On Saturday, my husband and I were in the mood for good Mexican food. We decided to go to downtown Salt Lake City to the Blue Iguana. It was delicious! The food is very inexpensive – I had Chile Verde, and my meal was about $10. My husband had the Mole Polleno, and it was also yummy, and ran about $10. Both meals included beans and rice, and it was way more than either of us could eat.

The Blue Iguana has a sister restaurant, the Red Iguana. I haven’t tried that one, but I hear it is just as delicious. The Red Iguana is actually the original restaurant, and the Blue Iguana was built after the success of Red.

The service was a bit slow at first, but once our orderes were taken, the food came out quickly. Also, they apologized for being so slow, and gave us free fried ice cream to make up for it. It was absolutely delicious! I would highly recommend going there.

Today I went back to the hospital for my third installment of five in my rabies injections series. It actaully hurt pretty bad because I didn’t take any painkillers before I went in. Needless to say, I took some when I got home. The injections haven’t been as bad as I was fearing – apparently, they usually have to inject them into the wound – but they didn’t need to for me. (The bite was on my hand, and the needle would have hit the bone, according to the nurses.) I ended up getting them in the side of my upper arm. (The first time, however, I had five injections into my shoulder muscle, and that hurt quite badly for a week.) It burned quite a bit, but I’m feeling better now. (Thanks to Lortab!)

This dog bite situation has made me really jumpy around animals. I’m a little bit nervous, which is frustrating because I really do love animals, but I guess this incident has just made me wary. Hopefully it will get better with time. I’m just glad that Honey Bunny is so sweet and loving.

To add to my jumpiness, we have had several mice in our house over the past few days. It has been over 100 degrees for the past couple of weeks, and I think the mice have been coming in to cool off. We caught two with the glue pads, and I cried on and off, pretty much all day yesterday. I didn’t want to kill the mice – it made me so sad, but I also didn’t want to get bit, or get any of the diseases they carry. Plus, they’ve been upsetting Honey Bunny. She’s been nervous with them around, and doesn’t seem to like it. We haven’t seen any in a day, so I’m hoping they’re getting the idea.

Other than all that, life is going well! I’m looking forward to only two more injections for rabies, and then I’ll be done. Thank goodness! I’m so happy that the injections are so much better than they were years ago, when they had to do all the injections into the stomach. Thank goodness for modern medicine!

Tonight my husband and I joined some friends from his company to light off fireworks for the 24th of July. For those of you not from Utah, the 24th of July is Pioneer Day, and as my husband says, “Nothing says I love my country like blowing up a little piece of it.”

We had a great time, and were just wrapping it up with the Grand Finale when some people came walking down the street with their dogs. They started walking past just after the guys had lit the fireworks, and it was quite an explosion! Unfortunatly, it scared the dogs, and they went running, pulling the woman walking one of them along with it.

Now, anyone with half a brain knows that dogs and fireworks don’t mix. Dogs are very scared of them, and will panic at the loud noises and flashes of light. These people were obviously lacking in the common-sense part of their brains when they decided to take their dogs for a walk on a night during which everyone on the block is lighting fireworks.

I wouldn’t have a problem with these people if they kept to themselves – I would simply have felt sorry for the dogs and gone on my way. But the guy had to come back. He came storming back, sans his wife and dogs, demanding to know who lived in the house, and threatening if we didn’t tell him, he would call the cops, and they would find out. When we asked why, he said it was because we were lighting illegal fireworks, and he was going to call the cops on us. That made me livid. I marched over to him, and asked what his problem was. He said the fireworks scared his dogs, and they ran away with his wife. I asked why he was out walking his dogs when there were fireworks going off – every moron knows dogs hate loud noises and fireworks. He said the legal ones didn’t scare his dogs – only the illegal ones. I asked how his dogs knew which was which…and he stomped right over to me, and got right in my face. This made me so mad – I demanded he back up off me, and he refused. Unfortunately, because he got so close in my face, I felt threatened, and had to fling insult after insult his way. He had a lot of nerve – marching up into a group of friends, and threatening us. Perhaps it is my temper, but when this guy, who was stupid enough to walk his dogs on a night when fireworks are everywhere, started yelling at us, I just was so angry I had to let him know.

Preston, my husband, got mad when the guy was in my face, and told the guy to back off, or I might kick his butt. It all was pretty comical, looking back. The guy just needs to grow a brain, and learn when and where to pick fights. He also needs to be smart about when and where to walk his dogs. Ugh…there are so many morons around- it makes me crazy. Hopefull this guy will now think twice before doing anything stupid. But I doubt it.

Yesterday I went to the hospital to get my first series of the Rabies Vaccine. I had been told many horror stories about what it would be like, and how painful it would be. Luckily, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I had to have 5 shots – 1 in my right arm to boost my immune system, and 4 in my injured arm with the vaccine. I had taken some painkillers before I went, so it really wasn’t bad at all. I was quite relieved.

I have to admit, I’ve never met anyone before that had to have the Rabies Vaccine. Leave it to me to have to go through something totally random like this! I was told by many people I have a really small chance of contracting rabies, but I feel that it’s just not worth the risk, even though, there have been so few cases of humans contracting rabies in the past few years. With my luck, I would be the one in a million to get it. (Think Dumb and Dumber…”One in a million? So you’re saying I have a chance!”) I was told by the Utah Department of Health, however, to get started on the vaccine immediately, since the dog could not be located, and it was pretty mangy, smelly, and dirty.

The injections are somewhat painful, but to me, it’s worth it. I just didn’t want to take a chance of getting sick, especially since if I did contract rabies, it has a 99% mortality rate.

