Ft. Lauderdale

Alrighty! I've finally finished up with pictures! As uninteresting as you might think Ft. Lauderdale might be after such exotic locations like St. Martin and Grand Turk, it was interesting enough that I managed to take lots of photographs!

We went to the Everglades, where we took an airboat ride where we saw lots of nature!

Some nature was even close enough that my zoom was not needed at all. In fact, I could have reached out and pet some of the nature.

If, you know, I wanted to ensure I came home with a nub.

After that, it was off to Flamingo Sanctuary and Wildlife Sanctuary with their super-delightful botanical garden. And, yeah, flamingos.

While I took plenty of pictures of the flamingos, the above one in particular, I did manage to drag myself away to finally fill up my SD card with some of the lovely plants and flowers at the gardens.

Of course, there were a couple other wildlife-y things I had to snap pictures of, especially since, not only did nature exist in the gardens, the place was a wildlife sanctuary, so there were lots of birds that wouldn't be able to survive in the wild.

After starting our day early enough to see sunrise, we eventually made our way to the airport to wait a few hours for our flight. Dan and I were pretty tired, so we used this time well.

Thanks to my dad for the picture!

And that's it, that's our trip! Even though I've shared a number of pictures over the last week, it's just the tip of the iceberg compared to what I took. But I managed to get the 2,097 pictures I took to a more reasonable 247 that I think (hope) are worthy of sharing. I'll post a slideshow of those next.

Grand Turk

Oops! I got a little distracted with a combo of housewife-ing and knitting and have let my picture culling slide. No more! I have Grand Turk done!

I've seen things that said Grand Turk has the best beach(es) in the world. I could easily be convinced of this. However our visit was relatively beach-free as we hit Grand Turk on one of the few rainy days in the year.

Dan and I still had a great time walking around, though. There wasn't much to downtown but once we started meandering towards the beach, things became really interesting.

Plus, wildlife! You know how I like that!

I told Dan that I was a little torn about Grand Turk. Of all the places we went, it was probably my favorite and the one I'd most like to return to (with St. Martin being second) but, at the same time, it's the only one that I didn't feel all that safe.

Still, I'd like the opportunity to go back and explore more. I mean, how can you say no to this?

Oh, and want to know how classy Grand Turk is? So classy that when Dan went in a convenience store to buy a local beer (Grand Turk Ginger Beer), the cashier put it in a paper bag, popped the cap off and handed it to Dan.

Yep, that's apparently standard operating procedure for booze and Grand Turk. (The ginger beer was pretty tasty, too.)

I think of all the places we went, Grand Turk ended up giving the prettiest pictures. It resulted in several of my favorite shots from the trip, including this one:

St. Thomas

I'm getting to these a little later than anticipated. I was downed from a migraine and then related recovery for most of Thursday and all day Friday. But I'm back to picture culling and editing and have officially made it through St. Thomas!

We went to an aquarium there, which meant I took tons of pictures and very few came out. Some worked, though!

Of course, fish weren't the only wildlife we saw on St. Thomas. Iguanas were everywhere!

No beach time on St. Thomas, though. Which was probably best so we didn't get toasted after spending so much time on the beach in St. Martin the day before.

Next up: Grand Turk and back to Ft. Lauderdale!

Sint Maarten/Saint Martin

And I have officially gotten through the St. Martin pictures!

Personally, I think they are the prettiest since they include the beach at Orient Bay. Of course, that's not saying anything about my photography but rather about the scenery. Because, seriously, it's gorgeous.

Yeah, it was tough hanging out there for the day. Of course, there was a naturalist resort just down the beach, so not quite all of the scenery was so gorgeous. (No worries, there are no pictures of that scenery.)

Hey, look! A boat!

Drip

Another tiny dribble of pics are done, these from our two days at sea.

Nothing too big here - bigger stuff is coming up next with St. Martin. Hopefully that will be tonight but it will most likely be tomorrow. I want to knit some!

One interesting thing: on our at sea days, we passed the same way (one day going south, one day going back north) and each time we hit a certain point, Google Navigation decided that we had transported to Europe.

I promise, our trip was only to the Caribbean. We didn't dash over to Italy at all.

Slowly But Surely

I'm gradually getting through my pictures! So far I've taken care of Days One and Two. The rest of the week should come soon. But until then, here's a tiny taste.

