I’m moving into my house tomorrow, but the phone and internet connections could take a few to several days, so I may not be around much on here or on the phone. Meanwhile I’m fighting the early parts of a sinus infection, but my insurance is suddenly bizarre and the pharmacies don’t stay open past six, so I’m doing my best with Aleve and Sudafed–glad I brought at least a couple things with me. Apparently rather than having a selection of OTC meds on the shelves at any grocery or drugstore, you have to talk to the pharmacist and explain your symptoms and they might sell you something.

Also: Arliss has a Twitter account now too! She’s advanced past my own level of connectivity. I expect I’ll see her cell phone bill on my credit card next. She has a couple new posts at her blog, too.

Pics I took right before I left.

Arliss has her own blog! Yes, that’s right, I kicked her to the curb while I went on a European adventure for a year and she has already taken over her foster home’s computer to complain about it. I guess she got an even bigger head when she became a famous Disapproving Rabbit.

Please visit Arliss and I’ll try to let y’all know when she posts a new rant. Those are the only kinds of posts she will be publishing, I’m sure.

We had a big housecooling party last weekend which was a lot of fun and was also good for forcing a clean house! Meanwhile I hit a HUUUUGE pothole, got a flat a mile later, walked home, and had to get roadside out twice for help. The rim is bent and I have to go deal with getting the repaired wheel put back on soon.

Arliss leaves for her Cincy-area home tomorrow. This week’s last vet check shows her in great health and I expect to see her back, still stomping at me, in a year! The pigs went to my parents’ home a couple weeks ago, the frog went to David’s brother, and Vegas fuzzbun leaves in a few days. The zoo is shrinking. Soon the humans will equal the nonhumans, but I still think the dogs have the best deal in getting to sleep all day and have all their meals prepared for them.

A big country house and a castle house have now fallen through with various drama (sorry guys, but at least the pictures were neat), but our agent has found a great place for us a thousand feet from the sea! The fenced yard and minimal furniture will meet our needs well and it’s only ten minutes from work (and a mile from a 17th century fort with star shaped fortification).

view from a bedroom

It was supposed to be unfurnished but the agent talked the owner into at least some beds and chairs, so now I have to come up with lamps and pots and TV and spoons and everything else. I’ll probably be in a hotel for several days to start, anyway, so I’m just letting it all slide. It will be fun to explore and find my new belongings. Flexibility is the central part of this adventure, and that’s a huge step for this overplanner.

The hardest part has been not knowing the date I’m leaving. Without a work permit I can’t purchase a flight, and planning for HR and IT items that take several weeks of notice is difficult as a result. Meanwhile HR and IT and seven vendors need various approvals and forms and knowing the date I’m arriving to set up anything for me, and none of that is established. My pallet of stuff arrives on the island before I leave and even before I have an address for delivery!

Work computing, form filling, inventorying, and banking adjustments remain. And moving all my stuff from the desktop to the new laptop! I like the idea of a simpler system but I did send a real monitor and wireless input devices and my actual office chair. Maybe I can entertain myself in my empty house by rolling around in it.

Anyway, I found this while cleaning up for a fun going away party:

My first pets and their method of dispatch:

I also found evidence of hours spent at our first home computer, an Apple IIGS, for a school report. I drew a diagram I saw in a textbook, I think around 5th or 6th grade:

And here we have Amy creating a Rudolph-pulling-Santa’s sleigh photo op. I don’t know if we DID anything once dressed like that or if I just made the outfits and had the picture taken, but there ya go.

My favorite comment is that “she’s like a punk rock retiree”

This tool makes a graphic of how your tax dollars are spent (or were spent as compared to years back to 1940) if you enter your income.
Where your money goes

And everyone needs a giant guinea pig along with a regular one.

She had another checkup today and the vet couldn’t find any evidence of the abscess. So unless we feel something else collect under the skin, she just gets to finish healing! No more poking and flushes. It only took three abscess surgeries after the incisor removal surgery and a lot of aftercare to get us here. Her weight is stable and I will keep supplementing her food to make her stronger. She’s been through a lot in less than two months.

We’re pretty sure of her birth month from the story of the person who had her first, plus she was young but full grown when she came to me nine years ago. I just had one bunny at that time: my first, the beloved Luke, who later became Arliss’ pal. My friend didn’t want her bunnies anymore and Arliss and Cow came to live with me because she was going to give them to a circus or petting zoo. Can you imagine Arliss in a petting zoo? hahaha She and Cow had some seriously rough starts under that family’s care; I learned a lot about vet care with my new acquisitions! Arliss was originally named Avarice, which I thought was a terrible name for a bunny. I wanted to change it but call her something that sounded similar and that’s how she became Arliss!

