29 Hours

That's all it took before play finally commenced. To be sure, it was a bit tentative at first - a little growling when someone got a little outside their comfort zone - but now that we're past the 48 hour mark, they're definitely enjoying hanging together. About an hour ago, Tolo went tearing out of David's office, where they both were, into the living room. After a minute or so of sitting on the stairs and watching for Cougar to follow him, he went back into David's office to find his new buddy, and then tore back out to the living room again, where Cougar soon followed.

Koolhaas

If you don't follow Jared's blog or haven't seen the IK Holiday Gifts issue yet, then you may possibly have missed this excellent hat. On Saturday at Rhinebeck, I had a woman come by our booth asking specifically if any of our yarns would work for it. Alpaca with a Twist Highlander is certainly the right weight for it, but I had a feeling that the tweedy look of it might dilute the stitch definition and she walked away empty-handed.

On Sunday, Jared himself actually wandered through our booth, and I might have put him on the spot and asked him his opinion, except I was busy with someone else and didn't get a chance to say hi before he'd wandered off. So I've decided I should probably figure out for myself how it looks and will be casting on tonight. I also figure it'll be a fun practice run while I wait for my Shokay Shambala yarn to arrive.

Guess Who's Home!

The splint came off his left leg on Wednesday, and I took the one off the right last night. He's got a nasty little pressure sore on that leg, so he gets to wear the party hat for a bit until it's healed. After a month and a half of splints, he goose-steps a little bit, but I expect that'll improve fairly quickly.

He managed the entire hour ride home without soiling his carrier, which I understand has been an issue. He also didn't cry much at all. Tristan und Isolde was playing on the radio the whole way, so it must have been the powerful calming effect of Wagner. Or perhaps the fact that I didn't feed him after last night's dinner in hopes that he'd be a bit more, well, empty.

To do the initial introduction, David sat in the living room with Tolo and Inga and I let Cougar wander in from David's office. He goose-stepped right over to Tolo, sniffed noses, and then hissed. Tolo ran away and hid, and Inga turned around and said, "Um, nice, now where's my food?" We repeated the introduction with Sylvie a short time later, and as expected, she told us how much she hated us and how she'd make us pay and this is her house, and don'tyouknowit'ssupposedtobeallaboutme?!

I predicted that Cougar and Tolo would be pals within 48 hours, and I still think that it's very much within the realm of possibility. They're definitely interested in one another, though very wary as yet - quite a lot of no-I'm-not-really-following-you going on. I am, however, very slightly less certain about my timeline at the moment, vague and totally unbinding as it may have been.

In Other News

Because, it seems, I needed a simple project to work on to avoid the projects I need to be doing while away the times when I can't do anything more complex, I cast on for a sock with one of the balls of Opal Hundertwasser sock yarn. This is the colorway Seeschlange ("Seasnake").



I got a pair of US1(2.5mm) 12"(30cm) Addi Turbos for this project, since I haven't enjoyed two circs in the past using longer cables, and did a Turkish cast on with a Sherman short row toe, working a relatively low number of short rows because of my broad toes. I was thinking to do the same at the heel, only with more short rows because of my deep, narrow heels, but I may decide to do a widdershins heel instead.

One thing I know I won't be doing is making these socks match. I'm pretty sure that to do so would have been anathema to Hundertwasser. It's arguable that it might also have been anathema to mass-produce yarn based on his artworks, but at least one can assure that the end products are all unique.

Baby Names

David tells me this one's name is Cougar. His left leg appears ready to have the splint off, and I'm thinking to bring him home with me this weekend.



He didn't tell me that this one (born last week) is Haylex. I had to find out from Val.



And I decided that this one is Lakshmi. That's her half-sister Sibri behind her (Haylex is their first cousin). We're going to try for a full sister for next year.

In the Full of the Moon

Technically last night was still waxing gibbous at 98% of full that's apparently close enough for jazz. Last spring (maybe summer, actually, but you get the general idea), some folks at Colorado State's vet school had a study published showing a small but significant uptick in visits to their emergency service during the full moon, and that certainly seemed to be the case here last night. I'm exhausted and ate far too much chocolate in an effort to retain my sanity. A nap before driving home is going to be in order.

