The Answer to All My Problems. . .

. . .Ta Daaaa



An elliptical machine. . . yeah, okay, not ALL my problems but a fair amount of them, I hope!:) It's a Sole E55 2009 model. This ginourmous thing arrives in 1 to 2 weeks.

Hazards of Having a Dog

In his short life, Hiro has already chewed up and thereby destroyed 5 pairs of our shoes. Something about me is that I love my shoes dearly. Luckily, the shoes that Hiro have preyed upon and killed have been ones I was only half-heartedly attached to, the ones I truly cherish are hidden in safe high spots. Here's my sequential thought process when I discover the useless carcass of a plaything that was once a shoe: 1. "Oh my gosh, I hope Hiro didn't swallow something bad and having internal bleeding." 2. "Oh well, I guess I'll just have to buy more shoes." 3. "Ohhhh, he's so cute, I have to forgive him."

However, it was different when Hiro broke a key off of my laptop! My precious laptop! Let's just say he was in one of his super-charged hopping mad episode (pun intended)... he jumped then landed hard on my laptop which he mistook for my lap since the said item was on my lap. The letter "K" flew off my keyboard like a mini UFO. Luckily, what's left of the key still works, and luckily, the letter "K" is not a often used key (never mind the fact that I just typed it 6 times!). Aggg, he's too cute, I forgive.

Anyone knows how to repair a broken key off of the keyboard?

Inspired to Clean

This was a very uncharacteristic day in which I came home from work early at 10am due to a scheduling mishap. As if to continue the uncharacteristic theme, I spent the whole day cleaning our home! After getting rid of loads of junk mail and other paper rubbish, dusting off the TV and furnitures, wiping clean the microwave and kitchen counter, washing trash cans (yes, I washed them), organizing my desk and vanity corner, etc., I found myself still with work left and utterly exhausted but wholly satisfied.

If only my hard work will last. . .I'm soo hiring a maid one day when I have more money. Like I said, it's very uncharacteristic for me to get inspired for cleaning.

My Day Off

The good thing about having weekdays off is that when you visit places like the park or store, it's not overcrowded. The downside is of course going to work on weekends, :( Here's our recent picnic and frolic at White Rock Lake. Yeah, we always go to the same spot.

"Too much sun in my face!"

Car ride home, "I'm pooped". . .

. . .Maybe not.

Auto Theft

There was another announcement from our condo listserver about an recent auto theft. I wonder if that was the night I was woken up by loud car alarm going off. My car was getting conspicuously dirty and had thought to ask Paul to get it washed it for me, but now maybe I won't and the dirtiness of my car will deter the auto theives. You think?

What does Luck have to do with it?

It was one of those days that started so early that by the time it ended, the morning felt like it whole another a day ago. I was home at night before I remembered the jarring event that started my day. . .I was driving to work in the dark 'cause that's how it is at 5:30 AM in the morning, when I suddenly noticed a bicyclist literally just 20 feet ahead of my SUV! I quickly swerved to the other lane, so LUCKY that there was no car on the other lane, and even LUCKier because I didn't hit the bicyclist who had no reflective gear on him nor the bike! It was impossible to see him on a non-lit street. I wanted to yell out, "you idiot!", "do you want to die?!" but I quickly began thanking God for not allowing me to hurt someone and for bypassing (no pun intended) what could have been a tragedy. I had literally just missed hitting the man by a second! Yes, I felt lucky and grateful.

Now I'm thinking of an exchange of words that happened between my attending and a patient that same day. The conversation went like this,

Dr. B: You husband had a mini stroke and it has since resolved. It turns out he didn't have a full-blown stroke. He's a very lucky man.

Patient's wife: Luck has nothing to do with it, it's BLESSING, that's what it is, BLESSING.

The wife was so emphatic with her answer it reminds me of the mannerisms of a preacher teaching Sunday school or a politician rebutting his opponent.

LUCK and BLESSING?? What are their relationship, if any? Are luck and blessing the different sides of the same coin? Are they the same thing? Or some will say "there is no such thing as luck."

I wonder what will my patient's wife say to the spouses of the many many patients who have strokes and end up aphasic and paralyzed? Were those patients simply unblessed or damned? Was I blessed or just lucky to have avoided that accident on the road this morning? I certainly felt both lucky and blessed at the same time. Then how do I explain the poignant and tragic interview I saw on Oprah with a grandmother who accidentally ran over her young grandson while backing out of the driveway. Why? Why did I not hit the stupid man on his bike and the grandmother killed her beloved grandson? Does luck or blessing have anything to do with our similar but different scenarios?

