Wow, three green blogs in a row. Hope you don't feel inundated. I can't help it I suppose. Vegetables, it's what's for dinner.
I mentioned I would post something as I continued in my reading of this book. Seriously, I would have to copy and paste the entire book if I posted everything that struck me as articulate, fascinating or inspiring. I recommend this book to everyone :) If you have already began your quest for a more self-sustainable lifestyle then this book will help further inform your choices and raise your consciousness as you make decisions as a consumer. If you are not already incorporating those values into your daily living and are simply curious or interested in some good literature then this book is certainly an adequate introduction into the Green Culture.
And for all you scientist out there, you may enjoy the scientific nature of the background research that was done to write this book and provide accurate information. The book's primary author is Barbara Kingsolver, an accomplished fiction writer, and her husband and eldest daughter are credited as co-authors. Her eldest daughter really got into the Biology of this lifestyle and has since been inspired to pursue medicine as an outcome.
Presently, I am not a vegetarian; and I am not sure I will ever be a true herbivore. However, I have been inspired to be more conscious and particular about the meat (and many other foods) I do consume, not by only this book, but through a steady continuous increase in my awareness and education on such issues. I still eat meat, I still fall off the green wagon from time to time, as it is difficult to break old habits when trying to form new ones, and among my greenie friends I am by far NOT the greenest. But I try and when I fall off the wagon I pull myself back up as quickly as possible. We try and make "manageable" changes, which means we are not overhauling our lifestyle all at once, but in small digestable pieces.
It irks me how this lifestyle is often politicized. In the home I grew up in, this "environmental" or "flaming liberal" way of thinking had a tendency to raise my "ultra conservative" West Texan protestant father's blood pressure. I find it difficult to believe that any intelligent person ("liberal" and "conservative" alike) capable of understanding any cause/effect relationship could consciously continue to pursue an anti conservation lifestyle. Often times I find those who label themselves as "conservative" are the least conservative when it comes to CONSERVING resources such as natural resources; and in fact very LIBERALLY use them all up. What exactly are "conservatives" conserving these days? I think our current president has proven it certainly isn't money.
Which leads me to believe such labels are actually meaningless and perhaps our humanity should be enough to unite and work together to correct our wrongs, as a culture, and move forward together, as a culture and society, to make things right; which in many ways is simply a return to the practices of our ancestors and grandparents, the true "conservatives."
I do not intend to offend my readers or disrespect those who provided the essentials when I was a child, but I do intend to inform. And hope as a virtual community we can look past our differences and instead foster a forum for raising awareness and sharing best practices as we each continue in life's journey.
Some of my fellow bloggers post useful Bible versus to help comfort each other through life's hardships and be more thankful for life's joys. Some bloggers post tips for a more healthy lifestyle, which in many ways probably resemble the natural sort of living practiced by our spiritual heroes, such as Jesus,among others. These practices have been lost in our hyper-consumer capitalist society. With an increase of many church leaders FINALLY touting the spiritual and eternal benefits of taking care of God's creation, I am hopeful that even the most "conservative" and "fundamental" families will come around and find themselves blissfully happy in the Green Patch. Together we are incorporating two things into each others lives, that perhaps we could all use a little more of....God and Vegetables :)
And in the title of this book you find three essentials: Animal (humans, God's children, if you will), Vegetable (nature, the habitat God provided for us) and Miracle (God and His plan for our sustainability). Those three things together create unity. A trinity of sorts.
Food for thought.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
A Phone Call from Paris
Sirens. Sirens sound the same, even in Paris. They are loud and make hearing the voice of a dear friend difficult.But we are patient and let the ambulance pass.
She's on the street, walking toward the metro, on her way home from work. I'm on my deck, passing time between occupations. We talk about stinky French people. We talk about distance. Friendships that wane. Friendships that grow strong. Ideas. Always the next best idea. We talk about husbands. And their love for home electronics.We are both enjoying the sun. We are both happy to hear each other's voice on the other end. We are both relieved of our troubles for a short time. Trading hardships for laughter. Our friendship endures. Far away places. Language barriers. Cultural differences. Husbands. Babies.We are peas in a pod.Kindred spirits. Soul sisters. Urban dwellers. Dirt dwellers. Music lovers. Food lovers. Current events lovers.
