I'm Domestic

Evie was a bit disappointed I left her at home [she really needs a pal, but that's a whole other saga right now]. So I went and did this for about an hour or so before it got too hot...

And then, one packet of some new Ball pectin mix & some sugar later, I did this...

Extra chunky raspberry jam. Yum!

Garden

Hens & chicks are some of my favorite garden "flowers" - ok yes, I know they're succulents. Anyway...what is going on with this hen? Note the pic of the normal ones in the garden [above], then the mutant alien one [below]. Do they flower? I've never seen one flower. This is odd...

It's Been 7yrs and Then Some

Evie came home 7yrs ago as of July 4th! It's hard to believe it's been that long. So many things have changed. I never saw Evie as "my" pup. She's turned out to be a good little kid though - a bit quirky - but she's mine. Excentricities and all!

Her siblings Cherry & Gizmo just turned 7yrs on July 4th as well. I hope they're doing well. It's been almost 2yrs since I've seen them but there isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about them. I doubt I'll ever stop thinking about them.

This past June was an odd month as well. So many memories. June 1st was the 3yr anniversary of Oliver's death; June 12th was the "gotcha day" anniversary of when Newell came home - it would've been 8yrs we had him had he not died back in February; June 21st was Boone's birthday & the 23rd was his "gotcha day." I wonder if the memories will ever start to fade?

Ack - It's April!

A picture from back in early March. How did it get to be April already? Hearing from friends back east & they're having a miniature heat-wave. Here, it's more soggy rain and lower 50s. I'm so waiting for spring/summer to actually begin. Still waiting...

Evie's chugging along fine! Back on her thyroid medicine so we're hoping that helps with her weight again. She appears to have dropped about 2 lbs so far! [Keep in perspective that 2 lbs on a little GH is a LOT.] She's at doggy day care 1x/week. Learning to socialize with dogs that aren't GH is a challenge - but confident she's up to the task. They even come pick her up in the little white bus which is totally cute.

Evie's also been to the dog park and we had some luck meeting some other GH that she got along swimmingly with. We also made a trek back to the dog park where it all began with my dear dear Newell.

Speaking of Newell...



Coldwater Newell [3/13/1997 - 2/14/2010] - sadly Newell died back in February. I hadn't seen him in the longest time due to issues beyond my control [namely my ex husband refused to let me see him - and the only thing I can say to that is *selfish*]. Oddly too, just about 2 weeks before he died, I had talked to the ex and begged him to let me see Newell to no avail.

He was beyond the best dog ever. He was everything. He was the reason I have Evie and why we got all the other GH over the years; he and the other dogs allowed me to meet some great people all over the country [and world]; he is the reason I travelled to some pretty odd places that without him in my life - I never would have gone. He is why I will always be a GH person! While I love Evie, no GH will ever compare to Newell.

The only bit of comfort is knowing that so many other great GH like Oliver, Tara, Tigger, Crusader, Joser, and were there waiting to greet him at the bridge when he arrived

Evie's been on Twitter for awhile now [to my chagrin since I was complaining about it on this blog not too long ago]...and some of her Twitter friends were greyhounds that left their people too soon - prayers to the owners of Sheba greyhound and Tahoe greyhound who recently died.

Nothing Changes

well, I'm still here writing this and avoiding studying. So I guess nothing has changed...

Acutally, I spent a week in DC [Virginia to be exact] for work at the end of January for some training. Nice to be back. I used to live there so it all felt very familiar.


The Carlyle House in Alexandria - a short walk from my hotel.


A nice row of restored 18th century houses along N. Fairfax St in Alexandria.


A view from my hotel window across the Potomac River towards Washington DC - you can *barely* see the dome of the Capitol [to the very left]...if I had a 10000x zoom on my cell phone maybe!

It also gave me the chance to reconnect with a friend from law school. I'm decidedly bad about keeping in touch with friends over the years. I move around too much and it was always easy to lose touch. Shouldn't be an excuse in this day and age with all the technology out there. She believes I should join facebook. Uh, no.

