Found this on Flickr and had to post it.

It's called "Wasteland" and for some reason I love it.

Update on Cocoa

The owner of the dog we sent to the Humane Society called the news who called us looking for a story. We didn't tell them anything, but we did get the dog back. If you see a story on the news about an evil vet who euthanizes dogs who aren't paid for, don't believe it!

P.S. Doc thinks the call from the news was fake, that the owner made somebody do it to scare us. I dunno...

The Life of a Vet Receptionist

There's been some crazy stuff going on lately. Thought I'd share.

Where to start. Some guy brought a dog named Cocoa in like a month ago to get treated for something. We wouldn't treat her until he paid the $300 he owed from the last time we treated her, so he just wanted to take her. But we wouldn't let her go until he paid it. So we sent him letter after letter and phone call after phone call for like 4 weeks. He called us a couple of times and said "I'll go ahead and take Cocoa and then come in and pay next week" and we were like no you won't. So finally after not hearing from him we sent the dog to the humane society. Literally the day later (yesterday) he called again trying to get the dog and pay later, so we told him Cocoa was gone. But we're not saying where. So he told me he's going to "whoop my ass" if I don't tell him where his dog is. So I made him talk to the office manager. Then he told Johnathan that he was going to whoop "all our asses" and then take us to court if we didn't get his dog back. Must be tough to pay lawyer bills when you can't pay for your own dog. We'll see how that one goes.

I saw my first rectal prolapse the other day. Look it up. It made my butt hurt. It made me scared to poop.

Then there's Sable. Sable's an insane little black cat that has some kind of tail fixation. She keeps chewing up her tail. It got so bad that we had to chop part of it off. But she kept doing it. So we ended up just lopping off the whole tail. If you've never seen a cat tail without a cat attached to it, lemme tell you it's pretty strange. Looks like a big fuzzy noodle. Anyways that was going well and we sent her home and the next day we got a call. She had chewed up her stump. How do you chew a stump? I don't know. She pulled it off. She's back at the vet with a stump with stitches and one of those big cone collars. And she's really annoyed.

Then there's this couple with a dog who's leg is swollen. But Doc can't find anything wrong with it. It's not painful or an infection or a problem with bone abnormalities. So we try to refer them to Upstate who has the equipment to do all the crazy tests that need to be done, but the owner gets mad because they spent all that money and didn't learn anything.

Hard knock life. Don't get pets if you won't pay for them. Butthole. Rawr.

Ok bye.

Rambling.

Well Nancy is working until 8:00 PM three days a week so I get this weird little awkward hour and a half to myself that's not really long enough to do anything but not short enough to just sit around. So here's my list of things I'm hoping to get done in this awkward hour and a half:

• Take mindblowing pictures of everyday crap.
• Take mindblowing pictures of mindblowing crap.
• Post on my blog (looks like I've already accomplished that one).
• Write a new bad song. Possibly even worse than the last one. We'll see.
• Clean my car.
• Get Tuna new toys cause she keeps tearing up her old ones. Like her duck friend.
• Go eat sushi with my parents.
• Go see my sister's pup.
• Move Nancy's mom's old coffee table into our apartment.

Pure excitement my life is.

My friend Steven's Grandpa has just had a couple valve replacement surgeries. Steven's been staying with him in the hospital. So be thinking about them both.

That's all for now.

Two Things...

Number one...just kidding. There is no number one.

Number two...HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARAH

Three Cheers for Nancy

Nancy worked 9 to 5 yesterday (her first real day of work at Ivy where the computers weren't screwing up). Although she's supposedly just a receptionist, she brought in clients from the street, did some makeovers, and sold over 400 bucks worth of stuff. Love that commission.

I know you're jealous. So am I.

Something really strange happened today.

At work. Phone rings.

Me : It's a great day at Wade Hampton, how can I help you?
Mr. Strange : It is a great day.
Me : Yes it is. (awkward pause) What can I do for you?
Mr. Strange : Is this the veterinary clinic?
Me : Yep that's us.
Mr. Strange : Vaccinations.
Me : ... do you need some?
Mr. Strange : Not me, my dog. Do you have any for me?
Me : No sir, we only carry animal vaccinations. What do you need?
Mr. Strange : It depends on what you can give me.
Me : [annoyed] What do you need sir.
Mr. Strange : Vaccinations.
Me : [rattles off the prices of all the dog and cat vaccinations before he can say anything else]
Mr. Strange : I'm sorry I wasn't listening can you repeat those young man?
Me : [puts weirdo on hold for 5 minues hoping he'll hang up which he never does and then rattles off vaccinations again.
Mr. Strange : But what about me?
Me : What about you?
Mr. Strange : Will the shots hurt me?
Me : [really annoyed] Are you joking?
Mr. Strange : I'm sorry what?
Me : No the shots won't hurt you since you won't be getting any. Anything else?
Mr. Strange : Can I buy the shots and give them myself.
Me : Yes but you'll pay the same price.
Mr. Strange : Where can I get them cheap?
Me : I don't know sir, check the phone book.
Mr. Strange : I know you know, just tell me before I have to report you.
Me : I honestly don't know any better than you do.
Mr. Strange : Fine. What would I look under in the yellow pages?
Me : Again, I'm not sure. Sorry about that.
Mr. Strange : Look, you're not getting my business. Get over it. Help me out. Quit trying to get me to come to you.
Me : [about to lose my job] I really do not know. Good luck! [start to hang up]
Mr. Strange : What's your name?
Me : Mike. What's yours?
Mr. Strange : Mike, tell me where to look. Now.
Me : In the phone book.
Mr. Strange : Mike. Mike. Mike that's not funny. Mike?
Me : Yes sir.
Mr. Strange : [starts going through the phone book calling out random yellow page sections asking if it would be there in a really annoyed voice]
Me : [puts crazy man on hold another 5 minutes which doesn't do any good]
Mr. Strange : Still not finding it Mike.
Me : [lies and tells him that another vet clinic will give it to him cheap and gives him that number]
Mr. Strange : I knew you could do it Mike. You're a good man Mike. Goodbye Mike.

