Now This is Cool!

I'm still fighting my cold, and am trying to make it through the day doing as litle as possible (as you might imagine, I am an absolute wimp when it comes to colds!). Honestly, if being at home didn't mean dealing with puppy issues, I'd be sorely tempted to call in sick!

But enough of that. While trying not to work today, I came across this, which fits in perfectly with one of my recently visited places in the Happiest Place on Earth.

It's the Haunted Mansion Board Game! No, it's not the version of Clue that you can find online and in the parks. Rather, it's a build it yourself (out of cardstock, glue, and lots of patience. It looks great, and has a lot of detail. I'd probably build it myself, save that I still haven't gotten around to finishing the last Haunted Mansion model!

Okay, back to being sick. Peace.

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Currently Fighting a Losing Battle

with a cold. Will post more when I feel more like a human being.

Peace.

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Your Disney World Moment

Today's gotten off to a rocky start, with several of my patients misbehaving (and risking being tossed from the program). Thus I only have a moment to post. And since I have yet to transfer the pictures we took to my computer, I can only post this picture that I took with my cell phone.

The story behind it is that One Ring and I were walking through EPCOT when One Ring decided that she wanted to see which characters were at the meet and greet. So we went into the pavilion where all of that was taking place, but the line was way too long to even consider staying. So we went back outside.

We paused outside the character pavilion in order to readjust our gear and decide where we were going next when we heard a knock on the window. There was Minnie Mouse, waving to One Ring! I quickly pulled out my cell phone and snapped this picture:

It was a small event, overall, but it was one of those unexpected moments that made our vacation special. I'll post more pictures later today or this weekend, assuming I can find my sanity and have the time.

Peace.

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Home Again. Home Again.

Yes, I'm back at work today, following my just under a week trip to Disney World. Yes, I got my pirate on while at the park, and also rode the Haunted Mansion the required 4+ times. Yes, we took lots of pictures and ate incredible amounts of food.

And yes, I'm exhausted and up to my eyeballs in back paperwork. Grrrr.

So I'm off to Starbucks to get the caffeine I need to get through the day with my sanity intact. After that, it's all about trying to catch up and getting back into the swing of things. As if I wanted to. I told One Ring that I'd like to put in for a transfer to Orlando, so I could go to the parks every weekend and after work! She just laughed, probably because she knows that I hate the heat and humidity that Florida has in abundance.

At any rate, I'm hoping to get pictures posted tonight.

Peace.

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Down to 3 Puppies!

One Ring's parents rolled into town last night and picked up Kona and two of the puppies. They'll be watching that bunch while we're on vacation. So that leaves only 3 more pups. Two will be going to a temporary foster home, and One Ring's brother hopefully will be well enough to watch the third. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

But then, I haven't had much time to think about the home situation today. Work has been completely off the hook.

There seems to be cyclical patterns at work here in addiction medicine. For a while we'll have a group of patients who are very interested in their recovery and improving their lives. Then we'll run into a batch whose main concern seemed to be addressing every possible need - from staying out of jail to getting a free place to sleep for a month - other than sobriety. Sifting through the deceptions and manipulations to find the truth often takes more time than I can spare. No wonder I have no desire to watch the debate tonight - I don't want to end up doing the same thing I've done all day!

We've opened up new beds in my department, and that means new patients to get oriented. Some are more able than others, so there's been a lot of hand holding, so to speak. I don't mind that, assuming that my suspicions of the aforementioned problem have not been raised. But even so, I'm required to do the work no matter whether or not the patient is being completely truthful. Sometimes it just seems easier to assume that everyone is there for the right reason and keep rolling.

An hour and a half. That's all that's left. Then one more day of work before Disney World! I haven't been this excited about a trip in a long time. Guess that just shows how stressful the past year has been.

Well, there's more that could be said about that, but I'm still up to my eyeballs in paperwork and I'm not sure that all of my patients have completed all their tasks. At least one, I know, still has stuff to do. So I need to put out the bear traps in case he tries to sneak by my office door. If it's one thing I hate, it's having to track people down!

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What's Wrong with the World ...

... or, "The main thing that really irk me as we attempt to adopt out a bunch of puppies!"

At the risk of sounding like a 9,000 year old man, I'm going to begin this entry with the words, "When I was growing up ..." It's a cliche, I know, and immediately half the people reading this are probably thinking, "Nah, he has nothing worth reading today!" But hang on a sec, because I've got to rant to someone!

