Limping along with the website...

So, I have a website. A poorly maintained, totally 'themed' Yahoo page that was nice but not terribly individual. So I downloaded a free trial of Coffee Cup's Visual Website Editor (which is designed for idiots such as myself), and have been using it to cobble together my own little piece of the Internet. More to come later.

LymeWatch: Day Whatever...

Since there's no way of knowing how long I've had this ridiculous bug, I can't say what day I'm on. However, despite some rather nasty effects of the medication, I'm glad to know I'm on it, and am looking forward to mended-ness.

In the meantime, this has actually helped me to re-focus a lot on my priorities right now (as well as my budget). What with the upcoming surgery and other issues, I have to make sure I'm managing my time (and money) well so I have less to worry about.

This refocusing effort has resulted in a resuscitation of my studies of Irish Gaelic. Conclusion for now: IRISH IS HARD. Aside from the apparently random lenition that I have to deal with at the beginnings of nouns, there are about a zillion different endings for both masculine and feminine nouns (gone are the days of -o and -a from my beloved espanol...).

I know it's worth the effort, but it's about as puzzling as the consistent dead ends I find in my studies of the Travellers. However, I do have a light at the end of the tunnel - my goal is to be able to start reading my Irish-language edition of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" by Christmas. I originally thought Thanksgiving, but in the interest of my own sanity I'd rather be pleasantly suprised by an unexpected early accomplishment than disappointed by a rather predictable failure.

So there's the update for now. Next Tuesday is my surgery - I think I'll try to post more about that in the interest of educating anyone who wants to know about it what a laproscopic procedure for endometriosis is like. Ta for now.

Awesome new search engine...

Guess what was just launched today?

Perhaps the coolest search engine ever, (and not only because it's named after Fionn McCuimmail, an Irish hero of yore). It's called Cuil, and you can find it here at www.cuil.com.

Using this search engine, I found an article about myself that I thought had been long lost. Much to my unending joy, and for your reading pleasure, here is my very first act of real activism at Penn State.

Check it out!

Feeling rather Lyme-y...

And not the British kind of Limey, I'm afraid. Poor Amanda (my sis) got a sort-of positive diagnosis of Lyme disease earlier this year, and it would appear that we're either having an extremely powerful twin moment or we just got bitten by the same sort of tick (I blame the camping trip in May down at Rehobeth beach, personally. ;-))

It was amusing earlier this week, but now the joke is officially getting old. I'm not sure why I was so light-hearted about it earlier (probably because I had a weekend's worth of sleep under my belt, and it's now Thursday, so my sleep reserves are officially dry). However, it's not the end of the world. I need to cheer up and be a bit more involved in life. Though I've been trying to be very diligent - I've really re-focused my studying efforts on Irish Gaelic (which died off earlier this year) and hopefully I'll be able to get some more work done on the infamous PRP.

Here's a great picture that sums up my mood:


As always, thanks to the LOLz for putting my feelings into pictures. :-) God help any 'birdies' headed my way today.

Speaking of which, I've had an absolutely GINORMOUS gang of birds hanging out at the birdfeeder. I put it out there for Frigga, Freyja, and Norn to enjoy, (which I know at least the two little PermaKittens do). However, these birds are going through a whole thing of birdfood every three days. No lie. I'll try to get a picture of the mayhem.

Freyja - The Results

So, here's the basic jist of Freyja's echocardiogram last week.

She does have HCM (hypertrophic cardiomyopathy), though it is currently in a "mild to moderate" range. The thickness of the walls of her heart should be 5 mm or less, and she has "variable thickness" that ranges up to over 7 mm.

That seems terribly thick for such a small cat, (she weighs less than 5 pounds all told), but the doctor didn't seem overly concerned at this point. The problem with HCM is that there is no proscribed course the disease takes - she could stay at this "mild to moderate" state for the rest of her life, or she may die of heart failure before Christmas.

The 'good news' about a diagnosis of HCM is that she isn't going to suffer a long, drawn-out illness that will cause her pain and suffering. When the end comes, it's relatively quick. There are just some 'small' steps I have to take to help ensure that she has a nice long life.

First, no more catnip. ::sigh:: I guess we'll just have to rely on Frigga and her using up their 'normal' kitten energy in a natural way. Though it is hilarious to see them in the throes of catnip, this is something easy. Next, I have to put her on a special food, Hill's Feline K/D. Because all three cats (Frigga, Freyja, and Norn) are 'grazers' (i.e. I have food out all day for them), everyone is going on the special diet. It's good for everybody, so I don't feel bad about that at all.

Sonny was so sweet - I couldn't afford to expensive food right away, so I was just going to feed them what's left of the Kitten Purina One, but he bought a bag for all the girls to tide them over until I can get another bag. It'll be expensive, but not too much more than the nice food I already got them, so I'm trying not to be too upset over it.

So, I have to keep her excitement down. No more catnip. And special food. Hopefully, this small bit of extra effort will lead to a LOT of healthier life for her. I'm going to have her scheduled for another echo in a year, and if she's at the same point, I'll leave off of them until she becomes symptomatic.

::sigh:: For now, I have to get over checking her every time she coughs or acts funny. But she's fine (aside from a hilarious shaved patch on her chest), and so she will hopefully continue ad infinitum.

