“I Want” Wednesday . . . I Want To Know

Today’s question for “I Want” Wednesday is “What Do You Want To Know?”

Oh boy.  I want to know so many things.  There are so many things I wonder about on a regular basis, but I’m not sure whether they fit into the “want to know” category or if they are more of the “sure would like to know” variety, such as why cats purr and dogs don’t, or why some people don’t wonder about things the way I do, or what is going through my cat’s mind when she bites me (only occasionally, thank goodness).  But there are also those burning questions or problems, things I really, really, want to know, among them:

I want to know . . .

1 . . . a foolproof way to pick winning lotto numbers.  Even if it only worked once.  Yeah, I know; lots of people want to know that.

2 . . . how to build a database driven web site.  I’ve bought so many books over the years, and tried online courses, trying to learn PHP and MySQL and various other languages, tried database software, tried building a FrontPage (I know; I’m still in the dark ages) web site with an Access database, and I keep running into brick walls and caving under the massive overwhelm that falls over me.  I have never been so intimidated by a learning project before in my life.

3 . . . just how many hours of sleep I require.  No matter how long I sleep, it never seems like enough.  I’m just saying.

4 . . . quantum physics type stuff.  I wish I knew somebody who could explain those concepts and theories to me in language I could really wrap my head around.

5 . . . what kind of shoes my therapist wears.  She only wears socks in her office.  I have asked her if I can see her shoes at my last session, whenever that will be.  She didn’t really answer.  She said, “Shoes?  What are shoes?”

6 . . . where all those rolls of electrical tape are that I remember buying over the last few years.

I also have several religious questions and questions about societal issues and such, but I don’t want to make this entry a very deep and heavy one.  I’m in a “keep it light” frame of mind right now, but that might be a great topic for a future post.

So that, I s’pose, is it, for now.

Anyone else want to know anything?

Maybe I’ll add more items in the comments if I think of them.

Misc. Stuff

I think I joined blogguiltfree.org the other day.  I’m not sure.  When I clicked “submit”, it took me back to the same page, and I can’t find my blog listed.  I’m just not sure . . .

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I’ve decided to try participating in NaBloPoMo for April.  I don’t think I have ever blogged every day for a month, in any blog or online diary I’ve ever had, but the challenge might be a good thing.  I don’t know yet whether I will stick to the theme or not, and I don’t know when members get to find out what the theme for the month is, but I’m going to give it a good try to blog every day.  Some of it may (likely will) be silly stuff, though . . . be forewarned!  (I’ll be really lucky if the theme is silliness!)

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I finally posted the picture of my hair on the floor of the beauty shop.  It’s been over two weeks since I got it cut and it took that long to get it out of my phone.  It wouldn’t go by email or text, so I finally sent it via Bluteooth to my other phone and then transferred it to the computer via the USB connection I have for that phone.  (I still need to get one for my newer phone.)  I still don’t get it, though, why photos that are even smaller file sizes than that one won’t transfer, by email/text or Bluetooth.  But anyway.  Eventually I’ll get the USB cable and that (hopefully) should solve the problem.

So is it just me, or does the pile of hair on the floor look bigger than my cat?

Gluten Free Recommendation: Scotch Clear Glue With 2-Way Applicator

This past spring / summer, I went through a few months where I was getting some kind of mystery gluten and couldn’t pinpoint where it was coming from.  I did a lot of comparing with others on Celiac forums and learned a lot that I hadn’t known prior to that, such as the fact that I needed to replace anything porous in my kitchen (plastic or rubber spatulas, wooden spoons, plastic spoons, wooden or plastic cutting boards, colanders [plastic or metal, as gluten can stick in those tiny holes], plastic measuring cups, plastic food storage containers, etc., and even non-stick cookware.)  Since gluten is not like a germ or bacteria that can be “killed” with bleach or antibacterial cleaners, those items must be replaced to ensure that they are not causing cross-contamination.

I also learned that the cat food I had been using as treats for my cat was not gluten free.  The vet said that brand-name cat treats are junk food for cats, and that since Emily has developed a sensitive stomach over the last few years, he recommends a specific brand of food, which fortunately is gluten free, and he suggested that I buy a different flavor of the same food to use as treats.  That’s what they do in their office, in fact.  I was doing that and all was well, and then one day I (without thinking) picked up another brand of “all-natural” cat food to use as treats because money was tight that week and it was a little cheaper.  (I won’t ever do that again.)  I hadn’t even thought about Emily’s food needing to be gluten free, since I don’t eat it, but as several people pointed out to me on the forum I was on:

1. cat eats food

2. cat licks self, distributing lots of gluteny saliva on her fur

3. I pet her, and now it’s on my hands

So, Emily is happily gluten free along with her Mama.  And interestingly, I had noticed some very uncharacteristically aggressive behavior on her part while she was eating that other food, and it completely stopped the moment I switched her back to only what the vet recommends.  She’s normally the most loving, affectionate cat, but during those couple weeks, she bit me hard enough to draw blood and leave tiny little tooth-holes and bruises on my arm three times.  I counted eleven punctures after the third bite.  That is very, very unlike her.

