Snickers Update

Not much of an update - I didn't hear from the vet today, but he told me that the test results might not be in until Thursday, so here's to another day of waiting.

Snickers

Two weeks ago, I took Snickers to the vet for her annual checkup. There was a growth on her eyelid that had been there for some time, but I wanted Dr White to check it out. He inspected it, and it turns out the growth was touching hey eyeball and irritating the eye, causing Snickers to tear up and blink all the time. Anyway, we scheduled surgery for Tuesday (yesterday), so when the time came, I took her to the vet (again! - she's getting suspicious of getting in the car now, ha ha). Not even an hour after I had dropped her off, I get a call from the vet - no surgery after all, at least not for now. Her blood enzymes (found in the blood CBC) were way off - suggesting something is wrong with her liver.
Dr. White performed another test on her during her stay. He fed her and then sampled her blood after eating to see if the liver was performing as it should. The results from that test should be in tomorrow. If all goes well, it will show her liver function is normal, and the surgery can go as scheduled. If not, that could mean any number of things, including imminent liver failure, which is bad. We'll find out Thursday, hopefully.

It's Been Awhile....

It's been quite awhile since my last post. I'm not sure why I haven't been posting the way I used to. Mostly, I guess, it's just that nothing worth posting is happening. And I don't believe in posting just for the sake of posting. But today I have fun stories from this weekend to share!
Saturday I went to Woody's Halloween party at his new place just outside of town. He had his two children that weekend, and lots of peeps brought theirs as well. Having no kids of my own, I brought Colby, who could almost be considered my own kid. Sort of, except I can't claim him on my taxes, ha ha. Anyway, there were lots of people there (almost more than I like - I've found I'm just not much of a large crowd person. More than three people and I start to get uncomfortable, ha ha). Anyway, Woody had invited an internet friend named Gloria up from Lewisville. Right after Colby and I showed up, Woody started the bonfire. The smoke blew right at my car, and then Gloria's, parked right next to mine. Colby moved my car, but in the process he blocked Gloria's. She asked him to move my car so she could move hers. Colby did so, and Gloria snapped up her three year old son, hopped in the car, and drove off. Yeah, she just left. Someone jokingly asked if maybe she missed the turnaround (it might have been me ;) ). Woody called her but she didn't answer. The bad thing is that she left right after I showed up - perhaps I ran her off?
Later on, Woody's little girl Charity (she's 3 I believe) was changing everyone's name to someone else. Charity's name was Tina. Tina was Charity. Colby was Jim, and Jim, Colby. I asked Charity what my name was. "Daddy!" she replied. Everyone got a good laugh from that, and I couldn't resist asking her, "Charity, who's your daddy?". To which she replied, "You are!!"
Woody looked up from grilling the hot dogs and mentioned I owed him child support now. Another round of laughs. Apparently, I am one of those people that spread cheer and laughter wherever I go. They even tell me at work, when I'm gone on vacation, it's so boring, nobody talks or laughs or anything, all they do is work. That's what Mallory told me once - they get more work done if I'm not there! I think she was being facetious, but I don't know....

This weekend is Pumpkin Fest 2007 - and I have to work at Back In Time. So does Colby, but he'll get paid. I'm family, so for Dad and I, it's slave labor. Oh well.

There, an honest-to-goodness post!

Where the Heck Have I Been?

My sister just posted, and she said it's my turn, so here goes.


It's been awhile since my last post. Not much has been happening that is blog-worthy. However, that has changed this weekend. First, Mom got me an original Johnny Cash Live at Folsom Prison album (an actual record!) for my birthday - still in the plastic wrapping and all! It is way cool. Then Dee got me a cool pan - you can cook in it and drain it as well. Perfect for spaghetti. Then we went to Fishtales with Mom and Dad, the Martins sans Kinsey, and Colby. Dale sat at the far end of our tables, so he wouldn't get into trouble (Dee planned it, I bet - she knows me, Dad, and Dale are far too sick and twisted to be trusted to sit together, ha ha, and Dad is corrupting Colby so he fits in with us all too well). Other than a few "chop alerts", the evening passed without incident.
Then today, I was out at Mom and Dad's, and we were scrounging for something to make for supper. I came up with a primo idea - some pork chops, rice, cream of mushroom soup, green chiles, mushrooms, black beans, bacon, green onions from the garden, and other things - all mixed together to make Mexican Pork and Rice! It was pretty good. Worthy of the Food Network, it was!

