Anne’s blog

whew

nobody@vox.com(Anne) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 19:20:36 -0400

I did it. Everything is clean. Laundry is done (at least the important parts are). Beds are made. Rooms are (mostly) cleaned up and put away. the car is clean and shiny (heck, I even had them Armor All the exterior trim...it looks so nice!). And the dogs are totally wound up. Ha! Tomorrow (wether permitting), I plan to drag dad out to the park with us for some good romp time.

So far, his flight is showing as being on-time. It only left Dallas 2 minutes late (according to the AA webiste). So, I will leave here shortly and head over to the airport. Assuming that one of these thunderstorms isn't sitting right over the airport he should be on the ground a little after 8pm.

Time to go play with the dogs a bit before I go...

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Survival...

nobody@vox.com(Anne) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:45:59 -0400

So, I have survived my crazy week of travel with our new team member. She, by the way, is fabulous and I can't express how much I enjoyed having some company on the trip. Getting home last night was...a nightmare really. Bad weather all over the place made for lots of late flights and cancellations. I finally crawled into the house here around 12:45am.

Today has been full of work stuff - wrapping up things from this week, conference calls, scheduling for July, etc. But, for the most part, I am done now and must move on to the insane amount of housework that has to be completed before 8pm tomorrow!

Laundry: I have to get the guest bedding and towels washed! All other laundry can then be done as time permits...but those first two are a must!

Cleaning: Vacuuming the entire place will happen this evening. There is dog and cat hair in and on and around everything. I will also try to get all the dog bedding washed before tomorrow evening so that it doesn't smell so stale in here. It doesn't stink, but it all could use some refreshing. And the bathrooms...they both need to be scrubbed. Top to bottom. Inside and out. I should probably do a quick scrub of the kitchen floor too while I have the supplies out.

Organizing: My office and bedroom look like a bomb went off. I need to get things put away. Granted, Dad probably won't be hanging out in my bedroom, but the office? For sure!

The car will go to the wash/detail place tomorrow morning to get cleaned and I will do a quick grocery shopping trip on my way home.

Then, to the airport. Dad gets in sometime around 8:00pm tomorrow evening. Hopefully, he will have an uneventful trip. Traveling these days is crappy as it is...weather doesn't need to compound the crappiness.

Totally unrelated - I got the shoes that I ordered from Simple Shoes. They are adorable, turquoise canvas style shoes. I am going to wear them around the house later today to see how they feel...but just from opening the box, I love the way they look!

Marly's ear is markedly better. She missed her ear drops last night due to my late night arrival home and my being too tired to wrestle with her, but this morning she let me do them and was such a good dog about it. I think she is realizing that the drops are making the itching and soreness go away. The report is that they were good girls at the kennel...however, I think the ladies there just love Sadie more than anything and would say anything to get her there more often. Even up to and including the fact that they charge for Marly at the 30-60 pound dog price. Ha! Both pups seem contentedly tired today which is nice since I have so much to do and don't have enough time to take them to the park today (besides which the weather isn't cooperating for that either).

Oh yeah, Neil put up some old photos of Marly...I already forget how tiny she was when she came to live here! She will be 11 months old tomorrow.

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Prednisone in dogs...

nobody@vox.com(Anne) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 21:14:52 -0400

After more online reading and research - I am very glad I only ever gave Marly one of the pills and I will not be giving her any more. I have read all sorts of accounts of major incontinence issues, not to mention the possible ulcer side effects, renal failure side effects, and possible dependency effects Granted, she was prescribed a very limited routine of the drug and it was not haphazardly prescribed - I just think this is where having a group practice vet clinic falls short. If Marly had a single vet, they would know that she already has incontinence issues and (I would hope) would offer up some alternatives, or at least warn me that this is going to make it worse in the short term.

