Saturday, March 22, 2008
Friday, March 21, 2008
Thursday, March 20, 2008
And the ratio is...
Dogger had her second electrolyte check yesterday and her ratio is very, very good! 31! The vet said her heart sounded great, her blood pressure is better than it has been in a while and it was very easy to get blood from her this time. It hadn’t been mentioned to me before that her blood pressure had room to get better or that it was difficult to draw blood from her. I’ve known it was difficult to get Dogger back to where they do the blood draws, but no one had ever said anything about difficulty getting the blood out once she was back there. Dogger does not want to go back there and does not co-operate, and now I know why. I was counting down to the first lines of We Shall Overcome this time when Dogger finally decided that she would, after all, allow them to try to take her blood. I think it was the promise of many cookies and three lab techs cooing over her. Dogger can’t resist a good group coo.
Speaking of “many”. Dogger has gained two pounds in three weeks! I had noticed she has been lethargic lately and mentioned to the vet, I had chalked it up to not being on pred anymore. I didn’t even notice that the junk in her trunk was causing her back tires to go flat until the vet pointed it out. She’s not lethargic because she’s ill, she’s lethargic because hauling around all that extra flab is exhausting. When she got sick she was down to eighty-seven pounds, yesterday at her appointment she was ninety-six point five! She has no waist! Her girlish figure has gone to pot. I remember right after she was diagnosed I had her at the park and one of the other dog people came in and took a look at the very wane Dogger and exclaimed “Wow! Did she drop a ton of weight? She looks terrific!” I was like, Well, she is dying, so yeah, I guess she has dropped some weight.. Well, she’s not dying anymore and any weight she’s come in contact with, she’s picked up and taken with her.
And I have been exercising her, above her usual visit to the park. I have also been adding a short walk after we get home. I added the walk component because we’ve been using the small dog park so Dogger hasn’t been getting as much strolling space as she was used to. But, obviously, more exercise is needed. But just in case her lethargy isn’t entirely weight based, the vet put her on back on her low dose pred twice a week until her next check up in three weeks. The good news is that if her ratio is good at that check that we can stop these every-three-week trips to the vet and stretch out the checks to every month and then every three months. Yay!
Dogger is going to back on her old 5mg a day pred regime this weekend because we’re traveling, but maybe if it perks her up a little we can get in some nice long walks to start getting some of that junk out of her trunk, but of course, only if she wants to, do you have any idea how hard it is to ask ninety-six pounds of uncooperative muscle to do something it doesn't want to do?
Dogger had her second electrolyte check yesterday and her ratio is very, very good! 31! The vet said her heart sounded great, her blood pressure is better than it has been in a while and it was very easy to get blood from her this time. It hadn’t been mentioned to me before that her blood pressure had room to get better or that it was difficult to draw blood from her. I’ve known it was difficult to get Dogger back to where they do the blood draws, but no one had ever said anything about difficulty getting the blood out once she was back there. Dogger does not want to go back there and does not co-operate, and now I know why. I was counting down to the first lines of We Shall Overcome this time when Dogger finally decided that she would, after all, allow them to try to take her blood. I think it was the promise of many cookies and three lab techs cooing over her. Dogger can’t resist a good group coo.
Speaking of “many”. Dogger has gained two pounds in three weeks! I had noticed she has been lethargic lately and mentioned to the vet, I had chalked it up to not being on pred anymore. I didn’t even notice that the junk in her trunk was causing her back tires to go flat until the vet pointed it out. She’s not lethargic because she’s ill, she’s lethargic because hauling around all that extra flab is exhausting. When she got sick she was down to eighty-seven pounds, yesterday at her appointment she was ninety-six point five! She has no waist! Her girlish figure has gone to pot. I remember right after she was diagnosed I had her at the park and one of the other dog people came in and took a look at the very wane Dogger and exclaimed “Wow! Did she drop a ton of weight? She looks terrific!” I was like, Well, she is dying, so yeah, I guess she has dropped some weight.. Well, she’s not dying anymore and any weight she’s come in contact with, she’s picked up and taken with her.
