Our cat is magical

This past May we got some bad news about Roman, our cat. We realized it had been a while since she had a check up, so we took her to the vet and the veterinarian discovered that she had a stage 3 heart murmur caused by hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. They weren't able to see how fast the heart walls were thickening, because they didn't catch it whenever it had started, but it was pretty advanced. Instead of having a regular sinus rhythm, Roman's heart just sort of evenly went "thumpthumpthumpthumpthump". The vet said Roman had "about 350 to 1000 days" (because you know, normal people think about years in terms of number of days), but it ultimately amounted to one year to maybe three years... so either pretty quickly, or sort of living a normal cat lifespan, because she is already 9 years old at this point.

He put her on Atenolol and told us that it would manage the symptoms but couldn't treat the issue, and that he would see us again when she started showing more advanced symptoms, like coughing and difficulty moving. He cautioned us that it could move fairly quickly, but there wasn't a whole lot more that we could do right now.

Fast forward three months. Roman is terrorizing the dogs endlessly as usual. She's shown absolutely no progressing symptoms, HOWEVER she is as big as a house.

That photo doesn't quite capture it, and in fact she actually looks almost svelte in comparison to what she looks like now. Over the past month, she has ballooned! Andrew and I were a little concerned-- we've been limiting her food and making sure she doesn't have extra snacks, so we wondered if it was the medication.

Yesterday Andrew took her back to the same veterinarian to get her general fatness looked at. The following ensued:

Vet Tech: (picks up Roman to take her pulse) (pauses) Uh... you know, hold on just a minute, I'll be right back. (leaves, returns with the vet) Could you check that out for me?

Vet: Of course. (picks up Roman to take her pulse) (pauses) Well... I'll be right back. (leaves, returns with a second vet) What do you think of that?

Vet #2: (picks up Roman to take her pulse) (pauses) ... huh. That's really weird. (checks again)

Vet: (checks chart) Sounds pretty healthy for a 7-year-old heart, doesn't it?

Vet #2: It does.

Andrew: Well, she's 9 actually.

Vet: Oh! Even better! Well, we don't know why your cat doesn't have a heart murmur anymore, it seems to have resolved itself, congratulations!

SO, for reasons mysterious to us, Roman has a clean bill of health and may very well live forever at this point! The walls of her heart appear to be thinning back to normal again for some reason, so right now her biggest issue is just that she is 14 lbs. The vets said not to change her to low fat food but just be extra careful to restrict her calories... but I'm not sure we are able to control an animal that spontaneously heals itself?

In the mean time, enjoy Roman enjoying a box and a bag.

It's the little things in life, you know?

A very early morning interview...

This morning I was interviewed about our Little Chicks classes! Fox 13 spent the morning at the Aviary, talking to different employees about the opportunities we have going on-site. Admittedly, it was a little strange, in that it was being broadcast live and I really had no idea what his banter was about or responding to until I just watched the clip... SO MUCH CLARIFIED.



Odd though his really loud, sudden laughter was in the moment, he was a really nice guy. Here's hoping it will drum up some enrollment for our pre-k classes!

Our own private Jim Bianco concert

This past January, I was out walking the dogs in a snowstorm up the hills of the Avenues just before Andrew and I drove to Grand Junction for a trip (I think out to Denver?). I paused to answer a text from Andrew, who was finishing packing, and just happened to look at my e-mail at the same time. "Host a House Concert with Jim Bianco!" had arrived in my inbox not five minutes beforehand.

2014 is upon us and moving fast, like a polar vortex,  so I'll cut to the chase:

Besides being featured on NPR's "All Things Considered", one of the highlights from 2013 was our fantastically successful 25-show national house concert tour. . . it was insane! I infiltrated the living rooms of fans all across the country and sang my guts out.
I had such a good time doing it, I've decided to do it again.

If you are interested in hosting a house concert, hit "reply" to this email, tell me your city and state, and that's it! I'll send you a few short questions and we'll work something out. It will be a blast!

