Didn't See That Coming

We had an interesting end to this past week. First off, the foundation work is done for now.  We have one more area that needs some steel under it, but that will wait until we get the encapsulation done in our crawlspace sometime next year hopefully.  Quite a bit of my flower bed was destroyed but I knew that was going to happen.  This year was a transition year in that bed anyway, as I am converting it to a pollinator garden.  Hopefully some of the perennials I planted in that now-blank area will come back next year.  

On Friday, we went to a vet appointment for Milo.  He has been showing some cognitive changes for a while now but lately there has been more pacing and panting, so I wanted to make sure he wasn't in pain for another reason.  Our vet started checking Milo out and immediately said he needed an ultrasound.  It turns out he had a tumor in his spleen the size of a softball!  It was pushing against his intestines and I can only imagine how much pain it was causing.  Splenic tumors are very vascular and his was a ticking time bomb, so he was in surgery about an hour later. We got to see him for a minute before surgery, and tell him we loved him and what a good boy he was.  He's an anxious dog anyway, and now at nearly 15 his hearing is gone and his eyes aren't great.   

The day after surgery 

The biggest worry was that they would open him up and find a cancer that had spread.  In that situation, we would have made the decision to let him go.  You can imagine how it felt sitting by the phone and waiting for a call.  Thankfully they didn't find any other tumors, he did well, and only needed to stay one night.  

He does have an enlarged gallbladder and removal in a dog is a risky surgery with high mortality, so we are doing all we can to avoid that possibility.  Milo is now on a low-fat prescription food and 2 meds for life.  He's also got 4 other new meds right now (2 antibiotics and 2 for pain) so we are still getting used to all of that.  The splenic tumor has been sent off for pathology so we can see exactly what it is.  If it's benign then we don't have to worry that it could be what is going on with his gallbladder as well.  He goes back in a little under 2 weeks to have his sutures (there must be 20) removed and we should find out the pathology then.  

3 days after surgery

My husband had to work Labor Day weekend but was off Labor Day, and I spent the weekend at home making sure Milo was OK.  Hopefully this week will be a quiet and boring one!

 

This Week

 This week we have been having foundation work done on our home.  We knew for a while this was coming, and decided it was finally time.  Apparently the people who built the house made the spans too wide, so it allowed the house to sag.  Ah, the joys of home ownership.  

The men have been working hard for 3 days out in 100+ degree days with jackhammers and shovels, and installing steel beams in the crawlspace, so I am definitely not going to complain about noise and/or expense.  Milo the dog will complain about strangers walking in HIS yard and coming into HIS house though.  He can't hear anymore but he can feel the vibrations.  Apparently they dig underneath the foundation, and then they insert steel until the house is back to where it should be.  

The cats are also freaked out.  They walk around quickly and low to the ground.  Norman spent the first day hiding under the bed covers, as he usually does if there's any kind of stranger in the house or working outside.  

Here I am checking on Norman, after he's been hiding for 5 hours. Please note the panting of the anxious dog in the background.  

After they left yesterday, it still felt like 105, but I was determined to get some time out on the deck.  I had my patio umbrella open and brought the fan outside to give a little air circulation.  

 Reading is a big love of mine, and I especially enjoy reading outside while watching the hummingbirds zoom around the feeder that's a couple feet away from my chair.  One often will fly right by our heads when they are chasing another hummer off.  We call that "buzzing the tower."  

Currently I'm reading "The Good Life" by Scott and Helen Nearing.  I've had this book since we went to our very first Vegetarian Summerfest in PA.  It's pretty good.  I'm about halfway through.  I'm also reading the most recent Thursday Murder Club on Kindle from Libby.  I try to have one fiction and one non-fiction book going at the same time.  

Also this week, Cosette, 13 years old and mom to the 3 "kittens" who are now 12 years old, and also big fan of the RBF, had a dental.  In the end she needed 7 teeth removed, including all 4 canines.  Three had cavities and one had an abscess.  With an abscessed tooth most of us would be begging the dentist for antibiotics and pain meds but Cosette never drooled, stopped eating, or acting like anything hurt.   Cats:  hiding pain and/or sickness since they evolved probably.  She is currently zooming around the house due to the transdermal opioid pain med she has.  Yesterday she loved up against me over and over in an aggressive way.  Ha!  

