Everything but the kitchen sink....

That's what it's felt like these past three weeks. At the end of June I headed to a conference in Washington, DC. It's been a while since I've been there and I enjoyed being back. Good roommate for the conference, which is always a plus and I got to visit family and friends as well, a huge added bonus. The conference was so-so, which was disappointing, however, with all the walking I did, I didn't have a lot of guilt about not working out. I walked A LOT. And, I did stairs. Steep escalators freak me out, so at the conference center, I used the stairs instead of the escalators. Since the exhibitors were on the lower level, there were a couple of days I did this more than once. Actually, I was pretty proud of myself. They didn't kill me, so maybe I'm not as out of shape as I thought I was.

Got back the Thursday before Fourth of July. I worked that Friday, then took the following Monday and Tuesday off. All told, I was probably in the office one day in a two week period. I'm not feeling guilty. The conference might have started on a Friday, but it went through the weekend to Tuesday. And, no comp time for the weekend conference time. Which is standard and not something I choose to dwell on. It just is. I'm terribly grateful that I get professional time to attend; I have colleagues who aren't supported in attending this conference, so they don't go or they use vacation.

My days off were spent doing a lot of little things. The Monday basically was set aside for all the repair folks to come, starting at 8:00 am. Who does that to themselves on a day off? But, I was desperate to have an A/C unit that didn't sound like it was preparing to take flight or was going to blow up. I now have that. I'm one happy camper. The mechanic showed up bright and early and didn't have to cut the sheet rock. This one actually felt the wall and could feel it hitting the wall. So, outside he went. He gave the pipe a really good yank to pull whatever was vibrating away from the frame and then moved the A/C unit itself a bit more from the house. Ahhh... it now makes the noise it's supposed to make.

The A/C guy was followed by the guy to repair the crack in the sheet rock in my bedroom ceiling. Alas, his English skills left a lot to be desired (read - he didn't have any) and I sent him away the first time because all he could say was "drywall" and for the life of me I was so focused on the A/C repair and the door ding that I forgot about the crack in the ceiling. Fortunately, the builder didn't. He was on his way over to mark the areas (he found more, which I'm not sure is a good thing or a bad thing) and tell the guy what to do. So, that guy was here about 2 hours doing that. The door ding repair guy arrived about 1:00. Thankfully, he spoke English (as did the A/C guy). Then, the painters showed up about 3:30. Well, the texture has to dry for about 12-24 hours. So, I asked if they couldn't come back the next day after 3:00, as I had to take kitty cat to the vet in the morning. They said yes. Of course, their English skills were lacking as well. Sigh.

So, kitty cat got a new scratching post, one of the cardboard ones, which she adored. Had catnip in it and she was all over it. Sounds cute. I got it for her on Friday. She liked it, it's much cheaper than her traditional scratching post (we've now gone through three), so I was happy. I thought it was cute that she rubbed her head and whole body on it and she used it to scratch. This is good, right? Umm... not really. By, Monday night her left eye was looking red and the skin above it was a little raw. By Tuesday morning, she just looked sad.. red eyes, red ears. I took my time getting ready to go as the appointment was at 11:00. No rush. The minute she saw the carrier, she was under bed. It's like 10:50. The vet isn't far, but if you've ever tried to coax a cat out from under a bed you'll know my dilemma. It just isn't done. In addition to said irritation, she was also in desperate need of a pedicure (thanks to a tendonectomy her front claws have issues and I can't always trim them). She's only beaten me once and I couldn't have it this time. So, with great guilt, I resorted to the fly swatter to get her out. She hates it. I did not hit her... just swooshed it a bit near her. She came out and then tried to hide in her favorite dining room chair. I could get her out from there. Yes, she screamed at me the whole drive to the vets. Naturally, as I was leaving for the vet, the painters showed up. I told them I couldn't stay. They said 12:00. I said how about 1:00. They said okay. I'm still waiting. Maybe I should try to improve my Spanish since apparently contractors don't see a need for their employees to communicate with the people they serve.

I did not like the first vet I took her too. I loved this vet. They aren't trying to sell all kinds of products or services. They trimmed her nails and then the vet gave her a good once over. She also looked at the not really healing bald spot on her tummy (yes, the same one from February) and it had little red dots. So, something was definitely bothering kitty cat. This vet did what I think the first one should have done. Gave her a shot of low dose steroids. I swear, by that night she was looking better. I did take up the new scratching post. I'm going to give it a couple of more days for her to recover, then I'm going to dump the majority of the catnip out and see what happens. At first I thought either the cardboard or catnip was causing the irritation, but now I'm wondering if something wasn't already causing a problem and I provided a really good all round scratcher with the new scratching post. At any rate, not only does she look better, but I do believe she's perkier. I thought after the fly swatter incident and the trip the vet, she'd be mad at me for the rest of the day. Bless her little heart, she wasn't.

I'd hoped to do some flowers for the yard and in containers while I was off, but while I was enjoying beautiful weather in DC, it continued to rain here, straight through the Fourth. So, I did stuff in the house. Now it's the middle of the summer and I'm reevaluating what kind of planting I'm going to do. But, I still got a little rest and some things taken care of on my days off. Now, I just have to get the painters back.