What Do You Listen For?

I can't remember how long ago it has been but in the recent past the minister at my church told a story that really stuck with me. The story goes along the lines of:

Two people are walking down a busy street in the city.
One says, "Oh! Do you hear the birds singing? What a lovely song!"
The second person says, "I only hear the traffic and talking. How do you hear the birds?"
The first person says, "Observe..." and takes a handful of change out and throws it into the air.
Suddenly all the people walking around stop and start searching the sidewalk for the change that just pinged.
The first person then says, "We hear what we listen for..."

I've started trying really hard to keep this in mind when I'm taking my walks with Leo in the afternoon. I focus on hearing the birds in the trees or the kids playing in the school yard a block over. I try really, REALLY hard to block out the sounds of traffic from the busy streets around my house. In doing this, I've started noticing more birds and think I might have to take up ornithology just to know what I've seeing.

It is great fun to watch the progress of the birds as they pass through the area as Spring approaches. Last week there was a slew of robins around, but they have moved on through to their next destination and in conjunction with the robins I was blessed to see a couple of cardinals. Currently, I'm seeing a lot of finches and sparrows, but they are always around; I don't care though because they are still fun to watch and listen for. Yesterday, I saw a Mississippi Kite, I think.

The only downside, is that it disturbs Leo when we are going along at a good clip and I stop to stare up at the trees or roofs, because HE is the one that is supposed to cause us to stop regularly while he sniffs at ground stuff...I guess we need to just coordinate our stops.

So, what are you listening for?

And, because I want to show off some of my work, here is a close up of a small quilt I recently completed:

Happy New Year...Starting Over

It has been nine months since I last made my presence known here and I have resolved to change that this year. As I try to think back over the past year, I struggle to recall all that occurred over the past year. And because of this, I must make myself document the coming year...so prepare yourselves for months of tantalizing self reflection about working from home and watching the dog sleep with a snippet of creations that I'm working on (quilting, knitting, and with any luck some ceramics if I get the kiln up and going). 

With that promise made, here are a few things that I recall from the past year...

First, some of the quilts that I did complete:  

These are all small art quilts that I have been challenged to do. 

Second, I had a wonderful trip to Alaska with my mom, sister, and niece.  

And just because I can't leave without at least one shot of my love...

This is an example of what I see ever night as I eat my dinner...

Mom Trip - Day 3

We arrived at the location for our art quilt workshop and are pretty beat, so this will be a short post. 

We drove pretty much all day from Bowling Green, KY to Wooster, OH. We got stuck in construction traffic in Louisville, KY and game traffic in Cincinnati and then accident traffic in Columbus. 

The folks that we are staying with and learning from are really interesting and I'm looking forward to unleashing the creativity, but first I need to get to sleep and get rested. 

A couple of high points for the day, though were 1. Neither the subject or I realized that we would be driving into a different time zone so imagine our confusion when I looked AT&T the clock in the car and noticed that we had lost an hour. And 2. My dog walker, house sitter extraordinaire may have acquired another stray dog for me....but we will just have to see if he is still around when I return....

In the meantime, off for some much needed shut eye. 

Labor Day Weekend

I really didn't have many expectations for this long weekend. I mean, I did have a list of things to do, but in general, I assumed it would be a pretty uneventful weekend. That plan changed when I got into my car on Friday evening.

I headed out to my church where a group was putting on a play. As I'm driving down the road one of the fun warning lights starts blaring orange at me from my dashboard. Now, this is a light that has come on multiple times. Each time it comes on, I pull out the owners manual to check to see what it means and what I need to do about it. This particular light has something to do with the emissions system and if it continues to shine, then I should take the car to the dealership. So, I make the decision that I will take the car to the dealership on Tuesday and make a determination as to whether it will be more expensive to fix the issue or just trade the car in. I didn't come to this decision lightly. This light has been coming on and then going off for probably a year (yeah, I just kept ignoring it because it WOULD go off a couple of days after it turned on). The car is 12 years old and has given me 12 great years and included getting me to and from California without issue. So, Friday evening I pull back into my garage with that being the plan....dealership for diagnosis on Tuesday.

