Smokey's surgery

Smokey's surgery went well - a large mass was removed from his neck/cheek area, and he's already starting to get his voice back, no barks yet but he can do his whine again.    Its funny to realize we pay a lot of $$ for him to get his whine back, we did and we are glad to hear it!  Recovery is going as well as can be expected.

The poor boy hates the cone, but has to wear it so he can heal properly - I thought 10 days, but found out yesterday probably 14 days before he gets his sutures out.  He did get a drain taken out yesterday, so that should help him be a little more comfortable.

We do love the vet we take him to, they kept him overnight after surgery even though he could've gone home -- with our AC being out, and also with a little, curious dog too it was the best decision to have him in the cooler, vet kennel for the night following surgery.

I was telling Kevin last night that a dog recovery may be worse than a person's, at least the person can know WHY the surgery happened.

Life as a Country song

Have you ever felt like your life is a country song (and by country song I mean the ones where everything goes wrong)? That is how I am feeling right now - believe me I know I have MANY things going right in my life, its just hard to not get stuck on the things going wrong.

the big ones:

Smokey needs to have surgery to get his bark back.   He has lumps that we've had looked at before and they are benign fatty tissue; but one looks to be growing on his neck and it may be pushing on his larynx -- it sounds more like he's wheezing (and he was mistaken for a PARROT) when he tries to bark, which is so odd since he usually has a ferocious bark.   He's our old guy (we've had him almost 12 years and he was about full grown when we got him) so there is some worry with having him sedated, but it should help him feel better, and if they can they'll remove some other lumps that may help him move better.

our AC broke on Friday night.....it runs, but doesn't cool.....this is the third house we've had AC issues, so we always knew it was likely to happen....I looked it up and it was late April last year we had the issues (and June...)    I guess we are lucky it didn't happen on a holiday weekend, especially since we'll have guests that same weekend!

In good news we do have water pressure in our kitchen sink again...that was fixed on Friday.

My dad passed away on December 1. I am still very sad about it, and also find...relief is not the right word, but something along that line.. that he is no longer battling dementia. The rest of December was a blur with trying to tell family and friends, make funeral arrangements, and get my mom ready for an already scheduled move. While we'd hoped to have her settled before my dad passed in a way it worked out for us to have something to work on while we were together and needed something to do. I know he is gone, and yet find myself forgetting from time to time. I am not ready to write much more about it, but am struggling with trying to deal with it and find my new 'normal'.

October birthdays

October was a big month in our house.

This little stinker turned 1!  We had Kevin's brother and his puppy over for a little party- we watched baseball and the dogs played and had doggy ice cream.   Sadie ate hers up this time! (last time she wasn't so sure about it, and left it unattended so Smokey got it)   Her puppy cousin Macy was the unsure one about ice cream this time - I think the metal bowl we put it into scared her - so Sadie got part of her serving too!    Another puppy is the best way to wear out a puppy, and they were both beat after a day of play.  Smokey pretty well leaves them alone, he's having a harder time getting around but he still loves the ice cream!

October was also when I turned the big 4-0!   I debated trying to do a party like we did for Kevin's 40th, but decided I'd prefer to take a trip.   I made it a 4 day weekend for myself since my birthday was on a Thursday and spent my actual birthday with my mom -- we had lunch and went to get our nails done, it was fun and a good way to spend the day with the person who really did the work 40 years ago.    We also had a short visit with my dad. 

Our trip was a road trip to the casinos in Lake Charles, we had never been!   We went to the ones in Vegas before going to the ones only 3 hours away.  It was a great get-away.  We stayed at L'Auberge and also took a shuttle over to check out the newer Golden Nugget.   We came out ahead on the craps table, and being right before Halloween both casinos had big costume parties, so we saw some great costumes - we rode the shuttle back with a very creepy Pennywise, and an impressive Jack Sparrow.  I am glad we stayed at L'Auberge - the staff and casino floor folks seemed friendlier, but Nugget definitely has more of the Vegas feel and added more dining options (we even took advantage of my Landry's membership to use my birthday $25 credit for dinner Saturday night).  It was a good short trip, and on the way back we had time to have lunch with my in-laws. 