Why does Paris have to be so far away? I have a glass of wine here waiting for cocktail hour between two friends.One in Paris. One in Tennessee. Two very different places. Two very same girls.
Gabby and Miguel.
She's on the street, walking toward the metro, on her way home from work. I'm on my deck, passing time between occupations. We talk about stinky French people. We talk about distance. Friendships that wane. Friendships that grow strong. Ideas. Always the next best idea. We talk about husbands. And their love for home electronics.We are both enjoying the sun. We are both happy to hear each other's voice on the other end. We are both relieved of our troubles for a short time. Trading hardships for laughter. Our friendship endures. Far away places. Language barriers. Cultural differences. Husbands. Babies.We are peas in a pod.Kindred spirits. Soul sisters. Urban dwellers. Dirt dwellers. Music lovers. Food lovers. Current events lovers.
Why does Paris have to be so far away? I have a glass of wine here waiting for cocktail hour between two friends.One in Paris. One in Tennessee. Two very different places. Two very same girls.
Gabby and Miguel.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Three weeks and a walk in the woods
I have stopped reading the Robbins book and started the Animal, Vegetable, Miracle book by Barbara Kingsolver. I have three weeks before it is due back at the library. So far I love it. My mother in law was right when she said it was right up my alley. I am excited to finally start digging into this book! I will post a few excerpts that really touched me a little later.
Both the mutts are home and doing well. You would have never guessed Holly just had a full hysterectomy by the amount of energy she has had this past week. Keeping her calm while she recovers has been a challenge, to say the least. Luckily she hasn't been licking at the incision or shown any signs of infection.
Rocky is back home from grandma's. We took the kidimals for a hike Sunday afternoon. The mountains are not very high in this part of the country. We drove to a trailhead near the top of a mountain just south of us and the elevation was just under 4,200 ft. I am really looking forward to July when Casey and I visit the Tetons and do some real backpacking.
We have checked our gear inventory and started a list of any odds and ends we will need to purchase in time for our honeymoon. Additionally, we are researching hotels and resorts in Jackson Hole to see where we will spend our last night. We have also made a pact to do our best to get in better shape before our trip. We're going to need it!
Below are a few pictures from our mini adventure:
Rocky and Holly love "going for a ride". Like a lot of dogs, Rocky loves the wind in his face! Holly isn't quite tall enough, but she's getting there.
Immediately after being let out of the truck, the pups went to business sniffing EVERYTHING as quickly as possible and then running around like crazy hooligans.
We were kind of disappointed to see that spring hasn't quite reached the tops of the mountains just yet. There were some signs, as you will see in the latter photos, but for the most past, as you can see in these photos the trees were still bare and what Casey and I lovingly call "the color of death". Gray and brown. The weather was also cooler than had been expected. Clouds moved in and made our spring day look like winter. Luckily we had pants and long sleeves to slip into.
Signs of spring at 4200 ft.
I call this the Camelot centipede. My elementary school colors were black and gold. Apparently this centipede went to the same school.
The unfurling leaves of a tree bud.
I don't know what these guys are. All I know is that they were bursting from the soil saying "Here we are! Look at us! We are so happy it is finally spring and we can come out." So I made their portrait and bid them adieu.
I find pleasure in the small details and that is what my camera and I look for when we are out and about lost in the woods and my imagination. As a wedding gift to each other, Casey and I will be purchasing a higher quality digital/manual camera for our Teton trip. We are hoping to come home with a few treasures for our wall.
Rhodendrum bud. I love these trees. Casey and I are thinking of planting a couple in one of the corners of our backyard.
Slugs. I enjoy these slimey little creatures, as long as they are not wreaking havoc on my garden, in that event I feed them beer, at which point they slug off and die. When I was young I used to enjoy going to my great grandmother's house and collecting all the slugs I could find in a coffee can. Then I would let them crawl all over my arms and legs. I envy their nomadic lifestyle. They just strap their little home to their back and go where ever the wind blows. This little guy wasn't very little at all. He was about 3 inches in diameter. The picture really doesn't do it justice.
