Edouard

Today Zoya gets her knee x-rayed. The hopeful outcome of this is that she will be able to walk up the stairs under her own power tonight. That would be very, very, very nice.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Edouard is making things interesting today. These 24-hour jobs are hard to handle. You don't find out there's something to worry about until it's time to act. We're right on the edge of needing to evacuate for a Category 1 hurricane. Our house is in the evacuation zone for all hurricanes but on the edge, so we'd probably be OK in a cat 1. If we could be sure it would only be the normal hour fifteen up to Conroe, I'd say let's go and it doesn't cost much. But, then if people start deciding to leave, it could be 15 hours and we'd be sitting in gridlock in the storm.

Since we didn't already decide to leave, I'm thinking we're staying put. Good thing I went grocery shopping this weekend!

Changing of the Visitors

Time is flying. My parents have come and gone. I think they took more pictures of Carina in 4 days than we have in 4 weeks. (OK, maybe not, but a lot.) They got stuck in the airport yesterday for more than 6 hours due to the weather here, the weather in Dallas, and a bird strike on the plane they were supposed to finally leave on. I hope my sister and her family have better luck this afternoon.

I'm a little intimidated with the idea of having Caroline here now that it comes down to it. Our house has lots of baby gear in it now, but not much toddler gear yet. I hope she doesn't get bored. At least there's always the neighborhood pool. And the dogs - hope that works out well.

We have had Apache and Bennett for the weekend. When I agreed to take them with company here, I was thinking that we could always throw them in the backyard if it got to be too much. Well, it's been raining cats and dogs all weekend. I put them out for a couple hours yesterday after it stopped raining, and Gavin had to give Bennett a bath before we could let them in. Roxy is thoroughly annoyed with the whole situation. I've caught her on the couch twice in the last few days. She's definatley protesting.

Scheduling

Roxy's pawis swollen again, so I called the vet this morning.

Receptionist: Hmmm... Well, I don't suppose you could get here by 10:30?

Me: Um, no. (It's 10:20.)

Her: Well, I don't have any other appointments open. Do you think you could leave her for the day, and they'll look at her between appointments?

Me: Sure.

Her: OK, can you get her here by noon?

Me: Maybe...
(Thinking - Carina will wake up at about 11:00, and I'll need to feed her, change her, get her and Roxy into the car...

Me: It might be a bit later; I have to feed the baby at 11:00.

Her: Well, it would really be better for us if you're here by noon.

OK, lady. I'll try to tell the 1-month-old about YOUR busy schedule.

Lost Dog

Some ladies found a huge dog running along South Shore near our house this morning. (HUGE - see the Flickr stream!) I put him in the yard until we can get ahold of his owners; there are signs up for a lost dog that looks like him. According to the signs, he's been gone since April 12. He looks like wherever he's been, he's had plenty to eat.

I didn't realize until last night that iFest is here this weekend. I think we're going to go do that for the afternoon. That's a unique Houston thing for my mom and sister to see.

New Stuff

We got our new sofas yesterday! (See a picure on my Flickr stream.) I’m very excited. As it turns out, papasan chairs are hard to get out of while you’re growing a baby. The couches are a little deeper than the old ones, so we may need to do some creative shuffling to get the arm of the big couch out from behind the love seat without blocking access to the kitchen. All in all, though, they look as good as I thought they would in our living room. And they’re very soft.

Roxy has been getting into trouble when we leave her in the house for a few hours recently. Last week she ate about half a bag of trail mix, which I had admittedly left on an end table. That made for some interesting colors in the back yard. But last night, she stole a bag of chips off the kitchen table! She hasn’t taken anything off the table since she was a puppy. Gavin yelled at her good. I think she still remembered it this morning - she was tucking her tail as she walked past the table on her way outside.

At least last night was our last Lamaze class. We had to watch a video of a C-Section being performed. Ew! I really hope I don’t have to experience that. I’m going to try to go back to not thinking about the birth again for a couple months. Let’s concentrate on all the cute baby stuff we’ll be getting at our showers. Think about putting the crib together and setting up the diaper service. Pick a day care. Anything, everything else!

Sunbeams and 300 and my GeForce 7600gs

This morning Jen and I were eating our cereal while watching the Daily Show. It wasn't 9am yet, which is unusual for both of us to be up. The sun was shining in between the blinds and painting the wall next to the fireplace a brilliant cream. Roxy eventually wandered up to the sunbeam on the wall, sniffed at it, looked at the floor, looked back at the wall, and then sat in front of the wall so she would be in the sunbeam. You could tell she was trying to complain to the sunbeam that its supposed to be on the floor! That's what sunbeams do. As the hour passed and the sunbeam slide down to the floor, so did Roxy.

I took a long lunch yesterday to go watch 300 with Troy and Jason. It was a fun movie, I liked several parts of it. Much of it was CG with some actors tossed on top of it, and you could definitely identify some of the comic book influence in some of the scenes. Lots of eye candy, for both the guys and the girls as some of the film reviewers point out. While there was a lot of blood in the fight scenes, it was curiously blurred as it flew through the air in slow motion. Again, like a comic book where a frame is trying to illustrate the motion. It helped to remind the audience that they were watching a comic book movie, not a historical docudrama. Storywise, nothing special. There were some funny scenes. There were also some disturbing scenes, which I also attribute to the comic book influence. I'd probably see it again.

