A Rant

Let me say I am sorry for this rant right up front, but it still needs to be said or I will go nuts (not a long trip). It is so ironic. Di is very sick and can go or be put to sleep at any time. However, the vet is afraid that Di is becoming addicted to her hydrocodone. . .

Now granted, she is taking a huge amount of them, she started at one a day last year and now she is at three, three times a day. Where is the freaking sense in this? The dog is more comfortable with the medicine, she actually wants to play for the first time in 3 months, but they are worried about her becoming addicted?!? I don’t think so. This is one of those things that makes me want to pull my hair out or slit my wrists (cyber wrist slitting). Come on, the dog is dying, nothing can be done for her but to make her comfortable so what the hell???
Sometimes I just don’t get it.

Pictures. . .

A view from the loft of Jack and Onyx. Notice that they are laying on the baby blanket that I get to work on for 2 rows at a time. At least someone is enjoying it. Onyx did not appreciate me waking her. . .
Lola and Di enjoying the front yard and looking for something to bark at (Di is not gaining weight, that is fluid that we cannot keep off of her and it builds up in the belly) -

The tomatoes are about the only ones Di has not eaten off the vine-

I just got off work for the day so I am going to get a pedicure. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

This and That, Friday Fillins

I realized last night that I had not posted all week, but I am just not feeling it for some reason. Not just blogging, but anything, I don’t know why, but there it is. DD1 left me a comment telling me I was not blogging enough for her to keep up, I just laughed but I should have asked her where her blog was (snicker). Have you noticed bloggers who have decided not to blog on a regular basis anymore? I have decided they are putting too much pressure on themselves by blogging every day. I mean, they are great to read, but who can do that every single day of the week; don’t get me wrong, I love opening Grace’s blog to see what she is talking about every day, but I don’t know how she is keeping that up. I cannot.

I forgot to mention the last Mean Girls Sock kit; it had a cool gadget in it that I have wanted for a while (I love gadgets). It is a stitch saver. I think they are very cool and I used it for the very first time the other night when I was doing my allotted row for the night; mine has cool little beads on it. I wish I had purchased it before, because it is great! These are made by 5elementknitr and if you want one you can go here.
1. He was a butthead of the nth dimension.

2. Bad weather is what I look forward to most this time of year.

3. My best friend gives me unconditional love.

4. If I want to win the lottery, I should buy a lottery ticket to be honest with you.

5. Appearances can be deceiving.

6. The last person I gave a hug to was Di.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to sleep, tomorrow my plans include going out to breakfast with DD2 and her friend who is visiting from out of state, working and knitting 6 rows of anything and Sunday, I want to veg, but will be going to bunco!

Chatter and Friday Fillins

Remember back here when I discussed furry cats and shaving them?? Well, I have decided it is easier to live with furry floors. We did shave Jack, but DD1 who is living in Georgia was the one who used to be in charge of shaving and was much better at it than DD2 and I, we did not get nearly as much hair off and we were very messy about it. Jack loves being without the hair, though he is not so fond of the process; he always gets more hugs, loves and pets once he is shaved because his fur is so thick and he has dandruff.

KnittySue recently had a contest that involved showing the contestants work space or table with all the paraphernalia that is kept in the area. It was fun to go and look at everyone’s work area, some of them had lotttttttts of stuff and it made me wonder how pets were kept out of the stuff. My cats are very nosy and if I leave anything out they will deliberately knock it on the floor and tear it up. Everyone else must have pets with better manners.

Guess What, I got to knit last night for 3 whole rows! Yeah!!!!! Project Runway started last night and I watched and knit. Maybe someday I will get to knit a whole project?!


1. I remember, I remember how to knit and when television was mostly black and white.
2. Dear Dear Daughters, I want you to know that you are both wonderful women.
3. Is that my pair of leggings on your legs!!???
4. I'm trying to resist the temptation of walking out the door of the office and deciding not to work for the next week.
5. I'm saving a hug just for you!
6. If I made a birthday list all of my pretend friends would definitely be on it!!!
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to working late and then vegging, tomorrow my plans include working, and doing 4 rows of knitting and Sunday, I want to veg, but will be preparing the house for company!

