November 30, 2008

Self Portrait Sunday for November 30, 2008

It’s been hot and stuffy this afternoon. I’ve been taking care of a task that I started and then abandoned a few weeks ago - sorting through all the stuff in my room and packing what’s worth keepingl. A favor, please? If you ever hear me utter those oft-mumbled words, “I haven’t got anything to wear” - just shoot me.

The advantage to a muumuu is that it offers modesty while still being cool and comfy. The sun is only just going down - it’s not yet seven pm - but I couldn’t stand the binding shorts, sweaty tee and cloying (ahem) “foundation support” a moment longer, so I donned a favorite “house muumuu,” poured a tall tumbler of iced tea and sat myself down with a book amongst the detritus in the cabinetry shop - um, I mean the carport. I feel much better now.

You’re welcome to join us for Self Portrait Sunday. Truely, I wish you would. I’ve shown you mine. Won’t you show us yours?

Technorati Tags: muumuu, meme, self portrait

Posted by skeet @ 6:42 pm • Photos, Meme • 1 comment  

Lance gets dental care

I told you a week or so ago that Lance was having some dental problems. On Wednesday I took him to Ewa Beach Animal House for an appointment with James. James is not a member of the Animal House staff. He free lances his services as a dental technician through several veterinary clinics and grooming parlors. The vet I usually go to had been telling me for ages that nothing could be done about Lance’s teeth because he has a heart murmer and cannot have anesthesia. Neither she nor any of her staff were willing to do a dental cleaning without anesthesia, so poor Lance’s teeth were in terrible shape. When I discussed it with her two weeks ago I was pretty much coming unhinged. Lance had quit eating. After lengthy discussion I told the vet we had two choices: find a way to take care of Lances teeth or put him down, as I would not stand by and let him starve to death. Only then did my vet mention James’s service. I can only assume that, like many professionals, she did not want to be seen as endorsing “alternative services.” I quickly called Animal House and made an appointment. Dr. Hatt and the staff there are wonderful. The doc examined Lance and agreed that dental problems were the likely source of Lance’s avoidance of food. Her staff made an appointment with James for us and that brings us to last Wednesday.

James met me in the lobby of the clinic shortly after he arrived. He sat and talked with me for about ten or fifteen minutes, all the while petting Lance and talking soothingly to him. They were old pals when it was time for them to go to the treatment room. I fretted and paced for a while, then went outside to walk off my nervousness. I hadn’t heard any pitiful beagle-sounds coming from the back and no one was sounding the alarm about a dog in cardiac arrest, so I was pretty sure things were going well, but was still on edge. I headed for the bathroom down the hall after coming back inside. It was then that I discovered that the treatment room half-door was open and I could peek in. I was amazed to see Lance lying calmly on his back with his head on James’s lap. The soothing talk continued as the nasty coating was scraped way from Lance’s teeth. James apprently has some “dog whisperer” talents and had convinced Lance that tooth care is a good thing. I didn’t want to break the spell with the sound of my voice, so I watched for a moment, then crept away. I had been told that the cleaning might take about two hours, but less than an hour later the work was done. In addition to the cleaning, James had pulled a loose tooth that was apparently the source of Lance’s pain. Lance was even wagging his tail, so painless was the process! Some follow-up care will be needed. There’s only so much that can be done in a single visit, so James left deep pocket cleaning for a future date.

Lance is still not eating well. I think he associates food with pain now. I’ve offered him hard and soft foods, but he mostly just sniffs at it. I’m assuming he’ll get hungry enough sometime soon to risk chewing, at which time he’ll discover that eating no longer hurts. He ate three bites of toast this morning, so I’m hopeful that he might be good and hungry tonight and willing to try something a little more substantial. His spirits are good and he’s playing his little beagle games - chasing cats up onto the fence and playing fetch with me several times a day - so I know he’ll be his old self again soon. I’ll add some diet supplements to his intake if need be, but I think he’ll probably be fine without that.

If you live on Oahu and are searching for veterinary services or would like to set up an appointment for no-anesthesia dental care, call Ewa Beach Animal House. Everyone there was courteous and professional in their dealings with me and concerned and gentle with Lancie. If I were staying in Hawaii I’d be switching to them for Lance’s routine care in addition to ongoing dental care.

