Seven Crow Court

Playing Catchup

2008-10-26T15:19:00.003-04:00

Since this is my first real blog post since June, we're playing a bit of catchup!

The most significant development since then is the purchase of our house! We closed on this place in September and moved in during the hurricane... because of the hurricane really. It's a 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath, 1400+sq.ft. bi-level with a great backyard. The pups love having the room and we love not throwing our money away every month! It has required a bit of work, but we got the place for a steal so it's worth it!

We've also had another foster dog since then. His name is Simon and he's a standard poodle puppy! As of this moment his is on a home trial with prospective new owners. We should know by 10/30 whether or not they are going to keep him. He's a good pup but very energetic!

And finally... I am once again unemployed. We got new management at work and I went from maybe being promoted to getting fired in 2 weeks. There are a lot of words for the type of chick that the new manager is.... but I will spare you.

Since I have nothing better to do at this point, I'm going to make a real effort to post more often. We'll see though!

Review: "Trail of Fears" in Hilliard

2008-10-26T15:07:00.003-04:00

I won some tickets to "Trail of Fears" in a radio contest recently. Since we were in the area, Eric & I decided to go check it out. Admission for this attraction is $10 per person.

Our first impression came from their website.... or should I say myspace page. It reads like a middle schooler wrote it and it's very poorly laid out. The next impression came from the horribly spray painted signs pointing the way on the roads near by. By now you can probably tell where this is going.

Once we got there, the parking lot was almost empty. I have pretty low expectations at this point, but it was free so hey. We walked through the barn full of country knick-knacks for sale and jumped on the hayride back to the "haunted forest." They broke us into smaller groups of 6-8 people and started us through.

The trail itself is heavily fogged and poorly lit which aren't necessarily bad things. Our "tour guide" followed in the back for some reason which just confused us most of the time. The other guy following just kept yelling stupid stuff like "What is that?!?" trying to psych us out. Some of the costumes weren't bad and the performance of the Texas Chainsaw crew was decent, but the rest left a lot to be desired. I spend most of the time laughing!

The worst part was definitely the "maze" though. It was fogged so much that it was hard to breathe and the massive amounts of strobe lights gave me a headache. The fog also gave someone in our group an asthma attack.

All in all we didn't pay for it so I can't complain. I definitely wouldn't pay for it though!

We're all gonna die!!!!!!!

2008-06-26T00:01:00.002-04:00

Well not really, but the tornado sirens are going off here at midnight. Mike just reminded me that I haven't blogged in like.... forever so here ya go people!

World's shortest update:

*We adopted (kinda) an Italian Greyhound named Allegro, Leggs for short. He's 6 years young, very well mannered, very sweet.

*Benny was adopted by a very sweet family and has already made friends with their cat!

*We put offers in on 2 houses and got neither of them... the most recent one was because the other offer, put in by house flippers, was a cash offer so they could close sooner. BASTARDS!

*I'm still working at PetPeople and it looks like they may be training me as an assistant manager. I'm still looking for a better job though.... being poor sucks.

Other than that, everything is the same 'ol stuff. I need a social life. Anyone want to do lunch?

Back to the present

2008-05-02T13:53:00.003-04:00

I'm still working at PetPeople and I really do love my job. It's really fun seeing all the pets that come in and a lot of the pet owners are fun too. My coworkers are all really kewl (except one of the high school part-timers, but he's OK I guess...) so that always helps the day go faster. They seem pretty happy with me too as I'm learning fast and I'm actually winning the sales competition we're having!

It's been a little rough adjusting to working with my stomach problems though. I'm supposed to eat small meals every 3-4 hours and it's not always possible to do that at work. The botox really isn't helping anymore and I've had a few really rough days, but hopefully I'll get my meds upped or something. I haven't had to call off because of it yet though!

Last but not least, we've decided not to pursue purchasing this house we're renting. The landlord's asking price was a bit steep, but we could have given him a counter offer... the thing that made our decision for us was the backyard though. Every time it rains it washes up pieces of broken glass that are just under the dirt. We've had 3 dogs slice their paw pads open so far! It would be very expensive to fix the yard and make it safe for dogs and any future children. Sooooo now we're looking for a house!

With the economy the way it is, it's definitely a buyer's market. There are a lot of cheap houses for sale right now so we're hoping we can afford to buy. If we can get a good deal on a house that needs a little TLC, we could end up making a decent profit in 5-10 years. We don't have too long before our current lease is up so we'll have to work fast. If we can't buy, we'll have to find another place to rent!

R.I.P "Bubba" Bear

2008-05-02T13:27:00.002-04:00

As I said.... casualties. My childhood dog, Bear, had been going downhill for quite a while. He's had strokes, his joints were shot, he was deaf and half blind... the poor guy was really at the end of his days. My dad couldn't accept the fact that he was in pain and that it would be humane to let him go. My mom has been trying to change his mind, but for all the wrong reasons. She's sick of having for some time now so she can get new carpet.

While my parents were separated my mom dragged my dad out to dinner to discuss what was going on. I'm not sure what all was said, but my mom agreed to come back home under certain conditions. One of those conditions was counseling... but apparently another was putting Bear to sleep. The decision was the right one, but my mom was in SUCH a hurry to be rid of the dog that they had him put to sleep without even telling me. I found out the next day from my Grandma!!

OK. My mom's a selfish bitch. I can handle that.

Rewind: <--------------
Several months ago I accepted the fact that my last visit home would probably be the last time I saw my dog alive. I figured he would die on his own or my dad would finally see it and do the humane thing. Knowing my mother, I didn't want to talk to her about "arrangements" for Bear once he died. My dad is much more understanding about this stuff but I was still embarrassed so I had Eric tell him I wanted to get Bear cremated. My dad agreed to have that done for it and he understood we would pay for everything.

------------> Back to the present
I called my dad to ask what they had done with him. He says they just told the vet to "take care of it." In other words the dog I was unable to take care of in life would be disposed of at the local landfill. He also said he remembered that I said I wanted him cremated but that he didn't think I really meant it. I was sooooo mad that I hung up on him and I NEVER do that. Apparently he understood how upset I was and called the vet's office. It turns out that the vet still had Bear, but he had to be out of their office the next day.... and the place in Sandusky that did pet cremation closed. The next closest place wanted $200 and didn't supply any kind of urn. I knew the place here in Columbus would cost under $100 and included an urn... so we drove to Sandusky the next day to pick him up and had to take him directly to the funeral home in Columbus.

In the end, everything happened as it should. I'm still mad at my mom but she'll always be a bitch and I still have to deal with her so I put on a happy face and move on. My dad meant well and fixed his mistake so I don't hold anything against him. I've grieved for my dog and he's safe here with me now. He wasn't very well cared for in the last years of his life and I couldn't help him... at least I can give him a respectful resting place.

Strike that

2008-05-02T13:11:00.004-04:00

My sister was fine and understood that it was going to be good for them. One problem.... Mom's back with dad.

They're going to try counseling, but I can't see it helping them. The fundamental problem is that their personalities aren't in sync. Mom wants to go out to dinner all the time, party with friends (she's a wine-o,) vacation a ton, travel, shop.... she's a complete busy-body and is incapable of just RELAXING for a weekend. My dad is all too good at relaxing. He doesn't like eating out and would rather grab a bag of pretzels that re-heat leftovers.

You'd think that she'd be OK going out with her friends by herself, but nope! She was the same way when I was at home. She's up at 9am so that means everyone should be up at 9am. Drove me crazy... still drives my dad nutz.

Oh well. Problem now is that my mom has leverage on my dad and she's VERY good at using it. I can imagine everything is "do this or I'm leaving you" and it will only be a matter of time before dad says GO!!!! In the mean time, there have been casualties... to be continued.

Weirdness in my life

2008-04-09T23:56:00.002-04:00

There's no way to say this delicately. My mom left my dad today.

They're both in their 50s and this was their second marriage for them both. I've seen it coming for quite some time so I'm not too stressed out about it. They'll bother be better off this way I think.

My sister is the one I'm worried about more than anyone though. She's much more about this family stuff than I've ever been. It's even worse since she's still in college... in Tampa, FL. I can only imagine how weird it must be for her!!

Other than that, I'm left thinking about the mundane effects of this whole thing. Who's keeping the house, or are they selling it? What the hell am I gonna do with all the stuff I'm storing in their basement?!?! When I go home for the holidays where am I staying?

Weird.

Good fences make good neighbors....

2008-04-07T11:13:00.003-04:00

until their little brats start throwing stuff over the fence!!!

So our neighbors are kind of "white trashy." They had kids young and their kids had kids young. Now grandma and grandpa are baby-sitting 4-6 kids so their parents can be kids... In and of itself that's not too much of a problem. The kids are there on the weekends during the school year and pretty much every day in the summer. They're noisy, rude, and everything else you would expect from unruly children. I can deal with that! I've never complained ONCE about the noise, or them riding their bikes on my lawn, or them taunting my dogs through the fence. No harm no foul.

