What could this mean?

We saw this sign while waiting for Boomer to be delivered on Saturday. I can't figure it out; "Welcome women after hours" Are they men by day and women at night? Are women only welcome when the place is closed? If so, why bother?

Each of us went in to use their restroom, and did not get the stinkeye from the receptionist, who was a woman, or appeared to be.

Oh, and Boomer turned out to be a small happy bundle of squirming fur. He can walk under Rosie's belly, and they are getting along well. He is not housebroken, so that's a nuisance, especially since we just got another foot of snow on top of the 18" or so we already had. Poor guy doesn't have any clearance when he goes out to do his business.

MRI is done

Okay, I survived the MRI without embarrassing myself by freaking out. I had thought about it enough so my brain was numb, you know, enough already? Which is what I do, then I did take a sedative too.

But the lady was so nice, with a full explanation of what was going to happen (hmm, mayhap I am not the only nutcase they've dealt with?)and that helped a lot. Plus I wore exactly the right thing- no metal anywhere- so that all I had to remove was my top layer sweatshirt so they could get to my arm for the dye. That meant I stayed warm and happy.

Next earplugs were inserted. That's right, one person each side did it for me- a little weirded out by that- then I laid down and cosy little cushions were put by my ears, to help with the sound, I was told. What really happens, is it holds your head very firmly in place, but in a cosy, warm way. Then a washcloth was put over my eyes, and that was the big winner! You never see the tube at all as they slide you in, and as long as you don't stick your hand up by accident and feel it, you wouldn't know it was there. I didn't need no stinkin' panic button!

So, an hour , one shot of contrast dye and a lot of loud noises later, I was free to go. J drove me home and I zoned out on the couch for awhile. Now, I wait until my doctor visit in March to find out the results, I guess. Unless someone calls me before that.

I hope I get to see some pictures. That would be cool.

Exciting week ahead

Two things happening this week- one I am dreading, the other anticipating! No appropriate music comes to mind for an MRI, which is scheduled for Thursday. I am not so comfortable in tight places, and have to remember to take deep breaths every time I think about this. It hasn't helped that I have been having dreams about being trapped in holes and such.

I do have a sedative to take, and it probably won't be that bad. It's being done because I have trigeminal neuralgia, and they want to rule out any cause that makes sense, like a tumor or misaligned cervical bones. Apparently most cases are caused by a nerve getting bugged at it's neighbors and becoming ultra sensitive.

Aaaanyways, I don't expect them to find anything, (well, I do have a brain in there), but I guess I don't want to skip the test and find out later there was a hole or bump as the culprit!

So that's the bad- the good is that we are getting a second dog on Saturday! YAY! I've wanted one for Rosie, since she misses having Anna to play with and I hope this one will be a good match. I found him on a website for shelters in Kentucky which are overcrowded, and have high kill rates. We don't have a whole lot of dogs for adoption in Maine, and shelters charge quite a bit for them.

I was shocked to see "kill day is Thursday" on one of the sites- they are so crowded that they can keep some dogs only a week. So, I found Boomer, a 5 month old male Keeshond/shepherd mix. The shelter had a transport to CT arranged for some rescue dogs and they fit Boomer in. Volunteers drive legs of the transport- thank you volunteers- which made it possible for me to get him. It's about 4+hour drive, but I am stopping at my daughter's in MA and she will drive me the last hour there and back, giving me a break before going back to Maine.

I hope Rosie likes him. I hope he's housebroken.

Guild Wars weekend

Quick one tonight. Really, I promise.

This weekend was a double experience points for capturing elite skills in GW. Excellent for my 3rd try at a survivor. I got 33 elite skills (most of which Max will never use) x 10,000 XP a pop. Together with XP for fighting, I earned 379,999 which brings me up to 729,784 experience, without dying, not even once! This is a little over half of what I need to get the Indomitable Survivor title- I think that's the name of it, anyway. I believe I am now a Legendary Survivor. And that is an awful lot of careful fighting, which is not my usual style.

Ok, if my parents were to read this, it would be gibberish, but my children would know what it means- well, 3 out of 4 would.

