Wedding Progress

So Joe and I have made some major progress in the wedding planning front. This weekend we took a long way to Lancaster and looked at wedding bands. We didn't purchase any but I did send an email to the people that make the fingerprint ones because we now had sizes and other information. We then looked at tuxes and made some decisions on those. We also spent an agonizingly time at Kohl's trying to finish the wedding registry there. It was agonizing because I didn't bring any of the stuff, then we couldn't log in, then we had to call India where Joe spoke to 'Anthony' AND then we managed to actually register for more stuff. We also got the registry done at Target so we're all registered. It wasn't the easiest to do since we have lots of house stuff and then also because we don't have and actual house to put stuff in. Then today, I emailed two places about wedding cakes and a handful of officiants. I'm already getting responses for both back and sincerely wish I had put Joe on the case of officiants. I also mailed out the deposit for the caterer. So we have rings, cake, DJ and an officiant to finish and then everything else to pay for.

Hehehe! Saturday after getting home the phone rang. We don't get many actual phone calls but I recognized the name on this one and Joe answered it. It was KD from work. She was looking for the type of granola bars I had brought into work and wondered where to get them. It was funny. She talked to Joe about it because the whole reason I brought the granola bars into work was that I didn't like them. Joe had mistakenly thought that buying the wrong granola bars (Sunbelt Chocolate covered chocolate chip) was better than buying none at all. WRONG!

I can't think of anything special going on at work. This week I have to spay a dog that also has a hernia. I'm a little worried.

Little Teddy Kellerman was found dead in his cage when I got home from work on Friday. He had been dead for a little while. This was the first time since like 1998 that I haven't had rabbits. I don't plan on having any rabbits for a long time.

Mr. Montique continues to be absolutely silly. I'm still finding the cat food bin upturned and now the handle has toothmarks in it. I bought him an $11 bird toy that chirps but it hasn't had much play. I'm going to buy him a cat food dispensor toy so that he can eat (he eats most of Bess's food too) and not get too fat. Also, today, he was begging for food and I offered him a piece of dog food which he tried to eat but gave up on because it was too big and a piece of  broccoli which he ate rapidly and then looked for more. Silly cat.

Downton Abbey

A few weeks ago, Joe and I came home early from something (I think from the Christmas party) and we decided to watch something on Netflix. Joe suggested watching a TV series called Downton Abbey. He said that it had some really good reviews. So we started watching it...I however, fell asleep half way through the first episode which was a huge mistake! Downton Abbey is a fantastic show which is well written with a deeply complex cast and story line. I ended up catching up to where Joe was and then together we finished the first season to catch up for Season Two which had already started airing on PBS. Of course, last weekend, just as the show was starting, I got an emergency call-my greatest fear-and missed all but the last half hour of a three hour marathon. I'm all caught up now and ready to do some spoiling for you. So I suggest if you want to catch up, don't read this blog!

So the characters-
Lord Grantham
Lady Grantham-a rich American married to the Lord
Violet (Dowager Countess of Grantham)-Lord Grantham's mpother
Lady Mary-the eldest daughter of Lord and Lady Grantham
Lady Ethel-the often forgotten about middle daughter
Lady Sybil-the youngest daughter; nieve and kind
Mrs. Hughes-the head maid
Carson-head butler
Thomas-first footman, a huge jerk and close friend of Mrs. O'Brien
Mrs. O'Brien-Lady Grantham's personal maid
Gwen and Anna-maids, servants to the daughters
Bates-valet to Lord Gratham; served with him in the army during the Boer War and is handicapped-bad leg
Mrs. Parthmore-head cook, becomes blind by cateracts which the Lord had fixed
Daisy-kitchen help in love with Thomas
William-second footman
Branson-an Irish rebel; the chauffer
Matthew-cousin of the family; middle class lawyer
Isobel-Matthew's mother