I do admit though - Evie has had a Twitter account for several months now [some of you who read here have found her on Twitter]. Despite my rant months ago about why join Twitter, Evie broke down & convinced me to sign her up. So I did. She has lots of greyhound friends now all over the US, England and Australia. Plus a few cat friends too. Fun to have her chat with GH around the world though! It would be better if we could meet in person at some point!

Ok, back to studying [procrastination needs to stop...]

Ides of January

The new year has been uneventful so far. I've been holed up studying [hopefully for the last time] so BF has been out and about in the evenings. He's getting space to do his own thing while I'm "attempting" a valliant effort...



I will say it's quite the setup here - nice little mood candle for ambiance [really?], music, hot cup of tea...and it's nasty outside pouring cats & dogs!

Evie is doing much better than expected being a solo pup. She gets sad pretty easy though - at least I think it's sadness - when she's left alone too long though. Helping me upstairs while chewing on her xmas gift...



I also have a new - well new to me - recipe to post later...

It's Almost Christmas

Just got back from Las Vegas and had early holiday with the parents. SUNNY which was nice but not as warm as I would've like. An overabundance of food. My stomach still hurts!

We are volunteering to help greyhounds in the local adoption kennel!! Fun! Work gave me an extra day off [Christmas Eve] so Evie and I will help care for the dogs that just came from Phoenix - then Christmas day we're all going down to help! Very exciting. That should also convince the BF that Evie is in need of her new pal sooner rather than later!

Lazy as we haven't set up a tree yet [blame Vegas]. Here's a picture from last year's tree which was SO pretty...

Greyhound Charity for the Holidays

There are so many greyhound charities out there - if you can't think of what to get that greyhound person in your life, or if you'd like to make a donation in memory of a greyhound [or person] for the holidays, these are the charities Evie recommends:

Royal Hounds - in memory of Tara and her brother Tigger, who both came through this group. In the Seattle WA area...

Lincolnshire Greyhound Trust - fabulous if you're in England! They've adopted over 120 greyhounds this year!

Guam Greyhounds - helping greyhounds from a track that closed with no warning get back to the US and into homes!

McGregor Greyhound Welfare Center - homing dogs from the Birmingham AL track in the southern US.

Evie doesn't need another coat or collar for the holidays this year. Giving that same amount of money to a group that can help another greyhound find a family is a great gift! Even giving up your Starbucks money for a week could put a homeless greyhound in a new coat/collar, give him a vaccine, or buy him a bag of kibbles for a month until he finds a new family. Think about it...

Sandy Sales - aka Tara

July 3, 1999 - November 5, 2009

She was my friend and I will miss her terribly - love Evie





[this picture was right after Tara was diagnosed with chylothorax in early August 2009]

Spooky Halloween

Somewhat belated but here's Evie in her Halloween "costume." She was being somewhat coy about having her picture taken.



Last year, tons of candy = 1 kid. This year, one small bag of candy = 2 kids. Ok, getting the hint that there aren't any kids in my neighborhood. But the new walk-way at the house all lit up made it nice!

Busy September

I can't believe an entire month has passed by already! BF and I spent the first two weeks of the month in Italy. Yep.

We primarily went for the Formula 1 race in Monza [a fabulous sport that I'm totally getting hooked on]. It confirms that NASCAR is just a bunch of rednecks. Yep - I said that too. I have *never* experienced anything as LOUD as F1. And the mix of nationalities was great!

We met people from Finland, Sweden, England, Scotland, Germany, Hungary, Belgium, Chile, Argentina, South Africa, Australia, Brazil, a handful of Americans from Seattle, Chicago, and San Francisco, and Italy of course. So fun! We're going again next year to Belgium and probably Canada too. Weather was great and we did a bit of sightseeing too around Milan and Lake Como.



[Picture is of Rubens Barichello in the white hat - BrawnGP - right before the driver parade. He won the race that day!]



[Picture of Kimmi Raikkonen in the red hat - Ferrari - on his way to get ready for the race.]