Wow

So who else woke up extra early to catch a glimpse of the total lunar eclipse? Anyone? Well, I'm glad I did. Not only did I see a blood-red moon, which is plenty cool, but there were several lightning bugs swarming. At times, they seemed to swarm around the moon. If I'd thought to get my camera, it would have made a great photo (long exposure, catch the lightning bug trails, etc) but I was so enjoying it, I never even thought to grab it. The perfect way to start off the day - with nature's own light show, ha ha.

Where, oh where, has my little blog gone?

It seems as if nothing has happened since I got back from my South Dakota trip. Nothing worth blogging about, that is. I wanted to do a pictorial entry about the trip, but it's been like, meh. If there was anything interesting to talk about, I would, but nothing has been happening. So until something does, or I think of something to blog about, I guess this is it for awhile. Hmmph!

Update

I was wrong it runs EVERY 20 minutes !!!

Choo Choo!!

There is a train going by our motel room as I type this. Anyone ever see that old I Love Lucy episode? Yeah, it's that bad. I know why it was such a cheap room now. The train comes by every 45 minutes. It blows the horn. It is loud. I can hear it rumbling past even now. I hope it derails soon so I can get some sleep here in Thedford, Nebraska.

Day 5

As requested by Dee

It's been awhile since I posted on this trip - lot's of stuff we've done, and no time to tell everyone about it. Anyway, here is a quick rundown of what Colby and I have been up to.

Day 3: Sunday. We woke up in Colorado Springs and drove to Denver so Colby could say he's skated at the Denver Skatepark, which is somewhat more cool than the Paris one. See flickr for pics. After that, we ate lunch at Casa Bonita, which is famous for its cliff divers, live entertainment, and helium balloons. After that, we drove to Rocky Mountain National Park. That was freakin sweet. I pulled off at a scenic driveoff (ha ha, Jessica) to get pics of the mountains, but instead we saw a herd of chipmunks there. We fed them from hand - it was kewl. I have pics - here is a link to one of them, but there are plenty more. In all, I think the chipmunks were the coolest part of the trip so far. Colby agrees. Then we drove to Boulder and spent the night in a motel with bad internet, which is why I didn't post anything (also, I am lazy).

Day 4: Woke up not so early, and drove to Golden, CO, to tour the Coors Brewery. I tried Blue Moon, which wasn't that bad - pretty good actually. Then we shot off for Gillette, WO - that was a drive, but not that bad. The mexican place we ate at WAS bad, though - I ordered a bowl of queso, and the waitress looked at me like I was crazy, then asked if I wanted it 'melted'. Now, every mexican restaurant I've ever been to serves queso MELTED. I felt like telling her, "No, give it to me on the rocks." Anyway, she later brought out a plate of melted cheese - not cheese dip, but just melted cheese.We tried the chips with the salsa and melted cheese, and it kinda made me think of a mexican pizza. But not so good. Anyway, Colby's Dr. Pepper was flat. He says it tasted godawful - I tried it, and would agree. So we got a room, and it was not cheap - a single at the Budget Inn in Gillette runs $110 - and the lady told me no room in Gilette would be under $100 at all - alot of the miners there stay in motels because the housing market has'nt caught up with the booming mining business yet. And that was Day 4.

