• 09:53 Do I really have to buy a new snowblower? Back says "Hell, Yes!", wallet is just staring at me, disapprovingly... #

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• 18:38 Geek Duh: realizing that my router sitting between two speakers (and their mag fields) might have something to do with bouncy connectivity! #

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• 21:07 Celebrating employment with in-n-out...mmmmmmmm! #
• 09:33 Is off to WORK! #

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• 11:08 Is thrilled to be amongst the employed once more! #

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• 15:24 waits anxiously for the screams from Aly's first PT session... #

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• 18:38 @skrike Because they have positions where folks would deal directly with member records...I can kinda see their point, as a "security" thing #

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• 21:59 So painful to watch, but can't look away! RT @skrike: Best fails of 2009. OH GOD NO NO NO NO NO www.todaysbigthing.com/2010/01/06 #
• 14:11 Something, Something, Something Dark Side > Blue Harvest. In a much better mood now! #
• 17:21 @ThatKevinSmith for @Vanderlow58 lose weight and shave the pubes, you'll get the "visual inch" plus it'll look bigger proportionally! #
• 17:22 Annnnd...I really need to get out of the house... #
• 19:06 Well, it's not e. coli. They still don't know what it is, but as long as she's feeling better, that's a good thing (thanks doc!) #

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• 16:54 2010 > 2009: Fail. Ready to leave ER. Aly's got some tummy bug, severe tummy flu or e coli are most likely, waiting on the poop lab to tell. #

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• 09:18 RT @hawkster: If 'Star Wars' Was On Facebook: tinyurl.com/yfwyx7z #

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• 17:06 @NanrNdal Crap! That sucks, where stolen from? #

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• 15:31 @webigrator Unreasonable? No. Difficult? Yes. #

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• 23:07 Thank you all for the great birthday wishes! #

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So a month ago one of the ladies of the house was rushed to the ER after too much fun in the snow. She is recovering quite well and all indications are that she'll be off leash come Tuesday to heal the rest of the way on her own. She's still got a limp, and the short fur is still a good 3 inches away from "normal" so it looks like she's lost a ton of weight on just 1/4 of her body. But all is well.

As of now, another lady of the house (the least furry of the three and the one I married) is crashed on the couch in a Percocet haze. This is the result of a planned double knee surgery to relieve some long standing pain she's been having. The doc cleaned out and smooth the cartilage and bone around her kneecap, and clip her tendons slightly so they'll heal a bit lengthened to help recenter the kneecap.

There was a bit more clean up than was originally anticipated, but he didn't need to clip nearly as much. This means that instead of being in leg braces for 5 days and then extensive physical therapy that she just has to keep her leg wraps on for 3 days, and most likely won't need any formal PT at all. Good news indeed!

In the mean time, I get to be her beck-and-call-boy (not that I'm not anyway!). But this was just a quick update for those that were not aware, or wanted a few more details.

Guinness went into the vet today for a check up. Originally it was to have the last two remaining staples removed, but since those worked themselves out late Saturday it was just a checkup.

The incision is all closed up. No more cone of shame. No more sling (thank goodness). She can go for walks now, which we will be doing. She's still restricted to leash when doing anything other than wandering around the room, but only for two more weeks, then she can do whatever she wants.

This is all about a month of what we thought was going to happen, and will be a welcome relief that she won't need to be babied for much longer.

So the saga of me and the TSA has been on-going. The short refresher: Since 9/11 I've been subject to "extra screening" whenever I fly. Over the years this has taken the form of anything from an extra 10 minutes at the check in counter while they call to some secret room to make sure it's ok for me to get on the plane, to not being able to use internet or kiosk check-in because at the very least an agent needs to go to some other menu to make sure I am who I say I am.

The problem is twofold. First there is some eco-terrorist running around with the name Dave Wilson that at some point had an address here in Utah. The second is that the TSA, for the past 9 years has decided it is reasonable to have a nationwide database that matches on ONLY two points of data: first and last name. Duh.

Well it seems at least one of these two has started to pull their heads out. A requirement that began sometime in the past few months is that the airlines will need to gather more info about each traveler: along with the name they'll need date of birth and gender. Hurray for more data points to do a reasonable match. But wait, don't order yet.

A few years ago DHS fired up the TRIP (Traveler Redress Inquiry Program). In short I could supply them with as much information about myself as possible in the hopes that this extra information would be cataloged somewhere so I could be treated like a normal passenger. A month after submitting the info I was sent a letter saying the info was received and that DHS may, or may not do something with it. Either way the matter was now considered closed and if I didn't like it I could hire a lawyer and go to court about it.

