Staying in

Saturday night has rolled around again. I have no plans for the weekend other than staying in and resting.

I seem to be coming down with something. My school is filled with flu, Covid, and strep at the moment along with plenty of simple colds. I had a flu shot last month, and the latest Covid booster two weeks ago, so I'm hoping that this is just something simple like a cold. God forbid it turns out to be strep throat, which is the dominant illness there right now. I don't think so, though. So far, it's just sneezing, a mild cough, and some congestion in my chest along with some mild body aches. No fever (or not beyond a very mild one) so that's an encouraging sign. I'm feeling far from top form, though, that's for sure.

It's been a day of mostly sitting around watching tv and napping. I'm just beginning the final season of Lucifer (Netflix) which was recommended to me by a friend months ago and that I finally got around to starting recently. It's been the perfect show for me the last few weeks because it's funny and fun to watch and isn't very mentally taxing. Great distraction viewing during election season and a welcome break from the news. Also, Tom Ellis is a bit of eye candy, and that never hurts. :)

He looks great in a three-piece suit...or out of it.

Gregg and I finished the latest season of The Sinner, also on Netflix, last night. It was okay, although none of the subsequent three seasons have been quite as good as the first. I also decided to try Derry Girls and that's turned out to be good for a laugh here and there. At the moment, comedy and more lighthearted shows are my preference as an escape from stress. And who wants to watch dark, dramatic shows when they're sick? Not me.

So that's my weekend in a nutshell. TV, soup, ginger ale, and rest. One good thing so far about this cold (or whatever it is) is that since my asthma is now being treated, I haven't started wheezing or getting short of breath. The past few years I've dreaded even the mildest colds because I'd have so many breathing problems as a result. Fingers crossed that it stays this way!

Random daily life stuff

 It's a most welcome day off for me. Today is, of course, Election Day, and schools are always closed on this day. As a matter of fact, the school where I work is my polling place. Gregg and I went early this morning, before he had to leave for work. I was grateful to be able walk in the gym, cast my vote (with no wait), and then head back home for the rest of the day.

Work hasn't gotten any better, unless you're judging by how well I seem to be managing to keep my head down and power through. * So far this has been a loooong year. For the first time in my six years at the school, I have a mild dread in the pit of my stomach on Sunday afternoons. Spring can't come soon enough; that's when contracts and work agreements start coming out and jobs start opening up. With 24 schools in our district, surely an opportunity to transfer to something better will come along soon! 

George's leg/knee is still a real worry. He still limps some half the time, despite almost six weeks of reduced activity and the NSAIDs he gets every morning. Arthritis in his left knee seems to be his biggest issue, and we're probably going to have to try to manage it for the rest of his life. He's gotten somewhat depressed because we haven't been taking him for his twice-daily half mile walk. Hopefully the vet will soon let us gradually get him back to walking more. We've just been making sure that if it's a ligament tear, it has some time to heal, but if it's just arthritis, then gentle exercise will be good for him. 

Poor George; we've been sneaking around with Poppy, taking her on walks. Not too often, and mostly when he's in a back room napping and so won't notice, but still. I hate going without him and I feel guilty. But as bad as I feel for making him rest for all these weeks, I can't deny an 11-month-old puppy the chance for exercise. She's got so much pent-up energy she's like a small package of dynamite!

Okay, well "small" might be the wrong word for Poppy! She was 50 pounds when I last took her to the vet. She's getting to be a big (and tall) girl. Although I'm a little sad that she's not really a puppy anymore, I'm pleased as can be about the dog she's becoming. She's turning out to be very intelligent, friendly (to humans and dogs alike), and playful, with the beginnings of a sense of humor that I didn't know was possible in dogs until Ginger came along. She's sweet, too. Very cuddly, especially late at night and early in the morning when she's sleepy. Poppy is already very much a part of our family.

Her only fault so far (and it's only really kind of a fault) is that she's stubborn and protective, and she'll bark like hell at people coming and going at neighbors' houses. She's also not fond of strangers (like the pest control guy that comes quarterly) who enter our home. She'll snarl and bark and put all the fur up along her spine, and no amount of scolding will make her stop. I always end up banishing her to the back yard if I have to let strangers into the house. But she's loving and loyal to all our friends and family, so at least there's that! Ginger was also protective, but she was smart enough to discern which people might actually pose a risk and which wouldn't. Since Poppy is so smart I expect she'll gain some discernment with maturity. She's still very much a puppy in some ways.