Yellow flower buds. Nature can be violent at times, but I find it to be mostly subtle and graceful. The shape of these pretty buds reflects that, I think.
Hanging moss. Delicate. Another adjective I might use to describe nature. Like this moss, so delicate and easily overlooked.
This is the stuff that fairy tales and nursery rhymes are made of. I would like to know what these tiny buds turn into and what tiny winged and barefoot creature uses these delicate chimes to make beautiful music.
Mom and her kids.
Time to go home.
Both the mutts are home and doing well. You would have never guessed Holly just had a full hysterectomy by the amount of energy she has had this past week. Keeping her calm while she recovers has been a challenge, to say the least. Luckily she hasn't been licking at the incision or shown any signs of infection.
Rocky is back home from grandma's. We took the kidimals for a hike Sunday afternoon. The mountains are not very high in this part of the country. We drove to a trailhead near the top of a mountain just south of us and the elevation was just under 4,200 ft. I am really looking forward to July when Casey and I visit the Tetons and do some real backpacking.
We have checked our gear inventory and started a list of any odds and ends we will need to purchase in time for our honeymoon. Additionally, we are researching hotels and resorts in Jackson Hole to see where we will spend our last night. We have also made a pact to do our best to get in better shape before our trip. We're going to need it!
Below are a few pictures from our mini adventure:
Rocky and Holly love "going for a ride". Like a lot of dogs, Rocky loves the wind in his face! Holly isn't quite tall enough, but she's getting there.
Immediately after being let out of the truck, the pups went to business sniffing EVERYTHING as quickly as possible and then running around like crazy hooligans.
We were kind of disappointed to see that spring hasn't quite reached the tops of the mountains just yet. There were some signs, as you will see in the latter photos, but for the most past, as you can see in these photos the trees were still bare and what Casey and I lovingly call "the color of death". Gray and brown. The weather was also cooler than had been expected. Clouds moved in and made our spring day look like winter. Luckily we had pants and long sleeves to slip into.
Signs of spring at 4200 ft.
I call this the Camelot centipede. My elementary school colors were black and gold. Apparently this centipede went to the same school.
The unfurling leaves of a tree bud.
I don't know what these guys are. All I know is that they were bursting from the soil saying "Here we are! Look at us! We are so happy it is finally spring and we can come out." So I made their portrait and bid them adieu.
I find pleasure in the small details and that is what my camera and I look for when we are out and about lost in the woods and my imagination. As a wedding gift to each other, Casey and I will be purchasing a higher quality digital/manual camera for our Teton trip. We are hoping to come home with a few treasures for our wall.
Rhodendrum bud. I love these trees. Casey and I are thinking of planting a couple in one of the corners of our backyard.
Slugs. I enjoy these slimey little creatures, as long as they are not wreaking havoc on my garden, in that event I feed them beer, at which point they slug off and die. When I was young I used to enjoy going to my great grandmother's house and collecting all the slugs I could find in a coffee can. Then I would let them crawl all over my arms and legs. I envy their nomadic lifestyle. They just strap their little home to their back and go where ever the wind blows. This little guy wasn't very little at all. He was about 3 inches in diameter. The picture really doesn't do it justice.
Yellow flower buds. Nature can be violent at times, but I find it to be mostly subtle and graceful. The shape of these pretty buds reflects that, I think.
Hanging moss. Delicate. Another adjective I might use to describe nature. Like this moss, so delicate and easily overlooked.
This is the stuff that fairy tales and nursery rhymes are made of. I would like to know what these tiny buds turn into and what tiny winged and barefoot creature uses these delicate chimes to make beautiful music.
Mom and her kids.
Time to go home.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
I think it is time to go to the doctor
The poison ivy has slowly spread and worsened over the last couple of days. I have used special soap, taken Benadryl and I am covered in lotions and potion and yet the itching is unbearable. When you look at the picture imagine the same thing on both my arms, my thighs, the back of my neck and my ears. I don't have any gooey blisters, but have decided first thing tomorrow I am heading to the clinic...
(I apologize for the side way picture. I am working on my Mac and am still trying to figure how to save changes I make to photos.)
(I apologize for the side way picture. I am working on my Mac and am still trying to figure how to save changes I make to photos.)
