Kristel's Blog

Pepper’ sick.  Bladder infection.  Since she absolutely gets outside enough (or pees on the floor if we don’t move fast enough) and always has clean water, we think the most likely cause is that she drank some bad water out on one of our walks at the dog park.  Um, I should probably warn you at this point that if you don’t want to know about Pepper’s bodily functions involving the bladder, you should stop reading now, or at least skip this paragraph.  Anyways, she seemed fine the past few days, and for 3/4 of our walk this morning.  But the last 15 mins or so, I started to notice just how much she was peeing.  Think every 2 feet.  Seriously.  Brought her home, she was doing the same thing outside, and then roughly every 5 – 10 minutes inside.  (I think it’s clued in that “Hey, I don’t pee in the house unless I *really* have to.” and she really had to.)  After 3 hours of this, I called the vet.  Made an appointment, she was doing the same thing, except maybe slowed down a little and I started to notice some blood.  Called back (this was an hour later) and they assured me she’d be good for another 3 hours until our appointment, but try not to let her pee an hour before.  Yeah, ok.  My dog is going 15 mins at that point, and you want me to stop her?  For the most part, I did.  She tried to go on our way out, but I didn’t notice anything, so I don’t think she did more than try.  Though she did get excited at the vet’s office, of course, peed, and so they had very little to test.  However, in the small amount they could, they noticed a significant amount of bacteria, red & white blood cells, and could absolutely tell me this was the problem.  Vet even made a point of telling me that usually they take A LOT more and have to really shake it up to get positive results, so apparently this is pretty serious.  So now she’s on antibiotics for 2 weeks, we go back in 16 days for them to test again, and if she isn’t showing any improvement by Friday, I’m to call and take her in again.  Also, until we’re given the clear, we’re not going to the dog park in the morning since I can’t exactly stop her from drinking from the pond and we don’t want to aggrevate anything.  She doesn’t like the meds, I have to wrap it in lunch meat, and they make her sooooo sleepy, and her tummy hurts, even though I made sure that she ate something first, as directed.  Poor baby.

Was going to go to the states with Mom this past weekend, but with Great Grandma in the hospital and definitely nearing the end, we didn’t go.  So I invited Michelle down because I haven’t seen her in ages, and she said she was free the second weekend in August.  She didn’t come.  Didn’t even respond.  Haven’t heard a thing.  Haven’t heard a thing for well over a month.  She told me I could come up and visit her at her new place, but I don’t want to invite myself out of the blue, especially when she’s not talking to me.  Feeling a little forgotten, actually.

Did I tell you my dahlia’s blooming?  oh yeah.  I did.  it’s so pretty.

Pete & Jeff (his son, not my bro) installed my railing today.  My house is officially up to safety codes.  Or at least stair-wise.  So this means I have to clean up my house, because I promised my grandma she could come look at my house as soon as the railings were up.  She was here in March, when the reno was going on before I moved in.  Seeing her go up and down those stairs once without a railing was more than enough.  But with all that’s going on with Great Grandma, I doubt she’ll be over here any time soon.

Started working on my kitchen cabinets.  A few are down, ready to be scrubbed, primed & painted.  Many are still up, and I can’t get the hinges off to paint because I don’t have the right screwdriver, and my Dad can’t believe that they make Robertson screwdrivers that small that both of his screwdrivers he left here are too big for.  Dad says he’s coming by tomorrow to look at them… which means, he won’t be by, ever, but in a month he’ll have Pete look at it for me which means I’ll get fed up after about a week, go to Home Depot, pick up the right screwdriver to do the job, and do it myself.  I’d go over to HD tonight, but I’d like to show him a little faith.  Oh, I also picked up new handles for my cupboards too, so the kitchen will look even spiffier.  They didn’t have enough in the style I wanted, but this one is good enough.  You’re always going to find something better if you keep looking, right?  So why not buy what I like in the moment, that happens to be on sale, and call it a day?

Pepper’s grumpy.  The now-usually quiet dog is growling at just about anything that moves outside.  She also can’t get comfy and keeps giving me dirty looks like: how dare you sit on my couch, will you stop it with that typing racket, and my favourite, if you’re insisting on staying here, the least you could do is rub my belly.