And I have been exercising her, above her usual visit to the park. I have also been adding a short walk after we get home. I added the walk component because we’ve been using the small dog park so Dogger hasn’t been getting as much strolling space as she was used to. But, obviously, more exercise is needed. But just in case her lethargy isn’t entirely weight based, the vet put her on back on her low dose pred twice a week until her next check up in three weeks. The good news is that if her ratio is good at that check that we can stop these every-three-week trips to the vet and stretch out the checks to every month and then every three months. Yay!
Dogger is going to back on her old 5mg a day pred regime this weekend because we’re traveling, but maybe if it perks her up a little we can get in some nice long walks to start getting some of that junk out of her trunk, but of course, only if she wants to, do you have any idea how hard it is to ask ninety-six pounds of uncooperative muscle to do something it doesn't want to do?
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
De-sigh-ner
Designers Guild, things so lovely, so tasteful, so expensive there isn't a price tag to be found.
Designers Guild, things so lovely, so tasteful, so expensive there isn't a price tag to be found.
Perverse
Five years on, Bush says no regrets on Iraq war + "The successes we are seeing in Iraq are undeniable." = 3990 dead US soldiers
As much as you might personally like John McCain or the idea of Hillary Clinton, a vote for either of them is a vote for more war. Think of those candidates and think of five more years of thousands of hidden, flag draped coffins.
Five years on, Bush says no regrets on Iraq war + "The successes we are seeing in Iraq are undeniable." = 3990 dead US soldiers
As much as you might personally like John McCain or the idea of Hillary Clinton, a vote for either of them is a vote for more war. Think of those candidates and think of five more years of thousands of hidden, flag draped coffins.
Blergh
If you watched 30 Rock you would know what that means. At present, for our uses, it means I Went To The Dentist And It Cost A Lot Of Money And It Is Going To Cost A Lot More.
And I don't have dental insurance. Double Blergh.
So I went online and looked. I would have been smarter to first have found dental insurance and then found a dentist, because many of the plans list participating doctors and my doctor is not listed on any of them. Not one. And the dentists' office didn't have any hand pamphlets around advertising the dental plans they particularly enjoy accepting. And yes as a state employee I can get dental insurance through my plan - the problem being that the dental insurance is expensive, doesn't fully kick in for three years and from what I have heard, sucks.
The dental insurance offer that fell out of the sky and through my mail slot? Not a good idea, You can bet I called them the minute I walked in my door post-appointment. Sadly for the insurance provider, the girl who answered the phone was in the wrong line of work, she was honest about the plan and told me it was a bad deal. I looked at the fine print and it would only pay for about 20% of a given procedure anyway. So tomorrow, I'm going to call the dentist office and talk to them about what plans they accept and then figure out which of those plans I can afford.
The good news is that my mouth hurts less today then it has. Most likely because I have taken up eating liquids or other soft, warm, low impact foods and I have mastered eating on only one side of my mouth! Also, I think the naughty teeth knew their days were numbered so they went on their best behavior. When they xrayed my mouth and looked around, they didn't find any really harsh surprises. I mean other than the one really broken tooth and the almost broken tooth and one kind of sprained tooth (all in line for crowns!) and a couple of very small cavities and the plaque build up - Plaque can cause pain? Who knew. Did you know that as we age our lower canine teeth start to move closer together? So the pain that I have been feeling and attributing to "my teeth moving", because it reminded me so strongly of the pain of braces? You remember that feeling? the just-tightened-braces pain? It actually was my teeth moving! Who would have thought?
Anyone know of any really good, not terribly expensive, individual dental plans? I'm taking suggestions.
If you watched 30 Rock you would know what that means. At present, for our uses, it means I Went To The Dentist And It Cost A Lot Of Money And It Is Going To Cost A Lot More.
And I don't have dental insurance. Double Blergh.
