When I was in high school, Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton's "Islands In The Stream" was a huge hit on the radio. After school, and on weekends, I worked as a cashier at a local grocery store and the radio played over the address system in the store. Each time "Islands In The Stream" played (and it was a lot), I would groan quietly and roll my eyes. One of the "older" lady (she was probably 30 which would have seemed ancient to my 17 year old self), full-time cashiers, I think her name was Pam, would chastise me and tell me that I just didn't understand the depth of the song and when I was older, I'd appreciate it more. Almost 30 year later, I still don't think that there was much substance to the song but my appreciation for well-aged cheese has grown over time. I'm still not a fan of the original but some cover versions of the song just make me smile. Including this one, enjoy!
Wednesday, May 09, 2012
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
introducing sam
Four years ago today, Sam adopted us. He was a seven month old puppy at that time.
Looking back, Mark and I didn't know much about taking care of a puppy but we quickly learned.
In some ways, I can't believe that he's been with us for four years already and, in other ways, I can't remember what our lives were like before he got here.
Looking back, Mark and I didn't know much about taking care of a puppy but we quickly learned.
In some ways, I can't believe that he's been with us for four years already and, in other ways, I can't remember what our lives were like before he got here.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
the sickness
Our house has been under a cloud of grossness for about a week now. Last weekend, after returning to Kingston from a whirlwind road trip to Toronto, I started feeling like I was coming down with something. Couldn't put my finger on it but I was cold and tired and grouchy. By Monday afternoon, I knew I was sick and I spent Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, tucked up in bed or under the covers on the sofa.
I had a flu I think. Really harsh headache, body aches, fever, congestion. Add to that, lack of sleep and it was really pretty horrible. Unfortunately, it would seem like a walk in the park compared to what was around the corner. In the wee small hours of Wednesday (at 1:18 a.m. to be precise), Mark woke me up to tell me he was having a kidney stone attack. He was practically paralyzed by the pain so I had to get up to get him some of his pain killers (he's had the attacks before and is currently awaiting an update from our local urology clinic about next steps for treating them).
As I type this, it's Sunday evening and he's still not passed the stone. It's been absolutely horrible to watch him in pain like this over the past few days. He's been in touch with his doctor's office and the urology clinic. Unfortunately, when it's "march break" it's not possible to connect with anyone about your condition. Tomorrow he'll go back to his family doctor to try to get this moving along. It's been almost a week now and it's no way to live.
So we've made a great pair this week. Our pact that only one of us is allowed to be sick at one time has been blown to smithereens. I've been trying to take care of him while I'm still getting over the flu. The poor dogs don't know which end is up because one or both of us has been home with them almost constantly for the best part of a week.
To add insult to injury, the weather has been unbelievably gorgeous outside and we’ve not been able to get out to enjoy it (unless you count me running to the grocery store for 30 minutes after work on Friday, which I don’t think you should). Once spring officially starts this week, I hope we are both feeling better. This week has been a blur and I think that’s good. It would be really depressing to be able to actually remember much of it.
I had a flu I think. Really harsh headache, body aches, fever, congestion. Add to that, lack of sleep and it was really pretty horrible. Unfortunately, it would seem like a walk in the park compared to what was around the corner. In the wee small hours of Wednesday (at 1:18 a.m. to be precise), Mark woke me up to tell me he was having a kidney stone attack. He was practically paralyzed by the pain so I had to get up to get him some of his pain killers (he's had the attacks before and is currently awaiting an update from our local urology clinic about next steps for treating them).
As I type this, it's Sunday evening and he's still not passed the stone. It's been absolutely horrible to watch him in pain like this over the past few days. He's been in touch with his doctor's office and the urology clinic. Unfortunately, when it's "march break" it's not possible to connect with anyone about your condition. Tomorrow he'll go back to his family doctor to try to get this moving along. It's been almost a week now and it's no way to live.
So we've made a great pair this week. Our pact that only one of us is allowed to be sick at one time has been blown to smithereens. I've been trying to take care of him while I'm still getting over the flu. The poor dogs don't know which end is up because one or both of us has been home with them almost constantly for the best part of a week.
To add insult to injury, the weather has been unbelievably gorgeous outside and we’ve not been able to get out to enjoy it (unless you count me running to the grocery store for 30 minutes after work on Friday, which I don’t think you should). Once spring officially starts this week, I hope we are both feeling better. This week has been a blur and I think that’s good. It would be really depressing to be able to actually remember much of it.
Thursday, March 01, 2012
Happy Birthday Nana
Today is my nana's birthday.
She passed away in 1997 but I still miss her, every day. I've been going through my old photos again and found an album containing photos from Christmas 1985. They would have been taken mostly by me, with my first 35 mm camera.
This particular photo is one I'd forgotten about, all of my cousins with my Nana, in her house on Jasper Avenue in Smiths Falls. We didn't all get together very often so when we did, it was extra special.
She passed away in 1997 but I still miss her, every day. I've been going through my old photos again and found an album containing photos from Christmas 1985. They would have been taken mostly by me, with my first 35 mm camera.
This particular photo is one I'd forgotten about, all of my cousins with my Nana, in her house on Jasper Avenue in Smiths Falls. We didn't all get together very often so when we did, it was extra special.
Tuesday, February 07, 2012
a drug free butt
Sam has now been drug-free for a week. Hopefully the drugs are now out of his system by now. He was given his last dose of antibiotics a week ago. At breakfast and dinner, for three weeks, I crushed up pills and put them into a tiny bit of wet dog food for him. Of course, Gracie had to have some wet food too, just to keep things fair.
His poor bum really went through the ringer in January. He had 4 visits to the vet, two courses of antibiotics and probably more fingers up his butt than he would have like (like, 1 would probably have been too many). After a week, he was definitely on the mend and at the first follow up appointment, he was healing well but still had some infection, hence the second course of drugs. The new ones were stronger than the first and I was afraid that his stomach would be pretty upset (mine usually is with amoxicillin) but he seemed to tolerate it pretty well. He still had two small holes where the abscess had happened and there was some puss coming out. Infections in the butt area are nothing to mess with and fortunately, he’s a pretty healthy and hardy guy so he was improving each time we went back to see the vet.
Last week, we had our fourth and final checkup and he was totally healed, completely free of infection (yay!). He even got the all clear to go for an overdue grooming appointment (which we did on Sunday). Gracie is still wondering why she’s not getting a tiny dish of wet food at mealtime but Sam doesn’t seem to be missing it. I can’t imagine that the food tasted as good as it should, with crushed up pills added to it!
His poor bum really went through the ringer in January. He had 4 visits to the vet, two courses of antibiotics and probably more fingers up his butt than he would have like (like, 1 would probably have been too many). After a week, he was definitely on the mend and at the first follow up appointment, he was healing well but still had some infection, hence the second course of drugs. The new ones were stronger than the first and I was afraid that his stomach would be pretty upset (mine usually is with amoxicillin) but he seemed to tolerate it pretty well. He still had two small holes where the abscess had happened and there was some puss coming out. Infections in the butt area are nothing to mess with and fortunately, he’s a pretty healthy and hardy guy so he was improving each time we went back to see the vet.
Last week, we had our fourth and final checkup and he was totally healed, completely free of infection (yay!). He even got the all clear to go for an overdue grooming appointment (which we did on Sunday). Gracie is still wondering why she’s not getting a tiny dish of wet food at mealtime but Sam doesn’t seem to be missing it. I can’t imagine that the food tasted as good as it should, with crushed up pills added to it!
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