Howdy, Partner

It was a good weekend. Finally. Nobody was sick, no dogs sliced their paws open, beautiful weather, lots of alcohol---good stuff!

As a general statement, life has been the same down here. Work, rest, work, water aerobics, more work, tons of snow, followed by more work. The sun came out this weekend though, and I suddenly feel about a million times better about life! I even took a nap in the backyard yesterday and received my first very minor sunburn of the year! I am now an entire shade off of the glow-in-the-dark hue that I've been rocking for months and months. It's really not noticeable, but I'm thrilled regardless! We have also been planning to do some landscaping including planting a huge garden and fencing off part of the yard to stop the mutts from touching noses and barking incessantly with the naughty retrievers in the neighboring yard. Oh yeah, and building a box with a cat sized door so that the dogs don't have access to the litter boxes and the delicious "crunch bars" found within!

As always happens to me and I assume to other people with the cleaning and organizing form of what can only be referred to as OCD that I have, the sun came out, and I feel the overwhelming desire to do some Spring cleaning! Yikes! I already cleaned out the garage, revamped my fish tank, rearranged the living room in both my house and Jared's, and washed my comforter and all my bedding. I don't know why I can't shake this habit, but I want to donate old clothes and toss all my crap next! I guess it's good not to hold onto things for too long, but why the NEED to do it right now? Weird. Maybe I'll just go buy some MORE house plants. That's also a very "Springy" thing to do. I'm running out of space for more plants though...which leads me right back to the cleaning thing...

I'm going to New York City in a week and a half to finally see that Behcet's specialist! Sweet! I honestly have no idea if he is going to be able to tell me anything I don't already know, but it's certainly worth a shot. Plus I get to see my mom and hang out in the Big Apple for 5 days!



A few random thoughts to finish out this post:

-Dogs are furry and dirty and I wish I had 100, but only if they could all be as awesome as the two I have now. (See photo)

-I may have gotten my ass handed to me this year worse than I ever have before. My brackets died quick and painful deaths the first weekend of the tourney.

-I want to buy a king sized bed. Now. But have nowhere to put it.

-I got these awesome new fish this weekend that I'm hopeful that I won't have to refer to them as "Breakfast," "Lunch," and "Dinner" in the near future. Stupid giant catfish!

Howdy, Partner!

17?

In other news, my little brother (who is now much taller than me), turned 17 a few days ago! It's definitely a concept that I'm having a lot of trouble grasping. I can't believe how fast time flies by! I remember the evening that my parents told me I was going to have a brother or sister, the morning he was born, and his first smile. I can't believe that the voice I hear on the phone now when I call home could possibly belong to that baby who's diapers I changed and who I used to rock and sing to sleep!

Anyway, there is another birthday coming up this week as well...my little baby Hyside is going to be 2 years old! I guess I'm going to have to stop using the excuse that they're still puppies when the mutts are being naughty from now on! Eh...no need to get carried away! :)

Oh yeah, I finally decided to take the advice of my Rheumatologist and signed up for a warm water exercise class. It's been pretty fun! Class only started a few weeks ago, but it seems like a really good thing for me. No unnecessary stress on my joints and I actually get a pretty good workout. I've been sore after both classes this week anyway! The class is mostly old ladies, but there are some younger people, too. The other girl who is my age is definitely a model, but I'm trying not to let that bother me. I'm still recovering and I'll get in shape eventually...plus I get to eat, which is awesome as far as I'm concerned! The best part of the whole water deal might be the hilarious one-piece bathing suit that I bought on the internet for $14! It is orange with that paramecia-looking pattern all over it. It was either that or solid lime green...ew. It's pretty funny, trust me!

I'm up to working between 35 and 40 hours a week most weeks now and I'm in charge of a really cool program at work that launches next week and is gonna finally get us moving in the right direction to go paperless and is also gonna put us leaps and bounds ahead of the competition as far as ease of communication and access to records etc. I'm SO excited for it to be up and running!

That's it for now!

I'm Still Alive!

The fact that my last blog post was written before Christmas indicates that I've been either busy or lazy. I'm gonna use both as an excuse if you don't mind. There has been a lot going on, but I'll highlight just the awesome for now.

For starters, I got some of the sweetest Christmas presents ever, and have been spending lots of time enjoying them! My new comforter set (which matches my curtains) finally pulled me out of my college days and into the life of a real adult, as Jared put it. My bread maker is putting in some serious time and trying its hardest to fatten me up! Homemade bread is just SO good! Oh yeah, and I can listen to my ipod in the car once again. Definitely a lifesaver, as I was really, really tired of listening to the same cds over and over. Let's see...the turds also made out incredibly well. I must have missed all the time they spent being good dogs and earning all those presents! They have been sporting new plastic coated collars and shiny new name tags, eating out of ceramic bowls and begging for treats out of their matching ceramic doggy treat jar, and playing with an orange and a blue "squeak-o-saurus." Oh yeah, and they have been spending their nights at home snug as little bugs in their crates, since Kona finally got a new one. She isn't so thrilled about that last one, but I'm pretty pumped to not be fighting the mutts for bed space every night!

