Let it snow, Let it snow

It snowed! Not all that unusual for some people but definitely not the norm here in south Louisiana. It wasn't a lot and it didn't stay long but it was pretty fun while it lasted. And I got a day off from work out of it. *grin*

Skye, of course, was less than pleased with the whole ordeal. She wanted to go out for her morning walk. Until she realized that a walk involved actually stepping in that cold, wet stuff on the ground. Miss pampered, prissy princess decided at that point that no walk was worth getting her feet wet and back inside she went. She spent the rest of the day lying in front of the fire, sighing pitifully. I did eventually manage to convince her to go outBut she wasn't happy about it. She was outside maybe a minute when she came running back to me. Can you tell she was ready to go back in? I'm pretty sure she is even less of a fan of cold weather than I am. And yeah, I spent the entire day in jammies. Snowflake patterned jammies.

There's a squirrel at the end of that video that made me laugh. He went running out of my yard and then slid in the snow out into the road. Then he picked himself up, shook off and looked around like "Hmm, did anyone see that?"

Skye's great, thanks dearhearts (you know who you are)

Thanks for caring, y'all are the bestest.
Skye's surgery was yesterday. So it was a get outta bed, throw on clothes mad rush to the vet's office before heading off to work. And waiting to hear back.

She did just fine. Spayed and two lumps removed. Kinda scary to find out that 2 lumps had come up in the short time since the last surgery. Definitely made me think I made the right choice.


I picked her up this morning (did the mad rush thing again). Had to leave her at home while I went to work, and of course I felt horribly guilty. I really don't think she cared though, since she was drugged outta her little head. Min-pin on pain meds, kinda funny akshully.


And yeah, I'm keeping her a little doped up because she is so damned hyper. When I came home tonight, she tried doing her usual dance routine. Never mind the 3 sets of stitches, happy dance is a must. So, another pain pill and another chew treat (as a distraction).


And I wanted to share this pic:

Yes, I left a note.

More time, dammit!

I need more hours in the day. I'm working 10 - 12 hour days, 6 days a week and still can't get everything done. AAAAHHH!!
Exhausted doesn't even begin to cover the state I'm in. I'm so tired I'm loopy and so wound up I can't sleep.
Yes, the store has been sold. The new owners took over last week. No, we are not completely rid of the schizoid former BL. I am setting up the new POS system, not getting call backs from tech support (lazy bastard assholes in AZ), handling customers, running errands and pretty much all the rest of it. The upside - new owners are MOST appreciative, incredibly nice and generous people. They brought me a coffee pot, have bought my meals, pay me on time, reimburse me when I use my money for store stuff and so forth. I hear "thank you" and "you are so wonderful" all day long. I'd forgotten how great it is to work with real decent human beings. I'm not even going to talk about all the shit the former BL has pulled in the last week. We aren't moving to the new location until after Christmas (whew!) and I've been asked my opinion on layouts, stock and pretty much everything else.

Skye's surgery is Nov 5th. Found another knot on her belly. All pre-op test results were good. She is fine and we are fairly optimistic.

Went to that wedding, had fun, saw my niece and nephew and some good friends, got my leg humped by Bonehead, kissed Big D and came home.

Took some pics I'll eventually get around to posting on flickr.

Trying to survive massive allergy/sinus attack caused by taking pictures of fall flowers.

I've made Halloween goodie bags for my babies and now I'm going to bed.

I'm still not married, still haven't set another date, still haven't gotten an oil change and missed garbage pickup this week. And I haven't even looked at the mail or bills or email or blogs or pretty much anything that wasn't work related or dire emergency. Amazing that with all of this I'm still usually in a good mood and enjoying the insanity. Yes, I really really really like my new bosses.

adenocarci -WHAT?

