Failure is not an option, though. I have too much to get done, never enough time (hence the whole lack of rest thing), but I have to make the time to put my health first. So, I decided that I would try a food delivery service with an organic paleo menu to help keep me on track food-wise. I have to make changes and having someone else do the decision making on food works for me. Enter Sun Basket.

I had already placed the order and it was delivered before I got the news that makes putting my health first even more of a priority. It makes me extremely glad I had already made the decision to go with the service to provide organic food. Now it is necessary. So the box arrived on my porch, and when I opened it, the first thing I see is the recipe cards for the meals inside.

Each meal came in its own bag, so even I cannot get the ingredients muddled because everything is so well labeled. All the ingredients are fresh — they looked wonderful. For my very first meal under the new regime … the one I NEED to stay on to get myself balanced out again … I tried the Ginger-turkey meatballs in coconut-milk broth which was placed on a bed of cauliflower rice. I actually MADE cauliflower rice (not hard, but seriously I barely knew of its existence, so the thought of making it had never crossed my mind.)

Life can get so hectic, trying to keep up with everything usually means something gets overlooked for a while. I have renewed my quest for health … what quest do you want to renew?

The post Renewal of a Quest appeared first on Be the Cat.

That’s right, it’s Chemo Eve. I will NOT be breaking out the champagne for this one. Somehow the thought of going tomorrow to sit in a chair for six hours while various drugs are dripped into my system just doesn’t fill me with the party attitude. But that’s okay. Not everything in life is a party, nor should it be. I appreciate the journey I’ve had so far with the chemo because overall the reactions have been light. Will they continue to be?

*shrugs* Tomorrow will tell.

Tomorrow is my 6 hour day, and I have my snacks ready, thermos waiting to be filled with tea, so I have something warm to drink throughout the day, slippers, movies to play on my laptop, a big red, fleece blanket, and a driver who will most likely be on time. I feel like I’m off to camp. Camp Chemo—the camp where everyone has their own drip bag, and the games are lame, but the grand prize for camp completion is the coveted remission.

So while I’m not necessarily looking forward to the next three days, by the end of the week I will have notched the second cycle of six on the chemo tree, and will be one-third of the way through my treatment … which sounds a heckuva lot better than 16% of the way there. It’s the equivalent of eating liver when I was a kid. I would never have requested that we have liver for dinner, it was not, and remains not one of my favorites, but when it was served, we had to eat it. I learned the trick early on of making sure I had a mountain of mashed potatoes to bury it with, and I’d take a heaping portion of the grilled onions, too. Every bite had to have mashed potato and onion with it, and ultimately I’d finish the liver first, and then enjoy my last few bites of mashed potatoes as my reward. So while chemo was definitely not on my list of things to start in 2013, better health and being well will be my reward for persevering.

While I did rest a lot over the weekend, today I was tired for most of the day. I blame the weather. We had nice sunshine, but winds caused my allergies to flare up and my sinuses to go haywire, so I’m not as rested feeling as I had hoped to be. And the leukemia has been kicking up, because even though the temps were at 46F, I was sweating while sitting still. I did manage to accomplish what I needed to for the day job today so that was a positive. I don’t like going off with things left undone to fester while waiting for me to return. And tonight, I’m a little less tired because I had a great conversation with a fellow writer, and that always energizes me.

Until tomorrow. Good night.

The post Chemo Eve appeared first on Be the Cat.

Today I actually ventured out of the house. Since having my treatments, I’ve pretty much been a hermit. Not intentionally, but my morning commute to work is now simply crossing the landing to my office, Denny has done the shopping so I wouldn’t have to be out and about with the general public, and so really there has been no reason for me to leave the house. Stir crazy? Not yet. (Give me time.)

But with the way my arms have been, I thought it’d be a good idea to get a massage, and there just happens to be a massage place about a block and a half from me. Convenient, isn’t it? Maybe not so much for the pocketbook, but we’ll see how things go. I’ve had several massages in the past, but one thing I have noticed … no massage therapist is ever the same. And this experience was no different. I did make sure, to the best of my ability, that the therapist did not have a cold before going in. The reason I said to the best of my ability is that the owner and therapist were Chinese with limited capacity for the English language and my Chinese is non-existent.

I will state up front, I don’t have modesty issues—and it’s a good thing. We started off the session, as normal, going into the room and the therapist indicating I was to lie on the table face-down. I mentioned I’d need a towel to place under my chest. For the uninitiated, I have big boobs, and lying on a flat table with no additional support to relieve the pressure hurts. It’s common practice and some therapists offer before I can ask. Today’s therapist nodded and grinned and left the room. I proceeded to undress.

This may be TMI, but when I disrobe for a massage, my preference is to go full Monty. It’s easier for the therapist not to have to work around under garments, and provides me with a better overall massage. I was on the table trying to figure out how to appropriately drape the small bath towel left on the table for the purpose when the knock came at the door. I said, “Just a moment,” and she barged into the room (sans the towel I had requested). Like I said … good thing I don’t have modesty issues. We got me settled and the massage began. Things were going well about half-way through the massage when I heard a new customer arrive. A few others had shown up after me, and all therapists were now engaged, and I heard the new person being told that very thing.

