The reason it was so expensive at the vet is because they wouldn't allow us to use our own insulin, so they were charging per shot on top of the actual room and board. It was way over $2,000! insane! This person we are supplying her with everything so it's a lot cheaper. I'm hoping Chloe will be okay. I hate the fact they don't understand what's going on but like you said with your cats, maybe as long as she sees Pugsley, she'll know she's okay. Even though they don't really like each other.

I think Vance managed to send a fire through all of us. I see Trump is afraid to debate Kamala. I usually never watch those, but I would if they do end up debating each other. She's going to destroy him!

I'm kind of having a hard time with this current chapter I'm working on. I got halfway through it, but I'm not really pleased with the way it's turning out so I might scrap parts of it and redo. Now that the action element is over, it's hard to get my brain to slow back down to this more dramatic part. Conceivably I might be able to stop it at 24, but not sure.

Yes, that is one reason I prefer cats.  I like dogs, too, but I don't see myself ever getting one, at least not while I'm single and working.  They are a lot more work than cats, and I would feel bad leaving a dog home alone all day.  I also wouldn't like having to plan my life around the dog and not having the freedom to travel without always having to figure out what to do with the dog.  I know my cats will be fine alone for a few days.  This is the longest I've ever left them, but they seemed to do fine.  I'm sure they missed me, but I never heard them crying for me on the camera or anything.  I'm glad I have two of them so they at least have each other.  Even though they don't particularly like each other, at least neither of them was alone.

That is crazy that boarding Pugsley at the vet would have cost more than the cruise!!  Makes me wonder how much my sister spent on boarding her three dogs - yikes!  I'm glad you were able to find someone to board them for a more reasonable price.  Being in someone's home sounds better for them than being at the vet anyway.  Hopefully Chloe will do fine.  It may be hard on her to be in a strange place, but I'm sure she'll come around once she gets back home with you and your sister.  It's so hard to leave them, though, knowing they don't understand where you're going or that you'll be back.

It's funny that Vance accuses "childless cat ladies" of not caring about future generations when his party are the ones who don't seem to care about anyone who is different from them.  They only care about future generations when they're still in the womb.  Typical out-of-touch douche.  I hope all the childless cat ladies in the country vote against him and Orange Hitler.  There are a lot of us!

LOL I've definitely been there before with not being able to wrap up a story in the number of chapters I want.  25 is a perfect number if you can end on that, but don't rush it or cut it short just to hit that goal.  I still have no idea how long my current story is going to be, but I could see it hitting 100 chapters.  I'm on Chapter 62 with a lot left in my outline, and I don't even care.  I'm enjoying writing it, and there are at least a few people who seem to be enjoying reading it, so I'm not in any big hurry to wrap it up.

That sounds like a great solution. Cats are so much easier because they don't mind being alone. Although we realized that ever since he was born, Pugsley has never spent one single night alone. When my sister used to come and visit me, she would bring him with her and then he'd stay with me until she came back down again. We can't leave him alone because he's a diabetic. He needs insulin twice a day, which made things even more problematic. At first we were going to board him at the vet but for the ten days it was even more than the cost of the cruise! And that didn't even factor in Chloe. We ended up finding someone who boards cats and dogs at their house. She knows how to administer insulin and came highly recommended. She was also a lot less expensive. She's going to be taking them both. We're hoping that they don't freak out too much. I'm afraid Chloe might revert back to how she was when we first got her, but again, I'm an anxious person.

I made the mistake of reading comments under a news article about project 2025 this morning. I'm always amazed at either people's total incompetence when it comes to Trump or their complete loyalty. How this country is filled with so many people so willing to take away the rights of people just because they feel uncomfortable, it's terrifying to me.

I'm thinking that this story will hopefully wrap up by 25 chapters and then I can start the second story. I had thought the same thing with chapter 22 but I'm halfway through and nope, not going to happen. LOL

I was originally going to have a friend come over to feed and check on my cats, but since they're both afraid of people that aren't me, I ended up getting an automatic feeder with a camera from Amazon and using that.  I figured it would be less stressful for them than having a "stranger" come over.  It was perfect because it holds more than a week's worth of food for two cats, can be programmed to dispense food at certain times or on demand, and has motion activation and night vision so I could check on both cats and make sure they were alive and eating.  They already had a water fountain that holds plenty of water.  I hid a key just in case I ended up needing someone to come over, but the feeder and water fountain worked out great.  Let me know if you want a link.  Have you figured out what to do with your pets yet?  Dogs are harder than cats.  My sister and parents boarded their dogs.

I hope the young people will vote for Kamala over Trump.  I feel like she has a better chance of getting their votes than Biden would have.  I agree, not voting at all is not a good solution.

That's awesome that your story has been getting such a good reaction!  I hope you finish strong and are happy with the ending!

I'm back!  Sorry I haven't been around much.  I got home Saturday afternoon, spent most of Sunday with a couple friends, and have spent the last two days trying to recover from ten straight days around other people LOL.  It's been nice to sleep in my own bed and spend some quality time cuddling my cats on the couch in front of the TV.

