Boogie's in trouble

I am. The. Worst. FishOwner. Ever.

Remember I told you I finally broke down and got DumDum, my obscenely large goldfish, some company? I named the new trio, GumGum, Oogie and Boogie. And then, remember how I swore I was going to be a better fishowner since I've killed off half a dozen or so aquatic friends in the past couple years?

Well, through no fault of my own (I swear), I came home one day to find that the 10-gallon tank that DumDum, GumGum, Boogie and Oogie call home sprung a leak. About three inches of water had disappeared from the tank. At first, my crazy brain said maybe the water evaporated.

Now, that's just crazy. It's the middle of winter. I keep my house at a cool 68 or 69 degrees. Yea, yea, you can call me cheap if you want. But there's nothing worse than a house that's too hot and then you have to kick off the covers at night. I hate that. Anyway, there was no way water could evaporate like that in my cool house.

So being the doof that I am, I filled the tank up again, woke up the next morning and ta-da, found a whole lot of water on the floor. My observant, deductive mind quickly concluded that there must be a leak.

While I was tending to the tank, I looked more closely and, to my horror, discovered that poor Boog was swimming around with a bad case of fin rot. Crikey. The top of his tail was gone. The bottom part of his tail was black like tar. The spunky little thing was swimming his poor heart out with half a tail. Instead of swimming majestically like his friends, poor Boog looked like he was just wiggling his butt to get around.

So I ran out and bought a 5.5 gallon tank (c'mon. DumDum's big, but I now realize he doesn't need a 10 gallon tank. I have no idea what possessed me to buy one that large in the first place). I also bought some fin rot medication and I've been treating the tank with it. It's been a few days now and it could be my imagination, but Boogie's tail looks like it might be growing back.

I tried taking a picture of him last night to show everyone, but I think he's camera shy. I sat there with my little camera in front of the fish tank for what ended up being half an hour as I tried to get a good shot of the Boog and his Black Tail. But it just wasn't happening. He just wasn't in the mood for any paparazzi I guess. I would have kept trying, but I started feeling like a bad fishowner AND a total weirdo camera wielding loser. I am positive that combination does not make for attractive qualities in a person.

Anyhow, I've got my fingers crossed. Here's hoping the Boog doesn't bite the big one anytime soon. Oogie would miss him, for sure.

Colts to play underdog Jets

That was a tough game to watch Saturday night. We were at my nephew's beautiful wedding at the Walter's Art Gallery (his bride was lovely and a very, very sweet girl) at the same time the game was on and missed most of it. 

Well, we didn't miss it entirely. My other nephew, Steven, was getting game updates on his iPhone and texting us updates of the plays and score (we were sitting at another table). It's probably just as well that we couldn't catch the game as a family since I'm the only Colts fan in our group. 

Don't hate. I root for the Ravens when they play against anyone else, but I have been a Colts fan since Tony Dungy coached the team. I was a Dungy fan when he coached Tampa Bay and my allegiance followed him to Indy. Do I hate the Colts for abandoning Baltimore? No. Because then I'd have to hate the Ravens for abandoning Cleveland. 

It was hard watching the last 8 minutes of the Colts-Ravens game. Hard seeing how sad the Ravens looked. If you know me, you know I almost always root for the underdog even when I have a favored team in a game. If I see the other team losing and the players looking sad, my heart goes out to them and I start rooting for them. Like on Sunday night when the Jets played the Chargers, I rooted for the Jets since they weren't expected to win. But then when they were leading and the Chargers looked sad, I started rooting for the Chargers. I know. I am a softy. 

So anyway, I was surprised to find it becoming hard for me to root against the Ravens. I was conflicted. While I wanted my Colts to win, I felt really bad rooting against my home team. It was hard seeing how tough Ray Rice took it when he fumbled the ball in the last quarter. So I have to confess that even as a huge Colts fan, I would have been almost as happy to see the Ravens win on Saturday. 