Saturday I road with my friend Jennifer and her beau Barry to the Watson's house for a chance to wish Randall a happy birthday and to meet the soon to be very famous Avery (check out everything about her arrival at her Wee Watson blog). It was great seeing Sara and Randall, and of course Avery. Sara did ask if I wanted to hold her and I immediately threw my hands up in the air and ran away...I'm really not much of a kid person. Avery is TINY, she came a little earlier than expected so even tinier than the normal baby that I would still run away from. I'm really not big on holding kids until they can manage the weight of their own head and don't require me to protect it or "watch it". And, to be 100% honest, I'm not really good with kids when they get older. I think I had 'baby pangs' for like 15 minutes in my early 30s when all my friends were having babies and I thought briefly that it would be a good thing for me to consider and that I was missing something by not having kids, but those feelings quickly diminished and I realize now that I don't really have a maternal bone in my body. I love ALL the kids that are in my life, I just don't know what to do with them and I can't relate to them, and I channel my great grandmother in thinking that children should be seen and not heard, or they need to be sent outside to play in traffic.

This brings us to Saturday evening. I still have my car on my mind....and I catch an ad on television before I can skip through the commercials that says that there are all these Labor Day specials at all these dealerships, so I think to myself, "Self, perhaps you should investigate...." So, that is what I did. I started investigating. I pulled up Kelly Blue Book to see what my car would be valued at (yeah, not much) and then started looking for acceptable alternatives.

Sunday comes around and I headed back out to my car to drive to church. This time when I started it up the glaring orange warning signal was no longer alight.....is my car trying to convince me that I don't need to get a new car? Is he teasing me into a lull of acceptance so that it will leave me on the side of the road stranded? I pondered and wondered. I decided that I wouldn't tempt fate and drive the 70 miles over and back to celebrate my nephew's birthday with the family and instead returned to my little den of vehicle investigation.

Monday morning I woke up and decided to heck with it, I don't care if my budget isn't ready for it, I'm just going to bite the bullet and get a new car. My original plan was to follow my head (after days....okay technically weeks and months and years of research because I have been thinking about this since I returned to Texas in 2009) and go to Honda and get a replacement CRV. However, I had to pass a Chevy dealership on my way to the Honda dealership and I felt that my heart really wanted me to at least look at and test drive an Equinox. Well, to shorten the story a little, a couple of hours later, I ended up driving off the lot with a pretty new white Equinox. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles that I probably could have gotten with a Honda (e.g., a sunroof, but I really doubt if I would ever open the sunroof) but it suits my needs and it is quite a bit roomier and more comfortable than my old CRV was. And, I guess I'll figure out how to make the budget work.

During the negotiations, I did text Sara and let her know that I was copying her and Randall, and she reached out to their neighbor who happens to be over the Used Car department and I don't know if strings were pulled or what, but he gave me a pretty good deal on my trade-in, so I was happy about that.

And, as a side note, I said above that I've been thinking about getting a new car for about 4 years now. When the topic first came up, my dad said that I should look at the GMC Terrain or, you guessed it, the Chevy Equinox....they are essentially the same vehicle. So, dad is still influencing me in one way or another....Now I just need to come up with a name for this new baby..... Oh, and Leo doesn't know what to think of it. 

Walking the Dog

I am currently lucky enough that I get to work from home. This means that I have developed a morning routine that makes Leo very happy.

5:30 - Alarm goes off and feed Leo. Return to bed to actually wake up and Leo curls up next to me.
6:00 - Actually get out of bed. Take my vitamins, put on some clothes, make a cup of coffee (thank you, Laura and Ash for giving me the ability to do this), turn on my computer, log in, check email, address some issues, update Facebook.
7:00 - Coffee has kicked in, so...well.... Put on my shoes, Leo jumps off the bed and starts pacing around all excited. Put leash on Leo and head out the door.
7:45ish - Return home (this all depends on how long we walk and how much sniffing/marking Leo does). Get in shower.
8:00 - Return to computer and start working. Leo decides that now HIS coffee has kicked in, so to speak, so he needs to spend some time in the backyard....yeah, he is sorta like his Mom in that he likes to 'take care of business' at home.
8:15 - Mom is hard at work. Leo is asleep on the floor of the office.

And so goes the day.

