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.

Just Stuff

Instead of making my final post about San Francisco I think I'll talk about something that happened while I was gone. Just before I left for San Francisco my four year old washing machine broke yet again. In April of last year I replaced the motor and apparently the motor went out again. I remember when I bought that washer and dryer, I used the last of my tip money from when I was a waitress at Peppers to pay for them. They were suppose to be a top of the line washer and dryer, so needless to say I wasn't happy when the motor first went out last year. So when the second motor went our two weeks ago I decided they needed to become paperweights at the local dump.

I went shopping for a new washer and dryer the day before I left for San Francisco and I finally decided on the Frigidaire front loader. I know it sounds stupid but I was so excited about the new washer and dryer...I could hardly contain myself. Although I'm not sure if my excitement was for the new machines or for the fact that I wouldn't have to go to the laundromat anymore to do laundry. They were delivered while I was gone so Jim was the first to play with them and so far so good. I've only done two loads at this point and I'm amazed at how quiet they are. You have to be standing right next to them to know they are even running. I would highly recommend these.Today I think I'll also go ahead and include this picture I took of Sasha yesterday. Apparently she wanted to help me load the dishwasher.

The City of San Francisco Part 2

Okay everyone here is the second half of last nights post. This time I will be posting pictures of the expensive housing district that the trolley car took us through as well as pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Here's a picture of Sharon Stone's house.

Here's a picture of Robin Williams' house.

I think this is the house that Mrs. Doubtfire was filmed in. That is if I understood the trolley driver correctly, otherwise this house is owned by the mayor.
Here's the house that Party of Five was filmed in (I use to love that show).

And finally if you're in the market to buy a house then the following house could be the one for you. For just a mere $55 million you could own this lovely house in San Francisco. I think I'll write the check tonight...

The City of San Francisco Part 1

Okay, I think I'll go ahead and break this post down into two parts. I plan on posting several photos so I thought it would best to break it into parts one and part two. On Monday night our conference director set up group tour of San Francisco. The entire group boarded a trolley car that took us all over the city. This was a 2 1/2 hour trolley tour that took us to Ghirardelli Square, The Palace of Fine Arts, The Golden Gate Bridge, an expensive housing district, and some large mountain that I can't seem to remember the name of (with awesome views by the way). Once again, Sam and I froze our ass off on this little adventure. Luckily, the trolley drivers are use to people getting cold so they provided blankets for most of us. So without further adu, I'll provide pictures of the Palace of Fine Arts, and some great views ontop of that mountain. I'll post the remaining photos for your viewing pleasure tomorrow night.

Believe it or not, these pictures were taken the same evening. Notice the difference in weather and blue sky in less then an hours time.

Alcatraz and Beyond

Since my last two posts on San Francisco were focused on the end of the week, I feel the need to rewind to the beginning of the week...then go forward. Sam and I arrived on Saturday afternoon and after we checked into our hotel we decided to do our first bit of walking...to check the place out that is. We were lucky enough to stay at the Hyatt on the Fisherman's Wharf...right where all of the action is. We were walking along the Wharf glancing into the many shops when a local fisherman was soliciting people for a bay cruise. At this point we already knew that we would be unable to visit Alcatraz. Apparently, we didn't know we should have gotten tickets a few weeks in advance. So we figured the bay cruise would be the next best thing.

The bay cruise was our first taste of how cold San Francisco really was. It was very foggy, and very windy on the bay. The boat went directly below the Golden Gate Bridge and as we looked up, we still couldn't see the entire bridge...it was that foggy. Once we made it back to land, it took me two hours to get warm again. So tonight I think I'll share some pictures of the bridge and some pictures of Alcatraz.