Well now there is something new. Due to my previous "participation" in the original TRIP program, I have now been sent my very own "Regress Control Number". According to the accompanying letter, I can provide this at the time I make my reservations. As I make all my travel reservations on line, It'll be interesting to see how long it takes different airlines to update their on line reservation systems to prompt for this nugget of info.

As a single, unique data point I can see how this would solve the problem. We'll see if it actually does.

So Guinness slipped a staple this evening. Not sure how it happened, and didn't really notice it until she had rolled over and we could see some red and she was licking at it. So, trying to remain calm, we took her back down to Cottonwood Animal Hospital.

The doc removed the one slipped staple and put in 3 for good measure. Two *really* good things came out of what started out as a bad evening. The first is that we've been babying her a bit too much. She is allowed to get up and walk around within a room. Anything more than that she does need our help with the sling. This will make it easier on everyone. The other good thing is we found out that they do "medical" boarding for *very* reasonable rates. This means that both Aly and I can go on our planned visit to family over the holidays, and since she's with the vets, we won't worry at all about her. We're pretty sure we're going to do this, but decided to sleep on it to make sure.

Aly's off on a business trip tomorrow morning, so I'll have a couple night of bachelorhood taking care of my baby. Knowing what I know now, I'm not dreading it nearly as much...

So we brought her home this morning. Rehab is going to be tricky. She has to be kept pretty much immobile for the next two weeks and then only very light movement after that.

She's feeling better, which is going to be a trick. We've got lots of drugs including pain killers and sedatives. That last part is going to be key. When they brought her to us at the vet she was just so damn excited. Along with the sedatives, we have a sling that we'll use whenever she needs to walk to keep most of the weight off her back legs, basically we get to be her back legs.

Once home we started getting her settled in. He life for the next two months will pretty much be the family room and the patio. We got some outdoor carpet and hopefully we get train her to "go" on that. Then untrain her when she's better.

Daisy has been a little freaked out but she's settling down a bit. Right now we're just trying to make things as comfortable for all of us as possible. Pictures below are when we got her settled into her pet bed along with a kong which she went to town on. She's not eating yet, but I just got her to take a nice long drink if I held the bowl under her mouth. She'll still devour as many ice cubes as you can bring her. She's currently out cold, twitch a bit in her sleep...just like normal. Normal is good.

The other picture is the shaved leg and the scar...

"Everything went together beautifully" said the vet. Don't think better words could have been uttered. She's drugged at the vets where we just went to visit. We can pick her up after 10 a.m. tomorrow and we'll get detailed rehab instructions then. She can put weight on it, but we need to keep her as immobile as possible the next two weeks...good thing she's crate trained.

The pic below is of her at the vets, the camo wrap is where the IV is and you can see her shaved leg. She's got a nasty, stapled scar on her knee...thankfully she's furry and it'll all grow back (good thing we got her groomed last week!).

We're both feeling much better, but still drained. Thank you for all the well wishes.

So we're waiting to hear from the vet how Guinness did in surgery. Earlier today she was tear-assing around the back yard like she loves to do in the snow, ran onto the concrete and slipped. Think about a rear wheel drive car in the snow, the back end goes sideways, pretty much the same thing here, but her right rear leg went under her body. Puppy screams errupted, as did daddy panic.

Several frantic minutes of scooping her up, battening down the house and getting her to the pet ER were followed by more frantic minutes waiting for the doc...all this while I was hyperventilating a bit...she's my baby, and this fucked me up a bit, especially since I watched it all happen. Aly was great at keeping me together, can't really say much more than that, dunno what I would have done without her.

So, what happened is she dislocated/broke her femur from the groth plate on the knee end. In a way that's the good news. Because it is the growth plate, they are going to put pins in the plate and the femur and the plate will continue to grow and fuse to the bone. The doc feels that she'll have a 100% recovery.

Had she been another month older the growth plate would have been full formed and probably not separated. Of course had it not snowed, had she not go out, had a million other things not been what they are, it wouldn't have happened either.

Aly and I are both a bit drained. The doc will have her at least over night but will give us a call when the surgery is done for an update (sometime after 6), at that point we can go back down and see her. The next 6 weeks of mending will be interesting, especially with our stairs. We're not entirely sure what that will entail at the moment, it'll depend on what the doc things is best.

I'll post updates here as we get them.

I find myself changing my livejournal style almost monthly. When I make the change I really like what I've changed to, but then it grows stale. Currently my style is Minimalism Autumn Time. I've not found one that really stands the test of time with me, do you have one?

Which are you using?