A Zen Kitty Moment

I can get very distracted by the kitties when they're being cute. Recently I was sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast when I saw Chappu and Tippy on the cat tree together.

 Sweet little Tippy seemed to enjoy the rocking Chappu's rhythmic licking caused as the cat tree swayed gently back and forth a tiny bit.

But I wonder if for cats, hearing someone nearby licking causes them to begin grooming as for humans hearing a yawn causes us to yawn. It was a very Zen moment for me, watching both kitties groom with the sound of the fountain gurgling gently in the background.

After a lengthy bath it was time to sleep, Chappu on the tree...

...and Tippy on the kitchen table.

Cyrus' 4th Birthday - May 2012

Better late than never, right?! In some way posting events late is nice in that I get to relive my memories of happy days.

Somewhere behind that hot potato is a birthday boy.

While Cyrus checks out his new book, Herb The Vegetarian Dragon, Kai steals Baba's watch.

He also got this book which I've forgotten the title of, but it's about a girl who's science projects runs into problems when her robot grows huge and begins to destroy a city.

He also got some very cool blocks that teach math concepts. It takes a penguin, rabbit, ladybug and frog to equal a giraffe. The numbers are on the other side.

Kai enjoyed them too as just blocks.

The next day we just had fun...

 

... and celebrated Mother's Day. I got two nice paintings, some nice smelly soap and candle from the Farmer's Market, and a cat nip toy which you will see again at the end of this post.

I had no idea that my grandson (Kai) was so advanced as to have his father read him Battle Royale.

Cyrus sneaked up from behind and planted a wet one!

Outside we saw these crazy bugs. At first I thought they were little red flowers...

... but instead masses of bugs coated everything, even a neighbor's bike. I think they're actually really cool looking.  (click to enlarge.)

Back inside Satin found a warm body to snuggle against.

Back home Chappu enjoyed the cat nip Mother's Day present I got!

Kai read this book out loud.

Fall off the bridge and you burn in the lava!

Pure child abuse. :-)

A Rainy Day In July

These videos are from a visit we took to Athens in July. I just uploaded the videos and enjoyed watching the kids play in the rain all over again.

Kai was doing some serious practice on his surgical skills while Cyrus was doing some serious practice on his patience skills.

Cyrus showed off his scary green fangs.

Cyrus took this picture of Kai "grabbing his bottom" to gales of laughter.

This was the weekend we brought Asali to Shirin. She was adopted a couple of weeks ago by a very nice couple in Athens. Thank you Shirin. Thank you nice couple.

There's Oatmeal In There Somewhere!

During the cold months my mom fixed me oatmeal every morning (cold cereal reigned in the summer.) I was an awfully picky eater but I loved oatmeal. She cooked it on the stove (did they even have instant oatmeal back then?) and sprinkled it with something called 'Concentrate', wheat germ, and sugar. I don't know what Concentrate was but it came in a shiny small gold box and looked like miniature cereal flecks. It must have had some healthful property she read about. Back then sugar wasn't the bad nasty it is today and she let me sprinkle the entire top layer with it. Yum.

I'm back to eating oatmeal every day and have been for quite a long time. It is touted as a healthy cholesterol-lowering whole grain and I still love it. What is different though, is all the other stuff I put in it. The volume of "other stuff" is larger than the volume of oatmeal!!  So move over Liselotte's oatmeal for Ingrid's oatmeal:

• thick cut rolled oats
• soymilk
• protein powder
• wheat germ
• ground flax seeds
• walnuts
• frozen berries
• sometimes cinnamon

This breakfast keeps me full for many hours because of the low glycemic index and amount of protein and satisfies many nutritional requirements:

• whole grain (complex carb)
• protein
• vitamins & antioxidants
• folate
• iron
• omega-3 fatty acids
• fiber
• probiotics
• all essential amino acids

A little note about cinnamon - there are four basic types of cinnamon: Vietnamese, Chinese (cassia), Indonesian, and Ceylon (true) cinnamon. What is commonly available here in the U.S. is cassia cinnamon which is fine to eat with normal (occasional) use. It, unfortunately, may be somewhat toxic in large amounts so if someone is using it daily for health the true cinnamon from Ceylon is advised. I have been unable to find true cinnamon anywhere locally, not even at Earth Fare. The labels on the containers do not let you know which type is inside so I've actually contacted the companies and they are all cassia. Interestingly all the cinnamon in Great Britain is true cinnamon from Ceylon, but here in the U.S. - no. As with anything nowadays it is possible to order true cinnamon online and I plan to do so. One of its properties is to lower one's risk of type II diabetes and we have diabetes on both sides of our family, so it seems like a wise thing to do.

Chief Leaf On Head

Saeed has a very intimate relationship with the trees in our yard. I LOVES them. I'd hate to be between him and a tree because I would definitely be in second place.