Here's the thing, I have a Fitbit that I wear and I shoot for a certain number of steps every day. This morning walk typically gets me close to halfway there but because I like to know what my progress is, I like to count my steps as I walk. I count to 100 and using my fingers as a sort of abacus, I keep track to 5 counts of 100 and know that I've gone 1,000 steps (I know you are probably thinking the math doesn't add up there, but I only count the steps that the left foot takes). Sadly, I have a tendency to get a little dyslexic when I'm walking and always (especially today) screw up when I get to the 40s. I tend to be counting along and find myself back in the 30s. I have no idea why I do this, but it really throws my count off...luckily it typically means that I go over the steps that I think I'm taking.

Oh, and in case you are wondering, I get the rest of my steps in during the house, typically by marching in place in front of the television or pacing from one end of the house to the other, circling Leo as I go and have to deal emotionally with the quizzical looks that he gives me as he doesn't comprehend why Mom is speed walking through the house over and over again in a maniacal manner periodically stopping to read what the little black thing on her shirt says. 

Happy Anniversary, Leo!

So, on July 22, 2011 (yes, I had to go back through my Facebook feed and find the actual date) I decided that I was going to welcome this beastie into my life, and I couldn't have made a better decision. 

That face makes me so happy every time I come home and he greets me. His cough worries me almost daily, but we are accepting of the current situation and as long as he doesn't turn away from food or starts to wheeze, then we are doing good. Our daily walks are the best time for some fresh air. Dancing in the kitchen as dinner is prepared makes me laugh. Cuddling in my lap at night to watch television warm my heart. My life would be so very different and so very empty without you in it. 

I love you, my crazy dog. 

Coyote Wannabe

The other day I was walking Leo and he did the funniest thing.

Normally, he is completely oblivious to nature and the 'wild' creatures out there. There will be a rabbit not five feet away from us and he will not even notice it. He may become curious if we are walking past a bush and it rustles, but in general he is NOT a hunter. And yet....

We were walking along and out of the corner of my eye I saw a road runner.

Surprisingly, Leo also saw it. The bird, bless him, took off at a slow trot and Leo took off after him. Sadly, Leo was on a leash that only lets out about 16 feet so just as he was picking up some speed he reached the end of it and it snapped back and almost jerked him off his feet. I couldn't help but picture Wile E. Coyote when this happened.

I couldn't help but laugh at the confused look that Leo gave me and the sad look he gave as the bird trotted off and I swear I hear a "Meep Meep" as if he was laughing at my poor Leo. 

Quilt Challenge - Macro

The latest challenge for the group Art Quilts Around the World was the word "Macro" from which we were to create a small quilt. The member who put forth this challenge referenced "macro" as close up photography, which gave it a new meaning for me as I always thought of macro as a little mini-program that is written within a piece of software that is used to perform some function.

With the idea of close-up photography, I had two thoughts run through my head, both of which centered around my sweet puppy Leo. At the time that the challenge was set, I was in the process of getting him tested to try and determine why he continues to have upper respiratory problems and one of the things that the vets recommended was that he had some issue with the cilia in his lungs. I did a Google search for photos of cilia and found a number that could have been translated into a quilt:

I opted against these because 1. I imagined having to get a feather boa involved and not sure that would really represent the direction that I want to take my art and 2. these photos are more of microscopic photography and didn't really fall into the meaning of macro photography.  

So, I opted to go with my second thought, which was to take a close up picture of my sweet Leo's nose and go from there. The only problem is getting him to sit still so that I can actually get a good picture of him because every time I pull out the camera he is nosing right into it and sniffing. I ended up taking this picture of him:

and zooming in to get the section of the nose that I wanted to focus on:

and ended up creating this quilt:

You will notice, perhaps, that the image is reversed on the quilt from the picture. That would be because I'm still trying to figure out how to make all of that work right, but I'm getting there. I really enjoyed doing this quilt and I have introduced myself to the joys of thread painting, or at least my version of thread painting. Every one of these challenges is making me a better artist as they force me to move well beyond the comfort of squares and triangles that I use in my normal bed quilting world. I still have a long way to go, but I'm loving every step of the journey.

And just for good measure, here is a shot of Leo watching over my studio while I work:

 

Leo Update

Because I know that you ALL care about and are worried about what is going on with my baby, Leo.

