Legally Blonde's Proceedings

I haven't managed to make it to the movie today (hopefully tomorrow), but I have gone to the grocery, done laundry, taken Lola on a walk, watched the backlog on my DVR, decorated for Valentine's, and finally organized the entry closet. Not an exciting Saturday, but at least I managed to tick off several things on my weekend "to do" list. I'm very pleased with the entry closet. You'd really think that I live in some very cold place based on the large quantities of winter accessories that I own! I also had a couple of shelves left for some Lola accessories organization too. Blogs are always better with photos, so here are a couple of the progress with my closet and the decorations. Front Decorations Backyard Decorations This year's addition to the decorations...garland for the mantle Valentine's Tree It was a little sad pulling out my Valentine's decorations because a large portion of my decorations broke a couple of years ago in what I call the

Brian's Uncle Louis was involved in a hunting accident last week where he was shot. He is in the hospital in Houston. He needs lots of things right now. The doctors are tending to many of his needs (one of his docs is Dr. Red Duke), but there are others that we could help out with. Most importantly is prayer... please pray for Uncle Louis and his family, along with his friend Greg who was with Louis at the hunting accident. Also, Louis has received many pints of blood (52 at last update), so they are asking everyone to donate if possible. If you are a donor , send me an e-mail and I will get you the info to give them so that the blood gets credited to Louis.

Okay, not really... I don't have big plans, but I do have some things I would like to accomplish. I'm too tired to have BIG plans. I taught class from 5:30 until 9:40 last night. I didn't get home until 10:00 and had to be right back there at 8:00 a.m. this morning! I am starting to think this semester's class schedule is for the birds! Anyway, I'm still getting used to it, so I'm too tired to do much this weekend. Movies: I have a list of a zillion movies I want to see, but right now, I'm trying to focus on seeing as many Oscar nominated movies as I can before the Oscars actually happen on Feb. 22 nd . Out of the 5 nominated films, I've only seen one... The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. So as you can see, I'm not very close to my goal! I think I'm going to see The Reader tomorrow. I read the book way back in law school and don't remember many details (which is perfect for viewing the movie because they always screw them up anyway when the

Well it took a little longer to hit than they predicted, but the ice storm '09 hit just in time to get me out of class on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning! My dreams of sleeping in were killed by a cute little white dog. First let me start this tale off by saying that Lola was very sleepy last night until I said "go get in your kennel". She always runs right in but not last night. For some reason she had it in her head that she was going to sleep with me last night... guess she was making up her own set of "ice day" rules. Finally, I got her in her kennel and after a few moments of expressing her displeasure, she was fine...until 6:00 a.m. Then I heard a little dog crying pitifully . I came and let her outside. She didn't care for her super crunchy yard and had a hard time finding just the right place to go potty. Then she ran inside and ran into my room, hopped up on the bed, curled up and sacked out. Man was she sawing logs! I of course, never succes

Well they are predicting one of the worst ice storms in several years to hit in a couple of hours now. I'm really a bigger fan of snow, so I'm not real hyped up about it. I'm really hoping that I don't have to get out and drive in it. So, as long as they cancel my classes tomorrow night and Wednesday morning, I'm good to go. Actually, I could use a couple of days off. I know, I know, it is only Monday! Well this weekend I had quite a list of tasks to accomplish around the house. My house was beyond a disaster zone going into the weekend. In fact, I accidentally left my garage door (and thus the door from the garage to my house) open when I went to my classes on Thursday night. When I got home I went in to search and see if I'd been burglarized. When I got into my bedroom and bathroom, I thought to myself that it was very sad that if I called the cops right then, they would have thought that a burglary in fact had occurred and my house had been ransacked

Okay, first I have to say that per Lisa's request, I have changed one of the "what I'm thankful for's " from That "I" wasn't shot in NOLA to that "We" weren't shot in NOLA. Lisa pointed out that I should have been thankful neither of us were the murder victim as that would have really put a damper on my trip if she had been killed! So here are some more NOLA tales... On Saturday night we looked and looked for some good music (our favorite piano bar didn't survive post-Katrina). We went from place to place, but never found any that was great. We wondered all the way down to the end of Bourbon St. (at Canal) and there was a brass band of at least a dozen members playing in the street. They looked like a high school band and let me tell you they were FANTASTIC! They had a huge crowd gathered around them and a bunch of people dancing in the street. It was great fun and definitely worth the price of the trip alone! Also on Saturd