Yesterday after work we drove over to CompUSA to check out the sales. I picked up a new video card to replace my 2-year-old one. It looks pretty nice. I tried boosting up the resolution to 1600x1200 to see what it would do... and my monitor couldn't handle it! Black screen, frequency too high, etc. I suppose I'll need to get a new monitor eventually.

I also picked up Jade Empire, which I was excited about 3 years ago when it came out. I was bummed when I realized it was out for the X-Box, not the PC. I guess a year or so ago they releeased it for the PC, it comes on a DVD. So with much anticipation I put in the DVD to install it... but my DVD player couldn't read it! I remember having a similar problem with the Legos Star Wars game I got a year ago. Looking around on the internet didn't provide any quick easy fixes: everyone said the player wasn't good.

Fifteen minutes ago I returned from Walmart with a new CD/DVD reader and it's now happily installing Jade Empire. And maybe later today I'll install the legos game, and I'll have two to play! In 1280x1024 resolution, with all of the graphic options turned to max!

(Can you tell Jen isn't at home today?)

2 + 2 = 15

Roxy had a tooth pulled today. While the incision in her mouth is healing, the vet wants us to feed her canned dog food. So, I went to the store today and got a couple six packs of cans, figuring that would last 4-5 days. Tonight we open up a package and read the instructions on how much to feed her.

"Feed 2/3 can per day per 8 lb body weight"

Oh. My. God. Roxy weighs 100 lb. Do the math - that means these people are suggesting we feed her 8 1/3 cans of food per day. 8 cans! E-I-G-H-T! As in 2/3 of the amount of food I thought would last 4-5 days!

Now, those cans weren't terribly expensive, but I paid about $4.50 for each six pack. So, now let's add this up... At 8 cans per day that's $6.75 per day. $202.5 per month. I think we normally spend about $100 per month on food for both our dogs.

I thought, it has to be a mistake. We decided to start her out with 3 cans tonight - she didn't have any breakfast because of the surgery, after all. Then I came upstairs and checked Iams web site. For a 100 lb dog, it says 3 2/3 cans per day.

Somebody's math doesn't add up, and I've checked mine 3 times.

Under the Weather

My luck ran out today. I've been remarkably healthy all winter, but today I woke up with a sore throat. I didn't have much going on at work, so I decided to stay home. By lunchtime, I had a full-blown cold. Gavin talked to someone at work that said there's a flu going around that starts with a sore throat and runny nose.

Now, I meant to get a flu shot last fall, but at first I wasn't sure I should with the pregnancy. Then once the doctor OK'd it, I just put it off. I hope I don't regret it.

The vet is 99% sure Roxy has an abscessed tooth. She's got an appointment on Thursday to go under, get an X-ray, and surgery to pull the teeth if the X-ray confirms the diagnosis. At least recovery is fairly short - only a few days. No idea what this adventure is going to cost us.

Missing Pieces

To celebrate the end of the mission and my return to the land of the people who sleep at night, we went out to dinner tonight with Becca, Cari, and Jose. We got back home to find that Roxy had chewed one of the presents from under the tree, torn up the plastic wrappings from our gifts from Becca, and eaten the continents of Austrailia, Africa, and South America from my jigsaw puzzle. Yes, SHE ATE THEM! I kept looking around for chewed up pieces, but they were nowhere to be found.

I got my uncle's Christmas letter today, and discovered that he bought a float plane! Hmmm... Maybe I'll have to go visit ND again soon. :) Anyhow, I feel like we ought to take the baby up to see my grandmother sometime soon, since she doesn't travel too much anymore. Good excuse.

Tomorrow, we get in the car with the dogs to drive to Little Rock for Christmas. Gavin brought up the fact that my car needs an oil change pretty badly. Oh, well. I gues we're not leaving as early in the morning as I hoped.

Woe

I got home from a very satisfying baseball game last night to a hot house. Yes, our A/C has decided to take the plunge. I have meetings today, so we're going to have to wait for tomorrow for the guy to come out and take a look. Which means that it probably won't be fixed until Monday. Which means that we'll be sweating tonight too. Sunday night it's supposed to be cooler again (low 65 deg).

So, we opened all the windows last night and made the best of it. The dogs provided some mild amusement when the wind blew the bedroom door shut...

BANG!

Zoya: bark! (Looking toward the front of the house - away from the bedroom)

Roxy: Bark! (Looking where Zoya's looking)

Me: Quiet!

Zoya: BARK!

Roxy: B! A! R! K!

Me: QUIET! QUIET! QUIET!


Although it has been somewhat cooler over the last week, the temperature last night was not cold enough to make sleeping with the windows open terribly comfortable. At least there was a breeze last night. Although apparently Roxy was totally put out by the curtains blowing in the corner where she usually sleeps. She retreated into the front room.

Wind Eye

Busy morning. I stayed up until 2am working on the layout for my first ever photoblog, then I took the dogs to the vet this morning at 9am. Roxy was fine, but Zoya was very scared. I wonder if Roxy is more comfortable around strangers when I'm there, and Zoya is the same with Jen? They both also gained 10% weight from the last time we took them. I blame Becca's house with its fabulous cooking.

Anyways, here's the link to my photoblog. It is currently driven by Blogger, although I suspect I will continue to make changes to the template. Feel free to make any comments on the layout, etc. The photo on there today is actually an old scanned image from a picture I took in 1997, so, it isn't the best quality. I'm going to have to figure out a simple way to allow people to flip between previous and next posts.