Valrico Animal Rescue and Shelter

If you can, please DONATE. Even if it's small, the little things do add up! It is that time of year and I hope the charitableness in people comes out. I donate a little when I can. I'm just so impressed and very jealous -- Cheryl and Shelly are trying to start up their own rescue and shelter... my dream job! I'd actually like to open a sanctuary someday -- I can dream. They're diligent, committed and tenacious but they cannot do it with out some help, so please donate!

Thank you!

Heater woes - oh yeah, Yay!

So, we didn't get the darn thing fixed by replacing the thermosat. We were quite perplexed and very frustrated, not to mention, COLD! Brian called a friend who is in the heating and air conditioning business and he was kind enough to come and check out our problem this morning. After much trouble shooting he discovered the problem lay with the damn plug! All he did was bend the prongs on the plug to the furnace out a little more and viola - an electric connection was made and the heater worked!! So we got a new thermostat for no reason. Now we have two. I am glad I got the space heater though, ditto on the fire place accessories. Funny how we take for granted some of the "simple" conveniences, I really appreciate my heater now! REALLY! And its supposed to get VERY cold tonight... I heard the radio weather person say **20** degrees in the valley!!! Holy Shit! Blessed be the heater God!

I cannot Effing believe...

..that my Mexican neighbors think its OK to crank their mariachi effing music as loud as it can effing go at effing 12:30 AM on Christmas Eve. Jeezus! Some people also celebrate on Christmas Day and need to effing sleep. Not to mention that those people may have also been up since 5 AM and are sooo effing tired! SHIT!

So, I called the police. God I hope they get here soon and tell them to turn that shit off!

Video?

OK, I've tried now, twice, to upload video from my computer to blogger. Failed both times. I have noticed other blogs with video posted but now that I think of it I think most are video from YouTube. I guess that is the next step. Tit for tat I suppose.

L

Squeaky ball

I finally got the iSqueak ball I have been coveting since I saw Rambo playing with his! His mom put the ball inside a soda box and made him fight with the box to get it out, thank goodness my mom didn't do that to me! Onyx and Me LOVE THIS SQUEAKY BALL! Many thanks go to Auntie Carina in Michigan for sending these to us!!!!

Heater woes

We have been living for about a week without heat. We just had a bad rain storm and it got pretty darn cold. It's still pretty cold here, just yesterday morning when I left for clinical there was frost on my windshield and the temperature was about 34 degrees. YIKES! It gets cold out here in the Inland Empire but recently it's been *really* cold. Of course, it may seem worse to us because we have been without heat in the house... but still! I broke down mid week and bought a room heater for our bedroom and new fireplace accessories so we can burn wood to keep warm in the main part of the house. That heater kicks butt! My dogs, especially Onyx, are very happy that I provided some artificial heat finally. Onyx is the only dog with a short coat and she gets cold easy. Today, we found out why the heat isn't working, it's the thermostat. Thank goodness it's not something more expensive. I think we can pick up a new one at Home Depot for about $30, no biggie. But, husband is babysitting his nieces tonight (what a good Uncle) so he will not be able to install it until tomorrow. So, this *should* be my last shivering night! 

Email troubles are over... ?

I got all my email back on my computer. Phew! All my RSS feeds for blogs are still there and all my mailbox behaviors are still set up. I am thinking... maybe it was the last computer update I did that screwed everything up. Sometimes "updates" don't mean "improvement". Mac set up a MobileMe thing in my Mail account which was new because I had not seen it before. I'm guessing that screwed with all my settings. There was an update for the Mail program and that must have been part of it. Things look a little different and I did have to re-set up my gmail account in Mail but once I did that everything fell back into place. Phew. All is right in the world again, for now. The most recent update I did changed my desktop picture too... that is some weird shit. Macintosh is making me a little nervous. 

Email troubles

This is a test. Some strange things happened yesterday regarding my email, cell phone and computer. Hmmm I hope its just a glich.

Calf Heads Yum!

For the first time I bought whole calf heads for the dogs to eat. They loved them! Brian has always said, since I started feeding raw to the dogs, that if I brought anything really weird home like a head he'd leave me. LOL. Well, mister queazy had curiosity get the best of him and he was out there cutting calf heads in half for his dog! It was a very entertaining afternoon on Saturday. 

If you'd like to support animal rescue...