If you're like me and like to act before you think, then hit REPLY right now and let me know you're interested!

STAY WARM FRIENDS!
See you soon : )
JB

I nearly dropped the dogs' leashes in excitement, but composed myself and wrote back (immediately):

Hey Jim!

Oh man, I often act before I think, and am interested! I saw you when you came to Salt Lake a few years ago and have just been waiting to see if you would mosey back my way. Both my hubs and I love your music. We're still in SLC-- can I get on that Interested list?

Jenn Waterhouse

And in that particular moment was not, in fact, a fairly reclusive social introvert, but someone who might actually host a musician that we love with friends!

Cutting to the chase, a few months later we were told we were on the list, discussed the particulars of date and time and eight months later, yesterday, it ACTUALLY HAPPENED. I'm still reeling a little bit!

Look at that, in our living room!! Eight friends ended up coming over, so with Andrew and I it was a really intimate little group of 10, which I think was perfect... honestly I'm kind of surprised that so many of us fit in our living room all at the same time!

Before Jim came by, Andrew put together a super cheap-o little grill we got to cook some kebabs for everybody.

Piles of kebab parts and some assorted snacks... I'm still learning how to do this whole 'host a casual gathering' thing.

This is my friend and intern Katie, who came over a little early, and I am SO grateful she did, because I learned a life lesson everyone should know: You CAN'T put together 25 kabobs by yourself in 30 minutes.

Aidan came over too, Andrew was pumping himself with an energy drink to really be able to hit the grill hard before Jim got there.

Aidan's own personal kabob... whitest kabob you know

Everybody trickled in at about 6:30, 6:45, and mingled a bit in the backyard. I was inside finishing up hostess-y things and there was a little knock at the door, which I answered because that's what hostesses do... and LOW AND BEHIND Jim Bianco himself was standing at my doorstep. We shared a firm handshake, he came in to get started and I set him up with a glass of merlot, and then ran to the backyard and whispered loudly to everybody "HE'S HERE. HE GOT HERE". Like an idiot... but I think he didn't hear me. Or if he did, he has to be used to that sort of a thing.

Then commenced about an hour and a half of... I'm trying not to gush too much, but just freaking terrific music, right in our living room (which had surprisingly great acoustics). Andrew was on 'Shaker Duty' for him, Aidan and I got to read some lines during one of his songs, and he played all of our favorites.

He had terrific anecdotes that had us all rolling (especially his story of taking his ex-dog Winnie to her new family in Seattle... poop jokes never get old no matter how old you are), and several of his songs were really tender, especially Billy Baker, which I had never heard before.

Here is Andrew on shaker!

This must have been one of the sillier songs, judging by Andrew's laughter:

And I actually DO have a photo of Andrew and I with him, but it won't upload right now, so I'll put that up in a bit.

Things wrapped up at about 9pm and he had to take off to fly out to Cali the next morning for another living room get together. I was a bit lax on photos ultimately because I totally forgot to take more, but I'll gather some of the cell pics people took to share those as well... it was just a really terrific evening. The opportunity to bring together people that Andrew and I care a lot about to share an experience like this was a huge highlight of this year for us, and a killer thing to check off of our bucket list.

Now we're going to Lagoon for the afternoon, so I better run and get ready!

I did something!

I did a presentation at the Salt Lake City Main Library about John James Audubon tonight, as a part of my position of a board member of the Great Salt Lake Audubon... see?

It went really well! Andrew came and watched as well, and it was pretty well attended (about 30 people came). We got to leaf through a facsimile of the The Birds of America afterward, and overall it was pretty fun. The Salt Lake Library owns a rare, full copy of a late printing of The Birds of America in its original size, commissioned by Audubon's son John Woodhouse Audubon, that is on permanent display in their Special Collections department, which is why they asked Great Salt Lake Audubon to do a presentation. I offered to do it, and voila :)