Kacey Laina

I made a bunch of icons from the awesome webcomic Gunnerkrigg Court by Tom Siddell. Snatch if you like, but please make sure to credit Tom Siddell when you use them. :)

01. 02. 03.
( More under cut )

So, I realized when talking with my mother that the same summer Clancy and I were planning to get married is also the same summer my brother Max is going to have his Bar-Mitzvah. This would be two major events my folks would have to plan very very close together.

So, we've been thinking of bumping the wedding to sooner to more successful split up these two events, and also to get hitched with increased speed.

Tentatively, we are considering the date of October 29th. But, this is pretty soon after Josh and Casey's wedding. So, I'm putting some feelers out there. How many of you would honestly be able to make it, if we had our wedding then?

Well, we made it and are in Ohio. Our stuff came on Tuesday. Many boxes. Oh so many. There is more news, I am sure, but I will write about it later. Mostly, I am writing to enlist help as many of my friends are witty with words.

I'm trying to create a dog training/behavior modification/owner counseling business and I need a name. Something clever without being corney or dinky. This is surprisingly hard. Current ideas that are okay, but not the best "New Tricks" "Training Spot" and "Pet Peeves".

Any ideas? Help me, clever people. Help me so much!

Well, so this has been an intriguing night.

The day began with my getting up and Clancy and I taking the dogs out to pee. Unusually, the dogs next door were out (which they usually aren't that early) and so there was some barking. I was annoyed, moreso when someone from next door screamed FUCK!!! at the top of their lungs. Our neighbors are odd. I thought nothing f it.

Went to work.

Came home to a note from the next door house. It's a duplex with an owner and several tenants living there. The note was from one of the tenants: call asap. There's been a crisis and they needed help with the dogs. The crisis turned out to be that the one of the owners of the dogs had died at some point the night before. The other, her husband, was in police custody because he's now a suspect in her murder (if she was murdered). The police said he might be rereleased and implied that it might not be the smartest for the current tenants to stay in the house just now. Everyone evacuated. The dogs weren't allowed back into the house because they could disrupt the crime scene, and they were barking at anyone that came to the gate of the fenced yard. The husband's father is maybe going to come by to feed them tomorrow. The police needed to photograph the yard, so they came over with the last neighbor to leave and asked if I could maybe help with the dogs. So, I headed over with a friend, armed with freeze-dried lamb lungs, and tossed treats until the dogs mellowed enough that I could come into the yard. More lamb lungs and the cops came in and started taking photos. I asked if there was any reason why the dogs couldn't leave the area. The cops said nope.

So, I have two more dogs in my house tonight. They're living in the computer room. Tomorrow, they'll spend the day back out in the yard. Tomorrow night...I dunno.

I'm in wacky land.

1. Choose a band/artist: Bob Dylan
2. Are you male or female: Just Like A Woman
3. Describe yourself: Clean-Cut Kid
4. How do some people feel about you: Driftin' Too Far From Shore
5. How do you feel about yourself: Guess I'm Doin' Fine
6. Describe your ex boyfriend/girlfriend: Disease of Conceit
7. Describe current boyfriend/girlfriend: Heart of Mine
8. Describe where you want to be: Sittin' On Top of the World
9. Describe how you live: Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
10. Describe how you love: Unbelieveable
11. What would you ask for if you had just one wish: Shelter From The Storm
12. Share a few words of wisdom: Death Is Not The End
13. Where do you live: California
14. Now say goodbye: Bye and Bye

Okay, so what's new...

Well, I visited my sisters in L.A. last weekend. My parents and younger brother had flown in from Ohio so it was a big ole reunion. My sisters renting an apartment together in Marina Del Ray. The building looks like a hotel on the inside. Long carpeted hallways leading to key-carded rooms with shiny gold numbers on them. This is odd to me, as I had always found that apartment buildings and hotels had distinctly different feels. Except, apparently, in Marina Del Ray.