A few days in Louisville

 Last week I went away on a girls' trip with my mom and one of my sisters to Louisville, KY. 

Electric charging station at a popular chain gas station.  Nice to see more availability. 

We stayed in an Airbnb in Indiana, across the river from Louisville, and it was a good location. The house had 2 rooms with queen beds and one room with 2 twin beds.  I chose this room and I was surprised at how easy it was to sleep in a twin bed, not having done that in 30+ years.  We had a nice covered patio area too, and we enjoyed sitting out there in the beautiful weather.  

The first night we went to a Chinese restaurant that appealed to all 3 of us:  Mom could have chicken, I could have sesame tofu, and my sister could have either. (She chose General's tofu.) I love anytime I can get a vegan sesame dish, and this was a good one.  We also had an appetizer of dumplings and they were delicious.  

The next day we went to a casino, which is something my mom enjoys and my sister and I are happy to go along with her and play a bit.  

For dinner we had pizza.  Again, it's so nice to be in a bigger city where there are restaurants that serve both vegan and non-vegan food, so my whole family can enjoy.  Mine had pepperoni and cheese, both vegan of course, and roasted garlic.  Yum!  I ate on this thing for 2 days.  My sister and I drove to Cinnaholic and picked up some yummy dessert.  I had the maple pecan pie cinnamon roll.  

The next morning we had two events scheduled.  In the morning we took a trolley tour of downtown Louisville.  There were only 5 of us total so it was almost like having a private tour.  The tour guide/driver was great.  She enjoys history and she knew a lot about the area, even though she's not originally from there.  I love learning about the history of an area so this was the perfect tour for me.  We went through a large area of Victorian homes and stopped at Churchill Downs.  

After the trolley tour we went back to the house and rested, because that evening we were signed up for a sunset riverboat cruise.  I enjoy being out on the water, but only if I'm out in the fresh air.  We needed to sit inside because my mom was unable to walk up the 17 stairs to get to the outside area.  I was glad to do it so we could all be together because that was the whole purpose of this trip.  There was a band playing oldies and new songs.  It was basically like being in a loud nightclub on the water. Outside the music was fine but inside it was a bit much for those of us who weren't going to be dancing and would have liked to have seen the sights.  Oh well, now I'll know if we ever do it again.  Daytime narrated cruise ONLY if you have to be inside.  We still laughed a lot and enjoyed being together.  

The next day we had scheduled a day of rest, because we knew Mom would be tired from the late evening.  We slept in, then went to a breakfast/brunch restaurant.  This vegan was able to have a bowl of oatmeal with pecans, strawberries, and brown sugar, and I liked it.  My mom is a big breakfast person so mainly we wanted to make sure she got to enjoy herself.  

We just hung out most of the rest of the day.  In the evening I drove to a nearby town and picked up Indian food for my sister and me. I ordered naan, vegetable pakoras, samosas, and gobi Manchurian.  Yes I made a meal out of bread and appetizers.  My mom is not what you'd call an adventurous eater so she stuck with a frozen meal she had picked up.  We all got in our pjs and while we ate we watched a movie.  

The next morning it was time to pack up and drive home.  Once again we went by Cinnaholic and got some cinnamon rolls for ourselves and for the family members who had to stay home.  

My husband got the blueberry pie version.  

It was a wonderful few days but I was glad to get home to my husband after being away.  I'm so glad for the memories I got to make with my mom and middle sister.  

  

My little garden

I have a small container garden on my deck.  When it was cooler I had two lettuce plants that grew very well and gave me lots of crisp lettuce for veggie burgers.  They of course are bolting now that it's 100+ degrees outside and I'm just leaving them to see what it looks like when they flower.  I also managed to grow some turnip greens for my husband.  Again, not a hot weather crop so they are gone now.  

I had decent luck with bell peppers and cucumbers this year.  I really only grew the cucumbers for my dog.  He likes to pick them himself. Yes, I'm serious.  I'll include some photos of him and his beloved cucumbers next time.  

A few peppers and green beans

On this day, everything was chopped and frozen for future use.  I have a few recipes I use the bell peppers in and it's nice not to have to worry about whether or not I have a fresh one.  The hot peppers I didn't grow on purpose.  Apparently one of my supposed bell pepper plants was actually a Hungarian wax pepper.  When I saw it growing I thought it was a banana pepper so my husband crunched into it.  Needless to say, he only ate one bite.  Those are also chopped separately and I'll use them sparingly for recipes that call for a jalapeño. 

