The "What's on your mind?" Thread -2017

[segelkatt]

 

My brother had back surgery a while back, with good results.  He tells me that he knows other people who've had much worse results, and when I asked him what the difference was in their treatment he said there were two things:

1. As the son of a physical therapist, my brother knew enough to insist that he get physical therapy along with the surgery, and to pay attention to what the physical therapist told him.  Those who had worse outcomes didn't.
2. Because of this need for P.T., my brother made sure his surgery done at an in-patient clinic that does everything, provides consultations with the therapist before surgery, does the surgery, and then provides long term physical therapy after the surgery is done.  The people he knew who had poorer outcomes went to clinics that did surgery only.  After that the patients were on their own.

And, despite the fact that my brother had a good outcome, every once in a while his back will begin acting up (this is to be expected), but because of all the P.T. he got he has the exercises he needs to be able to take care of his back when it needs extra care.

Possible, but don't jump to conclusions.  And if that is it, it's very responsible of her to stick to guinea pigs rather than getting a cat and trying to turn it into a vegetarian, the way some people do.I had a supervisor once who was a vegetarian who claimed that her dog and other dogs were not really meat eaters but vegetarians, that when they got hold of a whole animal they would immediately go for the stomach and its contents which was full  of vegetarian matter! Now, apart from dogs not being cats I was really glad she did not have a cat, we all know that cats cannot digest vegetarian food and would starve to death given a vegetarian diet. What gets me is that this woman had a PhD and should have known better. Goes to show that some PhDs just stand for PhuddyDuddy. As far as that goes: homo sapiens still has eye teeth, which are just shortened fangs showing that we are omnivorous, meaning we were designed to be meat and vegetation eaters. Strictly vegetarian animals DO NOT have eye teeth or fangs, they only have grinding teeth.

Just make sure she doesn't have any food sensitivities you need to know about.  I'm neither vegetarian nor vegan, but I'm sensitive to casein, which is a milk protein.  This is vastly different from lactose intolerance, which is fairly easy to deal with; it means I can't have any milk product, including cheese, butter, yogurt, cream cheese, ad infinitum, and I can't eat anything made with any of these things.  Needless to say, I don't eat out a lot.

Margret

 

[segelkatt]

 
That's so horrible!  I would be beyond devastated!  I'm a chocoholic.  I am not fun to be around if I haven't had chocolate recently.

I used to be a chocoholic, if at was chocolate I could not resist. But something happened about 2 years ago. Gradually I did not care for anything sweet, including chocolate. Oh, it still LOOKS good but then when I have it I don't want it anymore, one or two bites, that's it. And milk chocolate? Oh yuk! And I'm NOT diabetic either. There are quite a few thing I don't want anymore. Some things actually make me gag if I have too much of it and sometimes that is after just a few bites, very weird. Now, a baked potato slathered with butter and sour cream and chives on top is a totally different story. So I guess I have substituted one of the fattening foods for another although I do wonder which one is worse. 

 

[segelkatt]

 
I agree

Much better to have an herbivore pet than to force an obligate omnivore to eat veggies. Now that I think of it, she did mention awhile ago that her landlord doesn't allow cats or dogs but is ok with small animals. Whatever her reason is, it's really none of my business.

She occasionally indulges in the sweet gooey baked treats from the local bakery including decadent chocolate chip cookies so I'm sure the cookies I make are fine for her to have. She can always give the cookies to her roommates or BF to enjoy.

Mom's old Sunbeam mixer isn't the greatest thing to use

  The two beaters got gummed up with the soft dough so I had to constantly scrape them and the sides of the bowl. The bowl oddly rotated in one direction for a bit and then would rotate in the other direction

I managed to get the dough made and the cookies baked. I ended up with a little more than 3 dozen cookies.

Actually, a bowl that goes one way and then other is better than one that goes one way all the time. I had a microwave once whose turntable went one way and if you opened the door it would go the other way. I learned to stop it half way through so it would change directions and I never had hot spots in the food. The dough sticking to the beaters has nothing to do with the beaters but with the consistency of the dough.

There are dairy-free chocolates available:

http://www.godairyfree.org/ask-alis...ate-do-you-recommend-for-dairy-free-consumers

http://www.avoidingmilkprotein.com/chocolate.htm

You can also look for vegan chocolate.

 

[segelkatt]

 
I would enjoy a book like that!