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Poison ivy and puppy updates
Yesterday's weather was phenomenal. Simply gorgeous and warm. I actually wore shorts! I decided to tackle some much needed tree and bush trimming that I have been putting off. The flowering viney bush I posted pictures of earlier was beginning to grow up into the dogwood tree branches that hang over it. It finally drove me nuts and motivated me to take action. I went down to the basement and got my hand trimmers and the tall trimmers and went to work.
Naturally this is all very theraputic and when it comes to pruning or pulling weeds I get in a zone and if left unchecked I could very well end up with a naked yard. I started on one end of the yard and made my way to the other, where I eventually encountered, what I had originally thought was poisin oak, poison ivy. Turns out poison oak only grows in the western regions of the United States.
We have a dead tree in the furthest back corner of our yard. It isn't budding like the other trees and has a mess of unsightly viney branches sticking out in all directions. Eventually, when we get a hold of a chainsaw, we will cut the whole thing down. In the meantime I thought maybe if I just trimmed it here and there it would at least look better. I knew that the hairy vine was poisonous and I needed to be very careful, but I was in The Zone. I started lopping off dead branches and vines left and right.
I wasn't careful enough. The itching kicked in during the wee hours of the night, pulling me out of a peaceful slumber. Luckily my reaction is mild and the rash is isolated to small patches of skin like under my arms and various parts of my torso. Fun. I see Benadryl in my future. Tonight's yard activities include moving all the limbs and miscellaneous brush to the curb and clearing all the rocks and dog poop so Casey can mow. We have had lots of rain the last week and our grass is almost knee high in some places. We are indeed happy to finally have grass.
On to the puppies. Also known as....
Stinker 1
and
Stinker 2
The gorilla glue did wear off of Holly's face. Her paws still have hard patches of glue here and there. She never did display any signs of having a ball of gorilla glue sitting in her gut, therefore escaping the need for emergency surgery. In fact, she and Rocky played just as hard and long as usual in the days that followed.
They even sat still, briefly, for their treats. Notice the lovely 1970s linoleum. One of our many home improvement projects.
Later that night we noticed Rocky was limping and wasn't interested in eating his dinner. The following day he was still limping, not eating and very lethargic. He didn't play once. I even let him curl up on the bed, because he just looked so pitiful. I babied him as much as I could. Checked for glass shards in his paws (they broke our cake stand on Sunday, and ate the leftover lemon yogurt cake that was inside it too...that's another story). He had no glass shards or anything else stuck in his leg. When I touched it he didn't yelp in pain. It seemed slightly swollen. We started thinking, due to his extreme lethargic state and loss of appetite that maybe he had some sort of insect bite. I called the vet. The lethargicness and loss of appetite worried him too. "Bring him in and we'll check him out."
I load up both dogs for an afternoon visit to the vet. $50 and a bottle of meat flavored chewable pain killers later we come to find out that Rocky was suffering from a sprained knee. What? Seriously? A sprained knee? We now know Rocky has a flare for drama. He totally milked the situation. In the future we will wait longer before rushing him to the vet.
Naturally this is all very theraputic and when it comes to pruning or pulling weeds I get in a zone and if left unchecked I could very well end up with a naked yard. I started on one end of the yard and made my way to the other, where I eventually encountered, what I had originally thought was poisin oak, poison ivy. Turns out poison oak only grows in the western regions of the United States.
We have a dead tree in the furthest back corner of our yard. It isn't budding like the other trees and has a mess of unsightly viney branches sticking out in all directions. Eventually, when we get a hold of a chainsaw, we will cut the whole thing down. In the meantime I thought maybe if I just trimmed it here and there it would at least look better. I knew that the hairy vine was poisonous and I needed to be very careful, but I was in The Zone. I started lopping off dead branches and vines left and right.
I wasn't careful enough. The itching kicked in during the wee hours of the night, pulling me out of a peaceful slumber. Luckily my reaction is mild and the rash is isolated to small patches of skin like under my arms and various parts of my torso. Fun. I see Benadryl in my future. Tonight's yard activities include moving all the limbs and miscellaneous brush to the curb and clearing all the rocks and dog poop so Casey can mow. We have had lots of rain the last week and our grass is almost knee high in some places. We are indeed happy to finally have grass.
