Puppy Fever

So Jim apparently has puppy fever. We've been debating all weekend about adding another animal to the household. A good friend of ours recently got a blue healer puppy and both Jim and I fell in love with him. So, I did a little internet search and I found a malamute breeder in Colorado. I sent the breeder an email this weekend asking if they have any puppies available and they have yet to respond to me.

Jim and Jimmy are up for a puppy. However, neither one of them has ever dealt with a puppy, and neither one fully understands how hard it will be. Jim says the ball is in my court and the decision is now entirely up to me....ugh. Of course all weekend I've been trying to figure out if a puppy would be right for us and I've made the mistake of viewing malamute puppies on the web most of the weekend. So, how would it impact the house? Let's take a look...

1) Housebreaking a puppy sucks and its very time consuming! I can clearly remember housebreaking other puppies and its no fun at all.

2) Can our furniture hold up to a puppy? Puppies chew...and I still have images of some of our old dogs chewing on the legs of furniture (because they were teething and I'm guessing their gums liked splitters).

3) How would our other animals react? I'm sure Nanook would be happy as hell. I feel bad that he doesn't have a daily playmate and I would swear he looks depressed on some days. Sasha...I think she'll adjust after a few days. Although she will not be happy during those first few days and I'm sure she will not allow any of us to touch her during this period. Corki...I'm afraid another dog will throw him over the edge. He barely tolerates Nanook and he already has mental issues when it comes to him not getting enough attention. The good news here...he'll be bald in about a week and that's less cat hair to vacuum up.

4) More fur....I already vacuum about three times a week so I don't think the extra fur will be a problem.

5) More poop....I know it's gross, but it's also the truth. Jim currently cleans up after Nanook so the extra "yard cookies" will be his responsibility.

6) Two dogs instead of one dag to walk. Unfortunately, I don't walk Nanook nearly as often as I would like...with a puppy I would really have to go walking more often.

7) More sleepless nights. This will be entirely me, I always seem to be the only one that gets up in the middle of the night with Nanook.

8) Two large dogs to feed. Nanook isn't very expensive, but he really doesn't eat a lot. Hell, some days he doesn't even eat at all. Don't get me wrong, there is always food in his bowl, he just chooses not to eat it everyday.

Alright, so that's how it would impact all of us. I must say though...puppies are so damn adorable! Not to mention Nanook really does need a little friend. So, what would you do? Is this the right time to get a puppy? Please help me decide....I'm stuck.

Here We Go A-GAIN

I think most of you remember when I got my appendix removed last summer (July 2006). I was getting persistent pain on my right side on and off for about six months. I made several trips to the ER as a result of the pain and no one could figure out why I was getting this pain. I spoke to one surgeon whom thought it could be a chronic appendicitis which they are just now starting to talk about in medical school. Its pretty rare, but we thought it might be the cause of the pain. So I decided to have my appendix removed and I hoped for the best that we found the source of my pain at last.

When I had my appendix removed I started calling it my miracle surgery. As it turned out my appendix was covered in scar tissue and it did need to be removed. However, only time would tell if the pain on my right side had been stopped. Six months after the surgery I was feeling great and finally confident that I was cured. Having my appendix removed also cured a few other oddities that I suffered from for several years (not realizing it was my appendix). One year post surgery and things were still great!

Four weeks ago I began waking up at about 4am with a dull pain on my right side (centered around my ovary) all the way through to my back. I didn't think anything of it...especially since after I got up, showered, and got ready for the day the pain would stop. On Sunday I started my period and oddly I didn't have any pain on that right ovary. At this point I started to think, okay, it must have something to do with my period. On Monday the pain returned, but this time it was all day and it was more of a throbbing pain rather then a dull ache. On Tuesday I started to panic and I started to entertain the notion that this was in fact the same pain I was getting last summer. Jim urged me to see a doctor and after debating for a while I started calling OBGYN's yesterday morning. I didn't know where to begin since I really don't have an OB. However, I did feel like I needed to be seen that day. Eventually I was able to get an appointment with my former infertility doctor at 3:30. I left work at 1pm, in pain but at least it was bearable. By the time I made it to Santa Fe the pain was no longer tolerable, it was constant, and my feet and hands were going numb. I knew I would never make it to Albuquerque on my own, so I called Jim and asked him to drive me (it was very difficult holding the gas pedal down with a numb foot). 15 minutes later I picked Jim up and instead of going to Albuquerque we went straight to St. Vincents Hospital in Santa Fe.

While at St. Vincents they did an ultrasound, an internal exam, and lots of blood work. And as usual, they found absolutely nothing wrong with me (oh, my feet and hands were going numb because I was hyperventilating). I left the hospital with painkillers and I was told that I suffered from"ovary pain"...kind of sounds like a bullshit excuse in my opinion. So, here I am back to square one on the quest to find the source of this pain so that I may prevent it. I can't help but ask, why did it take over one year for this pain to resurface? What took place during the surgery that placed this pain at bay for over a year?

Today I'm still in some pain, but not nearly as bad as it was yesterday. I've called Dr. Thompson's office already and I'm waiting for a nurse to call me back. Is it possible to suffer from "ovary pain", or is it just an excuse. Anyway, I'll keep all of you updated on this quest as information becomes available.

Midwest Nationals

I wanted to go ahead and make a quick post about our weekend. I spent the weekend with my softball team in Dallas attending the Midwest National Tournament that we qualified for while Jim and Jimmy spent the weekend in Omaha NE. I had a wonderful time in Dallas and our team placed 7th at the tournament. Our defense did really good but unfortunately our batting was not as good as it normally is. Our team consists of several batters that are really good and always get really good hits, but for some reason our bats were not alive this weekend and our consistent batters struggled (very unusual). I think one of the biggest obstacles was the fact that our team is not use to playing in that kind of humidity and as odd as it seems the ball doesn't carry as far in the humidity and that elevation.

As for myself, I wasn't hitting well at all and I never even made it to second base. Since I started playing golf this year I've picked up a very annoying "golf swing" when I'm at the plate. And unfortunately that causes me to pop the ball straight up in the infield...which I did on numerous occasions.

Since we didn't really have a lot of teams compete they ended up mixing both the D division and C divisions together and combined the tournament into one day. The one day tournament worked out great and left us with another day to sight see. So on Sunday most of us got together and did the Dallas World Aquarium, The Sixth Floor Museum, and The Palace of Wax Museum. Of course I took several pictures during the weekend so I plan on sharing those with everyone (except for The Sixth Floor Museum that doesn't allow photography).

I'm not sure which adventure I enjoyed the most but The Sixth Floor Museum was very interesting. That museum had footage, facts, and chronicled the events of the day that JFK was killed...very interesting and very moving. Here are some photos for your enjoyment.

Here's a team photo taken right after we were cooked for the day.

Here's a group photo of all of us before we entered the aquarium. We were lucky enough to get a group discount since there was so many of us.

I had problems with my camera in the aquarium, so I have very few photos that turned out decent.

The following pictures were all taken at the Palace of Wax Museum.

So Julie would kill me if she knew I published the following photos....shhh, don't tell her.

Here are a few pictures I took of Ica...she wont kill me for doing this.

Here's me with Opera.

And finally I can't leave everyone without including pictures of Julie, Ica, and myself testing our love factor.

So Julie's love factor is boring....

My love factor came up as lovable...

And finally we have Ica, whom came up as a teaser. I love the look on her face here.