So here we are on New Year's eve, 2007. It has been a good year overall, though not without its trials and tribulations. I think we spent more money at the veterinarian's office this year than ever before, a feat that I hope will not be repeated in 2008.

In addition, this year we actually began to move forward in our plans to build our new house, winning a big battle against the county this summer. Today, we finally got our septic permit and our builder turned in the final responses to the comments from the county on our overall building permit. We should be only days away from being approved to build finally, after two years of waiting.

Over the past week or so we have been fixing up some things around this house in preparation for putting it on the market sometime in 2008. It will be weird to finally move out and sell the house, but we are looking forward to it. We had someone come to the house today to look at our tub surround tile and our shower to give us an estimate on glazing them. The tiles are thin and some have chips and cracks, so the glazing process would cover all of that completely.

Today Andy finished the new tortoise house and tomorrow Virgil and Emma will move into it. They haven't met yet, as Emma has been quarantine since we got her, so we will have to supervise them carefully at first to make sure that there are no problems, but it should help that they will be meeting on new territory, rather than one invading the other's established home. They will have a ton of room to move around, dig, hide, and play. The new habitat has an upstairs too, but this time there are two stairways. Virgil loves to burrow under the stairs in his current home, so with two stairways there will be one for each of them to hide under. I'll post pictures of their first meeting tomorrow.

Have a Happy New Year!

It has been a few days since I have posted. Where have I been? Why right here, mostly. On Thursday I went to visit my grandma in South Florida and spent some time down there with my parents and my aunt and uncle that were visiting.

Since I got back I talked to our builder, and we finally have our septic permit (Yay!), so the building permit is just around the corner. I have been buying things for the house rather furiously on eBay the last few days. Due to the enormous site costs of building our house, such as the massive quantities of dirt required, the high price of putting in a water main extension and such, there are a lot of areas we need to save money in. So anything we can save anywhere helps out a lot. Fortunately, I have found that eBay is a tremendous resource in buying things such as doorknobs, faucets, sinks, etc. and I have set out purchasing a lot of the stuff already. From the looks of things our new house is going to consist of many, many eBay items, everything from stair handrails to leaded glass windows, and more. Sometimes it pays to be cheap.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

I hope you all have had a wonderful Christmas and were able to spend time with your families. We spent the day hanging out at home, with Andy working on fix-it projects around the house while I assembled 183 cuccis. Can you imagine how much work it is to roll out, fill, and cut slits in 183 cookies? If you can't, I can tell you with assurance it is an extremely labor intensive undertaking, but I wanted to have a bunch of them to take with me on Thursday when I go to see my grandma. I am going down to South Florida for the day Thursday to visit my grandma and my mom and dad will be there at the same time so I will get to see them too. I will be a welcome visitor when I come bearing cuccis. Well actually, they would welcome me regardless, but it never hurts to bring cuccis anyway.

I have spent the day shopping with Andy for building materials to make a new tortoise enclosure and making a second batch of cuccis. The new tortoise enclosure will be big enough for both Virgil and Emma, as she has been quarantined for quite a while now and they are almost ready to meet. We bought all of the wood that we need to build it, and I decided that I wanted to stain the wood blue this time. They have tintable stain available now and I want to try it out. The new enclosure will be a two level habitat like the first one Andy built last year, but it will be larger and have a different layout.

I waited late in the day to start cucci making, nd when I got to making the dough it was already about 8:30. It was at that time that i realized that I needed more butter, so I set out hoping to find some. My first stop was the 7-11 down the street, and they had sticks of I can't believe it's not butter but no real butter. I found that a bit strange.

I headed to the next spot, and my gas light went on so I stopped for gas. While I was fueling up a woman came over and asked me if I knew where a particular address was, and she seemed a bit lost. I didn't know where the street she was looking for was located, but I got my GPS out and found it, but to give her directions there wasn't simple. She had just driven down from Tennessee and couldn't find her daughter's house and the people in the gas station wouldn't let her use the phone. I offered her my phone, and she was able to call her daughter and tell her where she was so she could follow her home. She was quite relieved. And I found some butter and went back home. Yay!

I hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas and spending time with your families. I am about to crawl upstairs and go to sleep, surrounded by dogs. Merry Christmas!

This afternoon, Andy and I volunteered our time to go to the local mall and wrap gifts for donations. Every year there are four animal rescue groups that band together and wrap gifts at the mall at Christmastime. We wrap for donations and then the four groups split the proceeds. It is a worthy cause and we have a good time there hanging out with the other volunteers, most of whom we know from other events. One of the reasons we enjoy this kind of thing so much is working with like minded people in order to help the animals.

Ironically, today there was a woman working on gift wrapping that apparently was a megabitch. She came in and parked her ass in one of the prime wrapping spots and refused to move for anyone, barked orders at other people and told them to get out of her way. One of the other volunteers was telling me about it, how the rest of them couldn't wait until she went home. It is just funny, because you would never think you would encounter that type of person in an animal rescue group, but whatever.

My favorite person from our rescue group finally told her off, inadvertently. The bitchy woman was only scheduled to work at the wrapping station until three pm. At that time my friend with the rescue group went up to her and glanced at the schedule and said to her casually, "Oh, your time is up, it is three o'clock." The woman responded that she would stay and help. My friend mentioned that we had plenty of people to wrap, that some were still in the back making bows, and hadn't even had a chance to wrap gifts. Bitchy woman snapped back at her "they could have come up here and wrapped at any time" and my friend told her "maybe they were scared of getting snapped at" because the bitch had been barking orders at people and telling them to move out of "her space" all day. Apparently my friend pissed her off enough that she left. It was actually a positive thing for all of the rest of us, as she was one of those people that sucked all of the air out of the space when she came in.

I guess some people just don't realize that when you volunteer your time to help animals, there is no diva position. There is no room for people that want glory or recognition, there is only a job to get done. You just help out wherever you can and try to have fun and enjoy the people you are working with. That is what it is all about.

Yesterday I talked to our builder, who said that the State Department of Environmental Health was in the process of issuing our septic permit. As soon as possible afterwards, he will turn in the responses to all of the county's "comments" about our building permit, and within a couple of weeks time we should be issued the final permit.

I talked to the mortgage guy too, and we are in good shape to be closing on our construction loan right around the same time, so it appears that we will finally actually start our house project around the third week of January, God willing. It will be so great to see some progress.

This afternoon I stopped by the property and walked around, just because it has been a while since I have been there. I snapped a few photos with my camera phone and then played with some effects on my MacBook. They don't look too bad for camera phone shots, do they? Oh, how I can't wait to be living out there!

This week is soooo slow. Every single day has felt like a Friday all week long, but occurring one after the other. I think it is because of the general apathy of the workforce that is mostly beyond ready for a holiday break.

Anyway, I was looking at different countertop materials today, trying to figure out what I can get for the new house that isn't too expensive. The world of countertops has really changed lately. In addition to the normal laminates, ceramic tile, granite, quartz, solid surfacing, stainless steel, butcher block and marble, now the options include concrete, recycled paper mixed with resin to form a stone-like surface (Paperstone), recycled aluminum shavings imbedded in resin (Alkemi), terrazzo type counters with recycled glass imbedded in them (Vetrazzo), pewter, and even countertops made with semiprecious stone and lit from below with LED lighting.

Surprisingly, the ones that are made with the most inexpensive and mostly recycled materials are among the most expensive. Go figure. I think that if I can find them for a reasonable price, I will go with slate. I like soapstone as well, so that might be an option if I can't find reasonable slate. Remember when everyone just had Formica? I guess it was much easier to choose back then.

Today after work I stopped by a new veterinarian's office, in order to get a feel for the place. As I have mentioned before, since our vet retired a few months ago. Another vet bought his practice, but it just hasn't been the same. We used to always be able to get worked in to the schedule on short notice when one of the dogs was sick, and now, not so much.

I found this new vet that is located very close to where our new house is being built. Her office is new and it feels very homey. There are separate waiting rooms for dogs and cats, and the rooms are furnished with comfy couches. I talked to the front office people today and they assured me that they take very good care of their best customers. There is an after hours paging service for patients that pages the doctor directly on weekends and holidays if there is an emergency, and that is a service I would really value, especially with Cody and his diabetes. We never know when he is going to need immediate medical attention.

