Just me - nothing more, nothing less

God this has been a busy weekend.  We cleaned the house, got a new bed, shopped our butts off, and I survived my first weekend on Weight Watchers since I first met my husband in 2004.  Brandon has been great about weight watchers.  I told him that when I went for my yearly physical a week and a half ago, that our Doctor warned me to watch my weight.  I had been looking for an excuse to help get Brandon to eat better, and my doctor delivered it to me on a silver platter. He's more concerned about my health than he is his health - which is kinda sad to admit.  But seriously, he was more than willing to support me in weight watchers since the doctor reccomended it, whereas when i mentioned it before, it was never taken as seriously.

This weekend:
- friday night we cleaned from about 8pm til 11pm on friday night so we didn't look like disgusting slobs when our bed was delivered saturday morning.
- we got our king sized bed and bed set delivered around 11am friday morning
- we went shopping for 2 sets of king sized sheets
- we looked for king sized sheets (went to 3 different stores, bought some but ended up not using them last night because they were way too fluffy)
- had to go buy our birds food from the bird store
- ended up buying a keg of beer since we're sick of having bottles lying around
- cleaned all 4 bird cages when we got up this morning (took us about 2 hours)
- went to return the pillows we bought yesterday.
- bought new ones at Costco
- went grocery shopping at Meijers
- had my mom over for dinner

now, I'm heading to bed - I'm freakin' exhausted.
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For all you Dog owners/lovers - please pass this information on to anyone that you know.  Edited to add that this did not happen to my dog, or to anyone's dog that I know personally...but I don't want it to, so that is why I am posting this. 

The following information is copied and pasted directly from this blog - the blog contains pictures of Chai's injuries plus videos of Chai's suffering and learning how to eat and drink again.

http://thechaistory.blogspot.com/2008/08/chai-story.html

On Sunday, June 22, 2008 my 10-year old lab mix, Chai, sustained a severe injury from a product that the company Four Paws Inc, produces. The toy I'm referencing is the pimple ball with bell. (Item #20227-001, UPC Code 0 4566320227 9)

While chewing on the toy, a vacuum was created and it effectively sucked his tongue into the hole in the ball. From speaking with my vet, this likely occurred because there is not a second hole in the ball preventing the vacuum effect from happening. I became aware of this when Chai approached a friend at my home whimpering with the ball in his mouth. She tried unsuccessfully to remove the ball but the tongue had swollen and could not be released.

Chai was taken an emergency care facility in New York City to have the ball removed. Because the size of the opening on the ball was so small, all circulation to his tongue was cut off. The doctors had to sedate him in order to remove it. Once the ball was removed, his tongue swelled to the point that he could no longer put it in his mouth. Chai was sent home with care instructions and to be observed overnight for any changes.
 

By the following morning Chai’s tongue had swollen even more. He was taken to his regular vet for treatment. He was admitted and kept sedated for a period of three days during which time they were treating his wounds and waiting to determine how much of his tongue could be saved. On June 26, 2008 Chai had his tongue amputated.

He was kept in after-care for an additional three days. On Sunday June 29th I brought Chai home from the vet with a barrage of home care instructions, to last for an additional 7 days. His next visit was to have his mouth re-examined and have the feeding tube in his neck removed.
 

On the way home from the vet we stopped at Petland Discount where I purchased their product to speak to the manager on duty. Upon meeting Chai and seeing his condition, he removed all of the balls in question from the shelves. He also gave me the customer service number to their corporate headquarters to request that they refuse to continue purchasing all Four Paws products, but I have not called them as of yet.
 

Once again, this is in regards to this toy:
http://www.fourpaws.com/products/pimple-ball-with-bell.htm

We've been in our house for a year, as of 7/24.  Thank god we had a homeowners warranty though, because on 7/18 our air conditioner blower motor burnt out.  We only had to pay $95 of what would have cost $300 to repair.  If the motor blew 6 days later, we would have had to pay the full amount, so thank God for small miracles!