The crutch of the problem for me is when one says "I am blessed by God because of such and such" that is to say others who are in opposite situations are NOT blessed by God. Does anyone have such power to make such a statement for God --whom He blesses and whom He doesn't? Yes, there are blessings in disguise which we find out later. But are "blessings in disguise" ever include untimely deaths of loved ones?

Anyways, just some of my thought. Good night.

Said Bye Bye to my Wisdom Teeth

In case one wonders if I'm watching a tad too much TV, I am. But atleast I've got an excuse of sort. So no, I haven't abandoned my vocation for the TV junkie lifestyle.

I had my wisdom teeth, 3 total, pulled out yesterday. I've been dreading it for years, literally, but finally took the plunge. I could curse myself for not having done so in my college days, but agg, I live and learn. So after fearing nerve damage, dry sockets, pain and swelling, I'm amazingly symptom-free on the post-operative day #1. It's almost a letdown really. I witness a lot of pain in the hospital everyday, it's inevitable, of course. To combat it, we use Tylenol, Motrin, etc for mild pain, for moderate pain, Norco/Lortab come into play and for severe pain, the big guns are Morphine, Dilaudid, etc. In my relatively limited life, I've needed no more than Aleve for my occasional cramps. But yesterday, the oral surgeon gave me Lortab to take for my dental ordeal. Lortab! Good stuff, as some people would say. However, I've had no pain, zilch, nada. I have had just the tiniest bit of bleeding after the surgery, nothing to write home about. The worst part was the numbness in my lower lip and chin afterwards. I was worried it would never go away and I would have permanent mandibular nerve damage, but I woke up this AM happyily unaware of any numbness and heaviness of my lower lip. I was also relieved to not have to page the oral surgeon on a Saturday had my numbness persisted; he did look into my eyes and told me he was on-call 24-7 and that I was to page him with any problems. The second worst part of the whole thing was the pre-surgery fasting. My surgery was at 3:30pm on a Friday afternoon which meant I didn't eat or drink a thing since the last PM. I guess I had enough fat stored for my body to use as alternative fuel as I didn't faint or go into hypoglycemic shock. I've eaten some flan, pudding, and steamed eggs so far. I would like some mashed ptotatoes and split-pea-type soup today.

So back to the TV thing, I was told the Lortab might make me drowsy and dizzy, I was to take it easy and watch some TV. So that I did. Cable and TiVo are wonderful things, I've decided. I still remember actually clearly seeing the Adiddas logo on Carrie Hefernen's pants when I watched "King of Queens" on our big screen for the first time. Our last TV was a second-hand TV that Paul bought 15 years ago!

No more Lortab for me, 'cause I clearly don't need it, and only a drug addict would take pain meds that one doesn't need and I really don't care much for drug addicts. There are too many in my life as is via the ER. So back to the books, I'm studying for Step III for next month. Yikes!!

St. Patty's Saturday

I had this Saturday off from work. I woke up to a to-do list of running errands and household chores. Such a beautiful day, I just couldn't bring myself to go to Target and buy Drano for our clogged drain and other such things. I digress but did you know there are different Dranos for standing clogs (water won't go down) vs. slow drains (water drains too slowly)? Anyways, I balked at my list of to-dos. Here's what hubby and I did instead on Saturday:

Hiro, off-leash. Bet you can't outrun him.

At the dog park, Hiro met many new friends.

Dogs take no time to get to know each other.

Run like the wind, free as the birds.

Our picnic by White Rock Lake. I wore Green for St.Patty's Day.

It was a enjoyable day.

Doggone Days

Here's our Sunday excursion to the nearby walking/jogging trail that I discovered yesterday.

Hiro meet the duckies. They are bigger than you!


Hmm, Hiro not as interested in duckies as hubby.

We walked for over a hour.. . and there were still energy left in the little guy!

Hiro, the maltipoo at 7 months old.

Today was also Superbowel Sunday. I was not very invested in it, but go New York Giants!!

One with Many Labels

My first fake nails!

