where to begin

1. Oliver finally found a new foster home!  The rescue group did some foster dog juggling and he is now happily housed with a few older dogs.  Hopefully they'll teach him some puppy manners. 

2. Last Friday I packed up the car, secured Allie in the back, picked up my boyfriend (Pat) in Buffalo and drove out to Cleveland to spend some much needed time with my family.  Saturday morning Pat headed off to Ray's Indoor Mountain Bike Park to practice for an upcoming race (the US Open Downhill MTB race in New Jersey this May).  Normally I would go with him to the park but I decided to stay back and drink coffee with my mom.  Just as my mother and I were about to head out for some shopping I got a call from Pat.  He'd broken his collar bone on the jump course.  The x-rays show he snapped his clavicle near the shoulder.

I took Monday off work and drove him to a specialist that morning.  The verdict was surgery which was scheduled for Wednesday.  They gave him a pain pill prescription which Pat, of course, decided not to fill.  Why do guys do that?!  I drove out to Rochester on Tuesday for work.  Wednesday morning I woke up bright and early, coaxed the puppy back into the car, drove to Buffalo and brought Pat to the hospital.  He ended up being in the OR much longer than was expected.  He has a metal plate reattaching his clavicle to its former home at his shoulder and sutures securing the ligaments in place.  There is a chance the tip of the clavicle will die and they'll have to extract it.  In any case the plate will probably have to come out in 6 months to a year as it may start to bother him.  

I then took work off on Thursday since Pat was not allowed to be left alone the day after going under the knife.  On the car ride back to Rochester the anesthesia finally wore off and the pain set in.  The pills we got after the surgery seem to have no affect.  It's terrible to watch his face grimace as I help him sit up.

3. Allie will officially have a new home in 1 week!  A wonderful family with an 11 year old son has fallen in love with her.  I could not have found a better family!  I will definitely be spoiling her this next week.  I'm really gonna miss my little wiggle worm.

4. My sewing machine has stopped working.  I really wanted to start and finish a bag last night since I may not be able to visit the studio for a week if not longer while I take care of Pat.  Things were going well, then about 3/4 of the way through the bag the machine started to squeak and then stopped moving all together.  There's no thread bunch up, its something more internal, something which will have to go to a shop to be fixed.  I'll be finishing the bag by hand tonight.

I'm doing my best to keep the stress levels under control but I've already blown up at Pat a few times when things get to be too much.   I think its time for large amounts of yoga and tea.