What blew my mind was that he argued that he really wanted a massage now and didn’t want to wait. And it was explained, again, that everyone was busy. Now this is a walk-in, not someone who had an appointment for a specific time. Grumbling, the guy settled down in the lobby area. Fast forward about five minutes. I’m still face-down on the table, half-draped while the therapist worked my entire right back side, from shoulder down to leg and the phone rang. My therapist left to answer the phone.

Leaving the Door. Wide. Open.

Yes, I peeked. Wide open to the hall. I’m draped on one side only (the side away from the door) and the guy from the lobby decides to start pacing the hall. I kept my head down and relaxed. There was nothing I could do except make the situation worse by getting up … and I don’t embarrass easily. So I listen to this guy pacing past my door on his cell phone, and he’s complaining again. “I’m here and have already been waiting for five minutes.”

I started to laugh. For all the world, it sounded as if this guy had decided to call them and make an appointment, for, oh yeah, right now. Coincidentally, he concluded his call, and my therapist returned to the room and continued my massage.

For all my writer friends, this scene is mine… ALL mine. It will go in a book somehow. I will make it happen.

The thing that this therapist did differently than any massage I had experienced (other than leaving the door wide open) was that she knelt on the backs of my legs and used her knees to massage the bottom parts of my glutes while using her hands to work the lower back and top of the glutes. It was an interesting technique. I may be wearing a few bruises (on my back) from the massage, but it was worth getting the knots out.

After my massage, I came home and took a 3 hour nap. Then was putzing around on the computer, chatting with a friend and getting some things posted, picking out the picture for this post, and I started to feel a bit nauseous. And realized the only thing I’d had in the past 9 hours was a 20 oz bottle of G2 (Gatorade light) which took me 3 hours to drink. No WONDER I was getting nauseous. That is one thing I have noticed, when my stomach hits empty, it is much easier for me to feel nauseous. Even if I only have a little something—solid—it helps.

The bout of nausea has been dealt with, and I am currently making up for lost liquid consumption. Especially having had a massage, I need to push fluids. Good thing I had that nap.

The post Venturing Out appeared first on Be the Cat.

I can’t believe I finally got my paws on the laptop again. I’d better not waste any time, but get right into it.

I hope everyone had a nice holiday. We had a good one, although, I do have to say, that I didn’t get the one thing I really wanted.

In fact, I for it with all of my heart and soul and even made puppy dog eyes.

(Something I never resort to.) And all to no avail.

What was I asking for? My own laptop with pawprint detection software. I kept telling Mama that if I had my own, I wouldn’t have to sneak in and borrow hers quite so often. But, my magnificent pleading fell on deaf ears. Mama just said that the economy was too bad and that dachshunds didn’t need laptops anyway. I was hoping that Santa would fill the void, but no such luck.

Anyway, on to more important things. Have you heard about that little girl up in Oregon who is helping to feed hungry dogs? (Ok she’s feeding hungry cats too, but we don’t have to talk about that.) When I heard about that, I started planning my ambush to steal Mama’s laptop away so I could let everyone know. The site kind of works like the free rice site that gives you questions and for every correct answer will donate 10 grains of rice to someone who is hungry. That may not sound like a lot, but it adds up, especially once you start filling up bowls.

Anyway, Free Kibble (http://www.freekibble.com) has a daily trivia question, and will donate 10 pieces of kibble to the Humane Society of Central Oregon, whether you get the question right or not. The whole thing is you only can play once per day, so you need to play every day, and maybe learn something in the process. (Oh yeah – they have the same thing for cats). Kudos to Mimi for thinking up such a special thing. You may have noticed that I added a couple of banners for free kibble to the left on my blog, so go ahead and click and play.

Let’s give Mimi and her love and care of hungry dogs a 5 Paw Salute!

Until next time. Paws Up!

Copyright 2009 © Phoenix with a helping paw from Gryphon and a distracting paw from Elsa

About the Author:
“Just call me Your Highness” ~ Phoenix
_____________________________________________________________________

Here’s information about my Mama’s stuff:
Visit us at Griffie World
To buy Misfit McCabe, visit my store at Lulu.com or purchase at Amazon.com
To track Misfit McCabe across the country, visit:
Where in the World is Misfit McCabe?
Own a Kindle? Download Misfit McCabe in an instant.
For other ebook formats, visit Smashwords.com
To read book reviews by LK Griffie, visit: The Lulu Book Review

The post It’s Been Too Long appeared first on Be the Cat.

First of all, you have to like a website that calls itself The Poop. I happen to love double entendres. This site has a lot to recommend it, store, blog, pet adoption, recipes and more. While not being a specifically dog-oriented site, dogs are definitely featured. There are nice graphics to help the consumer find the appropriate store for the type of pet that they have. The pet store that is associated with The Poop is PetFoodDirect.com – America’s Pet Store on the Web.