This, of course, was after waking up earlier than planned and getting a call from the ladies as soon as I rolled out of bed to come look at their old mama goat, who wasn't doing well. So I went over to examine her and determined that she needed to go see their regular large animal person, who has the facilities to hospitalize, then gave her some Banamine to make her more comfortable in the meantime.

And then David was having fits because Earthlink decided he'd used his allotted bandwidth for the next month and shut his business site down - for the next three weeks. I'd gently told him before that he really needed to find a better hosting option, but tech things scare him and he's had more pressing matters. His office manager is equally tech-phobic and was all ready to go with bundled service through Comcast at a ridiculous cost. Thanks to knitnzu (who blogged about it) and Steph (whom I e-mailed), they're exploring considerably saner and cheaper options and will hopefully get something resolved quickly.

Note to Elizabeth: Yes, we do still have some herd yarn, but your comment didn't give me an e-mail address to respond to and your profile isn't public. Um, scratch that, as I seem to be able to access it now. Anyone else who might be interested, though, can e-mail me at mel dot vassey at gmail dot com.

Rhinebeck Recap

Let me just start by saying that I met way the hell too many bloggers this weekend to even begin to remember all of them, let alone remember everyone I ought to link to, so I'm going to stick to pictures, of which there are far too few. At least for the most part.

First of all, though, I thought I'd share our little adventure getting there. We were leaving Thursday afternoon, since they were allowing vendors onto the fairgrounds to do setup on both Thursday and Friday and David is very, very, very particular about booth layout. Seriously, he's a designer, a total detail geek. He did mock setup in his warehouse and plotted everything out on the computer weeks in advance.

So we had his truck all loaded up and just had to run a couple of errands and pick up a few more items from the warehouse and we were on our way. Except the truck wouldn't start. So AAA was called and the straight male neighbors were drawn to our driveway as if to some strange broken car pheromone, and after poking around and testing the battery and me trying to crank the thing to hear what it was doing (a single click and then nothing), I decided that a starter problem seemed the most plausible explanation. The AAA guy agreed, so he loaded the pickup onto his flatbed and towed it the 20o ft. to the service station, where they told us they wouldn't be able to get to it before the following day.

So with David on the verge of a nervous breakdown, we determined that the nearest U-Haul had cargo vans available. A quick trip later, we had secured one and transferred everything over from David's truck. Then we had to get to the warehouse and run the other errands that needed to get done and finally got on the road - 4½ hours later than planned. This got us to Rhinebeck around 10:30PM, so we continued on to Kingston and stopped at the diner across from the hotel for a late dinner before we checked in and collapsed into bed.

The night's rest (as well as David's thorough planning and a little help from our dear pal Stitchy McYarnpants) did us good, though, because on Friday we managed to set the booth up in record time, even with stifling humidity that had us both rather damp with sweat. And neighbors down the way who blasted their very whiny & grating contemporary Christian music for everyone's edification, and who had all their stuff out in the middle of the aisle so that we couldn't pull the van out when we finished (and then moved it back into the aisle on Sunday so that we couldn't get the van in to load up our things). Stitchy offered to go fish her Ministry CD out of her car, and had we had a boombox I might have taken her up on it.

The rest of the weekend, though rather draining, was just fantastic. Although being there as vendors does make for a good excuse never to miss Rhinebeck, it does make it hard to get out and socialize as much as I'd really like. Fortunately, though, between the Blogger Bingo and the Ravelry goings-on, we really got to see a ton of people.



Like Mar, who was our very first visitor on Saturday.



And Carol, who was visitor #2, and who has a pic of what's underneath the kilt (and one of me with David that I love, love, love) here.



And Joe, who was there with Thaddeus (who snapped this photo). Joe became David's hero instantly by buying a sweater's worth of David's herd yarn.



