No Sleep Till...

There's really something about Brooklyn. No matter how long I'm away, when I come back here, it's like I never left. It revives me. It's like the opposite of Kryptonite. It's like the Yellow Sun to Superman.

I walk around this place, no matter what neighborhood, it's all Brooklyn. The attitude. The pride. I can ask for an everything bagel with coffee (milk, one sugar - and they know what I'm talking about when I say that) and it comes out perfect. Pizza and garlic knots for lunch (carb-a-licious)? Uh, yeah!

I mean, seriously. How awesome is this?

I need to come here from time to time, just to recharge my batteries. To see my family. To see my friends. To see where I grew up (even though my house isn't there anymore). To eat the pizza of my youth. And real bagels. And have a "regular" coffee.
I love it here.

And then I'm ready to go home to my love and my puppy.

Great Aunt x's 2!!

JP and Cyn had their little bundle of joy 8 weeks early, last Thursday, April 1. The yet un-named baby girl is 4lbs 7oz and 17 inches long. She'll be in the NICU for a little while, but according to Cyn she's doing well.

Just by happenstance, I'll be going up to Boston for a meeting on Thursday, and will be there the week. I was going to bring the Peanut her birthday gift and late Christmas gift. And a baby gift for the expectant little one. But, that gift has now become a "welcome to the world!" gift.

So now, the current count: I have 4 nephews, 2 nieces (plus 1 by marriage) and 2 great-nieces.

*pictures and a name once I know*

Snowpocalypse 2010, Part Deux - The Blizzard Edition

Well, another foot of snow fell yesterday since the weekend. We did not lose power this time, and were definitely more prepared in case we did.

We did a good job. Piles are much bigger.

A foot more on the deck.

This snow storm was much different than the previous two we've had this season... not as much snow but an incredible amount of wind, making it much more dangerous all around because of the lack of visibility and white-outs. There were moments yesterday, while looking out the front window, where I could not see the end of the driveway - it was THAT bad.

Our neighbor (with the end house) allowed us to start throwing snow on his yard because our piles were getting too high!

But the sun is out. The driveway is shoveled. The street outside is plowed (what it looks like outside the neighborhood is a mystery).

Look ma! The pile is taller than me!

The front of our house is the icicle house of horrors!

I've been home as the gub-ment has been closed for the past 4 days. I think we'll be open tomorrow, just in time for a 3 day weekend.

As of 2pm yesterday, the 2009 - 2010 winter is the snowiest winter on record. The numbers were revised upward a bit this morning, since it continued to snow until 10pm last night. Apparently, the official total at BWI airport for the season thus far was very nearly 80 inches! Holy crap!

That's 27 inches currently in our back yard... it was over 30; there's been a little settling down.

You think Thor will jump into that waist-high drift to my right? I think he may get permanently lost...

Snowpacalypse 2010 - Some Thoughts and Lessons Learned

The snowfall this weekend was a doozy. We got 25 inches measured in our front driveway. I know more fell in the area (Dulles Airport apparently measured over 30 inches). But I woke up this morning feeling pensive... there are certainly things that sucked about this weekend. But there are many more things now that I am truly grateful for. And some things I learned.

I am grateful that:
- I have a wonderful husband and dog, who kept me warm when we lost power and heat.
- While we lost power and heat, we did not lose hot water, and were able to take a hot shower.
- Our homeowners association was on top of the plowing and the roads were clear enough such that when it got too cold that...
- We were able to get to a hotel, that looked the other way when we told them we were bringing the dog.
- We lost power for only 40 hours. I have too many friends who are still without electricity and whose streets are not plowed. I'm thinking of you.
- The Federal Government was wise enough to close for the day to allow the roads to be cleared more properly... so that it's safer for everyone.
- For the little things - like heat, or a warm drink after shoveling in the cold, or a hot shower, or a hot meal.


