^i've been cooking for the needy / lock down since day one. It's good, and doesn't require too much effort.

I have been thru a bit more flour than I thought, I think I'm on my 3rd or 4th bag of 20kg bag now.

Just came back from US...

Organized all the visits (5 of them) in one short trip to minimize any contact and drove back cannonball style except a quick shopping stop in Portland/Lynnwood and picking up my packages in Blaine.

US is so similar, yet so different post pandemic.

There were clearly less people on the street and shops and being on the West Coast, everyone are quite aware of using masks as well as keeping social distance... I'd go as far as saying more so than what we do here in BC. But I was still the rare outsider as I was fully equipped with face mask, face shield, disposable gloves and hand sanitizer/wipes with me at any given time.

All restaurants down... at least those that I was able to see (I was down for commercial RE) are all take out only or outdoor eating only. Absolutely no dine-in in all 3 states (CA, OR and WA) from what I could see.

I stayed at different Marriott... and room seemed clean smelling a bit alcohol-icky, which I assume are the solutions they are using to sanitize the room. But nothing overly so.

Anyway... started my self-isolation in our guest room... Hopefully the world outside doesn't change too much in 14days... :fuckthatshit:

Just had to drop off my cat to the vet with liver problems. Due to covid, they have a no visitors policy. I really hope tonight wasn't my last time seeing him.

Can't believe I wasn't even 30 yet when we adopted him :ahwow:

Jesus I had that too, dropped off my dog with a poisoning issue at 14 years old and she needed an ultrasound of her abdomen, was frantically pacing outside for 4 hours waiting and wondering if I was ever gonna see her again but it all worked out so far

Yeah... best of luck to your kitty Skinny. We lost our first, and by far the closest cat to liver complications. It always brings me tears when I hear cat with liver problem.

They expect to have to keep him for 4-5 days, assuming it's not something EXTRA complicated like cancer.

Just woke up, expecting to see him sitting there in the sunlight trying to keep warm

I can't lose him

speedy recovery to yo kat

https://i.imgur.com/LLtbWJK.jpg

Jett is in the ICU now, awaiting surgery to remove his gall bladder and a stone in the bile duct. This stone has caused his gall bladder, liver, intestine, and pancreas to all get inflamed and painful.

We only hope he makes it to Tuesday without the bladder rupturing spontaneously (it's in really rough shape) when he has the surgery at lunch (thanks to the vet for squeezing him in right before their xmas break). And from there we hope he can recover at 12 years old.

He's had a rough week of transporting between 3 different vets of varying competency, 3 ultrasounds, x-rays, catheters, feeding tube up his nose, shaving different parts his body, etc. He can't eat but he's getting nutrition through the nose tube. After surgery he'll have one cut directly into his esophagus which will be there for at least a month so we can feed him that way at home.

I'm off to write a nasty review of the first vet. I'm not even pissed about spending around $20K more than we should have, it's the fact that we weren't able to find the problem properly until today, rather than 3 days ago.

Jett would appreciate any good vibes from the RS fam, and I appreciate it too. Wish us luck!

As for this thread, the new vet allows us to visit him once a day, one at a time, for about 20 minutes. So that's good

And BTW if your cat is ever scared like Jett is here, try looking directly into his eyes and blinking slowly. They are really assured by that, and eventually they'll calm down a bit.

i got 2 young cats and i'm dreading the day where they have to deal with health issues

We laid our kitty to rest after 19 years this past summer. The kids had a good cry and about 2 hours later they asked for a dog. BrokeBack

Good luck Jett!! I hope you recover, 2020 has truly been a shit year that would be some good news right at the end of it!

https://i.imgur.com/JS9JSV7.png

Jett had his surgery today. There were some complications, but it wasn't a disaster. There were actually two stones, the second of which was in a much trickier spot to access. They had to cut the bile duct open to get it out (usually they try to squeeze it down the tube back to the bladder before removing it).

They say the next few days are crucial, and as long as those wounds heal up without bile leaking out, he might even be able to go home with us on the 24th, in time for christmas. Not like he'll be running around, but at least he'll finally be home again. We'll be feeding him food and meds through that tube you see in his throat. The vets said that his pancreas is in really rough shape. But they said they are 'cautiously optimistic' he can recover.

