casey kasem top 10

...and here is #1 for the week! Ive been workin' on the railroad!


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owie update

Our patient is resting comfortably in the front yard. Poor thing, I swear she lost a pint of blood through her toe nail. I might have to re-name the "fire hydrant red" I wanted to paint her nails to Blood red...

Owie!!

'

So, I went to paint koompa's nails today and decided I would give her one last trim (for a few weeks anyway). So, I got out the trimmers and cut a few nails. they were lookin nice! So I decided, what the heck, lets just chop this one last nail down. Kapush! (thats what bee said anyway)! Cut the quick. Ouch, blood. lots of it. So Bee was a good helper and got some wipies for me. Then we gave Koompa a leftover piece of pizza to make peace. We wonder if Koomps thought it was a fair trade? Well, Im not gonna paint her nails for a few days!! Lets her recover from that!

I didnt wash my hair yesterday so you can imagine by last night it was not so "fresh" shall we say. Who needs hair product when you have natural oils? Anyhow, last night after the girls went to bed, I was messing with it, trying to give myself a really funny hair do, because I wanted to see how long it would take to get scott to notice, and then what he would say. I had the bangs (which, by the way are so long they are no longer bangs in my book) combed down to the side, and sort of greased into place. Then I had the side hair pulled back in a clip. and the rest just sort of hung there. I went outside to try to get scott's attention (since he hadnt noticed in what seemed to me to be an eternity (about 30 minutes), and I was getting sick of this doo), and it was then, that the people who are "thinking seriously" of buying the house next door came over to introduce themselves to me. Man was I embarrassed with my hair do!! If they dont buy the house, I think we know why!

Just wanted to say, Bee and Franks, we love you soooooooooo much!

pet-i-cures

Well, now that we are taking Koompa's nails seriously, we have had to do some research on doggie nail polish. Im wondering, of course, about brands, colors, about what is safe, easy, fun... Whadya think? Should we get Fire hydrant red? Poodle Pink, Doghouse Blues, or yuppy puppy (not sure what color that is!).

Koompa nail update

Got three nails done today, about half centimeter each. Im thinking each nail in the front needs two rounds, and the back only needs 1 round... i know i know we should have done this last christmas... anyhow, if we do this everyday, then we should be done in 10 days, plus a day to paint, another day for a second coat, so 12 days. We will give her a spruce up pedicure about a month after that to ring in her 14th b-day.

since koompa cant run much anymore with her arthritis and what not, her toe nails have grown quite long. (they used to self trim on the pavement from running). We are now having to trim her nails. First time I tried, I cut down too far and it caused her to bleed through her nail. I felt soooooo bad. Next time I got up the courage, I cut mere millimeters off so as not to hurt her. And, well, that didnt help too much. Besides, she hates getting it done. After clipping one nail, she's had enough and tries to slink away.

Googling for some insight into clipping doggie nails offered some advice:

"Most dogs do not like having their toenails trimmed. Start trimming toenails in young animals so that they get used to the process. " OK, considering she is 13, we need more ideas.

"First of all you need to gain confidence and portray this to the dog clipping nails is easy once you get the hang of it. Find someone strong enough to hold your dog for you; it is really hard to hold the dog and clip the nails at the same time. " OK, looks like scott and I will have to schedule this task together!! Unless we have any other strong volunteers?

"Clipping your dog's nails might be easier than you think. Have a groomer or your veterinarian show you how to do it." Maybe this is the route we will have to go.

OK, lets not forget this advice:
"Once nails are clipped and filed, nail polish may be applied. We do not recommend using nail polish for humans. Instead there are epoxy enamel polishes for dogs available from grooming suppliers. Good dog nail polish is very durable."

Should we show before and after pics? We really net to get this process rolling!!

MIA Part II

Man, we are really slacking on our new years resolution to post everyday! Will try to do better when the semester ends. Our excuse this time around is that I was in Chicago all week last week (with the girlies) for a work related meeting. The three big highlights of that trip were seeing my parents (who were also at the meeting) and michelle and gang, taking the girls on the navy pier ferris wheel (more on that later), and watching the snow blow sideways, upside down and round in circles from our 28th floor view of lake michigan. Oh and lets not forget Bee calling my mom "Bun." I wont mention how the stroller broke in the train station and having to carry 3 backpacks, a computer case and frankie all at once! Im now in New Orleans for another meeting, and scott's got both girls, both dogs, and both hermit crabs. Then when I get home he heads off to Boston! Yeesh. So that is us in a nutshell.

OK more on the ferris wheel. You could see navy pier from our hotel room, and I kept eyeing the water and the boats. On tuesday afternoon I decided to blow off the meeting and take the girls down to navy pier. To our surprise there is a ferris wheel there, and Bee was so excited to go on it. I thought what the heck, and bought a ticket (kids under 42 inches are free!), and the three of us went on the wheel. Well, come to find out there are no seat belts on the wheel, and the wind was blowing and our little cart kept rocking. Bee and Frankie were having such a blast, and I was a bit freaking out! Bee wanted to go on again the next day, but it was snowing sideways and I didnt think that was such a good idea! So I highly recommend the ferris wheel for all!!!

newest members of the family

Balla and Cho-cho are our two hermit crabs. We started with Balla, which we got for free complements of NSTA... but then we read that hermit crabs are social creatures and Bee thought Balla needed a daddy, so we went and got Cho-cho. We also got them a new terrarium, a heat lamp, and a fun climbing stick. these critters like warm humid places... not exactly michigan... im sure hoping their new digs keep them healthy and happy! We got the terrarium with the locking top because Frankie kept trying to take the crabbies out! these are phone pics so they arent so great, but you get the idea!

its 28 degrees going up to 31 today.... but there is always a silver lining... brown recluse spiders cant survive in this climate!! Well Balla is doing better since we turned the portable heater onto her tank. We need to get a new tank with a heater as this climate may kill her. She needs temps between 72-80... Bee thinks she needs a daddy so we will probably get her a mate at the petstore, too. (Balla is our new hermit crab). We will try to report back later with pictures!

MIA

sorry we've been MIA. Between crazy travel schedules and work kicking our butts.... its been hard to post. But here is an update: Saturday morning while I was in st. louis I noticed a painful small bump on my arm, just above the elbow, just like a bug bite. In fact I first thought, oh I got a mosquito bite! The bump itself is small, maybe half the size of dime, and it looks like it has a little puncture wound in the middle, and its a tad more elevated than a mosquito bit, and bit harder to the touch. It really hurts to touch it (that is how I noticed it!). It sort of itches around it, but not really. Monday I noticed that the bump is the same size, but its red around it (dime size), then its got a white (well skin colored) ring around that (so that would be nickle size), then another red ring around that, that is flat and wide (maybe a cm wide) - so all together we're talking maybe half dollar size.
I called the docs and they told me to come in this morning . this morning my whole arm was really hurting and the red ring around the bite was bigger. Anyhow, when I went to the docs they told me they thought it was a brown recluse spider bite. So i have to take cephalexin for 10 days and put some steroid cream on it. I feel a little pukey today too, but that's apparently a common reaction to a brown recluse bite.

Other than that, we're all headed off to chicago this weekend for easter - hopefully it will warm up some. suppose to be 32 tomorrow and the day after! our poor flowers!