Continue reading »]]> Need to create a clickable map? Check out CreateaClickableMap.com.

This map shows where I’ve lived in Purple, places I’ve gone on vacation in bright red and states that I’ve driven through in maroon.

I’m sure there are tons of uses for this app especially with election season coming up.

Continue reading »]]> It’s 2012. I am so glad. To put it bluntly, 2011 sucked rocks.

Sure, it could have been worse – things can always get worse – but 2011 was a low point on the line-chart of my life. Winter lasted several weeks longer than usual, our car developed an oil leak, my vegetable garden was a failure and we still did not lose any substantial weight.

But those were the minor disappointments of last year. I also had to deal with the fact that my department supervisor left, leaving our IT department with three people to manage eight stores. And then, we got three new stores so now there’s three people supporting eleven stores. Despite the fact that the amount of work we now have will remain higher even after things settle down, there was no raise and no substantial bonus to compensate for it.

But worst of all was the loss of China. Even if my gardens had been award-worthy, and even if I had gotten a large raise and year-end bonus the death of our beloved pooch would have made it a terrible year.

We’re still feeling her absence – piercingly so – but we have hopes that this next year will start to look up. We’ll be taking the car into the shop to fix the oil leak and heater in the next week or so and we hope to keep things moving positively from here on out. Unfortunately, no one can control the universe and there’s no telling how it’ll all end up. I’m very nervous about the upcoming elections – the level of intelligence of the American public has been disappointing me since 2000. Add to that the fact that people are already freaking out about the 2012 ‘end of the world’ nonsense and you have the makings of a really bad 12 months.

But as for me, personally, I will do my best to keep things moving forward and in a positive direction. Happy New Year to you all and here’s hoping that we all try to do the same.

Continue reading »]]> A few weeks ago China, our beloved pooch, became very stiff and got to the point where she couldn’t walk. We took her to the vet and she was diagnosed with Lyme Disease. We got her on antibiotics and within 36 hours she was almost back to her old self.

Cut to a week and a half later, and she became lethargic and her limbs were stiff all over again. We took her back to the vet and they did some more blood work. Her liver wasn’t great, but not terrible, and her kidneys looked fine. They figured she wasn’t swallowing her antibiotics correctly and gave us a different kind. Within 24 hours she was much improved.

Cut to a few days ago. She became lethargic again, constantly nauseous although she rarely spit up anything other than bile and white foam. We hoped it was an upset stomach but it continued to get worse. When she stopped eating and drinking I called the vet.

I took her in today after hours and the doc did some more blood work and took some x-rays. I was pretty much convinced that she had swallowed something nasty while we weren’t looking and that her bowels were obstructed. The vet was more concerned that her Liver had taken a turn for the worse.

We were both wrong. China has acute renal failure – 75% of her kidneys are no longer functioning.

It could have been caused by the Lyme disease but the fact that her kidneys looked great just 10 days ago makes that suspect. The doctor said that it looked more like antifreeze toxin, but we have none of that around here and she’s never outside alone where some cruel person could slip it to her. We watch her like a hawk.

The doctor is going to talk to an internal specialist on Monday to see if he has any other ideas, but basically it comes down to this: She will never be ‘normal’ again. We’re going to work to get her to a point where she’s comfortable but if we can’t give her good quality of life we aren’t going to force her to live in misery just to ease our own suffering.

She also has an enlarged heart. No idea how long it’s been like that.

The kidney failure is very bad news and I’m trying to prepare for the worst, but I will work to keep her with us for as long as possible. If we can get her to a reasonable comfort level she’ll have to take Pepcid and Tums everyday for the rest of her life long with weekly subcutaneous fluid injection which we can do ourselves. Her diet will also change – basically reverse Atkins for dogs. It has to be a low protein diet.

I’m pretty much heartbroken right now because when I was a vet tech, I helped take care of dogs with renal failure and in those cases, it never ended well. But that was over 10 years ago so I’m hoping that the meds they have now are better than they were a decade ago.

I’m not giving up hope.

Continue reading »]]> I pulled out the Halloween decorations yesterday. Last year I didn’t decorate the house interior at all so I’m doing much better this time around.

I also finished my DIY Halloween wreath. I wasn’t able to find black feathers so I used red instead. I like it – but at the same time I don’t. It’s hard to explain.

