GD Puppy club trip to Saturday Market

Boarding MAX
Originally uploaded by mgordon542002

This morning Lyn, Ardella and I joined our puppy club for a trip on MAX (light rail) to Saturday Market in downtown Portland. It was a beautiful day and we joined our club leader and raisers with puppies Logger, Virgil, Phineas, Azteka and Mardella at the Parkrose station. We walked across the pedestrian bridge to the MAX stop and all the dogs did well (considering the bridge goes over I-205).


The car was a bit full, so Lyn, Ardella and I found a seat away from everyone else.



Ardella settled in very well and seemed unaffected by the new experience of mass transportation. She slept with her head on my foot most of the way, except in this picture because I was the one taking it.



And this is where the pictures end. We got to Saturday Market and went our separate ways and planned to meet in an hour or so before boarding the MAX home. I haven't been to Saturday Market in years, and I was surprised about how much it had grown and how busy it was. We shuffled with the crowd through booths of handmade soaps, pottery, photography, bags, children's clothing, aromatherapy oils, batik, beads, jewelry, etc. and I made a quick reminder to myself that Saturday Market is where I need to go get goodies for my next round of swaps.

Unfortunately it was hot - not unbearably hot - but too hot for Ardella. Alas, she began to show signs of heat intolerance, so I bought a vegetarian sandwich at a food booth for me and got a cup of ice and a bottle of water for Ardella. She began panting a lot while I was in line and she had an accident of a very soft stool. We sat in a shaded area and fed Ardella ice cubes and then found our party and said goodbye. It had been planned if Ardella showed signs of heat intolerance that we would just leave, so we did.

We're now home, Ardella tanked up on water and is snoozing. I'm sure she'll be fine when she wakes up, but I'm disappointed that she couldn't tolerate the heat today.

Take Your Dog to Work Day

Today is Take Your Dog to Work Day, and Ardella accompanied Lyn to work. She's having a good day, so I have taken advantage of my free time. This follows a week of 24/7 Ardella and me and I was ready for a break, let me tell you! Ardella alternates between being ornery and being well behaved these days and I have times when I alternate wondering if she'll ever make to training and knowing she'll be an awesome guide dog. Tomorrow we're taking a puppy club trip on MAX and are going to Saturday Market. Stay tuned for pictures, maybe.

So, Friday is the first day of my weekend, and being Ardella free I took advantage of time to myself and found two dresses for wedding events. I'm not sure which one I'll be wearing to the wedding and which I'll be wearing to the Friday night dinner, but at least I'm going to be dressed one way or the other.

The first is a flowing shirt with dressy gauchos (they aren't capri or culottes - I don't know what else to call them).



The second is a green shirt dress with a jacket. I like this one because it goes with some yarn I bought to knit a jacket and I still have that option. I'm leaning toward wearing this one to the wedding. I may replace this picture, I just didn't have a good place to get a decent picture of the dress today.



Work remains a thorn in my flesh. I've essentially become a family practice office note transcriptionist and I'm not adjusting to the change very well. This is after years of doing inpatient operations, discharges, consultations and history and physical reports. The Portland team got those reports. I feel like I've been demoted. We get weird messages from management these days and having a sense of humor helps deflect the insecurity everyone is reading between the lines. The messages are weird, really weird!

I guess it doesn't help that I watched Michael Moore's Sicko this week. Great documentary, and it sure made me want to live in Canada or England or France.

We also watched The Room - the world's worst movie - so bad that it's hilarious. Recommended for fun group viewing, but not for kids.

Loopy Ewe swap 4 package

I got a great package from Sarah in New Hampshire today. She knit me a pair of gorgeous socks in the Sunshine pattern by Cookie A in Woolly Boulley Softie yarn, La Mer colorway. I put them on right away, they fit perfectly, and she did an awesome job knitting them.



She also sent me some Numma Numma Saucy yarn in Pool Party, a very nice project bag, a knit accessory kit with pattern markers, stitch markers and a tape measure, a sock-shaped needle sizer, Lilac soap (made locally) and a bookmark with a puppy on it.



I loved this package and feel very spoiled. Thank you once again, Sarah!

Here's Ardella at 7-1/2 months. I took the picture this evening right after dinner.



She seems to be doing fine. She's not needing to go to outside to do her business as often - which kind of worried me at first - I have not been used to her waiting 3 hours at a time, more like every 30 minutes or more. I took her to the dentist with me today and she did great. I was going to a new dentist because one of my daughter's friends is a dental hygienist in the office. I had to have a lot of x-rays and so the appointment lasted over 2 hours. Staff in the office gave Ardella a blanket to lie down on and she promptly "went to bed" when I asked her to and slept for most of the appointment. She whined a little and I took her outside when we were waiting for the dentist, and then she came back in and slept a little more. She was a little more than ready to go towards the end of the visit and got off her blanket to come meet the dentist. Fortunately, he had wanted to meet her. At any rate, the office was more than accommodating to Ardella and apparently they have a few patients with working guides that come all the time. They've even let a patient bring a pet on special occasions to help with dental anxiety. I think I found a good dentist.