The other day he came in from working in the yard with this adornment:

He had no idea it was there and even when I told him, "Do you know you have a leaf on your head?" he said "Good." He kept it there for the rest of the day.

OK then.

TMI?

Below you can see an email I recently sent my daughters and sister. I just thought I'd update you on what I'm doing - nothing. Yup. No deodorant. No antiperspirant. Nothing. It's amazing. Why have I been slathering that stuff under my arms for four decades? I can go all day after taking my morning shower and not stink even a little bit. Granted, I work in an air conditioned office all day but still, it's amazing. I'm sure that if I did a job where I sweated the end result may not be so pleasant, but my current routine works for me: wake up, exercise & sweat, take a shower, go to work, sleep, wake up and the pits are still fresh. TMI? Sorry but some experiments are worth communicating.

See? This is me now. Don't I smell good? I'm prettier too.

The original email:

For years I have heard about the possible link between aluminum and breast cancer (and also perhaps Alzheimers) and to date there is no proof of causation. Still, there seems to be a preponderance of "coincidence" in the presence of aluminum in the body and cases of breast cancer that continues to stimulate research in this area. In the UK, and let me say that Europe is always WAY ahead of the States in warning their citizens of possible environmental concerns, they use something called the Precautionary Principle when they see a potential link to something that may be causing negative health outcomes for which there is still uncertain data. They clearly state that more research is needed (and is ongoing) but send out warnings regarding this possible link.

A few facts to consider:

1. Our skin is the largest organ of the body and it does absorb chemicals that are smeared on it. For this very reason many medications are now available in transdermal form.
2. Our bodies do absorb and hold onto some chemicals, aluminum being one, causing a sort of "cocktail" of chemicals that lodge in certain tissues.
3. Aluminum is a known endocrine disruptor. Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that may interfere with the body's hormones (think estrogen) and produce adverse developmental, reproductive, neurological, and immune effects. This is not uncertain but has been shown to be factual.
4. The location of most breast cancers are in the upper outer quadrant of the breast, the area nearest the armpit. This has always been the case but the percentage of new cases found in this location has increased significantly in the last 40 or so years.
5. Aluminum has been found in the nipple discharge of women with breast cancer; it is absent or in negligible amounts in the nipple discharge of women without breast cancer.
6. Antiperspirants have aluminum in them; deodorants do not. Aluminum binds with the dead skin cells in the armpit to form a plug of sorts to prevent sweat from exiting through the pores of the sweat gland. Deodorants simply make the area smell better.
7. Shaving the armpit causes small, imperceptible abrasions in the skin through which chemicals can easily and quickly enter the body. This is why antiperspirants are required to state on the label "Do not apply to broken skin."

So for what it's worth, I am passing this along to the three most important women in my life. Do what you will with it, but I couldn't not pass this along. The current  recommendations are:

• shave as infrequently as you can
• do not apply antiperspirant, especially after shaving
• use only deodorant or, if possible, simply wash with soap and water

Deck Garden Still Going Strong

The temps have recently cooled a bit so I can tell that fall isn't too terribly far away, but our mint and green pepper plants are still going strong. The tomatoes have a few more flowers/potential tomatoes on the vine but the plants look very tired, kind of like Charlotte after she spun her spectacular messages in her web in order to save Wilbur.

My pot of mint floweth over.

Can't you just taste it? I cut a lot of it and we ate it for dinner (not by itself!)

A fist-sized green pepper. We actually lost two big branches full of peppers when they broke under their own weight. It made me really upset, but lesson learned: more support needed. We also ate them all no matter their size.  :-)

 

 Fortunately there are many peppers still to come on the remaining (and well supported) branches.

And it's fig season. We have a bowl in the fridge that I steal from periodically. See the two in the upper left and lower right corners? Almost ripe. Yum.

It's been a spectacular summer. While the rest of the country suffered drought, we here in the tropics have had rain nearly every afternoon. Everything is lush, green and rich with life. I feel very, very lucky.

Bye Bye Moxie

Remember these guys/gals?

My beloved Moxie

Skittish Callie

Feisty Sherbet

For those who don't know, one of my office mates (actually two, but one hid behind the other) raised opposition to the kitties I was feeding near our office. To make a long story short I stepped up my pressure on the kitty rescuer (Carol) who was supposed to be trapping them to get them vet care and release them on a property bequeathed by a cat lover in her will. Carol has her own life and was not very attentive to my calls (she is very sweet and I am not blaming her AT ALL) until I called in a panic, relaying my office mate's intention to call animal control if the cats didn't "get gone". It was an ugly situation but nearly everyone in my office spoke to me privately in support. I don't deny that they needed to be trapped, neutered, and released, but it was handled in an ugly fashion.

ANYWAY... Carol responded to my desperate call and we set up the trap. It took a while but the first kitty we caught was...

? Who's this?

Carol named this kitten Obie and said he was handleable and would be adoptable. He looks like he could be Sherbet's son. I'm glad he was caught but that still left my three out there.