There's a couple extra yellow bell peppers in this photo chopped up that I got from the grocery store on clearance.  

Zinnia in my pollinator garden

Last fall I dug up a large flower bed near the deck and transplanted most of the flowers to a shady spot in the back of our yard.  It's actually a small fenced area where we have our pet cemetery where they are buried and more recently, their ashes sprinkled.  I decided to turn the deck flower bed into a wildflower garden for pollinators.  It's doing pretty good for the first year growing from seed.  Since the majority of the plants are perennial I'm hopeful they will be back for many years to come.  

8 years

I haven't posted here in EIGHT years.  I just kind of lost interest in blogging.  Probably because I was posting more on Facebook.  And now I've lost interest in that, and have for the last couple of years.  I miss posting photos so thought I might give blogging a try again, and here I am.  

Update on who I am:  I live in the Southern U.S, am in my 50's, married for over 30 years, no kids, house full of pets.  I have a mom, a mil, two sisters, and a nephew who all live nearby.  I fostered cats and kittens and did TNR for many years but am taking a break right now.  I do hope to get back to it in the near future.  

 I sell a bit on Ebay, although frankly I've lost most of my interest in that too.  I'm just working through what I already have in inventory.  I try to live life frugally where I can.  Helping others and donating to causes we believe in are very important to us.  My husband and I are vegan and have been for over 20 years. I don't believe in being a pushy vegan.  Nobody else we are close to is vegan and we happily eat alongside them.  

Please enjoy a photo of our (almost) 15 year old dog, Milo, recently enjoying his first ever pup cup.  He can't hear anymore and doesn't see all that well but he can certainly taste that whipped cream. 

I suppose that's enough of an update for now.  

Starting the New Year off right...and early

I’ve been a little bit sick the last few days.  Mr. GV may have given me his cold.  As usual I show it as a sore throat and fatigue illness.  So today I did a lot of lying around, but in between resting spells I managed to get a few things accomplished, some people laundry and a load of kitten laundry.  Right now we are between fosters but I need to get ready for the inevitable.  

I also decided to do a declutter of my dresser.  I am so very pleased with how it turned out.  I didn’t have any problem before with shutting the drawers, or clothes overflowing on the top. No, my problem was that the dresser had become a catch-all for random things.  How random? Check out the odd items below.  

Here we have a magnetic wallet that attaches to the waist of your clothes (a gift), frame I took an old photo out of, a small Nylabone (probably taken from my late chihuahua at night), a lottery scratcher from Virginia (haven’t been there in years...), some papers to be recycled, a makeup bag that came with free samples on the internet long ago, and 3 cat collars that belonged to a cat that died several years ago.  Everything in this picture is gone except the bag, which is holding a couple small things I want to repair.  

These are all items that are still here, but in their proper place:  a couple pieces of doll clothes I plan to use for kitten capes (trust me, it’s frickin’ adorable), a book from my childhood, a few things that belonged to my dad (cowbell, military stuff, bandanas that he carried all the time), empty jewelry bags that will go in my basket for the humane society silent auction because they are perfect for donated jewelry, a broken picture frame (one of the items I hope to fix), oh and one thing that did leave—cat treat sticks that only one cat liked.  The dogs got the majority of these.  But why were they in my dresser?  

On the top here are some clothes that were trashed:  stretched out socks, gown that was too short, and sleep shorts that were too big and as thin as paper now.  Jewelry boxes for banquet, husband’s half marathon shirt returned to his dresser,  Madame Alexander doll cape put with cat supplies for teensy kitten pictures, Cafe Du Monde ornament reunited with other Christmas ornaments.  Other items donated.  

Lingerie!  I have had a drawer of this for 24 years now, since my lingerie shower before getting married.  Most of it I don’t care for.  I kept two pieces and the rest is out of here.  More T-shirts that are leaving.  Random doo dads I don’t need.  The box from our Legoland family keepsake picture from 3 years ago.  All of this has either been donated, trashed, or recycled.  