Blather

We just had our second hailstorm in less than 24 hours, and it is positively cool (70) outside. I am sitting under the sky light in the loft watching the hail hit the window (glass, plastic, Plexiglas??) wondering how hard the hail has to be before it breaks the window. It feels like we are heading into autumn already, that does not bode well for the winter. Everyone seems to be suffering from the heat right now, but us. I guess I will send you all some of our snow come October. :-)

I listen to recorded books a lot, and I have a subscription to Audible, where I can download books and listen from the computer or I-Pod. I love this as it keeps me entertained when I could possibly be bored with sitting still and I am not stuck watching mind numbing television. I am perturbed that I downloaded “Born in Ice” by Nora Roberts; her books are entertaining and easy to listen to when doing other things. The reader/narrator sucks big time! You cannot tell what character is speaking, as he never changes his voice. I am going to complain; even though it is the first time I have been disappointed with anything from Audible.

I feel like I have become a boring blogger since I cannot knit, it is very irritating. . .

Have a good day (or what's left of it)

More Blather

When I want to visit my favorite blogs, I normally link to them from my blog, but lately when I use my back button to return to my blog nothing happens. It is like the blog I am visiting is holding me captive and can be frustrating. The weirdest part of this is that it is happening on all 4 of the computers I use (2 personal and 2 work). The OS on one of them is VISTA, but all the others are Windows XP, and the laptop with VISTA has the newest version of Exlorerer, but all the other have the older version (I am not especially fond of the IE 7). I wonder what is causing this. . .

I was able to knit for two whole rows last night, it was very cool! It was my reward for with dealing with stupid on Saturday. You know I am working Saturdays now, until October 1, but it seems like some of the users I support don’t bring their brains with them to work on Saturday.

We are still trying to decide where to go for the week of Thanksgiving, but since it will only be the two of us, we decided to go away and have fun instead of trying to downsize turkey and mash potatoes for 2. Any suggestions?

Blather

I am in a much better mood today, even though it has rained already today and I am working. It is much nicer to work from home than going into the office, at the office I have to wear clothes and when working from home I can work in a T-shirt and undies, much more comfortable.

I go into the Wee Tiny Sock club for autumn, very cool. There were only 8 spots left when I got in. I wonder how the knitting will go?????I have noticed my arm is feeling better, but now the back of my hand is hurting, the therapist says it is compensating for not using my thumb as much and too much work. Well, unfortunately, work is a necessity in my life (how about you?) so that will continue and I guess as long as it is hurting I know I am alive. :-)

Have a great day!

This is a gloomy day here (and I think my mood is matching the weather), I cannot figure out why we have had such a gray summer. I am so tired of work, and we are only at the beginning of the hump season at work. I am planning a vacation for the week of Thanksgiving. Anyone have any suggestions on where to go?? I would love to check out Galveston, but I don’t know if it ever recovered from the hurricane that wiped them out. Maybe I should just go to Key West and forget anywhere else? That’s sad, I can’t even figure out where I want to go . . . I would truly love to go to Greece, but, I must be realistic, I guess. :-)

Have a great weekend!

1. When will the sun shine again?
2. I cannot remember what the last good book I read or movie I saw or tv show I watched.
3. Everything has its beauty but dawn has a beauty all its own.4. Pizza is what I had for dinner.
5. I'd like your input on how to knit faster.
6. The beach (Key West) is where I want to be right now.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to work, tomorrow my plans include more work and Sunday, I want to veg!

