Ah, Victoria

I love going home.

I did, in fact, make it back to the island for Christmas and I was only 2 days late. I managed a full 6 days of family, friends, sushi, presents, ocean, dogs, sleep, and copious amounts of sugar. I came home 2 days ago and I'm feeling great.

So, Happy New Year all! I'm spending the night with the cats and a movie and I can't think of a better way to kick off 2009. Cheers!



(Darth Fiddler is a common sight in Victoria. Under the mask, he's actually a pretty cool guy. Too bad he can't actually play the damn fiddle.)

We gotta get out of this place.....

Well, I'm stuck.

I was supposed to fly out of PDX at 3pm today, but here I am, sitting in Rob's apartment. I can't get to the airport (they shut down MAX for most of today) and my flight has been canceled twice even if I could. I also can't get back to my apartment where my cats are. They should be fine because I left them a week's worth of food, 3 water bowls (in case Minnow digs all the water out of them like she usually does) a pot of water in the sink with the tap dripping into it and the heat on low.

The problem is, even though I know they should be just fine, I worry. I can't help but think about all the what ifs, and those what ifs are scary. Merlin isn't the healthiest creature around, what if he chooses now to get really sick? What if Minnow falls off something for the one billionth time, and this time actually hurts herself? What if, what if, what if....

I'm going to try to get out there tomorrow (multiple friends with Subarus, rock on!) and check on them, but otherwise I'll just have to sit here and quietly panic.

My current flight schedule has me leaving PDX at 6am on Tuesday (ewwwwwwww!) and arriving at YVR at 7am. Then, due to some absolutely stellar scheduling, I get to wait til 4:30pm to catch the island hopper back home. I felt kinda sorry for the Air Canada employee who had to tell me this because it was obvious he expected me to start yelling and screaming (which he'd probably already got a lot of that day). I told him it wasn't his fault, and really....how bad is it? I mean, it's not like I have to sit outside in the snow and wait for my plane. YVR isn't half bad, as airports go, and I have 3 knitting projects, a couple books, and goldfish crackers. I suspect I'll survive and it'll become just one more "do you remember when...?" tale I can drag out at Christmas time. I plan to stick near to the gate anyway, and if I'm really lucky, a seat will open up on an earlier flight. I'm actually far less concerned about the day waiting at YVR and more annoyed by having to be at PDX for 6am. I mean, really. I'll probably just not sleep and head out around 3am, because looking at the clock right now (2:30am) I think I'll have better luck with that. Mom, if you're reading this, be prepared to accept delivery of a slightly frozen zombie. I may or may not be coherent, but I'll do my best.

So, keep your fingers crossed for me. I really do want to go home!

Baby, it's cold outside

It's been hovering at about -5C today and while I love it, it does have some practical ramifications. The first is that here, like home, gets snow slightly differently from back east. The ground is rarely fully frozen so when the snow lands it usually melts and then refreezes, leaving a layer of ice under the powder. This doesn't matter too much when the temperature spikes right back up again like it often does, but when the temperature actually drops and stays dropped, the entire city gets coated in ice. So, driving is a bit treacherous, especially with all the idiots in SUV's who think 4 wheel drive makes them invincible (see previous post).

Anyway, this means that nobody is really going anywhere, and half the city has shut down. My appointment at PCC to get my travel signature so I can get back into the country was canceled because the campus is closed, and I'm starting to get a bit nervous about when I'll be able to get it. I've been emailing everyone there, so hopefully someone will figure out that they can't just forget about us.

Also, I am a brilliant person and left my cell phone at Rob's on Saturday. Normally he'd just drive it out to me, but he's stuck in town and I haven't fancied taking the bus, max, bus combo needed to get to his house and then just turn right back around and repeat.

Despite all of that though, the most pressing issue with the cold is my apartment. I'm living in an apartment that was built (cheaply) in the 70's, and it features very large single glazed windows with aluminum trim. In summer, I love them, but I was beginning to realize that I was going to end up spending the national debt in heating bills if I didn't do something about them. I walked over to Bi-mart this afternoon and picked up some plastic sheeting and sealed off all but the patio door. It's actually double glazed and I don't like the idea of sealing an exit, so I left it alone. I hadn't looked too closely at the windows since the cold snap so it was a bit of a shock when I went to put the plastic up that 3 of them were actually sealed closed with ice on the inside. Oops! No wonder it's been cold in here! Anyway, the apartment is looking a little less stylish, but hopefully it'll prevent Rob from keeling over from hypothermia when he finally does make it out here.

It's funny, this is the first time I've lived in a place where the insulation, or lack thereof, actually affected me. I have a feeling that whatever is in the walls is woefully insufficient, and my front door is a joke. Guess it's a good thing that I like the cold because to be honest, I hadn't thought the apartment all that uncomfortable, even with iced windows and the heat set at 60F (which it was definitely not achieving).

Nothing much else to report today. Being more or less housebound has meant a lot of knitting, cleaning and snuggling with cats. Minnow has a vet appointment for her rabies vaccine and to check her spine for alignment issues (being a tripod is bound to have some effect on her) so we'll get to brave the bus system tomorrow to get there. She likes traveling so I'll just wrap the carrier with towels to keep her warm and I'm sure she'll do just fine. She might bite the vet when we get there, but she'll be a total angel to every random person on the bus who wants to pet her. C'est la vie.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

What a great way to start my first week of vacation! Home got their snow last night and I stayed up til 3am watching the crystal clear and miserably snow-free sky and feeling jealous. I woke up again around 5am because the light had changed and looked out my window to see thick yellowish clouds which made me feel much better. Apparently it started falling just after 7am and sticking around 8am. I woke up at 10am to a nice thick coating and it's been snowing non-stop ever since.

It's funny, I've always felt like slightly less than a true Canadian because of the lack of snow in Victoria. Some sort of Canadian Lite because we get all excited over our measly little 2 inch drifts and the city shuts down. After seeing how Portland reacts to snow though, I'm feeling just the tiniest bit superior, and perhaps a little more Canadian afterall. I guess, even in lotus land, there are enough transplants from back east to infuse everything with a little more sanity and common sense. Here, most of the transplants seem to be from California, and they out and out panic at the first sign of white stuff falling from the sky.

The news station this morning had 5 hours of continuous "Winter Storm Coverage" complete with reporters live on location throughout the city to check in and tell everyone how things looked from their angle. People were encouraged to send in their photos of the snow and the weather crew was giving updates every 10 minutes. Best of all though were the shots from the traffic cams which really highlighted just how unprepared Portlanders are for this weather. ODOT issued a warning to all drivers and has made chains or studs mandatory if you want to get on a highway, but they can't force common sense on people.




This video is actually from 2004, but it was taken in downtown Portland, just near PGE park. I haven't seen anything quite that spectacular on the traffic cams yet, but the day is young! I have faith in the ability of overconfident SUV drivers to provide us all with yet another horrifying video.

I got my final marks back this morning for all my classes. I got A's in both intro to vet tech and medical terminology (I would have been embarrassed if I hadn't, she practically gives them away), a B in animal science, and...a C in A&P. I'm not happy about it, or proud of it, but I won't complain too much. I passed, and in the end, that's all the really counts. As long as I pass, I get to go on to the next term and learn from my mistakes so I can get a better grade. And in the meantime, I can stop panicking and just relax.

So, I'm spending a wonderful day on my couch facing the window so I can watch the snow. We're up to about 3 inches now and no sign of stopping yet. I have tea, a blanket, a good book, and strategically placed cats - one on my feet, one tucked in to my neck. Life is pretty darn good.

