California for a surprise visit

During my last break Elisabeth and I decided to take an impromptu trip to visit the family in California. We worked in out with my dad so we can surprise my mom. We rented a car, loaded the dogs in the back, and headed down. We headed out Friday night, starting around 8pm. We made it to Medford and stayed in a motel 6. That's when the dog trouble started. Zena was just too freaked out and anxious to sleep, so she paced and whined. We were on the 2nd floor in motel and every time someone walked outside our room or came up the stairs she barked. I am sure the neighbors loved us. Needless to say we didn't get much sleep that night. Regardless, when 7am rolled around we were up and at em. The second part of the journey was much longer, but we made good time. With multiple potty stops for dogs and Elisabeth, and gas fill ups we were able to arrive in Whittier around 7pm that night.

To the left- Elisabeth walking the dogs at a rest stop. To the right- our rental car. That was the best money we spent on the trip. Definitely worth any extra cost and still cheaper than plane tickets, especially with unlimited mileage and good gas mileage.


Dad had arranged for them to be gone when we arrived. So we got to the house and tried to settle in. Once again the dogs decided to make things interesting. I let them both in the backyard so they can run around a bit. Well they ran all right, they ran straight for Ben (my parents cat) who was laying in the rose bush bed. What happened next was kind of a blur, there was a lot of noise, mainly from Ben, and a lot of fur flying, also from Ben. I think Ben did a good job of fighting off the dogs. I ran over to stop the fight and Ben, thinking that I was also a dog, used my leg as a scratching post. I momentarily freed him from the dogs, but the chase was not over. As Ben ran away, both dogs got loose from me (yeah YOU try holding Magnum with two fingers). They chased Ben around the yard and caught up to him just as he was trying to climb a tree. Magnum grabbed him off the tree and pinned him to the ground. I ran over and separated them again. As I lead the dogs away from the scene I looked back at Ben who just laid there in the grass groaning, I had no idea how badly he was hurt. Naturally I was thinking the dogs just killed my parent's cat. Seconds later, when I returned Ben was gone. UH oh! Just then, my parents pulled up. UH OH!


We rushed out to surprise my mom, it worked. She about fell over when she got out of the car and saw us standing in the drive way. I love it when a plan comes together. We greeted them with hugs and smiles and news of Ben's disappearance and possible demise. After searching all the usual places, Ben was no where to be found. My parents took it in stride though- God bless em. We looked over the dogs, and discovered Magnum had several bloody scratches on his face, most likely from Ben, and probably some from the rose bush. Both Mags and Zena smelled of cat urine, apparently Ben peed on their faces. Ew! I had to check my leg.


On Sunday we awoke to a beautiful sunny day- despite the weather prediction of rain. We went to church and then we spent the rest of the day with the extended family. I tell you what, you can't buy that kind of entertainment. I only stopped laughing long enough to give my stomach muscles a break and to eat. We had a great time catching up. But Zena was a bit freaked out with all the people around. She started nipping at the heels of those who walked close to her- the vet calls it herding and says it's natural because she is part Border-Collie. I don't care how natural it is. At one point she ripped a hole in my mom's pants while nipping at her heels. I think almost everyone got nipped, Zena got dad several times. They just shrugged it off, God bless 'em. We were so embarrassed.


That night we awoke to a peculiar sound. It sounded like a small bucket of water being poured onto the kitchen floor. It was... kinda. The "bucket" was Magnum, and the "water" was from his... um... butt. Yup that's right, he was sick as a dog. We spent the next two nights taking him out every 3 hours so he can do his thing. On a few occasions, we didn't catch him in time and my parents carpet suffered the wrath. But my parents just shrugged it off and cleaned it up. God bless em! During the day, however it was harder. On Tuesday we left for a day trip to the lake with my dad's boat. We left magnum and Zena in the kitchen so it would be easy to clean up his mess. That night, when we returned it was a war zone with liquid land mines all over the floor. No harm done though, a mop and a few buckets of water later it was all clean. My mom said this was the cleanest the floor had been in a long time. $120 later, we found out Magnum either had dysentery from Ben peeing on his face during the fight (you gotta admit, Ben went out with a bang), or he had eaten some bird feed that had fallen in my parent's back yard that had made him really sick. The treatment was the same for either scenario. Antibiotics and a special diet.


The trip to the lake was the highlight of the vacation. Dad worked tirelessly on Sunday and Monday to get the boat ready for the trip. He is the greatest dad a guy could ask for. While we relaxed in the sun on Monday he slaved away to rebuild his carburetor. By Tuesday it was good to go. The best part of the lake trip was that Elisabeth caught her first fish ever!! It was a good size. She and my dad were the only ones to catch anything all day. That's okay we kept ourselves busy, we each got to drive the boat. I even had a chance to attempt to dock it at the S.S. relief station- a porta-potty in the middle of the lake (seen below). That proved to be difficult because the lake was rough and the wind was blowing strong. I finally docked it on my 4th try, but not before I scratched the bow and broke a vent cover off the side. My dad just shrugged it off. God bless him. I told him I would make it up to him and buy him a new boat eventually. He said he would hold his breath.


On Thursday we said our good-byes. We left sunny Southern California and came back to cold rainy Portland with a renewed appreciation for the sun. Our damage for the weekend was pretty bad: one dead cat (or so we thought), pet stains on the carpet, scratched boat, broken vent cover, ripped pants courtesy of Zena, and the stress of having to constantly watch Zena anytime you walked around her. I wouldn't be surprised if my parents never invited us back.


