Dr. Phil's Dreamwidth Journal

Sam (1993-2012)


Dr. Phil and his Sam, Easter Sunday evening. (Click on photo for larger.)


Oh come here, you, and get some gentle scritches behind the ear. Last night. (Click on photo for larger.)

Bagel (DW), Blue (DW) and Sam (DW) were the best kitties.

Dr. Phil

A Night Out Before The Mayhem

For the most part, Mrs. Dr. Phil and I don't go out on New Year's Eve. I don't trust other drivers on the road when the roads are dry and the sun is out, I'm not much for challenging drunks after midnight on January the First. But New Year's Eve Eve? Well, that's a different matter. Especially as the other day some friends posted on Facebook that their kids were all away and did anyone want to come over and play. We do! We do! And so plans were made afoot.

My mother used to make stuffed dates at Christmastime and while we were in Greensboro, Mrs. Dr. Phil went into a new Middle Eastern grocery store and found some lovely pitted dried dates. She found a fondant stuffed date recipe on the Internet -- not quite the same as I remember, but with the almond and orange flavoring, pretty damned good. Sweet, though. You're not going to pop these like bonbons. (grin)

Mrs. Dr. Phil's stuffed dates. (Click on photo for larger.)

Sam got to come upstairs during the day, which he promptly used to find a suitably comfy spot.

That's one relaxed cat, seeing as Mrs. Dr. Phil was in the kitchen and not using her chair... (Click on photo for larger.)

Mary and Ed made a grilled chicken and pasta with alfredo sauce pizza, which was quite swell. We'd also brought some cheesy salsa dip and grabbed some Fritos at the Shell station at 68th Avenue and I-96 on the way over. They didn't have the Fritos Scoops -- we've been ruined by having large Fritos with a decent dip scooping area. The regular ones, which were fine for half my life, just aren't the same anymore. (grin) And in spite of their quirky TV ads, the delicious pistachios are fun to shell and, well, delicious. Taking time to work on your snacks is definitely a plus. Maybe next year we'll buy some mixed nuts-in-shells and break out a nutcracker or two during the holidays. I remember when I was little there was always a bowl of nuts and a nutcracker to while away part of Christmas vacation.

But going out did not mean we were bereft of having kitty entertainment. Mrs. Dr. Phil got a decent orange boy kitty fix with Tasselhoff, who came and went as he pleased.

Mary wondered if she looked like a Bond villain with a cat in her lap -- why yes. "Do you expect me to talk?" "No, Mister Bond, I expect you to die."

Sit on Mary's lap? Sure. What about Ed? Not quite the same...

Who are you? Well, if you're giving out scratches, I could acknowledge you, minion.

More "seriously", we spent a number of hours playing a German board game called Ticket to Ride (Europe). We just don't go out to friends all that much, but it is so great that some of our friends are looking for people to play really well made and inventive board games. Anyway, after doing a practice round, we ended up playing two games. 30-60 minutes a game? Pshaw! We spent hours, though of course I suppose professional board game players don't have complicated stories and conversations and refills of Vernors or other drinks of choice. (party grin)


Despite my completing my longer route tasks, I (BLACK) had drawn some new routes, two of which I couldn't complete. Ed (BLUE) had the longest route and ended up skunking us.


In the second game, I stormed across Europe and later added some side trips which I completed. This time Dr. Phil, train nut, won. Yay!

We'd also brought over one of our Christmas presents, a gorgeous Periodic Table of the Elements 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle (Thanks, Dave!), but while it was admired, we didn't play jigsaw over at Mary & Ed's. Now we're going to have to find a 34"×16" or larger clear horizontal space -- which in our house is just impossible. (sigh)

Anyway, thanks everyone, it was a wonderful evening. We should get together next year.

Dr. Phil

Awash In Produce

Sigh. The Red Haven peaches came in on the 20th. They smell right, they taste right, they're juicy and perfect.

(Click on picture for larger)

Last week I went sent on a mission to the Potter's family farmstand for more peaches and tomatoes. Not only did they still have Red Havens, but they still has some of the bumper crop of blueberries -- so I left a "still life" of samples on the counter for when Mrs. Dr. Phil came home.

Last day of August's Still Life With Fruits (Click on picture for larger)

Saturday, more Red Haven peaches, tomatoes, corn and...

delicate fresh raspberries, kept in a fridge to keep the flies off them -- note there were more raspberries in the basket when I bought them... hmmm

Besides eating peaches, corn on the cob and the beloved tomato sandwiches of summer, Mrs. Dr. Phil has been baking.

