New Car

So, our lease was coming due on our Volvo, so last weekend we went car shopping (again…we’ve been doing this for about a month just to see what was out there). Well we ended up with a BMW 135i (3 year lease). This is Steve’s car, so it has to be fast and fun for him to drive…this wasn’t so easy to find in a reasonable price range. We started the process of returning the Volvo, but it will probably be another week or so before we actually return it. This is our first car with navigation, so that is something we’re really looking forward to having.

So here’s to saying goodbye to the Volvo…

 

And hello to the BMW…

On another note, we had been debating on whether or not to give Coco Bean the meds…well early Saturday morning (5:30 am) she had another small seizure, so we made the decision to go ahead and start the meds. We found Greenie’s Pill Pockets at Petsmart yesterday afternoon so we gave her the first dose last night. If you have to give your cat (or dog for that matter) pills, Pill Pockets are the way to go. She loves them (and she’s picky). It makes giving her pills super easy!!

Hope everyone has a good week!

Coco Bean

Well today was the visit to the neurologist…which also included an MRI, a spinal tap, two sedations, and a bottle of pills.

It was a long day!! We started in Dublin this morning at 8:30am, then it was off to Redwood City for the MRI appt at 1:30pm, and then back to Dublin for MRI results and a spinal tap. They found a couple of spots on the MRI that may be something, but they are very symmetrical and on either side of the pituitary, so they aren’t sure. We’ll get the final read tomorrow. We’ll also get the results of the spinal tap tomorrow as well. BUT the vet thinks it is probably epilepsy (no other underlying cause) which means she also gave us a bottle of Phenobarbital which could be a long term thing. Giving a cat pills is NOT an easy task…especially this one…and they want us to give her 2 a day. This ought to be fun.

She’s running around the house like a crazy cat…she’s still coming off the anesthesia and whatever it was they gave her to calm her down. She’s pretty pathetic looking. They had to shave her in multiple spots for all the work they did, so I think she has 4 shaved patches.

 

Here we go again!

It’s been a long time…a really long time. Things were a little crazy there for a while and I guess blogging just wasn’t at the top of my priority list.

I’ll catch up a little then get to the reason for the title of this post.

So a couple of months ago I started getting organic produce from Farm Fresh To You. They deliver a box of groceries to me at work once a week. I get a mix of veggies and fruit. It’s actually been a lot of fun. Each Friday they post what you’ll be getting in your box the following week. You can create a “I don’t ever want to see this in my box” list, but I get a lot of things I wouldn’t normally buy, or things you don’t always find in the grocery store. So I’ve had a lot of fun cooking with new ingredients and “in season” ingredients. I’ve made pear and apple crisps, pumpkin ice cream, kabocha squash, lots of chard many different ways, arugula salads, chai spiced butternut squash soup, acorn squash stuffed with cranberry apple quinoa, and leek and potato soup (aka vichyssoise) just to name a few. And on a side note, Raley’s Fresh Market just opened in Tracy yesterday…it is SUCH a nice store and quite a few organic and natural food selections. Better than other grocery stores in Tracy, but not as good as Whole Foods.

Steve’s been working late for the last couple of weeks. The project he has been designing for the past 3+ years is finally in fabrication, so now they are doing all the bring up and debugging so they can make revisions for the final version. He’s headed to Shanghai at the end of the month since that’s where the manufacturing is being done. He’ll probably be there for 1.5 to 2 weeks. He wasn’t very into it when he first got told he needed to go, but I think he’s warming up to the idea after having talked to some people at work that have been there before.

It was Steve’s birthday on Tues (he’s 39…one year shy of the big 40 :) ), but I barely saw him. We went out to dinner with his family for his birthday a couple of weeks ago since he knew he was going to be busy. It was a really great dinner at a place called El Rancho in Stockton. Their steaks are DELICIOUS, but EXPENSIVE, so we don’t go there often. His favorite pie is pumpkin, so I’m in the process of making one right now to surprise him tonight…I know a little late, but it’s the thought that counts right??

So to the reason for the title of this post…Steve ended up staying in San Jose last night, so at 1am I heard a weird scratching…kind of sounded like Coco Bean burning out on the hardwood floors, but it didn’t stop, so I got up and found Coco Bean having a seizure next to Steve’s side of the bed…here toenails were hitting the side of the bed. I temporarily freaked out and almost took her to emergency, but after about 5 minutes she was completely back to normal. So I made an appt for her this morning and took her in. In July she was having some weird episodes where she would start foaming at the mouth and running around like a crazy cat and them would scarf food for 5 minutes. We took her into the vet back in July and they didn’t find anything abnormal in her physical exam. They did blood work and everything came back normal, so we decided just to wait and see what happened. We didn’t see any episodes after that appt. After talking to the vet today, the previous episodes were probably “petit” seizures as opposed to the “grand mal” seizure I witnessed last night. It’s possible it’s epilepsy, but it’s really rare, usually there is some other underlying condition causing the seizures. But any seizures in cats are rare, so Monday we have an appointment with a neurologist in Dublin to see if they can figure out what the underlying cause is. KA CHING! I’m dreading another vet bill!! I’ll keep you posted.