September 18, 2009: Catching Up

Oreo is looking a bit better today.  His face is still swollen on the left side but not nearly as much as it was yesterday.  He is probably halfway back down towards normal.  He seems to be happy.  We can’t tell that he is in any pain although he almost never tells us if he is in pain so that is a very subjective determination.

Ever since returning from Europe I have been awake quite early in the morning which has been good for my productivity.  I have been up at seven in the morning almost every day this week and today is no exception even though I normally sleep in on Fridays because we work so late.  I’ve been waking up on my own as early as a quarter until seven.  This is good as it almost exactly aligns with Liesl’s internal clock.

Today was a very busy work day. Lots to be done.  My goal was to do as much of tomorrow’s work today, though, and get some actual family time tomorrow since today is a loss anyway.

I got very little time to spend with the family today.  I worked all through the evening and only took a little while out from work to eat dinner and hang out with Liesl until she went off to bed.  Then it was back to the office and working until well after midnight.  But my plan is to have plenty of family time tomorrow so I am getting everything done tonight so that I can do that.

September 17, 2009: Oreo’s Rough Day

I got up rather early this morning.  I’ve been going to bed early and getting up early the last several days since returning from Germany.  Liesl was up early today too and we got some time to hang out before I started work pretty close to eight.  Oreo had decided to join us in bed this morning when Liesl got up which he never does.  Normally he leaves when she comes to bed and he hides in our closet on his bed that we keep in there.  It was a little chilly this morning so we bundled him up and when I went to work he stayed in bed.

Around nine thirty Dominica called down the stairs to me that something was wrong with Oreo.  I ran upstairs and found our little doggy with a very swollen face on his left side.  He was so swollen that he did not even look like himself. It was very sad.  We called the vet straight away and got Oreo scheduled for eleven to see his doctor.

I jumped in the shower and got ready to go and then worked as quickly as I could to prevent a backlog of work from happening before being able to get back.  Liesl has a doctor’s appointment today too (just her normal one) so it is a busy day of running errands for the kids.

I got caught up and the team covered for me so that I could head out.  Dominica and Liesl came to the vet’s office with us and just hung out in the waiting room while I went in with our poor little boy.  We are very convinced that he has an abscessed tooth.  That will not be fun for him nor will it be cheap at all.

Oreo’s vet looked at him and was not convinced that the swelling was tooth related although he agreed that externally it really, really looked like that.  But Oreo had no visible pain in that area and there was nothing visibly wrong which his teeth.  In fact, his teeth looked really good.    So the vet is guessing that it is more of an acute allergic reaction rather than being tooth related.  Possibly related to his grass allergy or something like a bee sting.

So Oreo got a shot of a strong steroid to get his swelling down right away and to stop his itching.  He has been in really had shape ever since spending a week in Frankfort.  He appears to be extra allergic to the grass up there compared to the grass that we have here in Peekskill.  A second vet took a look at him as well and agreed that it did not appear to be a tooth problem.

While we were there Oreo got his eyes and tail checked.  His eyes, while having pretty severe cataracts, are doing just fine.  He can see some, just foggy, and is under no medical concern with them.  He could have surgery for them but the surgery introduces its own risks and he is functioning just fine as he is so it is a weighing of the cost and danger compared to the ability for him to see more clearly.  The vet recommended against it and with Oreo’s health concerns none of us want to risk any unnecessary procedures.  The vet does not even want to remove Oreo’s skin tag unless he is convinced that we can do it with a local anesthetic rather than putting Oreo under.  After having lost Lady, my childhood dog, when she went under for a minor surgery I am definitely gun shy about any unnecessary procedure.

Oreo has a glaucoma test and everything was fine there as well.  Overall he is really doing extremely well.  The issue with his tail turns out to be relatively well known in his and related breeds and we have a special, topical steroidal cream to apply to it twice a day now.  Oreo will be very relieved to know that we can do something for his poor tail.