Homesick (warning, graphic picture)

I've been homesick a few times since I moved, but it's hit me pretty badly today. I've been watching the Canadian news for days, trying to get as much information as I could on the political situation, but I still feel like I'm living in a vacuum. Nobody down here knows about what's going on at home, and most wouldn't really care even if they did. I've tried to explain it to several of my classmates and I don't think they really understand. CNN finally posted an article on it today, but it's buried on a back page. Their top headlines instead include such items as "Has Palin snubbed Oprah?", "Dog saved after chasing critter into pipe", and "The most annoying holiday song is...".

I can always call home and talk to friends or family about it, try to get some perspective that way, but it's so hard to get a real sense of what's going on without being there. I guess I'm just feeling very isolated, and very much like I wish I were back home for this.



On a happier note, I had my last breed ID today. I got all the breeds right and only lost 2 points on the short answer (Flemish Giant rabbits are upwards of 13lbs, not 12lbs, and Tennessee, as in Tennessee Walker, has two e's on the end....ugh). We had a review session in place of lab and got a bit of prep on what we should be focusing on for the final. I stayed after class to talk with her about my grade, just to see where I'm at and found out I'm sitting at a 92.16%. Rock on! I thought I was holding a high B, so to know that I'm actually just scraping an A is good news. If I do well on the final I may even get to keep it.

As of today I am done with quizzes! I have 2 homework assignments left though. One is an easy extra credit for medical terminology that I've already finished, and the other is an as yet unknown homework assignment from A&P that she refused to give us yesterday, saying we could have it Friday. Great, thanks.

Yesterday's A&P lab was BRAAAAAIIIINS. Alona, Arisa and I did a fantastic job of lobotomizing our sheep's brain and we had a good time too. Did you know that preserved brains bounce quite well? And that the dura mater looks like a little like a hat, and the cerebellum like cauliflower?


In this photo, you can clearly see the cerebrum, 1st ventricle, rostral and caudal colliculi, thalamus, hypothalamus, cerebellum, pons, medulla oblongata, and the 3rd ventricle. The pituitary is missing (it got ripped off when the adipose pads behind the eyes were removed) and the pineal gland is too small to see clearly.

Now I just need to remember all of that by Wednesday.

School life has been uh...interesting lately as well. Over thanksgiving, one of the second year students let 3 dogs out in the play yard together. We normally only let out two at a time to prevent dogs ganging up on eachother, but it might have been ok had two of those dogs not been unneutered. I don't know what this student was thinking. As far as I was aware, we all knew better than that, especially since those particular dogs growl and bark at the mere sight of eachother.

Chester took the worst of it and he looks like a mess. His ears, head, and throat are pretty badly torn up and in all honesty he's lucky to be alive. Still, he's been up to his own mischief as well since a rumour that had been floating around was finally confirmed this week. One of our unspayed females went into heat a few weeks ago and Chester managed to climb the chain link part of his run and get into her run. We're still waiting for Bryn to get far enough into term that we can confirm pregnancy, but it seems likely.

The last incident was Monday evening. One of the girls who works at a local clinic came into school Tuesday morning with the news that Hero, a 9 month old shepherd cross, was in serious condition at her hospital. One of the PCC staff (not one of the tech program staff) had been taking him home in the evenings to give him a break from kennel life. She'd made the unfortunate decision of keeping his food stored under her sink, right next to the draino. Hero, being the puppy that he is, got into the cabinet and ate a large quantity of draino.

We got word today that he's going to be ok, despite a horribly burned mouth and a badly damaged esophageal sphincter. I saw him briefly today and he looks terrible, but at least he's alive. He's on a liquid diet until he can heal and there's been a temporary suspension of any off-campus activities for the dogs. Several students had planned to take dogs home for the Christmas holidays so we're waiting for an announcement to tell us if that is still on.

So....as Mom said, I think we've had our three. No more bad stuff for a while, please and thank you.

Monday Monday...so good to me.....

Hooray! Only a day and a half til Mom gets here for her visit!

I know, I saw her just 3 months ago, but I'm used to talking with her by phone 3-4 times a week and having lunch or tea with her at least once a week. We still talk, but actually getting to chat in person is going to be great. Besides, I've been itching to show off the school and take her out for a walk with the dogs.

Today was a pretty good day. Mondays are my easy class days and it's always kind of a nice way to ease into the week. Intro to Vet Tech is interesting, but certainly not challenging. We've talked about laws and restrictions regarding tech duties, proper sterilization technique and using MSD sheets, how to appear and act professionally, and a lot of the day to day things that will come up in our careers. Our lectures are really more like discussions with a lot of input from the students, both questions and anecdotes. We were talking about positive communication today and then started the dreaded euthanasia topic.

I think everyone has a slightly different perspective on euthanasia. Some people had very little exposure to it, either personally or professionally, and others were quite experienced. Some said they had a really tough time keeping their emotions in check (one of my friends even started crying as we were discussing it because it upsets her so much), and others of us are able to turn off our personal feelings. I fall into the latter category, and I'm exceedingly grateful that I do. I suppose working at Central helped me with that. Given how many euthanasias we might see on any given night, I either had to learn to cope, or quit. I'm not saying that I don't get upset or that I have no empathy, I'm just able to deal with the situation at hand, comfort the owner and the pet, and then let it all go when I leave the building. I try not to bring any of it home with me, and if I occasionally fail.....well, I have the comfort of knowing that those ones that hit me hard mean I'm still human and I'm not cold. I think that can be a fine line.

Anyway, my other Monday class is Medical Terminology. We always have a quiz, and then a subsequent bitch session as we sit in the hallway waiting for the rest of the class to finish and figure out just how many we got wrong (oh for...hypercapnia! I knew that!!). The rest of the class is just going through the text book and highlighting words that we will need to know for next week, which sounds boring but really isn't. For one thing, we discuss the definitions of words and that can often lead to interesting stories or ideas. For another, occasionally we'll play word games like hangman. Once, Dolores even brought in a bunch of word parts on index cards and passed them out. We had to randomly pick 2 other people and then try to make a word out of the prefix, root, and suffix that we had. I think my favourite from that exercise was dys-rhino-emesis. Given that dys is difficulty, rhino is nose, and emesis is vomiting, I think it makes a weird sort of sense. Of course you'd have difficulty vomiting out of your nose!

The plan for tonight is to finish up my breed summary papers (1 page each, 3 cat breeds, 3 dogs), do some more work on my feeder pig report (ugh, that thing will kill me), write the lab report that's due tomorrow (and that I should have done last week), review for tomorrow's horse quiz (rock on!) and bake cupcakes because one of my school friends has a birthday tomorrow and I'm hoping to surprise her.

Busy busy busy!

Guess what I did today?

That's right, I fed an elephant!

Our field trip today was to the Oregon Zoo, and we got to meet one of the Zoo's elephants up close and in person. Chendra is an Asian elephant from Malaysia. In Malaysia, a lot of the elephant's habitat has been destroyed by farmers who will then start palm oil plantations where they've chopped down the jungle. Elephants often won't leave the area, however, so they are considered pests by the farmers who dislike them eating the crops. Chendra was found near one of these plantations. She was an orphaned juvenile and she'd been injured (possibly with a shotgun) causing her to lose the sight in her left eye. Being without a herd is usually reason enough to prevent an elephant from being successfully released into the wild, and with her age and blindness she was not considered to be a suitable candidate for release. She was brought to the Oregon Zoo in 1999 and has adapted beautifully to captivity and her new herd.


The zoo trains all their elephants in basic commands and this training serves several purposes. First, elephants are prone to infections of the skin, feet and teeth. Not only do they have to be checked frequently for these, they also need routine medical care and treatments. Given that Chendra is the smallest of the elephants at the zoo at 4500lbs, manhandling them isn't really an option, so they're trained to respond to basic movement commands. Chendra lifts her feet, opens her mouth, lays down, lifts her trunk, turns around and stands still, all with one word commands.

