Getting things done today. It was both a good idea and a bad idea to put the oven on "self-clean" when it's a million degrees outside. I'm too paranoid to do things like that overnight. Once, I didn't sleep a wink when Nick made something in a crockpot to cook all night.
I was convinced that the cord was going to melt into the side of the crockpot since they were literally touching. At 3AM or thereabouts, I decided to put a barrier between the cord and the crockpot and what made sense was a wooden spoon. This made Nick laugh for days. A flammable wooden spoon. Nothing happened, all was fine.
Now that we have a beautiful new car -- a black 2009 Honda Element with a dozen miles on it -- I'm trying to make the garage worthy of it. Did a spiff just now, but our garage looks nothing like these. They're velcro-adhesive giant tarps, see more here.
And below, a nutty thing sitting on my laptop while our last SF rocker houseguests stayed here. Cracks me up.
Estro is having her best week ever! Surely the best since the last week of May when the dog-vertigo began. She is improving practically by the hour. Without jinxing it, it really seems that the worst is over. I am hopeful and relieved beyond belief.
After her chiropractor/acupuncture yesterday, she went to my new favorite place, Hotel St. Celilia for a fancy bowl of water. She balanced really well on their steep, grassy hill, walking even better than on our flat yard. Go Estro!
To celebrate that, and the 18th anniversary of our first date (!) on Sunday, we're going to Uchi for sushi. Can't wait!
Here's FarmVille, an adorable Facebook app where you just click to reap and sow. It comes from the good people at zynga, creators of Scramble (my go-to for insomnia). FarmVille is so farmy, you can smell the sweet hay. It's also a reminder that you reap what you sow.
Perhaps worse, I used to wear a pair like these in 1986, they were navy herringbone in a chunky fabric. My father always said, "It looks like you took a dump in those pants" and well, there it is.
Estro has been improving consistently this week, but she's not out of the woods. She's in the yard, or in the park, or on a leash on our street.
Part of the big drag we're going through is that she's taking Prednisone which has the unfortunate combination of side effects: insomnia, great thirst, and having to pee. And repeating that pattern often.
Nights are restless, but we're learning the dog's newfound codes and signals for what she needs. "Oh, when she walks like that, she has to pee," or "She just wants water," instead of a 2nd trip to the yard in the same un-dog-ly hour.
Almost as important as Estro getting better each day is that we (the humans) are getting better at returning to normal. With a "special needs dog" there's a lot of information online about how to take care of the pets, but there's just about nothing about caring for the people going through the whole thing.
We're figuring it out as we go, we're trying hard, and it's always worth it. Here's an old photo from SF with Pheebs.
Guess who won. A soon-to-be-swarm of hornets nestled inside the fat pipe in the dryer vent at our house last week. From the outside of the house, you could see a screen with the hornets directly behind it. I pretended to forget about the growing comb and their residents and just used the dryer. The hornets are gone, the clothes are dry and nobody had to directly spray something at it from 20 feet away.
Got some encouragement from the vet yesterday about new things we can try in order to make Estro's vestibular ride go more smoothly. She is pretty much seasick, unsure of her center of gravity.
That vet also treats a German Shepherd who's had the same thing since the Fall. Yikes. So we are trying a vitamin concoction for humans called SAMe (pronounced sammy) which is supposed to be good for her.
And while I was in the vet's lobby, I overheard a dog owner say that his neighbor has been lighting fireworks that scare his dog. Since it's not even the 4th of July yet and you can literally buy one firework here and get eleven free around here, precautions are being taken. The dog was dispensed Valium, and so was Estro. Dogs are the new '50s housewives.
Some songs I played today:
Only Women Bleed - Alice Cooper
American Woman - The Guess Who
Babe I'm Gonna Leave You - Led Zeppelin
