Archives 2009

Last week I noticed my sneakers stank pretty bad.  I figured I would take care of it by throwing them in the washing machine on HOT with detergent.  I followed up by allowing them to dry out in the sun.  Well after removing them today I noticed they still STINK. Son of a bitch.  I guess I will try some Lysol.  If that doesn’t work perhaps it is time for some sneaker shopping.

Once upon a time Joe had to go to the dermatologist for a routine examination.  Joe’s dermatologist just happened to be a female.  Joe was a bit taken back when he was instructed to strip down to his boxers and put on a hospital type gown. 

When the doctor entered the room followed by a nurse Joe was instructed to remove the gown in order for the exam to take place.  So there stood Joe in his boxers as two women looked over his rather pale and unimpressive physique.  The doctor circled Joe and then suddenly reached for the waistband of his underwear and pulled it back so she could quickly examine his buttocks for any sign of cancerous lesions. 

Although Joe felt a bit weird having the woman glance at his rear end he managed to maintain composure.  Well when the doctor swung around to the front and snagged the FRONT of Joe’s underpants and again took a peek to see what was happening down there Joe was taken by surprise.  “What could she possibly be looking for except perhaps a cheap thrill or to see how I measure up to her other male patients?”  Quickly Joe shot a glance at the nurse in the room to see if she was looking. Nothing was said during the awkward moment although Joe couldn’t help but feel like he was just somehow violated.

The exam concluded and Joe left the doctors office with mixed feelings.  He wasn’t sure to leave a tip or not.

Let’s start off with a Spook update. Last time we left her the skin around the base of her ear was peeling back, she was hardly eating a thing, her pupils were two different sizes and she was basically a mess.  Well we have been continuing the unpleasant task of forcing an antibiotic suspension down her throat every night with varying degrees of success.  Well the update is Spook is still a mess but less of one.

There has been a noticeable increase in her food consumption over the past few days, although her eating process results in a huge mess spread around the plate.  As she eats she sometimes will shake her head, propelling food around the area.  Her pupils are almost the same size now and she seems a bit more alert.  She still is carrying her head cocked to the left and she still has these weird sounding sneezing fits.  Still, there is definitely some improvement in her condition and she continues to be a purr machine, seemingly happy just to be still walking the planet.  So I am going to get more of the antibiotics and pain meds from the vet this week and we will just continue drugging her up hoping her condition continues to improve.  If it doesn’t at least we tried our best.

This weekend I had a bunch of small projects to do instead of a couple big ones.  The weather this weekend was absolutely perfect for working outside with highs in the 70’s with low humidity.  It was the type of weather that made me want to move to Florida in the first place.

Saturday morning Ali met up with her running partners and did a 7 mile run.  Not only did she do it but she did it pretty easily.  I can’t tell you how proud I am of Ali’s recent running accomplishments.  She has made some remarkable strides in her fitness level in a short period of time.  She is right on track to meet her goal of running in a half marathon in January which is a hell of a feat.

During the day I went to Home Depot while Ali mowed the back yard.  I had my flat bed loaded up with all sorts of different items including cement, weed and feed, seeds, sod pieces and even a 20 foot ladder. 

When I got home I knocked out a bunch of the small projects.  Ali joined me in the garden where we direct seeded a bunch of stuff including carrots, corn, peas and beets.  We made a raised, soft bed for the carrot seeds, hoping to avoid crowing mutant carrots again this year due to compacted soil.

We took mom out for dinner a couple days early for her birthday.  We went to a place mom suggested.  We had early 5:30 reservations.  We were running a bit late which I knew would stress mom out.  She obsesses about this sort of stuff.  On the way there she speculated that they may give away our table since we would be almost 15 minutes late.  I assured her things would be fine and indeed they were. 

We had a mostly enjoyable meal.  The most important thing, the food was good.  Our service was sort of strange.  Our waiter was very polite, through out the meal he had to say “Thank you” at least 25 times.  Although courteous the guy also seemed to be rather forgetful.  He had to be reminded several times to do things like get mom’s water, turn on the outside heater and several other things.  He also forgot little details like bringing out straws for the water/soft drinks, lemon for mom’s water and creamer for the coffee we had later in the meal.  It was hard to get pissed at the guy though since he was thanking us constantly.  Despite the little annoying service quirks we had a nice meal.

