1. Today, Monday, is National Junk Food Day – do you eat junk food? Favorites?
Who doesn’t? I consider going to Five Guys junk food. It’s not often but every now and then I want that greasy bacon burger!

2. Some people call this time the “Dog Days of Summer” – is that accurate for you? Why or Why Not?
I never really under why people call it the dog days of summer. Is it because it is the summer and dogs are carefree so should we be? Is it because the it’s a doggy playground? What? I love summer. Just wish I could enjoy it more and not have to work.

3. This week also celebrates National Cousins Day – Do you have many cousins? Are you close with your cousins?
I have no earthly idea how many cousins I have as the family is not close. I have seen them once upon a time when I was a kid though and that was it.

4. Are you taking vacation this summer? What are some of your favorite places to go?
Vacation? HAhahahahhahhaha. First, you have to have money to do this. Second, you have to find dog sitters as one of mine is ill and old. Third, you have to work at a place that offers vacation leave. However, if I could split right now I would go to Disney World’s Universal Park and go see the new expanded Harry Potter rides and Diagon Alley!!

And my question is: It’s not really a question, I just finished writing 3 history research papers so my brains fried. Your job is to ask me a question lol

Monday Quiz About Me #49

Monday Quiz About Me #15

Monday Quiz About Me #3

Pepper is 16 year’s old this May and recently developed either acute kidney failure as her creatinine is back down to normal after almost drowning her in fluids for a week or a slow deterioration in her kidney function. I will be getting another blood test done in 2 weeks as that will be a month since the last one. She may not need it but I’d rather know since I am still giving fluids every Tuesday/Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. Hopefully, the creatinine is still normal and I can drop that down even more.

What irks me at this point is she keeps peeing on the kitchen floor instead of using the pee pads I have down. I mean, how the hell do you get them to use those?!? I keep a bucket, mop, and bleach to clean this up multiple times a day. She even goes twice at night! I let them out at 11 PM every night before bed and I’m up between 5-6ish. How is it she can’t wait that long anymore? She’s sleeping for goodness sake. My neighbor let’s her out somewhere between 10 and 11 and I still have to clean up a mess when I get home.

So the week of camp. One of my friends agreed to watch both the dogs and to give Pepper her fluids as well as making sure she got her food that she needs to be on. What a fiasco that was. She never came over for me to show her how to do the fluids. Okay, just take her to the vet Monday and Wednesday then and let them give them as I gave her fluids on Saturday before I left. She never showed up Saturday until late afternoon first off. So she had to go to my next door neighbor, who owns the duplex, to be let in and get the instructions and key as I explained it to my neighbor too. She has MS so I didn’t want her to have the burden of taking care of them because she gets up late and goes to bed early.

She gets the key and it goes down hill from there. She wasn’t showing up to feed them or let them out because my neighbor was watching for her. I was getting daily calls being bitched out because because the kitchen floor was FILTHY as they had to go somewhere, right? She kept them baby gated in the kitchen because of all of this. I was getting text messages from my friend with excuses. Then she got bitched by my neighbor too which she should have because she said she would take care of them for me and then had the nerve to text me that she did. Well, WTF, she wasn’t doing what she said she would.

I swear I wanted to wring her neck. Still sort of do too because I still haven’t seen her since getting back and she hasn’t dropped off my house key yet. I was getting reports from my neighbor that something was wrong with Pepper and I was to put her down when I got home because she kept peeing on the kitchen floor. Clearly she was pissed off and I had to replace some of the kitchen tiles due to all of this which I have a whole box extra that got left when they laid them down to begin with. I only had to replace some of them because the floors weren’t cleaned up properly.

Anyway, when I finally got home to assess the situation, Pepper was fine to a point. She was probably scared from being yelled at. Their water dish was also bone dry and I’m not sure how long that was which pissed me off. So I’m sure they were both dehydrated at some point. I got home so late that night that I wasn’t about to give her fluids because I’d never be awake enough to keep letting her out every hour like she needs to have done when getting fluids. I just cleaned up the floor as best I could at that point until I could rip out some of the tiles and use ammonia to really clean it up because it REEKED of pee!