I have an "internet friend" that is starting up her own canine rescue/shelter. I'm so completely jealous but so proud of her! If you'd like to find out more about how you can help her start up her business and help dogs in need, this is in Florida, feel free to join this Google group:

http://groups.google.com/group/valricocaninerescue

Dogs in Florida say thank you! ;-)

Dear diary

Don't you hate it when your dog licks your face at 1:50 in the morning, waking you, you become lucid in a pitch dark room and now can't go back to sleep? I sure do. Every little noise in the room is keeping me awake: snoring (dog and husband) and funny breathing noises that sound like little whistles (husband again), and what the heck was that beeping sound?. Now my brain turns to thinking about the different things it has no business thinking about at (now) 2:25 AM. I need to remember to bring a change of clothes on Friday. Will we be able to pay our property tax? Damn if I didn't forget to send a birthday card to my brother - but I'm glad I called on his birthday. Is it going to be a busy day tomorrow? Will I have time to finish my paperwork? What kind of information am I going to find on "foreign bodies" found on xray in the rectum? Will I be able to make decent Christmas gifts for my step-family so they won't think we are ingrates? I didn't get to walk the dogs yesterday. I think
husband has sleep apnea... Just a little. I wish I'd start my period already so I can begin my new pill pack (BC). Those seafood crepes were yummy even as left overs. I hope Herb is doing OK, he needs to get into the vet again for a shot. Kitty needs to be tested again for his kidney functions. Anna has an expired dog license, she's needs a rabies shot so we can renew. I need to get started reading some books I've borrowed, when do I have time? Property tax is DUE SOON!

Just a few things on my mind.

Bored at work

Being able to blog from my phone is great for when I'm stuck somewhere and bored outta my mind. Today is Black Friday and after hearing the news reports of people dying in stores because tensions are so high, it gives new meaning to the name "Black" Friday. People have to get that great deal even if it means they have to hurt or kill someone for it. Seriously, people, what is the world coming to? Its a material thing, shopping, is it worth someones life? **shakes head**

I have never gone shopping on Black Friday, I don't like shopping that much and I definitely do not care to fight the crowds to get that coveted ultimate "deal".

So, in a way I guess its better to be at work instead of in the mall getting killed. But I'd still rather be at home with my babies and husband.

Have a safe holiday everyone. On-line shopping is looking better & better.

Laura

Still hangs on my wall.

Has the affect of a blizzard but I believe its a foggy beach. DOG BEACH!

For Cynthia...

Remember this?

Have you ever felt so stressed....

That you just want to curl up and cry for a week? At least.

My doctor thinks I'm looney toons, I just know it.

I hear taking baths helps... Calgon take me away... FAR, FAR away.....

Can I send posts via my phone now?

Oh please, oh please, oh please! Instant gratification, oh please....

Southern California Burning

Fires!

You may have heard about the recent fires here in Southern California. They affected just about everyone living here in one way or another. I just thought I'd share my ordeal regarding the fires. 

My unfortunate luck started on Friday 14, 2008. The Santa Ana wind condition that whips up around this time every year was causing me plenty of grief by irritating my sinuses and causing my allergies to flare. To add to my irritation I had a very long 

day planned. I attended clinical from 7 AM until 3:30 PM and without a break I went to work immediately following. Working until 11:30 PM and not getting to sleep until about 1 AM made for an extremely tiring and lengthy day.

Saturday morning, nice and early, I awoke at 6 AM so I could make it to the Orange County Cold Storage facility by 7 AM to fulfill my monthly obligation of hard labor and get my dog food for the month. While I lifted and moved pounds and pounds of frozen raw animal parts the weather continued to wreak havoc on my sinuses. It became apparent at some point in that morning that a fire had started *somewhere* because the sky turned brown and ash began to fall from the sky. I thought,  "greeeeaat, this should be wonderful for my allergies". Luckily, I wore a bandana on my noggin and I changed that from a hat to a mask. 

The people at Cold Storage started to call me the Taliban or a bandit. I didn't care what I looked like, I was miserable and I was choking on the foul air. By the time I left the Cold Storage facility it was 1:15 in the afternoon and I noticed a text message on my phone from my neighbor. "I don't know how you are going to get home," she said, "the 91 freeway is closed"! Well, that's OK, I thought, I'll just take the 57 freeway and go the long way home. Ah, yeah... bad idea. But, I didn't know it until I was already on that road. I could see the smoke in the air from the fire that was causing the 91 freeway closure. It looked pretty creepy out my side window. I had hope that the plume of smoke rising in front of me was far enough off the road that it would not prevent cars from driving through on the 57 freeway. 