Tara is doing suprisingly well. Been tracking her coughing and she didn't cough a single time while we were gone. Since we've been home, she's done it 3 times. Just tracking and keeping an eye out to determine if/when we have to drain her chest again. Her weight seems to be fluxuating a bit though. Some days she eats and some she doesn't. Picky pup.

Tara update

Sorry I haven't updated about Tara in awhile.

Well, no heart disease. She was officially diagnosed with chylothorax. Underlying cause is likely cancer. We opted not to have the thoracotomy to open up her chest and see how much cancer there is. Aside from the cost, we mainly opted against it because we didn't want to have to come to the decision to not wake her up from the surgery if it was that bad. We also didn't necessarily want to know she only had "2 weeks" or "6 months" or whatever the case may be.

So, what are we doing? Just managing it. Talked with my bestest favorite vet [who helped deliver Cherry's puppies almost 2yrs ago now] and even he said that was a good option. Let her live her life and when the time comes, it comes. We just have to have the fluid drained from her chest every week or so. Ugh.

Tara's going to the vet tonight to have that done. It's been 10 days - and 20 days from the initial draining. We should have it done again right before our big trip so my dad doesn't have anything to worry about when he watches the girls. She's been eating sporadically [though the weather's been hot] and her energy level is fairly consistent. In the evenings, she loves laying the back of BF's car. Doesn't like going anywhere - just laying in his car. Silly.

And she has no problems eating cookies to her heart's desire! Picture is after she just gorged herself on 3 HUGE Trader Joe's organic peanut butter cookies [the ones with the greyhounds on the box].

Orvis Cover Pups

Vote for Tara & Evie as the new Orvis Catalog 2010 cover pups!

https://coverdog.orvis.com/contest.html?contestId=1 or search for "Tara and Evie" and vote! GH need your help!

Voting will also help to donate $$ for canine cancer research!

Sickness

Pleural effusion is the build up of fluid in the cavity between the lungs and the chest wall. Normally there's a tiny amount of fluid in there to prevent chaffing [for lack of a better word] of the lungs against the chest wall. It's generally related to a disease such as heart failure/heart disease or cancer.

Tara was diagnosed with pleural effusion the other day. She had 3 litres of fluid drained out of her chest [yes, that's like a coke bottle & a half]. Creamy, yellowish fluid tinged with blood. 3 litres of fluid weighs a bit more than 6lbs. She's lookin' pretty thin. We're trying hard to get her to eat to get weight back on her.

It started with a cough [like a cat trying to throw a big ol' hairball] several weeks ago, but we though she had eaten grass or had a bit of food stuck in her throat. Pisses me off that the vet [or should I say assistant, who said we didn't book a vet appointment, but only a vaccine appointment] didn't take the time to look down her throat. Hello, if you took her in the back so the vet could give her a rabies vaccine, how hard would it have been to take 5min more and look down her throat????

We had to bring her back after she seemed to drop about 5lbs overnight. And don't tell me [stupid assistant] that she's only dropped 1lb since January - when we were in for vaccines 2wks ago, your stupid scale wasn't working. I know when a greyhound looks too thin. 4-5 ribs + hard hib bones is too thin; 1-2 ribs & slight hip bones is normal. Fine we'll take xrays. That's when the xrays showed the fluid...

She goes to the cardiologist on Monday for ultrasound/EKG and more tests. Hopefully it's just heart disease to be managed with medicine - and not cancer. Hopefully.

July 1st

Wow. Nice weather. Pups outside all day sunning themselves. Tara turns *10* on Friday, July 3rd.

My former pups [and I say former simply because the ex now has custody of them, which is a story in itself], Cherry & Gizmo, turn *6* on the 4th - and it will be 6 years since I got Evie! Went and picked up Evie the day Cherry and Gizmo were born! Odd that we ended up taking them both home later [Cherry the following April and Gizmo almost a year and a half after that].

Picture is from Evie on her first day home...