I'm talking today about the distinct lack of follow through that seems to be epidemic in our society. This weekend we had several people express interest in the puppies, some to the point where they came to our house and visited the dogs. One woman filled out an adoption form, and had the money ready to adopt our dog. And I've lost count of the number of people who have said, "Oh, yeah. This is the dog I want! Let me get home and fill out the paperwork and I'll get it right back to you!"

To date, not one of those people have adopted a dog. Several (including the woman who filled out the form and the couple who came to our house) have emailed us to say, "No thanks," and offer up some reason or excuse for backing out. But even more numerous are the people who simply drop off the face of the earth and are never heard from again.

Whatever happened to follow through? Whatever happened to keeping your word? If you say you're going to do something, do it! If you're not sure you can pull it off or make it happen, say so! Don't say one thing and then think that you don't even have to notify the office if you can't produce.

As all of this drama and frustration are going on, One Ring and I are still in the possession of seven wonderful, playful puppies. Two were transferred to another foster home this weekend, but still need to be adopted out. One Ring's parents are keeping two while we're on vacation, and two more are going to the foster coordinator on Thursday (just for our vacation). That leaves one. Hopefully One Ring's brother can help us out. If not we're going to have to kennel the puppy, and that can get rather pricey.

All things being equal, it could always be worse, but I still wish people would flippin' keep their word!

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Just in TIme for Halloween!

If you're going to be near Disneyland, look and see what characters they've added for this year's festivities! Wish they'd do this over at Disney World!

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Thought This Was Cute

It's Ninja Cat!

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Saw This One Coming!

I just wish I had thought of it first!

You can find this shirt on Cafepress.com. If the election wasn't so close, I might have picked one up myself!

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New Link

I Has A Hotdog, as probably everyone already knows, is a very funny website where people take pictures of dogs and then add their own captions. There are even utilities on the site for you to create your own. So be sure to check it out, as well as its sister site, I Can Has Cheezburger (Which is mostly cat pictures).

Just trying to make the day happier for all of us!

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It's a Miracle!

And Sharkbait was apparently holding out on me.

An autopsy of a Blacktip shark that died while at the Virginia Aquarium in Virginia Beach (where Sharkbait works) was found to be pregnant with a pup. Thing is, there were no male sharks around to impregnant said Blacktip. Cross species impregnation was also ruled out - I'm not even sure that even happens. At any rate, when DNA testing was done on the pup (Coming soon: CSI Aquarium!), it was found to have only the genetic material of the mother, and none of a father.

You can read more about the research here.

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Now I Don't Feel That Bad About Having 9 Dogs in My House!

One more thing before I call it a day:

86 cats rescued from 2-bedroom Colo. condo

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There Are Headaches, And There is the One I Have Right Now

It's been a doozy of a day. On the good side, I was able to discharge a particularly problematic patient. Can't go into too much detail, obviously, but this gentleman (as opposed to "That one!") was extremely divisive, manipulative, seedy, and refused all offers of assistance. So a major stressor was lifted when he went out the door. On the down side, two of my coworkers are on vacation, and we've been hit with a whole bunch of new patients over the last two days.

Add to that the usual drama with the puppies, and you have one very tired pirate (ex) chaplain!

I did receive a couple of compliments from nurses that work on the hospice floor of the hospital - the place where I once worked as a chaplain. Both wanted to know where I had gone, and when / if I was coming back. And both were saddened to hear that the odds were extremely low that I would be working in that field in the near future. Their comments really meant a lot to me, as I often never know how much people are affected by my presence until much later, if ever. So it was good to see that I made at least a small difference up there.

Tonight we have a woman coming over to take a look at the puppies, and another person checking out the litter on Saturday. One Ring is working overtime to find a place for the horde to stay while we're on vacation. No easy task, considering that with the downturn in the economy, people are getting rid of their animals in record numbers. The Animal Control facility from which we rescued Kona has been putting hundreds of dogs to sleep a week. Most of the "no kill" shelters are filled to capacity, and the ones that use a foster system, like the SPCA of Tennessee, are hard pressed to find foster homes. But that being said, there's a chance that we'll at least have temporary homes set up for the puppies very soon. I say "we," but of course I need to be honest: it's all One Ring's hard work. If I had been in charge of the situation, I'd probably be half dead and buried up to my neck in puppy poop with little hope of rescue. Not a pleasant image, to be sure!