Once we got back to mom’s I insisted on getting her voice mail set up on her new cell phone, something she never had before.  Her new phone is cool, it’s a Motorola flip phone that has data capability although we don’t have that turned on since mom wouldn’t use it.  While I was playing around with the phone I took a silly picture of myself and set it as the background of mom’s phone home screen.  Now she can simply open her phone whenever she wants to see my angelic face.

On Sunday I kept myself busy most of the day since the Eagles didn’t play until 4pm.  The first thing I did was rotate the tires on the Camry.  This job is made easier by the fact that I have two floor jacks so I can have two tires off at once.  The Camry Hybrid has been a great car for us although there has been one thing that has been less than great, the f’ing tires.

  We are on our second set of tires and they are now suffering from the same problem as the first set, uneven wear that causes a lot of road noise on certain surfaces.  I have attributed the problem to some sort of alignment problem that was present from day one.  I had the dealer supposedly make SURE the alignment was good when the second set of tires were installed yet they wore in the exact same manner and time frame as the first set.  It pisses me off.

I then spent a few hours pressure washing both the new shed and the old shed.  Both shed’s needed cleaning badly.  A pressure washer is must have gear in south Florida as mildew and algae forms on surfaces everywhere due to the climate.  Pressure washing is wet work, if you happen to be downwind from what you are cleaning you can get very wet, very quickly.  The large shed took much longer than the new shed since it is roughly double the size and requires me to wash the roof as well.  The new shed has a shingle roof which does not require the same maintenance.  Both sheds look considerably better after my efforts.

So we sat down to watch the Eagles game.  I had already predicted the Eagles would lose the game to my buddy at work.  They suck on the West Coast, they lost to the stinking Raiders a few weeks ago, the Chargers are a better team.  Unfortunately I turned out to be accurate in my prediction.  If you saw that McNabb threw for 450 yards and two td’s you would assume they smashed their opponents right?  Nope.  Instead the Eagles would move the ball, get inside the 10 yard line and then fall apart due to their total lack of a running game.  Three times they settled for short field goals.

The defense sucked, not being able to stop the Chargers for the majority of the game.  I was flabbergasted when I kept seeing defensive players (linebackers a d-backs)on the field whose names I had never seen before.  Who the f are these guys and why are they playing? Well whatever their names were they didn’t play well.  Once the Eagles found themselves in a come back situation I knew we were done and McNabb proved me a sage, once again failing to lead his team to a come from behind win, something he is spectacularly miserable at doing.

After the game I was of course annoyed and I posted these questions on Facebook.

 I walked around yesterday and took some pics of the various projects and items I have been talking about but not posting pictures of, enjoy.

So I was talking to my brother last night on the phone and he told me that he divulged to my mom the primary purpose of my dad’s visit which was supposed to be top secret.  He didn’t know it was.  My dad brought down his second motorcycle that he no longer used to give to me.  It’s a 1984 Moto Guzzi Lemans III 850. 

The reason I was trying to keep this a secret was to not cause mom undue worry.  I have the bike stored in the second storage shed where it would have been hidden from mom’s view. 

Dad spent a good chunk of money getting it running before he brought it down, the bike has mostly sat unused for a few years since dad picked up a BMW touring bike.  Unfortunately once he got it down here and we tried to start it, gas spilled out of both carbs.  There evidently is still some sort of carb float problem that I am going to have to address.

The first vehicle I ever drove when I was 16 was not a car but instead a 125 cc Yamaha Enduro motorcycle that maxxed out at about 45-50 mph.  Later I also owned a Honda 360 CBT street bike so I have somewhat of a motorcycle background.  I actually drove the Moto Guzzi a few times years ago, obviously it has a lot more power than the bikes I drove when I was a kid.

I have no plans to do a lot of motorcycle riding.  Hell I don’t even have a cycle license, I always drove on my permit in PA.  They no longer have motorcycle learner permits in Florida, I HAVE to take the safety course and then I will get the endorsement on my license automatically.  I’m well aware of the dangers of riding a motorcycle, especially down in here in the land of snowbirds that can’t even see other cars not to mention motorcycles. 

Of course I first have to get the thing running before I do anything else and that itself will be a challenge.  I am looking forward though to the first opportunity I get while on an open section of road to wring it out a bit, the exhaust note on this bike is pretty damn sweet.

Last night I noticed Sadie was licking her legs a lot.  As I looked closer I noticed that she looked wet.  When I stood by her the carpet was soaked.  When I went out on the lanai I saw a huge trail of water leading from the pool steps.  She must have fallen in the pool when she was running around in the dark looking at something.  It’s good to know she at least remembered how to get out.  She is such a funny dog.