And Ted and Lee Ann, who was even sexier than usual in the gorgeous stole Ted recently sent her. "F*ing drop-dead gorgeous," indeed. Why else do you think I was showing off more leg?



And of course, the famous author and her enchanting bouncer. And no, my right hand is not doing anything rude, because a) Juno would probably hurt me and b) there's that whole gay thing.



Of course, I wasn't the only kilted one; Dave made a showing, as expected.



I also had the pleasure of meeting Rachael, and we had David snap this photo especially for Rabbitch (I'm not certain if David took this with us so off-center to try to avoid the woman who was wandering into the picture, or if he was just trying to get a better pic of his sock display).

Somehow I missed getting pics with Cheryl, or Norma (who managed to get a shot of my ass), or Lars, who took a (thankfully very) blurry pic up under the kilt. Or Ann & Kay, or Jess & Casey, or quite literally about a bajillion other people (including Stitchy herself! And The Mafia! And, and....). But it is, as others say, really and truly about the people. Rhinebeck wouldn't be even close to half as much fun if it weren't for the wonderful, funny, intelligent, and just plain decent people I get to see there. Even if I don't get to see nearly enough of them.

Oh, and there's also the small matter about the fiber. As I mentioned, I didn't bring home much of anything, but what I did get is very special. Lilith guessed correctly.



That's 2 oz., which would have totally blown my yarn budget if I'd really had one this year.

Also, the very nice folks from Philosopher's Wool were diagonally across the aisle from us this year, and when I decided to buy these, they offered to let me have them in exchange for a pair of socks.

.

They told me that the ram is actually a portrait of the very first one they owned, with the buttons having been cast exclusively for them. Their website lists these as "currently unavailable", which makes them very special, indeed.

Two More Things

FedEx delivered this today:



I ordered it from here about a month ago, but it was backordered. I kind of figured it'd show up about now.

And lastly, this is what happens to your blog stats when people like the Yarn Harlot and the Knitting Curmudgeon and QueerJoe mention you in a blog post (and, of course, when people like Carol post pics of your boxers in theirs):



So if you're new here, welcome and do come back. There's often something interesting to be found.

You Know the Old Saying,...

...when life gives you too many apples to eat before Rhinebeck, make applesauce.*



We took it along and ate it there, and it was perfect.

As was Rhinebeck. A more proper accounting shall occur once I've had a chance to rest. And upload photos. And take some pics of my haul (hint: small but very expensive). Suffice to say, the kilt was a hit.

*At least, I think that's how I learned it.

If You're Trying to Find Me at Rhinebeck...

... look for this:



I pressed in the pleats this evening when I got home from work (a very rare day shift, but I survived). There are certainly things I think I could have done better, but it's my first ever truly wearable sewn garment and I'm quite pleased with it. Even more so considering I constructed it using instructions and ideas gleaned from online (i.e., no pattern - I have a book on kiltmaking on order, but it has yet to arrive).

Will I be making more of these in the future? I can almost guarantee it. What better way to show off those sexy knees?

Well, That Was...Fun?

My Saturday night at work was quite a long one. Of course, you say, what else is new? And I must concede that you are quite correct; I do often blog about the long nights, don't I? This time it was a coworker dealing with a personal emergency who definitely didn't need to be trying to work. So I stayed on until reinforcements could be called in, which meant I ended up with enough to keep me working until 1PM. Afterwards, I collapsed in the overnight room there at the clinic and slept for 5 hours, because even though heavily-caffeinated, I was in no condition to be on the roads.

Once home, I turned the jug of leftover milk from Greg's visit into paneer, which shall be cooked up in the next few days, and David and I had dinner together and twisted up skeins of yarn while watching a video. For those who are going to Rhinebeck, he's had 6 years' worth of his best fleeces spun up into a multi-color, undyed, marled worsted weight yarn and we've reskeined it into approximately 90g skeins for sale.

Also, I've decided to take along my Ashford Traveller wheel to sell, as it doesn't get enough use and needs a home where it can be properly loved. It's a double treadle, and I'd be willing to let it go for $275. I figure the money can go towards my wedding kilt, which I'll have professionally made.

