Sunday, April 28, 2013

Summery Afternoon with the Dogs

I made a video! With music. :)
And I realized its Feivel's birthday today, he's 5 years old! I love him so much. <3

Also, cute picture of Titus, because he loves cuddling on the lounge chairs. :)
Do not question why I am wearing sweats. I like sweats. >_<

Saturday, April 27, 2013

One girl's mountain is another doc's molehill

So this morning I found a lump on Titus' under his neck skin. I felt it, then fretted. I worried all day long. What a strange place for a lump-- and my mind raced through all kinds of horrible possibilities. It kept me down all day long, and I had to wait for my mom to come home to take him to the vet because I don't have a debit card right now (my bank was supposed to have sent me one by now). We got there, 20 minutes before they closed, and I realized I was being "that" dog owner. I know I'm kinda crazy, and I'm especially crazy about my dogs, but I knew it would be a quick visit (and what kind of vet office closes at 5 on a Saturday? Honestly!) We showed up, but the staff there is really nice (and they're probably used to seeing me by now after Feivel's escapades), and the doc was really nice too. She felt it, and her reaction was "oh wow it is small" which is funny, cause when I felt it I thought, "geez this thing is big, how did I not notice it earlier?!" Well she checked him out, and complimented him on his size and weight and teeth. She's a really funny doctor, she looks really young and she's always really chatty and she always compliments my dogs, which I certainly don't mind, haha. I think she talks so much and is so energetic just in case anyone gets emotional, she's constantly trying to adapt to the situation, which must've been hard for her because my mom were on opposite sides of the emotional spectrum for this visit.
She gave us our options, it could be a cyst or a tumor, and if it was a tumor it could be benign or it could be cancer. She said it was really small and she wasn't sure if doing a cytology would be successful, but I thought that was the best route and after she got it she said that's what she would have done if it was her dog. We should find out in the next few days. Hopefully its nothing. But I don't really regret being a crazy dog mom, "I'd rather be safe than sorry" and all that nonsense.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Frogs with Dr. Marmotini and Sorici

Okay, a lot has happened in the past couple days, let's see if I can wrap my head around it all.
Tuesday morning I had a meeting with my research professor (whom I shall call Marmotini) and we discussed my future plans in relation to the lab. I told her about how I had changed my mind about going to vet school, and how I wanted to apply to masters programs for Fall 2014. She mentioned that there is a masters program at my university, and she seemed to be encouraging or suggesting I apply. I'm not sure if she would be taking grad students then, but I was a little to flustered to think to ask that. I'm stubborn and in my mind I know I don't want to stay here in Las Vegas, but the rational side of me (as well as Doom) suggested that staying might be an option, and we should at least think about it. So next time I see her I might ask. I should prepare for all options.
After that I had my biochem exam, and to spare you the boring whining that I normally give when it comes to tests, I will just say: I have an 89 in that class so far, so I'm right on the fence. This test could raise me up or push me down!
After my biochem exam, I went to lab again to help because our organism (frogs!) were supposed to arrive and we needed to get them situated. I got there and waited for a few minutes with the lab assistant, we'll call her Sorici. Soon Marmotini called saying she has the frogs. We grabbed a cart and took it down where she was waiting. She was agitated because our university messed up the delivery of our frogs and we were missing another box of them. Sorici and I took the frogs upstairs to where they'll be staying, in the aquatics facility. We set about preparing the frog water (with special salts and minerals) while Marmotini figured out the shipping mess. Eventually we got all of the frogs and I got to help her move them into their tanks. They're squishy! And lively, surprisingly. They traveled thousands of miles so I was surprised!
We ran into a problem though when we tested the pH of their water-- it was too acidic. We scratched our heads for quite awhile over this one because the water we had prepared was an appropriate pH, and the pure water we used to prepare the frog water was also appropriate. The frogs were acidifying the water somehow, and we didn't really have the necessary buffers to add to their water! My theory is that because the frogs were breathing, CO2 was being dissolved in the water and CO2 can affect the pH of their water, but I didn't think of this at the time. Either way we can't change their pH too drastically or it could harm them so we left them for the night.
It was good to work with Dr. Marmotini and Sorici because I think they're interesting people, and I got to talk to Marmotini about where she's from, etc.
This morning I woke up and checked my e-mail and surprise! I got the summer research scholarship I had applied for! I wasn't expecting it after I got rejected for the first one I applied for so I'm ecstatic. I even cried a little I was so excited, haha. I'm a silly creature. The money will help Doom and I out, and the award will look great on my resume, not to mention it will be priceless experience.
I'm going to be quite busy in the next week with school, but I wanted to update with all of the stuff that's been happening before I forget!




Monday, April 22, 2013

The Golden Goat Strikes Again!

