Recent Activity

Hi there folks! Here are some photos of stuff from the past several days:

Rhubarb Upside-down cake.

Recipe from marthastewart.com It makes a sweet, dense cake with a salty-ish crumb crust. I reduced the sugar in the cake (not the crumb) part of the recipe or the cake would have been salty too. The results were fine for the effort I put in but I think I'll keep looking for a recipe I like better.

Even dead peonies smell amazing. The three sad examples behind the fresh one made my entire house smell divine despite their crispy appearance. 

A dusty bug I spotted on a windowsill yesterday. It is the nymph of a Masked Hunter bug. They eat bedbugs and earwigs, among other things.

Garlic scapes! So pretty and delicious. I like to douse them with olive oil and salt and grill them. I'm growing much more garlic next year if I can.

My pal, Fay. She's doing great these days. Hope I didn't just jinx it. She'll be fourteen in three months.

I'd like to tell you more but I'm extra stupid from a head cold and I don't trust myself to make sense. 

Results of a Sort

Fay's test results came back and everything looks normal. Her organs are normal sized and they didn't see anything that didn't belong in there. So I guess that's good news. I suppose if there's bad news it's that she may need other tests. There was some mention of taking a kidney biopsy. I hope it doesn't come to that - it sounds hurty (also expensive)

We do know for sure there's a kidney problem. We also know for sure that some of the medication she's on to treat it makes her feel sick because she doesn't want to eat her food even though I loaded it with tuna. Crap. Poor her. I hope there are other options.

I met another new role model. There was a little old lady scooting around Davis Square in a wheelchair yesterday. She wasn't using it as a wheelchair exactly. She was sitting in it and using her feet (like Fred Flintstone) to move the chair. On my way back home from an errand I saw her struggling to get in to the post office so I stopped to give her a hand. She turned out to be a real wise-cracker. She was hilarious. Hilarious and resourceful. My new role model. A lot like Fay too.

Herself

Fay is at the vet. I had to leave her there today so she could get chest x-rays and an ultrasound. We know for sure that she has kidney inflammation. They're testing her today to find out why. Whatever it is it's not going to be good.

You can't tell anything's bothering her from her attitude. She's the same spazzy, bossy, demanding, hilarious, hungry, cute wad she's always been. She's my role model. When things start crapping out on me I'm going to try to take a page from her manual. Then I'll try to mooch treats off the person nearest to me.

Black Cloud

Not happy.  My computer fell off the table where it was charging and died.  We're traveling so I don't have access to my backup hard drives.  Also, my iPad was plugged into the computer when it fell so the iPad is compromised too.

That is the tip of the iceberg though.

The first Christmas without Dad is being more challenging than I though it would be (for me at least) so I'm in a crappy mood to begin with.

Hey - at least the weather's nice, the company's good, The food is good, Fay is healthy, I have a home to go back to, I have back ups for most of my files, my novel is safe and overall I'm in good shape.

There's light around the edge of this black cloud.  Now I need a good wind to blow the damned thing away.

Better

We cut short our Thanksgiving holiday trip to take Fay to her regular vet and as Pete predicted, Fay started feeling better on the way home.

Pete was nice enough to bring me a (delicious) hot dog when we were on the ferry and Fay showed some interest in it. Once we arrived on shore I got some boiled chicken and rice out of the cooler to see if she'd go for it and, heck yeah, she did and she wanted more.

So at this point she's pretty much back to normal (here comes the family in-joke:) after ruining Thanksgiving for everyone.

Sick Fay

Stinkin' Post

Fay is feeling lousy. She hasn't eaten any thing since yesterday at 6:30 AM. Yeah and okay, then she barfed before lunch and hasn't wanted to eat a damned thing since. She's also been lying around not moving much.

I took her to a well intentioned but not very thorough vet here. He gave her subcutaneous fluids and some stomach settling medicine. So far it hasn't helped that I can tell.

The folks at her regular vet said she'd need more thorough testing. So I think we'll be cutting this trip short.

