Buddy Two Poos

This is me and Bud on 10 September, the day after we got him…

this is also why I don’t put many photos on, B is not very good with the camera.  I never look like me, I AM a 5′ 8″ leggy blonde and yet in B’s pics I always look like a 5′ 1″ non leggy brunette, well brunette-ish I guess in that one!

And after slightly more than two months and…

3 walking harnesses

1 chewed door frame

3 poops in the house

3 puddles inside

1 vicious leap at Ben (my Auntie Ann’s dog)

numerous soft doggy toys

lots of chewing toys

1 wee in the garage – not 2′ from where I was sitting

chasing two pheasants across a field

several instances of vomiting (by Bud – just one by me)

an hysterical moment when I painted the bathroom ceiling when he got a piece of masking tape stuck on his paw

about 1,000 poop scoops (hence Bud’s nickname Buddy Two Poos because why do one when you can do two 100 years apart and thank goodness for frosty mornings in the garden! – If you don’t own a dog and need an explanation let me know – let’s just say I’m not looking forward to warmer weather)

an encounter with an Akita that confirmed that although my organisation skills are a bit shot I can still remain calm under pressure – stick hand out, grab harness extract Bud from Akita’s grip – I think it wanted to play but then again it was lunch time!

a little toy box for Bud – because there is no way I am going to end up in A&E explaining that I fractured the lytic lesion in my right femur by tripping over a blue goose on the landing in the dark!

several stones in the pads of his paws

one somersault onto his back on the lounge laminate flooring which he walked off but which nearly gave me and B a heart attack

one twisting somersault somersault on the kitchen lino for which he got 10.0 as he landing back on his feet, I mean paws

two grazes on his back legs from skidding to retrieve his ball

a boo boo that required a trip to the vet’s…

this is me and Bud on 17 November…

And strangely I have MORE hair!

Our bathroom

Yes I know it’s so, so UNFINISHED is what it is!

Although we do have a new bath, new toilet and new shower tray around which the old shower enclosures has now developed a rattle to rival a rattlesnake.

We have had the following adornment to the stair carpet since Monday – not Buddy, the ‘Roll & Stroll’.  See it clearly says ‘Roll & Stroll’ except for three and a half days I was wondering why something that covered carpet was called ‘Boll & Stroll’ (said to rhyme with ‘Boll’).

Despite this pic makes it appear to the contrary Bud does his level best to avoid walking on it sticking to the edges and seemingly to alternate going  down stairs as there is not enough room – ‘Okay left paws carpet, right paws Boll & Stroll’ – Hey Bud can’t read and I gave him duff information!

I’m just hoping it’s not like removing hair with sticky strips ie, that the carpet’s not gonna end up bald if it’s on to long.

And when we picked the taps I was sure that the wash hand basin tap was just like the bath tap, with separate hot and cold ‘handles’ because I remember thinking that this would be less convenient than the combined one handle tap we had but it looked better.  However sitting in our garage at the moment is the basin which has ONE hole!  Not sitting in the garage is the tap so I can’t compare.

B is ‘disappointed’ that it wasn’t finished last week as anticipated, the tiler didn’t appear on Thursday or Friday!  However he WILL be with us Monday, he will, he will!  Actually I’m not too concerned, sure it’s inconvenient but this is bothering me more…

‘What?’ I hear you cry – ‘it’s a flannel in a cereal/dessert bowl at the side of the sink.’ And yes, you are indeed correct that’s what it is exactly, BUT who else has something similar – THE MOTHER IN LAW!  She has a grotty dishcloth in a cereal/dessert bowl, that’s older than me probably, at the side of her sink. I have dispensed said cloth into the bin on many, many occasions and replaced it with a nice new one but they always seem to be in a similar condition five minutes later.

I have confronted B over this – I wasn’t intending to – I just blurted it out in near hysterics when I saw it.  B assures me it is only temporary.  Well it better be or he’ll be seeing his mother’s dish cloth on a permenant basis.