Either way, I would have had a team going into the championships.

Thank goodness it's 2010

I can't begin to tell you how happy I am that 2009 is over. Why? Because the last six months just sucked rocks, I gotta say. 

It started off with a really bad break-up with a guy I was seeing for five years whom I also considered to be my best friend in the world. Then I had a mini-health issue that needed a visit to the hospital. Then Buster, my four-legged best friend, and I went through his vet trauma and near-death experience, which turned out to be pneumonia. 

And then just as the year was about to mercifully end, my poor mom had her own health issues. She's better now, but it took about a month for her to get over the illness. 

So, as you can see, the second half of 2009 was sort of a downer. I guess I could sit here feeling bad and hating the world. But that doesn't really change anything that has taken place, and I am a strong believer in the idea that things happen for a reason. It's not clear to me right now why any of it happened. 

But what is clear to me is that things aren't all bad. I'm no optimist, but the way I look at it, I've got my health, my mom's recovering quite nicely and Buster is doing pretty well, too. I'm single again, but I spent five mostly good years with someone who made me laugh a lot and who I cared about a lot. I've been blessed with a wonderful family and good friends. I had a great job I loved for 18 years and now I've got a second shot at a great job in a different industry that keeps things interesting and pays me pretty well. 

And you know, I even in the ups and downs of the past six months, I got to spend a lot of time with my mom, who is one bad-ass, strong-willed, funny, tough-as-nails woman. I'm not sure I could have handled the break-up and Buster's health issues without her by my side. She made me laugh when I needed it most. She forced me to move on when I felt stuck in an emotional rut. If I turn out to be anything like her, I will consider myself fortunate. 

All that time dealing with illnesses gave me a lot of down time on my hands stuck at my home or my mom's home. So I also re-discovered a love for cooking. Now, I know anyone who knows me knows I avoided the kitchen for years and managed to convince everyone that I can barely boil water.

But hey, a girl's got to eat. My ex used to cook all the time and now that I've got to do it, I figured I might as well try to do it well. I've been trying out new chicken recipes, new ways to cook brussels sprouts, and new pork recipes. It's been a lot of fun, not just to see if a bunch of little ingredients come together well, but also to see the looks on my dining guests' faces when they try what I've made. So far, the pork with raspberry sauce is a huge hit. But my chicken sandwiches and Texas tots aren't bad either. I've never tried quail before so I think I might tackle a quail recipe next. Who knew I'd enjoy cooking? Next up is a quail recipe, I think. 

So anyway, I've rambled on long enough. I'm looking forward to a better 2010. I'm wishing all my Wingers out there a terrific (albeit, somewhat late) new year, too. 

A second opinion, part II

Buster was dying. That was what the Edgewood vet told me. She put him on heavy-duty heart medication and advised me to make him as comfortable as possible in the little time he had left.

I didn't sleep at all that Monday night. I sat awake holding Buster in my arms as he blew snot bubbles out of his nose and he struggled mightily to breathe.

When morning came, I called into work and my sister told me to call the vet to make sure there was nothing else that could be done. She suggested I call Chesapeake Veterinary Cardiologists Associates. So I called the first vet. She didn't come to the phone. The woman at the reception desk told me to just keep giving him the Vetmedin and Enalapril, both heart medications. "It will take a few days to help," she said.

Then I called CVCA, the woman on the line patiently listened to me as I told her Buster's symptoms and asked her about his medication. She paused and asked me to hold. When she came back on the line, she said she was trying to get me an emergency appointment that day, Tuesday, and asked me if I could come with Buster. When she called back to give me a 3 p.m. time slot, I said yes and with my mom in tow, drove to Towson with Buster.

We were half an hour early. But as soon as we walked in, the woman behind the counter asked me if my dog was having a hard time breathing. I said yes and she called someone out right away. The woman, I wish I had caught her name, examined him quickly in the reception area and then brought Buster back to the exam room immediately.

