Pancakes: More than Just a Breakfast Food

Our new kitten!

Hello, everyone!  Our cat, Waffles, had her yearly vaccinations with Dr. Stokes today.  He said she was very healthy other than being slightly overweight.  I believe his exact words were, “She’s not pathologically obese yet, but if she gains any more weight, you will be getting a very stern lecture from me.”  So I have to do my best to pick up the thrown pieces of hot dog and chicken nuggets before Waffles devours them. 

Dr. Stokes asked if she had any problems.  I said she was fine other than her occasional “psycho-kitty mode”.  She will get these bursts of energy and attack your feet, bite and be generally mischevious.  She calmed down a lot once we had her spayed and front declawed, but it’s still a problem.    Dr. Stokes’ easy solution:  get another cat for her to hunt so she doesn’t hunt the family! 

Pancakes with her new mommy

Being the impulsive people that we are, I quickly convinced Jeff that we needed a new cat.  The vet said a male kitten would be best.  He also said the first few days they might act like they’re going to kill eachother, but rest assured that after about five days, they’ll be the best of friends and be sleeping on each other.  Then they can aggrivate each other to get their energy out, and we can play with them to have fun without being attacked. 

We decided to go to the Putnam County Animal Shelter, only because Hendricks County wasn’t open on weekends and we (I) was really excited about a kitty.  Now where the title of this post comes in–our new little boy is named Pancakes.

Here are the girls checking out the little fur ball

The story on little Pancakes is that he and two sisters were strays, abandoned by their mother near a house in Greencastle.  The elderly couple that lived there said they’d be willing to take one kitten, but couldn’t take the others.  They were literally leaving the next day to stay in Florida for the winter.  I guess the shelter was officially “closed” to taking more animals, but after the nice man begged and made a generous donation to the shelter, they decided to take the two kittens.  Pancakes was brought to the shelter just yesterday.  And by us prepaying our vet for the necessary neutering and vaccinations, the nice lady at the shelter let us take him home today. 

Pancakes purring on Jeff

Willow thought we should name him Prince.  (This is after we explained that “Princess” is a name only for girls!)  The other names Jeff and I liked were Pancakes, Syrup and Mr. Blick.  We got Waffles’ name from the cartoon “Catscratch” that was about three cats who lived in a mansion.  Gordon and Mr. Blick were the names of the other two cats, but Willow said we could name him anything except Mr. Blick!  So it was down to Syrup and Pancakes.  Obviously Pancakes was the winner.

We just got home a bit ago with our new furry friend.  Waffles is stalking him and hissing.  But no attacks (yet!).  We’re all excited to have a new family member and at the thought of not being attacked by Waffles any longer!

Okay, I admit I’m weird

My first “plarn” purse!

While looking for a granny square crochet pattern online the other day, I came across a pattern for a “plarn” purse.  Plarn is where you connect strips of plastic grocery store bags to make yarn.  Sounded weird.  Sounded fun.  Sounded green.  So I tried it.

A friend of W’s is having her eighth birthday party this weekend and the thought of making a trip to Wal-Mart this time of year made my skin crawl.  So I made this little purse as her gift.  I wish I had counted the number of bags it took for me to make this, but it didn’t occur to me at the time.  I’m guessing it was about 30 standard-sized grocery bags. 

My original plan was to make a large, reusable grocery bag to take with me when I go to Aldi’s.  I always take my own bags, but after about the third or fourth time of using them, they end up with holes or the handles are broken, etc.  I decided to try this smaller project to see if I enjoyed it before I tackled such a big project.  Well, I did enjoy it and now I just need to collect more plastic bags!

I read online that people suggest using these for toting your things at the beach–it doesn’t matter if sand and water get into it–rinse it off and let it air dry.  That’s it.  (Ummm…don’t put it in the dryer…that could be pretty nasty!   )

Just wanted to share my latest project.  I’ll let you know how my big grocery bag turns out.

***I’m sorry, but for some reason I can’t get breaks between paragraphs.  I know it’s kind of hard to read without them!***

Cancer is a Scary Thing

Here I am (right) with my sister, Beth. 10.18.08

For those of you who know my sister, Beth, you’re probably already aware of her recent cancer diagnosis.  The great news is that the doctor cleared her, saying it was all removed during the procedure.

During a family function this past summer, our cousin, Tracy, told us that she had a few moles she was nervous about and decided it was time to go see a dermatologist.  A few weeks and a few surgeries later, it was revealed that she had pre-cancerous moles on her back and belly.  This freaked my sister and I out, especially given our horrid family history of “bad stuff”.  So Beth decided to have her “funny mole” looked at.  Her dermatologist took a mole off her back, sort of routinely, not expecting it to be anything at all.  It turned out to be malignant melanoma.

The thing about melanoma is that it can spread to other areas of the body.  If it spreads to your lymph nodes, there’s a 60% survival rate.  If it goes to another organ in the body, there’s only a 20% survival rate.  Scary stuff.

This is an example of a melanoma caught early

A bit worse of a melanoma

Beth has now had two surgeries and been evaluated by an oncologist.  It doesn’t look like it was deep enough to require chemo or radiation.  So they’re going to keep a close eye on her and make sure nothing new pops up. 

The Melanoma Awareness Ribbon is black

 

Risk factors for malignant melanoma include: fair skin, many moles, one or more blistering sunburns before the age of 12, and most significant is a positive family history.  And the back/shoulders, face and back of the calves are common places for melanoma to pop up. 

SUNSCREEN IS YOUR FRIEND!  Please don’t get caught up in the “Oh, I need a tan!” craze.  The best thing you can do is use sunscreen.  People laugh at me because after my vacations to Florida and Mexico, there was no sign of me having been in the sun–SPF 45 all the way, baby!  That’s alright, I’ll take alabaster white skin over the risk of cancer any day.

So please, please, please….make an appointment with a dermatologist for a mole-mapping.  They’ll identify any suspicious moles and have them removed.  It’s better to be safe than sorry.  And I am practicing what I’m preaching–I have an upcoming appointment myself.