A night alone and...disaster strikes!

It's the end of a long week. Mostly ok until today. Earlier in the week I did some shopping for my sis, a late birthday prezzie, and that was super fun. It only would have been better if she was here. Work has been work and nothing major to report in life...until today. (cue ominous music) First lets rewind to the end of last week ( I think) when my partner told me about some quasi-plans with some friends from Roseburg who were coming up to play a pick-up soccer game with the opening band for the Sheryl Crow concert (!) and who could score free tickets to said concert(!!) tonight. This was all well and good for him, as he already had taken the day off to use some personal time and had planned to go to the University of Portland soccer in the evening. At the time it originally got brought up nothing was for sure other than he was meeting up with his friend and most likely going to the soccer as they were unsure if the band-pickup-soccer game was really going to happen. The pooper is that I worked today and work tomorrow, so I told him I was out, just can't do it all. Last night rolls around and I ask him if he is going to be home tonight, like coming home late or whatever. He says "Yeah." like why am I even asking, of course he is coming home, but late. So I plan leftovers for my supper and rent a movie to watch and today just go through my day. Then in the afternoon he calls and says he is getting a room because they got tickets and I should come up and do the concert. Except. I. Already. Said. I. Have. To. Work. Tomorrow. I know he just wants to make sure that I am included and can come and do with him, but it was just not feasible for me to drive up after work tonight, stay out late at a concert where there will be drinking, get up super early and drive back home to go to work the next day. On a holiday weekend. So, I am on my own for the night and I will see him tomorrow after work. So far he has called twice and just held the phone up so I can hear the music and said "Love you hon" before hanging up. It would have been fun to go, sometimes it sucks to be responsible.
After my lunch break today I came back into the clinic and noticed a funny smell. Mind you vet hospitals in general can have funny smells, but this was...different. After a few minutes I was able to identify it...a product called LymeDyp. It is a sulfur lyme "dip" used for treating skin conditions, it is a terrible color...and it reeks. I quickly ascertained that we had not, in fact, dipped anyone over the lunch hour and that a bottle in the pharmacy was leaking. Nice. So I glove up, and get to cleaning at which point I discover that the bottle has a crack in the bottom and can not be saved. So I transfer some to a crack free container and discard the rest and do more cleaning. Once everything is taken care of, I take off my gloves and....my hands are damp...hmm, I think, that isn't right...then I notice my rings. My heart just sank and I felt like vomiting. My ring from my sixteenth birthday, my pre-engagement promise ring and engagement ring...are..all...YELLOW. Not just a little discolored, like YELLOW. There I am standing staring at my own hands, in shock, quietly cussing and almost starting to cry. Off come the rings and into the ultrasonic cleaner, nothing. Then into a water bath with a gentle toothbrush scrub, nothing. At this point I am really beginning to panic. What have I done?!?! Then I take a breath and try to think...call the jeweler, there is one down the street they must have something. So I call, they were very kind and told me to come down, they have a silver bath and if that didn't work they would help me come up with something that would. As soon as I had another break I rushed down the street to the jeweler, they recognized me as soon as I walked in...it must have been the look of horror and panic in my eyes. The woman behind the counter took my rings and said she would see what she could do...seconds later...."it's is coming right off!" she hollers from behind the partition. I was so relived! I couldn't even think of how I would explain to Don how I had ruined my rings. And so back to work I went, valuable lesson learned, and labeled the "in-house" bottle...stains jewelry...lest I ever forget.

To my Sis: Know you gave the most loving gift you could ever give. Mag is in loving company with those who went before. I love you.

