No job, sick dog.....

Brodie as a puppy...

Watta week.  My second week of job loss, trying to maneuver through the unemployment system (not easy), and on top of it, Brodie becomes very ill...running a temp of 105 (a dog's normal temp is 101 to 102) and no energy.  A trip to the vet on Monday concludes with a diagnosis of pancreatitis.  The vet kept asking me if he had gotten into anything (food wise), but he really doesn't has access to pet food, or any food that is within his reach (one benefit of a short legged dog I guess), and we finally concluded that the dog food Romeo bought most recently was for "sporting" dogs, so probably had too much fat in it.  Hence the pancreatitis.  We put him on a bland diet, which for dogs is boiled chicken, or baby food, and he went in for temperature checks every day this week except yesterday and today (since they are closed).  Thankfully he is improving every day, and is doing much better.  So, I am very thankful for that.  The vet was very understanding about the issue with my job loss, and didn't send us over to the clinic for an ultrasound ~ which probably would have been very expensive....as it was, the vet bill was $300.  

All grown up & looking good!

Otherwise, I had a productive meeting with a professor at UNM, who will help me pay for his class in the spring semester.  It is on Chaco energetics, which basically is food resources, diet, calorie consumption, etc.  Sounds very complicated.  But I am excited to take it, because this guy is sooo smart and truly likes to teach & help students achieve their goals.  He wasn't even surprised to notice that I am not the usual 20 something student.  I suppose in his years of teaching, he seen every type of student there is.  His enthusiasm for the subject was great to see.

I sent my resume to my current professor, but I'm not really sure if there is anything that he can do.  A racquetball friend of mine suggested that I go to the scholarship office to see if there is anything that might help.  She said there are many scholarships that go unused just because students are lazy.  But I think it's that finding scholarships is so complicated that students just give up.  Uh, 'cause that's what I did.  :-)

What a great Thanksgiving we had yesterday.  The turkey was fabulous, the fresh green beans, the dressing, the home made rolls were all great.  I did buy the turkey gravy base from Williams-Sonoma, but we didn't like it.  It tasted.....funny.  I wondered when the directions said to add 1 part gravy base & one part -milk???  Ugh.  I was right too, it just didn't cut it.  We had two kinds of pie too, pecan and pumpkin, both of which were so good.  

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family & friends & good food.  

Love, 365