An Emma report

Emma is better today. Most of the swelling in her face and neck is gone. The little stinker decided that she would not take her cheese-covered pills this morning. I think it's mainly because she is not really hungry right now. She gets a Greenie as a treat every morning and gobbles it down. This morning she carried it around for about half an hour before she finally ate it very slowly. She's drinking fine, but not eating much.

Anyway, I had to get the pills in her so we ended up doing the "trap the dog between the knees, cram the pills down her throat, and make her swallow" maneuver. I didn't like having to wrestle her mouth open with her having a sore snout, but what else could I do? Telling her that taking the pills would make her feel better did nothing. Peanut butter on the pills did nothing. She is a cheese-hound and even with lots of cheese she would have nothing to do with those dratted pills. So I had to be a meanie.

Then I gave her a bath as we'll be traveling this evening and she had gone way past whiffy-smelling to being a down right stinky dog. She hates getting a bath but likes being clean. She loves curling up on a clean bed. And she always watches carefully as I put her toys in the washer. Then she watches when I put them in the dryer. She could care less about laundry unless her toys are being washed.

After her bath, we played with the tennis ball and then had a nice brushing. Then it was time for a nap.

After I get the last bit of packing done for our trip, I plan to stitch. I'm really enjoying stitching on "The Alamo" and definitely have my stitching mojo back.

Next weekend, I'm looking forward to the IH35 Stitchtogether (where hopefully we'll see Cindy!). DH will be able to get the rest of his hunting man toys from Cabela's; he bought so much last month that it wouldn't all fit in the Jetta.

Emma's adventure

Late last night Emma was after something under the house and the something got her on the muzzle near her nose. We can only surmise that it was not a poisonous snake as she is still living. We have no idea what it was, and DH - wisely - chose not to go spelunking under the house to find out.

Her muzzle started swelling and she was in a lot of pain. So after calling the vet, we made a trip in for the emergency. Our vet clinic is staffed by three vets and one is always on site 24/7 along with a staff member. The vet looked her over, gave her three injections and then sent us home with two bottle of pills; antibiotics and pain/inflammation medications. He found a couple of puncture wounds on her muzzle.

We all ended up going to bed way past our bedtime.

Today she is not a happy dog. Her muzzle and neck are swollen and the punctures are oozy (which the vet said is normal). But she is drinking okay and eating a bit. She still wants to play with her tennis ball - she likes to chase it in the yard - but only for two or three throws. Of course, she decided to do this right before we go up to Dallas for the weekend to visit relatives. Oh well. She'll get pampered more than usual by them all.

I doubt this will keep her from further chasing of critters under the house. Once a terrier, always a terrier. Silly dog.

I am stitching today, and here is my progress. It's the center of the Alamo (like you can tell). The pattern is by Art Ventures and 123 Stitch has it. I got my copy back in the early 90's during a Hobby Lobby clearance sale. I was a beginning stitcher back then and was a bit skeered of all the color changes, but I liked the pattern.

My folks are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary this weekend. I stitched them something and was going to frame it, but decided instead to make a scrapbook page and then give them a scrapbook for photos of the event. My mom is a big picture taker. It's straight on the page; my picture is wonky.

So, don't expect me back until next week. I may post tomorrow if I have time with all the pre-trip hoopla.

No Lowe's please

Cool! There are those of you out there who only wear or mostly wear your favorite jewelry sets. To hear it from female relatives who shall remain nameless, I am the only one on the planet who indulges in such weirdness. HA! I'm NOT alone - some of y'all are as weird as I am! Same-jewelry-wearing sisters unite!

DH worked like a fiend on redoing the six windows on our addition this weekend. He got four of them done. He probably could have finished all six if we could have stayed out of Lowe's.

Back last summer, after rebuilding an inside wall on our house while using a hammer, DH expressed the desire to buy a pneumatic nail gun. He didn't want to spend a lot because he didn't think he'd use it a lot (I knew better). It's inconvenient for us to rent small tools due to the one hour drive time to town and back. So he found a generic one on eBay and bought it. With shipping, it was $135.00.