She took his blood pressure. She checked his gums. She listened to his heart. She looked at the x-ray I brought from the first vet's office. She patted me on the arm and told me to try not to worry. I teared up. My mom teared up. Then the heart doctor came in and went through all the same steps as he examined my dawg.

"I don't want to say for sure, but I don't believe your dog is in cardiac," the heart doctor said. "I'll know for sure after we do an ultrasound on him." My eyes teared up again.

When Buster went into the next room, the heart doctor let me hold Buster on the table as he took an ultrasound of his heart. He told me his heart looked fairly healthy and while Buster did have a heart murmur because two valves in his heart don't close properly, "it isn't uncommon for dogs his size and age," the heart doctor said. "The murmur shouldn't cause him distress right now. Your dog does not have heart disease."

My mom and I both wept, for joy this time.

The heart doc then took Buster off the heavy duty heart drug, Vetmedin, which he said should only be taken when a dog is in his last stages of heart disease. He took him off the Lasix, and kept him on the Enalapril for his heart murmur. He also prescribed Buster some antihistamine for what might have caused his nasal discharge and breathing problems. I thanked him, my mom thanked him, profusely, and we took Buster home.

Buster didn't improve that night, though. His breathing got steadily worse. The next day, his nose was entirely filled with snot and he was trying to breathe through his mouth. My brother-in-law drove us back to the Pet Care Emergency Center right next to the CVCA. As I paced back and forth and watched as other pet owners hurried in and out with the same anguished look on their faces, I waited for the vets to examine Buster.

While I waited, I watched another vet rush out and run back in to the ER with a beautiful Lab in his arms. Outside, a mother, a father, a grandmother and two grown children wept as they were ushered into a waiting room. I paced even faster.

When the ER vet finally returned, she showed me Buster's x-rays and pointed to cloudy areas in his lungs. She said she believed it was pneumonia. She said it was good that I brought him in since pneumonia can worsen rapidly. She said she would prescribed him some antibiotics and see if that would help him.

I teared up again. After the good news we received from the heart doctor, we breathed a sigh of relief again with news that what Buster had was treatable. They were so incredibly kind to Buster in both the CVCA and the ER. They took time to explain things to me, and answered all my questions. They seemed to care as much for Buster as I did.

I would highly recommend them to everyone.

It's been almost two weeks since then and Buster is slowly recovering. He is no longer blowing snot bubbles. He is breathing easily. His appetite is back. His playful personality is almost back to normal. He has taken to ignoring me again, as he sees fit. I am overjoyed.

I thank Dr. Rosenthal at CVCA and I thank the ER vet, I wish I had caught her name, for taking such good care of my best friend.

The first vet should be expecting a letter from me any day now in the mail to let her know the pain and anguish she put me and my family through. I know everyone makes mistakes and we are all human, but people like me put our trust and the well-being of our furry family members in the hands of people like her. We rely on their judgment and expertise. We rely on them to help us carefully and deliberately deal with illnesses.

What if I did not have an emergency fund set aside? What if I did not have the resources to get a second opinion? What if I were left with only the first vet's diagnosis? Would Buster be alive today? I don't really know the answer to that question.

It is just amazingly fortunate that I didn't have to find out. I give thanks this holiday season for all the health practitioners out there, who practice on humans and on animals, for being thorough and careful and caring.

A second opinion

Just about two weeks ago, my dawg sneezed on a Saturday night right before bed.

The next morning, he had a full blown runny nose and difficulty breathing. Worried, I decided to take him to the same Edgewood vet where my sister's puppy was going.

I thought it was a cold. But after a fifteen minute exam in which the vet listened to Buster's heart with a stethoscope and then examed an x-ray of his heart, she diagnosed him as being in "cardiac."

Even as I listened to the words coming out of her mouth, it felt like a huge wave was washing over me. Her words made little sense. Buster was perfectly fine a couple days ago, running around, chasing squirrels, chasing my mom's dogs. Now, I was to understand that he was dying?