I just don't get it.  Connor has been pinning Murphy and Mickey by biting their necks - hard enough to make them cry - and a bit ago, he kept doing it to Murphy and humping him.  They've all been neutered.  I mean, is it possible something got screwed up?  I saw someone say something in another thread about males being jerks to other cats around the age of 1.  Connor is just shy of 10 months old.  He's still really lovey with me and Murphy and Mickey are getting along just fine.  For right now, I have Connor shut in the bedroom with me and the other two are out hanging with John and Aislyn - I'm in here working on ending my procrastination of a paper - but that isn't a permanent solution.  I can keep it up for a day or two, but I'll need to put food and water in the bedroom.  I already have a litter box in here and one out there.

Just because a cat has been fixed does not mean it has no passion left. Connor will get over it before you know it, his behavior toward biting necks is typical male mating behavior, better than him humping your leg, altered dogs are famous for doing that, ugh!

 

[Alicia88]

This may be the cutest thing I've ever seen.

Cutest Thing Ever!.jpg

• Alicia88
• Jan 3, 2017

 

[Margret]

 

 

My brother had back surgery a while back, with good results.  He tells me that he knows other people who've had much worse results, and when I asked him what the difference was in their treatment he said there were two things:

1. As the son of a physical therapist, my brother knew enough to insist that he get physical therapy along with the surgery, and to pay attention to what the physical therapist told him.  Those who had worse outcomes didn't.
2. Because of this need for P.T., my brother made sure his surgery done at an in-patient clinic that does everything, provides consultations with the therapist before surgery, does the surgery, and then provides long term physical therapy after the surgery is done.  The people he knew who had poorer outcomes went to clinics that did surgery only.  After that the patients were on their own.

And, despite the fact that my brother had a good outcome, every once in a while his back will begin acting up (this is to be expected), but because of all the P.T. he got he has the exercises he needs to be able to take care of his back when it needs extra care.

Possible, but don't jump to conclusions.  And if that is it, it's very responsible of her to stick to guinea pigs rather than getting a cat and trying to turn it into a vegetarian, the way some people do.I had a supervisor once who was a vegetarian who claimed that her dog and other dogs were not really meat eaters but vegetarians, that when they got hold of a whole animal they would immediately go for the stomach and its contents which was full  of vegetarian matter! Now, apart from dogs not being cats I was really glad she did not have a cat, we all know that cats cannot digest vegetarian food and would starve to death given a vegetarian diet. What gets me is that this woman had a PhD and should have known better. Goes to show that some PhDs just stand for PhuddyDuddy. As far as that goes: homo sapiens still has eye teeth, which are just shortened fangs showing that we are omnivorous, meaning we were designed to be meat and vegetation eaters. Strictly vegetarian animals DO NOT have eye teeth or fangs, they only have grinding teeth.

Just make sure she doesn't have any food sensitivities you need to know about.  I'm neither vegetarian nor vegan, but I'm sensitive to casein, which is a milk protein.  This is vastly different from lactose intolerance, which is fairly easy to deal with; it means I can't have any milk product, including cheese, butter, yogurt, cream cheese, ad infinitum, and I can't eat anything made with any of these things.  Needless to say, I don't eat out a lot.

Margret

The world is full of people who accept their own philosophy (religious, political, moral, whatever) over science.  I wish some of these people who try to turn cats into vegetarians would watch a few nature documentaries.  I saw one the other night with wolves and bison.  The narrator/photographer was talking about the difficulty of watching some of these things, who do you root for?  The wolves with a den of pups who need food?  Or the buffalo calf they're trying to take down?  In both cases, there are baby animals whose lives are in danger.  And it's the way the ecosystem works.  You wipe out wolves, and the bison are endangered as well, as an indirect result.

Even worse (in my opinion) than people who try to turn cats into vegetarians (and it's saying a lot when I think it's worse than that!) are the people who decided they could get cows to put on more weight by adding meat to their diets, specifically, beef.  The result was mad cow syndrome.  But it began with the utter perversion of turning cows, not just into omnivores, but into cannibals!  For profit.  How sick can you get?

 

 
That's so horrible!  I would be beyond devastated!  I'm a chocoholic.  I am not fun to be around if I haven't had chocolate recently.

I used to be a chocoholic, if at was chocolate I could not resist. But something happened about 2 years ago. Gradually I did not care for anything sweet, including chocolate. Oh, it still LOOKS good but then when I have it I don't want it anymore, one or two bites, that's it. And milk chocolate? Oh yuk! And I'm NOT diabetic either. There are quite a few thing I don't want anymore. Some things actually make me gag if I have too much of it and sometimes that is after just a few bites, very weird. Now, a baked potato slathered with butter and sour cream and chives on top is a totally different story. So I guess I have substituted one of the fattening foods for another although I do wonder which one is worse. 