I haven’t said much about the health plan stuff going on in Congress right now.  To be honest, I don’t like it.  I have always been a supporter of the idea of public health care, I don’t think people should die unnecessarily or have their life savings erased because of not having health insurance.  I think of health care as one of the basic necessities of life, not that much different from other essential services that are already provided to the population like police protection, fire fighters and other government services that keep our society more or less in order. 

When I hear people railing so strongly against public health care I wonder if these same people feel that social security should be abolished, unemployment pay trashed and medicare/medicaid tossed out the window as well?  These are after all government provided “handouts”, what makes these so much different than  a proposed public health care system? Not much, if you ask me, IF it is done right.

Unfortunately that is where it falls apart for me.  I basically do not like what is going on.  Nancy Pelosi makes my skin crawl.  To have someone like her so strongly endorse the house plan instantly makes me cringe.  Some of the details I read are not cool.  Even me who is all about the ultra-rich paying their fair share thinks that a 5.4 percent surcharge on them is extreme.  I think the tab for public health care needs to be more equally shared among taxpayers, not shouldered exclusively by the mega-rich. 

The plan itself is a mutated, compromise riddled shell of the ideal situation that was presented to us during the campaign.  Unfortunately Obama has been unable to uproot the deep corruption that has been entrenched in Washington for the past 40 or 50 years.  Instead he has had to try to maneuver his way through it and in the process has lost a lot of lustre off of the promises that shined so bright prior to the election.  Lobbyist money is still the king of congress and big business, specifically gigantic insurance companies have plenty of it to throw around to make sure that if any health care bill passes it will be one that benefits them in some way.

Don’t get me wrong, I still like Obama and his ideals. I just think that he has run into a giant concrete wall of Washington bureaucracy and has little more than a metal spoon to chip through it.

I got an email yesterday from Chevy offically annoucing they will be releasing a new color in spring of 2010 for the Camaro called Synergy Green.  The picture is a concept shot so the real deal may look a bit different.  I like it though.  The color is supposed to be limited-production which makes it even more appealing to me.  So right now there are three colors that I am considering, the new green, Inferno Orange Metallic (because my 69 Bird was orange) or a silver one which I would adorn with Eagles Midnight Green stripes.

My Veterans Day was pretty mundane for most of it.  Ali had to work so it was just me and the “girls”.  I wanted to give the floor surfaces of the house a thorough cleaning after having Maggie and Clara running wild for a few days.  The floor/carpet was covered in dog hair, dog slobber and various other dog bodily fluids I’m sure.  So I swept it with the Dyson Animal and followed up with the steam cleaner.  Man was it ever dirty.  Even though I went over the high traffic areas repeatedly I was still pulling very dirty water.  If you have dogs tile with throw rugs may be a better option.

Wednesday night Ali and signed up to run in the Veterans Day Midpoint Bridge Run. This run is sort of special for us, it was the first 5K race we ever ran in a few years back.  It’s also a cool run because it happens at night and they close off a bridge that the run is held on.  You are running over a river for most of the race, pretty neat.  Before the race Ali and I agreed we would both run at our own pace.  She said she wasn’t going to try to break any speed records so I shouldn’t expect to see her just under the 30 minute mark like she turned in up in PA.

As we warmed up for the race I didn’t feel particularly good.  My legs felt stiff and my right knee felt less than stellar.  My overall energy level was rather low.  I have been sort of down because of the whole Spook situation.  I had no big expectations for how I would perform.  In fact I recall thinking shortly before the race that I may have been happier at home at that point and time.  I just wasn’t into it.

So the gun sounds and off we go.  After getting out of the initial quagmire of nearly 700 runners I had some room to run.  Instinctively I started passing people.  I have this weird mental thing that goes on during a race.  If I spot people ahead of me that look like they should not be ahead of me I try to catch them, it will bother me immensely otherwise.  All of a sudden the sluggishness I felt warming up was gone.  I utilized my long legs to lengthen my stride without greatly increasing the speed of my leg movement. 

When I got to the first person calling out times I was astonished when I heard 7:16.  I don’t run 7:16 miles, wow I must really be hauling ass.  Well I found out later that the woman was actually sitting at the 2 mile marker for the return trip.  Why she was calling out times I don’t know, I heard it confused a lot of people.  The bridge has a long gentle rise in the middle that we had to traverse twice, out and back.  The hill was enough to break a bunch of people as they stopped and walked.  The hill didn’t slow me down too much at all.

