Monday

What is the only US State (that does seem a bit tautological) that starts with "P"? This was just one of the questions that M and S faced at The Big House Trivia Challenge this evening and while a gentleman at their table offered "Pittsburgh" the answer is, in fact, "Pennsylvania" - which just now makes me wonder where names for places come from. Georgia, for instance, was named after England's King George, while Louisiana was named after France's King Louis. It may be time to do some research to find out who Latimers was named after. [Brief interweb pause.] Who knew?James Latimers was apparently an American Civil War Veteran who is not credited with having shot General Robert E. Lee's brother - although it has been suggested that he was responsible. The question is, how/why did James Latimer makes his way to South-East Queensland and is he really buried here? More research needed.

M took Beasley to the vet today to find out if there is anything wrong with him. He has been a bit of a bother of late because he has been spraying in the house and while he is an anxious cat, his recent activity is more than usual. While the vet wasn't able to suggest anything other than stress, they did suggest that it might be being made worse because he now has diabetes. M has to go back on Friday to discuss treatment plans and ramifications - and it would be true to say that she is not looking forward to the possibility of having to inject Beasley with insulin twice a day. But I feel she will if she needs to, because that is, after all, what we do for our pets.

And speaking of pets with diabetes - Emma had a hypo last night (where her blood sugar goes too low) but she came good very quickly when we gave her some water with sugar dissolved in it. Honey would also have worked (I was surprised when S told me this but it makes sense that but is just like giving her a jelly bean). Not quite sure what caused this one, but we'll monitor her and see how she goes. But at least it wasn't a tick - and I did I check her in case there was one (Sandy's dog has just had a tick, and M, and you can see where one had attached itself to Beasley but has now moved on - or should that be "moved off". (English can be a very confusing language.))

While M and S were off doing Trivia, I went up the Motorway to visit J. Her oldest has just set off for a two-year odyssey with the first stop being Germany. She and her boyfriend have posted a pic of them at Oktoberfest - which seemed strange since this is September but a quick look on the interweb shows that the Festival has traditionally started in September and ends in October - with the ending date changed over the years to allow for German public holidays and ... reunification.