Directions to the Reunion

Okay cousins and aunts and uncles, here is how you get to Sliverwing hall outside of LaGlace. We will be camping Friday and Saturday night (August 28 & 29). There will be a dinner Saturday night where hamburgers and hotdogs will be provided. Just bring a vegetable/salad or dessert.



Here are the directions in words:

From La Glace, head 3 miles (4.8 km) west on highway 59. Turn north (right) on Range Road 90.

Travel north for 4 miles (6.4 km). Turn west (left) on Township Road 750 (this should be a "T" intersection). Travel west for only 1/4 of a mile (0.4 km).

Turn north (right) on Range Road 90. Travel north for 2 miles (3.2 km).

Silver Wing Hall is on Range Road 90, just across Township Road 752.

Emesis

So I worked at one of the emergency clinics in town this weekend, as I often do.

A lady came in with her cat, who may have eaten a plastic button off of her sweater an hour before getting there. The lady was helpful by bringing in a button just like it.

I did an x-ray of the button, and it showed up on the table, but I wasn't 100% sure (at least not sure enough to bet my license on it) that it would show up in a cat's stomach surrounded by food.

So I tried to make the kitty vomit. I had the techs feed her a whole bunch of rich canned food mixed with water, then gave her domitor under her skin.

Nothing.

So I got out the cowboy tranquilizers that I have never used in my entire career that are famous for making cats vomit. Put an IV catheter in first in case they had worse side-effects than vomiting. Gave the xylazine.

Nothing.

At this point I didn't want to use anything stronger, because the side effects of the next things to try can be quite bad. Like intractable vomiting. Intractable is not a good thing. Or sloughing of the stomach lining. Also not a good thing.

So at this point I x-rayed the kitty. No obvious button in her stomach.

So I reversed the drugs we had given her and sent her home to be watched for signs of an intestinal blockage. Such as vomiting.

I hope her owner finds the button somewhere in the cracks of the couch at home.

Just a tip for anybody out there who is interested. If you ever need to make me vomit, all you have to do is buy me one of these, and read the poem on it out loud to me (click it to see a bigger version). Should work like a charm:



And only $75 plus shipping.

Yellowstone

Okay, I'm off to Lethbridge this afternoon to work for 2 weeks. The vet that I'm working for and house/catsitting for has a terribly slow computer, so I thought I would update da blog before I go. In September I managed to get a picture of one of the neighborhood cats that I've been trying to photograph for about 5 years. His real name is Angel (barf) but we have always called him Pushy-Face the Half Orc, or Pushy for short. Check out those lower canines. The fun thing about Pushy is that he looks adorable from a distance, then gets rather ugly as he gets closer due to his underbite. He's really sweet and will come over to greet you if you kneel down and call him over. He's also a great weather indicator, as he will only be seen outside on very nice days. This picture makes him appear more ugly than he really is, mostly because it makes his eyes look creepy.


One of the neatest things we did this fall was go to Yellowstone with Tamara & Shawn. It was a whirlwind tour of Montana. We spent Thursday night in Lethbridge, then took the Going to the Sun Road through Glacier National Park Friday morning, which was very cool. It's only open about 4 months a year. We spent about an hour or two shopping for yarn in Kalispell. I think that Camas Creek Yarns may be my favorite yarn store so far. They have EVERY colour of Cascade 220, and almost every colour of Manos. And they have a sweater's worth of all of them. It's insane. I bought a sweater's worth each of Dream in Colour Classy, Cascade 220, and Rowan Pure Wool DK. That should keep me busy for the next 2 years. We spent Friday night in Missoula and ate at Cracker Barrel to make Mike happy. Not that the rest of us mind eating southern food either. We stayed at Ruby's and had their delicious included breakfast Saturday morning, then burned over to Bozeman and Yellowstone. Yellowstone National Park is an increadibly beautiful and weird place. As you drive through it, you see steam coming up out of the ground all over. We went to Old Faithful and hung around waiting for it to go off. It goes off every 1 - 1.5 hours. The geyser is a bit of a tease, and threatened to go off numerous times before the big show. After the eruption, the crowd dispersed and we looked around other parts of the park. The old hotel is pretty amazing. Look at this woodwork!


There are boiling/bubbling pools all over the place.