Having diabetes does not make you want sweets any less; in fact, it works exactly the opposite way, unfortunately.  It makes you crave them.  And it's all mixed up with the problem that if you don't judge the meds you take exactly right, you end up hypoglycemic and actually needing some carbohydrates to get your blood sugar back up.

As for the baked potato, the big problem from a calorie standpoint isn't the butter, it's the fact that potatoes are concentrated carbohydrates.  I don't know why you stopped craving sweets, but you obviously didn't stop craving carbs.

Margret

 

[Margret]

 
I haven't caught him doing it today at all.  Maybe keeping him shut in the bedroom away from the other 2 all last night convinced him that it was a bad idea?

I just caught him doing the pinning a couple of times Sunday and then more pinning and the humping incident on Monday.

Well, give it some time. 

 

Margret

 

[Margret]

 

 

 
@Tallyollyopia, what specifically is it that RB thinks doesn't match the backstory on Ueni?

Margret

RB says--and he makes some valid points that are all logical, thoughtful, and ignoring emotion entirely--that Ueni simply would have had too much self-control to attack Yarey like that, given that most of her background training would have encouraged and strengthened her self-control.

Having read it, and with only the backstory you've published here, I think RB is mistaken.

Ueni has already made it quite plain that her entire self image is bound up in this horrible marriage contract.  She may have gotten into it in the first place for financial reasons, but the entire point of her training has been to prepare her for this marriage.  She has spent her entire life training for it, and suppressing any misgivings that she must have.  Now she's been told by her "fiancee" that he's fallen for someone else, that he cares nothing for her, and that he actually finds it funny that he's basically destroyed her life.  Her training has been enough to keep her from attacking the fiancee; I can't imagine that it would be enough to keep her from attacking another girl whom she considers to be both her social inferior (also a large part of her training) and the source of the setback she's just suffered.

Ueni has some real possibilities as a character.  If she passes the test and makes it into the school, she's going to discover other possibilities for herself.  And the major roadblocks she'll have to overcome are this false self image that's just messed her up, and almost all of the training she's been given.  If she has good teachers, her previous training can be integrated into her training here, but only once they've broken her of this illusion that she's better than everyone else.

Margret

I take it back.  Ueni has been taught to defer to authority.  She would, indeed, attack Yarey.  What she wouldn't do is struggle violently against Assir, who is acting on the authority of Rarta.  If she does, it's because she's rejecting the school entirely, as beneath her position.  That's something that is a possibility in her character, but if she does that it means that you're writing her out of the story, and basically leaving her bereft and with no chance in life.  Either that, or you're planning to keep her at the school long enough for her soulling to hatch and give her some common sense, which is one of the things she wasn't educated to.  This could also be an interesting story line, but it would require a really major amount of growth in her character for her to be successful at the school.

Look at her motivations (which absolutely include emotions), and at how you plan to develop her character.  Then decide.

Margret

 

[tallyollyopia]

 
DD is wrong - Santa Claus is named after St. Nicolas who was a bishop in Turkey who gave a dowry to 3 sisters who had none and thus would have ended up to be spinsters. That the 3 balls of silver hanging in front of pawn shops is another story. In any case it has nothing to do with "heathen gods".  DD should not be running his mouth about things of which he knows nothing.  

He does that a lot. I take most of the things he says with a grain (or even pound) of salt, and it helped learn research habits early in life. 

 
Having read it, and with only the backstory you've published here, I think RB is mistaken.

Ueni has already made it quite plain that her entire self image is bound up in this horrible marriage contract.  She may have gotten into it in the first place for financial reasons, but the entire point of her training has been to prepare her for this marriage.  She has spent her entire life training for it, and suppressing any misgivings that she must have.  Now she's been told by her "fiancee" that he's fallen for someone else, that he cares nothing for her, and that he actually finds it funny that he's basically destroyed her life.  Her training has been enough to keep her from attacking the fiancee; I can't imagine that it would be enough to keep her from attacking another girl whom she considers to be both her social inferior (also a large part of her training) and the source of the setback she's just suffered.

Ueni has some real possibilities as a character.  If she passes the test and makes it into the school, she's going to discover other possibilities for herself.  And the major roadblocks she'll have to overcome are this false self image that's just messed her up, and almost all of the training she's been given.  If she has good teachers, her previous training can be integrated into her training here, but only once they've broken her of this illusion that she's better than everyone else.