And, I did spend time with J as well, shopping, dinners, house cleaning, etc, etc, etc as the King would say.

Windy, windy day

It got cold, and windy- the kind of wind that knocks you over and freezes your face.

So, of course today's ear worm is a Tommy Makem song:

"In this windy old weather, stormy old weather,"

Wednesday was a beautiful day, sunny and the temp got up to 50! We are having our January thaw in February this year, and it is supposed to stay warmer for the next few days. That means in the high 30s and 40s for those of you who don't live in New England.

Rosie and I took a walk down the snowmobile trail- not the one on our land, but across the pasture down the road from us. I let her see me putting meat scraps in my pocket(yes, they were in a baggie) and we set off. Once I got away from the road, I let her off the leash. Since this was new territory for her, she was a little cautious, and looked back from time to time to be sure she was heading the right way.

The trail wound through trees, up and down little slopes and Rosie had a great time jumping into the deep snow for side trips. Two snowmobilers came by, and we decided to go home. As I toiled up the hill that was much steeper than it had been going down, she was way off to the side, following a buried stone wall. She came back to me with a fish in her mouth, about 6 inches long! Don't ask me, I have no idea how it got there, maybe a bird dropped it?

Anyway, I pretended I didn't see it, and stopped walking toward her. She examined it, then left it and came to me for steak. Back on the leash and off we went home. The fish looked too fresh to be worth rolling in, I guess.

Today it is drizzling and we don't like that. We walk in snow, but not rain nor sleet.

We would not make good mailmen.

Rosie

Last Friday, Rosie went to the vet for her shot update. She passed the test for Lyme disease and heartworm-yay- and made it through all the poking and prodding without fainting. What? She's scared modest. But all her scrooching, shrinking and curling her tail down didn't make her 65 pounds disappear.

However, the biggest accomplishment was that she made it there and back without throwing up. It's a five minute ride, but this dog starts drooling as soon as she's in the van, and has always gotten sick, usually just as I stop to let her out. She even lay down on the seat on the way home.

Let's see if I can get a picture in here without breaking something. This is what Rosie looked like at 8 weeks old. Note the big feet- Hmm, I don't know what I did to get this underlined.



And here she is now- we gave up and just slipcovered the furniture.



She does have her own bed, it's 53" by 40" and fleece topped, but that's in the kitchen. That chest got moved, by the way, to make room for Wii playing, so now it's in the corner where she uses it to check outside the windows for any action up and down the road. We live in the country so there's not a lot.

Rosie is a big change from the chow/shepherd mix we had for 13 years, who actually came when we called her! We need to work on that. We trained Lizzie by jingling keys when we fed her, so later, if she wasn't "hearing" our calls, she would come to a jingling sound. Ameranth got her puppy Anna about 6 weeks before we got Rosie, and Anna was afraid of the keys, so we never got that association going. I really wish we had, although I suppose we could still try now.

We used to make fun of my parent's dog, who got a biscuit when she went out and when she came in. When we visited, Lizzie expected the same treatment, and she knew it was just at Grandma's house that it worked. However, we used the biscuit for reward for coming in for Rosie, and she promptly plops her rump down in front of the jar each time she come inside. On the rare occasions we forget, she picks herself up and sits again with an audible smack as a reminder.

Well, that was more than I planned. This is what happens when you don't have grandchildren to talk about. Yet. Hope springs eternal.

Working Sunday- yuck

Oh my goodness! I am so glad to be done work today. I have to work on a Saturday or Sunday every 3rd week or so, and I hate it. Normally I work 6 hour shifts, but weekends are 8 hours, so that's the first reason to hate it. The second is that I have to start at 2:30, not 5, so that totally ruins the day. And third, it's super busy since instead of 7 people in my department, we have one- and that was me today.

Oh, and a fourth reason? Now I have to work 6 days in a row. Bah. I am going to go watch TV and eat some brownies and ice cream. With chocolate syrup.

