Abstract Random

It was a good weekend. Arun, Glenn, and I went to see Gomorrah Friday night. It's a brutal largely reality-based movie about the mafia in Naples. It was a brilliant movie but tough to watch. It's playing at the Bytowne till Thursday.

Saturday morning my mum and I went shopping for some stuff for the baby shower we're having for my sister-in-law next weekend (did I mention I'm going to be an aunt?), I slept all afternoon (seriously, a three hour nap!), and then Arun and I went out to my birthday dinner with all our friends.

Here's a tip for you: if you're at a Korean restaurant on Somerset and the waitstaff are ignoring you, it's probably because that weird little Dharma Initiative-looking thing on the wall is a buzzer that you're supposed to ring when you want service. If you don't buzz it because you don't know what that thing is, they will just let your table of 12 sit there for an hour.

We learned that lesson the hard way. But I think (hope) everyone had fun in the end, anyway.

Yesterday included a family brunch (the last of my many birthday meals) and dinner at Golden Palace, which is a crazy throwback to the 70s, with Arun's coworkers.

This week I'm swearing off sweets and will force myself to the gym every day to make up for last week's over indulgences. If I'm successful I'm going to reward myself with a pair of these best! slippers! ever! in red. And then next week I'll lay off the shopping.

It's been a good week so far, despite the fact that I turned 34 yesterday. It's not that I'm upset about getting older, I'm just not excited about it. 34: woo. It is, however, a good excuse to go out for lunches, dinners, and a brunch. Food is one thing I can get excited about.

The other nice thing about a birthday is that it gives me license to buy things for myself without feeling guilty. As such, I have recently acquired:

This top

to go with this skirt (except in black with a light grey ruffle 'cause my ass needs a tight hot pink skirt like I need a hole in the head).

And Arun found this cute shiny red iPhone case for me.

Yay.

We're back with another edition of Random Radio! Click here to download the MP3 (55 mb at 192 kbps). Stream this and other podcasts at Zoice.com.

Track listing:
White Lies - Death
Friendly Fires - Skeleton Boy
Architecture In Helsinki - That Beep
Ladyhawke - Paris Is Burning

Metronomy - Holiday
Little Boots - Mathematics
Client - Can You Feel
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Zero

The Virgins - Teen Lovers
Young Rival - Your Island

School of Seven Bells - Face to Face On High Places

The first day of spring always reminds me of my favourite "dream" from Facts of Winter, a book of (fictional) dreams, dreamed by people in and around Paris in the winter of 1881, by Paul La Farge:

Burning of Spring

Five days later Baron Haussmann dreams that he is once again the Prefect of Paris. His administration is put in charge of the seasons of the year: summer, fall, spring, etc. He draws up a plan for a system of warehouses in which the best-known features of each season will be stored: the summer smell of hot stone, the graying skies of autumn, the snow dirtied by Parisian feet, the trees in bloom. He also designs a network of channels by which each season can be delivered to the city within a week at most. We could change seasons seven or eight times a year, easily, he notes in his report to the municipal council, or we could add new seasons to satisfy the needs of a growing population: sprall, a season of mist and fine rain, good for gathering various fruits in the forest; or fammer, a hot, gray, still season, suitable for riots. Not long after these "weather axes" become operational, the Baron learns that there was a fire in the warehouse where they keep the spring, and that the vernal season has been entirely destroyed. Now the question arises, what are they going to do on March 21? Baron Haussmann can't decide whether to have an early summer or to draw the winter out. He wakes up, still unable to choose between the two.

Today is Starla's birthday. She's 11. It's a bittersweet day for us, since this is almost certainly going to be her last birthday. She's definitely perked up since she's been on the antibiotics, she's a lot less needy and her appetite has picked up. It's so nice (and such a relief) to see her more like her old self again, even if that means she wakes us up at 5 in the morning. We know there are more bumps on the road ahead but right now I think we're all enjoying this small victory.

Happy birthday, you grumpy old lady, you.

I have a question for you, internet: How do you sign off your emails? I'm talking casual business emails, not notes to your sweetie.

I find not signing off at all obnoxious but I know some people who think "cheers" is annoying, apparently "best" is rude but "best regards" is too formal, and "thanks!" only works when you've asked for something. I've been using a lot of "talk to you later" lately but, you know, meh.

