Happy birthday to John and Sarah

Twin happy birthday wishes to my buddies John Bartol and Sarah Biddle. Hope you guys each have great ones!

Lucky invents Fetch

So, Sunday morning, I’m sitting on the couch, watching Olympic skiing on TiVo, while the kittens are racing around, tearing up the place, like they always do in the early morning.

To calm them down, I pick up this red jingle bell octopus toy, and toss it into the dining room. Lucky outraces Hanna, picks it up in his mouth, and trots proudly back in my direction, having claimed the title of Fierce Red Jingle Bell Octopus Toy Killer. And then he drops it near my feet, and proceeds to wrestle with his sister.

To get them off my feet (ow, claws), I toss the octopus again. Lucky is on it like a streak, and again brings it back. This time, he looks up at me, watching.

I pick the toy up, and throw it again.

He returns it.

And slowly, I start to realize that we’re playing Fetch.

Now, I’ve heard of cats doing this before, but we’ve owned a lot of cats as we’ve traveled around the world, and none of them have ever done this. Heck, our dogs never seemed to particularly grasp the concept.

But Lucky did it for about 20 minutes this morning — I had to stop because he eventually got so excited, he would attack my hand as I picked up the toy (ow, claws) — and then 30 minutes again tonight, after watching Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

Amazing. Of course, this does raise one worrisome spectre: If he’s capable of training me when he’s just a kitten, to what sinister ends will he have bent me by the time he’s Motley’s age?

Sarcoidosis update

By the one-year anniversary of my operation (May 5), I think it’s pretty likely I’ll be on my back/zonked out most of the day again. My legs, specifically my knees, are starting to lock up if I leave them in one position too long, and even if I don’t, I have major spikes of pain, despite my meds. I’m also periodically experiencing fatigue and my left hand and elbow starting to lock up again.

It’s not as bad as it was last year yet, but it’s ramping up quickly suddenly.

Sarcoidosis medication update

I just got my prescription for the NapraPAC refilled again just now.

Good news: There are apparently so many coupons foisted on my healthcare provider by the vendor that I have three more months of freebie meds coming my way. (Don’t get excited; it’s basically just prescription strength Aleve and Prevacid.)

Bad news #1: When it’s time to pay for it in four months, the cost before insurance discount is $158/month. Yikes.

Bad news #2: My symptoms are starting to get bad enough that the Aleve isn’t preventing most of the problems any more. My left knee has been giving me crap since the weekend and now my left hand is starting to have pain and locking up. I forsee another major crash coming later this year.

National Strategy for Victory on the Internet

Want to rule your favorite message board? Want to have thousands (or tens of thousands) of strangers hanging on your every blogged word?

Wired shows you how. And yeah, it’s not hard to spot folks doing one or more of these techniques if you frequent message boards or blogs.