Ready for winter to be over......

Yesterday was a big one for Demitri.....he is now lacking certain body parts, removed by our delightful and great vet, Dr Gonzales.  He had a tiny umbilical hernia repaired and a chip placed (although the chip is not really his concern, haha).  Yesterday was hard for him, but once I gave him a dose of the sedation meds, he slept through the night ~ not a peep.  We bought these "onesies" for dogs that have had surgery....

 

We highly recommend.....with the cone on, he just stands there ~ we just put it on for 15 minutes or so to see how he would do with it on.  The onesie is good for preventing licking and chewing ~ it's a bit of a pain to take it on and off for bathroom breaks, but all in all, well worth the money.  Right now he's resting on Romeo's lap with it off.  He's getting a little break before bedtime. He has a chew in his mouth in case you're squinting at the pic and wondering, what the heck?  Haha

So, I've been baking bread today, a great day for turning on the oven for an hour or so.  We had snow on Monday, but only about 3-4 inches, which was gone by mid-day.  

I used to hate seeing snow on Sunday night, knowing I would have to drive to work in it.  But these days, I just stretch in bed, roll over, and go back to sleep for a little while.  Oh, how I love being retired!  I can do ~ or not do ~ what I want to do.  But I admit my office is really awful and I need to go back to going through my closet, and arranging my cookbooks and other crap.  I still need to call the charter school that offers photography and see if they want any of my old equipment.  I doubt they will want the film cameras....Why would they?  Digital is so much more convenient.  

I hope all of you are staying warm.....come on spring!

😆😆😆

Love, 365

Battle Bots and other wacky stuff.......

 

How does he do it?  Romeo started watching Battle Bots a couple of years ago.  Basically teams built these robots and battle it out for 3 minutes (sometimes it's a lot less).  Each season someone wins the GIANT NUT.  

The double entendre isn't lost here...... haha

At first I just ignored it and played a game on my phone, or went to my office and watched something else.  Then I watched a few, and now I find it interesting and it's got lots of action....well, it lasts for 3 minutes (I can think of something else that is exciting for 3 minutes, but we won't go there, haha).  

I used to hate watching Forged in Fire, but he has managed to win me over on that one too.  

He isn't a sports fan, so there is that.  I like football more than he does.  

But if he labels a show as a "chic flick" he leaves.  I don't think I've ever convinced him to watch any of those.  I think I'm not a good sales person....although sometimes it's great that he leaves instead of spending the 30 min to 1 hour show being snarky.  Especially when his snark has a point.  :-(  I just hate when that happens.

Love, 365

Oh~kay.......

I know they aren't pretty ~ even after the third go round ~ but these "ballpark pretzels" are really yummy.  They are a bit of a pain to make, and boy howdy the mess on the stove top is out of control.  We have to take it easy, because we could probably eat them in two days.  It's not something I want to bake every week for sure.  

 

I don't know why I took this photo of his paw.  But dang it!  Every bit of this puppy is just so irritatingly cute!  I call it the high 5.

We have a neighbor across the street, a single woman who retired two, maybe almost 3 years ago.  Her ex-husband passed away some years ago.  She's in a relationship, but he has his own house.  She said she really enjoyed having her own place.  This is the lady who bailed us out when our fridge died.  

When something happens she usually texts me to ask if Romeo can come over and look at it.  Which is ok, he doesn't mind.  She did that today, and when she returned home from Santa Fe, we went over to figure out was was wrong with her Bose sound system.  So we went over, and Romeo had his little black bag of tools.....it turned out that she was dusting and somehow unplugged it from the surge protector, haha.  We all had a good laugh at that.  

Love, 365

Happy New Year!

 

We decided to give Demitri the right start to the new year with a bath.....he was not really all that in to it.  Haha

Romeo bought this beautiful poinsettia for Christmas......I think it's the prettiest one I've ever had!  It's such a rich color.   

I have been quite occupied with baking and puppy that I haven't taken time to write.  I've started a few!  Ah, well, excuses excuses.  

I finally achieved one of my goals in sourdough bread, but unfortunately I don't have any pictures of it.  The one time I don't take a photo....haha.  It had a great rise in the oven and a nice open crumb.  Crusty and crunchy on the outside, pillowy soft on the inside.  A friend gave me a new starter, and it's amazing.  

There isn't much new or exciting happening here.  Day to day life ~ laudnry, walks outside with Demitri, playing racquetball at the gym, baking, etc.  Now that I am retired, I don't have any drama to report on 😁  It's super awesome!  I admit that there hasn't been one day that I regret retiring.  Oh, I miss some of the patients that I enjoyed talking to, and most of the staff, but otherwise?  Not at all......it's really fabulous.  I still get up early but not as early as I used to.  6:30-7:00 ~ sometimes even 7:30!  woo hoo!  Once the weather warms up, we will be doing some road trips, Arizona, Colorado, and around and about New Mexico.  

Now....

 

My best wishes for all of you in 2023.....

Love, 365

And a month later.......

