Cheesedog-ness!

I made a cheesedog.

1 Nathans hotdog.

2 layers of cheese.

1 bun.

EAT.

There you go Brennan.

CT scan results and other more interesting things.

I was badly ill which was a large portion of what happened to my job. I haven't been so sick since I had a monster flu when I was like 10 years old. My head feels like someone has an air compressor hooked up inside my head and just keeps pumping. I've been having odd issues breathing for well over a year and a half. After being put on 4 allergy medications at the same time and seeing no change I pretty well knew it had to be something else. What? That I still didn't have an answer to. Right as I began training for my job I got a bug. Flu or what I have no idea but it triggered my breathing and head pain problems to just go above and beyond what my body could stand. I went to see my doctor thinking maybe I had a sinus infection. He said it looked as if I did have one and put me on a normal week or so set of antibiotics. After I finished them there was really no change to speak of. He sent me to an ENT who then ordered a CT of my head. And this is where my nightmare began. I have had many CT scans MRI scans and X-rays over the years. I imagine my parents felt I was the most accident prone demon child on earth. So I knew what I was in for... A tight tube and being uncomfortable for an hour or so and spending 2 years of my life just trying to get the IV in my arm. The scan actually was not bad the poor woman just could not my vein to come up in my arm so she put it in my hand. (I always ask them to put it in my hand because of that.) She was super friendly and said sorry for the discomfort and are you alright well over 30 times. The horror came after the scan. On Friday night the ENT called me and said that it was very important that I come in on Monday when she had the full results of the scan. The preliminary results showed a mass in my Maxillary sinus on one side. The entire weekend I was scared to death I had cancer. I went in on Monday and she showed me the scan... I'm no doctor but to my shock I could plainly see there was A LOT wrong with my scan. She went on to explain what each of my "abnormalities" were on the screen. My sinuses are way bigger then a normal person about 2 1/2 times larger. One side was about 90% filled with this mass. She thought it was a huge infection so she put me on a 6 week dose of antibiotics. Unfortunately for me that is only the first thing that was wrong on the scan. My nose is badly broken on the inside my airway on one side that is meant to be relatively straight up from my nose looks more like a fish hook. And I have tonsillitis to cap off all that lovely news. I was diagnosed with chronic sinusitis, chronic tonsillitis and a badly deviated septum! When I am finished with the rest of this antibiotic I will need surgery to removed my tonsils and to fix my nose so I can breathe right again. The end of Monday night the pain had just exploded. I called the ENT and got one of her office staff and told her what was going on and that I wanted to speak to the doctor. She said well we aren't giving you any more medicine and hung up the phone. I wanted to talk to the doctor and just tell her what was going on with me and ask if this pain could say BE A POSSIBLE WARNING THAT THINGS ARE GETTING WORSE!? I just could not get a hold of her. Her office staff is rude and fully and completely incompetent. So I called my general care doctor who is amazing. He was on vacation (I already knew that) so I spoke to his partner. She was very helpful and put me on some major pain killers so that I could actually do anything. The pain is so bad without the medication that the moment I woke up I wished I was dead. I was screaming and just falling into a bad depressed state because I couldn't even lie down to sleep because it was to hard to breathe lying down. All I could to without the medication was sit in the chair and try my best not to cry because that made the pain even worse. With the antibiotic and pain killers the pain is manageable but I hate having to take medication. Even more when it's a very major pain killer. Right now all I hope is that the antibiotics are actually helping the mass shrink and that the infection goes away so that I can get the surgery I need.


That's what I've been up to the last few weeks here.


I went out to the pet store to get some new chew toys and stuff for my animals and then went out to dinner with my Mom at the Outback Steakhouse. I have been going there since I was a kid. Before my family got into a money crunch when my grandfather fell ill we would go there and I would do my homework after school. I like many of the things served there. The Cheese Fries, Bloomin Onion, Prime Rib, Outback Special, Victoria Fillet  and Alice Springs Chicken are very good. They also make a sundae called a Cinnamon Apple Oblivion.

I took some pictures for you guys. The dessert I have photos of is a "mini" Cinnamon Apple Oblivion. The steak is an Outback special. And the sauce is the "bloom sauce" (The orange sauce.)Which is an odd horseradish and something cream sauce and their home made ranch. The ranch sauce is excellent it has some chilli powder of some kind in it which gives cool home made ranch a nice kick I love it.


(still editing this post)

Rat Care Tips!