Of course, the other part of me is wondering why the vet didn't read her records before prescribing anything. I know it was extremely busy (I have actually never seen it that busy before on any day of the week) and that Saturdays are their walk-in day, but still, part of the vet's job is to have an idea of what their patient's history is. It isn't like I could be psychic and do the research prior to going in to the vet so that I know what to tell them...if I knew all that, _I_ would be the vet.

Anyway, I am slightly annoyed by the issues and hope that the prednisone gets out of her system quickly (that is what I am going to be looking up next...see if I can find anything on how long the side effects take to dissipate after the drug is stopped). I am tired of having to keep her crated up (as is she)...her whining and barking is driving me nuts. And I am also tired of doing load after load of dog towels so that she doesn't have to lay on wet ones for too long.

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Prednisone in dogs...

nobody@vox.com(Anne) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 21:14:51 -0400

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Holy moly...

nobody@vox.com(Anne) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 15:37:34 -0400

OK...we did one prednisone pill this morning. The warning label said it may cause an increase in water consumption and urination, but this is ridiculous! Marly has to go out about every 30 minutes - and it is creating more issues with her incontinence. So, the poor gal is just going to have to deal with some itching and some inflammation until we can get the yeast infection in her ear cleared up.

THEN we will see if the incontinence issues continue. Thus far it seems to only be an issue whenever there are other health things going on. I hope that is the case...we'll see. Otherwise, in a couple weeks there will be yet another trip in to the vet to get her on hormone therapy.

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Marly

nobody@vox.com(Anne) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 10:38:56 -0400

Well, it seems that Marly is allergic to fleas...which is why she has suddenly sprung up with an ear infection. Of course, it also doesn't help that she is a lab and loves the water which exasperates the issue. So she is now on prednisone to help with itching and inflammation and she has ear drops that have to be administered to her ear twice a day. (What a treat that will be.) On top of that, I have to clean both ears every other day for the next two weeks.

She is also back on Frontline Plus. Apparently Advantix has a tendency to not work for all dogs. Also, Frontline's claim to fame is that it usually kills fleas before they bite which is important for animals who are allergic. The poor girl is completely worn out from her barrage of examining and cleaning and clipping. They did a very thorough cleaning of her ear for me at the vet and also clipped her nails. I managed to get the first round of drops into her ear when we got home...we'll see how it goes again tonight. At least the pills she will just eat with her food.

The poor kennel staff next week will have to take this on as well.

Oh yeah, and she has grown again...89.4 pounds (and still not overweight according to the vet this week who was a different doc than last time). *sigh* She is a monster. So now we are on the 89-132 lb Frontline dosage, which is really too bad because now I have to buy separate stuff for Sadie.

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Landscaping journal...

nobody@vox.com(Anne) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:47:56 -0400

I have decided to keep a landscaping journal for the house. When stuff was planted, general weather conditions, what is doing well and what is not, etc. I will be doing some back entry stuff this weekend to log the plants that have gone in last year and this year. Mostly, I want to track the progress and also see what plants fare better than others here so I can reference that in months and years to come.

It will all be public, so if anyone is interested you can find it here.

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Summer cold...

nobody@vox.com(Anne) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:11:06 -0400

I got one. Actually, Beth and I both managed to catch this thing. Mine is all in my head - sinuses, runny nose, fever, sore throat. Hers is in her chest - congestion, coughing, etc. Bah. Unfortunately, she started getting sick on our vacation trip. I, however, waited until we were back home and I had to travel. It is so much fun flying with stuffed up sinus.

Ugh, work woes...apparently there was some sort of corruption of our database last night and we have to re-enter everything that we did yesterday. That sucks because most of us completed a review yesterday meaning that all of the notes and such from said reviews were entered yesterday. Nothing like having to completely redo work that was already done. As if we don't all already have enough on our plates.

I am getting got my hair cut and the color touched up today. (I had to leave to do that in the middle of writing this.) I love it. Tommy does such a great job with my hair.