In a matter-of-fact tone, the vet told me that he had a Grade 4 heart murmur and that the x-ray of his enlarged heart showed that it was pressing down on his ribs and causing him discomfort. She said the cloudy area in the x-ray of his lungs was pulmonary edema, which was causing the discharge from his nose. She asked me if he had been coughing. Stunned, I said no.

She assured me that she heard him slightly cough when she picked him up to x-ray him in the back room. I told her Buster was around me all the time since he was a pup and I had never heard him cough before. I asked her if she was sure. She said she wished that she were wrong, but that I was lucky if I had six months with him. I was also to treat him like an "old man" and that if I were to so much as let him run, he could collapse from exertion and die. She also said if I wanted, I could take him to a specialist, but that they would not prescribe for him anything that she wasn't already giving him (heavy duty heart medicine, a pain killer and Lasix, a medication to treat fluid retention in subjects with congestive heart failure).

I left her office that morning, carrying a gasping Buster in my arms as I wept. I didn't want to believe what she told me, but she showed me the x-ray and gave me her diagnosis with such certainty. I called my sister and left her a message, still weeping.

You have to understand that Buster has been with me since he was a pup. Like one of those crazy dog owners I always shook my head at, I made my sister Bang bake him a dog bone-shaped cake and threw him a 1st birthday party. At 9-years-old, Buster has been with me through thick and thin. Boyfriends have come and gone, some with gladness, some with great sadness, but all with the unknowing, but loving support of me from my dawg. He has slept by my side, as if at watch, while I was sick in bed with the flu. He has made me laugh until I could laugh no more, running at top speed around the house as he crashed into furniture. He has sniffed approvingly and disapprovingly at the people I have let into my life. Just a couple months ago, he crawled onto the sofa next to me as I recuperated from surgery.

My Mama treats him like her grandson, half-heartedly scolding him when he hops on her bed pillows. When my uncle died suddenly two years ago on New Year's day, I leaned on my family, my then boyfriend and, of course, Buster, to grieve. My sister Liem keeps a photo of Buster on her shelf, next to her nieces and nephews. I know it sounds silly. He is a dog, after all. But he is not just my pet, he is also family. He has brought so much joy to our lives.

Suddenly, I had to come to terms with losing a part of me.

When my sister called me back that morning, she told me I had to take him to a heart specialist. She recommended Chesapeake Veterinary Cardiology Associates in Towson, which tried valiantly to save her her dog, Chip, when he was diagnosed with heart failure many years ago.

I called for an appointment and they squeezed me in the next available time, three days later on Thursday. That night, I took Buster home and cried some more as I watched him struggle to breathe. I believed it would be his last night.

Verizon has some 'splaining to do

I was actually kind of surprised when I read today that Verizon doubled the early termination fee it charges wireless customers.

For those signing up with Verizon after Nov. 15, your ETF will be $350 rather than the old $175 fee. That means if you cancel your contract before the time agreed upon has been reached, then you'll have to pay a prorated fee over the life of the contract.

Now, if you stick with the carrier for the life of the contract, you have no worries. But if for some reason, you decide to switch mid-stride, or if Verizon service disappoints you, or you have to move to Mumbai and can't take the phone with you for some reason, you're sort of screwed. Whereas before, you faced $175 or less depending on the amount of time you fulfilled within your contract, now you're facing $350 or less.

That's great gobs of money. That's a car payment. That's some sort of insurance payment. Or two or three household bills combined. Holy smokes, Verizon, did the Can-You-Hear-Me-Now Dude demand a humongous raise? If so, cut him loose, stat!

When I was a tech reporter at the paper and when I helped readers resolved consumer problems, I always noticed that Verizon performed better than other carriers. Their service was good, reception was good, and rates were fairly reasonable. I had few people complain about Verizon and those who did complain, received help almost immediately.

And look, as a longtime customer, I like Verizon. I've been with other companies and they don't compare.