Speaking of Kilts...

... I did manage to get part of the lining sewn in the Rhinebeck kilt last night, before things got really busy. I need to get a move on to finish it up in time, though, because there aren't all that many nights before we leave and a lot of other things to do in the meantime.

Jean commented, "I was worried about your reduction in the amount of fabric -- it's that sense of power-in-reserve, I feared, which makes the kilt-beholder go all trembly. So -- a picture is needed." Fair enough, and pictures are certainly intended - when time and the state of doneness permit. In the meantime and on the matter of yardage, I would direct you here. Trust me, this thing has considerable heft (and warmth) to it yet. I thought, though, that it was the sight of manly knees and calves that made the beholder go all trembly. And, you know, "the question".

Along those lines Joe commented, "As for the boxers, couldn't you at least go with a jock strap?"

I told you I know what kind of people you are.

In Case You Live Under a Rock...

...and considering I really haven't flogged this properly this year (because, you know, I've had nothing else going on around here), today is the very lastest day to sign up for Rhinebeck Blogger Bingo 2007, at least if you would like to be a square. We shall once again be Bingo Headquarters, in Barn 39, booth D. There is a map of the fairgrounds right here.

I get to be Paul Lynde! So your center square is practically a freebie, which means you absolutely must join in the fun. And come get a look at my kilt, under which I shall be wearing boxers. I know what kind of people you all are.

Oh, And Another Thing



Guess who's getting a new home. David came by the clinic this morning to meet him. He (David)had four preconditions for this adoption:

• David gets to name him.
  
• No more cats are to be added to the household.
  
• No dog for "a while".
  
• I have to let my parents know.
  

These are all quite reasonable and very much in line with my thoughts on the matter. The last one is important because I have two girl kitties who currently live with my parents. My father, in particular, would be glad to see either or both of them come live with us, but the whole point of this adoption is to have a buddy for Tolo to take his (very unwanted) attention away from Sylvie, because this is Sylvie on one of her good days better moments. Bringing either one of my neurotic girls into the house with Little Miss Sybil Sylvie would not help the situation. As long as the news is accompanied by delivery of several large bags of cat food, though, I think it will be accepted without too much fuss.

I Got Nothing

So I'm going to go with this meme Rabbitch tagged me for.

1. Hardcover or paperback, and why? Hardcover, definitely. I certainly own a lot of paperbacks because the price was right, but the hardcover just seems more permanent.


2. If I were to own a book shop, I would call it... Oy. I am no good at coming up with this sort of thing on the fly. I think that until I had a chance to give it some thought, I'd have to go with Mel's Books. Or maybe I could just go with Working Title. Except I'd probably get sued by the movie production company by that name.

3. My favorite quote from a book (mention the title) I think I've mentioned this before, but my favorite opening line ever is the first line in Crónica de una Muerte Anunciada by Gabriel García Márquez - El día en que lo iban a matar, Santiago Nasar se levantó a las 5.30 de la mañana para esperar el buque en que llegaba el obispo. So matter-of-fact but so very poetic.

4. The author (alive or deceased) I would love to have lunch with would be... Molly Ivins, absolutely no question about it.

5. If I were going to a deserted island and could only bring one book, except for the SAS survival guide, it would be… El Amor en el Tiempo del Cólera, because I haven't managed to find the time to read it yet.

6. I would love someone to invent a bookish gadget that… It's a book. I think that's quite enough in itself. I don't even think I could do e-books.

7. The smell of an old book reminds me of... Antique stores, libraries and my grandmother's attic

8. If I could be the lead character in a book (mention the title), it would be… Hmmm, I'm not sure about that one. But I wouldn't want to die.

9. The most overestimated book of all times is… I think I'm going to have to agree with Rabbitch and say the Bible. It's got some good stories and all, but so do plenty of other religions.

10. I hate it when a book… Again I'm going to have to agree with Rabbitch. I can't stand sloppily edited books. Makes me want to bitch slap someone.

