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.

Test Drive

Jennifer sent us a few sample skeins last week, one of which was this prototype sock yarn in an alpaca/bamboo/nylon blend. Since it was a 50g skein and since I tend to be fairly slow at finishing socks, I figured a baby sock would be the perfect test drive project. So I wound the skein off into a ball and cast on for the picot hem Tuesday evening before heading over to the Yarn Sellar.

Everyone at Chicks with Sticks had fun fondling my ball, as it were, and commented on how soft and shiny the yarn is. It does have a very nice luster to it. I got most of the leg done while chatting there and worked the heel and finished off the foot last night, and then washed it before heading to bed last night. So the photo, taken this afternoon, is post-finishing and post-washing.

I really like this yarn. It halos a bit, but I don't necessarily see that as a bad thing. It's nowhere near as fuzzy as Bearfoot sock yarn, and I really like that yarn. The haloing can make tinking or ripping out a bit more challenging, but I didn't find, when I did have to tink a few heel flap rows, that it caused any serious problems with the integrity of the yarn. I'm not sure, though, how well it would hold up if it had to be ripped back multiple times.

One thing that I did worry about with the bamboo content is that most of the bamboo or bamboo blend yarns I've seen tend to be very splitty, including another prototype skein we have here at the house. Fortunately, I didn't find this to be an issue at all with this particular yarn, even using US 1/2.25mm Brittany dpn's, which have relatively dull points.

When I talked to Jennifer about the yarn this afternoon, she mentioned that a couple of other test knitters have commented that the gauge comes out too fine for their tastes. Since I cast this on and just made it up on the fly, I didn't have a very good sense at that point what the gauge was. So I checked, and it turns out that my gauge was quite different between the top and the bottom. The hem measures out at 8st/in and the foot is measuring at 10st/in (yikes!).

I had a sense that I was knitting a bit more tightly on the foot, but I didn't realize that it was by so much. While this may not make a huge difference on a baby sock, I could see it being a bit more of an issue on an adult sock. Looking at the two areas, as well, it seems to me that the 8st/in would be a bit too open for a sock foot and not hold up to wear quite as well. So given current trends towards sock yarns that knit up around 7-8st/in, it would be interesting to see this done in a slightly heavier weight. Not too much heavier, though, as my friend Kit pointed out that it would also be a nice yarn to work lace in, and I very much agree.

Overall, I found this a very fun and enjoyable yarn to play with, so I'll definitely be saying more once Jennifer has a final version ready to go.

Questions Answered Here?

It seems that I've had a number of questions lately that I haven't had a chance to sit down and answer properly. It has been a rather busy week chez tete-de-laine.

On top of it being my 60+ hour week at work, Rosa had a little emergency in the wee hours of my Friday night off that necessitated an unplanned drive into the clinic and a short hospital stay for her. A basset hound back and jack russell back legs are a bad combination, but for thirteen years we have managed to avoid any problems. Until now.

Fortunately, it is only a mild spinal cord injury and she is doing well back at home. She is, however, horrible about being picked up to go up/down stairs, and some ramp-building activity may be in store for this week. She also tested positive for Lyme disease and is on antibiotics for that, but she'll take anything in a blob of peanut butter.

My Sunday night off involved a bit of entertaining, as David's friends Eileen and Tim were up from New Jersey to go to the Common Ground Fair (knitnzu has photos of the fair here) and spent the night with us on their way home. I called David on my way home from work and asked what we should have for dinner. His response was, "I don't know. You're the chef."

So we had cheese, crackers, olives, and a bottle of riesling for appetizers; spring greens, gorgonzola, dried cranberry and sunflower seed salad with balsamic and maple syrup vinaigrette; veggie lasagne with homemade sauce and pine nuts with a Spanish red for main course; and Maine blueberry pie for dessert. Nobody went to bed hungry.

Completely Gratuitous Photos

Since I have nothing else to offer in the way of visual interest. This little guy was brought in Saturday night by the Portland P.D. Both of his front legs are broken, but he's young and should heal and is very sweet. He'd likely make a great companion for Tolo, but David's not particularly keen on getting another cat just yet.



And this little critter was all hunched up in the parking lot when I drove in this afternoon.



As near as I can figure, it's a meadow jumping mouse. I had never seen one before. This one almost certainly came from the scorched earth former wetland next door, which only makes me hate those sumbitches more. This little fella appears to be blind and ate like there was no tomorrow when I put some food in the cage. I'll be stopping by the wildlife rehab place on my way home tomorrow this morning.

She's Here!

This had arrived when I got up today. It's a crap photo, but I wanted to hurry up and snap a photo before work and I knew the flash would only bounce right back off the mylar dust jacket cover. When I ordered this, I had figured from the price that it would probably be a later printing, but it appears to be from the original 1988 printing, and in about as perfect condition as you could ever hope for. I am most pleased.

And keeping things in a Scottish vein, last night I finished pinning out pleats on the kilt I started just over a year ago (I didn't want to believe it was that long, but I checked.). I decided a month or so back that I was out of my fucking mind to try to tackle a full 8yd. kilt when I just wanted something for casual wear and I had never done it before. So I cut it in half.

