What a Week

I have to say that I realize now how important it is to have a blog challenge because I am obviously really bad at keeping up with my blogging without a set goal. Therefore, I am on the hunt for a new challenge just to push myself to come out here and write for all my faithful followers.

Now on to 'real' post, this past week has been really weird....

1. Leo update.... We saw the vet last Friday and are on another 2 weeks of antibiotics. We will go back in for a followup once this round is complete and at that point will schedule some additional diagnostic testing, which will require for him to be put under anesthesia and hopefully actually figure out why this continues to happen. As the vet said, there should be NO reason why a dog of his age and who is taken such good care of should continue to have these infections....sigh. However, after he started taking the medication he bounced right back and has all the energy he normally has so we started going back to daycare. On Wednesday evening, when I picked him up, the dog that I thought was his sister was also being picked up so we got to look at them side by side up close. They do still look so very similar, however, in speaking with her "mom" it turns out that she is only 11 months old, so they would not be of the same litter....but I wonder if they have the same baby-daddy.
2. Monday when I went into the office and turned on my computer, it was D-E-A-D. It would try really hard to boot up but get stuck and just give up telling me that the operating system was missing. After dealing with the Service Desk and telling them the same thing over and over and over again, the technician finally said, "hmm, the onsite support will have to look at this, I'll open a ticket with them and they will call you." So, I started reading a book and following emails and what not on my Blackberry. Finally, around lunchtime, they call me and I take my machine down to the technology center, where the "magic" happens. I don't hear from them again until Wednesday when I went back down to the technology center to find out the status and after calling the Service Desk twice and getting nothing but 'challenges'. Anyway, finally, I got my laptop back around 1:00 in the afternoon and have spending the time since then resetting all my favorites and finding all my files, etc. 
3. Since, I didn't have a computer, I decided to just take Tuesday off. It was a 'fun' day of running errands. I also spent some time cleaning my house in preparation for a maid to come on Thursday. I had to do a final whirlwind tour on Wednesday evening so pick up the last minute things and to throw things in drawers and closets so that the maid could actually get to the surfaces and do the real cleaning. This has once again reinforced in me the importance of putting things away otherwise your house turns into a hoarders house and next thing you know I'm going to end up on Bravo. 
4. Ceramics class update.... Lastly, we had 2 sessions of ceramics class this week. Last week our class was cancelled as the instructor had Parent/Teacher night....I should have invited my parents.... Well, some of the students did go ahead and show up last Tuesday, or we could make up the class on Thursday of this week. I opted to make the class up on Thursday, and boy am I glad I did that. Tuesday, I spent the whole evening making a lantern. I have high hopes for it as it should be large enough to hold a pillar candle in it and I poked holes all around to let the light out. It was in the kiln last night when I showed up there, so it should be ready for glazing next week...along with a bunch of other stuff. Last night, I made a mug. I thought I was going to like making a mug....I didn't. I'll make more of the lanterns as they are square and you miter the corners to make things fit nicely, the mug was round and just felt lopsided, but that is okay, as it will work fine for me. After I finished the mug, I was trying to figure out what next I wanted to work on. The instructor was doing some work on the pottery wheel and offered to show me how to do that, since there were only two of us in the class, we both got excited and started learning how to throw clay. (Technically, I am not supposed to start learning how to do that for another 3 weeks.) Let me tell you....that was the most fun!! I suck at it and it is going to take some time to become comfortable at it, but I am sold. It is so amazing how just a little pressure and centrifugal force will do to a lump of clay. Here is a picture of the first bowl that I made. It is surprisingly almost perfect...although I did have a lot of assistance from the instructor in centering it and what not.... I'll just say, although I was totally covered in mud by the time I left, I LOVED every minute of it!!

Yesterday Sucked

While I know there are so many horrible things going on in the world and my pains and struggles are pretty minor a petty in the grand scheme of things, I still want to bemoan my bad day...

Something blew into North Texas on Wednesday night so my nose started running like a Kenyan marathoner. I woke up with a terrible sinus pressure headache, which even made my teeth hurt.

Driving into the office I managed to hit every single red light, which made me late for my first meeting, since I also ended up in a school zone due to the red lights and timing and was unable to dial into the meeting since I do not have a hands free device in my car.