Season One opens up just after the sinking of the Titanic. Unfortunately, the next two heirs to the Grantham estate are aboard and die in the sinking. Lady Mary was to marry the youngest of the two heirs thus keeing the family's fortune (actually belonging to her mother) in the family. There becomes a lot of focus on finding Mary a suitable husband while maintaining the wealth that her mother brought to the family. No one seems to be interested. The first Lord actually had an affair with Thomas, the next is uninterested but brings with him a Turkish gentleman who woos Lady Mary. The Turkish gentleman unfortunately dies in Lady Mary's bed forcing Anna, Lady Mary and Lady Grantham to move him back to his own bed to protect Lady Mary's name. On the side of the servants, Bates comes to become Lord Grantham's valet but there is a question that he will be able to do his job because he walks with a severe limp and cane. Thomas was looking to become the valet and this causes him and Mrs. O'Brien to plot against Bates. Bates loses his job at the end of the first episode but the Lord welcomes him back. There is some suspicion surrounding the Turkish man's death. Lady Edith gets out of Daisy what she saw and writes to the Turkish Ambassador which sullies Lady Mary's name all over London. The next heir to the estate is found and it is Matthew, a middle class lawyer who doesn't immediately warm up to servants or the family. He brings his mother, Isobel to live nearby the estate. Isobel becomes actively involved in the hospital despite Violet's protests. Lady Sybil becomes actively involved in politics and ends up in the middle of a riot where she has to be rescued by Matthew and Branson. Lady Sybil also tries to help Gwen gain a secretarial job. Lady Edith becomes interested in a neighbor and he the like. However, Lady Mary wants to get back at Lady Edith and tells the neighbor (Sir Anthony) that Lady Edith is not interested in his proposal. Lady Mary and Matthew are getting rather close but Lady Mary distances herself from him when it is found out that her mother is pregnant. If her mother has a boy, then the heir is the son. However, O'Brien overhears Violet and Lady Grantham talking regarding hiring a new maid and gets very jelaous because she thinks she is going to get fired. However, the new maid is for Violet. O'Brien leaves a piece of soap in Lady Grantham's path while she bathes and the Lady slips on it when she gets out of the tub. The fall causes her to lose the baby which was a boy. Lady Mary tries to reconsile to Matthew but its too late.  Thomas and O'Brien frame Bates regarding stealing from the Lord but Anna and Bates get them back. Then the pair frame Bates again about stealing the wine (which Thomas has been doing all along). The truth comes out to Carson regarding Bates and Thomas and the wine and Thomas is going to be fired. Thomas however quits first by joining the military medical corps. The season ends with World War I starting.

I recommend catching up with Season Two on PBS.

Cowboy Up!

I've actually got a lot of things to cover in this post.

But let's start with the title. I've been working a lot more large animal in the morning and subsuquently cutting a lot more twists! Including one RDA! I purchased a pair of leather work boots and a pair of Tingley's to go with them and have enjoyed the warmth of my feet very much. That aside...One morning, I was heading home but then got a phone call from the clinic for a call. It was 10:45-I had to be at HP at 12:30. I asked if they had talked to BF about this and then dropped the call. Returning the call, they had and I was to go to the other end of our practice area and look at a Scottish Higland cow that was flapping its ears. No joke. BUT flapping its ears can be anything from the serious listeroisis and even more serious rabies to ear mites, lice and other exoparasites. So begrudgingly, I drove down the the other end of the county and realized that I had failed with veterinary rule #1-make sure the animal is captured. There were about half a dozen of these red shaggy long horned beasts that were pets roaming around. Mine of course was laying comfortably at the far end of the pasture...flapping her ears. The Os thought that she was nice enough and we might be able to walk up to her. I took my halter and we trudged out to the pasture. The cow jumped up and proceeded to do her little neurological bit-shaking ears, stamping her feet, kicking, licking her sides, tossing her head. Ummm...this could still be anything. We chased her around trying to get her to a smaller pen. And she refused. Checking the time, I had to bail and told the clients that I would come back the next morning but the cow had to be caught. So the next morning after a handful of calls, I went out again. The cow was caught between two gates-one of which was tied to the fence with baling wire-and two fences of high tensile wire. I gathered all I could think of and went to see the cow. She wasn't pleased but in the course of her swinging around I managed to snag a handful of her hair. Which was COVERED with nits! Lice! She was driven insane with lice! So I got some injectable dewormer and had a plan. I climbed into the pen with the cow and promptly was sent back up the gate-she was swinging her head around and trying to gore me. I ended up with a big bruise on my arm. I managed to drop a lasso over her head and got her tied to the fence post. There was lots of yelling and whistling to convince the cow to come our way. From over the fence, I gave the injection and let the cow go. It didn't go great, but not bad. I advised the Os to get some pour on dewormer and do the whole herd. I called the office to get the bill total because these people were new clients. The bill was something like $73. Yep, totally worth the risk I had faced.

