I’ve been cleaning and watching movies or “Law & Order” all day. I have yet to do laundry so I have clean clothing for work tomorrow. Yay.

Anyway - what I wanted to share tonight was the discovery of my almost favorite new thing - RSS Bandit, the (free) RSS news aggregator I just installed on my computer and will probably install at work so I can keep track of industry info in a more efficient fashion. I had to install some .net updates from the Microsoft site for the RSS Bandit software to work, but it wasn’t anything even slightly difficult.

But it’s super cool - as of 15 minutes ago, I have feeds coming in from: mentalfloss, LibraryThing, BBC News, beSpacific, ResearchBuzz, Slashdot, Wired and Digg.

That’s for starters - I need to start adding more fun ones like mentalfloss. Perhaps I can hit some literary magazines and fashion magazines… as well as The Cartoon Network, Sci-Fi Channel and Discovery Channel. They must have some sort of feeds going on… I’ll check later.

I just called in an order for some General Tso Chicken with BROWN rice (always when available - that’s why I chose this Chinese place over the other one in town. The other doesn’t offer brown rice) and some hot and sour soup. It will be ready soon, so I should throw in a load of laundry and go pick up the tasties.

In a continued effort to get a handle on this whole diseased wrist thing, I’ve made the appointment to get an MRI on Tuesday morning. It means I’ll have to get up 2 hours earlier than usual - at 5:30 - so I can get to the imaging center for my 6:30 appointment.

I was advised to wear sweatpants, a t-shirt, a sports bra and NO metal jewelry. I was also told not to wear any makeup either since the fine metal particles in some cosmetics can be problematic in the magnetic resonance tube thingie.

Anyway - today I spent the day with my brother and his girlfriend at her apartment (where I sit now, writing on one of my brother’s laptops which he brought along so I’d have some way to occupy myself - though I did bring a book). We got some pizza and then went to Home Depot, hung a mirror, and went to Target where I acquired the necessary metal-free brassiere.

Also at Target, I purchased a new variety of Frosted Mini Wheats - Strawberry flavor. I am looking forward to trying them tomorrow morning. I assisted Amanda in selecting new throw pillows/decorative cushions for her couch. It was an intensive process which involved a short lesson in color theory. We held the pillows against one another and compared how they “played off of” one another, as well as which ones would complement each other in pairings if were separated. My brother wandered away at the merest mention of contrasting colors.

We are now going to watch “Pride and Prejudice” since Amanda wanted to see it in the theatres and we never got around to it. Netflix is allowing us the chance to watch it with my brother - kind of - since he’ll be working on his laptop while we actually watch. To quote him, “I’ll keep you company.” I tried rationalizing by reminding him that the movie is nominated for a few Academy Awards, but he wasn’t going for that.

In any event, I now have my MRI clothing in full and I am prepared for Tuesday morning. My cell phone just rang and I didn’t recognize the number so I didn’t answer. If it’s important, they’ll leave a message. Chances are it’s a wrong number anyway… I’ve had this same number since 1996, but I guess there are people with similar numbers.

I was interrupted in writing flow there by Amanda calling my brother and I to the front door - where she found a cat. Ok. So now I’m crying because we can’t take him home or keep him and he’s the most affectionate kitten (because he’s young - that much I can tell) I’ve ever encountered. Adorable, and almost identical to my kitten Midget who I had to have put to sleep several years ago. He even perched on my shoulder and my brother’s shoulder the way Midget used to. Purring like a little engine. But I have to convince myself that his friendliness, general health and other factors indicate that he MUST have an owner somewhere, even if he’s not wearing a collar or is still sitting on the front stoop after we closed the door and walked away. I’m just sitting here crying. Not just because it seems harsh and cruel to leave him out in the cold, but also because there’s nothing I’d love more right now than to have a kitten to take care of and have curling up on my lap while I read or sleep.

I just had to walk away. I can still see his little face staring up at me when I closed the door. I wish I hadn’t gotten up in the first place. Geez.

9:41 p.m. We’re actually waiting for the on-duty animal control officer - to whom we were referred by the voicemail when we called the Humane Society - to come pick up the kitten. He wouldn’t leave the front stoop and just stood there, meowing. No use waiting for him to leave. Soo… we’ll just sit here until the officer arrives. I’ll be able to sleep better knowing that the kitten is in the hands of the Humane Society and that he will probably be put up for adoption at some of their adopt-a-pet days at nearby pet stores and other organizations. The Humane Society isn’t a shelter and probably won’t put the kitten to sleep if people don’t adopt him in a few weeks. They might hold him for a while first to see if an owner surfaces.

I’m still extraordinarily sad about the whole thing, but it’s better this way than another.

I found some more information about this here Kienbock disease on a Duke University site containing “Wheeless’ Textbook of Orthopaedics.”

It’s pretty technical, but it seems to be a little more calming for me…possibly because it is detached and clinical in nature, not a “support” site for people. It lists some additional surgical options and I know I’ll be reading it this weekend while looking up some of the less-familiar terms online so I can be totally prepared on Tuesday for my visit with Doctor #2.

Some words I can figure out just from roots, suffixes, prefixes and context - such as “intraosseous” and “dorsiflexion.” However, things like “capitate-hamate fusion” and “arthrodesis” are a little less intuitive.

Class ended early tonight since the professor is sick with the crazy thing that’s been going around. She’s not contagious via internet classroom, so that’s always a good thing. We have our new assignment and it’s a group project again - however, it should be OK.

I’m going to bring this 3-page outline of Kienbock’s down to my mother, the physical therapist, and see what she has to say about the clinical manifestations portion. That might be enlightening.

Geez. I got about 7 pieces of comment spam today. What the ???

Anyway… I have my appointment with doctor #2 on Tuesday at 2:30. I’ll leave work at around 1:00, which will give me ample time to drive down to his office which is about 40 minutes away from my house. I think it might be quicker from work, actually, since I can hop right onto the Parkway and not have to deal with any town roads getting TO the Parkway.

Right - maps.google.com confirms this. I will shave off about 5 minutes from the total time, even though the distance is a smidge longer. I’ll have to break out the FM tuner for my iPod so I can listen to decent music. Have to check the stations down there. Crappies. That will be labor-intensive. OK, not really. Just annoying.

I have the Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennett version of “Pride and Prejudice” from Netflix, so I’ll check that out right now and see how she compares. I don’t like her, so I probably won’t like their rendition of the story. We shall see.