When I was in the vet's office to talk to the receptionist, I let a woman go ahead of me that was checking out after taking her dog and cat for vaccinations there, because she had animals with her and I did not want them to have to wait. After I left the building, the woman was still there in the parking lot walking her dog. I asked her about the vet, if she was comfortable with her and how long she had been going there. She gave a glowing review of her and the facility and said that she was very happy there. I had a good feeling overall about the place, and I think for the next vet visit we will be going there to try them out.

The next vet visit could be very soon, as Louie is acting quite pitiful, as though his back hurts or something. I hope he is okay. He is a little puss so it is hard to tell if there is anything really wrong with him. He is so dramatic, and is such a fat little chunk. My poor little baby.

I just turned in my last assignment for my class, so I am completely done! Well, done until I start the next class, which I am enrolling in this week. I am keeping my fingers crossed for an A.

This week is one that I normally take off from work, but I am sticking with it this year. I have a lot going on with special projects at work, so I want to be there, plus it is not a bad idea for me to save my vacation time for those occasions I might need it relating to the house project. I want to take a good couple of weeks off when we move into the new house to get the dogs all acquainted and comfortable with the place before we have to go back to work. Granted we are a long way away from that time, but it can't hurt to save up some time.

It is a bit like a ghost town at work. There are some people there but most of them do not have their minds on work. I am trying to use the time wisely in order to get ahead a little bit. Next week I will be off work whether I like it or not, because my entire area will be shut down. This is probably a good thing.

What kind of break do you get for the holidays?

Posting was light this weekend, because I spent the vast majority of it hunched over my computer completing my final exam. I finally finished and submitted it late last night. Now I just have to turn in one more little discussion board assignment, and I am done. Phew.

I spent a ton of time on this exam, because I worked really hard on the midterm, and only got a high B. I want an A, so I worked even harder this time. Fingers crossed. Regular posting should now resume.

This evening, our builder came over and we went though the itemized projected costs of our house to be built, and finally signed a contract with him after working with him for about a year and a half.

We should be only days away from getting our final building permit and beginning construction. We can't wait.

Say you worked at a place that conducted employee performance reviews annually. The place you work rates you in several areas on a scale of one to five, five being highest, and then averages the scores for your overall rating. Then suppose that the particular department you are in has decided that the highest score anyone can get overall ever is 4.3. Don't you think that the integrity of the whole process is screwed up if the managers rating employees have to manipulate the scores on individual areas in order to keep some employees below the limit? What is the point? Personally I think that if you have decided that the best anyone could ever do is a 4.3 out of five you will never get the top performance out of your people for that very reason. Why should they bust ass to do a little better than average? How can you say that no one wil ever be worthy of a top score? Stupid.

Have you ever experienced something that seemed so fundamentally wrong that it just made your skin crawl?

At work, there is a certain person in a position of authority (somewhat) who has recently sort of split from his wife and declared his love for a co-worker. The love object in question is a woman in her fifties with youngish children, and everyone is baffled.

She is a repellant person in every way; she is annoying, acts very stupid, and is extremely careless. She is very domineering and controlling but does not follow any of the rules herself. Most everyone I know at work would describe her personality as "nails on a chalkboard." Her physical appearance is not at all attractive.

But, apparently there is someone for everyone. She has been "seeing" the person in the position of authority and everyone is baffled. We all find her to be so annoyingly repellant, but he seeks out her company, over that of his doting wife and the mother of his two daughters. He has declared his love for her and everyone is stunned. No one can look him in the eye anymore. It is such an uncomfortable situation that I wish I didn't know about it, so that I could go back to the bliss of ignorance. Yuck.

These are the pictures of this weekend's efforts. I spent many hours in the kitchen, and Andy assisted me greatly in rolling out all of the little dough balls into flat ovals to be filled. It is very helpful to have an assistant. I think they came out much better than last year's.

I have gotten a couple of requests for the complete cucci recipe, so I am posting it here for anyone who wants to give it a shot. This is the recipe complete with the backstory intro and some notes from me at the end.