I got my nails done last weekend. The picture is not an actual picture of my real nails as I'm too lazy to get the camera and take a pic, but my nails look just like that. I was convinced I wanted the new gel overlay french manicure but the Vietnamese lady convinced me acrylic tips would be stronger and longer lasting. The truth is, not many people are experienced enough to do gel overlays which takes longer and costs more. After a week, I'm happy to say my nails still look like they were just done, not even a scratch! They really stand up to any activity you put your nails through. Acrylics rule!! It's nice because because only the very tip of every nail is glued on, the rest of the nails are my own, albeit reinforced with a a very strong yet clear layer of acrylic mixture. Ingenious! I love how my nails look so feminine and clean! So, they should last about 3 weeks until new nails grow out after which I have to spend oodles of money again and get them re-filled.

January is gone for good. It's been a good month in the sense I was on Pulmonary and had my weekends off, but the bad side is my days were 12-13 hour days. I rarely saw the sun since I left home in the darkness of dawn and returned to an already darkened sky. Not a schedule I liked at all, but it's over for now. I'm back on wards, yes, I'll have to spend some nights in the hospital but atleast the other days I get to come home at a decent hour.

But boy did I make up for lack of sun today! It was a beautifully sunny day and I took Hiro out for a much needed walk. No amount of begging could deter hubby's resolve to study for his exam on Monday (can you believe it?), so I went out alone with Hiro. I discovered a great walking/jogging trail nestled in a nearby apartment property! How happy I was to get away from the hustle and noise of street cars and enter the sanctuary of quiet squirrels and ducks! A rather unfortunate thing happened, though, I lost my phone along the way. When I found it, it was already ran over by a car!:( Looks like I will be shopping for a new phone tomorrow.

Of course anyone would agree, there are a lot of depressing things in the hospital, but to me, people on dialysis and people on ventilators have to be some of the most depressing. It's just a feeling I get when I step into the hemodialysis quarter or the ICU. Sometimes I step back and think, how far medicine has come to be able to take over the function of a whole organ system, like the kidneys and lungs, when they fail. It's a bit unnatural and awe-inspiring at the same time. Anyways, just some of my random thoughts.

I was warned about Dr. H, the pulmonologist, before I started working with him in January. "He will pimp you to death, " is his reputation. He deeply humbled me into realizing how much I don't know. Most of the time, I had no pride to be hurt because the way I see it, everytime I find out I don't know something is an opportunity to patch up that gap in my medical knowledge. Dr .H is not a natural-born American (he's South American, I believe) so he has a peculiar way of being honest and probing. Like when he talks to patients who are smokers, "so, are you going to stop smoking, or is that too much to ask?", he would say with a straight poker face. To this question, the patient would usually give a laugh and pause. Then Dr. H would continue, " I just want to know because I don't want to waste my time." The other thing he likes to do is to calculate for patients how much their smoking has cost them, monetary-wise. "Oh my, you could have bought a house!" or "for that much money, you could take a vacation in Hawaii. . .with your daughter." Somehow, Dr. H has a way of sizing you up and do it unapologetically. I have only seen that kind of straightforwardness and honesty in foreigners. Americans are very big on political correctness and politeness, a kind of fakeness that we get comfortable with and expect from strangers and professionals. Hmm, just another observation.

Another random observatin of mine: I can't believe skinny jeans are still in!! Makes me want to go and buy another pair! Should I or not? Decisions, decisions. . .

I'm working with another nice resident this month, wohoo!! He is giving us five days off, one extra day than usual!:) My attending, however, is one I would rather not work with, and I will just say that much. But oh will, sometimes we win, sometimes we lose.

I will end this post with this quote:

" Happiness in life is nothing more than a good health

and a bad memory."

Whatnots

As my vacation is drawing to an end, I'm a little sad, anxious and depressed all rolled into one at the prospect of going back to work. Speaking with another resident, I know this is not uncommon. I do like my work, I do, but being at home is ever so nice. Ahhh. . .

And what is up with the weather??! It's 70 degrees out there!! It's lovely if only Global Warming wasn't so menacing.

Hiro just got back from his neuter surgery. Poor little guy, his testicles (both) were undescended and the doctor had to make a wider incision and go exploring in his abdomen. Hiro is getting some much needed rest while I'm on the computer. If I go about my chores around the house, he'll be awake and attempt to follow me everywhere so I'm doing computer work so he can rest.

