Officially Technological

• I finished my book. You know, the one with the 1940’s clichés. It made me want to hang out with Brian until he was sick of me in case something awful happened and he had to go to war (but he assured me that he’s too old to get drafted, even if they reinstate the draft – which, in retrospect, he may have said to get me to stop clinging to him).
  
• Sam’s better. He ate a ton of food on Sunday, and even a little grass, and didn’t puke (which even when he’s healthy, grass sometimes makes him puke – so gross). Anyway, another sign that Sammers is doing well is that he’s obnoxious again. Which, ironically, is a little relieving.
  
• I got to see my friend, Jenny (from Battle Creek), yesterday. It was good to see her, the last time I saw her was for about 3 seconds at our wedding (not a time to sit, chat, and catch up). It made me realize how much I miss working there. Not for the work, but for the people. I had some great co-workers. Not that I don’t now, because I do, I guess I just miss them.
  
• I did four loads of laundry last night. Ugh. And folded and hung up most of it. Double Ugh. But it’s done now and hopefully I won’t have to worry about it again until next week.
  
• We’re going to Pinconning this weekend. I’m very, very happy about that. It’s been a long time, and I’m definitely due for a Purtell’s chocolate shake (for those of you who don’t know what Purtell’s is – it is only the best greasy spoon in American history). I also think I’m going to go to Fabric Fair and pick up the quilt fabric I’ve been coveting since the last time I was at Fabric Fair (before I learned how to quilt).
  
• Speaking of quilting. In between loads of wash, I was working on my second quilt when I realized that I’m about 1/8 of a yard short of one of the fabrics. Annoying. Now, there’s nothing else I can do until I go to the store and get literally 2.5 more inches of fabric.
  
• We’re out of popcorn. It’s amazing how you want things that you normally don’t when they’re not available. Brian always wants popcorn, and has been really craving it, and I’ve been craving since we’ve been out, and well… I guess we just need to get some popcorn.

OK, so I’m reading a book named “Dream When You’re Feeling Blue” by Elizabeth Berg, and it’s good and everything, but I’ve noticed a few annoying trends. If you read novels, maybe you’ve noticed it too. “Dream When You’re Feeling Blue” is about an Irish family who lives in Chicago during the Second World War, and they have three daughters who have various boys in various parts of the world all of whom are fighting the bad guys. Anyway, I’m sure it’s very touching and all, but it’s kind of annoying me because the author drops little lines using 1940’s language. It’s kind of like name-dropping. I think it’s like she’s trying to prove that she did enough research to know all the slang that was used in the 40’s.

I call this the new name-dropping because when you read novels from that time period, they used slang, but sparingly, just like how authors now use slang sparingly. I mean, sometimes, more slang is needed to get the point across, but in general, people write much better than they speak (which says scary things about the way some people speak). Anyway, you can tell that someone isn’t from that culture when they use tons of slang. Like how you can tell when someone’s not famous because they name-drop. You know I’m not famous because I always say things like I know one of the writers for the show “Desperate Housewives”. If I were famous I wouldn’t talk about knowing him because it wouldn’t matter. I mean, if I were an actress in Hollywood, of course I would know the writers of major shows.

So, here I am reading this book. And I’m trying not to notice when things are said like, “Kitty smiled; this one was what Julian would call ‘khaki wacky’. But he would also say she was Able-Grable. A blackout girl. A dilly. Good-looking, in other words (pg. 37, Dream When You’re Feeling Blue).” OK, so that’s four phrases right in a row, and the whole book is like that. *gasp for breath after tirade*

But other than that, it’s enjoyable.

Oh, and the other thing that’s annoying is this lady is on the New York Times Best-Seller list (for other novels) and I want to say, “Don’t try so hard, chick! You’ve made it! Just write nice stories!”

I’m done now.

So, I was going to post pictures of my quilt (which I finished last week) for my next post, but instead I’m going to tell you about Sam.

So, Sam had the stomach flu this past week. I came home from work one day and he had vomited all over his room and had had a little diarrhea. Which was not fun to clean up. So, I cleaned it up and Sam was still bouncing around and looking pretty normal so I thought he was probably OK, but I called the vet anyway. The vet said to withhold food for about 24 hours from the last time that he vomited and to give him rice and either cottage cheese or boiled hamburger (a bland diet) after that. So, that’s what we did. And he didn’t throw up or have any more bouts with diarrhea so we thought he was fine.

On Friday after work I came home and Brian said that Sam had been sick again. Ugh. We were hoping that he was healing, but apparently not. So, that evening we kind of watched him and he was refusing food (which tipped us off since he’s such normally an annoying little beggar). So, after tucking him into bed and hoping he’d be better in the morning, we looked online to see if there was anything else we could do for him.

Saturday morning he was not better, so we took him to the vet who had appointments all morning but she kinda glanced at him and said that he still looked pretty good, and if we saw this, this or this to take him to the pet ER, but otherwise she could squeeze us in first thing Monday morning. We were pretty satisfied with that, so we went home.

We were home for a couple of hours when Sam started vomiting blood, which scared the poop (I guess the word “poop” is probably inappropriate in this particular post) out of me because I had read online that bloody vomit or diarrhea were often symptoms of cancer in the stomach.

So, as I’m cleaning it up, I’m sobbing thinking that we were going to go to the ER and not come home with our dog. So, Brian came and cleaned up and told me to get Sam in the car and he’d be out and we’d go to the ER. It was very nice of him.