The other reasons for training are just as important. Elephants are highly intelligent and keeping them mentally stimulated in captivity can be challenging. Training exercises provide cognitive challenges that keep them occupied and prevent boredom. They also provide a social outlet for the elephants, letting them interact with trainers in a way that promotes trust and affection.


We also got a lecture about animal enrichment from the resident behaviour specialist. A lot of the specifics were (obviously) geared towards captive wildlife, but the concepts could very easily be applied to domesticated animals as well. I've often felt like I have a fairly decent grounding in animal enrichment activities, but the lecture was very interesting and brought up some points that I had never consciously thought about.

One of the main things mentioned was that in assessing an animal's environment, we can't just proceed from a human point of view. That may sound obvious, but while most of us are smart enough to know that a lion doesn't need a fluffy pillow, we are often still guilty of many other human centric mistakes that can negatively affect an animal's habitat. As an example: What does your house smell like? If you say "nothing", that may be true to you, but I can bet it isn't true to your cat or dog. Smell is a portion of constructed habitats (whether for domesticated or wild animals) that is often forgotten. The Oregon Zoo has started keeping spice racks in all the buildings and once or twice a month a different spice will be sprinkled on the ground. This provides novel stimuli and entertainment; much more so than it would provide to animals (like us) with poor senses of smell.

The book I linked to above is one I've been reading on and off for a few months. It's extremely interesting to read and I just wish I had more time in between studying! Temple Grandin has a pretty neat perspective on how animals see and interpret the world, and some of what she says is so simple as to make me think "duh!".....and yet, somehow, I've never thought about it before. It's the sort of mindset that I'm trying to achieve more often because it has the potential to really change how I would do my work. Understanding why an animal does something is huge in terms of knowing how to respond to it. Something as easy as why a cat doesn't like having it's toenails trimmed (in the wild, if something bigger than you grabs your foot, you're a goner) can be made much less frustrating by really understanding how the animal feels about it. Yes, knowing why the cat is trying to claw your arm off may not change the fact that you're bleeding like a stuck pig.....but for me, at least, it helps keep me from getting frustrated or upset.

Anyway, I have more studying to do (always). We're working on muscles in A&P and our dead lab cat (named "High Test" for his fat content) is a little difficult to work with. I'm hoping that having a good grasp of where the muscles should be will help me navigate through his prolific adipose tissue.

Oh, and here's another picture. I took 92 of them today (deleted most due to repetition, but whatever) so I should probably share.

Slacker

Yeah, I know.

I keep meaning to update, but when faced with the choice of updating the blog or getting in just a little more study time, I'm going with the studying. It seems like every day is a quiz, midterm, or some other sort of stress inducing event right now. Last week I had a quiz on Monday, a midterm Tuesday, a quiz Wednesday, a quiz Thursday, and a midterm and a lab practical Friday. This week I've already had a quiz, a breed ID, and I'll have another quiz tomorrow and Thursday. Ughhhh.

I did relatively well on my animal science midterm. I was hoping for an A, but I ended up with a solid B. Given that I flubbed an entire section on sheep, I'm ok with that mark. I may not feel so positive when I get my A&P marks back though. I felt like I got at least a B on the lecture midterm, but the lab practical was excruciating. I'd studied my butt off for it and I still felt like I knew nothing. On the bright side, everyone I've talked to is pretty sure they failed it, so maybe she'll be forced to curve it.

Anyway, I've missed two "Tuesday Lab" updates! This is unforgiveable!

Last week we went to Northwest Alpacas.


We got to see a one day old baby (baby alpacas are called "cria"), pet a couple alpacas, and then watch a "spit off" pregnancy check and a breeding.
A "spit off" is an easy method of checking to see if a female alpaca (called a "hembra") is pregnant. She's put in with a male alpaca (called a "macho"....I love that one) and watched. If she's open, she'll go into the "kush" position (kneeling down) and let him mount her. If she's pregnant, however, she'll "spit him off", and not let him near. We weren't quite prepared for just how quickly the hembra would spit, so I and a few others were standing right next to the fence. I'm a little slow to duck, so I ended up with alpaca spit in my hair. Awesome!

We watched the poor macho get spat off by about 10 females before his job was done. The poor guy never got discouraged and he kept up a mating call the entire time. For those who have never heard a camelid mating call, it's something else. It's described as an "orgling" sound, and if you look it up online you can hear a sample. The macho will orgle for the entire time he's trying to convince a hembra to mate, and will continue through the entire mating itself. Since alpaca matings last about 45 minutes, the sound can get a little grating.

Today's field trip was to Laffalot Farms. They raise Nubian goats.


For those who don't know, I love goats. Just adore them. One day I would like to own goats.
These guys weren't quite as friendly as the goats I'm used to (the petting zoo goats were unbelievably socialized) but they were still very nice. They just weren't used to having 30 people in blue coveralls descend on their paddocks, and I think it spooked them a little.

Still, we got to pet a few goats and talk to the farm owner who has been raising them for 26 years. One of my favourite parts of these trips is listening to the farmers and finding out what is important to them and what their lives are like. Despite a pretty healthy amount of large animal exposure, I've almost never dealt with actual farms or farmers, so it's really interesting to get an idea of what their lives are like. For anyone who has dairy animals (cows or goats), there's no such thing as a vacation. Those animals have to be milked 2-3 times a day, and if you're not there to do it, there's going to be a problem. Goats, especially, don't often like being milked by someone they don't know and trust, so even hiring someone to come in and do the milking while they go away doesn't always work. Just makes me more sure that I never want a dairy animal!

This week we have a double field trip to make up for a week where we had no lab last month. This field trip should be highly exciting because we get to go to the zoo! Yay!

Alright, I can feel my brain shutting down. I think it's bedtime.

Foot Loose and Fancy Free?

Ok, I'll admit it. That is a truly terrible pun (though not as bad as some on boingboing's article)

"RICHMOND, B.C. — A couple walking their dogs along the banks of British Columbia's Fraser River made the latest in what's become a series of gruesome discoveries of a running shoe with a severed foot encased inside.

It's the seventh such find inside a shoe along the West Coast from Georgia Strait to the northwestern tip of Washington State since August 2007."

This is a map of the area where the feet are being found.

If this finding is confirmed as real, that makes seven feet that have washed up in the area. When you consider how much of the BC coastline is uninhabited and how many wild animals there are who would be willing to cart off something like this before humans found it, the idea that we've found seven is a little worrying. How many more feet are washing up that nobody knows about? And more importantly, where in the world are they coming from?

A lot of theories have been put forth: small plane crash victims, an (unreported?) boating acident in the Fraser, missing fishermen or sailors, Serial Killer, or even the far-fetched Tsunami victims.

The similarity of all the feet being in running shoes can be explained by the tendency of running shoes to be well attached to the feet by laces and by their floating capability. A foot in say, a high heel, would slide out of the shoe, and a boot would likely not float. It is also considered normal for body parts to disarticulate during decomposition - the ligaments holding the limbs weaken and parts simply break off. This would be even more likely in an ocean environment where the currents would buffet the body slightly. Other body parts (hands, etc) might also disarticulate, but without a buoyant accessory like a shoe, they would be less likely to float to the surface.

So, that can all explain *how* the shoes end up on the beaches, but the why and where are still a little confusing. If this were the norm - bodies lost into the ocean returning feet to land - why haven't feet been found before this? Why now?

and just so you're aware...I was planning to end this post on a particularly bad foot pun. Consider yourselves lucky that I refrained!

Life in the fast lane - Adventures in Felting

So, a few months ago I knit a purse. It's a pretty snazzy purse, if I do say so myself, and it was intended as a gift for Twitters.

Fast forward to now, and I still haven't done the finishing touches on this purse. I need to felt it.
I've never felted before, but given all the online tutorials, I figured it couldn't be that impossible. I mean, I've certainly seen how easy it is to felt garments by mistake; I should be able to manage doing one on purpose.