I went out to watch "I am Legend" last night with hubby. I go to the movies like once or twice a year and I wish I hadn't done so this time. It was the scariest movie I've ever seen in a long time. It was something about the darkness and rabies-crazed humans that just struck a wrong chord with me. Hubby, on the other hand, enjoyed it much. However, I loved "Evan Almighty", which we watched at home a few days ago. Funny and positive, just like movies should be. I know I'm corny and boring.

Yes, I really did have a good week off, albeit too short. I had quite a few people advising me and hubby to take a trip for this break. "You HAVE to go somewhere", "Get away", "If you don't do it now, you'll regret it after you have a baby." For a short while, we even contemplated a short Mexico or Carribean cruise, but now thinking back, I don't think I would have changed my vacation a bit. Movies in bed with hubby, savoring my mom's steamed pork buns, highlights in my hair, finding that perfect velour hoodie/pant set at Macy's, meeting friends' brand new 2-week old baby, seeing old friends, etc.

This Christmas

I did not expect much from Christmas this year. In fact, I was even avoiding and dreading it since I know it'll be just another work day for me. I had no Christmas cards to send, no gifts to give, no gatherings to attend and our home was totally void of holiday decor. But Christmas turned out to be special anyway. I came home early from work since all non-essential activities were cancelled at the hospital. Hubby and I ate at Tokyo One for lunch. Then we took Hiro to othe dog park and had a long walk around White Rock Lake. So, I'd say we had a rather untraditional Christmas, but it was so nice anyways. In the future, I'd love to totally immerse myself in the Christmas spirit. The Christmas tree, the holiday photo cards, gifts for friends, holiday parties, Christmas church service. . . eggnog, mistole, tinsels, etc., the whole nine yards.

~*~

Christmas day was a gloriously sunny day, a gift from God. Here are some pictures taken around our apartment. Yes, I know the pictures to follow are so canine-centric, but Hiro in his Santa suit is the only holiday effort we have to show for.

Hiro all aglow


"I'm flying!" Look at his ears all up like a rabbit!

It's fun to run.

Santa sighting.

Today is the first day of my week-long vacation. I was so happy getting off work today, like, singing a silly song, swimming in bed, and chasing the dog for no reason -happy. I look forward to visiting Arkansas, shopping a ton, sleeping in, spending time with my mom, watching movies, taking pictures, meeting friends' new baby, playing with dog. . .oh gosh, I wish I had more days off.

November November

I just got off call a few hours ago. My days are no longer known as "Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday", etc. To me, my "week" is divided into:

Call Day

Post-call day

Post-post-call day

Pre-pre-call day

Pre-call day

Call day. . .



It's Novemeber already! It's been almost four months since internship started for me. It felt like just yesterday that I started as an wide-eyed intern, and yet we are already one week into interview week for next year's intern class!



And lovely weather it's been. Perfect weather for walking Hiro, who's getting a lot of ohhh's and ahhh's from people he meet. One lady was driving, stopped her car, and got out to ask me what kind of dog Hiro is and the "if you don't mind me asking, how much. . ." Paul and I both have taken up training Hiro, mainly fun tricks and commands. He is half poodle and the circus-performer in him is coming out! He can sit and shake hands (his paw, my hand) on command, he stands on his hind legs when asked, and just yesterday (while I was gone), he mastered "roll over." Next up: play dead and bark on command. Since we are doing amatuerishly okay with training Hiro, it's making me think twice about taking the time and money out to get professional dog-training. I am going to take some new pictures of Hiro soon as he is growing up so fast!



This is also a sad month for us. My little Kitty is no longer with us. We finally made the decision to put her down. The decision was no short of a Sophie's choice for me. We had made up our mind on a date to take her in but at the last moment, I backed out. I just needed more time. I felt part relief and part grief when it was finally over with. I still remember the day she tentatively walked into our door onone cold December night and then soon decided she wasn't ever going to leave again. She was a little hapless stray but our sweet serendipity.

Weighed Down

Yes, "weighed down" is exactly how I feel right now. Like a sinking anchor, a balloon that won't stay afloat, a bag too heavy for the back. And maybe even like what a lot of patients often tell me, "it feels like there's an elephant on my chest!" It's only the 3rd week into my 13 weeks straight of ward medicine, and I'm already "weighed down," on the verge of burnout. Ha, can you tell I'm a countdown person? I was at the store the other day, and a singing Christmas tree told me it was 74 days 'til Christmas. But no, I was not quite in the holiday spirit.