We got very lucky and managed to see a geyser called the Great Fountain erupt. A lot of locals were there who were grumpy from the last time they sat there for 3 hours and nothing happened. Apparently the Great Fountain doesn't erupt in the daylight very often. This was even cooler than Old Faithful because we got to sit right next to it while it went off.


This picture was taken while we were waiting. I used the magic knitting trick to make the geyser erupt. I brought out my knitting, and sure enough, the geyser erupted within 2 minutes. This usually also works well for getting transit buses to show up.

I didn't get a good picture of the eruption because we were so close that it was just a huge wall of steam and water that didn't photograph well.

We spent that night in Bozeman, did some speed shopping Sunday morning, and drove back to Lethbridge where I stayed to work and Tamara, Shawn, & Mike continued to Calgary.

I have lots more to tell about, but I have to get on the road now. Back to Lethbridge!

Okay, I haven't blogged in forever, but my sister Jamie tagged me to put in the fourth picture from my fourth folder and fifth from the fifth. I haven't looked at them yet, so I hope they're not disgusting work pictures of dogs' bits.

Fourth from fourth from fourth (I have a lot of layers of folders sometimes):

This is a picture taken inside the store while I was trying out a new camera last year. Got a sweet deal on the camera. Pretty cows.








Fifth from fifth:



This is my friend Tamara in the hat and cowl I knit her for Christmas. Isn't she cute?



Okay, rather tame. You've been spared the canine hermaphrodites this time. Consider yourself lucky.

Sweater!

My rogue is finally finished!

Those of you who are not knitters may feel free to ignore this entry entirely.

I started this sweater 2-3 years ago, and have been working at it on & off ever since. I didn't let myself knit the summer I was studying for MCAT, so it has been ignored for months at a time.


It's knit out of Cascade 220 in a heather colourway (9443). It's a dark red with a bright blue heathered into it.

This pattern is available at www.girlfromauntie.com.

I did the cardigan modifications because I really don't like pullovers. They're always too hot and make my hair all staticky in the winter.

Issues that I had were:


1. I did the hem modification where you start the hem on smaller neeldes before a turning row. Then you knit the length of the hem and knit each stitch together with it's corresponding cast-on loop. Sounds genius, but I may have got my row count wrong or something, because it was extremely flippy, and the hem was always pointing straight up when I tried it on.

I'm a pretty easygoing knitter, but it just looked stupid. So I got very brave and cut off my original hem. Then I knit downward and just made a plain old hem that had to be sewed down in the traditional fashion. I cut one row closer than I had planned, and almost ended up messing with the cabling. So close.

2. I have a little cable-crossing error that doesn't bother me enough to change it at this point in time.

3. I forgot the pocket. Doh! Wasn't paying attention at the point in the pattern where you are supposed to start it. Oh well, I may get bored and try to find a creative way to add pockets later.



I weighed this sweater before putting in the zipper and it was 603 grams. So just over six skeins. Not bad considering I lengthened the body and the sleeves.

This was a fun pattern and I'm so happy with the finished product. It fits me well. I put in a 24 inch zipper so I can keep my neck warm when it's windy out. And now for more pictures!

Stampede

I have decided that I hate working in Calgary during Stampede. It's too hot to sleep, and as soon as I do sleep, the fireworks go off. Then I get to sleep again just in time for all the drunks to make it back to our neighborhood screaming. Veterinary clinics do not close for Stampede, and they don't pay their employees to stand around eating pancakes and drinking beer like the downtown workers, which leaves me rather jealous. So as I am self-employed, I was able to decide that I no longer work that part of July. I had my cousin's 13 and 15 year old daughters come to Calgary, and took them to Stampede instead.

We had a lot of fun. Mike and I are old and boring, and I get motion sickness VERY easily, so we set them loose on the rides and had them check in with us at regular intervals. Thank goodness for cell phones.

My inner redneck LOVES watching motocross. There wasn't any there, but there was a fun BMX show. It'll do.



Mike was rather obsessed with eating as many foods "on a stick" that he could find.

He had a corndog, and ice cream on a stick, but his favorite was pizza on a stick.
We all agreed it was quite tasty.


I also enjoyed the pickle kabob on a stick:

My favorite indulgence was the funnel cake. Mike's cell phone camera managed to capture the holiness of the crumbs and powdered sugar left on the plate:

It's a good thing we went over several days. Especially since Davina was on a successful quest for deep fried oreos. That's too much grease for a single visit.