Growing up, we always thought that our Grandma was the only one in the world that made cuccis, that they were her invention, and in some ways we were right. A quick internet search of "fig filled Sicilian cookies" revealed that cuccis are actually cuccidati (pronounced goo-ji-data) and have been around for some time. I have spent hours browsing different recipes for them, and none are quite like Grandma's. Very similar, yes, but her exact mix of ingredients is unmatched in anything I have found and the form factor of her cuccis is different from all the others as well.

I finally decided it was time for someone to pick up the tradition from Grandma. After all, she has slaved over our cuccis for many a year and it is time for her to sit back and just be able to enjoy them. I had the good sense to write down the recipe back when I happened to be there one year while she made them. Still, it was a huge undertaking, but I was happy to give it a shot.

Making cuccis may require an initial investment; the figs must be ground up in a meat grinder- Grandma always used the type that clamps down to the countertop and has a hand crank. Modern food processors do not grind to the right consistency for this recipe. They have been making the same model of hand crank grinders for over a hundred years, so it was not difficult to find one. The one I bought was made by a company called Porkert. I used the larger of the two included cutting plates, with holes about one half inch in diameter. I also purchased a marble rolling pin after struggling with some crummy wooden ones at first, and a hand pastry blender just to make things easier.

The Recipe (as told by Grandma)

Five pounds of whole, dried figs
One pound of toasted almonds
One small jar of honey
One tablespoon vanilla
Rind of one large orange (grated)
Two tablespoons Cinnamon
Five pounds all-purpose flour
One tablespoon baking powder
Three fourths of a cup of sugar
Three sticks of butter or 3/4 container of shortening
Four eggs
Cold water
Extra egg white for glaze on top (optional)

Fig inner filling

Grind together five pounds of figs (after removing hard stems) and one pound of almonds (skin removed, browned lightly in oven). In a small bit of water boil one small jar of honey. Add one tablespoon of vanilla.
Grate the rind of one large orange and add rind and boiled honey mixture to figs. Sprinkle with approximately two tablespoons of cinnamon. Set aside in refrigerator overnight.

Dough

Mix together five pounds of flour, one tablespoon baking powder, and 3/4 cup sugar. Cut in 3 sticks of butter or 3/4 container of shortening. Mix and make hollow in the center to drop four eggs. Add just enough cold water to knead dough. Knead into round balls and place in covered dish. Refrigerate overnight.

Finish

Roll dough out on board/counter. Drop fig filling on dough and wrap into small package. Flip over and cut designs into cookie face using razor blade or x-acto knife. Paint with egg white if desired. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 375 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.

My notes:

For the figs, I used Jenny brand dried calamata figs from Greece. They come in 14 oz. packages so I used six of them to total 84 oz. Five pounds would have been 80 oz., so it was at least close.

For the almonds, it is easiest to buy the skinless raw slivered almonds. Toast them starting in a cold oven set at 350. Move them around on the cookie sheet frequently or they will burn.

The small jar of honey should be about a 16 oz. jar or close. I used orange blossom honey, but I doubt it makes any difference. Where the recipe says to boil the honey in a "small bit of water," I used about half an inch of water in the bottom of the pot and that worked fine. I think it is just to thin the honey slightly so that it mixes better.

It is easier to mix the fig filling with the honey and stuff in two separate batches. It is just easier to stir that way, and then both batches can be combined into one pan for refrigeration.

The recipe calls for grated orange rind, but I actually just used the zest and that was perfect. A microplane grater work wonderfully for this and I used a huge Florida navel orange.

I never measured the cinnamon, I just sprinkled a generous amount on there and mixed it up. I don't think the amount is crucial to the recipe.

When it comes to mixing the dough, you will find that mixing that much at once is not so easy. It is much easier to divide all of the ingredients in half and mix in two separate batches. It is probably a good idea to weigh the flour if you are going to divide it like that into two batches. I just eyeballed it the first time, and there ended up being a lot more flour in one batch than the other. A hand pastry blender is extremely useful for cutting the butter into the flour, but a potato masher can be used as well.

When you knead the dough into balls to be refrigerated, a ball of about ping-pong ball size is perfect for larger more traditional cuccis, but you can go smaller to make more of them.