A key lime pie and one of a series of rhubarb-blueberry crisps -- in progress (grin)

Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day is a funny holiday, which we celebrate more in the U.S. with a last hurrah of vacation or just a three-day weekend, than celebrate labor. Not surprising in a time with many anti-union sentiments out there, many denigrating some of our hard working people and many without jobs or good jobs. For a serious discussion, read my good friend Jim Wright's post on those good old labor days.

But in the spirit of relaxing on the Internet, here's my kitty Sam, working as hard as he can.

There's no bad news in the world when you can cover your eyes with your paw.

Dr. Phil

Other Than These Piles Of Snow

Outside the southern windows of the kitty room, a basement room which is partly buried into the ground anyway, there is an impressive wall of snow from a drift three feet or more high. It makes it look like the snow is six feet deep out there. (grin)

The weather people are saying we got around 16" of snow -- about the same total as the Blizzard of 1978, actually, which is relatively impressive. We have clear blue skies and sun right now, 3:45pm EST, and there is still some wind. A neighbor is supposed to come by with a bulldozer to clear the long part of the driveway for us.


Peeking out of the garage to the west...


.... and to the east.

Of course, the cats don't really care. They will, just as they did in the photo from a couple of weeks ago, just sleep together in a heap, on a lovely warm afghan, in a brightly lit and centrally heated room this evening. Lucky stiffs. I'm writing two exams -- and Mrs. Dr. Phil has a handout assignment to write. Snow day? Puh-lease. It's homework for us.


Blue sleeping on top of Sam, who doesn't seem to mind.

Western Michigan University of course updated its homepage:

"Classes resume, and WMU resumes normal operation Thursday, Feb. 3."

Dr. Phil

Thursday Special Dinner

Another in the series of Classic Pairings dinners from the GVSU food service. This year's Valentine's February dinner had American fare from "along Route 66", running from Chicago to the Santa Monica Pier. As they did in 2008, they also made a point of advertising to the Alumni Association, and so there were quite a number of couples besides "the usual suspects". We sat at a small table with some library people and a young couple, GVSU Class of '09 and '10. Ah, to be young and just starting out again... (grin) Mrs. Dr. Phil took one of the crayons available on the table and made us a heart:


February 11th, 2010
"Me and My Baby Down Route 66"
Alumni House

5:30 pm Appetizers

6:00 pm Dinner

1st Course
BBQ Short Rib, Maple Gastrique
Brioche Black Pepper Mac n Cheese
Watermelon Salad, Shaved Fennel Slaw

2nd Course
Chicken Tamale with Red & Green Sauce
Corn, Bacon & Black Bean Hash

3rd Course
Santa Monica Shrimp Panzanella

4th Course
American Apple Pie

Actually, the meal began with a light pilsner from the Philadelphia Victory brewery and a tiny little Chicago-style hot dog. The miniature wieners were from Chicago and properly dressed with lurid green relish, pickle, onions and celery seed. The miniature hot dog buns were from the local Nantucket bakery -- and the chef had to keep after them to make the buns softer! The short ribs were so tender that a knife was totally unnecessary, and the two salads were quite refreshing. We've seen fennel salads/slaws on a number of the cooking shows, but haven't had it before -- might have to play with that. The wine pairing was a Syrah called BOOM BOOM, which we've had before along with a wine called (oops):

Everything was fabulous, as expected. The apple pies were more of an individual Michigan apple casserole, not too sweet, and served with cheddar ice cream -- very yum! The wine pairing was a local Fenn Valley ice wine.



On Saturday, The Kitties Got Eggs

Mrs. Dr. Phil was making a corn pudding for dinner on Saturday, for which she needed two egg whites. So the kitties each scored an egg yolk. Both Sammy and Blue like eggs. And it'll make their fur even softer. (grin) But we give them eggs every once in a while because we love them.

Yup. Love is in the air...

Dr. Phil

Okay, I Know...

Technically the previous full moon was on December 31st. But my little Moon program in my System Tray is a little generous and counts the full moon in the early hours of January 30th EST to be the second full moon of the month. Besides, kitties don't care about rules.

