No update yesterday, because by the time we got back from the baseball game, it was after Midnight, and I was tired. So here's a catch-up entry.
It was raining when we left home yesterday to go to the game, and it was still sprinkling when we got there, but it was supposed to clear up, so we weren't really bothered. We got our food ($1 hot dogs for J, a cheeseburger for me, and we shared some fries), ate it, and went out to our seats. We were right behind home plate! How cool is that?
This picture shows them rolling the tarp off the field - they had it covered because of the rain.
Before the game, the mascots came around and high fived everyone sitting or standing up front, including us. :) The black and yellow one is Buddy, the official mascot of the Binghamton Mets.
The game was a lot of fun. I've never been a baseball fan, but as seems true with all sports, it's much more fun if you're there in person, instead of watching on TV. We saw a grand slam! It was pretty exciting.
We didn't stay for the whole game - they got started late, and we had an almost two hour drive home, so we left at about 10:45, when they were in the 7th inning. The Mets ended up winning, which is cool, and I had a lot of fun. It felt like a really nice birthday treat (since it turned into my birthday while we were on the way home).
I'm glad we had such a good time last night. And this morning it was my birthday! I turn 40 today. I'm not upset about the number at all - I don't care what age I am, as long as I feel good, and since those headaches have finally gone away, I feel fine.
I got up before J today, so I relaxed for a while until he got up, and then we cut into my birthday cake for lunch. :P
It's pretty, isn't it? Yup. Unfortunately, when I cut into it, the cake was white, instead of marble. And that would have been okay, but it was also HORRIBLE. I don't know what went wrong - I ordered the cake from the same place that has made my cakes for the last two years (at my work), and those were amazing. This one, though, was dense and chewy and disgusting. J and I each ate one piece, but the rest of it is going in the trash. It was really disappointing. I even e-mailed the director of food services as soon as I finished my piece, to complain, and I'm going to make sure to get J's money back.
So, that kind of ruined the morning, you know? But J offered to do whatever he could to make it better, which was very nice. So we went shopping and got groceries, and we picked up a marble cake mix and a can of chocolate frosting, so I could have a replacement cake.
Unfortunately, J's kidney stone and stent are bothering him a lot today, so we haven't really done much else. We may go out to dinner if he gets up feeling better.
There have been nice things about today, though. I've gotten to spend a little bit of time with J, before he went back to bed in pain. I got a birthday card from my Aunt, who I never hear from, so that was a nice surprise. I got an Amazon gift card from Sally (thanks, Sally), and I've gotten a lot of nice birthday wishes from my friends, both online and in real life. It's all good stuff, really. And while I wait to find out if J feels up to going out to dinner, I'm sitting here reading a book and playing the Sims. Oh, and I frosted my replacement cake.
I stole the roses from the old cake - the frosting was fine, it was just the cake that was bad. I don't have any tubes of icing to use to write on this one, but that doesn't matter - at least I have a decent cake, that is so soft and moist that the top layer broke down the middle as I was putting it on the bottom layer. I tried to tell it I wasn't really broken hearted, and didn't need the obvious symbolism, but it was just so moist and fresh it broke anyway. Hee.
And meanwhile, Rosebud is here to remind me that today really isn't ALL about me.
Rosebud: "Hey, you, it's dinner time. I need food. Can't you tell that I'm starving? Feed me!"
Edited to add: J got up and was feeling well enough, so we went to dinner, and now my whole day feels better. I just needed one more thing to go well, and dinner did. Thanks, J. :)
Now, I'll let my piece of lasagna and garlic bread settle, and then...replacement birthday cake! Yum. :)
Exhausted. Need to go to bed. Have a cute picture of Duff, and I'll be back tomorrow. :)
My vacation is so close! And it's a good thing, because for some reason I am feeling so stressed right now. Work is insane this week, because of orientation. Since Tuesday night I have been having what is apparently called "ice pick headaches," which is basically shooting pains in my right temple. They come, last about three or four seconds, and leave. The pain is swift and strong and goes pretty quickly, but it's like a lightning strike (or an ice pick strike, I guess) that just keeps coming over and over again, so it's rather disturbing and painful. I'm actually thinking of going to the doctor about them, and I HATE going to the doctor.