 

This photo was so cute, I printed it out to put in our Christmas cards.  This is probable the first year I've sent out cards in a decade.  I have no idea why ~ after so long ~ I suddenly get a wild hair and sent out cards.  Perhaps it's because time is my own now?  It's the only explanation I can come up with. 😀

Last week I had an oil change scheduled ~ at 8am, which is the only place I schedule early appointments with, because otherwise you sit there forever!  As I'm driving with all the folks that are in that big rush to get to work, I realize I've become one of those people that holds people up from zooming down road so they aren't late.  It was nice.  I really enjoyed it....I think I get it now, when I would be so frustrated by those drivers that are doing the actual speed limit.  Haha

I've been really busy, volunteering and baking, taking long walks with the puppy.  Now that he is fully vaccinated, we can let him explore and sniff ~ and he enjoys those walks!  Today isn't a good day though, we're supposed to have a rain/snow mix soon, and the wind!  Ugh.  So, we'll just have to find another way to get that activity going.  I hate cold weather.  It doesn't matter how many layers I put on, or how warm the hat is.  I feel so miserable cold.  I tried to see if I could teach Demitri to walk on the treadmill, but even at it's lowest lever, it starts out too fast!  Maybe later?  When he's older.  Hmmmm 

So, what are you doing for Christmas?  Do you bake cookies or fudge?  We always got together and brought what we needed and then split it all up.  This was my Mom and sister, and sometimes one of my Mom's friends.  It was fun.  I tried to do the same with a friends, but she wasn't much of a baker, and brought a recipe that took f o r e v e r.  So we didn't get much done, and I was so frustrated it was all I could do to NOT say REALLY?  I need a baking buddy.  Any of y'all want to come over?  

Have a great week...

Love, 365

Catching up....

 

View from our backyard a few nights ago......lovely sunset!

Los Poblamos decorating for fall...if you're ever in Albuquerque, stop in and check it out.  It's an organic lavender farm, restaurant, historic buildings....I love going there.

Look who's growing!  It's sometimes fun, sometimes frustrating.  No regrets, although as I mentioned before, Romeo said "no more puppies", haha.  It had been so long, there is a lot we forgot about!  I did purchase this: 

 

I thought about hanging a few bells from the door knob, but knew this little terrorist terrier would snatch those bells off and eat them, resulting in an expensive emergency vet visit.  So, he needs to press the one on the left side (see above) and the plug in has several different chimes you can choose.  Some of those chimes are super annoying.  Luckily one is a regular "doorbell" sound.  At first I couldn't get him to press on the button hard enough to make it go off.  Finally I had to take his paw and show him how to do it....he got it after a few training sessions.  As I've said he is a smart little buggar.  Of course, sometimes he uses it for attention, and he goes on streaks where he'll ring it often.  He's figuring out that if he sets it off, it's outside he goes ~ even if he doesn't want to.  

House training is pretty much complete.  Every now and then he will pee in the house, but we just do the usual take him to it and say no and put him outside.  The last week he's not had any mistakes, so I think he's got it.  It's been a long haul.  Yesterday he rang it and immediately went to his fav pee spot and peed.  It was so good to see.  

It's probably not so much that he is smart, but he's very independent and stubborn.  Hmmm, sort of like me :-)

After a few months break, we are back to baking for holiday sales at church.  We offer spanikopita, tiropita, and new this year, Thula will show us how to make melomakarona cookies ~ a traditional Christmas honey cookie.  I've never had them, but everyone says they melt in your mouth.  Yum....

I've been baking lots of bread....some we enjoy, some I give away.  Nothing warms up the house like having the oven at 450f.  Haha

It's a beautiful morning here, but rather chilly at 29.  Think we'll wait a bit before taking Demitri out for a walk!

Have a great weekend!

Love, 365

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
 

Cuteness overload, which is the only thing keeping him on this earth........

 

Not the best photo, but I like the sass :D

Demitri (the name we decided on) is a tiny little guy, weighs in at about 3 1/2 pounds right now.  

It's been a long time since we've had a puppy ~ probably about 13 years or so.  Romeo has already stated we won't be doing this again :-)  

The biting, oh man.  I am going to have scars.  He becomes frustrated and then will literally jump at your hand or arm and really bite hard.  I currently have 7 punctures on my right arm.  We're learning different ways to reduce the biting.  The best so far is a small spray bottle with water.  After a few squirts, he will leave your feet or arm alone.  I think we were playing a little too exuberantly and got him too excited.  So, we're trying to tone it down a bit.  Sometimes it works, and sometimes he's just in a bitey mood, so he goes into the crate for a little time-out.  Oh, yeah, he gets quite a few time outs.  Haha

House training is going ok.  I hope soon he will get the hang of it.  I told Romeo that by the time this is over, I will have hand cleaned the floors down stairs.  We have removed most of the rugs beforehand.  The one left is machine washable.

I've been so busy, mostly because of festival baking.  The annual Greek Festival at our church is on 9/30-10/2. 

That's 100 (yes!) tsoureki we baked last Saturday.  I was exhausted.  We also made baklava, kourabiedes, koulourakia, paximadia over the past 4 months.  There are probably other types of cookies baked when I was on the road trip and missed.  I think my friend, who manages the baking for the festival, is a little miffed with me about being gone so much this summer. 

Fula taught me all about tsoureki.  I tried writing the instructions down, but she does most things by how they look.  I did my best.  

We not only have a new puppy, we have a new refrigerator.   About a week before we left to go get the little holy terror, I opened the freezer on our old one to discover the ice was halfway melted.  Which prompted a flurry of transferring freezer food into the garage chest freezer, and all of our other stuff to our neighbor's garage refrigerator (which luckily was mostly empty).  This was over Labor Day Weekend.  We splurged a bit, but it is really nice.  I especially like the snack drawer, and the back wall which is lighted.   Plus this one is a lot bigger than our old one, which we really needed.  We are really glad it went out before we left town, because the compressor was still running and we thought it might catch on fire.  It wasn't a lot of fun to live out of an ice chest for 4 days though.

Enjoy your Saturday!

Love, 365