So I went online and looked. I would have been smarter to first have found dental insurance and then found a dentist, because many of the plans list participating doctors and my doctor is not listed on any of them. Not one. And the dentists' office didn't have any hand pamphlets around advertising the dental plans they particularly enjoy accepting. And yes as a state employee I can get dental insurance through my plan - the problem being that the dental insurance is expensive, doesn't fully kick in for three years and from what I have heard, sucks.
The dental insurance offer that fell out of the sky and through my mail slot? Not a good idea, You can bet I called them the minute I walked in my door post-appointment. Sadly for the insurance provider, the girl who answered the phone was in the wrong line of work, she was honest about the plan and told me it was a bad deal. I looked at the fine print and it would only pay for about 20% of a given procedure anyway. So tomorrow, I'm going to call the dentist office and talk to them about what plans they accept and then figure out which of those plans I can afford.
The good news is that my mouth hurts less today then it has. Most likely because I have taken up eating liquids or other soft, warm, low impact foods and I have mastered eating on only one side of my mouth! Also, I think the naughty teeth knew their days were numbered so they went on their best behavior. When they xrayed my mouth and looked around, they didn't find any really harsh surprises. I mean other than the one really broken tooth and the almost broken tooth and one kind of sprained tooth (all in line for crowns!) and a couple of very small cavities and the plaque build up - Plaque can cause pain? Who knew. Did you know that as we age our lower canine teeth start to move closer together? So the pain that I have been feeling and attributing to "my teeth moving", because it reminded me so strongly of the pain of braces? You remember that feeling? the just-tightened-braces pain? It actually was my teeth moving! Who would have thought?
Anyone know of any really good, not terribly expensive, individual dental plans? I'm taking suggestions.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Errands
So, here are my choices for after work. I can:
1. Go directly home and blow errands off and decide that elves will just do the errands for me while I sleep, and while the elves are at it, they will also leave me cute shoes.
2. Run Errand, and then go home - it's called prioritizing, somethings aren't as important as others. Tomorrow is only a day away.
3. Run multiple errands, keep thinking of other errands that need to be run and wind up running errands until dawn.
Choice 1, of course would be great as Dogger and The Kitty need me and I like going home but sadly, the elves fear Dogger and The Kitty and won't come to my house. No cute shoes for me. The errands will not run themselves. I have limited time this week and this option is really not the best.
But. The Kitty is running low on both his boutique kibble and his pred. So choice 2 would be go buy the pred and then go home. Tomorrow is another day, he won't run out of pred in the next 24 hours and skipping Sam's would be a nice way to end the day... But that would mean running a separate errand to go buy the pred. I think what I might do actually and to be really efficient, I could go put in my order for the pred at Sam’s and then leave and drive down the street to pick it up the cat food from the cat food store which is coincidentally, not far from Sam’s.
What I am trying to do is spend as little time wasting gas as possible. If I go and do these tasks from work, I am closer to them than if I run home and then go out later after I have pilled and fed and walked Dogger and pilled and fed The Kitty.
I am running out of time. Tuesday Dentist, Wednesday Vet, Thursday, I'm on the road.
I would do these tasks over the rest of the week because the cat food store is conveniently located near a McDonald's and Sam’s sells pizza by the slice – But, I can’t chew right now… I can chew, my jaw works just fine, well, as far as I know… The jaw works the teeth do not, or really they do "work", they haven’t fallen out or gone soft, they just would prefer I not use them in a chewing capacity at present. They have made it clear they would like to take on more of an advisory role for the time being - That advice being to eat soft food.
I am going to the dentist Tuesday. I called the dentist Monday and they reminded me that I had not been there in, um, a while. I told them that it was true I hadn’t been to the dentist in um, quite a long time; I have been brushing most of my teeth frequently and in fact multiple times, every day. Okay, twice a day, but more than once and I have graduated to a battery operated tooth brush that promised me that it would do a much better job than my old manual tooth brush – The regular use of both of now lead me to the dentist. In pain – but with a new appreciation of Aleve, and the short term mild abuse of it that made the weekend bearable-ish. The Dentist office asked me why I needed to come to the office after all this time away and what teeth exactly needed attention, upper or lower, right or left and I said “Yes”. I am going to have a great time and the Dentist is going to buy a new boat.
