Memage

stolen from... well, everyone I know.

Back to normal

The weekend holiday rush is officially over. I had a HORRIBLY busy Saturday at work. We almost set a record for money taken in.. but didn't quite get there. If my morning had been anywhere near as busy as my afternoon...we would have smashed the record. Either way, I really enjoyed being busy.

Thanksgiving was great and sad at the same time. I did get to spend some much needed time with my parents. But, it was very hard for them to spend their first holiday dog-less. It was especially hard when I first got to their house and Tiger spent a good three or four minutes running around the house looking for Jackson. I quickly took him out in the backyard to play fetch, which makes everything better to my dog. The dinner was very good, as always with my mom, and we exchanged birthday presents a little early. My mother got me some very cute Polynesian turtle earrings she had purchased in Hawaii. They exactly match the ones on my wedding invites. SO CUTE!

My mother boxed up a lot of doggie toys and accessories (shampoos, heartworm things, flea spray, etc) that belonged to Jackson that we could take home. She also got G and me a stone dog statue for our house. It sounds silly, but it's really really cute. I'll take pictures when I can.

G and I spent the weekend starting our Christmas shopping. Then, G left Monday morning to head back to Houston for work. I got spoiled having him around for a whole week. We get so much more done around the house. (He's very handy!)

Obviously, it's very slow at work today. Otherwise, I would not be blogging in my office. I'm meeting friends after work for a drink... conveniently located at the bar next door to my condo. Then, another friend is coming over later tonight for Nip/Tuck. It's a new thing we started a few weeks ago. Gym, take-out, and Nip/Tuck.

Jackson

Tuesday mid-afternoon I get a frantic call from my mother. Our 11 year old dalmatian, Jackson, was whimpering in pain and shivering. At first, my parents believed it was just something he ate outside (he's prone to eating bizarro plants in the back yard), but when it kept up longer than they deemed appropriate for weird plant eating my father scooped up the dog and took him to the vet.

The vet does all the necessary vet-like testing... and determines our dog has bladder stones. LARGE bladder stones. Two of them to be exact. He said they were both the size of large olives. Since they were so large, they were going to have to be removed surgically. Since the next day was the day before Thanksgiving... the dog would have to have surgery, be transfered over night to the emergency vet's office.. and my parents could retrieve him Friday. My mom balked at the cost of the emergency vet boarding.. but I reminded her how much *I'd* want to be paid for working a major national holiday away from family... and that seemed to make it more understandable.

So, by lunch time Wednesday I'm getting a little concerned that I haven't heard from my mother. Jackson was scheduled for sugery first thing in the morning. If you know my mother.. she's all about the updates, by phone, email, town crier, and sometimes a bizarre email/phone combination to make sure I got said email. In calling my mother over lunch I know immediately something wrong. The first words aren't "how is your day going?" they're... "Oh, I was hoping you wouldn't call while you were at work". Shit. Shit. Shit.

Apparently, when the vet opened jackson to remove the bladder stones, he discovered the dog was riddled with cancer. (abdomen, intestines, pancreas, liver) The dog had shown no signs of pain before Tuesday, went for his walks twice a day with my dad, and never missed a meal. My parents had noticed he was slowing down some, but hell, he was 11 !! They decided the only humane thing to do was to end the poor dogs pain. The hardest part for my parents was not getting to say goodbye. The vet didn't want them to drive in and see the dog the way he was post-surgery attempt. They agreed to cremate the dog.. and are taking him up to our mountain property, which was his favorite spot on earth.

Needless to say, I lost it at work. Fortunately, I was eating in the back with a co-worker so no patients saw me. I was horribly busy for the day or I would have cancelled patients and left. But, I wasnt about to call people an hour before their exam so I could go home and cry. I explained to my 3pm patient why I was a little quiet... and he understood. It seems almost every person I talk to has lost a dog at one point and most understand how traumatic it is. They really are family members.

Jackson was a huggy, smiley, full of energy dog. Yes, he had his shit-head moments... but don't we all ? My father is taking it the hardest. Jackson is his walking buddy, his pillow, his partner in crime (and while I was living at home.. the only other testosterone in the house). He will be truly missed .. and I still tear up every time I think about him being gone.