On to the puppies. Also known as....
Stinker 1
and
Stinker 2
The gorilla glue did wear off of Holly's face. Her paws still have hard patches of glue here and there. She never did display any signs of having a ball of gorilla glue sitting in her gut, therefore escaping the need for emergency surgery. In fact, she and Rocky played just as hard and long as usual in the days that followed.
They even sat still, briefly, for their treats. Notice the lovely 1970s linoleum. One of our many home improvement projects.
Later that night we noticed Rocky was limping and wasn't interested in eating his dinner. The following day he was still limping, not eating and very lethargic. He didn't play once. I even let him curl up on the bed, because he just looked so pitiful. I babied him as much as I could. Checked for glass shards in his paws (they broke our cake stand on Sunday, and ate the leftover lemon yogurt cake that was inside it too...that's another story). He had no glass shards or anything else stuck in his leg. When I touched it he didn't yelp in pain. It seemed slightly swollen. We started thinking, due to his extreme lethargic state and loss of appetite that maybe he had some sort of insect bite. I called the vet. The lethargicness and loss of appetite worried him too. "Bring him in and we'll check him out."
I load up both dogs for an afternoon visit to the vet. $50 and a bottle of meat flavored chewable pain killers later we come to find out that Rocky was suffering from a sprained knee. What? Seriously? A sprained knee? We now know Rocky has a flare for drama. He totally milked the situation. In the future we will wait longer before rushing him to the vet.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Deals Gap AKA The Tail of The Dragon
Casey and I went cruisin' this past weekend with some friends of ours on US 129. Better known in these parts as Deals Gap or The Tail of The Dragon (or maybe it is just The Dragon, I am not sure.) During the summer and spring this stretch of highway, that crosses into North Carolina, is frequented by motorcyclists and sports car enthusiasts. We got a late start and didn't get to see as much as we wanted, but we have plenty of time to catch up.
What we did visit were several dams and a cafe/gift shop along the way. We enjoyed some good ole fashioned greasy bacon cheeseburgers. Casey had the fries and I had the onion rings, which were humongous. I forgot my camera for a second time in a row on the bike, but thankfully our friend Kellie had hers. Thanks Kellie for capturing our first Deals Gap moment. The tree of shame picture is a place at the cafe where people who have crashed later went back to hang their wreckage. Kinda cool.
What we did visit were several dams and a cafe/gift shop along the way. We enjoyed some good ole fashioned greasy bacon cheeseburgers. Casey had the fries and I had the onion rings, which were humongous. I forgot my camera for a second time in a row on the bike, but thankfully our friend Kellie had hers. Thanks Kellie for capturing our first Deals Gap moment. The tree of shame picture is a place at the cafe where people who have crashed later went back to hang their wreckage. Kinda cool.
Friday, April 4, 2008
Sick as a dog and a dog's life
Well another week has just flown right by. Can you believe it? Casey and I both got sick this week. Felt like a 48-hour flu type thing. Not fun. We were a pathetic useless pair. Tonight will be a chance for us to catch up on all the chores we let slide while we wallowed in our sickness on the couch, slurping chicken noodle soup and drinking gatorade. Nighttime was a nyquil blur. Then miraculously we both wake up this morning and the achiness is gone, the phlegm is still hanging on and I can't really taste anything (except for Doritos and Coca-Cola), but for the most part we feel much better.
Stinker 2 had her weekly adventure, as usual. This week she discovered gorilla glue! She left a trail of it from her doggy bed in the living room, through the kitchen, on to the back deck, and into the back yard; where we found the bottle sitting in a pool of its own innards. We spoke to the vet and we are keeping a close eye on her. From what we can tell she didn't ingest much of it (the bottle still had a lot in it and the amount missing from the bottle looked like the amount on our hardwood floors (!!!) and what had pooled around the bottle) but if she starts having digestion issues or loses her appetite we are in trouble and will have to take her in for an xray and possibly emergency surgery. When I hear a vet say the words "xray" and "emergency surgery" this is what I think, "$$$$ holy booger beans batman @!$#@!#!$%##%!#!" I keep it all inside though. It's difficult to put a price on the life of something I love so much. We'll do what we have to do.
