Black Friday

Well today was Black Friday and there were tons of ads on TV, facebook and email with blasts of sales.  It is hard not to get wrapped up in it all and do some shopping, but I did not do any. I'm sure lots of folks did but I really haven't gone shopping the Friday after Thanksgiving in years, and I've never been one to stand in line outside the stores in the wee hours of the morning like some folks do either.  Nothing is that important.

I however did get a nice long walk in this morning with a neighbor I often walk with. Since I had off today I didn't need to worry about being back by a certain time, so we took a pretty long walk. I'd say that walk along with the one I took Molly on after I got back made it around 5 miles. 

We didn't see anyone else walking but I did see the mail man out delivering packages already before 7 AM.  He really had a long day today.  And it will likely be like this until Christmas is over.  I also saw a few houses with outdoor Christmas lights up already.  Tis the season I suppose. We don't usually put up any decorations until around December 8th.

We had a nice Thanksgiving dinner at my sisters house yesterday.  It was a nice spread.  I was very grateful that I didn't have to cook a turkey and all. We even got some left overs which we had for lunch today.

I started working on some of the Christmas cards for the Angel project this year.  I try to send as many as I can but I need to start them early so that I can get a good couple hundred at least done.

I had a hard time remembering what day it was today.  It felt like a Saturday.  I did volunteer to work this weekend since we don't have company visiting, so that's what I'll be doing the rest of the weekend.

Thanksgiving 'Eve

I read back on my last post before writing this evening.  The hot water heater didn't get fixed until Monday but it took the plumber all of 2 minutes. He was so nice, he didn't charge us anything!  We have used this plumbing company before and we will definitely use them again (but hopefully won't need them back any time soon). It was so nice taking a hot shower on Tuesday after I exercised.

I got a call last week from my dermatologist's office to let me know they were changing my appointment time for my next check up in January.  That was fine but it also prompted me to try to check my back as I really don't check much for changes in my many moles and freckles and can't see my back very well. I used a make up mirror and turned around to look at my back in the bathroom mirror. I saw a dark spot and it felt rough and I didn't know if it was something to be concerned about or not.  

The next morning I asked hubby to look at it and he thought I should get it checked ASAP. That is not usually what he says when I ask his opinion about stuff like this. So fast forward to today. I got a short appointment that was this morning.  I had really thought and hoped that the black spot was just a clogged cyst (big blackhead if you will).  Hubby got me worked up though with his initial alarm so I was a bit nervous.  So it turns out that it was nothing but a cyst like a sebaceous cyst which they took care of.  I was really relieved.  However she did say she saw a suspicious area lower on my back and took a biopsy of that. She said it was a small cluster of moles and just didn't look right. So I guess it is just as well that I went today, although I'm not sure it would be that much worse in January.  I really am glad that I get checked every 6 months. This way I know the doctor gets to do a thorough look, especially the areas I can't see myself.  I check my arms and legs every so often but that is really about it.  I regret having worshipped the sun so much in my youth as I am paying for it now.  Hopefully every suspicious mole will be caught early and I'll always keep the really scary skin cancer at bay.  I still have my appointment in January to get checked all over thoroughly again.  Maybe I'll be lucky and there won't be any more found at that appointment.

Yesterday I tried turning on the heater in my office which we hadn't used yet. We tested it when the addition was done and it did seem to be working (the air conditioning). My mom was never hot so we didn't need to use it while she lived there. Never did try the heat and didn't really need it until recently as we've had some pretty cold mornings. So I turned it on but it did not get warm,even when I turned the temperature up to 78 degrees.  I feel like we have so many problems with systems these days.  First the hot water heater pilot going out and now this brand new wall mounted split heat/air conditioning unit not heating.  I guess I'll be calling someone to come and check it out. I really hope the unit is fine as I could not find any warranty paperwork for it. I don't know if I ever got any either, as I was just so anxious to get that addition done to move my mom in back in May.  Oh well. Always something!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I am looking forward to it!  

End of the week

Well I survived Monday, Tuesday.. Wednesday, Wednesday eve' and Friday eve' too.  It was a busy work week. Also 3 days ago, hubby's stomach was starting to bother him again.  So the stress of possible colitis returning was upon us (and me) again.