Over the course of the evening the purse has been through 30 solid minutes of swishing, scrubbing and swirling (all in water hot enough to sting my hands), 3 cold water "shock treatments", 2 soap rinses, and a 45 minute boiling water soak.

The result? I have a purse that is the same size as the one I put through this rigorous treatment with perfect stitch definition and only a slight sheen of fluff, an effect that is almost unnoticeable, if only I weren't looking so hard. Apparently, when the lady at Twisted sold me the yarn, she was mistaken in her verbiage. When she said it felted "beautifully" I think she might have meant "reluctantly", or perhaps "not in your lifetime". Tomorrow it gets the washing machine on "heavy duty" treatment. We'll see how it likes that.



(oh, and if you were wondering...yes, boiling wool smells about like you'd expect it to. God awful.)

Infarction

Infarction - a small area of tissue rendered necrotic by lack of blood supply. Also, the answer to question #2 on my quiz today.

No, I didn't get it right.

Funny actually, the word originally stuck with me. I mean, really. Infarction? That sounds like such a made up word. Like someone made a typo and then stubbornly refused to admit that they'd made a mistake. Like a joke gone so far it made it into medical textbooks and at graduation they'll say "Infarction? You mean you thought that was a real word? Ha! Gotcha!"

Anyway, I blanked on it today. That's the real reason I'm so bitter against the word. The more bitter and worked up I get, the less chance of me getting it wrong next time. It worked on my first quiz. I couldn't remember the correct term for "joint pain" so I just madly scribbled down the closest combining forms I could think of. Yes, arthr/o is the combining form for joints, but dys is difficulty, not painful. Dysarth is absolutely not a word and would mean "difficulty joint", even if it were. The resultant ribbing from my classmates means I'll never forget Arthralgia ever again.

I've made a policy for myself when it comes to tests. If I don't know the answer, write something down anyway. Who knows, maybe they'll take pity on me and give me partial credit. If, however, I haven't the faintest clue and can't even hazard a guess, write down the silliest thing I can think of. If I make them laugh, maybe they'll go easy on me.

I'm not the only one in my class to do this. Alona labled a cow diagram with the term "tail poof thing", Cat defined CMT as Country Music Television (it was supposed to be California Mastitis Test), and my own contribution was labeling the winter season for sheep breeders as "happy snow fun time". Apparently she was looking for "pregnancy season". (yes, that sounds obvious and like something I should have remembered. No, I don't want to talk about it.)

I'm feeling strangely relaxed and unworried tonight. I'm guessing it means that the day off school tomorrow has scrambled my brain to the point where I'm forgetting that I have AN A&P MIDTERM IN FOUR DAYS!

No really. It'll be fine. Just fine.
What are the names of all the bones in the skull again?

Filler

Too busy studying and sleeping to post a real entry. Instead you get ultra-adorable video.

How Now Brown Cow

Today was a field trip to Birch Circle Dairy Farm. You'll have to excuse me if I don't have as much to say about it as I usually do, but waking up at 5am does not agree with me. I may be scarred for life.

We got to the farm just before 2pm and spent about 90 minutes touring the buildings and playing with the cows.


Those are Brown Swiss cows (they make chocolate milk....really.)
The dairy also had some holsteins and a few jerseys, though it was the brown swiss who really got up close and friendly with us.



After some "petting zoo" time, we headed over to the milking parlour and divided into groups of six. Each group got twelve cows to milk.

Milking a cow is quite a ritualistic process. In order for a cow to milk well, she must be relaxed and comfortable. This causes release of oxytocin which prompts the milk alveoli to relax, letting the milk flow. If a cow is stressed or nervous, adrenaline will be released, causing the alveoli to cramp and tighten. In order to get the highest milk yield, a dairy farmer has to pamper his cows a little.

So.

First, soothing music is piped into the parlour. Now, this being the middle of BFE, they have a choice of an oldies station or mariachi. The cows seem to prefer the oldies so we did our milking to "Ain't Nothin But a Hound Dog".
Next, we used warm water to spray off the udders. This removes all the dirt and manure, as well as providing a gentle massage to the udder. Once the area was totally clean we massaged it with a warm towel soaked in an iodine solution, both to disinfect and to calm the cow down more. Once she was suitably clean and pampered we grabbed the "claw" (the milking machine) and hooked her up. The machine is a lot like a vacuum cleaner hose with 4 ends, each of which fits snugly over a teat. Once it's attached, it will stay on until the cow has been milked dry. Once it comes off, the teats are dipped into an iodine solution with an oil base in order to keep any bacteria from getting into the nipple while it's still open from milking. We finished our 12 cows in about 20 minutes, even with one slightly grumpy client (she whipped Alona in the face with a manure-coated tail...lovely).


Only one more day of kennel duties for this term! Yipee!

And now it's bedtime.

And everything looks just a little bit brighter

My neighbourhood is normally pretty quiet, especially at this time of night, but right now there are fireworks going off, people outside banging pots and pans and cheering. Downtown Portland has apparently turned into one big party, complete with a conga line stretching multiple blocks. It's exciting and wonderful and joyful, but I can't help but feel just a tiny bit sad.

When was the last time that Canadians got this worked up over politics? When did we last get so fiercely involved in our own government that we took to the streets in celebration over a new leader? We pride ourselves on our democracy and yet this recent election was a joke. Canadians plainly didn't care, and they showed it by not showing up at the polls. Early numbers on the US election are saying as high as 80% turnout, which would certainly shame our dismal 59%.

So, congratulations America, and congratulations Obama. This is an amazing night, and you should be proud.



and yes, there will be more posts this week. I'm sorry for the lack of entertainment, midterms and kennel duties at 7am are kicking my butt this week.

Way To Go....

Good job Immigration. Glad to see you're so determined to protect us Canadians from the immigrants who want to come in and...wait...what? Pay taxes? Go to school? WORK AS DOCTORS?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't we have a physician shortage?

"A Calgary critical-care doctor's application for permanent residency has been rejected because one of his daughters might be a drain on the health care system.

South African physician Stanley Muwanguzi says his 22-year-old daughter has been institutionalized since she was a toddler and he has no intention of moving her to Canada."

Yum

I am perfectly willing to admit that I am enough of a geek to crack up at this:



You know what it is, right?

It's a pumpkin pi.


teehee.



Via iBored

Fun with Cellos

I've been a fan of Apocalyptica for several years, so when K&B asked if I'd like to see them live on Friday, I jumped at the chance. Apparently they play Portland fairly frequently, and the show is well worth seeing.

In case you've never heard of them, picture this: Metallica covered by four cellists. Sound impossible? Just watch the embedded video. They're a bit out of tune in spots in that video (they weren't on Friday night) but you get the idea.

The band had fantastic energy, great crowd appeal, and the music was awesome. Actually getting to see Perttu playing those ridiculously fast bits was unreal, and I couldn't quite believe that Eicca really could headbang while playing the cello. Really, if you get a chance, check these guys out. They rock.


In other news, I got an A on my Breed ID test last week, so I feel better about that. I also have a day off Wednesday (college closed for professional development or some such) and I can't wait. A whole day off, oh goody!

More than one way to skin a cat

I got my A&P midterm results back today. I got a solid B on both, which makes me happy......but I want to do better. I think, now that we're done with cell functions, I can get a higher grade on the next midterm. I hope so anyway, because I want an A. I know that this is a weeder course, I know that I'm going to have to work my butt off to get that A, but I want it anyway. I'd convinced myself going into these midterms that I didn't really care, that the fact I was feeling so nervous didn't matter because I just needed to pass and that was all, but the moment I saw my scores, I had to admit that I did care. I know I'm capable of getting an A, so that's what I want to get. If I end up with a B, well....I passed. But I want better.