That's right-- Feivel, whom I shall now call the Golden Goat, decided yesterday that he really misses being induced to vomit, so he munched on some omega-3-fatty acid supplements.
I wasn't home when it happened, I had left to go to a pot luck/picnic thing for a friend's work. My mom called me and told me, and after much cursing and swearing and panic I left the picnic and headed to the hospital (not our usual hospital cause it was after hours). She was there with Feivel when I arrived, already in a room. Feivel was acting happy/normal/excited like always. It took awhile for us to get seen but the doctor was less concerned about these kinds of pills than last time-- the main concern was if he ate enough of them he could get pancreatitis. So we went ahead with the induce vomit/fluids/charcoal route and left him there overnight.
It was a stressful ordeal, not being home when it happened, but I'm glad my mom had the sense to take him to the hospital. He's fine now, though he looks stressed (unsurprisingly).
So now that its over, there comes the question of how he got to them, and how can it be prevented. Well, Feivel is 'smart' and knows how to open doors. We have door handles like these:
So all he has to do is jump and scratch to open doors. This has led to us barring doors with gates (which he hates and usually won't touch anything with a gate in front of it). So either someone left the door open, or Feivel didn't care about the gate, because I made sure to secure the house before I left. 
We definitely need to get some round door knobs, and we need to get him some toys that he really wants to play with. Titus is usually the one to play with toys, Feivel rarely carries them around the way Titus does. 
I will update with anti-Feivel strategies when I do them, because this can't happen again, for the sake of my heart, my sanity, my wallet, and for the Golden Goat's health.




Saturday, April 20, 2013

Planning a Wedding

Here it is again, my old friend stress. It likes to shower me with gifts of panic, fear, frustration, tears, and the occasional pimple. The cause? My wedding.
Sure, sure, Doom and I have all the time in the world to get married, but I would rather do it within this year. Why? I'm not entirely sure... maybe because next year I'm hoping to go to grad school, and I feel like it would be easier for financial aid and taxes and stuff if we were already married before 2014. And it has to be this summer if we have any hope of my brother and his girlfriend coming. So that means ~2 months. And I feel like Doom and I are ready to be married, if only we could get away with being married without the whole process of a wedding. Of course, we could just do that but my family and friends would strangle the both of us. They want to see a wedding, a real wedding, with music and dresses and shit. And I feel like I owe them that-- they are there for us, of course.
I wish planning a wedding wasn't so complicated... At first, being the outdoorsy type, I wanted an outdoor wedding. And then I remembered I live in the desert, and July/August in a desert is not a place to be standing outside for an hour. So I began the hunt, and I do believe I've narrowed down a venue. Which is good. Then comes the reception, which we're going to have at my house. I mean, the pool will be used and appreciated I'm sure, but I'm going to have to do something with the dogs. I don't trust them with ~40 people milling around, someone could leave the door open and they could escape, and there will most likely be children there, and last time the children were here my dogs were terrified of them, and I just don't want to deal with my dogs biting a child or trampling a child. Also, if I confined my dogs to a room they would just bark the whole time. So I may consider day boarding at my veterinarian, or dropping them off at a pet hotel or something like that.In fact, that might just be inevitable.
Doom and I are planning to rent a tux and a dress, so hopefully that won't be too expensive, although I haven't hunted around for that yet.
And finally, I'm going to allow my dad to make us a wedding cake, to save money. But, as I told him, "You're cakes taste amazing but they're ugly." So I politely asked him to work on his cake-decorating skills beforehand. If you remember from my birthday, I said something similar.
So expect wedding updates as I go along... this should be an interesting summer.

Friday, April 19, 2013

The Eye of the World

I just finished up listening to The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan. I have a long commute to school and I tire of the radio easily, so awhile ago I started listening to audiobooks.
I picked The Eye of the World because it was long (29 hours!) and because it had some good reviews on audible.com.
It's kind of weird listening to a book instead of reading it-- you're at the mercy of the narrator's voice, and pace, and inflections, but it's quite relaxing too, and it makes my commutes much, much less awful.
Overall, I enjoyed this book. Sometimes the characters seemed too quaint and naive (just enough to be annoying at times), but then again, the author certainly justified it. Some of the characters personalities were just plain annoying, I kept wishing Nynaeve would stop her bitching about everything that Moiraine said and did, and Mat's descent into emo-ness made me want to slap him. The ending was a little... depressing, I had hoped for a more uplifting end, a clearer resolve, a sharper climax.  There are many many more books in the series, however, so I can understand why the ending was the way it was, at the very least.

But I did enjoy the world, the imagery and the journey. My favorite characters were Loial, Thom, and Elyas.
I'm not sure I could've gotten through it if I had just read it, but listening to it was quite entertaining. 

My dog is weird....

... That is all.







Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Sorry for my lack of blogging lately!

I apologize for my long absence since my last post; I've been busy with a few things I guess. Of course, after all of my lounging about during spring break, school has picked up a bit. Also, my research lab is on the precipice of being up and running! we've got temporary tanks, our aquatics facility is clean, all we need is approval and frogs! I'm super excited to start being a scientist!
I've also been working on a diet of sorts, and to stay focused on that I've been keeping a private blog, so my fingers have been typing, just not on Bewildermunster! So far I'm 2 weeks in and things are progressing well. Obviously I love food... I love food A LOT, but it has been going better than I initially thought it would be, and now that I've been doing it for a little while it has improved a lot since the start.
Other than that, my life has been rather lame lately.
Also, fair warning, I've been having this desire to overhaul my blogs. This is a dangerous yearning, I can't promise anything will come of it, but something may.