Add in all the stupid ways in which people can get on your nerves (and for some reason today there seem to be many people doing this), and I am just more ready for vacation than ever.
Only one more day to go! Sigh.
In other news, this picture is currently on my work desktop. It's not a great picture, but it sure is making me laugh whenever I look at it. Duff just looks so perturbed at having Willow sitting on top of him, practically. :D
A few days ago, J noticed a small lump under Duff's armpit. Then he developed a lump under his throat, so J called and made an appointment for him to go to the vet tomorrow morning. Well, Duff decided he couldn't wait that long - his throat and head were all swollen today, and he was acting sick - just listless and not himself. So we took an unscheduled trip to the emergency vet today.
Duff: "I was feeling bad, man."
The vet game him a shot of steroids and one of Benadryl, and we waited to see if the lumps would go down. They got a little smaller, but not a lot, so the vet was talking about what could be happening - she mentioned the word lymphoma and basically scared the crap out of us, and we spent the next 15 minutes or so in the room alone with Duff, worrying and trying to decide what to do next (leave him there for observation in case the throat swelling closed his windpipe), have them run tests, take him home). I felt his neck, and it had gotten smaller! The vet agreed when she came in, so we took him home with instructions to give him a Benadryl tonight before bed, and then to just keep the vet appointment tomorrow. Now, three hours later, the lump has shrunk so much it's almost gone. Whew! J will still take him to his regular vet tomorrow, but we're very relieved that he is doing so much better.
Why is it that our pets have to scare the hell out of us like this from time to time? I could live without repeating this experience again for a while, okay?
One funny thing, though - all the people there were women (vet, assistants, receptionists), and they all fell in love with our McDuff. He's such a lover!
Duff: "What can I say, the women love me!"
Well, it didn't take me long to forget to write an entry this month, did it? Sigh. I'll try to make amends by posting twice today. I'm going to the usual small town July 4th festivities with my sister this morning, and I'll take my camera and share any particularly good photos with you.
As for today, the dogs and I are all ready. I'm wearing my Old Navy 2009 Independence Day shirt, and the dogs are dressed up, too.
Willow
Bernie
Rosie
McDuff (who isn't wearing a bandana because it was a bit small, and he's got a lumpy throat issue going on right now, that he's going to the vet for on Monday - but he's being patriotic in spirit, I'm sure)
Happy July 4th! I'll be back later with stories and pictures.
I just signed up to blog every day in July. I'm easing my way back into the daily blogging thing by just giving you some pictures that were on my camera. Behold:
See you tomorrow!
Yesterday I went into my bedroom and dug out the bag of junk that I took out of my old desk when I gave it to J. I was looking for some cross-stitch supplies, but I found a little treasure instead. Pictures. And I scanned some of them in for you.
I call this the "Baby on Dock" series. Because it's my first Rottie, Baby, on the dock of a house my Mom and I rented in the summer of 1994. We lived on a pond. It was great, but we got kicked out in the fall, because the owner wanted to move some relative in. I miss swimming in the pond, though.
A cute story about swimming in that pond - Baby didn't like swimming; Rotties aren't swimmers, I guess, or at least she wasn't. I loved it, though, and would get in at the shore and swim straight out for a while before turning around and swimming back. Whenever I did that, Baby would stand on this dock and whine. She was worried about me swimming that far away from her - how would she protect me if something happened to me? She was the sweetest dog, she really was.
This isn't a series, because I only scanned in one picture of Baby on this porch. But she looked cute here, and I wanted to include it. Please just ignore the grossness of said porch. It needed a paint job BIG time. Whoa.
Baby and Bo were great pals. Bo was quite a bit younger than Baby, but she never minded having him around, and when his puppy antics got to be too much, she'd snap at him and straighten him out, and then all was well again. She was an incredibly patient dog.
Another shot of Baby and Bo. So freaking cute! Again, please ignore the porch and just focus on puppy sized Bo, grabbing at Baby, as she just endures it in silence. I love dogs so much, and I loved these two just a ton.