I wasn't sure how a boring couple of people like Mike and myself were going to entertain teenagers. What I forgot is that when I was a teenager, there was no internet! Give them a laptop and they can amuse themselves for hours. Mike was giving free geek lessons. Katie is a star pupil:


Davina and Katie are fun and smart kids, and we enjoyed having them around. I managed to keep the cat allergens in our house from killing Davina by drugging her with antihistamines every few hours. I'm not sure her lungs would have survived a longer visit, though. I sent them home with the first season of Veronica Mars. They of course became immediate addicts and I had to ship them seasons 2 and 3 ASAP.


I wonder if I'm brave enough to do it again next year?

Been gone gone gone so long.

I left Calgary after work on April 20th, and didn't really get back home until June 4th. I spent a week in Lethbridge, 36 hours at home, flew to Fort Mac for 3 weeks, came home for 4 days (worked 2 of them) and then went back to Grande Prairie for a couple of weeks. It's nice to be back.


As for my adventures while away, some are so long ago that they're getting a bit blurry. I'll have to go through my photos to jog my memory. Apparently the evil forces of Voldemort are getting a little out of control near the Starbucks in Lethbridge.



Up in Fort Mac I stayed with my friend Alison & her husband, along with their daughters Mary & Anna. Aren't they cute?

As usual, Fort McMurray was full of Newfies and their fun phrases and habits. And apparently their strange foods too. I didn't feel the need to buy any.

I worked at 2 clinics while I was up there. The clinic I had never worked at before was really fun, and they gave me this SWEET RIDE to drive around in while I was working for them. There's a cartoon turtle hanging on for dear life on the other side, and a bunch of animal backsides on the tailgate where it says "happy tails to you".

I kept my eyes on the road, but Alison assures me that we got a lot of strange looks while going out for coffee in it. I think I can safely say that I was driving the most noticeable pickup truck in Fort McMurray. That's saying a lot.

After a few days at home where I enjoyed the relative quiet of living with Mike and the cat, I went home to Grande Prairie. I spent a couple of nights at my grandparents' new place (quite the palace) and the rest of the time at my brother's. Where they also have two small children.


Rebekah is difficult to photograph because if the red-eye on my camera goes off, she stops smiling, but if I don't use the flash, she's just a happy pink blur.

She has also developed the adorable habit of sucking her thumb. That's her mom, my wonderful sister in law Sarah holding her there.





My nephew James and I also had some pretty good times together this visit. He really enjoys roaring at me like a lion. He REALLY thinks it's great if I shriek and run away when he roars. He was jumping and roaring when I took this picture, so I couldn't get him centered in the shot.


After peeking inside James' Backyardigans lunchbox, I have decided that I will never ask a toddler to pack my lunch. What you see there is 3 Thomas the Train toys, an old muffin, a really old timbit type dessert, and an unopened jar of babyfood. Meat babyfood. Pretty grim if you ask me.





James and I had a lot of fun at the park, where he was kind enough to bury my feet in the sand. I also introduced him to the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie, which is by far one of the best movies to watch with a 2 year old. During the really fun bit where the chipmunks are singing the Witch Doctor song, he grabbed my brother's guitar hero guitar and started rockin' out with them. I think that he's proably rockin' out at a third grade level these days. Very advanced, that boy.



Whenever I felt the need to flee the toddler/infant lifestyle, I went over to my friend Marti's house and hung out with her and the animals. This is Crispy the italian greyhound on my lap. Poor unsuspecting guy was under my knife for a little lumpectomy just a few days later. He is resilient and quickly regained his prancy walk after surgery. That reminds me that I have to call her and see what the histopathology results were.



Just a few days before I left Grande Prairie my poor little sister Kristed cut of the end of her finger while chopping kindling. None of the bone is missing, so it should be alright. I brought her bandaids and a sympathy card to make her feel better.





Maybe I should have bought her and Opi matching tea sets instead.

Even without the gift of fine china, she recovered quickly, and was able to hold her own in a Magnadoodle race with James before taking me to the airport. Note that she was only using 4 fingers to draw as fast as she could, and James was using all 10 of his to erase her drawings.

That's all I have to report for today. I'll post an update on my knitting projects tomorrow.