Here's the problem: shit's coming over the fence and it's NOT toys. Well, toys are coming over too, but that's not the problem. They're tossing rocks, trash, and whatever else they can find. It's bad enough that we have to go over the lawn and pick this stuff up to prevent damage to the mower.... but recently there's been some dangerous stuff coming over. We found some kind of decorative, metal, garden spike in our yard. It could have seriously injured someone or even killed a dog when it came over the fence. Yesterday I almost got beaned in the head by a rock while I was doing yard work!

I decided enough was enough and went over to talk to the "grandpa." Knowing kids are a touchy subject, I was VERY polite. I showed him what had come over the fence so he could see it's kind of a serious problem. His response? Hostility and "that's what kids do." He said that he doesn't bitch about my dogs barking (which I don't allow before 11am or after 8pm and try to limit to an hour or less... but "that's what dogs do.") so why am I bitching about his grandkids? I told him my dogs had to go to the vet twice now because they injured themselves on the stuff their kids are throwing over the fence. He started yelling at me and slammed the door in my face! I heard "grandma" talking about how I'm being ridiculous as I walked back to my house.

Am I being ridiculous? They just need to control their little brats!!

Benny needs a home!

2008-04-07T11:08:00.002-04:00

The 14 days is officially up and Benny is officially "my" dog! We got his dog license and HomeAgain is in the process of transferring his microchip into my name. In the mean time I've found out that Hilliard has a law on the books that prohibits anyone from owning more than a combination of 4 dogs & cats. That means we really need to get Benny placed into a good home as soon as possible. The cops aren't knocking on my door or anything, but that's the last thing I need. We have 4 dogs of our own and that's enough for now. Know anyone who wants a dog? He's seriously an awesome dog, we'd keep him if we could!

Botox is good

2008-04-07T11:05:00.002-04:00

I had my botox injections on the 31st. They got the IV in fine, knocked me out, did their thing, and I went home all doped up on valium! My stomach felt weird for a few days... not really upset but it felt like I swallowed something prickly. That's passed now and it does seem like the botox might be helping. Here's hoping!

Employed!

2008-04-07T10:59:00.003-04:00

Well, Franklin University is officially dumb. I got a letter in the mail on Saturday saying "Sorry, you ain't good enough." My friend on the inside tells me that they didn't hire me, but they didn't hire anyone else either! They have some temps working there now... but I guess there's been quite the shakeup in the department. They hired a BUNCH of temps and they're instructing current employees to document things in a way that it's OBVIOUS that they're writing the training manual for their own replacements. Guess it's not so bad that I didn't get hired!

I did, however, get a job at the local pet store! PetPeople is where I've been buying my dog food for about a year now. They carry the high-end food that I have to use because of my dogs' food allergies. It doesn't pay the best, but I get 15% off all my dog food and 25% off everything else!

Funny

2008-04-07T10:55:00.005-04:00

Can't help it. I just HAD to post this.

Procrastination

2008-03-25T16:57:00.002-04:00

For once I'm not referring to myself!

Franklin University called me again today to tell me NOTHING. The nice lady said she was just calling to update me on where they are in the process. Apparently 3 weeks after my interview they are STILL interviewing. Seriously? They have to be joking me. This is ridiculous! I bet half the people that interviewed have found another job by now! They should be done with the interviews at the very least and be into deliberations on who they are going to hire.

I am annoyed. Very.

But on the up side, tomorrow is my birthday! Hopefully I'll feel well and Eric and I can go out for dinner, maybe a movie. Speaking of feeling well- that's the other thing I have to look forward to. I'm getting my botox on the 31st! Everything is scheduled and I'm very excited because I've heard the results are usually GREAT.

The saga continues

2008-03-18T18:52:00.002-04:00

I just talked to the vet. They said "Tiberius's" owners still aren't returning their calls. If you were missing YOUR beloved pet how many days would YOU wait to call back? Anyhow, the vet wouldn't give me their contact info yet... said they wanted to try again tomorrow and then they'd give it to me. This annoys me, but whatever. Push comes to shove I can have him re-scanned at CAHS and get the info myself. It's starting to look like I might need the cops to step in to even get an answer from these people! The sad thing is all this delays his vet care and his adoption, as if he hasn't been through enough.

OK, maybe there IS something to a name...

2008-03-18T11:00:00.004-04:00

We took the dog we've been calling Benny to the vet yesterday. The first thing they always do with rescue dogs is to check for a microchip. Well.... he has one. They called the Home Again company to get his microchip information and his former owners apparently named him TIBERIUS! Seriously, WTF kind of name is that? LoL!

We didn't get any other vet care after that because we are obligated to contact his "owners" because he is technically still their property. The vet office is trying to call them via the phone numbers Home Again had on file but they haven't had any luck yet. I'm not so sure I want them to find the owners though. This poor dog has been abused and neglected horribly and if these people did that, they have no business getting him back.

If the owners decide they want him back they're up for a fight. I'm not handing him over until I know he is safe. That may mean having the Humane Officers step in if need be. Hopefully when they realize they could be in trouble they decide to give me the dog. In the mean time we're still calling him Benny because he doesn't respond to "Tiberius" at all.... and it's a really dumb name.

What's in a name?

2008-03-17T12:32:00.002-04:00

Well, we decided to name him Benny. I don't know why, but the name seems to fit him! We tried out a few names last night, but Benny was the only one he seemed to like. Oh well, he's adorable whatever his name is!

"Rescue Me!".... OK, come on

2008-03-16T17:50:00.004-04:00

Well, I was out volunteering with Animal Law Enforcement again today. Mostly mundane stuff- dogs without food/water/shelter, dogs out in the mud, lady with too many cats. While running one call, a guy was out walking his dog and another dog (no collar/leash) came up and started trying to play with his dog. He flagged us down and said this dog had been wandering the neighborhood for days and no one has claimed him. We called the dog warden, but they wouldn't be able to come get him until probably tomorrow. Soooo... we got a leash around his neck and got him into the truck.

He's really friendly, gave me kisses and everything! He was obviously someone's dog at some point because he's been neutered, but he was either neglected or has been on the streets for a while because he's SKINNY. He didn't look that bad, but as soon as I touched him I realized that he's all bones under his thick fur.

Now that I've got him home I gave him a good brushing and it was AMAZING how much fur came off! I just kept brushing and it just kept coming! The other thing I discovered while brushing him is more serious.... he has an embedded collar injury. If you don't know what that is, let me explain.

Some people couldn't care less about the dog they have chained outside. They put a chain, rope, wire, or if he's lucky maybe a collar on him and attach it to something. Often the dogs are young and when they grow, the collar doesn't. Have you ever seen a tree grow into/around a fence? Well it's possible for a dog's neck to do the same thing. The skin opens up and grows around the collar which is incredibly painful and often gets horribly infected. The collar isn't in his neck anymore, but the underside of his neck is a giant scar... still a few scabs too. My guess is he finally got big enough and strong enough to break whatever was around his neck and that's how he ended up on the street. He's lucky that he was strong enough to overcome whatever infection had to have been there.

For a dog that was abused and neglected, he has an amazing amount of love and trust in humans. I'm in awe of his ability to overcome and I hope I can find him a wonderful home to match his wonderful personality.

And now for the fun part! We get to name him =) I really want to give him a good Irish name since tomorrow is St. Patrick's day. Any ideas?

Waiting, waiting, waiting....

2008-03-15T11:00:00.002-04:00

I still haven't heard anything about the job I interviewed for at Franklin University! It's driving me bonkers! At least I have a man on the inside to tell me if anyone gets hired. Please send me all the good vibes you can afford!

White Stuff 2 - The evidence

2008-03-08T15:20:00.004-05:00

Pictures!!!

My car- how am I supposed to get to it let alone drive it?

Eric's car out in the street. Notice the snow plow has not come and it's 2:30pm.

Dogs + Snow = FUN

Hard to tell, but this is Brodie! His ears flapped over his face and he's almost buried in the snow drifts!

White Stuff

2008-03-08T13:31:00.002-05:00

Anyone who's lived in Columbus knows that we don't usually get big snows. If they get 5 inches of snow up north we'll get 2 inches of snow and 3 inches of freezing rain. Not so this time! It's hard to tell exactly how much we got because of the drifting but I think maybe 6 inches? Probably a bit more than that actually and it's still coming down!

Our dog Toby LOVES the snow and this is too much for even him! We let tiny little 8lb Gizmo out and he started heading out into the yard when I realized the snow was deeper than he is tall! Unfortunately he didn't realize that until it was too late and he was buried. Luckily Joey likes him so he rescued little Gizmo from his icy grave. Gizmo may be a black dog, but he was white from head to toe when he came in the house!

So, we're all stuck in the house today. Guess we're going to the Pet Expo tomorrow instead! Hopefully the weather will be a little better then. For now Eric's playing video games (Banjo Tooie) and the pups are playing with their toys and chewies. I'll have to get some pictures before we dig the cars out!