Gorilla glue expands along as it is wet, so you can imagine what it does sitting in one's stomach or intestines. The poor thing also has it all over the bottom of her paws, we had to pry two of her paw pads apart and trim a lot of hair off. She also has it stuck to her lip. Not on the fur but on the skin. Another thing we are supposed to keep an eye on. The doc says we need to check for sores or ulcers in her mouth, a sign of irritation from the solvent in the glue and also a sign that she actually did swallow some of it. As far as removing the glue from her lip he said it will wear off over time. Something about that part of the skin exfoliating itself and regenerating new cells, etc. Its stuck on there pretty good though, so I am not sure. I wonder how long it will take to wear off. For humans, you can remove gorilla glue by rubbing a cue-tip soaked in nail polish remover over the area. I am not sure I want to do this to a dog, especially with the area being so close to the inside of her mouth. I am already having to worry about her ingesting gorilla glue; I don't want to worry about her ingesting nail polish remover too.
Momma Bean, do you have any advice?? Did you ever see such a thing while working at the clinic?
Well, the good news is as of now she has no sores or ulcers nor digestion issues. She is just as playful and hungry as a healthy six month old puppy should be. The vet said that dogs are much more durable than we think so not to worry until there are signs of something wrong. Thanks doc, easier said than done, but a consolation nonetheless.
We are getting her spayed in two weeks. Assuming this glue situation dissolves into a distant memory, our biggest challenge will be keeping her calm and relatively still while she recovers. This will be difficult with her 1.5 year old boxer brother in the house. We may have to take Rocky to my MIL's for the week while Holly recovers, but I am not completely sold on this idea. Rocky hates to be away from his humans. He gets very anxious and stops eating. Poor guy, he can be a nervous wreck. We think it has to do with wherever he came from. We adopted him from the humane society. The humane society rescued him from the pound the day before he was scheduled to be euthanized. The pound had found him abandoned roaming the streets of Knoxville. It's hard to believe someone just abandoned what appears to be a full-bred brindle boxer puppy. We think he was abused. When we first got him he would cower if you raised your arm or hand. I imagine he belonged to someone who didn't have the patience or understanding to deal with the puppy stages of raising a large breed dog. He is small for a boxer, but at 55 lbs. he's no lap dog, that's for sure. Of course he doesn't know that he is not a lap dog. He behaves as though he is a lap dog trapped inside a boxer body.
Lucky for us God had another plan for Mr. Rockford "Rocky" Morrison; he was meant to be in our loving patient home. We are happy to say he has been "off the streets" for six months now. His hard-knock Annie days are over and with each passing month he becomes more calm.
Stinker 2 had her weekly adventure, as usual. This week she discovered gorilla glue! She left a trail of it from her doggy bed in the living room, through the kitchen, on to the back deck, and into the back yard; where we found the bottle sitting in a pool of its own innards. We spoke to the vet and we are keeping a close eye on her. From what we can tell she didn't ingest much of it (the bottle still had a lot in it and the amount missing from the bottle looked like the amount on our hardwood floors (!!!) and what had pooled around the bottle) but if she starts having digestion issues or loses her appetite we are in trouble and will have to take her in for an xray and possibly emergency surgery. When I hear a vet say the words "xray" and "emergency surgery" this is what I think, "$$$$ holy booger beans batman @!$#@!#!$%##%!#!" I keep it all inside though. It's difficult to put a price on the life of something I love so much. We'll do what we have to do.
Gorilla glue expands along as it is wet, so you can imagine what it does sitting in one's stomach or intestines. The poor thing also has it all over the bottom of her paws, we had to pry two of her paw pads apart and trim a lot of hair off. She also has it stuck to her lip. Not on the fur but on the skin. Another thing we are supposed to keep an eye on. The doc says we need to check for sores or ulcers in her mouth, a sign of irritation from the solvent in the glue and also a sign that she actually did swallow some of it. As far as removing the glue from her lip he said it will wear off over time. Something about that part of the skin exfoliating itself and regenerating new cells, etc. Its stuck on there pretty good though, so I am not sure. I wonder how long it will take to wear off. For humans, you can remove gorilla glue by rubbing a cue-tip soaked in nail polish remover over the area. I am not sure I want to do this to a dog, especially with the area being so close to the inside of her mouth. I am already having to worry about her ingesting gorilla glue; I don't want to worry about her ingesting nail polish remover too.
