Chattin' on Saturday

Morning, Tina.  I'm still not used to seeing you on the weekends but I'm so happy you have a puter at home now!  Give little brown fluffy butt a kiss from me.  It's crazy what a hassle your truck repair has become.  What a crock.  You'd think businesses would be trying super hard to retain customers in these times but some places seem incapable of good service.  Remind the guy that unhappy customers generally tell 10 people they know about their experience.

I hope to be knee deep in dirt and flowers later today. :)  I'm thinking some French toast would get the day started off right.  Now I just need to find someone else to make it for us. lol   Maybe I'll settle for Cheerios.

Morning ladies.

 Tina, hug that little brown dog for me.

Jackie, find a recipe for baked french toast and have it tomorrow.

Going to a barn sale here shortly, which reads as soon as the hubby gets motivated. Then off to the garden so I can check out cold crop items. Taking the snarling snappy beast with us for a change.

Hugs to Paige and Gracies furry brother.

ok, off to tackle the bear...I should get combat pay for waking him up.

 Good morning everyone! Happy Saturday!

I have nothing to do until 11:15 today when I am going to get something to eat with my friend. I don't work until 2:00 today. When that happens, I can never decide what to do with myself, even though I have plenty to do. Maybe I'll take Luke to the dog park, but I'm not sure about taking him there on a beautiful Saturday yet because I suspect it'll be crowded.  I mean, he typically has no problems, but I don't know about what other people will be there. I like this place a little better than your normal dog park though, because it's by membership only, and you have to go to a training session in order to keep your membership. It doesn't completely weed out all stupidity, but it seems to cut down on it a bit. 

Also, my mom went to see my grandma yesterday. I got a blankie from my grandma, which I am so thrilled about. She had surgery a few years ago, they didn't check everything out on her, and she had a stroke. She worked everyday up until the surgery, and had planned to go right back. She hasn't lived at home since. She didn't have good function in one of her hands for a long time. It must be a lot better now than it was, because she can crochet again. 

Tina, I need you to deliver lovins to Agnes from us too!

Jen, that is great that your grandmother can crochet again!

Bev, & I are about to head off to check out a sale at one of the local nurseries.  I cleaned out one of the flower beds last night, & it really needs some plants added. 

(((hugs))) Paige.  So sorry to hear about Gracie's brother, but I hope his prognosis is good now.

We had some unexpected company for dinner last night, so we did end up cutting into the cake.  It's fantastic!!  Tastes like a cross between a carrot cake and banana bread.  I love both of those, so YUM!

The dogs were so tired from yesterday (our last minute guests brought their boxers over to play), that they let me sleep til 9:30!!  I can't remember the last time I slept in that late...

Tina, give Anges some cuddles from me as well!

I've had such a busy week at work, it really cut into my forum time!  Maybe this week will be better :)

I so want to play in the dirt today -- it's supposed to be 85!  But we have a lot of stuff to do before we can plant.... we want to raise our retaining wall up a few inches (add one more tie) and then get a truck of dirt to backfill it .... it's so slanted right now, you feel like you will topple when you mow it.  So first we get the ties, then we get the grass up, then we fill with dirt and THEN I can plant.  And none of that until classes end in a few weeks, I can't take any more distractions.  And I still have the paint for all three bathrooms mocking me, but I can't start that project until the semester's over as well.

I also think I'm going to need to pay attention to our front since stuff has been planted, but I hate some of it, so it needs to go, and we need to edge it better since there's little defining line between grass and dirt.  I can't wait though.  My tulips have buds finally :)

Courtney, how was your Arkham Horror gaming night?  I'm trying to decide on getting an expansion to Dominion or Arkham horror for DH's bday, but I don't think we've explored AH enough for an expansion.  Or, the Munchkins game.  Do you or your BF have any suggestions for any other games?  We have a group that gets together every week for game night, so we've played a bunch, but need to have a good base for when we host it too!

Happy Easter-eve everyone, have a good weekend!

Yesterday was a stat holiday here.  It was nice,  Derek invited up one of the guys that works for him, he's from China, and all of his family is back there, so he's pretty lonely, he's really nice, but it was very funny because he'd never heard of devilled eggs before (which he loved and ate most of them lol) and relish etc.  I decided to have a barbeque, but one o the only stores open ran out of hot dog buns lol luckily i found some at a convenience store

I started making my new veggie garden in the backyard, ripping up huge chunks of grass is hard!!  I hope to finish today :D

 Nicole, Munchkin is super popular in our house! Some of the expansions are fun, too, but some of them make it a little unbalanced if they don't have enough monsters. Settlers of Catan is also popular, but I think it can be a little boring/frustrating if there are a lot of people playing (easy to get "stuck" in an area).Our Arkham night was fun, but I think the game may have dragged on too long for some of the guests. It took a long time explaining the rules to everyone. I'd be hesitant to get an expansion for that just because it's already so... expansive. We do game nights, too... too bad you guys aren't closer, we could hang out!

