Yikes! That's quite a bit of neglect.

So here are a few things that have been going on...

+ Had the Jeopardy audition earlier this month. I passed the 2nd test so I could get a call in the next 18 months. Didn't do as well on the mock game as I wanted, though...most of the categories during the time I was playing were, shall we say, not my strengths, though I did do better at the end. Cross your fingers for me!

+ Moving into the new house in a week! It is odd to think this is my last official week as a Bolingbrook resident. Of course I am nowhere near packed...where is the Magical Packing Fairy to do it all for me? ; ) I've changed my address with the post office and with magazines but I still have to do it for my driver's license and reregister to vote at the new address. I can't believe how much work goes into a move - even one just a short distance away!

+ Friday marked the one year anniversary of the day David and I met in person. : )

+ I signed up for a second session of Pilates at work and have been keeping up with it. I noticed that I have been able to balance much better than when I first started - not that this translates into "well." ; ) But at least I can hold some of the positions for a few seconds now!

- I have been so tired lately. All the abrupt weather changes are not helping, nor is Barney's sudden desire to be an early riser. (He's decided that 4:30-5am is a GREAT TIME to wake up and go out.)

- Did I mention the weather here has been awful? It's been raining like crazy this month. Up until this week it's been chilly more often than not, too. This year has just been brutal for weather!

- And I need sleep.

David and I will be signing the lease on the new-to-us-but-keeping-it-in-the-family house in the next couple weeks. We will be moving in at the end of June!

I look forward to that more and more every time I take the tollway to work...soon I won't have to deal with it anymore. The biggest traffic hangup will be if I get caught by a train on Belmont. And it will be so nice being able to come home for lunch - I know Barney will enjoy it too. ; )

(Why yes, this is copied from my Facebook page. ; )

( Cut to spare your screen )

Despite trying not to catch the cold everyone in my household had, I failed miserably and have been feeling icky all day. What a way to go back to work! Luckily, there were no major crises that happened while we were closed - a few minor crises, but nothing super out of the ordinary.

The annual year-in-review entry to come tomorrow or so. : )

Back to work tomorrow. I'm so not ready to go back to getting up early. : ) (I've had a seriously odd sleep schedule while I've been off!) I had all these grandiose plans of productive things I was going to do in the week and a half I was off. You guessed it - I did exactly none of them! I did get to spend a lot of time with David, which was nice. I saw him every day this week except Monday. It'll be weird having to wait to see him again until Friday! I am not sure what we'll do that day, but Saturday is our chapter A & I banquet so he'll accompany me to that.

I am hoping the day goes well tomorrow! I am always a bit nervous to go back to work after I've been off for a while - I'm hoping there were no crises!

(Note: A slightly modified version of this was posted on the Lush forum. If you think you've seen this before, that's probably why.)

There were actually quite a few highlights for me this year. It didn't start off super-well, but it got much, much better.

( In chronological order )

Monday: Went to leave for work and found out my car doors were frozen shut! Luckily the SUV's doors were not frozen, so I was able to take that, but it took quite some time to get all the ice off and defrost it. I ended up getting to work at 9:30. Luckily my supervisor was cool about it - I took a half hour lunch that day, stayed til 5:30, and stayed until 12:30 today instead of leaving at 12, so the time's been made up. Still, though, I hate being THAT late.

Today: Snow, snow, snow! It started just after lunchtime. Luckily I had taken a half day today (my intention was to go to the APO Anniversary dinner in the city!) so I got home just as it was starting to get bad. Our office ended up closing at 3pm but the roads were just a complete nightmare. David had a six hour trip home from work! Needless to say, I didn't make it into the city. I did take Barney for a walk in the snow and he had a good time.