Technorati Tags: beagle, canine dental cleaning, dog tooth cleaning, Lance, no-anesthesia canine dental care

November 27, 2008

For these gifts I give thanks

Most of my cookware, bakeware and cooking utensils are all packed away ready for my move. I know with some level of certainty where most items are and could probably have unpacked those I needed without great difficulty. It hardly seemed worth the effort though, since there is only myself to feed this Thanksgiving. Instead of a whole bird I cooked a packaged loaf of light and dark turkey meat which came with it’s own gravy. Wild rice and mushrooms took the place of dressing and some frozen veggies that needed eating went will beside my biscuits. Ah - don’t fret. I’ve had a wonderful feast and spent some time today with loved ones, just as you have. Miles may separate us, but the phone brings us together. My son and his special lady were both working today, but we spoke a few days ago and they’ll be having their Thanksgiving with friends this evening. Aunt Martha has had some health problems recently - maybe her heart again - but was feeling well today and enjoying a holiday surrounded by family. My brother hates his job and we talked some about the possibility of him working with me once I establish a new business. Cousin Doug is looking forward to taking me fishing soon with his son, young Doug. Toni and I have decided that we’ll start having game nights again once I’m home. Yes, home. Somewhere over the last few months I’ve begun to think of the Dallas area as home again, and I’m looking forward to fishing, game nights, raucous gatherings at Martha’s place and so much more. I want to meet and embrace the new generation of my family while re-establishing my place among them.

My life is in transition right now, but I have everything I want and need: a roof over my head, more than enough food, entirely too much “stuff,” the beagle to keep me company, and the promise of home, with all that I implies. I’m and blessed and I am grateful.

Happy Thanksgiving. May you be bountifully blessed.

Technorati Tags: blessings, family, holidays, Thanksgiving

November 25, 2008

Tuesday Teaser photo verification

Leave it to Jennifer to blow me out of the water by posting the correct answer almost as soon as the Tuesday Teaser was up. Clever gal, or at the very least one with a good eye for visual puzzles. She’s done this before and will undoubtedly do it again. Jennifer has won a linky-love post for her blog and will be entered in the November gift card drawing. Let’s see - how many linky loves do I owe her now. Eight? Ten? Whatever - it’s a whole slew of them and I will get caught up some day. Congrats to Jennifer and mahalo to all of you who played. I’ll try to make the next teaser tough enough to last you at least half a day. My mind is on cooking my solitary feast for Thursday (and on the Leptorexin I’ll probably need to recover from said feast,) but I’ll try to find some time between now and next Tuesday to come up with something to stump you with next week. Don’t forget to check back and see how I do!

Technorati Tags: contest, contest winner, photo puzzle, Tuesday Teaser

Tuesday Teaser for November 25, 2008

Can you identify the item depicted above? Take your best guess and post it in the comments below. If your guess wins, you’ll get a nifty prize. Here’s how it works:

1. Write a comment giving your guess as to what the item is. Be as specific as you can. For instance, “lighting” would be too general as an answer if you needed to identify a lava lamp. Sometimes the brand will need to be specific, as when you identified the Enregizer Bunny and auto company logos. Guess as many times as you want, but put each answer in a separate comment, please!
2. First person to identify the item wins. If more than one person provides the correct answer, time and date stamp will determine who was first.
3. The author of this blog will be the sole judge as to what constitutes a correct answer. Sorry - no hints will be given. I will attempt to respond to your answers at least every few hours, but I am not continuously at the keyboard so please be patient.
4. The contest will end in forty-eight hours, whether or not a correct guess has been submitted.
5. Skeet’s Stuff is a do-follow blog, so you get some link value just for commenting.

What will you win?

1. The author of this blog will write a LINKY LOVE POST (review) about the winner’s blog (commercial sites ineligible.) The LLP will contain the url for your blog plus at least two deep links and will be posted here on Skeet’s Stuff, a PR4 PR2 PR0 (bah google!) Ha! PR3 blog Hmmmm! PR2 again. Skeet writes good reviews.

2. The weekly winners will be entered into a monthly drawing for a $10.00 gift card from Starbucks or Amazon or a ten dollar payment through PayPal.

3. Drawing for the monthly prize will be held on or about November 1, 2008, and will include all weekly winners for the month. There are four Tuesdays in October, thus the maximum number of people who will be eligble is four.

Comments submitted with commercial links will be deleted. If you would like to market your product, service or website through skeet’s stuff I’ll be happy to discuss your needs and my prices. Please submit your request via email.