This site really does have a little bit of everything. You can register your pet’s birthday so that on the day, the birthday greeting will be listed, participate in polls, voice your own opinion in the blog, and learn how to make food for your pets (although, as you know, I prefer my food to be prepared already as handmade food just isn’t happening in this household). There are actually links to even more things such as pet news. This is the one negative that I found on this site – there is so much going on, that on the main page it is not all apparently available. You have to go to the store in order to see the link for their pooppourri section which has a cornucopia of information sources.

All in all, a well worthwhile site to visit for pets and their parents.

On my Paw Scale (1 being low/5 being high), this site gets:

‘Til next time, Paws Up!

By the way – how do you like my new signature. I feel that it is much more me, being all sparkly and pink.

Copyright 2008 © Phoenix with a helping paw from Gryphon

About the Author:
“Just call me Your Highness” ~ Phoenix
_____________________________________________________________________

Here’s information about my Mama’s stuff:
Visit us at Griffie World
To buy Misfit McCabe, visit my store at Lulu.com or purchase at Amazon.com
To track Misfit McCabe across the country, visit:
Where in the World is Misfit McCabe?
Own a Kindle? Download Misfit McCabe in an instant.
For other ebook formats, visit Smashwords.com
To read book reviews by LK Griffie, visit: The Lulu Book Review

The post The Poop Review appeared first on Be the Cat.

Yes ~ it’s true, I do surf the net searching for new treat sites. I am very picky about the treats I eat (only the yummiest please) and want to make sure I am up to date on all of the latest offerings.

We will be trying some treats from SpunkyPup sometime soon, so I recommend that you stop by and check it out. Don’t be startled when you access the site for the first time and the site guard dog barks a greeting to you.

Speaking of barking, Elsa was soooo loud today, it was annoying. She doesn’t like when Mama is in an area where she can’t get to her and then she sits there and yips in this ear piercing bark to get attention. I hope Mama breaks her of that soon, my delicate ears just can’t take that.

I think that with all of the talk of book reviews that has been going on in our house because my Mama got a great review from The Lulu Book Review yesterday, I will start reviewing websites geared toward dogs. I figure why not? I have excellent qualifications to do so. I am a dog, I have lots of opinions. . .what other criteria could there be?

All for now. Paws Up!

Copyright 2008 © Phoenix with a helping paw from Gryphon

About the Author:
“Just call me Your Highness” ~ Phoenix
_____________________________________________________________________

Here’s information about my Mama’s stuff:
Visit us at Griffie World
To buy Misfit McCabe, visit my store at Lulu.com or purchase at Amazon.com
To track Misfit McCabe across the country, visit:
Where in the World is Misfit McCabe?
Own a Kindle? Download Misfit McCabe in an instant.
For other ebook formats, visit Smashwords.com
To read book reviews by LK Griffie, visit: The Lulu Book Review

The post It’s My Turn appeared first on Be the Cat.

Now we do have a little bit of an issue in our house with Elsa around. Elsa, being a puppy, is supposed to have puppy food. Since Gryphon and I are more mature, we have food that is special to meet our needs. Well, I don’t know how many of you have tried food for the mature pup, but frankly, puppy food has it beat hands down for taste. Of course, Gryphon and I are not really supposed to eat that much of the puppy food, and Elsa is not supposed to eat ours, but here’s the way it works. Elsa eats our food, because she sees us doing it and she is such a copy-dog, she figures that anything we get, she should have too. Gryphon and I KNOW that her food tastes better, so while she sneaks over to our bowl to get crunchies, we’re sneaking over to hers.

Mama has just about given up. She puts both food into one bowl now and figures that at least for a portion of what we eat, we’ll be getting the right stuff. Our tactic is to eat the puppy food and leave the rest until they refill the bowl. That way we get more good tasting stuff and less of the bland, good-for-you stuff.

By the way, Elsa should really be named Piglet, because she eats any and everything. She gets really excited whenever Mama and Papa are having their food, even though knows that it’s not for her. She’s getting better about not jumping up, but she still likes to climb up on Papa to ask him for food whenever she can. This kid picks up sticks and rocks where we’re outside and tries to eat them ~ even if she just finished eating inside. Mama is working with her on not doing that, but Papa is just not as consistent. I will say this about our Mama, she does have an eagle eye, and watches us constantly. If we’re out of sight, even for a moment, she wants to know where we are.

Anyway, my message to you all is this. . . get to know your pups and whether they want to share or not, and then provide accordingly. That’s all for this post. Paws Up!

Copyright 2008 © Phoenix with a helping paw from Gryphon

About the Author:
“Just call me Your Highness” ~ Phoenix
_____________________________________________________________________

Here’s information about my Mama’s stuff:
Visit us at Griffie World
To buy Misfit McCabe, visit my store at Lulu.com or purchase at Amazon.com
To track Misfit McCabe across the country, visit:
Where in the World is Misfit McCabe?
Own a Kindle? Download Misfit McCabe in an instant.
For other ebook formats, visit Smashwords.com
To read book reviews by LK Griffie, visit: The Lulu Book Review

The post The Food Game appeared first on Be the Cat.