Creative Space Thursday – Wool ‘en Shirts

Today my creative space is filled with this…

I treated myself to some Araucania Ranco Multy in colour 324!  Let’s face it when a yarn contains so many colours a number is the only thing that’s appropriate.  It’s 75% wool and 25% polyamide.  It seems really soft (because I am one of the ‘Don’t do wool it itches’ brigade – I think resulting for an incident with tartan pants that my mum made me and made me wear as a child).  I think it’s going to become a cardigan for me.  I also think it may take a while since it’s 4 ply.

And these…

a pile of my father in law’s old shirts that I was sure I could use in some way shape or form.  I think he could have worn a different shirt every day for a month and not got through them which could explain why they are in such good condition – that and the fact that I think he only wore certain ones anyway.

I think they are going to become a Christmas Gift in some way shape or form. Something that I need to get a move on with since we are nearly in December and I have finished, let’s see that would be, ohhh, do I need to take my socks off to count, no because I’ve finished none!

In fact I have been slacking so much that my bunny from last week still hasn’t got a tail!

 

Buddy and the Beach

I have been taking Tuesdays as holidays so that I can go to Armchair Yoga, however yesterday I was unable to attend for two reasons as it turned out.  The bathroom is being refitted so someone had to babysit Bud and as it turned out I couldn’t have gone anyway because I have a bit of a cold that I may not have been able to keep to myself.

I had contemplated taking Buddy somewhere different for his walk but then I started thinking well I have something to do and maybe I shouldn’t take him far in the car by myself on the motorway and then I thought if I have to wait for Bernard to come… well I wouldn’t hold my breath for that to happen.  I’m not saying it’s difficult to get my husband to go to places he doesn’t normally go but it took me four weeks to get him to come to the ‘nature reserve’ two miles up the road with us!  And then it was after a rainfall so it was muddy and although he didn’t quite get to the point of saying we couldn’t go again (he knows better than that) but I was advised to take a change of shoes next time we went.

A couple of people have suggested that I see if I can have my four weekly Zometa infusions at the local hospital rather than in Liverpool – if I did this I would never get my lunch out!

So with a view to enjoying TODAY and not putting things of until tomorrow (not because there may not be a tomorrow but because there may be something equally new and fun to do then) we set off in the car.

Buddy is not a good passenger.  He is all to keen to get IN the car but once we move off (and he does this if B is driving too) he starts to whinge.  Now I like the idea of him being fastened in but since we are completely down one seat belt and he started on another for the time being he is a loose cannon.

He whinges in the back – sitting up, lying down, looking out of the window, staring at the floor – he’s not fussy. Then he gets in the front, and is a little bit quieter and looks hysterically funny sitting in the passenger seat staring out of the front windscreen.

Yesterday however he got a little bit more than he bargained for and indeed had fair claim on a whinge.  There was a little bit of sudden bracking and he nearly ended up in the footwell.  He lay down for a while after.

I thought I did particularly well and managed to tune out his protests at being in a moving car by… turning up My Chemical Romance on the CD.  This however did not cover up the beeping noise produced when Bud shifted his little doggie weight to such a position on the seat that the car thought ‘Oh, there is someone in the passenger seat who has not put the seat belt on.  I must therefore make an irritating noise until they rectify this position.’

Needless to say we got there in once piece and had a ‘whale’ of a time.

We saw super large jelly fish – well they were super large to us at over a foot across – I’ve only ever seen little ones on a British beach before

It was lovely and sunny, freezing cold but lovely and sunny…

We met lots of dogs which gave Bud some more experience interacting with other canines – including a near hysterical tiny, tiny dog no bigger than Bud’s head which he just blanked twice.  I still wouldn’t trust him near another dog off the lead but maybe one day in the fuuuuuuuuuuuuuture.

Some of you may be aware that B has only ever read about two of my posts and what goes on the blog stays on the blog apart from ‘Keygate‘, so I shouldn’t really need to say that B doesn’t NEED to know about any frollicking in the surf, because remember we were in the his car…

This is an ‘arty’ shoot as someone had accidentally switched to panoramic…

We both really enjoyed ourselves, Bud so much that he was reluctant to get back in the car – YES IT WAS BECAUSE HE HAD FUN ON THE BEACH – and nothing to do with my driving.  And we both ended up having a kip on the seettee when we got home for all of 10 minutes until the tiler rang the doorbell.

I for one won’t be putting fun things off in the future, life is oh so precious and we really do need to make the most of it.

