Crazy Chugs

I'm hoping that this video isn't too dark for you guys. I took it when I was at my mom's house. Morningstar and Angel do this all the time--even without jackets. I'll post the strange thing that Angel does in the next few days.

Oh and epic news! On May 7th we went to First Friday in the town next to us to watch the "Three Amigos" for a dollar with dollar pizza and beer. It was a good time. Of course, there was a street party afterward and we walked around. I saw a really large Boston Terrier and then...a Frenchie! I saw my first French Bulldog up close. He was sooo cute...and really hot too, poor thing was snorting. I just had to mention it for all of those Frenchie lovers out there. He was one of 2 in the area that the owner knows about. I wish it wasn't so dark and he wasn't so dark too because I'd totally take a picture of him.

Wordless Wednesday Part 2

Freya the Hunter

I find it kind of amusing that the herding dog does more hunting than the hunting dog. But I think the truth is, she is a lot more aware of her surroundings than Cloud seems to be. Cloud can be obsessed with something sure, but he doesn't see until his nose seems to notice it first. Freya, on the other hand, actually watches her surroundings. She sees things long before Cloud notices them.

So this evening, I noticed Freya was dancing. I always fear that she is taunting a snake, this time it was a bird. This is the third time she has been found with a bird. I'm seriously beginning to think that she is actually hunting them for some reason. I got the fearsome boyfriend to take care of the bird (it wasn't fully dead when I got to it and not where he could survive with help :( ) and that was when I noticed all these little raspberries growing in my backyard.

I spent the last two hours of daylight this evening armed with a shovel and one leather glove (lost the other one) and began digging and pulling out the roots as much as I could. I honestly didn't want to relive last October again. I for see myself spending several nights pulling out those darn vines, which means I need to get some gardening gloves.

Also I found, what appeared to be poison ivy/oak/sumac or whatever it is that is growing out of a tree in the backyard. The boyfriend got some gloves and pulled it out, which was easy being that it was so young of a vine.

Wish me luck on my endeavor! Oh, should I be worried about diseases Freya may get from birds?

Wordless Wednesday Part 1

Here are some pictures of Freya, Cloud, C3 (he died last year) and Cloud's sister Lilly on our trip to Arizona and New Mexico last September.

Sunday's Adventure

So this isn't a Freya post so much as mine and the boyfriend's adventure. We went to the Renaissance Fair!

The Renaissance Fair is a great place to find some neat things to buy, new things to try, and to see neat people there. I wish I took some more pictures on my phone. Some I can't post because the boyfriend doesn't want to be publicized, so here is a random (crappy) picture of Stilts man!

The theme of the weekend was Highland. I was hoping there would be some highland games as I think that is so neat (hot) and maybe a lot of guys in kilts (also hot) but there wasn't. There were some guys in kilts though and some great bag pipes playing (I really love bag pipes.) The boyfriend got his eye candy through countless heaving bosoms thanks to the ever lovely corsets.

We drank some mead (honey wine) and shandy (lemonade mixed with beer) and the boyfriend had Steak on a Stake, while I had a meatball hand pie. For dessert, we each got a keylime pie sundae! Omg, that is pretty good, never occurred to me to add ice cream to my favorite dessert but there you have it.

After we left, we went tot he store the boyfriend wanted to go to in the Atlanta area. Since we did that, PetCo was closed, so there wasn't much chance of me going so we went to dinner at Shabu Shabu.

Shabu Shabu translates roughly to "Swish Swish" in Japanese. This was a Korean restaurant where you picked the meat you want and you cook it in a boiling broth--you swish it. It was a good time, except for when you stupidly eat the fish cake without knowing what kind of fish it is (I'm allergic to Perch.) Here's a pic of my meal.
I chose beef. Boyfriend picked pork. The silver pot is where you cook the meats and vegetables. You can see a hot dog, tofu, Asian sweet potato (no idea what it's called, my mom just calls them sweet potatos), bok choy, cabbage, an egg, glass noodles, a sheet of fish cake (there was also a roll of fish cake too), and the dipping sauce that was both spicey and garlicy. Yum!