Gizmo goes home!

2008-03-07T18:06:00.002-05:00

We have had at least 6 people interested in Gizmo which is awesome. I was really hoping he'd go to the nice older couple, but their landlord said no dogs. Now we have a home visit with a young family- mom, dad, and 2 kids. They own their own place with a fenced yard so no worries there. If the home visit goes well I'll get the adoption fee and contract from them and Gizmo will stay with them on a trial basis for up to 2 weeks. After 2 weeks we'll know if he's found his home! I'm excited!

Job Status Update

2008-03-07T17:57:00.003-05:00

Well, I had my first interview on Tuesday and it went really well. I met with Leah from HR first and then she had the helpdesk supervisor come over to interview me. The helpdesk guy was really cool, easygoing. I thought it went really well and apparently I was right! They called me Wednesday to see when I could come in for a second interview with the I.T. Director guy. Since I'm not doing anything right now I was able to go in on Thursday.

The second interview was a little weird. The guy said he liked my attitude and my customer service experience, but was concerned about my I.T. knowledge. Want to know what he based that on? The words that makeup acronyms. Seriously! He wanted to know what the letters in TCP/IP, VPN, and MAC stood for. Didn't care if I knew what those things were or how to support them, just wanted to know the words. Seems kinda silly to me but oh well. They only did a second interview with one other girl so it's between me and her. My inside source says she has less I.T. experience than I do so hopefully I get the job (unless she's good with acronyms...)

She was supposed to have her interview today but they may have rescheduled because of the blizzard. I'm anxious to find out one way or the other so hopefully she interviewed today and I'll hear from them on Monday.

I'll update when I know!

Jobs, Botox, and Gizmo

2008-03-03T19:06:00.004-05:00

Lots of good news! I finally have a REAL job interview. My friend Mike works at Franklin University and he told me about an open helpdesk position there. I sent in my resume etc. and scored an interview! I guess their HR people talked to him about me and it sounds good so far. It pays well, kinda weird hours but they're OK, AND I get to take free classes at Franklin and Capital! According to Mike that perk is extended to spouses so Eric can take Masters classes at Capital! The job interview is tomorrow at 10am so wish me luck... I'll update tomorrow probably.

While I was out and about my doctor's office called and my insurance company approved my botox treatments! They have appoitment openings as early as March 24th so I may have it done before the end of the month. W00t!

Last but not lease... GIZMO. Eric and I took in a small terrier mix that was huddled outside behind trashcans trying to stay warm. He's an adorable dog but he's scared of our other dogs so it's not the best situation here. If you know anyone who would like a "purse dog" let me know!

Big movie weekend

2008-02-15T16:23:00.002-05:00

Last night my hubby and I went to see Jumper and I have to say it left a little to be desired. It was a great concept, but they needed to balance the Sci-Fi with the Action a little bit better.

Possible Spoiler Alert- Turn back now if need be, or scroll down quickly to the next bolded notice.

The movie focused mostly on the war between the Jumpers and the Paladins that is going on without the world knowing. The fight scenes were pretty kewl, the characters are somewhat interesting, the world-wide scenes were awesome. The concept is sweet, but there was NO back story. Seriously- the only explanation we get is a brief statement saying the Paladins are the same group from the dark ages and that they're religious zealots who think Jumpers are an abomination to God. Seeing that the main character is a Jumper and his mom is a Paladin, that back story is just a little important.

After seeing the movie, here are my questions: Who are the Paladins really? How does one become a Paladin- by birth, stumble into it? What is behind the Jumper's abilities? Is it genetic? Why did the Paladins kill the other Jumper's parents- because he is a Jumper or because they were? There are more questions rattling around in my brain, but I'm hoping some of this stuff comes up in the sequel they SOOOO
obviously setup at the end.

SPOILER OVER!!! You're safe now!

My other movie for the weekend will hopefully be Spiderwick. I haven't read the books (though I probably should have) but the movie looks very promising. What can I say, I'm a little kid at heart. Most of my favorite movies are kids movies- Labyrinth, Dark Crystal, Drop Dead Fred, Goonies, Legend, The Land of Far Away - all kids movies though Fred may be more appropriate for slightly older children. Guess that's all for now. Review of Spiderwick to come soon!

Yay Botox!

2008-01-25T11:15:00.000-05:00

No, I'm not getting my face done.

I went and saw the doctor the other day and we got a lot accomplished. First we got things setup so I can start taking Domperidone (the non-FDA-Approved drug they use in Canada.) Unlike the Reglan I took and reacted to, this one doesn't cross the blood/brain barrier so it doesn't have all the side effects. (You can read all about that in this old post.)

Now this is where the Botox comes in! They've just started treating Gastroparesis by relaxing the muscle at the bottom of the stomach with Botox. It's temporary, just like in your face, but sometimes it's enough to "reset" things and people spontaneously get better! They go in through your throat (basically it's an EGD) with a camera and the needle to inject it so it's very expensive if your insurance doesn't cover it. For that reason we're waiting to hear back from the insurance company before we try to set it up.

I also have an appointment to see a dietitian/nutritionist so I can re-learn how to eat. Looks like there's finally a light at the end of the tunnel. It may be a train, but for now it's hope!

Well THIS little piggie went "WAAAAAHHHH!!!!"

2008-01-09T20:51:00.000-05:00

So this morning we had an appointment at the vet for little Joey to get his last booster vaccine. Unfortunately we ended up having to take Zipp with us. Last night he was laying in my lap and I noticed he was licking something and getting my leg in the process. I looked to see what he was licking and noticed that his toe was VERY swollen. Of course I immediately checked it out to make sure he hadn't broken his toe or something since I hadn't noticed the swelling until just then. The bones felt fine and he was walking on it like normal so I figured it wasn't broken. It felt like a big swollen lump with some fluid in it.

The vet wasn't sure if it was a hematoma (giant blood blister) or an abscess (giant pimple-like infection) so she used the needle from a syringe to prick it and get a sample of the fluid/tissue in the bump to check out over a microscope. As soon as she pricked it it started bleeding like crazy! She wrapped it up to handle the bleeding while she checked the slide under the microscope. ::extreme sarcasm:: Lucky us- it's an abscess! :: It was definitely smaller after we drained the pool of blood from it, but the slide shows it is infected so it'll take a while before it goes away and he'll have to take antibiotics. Oh well, things happen I guess.

Holiday Update

2008-01-03T22:38:00.000-05:00

Hey everybody, long time no see! I know I haven’t been around and I’m sorry for anyone I might have disappointed =( but here I am once again! How about a quick holiday update?

So Eric and I went “home” to Sandusky for the holidays and we took Brodie along. (The other boys stayed with a doggie sitter here in c-bus.) Eric could only stay for a couple days and had to head back on Christmas since he had to work the next day. Since I didn’t have a job to go back to I stayed around to visit with family and Brodie stayed with me. It was a little worried about staying around for the extra days, but it was actually a pleasant visit. My mom seems to be in a VERY good mood now that I’m feeling better and 40 lbs lighter. I don’t know which she’s happier about though.

On to presents! Diane (sister) got me a cashmere sweater in the prettiest green which looks great on me. When she asked me before Christmas what I’d like I told her I needed a necklace that I could wear with everything and she definitely came through. She’s always had good taste. It’s a thicker silver chain with a simple square pendant, but the back of it opens up and you can change the colored stone in the square so it really does go with everything!

My mom apparently had a blast doing the holiday shopping. There were boxes and boxes under the tree for me…. All full of clothes! Of course bottoms are too hard to pick out for someone else so they were all tops. Most of them are to nice for everyday wear around town, but they’ll be great for work and going out. She also got me a (fake) tennis bracelet which is very cute.

*****And for an important interruption****** The news just butted in to tell me that Obama and Huckabee won the Iowa caucus. I can’t say that I’m terribly surprised. I’m just glad Hillary didn’t win. Personally I think America is going to put a Dem in the Whitehouse after the farce that has been the last 8 years. If it wasn’t for that, I’d be very afraid of ALL the GOP candidates. Huckabee, Romney… talk about scary. As if GW wasn’t bad enough? So far I think I’m behind Edwards but I haven’t done enough research to really stand firmly behind anyone. I don’t vote in the primaries so it won’t matter for me for a while anyway. And now back to your regularly scheduled blog.******

Her shopping didn’t end with the clothes though! Eric and I hit the jackpot this year! We got a nice stainless microwave to replace the $20 one we had which barely worked. Exciting, but there’s more! We also got a Hoover Steam Vac so I can clean up after the dogs. We needed it and I was seriously pumped about it. But wait, there’s more! The grand finally and Eric’s favorite part: 32” LCD HDTV!! It’s the Olevia that Wal*Mart has on sale for “Black Friday” and apparently my dad got up at like 4am and drove to a Wal*Mart in the next town over to get it for us. It’s awesome. Now we need to get some HD programming…. We have an over-the-air antenna somewhere around here so that’ll get us some but until the BlueRay Vs. HD-DVD war is over, that’ll have to do!