The official recipe calls for the cuccis to be baked for 15 to 20 minutes. In my experience, it takes exactly 22 minutes per sheet in my oven. You may have to experiment.

It is easiest to bake one sheet at a time. That way you can be preparing the next sheet while that one is in the oven and pop in the next sheet when the first is done.

Oh, and finally, here is the nutritional info for them- I know that is important to some people.

Nutritional Information

Five pounds of flour= 7500 calories, no fat
One bag slivered almonds= 1700 calories, 140 grams of fat
Six 14 0z. packages of dried figs = 6000 calories, no fat
One 16 oz. jar of honey = 1320 calories, no fat
Four eggs= 304 calories, no fat
3/4 cup of sugar= 577 calories, no fat
3 sticks of butter= 2400 calories, 264 grams of fat
Vanilla, orange rind, cinnamon, baking powder= negligible

Total 19,801 calories and 404 grams of fat, then divide by number of cuccis in the batch.

For instance, the batch I made today was 158. I made them a little smaller this time. Each one came out to 125 calories and 3 grams of fat.

I have been making my Grandma's traditional cuccis all weekend, and I was going to mention it and link back to last year's posts about them, but my archives are screwed up right now so I am going to repost the two day cucci making experience here. So don't bother to read it if you saw it all last year.

Oh, there are some improvements this year, though. I am wearing a lovely apron made by fellow blogger, Anne, for one. I got a lovely three tiered cooling rack that saves a lot of counter space, and I got a huge pastry board to assemble the cuccis on. Also, this morning I had the brilliant idea to make a "flour shaker." I had a little plastic jar with a lid and I drilled holes in the top and filled it with flour. It is way easier to shake out some flour when you are rolling out the dough than to have to reach into a bag or bowl to scoop some out. I was very proud of myself on that one.

Reposted from last December:

In case you didn't read about it last week when I posted about cuccidati, the story is that my Grandma has always made these traditional Sicilian fig filled cookies at Christmas time since before I can remember. They are called cuccidati, pronounced "goo-ji-data" or cuccis, which sounds like "goochies" for short. Around fifteen years ago, I was at Grandma's house around Christmas when she made them. I had the thought that I should write down the recipe and that is what I did. Grandma is the only one in our family that makes the cookies, and she does so from memory. It is quite an ordeal to make them, and no other family members have ever tried, but this year I decided I was going to keep the tradition going and make the cuccis. I purchased a meat grinder to grind the figs, a rolling pin, and all the ingredients, and this weekend I decided to set to work on the two day process of cucci making.

Day 1

On day one, the fig filling is prepared, as well as the dough for the outer shell of the cookie. Then both are set aside to chill in the refrigerator overnight. After seeing how much goes into just that part of it, I am glad that the work is split into two days. Sheesh.

First and foremost I got some slivered almonds, no skin, and gently roasted them in the oven while moving them around frequently. I burned the first set because I was trying to do too many things at once, so then I decided to do one thing at a time.

Next I cut the stems off the many dried figs for the fig filling. They are hard little stems and wouldn't be too nice in a cookie.

After that Andy and I fed the dried figs and roasted almonds through my handy little meat grinder and ground them to a nice consistency. I got the same type of simple meat grinder that Grandma uses- they have been making the same one for over a hundred years. I read that in Sicily, the women would bring the figs to their butcher for him to run them through the meat grinder. You can get a real workout from that darned thing, but it does a great job.

Next I boiled a small jar of honey with a little bit of water, and added some vanilla. While it was boiling I zested an entire large orange. That's "oinge" to you, Mel.

Then I added the orange zest and the boiled honey/vanilla mixture to the ground up figs and almonds, and stirred. The whole thing was sprinkled with cinnamon and then set aside to chill in the fridge overnight.

Then I started on the dough. Grandma's recipe makes a TON, and I can see why. It is not worth doing to make only a few cuccis. So I am having to make the dough in two batches because I don't have a large enough bowl to hold the FIVE POUNDS of flour it takes.

Once the dough is made, it is kneaded into small balls and set aside in the fridge to chill overnight. Then the fun will really start tomorrow.