Which is why I'm so disappointed with Verizon's new ETF fee. I have no current plans to leave Verizon, and they haven't done anything to make me rethink my position, but that's an outrageous amount of money. If they're trying to subsidize the cost of phones or recoup the amount of money they say it costs for the actual phone device itself, I want to see a breakdown of the true cost of their phones.

As PCWorld explains: "Subsidized handsets make it easier for customers to buy hardware and support a two-year upgrade cycle. The downside is higher monthly service fees and attempts at carrier lock-in, through ETFs and other measures."

Are you telling me that it costs $350 for every single phone they offer? Or is this just an attempt to make money unfairly off of customers? I want to see some proof that Verizon's not taking advantage of customers who aren't happy with their services. Or, I want to know that there's a legitimate reason for the increase. Because you know, if one carrier is raising its ETF and does so without much hubbub from the public or regulators, then other carriers will soon follow suit.

I can't wait to see how Verizon will explain this ETF jack-up to the Federal Communications Commission.

Baltimore Mayor Dixon Convicted

I honestly didn't believe that it would happen, but a jury of Sheila Dixon's peers convicted our city mayor of embezzlement yesterday. Whether you agree or disagree with their decisions, you have to give those 12 people a ton of credit for sitting through the state's most anticipated trial of the year, sifting through all the documents and testimony and then rendering a decision against a high-profile public official.

I have been, and continue to be, slightly conflicted about this case.

I did not vote for Dixon, but I have been pleasantly surprised by what she has done so far for my hometown. As a city resident, I feel like she has done more for our city than Governor O'Malley ever accomplished as mayor (no, I did not vote for O'Malley either... not for mayor or for governor. I can say that now that I no longer work for the paper.).

Even as O'Malley seemed to be on a never-ending campaign to reach higher office, Dixon seemed focused on her job here in the city. Whether it was a fairly good attempt at cleaning up the city, maintaining police presence in neighborhoods, or making tough decisions to cut costs amid budget shortfalls (raising city property taxes is NOT the answer, do you hear me City Hall?!), I gave her credit when it was due.

So a tiny part of me worries about what comes next for my beloved city's leadership. Stephanie Rawlings Blake? ugh. Would it be wrong of me to pick the Devil I know?

“It’s a sad day for Baltimore,” Robert A. Rohrbaugh, the state prosecutor said yesterday about the verdict. I understand what he means, but I have to disagree (despite my conflicted feelings about the city's future). Baltimore did the state proud. Specifically, the 12 jurors did Baltimore proud.

I applaud the jury for doing the right thing. Convicting Dixon of taking gift cards intended for the poor shows that no one is above the law, not even the Mayor of Baltimore.

All the talk I heard leading up to the trial centered on the impossibility of Dixon being convicted because of her race or because of her longtime Baltimore ties or political party affiliation. Baltimore residents will never convict Dixon, was the general consensus.

This conviction shows that a popular, black, Democratic mayor in a majority black, Democratic city can be judged, not on the color of her skin or other factors, but merely on her conduct and her ability to decipher right from wrong. This shows that everyone -- from Joe Schmoe down the street to the highest publicly elected official -- must follow the rules. This shows that the public, many of us, do care about ethics, and that citizens in this much-maligned city (no, we are not lawless and crime-ridden) won't put up with bad behavior.

And hey, I hope this is a word of warning to other politicians out there who believe they are untouchable. The too-cozy relationships between our elected officials and the people our governments do business with is not acceptable. Dixon can tell you all about that now.

So instead of being sad, let's take a moment to be proud of our fair city and its residents. Bravo.

Meet DumDum, GumGum, Boogie and Oogie

My little family of three (me, my Dawg and ginormous goldfish DumDum) expanded this past weekend.

I just figured DumDum's been a loner long enough now. I haven't had much luck with fish, ever since I had this brilliant plan more than a year ago to rescue three goldfish and a crawfish from someone who was traveling too much to take care of them. We did go through a horrible death, after all, when DumDum and his cohorts ate ZumZum.