Anyway, the cat skinning. I have no entertaining Animal Science Tuesday Lab stories this week because lab was canceled (the goat farm field trip fell through). A&P lab today more than made up for it though because we got to skin cats.

My lab team got into the spirit of it a little too much perhaps, and we were having a lot of fun. I was using a scalpel to gently scrape away some connective tissue when one of my lab partners mentioned that the instructor had suggested using scissors. I told her that there was more than one way to skin a cat, which earned me a groan from my other lab partner. Of course, she got her own back when I said I needed to go blow my nose. She offered me a chunk of skin and said "Tissue? Get it?". Bad pun.

It kept going too. We accidentally cut a hole into the skin and one partner yelled "Take her to church, she's holy!". We cut a cross-section out of the stratum corneum on the right metatarsal pad (aka, the paw) and I told them that "the kitten lost her mitten". Our cat was also a polydactyl (poly-many, dactyl-toe/finger) who had 7 toes on each foot. We named her (yes, we named our dead, preserved lab cat...so?) E.T. the extra-toe-restrial. We crack ourselves up.

Tomorrow is yet another quiz (shoot me now). This one is on camelids, which I'm feeling fairly confident on. At least I have some experience with them.

Today, I rock. Tomorrow...who knows?

I got my Basic Animal Science midterm back. 95.6%! I'm relieved and proud, but I won't stop being nervous til I get my A&P marks back. Hopefully that'll be tomorrow, but who knows.

I guess its just nice to know that studying my ass off really does make a difference and that yes, I am smart enough to do this. I was on the bus home with one of the second years today and he repeated again that if I can get through this term and next I'll be just fine. I know these courses are weeder courses, but all that really means to me is that I'm determined to do especially well in them, just to prove I can. I was talking with one of my classmates the other day and she brought up a good point. Dr. Henson is such a hard-ass on us, and she loves to pick on us, but all it really does is make us want to prove her wrong by acing the class. Maybe that's her intention, I don't know. It sure works well for me anyway.

I had my first Breed ID test in animal science today. I'd studied and studied and studied and still went in feeling doomed. I just can't tell sheep apart, no matter how hard I try. Luckily, she took pity on us and only included about 4 sheep breeds, and those were nicely photographed to show off obvious differences. I did pretty well on the cattle portion and very well on the camelids. I can't wait for the equine section, I can nail that one!

Anyway, back to studying. I have a quiz on the integumentary system tomorrow morning, and I'm not as prepared as I'd like. Stratum Germinativum, Stratum Spinosum, Stratum Granulosum, Stratum Lucidum, Stratum Corneum. These are the layers of the epidermis. Meissner's Corpuscles are touch receptors, Pacinian Corpuscle senses pressure and deep touch, Merkel cells are touch receptors, Langerhans cells are the macrophages of the epidermis.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!


Just for fun, here's a picture of Dave.

Klee Wyck

It's a little unfortunate that most Victorians think only of the annoying whale mascot from the 1994 commonwealth games when they hear the name "Klee Wyck", because the real "Klee Wyck" was Emily Carr. It was a name given to her by the natives of Ucluelet and it means "laughing one". I'd guess that the whale mascot was intended as a nod to her, but the gesture fell a little flat.

I've loved Emily Carr's paintings since the first time I saw them. One of my old babysitters did work with the Victoria Art Gallery and she took my sister and I there once to see the exhibits. I had thought I liked art, but I found that most of what was on display didn't interest me at all. I thought a lot of the art was boring, some of it not really art at all, and a lot of it just blurred together in the sheer number of paintings I was seeing all at once. It wasn't until I walked into the Carr exhibit that I actually started to think that perhaps I could appreciate art after all.

Looking back, I have a tough time remembering exactly what struck me first about her paintings, but I know what strikes me as I see her work now. Her brush strokes were decisive and strong, her colours bold and somehow realistic, even when they weren't true to life. More than that though, it was her subjects. I knew the landscapes she painted, I'd seen totem poles and cedars, and I loved them. The way I felt when I saw treetops stretching up to the sky was the way I felt when I saw a painting she'd done of it.



It wasn't until much later (after I'd already moved into my own apartment and put three of her prints on my walls) that I thought to actually learn about her as a person. Oh, I'd known that she'd lived in Victoria and was considered ahead of her time, I'd walked past "Carr House" many times, but I think I had somehow felt that I didn't want to risk spoiling her paintings by finding out that the person behind them wasn't as wonderful as those works suggested.

I shouldn't have worried. I was poking around the museum gift shop with some visiting family when I noticed a book titled "Klee Wyck". I picked it up and was shocked to discover that Emily Carr hadn't just been a painter, she'd been a writer. I bought the book, took it home and devoured it. I couldn't believe that the emotions of her paintings could be distilled into words, but she had done it. I've since read three more of her books (and I'm working on a fourth) and I love them.

Emily was best described as an eccentric. She was a female artist who traveled the world in a time when women were expected to stay home. She studied art in the wicked city of San Francisco, spent time in an English sanatorium for "hysteria" and explored the remote and largely abandoned native villages of BC's west coast. She was stubborn and impatient and she saw the world through very different eyes. In her later years, she kept all the chairs in her studio winched up on ropes attached to the ceiling. When visitors called she would leave them standing until she decided if they were worth her time or not. If she liked you, she'd lower a chair.

Emily Carr summed up her approach to writing and painting very simply: "I did not know book rules. I made two for myself. They were about the same as the principles I use in painting--get to the point as directly as you can; never use a big word if a little one will do."

I've taken a couple of excerpts from the stories of Klee Wyck. If you should go looking for the book to read it yourself, make sure you find the newer edition. The older edition was edited for mass consumption in schools and quite a bit of it was made politically correct or removed entirely.

On totems:
"They were in a long straggling row the entire length of the bay and pointed this way and that; but no matter how drunken their tilt, the Haida poles never lost their dignity. They looked sadder, perhaps, when they bowed forward and more stern when they tipped back. They were bleached to a pinkish silver colour and cracked by the sun, but nothing could make them mean or poor, because the Indians had put strong thought into them and had believed sincerely in what they were trying to express."


"At five o'clock that July morning the sea, sky, and beach of Skidegate were rosily smoothed into one. There was neither horizon, cloud, nor sound; of that pink, spread silence even I had become part, belonging as much to sky as to earth, as much to sleeping as waking as I went stumbling over the Skidegate sands."

And this, which is probably my favourite passage:

"As the canoe glided on, her human cargo was as silent as the cedar-life that once had filled her. She had done with the forest now; when they shoved her into the sea they had dug out her heart. Submissively she accepted the new element, going with the tide. When tide or wind crossed her she became fractious. Some still element of the forest clung yet to the cedar's hollow rind which resented the restless push of waves."

**Warning** post contain graphic images

...So, if you're squeamish, you might want to skip it.

Today was our class fieldtrip to SuDan farms. SuDan farms (the owners are Susie and Dan...cute) is a small farm in Canby that sells lamb, fibre, turkey, chicken, and duck eggs. Our field trip there was intended to serve several purposes. The first was to give us a better sense of what a real working farm looks like, and to see some animals (the avian variety) that PCC doesn't keep on campus. The second (and the far more entertaining, in my opinion) was to give us an anatomy lesson, courtesy of a freshly slaughtered lamb.




We were spared the actual killing, but Dan had saved the butchering portion for us, which was fascinating. Up til this point we'd been working with well-preserved rats, and it's really hard to get a sense of how the organs really look and feel when they've been reduced to uni-colour rubberized blobs. These organs were about as fresh as they come and we were allowed to touch them, ask questions and poke around.


This is Dr. Henson showing off the greater omentum, which is a little like the police-force of the gut. This is the membrane that, should one of us careless, lazy techs miscount sponges during surgery, will form a pocket around the offending object and keep it in isolation. We got to open up the rumen (man, that smelled interesting...), the reticulum and the omasum. The inside of the rumen feels a little like shag carpeting, and the reticulum really does look like a honeycomb! The gall bladder is a fantastic green colour, the lungs are amazingly light, and the heart looks like a smiley face from the top.

