Promiseland

[Fetian]

Someone make me a green iguana that loves me and plays fetch and isn't filled with hate for all living things. And can comfortably live in human-centric environments so it doesn't need an eight-foot by four-foot by eight-foot enclosure kept within very specific temperatures and humidity levels and can just sleep at the foot of my bed instead

[Fetian]

I know there's that project to domesticate foxes but domesticating another mammal is such basic shit. Domesticate a snake!

[Fetian]

Just got an ad for a subscription service for cars

[Fetian]

Got a little done today! I took out some trash, and mixed up some aphid-spray for this season which used up the remaining peppermint extract mixture in the garage. We're not sure how it happened but it broke open some time last year so it's been just sitting there in an open bottle since then, so it's good to finish it off. I did not get any writing done but I did stare at a document for a while, and I also studied a little Japanese. And I watched more youtubes than I should have.

Oh, and I sprayed down the roses and gave 'em a water.

In like twenty minutes I'm going to play Palworld with Dave

I have been shutting stuff down around 11 every night! I do think it's helping me stick to a reasonable bedtime if nothing else. Mostly I'm listening to podcasts for about an hour but I've also done a little writing and I've started rereading Lizard Music (which is my favourite Daniel Pinkwater).

I'm going to go chill until games.

[Fetian]

Vet did call earlier: her thyroid levels are elevated again so her meds are being increased from half a pill in the morning and half a pill at night to a full pill in the morning and half a pill at night, and in about three weeks she needs to get her levels checked again. At that point I had already given her her morning pill so I was thinking I'd just start her on the increased dose tomorrow but ultimately ended up giving her a second half-a-pill this afternoon (and a final half-a-pill tonight a couple hours ago). It could be coincidence but I think it is helping

She also has a potential sign of possibly developing kidney disease in the future which I guess we just continue to keep an eye on. The worrying thing there is that the thyroid issues she has can mask the kidney disease, so we just hope it's not invisibly more advanced than it seems to be. Her everything else was good

[Fetian]

A thing I don't like about my room is how much space the bed takes up in it, as the structure of the room means that there's nowhere for it to be except in the very middle of the dang room. So there's no space for anything else in here, and moving around the room involves walking around the entire perimeter to get around the bed. So for a while I've been thinking about replacing the bed with some kind of space-saving alternative -- I was leaning toward murphy bed (it would be pretty sweet to have one of those ones designed as a bookcase up against the east wall), which would be expensive, and I'd have to install it, and I would Always be afraid of one of the cats getting hurt by it. Another loft bed would also be really nice, I had one while I was living at the parents' house and I really liked sleeping seven feet off the ground, and I liked the kind of fort-like vibe hanging out under the bed during the day had. The downside there is of course that you have to climb up into the bed to sleep in it, and I've got my joint things. Frankly that still doesn't take it completely off the table -- I could set up some kind of alternative for sleeping when I can't make it up into the loft

But I was also thinking about Japanese style futons for a bit, because those get set out at night when you go to sleep and then put away when you wake up, so they only take up floor-space when they're actively getting used. They're also a bit easier to take care of than all the washing and sheet-changing I have to do for this bed, which again involves walking All The Way Around It multiple times for each sheet and blanket. The downside of course is that you're sleeping on the floor, which again can be a joints problem and also the floor tends to be a colder part of a room. And there's the question of support and firmness, since futons are much thinner than mattresses and usually don't have springs or anything. I do prefer a firmer mattress, though, so.

I figure it's worth trying! Good ones are costly but not outrageously so. I have gone ahead and bought one to try out, on a payment plan.

I probably could have done a bit more research into where to buy from but I just found a store some random internet person recommended and went with that. I hope it's comfortable. I'd love to have more floor in here for both myself and the cats

[Fetian]

Welp! One of the petco packages arrived (they split my order up into One Single Item and Everything Else) and it got the exact same treatment as the chewy packages -- zero padding, so everything in it that isn't sixteen pounds of cat food has gotten crushed by sixteen pounds of cat food

I mean at least they let me buy from them I guess. To be honest I wouldn't be surprised if all this stuff is getting packed and shipped by the same people in the same warehouse

[Fetian]

So that's one package down of the few things I've bought since not having to worry about vet bills! Obviously the futon and stuff for it is one, which I thiiiiink because it's coming with like sheets and stuff will take 5-7 days to ship out and then probably another 5 to arrive. And the other petco order which is a water bowl and should be getting here any day now. But I also ordered a new awning to shade my room that I'm pretty excited about, and should get here this week or next but amazon hasn't shipped it yet, and then I also threw a bucket into that order because I've been needing one and why not.

I do try really hard to avoid shopping at amazon anymore and I usually manage, except that trying to find this particular style of awning anywhere else did not work. It's like this:

Screenshot 2026-03-25 at 21-14-59.png

The vertical rods there are extendible so you use tension to support the awning between the ground and a ceiling (like your roof overhang), so you don't have to like mount it to a wall or anything like my last one that broke. Am I little worried about the quality and longevity of it? Yeah, but it's also simple enough that if something breaks it can maaaybe be repaired? I tried to find one made out of decent materials but you know you can't find good quality shit anymore

The heat wave is either over or ending so that's great, I think we have rain in the forecast next week but also the national weather service has been gutted so forecasts are less reliable than they were. Either way it is a bit less fuckoff hot, but it will soon be fuckoff hot again so I'll be glad to get an awning up before summer truly hits.

[Fetian]

I! Have been trying for ages to find a cat wand to try playing with Cael with because I think he'd really like that kind of toy. For some reason they don't seem to be being sold very much anymore? Every attempt just brings up toys on strings which is not what I want

But finally succeeded with this last order! And I was right he's really enjoying it!! It's so hard to get him to engage with a toy for longer than two seconds, but he's going ham for the wand

[Fetian]

So Oz doesn't like the supplemental thing the vet recommended, but when I looked into it it isn't actually a supplemental food thing at all, it's to supplement hydration, so. I figured it was worth trying anyway but she sniffed it and immediately left, zero interest at all.

However! I also got some tiki cat meaty broths and Oz is eating them!! She had a salmon one yesterday and a duck-and-chicken one today. Very exciting! I'm going to see about trying some of their wet food with her but if she only likes their broths then that's also fine. So long as she doesn't get tired of them after a couple and stop eating them ever again

I will be so happy if she can gain some weight back. And it's always nice for her to be excited about a food

 
Meanwhile I also got a catnip toy, of a kind that my cats (and Loki) have historically really liked, and it has a very strong mint smell and neither of my cats want anything to do with it. This is not the first time this has happened -- a couple years ago Lee got some catnip toys for the cats for Christmas, and they also had a very strong mint smell that none of the cats liked. Have manufacturers started using a different kind of catnip or something? Apparently some cats really like mint, are manufacturers including mint in their toys now? Very strange, and kind of upsetting. Going to have to like, go to physical pet stores and sniff the toys before I buy them I guess!