Wii

Sectaurs gave us a Wii for Christmas and we love it. It came with the Sports package, and he got an extra controller, so we are all set for fierce competition. Or cooperation. We have found that we can see much better if J and I play tennis on the same team, so we have a full screen court, even though we have a large TV.

We've made Miis for a lot of our family so we don't have to have strange computer players on our baseball teams. It's amazing how much you can make them resemble their namesakes! I also wonder why Grandpa Bob hits so much better than I, when it is me doing the swinging. I shake my fist at Sectaurs when he catches my pop flys. Should that be 'flies'? That doesn't seem right either.

My parents decided to get a Wii for themselves after we enthused about it in the family emails. They thought it would be good exercise, since the ice and snow keeps them from walking. Plus it sounded like fun. Sectaurs was a little surprised that they would want one, but not me. Grandma has always loved games and I remember playing Space Invaders when that came out. She was also the one who thought our kids should have a computer and gave us a Commodore 64 way back when. The six of us would sit together taking turns being the little wizard sliding down ropes and running up stairs. Or Duke Nukem. Fun times.

Most of my side of the family are game players, and since we tend to be a bit competitive and a little loud, get togethers can get pretty rowdy. Board games, dice games, card games or outdoor games, we like 'em all. Certain games are not played as much though, like Risk- just too cutthroat for some people- not naming any names. Ameranth will not play Sorry to this day, due to an unfortunate episode (with Grandma). And what is the name of that game where you try to corner the market on corn or wheat? Pit, that's it, and that involves yelling out the number of ccards you want to trade, so 5 or 6 people are shouting 1 1 1, 3,3,3 all at the same time. Really have to be in the mood for that one.

We used to have a permanent set of cedar posts for volleyball in our yard plus a softball field for a few years, complete with a backstop. Nowadays it's mostly croquet and horseshoes. Oh and we got a bocce set last year- that's a lot of fun too. Though we do tend to lose the little target ball in the dips of our lawn. It used to be a cow pasture, so while the grass grows green, it is not a smooth, picture perfect surface.

Meandering around to the Wii again(surprised?) it has a secondary use for us, warmth. We are trying to keep our thermostat set lower this season, so we will play a game or two instead of turning up the heat. Healthy and economical! J prefers bowling and is trying to keep his score high enough to keep his sparkly PRO ball. With my back problems lately, I can't do the bowling very much. J tends to do better than I, but I am blaming that on my back as well. :) We shall see, my pretty, we shall see.

Guild Wars

I play an online game called Guild Wars. One reason I like it is that in towns you can interact (or not) with many other players, but once you leave an outpost, you are in your own 'instance', with only the players in your group. I play only the PvE, player versus environment, but there is PvP, player versus player, as well. I've tried that, but it's not for me.

What's an old lady like me doing in an online game? Loving it, that's what. Four years ago, my youngest was an aspiring game artist living at home and mentioned that a new game was coming out that he thought I would enjoy. I joined him in the last beta weekend before launch, and was hooked. Pre-ordered the game, upgraded my video card and my warrior was born in April 2005.

The reason I bring this subject up is that last weekend was the Canthan New Year in game and I got a celestial ox! Woo-hoo! Ok, that looks stupid written down.

There are various festivals ingame, and this one corresponds vaguely with the Chinese New Year. Do quests to earn tokens, turn in tokens to get fortunes, open fortunes to get money, fireworks, and every so often a little glowing ox made of stars. I did not get the celestial rat last year, so I was really happy when I got the ox.

Oh, did I mention that the only reason I tried this game was that it is free to play? You buy the game, and then play as much as you want- no monthly fee like the other online games. Plus, you don't have to play with others. I know lots of people enjoy that, but I like running around with my computer generated friends, the henchmen.

I am in a guild with my son and daughter (Sectaurs and Ameranth- I decided to use screen names they have used in the past), but they don't have as much free time to play as I do. I gave GW to my older son, Shoeshine, for Christmas, trying to lure him away from Ultima Online, but I don't know if it will work. Hmm, I wonder if I could get my parents to try it out ? I'd have to get them away from Zuma and solitaire.

In case you're interested- http://www.guildwars.com/