While I was in and out of pain this weekend, I mowed my lawn for the first time this season. The weeds have missed the memo detailing the near historic drought conditions we are living under and are doing very well. Ignorance is bliss. They are doing very, very well. What remains of my grass is dead but my weeds are lush and green and bountiful. As are oddly, the irisi in the back yard.
Pre-mowed
Post-mowed
See? What a difference a little height limitation makes? Now it looks like a nice, green lawn instead of an ugly patchwork of dead grass and weeds. Also? I was the first on the street to bust out my lawn mower. I did this Saturday afternoon, by Sunday evening; half the yards on the street had been taken care of. And I was sneaky too. I used my super quite manual mower instead of my noisy automatic mower! So they were all surprised, usually the whine of the mower gives it away. HA.
So, here are my choices for after work. I can:
1. Go directly home and blow errands off and decide that elves will just do the errands for me while I sleep, and while the elves are at it, they will also leave me cute shoes.
2. Run Errand, and then go home - it's called prioritizing, somethings aren't as important as others. Tomorrow is only a day away.
3. Run multiple errands, keep thinking of other errands that need to be run and wind up running errands until dawn.
Choice 1, of course would be great as Dogger and The Kitty need me and I like going home but sadly, the elves fear Dogger and The Kitty and won't come to my house. No cute shoes for me. The errands will not run themselves. I have limited time this week and this option is really not the best.
But. The Kitty is running low on both his boutique kibble and his pred. So choice 2 would be go buy the pred and then go home. Tomorrow is another day, he won't run out of pred in the next 24 hours and skipping Sam's would be a nice way to end the day... But that would mean running a separate errand to go buy the pred. I think what I might do actually and to be really efficient, I could go put in my order for the pred at Sam’s and then leave and drive down the street to pick it up the cat food from the cat food store which is coincidentally, not far from Sam’s.
What I am trying to do is spend as little time wasting gas as possible. If I go and do these tasks from work, I am closer to them than if I run home and then go out later after I have pilled and fed and walked Dogger and pilled and fed The Kitty.
I am running out of time. Tuesday Dentist, Wednesday Vet, Thursday, I'm on the road.
I would do these tasks over the rest of the week because the cat food store is conveniently located near a McDonald's and Sam’s sells pizza by the slice – But, I can’t chew right now… I can chew, my jaw works just fine, well, as far as I know… The jaw works the teeth do not, or really they do "work", they haven’t fallen out or gone soft, they just would prefer I not use them in a chewing capacity at present. They have made it clear they would like to take on more of an advisory role for the time being - That advice being to eat soft food.
I am going to the dentist Tuesday. I called the dentist Monday and they reminded me that I had not been there in, um, a while. I told them that it was true I hadn’t been to the dentist in um, quite a long time; I have been brushing most of my teeth frequently and in fact multiple times, every day. Okay, twice a day, but more than once and I have graduated to a battery operated tooth brush that promised me that it would do a much better job than my old manual tooth brush – The regular use of both of now lead me to the dentist. In pain – but with a new appreciation of Aleve, and the short term mild abuse of it that made the weekend bearable-ish. The Dentist office asked me why I needed to come to the office after all this time away and what teeth exactly needed attention, upper or lower, right or left and I said “Yes”. I am going to have a great time and the Dentist is going to buy a new boat.
While I was in and out of pain this weekend, I mowed my lawn for the first time this season. The weeds have missed the memo detailing the near historic drought conditions we are living under and are doing very well. Ignorance is bliss. They are doing very, very well. What remains of my grass is dead but my weeds are lush and green and bountiful. As are oddly, the irisi in the back yard.