I'm not tagging anyone, but if you want to do it, then be my guest.

Weird Search Term Du Jour

I was just looking at my blog stats and someone found this blog by searching for "grease nipple". Now, I have no idea why they were searching for this, but apparently a grease nipple is an engine part of some sort and searching for it returns 512,000 links.

So, wanting to see what post of mine this search returned, I did a search for "grease nipple cabezalana", which returned links to exactly three knitting blogs - mine, Rabbitch's, and Franklin's. Coincidence? I think not.

Whoosh!

That's pretty much how the weekend went by, with David's Wednesday night ER visit only being one in a string of goings-on. Just as I was on my way out of the clinic Thursday morning, David called to tell me he'd gotten a call that Madelyn had gone into labor. It wasn't until I got home that we learned that she'd had a female cria who looked fairly normal but was being very slow to get up and nurse/walk/play - all the things a healthy baby should be doing within a couple of hours.

So that meant making a trip out to check on baby and pretty much dashed any plans I'd had for getting a nap while David picked up his cousin Greg and ran some errands. As we were getting ready to do that, I got another call about a bit of a family crisis which, while not involving me directly at all, is somewhat worrisome, which is about all I can say about it at this point.

Anyway, I got myself cleaned up and we headed off to the bus station to meet Greg, who had flown into Boston a few hours previously. As I mentioned on my last post, this visit was a very big deal - even more so because Greg is the first member of David's family I've met aside from his parents. So documenting his arrival was essential.



Then we quickly hopped in David's truck and made off for the new RedMaple warehouse, both to show the place off and to pick out some sweaters for later. And then we again hopped into the truck and sped off to Val's to see the new baby.



Another adorable baby, and with grey eyes like her sister Juliette. She was, however, not nearly as far along she should have been, acting at 5 hours like a 1-2 hours old cria. A bit of Karo syrup seemed to help, though, and she quickly got up to speed over the rest of the afternoon and so far doesn't seem to be looking back. No name yet, as I haven't had a real chance to think about it, but I'll be working on coming up with something fitting soon.

I had originally planned on making dinner that evening, but by the time we were getting back into town and given my lack of sleep, it was clear that I wasn't really going to be able to throw something together in a reasonable timeframe. Since we had discussed going Indian for dinner, we stopped by Divine Cuisines to see what they had available.

Since their business has been primarily catering and selling at the farmer's market, they don't do a lot of takeout business, but they're preparing to expand and do regular restaurant business, which I'm really looking forward to. The food is very good, and Raj is a nice guy (and very cute). Anyway, they did have enough for us to make a decent meal from, but they were out of naan (recipe below), so I made that when we got home and we had a nice dinner and visit before turning in to rest up for our weekend adventures.

Friday we got up and headed up to Fryeburg for the fair. We got a late start and ran into a horrendous traffic jam of leaf peepers going through Conway, New Hampshire, so we didn't get to Fryeburg until very late in the afternoon, but we still had a fun time eating fair food and looking at the livestock and exhibit halls. I took a few livestock photos, but I figure fiber folks always like the jacob sheep (who can resist all those horns?).



Afterwards, we headed even farther north to Bethel, where I had reserved us rooms for the night so that we could spend Saturday seeing the leaves and doing a bit of hiking. We all went to bed relatively early so that we could be nice and fresh for the day ahead, because in addition to the hiking, David had recruited Greg to be a RedMaple fashion model and we had a bit of a photo shoot planned.



He seems a natural, no? This particular shoot was done at Screw Auger Falls in Grafton Notch State Park. We stopped at most of the park sights along the road, doing photo shoots at some and just exploring at others. We eventually made our way up to where the Appalachian Trail intersects the park and hiked a short section of the trail up to Table Rock. And though the segment itself was short (1.4mi/2.1km), it entailed a vertical rise of about 900ft/270m. My quads are still a bit sore, but the view at the top was definitely worth it.