Emergencies-I was on last weekend and two days this week. It was pretty tiring. However, no matter how bad Friday was, it was the best day ever! Why? Because, I wasn't on call Friday night! Over the weekend, when BF and TH were gone and worried about me being solo, I only had small animal calls. Saturday, a pug with a PU that ended up having ulcers-suspected. He was really anemic and when I got the CBC back Tuesday, also had a major infection someplace. He's doing okay. Sunday, I did a recheck on a dog, saw Biscuit Lemmon the beagle with every problem imaginable and finally two dogs that had been attacked by another dog. I sewed one of them up solo. At least there will be some nice emergency money. Re: the recheck-Saturday, this dog came in and was completely laterally recumbant. You had to check to make sure it was breathing. It had been seen at another hospital and they had radiographed it-a large spleen and sent it home with some pain meds. I don't know what it looked like then  but now it seriously didn't look good. Bloodwork was completely normal! WTF? The only difference was that it came up Lyme positive where the dog hadn't before. So we threw everything at it-a liter of fluids, a whopping amount of antibiotics and a huge dose of steroids. (Nothing should die without steroids.) The owners were considering euthansia but thought that the dog was doing slightly better. I saw it Sunday and the dog did sit up but was not there mentally. I repeated the treatments. By Tuesday, the dog was riding in the car. By Thursday, the dog looked completely normal. It was really like the dog had been sedated the whole time. Crazy.

It snowed Friday into Saturday night. We ended up with about four inches-an acceptable amount. I like snow until it gets all tramped through and pooped in and then its just gross. I hate the piles of road salted gray snow in parking lots. I hate half melted leaf covered snowmen. So I'm ready for the snow to melt. That and I have to do large animal on Tuesday. Because of the snow, Joe and I didn't go to Lancaster. We ate breakfast at Cracker Barrel and then did some other things including looking in the windows of the old farmhouse that needs repair. It apparently needs alot of repair!

Wedding planning has been going surprisingly well. We had some money worries-how do we plan MY dream wedding with no money? So we put my student loan in forebearance saving me $850/month and then we got a loan from the bank to cover the large items. We have a photographer hired, reception hall, chairs rented, wedding dress purchased as well as flowers. I was able to get a great deal on wedding flowers-$500 worth for $250! I still have to set up an appointment with them. I still have to pay for the last part of the wedding dress which hasn't come in yet and do alterations. Tuesday we have a tasting for the caterer which honestly, I intend on hiring. The big things that we have left-DJ, someone to actually marry us, tuxes, wedding rings. On the wedding ring front, Joe and I were going to go to Lancaster to get my engagement ring inspected and determine what we like in wedding bands. BUT we pretty much already have some picked out. Joe and I are planning on going with these rings with the fingerprints. They are unique and different. Plus think about this-you can write whatever sappy engraving you want but a fingerprint is something that is only yours and to get to carry around a little unique piece of your loved one is special. So instead of going to Lancaster, Joe and I worked on our wedding registry. We are registered at Kohl's and will be at Target once they get their stupid system working. We tried two stores too. I also have been working on painting 30 wooden birdhouses. Its not as fun as it sounds. However, they will be cute table number holders.

The cats are doing okay. The ponies are being ignored. The dogs are doing okay. Mary came home limping terribly after her first trip to the dog park. Also, she had been wearing a dog sweater which unfortunately didn't fit her perfectly and subsuquently made sores on her legs. Poor stupid dog.

I'm excited for my upcoming birthday and party! Nacho birthday! I thought I had more things but apparently not.