Leaving Ft. Lauderdale

Princess Cays, Eluethera, Bahamas

Princess Cays, Eluethera, Bahamas

Also, a little celebration: I've always had issues packing. In high school, I'd get so worked up, my mom would have to finish for me. As I've gotten older, Dan has discovered that I typically need alcohol to pack successfully (and without freakout). This time, however, I packed not only without alcohol, but in a carry on! I even have proof!

There was even enough room for a Happy-Doodle! (Okay, I did eventually eject Doodle so I could pack my toiletries. No kitties accompanied us on our vacation.)

Still Working On It...

I'm still slowly weeding through my cruise pictures. I've gone from 2097 pictures to 1549 to 757 in two passes. I still have a disproportionately large number of alligator and flamingo pictures though.

Until then, here's one picture I've gotten all straightened out. An HDR version of sunrise (yes, the one that comes in the morning) when we were coming back into Ft. Lauderdale.

Perhaps not the most iconic shot of our trip, but it was ready!

Updates Ahoy!

We're back! I'm not exactly the most diligent blogger, so you can be forgiven if you weren't aware we had gone anywhere, but we had! We have spent the last week cruising around the Caribbean!

It's going to take me a bit to go through all my pictures (there are over 2,000 of them, but I know that number will decrease greatly when I pick out just the good ones) so I'll probably be dribbling out picture (and blog) updates over the next several days.

But for now, the short version: Dan and I both got a tan (a much stronger one that anyone in the northern hemisphere deserves to have in December), ate lots of delicious foods and had a really great time!

More to come!

Orange Chocolate Part II

Many moons ago, I did a chocolate orange battle to help remind me what orange flavored chocolates I like best. Since then, I've picked up a few more orange chocolate bars but I've been saving them for a taste off instead of, you know, eating them. But it's time for that to change! I've begun the nibbling. So here's the round up:

Theo Organic Fair Trade Orange Dark Chocolate (70% cacao)
Nice chocolate/cocoa flavor but edging more towards a dry, powdery texture than creamy and rich. I'm willing to blame some that on this chocolate being old because it is only a few months before the "Best By" date. The orange flavor is light and sweet, more tangelo than "true" orange. Quite tasty though I do wish the chocolate felt a little creamier. And the orange flavor a bit stronger. The orange only comes in strong when I take a bite and munch on the chocolate for a while. My preferred way of eating chocolate - sucking on a corner until it melts - results in only mild flavor. Using teeth on chocolate makes me feel wasteful, so I'm a bit disappointed that's the only way the strong orange note comes through. Even with those quibbles, it is nice just not wow-ing. I would eat it again but I think I'd go for the Lindt version instead of this one in the future.

Equal Exchange Oraganic Orange Dark Chocolate (65% cacao)
Technically I'm two weeks past this chocolate's "best by" date. Oops. Must have been one of the ones I got on our vacation last year. So, grain of salt with this review, I suppose.

Yes, this is officially dark chocolate. I can taste the earthy notes (my dad always says it tastes like dirt, but I think it is good dirt) of the cocoa. It has a nice creamy texture when I let it melt a bit in my mouth. There are aspects that make me think it could edge towards powdery but it doesn't get there, so I really just read it as a rather dark chocolate. Chocolate-wise, it tastes pretty similar to the Theo, but creamier. Orange-wise, though, this one tastes a bit stronger. The orange taste comes in mostly on the end and aftertaste but it's nice - reminds me of the whack-and-unwrap chocolate oranges, but with a tiny little bite of zest on the end.

Overall, not knock-my-socks off, but tastier than the Theo and totally worth buying again.

Michel Cluizel Noir Aux Ecorces d'Orange (60% cacao)
This is not orange chocolate. This is a very nice, rich, creamy, dark chocolate with little hard pebbles of slightly chewy (but potentially rock-hard) crumbles of what is supposed to be candied orange peel or something similar. However, those little pebble of orange rocks are not very flavorful and the taste of orange is nowhere else in this chocolate. (The occasional one has a nice chewy texture and a good candied orange flavor, but those yummy little orange bits are outnumber at least three-to-one by the hard and flavorless supposedly orange bits.)

