TGIF!! Friday showed up again, which means it’s time to share five random things about our week. Here’s mine:

1. This week has been a heck of a lot better than last week! The heat is on at a 100+ daily here and that’s limiting our outdoor stuff, but otherwise, not a bad week. I did a few things like got my hair done. It’s still short and I like it most of the time. I also bought makeup. I’ve never been good at makeup, but I wear it daily just to feel like I made an effort. And I baked some sourdough bread and gluten free, dairy free brownies. The bread seemed to come out fine. The brownies are from a recipe off the internet, and somehow, the oven temp didn’t print so I guessed 350 degrees. Gluten free flour is tricky so these are Goldilocks brownies — they might be overdone, underdone or just right
2. Wizard got his stitches out, and that night, he opened up one spot on his eyelid. I mentally over-reacted, but it turned out to be fine, just a little surface break in the healing area. We treated it, did a makeshift butterfly bandage to sleep with to prevent him from accidently scratching it, and it’s healing up well. Whew — for a few minutes, I thought I was going to have to drag him to Urgent Care.
3. My sinus x-rays have not yet been read by the radiologist as of late Thursday afternoon. It’ll be a week today. If it’s not read and the report issued by this morning, I will be calling and “encouraging” people to do their jobs. If I get resistance, I’ll be informing my insurance that a provider they are paying is not doing their job. I’ve been patient and nice until now, but they are running a cattle operation there, and I’m over it.
4. Due to the heat, if we run out of things to do in the late afternoon or evening, we’ve been watching Yellowstone. Now I’ve never been to Montana, but I’m guessing this may not be a fair representation of the state in all things, LOL. But as long as one doesn’t mind violence and murder being the go-to solution for all life’s problems, the show can be entertaining.  And we’re watching it together which is nice. Maggie can even get on the couch outside of her normal couch time. She loves it!
5. We hope to go see Turbo on Sunday. Oldest offered to have us over but I didn’t nail down the plan as I should have. Today I need to do that with my daughter in law, only because she knows their family schedule better than my son and there may be something he forgot going on that day. Otherwise she always welcomes us. That will be fun!

So that’s my five, now I’d love to hear yours! I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend — I think we all deserve that!

This is how my grand dog, Phoebe, invites us over to come swimming with her:

How can anyone resist her?

Also, Golden Retrievers are so photogenetic, even when they’re an older girl. And then there’s Maggie, who’s a little more photo challenged aka SUBBORNLY RESISITS HAVING HER PHOTO TAKEN.

Like here. True story, and Wizard saw this — I told her to “Sit so I can take a picture of you.” So she did…with her back to me and the camera.

If it’d been a video, you’d hear Wizard roaring with laughter in the background.

Happy Wednesday!

It was a quiet weekend and I’m so grateful for it! Maggie is feeling much better. We kept her on the strict bland diet as her vet advised, and today we’ll begin transitioning to her regular diet. Hopefully this will solve it, but everything is on her chart, and we’ll address it again when she has her vet appointment at the end of the month.

Wizard continues to heal. Turbo and his family went to Youngest’s for a swim day and we were invited but we turned it down. Wizard can’t be in water or the sun, and we wanted to keep the weekend quiet for all three of us — they all understood. Wizard is bored which is also a good sign.

Boy yesterday was humid and overcast, I think the technical word for it is “yucky” The only upside for us is the yucky weather helped curb any desire Wizard might have had to do something more than walk around the backyard for a few minutes. He really only has another week or so before he can get back to regular life.

I got a chance to get caught up on some cleaning and while doing that I’m listening to book DRAGON HEIST and it’s hilarious! I think maybe Silver mentioned that book, and I remembered that correctly, thank you Silver! It’s exactly what I need this weekend! Now I feel more caught up and ready to face another week.

That’s my weekend, now I’d love to hear about yours!