Things I learned for next time:
- Always do laundry before the snow comes. It would suck to run out of socks and underwear with no way to replenish (I came dangerously close).
- Make sure the firewood is stocked. We really rationed our wood, using it only to dry clothes, etc. But it would have been nice to use it to simply keep warm.
- The garage is a great fridge in the winter when there's no power.
- All cell phones and Blackberrys should be fully charged at all times - they are the lifeline to civilization right now. Turg and I rationed the power on those too - always having at least one off, so that we had a backup for when another died.
- Lighting a bunch of candles can actually warm up a room pretty significantly - not like a roaring fire, but noticeably enough that we were grateful for it.

Icicles of Death

And because some shit is just too perfect:

Yesterday, after being home for a couple of hours without power, we decided to call-in our outage again to the power company (as suggested on the radio). I went through all the menu options, typed in our account number and got the following message: Pepco crews are currently working in your area to restore power. The estimated time for restoration is approximately 4pm. (it was 3:15pm when I called). I had the phone on speaker, looked at Turg and said, "Hey, 4pm!" and hung up. Literally one second after I hung up the phone, everything in the house powered back on. Stunned, I look at Turg and he says, "You should have called them sooner!"

They are forecasting another 6-12 inches of snow for tomorrow night to Wednesday. We know what we need to do to hunker down. I love the snow generally. But this is exhausting.

**UPDATE** Now they're saying 10-20 inches. I'm already tired thinking about the shoveling we'll need to do...

Happy Birthday, My Husband

I love you.

I'm with CawfeeGuy...

and am extremely upset and disappointed with the outcome of the Gay Marriage vote in New York.

I only hope, that people will listen to Sen. Savino from Staten Island... truly listen to her words. I listened. And I cried. Because she is right.

Man and Wife! Say it!

We could not have asked for a more perfect day. Rain and clouds gave way to a beautiful, sunny afternoon and a gorgeous sunset.

There is not much I can say about the day other than it was everything that I had imagined. It was perfect.

Ambush Shower!

Crazy, Dr. Lim, Miss Nancy and I went out for a "Girls Lunch" today, because Dr. Lim said in her email "I want to go to lunch and I never see you guys." I found this funny, because I feel like I see Dr. Lim all the time, but as we are only in the office one day a week all together (Tuesday), I didn't think much of it. Well, apparently, this was part of a ruse. When we returned from lunch, and were walking back to our offices, Dr. Lim turned around all of a sudden, followed by Crazy and Miss Nancy. Curious, I followed them into the conference room.

I entered the room, seeing much of my softball team and other friends and workmates sitting there... then hearing "SURPRISE!" And, me, not getting it, asked, "What's this for??"

Duh.

It was quite a lovely and sweet surprise. I'm not big for show, and really have been only telling people of Turg and my upcoming nuptuals when people ask, or when it comes up in conversation. So it really was a surprise to see that many people sitting there.

Of course, there was cake:

Can we tell that Crazy and Dr. Lim picked up the cake?

Again, hanging out with people I like and having good conversation. What a lovely surprise.

Perfectly showered

This past Sunday, I was showered with much love and joy at my bridal shower. Magenta* and Clio did a wonderful job planning and executing a shower that perfectly suited me. There were no games, I did not have to embarrassingly sit in front of everyone and open gifts, no ribbon bonnet, no toilet paper bride. A very un-showery bridal shower. In other words it was perfect. And very me. A gathering of some of my oldest and closest friends and family (I was quite sorry that my sister and niece-in-law could not make it), chatting, laughing and having a wonderful relaxed time.

Here are some of the highlights!

Lovely Ladies

Me with a very stylish CawfeeGuy and CawfeeMate

I felt Chewie needed some libations too

Sis-in-Laws

The former MzHines (now MrsSwan) and Trish

Two Muses and M

I want to thank everyone for coming and celebrating with me. I had such a wonderful time and felt so incredibly loved. Magenta commented after everyone left that everyone who came were the people we would be sitting in the corner talking to at any larger party. She was right. The corner was the whole party. Again, perfect.


*Magenta, I completely agree with Clio's assessment regarding your party planning/cooking/hostessing skills. Get over yourself. :)

Super-duper Cutest Nephew. Ever.

