Thursday, October 27, 2005
Been too busy…..........
Hello Dear Reader
I am suprised that you even checked here today - it has been quite awhile since I wrote.
Lots of things to do and real short of time. Spent time writing letters to people and then I wait for them to write back. Spent time caring for sick puppy Cami, spent time puppy sitting the neighbors’ new puppy (more on that in a future blog), spent time going to multiple doctors, and even spent time having a cup of tea with a friend while talking about ways to improve her business.
Been real busy with our sick little puppy. Seems that Cami is allergic to the medication given to her to reduce the pain and inflammation in her knees. It produced a ‘hot spot’ on her leg, followed by intense itching on her body and ears. We ended up taking her to the 24 hour emergency vet on Friday night because her ears were getting bloody and yechy from all the scratching and she was getting sores under her chin and by her eye.
We were there about 3 hours and in that time she had an exam, received an injection, was given medication to take home and then fitted with what is called an ‘Elizabethan collar’. (The collar is referred to by many names at our house now and none of them have anything remotely to do with the word ‘Elizabethan’.) We finally came home at 2 a.m. - I told hubby that this is what it is like to deal with children - oh yeah, we have two human and now two doggy ones.
We had one cream to put in her one eye so that it totally dilated her pupil (very scary when light hits it), one for her pupil that was antibiotic, and another one for her ears that has now made her entire head look like it was rubbed with grease. She also has to take prednisone to reduce the allergic reaction - it also makes her incredibly thirsty, which in turn leads her to making mad dashes for the door. Everything except the prednisone must be administered twice a day.
You can do the first medicine on her eye somewhat ok, then doing her ears is a trick in itself because she absolutely HATES anything in her ears; by the time you have reached the five minute mark so that you can put the second medicine in her eye she is struggling like a mad man to get away from you. On top of it by the second day trying to hold her head steady was real fun since her whole head was becoming a greasy mess.
Hubby has promised that as soon as the vet says that it is ok she is going to the groomers to be bathed; probably the only other thing that she hates as much as getting medicine in her ears!!
Because of the medicines in her eye and that @%#$! collar that she has to wear she has been running into walls, posts on the patio, us, furniture - you name it she has run into it. After running into a few things she will just give up on moving around and lie near you; which is usually just fine - except that she now has the most horrendous farts from the prednisone. Her favorite person to lay by?? ME!! (yes, I know you are laughing)
Cami and I both can’t wait till she is done with this whole business.
To credit our vet’s office - we have had no charges for the follow up visits. They have been trying to get a price for her knee surgery; on Tuesday they said that the last time they talked to the surgeon it would be approximately $3000 a leg - this is up from $2000. Anyone who can be a Benevolent Donor please do so because on top of that we are still dealing with our house issues.
House issues? Well, let’s save that for another time as this is getting rather long and I wouldn’t want to bore you.
Here is a picture of Cami with her ‘Elizabethan Collar’ on so that you can see her. (Don’t laugh, she is really sensitive about it!)
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
I can see clearly now….........
Hello Dear Readers
Sorry that I am slow in writing again but we have been busy bailing out the house; can’t get rid of the smell yet. We have made it less, but not totally gone. It is just the worst smell ever. Can’t wait to tear up the carpet and get it out of here. Soggy, stinky carpet has got to go!!!
So besides bailing out the house the last few days we also took a drive out east. Meaning that we drove toward the eastern end of Long Island. It is more open there and reminds me more of places I love to be in MI. Our friends took us to what is known as a ‘Mum Farm’; here we got incredibly huge pots of mums at 4 pots for $10. We took the big van and filled it with 12 plants - only 4 of them were our’s though.
Then it was on to picking pumpkins for decorating. We picked some real nice ones and can’t wait till closer to Halloween to carve them up and then roast the seeds for a delicious treat. I told our friends that if they would give me the seeds from their pumpkins that I would roast the seeds for them too.
Next we stopped at a restaurant for lunch and I tried duck for the first time. Cooked crispy and covered with a raspberry sauce - OMG - it was one of the best tasting meals I have ever had. It was served with my choice of soup or salad, (had cream of broccoli soup) a twice baked potato and green beans - steamed just enough as they were still a bit crisp. Topped that meal off with rainbow sherbet, just enough of a dessert that I wasn’t overly full.
Our next stop was to see the famous Long Island Duck. Frankly I didn’t even know it existed till I had lived here two years and read about it in the newspaper. From that point on I wanted to go see it. I have seen it!! I can’t wait to go back around Christmas time to see it all decorated for the season.
And here it is…......
This is an old picture, it has changed location since then.
It isn’t very big inside; about the size of small living room. It has many pictures of the duck in it, as well as souvenirs and a cut out so that you could look at what exactly the duck was made of - pretty cool. Originally it was the office of a man who owned a duck farm; now did you know that Long Island was once famous for it’s duck farms?? No. Well me neither.
So now Dear Reader you know some of what I have been up to these last few days. A bit of drudge, a bit of exploring and a splash of fun.
Till next time - I’m heading off to bed for now.