I arrived home from New Orleans on Monday night about 11:45. Tuesday was so busy with meeting my Dad to get Lola, inauguration watching and starting the teaching of my classes last night and this morning, that I'm just now getting to post New Orleans stories and photos. Here is the story that accompanies the photo below. Lisa and I went to a restaurant that I normally LOVE on Saturday night, Brigtsen's . It is not even in the quarter, but down at riverbend , so it is really out of the way, but they have a yellow fin tuna TO DIE FOR! Always have had it... every time I've been there, every time my parents have been there, every time we've had friends go there...not Saturday night though. I cannot describe how deflated I felt as I read that menu (not only was I not going to get my dish, but had wasted a $20 cab ride there and a $20 cab ride back)! After settling for a far inferior dish for dinner, Lisa and I decided we weren't in the mood for dessert right then, bu

Whether you supported Obama or not, I'm not sure how you can go through today and not think to yourself "What a Country!". Many people get wrapped up in the person in office (I'm saying person, because someday I truly believe that a woman will be elected). There is no disputing that it is an awesome thing that we have now sworn in our first African American President some 45 years after a reverend from Alabama spoke about the dream in almost the same exact spot. There is no denying that it is wonderful to see the passing of the torch from one generation to another. But most awe inspiring to me is not those facts, not who the person is, but that we passed the torch with no bloodshed. So many places in the world, leadership does not pass from one person to the other like ours did today. Our blessing as Americans is a system that has worked exactly as those brilliant Founding Brothers hoped and planned that it would over 200 years ago. Today and every other time that t

Today was the day for Lola to go to Wichita Falls for her check-up. Most dogs that have been through her ordeal don't want to go back into the vet clinic, but not Lola, she was super excited as soon as we pulled up! Everyone at the hospital got to see the real Lola today, not the sick Lola they were used to...today she was freshly groomed and super spunky and talkative! Because her progress had been so good, they just did blood tests instead of another ultrasound. When the results came back, Joe (our vet) couldn't believe it. He was amazed. He said that he could tell that all of her organs were functioning better and as far as the pancreas goes, some pancreatic enzyme that they measure was off the charts the other day (which I guess 1500 is where they stop measuring and her's was even higher than that) and today it was 500 which was perfectly normal! Now she may be able to have her bladder stones removed as early as March instead of the 5 months they thought a couple of we

Well, not really. I should be getting ready for my trip to New Orleans, but I've been procrastinating. I just found out (Thanks Abby) that we are lucking onto a great art exhibit in NOLA called Prospect 1. It closes on Sunday, so we will have Saturday and Sunday to see it. Several of the installations you can walk to, but others you can take a free shuttle service to them. Several are in the lower 9 th , which of course really excited Lisa and I (I'm sure much to the dismay of our family). We both can't wait to go see the reconstruction that is going on in the Lower 9 th . Maybe we will run into Brad and Angie since they are doing their big project there...wouldn't that be exciting! This is apparently a really big deal...it was even written up in "New York Magazine". Lisa and I have a way of dumb-lucking ourselves into these large "art events". When we were in NYC 4 years ago, they had just put up the huge art installation "The Gates&quo

Well for all the money I saved yesterday, I guess I rewarded myself with a splurge today! In reality it was a business paid for splurge. I got an iphone . I wasn't going to get the iphone because I didn't want to pay the extra service charge on a monthly basis, but once I discovered that so many of the other phones required extra service if you wanted to utilize their features too, I broke down and did it. One thing I really wanted to do was be able to get and send e-mails from my phone. I thought that would be helpful both personally and from the business side of things. I've also been wanting another ipod so that I could have one for the house and one for the car, and this solves that problem too. The other good thing is that when I go walking, I will have both (I usually leave my phone at home because I don't want to keep up with both). I'm currently downloading my music playlist on the iphone and will probably spend the remainder of the evening playing

Today I had no court settings and no meetings set until 4:30, so that meant that today was my day for running errands. And let me tell you, today was a day for deals! I had to go to Frisco because my college e-mail account password had expired and you can't change it unless you are on a computer at the college. Once done with that I headed to Hobby Lobby and bought some ribbon I needed for a valentine's day decoration. I got that for half price...the deals begin. I stopped by Sam Moon because I told Lisa I would pick something up for her and I also wanted to look and see if they had any cute "carry-on" type bags for my trip this weekend. I got a really cute giraffe print with hot pink trim bag (while this wasn't on sale it was cheap because it is after all Sam Moon...so I'm still counting it as a deal). Then I went to the mall. I didn't so much get deals there but had some successful returns. I exchanged a soap at B&B works that I didn't lik

