Bewildering Balderdash

This evening we had Tucker's tree planted - it's an Autumn Blaze Maple. Even though we're under a tornado watch, the rain stopped when the nursery truck came and it stayed dry with blue sky until the planting was over. Tucker's ashes and collar were placed in the hole with his tree. And once the earth was moved back in place, the rain came back for a brief bit.

And then was a rainbow.

Loveseat for the living living room has been selected! Now we wait for delivery.

In other news, there is some 'happy day' thing going on today for fathers. While I had a father in the biological sense, he was never much of a presence or influence in my life. To that end, I celebrate my mother, njzoomom, who did all the parenting and was a pretty good influence on her two daughters.

To those *real* dads out there out there (and if you're a friend of mine, you're probably a *real* dad - I hope you had a grand day!

And because Duchess and Brodie don't have LiveJournal accounts, daecabhir makes a darned good dog daddy.

Came home from a day of errands to find that Brodie had been stung in the face. There's a fair amount of swelling around his muzzle and under his collar, but he's able to breathe just fine. Benadryl has been administered. He looks so pathetic.

My LJ updating skills have apparently gotten very rusty and I am spraying myself with virtual WD-40 to bap a post on my keyboard.

What's been going on with...

Country home - The contractors started today on our latest home remodeling project. The wall between the dining room and the living room is GONE. The space is so much more open in all of the ways and I can't wait for daecabhir to see it (he's not home yet). Tomorrow, there be painting in the master bathroom, more spackling, and definitely more prep for the rest of the painting.

Pottery - While I have not had much time in the studio in the last few weeks, I have a kiln full of bisqueware that needs to be glazed. This Saturday, I will be once again participating in the Downtown Culpeper Carnival. This time though, I will be in a store that sells bread, meat, and goodies, and will be demonstrating hand-building (carving?) of my Celtic finger labyrinths.

Pets - Brodie continues to be a smart little lad. We're working on 'stay', 'wait', and 'paw' with him currently. Duchess and he play a lot which is so nice to see.

Knitting - With everything else that has been going there has been very little time for knitting. I managed to do one charity hat during the Ravellenic games.

Motorcycle - There has been no word on a possible buyer for my GoldWing since Thanksgiving. I am hoping big time that a someone comes along this spring.

When the dogs have some sort of wound of issue, we have said (in our best dog voice), "I have a boo boo paw, you know".  This is almost always for Duchess since she is in the one who gets into the most trouble.

After picking Brodie up form getting neutered, daecabhir said (in his best dog voice), "I have a boo boo ball sack, you know".

Our lives are different ... for which I am so very grateful.

It's get challenging coming up with witty subject lines all the time.

Duchess' eyes are doing much better with the antibiotic ointment. She hates it when I put it in, but it's a necessary evil. I reminded her that I have to put eye drops in my own eyes all of the time. She was not impressed. Brodie is full of energy and is a delight to have in the house. We're still accident free and today we worked on playing fetch, a lesson on not stealing socks from the laundry basket, and staying upstairs when the basement door is open. Of course, we still miss our Tucker very much. In the spring, we plan on planting something special - maybe a tree - and burying his ashes with it.

Today was another lazy-ish day in a string of lazy days. daecabhir is still trying to get the crud completely out of his system and it's all too easy for me to take a nap in the late morning. And naps are much better when we get to take one together.  We did manage to get a few things done over the weekend ... a bit of cleaning, old papers purged from the file cabinet, a bit of dusting in the dining room, laundry, sewing, and knitting. Well, okay, I did those last two, but my honey is nice enough to let me sew and knit when he cooks.

My current knitting project is a late xmas present for a friend in NJ. I started last month, but have had to frog it twice. It'll go out sometime this week. Also in the 'better-late-than-never' category, this evening I remembered that we never sent Aunt Terry her present ... even though we bought it last January! Work also happened on one of my IOU sewing projects from the holidays.

The bills have started to hit our insurance from my hospital stay. It looks like the lab bills will be a story since they are billed differently from the hospital and it looks like everything little thing is billed separately. ER doctor, hospital doctor visits, you name it. Ugh.

Happy New Year!

Things seem to be moving in slow motion and hyperspeed all at the same time since I got sick.

Brodie is doing well with learning things like 'sit', 'wait', 'go', etc. and his name since it's a new one for him. Duchess has finally warmed up to him and the two of them now play. Brodie's middle name must be 'karma' because Duchess is certainly reaping what she has sowed for the past 4 years by being a nudgie little sister. Brodie, on the other hand, seems to enjoy gnawing at Duchess' legs and is catching on quickly by play-fighting with her since she knows all the tricks.

Yesterday found me in the studio for the first time in a month and it felt very nice. To get back into the swing of throwing, I decided to try out the Wiziwig tool that daecabhir got me for my birthday. Turns out the 'Bowl Makin' Bob' is a pretty nifty rib and there are now some bowls drying on the shelf. It will be exciting to see how these turn out.

Speaking of my sweet daecabhir, he is still feeling under the weather. The stomach funk that he had over xmas is gone but a cold has taken its place. njzoomom thinks that he may have gotten jealous since everyone got sick this holiday season.

Our big New Year's Eve was watching Ferris Bueller (which a certain husband of mine had never seen before) and smooching at midnight. We're pretty exciting around here, but don't be jealous!

With August in town to pick up dreamtigress, we had another holiday dinner that couldn't be beat. This time around we had a fresh ham in the rotisserie as well as all the goodies from the first first. 1painter42 was able to join us again and we introduced her to Cards Against Humanity - and she won! I managed to get in a little knitting while the gang played another game featuring pink bamboo and pandas (daecabhir won that one).

The big news is that the puppy-with-no-name finally got his name! Our new furry child has been dubbed Brodie. As it turns out, Brodie is a Gaelic name and our little boy has his own tartan. He's making good progress with training in general but we still have a few accidents in the house now and again (only pee though).

Today we were joined by njzoomom, dreamtigress, 1painter42, and Wilma for a holiday meal and gift exchange. We enjoyed prime rib (daecabhir dined on a Quorn roast), feta-pasta salad, broccoli-potato-cheese casserole, sage bread baked by 1painter42, baked brie, cheesecake and other assorted yummies things. Lots of fantastic presents were exchanged and much fun was had.

The yet-to-be-named puppy is down to just a few accidents in the house per day. During present time he curled up at my feet, wedged in between a pile of gifts and the couch. Duchess tolerates him mostly, but sometimes they cuddle up together. Auntie Justine has taught the pup all about ice cubes and he adores them.

After spending the night at the Renniesylum for the annual Holidaze Party, we got on the road to Baltimore so that we could pick up dreamtigress (and Corva dog) and deliver them to njzoomom's house. From there, the plan was to meet the puppy that we found on Craigslist.

Not long after we had dropped our sisterly cargo off and were enroute for the puppy meeting, we received a phone call from a Tiger in distress. dreamtigress had fallen and was in a lot pain - her elbow might be dislocated or broken. After making sure she and Mom could get to the ER or urgent care, we continued on to the canine meet-up.

The five-month old puppy was much smaller than we expected but just as cute as his picture. Duchess didn't seem interested him at all but at least she did not show any aggression. The pup seemed happy and fairly well-adjusted, although we were dismayed to learn that he had worms - something not previously disclosed. daecabhir and I hashed it out privately and when we returned, the puppy came right to me and leaned into me.

And so we went home with two dogs.

We stopped by the urgent care in Culpeper to find dreamtigress and njzoomom getting ready for check out. The x-ray was up in the lightbox and I could see the break in my sister's elbow quite clearly. I give her credit, she rarely does anything half-way.