For the past few weeks, Buddy has been reading some books by John Robbins, which extol the virtues of a vegetarian/vegan diet (vegetarian propaganda, as I like to call them.) Every few days he'll tell me a new Fun Fact about vegetarians, such as how they apparently have better endurance, live longer, are more attractive, smell like freshly baked cookies, etc. I usually debate with him about how I believe that humans are meant to be omnivorous, and that a vegetarian diet isn't really the way we're built.
Finally, I decided that for the sake of (pseudo-)science, and to satisfy my curiosity, we should just try it. So starting tomorrow, Feb. 1, Buddy and I are both going to eat vegetarian for one month. (A friend asked if I purposely chose the shortest month of the year. I didn't, but it's a happy coincidence, perhaps.)
It's a bit of a wack experiment because I have also just started running regularly again, but I figure a month might be enough time to feel differences that a change in diet may make, for better or for worse. Incidentally, I should probably start taking vitamins again, because I already have borderline low iron, even with eating red meat.
In other news, thank you so much to everyone for your well-wishes regarding Enzo. I have decided to forgo the biopsy (at least for now,) and I'm going to start taking him to an internal medicine specialist, who hopefully will be able to help me manage his disease without an invasive procedure like a biopsy. In the meantime, he has actually been really happy and high-energy recently, so hopefully I can keep him feeling that way for a long time.
Finally, John took a picture of me bouldering the other night:
It's probably a trick of the light, but hey look, I have muscles!
Ironic, considering I've felt really weak the last two times I've climbed.
Last week, one morning when I fed Enzo, he didn't finish his breakfast. Those of you who know Enzo (or most any other dog, for that matter,) know this is very unusual for him, so after his walk, I called up the vet. They weren't too concerned about him not eating, but when I mentioned that he'd been drinking a lot of water for the past several months, they asked me to bring him in because excessive thirst can mean nothing, but it can also be a sign of diabetes or kidney disease.
So that Saturday, I brought him in and they took a urine sample from him. Unlike people, this does not involve him calmly peeing into a cup, but instead meant that one of the vet techs had to chase him around with a little pan as he walked around and marked things outside. When they got the results of the urine test, they found blood and protein, which was an indication that he might have kidney problems (since those things should have been filtered out.) They took a blood sample and the vet told me she would call me back on Wednesday.
I got a call Wednesday afternoon from the vet, and she told me that the waste levels in his blood were high, meaning that indeed his kidneys weren't working correctly. I asked if this was basically kidney failure, and she said it wasn't yet, but that it was heading that direction. She said the next step would be to get a kidney biopsy to see exactly what the problem is, and therefore be able to better plan out a course of treatment. However, before they can do that, they needed to check his blood pressure, because hypertension can increase the risk of a bleed after a biopsy.
So this morning at 7:30 it was back to the vet to get a blood pressure check. A series of readings all had his blood pressure over 200 (normal for dogs is <160), so the vet wrote him a prescription for a blood pressure medication, which I started him on today. Assuming his blood pressure gets under control, he's going to have the kidney biopsy next week, and then I should have results a week after that.
In cases like these, you generally can't cure the disease, but manage the symptoms and try to make the dog as comfortable as possible. For now, Enzo isn't showing any signs of feeling sick, so I'm hoping I can make that last. The vet told me that the last dog she treated with early kidney disease like Enzo's lived another year and a half after diagnosis, so hopefully we can get at least that much time.
I know Enzo isn't very good at making people friends, but if you're reading this, please send him good thoughts.
Last last year, I received a catalog in my mailbox that had a sheep on the cover. I sometimes receive mail addressed to my apartment's previous tenanats, but a sheep catalog was certainly a first. I thought it might be like the time my high school friend Chris randomly got an alpaca catalog in the mail, and then spent the next few weeks telling me how he was going to start an alpaca farm. To my surprise (and mild disappointment,) it was not a catalog selling sheep, but rather a catalog for Heifer International, a charity. I had never heard of the organization, so I spent a few minutes perusing the catalog. Like the old "teach a man to fish" saying, Heifer gifts livestock to families in poor regions around the world and trains them to use the animals as a sustainable source of food and income. Each family that receives a gift agrees to give any offspring to other needy local families. I thought it was a great idea, so around Christmas time, I donated a goat, a flock of ducks, and a llama.