Our lamb had some encysted fluke worms in its liver (very common in the pacific NW) as well as some minor lung scarring from pneumonia (also a NW specialty - sheep aren't wet weather animals) and those were both very cool to see.

All in all, a fantastic lab today. I only wish we could have had it before our A&P practical. Maybe then I would have figured out what the funny little flattened sac next to the stomach was.

(I think I did well on my A&P midterms...I just don't want to talk about it too much til I get my marks back and know for sure!)

Busy Day

I suppose I should be grateful that the tories got another minority, but really I'm just sad.

I have this image in my head of what Canada is - what it stands for, what it believes in, and how it acts. Being a Canadian to me means being socially progressive, tolerant, peaceful and respectful. It means being a responsible citizen and thinking of the needs and wants of others, not just of yourself. It means an attitude of acceptance regarding others beliefs, values and ideas.

This is an image I've grown up with, something that forms a surprisingly large part of my identity. I was a bit startled to realise this when I moved to the states because until I was no longer just one of many, it hadn't occurred to me just how much I am a Canadian. I'm proud of that citizenship and I value it greatly, not just for the freedoms and privileges it offers, but for the reputation and standing that goes with it. People like Canadians, and they respect us.

So, when I see Harper in power, I'm sad. I'm sad because the way he sees Canada is so obviously different from how I see it and I don't like it. I don't like telling my American friends that just when they are so excited about a change in political ideology in their own country that promises a more progressive and tolerant government, Canada has re-elected the man they refer to as "Mini-Bush". I don't like seeing the news articles about the Cadman Lawsuit or the Plagiarism issue - they make me feel uncomfortable and embarrassed. Most of all though, I dislike the way my own opinion of Canada is changed by this government. My own identity as a Canadian somehow becomes less or cheapened by Harper's vision of Canada, and that is the saddest thing of all to me.


Moving onto less depressing but only marginally less stress inducing subjects....

I had my first of 4 midterms today in Animal Science. I'd been obsessing about this test all week; poring over flash cards, staying after class for study sessions with classmates, writing mnemonic devices all over my notes and generally panicking. I went in 3 hours early today to study and I was so geared up that I was practically bouncing when she handed out the test.

All of it paid off though, because I think I got an A. The last minute study session provided me with a few answers that hadn't stuck in my brain (What are the 3 volatile fatty acids produced by ruminants? - Acetic, propionic and butyric - think APB, for "all points bulletin") and overall I walked out of that midterm feeling like a million bucks.

I know I missed a few (Virashield5 protects against respiratory diseases *and* spontaneous abortion, and that arrow on the cow diagram was pointing to the stifle, not the inguinal area), but overall it was a nice confidence boost.

Now I just need to pass the A&P lecture exam, the A&P lab practical exam and the medical terminology test.....ugh.

Musical Interlude

I love this song.
Actually, I like several of Regina Spektor's songs, but this one just gets me more than the others. I wish I could find an official video for it, but I suspect one may not exist. Regardless, just ignore the video and listen to the music.




Thanksgiving went well tonight. I spent the day with friends, I'm content and full, and there are leftovers in the fridge. Really, what more could I ask for?

Brain asplode

This blog may be slightly neglected this week. I've been studying like mad for my midterms and I'm still feeling like I don't quite know enough. What do you call an intact male goat? How about a neutered male sheep? An orphaned lamb? What is the average daily gain of a feedlot cow? The average feed efficiency? What is expected progeny difference?*

And that's just for my easy class. A&P is going to make me grey before I'm done, I'm sure of it.

On another note, I had a lovely vet visit with Minnow this morning. I came home last night and found her sitting in the litterbox. That's not unusual, but she stayed there for about 20 mins and would occasionally meow and paw, and then go back to sitting. She repeated this performance about every hour all evening and I began to think UTI. I gave her a tbsp of canned pumpkin in case it was constipation (it wasn't, I was rewarded with massive amounts of bright orange stool this morning) and then kept an eye on her. There was no improvement this morning so I hauled her off to the vet where she did her level best to cuss out every staff member. She hissed, she yowled, she screamed, she even waved her claws at the vet, but she didn't actually bite anyone. I never wanted to be an owner with one of "those cats", so I always feel a bit of relief when she doesn't injure the staff, even if I still feel guilty because she's behaving like a spoiled two year old.

Anyway, after an entertaining cysto (I could hear her screaming from the other side of the hospital) we got the U/A results. Plenty of blood, plenty of bacteria. On the one hand, I'm not happy she's sick.....on the other hand, woohoo, nailed the diagnosis!

So, shes on amoxicillin BID for the next 14 days and that'll hopefully clear it up. Thank goodness she's such a pig, I just wrap the pill in a treat and she practically inhales it. If only all cats were like this....


*Answers: Buck, Wether, Bummer Lamb, 1-4lbs, 7lbs feed for every 1lb gain, the difference, in total points, of a given sire's progeny from the average, as outlined in a sire summary.

Spin, Harper...Spin!

Audio expert says Cadman tape not altered
"A tape recording at the centre of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's $3.5-million defamation suit against the Liberal party was not altered as the prime minister has claimed, a court-ordered analysis of the tape by Harper's own audio expert has found."
".......The findings may call into question Harper's testimony about the interview during a sworn cross-examination conducted by a Liberal party lawyer in August. The analysis was filed in Ontario Superior Court on Friday by lawyers for the Liberal party, despite attempts by Harper's lawyer to keep the opinion out of the court file until at least next week."

"Kory Teneycke, a spokesman for Harper, maintained that the findings do not undermine the prime minister's case — and in fact can be used to buttress Harper's claims."

The Tory spin machine is making me dizzy.

(full article here)

I love my cats.....really, I do

I was just woken up by a loud banging coming from the bathroom. I ignored it for a few minutes, but then it was accompanied by some desperate wailing so I decided I should probably go rescue Minnow. She's learned how to open the bathroom cabinets from the outside (by hooking her paw underneath the door and pulling) and how to close the cabinets once she's inside them (same procedure), but somehow the concept of simply pushing to open the door from the inside and let herself out has escaped her. She gets trapped in there an average of twice a week, and I often come home from school to angry yowling from the bathroom. She's doesn't seem to understand that it isn't my fault she's stuck.

Anyway, once I was up I went looking for Merlin because he wasn't in his usual spot (on my chest, restricting my breathing). I found him in the living room where he'd apparently been feeling a little poorly because he'd just finished vomiting.

All. Over. My. Printer.

Now, Merlin has a long history of choosing awkward places to be sick, but this really takes the cake. In my first apartment I once watched him walk over to the kitchen linoleum, start coughing, and then at the last moment turn his head to the side to vomit on the carpet. Bravo, buddy.
At my most recent apartment, I had no carpeting at all. This didn't deter him in the slightest and he was sick on my bed, my shoes, my armchair, and once even managed to project his emitus onto a backpack that was leaning vertically against a wall. That's talent.

Despite all these digestive acrobatics, he'd found himself with a challenge in my new place which, though it is almost entirely carpet, is carpeted in a brown colour that makes stains very easy to hide (it also makes hairballs difficult to spot, especially first thing in the morning...but that's another story). Apparently he felt himself up to the challenge because from the way it appears, he had to climb over the printer and into a gap only about 6 inches wide and then turn himself completely around in order to achieve his desired trajectory.

I love my cats. Really, I do.

Horses, Bean Salads and Best Friends

I've spent most of my spare time over the past few days studying, and I decided to take a break today and go groom Dave. Something about the smell of horses just calms me down, and Dave is great to talk to when stressed. He listens quite nicely, leans into the curry brush, and half closes his eyes and sighs when you start on him with the dandy brush. Best of all, once you're done, he turns around and just rests his nose against your chest and breathes. It makes me feel like all really could be right with the world.
Of course, spending time with horses usually leads me to thinking about my best friend back home.