I am weighed down by all the patient care duties, all the work hours, demands of my pets at home. The pager calls from the hospital while I'm trying to feed myself and the animals at home, the insanely early wake-up calls, the regularly scheduled sleepless nights, aggg!!! What's worse, I have a BIG test this Friday that's woefully unstudied for and Kitty is getting sicker, quickly spirally out of our ability to take care of her. At work, it's one patient after another, admissions upon admissions. At home, it's books piled high to be read, and Kitty's intestinal mess to be cleaned up day after day. Thank God that Hiro has stepped up and leaving his business for me exactly where I want him to. But Hiro is getting older, and he needs professional obedience training now which I have not yet secured for him.

I've finally spent some time today realizing I'm overwhelmed and coming up with some ideas to fix this. My upcoming free weekend, although already planned full, is so much more needed now. What I need is just a little time off and then get into action:

1. Prioritize my to-do's
2. Cut down on the daily non-essentials
3. Maximize my spare time at home
4. Re-focus on the really important goals.

Ha ha, my life is sounding like a business plan, if only I had come up with a cute acronym. I'll be okay, a concoction of sleep and wise stategizing will do wonders for being "weighed down."

Randomness.

Ahhh, I'm tired, just plain bone-tired. It's like that line from Demi Moore's character on the old movie "St. Elmo's Fire" who says, "I'm so tired, I never thought I would be so tired at 27." It's a great classic movie, BTW, about the coming of age of a group of young people in the 1980's. There are so many good old classic movies that people miss out on because of the constant barrage of new and glittery movies from Hollywood every year. "St.Elmo's Fire", "Fried Green Tomatoes", and "Harold and Maude" are some memorable classics that come to mind.

Finally got home after another 30-hour call. I'm on my stretch of 12 days of work straight without a day off. My "golden" weekend (both Sat and Sun off) is next weekend. Yes, I'm so looking forward to some R&R. Need to straighten up the house, do laundry, clean up doggie's path of destruction, bathe the dog and just plain veggie out.

I came home at 3pm to a nice simple lunch by hubby. As soon as I ate, I konked out on the couch, then zombied over to my bed. (Am I making words up?) I could not get up out of bed after a nap, I thought I could just stay in bed forever. But hubby dragged me out of bed at 6:30pm for our daily walk with Hiro. Yes, Hiro has finally taken his first step outdoors. He's taken to the leash like a child with a bicycle. Training wheels are almost no longer necessary. Speaking of training, he's 90% housetrained!! That is, he knows how to use his indoor tray for pee and poop. This has to be one of the best and surprising news as I feared housetraining would take months.

Then at 7pm, hubby and I had dinner (thanks to hubby again) and watched a movie, one of those forementioned newish Nicolas Cage movies. Kitty sleeping in a tight curl, and Hiro contentedly playing with his chew toy at the side. I'm so pleased to see my animals happy.

Some blogging time, and now time for sleep again. Tomorrow my 10-hour day starts all over again, until the fifth night from now, when I'm back on 30 hour call at the hospital.

I miss a lot of things when being busy, but right now I miss just having time to think about things, big and small, and even better, spending time thinking about nothing at all.

As Luck Would Have It

Last week this time, I was preparing myself mentally for the onset of another month of wards, but at the last minute, the chief switched my schedule. So instead of doing calls and 80-hr weeks in September, I'm on my easiest month of the year (elective) with a week of mandatory vacation at the end. I was quite upset. You see, it means I will have 3 months of wards back to back, (Oct to Dec). I was also hoping to "save" my week of vacation when I really need it, a.k.a. burnout time. I had thought (and told all family and interested friends) that the worst schedule I have to get through this year is wards medicine 2 months at a time. But now, it's actually three months of calls with nearly no weekends all at once, which sounds soul-wrenching! The feeling I had was like being handed an unfair prison sentence.

They say every cloud has a silver lining. . .and in this case, it's actually true, just have to look at the bright side. Here are my silver linings:

1. I had my one holiday of the year off, Labor Day! And I enjoyed it thoroughly, although I didn't step out of my door and mostly cleaned.

