Zoom Zoom

We're buying a new car! It makes me feel like such a grownup.

I was hoping to wait until Mike is done school, but the red wagon (aka Buzz) is about to crap out. Mike took it in for an oil change last week and had them look into why it seems to be having trouble changing gears. It'll take about $700 just to figure out what's wrong, and I'm pretty sure the transmission is about to fall out of it.

I was hoping to give it away to someone I know who's car just died, but I think it would cost a lot just to bring it up to safety standards (which I just did 2 years ago).

Anyway, the new car is a Mazda 5 GT, and it will have a command start, cruise, and BUTT WARMERS!!! YAY!!! We'll probably get it on Wednesday night. It will hold a lot of our crap, and every one of the 6 seats in it has its own cup holder. Plus an extra!

And all the back seats fold down flat really easily, and you can store stuff in the middle row seats, and the steering wheel telescopes and tilts, and it has a power moonroof, and the side doors slide open like a minivan, and it will have a CD player. All of our vehicles have been cassette-playing cars so far.

My only complaint is that the only seat without armrests is the front passenger seat. What's up with that? We asked the salesman and he thought it was dumb too. Oh well, my left elbow will just have to dangle and suffer when Mike's driving.



It will look just like this except it will live in Calgary and not in England. And it will have red fuzzy dice hanging from the mirror.

So exciting.

Proud of my husband.

With the help of some valium-type drugs and a very nice dentist, Mike has been brave enough to go through a lot of dental work in the past few weeks.

To be specific he has had 3 root canals, 5 crowns, several fillings, and a major dental cleaning. He still has to have 2 temporary crowns replaced by permanent ones, but he may be able to do that without sedation or freezing (he's most afraid of the needles).

He wasn't allowed to eat after 10 pm the night before his sedation appointments. Then he had to get up at 6 am to take his pills, and I had to shepherd a very large, very drugged, and rather clumsy man to the dentist's office for 7 am.

I went to work for the morning, and booked off some time in the afternoon to go pick him up.

The first time, I was a little apprehensive about leaving him alone at home for a couple of hours while I finished work. What if he decided to leave the house? Or tried to drive?

It's not a totally unfounded worry as one of my friends ended up buying fifty dollars worth of ice cream and leaving it at the store, then buying and bringing home a pet iguana after his dental sedation.



I had to work, so I hid Mike's house and car keys where he couldn't find them, gave him a stern lecture about not going down the stairs, and put him to bed. I also put his cell phone on the pillow next to him so he could call if he needed anything (I only work 2 blocks away). He was very tired and could barely stay awake long enough to drink some Gatorade before falling asleep. As final insurance, I left a very stern note on the door as a reminder in case he forgot.





I needn't have worried. I don't think he even turned over in his sleep while I was gone. I had to wake him up to feed him his dinner of pudding, then he went back to bed until the next morning.

No iguanas.

Good job Mike.

Mike and I went to the Starbucks this evening at Market Mall. I had ordered Mike's drink, then my drink. It was quiet in the store, and just as I finished telling the guy behind the counter what I wanted, Marvin Gaye's "Lets Get It On" came on the sound system.

The timing was so perfect that the Barista Boy looked slightly perturbed, then started laughing. In spite of the sexy guitars, I managed to not jump over the counter and shove my tongue down his throat.

I am a strong and decent woman. Marvin Gaye has no power over me.

And just in case you were suffering from cute kitty withdrawal:

from icanhascheezburger.com

It's good to be home.

I went to Fort Mac again last week to visit my friend Alison and to work. Work was pretty good, and Alison's daughter Mary is getting to be very fun. She turned 1 a couple of weeks ago and is much more opinionated than last time. It was really nice to visit with Alison and Dennis again. Dennis cooked me steak twice in one week. Delicious.

Mary is just a few days away from being able to break into any room in the house, and has learned to be a cute little ham for the camera.

She's almost walking but prefers to crawl or to be lifted up and carried, especially when she's sleepy. This is her standing and politely tugging on my leg to be lifted up.