Dogs on Thursday

And now for another sad version of Dogs on Thursday, with a funny. Di is not doing well, DD2 took her to her vet appointment today, and we are now injecting furosemide into her. We are trying this for 4 days, and then she goes back on the pills. There is nothing more than can be done, there is one treatment they can try, however they do not think it will work and it is verrry expensive. The vet she saw today told my daughter that once a Dalmatian develops heart issues, they are normally very resistant to any of the medications that are available. We still have to trick into giving her the huge number of pills she takes every day, but she is very sly. Last night I was giving Lola her hormone, and Di told me she wanted some, so I got her a spoon of peanut butter, before she would take though, she sniffed the spoon to make sure there were not any pills in it. Lolol

She has discovered that the tomatoes bushes are good things, I put her outside the other night and she walked to each bush to eat the tomatoes, and she is very picky, she normally will only take the ripe ones. Needless to say, DD2 and I are not seeing many of the wonderful vine ripened tomatoes.

I am a team captain for Dish Rag Tag, and I cannot wait to get started. I always have a good time with that. We are trying to think up a team name now, and I am so bad at that. I wish I were more imaginative and original.

Have a great day!

Yuck . . .

I am in such a horrible mood I cannot stand myself. I think I need to knit more. . .
The fur floating around on the floors of my house is killing me. If I clean the floor this morning (which isn’t going to happen), they are covered in hair by evening. DD2 vacuumed the furniture in the living room yesterday and it looks almost like new. So tonight, I think we are shaving the cats; hopefully they will look like this in the morning-

But I think they will get more of their heads and paws shaved if we can.

Notice

Have you ever noticed how people who are in their late twenties and thirties complain about aging and worry about birthdays? Have you ever noticed that when you get into your fifties aging is not as big of deal as living and a birthday is a celebration of life?

Just saying. . .

Baaah

I wish I was at Sock Summit. . . .
1. Enjoying the sun is my favorite summertime activity.
2. My favorite John Hughes movies is the Breakfast Club.
3. Di’s snout is something I love to touch.
4. The full moon makes me want to howl!
5. I need to take a nap right now.
6. When daylight fades I sometimes get a creepy feeling.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to working (it is that time of year again), tomorrow my plans include more work and Sunday, I want to do nothing!

Dogs on Thursday, Blather

Since today is Thursday, that means I have to discuss my gluttonous bitch Di. She has started refusing to take her medicine! This is not a good thing as she needs it to be able to breathe, she takes 8 pills in the morning, 4 in the afternoon, and 6 at night; she used to take them right off the spoon as long as there was peanut butter around it and she acted like it was a treat. Now when she sees me at the medicine cabinet, she turns and slinks away to either go upstairs and hide or into DD2’s bedroom where I try not to go. We have tried everything, hiding it in her food, shoving it down her throat, using pill pockets (this one is expensive and she takes way too many pills for it to work and it did not fool her one pit) and even tried getting her to chew up the chewables. I have had to resort to McDonald’s a place I rarely go. I can mix the chewables in with her food and she eats so fast that she doesn’t realize she is eating them, and that takes care of three of her pills. The rest I hide in a piece of the plain old Micky D’s hamburger and she will take that. Before you say anything, I know that this is not a healthy diet for her, but at this point we are trying to make her comfortable so she can breathe, and she is also on Pepcid AC to calm her stomach so getting the meds into her are more important than her diet. The problem with this is that we have had to change her feeding schedule all around so she eats when she needs her meds, and we have to cut way down on the food so she will gobble it up (not that that has ever been much of a problem, hence the nickname gluttonous bitch or GB). My daughters are both say that she is telling me that it is time, but I do not think so yet, but. . .

I had to go for more PT today and when we were through, she told me to be a couch potato with an ice pack for the rest of the day. I told her that sitting on the couch means knitting and she laughed at me and said no knitting. This is killing me. And of course, I received my new yarn from the Mean Girls Yarn club today and my fingers are itching. Do you think that winding the yarn in prep for knitting will qualify as using the arm???

Have a great day and forgive the major typos, the nasty thumb brace sucks!