If you read the fine print, you'll notice that while the website implies you are donating a specific animal to a specific region, what you are really doing is donating to Heifer's general fund, where they will use the money in the most appropriate way. This may be by giving the kind of animal you "donated", but most likely not. To some, this screams false advertising, but it is a fact that tracking each individual donation of an individual animal given to an individual family would be a logistical nightmare. Heifer is an internationally well-respected charity that I firmly believe supports a worthy cause.
Nonetheless, some people would like to know that their money is being used directly for a family in need. Enter Philip Greenspun, Craig MacFarlane, and Robert Thompson. Through Thompson, Greenspun and MacFarlane purchased a water buffalo and gave it to a family in Yunnan, China. Thompson filmed the process and edited the footage into a moving 8-minute short: 4 Generations. I highly recommend you check it out.
This past weekend was the annual Ski Trip Extravaganza, again expertly organized by Walter. I drove up Amanda, Buddy, and Jess Friday afternoon, and we were greeted in Tahoe by sub-freezing temperatures, though the roads were fine. That night I made the mistake of drinking lots o' iced tea for dinner, so I slept a scant few hours that night, but was up early Saturday morning to head to Heavenly.
Buddy and I met up with Becky and Adam, and after an equipment rental debacle, we were finally on the slopes. The workers at Heavenly had warned us to keep ourselves covered up because the temperature at the top was -40 with wind chill, but I have to say that it didn't feel that much colder than previous years. Maybe it's because of my sweet face mask. I started out sucking as usual, but then got into my groove a bit, which still sucks, but at least I could turn both ways, albeit very slowly:
Buddy was feeling adventurous and tried out the terrain park:
There was one time when he did successfully ride the box, but unfortunately neither Becky nor I caught it on film.
That night we had our traditional turducken dinner, this time supplemented with prime rib. The rest of the night was spent with folks in various states of playing games, hot tubbing, and general merriment.
The next day Eric led us on a snowshowing trek which was very fun. We hiked around and had nice views of Lake Tahoe and Fallen Leaf lake. Eric even brought along a little stove so we could all have hot chocolate.
That evening was more chillaxing time, and I finally got to play the Wii! It was really fun as a party game console, but I was a little unconvinced about how fun it would be while playing by yourself.
Monday morning we cleaned up the place in record time, and then it was back to the real world. A big thanks to Walter for yet another awesome ski trip! Pictures here.
In unrelated news, I got in a minor accident last night when a woman backed into me at a gas station. I was a bit peeved, but the damage was minor (broken license plate holder, small scratches on my bumper) and probably not worth pursuing. But FYI, just in case all you drivers out there don't know, you should look behind you when you back up in your car. In case there's, you know, another car back there.
So maybe I dumb, but I just yesterday realized that when organizing your sets in Flickr, you can drag a picture onto the thumbnail on the left, and that will be the picture used as a thumbnail for the whole set. WOW!
New Year's Eve was pretty low-key this year. I went to Amanda's friend's Amanda's sister Erin's (whew!) apartment in the city, and we hung out there until the ball dropped, and Dick Clarkotron 3000 gave the sign-off. A bunch of people stayed the night at Amanda's apartment, where this sight greeted us in kitchen the next morning:
Nothin' says New Year's Eve partying like Pepto Bismol in a shot glass.
In an unrelated note, this morning I drank apparently moldy or otherwise spoiled iced tea, (iced tea isn't supposed to have little globbies in it, I don't think) apparently learning nothing from drinking moldy apple juice three years ago, with less-than-awesome results. Hopefully this gastrointestinal adventure at least ends better.
Astute readers will notice that the year on the calendar over yonder --> is broken. This is because, when making lil' .gif files for this particular site redesign in 2002, I never thought I'd still be going on with it in 2007. So please bear with the broken image for a bit until I remember what the name of the font I used is. (I think it's this one.)