Shots! (Not The Fun Kind)

Highway hypnosis. Fay and I drove from Vermont to Jamaica Plain (Boston) and back today so she could have her usual six-week check-up with the neurologist. We are both zombified and I just want to go to bed without any supper.

I'll have to power through though so I can try out the exciting new skill I learned today at the vet: how to prepare a hypodermic syringe for subcutaneous injection!

Fay's usual injectable medication now comes in a new formulation with no preservatives. They used to pre-load the syringes for me. Now I have to make it fresh myself. The neurologist's assistant showed me how to assemble and load a syringe today. Neato! And see - I can spell "syringe" correctly too!

I love a new skill! I wish it were karate or making a sea-worthy canoe out of rushes or dancing a tango or something else more exotic though. Maybe later. I'm not dead yet.

Fay Really Is A Senior Citizen

Did you ever see that Simpsons episode where Bart goes to the doctor and is given greasy salve for his scalp, eyeglasses, orthopedic shoes and a throat spray? (It's episode 509 from season 5 where Homer loves Mindy) That's the kind of day Fay had yesterday.

I took her in to the vet because she had a goopy eye. She came out about an hour and a half later with three new eye medications, ear drops and antiseptic wipes. She's also just started to take three cranberry extract capsules a day and I'm supposed to get her a mouth rinse. This is in addition to the four other medications she's already on.

Some meds she gets three times a day, some twice, some once and one she gets every other day. This boils down to her needing attention every four hours except when she needs attention in two hours. It only took me one list, two rough drafts, a fistful of magic markers and a half an hour to figure out when to give what. The final working draft is pictured above. I may even make another once I've ironed out the best order in which to give everything.

You might think that she's a complete basket case but you'd be mistaken. She's using her legs better than ever (well, since her disease manifested). She can stand up and walk around for several minutes at a time. She's every bit as bossy, demanding, endearing and hungry as she's always been. She's pretty much fine, minus a bit of wear and tear.

What To Write About...?

It's been a very concentrated two-and-a-half weeks.  There's a lot to tell.  Finally things have slowed down a touch.  Also I'm recovering from a cold so I won't feel bad about sitting in bed for hours typing away.

First there was our trip to California for my brother's wedding.  Yes, that was why I was making ring-bearer pillows.

Here is the happy couple arriving at the reception:

I introduce to you my new sister, Sarah.  She is a wonderful person, too much fun and a welcome addition to our family.  You know what else?  I believe she can do anything and make it look easy.

Here's a shot of one of the pillows:

Pete took this photo but I stole it from Sarah's blog.  This pillow wasn't used in the wedding.  I went with a plain ribbon on this one so that the flowers inside wouldn't be obscured.  I left the ribbon long so it could be cut to whatever length worked best with their rings.  

Hopefully photos of the other pillows will be forthcoming but I didn't get any.  Sarah's hoping to post some later though.  Maybe I'll steal them from her blog again.

The wedding was beautiful and went really well.  There were donuts, cheeseburgers and six cakes and I don't think there were any ugly scenes (you know how family events can be)  I didn't hear of any scandalous episodes amongst the guests either.  It was just a good time with great people.

The next night Pete and I got to have dinner with Christian and Sarah and hog them all to ourselves.  Yay!

The night after that Pete and I came home from our date with each other to find my mom on the phone calling an ambulance.  Dad wasn't feeling well and asked to go to the emergency room.  I will spare you the symptoms.

You know things are bad when you can't wait for those sirens to get to your door.  First came a fire truck full of EMTs, then the ambulance.  It was San Diego at peak Swine Flu scare so they all wore surgical masks.  They whisked Dad away to the hospital and Mom went too.  Poor Mom didn't get back home until 5:45 the next morning.

It turned out that Dad had come crashing down with bacterial pneumonia.  Visiting Dad in the hospital has unfortunately become a bit routine.  He's very good at being hospitalized.  He now has a system.

Pete and I thought we'd give him a day to recover at the hospital so we visited him on his second day there.  Then we went to lunch with Mom and bought some Fit Flops (Pete didn't buy Fit Flops - and Fit Flops are another story)  Then we all decided to go to Starbucks for a Frappucino.  On the way to Starbucks Dad called to say they were letting him out and could we bring him a Frappucino too.  So Dad is now taking his antibiotics and recovering from pneumonia at home.  Phew!