 

Myeloma UK Take 2 Campaign

Last week I followed a link on facebook, posted by Deb who is about to start treatment, to the little video for the Take 2 Campaign.  This aims to raise awareness amongst GPs about myeloma to avoid delays in diagnosis.  Apparently, approximately 20% of people diagnosed die within 60 days!

I noticed the ‘Does your MP support TAKE 2?’ on the right hand side and my MP was not on the list.  Knowing that he is up for these sort of things as I have seen him on lists before and have written to him about animal welfare issues in the past I emailed him on the evening of the 15th and got this on back on Saturday…

Isn’t he just so nice especially since he did this despite me confessing I hadn’t been able to vote for him in the General Election – well I did have a valid excuse I was on my SCT holiday – although I guess I could have sorted out a postal vote!

Oh and he isn’t crooked – it’s just the way I scanned it!

Vaccination Time

I have a serious post, no seriously, I do!  I DO!

I had a visit to the nurse at our doctors last week re a woman’s er, three year thingie, screening do hicky and she said that they’d had a letter about my re-vaccinations.

I had considered not having them but I hadn’t really looked into it and naiviley thought it was the ones I remembered like measles, TB and the one on the sugar cube.

Apparently it’s not it’s the following

Pneumococcal – pneumonia, meningitis and blood infections

Haemophilus influenza conjugate – meningitis, bacterial pneumonia, and infections of the blood, bones, and joints

Diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis – well that would be diphtheria, tetanus and it turns out whooping cough

Inactivated polio (I wonder if this is still on a sugar cube – probably not, someone would get sued for rotting teeth)

and then annual vaccinations for both me and B (HAH) whilst I remain immunocompromised of

Inactivated influenza

So I would like your opinions – have you, haven’t you, do you intend to if you are in that position or even if you’re not your views on vaccination.  You can either leave a comment or if you prefer to do it privately in case you just want to say ‘For goodness sake woman just get them done – don’t be a baby about it!’ (Get it – baby, as they are for my new baby immune system and the letter says I can have the neonatal brands!) my email is feressaattenuata@yahoo.co.uk.

And remember this is serious – there may be lollipops riding on it if I get them done and am a good girl whilst having them!

 

 

 

Bathrooms and DOMS

Here’s some words of advice – I don’t think I give much advice – so this must be very important.  When after months of non exercising you decide to paint the bathroom ceiling twice and then do the window frame you need to get a run up to it.  Maybe practice stepping up and down the steps for a view days and definitely two weeks of rising your hand over your head and wiggling it about.  This of course wasn’t helped by still having a sore right wrist – do you know how hard it is to do things left handed.  I’d take my hat off to you if you are left handed but I can’t manage that with my left hand!  I also find it nearly impossible to slice stuff – cheese, toast, onions.  B can manage a whole round of toast but Bud is struggling!

We are having the bathroom refitted starting Monday and ‘I’ found ‘ourselves’ in the position yesterday that we/B had not done the bathroom ceiling despite telling me that he’d take care of it.

B’s back been playing up.  He has two damaged discs and so has been getting in on my painkiller medication action.  Now the last thing I need is B off sick with his back.  Eight years ago when it started the neurosurgeon told him that if he carried on with the physical job he does he would be off once or twice a year.  Fortunately this has not happened.  We therefore need to keep him in tip top condition or we would be getting divorced.  I do not make a good nurse!  When he was off originally burned into my memory is his refusal to take tablets with orange juice whilst I was attempting to get out of the house and to go to work – ‘Can I have a glass of water!’  ‘Can’t you take them with the orange juice I just brought you with your breakfast?’ ‘No, I need a glass of water!’  ‘Mumbled something, something rude’  See I have no patience.

So in light of this and the fact that previously I did practically all the painting and therefore it would have been too much of a test on my patience to say – sand it, wipe it with this cloth, use this brush with that paint, no I’m not washing the brush do it yourself (I would point out that I don’t volunteer this information B asks), I suggested B took Buddy for a walk and I would give it a go myself.  It’s a small room and I nearly had it done by the time B and Bud got back.

I was careful and took my time and was so impressed at how I managed that I did it again when we got back from my Auntie Ann’s and stained the window frame – with wood stain!

