Good-bye! Good-bye!

Today’s high-wind advisory and freeze warning over night = bye bye flowers… <sniff!>

Yesterday afternoon we took the air conditioner out of the window and taped plastic over the downstairs windows. Ran out of time for replacing the window well covers. Cranked up the furnace and it seems to be working okay.

Soph and I nearly blew away this afternoon during our walkie. Wasn’t a particularly productive walk training-wise — Sophie alternated between wanting to chase leaves and wanting to eat worms.

…and I have been fighting a headache all day long.

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NP: Antiques Roadshow

What’s for supper? beef and broccoli stir fry. No no no…out of a BAG! Don’t mistake me for someone who could manage that on her own.

Where’s Sophie? In her bed in the dining room.

Major plan this week? Attending the “Pack the Park” rally on Saturday. The governor is closing our state parks and historical sites because of budget problems…don’t get me started. What a legacy he making for himself. Anyway — we are supposed to register our support for the parks by visiting them on November 1st. The gov is closing two parks that are major tourist draws for O-town and the surrounding area — the economic effects will be tremendous.

It’s hard to be a Grammie

I came home from work this evening and started “cooking ahead” so the next few days all I have to do is heat and eat — clever, huh? Besides, with DH’s crazy schedule, I never know when he’ll be home for supper.

So while I was steaming, pouring, whisking, measuring and about leaving the salt out of the roux, off to the side of the dining room were the three rat-boys — all a-rattling their cages and wanting out — NOW!

Sigh! Can’t really blame them — and they do seem to like their Grammie…

Robin is hanging on the side of his cage…Caesar is eyeing the latch to his…Hamlet is peering out the edge of his hammock, intently peering…

Nothing like having three little ratties wanting to hang onto Grammie’s apron while she’s slaving away over a hot stove…

Rattle. RATTLE…RATTLE!!

Hang on boys — here… have a yogie…

Back to cooking: besides Sunday’s leftover lasagna, we also have leftover spaghetti which was leftover before the lasagna (!), and barbecue leftover before all of that…but in the fresh department we now have Cracker Barrel green beans and asparagus soup. In the crockpot there’s a roast, potatoes, carrots and onions simmering away.

Once that was all done, I turned the boys loose…

They wore the rest of me out.

The rat boys are here!!

Caesar, Robin and Hamlet arrived this afternoon! DH and I get to rat-sit for a week while J & H go on their Great Adventure.

Caesar was once Carney’s cagemate — which makes him the seasoned old man of the group…sort of a wavy haired blue hooded rat.

Robin is a dumbo rat — mostly black with a bit of white.

Hamlet is a black hooded rat-youngster — who thinks he’s a puppy. He’s such a snuggle-lump.

I’d have pictures…except H forgot her camera to take on the trip, so she has mine…

I am so happy to have ratties in the house again!

As you can see…

…it’s been a slow-blog-month here at The Shape of Yellow.

I pretty much know why I’ve been mostly below the radar — no one wants to read the rantings of an overwhelmed-with-it-all person.

But right now, I think I can just about see around the bend … so here’s a bit of what’s been going on – the good parts – in random order:

• I just bought tickets to see Hal Holbrook’s Mark Twain Tonight! presentation this Friday night! H and I will be going. It’s at a beautiful renovated theatre in downtown R-town. And we get to park in H’s work parking lot — what a perk!
• My workplace is encouraging its employees to join Tangerine — a corporate wellness program — that has an online personalized weight goal, a weight tracker, and calorie counter. I log in what I eat and the program totals up the calories eaten and compares the ones spent exercising. Cool, huh? Anyway…it seems to be working for me.
• DH, H and I visited with J and her rat boys last Saturday. Made me miss Carney. It was fun playing with the youngest one of the three — he loved being snuggled and skirtched behind the ears.
• My dad has been having health problems since December, however the doctors are getting their heads together and are coming up with a game plan to put him right again.
• All the months of turning down the Rinnai to the lowest temperature setting to have lukewarm water filling up the washing machine ’cause the cold water filter was all limed up have come to an end! DH used nearly all of his vacation last week working on what’s been broke around the house — and the washing machine was on his list! He even knocked down the cobweb city that was growing in the laundry corner of the basement. My hero!
• Netflixed the first season of Laredo and had some fun watching a show I loved as a kid. Anyone else remember it?
• Finished watching Martin Chuzzlewit on Netflixes “watch it now” feature. Pretty good Dickens, that.
• We are supposed to have rain and ice pellets on Thursday. I really want blue sky and sun. Oops…this list was about the good parts…
• I crocheted a couple covers for the couch pillows…a basketweave pattern…out of the tweedy yarn that once was a simple awful poncho I made. Like I always say — be ruthless when tearing out crochet boo-boos — the yarn is still good for something. Oh and I also made two star-shaped recliner arm covers with it. “Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.” Something like that.
• Easter service at church went well. One young lady sang a special — her older girl at her side…and then the youngest daughter got away from her dad, ran up to the stage, picked up the candle holders on the communion table and turned around to grin during her mom’s solo…
• It IS spring, ice pellets or not…

…yeah, that would do it.

