Poor Chiners has been having a horrible week.

Last Friday Matt and I took China to the vet to find out why she's been limping on her left hind every time she plays hard. She had x-rays done and the vet manipulated her knee joint to find that she has a partial tear of her ACL. In layman's terms, the tissue connecting her thigh and calf bone is torn. The vet must've really been manipulating that joint around for her diagnosis because she was gimping around that evening.

It's a hard decision whether or not to undergo surgery for an animal that really has no choice one way or another.. or a way of telling you what she wants. I feel an overwhelming sense of responsibility for her well-being. She's been through the last 6 years of my life together, which have been very rocky. I've had her since she was a pup and imaginging her in any sort of pain hurts me just as much as it would probably hurt her.

We've been trying to keep her contained and have been restricting her exercise for the past week to see how she would do. I've noticed some improvement and like any fool would do, I let her run around more once she looked better. This morning we went to the end of the street for her morning walk and she disappeared behind a hill to go potty. She was running pretty exhuberantly since she's been still on confinement (somewhat). Suddenly I heard a terrible yelp and she ran to me on 3 legs, shaking from nose to tail. I can only imagine the extent of the damage she did to that leg.. it was, of course, the same leg that had her knee torn. :(

She's been acting out since she's been confined.. she ate a whole bag of 'hot n spicy' beef jerky and a whole loaf of garlic bread that were on the kitchen counter while we were gone for dinner this past weekend. She hasn't done this since she was a puppy so it was a surprise to come home to that mess. Usually you can leave a full plate on the table and she won't even touch it for fear of her mom's wrath.

So with her injury this morning and the full scolding she got for eating food off the counter I've been feeling absolutely terrible. I'm pretty sure she's going to need surgery now to repair whatever is going on in her knee joint. I've made an appointment for this Wednesday afternoon at the Veterinary Surgical Associates to assess her injury. I went ahead and bought a rear end support leash that will help her get up and down and a dog ramp for my truck. Anything that will make life a little easier for her.

The option for the 'gold standard' of all ACL repair surgeries is called the TPLO procedure. This procedure runs between 3-5K depending on the extent of damage and is considered a 'bilateral' surgery, meaning a lot of dogs have to get it done on the other side as well. *sigh*

Can I tell you how much this all sucks? Well it does. Add in my depressing birthday coming up next week and we get the suckiest of all suckiest times I've had in a long time. There is no reason to celebrate.

p.s. I'm slightly amused by the google ads that have decided to appear for my current blog entries. Scroll down to view.

..:Things My Boyfriend Says:..

"You shouldn't buy me things. Save your money for unicorn rides or whatever it is girls spend money on."

gf: I think it's funny and cute that I get into bed and put my cold feet on you to warm them up and you frown but you don't say anything.
e: That's because I'm busy thinking loudly about hating you.

Excellent reading! HAHA

Cool horsey art. It's hard to find horsey art that doesn't look horrible (and jewelry too for that matter).

Bow chicka wow wow.

Bow chicka wow wow.
Originally uploaded by Julienne:).

Matt and I went to the local market and saw these on sale.

This guy was my freaky favorite last night. He is just so incredibly wierd and nerdy. Not really cute nerdy either, but very scary nerdy.

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Last night around 9-10 I was lying down watching American Idol/hanging with China/playing Bejeweled (a normal night) when my stomach started burning. No big deal, occasionally I'll get a bit of indigestion from a rich meal and earlier in the evening Matt and I had dinner at Kokkari with his dad. By midnight the burning in my upper abdomen wasn't going away so I popped a sampler Pepcid AC that I had handy in my medicine drawer. 2 am came around and I woke up with the worst burning I've ever felt.. same area. I sipped some ginger ale, took a Tagamet, and sat on the couch for a while, stooped over in pain.. trying not to think about it. 40 minutes passed and I couldn't deal with it anymore. I called the advice nurse and spoke with her for a while. She basically said if it continues for another hour get myself to urgent care. If it's tolerable but still lasting, see my doctor in the morning. Around 3:30-4ish I finally fell asleep.