If you are one of those people who responds with "It's just a frickin' dog!" please go the hell away now. Really. Just go away. Cuz it's not just a dog, it's my dog. My 11 year old, incredibly cute, sweet as all get-out, been around longer than 2 husbands, dog.
Last summer I noticed Skye had a knot on her belly, right by a nipple. About the size of the tip of my thumb. Took her to the vet, had it removed and sent it off to LSU Vet School to be tested. Biopsy results: Benign tumor, completely contained within sample. Whew!
But it gave me the horrors so I kept an eye on things (honestly, I think the dog got more tit checks than I've ever given myself).
This August, two little pea-sized knots popped up, neither in the same place as the big one from last year. Back to the vet we go. Skye was not thrilled about the extra visit even if it did mean crunchy treats from Dr. Lisa. Doc was a bit concerned since the benign tumor, if it recurs, comes back in the same spot. We scheduled another surgery, which was a bit nerve wrecking considering Skye's age. She did fine other than expected soreness from 2 incisions. Sent those off to LSU and waited for biopsy results. And waited. And then got smacked by Gustav. And waited some more.
Finally, finally got results today. Dr. Lisa called me at work to give me the results. Adenocarcinoma. At least I think that's what she said. I went deaf right after she said malignant. Shit. She gave me the complete name and I can't remember it. Whatever the $50 name is, it's breast cancer.
The good (??) part is that the tumors were "completely contained within the samples submitted" according to the report. Also, this type is considered a Grade 1 malignancy (I guess that's the correct phrasing). Which means that it may come back but it's not a super aggressive and quick spreading type. Going into heat seems to be causing them. So my options are:
A)keep checking constantly to see if any more tumors pop up. Hope they don't and if they do, have them removed. In other words, surgery once a year probably. And hope that the cancer doesn't decide to set up shop anywhere else. Umm, no I don't think so. Not much of an option at all in my mind.
Or
B)have Skye spayed immediately and as soon as possible. This seems like the best idea. The only concerns I have are her age and having this surgery so close to the last. She's 11 and I've been warned that anaesthesia is pretty risky at her age. As is any surgery that involves opening the body cavity. (The tumors were just below the skin, so the removals were surface incisions)


I'm going to see Dr. Lisa tomorrow to talk things over and schedule the surgery. I'd rather chance the anaesthesia than cancer if it were me, so I'm making the same choice for Skye. I'm pretty worried about my girl though. I've already bawled all over a couple of friends (thanks y'all) and T and putting it on here too. Some people may decide I'm overreacting, getting this upset about a dog's health problems. I really couldn't care less. It's helped me calm down which keeps Skye from getting to wound up. And that's really all I care about.

Update: I stopped in to talk with Dr. Lisa today (Friday). Definitely getting Skye spayed. I'd already decided that and Doc said not only did she think it was the best thing but the pathologist who did the biopsy told her it was the smartest thing to do. There's a good chance spaying Skye will prevent any more tumors from forming/growing/spreading into other areas. BUT. Skye is over 11 years old and this is major surgery anyway. So Doc wants to do a whole set of blood tests and an EKG before we schedule the surgery. Once she gets all the results, we pick a day for the surgery. I have to talk to BL and new BL to make sure I can take a day off in about a week or so for the pre-op stuff. That's gonna be fun, since I'm not quite sure who I'll be working for next week. Doesn't really matter much, I'm taking the day off no matter what.

I used to work for Dr. Lisa so that has really helped the whole situation. She's straight up with me, doesn't try to soften things and quite willing to explain anything. She's fairly optimistic about the whole thing and I know her really well, so I trust her. Plus Skye likes her so that's one less thing to worry about.

Bits 'n' Pieces

Just some random thoughts floating around my head. I'm too tired and brain-numb to sort them out. My brain is jumping around like a flea on crack. Maybe if I just unload some of it here I can get it to settle down.

I've shared my views on politicians before. Obviously, I don't care for them. Political stuff doesn't excite (or incite) me. I just wish all politicians were required to live on the average income of their constituents. No matter how low it is. It won't make much difference to some, but maybe it would discourage a few of the more unscrupulous and greedy ones. Plus, I think it would be as amusing as hell to watch Senator Porker and Representative Swine try to get by on $32k a year. Of course, if it ever happened, there wouldn't be anyone holding public office in Louisiana. All we've got are the unscrupulous and greedy.