Momma Bean, do you have any advice?? Did you ever see such a thing while working at the clinic?
Well, the good news is as of now she has no sores or ulcers nor digestion issues. She is just as playful and hungry as a healthy six month old puppy should be. The vet said that dogs are much more durable than we think so not to worry until there are signs of something wrong. Thanks doc, easier said than done, but a consolation nonetheless.
We are getting her spayed in two weeks. Assuming this glue situation dissolves into a distant memory, our biggest challenge will be keeping her calm and relatively still while she recovers. This will be difficult with her 1.5 year old boxer brother in the house. We may have to take Rocky to my MIL's for the week while Holly recovers, but I am not completely sold on this idea. Rocky hates to be away from his humans. He gets very anxious and stops eating. Poor guy, he can be a nervous wreck. We think it has to do with wherever he came from. We adopted him from the humane society. The humane society rescued him from the pound the day before he was scheduled to be euthanized. The pound had found him abandoned roaming the streets of Knoxville. It's hard to believe someone just abandoned what appears to be a full-bred brindle boxer puppy. We think he was abused. When we first got him he would cower if you raised your arm or hand. I imagine he belonged to someone who didn't have the patience or understanding to deal with the puppy stages of raising a large breed dog. He is small for a boxer, but at 55 lbs. he's no lap dog, that's for sure. Of course he doesn't know that he is not a lap dog. He behaves as though he is a lap dog trapped inside a boxer body.
Lucky for us God had another plan for Mr. Rockford "Rocky" Morrison; he was meant to be in our loving patient home. We are happy to say he has been "off the streets" for six months now. His hard-knock Annie days are over and with each passing month he becomes more calm.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
The week's end
FM4 asked about a picture of me on the bike. I wanted Casey to ride it a few times and get really comfortable handling the bike before I let myself ride it with him. We went on our first ride together Friday afternoon. We had a great time exploring our town and also rode to a neighboring town to visit some friends of ours. Next time I will try and rememeber to have the camera with me so I can get some action shots or something. It will be hard getting pictures of me and the bike as I am the one that always takes pictures.
Yesterday we participated in a Dodge Ball tournament at a local gym. Now that is something I wish I had pictures of, but of course there would have been no way to take pictures while playing the game. We had a great time and met some fun people. We are also incredibly sore as that was the most either one of us has worked out in some time. Our whole bodies are sore and stiff today. Casey jammed both his pinky fingers and another guy on our team actually broke his arm....playing dodgeball!
There were five teams and the gym thought it was such a success that they are going to organize another tournament next month. Before yesterday the last time I played dodgeball was in 5th grade. It was fun to revisit childhood for a day.
Weekend house projects included cleaning, going to the recycle center and finishing the compost pile. Casey built four walls, including a gate for our compost pile. This will keep our dogs out and it also just looks nicer. Thanks Casey!
Our next house project will be replacing the old 1950s galvanized piping with new materials that won't rust over the years. We are going to do this ourselves and save lots of $$$.
Yesterday we participated in a Dodge Ball tournament at a local gym. Now that is something I wish I had pictures of, but of course there would have been no way to take pictures while playing the game. We had a great time and met some fun people. We are also incredibly sore as that was the most either one of us has worked out in some time. Our whole bodies are sore and stiff today. Casey jammed both his pinky fingers and another guy on our team actually broke his arm....playing dodgeball!
There were five teams and the gym thought it was such a success that they are going to organize another tournament next month. Before yesterday the last time I played dodgeball was in 5th grade. It was fun to revisit childhood for a day.
Weekend house projects included cleaning, going to the recycle center and finishing the compost pile. Casey built four walls, including a gate for our compost pile. This will keep our dogs out and it also just looks nicer. Thanks Casey!