I spent a few days hanging out with Moxie near the trap. Moxie had gotten to the point of rubbing on me as I put food in his bowl, and even came up under my arm so I could pet him. It had to be from behind and it had to be his idea, but I was able to pet him and scratch his neck quite a number of times. In the nine months I'd been feeding him he had grown to trust me, sort of, in a stray cat kind of way.

Moxie and I would often just sit near each other in the grass. You can see how at first glance he looks black but in the sun or if he stretches there's a lot of tabby under that black.

I wonder if part of the reason I fell in love with Moxie was because he looks a bit like Teddie. He had is own wonderful personality though, so I probably would've loved him no matter what he looked like.

So the day we set the trap for Moxie he walked right in. I was there and called Carol right away. She came within 10 minutes and during this time three women who work in our building but not in my office came up to me to ask what we were doing with Moxie. Apparently I wasn't the only one who loved him and they wanted to be sure we weren't going to take him to the pound. They also said they were happy he'd been hanging around so much because his presence was keeping the snakes away from their back doors. Apparently two copperheads had gotten into the cardiology office. I told them to thank the B in my office who was complaining about the cats. (I didn't actually say it that way; I was much more PC.) I had such mixed feelings as I watched Carol take my Moxie away, but he will certainly have a better life at the cat sanctuary she calls "the farm."

Callie was caught next. She needed to be spayed and I was fairly sure she'd already had one litter of kittens because A) a coworker said they saw her eating out of a bowl with a black and white kitten nursing on her, and B) she was so skinny she just had the look of a recently pregnant and currently nursing mother cat. We saw the black and white kitten one more time and then never again. I wonder if he/she was Oliver's litter mate? (the kitten Shirin took to Athens and found a home for.)

That leaves Sherbet. He is a cautious, clever cat with a torn ear that has healed. A few months ago he was limping badly but whatever happened to him resolved and he looks none the worse for wear... right now. He needs to be neutered and checked out. Shirin said that if he's been in fights he may be positive for FIV or feline leukemia. Unfortunately he saw Moxie get trapped and probably witnessed Callie in the trap the night she got caught. I haven't seen him since, so the saga continues...

What I'm Up To These Days

Other than work and exercise, every free minute has been taken up by obtaining 60 CEUs for recertification. The organization through which I initially certified is the AAMA, the top national program. In years past I recertified by taking the exam every five years. It was painful and lengthy, not unlike the SAT. We are required to know general knowledge about healthcare and the field of medicine as well as the part I'm weakest in, coding, insurance, and financial matters. The test is broken into three parts: general (no problem though it includes legal stuff like compliance with HIPPA and medicare laws), clinical (SO no problem), and what I mentioned before - coding, billing, and insurance (aargh) and you must pass each part separately. So I can't pass by getting 100% on clinical and 50% on coding, and wrong answers count against you. I have always managed to pass with flying colors but it is so stressful that I have never left the testing center without a migraine. Additionally, the coding and insurance parts have changed so much in the last five years with all the changes in the healthcare industry that muddling through it may not be advisable.

I decided to try recertifying with CEUs this time to see which way I like better. Here are the three books I'm working on now which will provide me with 30 CEUs when I send in the examination page which is in the back of each book.

It is no surprise I chose the area of nutrition and because I am in OB/GYN all three are very applicable to my job. Nevertheless, it amazes me how difficult the material is. I feel like I'm back at NIU with the pre-med students who were in all my pre-P.T. courses. I don't have that much respect for my own profession since many MOAs can't figure out how to do their time cards, so I was so surprised to find these mini-courses not only challenging but the tests fairly difficult. Only two other MOAs in our practice are certified through the AAMA and this may be why (there are other organizations through which one can become 'registered'.) In fact two others had to leave our practice because after three attempts they could not pass the exam. (I probably need to explain that they had never passed the exam but only recently has CHS required certification for employment. This should warn you against offices who do not require their assistants to be certified - that's probably where those two employees now work.)

So my apologies to my family who has heard me say more often than they'd like, "No, sorry, I can't do that this weekend. I'm still working on my CEUs." Thanks for putting up with a boring, unavailable student again. And I've got 30 more CEUs to go...

Banu Is Fat And Sassy Once Again

It's hard to believe it was only seven months ago that we were dealing with Banu's illness when she is SO back to her normal self! She is exclusively eating her favorite old dry food although twice I have seen her lick a bit of the canned food I put out for Lupe and Obi.

Banu AKA Precious :-)

 I love to bury my face in that soft fat tummy and schmoozle.

Here she is hoarding her favorite puffy balls.

And when I was going through her pictures I found this old video taken in January. You can still see where she had been shaven for the ultrasound. She is sitting on my computer desk watching herself on the video I posted of her twirling around her cat post. This video was important to me then as a sign that she was feeling better. If it looks like she's rocking a bit that just a whole body purr!