While my mom did shopping, my Grandma bought all of it and my parents went halfsies on the TV with my Grandma. My grandma is so awesome =) and she was very proud of herself getting such great gifts for us. Oh yeah, Eric got a jacket and a sweater from my mom.

Things were fun over at Eric’s folks too. I got a very cute pair of pants (that actually fit!) and a sweater, but I had to take the sweater back because it’s wool and I can’t deal with that scratchy stuff. I also got a stuffed reindeer that was dipped in cinnamon scented wax so it’s like a room freshener and a gift card for Kohls to buy more clothes. With all this weight loss I really needed the clothes! Eric got a small toolbox full of tools, a hand axe, and some fireplace logs. I think that’s all he got… or at least all I can remember him getting. They’re great people though and it was great getting to see them again.

Now that I’m back in C-bus I got myself a little present: a gym membership. I’m taking a lesson from Mike and I’m going to get my ass to the gym! I’ve already lost a lot of weight, but I need to get healthy. Even without weightless as an issue I really need to put on some muscle and get some endurance. One of my very best friends joined with me so we’re going to use the buddy system to get our butts in there. Wish me luck!

Well, I hope your holiday season treated you as well and mine did! And I wish you health, wealth, and happiness in the new year!

Finally- an update!

2007-12-04T15:35:00.000-05:00

Sorry if you've been checking my blog only to find NOTHING for a month! I don't have internet access at home at the moment. I'm actually in the Office Max parking lot right now using their hotspot- how sad...

Anyhow, life is on the upswing finally. I started taking that medicine the Dr. prescribed but it made me sick so I stopped taking it after 3 days. Apparently that was enough to jump start things though because my stomach has actually been feeling better! It's going to take quite a while to get my stamina back, but at least I can eat like a normal person these days.

I'm trying to find a job now since we're ridiculously broke. I have started working as an independent contractor for FETCH! Pet Care but that's very, very part-time. I do dog sitting, walks, pet "visits" during the day, and even a pet taxi service taking pets to the vet/groomer/etc. You can check out our website at www.FetchPetCare.com

Well, that's all for now. People are starting to look at me funny!

Uhggg...

2007-11-06T14:00:00.000-05:00

I feel like crap. Seriously, terribly, horribly, crappy. I called the doctor's office at 10:30am and they said to stop taking my medicine until they got to talk to the doctor. I also asked them to see if he would call in some anti-nausea medicine.

Fast forward to a few minutes ago: I still hadn't heard from the doctor after 3 hours so I called back. Apparently he's in surgery/procedures until like 5:00! Giant piece of crap!!!!! So I get to be ridiculously sick all day. Stupid freaking.... at least my mom has some pull with doctors in Sandusky. She got someone to call in some nausea meds for me... hopefully I'll be feeling a little better soon....

The trouble with always trying to preserve the health of the body is that it is so difficult to do without destroying the health of the mind.

2007-11-02T12:55:00.001-04:00

The above quote is by G.K. Chesterton.

Well, the test results are in and lucky me... I have delayed gastric emptying or Gastroparesis. If you don't know what that is, check out my description in this old post so I don't have to repeat it for everyone else.

The doctor still has no clue WHY my stomach hates me, but it does. He's ordering some blood tests (which if you know me, you know I'm NOT happy about) to try to figure it out. It could be diabetes, a medication I'm taking, or it could have been a particularly evil flu bug. At least they know what I have now right? That means they can treat it right?

Well, yes and no. It's good that they know what I have and they can kinda treat it.... there's really no good treatment for it though and there is no cure. The doctor has prescribed a medication called Reglan for me. I take it 4 times a day- once before each meal and again before bed. It's supposed to speed up my stomach, keep me from refluxing, and decrease nausea. Sounds great! They left this part out:

"a withdrawal reaction (e.g., dizziness, nervousness, headaches) may occur if you suddenly stop this drug."

OK, so I don't stop taking it.... but then there's this:

"Metoclopramide can have nervous system side effects, such as depression, anxiety, sedation, restlessness, and insomnia."

Hmm... disturbing but who says everyone gets these side effects? I'll be fine right? Not according to the 100+ people at www.askapatient.com who gave it an average score of 1.5 out of 5. Here are some of their self-written side effect lists and stories:

"After being on Reglan for 3 years, I experienced severe (suicidal) depression, bloating, edema, weight gain, prolactinemia (extremely high prolactin blood levels which caused my dr. to tell me I had a brain tumor & caused my ovaries to shut down, throwing me into premature menopause at the age of 34!! After going off Reglan, my prolactin levels went back to normal, but my reproductive system was shot!"

"Severe depression suddenly out of the blue. Very suidical,tired yet too jittery and shaky to sleep. Parkinson like symptoms even 3 days after I stopped taking this drug."

"I am generally a happy person but this drug caused severe DEPRESSION. Nothing made me happy even though intelectually I knew I should be happy I was not. Also it caused me to be apathetic."

"complete mental breakdown from nervousness and depression-had to be hospitalized-never have experienced anything like that in my life-was put on zoloft 6 mths to get brain chemistry corrected"

"I would not recomment this medication to anyone for any reason."

OK, So now I'm scared. There were seriously like 2-3 people who gave this drug a score above 2 and even those reviews weren't glowing. I guess I have to decide whether or not this is even worth trying. There is a medication (domperidone) available in Canada that is supposed to work really well and NOT have the side effects... but of course it's not FDA approved so I won't be under a doctor's guidance if I take it.

So now I'm sick, scared, frustrated, and annoyed. There appears to be no end in sight.

Updates all around!

2007-10-30T19:44:00.000-04:00

I took Toby's stitches out last Thursday and he's back to his mischievous self. He has a huge scar under the fur on his paw, but other than that he's 100% back to normal.

A few days after Zipp's accident you'd never know there had been one! He has nothing wrong with him at all. The bruises all healed, he can see fine, and he's no longer afraid of the bedroom!

As for me, I still haven't heard back from the Doctor as to the results of my most recent medical test (last Wednesday.) I'm going to call them tomorrow to find out. In the mean time, I'm down 40lbs which comes out to 3 pant sizes and 2 shirt sizes! I'm basically giving away my entire closet to one of my sorority sisters because EVERYTHING is way too big! I have a few shirts I can still wear, but I had to go out and buy a new pair of pants because all of my pants were too big to even use a belt with. I have some pj pants and sweatpants, but only the 1 pair of pants to actually wear out of the house. The weight loss is awesome, but it sucks not being able to buy new clothes since I have to pay the doctors and the hospital and the lab.....

Ain't I just got the luck?

2007-10-17T16:43:00.000-04:00

So Toby tried to cut his paw off Monday and we got everything all sewed up. Sucks but everyone's OK. Well, I went into the bedroom to get a sock to put over his foot (to keep him from licking/chewing the stitches) when all the sudden Zippy starts SCREAMING like someone's trying to kill him. Eric had left a wardrobe bag with his suit in it on the floor and Zippy got the hanger stuck in his eye!!! He was actually pulling the wardrobe bag across the floor....

Luckily the hanger had a little metal ball on the end so it was dull. I took him to the vet (of course) and it turns out that it didn't injure his eyeball at all. The hanger went up over his eyeball and bruised the tissue on the back of his eyelid and over his eye. We got sooooo lucky on this one. Zipp very easily could have lost his eye. This has all been too much excitement for one week so hopefully nothing else will happen!!! ::knock on wood::

Poor Toby =(

2007-10-15T21:54:00.000-04:00

So tonight kinda sucked just a little. I was just sitting around with the pups like usual, didn't feel particularly wonderful.... nothing out of the ordinary. I let the pups out to potty and they ran around a little like usual having fun while I grabbed a glass of juice. I opened the door and called them to come inside and in came Brodie, then Toby, but Zipp didn't want to come in. I tried to coax him a bit more, but nothin so I gave up and turned to go back inside..... just to find bloody paw prints all over the kitchen floor. There wasn't anything on the carpet so I didn't know where it came from! I grabbed the cat and checked her all over, but she was fine. Next closest was Toby who was laying by the couch and front door. I checked one front paw and found nothing... as soon as I touch the other paw my fingers were covered in sticky, red, blood... I grabbed a cloth and wet it down to wash some of the blood off so I could see what was going on. Looking very carefully, I saw that he had a very deep laceration that cut his main pad half off his paw! It was terrible.... I grabbed the no-stick wrap and wrapped up the paw kinda tight to stifle the bleeding.

I threw on a new shirt while I called the vet I used to work for. Luckily they said I could go ahead and bring Toby in. This all happened around 3pm. Eric took off work early so I swung by and picked him up on the way. As soon as we got there they took him back and put him in a kennel. We waited and waited and waited, but they ran into a problem with another patient and it took them a while to get to him. Finally at like 5:30 they got to take a look at it and informed me that it was pretty bad and would definitely need stitches! My poor Toby! They would have to put him under to take care of it so we took off for a while.