Well, during that time of cleaning out all the porous items in my kitchen and switching my cat’s food, I also made other changes, like deciding to no longer lick envelopes.  Some envelope glue is safe and some is not, and since I seal all sorts of envelopes at work (not only the ones we buy but also the return envelopes that come in with many of our bills), I decided to never lick any envelopes at all, ever, to be safe.  I bought some Scotch Clear Glue with 2-Way Applicator for envelope sealing, and I love it.  It has a sponge applicator on one end that is perfect for sealing envelopes, and a narrow pointed applicator on the other end for applying a thin line or several “beads” of glue.  It dries quickly and isn’t messy or awkward, as the water envelope sealers (and even glue sticks) can be. 

I called 3M today, before posting this entry, just to make sure, and they said it is gluten free.  I believe I called when I first bought it as well, but I couldn’t remember, and since I have been using it for months with no reaction, I felt confident that it was gluten free, but I wanted to be absolutely sure before recommending it to others who can’t tolerate gluten.

I will share other gluten free recommendations here in future posts.

Stay tuned!

Will

If you imagine this kitten as an all-black kitten, it looks remarkably like the one I connected with on Monday.  Coworkers got him out from under the building, where he was all alone and crying.  There are several feral cats that live in the woods by where I work.  Nobody could find the mother cat and the baby kept crying and crying.

We had nothing to feed him, so one coworker went to his house and brought back a can of cat food (he has cats).  I opened the can and the kitty went nuts when he smelled the food, but he wasn’t able to eat it.  He would put his face into the food and try to suck, but he wasn’t getting more than a tiny amount.  I tried putting a little on my fingers and discovered that he has teeth.  Sharp little teeth.  He didn’t draw blood, but he made me yelp more than a few times.

I called probably ten veterinarian’s offices, as well as two or three animal rescue services, asking if they take in orphaned or abandoned kittens.  Nope.  Either they don’t take in animals, as in the case of the vets, or they are over capacity.  One guy from one of the shelters asked how old the kitten was and whether he had teeth yet.  I said yes, he has teeth, but he doesn’t know how to eat yet.  The guy said if he has teeth, he’s too old for them to take him.  Two other shelters are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.

So, there I was, with the phone book open and canned cat food all over my desk (and my hands, and my shirt), and this little starving, cat food-covered kitten, still crying, crawling up under my hair, trying to nurse on my scalp.  And my coworkers leave, to go do their work.  And I haven’t gotten any work done all day.  And Boss comes in and has that tight look he gets when he’s getting pissed off, and I’m feeling terribly stuck in the middle of an awkward situation.

I went outside several times with the kitten, trying to find the mother cat, and never saw her.  She’s usually not far away.  I finally asked Boss if I could go and buy him one of those little bottles and some kitten formula, and he said yes.  (He loves cats, which really helped the situation, and it turns out that, while he didn’t like the disruption of work, most of his annoyance was because he wasn’t dealing well with the constant mewing.)  I put Kitty into a box that someone fixed up with an old sheet and went to get the items he needed.  I also picked up a small alarm clock, thinking the ticking sound might be soothing for him in the box.

When I got back, I was able to feed him from the bottle.  What an experience!  It took awhile to get the hole in the nipple the right size so the formula would flow properly, and it took a little doing to get him to open his mouth at just the right time to discover that there was something nourishing in that plastic thing I kept putting in his face, but once he got the idea, it was amazing.  He put his tiny paw on my thumb and ate enthusiastically.  His belly gurgled and he shook, and I whispered sweet nothings to him.  After he ate, I was holding him up under my chin, snuggling with him, getting a little bit of paperwork done with one hand, and I felt like I was being watched.  I looked down, and he was staring up at me with those little blue eyes, and I felt enveloped in love.  I hope he got the same feeling when I smiled back at him.

In the mean time, Boss called his wife, who called a few people, and found a couple who takes in abandoned baby animals and takes care of them until they can be adopted.  They agreed to come get him and help him, and then bring him back to us when he is weaned.  We’ll still need to find a home for him then, but he is getting the care he needs now.  And there is always the chance that someone the couple knows might adopt him, I am hoping.

(Anyone who lives in Florida and would like to adopt an adorable little kitty with a heckuva will to live, please contact me.)

If I were going to adopt him, I think I would consider naming him Will.  My 9 1/2 year old cat, Emily, wouldn’t handle it well if I brought home another cat.  I actually tried, two years ago, and brought home a six-month-old kitten that a coworker’s relative was trying to find a home for.  I had her for three months, and Emily was depressed the entire time.  She laid in the corner of the room, wouldn’t come to me, wouldn’t purr, wouldn’t talk to me, only ate enough to survive, and licked the hair off of part of her back.  When I saw that she wasn’t getting any better or adjusting despite my best efforts to spend quality time alone with each cat and to praise them every time they occupied the same airspace without fighting, I finally went looking for a home for the young cat.  I found a nice young couple with a baby and another young cat, and they fell in love with her.  (Recently I saw some pictures of the cat, all grown up.  She’s beautiful and looks very happy, and they even kept the name I gave her!)  The very night I took the cat to the young couple, I came back home and my Emily started to talk to me again.  (She has a huge cat-vocabulary and has always been very communicative with me.)  Her hair grew back and I haven’t tried to force her to accept another pet since.