Norman was a big help.  He decluttered, aka scattered some wrapping paper scraps for me

Some items that were already in my donate box:  2 shirts, pet tags, bit of jewelry, kids’ DVD, and a book and magazine that will go to a Little Free Library.  

Magazines for the library, 2 Star Wars DVDs my nephew is getting, and movie for the library.  

A few memory items here: pillowcases my mom cross stitched, T-shirts for the T-shirt quilt I intend to have made this year, and a few other odds and ends.  I have a decorative box where the memory items go.  

Almost all of these items came from my dresser. As a result, I now  have THREE empty drawers!  Top middle drawer contains PJs/undies, middle have T-shirts and shorts, bottom has swimsuit, sweatshirt,  two holiday-themed T-shirts, and the two pieces of lingerie I kept.  Note that the bottom left drawer used to be full of lingerie I never wore.  

What will I do with the empty drawers?  Right now two are staying empty, and I’m just relishing in having that space.  The top left is now home to my laptop, which is perfect.  I got an IPad for Christmas and am phasing out my laptop, but until I’m done with it, it has a home.

What’s next?  I think my closet.  It’s not terrible, but still messy after Christmas supplies and gifts were stored in there.  

Bunches out of the house and one thing in

Oh my goodness, I've got several things leaving the house again and I'm so excited about it!  Most of these things were in my walk-in closet in my bedroom and we have so much more room in there now.  




These stuffed animals I pulled from yardsale donations that were made to our humane society a few years back.  Yes I said years.  I had all the intentions in the world to sell them on Ebay, as it seemed they were worth a few bucks.  Well, there they still sat in the closet, so out they go to donations.



Same here.  Going out as donations.  More stuffed animals, a freebie shirt from a conference, shoes that I love the look of but just aren't that comfortable on my feet, sunglasses no one claimed at an event I ran.  A few more items that weren't in the picture:  a back support Mr. GV bought to use in the car but really doesn't help him, a box of sidewalk chalk, and a few more small items.



Our humane society is having an event with a silent auction soon.  I've been keeping these things in...you guessed it...that same closet, some for months now.  I am so so so glad to get rid of them and vow to never junk it up like that again!  This is also a good reminder that your good quality "junk" can be a good fundraising item for a charity.



Bissell gives us a free product every year as a Partner for Pets. Hopefully we will make some nice change off this at the silent auction.



I bought these travel Bingo cards a few years ago when the entire family went to Florida on vacation. We never used them.  Sigh.  They are still in the original packaging.  I also donated a cute little dog picture frame that I never could make myself print out tiny pictures in order to use it.



Bracelets that were donated for our yard sale this year but were nice enough to hold back for the banquet.



Bought this Peppa Pig toy on clearance last year.



A Christmas gift for me in the past, and now a nice item for the silent auction.



Cool metal thermometer, bought on clearance.



A few years ago Mr. GV tried to get into birdwatching, but it never really stuck as a hobby for him.  Here we have a new (but from a yardsale) DVD and a couple of gently used books, plus a cute little notebook to make note of what birds you see.  I bought a bag of birdseed and some birdseed shaped into a bell to complete the basket. Basket from Goodwill.



My sister bought these at Dollar Tree and I picked up the basket at Goodwill.




This basket started because my sister gave me the cute little cat tea infusers as a gift for someone and never gave them to the person.  So she gave them to me for the banquet.  I threw in another brand new tea infuser that I got for my husband last Christmas and he never used, a mug and some lemon honey spoons from Marshall's, snacks from Dollar Tree, and loose teas from Kroger.  Basket from (of course) Goodwill.

I had a couple of other items I was able to donate:  Brand new lazy bed glasses (look it up, you wouldn't believe it if I told you) that Mr. GV had bought to give to a friend last Christmas and never did, and an item I got Mr. GV for his stocking last year and he never used--a gadget to convert the screws in the light switch plate to magnets to hold your keys.  It's a nifty idea but I forgot I had bought a nicer shelf with magnets to hold his keys, wallet, pens, and ID badge.



When I was at Goodwill last week buying the baskets for my auction goodies, I saw this Halloween decoration for $3.99.  I simply could not resist.  It was the week of Halloween and had a cat on it.  Never mind that I really don't decorate for Halloween.  I hung it on the front door and when my sister moves into her own place I plan to gift it to her since she has a black cat.