Fort Mac itself was very full of snow and rather chilly compared to Calgary. Also, I have developed the opinion that there are a large number of people in that city who don't know how to drive. I present to you the evidence:

1. Holes in the strip mall that I work in up there. These are DIFFERENT holes than the ones that were there back in October (note to self - get seat AWAY from the window when dining at Subway):

2. Then there's the sign at the Tim Horton's drive through:

3. As I was taking pictures of the sign, Alison noticed this lovely vehicle on our left.

With all those less-than-skilled drivers in town, Tim's must have put in this trench in the parking lot to slow them down. It doesn't look like much in this picture, but it's at least 20 cm deep, and I'm not sure my car could make it out of there. Good thing Alison drives a big truck. Second note to self - do NOT open the lid on steeped tea until the vehicle has cleared the trench.

I had fun, but it's good to be back in Calgary, even with the annoying weather that can't make up its mind. I am so ready for spring and so tired of snow and cloud.

Serena Ryder - If Your Memory Serves You Well

Finally, I bought this fabulous CD by Serena Ryder. I love it and I have to lend it to Jamie and Amisha once I've listened to it a dozen times.

http://www.serenaryder.com/

Ann Coulter, Canada, and Vietnam

Then we have this hilarious video of Ann Coulter making an ass of herself. It was pointed out to me by Perpetual Lent at Livejournal.

A dull life.

I haven't been too lazy to update this, it's just that my life has been nice and dull for the past couple of weeks. So I will show you some of the things that have been entertaining me. First we have some fun pictures made by some very creative people who are not me:




I don't know how to make blogger and youtube look pretty together, so the other stuff will be on top of this post.

I finally know what the book is about.

I always wondered what the story "Hamster Huey and the Gooey Kablooie" was about. Until today.

It is the story of a lovely and friendly hamster who gets lost in the ductwork of a house for 5 days. She is finally found in a duffel bag at the bottom of one of the vents.

All seems well, but then a few days later she develops an eye problem and is taken to the veterinarian. She is a nice hamster, and doesn't even try to bite. Dr. H is impressed with her cuteness and nice personality.

Dr. H is quite sure that the problem around her eye is actually an abscess and takes her into the back of the clinic to lance it because she doesn't want the small child with the hamster to be sad about the gross stuff that is about to come out of Huey's face.

Huey is quite cooperative, but has tough skin. Dr. H tries to poke a hole in it with a biopsy punch, but no luck. She tries again, pushing harder. Still no luck. Then she gives it a tiny nick with a scalpel.

THEN A GREAT BIG STREAM OF PUS LAUNCHES ONTO DR H's CHEEK, GLASSES, AND BANGS.

Huey feels much better and goes home on antibiotics and pain medication.

Dr. H washes her face, glasses, and hair. Then she washes her face again. It was her turn to be the smelly person on the bus tonight anyway. Dr. H is very glad that she wears glasses instead of contacts.

THE END

Just for Jamie

I'm working at a clinic that sees all kinds of small creatures this week. I've treated geckos and ferrets and birds and bunnies and guinea pigs. I had to laugh when I walked in to the back on Friday and saw that the clinic not only has 2 budgies and a conure, they also have......A SKINNY PIG!!!!

I hadn't given any thought to skinny pigs in a few years, then Jamie posted on her blog about how much she loves them last week. This one is a bit weird looking because he's albino (and because he's a skinny pig). I forget what his name is, but it's an African word for hippo.

Some advice for those of you who want to own strange little animals:

Alberta is a very dry part of the world.

It's not the best area for geckos and other creatures with the consistency of a gummy bear to live. Stick to something with fur or that came from a desert in the first place.

Why I love my neighborhood.

I got up early this morning to go to the gym (yay me!) and decided to take the garbage out on my way. I usually just toss it over the fence into the dumpster, but this morning I could hear somebody rummaging around inside the dumpster.

What to do?

I'm not the kind of person to throw garbage on somebody just because they're dumpster diving, and I'm glad people go through and take out all the bottles and cans. I silently hemmed and hawed for a minute. Should I lean the garbage against the wall of our building and throw it out when I get back? What if they tear it open looking for bottles and make a mess? Should I just yell "heads up!"?

I decided to walk around the dumpster as stompily as I could to catch his or her attention. He heard me and popped his head out with a very friendly "good morning!". He is a senior man who looks like the kind of neighbor you would love to have, who would spend all day picking sticks and leaves off of his lawn.

He reached out and took the garbage bag from me, and I explained that there were no bottles or cans in it because I take those out separately and leave them next to the dumpster.

"Oh yes, I got those the other morning. Thank-you very much."

So I went on my way and started the car. While in the car I noticed him frantically running back and forth across the alley. Was somebody yelling at him or being mean to him? When I got out to brush the snow off the running car, he caught me looking around for him and explained:

"I like to have a little fun chasing the rabbits."