They finished up with him and brought him out to us about 7:30. He was so wobbly that he could hardly walk! He looked drunk =) so I picked him up and he fell asleep and started snoring. The vet says there were actually two cuts- one smaller one on one of the toe pads, and then the big one. They were both very clean slices and there wasn't anything stuck in the cuts so the vet thinks it was something sharp like glass. We checked the back yard and found a couple small pieces of glass, but nothing with blood on it so we're still not sure what did it. I'm going to check again tomorrow when it's light out. In the mean time we took the very sleepy Toby to Petsmart and got some booties to 1) keep the wound clean and 2) prevent any new ones.

Poor Toby =(

Latest Health Update:

2007-10-09T13:32:00.000-04:00

So, I saw the GI doctor today. He's not convinced that it's my gallbladder. He says a lot of the symptoms sound like gallbladder, but all the tests came back negative so far and some of my symptoms don't fit. He thinks it's Gastroparesis.

Gastroparesis: Gastro meaning stomach and Paresis being paralysis, AKA a slow stomach.

Gastroparesis is when your stomach doesn't contract like it's supposed to do the food doesn't get mushed up and it doesn't get to your intestines as fast as it should. I've been reading and so far it sounds like a pretty good fit. Fatty foods cause your stomach to empty even slower so that's a good reason fatty foods would be making me sick. HOWEVER- the stuff I'm reading says that liquid fats (like in drinks) doesn't usually have as much trouble so that's why the Ensure wasn't bothering me. Even what's more- I found several examples of people who had their gallbladders removed only to find that their gallbladder was fine but THIS was their problem! Lots of stuff can cause it, but 40% of cases have no known cause.

And now for the bad news....
If this is really what's wrong with me it can be a life-long condition. They treat it with heartburn medicine (Prilosec, Nexium, Zegerid,) a strict diet that is very low in fats, meats, and fiber and sometimes medication that blocks the seratonin receptors in the stomach. In bad cases they even suggest blenderizing all your food or eating strained baby food.

For now they've given me Zegerid to take and on Oct. 23rd I'm going in for a Gastric Emptying Test. I have to eat a bowl of radioactive oatmeal =) lol and then they take pictures over the course of about 90 minutes to see how fast my stomach empties. Oh well, we'll see huh? If you want to know more you can look it up online by googleing Gastroparesis.

An empty head is not really empty; it is stuffed with rubbish. Hence the difficulty of forcing anything into it.

2007-09-25T17:18:00.000-04:00

The title is a quote from Eric Hoffer.

So after spending a lot of time online in forums and message boards here is a partial compilation of the STUPID things people have told me.

Dogs and cats shouldn't be spayed or neutered because it's unnatural.

My answer: What's unnatural is the way humans have bred dogs to meet their needs. Trying to get specific traits, we've bred horrible disease into many of these breeds. We're the ones who turned them info house pets so now we have to care for them. Unless everyone in the US wants to adopt 4 dogs and 8 cats and not let any of them make babies, we HAVE to spay/neuter!

To keep your female dog from going into heat you should place 5 old pennies in her water bowl.

My answer: This is a GREAT idea! You dog can't go into heat if it's DEAD! After 1942, all pennies contain zinc which is HIGHLY toxic to dogs. Coins made prior to 1892 only contained 5% zinc so one probably wouldn't kill your dog, but 5 might. After 1892 all pennies are 97.5% zinc with a thin copper plating. Just one of these post 1892 pennies can kill your dog! Prior to 1864 pennies were 100% copper, but they are worth a lot of money and still pose a choking risk.

Anyone asking more than $20 as an adoption fee is a horrible person trying to make money on their dog.

My answer: There are a lot of terrible people out there to pick up cheap or free dogs and then resell them to labs for testing. These "free to good home" dogs are also used as bait for dog fighting. For pure bred dogs, you also have to worry about puppy mills which have no problem paying even $200 if you are willing to give them the AKC papers. Asking $100-$150 will allow you to spay/neuter before adopting out the dog and prevent it being used for resale or bait, but you should NEVER allow the AKC papers to go with your purebred dog.

Flea collars and cheap flea drops/sprays are safe to use on my pet because they're sold in a pet store.

My Answer: Any vet will tell you that these products are not good for your pet. Many of them carry warning labels against using them with greyhounds (or sighthounds) which is because these breeds are more sensitive to these chemicals, but all dogs are at risk. Just because they sell cigarettes at the grocery store doesn't make them safe for your 5 year old does it? Ask your vet before using any "medication" on your pet.

Declawing my cat is not a big deal, it's a routine surgery!

My Answer: Declawing is the amputation of a cat's finger at the last knuckle. It cuts through bone, tendons, and soft tissue. Just like in a human, there are a lot of nerve endings in that area so it is very painful. In many countries it is illegal because it is considered animal cruelty and in most other countries (outside the U.S.) it is a very rare procedure used in very rare situations with very few vets willing to do the surgery at all. Better alternatives include scratching posts, clipping the cats nails just like we do with dogs, or a product called Soft Claws which are vinyl nail caps applied similarly to "fake nails."

Microchipping dogs is a bad idea. People can use their microchips to find you via GPS system. Also, the big needle used to insert them is too painful!

My Answer: The microchips used for dogs can not be traced by GPS. They emit a very week radio signal that can only be read from an inch or two away. The needle is big and it does hurt, but no worse than getting your belly button pierced and the pain is gone within a minute or two. If you choose to have your pet microchipped at the same time they are being spayed/neutered they won't experience any pain at all!

Putting banana peals in the corners of the rooms in your house will keep fleas out of your house and off your pets.

My Answer: Do I really need to say anything here? Rotting plant matter smells bad and attracts bugs. It will mold and if your pet eats a moldy banana peel it could get sick. Just buy some Frontline OK?

Oh the stupid people in the world! Anyhow, I'm sure there will be a 2nd installment of this pos

The sick, sad, horrible, everyday truth....

2007-09-23T13:54:00.000-04:00

From the Columbus Dispatch Online- a video on Euthanasia and the Capital Area Humane Society.

This video shows the sad, horrible truth. People tell themselves that spay/neuter is unnatural, or that the animal should be able to have 1 litter first, or that their children need to see the miracle of birth. Unfortunately most of the kittens that come because of all those excuses will probably be euthanised. There are many shelters in Columbus that take cats, but only until they hit capacity. They are “no-kill” shelters. Unfortunately there are thousands of more cats that those groups can’t take in. If they’re left on the streets they spread disease and multiply at an alarming rate making the problem even worse! CAHS manages to save 19% of those cats, but 81% have to die so the others can live.

~PLEASE~ spay or neuter your pet. Don't let more innocent animals die.

In a perfect world, every dog would have a home and every home would have a dog.

2007-09-23T13:34:00.000-04:00

My friend Elana and her husband just got their first dog! I'm way to excited and I get to take some of the credit since I found the dog for them! He's an adorable Great Dane/Boxer mix puppy. He was found as a stray in a rural county about an hour from Columbus. The poor thing was staying at a very poor shelter where all the dogs were kept outside in pens and they don't have any vet care or anything. I came over just as soon as they brought it home to give it a bath... we ended up giving him TWO baths since he was SOoooo stinky! The flies were all over him, it was really terrible.

After we got the bath all taken care of he smelled better and seemed to be in a bit of a better mood. He settled right in! Curled up on the couch with a chew toy and just waggin that tail. The shelter named him Caesar, but they changed it to Maximus. He's gonna be a big puppy and he's got a great new home!

HSUS MySpace Page | Stop Puppy Mills Website

If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.

2007-09-15T23:40:00.000-04:00

The title is a quote by my favorite author, J.R.R. Tolkien.

I have decided that I am in love with the Whole Foods store.

So many other countries have this part right, but in the U.S. we have it all wrong! Fresh food is a BILLION times better than the standard grocery store junk most of us eat. As you probably know by now, I haven't been able to eat much lately. (I've lost 35-40lbs!!!) Since I'm not buying much to eat, I've taken to spending the extra $$ and getting myself the good stuff! Tonight I went and got some fresh tilapia fillets. Mmmmmm.... It tastes NOTHING like the nasty frozen stuff at the grocery store. It melted in my mouth! I also had steamed broccoli and sourdough bread. Very low fat and low calorie, but soooo good for you and very tasty!

I don't know that I have much of a point. Maybe just that I wish there was a market down the street so I could buy fresh food every day or every week!

Kids these days!!! Arggg!!

2007-09-08T16:28:00.000-04:00

OK, I know I'm only 22 but I'm about to sound like an old lady to some.