After you cook the stuff in the broth, you dip it in the sauce! There were several different kinds of sauce to choose from, but since we stuck out like sore thumbs (boyfriend was one of two white people in the whole place and I'm half white/half Japanese) our server pretty much took care of us. The other real cool thing about the place was the bathroom!

I always hear about all those fancy toilets the Japanese are hoarding (which when we visited family, all I got was hole in floor!)

(picture taken from this site)
I mean after living in the states all I could think about is how can I use this without using the bathroom all over myself. Since I and my mom's family lived in Okinawa and mainly in the section that wasn't totally Westernized at the time--you rarely saw a porcelain throne unless you went to a fancy restaurant or an Americanized one. Man, let me tell ya, I was so ready to go home after our trip just so I could use a proper toilet it wasn't even funny.

Anyway, the toilet at the restaurant looked like this:
See it has controls on the side! It gives you choices for more lumbar support, how warm you want the seat (which was awesome), bidet action for, and air drying and I think even lumbar support. It had a lot of instructions for it and it was so cool! I wish I could have one in the house...maybe one day. I was so excited, I rushed out the of the toilet to tell the boyfriend that he should see if the men's bathroom has one too...sadly it didn't. I still don't know what they have plugged in that goes into the bathroom from the hall way.

The bad part of the night came about two hours later after we got bubble tea. I got this blinding migraine all of a sudden on our way home. I had the full on symptoms of light sensitivity, nausea, sensitivity to smell, and just barely to sounds. I had to put on my sunglasses to avoid the sharp lights from the cars going the opposite direction. Eventually, boyfriend made command decision to go to the gas station, where I got deathly ill and returned to find him with a Sprite ready for me (he's so awesome!)

My guess it was probably the fish cakes that caused the nausea to quickly turn into nausea and MSG causing the blinding migraine in conjunction with the lights. (The night we picked up Freya I got really ill all due to the lights from cars--I got sick in a Walmart too.) So I'm pretty much sticking with Salmon, Tuna, and Swordfish as my fish staples--otherwise, I'll just eat veggies or none aquatic creatures.

Naturally, when I'm dying to get home, we get caught up in traffic for an hour on a two lane high way at 11pm due to an accident. I never thought I'd get out of there. When the boyfriend went to the hospital, he got a bunch of vomit bags...I have since decreed that we need to take one each and put it in our cars in case another situation comes up again.

On that note, here's Freya being loving.

Interesting Night

So tonight proved to be interesting. As some of you may know, corgis were bred to be herding dogs. I suppose part of it is to walk their terrain to see if everything is in its place. Well, Little Girl, did something of the sort tonight.

Except on this night, there was something amiss. Or rather, I should say...something was in the backyard that shouldn't be. Initially, I was really worried that it was a snake by her bark. Which kind of goes like this "bark bark barbarkwoowoowoo bark bark" it's kind of cute but hard to get a recording of as it happens so infrequently.

So it wasn't snake. I was waiting for the boyfriend to run out but decided I couldn't wait too much longer and I ran out there (leaving Cloud in the house--no need to make things worse) and tried to get Freya away from the creature. I ran over there expecting to see something scary...and then found out it was a bird. An injured bird.

I'm not sure if Freya injured the poor thing or if it was injured and happened to befall the wrath of Freya's constant "Mommommommom! Mommomomom!" The bird kept running towards me and then I was trying to grab Freya so I could try to take her inside so I could attend to the bird. But the bird hopped out of our fenced backyard and Freya got escorted by her daddy into the house.

I wish I could've done something for the bird but it disappeared by the time I went back outside. But Freya was sure proud of herself that is for sure. The last time she alerted us it was when Cloud discovered he could get out of the backyard and he was trying to take on a pitt bull next door, which probably was the least brightest thing he could do in his life.

