Two By Two

Today was quite a day for things in pairs. First off, it was David's birthday, which means it was also Landlady Paula's birthday. They are exactly twenty years apart in age, and next year will be their 100th birthday. We are in the pre-planning stages for that one, but for today we decided to celebrate by, what else, doing a couple of alpaca castrations!

Here are the victims patients pre-surgery, Spirit on the left and Otis on the right. I cropped out Paula & Wendy because Paula didn't want to be seen in her mucking-about-the-farm attire, but they're both smiling, perhaps a bit too gleefully.



Some good drugs, and then it was just a little incision, a clamp



a tie, and a cut,



and repeat,



followed by a few sutures. David intrepidly managed to take photos for the first one, but decided that was enough for him. Otis's surgery was much the same, though, and at the end we were left with what the folks across the Pond might refer to as a "bloody, bollocky mess".



Literally.

Nonetheless, within a very short period, both boys were up and about and none little the worse for wear.



Lest you think that was all our excitement, afterwards I put on some nicer clothes and took David out for pizza (his request) at a restaurant we hadn't been to before but were told has the best pizza around. I'm not certain about that claim, but it was decent, at any rate. After dinner, we came home and had some fudge that I made up last night from a mix - I was dubious, but it was a gift we'd had for a while - but with extra cocoa and walnuts added. We also watched Helen Mirren as The Queen, and I finished up these for Dulaan:

Toddler socks in Cleckheaton Country 8 ply, Sherman short row toe up pattern, 3.25mm (US3) dpn's

So, to recap - two birthdays, two alpaca castrations, two balls each, two small pizzas, and two socks ready to go. There was only one thing today that didn't fit into the pattern of twos. While we were watching the movie, there was a little bit of a ruckus downstairs, which I assumed was Tolo getting into some sort of trouble (as he does). After the movie, David started down the stairs and I heard him exclaim, "OH! MY! GOD!"

It turns out our little troublemaker was earning his keep.



He was quite proud of himself, but he was having fun playing and wasn't being too quick about dispatching the poor thing, although it was barely moving by then. So I gave him some praise and told him what a good little hunter he was, then took the mouse away and (after David had gone upstairs so he wouldn't have to watch) euthanized it to spare it a lingering demise.

I'm still proud of my little man, though.