The vet gave us some steroids to give Oreo for the week to bring down the swelling and some anti-biotic medicine just to be safe in case they are wrong about what is going on with his face.  Oreo was scared at the vet but it was a painless visit with the worst bit being having his temperature taken (dogs don’t get to put the thermometer under their tongues, you know.)

We were out of the vet’s office by noon and Liesl’s appointment was at one thirty right across the street.  So we decided that it would be pointless to go back home and then come right back out again so we went to Pastel’s in the Beach Shopping Center and got lunch there.  Liesl misses her friends there if we don’t got there on a regular basis.

After lunch we stopped by at the GameStop next door.   Originally we had been waiting on getting Dominica her birthday present, Beatles Rock Band, until after we moved to Texas because it takes up a lot of space and she will not have very much chance to play it until we get there.  But as I thought about it, it could be a very, very long time before we are in Texas and even longer before we actually have a house and not just a small apartment there.  So I decided that we just needed to go ahead and get the game anyway.  Dominica decided to just get the guitar rather than buying the bass, drumset and whatever else there is.  We already have a microphone or two that will work with the system anyway.  So we stopped in and picked up her birthday present.

Then we were off to Liesl’s doctor’s appointment.  That went very well.  She got another shot as she does every month.  Her progress is still going really well.  She has not gained much weight since her last visit but that is expected as she is crawling now and burning a lot of calories as she is quite active.  There were no concerns from the meeting so we are very happy.

My afternoon was quite busy as I had to do a whole day’s work in a half a day.  So I was stuck in the basement for the rest of the day.  Dominica and Liesl went out grocery shopping late this afternoon.  Our cupboards have been bare ever since we were away for a week.  We had worked hard to eat through what we had had in the house and when we returned there was nothing here.  So this was her first “stocking back up” trip since we got back.

Dominica spent the evening playing Beatle Rock Band whenever she got time until her wrist was soar and she needed to take a break until tomorrow.  I’ve never liked the Beatles but hearing all of their music together and not just little bits here and there really drives home just how bad they were and how every single bit of their music was nothing but some gibbering from a group of junkies.  Until you hear their music altogether you don’t realize just what high losers these were.  There was nothing to them except for the drugs.  They were completely consumed by them.  And the music reflects that.  It’s quite a statement on the 1960s that this music could even make it onto the radio let alone be popular.  I mean serious, play this music without knowing that it is from some famous band and it sounds like high school students baked out of their minds.  It is completely amateur and sad.  You can tell that Paul was at least a little bit normal before they started becoming famous and had written a few, kiddy-pop tunes (I Wanna Hold Your Hand, Twist and Shout)  before they could afford all of the drugs but that stuff is just any random, silly one hit wonder kind of stuff for little kids and then everything else is just gibberish.

September 16, 2009: Not That Into It

Another busy work day.  Still playing catch-up.  I am going to cheat and pretty much skip SGL today.  The last several days have been quite exciting so my readers just need to take two days off to relax themselves.

This evening we watched the movie He’s Just Not That Into You which Dominica had gotten from Netflix.  It was okay but nothing special.  I would have preferred to not have watched it but we needed to watch it and get it sent back so that we can get the next movie.  I would avoid it but it isn’t horrible so if its your thing go for it.  Kind of a chick flick but not much of a happy ending and overall, kinda dumb.

Okay, that’s it.  Night night.

September 15, 2009: Getting Back to Normal Life

I got quite a bit of sleep last night.  I am definitely feeling a bit better today.  I have a lot of work to do at the office today to get caught back up.  I had about 6,500 emails in my inbox that I needed to clean through.  And that is just the emails that were not caught by my filters which get most of the mail and only the mail that arrived before my “inbox full” message came and no more mails were delivered.

Actually being out for a week is kind of handy as pretty much anything in your inbox from before that time can pretty safely just be ignored.  People will send you reminders if things still demand your attention.

Today was a very busy work day.  I tried as hard as I could to spend as much time with Liesl as well as we have really missed each other.  She was very upset every time that I was away from her at all all day long.

Short update today.  No time to be writing updates.  Work and family time.  Keep a watch for more Germany pictures to upload.  I have almost finished with the old town pics and have to get the botanical gardens uploaded yet.