What in the world is the matter with kids these days? You know what, that's not even the right question. What's the matter with ADULTS these days? I see twelve-teen year old girls in mini skirts SO SHORT that I can see their nether bits walking around all over the place. Boys have their tighty-whiteys hanging out of their pants which are about to fall off at any given moment... How do their parents justify letting them walk around like that? I have no idea. What does it lead to? Poor Kapper's gotta deal with trying to teach when these college girls are sitting with their legs wide open for all the world to see THEIR nether bits.

It's not just their parents that are the problem either. Adults in general are tolerating way too much CRAP from these kids! They're running around in packs like rabid dogs and no one will say or do anything to stop them. Perfect example of this:

Last night my husband and I went to the 7:40 showing of "Balls of Fury." I should have known better since that's prime time for these kids to be out in their packs causing trouble. While we're watching the previews they're all talking and goofing off, but who cares cause the movie's not on yet and they'll stop then right? Wrong. They weren't even just talking- they had their cell phones going off, crawling over seats, throwing stuff, etc. etc. At one point a group of them started making bird calls! You'd think there would be people yelling at them and telling them to shut up, but nope- not a peep. When I was their age that wouldn't have been tolerated. The projectionist would have called an usher and those kids would have been GONE.

Like I said, I feel like a little old lady complaining about those young whipper-snappers, but seriously WTF is going on? I have no problem with their music, dancing, hanging out at the mall, even most of their clothing choices (aside from seeing way to much pre-teen crotch and bare ass these days.) It just seems like they don't understand what being polite is and people in the general public are what? To embarrassed to stand up for themselves? I don't get it. They're not your kids, but you can still tell them to shut the heck up when they're ruining your night out!

Aside from the pack of rabid teenagers, the movie was hilarious!

I'm melting! I'm melting!

2007-09-05T11:34:00.000-04:00

Title is a quote from the Wicked Witch of the West as she dies in Wizard of Oz.

So here I am being all jealous of Kapper's new MacBook.... and I promptly break my iBook. Cracked the LCD... It's still usable for the moment but as you probably (hopefully) know, the Liquid Crystal will cause more issues as time goes on now that it's loose and free to go where it wills. There's a long crack that goes from the top right corner to the bottom left corner, and 2 small cracks up in the top right corner. You can see the impact point up in the corner.

I called Apple. It's going to be like $850 to replace the screen. At that point why not just buy a new computer? Oh well. In the mean time, I'm pissed!

Yay Olestra!

2007-09-04T00:40:00.001-04:00

All this time I've been sick, miserable, and unable to eat anything tasty! I completely forgot about "Olean" or Olestra, the fake fat used in what was originally called the WOW! brand. Now it's used in all sorts of stuff, but mostly snack food. Basically the molecule is too large for the small intestine to absorb, so it just passes right through. I did some research and found out that Olestra (unlike real fats) doesn't stimulate the gall bladder either so it won't make me sick!

It does have it's own side effects though. The FDA makes them put a small label on the packaging warning that it makes fat-soluble vitamins harder to absorb and it can cause "loose stool." The old joke was that it causes "anal leakage" but that's not so much the truth. Studies show it can just cause a very slight increase in stool production. Sorry if that's too much information =) I'm not too worried about the second part, but I'll need to make sure I don't eat too much and interfere with my vitamins. I'm already having a hard enough time getting the nutrients I need!

I'm just excited because I got to buy tortilla chips tonight! Since salsa is naturally fat free, I got to have a very tasty snack for the first time in MONTHS! I also took a stroll through the health food section and found a few extremely low-fat things to try. A lot of them use tofu or soy protein since most meats have quite a bit of fat in them. I did find a few frozen dinners by Kashi that have chicken or fish in them, but they're still very low fat.

Next time you're at the store, look at the stuff marked "low fat" and see how many grams of fat are actually in 1 serving. With my gall bladder acting up, I have to stay around 7 grams of fat or less. If I'm having a REALLY good day, sometimes I can get away with 10-15 grams before I get too sick. Most of the time I have to weigh the pros and cons and decide how much pain it's worth to eat. And that's not 10-15 grams per meal, it's more like per day. It seems that my gall bladder is rather sluggish and it reacts sometimes hours after I eat so 2 meals can seem like 1 to it. Just some perspective for you.

My God. We've had cloning in the South for years. It's called cousins.

2007-09-02T02:09:00.000-04:00

The title is a quote from Robin Williams.

Another little note for tonight:

Every once in a while people look at me funny when I introduce them to my dog, Toby. The truth is I had never even HEARD of the show "Roots" until after I had named the dog. My mother was the first one to point out the "correlation" to me openly, and since then it's come up quite a few times. I even know one person who openly refers to him as my "little negro dog." I've had another person comment that I should have named him Kunta Kinte.

That being said, it came to me in the car, with my dogs on my lap, that we are headed north with our black dog named Toby to stay at the Plantation.... How is it possible not to have a racial thought in this situation? At least we weren't headed South.

For the record, I don't believe myself to be a racist. I have no problems with anyone of any skin type, gender, sexual preference, etc. I'm simply commenting on the number of people who are putting WAY too much thought into my dog's name!

Some parents really bring their children up; others let them down

2007-09-02T01:13:00.000-04:00

The title is an quote by an unknown author.

Most people that know me also know that I do NOT have a good relationship with my family. More specifically my mother is public enemy #1 in my life. My sister is annoying and judgmental at times, but she lives in Tampa, FL 3/4 of the year and 2.5 hours away in Sandusky the other 1/4. My dad is a pretty good guy, but he refuses to stand up to my mother. Lately I've heard my mother complaining a LOT about him, and him complaining a little about him. I think the best thing that could happen to both of them is a divorce... but that's a different story.

I'll start with a very short history of my family's dysfunction, mostly as it relates to my life. The first thing to note is that my sister is the definition of the direct opposite of me. I think I commented on that in a previous post so I'll leave it at that. Well, starting in about 6th grade I actually started to make a few friends through the band. They were all a year older than me and my mom hated that. She made that VERY clear as she often does with things that are none of her business. Using my math grades as an excuse (I got a C omigod call the cavalry,) she grounded me and said I would not be ungrounded until I got a B in math. I was grounded for about a year and a half, which effectively made me a complete outcast. Going into HS, I think I might have had 1 friend left- thanks mom! The funny thing is that after I made some new friends, I was suddenly ungrounded but I was still pulling C's and D's in math.

In HS things got REALLY interesting. I was no longer allowed to go to sleep-over parties with my female friends. No boys there, parents in the other room, still not allowed. My parents were SO overprotective that I was not even allowed to go out after homecoming my senior year in HS! The story was completely different with my younger sister though. She was allowed to stay out after homecoming when she was a sophomore I believe. She also threw house parties when my parents were out of time, drank, smoked pot.... but she was the preppy blond cheerleader which my mother LOVED so she got away with it. My mother (and sister) are obsessed with public opinion, rumor mills, and archaic ideas about social "rules." In other words, your behavior didn't matter in my household as long as you were thin, had cute hair, wore makeup, dressed to the popular norm, etc. etc.

Things got downright ugly in college. When my now husband proposed to me I called my mom to tell her the news. Her response? Something like "Oh... are you sure you want to do that? You haven't dated many boys." Just what every little girl dreams her mother will say at one of the most meaningful moments in her life. A few months before my wedding, after most of the planning was already done, my mother actually suggested that I call the wedding off. She made if very clear that she didn't like Eric because she thought he was selfish and rude. (Years earlier he had told my mother that he could NOT drive 15 minutes into town to pick up my sister from cheerleading practice. Mind you she never asked, she assumed he would just do it.) Now that things are official and she thinks that it is her duty to be the good mother-in-law she acts like she LOVES Eric and that he's SOOOO wonderful.

And all that to get to the most recent bullshit. A week or two ago we realized that we had a long weekend coming up (Eric never gets weekends off) so we decided to go home so Eric could visit his family (Sept. 1 is his birthday) and so we could visit my grandma. We usually stay at my parents' house because they have a double bed in the guest bedroom (my old room) and Eric's old room only has a single bed. I called my parents to tell them we were coming up and they said they were going to be out of town anyway so we could have the place to ourselves. Then I thought hmmm.... I bed my parents are going to take their dog Bear to the kennel (he's had a couple strokes and has a lot of "accidents.) I called and confirmed this with my dad and told him that was awesome because we won't have to board our dogs, which gets expensive. Because Bear is so old and a little crazy so he gets spooked real easy and our young dogs really scare him so we never bring them with us. We usually bring Brodie with us though and my mom has never had any problem with this.

Well, a couple days ago my mom calls and leaves a voicemail which very rudely said something like "I don't understand how you don't get it, but I don't want your dogs in my house so you need to make other arrangements. CLICK" If she had EVER said ANYTHING about not wanting my dogs in her house this would have been a different story, but she hadn't! I don't understand this at all because her dog has already ruined their carpet and she plans to replace it as soon as he dies anyway. My dogs could not possible do any damage, but it's her house so whatever. I left her a voicemail saying all of that and adding that if she insists on being stubborn and rude, that she can explain to my elderly grandmother why I have to cancel this visit. The next day I get a message not from her, but from my father saying that my mother has offered to allow us keep our dogs in the garage. Mind you their garage has no insulation, no windows, etc. etc. and my dogs have never slept in their crates let alone outside.

