My Plan

People have been asking me what I am going to do now that Tick is gone, so this is my plan. I have applied to a greyhound rescue group to adopt a retired racing dog. I mailed my application today. If my written application is approved then I will be invited to the home of the people who run the organization in Ogden for a personal interview. If I pass the interview a representative will then bring a couple of greyhounds to my house for an inspection, and to see if there is anything in or about my home that would disqualify me. If I pass the home inspection I have no idea how long it might take before I actually get a dog. My understanding is that they get the dogs from Colorado, but this particular organization does not have pictures or profiles of adoptable dogs on their web site. If you want to look at some adoptable greyhounds you can go to www.recycledracers.org and click on available dogs to view some profiles. These dogs are in Colorado, but I don't know if this the place that the Utah group gets their dogs from.

If, for some reason, I do not qualify to adopt a greyhound, then I will be going to one of the local animal shelters to find a dog that strikes my fancy.

100 Things To Do

I got this from Jessica's blog. If you haven't seen her blog, copy this list to your own blog and bold the things that you have done in your own life. I see that I still have a few things that I need to do, but there are a few of these things that really don't interest me.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a Solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been on television
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies (no, but I enjoy buying and eating them)
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a lawsuit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Totally copied a post from someone's blog to your own

Tick is Gone

A few days after Christmas I noticed a lump on the back of Tick's right leg. Those of you who knew Tick knew that she was a lumpy animal, but I could see right away that this lump was different. Not only did it look different from her other lumps, but it was in the same place where I had a cancerous tumor removed about a year and a half ago. Since Eric and I had already talked about not putting her through any more surgeries, I just waited and watched. The tumor grew really fast, and this morning I noticed that her entire leg was swollen. I knew that wasn't a good sign, so I called and made an appointment for her. Eric said that the cancer had spread to the lymph node in her leg and that the blood wasn't able to circulate well through it any more. He said it would be a matter of days before she died, and since I did not want her to suffer I decided to have her euthanized.

The bright spot in it all was that she hadn't seemed to suffer up to this point. I could tell that her leg wasn't bending much when she walked, but she was a happy girl and anxious for her treats right up to the very end. I didn't have to go into work today, so she spent the morning chasing her treat ball, eating pig ears, and snuggling on the couch with me.I got her on January 26, 1996, so I had her just 6 days short of 12 years. I don't have the words to write a lovely tribute like Jef did for Bryce, but I will miss her.

So Here We Are Again

As the second member of Denise's crisis management team I was once again called out this morning. Denise had spent the night with a friend in Morgan, and on the way home she lost control of her truck on the icy roads and rolled it down an embankment.

Luckily Denise doesn't have any injuries. She thinks the truck rolled 6 times. She says the scariest part was when the truck came to rest and the cab filled with snow. She was afraid that she was going to suffocate before she could dig her way out. She managed to crawl out the window and some people had already pulled over to help. They took her to Ogden Regional Medical Center as a precaution, but she says that she isn't even sore. After another CT scan of her head and some X-rays they released her. Denise thinks that her truck is totaled but the representative from her insurance company says that will have to be determined by her agent. To add insult to injury she was also given a ticket for an improper lane change. I am voting that Denise be locked in a padded room in order to prevent her from further injuring herself. If she keeps this up the crisis management team (me and JoLyn) are going to need to be paid for our duties.

My Nightmare Drive

As some of you know, the day Denise had her accident Eric told me that Tick is terminally ill with kidney problems. I had taken her into the vet the day before because she had blood in her urine. Eric says that she has kidney stones and because of her advanced age he doesn't recommend surgery, and I agree. Basically I am just waiting for her to act like she is in pain, or to stop eating. So far she acts just fine and she is as ravenous for treats as she has always been. He gave me some antibiotics and told me that if she improved on the medication I could just call him for some more when she started bleeding again.

Yesterday when I came home from work I took her for a walk down the block and noticed that the blood in the urine had returned. It was snowing hard and I really didn't want to go out and drive in that mess, but I decided that I didn't want to wait 24 hours to start the antibiotics. I called the office and told them that I was coming to pick up the medicine, packed Tick into the car, and started out. The receptionist at the Vet's office told me that the freeway was shut down in both directions in Layton due to accidents, so I took the back roads.

I left my house at 3:50, and it took me 10 minutes to drive three blocks. It took me 20 minutes to get to Mutton Hollow, and then traffic picked up and I thought that the rest of my drive would be a breeze. I turned onto Antelope Drive at 4:25, and that is where traffic pretty much came to a stop. I still wasn't too worried. The Vet's office closes at 5:30, so I figured that I had an hour to drive about three miles, and surely it couldn't take me that long to get there. As traffic inched along, and the time passed, I began to get worried. At 5:12 I was stuck in front of Lowes, and I knew that there was no way that I would get over the overpass by 5:30. I couldn't bear the thought that this whole ordeal had been in vain, so I pulled my car into the junior high parking lot, and I jumped out and started to run. While stopped at a traffic light I pulled my phone out and called the Vet's office and begged them not to leave before I got there. According to Map Quest my run was approximately one mile, and there were about 4 inches of snow on the ground. I got to the Vet's office at 5:30 exactly, picked up Tick's antibiotics and began the long walk back to my car. By the time I got back to my car 2o minutes later the freeway must have opened, because traffic had thinned out considerably. I got home at about 6:20, so the round trip that should have taken me 20 minutes on a good day took 2 and a half hours.

The good news is that I didn't see any blood in Tick's urine today. The bad news is that working out on the eliptical may be the same motion as running, but running is much harder on the body. My legs are so stiff I can barely move!

Tilley Family Christmas Party

So, as usual, I was the only person to represent our family at the Tilley Family Christmas party. I was there for hours and hours, and I didn't think to take a single picture.



It was nice to chat with everyone. Michelle and Nick were visiting, and so were Dave and Bree. Cameron and Austin were very busy chasing Michelle's dog Soba around with a squirt bottle. Apparently they were told that they could squirt her if she barked. The only real news from the party is that Jared and his girlfriend Julie will be getting married on January 31st.



I gave our blog addresses to Dave, Michelle, and Debbie, so there may be a few new readers for the blogs this coming year.

Christmas in Kaysville

We were able to leave the hospital at noon, so we threw together a family get together later that afternoon.

Denise did a lot of sleeping.

Of course, the little girls were the most excited about Christmas.

I gave them some crafts, so they immediately had to strip down and paint.

As soon as the painting was done, they had to hop into the tub.
Then after dinner the adults got to open their presents.
The highlight of my evening was that Keaton got a plastic electric saw for Christmas, and he spent the evening chasing the girls through the house with it. You can't get more Christmasy than that!