Bess Truman and Mr. Montique

There are a few blogs that I wish to publish in the next few days. Since I don't have the tedious task of copying and pasting other blogs and that I've been reading other vet blogs that are published much more often, I feel that I should be able to put up more than one or so a week. (I do have to redate several hundred still though!)
Anyway, the cats. Sigh. The cats. I better die shortly after Joe otherwise I am certain to become a crazy cat lady. Very rapidly. I do love cats so. They are such funny little creatures.
Our two are quite the pair. They still don't get along 100% but its much improved. Mr. Montique will now occasionally swat back at Bess. I think I heard a large commotion this afternoon.
Mr. Montique is a rough and tumble sort. His ears show the scars of multiple fights. His neck and large head show how long he was a rouge on the streets. Mr. Montique is a mouthy sort-aways meowing and carrying on. Any word from me and Mr. Montique has a response. He's cuddly but is happy enough to curl up on the futon and allow Bess my lap. He also is quite smart-crafty. For years, I have been able to leave the cat food bag sitting out with no problems. Roosevelt, Bess-neither gave it a second thought. Montique however would dive into the open bag and eat his fill. So I finally put the food in a container. I wasn't so careful putting the lid on and found it off on a couple of occasions. On a couple more, I heard the cat fighting with the lid to get it off. He's a cat with an excellent personality.
Bess Truman in contrast to Mr. Montique's every cat on the street look is a beauty. Her long soft fur, tiny features-okay, not tiny just normal cat sized. Bess is quiet and only occasionally offers a tiny mew. She likes to sit on your lap. She sits on my chest if given the chance and sleeps on my pillow pushing me off most nights.
Bess and Mr. Montique are like me and Joe. Bess is well educated and Montique is rough around the edges. Bess is tiny and petite. Montique is big and burly. Montique uses a lot of words when they are not always needed. The two cats fight but ultimately get along. Just like me and Joe.

Paleo Dining

I mentioned earlier this fall that Joe was going to go onto The Four Hour Body diet. It involved a lot of beans. We sort of got away from it (though not entirely, I still didn't make many of my normal dishes). As part of it, I had to figure out how to make certain dishes for us to eat. Dirty rice is a dish that I occasionally make for a quick meal-a pound of ground beef and a box of mix is all you need. But on this 'bean diet' you couldn't have rice.
SO I invited this recipe instead...

Dirty Lentils

Ingredients-
1 cup dry lentils
2 cups water
1 pound ground beef
1 onion-chopped
1 garlic clove-minced
1 can black beans-rinsed
spices-salt, pepper, red pepper, red chili flakes, oregeno, parsley flake (or whatever you like)

Cook lentils in water until al dente. Brown ground beef with onion, garlic and spices. Drain off fat. Add in black beans and lentils-mix and allow to simmer for a short amount of time.

Easy-though it makes a lot of dishes-and good. Paleo friendly!

Farm Show!

As promised, tonight, Joe and I went to the Pennsylvania Farm Show. I don't know why this state insists on being difficult and essentially having a state fair indoors in winter and without carnival rides. But  it does. And the result is the Pennsylvania Farm Show. Tonight, we watched the mini pony pull for an hour before finding some food-potato donuts, smoked trout chowder and eventually maple yogurt sundaes! We looked at some animals and called it a night.
So the mini pony pull-its a team of two miniature horses under 36". (I guess at greater than 36" you become a pony in this world.) They have to pull a sledge weighted down with cinder blocks a distance of ten feet. These ponies are cranked and ready to go. It seriously took all of the strength of their handlers to hold them long enough for them to be hooked to the sledge. It starts with a weight of 500 pounds, then on to 1000 pounds, then 1250 and when we left it was at a whopping 1400 pounds. Considering that the combined weight of the ponies pulling it is around 500-600, that's a lot!

This video is pulling at least 1000 lbs.

Busy Day!

Ugh.
I've had a busy day.

I did get to sleep in and not take care of the dogs. The cats joined me. It was nice. When I finally got up, I put in some laundry and started my errands. I paid the car payment. I returned a pair of PJ pants, ugly purse and earrings for this purse and a sweater. The purse is a lot like the one I got last year for Christmas except that its blue.

Then I returned the ugly PJs referenced in an earlier blog. I bought two bras instead. Then I decided that I really don't like my feet being cold when I cut DAs. So I stopped and looked at work boots. I spent way, way too long doing this. It was so hard to make a decision. I didn't want to pay a lot-$100 seemed like a lot. I also found out that you can't find that perfect pair! I opted not to get ones with Gortex because all the cloth in them will just absorb manure. Then possibly waterproofing? Well, they will be inside a rubber boot (like this). They do have steel toes which aren't really that important. I didn't by Tingleys because I decided I wanted 17" ones. Keith's in Newville has them.

Then after shopping I came back to Carlisle, decided I was going to yet again ignore the poor ponies and then went to the bank where I applied for a loan. I went to the grocery store quickly then bought borough bags. I called the dental insurance company and everything was okay. Then I ate some Chinese!

