$3000 Mouse

So our poor little Sam has had yet another traumatic experience. He spent the better part of last week puking all over the house. Thurs. we took him to the vet and they did an xray and blood work. It looked like there was something in his stomach, but they thought it might just be food. His blood work came back good, so they did an ultrasound and saw the same mass in his stomach, so they sent us to Dublin Internal Medicine Emergency Hospital to have him scoped. We took him in Friday night and they gave him fluids since he had been puking for so long. Saturday morning they did a repeat ultrasound to make sure they saw the same thing…but they didn’t!! So she asked us if we wanted them to do a stomach biopsy…we told her to go ahead and do it, so they scoped him to do the biopsy and low and behold they found a plastic mouse wedged at the bottom of his stomach just before the intestines….it was wedged in so tight that it took multiple tries for them to get it out, but it’s out and Sam is doing MUCH better he is back to his obsessive compulsive self :) He looks a little funny since they shaved his tummy and a spot on his leg for the IV.

Here’s Sam’s shaved tummy

Here’s our $3000 souvenir

I found Steve and Coco Bean sleeping on the bed…awwww

Things to do in Victoria, BC

Here are some places Steve and I found to go to around Victoria. Let me know what you think.

Wild Play Parks – This looks like it could be fun and different if people are up for it. It’s $39.99/person for the TreeGo Course and it’s about 1 hour north of where the house is.

Empress Hotel Afternoon Tea – In Victoria, not sure what the price is.

Hatley Park National Historic Site – In Victoria. Garden admission is $4.75, $18 for castle tour/person

Vancouver Island Brewery – Doesn’t look like they have tours or tasting, but it sounds interesting…may be worth a try. It’s in Victoria.

Butchart Gardens - $28/person

Canoe Brew Pub – Looks like it could be a good place for food and or beer.

Art Gallery of Greater Victoria – $12 admission. Looks like they have a Edo: Arts of Japan’s Last Shogun Age which may be interesting.

Brentwood Bay Lodge – Looks like this could be a great place for a nicer more expensive dinner. They also have a wine bar, pub & sushi & sake bar.

Butterfly Gardens - $12/ adult

Tourism Victoria Website – Check this website out to look at other stuff to do.

It seems like there are lots of trails and you can rent bikes at places. There are also wineries, meaderies, and cideries. There are also quite a few museums…aviation, navel & military, and history.

Let me know if you find something else of interest and what you think of the things linked to here.

Victoria Vacation Rentals

Okay, so I’ve looked at a ton of vacation rentals in Victoria. These are the top 3 on my list:

NEPTUNE BY THE SEA

4 Bed / 3 Bath (2K/2Q) $2951.92/week

 

ELK LAKE ESTATE

5 Bed / 4 Bath (1K/2Q) $3158.77/week

 

VICTORIA LODGING

5 Bed / 4 Bath (3Q) Unknown Price

Christmas 2008

Well, Steve and I spent most of the week of Christmas SICK!! I got home from a work trip to Portland on the 18th and started getting a little cough on Sunday. I went to work Monday, but ended up coming home early with a fever. Steve got a fever on Tuesday and we didn’t get rid of it till Friday morning. Not the best way to spend Christmas!

Before Christmas I met up with Amber, her parents, her brother, and her niece for a belated birthday dinner. I was really great to see her…it had been way too long!

I made the usual swedish tea rings for friends and family in the couple of weeks leading up to Christmas. I think I made 10 in all this year.

We also went to our neighborhood Christmas party which was a lot of fun. It was at our neighbor’s house and scheduled from 4-6pm…I don’t think we left there until 10pm. We played charades forever and everyone had a really good time. We’ve decided to make it a twice a year event.

Even though I was sick, I made it to my sister-in-laws house for Christmas Eve to deliver gifts. I spent a couple of hours visiting. Unfortunately Steve was way too sick to go. Here are some pictures of our niece and nephew (Samantha and Shawn) from the evening.

 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and has a safe and happy New Year!

Cats

Well, Saturday we had a little more excitement than we really wanted. First thing in the morning we caught Sam chewing on a flower arrangement in the kitchen. We didn’t think much of it until he started dry heaving. After talking with our normal vets office they wanted us to take him to the emergency vet in Dublin since they don’t have overnight observation. We really didn’t want to make the trip into Dublin, so I called and talked to them first. They suggested calling Animal Poison Control (I didn’t know there was such a thing). So we did. They charge a $60 consultation fee, but it ended up being worth it. Our best guess was that he had chewed on eucalyptus which is apparently poisonous to cats. They said to take food and water away from him for 2 hours, then give him 1.5 tsps of milk of magnesia and watch him for 20 minutes to make sure he keeps it down. He did and he seemed MUCH better this morning. And we were happy that instead of a trip to Dublin, we just had to make a trip to the local store!!