TGIF! Sorry guys for being late. Life is a roller coaster. This will have to be quick as I’m leaving to go get an x-ray. Here’s my five:

1. Monday I had to clean carpets after taking Maggie to boarding. We don’t know what’s going on with the carpets, but we do know we hope to put new floors in with the next couple years (that was part of our original plan with this house). And I knew the my infection or whatever it is in my nose was coming back. I said nothing because Wizard’s surgery is important and I am not contagious. I’ve even done covid tests. It’s something going on with me, not a virus.
2. Tuesday was a blur but things went well. The only complication was boarding couldn’t get Maggie’s bath done. They kept her another night at no charge, which helps us out too.
3. Wednesday I went to my own doctor and he could see my nose and throat are inflamed. And he can see the sore spot. I need a full sinus xray and he’s getting me a referral to a specialist to determine what it is. He also gave me strong prescription ointment and that’s helping. If it clears it up and my x-ray is okay, I could skip the specialist, but it also might be wise to have it checked out (it’s wise, I know). After that, I picked up Maggie and brought her home. She was tired and not real hungry but she ate her dinner okay.  3a) While at boarding the last night, Maggie staged a “prison break” getting out of her enclosure and opening the gate to the small front lobby. Wizard and I cracked up about that. She was fine — the door was locked. The owner found her early the next morning just casually wandering around. Maggie is very intelligent when she wants to be, so this both surprises and doesn’t surprise me. She’s so “good” she rarely does stuff like that. But she is also driven to find me.
4. Maggie was very sick and crying very early Thursday morning. I didn’t know it (I hadn’t slept in two nights so I was out cold), so Wizard just put her in her bed in our room. It wasn’t until the next morning I discovered she’d been really sick. And then she started having bloody diarrhea. It was a long day trying to care for her and get her into her vet. They tried, but last night I ended up taking her to emergency. They did a free evaluation and determined she’s stable enough to go home. They believe she found something to eat at boarding and with her history, her insides got irritated and bled a bit. There’s a reason we keep her on a strict diet. Not to blame the boarding place — there’s a lot of dogs and people, and things can happen. Her vet then called late that evening  right after I got home from the emergency vet, and said it could also be stress colitis which fits Maggie’s history too. They have meds on standby for me to pickup if she needs them.  Now she’s on a rice, boiled chicken and water diet.
5. I slept with Maggie and she’s looking better this morning. Assuming that holds, I’ll go get my x-ray. So far, Wizard is healing as expected. He’s in pain, but ice helps a lot. With all this, it’s been a hard week BUT everyone has been nice and helpful where they can. There are not enough vets and too much demand. Hopefully Wizard and Maggie will be fine And one day I’ll catch up on sleep, exercise and cleaning the house.

So that was my week, how was yours? Hope everyone has a great weekend!

A longish but good update: Wizard’s surgery went well. He’s swollen, sore and surprised He’s had this surgery before about five or six years ago, and he keeps saying it hurts more this time. I don’t think it does, though. He just has a tendency to not remember the pain. Plus this time, they kept him more awake (but in no pain) during the procedure so he’s less groggy. However once I showed him a picture of the swelling, that triggered his memory the last time. I found that interesting.

This kind of selective memory is how women have more than one child, LOL!

Is it making fun of Wizard to tell you all that he looks like he got in the ring with Mike Tyson So when they brought him out to the car, they had ice on his eyes so they were covered. I didn’t get a look at him until I was driving and he took the ice off for a minute — it’s a good thing I knew what to expect, and even so, I winced in sympathy. But aside from that first second of shock, it looks like it should.

I’m dead tired (as I’m writing this yesterday afternoon), but glad to have it all done, although I don’t love him having discomfort now and he’s only supposed to take Tylenol. It will be worth it though assuming the surgery works as intended. It’s a really cool procedure that helps Wizard keep his eyelids open enough to have a bigger field of vision. It worked before and we expect it to work again.

Maggie is in boarding for another night. I was going to pick her up, but the new owner of the place called and asked if she could stay another night, then she’d give her a bath and cut her nails in the morning. I asked how Maggie was doing there, and she said she’s made friends with two bulldogs, so I agreed. This actually makes it easier on me so I can do quick errands, take care of Wizard and not worry about her accidently tripping him this first 24 hours after the surgery.  I also have to run to a doctor appointment tomorrow morning, then I’ll pick her up. But gosh, we miss her! However I’m happy she’s having fun with some doggy friends.

