Coq au vin and a new year

Car 0, Bennet 1

We saw the vet again today (B at first happy to see people she recognized, then dashing towards the door when she realized she had to go to the back room with them again) and her IV catheter was removed. Aside from some missing patches of fur and her very stiff gait, you'd never guess she'd been hit by a lexus.

The vet mentioned B's weird howling from the night before. "That's actually a side effect of the pain medication we gave her. When it wears off, it can affect their CNS. She was probably having hallucinations."

Sent mail

Bennet got hit by a car on Wednesday night. It was all pretty traumatic for us both (her more than me of course), but she's a tough dog (the vet put a note in B's chart stating that she was "stoic") and I think we're lucky it wasn't any worse.

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B is at the hospital for the day and spent the night at the emergency vet clinic. She appears to have avoided some of the really bad things - it looks like no injuries to internal organs, no internal bleeding, etc. She had some shock and is having issues with a front and hind leg. They've given her morphine and if she's not too tender they'll take some x-rays today. The vet says the first 72 hours are the most critical so they may decide to have her spend another night in the hospital in case things take a turn for the worse. All things told though she's doing remarkably well although she's in a lot of pain and is pretty freaked out. I'll hear more later this afternoon and will let you know if there are further developments.

I'm okay but obviously upset and can't really talk about this. I have good support over here and friends nearby if I need anything. Keep sending good thoughts in Bennet's direction as she's not totally out of the woods.

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I brought Bennet home last night and loaded her up with pain medication. She was much perkier than when I'd last seen her and was able to walk and get herself into/out of the car. There were a few scary moments - she was definitely in a lot of pain and making some weird noises - but she was distracted by peanut butter and once the pain meds kicked in she was out for the night. She had a pretty quiet night and got some much-needed rest. This morning B was ambulating around the house and we were able to go on a short (really short) walk. She's still lying around, groggy from the meds, but wags her tail from time to time. I got some very smelly chew things for her and at the moment she's busily working away at a bully stick and I'm trying to light every last candle in my house.

We're going back to the vet later today to get her IV catheter removed (the green thing on her foreleg) and to hear if there's any damage to her limbs. She doesn't have broken bones, but may have torn ligaments, etc.

Thanks for your concern...I think she's out of the woods!

 

To Do

It's the week before I go back to school and my task list is getting longer, not shorter. I need to: buy books for school, stay up until 2, clean the cluttered linen closet, mail B's rabies records so she doesn't lose her head if she bites someone, finish reading book, pay my bills, find a nutrition brochure for last quarter's psych clinical (oops!), clean out my shoe closet (seriously, where do all these shoes come from and why don't I ever have any to wear?), organize my negatives, take a bath, pilot test the Behavioral Health in BT Module for M, go on dates, take down Xmas decorations, get B's hair out of the car, plan for Africa in the fall, work, read five more books, sleep in until 9, sell second-hand books, cook....


 

Xmas, part 2

I had a lovely Christmas with immediate family and extended family and family-in-law and future family and assorted hangers-on and wine. I received some nice gifts, including a space heater that I really need in my icy cold apartment, particularly in light of the $200 heating bill I just got for the month. Despite the sub-50 degree weather in my apartment in the mornings, I just couldn't bring myself to actually buy a space heater. I heard a story of a friend of a friend whose space heater caught her dog on fire and caused the whole house to burn down. I'm not sure how flammable B might be, but I was pretty sure that she'd be less at risk if I left the heater picking out and buying to someone else.

So the parents came through and I have a shiny new space heater. It warms up quickly and somehow it directs the heat, so you don't have to warm the whole place up to feel the effect, you just have to position yourself correctly within the cone of heat. Which means you have about an inch of wiggle room or it's back to 50 degrees for one or more of your body parts.

I plugged it in last night and B became really unsettled, walking in circles, whimpering, hopping on and off the bed without invitation. It seemed like the heater was bugging her, but I didn't see any smoke coming from her direction. Still, I'm keeping an eye on her.

