More Updates!

Currently Reading: Our Man In Havana by Graham Greene

Yes, I know, haven't been blogging regularly like I'm supposed to. I should be blogging every week, at least once, to keep everyone up to date with what's going on. And you know, normally I would but what passes for normal around here changes all the time.

End of May, right around Memorial Day, things took an odd turn. The other groomer that works at the clinic decided she'd had enough of working there and was going to quit after Memorial Day. No problem. Then she just up and quit with no warning the week before. Seriously, one week before Memorial Day she comes to the clinic, packs up all her stuff and walks out, leaving them with a full slate of dogs on the schedule, some of which had already arrived. Talk about rude. One semi-frantic phone call later and I'm on the scene taking over.

Naturally this put a major kink in my daily routine. I went from being off 2 to 3 days a week to working a full 5-day week just like everyone else. That means less time for chores or errands or blogging. I'm still getting used to it and I've been at it now for 3 weeks. The chores are mostly getting done now and so are the errands but the blogging, that's taking a hit and I don't play Warcraft nearly as often as I used to.

So that was event number 1. Number 2 was my endoscopy. I don't remember if I mentioned it but I know I told several people in e-mail and on the phone. I was having a problem with acid reflux and my GP gave me a referral to see a specialist who said we were going to do the scope. Went in and had that done on the first of June. Pretty uneventful actually. CC had read on a web site that most of the discomfort that you feel from the procedure comes BEFORE you actually have it and that's only because you're worried about having it in the first place. Seriously, there was no pain or anything involved. We went over there for the appointment (I had to fast of course). Went into our little curtained off area. I changed into a gown and climbed into bed. After a while they came and got me, wheeled me over to the scoping room. The nurse tech had me roll over onto my side. She put on all the monitoring wires and sticky things and at some point the doctor came in. I remember the ringing in my ears started to go away which means I was starting to lose consciousness. I had just enough time to switch off my hearing aids and BAM. Next thing I know I'm back in the curtained room facing the wall. A little while later, after everything wore off, I got dressed and CC took me home.

The results! Well the findings from the procedure that day say they found a mild sliding hiatal hernia and evidence of nonerosive gastritis. Everything else was normal. They took a biopsy of something and we got those results on the 6th. That also came back normal. They put me on some new meds and that was it. Yeah, I know, boring right?

So that brings us up to our FINAL update, Citizen Cecille!

Yes, it's true, my wife is now an official AMERICAN! On Thursday she had her swearing-in ceremony and that went just fine. I'll skip the details and let her write about that in HER blog. I took lots of pictures so I know she'll share those too.

And that brings everything up to date except for ONE little thing. Our fabulous Japanese neighbors from downstairs had to move back to Japan. His company cut back on the number of workers they needed over here from Japan. So Wednesday, they flew back to Osaka. We're going to miss them. They were great neighbors. We gave them a picture book of Memphis so they'll be able to look at that and remember the good stuff. There was a teary scene Tuesday morning when we gave them the book. They didn't really want to move.

So now there are THREE apartments vacant in our building. I hope we get more good neighbords. Guess we'll have to wait and see.