I am so not looking forward to digging my car out tomorrow. Maybe we'll have a snow day - we'll see. At least the major stuff is done at work. Thursday will be our group's white elephant gift exchange and Friday will be our holiday party (we are going to be closed in the afternoon for the party!), so that will be fun. Then I will work Monday and Tuesday and that's going to be it until January 5. : )

I really need to start updating this more often! Here's what's been going on...
( Birthday )

( Work )

( Reuniting and reconnecting )

( NaNoWriMo )

Oh, there's more - but some of it is embargoed til tomorrow. ; )

Actual headline on ESPN.com just now:

Current Mood: amused

So I talked to the veterinary oncologist today - they got Barney's biopsy results back. And...

all they found in the biopsy was normal esophageal tissue! The vet thinks they might not have been able to scope far enough to get at the mass...But since he's eating and drinking and acting normally and it doesn't seem to bother him, she thinks there's no need for treatment or anything more invasive. We just have to keep an eye out to see if it looks like it's getting worse - if he stops eating or starts coughing up a storm or puking everything up. They also want him to come back in a couple months for a follow-up check on his heart murmur. But he's been cleared to get his shots and go on as normal!

Thanks for all the good thoughts and vibes - talk about getting quite the scare! Of course it is still a mystery...but things are looking good for him!

In other news, two days from now I will be in Washington DC! Woohoo! I am so ready for a vacation, especially since work has been crazy busy lately. (I thought it would be slow with the holiday coming up - ha ha on me!) If you are in the area and want to meet up, let me know. : )

Yesterday we went back to the specialty clinic for the follow-up. The good news is that he responded very well to the new heart medications so they were able to do the CT scan. They found a giant mass constricting his esophagus - the vet said she's amazed that he eats as well and as much as he does without throwing it all up! While he was still under they biopsied it and we should know the results on Monday or Tuesday. He did really well under the anesthesia, which is good. The vet told me he would probably be a little groggy and out of it last night. When they brought him out, though, he was all excited and was jumping up and down and running around. Of course, he didn't quite have his footing fully at first and slipped and slid and fell on his butt a few times! He had to go out every 10 minutes last night, it seemed - due to the diuretic he is on and the fluids he got during the CT scan, plus he drank a whole bowl of water when we got home. (Luckily the vet cut the dosage of the diuretic!) He is in a good mood today, seems to be eating and drinking normally, and isn't quite the peeing machine he was last night.

In other news, I am planning a much more relaxing weekend this weekend than I had last weekend. It was carnival and I think I was there working all but two hours that it was open! Never again do I want to put in THAT much time there - I was so ready to drop by the time it closed on Saturday. I wanted to take a recovery day from work on Monday, but we sent out insertion orders on Friday afternoon and I knew it was going to be crazy. One week from today I will be in Washington DC - woohoo! : )

I took a half day at work today because of Barney's appointment at the specialty hospital. Of course two rather complicated things came in late in the morning that had to be done today - I ended up leaving a half hour later than planned. At least it got done and it kept me too busy to worry too much!

Barney and I got to his appointment on time, despite hitting every stoplight between here and the clinic. The vet did an echocardiogram to check on Barney's heart and see if it would be safe to give him anesthesia for the CT scan, but they felt that it wasn't safe at this time. The vet upped his Enlapril and gave me two more medications for his heart. I'm going to bring him back in two weeks - the meds should get his heart issues under control enough that it will be safe for him to go under anesthesia for the CT scan.

They did take more Xrays and did an ultrasound on the area where the mass is. It turns out that it's not actually in his lung, but closer to his esophagus. It's pretty deep in his body so they couldn't safely get a sample of it. The mystery deepens!

The good news is that he's gained a little more weight back. He is now a little over 18 pounds! The vet also said he was very good through all of this and that everyone loved him.

Thanks for all the good thoughts and prayers - please keep them coming. : )

Barney was supposed to have a dental cleaning and some teeth taken out last Thursday. His bloodwork the week before was good but the vet needed to take some Xrays first, to make sure he could handle the anesthesia. (since he is older and has a heart murmur) Well, when they took the Xray they found a large primary lesion in his lung which the vet is almost positive is a tumor. To say I am shocked would be an understatement, especially since he'd been in remarkable health since I've had him. I'll be taking him to a veterinary oncologist on Thursday to find out exactly what we're dealing with and what the prognosis is and will decide what to do from there. (I also have the name of a holistic vet in the area, recommended to me by someone my mom knows who takes her dog there for the same thing) He's still his normal happy active self and isn't acting like it's bothering him. (When I came home from work on Friday he leapt over Riley, who was visiting, to get to me because he was so excited to see me! It was so cute!) I think that's making it a little easier to deal with. I just want to keep his quality of life good and keep him happy and comfortable for however much longer he's with me.