We decided to do our last photo shoot of the day there, but by then Greg was getting a little punchy (the altitude, perhaps? or maybe just the excitement of a well-crafted alpaca sweater) and the photos got, well, interesting. It's not entirely clear, but there's a little nipple play going on in this photo.



We hadn't intended it to be that kind of photo shoot, but I suppose if it sells sweaters....

And on that note, we made our way back down the mountain and back down the road to Bethel, where we had an excellent meal and some equally excellent beer at Sunday River Brewing Company (thanks to Kit for the suggestion), then made the nearly 3 hour trip back home.

Yesterday was much more relaxed and close to home, with an outing to take a few more pics and let Greg get the obligatory lobster dinner, followed by blueberry-apple pie and silly movies. After a little more driving around the area today, we put him on the bus back to the airport, and he is hopefully having a very uneventful trip home.

Yummy, Yummy Naan

I love, love, love naan, which is really the quintessential Indian flatbread. Of course, there are others - chapatis, pappadam, etc. - but when most people (here in the US, anyway) think of Indian breads, naan is the one that comes to mind most often. I mostly follow the recipe from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian cookbook, with very slight variation, and have been very pleased with the results.

• 4-5 cups unbleached all-purpose white flour, plus some for dusting
  
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder
  
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
  
• ½ teaspoon salt
  
• 1½ teaspoons sugar
  
• 1¼ cup plain yogurt (note: If you are cooking for vegetarians, please check the label. Some yogurts use gelatin and so are not vegetarian. Even kosher gelatin is usually non-veg, despite misconceptions to the contrary.)
  
• 1 egg
  
• butter ghee, and plenty of it
  

First sift together 4 or so cups of flour with the baking powder, baking soda and salt. Then mix the sugar and yogurt in a large bowl. This can be done with a mixer, but I prefer to use a wooden mixing spoon. Slowly begin beating in about two cups of the flour mix a little bit at a time. It is essential for proper texture to beat this very well, as it encourages the gluten molecules to crosslink. I generally add in roughly ½ cup at a time, stir until mixed, and then beat the batter 100 strokes with the spoon for each addition.

By the time you have beaten in 2 cups of the flour mix, the resulting batter should be smooth but have some obvious resiliency from the activation of the gluten. At this point, mix in the egg and 1 tablespoon of melted ghee, then continue adding in the flour mix in increments until the dough is sticky and getting too thick to stir readily. Then you should turn it out onto a board or countertop with the remainder of the flour mix plus any additional flour needed to keep the dough from sticking. Grease up your hands well with the ghee and knead it briefly until the dough can be shaped into a ball readily. It should at this point still be a bit sticky.

Making sure your hands are still well-greased, divide the dough ball into 8 or 9 smaller balls and place them on a well-floured tray. Flatten them slightly with your hand and cover with plastic wrap or parchment paper. Allow the dough to rest for at least 30 minutes - or refrigerate for up to 48 hours - as this will give the gluten molecules more time to crosslink.

Turn on or light your broiler. If this is in the main oven compartment, then the rack should be set all the way at the top. The original recipe calls for the initial cooking to be done on stovetop with a large cast-iron skillet, but I do it all under the broiler on a cookie sheet.

Take each of the dough balls and dip into flour. Then grease your hands well with ghee and begin to pat out and flatten the dough ball into an oblong shape. You want the dough to be quite flattened. If the gluten has been activated well, it shouldn't tear too readily. Daub both sides with a bit more ghee and slap the nan down onto the heated pan. Cook under the broiler for a minute or so, making sure after about 30 seconds that it is not sticking. Once it has started developing a few reddish-brown spots, flip it over and cook on the other side for another minute or so. Remove the finished naan from the broiler and daub on some more ghee and enjoy.

Pulling It Together (Sort Of)

Actually, I've not been falling apart, really. Monday's events took a bit of a toll and it's very weird being dogless for the first time in 16 years and UPS delivered today a harness I had ordered for Rosa last week near the start of her problems, but we're okay, for the most part. Mostly.

