"You goin' eat yo' cornbread?" 02.11.11

There's nothing like a freshly-baked cornbread to go with your usual Friday night pasta.  And after sucessfully baking a Betty Crocker Milk Chocolate Brownie for last weekend's superbowl get-together at Mai and Jason's house, I got really ambitious.  And with all of the cool cookware we received from the wedding, I am more than excited.  I've had the box of Jiffy's Corn Bread mix for a while, since I tend to buy these things when it's on sale, for $1 a box.  It serves 6-8 muffins.  A piece of egg, a 1/3 cup of milk, and 20 minutes later, we popped a bottle of Blue Moon beer, and it's dinner time.

The quote is from the movie "Life" with Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence.  Another favorite quote of mine from the movie is "my name is Jiggly Jiggly" by Bernie Mac.  I can't find that reference through IMDB, but that was a pretty funny scene.  God bless him.  He died of pneumonia a little over 2 years ago.  Yet antoher reminder that life is short, so enjoy it while you can, because you'll never know what tomorrow brings.

It has been a crazy week for Tico.  I took him out to Redondo Beach Dog Park on Sunday morning, and also walked up and down the block from the park.  It was already 10am, and it's still misty and foggy out when we got out of the house, but this is not unusual.  Once we got closer to the ocean, it got foggier; but it died down in about an hour once the sun came up.  Apart from being closer to our house, this dog park is great because I get to see a really large varieties of dogs on here.  Every time I see some dog that fascinates me.  I got to enjoy watching a young husky that's barely a few months old playing with other yippee dogs inside the small dog park section.  The husky is adorable; playful, aggressive.  My coworker and his fiancee just got one too; and Bella (the husky) is about 7 weeks old, so she can't come out and play yet; but this place would be perfect for her.

Anyway, Monday night, we came home to a very sick dog.  Tico's food bowl was barely touched, and he vomited in the living room.  He won't touch any food, and his energy level is 10% of what it used to be.  The entire night was a crazy event of picking up vomit, moving him to the bathroom, giving him water which he could not even hold down - - it was insane.  He was vomiting, but that was it.  So I took off work the next day and took him to the vet.  I don't think I can take a chance coming home from work on Tuesday night and see Tico in a worst light than he was before.  I can't say the D word, but it was a scary Monday night.

I have a gripe about vets in general.  And Banfield is starting to tick me.  They are nice; but one thing that I don't like is the huge turnover in the doctors; and they are less experienced than the last one.  And with all of the tests, medicine, etc. that they put in Tico, they still could not find out what's wrong with him.  I told the doctor maybe it's because of the food that I gave him; because I fed him a Beneful wet product that was not his usual diet; and she flat out said no.  Maybe because we went to a family park, and the local dog park, and walked around the block this weekened; maybe he contracted from something or someone there?  Still no. 

She said maybe there was something lodged inside his stomach; so we should do x-rays; maybe he ate some chemicals, so I had to question myself to see if there's anything in the house that he could have eaten - - no.  Maybe some neighbor threw some chemical stuff over our fence - no.  So a few hours and a couple of hundred dollars later, we still don't know what happened to Tico. 

He's back to normal now, but he definitely lost some weight from the ordeal.  I wish he could tell me what was wrong with him, and what he ate and all that stuff; but he can't.  All I know is that he needs to change his diet from now on so he does not eat too much bad crap.  And being on a tight budget, I tend to go for the Beneful dry dog food and Alpo wet food stuff because they are cheap and Tico loves the taste of the Beneful over the Costco brand.  But as someone has told me, Beneful are basically just corn and fillers.  And having had a weak stomach; I have to choose brands that are more organic, and has real meat ingredients with no corn and soy products in it.  In other words: expensive.  But going to the vet and losing one day of work is way more expensive, and the heartache of seeing your dog suffer is priceless.

And so we learn. 

"Uh,-oh; B-E-R-N!" 01.16.11

Ah, the great movie "Rainman".  Two great actors, one iconic movie.  The distinct homage for this movie in "The Hangover" is also pretty cool.  I love Vegas.  Bryan and I love Vegas.  Even Tico loves Vegas.  And being only 4 hours away, I tend to go on average twice a year.  I'm not a gambler; I usually put aside a couple of 20 bucks; and once they're gone, I stop.  I don't have enough funds to take a larger risk than that.  I did, however; have lost a couple of hundred bucks over 6 years ago; and that was embarassing to admit. 

