Good-bye Loiosh

Loiosh, our 17 and a half year-old Norwegian Forest Cat, died peacefully at home this morning after good-bye pets and loves.

She was diagnosed with diabetes last week, but her condition did not improve with the administration of insulin. She stopped eating--not even succumbing to the temptations of succulent tuna and kitten food--and drinking, and we let her go on her own terms.

She was the oldest member of our pet family--she was with Dave for four years before we married. She went from a quiet, peaceful life to Dave to the chaos of me, a dog, two screaming birds, five ferrets, two more dogs, a child, and another dog, and she did it with calmness and serenity. She was loved, and she is missed.

A Full Life

The weekend has been too busy to post--out of town guests, sick cat, friends for dinner (not literally!), and full days in the studio to boot. I really will put up the movies from Montana, just not today. Really, really.

In Love

It is getting harder and harder to pretend that these movies have anything to do with Glass Incarnate so I'm going to start posting them here. And next week--when we are actually staying in the cabin at the lake and not staying at my parents' house (who have DSL)--I won't be able to post at all (much less post movies).

So today was another perfect day in paradise (well, except for all the six year-old and 80 year-old whining). It was quite windy both at my parents' and at the lake, and J got cold so we came home at 5:00 instead of 7:00 (the sun goes down about 10:00 here in the summer).

Thank you again to George Winston--whose music has always inspired me and made me think of Montana--for the soundtrack song, "Cradle" from Forest.

Montana!

Today I am no longer Stranded in the South, far from Montana and a Missoula state of mind (though I am wrapping my mind more and more around a Georgia state of mind--at least for the gardening and friends...). We landed in Missoula just before noon, and now we are up in Polson looking out over Flathead Lake. Jessie is settling right in and tormenting my parents' dog Jig. Of course Jig--the same age as Jessie in dog years--can hold his own. He is the talkingest dog I have ever seen. I only captured a snippet, but he is not at all shy about sharing a piece of his mind with you.

July 5th--Montana Tomorrow!

In honor of the Saturday after the 4th of July--a very family-oriented time for me--I am posting two videos of the J. One was taken yesterday at a 4th of July picnic at friends' house and you can tell who's in the video mostly by the cheering in the background. The little itty bitty speck in the back of the yard is J riding a 2-wheeled bike unassisted for the first time. It was a great (distant, brief) moment. The second video is past of the show she did a week or so ago that I hadn't put up yet. Our child is a a monkey.



Look forward to lots of videos from Montana over the next couple of weeks. (Really.)