As if all of the above wasn't already more than I deserved, I got one more awesome gift...a Buddah Treat for 2 and a one night stay at the New Moon cottage at Ten Thousand Waves! Ten Thousand Waves is a ritzy Japanese Spa just outside of Santa Fe that, I've been told, is one of the 1,000 places to visit before you die (or something like that). Pretty awesome! It was torture having to wait the 3 weeks between Christmas and our appointment!

Allow me to brag a bit now as I share how awesome it was! We checked into our room and then immediately headed up for 3 hours of complete bliss! The package that we enjoyed was called the Buddha Treat and included heat, detoxification, bodywork, and exfoliation.

This was the schedule:

• a regular private bath
• a deluxe herbal wrap
• a private 55-minute therapeutic massage
• a salt glow
  

By the herbal wrap, I was already as relaxed as can be. I got a neck and shoulder massage during the wrap and the best therapeutic massage that I've ever had! When we were done, we somehow stumbled back to the room, got dressed, and drove back into town for take-out Thai food. We ate in front of the fire in our room, New Moon (a beautiful room, which felt way more like home than like a hotel) and, since we were pretty much must from our treatments, we fell asleep right after dinner. We slept in with no dogs to wake us and I hit the women's tub for an hour while Jared was at the gym. Naked bathing with other women is a little awkward, but it was still a relaxing end to our stay! After that, we packed up, hit the gift store for a few good-smelling lotions and potions, and headed home. I have never been spoiled like that before, and I've gotta say that, if I was a trust fund baby, I'd spend every dime relaxing at Ten Thousand Waves and not regret it!

Happy Holidays!

It seems the holiday season is upon us once again. The weather down here has been sunny and warm, but rumor has it, there's a storm headed our way. And, besides the increased discomfort associated with lower pressure, I'm definitely hoping for a white Christmas this year!

I somehow managed to get all of my Christmas shopping done over a week ago, so I'm pretty much just enjoying not being involved with the last minute shopping madness that is going on around me. My wonderful mother sent me a box of holiday decorations, including the mini tree featured in last year's Christmas posts, so the house is even decorated. In fact, my roommate went out and chopped down a real tree this year, so we have not 1, but 2 trees. Beat that! There is a pile of gifts under the tree and most of them are for my dogs!

I'm looking forward to a relaxing Christmas spent drinking eggnog with Jared and snuggling with my babies. The one thing I better do is figure out what we're eating for Christmas dinner though! Or it's gonna be Panda Express...ugh. After eating Sonic by myself for Christmas last year, that does not sound very appealing!

Now, since I've made it a habit, I shall share with you, some of the things that I am thankful for this year. :)

~My spinal surgeon and my physical therapist. Dr. Reyna actually listened to me when I told him I couldn't deal with the pain anymore and did something to make it better. (He even gave me some robotic parts!) And Char has once again, come up with a way to work the rest of the kinks out and to help me feel better and recover more quickly. While recovery has been a long process, I'm SO much better than I was a year ago and so much happier because of it!

~A safe living situation. It is miserable to not feel safe at home. I'm so happy to have a roommate who is not scary and place to lay my head that feels 100% safe. It is something I hope to never take for granted again.

~My crazy mutts. Once again, my year has been better simply because I have them. They are a constant source of entertainment, doggy kisses, harassment, and smiles. Although it sometimes seems as though they cost me a fortune, I can't imagine how boring my life would be without their fuzzy faces running around and being literally smothered in doggy kisses!

~Family. My family has been an amazing source of support, both financially and mentally, over the past year. My mom came down and stayed with me for a month while I was recovering from surgery, my dad helped me get a new car when the Quackmobile was nearing it's death, and my little brother is just awesome. They do so many things for me and I always know they are there for me. I love you!

~Friends, old and new. Even though I haven't seen or talked to many of them in a while, it's nice to know that I have friends, even as far away as Nepal, who I can still talk to as if we saw each other yesterday! I miss you guys! It's also nice to finally meet people down here who I can just be myself around and who put up with my mangy mutts!

~Jared. All I'll say is that surprising and amazing things find you when you least expect them and that sometimes they have been right in front of you all along!

~Having my credit card payed off. Being in debt, even just a little bit, had been weighing on me for a couple of years. Last week, I decided to cash some savings bonds and put my Christmas bonus and some other cash toward getting my balance to zero. I did it! And I feel absolutely fantastic about it!

Happy Holidays!

101 THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW COULD HARM YOUR PET

Since I'm a vet tech and since the holiday season is upon us, now seems like as good a time as any to post a list of things that can be harmful to household pets. This list was put together by the ASPCA, so it's the real deal. Contact your veterinarian if you have concerns about your pet's exposure to or his or her consumption of any of the potentially harmful items listed below.