Gone, Baby, Gone

It's official, they are gone. My sister and her family left for home today. I miss them already. We spent a great weekend here in our hometown. They arrived Saturday afternoon and we went to a local park which features tons of cool play equipment and even a "fountain" for playing in. The kids had a blast playing in the sand, climbing around the jungle gyms, and getting in the water. My sister and I had a great time too! Its a good thing the toys and equipment are well made! I am pretty sure we had just as much fun as the kids! The best part was the open mouthed looks of shock from the other families/parents that "grown ups" were playing too! After that we headed back to our house for supper. The kids loved the hill in the back and spend a long time rolling down and running back up. After supper the kids went to bed and "the boys" (Don, Adam and my Da) went out geocaching and to get some cold stone. Pretty soon it was off to bed for the growns, we were worn out too! Sunday we got up and made breakfast and headed up to the Zoo. Once we got there we realized it was crazy busy as the elephant there had just had a baby the day before! We headed in and spent a wonderful afternoon checking out all the animals, reading the informative signs and generally just enjoying being together. Towards the end of the day it started to rain and off we went to supper. We had a nice dinner and then we had to separate. Mom had work Monday and we did too. On the way home I asked Don what his favorite part of the Zoo was, at first he said "I don't know." and then he said " The best part was when Isaac asked if we could go see the 'caw-ger', he saw the sign and misread it!" It said cougar. :-) I am so glad that my Sis, Adam and the kids had a chance to spend some more time with Don. It feels good to know that everyone is getting to know one another and we are able to bond. Now they are most likely home again already and getting settled in for work and school. It was so wonderful to have them here, to be able to spend so much time together. Someday we will all live closer and we can have good times all the time.

News of the Weird

It has been so fun having my Sister and her kids so close. We spent another great weekend at my parents house, just spending time together. We made jam, played outside with the kids and went on a hike...even got some wedding stuff done. Da and Sis helped get the save the date cards done and I am just thrilled with them. Plus Mom and Sis finished the fitting bodice for my dress...and it is PERFECT! I am super excited already and it just is going swimmingly.The kids loved showing us their bike and trike skills and Elie and Isaac enjoyed some bike "Don-foolery". As always a great time was had by all. It just stinks that we can't all be together all the time! All the fun makes it a little hard to go back to work life. But I am keeping a good attitude and it does make all the difference.
This week at work we are interviewing for a new worker, and so far it has been a bit of a bust. People see "receptionist" and they think regular reception work. I don't think people always realize what the job is really. I did however get to see something I had never seen before...while looking at a fecal sample I noticed something not normal that I hadn't ever seen and I felt was a parasite...so I asked the Dr to come and look. "Yep." Dr said. "It's a parasite all right." It turns out that it was a Strongyloidies, or Intestinal threadworm (it looks like a tiny clear worm that is round on one end and then gets long and pointy on the other) and it is not super common like rounds or tapes. It has a weird life cycle in that it takes a rather circuitous route to get to the intestine. It infects through skin penetration primarily, then the tiny larvae work their way into the lungs where they develop. As they grow and irritate the lungs and the host coughs, they get coughed up and swallowed and then they go to the intestines where they have larvae (which is what I saw) rather than eggs like most worms. Then the larvae are passed in the stool and the whole thing starts all over again. The super yuck part is that it is zoonotic...good thing I always glove up! Anyway, it felt good to have an answer for the symptoms the patient was having (not only diarrhea, but the owners had mentioned the pet sometimes had a dry cough!) and I was proud to have found it. I think it is pretty cool that there is the opportunity to learn something new everyday at my job. It makes up for some of the not so cool stuff.
Don and I are looking forward to this weekend, it will be chaos-but chaos of the best kind! All the family is coming to stay at our house and we are going to do some stuff in Portland. I am super excited to get to see everyone again before they have to go next week, and to get to have them here. Again, it is so nice to have something so great to look forward to!

Ch-Ch-Changes

Well, another "exciting" week full of ups and downs. First the ups! We had a great visit with my Sister and family. We had a nice long hike and enjoyed a beautiful waterfall one day and the next went to the ocean and had a wonderful time! We found tons of shells and tiny sand dollars! It was a beautiful day and a great time was had by all. We enjoyed wine and games, blueberries and delicious food. Not to mention great conversations and fun! Then it was back to the real world. The big bad news of the day is that my best co-worker, who I have worked with for a long time decided to leave today. Not just leave, like give notice, leave, like right now. So after working every day so far this week nearly on my own (due to illness with said worker and one other), I get called in on my day off to take over for said co-worker. At least today the other co-worker was not sick anymore and able to work, so I got a lunch break today. The silver lining is that I am accumulating tons of overtime and still have two more weeks in the month and two Saturdays to work. So in the end there will be benefit. It is distressing to loose my best co-worker, especially to have it be so abrupt and "in your face." Another wrench is that our new worker is not working out as well as we had hoped and may not be around for much longer. That would leave just 2 !people until we can catch some new fish. It will be a challenge, but I am staying positive and knowing that things do happen for a reason....maybe now I can get another raise! ;-)
Tomorrow we are off to visit family again and very much looking forward to that. I love spending time with my family and wish someday we can all be much closer, so we can do this more often! Plus it helps to have something so cool to look forward to and work towards during these hard times in my work life. Turn and face the strain ch-ch-changes......