Luckily he remembered 2 days ago that the doctor who performed the colonoscopy had prescribed something for hubby to help with stomach issues. We looked it up and since it had no aspirin or ibuprofen contents, he decided to give it a try yesterday.  He only had gotten it a few days before his colitis emergency in September.  It actually helped him quite a bit, what a relief!  We delayed pizza night from last night to this evening to see if he was feeling more up to it.

He was doing pretty well today so he was up for some pizza which we just had. I am so very happy the medication is helping him!

The other thing that has been on my mind is hubby's follow up CT Scan on his lungs that is on Tuesday to see if the nodules have grown any.  Oye!  I really hope they have not grown, in fact I'd be happy if they shrunk.

Today it was really windy and I noticed when I was doing dishes in the afternoon that the water was not getting very hot.  So I checked and the light on the water heater was out.  Ugh! Hubby tried to get the hot water heater going again but it didn't work. I don't really like when appliances go out!! And I really didn't want hubby messing with it anymore either.  Since it is Saturday, at this point we'll just wait until Monday to call someone to get it back on. So much for my shower tomorrow.

Next week is Thanksgiving already! This year is really flying by. 

Monday 'eve' ick!

Mondays are not really all that bad. So why do I think ICK when I think about Mondays?  LOL.  I'm sure I'm not alone there.  I did work this weekend although not quite as much as I planned, as the system was unavailable last night.   Oh well.  I did make a very nice filet mignon and stuffed potato dinner last night with sauteed mushrooms and onions. It was really good!  And we had enough leftovers for this evening's meal. It was just as good tonight!

I decided last week that Bella has to go in her kennel during my floor work part of my exercise. She is just too rambunctious and I really can't do any of the exercises full out (without kicking one of the dogs somewhere). It has worked out nicely and I ignore Ditzy and anyone else who wants to play since it wouldn't be fair for me to throw a ball or anything while Bella is staring me down behind the kennel door. ;-)   It is only for about 15 minutes so it isn't that long.

This weekend was relatively warm(getting up to the low 70's) but it was cloudy, gray or drizzly much of the time too. I hope it gets sunny soon. I really love sunny days!  It really lifts my mood!.

Our neighbors are 'away' again for like the 3rd time in just over a month's time. It normally would be none of my business, but they usually ask hubby to watch their dog for them. Their dog is going blind and is I think 15 years old.  To me they should just stay home until she passes away.  Hubby finally put his foot down and said no this time. She needs to be walked twice a day and actually for her age really pulls on the leash.  Hubby's back is not all that great so he doesn't feel great after walking her.  Then she howls and howls out on the back deck (they have a doggy door).  She can go on for more than an hour at a time.  They got someone else to feed her and walk her, thankfully but it still doesn't make the constant howling end.  I feel really bad for the dog. It isn't her fault that her owners keep going away a lot.  I truly hope that when this dog passes, they don't get another dog!   It would be an injustice to the poor thing!

Hump Day

Today was rainy, dreary and cold...but I did have the day off, so that part was nice.  I took a long walk with the gal that I sometimes meet up with since I didn't have to rush back to take the 2nd walk and then clock in.  Then when I got back hubby walked with me and we took Ditzy with us.  I walked at least 4 miles. It felt good!

Later I cleaned the office really well (except for the bathroom), so that was nice. It was really needed.  I hadn't changed the calendar on my desk blotter since August. LOL.

And we went out to lunch with some friends and ate at a restaurant in a nearby town, called The Chunky Cow.  I didn't love my chicken salad sandwich but what Steve got looked good and my loaded potato soup was really good. We enjoyed chatting and I almost forgot it was Wednesday (and not the weekend).

Our friends have their own bee hives for honey and they generously gave us a jar of honey.  They explained how they have to extract the honey and it really sounded like a cumbersome task! But I thanked them so much and will really enjoy it.

Bella was fine today, thankfully!  Relaxing evening watching TV now...well she's not but we are.

