I can't possibly hope to catch up with over 2,000 posts, but I'll try:

Mark, I hope you've somehow worked out the problem with your landlord.
You should NOT have to lose any of these wonderful cats.  It breaks my
heart.

{{{{Pam}}}}}  I'm so sorry you are going through such a hard time.  It
isn't fair.  I hope things are going better for you now.

Cheryl P., I am so sorry about Mandy.  My heart goes out to you, and I
wish you gentle healing.

Christine, I'm sorry to hear about Rahab; purrs for all who cared about
this little one.

Ted, I'm so glad to hear Fleagor is doing better.

Jo, congrats on the new grandkid!

Julie, is it too late to add me to the card list?  Probably.  Sigh.

And I'm sorry if I missed anyone, so blanket purrs and congrats where
appropriate.

I was all set to post a really nice Thanksgiving post, when all hell
broke loose here.  In short, DH and I had a blow-up so bad that I don't
even want to think about it.  I spent the night in a hotel.  That
*really* helped our financial problems -- lol.  I've been pretty down
since then.

Then last week, I had a lovely day that went something like this:

Stove is broke (oh, yeah -- we found out about that the day before
Thanksgiving, of course.  So I had to draft my ex-hubby to run me to
Sears and grab the cheapest roaster oven I could find.  Again, just what
our finances needed.  Grrr.).  Guy comes to see if stove is fixable, or
if we get a new one (the thing's only 3 years old, but the last tenants
never cleaned anything, so far as we can tell.  I won't go into details
about the rats.  Ugh.)  Guy is barely conversational, except with
himself (lol).  Guy moves stove out to decide if it's fixable, rat poop
is exposed (again, UGH), Katie decides to run in the kitchen, steps in
rat poop.  Guy leaves, doesn't tell me what is going on.  I run Katie up
to the tub with the kitten shampoo and wash her feet, much to her
wriggly displeasure.  Turn off water. TRY to turn off water.  Won't turn
off. Turn off water to tub instead.  Luckily, Bob the Good Fix-It Guy
comes to rescue; fixes faucets (washers bad) and promises stove on
Monday (unfortunately, this means Kevin The Fix-It Guy From Hell will
have to be in here -- grrrr).

In the meanwhile, I've suddenly started having very bad pains in all my
joints.  I know I have osteoarthritis, but it's never been like this.  I
have no idea what's going on, other than it's hard to focus, write, or
do anything through that much pain.  Yeah, I''m still on pain meds, but
this stuff is cutting through even the Vicodin.  :-(  Guess I need to
call the dr.

Pinky is still here.  No one has claimed him.  Sigh.  And last night, I
ordered food, because we finished off the turkey (the roaster oven did
its job) and I just couldn't drag myself around enough to try to make
food.  And Pinky came *that close* to making it out the door.  :-(  I
screamed (much to the delivery guy's shock, I'm sure), which stopped
Pinky long enough for me to sandwich him (bad pun) between my leg and
the doorframe, and grab him.  Scared Little Mr.
I-Fear-Absolutely-NOTHING enough that he hid under the table for awhile.
 He's fine; I just finally got through to him (at least this once) that
the Big Out around here is *dangerous*.  He's probably forgotten it by now.

The sinking bed finally got to the point of flat-out (bad pun again)
forget it!  A huge hole had developed in a seam, in addition to the one
Katie put there. DH went out to Aldi's (a discount grocery store here)
to get some food, and I, depressed and wondering what I was going to do
about somewhere to sleep, said "If they have anything really good we
need on sale, go ahead and get it" (they have a little island of
household items and such, usually at a very good discounted price).  And
I added "It's not like they're going to have a bed or anything!"  I
should know better -- lol!  They had air mattresses!  The huge, high
ones, that look like those bouncy cage things for little kids.  Our
budget took another $50 hit, but I need something to sleep on!  I was to
the point of wishing I had gotten some bales of hay they had on sale
just before Samhain at Giant Eagle (the non-discount grocery)!  It is
*so* comfortable.  The downside is Pinky is the only cat allowed in here
(partly because of lack of front claws, partly because of good behavior,
and partly because it is safer to have him in here if fix-it guys are
here, or we are likely to have the door open).  I miss my kitties curled
up with me at night :-(  Pinky does a good job of cuddling, though;
he'll wrap his entire body around my head, and stick his head right into
my face -- lol.

So I've been curled up in my little ball (when Pinky's not curled around
my head) again, listening to the frequent rain falling, and wishing life
was better.  But I'm here.

Ginger-lyn