One last item of note: Gregg took down the last really large aquarium in our house. It was a 125 gallon that's been in our den since we moved in here 4 years ago. ** He decided he wanted to sell it while the tank was still in good shape, and he wants to concentrate on something a little bit smaller and less time (and space) consuming. He sold it for a very, very good price to a secretary at one of the medical offices where he gets paid to maintain their aquariums. He's known this woman for years, and she's been wanting a nice, large tank of her own. He only charged her $400 for the tank, stand, lights, filters, and several buckets of nice substrate. A real bargain.

The aquarium, cleaned and ready to go, right before the new owner came to pick it up.

Of course, we had to totally rearrange the den after the aquarium was gone. So far, I like what we've done in there, and today we're going furniture shopping for new barstools to go in this room! That's going to be Gregg's birthday gift--his birthday is tomorrow--and I'll post photos of the room once we're finished redoing it. I'm a little sad to see the tank go, but excited about rearranging and redecorating.

* Knocking on wood as I type this. When your boss almost certainly has a personality disorder, and you manage to stay in their (mostly) good graces, it's best to stay humble about it. All that could, and might, change tomorrow!

**Today is the 4-year anniversary of us buying this house! That's so hard to believe. Time really does fly.

Halloween recap

Yesterday was the most fun I've had at Halloween in ages!

To begin with, we pulled a few seasonal decorations out of storage a couple of weeks ago. 

This past weekend I had to go to the drug store to pick up some prescriptions, and while I was there I bought some extra candy and small toys to hand out (glow in the dark bouncing eyeballs, anyone?!). I also picked up a few other things I'd been needing, including razor blades. I didn't think about how that looked until I got home--buying candy and razors right before Halloween! I wonder what the cashier thought.

Here are the treats spread out on the table for sorting. I wanted make loaded treat bags for the kids I knew who were coming. 

Guess who I got to see?! Little P.!

I also got to see Carsen, who is 4 and a half years old, now. She's growing like a weed.

Here's my favorite photo of the night: Prophet, Carsen, two little girls (who are nieces of the nice young couple across the street) and an extra girl whose parents are friends with Marla. Look how cute these kids all were!

The kids all had sooo much fun! Here's a little clip of them acting all jubilant after one house gave them candy. It reminded me of being a little kid on Halloween, myself.

Speaking of little kids.....the Batman had a blue tongue! All the neighbors were super generous, and most had good candy.

So many of our neighbors were extra generous with treats, and everyone seemed to have a really good time.

At the end of the night, George and Poppy were sorry to see everyone leave. They had a great Halloween (with lots of doggie treats) too!

A meme for Cro

 

Saturday music treat

Good Saturday morning! 

Not long ago my husband made me watch a video on Youtube of a young genius guitar player from Poland, and I was so impressed by it that I wanted to share it here with you. Have any of you heard of this guy? If not, and you like music, you're in for a treat.

Marcin: "Kashmir" on one guitar....

Bach's Toccata on one guitar...

At least it's never boring.

The other day, my husband said to me, "There will be no more pets in this house. I am done." I think it was listening to Marco scream (for no good reason) for the 133,563rd time that sent him over the edge. Maybe.

I understood and agreed with him. Two dogs and a parrot are more than enough for anyone! That's not even counting the aquarium animals that have to be cared for (that's his department). Our pets are always needing something: feeding in the morning, walks twice a day, baths for the dogs, cage cleaning for Marco. Lots of attention for all three before we leave for work in the morning and again when we get home in the evening. Feeding everyone again at suppertime. Sometimes all I want to do after work is watch trash tv and zone out for a couple of hours, with no one needing anything from me. But no, I have responsibilities....and to be fair, it's not like they asked to live here with us. Duty calls.

And the vet bills! Two weeks ago, George had to go to the vet to get his limp checked out and also his yearly heartworm prevention shot. That visit was over $300. Then on Tuesday I had to take him back to the vet because his ears had gotten red and inflamed and were driving him crazy. It turned out he had bacterial and yeast infections in them and was prescribed an ointment that we'll be putting in his ears every other day for the next two weeks. He also needed a refill of his anti-inflammatory pills for his arthritic knee. Cost of Tuesday's visit: $190. Five hundred dollars and we're not even halfway through October yet! The vet bills are breaking us.