The chocolate itself is delicious and I quite like it, but I would never by this particular bar again (as I value my teeth too much to risk mostly flavorless orange rocks) but I would buy this chocolate in a plain format. However, for the purposes of this comparison, this chocolate is a big fat fail.

Valrhona Manjari Orange (64% cocoa)
I was pretty excited to see this one in the store. Manjari is my all time favorite chocolate so Manjari and orange? Sign me up! I'm not 100% sure the ingredients are safe for me, but hey, if I have a reaction, I'll know.

Overall, I think this is delicious but a bit of overkill. The taste of the Manjari alone is so fruity and tangy and fantastic, that mixing it with the orange flavor is both unnecessary and it kind of ends up almost lost in the wonder that is the chocolate. But there are these lovely little nuggets of super-orange hiding in the chocolate and oh, how I do enjoy happening upon those! That's when the orange flavor really pops above the fruity notes of the chocolate and really comes into it's own. It's like candied orange peel. Delicious, but I think I'll continue to take my Manjari straight.

World Market Blood Orange (42% cocoa)
Okay, this isn't dark chocolate, but it is blood orange. I had to try it.

It's good - the chocolate tastes darker than a measly 42%. The blood orange flavor isn't too strong or overwhelming... it's noticeable but doesn't necessarily scream blood orange. Rather nice, but honestly, it simply reminds me of the plain Manjari. Which is a good thing to be compared to but if it comes down between a flavored chocolate and a plain chocolate that tastes just as fruity but is darker, richer and smoother? Yeah, you can guess which I'll go with.

And that's it! I think between this and my previous post, I've investigated all of the orange chocolates I can find that are safe for me to eat. Huzzah! Overall, I don't think they make my perfect orange chocolate bar (or if they do, it's got ingredients in it that I must avoid). I think the Lindt and Equal Exchange are definitely worth having around regularly and I'll probably go overboard and get some Manjari Orange for those days I want to OD on sweet. Of course, I'll continue to keep an eye out for more delicious orange-ness!

The Breadmaker is Sweaty

Yes, we currently have a sweaty breadmaker. But wait, we don't own a bread machine. That means I'm the sweaty one. (The lack of a bread machine is due to the fact that you aren't supposed to make gluten-free bread in a machine that has ever had wheat gluten bread in it... Not that I yet make gluten-free bread, but I like to have the option in case I want to feed it to my mom.)

I'm learning to bake bread. I've done a specialty bread before and I've done lots of beer bread, but currently I'm attempting to learn how to make plain white bread. Today is my second go. The first one... Well, it resulted in bread, but it was a bit dense since I had massively underkneaded it. Mind you, it was still tasty and we ate all of it, but I'd still like to do it properly. Which has resulted in tons and tons of kneading today. It's exhausting and very warm work. I had to turn the air conditioning on.

Technically, according to the window pane test for bread, today's bread is also a tad underkneaded but it is a ton better than my first go and I felt like my arms were going to fall off and I got much too overheated. So I called it good. And it was.

I did have some technical difficulties at one point that led to one loaf (the one on the right in the picture above) being less than pristine on top, but hey, I still think things turned out nicely!

And deliciously. Seriously delicious. Like, we-had-some-for-dessert delicious.

I might be getting the hang of this bread making thing.

(Hopefully, those won't go down as famous last words!)

Overflowing with Kitties

Now that the weather has gotten colder (though I can still count on one finger the number of times the heat has come on), each night our bed ends up with an extra blanket on it - one made entirely of kitty. We've had up to five kitties on the bed at once and, let me tell you, it's really hard to move when the covers are stapled down in five places by weights that seem to get heavier the more I want to turn over. Sam is the only one that hasn't joined the group but I'm not sure if it's because he's fat enough that he's not as cold as the others, is afraid of being eaten by Happy or just doesn't think there's room (which doesn't stop any of the others, but maybe Sam is more polite.)

Of course, outside we've been running into kitty as well. Our neighbors on either side both have cats, but one neighbor's cats are rather skittish and stand-offish. The other neighbor, though, has possibly the sweetest cat in the world that doesn't already live with us.