Thanks again everyone for all your support. 2020 has sucked real bad for us, and this was an ass kicker at the end of it. I send all your good vibes his way and I think he'll make it through. He's a tough kitty for being a spoiled 12 year old indoor cat ;)

Wishing your little one a speedy recovery Skinny :tears:

Hope Jett makes a speedy recovery and is by your side for more years to come.

Jett is coming home today!!! I could cry BibleThump

They did a final blood test to make sure his liver is recovering

ALT is at 350 today, from 540 on Sunday, from 1700 last week. Normal is <130
GGT is at 2, which is normal, from 10 on Sunday, and 14 last week
Biliburin (the stuff that gives you jaundice) is at 51, from 142 Sunday, 112 last week. Normal is <15

So 2 days after removing the stones and gall bladder, his liver is showing signs of recovery already. He ate food overnight!

He's still not out of the woods yet, we need to make sure his pancreas heals up. But he was SO close to dying, it feels so good to have him home again. The longest he's been away from home is just a few hours to get his teeth fixed after an accident, and once for a checkup after another accident (cats)

Can't wait just to sit with him in bed all day today

Thanks again everyone for your support during these hard times. Big hugs to the RS fam SeemsGood

Edit: Now that we know he's healthy we can start freaking out over the costs... Everyone in HK got $10K this year, so we spent our $20K already on the two vets who gave us the runaround for the first 3 days. This current vet gave us a $5K break because of that (they're the vet my wife's dog rescue company is partnered with), but it's still around $30K for the surgery alone. We'll find out what the total bill is, I expect it to be around $45K or so.

So yeah after the holidays I'll be looking for another job :badpokerface: If anyone here knows someone in HK hiring for coffee roasting or even bartending... :ahwow:

Jett is home! BibleThump

He's seen better days

https://i.imgur.com/RnIaEVX.png

Various family members chipped in to help out with his bills. I don't know what I did to deserve having such wonderful people in my life but I'll try to earn it from now on BibleThump

I didn't intend to take over this thread like this so I'll leave it at that. Now back to giving Jett snuggies! And jamming 40g of food down his tube WutFace

Because of the pandemic, I am making whatever this is instead of a whole turkey.

https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Ps3..._201811-X3.jpg

FYI: I emailed them and you cook it with the net on.

I've had those several times before, from Butterball. They're really quite good.

We looked all over for one because we don't want to cook a full turkey for just us, but this is the first year nobody had any FailFish

Doing roast beef instead

My mom is doing prime rib roast, we're going to go pick it up and bring it home to re-heat. Wave through the window for us will be the extent of social interaction tomorrow. Hopefully back to a regular Christmas next year.

We couldn't find a fresh turkey anywhere! (some places didn't even have frozen ones left!) Forget a butterball! Had to go out to coquitlam to find some fresh turkeys available, been brining it since yesterday, hopefully it turns out well

Almost went for a duck/goose instead but got lucky with coquitlam superstore (on the 23rd)

I saw on RFD, Costco had $25 off fresh turkeys yesterday (in-store only). Looked like they had a lot.

So my brother got married a couple months ago, very small family gathering (obviously) of 8 people in the back yard. None of my other family like cousins, or grandparents were invited ... sucks but it is what it is... super simple, exchange vows, got a small cake, ate it, had family dinner and it was done within a couple hours.
A huge difference from my wedding 5 years ago. Booking the venues, speeches, tuxes, etc ..... Don't anybody tell my wife but I think I may prefer these smaller ones, way less stressful planning haha not to mention a helluva lot cheaper!

Just curious if anyone else was planning to get married the past year or attended a wedding or knew of weddings that got postponed/cancelled because of the pandemic?
Just pushing it back to whenever things go back to normal?

My wedding was just like your brother's, except it was in 2008 LUL Definitely not into the whole "look at us" thing of big weddings.

We have a cousin planning on doing the full wedding thing this September... I think they set the date last year in the middle of the pandemic (or are we even at the middle yet?). Good luck with that!

but did you break even/make money? KEKW

my wedding was suppose to happen in Aug but we had to move it since our venue didn't know if they were able to open during that time. we moved it to this year summer so hopefully we are able to host the wedding.
In the meantime we did a small wedding on our original date.

Even if it doesn't turn back to normal, we will still host it at our original venue and hope they are open.