President Obama's Super Scary Speech to Schoolkids Everywhere

(Leslie's vent for the day directed at no one in particular, rather for my own benefit and satisfaction.)

I mean, come on people. We were forced to listen to volumes of drivel spewed forth by a lying, corrupt, buffoonish administration for eight years. However, now we have fanatical conservatives questioning our chief executive's right to speak to the youth of the nation about (GASP!) staying in school!?!?! How dare he?

Please, people. How dare you?

Keep your suspect motives, fanatically rightist immorality, negativity, fear mongering and plain old hatred of anything that makes sense or anyone with an IQ over 75. I'll take President Obama any day of the week.

As for all your foolishness and complaining? Sounds like a bunch of still sore losers to me.

Read the super scary speech yourself at whitehouse.gov (imagine that, a White House web site that actually posts INFORMATION).

If anyone has a problem with President Obama's message or his inherent right to speak to the masses as our nation's leader, well, I have a problem with you.

OK, I'm done.

Lovely weather we're having :-)

The Public Option - What is so scary?

If you haven't watched this, please do so:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBi8A_HutII

SiMaster Update

We took Simon for his follow-up visit yesterday. He was quite pleased to have the stitches removed. Not as pleased when the doc ripped the pink athletic tape off his belly, which I had used to keep the gauze on that covered aforementioned stitches. Poor nugget.

Anyway, prognosis still good. Doc Ealing says that Si is doing better than he expected at this point, and we have every reason to expect continued improvement over the next 90 days.

Simon is really just glad to not have to wear his blue inner tube anymore :-)

Three Cheers for Stem Cells!

As many of you likely know, our oldest nugget (dog) has battled with hip dysplasia for years, and for years, the vets said there was nothing we can do. After a recent, and very upsetting, visit to Simon's regular vet, a staff member here at dgs (thanks, Janae!) referred me to a piece she'd seen on the evening news regarding stem cell therapy for dogs with hip dysplasia. Needless to say, we called immediately.

We first visited the Broad Ripple Animal Clinic on July 30 where we met Dr. Ben Ealing. Dr. Ealing is the vet trained in this area to administer this cutting edge procedure. We were thrilled when he indicated that Simon was an ideal candidate. So, with a little hope in hand, we scheduled the procedure for 8/5 - 8/7.

We admitted Simon with high hopes and fingers crossed. We knew we were leaving him in capable, loving hands. The staff at BRAC is so wonderful.

Anyway, on Wednesday, they made an incision in SiMaster's abdomen to harvest the fat that contains the stem cells. This was really the hardest part for little Si. That fat was shipped overnight to the VetStem lab in California where the cells were extracted on Thursday. The cells arrived back at BRAC on Friday morning, where Simon's hips were injected.

We picked him up on Friday evening - of course, we visited him in-between drop off and pickup) - and were so glad to get him home. BUT, Friday was a very difficult night. Simon was very sore, scared and out of sorts. I stayed up with him most of the night, even fell asleep with my pillow on our deck for a while, during which time I was devoured by mosquitoes. Damn things.

After a slow start and much napping on Simon's part on Saturday, around 7pm or so he got up and was moving around well. Sunday was better, and Monday was our best day yet. He's a little tired today from overdoing it a bit, but altogether on the mend.

I can already see a difference in his posture and he's getting up and down with much more ease. He's also being weaned off his anti-inflammatory medicine. We're doing ice packs (bags of frozen peas) a couple times a day to control the swelling, etc. We're also taking our first walks to help build up his atrophied muscles - we haven't been able to take him on a walk in probably two years, so it's pretty exciting.


It's a lot of work to help the little guy back on his feet, but worth every second. Here are some pics from his recovery thus far.

We are very grateful to have been connected with Dr. Ealing and the BRAC, and have high hopes for this treatment. It's a testament to the importance of continuing stem cell research and other scientific study in order to find cures to debilitating diseases and disorders. To condemn stem cell research is tantamount to neglect, ignorance and is, in the end, irresponsible.

Cheers for Simon's new stem cells!

Please keep your fingers (and paws) crossed.

My First Bike...Night

Be it known to all that you must refer to these events as 'Bike Night,' as opposed to 'these little bike party situations.' I learned that at my first bike night (situation).

As with all things Harley, I was a bit tentative to join Aaron at Bike Night at Stables (country western bar and grill in the middle of nowhere). But, I made a promise to go, so we went.

Before we get to Bike Night and the fun photos, let me first say that I need to speak to someone about paving 465 properly. I mean, seriously... with the bumps... and the potholes. Enough.

Anyway...We arrived at Stables without incident and were greeted by about a zillion bikes and their attached bikers and babes. As is often the case with me in new situations, I had no idea how to act. I was, however, quite sure that the Prada bag had been a mistake immediately upon arrival. Alas...


Turns out, the people were really quite nice, leather chaps aside. And, we actually ended up visiting with a new biker friend who happens to work for a current prospect of dgs and loves to run a Mazak multi-tasking center, so it's all good.

Please do enjoy the photos. You'll note in the photo of me by the clown bike that I am grasping a lovely, while miniature, bottle of chardonnay. I mean, I have my limits people :-)