Category Archives: pets,cats,dogs,

Thankful Thursday

Posted in California, cooking, Gratitude, knee injury, pets, pets,cats,dogs,, swimming, Walking by

I’m so thankful my knee is doing so much better. I’m able to do almost everything without pain. I’m still only walking 1 + mile but I’m grateful for that. This morning on our walk, I added one extra loop around the school parking lot. That put me 1.2 miles, so I’m jazzed about that. I went to the pool yesterday and swam for @35 minutes. I’m not back to 45 but 30 is a good enough time in the water.

I’m thankful for the beautiful morning with sunrise quite early.( 6:21). It was almost too bright for my eyes which is one reason I walk in predawn light. I guess since sunrise is going to continue getting earlier, we’ll need to adjust and walk maybe 15 minutes earlier.

I’m grateful to be able to do some canning this morning. I have kidney beans I’m pressure-canning. I also plan on doing cannellini (white beans) soon. Beans seem to be the thing we’re using the most. It does take some time and you never want to leave a pressure canner unattended. I usually sit where I can hear the juggle and make sure it’s doing its thing. Pint jars take 75 minutes after the 10-minute air valve release.

I’m grateful to be where I am at this stage of life. My life is simple and filled with just the right amount of activity. I’m grateful I started my decluttering /minimalist journey years ago and don’t really need to do the Swedish Death cleaning. I’m sure after I’m gone there will be still lots of stuff my daughter/son won’t want. They may not want the 1950’s Heywood furniture. That’s ok, it’ll be primarily my daughter’s house. The barn is pretty much my son’s hoarder, oops, craft, tools, and everything else place. He does have a lot of bins of things:( Oh well, that’s his choice.

Here’s some fun photos of the kitties enjoying the Birthday box from Chewy!!!

That’s Bean!

Very strange Cherry!!

Happy 4th of July!

Posted in budgets, cooking, Credit cards, Flylady, pets, pets,cats,dogs,, Uncategorized, Walking by

There are some great articles over at the Washington Post about 4th of July and it’s meaning to Black Americans. Quite fascinating. Plus the whole connection of slavery tied to our independence day. Definitely worth reading. There’s also a couple of good articles on Republican assholes trying to block any Critical theory information being taught in schools. Suppressing knowledge ,it seems, is what Republicans do best. At least most of the Confederate statues have been removed from public lands. Having such constant reminders of slavery and oppression must have been so hard for so long for Black Americans.

anyway,I have the digital subscription and it’s totally worth the price, if you want the news that is informative and FACT based.

We did a nice walk this morning although there were a few clouds so it seemed quite muggy. Generally, our humidity is quite low so the heat isn’t quite as oppressive. Tomorrow is Monday, so it’s a no walk day but being a holiday, we may walk anyway.

This week is the Flylady kitchen zone. I’ll start on that later after breakfast. We’re getting so many eggs from the girls, I can’t give the eggs away quick enough. So this morning I scrambled a dozen but since there’s another 2 dozen in the fridge. It’s still overwhelming. Still, there’s nothing like your own fresh eggs.

I need to do July’s budget. Our water bill came in thru the roof. But hopefully next month will decrease a little. Then I had an unexpected dental copay that I thought I’d paid for. It’s these things that throw my budget. Plus, I had an unauthorized purchase on my Visa so I had to cancel that and I have 2 bills I know of on that card so now I have to call and put them on a different card till I get the replacement which they said would be 10 days or so. What a pain.

No appts this week which is so great!! Last week I had my eye doctor appt and that went well. No change with the macular pucker.

I’ve sold a few more Waldorf toys to the lady who bought the others on Ebay. She has young children and I’m glad they are going to where they will be loved. I also gave my son a whole box of Waldorf toys to give his boss who has a young child. I didn’t want to deal with listing any of those. So more stuff gone that was just in boxes. i don’t have tons of clutter anymore but there seems to always be misc stuff that needs to be dealt with like the Waldorf toys. I am keeping most of the little wood animals as I think they are cute and I do put them out. Right now I have out the 2 bunnies, the frog prince and another frog. Why frogs?? Because right now they are croaking ALL night long in our pond. It’s frog mating time and boy, can they be noisy.

It’s too hot to BBQ so I ‘m not sure what we’ll do for 4th of July celebration. Maybe a big salad.

I leave you with the kitties…

Guster ( Gus) on the left, next is Smudgerton, Bean, and cherry blossom also known as Hissy Princess.

Mamakat is still totally neurotic about yowling at the kitties. I’m ready to give her to the ASPCA.( almost).

Another sad day…

Posted in Blood test, bread, pets, pets,cats,dogs,, Uncategorized by

We lost Finnie yesterday.

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4BC83E01-6F8F-4B89-835A-B8DAA105BC0A.jpegAlmost a month exactly from when Ollie died. Finnie seemed to be doing okay. We took him to the vet and he did a round of antibiotics but over this last week he got worse. We’re not really sure what it was but he was acting very weird and then confused and not very aware of things. So we called the vet and he went to kitty heaven. It’s been a hard last 9 months with both dogs and now both our cats. The cats were 17 years old and were adopted together so maybe they were so bonded or something. Anyway, it’s lonely in the morning without them yowling for cream and food. I’m sure we will get some kitties down the road but not for a while yet.

I think pets teach us so much about life and death. Plus they are just present. A lot to be learned from that alone.

The weather is still blah. Not sunny not rainy. Just grey. We walked this morning and only the one other dog walker was there so that was nice.

My labs came in and it’s okay. My kappa light chains went to 110mg/L so an 18 point increase and Lambda went down to 12mg/L. Looking back over my labs since 2015 my Lambda never did go out of normal range but that’s because my myeloma is kappa. So now the ratio is up to 9.23mg/L  So going up.

I’m planning to not go down to Sac at the end of the month but the assistant said we could do a video conference so that’s what I’ll do.  Really nothing different is going to be said until he’s ready for me to start treatment.  Sigh:(

I’m going to make some cookies today and then move some pantry stuff. My order of flour should be showing up today. That’s a good thing as I’m starting a Tartine bread leaven and will need the flour tomorrow.

 

 

Our sweet Ollie…

Posted in Death, pets,cats,dogs,, Uncategorized by

The time finally came and Ollie was put to ‘sleep’ yesterday. Not sure why we say’put to sleep’. Really he’s dead now but his little body just couldn’t go on.

Ollie was almost 17 and part Maine coon. At one point he weighed over 20 pounds and was a big boy. He was also my daughter’s surrogate child so the loss is keen.

About 5 years ago he started getting a lump on his neck. She paid over $5,000 in diagnostics ( yes that is correct). And everyone agreed it was too dangerous to operate on and it was only a matter of time. Well, he fooled everyone and made it that long.

Almost 2 years ago in the summer, he had an episode where he couldn’t swallow. He was a goner …almost. We called the mobile Vet and she came out. But right before that, I whacked him on the back for 2-3 minutes and he spit up a huge gob of spit. When the Vet got there he was doing much better and we left it at that.

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Ollie loved everyone and was the sweetest cat. He was a rescue and now his rescue buddy Finwe( Winnie) is alone and he too is 17 so, I guess, he’s next.

Sad days.