Bad things in 3s??? or more???

So it was a bad week. A really bad week. Started out good enough. Came home from my trip. Spent great time with my family & dogs. Monday, picked up Kyle's friend to spend the night. Blah, blah, blah.

One of the things we found out this week was that the airline will be laying off 170 pilots out here in the west. Fortunately, Ron has oodles of pilots below him, so he'll still have a job. Unfortunately, he falls 10 pilots short of keeping his captain's position. The only good thing is he's at the tail end of the list, and they're laying off about 10 a month, so he should be safe for a while, and you never know what will happen above him. We just have to wait, and hope, and pray.

Monday, Kyle & I drove over to pick up a friend of his to spend the night. All was fine until about midnight, when Kyle woke me to tell me Jimmy was sick and had called his dad to pick him up. Poor Jimmy. He was sick. He went home, but his dad called the next morning to ask if he could come back, since now he was fine. Okay...

We were taking the boat out for the first time all summer. When it's miserably hot here, there's not much better than being out on the lake. So we loaded up and headed out. I pulled the boat off the trailer and heard it making a funny noise. Got out of the no-wake zone & up to speed and the noise went away. Still, when I went back to the dock to pick up Ron, I made sure he listened. Sounded like a belt, so we headed out into the lake.

We stopped in a cove for the boys to swim. The water was a bit ucky since the algae had just recently bloomed, but it was cool. We blew up the tube and took Jimmy for a ride. While Jimmy was riding, Kyle noticed some smoke coming out the rear of the boat. Hmmm. Exhaust? A few minutes later we noticed a burning rubber smell. Definitely not exhaust. Tried to open the engine cover but smoke poured out. Closed the engine cover, got out the fire extinguisher and waited.

Eventually the smoke cleared, we were able to limp the boat to the middle of the lake, and flag a wonderful family down to tow us back to the launch. Ron did a brilliant job of threading the trailer right onto the boat and we returned home. Needless to say the boat needs a bit of work.

Snoopy is still having butt issues, so back to the vet we went. It seems he's developed an infection of some sort (staph? yeast?) but the vet doesn't think it's serious. He's on antibiotics for a week. Still, I am worried about him because his breathing seems so shallow & rapid. Odds are he's fine, but of course, I worry too much.

The rest of the week seemed to be okay, until Friday. Friday I took Kyle for his weekly hockey lesson. Two of Kyle's teammates wanted him to stay after his lesson to play pond hockey, but Kyle didn't want to stay. We were entering the freeway on-ramp when I rear-ended another SUV. Thankfully all are okay (well, the humans anyway) but my little Pilot is definitely in need of some serious repair (radiator, side panels, hood...) And I think I scared the hell out of Kyle (and myself.) The highway patrolman was very kind. He reminded me that's why we carry insurance. Accidents happen. And no one was hurt. Only property. So while I am Pilot-less for a while, I am fortunate that both Kyle & I are fine and everything will be fixed with time.

With all this in mind, take care, please drive safely, and enjoy your summer!

Just got back from my trip to drop Nana in Palm Springs and on to Los Angeles. It was a short stay but quite busy! I arrived in LA mid-afternoon on Monday (thankfully, I missed the crazy traffic.) There was quite a stoppage in front of the Beverly Hills Courthouse, however. Turns out they were going to be starting the first of the legal gay marriages that night.

Monday night was spent with my wonderful family. Everyone came to dinner at Hamlet on Sunset. Uncle Jay, Aunt Judy, Uncle Aron, Gary (crazy Gary,) Howard and his wife Nancy (who is incredible, BTW.) Gary kept us in stitches during the evening. It was so much fun to be with everyone. Thank you for taking the time to spend with me.

Tuesday, I walked around Beverly Hills while my Aunt Judy got her hair done at Umbertos (yes, very chic!) Visited Roots & other assorted stores. Laughed at all the people riding the open air tourbuses down Rodeo drive. The weather was great for walking around.

Nancy came over to Aunt Judy's and the 3 of us went to The Grove for shopping and lunch. We walked around to all the stores and ate at Marmalade Cafe (yummy!) I am so glad that I finally got to spend some time getting to know Nancy. She's great & we have lots of stuff in common. It was fun to hang out for the day with her.

Tuesday night Aunt Judy, Uncle Aron & I went to Sunset Plaza and had dinner at Le Petit Four. The weather couldn't have been better for my trip. Eating in open air restaurants was a blast. My aunt & uncle spoiled me rotten. I hated to leave.