We went to a new vet yesterday; a specialist on internal medicine rather then a general practitioner in veterinary care. He reviewed all of Leo's medical records and films and took a look at my baby along with getting some oral history from me. He feels the issues are of two different paths (or possibly a combination of both of these):

First, he is immune deficient, which we already sort of assumed. However, he said that this is harder to get a confirmed diagnosis in animals because of there are any number of antigens that could be causing the issues. There is a blood test that can be done that could show a possible smoking gun, so we went ahead and did do that test.

Second, he may have Uncoordinated Cilia Function (although he called it some long technical name). When looking at the symptoms, this sounds pretty likely and even though this is something that normally shows itself in purebred dogs, one of the breeds that is listed is Staffordshire Bull Terriers, which I think Leo probably has a lot of in him. The symptoms are:

• Moist, productive cough that may be elicited by exercise (check)
• Bilateral nasal discharge with mucous and pus (check, I mean he is nicknamed Boogers McSnotty)
• Rapid breathing, shortness of breath, and pale tissues may be observed (he often has rapid breathing and shortness of breath, which always is disconcerting)
• Chronic sneezing and coughing - may produce copious amounts of mucous and pus. Despite dramatic response to antibiotics, patients may have continuous nasal discharge and will relapse after treatment is stopped. (check, check, check...we have gone through SOOO many antibiotics)

So, our next steps are that the vet is ordering material from the University of Pennsylvania where a specific test is performed to identify whether we are dealing with the cilia issue. Once the test kit arrives, we will schedule surgery for my baby. The vet is going to have to put him under anesthesia, do a lung and nasal biopsy along with a lung wash to identify if there are specific ickies in his lungs that we can point particular antibiotics at.

Okay, that is where we currently stand. If my baby had been left to his own devices out in the wild, he probably would not have survived. I love my little Boogers and am at the point where I just want to figure out what the issue is so that we can at least have a path of, if not curing it, at least provide him continued relief.

Really?!?

Has it really been two weeks since I last blogged?!? Wow, time sorta slipped away from me and sadly, I'm not expecting it to get much better in the coming months, so just bare with me.

Work has been crazy busy with my project finally taking off in full force. My deadline hasn't changed any, just the start date got pushed and pushed and pushed, so now we are having to make up a lot of lost time. I'm spending a ton of time staring at the computer building workflows in the system, so when I get a break about the last thing I want to do is write...that's the excuse I'm sticking with.

However, I guess I should give a little insight into what has been going on.

Leo - He managed to pick up a new cough while at daycare a couple of weeks ago and while he was on antibiotics, which concerns the vet that he has become resistant to the antibiotics. With this in mind, we are going in to see a diagnostic veterinarian on Monday to have some more extensive tests performed and hopefully get a plan of long-term treatment in place for him. However, because of this new development, I will not be purchasing a new car as of yet since my down-payment dollars are now going to tracheal washes and lung scopes.

Quilting - I managed to finish up a baby quilt for a friend of mine at work, which I will take into him next week. I have plans for my next small art quilt, which according to my challenge is due at the end of this month....and all I have are plans for it. Luckily, it is a small quilt and I think I should be able to whip that out over the next couple of weekends.

Other - I have signed up to facilitate a bi-weekly study group at my church, which I'm looking forward to. I went through the same group last year and found it to be very interesting and insightful, which is why I am participating again this year. There is a lot of reading involved, but I figure since I've done it before, it will be more of a refresher for me. Luckily, I'm not actually teaching the class, but basically just guiding the participants through the discussions.

So, like I said, some areas in my world are going a little crazy, others are quiet, but sitting and writing isn't really top on my list...even if I did give myself a challenge to follow. I'll try and keep things updated, when I can....it would be really great if I could figure out how to just think my blog posts and then they would magically appear and not actually require me to sit and put fingers to keyboard....

Happy Anniversary!!