Getting this by email yesterday morning just brightened up my day. Andrew is now my desktop on my work computer... I see him peeking around my log-in window. It's fantastic. Thanks for the pic Jay!

Recovering (naughty) puppy

Thor continues to recover nicely. Strange looking but recovering. However, because he's been recovering so rapidly, he's beginning to get antsy - wanting to do all the things he's not supposed to in the first 2 weeks of his recovery (jumping, running, twisting...).

The other problem is that, because his movements are supposed to be restricted, he's being spoiled. We have to carry him up and down the stairs. In the beginning, we would carry him back if he got tired on his walks. He got to eat chicken rice with his food for the past week because the medication necessitated a bland diet. Spoiled. And getting naughty.

So last night, Turg and I are hanging out with Thor in the basement, watching TV and eating spaghetti for dinner. Thor is looking at me sitting on the floor, with my food, with longing eyes, because he's always hungry and we never feed him (in his mind). Anyway, I leaned over into his pen to grab a toy for him. He took this opportunity to pounce - face disappearing into my pasta bowl fast as lightning. When I yelled for him to stop, his face emerged, a load of spaghetti dangling from his mouth. I wanted to be mad. I really did. But he looked absolutely hilarious and I could not stop laughing. Hysterical.

*This is not Thor

*sigh*

Well, apparently discipline has gone out the window along with getting spoiled. We have a lot of work to do once he's fully recovered...

Franken-weenie

Look at the zipper-like staples... and the shaven chicken legs!

And then, the random shaven square on his side (with drug patch):

To make that random square even worse... take away the drug patch - I waxed the poor little guy. Boy did he glare at me:

Recovering Puppy

Thor had surgery last Thursday, and came home on Friday - I thought this was really rushing it at first, but seeing the improvement he's making, I'm really happy that he's been home. The neurosurgeon apparently removed an "amazing amount" of ligament and debris from the surgical site. Which essentially means, there was a lot of crap making him bad, and now that it's gone, his recovery should be great.

And it has been thus far. Everyday, he has more energy, he walks further, etc. Even from the day we got him home, he was walking better than when we brought him in. It's really quite amazing.

He's also shaven in the most bizarre ways. He kind of looks like Franken-dog right now because of the line of surgical staples on his chest. He also had (until last night when I ripped the thing off the poor puppy) a Fentanyl patch on his side - they shaved a perfectly square patch into is right side... it looks like an access port.

I have pictures at home that I'll post tonight. Thanks for all the well wishes. And, as always, in lieu of other gifts, Thor requests cookies.

Poor broken puppy, Part III

Thor did not seem very good when we got home on Monday night. So rather than wait until Tuesday evening to bring him to the neurosurgeon, we decided to bring him in the morning. Just so that he would have people watching him to make sure he would not get himself into any trouble, or hurt himself more.

Apparently, Thor has been charming all the nurses into giving him cookies. With that face of his that says, "Look at me! I'm cute! Feeeeed me!!" It's his defense mechanism... it's all he's got. And he was apparently doing okay, since they did not feel the need to drug him at all.

Thor was scheduled for surgery at 7:30 this morning. I got a call from the neurosurgeon's office at 7:45. The resident immediately told me that Thor was doing just fine (he knew we were worried about him getting worse), relaxing, and getting lots of cookies (of course). But, his surgery was being postponed since the surgeon is home sick. They will do the surgery tomorrow morning, assuming the surgeon is out of bed by then. But they will keep him happy (read: full of cookies), and comfortable until then. I told him to make sure I didn't have a fat puppy when I picked him up.

It's been emotionally trying. And now we have to wait another day. So, please continue to send the Dog of Thunder your good juju. He's using all his charm to keep himself content.

Poor broken puppy, part II

Well, it's confirmed. My poor broken puppy is truly broken. Six hours at the puppy neurologist/neurosurgeon on Friday, and an MRI* later and the vet showed me that Thor has a ruptured disk in his neck - the C6-C7 disk to be exact. What does this mean? It means that tomorrow evening, Turg and I drop him off at the puppy neurosurgeon and early Wednesday morning he has surgery. Then a few days of recovery, and then home, where I'm sure there will be weeks more of recovery.