September 14, 2009: Traveling Back to America

I got woken up early this morning at ten till four.  I got three calls all in five minutes!  After that I was wide awake and unable to go back to sleep.  So I only got just over three hours of sleep.  Today is going to be a tough day.

I tried going back to sleep but that didn’t happen.  So I ended up getting up rather early and heading down to the breakfast buffet in the hotel.  I figured that it would be easiest to just eat in the hotel before leaving.  The buffet there is really good so I didn’t mind although it costs more than twenty US dollars which is pretty crazy for breakfast, especially for a vegetarian.

After breakfast I gathered up my stuff and checked out of the hotel.  I waited outside for maybe five minutes before the taxi picked me up and delivered me to the train station downtown.

I bought my ticket at the train station and was on the seven fifty three train in no time barreling towards Holland.  I had managed to get the express train to Schiphol which was over an hour faster than the other trains.  Good deal.

I was really, really exhausted as I rode on the train.  I was actually feeling a little ill from being so tired.  I fell asleep for a few minutes but only a few.  I entertained myself by playing WordMole on my BlackBerry.

I got to the airport in Amsterdam and got right to the gate in no time.  I was actually there about an hour before they even had security show up to start letting people through!  I only arrived two hours before my flight so that was rather surprising.  So I sat in a nearby waiting area with a coffee stand.  I got some coffee and relaxed with plenty of time.  No more worries from here on out.  I am at the airport with way more time than necessary and have no more complex or unknown transfers to make the rest of the way.  All I have is a long layover in Dublin.

The flight from Amsterdam to Dublin was uneventful.  Once in Dublin I had hours to kill so I found a restaurant and got myself a tuna steak sandwich and some vegetable soup as well as a few Guinness while I waited.  At least I was able to get Guinness right in Dublin which was pretty cool even if it was just at the airport.  It definitely tastes better in Ireland than it does in the US.

After lunch I went and waited at the gate for another hour or so.  There is a lot of waiting in flying.

The flight from Dublin to New York was, as well, uneventful.  We had a bit of turbulence this time which did not exactly make me extra happy.  I hate that feeling of dropping suddenly.

On the flight I got to watch three movies.  I watched The Proposal with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds which was quite good. Cute, silly, more or less as expected but well done and entertaining.  I really liked it.  It is one of the few movies that is out in theatres about which I actually knew something and had been interested in seeing it.

I also got to watch the new Star Trek which, of course, I had been wanting to see.  I think that it was pretty good.  The new cast is great.  They definitely did some corny stuff with the storyline to make it all work but overall it was quite good.  I am looking forward to getting it on BluRay.

I lastly watched Robots which was awful.  No plot, nothing funny or interesting.  Skip that.  It wasn’t really even worth sitting through for free on an airplane when there is nothing else to do.

I had not correctly ordered my vegetarian meal for the flight but the flight attendants really went out of their way to make sure that I had something and I actually ended up getting quite a bit more food than I would normally have gotten on a flight.  Aer Lingus is really impressive.  I am extremely happy with their service and, of course, their prices are amazing too.  We will definitely be flying them a lot in the future.

We got into New York’s JFK about half an hour early arriving at just minutes after seven.  US immigration was fine.  I wonder if this was a fluke or if the US is making an effort to clean up the image of our immigration officials who have, in the past, earned a pretty bad rap internationally both for foreign travelers as well as us nationals wanting to return to our own country.

Dominica and Liesl were waiting for me right outside of customs.  It was so good to see my family again.  Liesl was very excited to see me and got upset even when I stepped away to use the restroom.

I was completely exhausted having only slept for a few minutes in all of my travels today so Dominica drove us back up to Peekskill.  We stopped at McDonald’s on the way home to grab some dinner as Dominica had not had anything yet and I had only had a light meal on the plane.

It was late, probably after nine, when we got back to Peekskill.  It was pretty much straight off to bed for us.  I was really, really tired.  Now to adjust back to normal life again.