Alladin went to the vet yesterday, a little dehydrated. They wanted to keep him over the weekend, because of his history with the UTIs and the lack of eating (the cynical side of me says they either wanted $300 or they thought since I came in at 5 PM on a Friday that what I wanted was to have my cat boarded for the weekend).
Talked to the vet today. His bloodwork came back with concerns over liver function, so they want to run tests on Monday AM for liver function. Meanwhile, the vet assistant described him as “a very nice cat.” To which I replied “then he’s seriously stressed out, because when he feels good, he’s a vicious little bastard.” Only not in so many words. I think I used the phrase “likes to roughhouse.”
Yesterday was an atypical Friday the 13th. We got our mail. In our mail was a letter from the IRS saying that we should expect an “economic stimulus check” in the next few weeks. Is anyone planning to use this check for anything other than paying down debt accrued over the last 7 years of poverty or, barring that, investing carefully to prevent future debt? I know no one planning to pump their money back into the economy, unless it’s literally into gas pumps.
Anyway, the next envelope was from the IRS. Hooray! John opened what should have been a “please don’t impeach me” bribe from W, but was instead a bill for over $11,000 due to nonpayment of estimated taxes.
Yes, it was a clerical error, (mainly mine), but it was still heart-stopping. He called them at about 4 PM to clear it up, and although the call took 45 minutes, they were able to fix the problem immediately, which was unusual in this society where “customer service” all too often equates to “absolve myself of all responsibility or power.”
Ah, anyway. The Apple Store in Albany called today: my Macbook Pro is ready to be picked up (I dropped it off on Thursday). John and I will go down on Monday to do that and take care of paperwork for the house sale (yay!), which means I get to work tomorrow so I don’t stress over not working Monday all day.
Also in the mail were credit cards for an account we had forgotten about for several years, then reactivated after seeing them on our credit report. The cards have 3% cash back for gas purchases, and we thought this would be handy, since diesel is now costing more than $5/gallon (which means it costs us $500 to fill our tank, or about $.63/mile). John activated the new cards. An hour later, I tried to use one to pay for the vet bill, but it was declined. I used the other card, and when I got home, we called the credit card. It took John three transfers (from the customer support line to “someone else” then back to the original customer support line) to find that, because we’d been suspicious, they got suspicious, and closed the account– it had all caught up that day, just after we activated the cards. We’ve since then applied for a card from our bank with a very low (<7%) interest rate and cash back rewards. We expect the cards to arrive next week. Meanwhile, I rented a few zombie movies recently, including 3 "zomedies," which we have been watching each night after dinner and during knitting. We saw Fido, Dead and Deader, and are lined up to watch Dead and Breakfast tonight. I have also been listening to The Stupidest Angel, so had zombie dreams the first night, but not last night (instead, I had nightmares last night).
Today was World Wide Knit in Public Day, which I participated in at the park in Glens Falls, NY, along with about a half dozen other knitters from the area. Lots of fun– it was essentially a knit-in at a park. The other park in town has a 10000-attendee arts festival going on, and I think it would have been cool if we’d KIP’ed there, instead. Certainly, we would have had a higher profile, which is the point of WWKIP, I think.
Anyway, I should sign off cause John just finished making chili for tonight’s dinner, and I should go set myself up with some water, a beer, and some sour cream to cut the spiciness.