1. New! Doves! Video!

2. Chandni Chowk To China is playing at The Mayfair this weekend. Bollywood + Kung Fu = We will be going to see it.

3. This video of birds flocking on power lines is very cool.

I took Starla to the vet and it's possible she has a urinary tract infection, it's probable she has low potassium, and for sure she has a rotten tooth in the back of her mouth. She's in no condition to go through dental surgery so we came home with some antibiotics for her tooth and we'll find out about the urinary and potassium stuff tomorrow. The antibiotics for her tooth will also take care of any potential UTI and, if she does have low potassium, we'll have to start giving her a supplement.

I'm relieved it's not the awful news I was dreading but it does mean she'll need antibiotics periodically for her tooth, a possible daily supplement (I'm hoping there's something we can sprinkle into her food), and more regular monitoring. I suppose these things are to be expected at this stage.

I have resorted to adding a tiny (tiny!) bit of Fancy Feast into Starla's wet food since last night and she's been licking her bowl clean ever since. Hopefully it's something I can wean her off of once she's feeling more like herself again.

Thanks to everyone for their kind words and support. I'll try to keep the kitty blogging to a minimum for a while. :)

UPDATE: Starla doesn't have a urinary tract infection and her potassium is fine but her urea and creatine levels have both almost doubled since December, which is really not good. The vet gave us two scenarios: the antibiotics really help and she's good for six months or so; if not, we're looking at a month or two. I guess we'll know in a couple of weeks...

The kitty buffet isn't working. I've got six different cans of cat food in the fridge and Starla won't eat more than a few bites of any of them. I've got a call into the vet so we'll see what they suggest.

In other news, we had a nice weekend. We went to see Watchmen in IMAX on Saturday. It was my first IMAX movie and I was not expecting the stupid pre-show they do before the movie. What's up with that? I was also not expecting to see quite that much male nudity throughout the movie. (Apparently it was computer generated and therefore ok with the ratings board.) I haven't read the graphic novel so I don't have anything to compare it to but I liked the movie. It was dark, super violent, highly stylized, and better than most superhero movies. It didn't change my life or anything but, you know, it was good.

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours walking around the market with Kerry. It was a nice sunny day and it felt like the city was coming out of hibernation—everyone was walking around looking like they couldn't believe their luck. It didn't last long, everyone's back to the usual hunched over winter walk today.

Arun's out of town for a couple of days and normally I would get by eating tofu burgers and samosas and veggie pate sandwiches from Herb & Spice (not all at once, obvs) because I don't usually feel like cooking for just me. But due to an overabundance of veggies in our fridge (last week's meal plan kind of fell by the wayside mid-week), I'm cooking for myself. Last night for dinner I made this baked squash with sautéed kale and ricotta dish that's better than it sounds, as well as a broccoli, apple, and goat cheese quiche from the Chocolate and Zucchini cookbook for tonight. Tomorrow it's individual goat cheese and lentil tarts, a Donna Hay recipe that's similar to—but simpler than—that Food & Wine phyllo and goat cheese pie we made a few weeks ago. (In case you haven't noticed, I have a thing for pastry and goat cheese.) I should cook for me more often.

Sorry for the lack of posting this week. It's been kind of a stupid week, exaggerated by a cat-caused lack of sleep and my worrying about said cat. Starla's been increasingly picky about her food, as is common for cats with renal failure. She's eating a bit but not enough and she's lost more weight. She used to be nine pounds, then eight, now she's just under seven.

So I've resorted to putting out a kitty buffet, with one kind of dry food, another kind of dry food with a bit of water in it (she'll at least lick up the resulting "gravy"), and alternating wet food. Kerry suggested just feeding her Fancy Feast to get her eating again but I know that if we do there's no way she will ever eat her reduced protein/phosphorous/sodium food again. She's stubborn like that. Instead, I'll be taking a trip to the vet after work to pick up a selection of kidney-approved wet food and add those to the buffet in hopes there will be one she'll eat lots of.

Starla turns 11 in two weeks and I think this will probably be her last birthday. The changes over the past year or so have been gradual but noticeable, she's losing weight, sleeping more, playing less, and seeks more comfort and attention. It's truly heartbreaking to see her fading away but we're focusing on making her as happy and comfortable as we can during the time she's got left.