Other recent excitement includes the following:

-- Falling down the steps and bruising the be-jesus out of my left bum-cheek. Because I am graceful like that. This happened yesterday, as well. I was carrying a couple of folding chairs in order to put them in the car, and somehow managed to slip: before I knew it, the chairs and I went flying. Fortunately, I managed to avoid hitting my head, but I've got the most interesting bruise on my rear-end! The sad part is, I couldn't even blame it on my MS: I am walking just fine these days - it was just me being clumbsy. (Guess I should have let Mr. Norris carry the chairs when he offered... Sigh.)

--The search for a new neurologist has commenced. Unfortunately, I can't just make appointments and go visit neurologists willy-nilly. I found a couple doctors at another MS clinic in town and when I called up to make appointments with them I was told I had to be referred from another neurologist or my primary care physician. So I got on the horn with my PCP's "referral coordinator" (remember this fiasco?) who promised to fax over my records. She called me back on Friday to tell me she'd done so, so now I just have to carve out 10 minutes at some point this week to call over there and make the appointment. (Easier said than done, sadly, but I've got it on my list of things to do.) I'm hoping this new guy has a bit better bedside manner and his staff is a bit easier to work with. (Hell, I'd settle for mediocre after the experience with the Hateful Shrew.)

-- Along with the falling-down-the-stairs incident, the previous week I ran into the driver's side view mirror on my car on my way into the house from taking out the garbage. (Again, graceful!) When I went to drive somewhere a day or two later I noticed that the mirror was cracked. GREAT! So I'm procrastinating on calling my mechanic and asking what I need to do about it. The part, even used from a wrecking yard, looks to cost around $100... Grr...

-- When my friend L came over to visit with her little boy a couple weeks ago, she brought with her these little toy cars to entertain him. In the course of playing with them with her son, it became abundantly clear that Rennie thought these were the greatest toys ever created for dogs. One of us would rev the car up and send it flying across the room, and she'd go bounding after it, barking and trying to pick it up. (She especially liked the taxicab.) It was about the most hilarious thing I've ever seen her do, especially when picking up said car involved trying to stop with it on the hardwoods: more than once she ended up flipping herself over with it.

I'd told Mr. Norris about how funny this was and that I was hoping to get a set of the cars for Rennie to play with. On Saturday, when he came by, he brought with him a remote-controlled car he'd found on deep discount at a local Fred Meyer. Although it required some disassembly to even get the batteries in and a bit of tweaking to get the thing to work, eventually he had Rennie running all over the place chasing and barking at the thing.

For your amusement: