Odds and Ends

I have been getting my allergy shots for 3 weeks now. I go in twice a week and get four injections each time. The injections to my right arm are not causing me any problems, but the injections to my left arm are. Apparently the culprit is Tree Mix B, which contains the mountain cedar allergen. It burns going in and for the first 24 hours after an injection I have 2 hot, hard lumps on my arm. After that it bruises, and the injection sites appear to be scarring. Hopefully it will be worth it in the end. I have 3 more weeks on this schedule and then they will start extending the time between injections. Eventually I think I will only have to go in once every three months.

Shady is progressing with her training. Some days she is good, and some days she is bad. She doesn't ever bark at the neighbors anymore, which makes me happy. I have taken her over to the high school football field twice now to work with her off-leash. Of course she is always good while we are there. She barely leaves my side. Once we are back on the sidewalks or on the trail it is another story entirely.

On another note, Mom and I have booked a trip to Cozumel next month. We will be staying at the Wyndham from June 11th to the 16th. It can't come soon enough for me.

I have spent most of my day working on the yard. I bought three flats of flowers last weekend and when I got them all in the ground today I realized that I needed about another flat, so those will have to go in another day. Ever since I bought this house I have been in a rut with my annuals. I always get 2 flats of dahlias and 2 flats of snapdragons. I decided to be adventurous this year and go with something new.


Here we have my front flower bed. In the middle I have planted stock, then there is a ring of fading tulips, then petunias on the outside. When the tulips are done I will replace them with yellow and red snapdragons.

These little guys are verbena. They are really tiny right now, but after I finished planting them I noticed that the tag said to space them 15 inches apart. I space them about 4 inches apart. We will see how they turn out.

The purple and orange flowers are violas, the star-shaped red flowers are nicotaina, and then there are some snapdragons in the back. The ones with no blooms will be red zinnias and the tall stalks in the back are gladiolas.

Here I have some more petunias and snap dragons to fill in my front bed, and some dianthus that will go in my park strip. I am hoping that the dianthus will come back every year.

When these flowers started to come up I had no idea what they were. I had forgotten that Grandma gave me these bulbs last fall. I don't remember what they are called, but I love them. Thanks Grandma!

I also planted tomatoes, onions, jalapenos, and cayenne peppers for salsa. I would like to learn how to can salsa this fall. I am kicking myself for giving away those canning supplies when dad died. Eventually I am hoping that my peach tree produces enough fruit for canning as well.

Washer Repair

So the appliance repair man came by this morning and pulled a button out of the pump in my washing machine. It is a large, navy blue button with the words 'American Eagle' stamped on it. The funny thing is that I have never owned a single item of clothing from American Eagle. I was telling Jamie about it and she got excited and said that it is a button that goes to a coat Stephanie gave her last year. Somehow that button has been floating around in the inner guts of my washing machine for at least a year now before getting stuck in the pump.

If I hadn't broken the door it would have been a cheap and easy repair job. As it is, it will take them at least another week to order the parts and the entire job will end up costing me $400. I still feel like the satisfaction of beating the crap out of my washing machine was worth it.

Frustration

I went walking with Shady over at Denise's barn today and got my shoes all muddy. When I came home I threw them in the washing machine, and a couple of hourse later I realized that the washing machine was beeping at me. It is one of these stupid front-loading Maytag Neptunes, and the code on the display said that it was not able to drain or spin. Because there is water in the washer, the door was locked and I was unable to get it open. Since those are my only pair of athletic shoes, and since I have to walk my coonhound every day, I pried the door open to get my shoes out and I broke the door. I have home insurance that covers appliances, but of course the 24 hour telephone service center is closed for upgrades. Any bets on how long it takes them to send someone out to look at the stupid thing? Any guesses on how much it is going to cost me to fix the door? Since I broke that on purpose I'm sure it isn't covered!

My Salvation / Steph & Brian's Wedding

Okay, this is kind of an awkward post with two very separate subjects.

First of all, my salvation has come in the form of an electric collar with remote control. After just one lesson my dog is a completely different animal. There is no pulling and very little barking on our walks. My dog actually heels beautifully. We still have some issues to work through but I am so glad that I invested the money.

Secondly, Steph and Brian had a lovely ceremony on Friday. It was short and sweet and the family went out for burgers afterwards. This is my kind of dream wedding. I didn't get very many good pictures, so I hope that someone else will post some soon.

They were married in the Ivy Lane Reception Center in Ogden. It was a beautiful building but I didn't get any shots of the outside. This is a picture was taken standing in the main hall looking towards the back entrance.

Here we have our lovely flower girls, Ashlyn, Grace and Ava.

