State Of The Union

Pearl is slowly on the mend - we have to make her get up in the morning, make her eat, make her go out. But for the past couple of days it seems once she gets going she's fine. Today was the first day she wanted to go out and do a little Squirrel Patrolling so we were relieved and the squirrels were annoyed.  She has a month or so on antibiotics so it's a twice a day cheese fest for now - David has also had to gourmet her food as the medication keep her from being hungry and if she doesn't eat she barfs the pills up. I think she's on to us though and is now liberally abusing the whole situation, she  peers in her bowl t o see what's good. And if it's not good, she's OK, she can wait.  Today too, I took off my immobilizer off for the first time in a month. If you want to know how my foot is - it hurts. But it's not as bad as it was and it's only been one day. It will either improve or it won't - time will tell. I'm hoping it will improve if I don't over do it and I'll be back to hiking when the warm weather hits.  We did some shopping today in town, all the weekenders were about. On the way back 209 was slowed down going the other way and all the license plates were NY, NJ and a few other states. But once the sun was up it was chilly warm and I know everyone is getting excited about spring. My birthday is coming up too - it's the big Five Oh this year so I've decided I'd like to turn 50 in West Virginia,  with the mountains and hills around me. I've missed my friends so it will be an excellent excuse to go home and just hang out for a few days. Pearl may be coming with us so she can visit with her pals Gypsy and Sage and have a Vizla party. We can leave her with Ricky during the day if we want to be dog-less so it will work well.  But that is a couple of months from  now - people ask if turning 50 is a big deal - I guess it's a big of a deal as you make it. I don't dread it or feel that I'm officially old - I don't mind it in most ways. We'd all like to keep that 20 year old body, but what you'd like and what you get are two separate things. All in all I look forward to my turn in the sun, my turn to be the Old Lady telling everyone what I think and having no never mind what they think of it.

Pearl Is Sick!

First of all, you need to understand Pearl greets each day like she has never seen such a day. She starts dancing and bouncing the second she opens her little beady eyes. She snuffles the blankets to see if you're up, cries in case you didn't notice her catapulting across the room, at the first sign of movement she races around, chasing cats and up heaving rugs. She inhales her breakfast races around her little yard and launches herself back on the bed - TODAY IS THE DAY! Of course everyday is THE DAY in the world of Pearl, but that's what makes her so lovable - and so annoying. So you would think her being quiet and refusing to get up would be a relief. It would have been if something hadn't been wrong but she wouldn't eat, sadly did her business  in her little yard and tucked up in a little ball on the end of the bed. David took her to the vet where she cheerfully tired to climb on David's head in an effort to avoid the doctor and was eventually  diagnosed with two forms of tick borne diseases, one is Lyme's of course and the other one is similar. She received a battery of injections (she was also due for some vaccines) and is on antibiotics for a few weeks. Hopefully it will not keep her down for too long - as annoying as she is, we do enjoy her daily antics.

I'm Melting.

That's an old picture, but my only alternative is to take a picture of my melting muddy nasty yard. Not that I'm sorry to see the snow going, but there's so much of it! The path is sinking with mud and I've watched my car slide back about half a foot so far on the water slicked ice. It's a little startling as I'm currently sitting on the back porch, my Honda is just sitting there and then suddenly moves, then stops.   Pearl  is slinging and sliding about the yard - he has no issues with it, she's just glad to be out in the warmer temps. It's about mid fifties I think and the sun is just starting to graze the horizon. It's noisy out here with all the dripping water but after this long snowy winter I'm not complaining. I'm so glad the week is over! Its been a stomach churner every day this week, one of my co-workers suggested yesterday we just scrap the whole thing and start over next week. I had to perform a Do - Over at work - and yes that is possible in the medical field - it was tough but paid off in the end. David is off tomorrow so I think we'll be off and running for the weekend, nothing special but hanging out. I know it's still winter but it's hard to remember that this of year, isn't it? When you get that first big hit of spring and suddenly you're all full of plots and plans and playing in the yard.