Day off, in reverse

Man, it is a good thing I woke up when I did (ie just now! 4pm!!!) otherwise there would be no supper and still laundry! Yikes. Normally I just sleep in in the morning on my day off. Today was different. I had scheduled a haircut weeks ago with my regular gal, she gets booked up, at 9am for some strange reason. It actually worked out well since I ended up having to go to work at 8:30 to do a treatment on a bird (tube feeding). From there I zipped over to the wedding venue to drop off the contract. After that, I figured I should get my other errand done before it got to hot as it was an outside task, something to do with "special berries" and hooo-boy are they special! Then I came home and worked on the laundry, ate some lunch, and "sat down on the couch just for a minute." Ha! Oh well, I do believe that I wouldn't have slept that long if I didn't need it. I still feel tired and am hoping I will have a good nights sleep too. I still am not sure on what to make for supper, but it is something with ground turkey. Maybe burgers since it is still pretty hot. We shall see. Lately I have been coming up with some good suppers with just what we have in the pantry. I made a spicy black bean and rice dish with smoked turkey sausage (smoked paprika, chipotle and cumin Yum!), and a skillet meal with rice pilaf, veggies and ground turkey. It is good to be creative plus there is the added bonus of not going to the store. Well, tomorrow its back to work for me, Don is spending the day in Portland and going to a criterium race there in the pm. Then we get ready to go and head out early to see the fam on Saturday. Wooohooo!!!

Busy Times

Too long between posts makes this more difficult, but things have been really busy lately. Work has been crazy and we are in a down cycle where there are lots of strange and terrible cases and bad outcomes. We have also just been crazy booked. Not a whole lot really to report today. I worked the morning and Don took a ride with some buddies. Now we are home. There is a cool event happening today in a neighboring town, but we are not going due to finances. We are kind of on a short budget and disposable income is not much. It is very frustrating to not just be able to go and do or go and get with out thinking ahead to other expenditures in the month. Someday I hope we will be more solvent. We are working towards that goal.
In other news, my sister and her family will be arriving in a few days, and I am very excited to see them. It has been too long and I am ready for a good visit. We have worked it out to maximize our time together and I am very much looking forward to that. It is always a good time when we all get together. I know that loads more has gone on, but I just am at a loss at the moment to think of anything I want to relate. Another day perhaps.

Random Bits

It's been a while since I posted...and nothing major to report. We managed to hit the last Mc's during the holiday time off, it was nice and good to get it checked off. Unfortunately, I was having a pissy day so that inhibited the goodness. We have done a little more wine tasting as of late too. We both really enjoy tasting and comparing and finding good wines. I had a long, rough week at work and am basically avoiding talking/thinking about it...working on that compartmentalizing thing that my partner is so good at. We had dinner at our Mc's the other night and I overheard a conversation that at first made me laugh a little and then start to think. Two late middle age women sitting across from each other, one having wine, the other a mixed drink, at first just chatting about life and then...."Have you had a chance to use your magic eraser yet?"...at first I thought, man I hope someday I will have more to talk about then the newist cleaning products, and then I thought, how nice to have a friend to share with, even the littlest things like what cleaning products work. It is nice to have people close to you that you can share even the littlest details of life with.
The Tour de France started today. Don got up early to catch the live broadcast, I slept in and am watching the mid-day ( it is on now, I still don't know who wins, although Don told me it is a Spanish rider). Then later we will watch the prime time expanded coverage. I am telling you, we are Tour nuts! The commentators and riders are like old friends, and once the tour is finished it is like having month long guests leave. I love seeing all the riders, the drama and competition. The country is beautiful too.
It has been nice having some time off together and I am working on living in the moment and not worrying about the work week coming up. Next week we are off to visit our families down south, and I am very much looking forward to that.