No photos yet, but all I need to do is finish basting the pleats for ironing, handsew the hip-to-waist taper in the pleats, finish the aprons, afix a waistband, get straps and sew them on, make a buttonhole on the left hip for that strap to pass through, and sew in a broadcloth lining. I'm hoping to get this done by Rhinebeck, but that's what I was hoping for last year, too, so we shall see.

Cobwebs (and I Don't Mean Lace)

We have a little problem with spiders in our house. Around this time of year, we're pretty well overrun with them. No black widows or brown recluses or anything like that - Maine's not big on poisonous critters - but enough of them to be rather a bit of a nuisance. Especially when a trip to the cellar is necessary.








Now, I am really rather fond of spiders and most people who know me have heard me say at some point, "Spiders are our friends". Sometimes, though, you need your friends to go away for a while. We'd put up with this situation for quite some time, but I decided that today was the day to armor up and do battle.



It was long and arduous, but I think I was ultimately successful. Because all the surfaces I had propped the camera against to snap the before photos were dripping with noxious chemicals, there are no after pics. And the respirator thing? I know that there are some folks who get turned on by such things. As a claustrophobe, I am not one of them. While I am very glad I had it for this project, it stayed on not one second longer than it had to.

Fun with Search Terms

Like a lot of folks, I like monitoring traffic to this little blog and seeing what search terms bring people here. My little tutorial on sherman short rows continues to be a popular search, as do "thistle tattoos", "tricot machine lyrics", and "fox poo". I know a lot of you probably have a hard time believing that last one, but apparently there are folks out there who can't get enough of it (and in case you've been wondering, the fox marked the mulch pile again just last week).

The other day, though, I had one that I had not seen before. Someone in or near Buffalo, NY, did a search for "liz vassey's legs". Liz happens to be my cousin. This is her IMDB photo:



If you watch CSI, then you may recognize her as the actor who plays Wendy Simms. Since we don't generally watch television and since we don't get any CBS station here, I've never seen her in this role. In fact, the thought of someone coming to this blog to find out about her is pretty funny, since I haven't seen her in 26 years, since the summer she turned 9. My father's family, unfortunately, is quite spread out, so there are a lot of relatives on that side that I rarely see.

Even funnier, though, is that when you do a Google search for "liz vassey's legs", the very first page returned is this one.

Lest You Think...

...I haven't been knitting, there has been a good bit of that going on around here, as well. I've been trying to sort out adapting Stephen's Brâncuşi stitch pattern to kilt hose. I think I've pretty well got it, so a few gauge calculations and I should be in business with that one for real. Also, work continues on the Diamond Fantasy shawl, but as it's unblocked lace and we all know what unblocked lace looks like, there won't be any progress photos for a while, I don't think. As for the wedding vest, I just need to order the yarn and get going on that one.

Meet Cedar and Foggy

I went out and took a few pics before I left for work. They were out and exploring, since it was the first day since they arrived that it wasn't pouring rain. Just for reference, the fence is 5ft.(1.52m) high.



That's Foggy (the male) in front and Cedar (female) behind. Foggy shares a birthday (May 3) with David and Landlady Paula. Cedar's birthday is a couple of weeks later. Knitnzu asked if they're like mini horses. Actually, they're a Sicilian breed and a bit bigger than most mini horses.

They're also known for having a nicer disposition that full-sized donkeys. Here they are rolling around on the ground playing like dogs.



I think they're going to be fun to have around, and the 'pacas actually didn't seem to be terribly concerned about them today. Ted asked what an alpaca alarm call sounds like, and though it's a little difficult to describe well, I think it sounds an awful lot like a donkey braying. A little more high-pitched, perhaps, like a donkey played at 78rpm, but that's the closest comparison I can think of. And now I'll get to listen to both.

The Scottish Woman Cometh

A few weeks ago I sat down with a representative for a really, really, really large company that's practically right down the road from the clinic to do a little survey. For an hour or so of my time, they paid me an embarrassing sum in the form of a pair of debit cards. Which I have since been trying to decide how to spend.

Naturally, my thoughts immediately turned to fiber-related paraphernalia, but there are just so many options that I had a really hard time deciding. And then tonight, I just up and made a decision and ordered this book. I figured if I was going to spend that much money, I should spend the little bit extra to get the hardcover version, as it should hold up better. Besides, it was practically free money - completely extrabudgetary.

The best part, though, was when I went to checkout. I had an Amazon gift certificate waiting to be cashed in, so I ended up with more of that free money left over than I'd expected. I think I may save the remainder for a little Rhinebeck spending. Do you suppose this blows my chances at winning the lottery tomorrow?

New Farm Residents

While I was sleeping on Monday, Landladies Paula & Wendy brought home the newest members of our little farm family - a pair of miniature donkeys. When I got up today, all the girl 'pacas were crowded along their fence staring at the strange new critters and alarm calling. I've only caught a few brief glimpses through the rain, but once things dry up in the next day or so, I'll get some pictures to share.