What the heck was that? I had a little cereal this morning and my stomach is still feeling a bit burny-ish. Ulcer maybe? Ugh, I hope not. Anyhoo, I'm here at work now, albiet tired from a traumatic night. I can't pass up free lunch day..

Last night was the first time in 3 months that I rode Isabella. Her 3 month mark is this month so I am now able to ride her for 30 minutes at a walk. It was a momentous occasion. My friend Trina at the ranch joked around with me, "I'll get ready for the rodeo show". Haha, I replied, her bucks are so teeny even if she did you wouldn't notice. My barn manager Nan at the ranch was excited, "I'm sorry I can't stay to watch.." Oh, I replied, she's a good girl.. she won't do anything bad. I tacked her up with the bareback pad and hopped on.

Famous last words.

Temper tantrums, ALL. OVER. THE. RANCH. It first started out with a little head shake and small little jumps in the parking lot. Ok, that's fine.. we were headed towards her paddock and it was dinner time (2 strikes against us). Then came the spooks.. China running up to us, Trina appearing around the corner. Every 5 minutes she'd bunch up, angry that she was a riding horse again instead of a pasture ornament. Spoiled brat! I took her into the arena and rode her around a few times. We had one more explosion.. after that I made her walk around some more before I got off. I stayed on through all of her acrobatics and I didn't want to push my luck.

Hmm.. I'm glad I bought that western saddle.. it may come in handy the next few months if last night was any indication of what her attitude will be like!

It's been a while since I've had a nice meaty post. Hopefully this will do the trick.

I had a loverly mellow weekend with Matt pretty much doing not much at all. I was one of the few that had yesterday off so my weekend was extended into 3 days which made it all the better.

On Saturday we headed to Stonestown to spend some of our hard earned gift cards.. My mission was to spend the Abercrombie & Fitch gift card I had and/or to find a fluffy light colored jacket.. lightweight and warm. We power shopped for 2-3 hours and I found my jacket at 60% off (!) at Macy's. Abercrombie was one of our last stops and I just can't believe how horrid that store has become. I remember it being more like American Eagle or Aeropostale, but apparently it's turned into Tweenie Party Inc. I was literally surrounded by cotton candy smelling pre-teens dressed as sluts with their moms in the background. Their selection of womens clothing was pathetic.. and I have no idea how I'm going to spend this card now that I've looked at their clothing. Yeeeuch.

After doing so well shopping on Saturday, we drove south and braved the atrocity that is Walmart in Mountain View. I had a $60 gift card in hand and was going to spend it all so I would never have to come back. We spent quite a bit of time there and Matt bought quite a few articles of clothing for mega-cheap. I had no idea how much that boy can bargain shop.. he did good. :) I purchased Raymond's Rabbid Rabbits (or something) and a few household items. There crowd that frequents Walmart never ceases to amaze me. Lots of moms yelling, babies crying, and old people hacking. But Matt and I fit in there somewhere, so I can't diss on the W-crowd too much.

Monday, after making sure Isabella was nice and cozy in her paddock (it's been so cold the water troughs have been freezing over!) we relaxed at home for a bit then headed out to see Children of Men. We don't go out to see movies much, but this one was definitely one to see. There were so many scenes that were just amazing.. that gripped you emotionally in good and bad ways. The one that is staying with me right now is a scene where the main characters drive into a refugee camp. The officers are just monsters and there is torture and beatings going on everywhere.. it was shocking and horrible. I just can't stop thinking about it because I know this type of scene can't just be a fictional one in movies. It's happened in one form or another around the world which is a terrible thing. Ugh. Anyways, it's a very good movie.. highly recommended! **Edit update: How could I forget ones of the main ending scenes.. it was a long extended scene, one take, where the main character runs half-life style through explosions, bullets flying, people every which way. 3 words, OH MY GOD. Just amazing.

One more thing - why is my name appearing everywhere in the media nowadays?? Matt and I were chatting about this last night.. in the movie we saw last night it's the main actress's real name and role name, and it was one of the character's names in 24! Could it be? An emerging.. an epoch.. the age.. of me?

;)

I just KO'd my brother.

I'm so obsessed with this Wii searching. It's been my life's mission to find one the last month or so. Last night I even had a dream about buying one, it was exhilerating!

