BELA is here! Who is Bela? My new cat!

Bela (BAY-la) is a seven-year-old male brown striped tabby. His birthday is April 4. I adopted him yesterday from a very nice animal shelter north of Chicago. His original owner had named him BELLA, but had to give him up because he moved. I re-named Bela after bluegrass musician Bela Fleck (who often plays with Jerry Douglas), actor Bela Lugosi, and Bella, the Manx cat who is pictured as my icon.

His full name is Bela of Yerba Buena Vista. Yerba Buena is the mint that goes in mojitos; it's also the original Spanish name of San Francisco. Buena Vista Social Club is the movie that helped get me interested in Cuban music; Buena Vista is also a name associated with Disney.

Bela is very sweet and loves pets and burrowing under blankets. He's still getting used to me and to this place, which I'm sure has a lot of Douglas' scent all around. He has soft fur and a big black stripe down the back. He's very quiet and has only meowed a few times.

Here are some pictures of him!

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I'm back from the vet. Douglas passed peacefully at around 4:15 Chicago time. He was so far gone at the end that he didn't know the vet from me (he hugged the vet around the neck), and I gave the vet several Lucky Charms marshmallows to put in his mouth before the end...so the last thing he will remember was marshmallows.

He was a good kitty, and I will miss him very much.

It doesn't look good for Douglas, folks. I took him to the vet tonight, and his temperature was very low - the vet said this means he's starting to "shut down." She gave him fluids, and then I brought him home. He ate some marshmallows and Lucky Charms, and drank some orange juice...but I'm not terribly optimistic that he's going to live much longer. Stay tuned for details.

When my mother was here a few weekends ago, she noticed that "Douglas looks old." Last weekend when I went to San Francisco, his sitter left me a long note saying that he didn't seem as healthy as he used to be.

I took him to the vet today and had blood work done. Douglas is in the very early stages of kidney failure - this is very common in older cats according to the vet. He does not have diabetes (from the marshmallows) or thyroid problems, and his other organs are functioning normally, but the kidneys are starting to go. The vet gave me a prescription for Royal Canin kidney food, which of course costs about three times more than regular food, and said I should encourage Douglas to drink more water.

He just turned 15 in July, and obviously more of his life is behind him than ahead of him. I'm trying to be prepared for the time when he's not here anymore, but I know that will be VERY difficult.

Happy 15th Birthday to Douglas! He is now the longest-lived pet in my family's history (well, at least the history since I've been alive). Yay!

1. At what stage of your life (i.e. after college, after age 25, etc.) did you stop relating to the music in the Top 40?

2. What year (i.e. 1986, 1995, etc.) was this?

3. Was there any certain song or artist that when you heard them, you knew you were "getting old?"

Happy Fourth of July! I post this every year...

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RIP to a legendary entertainer who was one of the first famous people I ever became aware of in the early 70s.

I was on the D.C. Metro Red Line, going through Takoma Park, about two months ago. I enjoyed the ride, got to see some parts of Maryland and D.C. that I hadn't seen before, and was able to visit a friend in Olney before coming back into town to go to the Wizards game that night.

I made it back...six people won't.

I've been to every state east of the Mississippi except for Mississippi.


visited 35 states (70%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or vertaling nederlands duits?

Your Mind is Green

Of all the mind types, yours has the most balance. You are able to see all sides to most problems and are a good problem solver. You need time to work out your thoughts, but you don't get stuck in bad thinking patterns. You tend to spend a lot of time thinking about the future, philosophy, and relationships (both personal and intellectual).

And I thought it was because I'm Irish!

Grateful Dead: Live in the Oval Office
Posted April 14, 2009 5:00 PM

by Mark Silva (Chicago Tribune)

We haven't seen any Jerry Garcia ties on President Barack Obama lately, but the Washington Post's "Sleuth'' has a great off-the-schedule sighting:

"The surviving (and formerly feuding) members of the Grateful Dead had a secret impromptu meeting Monday evening with the man they credit with reuniting them: President Obama. The president welcomed all the members of The Dead, who are performing tonight at the Verizon Center in Washington, to the Oval Office just before dinner last night.

"Apparently the band was quite taken with how tidy the president keeps his desk. And how down-to-earth he seemed, according a source who was there. "The president was so gracious. Really, really nice and so welcoming. It hit you: you're in the Oval Office, but it was so normal," the source told the Sleuth.

The visitors: The four surviving members of the Dead - Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann - plus keyboardist Jeff Chimenti (from Weir's Ratdog) and Warren Haynes, joining the Dead on their Spring tour as lead vocalist and guitarist -- the late Garcia's old job.

Greetings from Washington, DC! I lucked into a tour of the U.S. Capitol Building today (usually you have to get the tickets from your congressperson, but I happened to get there when there was one spare ticket left) and saw the Rotunda, the old Senate chamber where Abe Lincoln sat, and the steps where everyone went out to the inaugural ceremony. I also left my umbrella in the Capitol restaurant, so I had to use a plastic bag from the gift shop to keep my head covered.

Later on I'm going on a "Monuments by Moonlight" tour of the major memorials, then tomorrow greywingnut and I will be hitting the Smithsonian.

I'm off to Washington, DC for a few days of sightseeing. Details later!

Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone!

I'm almost over this bug; thanks for all your support. I truly am very lucky!

Happy Birthday to Phil Lesh, bassist of the Grateful Dead!

Yes, I'm slowly and steadily feeling better, but I still haven't gotten back my appetite. I'm barely hungry at all.

Today's the St. Patrick's Day parade in Chicago, and yes, I'm staying home. I'm at that point where I'm starting to feel better, but I know I'm still sick. There's been much less snorting and trumpeting of my nose, and even less coughing, but I don't want to push it and stand out in the cold all day. So I'll just watch it on TV.

Thanks to all who have sent me good health wishes! I'm feeling SLIGHTLY better, but at times my head feels like a balloon bouncing around in a giant hotel lobby. This is one bad bug!