Sweet Freedom 2010

We finished up the school year on  Friday and I have a whole summer of freedom to contemplate.  I enjoy my job,  but I enjoy sleeping in and persuing other interests too, so I am lucky to be able to get the summer off. 

The summer is not starting out on a great note, however.  About a month ago Shady started bleeding from her rear-end every time she had a bowl movement.  I took her into the vet and Eric said her anal glands were really full.  He cleaned them out and said that she shouldn't have any more problems, because big dogs don't tend to have gland problems.  Unfortunately she continued to bleed.  When I got back from Mexico I took her back in to have her glands cleaned again.  Eric was surprised that they were already full, and he put her on an antibiotic just in case an infection was causing the problem.  After about a day on the antibiotics I could tell that she felt a lot better, but she continued to bleed.  We finished the antibiotics and I took her back in on Thursday because the bleeding continued and this time he finally found a tumor just inside her anus.  My poor coonhound will be going in on Monday for butt surgery, and hopefully this will take care of the problem once and for all.  Eric says that the chance of this being cancerous in a dog so young is very slim, but he also seemed surprised that she would have this problem at all.  I am keeping my fingers crossed that I won't be losing another dog to cancer so soon.  Keep your fingers crossed for the coonhound!

Look What I Found!

Shady and I took the steep trail up above the Fernwood Picnic Area this morning.  We had hiked for about an hour and I was about ready to turn around when I noticed that Shady had taken little side trail.  I decided to follow her for a minute and see where the trail went and just a minute later I stumbled onto this cute little old cabin.

Inside I found several pots, pans, utensils and a phone book.  I'm not sure why the phone book is there, since there is definitely not a phone here.

Outside a pipe was streaming water into this little trough.  I wondered if the water came from a spring, and since I was really thirsty I was tempted to try it.  Since I have to work for another week I decided that I'd better not risk it.

This waterfall isn't in the Fernwood area, but I had the picture on my phone from last week and since it was pretty I decided to include it.

Don't Look for Pictures Here!

Unfortunately my camera was not stolen in the Cancun airport.  I wish that someone had stolen it instead of Denise's, because this camera sucks!  Mom and Rick got this camera from Rick's dad, and when my old camera died a couple of months ago they gave this one to me.  (Sorry Mom and Rick!  I'm always grateful for a free gift, but this one isn't worth anything.)  After I uploaded pictures to the computer I found that it had been used before.  Apparently it wasn't just my picture taking skills that were lacking, because most of the other pictures weren't any good either.  There were several dark and blurry pictures of a small t.v. set and a box of files, another several pictures of Mom and Rick's house (only one of which wasn't really blurry) and a couple of really good pictures of what appears to be Lake Coeur d'Alane.  This first picture was posted simply because it was the only one that actually turned out, even if there isn't a single member of our family in it.  After that there are a few other pictures that I was able to adjust the brightness and tint enough to make them visible.

Here I was able to snap one picture of Denise before I was told by the real photographer's assistant that I wasn't allowed to take my own pictures of the iguana.

Here we have JoLyn working on the landscaping.  Despite her good work she was unable to get us upgraded to Privelege status.

Below we have pictures of Nate and his girls at Xel-Ha.  It sure was good to see them, but we missed Ang!

Anyway, despite my lack of decent pictures I had a really great time.  It was good to spend time with the Fam, and any time I am in Mexico on the beach it is a good time.

Pictures

Mom came up for the weekend and we spent Friday afternoon and evening at Ava's dance competition.  The afternoon started off as a near disaster when, at the last minute, Steph was unable to burn the song Ava was dancing to to a  CD.  There were a few tense minutes and frantic phone calls before she was able to get a copy of it.

Here we have Ava posing before the dance.  I know I promised Ang that there would be video, but that was the second disaster of the day.  Mom recorded it and Brian did too, so you would think we had it covered.  Unfortuantely Mom accidentally deleted her copy while trying to view it, and I understand Brian accidentally recorded his shoes while he thought he was recording Ava.  I was taking still pictures with Steph's camera at the time, and they didn't look good in the viewer.  They were all dark and grainy so I don't know if any of them turned out.

She was awfully cute out there and she did a great job.  I can't  believe she was brave enough to dance by herself in front of that crowd and the judges.  Unfortunately the 5 kids she was competing against were really good too, and Ava ended up being the 5th runner up.  She didn't seem to mind (or more likely understand) her standing.  Each of the kids got a giant trophy and she was as happy as could be.  As we were standing in the foyer waiting for Steph to get the car she said, "I just can't believe that the judges liked me!"

Since I've been getting crap for not having posted any pictures of myself, here you go.

We also stopped by to see Grandpa and Joyce on Saturday.  Grandpa has not been doing well, and it was heartbreaking to see him like that.  He hasn't been out of bed for several weeks, and I don't know if he even knew we were there.  He slept most of the time, and when he was awake he wasn't at all communicative.  Joyce is such an angel and she takes such good care of him.  I think she is absolutely amazing.