Off we went to the ER where we sat (just like a human ER) for a long time. Meanwhile, Sam is losing energy by the second and was even having a hard time getting up to walk around. Well, eventually the vet came in and looked at him and they ran some blood-work and she was happy to report that Sam did not have a tumor but that he just had been sick long enough that his intestines were so irritated that they were bleeding. Phew. So, she gave him some fluids and some antibiotics and sent Sam home to rest and get better.

That evening Sam was still really, really sick. He couldn’t go up and down stairs (which if you know Sam, you know that that is extreme). We had to carry him around. The fluids that they gave him they inserted under his skin so it looked like he had a pack of water on his back, which also made him top heavy (poor guy), so that didn’t help much with the moving around either.

Sunday morning was more of the same. Sam was really weak and not wanting to do anything, but he did let us feed him his medication and about a tablespoon of food. When we came home from church it was about the same and I went to get him some Pepcid and while I was gone, Brian said he just came to life. It was kind of weird, but while I was gone he started wanting to get up and play and when I came home he was downstairs and he bounded up the stairs two at a time to come to the door. So, I think it’s safe to say that Sam is on the mend.

I know I’ve gone way over what I normally consider to be “proper” blog entry length. However, I found this weekend to be very insightful on several different levels. First of all, I know that Brian is the absolute perfect person for me, but sometimes it is just so clear how we are two parts of the same unit, and this weekend was one of those times. He was great and I thank God for him. Also, I know I’m crazy about my dog, but I realized that it is the same instinct that makes me crazy about my dog that will make me crazy about my kids when (or if) we are ever able to have kids. Sometimes I think that since I’m not one of those baby magnets (I can make a baby cry faster than anyone I have ever met) that I will have trouble with kids, but after this weekend I realized that I’ll be OK – we’ll be OK. I also was reminded of God’s kindness. Often I feel like my problems are insignificant (in light of the world’s suffering). I sometimes feel kind of frivolous for praying for God to heal my dog when there are children out there dying of all kinds of curable diseases. But Jesus said not even a sparrow would fall to the ground without His noticing. It was just a reminder He loves all His little creatures (probably even the mean ones like mosquitoes and rattle snakes). So, I think He must love Sammers. Probably even more than I do. And so I want to thank Him for having mercy on my poor, sick little puppy. He is so generous. So, today, things are back to normal (ish). Phew. What a weekend.

For those of you who don't know: to my family, who are mostly Michigan die-hard Meijer fans, "Wally World" is not a reference to Walmart, it refers to the family reunion we have every fourth and fifth of July. The name "Wally World" is an pet name for the reunion, named affectionately after my uncle, Wally, who is kind enough to host it every year.

TIP:
Sixty people can not consume an entire vat of potato salad (made with an entire jar of mayo, a dozen eggs, and 10 pounds of potatoes – and random other things).

RECIPE FOR "CRABBY" MOOD:
1 cracked muffler
1 crowded beach
1 family not where we thought they’d be
1 set of un-followable directions from a gas station attendant
2 out-of-area cell phones

LOST AND FOUND:
I found several items (including my hat and my bowl) on the “lost and found” table this year. However, my Aunt Helen could not have possibly lost her camera since she had written her name on it (which I found amusing because it was a $7 disposable camera).

OBSERVATION:
Cheering during my uncle’s fireworks display is both certain and constant. However, two events seem to more produce more fervent praise. These occasions are (in no particular order): any time a new kind of firework is introduced, and any time a “dud” firework sparks on the grass (apparently we have a few pyros in the group).

GUARANTEED KID ENTERTAINMENT:
Frogs from the pond
GUARANTEED ADULT SHOW STOPPER:
Snakes from the pond (though no less entertaining to the children)

ON SLIDE SHOWS:
You know that photography has swelled to enormous proportions when in the evening after being with each other for less than eight full hours there is a 300+ picture slide-show of the events of the day.

MOST COMICAL MOMENT:
When applause exploded for the waitress who declared to the 50 or so of us at breakfast on the 5th that she thinks she’s got everyone’s order. After the cheering had died my cousin, Jake, shouted, “We’re Waibel’s, we cheer about everything!”

On Saturday, Brian was busy fixing our hot tub (yeahhh!) when we got a call from my brother Jeff, who said that he and Margo were at the hospital and Margo had the baby and it's a girl and her name is Summer (pictures soon). Summer is very cute. Probably one of the cutest babies ever (I'm not being proud, I'm just stating the facts). Then my mom and sister, Peggy called, saying that since Summer had been born they were coming down with my dad and my niece, Hallie, to see her and that they intended to stay with us (mind you by this time we were getting ready to go out for our anniversary). So, we ran around like chickens with our heads cut off making our house "Mom Appropriate" (doing the dishes, and throwing out last weeks newspapers, and folding all the laundry and such). Then we left for probably one of the best meals of my life at a little Italian hole-in-the-wall downtown called the Italian Connection. The family that owns said hole-in-the-wall is actually Italian and make their own pasta from scratch. It was great. Then, when we got back home, my family was on their way over from the hospital (which had closed) and wanted to go out for ice cream.

So, yesterday we frantically went and bought Summer a present and went to see her at the hospital. She's very, very cute. We went to dinner with the fam and then went back home where Brian worked on the hot tub some more and I watched TV for a while.

Today is actually our anniversary, so tonight we plan on relaxing. We're not even going out to eat because we want to just sit at home and do nothing for an entire evening. Maybe we'll have a little bubbly, maybe we'll pop a little popcorn, maybe we'll have a fire (it's been cold the last couple of days!). But regardless, we're just going to relax. Maybe Brian will be able to get the hot tub up and running and then we may sit in that until we turn to prunes with our popcorn.

Anyway, I will have pictures of Summer very soon (she's really cute).