Update: Ben showed up a week after we had left. Dad said he had a few minor scratches but was just fine. So my dogs aren't murderers. Whew!



-Josh-

Chiropractic News!

We've had some chiropractic updates around here in the last month. On April 10th, Josh was pinned at a Western States pinning ceremony for 10th quarter students. The ceremony marks their transition from treating students at the student clinic to becoming student interns treating the public in the outpatient clinic. Josh had already been in the outpatient clinic for 5 or 6 weeks, he was one of the 12 out of 60 that they moved up early. At the ceremony, their clinicians who supervised them in the student clinic spoke about the great strides they had made. The Dean of Clinics and a Vice-President spoke as well. Then the student doctors lined up and came to the front when their name was called and the Vice-President put the Western States pin on their white coat lapel. That pin is a right of passage, it is the only one that they are allowed to wear on their white coat while working in the clinic. It signifies that everyone who wears it has passed all the requirements and was promoted to the outpatient clinic. It's kind of like a mini-graduation ceremony 9 months before they have the full graduation. Josh knew that the ceremony was coming up, but didn't have a date until we got back from California and found the invitation in our mailbox for the next Thursday. I had a great time and was so proud to see him up there! Below is a picture of Josh with his student clinic supervising clinician, Dr. Ginter.

Last Friday, we got Josh's part two and part three national board results. HE PASSED!!! We're so excited. Now, he's only got one part left, which he'll take in November. I'm so proud! Josh has passed all of his boards on the first try and hasn't even come close to failing one. So, Josh is completely on track to graduate in December and have his liscense in January to start practicing!! We're getting really excited that the end is near, but still don't have any answers about where we'll be on what kind of practicing situation Josh will be in. Of course, we'll keep you posted!

The In-Laws, gotta luv em!

My wonderful in-laws decided to come visit us towards the end of January. So once again we strapped on our snow shoes and drove up to clear lake- we should own some property up there with as much as we are there. This time, the weather was great. The sun was out at times, a light snow sprinkle at other times. The snow was not deep but the lake was still frozen. We walked a different 3 mile loop, enjoying the weather and the company. The dogs behaved, and walk was nice. We walked out onto the middle of the lake and decided to snap some pictures.

1st picture- Tom and Ann stop for a quick photo in the middle of clear lake. We walked on water!

















2nd Picture - Tom and I decided to "strike a pose". Notice my attitude... oh yeah, I am too sexy for my snow shoes. Those are my gloves in my jacket pockets, my stomach isn't that big... I swear! If only I had an excuse to explain the ghetto booty... You can barely make out dots on the lake in the background. Those are snowmobilers- a group of 7 or so, using the lake as their race track. I WANNA DO THAT!






3rd Picture- Ann and Zena at the clear lake sign. Our dog was told to come several times before the picture was taken. She stood there and stared at us with the look you see here. She listens so well! Brat!















After a day in the snow we wanted to show Tom and Ann the other side of Oregon. So the next day, we drove out to the coast, it's KITE FLYING TIME!


























We had a great time at the coast. Elisabeth got the bright idea to grab some drift wood and bring it home, hoping to prove the myth that while it burns, the fire turns several different colors- or something like that. So we all carried an armfull of sandfilled, wet driftwood to the car to take home. When we got it home I made a nice fire, got it burning hot, and threw on the driftwood. It was amazing, the wood burned a deep... blackish gray. Did you know that damp wood doesn't burn much, it really just smokes. Yeah, so did we, but we tried it anyway. The few flames we got from it were the normal fire color. So we now have some very sandy firewood that really just smokes. I love my wife.





-Josh

Another snow trip - Jan 08

Since we are a glutton for punishment we decided to take another snow shoe trip back up to clear lake. This time David and Ginni Hendrix came along- some friends from our small group. The weather was rough and the temperature low. Naturally the dogs came along. The snow was very deep. We trekked 3 miles around the lake. The first mile wasn't bad, we were going down hill and we were able to walk in some tracks a snow mobile had made. When we reached the lake, we encountered a group of snowmobilers (is that a word?). One of them, probably in an attempt to show off, decided to make a series of several tight turns at a very high speed while on the frozen lake. Unfortunatley for him, the turn was too tight, the edge of the snowmobile track dug into the ice cutting a nice oval shaped hole for his snowmobile to fall into. Fortunately for him we was very close to shore so the water level was only up to his knee. It happened in an instant, and a few seconds later he was out of the water and back on his snowmobile like nothing had happened. Lesson learned, I'd say. Too bad I didn't have the where-with-all to snap a picture. But you can use your imagination.

The last couple of miles were rough. As you can see in the next picture the snow level was up to our knees even with the snow shoes on. Zena was barely visible in fresh snow, but was smart enough follow behind us. For the last 2 miles we walked single file switching leaders from time to time. We slowly made our way out into the middle of the lake (a very cool feeling) and up around into the camping area. At one point Zena thought it was a be a good idea to jump over an embankment, she didn't know there was a steep drop off on the other side. Luckily Elisabeth saw it and was able to scramble over to pull her to safety before she got too far down the embankment.

The last mile was hard, but we made it back to the car. I gotta hit the cardio. Nothing makes you feel more out of shape than walking in deep snow.

-Josh