Twitters (the nickname I saddled her with when I was about 12) and I have known each other for around 15 years now. We both went to the same school (though she was a grade behind me) and our little sisters had met and become friends. On one of their play-dates, we happened to start talking and realised that not only were we both horse crazy, we were both just a little bit crazy, period. I can't remember the first time we hung out together, and I can't remember when I first started thinking of Twitters as my best friend, but I do remember how much fun we've had.

There was the treefort incident, where we painted the inside and then leaned over the wet paint to do the outside (somewhere there's a really charming picture of us coated in brown paint), and the time I fell into the giant ditch in their front yard. There were the frantic mornings when I'd wake up to see snow outside, as well as a neat row of snowballs on our fencepost, signaling her already prepared ambush. After the ambush, we would sled down the hill at the end of the street, towed by her dog, BJ. There were the endless summers of swimming at the lake, eating salmonberries and dumping each other off the converted surfboard we'd paddle like a canoe. There was the time we figured out we could see each other from our kitchen windows if the trees weren't in bloom, the light was just right, and we jumped up and down waving like crazy.

Best of all though was the horse stuff. We took a riding camp together one summer, and we are still talking about that one week as if it were yesterday. On our third day at the camp my horse tried to take a jump without my consent and I fell off. When I managed to get back on my feet, Twitters was right there. "You went into a perfect three point position before you fell!" she cried. "Really?!" I said, "Cool!!"

We spent hours creating our dream stables using her extensive collection of toy horses. We would build miniature dioramas on her front lawn while having serious discussions over the amount of necessary shade, spacing and types of feed we would use. We'd grab all the free horse magazines from the tack shop and then pore through them and call all the ads for free stuff. Free leg wrap samples, complimentary product guides, more free horse magazines. We didn't really need any of it, just as I didn't really need the hoof pick she gave me as a present one year, but that didn't mean I loved any of it less. I still have the hoof pick.

When we were teenagers, we both got a job at the local petting zoo. The owner couldn't tell us apart, not because we looked similar, but because what one knew, the other knew too. Any job or task I was capable of, so was she, and as far as staffing was concerned, we were pretty well interchangeable. We were dubbed "Weiner" and "Turkey" (though who was which varied) and often simply referred to as "Double Trouble". We transferred our horse obsession (which was sorely lacking in real, live horses to feed it) to the goats at the farm, and soon became the goat goddesses. We could name any of the 30-odd goats, name their siblings, mothers, and how old they were at a glance. When the goats were stampeded up to their barn at night and needed to be separated back into their individual family units, we were the best. Goat sorting could take 20-30 minutes for most people, but we could do it in 10. We were (and still are, I think) quite proud of this.

A few months before I moved away Twitters invited me over for lunch. She's an amazing cook, so I was excited when she said she was making something special that she wanted to teach me. It turned out to be a fantastic bean salad that even I couldn't mess up, and I've made it at least every month since I've moved. I made it today, right after I got home from grooming the horse, and all of it has made me miss her a lot.
So, Thank you Twitters! For sharing my animal obsession, for the bean salad recipe, and most of all for being my best friend.


Twitters' Bean Salad
(I've slightly adjusted the original ingredients, but that's the magic of this salad...just add what you want, leave out what you don't!)
1 can wax beans
1 can green beans
1 can chick peas
1 can baby corncobs
1 can black beans
1 can kidney beans
1 tomato, chopped
1 red onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, coarsely chopped

mayo
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
pepper
cumin (lots!)
cilantro, coarsely chopped


Chop onion and place in a small container with some balsamic vinegar. Shake well and let sit for an hour or so to take some of the bitterness out of the onion.
Drain the canned ingredients and rinse well under cool water to remove excess canning water. Pour into large bowl and stir gently. Add onion.
In a smaller bowl, mix together mayo, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, pepper and cumin. This part is to taste, and you want to have enough to cover all of the beans without making it too sloppy.
Pour the dressing into the bean mixture, stirring til entirely covered. Add tomato and cilantro. Serve.

You want me to put my hand where...?

So, today was the intro to cows lab.

We all bundled into our coveralls and boots and tromped down to the barn where Terry, the farm coordinator, had a squeeze chute and headgate set up, complete with a rather annoyed calf inside. For those who don't know what these contraptions are, they consist of a long narrow alleyway of wooden boards and metal bars (the chute) that leads to a small metal pen. This pen has bars on the side that squeeze inwards when a lever is pulled in order to keep the cow still, as well as a gate at the back that is raised to let the cow in, and then lowered to keep it from backing up. The headgate is almost exactly what it sounds like....a double gate that locks around the cow's neck once she pushes on it with her head. This keeps her from moving forwards or backwards.

We had a large animal vet and his tech as guests today to help us with the lab, mostly because there was so much for us to do. We started by learning some knots (square knot and bow line I knew, halter tie was just a variation on the quick-release knot I knew), and then practicing getting a halter on the cows. Even with the head gate, cows can thrash their heads around, making ear marking and identification very difficult, so a halter is used to immobilize the head.

After the rope work, we divided into groups. The "head" group practiced pilling the cows with a long plastic pilling gun, the "flank" group practiced giving IM and SQ injections of vitamins, vaccines and dewormers, and the "butt" group practiced doing rectals.

That's right, rectal exams.

So, I got to put on a shoulder length glove, rub my hand in some manure (it makes the best lubricant for a rectal....really) and then jam my arm up the cow's rectum, past the elbow. Once I got past the worry that the cow was going to get her tail out of my grip and thrash me in the face with it, it was actually a pretty neat experience. I was able to feel the underside of the pelvis and the sacral vertebrae, and when I turned my hand over I could feel the uterus (complete with a bulge which is apparently a 3 month old calf fetus), the pelvic canal, and the bladder. I didn't spend long at it because a cow's rectal muscles can squeeze your arm to the point of numbness, and she was starting to get a bit antsy to push me out. I was the 4th student to practice on her, so I guess I can understand her annoyance.

Anyway, the rest of the lab was fun too. Cow pills (called boluses) are gigantic things (easily 3 inches long) and getting the pilling gun down their throats is a tricky, but satisfying job. It does tend to get you covered in drool (and I do mean covered), but I liked the way a cow will wrinkle up her nose as she swallows, so you know for sure it went down. We only had one pill get launched across the barn because the cow didn't feel like taking it.

Trying to vaccinate through a cow's hide was another interesting experience. I suppose if I'd thought about it, I would have realised that a cow's skin is 1/4 inch thick, and used to make leather. We also re-use needles in large animal medicine (a combination of a cow's amazing resistance to low-grade superficial infections and a farmer's unwillingness to spend more than absolutely necessary on an animal on it's way to slaughter anyway), so by the time I was practicing my injections those needles were pretty dull. SQ injections on cows are pretty standard, but the IM technique was very cool.

Because cows don't tend to hold completely still, there is a risk of breaking a syringe when the needle is embedded in muscle. To reduce this risk, you remove the needle from the syringe, locate the injection site (one fist length caudal to the "hooks", or pelvic bones), punch that site as hard as you can 2-3 times (to distract the cow from the impending sting and to loosen the muscle) and then jam the needle up to the hilt in the muscle, all in one jab. It's a bit of a shock to those of us accustomed to small animal work, but I'll admit that it went beautifully. I mangled my first one a bit because I wasn't expecting the cowhide to be so tough and so didn't push hard enough (you really have to use a lot of force) but I got the needle in on the second try, and did it perfectly the third time. Once the needle is embedded in the muscle, you re-attach the syringe and quickly inject your drug, then remove it.

