pretty smiling gracie

pretty smiling gracie
Originally uploaded by Julep67

I'm finally feeling like I'm back to "normal" after that bad bug I had a couple of weeks ago.

Last week, I made it through the whole week at work although, by the end of the day each day, I was pretty fried. As you can imagine, having missed four days of work had left me pretty behind. The gals in my office were super awesome about it though. I'm still trying to dig myself out this week and I know that's because the first couple of days I was back last week, I wasn't moving at full speed. Eventually I'll catch up though, I'm not too worried... not yet anyway.

The weekend was quiet. I had a huge amount of housework to catch up but only managed to get a minimal amount of it done. Yesterday afternoon I was so pooped that I slept for over 2 hours in the afternoon. It was hard, weird dreamy sleep too. The kind where when you wake up, you're really out of it.

Tonight, once we got home from a couple of errands, both Mark and Gracie were feeling off. I think for Mark, he let his blood sugar get too low before he ate and now it's out of sorts. This doesn't happen to him very often and I know he'll feel better in the morning but it's sort of scary for him when it does happen. Gracie, I'm not sure what's up with her.

She was all full of beans when we got home. We were out on the deck right after we got home and she suddenly got very quiet and actually let me pick her up without a fuss. She rarely does this, she likes to herd rather than be herded. Anyway, we noticed when I put her down that she was moving slowly, particularly slowly on the steps. It almost looks like the time she injured herself hurling herself at the fence, chasing squirrels.

She's a little better now than she was 2 hours ago so I'm thinking it's not anything serious. Not the big yelping like last time. If she starts limping again, I may call the vet and ask if it's okay to give her some of the anti-inflammatory stuff we have leftover (it's like ibuprofen for dogs). The squirrels and raccoons are back in full force and yesterday we awoke to a yard stinking of skunk so I know that it's critter central out there so she's probably overdone it. It's a worry still, and you hate to see them not feeling good. It's times like this that I really wish she could talk, it would sure make things easier.

wanna play?

wanna play?
Originally uploaded by Julep67

Once again, the weekend flew by in a flash.

Because of the dogs, we tend to wake up pretty early, even on the weekends. It's kind of nice though because on Saturdays lately, we've been getting up and out of the house nice and early. I really don't care much for shopping and I especially don't like it when it's crowded so shopping, early in the day, before the mobs wake up, is a happy compromise.

We had most of our errands and chores finished up by midday on Saturday. It's amazing what you can accomplish around the house when the weather outside is shitty. Mid-afternoon, it seemed like the rain had let up so we took the dogs to the park. Big mistake. It was freezing cold and super windy. The rain had almost stopped and what precipitation was still left in the air was blowing against our faces like little pellets of ice. It was so rotten that even the dogs didn't want to stay long.

The park we go to is really close to our house and the city is currently trying to figure out how to reconfigure the space. We're not sure what that will mean for us in terms of access for the dogs. Apparently they are supposed to keep an off-leash area but we have no idea how big it will be. Also, I just discovered that the site plan for the area where the more popular park (the one we stopped going to because it's overrun with disease and Sam and I were almost attacked by an out of control dog) is, may not include an off-leash area. This could mean that all of the dogs from that park will be heading toward ours. I'll not be impressed if that happens. It's quite cliquey over there and one of the things we like best about our park is that folks sort of stick to themselves. It's all about the dogs and not about the social scene.

Yesterday, even though the day was sunny and nice, we didn't get too far from home. Mark cut his finger pretty badly (took part of the nail with it) while making breakfast yesterday morning. He didn't need stitches but he was sort of in shock after it happened. More than anything else, I think he felt sort of stupid for doing it. I kept telling him to let it go but he couldn't. Of course, like any injury to an extremity, every time he moved, he banged it on something. It's a little better today. Hopefully it'll heal quickly. It's not a lot of fun having a sore finger like that.

my new bike

my new bike
Originally uploaded by Julep67

I've spent the past couple of days sort of crawling around the house. My back does this weird thing when I'm either stressed out or have slept too soundly in a cool room (in the wrong position). My left side, at the top of my hip, kind of seizes up and I can't walk straight. It hasn't happened since the weekend after Mark's dad died (in the fall of 2006) but I think I did a number on it the other evening when the temperature dipped down. I woke up in the night, chilled. I had a sheet on and reached down for the comforter (which was on the floor) but the dog was sleeping on it so I just went back to sleep. Big mistake apparently, I've been wonky since late on Wednesday.

