Thanksgiving

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I'll be in class, but a group of us are going to the buffet dinner at the Marriott! We fully intend on gorging ourselves on turkey and other good things. I haven't had turkey in so long. Drool.

I am thankful for:

• electricity


• clean water


• indoor plumbing


• the refrigerator


• candles


• matches


• mosquito coils


• DEET


• my garden


• my swimming pool


• the guinea pigs


• and that Rudder is here with me!

And to make things really special, hopefully A&M will beat the hell outta t.u. (It's always a good season when we beat t.u.)

PS: It's also nice that everyone gets along:

With cockle shells and silver bells

Well, I'm sick. Spent all of Saturday in bed. Have bad sniffles now. Can't breath. In bed with an 85 lb creature who really should be on the floor but somehow inched his way next to me. He's been doing this a lot. A bad habit. Oh well.

On Sunday, I noticed how nice my garden was. Then when I looked up old pictures of it, I realized how dramatic the change was. See for yourself...

Before:

(Note Ocean View)

Now:

(St Croix Yacht Club Flags & Ocean View)

(Really Awesome Swimming Pool) (The milk jugs are to keep the pigs from eating my seedlings.) (Twin Koi & Beta Pond with Water Lillies) (Tomato Plant loaded with almost ripe tomatoes.) (Infested with these sneaky sneaky little squeaky things:)

Texas Schedule

I've posted my tentative schedule while I'm in Texas for your viewing pleasure. (See the side bar to the left under 'Blog Archive' and Zaldi.)

All I can dream about is going riding, so rest assured, I intend to be glued (or frozen) to a horse the majority of the trip. Those in College Station I'll be pestering will include, but not limited to, Terah, Eric, Eric, Adam, Sodalaks (drool), and The Dixie Chicken. I don't know where JR and Reebs are going to be yet, but I need to pester them too. Also Brandon (and Amanda) in Hondo and Bobby in Seguin.

In Dallas, my list includes Abby, Malissa, Jacob, Justin (+/- Than), Eric, ... and my mind is drawing a blank.

I'm going to make a trip up to OSU in Stillwater, OK sometime in Dec to visit sad ole Peter in clinics and to save Jossie from her drama filled life.

Also hoping to trek down to Houston to see my favorite aunt and uncle.

Who else (other than family) am I forgetting? For those of you who have not contacted me, you'd better! Or I'll feel so unwoved!!!

By Candle Light

For a few solid days, we had power. I've decided that electricity is the single most important invention in the world, and far better than the wheel.

This week (probably because I had 2 exams) power has returned to its intermittent status. Since no one [in the civilized world] can really appreciate what it's like to not have power, I took a video (make sure your sound is on):



Then the power came back on!

And then it went off again. Sigh.



It could be worse though! Our water is now REALLY BAD. It's no longer clear, but instead has a watered down coffee colored appearance and smells like... Yes well, I didn't realize and used it for a whole pot of coffee one morning this week! Yum yum! I'm waiting for the Cholera symptoms to reveal themselves, leaving me prostrate on the floor in a disgusting mess (like my new favorite movie, The Painted Veil). I am not a hypochondriac; this could really happen here, it's a legitimate concern!

Grades and school are still my primary concern. So is being a vet still worth it? Yes.

...Or is that the crazy person in me talking?
There's no place like a tropical island paradise... Click heels...
There's no place like a tropical island paradise... Click heels...
There's no place like a tropical island paradise... Click heels...
Hmm, seems that didn't work, I'm still in St Kitts.

Actually, and this is really cute, someone at school made Ross Vet School "Survivor" T-shirts. I bought two. Hope I make it to the final round (7th/clinics). Forever the optimist!

I Voted!

What a hassle, but I got it done. Actually I voted back on October 17th, gave the ballot to Jossie (sealed of course) to mail when she landed in Miami or Oklahoma-- 50% of island mail usually gets lost.

Truth be told, I voted for Obama. I don't know if that was wise or not. I really liked McCain, BUT if something were to happen to him, I don't think we can afford to have that nut of a running mate in the White House. Palin wants Christian Creationism taught in the classroom (mix of church and state), to drill in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) (ruining the environment, and attempting to take the Polar Bear and Beluga Whale off the endangered species list), and wants to overturn Roe vs Wade (I'm pro putting a hold on the world's ever expanding human population). Not to mention that she put a $150 bounty on Gray Alaskan Timber wolves. As if Canine Distemper and Parvo weren't enough for the poor things to deal with. She's a nut!

I was also unimpressed by all of McCain's eye rolls in the debates (all of which I watched). I loved one response McCain gave in response to Obama's comment about war with Pakistan, "You just don't say that!" With the war in Iraq, I sided with McCain, but he did want to cut spending for research (his example was $3mil spent for genetic testing of Yellowstone bears was a waste of money, and that is utterly wrong unless we want them to go extinct) . I can't really grasp either, McCain's nor Obama's, health care plans. But I guess the main reason I didn't vote McCain was because of Palin. I wish he'd picked a serious running mate, because I think he would have been a good president, especially with his military background.