Two years ago on Saturday, my friend Jennifer pinged me and asked if I was interested in a dog. I said maybe and she invited me over to see what had shown up in her yard. Mind you, I had no real intention of getting a dog at this time because I was about to take a couple of trips out of town and had no idea what to do with a dog. However, this is what I saw:

I was immediately in love and two days later (two years ago today), I brought this crazy little being home for the first time:

I worked a place for him to stay while I took my trips and then figured out how to make him a permanent part of my world....and permanent is definitely the case. He makes me happy every day when I come home from work. He meets me at the door and no matter how he if feeling he is jumping up and down trying to get my attention so that I'll give him hugs. He and I fight for the same seat on the couch and if I'm there first, he just curls up on top of me. Every morning we have a little Zen moment where we sit on the bed facing one another and put our foreheads together and just breathe. I cannot imagine my life without him now and it breaks my heart every time he is sick (he has pneumonia again, by the way). And I just have to think that I have given him as much as he has given to me.

I love you, sweetest of all sweet boys...Leo.

Cooking for Leo

As many of you know, I have a dog who has chronic health issues. I've recently decided that I wanted to try and get him off of being on antibiotics constantly and am looking for a more holistic approach of caring for him...or at least feeding him. I started with some dog food that I found that is ground, raw chicken meat, bones, innards, etc. with no grains or other fillers. It is then made into kibble shape and frozen. I was giving Leo this, and he loved it...sadly, one bag would last about 6 days and cost, well more than I pay for my own food.

I then decided that I would move away from the frozen kibble and acquired kibble from the same makers, but it is freeze-dried and comes in a regular bag with no special care instructions (the frozen had to stay frozen until ready to serve). However, I still want to give my baby something more than just kibble, so I am cooking for him as well. My first foray into cooking for him was chicken thighs cooked with potatoes and green peas and chicken stock. He was very happy with this, but it may have been a little rich for him. This week I boiled some chicken breasts, that I then chopped up, and cooked some brown rice in the same water that I boiled the chicken. I mixed it all up and added some shredded carrots:

He gets 2/3 cup of this each meal and it is supplemented with some kibble. I also will throw in some cherry tomatoes, or blueberries, or a couple of apple slices....I am thinking I need to start heating a scoop of this up for myself as well, because, in general it is pretty healthy....unfortunately, I didn't cook it with any seasoning and it tastes like sadness.

It does make me happy to see how happy he is when I put his food down for him. He practically dances for dinner these days.

Puppy Acupressure

As you know, I have a dog that I love very much. When you look at him, you will see that he has GREAT ears:

And, I admit, I love petting and rubbing his ears. I was doing this recently and recalled a scene from the movie The Truth About Cats and Dogs where the Janeane Garofalo character was explaining over the phone to the Ben Chaplin character how to calm down his recently acquired dog who was wearing roller skates. She said to slowly and consistently rub his ears from base to tip as these were acupressure points. I then did a search on dog acupressure and found many videos on how to do this, including this one, which speaks specifically to the ear region:

Sadly, though, it got me thinking about those dog breeds that typically will have their ears clipped because that is the "standard" of beauty (Dobermans, American Bull Terriers, Great Danes, etc.) and can only wonder about what they are losing out on if one of the calming pressure points have been removed. Makes me want to go rub my baby's ears just to make up for it.

Leo Update

First, a conversation held via BBM yesterday:

Me: Leo has doggy AIDS.
Sara: Has he been having sex with a monkey?
Me: Yes. I've been making illegal pet porn and not requiring them to wear condoms...

I know, totally NOT politically correct and NOT true, but I do have a slightly twisted sense of humor.

Now for the real update...

I went to the vet yesterday for a 2 week checkup from the last round of antibiotics. There didn't seem to be any change in his cough or runny nose, so the vet decided to put him on a different antibiotic, which I have to get from a people pharmacy. While there, I mentioned that this strange growth on his lip has gotten bigger and that he is getting these bald patches, and jokingly said he had scabies. Both the vet and the assistant step back when I said that, and said "not a joking matter". They then took a closer look and opted to do a test to see what was causing the issue.

Time passed and eventually the vet came back in letting me know the following:

1. The skin issue is actually Demodex Mange. 
2. The weird thing on his lip is Canine Papilloma Virus. 
3. And, well whatever is going on with his respiratory system is well know. 