Family gathering

Breaking down barriers at the family gathering

View from my lap

Merry Christmas Lenin

Open house casualties, continued

There's a funny smell in my house and I can't seem to track down the source. I'm fairly certain its appearance followed the open house. I've checked all of the usual suspects: took out the trash, washed the dishes, cleaned out the refrigerator, flushed the kitchen drains, checked under the coffee table for B's vomit. But to no avail. I'm a little bit afraid that a month from now I'll find out that one of my guests mistook the plant pot for a food receptacle or that I inadvertantly stuffed some plates of hors d'oeurves in the coat closet.

Xmas, part 1

Out with the girlfriends for our annual Xmas dinner/gift exchange. O felt like getting some comfort food so we went to the BOB which had actual, real comfort food on the menu: beef stroganoff, mac and cheese, beef stew, tuna noodle casserole, etc. Our waiter was a real treat - when another diner asked him what the sweet chili sauce that came with the fried chicken was he responded 'um, it's a sweet chili sauce.' N asked what chicken piccata was and his answer was 'it's chicken. cooked. there's a sauce.' My dinner was so-so, but the recommended mushroom medley poppers ('it's mushrooms, in a fried thing') and my dirty martini were very comforting.

The sidewalk

I was jogging back from a quick trip to my car this morning (which I couldn't find at first...few too many drinks with K last night) to look for my cell phone (which wasn't there and I thought I'd left it at the bar until M called and I heard it buzzing from under a pile of blankets on the sofa) when a squirrel lept out of a bush, bounced off of my thigh, and then scurried across the road.

Open house casualties

I hosted an open house last weekend which was a lot of work but also a really fun time. People from my family, school, work, and college showed up and chatted. I guess I've hosted a few events in the years that I've known some of these folks; N described the gathering as "like a reunion".

Anyhow, in the last mad rush to get everything clean and/or hidden, I started stuffing things into every closet and cupboard and I'm afraid it's going to take me another year to dig them all out again. One of the MIA's is B's brush and she's looking a bit matty...

Nursing skills

Text message from R today: "I have pinkeye. Please advise."

I called him

R: "I'm surprised you didn't notice my pinkeye when I saw you the other day."

Me: "Oh yeah. I saw that your eyes were kind of red. I thought you were stoned."

So much for my powers of nursing assessment.

Woodlawn Ave

B and I walked up to Wallingford tonight and took a detour from our usual route to check out a Christmas light display on Woodlawn. There were a number of houses with a more-than-typical number of lights and figures around, including one with Buddha wearing a santa hat, so we slowly wandered down the street to look at the main attraction. We stood across the street from the most bedecked house and took in the lights, the music (Santa Claus is Coming to Town), the signs, the candy canes, the reindeer, the Mrs. Claus standing behind santa who was rocking in a chair, and on and on. I said something to B like "this is out of control" and we crossed the street to get a closer look at some of the display. We stood there staring at the street, me and B alone on this quiet (other than the music) road, and suddenly the santa leaned forward and waved at us. It was one of those hold-out-your-hand-and-bend-the-fingers-down-to-your-palm waves that left no doubt that some real person was there under the santa suit and fake beard rocking back and forth all night long. Keeerrrrreeeeeeeeepy.

Hotel Beresford

 

Union Square

 

How I got my MVP status

I'm in California for a couple of days on business which should give me a chance to touch base with the office, meet a few new coworkers, finish up a project with a client, and get the last 300 miles I need for my Alaska Air MVP status next year. I don't know that I'll have many chances to fly in 2006, but when I do I'll be eligible for free upgrades!

I took a dozen Top Pot donuts with me from downtown Seattle all the way to Arden Way. It was a little bit of a juggle to manage the bags, the coffee, the donuts and the security line, but everything got there intact. I've noticed though that it's a lot easier to carry two bags and a box of donuts onto a plane when you're seated in first class. The donuts were quite popular with the office crew - hurrah!

"Find yourself and go there"

From T's coffee mug.

Lincoln Center

Last night was Saturday - date night! - and I actually had plans to do just that. I usually don't mention things like this in my blog in the event that the parties involved may read this site at some point, but the date was just so...so BAD that I'm willing to take the risk.

I had met this person last week; we were set up by a friend and met for drinks and things went fine. There weren't any fireworks, but there never are for me the very first time I meet someone. Examples: C talked of nothing but himself on our first meeting. D made a girl cry the first time I met him. G...well, I don't remember what I thought of G when we first met but he was dating someone else at the time anyway, so it wasn't important. K struck me as interesting and funny...and that was flat wrong. So when I don't get too excited the first time I meet someone, I don't feel like it means anything which is why I made plans to go on a date with this guy last night.

