Crappy Week...

This week has been in the real crapper... and still going downhill still so I figured I would post before something else goes on :). So just tab to somewhere else if you don't want to listen to some Generation W whining.

1. This week was scheduled SANS 401 Community Training, and I was a volunteer co-ordinator. Basically supposed to shuttle around, get students registered, food dealt with etc. Spent the weekend, working on stuff til Saturday afternoon when I develop a small case of food poisoning. Saturday/Sunday mostly not pleasant.
2. Monday get up real early to get the room ready for the conference. Dog gets up with me and goes for a quick walk.. eats breakfast seems well. Go to conference and deal with the usual 'missing' packets that happen at any conference, my own billing for the conference (University supposedly will reimburse me, etc). Get a call from wife asking if Dog was ok when I left... her leg has swollen up and she is panting a lot. Wife takes dog to vet because Dog to make sure its not a snake/spider bite. Vet says it looks like a pulled shoulder as dog isn't running a large temp, etc. Get home and go 'wow, thats pretty swollen. The Dog is meant to see another vet on Tuesday as it might be related to her auto-immune disease that had affected her skin this spring. [Lets just say that what we thought were spring allergies.. weren't... she has been pretty happy and not seeming to suffer much. Humans with the condition literally melt.]
   
3. Tuesday get up and dog seems better.. her swelling seems down and she goes for quick walk with me and eats her breakfast. Get to work and find that the parking lot reserved for the SANS students is full with cars. Due to construction, new students were sent to this parking lot.. SANS students try to find parking and end up with various tickets for where they parked. Go try and deal with that but realizes its better left to the professionals who got it all fixed. Get home and see dog is still okish. [Other vet didn't see it as a problem with medications, and it looked like pulled shoulder joint.]
4. Wednesday morning. Dog is listless and not moving.. so its off to the emergency room. Dog has high fever and is puffed up in chest. They get her ready for surgery and find that she has a deep internal abcess and possible necrotic cancer. Get sent home as there isn't much to do. Go to University to drop off the keys as I was the person supposed to open up the computer lab for the SANS students. [Thanks to the people at UNM who covered for me.] Go home and wait by the phone. Explain to 7 year old about why the dog isn't home when he gets back from school, and what is probably happening. [Best question ever: "Dad if I was sick like Dog would you leave me alone at the hospital?"] Get phone call from surgeon in afternoon. Dog is doing better but under super heavy anti-biotics. They have taken samples and cultures, but don't think there was a cancer.. Dog will stay overnight. Spend the night waking up and checking on the Dog who of course, isnt there.
   
5. Thursday morning. Go to get Dog, stay in waiting room while they deal with some other customers.. The lobby is playing the NBC Olympics which seems to be 60% ads, 30% replays of past races, and 10% of whatever is going on right now... with lots of not-so-subtle political commentary.. it was bad enough that the Amercian women didn't place in some 700+ m swimming contest.. but to be beaten by Russians.. I was expecting for a canned 'hiss' from the audience. My wife has to tell me to shut up about my not-so-subtle comments at the tv. The Dog is brought in and she has a nice large tube to drain the abcess and several bottles of drugs to pump her full of bacteria killers. Try to pay for the vet bill and bounce the card... remember that all the other vet bills this month have basically filled it up. Work out a split bill, and take the dog home. On the way home, get 'pushed' by someone in Nevada plates who is shaking his fist and making hand gestures about me not accelerating like a maniac. Have him pass me and watch him get stuck at the next light and then pull into the Starbucks. Get dog out of the car and onto blankets.. deal with 'drainage'. Go try and get some sleep for a while and get a call on my Work cell-phone from some robo-telemarketer telling me that if we drill offshore we can cut gas by a third in 2009. Hang up and come to post because its been one of those weeks.
   

And of course... I have that the EPEL meeting is for next Monday, but everyone else was sure it was this Monday. Oh well, I have food, a place over my head, and hopefully a job to go back to tomorrow