It worked fine on several projects. This weekend, it died. I figure it lasted through about 36 hours of use, so it cost us about $3.75 per hour to use. A good deal. However, it died when DH needed it, so I talked him into getting another one of better quality because he was using it a lot more than he thought he would (I knew he would).

FYI, you just about have to use a nail gun when nailing Hardi-plank. The darn stuff is so hard that you can't pound a nail through it without drilling pilot holes; the stuff is made of concrete!

So we went to Lowe's and DH studied all of the nail guns for a long time and then bought the one that had the features he wanted most. He brought it home and right out of the box, the darn thing wouldn't work.

Back to Lowe's we go. DH stood in front of the nail gun display and studied some more. He carefully read labels. While he was doing this, a small and deeply tanned man walked up and stood beside him. He pretended to study the nail guns. After about 10 seconds of pretending, he asked, "Hey buddy, you buying a nail gun?" DH said yes. Then the guy stood there for about 20 minutes and told DH everything he could possibly want to know about nail guns, including what brands worked the best and lasted the longest. Turned out he's a framing contractor. (He was in Lowe's because his wife was looking at wallpaper and he wandered over to the tools to look at something more manly.) So DH bought a nail gun that worked right out of the box, had lots of power, and was he was a happy man.

A note from my stitching chair: I managed to stitch quite a bit this weekend on the "The Alamo." I'm not far enough along for you to tell anything, so I'll not post a picture. Here's a picture of the pattern, however. This pattern was designed in 1985 and is hand-charted. It was printed on a huge sheet of paper that would not fit on my copier without a lot of folding. So I just made a working copy without enlarging it. The hand-drawn symbols may cause me to go blind!

Providence and a finish

I am not a typical woman; never have been and never will be. For example, I can't stand diamonds. I think they're the ugliest rocks on the planet. They should stay buried. No, I don't have a wedding ring with diamonds. I have a plain gold band that I'm very happy with.

My preferred gemstones are blue in color. My favorite is the sapphire, followed by lapis lazuli and turquoise. I pretty much like any blue-colored stone.

I also rarely change the jewelry I wear. I have a pair of sapphire stud earrings that DH gave me for Christmas long ago. I have a necklace with a gold heart with a sapphire that DH gave me at another Christmas long ago. They are my favorites; I wear them all the time and rarely take them off.

Last week, I was particularly vexed when I thought I had lost one of my earrings. I've lost one three different times in the past, and DH has replaced it.

I was getting something off a shelf in Wal-Mart when it slipped and whacked me on the side of the head. On the way home, I realized an earring was missing. I put two and two together and figured I'd lost it during the head whacking maneuver. DH went by the store on his way home to look for it and ask in lost and found, but no luck.

I was really ticked off. I didn't want to spend money replacing my earring, but I really like to wear them. DH insisted. He figures my track record of three lost over a period of nearly 20 years isn't so bad seeing as I wear them all the time. Most women don't wear their jewelry all the time. He planned to go by a jeweler on Tuesday to see about getting a new earring for me.

This morning, as I was tossing a load of laundry in the dryer, I noticed something odd in the dryer lint filter. Yep. It was the missing earring! It must have fallen in my clothes and survived the trip from the laundry through the washer and then through the dryer! I was a very happy camper!

And...I stitched yesterday and finished "Boo Y'all." I'm still not in the mood to stitch my MIL's HBP, so I've decided to stitch "The Alamo" by Art Ventures next. I've had it in my stash forever and it's calling me.

Windows

DH will be spending the weekend working on fixing the six windows on our addition. He is correcting the bad work of our contractor (May the fleas of a thousand camels infest that man's armpits.).

The framing around the windows was put on in such a way as to allow bugs and the weather access to the edge of the windows themselves. It was also put on crooked and wonky. DH and I don't care much for crooked and wonky.

So, DH removed the framing and discovered something that really ticked us off. The contractor had put strips of OSB under the outer frame piece to bring it level with the window. A big no-no. If OSB gets wet, it swells.

DH removed it and put it where it belongs in regards to window applications.