Anyways, it’s now 9 o’clock, I have sheets to wash, a puppy to take O-U-T, and some reading to do.

Oh!  Almost forgot, I love -this- idea.  Though I think I would use the 6 sides like in the actual Eames, and I kinda like the novelty of using smaller, playing cards, with pictures of real things on them — like brick walls, maybe a cool door, some pictures of fences & gardens, and maybe ones with people, and staircases, and hardwood floors, and wallpaper, and bright red chairs, and… oh, I’m getting way too into this.  Maybe I’ll go pick up a deck at the dollar store and see what I can come up with.  And hey, if it’s smaller, I bet I could cover both sides in packing tape and then they’d be more durable, and everything would be nice and shiny.

Hooray.  It’s so pretty.

Today I’ve actually been pretty productive.  (I know, it scares me too.)  Finished staining my new railing that Pete’s installing tomorrow, edged for painting, painted the trim (2 coats!) up my mainfloor/2nd floor staircase and the trim around the door to the basement & my broom closet, did some basic tidying downstairs, started sorting through & moving clothes so that I can finally move that second dresser into the guest bed for storage in there (think sewing, but mostly random computer parts), bought new paint & primer to do my kitchen cabinets tomorrow, did a load of laundry, and even with all that, I still managed to stare out my office window at the open house visitors and possibly even weird a few of them out.  Oh, and talked to Dad for an hour and played the XBox for like 4 hours (combined) but those don’t really count.

Anyways, so like I said, Pete’s coming tomorrow to install my new railing.  If I’m lucky, he might even install one or two of my light fixtures.  If I’m not, and let’s face it, Pete only works in short bursts so I’m probably not, well, they’ll have to stay up a little longer.  I do plan on starting to paint my cabinets (both sides of the doors and the trim around it.  Not inside though.) at some point.  Even if all I do is manage to scrub them clean, and get a coat of primer on, I’ll be happy.  I also want to get some cleaning done upstairs too, but I’m thinking I’ll be wiped out by, oh, 2pm or so.  So that could mean nap time, meaning I won’t get up until dinner, then I’ll eat dinner, be lazy and go to bed.

Church starts again tomorrow.  Apparently Jesus only breaks for July & John Galt Day.  (That last is a Guelph-only day, and it was last sunday.  It celebrates our founder.)  Maybe I should send him a letter to ask that he break for August too next year?  Hey, if the Manhattan Transfer can get him on the line, surely with enough postage I can get a letter to him.

Monday Mom, Dad & I are going to look at new hardware for my kitchen cabinets.  I don’t know if any of you have actually seen what I have now, but they’re grey, plastic, and rounded, not to mention ugly, so since I’m updating with paint on my cabinets, might as well go ahead and do it all.  The colour I chose for the cabinets is lighter than my paint in my living room, but the same shade.  I was thinking of going white, but decided my stove is white, the tile is white, the trim is white, the ceiling is white, maybe the cabinets should be different?  I’m still undecided, but went with the logic of taking a risk that isn’t going to cost you much to fix if it goes badly, is an ok risk to take, so you might as well go ahead and do it.  So I did.  Cross your fingers.

Anyways, I better get back to work if I want to get a whole lot more done before I crash.

You were in a box, upstairs, labelled something weird all this time.  Hooray! 

On a side note, there’s a fly in my living room and Pepper’s quite sure she’s going to catch it if she keeps trying.  So the little dog is jumping over just about everything in pursuit, all the while the tail’s wagging, and when she does “catch” it, she doesn’t know what to do with it, and it gets away before she decides.  Oh well.

Pepper wants to send her penpal, Chloe, a sweater.  Chloe sent Pepper a very cute collar, so we’re sending something back.  It’s going a little slow right now, but ruffles always do.

