Posted in cali_lovin on 10/22/2008 02:21 am by Queenkv
We’re at the tail-end of t-shirt weather and the trees are starting to change color in Vacaville and Sacramento. There’s Daisy peaking out behind our shed in the backyard. Folks in my newsroom say I need to check out the trees in Apple Hill. I’m also trying to visit the cornfield maze in Dixon.
It’s nice to enjoy the changing seasons without the cooler temperatures.
My hubby keeps telling me that these signs of fall do not compare to the autumn foliage in New England and other parts of the East Coast. I’ll check it out some day.
I just checked my work schedule for next month. I’m so happy to get Thanksgiving off! It’s the first time we’ll be able to have Thanksgiving dinner with my family in So Cal since I started working in TV news. Yah!
So, I’m addicted to playing anything with Mario on our Wii. My dad gave it to us and we love it.
My hubby loves it a lot. And Daisy wonders why she can’t have her own Mii. I haven’t figured out how to make the Cocker Spaniel ears.
We’re having fun with bowling, tennis and surfing headlines on our Wii. And as I said before, I’m also digging all things Mario. My hubby bought Super Mario Galaxy from a music shop in Davis for $30. It’s a beautiful, challenging game.
[Picture from http://guide2games.org/]
Speaking of my favorite videogame hero, I stumbled on this new Mario cartoon by Seth MacFarlane on Laughing Squid. This is what would happen if a videogame was mixed with Reality TV.
For $5 a pop, Mark bought Dr. Mario and Super Mario Bros. Once I start popping pills on the red, yellow and blue viruses, I can’t stop playing Dr. Mario. Last night, I kept challenging Mark to several games in Dr. Mario. I’m still trying to wrap my head around all the possible color/shape combos to zap the smirking germs. I really got into this old school Nintendo game back when I was sick with the hubby’s cold. Chicken soup, hot tea with honey and playing doctor with Mario helped me recover from the stuffed up nose and scratchy throat.
And then there’s Super Mario Brothers. Talk about a blast to the past! It’s still awesome! I heart the music! I heart the challenges! I heart the fireballs! During my skating days, I used to train at Lake Arrowhead on the weekends. We stayed in a cute cabin in Running Springs. I suppose we got our fair share of fresh air as we walked around the mountain community. In the wintertime, we went sledding in our backyard. In the summertime, we explored an abandoned house down the street. On our walks, I remember there was a little boy sitting up in the trees, calling us “ugly slant-eyes.” I told him to come down and say that to my face. He said he was going to call his mom. I said I’d call my dad. He stayed up in the trees.
We had a tiny TV inside the cabin. We could barely tune in the basic channels and my Dad ended up ordering cable.
We also brought up our Super Nintendo. Before and after freestyle sessions, my friends and I would fire up Super Marios Bros. We sat on the floor and fought the Goombas, Koopa Troopas and the rest of Bowser’s forces. My favorite memory is powering up on a fireflower and hearing my Dad call out: “Don’t waste your fireballs!”
Honestly, I kinda sucked at the game. I was happy to hand over my controller to whoever can beat the Boss at the end of the World.
“Thank you Mario! But our Princess is in another castle!”
And speaking of videogame soundtracks, check out this guy playing the Super Mario Brothers theme song on the piano. Blindfolded.
Posted in cali_lovin on 06/08/2008 05:33 pm by Queenkv
So, it looks like Daisy’s doing better after her second visit to the veterinarian.
Her painful story started Thursday afternoon. She kept licking her front right paw. In the past, she’s been quite good about chewing out the burrs and foxtails from her paws. In fact, she prefers to do it herself instead of letting her humans take a whack. She’s such an independent puppy.
On Friday, I canceled her grooming appointment and dropped by the Vet at Pet Smart. The vet’s office required a full canine exam. That means the medical assistant checked out her heart rate, ears, eyes and then he stuck a thermometer up her butt. Poor Daisy, she hates that part of the exam.
I told the Pet Smart doctor that this has happened before back in Topeka. He decided to shave-off the hair from her bottom paw and see if anything was stuck up there. He couldn’t find anything. He prescribed an ear ointment and topical spray for her pain. He claimed the ear ointment could be used on other stuff, like inflamed paws. OK. He said we needed to apply both meds, two times per day and each dosage separated by at least an hour.
No problem with my graveyard schedule and Mark driving an hour+ to Berkeley. Still we knew it was worth it. She’s our Daisy and we wanted her to get better.
Friday night, we did applied both meds to her paw and it looked like she enjoyed the taste of the drugs. I also think she just couldn’t help licking the painful paw. On Saturday morning, I applied the spray again to her paw while she was sleeping in bed with Mark. I think that woke her up.
When I got home from work, I noticed she gnawed off some hair from the FRONT side of her paw. Mark and I agreed things got worse for the puppy. We knew she was making it worse from doing what comes naturally. That’s when we decided to get a second opinion from another veterinarian.
We managed to squeeze ourselves into another animal hospital before it closed for the weekend. Daisy did not like sharing the waiting room with 3 curious dachshunds. Thankfully, the doctor was quite sweet with our puppy. I think she was relieved that her butt was spared another temperature reading. The doctor sedated Daisy and checked out her paw. He found a few tiny strands of foxtails stuck in her paw. He bandaged up her injured limb with purple bandages. I told her it matched her leash, but I think the last thing on her mind was fashion choices. The doctor gave her some puppy-safe penicillin and oral meds. I think these pills are similar to the ones we got from the Topeka vet and they worked better than the Pet Smart spray and ear ointment.
On Sunday morning, Daisy looked better. She kept staring up at me with her big brown eyes, begging me to take-off the purple bandage. I reminded her the doctor said she needed to keep the area covered until Tuesday. Then she sighed.
Soon, Daisy will be running around the yard, barking at our neighbors and enjoying our beautiful Cali weather.