Pigeon Forge was fun overall.  We went to an exotic bird sanctuary called Parrot Mountain, where I got to pet and hold cockatoos and macaws and had a conversation with a cute green parrot that talked!  So cool!  We also went to the Titanic Museum, which I've been wanting to go to for years, and it was great!  It focused mostly on the ship, of course, but there was also a nice little exhibit about the movie, where they had the 11 Oscars on display as well as Rose's sinking dress and lifebelt, autographed by Kate Winslet, and the violin from the movie, autographed by the whole cast.  They also had Madeleine Astor's real lifebelt and a deck chair from the ship, which was really cool.  It took us two tries, but we also did Dollywood.  We first went there on Wednesday, arrived right as it opened, and went on one roller coaster, only to be told there had been a water main break, and they were shutting the park down an hour after it opened.  So we had to leave.  Luckily, we were able to go back on Friday, our last day, and spent the day there.  I rode almost all of the roller coasters and had a really good time.  Those were my three favorite things we did.  We also had plenty of relaxing downtime drinking moonshine on our back porch overlooking the Smoky Mountains.  So pretty!

I survived the week without wanting to kill my sister or any other member of my family, which was good.  The only bad part was finding a dead bedbug in my bed on our second morning there.  I'm generally not afraid of bugs, but after watching too many episodes of "Infested" on Animal Planet back in the day, a bedbug infestation is one of my biggest fears.  So you can imagine my horror at finding this thing and googling a picture of it to confirm my worst fear.  My sister, who booked the cabin, called the company, and they sent an exterminator out to basically confirm that, yes, there was evidence of bedbugs, but they couldn't do much about it while we were staying there because they have to heat the house to like 350 degrees to kill them.  They didn't have another open cabin that we could move to, so they gave us the option to either leave then and get our money back or stay and get a discount.  We didn't have anywhere else to go and weren't going to pack up and drive nine hours home two days into a week-long vacation, so we chose to stay and ended up getting 50% off what we paid for the cabin, which was a lot.  I didn't end up finding any more bedbugs, but my nephew found two live ones in his room over the course of the week, and my sister found one in her room on the last night.  So gross!  We bought a bunch of trash bags and Ziploc bags to bag all our stuff up before we went home - walked out of the grocery store looking like I was preparing to hide a dismembered body LOL.  I washed all my clothes and everything that could be washed twice in hot water and dried it on the highest heat settings.  My shoes are bagged up in my freezer for the next few days.  And everything else that couldn't be washed, heated, or frozen either got pitched or is bagged up in my detached garage for the next ten months, until any bedbugs or eggs should be dead for sure.  This includes my suitcase, Chromebook, and tablet, which doubles as my Kindle.  My Chromebook is 6 years old and probably on its last legs anyway, so I took advantage of Amazon Prime Days and ordered a new one of those so my writing won't be affected, since I do most of that on a Chromebook these days.  But, ugh, so stressful!

And what a chaotic week-and-a-half it's been in American politics!  I had mixed feelings over Biden's announcement, but now that it's sunk in, I'm actually really excited that Kamala will likely be the nominee, and it won't just be a repeat of the 2020 election.  I hope the Biden voters, black voters, Trump-haters, and WOMEN will unite around her!  The next few months are gonna be crazy, but it's exciting to think we'll have another opportunity to vote for the first female president in this country.

I'm glad you had a good time at the music festival, Steph, and glad to see you've been updating, Mare!  I had a good writing day today and feel like I'm finally getting back on track after just writing a little bit each day for the last week or so.  Will most likely update on Saturday.

Okay weird, trying this again. I had an entire post written and when I went to post it, it was gone! I'm glad you had a great time, minus the whole bedbug situation! Yikes!!! I can only imagine how awful that must've been, but at least it wasn't a total infestation. I'm glad they gave you a 50 percent off discount but honestly, they should've given you a full refund just because bed bugs are probably one of the worst things to happen! Kudos for getting along with the sis and the rest of your family. Ten days is a long time to people! I'm a little afraid of what it's going to be like cruising for ten days with a lot of people when I spend most of my life with one person and two animals. What did you do with your cats while you were away? That's been the hardest thing for us. Trying to find a place for them, but they're both extra and need a lot of attention.

I never wanted Biden to run for a second term since he was elected. I really saw him as a one and done guy, so I was disappointed when he refused to leave. In the end, I'm glad he did what was best for everyone. Even though Kamala has a rough road ahead, it's nice to see the base invigorated again. I think she'll get the votes back from all those people who Biden lost along his run. Especially the young voters, black and women. The only thing I'm scared of are those college kids who refuse to vote for anyone responsible for the Gaza thing. I get they're young, but by refusing to vote, they're just handing the country to Trump who is the furthest champion of their cause. He'd probably try to even get Russia involved in taking Gaza out. I see the kids all over my twitter timeline talking about that stuff and it scares me. Otherwise, I think we have a good chance of winning. Even though it's not going to matter because you know he's going to claim he won, and all hell is going to break loose. 

