The Goat and the Bureau

Have you ever noticed that you say certain words or phrases that no one else around you says?  I have.  In this post, I will explore why I say the following: Channel Changer and Bureau

Channel Changer
Most of my contemporaries refer to this modern day miracle as the remote (or the Goat...watch Muppets from Space if you need an explanation).  After a little bit of googling, I found out that there is very little history on the term and the only people concerned with this debate are two teenagers who started a group of facebook, one of which is flicking off the camera in the group picture (classy).  In their findings only eight people of thirty used the phrase "Channel Changer".  I delved deeper into google and found out that "Channel Changer" was used to describe the dial that changed channels on old television sets.  As it turns out, I am using a remote control and not a channel changer!  I think I'll just refer to it as the Goat going forward.

Bureau
I am not referring to an organization (i.e. the Federal Bureau of Investigations).  I am referring to what others call a dresser or if you're from the south, a chest of drawers.  Google revealed that the term bureau comes from aristocratic England and is more commonly used in large cities.  That explains it!  I would like to thank my mother for the word bureau.  My mother grew up outside of Washington, D.C. (aha!  large city!).  Her ancestors came to St. Mary's City, Maryland with Lord Baltimore on the Ark and Dove in 1634.  My guess is that Lord Baltimore probably said bureau.

So, the words channel changer and bureau may have gone out of style more than a hundred years ago, but they are still alive and well in my family.  Time to fold some laundry and put Baby Ethan's clothes away in his bureau!

Noel Update

Noel (aka Frankenkitty) is now resting comfortably.  She came home from surgery Monday afternoon wearing a sweater made of gauze.  The vet told me to keep it on her so she would not try to groom her incision.  They gave me an Elizabethan collar in case the sweater came off.  Apparently Noel was not a fan of the gauze sweater fashion statement.  She wriggled out of it as soon as I got her home from the vet.

The sweater came off to reveal thirty staples, four tubes, and countless stitches.  The bizarre part was that she seemed totally unfazed.  After she took her sweater off, she was happy as a clam.  She walked right up to me and started purring. 

The purring stopped when I started chasing her around the room with the Elizabethan collar.  After cornering her in the bathroom (with the baby screaming from the other room), I was able to slip the collar over her head.  She was pissed.  Have you ever put clothing on a cat?  If you haven't, you should know that they walk backwards.  I don't get it, but they do.  After walking around the bathroom backwards for at least five minutes, Noel decided to pout underneath my bed.

Later that evening, I bribed her out with some vanilla ice cream (the only thing she likes more is string cheese).  I set her up on the end of my bed with her favorite blanket and she forgave me for putting the collar on her.

The craziest thing about all of this is that she is more bothered by the collar than the fact that she had a fourth of her mid-section removed.  It is amazing how resilient she is. She is happily knocking things off of my bedside table just like before.  She even managed to drink out of the toilet a day after surgery. 

At this point the only thing we can do is wait and see if the cancer makes a reappearance.  Unfortunately, it does come back in over 70% of cases.  I consider the surgery a success because at the very least, I have bought her time and the knowledge that I did what I could to help her.

This whole experience has made me realize how fragile humans are in comparison to animals.  If anything comparable happened to me, I would be in the hospital for weeks  The only real advantage we have is our intelligence (and sometimes that's questionable).

"Awesome Things" - Blogging inspired by a Blog

I appreciate the small and random things in life.  So, it is easy to see why the following blog is entertains me:
http://1000awesomethings.com/

Today my "awesome thing" is customer service providers who don't suck (sorry for using that word, but "sucking" is probably the nicest way I can describe most service providers...anyone ever talked to Comcast on the phone?).

About two months ago, I had unknowingly been flying through EZPass lanes, while my EZPass sat velcroed to my windshield doing nothing.  It wasn't until my friend and I were on our way downtown (my first night out since having the baby!), that I realized the EZPass wasn't working.  It's always a good feeling when the green light doesn't flash and you're forced to put the car in reverse, pull into a different lane, and scrounge up enough cash to pay the toll operator.

Last week the toll violations started rolling in!  I've never seen so many pictures of the back of my car.  Today, I bit the bullet and decided to call EZPass.  I'll save you the details, but it was my fault that the EZPass did not work.  I was ready to fork over the money when the customer service representative told me that since I didn't realize I was running the tolls, she would waive all the fines.

So, thank you to EZPass for my "awesome thing".  Did I mention my wait time on the phone was less than thirty seconds?  Awesome!