What all of this, according to the vet, signifies is that my poor Leo more than likely has an immune deficiency. (Not an autoimmune deficiency, which is AIDS.) The vet recommends that I take him to an internist for a consultation to confirm, but she no longer thinks that we need to go through the expense of doing some of the diagnostic tests that they were at one time promoting. Instead, we need to determine a long term care plan that will keep him comfortable and, hopefully, relatively healthy for as long as we can.

Needless to say, not exactly the happiest vet visit, but at least we aren't shooting in the dark quite as much to figure out what is going on with him.

UPDATE: I'm thinking of changing Leo's nickname from Devil Dog to Bubble Dog...you know since I'm basically going to have to keep him in a bubble...

 

Happy Feet a la Sara

Sara posted yesterday about how happy her feet were after meeting up for our bi-weekly "Pedis and Pinot" event (although we don't actually drink Pinot...sometimes we'll go out for dinner afterwards and have a Margarita or a glass of wine). In her blog, she mentioned getting flowers on her toes because the plan for the green sparkle polish (for St. Patty's Day) over the neon pink (for her birthday) just didn't quite cut it, while I got a green polish base and topped with the green sparkle:

Yes, I figured I'd get a shot with Leo since I hadn't put a picture of him out here in a couple of week.

I also decided that I would display my toes in the choice of sandals that I'm deciding on for my upcoming trip to Hawaii:

I was trying to decide which would be better as I'm only keeping one pair....I'm going with the ones on the right because they are MUCH more comfortable. 

Attempted Escape

Leo has been staying home alone lately while I go into the office rather than going to Doggie Daycare. I came home yesterday and found one of the gates keeping him in the kitchen area all catty-whompus. (Yeah, I said it "catty-whompus"!) I'm not certain if he had attempted some form of escape or if it was just a little loose and when he vaulted off his sleeping pillow to greet me as I came in it caused the catty-whompafication. Either way, we had to reset the gate and hopefully got it tighter this morning.....oh and just as a precaution the pillow is not directly in the line of fire to the gate. 

You Are Getting Very Sleepy

I have been listening to self-hypnosis and/or meditation tracks as I fall asleep for the past couple of weeks. I admit that they are primarily focused on weight-loss, eating healthy, get motivated to exercise, or, in the case of the meditation, just ways to calm your mind in order to meditate. I will play one of these at night, after I've read a chapter or two of whatever book is handy and I turn out the light to prepare to go to sleep.

I can't say that I've actually noticed any changes based on the hypnosis. I mean, I still eat about the same and  I'm not losing any weight. I still binge eat at times, which is terrible I know and an issue that I'm addressing (sorta via self-hypnosis, but whatever). And, I certainly am not more motivated to workout...I mean, Sara can't even convince me to join her team to possibly run and drink beer...primarily because I don't run NOR do I really drink beer....maybe they need to do a run where you stop and have a glass of bubbly along the way...but I digress. What I can say about listening to these tapes is that I sleep GREAT! I'm really relaxed and feel very rested when I wake up in the morning. I'm not even disturbed by the dog's movements in bed and don't realize that I'm slowly getting shoved out by him.

My one real concern, though, is that I'm wondering what effect these recordings are having on Leo...I mean, he has gotten more picky about what he eats and he seems to want to be more active.... 

Spoiled Hound

 I know this comes as NO shock to anybody out there that has been following the saga of Leo. I have spoiled him and he is a rotten, though sweet, beast....and I love him.

The latest tale of spoildom is as follows:

We went to the vet last week for another checkup for another round of antibiotics for his ongoing respiratory ailments. At this time, the vet also says that he needs to have another test, that is normally part of the annual checkup process but since he has never really had an annual checkup due to the fact that he has been in there about every 6 weeks with respiratory ailments, he needs to have this test done now. I'm okay with that happening, so they do the test. The next day the vet calls and informs me that Leo has worms (now, these are not worms that can be transferred to humans so no worry if you have been in contact with him and they can only be passed to other dogs through a mother who is infected licking her puppies...or unless a dog eats prey or drinks water that is contaminated with the larva). Well, it turns out that these worms can cause reactions in the airways, leadign to obstruction of breathing and complications can lead to problems such as shortness of breath (check), bronchitis, emphysema, fluid build-up in the lungs (check), and even pneumonia (check). Hmmm, makes me wonder if my baby had been given this test a year or more ago if we would have found this and fixed it then....ah well, hindsight is at least 60/40, right?

