3.5 oz Dark Chocolate + 2*20lb Dogs = $250 Vet Bill

Yesterday sucked :( My boss was much more demanding than normal, leading to a VERY long morning. I wanted to try to take the day off, as we have friends coming in from out of town and the house needs a cleaning, but that did not happen. At noon, I went upstairs to shower (finally) only to discover that the bar of Hershey's Extra Dark - 60% Cacao chocolate slated for box #2 to my PRGE pal that had been sitting with the yarn on my sewing table was gone, the only remnants were the torn label shreds. CRAP! I hadn't been upstairs since 8am, so I had no idea when the dogs ate it. I called the vet. My vet had no doctor in the office today, so they referred to me to another vet. I called, they told me to use Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2) to try to induce vomiting. The best part, and I'm not making this up, I was told to 'pick them up and spin them around' after giving them the H202 to get them to vomit faster. Now, take a moment to make a mental picture of me first fighting with the dogs to get them to ingest 2 teaspoons of H2O2, THEN spinning them around the backyard, with the added bonus of the spinning also making me slightly nauseous. I got Zosia to puke, but no luck with Jimmy Ray. So I call the vet back, who, when I tell them the amount of chocolate, informs me it is a toxic level and I need to take the dogs to the Emergency Vet. On the way, I get stopped at BOTH a train AND a drawbridge lift, all the while panicking my dogs are going to start seizing or something.

We make it to the Vet, my dogs get rushed in back and I sit, and wait, for a good 40 minutes. They finally call me back to talk to the vet, who tells me they got both dogs to vomit and put charcoal in their bellies to help absorb anything that may be left. While the dogs have no symptoms they suggest leaving them for monitoring and an IV flush. . . . at a cost of $800 minimum (more if I didn't come back in 12 hours, which would have been 3am). I learned the danger they really worry about with chocolate is the caffeine gets their doggie hearts all worked up and that leads to problems. Now, I love the dogs, but the emergency vet isn't all that far, and we were going to be home all night, so I opted to 'observe' them at home rather than leave them. That left me with a bill of $250. Yuk! This is nothing compared to Sara's sister, though, whose dog was hit by an errant, angry old lady. Check it out here, she's having a stash sale to help pay the vet bills (not too much left, but check it out).

Then, of course, I was stuck in rush hour traffic coming home from the vet. Jake was working on installing some recessed lighting that turned into a total cluserf*ck and forced me to go to Home Depot unattended. They never fail to make me feel like a total idiot when I come with a list of things I don't really know. Jake calls it a junction box, I ask for a junction box and they say 'Oh, you mean a SQUARE BOX?'. Come on, now, is that necessary?

I get home, then have to figure out something to make for dinner and my house is still filthy and I have a crapload of homework to do before Monday. Oh, did I mention there are going to be 10 people coming over for dinner tomorrow, too? We are the house for all single friends to come and have Easter dinner (this happened at Christmas, too). Ordinarily, I wouldn't mind, but with my house being a disaster, homework breathing down my neck and a friend visiting with his 70lb yellow lab, the last thing I really want is to try to figure out how to feed 10 people at my 6 chair dinner table :)

On the plus side, the 3 lights (of 6) that Jake got installed look amazing. The pooches are doing fine, no issues through the night and the Vet said past noon today we should be all clear. But, the stress of it all led me to break my vow. I read on Claudia's blog, then a string on Ravelry about how amazing Jaeger Extra Fine Merino is and it has been discontinued. So, I bought a bag :) Good deal on eBay, though, $45 for 10 balls. The color is Elderberry. I think it's really pretty. No pattern ideas yet, but it will become some sweater for me :)

Now, I should stop blogging and go do my homework, huh?