It may seem like a small deal to you, but to me this is a significant change for me to use our actual names.� When I talked to Lapster about it — he just said, “well, it’s about time.” But there is a nakedness that comes from writing your life experience and using your actual name.� I know my family will be happy since they read the blog and were often confused by our superhero identities!! It is a lot easier hiding under an alias regardless of how superficial it is.

But it is my small way of reclaiming the blog — so here is the quiet truth of it.� My name is Laura.� I was born in Vermont State (a.k.a. Vtgirl).� I live in Seattle with my partner Ken (a.k.a. Lapster).� We have two cats named Lola and Black and are surrounded by insane bliss.

We initially started this blog two years ago as a place for fun gadgets, tech news, etc.� However, slowly but surely it has become a more personal account of what we are up to.� So the theme of Bathing Suit Places is changing a little bit.� We will continue to write about our life here in Seattle, what we are working on, and celebrate our shiny future — but the gadgets and gizmos will move to our other blog mynewfavorite.com.

Thanks to our small but committed reading audience.

My work schedule has taken me away from time to blog, but please take a moment to click through the Bsuit site and admire Lapster’s beautiful new design!� I just love it — clean and sexy.� Thanks for all the great work!� Enjoy.

She succumbed to a kind of catastrophe…where medicine can’t diagnose clearly why things have gone so awry…

After surviving a first visit to the hospital, we brought her home and within days her spirits where high. Her appetite came back and she wanted to play, wrassle and sleep and clean, just like an everyday cat. She ate regularly as well as messing the catbox, and just put up with the antibiotic syringes and worming solution we fed her twice a day. Despite her overall appearance of returning to health, slowly her tummy got bigger and bigger, and her breathing got more and more shallow. We made an appointment at the vet for next Tuesday. That was on Thursday this week.

But when I got home from work today on Friday in the afternoon, Pixel didn’t look too good. She was sitting in VTGirl’s lap, breathing hard, glassy eyed. We called the vet and they said they could get her in at 4:30. The hours passed slowly…

In the examination room the vet said, we think it’s FIP (a virus that infects cats and is difficult to diagnose). The xray showed a cat in dire straights. Fluid everywhere, and if it was FIP, that fluid would come out yellow and sticky. The vet came back with a syringe of clear liquid. Strange. She consulted with her co-worker. We sat and waited, and for a moment, the sky cleared and hope breathed a small sigh – maybe she was okay!

When the vet came back into the examination room she said, bluntly, that they weren’t sure what it was but it wasn’t great and it wasn’t going away. Thousands of dollars could be spent on trying to discover what was wrong. But if it were her cat, she’d let her go…

So we did…

They tranquilized her and left her with us in a towel…we said goodbye through our tears…

Then they came back in and gave her an injection.

She was gone very quickly. I held her paw the whole time and we said she was the best kitten ever. Man, kittens can sure turn a man into a puddle of sadness.

We chose to have her remains cremated, which was on the euthanasia form we signed.

What a very sudden experience. Alive and bright in the morning, asleep and still in the afternoon. But I know she’s in a better place, and I’m happy that she’s okay now…instead of chased by the dogs of illness…

so…here’s to Pixel…

The sweetest kitten I’ve ever had the opportunity to love and cherish…

Pixel stopped eating on Friday. She was vomiting regularly. She hasn’t loved the transition to drinking water from drinking kitty replacement milk, and was pretty dehydrated on Saturday night. Sunday afternoon we went to the animal emergency room.

The vet said her insides felt funny – ropey and thick. After an overnight stay and an ultrasound, Pixel seems to be suffering from a cat ailment that is common and difficult to diagnose – gastrointestinitis – a inflammation of the intestines. Kittens and young cats die from it. On Sunday Lola seemed ill herself, but still had alot of energy.

It’s so strange to feel such strong emotions. I forget what it’s like to care for tiny, vulnerable things and they wrap their little paws around your heart so quick…the little marks sting even when they aren’t in the room.

So…they got her to eat on Monday afternoon and sent her home to us on Tuesday with some antibiotics and some worming solution. I wanted her to JUMP UP AND DOWN once she got in the door, but it wasn’t until late at night that she licked some gravy from beef fancy feast and kept it down.

She’s on the mend…daily she eats more. The doctor said no ‘rough playtime’ with her sister, so we’ve got the back room set up for her.

She and Lola are doing MUCH better and may make a full recovery. We feel blessed that things didn’t turn out worse.

Thanks go to VTGirl’s mom for good advice at the right time…

LOLA – SICK AS A DOG (she’s very healthy…)

IT’S GOOD TO BE HOME?

THIS IS WHERE THEY STUCK THE IV…

GOOGLE VIDEO MADE WITH I-MOVIE ON MY NEW MACBOOK… 

They’re names are Lola…

�

And Pixel…

�

SEE MORE PHOTOS!!!

Our first post on January 26, 2006:

Title: First Entry
Posted by Lapster under Technology , Arts , Design , Holiday , Friends & Family , Gadgets , Feminism , Blogs , Creativity , Pure Fun , Activism , Poetry

This site is about stuff so good, it touches you in your bathing suit places… It’s about everything good, anything good. It can be a movie, like ‘Walk the Line‘. It’s whatever you fall in love with, can’t get enough of, and makes you happy. They can be old things, too. Like memories of a trip to places like Glacier National Park or tech gadgets, like this great site http://www.shinyshiny.tv/ (link provided by VTgirl).

As you can see we didn’t’ have any specific ideas we were just going to write about anything and everything for a while. Over the year, we have written about design, science, politics, and gadgets, and on and on. When Lapster first put the site together we discussed colors, style, layout and he was filled with unwavering patience with me. I was a blogging virgin.

So on this our first anniversary I guess I just want to say thank you Lapster. I love you very much. You have been unending in your support of Bsuit and you are an excellent blogger. Every time I say – “I wish bsuit. . .” you make all my website dreams come true. But above and beyond the technical work, it has been a great creative project that we could work on together. I love reading your words, and seeing all the great pictures that you have taken of us and our adventures. I am so lucky to have you in my life as a co-blogger and as a partner.

I love you.

Thanks to all our family and online friends who have read the blog over the past year. I hope we will spend the next year making bsuit even better! Enjoy!

The wind gusts were beginning to tear it to pieces, and so we had to chop the ribbon off each side of our cute bow. It brought tears to my eyes! How would Santa find our house without it? So it goes…

In any case, I agree with VTGirl who said that we were lucky to not have had any real tragedy. Unlike these street corner pics just a hundred feet away from our humble garage/house, we have no big trees to crush the corners of houses or strip away power and cable lines.

We’re off to the East coast for Xmas so we’ll be blogging from the road. But before we go, we just wanted to say that we wish all of our family and friends both near and far the warmest of holiday wishes and a happy New Year!

I’m relieved.  I’ve been spreading myself too thin trying to decide which browser I like best.  All of them have different perks, and since I couldn’t view my own graphics on firefox — I left it by the wayside.  I’ve been bouncing between safari, camino, and firefox.  It isn’t really that big of a deal.  I’m just being greedy because I like the firefox extension — Stumble Upon.  It’s an easy way to send fun links to friends easily.  Anyway, long story short — I hope there won’t be any more problems.  If you have any trouble viewing the site please email us:  bathingsuitplaces@gmail.com.

Enjoy.

So of course, lapster is on vacation — and the minute he is gone — I break the website. Some of my posts have bad html in them and they are messing with our template. I think I found the source of this particular problem, but if there are others — please let us know. Thanks.

bathingsuitplaces@gmail.com