Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever

Since late October our four legged friend has had a lot of health issues. He's experienced seizures, extreme pain, leg tremors so terrible it paralyzed him for a few days, severe lethargy, depression and the inability to jump up. We had taken him to our vet, Bay Ridge Animal Hospital, on three occassions and they couldn't find anything wrong with him after xrays, many examinations and a lot of $$$ (I only wish I had bought pet insurance). The vet thought he had a slipped disc pinching a nerve and treated him for a month with muscle relaxers and anti-inflammatory's, but he was showing no signs of improvement. She recommended we take him to a neurologist because there was nothing more she could do for him. After talking to a friend and learning how costly a vet neurologist is, we opted to get a second opinion from a vet who friends in my neighborhood RAVE over. His name is Dr. Woodburn and he practices at Greater Annapolis Veterinary Hospital and I highly recommend him. He is WONDERFUL! He met with us for over an hour on our first visit. He thoroughly examined Winston and decided to test him for Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever since there were several cases in our neighborhood a while back. Sure enough, he tested positive for RMSF. It was a very low positive which means he has probably had it for a while but was fighting it off himself. Or it could be a completely different virus, but either way the W is on antibiotics and is finally on the mend.

RMSF is not something that was common in the past but cases seem to be occuring more frequently these days. This is not something the mediocre vet would test for and I wanted to raise awareness of it. I have to thank my friend Laura who has been raving about Dr. Woodburn for a month to me now. Her 2 Vizlas were so sick and they both had RMSF. She had been hounding me to switch vets and I'm glad I did. Humans aren't the only ones who need second opinions!

First Snowfall

It snowed fairly consistently for a good part of the day yesterday. Typically Winston LOVES playing in the snow when up at his "country houses" in MA and CT :-) but apparently, he much prefers to lie in his bed in the front window and watch it while toasty warm inside. I guess Maryland snow is not as great as New England snow. I for one enjoyed watching the snow fall from my kitchen window all day where I was working with a huge pot of Conni's Chicken Stock recipee was on my stove simmering all day. It was soo good and I have a ton left over to freeze and have the rest of the week while Brad is away.

I had to drop our SUV off at the shop yesterday morning for the 2nd time in 3 weeks. And the glorified Chevy golfcart they gave me as a rental car is not safe to be driving in the snow. Actually, I don't think I would feel safe driving it in dry weather either. We have definitely decided to sell our VW Touareg and I am mentioning it here because I promised the CEO of VW in a letter I have written him that I will continue to share with everyone how disappointed we are for paying for a luxury SUV when in fact, it is a luxury lemon. The catch 22 is that we absolutely LOVE the car.....when it's drivable and not in the shop for up to 3 weeks at a time. Yes, that's right... when it goes into the shop it's never for any less than 5 business days. It is the most comfortable car to drive and it's a tank... making it super safe. We've owned the car for 4 years now and I guess we should have known better than to buy the first production year of the Touareg. In our defense, we've always owned German cars and never had any problems with them. B has spent so much time over the past month negotiating with the sales manager at Fitzgerald to try and get parts comped. The issue is that the engineering of the car is not functional to replace things at all. I'll give one example: In order to replace one head light, they needed to break something and wanted us to pay to replace the broken thing and the 2 additional hours of labor (at $125 per hour) to put the new not broken piece in. All so we can have a headlight to drive our car at night! We were not naive when we bought both our German cars. We knew maintenace would be expensive when warranties ran out and we're fine with that, however the cost of $800 to replace a headlight is absolutely absurd. We are not talking about a Mazaratti here. By the way, we definitely DID NOT pay $800. Brad fought with our warranty company and filed a claim with VW America and did get the part comped along with the labor.

We picked "the beast" up from the shop 2 weeks ago. She was parked in the garage for 4 days and then we took her out on a Saturday. We were in the car for 5 minutes and just as we said "We really love this car, let's just keep it and maybe nothing else will go wrong", the Engine light went on and the sound on the blinkers and computer system went! If that's not a sign, then I don't know what is. So after dropping W off for some tests, we went to test drive a few other SUV's. We have been doing diligent research for the past month and have it narrowed down. We now just need to dump her at Carmax because I couldn't live with the guilt of selling it to anyone myself.

His and Hers Closets

A New Beginning

Tuesday, January 20, 2009, our country's first African American president, Barack Hussein Obama, was sworn into office at the mall in Washington DC with over 1.2 million people watching in 25 degree (fahrenheit) temperatures. Unfortunately, I was out of town up in PA for work so braving the crowds and cold weather wasn't even an option for me. I honestly had no intention of going even before my business trip was planned, but I will say that after watching the excitement from my hotel room on television, I do wish I had attended. Our house is only about 35 miles from DC which would have been a long and overly crowded metro ride in, but in hind sight, it would have been worth it.

This new president brings a new beginning for us as a country. A beginning filled with much needed hope. Whether it is hope for new jobs, regaining our strong foreign relationships that once were, repairing our school system or responsibly ending the war in Iraq. But I think, regardless of our party affiliation or whether or not if we voted for President Obama, we can all agree that we need someone in office who will execute these hopes. I am putting my faith into this president and the tough decisions he will be faced with in the next few days and throughout his entire term.

I have always said that behind every succesfull man, there is an even more succesfull woman. I think what impresses me the most about this first couple is the strength that is very apparent in their relationship and how comfortable they are together. If their children are any reflection (which I know they are) of what they will help this country achieve, I am very excited for the next 4 years.

Who Needs the Bars?

Me and My Girls Saturday night we finally were all able to get together for a "holiday" dinner. With everyones schedules, sitters, etc. it was impossible to make this happen before the holiday's. I was really looking forward to catching up with my girls since I'd been out of town for 3 weeks. We had a great dinner accompanied by incredible sangria pomegranite martinis.... delicious! After dinner, we headed back to my house for the "after party." The guys were more than happy to play Wii all night and after the dance party that was happening until 2am I realized my dining room makes a better dance floor than going out to the bars because:

1. DJ Jivvy

2. No Cover Charge

3. We're the only drunk people on the dance floor

4. Dancing to the same song more than once in the same hour

5. Mo - our on demand bartender

6. No LAST CALL!

Brad decided to show us his moves..... they were moves we've never seen before.....