opus2008

Dogs have ACLs, too

2005-11-17T05:44:06Z

No, not Access Control Lists, Anterior Cruciate Ligaments. I know this because:

I am now $1,000 poorer than I was this time last week, and
In a related note, Java tore an ACL last week sometime and required surgery to fix it.

First of all, I cannot say enough good things about Dr. Mike Bagley ("Dr. Mike") and the nice folks at Clayton Animal Hospital! They are the folks who ended up doing the surgery on Java. Here are just a few high points of our experience with them:

When I was calling vets in the area, Dr. Mike called me back personally within an hour of my call, and described what he would do in-depth, along with giving us the final price estimate.

They scheduled us for a consultation that same evening to get a painkiller patch, and scheduled the surgery for the following day!

Dr. Mike spent a lot of time with us, describing what he was going to do and all of the different steps he was going to take to make sure Java was comfortable throughout. He says he takes an "active" approach to pain management, because it promotes healing (and, he admitted, it makes him look better if the dog isn't in pain when she goes home!).

They even have a sign up near the front door welcoming new patients, so we saw a "Welcome, Java Horne!" as soon as we walked in. That was a small touch, but indicative of the great attitude and service we received throughout.

We got her back today, and she looks pathetic with her bandage and her limp!

This all started when Java was limping somewhat last week. When it didn't quickly improve, we took her into the vet on Friday evening to get it checked out. They took a couple of x-rays and gave us the verdict (torn ACL in her right rear leg) along with a bottle of anti-inflammatories and a $1,500 quote for repairing her leg.

Note that that amount is more than $800.

This brings me to an interesting topic: the Cary surcharge. For those of you who may not know, Cary is one of the more affluent suburbs of Raleigh. Goods and services in Cary are typically more expensive than similar goods and services in other suburbs, or even in Raleigh itself. Case in point: Java's surgery was quoted at $1,500 to $2,000 at vets in Cary, whereas it was done for a very reasonable $800 in Clayton, which is about a half-hour away. I felt like a $700 savings was worth a bit of a drive.

Anyway, Java is doing fantastically well, and I am just thrilled with how Dr. Mike and the other folks at Clayton Animal Hospital treated all of us throughout. We won't hesitate to go back there again!

I took some pictures of Java after she got back home today with her big, goofy bandage, and posted them in my photo gallery. We're so thrilled she's back!

Now we just have to figure out how to keep her calm for eight weeks.

It's cold in Austin

2005-10-08T06:28:20Z

So, Anna and I flew down to Austin, Texas to attend a wedding between her friend Terese and Emily's brother, Derek. Our flight left at the unGODly hour of 7:00am yesterday, meaning that we had to get up at about 4:30 to get to the airport in plenty -o- time to make everyone happy. So, we made the trip on about an hour of sleep each. (Note for those not paying attention: that's not enough. I make no promises that I won't slit your throat for any reason, legitimate or contrived, on that little sleep.)

Flying is fun now, thanks to a combination of the following:

a laptop (mine)

a headphone jack on the above

a Y-splitter for said headphone jack, allowing two sets of headphones to be used simultaneously

two sets of noise-canceling headphones

tv shows downloaded off of various BitTorrent sites
a Madagascan Giant Hissing Cockroach (note: you can buy them at that site)

Just kidding about that last one.

This time, we watched episodes of The King of Queens (Kevin James is the funniest man alive), Numb3rs (quasi-geeky math show), and Twin Peaks (a bizarre show by Mark Frost and David Lynch from 1990).

Surprisingly, were on the same flight from Dallas to Austin as Emily's mother and several of Emily's brothers and sisters, so we made faces at them for that arduous hour, then met Emily at the airport to drive to Derek and Terese's place. We visited there for a while and ate some pizza, but before long we started to crash from lack of sleep, so we took Emily, Leah, and Alyssa to their hotel in our tricked-out ride (an Impala) before heading to our own hotel.

Our hotel is extremely hard to find.

I crashed for about four hours, but Anna got up after just a couple and went to visit some of her Linux friends who live in Austin. When she got back, we went to a Taco Cabana (more on that later) to grab some food, then headed back to the hotel. Emily and Alyssa came back and slept on the pull-out sofa, but no one slept until we watched a couple episodes of the Barry Gibb Talk Show (if you haven't seen these before, watch them).

Today we allslept until about 1pm, but then we got up and made a run to the Goodwill store because it's 50 frickin' degrees out and raining. We went to the rehearsal on the other side of the continent, then knocked over a Target for a 12 pack of Coke and some batteries before heading out to a restaurant called The Salt Lick to pig out on some fake (i.e. non-pork) BBQ. It was FANTASTIC (but again, not real BBQ).

I'll just have to write about Taco Cabana separately.

Appetite Suppressant

2005-10-04T01:06:26Z

What if, everywhere you walked, you were walking on food? When you got hungry, you could just stop where you are, reach down and grab a cheeseburger that your coworker just stepped on, and munch it down. If you were in the mood, you could go dip it in the big, fetid pool of ketchup colonizing the office next door.

Or, perhaps your path to the bathroom is a trail perilously paved with Vienna sausages, enrobed in extra-thick beef stock for added texture. You could feel them squirm beneath your toes as you're on the way to the loo. Delicious.

Well, as best I can figure, this is what it must feel like if you are a horse.