Tuesday post

What started out to be a fairly warm day, turned colder and colder and it is now 59 degrees.  That may not sound very cold, but when it started out in the mid 70's, it feels pretty cold.  The lows tonight are expected to be in the 40's too.

This morning we had a real scare with our newest fur kid Bella (who is only about 7 pounds).  Hubby came back from being at the store and was in the kitchen putting a few things away.  It was about 9:40am, and Bella was just sort of laying in the kitchen and not really moving. She usually is hopping around, wanting to see what is going on, and smelling whatever she can. Then her head started swaying from side to side, not good.  I picked her up and she was just not looking good.  We laid her in hubby's lap for a while to see if she was just really tired, as sometimes she nods when she is falling asleep. I went back to the office and was thinking about calling the vet. 

She is always exploring whatever she can find outside, and I was hoping she didn't ingest something poisonous.  Suddenly hubby was headed to the back door announcing she was getting sick.  She proceeded to upchuck her entire stomach contents out on the back porch.  I didn't really see anything peculiar.   When she was done she was still lethargic. We decided to wait a little to see if she got any better since she got rid of everything in her stomach.  She did start to relax a bit and was resting without head sways or jerking or anything.  Then she took a nap for a while. So turns out she was okay.  It is so hard to know when to call the vet.   She is just so small, I didn't want to ignore something potentially fatal. I was really to the point of about to dial the vet's phone number.

By mid-afternoon she was running around the house again with a toy, playing.  She ate dinner fine and has kept it down and seemed fine since.  We're going to try to keep a better eye on whatever she gets into outside although we still really don't know what was wrong.  It is so hard with animals when they can't tell us what hurts.

Daylight Savings Night

Guess who ate dinner at 4:30PM because someone forgot to turn the clocks back? Well it wasn't me, because I was visiting the youngest since yesterday and came home around 3:30PM today  and I just assumed the clocks were changed.  But I was hungry enough to eat since it was really 5:30PM (well would have been yesterday).  Anyway, the clocks got changed promptly....at least the ones on the first floor. I'll make sure and change my clock tonight when head for bed.

It was nice to go visit Stac yesterday. Her boyfriend was going hunting up north so it was a good opportunity for some girl time.  We ate at Olive Garden which was nice.  It had been a long time since I ate at one as hubby doesn't really care for their food - says there are sun dried tomatoes on everything.  I had chicken scampi and it was good, but I loved the salad and breadsticks as I said, it had been a while since I ate in one of their restaurants.

I enjoyed seeing my daughter's cat again.  She reminds me a lot of our cat Smokie (who passed away years ago).  I found myself calling her little moke- moke alot. Stac also has a dog whom I can tell adores her. She looks and her and whines a little when she wants to be petted.  The dog is very tolerant of the cat who is often taunting her with her paws. The cat has a nice tower that has many levels and she has no problem climbing up to the highest spot which is very high up (only about a foot or so below the ceiling).  I'm glad her cat is so social.  She was out and about most of the time. The cat we had ended up spending a lot of time under our bed- may be due to our 3 dogs, but anyway, we had a nice visit. 

This year is really flying by - hard to believe it is already November!

Dogs and Dentals

Apparently we are doomed to our dogs needing tooth extractions despite my efforts of brushing their teeth.  Small dogs even shelties, due to their genetics and saliva enzymes tend to have bad teeth, period.   They are bound to need several teeth removed although I was assured yesterday when we picked up Ditzy that my brushing definitely helps. She got through her cleaning a lot better than Molly back in July.  She needed 5 teeth pulled (although we have to watch several more), but Molly needed 13 teeth pulled back in July.  In her defense, Molly will be 13 years old this month so she is older too.

I am still going to brush their teeth and am really working with the youngest (new fur kid) to get her used to brushing.  I do best with my finger (in terms of targeting areas), but do use the toothbrush too for the first part.

It is what it is. We love our smaller breeds, so more extractions will surely be in our future.

I am very happy that we are turning back the clocks this weekend. I do not enjoy taking most of my first walk in the dark. Today it was foggy/misty from having rained yesterday so it was dark for longer than usual.

Today is Thursday 'eve, so I'm happy about that.  Closer to the weekend!