DH is doing it correctly and is having to really finagle things to get them right. And Hardi-plank is very hard to saw through. Oh well - what else have we got to do this weekend? But after all is said and done, we'll have beautifully framed in windows that are weatherproof, not to mention straight and non-wonky.

Ladies, I do it every year

Do you? I went and had my annual mammogram today. EVERY woman should have this done yearly along with her regular check-up which should include a pelvic exam and PAP smear along with blood work.

While certainly no fun, these simple tests could save your life. No insurance? Hard up for cash? You can find free clinics in just about any area; call your local hospital to find them.

After I endure these life-saving tests, I allow myself a special treat. I buy stash or indulge in a favorite dessert. Today, I decided to try a Starbucks Java Mocha Chip Frappucino. It was very good, although heavy on the coffee flavor (duh.).

I'm normally not a coffee drinker unless I can put 1/4 cup of cream or more and at least a tablespoon of sugar in it. DH has been telling me that I just HAD to try one of these, so I did. I liked it enough to add it to my list of "infrequent indulgences."

My brother and sis-in-law are avid coffee drinkers. They buy it by the bean and grind their own. They are connoisseurs of coffee.

One day, my brother was telling me that I would just love this new brand of coffee they were using; it was pricey but very, very good. I told him that me drinking his special coffee would be like casting pearls before swine as I would have to adulterate it with much creamer and sugar. Since he and SIL are coffee purists and drink their coffee black, he shuddered and didn't offer the coffee to me again. ☺

No, I'm not stitching, but I'm enjoying a new Star Wars book. Someday soon, I'll come back to my universe and pick up my stitching.

I'll leave you with a picture of Emma investigating the new bathtub while DH was trial-fitting it into place. She just hopped right on in and started sniffing around. I guess she knew there was no water in sight and there was no chance of the dreaded BATH! Normally, you can't get her in the bathtub without physically putting her in it.

A netbook and progress

I received my little laptop in the mail late last week. The darn thing is kind of cute and is about the size of a hardback book. I'll be mostly using it to read my CPAP data as the OS is Windows XP. I don't know how anyone can do any serious typing on such a little keyboard. I guess it's called a netbook because people mainly use it to surf and not type much.

I don't seem to be stitching much of late. Oh well. I've been reading a lot. Oh well.

DH is making slow progress on the new bathroom. He did a partial "plumbing take off" on it last Saturday. He sat in the bathroom with a pad of paper and a tape measure muttering to himself and scribbling for about two hours. Then we went to Lowe's with a list. Once there, he stood around in the company of other muttering men with lists in the plumbing area and tried to find things. We got most of what we came for and DH put several of the items we bought in the wall later that day.

Remember those cabinets DH made for me that are going to go in the office area that I was keen to paint? Well, they are still waiting for paint. The weather conspired against me - cold, then rain, then horrible humidity. DH's work buddy, Billy, was supposed to paint them for us, but his paint sprayer was broken and he didn't have time to fix it. Billy has a wife and seven kids and is very busy. Go figure.

Anyway, Billy's brother borrowed the paint sprayer, and fixed it before he used it. So now, Billy can paint my cabinets! DH took them up to work and they are going to stay late and paint on them. Whee-e-o!

Another by-product of the fixed paint sprayer is that we will finally get the outside of the renovated side of our house painted. However, DH will have to stop working on the bathroom to get it ready to paint over the upcoming three-day weekend.

Our "lovely" contractor did a horrible job on framing in the windows. He did a REALLY. HORRIBLE. JOB. DH wants to redo them properly. We didn't want to paint until the window framing was redone as everything is framed in and sided with Hardi-plank siding. Hardi-plank is basically a form of concrete made into siding. It's very tough and durable and termite proof. But it's hard to work with. Anyway, DH is hoping to get all six windows reframed this weekend so Billy can paint the outside.

I was going to do the painting myself the old-fashioned way with a roller, but if Billy is available, I'll bow out in a heartbeat. Billy can do in half a day what it would take me a whole week to do. That'll give me more time to read (or stitch!).