It was a great weekend. I got a fabulous surprise on Friday, Saturday recovered from a mild hangover to discover Lee had gotten the night off, so she and Dar came over and we managed to catch fireworks! :) Sunday we had to drop our old sofa off for Justin and then came home and I made Thai food for dinner while watching the Dark Knight.

I've been running around cleaning up from last night and doing laundry and ran out for ever important contact lens solution and kitty litter. Watching Wall-E whle I make lunch and generally relaxing. It was a busy but very fun weekend - almost forgot Lee is going to days and she'll have the same weekends off! :D

I don't really update too often anymore - even my hubby deleted his LJ and went to the dark side (facebook) :P

Does anyone who still reads this have a Facebook? If so I'd like to add you since I'm sort of checking that more regularly than my journal :)

Two weeks and I go bungee jumping!

Here's to making new friends and keeping in touch with old friends and just having a damn good weekend! ^.^

My husband surprised me completely yesterday when Bob showed up at our house.
(He likes surprises - I can kind of see his point now).
We were having people over on the 3rd since we had the day off and people were coming over to work on cars so we figured it would be nice, and generally plans are made for today not the day before. :)
It's been years since I saw him last so it really was just lovely.
Unfortunately I started celebrating early so am slightly hungover. (Pls excuse the choppiness of this post.)
I hope everyone is having a great 4th!

I am an Aunt again!
Olivia was born yesterday, April 29, 2009 at 1430!
:) Mom and baby are doing great!

Mara's biopsy results are back, and yes it's Osteosarcoma. They can't give us an estimated life expectancy because it will metastasize, and we'll be treating her pain.

She's the perfect Akita. Aloof but affectionate with family, protective but not aggressive to people or other animals. She raised the puppies we gave her well even though we took away her goodies.

There will be no chemo.

She just turned 8 on Feb. 2. We got her April 5 2001.

So Mara's been favoring her left front leg for a few weeks now.
We went to the vet last night and they took xrays.
She has a growth on her humerus.
Most likely it's cancer, and malignant. But we won't know for sure until there's a biopsy done.
Mara just turned 8 in February. She's still so young.
Anyway we don't know when the biopsy will be because our vet doesn't know if they can do it or if they have to send us to a specialist.

Isn't that bad of a shift. And now that I'm awake I have the whole evening to play Little Big Planet. :)

I got my presents early - multicolored roses, a balloon that sings and heart shaped cakes when I got home from work Friday. :)
Because the weather was supposed to be funky we decided to make fondue at home! It was surprisingly easy, even with the prep. We made a coq au vin broth, an bourgionne, and a white chocolate with triple sec for dessert. I sliced sirloin, and we had a variety of veggies and shrimps with cheesecake, marshmallows and madeleines for dessert.
It was very easy and I think we'll do it more often for something fun. :) We got to use all of our fondue pots that have been sitting around forever not doing anything.
I also got my squishable tortie from Brian this week for my birthday. He's huge! I'll take pictures with Pengie so you can see my pair ;)

Hope everyone had a great Valentine's!

Mean that I'm one year older (yesterday). I did work, and found out that I got a promotion. =O It was a very pleasant and completely unexpected surprise. I got a very pretty indigo satin pj set and silky like lounge pants from my beautiful husband. Overall I must say it was a nice birthday. I even got clementines from a coworker and it was just because he's so nice. :)
Today we're going out to dinner and to see the movie "He's just not that into you" because well I just adored the books.
Hope everyone had a lovely Thursday - and happy birthday also to Jen and Sue and Jo. :)

Yup, I did it again. Left ankle this time and boy is it huge! I have to go to the pharmacy and get my anti-inflammatory and a couple of new ace bandages. Oh and eye drops. I'm learning that my eyes are really dry with contacts and that makes things kind of fuzzy too.
Oh yeah, new thing:
I got contacts a few days ago. I was talking to a good friend of mine and she recommended it for a change. Since I happened to be going to the eye doctor right after our lunch and shopping excursion that's what I did. This is my.. 3rd day wearing them? I'm getting more used to it I think as time goes on. Today however will be the first day I'll be driving with them. But dangit my eyes are so dry!

So I'm gimped but I can see. Isn't that lovely? :) My deeply appreciated husband spent 3 and a half hours in the ER with me (yesterday). I had xray's of my foot done to make sure I didn't break anything (I have scrapes on my wrists and bruises on my right knee too). I splat'd when I fell. The nice ER practitioner gave me a note to stay off it for a few days. I have my cane if I need to get around (like get my medication). They asked if I was used to doing this since I already had a cane and I had to admit that I'm not a very well balanced person. (Hold the bad jokes :P ) It just goes to show the Wii Fit knows what it's talking about when it asked if I had a lot of trouble walking.... ^_^;

Today is my 2nd wedding anniversary.

We spent a quiet night at home for the hubby's birthday. I made him a rum cake and we went out to dinner.

Today I suspect I'll be working hopefully not late. Today I didn't get home till nearly 1am as you see by when I'm posting this entry. But what can you do? (Try to keep someone from coding that's what...)

