Guess who sucks?

My husband and children, that’s who.

Not one of them called, e-mailed, IM’d, Facebooked, Myspaced or ANYTHING me a “Happy New Year”.

Arsehats, the lot of them.

A day without the kids.

I slept in until 10 am.

I ate breakfast and then played Family Feud Online for a few hours.

I ate lunch then took a shower.

I checked out the after-Christmas sale at the BX, washed the car and picked up groceries just for me.

After putting the groceries away, I goofed off online for a couple of hours.

I was attacked by a small grey cat.

I had cheese and crackers for dinner, with veggies from a veggie tray.

I fought off a small grey cat who really likes Port Wine cheese.

I tried to teach the aforementioned small grey cat some tricks for treats.

I goofed off online for a little while longer.

I realized I’m really boring.

Let it snow!

Last Wednesday, December 17, it snowed here!  I’m talking about a real honest-to-goodness snow!  It was AWESOME!

It’s all gone now but we enjoyed it while it lasted.

Good news.

I took Lily, my dog, to the vet on Friday afternoon and the vet was able to offer some hope.   She thinks Lily has something called Geriatric Vestibular Disorder and the symptoms of this disorder are spot-on with what Lily has shown. The symptoms are also, quite often, confused with those of a stroke.

Essentially, GVD makes the dog feel off balance and seasick, thus making it hard for the dog to ever feel comfortable which leads to the pacing and odd behaviour.  Of course, feeling queasy all the time also effects the appetite.

The vet said I could try giving Lily 25mg/day of motion sickness meds and it should alleviate her symptoms. 

I opted to try that and, so far, it seems to be doing the trick! Lily is eating well and she’s able to relax and nap.

The kids and I are much relieved!

A Difficult Decision

I don’t write about my dog, Lily, much.  She doesn’t do anything odd, she stays out of trouble, she’s mostly quiet and she’s just a good good dog.  However, she’s now 15 and that means she’s pretty much elderly. 

When I took her to the vet, several months ago, the vet noticed that one of her pupils was not reactive to light. She put Lily through the paces and noticed some unevenness in her gait.  I’d written it off as her just being less spry and less flexible due to her age. The vet did a few more things and told me she felt Lily had had a stroke recently.  I guess, in dogs, it’s not always as obvious as with people and can easily be missed.

At that time, I was given the option of putting her through a bunch of tests with no guarantee they’d find anything or be able to fix whatever had caused the stroke, or just letting her live her life without the stress of tests and vet visits.  I knew that, given her age, we most likely would not have a great deal of time left with her and I didn’t want that time to be stressful for her.  I wanted whatever time she had left to be normal and stress-free.

Early Thanksgiving morning, Lily suddenly stood next to me and looked at me with the strangest expression I’ve ever seen.  I knew something was wrong and got down on the floor with her. I sat with her until she felt up to moving.  When she tried to move, she seemed to have lost all sense of balance and was unable to stand upright and could barely walk. I believe she had another stroke.

Being that it was very early in the AM and we don’t exactly live all that close to anywhere that I could take her, I spent the rest of the morning at Lily’s side. She’s such a good dog, even though she was obviously unwell she tried to get to the door so she could go to the bathroom outside. I ended up carrying her out and being her support so she could do her business.

The kids were very worried and I told them I would give her until the day after Thanksgiving and, if there was no improvement, I would have to take her to the vet to be put to sleep.  She showed a little improvement so I decided to take a wait and see approach.  Over the weekend, she regained most of her mobility but she’s just not herself. She’s not drinking very much, she’ll eat only if I offer her special foods and she’s started to have trembling and panting spells.  She’s begun behaving oddly too.  She’s become incredibly clingy, she does not want me out of her sight for even a second.  She’s tried to climb into the shower with me which is very strange because she HATES baths and getting wet. 

We only have a vet on base on Fridays, so I made an appointment for her for Friday afternoon.  Even though I can see that she’s not herself and I know she is the equivelant of a 105 year old lady, I’m still struggling with this decision.

I’m sorry.

I apologize for not sending out any Thanksgiving greetings last week. 

Things got a bit stressful around here and quite a few things I’d hoped to do did not get done.

This is just too funny.

Naked Mohawk-Baby Carrot Jockeys

“Carve whatever you want.”

I told my 16 year old son to carve whatever he wanted to into one of the pumpkins I picked up for Halloween.

And he did.

 

(Yes, I know I need to mow the lawn.)

What’s New.

Well, Mr. Grumpy has returned to the sandbox.  We really enjoyed having him home for a couple of weeks. I’ll be so glad when this deployment is OVER.

GrumpySon is now 16 years old! How the heck did that happen?  It seems like it was just yesterday he was toddling around and pretending our coffee table was the wheel on “Wheel of Fortune”.   He’s growing up TOO FAST!

I had most of my hair chopped off just prior to Mr. Grumpy coming home for R&R.  I love it, the kids love it, Mr. Grumpy asked how it was any different. (Butthead.)

I got a new car! It’s a 5-door Toyota Yaris liftback and it is cute as a button.  I love it!

Well, I think that’s everything new and or noteworthy and I need to finish decorating for Halloween.

Time flies!

Mr. Grumpy came home for R&R last week and I cannot believe how quickly the day he has to return is approaching.  It feels like I blink and another day is gone.

We spent last Weekend in Las Vegas. The in-laws were there and took the kids off our hands so we could spend some time alone together. We didn’t really go out and do very much while we were there. We mainly stayed in our hotel room. :-)

We did see Blue Man Group, thanks to Mr. Grumpy’s brother who got us tickets.  It was definitely an interesting experience!

We also discovered Irish Nachos at a restaurant called McFadden’s, in the Rio Hotel and Casino.  How do you make nachos Irish? You prepare them with potato chips instead of tortilla chips! They were actually tastier than one might expect.

Vegas wasn’t all fun and games though. The alternator on my car died (I so want a new car!) and we had to take a trip to the DMV so Mr. Grumpy could renew his license while he was stateside.  Luckily, we were able to get the car repaired the next day and, surprisingly, things went quickly and smoothly at the DMV.   They even had a snack bar! (no slot machines though)

What’s the first thing a guy who’s just spent 8 and half months in The Sandbox does?  Takes a shower!

Second thing?  Eats some real food!

Third?   Beer!

When we arrived home, I decided to record the cat’s reactions to seeing him for the first time after many months.  I knew the dog would be bouncy and happy but I had no idea what to expect from them. 

Sunny (the oldest cat) yawned at him.  Spike (the middle cat) sniffed him a bit. Mulder went behind the couch.  

I’ve come to the conclusion that cats don’t make for a very exciting homecoming video. 

Ah well, the kids and I are thrilled to have him home for a little while.