It wasn’t until the two mile mark that I realized Iwasn’t running 7:16 miles, more like 8 minute miles which is still good for me.  As I accelerated to the finish I was excited to see I broke the 25 minute mark for the first time EVER.  I finished with an official time of 24:56 which was really more like 24:45-50 based on the lag until I got to cross the start line.  I was amazed that I set a personal record (PR) based on how I felt before the race.  I guess it’s a testament to adrenalin.

After grabbing a bottle of water I waited for Ali, figuring she would come in after the 30 minute mark.  You can imagine my surprise when she came across the finish line at just over 29 minutes!  So much for taking it easy.  She shaved a full minute off her PA time running a course with inclines, wow.

We both did well in our age groups.  I finished 9th out of almost 30 and Ali was in the top 25% of the 60 or so women in her age category.   When I looked at the final results I noticed there were a few men in my age group that finished a few seconds earlier than me.  If I knew that I would have kicked it up a few notches and might have been able to get 5th or 6th.  Regardless I was proud of both of our efforts.

After the race we headed to the area where the refreshments are, both Ali and I were looking forward to a well earned post race snack.  I was shocked to see nothing on the table except orange quarters.  I asked if they had anything else, I never saw a race that had just orange quarters, not everyone likes to eat oranges (me).  That was all they had, they said the main sponsor which was a restaurant/bar had the rest of the food at their place, miles away at some mall.  Some genius thought it would be a great idea to force the runners to drive somewhere else for food.  “How stupid”, both Ali and I said to each other as we walked back to the car.  Over 700 signed up and you only have water and oranges at the end???  It really annoyed me.  Obviously whomever made that call is not a runner, else they would realize the lunacy of that arrangement.  Instead of driving business towards their doors just the opposite will happen in our situation, I’ll never go there now, not that I would have anyways.

Bed felt very good for both of us once we got home.

My dad, step mom and their two dogs head out this morning back to PA.  They basically just hung out yesterday since both Ali and I had to work.  I turned the pool heater on Sunday to get the water temp up a bit, the 75 degrees it was sitting at was a bit cool to hang out in very long.  When we got home my step mom was in the middle of cooking a fancy vegetarian dinner.  Although we told her she certainly did not need to cook for us she said she was happy to do it, she likes to cook and is very good at it.

Ali and I decided that we should jump in the pool a bit to enjoy the dollars we spent heating it.  By that time the water was hovering around 89 degrees.  The dogs of course came out to join in the fun, Maggie especially.  Maggie is the only dog out of the four that is willing go into the pool.  All you have to do is throw something in the pool for her to fetch and she will jump right in and get it.  She is a great swimmer, very fast.   I played with her for a good 20 minutes, she just never gets tired of fetching.

After our pool time supper was ready which we ate out on the lanai.  It was a real nice setting with candles lighting the table, the pool light on and mild, comfortable temperatures.  The food tasted as good as it looked.  After cleaning up from dinner we hung out and caught some of the MNF game.  This morning I said my goodbyes before heading out for work, they were going to be pulling out early and driving until 4pm, wherever that lands them.

We had a nice visit with dad and the crew.  Just watching the dogs interact provides hours of entertainment, getting the fence gate installed as well was an unexpected bonus.  I’m not sure when we will see them next but hopefully it is sooner rather than later.

Man the Spook situation is just plain gross at this point.  Last night we noticed that it almost looks like the skin around the base of her troublesome left ear is peeling back as well as excreting some sort of disgusting fluid.  I can’t imagine her recovering at this point.  She still is basically not eating. However she is still purring like mad and wanting to be interacted with at every opportunity.  I really wish I would come out one morning and find that she quietly passed away. But I fear it is going to come down to us having to take her down to the vet again.  I really dread the idea of being in the room as she is put to sleep.  I still have flashbacks of when we went through it with Buttons.  Death and I just don’t get along well at all.

My dad originally said he expected to pull into our place around 3 on Friday.  Things were slow at work so I was able to leave a bit early so I would be able to meet them.  Well on my way home after hearing from Ali that they weren’t there yet I called dad to see where they were.  He was only at mile marker 240 something (we are 111), evidently they got a late start because they had to wait for a dog bakery to open.  Dad has never been one to care about time, schedules or anything that would in some manner restrict his free will so it did not come to me as a surprise that instead he would be rolling in closer to 6:30.

