Less than one week

Packing is still going slowly, although I managed to fill one more plastic bin with mostly books. When I went to Interlochen, I made sure I brought along some of my favorite books to help alleviate the homesickness. That pile got bigger when I went to IU last fall, and now I'm bringing even more, making the bin very heavy. War and Peace is the major addition, and being the bookworm that I am, I'm bringing two translations of Eugene Onegin.

This is probably the last Cat Pic Friday for a while, since I'll be at school and away from my cats.

Salem lounging the the hallway.

Tacy sleeping on my bed.

Can't think of a title

8 days until the recital...

Nearly everything is ready. Next week everyone involved will have a "dress rehearsal" of sorts so that we know where we'll be entering from, where the piano will be, and matters along those lines. There's only one piece that everyone is involved in, and I don't anticipate that many problems will arise with that (I hope not, as we haven't had the time to rehearse it!). The piece, "Si mantiene il mio amor" is really a bizarre piece to end a recital with. The text translates to "My love is nourished by grief, anxiety, and pain, so much that I cannot think about my beloved without being unhappy. I love, even thought I do not hope." Kind of a downer, you know? But it's a beautiful piece, and it will sound very nice with the two violins. I still need to finish the program notes and the actual program. Except for the English pieces, I printed all the texts and translations. Not being computer savvy, I had a heck of a time figuring out how to line up the original text and the translation, and finally came up with a method that isn't great, but worked. However, the Rachmaninoff text isn't side-by-side with the translation. Just couldn't pull that off.

This week, it's Cat Pic Saturday

Cat Pic Friday!

Salem and Tacy on the kitchen stool.

Cat Pic Friday!

Salem is almost back to normal. He wants to go outside and is back to his old habits, like lounging on his back on the kitchen floor. Here he proudly displays his stitches.

Another cat update

Salem is back at home! He isn't quite out of the woods yet, but he's on the road to recovery. At the moment, he's being very sluggish and seems a little confused, but that's to be expected; he had surgery yesterday and is on pain killers related to morphine. So now we have a druggie cat. His diet has also been changed to moist food, since it has more water in it. However, he seems to be happy to be home. The vet staff seemed to glad to be rid of Salem, because he is very angry when at the vet. At home, he's very sweet and affectionate, but once he gets in that office, he turns into a terror. Swatting is one of his favorite ways to irritate the staff; they had to put a towel over him a few times. You'd never know that seeing him at home.

This is my cat...

This is my cat on drugs.

Cat update

Just got a call from the vet's office. All of Salem's kidney stones were removed, and we'll be able to pick him up tomorrow or Wednesday! We're going to have to adjust his diet so that this doesn't happen again, and I'm sure there are going to be some other changes as well. But I'm just glad he's coming home!

Cat Pic Sunday?

This is Salem, our tabby. He's currently at the vet for kidney stones, and we're unsure of what exactly is going to happen to him. Salem and Tacy are my first pets, so I'm not taking this as well as I should be. More updates later.