So that’s my update. All is well so far. How’s your day going?

Before I get to the weekend, just to let everyone know, I’m aware of some issues with the blog. I’m trying to address, but my life is a little complicated and my web designer is in Germany. I will try to get it sorted soon-ish, and I’m truly sorry if it’s frustrating anyone. It seems to target the comment section the most.

Okay so the weekend. I know something happened Friday, but I can’t remember what it was Saturday morning, we had the last part of the rain gutters installed. It’s a long and dumb story about why we didn’t have that section done when the rest were installed, but it’s all done now.

I pulled out some cake layers from my freezer and played with that this weekend. I had a plan and headed to the cake stores, but I couldn’t get what I wanted and had to change the design on the fly. Most of it went fine. However, the one thing that made me crazy was trying to make the chocolate drip, which is just a chocolate ganache. This is not hard, but each time I tried, the chocolate seized or turned grainy. I was getting water in it somewhere or heating the heavy cream too high. I finally threw up my hands and used chocolate melts which is why the drip looks chunky instead of flowy. By then I didn’t care. Drips is one of the things I’m usually decent at, so I know I was just tired. I also was using what I had in the freezer, so I couldn’t build the cake tall enough, but again, it was just for fun. Here’s a pic:

My original concept was sugar flowers in the colors of sunset (oranges, reds and yellows) cascading down a tall cake. This isn’t even close! No matter, I’m happy to get the practice. Most important was doing something creative to take my mind off other stuff. This week if I have time, I may try making some flowers out of gum paste. I have a lot to learn with that, though.

Tomorrow Wizard is having an eye procedure done. I hope to post on Wednesday, but the sheer logistics of the day is complicated and I may be late posting. We are boarding Maggie so we don’t have to worry about her, plus she’ll get a much needed bath.

That’s my weekend, how was yours?

TGIF! Time to share five random things about our week. Here’s mine:

1. This morning, I finished my antibiotics. I’ve tolerated them pretty well, but my stomach is definitely ready to be done. I clearly had some infection that this took care of which is good. For the record, I’d rather not take antibiotics but they are amazing when we actually need them.
2. This week I batched cooked a lot, including sourdough bread. Mostly just so I can feed myself, LOL. Limiting the amount of process food, gluten and dairy I eat keeps me busy in the kitchen. On the upside, I have the time since I’m not on constant deadlines. There really isn’t a downside beyond laziness. And while we’re talking about cooking, I don’t think my cilantro herb plant is going to survive the summer heat. I knew it probably wouldn’t but was hoping for a little cilantro magic since I use it a lot. But it turned really hot this week and cilantro doesn’t look good. I did a little first aid today, but my hopes are not high. On the other hand, I’ve used him in many dishes so he’s been a good provider up till now
3. One of our stresses this week was we had to find new homeowners insurance, and that’s become very difficult in “fire prone” areas. Several insurers have pulled out in fire and flood areas in CA. Wizard took the lead on this, and I think we have it solved. But wow, it was a little scary there for a bit. We did have a last resort solution because we saw this coming before we bought this house, but it was definitely not our first choice. Anyhow, just wanted to mention that Wizard tackled this one and got it solved (unless something changes at the last minute), which has taken some really worry off us. The neighbors are all going through this too and we are all sharing info which also helps.
4. So, don’t laugh, but I finally called my brother I don’t talk to him and his wife as often as I’d like because I’m terrible at making calls. I feel like I accomplished something big this week to stop what I was doing and make the call! I think about people all the time, but my mental telephone, text and email system is seriously unreliable. So that’s my big accomplishment this week, LOL. He’s only slightly better at making calls than me — it’s genetic flaw, I think.
5. I’ve had lunch plans with a friend that we’ve had to reschedule for two weekends now. Sometimes life just does not want to cooperate. So this weekend is a mystery and anything can happen!

That’s my five, now I’d love to hear yours! I hope everyone has a great weekend!