Next hurdle: the flight home.  

Fay loves to travel.  She loves to go to new places and meet new people.  She also loves to go to different places and be with people she's already met and doesn't see all that often.  She loves a change of scenery and the potential change of menu that it entails.  More people equals more people to mooch from.  She was having a great time in California.

We've also changed her medications and she's been feeling great and moving really well.  She stands up on her back legs a lot these days though they still can't support her for long.  She can use them enough that she isn't wearing through the fur on the tops of her feet (or the skin on her backside) anymore.  She has all her joie de vivre back.  The only drawback is that she has occasional idiopathic bouts of diarrhea.

Like in her carry-on bag at the airport before we flew out of San Diego to come home.  Five times.  I'd take her into the ladies' room, wash her off in the sink, dry her with paper towels, remove the topmost diaper from the stack that I'd layered in the carrier, put her back in the bag on top of a new, clean diaper, wash my hands and carry her back to the gate, sit down, catch a fresh whiff and start all over again.  Fortunately we were two hours early for the flight.  Once we got on the plane the diarrhea stopped.  I think she ran out of ammo.  That was lucky because I didn't have an endless supply of fresh diapers.  She has been completely fine ever since.

We got back to Brookline early Wednesday morning with two days to finish cleaning out the house to get it ready to go on the market Thursday evening.  Our first open house was Friday at noon.

This concludes my first installment of "What I've Been Doing For The Last Two Weeks Or So."  With luck I'll write another installment later today.  Things have slowed a bit but they sure haven't stopped.

Antibiotics II

It's about four hours later and both Fay and I are feeling better.  She ate some banana and peanut butter and my head has cleared.  Whew, what a relief!

I think my problem was the mug of coffee I drank.  The drug information sheet says to avoid having "too much caffein."  I thought  a mug of coffee would be okay but maybe I was wrong.  Tomorrow I'll try a cup of tea instead.

It's nice to have my head back.

Antibiotics

Fay and I are under the weather.

She started feeling lousy yesterday which was fortunate (I guess) because she had a vet appointment scheduled for last night.  It was determined that she has a skin infection and possibly a urinary tract infection.  She's on antibiotics now and I'm hoping they'll make her feel better.  So far (two doses in) they haven't.  All she wants to do is lie down and rest.  The vet doesn't know for sure what's making Fay feel bad so the antibiotics might not help.

I'm on antibiotics too.  I've got ciprofloxacin.  I don't know if that's making me out of it or if I'm just out of it. We all have those days, you know?

I'm supposed to go to Las Vegas this weekend for a bachelorette party.  That sounds pretty wild, doesn't it?  Yeah baby!  I'll be swingin' from some neon sign with my fifth cosmo in one hand, wearing nothing but a red patent leather thong and seven-inch stiletto gladiator sandals!  Woo!

Does that count as an hallucination?  Should I call the doctor about changing my medication?

Actually, it's not that kind of crowd at all.  I hope I can go but I won't if Fay's not feeling better.

I have to say that I couldn't be more grateful for antibiotics.  If it weren't for them I probably wouldn't be here.

My Brain Today: Haphazard

Am I supposed to be impressed by this guy?  What the hell is that expression on his face?  Fake what?  Fake with energy.  Lots of energy there.  "This really sucks!  Yeah!  Awesome.  Heh heh heh."

Ryan Seacrest.  I've heard of him but I don't know what he does.  I could wikipedia him but I don't really care.  Some T.V. thing.

He turned up on the Washington Post homepage a second ago when I started up safari to check the weather.  I will give him that his expression is arresting.  I blogged about it after all.

Moving on, Fay has a stomach ulcer.  Her general condition has also declined a bit and she's had a UTI for two months that her antibiotics haven't seemed to help.  We've changed the antibiotics and we're hoping that that and treating her ulcer will make her feel better.  If she feels better she might move better.  We're hoping because we can't up her prednisone dose due to the ulcer.  So she's on six different pills now but I don't think I'll be giving her any shots this month.  Maybe?

