Exhibition Of Emotions

Last weekend was pretty fun.  Had a birthday party in the old 'hood to attend.  For some unknown reason this little princess doesn't like to take self portraits, but she thought the iPhone self-picture feature (technical term) was pretty cool.

This was our "BIG SMILES" photo

Ok, now show me shock and horror!

And now for the BIG FINALE!!!

2 Beautiful Ladies

They both look so young, don't they?  Abby used to never get on the couch.

The Mysterious Shadow

Keystone & Shadow.  She fits right in.

Todd's 40th

Has anyone close to you made you do something for their big milestone birthday?  Was it something you vowed at some time in your life that you would never ever do?  I'm not talking about anything illegal or harmful.

I had to go along with his wishes for my hubby's 40th birthday.  And as a matter of fact, Suzie & Kevin came along for the ride as well.

And that was after he came home with his ear pierced.  Actually, he was home, and I walked in the door and took 2 steps into the house and stopped dead in my tracks when I saw him.  You think he told me ahead of time?  Nope.  He went to the mall and had the teeny-bopper pierce his ear.  I actually think it's very funny.  Who DOES that?  Todd.  That's who.

So we all flew to Chicago for his big 4th-decade-of-gracing-this-earth-with-his-presence celebration.  It was a really great weekend, one filled with great memories.

I remember that we went a day or two earlier, and they met us there.  Our first stop was to the first bar we saw which happened to be Harry Caray's bar (I think).  Since we hadn't seen them for awhile, I sat next to Suzie, who was next to Kevin, and then Todd on the end.  We were at the bar enjoying a drink.  I must have looked available despite THE SPARKLY RING ON MY FINGER, cause some short dark Italian dude comes up to me and starts hitting on me.  After a couple of minutes of extremely awkward IGNORING THE HELL OUT OF HIM, my hubby leans over from down the bar and waves and says "Hi Honey!".  You would think the guy could take a hint?  I remember that he didn't exactly receive the message because I think all the alcohol he had consumed was blocking some synapses.  Anyway we left and decided to go bull riding.

Suzie was performing surgery on one of the cow holes.
This was the "holey cow".

I think this was the night we ate at a New Orleans type of Cajun restaurant.  I remember enjoying it.

We crashed a party at the museum (it was actually open to the public, but it wasn't obvious until we were leaving) and ate a lot of free food at the Kukla, Fran, and Ollie exhibit.  Who are they again?!?  And can you believe I remember this shit?

We ate at Weber Grill and the idiot waiter dropped BBQ sauce that went all over Kevin and me--we didn't realize it until later.  The food was good, but I was disappointed that they didn't have dessert on the grill.  WHY NOT?

What you can't see?  This was indoors. 
That's a bronze statue of a guy grilling.  On a Weber.  Get it?

We went to China and had dim sum.  First time for Todd and I.  I had never seen prepared chicken feet offered as a dish until that day.  I remember not wanting to eat the "cow eyeball" dumpling-things.  Had a tasty drink.  Bought a cool light display thing we've never seen anywhere else. 

Volcano drinks get me every time.  Yum.
And where does one buy straws THAT long?

Had drinks on top of the John Hancock tour.  I remember Suzie had a "side car" cocktail.  First one I'd ever tasted, and I liked it.  I think I had a Cosmo, it was alright.  I think Kev had a whiskey sour.

Some of us REALLY enjoyed bowling and gourmet cocktails at 10 Pin.

This could have been the key lime martini

We had a fun waitress

OK, so nothing despicable or deplorable, right?  Looks like a fun weekend full of good food, good friends, and good drinks, right?  So what happened that I said I'd NEVER do?

The reason we went to Chicago was.....  Jerry Jerry Jerry.

Yes, Interweblings, I've shared my deep dark secret.  We went to the filming of a Jerry Springer episode.  Because it was the only thing my hubby wanted to do for his 40th birthday.  Besides get his ear pierced.

Us and The Steve

Honestly I have to admit that it was very interesting.  Things I learned at the taping:

• they place "very blessed" women on the end of each aisle.
• Jerry really is a dirty old man.  Saw him hitting on some young Asian ladies.
• If someone has to go use the bathroom during a break, they have someone else sit in the chair so you never see an empty seat.

