Thursday, May 17, 2007

Cultural Ignorance

bothers me. I found this photographer's website through somebody else's blog and went cruising through. The site had photos form India and I looked through them thinking how Jeff and I have many photos like that and if we could get 10 people to pay the prices this guy's charging, we would be able to afford a child. Or somethign like that. As I am browsing, I see a photo titled "Snake Goddess," which itnrigues me since I have never heard of a snake Goddess. I click on it and it's Lord Shiva. HE is not a Goddess, first of all. He is one of the 3 Gods in the Hindu holy trinity so no excuse is valid for not being able to find out who he is.

He aslo titled a picture of bulls as the "goats with blue horns."

I think it bothers me that this photographer is trying to make money off of these photos and he did not even bother figuring out what the photos were off.

Sunday, May 13, 2007

! building down, 1 to go

Well, the first condo building is up and our foundation is in ... very exciting!



Bandit, camera shy?


My very own disabled tag

So, because the ER said it could take up to a few months for my leg to get better and for me to get off the crutches, Jeff and I got a disabled tag at the MVA. It only got used for about a week at work.
Can you see the tag?

Smokey got a shave and fought a snake!

Smokey got his hair cut around his face and we found he has huge eyes!
He also got into an argument with a stuffed snake:

Thursday, May 03, 2007

In the ER again

So, I spent 5 hours in the ER today (some of that was at my primary physician's).

Starting at the beginning, I came home and was in a hurry because I had an allergist appointment, the puppy needed to go outside, I was expecting an important call etc. So, as I run through my apartment to change my clothes, I hear my phone go off in the living room. So, I turn around and run back, sprinting over the cat who, as always, was in the way.

Stay with me, this is related to the main story. Every now and then, my calf muscles tend to tighten up and hurt a little. The doctor had told me last year it could be a vitamin deficiency or the result of not warming up before working out.

So, as I landed on my right foot after jumping over the cat, I felt my calf muscle go really tight and then "POP." I literally heard it go pop and then the most excruciating pain, second only to my kidney stone pain. I did make it to the phone and told Jeff what happened. After I tried putting some weight on the leg, I decided to go to the doctor. Let me tell you, I'd be much happier if it was my left leg, what with needing the right one to drive. My doctor looked at it and said, "This might be a blood clot." GREAT! He sent me to the ER for a sonogram and also gave me codeine.

Where, I might say, they define emergency way differently than I do. I guess I might have gotten faster and greater attention if I had a knife sticking out of me or a bullet wound. Finally, I got the sonogram done, where I kept expecting to see a baby on the screen since that's the only time I have seen a sonogram. I am glad I didn't because how freaky would that be? A baby in my leg? The radiologist was pretty sure there wasn't a clot. He also told me how if there's a clot below the knee, it's not lilfe threatening because the veins are too tiny to make a dangerous clot.

Then, I waited some more for the results to come out and the PA came back and told me it was a muscle tear or calf strain. Apparently, very common and similar to the Achilles tendon. They couldn't say what level so it could take a few days to a few months to heal. Till then, I have codeine and crutches. They gave me a little tutorial on how to use the crutches and let me tell you it's not as easy as it looks. 1, I am carrying some extra weight. 2, I am not very coordinated. Add those 2 up, I crutch around in an ungainly, drunken manner, almost falling on my face every few feet.

Migraines, kidney stones and now calf strain ... I am stacking up my variety of ER visit resons :-)

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

India in Hanover, MD

Jeff and I went to Bed, Bath and Beyond at the Arundel Mills outlet mall this last weekend to exchange our Krups espresso maker.

We had a couple hours to waste so we walked around the mall. Now, last year, before going to India, I had found an amazing sale on perfumes and picked up 2 big bottles of Dolce and Gabbana red for $20 each. Well, I left both the bottles in India and since I had really liked the smell, i wanted to see if they had it. The same store didn't but anothe rPerfume store was having a sale, according to the sales lady. She told me the $45 bottle was on sale for $35. I turned to Jeff and said, "Let's go, we paid a lot less last year and I'm not willing to pay almost double." The lady stops us and asks what we paid and told her $20. She says, "Well, let me tell you what I can do. I can't do $20 but I'll give it to you for $25."

!!! Jeff seems to think there was something illegal about the whole thing. I just think I've brought a little flavor of India called bargaining back with me :-D