As soon as they arrived with their two black lab mixes (Clara and Maggie) all hell broke loose as expected.  After a very brief reacquaintance period the dogs were full out nuts, running around and playing with each other like they didn’t skip a beat from our summer New Mexico trip.  Sadie and Clara are an especially good match, they both love to run and play fight.  We decided I would just run out and grab pizza for dinner, nothing fancy is normally required as far as eating arrangements go with dad.  We caught up on the latest and greatest before hitting the sack relatively early.  Everyone was sort of pooped.

Saturday morning I thought dad might enjoy going with me to pick up the stuff I needed to install an auxiliary gate where I cut the fence.  The place is called Jack & Ann’s Feed and Supply in Immokalee.  It is a run down, older than dirt place that is run by good ole Florida crackers.  Dad seems to enjoy interacting with people that march off the beaten path so this would be a great place for him.

We took my truck and initially I was concerned about getting everything into the back of it.  I needed four 8 foot corner posts, two smaller cross posts, wire and a 12 foot gate.  The bed of my truck is only 7-8 feet long max.  We put the posts in and then laid the gate on top.  After that we used a combination of bungee cords, ropes and careful driving to get the stuff back to the house.

I pulled the truck to the back and dumped the stuff on the ground.  That was all I wanted to get accomplished.  Well dad suggested that we work on getting the gate installed which I told him was not my intention.  I didn’t expect or necessarily need the help to do the project although of course it goes easier with an extra set of hands.  Well dad was into it so we dug into the project.

It seems this has been a recurring theme when dad and I get together.  We always wind up doing projects somehow. He helped me install the sprinkler system a couple years ago when he was down and when we went out to NM I helped him with various stuff as well.  He enjoys it and I guess I do too.  It’s rewarding to do some hard labor and accomplish something at the end of it.

So after deciding exactly how to situate the two H braces and 12 foot gate on the fence line best based on the location of the cut, we broke earth.  I tried to do most of the labor intensive parts of the job like the hole digging.  These 8 foot posts require a 42 inch hole.  Going down 42 inches with a post hole digger is not exactly a good time.  We worked until mid to late afternoon on the project with a break for lunch thrown in there.  Our stopping point was one H post up, with the gate attached to it.  It was the harder of the two H’s to complete so it was nice to have that part knocked out.

My step mom asked if we had any interest in seeing “Men That Stare at Goats”  the new comedy with an impressive sounding cast.  Although it wasn’t a movie that was on my must see list we figured it would be fun to go check out.  We stopped and had a quick but nice meal at Moe’s which we got to enjoy out on a deck in the warm evening air overlooking a lake with lighted fountains, it was very cool.

We went to Coconut Point once again, counting on it being relatively empty.  The theater was actually the fullest it ever has been for any of our visits but there were still tons of empty seats.  The stuff they show leading up to the actual film is downright annoying, at times I almost felt like I was watching a NFL broadcast with advertisements repeating several times in a short period of time.  Then during the incredibly long preview session I had something happen that never did before.  They showed the same movie preview TWICE.  Not back to back mind you like it was a mistake or something it seemed intentional.  Man I found that incredibly annoying.  After dropping nearly $10 a head to view a movie I think it is bullshit to subject viewers to 15 minutes of previews and commercials.

So the movie starts and right away you were hit up with several laugh out loud funny moments.  The chemistry between George Clooney and Ewan McGregor was good.  However as the film progressed the funny moments became increasingly scarce. By the end of the movie it was hard to not come out of it scratching your head if you tried to explain what exactly it was about. It could best be summarized as “stupid”.   I certainly would not recommend going to a theater to see it.  B- at best.  Everyone pretty much echoed my feelings although Ali actually seemed to like it the most of all of us.

On Sunday morning I was outside before 7:30 working on the rest of the gate install.  I wanted to get it knocked out.  Dad once again felt obligated to come out and assist, this time still wearing his pajama pants.  We ran into a few snags finishing up the project, the most annoying was trying to get the rear end of the truck into a position where I could winch the fence tight.  I had everything finished and put away by 10 am, talk about a productive start to the day.  We now have a nice 12 foot gate that should make entrance to the back of the property more feasible if a large object/vehicle needs to gain access. I’ll take some pictures later of the completed project.  The tendons and muscles in my hands are very stiff and sore from all of that gripping, twisting and pulling that comes with any fence installation project.

