What's happening?......

 

As a kid, I grew up drinking iced tea...or the cold water in the fridge.  We rarely had soda, and I thought coffee was vile.  My Mom told me she even gave it to me in a bottle ~ so I'm probably really lucky I didn't have a lot of cavities.  Recently, I bought a jug of Peak sweetened tea.  And realized I could make this myself, so I bought the family sized Lipton.  Which was delicious.  Then I searched through my tea collection and for fun, tossed in 2 Teavana peach tranquility bags in after the Lipton had done it's job, and wow, I love it.  I've also tried the Teavana jade citrus mint which was good too.  I am glad to be back on the tea bandwagon, but coffee rules until around 11am, haha.

On the puppy front:

We had to wait awhile for an appointment for Demitri's next round of puppy shots from our mobile vet...that happened yesterday.  The excitement of new people and the shots wore him out, but not for too long.  A couple of hours later, he was ready to go again.  He is set up for the next round of vaccinations and is also scheduled for neutering.  I am hoping they will have something before February, because I really don't want to deal with leg humping.  The vet assured us we don't have to wait until 18 months as they do on larger dogs, and that breeds his size do have some unwanted habits.....like leg humping.  Haha, although when he starts that, I'm sure I won't be laughing.  He has more than doubled his weight, which hasn't surprised us, he has really grown.  The biting will get better, and the next thing you know he grabs hold of your pant leg and won't let go.  I've developed some great strategies for distracting him, and am glad to say I don't have any new wounds 😁  This morning I had a text from my neighbor who saw the mobile vet and was worried something was wrong with the puppy.  I thought that was so kind and thoughtful.

Oh, there is nothing on tv.  We don't watch sports (well, except for tennis, but since I don't have the Tennis Channel, I rarely get to watch it), can't stand reality tv with the exception of a few cooking shows.....in short, unless we watch a re-run, there's just nothing on, except for the Walking Dead.  Recently a new reality show is being heavily advertised on Pluto ~ Cheaters Channel.  Yep, you guessed, it's about married (or in a serious relationship) men or women cheating on each other.  I really can't imagine why that show would be popular.  I suppose it's like the Bachelorette ~ not a "real" reality show.  Ugh.  Luckily I have podcasts, Audible, and CD's (yep, we still have them!).  How low do we have to go to be entertained by the Cheater's Channel???

Enjoy you day ~ and I hope you are having the beautiful weather we're having!

Love, 365

Falling in love with fall......

 

70 degree days, chilly mornings.....perfect for a cup of hot coffee while watching the news.  Oh, and chasing the puppy, trying to keep him out of trouble.  House training is going well.  Peg, I have ordered a doggy door bell which will arrive on Friday.  Training to commence immediately.  I think it will be successful, as he is one really smart puppy.

We are waiting (5 more days) for the last of the puppy shots, the vet is coming on the 18th. I will have to warn him about the biting.  I'm sure he's experienced with it :D  Once those are done, we can go more places with him.  For now we are confining mostly to sidewalks and our neighborhood for walks outside.  We'd both like to go to the mountains for a hike, but that will have to wait!  Yesterday two kids came up and wanted to pet him, the girl picked him up and after I warned her not to drop him, she did....luckily the halter and leash broke the fall.  Lesson learned: kids don't listen.  The boy stuck out his finger and said: bite me! which is when I grabbed him up and said goodbye.  Sheesh.  

Otherwise, my projects have been on hold, until Demitri is in his crate for a rest.  He will sleep for 2 or 3 hours after a busy morning.  I have tons of photos to go through, with the decision on whether to keep or have scanned.  I've been thinking about it, and I don't know what type of media to have them scanned to.  Obviously there are the memory sticks, but remember when discs were the standard?  My laptop doesn't even have a disc reader anymore.  I don't want to spend all this money on something that will be obsolete in 4 or 5 years.  

