Watcha Doin' - 2017.1 edition Showing 4,851-4,900 of 5,020

[Janice, Moderator]

They say that to cure a hangover, have another drink. Here, we call that drink "hair of the dog".

[Sarah]

I also read in a New Scientist book that dark coloured alcohol creates formaldehyde when it breaks down which can cause a hangover headache.

[Travis]

We used to always wake up and have a beer. Of course sometimes that led to just drinking all day. I don't really recommend that method

[KimeyDiann]

It has been incredibly warm here the last few days with dreary weather and threats of thunderstorms, not Christmasy at all. I saw this on Facebook and thought I'd share it with all of you who are having snow and freezing temperatures.

Twas the week before Christmas, with bad weather reports, the folks in Tupelo were out wearing shorts. Rushing to Wal-Mart for milk and potatoes, and maybe some candles, in case of tornadoes. While many are dreaming of a Christmas in white, I'm wondering if I'll need AC tonight! And before you start thinking my cheer sounds too iffy, I'm just saying Merry Christmas from Mississippi!

[Rusalka, Moderator]

Sounds like two fantastic nights!

[Cherie]

Hahaha, Kimey, that was pretty good.

We finally got our cold on here in Northwest Oregon. It has been down in the low 20Fs the last couple of nights and we might get a dusting of the white stuff for Christmas Eve. My shopping is done and my last three packages mailed this morning - better late then never for the family in Tennessee. I still have to make one more grocery run and a drive to Barnes & Noble for a new calendar for next year. I always give it to AmyK to give to me as a Christmas gift. Most of the time we go shopping together and pick out the one we want to give to each other. She always buys me a box of dark chocolate covered cherries and I give her a box of milk chocolate ones. It has become a standing gag for each of us for many, many years.

[Travis]

The people down the road from me had their house burn today. They are a few years younger than me with 5 kids. Luckily no one was home so everyone is ok but to lose everything a few days before Christmas is so sad. Few good things the kids spend quite a bit of time at the various grandparents so they had clothes here and there and all the Christmas presents we're also at the grandparents so the kids are set for the time being. The house literally burned to the ground. The fire department finally had to give up and called for some heavy equipment to come in and finish knocking down the walls and stuff so they could just finish burning all of it. My friend works where the equipment came from said the guy came back to the shop crying. Said it sounded easy enough to go knock down some walls but as you're knocking the stuff down you see kids toys and bits and pieces of a families life now destroyed and right before Christmas. It just really affected him today. Which I understand completely. Yes you lose all your stuff and all those memories but the truth is when it comes to getting insurance money and rebuilding it is easier when it's a total loss. If you only lose a part of it insurance will only cover so much and by the time you get done dealing with smoke damage and water damage and everything you're further ahead just putting up a new house than trying to salvage a fire damaged house. It's just the loss of those things like pictures and things that makes it so hard.

[Sandra, Moderator]

That is so sad, Travis. Poor people.

[Kristie, Moderator]

That's awful, Travis. That happened to a family down the street from me when I was a kid. They had three kids and the house burned completely down on Christmas day. They lost everything. I remember thinking it was just the worst thing ever. I forget the details of what happened now, but it was something like someone dumped the ashtray into the trash before going to bed.

[Travis]

I doubt they'll ever know exactly what happened but the wife had left the house to go to the Post office not long before so I do wonder if a stove burner wasn't turned off or something. She is a smoker but to be honest I don't believe she smokes inside the house I always see her on the porch. Of course it could be anything. Electrical. Furnace. Skies the limit with possibilities really.

[Kristie, Moderator]

True. I'm glad to hear that they have a support system. That will help them through the holidays and the whole rebuilding process.

[Rusalka, Moderator]

Oh that's horrible. We have lots of housefires in winter due to heaters and fires. That poor woman will be beating herself up no doubt.

Glad to hear they have somethings though. I remember when I was in Yr 10, a friend came to tutor group in the morning not in school uniform. Our teacher was a notorious grumpy old man/big loveable bear guy, and had obviously had a bad morning and yelled at her in front of the class about how she obviously thought the rules didn't apply to her and the like. She burst into tears and it turned out that her house had burnt down the night before, and they were the only clothes (and things) she had left. The school hadn't told him yet, and needless to say, he was her best friend and biggest advocate for the rest of the year.

