First week of summer break

It's the first full week of my summer break, and I'm trying to concentrate on enjoying myself. I've already done plenty of reading, napping, and hanging out in the garden, and there's still a full month left. I'm trying to soak up every bit of relaxation possible during this pause between jobs, because once I go back to work, I'm going to have a steep learning curve to get over. 

Thanks for all the concern about my finger (see last post). I'm happy to report I still have 10 of them despite my shenanigans with the knife! I never did go to the doctor. It seems to be healing okay, although it's still a pretty awful looking wound. There are no signs of infection, though, which is the main thing. I wash and rebandage it twice a day, and it's coming along better than I expected.  Typing without the use of the one finger is difficult, though. This will probably be a short post!

The little party with my girlfriends went well. We had a load of good food, and I made punch that we mixed with champagne and sipped while sitting on the back porch. There's nothing like spending time catching up with old friends. :)

The Greek pasta salad I suffered (and nearly lost a finger!) for just prior to 

mixing in feta cheese and chopped romaine lettuce. It was delicious, at least!

A very bad picture of really tasty food: ham and Swiss puff pastry roll ups, brushed with lots of butter and sprinkled with sesame seeds. 

Desserts! Chocolate eclair cake made by Martina, pound cake made by me, and strawberries from the farm down the road.

Five Fruit Celebration Punch with cheap champagne for mixing. Yum! Fun!

Fairy lights on the porch after dark.

Oh, and we got a new roof the day before the party. It looks great! The crew did good work and repaired/painted trim in addition to the roof. So we're thousands of dollars poorer now, but our house is in good shape! :) It's going to take diligent saving for the rest of this year (at least) to make up for such a big expense, but at least we're happy with it. 

So that's been my first week of summer break! I hope you all are well, and I'm looking forward to catching up with everyone.

The finger and the party

Today I had planned to have Marla and Martina over for a little celebration. Martina has completed an internship in her journey to becoming a fully certified vet tech, and I, of course, have a new job. 

Yesterday I went shopping and got the ingredients for the food I was planning to prepare, but the only things I managed to finish were baking a pound cake from scratch and boiling some bow-tie pasta for a Greek pasta salad. When I went to start chopping veggies for the salad, I was careless and distracted, not to mention using a razor-sharp new knife....and I sliced a deep cut into the side of my left index finger. 

And oh my God, the blood! I don't think I've ever bled so much from a cut! The gash was pumping out so much blood that I started to get dizzy and nauseous. It got so bad I had to go lie down and elevate my feet to keep from passing out! I'm really glad Gregg was here. He ran and found a clean towel to wrap around my finger and hand with plenty of pressure. He got a cold wet cloth and dabbed my face and forehead with it until the danger of fainting passed.  Once the bleeding slowed down, he was all prepared to drive me to the ER for stitches. I probably should have gone, too, but once the bleeding finally stopped it was almost midnight and I just wanted to go to sleep. I guess I was worn out from all the drama. The towel my hand was wrapped in, as well as the white t-shirt I was wearing, had to be thrown away.

We had plenty of bandages and gauze, but the only tape Gregg could find was blue painter's tape. Stylish!!

A little while ago I very cautiously unwrapped the bandage from last night, and the cut looks pretty bad. Very deep. (I'll spare you the picture I took of it). But at least it's not bleeding, and I reapplied a coat of antibiotic gel to the wound before re-bandaging it. Stitches still might not be a bad idea, but I'd rather not go sit in the ER if I can help it. *

So needless to say, the girls and I won't be having our little party today. We've postponed until tomorrow, so I'll have time to (slowly, carefully) finish the food with only one good hand.

Injury aside, tomorrow will be better anyway because we're having our roof replaced today. A crew is on top of the house as I type this, hammering and nailing away. We'd been making plans to get the roof done for a while now, but only found out they were planning to come today at the last minute yesterday afternoon. Who wants to have friends around with all that noise and chaos going on? 

All in all, it's been quite the weekend so far!

*Have you ever chosen to let a bad cut heal without stitches that you maybe needed?