The encouraging news was that he's gained a little weight back since he started taking the antibiotic a couple weeks ago. He also seems to have a much better appetite - that's a good thing. : )

If you could spare some good thoughts and prayers for Barney, I'd appreciate it. He's a tough guy and a fighter but he has a really, really tough opponent.

It's officially booked...this Labor Day weekend will find me in Washington DC! I found a really, really good package deal on Expedia (better prices for DC than Toronto), plus it also includes a $100 gift card for gas. I could not turn that down! : )

So far I'm pretty open as far as exactly what I'm going to do. I definitely want to go to the Holocaust museum and some of the other museums. Otherwise I am open to suggestions.

I'm super excited. ; ) Yay for vacation plans!

Current Mood: excited

Happened today and I survived. ; ) I wasn't at all nervous about it until I woke up this morning...since I had a dream last night that the dentist had to stop and redo the anesthetic in the middle of it and the second time around didn't kick in for a while and they had to put me in this big Hannibal Lecter headpiece to keep my mouth open. At least I didn't have a lot of time to sit around and be nervous since it was scheduled for 7:30am. Thank goodness the real thing was nothing like the dream! The anesthetic did its job well (and I didn't even feel the IV needle go in, thanks to this spray the dentist put on my arm to numb my skin so I wouldn't feel it) and the whole thing took half an hour from start to finish. My face was so numb for most of the day - my lower lip and chin especially. I spent much of the day at my sister's house recuperating since my dad was at the Cubs game. (he bought the tickets from someone he knew, intending to take me, but forgot that I was getting my teeth out that day! I told him he needs to take me to another game!) I spent most of the time on her couch watching TV, listing to the Score's Chicago radio roundtable, petting Archie and Riley (who were very happy to see me!), and dozing off. Around 5:30pm I started feeling a bit of pain (more like a tightness in my jaw) so I took a painkiller and conked out. ; ) When I woke up around 7pm my face actually felt normal. I am all right now but we'll see how I feel tomorrow.

Originally, Lisa and Dawn and I were planning to go to NYC over Labor Day weekend. However, the two of them are unable to go so I will be going somewhere myself. Unfortunately, it seems like there are no really good deals to be had for NYC (unless I feel like staying somewhere with a shared bathroom, WHICH I DO NOT). I will probably go somewhere else...but where? At this moment I'm thinking either Washington DC or Toronto. Both of those are cities I really like, I haven't been to either in years (Toronto in 1999 and I want to say 2000 for DC), and I can go to either for half the price or less of any decent package for the same time in NYC - and stay in a nicer hotel. : )

Help me out, oh wise LJ friends!

Poll #1220720 I need a vacation!
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Where should I go for Labor Day weekend?

I have the toothache from Hades. My wisdom tooth had been bugging me for a few days, but Ibuprofen had been controlling the pain. No more. I was up most of the night in horrific pain, fell asleep for a couple hours, and woke up at 4:30ish this morning in pain and couldn't fall back to sleep. I called the dentist's office as soon as they opened and went this afternoon. (you know it's bad if I was anxiously awaiting my dental appointment! *lol*) Turns out I have a huge cavity in my wisdom tooth and they'll all be going bye bye soon. I have a consultation with the oral surgeon on Saturday and will be scheduling it then. I'm hoping to do it on a Friday so I'll have the whole weekend to recover.

Off to take some painkillers and head to bed.

Happy birthday to msgrumpybear!

I MISS YOU!

Late to the party on this, but this was so much fun I had to do it. Stolen from Metachat:

Go to Wiki Random - this is the name of your band.

Go to Quotes random - the last four words in the last quote is the album name.

Go to: Flickr 7 days interesting - the third picture no matter what is your cover.

My Band Name: Voix Des Femmes
My Album Title: No Hook Beneath It
My Album Cover: is pretty cool.

-30 As a 1930s wife, I am Very Poor (Failure) Take the test!

ETA: I would have made a much better husband:

58 As a 1930s husband, I am Average Take the test!

Just one point below superior! : )

Current Mood: amused