[Travis]

And then came Rusalka like oh you have a sad my house burnt down story top this one bitch. Lol

[Janice, Moderator]

One of my close friends lost her home a few years back when a forest fire demolished most of the town they lived in. It was devastating. She was away, but her husband was there. He had no time to try to rescue anything except himself and the dog.

[Rusalka, Moderator]

Travis sivarT wrote: "And then came Rusalka like oh you have a sad my house burnt down story top this one bitch. Lol"

Oh jesus no. I am not a topper. I am not the Topper.
*cries*
*slinks away in shame*

[Rusalka, Moderator]

Sorry, a topper is someone who always "tops" your story.
Eg "You think *that* was bad, wait until you hear this!"

[Kristie, Moderator]

hahaha....

Rusalka, that teacher must have felt like such a jacka$$. Poor guy. And he'll always be remembered by someone for not one of his finest moments.

Janice, glad he was able to save the dog! It's always so sad when people get out, but their pets perish.

[Lisa]

Travis sivarT wrote: "The people down the road from me had their house burn today. They are a few years younger than me with 5 kids. Luckily no one was home so everyone is ok but to lose everything a few days before Chr..."

That I should so sad, Travis. Particularly when it's so close to Christmas. At least no one was hurt, that's the one positive thing they can take from it.

[Lisa]

Whilst on the subject of fires, a fire broke out in a cafe and animal petting area at London Zoo this morning. It's under control now but an aardvark is confirmed to have died and several meerkats are unaccounted for.

[Rusalka, Moderator]

I heard about the aardvark, but not the meerkats. Hopefully they are really good at hiding. RIP little aardvark.

[Kristie, Moderator]

That’s so sad, Lisa.

[Janice, Moderator]

Kristie wrote: "Janice, glad he was able to save the dog! It's always so sad when people get out, but their pets perish. ..."

Or the pets are home alone and don't get out.

Sad, too, about the aardvark and the meerkats. I love meerkats.

[Saar The Book owl]

That's sad news. I adore meerkats. A couple of years ago I visited the London Zoo. I'll never forget: it was raining really bad and the only animals that were having fun, were the pinguïns.

I received some sad news from my veterinarian: my cat Spike, who is 14 years now, is sick. He couldn't poo and there was blood in his urine. He wasn't himself, so Wednesday I took him to the vet and she drew some blood, took a scan and gave him antibiotics and anti-inflamatory. Yesterday she told me (after checking the results) that he needs an operation. He has stones in his bladder and a big one in his urinal tube and he needs to go on a special diet for cat's with urineway - problems. I hope he'll eat it, because it's expensive. All together it costs me a lot of money, but I'm so worried, because he's my litle furry friend. The operation will be on 2nd January.

[Kristie, Moderator]

Somehow, I feel like it's even worse that the animals died in a zoo fire because they were trapped and had no chance of escape.

[Sarah]

I was sad about this aardvark. I looked at a picture of it and it was so cute.

[Kristie, Moderator]

So sorry to hear about your cat, Saar. I hope he gets better quickly.

[Lisa]

Sarah wrote: "I was sad about this aardvark. I looked at a picture of it and it was so cute."

I know! It was adorable! Poor thing. Hopefully the meerkats will turn up safe and well.

[Lisa]

Saar wrote: "That's sad news. I adore meerkats. A couple of years ago I visited the London Zoo. I'll never forget: it was raining really bad and the only animals that were having fun, were the pinguïns.

I rece..."

Sorry to hear about your cat, Saar. Hopefully his operation will go well and he will make a quick recovery.

[Sarah]

Sorry to bear about your cat Saar.

[Travis]

Huh you never really consider a zoo having a fire I guess.Those darn pets are always so hard on the bank account at times. My parents oldest cat has diabetes and has to get insulin shots twice a day which is ridiculously expensive unless they drive to Canada every two weeks to buy it which going to Canada is easy it's getting back into the US which is the hard part. So they just cough up the dough for US insulin

Yeah those wildfires are something else altogether Janice they move so fast and are so hot you just have to get out of their way

[Peggy]

Hope the operation will help your cat Saar!

