Tagged for 7

Though I was thinking that I should take advantage of the fact that our little puppy is not at my lap while I'm typing, I wasn't really planning on posting a meme. However, Chrissie tagged me so here I go - I figure I better do it quick, or it will be even more difficult to find people to tag that haven't already been tagged by others :-)

Apparently this meme is about 7 random things about myself with 5 rules to follow doing this:

1. You've got to link to the blog of the person who tagged you
2. You need to post these rules on your blog
3. You have to list seven random and/or weird facts about yourself
4. By the end of your post you have to tag 7 random people and include links to their posts (do I sense some sort of advertising purpose - i.e. spreading the word of the host of blogs available to dedicated readers and writers - of this meme? ;-))
   
5. You have to let the people you tag know that they have been tagged by posting a comment on their blog

Alright, rules set, and now Nemo made a jump into my lap - she seems to have a need to be tugged in - so I better get down to business:

1. I am not very good at prioritising my time for regular postings on my blog, hence my participation in NaBloPoMo is probably never going to happen :-)
2. I am now officially a PhD-student at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland - or so it seems, yet I cannot help wondering when new administrative and/or bureaucratic issues concerning this will show up whether from Scotland or from Denmark ;-)
3. Starting this Monday and 2 weeks ahead, Jimmi and I have no kitchen, which makes storing as well as cooking of decent food a challenge (did anyone say Nemo? :-))
4. I have a thing with high blood sugars! I don't like seeing high numbers on my meter, which sometimes makes me take actions that will get me into trouble later. I am trying hard to limit myself in this context, but it is hard
5. Yesterday I experienced my first bad site with a site change. I was a my parents because I had business to do in my hometown, and like I alway do I changed my infusion site in the morning. My fasting BG was 3.1 (56), and breakfast was a little lighter than usually, because I had plans to go visit my grandparents a couple of hours later, probably going to have a little something to eat there. When I got there I tested and found myself at 15.5 (279). I found that quite odd giving the low fasting value and light breakfast, so I did think about a possible bad site. However, I had just been to the dentist, and while I like my dentist very much (that is one of the reasons why I haven't found one here in Odense yet) and usually don't have any dental problems, I have a very hard time coping with the high-frequency spinning noice of her instruments used to remove the tartar. Therefore, I was also considering a possible stress-effect. I corrected the high, both with the pump and a small bolus by pen, just to be on the safe side, yet 90 min. later when I had just boarded the train back to Odense, I clocked in at 20.4 (367). I cannot remember the last time I saw a number like that, but it convinced me that something was not right with the new site. I don't usually remove my old site until I am sure that the new one is working, so I hooked back up to the old site and entered a bolus to "flush" it. I took a larger correction by pen, and by the time I reached Odense I could see that at least I wasn't rising anymore. I was 19.3 (347). After the bike ride home I felt quite exhaused and figured that it was probably the hours of ridiculously high sugars now taking effect, but it turned out that the corrections were now finally working and I was actually going low. Just an hour after being 19.3 I was 68! When I removed the bad infusion set I could see that the catheter was bend at a 90 degrees angel, so no wonder the insulin didn't seem to work!
6. I tend to have a rather messy workplace, both at home and in the lab. However, I usually know where to find the things I need, and so even if it might seem chaotic to other people, I am on top of it :-)
7. I need to take Nemo for her late night walk now, so I gotta stop now :-)

I tag Doris, Scott, Adjoa, Super G, Kathy, Sandra, and Aliya. I don't know if any of you have already been tagged, or if you want to take part, so don't feel obliged to do it :-)

The adventures of Nemo

This is just a short up-date to keep you posted on our adventures with Nemo (I still haven't found a way to transfer the pictures from my phone to the computer, and one of our friends has borrowed our digital camera for his awesome trip to some exotic island. Sorry!). Right now Nemo is pushing around behind me in the couch, battling one of Jimmi's socks, and I think that it is about time that I take her out for a walk :-)

Nemo is adjusting well to us and our home, and Jimmi and I are adjusting to her as well. She is very playful, but also very good at obeying our calls, so we have had her leash-free several times already without any problems. She has started to sleep in her basket after being very sad the first couple of nights, forcing Jimmi to get up and tuck her in on the couch (we don't want her in our bed). Now she will usually run around just as we are getting ready for bed, but then, once the ligths are off, she will settle down and go to sleep.

