Day 1521

Dot is OK. After spending the day getting a series of Barium x-rays to determine if her digestive system was still functioning properly, the radiologist finally gave her a clean bill of health and she was able to come home again. Everybody told me that we were extremely lucky that she was able to throw up the last big mass of carpet last night. The spongy, fibrous mass effectively blocked any solids from going into her intestines, which was a good thing. It didn't look like she had any long strands of fiber in her intestines at all. If she wasn't able to throw this mass up, it would have had to be removed surgically from her stomach.

All's well that ends well, but now I can't really trust Dot in the house when I'm gone anymore. Who knows when this frantic compulsion to eat something like this will return? We've got to figure out what is causing these episodes. The best guess so far is that she has acid reflux. I wouldn't be surprised if this was the problem. I had a bad case of acid reflux myself once. It took a long time to find the cause and eliminate it, but it can be done.

It was good that work was slow today, because it gave me time for the trips back and forth to the vet and other errands that I wouldn't have had time for if it was a normal day. Traffic was terrible today, but I wasn't in a hurry so it didn't matter. I decided to get Sprinkles cupcakes today, instead of waiting in the insanely long Valentine's Day lines tomorrow. What the hell. These cupcakes will still be just as fresh tomorrow. I'm tired of standing in line for two hours or more just to buy some very overpriced cupcakes. Apparently other people had the same idea, because there was still a line. It was a reasonable line though. I was out of there in twenty minutes.

This week I'm glad I live in Texas. They may be having record snowfalls in New York, but it was 70 degrees in Dallas today. I think the nice weather is expected to last through the weekend too. I heard several people talk about playing golf this weekend. I'm sure the cold weather will return, but I'm a happy camper now. This is one of the weirdest Winters that I can remember. We continue to bounce back and forth between freezing and sweating and nobody knows why.

At least we don't have sinkholes in Texas. I was shocked to see all those historic Corvettes get swallowed up by a huge sinkhole in Kentucky. Florida has a lot of sinkholes too. All we have are tornadoes. If Dot's condition continues to improve, I'm going out for a good breakfast tomorrow. It's been a long week and I need a break. Dot's not getting anywhere near anything cloth when I leave though. No more carpet eating! I think I'll pen her up in the brick hallway. I'm getting ahead of myself though. First we have to see how she does tonight.

Tessa is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1502

Janet and I started the day with a cholesterol screening at our neighborhood health food store. This was the second blood test I've had in two days. I'll have another one on Monday. It's kind of ridiculous to have this many blood tests, but each one was ordered by a different doctor and doctors seldom talk to each other these days. Actually, today's test wasn't ordered by anybody. I've just become hooked on blood tests. I'd have one every day if I could. It's interesting to see how your body's chemistry changes hour-to-hour and day-to-day. If you only get a blood test once a year during your annual physical, you have to realize that it doesn't really mean much. If you took the same test six hours later, you would get different results. Over time, the tests show distinct patterns though. It's kind of like watching the stock market charts. I like to do that too.

Since we had to fast for the test, we went out to breakfast afterwards. "Where do you want to go," I asked Janet. "You're the breakfast restaurant expert," she said. So I introduced her to a place within easy walking distance of the health food store. There are breakfast restaurants all over the place in our neighborhood.

My ISP called today and told me that my account had been compromised. We changed some passwords and tried to figure out whether the breach was on my end or the server end. I'm still not sure, but did what I always do in these situations: I bought some new virus/malware checking software. After I installed the software and ran the scan, I read on the Internet that if I upgraded my operating system to Mountain Lion with this software installed, my computer would crash. Damn. Another case of the cure being worse than the disease.

I don't know what's going on with Dash these days. For a reason known only to him, he has completely revised his pooping schedule. He no longer does his business on our evening walk like he's been doing for years, preferring to wake us up at three in the morning instead. There is nothing wrong. He doesn't have a stomach virus or diarrhea or anything. He just seems to have shifted his internal clock by about six hours. Dot is still as regular as clockwork, but she is just as irritated by this new development as the rest of us. When Dash decides he needs to go outside in the middle of the night, he wakes everybody up.

The temperature got into the mid-sixties today. Quite a change from yesterday's freezing weather. It's strange to be whipsawed back and forth like this. I can't tell whether we are having a cold Winter or a warm Winter. It appears like we're having both at the same time. I try to enjoy the nice weather whenever it decides to appear. Hopefully, this warm trend will continue thru tomorrow. Today would have been a great day to go to the dog park.

Bones is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day