Did I mention how cute Frigga, Freyja, and Norn have been lately? They're a regular gang now...I'm so glad I get to share living quarters with such wonderful, amusing bundles of fur. That includes Sonny, of course. ;-)

Freyja's Echo

I found out on Monday that Freyja, one of my two little tuxedo PermaKittens, seems to have a condition called Hypertrophy Cardiomyopia (aka HCM). Right now, she's at the vet getting an echo so we can see how severe the condition is. Hopefully it's not bad - but any good thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Today's LOL

I wonder if I could talk Sonny into letting us get a little kitten so we can re-make this picture... :-)

And the PRP saga continues...

Since it’s Friday afternoon, 4:10 (I leave at 4:30), and I’ve finished all my “MUST DO” stuff for today, it’s time for a nice blog about the PERSONAL RESEARCH PROJECT. (Nothing else is apparently getting done until I complete this).

Since I last wrote:

• Heard back from Prof. Dave V. from Quinnipiac University regarding any knowledge he may have about the US Traveller population
• Response: Not his area of expertise. But he was VERY nice.
• Got called back by a representative of the Irish Consulate in New York regarding any knowledge they may have
• Response: “Try Googling (which sounds really funny in an Irish accent, BTW) ‘Irish Travellers’ to get some information. Or the Irish Traveller’s movement main website (which I already have).”
• Comment: I did ask about the “AMERICAN Irish Travellers”. They were very nice at the Irish Consulate, but I don’t think they were listening. I'm going to try the Consulate in DC and see if it gets me anywhere.
  
• Hit a GOLDMINE of information regarding the US Travellers from…criminal reports. ::sigh::
• NOTE: It’s important to know that these are not ‘actual’ criminal reports (i.e. from police departments). They manifested mostly from press releases, which apparently can be quite skewed. Check out this article from a wonderful website called "Travellers Rest" (which I will describe in more detail later) to get a real perspective of the press’ misinformation on the Travellers.
• Found this amazing website called "Travellers Rest". It’s actually written by a sedentary Traveller, (which means he now lives in a ‘normal’ home). I wrote the author of the site, and am SO hoping that he’s still monitoring his inbox…update (hopefully!) coming soon…However, from this website I found…
• An EXCELLENT article entitled “Apocrypha to Canon: Inventing Irish Traveller History” by Dr. Sinéad ní Shuinéar. It was published in History Ireland a few years ago. I have a real hope that I can get in touch with Dr. Shuinéar and possibly get a copy of her thesis, which is apparently quite good…

There’s a fair bevy of other stuff too, but it’s mostly in bits and pieces and therefore I will hold off until I’ve made sense of it to post about it.

I really am happy with how everything is going right now. And to think, pretty much all of this has stemmed off of Tommy Tiernan, whose Irish accent I enjoy so much (not to mention the amazing comedy) that I’m trying to emulate it for the Renaissance Faire, which got me to learning about Irish history, which brought me across the Irish Travellers, which got me thinking about “The Riches” with Eddie Izzard (another amazing comedian), which led me to wondering about the population of Irish Travellers in America…

Hold on…it ought to be an interesting couple of months!

Words to Live By:

LOLcat of the day!

Brings new meaning to the term "Morning Breath", doesn't it?

PRP - Travellers Part II

So, after a couple weeks of searching, I've come up with lots of empty hands but a few more leads to pursue as I delve into this research project. I've narrowed my focus to study the Irish-American Traveller population here in the US. However, I'm amazed at the number of times I've contacted specialists in Irish culture at the Irish Consulate, and even Traveller organizations based in Ireland, and I feel a bit like I'm asking them if they know the sound of one hand clapping.

However, there is hope! I had the bright idea to ask John M., one of the VPs at the company I work for, what his opinion was on where to search. He's much more connected with his Irish roots than I am, and a very intelligent man to boot. He actually had some really good suggestions, such as:

• RTE (the Irish BBC)
• Irish Echo (a newspaper out of NYC)
• Quinnipiac University (in Connectict with a robust Irish studies department)
• Irish America (a magazine here in the US)
• Out of Ireland (a show on WLIW)

So that ought to keep me busy for a while! I will post links and information for those sources as soon as I have a chance to research them. However, I think a quick recap of what I've accomplished so far is in order.

Organizations & people I have contacted:

• Professor David V. : Quinnipiac University
  
• Emma N. : Friends, Families & Travellers
• Nicola Mc. : Travellers Tairing
  
• Irish Travellers Movement

On to the next portion of my research!

A Wonderful Quote from Manolo...

Though I am indeed quite fashion-ly challenged, I have always delighted in the blog written by Manolo (the fashion god, not the fashion designer), which can be read at www.shoeblogs.com. Today I came across a particularly delicious snippet of Manolo's wisdom while breaking for lunch.

In response to an article about a woman who doesn't like wearing sandals because her second toe is longer than her big toe, Manolo writes this very encouraging and insightful post. In particular, this sentence stands out:

Dress well, live well, treat others well, and do all you can with joyful confidence and others will invariably come to love your flaws as you yourself cannot.

Quite an excellent idiom, I must say.