My sisters are very stylish and also very tidy. They are the sort to buy things to hang on the wall so at least they have something on the wall rather than nothing on the wall. Jessica (one of the sisters) wants to get a dog. I vacillate from thinking this is cool to thinking it is a horrible idea. Both my sisters work full time and also enjoy the night life. Where a dog would fit in, I'm not sure. Also, she keeps asking me things like "If you move, are you really going to take all the dogs?" and "Hey, why don't you just give me one of your little dogs?" Were I at the shelter and she a potential adopter, either of these comments would be big red flags. She means well. But I suspect, if she does get a dog, she will have it for a year. Tops. Arrgh.

My brother, who is already 11, is growing his hair out. It's very shagg right now, which actually works well. He's going to be such a ladykiller. He's all cute and athletic and cocky. A little short, maybe but who knows what puberty will bring. Well, except we're all short so maybe not so much.

I've gotten a very strange promotion at work. The girl who was the Canine Manager and ran the behavior and training program went on an extended medical leave for an undetermined amount of time. So, I'm filling in. This is cool because it's a good opportunity, lets me say I've been a manager, and comes with a pay raise which makes me salaried instead of a time card monkey. It's also exciting. I get to make calls on what dogs to bring into the shelter, how and when the train the Canine Associates, and generally, well, run the program.

However, this girl on leave is also a friend of mine and taking the position solely because she broke is sad. I've been having to do things like take her work cell phone and change the answering machine message so it's my desk instead of her desk. For whatever reason, doing these things makes me feel really guilty. The job is also stressful in a different way than my previous position, and this is manifesting in really odd dreams. Blatantly obvious dreams. I am ashamed that my subconscious could write a dream sequence for a sitcom.

These dreams are not, however, as bad as the one in which someone was sneaking through the shelter and stabbing all the dogs in such a way that they were dying slowly and couldn't be saved, so I had to help euthanize all of them. The dream ended with one of my own dogs being stabbed and on the way to the EU room. God DAMN but that was a lousy night.

What else...what else...

It's pretty belated but New Years was totally awesome. It was like being back in college except with everyone a little more emotionally stable and all out in the world doing stuff. I was impressed so many people came. Now I miss everyone. Big get-togethers should become habitual. When Clancy and I have a house to offer for the use of such things...well, you see where this is going.

Also, trying to write on this Journal thingie more and trying to keep abreast of everyone else's Journal thingies.

Thingies!

So, Vin kindly invited me over to Gmail which seems to be working much better on ye olde home computer. Also, I think I generally like its setup better than yahoo. So, if'n you need to reach me my the e-mails, you can now do so at:

k.laina.c@gmail.com


Thankee Vin.

I don't know why, but yahoo has decided to bone me by not allowing me to send any e-mail. At all. Also, I cannot delete things. And hotmail is in league too, because I cannot create a new account from which to restart my e-mailish base of operations.

I don't know why this happened. Yahoo likes everybody else.




I feel so cold.

Really. I'm not. Like I said, I'm just really lousy at these journal things. Although now I'm joining up with Kelly's RPG the Aeon Society so it helps that I have a livejournal account. Now to figure out how to get a little icon.

What's new? Well, lessee. Most of it has to do with work which means it has to do with dogs. That's another reason I don't post much. My news primarily consists of canine debacles and antics, and I'm afraid I'll come to be known "as that crazy dog lady what only posts about dogs in her live journal" as opposed to just "that girl whose lousy about updating her live journal". I'm teaching a bunch of obedience classes now, which I like. I'm still underpaid but hey, non-profit. Also, I'm studying to take this test in November called the CPDT which stands for Certified Pet Dog Trainer. In order to take it, you have to have taught a minimum of 300 hours within the past 5 years and also need letters of reccomendation from 1) a student 2) a co-worker 3) a vet. Also, of course, you have to fork out a lot of money. But if you pass the test you get to stick 'CPDT' after your name if you want, and those letters are becoming increasingly important in the profession. It's essentially supposed to mean you are highly competent at what you do and have a standardized test to prove it.