He was chasing the wild hares around the back alley for shits and giggles at 6:45 am. We had a short conversation about the abundance of hares in the area, and then I left for the gym.

I'll have to learn that guy's name.

Must post more frequently than quarterly.

I have been shamefully procrastinating about this blog. Shame shame.

Oh well, I'm here now.


As for knitting, I have made a ton of stuff since August, but my favorite is the knucks I've been wearing constantly.

You can see that the thumb on the right hand rolls a bit. I think it's because I cast on a bit loose for that thumb.

They're actually less pink overall than they seem in the picture. More rusty orange.


I wore these knucks when I got to go on a tour of the oilsands in Ft. McMurray. I went up to do a locum in October, and had a lot of fun. The clinic was crazy busy, though. When I started on Monday, there were no appointments available for the rest of the week, and they were booking vaccine appointments 2 months out! That didn't stop animals from needing to be seen, of course. I got 1.5 lunches in 5 days. It was fun, though. I even had a blocked cat flown in one day from Fort Chipewyan. I've never had a patient airlifted to me before.

I had a lot of fun with Alison and Mary. Cute picture to prove it:

She's a really good kid these days. She only cried twice the whole time. Super cute too.

Alison met Robbie, and they seem to amuse each other quite nicely.


Denis took me on an awesome tour of the oilsands and I got to ride in a 400 ton truck for 2 loads! It was very very cool. Look how huge these trucks are:



I also did some knitting in Ft. Mac. I made odessa from Grumperina's website http://www.magknits.com/feb06/patterns/odessa.htm, but I need to block it before I show a picture. I also made some Futurama brain slugs http://www.johnnysstew.com/pattern/brainslug.html for Mike and friends for hallowe'en. Here I am sporting one of the little creatures:

I showed pictures on VIN, and now I'm involved in a trade with some American Vinners. American junk food for brain slugs.

Mmmm....baked cheetos in 100 calorie packs.

Mmmm....fudge shoppe cookies in 100 calorie packs.

Mike's also excited, because he's getting some Target strawberry lemonade juice powder.

I finished Robbie's hat last night, and want to get Sinead's panta done so it has some hope of reaching Germay before Christmas.

Must stop blogging and start knitting. I think that I'm going to go turn on the heated mattress pad, and knit in bed while watching TV for awhile.

Knucks Done

I am amazing and have learned to embroider and have finished the knucks. Mikey likes them.

Oh yeah, I helped Joe take out a big ol' spleen at work today. Not easy due to adhesions that welded the stomach to it, but he got it done (and fast too). Hope it's benign.

One Knuck Down!

Here is the first knuck from a few days ago. I'll probably finish the second one tonight, and learn how to emboider tomorrow.


Work was really busy today, but kind of sucky as well. Cats with chest tumors and cats with pleural effusion. And 2 euthanasias tomorrow afternoon on my day off. At least I don't have to juggle stuff when I do them on those days.

More knucks pictures.

I finished the first one last night, but it fits Mike better than me, so it shall be his. So far it looks like they'll say BIG MIKE. First I have to learn to emboider.

This was it a couple of nights ago:

The image upload feature on blogspot seems to be posessed by the devil right now, so you'll have to see what it looks like today at a later date.

First attempt at pictures.

I am making knucks. Mike took a picture 2 nights ago, but I can't find it in the computer (grr). Here they are at the beginning, with all the little stubby finger bits.

I'll dig around tomorrow and try to post the proof of my progress.

This blog needs more pictures.

I will get right on that.

Today was rather dull except I went for a great walk with Jamie. Thank God she lives in this town.

Mike has a 20 page paper due on Tuesday that he didn't start until today. I was hurt + pissed = hissed when he decided to spend the day at school. I haven't spent any time with him since Thursday, and he dropped that bomb this morning. He'd better be working his ass off.

Another fun thing today was that I gavea HUGE garbage bag full of acrylic yarn to a high-school aged girl. She could knit herself a house cozy out of all that. Hope she has fun.

180

Aargh.

Already lost my first post. Somewhere out in the ether I guess.

Today was a very dead day at work, only 3 appointments. Had time to write a letter to Grandma P, then went down 17th ave for bamboo needles. Mailed a ball of yarn for a knitswap also.

Found good sushi too.

We'll see if this post continues to exist in a few minutes.

If not I may just give up and watch TV.