So that is day one of the process; it should get really interesting on day two. I am off to make the second batch of dough now and I am praying that there will be enough room in the fridge. It isn't looking too good now. I can definitely see why these are traditionally Christmas cookies, they are way too labor intensive for everyday. Wish me luck!

Update: I just fished making the last of the dough balls. One hundred and two of them. Five hours of work and the cookies are only half finished. I have a lot of respect for Grandma!

Day 2

This morning I started the final stages of cucci making. I had high hopes, but I wasn't really sure if they would turn out right or anything near how Grandma's are. I set to work around ten o'clock. The first step was to roll out the little dough balls I had made yesterday into flat ovals. I quickly realized that things would go much faster with some help, so Andy came over and rolled out the dough for me until he had to go to work.

After the dough was rolled out, I placed a large spoonful of the fig/almond/orange zest/honey filling I made yesterday in the center of the dough and wrapped it up like a little package. Then I flipped it over, shaped it a little into roughly a kidney bean shape and then made decorative slits in the top with a razor blade. Then I repeated this over and over until I had a whole cookie sheet full.

Before going into the oven, the cookies were brushed with egg whites to glaze the tops. It is an optional step, but I like them better with the glaze. Then they went into the oven for around twenty minutes.

And finally, you can see how they came out. I made one hundred and two of them, so it took me five hours of work today in addition to the five hours of preparation yesterday. Whew! I mostly cut the tops the way Grandma usually does with tiny slits in the sides and some arcs across the tops, but I got a little crazy and did some flowers and birds on a few for fun. Dough doesn't behave very well for carving.

The best part is, the cuccis actually taste just like Grandma's, even on my first try. I was hopeful, but a bit skeptical as Grandma is a fantastic cook and has been making these for decades. So, after an entire weekend of cookie making, I have come to a few conclusions. These are my "lessons learned":

-An insulated cookie sheet does not work for these cookies. I tried one on the first set into the oven and they didn't quite cook right. Switched over to the regular kind of cookie sheet and everything was fine.

-If you are going to mix the dough in two separate batches, because there is so much of it, measure the flour instead of trying to eyeball how much is half of a five pound bag. I did this, and my dough was not consistent between the two batches. It all tastes fine, but next time I will measure or weigh the flour.

-If you run out of flour, even if you are just using it for rolling out the dough, whole grain flour will NOT do in a pinch. Go to the store. We did two or three cookies this way and then stopped and bought more flour.

-Invest in a good rolling pin. We bought a cheapo wooden one, and it made things a lot more difficult than they had to be.

-Watch your almonds carefully when you toast them. Move them around a lot and don't try to do something else at the same time. I burned about $10 worth of almonds because I wasn't paying attention and had to buy more.

And finally, I learned that my Grandma is one hell of a woman, because I am freakin' exhausted. Mt back hurts from grinding up all those figs and kneading all that dough and standing for so long. It has been a lot of fun, but I am glad this experiment is over. I think that I'll be making cuccis every Christmas now. I need to pack a box up to send to Grandma; she'll be so proud!

Okay, things will eventually work themselves out with the property, but it is causing us to jump through more hoops and will take up even more time. I just hate that these regulatory agencies have so much power now that they can completely mess with you like they have with us when all you want to do is build one little house on your own land.

All I have to say is that I better be putting up a Christmas tree in my new house in 2008, or someone will pay!

That title is supposed to be a scream. I am so frustrated I cannot even put it into words. I have gotten to my wits end when it comes to building a house on our property- a saga that some of you have witnessed for nearly two years now. I am ready to give up and lose everything because I just can't stand the absolute abuse we have been taking from the regulating agencies funded by my tax dollars plus the additional fees we have paid them to abuse us. Every other week there is some other hurdle we have to jump, and this time it is one where they have written us into a corner with their regulations.

I don't even want to talk about it any more. Go over to Tortoise Hollow to read the ugly details. Our dream may be gone forever at this point. I hope not, but the light at the end of the tunnel has suddenly gone very dim.

