Yeah yeah yeah. I’m trying to update this blog more often but you know how life is. I’ve been fairly neglectful on my penguin blog as well. /slapshand I need to get in a habit of posting more regularly. I certainly do hate irregularity… Yeah… Moving along… If you’d like to keep closer tabs on me, check out my new “lifestream” page. It takes feeds from other sites that I’m a member of and publishes them in one spot to give you a brief glimpse of what I’m looking at while on the Internet.

Anyway…

I have done it. I actually finally did it. After 5 years since going back to school at Sinclair Community College and having to transfer to the University of Toledo to be able to complete it, I have finally graduated with my Associates Degree of Applied Business with a major in programming and software development. I’m hoping this degree will at least give me a fighting chance at moving further in my career. Whether that would be a new job or just on-the-side opportunities, it doesn’t matter too much. I’m not too picky. I do have another web site to design and work on for my father-in-law. I’ll need to apologize for not getting to it sooner but I hear he still would like it done. Work has been providing me with enough code-related projects so at least I’m a bit satisfied there plus some of my coursework actually helped me complete my latest project. Weird!

I’m still not sure whether or not I’ll go back to school to finish a Bachelor’s Degree but I do know that right now I need a big break from college in general. It’s taken up so much time from other things. Being done with school (for a while at least) will give me a lot more time to invest in other important areas of my life. Maybe my mind will change when my student loans threaten to come out of deferment. /laugh+groan

If you know me then you probably have already heard what happened last week. It’s been a hard week for us and I’m going to try real hard to remember the details from the past few months and pen them down here. This is possibly the hardest thing I have had to write.

Our oldest cat, Murphy, was diagnosed with feline arthritis back in July. He’d probably had it for quite a while but the symptoms were getting more obvious and detrimental that we had to take him to the vet. He was limping around on one of his legs but we had thought he just landed funny from jumping from a high area – just a sprain – but after he started crying and falling down a lot when he walked we took him to the clinic. The veternarian said he had developed arthritis from age and possibly his weight. He also had a bad ear infection which was affecting his balance. The vet put him on some Metacam (pain medication) and an antibiotic. We were also told it wouldn’t be a bad idea to get his weight down which we attempted to do by limiting his food portions and not allowing him to graze throughout the day.

The medication sure did its job well. Murph wasn’t complaining when he walked. His limp was still noticeable but he seemed pretty happy that he wasn’t in pain anymore. I kept him on his medication schedule, made sure he was eating right, and got plenty of love & attention. As the months went on, he started limping on both hind legs as well as waddling and dragging them a few times. The vet said there really wasn’t more that we could do as arthritis is a degenerative disease and all we could do is slow the progression and make Murphy feel good about himself.

Last week, however, his condition got worse and beyond his control.

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Friday was our 10th wedding anniversary. It may seem amazing that we’ve made it this far but love has kept us together for 10 years so far and we’re planning on keeping it that way for a long, long time. We spent our anniversay day at the Magic Kingdom again to hopefully see the rest of the lands (Frontierland, Adventureland, and Liberty Square). We did manage to get through them. We passed on Splash Mountain as we were only going to do that one to get cooled off. Well, the daily Orlando rain popped right in and we got caught in the downpour. All of us were literally soaked. We rode more attractions that day. We even rode on Space Mountain. Jake enjoyed it but even though Abi and Ben survived, they vowed never to go on that one again.

We went back to our hotel to recuperate a bit (and change clothes) before heading back for the fireworks. Too tired to go out somewhere, I let Mandy take a nap in the hotel room and I took the kids out to dinner at some swanky fast food restaurant. I brought back Mandy’s and my own dinners to the hotel and set up the table for a “romantic” dinner while the kids watched some television quietly. Dad, I told you that it’s not tradition unless it happens at least twice in a row… Well, I guess you told me so. But at least I stepped it up a notch and had it at a nice hotel. Let’s ignore the fact that 4 children were with us. (more…)