Theobromine Schmeobromine

That big word is the medical term for intestinal poisoning from chocolate--you know, the old "Don't give your dog chocolate; it'll kill 'em" thing. Well, turns out our rangy mutt Ranger has super-dog chocolate resistance powers! He really is a terrible dog, but just so lovable! Anyway, I had a Wal-Mart sack of Halloween candy sitting in a kitchen table chair, and I must have knocked it off into the floor when I grabbed my purse and ran out the door for Sunday night church. Ranger was in the house, and of course, discoverd this sack. When we came home, I found one large Kit-Kat bag completely empty--no wrappers, nothing. Just tiny bits of milk chocolate and cookie scattered across the rug. He ate the entire bag, wrappers and all; it had to have been two pounds of chocolate at least!!

I read on Wikipedia today about Theobromine poisoning, and it said that it would take a little over a pound of milk chocolate to make a 44lb dog sick. Well, Ranger probably weighs about 60lbs, and he is none worse for the wear after this little chocolate experiment! He even ate ravenously the next morning! And actually, just so all you pet owners know, the American Veterinary Medical Association says that chocolate rarely causes actual death, usually just temporary stomach problems. Still yet, does anyone really want to share their chocolate? Not me!

Scarily Good Weekend!

This weekend was strikingly similar to last weekend, at least Saturday was: STUDY TIME! Friday night, though, we did something kind of fun: Jay and I went to the annual Coleman Halloween carnival--this year it kind of meant something for Kyle, my younger brother, because the seniors run the big money-making activity of the night: Bingo! So we played some bingo--unfortunately, we went home empty-handed, although I did get to shout Bingo! one time, courtesy of my red Power Ranger youngest brother, Tyler. The very first game we sat down to together, he got five right across the middle! He was so surprised, he could only sputter, Bingo? So I had to holler it for him. His prize? One of the dubious grab bags, filled with all the reject stuff the stores gave my brother and his compadres: two VHS tapes of five-year-old movies, an audio cassette of Robert Plant, some Sundowner mugs, some Sonic gift certificates, and a Big Red soda. Ty enjoyed the Big Red soda, and was glad to see he got a replacement copy of Spiderman, since they lost their DVD of it. Mom bingoed, too, although a bit anticlimactically: one of her best friends was sitting next to her, so of course she was chattering away and trying to catch all the numbers at the same time. She lacked one number to Bingo, and said, Oh, just this number left! And then looked at her friend's board, and that number had been called already! She missed it! But she still bingoed in time, and won another grab bag.

Saturday was spent cleaning house and reading snippets of Chaucer, Donne, Milton, Swift, Wordsworth, Keats, and of course, Shakespeare. Fun! I have decided I like American lit much better than Brit Lit, with the exception of Shakespeare, who is lots of fun, I think. Give me Poe, Thoreau, Dickenson, Whitman, Steinbeck, and Hemingway anyday over those others! Unfortunately, Senior English is usually Brit Lit, so that means Beowulf, all that rigidly structured poetry, and Shakespeare, who will offer some relief.

Baby update: My next prenatal appointment is next week, and the big ultrasound where I find out the sex and see if he/she's healthy is two weeks after that. I can't wait!

Kids Incorporated flashback

I'm not sure how many of you will appreciate this; I'm thinking Lissa and Amanda might be the only ones who smell what I'm steppin' in with this little post.

How in the world did Stacy Ferguson, the star of Kids Incorporated (ca. 1987 Disney show that was almost as good as MMC, but sadly, lacked the staying power), go from this to this?!! Forgive me if you already knew that All-American, blonde-haired, blue-eyed Stacy grew up to become the pseudo-ethnic, provacative rapper girl we know as Fergie, originally of The Black-Eyed Peas? I don't even want to know what a "London Bridge" is. Stacy was my sister and my favorite on Kids Inc.: she could "Walk Like an Egyptian" and "Do the Dinosaur" like no other!

12 weeks bump!

Well, here's my bump! I can't believe I'm already showing, but I definitely am. I'm going to do some scrapbook pages of pregnancy, showers, etc., so I'll probably take pics at every trimester at least.

I had a good fall break; can't believe it's over already! I studied for about 11 hours for the English OSAT, which is in two weeks, and Jay went hunting two or three times. Bought some maternity clothes, and saw a really good movie, The Prestige.