Here is the new website I'm not allowed to go to anymore because I can't go there without buying something:  Momiji!  So cute!  Cheaper than shoes too.  Here's a prettier picture (than R.S., above) from the Momiji site:

Someone there gets paid to make these adorable Flash animations.  I'm jealous!

In other news I read Bono's Op Ed piece in the New York Times today.  He was reminiscing about Frank Sinatra.  He quoted Sinatra as saying, "Being modern’s not about the future, it’s about the present.”  I thought that was really interesting and true.  As I've said before, my present is usually really great but for some reason I often try to avoid it.  I seem to prefer some crazyland that my head's dreamed up.  Like one of those Momiji flash animations.

According to Bono, Sinatra had the guts to live in the present and constantly confront reality.  I guess he might have done that as much as any famous person can.  I can admire that.  I wish I was better at it myself.  However I'm glad I'm not as hard as Sinatra appeared to be.  

I also read the article on Calvinist hipster preacher (huh?) Mark Driscoll, entitled "Who Would Jesus Smack Down?"  Calvinism.  Lots to think about there.  If you want to bother.  Maybe you'd rather wikipedia Ryan Seacrest?  Maybe you already know who he is and don't need to.  Anyway, The Driscoll article was pretty interesting.  People are...weird.  "God says I'm better than you and nothing that you or I can do will change that.  You're going to Hell and I'm going to Heaven.  No matter what!  HA HA HA HA!  SUCKER!!!!!"  It made me think about some of the jerks from high school who I know to still be jerky.  Come to think of it maybe you don't want to read that article.  Why think about jerks if you don't have to?  

My present contains no jerks.  I'm going to be like Frank and enjoy my present.  At least for the next few minutes while I can keep myself from drifting off into some candy-crammed fantasy land.

Ice Adventure

That's my man, always on top of the promotional opportunities. It wouldn't kill me to follow his example a little more.

So that was one heck of an ice storm. The power's still out at our place in Vermont. Rumor is it will take until Tuesday at 8 PM before our power's turned on again.

The power went out Thursday night. No electricity, no heat, no water, no modem. Fortunately the phones are up and running. As Pete reported I stayed behind to keep the pipes from freezing. I was kind of looking forward to it. I was thinking it would kind of be like a snow day and I could do all the reading and knitting I've been wanting to do. It didn't really work out that way though.

Mostly it was dark and cold, uncertain and a little lonely. At the time I thought "this would be really fun with a bunch of friends. We could toast marshmallows and drink whiskey together." Yeah but we'd also be sharing the non-flushing toilets too. Less fun. I didn't get creeped-out or anything though.

I spent most of my time being the fire jockey. I had never been in charge of a wood stove before so I had to get the hang of it. I love new skills! I made a lot of trips between the house with the fireplace and the studio with the wood stove. Home base was the house since a wood stove mostly takes care of itself after you get it good and hot. In the beginning though I was going back and forth every fifteen minutes to check on things. Pain in the ass! It was a little stressful too wondering if I could achieve my objective and keep the buildings warm enough. I got splinters in both of my thumbs.

At least it was very beautiful. The moon was full that night. Iced over trees and plants are beautiful in any light. Each time I crossed from the house to the barn and back I got to admire the scenery.

First I want to say HEAD LAMPS. I can't emphasize that enough. Candles are cheery and sometimes smell good but if you really need to see what you're doing head lamps are the way to go. Get Santa to bring you some. Also, WATER. You've got to have water. I didn't have enough. My dishes are still dirty. Baby wipes are decent for washing your hands in a pinch but you can't flush the toilet with them. I collected what water I could from the roof melt in whatever pots and pans and bowls we had but it wasn't enough.

I was also very grateful for the gas oven/stove. Remind me to never switch to electric. Nothing keeps my spirits up like eating and cooking!

Fay and I slept on the sofa in front of the fireplace so I could keep the fire going through the night. That worked out fine. When I awoke in the morning it was about forty degrees in the house, fifty-one degrees in the studio and there were enough hot embers (thanks Mij!) in both the fireplace and the wood stove for me to be able to get them going again easily. Mission accomplished!