Margret

I'll have to show this post to RB later. You brought up everything I did, but in a more logical way. (I was trying to explain emotions--which don't translate well, especially not talking to someone mechanically minded.)

 

[tallyollyopia]

 
I take it back.  Ueni has been taught to defer to authority.  She would, indeed, attack Yarey.  What she wouldn't do is struggle violently against Assir, who is acting on the authority of Rarta.  If she does, it's because she's rejecting the school entirely, as beneath her position.  That's something that is a possibility in her character, but if she does that it means that you're writing her out of the story, and basically leaving her bereft and with no chance in life.  Either that, or you're planning to keep her at the school long enough for her soulling to hatch and give her some common sense, which is one of the things she wasn't educated to.  This could also be an interesting story line, but it would require a really major amount of growth in her character for her to be successful at the school.

Look at her motivations (which absolutely include emotions), and at how you plan to develop her character.  Then decide.

Margret

I already know where I'm going with Ueni's character, but you have a point about the struggling thing. I might have to rework that bit.

 

[Alicia88]

I really need to catch up on my "Magic School and Egg" reading.

John just had the biggest freak out I've ever seen from him.  Can't really blame him.  Aislyn woke up covered in blood with more pouring from her nose.  After he screamed for me in a panic and nearly gave me a heart attack, I took over cuz I'm beginning to think he's not that great in a crisis.  Or maybe my history of nosebleeds made me much calmer.  I used to have regular nosebleeds; gushers that last an average of an hour and a half.  Mom took me to the ER if they hit 2 hours.  My record was 4.  Repeated cauterization at the ER did nada. I guess I grew out of them eventually.  Anyway, I'm betting it's dry air.  I got it stopped and used a q-tip to put some baby oil up her nose.  Mom's gonna get us a humidifier.  Hopefully she doesn't have a weak vessel that causes problems for 8 years like I did.  And I think John is calm now.

 

[NewYork1303]

 
I really need to catch up on my "Magic School and Egg" reading.

John just had the biggest freak out I've ever seen from him.  Can't really blame him.  Aislyn woke up covered in blood with more pouring from her nose.  After he screamed for me in a panic and nearly gave me a heart attack, I took over cuz I'm beginning to think he's not that great in a crisis.  Or maybe my history of nosebleeds made me much calmer.  I used to have regular nosebleeds; gushers that last an average of an hour and a half.  Mom took me to the ER if they hit 2 hours.  My record was 4.  Repeated cauterization at the ER did nada. I guess I grew out of them eventually.  Anyway, I'm betting it's dry air.  I got it stopped and used a q-tip to put some baby oil up her nose.  Mom's gonna get us a humidifier.  Hopefully she doesn't have a weak vessel that causes problems for 8 years like I did.  And I think John is calm now.

He sounds like my father, who when we were growing up always went a bit crazy in certain situations like this one. Luckily my mom was good under pressure. 

 

[segelkatt]

It appears to be rather common for men to fall apart in a crisis that pertains to their own family.Women, be they mothers or not, just take charge, do what needs to be done and if necessary will fall apart later when the perceived danger is over. I know I did once when I spun out on the wet freeway and could easily have been hit by other cars. I ended up sideways in the middle of the freeway with my engine stalled. I took a deep breath, started the engine, backed up and then went forward (I was on my way home) as cool as could be. When I got home I broke down, sitting there crying "I could have been killed, I could have been killed....." it went on for at least half an hour. I used to have to take my daughter to the ER a lot due to chronic pancreatitis and I probably looked like a hard-hearted person to the people there because I came in with her, gave info as needed, then left to go to work, she would call me when she was done at the ER for me to pick her up. This had happened so many times that to us it was routine and there was no point in me sitting in ER waiting for her, it always took at least 5 hours. My daughter was an adult, not a little girl crying for her mommy. I would just grab her packed bag which we always had at the ready, bundle her in the car and off we would go. No room or time to panic. 

 

[handsome kitty]

 
I already know where I'm going with Ueni's character, but you have a point about the struggling thing. I might have to rework that bit.

I was assuming that Ueni was going to be killed by her souling, or that it would be evil.  Isn't that why it is turning black?

 

[Mamanyt1953]

Hey, guys!  I got locked out of TCS last night for some odd reason.  I'm down to chalking it up to a network glitch of some sort.  I kept getting a weird error message, but around 1 am it resolved itself!  BOY do I have a lot of reading to catch up on!  OFF TO THE RACES!