Now this morning I have some muscle ache – my biceps, my deltoids, my gluteus maximus! – so think tomorrow I will have more muscle ache (DOMS) but it’s such a good ache and takes me back to all that exercising I used to do!

This is our current bathroom – I love it – I love the colour – I love the shape!

I ‘no love’ the finishing off as it was originally installed by the well known firm of Bodge It, Bugerit & Scarper.

After I accidently broke the wash hand basin a few months ago enquires turned up that not only is the style discontinued, the manufacturer no longer manufactures and then to put the top hat on it – no-one does the colour pergammon!  I love that colour but apparently I am in the minority – everyone with a white bathroom hands up – okay now hang your head in shame.  Thanks to you, and my Auntie Ann x 2, and my sister in law x 2.5 and my next door neighbour telling me/everyone that white bathrooms sell houses better – I now have to have a white bathroom suite!

We wanted a new bath too as it has become marked, I think with essential oils which just won’t come out and then B suggested we get a new toilet so that it can be used without the risk that one day one of us will end up surfing across the bathroom on the seat.  Oh and a new towel rail because it’s corroding at the bottom.  And B wanted the border tile that’s been sitting upside down for nine years replacing with one the right way up for some reason.

The bathroom installer (that had replaced the shower enclosure for us and added spots lights about four years ago) told us that he had searched high and low for pergammon for his sister in law 18 months ago because she didn’t do white either and it wasn’t a goer.

This all meant that we needed a new shower tray too, but the installer had one out the back from a discontinued style that matches ours exactly except its WHITE and we can have it for nothing except the cost of fitting it!

Now I just have to give the ceiling one final coat – gold glitter – you don’t need to look at me like that – B already did!

Oh, and WE also need to give Buddy that bath!

 

Creative Space Thursday – Body Parts!

This week my creative space is full of Christmas present body parts…

Rabbit – 1 head, 1 body, 4 paws

Frog (yes, despite looking like some kind of box jelly fish it is indeed a frog) – 1 head, 1 body, 4 legs/feet and 12 yes, 12 toes – who knew a frog needed so many FIDDLY toes!

However I also have one finished bunny…

Well almost, he’s still sans tail…

(No bunnies were coerced into revealing their rear ends for the purposes of entertainment)

Other less provocative creative spaces can be found here.

Procrastinating

You know what it’s like you have something to do and you keep dragging your feet and putting it off and arrggghhhhhh a little something that should take an hour maybe turns into something monumental that takes hours.  I should in fact be doing it now!  Instead I’m typing this and getting goose bumps all over and screwing my eyes up as Bud munches through his BIG bone.  I brought it in for him earlier as he was such a good boy by not chewing the door frame when I went to yoga this afternoon and B went to his mum’s.

 

Bud was looking so sorry for himself and wanted to check on his bone so in it came and now I’m at the computer and Bud has the bone on a towel at the side of me.  He managed to break the end off it and is currently causing my eyes to wince and my stomach to turn by industriously nawing at it.  I think I may be developing a tick.

 

I can say however that this bone buying and eating is proving very educational from a myeloma view point.  ‘Ohh, so that’s what the inside of a bone looks like.’  ‘Mmmm, yes I see how the bone could thin.’

 

The one thing I did do with the smaller bone he got and which I found really disconcerting was scrap out with a spoon handle the marrow out that Bud couldn’t get to.  ‘Wow, does  my marrow look like this?  Well , except uncooked!’

 

And now I really must get my finger out and do what I’m supposed to be doing otherwise it will be tomorrow before I get to bed.  I’ll get right on it right after l just check my emails, catch up on a bit of blog reading, and I may need a drink, ohh and a snack!  Arghhhhhhhhhhhh – Focus, Paula, FOCUS.

 

I don’t think Buddy wants another bath!

The day we brought Bud home we gave him a bath because he STUNK.  He wasn’t too happy about it, but how many dogs are, and actually wee’ed on the bathroom floor.  Fortunately I had dog washing experience and the tiles were covered with old towels.

We want to bath him again before we get our new bathroom suite but something tells me he’s not too struck on the idea.

I’m obviously not gonna get a movie making job as the landing carpet features heavily.