Marly got sick Tuesday morning. I had to leave for the airport at an early, early hour so I put Mars in her crate knowing Neil would be by to pick up both dogs on his way into the office (to drop them off at daycare). When he got there he said there was poo sprayed on the walls and barf and pee in her crate. Poor girl. She also proceeded to barf several other times in various rooms of the house throughout the day. (He is wonderful and stayed home with the sick puppy...) Neil did a fabulous job cleaning up, but even so, when I got home yesterday evening the smell that hit me when I came into the house was enough to make me gag. And that was with a horribly cold-stuffed head. I can't imagine what it smelled like to anyone else. So, I pulled out the steam cleaner and attempted to clean everything again...it still smelled today so I finally got out to the store and bought a could gallons of Nature's Miracle (fabulous enzyme cleaner!) and used the carpet cleaner to soak all the spots with that. I also sprayed the wall where she had pooped. I have to paint there anyway, which is good, because Neil actually scrubbed some of the paint off trying to get it clean.

Marly seems to be a billion times better now...she ate something bad, but heavens only knows what it was. I am just thankful that it was a one day thing to get out of her system and didn't put her in the hospital!

So now, I just have to hope and pray that I can get the smell out of here before my dad arrives next weekend. I think this has also moved up my timetable on replacing the flooring in the main living areas of the home. Maybe even in the bedrooms - we'll see.

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More random stuff...

nobody@vox.com(Anne) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:24:29 -0400

So this weekend on our little vacation Sadie surprised the living daylights out of me by bounding down a really steep embankment and then by proceeding to charge right into the stream and start splashing about. She even beat Marly into the water! Though, she still made it clear that she does not like to be in water where she can't walk about - she tried to follow Marly into an area that was a bit deeper and immediately turned around and stood on a rock in the middle of the creek and whined at Marly until she came back.

Getting back UP the embankment with Sadie was a bit trickier, but we got her there by placing her feet about half way up where there were some rocks she could get a foot-hold on.

Then this morning at the dog park she actually chased tennis balls with Marly! She out-ran Mars the first few trips, but then slowed way down. It was nice to see her active, but now she is gimping pretty significantly this afternoon. Doggy daycare tomorrow and Wednesday will be good for her. She can still play but it won't be so strenuous.

I have an insane schedule between now and my dad's arrival:

Tomorrow - Wednesday: I am in Pittsburgh working
Thursday: hair appointment over lunch and then a meeting with a branch manager locally here in the afternoon
Friday: jam packed with con calls and prepping for my trip the following week
Saturday: Marly to the vet in the morning for shots and to pick up heart-worm medicine, then in the afternoon I get to sit around and wait for the glass repair people to come and glue the chip in my windshield
Sunday: pack for my work trip
Monday - Thursday: in Winchester, VA for work (training a new team member to boot....whhheeeee)
Friday: more con calls and trying to wrap up work stuff before my time off
Saturday: car into the shop for routine maintenance and oil change. Dad arrives Saturday night

So, somewhere in there I need to get the car over to the detail shop to get cleaned since it is a disaster from our trip with the dogs, clean the house, and get all the laundry done. Heh.

Right now I have to go pack for my trip at oh dawn hundred tomorrow morning. If I am lucky, I will be able to catch a flight that will get me home around 7pm on Wednesday...if not, I am stuck not getting home until after midnight. *sigh*

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To-Do List

nobody@vox.com(Anne) — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 21:36:41 -0400

order new board for garage door opener
arrange Asheville trip/make arrangements for dogs
call kennel for dogs this week and next! (oops - should have done this last week)
buy groceries
schedule hair appointment
get Marly to vet for parvo and buy heart-worm meds
mail in pay-offs
laundry (ugh!)

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Anne’s blog

*whew*

Survival...

Prednisone in dogs...

Prednisone in dogs...

Holy moly...

Marly

Landscaping journal...

Summer cold...

More random stuff...

To-Do List

whew