As of 12 noon today, my husband is unemployed. He worked for Interwoven, which was acquired by Autonomy recently and his job was redundant so he's now my house husband for as long as it takes him to find a new job.
He had 2 interviews in the past couple of weeks, so we are keeping our fingers crossed something comes of one of the opportunities. Until he gets a job, he will be tackling the honey-do list on a daily basis. There is already a list on the kitchen counter started for him. I'm quite excited about this (trying to be positive about his new status) because we can get a lot of un-finished projects finished, hopefully.
And.. The timing couldn't be more perfect for him, March Madness starts this week... Enjoy the games hubby!
Monday, March 16, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
The Dog Who Ate Corn
Spring is around the corner and I am trying to decide which flowers and vegetables I’ll be planting. I plant a small vegetable garden in our back yard every year. I neglect it, eat very little of what I plant, but I love the act of planting, the challenge of remembering to water it and seeing things grow. I usually plant heirloom tomatoes, zucchini, bell peppers, eggplant and corn. After last summer, I will never plant corn again….
We have a portable gate that keeps Murphy from going to the bathroom all over the back lawn. Now that we have a little one, we try to minimize her chances of stepping in Murphy’s ‘leftovers’ as I’ll refer to them here.
One day last summer we left that gate open, at a time when the corn was only a few weeks from being ready. Murphy had gone outside and it was a little too quiet for a little too long. With our dog and our daughter, when it’s too quiet for too long, there is nothing but trouble transpiring.
I found Murphy munching away at all the corn husks, corncobs, corn silks and corn stalks. He was not about to leave anything behind. He even went after the zucchini as well. I brought him back inside and thought nothing of what he ate and was bummed there would be no corn from the garden that year.
Later that evening I was IM’ing with my friend Liz (who happens to be a vet, and a very good one too) and mentioned that Murphy had eaten the corn from our garden. It was a funny story and she would appreciate it. This is when the cute dog eating the corn story turns. Ignorance is actually sometimes really bliss. She immediately went into ‘vet’ mode and told us to watch him, corncobs are not digestible and it could cause an obstruction (and this is very bad). Watch him for lethargy, vomiting, loss of appetite, etc…
Well, 24 hours later the vomiting started. My husband was between jobs and was thankfully at home that day. He called me to tell me Murphy was getting sick and he took him in to our official vet. Murphy had x-rays, we contemplated surgery, and we consulted with our official vet and our unofficial vet (and savior, Liz). It was near closing time for our official vet and after several discussions we took Murphy to a local ER vet clinic. If he needed surgery, at least someone would be with him the entire night. The ER Dr. decided to induce vomiting to see if Murphy could rid himself of all that very fresh and very tasty corn he had consumed the day before. It seemed to have worked, but they kept him overnight to monitor his progress and would call us with an update or the need to do surgery.
I don’t know how he did it, but Murphy escaped surgery, again. The dog has nine lives and has used 2, maybe 3 of them already. He has no idea what happened and the $4.00 I spent on the corn plants in the back yard ended up costing us $2000+ and worth every penny since Murphy didn't need surgery.
There will be no corn in the garden this year. I'll have to find something more easily digestible to replace it.
We have a portable gate that keeps Murphy from going to the bathroom all over the back lawn. Now that we have a little one, we try to minimize her chances of stepping in Murphy’s ‘leftovers’ as I’ll refer to them here.
One day last summer we left that gate open, at a time when the corn was only a few weeks from being ready. Murphy had gone outside and it was a little too quiet for a little too long. With our dog and our daughter, when it’s too quiet for too long, there is nothing but trouble transpiring.
I found Murphy munching away at all the corn husks, corncobs, corn silks and corn stalks. He was not about to leave anything behind. He even went after the zucchini as well. I brought him back inside and thought nothing of what he ate and was bummed there would be no corn from the garden that year.
Later that evening I was IM’ing with my friend Liz (who happens to be a vet, and a very good one too) and mentioned that Murphy had eaten the corn from our garden. It was a funny story and she would appreciate it. This is when the cute dog eating the corn story turns. Ignorance is actually sometimes really bliss. She immediately went into ‘vet’ mode and told us to watch him, corncobs are not digestible and it could cause an obstruction (and this is very bad). Watch him for lethargy, vomiting, loss of appetite, etc…
Well, 24 hours later the vomiting started. My husband was between jobs and was thankfully at home that day. He called me to tell me Murphy was getting sick and he took him in to our official vet. Murphy had x-rays, we contemplated surgery, and we consulted with our official vet and our unofficial vet (and savior, Liz). It was near closing time for our official vet and after several discussions we took Murphy to a local ER vet clinic. If he needed surgery, at least someone would be with him the entire night. The ER Dr. decided to induce vomiting to see if Murphy could rid himself of all that very fresh and very tasty corn he had consumed the day before. It seemed to have worked, but they kept him overnight to monitor his progress and would call us with an update or the need to do surgery.
I don’t know how he did it, but Murphy escaped surgery, again. The dog has nine lives and has used 2, maybe 3 of them already. He has no idea what happened and the $4.00 I spent on the corn plants in the back yard ended up costing us $2000+ and worth every penny since Murphy didn't need surgery.
There will be no corn in the garden this year. I'll have to find something more easily digestible to replace it.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Coffee Murphy - Dogs by Bri
Murphy is our first born. I didn't give birth to him, but he's our first 'child'. He's a wonderful Golden Retriever that we love dearly. He's cuddly, he's very mellow and always has been, he loves butter/cheese/ice cream/lettuce and tolerates our 18 month old jumping on him. He will let you pet him for hours and hours and has convinced many people to do just that. He's mischievous and also a thief at times (steals items out of the changing table baskets in Abby's room, will steal my husbands socks, my flip flops and the occasional children's toy all to get attention). We personally think he is the best dog in the world!
My good friend Liz had a coffee painting done for us of Murphy and I love it. Brian Vegter of 'Dogs by Bri' did the painting and it's framed and proudly displayed in our home. The coffee paintings are very reasonably priced and he does such a great job.
This is the photo the painting was done from (that's Liz's dog Kiely next to Murphy). This is one of my favorite pictures, almost an impossible shot to get two dogs to sit still and look directly at the camera.
These are the 2 versions of Murphy that Brian painted. The first with just coffee and the second with coffee and ink. The just coffee one is the one we have. Doesn't it look like him! Someone else purchased the coffee and ink painting, Murphy is famous now...
My good friend Liz had a coffee painting done for us of Murphy and I love it. Brian Vegter of 'Dogs by Bri' did the painting and it's framed and proudly displayed in our home. The coffee paintings are very reasonably priced and he does such a great job.
This is the photo the painting was done from (that's Liz's dog Kiely next to Murphy). This is one of my favorite pictures, almost an impossible shot to get two dogs to sit still and look directly at the camera.
These are the 2 versions of Murphy that Brian painted. The first with just coffee and the second with coffee and ink. The just coffee one is the one we have. Doesn't it look like him! Someone else purchased the coffee and ink painting, Murphy is famous now...
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