The rat's some of you saw photos of in my other post are not my first rat pets.
My first rat was a gift from a girl named Abigail for my ninth birthday. The rat I had back then was special. I had never seen a rat that colour before I have also never seen one since. We named her Champagne because of her special colour. We called her Rattigan most of the time. 
I also have the two rats who live in New Zealand with Malcolm named Lone and Star.




Having had a few rats I know a tip or two about how to take care of them. There are a few basic things you must do and be okay with to own rats.


1. You must have two rats. They need a house-mate to be really happy. It takes no more room to own one then it does to own two.


2. If you are not willing to be scratched up a bit and licked to death they are likely not the right pets for you. They love to climb all over you and play hide and seek. The little claws tend to get you when they climb.


3. If you do not have at least an hour a day to spend playing with them OUT of the cage then you should not own rats. They need love and playtime. Pet rats are made to crave love from their owners.


4. Rats are very smart. It's important to give them things to stimulate their minds. For example you can set up games. I tend to take treats and bread crust and stick them half way in the bars of the cage. They spend time pulling items into the cage. Also put bits of paper towel or tissues in the cage bars as well. They will add this to the nest they build to sleep in.


5. Use paper critter litter. Do not use clay or wood chips! Wood chips can cause bad allergies in rats. I use plain grey paper litter made from recycled paper. 


6. Save all paper tubes like bath tissue rolls and paper towel rolls and put them in the cage for your babies to play with. You can buy fancy houses for them to sleep in for the cage but also if you have them put in a Kleenex box in on it's side. I have a fancy large plastic house and 2 Kleenex boxes in my cage. They both sleep in one Kleenex box and use the fancy plastic house to store food. 


7. Rats can eat many of things. If you are eating it you can pretty much share a piece with your rats. Lab blocks have everything a rat needs to live on and should be the main meal source. Salad is also a very good thing for your baby. 


8. De stinking... Rats can become smelly in between baths. I suggest you get something called Ferret sheen. It smooths and shines the coat and leaves a nice smell behind.  Change the bedding/litter and wash the houses every 2-3 days. (More if you find your rats can be extra stinky.)


9. Rats sleep much of the day and are awake at night. They do make a good amount of noise which I have learned to live with and can sleep okay with. If you are a light sleeper you may consider putting them in a place outside your bedroom while you are sleeping.


10.  You will need to buy rodent chew toys/treats for your rats. They MUST chew regularly to maintain a healthy length for their teeth. They are rodents so the teeth never stop growing. Petsmart has a good selection of chew toys for rodents. If you are unsure what one would best fit a rat then ask of the employees at your pet store of choice. If you do not buy them toys to chew they will chew on things like cell phones and charger cables. Some will do this anyway so do not leave your rat unwatched where there are cords.


Rats make excellent pets for people who want something to love and snuggle with. They are small, smart and super soft and cute. The most expencive part of owning a rat is getting a good cage. They need a larger cage. They need space to run around. Be sure you have a large cage with at least 3 floors in or is about the same in length. The rat cage I own is much like this however I think mine is a bit larger and has a different opening and closing mechanism. Once you have a good cage the expense of owning a rat is much less then that of a cat, dog, or reptile. Take your time when picking out your rats. Spend time at the store petting all of them if they happily sit on your shoulders for a long time it's a good sign. Also make sure they play well together. Be aware that in a new home there will be some fighting over dominance and space in the new cage. They are also vocal when grooming so they are not always fighting when you hear squeeking. I hope if you were looking into getting a pet that this gave you some ideas. If you have any further questions please comment this post. 

Photo Dump (Self)

Hello!

Just a photo dump of some of the crazy things I do when I am bored.

Enjoy...

New Babies... Cookies and Cream! + Photo Dump

Hello.
I want everyone to say hi to the newest members of my family. 
Cookies and Cream are a new rat pair and they are super cute as you can see. If you didn't already get it by the names Cookies is the black rat and Cream is the white rat. I will post a few photos of the both of them here for you.

I want to show of this photo my mom took because I <3 it.

Let's Review... Luigi Ortega's!

Hello everyone.

This morning I went to buy a lipstick I had my eyes on for quite some time. Film Noir! It's a chocolate brown with a red base. I rather love this colour it makes me feel powerful and good about myself. Christine at my local M.A.C did my eyes a dark dramatic eye. (She told me I was not allowed to wear them both together but the goth 12 year old in me insisted I at least do it for a photo.) :P Sorry Christine.