Christmas was quiet. We opened presents when I got home from work that evening. I got Animal Crossing for the Wii and I set up my microphone, and I'm slowly cleaning my counter to set up the Aerogarden I got ;) I gave the hubby shiatsu massage pillows and some scenty stuff. I got a book and wow game time from a coworker. ;)

New Years eve I worked and didn't leave the hospital until midnight exactly. :P Next year I'm requesting it off early! But also I have to work Christmas day too... so trade offs.

Hope everyone had a great holiday season and remember, visit your primary doctor! Annual checkups are important! :)

I'm still recovering from working 6 nights in a row. Remind me never to do that again.
Work was good but busy - I had a patient who had become a donor and ended up spending a good 2 nights with just him trying to improve his lung function enough so that we could harvest them to donate. He was only 15. ;_;

The very nice thing was I stayed in the same unit the whole 6 nights which made my life so much easier!

I slept for 5 hours this past night and now can't sleep. I've been up since about 630. Had a snack and am playing WoW trying to get to 70 for the expansion next week. Hubby got me the Blizzcon '08 bear mount with a murloc sitting on its head! :) I'm using it basically everywhere I need to use a land based mount. ^_^

So I'm going to keep crackin' while everyone sleeps. ;) Hope y'all have a good weekend!

Haven't posted in a while.

It looks like I'll be working evening shift starting Dec. 6. Yay!

My arm hurts because I'm getting tested for TB.

Am hardcore re-addicted to WoW.

Thanksgiving looms and then Christmas. Is it totally bad that I haven't started Christmas shopping yet?

Was road trip day. We tried to make it up to RI in time for the pre-graduation dinner but didn't quite make it thanks to getting stuck in traffic driving through NYC.

On the recommendation of the concierge we tried a local Italian restaurant for dinner. They have a website - www.sardellos.com I think it was. After the hubby finished his conference call I ordered calamari to start and decided to try pasta puttanesca for the first time. Hubby went with the classic chicken Marsala for his entree. His sauce was excellent, slightly sweet from the wine but savory from being reduced down probably with chicken stock. There were also plenty of mushrooms. I was pleasantly taken with my incredibly garlic-y entree as well. It may have been too much garlic for some, but not for me. The olives were a nice balance of salty goodness mixed in with a nice al-dente linquini hidden underneath. An order of garlic bread for the leftover sauce later and we went back to our lovely hotel room. I took pictures and they are posted on my picasa web album. :) It used to be a house that was converted into a small bed and breakfast type place.

Friday morning bright and early we headed off to Dar's graduation. It went quite well and in a timely fashion. Pictures are also posted on Picasa. :) Lunch was at a very nice downtown restaurant that I for the life of me can't remember the name. It wasn't anything spectacular but it was satisfying all the same. Of course by this time it was raining heavily and we had to start heading down to NYC for dinner. We got into Connecticut and pulled over at a rest stop for an hours nap. (I only got 5 hours of sleep on the drive up, and even though we went to bed at 2330 Thursday night I was awake by 4am). We drive most of the way through Conn. and pull over for a bathroom break and to switch drivers. Hubby drove into NYC after a hurried detour (we intended to take the ferry but drove straight into the city) to make our dinner reservation at Ninja NY. Dinner was absolutely fabulous - my only complaint was their tempura batter was far too heavy and oily. I had one of their tasting menus - a starter of duck in a coriander sauce, followed by a sampler of spicy tuna roll and eel cali roll, tempura, a medium T-bone steak and a chocolate ninja star dessert. Hubby also tried a tasting menu which consisted of: fried plantains, spicy tuna roll and eel cali roll, an exquisite pork dish, a tenderloin and a chocolate rose for dessert. Oooh it was expensive but definitely worth doing just the once.
After dinner we decided to head to Atlantic City where we all lost money except for Dar's brother. ^_^ It didn't take very long for us to decide that was all the money we were going to lose and headed home. Hubby made it to a rest stop in MD around 5 and we again stopped for an hour or so nap. It was still pouring mind you when I woke up and drove the rest of the way home. Lucky husband slept the last 2 hours home and then we both promptly passed out when we made it to our lovely bed.

Saturday Keith, Chris, Hope, Tristan Dar and Jusef came down for a stirfry dinner. It's been a long time since we've all been together to hang out. Hope made white chocolate chip cookies which... well died an honorable death very quickly. The white chocolate chip walnut brownies also went down without a fight. ^_^ I ended up sleeping till 6 that evening ^^; and stayed up till 4 and then got up again at 9. Chris and I grabbed bagel-age and then Hope, Dar and Jusef and I roadtripped up to grab ribs and so he could nab stuff from his parents house. Dinner was my classic ginger rice, bbq and thai ribs. I ended up napping from 7 to 11, stayed up till 2 and then got up at 8. Napped again from 12 to 6 and then stayed up last night until 2...went back to sleep and got up at 730. I feel like I need another nap, but I want to do the grocery shopping and deposit mons first.

