Clara Gets the Snip Snip

Today is Clara's appointment to get spayed, a procedure to which Ben is vehemently opposed ("Can't we let her have just one or two puppies?") In an effort to keep costs down, we made her appointment at a veterinary hospital in Fort Mill, SC whose spay/neuter services were recommended by our dog trainer and which costs about 1/3 the price our regular vet charges.

Saving money sounded like a fine plan until I realized that Clara needed to be in Fort Mill by 8am this morning, which as I discovered is an hour and a half round trip in morning rush hour traffic even though I was going against the flow of traffic for the trip down, and during the trip back the traffic had cleared considerably.

This early morning commute was also complicated by the fact that I needed to bring Rebecca and the baby with me. Clara, who hates car rides, was actually reasonably well behaved and only whined for the first 10 or 15 minutes of the trip before falling into a defeated silence. Caroline also was behaved, taking advantage of the car ride to continue her morning snooze.

Rebecca spent the entire time talking a blue streak about a wide variety of subjects, including a (non-existant) planned trip to Disneyland, and the fact that the Syrians need to "learn how to be mensches" so that they will stop fighting each other. (We had NPR on). Sound advice that I don't think they'll be taking anytime soon. When she finally seemed to have run out of things to talk about, she just yelled "Echo! Echo!" repeatedly.

I have to pick Clara up later this afternoon, which I hope to accomplish without quite the entourage that this morning's trip necessitated. A further update, if any is needed, later ;)