Yesterday was not good. It started out with Stella getting stung by a bee. Again. This happened to her last year too. Only this time she handled it like a champ. Last time, she vomited 5 times and collapsed.
When I had rushed her to the vet last time, I didn’t know yet what was causing all of this orangey throw up (eww!) and lethargy. The only clue I could give the vet was “Stella rubbed at her ear a few times.” The vet (and my friend) Kay, found a stinger in her ear. Boy did I feel stupid. Like, really? I couldn’t have guessed that? Or looked more closely at her ear? I guess that’s what vets are for. They know their dawgs.
Kay hooked her up to an IV to get fluids back in her and monitored her for a few hours in case she had a severe allergic reaction.
This time, however, I saw the bee fall to the sidewalk. Then Stella started licking her front leg and refused to walk on it. OK, here we go again. I picked her and Pixie up, ran back to the house and gave her a little Children’s Benadryl. Found the stinger and plucked it out. And Joe wrapped her up in a blanket like a baby and put ice on her swollen leg. No throw up this time and within an hour she was walking, just with a tiny limp. Whew.
Minutes after this emergency ended, the cleaning lady who we’d scheduled to come out, cancelled. Just 15 minutes before she was to arrive. Nice. I mean, Fired! I don’t hire her regularly, just on occasion. So usually I wouldn’t care if she cancelled, but we had Joe’s parents coming in to town. The next day. Now, on top of all the other things we had on our to-do list, we now had to fit in time for all the stuff we’d delegated to her. Crap. Can I go back to bed and start over?
All this happened before 9:30 a.m. The rest of the day was spent rushing around getting things done. If any more bee stings or cancellations happened, I was too busy to notice.
Look, I know these aren’t really problems. I don’t mean to sound petty or shallow. I’m just telling you how my crappy day went. So whaaa. Do I want some cheese with my whine? Yes, yes I do.
I was never really that in to how food tasted. Really. I used to eat tuna out of the can for lunch because it was easy, low fat and tons of protein. What did I care how it tasted? I was done eating in less than 10 minutes.
The reason behind that kind of eating, started when a friend in High School took me to her gym after school to work out. She introduced me to the world of sweat, grunts and aerobics.
With that, came eating healthy. I remember sitting down to dinner one night and proclaiming “I’m not eating that anymore!” Much to my parents dismay and confusion, they eventually went along with it. I sat there with my cottage cheese and tomatoes while they ate deep friend chicken nuggets and french fries. OK, that sounds dramatic, but she did used to make that as a meal once in awhile. To her credit, most of the meals my mom prepared were budget friendly and pretty healthy.
However at that time, eating healthy to ME meant one main rule: NO FAT. I now know that is the wrong way to go. Think of all the good fats that are essential in things like almonds, avocados, olive oil. Back then I would have said “No” to all of them.
When I really got in to weight lifting, I even ate plain baked potatoes. Like it was an apple. That was when I was really in to working out and weight lifting. I mean really in to it. Who would ever eat a plain baked potato!? Yuck. But, hey I did pretty good at reaching my goal. I was squatting 245 lb and benching 100 lb with 11% body fat. Not bad, right?
I certainly don’t do that extreme work out or eating routine anymore. Oh no, I’ve acquired taste buds and enjoyment from a good meal. Nor do I care to ever spend that much time at a gym again.
In fact, this weekend I whipped up a new yummy recipe. This time of year always gets me in the kitchen baking or cooking. That fall air blows in and suddenly I find myself standing in the kitchen saying “Where’s the beef?”
Well, I happened to have 1 lb. of organic beef that was to either be eaten or thrown in the freezer. And my new crockpot was still sitting in the box where it had been all summer. And the yam I bought was starting to sprout wings.
I figured a meatloaf had to be pretty easy. I’d only made a weird turkey version years before, but really, how hard could it be? Well, it was even easier than I thought. After looking around on-line for a good recipe and realizing there were so many variations, I decided to come up with my own. And we loved it, so thought I’d share:
2 eggs whisked
add: 1 lb of beef
1 C breadcrumbs
1/2 C chopped onion and garlic mix
1/2 C steak sauce
salt and pepper
Mashed it all together in to a loaf shape with my hands and put it in the crockpot on high for about 3 hours. Next time I make this, I plan to add sliced mushrooms and feta cheese. Yum!
For the yam, I just peeled, sliced, drizzled with 2 Tbsp. of butter and sprinkled with brown sugar and cinnamon. Covered and baked in the oven at 375 for about 30 – 45 minutes.
Bon Appetit!
Shelter pets need our help. Just because some are older or not as pretty as you’d like them, doesn’t mean they wouldn’t make wonderful pets. Don’t they all deserve a chance?
Today, go to www.petfinder.com and choose an animal that you think might need an extra push, then post them on your facebook or twitter and you may have helped save a life! Or, hey, adopt one for yourself! Just be sure to type in your zip code to be sure it’s a dog in your area.
Here’s Tiffany from the Los Angeles area found on Petfinder.
Today is Joe’s birthday. We celebrated yesterday because, well, generally it’s easier to celebrate on a weekend than a week day. Although yesterday, for us, was still filled with our usual long ‘to do’ list, we did fit in some birthday fun.
Part of my gift to Joe was framing these two photos of him. I knew he would never do it on his own, because, well, he’s just not the kind of guy who frames poster size photos of himself. So, I felt it was my duty to preserve them. They will make for a good story to tell the Grandkids some day. They were rolled up under his desk and I snuck them away for the week (I knew he wouldn’t notice).
If you are as unfamiliar with video games, as I was, let me explain. These photos are being used as the game cover, posters, billboards and marketing, all over the world, for the latest version (due out in November) of the popular video game ‘Call of Duty‘ including a French magazine cover shot. J’adore cela! Fun stuff, right?
It’s a shooter video game series with earlier versions taking place during World War II and later versions, such as this ‘Black Ops’, taking place in the cold war era. If I did play video games, I would definitely play this one. Yeah, that’s right. He’s a badass.
We recently spent the weekend at Highland Springs Resort. It was a quick getaway – only about an hour and a half drive. Our room was big with views of their organic lavender fields. It also had an old console from circa 1930 with a record player that still worked! AND it had some old jazz LP’s in it too.
We put on “Surrender” by Woody Herman and his Orchestra and felt inspired to slow dance. I mean, isn’t that what they did back then? We also listened to Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra. I guess everyone had an orchestra back then too. One said ‘Recorded on January 29, 1937 Irving Berlin’. Cool.
We found out that the resort was popular back in the 30’s and 40’s. Albert Einstein would stay there often. And in the 60’s, the Rat Pack went frequently.
It has around 1,000 acres with some of it used for growing organic lavender, some for organic vegetables they use in their restaurant, hiking trails and a pool. It also has several old buildings that are no longer being used. I don’t know why, but give me old or boarded up buildings and I’m happy exploring for hours. I guess it’s the stories I make up in my head of who used to stay there and all the things that have happened over the years. And I really, really loved the 1,100 year-old oak tree. Just imagine everything it has seen over the last thousand years.
We also found some things they were getting rid of so we stole… err, i mean asked, if we could take them. We now have a basket and an old oil lantern for memorabilia from our trip. I also wanted to take this table and seating with me for my backyard, but couldn’t figure out how to fit it in the car. This table went on forever. We could have had dinner parties for 100.
But I did take this gigantic pinecone home with me. It’s over 13″ tall – about the size of Pixie. I’d never seen one so big and I just had to add it to my pinecone collection. Yes, I have one.