See? What a difference a little height limitation makes? Now it looks like a nice, green lawn instead of an ugly patchwork of dead grass and weeds. Also? I was the first on the street to bust out my lawn mower. I did this Saturday afternoon, by Sunday evening; half the yards on the street had been taken care of. And I was sneaky too. I used my super quite manual mower instead of my noisy automatic mower! So they were all surprised, usually the whine of the mower gives it away. HA.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
I went to the The 2008 Raleigh St. Patrick's Day parade and now, so can you.
I went to the The 2008 Raleigh St. Patrick's Day parade and now, so can you.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Friday, March 14, 2008
It's an Ashton Kutcher movie is the making
I have no butter in the house. Correction, I have no margarine in the house. This is kind of an issue. Do you know how many things are practically inedible without butter flavored topping? Damn near everything. And pretty much anything I have had any desire to eat since I noticed there wasn't any left in the refrigerator.
But do you know the only time you actually think about butter flavored topping? Right before you eat something that is only edible with butter flavored topping! You don't think about butter flavored topping when you are eating lunch right next door to a grocery, because your butter flavored topping needs have been attended to! There is no need for butter flavored topping then. It's when you go home and survey the interior of your refrigerator that you realize that you have no butter flavored topping and remember this could have been averted - There you were right next door to the grocery! And now? Where is the grocery? Not right next door! And who has time? There are reruns to watch, sneakers to find, pets to be fed and the next thing you know - It's too late to go to the grocery.
And now of course, you can't think of a single thing to prepare that doesn't need butter flavored topping either as an ingredient or a post-preparation additive. Try it. Run out of something and then try to think of one thing that does not utilize whatever it is. It doesn't matter that you ran out of sardines, the minute you notice BANG you can't think of a single recipe that does not include sardines.
I have perfectly good potatoes I can't eat because there is not butter, some lovely broccoli that really needs to get eaten this weekend and because I still have left over from last weekend, I won't have go to the farmers market this weekend and so local produce (I am assuming, I have no idea where it comes from) will go uneaten the farmer will be left penniless and will lose his farm! I only contribute about $4 a week to his economy, but every penny counts and, now, since I have no butter, I can't eat anything, I don't need to buy additional produce from him. He's going to lose his farm and I'm going to starve to death. It's the Butter affect. A Butterfly flicks his wings and starts a hurricane off Africa, I run out of butter and cause a family farm to fail and I starve to death. It's the truth, you read it on the Internet.
I have no butter in the house. Correction, I have no margarine in the house. This is kind of an issue. Do you know how many things are practically inedible without butter flavored topping? Damn near everything. And pretty much anything I have had any desire to eat since I noticed there wasn't any left in the refrigerator.
But do you know the only time you actually think about butter flavored topping? Right before you eat something that is only edible with butter flavored topping! You don't think about butter flavored topping when you are eating lunch right next door to a grocery, because your butter flavored topping needs have been attended to! There is no need for butter flavored topping then. It's when you go home and survey the interior of your refrigerator that you realize that you have no butter flavored topping and remember this could have been averted - There you were right next door to the grocery! And now? Where is the grocery? Not right next door! And who has time? There are reruns to watch, sneakers to find, pets to be fed and the next thing you know - It's too late to go to the grocery.
And now of course, you can't think of a single thing to prepare that doesn't need butter flavored topping either as an ingredient or a post-preparation additive. Try it. Run out of something and then try to think of one thing that does not utilize whatever it is. It doesn't matter that you ran out of sardines, the minute you notice BANG you can't think of a single recipe that does not include sardines.
I have perfectly good potatoes I can't eat because there is not butter, some lovely broccoli that really needs to get eaten this weekend and because I still have left over from last weekend, I won't have go to the farmers market this weekend and so local produce (I am assuming, I have no idea where it comes from) will go uneaten the farmer will be left penniless and will lose his farm! I only contribute about $4 a week to his economy, but every penny counts and, now, since I have no butter, I can't eat anything, I don't need to buy additional produce from him. He's going to lose his farm and I'm going to starve to death. It's the Butter affect. A Butterfly flicks his wings and starts a hurricane off Africa, I run out of butter and cause a family farm to fail and I starve to death. It's the truth, you read it on the Internet.
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