I had seen that this weekend they were holding the Fort Myers Sandsculpting Festival.  This has been going on for nearly 25 years yet we never checked it out.  I asked my dad and step mom if they were into it and they were. On the way to the beach we drove by the Delorean place again and this time I stopped.  They had almost a dozen Deloreans lined up outside.  Every single one of them was in need of some sort of TLC, I’m not quite sure what the function of this location is.  Perhaps they restore them and resell them to collectors?  Regardless it was quite cool to be in the immediate proximity of a dozen Deloreans, something that very few people in this world can lay claim to.  My dad said he actually rented a Delorean years ago, that would have been pretty cool.

So we continued on our trip to FMB.  I had read that the festival attracted upwards of 100,000 visitors during the 5 days it runs so I expected crowds.  I didn’t quite expect as much of a crowd as we got though.  Luckily we found a place to park that was relatively close.  We walked down the road up to the beach and were surprised by the mini-carnival type atmosphere with lots of tents, food and nick knacks. 

We came up quickly upon some of the amateur sculptures which were smaller in scale yet impressive.  It amazes me how they can transform plain old sand and water into something that looks like it was carved out of stone.  We then came to the professional sculptures.  In order to get to this area you had to pay $5 a head.  This pay-to-see concept immediately soured dad on the idea so he stayed outside the fence but myself, Ali and my step mom decided the 5 spot was worth it and it definitely was.  The scultures were simply amazing.  I would love to know how they manage to do this.  Every single piece was incredible, the detail and creativity was awesome.

Many of the professional sand sculptors were from around the country, some in areas you would not think would be conducive to their craft like Montana or Missouri.  The most annoying thing was there were a ton of people mulling around the sculptures.  You couldn’t really stand long to admire anything without getting caught up in the flow of people or being in the way of someone taking a picture.

After seeing everything there was to be seen we grabbed some ice cream and then walked up along the water line until we got back to the van.  I decided it would be more interesting to continue north through Ft Myers Beach so my dad and step mom could see some different sights on the way back.  In retrospect it was a really, really, bad move.  Fort Myers beach has one two lane road to get on and off the beach.  Well this can create very long lines of traffic.  Well the amount of people leaving the festival trying to get north created the longest back up I had ever seen.  In total I bet we spent nearly an hour just getting off the beach, it was pretty miserable as we sat there watching people walking on the sidewalk making better progress.  I apologized for the long delay, I’ll never make the suggestion to take that scenic route again.

Last night Ali made an awesome dinner with fresh salad, baked ziti and homemade banana/chocolate chip muffins.  It was AWESOME.  I made it to the third quarter of the Eagles game before I fell asleep with the Birds leading 13-10. I woke up this morning to see that they choked and lost the game 20-16.  I had a feeling it would end badly based on what I had saw before passing out.  Oh well whatever, I am trying to not get that bent out of shape over it. 

Let me just say that Donovan McNabb and the Eagles in general have on of THE worst track records at clock management and last minute come backs of any team in the NFL.  Sure the Eagles have won a lot of ballgames but they hardly ever are able to do if they are down late.  How many two minute drives at the end of a game do you remember this team pulling out?  The only one I can recall is the 4th and 26 game against the Packers in the playoffs a few years back.  If the pressure is turned up to high and the clock is winding down you can almost guarantee this team will fail every single time.

We have had a great time watching the dogs interact over the weekend.  They just have so much fun playing with each other.  Watching their personalities mesh is intriguing.  Sadie turns out to be the most aggressive of all of them.  If another dog has a toy she instinctively wants to steal it.  She also is the one that is least likely to back down in a confrontation.

Maggie wants to do nothing but fetch ________ (fill in the blank) all day long.  If you can throw it she will get it and bring it back for you to throw again until your arm falls off.  Clara is a little trouble maker and personality wise is similar to Sadie, very high energy and very active.  Nicki is the cautious participant, picking her spots when she wants to participate in the roughhousing yet enjoying it when she does.  However if push comes to shove she is still the queen if another dog would try to do something like move in on her food bowl.  She will instantly flip the switch into Cujo if provoked enough.

By the end of the day yesterday I was feeling pretty spent both physically and mentally.  I just had used up my allotment of energy for the weekend and was running on fumes.