Technorati Tags: contests, photos, photo contest, photo puzzle

November 24, 2008

Stretching my Christmas budget

Work on the house is going well, but it is taking a lot longer than I anticipated. That’s a real problem because I don’t have much income right now and won’t have until I get settled into my new home. I’m not spending money on much of anything other than necessities lately, but Christmas is looming just around the corner. Nope, I haven’t done any real shopping yet. I’m determined not to let a limited budget turn the holiday into a stressful time, though. I’ve made a list of the gifts I’d like to give and am shopping around, doing price comparisons to that I can get the most bang for my bucks. I’m hoping I’ll be able to find sale prices on everything I’m planning to buy. Buy.com has some great bargains and I got some of my gift-giving ideas from their site, then checked other sites to see if I could find better prices. So far that hasn’t happened. Buy.com has the lowest prices on each of the items I’ve checked. Their price on the gift I’ve picked for my brother is half the price I’ve found for it through any other site.

We played a lot of card games as a family when I was a kid, and we always turned to our well-thumbed paperback copy of Hoyle’s Card Games to learn the gameplay and to settle disputes. I still have a copy and turn to it frequently, having established that as a habit at an early age. My brother lost everything in Hurricane Katrina and I doubt that he’s still got a copy of Hoyle’s, so I think Hoyle’s Card Games software is a gift he’ll appreciate this year. I could usually beat him when we were kids, but he’s probably a more challenging opponent these days. I know we’ll be getting together for games from time to time once I’m living near him again, so sending him the software will be his warning that he’ll need to be in top form by the time I arrive. The Buy.com price is only $9.99 after rebates, so I’ll be able to throw in a deck of cards and rack of chips, too. Now I just need to decide what to get for my sister and my son and my son’s girlfriend and my nieces and …

Technorati Tags: Buy.com, Christmas shopping, Hoyle’s Card Games, shopping

Self Portrait Sunday for November 23, 2008

Oooops! Did it again! I fell asleep watching Iron Chef America and now it’s after midnight and not quite Sunday anymore. Ah, but it’s a Sunday afternoon picture of me and my lovely lavender, so it’s kinda, sorta still right for Self Portrait Sunday, right? I suppose I could go ask Cass first, but she might say no, so I’m gonna go with it! It’s a little late to invite you to join in this week, but if you take your own picture any day this week you can publish it on you blog next Sunday and be a part of Self Portrait Sunday, too!

Technorati Tags: lavender, photo, self portrait

Posted by skeet @ 12:29 am • Photos, Meme • 1 comment  

November 22, 2008

Stuff

I’ve been cleaning out the old rolltop desk in my room. I’ve been using the desk in my office for nine or ten years now, so things in the rolltop have remained undisturbed, hidden away in plain site, so to speak. Most of the contents are rubbish now - very old invoices, enigmatic notes scribbled on the backs of envelopes, greeting cards from people who haven’t been in my life for a decade. I found a few things worth keeping, and a few that might not be kept, but that stirred up some memories. Most of my photos have been jumbled in two boxes on a closet shelf, waiting for me to fulfill my intent to sort and categorize them before taking up scrapbooking. I might still do that someday. Those boxes have been sealed and stacked with other bits and pieces fo my life, awaiting my move. I don’t know why there were photographs in the rolltop desk, but the ones I found are worth keeping, like the one above from my son’s second birthday party. That was the only time I’ve ever decorated a cake that came out looking the way I had envisioned.

My sis sent me the “retouched in oils, by hand” copy of my senior picture. We only had one retouched photo in the school drape made, and one in the cap and gown. Who knows how she ended up with this one, but I remember that she mailed it to me a while back.

I battle depression from time to time, but it mainly stays in the background these days. Not so in the dark days when I was recovering from surgery and trying to adapt to the profound changes that illness had brought to my life. I think I may have a private book burning for my old journal. It takes me places I don’t want to revisit.

One of my employers used my talents in helping to develop some advertising a few decades ago. We did a lot of home shows in those days, so I created materials for an activity book to give away to kids. I had forgotten, until I stumbled across this preliminary sketch, that I created a hidden object puzzle with termites hiding in the house I grew up in.