Let me tell you if you have never used ammonia before it smells even worse! You definitely need to air the place out when you use that stuff. Either way I got the tiles up, used the ammonia on the floor underneath them because the brilliant people she had to fix the duplex before I moved in laid tile on top of tile which you don’t do people. I will eventually rip it all out and put down cheap fake wood floors because she isn’t going to pay for it. Anyway, after all of that it doesn’t smell anymore. Gee, had someone been over there like they said they would none of this would have happened to begin with. I even left instructions and that she would need to let them out quite frequently because of all of this as she is not working because she is studying to get her physical therapy license but noooooo.

I’m not even sure what I’ll do next year if she is still alive. I don’t think so but you never know. I’m definitely putting Stormy back in baby jail though. She could’ve gone last year and this year but I didn’t see the point when I had someone coming over to take care of Pepper who can’t really go to baby jail because she can’t hear nor see to a point. She can differentiate between light/dark for the most part. I have to flick the light on/off at night so she knows when to come in and during the day she can tell when I have the screen door open or I’ll stand on the back porch waving my hand to come in. And then there are other times when I have to walk out there to get in her line of vision to get her to come in.

Pepper is 15

Recap of last week…

Baby Jail

Another year goes by and it’s time for camp again. These would be our accommodations for the week. Out in the sticks people. The new manager of the camp grounds didn’t even do any trimming of the saplings or anything. I wish I had had my shears and I’d have at least made a better path to my cabin and from my cabin to the facilities. The intern we had this year thoug did clean the inside of the cabin. Nobody else has ever done that before. I guesss she really couldn’t stand the bugs and cobwebs lol

This year’s theme was Cruise as in cruise ships and the proms decorations reflected it which can be seen at the bottom. I kept asking people when was I going to be escorted to the Lido deck but nobody could oblige lol The cake this year was MASSIVE. Never have I seen a cake at camp this big.

I know there had to have been 3/4′s off it left. I asked the next morning if one of the counselors had eaten it all and he laughed and said no and didn’t I want to take some with me on the flight home with the kids I brought to which I started laughing saying no way! Clearly thinking back now it might have been a good idea because our flight was delayed well over 3 hours and they were crashed out on the floor of the terminal as I was doing homework. Yep, I brought homework with me to do as I tried to do as much of the weeks worth I could before I left and got most of it done. I ended up writing code in the terminal.

This year’s camp session started off with one of the kids getting ill the first night and ended up going to the hospital. Then the next day one of the kids was beyond homesick due to some deaths in the family previously in the year and she went home too. Honestly, I thought after bingo on the second night she’d want to stay but it was not to be. Maybe next year we’ll try it again.

It rained e v e r y single day. The mud, oh my gawd. The cold too! Next year’s plans are to look at the weather way more closely and bring galoshes and jeans. My sneakers got trashed because of the mud but that’s okay because I really needed to buy a new pair anyways and did so now those have been relegated to grass mowing replacing the other pair I was using for it.

A couple of the kids thought it was a bright idea to poke a snake that came in the vicinity of our walking path to the cabins. Nipped that in the bud as soon as I saw it. Once we were gone the snake left too. Not sure what kind it was either.

There was a bet between some of the kids this year just like last year whether the girls or boys would win. The same child did the same bet as last year and he lost then and now. The result was that he wear make up put on by the girls and go about camp. Truly funny. I even got a snapshot of it but obviously can’t post pictures of the kids here. The girls paraded him around camp so everybody could see him and then let him take it off.

We also had one of the hemo nurses in our cabin. She got up around 4ish. The screen door screeched like no tomorrow as she was in/out many times before heading up to the hemo unit and then it would bang against the door itself which pushed it to swing open. We also had one of the kids bags bust around the zipper. The other counselor in the cabin asked if she could borrow some WD-40 and duct tape. You should’ve seen the look she got lol either way, the screen door was quiet as a mouse opening/closing except when it hit the door and banged and we got the kids bag all duct taped up. I asked many times before I did it if she needed anything because she wasn’t going to get anything out of it until she got home lol we taped it up the very last day when they were leaving.

I kept the dogs home this week as well since Pepper is still alive, deaf and partially blind. She is also in kidney failure and needs regular fluids and special diet. I had a friend arranged to take care of her but that turned into a huge fiasco and will tell you about that in another post.

Overall, camp went well even with all the rain and mud because the pool was still open for the kids even though the water was freezing. I was laying on the cement beside the pool, fell asleep, and then ended up covered in ants on my legs. Not cool.