My hope died when I saw about 6-8 police cars pass the slow moving traffic on the shoulder to my right. I tuned my radio to a station that covers traffic every 7 minutes to hear that the road I was on was just closed due to a fire in the Brea Canyon that had just "jumped the freeway". 

*Wonderful* 

However, I was lucky enough to be able to merge off the freeway at my last chance off ramp: Imperial Highway. I saw cars coming up the on-ramp exiting the freeway in the wrong direction. People seemed a bit desperate, I wish I had gotten a picture of that. I got back on the 57 freeway and headed back towards the city of Orange. 

I snapped this picture, it was very surreal and felt sort of apocalyptic. I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do. First, I called my father. He was not at home. Second, I called my friend Phil. Lucky for me my friend was home and invited me to stay for awhile. After relaxing a little, eating a snack and watching the news it became apparent that I was not going to be able to make it home without a very long commute. I was considering taking the 605 to the 10 or 210 freeway but according the news every other schmo out there needing to reach the Inland Empire was doing the exact same thing. My blessed friend invited me to stay the night on his couch. 

I made it home the next morning (Sunday) but I awoke to realize that I was not just suffering from allergies anymore, I was sick! It is now the following Friday, 11/21, and I'm feeling better but still have some lingering signs. Gosh, how I hate being sick. As horrific as the fires were and how much devastation they caused it was a blessing that not one person perished. I have yet to hear an account of any possible wildlife loss. 

This is just part of living in Southern California. 

A sigh of relief

After going with out internet at home for more than 3 weeks, and without telephone for about 1 1/2 weeks, I finally feel like things are back to normal! Today we are hooked up! I went back with Time Warner after a long drawn out fiasco with AT&T. What a joy it was dealing with Time Warner! No problems with the install what-so-ever!

When I'm feeling better I'll have to post more about the fiasco. I also want to post about my experience with the recent fires in Orange County. :-(

Just so I can say I did...

An update.


Laura (rushing at work, see ya in a another few weeks)

I love happy endings

I fostered a dog for a rescue group in L.A. called the Mutt Scouts. They are the greatest people you'd ever want to meet. Tito, now Kilo, was my first foster dog ever. He was so attention starved he clung to me every minute. I knew he went to a great new home but to see the update written by the new owners themselves is just heartwarming for me. I'm so happy he's in good hands now. 

Read about his new life.

It's rolling along

Time that is. Time in clinical assignment. 5 days a week at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach for basically no pay. I know we have to pay our dues, I did sign up for this. It still can wear a person down. I discounted what the effect of pursuing a new career would be on my marriage, and my life. Saying that this is difficult is putting it lightly. My husband and I are both doing the best we can to make it through this tough time because we both know that in the end we will be in a better financial situation. It's a good thing we aren't having (or had) children. Trying to stay optimistic and nurturing of our relationship without completely losing my sanity or health - it's a real challenge. 

Hoag Memorial Presbyterian Hospital

Here are some pictures of the hospital I was assigned to for my clinical assignment. With any luck, I will be hired on when I'm finished with school. Seriously, this hospital is right near the beach and every patient room has a gorgeous view!!

Second Semester

I'm into my 5th week of school in my second semester of the Radiology Technology program at Cypress College. I am wiped out on a daily basis this semester - so far. My schedule is very busy and the clinical hours are tough some days. Add that to the fact that everyone is watching your every move and comparing you to your classmates, adds more stress to the situation for me. I'm doing well though. I have great reviews from the clinical supervisor and I hear rumors from others too that I am doing very well. This is good and boosts my confidence also. Studying for classes has been fairly easy so far. We are about to have our first competency for the GI system - crossing fingers that it won't be too bad. Next up is the skull -- OH HOW I AM NOT LOOKING FORWARD TO THAT! I wonder if the regular Joe knows just how many bones there are in the human skull? So, it's going to get worse but when we get through that the rest should be a piece of cake! I'll have one more week break before I start my internship in June then I'll be an indentured servant for 1.5 years.

Laura