New Chapter

So, it's been a bit since my last post.  The Tux war continued. I researched and found out that when cats are not feeling well they will sometimes lash out to include not using their litter box.  Off to the vet we go.  They give him an antibiotic shot and give me some other things that I can do.  Male cats are prone to UTIs, WHO KNEW?!  It helped for a little bit, noticed bigger pee clumps in litter box and less attacks.  Then it started up again :(  All of it, so about 2 weeks after the initial antibiotic shot we are back at the vet.  This time we go home with 2 weeks of oral antibiotics.  I was a little nervous with giving meds to a cat but Tux is pretty good and it went well.  Tux is back to "normal", a lot of stuff in his litter box, sleeping in the bed with us, drinking water, and less attacks.
I am now done with work as a full time guard member.  Yesterday was my last day!  I don't have to put my uniform back on for over a month!  That's going to feel so weird!
Most of my last week at work was in a course, The Medical Effects of Ionizing Radiation.  Sounds smart huh?  Most of it was over my head but I managed to pass the test!  Not the best score but I'll take it.  On Monday my coworkers took me to a nice lunch and we had cake and some going away gifts:

My birthday was on Wednesday and we were in that course but we had cupcakes and then on Thursday a good group of us went out for lunch once the class was let out!  I'm going to miss most of them, a good group of people!  Last weekend, Marcia took me to see Saturday's Voyeur with the Salt Lake Acting Co.  It was AWESOME and SO funny!  We went on Sunday and had a little table, you can bring in your own food or drink :D  We had cheese, crackers, meat and wine!  

I've gotten very nice cards, and little gifts that mean so much.  Shane got me some flowers and the plan was to get me tickets to see Pink but he underestimated the power of Pink (most guys do) so I get to pick.  I told him I wanted to go to Lagoon and get me roller coaster fix :D  We are going to go during the week so it's not so crazy.

This weekend we got a lot going on.  Tonight we are going to a piano bar, tomorrow a bee's game (possibly Oktoberfest) and Sunday I may be meeting up with a friend for lunch and some shopping!  So it will be nice birthday weekend :D

Next week it's get ready for school and then Friday I have my orientation!  Craziness!  I just ordered some of my books, ridiculous the cost of them!

Another new thing going on is that I've started a video blog.  It's a little weird but fun at the same time.  The focus is mainly the health and fitness stuff I'm trying, with the essential oils and all.  If anyone is interested in those ramblings here is my page on youTube.  Not sure how long that will last but we will see.

War! Me vs Cat

I see myself as a good animal owner.  I try my best to ensure they have a happy environment, so it pains me when the animals act out or get a tad mean.  Tux is a good cat but let's face it, he's a cat and has cat independent bipolar tendencies.
He was going through phases of attacking me and Shane.  Walking around the house he'd pounce and attack us.  I firs thought it was his irritation at me cause I wasn't stationary when it was nap time.  For those of you that have dogs, they tend to follow you from room to room and let out a heavy sigh when they lay down...only to follow you to the next room you move too within minutes.  So when I have a day at home and I'm cleaning and doing laundry I just figured it went along with that theory but he's a cat so who freakn' knows!
Second thought was that we weren't playing with him enough.  So, I bought some more toys to play with him with.  That seems to work for a wee bit.  This morning, that no longer seemed to work.  I woke up, fed the animals and played with Tux.  No major attacks ensued when I went out and about.  Shane gets up, gets attacked so Shane plays with him for awhile.  I'm thinking that has bought us some safe time to roam around the house.  WRONG!  He decided he didn't like me too much and attacked me a handful of times before I just kept him out of the room I was working out in.  The rest of the day was pretty safe.
But... there is more to this battle! Cat pee! OMG, so frustrating!  So... I knew that he went in the down stairs bedroom which is right next to the bathroom that his litter box is in.  That's irritating!  We clean his box every day so it's not an over abundance of stuff in his box.  I cleaned up the downstairs bedroom.  Deep cleaned the carpets and all, and I felt we were o.k.  I even borrow the black light from work to make sure I hit the spots more aggressively than others.  I thought we were good to go and haven't noticed him down in that room scratching or trying to cover something up.  Today, he proved me wrong!  Argh
So I'm doing laundry, coming out of the laundry room and he's over in that area acting like he's covering some stuff up.  I go over there, but no wet spot.  Alright, he's being a weirdo.  Then he proceeds to move along the wall sniffing etc., and I watch as he decides to take a piss!  I CAN SEE HIS FREAKN' LITTER BOX!  He didn't even stop when i tried to stop him.  So hello paper towels and cleaning supplies.
While cleaning up I noticed that a pile of shirts in Codi's closet no longer are white.  So I check that out... awesome, another nice little pee spot.  WTF?!  That may be from when we were gone for a week and his litter box was only cleaned out twice!
Guess what's on my agenda this week prior to me going on a work trip?!