My hand is starting to heal, although it’s still very painful. My arm still hurts, also, due to all the injections I’ve had. Luckily, for the 4 remaining times I need the injections, it’s only one shot instead of 5. Not bad at all. I just don’t want to ever go through this again! I’ll be keeping away from stray dogs from now on.

Last night, my husband and I were driving home from work when we came upon a little dog running around the middle of the road. I wanted to see if I could help it – I love animals and hate to see them get hurt. We pulled over and I called to the dog. He came running up to me, seemingly friendly, so I tried to check to see if he had tags. Suddenly, he went crazy, and started biting my hand. It was awful!

I let him go, but then realized my hand was bleeding. I started crying, more because my feelings were hurt that the dog was mean to me, than from the pain. I’m not used to animals being mean to me, especially when I’m trying to help. That isn’t to minimize the pain, though…it hurts a lot.

We ended up going to the hospital where they cleaned out my hand and gave me a Tetanus shot. (Ouch!) I had about eight or 9 puncture wounds on my hand from the dog. They gave me some Lortab and antibiotics and sent me home.

Today, I contacted our local animal control, and they didn’t seem very hopeful that they could locate the dog. I had to call the Department of Health, and they recommended I get the Rabies vaccine. They asked all about the dog, and because he was very dirty and vicious, and they can’t find him to quarrintine him, I’ll have to go through the series of shots. Apparently, it’s quite painful, so I’m not looking forward to starting it tomorrow. I had no idea how serious Rabies is. Apparently, if you contract it and don’t get treatment, it’s 99% fatal in humans. Scary…so yes, I’m getting the rabies vaccine. It sounds almost comical…like something out of a cartoon or something. I can’t believe I have to get the vaccine! Hopefully I won’t start foaming at the mouth…ha, ha.

If you’re wondering, I’m typing this post very slowly. It’s taking me a lot longer than usual. My hand hurts a lot, so I’ll finish up, but I’ll write more later when it’s feeling better. As a word of advice – don’t approach stray dogs. This one was little (about 12-15 lbs.) but quite mean and vicious. I’ve learned my lesson about approaching stray dogs, but I won’t stop having a soft spot in my heart for animals. At least my Honey Bunny is sweet and soft and cuddly…and doesn’t have rabies!

In soccer, I believe the better team does not always win. That was evident on Sunday at the World Cup. France outplayed Italy for most of the game, with some shots on goal that were incredible, including Zinadine Zidane’s beautiful header that was barely knocked over by Italy’s goalkeeper.

Italy knew they were being outplayed. That is why they had to resort to the typical dirty and unsportsmanlike moves they showed on Sunday. Knowing Zidane had a temper, Materazzi baited him, grabbing him around the waist and using racial slurs to “push his buttons.” The anti-racist group, SOS Racism issued a statment saying Materazzi called Zidane a “dirty terrorist,” in reference to his Algerian heritage. Zidane finally lost it, and turned around and butted him in the chest with his head. It was a sad end to the career of such a brilliant player – Zidane will always be remembered for his talent, but also for how he ended his career. I do not make any excuses for Zidane’s behavior – as a seasoned professional, he should have kept his cool – but the Italians needed to catch a hold of any advantage they could, even if it meant using dirty and disgraceful methods, and they ended up winning the World Cup.

Zidane still made history, however. He became only the fourth man to ever score in two different World Cup finals. He had two goals in 1998 when France beat Brazil 3-0 to win the World Cup, and he scored once on a beautiful, if not cocky, penalty kick in this, the 2006 World Cup.

I hope this incident will not overshadow the incredible talent Zidane displayed throughout his brilliant career. He will rank among the soccer great, including Pele and Franz Beckenbauer. After all, despite his mistake, he still received the Golden Ball award for being the best player in the World Cup tournament. Zidane’s name will go down in history, hopefully for his many soccer achievements, and not simply his mistake.

PS For pictures of the World Cup Final, click here.

Two weeks ago, I started working for a company called Heritage Web Solutions. They design, build and host websites for both individuals and businesses. It’s a pretty cool job – I get to edit and write content for different websites, and I really enjoy what I do. I graduated with a degree in English, and an emphasis in Technical Writing, so it’s really nice having the opportunity to do what I went to school for.

Now that I am once again working a 9-5 job, I haven’t had as much time to post articles to my blog. Hopefully once I get back into a regular routine, I’ll be able to find a bit more time to post. Also, if you find typos in my blog, it’s probably because I didn’t have the energy to edit my own work – that’s what I do all day long!

I have to say, this World Cup has been full of surprises. I had picked Germany to win the whole thing. They looked so good throughout the tournament, and really seemed to have potential, especially with the homefield advantage. Italy just proved to be the better team today, winning in overtime 2-0.

I know that many people thought Brazil would win it again, but they had too many problems, especially with Ronaldo being so out of shape, and Ronaldinho just not performing up to his potential. Ronaldo may be able to score goals by cherrypicking, but he can’t win the World Cup by doing that. France proved they were the better team by ousting Brazil 1-0. It will be interesting to see how France does against Portugal tomorrow. My husband and I are TiVOing the game in High Def, and will watch it tomorrow night after work. I predict that Zinedine Zidane will do all he can to get one more World Cup win for France before he retires. I think France will win the World Cup this year. Who knows…I was wrong about Germany, but we’ll see. The games are exciting, nonetheless, and I love watching them.

I have to say, I just didn’t see Italy advancing to the Finals. They proved that they are a superb team, however, and I will enjoy watching the last three games of the 2006 World Cup. I wish all the best to the final teams, and I also want to add that I’m proud of our US team – they played with heart, and I look forward to seeing them in 2010 in South Africa.

PS Happy Fourth of July!