I fed Fay and made myself some coffee with a french press. In the mean time Fay, no longer on top of me in a pile of comforters, started to get too cold. I decided I should spend the daylight hours taking her down to Brookline so she wouldn't get sick. Then I could pick up plenty of water and other supplies on my way back up.

That didn't happen either. Instead it's Sunday, Fay and I are here in Brookline where there's power and heat and Pete's on his way up to work on the pipe project.

Yesterday is another story which I might tell tomorrow.

Unexpected

Well, I'm in Florida. It was very sudden.

Fay started to feel better yesterday. Dr. Reuhlmann saw her at 1:00, exammined her, tested her kidneys and gave her a clean bill of health. Fay had developed a U.T.I. and Dr. R thought that maybe the antibiotics hadn't kicked in yet and Fay was feeling bad from that. So by 2:30 I had an O.K. to go to FL.

I called my mother-in-law to let her know and she said "get in the car. I'm booking you on the 6:15 flight out of Providence."

So that's what happened. I tossed everything in the car and went down to Ruff Life where I dropped Fay off. Before I knew it I was on a plane. Definitely not what I had expected to happen. It's a good thing I'd packed the day before yesterday.

The report from Ruff Life is that Fay's doing great, making doggie friends and having a really fun time. Phew!

And now all of a sudden I'm on vacation.

Bizarre.

So Far Today

I put him up there again because people seem to like having him there. He has nothing to do with this post though.

So, so far today hasn't gone all that well. it stared at 4:30 this morning when Fay scrambled off the end of the bed. We sleep on a futon so the fall wasn't far but she was definitely not feeling herself. By 6:00 we were at the vet for an emergency visit. We're back home now and I don't think it's life threatening but we still don't really know what's bothering her. It might have something to do with her bladder/kidneys.

The complication is that Pete and I were supposed to go visit his parents for early Thanksgiving today. We were going to leave here at 8 AM, drop her at Ruff Life for the weekend and catch a noon flight from Providence. Now I'm still home and Pete's gone to the airport. I should probably call and cancel my ticket come to think of it.

The fun stuff continues...

10:30 AM

Okay, the flight's cancelled. On with the story.

So I was sitting in the dog emergency waiting area at the vet where they had the news on T.V. A story came on about a fourteen year old girl who survived for four months on an artificial heart while waiting for a second heart transplant. They showed footage of her walking in a hospital hallway while attached to a panoply of medical devices and using the artificial heart. She also had a number of staff helping her and her equipment move down the hall. I almost burst into tears. God, the agony for her and her family. I didn't cry though because I didn't want to have to explain to the emergency vet that I wasn't crying about my dog. I would have been crying about my dog too, and about some other things as well but that's too long an explanation to give a stranger at six AM.

The girl is doing well now, she's received her latest heart transplant which seems to be working fine. Hopefully that will pretty much be the end of that chapter for her.

I don't know about T.V.s in hospital waiting rooms. It's hard to find programming that doesn't make the wait worse. Yesterday it was the economic wrap up in the waiting room (yes, Fay and I were at the vet yesterday too) The Dow's in the toilet, everybody's getting laid off and what's going to happen with the Automobile industry? Yesterday it made me laugh but not in a good way - and it didn't make the wait any better.

All The Details About Fay's Health

If you had glanced in the window of Fay's examination room this morning you would have seen three medical personnel crouched on the floor over a small dog, heads down in full concentration, bodies tense with effort. You would have thought, "Wow, something dire is going on in there. I hope everything's okay."

It was her toenails. They needed trimming. She's the Tasmanian Devil about her toenails. That was the least serious treatment she got today.

Fay is in fact doing really well. Once she recovered from the problems she was having this summer her condition improved dramatically. She could stand up on all four legs again. Not for any useful length of time but she could do it. We had a nice period from late August to late October when she was feeling great and functioning well. She was still dragging her back legs and still incontinent but after the hell that was July that's nothing.

