Author Archives: Administrator

Father’s Day

Leave a reply

Had a busy Father’s Day with going out to see my parents and having early lunch at Koi Garden then later in the evening, having a BBQ at Ron’s parents’ house in Millbrae.

After lunch, I headed over to my parents house to hang out for a while and my dad just happened to decide to give their dog Happy a bath.

She’s a little timid at first but once you get her wet, she seems to really enjoy the scrubbing (she probably just really likes the attention).

All sudsy.

Getting a good rinse.

Looking for a place to dry off.

If you’re not going to dry me off, I’m going to dry off myself.

Ahhh…

All clean and smelling like apples.

We decided to buy our dads the cheesecakes from Zanze’s so for my dad, the mocha flavored.

Yummy and I loved the chocolate on top. For Ron’s dad we got the Kirsch cherries cheesecake but the Kirsch was a bit strong for all of us.

Zanze’s is closing for 3 weeks, starting June 28th (I think) since they’re going on vacation, so better get your cheesecake fix now or else you’ll have to wait until the end of July.

Happy Father’s Day!

Zanze’s
2405 Ocean Avenue

IHOP, Tal-y-Tara, Kushi Tsuru & Joyce’s Visit

Leave a reply

A relaxing and beautiful San Francisco day. Ron & I started out early in the morning with breakfast at IHOP. We had a very filling breakfast.

I ordered the strawberry stuffed French toast combination with bacon, eggs, and hash. The filling was a bit like a Toaster Strudel that you can toast at home and it wasn’t really like French toast, more like a donut, but not bad overall. I love bacon and eggs over-easy.

Ron ordered the Colorado omelette with a side of Butterscotch Rocks pancakes. The Colorado omlette has bacon, pork sausage, shredded beef, ham, onions, green peppers, and cheddar cheese. It’s supposed to be served with salsa but I just realized they probably forgot.

Later in the afternoon, I had tea at Tal-y-Tara Tea & Polo Shoppe. Joyce is visiting from Singapore and we needed to catch up! Lisa & Patsy came to join in the fun.

The front of the shoppe sells things for horse riding including saddles and clothing. We were seated right away and had a few moments to look at the menu. We were seated inside but they do have a small patio in the back which would have been nice if it wasn’t so windy, great for a small party.

We decided to order the Classic Motorloaf which is a variety of tea sandwiches that include cream cheese and cucumber, egg salad and capers, cheese and chutney, smoked turkey and watercress, black forest ham with mustard, and lox, cream cheese and capers. The center of the bread is cut out and made into sandwiches then put back into the bread. The bread was a little sweet and nutty.

We also ordered the motorload bread with fruit and cheese, served with cream cheese and chutney.

We ordered two types of tea, each of these large pots serve two. The tea pot cozies were really cute. We tried the English Breakfast and Rhumba Rooibos Chai. I liked the spiciness of the Chai.

After the sandwiches, we tried their blueberry scones and the crumpet. The blueberry scones were served with blueberry preserves and cream cheese. The scones were a bit bready for my taste.

The crumpet came out nice and toasty but I still don’t really care for it much.

I was surprisingly full and was ready for a nap but ended up going to buy Misu some new cat food and some groceries. I hope he’ll eat the chicken wet food.

Ron and I then met up with Joyce for dinner in Japantown. We ended up at Kushi Tsuru.

We ordered the Pink Lady roll, agedashi tofu, the large sashimi plate, and tempura appetizer. Plus I ordered the katsu-don and Joyce had the oyako-don.

I would say the sashimi was good while eating but left a strange aftertaste. It was probably the squid with shiso that left the aftertaste rather than the fish. Overall the rest was pretty standard and this restaurant is a bit cheaper than the rest in Japantown. Too bad they don’t have ramen, only soba and udon.

So it’s been a full day of eating and it was good to catch up with Joyce, I’m hoping we can go to Singapore to visit soon!

IHOP
2398 Junipero Sterra Blvd
Daly City, CA

Tal-y-Tara Tea & Polo Shoppe
6439 California Street

Kushi Tsuru
1737 Post St (in Japantown)

Hepatic Lipidosis – Tiramisu

Leave a reply

http://maxshouse.com/Feline_Hepatic_Lipidosis.htm

My “favorite” cat Misu has been diagnosed with feline hepatic lipidosis (fatty liver).

A month ago, he weighed in at 13 lbs. He slowly but suddenly started to lose weight. After we returned from Hawaii, he looked visibly skinnier and when you rub his back, you can feel his spine and hip bones. In the beginning I thought it was just the diet food we were feeding him so we switched to their previous food and he was eating a bit more. But on observing him for a few days, he didn’t really eat or drink that much water and all he wanted to do was sit on your lap and be petted and/or sleep.

I had a nightmare about Misu so Ron took him to the emergency vet hospital the next morning. Upon their examination, they wanted him to stay overnight for fluids and to start tube feeds. They had performed quite a few tests, like blood work, an ultrasound, and a liver aspiration. The doctor was worried because he looked jaundiced (you look inside his ear which we didn’t realize) and he weighed in at only 8.8 lbs

So Ron checked him into the hospital. He started at the San Francisco SPCA but there they said they send out to San Francisco Veterinary Specialists so Ron decided to take Misu there instead. SPCA diagnosis would’ve taken 48-72 hours. SFVS said 24-48 hours.

SFVS treats your animal like a real patient with visiting hours and discharge teaching. You can always call them and they always try to answer your questions. If there’s something they cannot answer right away, they promise to get back to you ASAP. I’m waiting for them to send us Misu’s blood and cytology results so we’ll see if they follow through.