I should have called off the date as soon as we made our plans. We met for dinner at 8, in Bellevue, at a restaurant called 'What the Pho". Now pho today is what teriyaki must've been ten years ago - a $5 dinner with chopsticks and a paper napkin. This pho place was no exception and there was cafeteria lighting (and tables and chairs) and a tv on in the corner. The guy arrived and we ordered our pho and tried to have a conversation, but I was a little too bugged with the situation to invest a lot in it. Pho?? On a date? When you're not in high school? I made it through dinner and when the check arrived I reached for my wallet. Now this is something I do on a first date. I reach for my wallet and wait for the guy to say "no, I've got this one" and then I offer to split it and he says no and I insist and he insists and I say something cute about getting the check the next time. It's just how it's done. So the bill comes and I reach for my wallet and the guy takes my money! He didn't even offer to pay for my $5 bowl of noodles.

In the meantime, here's how our conversation went:
I told him an interesting story and he said: "so that's just a long way of saying that you don't like sprouts."
I talked about my OB class and how I was having vivid dreams about attending births and he said: "it sounds like you're really insecure about how well you understand the material."
I asked if he'd heard that Richard Pryor died and he said: "no. But blah-de-blah won the Heisman trophy."

Next we went over to Lincoln Center which was the reason he picked the pho restaurant in the first place. LC is this big empty box next to Bellevue Square with a few restaurants, a bar, a container store and a movie theater. He was interested in checking it out - "it's just opening this weekend. It's going to be packed" - and so we drove there and parked in the garage. We were parked nearer to the stairs than the elevater - him: "you don't mind taking the stairs, right?" - so I lugged my butt, in my high heels, up five flights of stairs. When we finally got to the bar/pool hall he wanted to go to there was a big sign outside announcing "private party". Thank god. I'd really had it with him by this time and was prepared to have exactly one drink and then get out as fast as I could, which would be a lot faster if there wasn't a game of pool to finish. So then we headed to another restaurant/bar, taking the stairs - in my high heels - down three flights of stairs to discover that all of the doors from the stairwell were locked. So we wandered up and down and then finally made it onto the street and had to loop back around to get into a restaurant.

I had my one drink - in a bar with a tv on the wall - and left for home.

Cheese

B and I took an afternoon walk this cold, crisp winter day to drop my Xmas cards in the mailbox and pick up some limes for the endless baking projects I've lined up.

We were on our way home and I was swinging my bag of limes and chatting with B when a man stopped us on the sidewalk. "Excuse me, as a dog owner can you tell me what kind of cheese dogs like to eat?" I thought about it for a half second, and replied "I'm pretty sure they'll eat whatever's offered them." I must've had a weird look on my face because I thought it seemed like a pretty random question. "Oh," he said, "I thought it was muttzarella." Ha ha. So I smiled and wished him good afternoon and B and I took a few steps past him when he said "you're a beautiful redhead you know!" Um, thanks I think? Last time I checked, my hair was brown.

Xmas lights

Dad came over this weekend with his ladder and we put up my Christmas lights. I got these last year and on the box they looked like they were cranberry colored. Once it was dark out and I turned on the lights for the first time I saw that they're more of a neon pink than a cranberry. Not even more than, they ARE neon pink. But I love them. I can't decide if they put me in a holiday mood or just make me think of strippers but either way I feel more festive when those lights are on. 

BT reunion

J came into town this weekend which prompted a little reunion of our bioterrorism club. As I related my most recent dating disasters, they chit-chatted about labor and children and I realized how much I missed my daily interactions with J and E despite the smallpox and anthrax powder and vaccination plans and so on. That's the story of my life in BT: great people, lousy times.

Paradox

It really seems that when I have time to write things in this blog I have nothing to say, no stories, no interesting events, but when I have those things I don't have time to write.

The quarter's ending soon though, so my season of boredom and frustration is coming to a close and surely more exciting things are about to occur!

Watching the local news today, I saw a story about a couple in their twenties who are traveling around the world for a year and maintaining a travel blog. And that's it - that was the news. It hardly seems worth a mention; there must be thousands of people who do the same or even more interesting things with their blogs.