It's Baaaaack!

Rhinebeck Blogger Bingo is on again this year, and we jumped at the chance to be headquarters again. So follow the link on over to Stitchy's place to get the 4-1-1 on signing up. I already asked if I could be center square like Paul Lynde.



The Outlaws

So a month after David e-mailed his mother and sister to inform them of our wedding plans, and two months after he informed his father, his parents finally got around to sending him individual letters in response. Along with a Bible tract, of course. You can imagine the content.

His mother's letter resorted to the old, discredited Freudian argument and blamed it on his father not being around enough (I told David he should write her and point out that she left out the domineering mother part). Then a lot of the same old bigoted and intentionally inaccurate "research" put out by Paul Cameron and his ilk. Or as she put it, "several in the scientific community," which I think means 3 or 4 whack jobs.

His father's letter proclaimed himself and David's mother as "God's representatives" to David, cited a few Bible verses, and then the tired "you can choose to change" argument. He finished it off with two questions - "Are you happy?" and "Do you want to change?" I think the answers are not what he's hoping to hear.

I know that in their minds they're doing the right and loving thing, but it's just so profoundly dysfunctional (David's sister's response last week was in a similar vein - "The kids are great. You're going to Hell. Love you."). It pisses me off, too, because they've been rehashing the same old crap for the last 16 years and just refuse to see that it's hurtful and accomplishes nothing.

The other issue is that I know that the main reason they're being as difficult as they are right now is that I'm an unavoidable part of the picture. As long as David wasn't cohabiting or in a serious relationship, it was easy for them to walk around with blinders on and pretend not to know anything. My presence spoils that for them, so they see me, naturally, as a threat. Which, of course, means that I can't engage them like I'm itching to do, since it would only justify their view of me as the meddling outsider.

At least I know where we won't be for the holidays this year.

Shedir, Plus a Little Bunny Love

I finished Shedir in the wee hours of Tuesday morning.



I had noticed during the knitting that some of the dye was rubbing off on my fingers, so I gave it a good long soak and rinse to get the excess dye washed out (there wasn't a whole lot, in the end) and it is now dry and ready to be given to Daphne. I shall hopefully be seeing her on Friday.

In other news, I received a package yesterday from Rabbitch. Turns out we both work similarly crazy hours, so we've been chatting a good bit of late and I decided to buy a skein of her sock yarn in the "No Mean Feets" colorway.



Yes, it's a much tamer name than "Koala Twat" or "Electric Sheep Douche", and no, she has not indicated to me that it has a different, more perverse, known-only-to-her name. But she still would like me to reassure everyone that she is nothing but an unrepentant trollop, and I shant dispute that.

I decided that this yarn would go well in one of Charlene Schurch's two-color sock patterns with one of the skeins I have from Carol's Black Bunny Fibers. The perfectness of pairing Rabbitworks with Black Bunny yarn is not lost on me.



But first they're going to have to hang out together for a good while so that I can work on wedding knitting. It remains to be seen which will corrupt the other more. It's just a good thing that Dolores's tour won't be bringing her through this neck of the woods.

So Originally...

...I was going to write about needing to get something out of my system. Lately, I've had quilting on my mind. More specifically, I've been thinking a lot about cathedral window quilt construction. I have a fair bit of fabric stash and some quilts that have never made it out of the starting gate, and one that's partially quilted and just waiting to be finished. Someday.

I do not, however, have space to be hauling any of it out very readily, and I certainly don't have the 40 bajillion yards of muslin that a cathedral window quilt would require. Still, I've been obsessing about it something fierce, so I decided I should at least do something to satisfy the craving and a few days ago whipped this out.



Not perfect, but it certainly did at least give me something to play around with. I'm waiting on a book about machine construction techniques for the cathedral window genre, so I don't imagine it will be the last this will appear here. Still, it's going to have to wait a while, because among other things, I have to finish up the Diamond Fantasy shawl, especially since I got this from Scout to go with it.



Shedir is also still on the needles, progress having been slowed by recent events and by a heavy caseload at work. I left the clinic a bit after noon today, my 15 hour shift having lasted 19 hours. It took a mocha frappuccino and Prarie Home Companion to get me home, and it wasn't long after that before I collapsed into bed for about a 5 hour nap. I've got one more night on this holiday weekend, but Monday night shouldn't be quite as bad, most of the vacationer crowd having gone home and most of the locals being more inclined to wait one more night until their regular vet is back in the office.

And because most of my coworkers and I will be slogging away on what promises to be a lovely Labor Day, instead of enjoying the holiday, we have planned a potluck. I signed up to bring cole slaw, which is a dish that I am genetically programmed to make, and one that I have prepared in many different variations. This particular one is red cabbage and carrots, with a bit of tarragon, and this photo is especially for Rabbitch (I'd send some, but it might not make for such good eatin' by the time it got there).



Thank You...

...to everyone who offered their condolences, and to those of you who thought it but didn't say it directly. I have 18 wonderful years of memories, and the tears have been far outweighed by the joy those memories have brought me.