Joe and I are planning on going to go to the farm show tonight as long as he gets done at the dentist at a reasonable time and feels okay. I'm sure I'll have plenty to blog about then.

Joe and I made some major headway on wedding planning. We decided on a caterer barring that the tasting goes well. I got quotes on chairs. We discussed wedding flowers. We sent out messages regarding hotel rooms. I applied for a loan-which freaked me out because even though I knew it, I have tons of debt! Now we're just adding more too it!

Last week at work, I cut three twists! That's a lot for me. I probably didn't do that many in a month before. They all went really, really well too. Which is good. And bad, because that just means the next three will suck ass. Maybe my new boots will be lucky. The problem with wearing boots though will be that I have to remember to bring shoes for small animals in addition to clothes. There's a good possiblity that I won't be able to put those warm hands things in the boots though. I can't think of much else about work so nothing else must have happened.

We had the Christmas party on Saturday. It was good times. BF's house is beautiful! I wish I had a house. :(

Happy New Year's!

You may be noticing that I am doing some rearranging to the blog. For instance, there are now blogs dated as far back as 2005. While, I haven't kept this blog since then, I have been blogging in one form or another since then.  I just felt that I needed to get some better order so that it will be easier to publish when I decide to do so. (I saw this advertisement about how you could make a book from your blog but somehow I think I might have lost track of it. I'm sure a google search will bring it up.)

New Year's has been very uneventful. I spent yesterday watching The Twilight Zone (same as today) and fell asleep just before midnight. Joe woke me up with a kiss, I kept sleeping on the couch and eventually went to bed. Today, we went and saw the ponies, drove around to look at a house I want (its in really rough shape) and then hung out here. I spent way too much time on Pinterest rearranging some boards. Then we went to the grocery store. Joe is making dinner and later I plan on holding a wedding meeting. And probably balencing the checkbook. I also took down all of the Christmas decorations except the outside lights because it was raining. I am sad to admit that I will have to return the bulk of my Christmas gifts. These PJs are not for adults.

Joe and I talked briefly about New Year's resolutions. Well, there's the 10 plus pounds I need to lose. I'm planning on joining a gym-Planet Fitness. I'm going to decrease the amount of soda that I drink. I'm going to try to get off the couch more and try to be cleaner. Also, I would like to start the tradition of going to see things being dropped (or raised) on New Year's. According to this article on Wikipedia, Pennsylvania has a lot of things to be dropped! It will be quite a tradition. 2012 is going to be a big year for me and Joe-getting married, trying to get pregnant. (Its true!)

Next week, BJR is back to work till she has the baby. We are all sort of thinking that it won't last long. Of course, this means that I am going to do more large animals shifts. I'm not excited but only because its cold outside! Friday, I know that I have eight horses that I will have to vaccinate and pull coggins on. They were sort of jerks last year. Hopefully, it goes somewhat better. (And its only an assumption that I will have to do that.)
Things I saw last week-one of the local vet clinics bounced a big-dog little dog case our way because they didn't have a vet there. It was a couple and their little chiwawa from Florida. What I don't get is that this vet clinic has two other clinics. Granted, 20 miles away but I guess they didn't want the business. I'm happy to take it especially since the dog was fine. A little shocky with puncture wounds but fine. The day before I sewed up a dog that had ran through a barbed wire fence. The dog had a big flap pulled back on its side. It took a lot of stitches but I got it sewed back up.
The most devistating thing is the follow-up to Mary's glacoma. It didn't go down despite all of the medications I put her on. So Thursday, I enucleated the bad eye. It wasn't as slick as the cat enucleation though Mary seems none the worse for wear. Joe came to wake her up. She seems pretty happy now-not even yelping when the area gets bumped where she was with the glaucoma.

My grandpa is in the hospital. He fell down on Christmas Day-actually, my grandma fell on him. He broke his arm and hasn't been able to walk since. Apparently, he also had two compression fractures in his back. At this point, they have decided that they are old fractures. I'm still not sure what they are going to do. My mom isn't being the best at communications.

Last Monday, Joe and I went to see War Horse. It was okay. A little over the top. The best part was towards the end. It was well done. Tomorrow, we are planning to see The Adventures of Tin-Tin.