Little did I know that neglect was far healthier for my aquatic friends than my sorry attempt at fishcare.

To this day, I can't begin to explain what I did wrong because I don't rightly know. All I do know is that I woke up one night to discover Pops, the coolest crawfish ever, had made a break for it. I looked everywhere for him. Behind the tank, behind the bookshelves, down the stairs, in every nook and cranny in my house. I even looked for some remnant of him in the tank and in the house to try to figure out if my Dawg or DumDum, my insanely large goldfish had eaten him. To this day, I have no idea what happened to Pops.

I'm still traumatized about it, I tell you. I can't help thinking that somewhere in my house, Pops' poor, little crawfish carcass is lying in perpetual rest.

After Pops disappeared, they just started dropping like flies.

Buckwheat was a floater. GumGum committed suicide. I found him stiff and dried out after I woke up one morning. My sister, Bang, felt bad for my loss and gave me two goldfish she won at a carnival. Scarred, I couldn't bring myself to name them.

That was probably wise because No Name Fish No. 1 became my second floater, and No Name Fish No. 2 lived just another week or two. I found him one horrible summer afternoon stuck to the side of the water filtration device. That was many, many, many months ago.

DumDum somehow survived it all, seemingly destined to live a life alone. Until this past weekend, that is. I decided it was time to get over my loss and bring some life back to poor DumDum's tank. For about 25 cents per fish, I introduced DumDum to GumGum (No. 2, of course), Boogie, and Oogie last night.

I just hope he doesn't eat them.

Happy Thanksgiving

A year ago to the day, I sat down at my computer and wrote my last blog post for the Consuming Interests blog at the The Baltimore Sun. On the Friday after Thanksgiving 2008, I went to work and said goodbye to a place I called my home away from home and friends I cared about like family for more than 18 years of my life.

I haven't looked back with any regrets.

As much as I loved the place and the paper, I knew in my heart it was time to go. Thinking back on the past year has made me realize how very thankful I am for that decision, and not because I hold any animosity or disdain toward my old place of work.

As thankful as I am to have a job in this economy, I am also thankful for the amazing experiences that I had at the paper. I learned so many valuable life lessons there, from how to calmly deal with angry people to how to take criticism and grow from it. I learned to develop patience as I waited in court, at police scenes, in document rooms and government hearings to get the story. I learned how to communicate clearly with people in writing and in conversation. I learned important social and business skills that are so incredibly useful to me now.

It was hard to leave that world of news behind, especially since I had reached my goal of becoming a columnist and I had become so comfortable in my position there. But thanks to the support of my wonderful family and a person close to my heart who encouraged me to take that scary leap into a new career, I found an entirely new world full of exciting challenges awaited me. Had they not nudged me, believed in me and given me the strength and courage to believe in myself, I would still be at the paper wondering what next?

For that push and support, I am incredibly thankful because not only have I discovered what came next, but I also discovered that I love life after the paper.

I couldn't have done it without those people in my life. And that brings me to what I am most thankful for this holiday: my amazing family and friends. On this day of thanksgiving, I hope that everyone out there is fortunate enough to spend it with the people you love, or if that isn't possible, that the people you love know they are loved and supported. I hope that everyone out there is fortunate enough to have a support network that will cheer you on when you are up, pick you up when you are down, and stand by you when you feel most alone.

That is why Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday. It's not about the gifts, the trinkets or any of the rituals involved. It's about spending time with your loved ones. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

What are you thankful for?

I've been thinking a lot about this question these last few days. What am I thankful for? Lots of things, big and small.

If you share with me below, I'll share with you.

C'mon CWingers, inspire me. Tell me what you're thankful for this year. It can be one small thing. One big thing. Something that makes you giggle. Something that changed your life. Something deep? Something seemingly insignificant to everyone, but you? Whatever makes you thankful and whatever you want to share.

Let's have at it.