But Wednesday rolled around and it was time for me to see Ms. Andrea. My oldest, dearest friend and I hadn't spent time together since roughly the year 2001. Way too long. We met at John O'Groats for breakfast and then headed back to her house where I had the pleasure of meeting her adorable Wheaten Coco. Andrea had just sent her daughter Kate off to camp for 3 weeks and Josh, her son, was with his dad for the weekend.

My dear friend indulged my yarning and took me to 3 LYS. (she's the best) The first was A Mano Yarn Center. We walked in to a crammed-to-the-gills store with a large table teeming with women from every walk of life. It had such a wonderful feeling. My friend has limited use of her right hand and a woman at the table told her to come by anytime, she'd teach her to continental knit. They had a great assortment of yarns and supplies, but most of all it was such a comfortable place to be. Great store. I'd highly recommend you visit if you're ever in LA.

The second store was on Montana Ave in Santa Monica. If you've ever seen photos of stars sipping drinks or eating at outdoor patios, they're probably on Montana. The store was L'Atelier and while it was lovely, no one said hi and I wasn't crazy about their selection of yarns. They did have a section filled with every imaginable cashmere known to man and some Canadian Arctic Musk Ox yarn that was lovely. It's worth a stop in just to pet the expensive yarns.

The last store was incredible. Wildfiber is a huge space. I've never seen such a huge selection of yarns. I think they had every possible color of Koigu on one wall. They had a great selection of Malabrigo and some handspuns that were amazing. There was a handspun that was $164 for 58 yards. OUCH! But it was such amazing yarn. My friend couldn't put it down, but eventually did. The yarn was made by Tanglewood Fibers. I bought some 9" Hiya Hiya circs to try to knit socks. The owner said that she switched over the short circs a long time ago and finds it much easier.

After the extensive yarning, we went back to her house to hang and chat. Finally around 7 we went to dinner at Versailles, Ron told me I couldn't leave LA without having had their famous Garlic Chicken. Ron & I lived around the corner from the original Versailles on La Cienega. We used to eat there all the time.

Full from dinner we went back to An's and talked and laughed until 1am. Honestly, I haven't laughed that hard or had that much fun in ages. It's good to hang with old friends. Andrea is wonderful and has done so well with what's been thrown at her. I love you friend.

A too long drive home on Thursday and here I am, back in hell. Could it be hotter here in AZ? I miss the ocean breezes. But I must say, I missed my family & my dogs. It's always good to be home.

Mr. Stinky Butt

This blog was originally conceived as a way to document the first year of my life with our new puppies, Snoopy & Joe. Any person crazy enough to bring home Border Collie littermates, 7 weeks old, should know better than to think she'd have time to write about them regularly. But I did, and I do, well, not as often anymore. But since this blog was originally about them, here is a post dedicated to Snoopy, aka Mr. Stinky Butt.

Snoopy is a butt dragger (or butt surfer as my friend Kim calls it.) Once or twice a day, Snoopy will be seen scooting along the floor (carpeted, of course) on his butt. With reminders that our carpet is not his personal toilet paper, Snoopy continues to butt drag.

Friday his butt dragging reached a feverish pitch as he was doing it constantly. When he wasn't dragging, he was sitting on it. And as quickly as possible. This can only mean a couple of things, a) he's got something stuck to his butt or b) his butt itches. Fortunately for me, it wasn't a. When checked it was pretty darn red, so I put some ointment on it (a dog mom will do anything for her fur kids) and hoped for the best. Also let Ron know that if the scooting continued, he was to take Noo to the vet while I was gone this week.

But Saturday morning dawned, and Snoopy's butt was still red and still irritated. On the chance that this might be the one Saturday a month that the vet was in the office, I called. Sure enough they were there but booked solid all day. AAAGGGHHH. Holly must have sensed the panic in my voice, because she said, "If you can get here quickly, we'll squeeze you in now." I was in the car in 5 minutes and there in fewer than 10.

Nothing seriously wrong with Mr. Noo other than needing his anal glands (aka marking glands, yes like a skunks) expressed. Given that they're like a skunks, you can only imagine what this must smell like. The vet was kind enough to ask if I was interested in learning how to do it myself. hahahahhaaha Oh, no, thanks. I'll gladly pay you to do it!

Snoopy actually seemed to enjoy the process and is now scooting-free! Not a scoot in 2 days. Of course, I think the back of my car still stinks a bit.