The Socks Of Guilt

 I started these socks back in March - they were cast on so I could take my little sock bag to Florida with me. It was the perfect solution, I could knit on the plane and in the airport and yet not become a Suspected Terrorist.  From then on I worked on the socks here and there, at the doctors, the dentist's, waiting on line, they were my emergency project. But two issues have to come to pass - so much time has passed between sock One and sock Two it was difficult to remember how I turned the heel (the pattern was off so I adjusted it successfully  - but didn't write it down so I ended up ripping the heel back on sock Two about a gazillion times) and the other issue is, well, after months they are still not done.  They've been occupying the bookshelf, 5th shelf up on the right tucked in my favorite sock bag glaring at me nightly. I could see them. They could see me. So after I finished the toy snake I decided to finally finish them. The other reason is the Shipwreck Shawl has entered the Very Very Boring Part (2tog, YO, 2tog, YO - repeat until insanity sets in). I usually don't mind repetition but because you have to make sure you knit two stitches together every other stitch you actually have to look at it, making watching TV impossible.  So now the socks are well on their way to being finished and the shawl is on the floor filling me with guilt. In other news, our office finally moved. We packed up on Friday, Monday the moving van came and we are now in our new office space. It's huge - and everyone is a bit discombobulated - nothing is where it should be, everyone forgets the storage room and the chart room are now separate entities, but we will get used to it. I hope!

Winter Wonderland - Bite Me.

 It is frigging snowing AGAIN - it's piled all over the place, we have no room for anymore. I am finally tired of it, I never thought I'd say that but I am. I suppose the bigger part of it is that the yard could support the NHL and this boot makes maneuvering in good weather can be a bit of sticky wicket - in the ice rink outside it becomes a hat trick every time I step out the door. David bought 5 sixty pound bags of ice and we're down to the last two already. The driveway is a mess, it once again melted/froze melted/froze and this morning my car literally slid all the way down to the road. The snow is flying again - thick and heavy of course. We have been keeping a large plastic bin filled with water just in case and I'm convinced it holds off the ill effects of Murphy's law. Since we filled the bin with water so if the electric goes out we'll have water - the electric has stayed on. I'm sure if I dumped it we would be in the dark so it sits there - big, annoying and in the way, just daring me to empty it. I got some stuff done this morning, finished cleaning out the cabinets and so forth, did the weekly shopping and I was quite pleased to walk away from the store with a grocery bill of under eighty dollars.  We had a few high priced weeks but we're back on track - I've started keeping a running list so when we do the shopping we have a plan instead of just racing willy nilly up and down the aisles flinging whatever suits our fancies. The end result is usually a food bill of about $170 and all the Frito's you can eat. I have my foot up now - it's finally FINALLY starting to feel a little better, not much but at this point I'll take what I can get. The problem is every time they change the treatment it feels better to start with just because I'm doing something different, then it hurts then it's back to square one.  I tried wearing skirts this week as it's easier to get dressed but the Velcro on the boot rips the bananas out of my panty hose - if it's not one thing, it's another.

Snake In The Grass

The fun thing about working in pediatrics is it's an excuse to knit silly hats, stuffed animals and pretty much anything amusing.  The snake only vaguely resembles the original pattern - I made the colors brighter, the eyes smaller and less realistic, I didn't make the split tongue and made a big smile instead. He turned out a little bigger because he's made of stretchy cotton instead of wool - it was important the yarn be completely without small fibers. Since the recipient is fairly young I made the face much simpler than the original - I once read somewhere that newborns, infants and toddlers will recognize two dots and a line as a face and that stuck with me. I've found the little people seem to prefer a very simple face on whatever I make and really if you look at it, he's looks like a pretty friendly guy. I didn't think he would be done in time - between trying to find the right yarn,the false starts (gauging was a nightmare!), making it up - I was working like crazy last night to get it done in time - and I did it!  I'm back to the shipwreck shawl next for a little while, the rest of the shawl is the same stitches, over and over and over... in other news it is still Winter. Yes it is. Is too. Shut up. Our yard is a frigid mess - we had the drive plowed, it snowed, it rained, it melted a little and then it froze solid. It looks like a mirror it's so smooth in some areas. The snow is frozen so solid Pearl has a reflection as she runs along the top of it through the woods - it's hilarious watching her do Squirrel Patrol, I'm sure they're all wetting their pants watching her skid and slide through the trees.