2. Also, my car broke down so I was able to take a day off from my ultral-light schedule and get it serviced. I just imagine if I was on wards and discovered my car was not working one early morning, I think I would just break down myself and cry. Car problems should not happen to people with stressful jobs! (That would be a law if I ever become Queen of the Land). As luck would have it, I was able to spend a leisure day at Starbucks sipping a pumpking spice frappacino while my car was being fixed next door. BTW, the PS frap was good, nothing like it to welcome fall!

3. "Linda, I think you dodged a bullet on this one." This was the response I got from an intern after I told her I wasn't on wards with a certain resident in September. Apparently, this said resident is very difficult to work with. After hearing a few horror stories from this poor intern who had to work with this resident, I was completely convinced that I, indeed, got very lucky. Your upper level (aka resident), at best, is a good boss, and at worst, a slave-driver.

4. Lastly, I was able to hang out with Malini at a rather posh shopping area in Plano on this free weekend of mine. We walked around the boutique shops, chatted our way through aisles of hand-made jewlry and overpriced but unique T-shirts and then headed to Stonebriar Mall to actually purchase stuff from Macy's big Labor Day Sale. It was so good to catch up with Malini. Even though we see each other at the hospital almost everyday, we hardly get to talk. It's always running to this and that, body and mind running to several different directions all at once. We are bonded by a common experience, something that I just don't share with anyone else in my life. It's an exciting and trying time, intern year is. She totally gets me when I tell her about a particularly difficult attending I had. I can't sympathize more when she shares the story of how the night before her last call of the month, she sat down with her mom to have a good talk. "It was like preparing for war, I had to get some strength and encouragment from my mom."

So, all that is to say I'm very grateful at this turn of event even though it means I will suffer a little deeper later on. Happy Fall!

A Grand Ol' Day. . .

. . .is having a day off, taking a walk with hubby in cool breeze to Central Market and buying some yummy bread pudding. . .

Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Lose

*Warning: Sarcasm and Whining ahead*
(but sprinkled with optimism)

I’ve got some good news and some bad news. I found out yesterday that I passed the clinical exam that I took in Philly 12 weeks ago!! Yeah, it took them long enough to let me know! I was all but convinced that I had failed, but anyways, moving on to the bad news:(.

Today was the first day of our short orientation at our hospital before our start date of Sunday, July 1st. Umm, what about church?! Church, what church?! Yeah, that’s not happening. Anyways, that’s NOT why I have bad news. It turns out that the call schedule has been totally revamped since I’ve rotated and interviewed at Methodist. Instead of the split call method of day call and night call which makes each intern have night call once every 10 days, now it’s only night calls, Q5! (Q5=every five days) That means we have a 30-hour shift from 8pm to 2pm (the next day) every 5 days. For example, my month of July schedule shows that I’m on call (30-hour shift) SIX times with 4 days off. The reason for the change is that this is the more traditional internal medicine call schedule and previously the interns were too swamped on their shorter calls so now the work is more spread out over a longer call. Hmm, during my interview, the speech was “we really work hard while we’re at the hospital, but we have more time off compared to other programs.” Now I'm hearing, “there’s too much work to be done, so we are doubling your night calls, which is the normal IM schedule at most programs anyways.”

Yes, I should not be such a complainer . . . but I will anyways because I want to vent. Both M (my good friend/co-intern) both lamented over the fact that one of the major reasons we chose this hospital was because of its nice call schedule. (I was in my 'all-about-work-life- balance' phase). To have that changed on us on the first day of our orientation is just, well, upsetting and disappointing!! When you are married and have a home, it’s ever so important to maximize your time with your loved one, and it frankly makes me angry to think that it's taken away. But you know what hubby said at the news? “Oh, that’s good news; you’re getting longer and better training.” No, I didn’t physically harm him, but I did flash a very dirty look while thinking, ha ha, that means more scooping Kitty’s litterbox for you while I’m spending my nights at the hospital!

Okay, *deep breath*, I'm done. I still love the hospital, it was good to be back there, like good memories rushing back to my head. I met some of the other interns, a nice bunch, I think. In the end, it’s all about sacrifices and dedication, and I’m ready. I just had to vent a little, you see.