I haven’t decided yet whether to take the old rolltop with me when I move. I like it, but I haven’t used it in so long - it’s part of my clutter and takes up a lot of space. I think I’d like to have a media center or pop up tv in my room after I get resettled. If my new home has a huge master suite I could have it all, I suppose. I suppose I could probably fill a more spacious home with clutter in no time flat, too. I’ll decide about the desk before my final garage sale. Maybe it would be better to let it stay here with someone who would actually use it.

Technorati Tags: clutter, memories, moving

The Clan McLeod has contests!

That Gina! She just keeps on winning Tuesday Teasers and I’ll probably never get caught up with her linky loves! I have to try though, so I went over to her place this morning for a visit and to see what she’s up to. What she’s up to is contests! Gina is turning 31 next week, so she’s celebrating by giving her readers 31 giveaways to enter & win! She’s been running a new contest each day in November and will continue until December 1st. Here’s just a sampling of some of the contests that are still open (she’s already had a slew of winners.)

Her lastest giveaway, posted today, is for a cleaning package worth over a hundred bucks. It includes:

Wright’s Silver Polish
Perfect Planet Floor Cleaner
Weiman E-Tronic Wipes
Weiman Leather Wipes
Weiman Cook Top Wipes
Libman Wonder Mop
Libman WonderFiber Cloth

It probably says more about me than anyone needs to know, but this package is a definite turn-on! Contest ends on December 2nd.

A Custom Blog Design from Doodlebug Designs Go take a look at Gina’s blog. Yep, it’s a Doodlebug! Their designs are beautiful and they do a great job of bringing the blogger’s personality into the artwork. Valued at about $70 this is a great prize for any blogger who wants to increase their appeal! This contest closes on December 5th.

Pop’rs This looks like great fun! Pop’rs are like Pop Rocks, but they’re made to put on food - especially on food your kids might be reluctant to try. They come in eight fun flavors: strawberry, raspberry, color burst, cinnamon, cocoa, taco, buffalo and butter. Gina is givng away a four pack and the contest ends on November 30th.

The deadlline is fast approaching for the Pillsbury “Home is Calling” contest. The is a wonderful prize for this time of year when we’re all in the kitchen making holiday meals. The package includes:

A coupon for Pillsbury refrigerated crescent rolls
A magnetic coupon holder
A house-shaped mouse pad
Pot holders
A cookie sheet
A bread basket
And a loveable Pillsbury Doughboy figurine.

Make sure you read Gina’s entire post so you’ll know how you can team with Pillsbury to help feed the hungry! Contest ends November 25th.

There’s more - lots more! - and there will be a new giveaway each day until December 1st, but I’m going to make you go over to The Clan McLeod and check the rest of them out for yourself. Give Gina your Happy Birthday wishes while you’re there, and don’t forget to tell her that skeet sent you!

Technorati Tags: blogs, contests, reviews

November 21, 2008

Beagle doings

A few weeks ago I mentioned that Lance had been feeling poorly. His habit had always been to scarf down his food as if he were vying for an eating competition title, but suddenly he was turning up his nose at everything I offered.

Lance is almost eight years old and has never had his teeth cleaned. He was born with a heart murmer, so he can’t have the anesthesia that is required for a tooth-cleaning. He has terrible tartar build-up and awful breath. When he quit eating I surmised that dental pain was the source of the problem. The vet concurred but offered no solution. Yesterday I spoke to a different vet in the same clinic. She mentioned a man who does dog and cat dental cleanings without anesthesia. He’s a free-lancer and offers his service at vet offices and grooming salons around the island. I wasted no time in contacting the nearest clinic he frequents. Lance has an appointment to see a vet at that clinic this afternoon. If the doc is in agreement with my own vet, Lance will have his teeth cleaned next week! He will probably have to have a valium to relax him for the procedure. Because of his heart condition, this is being treated with as much caution as major surgery would warrant in a healthy animal. A vet will be standing by in case even the mild effect of a single dose of valium interfers with his heart rhythm. I’m pushing all of that from my mind right now. The hopeful outcome is that Lance will get the gunk cleaned from his teeth, his gums will be allowed to heal up and his appetite will soon be back to normal. I won’t even have to put him on Propadrol to bulk him up.

See how important teeth are? This simple procedure could buy Lance many more years of happy and comfortable life. We tend to think of dental health as separate from other health issues, but it’s all really part of the same package. Bad teeth can have as big an impact as a heart murmer or a broken bone, so I’m really, really pleased that Lance’s teeth are finally getting the attention they need.

Technorati Tags: beagle, canine dental health, dogs