June

Can't believe June is almost over. Enjoyed several weeks of good, sunny weather. Tara's here mugging for the camera [and Evie's in the background shaded for once & not in the sun bakin' her noggin].

The front yard is coming together nicely; wired up all the lights for the new "exposed aggregate" walkway. No, solar lights don't work in Seattle. Just have to add more dirt this weekend, plant the hydrangea and lavender, and then hopefully, voila! A house with curb appeal. Please make the rain stop...

And it's done...

So, for the details:

Cabinets - IKEA Adel medium brown
Handles - IKEA Lansa 10"
Appliances - IKEA by Whirlpool
Countertop - Icestone Amber Pearl
Faucet/soap dispenser - Price Pfister

The countertops are quite cool - recycled glass in a concrete matrix. Made in Brooklyn. You can see the detail in the photo above - there's even mother of pearl in it! From the picture, it's hard to see, but some of the chips, if you look super close, have that iridescent white/red color like a piece of chipped off peppermint candy. Sparkly!!!

The IKEA cabinets are awesome; made to EU standards, low VOC, and much sturdier than anything you could get at a box store. IMO the only thing better would be solid wood but at 10x the cost! Have you ever been to an IKEA store on the weekends? Those kitchens get the crap kicked out of them by everyone - kids hanging on the doors, open/closed 1000000 times, etc. If they can handle that, I think they'll survive our "tough" use! The flooring is IKEA too...

Backsplash is still in process as we haven't decided what to do yet. Looking at replacing the windows in the house so backsplash may wait until that's done.

Under-mount stainless steel sink. The silicone that's attaching the sink to the counter has to dry for about 24+ hrs before we're able to hook up the plumbing. So right now, it's just sitting there looking pretty. It will be nice to wash my hands in the sink again - and not have to go to the bathroom for washing what few dishes we've used.

Overall rating = 8 on a scale of 10. Why? There are a few finishing touches to do [including hanging the wine rack which I spent days trying to find a custom stain for to match the cabinets]. I can't imagine doing a remodel while working full time - thank god I'm unemployed right now! [Translation, BF's hours at work make it 100% impossible for him to do it, hence me not working helped in managing & organizing everything]. It was worth paying someone to assemble & install the cabinets. BF's house is about 80yrs old. During the install process, the cabinet guys assembled all the cabinets [12 total] in 2hrs and installed in about 5.5hrs. I learned the ceiling sloped in one spot by about 3/4 inch, there's a 1/2 inch bow on the same wall, and the other wall slopes 1/2 inch from one end to the other. Installing cabinets is quite the science to make sure everything is level & plumb.

We also like how the cabinets all have the silent closing hinges on them [custom cabinets will cost you $100+ per door/drawer extra for this feature] - which is standard for IKEA. There are some neat features too, like a lazy susan for the corner, pull out cabinet for some small appliances, huge deep drawers & lots of under counter space to fit the coffee pot & Kitchenaid mixer.

BF will be doing the plumbing hookup on his own. Hired professionals to move a handful of outlets around & run the gas line for the cooktop. Bonus points for IKEA again, as custom cabinets would've cost as much as this entire project + taken at least 4-6 weeks to get in. Start to finish on this project from demo to done was 3 weeks!

*and note, I say "we" but to be fair, it's all BF's $$$ and house since he paid for everything! I just had fun managing all of it!

Almost After...

and you'll just have to wait until next week to see the final product! It's awesome, but going almost 2 weeks now without a cooking surface sucks!

Before...

Happy Belated Bday to Me!

I love birthdays. Something about a whole day dedicated to YOU. And gifts and cake. Love the cake. Last year, I had a great bday - as BF and I went to the Seattle Symphony to hear Vivaldi. How to top that? BF took me to Disneyland!!!! Never been to Disneyland - just DisneyWorld. It was fun & had a super good time. Awesome bbq lunch & nice dinner at the Blue Bayou. I got soaked on Splash Mountain because someone thought it was appropriate for the bday girl to sit in the front. Hmph.