ADDENDUM: Forgot to mention that Keenan Butler also came out one day for a couple of the color competition games at camp. The kids got a kick out of that and lots of pictures were taken and some even asked for autographs even though they had nothing for him to sign lol

Universal Florida Adventure Island

Camp Okawehna 2013 – Star Wars Edition

Walt Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Pepper will be 16 next month and just like my cat, Inky, she is now in kidney failure too. She was at the vets everyday last week for IV fluids and subq fluids and now I’m doing subq fluids at home everyday now that we got her creatinine back down to the normal range. The vet thinks we caught it early to be able to reverse it because I noticed she was sluggish which she usually isn’t when I took her in for her monthly polyglycon shot to help with her arthritis. So I made a morning appointment to see the vet and he did blood work which showed the kidney failure and the fact that her phosphorous was sky high. She is also now on a low phosphorous, low protein diet to help with both issues. Low protein will help in that her kidneys will not have to work as hard to process the protein through.

For whatever reason this always seems to coincide with my trip to kidney camp. So now I’m on the hunt for someone to be able to give fluids and watch them because I can’t put them in puppy jail as Pepper is deaf now and can only differentiate from light and dark. So puppy jail would cause her more stress. I found out one of my neighbors used to work at a vet so now I need to find out exactly what she did and to see how Pepper reacts to her if she was a vet tech and watch her give fluids because really I don’t trust anyone just from hearsay. I’m hoping that she won’t need them but maybe every other day or not at all as the vet wanted me to do fluids everyday for 2 weeks straight after last week to be sure it’s all functioning properly.

I Love my Furbabies

Peppers Fiasco Week

Inky & Pepper

The Rules: I’m going to ask FOUR QUESTIONS that everyone can answer and then you have the option to add a fifth question of your own for those who are visiting your blog to answer in the comment section, along with commenting on the four standard questions you answered!

1. This week is “Garden Week” – do you garden and what progress have you made on this year’s garden… Wayne also wants to know what May Flowers you want these April Showers to bring?
I do plan on doing a garden this year again but I need to buy the ones where people having already done the seedling bit because I clearly kill things. I thought the Hydrangeas in the front yard was dead but I saw leaves today so their still alive *yeah* I love the blue Hydrangea.

2. Monday is No Housework Day – will you celebrate?
This Monday or next because I’m covered for today lol

3. Wednesday is Name Yourself Day – would you change your name if you could? and if so, to what? If not, why not?
Man, I’m too old to change my name at this point and too tired to think of one. Anytime someone wants a name I just give them my last name now since it’s easier for people to understand especially over the phone.

4. Friday is 8 Track Tape day – do you remember them? Did you have one? What 8 track song will you sing in honor of this day?
I do remember them but I did not have any. There were a few my parents kept but we had nothing that would play them. I wouldn’t even begin to hazard a guess as to what was on 8-track.

And your question is: Have you been watching March Madness or the NHL Playoffs? I’ve been catching the NHL Playoffs myself as I’m not to crazy about basketball except betting on it because really it’s not that difficult.

Monday Quiz About Me #2

Monday Quiz About Me #5

Monday Quiz About Me #3

The Rules: I’m going to ask FOUR QUESTIONS that everyone can answer and then you have the option to add a fifth question of your own for those who are visiting your blog to answer in the comment section, along with commenting on the four standard questions you answered!

1. Tuesday is April 1st – will you be participating in April Fool’s Day?
No jokes, gags, etc for me. I’m not one for this.

2. Describe the month of March in 5 words or less…
Cold, rainy, and windy.

3. Do you like fish? Have you had/would you have an aquarium in your home?
At first I thought you meant to eat which is yes lol. I do have an aquarium in my house. I believe it is a 40 gallon tank on a stand. Right now it is empty because it is right underneath an A/C vent which is not good for keeping the water the right temperature or balance so I have not set it up again. I had it set up when I realized about the vent and all the fishies died :/

4. April is National Poetry Month – do you write/read poetry? Share a favorite if you have one!
Not really one for poetry. I don’t write nor read it.

And your question is: Did you get your taxes in on time or will you be late?
I always get mine in as soon as possible because I get money back and I usually need it.

Monday Quiz About Me #4

Monday Quiz About Me #6

Monday Quiz About Me #50