Our neighbour next door is suddenly friendly.  It’s weird.  Also, they have a new puppy.  It’s a shirky — I’m thinking shih-tzu x yorkie cross.  Certainly looks like it.  They’re all about the “teacup” thing, but there’s really no such thing.  Yeah, they’re small and fit in a teacup now, but bad news guys, this little puppy is going to grow to the standard size of the breed.  (In case you’re wondering, my vet & trainer both agree with me.  i checked.)  Anyways, it’s certainly very adorable.  Her name is Mandy, and they attached a little bell too it so they can find it easier.  I want a puppy for pepper to play with, unfortunately, this one is soooooo small, even full grown, I’m not sure it could stand up to Pepper.  I’ve emailed my trainer for suggestions.  There was a puppy for free on kijiji exactly like Pepper, but I’m thinking free dogs go fast and it was posted a week ago.   Though I did send an email to some guy who has a beagle terrier cross of some kind that posted almost 3 weeks ago.  It’s so cute, and just a little puppy, and with Pepper being so much better behaved (despite what 2 of you think!) I think we could get a second.  Shhh don’t tell my mom, she really won’t go for it.

Anyways, really should get back to work.

I finally found the secret to getting perfect ice cream out of my ice cream maker.  Step 1: freeze the tub in the chest freezer (fridge freezer’s not cold enough!) for several days.  Step 2: Make sure you actually have enough of the cream mixture to fill at least half the tub.  Step 3: Chill the cream mixture in the fridge for several hours.  Step 4: Use the machine as directed.  If I don’t do any of those, it comes out kinda soupy, but still good enough for putting it in a different container and freezing  for hard ice cream.

Anyways, so I made some strawberry banana ice cream.  It was perfect.  It’s also almost gone.  But tasty!  Mmmm. 

Next, I tried lemonade.  Good idea, bad, bad, bad execution.  I found a recipe that used frozen orange juice concentrate, and I thought, “Hey, I can use lemonade and just add a bit more fluid and all will be happy.”  It’s soooooooooooooo tart, even I am having a hard time enjoying it.  Also, there wasn’t enough fluid, so it didn’t freeze well.  And, the cream separated from the juice and kinda curdled while chilling.  Which considering it’d probably do the same with the orange juice, I can’t help but think part of the problem is the recipe.

So lesson learned?  Well, stick to fruit.  Oh, or the dark chocolate ice cream I made.  It came out very well, but a little grainy, next time I try it, I’m not going to follow the recipe and use the cocoa, but actually use dark chocolate and then leave out the sugar.

Next up: Papaya.    If we’re lucky, I’ll have it ready for the weekend.

On a more somber note, I’ve got an update on Great Grandma.  (I believe Grandma was going to call Marlene, Tracey, so I’m not sending out an email because surely by the time you read this, you’ll already know.)  Good news: she’s recovered from the pneumonia.  Her colour’s back, she knows when people are in the room and can have a little bit of a conversation, and she has an appetite.  Bad news: a lot of her standard body functions are slowly dying off.  From what my mom told me, if they take her off the IV she’s probably going to die.    Also, even if they keep her on it, she probably only has a few weeks.  :,(  So we’re all sad, though we all realize that she’s lived a good, long life, and we’re lucky to have her for this long.

Changing the subject….

Currently making my own caramels.  Ok, I already finished and now they’re cooling.  But still.  It doesn’t look like I burned them, and I watched the thermometer closely, so if we’re lucky they’re soft & tasty.  Certainly when the spatula cooled down enough, the caramel on that was tasty. 

I really haven’t spent all my time cooking though.  I have also worked, and knitted.  I haven’t finished those mitts yet, just can’t find the motivation.  Started a new hat though.  It’s cute, but the ear flaps probably should’ve been longer.  Am I going to take it out to lengthen them?  No.  I don’t take anything out that’s for me, if it still works the way it is.

Well, better get back to getting ready for you guys.  If it makes you fell better, Uncle Ron’s coming over tomorrow to fix my tub spout, so there should be no issues with showers.  Well, unless we run out of hot water, but even then.

If you’re reading this post, I’m in the process. Hang tight. By the way, the new link is simply http://www.theqdesk.net/Kristel

Yes, I’ll be setting up a redirect temporarily.

Update: It’s been moved. Hope those 10 minutes weren’t too stressfull for you!

ok, so there’s some issues. I’m working on it, should be fixed soon. if we’re lucky, they weren’t caused by my awesome new theme.

I think I fixed everything.  There’s probably some photos and other media that doesn’t currently work.  I personally don’t care at the moment.