So, as much as I loved Baby (and Bailey after her), no dog I've ever had has really compared to my Bo. I almost teared up just scanning these pictures in. He was a truly special dog, and one I don't think I'll ever forget. I wish he were still here with me.
This picture in particular kind of kills me. It was very overexposed (which I fixed to an extent with photoshop), but this is him, you know? His ears were always like that - one up, one down. He was such a handsome boy.
Sigh.
Okay, from an animal I miss every day to a person I miss every day. This is my Mom, with her dog, Chrissy, in 1992. I never would have guessed at the time that Chrissy would outlive Mom like she did.
Sigh again.
Okay, that's enough for now. I'm just depressing myself. And wishing I were home, so I could hug J and Bernie/Willow/Rosie/Duff. Hugs are good.
(Tomorrow will either be an entry about a Pulitzer Prize winning book I finished recently, or kitten pictures of Kate and Lucy. Depending on my mood and if you guys reply as to which you'd rather have.)
Today was McDuff's 11th birthday! He got cupcakes and got to spend most of the day on the bed while J and I watched DVDs. All in all, it's his perfect day. :)
Happy birthday McDuff!
That girl - the one who feeds me? She's posting every day in April. I'm sure she'll be posting lots of pictures of me and those other animals that she insists on letting live here, so be sure to check in every day this month, okay?
Now go away. I need to be alone with my tiny dog bed and my little red ball.
Love ya (but hate your dogs and cats, so don't bring them around me, okay?),
Willow
p.s. This is not an April Fool's joke. I'm Willow! I wouldn't lie to you. Now go on, get out of here. And take some of these damn dogs and cats with you, 'kay? Good.
After seeing Bernie do this:
I bought him a new bed, which is actually big enough for his whole body. (This is McDuff's bed, and is about half the size that Bernie needed.)
Then Willow must have wanted to tell me that she wanted a new bed, too.
Message received, Willow, you like having a dog bed to lay on. Willow actually managed to curl her entire body up into this bed, actually, which is very cute. Especially when she takes her toy to bed with her:
(Okay, she isn't curled up here, but she was about three minutes after I took this picture.)
Rosebud must go upstairs at least a couple of times every day. There's nothing up there that should interest her, but she just has to check every day, and the way she comes down makes me laugh so much. So I took a video of it. The only thing this doesn't show is that usually she makes a bit of a zig-zag pattern on her way down, and she didn't this time, probably because I was standing at the bottom of the stairs. Anyway, here she is - Rosebud the Basset Hound, clicking her way down the stairs, then turning to give me the stink eye when she's back in the living room. :)
I got an e-mail from my brother-in-law this morning, that said he had to put their dog, Ginger, to sleep. She had a tumor growing out of her mouth, so although he didn't say for sure, it must have been cancer. :( Poor Ginger. I'll miss her when I go over there to visit. And I really wish I had a picture of her on my work computer, so that I could share it. She was a beautiful dog.
So. Sorry to start with sad news. But it was the first e-mail I got today, so it was on my mind. I was planning on writing a blog today anyway, though, to apologize for basically taking a week off once holidailies ended. After having to write every day for two months, I kind of didn't want to do it anymore, you know? But I'll work my way back into at least a few entries per week.
And since I missed cat picture day again, and since there is every possibility I'll miss dog picture day tomorrow, I brought my new camera to work with me today, and took some pictures off it that I took over the last week. Not all of the animals are here, but most of them are.
Four of the five cats were on the cat chair together, all cuddled up to be warm while they slept. I love it when the cats do this, so I snapped a picture. (And okay, Sable is on top of the chair, not curled up with the other three, but she's still there, so it counts.) It's too bad Lucy wasn't there, too, although I don't know that she'd have fit, really.
I saw Willow laying next to the heater in this position, and she just looks so beautiful, doesn't she? She can be a pain in the ass with all of her growling and noise, but she's also the sweetest dog around, and just so pretty.
Of course, Rosie is pretty, too, and I caught her laying next to the heater, too. It's a popular spot this time of year.
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