Friday the 15th

Today was a day off for Travis, the teachers had meetings or something so today is a day off, whatever. So we spent the day running errands. First we dropped off Duke for his surgery...more on that later. Then a variety of other things, including dentist for Travis, hair cut for Travis....well, you get the idea.

Duke is home now, quite groggy and not sure what to do, or where to stand or lay down. He seems to favor standing as I think the getting up and down isn't too much fun for him. He is all stitched/stapled you name it. Long and short of it is the Dr. found his 2 testicles and took them out. He even took a picture of them afterwards! Whew..what a relief! So he'll be uncomfortable for a week or 2 and then I think we'll have a whole new dog.

Travis is now watching a Marx Bros movie as he thinks they are awesome, even said he wants to be Harpo for Halloween. I'm ok with that...

There is our Friday..not a dull one in any way, which I suppose was inevitable after way too many ones before this.

The NOT so free dog

OK, when you go and get a dog through rescue, there are certain unknowns, and you take that risk along with the rewards of rescuing a dog and bringing him home. We consider ourselves very lucky to have gotten Duke, he is a great boy...he just came with more equipment than we bargained for!

Duke is a pretty beefy boy..no doubt. (he has pictures on a previous post several weeks ago) He has a couple bad habits with visitors at our house..he seems a bit too lovey dovey..if you get my drift. Sniffs every tree, and pees on each and every one.

Our vet says...I have a weird feeling that he hasn't really been neutered...perhaps an undescended testicle. WOW...ok, that thought never occurred to me, but whatever..you're the Doc. So we do a blood test... They measured his testosterone, and a normal neutered dog would come in around 50, a dog that has not been neutered, around 1000. Duke's levels were at 10,000!!

Doc couldn't believe it, and called the lab to re-run the test...double, triple check, and confer with the Internal med specialist.... Yes, we are sure...those are his numbers.

Now, he will have surgery on Thursday or Friday and the Doc and his wife Mrs. Doc, will go in and look for the elusive cohones. If we don't get them, they will more than likely become cancerous, and will lead to more problems and expenses later, so we'll take care of it now.

I am so glad we found this vet, he is amazing...how he could meet Duke and on the first day peg him as basically a juiced up hound...truly brilliant..way to go Dr. Moritz!!

More to follow as this saga continues!

A New Chapter

Big news around here is the job change for me. I am leaving Pfizer after 1 whole year!! I know, it is a stretch, me moving onto a new job...hah!

I've been offered an opportunity that I couldn't refuse, I wasn't even looking!! So, March 3 I will be starting at Edward Jones in the Facilities Department. Sounds like a neat job, and I'll be working with the folks that are running a huge new construction project at the headquarters here in St. Louis. I can see this one being a long term gig, lots to do there, lots of room to grow if I want...or stay put if I want. It will be a little longer drive compared to my current commute, but it is the price one pays for career advancement - ok, really more like a better job.

Wacky weather here in St. Louis this past week, we got 6 inches of snow Thursday night, a snow day on Friday, and on Monday it was 75 again! Next time it snows, I'm not shoveling!!

Winter in St. Louis

I realize that winter in St. Louis is rather mild, compared to winters in Michigan. Or even winters in Champaign where the wind was so strong it would literally lift our gas grill off the patio. So, I suppose the 60 degrees yesterday was not a real surprise, nor the nipping at 70 today around lunch time...but 28 by 3:00 and now 16 at 8:30??? It dropped over 50 degrees in less than 8 hours. Now that's not funny. After looking at my weather pixie, things are just wrong..16 here and 41 in Traverse City???

So, the wind is whipping and it is really winter again. I'd at least like to see some snow to make it somewhat attractive.

Otherwise, news here was Travis' short bout with the flu. At least we figure it was the flu. High temperature for a couple days, sleeping a lot and no appetite..sounded like the flu to me. He was back in school today, but found out there were at least 3 other kids in his class out yesterday too. He is back on track, and so far Steve and I haven't caught it. I did get the flu shot this year, I've never done that before..maybe it really does work?

Spelling Bee Update

We are done with the spelling bee for this year. Travis made it to the 3rd round, his words were pecan, expertise and confetti. He rushed, and blew it on confetti (conffeti) Bummer.... there were words that were much more difficult: bureaucracy, boudoir, sayonara, and others that I can't remember. So, it was good fun and he was pretty happy he made it as far as he did. The bee made it to the 5th round where the final 2 were paired down. So he may have counted into the top 10. Not bad.

Otherwise, it has been darn cold here this week, and will warm up this weekend. More later as events warrant.

Spelling Bee

Biggest news this week, Travis took a spelling bee pre test at school today. The entire 4th and 5th grade took the test and only the top 25 kids would be able to participate in the oral spelling bee on Jan 25. There are probably about 130 kids in this group. So, the big news is that Travis is one of the top 25! This is exciting, and he is very much looking forward to the big event. Will keep you posted......

Richardson out

OK, I didn't want to go political on my blog, but once and awhile it is ok.. Bill Richardson is throwing in the towel after losing in Iowa and NH. Too bad. Stunning the way this works, impressive credentials obviously don't make for front page news.

Maybe he'll get a nod for a VP role....

Update

I haven't written much lately, not much to write about really. We are back to work, Travis is back to school. The tree is down and decorations are put away for another year.

I was trying to think of something to put on the blog, and decided that the Weather Pixie is cute enough. You can see what the weather is doing here in St. Louis. For example, at the moment I am writing this she has an umbrella.

So, enjoy the weather pixie...I will think of something else to write later.

Out