Spook is continuing to slide downhill.  She still is basically not eating.  I hand fed her this morning and witnessed the problems up close and personal.  Basically she can not work her mouth correctly.  It’s almost how I feel if I get my mouth shot up with novocaine.  It’s an incredible struggle for her to chew and swallow, the food just drops out of her mouth. It has to be a horrible thing to be starving yet unable to do much about it.  I am pretty much giving it this week to see if there is any improvement after a week of meds. If not I think we need to put her down.  The only small improvement I have seen thus far is less of the sneezing fits.

The ironic thing is besides having an f’d up mouth, a head that is permanently cocked to the left, one pupil that is larger than the other, looking like an anorexic and hair that is falling out the cat seems content.  She seems to be purring almost all of the time and is constantly looking for human interaction.  My step mom held her for awhile last night just petting her.  She loves cats and feels very bad for poor old Spook.

Like everyone else I was very sad to see the tragedy that occurred at the military base where a soldier went berserk and opened fire killing a number of soldiers and injuring a bunch more.  Despite being shot four times, the mental case is still alive.  Once I saw the last name of the guy I immediately knew he was of arabic/muslim descent however I hoped that it just happened to be a coincidence.  The initial stories portrayed a guy that was about to be deployed to Iraq/Afghanistan that did not want to go.  However as the story is unraveling more disturbing details are coming out.

Yep apparently this guy had connections to some disturbing / terrorist / extremist postings on the internet as well as a track record that was less than stellar.  The immediate reaction I have heard most often is the outcry for racial profiling in the military.  Profiling in general is frowned upon on as not being politically correct.  Putting an individual through additional scrutiny, background checks and inspection based solely on their last name or physical appearance may be inconvenient or annoying for such people that match that profile. But you know what, in my opinion that is just tough shit.

  The world is filled with lunatics.  Lunatics typically don’t care much about being politically correct, collateral damage or tip toeing around people’s fragile feelings.  Sure it’s a sad statement about the world we live in that such steps are necessary in order to prevent extremists from slaughtering innocent individuals but hey, it’s reality.  Profile away, I’m fine with it.  If all of a sudden middle aged white men start blowing shit up, killing innocent bystanders and otherwise causing upheaval in society sure, stop me and ask a few extra questions, run my SS number, pat me down for explosives, I don’t give a shit.

This world is SUCH a f’d up place.

On a more personal depressing note Spook went back to the vet yesterday.  Her condition has been steadily deteriorating.  She has been eating very little, still having sneezing fits and started walking around carrying her head permanently tilted to the left.  The vet said that she found some sort of mass toward the rear left of Spook’s mouth, throat.  She was able to get a needle into it to get a few cells for testing.  She isn’t quite sure what it is, it could be a benign growth, swelling from infection or some sort of cancerous tumor.  Of course none of these possibilities are good.

The vet is sending the cells out for testing but whether it is cancer or not is pretty much a moot point.  The growth is in an area that is basically inoperable short of doing crazy brain surgery on the cat.  The vet said the location of the growth could cause the myriad of problems  we have been seeing.  It could make it hard for her to chew, swallow as well as causing fluid to leak into her nasal passages making her sneeze.  She said that one of Spook’s pupils also was dilated more than the other which again indicates more problems.

So after talking to the vet I asked if I could get some more of the antibiotics.  After we finished the two weeks of treatment last time her condition definitely was improved.  The only shot Spook has is if this is infection that we did not totally knock out last time.  If that is the case hopefully another prolonged session of medicine will kill it. I suffered through a very stinky ride home with the cat as she decided to piss on the towel in her cat carrier.  The cab of the truck smelled like I sprayed it with ammonia scented Febreeze.

Of course this means we have to go through the joy of giving the cat meds again which Ali absolutely hates.  Last night Ali was out so I decided to give Spook the meds myself.  It was not a pretty picture but I more or less got the stuff in her.  I’m also giving her the left over pain meds we have so if she is in pain it will help dull it.

It’s weird, even though the cat is obviously in severely failing health she is all about being with me.  She purrs as soon as you touch her and she welcomes any petting you can throw her way.  It’s almost like she knows the clock is winding down.  She has lost the mean edge that she had for most of her adult life.  This morning she was really struggling with her balance.  She had her head severely cocked to the left, almost like that is the only way she can keep shit from draining into her throat.  She did eat a bit more than she has recently.  I felt terrible for her when as she walked through the kitchen she simply fell over when she lost her balance.  This stuff sucks.