Yard Work

Now that spring is here my life consists of work, hiking, and yard work.  I meant to take a photo of all of the flats of plants on my patio table before I put them in the ground, but I forgot.  Since they are still so tiny they don't look very impressive in my flower beds, so they are not worth a picture right now.  My hands are blistered despite the fact that I wore gloves, but at least everything has been planted.  I had 4 flats of flowers, 6 tomatoes, 16 assorted hot peppers, and 2 red Rose of Sharon.  I still need to get 2 or 3 blue Rose of Sharon to make my hedge.

Somehow, despite my best efforts, I have come in contact with gluten.  I am thinking that the big tub of peanuts I bought from Costo is contaminated, so I am off peanuts for a while.  There is never a good time to be covered with a scaly rash, but I really hope it is gone before I get to Mexico.  I'm a little bit nervous about eating at the resort.  It's not hard to stay away from foods that obviously contain gluten, but you never know what might be contaminated.

Anyhow, that's what I'm up to this week.  Nothing exciting, but I do keep busy.

This, That, and the Other.

Now that I've finally figured out how to get pictures off my phone, here are a few for your enjoyment.

Last Saturday I joined Steph's family at her company Easter party.  We enjoyed a lovely buffet then the kids had an Easter egg hunt.

Two days later I woke up to this: 8 freaking inches of snow!  Winter is over, and the snow needs to get lost!

Luckily the snow had almost all melted by the next day, and it has been warming up ever since.

Now that the snow is melting the coonhound is finding dead animal parts almost every day.  In this photo she is chewing on a deer pelvis.  I thought I had a picture of her with an elk skull, but that seems to have mysteriously disappeared from my camera.  It was a creepy skull, and I was not happy about it.  In fact, I'm not entirely sure that it wasn't a chupacabra skull.  It had really sharp teeth for an herbivore, but it also had antlers.  Yesterday she brought me a squirrel.  I don't know if she killed it or if it was dead before she found it, but I made her drop it.  Jef would be happy to know that I do let her carry the deer and elk parts around and chew on them, but I draw the line at letting them get into the car with us.  One day she carried an entire deer leg, complete with fur and hoof, for about an hour.  I had a heck of a time getting her to let go of that when we got to the car.

Here she is drinking from a baby waterfall.  I just liked this photo.

This photo was taken at about 11 pm on a school night, which is well past my bed time.  I had just settled into bed when I heard a soft "woof" coming from upstairs.  I figured that she was looking at something out the window, and that she would settle down soon, but she continued to woof softly every couple of minutes.  Pretty soon I could also hear her toe nails dancing around on the floor in addition to the woofing.  I finally decided to see what was up, and I found her standing in front of the refrigerator looking at the new box of Milk Bones I had purchased from Costco earlier that day.  I opened the box, gave her a Milk Bone, and went back to bed.  Unfortunately the woofing and dancing continued, so I went back upstairs and emptied the Milk Bones into a big Rubbermaid container, put it in the pantry, and went back to bed.  Once again, the woofing and the dancing started up again.  I finally went back up to see what she needed now, and she was staring intently at the box which I had put back on top of the refrigerator.  I gave her the empty box and for the next hour she raced through the house, up and down the stairs, around the kitchen and living room, with that stupid box in her mouth.  It was not a small box, so it made a lot of noise as she was careening through the house with it.  She finally managed to destroy it, and we were then able to go to sleep.  These are the things you have to put up with when you live with a coonhound!

This and That

I am coming to the end of the HCG diet phase 2.  For the last three weeks I have been able to keep off all of the weight that I lost.  I have been having a love affair with cashews that may have become a real problem for me, but as long as I'm not gaining the weight back I guess it's okay.  Even though I long to eat carbs I am a bit nervous about bringing them back into my diet.  I sent Mom a link a couple of weeks ago, and she found a link to the following blog on that site - http://cleochatra.blogspot.com/.  I love this blog!  The author has all kinds of recipes that are both low carb AND gluten free!  I made the oopsie rolls today and I enjoyed a tuna melt on one for lunch.  It's not bread, but for those of us who can't eat bread it is an acceptable alternative.  I've wanted to make the ultimate cheesecake.  I got Xyletol and Erythretol at the local health food store,  but I was unable to find ThickenThin.  Now that I can eat carbs again I may make this next week using plain old corn starch.  I figure that using the no-carb sweeteners it will still be fairly low carb with the corn starch.  I am also planning to make the cauliflower pizza crust tomorrow.  Those of you who can eat real pizza crust will not understand the quest for an acceptable alternative.  You just don't know how lucky you are until you can't eat any of the foods you love any more!

On the bright side I have been on a MAJOR shopping spree this week.  Last fall I'd finally given up on ever losing weight again, so I sent almost all of my "skinny" clothes to the DI.  As a result I have had to replace my entire wardrobe.  I now own three stunningly beautiful dresses, a great leather jacket, a swim suit, 3 pair of capris, 1 pair of shorts, 7 t-shirts, and 5 blouses.  Since I am out of money I really need to stop, but it's hard to stop once you've started and you actually feel good about the way you look.  I want to shop, and I want to buy everything I see!  Angela, I know you want pictures, but I really can't help you.  For one thing, I can't take pictures of myself (trust me, I've tried).  Second, I accidentally threw away the power cord for my camera thinking that it went to my old cell phone, and the battery is dead.  Third, I cannot get anything to upload from or download to my new cell phone.  I am having real technical difficulties here!