The Winter Of Our Discontent

It's that time of the year again, when winter has held on a tad too long and everyone is getting snappy. David and I are bickering back and forth, my foot hurts, he hates his job, yada yada yada.  I got some unexpected news - I'm not happy or sad about it, just a bit stunned. I'll get over it. I put away the shipwreck shawl for now, I've started knitting a toy snake for a client's birthday, bought a back up gift just in case it's not finished in time.  It's  hard enough to be interesting but not hard enough to be annoying. David and I did a little shopping today, I bought a teeny tiny food processor - I just need it for an occasional shredding so I wasn't looking to get carried away. It cost ten bucks and holds a cup and a half, perfect! It rained last night, then warmed up just enough to start melting and then froze again - the driveway was alarmingly shiny this afternoon. Forget about actually walking in the yard, I let Pearl run around but I stayed under the deck and read. I have a couple of chairs set up under there where they stay dry and I'm out of the wind so we can be outside. I figure I can sit and read outside just as easily as inside and since I can't walk too far that about all the outside time I get.  The immobilizer is getting old already, it's just annoying at this point and it's hard to tell if it's doing any good yet or not. The doctor said 2 weeks to a month - it's been one week and counting.I bought some low impact exercise tapes this afternoon too, that's another issue in itself. I can use the exercise bike but it can't put any strain on my foot so in order to burn any amount of calories I would have to pedal about 5 hours a day. Staying out of the fridge is even harder, aside from TV, reading,computer and knitting I am bored. Arrgh.  Did you look at the picture of Claw I have here? She's holding Pearl's rawhide hostage again - even the cats are peevish!!

The Happy Herbivore

 I just bought a copy of The Happy Herbivore last week - even if you're not vegan or vegetarian it's an excellent cookbook if you're looking to eat less meat - or if you just enjoy playing with your food. What's making me so happy about it is you can make the recipes with stuff you have in your kitchen or  can be easily  purchased.  And the recipes don't have a lot of ingredients or steps (I've had vegan cookbooks that should have included Nap Time  their concoctions had so many steps!). If you want to get an idea of what The Herbivore is about here's the website -

http://happyherbivore.com

 Anyhow, the only two things I couldn't find at Weis's would be nutritional yeast (used for flavoring) and vital wheat gluten - that you can find at any organic food store. Except for  Organic Foods Warehouse - I have no idea why I enjoy disappointing myself  but like rain showers in April it's bound to happen so why fight it.  So I went in with my little list of about 4 items, got shot down on each one, declined leaving my name and number in case they accidentally tripped over something vegan and they would call me - I hopped back in my car and  drove down to Earthlight where I got all the stuff I needed plus a boffo walnut and date bar. My one true is issue with natural food stores and organic stores is the cost - there is no way I could afford to shop there exclusively if I wanted to. Everything is triple or more in price so I just tend to buy the items I can't find anywhere else - which is very few at this point, most grocery carry vegan and vegetarian products - and it's a shame because I would love to support more of the independent stores. Why they have to be so overpriced is beyond me, I shop the Asian grocery places which are just as small and specialized, but they tend to be cheaper than the larger stores, not more expensive. And given the line on Saturdays they're not hurting for customers. But what ever. Off I went to other stores, Borders to get a client a birthday present, AC Moore's for some odds and ends, Dad and Maryann's birthday cards and gifts, my foot was starting to give out so back home I went. The roads are a super mess, rain, ice, salt, dirt, eww.  Though we're moving through February winter is forever at this point, isn't it? I was sick on Friday - 1st 24 hour bug of the season - no fun at all. Achy burning, sleeping yucky day. Vincent took advantage but he's a cat and does things like that - he was snuggled up all day. He's been pretty friendly since the temperature dropped. I guess he's the opposite of a fair weather friend!