At this point I'm FURIOUS with my mother and sent her a pretty nasty e-mail, but they apparently did not get it before they left town. She has single handedly ruined Eric's birthday and our entire weekend. How are we supposed to find a dog-sitter with less than 2 days notice before a holiday weekend? I started checking hotels, but even the pet-friendly ones usually limit it to 1 pet, and we have 3. I finally found one with an open room that would take all 5 of us, but they wanted $150/night+tax since it's tourist season in Sandusky. (Like I always say- if it's tourist season, why can't we shoot them?) We don't have that kind of money in our budget.

Next, we call Eric's folks to see if we can maybe crate the dogs in their detached garage (since it's completely finished with insulation, windows, even heat) and maybe let little baby Zipp sleep upstairs with us. His mom didn't think we would be comfortable so she found us a small local hotel that would let us bring all 3 dogs and only wanted $88/night+tax and offered to pay half the bill!

I have to say, I love my in-laws. They are wonderful, loving, caring people and they all treat me like one of their own. I dare say I love them more than my own family! (Except my grandma who is the most wonderful person I've ever met)

So here we are now at the Plantation Hotel in Huron, OH! It's a pretty small room, but it's clean and it has a king-size bed. No complaints here! We're only going to stay the one night, but at least Eric will get to see his folks for his birthday. When my parents get back we'll see how things go, but this has definitely not helped the already very shaky relationship I have with them. Eric wishes I would just cut them out of our lives since they usually cause nothing but heartache for me. Maybe I'm just naive but I keep hoping that things will change. I keep giving my mom another chance, but every time it's just a harder let down.

Yes. I'm a geek.

2007-08-30T21:57:00.000-04:00

And this is a major geek moment for me.

Stan Lee ditched "Parthenon" tonight. WTF? Why not "Hygiena" the 40-something OCD in a maid's uniform for a costume? Or how about the over-zealous cop- he's not even TRYING to be a superhero! There are officially NO decent contestants left.

Stan Lee- YOU SUCK.

Each misfortune you encounter will carry in it the seed of tomorrow's good luck.

2007-08-30T20:15:00.000-04:00

The title is a quote from Og Mandino.

Well yesterday sucked, but today was awesome. I got to sleep in, but not too late. There was a cancellation at the massage place so I got in at the last minute at a discount! Since my massage was over on Sawmill, I stopped at Whole Foods and got lots of tasty stuff. Their fruit is always amazing and the fish is really fresh, the whole store is just awesome!

When I got home I fixed up the asparagus I bought with a tiny bit of olive oil, salt, pepper, and slivered fresh garlic. I roasted the asparagus on the grill while I grilled the salmon on a cedar plank. It was soooo good and really low fat so it didn't make me sick. For dessert I had some honeydew (again from Whole Foods) that was sooooo sweet. I also got pineapple, Woo City mango sorbet, Orangina, and just a few Pure Imagination chocolates (I hear they're amazing, but they were $1.29 per piece!!!) but I also made a pit-stop in the homeopathic remedies section

The homeopathic stuff isn't usually my cup of tea, but there is a lot to say for "natural" remedies I guess. Last night I watched "Crazy, Sexy Cancer" on.... I think it was Discovery Health. The main person in the show was a girl in her twenties who was diagnosed with a terminal cancer and it was already stage for. Stage 5 is death. Anyhow, since there isn't any effective treatment for the cancer she has the doctors didn't want to pump her full of chemo and stuff. They figured it wouldn't do much for her and it would make her miserable. She was really frustrated because the doctors just wanted her to basically sit and wait, so she started looking into alternative medicine. First she tried a probiotic diet that was really high in grains and really difficult to maintain. The tumors still grew. Next, she met with this doctor who is all about raw foods and believes that ALL disease is caused by excess acid in the body. He did a blood draw and showed her the blood in a microscope pointing out all of the acid crystals in her blood. He said the high grain diet she was doing was causing massive buildups of these acid crystals in her organs which was making her sicker. She changed her diet, cut out all the grains and meats, and started eating nothing but veggies. Now who knows if this was a coincidence, but her tumors stopped in their tracks. She's not technically in remission because the tumors are still there, but the cancer just kind of stopped. She wasn't sick anymore, the tumors weren't growing.... the doctors were amazed!

That was a long explanation.... anyhow- if this homeopathic stuff friggin stopped her cancer, maybe some of it could help me right? I ended up buying 2 tubes of this "Boiron Blue" stuff. One is for headaches with dizziness and the other for indigestion with nausea. They're cute little dispensers that dispense these little white pellets that are "micro-doses of mineral, botanical, and biological substances." I had a headache a little while ago so I took the headache one as directed and my headache was actually gone like 15 minutes later. I didn't think it would do anything, but it apparently did. I'm OK with that, so I'll try it again next time and see if this was just a fluke. They might make a believer out of me yet.

A healthy body and soul come from an unencumbered mind and body.

2007-08-29T21:29:00.000-04:00

The title is a quote from someone named Ymber Delecto.

"Unencumbered body" ....Does that mean I just need to stop wearing clothes and I'll feel better?

Today was not a good day. I woke up way too tired. I got up, ate my morning frozen fruit, got my shower, and went to work. I had to take the cat to work with me for her check-up and vaccines.... she threw-up in the car on the way there. I knew that stuff did not bode well for the rest of my day.

My stomach started acting up at work... usually I'll drink my whole Ensure and some pretzels during my shift, but today I couldn't even get down all of the Ensure. The pretzels sat a little better, but not much. After I got home I busted out my "when all else fails" food- beef jerky. That actually helped a little. I drank some Gatoraide and munched on the jerky for a while, all the while still feeling pretty crappy. Finally I decided that if I was going to feel like shit anyway, I might as well actually eat something that tastes good. I made myself a brat on the grill and I swear it was the most delicious thing I've ever tasted in my entire life. I've barely had the littlest bit of fat to eat since May and my body obviously missed it. So my total food intake for today:
Frozen fruit- 80cal
Half an Ensure- 125cal
Handful of pretzels- maybe 100cal
Beef jerky- 100cal
and my wonderful brat- let's call it 200 even (it was a turkey brat)

That gives me a grand total of 605 calories for the day. Maybe I forgot something so let's call it 800. What a diet eh?

On the upside, I couldn't find my comfy blue jeans yesterday when I was getting ready for the store. I grabbed a pair of khakis from the closet and saw that they were an old pair that I hadn't been able to wear since my sophomore year in college. I thought to myself, what the hell- why not try them on, and sure enough they fit! They freaking fit! As far as numbers go they're the same size, but as any woman will tell you that doesn't mean much. These weren't from some plus-size store either, they were from Learner NY & Co. I can't tell you how awesome that was for me. I can actually shop in a "normal," trendy, mall store!

Advertising is a racket...its constructive contribution to humanity is exactly minus zero.

2007-08-29T19:16:00.000-04:00

The title is a quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald.

I would like to apologize for the temporary annoying banner ads on this blog. Blogger gives you an option for AdSense when you're setting up. I accidentally clicked it and *poof* enter annoying banner ads. The only problem was that there wasn't a button to click to make it disappear! After digging though the Blogger help files I finally figured out that the only way to get rid of the damn banners was to go into the template code and delete the script! So, no more ads. Yay =)

Movie Review and other things

2007-08-27T22:52:00.000-04:00

No quote this time! Sorry to disappoint!

So, Sunday night I went and saw Superbad. When I saw the previews I thought it was going to be really stupid, but the reviews I saw were all really good. Eric seemed interested in it and there's nothing else out that we want to see, so Superbad it was.

It was freakin awesome! A lot of really stupid humor, a couple train wreck moments, way too many phallic images, but really funny. If you are offended by drawn images of the human penis, this is not the movie for you, that's for sure! I don't want to spoil it for anyone so I won't give much away about the plot. If you were a nerd, outcast, or just plain invisible in HS this movie will really speak to your life experience... only a lot funnier.

That being said, this movie really spoke to my HS experience. My sister was the blonde, popular, cheerleader, party all the time girl. I was the short haired, geeky, band nerd, home alone every weekend girl. I never did get invited to one of those crazy drinking parties high-schoolers do so well. I had like 2 friends and we hung out and watched movies or went bowling. I think I spend more time on the computer or in a book than I did with other human beings for those 4 years.... Wait- things haven't changed much there!

Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save.

2007-08-26T19:25:00.000-04:00

....And tonight I'm spending it at the movies!
(The title is a quote from Will Rogers.)

