dogs

i've been doing a lot of thinking lately about canine health. a friend of ours recently discovered a lump on his dog's leg, and it turned out to be bone cancer. he sent me an email, and memories of working at the vet lab immediately came flooding back. dealing with all kinds of animals in various states of health, including dogs on chemotherapy and cats on kidney dialysis. some animals are not so lucky; i had a difficult time coping with some things. walking into the fridge to get lab supplies and stepping over bodies awaiting necropsy. opening the freezer containing animals post-necropsy. eating lunch with the pathologists, chatting about their 'cases'. needless to say, it was a short period of employment. i am an animal person, a dog person in particular, and i was unable to separate myself from my 'patients'. for some reason it was much more difficult than working in a human lab.
when this friend talked to my husband about what he had decided to do for his dog, it really made me think about what i would do if i were in his shoes. if my dog was terminally ill, what would i do? would i spend the thousands of dollars to buy her another year of life full of needles, drugs, and side effects? would i simply let her be; que sera, sera? would i give her painkillers to ease the pain until the end? when do you make the ultimate decision that enough is enough, and that she would be happier in the next life?
I have to tell you that these are not easy thoughts and to be honest i still don't know what i would do. my dog has such zest for life that i would not have the heart to put her down. but i don't think she would want to live life without running, swimming, cuddling....it's a tough call. i hope i never have to make the choices that my friend is now facing. i wish him all the best.....

houses in calgary.....arg!!!

well we hit our next roadblock yesterday. who knew that putting a house on our acreage could be even more complicated than it already has been? we've been working on this house for years, and in that said time, houses have doubled in price. when we moved back to calgary in 2003, we almost bought a townhouse in the NW for $180 000. two bedroom, 2.5 bath, double attached garage, small yard, pets allowed.... we were advised against the purchase because the "market is too high, now is not the time to buy". well, that same townhouse is now nearly half a million dollars. 'nuff said.

in any case, we have found an affordable bi-level house that we both liked, and, with a little updating (the green shag has to go!), would be a great place for us. i am sincerely hoping that the deal goes through.....stay tuned.

quilting

my mom is the master quilter. and since i am genetically programmed to follow in my mother's footsteps (and my mother has morphed into my grandmother....and life comes full circle) i have made a few quilts in the past few years that actually don't look too bad. i started with the yellow and green 'round the world' baby quilt i made for my friend *HH*'s baby. then came the red, green, brown, and cream ragtime lap quilt that i shopped at the irma quilt store for. followed closely by the totally random scrappy log cabin rag quilt. *HH* received a great ragtime lap quilt for christmas-i took it to irma to work on and my mother kind of took the reins and did most of the sewing herself.

i have not made a quilt in almost a whole year. last week i decided that it was time. i really wanted to make a quilt for *LB* who had always admired the red, green, brown, and cream ragtime lap quilt while visiting my house. she was excited about having a quilt made for her. so off we went to shop for fabric. at the second quilt store we finally found the right stuff. i think that this may be the best quilt i've made so far.....

welcome

well, here we go. i have officially joined the blogging craze. this coming from someone whose computer skills date back to high school when apple computers were still used in the school system (macintosh LCIIIs). when web design consisted of typing commands into simpletext for two hours in order to get a blue background with yellow text. when laptop computers weighed 25 lbs. when the only real game you could play was 'where in the world is carmen sandiego'. you get the idea. that was the last time i ever really learned anything about using a computer.

so it really is something in itself, that i am sitting here, setting up a blog. i had no idea what a blog was until my older brother sent me a link to his blog and i looked at it and said 'hey this is kind of a cool idea'. then my new sister-in-law sent me the link to her blog. again, i said 'hey this is kinda cool'. so, here i am. i hope you enjoy reading all about everything that i have to say.