Mostly though, I'm going to get to Roleplay again, which I sorely missed since college.

Also, the 'T' button on my keyboard sticks. I think it's because I was eating a tomato while typing and some goo squirted onto the keyboard. It got all cleaned up, except, I think for the 'T' key. Now both my posts have the word 'goo' in them.


The end!

Looks like I have acquired a Live Journal. I find this ironic as I'm very bad about reading anyone else's Live Journal, and I'm still not quite sure what my opinion is about online diaries. It is a good way to keep tabs on people and know what's going on in their lives. If the reader reads them often (which I don't), and the writer updates them often (which I probably won't). But, it is a reason to write something and since it's been a while since I have, I suppose I can use all the incentive I can get.

Yesterday, I volunteered at a Fix Our Ferals clinic at the OSPCA's Spay/Neuter clinic. Fix Our Ferals is a volunteer organization that asks people to humanely trap feral felines that frequent their area and bring them in. They get spayed or neutered, vaccinated, given flea treatment and medication for any ailments they might have, and then are re-released from whence they came. The clinics happen roughly once a month. People call in, make appointments, borrow traps and catch their kitties a day or so before. The lobby was filled with cat carier and traps of varying sizes, all with mewling cats inside. Once the fixing starts, it's an assembly line, different volunteers working at different stations. The cats get anesthetized, labeled (gender, color, etc), and numbered with a toe tag at station One, then volunteers doing Transport take them over to Station Two where their bladders are expressed and they're laid out in a row of unconscious kitties. Goo is squeezed into their eyes to keep them from drying out, and their tongues are pulled to stick out their mouth so they can't accidentally swallow 'em. Then they go to Prep where they're shaved around the spay or neuter site, laid out spread-eagle on a plexiglass tray (legs tied to the corners) and slid into a rolling cart that looks similar to the ones where we put our trays when we were done eating at Klein. Then they're wheeled to surgery where cat by cat, they're spayed or neutered. Then to Vaccines/Ears where their ears are notched so if they're caught for a clinic again, people will know they're already snipped and re-release them (this doesn't always work. We came across two already neutered males). They're also given vaccines and then passed onto Recovery by another Transport only volunteer (this was where I worked). We gave them all a dose of Advantage (a topical pesticide that kills fleas and lasts about a month), and any cats that were very small or dehydrated were given subcutanious fluids. We also gave younger cats (four months or lower, I think) Karo syrup. You take a syringe of gooey syrup and squeeze some into the space between cheek and teeth. Then you rub their throat until they swallow. It's odd to watch, because while most of the cat is still under, not moving, and staring glassy-eyed at the world, there goes that little mouth and throat *gulp gulp gulp*. Then they're put back into the carriers they came in (which have been cleaned during all this time by another group of volunteers) and put back out into the lobby to wait for their people to pick them up by a final team of Transport volunteers. The scariest part is that anesthetic is kinda dangerous on any animal, and there's always a chance using it will kill one or more of them. So, at every station you make sure they're breathing, check gums and tongue for pinkness. If they don't breath after 30 seconds, you tap the corners of their eyes, their nose, rub their chest. If they still don't breathe, you yell "Crash!" and take the cat into the surgery room where it's put on Oxygen and hopefully revived. If anything dubious happens at any point, a piece of blue tape is put on the ear of the cat in question so the volunteers at all the other areas know to keep a special eye on it. We had one crash. A little orange tabby kitten, but they got it breathing all right, and so far as I know it's doing a-okay. There were two other kittens who were given too much anesthetic and needed a "reversal". This is a drug you give to pull them out of their sleepiness faster. After about 40 minutes, their breathing got better and they started to twitch; all good signs. The Clinic went from 10 am until about 3 pm, and all totaled 169 cats were fixed.

It was quite cool.