Today is the day after the Globes, so I have to give me recap of things I liked, things I disliked. Loved, loved, loved that Kate Winslet won two globes last night. Have loved Kate for years (since "Sense and Sensibility") and though she has been nominated several times, has never won. I was very pleased that "John Adams" won almost every time anything from that was nominated. It was simply fabulous ! The only downside to "John Adams" winning was that it beat out a nomination from "Recount" which was also great. I'm sad I hadn't seen more of the nominated movies, but that gives me a goal moving toward the Oscars. Today is also a day when I think my job sucks. I found out that a client that I represented killed herself. More distressing is that I represented her in a CPS action where the state had removed her kids. She really hadn't done anything major to cause any harm to the kids, so I fought for months and months and fina

I'm so excited because tonight is the Golden Globes. I LOVE the Golden Globes and last year they were cancelled due to the writers strike, so it has been a while. I'm trying to get all my chores for the day done so that I can enjoy them tonight. I love watching the red carpet before hand and the entire awards show. I've made some progress this weekend with my list of "to do's"... 2 of the 3 tress are undressed and taken down. I just have to finish taking down the decorations in my bedroom and then my house is Christmas-free again. I've also started the process of revising a syllabus for each of my three classes. I wanted to be done with that well before now, but as you know, some things came up over the holidays and well, nothing went as planned! Hopefully I will be done with that today also. For a Lola update: Her appetite has completely returned to normal. She loves the newest of her new food. She also has plenty of toys drug out, so that is also a good

A little late, but I guess better than never! Here are our Christmas photos... Below is actually a photo of Christmas Eve. Lola keeping watch over the stockings. It's finally Christmas morning! Lola waiting patiently to see what Santa brought her! Lola and her Santa loot ( unfortunately all of her favorite treats that Santa brought aren't on her new restrictive diet, so they were returned to Wal -Mart yesterday!) Milly opening her stocking stuffers . Milly and her new hedgehog toy. Mom's side of the family came for lunch. Here is Lola and her great-grandma, Raenell . My grandma Raenell and me--Stuffed from a great lunch (thanks mom!) My grandma was getting a real treat from my grandfather... A surprise trip to Maui (her dream trip). To unveil the surprise, we bought her several things to take on the trip and wrapped them all separately (travel bags, hawaiian shirts, etc.) Here she was unwrapping the flip flops that we bought her. I'm sure she thought we had all l

I would say that Lola is about 95% on the spunk-o-meter, that being up from about 90% yesterday. Yesterday, she pulled a couple of toys out of the toy box and played for a bit. She also was very interested in her favorite night pass time of ratting outside (looking for rats along the back and side fence). Today, she has chased three squirrels out of the yard, played with her toys some more, and got paper out of the trashcan while I was away and shredded it like a canine paper shredding machine! She has been eating pretty well, so I went and bought a new kind of food that she is eating (because of course she doesn't like the $25 bag of food I purchased last week from the vet, but now prefers the kind she was getting at the hospital during this last 5 day visit!). The vet says that the more she eats the quicker she should heal up, so I think that is a good sign too. We are still dragging to get back on schedule after being out of town for so long unexpectedly. It would be a littl

Anyone who thinks that dogs don't have the ability to reason and manipulate should totally meet Lola! First, a little background to this story... Lola has always slept in a kennel which is located in my living room. ALWAYS. There had been two nights prior to this illness that she had been allowed to sleep in my bed. The first time was the very first night I owned her. I tried to get her to sleep in the kennel that night, but since I had yet to purchase earplugs for my roommate and myself, that turned into an impossibility. The second night had been the night she got home from the hospital during her HGE bought when she was just over a year old. Then of course she slept with me when she was home last week because she was so sick. Lola loved her kennel. She often would go get in even before I told her to. Usually when I hit the off button on the remote, she would make a dash to her kennel. Okay, so back to last night... I said, Lola it's time for bed. What did she do

Here is a side by side comparison of the Ugg Fluff Mama boot and Lola's legs. Doesn't it look like she is wearing a pair of Fluff Mamas?

Well Lola and I truly understand the saying "Home Sweet Home"! We arrived home about 1:00 this afternoon and I'm not sure who is happier to be at home, Lola or me! I went to WF yesterday morning and got her to eat some. Our vet wasn't there yesterday, so I didn't really get to speak with anyone for in detail updates. I went to run a couple of errands and then saw a movie to kill some more time. I then went back to the clinic later in the afternoon and got her to eat some more. Lola was definitely ready to go home yesterday. They had moved her to a bottom kennel and she kept jumping over me and running for the exit! This morning I was using the "thinking positive" technique and packed all my stuff in the car before heading to WF. When I got there she was again more than ready to leave. Our vet was back and he said that she could go home today. We left with three kinds of medicine (one for nausea, one antibiotic and I believe that the third is pepcid). I&#

I called the clinic this morning and they said Lola can't go home today because she didn't eat yesterday. I'm going to go up in a little bit to see if I can get her to eat. I really wanted to go home today, but I do want the vet to keep her until he knows she is okay to go home. I don't want a repeat of last weeks dismissal and then return! I will post more when I have actually seen her.