Ardella update

I just talked to the veterinarian and 2 species of bacteria grew from the culture. He said that Ardella had symptoms suspicious for a UTI when she came in on Thursday - she didn't want to drink water that day and did not want to give a sample; however, when she did give a urine sample, the urine was dilute. He said it smelled funny so they cultured and bacteria grew.

She will be on antibiotics for at least 2 weeks and we're hoping that she will be back to normal and everything will be fine. We're going to do multiple urine cultures to make sure the bacteria is gone for awhile, too.

I'm so tentatively relieved!

This will pass!

So, I need to vent. Life sucks right now, especially work. I really won't say what is bothering me, but I'm so glad to have a life outside work and if that is threatened I will be most miserable.

So, I've turned to knitting. I started a meditative knit called the Taize scarf" by Susan Pandorf. It's lacy but there are only 8 rows and each row is easily memorized so that I don't have to constantly watch the chart.



That's the beginning of the scarf. The ends will be hemmed for a picot edge. I'm using a fingering weight yarn by The Fibre Co. called Canopy - 50% baby alpaca, 30% merino and 20% bamboo. It's heavenly. I love the yarn too. I have a feeling this project will go quickly, I need a lot of "cool down" time when I'm upset.

I have 3 other patterns by Susan Pandorf in her new Zen series that I downloaded this weekend. She was having a sale on the patterns. I'll probably need to do more meditative knits through the coming months. Damn it!

The veterinarian got a urine specimen for a culture on Thursday and we will hear the results of that sometime on Monday or Tuesday, probably. I'm doing research on Addison disease, trying to get an idea of the monthly cost of medication. It's doable, but only if we both keep our jobs. Who knows how that's going to pan out! In the meantime, I'm still hoping it's a kidney infection.

We went to Allison's college graduation party this afternoon (She's Lyn's niece) and were glad we missed the 3-hour ceremony, but were happy to see family again for the second weekend in a row. After the party Lyn and I followed Linda and Dave home to see their two new black lab puppies, Callie and Lila. Oh so cute, and oh such sharp teeth!

Finished a book about a brain surgeon last night and liked it. I'm a little burned out on medicine lit these days, but Keith Black is a refreshing change of pace from other books written by neurosurgeons and I admire his respect for patients and for the way he feels about the brain in general. I also read Purple Hibiscus and loved it! A coming of age story that takes place in Nigeria. There is child abuse - religious and paternal, but the family the children find refuge with is wonderful. I'm on my way to bed to start Red April by Santiago Roncagliolo. It takes place in Peru during the 1980s civil war. I checked out 6 books from the library today and put 6 more on hold. Yes sir! It's time to escape and get by with a little help from my book friends!

Ardella

I had a nice weekend - my daughter's bridal shower hosted by 5 of her aunts occurred and it was a lot of fun. Ryan's mother was able to attend as well as one of her sisters and one of Ryan's father's sisters.

I've been concerned about Ardella's health for a little while now. Her physical reaction to heat 2 weekends in a row alarmed me, and I got permission to take her to the vet from my puppy leader. Then on Monday she literally wet the bed while she was sleeping. I took her to the vet yesterday and she either has a kidney infection (which is treatable) or Addison disease, which would essentially retire her. We're going to treat what we hope is the infection first and won't look at Addison's until after we try a round of antibiotics. I'm obsessing about Addison's - I had a dog die from this disease. Needless to say, I'm a little worried.

Four new puppies are coming to our club today. I'm eagerly awaiting names.

We're supposed to be signing up for the fire work stand with Lion's Club for my club's fundraising event. Fire works - ME!! Anyone who knows me knows how I HATE the 4th of July and fireworks. Oh well - I love GDB more than I hate fireworks, I guess. I'm hoping that having me work 1 shift and Lyn working another will fulfill the work requirement.

Miniature Australian Rescue and Support MARS contacted me today to help with a rescue organization event in Kent in July. I'm looking forward to that and hope that Ardella is well by then.

PLEASE let it be a kidney infection!

Small Business Spotlight

When I was a child I was given a Christmas gift of a couple pounds of homemade Peanut Brittle. Being a child with no self-control, I ate so much I made myself sick. It took me about 20-some years before I could indulge once again in the salty-sweety goodness of Brittle. Just in time for me to savor a few of the unique and delectible flavors of "Artisan Brittle" created by our friend Max of Morning Glory Confections. (I love having friends making delicious things!) I have to say, as one who enjoys spicy, the "New Mexico Chili & Pumkin Seed" is my ultimate favorite, but honestly they all are delicious.  Send a sampler box to a loved one and it includes a lovely letterpress card, printed by yours truly. 

Video of Ardella at graduation - experiment

Just an experiment to see if I can embed my videos. I don't know how to get rid of the Subscribe part that's showing up. Advice appreciated.



Finally - I figured it out! Yay!

Addicted to on-line personality quizzes

Surprise, surprise!

I really need to stop taking these!