Inn of the Wandering Dragon

My co-workers were laughing at me today. You see, the boyfriend has gone out of town for a few days so they are teasing me about taking advantage of his absence to go out and play, as per the adage.

For the past few days I have been tossing ideas around as to what I want to make, such as:

A lovely garden salad with fresh sliced cucumber, ripe tomato and avacado
(he hates most vegetables)

Pancakes stuffed with blueberries
(he's not a fan of pancakes, with or without fruit)

Tortelini with a spicy sauce
(he only likes a certain form of spice in a certain amount, and he doesn't like pasta)

Home made soups
(which invariably has some ingredient that upsets his tender digestive tract)



Scrambled eggs
(he hates eggs)

Chai tea
(tea and spices do not mix in his books)

To make a long list of possibilities short I can basically make any recipie I feel like making without having to alter or discard it all together!
Don't get me wrong, I will occasionally make these things regardless of what he thinks, but the fact is that while he is away I can enjoy these yummy foods, without the grumbling, hissing, comments and occasionally stalking off to the other room. I can enjoy the taste in peace.

To top it off, once I am done cooking and enjoying my dinner I can clean up the kitchen and the dishes without worrying about waking him up (since the bedroom is right next to the kitchen - talk about poor design!).

We are entitled to our own
definitions of the world
we have in common

earth house (stay)
water well (carry)
fire stove (tend)
air song (sigh)
ether dream (die)

and try out new combinations
with key words
unlocking power

house on fire sing!
stove under water stay,
earth filled well die.

The spells and spellings
of our vocabularies
are oracular
in translation.

One woman in Pagnito-an
another in Solentiname
still another in Harxheim
naming
half the world together

can move their earth
must house their fire
be water to their song
will their dreams well.

Not long ago I finished reading my latest purchase, "The Dubious Hills" by Pamela Dean. It is an interesting story about a society that has been created by a series of wizard spells. These spells were put in place to avert war and suffering and as a result various types of knowlege and experience are strictly parceled out. These gifts of insight and magical birthright come at the onset of puberty, so only the Physici knows about, and can experience pain, only the Gnosi knows how to teach, only a certain individual can know what is truly beautiful or ugly etc. As an example, when a child falls out of a tree and breaks their arm they do not feel the pain, only the Physici feels the pain.

Into this society comes questions in the form of shape shifters who live beyond the hills. These wolves are not bound by the spells laid on the Dubious hills and have the power to bring others out of those spells into a world of direct experience and learning, into a world with pain and strife as well as beauty.

Given the world we have grown up in I think it may be difficult to imagine a world so different. But if you could... if you were given a choice between these two worlds, what would you choose? And if someone else was trying to make that choice for you, how would you react?

Yes, I finally bit the bullet and took the cat in for his teeth cleaning. Of course, not being able to have breakfast (I'm HUNGRY!!!), and then getting stuffed in the carrier (you know, it's hard for me to be comfy when this box is bouncing against your leg), to then being strapped in the backseat of the truck (Hey! Truck rides are NOT COOL! Let me out! NOW! Please?!) meant that the cat was not going to have a good day.

Although really, he gets knocked out while the staff work on him. He wakes up dopey from antibiotics and pain killers in a nice fuzzy heated bed with a nice volunteer ready to cuddle him so how bad can it be? Of course, given that this is my cat we are talking about here, naturally the cleaning did not go all smooth and wonderful. He had lesions in his two back molars so they had to come out. That set me back an extra 400 bucks for a grand total of $1,065. Sigh...

Don't get me wrong, my cat is worth the cost of looking after him. I'm just hoping to get a better average one of these days, after all, half of his vet visits thus far have cost $1000 each. I would be much happier (and so would the furball) if we could make that say, one in five.

But on a cute note, I do get the last laugh when the cat makes a heroic leap up his scratching post, only to slide back down on his butt - with a very startled look in his eyes! All thanks to the vet kindly trimming his claws, so until they grow back traction is a bit of an issue.

Another year has passed and another visit to the vet to get the furball's shots and checkup. At least this time around I was not the person to actually take the cat in so it's my turn to be the good guy for once. My cat starts stressing as soon as you place him in the car and there is a long, loud and agonizing song to keep you wide awake at the wheel the entire way. I still think it would be fascinating to have a star trek inspired universal translator to actually let me know what he is really saying during all of this. Ok, maybe the trip to the vet I can skip but those other days when I walk in the door to be greeted by a variety of inflections and nuances as we have our conversation would be too interesting to pass up.

But back to the checkup, alas, my cat needs to have his teeth cleaned. The estimate came in around $600 in total plus taxes. Of course that is assuming everything goes quickly and smoothly - which in the case of my little lion, no guarantees. But this has led me to checking out various sites for Pet Insurance, as recommended by the vet.

After reading the different policies and getting quotes I have come to the conclusion that the insurance really isn't going to help much for the teeth cleaning. Most plans do not cover it and the ones that do find me paying close to $400 per year (after deductible) for about $400 worth of teeth cleaning. Yippee. I might as well pay that straight to the vet. There are plans with more coverage but I have a budget to stick to. Of course, where you do get the benefit is precisely where you hope to never have to use it - for accidents and illnesses. My previous cat spent a fair amount of time in the vet's office as he aged so I do see the value there. Not to mention this feline's encounter with a sewing needle - that was a nasty surprise! But it will still take some debating on my part as I mull over the different plans and work out just what I want to do (and what I can afford to do).

When I am going to sit down and apply some henna I usually flip through some pattern books and get an idea of what I would like. Then I use that as a starting point and go off on a tangent from there. In this case the starting point was for a finger design I found in a book called Henna from Head to Toe.