The whole day Friday was extremely emotionally trying. Knowing that surgery is really the only option, there is nothing to do but to say that we can do all we can. Because if we do nothing, he will get worse.

Send happy juju to the puppy.

*I'll post pictures later of post-MRI shaven puppy. But here's the image - Thor with shaven wrists, looking like he has chicken legs and wearing Sherpa booties.

Poor broken puppy

Thor does not like stairs. He really doesn't. He's never liked stairs, but he's gotten used to (most of) them over the years. Thor does not have good traction on hardwood floors... he mostly bounces or bucks like a bronco and slides into place. Put those things together, and what do you get? Broken puppy.

Last Tuesday, Thor was trying excitedly to get up the 3 wood steps in our foyer to the living room. He didn't make it. He slipped, slid, Turg tried to catch him, and then tumbled to the floor. Then, the next day, we noticed that he started limping. So, we did what we normally do, and have him a couple of baby aspirin to bring down the inflammation. It didn't work. He limped more. Turg took him to the vet on Saturday, and got some anti-inflammatories and pain-killers (with opiates) to keep him calm. He seemed to be getting better, slowly.

He wasn't. It was masking things, but things started to get worse. Last night he was dragging his feet behind him. Walk walk draag. Walk walk slip. It was really hard to watch. We took him to the vet again to get x-rays this morning. The vet said the problem appeared to be neurological and not orthopedic, since he was getting worse.

So tomorrow, I am bringing him to the doggie neurologist (right? who knew) to get a work-up. Apparently, this doggie neurologist said that he's not surprised given the symptoms and the breed. Hopefully, that means that the treatment will not be bad.

Thing is, Thor is not allowed to have any food after midnight tonight. Which means he will not be having breakfast tomorrow morning. His appointment is at noon. That means I will be driving in the car with broken, grumpy, hungry, whiney puppy tomorrow. We'll see how it goes.

My poor puppy.

Bizarro-World

Since Turg and I got engaged, my Dad has slowly but surely been getting used to the idea of the fact that Turg's not going anywhere. For a bit of background, my Dad has pretty much spent the last nearly 12 years doing everything in his power to deny that Turg existed. I would try talking to him about Turg, and be ignored. Turg would try talking to him, (you know, general pleasantries, like "how are you?") and would be answered with nothing more than a grunt. But we got engaged, and I got the generic Dad response of "Good luck to you."

Then Turg had hernia surgery. Ever since then, Dad has been incredibly concerned about Turg's well being - constantly asking how he's doing and if he's taking it easy, etc. Flash forward to this past weekend, Father's Day, watching TV:

Dad (thoughtfully): (Turg)'s a nice guy.
Me (cocking head like a puppy): *blink blink* Er?
Dad: Don't be too hard on him...

WHAT?!?! Don't be too hard on him?? I felt like I was in Bizarro-World, where no means yes and everyday is opposite day.

Happy Belated Birthday Magenta!

I know. I suck. Your birthday was Friday, and I was not near a computer to post this. I'm sorry. Do you forgive me? Are you rocking out with your new guitar? I thought so. Keep rockin' till I get there to rock with you.

Quote of the week

"Quicken has taken all of my transactions at Krispy Kreme and has automatically categorized them as Medical." -- Magenta Sequins

Pain in the ... gut

her-ni-a –noun. Pathology. the protrusion of an organ or tissue through an opening in its surrounding walls, esp. in the abdominal region.

Turg has a couple, which, because of the stresses of moving, and lifting heavy (and not so heavy) boxes, got worse. And he is going into surgery today to get them fixed. It's been a pretty bad couple of weeks, and seems that since the pain started, it's only gotten progressively worse.

The surgery is ambulatory, which means that he'll be coming home this evening, if all goes well. Then he'll be down for a week or so. So, if you're out there on the interweb and are reading this, send some good juju his way for a good surgery and speedy recovery.