So glad to hear about everyone's successes and triumphs.
Does this sort of thing only happen to me?
I was changing sim cards in my phone as you have to have another one for China. In the process I somehow lost my HK one. They are so tiny I suppose it is not surprising. Anyway next day I went to the phone shop to report missing card and get a new one. I thought maybe I should get a new phone as the old one, which I won in a Newspaper competition was a bit decrepit. So I got a nice new one, and the nice young man in the shop swapped all the numbers over for me but said I couldn't use it till 10th Jan, which filled me with glee as I hate mobile phones.
So far so good.
While looking at the website of my ISP I found that you could get points for using it and use the points to buy things from a catalogue, so I went to log in and find how many points I had and what I could get. When logging in I found that I didnt remember my password, so I asked them to send it to me by email. They said they couldnt send it by email they would text sms it to me on my phone. OK... no phone.
I went to restart the PC as it was slow and found that I couldn't get back in as I didnt know the new pw, which was being texted to me on my phone which wasnt activated yet.(are you with me still?)Yesterday the phone would be usable, AFTER I had gone into town(20 minute journey, thank goodness they are open on Sunday nights), had it activated and waited two hours. Meanwhile the ISP people had given up trying to text my new PW and said they had sent it by snail mail! Argh!
Anyway I shouted, and the nice young man texted it to me on the new phone and I got the pw and went to the PC and logged in and I am here!! Whew!

*Hi-5's Copago* Way to go, gal!

Sounds like your good luck is on a roll, MotherGoose. (welcome back, too)

ClaraSue, great news that you won the raffle, always fun to hear your number being called out!

Welcome back lady1, good to see you again! I'm sure you had a lovely holiday.

Joy, good to hear that people are still willing to help out, great!

Wow ren, that sounds like quite the convoluted story there! Glad you got it sorted out though, and are back in FT land!

My high of the week (how pathetic is this?) is my new toaster/convection oven I bought. Very spiffy silver colour, it looks like a miniature alien spaceship sitting on my counter! I have made some delicious recipes in it already, and had toast for the first time in two years! Yayyy - not that I am a huge fan of toast, but it's nice to be able to make it now when the urge hits. I love the convection feature, makes for much faster cooking; and I MUCH prefer it to microwave cooking. The low of my week has been reading about the earthquake victims in Costa Rica, very sad.

No high to report right now; I'm reeling from just learning my dearest cat has cancer. The doctor says it could be rectified by amputation, if it hasn't spread to the rest of his body. I have to wait a week to get him back in for a full body scan to make this determination, then proceed with the surgery. According to her, cats don't suffer psychologically from the loss of a limb, they might even try to use it when there's an itch needing scratched - she says she has two three-legged cats of her own at home and they do quite well. I don't know whether to regard this as a glass half-empty or half-full situation....

Aww, BurgGurl, sorry to hear that. Just a note of encouragement.. I had a 3 legged cat, rescued him that way. He'd hang out in my store in the day, and whenever a customer would come in, he'd go over for some affection. As soon as they paid him some attention, he'd subtlely but surely turn his body so that they'd see he was missing a leg. Of course, they'd then lavish a TON of attention on him, "Aww, you poor thing, you." Pet pet pet. So he saw his missing leg as an advantage, I think. It didn't slow him down in any way either, the only way he was limited was although he could jump down from great heights, he couldn't jump up so high. Even the snow didn't seem to bother his stump.

So, if results come back that surgery is a go, I'd say don't hesitate. Will keep my fingers crossed that the cancer has not spread. Keep us posted.

Sorry to hear about the cat BurgGurl, but if it can be saved losing a leg they can certainly walk normally with three legs as can dogs as I recently read.

My highs the last two days were finding two new obsolete road signs for my photo collection by pure chance driving past them after combing London for a whole month and thinking I'd got them all within a reasonable distance. And then I finally won my first expert quiz for nearly 2 months as well.

Congratulations Satguru on the road signs and the expert quiz.

BG Im so sorry to hear about your cat. I guess amputation is not as bad as loosing the cat to cancer.

Just now checking in and seeing your post BurgGurl. Sorry to hear about your cat. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that amputation is all that is needed. Animals do very well with three legs. I had a dog that had to have one amputated and it didn't seem to affect him at all. Prayers to you and kitty.

Thanks lady1, and two more wins today and it's only just 4pm! It's funny how they seem to happen in bunches, like most other things in my life. Besides certain subjects seeming to come at the same time (we had a long run of celebrities and literature) when we get words and animals I am back in my element and they have been turning up together at times as well.

Congratulations on the Expert quiz, satguru.

BurgGurl, I'm sorry to hear about your cat. I hope everything goes well for him. So long as the cancer can be arrested, I don't think the loss of the leg will be much of a handicap. When my mother was a girl, her family had a three-legged cat who could climb trees and catch mice.

So sorry to hear the news about your cat, BurgGurl, and I also hope the amputation takes care of the problem. I had a scare with Jordan last summer, a possible cancer diagnosis, so I know how agonizing it is. Animals are so much more (amazingly) adaptive to change, unlike many of their human counterparts and I'm betting that being on 3 legs will not slow him down for long.

