Today was F.B.'s 32nd birthday and his first birthday celebration in the USA!

We went to Hibachi Grill & Supreme Buffet near Franklin Mills Mall in Philadelphia. It was the first time we went there. It used to be a computer store years ago. hehehe. But they have renovated everything and it's really pretty inside with chandeliers and stained glass and a fountain up front.

In the car:

F.B. getting ready to chow down, lol.

F.B. with his gifts from me: Star Wars Trilogy,Asher's Chocolates, Herr's Chips.

The Herr's Chips came in a Herr's Snack Truck box and there were 42 mini bags of chips. You could pick your flavors when you ordered. I ordered it from the Herr's website. :-)


For dessert we had cheesecake from Giant, that we shared with the family. Mmmm.

F.B. with his McDonald's gift cards from my family.

I made Swedish Meatballs last night with this recipe I found on Yahoo Shine.

They were AMAZING! I did alter the recipe a bit, we only had beef in the house. I added noodles. I added chopped onions & mushrooms to the sauce. And I added a splash of Worcestershire sauce, a tablespoon of brown sugar & a dash of rosemary to the meatballs and sauce. I also made the meatballs a bit larger so I cooked them for 30 minutes. But otherwise, I followed the recipe! The meatballs tasted like they had slow cooked for hours. Sooo good!

Since it's October 1st today I decided to put on the Sally Hansen Salon Effects in Spun For You. They are hard to find in stores so you might have better luck getting the Halloween designs on Ulta! (I just ordered 1 more of the spiderwebs & also the red/black design).


(And thanks Shannon for letting me know they had Halloween Designs out!)

I found the Coffee-Mate Pumpkin Spice creamers on Friday, so I broke one of those out today! (and froze the other.) Yum! It's definitely fall now! :-)

 

Honey got bit by Olive a few weeks ago. It turned into an abscess (which I've dealt with many abscesses over the years with my pet rats & never saw one like this). It started off marble sized, but did swell to quarter size. We were treating Honey with antibiotics (Baytril) and the abscess was drying up into a scab.

Monday when I got home from work, either her abscess had burst on it's own, or she chewed at the wound. She had a hole in her leg a little bigger than a quarter. It looked really really bad & it was really deep. She also kept licking and chewing at the wound, which was making it bleed worse.

Tuesday I called the vet at 9am, and we took Honey to the vet in the afternoon for an exam. Her abscess was badly infected and her chewing on it did not help the infection.

We had to leave Honey overnight at the vet for surgery so the vet could remove the infected tissue and stitch her up. He used metal sutures so she won't chew out her stitches. She also got a Baytril injection & will be on Cipro for 2 weeks. She has a check up next Wednesday evening.

She was doing really well when we picked her up, they had done the surgery late last night. She is pretty active, but will be staying in a smaller "hospital" cage while she heals up. She was boggling on the car ride home, I had the carrier on my lap and was petting her, while my husband was driving home.

Honey after surgery: (click to enlarge photo)


Thank God for Mastercard though... ugh... her surgery was a couple hundred dollars and since I just started back at work on the 12th, (after a 6 week furlough) I don't get my first paycheck until October 3rd. I didn't have enough in checking to cover her surgery. Like I've said many times before, people that think rats are just pocket pets or disposable pets... they require the same care as a cat or dog. And the vet prices are about the same.

(Blog Article: Why Rats!?) 

In other rattie news... Iris' tail has healed up from her infection & her back injury seems to be healed. But I don't think she will regain use in the lower part of her tail. She can move the base to about the middle. She's still pretty active though and doesn't seem to realize her tail is paralyzed.

And Violet moved in with my 5 girls downstairs in the Ferret Nation cage this past weekend. There was some wrestling & a bit of fighting. But she is all settled in now. She is about 3x's the size she was when we got her in August. She's not a little baby anymore. :-)


And just a quick update. You might have heard about the recent Typhoon in the Philippines. Manila was hit really hard, and the photos are just crazy to look at. Like the US Embassy! Places I've been... They are saying Manila has not been flooded like this in decades. My husband's family is okay and they did not get flooded, thank God! We were really worried, since there was a devastating typhoon & flood there just 2 years ago that did effect my husband's family.

Yesterday was the 1st day of fall, one of my favorite seasons. Unfortunately it did not feel like fall AT ALL. There was 94% humidity and it was sticky, humid and rainy. I'm very much over hot and humid weather. It's been an unusually HOT spring/summer this year. I'm ready for cooler weather, hoodies, jackets. Hot pumpkin spice latte's!

At least the stores are stocking with fall and halloween items already! Picked up some baby pumpkins yesterday at Giant Supermarket. I love baby pumpkins! I got 2 orange and 1 white one this year. For some reason though it turned into a real hassle during check out... it took 2 clerks & a manager (who all appeared annoyed) to ring up my 3 for $2 baby pumpkins?! Really?! Sheesh...

I use Retro Camera for Android

I also found one of the new seasonal creamers from Coffee-Mate! Brown Sugar Maple Latte. I had some this morning, it's good. I love maple syrup and it has that flavor.


Shannon posted on my Facebook the other day because she found Halloween Sally Hansen Salon Effects designs! They are too cool looking! She found hers at CVS, so I checked 2 CVS's on Friday. I got the skull ones & there was only 1 silver spiderweb one left! I had a $1 off coupon, but CVS must double coupons because I got $2.00 off my purchase and $5 in coupons for my next visit! (The clerk at CVS was checking out my nails too- hahaha. I had Sally Hansen Insta Dri: Lightning with OPI  black shatter over it. She had never seen the crackle polish in person!)

Photo Credit

So excited to wear them in October! If you haven't tried the Salon Effects- do try. They last 2-3 weeks without chipping! And when they do chip, they start chipping at the base of the nail, not the tip. They are awesome!