January 19
Cat pharmacy?




Listening to: Once Upon A Mattress- Original Cast recording

Reading: Once Upon A Star Nora Roberts et al

Weather: 11, sunny, not much wind chill today

Trivia: Why are some dentures radioactive?

Millions of people wear some type of dentures (false teeth). Some of them, especially the oldest ones, are made out of porcelain that includes a trace of uranium, a radioactive element. The uranium was added to these old-style dentures because it fluoresces (glows in response to certain wavelengths of light), giving the dentures a bright, white look. Without it the porcelain teeth would appear dingy and greenish under artificial light. A full set of porcelain dentures releases about 1,500 millirems of radiation in a year, which is about four times the natural background level. Other factors that can lead to similar levels of exposure include living at a high altitude (from cosmic rays) and smoking (from elements in the smoke).

Cool word:dibs [n. DIBZ]

"I've got dibs on that!" is a phrase used sometimes by people who want to "stake a claim" on some desirable property. Usually the implied sense is something like "I saw it first, so it's mine." But what are dibs (always plural), and why does having them mean you get to claim something? This word is one of the mysteries of the English language. This word's recent history only goes back to 1932, when it seems to have popped into the language without warning. Where did it come from? Some sources refer to the old game of dibs or dibstones, the ancestor of today's game of jacks. This game is truly ancient, going back as far as classical Rome, where it was called pentalithia (five stones). The difficulty with this relationship is that it does not explain how the name of a stone-tossing game turned into the odd expression in use today. No one seems to know the whole story of the mysterious dibs.



Today was another one of those days when I never stopped. I started doing reports or class work the second I got to school this morning, and didn’t manage till leave the building until 3:45. I could probably have stayed even longer, but I needed to get to the post office and to the vet.



Ah yes.

The vet.

So Encore still isn’t right and I decided to call her this morning, especially because I was out of the special food. I called and she decided that she was also going to put him on a new prescription medication, Flagil.

So I trudged to her office to discover that I had to go to a pharmacy to fill the prescription. Huh? Is there such a thing as a cat pharmacy? No there isn’t. You go to a people pharmacy.

Well this was a new adventure! I went to CVS, where I often go to get my own prescriptions filled.

Here’s how it went:

The guy behind the prescription counter (who wasn’t wearing the requisite white coat) reads the prescription, which is clearly marked "Veterinary Clinic", looks at me and says, "Is Encore registered here?"

Hello!

Me: "uh, no, he's a CAT! "

"Oh", says the prescription guy. "Well, your health insurance won't cover this then."

Duh! Really? I'm shocked!

Give me a break.

It was rather humorous actually, but I didn’t think it was appropriate to laugh at the time.

So the prescription label reads: " My last name,Encore Cat."

Now I have the problem of giving him half a pill for the next twenty days. I wasn’t very successful tonight. I think maybe I managed to give him a quarter of it.

This is going to be a long haul.

Anyone got any tricks for giving a cat a pill? I tried wrapping him in a towel, but couldn’t hold him and pry his jaw open at the same time.

It wasn’t pretty.



My electric bill is going to strongly resemble the National Debt. I’ve had the heat cranked all night, even in the bedroom, and I’ve been using the heat lamp in the bathroom as well. I’m dreading the words "Boston Edison" on an envelope. And it should be arriving soon.

And I’m still cold. I have Renaud’s Syndrome, which means that the tips of my fingers and toes turn pink, then white, then look shriveled when they get really cold. It also hurts a bit. The temptation is to run your hands under hot water to warm them, but that’s a bad thing to do as it makes capillaries break. There isn’t much solution for it either.

Going to bed and turning on the electric blanket often helps. But typing isn’t good. So that means I’m calling it a day.

Another snowstorm is predicted for tomorrow. Yee haw. I get to drive in another storm. Seems as if it was just last Thursday that I was in that accident….

Oh. It was.

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Horoscope

ARIES

There are some strange forces at work on the career and reputation front where it is wise not to mess with people or situations you do not fully understand. They could be more powerful than you realize and you find you have bitten off more than you can chew. The future looks increasingly tempting and fresh to you as you contemplate your plans and know that this year it is going to be highly progressive and different.