So, how does worms lead to a spoiled hound, you may be asking. The vet gave me this powder that I have to put on his food daily for 10 days (normally it is only for 5 days but as we all know, my baby is special) and then I have to dampen the powder and kibble to make it stick. Well, I don't want to just wet it with water because I don't use that fancy dog food that makes its own gravy, therefore, I dampen it with some chicken broth. Leo gets very excited about his dinner now!! Unfortunately, at the meals where he doesn't have to take the medicine and therefore doesn't get the chicken broth, he has started to follow me around and look at me and the food like "where's the broth". Yesterday morning, I admit I threw a little broth on there because I was rushing to get out the door and get him to daycare and knew that he needed to eat so he would have his energy to play. Today, he didn't eat until I sat down at the desk and started working and he realized that it wasn't going to get any better.

Like I said, spoiled.....but loveable.

Great Weekend!!

I just had a great weekend with lots of old and new friends. This is the weekend where by Sara Wonder Watson-to-be officially became Sara Watson (a Wonder in her own right).

The festivities began on Friday night when the available HCBC members gathered at Casa ABBA for drinks and snacks and general catching up (as many of the folks were traveling from all parts of the country and we don't see one another very often).


Picture: ABBA, Kim1Champ, Andrea, Laura is Jane, and Diane

Leo found much love from all that came to visit. As each new person joined the group, he gave them each his special love (that is except for Ash and David, our token men as Leo isn't around men very often and doesn't quite know how to take them). Kim, however, seems to be the only one who had his lovin' caught on film, and we all think is a sign that she needs a dog.

On Saturday, Laura and Ash took me to lunch at Mi Cocina's where Laura had a Mambo Taxi and I had a glass of Sangria. After lunch, and feeling the effects of our midday beverages, we headed to DSW, whereby Laura left with seven pairs of shoes and I left apologizing to Ash for being such a bad influence. It was then home and quick change to get ready for the real reasong for the gathering...The Wedding!!

Sara and Randall exchanged vows in a lovely ceremony attended to by both of their immediate families (including participation of numerous nieces and nephews).

The audience was full of friends and more family all filled with joy at their combined happiness and love for one another. Post ceremony was, of course, the reception. Where we were finally able to see the true love and joy (and relaxation that it was finally done) on their faces.

Aren't they a lovely couple?

The reception included a wonderful spread of food and drinks and music provided by Diamond Dave:

We were all out on the dance floor with him spinning the tunes. The evening was filled with joy and happiness and lots and lots of laughter. I couldn't have had a better time...I can only imagine that my enjoyment was just a tenth of what the bride and groom felt, though.

Sadly, though, the evening came to an end. We sent the lovely couple off in style, headed back in for a few final dances, then home to bed. I was surprised when we returned home by a gift from Laura and Ash as they felt that I needed to have a coffee maker in Casa ABBA:

I have now found that I'm very fond of having a coffee maker and am finding myself drinking coffee (with lots of cream and surgar) and really enjoying it. With that being said, I can thank my caffeine addiction to my wonderful Phoenix friends now.

Sunday morning saw everybody headed off to the airport. Ash and Laura left Casa ABBA bright and early. I was sad to see them go as it had been a whirlwind weekend and not really much time spent really visiting...of course that goes for all of the folks that were in from out of town (which just means that we must plan more frequent gatherings). Later in the morning I did have the priviledge of running into the Bride and Groom as I was picking up a friend to take to the airport. Needless to say, they looked relaxed and happy and back in their natural element...by one another's side.

I want to wrap this up by saying congratulations to the beautiful couple and thank you for inviting me to join you all in your happiness and celebration. I also want to thank the HCBC members for visiting me in my home and loving my Leo as much as I do. And, especially to Ash and Laura for staying with me; I so enjoyed having you and hope that you will come again to stay at Casa ABBA, where there are always sloppy dog kisses from Leo and warm hugs (and now coffee) from me.....of course that goes to all of you.

Picture Challenge - January 24

I figure since I'm way behind on posting pictures and will probably NOT make up for it, so we'll just throw out this picture of Leo...you know because I haven't posted one of him recently....