True, the majority of the day was not horrendous, just a fairly regular Thursday.

The day started to look up when I made plans for dinner with Sara. However, I needed to run home and let Leo out of his crate and feed him before I met up with her.

As I leave my house to meet Sara, I get in my car and turn on the air conditioner and nothing but hot air blows out of it. I turn it off and then back on and still nothing but hot air. So, I drive to dinner trying to calculate how much it might cost to get the AC fixed (this will be the second time in 3 years that I've had to address this) and hoping that maybe it just needs some coolant and there is a minor leak. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that this is all it will require as I also need to get new tires for the beast. I've decided that I'm just going to keep driving this car until it gives up the ghost and just dies completely.

I get home and all is well. I watch a little television and then head off to bed to read. At 11:40 PM, Leo jumps off the bed, which means he needs to go outside, even though I had warned him when he didn't go potty before bedtime that he would just have to hold it until morning....totally empty threats, but I like to think I have some control. So, 11:40, I turn on the light and roll out of bed. I get to the bedroom door and open it just as he vomits on the bedroom carpet....he couldn't make it another 3 inches and vomit on the tile floor. We then rush to the backdoor and he starts to vomit again on the living room carpet, but I get him rearranged so that this round actually does make it to the tile. I then put him outside while I go and clean up the messes. We come back inside and he decides that he wants to sleep on the couch, so I go and get my pillow and a blanket and curl up on the couch as I don't want to go sleep in my bed and not hear him if he gets sick again.

So, this morning. Leo is still on the couch. He sounds so terrible and looks so pitiful. However, he is drinking water and his ears and groin are not hot, which tells me he isn't running a fever. I wish I could do something for my baby, but to be totally selfish, I don't want to take him to the vet because I really can't afford to do that....if I'm also going to get tires and the AC fixed...

Are we about done with this month....

YUMMMY!

I have no idea where they came from, but I just came across a small bag of Sahale Snacks Tuscan Almonds in my bowl of snacks that I keep around for when I get the munchies.

For some reason this afternoon I've been craving salty and knew that I didn't want to pop a big ol' bag of popcorn, nor did I trust myself to go to the grocery store to pick up a bag of chips because, let's be honest....I would not have gotten a single bag of chips and I really don't NEED to go get any chips.  Therefore, I went rummaging in my pantry stores to see what I could find and lo and behold I found some nuts. I may have picked them up on a flight to or from somewhere, because they are about the size of airplane nuts, but I can't think what airlines would have gone with something so fancy...

This particular bag o' nuts has the following description:

Enjoy the harmony of classic Italian tastes with an all-natural twist. Grated Parmesan cheese and sun dried tomato are partnered with a blend of Tuscan herbs, then oven roasted with whole almonds to create a bold, savory snack.

Now, the nuts are a little chewy, but I can easily get beyond that and focus on the mmm goodness of the flavor combination. I may have to do some research on where I can acquire this snacks in the future. 

Mill River Recluse

I finished reading The Mill River Recluse last night and was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this 99 cent Kindle book. Quick synopsis of the story: 

Disfigured by the blow of an abusive husband, and suffering her entire life with severe social anxiety disorder, the widow Mary McAllister spends almost sixty years secluded in a white marble mansion overlooking the town of Mill River, Vermont. Her links to the outside world are few: the mail, the media, an elderly priest with a guilty habit of pilfering spoons, and a bedroom window with a view of the town below.  

Most longtime residents of Mill River consider the marble house and its occupant peculiar, though insignificant, fixtures. An arsonist, a covetous nurse and the endearing village idiot are among the few who have ever seen Mary. Newcomers to Mill River - a police officer and his daughter a anew fourth grade teacher - are also curious about the reclusive old woman. But only Father Michael O'Brien knows Mary and the secret she keeps - on that, once revealed, will change all of their lives forever. 

Okay, so when I first read that, I was thinking this might be a good mystery of psychological thriller. It turns out it isn't. Instead, it is a really touching story of learning to accept people, flaws and all. Nobody is perfect. Nobody will ever be perfect. Everybody has their own uniqueness that deserves love and acceptance and we need to start with finding that within ourselves first. 

This is a quick and easy read, though as I said, so not what I was expecting, that I think would be great for anybody to read through on a cold, rainy weekend...when there is no football on.