11 January 2008

Craptacular

That's how I've generally felt today. Either I'm at the beginning of a cold or I overdid it a bit at the gym yesterday and the fibromyalgia is paying me back. Or maybe a bit of both. It didn't help that I spent the night on the couch to keep Tuck quiet, which meant a night of being awakened every ten minutes by the cats raising hell.


Yeah, I know, sleeping on the couch for the dog sounds a little crazy, but it (usually) beats the hell out of listening to barking all night and yesterday brought a bit of a change for him. I finally managed to de-Christmas the living room, moving our tiny, but very heavy, potted live tree off of the big dog crate, said tree being supported by three cases of motor oil stacked up inside the crate (no, really, we're not at all white trash 'round here). Tuck likes the new digs, but it means he has a clear view of me going up the stairs and leaving him alone. I also started him on amitriptyline last night to try to help him through his separation anxiety, but that takes time to kick in. So the couch it was.

Otherwise, yesterday was quite a productive day. Aside from the gym, I managed to get several errands run, the most important of which was this:

010908Dog_License

The dog license was the last bit of official business to take care of regarding Tuck. He has a home and family who love him now, which is as it should be. And next Tuesday, we're going to see what we can do about his airway issues. I'm a tiny bit nervous about putting him through anesthesia & surgery, as he had some problems when he was neutered, but these procedures should help at least to lessen the issues that caused those problems in the first place, and I'm taking him to a clinic with a laser surgery unit, which is the least traumatic option available.

More Soup, Please

I was a little surprised to see comments from so many people without pressure cookers. They're really very handy pieces of kitchen equipment, and for beans that take bloody forever to cook up, like garbanzos, they're damn near essential.

They're also available for not a huge amount of money. Mine is a super cheapo aluminum one that I bought at K-mart after moving back to Maine. It will likely give me Alzheimer's disease, being aluminum and all, but I was financially tapped out at the time and it has served well. Amazon has a reasonably-priced stainless model, as does Amazon.de (Interestingly, the German website uses the US product as the header photo for their Töpfe category on their main cookware page, but they don't appear to offer that model for sale). And yes, VUBOQ, canned garbanzos could be used. But would they be as tasty?

Anyway, last night I made another soup for dinner, this one not requiring a pressure cooker. I decided I wanted split pea soup and had to go with yellow peas, since that was all the local supermarket had left on the shelf. Who knew it was such a popular idea? Truth be told, there's little difference between this soup and the garbanzo one, except that peas cook up nicely without the pressure cooker. I didn't put any cumin in this one, and I cut up an onion and a few parsnips in it. I also crushed a few tiny-but-potent hot chilies that Don brought us when he visited before Christmas, just to give it a little bit of kick. It turned out very tasty, as you might imagine.

010908Pea_soup

Travel Plans

Since I have to do the end-of-life talk and play the role of grief counselor so often at work, I registered last night for a symposium on veterinary hospice care in March at UC Davis. This will be my first trip to California at all in just over 6 years and the first time I've been within reasonable travel distance of San Francisco in nearly 14 years, so aside from getting in my continuing ed credits for the year, I'm hoping to be able to catch up with some friends I haven't seen for a while and meet a few folks I've only known virtually up to now.

I'm just a little excited.

9 comments:

vuboq said...

Hope you feel better soon!

I love soup. But the weather here has been too mild. It's supposed to get cold this weekend, so maybe I will have a soup-making adventure.

Thanks for the pressure cooker links. Right now, it's the lack of storage and counter space in my awful awful awful kitchen, which I hate, that is preventing me from buying one.

Have a happy weekend! *smooches*

knittingboykit said...

Sorry you're feeling crappy. The weather isn't helping, I'm sure! There are some massively horrendous coldsand other bugs going around. The school nurse sent 6 kids home in one third grade class the other day--they were all vomiting! Yuck. And my MIL has a horrendous cold that her doc predicts 3 weeks to get over (Dad and BIL have already gotten it!)

Love This Space said...

Oh I completely get the sleeping in the living room for the dog. They are family members so we do what we need to do.

I have an old boy, 14 year old greyhound, that had me up 4 times last night. He is such an old man. He sleeps all day so then he is restless all night. ;-) And I can't close him out of the bedroom because he can fall down and I need to help him up. So I just get up every couple of hours to let him out to pee and sniff the trees.

And I wouldn't trade him for anything!

Anonymous said...

I'm going to say this weather (i'm down in brooklyn) is wrecking havok on my fibro. I'm feeling beyond crap today... the soup looks awesome and i'm happy tuck is slowly settling in...

Feel better soon!

mehitabel said...

My mother always ever only used yellow peas for her pea soup. I have since developed a severe allergy to dried peas and beans, so no chickpeas or pea soup for me. But a nice hot bowl of soup sounds like just the ticket for the aches and pains! (Hmmm... can fibro be aggravated by falling?)
I'm so glad you have made Tuck yours!!

Anonymous said...

Here's hoping Tuck will do great. I carted my pug over the specialty center to see Brendan McKiernan with laser for his nose job too. Thankfully just needed the nostrils and a bit off the top for the soft palate. He's now an agility pug in the making! Hope Tuck's repair is as minor.

Anonymous said...

Now they're saying the alleged aluminum connection was due to contaminated lab test results,
and there is no proven connection
to Alzheimers.

Sheepish Annie said...

Poor Tuck...it takes so much time and love to get the little ones to accept the good life. Unless, of course, you are The Big, Fluffy Kitty who was able to put the past abuse behind her quite handily. He'll come along, I'm sure.

I was so very glad that I thought to have some of the grief counseling education along the way in my career. It really does make a huge difference in these sorts of conversations whether you are on the giving or receiving end of it. Excellent choice for getting those CEUs!

knitnzu said...

I do love that word, but sorry you're feeling that way. I don't have one of those handy pressure cookers either! I am a total Philistine and use canned beans. Though I miss the taste of 'real' beans and drool over all the varieties you can grow that are sold by Fedco. Any thoughts on the new license? Is the state trying to save $ by stamping out thinner tags? I rather liked using the same tag every year, it was at least one thing that wasn't going into the landfill. Do you have more endoflife talks than the regular practice vet because you're in an emerg clinic? Have a blast in SF. If you go to jail, you might meet my brother. Or if you go to a good gay AA meeting...