Quickie update – Cuervo’s still staying at the vet, but they have been calling us daily with reports. He’s “scarfing down food” and keeping it down. He’s also said to be in good spirits. The only problem is that they had to stop treating the big bad long-term problem in order to treat the big-bad short-term problem, so once his infections are healed, we have to restart the steroids and immuno-suppressants. And Kona is lonesome.
We hope to bring Cuervo home tomorrow.
Other stuff that’s been going on lately:
– Every time the neighbor’s AC goes on, our lights dim.
– I spent the night in NYC last Monday and had a great time. I left my camera in a cab, though. I did manage to grab the pics onto the computer beforehand.
– At least two more weeks of insane busyness ahead. I’ve also got a research paper due this week and a final exam next week. I’ve decided that I will not flip out if I get a B in this class. My GPA would still be a 3.9.
– We tried two new restaurants this week – Ventana (cooking school restaurant; okay prices, shaky service, uneven food) and Drakula (Romanian; good appetizer plate but when one makes polenta, one should use the salt; also, it smelled like someone’s grandmother’s house – a mix of cleaning products and cabbage – and was about the same 85 degree temperature atmosphere a grandmother would like, too).
-Two profs from last semester told me I should submit two different papers for publication.
The kids are with their grandparents in Houston right now. The dog is really sick. He’s got a particularly virulent form of autoimmune anemia and dogs with this condition have about a 40% survival rate. He’s been in and out of the hospital a few times over the last couple of weeks, most recently to get a blood transfusion and immunoglobulin. The steroids he’s on have knocked his immune system down – on purpose, so that it would quit attacking his red blood cells – but he’s developed a couple of infections and is in a good deal of pain. Today he couldn’t keep anything down, so he’s in the ICU.
I figured it would be better for the kids to be prepared that their dog might not be here when they get home, so I told them over the phone that Cuervo was sick and might not get better. Jo took it okay, although I’m sure she’ll privately fret about it. Caroline started sobbing. 🙁
May 26, 2007 - 11:28 pm Comments Off on My dog got run over by a whitetail
The dog’s been sick lately and he’s on a bunch of meds that make him have to pee. A lot. All the time.
So tonight he went outside to do his business and he was rushed by an angry doe. She came up to him, about 4 feet away from where hub was standing, and snorted at him. Dog didn’t care; he had to pee. The doe got agitated and started kicking him. The dog came inside covered in muddy hoofprints. The big pussy didn’t even bark at her.
I went out just now to see if I could spot what she was protecting, and bedded down in the flowerbed in the front yard is a teeny tiny little doe, the size of a kitten. I bet there’s another one up there, too.
Freaked the dog out some – he’s a little jumpy now. Freaked the kids out, too – they kept telling daddy to shoot it for kicking the dog. My little bloodthirsty princesses.
They’re making a movie out of one of my favorite books EVAR. I absolutely lived off the Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper when I was a kid. I’m so excited!
May 21, 2007 - 12:55 am Comments Off on Why am I in this handbasket?
I blogged about the Stardust Hotel implosion a few months ago. Thinking back on it, it’s amazing what Las Vegas can get away with. To implode a building with fireworks and spotlights would be completely unheard of anywhere but there. It’s a completely unique American city, full of glitz and neon and sequins and money. And its character is slowly – or maybe not-so-slowly – changing from the hip, cool Rat Pack and Elvis getaway to a “family” vacation destination. What does that mean, in terms of American society? Why is Sin City now being pushed as a place to take the kids over Spring Break? Would parents of the 1950s have been scandalized to think that today’s kids would meet up with free drinks, gambling, and legalized prostitution? Of course. Am I stuck in the 1950s to think that anyone who takes their children to Vegas for a family vacation at the casino is delusional? Perhaps. In general, I think we’ve seen a drift from “wholesomeness” to “anything goes,” and I’m not so sure it’s an improvement. Not that I think it would have been an improvement going the other way either, exactly. It’s a lot easier to pretend you know what the answers are if you’re not responsible for actually enacting the solutions, right?
May 14, 2007 - 4:12 pm Comments Off on Oh what a sap I am
We’re planning the big Family Vacation this summer and I’m trying to absorb everything there is to know about Disney World. I came across this video of the Kiss Goodnight they play after the park closes and I got a little teary at the beginning, then just about lost it when they started singing, “Like a bolt out of the blue…”
I choked up last time we were there, and I’m sure that seeing the kids have a good time is going to make it just that much worse this time. Oh lord, I’m weepy just anticipating it. This is not good.
I live in a little suburb of Austin that’s in the middle of a nasty, nasty election campaign for city council. On one side are the people who’ve been on the council for a while. On the other side are newcomers who want to see a change. We get daily junk in the mailbox from each side, denigrating the other, but this is really beyond the pale. I can’t figure out if this is on the level or whether it was sent by the opposing side. Neither scenario would surprise me.
The “Amy” referenced is Amy Simmons, of Amy’s Ice Cream fame. She lives a couple of blocks away.