I drove up to WF in icy conditions this morning to check on Lola. She was happy to see me again. If I stopped petting her, she would paw at me or headbutt my arm to make me start up the petting again. She even talked to several of the dogs who walked by. She had quite the exciting Sunday evening (possibly early Monday morning)! She pulled the IV out of her arm AGAIN. As if that isn't enough, there was some sort of burglary at the clinic. Someone broke in and got to their safe. Thankfully they didn't steal Lola (though as Lisa pointed out people usually only steal healthy pets)! Lola and Elvis the cat were the only witnesses though. No report yet on whether she will be subpoenaed to testify! Speaking of Elvis the cat, there is a really cute cat at the clinic who is in need of a home. I would take him if I was in the market for a cat and didn't have so many allergic people around. I'm trying to talk Lisa into adopting him as a playmate for their cat Metarie,

The vet called this morning, but since I'm in the land of no AT&T cellphone signal, it went straight to voicemail. ARGHHHH ! He said in the message that there weren't many changes and Lola had eaten a little bit this morning. He then went on to say that he would be back at the clinic at 5:00 if I wanted to visit. Have I mentioned that I love this guy? I was so excited that he offered me the opportunity to visit today! I was of course there at 5:00 on the dot, just as he was walking in. Lola was so excited to see me! She was super spunky today...Almost just like the normal Lola! I took her on a little walk and she gave a little growl at the other dogs she saw. When we came back into the clinic, she jumped up on one of the techs there. As far as eating goes, the vet tried her on dry food this morning. He said that she tried to eat a stray piece of popcorn that she found on the floor this morning, so that was an indication that she might have a bit of her appetite back. I was

The vet called and woke me up this morning, which gave me a heart attack. He said she was no worse, maybe a little better. He wanted me to bring some chicken to see if she would eat. I got up there a little after 10:00. Lola was very alert and greeted me with a kiss and wagging tail. She is the only pup with a baby in her kennel (her toy pink elephant " ellie "). She also was giving Ellie kisses. No go on the chicken though. The vet came back and talked to me. He said that he didn't believe this episode was life threatening. He said that he believed she was going to pull through. He said that this will probably be a life long challenge for lola (a troubled pancreas including possible diabetes) and will require a strict diet. I went and killed a little time and then stopped back by about 12:00. She still wouldn't eat the chicken. After giving her a million kisses, I left for the day. The vet explained a little more about the feeding tube. He said that it

Lola seemed to be feeling better today. She had chased a squirrel out of the yard, greeted me at the front door when I returned home from a meeting and even jumped up on the couch, but then I noticed that her skin looked yellow. I called the vet again and he said, yep, bring her in. We threw things in the car and headed for Wichita Falls. I wanted to go back to this vet because I didn't want to have to reinvent the wheel at a vet in McKinney. We got there about 2:00 and the vet had left to go to a funeral. I went to Target to get some items I realized that I had forgotten (underwear, deodorant, etc.). When I got back to the clinic, our vet had returned and done an ultrasound on Lola. He said that her pancreas is very enlarged (possibly a tumor, though I guess it is hard to tell the difference on an ultrasound). She is yellow because her pancreas is so enlarged that it is cutting off a valve or bile duct in her gallbladder. He believes that she has chronic pancreatitis as

I spoke to the vet in Wichita Falls this morning. He was having a tough time making the call about whether I should bring her back in. He decided to double her dosage of antibiotics for this morning and this evening. If she isn't better then I will take her in to WF tomorrow morning. Our vet is the one on call all weekend. He said because she hasn't gotten a lot better that she has basically narrowed it down to the pancreatitis because she would have been better faster with the HGE.

Well, today's not a good day for Lola either. She doesn't have as much energy as she did a couple of days ago, but then that is probably because she isn't eating. At around 5:00 p.m. we reached the 48 hour mark of NO FOOD! So, after trying everything I could think of to get her appetite back (including the new addition of scrambled eggs today), I resorted to cramming food down her throat and holding her mouth shut until she swallowed. This was successful in getting down about 6 pieces of chicken, probably about a tablespoon of scrambled eggs and maybe about 2 teaspoons of hamburger meat. I have to say that she wasn't loving it. I'm hopeful that maybe a little bit of protein in her might get her a little more energy for tomorrow. I'm wondering if her antibiotic might be making her feel nauseous . I plan to put a call into the vet as soon as they open in the morning to see what can be done about her hunger strike.