Then I went with my mom out to lunch at a place I had never been before called Luigi Ortega's. They have so much to pick from and it all looked good! They even have some exotic meats for the adventurous eater. The mini pizza seemed very popular. I got the appetizer "Elephant Garlic Shrimp". My mom got the spaghetti lunch special. The shrimp was really good!! We got an Asian salad to go for later. The sauce for the salad is a thick almost syrup like orange and ginger flavoured sauce. I took some photos of the extra shrimp I brought home.

Day 2 of the review

I looked over the website to do some extra research for this post and I discovered something super awesome. THEY DELIVER! I decided I would order something else off the menu just to have one more thing to review. For lunch today we got the lunch special spaghetti it comes with 2 meat balls and a coke. The sauce they have is lovely; it has great flavour and lots of body to it. The meat balls are baseball sized piles of goodness. We also got a BBQ chicken pizza which was yummy but I'm not an onion fan! If you like onion and BBQ chicken this is the pizza for you. The pizza box is super cute! The place is covered in cartoons of the two chefs Luigi & Ortega. They have tons of TV screens that play all kinds of sports as well as cartoons, news, and court shows pretty much anything you like.

I took a bunch of proper photos on day 2 of my review so I hope you all enjoy them.

Talk to you all soon.

Enjoy!

Elephant Garlic Shrimp

Well... It's been interesting. + Reviews

In a post before I told you about a new job I got.

Well, I got screwed and treated with total disrespect and that's really as far as I'm going to go into that. I don't want to badmouth people. Moving on with life! My plan is to try to get the job I wanted in the first place. I will keep applying till I get it. :D

My camera broke so I haven't been able to do photos of any of my new recipes but I think I have that fixed so watch out here I come with new reviews of lots of new and awesome places, food, people and items! 

It's been a month of discovery and re-discovery.

Today I want to talk to you about one of the discoveries and one re-discovery I made recently.

Let's start with the re-discovery.

El Pollo Loco had fish tacos for awhile igniting my love for them. Sadly it was a limited time offer so when they vanished I was very sad. My mom went to dinner with a friend and brought back a fish taco from a Mexican joint we go to a fair amount called Paco's. Every fish taco I had up till this point was a fried fish fillet with baja sauce and either cabbage or lettuce shredded in. This is what I expect to see on my plate when I order a fish taco. This was not what I saw when I looked at this fish taco from Paco's. At fist all I saw was shredded cabbage and this yummy looking creamy sauce. (Spare me the cream sauce on the fish taco jokes guys!) :3 I was starving so I dove right into this thing. The sauce is amazing; the fish is not breaded but seared in a spicy blend of seasoning. It Was Heaven! Oh my goodness. I was obsessed for like 2 weeks I had 2 of them almost every day.  It's a ways away to get there so we don't go there every day all the time. If you find yourself in the Pasadena/Arcadia area PLEASE check this place out. They also have a shrimp enchilada which my mom and my uncle love as well as many other dishes. Chips are perfect, good salsa and a "Manager's special" Margarita. It's the same as the standard margarita but they upgrade you to the good stuff for no extra charge when you mention the manager's special. It's not a huge place; the parking lot is pretty small. It's lovely inside and they do have outdoor seating for people who prefer to be outdoors. 

Now to the discovery!

Carmela Creamery is a new store in the area I think it popped up while I was in New Zealand. Every time we passed this place it was slammed full of people so I figured it was a sign of good things. I decided to stop there yesterday and I was shocked. It's a special creamery. They make very cool and different flavours. Lavender Honey, Mint & Cacao Nibs, Strawberry Buttermilk, Watermelon Mint and Salted caramel just to name a few! I tasted the Mint & Cacao nibs. It tastes like fresh mint leaves. It's real folks no green Ice Cream with chocolate chips here. The cacao nibs are crunchy and a bit bitter but it works wonderfully with the mint ice cream. MUST TRY! I have every intention of going back and getting one of their ice cream sandwiches. They have two cookie flavours for the sandwiches, Dark Chocolate and Chocolate Chip. I can't wait! They also serve cupcakes from a place called "Blue Cupcake" which I will update you on when I try one! I was waiting in line and listening to the people talk about the flavours. Now when you take a kid to a place like this they would go EW at the flavours. That doesn't seem to be the case here. Teens and small children alike seemed to love the new and complex flavours this place has to offer. If you are in Pasadena check them out! If not check out the website and pass it on.


More to come soon, 
Ginn