Black Friday

Why on earth would anyone want to shop in large crowds at 5am !!?? I just fundamentally don't get it.

Closets

The closets are DONE ! I'm so happy to have things in my guest room organized. You have NO idea!

Now, I will no longer be embarassed to actually have guests stay in that room.

Once I finally have a digital camera (thank you, birthday) again.. I'll post pics of my new and improved closets!

I'm thoroughly enjoying having G home and not traveling this week. It's so nice. I feel like I actually have a hubby. heh.

Game Time

It's time to play another round of "what bring people to my blog!"

Here's the list of Google search terms bringing people to my blog this week: (one of these came from Singapore too.. wonder which one?)

"leber's optic"

tampa snorkel

boxspring vs slats

bar louie tampa dollar burgers

What I love about being an optometrist

creamy chicken enchiladas let's eat

how much do optometrists working for lenscrafters make?

500 dollar jeans

optometric hell

new glasses

Not very blog worthy

I know I've been very quiet recently. I haven't really been in a blog mood. And, I got scolded for it last night on the phone with Suz and her DH.

I had to call the above blogger and bestest friend because she is the sweetest! I got home from work last night to find a package in my mailbox. YAY PACKAGES! Suz knitted me a burnt orange and white fuzzy scarf. It's SO CUTE!! The only problem is.. it's so fuzzy my dog thinks it's a toy for him. He spent most of the night begging at the kitchen table because the scarf was on top of the table. Silly dog.

Here's what the scarf looks like: (as seen on Suz's doggie Mona)


So, THANK YOU SUZ !!


There was drama at work this weekend which I'd rather not get into. Needless to say, one of my techs was fired for lack of respect. It was stressful, hard, and no where near fun. It's definitely not one of the things they teach you in school... people management. I didn't enjoy it, but it needed to be done to get control of the office back.

My closet boxes showed up on Friday and Monday. I think I mentioned before G and I are redoing our guest room closets to have some semblance of organization going on. Right now our guest room is the junk room and it's driving me crazy. The UPS guy officially hates us. FOURTEEN boxes of closet stuff... total weight 423 lbs !! And no, sorry dude, we don't have an elevator and we do, in fact, live on the third floor of our building. Now G and I have a weekend project. Operation: Put all this BS together and hope of of those boxes has directions in it !! Heh. I wish I had my digital camera working to show all the carnage that's about to ensue.

I just saw the dumbest thing ever at Target. PINK Izaac Mizrahi doggie poop bags in a pink kleenx type dispenser. Now, doggie poop bags aren't dumb per se.. but the fact that these pink ones were 100 for $14.99 !!! Why on EARTH would you pay FIFTEEN dollars for pink doggie poop baggies !!?? WHY !!?? Using a left over baggie from your local grocery store or hell even Target itself is FREE and you get to recycle at the same time.

Fifteen dollars for poo baggies. Jeebus.

Updates

The Halloween party we went to Saturday night was fairly lame. I'm kinda upset I took G to it. It wasn't the best first impression of the hash. By the time we got there (at 8pm no less) everyone was already HAMMERED. So, when you're the only sober people around a bunch of drunks.. it's just not that fun. I also found out that one of the girls in the group is a very mean drunk. I'll definitely keep running with the hash.. I might just opt out of some parties though after seeing this. It was rather disappointing, frankly. Not that I expected people to not drink. But, to have people passing out at 8pm is kinda bad form. I could tell G was less than impressed.

Sunday, G and I spent the day organizing the new closets we want to order. We're trying to do something like California closets, but cheaper. G found a site online where you can measure your closet and design the patterns and options you want online. You even pick out your colors and hardware (rail colors and pulls, etc). We decided to try it on the two guest room closets first. Then, if things work out well we'll tackle the most expensive closet in the master bedroom. It also gives us a project to get done while G's home the week of Thanksgiving.

Is it bad that the only reason I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving is that I get a week home with G?

Work was actually busy yesterday. But, unfortunately, today is terminally slow. I'm actually spending the morning watching G's flight from LA to Houston on the flight tracker. Yes, I'm really that bored. Why else would I be blogging at work ?