Arm, Help, WOW

I finally did it! I made a doctor’s appointment for my arm and kept it. lolol I hate going to the doctor, I always feel like I am whining about something, and know there is someone worse off than me. The orthopedic office I went to is one that cares for a lot of the sports stars in the area, so I was a little intimidated; but they were great! I saw the doctor, she manipulated my hand and arm, I has x-rays, and started physical therapy all in the same visit, how cool is that?? BTW, have any of you had x-rays recently? The system this office uses is digital and they post to the dr’s computer immediately with no films being involved at all; it was a great process to watch (I haven’t had x-rays since 1995 so it was all new to me.)

Anyway, after all of the pushing and prodding, my arm hurts, but they think I have tendonitis in my wrist and elbow that is aggravating the carpal (as if it weren’t aggravating enough); this means I have to go to physical therapy two mornings a week for the next three weeks. Then at that point the doctor will re-evaluate the whole mess. But I am also supposed to rest my arm and thumb as much as possible, which I do not see happening at this time of year (end of the federal fiscal year) since I start working Saturdays this week. And I was knitting in the office while I was waiting on the doctor, she just laughed, and said to stop knitting for a few weeks.

Help please
I need to get some stitch markers to have on hand for some swaps I am in. Can anyone recommend a good Etsy shop for them?? I hate doing the search thing, yes I know I am lazy, but I also like using other people's recommendations for shopping on line.

Here is a picture of my Devil Cat helping me play cards with DD2. Isn’t her glare loverly?

Dish Rag Tag

Sign ups started Saturday for the Son of Dish Rag Tag race, I am so excited, this is a lot of fun. It is like a relay race, but as each knitter gets the box in the mail, they make a dishrag according to the pattern in the box, using the yarn in the box. When it is completed they mail it to the next person on the team and include another ball of cotton yarn and a goodie of some sort (stitch markers, a candy bar, one of those “what size is my needle” thingys) along with the pattern and mail it to the next person on the team. We had a lot of fun doing it last year, so I am looking forward to it this year. Go here to read about it and to enter.

Wooohoo the weather has warmed up to 90, the sum is out and it is gorgeous. I wish I could go outside and enjoy it; however, for the sake of my ears, I think I will stay inside. Isn’t it weird that my ears hurt when my allergies start acting up?

Di has started refusing to take her pills, I have finally decided it is not worth torturing her to get them down her throat. I don't know why she started this, unless she wants to torture me and cough all night. :-)

Gluttonous Bitch

My Di, with all of her medical problems, is a gluttonous bitch. We have a gate on our kitchen (anchored into the wall) that is closed every time we leave the area, or the house. We do this because she and Jack (the male cat) used to work in tandem to open the pantry and get out treats for themselves. We would come home and find the pantry empty and very sick animals. One time she ate several huge Hershey candy bars and we ran her to the vet, they wanted to keep her on an IV for the day, and I was fine with that, but they called me back to come and pick her up within an hour as she was so upset and it was making her heart murmur worse. They said she is better off throwing up at home with me, than be panicked because I am not there. Anyway, that explains why we have a gate on our kitchen, such a fine fashion statement.

We left to go get a pedicure Thursday afternoon, and DD2 had just woken up, I don’t think she was thinking really clearly.:-). I watched her close the gate and heard the latch click, but.. . .

When we got home from the pedicure and errands a couple of hours later, she was sitting by the backdoor (when Di is sitting at the back door when we come home, we know she has been verrry baaaad) and the gate was hanging open. Things looked fine; there was a graham cracker box on the floor from the recycling bin, and a plastic container that we thought held cookies.

Di started vomiting about two or three hours later. She vomited downstairs, on the main level, upstairs, and outside. She was so sick, all she did was lie in my bed and moan and fart (hellacious farts). As we were cleaning up the sick, we realized that the gluttonous bitch ate 7 large muffins, 3 blueberry and 4 cranberry orange. This was after she ate her entire dinner. At first I felt sorry for her, thinking it was part of her heart condition and once I realized what she had done, I was furious, but the poor thing was sooooo sick, what could I do?? So we continued to clean up sick through the next day and it was verrry obnoxious!

Yes, I love my dog, even if she is a glutton! And poor DD2 gets to clean the carpet this week. lolol