During the ceremony the flower girls took their job very seriously. After all of the rose petals had been thrown Grace dropped down to the floor and started blowing them towards Brian and Stephanie. Ava picked up handfulls and threw them with violent intensity. I was laughing so hard at them that I could hardly pay attention to the ceremony.

I didn't get any good pictures of Steph and Brian. I know that some of my sisters did, so they had better post them soon!

Updates

I finished my allergy testing yesterday. I am officially allergic to mountain cedar, box elder, sage brush, rag weed, cats, and a type of mold that grows on decaying plant matter. Desensitization shots will help with everything except the cat allergy, so I start shots next week. I have to go in twice each week. Each time I will get a shot in both arms, wait 15 minutes, then get another shot in both arms. After six weeks I should only have to go in once every three months for a shot.

Shady is as adorable and naughty as ever. I have been really frustrated with some of her behavior. She pulls on the leash so hard that she is really hurting my joints, and the collar is cutting her neck. She also has barking fits now and then where she just can't seem to stop. Two different trainers told me that coonhounds are just bad and they can't be trained. They both recommended an electric collar, but I was hesitant to do that on my own. I don't want to just shock her, I want to know that I am doing it the right way in order to train her. Then I was in PetsMart a couple of weeks ago and I noticed a really well behaved boxer wearing an electric collar. I talked to the owner and she told me that they worked with a trainer in Salt Lake. The company is called Sit Means Sit. I contacted them and found out that the package with a collar, the remote, and lessons costs $600. I was very reluctant at first, but the more I thought about it I decided that if it gives me a well behaved dog for the next 10 or 12 years it will be worth it. The trainer will come to my house for hour long sessions as many times as I need him to for the life of my dog. If she trains up really well in the next month and then 3 years from now develops some really bad habit, he will come back and work with her for no charge. If he ends up not being able to train her he will refund all of the money. If I can refer people to him he will refund $50 for every person who signs up until my entire package has been refunded. She starts training tomorrow, so hopefully it will all be worth it.

Allergy Testing

I have been suffering from "seasonal allergies" for about 10 or 15 years now. Last spring in addition to the lovely sneezing and itchy eyes I broke out in hives on my neck and chest for about 3 months. When the hives returned last week I decided it was time to get help. In the past I have seen my regular doctor and haven't gotten much help, so I decided to see an allergy specialist. My new doctor said that they don't usually do allergy testing on first time patients, but the hives concerned him so he decided to test me right away. The first round of testing includes plants and animals. I got 48 needle pricks on my arms and I found out that I am very allergic to mountain cedar and box elder trees. I am also allergic to cottonwoods, sage brush, wheat pollen and a few other plants that I don't remember. I am not allergic to any household pets. I have to go in again on Thursday for food allergy testing, and then again next Tuesday and I don't know what they will be testing me for then. Once I finish the tests I will start desensitization shots which should be a lot of fun. I had a bunch of hives at the injection sites for about 2 hours, but now they have faded and I just have needle track marks running up and down both of my arms.

Below is a picture of what my neck has looked like for the past week.

Wanderings

I walked Shady over to the Kaysville ponds today. There were a number of pelicans in addidion to the usual ducks and geese, and I always enjoy looking at pelicans. Unfortunately they were nervous animals, and this is the best picture I could get. The large white bird near the reeds is a pelican.
Last night we took our walk in City Creek Canyon in Salt Lake. I had never been there before so it was something of an adventure. Apparently the paved road goes all the way to the top of the canyon, but we didn't walk that far. It is closed to traffic so there are just a lot of walkers, bikers, and joggers. It is a little crowded for my taste, but not as bad as the Legacy Parkway trail. I am on the Enrichment Committee at work, and they have asked me if I would perhaps start a dog walking group, so I am looking for a spot where a bunch of people can get together to walk their dogs. I know a lot of good places out here, but not many in Salt Lake, so City Creek Canyon may be the spot.

I also had an adventure on roller blades last week that I forgot to blog. In my never ending quest to wear my dog out I decided to try roller blading with her. I took her over to the trail that runs between Kaysville and Farmington one afternoon and we set off. As you start on the trail on the Kaysville side you have to go up a little hill, then the trail is fairly flat. We did really well until we came back to the little hill on our way back to the car. There were three teenage boys walking a ways ahead of me, so I waited for them to reach the bottom of the hill and get far enough ahead of me that I thought I could slow down before I reached them. Unfortunately with an excited coonhound pulling me I did not slow down in time. I yelled to the boys to get out of my way, and they just glanced back at me and stayed where they were, so I had to throw myself down on the side of the trail. It wouldn't have been a bad fall except that the side of the trail was covered with puncture weeds. I ended up with about 20 puncture weeds broken off under my skin on my right knee as well as some on my hand and elbow. It took me several days to get all of the thorns out and I decided that roller blading was probably not the best idea for me. I will stick with walking from now on.