Another Call of the Day

I love my job... I really do. There is always that one person who calls that I just don't know how to answer.

Today it was a question regarding a sheep liver. That's right- sheep liver.
Here's the rundown:

Last week she butchered two sheep. One sheep's liver looked perfectly normal. The other liver had a spot that was tough and stringy and knotty. Could this be cancer? Well, that's possible, I told her, but it's hard to know for sure over the phone. She was questioning if it was safe to consume this possibly cancerous liver. I told her that I wasn't an expert in this area, but if she had any doubt as to the safety of consuming this liver, she may want to cut that portion away or not consume it at all. I then suggested that she might contact a local veterinarian since I don't have the necessary skills to diagnose liver cancer in a sheep.

This is where it gets good-
"Well, I live in Clarksville. We don't have any vets here that deal with livestock." I replied, "Oh, you live in Clark County. Did you know that the educator in Clark County raises sheep and has experience in sheep? He may be able to help answer your question." I like to make sure that the strange questions get directed to the appropriate county- you know- share the fun.
Then she says, "But the sheep is from Harrison County". How do you respond to that?
She continued to say- "I live in Clark County, but I got the sheep in Harrison County."

I didn't know the county of residency of the sheep before slaughter meant that all questions regarding the cancer status of this sheep should be directed to that county educator. Perhaps she thought we had some sort of liver cancer running rampant through our sheep here in Harrison County??

To make it even more interesting- she had called about this last week when I was out of the office. Nancy, my boss and the foods and nutrition expert in our office, suggested that SHE CALL A VET. The next question is- where has this liver been for the last 5 days? Hopefully the freezer.

So the next time you fry up sheep liver and onions for dinner- think of me!!

Call of the day...

There is never a dull moment in the Extension office. It still amazes me some of the questions people call and ask. It's also humbling to stand there with a dumb look on my face when I don't know the answer! HA!

The call of the day for today came from a 10 year old boy (at least that's my guess at his age). Over the weekend, he was out digging in an ant hill- one of the really large ones that you can find in the woods- and came across this egg.

So of course, their first thought was to call the Extension office to find out what it is. I'll be honest- I have no idea- nor do I know why there would be a ginormous egg in the middle of an ant hill! I did break it open to see if there were any clues on the inside. Unfortunatly, it was just a big, somewhat smelly egg yolk. The ladies in the office were real pleased. Especially when I washed it down the drain of our little sink out front so the little boy could have the egg shell back! I sent the picture to the other educators in the state- perhaps someone else can identify it. Looked like an ostrich egg or something to me. Who knows how it ended up in the ant hill!

So ladies and gentleman, this is todays "Call of the day".

All Packed- Part 2

Don't you think this is the perfect Doodlebug sized box?
In case you are wondering, Pepper can't wait until we get moved and all this silliness and humilation to wonderful, sweet corgi's can stop!

The Exercise Ball

Today, at lunch, Nikki and I headed to the YMCA for one of our lunch gab sessions that involved walking around the indoor track. Much to our dismay, it was raining, thus we could not do our usual outdoor route through town. Anyways, we were having a good time walking around in circles and Nikki suggested some ab work downstairs in the weight room. Looking at my not six pack abs, I agreed this was a good idea. For those of you who don't know, Miss Nikki and I met at her kickboxing class at the YMCA. Well, actually, at the time, it was held at a church because they didn't have the big YMCA yet... Needless to say, Nikki knows how to use all of the fancy aerobics equipment. So, I should have known the ab work would involve one of those ab balls. I have never liked the ab ball things. What makes them so effective is you have to use your muscles to balance on the ball while you do the crunches. They live up to their promise of giving more bang for each sit-up done, and for the most part I can handle them ok... but then we did a move the required lying on the ball sideways to do side crunches. Oh- how to explain this- Nikki is probably already dying of laughter. Anyways, as I lay there sideways, trying to work the oblique muscles by cruching up, I would lose my balance on the ball and fall either forward or backward. Forward wasn't too bad, but backward I would hit the wall. But when we switched sides, I really had issues and kept hitting the wall. Since my back was to her, she could hear the thud as I threw my arm against the wall to regain my balance. She says, "Sounds like you're having trouble over there." I managed to do about 8 of the side crunches on each side. Thankfully, there were only two other people in the room to witness my graceful side crunches on the ball.
Oh the things we do to have flat abs!

All Packed Up

Nick helped Pepper pack her beloved toys this weekend. She's ready to move to Santa Claus!

Liar! Liar! Pants on Fire!

I have never been a good liar. I can't think of one single time I told a lie that was believable, and my mom has always, ALWAYS been able to tell when I'm attempting to tell a fib.

Today was no different... Mother's Day is this weekend. I thought it would be nice to send my mom some flowers for Mother's Day, but I needed to find out if she was going to be home. So I called her and asked this very important question. She said no she wouldn't be home, she had plans with a friend, and asked if I was going to come home. I told her no, I was just curious. No real reason. She says, "Don't lie to me Adrienne, you were going to send flowers or something and wanted to know if I would be home. Isn't that right?" I told her I didn't know what she was talking about. She laughed. Now how did she know this? It's not like I send her flowers every year or something! Apparently this is a gift you receive when you give birth... an internal lie detector.

So there you go- I admit it- I'm 29 years old and I still can't lie to my mother!

Catchin' Up

It's been a busy last week or so and I haven't really taken the time to write lately!

Here's what we've been up to:

Nick got back from Washington D.C. on Wednesday night. The Purdue group had a successful trip to the Hill. Nick even had the chance to talk with Congressman Barron Hill, himself, which I'm sure was pretty cool. He brought back some awesome D.C. pictures, although we were both disappointed that for some reason, almost all the pictures taken on the nighttime setting were blurry. We've been talking about getting a new camera anyway...

Thursday was a FUN day for me! One of the local strawberry producers in Harrison County, Don Richmer, invited me out to his farm to help plant strawberries. I had shared with him that I would like to have my own patch, so he's given me a standing invitation to come help whenever I'd like to... The good news is, Don has a planter. We didn't have to bend over and do it by hand! His brother and I rode the planter, his dad drove, and Don and his son followed behind the planter to make any adjustments to the plants to make sure the crowns weren't too deep or too shallow. It was a beautiful day outside, and it was so much better than sitting at my desk! Thank you, Don!!

This weekend Nick and I headed to Santa Claus to check out some rental properties. Melvin (Nick's dad) has a friend who has rental properties. Our first stop was a really cute "chalet". Which must be french for cute- but small. But oh, was the lot beautiful. It was a wooded lot and the house sat back off the road a little ways. Anyways, we would have taken the house, but we were concerned with the lack of space. It had a great loft upstairs, but there isn't a good way to get things up there. So... the looking continued. Next we looked at a duplex. It's a really nice duplex- lots of room, TWO bathrooms, and a one car garage. So that's what we're going with while we work on the other house. It won't be as secluded as the other house, but we will have room for all our stuff.

The Cute Chalet

We have the day to "work from home" today. My office is a poll site, so we are not allowed in the building today. Isn't that tragic?

Have you cast your vote??