Sorry for the lack of update-itude, friends. I'm currently back in good ol' Albuquerque, but I'm leaving tomorrow for NYC to visit the rest of the family there. The past couple of weeks have been busy with work, but I did manage to squeeze in the EA holiday party, picking up a cute 4 1/2-foot Christmas tree for the apartment, a visit from Enzo's old dog walker (where he was so excited he peed, and by "he" I mean Enzo, not the dog walker), a Christmas cookie-making party, dinner at Chez Panisse, a hair cut, and finally ending up here, roughly in that order. While in Albuquerque, I somehow achieved my goal of seeing everyone I'd promised to see, so I'm proud of that.
I'd like to make a New Year's resolution to update my site more frequently, but since I have a work deadline in a month or so, I'm not hopeful. But until I disappear into the abyss that is work, Happy Holidays to everyone! I hope everyone's break has been full of fun, food, family, and all other manner of awesomeness.
Sorry to bring up bad news again, but Matt just told me that a freshman dorm-mate of ours was killed by a drunk driver this past weekend. I'm not going to suddenly pretend that we were best friends, because we weren't, but any time something like this happens, it's a tragedy. My thoughts are with her family and friends.
Today in my mailbox at work, I received a Barbapapa book from a Half.com seller, but no indication of who bought it for me. If you did, please let me know so I can properly thank you!
I'm getting tired of having the doom-and-gloom last post at the top of this page, so here's an update on the happy things happening in Sha's life. Last Saturday, Amanda, Erik, Buddy and I went to the annual Ozomatli concert at The Fillmore. It was awesome, as usual, and I had a lot of fun.
In other happy haps, I finally broke down and bought an Xbox 360. Overstock.com and PayPal were having a special deal where, if you paid for your purchase with PayPal, you would get 20% back, up to $50. So the premium console ended up being just about $300, which is a pretty good deal. Astute readers who pay attention to the bar over to the left will notice that I've been playing Dead Rising and Stuntman: Ignition. I've really only been playing Stuntman recently because Dead Rising is really, really hard and frustrating. But I've been having a lot of fun with Stuntman.
Finally, Happy Birthday, Peter! I'm a jerk and spaced out and forgot to wish him a Happy Birthday on his real birthday, which was on the 5th. We took him to dinner yesterday at Darda in Milpitas which was yummy. Mmm...sesame bread.... Afterwards, we headed over to his place for some awesome Rock Band action, which is always a good time.
Today we're going to get a lil' Christmas tree from the lot on 7th ave, which is super exciting. I just hope Enzo doesn't decide it makes a convenient indoor potty.
Speaking of Enzo, thank you to everyone for your well-wishes. Despite all his health problems, he's actually doing really well, and doesn't yet seem to have realized that he's sick. So he's still truckin' along, sleeping, eating, and peeing as normal. All the things he does best.
I took Enzo to the Park Animal Hospital a couple of weeks ago for a kidney value recheck. The vet called back a couple of days later, and said that although his values were not the highest they have ever been, they were going up again. She spoke to the vet specialist that Enzo used to see, and after discussing it, they concluded that there wasn't anything more that they could do with medication, since he is already on a lot of medication.
So they said the best thing for his would be for us to give him fluids every other day to try to get his values down before he starts showing symptoms. Unlike humans, though, dogs can't really sit still for an IV, so the fluids are injected under the skin of the scruff of the neck. I brought Enzo in the next day, and they showed me how to give the fluids, and sent me home with two 1000 mL bags of fluids, a handful of needles, and instructions to give him 300 mL every other day.
We gave the first treatment last Thursday, with me holding and petting Enzo, and Amanda inserting the needle. It only took about 5 minutes, and besides being a little annoyed at the hump of water on his back, Enzo didn't seem to mind too much. The treatments seem to help, and Enzo has been peppier than he's been in a while, which is good to see.
I was a little sad to have to start doing the fluid injections, not because I am unwilling to do it, but that it signals us moving on to the next step of Enzo's treatment, and I know what awaits him at the end. Although he seems to still be doing quite well, he has lost 10 pounds in as many months, and sleeps much more than he used to. Still, he is still happy, and as long as he stays that way, I'm wiling to do whatever it takes to keep him there.