One more piece of good news because I want to end this on a good note. I’ve been meaning to write about Blacky, the lovable stray I took care of months ago. Joyce, the amazing cat rescue lady, found him a forever home! Actually, I’ve known for weeks now but just haven’t written about it. I received an e-mail from Blacky’s new owners and they just love him to death. Joyce finally surmised that Blacky was a victim of animal abuse because of his scars. Also, his new owners continue to call him by my last name, but he’ll always be Blacky to me. The story just warms my heart everytime I think about it. Blacky was headed to euthanasia but by God's lucky timing, he went to Joyce, his guardian angel, instead. Yeah, in this life, you really do win sometimes, and lose sometimes and I think I’ve own more than I’ve lost.

Home Sweet Home

I just got back from my parents’ place this evening. I spent a few wonderful days at my parents’ home doing what I usually do when I’m home: eat and eat, watch Animal Planet on their big screen TV, laze around on their cushy leather sofa, visit Laurel, take walks with my mom, and all in all, relax. But it is sure nice to be back at my home, too even though we are sans the big TV with cable and wooded neighborhood. I’ve missed Kitty and hubby.

With an overabundant garden and their health consciousness, my parents are practically vegetarians. Have you ever eaten a meal where you chew and chew until your teeth and jaw gets tired but your stomach is not quite yet filled? That’s how I feel when I eat with my parents. Don’t get me wrong, I love their veggie diet! I ate leek dumplings, cucumber salad, raw tomatoes ripe from the vine, stir-fried squashes, and etc. all courtesy of their garden.

Also, thanks to mom, my collection of dress pants has all been shortened to the right length. My in-between leg lengths get me everytime. The petite size pants are usually just a tad too short for heels and the regular size too long. So I have to buy the regular ones and get them deftly shortened by mom or I wear the petite ones and risk being uncool looking.

My other highlight was having brunch with my dear friend Laurel, just the two of us. I don’t remember the last time I spent time with Laurel without a baby or two at her hip. Yes, she has two of the cutest boys in the world, Benji and Zac, but it is nice to have her all to myself, too.

My parents dropped me off half-way in Oklahoma where Paul picked me up. Yeah, it’s weird how I’m 27 years old and my parents and husband doesn’t agree to let me drive a 5-hour trip alone. Somehow I have a reputation of being an “unsafe driver” with them and I’ve never even given them a reason to think that way! I’ve never had a major accident and only a few minors ones that were never my fault. Okay, I had a well-deserved speeding ticket once but my Dad doesn’t even have wind of that. If anything, I’m a safer driver now after that defensive driving course I was forced to take. Anyways, I suppose when family get used to one way of looking at you, their viewpoint don’t easily change.

Hubby has been very productive while I was gone. He installed a working fire alarm, bought a carbon minoxide alarm, back-uped our trip pictures on a CD and even bought me a taser gun! These are all things I’d never think of. Yes, I know how to buy window curtins just the right color and length and I match up wall hangings together very nicely, but a carbon minoxide alarm would never enter my mind. This is why God made men and women and I’m grateful. What I’m most proud of is that he’s been dutifully scooping Kitty’s litterbox everynight which is usually my job and my job alone. This is no small fate for a man who can gag at the thought of something gross.

Back home, hubby and I ate at my new favorite Asian restaurant tonight, Bistro’s in Richardson. Yep, you bet I filled my newly cleansed gut with trans fatty fried food, yum!

Computer Clutz

My procrastinating nature reached its zenith with our laptop.

For months, an omnious warning sign comes up the screen everytime I turn the laptop on and its battery won't charge so running on plug-in power only. Since I'm the free and stay-at-home one for the last few months, I was charged with the task of getting it fixed. So months have gone by, I still hadn't done anything about it. "Call Dell", "Fix computer", etc. have had regular appearances on my to-do lists. My days would start with good intentions, but alas, something always come up or I pull-out the good old excuse, "I'll do it tomorrow." Today, I woke up and realized I couldn't live with myself any longer until this problem gets fixed.

As soon as I started, I knew why I had dreaded so long to do this. I logged onto http://www.dell.com/, and attempted to chat with a technical support geek (sorry, person). I got stumped by the first question: "What is your operating system? Windows Vista or others?" I don't know. . .then the conversation went on to about power AC adapters. hmm, what's that, I wondered?? It was a terribly feeling, not knowing what the heck is going on. Finally, I talked to a nice fellow in India who told me the power AC adapter needs to be replaced and since the laptop is still under warranty, I should get one in the mail in the next two days. Oh, thank God, it was easy as a phone call. And now I know the power AC adapter is just the black plug-in cord that connects my laptop to the wall. Why didn't they just say so??!