The Mange

John's dad, Jane and Bill stopped by last night on their way up to Canada to deliver Bill to a small college in the great white north. They will be stopping by again on their way back down to South Carolina (without Bill, obviously.) We had a great time with them, and Becca was absolutely over the moon to have some more people to pay attention to her. And, I forgot to take a picture of all of them. I can hardly believe it. Little ol' me! Without the camera attached to my face. Someone call a doctor.

Actually, I could use a doctor right about now. My allergies have been at their all-time worst since moving to this blasted state. For three months straight I have been popping Claritin like they were popcorn kernels covered in parmesan and accompanied by a cold beer. But no. They are accompanied by "Throat Coat" hot tea in hopes that my protesting vocal chords will finally shut the the hell up about the post nasal drip. I know, vocal chords, believe me, now just suck it up and perform. Mmmmkay? I am currently sitting here unable to breathe out of either nostril, my "Ns" sound like "Ds" and unable to even hear the notes I am banging out on the keyboard in the basement, surrounded by piles of wet Kleenex and making awful snorting noises every two seconds.

Yes. My audition is less than a week away now. For those of you who asked, it is on Sept. 4 at 6:40 p.m. Eastern Time. So, I expect you all to to suck on a throat lozenge for me at that moment. Also, think of a high A for me. And two whole pages of high Gs because Beethoven was a complete asshole when he wrote the finale for his ninth symphony. And that's all I have to say about that.

Speaking of doctors--I was speaking of them before I went off on a tangent about singing and blah blah blah, I know y'all don't want the details but yet I cannot stop myself--we had to go to the vet today. Canyon, who is conspicuously absent on this blog, as my Aunt Kunky pointed out, has something repulsive on her face. Something red and green and weeping and huge and spreading. (Wow! This entry is really living up to the title and these sentences are just getting longer by the minute!)

We thought she had just rolled in dog shit, which she is wont to do, or if she is in Korea, to EAT some nasty shit (literally) that is spread in the rice fields. Oh yum. (And have fun trying to bathe her in your tiny apartment in Korea with no outside hose.) This might just be the best entry ever. This is why she is absent from most blog discussions. Anyway, we thought it was just something gross, as there was just some kind of stinky wet stuff matted to her hair. But, when the green appeared we grew a bit more alarmed. I can't bear to look at things like that, so I just whisked her off to the vet and said, "Fix this, please."

They clipped the hair off, told me it is just a "hot spot" (call me crazy, but doesn't the term spot suggest a rather small area? Not half the head and neck?), then rubbed something on it and then squirted something on it, and then gave her a shot and then charged me $134. Fine, I think, as I whip out my credit card. At least I didn't have to touch that nasty looking shit. Then, they tell me I have to do the rub, squirt routine three times a day. Ummmm. So, $134 does not include someone coming over here three times a day to deal with the flesh eating virus? How much more would that be?