France recap - Paris

This is part one of several pieces of trying to write up our trip, its delayed but will be a good reference if anyone wants recommendations on what we saw or did (and for when I forget the many many details of our trip).

We had to drop the dogs off the day before to be boarded and honestly that worked well so we could spend time packing and not worry about stressing out Smokey or Sadie getting hold of stuff...my fear was she would chew on a passport.

We also took advantage of no pups at home and went out to dinner with friends.

On Sunday (departure day!), we saw the French team win the World Cup right before we left for the airport, so we knew we'd be going into a country celebrating that win.

We had some food and drinks at the airport , always good to have some extra time....the plane ride was as good as it can be, watched a movie, tried to sleep, wondered how my brother did the even longer trip to Japan....choosing seats so we were in a duo row (I had aisle, he had window) was a great idea...still not real comfortable....when K flew overseas before he was in first class..sorry babe...we are economy pricing...when we landed it was about midnight to us but Monday morning in Paris -- they are 7 hours ahead of Houston.

Our first adventure was getting turned around at the airport and leaving the baggage claim area without our bags...there was construction at the airport and we didn't realize we took a wrong turn until it was too late...we found an info desk and they have a phone to go to call to be let back in....I guess it happens pretty regularly.

That first day was rough due to little sleep and the time change...we took a taxi to the hotel (shuttle I'd arranged either never showed or gave up on us we were so late coming out) and settled in a little bit and then explored right near hotel....found a cafe and had a little food and caffeine....our goal was to stay awake to get on French time. That night we watched the soccer team come home and take the same route from the airport that we did...we had considered trying to get to the parade but with jet lag, crowds and not knowing our way around (hotel worker said metro was closing early for it) it was just not going to happen...We were content with watching from our room.

Our first morning in the hotel, we woke upto realize we'd overslept...its almost 10 am...and we had only 10 minutes for breakfast....and just over an hour before timed tickets for the Eiffel Tower.  We threw on clothes and made it to breakfast, and weren't the last to arrive. I was so happy we made it to the Tower (I stalked their website for months to get these tickets), we had planned to figure out metro but with the time crunch just walked it...  The views from the top were amazing (and yes we waited for the elevator)  I had no idea that science experiments were conducted on it, and Mr Eiffel had an apartment on the top!

That day we also saw Napoleon's tomb and a little of the Army Museum.    Walking back that evening we saw a street closed even to pedestrians and nosey me looked at permits on one of many cars loaded with stuff...they were filming a show called Killing Eve...I'd never heard of it but now  I have to check it out..

The next day we had an alarm set up and got up a bit earlier, we took time to figure out the Metro to get to the Arc de Triomphe, and then wandered the Champs-Élysées, including a stop at a cafe (there were many cafe stops). We got back on metro to get to the Louvre - I'm still amazed at how many pieces of art you can see there that are in books and posters, and the Mona Lisa is so small!

For our final day in Paris we went by train to Versailles (on Kevin's must see list).  The train was an adventure in itself -- we heard someone telling another passenger that we may need to swap trains, based on announcements being made in French.    This was probably our longest line of the trip, but well worth it.  The palace was so opulent and we saw the Hall of Mirrors, where many treaties have been signed.    The palace is also surrounded by huge gardens, and when we read that we could rent a golf cart we knew that was the best way for us to see it. I think K was glad to be in a driver's seat again.    We actually had another couple join us, they were behind us in line and since it seats 4 and was the same price full or not, it made sense to split it.  They were happy to get out of line (they had not even seen the inside of the palace the lines were so long -- we had waited at least an hour and a half to get in), and it was fun to have some English speaking folks with us for a little while.

We stayed at this hotel in Paris, it worked for what we needed, hotels there are just different than here -- the day we left the elevator was broken so we very carefully got our bags down 6 flights of circular stairs.  The front desk staff were very helpful (and spoke English), and the breakfast available in the basement each morning was a good way to start our days -- the girl working the breakfast was so French and had an eager 'Bonjour' for us each morning.

We enjoyed the cafes and also found this Indian restaurant near to our hotel, it was a nice change of pace and honestly so nice to have an enclosed and a/c'd restaurant after several days of open air cafes.