I felt like crap pretty much all day today. I had every intention of starting to read that book I bought last week (American Gods) but it didn't happen. I ended up watching TV, google-ing a friend who turned out to be more interesting than I thought, and reading blogs. The dogs drove me absolutely crazy most of the time just to add to things. Toby has developed this very annoying habit of attacking the front window anytime anything wanders near our front yard. Today we had 2 squirrels, a neighbor's dogs, a cat across the street, 3 cars pulling in next door, and some kind of phantom only he could see. Every time Toby went nuts, Brodie had to follow his lead by barking his ever loving head off for a good 15 minutes. The only one behaving was my sweet little Zippie puppy who slept on my lap most of the day.

When Eric got home from teaching lessons, he got me some beef jerky. For some reason it seems to make me feel better when I get to feeling like royal crap. Prolly cause it's the only non-carb I get to eat... Anyhow, I'm feeling better now (mind you still not "normal," just better than the extra crappy I was this morning) so we're going to see Superbad at 8:30. Now that we're on the west side, we've been going to the Rave theater in Polaris. It's a really nice theater- stadium seating, comfy seats, large screens, DHLP, pretty much the works. I highly recommend it if you're around the area.

Sickness comes on horseback but departs on foot.

2007-08-26T11:21:00.000-04:00

The title is a Dutch Proverb, sometimes attributed to William C. Hazlitt.

I am sick and tired of being sick and tired!! Here's my situation: This all started about 10 years ago. When I was in 6th grade I developed a persistent, hacking, barking, cough. I went to a bunch of doctors and they determined that I was allergic to the family dog. I went on allergy shots, (which helped) and took anti-histamines (which didn't) but the cough never went away.

Fast forward to this past May... I went to a new allergist to get allergy tested again and he said that I was showing NO allergy to dogs and only a couple very mild allergies to dust and mold. So what's been causing this cough for 10 years? Silent Reflux. Silent. Freaking. Reflux. Not only was it to blame for my cough, but probably the sore throats and ear infections I've suffered with since I was a small child. Domino effect- because of the frequent ear infections I was put on an antibiotic that was recently linked to the malformation of adult teeth. AKA this silent reflux is ALSO to blame for all of my broken & cracked teeth.

Armed with my newfound ailment, I went to my family doctor who prescribed Nexium to ditch the reflux and heal any damage it might have done. My cough disappeared almost immediately, but I was still refluxing. Not like minor take a Tums and get over it reflux either. The one day I was watching TV and got a tickle in my throat. The combination of my reflux + my cough caused the contents of my stomach to spontaneously erupt onto my chest. Then a few weeks later I got _really_ sick in the morning before work. I was in so much pain that I went to the hospital. We thought it might be an ulcer so I stopped eating anything acidic or non ulcer friendly. Obviously something wasn't working so I made an appointment with my doctor again. The morning of my appointment I wasn't feeling very well, but that was getting to be pretty common. As the appointment went on I got sicker and sicker until I was crying and the doctor was a little disturbed. He called my husband and had him take me directly to the hospital. Of course the hospital does NOTHING except give me pain killers and send me home.

Next step, the doctor sets up an appointment for me to have an EGD. (They stick a camera down your throat into your stomach to look for ulcers.) This went fine and they didn't find anything- no ulcer, not even any real irritation. OK, so what next? While I had been avoiding acidic foods I was eating a lot of milk, cream, and other fatty foods which would implicate my gall bladder. At the hospital they had already done an ultrasound so it couldn't be gall stones.

Now we're up to the beginning of August and the more interesting problems.... The doctor set me up for a HIDA scan to test my gall bladder function and check for disease. I reported to the hospital and the wait was a bit longer than I expected. When I finally get called back, the tech tells me that the long wait was because they had to call my doctor to clarify his orders. Apparently he wrote out the order for the HIDA scan but forgot to ad the 2 letters that indicate the second part of the test which tests the function. The tech figured it was a mistake and called the doctor's office where the staff told the hospital that the doctor said to do the test as written, without the second part. I was a little confused by this, but that's what the doctor said so we went on with it. When I got home I started to double think myself and decided to e-mail my doctor to make sure that's what was supposed to happen. Apparently no one in his office had talked to him after all, it WAS a mistake, and I would probably have to repeat the test if these results came back negative. This was the last straw with this doctor (the office staff has screwed up several times, 2 of which were MAJOR screw-ups) so I fired him. Later that week the test results came back. Negative. Great- all that for nothing.

That brings us up to now. I now have no family doctor, but I'm still really sick. I've lost 25lbs because I can't hardly eat anything. I'm always tired and sick to my stomach so we think I'm suffering from malnutrition on top of whatever is wrong with me. I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. Soooo.... I tried to call the GI specialist that did my EGD to see if he'll take over my treatment, but his office closes at 4:00pm. What business closes at 4:00pm? Freakin A.... So Monday I'm going to try to call him again, but in the mean time I'm miserable.

Don't get me wrong, I know I've got it better than a ton of people. I could have cancer or some incurable disease like Krohn's (which 2 friends of mine have.) One of the girls I went to HS with developed a (non-cancerous) tumor in her spinal canal. They did surgery and removed it but didn't think she'd walk again. Luckily they were wrong and after a LOT of PAINFUL physical therapy, she's walking again. I'm very glad that I'm not in any of their shoes, but I'm still not enjoying this.

There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes.

2007-08-26T00:46:00.000-04:00

The title is another quote from the immortal Doctor Who!

As I left off in my introduction post, we now live in a small rental house. Most of the neighborhood is young families so we're probably the youngest couple on the block. It may not be true home-ownership, but it's a house. My house. For the next 12 months...) I get to paint, decorate, do yard work. It's great! I have to say my favorite part is the washer & dryer. I can do laundry at 3am, I don't have to worry about anyone pissing in the dryer, and I don't have to sit and watch it to keep people from walking off with my clothes. Now that we have this place I can't help but think I'm an adult. It's so weird because I still feel like that nervous 18 year old just away at college. When I visit my parents I have to stop myself from saying or thinking I'm going home for the weekend because that's not home anymore. "My bedroom" is now my parent's guest room and my mom's extra closet.

The first couple times I went "home" it was just weird. Before I got there I figured it would be the same as it had always been. At first it seemed I was right. All of my old stuff was there. The furniture was where I left it, my books were still on the shelf, even my old stuffed animals were there. It was physically the same place, but it seemed liked everything had changed. The rules were all different. You know how you feel unsure of what you should or shouldn't do or say when you're a house guest? That's how I felt, but my mom still expected me to do chores. I felt like a guest at a really rude hotel! As the old saying goes "I guess you never can go home again." After my mom's friend left her husband and moved into my childhood bedroom all illusion of it being "home" left and now it's not so weird when I go to visit.

Back to adulthood... as I said that feels SOOO weird to type. Was there some magical moment when I was transformed into an adult? I don't feel any different. Suddenly I have a house, a job, and bills. I think the weirdest part of being an adult is how much money I spend on stamps! I guess if "home" isn't home anymore, I'll get used to the idea of being an adult sometime. That doesn't mean I have to act like a grown-up all the time though =)

First things first, but not necessarily in that order.

2007-08-25T23:54:00.000-04:00

The title is a quote from one of my favorite people- Doctor Who!

Well, I guess I should start out by saying that this is (will be?) my first blogging experience. I apologize in advance.

I'm sure most of the people reading this will be friends, acquaintances, teachers, and other such people who know at least the basics about me; but there's bound to be a couple people who end up here by some random coincidence. It's for the latter that this initial post exists.

I'm currently married to my high school sweetie, Eric. We got married Oct. 21 2006 so I guess that still makes us newlyweds for a couple more months. Nothing here is really spectacular, we're pretty average I guess. We're both in our mid-twenties, fresh out of school, and poor as hell. Eric finished his degree, but I'm taking a "break." AKA I dropped out. We live in a small house, which we rent, with our 3 dogs and 1 cat. We pay too much to rent this place, but I'm just happy to be out of the whole apartment complex situation.

We've had our royal luck with the apartment complexes. While we were in school it was decent- we lived in a really nice apartment complex, but we had 2 other male roomies.... With the wedding coming up we (well, I) decided it'd be a good time to ditch the roomies. Not knowing the Columbus area we ended up with a 3 bedroom apartment and the far east side of the city. Hello ghetto town!!! Within a week our "nice" apartment was falling apart. As if that wasn't bad enough, one night Eric went out to walk the dogs before bed (this is midnight-ish) and sees what he thinks at first is a Hummer. Not a hummer. SWAT armored vehicle. Big difference!! Needless to say I was in a big hurry to get the hell out of there at this point. Long story short- The landlord thought we were stupid. He found out otherwise after he was sited for 11 code violations. He let us break lease =)

From there we moved to the far WEST side into a complex recommended by a friend/co-worker/unhealthy schoolgirl crush of mine. This place really wasn't bad, but the average age was probably mid-twenties. I always feel odd bitching about my own age group but I've really found there there's a major difference between calendar age and maturity. I'm 22, but I'm married, settled down, and pretty much boring. These "kids" living around us were all about the parties, loud music, and drunken stupidity.

All that brings us to now!