What exactly would bring Mumsflowers out of hibernation and back into the blogosphere?

SNOW ON ST PATRICK’S DAY, THAT’S WHAT!

I am undone. <insert long pitiful wail right here:________>

It was coming down fast and furious as I left work. So much for yesterday’s car wash on the G6. She is looking pretty pathetic again.

Sigh!

DH and I went out for corned beef and cabbage — this was the year I was going to try making it myself, but that didn’t happen. Southern Cousin (closer to being an Irish lass than I) assured me that it was easy. Oh well. Next year maybe — then we’ll see how much Hilliard I have in me.

We moved H back to R-town and into her new apartment Saturday. She has a very nice place this time — on a hill and on the second floor! And while we miss her underfoot in the living room, it’s nice to have the living room back. No more tiptoeing around in the mornings and DH can not-so-gently shut the kitchen cupboards again — um, maybe not — I don’t much care for that noise either. And I can start my morning exercise routine again.

Had sort of disappointing news on the puppy front. Evidently the momma dog was not pregnant…so no puppies on the 29th. The next litter will be born mid-May, so it will be mid-July before we have our little girl. And here I had been eyeing everyone walking their doggies the last week or so, thinking “there goes me and Sophie” — well, nothing’s changed there, but it will be July…hot, hot July. So it’s back to YouTube Cairn Terriers for me.

…well, there’s Chicago Bulls game coming on — and I have bills to write out and packages to mail… oh, and it was a year ago today that Carney O’Bean came to live with us … still miss that little rattie.

Fingers crossed, everybody!

…I just e-mailed a Cairn terrier breeder to see if we could be placed on a waiting list for a puppy from an upcoming litter…

DH, H and I went to Petco Saturday “just to look”… wow… so much doggie stuff!

Trixie (our $25 puppy!) was so much of a “make do” doggie — nothing fancy for her — but she didn’t mind. Or know any better.

I think the start up costs for a Cairn will be a bit steep, but figured in over her lifetime and just the fact we have her for fun and companionship — I don’t think it will be out of line.

Rest in peace, little Bean

I took Carney in to the vet’s to be put to sleep this morning. The vet was so good, as was the tech — we were all teary-eyed and loved up The Bean before they took him away.

It was so hard to make this call, but afterwards the doctor examined him a bit and said it was the right one.

…I was going to write a bit more about all this, but I can’t right now. If you want, click on “pets” and “rats” in the tag cloud to read more about our nine months (3/17/07 – 12/20/07) with this lovely little rattie.

I just know this house is too stupid quiet. And that I loved the Bean very much. All of us did.

Where is she? Where’d she go?

I’m still here — I guess I have inadvertently gone on a blogging hiatus — but I’ll be back sooner or later. Sooner if I get rested, later if I pop and fizzle.

So — very quickly — don’t blink:

1. I am missing knit & crochet club tonight — I’m beat.
2. My rattie is sick again so I am sad.
3. This weekend I finished up a crocheted poncho for my co-worker.
4. I’ve started a poncho for me.
5. Christmas presents are wrapped and ready.
6. Southern Cousin tried very hard to cheer me up at work — and nearly did, God bless her.
7. Going to a Bulls basketball game not this Friday, but the next.
8. Clash of the Choirs is mildly interesting…

Merry Christmas everyone –

Mumsflowers

Santa Bean

…at least somebody is feeling a bit Christmasy…

Jolly ol’ Santa Bean has no idea there’s an ice storm going on outside…Eeeww…

Carney, the brave ol’ Bean

I took the Bean to the vet’s for a recheck this afternoon. I just couldn’t see much improvement for the two weeks of YPM we’d been giving the little guy.

The vet was disappointed that the YPM didn’t do its stuff either. After examining him she gave me two options for taking care of the abscess:

1. Surgery with anesthesia — a bit pricey.
2. Local anesthetic and lancing. Less expensive but effective — not without risks though.

I did enough reading online to know that there were more professional rattie owners than I who took care of the lancing themselves (!) with good results … so how much better could it be with a vet and a tech who obviously were becoming attached to the Bean and his winsome ways — and knew what they were doing?

And the procedure could be done right then — “There are magazines in the waiting room; we’ll be done in a few minutes.”

So I told Carney to be good, that mom would see him soon, and went out for a Dog Fancy magazine…

tick tick tick

The tech brought him back in the room, all wrapped in a towel. He looked a bit tired. Everything had went well. The abscess was especially foul, but the vet had managed to get most of it. Carney tolerated it well except towards the end when his breathing became very rapid. But he was settling down pretty good. His heart rate was strong.

The vet was in and out, checking on him and researching what meds to put him on next.

Tetracycline. IN HIS WATER BOTTLE!!! No more YPM!!!! No more syringes!!!

So I got the little guy home, gave him a yoggie and some water, and cleaned out his cage. He was still a little wiped out, but snatched the cheese wedge I offered and nibbled away.

…and I just checked on him. He’s building up his nest and getting all settled in for the night.

Is it silly to thank God for all this? Naw…I don’t think so.