My writing has been going well. Not updating the other story this week and focusing all my attention on the last few chapters of this one. I've been really happy with how well it's been received and the amount of people who have been saying they look forward to Mondays just because that's the day I update. I'll take it. LOL I'm glad you've been writing even while on vacation. It's nice you were able to get a lot done since you've been home.

Oh no Julie, that bedbug situation sounds awful! I'd hate that and like you, would want to bin everything or wash it at the highest temperature possible to get rid of them.  But glad you had a good time apart from that.  And 50% off is great too

I've not heard of that one, I'll have to look it up

I'm back!  Sorry I haven't been around much.  I got home Saturday afternoon, spent most of Sunday with a couple friends, and have spent the last two days trying to recover from ten straight days around other people LOL.  It's been nice to sleep in my own bed and spend some quality time cuddling my cats on the couch in front of the TV.

Pigeon Forge was fun overall.  We went to an exotic bird sanctuary called Parrot Mountain, where I got to pet and hold cockatoos and macaws and had a conversation with a cute green parrot that talked!  So cool!  We also went to the Titanic Museum, which I've been wanting to go to for years, and it was great!  It focused mostly on the ship, of course, but there was also a nice little exhibit about the movie, where they had the 11 Oscars on display as well as Rose's sinking dress and lifebelt, autographed by Kate Winslet, and the violin from the movie, autographed by the whole cast.  They also had Madeleine Astor's real lifebelt and a deck chair from the ship, which was really cool.  It took us two tries, but we also did Dollywood.  We first went there on Wednesday, arrived right as it opened, and went on one roller coaster, only to be told there had been a water main break, and they were shutting the park down an hour after it opened.  So we had to leave.  Luckily, we were able to go back on Friday, our last day, and spent the day there.  I rode almost all of the roller coasters and had a really good time.  Those were my three favorite things we did.  We also had plenty of relaxing downtime drinking moonshine on our back porch overlooking the Smoky Mountains.  So pretty!

I survived the week without wanting to kill my sister or any other member of my family, which was good.  The only bad part was finding a dead bedbug in my bed on our second morning there.  I'm generally not afraid of bugs, but after watching too many episodes of "Infested" on Animal Planet back in the day, a bedbug infestation is one of my biggest fears.  So you can imagine my horror at finding this thing and googling a picture of it to confirm my worst fear.  My sister, who booked the cabin, called the company, and they sent an exterminator out to basically confirm that, yes, there was evidence of bedbugs, but they couldn't do much about it while we were staying there because they have to heat the house to like 350 degrees to kill them.  They didn't have another open cabin that we could move to, so they gave us the option to either leave then and get our money back or stay and get a discount.  We didn't have anywhere else to go and weren't going to pack up and drive nine hours home two days into a week-long vacation, so we chose to stay and ended up getting 50% off what we paid for the cabin, which was a lot.  I didn't end up finding any more bedbugs, but my nephew found two live ones in his room over the course of the week, and my sister found one in her room on the last night.  So gross!  We bought a bunch of trash bags and Ziploc bags to bag all our stuff up before we went home - walked out of the grocery store looking like I was preparing to hide a dismembered body LOL.  I washed all my clothes and everything that could be washed twice in hot water and dried it on the highest heat settings.  My shoes are bagged up in my freezer for the next few days.  And everything else that couldn't be washed, heated, or frozen either got pitched or is bagged up in my detached garage for the next ten months, until any bedbugs or eggs should be dead for sure.  This includes my suitcase, Chromebook, and tablet, which doubles as my Kindle.  My Chromebook is 6 years old and probably on its last legs anyway, so I took advantage of Amazon Prime Days and ordered a new one of those so my writing won't be affected, since I do most of that on a Chromebook these days.  But, ugh, so stressful!

And what a chaotic week-and-a-half it's been in American politics!  I had mixed feelings over Biden's announcement, but now that it's sunk in, I'm actually really excited that Kamala will likely be the nominee, and it won't just be a repeat of the 2020 election.  I hope the Biden voters, black voters, Trump-haters, and WOMEN will unite around her!  The next few months are gonna be crazy, but it's exciting to think we'll have another opportunity to vote for the first female president in this country.

I'm glad you had a good time at the music festival, Steph, and glad to see you've been updating, Mare!  I had a good writing day today and feel like I'm finally getting back on track after just writing a little bit each day for the last week or so.  Will most likely update on Saturday.

How was Pigeon Forge, Julie? Or are you still there?"

I have never read Lisa Jewell, but I have heard she's a good writer.

I'm finishing up a book called Strange Sally Diamond and it's pretty dark. It's very Elenor Oliphant is Completely Fine without the humor. Not sure if either of you have read that or not. The lead is very quirky and strange, and you find out why pretty early on and it's majorly disturbing, but a great read!