101 THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW COULD HARM YOUR PET

HOUSEHOLD ITEMS
1. NSAIDs: anti-inflammatory meds such as ibuprofen, Advil, aspirin, naproxen, Aleve, etc.
2. Acetaminophen aka Tylenol
3. Cold and flu meds
4. Antidepressants
5. Vitamins
6. Home insect products
7. Rat and mouse bait or poison (We see A LOT of these cases. Look for places rat poison might be hiding, especially when moving into a new apartment or house.)
8. Bleach
9. Diet pills
10. Disinfectants
11. Fabric softener
12. Lead
13. Lighter fluid
14. Mothballs
15. Anti-cancer meds
16. Solvents such as paint thinner
17. Flea and tick products
18. Drain cleaners
19. Liquid potpourri
20. Slug and snail bait
21. Oven cleaner sprays
22. Lime/scale remover
23. Fly bait
24. Detergents
25. Tobacco products (recreational drugs as well)
PLANTS
26. Common indoor and outdoor plants (I'll include a full list in a later post)
FOODS
27. Avocados
28. Chocolate (A really common problem around holidays such as Easter, Halloween, and Christmas)
29. Coffee
30. Onions and onion powder
31. Garlic
32. Grapes
33. Raisins
34. Macadamia nuts
35. Alcoholic beverages
36. Moldy/spoiled foods
37. Salt
38. Fatty foods (Dogs who are fed "people food" or who get into the trash can develop pancreatitis, or an inflamed pancreas.)
39. Gum, candies, or other foods sweetened with xylitol
40. Tea leaves
41. Raw yeast dough
OBJECTS
42. Balls, specifically balls that are small or have a smooth outer coating
43. Batteries
44. Bread twist ties
45. Buttons
46. Coins
47. Cotton swabs
48. Glass
49. Hair pins
50. Jewelry
51. Nylons
52. Paper clips
53. Plastic wrap
54. Socks (We also see a lot of dogs who eat underwear)
55. Rubber-bands and hair ties
56. Sharp objects such as knives, razors, scissors, nails, screws, needles, etc.
57. String, yarn or dental floss (also fibers from rugs, rope dog toys, etc.)
58. Towels
59. Wax
TROUBLE AREAS
60. Balconies
61. Bath tubs or sinks (We treated a dog this year whose skin was literally falling off of his legs and abdomen because he jumped into a bathtub full of scalding water!)
62. Doors and windows
63. Electrical cords
64. Fireplace
65. Toilets
66. Washer and dryer
OUTSIDE
67. Algae (some forms are toxic)
68. Antifreeze/Coolant (some types are toxic even in very small amounts)
69. Fire pit/Grill
70. Fences or gates (Dogs can be strangled by fencing while trying to escape. Sadly, this happened to a dog belonging to one of the vets I work with.)
71. Deck lattice
72. De-icing salts (try to choose "pet friendly" varieties)
73. Compost
74. Gasoline
75. Oil
76. Pesticides
77. Cocoa bean shell mulch fertilizer
78. Swimming pools and hot tubs
HOLIDAY HAZARDS
79. Alcohol
Valentine's Day
80. Flowers and candy
Easter
81. Fake grass
82. Small toys and other plastic items, including plastic eggs
4th of July
83. Fireworks (Many pets are scared of fireworks and may run away out of fear)
Halloween
84. Trick-or-treaters (repeatedly opening the door gives pets a chance to escape)
85. Candles
86. Xylitol (this sweetener is toxic to pets)
87. Chocolate
Thanksgiving
88. Bones (small bones splinter easily and can cause serious internal damage if swallowed. Never give chicken, turkey, or other small animal bones to your pet!)
89. Hot containers
Christmas
90. Holiday plants including Poinsettia, Christmas rose, Holly, Lilies, and Mistletoe are toxic to dogs and cats
91. Ribbon around a pets neck creates a choking hazard
92. Bubbling lights
93. Fire salts
94. Angel hair aka spun glass
95. Christmas tree water
96. Decoration hooks
97. Styrofoam
98. Ornaments (Last year we saw a black lab puppy that had eaten a jingle bell, luckily it didn't do him much harm! And no, we couldn't hear it jingle when he walked around.)
99. Tinsel
New Year's
100. Balloons and confetti
101. Loud noises


ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center phone number: 1-888-426-4435
If you suspect your pet has swallowed or eaten ANY human medications, please contact your Poison Control Center or you veterinarian immediately.

Healthiest & Unhealthiest States

I did feel pretty darn good while I was in Vermont, despite all the rain. Perhaps being there WAS actually good for my health! I guarantee you that the kayaking certainly was! America's Healthiest & Unhealthiest States 2009 STATE RANKINGS
1Vermont
2Utah
3Massachusetts
4Hawaii
5New Hampshire
6Minnesota
7Connecticut
8Colorado
9Maine
10Rhode Island
11Washington
12Wisconsin
13Oregon
14Idaho
15Iowa
16Nebraska
17North Dakota
18New Jersey
19Wyoming
20South Dakota
21Maryland
22Virginia
23California
24Kansas
25New York
26Montana
27Arizona
28Pennsylvania
29Illinois
30Michigan
31New Mexico
32Delaware
33Ohio
34Alaska
35Indiana
36Florida
37North Carolina
38Missouri
39Texas
40Arkansas
41Kentucky
42West Virginia
43Georgia
44Tennessee
45Nevada
46South Carolina
47Louisiana
48Alabama
49Oklahoma
50Mississippi