The Hills are Alive... o/~

Many many awesome thanks to neherenia for pointing us at an awesome source of streaming Christmas music. I've got it cranked up on my computer while I work on exams and sit with puppies today, and it's terrific. Given that until yesterday it was 85 degrees in Memphis, it's nice to be reminded that the winter holidays are coming up and not the 4th of July!

I had my first rehearsel with the St. Mary's choir last night, and it was great. It's a small choir, we're doing very different music than what the Chorale does, and everybody's really nice. Much, much fun. I'm very glad I signed on.

Also, here's the part where I put in my obligatory plug about our next Chorale performance:

George Frideric Handel's Seasonal Oratorio JUDAS MACCABAEUS "Handel's
dramatic choral oratorio based upon the Jewish story of the second
century Maccabean Revolt and the willingness to fight for liberty, laws,
and religion."

Sunday, December 4, 2005, 2:30 PM

Rhodes MasterSingers Chorale and Festival Orchestra Tim Sharp, Conductor

Soloists: Stan Warren, Tenor; Jay Carter, Countertenor; Carole
Blankenship, Soprano; Mona Kreitner, Soprano; Stephen Town, Bass

The Cannon Center for the Performing Arts, Memphis, TN

$5.00 General Admission Tickets/Tickets Available at the Door

Event Phone Number: 901-843-3775

We're trying very hard to fill the Cannon Center (which is frickin' huge!) so if you've got any interest at all in the performance, drop me a line! I've got tickets, and it ought to be a very good performance. I promise, you'll hear something musical you recognize! :)


More information about the performance can be found here.

A Difference of Opinion

My mother and I disagree about doctors.

She'll break her finger, and not even go to get it set. She refuses to get her back checked out, despite the fact that she wakes up some mornings unable to move. And vets? Right out. She has a vet-friend who's retired, whom she consults on matters and occasionally - under great duress - will see about a problem. But she orders her vaccines out of catalogs and has GT administer them, and we've argued about BOTH of my old cats who live in the kennel.

The latest argument was regarding Cricket, who's been dramatically losing weight for the last couple of months. I wanted to take her in and get bloodwork done. She wanted ... to just let it go, I guess.

While she is out of town, I took the opportunity to avoid the debate and just do it. Dr. Gebhart (who is now Dr. Hooker) saw her today on very short notice, confirmed that a growth on her side was just a cyst, ran an ultrasound (for free!) to peek at her kidneys, and drew blood for a run of tests.

Cricket demonstrated her displeasure by urinating all over the vet tech, who had to change scrubs before coming back out. Hee. Poor guy.

The good news is, her problem's not renal failure. But her white blood cell count was very high, so there's an infection somewhere. For now, she's on a run of baytril. It would be great if that solves the problem. We'll see.

I assumed that Cricket was, at the very least, up on her vaccinations. But I found out from GT when I got home that she hasn't had a feline leukemia vaccine since they got married. *facepalm*

We talked about you, selchi, because the topic of any medications she was already on came up. Dr. G. was all over happy about your pepsid recommendation, which I'll be continuing (she's been on it for a few days now).