 

[tallyollyopia]

 
I really need to catch up on my "Magic School and Egg" reading.

John just had the biggest freak out I've ever seen from him.  Can't really blame him.  Aislyn woke up covered in blood with more pouring from her nose.  After he screamed for me in a panic and nearly gave me a heart attack, I took over cuz I'm beginning to think he's not that great in a crisis.  Or maybe my history of nosebleeds made me much calmer.  I used to have regular nosebleeds; gushers that last an average of an hour and a half.  Mom took me to the ER if they hit 2 hours.  My record was 4.  Repeated cauterization at the ER did nada. I guess I grew out of them eventually.  Anyway, I'm betting it's dry air.  I got it stopped and used a q-tip to put some baby oil up her nose.  Mom's gonna get us a humidifier.  Hopefully she doesn't have a weak vessel that causes problems for 8 years like I did.  And I think John is calm now.

RB was the same as a kid. Nosebleeds were so common that once I caught him drawing on the walls in the blood, like it was paint. AWM just shook her head (before getting the stuff to clean the blood up) and said, "I hope CSI never comes to our house. They'd never believe us." 

 
It appears to be rather common for men to fall apart in a crisis that pertains to their own family.Women, be they mothers or not, just take charge, do what needs to be done and if necessary will fall apart later when the perceived danger is over. I know I did once when I spun out on the wet freeway and could easily have been hit by other cars. I ended up sideways in the middle of the freeway with my engine stalled. I took a deep breath, started the engine, backed up and then went forward (I was on my way home) as cool as could be. When I got home I broke down, sitting there crying "I could have been killed, I could have been killed....." it went on for at least half an hour. I used to have to take my daughter to the ER a lot due to chronic pancreatitis and I probably looked like a hard-hearted person to the people there because I came in with her, gave info as needed, then left to go to work, she would call me when she was done at the ER for me to pick her up. This had happened so many times that to us it was routine and there was no point in me sitting in ER waiting for her, it always took at least 5 hours. My daughter was an adult, not a little girl crying for her mommy. I would just grab her packed bag which we always had at the ready, bundle her in the car and off we would go. No room or time to panic. 

It makes sense to me.

 
I was assuming that Ueni was going to be killed by her souling, or that it would be evil.  Isn't that why it is turning black?

Before I answer that (and I'm not going to give a definitive answer because I want my audience to be surprised), I'd like to point out that Headmaster's soulling is also  primarily black (well, black and red).  And before you bring it up, no--no he is not  evil.

 
Hey, guys!  I got locked out of TCS last night for some odd reason.  I'm down to chalking it up to a network glitch of some sort.  I kept getting a weird error message, but around 1 am it resolved itself!  BOY do I have a lot of reading to catch up on!  OFF TO THE RACES!

Congrats! And have fun! 

 

[Alicia88]

 
RB was the same as a kid. Nosebleeds were so common that once I caught him drawing on the walls in the blood, like it was paint. AWM just shook her head (before getting the stuff to clean the blood up) and said, "I hope CSI never comes to our house. They'd never believe us." 

It makes sense to me.

Before I answer that (and I'm not going to give a definitive answer because I want my audience to be surprised), I'd like to point out that Headmaster's soulling is also  primarily black (well, black and red).  And before you bring it up, no--no he is not  evil.

Congrats! And have fun! 

I used to think my bed looked like a crime scene when I woke up bleeding in the middle of the night because I'd already soaked the pillowcase and the top part of the blanket with blood.  My mom actually did start to freak out when we passed hour 3 of the 4 hour one and the ER was unable to stop it.

The nosebleeds didn't really bother me that much until a teacher turned them into an excuse for my classmates to tease me.  She didn't like me because her nephew didn't like me (same grade).  So, she accused me of picking my nose and causing it to bleed in front of the entire class.  6th graders really don't need coming up with things to tease other kids about.  My mom went to talk to her and she was so rude to my mom, she almost got punched.  Mom said the only thing that saved the b with an itch was the fact that she was holding my 5 week old baby sister and diaper bag at the time and she didn't have a free with which to do the punching.

 

[Alicia88]

So, I just got my feedback from tonight.  I didn't yawn at all, but I got reprimanded for sounding "lethargic."

