TIMBER!

That is the sound of the Ohio State Buckeyes falling from #1 in the college football rankings to #7 after Saturday's loss to Illinois. In the parts of the game that I saw, Ohio State did not play well and Illinois played very well - a lethal combination if you are on the losing end. The big game is this Saturday and all the wins of the season will mean nothing if we lose to Michigan. GO BUCKEYES!

It was an interesting weekend at our house. On Saturday afternoon, a teenage girl who lives around the corner and a few houses down came over to "meet and greet" with us in regards to future babysitting. She is fifteen and seems like a very nice girl, and A took to her immediately. We have already booked her for the night of J's company holiday party; it is going to be nice to have a good babysitter so conveniently located.

Yesterday we tried to take a field trip into Atlanta. I wanted to stroll around the campus of Emory University; I haven't been back since I graduated 18 (gasp) years ago. We thought we would also take the opportunity to go to a Trader Joes grocery store and visit the Dekalb Farmers Market, which is an amazing grocery store and where I did all of my food shopping when I lived in Atlanta during graduate school. It seems slightly pathetic that upscale/unusual grocery stores are a weekend destination for us, but with only standard grocery stores out here in Green Acres, Trader Joes and DFM are treats.

Just before we left the house, A threw up. We weren't too concerned, thinking he had just had too much Cap'n Crunch for breakfast. His color was good and he said that he felt fine, so we proceeded with our plans. Silly, silly us. We got about three miles from home when he announced that he was going to throw up again, so we pulled in a parking lot and I quickly got him out of the car. Once again, his healthy color returned and he assured us that his tummy was fine. But within about ten more miles, we had to pull over again and with that, we decided to go home. We had to pull over one more time on the way home so that A could pollute the roadside.

When we got home, we got A into jammies and put him to bed in the guest room. He slept for about two hours, then got up and was back to normal. He was ravenous and was quite annoyed that I would not let him eat a normal lunch! We kept his food bland the rest of the day, but he clearly felt better already and today is good as new.

So we will try our little field trip again next Sunday, hopefully with better results!

Things that go bleah in the night

There are times when I wonder why we have a cat. Many, many times. Spenser has been a royal pain in the tookus lately, even more so now that the weather has turned cooler. I guess the cold bothers him more since he is a senior (he is 10+ years old), but I can hardly sit down without him trying to climb on my lap. I know that I am nothing if not warm furniture but does he have to be so obvious?

Spenser also sleeps far more than he used to and since he sleeps at night on our bed, he expects us to go to bed when he is ready. He glares at us and blares his loud meow when he thinks it is getting late. Nothing will quiet him down until we go to bed and he hops in after us.

In the wee hours of this morning, we were awakened by the sound of, well, heaving. No delicate way to put it - Spenser was getting ready to throw up. If it would have been light enough to see, we would have been treated to the sight of his whole body undulating...each heave starts at the end of his tail and works its way in a wave to his head. And he is LOUD; no delicate upchucking for him.

I decided that I was too warm and comfortable to get out of bed and try to move him onto tile. Several months ago I tried a similar maneuver in the dark, only to hit the recliner in the corner while running. I dropped Spenser, hit one armrest and flipped over onto the floor. Although J gave me a 9.8 for difficulty and 7.3 for style, I ended up with a hideous bruise on my side and Spenser still threw up on the carpet.

So I let him heave in peace last night, knowing what would be waiting for clean up this morning. To my surprise, after all that heaving and horking, only a quarter size spot was on the floor by the bed. Much ado, indeed, about nothing.