An Odds-and-Ends Kind of Update

(UPDATED: Found comments in "Spam" filter and there was no notation on the emailed version. I'm sorry--they have been restored!) Blogger seems to be eating comments.  They're appearing in my e-mail inbox but not in Blogger.  I am baffled.  Keep trying, though, will you please?

A little of this, and a little of that--all of which I hope is not too uninteresting:

•  My July 4th was fairly low-key.  I wasn't up for the local parade in the morning (see next bullet)  but I did go to my cousin's annual picnic.  Not many people, but a good group of people, so that was just right.  I got my grilled hot dog and my other cousin's daughter showed some of her artwork from her college portfolio.  She's been working in mostly 2-D stuff this year, ink, figure drawing.  She's really developing her talents and reminds me a lot of my late cousin "Sonny" (her uncle).  And it's good to know I haven't forgotten some of my art instruction--I do miss it a little.  Maybe someday I'll take a class to see what I've still got.
• The Cat has backslid a bit and is doing the "no solid food" thing again.  And she's not always letting me sleep either--nothing like being tapped on the cheek by a paw at 4 a.m.  The new vet is stumped (most eating problems can be idiopathic anyway), but we had increased her anti-thyroid meds so on Friday he said stop them.  He hasn't been suffering through morning "thyroid yells," so I'm splitting the difference and going to one dose every other morning.
  I guess I'll just try to keep offering her cat-food gravy, tuna juice, and maybe some pureed chicken livers (finally found a store with fresh ones, ew).  I mean, I cried this morning because this might mean her body's just done, but seeing as she's still birdwatching, bathing, contemplating scaling the shelves of the linen closet (busted this morning! No, kitteh!), and scratching the armchair, I just don't know anything right now.  And that might suck even more than knowing.
• I got back into writing a little, working on something I started for NaNoWriMo a few years back.  (Must've felt relaxed for a miraculous few hours.)  Pulled out my notes and wrote a few more scenes.  Nothing fits together (yet) but that's pretty much how I write anything, even term papers--do the big things and connect everything eventually.
• Going to take a day trip with Mom this week to see my Pop-Pop and my aunt and uncle.  I think my cousin who has been studying horticultural therapy gave my mom some plants to take.  It might be interesting to Pop-Pop, who knows?  That reminds me I was supposed to look for a basil plant for Mom yesterday. Shoot.  Well, I have a couple of days to look around.  But I'm excited to go visit.
• The last paragraph of this article about creating an online dating profile pretty much sums up why I haven't taken the plunge again after lousy past results.  There doesn't seem to be any way to put any personal complexity or depth "on paper," so to speak.  Oh well, I continue to ponder all that.

I'm gonna go crank up the stereo and do the brunch dishes.