Oh the horror...  Actually, I hate to admit it.  I'd do it again.  It was that entertaining. 

Where else do you see a skinny old man dance on a pole with red heart underwear?

Hello August!

I am determined to have a better month.  It's got to be better than last month.  That shouldn't be too hard since last month was so horrible. 

I have challenged myself to a goal of positing every day in the month of August.  But let's be realistic.  August is a long month, so I'll try to post 26 days during the month.

Some days I may have a topic I've been meaning to post, and others I may just share a picture.

Today I start with the best day of my life:

Good Riddance July

I'm ready for July to be over.  And never repeat itself again because it's not welcome in this household.  Thankfully Abbytail is doing well.  We adjusted her medication about a week and a half ago, so she doesn't have such drastic muscle weakness that made it hard for her to stand up on her own.  I don't worry about her falling over trying to go potty now.  She's doing alright.  Her red blood count went down slightly today, but we are watching it close.  She is ACTING normal.  Whew.

One week ago today, we brought my son home from the doggy hospital.  Yes, that's right, our other beloved pup went to the same emergency specialist animal hospital in Kansas that his sister had just spent almost a week. 

It all happened the Saturday before last.  About 10 or 11pm, Keystone started standing up and circling and sitting down.  Only to immediately get up and try to settle down 2 feet from where he just sat down.  He could NOT get comfortable.  It was like sitting or laying down hurt him.  We didn't know what was going on, because that is so unlike our laid back boy.  Then he started retching.  He kept trying to vomit, with no results.  I felt so bad for him.  I didn't know what to do. We felt helpless.  After frantically and fruitlessly coming up with no good answers (and having a mental breakdown at midnight), we went to bed.  The stuff I was finding on the Internet made me want to drive right then and there to VCA (Mission Medvet).  After what I found out the next day, I should have taken him immediately, but it all worked out just fine--so I am ONE VERY LUCKY DOG OWNER.  If I had it to do over again, I would have driven RIGHT AWAY to the specialists, and not taken the risk.

Keystone had a gastric torsion.  His stomach rotated, and twisted on itself.  He was also bloated which probably happened and then his tummy twisted.  From what I understand, a dog can have bloating without a torsion, but if there is a torsion, there is bloating.  This site lists the symptoms Keystone experienced.  I don't know which of the sites I added here are reputable, but they all have good points on symptoms and what to look for--please check them out if you have anything bigger than a purse pup.  Especially if your baby is a male.

On Sunday morning, I called our vet, you know, since I have his after hours number on speed dial.  He met us at the office and took an x-ray.  As he was sending us immediately to the specialists, he took a blood sample and was running tests so that the hospital could have the results by the time we arrived.  I love my local vet.  He and his wife were both there on that Sunday, caring for other animals who had issues and had to stay.  I jokingly told them I was going to have to put them on my Christmas card list.  But it actually wasn't a joke.

We were lucky with Keystone.  They were able to operate right away.  They fixed his tummy and "tacked" it to the walls of his abdomen so he will never experience this again.  While in there, the surgeon said that his spleen was fine, so that did not have to be removed (splenectomy is common with this disease).  His stomach was not black anywhere, so nothing had to be cut out and removed.  And best of all, his liver and other organs that could be seen by the Doc looked just fine.  I was petrified with fear that when they opened him up, he'd be one big metropolis of cancer masses.  But I should not have fretted--they saw nothing of the kind.  All of his lumps and bumps, are just lumps and bumps.  At least so far.

It's hard to believe this is what Keystone looked like just the week before his tummy did a somersault:

Where's my chauffeur?

Keystone after he got home from the vet, resting one evening while I was still working.  Amazingly, I was still productive with my typing.

Mommy's lap boy

It's hard to believe that both of my babies have had major health issues and faced serious life-threatening diseases within a span of 3 weeks.  The other amazing fact?  Their litter-mate, Baxter, had to have a full ACL replacement last week.  We wish my God-dogson/their brother Baxter all our love and a speedy, painless recovery.

Enough with the health issues already!

Here are the kids now at home recovering

Matching war wounds: shaved bellies and hairless armbands

 

Cheers to a healthy August and good riddance July.