I know they wish they were back!

A few weeks ago, my oldest friend in the world since 7th grade came for a short visit before she left on her cruise. We had a grand time. I took her all over the place, starting out with getting our nails done. My toes and hands. Both were gorgeous. Then off to Fort Myers for the grande de la tour, past Edison's winter residence and driving down Macgregor Blvd. with the majestic Royal Palms lining both sides of the road and over and on down to Fort Myers Beach and down and about to Bonita Beach beach where we took a stroll and collected shells. Pant. (that was a long sentence! Ha ha ha) We finished up the day with a visit to Naples Cheesecake Factory. YUMMY!!! The food there is sooooo good! All of it from en trees to dessert!

And just so you know, Sandy and I grew up together, survived our teen years together, and then raised our kids together. We have a lot of history. I love her! She's the stability from my whacked out past.

Then a couple of short weeks later comes Steve, who I've also known since 7th grade and he was the my first boy crush. Ha ha ha ... I always thought, all the way through junior high that he was soooooooo fine! But I'm digressing here. He came down for an overnight stay with his new friend, Kimber. We enjoyed the hot tub, drinks, food, dessert, all prepared by moi. They left this morning with a full breakfast and hot coffee and headed back home.

And I had planned on taking Steve and Kimber through the tour de la grande Fort Myers also, but they arrived too late in the day. Regardless, back up planned pulled out of my butt worked. Ha ha ha ...

Both Sandy and Steve both went back to Michigan. Yes! Go blue! Go Pistons! Go Redwings! Go Tigers! Go Lions!

But in January and February with blustering snow and -0 temperatures in Michigan I say GO FLORIDA!!!

But don't worry. Come July, August, September and October I'm going to be wishing I was north. Away from the oppressive sun and humidity of this subtropical state I now live in.

Dr. Phil's Abuse of Britney

I am stunned at his behavior today as I listened to him discuss his defense in speaking out about Britney Spears to the press. As a registered nurse I know the requirements of HIPPA (Federal Medical Privacy Act) and if I'd pulled a stunt like that I could have (and probably would have) been fined with a possibility of losing my nursing license, or at the very least a lengthy probation. It's a good thing he let his Texas professional license go 15 years ago. He'd have been fighting for it in front of the Texas state board.

Still. Shame on him. License or no license he's a professional and should have known better. My belief is that a lot of Britney's problems are stemmed from her being plastered all over the news shows, tabloids, and Internet. And Mr. Phil (no doctor in my book) abused her further by opening up his big mouth to the press.

Please click on the HIPPA link above to find the governments rules and regulations of a patients privacy. Imagine if all medical personnel did what Mr. Phil did.

Like I said earlier, I am stunned by his behavior. And then his nerve to talk to Matt Lauer on The Today Show trying to back pedal his huge faux pas.

It's nice to see

Very nice to see -- my son happy again. And look at that little red headed girl with the curly hair. So much like her daddy.

Our kids

I must say that all of our adopted kids are quite a part of the family now. OC (orange cat) is now 7 months old. (Is that all???) And Duke is doing what Charlie does. I'm telling you, it always pays to have an older dog help with the training. After all, they know all the rules. Anyways, Duke has been with us almost 3 weeks. (Is that all???) And of course, Charlie is two now and has been with us since he was 10 weeks old. He's quite the 'man of the house' now.

Day shift is over

Meet Michele, my preceptor at my new job. And above, Julio and Kiersten, new grads right out of nursing school.

Ahhhh ... now I've got to get used to night shifts. And I'm going to get broken in good as I'm working 3 in a row right from the start. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

The Olive Garden

Tonight Ann and her daughter met me up at the Olive Garden. What a nice dinner we had. And darned if that strawberry/mango margarita wasn't delish. Yum!!!

All right already

I've had this picture for a while and have been tardy in posting the grande finale of the Christmas Cactus. She's just gorgeous! I found a friend at work who's mom is a nut over these and hers is a different color. We're going to swap chunks of the plant. Can you hardly wait until then???

His demeanor is better

Here is Duke outside right after his bath getting rid of excess water. Look at his demeanor changing already. You can see it in his stance. He's still timid and skittish, but he's coming into his own, holding his head higher and strong enough to stand up straight. His fur is growing in, but both of his eyes are still so red. We're treating it every 12 hours with an antibiotic ointment. He does not like it at all and it takes both me and Harold to get the ointment applied.

And boy does he (WARNING! TMI!) poop! But he's eating like a hog and what goes in, must come out. Ha ha ha ... OK. Now for MY bath. A must after bathing a dog.

PS. Look at those feet he's going to grow into. He's going to be one big dog!

We're almost there!

Our New Additon

Meet Duke/Buddy. The rescue group that had him named him Unser, but I'm here to tell you that he told me his name was Buddy. And he likes that name. OK then.

I found Buddy on Petfinders.com and when we got to his picture that was that. I filled out a lengthy application with the American Black and Tan Coonhound Rescue Group and heard from the organization the next day. It took a couple of days to iron out the details as I wasn't in shape to talk yet as I was burying my late Bubbas, but the decision was made to add him to our home.

Harold immediately said, his name will be Duke. I'm thinking to myself, why not? Duke. How regal. His foster mom lived in New Orleans. The gal that brought him to Wildwood, FL for me lived in Texas. She picked him up and off she went. After multiple vehicular problems and not accounting for the time change the meet ended up being at about 11PM this past Friday. We chatted for a few minutes and off we both went in our separate directions.

But I'm exhausted and didn't make it far before having to take a nap in the rest area. I know my limitations. We didn't arrive home until 3:30AM. And all the way home I couldn't stop calling him Buddy. Come on Buddy. It's OK Buddy. I'm thinking, why can't I call him Duke? What's with all this Buddy stuff? When I arrived at the house I looked at his paperwork. On his vet paperwork he name was listed as Buddy. OH MY GOSH!!! He'd been telling me his name!

The first day Buddy was very timid and afraid. I have Charlie here after all and he is no lap dog. And to complicate matters further we're babysitting our granddog, Buster, as his father is in Pennsylvania. However we had a great day as far as potty accidents in the house. Woohoo!!!

The 2nd day, today, went much better. He came into himself and was interacting with the dogs and me. He's sooooo cute. When I talk to him he cocks his head to one side and then to the other side. I called him to me today and he was offering his paw to me. He's got such a sweet spirit.

You will note in his pictures that he is severely underweight and is still recovering from mange. He was an owner surrender to the pound and that's all I know about the previous owner. Poor Buddy has an eye infection, had an ear infection, was totally infested with fleas and of course the mange and being emaciated. He had to be wondering if pain and torture were all there was to life.

But that's all changing and now he's eating Blue Buffalo dog food twice daily. Two HUGE bowls. One in the morning and one in the evening. Each one with cod liver oil drizzled over it and 2-3 dollops of plain yogurt planted on top. And he's loving it. And I chuckled when after Charlie and Buster had left some in their bowls for a snack a bit later, Buddy went and gobbled it up. It won't be long before the combination of this good nutrition and his medical treatment will make the dog you're seeing above in the pictures obsolete. A long ago thing of his past. He's got youth on his side along with good nutrition and proper medical care. And Buddy deserves that much.

Today, being just two days before Christmas, I was in the kitchen a lot. All of a sudden I heard him, hmmm ... how do I describe it? It wasn't a bark. I KNOW!!! It sounded like a boat horn. So I howled back to him and there we were talking back and forth. Ha ha ha ... he's such a cutie. And a welcome addition to our home.

Welcome Duke/Buddy!!!