[Saar The Book owl]

Thank you everyone. I can't wait untill D-day is over...
I never thought it would cost so much for little pets. I have a horse and then I can understand what I need to pay for, because he's a big animal, but for cats, dogs...
But I always say: if you have animals, you need to be able to take care of them.
@Travis: maybe a stupid question, but can't it be bought online in Canada if it's cheaper?

[Travis]

I'm not sure why they can't do that. It requires driving to Canada though. Probably illegal and have to kind of smuggle it across border. Idk

[Janice, Moderator]

Saar wrote: " he needs to go on a special diet for cat's with urineway - problems. I hope he'll eat it, because it's expensive. "

When Cleo had a urinary tract infection, they wanted me to feed her a specialized cat chow. It was expensive. When I commented to the vet, she said that the cats don't eat less of it than the store brands and so the price is equivalent. Cleo thought it was some specialized candy, or something, because she gobbled it down. We switched back to the store brand. I can't afford that cat's expensive tastes.

I hope the surgery goes well for your pet.

[Saar The Book owl]

@Travis: such things should have all the same prices.
@Janice: it will take a big bite of my budget, but if I don't get him on this food, he'll get sick again. So I have no option. It's much expensive then store brands, so I'll hope he won't do like Cleo.

[Janice, Moderator]

I hope so too, Saar.

Cleo got her bladder infections right after we moved into town. She had been drinking well water at the farm, and then chlorinated water in the city. I wondered if it was the water but the vet said no. I bought 2 bags of the special chow, and I filtered her water. She still gets the filtered water but regular chow and she hasn't had a problem since.

I may have been more reluctant to go back to regular chow if she had needed surgery. I wouldn't have wanted to risk another infection.

[Kristie, Moderator]

They are definitely expensive. We have 2 dogs and a cat. The vet wanted to put one dog on special food for her joints, which the other dog can't eat because it makes her too fat. I don't know how they expected us to manage that one. We buy good food for them, but not the prescription stuff. We went with a supplement for her instead.

Both dogs need meds now. One for the joints and the other has allergies. Our old vet had us spending over $100 a month on special allergy medicine for her, then we found out that we could just give her Benadryl. When I checked with the vet, he said, yeah you can do that. Ridiculous. We spend about $13 a month on her allergy meds now with pill pockets that she loves!

Our cat is fine so far... I'm sure the vet will eventually find something she needs.

[Kristie, Moderator]

Janice, sounds like the water was the issue for your kitty.

Funny thing, one of my dogs actually prefers the cat food to her own. We put the cat food up so she can't eat it, but the cat throws mouthfuls down to her.

[Janice, Moderator]

It made perfect sense to me. You go from water with no added chemical to one that is heavy in added chemical, it's got to have some effect.

That's hilarious that the cat was treating the dog.

We had a dog that would always clean out the cat's bowl and then ignore his own.

[Kristie, Moderator]

Haha...we always tease them and tell them they’re confused. Our cat also follows us on our dog walks. If we get too far ahead she’ll meow at us to wait for her.

[Saar The Book owl]

Janice wrote: "I hope so too, Saar.

Cleo got her bladder infections right after we moved into town. She had been drinking well water at the farm, and then chlorinated water in the city. I wondered if it was the ..."

It can be because you moved. The vet said that bladder infections can be caused by stress or maybe it was the water.

[Sandra, Moderator]

Kristie wrote: "We put the cat food up so she can't eat it, but the cat throws mouthfuls down to her. "

This is so sweet, Kristie.

[Saar The Book owl]

@Kristie: it's more difficult when you have more than 1 pet. It's a struggle when the other one can't eat what the other has. I'm glad that the supplement works. I think sometimes vets recommend something because they get some kind of bonus on the meds they sell.

[Peggy]

Lol Kristie, I can totally picture that! Would be great video material :D

[siriusedward]

That is sweet ,Kristie..

[Kristie, Moderator]

I agree, Saar. I’ve thought of that before too.

Peggy, it never occurred to me to record it. It’s funny to see. They are best buddies.

[Janice, Moderator]

I read something on Twitter this morning - actually I think it was a post that Rusalka retweeted - that elephants think that we humans are cute, in the same way we think puppies are cute.

[Peggy]

Seriously? I wonder how that has been tested/measured...

[Peggy]

Were they given brain scans while watching pics of humans and the same areas where activated as when we watch pics of puppies?

[Kristie, Moderator]

I was wondering the same thing, Peggy. How do they know?