Bagel Orlando Cat (1993-2010)

As I mentioned the other day, Bagel hasn't been doing well. One of our three cats we got as littermates in 1993, they were born in April, so he was almost seventeen. That's a pretty good age for a cat. Years ago, as prep for a teeth cleaning, the vet said his kidneys were stressed, so we changed everybody's diet to special kidney diet -- Science Diet k/d crunchies and Purina NF cans. When Sam, the Dark Wonder cat, was diagnosed with feline diabetes in October, we ended up switching everyone to Science Diet w/d cans and crunchies. They all loved that the stuff was all protein and no carbs. Alas, that was the last straw for Bagel's kidneys. The other week we realized he was having trouble peeing, so we took him in. After the diagnosis, it was back to the kidney diet for him, which resulted in all sorts of every cat coveting the wrong type of food. The amount of food needed between the diets was also an issue, and we had to cut Bagel back to previous levels so he didn't overeat and throw it up. Lots of stress on the old guy, I imagine.

When I came home from ConFusion last weekend, I was told that Bagel stopped eating on Saturday and wasn't drinking much water either. We took him to the vets on Monday, where they hydrated him and sent him home. This time the hydration didn't let him spring back and from there it was a steady decline. We had an appointment for Thursday for him to monitor his progress, but changed it to Saturday morning at 10:15 with the expectation that we wouldn't be bringing him home. He spent most of the week in the kitty bed Mrs. Dr. Phil had got before Christmas, figuring that a new soft warm place to sleep was good for aging kitties this winter, including our skinny little diabetic Sam. Bagel seemed to like the soft bed and didn't mind Mrs. Dr. Phil tucking him in with a warm blanket. For a dying cat he certainly surprised us with getting up and down the stairs to check out the litter and drink a little water, and even wandered out to the kitchen last night as Mrs. Dr. Phil was making biscuits and was placed on his kitchen stool one last time to supervise, but he wasn't fooling us -- you can't keep on going without fuel indefinitely. I think he knew we were taking care of him as best we good and put up with all the love we poured on him, instead of his usual attempts to get away if you snuggled him too much.


One last sunny morning for Bagel.

This morning Mrs. Dr. Phil brought Bagel up in his warm kitty bed and with a warm kitty fleece blanket made by her nephews a couple of years ago. Sure, we were supposed to transport a cat in a carrier to the vets, but it was 3°F last night and this was Mrs. Dr. Phil's special orange kitty, so cut us some slack. I was a little concerned that this would be the first time Bagel would see the world driving by at 55 mph, instead of inside the rear bed of the Blazers, but he remained alert and curious, though he cried strangely from time to time.

Dr. Jodi, the vet at the Allendale Animal Hospital when we first got the kittens in 1993, recently retired and turned the practice over to Dr. Tanya, who has been wonderful with our guys. She's got a new vet for the practice, whom we hadn't met yet, and would be on duty today. When is it time? When is enough enough? On a day to day basis it is so hard to tell. But one look at Bagel and the new doc mentioned how far the eyes had sunk -- we'd seen this with our old cats twenty years ago in the U.P. It was time to say goodbye to our dear friend and help him on his way.

A Happy Year

I think we're both so grateful that Mrs. Dr. Phil had her sabbatical from January-June 2009, back when everyone seemed all healthy and pleasant. She spent much of every possible day downstairs in the kitty room, reading for her grad work and taking full advantage of the home WiFi. Perhaps reception was improved with cat tails and kitty whiskers?

From top to bottom: Blue, Bagel and Sam.

Mimi from Wisconsin, who brought these kittens into the world, selected three of the litter of five for us. She made sure that Mrs. Dr. Phil had a new special orange kitty boy to replace the one she'd grown up with and came up with us to the U.P. in the late 80s. His name was Bag, short for Paper Bag which was something of his color. The new kitten was initially named Orlando by Mimi, but after he'd been called Bag more than once after he joined us in Allendale, I suggested we call him Bagel so he could have his own name. And Bagel he was.

Every week when I talk on the phone with my mom, she exhorts us to "pet all the kitties and tell them that they're beautiful and they're smart." And I'd always point out that they were beautiful, but Bagel especially was not smart. He was curious and often had a worried look of concern in his furrowed forehead, but you could practically hear his one-cylinder little pea brain going Ka-chug-ah-Ka-chug-ah-Ka-chug-ah as he would try to figure out something or weasel his way into someone else's food. He dearly loved to splash in the water bowl and drink off the back of his soaking paws -- and then the idiot would go to the litterbox and acquire concrete goulashes. And he always ran to the kitchen looking for an extra dinner whenever he heard a can opener, despite the fact that for over sixteen years with us, we always used pop-top cans.