Knitting fool

Kyle left for camp last Sunday. A whole week at Woodward West with his hockey teammates - 5 of them, Michael C, Tyler K, Josh D & Jimmy C. He and Jimmy flew together, alone, up to Bakersfield where the camp picked them up. They've had a week of skateboarding, bowling, no sleeping, no showering, eating whatever they want when they want, no moms telling them what to do. However, they must shower tonight before trying to board the airplane tomorrow. That was the deal.

Talked to him today for only the 2nd time all week. He sounded exhausted. But he has the rest of the summer to recover.

I did miss him. It's funny when he's here I might not even cross paths with him for hours at a time, but I know when he's gone. It will be good to give him a hug tomorrow when he gets off the plane (provided he has showered as agreed upon.)

While he's been away, I've been a knitting fool. I'm going to LA next week (after I drop Nana in Palm Springs for her extended stay) and decided I needed to come with gifts. Only two, but I had to brainstorm for two knitted gifts that wouldn't take long to knit, but would be useful and liked. I think I came up with two good ones for the two people I'm seeing. I would post now, but you never know if they'll be looking. I'll post when I get home. For those of you with Ravelry, you can check them out on my projects page. I should have pictures posted later today.

Kim M (Kim-kitty) and I went up to Jessica Knits yesterday for the first time. What a great store! So much stuff and so well organized and labeled. It was a treat. I bought some Rowan Big Wool - for what, I don't know - and some Filatura sock yarn. Oh, and a skein of Noro for one of the gifts, which after knitting I decided I will keep, as I don't think the colorway suits the giftee.

Then we stopped at Tempe Yarn & Fiber to pick up yarn for my next big project, a new purse. I'm hoping I can cast-on before I leave, so it will give me something to work on in LA. If not, I'll take my current socks. Anyway, TY&F was a blast as usual. Everyone helping me choose my yarns and offering wonderful advice.

So, I did take a bit of advantage of no kid for the week.

First Pair of Socks

So they're done. The very first (after a bunch of tries) socks I've completed. Took me about two weeks to do two socks, but still not bad! They aren't perfect, but they're done!

Now to the next pair....

I was just browsing through dogs available on the AZ Border Collie Rescue site. Sigh. There are two females, about a year old, that I would love to bring home. One is a red/white, one is a piebald face (1/2 white, 1/2 black.) They are both precious. Like we need another BC around here. Two aren't enough. LOL

Which brings me to Snoopy. Snoopy has developed a problem with his rear left (rear right?) leg. Occasionally after lying down for a while, when he gets up it gets stuck up. He can't seem to lower it or put weight on it (don't really know which.) I worry that it might be OCD again, like his shoulder when he was 9 months old. His front leg used to get stuck all funny when the joint would stick. I'm keeping an eye on it and hoping it's nothing, but he does tend to limp pretty severely after playing hard as well. Not a good sign for a young boy.

Joe is good. Happy to be swimming daily! Skinny as ever though. He likes pretending he's Super Joe now.

Sunday, still in jammies, recap

Have I ever mentioned that I have foot-in-mouth syndrome? Just always seems that I happen to say the wrong thing to the wrong person (or would that be the wrong thing to the right person?) Thought I'd mention here and hope that for all of you out there that I happen to do this to, I apologize. I tend to say too much sometimes, but I really don't mean any harm. Okay, sometimes I do, but you'll know if I do.

So, we got my mother-in-law all moved out of her house and into ours, temporarily. In a few weeks, I'll drive Nana out to Palm Springs for a nice stay with Aunt Shirley. I will continue on to Los Angeles, for the first time in 8 years. Been too long, and too many people to try to see in just a few days. If you read this, know I'm coming, and get in touch with me!

Joe has recovered completely from his dental cleaning. His teeth are so beautiful now, they make Snoopy's look awful. Just need to come up with another $350 for Snoopy to have a pretty smile too. Both boys are doing great, swimming everyday.

Kyle is now officially no longer an 8th grader. He had a promotion ceremony and received a certificate to allow him to attend high school. His report card came yesterday, and we were happy to see he did just fine. (There was some question earlier in the semester.) While he's not a NJHS student, I think he's doing great.

He's deep into summer hockey - lessons with Gayle, pond hockey at Arcadia, and occasional practices with his team. He's also been spending as much time as possible at the skate park. On June 8th he'll fly to Bakersfield, CA to spend a week at Woodward West. Woodward is every X-Games kid's dream. Hopefully he'll remember to shower at least once this year.

We're still in airline hell. But the paychecks keep coming, so we don't complain too much.