So on the first night, we visited Misu around 8:30pm but we could only visit for about 15 minutes since he was getting IV fluids. Poor guy had gone under sedation for a nasogastric (NG) tube placement and his liver aspiration. The blue bandage is where his IV is in place, he really didn’t want to move that arm. The cone is around his head to prevent him from scratching at the NG tube.

It was sad to leave him there but he was in capable hands. He was to start tube feed that evening to see how well he would tolerate it.

Thank goodness he was able to tolerate the feeds well and it didn’t look like he had anything additionally wrong with him besides the hepatic lipidosis so the veterinarian said he could come home. I went to get tube feeding training and discharge medications and instructions. Cats get the same drugs as humans:

1. Famotidine 5mg NG Q12hrs x 10 days
2. Metoclopramide 1mg/ml NG TID
3. Cyproheptadine 2mg NG BID to stimulate appetite for 3-4 days, discontinue if not working

We also had instructions for the tube feed titration, starting at 30 ml per feeding on the first evening, increasing to 40 ml per feeding on the 2nd day, to the goal of 50 ml per feeding on the 3rd day. He’s fed 4 times a day and should be encouraged to eat regular cat food if interested.

It’s been quite the experience learning how to do this but Misu is worth it. I think Misu was glad to get home on the first night as he was exploring home until settling down after a meal.

He has a green bandage where his IV used to be.

Taking his nap and trying to find a comfortable position in his familiar chair:

Poor guy has trouble sleeping with the cone around his neck but we can’t take it off or else he might yank out his NG tube.

Ron & I giving Misu his nutrition. He’s very good with it, he usually will just sit and let you feed him. If he feels uncomfortable, we stop and he walks it off usually. This was our first attempt when we brought him home… I was a bit sad (and scared he wouldn’t be take it well but he was a trooper).

He’s at his goal amount of food but still not taking much through mouth yet. His food is Feline/Canine Clinicare Liquid Diet for now but Ron did buy a bunch of soft cat food to see if he’d be interested but so far not really. The first day, he loved to eat these Feline Greenies I got at Pet Food Express but hasn’t been interested today. He perked up when I was eating a chicken sandwich and was excited when I gave him a small bite so he seems to really like chicken. Ron bought mostly seafood soft cat food so I’m going to try to buy some chicken soft cat food tomorrow to see if he’ll be more interested.

Will update more as he heals. I feel guilty for not taking him to the vet sooner, I didn’t think it’d be something as serious as this. I hope we brought him in soon enough so that he can still recover. If you love cats, please keep him in your thoughts.

San Francisco Veterinary Specialists
600 Alabama St

Shecky’s Girls Night Out

Leave a reply

http://girlsnightout.shec…ult.asp?rf=home

Tonight went to hang out with the girls at this event called Shecky’s Girls Night Out which was at Fort Mason’s Herbst Pavilion. For a $15 ticket (discounted from $35), you get a free goodie bag at the event. I bought tickets last month so have been looking forward to seeing what goodies were in the bag. Otherwise, admission is free with registration.

Upon showing your ID at the door, you sign in at the registration table and get your ticket for the free goodie bag. You get a wristband that you have to wear throughout the event. We headed first for their beverages, good thing we did because shortly after, the lines started to form.

We took this pic but honestly did not drink them all. The pink one is something called X Rated Fusion which was actually pretty good, a mix of vodka, blood oranges, mango & passion fruit flavors. The green one was a midori margarita and too strong for us to drink. They also served beer and had a tasting of Budweiser Chelada, Budweiser + Clamato. If you like a bloody mary, then you might like this, it tastes like tomato soup!

I didn’t end up buying anything at the event but there were a lot of nice jewelry booths, just didn’t find something I thought was worth the cost. I did pick up my goodie bag which included random things: M&Ms, Luna Bar, free romance novel, toothpaste, tampons, microwave brownies, aspirin + caffeine pills for headache, etc. Very random and not sure it was worth the $15… but maybe something in it will come in handy… we’ll see.

Afterwards, we went to dinner at Doobu in Japantown. I think I’ve been there like five times already, it was perfect for the windy chilly night.

Had the fried tofu salad. Nice light vinegar-like dressing but only tastes good once fresh or else the breading for the tofu gets soggy.

Bulgolgi.. steaming hot.

Combination soon tofu.

We ended up chatting until the restaurant closed. Tiffany is moving to Lancaster in a few weeks to be with her hubby so it’ll be one of the last times we’ll get to hang out in SF while she’s still here. She’s offering me some of her stuff so that she won’t have to drive it down there and so we can stock up our apartment with missing things (like a toaster oven!). We were also giving Kat wedding tips for her upcoming wedding early next year.

It was a good evening with good friends.

Domino’s Pizza

Leave a reply

http://www.dominos.com/home/index.jsp

Too tired to go out or to cook so we ordered pizza. Been eating badly since we’ve come back from Hawaii… need to stock the refrigerator.

We ordered Domino’s large Philly Cheese Steak American Legends pizza along with the Chicken Carbonara Breadbowl Pasta.

This is the pizza with the Brooklyn crust, thin but chewy. Pizza was very creamy.

The pasta breadbowl. Also very creamy… a bit of a strange concept but would be good with a tomato sauce for the bread bowl.

Domino’s has this Facebook pizza delivery tracker app which says your order will arrive in 30 minutes. Not the case. After 45 minutes had passed without our pizza, we called and the customer service said “the 30 minutes is only an estimate”… so where the heck is our pizza? It happened to be delivered 10 minutes after that. What a useless Facebook app.