Well, my little dog is doing fine. He has been very sleepy and out of it, and it is just as well because he is supposed to be calm for a few days. We put him in the pen we have this morning while we went to work so that he could just rest without the other dogs bothering him. He was already sleeping by the time we were ready to leave. I am getting more used to his appearance already, as bad as he looks.

This evening, Ramona and I finished the last class of her Intro to Rally Obedience course. She has done really well for the amount of time I have worked with her outside of class, which has been NONE. We have been so busy and had so much going on that I just haven't been able to. Luckily she is a smart little chick and does pretty well for me anyway, at least for the first part of class. Then I lose her. Towards the end of class she gets distracted and chases fur tumbleweeds she finds on the floor, but hey, she's a puppy. I don't even care really if she does the commands exactly right- we are mostly there to have fun and because it is good for her socialization (and mine too). She is a little stinkin' twerp, but she is damn cute so she gets away with it.

We are back home now, with Cody after his surgery. He looks pretty rough, but is resting comfortably in the crook of my arm. Andy took him this morning and dropped him off because I knew I couldn't do it, or at least couldn't do it without being a blubbering mess. I could hardly stand to leave for work this morning, knowing that I would never see Cody with both eyes again. I know the whole ordeal is way harder on me than it is on him.

They cleaned the teeth he has left while he was under also, and trimmed his toenails, so he is in pretty good shape other than the big wound on his face. He looks really awful right now especially because he is shaved down in patches for the surgery, but he might not look too bad after his fur grows out a bit. I think maybe I'll grow his face out wooly like a sheepdog and then no one will even be able to tell that his eye is missing.

The good part is that he will be feeling a lot better soon, and his eye won't ever cause him any pain again. He has some pain meds to take, but only if needed. Right now he is still feeling the effects of the morphine they injected him with earlier. That is it, though. No other medications are needed. In ten days the stitches come out and his recovery is complete. It would not have been fair to put him through a corneal transplant with its long recovery time when in all likelihood he would probably have ended up running into something again and damaging the eye again later. Still, I can't help feeling awful about the whole thing. It just isn't fair for this to have happened to him; he is the sweetest, most loving, wonderful little dog ever.

When the vet tech brought him out to us she said, "you'll love him even more now," but I told her it was not possible, that I already loved him the most anyone could love a little dog. And that will be true no matter what he looks like. I worry more about other people's reactions to him. Will they not want to hold him or pet him because he is missing an eye? That would devastate him because he loves people so much. Hopefully he will be as charming as before once his fur grows out. My poor little teddy bear.

I wrote up a note to send with Cody tomorrow for his surgery. I know I can't take him in the morning, because I will just cry and be a wreck. Andy will take him and drop him off; I will pick him up in the afternoon when it is all over. My note to send with Cody goes like this:

Cody (the teddy bear)

5:30am
One third of a can Prescription Diet WD
Two Units Humulin N
1 half tablet Baytril

This letter will give them all of the background info they need. The doctor's names are all changed, of course, and the one I call Dr. Blankenship is one of the main vets at the clinic we are taking him to tomorrow. Please keep Cody in your prayers tomorrow. The photos in this post are of Cody when we first moved to Merritt Island, in 2000. I wish I could make him young and healthy again like he was in these pics.

Gosh, I can't believe I have been blogging so long now that I blogged about getting my first Mac over two years ago. Ever since that time I am a complete convert, and finally Andy succumbed as well. After over two years of seeing me have an easy intuitive computer experience, while he fought with his PC daily, he finally decided to come over to the light side. We went to an Apple store in Orlando today and picked up two matching Macbooks.

These were not impulse purchases; we had been carefully deliberating for weeks. We were both eligible for Apple's educational discount since we are both in school, so that saved us $100 for each Macbook. We got the mid level ones, Tis is Andy's first time ever working with a Mac, so he is on for a bit of a learning curve, but at least he has me there to help him out. I had to learn everything on my own, or through Google. My Macbook is already all set up the way I like it because I was able to transfer everything over via a firewire cable- pretty sweet. We'll see how Andy makes the adjustment.

Well, I finally bit the bullet and scheduled Cody's surgery for Monday. The sooner it is over and he heals, the sooner he can be free of the hated cone collar. I think Monday is going to be a tough day, but I know we are doing the right thing.