Jimmi is home with her most of the daytime and has taught her to sit on command today - whether it is still coincidental or not, I am not quite sure, but at least it worked when he wanted to show me :-)

We haven't started any specific training with her yet, but are planning on taking her to some puppy courses in the near future. Jimmi was very positive one morning, when I was low - when I'm low while sleeping I tend not to hear the alarm clock - because he was sure that Nemo could feel that something was not quite right. I bet she could, but I think it might just be due to Jimmi's reaction - at least I haven't noticed any change in her behaviour what so ever on times during the day, where I have treated lows myself :-)

On the Scotland front not much have happened since last week. I still haven't seen any money, so I think that if there is still no sign on them in my account tomorrow morning, I will write the lady, who said that the money transferred would be arranged Wednesday last week to hear if "arrange" was just another word for deferring thing further ;-) I think that I have been very patient so far, actually more than should be expected, so I think I am more than entitled to push for answers and not least my salary!

Now Nemo has fallen asleep on my lap, paws resting just besides the computer and her head between my arm and the table - puppies are so damn cute, and like Chrissie said in a comment this is probably the reason we put up with them despite their misbehaviour :-)

Found: Nemo

The title of this post is double-sided in references. I finally - or so I thought (see the next paragraph) - was registered at the Scottish university last week as I received the registration to sign as well as information about my e-mail account, user name and password for the different IT services. Nemo is the name of the exchange mail service at the university (the ability to check your university e-mails outside the university network).

Today, another chapter in the seemingly never-ending story of the registration hassle was written - in e-mails I received from my supervisor over there. I'm actually glad that at the time his first mail - a long correspondence between several department and registration employees - I was attending the biweekly group-meeting in our research group here in Odense, otherwise I think that I might have send a couple of upset mails to several of the people involved ;-) Here is what it was all about: We have applied for a fee waiver, which was approved with starting date August 1st this year and ending date July 31st 2010. However, in terms of the finance office at the university, the fee waiver is only valid for the study year 2007-08, i.e. from October 1st this year until June 2008, and so the waiver didn't cover August and September because I have only been registered as a student from October 1st. Sigh!! However, apparently things have now been worked out by them registering me for the 2006/07-session, applying only August and September of the current year. Bureaucracy!! From the last messages that I got today, it seems like they are now finally starting to arrange the transfer of my salary for August and September - October wasn't mentioned, I don't know what to think of that :-/

Back to Nemo. Nemo is the name of our new puppy that we got this weekend :-) On Saturday Jimmi received a call from a guy who had seen his announcement of our search for a puppy on the Internet. The guy had a dog with a litter of 4 puppies that they were looking to sell off. We went out to see them, and of course fell in love with one in particular. When we got home we discussed it a bit, but decided that to be totally sure, we would sleep on it. We decided to get the pup, and Jimmi got his father to take him to the little farm where the dogs lived. I thought it was a bit hasty to go get it on Sunday night, but Jimmi would rather do that than waiting to one of the weekdays where I probably wouldn't be home at the time he would get there with the puppy, and he didn't want to wait a whole week. The poor little puppy was a bit frightened by the car ride in the dark, though; it threw up all over Jimmi :-(

Now it has been a few days with the puppy in the house, and it seems like it is settling down nicely. The first couple of nights Jimmi had to get up to go the couch to sleep with it in his arms because it was crying for company, but last night we could both stay in bed. We don't want the dog to get use to our bed, which is why Jimmi got up to sleep with it on the couch instead. It is allowed to lye on the couch, although it is still not big enough to get up there by itself, even though it tries hard :-) The picture below is our pup, when we went to see it on Saturday. I have some pictures of it in our home, but they are on my mobile phone, and I haven't taken the time to transfer them to the computer yet.