Bath Time with Freya

Initially, when Freya got her first bath, she absolutely hated it! It took a few more tries before she finally realized that she was stuck in the torture. At one point, to my chagrin, she hopped out of the tub. When that happened, it had been a while since I had last given her a bath and well...I didn't account for her growth spurt during that time. But this universal thing happens to her that I've noticed in all the dogs I've had in my life--she utterly flips out.





Frapping (Frantic Random Acts of Play) or zoomies, seem to happen after a bath. I think it is the cutest and funniest thing I've seen happen too. Sorry, if the video is a bit long. I couldn't resist filming her on my phone.

On the Topic of Names

I know a lot people fret about naming their dogs, cats, babies, or other pets (and miscellaneous items such as cars and tvs and stuff.) I, however, am not really one of those people any more. I used to be, back when I was a kid and had no idea of the world. But now that I've had some years to view the world, read books, and watch some tv...I have a huge plethora of a name base that I go through.

The first pets I named in my method were Zainal and Seven. They were my cats (now one is my mom and Seven just disappeared one day :(.) Anyway, I was a huge Anne McCaffrey fan at the time and had just finished reading "Freedom's Landing" where I fell in love with the character Zainal, who was a feline looking alien--oh the irony. Zainal is my sweet boy. Whenever I was down he would cuddle with me. But I can't have him as Cloud would kill him and I can't deal with that. Seven got her name from Star Trek: Voyager---the borg human named Seven of Nine. Mom thought I was naming her Lucky Seven...oh the inner geek could not do such a thing!

Morningstar got her name...well I kind of looked down at her when we first got her and asked her what her name was. The first name to pop in my head was Morningstar. Of course, at the time I didn't correlate this with the fact that I was reading through Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" series.

But when it came down to naming Freya, I went about the mythology route first. I picked a couple of names that I liked. Then I went through the Comic book world, the Anime world, the Book world...and every other world that I loved growing up. Did I mention I was an epic nerd? Oh yeah, totally am.

I narrowed it down to Lucy, Willow, Jubilee, and Freya. Then I met my little girl....and she was the deciding factor in her name. I was heavily leaning towards Jubilee but she was heavily leaning towards Freya. Such is how it goes. I leave it up to the animal or the item to give me a vibe....to make the final decision.

How did you come about naming your pets?

Truth About Poop

Folks, I have a horrible truth that must be told. My little girl has been partaking in the eating of a nasty delicacy (in her mind it's a delicacy) known as her poop. She was doing it for a while...at least when Morningstar first came here was when I think it may have started.

I dismissed it initially. I thought perhaps it was a fluke, but then there came times in which she would regurgitate her contents...and well the truth is in the poop. I have to say that was the nastiest, most gag inducing day of my life.

I tried everything I could. Special powder on both Freya and Cloud's food. I tried fresh pineapple. I tried giving her more food. I did tons of research on the subject, which then suggested I should cut down her food and give her more fiber. Finally, I talked to the doctor about it.

Well, because Freya looked to be good in health and the blood tests came out great. He suggested that Freya decided to feast on her foul droppings because she was bored. She never did it as a puppy, but man did she pick it up after she was a year old.

The habit seemed to have slowed down now that we walk together some nights. I think even grooming her (her most hated ritual of being a dog) and brushing her teeth may have helped as well. I think my pain and lack of focus may have driven her to "comfort" eating. That is the only guess that I can make.

Don't get me wrong. She is still a little hoover. She will eat anything in her path that may be food...vegetation in the backyard for example. I do believe my little girl will always keep me on my toes.

Sleeping with Doggies

I love sleeping with the dogs. But no one really talks about the possible dangerous aspects or rather maybe the people who do, don't usually have a dog as small as Freya sleeping with them. I remember while I was still recovering from surgery and the dogs were sleeping with us and I was trying to get comfortable and I snapped awake when I felt wiggling from where I threw a leg out of the covers to sleep on my side. Apparently, Freya ended up sleeping with us and I woke up heart pounding and pulled her up to my chest--she was dazed still so she let me do all of that.

So, it is very important to know if a dog is sleeping with you, otherwise it could have some dire consequences. That ends my Public Announcement.

The photo above is how Freya likes to sleep. I hate it. I curl up on my side to start and end up stretching through out the night--nothing worse than finding a lump that isn't budging. But Freya is annoying in that she likes to hop on the bed. I mean literally, she turns into a little bunny hopping all over the bed to avoid being put down on the floor. She also really loves her daddy and wants to sleep next to him, which naturally he hates. Where as I love for her to sleep on my tummy, but I only get the rare occasion of that as she usually sleeps by our legs.

Cloud likes to sleep between me and the wall--so our bed is pretty full. I get no foot space and the boyfriend gets maybe an inch of bed before he could feasibly fall over. I'm not really sure who has it worse me or him. Lol. Sometimes, Cloud will sleep on the couch, which is what he prefers after a night of me nudging for space.

But I will say this. I love going to bed and having the dogs go with me to keep me warm in the winter. It is especially nice if I'm in pain and Freya is sleeping on my tummy cause it feels loads better. She makes an awesome heating pad, at the same rate...when she steps on my tummy--not so happy.

It took Freya almost a year before she could sleep with us. Prior to that, when she was a puppy, she would continually pee on the bed if she managed to get up there. No idea what spawned that reaction, but because of that and because of her destructive ways, she was kenneled the bulk of her young life until she hit her year mark. Now Cloud was sleeping with us from the get go. He was good with it, I guess it depends on the dog. The only reason they don't sleep with us is if we are too sick or we are sick of them freaking out about a sound or something in the house that can't be helped.

Wordless Wednesday: Bullystick Edition

My Deepest Apologies

I'm really sorry for not posting almost...4 months now. I'm deeply ashamed. I'm going to do my best to post more regularly from now one. Unfortunately, I still don't have a camera that works and I can't really afford it (medical bills--bleh.) But on the rare occasion that I can snag the boyfriend's camera...I will try and post it otherwise we are down to my camera phone.

So Freya is doing really great! She just had her annual check up with the Vet not too long ago and is still holding steady at 19 pounds and free of heart worms and intestinal worms! Woot! He told me that she is a perfect weight for her size so it's good to know that I'm not under feeding the girl as it's kind of hard to tell as corgi's are greedy puppies. They will often feign starvation if it means more grub on the plate, which Grandma falls for all the time.

Morningstar is already back to fat and maybe fatter since I had to return her back to my mom. Now, Angel, is also really fat too. I think Morningstar is ready to come back home with me as she keeps making daring escapes out the house and heads directly towards my car when I visit.

Cloud is also doing great. He's actually getting sweet with age. Walking him is easier now than when he was 1 years old. Of course, I put a lot of work into it too. Oddly enough, I haven't done that with Freya and I really need to. But 70 pounds vs 19 pounds is a huge difference.

As for me, my painful bladder syndrome isn't nearly bad and I finally managed to sleep through the night these last two months. I can't tell you how much I missed doing that. I'm also thankfully done with the twice a week cath treatment I was being subjected too...that is a whole new kind of pain there. Some people build tolerance to it over time, I am not some people. I've also been working my butt off at both jobs trying to pay off bills.

painful bladder syndrome answers

I know this is primarily Freya's blog, but I don't think she will mind me talking about this subject. I will admit I find myself in a funk over it at times and at others...I'm ok and I deal. I suppose that's partly why I haven't been online anywhere for a while. But I'm going to be ok, it's not a life threatening condition and thankfully it's one of the few that doesn't lead to cancer.

There is some treatment for painful bladder syndrome but mostly it's an inflammatory syndrome that you have to quell. I take a pill three times a day that is supposed to help rebuild the lining of the bladder. Also, they use two pills and put the powder in a fluid that they use as an infusion for the bladder directly (yeah that means a catheter...which I loathe) to help jump start the process. The pills take about 3 to 6 months before it really starts to work.

