Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Update on My Dad


My dad had emergency surgery over the weekend to have his gall bladder removed. He had been in severe pain for a few days leading up to the surgery, but the doctors at Phoenixville Hospital totally dropped the ball, misdiagnosing his pain as GERD. In fact, for nearly two years, a small army of doctors had been misdiagnosing his pain. This weekend, the attending surgeon recognized that things had seriously deteriorated and, during surgery, noticed that gangrene had formed on his gall bladder. The surgery itself, thankfully, was a success. My dad is now at home in recovery mode, suffering through the Phillies and their suddenly quiet bats, while anxiously awaiting the arrival of football season. He's doing amazingly well and we're all feeling really lucky and grateful right now.

Adventures in Housesitting

So this is probably old news, but we moved...again. This time to a really, big place with all of the luxuries of say, a place in the lower 48. We lucked out and are now housesitting for a retired UAF professor. And it looks like we'll be staying for a while! Here's a picture or 2:



The owner spends most of his time in the high Arctic and Antarctic, serving as a naturalist/historian on small cruise ships that only rich folk with a hankering for adventure can afford. When he's not on a boat, he's hanging out in Anchorage with his son and grandkid. So you ask, why not sell the place? Well, two reasons: 1) The house is built on permafrost, and as the permafrost thaws, the house slumps...in other words, the resale value is low. 2) He can't take his doggies with him:

That's where we come in. Minnie is the black lab in the middle, Sammy is the lab/healer mix on the right. Really good pups, when they're not being complete menaces. I think they're starting to warm up to us though. Hopefully their better ski-jouring dogs than Frey.

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

The Lioness

You may remember our poofy dog, Freya...



During our unforseen stay in Philadelphia last month, we had a good friend from Fairbanks take care of Freya. We suggested to this friend (who absolutely loves dogs) that if she were interested, she could take on some Freya grooming. Earlier in the summer, we trimmed Freya's stomach fur to relieve her of the heat, which resulted in a pretty amazing pile of fur...


Upon returning from the east coast last week, we were greeted by an altogether different (-looking) Freya.


Despite her pathetic body language in this picture, she actually likes her new 'do. She seems way more comfortable and is considerably more active (certainly not the sloth-like friend we've come to know and love!). Also, she's been the source of some much-need laughs. Suprisingly, she's not much bigger than a lab underneath all that fur.


What these pictures don't really capture is how disproportionately large her furry head is relative to the rest of her shaved body. It's really amazing!