Day 5: Today. We got off to another late start, and along the way to Devil's Tower, we took a wrong turn and drove on some road that suddenly became unpaved. But we were determined and pressing forward, so we drove aways on the dirt road, and ran across a herd of antelope. Score one for the Random Cool Photo Op Guys!! Actually, this is score 2 for us, because the chipmunks were totally random. Anyway, we finally got to Devil's Tower, walked the trail for aways, got some good photos (not uploaded yet, Dee) and then took off for Mt. Rushmore. But, along the way, we stopped at Sturgis and saw alot of cool bikers getting ready for the rally next week. Then we went to Mt. Rushmore Cave, which is even more cool than Cave of the Winds. It was alot bigger - pics will be forthcoming. Oh yeah, before the cave, Colby had to stop at the Christmas Village. I don't know why, but i wasn't driving, so I had no choice. I looked for an ornament for Mom but didn't see anything but crap. So anyway, after the cave, we went and saw Mt. Rushmore. Not as impressive as I thought it would be - certainly not on the same level as the chipmunks. Chipmunks Rule!! But we did see some random goats walking around the parking lot - they almost charged me because I got a wee bit too close (I was still using the 14mm lens and was too lazy to change to the 150mm), so i had to get very close. Colby kept 'baaaa'ing and they didn't like that. And then the park ranger pulled up and said we had to get out of the way to give the goats clearance, and that the one goat that was P.O.'d and charged me was having a bad day, which is apparently why she charged me. Oh well, guess I'm not a goat person. After that, we found a room, and then I started this post. While i was doing that, Colby noticed the blood vessel on his foot was pulsing - you could see it. It is kinda weird. Oh well, now it's time to go eat, because we're hungry. So adios, and until next post... -BJ (and Colby)

Day 2 - and Day 1

Okay, here's the recap from day 1:

July 27

9:04 AM
Just outside of Oklahoma City
We left around 4 AM, then had to turn right around and go back because SOMEONE forgot the sandwich stuff in the fridge (me), and then the line at Whataburger was kinda long, so we got off to a late start, but anyway, who cares? We're on vacation, so I plan to enjoy every minute! Traffic hasn't been bad so far, but the roads in Oklahoma – geez! I guess we're spoiled in Texas with our pretty decent roads (on the highway, anyway).

The next waypoint of our trip is Amarillo – just a little over 200 miles away now. After that, I hope to find the Giant Ice Cream Cone of Yore – more on that in the next post.

July 27^th
11:16 AM
70 miles east of Amarillo
The stretch of I-40 from Oklahoma City to Amarillo has to be one of the most BORING drives in the entire USA. No scenery other than grass, trees, and farms. Ughh, worse than Mississippi. Anyway, the only thing of interest so far happened when I stopped for gas earlier. I thought I gave the cashier a $20, but it was really a $50. I walked off to fill the car before she could give me the change, but good ol' Colby was still inside waiting for the restroom to empty – he got my change for me. What a kid.

3:50 PM (Mountain time)
We stopped at a roadside park for a potty break near Sierra Grande Volcano. The restroom had a sign with two buttons. You could vote for whether it was a good restroom, or a bad restroom. How cool is that?

(Later that day)

We finally made it to Pueblo!! A very long drive, especially when we stopped to check out the Capulin Volcano in New Mexico - see Flickr for pics. There were tiny little fruit flies everywhere there - at least I thought they were fruit flies until they started biting us! When we got back to the car, it was covered with them (see the pic on Flickr)

Anyway, now it's Saturday, and we're spending the night Colorado Springs. Today we did just a little driving - it was much more about the DOING, today! First, we got up and checked out the Royal Gorge near Pueblo. Very awesome - in some ways, even more impressive than the Grand Canyon, since you can walk out over the gorge itself. We met an older couple there from Connecticut, who had been through Colorado Springs already and several other places we had planned on seeing. They advised us not to take the train up Pike's Peak since we didn't have reservations - we most likely wouldn't be able to get a ticket! So we decided to drive up Pike's Peak instead. They were headed for the Grand Canyon, and i told them to be sure to check out Horseshoe Bend. It was like an exhange of travel information - very helpful for all parties.

After Royal Gorge, we drove up to Colorado Springs to see Garden of the Gods - now that was awesome (see Flickr for pics, although I haven't posted those yet, ha ha). From there we checked out the Cave of the Winds (as suggested by Mr and Mrs Connecticut) - again, an awesome tour underground of some majestic rock formations.

And then finally, we drove up Pike's Peak. 20 miles of windy uphill (and then downhill) roads. It was 34 degrees at the summit! See Flickr for pics - again, these aren't posted yet, so it'll likely be tomorrow before you can see them.