Since it's an inflammatory issue--I was told that when I'm at my worst with allergies, I can expect to have flares (otherwise known as uti like symptoms.) Essentially, I'm following a low acid and low/no potassium diet right now. Potassium and acids (as well as caffeine and alcohol and spicy foods) irritates the weakened bladder so it's quicker to avoid than the suffer in pain. Oh the pain...it's an interesting sensation that feels like a low voltage going through my gut. Thankfully, I have some fun blue pills that's supposed to help with the spasms.

All in all it's a lifestyle to maintain until things calm down. I won't regain the lost capacity, but the goal is to not lose more. Eventually, from what I've read of the forums dealing with this issue--I can go back to my love of coffee and beer and wines one day. Oh and the occasional chocolate bar. Until then, I'll drink my milk, eat my white chocolates, and try to abstain from the foods that cause me pain.

And We're Back

Freya's Christmas last year. I think I'll post more later.

So I survived surgery. It took a little longer than I thought to be comfortable in front of a computer but here I am! I have loads to catch up on now.

The reason it took longer was...my response to pain is to not sleep. Similarly, my response to be really sick is to not sleep. Instead, my body wants to pace and move and move and move. I'm like a shark...gotta keep moving. The pain killers (Vicodin or Demerol) didn't help at all--no edge was taken off. Honestly, the pain from the surgery wasn't bad at all. It was the side effect of the surgery that hurt something special.

For those who aren't familiar with laparoscopy, they pump in a gas (usually Carbon Dioxide) into the abdominal area which helps the doctor get a better view of the area they are working. That gas can sometimes stimulate a nerve in the diaphragm that goes to the shoulder and the neck. I had such luck and the day after surgery it was like a I had the worst whiplash known to man on top of my right shoulder hurting like I sprained it some how.

In desparation upon realizing that the pain killer didn't work, I filled up a tube sock with some expensive Japanese rice and zapped it for 2 minutes and had it sitting on my neck. I decided that moving will be kept at a minimum, so that meant I was pacing in the living room until boyfriend came home at lunch with a glorious heating pad and ordered me to lay down and rest.

I spent my days watching this awesome British comedy called Black Book. It's hillarious! It's also a sadistic show to watch when it hurts your stomach and your neck to laugh. Boyfriend spent a lot of time telling me to rest and relax, but how can you when your neck hurts to lay down? The little trick I learned the second day when I was trying to get out of the bed was to grab my own hair and guide my neck to the direction I wanted it to go (Amazingly, I was using my stomach muscles a lot faster than boyfriend did after his laparoscopy surgery for his appendix.) The pain in the actual location of the surgery was--like I over did it in the gym doing crunches.

So this week, up until Wednesday involved me catching up on sleep--big time.

The reason for the surgery was for diagnostic reasons. The doctor suspected I had endometriosis (which I had evidence of but it isn't currently not active--though the cells in the tube is also doing something similar as endometriosis), they also wanted to check out my bladder and my uterus (which he suspects ademyosis--but you can't test it...you have to take it out of body for a comfirmation on that one.)

So the biggest thing is my bladder--it's been scarred so I don't hold as much as a normal person, I'm down to 60% and you can't regain what you lose. The problem is called interstital cystitis or painful bladder syndrome. Essentially, it's where the lining in the bladder stops working and allows the things into the bladder that irritates it, which inflames it, which then can scar it. The symptoms are very similar to an UTI. So, please learn a lesson from me--if your doctor doesn't start you off with a urine culture...ask for it. You may have something similar to me--it's pretty common and sadly not very well known. I don't want anyone to have to go through the things I had to to finally get a diagnosis (primary GP thought it was a UTI...that lasted from October to December.)

This episode was probably too much information but there you go. I felt that you deserved to know what was going on since I haven't been on for so long.