I walk into a local Gamestop and they have only 3 in stock! I'm so excited, I ask for one and they tell me I need to buy a game. I chose a random game and they rang me up for only $935. I didn't care, I bought it anyway!

Maybe my dream was a premonition of good things to come? I weasled my way into the teeny little window of opportunity (few minutes) to buy one at Target.com today! Woooohooo!! It's a bit expensive, but I can return the extra nunchuck (Mark already bought what we need), 1GB memory card, and the Madden game for at least some of my money back. I also have one still on order from ritzcamera.com so if that one ever shows up I'll sell it for some extra money to offset the cost of this one as well.

Wii console: 250
Madden: 50
Nunchuck: 20
1 GB card: 60 (20 ebay price, ebgames price is $60)
shipping: 20
tax: 30
total: 430
Actual total $430 (with 10% off coupon)

Mark and I will be sharing the cost, so at least now I can stop obsessing about it at work and home and move on to obsessing about something else. HOORAY! YAY FOR WII!!!

How could I forget? Matt and I had our 2 1/2 year anniversary over Christmas. May there be many more 1/2 anniversaries to come..

Love love love love you sweety.. thanks for putting up with me! *muaaahhh..* :)

Happy Christmas and New Year's everyone!

It's been a whirlwind these past few weeks. Friday the 22nd started the crazy holiday 1000 mile journey with our trip up to Santa Rosa to spend Xmas eve with Matt's parents. Despite my whining about the drive, I really enjoy it up there. Matt's parents have a wonderful place up in the middle of nowhere so it's nice to spend time where you can't hear the noises of traffic, city, etc. We didn't do much aside from Wii-searching, shopping, decorating the tree, and eating.. which was fine by me. I was concerned about China though - her back end just seemed completely off and there was definitely something going on with her tail. She wouldn't lift it aside from pathetically wagging whenever someone petted her.. she spent most of the weekend lying on the floor in our room, away from everything. Sunday evening we had our Xmas dinner and sat around opening gifts. I love to see everyone's reactions and what they recieved.. good times.

We drove back down to Pacifica Sunday evening and prepared the truck for our early (gah, 5am!) departure drive down to LA. I usually take the early leg of the trip and after a quick trip for coffee at 7-11 (they're open on Xmas!) we had an uneventful 5 1/2 hour drive to my mom's place. As soon as we got there we unloaded all the gifts and spent another Christmas gift opening event with Mark, Lizette, and Mom. Matt and I were pretty exhausted after this point so we took a nap before Xmas part III at my aunt's place. Prime rib was served along with all other sorts of non-Korean foods and the kids (we'll always be referred to as the kids table, despite the fact that we're all in our 20s, 30s now) played Super Mario Kart till gift opening part III.

Mark had driven back to Pacifica early Tuesday morning so we got to spend some quality time with Lizette and mom. During the day when they worked we spent the day Wii-searching and shopping. Thursday's drive back was very long.. lots of traffic leaving at 10am. Including a trip to the barn to check on Isabella, we didn't get home until 7pm. During our time away, there was an incredible wind storm that flew through the barn at 70+ mph, setting all sorts of records and havoc. 2 stalls had their roofs fly off and the shelter in the mare pasture flew up and off. There were downed trees and power outtages everywhere. I was so happy to find out that our shelter, even being in one of the windiest spots on the ranch, looked fine and dandy. It's getting its fair share of structural testing through - Isabella is in full blown heat this week and she's giving the poles some good rubbin (lovin?).

New Year's evening Matt and I spent resting and relaxing from all the traveling. I hadn't recieved much sleep at all the previous 2 nights so I was feeling pretty crappy. We were supposed to meet Amit and Laquel at Mezzanine that night for the New Year's eve party but both of us were really not feeling it. After many talks back and forth about whether or not to eat the $120+ tickets, we decided to get out of our pajamas and go out. I'm so glad we did - there were some really great sets from both DJ Mike Relm (who was much better than the first time I heard him) and Shiny Toy Guns.

Ugh, so this year I turn 30 years old. I am not looking forward to this! It's only a month away.. *cry*. Boooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!