I recently got an offer to take in a year old sun conure for free.  I belong to this forum all about birds, and a local woman has to give up most of her pets due to an unfortunate housing situation - basically the house she bought has more problems than the inspection originally showed.  The former owners knew of these problems and did not disclose them, so she has met with an attorney and on the advice of her attorney she is not paying her mortgage and is looking for a new place, most likely an apartment.  For those of you that don't know, Sun conures can be very loud.  They are not apartment birds - and she doesn't want to have any reason for an apartment to deny her or to evict her.

I talked to B about the sun, told him that we could start as a foster home, and if it became permanent, or if it didn't work we could always find him another home, but he wanted nothing to do with that...so I had to tell her no.  I feel so bad for her, since I know how hard it is to find a good, loving home for a pet and I wouldn't trust just anyone to take in my birds, so I was flattered when I was approached with this. 

I know it's not practical, and probably not feasible for us to take on another bird, but my heartstrings are being pulled, and I very much want to be able to help this woman.  I just have to be sensible and realize it's not in our best interest even though this bird is free.  I just would love for Twinkie to have a friend, one that I wouldn't feel so intimidated for him to actually socialize with - all our other birds are smaller than him, and I don't let them hang out together.

Well, i thought I had more to say, but I can't think of anything right now - and I probably should get back to work anyways.

I was hoping that I could have spent the afternoon watching the tv shows I have recorded on my DVR.  But instead, I spent the afternoon cleaning my house before my in-laws came over.  I haven't really thoroughly cleaned my house in about 2 weeks...I've straightened up throughout the week, but nothing more serious.

I felt really bad for my birds, because I haven't cleaned out their cages in 2 weeks either...of course I've given them new food and water, but I didn't clean their grates out for 2 weeks!  I cleaned 3 out of 4 of the cages, but I can't do the 4th one - Bug's because he doesn't like me much, so I don't hold him very often.

This is my first baby, Booth.  We got him in November, 2006 and he's going to be 2 years old in August.  He's a green cheek conure, and he's the sweetest little guy we have.



This is Twinkie, we got him on October 2007, and he's 10 years old.  He's the easiest bird to keep entertained; as long as he's with Brandon (my husband) or I; or as long as he's eating something, he's perfectly content.



This is our 3rd bird, Scooter - he's a Meyer's parrot, and he's a cousin to the african grey parrots.  Scooter has an interesting story; his first owner (not sure if it was a male or female that owned him) passed away, and left him to our pet store to find him a good home.  They had Scooter for one day before he was stolen along with other store pets and a customer's pet that was being boarded at the store.  He was gone for 5+ months, and when the cops finally found who stole all these birds, they called the owner to come get Scooter. Now, he's ours.



Then, there's Bug.  Bug was actually hand fed as a baby by the employees of our pet store.  He would actually rush to the front of the cage to get fed first, and then after all his brothers and sisters were fed he would run to the front of the cage and smack his tummy into the side to try to get more food, and the formula would splatter against the side like a bug splatter on the windshield so the store named him Bug...and the name stuck.  Well, Bug's Mom passed away, and she gave him to the store so they would find him a good home as well.  We first saw him in the store back in December, and he melted my heart.  He's got scissor beak, which means that his bottom beak doesn't line up with his top beak, and it actually grows off to the side and curves up almost higher than the top beak.  He was at the pet store for over 3 months before we brought him home.  I guess a lot of people wanted Bug, but the pet store was very selective about who they let take him home. We brought him home in the middle of March, and he's such a little stinker.  



Well, I had actually started to tell you about my in laws coming over, but instead I went off on a tangent about my birds.  I will save the rant about my in laws for another day.

So, I have a journal (blog, diary - whatever you want to call it) on another site called Open Diary.  I figured it's time for a fresh start though, so I decided to join here.

I joined facebook a while ago, which brought me in contact with a lot of my old high school friends.  I really haven't hung out with many of my HS friends, save one.  So, I was very excited when I found a few friends on facebook, and it made me more than a bit nostalgic.

I guess I'm looking for a place that I can vent or basically bitch without having to worry about someone finding me. I guess, that's all I'm going to post tonight since I really don't know what else to say.

I'm looking forward to getting in contact with more of my old friends, and to a fresh start!