It's a kitten, probably just under a year old, and she's adorably sweet and rumbly and demands attention constantly. Dan was fixing the fence this weekend and Neighbor Kitty apparently made quite a pest of herself. Well, 'pest' in the sense that Dan totally ate it up and adored the demands for attention and probably took longer to fix the fence than necessary but honestly, kitty cuddle breaks are union mandated, right?

Each time I went outside, I was greeted by a very noisy cat running towards me, purring, demanding attention and trying to get onto the porch when I went back inside. I think Dan and I both want to let her accidentally sneak into our house and, oops, never leave again.

But rumor has it that it is bad form to steal your neighbor's cat. But if something happens and the neighbors needed to find her a new home... Yeah, we'd be in trouble.

Poke

It's been two weeks since my last post so I figured it was about time to post an update. Not much is going on but here's a little overview.

Gidget is off her medication but still experiencing some pain. Nothing as bad as before - she's now chewing air instead of violently pawing - so I'm hopeful it is just the remodeling suggested by the dentist. We have a dentist appointment tomorrow and shall see what she says. All of the other kitties are doing fine. They are much more cuddly now, especially at night, since it is no longer 100°+ outside.

Speaking of the weather, things have finally started to get cold. We switched over to the heat yesterday. It didn't actually come on during the day, but it might have snuck on in the night. Maybe. Things haven't gotten down to freezing yet outside, though, so my Romas are still putting off tons of tomatoes. Now if I would only water them...

My shoulder is doing good. I have some days that are perfectly normal but then I overdo it by attempting something like ironing and I have a few sore days. But I scrubbed the shower the other day with only some slight twanging the next day, and then only when I reached cross-body. I was doing some easy yoga regularly but fell out of that with the post-ironing pain. I need to get back to it - the movements have really helped me get my range of motion back.

I'm knitting on a cardigan sweater and having mixed luck. I ripped out about 5" of work because I wasn't liking how it was turning out. I initially had ribbing at the bottom and front bands, but I didn't like the proportions - the bottom band was so much smaller than the larger front band, which was pulling in (I figure I hadn't picked up enough stitches). So I ripped out the bottom band ribbing and am in the process of replacing it with a simple folded hem. Then I'll re-do the button band ribbing but in 4/1 or 5/1 rib instead of 2/2 rib. I think that will take care of the problem of the ribbing pulling in too much. Additionally, I'll be doing an i-cord edging (which will be on the bottom edges of the front bands) to make it neater than the wrapped edge I was doing before. All that (combined with picking up enough stitches on the front) and I should be a lot happier with it. Add to that, the fit is perfect and I greatly enjoy the color mix of the yarn, so yay!

And in the way it goes with all my larger knitting project, I briefly interrupted it to knit a little project, a little Christmas star.

I think it's perfectly adorable (and the red is cashmere so it's delightfully soft, too) but after I finished it, I realized... we never have a Christmas tree. (Kitties, you know. They make it too much of an adventure.) So now I have an ornament and nothing to hang it on. Currently, it is hanging on the pull-knob of the barrister bookcase. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it but I'm still quite pleased with it. (And it's a great way to use up little bits of yarn!)

All this knitting though, and I must admit: I'm kind of itching to crochet a doily. Or knit a lavender-filled moth. Or, oh yeah, finish my sweater!

Oh, and I almost forgot! One of my New Year's resolutions was to try more tea vendors. I've successfully ordered from two of the three new vendors I mentioned back in January (TeaSpring (which I posted about) and American Tea Room (which I forgot to post about)) with Sugimoto being the odd man out. Well, I'm making an executive decision and calling this goal accomplished. The other week, I ordered from new-to-me vendor Verdant Tea specifically to get some of their divine-and-destinted-to-be-a-favorite Laoshan Black. Next year Sugimoto will still be a new-to-me vendor so maybe we can try again.

Of course, as far as other resolutions go, I'm oh so very behind on my 'read 24 "real" books' goal and am stuck on number eighteen. One behind where I ended up last year and I have a month and a half to at least tie. So I'm adjusting my goal to 'read more "real" books than I did last year'.

And I think I've exhausted every possible news topic. Well, other than Dan but nothing new there - he's working. A lot. Oh, he did make me an orange-honey wheat beer that's pretty fantastic. And he did another pumpkin beer which is practically pie in a cup. So the brewing is still going strong. We have bottle-conditioning beer in about half our closets.