 

 My original banneton's were getting old and crusty, making my dough stick to it.  So I tried these wood pulp baskets.  On the very first try, the dough came out beautifully.   I am going to get rid of my cane baskets and replace them with these!      Sometimes it really is the little things......

 Have a wonderful day!

Love, 365

 

Breast Cancer Awareness Month and the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta

 

In December of 2010, I was thinking I would just wait until January to have my annual mammogram.  December is so busy....our wedding anniversary is on the 1st, then there's Christmas.  Decor to put up, last minute gifts to buy, parties to attend.  But then I decided I should go ahead, I have the insurance benefit.  So, I did.  

And right after Christmas I got the call that I needed to go back.  There was a certain area they had concerns about.  I cried, even though I didn't know what it was, and in fact I had been there and done that before, even though it was "nothing".  That second visit confirmed that they believed I had cancer, but they needed to biopsy the lump, which was positive.  I was shell shocked.  No one wants to hear the big C word.  Not long after that, a slew of doctor visits....and CT scan, blood work, chest x-ray, an electrocardiogram.  Soon after that, surgery. After that there were 7 weeks of radiation therapy.  I felt so lucky that I didn't need chemotherapy.

My cancer was found early, and was ductal carcinoma in situ, meaning it had not spread, nor was there any found in the lymph nodes.  So, as I said : lucky ~ at least if you have breast cancer, it's lucky.  I would have been happier never to have had it at all.  Even that small bit of cancer left it's mark on my body...scars, and the left one will be forever smaller than the right.

Since then, I've met so many women who have had breast cancer.  264,000 each year.  Men aren't immune either.  2,400 per year.   

Love, 365

This, that and beyond......

 

What is up with Blogger?  When I post comments, there are a couple of you that I can directly comment, just as it's supposed to work.  Sometimes I have to write/copy/paste.  I can click on the comment line all day and it won't allow me to type the comment.  Worst of all is when I have to copy/past and also put the name and URL unless I want the comment to show as "anonymous".  It's really a pain.  I sure haven't seen any improvement in their software in the past 6 months.  

 

I am so grateful that the Greek festival is over.  3 days of 6-8 hour days.  Two of those days I worked the pastry booth, giving out single servings of baklava.  We never seem to plan for how to deliver those, so it's always a pain in the butt.  On a napkin if people are eating it right away, but since the chocolate covered ones weren't in a container, I had to make-shift one with a styrofoam plate covered with plastic wrap.  Next year there needs to be a better system.  And I hate all those plastic containers.  Unfortunately, paper containers will absorb the honey syrup, and aren't good for freezing.  

Last year we sold out of everything by 2pm on Saturday.  This time we baked quite a bit more, and we sold out of the last bits by 1pm on Sunday.  We made so much baklava cheesecake, I figured we would still have some on Sunday morning, but it sold out on Saturday.  I was shocked!!!  The refrigerator was crammed with them!  I knew the bread would sell out.  We also sold out of the kourambiedes, which was the last to sell out of last year.  

One day I worked in the bookstore booth, but I chose Sunday for that shift ~ which turned out to be a mistake on my part.  By 2 pm all my pastry buddies were off shopping or eating lunch, and I ended up being there until 5pm when we closed ~ then we had to stack everything back into the bookstore room.  The person who was supposed to come at 2:30 sent a text he couldn't make it, and I didn't want to leave Steph by herself, so I ended up there until the end.  As I was driving home, I realized I smelled like incense, which is much better than smelling like food.  

Demitri is growing like crazy.  It's been nearly 3 weeks since we brought him home.  He's settling in, and we are still working on the house training. I have a few ideas on how to improve it, but it will take some doing.  Since we don't have any grass, I'm thinking about having a bit of astro turf put in.  One of our neighbor's has some, and he likes the feel of it.  I'll check into it, but I think it would improved things.  Even if we don't do that, I still think he'll get the hang of things.  It would be best if it happens before really cold weather.  I don't enjoy standing outside in the freezing cold waiting for a dog to pee!  So, if you have any training tips, please don't hold back.  

Love, 365