After lab, a few of us decided to go out for dinner, drinks, and an A&P study session. It was a lot of fun, and we spent almost as much time trading clinic stories as we did studying. I ended up feeling a lot more prepared for tomorrow's quiz, and also a lot more relaxed. All in all, quite a good day.

Oh...and for those who might be wondering.....yes, there are pictures of the rectal examinations. I will post them as soon as I get ahold of them.
You're welcome.

Her Royal Highness

I really should introduce the youngest creature who lives with me. She's such a pervasive little presence that I sometimes forget that She's only been living with me for a little over a year.

Before moving to Portland I worked at a 24 hour animal emergency hospital. Sometime in May of 2007, a litter of 3 day old kittens was brought in to the hospital by their owner's neighbour. She was concerned because there seemed to be something tangled around the legs of some of the kittens, and she didn't think the owner was doing anything about it.

It quickly became apparent that two of the kittens had their umbilical cords wrapped tightly around their hind legs, and that the legs in question were in very bad shape. When the doctor removed the cord, both kittens lost part of a hind limb. Because of their age and the lack of willingness on the part of their owner to do more, they were sent home with antibiotics and no other treatment. I wasn't on shift that night, and I likely wouldn't have ever heard about this case if it weren't for one of my co-workers.

This co-worker volunteered for the SPCA, and 6 weeks after this incident she got a phone call asking her to pick up some kittens who had been advertised as "free" in a local paper. The SPCA would often take these kittens, spay and neuter them, vaccinate them, and then adopt them out, but these little ones were too young to enter the shelter yet, so this lady was asked to foster them. She was more than willing to do it, but was a bit confused by part of the ad which read "some have legs already removed". Of course, once she saw and recognized them, she was determined to look after them.

Because of her work schedule, the kittens were brought into the hospital so they could be fed regularly. The most convenient place to keep them just happened to be the Client Care office, which was right behind my work station. It didn't take me long to fall in love with one little black and white fluffball with a shortened hind leg. She was sweet, cute, playful and purred like a lawnmower almost constantly.

Really, who could say no to that face?
The first few weeks with Minnow (she was small, squirmy, and wriggled like a fish when she walked) were great. She and Merlin got along beautifully, and she was a happy little kitten. Her personality began to shine through more and more every day, usually making me laugh. She refused kitten food outright, preferring to eat only what Merlin was eating (hydrolised soy protein at the time...yuck), which caused me to lock her in the bathroom with her nightly meal to ensure she'd get some form of proper nutrition. I caught myself yelling back at her one night, after she'd been venting her frustration with screams and growls. "You can't come out til you've finished your dinner!" I yelled at the door. Oh yes, she was getting to me.

Over the next few months I began to notice a pattern with Minnow. She was an overall nice cat with a sweet personality, but she had moments of rage and anger that seemed to be happening more frequently. These were nothing like her mischievous (digging up all my plants) or stubborn (wailing at the bedroom door for 6 hours straight) traits, they were more of a grumpy and bitter attitude. She'd yowl at me and hiss for seemingly no reason, or bite me or Merlin. I started to watch her more carefully and realised that the worst outbursts were always shortly after she'd bumped the stump of her leg on something. I began to wonder if she were in any pain, so I had a chat with some of the doctors at work.

Minnow was a regular at the hospital since I would often bring her in for my shift in an attempt to tire her out so she'd let me sleep. Everyone loved her and so when I asked one of the emergency doctors to take a peek at her, it was no problem. She suggested giving her a trial dose of pain control to see if it made a difference, and added that if she had to take bets, she'd bet that the leg was extremely painful to her. I gave Minnow a small dose of pain control, and was rewarded by an almost complete turnaround in behaviour. Suddenly, I had my sweet little kitten back, the one who liked to cuddle and purr. It was a pretty dramatic demonstration.

Shortly after Christmas of last year, Dr. J. amputated what was left of Minnow's leg. I watched the entire surgery (how often do you get a chance to watch someone purposefully sever a sciatic nerve?) and was amazed by the condition of the stump. The bottom of it had never entirely healed and always looked red and slightly scabby, but when I finally was able to palpate it properly, I realised that the bottom 2 inches of it were just skin and bone. No muscle or fat had grown over the tip of the bone to protect it, which must have meant excruciating pain every time it was touched. No wonder she'd been so grumpy!

Minnow recovered beautifully (she shocked the ward nurses by devouring a double breakfast only a few hours post-anesthetic and then begging for more) and turned into a wonderful little cat. She and Merlin became extremely close and like to wrestle all day, groom each other, and then sleep curled up in a ball. He occasionally gets tired of her overwhelming energy, but has developed ways to get away when needed. She made it through her teenage stage with just enough cute moments to keep me from throttling her, and emerged on the other side as a charming, personality filled, sweetheart.
So, I introduce Minnow Cecilia Periwinkle Peg Dryden.

Flashback to 7th Grade

I suppose this is going to get me some flack for being so young, but yes....I was in 7th grade when this movie came out.

I watched it again tonight, and I realized that it was only the second time I'd watched it, the first being in theatres with my friend Liz when it first came out. Actually, knowing Liz, we probably saw it on opening weekend. I'd never bothered to watch it again, despite the fact that it really is a pretty good movie, but I was struck by how familiar the whole thing seemed for such limited exposure. Then the credits started rolling, and this song came on. I was surprised to realize that not only did I know almost all of the words to the song, I could even remember some of the dance steps, and when they were danced.

Grade 7 was the first time I can remember coming home from school and consistently having the house to myself for an hour or two before Mom got home from work, and I loved it. I would beeline straight for the cabinet where the cookies were kept (usually oreos or stale oatmeal raisin.....my two least favourite cookies, even today), grab a pop from the basement pantry shelves (caffeine-free, diet Safeway select cola....thanks Mom), and turn on Muchmusic.

Much is the Canadian equivalent of MTV, and as a self-respecting 13 year old, I was hooked on it. Our Lady Peace, Aqua, Bran Van 3000, Prodigy, Hanson, Holly McNarland, Oasis, Wallflowers, Chumbawamba. I could honestly say that I still like about half those bands, and I certainly liked them all at the time (yes, I had a Hanson CD. No, I don't want to talk about it). Will Smith was a bit of a regular on Much, and the MiB video was #1 on the Countdown in August of 1997, just before I started my first year of high school. I watched it a lot that summer.

Kind of amazing what sticks with me, given that I certainly don't remember much of anything relevant I learned in school from back then.

Cowichan Sweaters

I found this picture ages ago, and I really wish I'd written down the site I got it from. Extensive google searching has left me empty handed, but should anyone know where it is from I would like to credit it, because I love this photo.
I love her outfit, and the expression on her face. I love that the Butter Church is in the background. Most of all though, I love the Cowichan Sweater she's knitting. I am such a sucker for those things, and one day I hope I'll have enough skill (and money for materials!) to make one.
Cowichan Sweaters originated around the mid 1800's when European settlers began arriving in the Cowichan Valley area. The natives had been weaving various types of fibres for generations before that, so they quickly learned and adapted the art of knitting to their own style. The sweaters became very popular, and still are today.

Before I left for Portland, Dad gave me a Cowichan Sweater for Christmas, and I love it. The designs on the sweaters are beautiful, the knit-work is amazing, and when properly cared for, the sweaters will shed rain quite nicely. How perfect for the Pacific North-Wet? (no, that isn't a typo...)

Still sick today, and I was actually much worse earlier. I had a fever most of last night and this morning, so I ended up missing class. I hated to do it, but I emailed the instructor and got the homework assignment so I won't fall behind. It sounds like I didn't miss much in lecture or lab (which is a relief), and I'm not sure I would have been able to absorb much were I there anyway. I slept til almost 3pm and then napped on and off for the rest of the evening. Blech!

Speaking of sleep, I think it may be bedtime!