Happy Chinese New Year!!

Happy Chinese New Year all! Here's a quick album of the pictures we took at the CNY buffet at Salsa's on Sunday. For the uninitiated (out of town people), yes Salsa's is a Mexican place, but they are owned by Malaysians, so they had a special thing for CNY!!! Without further ado...

Benji & the dentist

Brought Benji to the dentist to get his teeth cleaned yesterday. Day started off quite normally for him actually, except that instead of staying home, YS bundled him off into the Beetle and dropped him off at the Vet. He must have figured out by now everything time we leave him at that "evil" place, nothing really good happens to him. So the procedure is to have him sedated, and while he is out cold, to clean his teeth of tartar, check for damage, etc .. Just like a human patient, except of the "out-cold" part of course.

Poor boy. They called us a few hours later, letting us know that Benji had to lose a tooth cos it was too decayed to save! So, while he was out, they yanked it out too. The last thing he probably remembered was probably an image of someone knocking him out... then waking up really groggy with a sore mouth! We picked him up after work, and he's been adjusting really well at home so far... We think its a sign for us to be more dilligent at brushing him in the future so that he doesn't lose any more teeth!!

Benji needs a chiropractor

Brought Benj to the Vet yesterday. For the past few days he couldn't turn his neck left very well at all! Did a few experiments to make sure that he wasn't faking it to get attention... So YS picked him up like a little baby, and I moved some treats around his face. He could turn right without any issue (frighteningly like an owl!), but when he tried going left, only his eyeballs moved to follow the treat! Then we put him down, and he basically moved his entire BODY to follow it! (Amusing and poor-thing at the same time!)

Dropped him off at 8am, and the doctor called at about 4pm saying that Benji needed to be sedated to be given an x-ray!!! If you are wondering how much does it cost for an x-ray for doggie, it's not cheap!! Now we were worried... We didn't receive any update at all (frustrating!!) from the vet by 5:30pm, so left work and drove by the vet. Was told to wait some more, so passed time (BTW, time passes really slow when you're worried sick) walking around in Target. Got back at 7pm, and wait somemore in the clinic, and doctor gave us the news... Turns out the x-rays show on of the disc's in his neck is being compressed, probably by inflamation in one of the vertibrae... prognosis = not serious!!! (YIPPEEE!!!). 10-12 days of painkillers and no strenous activity should fix him right up.

Lots of relief, and a big hole in our wallet, we rode home with Benji sitting on YS's lap getting lots of hugs and kisses. Benji was happily stumbling around the house once again. Stumbling cos his sedative hadn't wore off yet! Pretty hilarous to see him staggering around the house like someone that had a few too many tequilla shots! Joking aside, we're hoping he recovers really soon. Our Malaysian vacation is coming up soon, and we hate to see him not 100% before we leave.. :( Until he gets better at least, he's going to be carried up and down the stairs, no teeth brushing, and most probably a LOT more treats.... :P He is looking forward to seeing his favorite aunties and uncles and lots of treats and love from them.

Day 27: The mystery of the missing blue cloth??!!

The Abominable Snowman, The Loch Ness Monster, etc. Among these storied mysteries of our lifetime emerges a brand new one! This is the story of the mysterious missing blue-cloth in our kitchen. Rising from its humble beginnings of wiping up table remains to the mystery that confounded us for a whole 2 weeks!



It all started pretty innocently enough. To the uninitiated, the blue-cloth mentioned is the reusable type that we usually use to wipe up table scraps, and clean kitchen surfaces. Then we will do a quick rinse wash in the sink, and leave it to dry on the countertop.

Beginning about one and half weeks ago, we lost our first blue cloth. First we attributed it to regular wear and tear, that we probably misplaced it somewhere. So, easily enough, we moved on and tore out another piece from our roll in storage. We noticed something was fishy went we lost the second blue cloth a week later! Thinking that in our old age, we might be getting a little senile already, we tore our another one.

Three days later... GONE. And it happened when we were in the house. Losing two of them in a week seemed unusual. Three of them, and when we were home was downright SPOOKY. Now, if this happened in the first few weeks that we moved in the house, we would have been packing up our bags, and selling the spooked place!

Worse, we were getting concerned...because the disappearances were ESCALATING. The next cloth was gone in 1 hour. It was between the time we finished cooking and happened halfway thru dinner!! Now this is just too much! What self-respecting spirit/force just makes cloths disappear?!?!?!

1 More day later...THIS HAPPENED...
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.HA! Caught him in the act.
I took this picture a little early cos a few seconds later, he had almost half the cloth in his mouth already! At first, the look on his face was a combination of shock and guilt as he froze in place immediately. Then almost in a fluid motion, he spit out the offending item with a *Blawh*, and just casually decided to walk away from the crime scene!!! If dogs could whistle, and stroll, that's what it looked like!

So for the past few weeks, Mr Batman here has consumed enough fiber to wipe clear our entire kitchen floor! We're still clueless about why the cloth is so delicious to him, but one thing is for sure. HE LOVES them. We have been on a constant vigil for the last few days, making sure he doesn't stand on 2 feet and swipe some more of them.

Don't worry though. He is fine. The stuff came out the other end of his body about a day after he eats them!!

Benji's Resolutions & some Yoga

With a New Year, comes the obligatory "impossible-to-keep" resolutions...
One of Benji's resolutions is to "steal less food". His latest achievement was when he had a fiesta with our leftover Turkey this last Thanksgiving! Tuesday was our first day back to work, so understandably, both of us stumbled wearily out of the house, dumping our bags into the car and driving off.

And......we forgot the Beef Roast Sandwich I made for YS's breakfast!


Picture Benj taking time to pondering the consequences of ripping open the sandwich bag and gulping down the contents... Fighting to withstand melodic possession of the juicy roast in his little tummy against the knowledge that it goes against all that is right... Staring at the tasty morsel of delight, while licking his lips, fighting to hold back this shivering paws...

YEAH RIGHT!
By the time we got to work, and looked at the webcam, he was happily curled up on his favorite after dinner chair, dreaming of swimming in another sea of bones... Oh well, we can safely cross off "steal-less-food" this year for him...

BTW, Binx must have had some holiday guilt as well...Last night he decided to do some yoga for our entertainment! Here is a shot of him in his patented "warrior-dog-lying-down" position... ;)