And when morning sunshine would pour into the kitty room downstairs, he'd lie in the sunshine, get warm and then began to loll around on the carpet, rolling onto his back and talking as he stretched out all his kinks.

He was a good cat.



Dr. Phil

PS- Naturally, just in case we weren't paying enough attention, and after telling the vet how well he was doing on the new insulin formula, Sam had to have one of his insulin shock staggering bouts and get fed some extra food. He seems to be better, as expected, but geesh. It never ends, does it?

Life in West Michigan is Good

Stayed home and inside, warm and dry. Watched The Yule Log on FOX-17, A Christmas Story on TBS, then Mythbusters marathon most of the rest of the day. (grin)


The Cutting of the Stollen


The Cutting of the Poppyseed


The Christmas Breakfast: Clementines, Stollen, Poppyseed and Kielbasa


Poor Sam -- Christmas Breakfast is All Gone


Across the Living Room, Blue is Hiding and Bagel is Just an Orange Butt in the Rocking Chair


Our Christmas Dinner -- Yum!
Little Cornish Hens, Potatoes, Wild & Brown Rice, Gravy, Peas, Cranberry-Orange Relish
and Mince Pie with Brandy Hard Sauce for Dessert

Hope your Christmas/Holiday dinner was lovely, too.

Dr. Phil

Fire One!

Yesterday Mrs. Dr. Phil realized that her university was doing free flu shots today (Friday) from about ten to noon. Usually this is complicated for me -- as a spouse I can get them free, too -- because my teaching schedule in Kalamazoo doesn't always mesh. But this was easy, with me at WMU only Tuesday and Thursdays this semester.

So there I was at 9:46am feeding quarters into a meter in front of the Kirchhoff Center, then head inside where (a) I saw Mrs. Dr. Phil right ahead in line and (b) the table filled with clipboards and data sheets and pens. I picked up a clipboard, started filling it out, and by the time I was done -- there was a line of faculty and staff waiting for clipboards. Ha! Got in line next to Mrs. Dr. Phil and a few minutes later we stuck with very thin needles.

This is the Ordinary Flu Shot, same as we've been getting for fifteen years or more. Gotta be about the earliest I've got a flu shot in years. The Piggy Flu Shots? Expected the end of October, but the county health department will be regulating who are the highest risk. I'd think a college professor would be a high at risk person. (grin)

Autumn Arrived

Sure, it's the week before the autumnal equinox, but by Thursday this week Fall seems to have come it. Lows in the 40s and Thursday it barely made 70. Of course it got up to about 83°F in Allendale today, but we're turning some of the corner here. Tuesday the drive home was made more painful by hitting the westward driving segments just when the sun was straight ahead. That and the massively fast repaving of M-45 west of Allendale.

Bouncing Prices

Meanwhile, since Labor Day, gasoline has been playing ping-pong between about $2.42.9 to $2.59.9, with the price shifting up or down by a dime or more for no apparent reason.

Actually, there is almost NEVER a real reason for gas price fluctuations, not ones which make too much economic sense. Or decency.

For Your Amusement

Might as well do something to make this post worth reading. So here's a link to my online friend Jim Wright's Stonekettle Station blog with some hilarious postings about cats. PLEASE, put down the food and drink before you click on this. Jim is a gifted writer and when he gets really going, his manly tour of his many workshop or how his cats are trying to kill him, he is funny. I read the series out loud to Mrs. Dr. Phil and I dare you to read this aloud without breaking up and becoming incoherent.

Seriously.

You're welcome.

Dr. Phil

As Long As I Mentioned This...

On Friday I talked about trying to spend some of my sabbatical writing time downstairs in the Kitty Room, just as Mrs. Dr. Phil did during hers. So I remembered to take a camera down and take a couple of pictures for you.


This is our 16×20 foot Kitty Room -- the reason we bought this house. (grin)

Bagel, Blue and Sam checking out another pleasantly cool July day in the sunshine.

KEPLER, my refurbished laptop I bought in 2002.

Yup, that's a Dr. Phil personalized Swiss Army Memory.

So that's what I'm doing on my summer "vacation" -- how's your summer?

Dr. Phil

I Come Home From My Long Commute...

And we have bagels!

Mrs. Dr. Phil had a new bagel recipe -- and said she hadn't made bagels since high school, but here they are. They're rye bagels. Nice flavor, perfect texture.

Of course, what do you have with bagels? Well, in the case of this Bagel, you have Sam!

(grin)

Dr. Phil