But hey, you can't put a price on love, right? They bring us a lot of fun and happiness. Plus, there's never a dull moment in our house, as the following little anecdote I shared on Facebook just now so vividly illustrates:

This morning when I let Marco out of his cage, he took off flying. The breeze from his wings as he passed through the kitchen caused a piece of wax paper (that had held a medicated dog treat for George) to flutter to the floor. Before I could stop her, Poppy snatched it up, raced to the bedroom, dropped down on her belly, and ARMY CRAWLED UNDER THE BED AS FAST AS SHE COULD so I couldn't take it from her. Then when I went back to find Marco, he was in the pantry attempting to bust into a bag of walnuts.

This is my life.

The chair

I've recently come to the realization that I'd like to learn to sew. 

Nothing too fancy, just basic stuff. I'd like to re-cover some furniture cushions, make simple curtains and drapes for the house, and maybe have the ability to hem a pair of pants if necessary. Stuff like that. 

What set off this line of thinking was an old, sad armchair we've owned for close to 20 years now. It needs updating with a slipcover to make it into a piece of furniture we're proud to display in our home, instead of an old, dirty, worn out (but still comfortable) chair.

It lives in the office with our computer table and Marco's cage. Poppy uses it the most (she likes to hang out when we're using the computer). 

I thought of my friend Karen and how she's mentioned that she sews. I called her up one day and asked her if she'd be up for helping me to sew a slipcover for this chair, and she said YES! She's been sewing for decades, and this won't be too hard for her by any means.

Today we went to two fabric stores and looked at everything available. One nicer store had a lot of good stuff on clearance in the back. All the clearance fabric was $5.99 a yard. They looked really attractive when I saw the prices of the non-clearance stuff!

Anyway, I saw two or three fabrics I liked. As soon as I get Gregg's input I'll pick one and we can get started soon. Karen's going to help me sew in zippers so that whatever we pick can be taken off and washed. I'm really excited about this project! And learning a little bit about sewing, too. It's awfully nice of my friend to help me with this. I think she's already having fun planning this project with me.

PS....Karen has a blog! Check it out: The Internet's Best Karen

Time off

It's wonderful to be off work this week, and a much-needed break. Work continues to be a mostly unhappy place, although far more tolerable than it was at the beginning of this school year. We've just finished our first quarter, and in six months (when contracts for the next year have to be signed) there should be plenty of job openings in the district to apply for. I'm crossing my fingers that something comes open at this school because it's only about a mile from my house, it's a very nice new building/campus, they have a really good staff and principal, and it serves younger students, kindergarten through fifth grade. Marla's little girl, Carsen, will be starting kindergarten there next year in their Spanish immersion program. This would be the ideal transfer for me! But of course, there has to be an opening first. 

Even though I'm off this week, I've been busy. I've washed and vacuumed out my car, organized and cleaned my pantry, gave the refrigerator a major cleaning, and taken comforters and other large bedding to the laundromat for a good wash (things that wouldn't fit in my washer at home). 

Marco "helping" me clean the pantry. :)

The big chore of the week was finally chopping down the dead dogwood tree in our front yard. Gregg has a small chainsaw that we used to do the job.  I took a final picture of the tree before we got started.

It was bigger than it looks in this picture. We got it down and also cut up a bunch of firewood from it, to be used for a bonfire later on. Now that it's gone, our front yard looks strange every time we forget about it and glance outside. Hopefully the little crabapple tree will make it to next spring (despite the deer damage) and will begin to grow into the empty space. We've contrived a wire cage thing to go around it to give it a chance to grow out, so hopefully the deer won't be an issue anymore.

This morning I had to go to the dentist to get a crown re-done. I was dreading it, but it turned out to be much easier than I expected. Afterwards I drove down to the allergist's office to get my weekly allergy shot, so now that's out of the way, too. Tomorrow I'm going to see my parents. I haven't seen them in a long while and my dad's been back in the hospital. His health keeps deteriorating, and I need to go see him more often while I have the chance. After that, I plan to relax and enjoy my last few days off. 

These two love it when I'm at home all day!