Hot hot hot weather today. I almost melted. But at least I was able to wear flip-flops and enjoy the sight of my chartreuse toenails all day.

Poor kitty cat. Shannon and I made our first stab (no pun intended) at giving Cobweb her subcutaneous fluids today, and we didn't figure it out immediately. Apparently, I am "scruff impaired" (Shannon's words), and so I wasn't able to hold Cobweb securely in place. She kept launching herself in bizarre gyrations and escaping, sending huge tufts of fur flying in all directions. Seriously, there was like a whole cat's worth of fur on the floor when we were done, and Cobweb had a big bald patch on her neck. Like I said, poor kitty cat! I felt like a very bad cat mom.

In the end, Shannon took over the restraint job, and I took over the needle, and suddenly everything went smooth as silk. Well, except for the fact that cats don't like to be forcibly restrained for 10-15 minutes, no matter what the reason, and the giant needle hanging out of her back probably didn't help. So she started freaking out (her eyes were rolling around like a rabid animal's, but she was not frothing at the mouth) and struggling a lot, and Shannon was having some trouble keeping hold of her, but finally the requisite amount of fluid had made its drippy journey into her little furry (well, less furry than before, sadly) body, and we let her go. Being the sweet kitty that she is, she just hung out with us and cuddled in Shannon's lap and didn't run away. I think tomorrow the whole procedure will be much easier. And I hope that Cobweb will not lose any more fur. Poor baby with the traumatically-acquired bald spot!

Tonight was Shannon's weekly board game night here in our dining room, and I totally forgot that he had told me days and days ago that dougo was going to be here, visiting from Massachusetts. Shannon and I both know him from back in the early '90's, when I was dating our mutual friend Donald and didn't actually live up here yet. As they were all still students at Cal, Dougo, Shannon, and Donald were all active in the CSUA (Computer Science Undergrad Association), and the group tended to get together and play contract bridge, go out to dinner, and do random other stuff. (If you have some strange desire to know more about the CSUA during that period, you can read The CSUA Encyclopedia, which Shannon wrote about a million years ago. It consists primarily of inside jokes and computer programming geekery, however, and so probably wouldn't make much sense.) I always just tagged along and didn't fit in -- I tend to be shy in groups of people who all know each other well -- but Dougo was always really nice to me and talked to me, asked me about myself, and just generally made me feel like a part of the group. I always really liked him for that. So he's in town visiting, and I totally planned to chat with him while he was here, but then I forgot that tonight was the night he was here, so I just hung out upstairs like I usually do on Thursday nights, doing my solitary thing, and when everyone left Shannon came upstairs and said, "Dougo said hi." Doh! So this old friend was here in my house for hours, and I never even came down to say hello! I felt like a complete idiot ... and also very rude.

Anyway, so I sent him an email, and I suggested that maybe next time he's in town we can all get together for dinner or something, maybe with Donald and his wife. That would rock.

Tomorrow I'm going to lunch with Katherine and Jay to belatedly celebrate the occurrence of birthdays (Katherine and mine) in March. I'm really looking forward to it! We're going to Venus, which is one of my favorite restaurants.

Speaking of restaurants, Shannon initiated a conversation with me today about how we choose the restaurants where we eat every Friday. Shannon has significant dietary limitations (no beef, no dairy if possible, and a preference against Italian, Mexican, Thai, and Chinese) and tends to lean toward fast food (Taco Bell/KFC, McDonald's, Bongo Burger, Oscar's, etc.), which I really don't like very much. But I got discouraged by his frequent refusals to go to the restaurants I suggested, so I pretty much have just been letting him choose for quite some time now. But today Shannon said that he wanted to make it easier for me to choose our restaurants half the time, and we talked about it a bunch, and he said he would even be willing to go once in a while to the places that aren't his preference, as long as there is something for him to eat (i.e., no Friday dinners at The House of Beef and Only Beef), and I'm very excited about the whole thing. I sat down this evening and researched what relatively inexpensive (but interesting) restaurants are in easy walking/biking reach (within maybe 3 miles). So I have this long list of prospective places to go, serving all different kinds of food: Turkish, Peruvian, Israeli, Hawaiian, Vietnamese, vegetarian, organic, crepes, bbq, etc.). For tomorrow night, I have chosen Brazil Cafe, which has always appealed to me, but where I've never gone. So exciting!