Monday, February 19, 2007

New Vet

We took our baby to the vet today for his annual checkup. Instead of Pets Unlimited, we took him to a new pet hospital in Laurel Heights. We had a pretty big scare with Monte last year when his surgery to remove a tooth didn't go as planned - and as a result, Pets Unlimited charged us an arm an a leg for all the tests we had to do after the surgery.

Long story short, Monte had a tooth that needed to be removed. He has a history of heart arrhythmia. When they put him under for the surgery to remove the tooth, his blood pressure dropped so low that they had to bring him back immediately. So, of course, we authorized a bunch of tests for his heart.

What we found out later that:

#1 - his tooth didn't have to be surgically removed. It would fall out on its own in time (which by the way, one year later, is still there).
#2 - they used a different anesthetic than what had been used on him before. The new stuff gave him a bad reaction.
#3 - they charged us full price for all the tests they did on his heart - only to find that everything was the same as his records from previous tests that had been done years ago. So, if not for the surgery, we wouldn't have had to do these tests.
#4 - we almost lost Monte because of these bad decisions.

So, to round it off - we ended up paying nearly $300 to get his teeth cleaned - which is all they did during the surgery prep time.

With all that said, this year, Monte got a new vet. Anna is very nice and blunt. Straight to the point, Monte's heart condition is rare, and something we need to monitor. Though he shows no symptoms, as he gets older, we just have to watch out in case somethings does go wrong. We have the name of a cardiologist that will do regular checkups on Monte from now on.

What can you do? Pets become your children. There's nothing I wouldn't do for my little Monte kitty.




His new favorite spot.





Sunday, February 18, 2007

Happy New Year!

Gong Hay Fat Choy!



Year of the Pig

Friday, February 09, 2007

What did I get myself into?

My #1 goal for the beginning of the year was to complete a baby blanket for my college roommate who is due April 1st. Well, I thought starting it in February would give me two months to get it done and shipped off. WRONG!

I had chosen a very cute design that basically is a border of a solid color, with blocks of either stripes or polka dots (big ones and small ones). I don't know what I was thinking because I had never done anything with four colors before. I didn't know that you're supposed to start a new color chain with every new color section on the blanket.

You see this mess?



That's only half of it.



It doesn't look too bad from the second picture, but this was taken a few days ago. Since then, I've added double the loose ends of yarn to it. My goodness. It takes me 45 mins to knit one row. It's not a huge blanket, but my time is used when I have to untangle the bobbins of yarn, and switch colors every few stitches.

I think it will be very cute once it's done, but at this rate, I think it will be baby's first Christmas present. I haven't given up yet, but most nights, I do one row and I'm sick of the sight of the thing already. Maybe I'll knit another umbillical cord hat. That was a big hit last baby gift.

Monday, February 05, 2007

Unpublished comments

I finally broke down and upgraded my Blogger to the new 'Googlized' version. Man, I didn't know I had so many comments that I never saw! And I feel bad about not answering any them. Honestly, I didn't know I had them!

So, to
Kuky - I thank you so much for all your words of support and for your prayers during that very difficult time with Bubbles! I wasn't ignoring you!!!

It's been a very weird week. Reconnected with an old friend who called me out of the blue - we talked on the phone for over an hour. Then another friend that I 'broke up' with about 5 years ago, wrote me an email, bascially apologizing for what had happened and explain a little of what was going on with her then and over the past few years. I guess the bottom line is, she's wondering if there a chance for us to become friends again. It will take time, but I think that is probably the directing we'll be taking. I know it won't be the same, but I'd like us to try to be friends again.

The ultimate mood killer on top of everything is that my aunt passed away last week. We went to her funeral yesterday.


Being that is was Superbowl Sunday too, my hubby went off to his party after the funeral, and I stayed home and watched a marathon of my new favorite TV show - Knitty Gritty. What is it about? Knitting, of course! All kinds of projects and tips & tricks. I happened across it while channel surfing at my roommate's house during the LA trip. It's on the DIY channel. It was a marathon, but after about 6 episodes, they started repeating. I looked online and apparently it's in their 3rd or 4th season, so why the repeats? I don't know.

During the show, I also started on the baby blanket I wanted to make for my Roomie. It consists of different colored squares with either stripes or dots. With all the twisted yarn, it's a complete nightmare, but I think I'm getting it. I'll post a picture when I clean it up a bit.