes to food, housing, vehicles or clothing.
I suspect that our household spends less on clothing, and more on food than the average household. I’m sure we spend more on books and magazines, but oddly, less on music and DVDs. I wonder if tax time encourages people to look into their budgets and make adjustments for the coming year? I’m sure I plan to cut back on chocolate purchases this year.
I hope you are all farther along than I am. I think I’m going to be at this for a while.

There have to be a LOT of women who have crossed being a “Borgata Babe” off their list as the goal of their life today. The Borgata Hotel, Casino & Spa in New Jersey announced that the women and men who work as cocktail waitresses and bartenders will now be limited to a weight gain of 7% of their total weight. Should they exceed that amount, they will either be put on a 90 day unpaid leave while they try to loose the weight, or they will be fired. Pregnant women, or those who have a medical condition will be given consideration, but will be required to wear a different costume.
Local 54 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union has filed a grievance, but should this come before a judge, I doubt, in today’s economic climate, that they will win their case. Representatives for Borgata have stated that the look of the “Borgata Babes” is part of the marketing plan that has brought them considerable success over their competition. The Borgata chain was careful to include the male employees in the new requirements, to forestall claims of discrimination.
Sex sells. Too bad the requirement to keep a sexy shape is likely to harm Borgata’s employees as they deal with the stress of maintaining weight. Insurance statistics show that it’s normal to gain weight as you mature. Women in their thirties, who might be beautiful, and are certainly capable of doing the work required of cocktail waitressing, will have to starve themselves to avoid natural weight gain. Perhaps this could be looked at from the point of view of age discrimination.
Borgata is likely to get what they want, but I can tell you they won’t ever get my dollars.

My sister sent me an article she had torn from a magazine. I suspect the magazine could be Oprah, given that there is an O in the upper corner of each page. If you’d like to go see the original article, look for the December, 2004 issue. The article is called “You Have The Right To Remain Silent.”

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Are you one of those people who will always go to the phone book if you don’t know the number of a person you want to call? Or, are you likely to just punch in 411 to let the phone company do the looking for you?
I have to admit that I was ticked when they started charging for information. Most of the time I’ll go look up a number, but there are times when I weigh the value of my time, and go for the assistance.
I’ve discovered that there are several ways to check for phone numbers on-line for FREE, so today I tried one of them. I’m happy to report that it’s quick, and easy, and most of the time, successful. I tried www.WhitePages.com today. I pulled up both business and personal phone numbers without any trouble. In several cases, I missed on the town, but the service checked surrounding areas for the number. Tomorrow, or the next time I need to look up a number, I’ll try SuperPages.com.
I remember trying the Yellow Pages at AOL when I was first on-line, without much success. I tended to avoid them after that, thinking that they amounted to advertising, and didn’t cover the area as thoroughly as I would have liked.
You all know that I’m not into electronic gadgetry, but I just discovered that both Google and UpSNAP have free directory assistance that responds to text messaged requests sent from mobile phones. How cool is that!? If I ever replace the dinosaur of a cell phone that resides in the black hole of my purse, I’ll have to get one with text messaging!
I’ll have to see what my cell phone company charges me when I dial 411. It may be convenient to call 411 when you are on a cell phone and you don’t have anything to write with, but you need to factor in just what they charge for the service. Since I rarely use my phone, and never use up my allotted minutes, to have to pay several dollars more a month for information on top of the basic monthly fee is just giving money away.
I know….it’s time to look for one of those phone deals where you only pay for the minutes you use. You’re right. Does anyone have a service they’d like to recommend?