I'm equally as unimpressed with Joe Biden however. Immoral is written all over him, like any standard politician. In law school he was caught plagiarizing 5 of 15 pages of a law review article. He received an F in the course, but was still able to pass the Delaware Bar. Later Biden plagiarized a speech by British Labour Party leader, Neil Kinnock. To me, that is shameful. I was disappointed by the VP debate too. I expected him to pummel Palin, but she had gone to debate boot camp! Of the 4 candidates, I think she's by far the best speaker and most honest person, but I just disagree with her views. Even though the press says otherwise, I think she won the VP debate.

So another 4 years with a new guy. I guess they unofficially announce it at 11pm-ish? Texas isn't a swing state, so my vote doesn't count (if it even counted anyway with how screwed up Brazos County voting is). I was almost not able to vote because they refused to mail me a ballot, saying I'd filled out the wrong paperwork (bs), even though they had my Ross Univ address as my mailing address. I spent hours on the phone sorting everything out, but eventually, they checked a file in a forgotten building and found the form that said mail me the damn ballot, I'm out of the country. It helped that I highlighted and circled it before I mailed it.

One thing is for sure, it was nice to look ever Tom, Dick, and Harry up on the internet before I sent it in. There were a few really sharp people, like a girl from Princeton who graduated Cum Laude, and some not so sharp, like the crooked Brazos County Sheriff. There was even someone from my high school. Anyway, what's done is done, and now it's time to watch and see who wins.

Saturday Night Live

I love these SNL skits! For once the Republicans are leaps and bounds funnier than the Democrat. I posted these in chronological order: Palin and Hillary, The Real Palin, and McCain. Enjoy!







OMG I NEED a Joe Biden doll! Talks for 45 minutes! I love it! (I'm crying I'm laughing so hard!) I had no idea that John McCain was so funny! He's really pretty good in this skit.

I don't think those tiny little blue states up in the north east should count as much as they do. I mean really, they're unimportant little bitty states filled with grumpies! Really now, do we need them? Really? We need postive happy states to vote! Yup yup!

Dengue Confirmed

With the rains and murky weather, we’ve had a mosquito population boom. On our street alone, in order, Sarah (2nd), Tim (5th), Adam (5th), Joan (2nd), Leslie (5th), Mary (5th), and now Beth (3rd) have fallen ill. Blood samples were sent to Trinidad, with the results taking 6-8 weeks.

Fortunately, it seems that the hemorrhagic strain isn’t afflicting anyone. Mainly fever, enteritis, headache, joint pain and flu like symptoms (which is so ambiguous).

Dengue Fever is caused by a positive sense single stranded RNA virus in the family Flaviviridae, genus Flavivirus. Flavi (plural), flavus (singular), comes from the Latin word for “yellow.” The most well know diseases caused by viruses in this family are Yellow Fever, Japanese Encephalitis, Hepatitis C, and West Nile. Mosquitoes of the genus Aedes, usually Aedes aegypti, transmit dengue. Aedes aegypti is distingusihed by its black and white striped legs and the white lyre shape on the hump of its thorax.

















These, and smaller brown mosquitos, have filled my apartment. BOP doesn’t phase them, and I’m covered in DEET (OFF), so I’ve started to burn mosquito coils almost constantly. Inhaling these chemicals is taking a toll on my nose and throat, but at least I’m not sick! (Yet.) Those that have gotten sick have been out of commission for 3 weeks, with one of them potentially repeating the semester due to a missed exam.

The good news is that it’s not Yellow Fever or Malaria! Yellow Fever is often fatal. Malaria, caused by a a protozoa called Plasmodium, and can be very restant to drugs. Both of these diseases are thought to be in the Caribbean.

Meanwhile, I’ve been looking at where to move for clinics. One very beautiful state has been having deadly outbreaks of a a Rickettsial dease called Potomac Horse Fever. Horses become ill by drinking water from rivers or streams that contain the bacteria, Neorickettsia risticii, within snails, flukes, and fly larvae. Goes to show that not even the USA is disease free, which is good because that means I’ll have a job when I graduate!

More exciting, the UK has had an outbreak of pulmonary anthrax from animal hides. Anthrax spores can live 75+ years and prefer alkaline soil. China has had another incident with melamine contaminating animal feed, but I don’t think it’s hit the news yet. A novel strain of Bluetongue has been found in the middle of Europe (Switzerland). A disease from warthogs is killing pigs in Russia. And the unknown Ebola-like disease causing healthy people to die in Zambia and South Africa has been diagnosed as “a unique Old World arenavirus” (ProMED mail). How fun.

Okay, now back to my laudry…