Last Day of this pathetic year

I hate 2005. And I'm quite sure it hates me back. Not long after New Year's Day 2005, I discovered the first of Duncan's tumors. His front left leg was amputated February 21. We cancelled our Ireland trip to run the Connemarathon since we felt we couldn't leave Duncan alone quite so soon. Russ was in the hospital for 2 days with a still unknown malady. I spent most of the summer trying to get an unwelcome person out of my life and just as soon as that was over, Duncan's cancer returned. Yay! What an excellent year! Let's do it again.

As I stand on the brink of a brand new year with new possibilities, I shudder to think that things could actually be worse. We will most likely lose Duncan this year. Russ will run a 50k in two weeks and will hopefully survive. My job on Wilbur will come to a close, and hopefully I will get picked up on the next movie, but at any rate I will be facing yet another ending this year. Maybe this year is just going to be about endings. And thus beginnings.

Speaking of beginnings, check out the new Ricky Gervais podcast. It just started this month. Hilarious. On your local iTunes.

My other beginning, will be a big cleanse fest starting tomorrow. Who doesn't begin each new year with some diet or exercise fad. Russ and I independantly decided to go with super foods, juices, no fried foods, no alcohol, lots of water for 2 weeks. He's doing it for his race, I'm doing it because I feel crappy.

Last day of 2005 - rain in LA.

Ready, set...2006!!

Extreme!

I have been Extremed! I was on extreme Homemakover last night.
I didn’t see it, but Russ did. On Halloween, they were here taping Ty Pennington running around the second floor of our building at Disney. I was up there and was trying to hide by the staircase because I didn’t want to be on camera. It was Halloween and I was in my Kirby the alien costume – head to toe in Maroon fur. But because I was in costume, Ty came running over to me and started asking me questions on camera. And apparently I’m the only one they kept out of the all the stuff they shot at Feature Animation. It’s just me saying “The Big Guy?” in response to his asking where the big guy is. How weird is that?


And Duncan came through with flying colors in his chemo!!! YAY! And the tumor is smaller. YAY!! Good boy Duncan!

The Me I used to Be

I remember once when I did stand up comedy, someone told me I would be much funnier if I were uglier. He told me, "You should get in a car crash or something. You know, smash you face up or something." Sage advice from some tubby, drunken loser of a standup. I wonder where he is now? Which bar is he slumped over? Years later, I did a series of sketch comedy shows at ACME theatre in LA. Those were the golden years. My favorite and best received show was called "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Sunday Show" with TV's Wil Wheaton.

Looking back on Wil's blog and the linked blogs to Shane Nickerson and Annie Sertich, it's inspired me to write like I used to: for the funny. Sure introspection is fun, but comedy is MORE fun. If I can just remember how to write it.....and photograph it. Pictures = funny!

Last Day of Shiva

As the sun sets on LA, I am reminded that it is the last moments of shiva for Caryn. I knew her from dance class. She was an incredibly emotional dancer who often talked about her various acting projects. Last week, I heard she had died suddenly from some type of infection. In the mail was her website. I had never really checked it out before, even though I had discussed it with her and received several emails about it. But now, I look at it often. I never knew how much Caryn liked gardening or that she had written many recipes for a variety of vegetarian meals. I wish I had looked. I wish I had known that part of her. I wish I could ask her questions. Such as why didn't I get to know her better when I had the chance.

http://www.caryn.com

Up Chuck

So, maybe Meloxicam is not such a good idea. Dang. I felt like the tumor was getting smaller. Or at least the tissue surrounding it. But Duncan was definitely getting constipated. And he had 2 bouts, one severe, with vomiting. After looking Meloxicam up on the WORLD WIDE WEB I discovered a list of things:

1. Meloxicam is not approved for feline use
2. Cats are sensitive to NSAIDS in general
3. Meloxicam is renotoxic - Dunan has chronic kidney failure

So, maybe Meloxicam is not for him. Will any of the NSAIDS family? The steriodal type of anti-inflammatory would not even be a consideration, which leaves us with out a viable option for anti-inflammatory, specifically a COX-1 blocker.