We finally decorated the Christmas tree last night. I think this is the first year we’ve had a Christmas tree since we’ve had Coco Bean. She was intrigued by the whole thing. She kept propping herself up in the braches with her front paws. This morning we found a couple of ornaments on the ground, but all in all she has done far better than we ever anticipated. We figured the whole tree would have been toppled over by now. So here is a picture of our tree this year.

Lots of Catching Up

Where to start…we finally finished “the project” and as always, it was just in time for a big event. We even got the carpets cleaned and the tile and granite cleaned and sealed. It was SOOOOO nice to have a clean house again.

We got some new wall art for the front room.

We bought the best litter box in the world. It cost an arm and a leg, but so far it is SOOOO worth it. It actually washes the litter (it uses special washable litter) and then dries it. We have it scheduled to run twice a day. It scoops the poop, mashes it up and it goes down the drain with the wash water. We never have to touch it except to add litter every once in awhile (which we haven’t done yet) and change the sanisolution cartridge (which lasts a month). We were afraid Coco Bean wasn’t going to use it, but after about a week she finally did and with no accidents from either cat!!

Wednesday afternoon I made my annual run to Whole Foods for the turkey and tenderloin roast and made it home by 2 to do a little food prep. We ran a couple of errands and got some dinner and on the way back we got first a text message from the alarm company, then a phone call from the alarm company telling us that our sliding glass door had been opened and asking if we wanted them to dispatch the police. Since we were only 5 min from home we opted not to have them dispatch. We had trouble turning the alarm off when we got home and the poor cats were huddled under our bed trying to get away from the awful sound…can’t say I blame them. We found our back door open a few inches. So whoever tried to break in must have been scared off by the alarm. We were afraid they tried to break in to our neighbors house too so we ended up calling the police out to have them check it out since they were out of town. We found out that our slider, even when locked, can be opened if pulled hard enough…so we dropped a 2x4 in it to prevent that from happening again. A little scare…but all is well.

After all that happened my parents and grandma arrived around 9:30pm. The evening turned out to be a little more eventful than we were expecting!

My uncle came on Thursday morning and Steve’s family came around noonish. We had a great Thanksgiving with! Good food, good wine, lots of desserts, and great company :) Everyone had a really nice time…at least I hope they did :) I know Steve and I did. And now I finally have some more pictures of Samantha.

    

Friday we did a little shopping…no not 4am shopping. We headed out after lunch to help my grandma shop for some new clothes. And she came out with quite a haul too!! Friday night we put up our new FAKE Christmas tree. I always said I would NEVER cave and get a fake tree…well I guess this is what I get for saying never. I do have to say that the tree looks pretty real for being a fake tree. We still don’t have it decorated though…maybe tomorrow night. Mom and Grandma played a little Wii Bowling…I think my dad and Steve got in on the action too, but I didn’t get video of them.

 

 

Saturday morning everyone left and Steve and I headed out to visit with Trisha and Jason and to meet Anthony for the first time. It was so great to see them. Anthony has such a great little personality. For being sick, he was cheerier than I would have been! I wished we lived a little closer and could spend time together more often. We’re hoping to see them again a Christmas.

And finally, to wrap up the weekend, Steve and I went shooting on Sunday. After the attempted break in on Wednesday, Steve decided he wanted to add a pistol to his gun collection, so I tried out a few different guns to see which I liked best. I guess we’re in the market for a Springfield 45 now.

Well, I think that about sums up the big gap in time since my last post. I’ll try to post a little more often from here on out…but no promises :) Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

FINALLY!!!

We have officially finished the crown molding!! We got all of it up last weekend…and let me tell you by the time we got it all up, I was worrying about what this was going to look like because it was UGLY! But with a little sanding, a lot of caulking, and some touch up painting I was really happy with how it all turned out. Our “project” is just about done. We have 4 more doors that need to be sanded, painted and re-hung with the new hardware.

From the kitchen           Looking into the kitchen

 

Looking toward the office  Dealing with bullnose corners…no fun

Anne’s desk in office      Steve’s desk in office

Office looking into hall                   Crown Molding

Here is the new door hardware we are putting on everything