Friday, October 14, 2005
Rain, rain in the sky
(Thanks Cher)
Well, the weather folks have decided to let us know that we will continue to get rain right through tomorrow so we will have had 8 straight days of rain.
By about the fifth day of steady rain you start to feel like Noah must’ve felt when building the ark.
For us it is will it quit before the walls fall down??
The rain has now split it’s path so that is still going into the kitchen but now has taken to creeping up the back hall. Nothing is more fun than walking down your hallway into your kitchen and watching the water actually squish out around your shoes. This means no more carpet in the kitchen or the hallway!! 
Never wanted carpet there in the first place, but since hubby got the house and started to fix it up before we got married I didn’t have much of a say. I voiced my opinion, but someone else’s voice drowned out mine. That does not happen anymore. I’m thinking that we will go with either tile or linoleum in the kitchen and just leave the carpet in the half of the kitchen that we eat in. The back hall will also have the linoleum or tile.
I have never seen a wall ‘melt’ before but by the time this rain ends we will have to replace the back wall of the entire house along with the windows and the back door. I don’t even want to know how much this will cost after seeing the estimates for the roof. Talk about a heartburn causing moment….....
The back yard looks like a pond that now comes to our patio. The dogs love mud, but not rain so there have been no mad dashes for the back door since this last Monday. It wasn’t raining as hard then as it has been for the last few days.
My van is parked next to the curb so I have to navigate through water to climb in. I tried going in through the passenger side, but hubby complained because part of my foot got on his seat. (I drive, he rides so I had to crawl over his seat.)
Now I have to go out and navigate flooded streets to pick up prescriptions and then high school girl from her job at the pizza joint. Tomorrow I will have to navigate it earlier than a normal person should be up on a rainy Saturday morning because she has to go take a PSAT. That’s ok, I’ll just stop by the bagel place and have a hot, fresh one for breakfast!! (Payback for leaving my nice warm bed)
Until next time dear Reader - stay warm and dry!!
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Rainy Days and Mondays Always Bring Me Down…........
(Thanks to the Carpenters)
Today’s Quote: Rain, rain go away…......
Well, the last few days have had us feeling like we are living on Noah’s ark with a couple of woodpeckers.
It seems that we should’ve replaced the roof before we got into the middle of hurricane season.
Yup, we are now flooding inside the house. The first flood that we had these past two weeks was caused by some pump for the a/c overflow being backed up and flooding the front part of our back hallway. Got that taken care of and thought we were doing good. Then the second flood hit.
It started raining on Saturday and it hasn’t really totally stopped since it started. Every day it goes from a soft gentle rain to a huge storm. We have had so much rain that the north shore of the island is experiencing flooding in the streets. My backyard looks like a duck pond. (The pups love the mud!!)
Second flood came down around the back door, soaked through the door jam, surrounding wall, kitchen window and started down the back hall. Now, here is where it gets interesting, the water actually turned at the kitchen and is making it’s way across our kitchen. Nothing like walking across your kitchen and thinking that you are actually walking outside in puddles as you hear the carpet squishing underneath your feet. (Never wanted carpet in the back hall or in the kitchen so now we can get rid of it!!)
Besides soaking our hall and kitchen it has invaded our master bath. Nothing is more fun than being in a 3/4 bathroom with a bucket that is catching the water that is coming through the ceiling. Ok, well maybe the only thing that was more fun was when I first discovered the leak. I went into the bathroom, turned on the light and almost fell on my behind; there was water all over the entire tiled floor. Tile floors are real slippery when wet.
So we are getting estimates and boy do prices vary. We have one at over $11,000 and one for around $4,500. Two more companies to give us estimates and then we get to the business of deciding which one is the lucky bidder - I can tell you right now that the $11,000 guy is out of the running. Of course to get it fixed the rain must stop and they aren’t predicting that until late Sunday. Woo-hoo rain for 7 solid days!! We are starting to call hubby Noah!!
What’s it been like in your neck of the woods??
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Road Rage
My apologies dear readers, have been under the weather lately and haven’t had energy to type.
Today I am going to tell you about an incident of road rage that college girl and I experienced right before we took her to college this fall.
We were driving down one of the highways near our home here when suddenly, from our left, I caught a glimpse of a car about to hit the front fender of our van. Not wanting the driver to hit us I did the only logical thing, blew the horn. This did nothing more than entice the moron to violently swerve in front of the van. We had to stop for a traffic light and I wisely kept my distance from his bumper. The light changed to green and he started to speed away with me keeping my distance behind him. Just as fast as he sped away he jammed on his brakes; don’t worry we jammed on our’s and didn’t even come close. He continued this pattern for the next mile, and no I couldn’t get out from behind him as we had traffic on one side and businesses on the other.
His next great trick was to repeatedly flip us “the bird” out of his window while alternating his speed. I am telling you this male was a real loser.
Finally he put on his blinker and pulled into the turn lane and stopped at a gas station. As we went past he jumped out of his car started flipping us off with both hands and screaming something. (We travel with windows up and radio playing so we can’t hear weirdos!!)
In case you are wondering, he is the “Moronic Driver of the Day” NY plate number CDF 2158. If you ever see that plate on the road - steer clear of it - the person is a real jerk.