I do like my DIY spider, though. Just painted a couple of differently sized Styrofoam balls black and then covered that with glitter glue, joined them with a wooden dowel, stuck in eight black pipe cleaners (cut in half) and voila! Sparkly Spider.

I was going to dye the gauze black but found that it works the way it came. Looks like bloody spider webs, bwa ha ha ha!

We have started our Halloween horror movie viewing. Last week my husband received a review copy of Scream 4 and while we didn’t think it was the best of the franchise we thought it was still a lot of fun. So, we picked up the first three (real cheap) on blu-ray and watched all of them on Friday night.

That third one was pretty weak but they were all enjoyable. And man, were they ever so careful with continuity. I was really impressed. I especially liked the fact that Sidney was wearing her boyfriend’s fraternity letters from the second film throughout the entire third film and it wasn’t even commented upon. It was a nice detail for all the fans of the series.

Last night we watched the Amicus film The House That Dripped Blood, starring three of my famous brits – Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and Jon Pertwee. The first time I saw it years ago I only vaguely knew who Jon Pertwee was. I enjoyed watching the film  much  more this time because Pertwee happens to be my favorite Doctor Who.

Jon Pertwee and Ingrid Pitt

I am beginning to wonder if I’ll ever see a performance by Jon Pertwee in which he does not wear a ruffled shirt and a cloak.

Continue reading »]]> When I was a kid a Jack O’ Lantern had to be carved every year. I believe I helped as soon as I was old enough, but my memory’s a bit fuzzy about that.

However, once I got to high school age that tradition kind of took a back seat. God, teenagers are such drags, aren’t they? I know they were when I was one and I’m sure they’re just the same now. Just with more gadgets.

I’ve been much better about it since meeting my fellow Halloween-o-phile husband (hey – is there a ‘real’ word for that affliction? Let’s find out. Almighty Google – is there a technical term for those who adore Halloween? Nope, doesn’t look like it. Closest I could find was Halloween Enthusiast) but I have a missed a year here or there.

After watching the movie Trick ‘r Treat (great flick, by the way, HIGHLY recommended) we will never be without one again on Halloween night – and that thing will not be blown out until after midnight.

Here are some of our Jack O’ Lanterns from the past 7 years:

2004 - Design by Nate Piekos

2004′s design was based on one of the zombie’s from Nate Piekos’ online choose-your-own-adventure zombie story – which he sadly never finished.

2005 - Back off, ya lousy mugs

2005′s lantern was designed by my husband. He was the one that convinced me that simple was the best for cut gourds and he was absolutely right. This is still my favorite lantern.

2006 - Way too Cute for Halloween

In 2006 I carved up a couple of pumpkins I had grown myself. As you can see, I went for ‘cute’ that year, drawing our pets’ faces on the pumpkins. I did later carve these and light them up on Halloween but I never took a picture. I liked how these turned out, but I doubt I’ll go the ‘cute and adorable’ route ever again.

2008 - No Carving, but Plenty of Pumpkins

In 2007 I didn’t carve any pumpkins. We were vacationing during Halloween that year and weren’t home to do anything.

In 2008 I didn’t grow any jack o’ lantern pumpkins – just the pictured Cinderella pumpkins – so I didn’t do any carving that year either. It’s amazing that Burlap Boy didn’t visit and kill us all. Maybe he figured the terror that is our Halloween cat was enough punishment.

2009 - Simple is still best

In 2009 I picked up a couple of nice sized gourds at the store and stuck with simple patterns once again. Not my best work, but passable. The bottom was based on that great monster Mike Wazowski.

2010 - All in a Row

In 2010 I got three pumpkins for carving – I only grew pie pumpkins that year, no jack-o-lanterns – and once again went with simple designs. For a couple of weeks they sat on the kitchen steps, grinning at passersby during the day time.

But on Halloween night…

2010 Graveyard

…they lit up our garden graveyard from dusk until after midnight. Unfortunately, this location was a little too far away from the road and you couldn’t really get the full effect from driving by. I still enjoyed building it, though.

This year’s is going to be even better. We’re doing the graveyard again, but next to the road so our hard work can be appreciated by those fool enough to traverse our haunted road on the evilest of evil nights.

And you can be sure that there will be plenty of grinning, grimacing Jacks to protect us from Sammy boy…