Okay, one more hour, and the day's circus comes to a close. One week and a wake up until vacation!

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I Admit It; I'm A Geek

I have a wristwatch that is currently bugging the hell out of me. Okay, maybe that's a little intense, but the thing chimes on the hour and I can't figure out how to make it stop. I also can't find the instructions. So the watch is now sitting in another room in my house, beeping away every hour, annoying everyone within earshot (especially at 2 AM). After several attempts to correct the situation - and failing miserably - I figured I needed to buy a cheap analog style watch that wouldn't beep, chirp, chime, or even have a working alarm.

It's a lot harder, these days, to find an analog watch - especially a CHEAP one - than you might think. Not sure why, but I guess putting all the gears together costs more than an led screen. Who knows. At any rate, I finally found a proper pirate - style watch on Ebay. Behold!

And I should be getting it within the week. : )

Since I stopped wearing the wristwatch, I've found that the day actually seems to go quicker. Odd how not having time pieces lying all over the place helps! I'm not all that used to having a pocket watch, but hopefully it will do the trick.

And yes, I am a big time pirate geek. Sigh!

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Blah

It's Monday, and I'm not a happy camper.

First off, this weekend went pretty well, but in the area of puppy adoptions, we crashed and burned. One of the dogs - Domino - was supposed to go out to a newly married couple. Well, apparently they still need to work on their communication, because the wife emailed us saying that the husband decided that it was a bad idea. Why he didn't bring that up when we had the puppy over their house is beyond me. We've got a couple of maybes, but given that people just don't seem to back up their words with actions lately, I'm not holding my breath. We went to yet another adoption fair, where the puppies finally collapsed after a day of being held and licking faces - we've trained them to do that, hoping that will hasten their adoption!
Now, wouldn't you want to adopt something this cute???

At any rate, we're at 7 puppies and holding. So if you know someone who's looking for a loving, playful puppy, let me know!!! We have them listed on the SPCA of TN website.

On the plus side, Vanderbilt won it's fifth game in a row, and is 5-0 - something they haven't done since 1943. They beat Auburn to get there, so I'm thinking the apocalypse is on its way. And looking at the economic news of the day, I'm growing more convinced that it is.

Despite that, vacation is in 11 days. I really need it. Work has been really annoying. I've got a patient who is seriously standing on my last nerve. Practicing compassion is not all that easy today! In fact, a coworker and I have been writing songs to blow off steam. So far my favorite is "Borderline Soldier" which is to the tune of Buffalo Soldier by Bob Marley. I may post them as soon as we get it written down. I'm too weary at this point to try and remember what we were singing!

Okay, I'm trying to get refills for my contact prescription. More later.

And adopt my puppies!

Peace.

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And Then There Were Seven

Yep, one of the puppies was adopted last night! Prima, the first born of the litter(yeah, I know, really original name, but it was the best I could do at the time), was adopted by a nice young couple. Not sure what the guy does for a living, but the girlfriend works for PetSmart, so they'll have all the resources they need to keep her healthy and happy. They've renamed her "Cookie," which is okay, I guess (her coat resembles cookies and cream ice cream, kinda sorta).

In other puppy news...

... One Ring and I are taking Domino to meet prospective adopters tonight. In a chance meeting last Sunday, we met this couple as we were leaving an adoption event. They saw Domino, and said they were looking for a puppy who could hold her own against a larger dog. Well, Domino takes on Barney whenever she can, so we pointed her out and let them hold her for a few moments.

Hopefully, it will continue to be love at first sight, and we'll have her in a new home this weekend. Domino got her shots yesterday (as did Prima, Hogan, and Rorschach), so she's all ready to go.

The real stress comes with trying to find homes for all the puppies before we head off for Disney World on the 17th. Two weeks! But while we have lodging all set up for Barney and Kona, we were operating under the assumption that the pups would all be in homes - either foster or permanent - by then. A couple of days ago, we got word that there may not be foster homes open. Grrr. So now we're working on plans B, C, and D.

The puppies want to go to Disney World, but I have told them that is definitely not going to happen! : )

One hour left. Time to check on the news, get the paperwork done, and then maybe blog some more if nothing more needs doing.

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