It was a very eventful weekend, and as a result I've been sleeping very erratically... which hopefully I'll fix before I work tomorrow. ^_^

Was a lot of fun as always! Unfortunately it was so humid that it completely suppressed my appetite, so I did not partake of the fried yumminess that is there. Had a little beef jerky and some water and a little soda and that was it. Did a bunch of shopping obviously and found this awesome bee place with lip balm and really good hand cream. The guy who rang me up used to be an EMT so he understand how dry your hands get and how irritating that alcohol sanitizer is! They have a website so I'm going to bookmark it and never be without good chocolate mint lip balm and hand cream again! I also got this beautiful dark red silk scarf - something I can wear later when we go to the faire.
After we got way too hot and sticky we went to dinner with Michelle, Lou and Coby. It was tasty and different from the Sakura we're used to. Then Michelle and Lou took us to this really nice International market that just opened where a Giant used to be. It's very nifty and I saw a lot of things I haven't seen in a long time even at the markets we go to in Rockville. We bought groceries. @_@;

So many sweet red bean filled things later, we're home and I'm making crab cakes for dinner. ^_^

I saved a box turtle yesterday. He was in the middle of the road, so I pulled over and ran out to grab him. The husband said I "kidnapped" him because I put him in the trunk and continued to do my shopping. I will try to remember to post pictures later. He was very cute and very orange! When I got home about 45 minutes later I walked him over to the field behind the houses across the street from us and released him there.

I like turtles. :)

Roller coasters are still awesome. And because it was the end of the season there were hardly any lines... especially for the old wooden coasters. ^_^ The hurler made my neck hurt though. ;_; It started off very cloudy but cleared up into a sticky humid day.

I hate antibiotics by the way. Long story short I was exposed to a bacterial respiratory infection so now I'm on a 5 day Zithromax course. I can't wait till I quit working in a hospital. Bleh.

I think love is being unselfish in regards to another person. There are many depths of love but ultimately when you love someone you put that person's needs before your own. Love is what you make of it for good or bad - everyone chooses different ways of expressing it. Love is wanting to be loved in return (stole that from Moulin Rouge!) Love just is.

Was very nice. We got there late Thursday night and due to a small misunderstanding we rented a room for the night. It was a very nice room actually - with 2 double beds. (it was the only room they had left available). But! It had a microwave and a mini fridge - a nice unexpected surprise. Friday ended up bringing scattered showers but we were both so sleepy we ended up napping the day away, alternating with watching the Olympics. It's a vacation - we can do what we feel or not and just veg. ^_^ We discovered a really nice pancake house for breakfast that apparently serves dinner only during the summer. Also coincidentally we ran into a wine tasting at a local liquor store with a representative from a local MD winery. (We ended up getting 2 bottles from the ones we tasted.) Saturday despite the weather channel saying possible showers was a very nice hot humid sunny day. We went swimming and the surf was quite rough but still icy cold and a lot of body surfing going on. We walked the boardwalk and found a really really nice Italian restaurant for lunch. I think we ended up napping again and woke up in time to play a round of mini golf at the fantasy version on 23rd street. Sunday was very relaxed - we grabbed brunch from the local bagel place and drove up to the pirate mini-golf on 138th. This particular location had a pirate, African safari and a Polynesian themed course - so we did all 3. I have now found out that I suck at the curved U shaped holes. Anything with a curve I ended up taking 4 or 5 shots. But I'm not bad at putting - the hubby ended up making more hole in 1's then I did. :P He totally kicked my ass on the last 2 courses and we had a lot of fun. I wish we had more mini-golf places around here.

But I'm sleepy again already and I have to go to bed to work. Boo!

Last night I helped an incredibly sweet lady have a better stay at the hospital.

This nice lady has a tracheostomy - a short tube in her throat to help her maintain a patent airway. This has a cuff - a balloon at the bottom end of it that sits in your trachea and when inflated are unable to talk. With the balloon inflated no air is able to pass through your vocal chords, hence unable to create speech.

I came in to give this nice lady her breathing treatment, and noticed her aerosol set up was causing her some noise. While I fixed that she asked me if she could ask a question. Now mind you, I'm not a lipreader - I just have a lot of patience (sometimes) and took the time to listen to her. She told me I was the first person to stop and take the time to sit down and actually "talk" to her. She asked why the balloon had to still be inflated while she was off the ventilator. I told her I didn't know why, and I'd have to talk with her doctor. However I told her that I would speak with her nurse, and if the nurse was okay with it I would deflate her cuff while she took her treatment and I would stay (obviously) to make sure she tolerated it. Her nurse (another lovely lady) agreed there was no reason for the nice older lady not to be able to speak. I deflated the cuff and we asked her to say something. She was so happy! She said I must have been an angel sent by God to help her.

Of course I ran it by her primary doc and got the order for deflating the cuff. I came back to tell her we got approval and she said she loved me. (Awww!)
All told I guess I spent about 45 minutes with her, fixing her oxygen set up, running her treatment, tracking down her nurse and her doc, and then sitting and just talking with her to make sure she'd be okay.

I know I complain about my job a lot - but it's patients and situations like these where I really brighten someone's day that make all the crap I do endure worthwhile.
And I guess that's why I do what I do. :)