Arliss’ first day home back in 2001. You can see she came with the glare.

I did indeed have cadaver bone put in during my osteomyelitis treatment! It was irradiated, powdered, and mixed with what is basically plaster of Paris, but it still sounds exotic. Unfortunately I’ve had some additional dental pain recently. You’d think I traumatized my teeth or something.

Arliss had her fourth surgery a week ago (vet and I agreed she didn’t need a CT scan after all) and she’s doing great! She even gained weight in the last two weeks.

Loving the Indy Winter Farmers Market on Saturday mornings. The place is PACKED and I love seeing cyclists with panniers riding in the snow! Note: the local chickens went on strike when it got super cold the last couple of weeks, so eggs were harder to come by. I like being able to get a half dozen a month since we don’t use more than that, and then I can take the carton back to the farmer to use again.

I discovered recently-reopened El Sol de Tala. This town has more Mexican (I use that as a geographic/ethnic term loosely) restaurants than you can imagine, but this one place stands out. They even have a veggie menu. It’s not the same old enchiladas anymore, people!

Following a craving, I had French toast at Denny’s, and even if they hadn’t ruined it with cinnamon and powdered sugar, it still was nowhere as good as Dad’s. He also blows away every pancake on earth.

I’ve finally heard from some of the relocation folks and the target start date in Ireland is March 1. There’s so much to do that it’s hard not just to plop on the couch with 81 SVU reruns on Tivo and ignore the obvious (that’s how many were scheduled in this two week period). One of my current focuses (okay, foci) is pantry raid: use up all the groceries that line our cupboards and freezer. In the past week we had breakfasty stuff to use up biscuits and fake sausages and last night I made chik’n and rice casserole. My freezer has several fake meat products that I’ve always kept as backup, but usually have been creative enough not to need for most cooking. I see a lot of chili in our future for the ground ‘beef’ crumbles…

Casper has a little love nibble for her best pals. Walter may be missing some whiskers on the sides of his face, but he loves the attention. I think it’s hilarious when her nose gets pushed up.

She had three surgeries in December, including having incisors removed and then two for this abscess thing that came up. I dropped her off again today (she’s been to the vet eight times), but this is the first time the vet was concerned that she wasn’t bouncing back. In other words, she’s not being her usual cranky, bitchy self.

I have been flushing the marsupialized areas every night, and the original location is healing very well. But now the big new one under her throat is getting worse and the options are CT scan to determine if there’s general infection in the jaw bone, which would lead to either a major surgery in the area to remove lymph nodes and whatever else might be contributing the pus, or just palliative care if it’s too extensive to treat. Or I could choose one of those paths without the diagnostic benefit of the CT scan: expensive but might save her an unnecessary fourth surgery if we consider that route. Repeated anesthetic experiences aren’t exactly easy on a geriatric body. Arliss’ ten cranky years have been very special and I don’t want to see her lose that zest for boxing and biting me (the biting part is easy to handle now that she doesn’t have teeth!). She’s outlived two bunny mates and I fear I’m not a good substitute. I try to make medical decisions consistent with quality of life, prognosis, and diagnosis as best as you can have one, which the CT scan should provide. She’s lost 20% of her weight and we’re at a crossroads. The constant care does allow me to spend a lot of time with her, though, and that’s important for me to feel as confident as I can in the medical decisions as well as for the closure that will have to come eventually. I’m just not ready to lose my little snot yet.

Arliss in healthier, more vertical times

Some special buns have passed on very recently, too, all some of my favorite fosters.

Jolene’s recent illness was an aggressive lymphoma. I named her after the Dolly Parton song. She had been adopted and returned twice and didn’t deserve to be shuffled around so much, but I’m kind of glad she was with us at the end.

Duncan’s mom (I knew him as Digit) let me know he passed today. He was about ten and recently dealt with stroke and cancer. Digie was the first bun selected for our Petco adoption program years ago and he flunked out for a health issue, which meant he got to stay with me for a long time before he found a great home. He was a really cool guy and the one who taught me how to give sub-q fluids and that parsley was healing magic.

Honey and Felix were my very first foster rabbits many years ago. Ms. Honey had outlived her friend and was almost 13 when she left us this weekend. I remember when they got in my kitchen cabinets one time and were hanging out in the dish rack.

Life is sweeter when you make it more comfortable for another creature, especially those someone else threw out first.