 

[louche]

I tried to get lots of sleep on NYE. Sadly, didn't work out ;P

Grimmy is really stressed, and my main concern is she is barely eating. I don't want to leave freeze dried nuggets out in fear I'll get her sick. I wanted to maybe switch to a wet food brand, but hoping someone knows a brand where the cat poop doesn't stink. Her poop stink has been just about nonexistent since she's switched to raw and I was wanting to try to keep it to a minimum or null.

Hoping everyone's 2017 had a wonderful beginning and continues to be so. <3

 

[Margret]

 

 
I really need to catch up on my "Magic School and Egg" reading.

John just had the biggest freak out I've ever seen from him.  Can't really blame him.  Aislyn woke up covered in blood with more pouring from her nose.  After he screamed for me in a panic and nearly gave me a heart attack, I took over cuz I'm beginning to think he's not that great in a crisis.  Or maybe my history of nosebleeds made me much calmer.  I used to have regular nosebleeds; gushers that last an average of an hour and a half.  Mom took me to the ER if they hit 2 hours.  My record was 4.  Repeated cauterization at the ER did nada. I guess I grew out of them eventually.  Anyway, I'm betting it's dry air.  I got it stopped and used a q-tip to put some baby oil up her nose.  Mom's gonna get us a humidifier.  Hopefully she doesn't have a weak vessel that causes problems for 8 years like I did.  And I think John is calm now.

RB was the same as a kid. Nosebleeds were so common that once I caught him drawing on the walls in the blood, like it was paint. AWM just shook her head (before getting the stuff to clean the blood up) and said, "I hope CSI never comes to our house. They'd never believe us." 

 
It appears to be rather common for men to fall apart in a crisis that pertains to their own family.Women, be they mothers or not, just take charge, do what needs to be done and if necessary will fall apart later when the perceived danger is over. I know I did once when I spun out on the wet freeway and could easily have been hit by other cars. I ended up sideways in the middle of the freeway with my engine stalled. I took a deep breath, started the engine, backed up and then went forward (I was on my way home) as cool as could be. When I got home I broke down, sitting there crying "I could have been killed, I could have been killed....." it went on for at least half an hour. I used to have to take my daughter to the ER a lot due to chronic pancreatitis and I probably looked like a hard-hearted person to the people there because I came in with her, gave info as needed, then left to go to work, she would call me when she was done at the ER for me to pick her up. This had happened so many times that to us it was routine and there was no point in me sitting in ER waiting for her, it always took at least 5 hours. My daughter was an adult, not a little girl crying for her mommy. I would just grab her packed bag which we always had at the ready, bundle her in the car and off we would go. No room or time to panic. 

It makes sense to me.

 

 
RB was the same as a kid. Nosebleeds were so common that once I caught him drawing on the walls in the blood, like it was paint. AWM just shook her head (before getting the stuff to clean the blood up) and said, "I hope CSI never comes to our house. They'd never believe us." 

It makes sense to me.

I used to think my bed looked like a crime scene when I woke up bleeding in the middle of the night because I'd already soaked the pillowcase and the top part of the blanket with blood.  My mom actually did start to freak out when we passed hour 3 of the 4 hour one and the ER was unable to stop it.

The nosebleeds didn't really bother me that much until a teacher turned them into an excuse for my classmates to tease me.  She didn't like me because her nephew didn't like me (same grade).  So, she accused me of picking my nose and causing it to bleed in front of the entire class.  6th graders really don't need coming up with things to tease other kids about.  My mom went to talk to her and she was so rude to my mom, she almost got punched.  Mom said the only thing that saved the b with an itch was the fact that she was holding my 5 week old baby sister and diaper bag at the time and she didn't have a free with which to do the punching.

Vitamin K.  Roger was put on blood thinners after he had a pulmonary embolism several years ago (Pretzel was absolutely convinced the evil paramedics had stolen him away on instructions from their cat, who was jealous because she had a better human

), and he used to get horrible nose bleeds.  Sometimes they'd go on for days.  Eventually he began keeping emergency spinach in the freezer as a source of vitamin K, and it would stop the nose bleeds.  They had me on one baby aspirin a day to thin my blood (just on general principles because I'm in my sixties), right up until I needed a needle biopsy which had to be aborted due to excessive bleeding.  Now I'm on vitamin K.  Spinach is a good source, but it's also quite possible to get tablets for those of us who don't much like spinach.

 
So, I just got my feedback from tonight.  I didn't yawn at all, but I got reprimanded for sounding "lethargic."

I'm sorry, @Alicia88, this is directed at your employers, not you:  

 

We need a dunce cap emoji.

Margret