Luckily (or unluckily - depending upon how you look at it) I've been home from work this week on a few day's vacation. Unfortunately, I've not gone very far from home because of the back thing. First part of the week was spent nursing sick Mark and sick Sam and then this happens to me. So the week's been quiet, I have had a lot of rest which I probably needed. I've also had time to just hang out with Sam.

I have not had time to ride my new bike yet but I'm hoping that over the weekend I'll loosen up and feel better and be able to get out on it.

the big apple pie factory bakery

the big apple pie factory bakery
Originally uploaded by Julep67

Mark's knee is messed up tonight.

When we woke up this morning, he said it felt funny and for a moment, he couldn't put any weight on it. Eventually, whatever it was stopped, and he was "okay." Tonight when he picked me up from work though, he was in a tonne of pain.

He's sitting on the sofa right now, magic bag on knee, taking some ibuprofen and watching tv. I hope he's feeling better later, it would suck for him to be laid up with a bad knee all weekend.

Other than that, not much news here except for the fact that it's September and after dark and the humidex should not be in the 30's at this time of day, at this time of year.

introducing insult

so in addition to lingering minor back discomfort, I seem to have picked up a stomach bug somewhere.

I'm definitely not going to be making it into work today.

Quite frankly, I'll be lucky to make it to the sofa today.

On the bright side, if I'm not in a coma tonight, I can watch Sanjaya tonight.

Every cloud really does have a silver lining, doesn't it?

crap

I'm still sore.

I can almost walk upright but not very quickly. I'm moving very slowly.

This is no fun, it's not at all how I intended to spend my long weekend.

Yuck.

It could be worse I suppose, no I know it could be worse. It's just so easy to complain when things don't go the way you'd hoped they would.

happy easter

...I say, happy easter!

how's your Sunday going? I'm still doubled over with my stupid back. I am completely crooked. It's not nice.

What is nice though is that we had a lovely lunch at my mum & dad's today. We hadn't been out to see them in a while so it was a nice, albeit short visit. Because my back was all messed up, I couldn't sit for all that long so we sort of ate and ran.

Since we've been home, I've been laying down, just popping in to the computer every once in a while to queue up movies. we've been watching a lot of movies this weekend. it's been fun though, nothing too serious. We saw Happy Feet earlier. Very cute. Not too preachy, I was expecting it to be preachy because I'd heard that and read it in reviews. It had a message but in my opinion, it wasn't over the top.

Continuing in the theme of spending way too much time in front of the television this weekend, we're on pins and needles about the new episode of the Sopranos tonight. I'm a little sad that it's the end of the show but I'm sure that these last 9 episodes will be excellent.

ouch, I've now officially spent too much time in this chair. Back to the couch for me.

the health report

I'm happy to report that Syd seems to be feeling better. He's perked up a bit and while he's not chomping on his food as soon as we drop it in the tank, it's disappearing so, presumably, he's eating it.

I'm not so happy to report that my back is a little messed up. I think I slept in too late this morning, in the wrong position, with the window open, and I'm paying for it now.

Fortunately, we didn't have much planned for today. Mark will help me with the laundry (the carting of it up and down the stairs part) and we're going to pretty much veg out and watch movies. He told me he wanted to watch something really stupid so I think we're going to start with Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. If that's not stupid enough, I have Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny. I'm sure that will be enough dick and fart jokes to make up for all of the dramas, documentaries and foreign language films we've been watching just recently.