My dad, step mom and their two dogs will be pulling in this afternoon.  We are trying to talk them into becoming snowbirds.  The house next to is for sale for a ridiculously low price.  It would be an awesome thing to have them be our neighbors for a few months out of the year.  I’m certainly not holding my breath though.

We can’t wait to let all four dogs loose in the yard.  When we were out in New Mexico they had a BLAST playing with each other however Sadie was somewhat limited because she ripped the pads on her feet on the rocky ground.  This time there will be nothing like that to slow her down, it should be a lot of fun to witness the mayhem.

The Phillies went down in flames last night unfortunately.  Pedro did not have real good stuff as pointed out by Joe Buck time and again.  His velocity wasn’t much better than BP speed.  Ryan Howard actually made his first contribution to the offense late in the game, FINALLY hitting a home run but it was far too little too late.

Winning the series two years in a row would have been a hell of an accomplishment.  I think there were a few reasons the Phils fell short.  The biggest was pitching.  The inability of Cliff Lee to go on three days rest set up a domino effect where the Phils were going deep into their rotation while the Yankees were able to stick with their best three pitchers.  The Phillies staff in general, especially their relief staff just wasn’t good enough.  Having Lidge and Hamels performing nowhere close to their prior years performance really hurts.

  On offense there were a few chokers.  Jimmy Rollins did far less than a lead off hitter of his caliber should do. Ben Francisco??? Nice job on going 0-fer the post season.  And of course the biggest choke of all was clearly Ryan Howard who tied the all-time strike out record for a World Series, ouch.

Oh well in the big picture it’s all good.  I like the character of the Phillies team and if a few of their players get their heads screwed on straight and bounce back next year there is no reason they can’t be right back in the mix of things next season.

Witness the joy of fire ants.

So Ali got back last night from her trip to PA.  I took PV 2.0 loaded up with the dogs to pick her up.  After a typical lengthy wait for her bags at baggage claim she gave me the call that she was ready to be picked up.  Nicki was excited but confused at the same time when she saw Ali, I think the flurry of activity at the airport freaked her out a bit.

On the way home Ali told me about her trip.  It sounded like she had a great time, probably the best visit she has had to PA since we moved to Florida.  Our nieces are at just about the perfect age where they are full of questions, cuteness and energy.  Ali really enjoyed interacting with them.  Ali’s interaction with the kids prompted my sister-in-law calling me over the weekend drunkenly telling me how we HAD to have a kid because Ali is so good with them.

Ali ran her first Pennsylvania 5K while she was up there.  Despite the cool conditions she actually had a really good race, breaking 30 minutes for the first time in a long time.  She also got to see various friends and family members while she was up there.  She said she did a lot of crying  yesterday because she was going to miss everyone.

I was happy that she had such a great time.  It seems like it was a very positive experience for her.  I was equally happy to have her back home.  We didn’t get home until well after 10.  I quickly showed Ali our new shed which she thankfully approved of it’s location.  After that she quickly unpacked and tried to get things somewhat in order. 

 Ali went nuts buying me gifts while she was up there. She bought me a big Phillies and Eagles magnet for the truck, an official looking Cole Hamels Phillies jersey and most importantly SHOO FLY pie!   The stuff was all quite cool.

Since I was picking up Ali I missed the majority of the Phillies game but I was keeping up on the score on my Iphone.  I was psyched when I flipped on the tv at home and saw they had a commanding 8-2 lead going into the 8th.  Chase Utley once again was coming up huge belting two more homeruns, including a big 3 run shot in the first.  All of a sudden Chase has the opportunity to surpass the great Reggie Jackson as the all-time homerun king for a World Series, wow.

Anyway almost on cue, as soon as I started to watch the game the wheels started falling off.  In the space of 5 minutes the score was all of a sudden 8-5 and the Yankees were within striking distance.  In the 9th inning Brad Lidge was noticeably absent, obviously Charlie has lost faith in the guy.  Instead Ryan Madsen was tasked with closing out the Yankees.  The Yanks immediately get men on base and score a run on a double play to make the score 8-6.  So with two outs and two strikes Johnny Damon gets a single to bring the tying run to the plate.  Man I was stressing big time.  Finally a wave of relief came over me after Madsen manages to strike out the batter to end the game, whew. 

So the Phils are still alive but now face the daunting task of heading back to NYC and having to sweep the final two games.  It’s going to be a rough road to climb but maybe, just maybe they can pull it out.  Maybe Ryan Howard can get a hit sometime as well……