Sunday, August 16, 2009

PETA

Yesterday was pet appreciation day at Casa du Nord.

Saffron, the poodle, threw up sometime in the middle of the night. The Wonder Dawg is getting increasingly incontinent and leaves little wet spots where she lies down. Cleaning up from those two took a fair amount of time between the immediate response team and the follow-up deep cleaning team. I thanked my stars that I bought a portable carpet and upholstery machine from the company where I worked for many years. It has paid for itself many times over cleaning up after vomiting kids, drunken wine spillers, and numerous pets during their infirmities.

Just when we thought we were done, we went out on the deck to examine the petunias and found that the cat had experience a moment of extreme diarrhea in one of the deck chair pads. It was off to grab the extractor one more time. You gotta love them or you would do them in.

I am still recovering from the Extreme Makeover experience. I can actually see my ankle bones now and the knee swelling has just about gone away. I am sleeping late whenever I can to make up for lost hours back then.

In other news, we are busily helping our young college student prepare for another year away. She is moving into an apartment this year and is raiding the kitchen for enough to start up her own cooking experience. Pots, pans, placemats, dishes, utensils, glasses, mugs, etc. This is mostly a good thing because between Marisa and I we have two and a half houses worth of stuff. What we can donate to Kate will be spared from the inevitable mondo garage sale that will come later.

On Tuesday, we will borrow my brother's van, pack the Duluth stuff up and head for the Twin Cities and our "other" house where a whole nother pile awaits us. If we can cram it into or on top of, the van, we will head to Madison early on Wednesday for another moving adventure. Wish us luck.

Other than that, we are enjoying the trailing end of summer. We sit on the deck when it's not raining. We buy and eat sweet corn on the cob. We water the flowers and admire our good luck at having them to look at. We spend time with those close to us who will soon travel on their own paths.

Then there is the State Fair which marks the official end of summer and beginning of fall for those of us who live in Minnesnowta. We hope to get down there for some not-to-be-missed people watching. The cuisine is an acquired taste in some cases, but everyone can find something that hits their taste buds in a good way. We might take in a show at the grandstand if we can get tickets. Bonnie Raitt and Taj Mahal would be our first choice.

We will let you know how it goes.

OK, for the obligatory medical update, my trip to the Mayo last week produced no surprises. My CT scan showed continuous improvement on the lymphoma level. Tumorous nodes continue to shrink where they can be seen at all. This is great news for me. There is still evidence of "artifacts" in my lungs, but the radiologist said they appeared to be old and inactive (whatever that means). I still cough stuff up, but there are no fevers associated with whatever this is. My biggest concern is that this could interrupt the Mayo study. Again, I will keep you abreast of things as we proceed.

OK, there you go. Hope your summer is going well.

3 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

glad that all is going well. Hot in Michigan, we are getting our summer now!

10:06 AM, August 17, 2009  
Blogger lime said...

lots of shifting of stuff all over the great lakes region! safe travals through it all.

i'm glad to hear the CT is showing good news. hoping the lung crud continues to improve too.

2:15 PM, August 17, 2009  
Blogger Moosekahl said...

Yeah and yeah! Good Mayo news AND the state fair. Please, please, please gorge yourself on fried cheese curds for me. No such thing at the fair here.

11:53 PM, August 22, 2009  

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