Mags, that story of *cunning cat manipulation* by your's is hilarious!

David, I just won my first Expert game in 3 months and then saw your post. I haven't been playing it much at all lately because of life distractions, or any of the other games either, so that was a nice surprise. Congrats to you on your 2 wins!

Good to hear from all of you with the ups and downs of your lives.

Aww, give the kitty a hug from me, BurgGurl. I hope everything turns out just fine with him.

Low for me today (literally) is that the temperature is currently -10 degrees. (-23 C.) I love winter, but that is TOO cold!

BurgGurl I am sorry to hear about your cat. My daughter's cat only has three legs, she adopted him that way. He isn't at all handicapped by it and can run as fast as any four legged one.

BurgGurl, sorry to hear about you cat. I hope all goes well and the cancer hasn't spread so that he can rather have the surgery. We had a cat with only three usable legs in the neighbourhood a while back (the one leg was lame). My cat, who is the bully of the neighbourhood, used to chase the other cats away so that the lame cat could eat from his bowl. Obviously he would eat first but he always made sure the lame cat got some of his food. Animals are amazing creatures and very resilient. I wish you all the best with you precious cat.



My high for the week is that my daughter is all ready to start high school on Tuesday. School officially starts on Wednesday but the grade eights have to go a day earlier for orientation. The uniform and stationary are bought and ready and my daughter is very excited. Also my son turned 16 earlier this week and had a nice little party with his friends. All went well and everyone had a good time.

The low for this week is still coming. I am going to have loads and loads of school books to cover. This is seriously going to cut into my chain game time. lol

My high this week is I get to fly to Cape Town today until Sunday and spend the week with my niece, her husband and 3 kids. They moved to the Cape in December so have not been there very long but it will be nice to spend time with them.

The low for the week is my daughter is going to Cape Town for some job interviews and may be leaving home soon.

Time to head for the airport, see you all next week unless I pop in from time to time while Im away.

High for my week is that school starts soon. I can't wait to get back into actually doing something with my time.

Thank you all so much for your well-wishes and support everyone. Junior is at this moment undergoing surgery as his x-rays did not reveal any growths in his chest/lungs.

The vet did another round of bloodwork to clear him for the surgery and did express concern in his white cell counts, which indicate a kidney issue. This could hamper recovery and pose a threat of infection. It will have to be (hopefully) remedied with strong antibiotics and a change of diet down the road. All the details are sketchy to me because when I heard there was a kidney issue I couldn't help but wonder if this was just another sign that this was the beginning of the end for my dear boy. Not dealing with his usual doctor has also presented problems for me as I think of her as a stranger, though I can't even for a minute think that she wouldn't have his best interests at heart.

He will have to be kept overnight but we're told that if he is comfortable we can go to visit him. Hopefully the forecasted snowstorm will not be as treacherous as predicted....2 inches an hour - YIKES!

My fabulous high to report is that our Pittsburgh Steelers are going to the SuperBowl!!! Are there any other Steeler fans out there?

edited to update:

Surgery was smooth and successful. He's slowly coming out of his anesthesia and doctor is very confident that though he'll be in pain from the procedure his health will return to normal soon. She'll call to let us know if a visit is possible today. My hubby called to check in and feels that if Junior sees us visiting he'll think he's coming home and will be disappointed when we leave without him. Doctor feels the opposite, that a visit will do him good. What does anyone else think?

That's good to hear about Junior, BurgGurl. I hope all continues to go well. If it were me, I'd go see Junior. He'll still be under medication and may well not remember you visiting, but it'll do you a world of good to see your baby.

I'm glad the surgery went well. I think you should go and visit him. It'll probably do you good to see that he is doing fine and it will perk him up too.

Yes, BG -the furry things love to see their humans in the doorway- especially when their surroundings are so unfamiliar and they are frightened.
So glad things are looking up for the kitty at this point.
It's almost as nerve-shredding as having a child in the hospital, isn't it?
[even though there's no real comparison]

Well, the doctor called and advised I hold off on making a trip out as he is not doing so well tonight. She also asked my permission to allow her to take him home with her tonight so that she may keep an eye on him and to medicate him throughout the night. She said she'd rather give him smaller doses more frequently through the night than to give him one larger one before going home. If that doesn't go above and beyond the call of duty, I don't know what does.

Wow, now that's a great vet. I'm sorry you weren't able to see him, but at least you know he won't be alone at the office. I hope things are better tomorrow. Keep us posted.

Enjoy your trip, lady!

BurgGurl, glad to hear the x-rays results were good, and surgery was a go. What a wonderfully dedicated vet you have there! Junior's obviously in very capable, caring hands. Hang in there, gal!

It's good to hear that the x-ray results turned out well, BurgGurl.

Today I'm hyper, possibly as a result of the nice few hours of social dancing I did tonight. Highlight was definitely the most advanced waltz sequence we know done to the most beautiful piece of music I've heard, without many mistakes. Everything just worked.

Highlight today is receiving my Christmas presents from Ren, they were worth waiting for I can assure you. Thank you Sara.

What were they? Nosy lot! OK, real silk undies and some rubber stamps for my crafting.