2 minutes later. Phone rings.

Me : It's a great day at Wade Hampton, how can I help you?
Mr. Strange : You lied to me Mike. I'm heading there. I want the shots at half price for your lie.
Me : I'm not allowed to do that sir. I was under the impression that the other clinic had them cheaper than we... [cut off by wacko]
Mr. Strange : See you in a second Mike. Half price. [hangs up]

I freak out. I tell everyone working that if a crazy man walks in and wants vaccinations half price then we can't do that, and whatever you do don't lie to him.

Literally 3 hours. I think I'm off the hook. A guy walks in.

Mr. Strange : Are you Mike?
Me : Yes can I help you?
Mr. Strange : You had better help me. Liar.
Me : [Walk quickly to the back and about pee my pants] Steven you have to go talk to this guy for me, he hates me!
Steven : [laughs] Alright Mike.

I stay in the back. A couple seconds later Steven screams. I run up front. Steven's in a headlock and Mr. Strange is repeatedly asking him how much vaccinations cost in a really creepy calm voice.

Steven : [choking] normal price! normal price!
Me : HALF PRICE!
Mr. Strange : [lets Steven go] There ya go liar. Didn't want to have to use this [pulls out a little knife and stabs it into the wall]
Steven : Hey I found five bucks!

Just kidding. Pretty normal day today.

I'm obviously reeeeally bored, but now Nancy's about to get off work, so I'll see you ladies laterrrrr.

Weird Reflective Art

MORE UH DEM!

Peaches the Horse

Took like 50 pictures of this dang horse and only got one good one.

Erin & Steve's Baby Emma

Really cool shadow sculptures

They're all pretty crazy.

Look what my new camera can do.

My First Legal Beer

My Birfthey

Oh man, so much to tell. We'll start with Sunday.

Both my and my dad's birthdays are this week, but he has to be in Germany all week, so we were planning on hanging out on Sunday before he had to leave. He picked me up, we at breakfast at MacDonald's (oh yes) and went to see Hostel 2 (oh no). Then on the way back, we stopped by the house and as I was walking in, BAM everybody jumps out and scares the crap out of me and yells SURPRISE! Everybody was there...my family, Nancy's family (including her Grandma which was awesome) people from work, even Amy's dog Vanyel (my best friend). It was crazy.

The cool part is realizing how much lying had to go into that to make it work. My dad told me the garage door was broken so we had to go in through the front. Jen told me we should do something on my actual birthday with their family since we "didn't have anything else planned." Mmhmm. Sure. I was planning on hanging out with Steven on Sunday, so when we told him I was hanging out with my dad, he's all like "oh that's ok, no problem" when he's really thinking "I hope he buys this." I had absolutely no idea. It was great. Nancy, Jen, and my mom, the masterminds behind it, really know their stuff. I always wondered how it would feel to have everyone pop out and surprise you like that. Now I know..it's not scary or anything like that. It's just really happy and exciting.

I had thought I wouldn't be opening presents until next Sunday (another lie) so since I got them last Sunday, I took my camera out yesterday and took pictures at Furman (a few are at www.flickr.com/photos/mcrittenden). I love it.

And today's the big day. The plan is to eat lunch with my mom and Nancy, work, eat a quick dinner at Nancy's grandma's house, and then hang out with my mom and Nancy (I dunno what we're gonna be doing, but it will have to be something that you can take good pictures of).

As for drinking, who knows.

My dad emailed us from Germany. He said they're eating like pigs but sleeping like insomniacs. He said they're around a lot of farmland and old looking German architecture. I wanna go someday.

That's it for now. Except for this guy who takes a pencil and makes coolness.

More here.

Whatup homies

Man it feels good to be out of school. I'm working out every day...so next time you see me you can ask if I've been working out. And I'll say "why yes thank you for noticing." And then I'll complain about how sore my butt is.

Check out this new hotness.

You like that don't you. Mmhmm.

Nancy's rocking out right next to me to the Dreamgirls soundtrack.

Steven might be getting a condo right down the road from us. He's not getting his hopes up but we already have. So he better get it.

I'm trying desperately to think of something else to ramble about but that's about it. Not being in school makes for an uneventful week. But I'm hungry...that's something. Seems like I'm always having to cut blog posts short because I get hungry. Do I eat more than other people? I have like a negative percent body fat so maybe my metabolism is like the Lance Armstrong of metabolisms. My metabolism is a terrific kid...has the bumper sticker and everything.

But I'm still hungry so I'm leaving. Cutting it short again.