I'm giggling about the deviled eggs. Gotta love cross-cultural exchanges! Last year, I taught one of our Chinese friends how to dye Easter eggs, and she asked why we celebrate Easter. She was very surprised, even after spending 4 years in Canada and 1 in the US, to learn that the holiday was about more than rabbits and chocolate!

Tina, good for you for sticking up to the repair guy! I hope they do something seriously nice for you, after messing you over for so long. Give Agnes some love and hugs from me, too. :)

 Jackie, good luck with the gardening!

 Paige, I'm so sorry about Cobalt. Sending good thoughts for your friend and her baby, too.

Cita

Nicole, Munchkin is super popular in our house! Some of the expansions are fun, too, but some of them make it a little unbalanced if they don't have enough monsters. Settlers of Catan is also popular, but I think it can be a little boring/frustrating if there are a lot of people playing (easy to get "stuck" in an area).Our Arkham night was fun, but I think the game may have dragged on too long for some of the guests. It took a long time explaining the rules to everyone. I'd be hesitant to get an expansion for that just because it's already so... expansive. We do game nights, too... too bad you guys aren't closer, we could hang out!

Aww that would be fun!  We have Settlers, too, but it's not as fun with only 2 of us, and I hate how they make you pay for the 5-6 players expansion and then again for each expansion.  Ugh. Maybe Munchkin it is!  We like card games, fluxx and chrononauts are good ones too.

Paige, sorry about Cobalt. I just got saw it in MC from yesterday.

Cita

I'm giggling about the deviled eggs. Gotta love cross-cultural exchanges!

 That is funny.  Reminds me of an Easter I spent w/another friend and they had some folks from some place like Bulgaria or Romania.  They were intrigued by the food, too - and my friend/her husband's family are German and Polish, so it was "different".

Thanks for the thoughts and prayers for Cobalt.  I got some more info from his mom.  It was hard to read that her husband got the diagnosis and she was surprised he was able to drive home because as soon as he came in the door he collapsed on the floor sobbing.  Cobey and Gracie have very similar personalities, as his mom put it "loving by determined".  He wanted to run up the stairs to go to bed, and only yesterday he got to walk outside to go potty w/out a leash on and he was super happy.  As for his prognosis, this is from his mom:

"Cobey tolerated the procedure well, and we were encouraged when we received the results of the pathology report, which under the circumstances was as positive as we could have hoped for; stage 0; margins clear; lymph nodes clean, scapula clean. We realize that there are no guarantees, but we felt we had done the right thing.....we pray that he tolerates the therapy without too much suppression of his white blood cells.  At this early point, he seems to be doing okay with this treatment, but we realize that could change at any point.  His activity level and personality are returning, and for us, that is about as good as it gets.  We've got a long road ahead of us, but we're ready for the journey.  Yesterday was his first visit for PT, and the therapist was very impressed with his progress only 3 weeks post-op." 

Cobey is her demo dog, and a registered Therapy dog.  I guess his jobs will be changing, but his determination and good nature go a long way toward him having a good outcome, I think.  I hope.

I'm back from the plant buying expedition.  My wallet is lighter but so is my heart. lol  I still need a few plants they didn't have in stock yet.  I like this place, it's family owned for over fifty years and every single employee is helpful and friendly.  Now to unload the potting soil from the truck and wheel barrow it to the back yard.  I can't wait to get started but better eat something first.

Planting flowers sounds like a perfect Easter Weekend activity.

Amanda, I got some more info on Mayday from her mom this morning - " Mayday is on her last couple of weeks of prednisone. We decided to extend out the weaning process to go really small increments down......she has not shown any ill effects so I am encouraged that she will be able to come off completely. Her recovery has not plateaued yet so that is good. She is pretty independent now."

Mayday and her owner had been part of a dog demo drill team, but since Mayday's condition, they had to choose their replacement, which was hard on her owner.

Ow. My jaw hurts remarkable today. Not to mention that my medication combination is really hard on my stomach. I'm surprised that I didn't freak out worse than I did during surgery. (Wisdom teeth.)

 I don't always read all the MC threads, so I'm sorry to hear about Cobalt, but glad that he's regaining his personality.

Right now my beast is running around the back yard trying to convince Dad and the lawnmower to come play with him... he's not being very successful. I hope I can take him to the dog park today, after I go to the tailor to get my suit pants hemmed.

Paige - I read yesterday and today's info about Cobalt and it brought back memories of when our lab Jake was diagnosed with cancer. I got the call from DH at work and was barely able to drive home. DH had an even harder time with the whole thing. I know that had we had an opportunity to do the same thing as your friend's did, we'd have jumped on it. It's hard for some people to understand a decision like that but not for me. I hope he does well with PT and the cancer is long gone.

Jackie - I'm sooooo jealous that you can be out planting this weekend. Even if the weather was nice, and it's not, I wouldn't dare take a chance. We've had such crazy weather this year that as soon as I got everything planted, we'd have a hard freeze or a wind storm. I'm chomping at the bit to get out there and add some color though.

I went grocery shopping early to beat the Easter weekend crowd. I felt like I hardly bought much but managed to spend $100+ . Now I have housecleaning to get done so that I can relax and enjoy the rest of the weekend.