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| So the last post was detailing the beginning of our old cat's issues. The x-rays showed that he has a slightly enlarged heart. He's been doing well on a twice daily diuretic to keep his blood pressure down. He's now like a new cat - playing, meowing, begging - it's great to see. He has a checkup next month, but he's been doing well. We know it's just a matter of time, as he is getting up there, but at least he's happy and comfortable.
Now, for another type of critter - baby mice. Some baby mice were left orphaned after their momma got caught by a trap at Courtney's work. She was ransacking the store's food. We felt bad for the little guys and attempted to nurse them to independence. They only lasted a few days. Pictures and the whole story is available if you click here. They all died peacefully and comfortably earlier today, which the most any living thing can really hope for.
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| I don't write here very often, but it's somewhere I can think things through by writing. We just got back from an emergency visit to the vet. One of our cats, our old guy who is 15, hasn't been well. He had stomach issues last week and breathing problems we thought were associated with it. With the vet's advice and cleaning out some glands the stomach problems went away, and we thought he was getting better with a special kidney diet food and everything, but the breathing has been getting worse. Tonight he collapsed. So we called the vet and she has him now overnight and on bronchodilaters - there's a lot of fluid in his lungs and he has a low pulse. It looks like either his kidneys or his heart.
Things have been really good lately - the cats are sweet, work is going well, I've been enjoying having Courtney home (he's not in a full-time job yet)...and then our guy gets sick and will likely be gone soon. It makes me think about how life is full of ups and downs. Things go well up to a point and then life brings you back down to start over. If it weren't for the low points, the high points wouldn't look as good. But boy does it suck when you get knocked down a peg.
We hope he's able to get better and we have him for a while longer, but we're preparing ourselves for the worst at the same time because we know that he won't live forever. The good times don't last forever, but there will always be both good and bad ahead.
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| Wow, this poor little blog, sitting here all lonely and un-updated.
Wellllllll.....let's see. What's happened since May:
We moved to New Hampshire in July
I'm still working from home editing scientific manuscripts
I'm leaving Etsy for Artfire
I keep up with AliciaMae.com and maeflowers.com as well as xanga.com/aliciamae_8, aliciamae280.blogspot.com, alicia-prater.blogspot.com, and aliciaforpresident.blogspot.com.
I'm writing for Triond, MileHive, Helium, and Suite101.
We're getting rid of some of our books at readerscorner.ecrater.com
Taxes are coming up and I have no clue how to do self-employment taxes
ummm...hmmm...it's really cold and snowy here, but I love it! lol
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| Ok, an update.
Big things are coming!
At the end of this month we are going up to New Hampshire to apartment hunt. We have a list of places to check out and we will decide on where we want to live. Then, in July, if all goes as planned, we will be moving! 
My work's going well, I have consistent jobs coming through. I've been editing and writing for all sorts of topics and organizations, though my main contract is for scientific manuscripts. I enjoy it and it's treating us well. I started a new blog to correspond with my website Maeflowers. So I'm still ranting and raving up a storm.
I'm excited...changes will be good!
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| We both had today off (now that I'm working I feel like I have real weekends!) so we went out to one of the local bookshops that carries rare, old books - Stephen's. It has been raining the past couple days, which our area really needed. There has been such a severe drought for a year. And it's gotten warmer so the air had that spring/summer smell to it of growing plants and wet dirt. As we walked through the tall stacks of books I felt nostalgic for my college days spent among the stacks. And I began to think about when I was even younger and had to scour books on historical figures for school reports. How it always felt so daunting and I had no idea then just how much of that I would do as a profession lol I love books and being amongst the stacks with so many choices and topics - well I'm lucky I found someone who appreciates it as much as I do!
I got to thinking though that in today's age of the internet and information technology, students and children just don't have that same experience with the written word. They don't know what it's like to sift through stacks of texts, or to spend hours over one book trying to find the information they need. Reading an entire book to summarize the general idea. They have snippets and sound bits...information out of context, information without its structure. They have lost the umbilical cords that hold all things together in the web of thought.
It's sad...I hope to always have the text I can touch, the text I can smell, the text I can immerse myself in without my eyes burning from the screen glare. I think the next generation is missing out on some wonderful experiences and won't understand why I love shops like Stephen's.
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