She's still doing pretty well, just having the slightest hint of a setback in that she became unable to urinate on her own. Because of this we increased her prednisone dosage and I learned how to squeeze her. It's all wrong but squeezing her is actually fun and she doesn't mind. She makes these grunty groany noises while you're doing it and afterwards she's grateful. Everybody wants to squeeze her anyway. Now it's useful.

These days she's able to urinate on her own again and we've lowered the pred. dosage a bit. I think she's lost a tiny bit of strength in her back legs since the pred. went up. I'm hoping she'll regain some strength now that her pred.'s lower again because I think I heard that prednisone can cause some muscle atrophy. I might be making that up. She could easily be weaker from her disease.

So all told today she had her weight checked, her temperature taken, her reflexes tested, a CBC, her skin checked, her urine sampled (they use a needle stuck through her abdomen into her bladder to do that - it's standard) her toenails trimmed, she got a rabies shot and the first of four Cytarabine shots she's going to get over the next forty-eight hours. The most horrifying looking thing (and the most difficult) was the toenails.

Now I need to do something really nice for Doctor Reuhlmann and her assistant, Jim. They have been really good to us.

A Two-Mile Stone

Fay walked two miles in her wheelchair up and down hills to our local bookstore and back today. I couldn't believe it. I was so proud of her. She hasn't walked there in over a year. Not since before she lost the use of her back legs. She doesn't even seem extra tired tonight.

It was all her idea. I took her outside and she just kept going. When we got back to the house she even walked around the house twice. She would have kept going I think If I'd let her.

Pretty good!

I wonder if this means she'll want to go on regular walks again? Woah!

Fay And Pie

Fay WANTS PIE!!!!!



Fay gets pie!!!!!

Two Week Overview

I guess I kinda dropped the blogging ball, huh? Probably because I seem to be brainless these days. So here's some of what I've been doing in list form:

Developed a mania for anything Japanese
- cute beer bottle from last post
- Manga (Sugar Sugar Rune and xxxHolic mostly but I'm not even that picky. I even like the tripey romantic vampire ones)
- learned to make age dashi dofu (one of my favorite dishes) and onigiri
- got some "teach yourself Japanese" cds. I've listened to the first ten minutes about twenty times.
- tried some sparkling sake a couple of days ago. It's a little too sweet for me.

Knitting
- some cabled fingerless mitts that I'm making up as I go along
- a new sculptural plate project (more on that much later)

Waiting for my brain to return to work

Playing video games
- Izuna 2 (fun!)
- wii (just the games that come with the machine and the second controller)
- making mii's (the most fun thing to do with the wii so far. I should probably branch out)
- wishing they had a "My Japanese Coach" on DS - wait - I'll just look on Amazon... There's one coming out on September 23! Yay!

Bought these fa-reakin' awesome boots:

They're very Sugar Sugar Rune.

Became obsessed with nail decals (made in Japan!) and how to use them in my artwork

Made Cookies and Cream cupcakes:


Tried Miracle Berry Fruit Tablets made of the fruit that makes sour things taste sweet. They really do work. It works best with fruit though. Limes taste sweet and delicious but they still make your mouth go all squinchy. I guess your body knows something your brain missed. Vinegar tastes sweet and gross. Some things just shouldn't be sweet.

Pete and I went to see the Radiohead show back on August 13 at the Comcast center. It had been six years since I'd been to a giant show like that. Now I remember why. Radiohead were very good of course and the light show was really impressive, but by golly if you want to feel like a faceless nothing then go to one of those giant shows. I may be a faceless nothing but I don't like to feel like it. I think I'll stick to the smaller venues from now on.

The weather has been gorgeous so I can't complain about that. Fay's digestion has mostly settled down too so there's some progress in that area.

I had girls' night with my friend Michaela last night. She told me she thinks I should start a "Factory" like Andy Warhol because I have too many ideas for one person to execute by herself. I think that would be great. I'm not sure how I'd pay for it. I guess I'd have to work on my mystique too so I could attract acolytes who are willing to do as I say for cheap. And I'd probably have to move back to the city where there are people.

It's BAAAAACK

And we were doing so well this past week.