Ira's album face

Ira's album face
Originally uploaded by riblet.

More Ira album faces coming soon.

Teener tiny ribs

Teener tiny ribs
Originally uploaded by riblet.

So the date is set for Heylove's surgery. Next Friday, she's getting her tail amputated. Amputated! Really, it's major surgery. The vet even referred to it as spinal surgery. Oh, man. She's so pricey, this dog. Leon and I are talking about how we're going to dress when we go to pay for the procedure. Maybe we can garner some kind of sympathy and they'll give us a big discount. We're going to dress in rags and put Ira in a flour sack, cinched at the waist. And we're going to put smudgy coal marks on our cheeks like we've been shoveling it into furnaces all day long. Then Leon's going to look over at me and I'm going to transform into a pork chop. Ok, don't feel sorry for us; feel sorry for the dog. She's going to be in a lot of pain for a few days. Then a little bit of pain for a couple of weeks. Or more.

This week my birthday came and went. I had a great time last weekend with friends and food and cake. On Wednesday (my actual birthday) I had a real wild time. First, I treated myself to a nutty taco at Sunflower, visited my parents and renewed my driver's license. When Leon came home, we had take out from Zelda's and then we hit up Gunther's for a Rocky Road sundae (with nuts and a cherry!). Later I fell asleep doing a crossword puzzle from an old New York magazine. That's how I do it. Top that!

Gross, sad...mostly sad

Brisket gets a bath
Originally uploaded by riblet.

Well, our vet says poor Heylove needs a tail amputation. She's got just barely a nubbin of a tail and yet it's corkscrewing back into her body like an ingrown hair. That's the gross part. The sad part is the surgery to amputate it. It sounds like a whole lot of pain. This week we'll be talking to our pet insurance company to make sure they cover the cost of the procedure. If they do, it looks like Miss Ribs will be going under the knife some time in March. If they don't, I guess we'll be stimulating the economy by filling our vet's pockets with our hard-earned tax rebate.

Word inventory

He kind of looks like my mom here
Originally uploaded by riblet.

Here are all the words Ira can say. Some of them he doesn't say exactly right, but I understand him. I put his pronunciation in parentheses.

ball (bao)
duck
drink (ock)
hot
hat
hug (ug)
dog
cheese (chess)
mama
dada (di-dah)
banana (nanana)
milk (meh)
eyes
no
don't (doan)
bird (bees)
big bird (be-bees)
truck
more (mo)
cat (at)
yo gabba gabba (gabba gabba)
bubble (buh)
apple (apps)
cracker (ack)
Ira (I-wa)
rock (bock)
shoe (eet)

I think that last one, he has shoes and feet mixed up. Not too bad, Ira!