If I hear BL refer to the moving sale as her "last big hoo-hah for good customers" one more time, I'm probably going to lose it. I'm sure she means "hoo-rah" and it's taking every last bit of my self control not to bust out laughing. I'm not the only one who's amused, I caught a couple of customers snickering the other day.

I'm as prepared as I'm gonna get for Gustav. The only thing I'm really worried about is something I can't do anything about. There are a lot of trees around my house, mostly pine. Every time the wind gets stronger than a breeze, branches fall. Lots of big branches. Needless to say, a hurricane makes me a little nervous, waiting for a big branch to come through the roof. Or maybe a whole tree. Yeah, that'd make my week.

I'm going to resort to drugging Skye, if and when we get hit by Gustav. Storms make her really nervous and jumpy. Since she's just had surgery, nervous and jumpy is a bad thing. I really don't want her busting either set of stitches. I'm gonna give her some Ace and hopefully, she'll sleep through it.

There is a pet evacuation center at DCI. The local officials have finally figured out that a lot of people will not leave their pets behind. After Katrina, DCI was used as a shelter for a lot of rescued animals. It worked so well, it's being done again. Oh, DCI stands for Dixon Correctional Institute. Yep, the pet shelter is the local prison.

One last thing. I hate when hurricane season overlaps with lovebug season.

Princess, Pampered

I've already introduced my min-pin Skye. And I'm pretty sure I mentioned that she is incredibly spoiled and pampered. Somehow I get blamed for this. Dad brings her bags of Cheetos every time he stops by and T gives her cookies slathered with peanut butter. Sarge and Wench have been known to feed her steak. Everyone else babies her outrageously but it's my fault she's rotten. Yeah, right.
Skye is an indoor dog, has a nice little bed with a blanket on it, plus a blanket on the couch and another under my computer table. T insisted she needed a house. Why? Because she needed "her own little space". I said okay, figuring we'd get a carrier. Wrong. That wasn't big enough or good enough according to T. And carriers don't look like houses. (spoiled, remember?) So we looked for dog houses that looked like people houses. And found one at Hell-mart. I read the description on the box and tried to talk T out of it, since it was for dogs up to 70 lbs. Skye weighs 7 lbs. "That's going to be too big" I told him. Not to mention, it would take up a lot of room in our very small house. But he really, really wanted to get it and since I have a hard time saying no to him we bought it. (Okay, okay I'll admit I thought it would be kinda cute for Skye to have this huge house)Anyway, we bought it, brought it home and put it together. T stuck her bed in there then decided she wouldn't like walking on plastic. He took her blanket, folded it and used it to cover the floor. She now has wall-to-wall carpet. Since he'd used her blanket for the floor, he took one of my fleece throws and gave it to her for a blanket. Needless to say, Skye loves it.

The sight of this tiny dog lounging in this huge house makes me smile.Pretty darned cute, huh?

Things that made me smile today

This is Skye, my min pin. Doesn't she look sweet and innocent? On my pillow, in my reading chair. Like she owns the place of something. Gotta love a dog that's so convinced she is queen of the universe.

And this is the Tshirt I got. I collect shirts with slogans. I know, weird. But it's fun. Plus, I get to offend or amuse without ever opening my mouth. "Ascend Until Your Wings Catch Fire" Sounds great, but it also brings to mind Icarus. Maybe I should be cautious of large bodies of water.

Anyway, the best thing to make me smile all day was hearing from T. The Marion job is nearing completion and they may get some time off. Maybe, if everything works out. So I'm crossing my fingers and toes, hoping T's company decides to give him at least a week to come home. Also hoping T's time off doesn't coincide with Boss Lady's 10 days at the lake house. That would suck.