David called me here at work well after midnight and well after he would have gone to bed to tell me he had been having severe abdominal pain for an hour. Once I ascertained that no, it wasn't lower right quadrant pain, I called Paula and Wendy, and Wendy whisked him off to the ER. The pain suddenly stopped right as they were getting there, and a short time thereafter he peed out a kidney stone. He said it was very jagged. And, not unsurprisingly, that they had found blood in his urine on urinalysis.

He also said that when he came out of the bathroom with it he announced to all present, "I got the prize!" Which was a huge relief to all of us.

And I've decided to keep the harness. It will fit another dog someday, perhaps (hopefully?) a standard poodle of moderate size.

When I got to work this afternoon, this little guy was back for a bandage change (one of our techs is fostering him). See how well he's doing?



He's lost a couple of toes and will end up with some scarring on his right leg, but he's getting around great and I'm told was very good for the bandage change. Seeing him now, I'm even more convinced that he'd be a perfect companion for Tolo, who has been tormenting Sylvie even more now that Rosa's gone.

Tolo is a kitty who needs to have someone to hang with, and even though Rosa didn't really play with him, I think he at least saw her as company once Poqui wasn't around for him anymore. Now with Inga sleeping in the kitty condo at night to keep her from pissing on the carpet, all he has is Sylvie, and she's not liking it one little bit. So I'm thinking a buddy for Tolo would be a good thing for all of us, and after a few nights of listening to Sylvie scream, I think David may be starting to agree.

The Big News, Though, Is...

...that in the midst of what has turned out to be a rather chaotic and difficult week, David's cousin Greg is arriving today from South Dakota for a visit. This is a very significant visit because Greg is the first member of David's family aside from his parents to visit since David moved east in '94.

We've got a good bit planned for this visit. I've taken the entire weekend off (first time since April) and tonight will be making dinner. David's decided that it should be Indian, so I'll have to do a bit of shopping and thinking about menu beyond naan and daal. Before I get in a nap.

Then tomorrow we'll be off to the Fryeburg Fair. Maine doesn't have a state fair, but this is the closest thing to it, being the largest fair in the state. I haven't been in about 20 years, and David's never been. Then we'll continue north into the mountains and spend the night in Bethel, near Sunday River ski resort, which is having a fall festival, and not far from Grafton Notch State Park, which has some hiking trails with nice summit views to see the fall color.

Photos, of course, will be posted. After I get around to getting those kilt photos up.

One More Thing (Not for the Weak)

In thirteen years in practice, I have seen a lot of dogs with porcupine quills. Despite worrying about the possibility, though, I have never seen quills actually embedded in a dog's eye. Until tonight. I'm not posting this one on here because I realize that not everyone can handle eye stuff well, but you may see it on Flickr here if you are so inclined. Embiggen at your own risk.

The eye, of course, was not salvageable, but it's a surgery that I've had a lot of practice at and Tippy should do quite well with the one remaining eye. And now all she needs for Halloween is a pirate hat and eye patch.

Supposed To Be

There were supposed to be kilt photos, but when I downloaded them onto the work computer last night they were too damn dark to see any detail on the kilt. They showed off my legs nicely enough, but I'm really not enough of a hits whore to show gratuitous leg shots. When I have a chance to lighten them up in Photoshop, I'll see what I can do.

I was also supposed to be home sleeping right now, but I'm sitting here at the clinic waiting for a phone call. Rosa's condition got slowly but progressively worse after bringing her home, so David drove her up this morning so I could take her down the road to see the neurologists. Now I'm waiting to hear results of a CT scan, and there will probably be surgery involved. She's a good surgical candidate, in general, but a horrible patient, so to say this situation is worrisome would be an understatement.

UPDATE: There was no surgery. It was a tumor within the spinal cord - the worst possible scenario. Despite her pain and despite being barely able to walk, she started the day off wagging her tail and happy to go for a ride in the truck, and I decided that after almost 13 years together, that was the best note for her to go out on. David, Paula, and Wendy all drove up to say their goodbyes with me. This is the first time in 16 years that I've been dogless and it hurts horribly, but it will be okay.