Our next house project will be replacing the old 1950s galvanized piping with new materials that won't rust over the years. We are going to do this ourselves and save lots of $$$.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
New book and other literary updates
I am about a quarter through Magical Thinking, a book of true short stories from the life of Augusten Burroughs (the guy who wrote Running With Scissors). It's hilarious. I find myself laughing out loud every other page. What's even better is I didn't buy it, well not recently anyway. I found the book in my bookshelf. I vaguely remember buying it a few years ago and having every intention to read it as soon as I finished whatever book I was reading at that time. When we moved into our house a few months ago I unpacked all my books and it was kind of like Christmas.
I am also happy to announce that I followed the good example of some fellow bloggers and finally got my library card today.
Here it is...my new bookstore.
Yay!!! I have my list of "to read" books all ready. As soon as I finish Magical Thinking instead of heading to Amazon or B&N I wil go to my local library and check the books out FOR FREE. While I was there I also joined the local Friends of the Library chapter. I am VERY excited about this and hope I have time to participate in some of the cool things they do, like the annual library book sale and their book clubs. Thank you MIL for introducing me to this wonderful organization with an equally wonderful cause: literacy and public libraries!
The first book on my list is actually the same one that my MIL is currently reading: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food by Barbara Kingslover. This is the description from the Good Reads website:
Bestselling author Barbara Kingsolver returns with her first nonfiction narrative that will open your eyes in a hundred new ways to an old truth: You are what you eat.
"As the U.S. population made an unprecedented mad dash for the Sun Belt, one carload of us paddled against the tide, heading for the Promised Land where water falls from the sky and green stuff grows all around. We were about to begin the adventure of realigning our lives with our food chain. Naturally, our first stop was to buy junk food and fossil fuel. . . ."
Hang on for the ride: With characteristic poetry and pluck, Barbara Kingsolver and her family sweep readers along on their journey away from the industrial-food pipeline to a rural life in which they vow to buy only food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it. Their good-humored search yields surprising discoveries about turkey sex life and overly zealous zucchini plants, en route to a food culture that's better for the neighborhood and also better on the table. Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle makes a passionate case for putting the kitchen back at the center of family life and diversified farms at the center of the American diet.
"This is the story of a year in which we made every attempt to feed ourselves animals and vegetables whose provenance we really knew . . . and of how our family was changed by our first year of deliberately eating food produced from the same place where we worked, went to school, loved our neighbors, drank the water, and breathed the air."
I am also happy to announce that I followed the good example of some fellow bloggers and finally got my library card today.
Here it is...my new bookstore.
Yay!!! I have my list of "to read" books all ready. As soon as I finish Magical Thinking instead of heading to Amazon or B&N I wil go to my local library and check the books out FOR FREE. While I was there I also joined the local Friends of the Library chapter. I am VERY excited about this and hope I have time to participate in some of the cool things they do, like the annual library book sale and their book clubs. Thank you MIL for introducing me to this wonderful organization with an equally wonderful cause: literacy and public libraries!
The first book on my list is actually the same one that my MIL is currently reading: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food by Barbara Kingslover. This is the description from the Good Reads website:
Bestselling author Barbara Kingsolver returns with her first nonfiction narrative that will open your eyes in a hundred new ways to an old truth: You are what you eat.
"As the U.S. population made an unprecedented mad dash for the Sun Belt, one carload of us paddled against the tide, heading for the Promised Land where water falls from the sky and green stuff grows all around. We were about to begin the adventure of realigning our lives with our food chain. Naturally, our first stop was to buy junk food and fossil fuel. . . ."
Hang on for the ride: With characteristic poetry and pluck, Barbara Kingsolver and her family sweep readers along on their journey away from the industrial-food pipeline to a rural life in which they vow to buy only food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it. Their good-humored search yields surprising discoveries about turkey sex life and overly zealous zucchini plants, en route to a food culture that's better for the neighborhood and also better on the table. Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle makes a passionate case for putting the kitchen back at the center of family life and diversified farms at the center of the American diet.
"This is the story of a year in which we made every attempt to feed ourselves animals and vegetables whose provenance we really knew . . . and of how our family was changed by our first year of deliberately eating food produced from the same place where we worked, went to school, loved our neighbors, drank the water, and breathed the air."
New hair
I mentioned in previous blogs that I cut my hair literally the day after we got back to TN from TX. Here is my new hair.
A side view...
A side view...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)