I usually go to Vegas for the nightlife, the buffet, and the energy level in that city is just incomparable.  And every time I go, there's always something new.  The girls and I also try to go once in a blue moon to unwind, and have some sort of retreat from our daily tasks, our career issues, our money problems, and our love woes.  But once in Vegas, who would have time to talk about those things?  We are there to unwind, decompress, and have FUN.  Life is too short to not have fun.  We lounge around in the pool, eat bad, greasy food, and dance our asses off at night. 

We don't let not having money to stop us from having fun with other ways, such as scoring on cheap buffets, great discounts, and affordable lodging.  But each time I go, I always thought "would it be cool if I walk out of these casinos and win $1 million?"  But once my first $20 is out, I get discouraged and nurse myself back to the ramen house or do some sight-seeing.  When I'm with the girls, my favorite place to hang out is in one of the half a dozen clubs in Palms.  When I'm with B, I liked to try out new dancing spots.  B loves to dance.  When I'm with family from Hawaii, I usually spend time in downtown Vegas, and eat Hawaiian Oxtail soup in California Hotel, rub the buddha's belly, and try my luck in the 25-cent Wheel of Fortune. 

For buffets, Main Street Cafe is great for some Hawaiian food binge-ing, there's an Indian buffet on Flamingo Drive, Makino sushi on Las Vegas Premium outlets, and the seafood buffet on Rio Hotel.  They range from $9 to $40; so they don't really break the bank.  But they can easily break my waistline.  I guess it's a good thing that we live 4 hours away from this city.

I had plans to take Tico to another park today; but alas, we can't.  His paw skins are really hurting from  yesterday's skids, so he needs to take it easy today.  I feel really bad because his energy level is 100 times less than normal; he now walks like a broken old man; and his appetite is low.  We've put some hydrogen peroxide, and applied Neosporin and bandaged him; but he would try to take them out with his teeth; so we came up with putting socks over them.  And it helps especially when he goes outdoor to do his business.  So far, we're on day 2 and the skins are getting better; but we are worried that he will gnaw at them tomorrow and make it worse.  I can understand having a wound and having the need to scratch it because of the pain.  We are good at reinforcing that what he's doing is bad, but who knows what he'll do when both of us are not around to stop this behavior. 

I just don't get it.  For a really intelligent dog, I don't get why he won't stop running and skidding when he realized he's hurting himself.  He could have skidded his paws raw yesterday.  Luckily B noticed a red spot on his paw in time.   I feel super guilty that I am feeding him his "Maro Bone" instead of his regular biscuits that helps his bad breath.  And whenever I give him snacks, I used to make him do his "lying down" tricks; but he's having none of it.  Poor boy.

I also realized today, after reading my Calfiornia Dog Lover's Companion book, that the city of Santa Monica is a nazi when it comes to dogs.  They don't have much of a good selection of dog parks, as well as off-leash dog parks; and if they do, they tend to cater to local dogs with Santa Monica licenses.  My license says county of Los Angeles, but Santa Monica has it's own city license.  That city requires licenses and permits for everything.  Santa Monica is a city that I have a one-sided love-hate relationship with.  Their parking sucks, and everything is over-inflated, and overcrowded.  But it's a pretty city with great dining and shopping offerings.  And the beaches are pretty good for West LA. 

But I digress.  For the next few months, my goal is to find dog parks and beaches that are:

1.  Off-leash

2.  Unrestricted and not exclusive

3.  Large dog-friendly

I don't see a point in having a dog park when you don't allow the dogs to roam around freely.  But we can't win them all.  But my point is, I won't be looking around to Santa Monica anytime soon for any doggie adventures, unless I really need to.  I used to live in Mar Vista, which is a few miles south of Santa Monica, so it's still one of my favorite hangouts; but for a non-resident, large dog owner - - it's not the best city for dog parks.  That and Pasadena.  Go figure.