So that's it, that's the news here. A gripping page turner, is it not? But all in all, it's doing pretty good, I think!

Performing My Civic Duty

The Vileness That Wasn't

I had been planning that I'd next post about a cardigan sweater that I'm knitting (cause it's so nifty!), but I've had a bit of a hiccup. Or cough, really. Yes, in the grand tradition of Fall, I have managed to develop bronchitis.

But I'm really fighting back this time. I'm doing all my normal bronchitis stuff, but I've added in Oil of Oregano (horrid, but it seems like it helps me breathe for a few hours after I take it), eucalyptus essential oil (the inhalation of which also helps me breathe) and a concoction that I have dubbed The Tea of Vileness.

Basically, I've combined a few different home remedy teas that are supposed to be good for loosening chest congestion. And it seems to work! Last night I had two cups and my voice was practically back to normal.

Ingredients:
½ teaspoon ginger
a pinch of ground cloves
a pinch of cinnamon
½ teaspoon savory
¼ to ½ teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon honey

Steep it in a cup of boiling water for five minutes and ta-da! You have your own personal cup of lake water!

Though honestly, it isn't really that bad. It smells a bit like mulled cider and tastes a bit like it too, but with a strong oregano-ish note added in. Of course, it isn't actually good, but I was expecting it to be vile so I'm pleasantly surprised. Mind you, it does look a bit like I've scooped up a cupful of muddy swamp (it even settles to help bring back those childhood memories of camping at Kerr lake, though there's no sparkle in the mud of my tea), but it's not like it has to be chewed or anything.

More importantly though, it seems to help with my bronchitis symptoms, so that pleases me. Maybe I'll get over this thing before next spring!

Good News, Bad News

Some mixed news on the health front lately. First, the good news: I've finally found an herbal anti-inflamatory that works really well! I haven't found a corn-free OTC NSAID, so what should be my biggest help in the fight against bursitis has been something I've not been able to utilize. But last week, I got some boswellia serrata and curcumin (turmeric extract) and the change has been massive! Six days after I started taking them and suddenly I could move my shoulder with almost no pain! Today, day nine, I have no pain and only a slight bit of weakness and tightness. It's kind of amazing!

I'm still being really cautious because I've re-injured myself way too many times so I'm a bit nervous, but I'm really hopeful that I'm well on my way to normal shoulder use! Yay! This is especially good because the week before last, I had to break out the sling again. Boo! But the sling-needing made me search for more alternatives to NSAIDs, which resulted in the boswellia and turmeric, so I suppose the sling wasn't all bad.

Something that is kind of bad, though: Gidget is still having mouth-pawing issues. We went back to the doctor again on Thursday and got a prescription for amitriptyline. The dentist said something about using it to reset her pain pathways. It will take a couple of days to see the full effect, but already she seems willing to spend a bit longer at the food bowl than before and that's usually a good indicator of pain level so I'm hopeful.

We had to get the medicine compounded since it is a small dose but that small dose comes in big capsules. I've been putting them in the much-loved Pill Pockets and that's working so far. Gidget has to chew it some which breaks open the capsule in the treat so there is some drooling and icky kitty faces involved in taking the meds, but so far she hasn't wised up that Pill Pocket = bitterness and drooling and she keeps eagerly eating them. Perhaps she only remembers the math of Pill Pocket = yummy salmon.

Other bad health news: Dan's gout is flaring again. If it wasn't so obviously painful for him, I might find it funny that someone so young, normal-weighted and relatively healthy had "the disease of kings", but the poor guy can barely walk when it is this bad so instead I am just sad. Apparently it is genetic and runs in his family. His outbreaks don't seem to be diet related - we don't much of the typical gout-causing food at all - except potentially beer, and even that he doesn't drink to a level that could be considered indulgence, much less overindulgence.

He's doing all sorts of stuff that have helped in the past plus added in the boswellia serrata and curcumin (since they are supposed to be good for inflammation and arthritis, both headings which gout falls under) so fingers crossed he's better soon.

Ironically, it seems that I'm currently the healthiest one in the house right now. That's fairly shocking.

Surprise! No Dental News! (Well, Okay. A Little.)

I thought I'd do an update-y type post and lump together some recent happenings that aren't awesome enough to get their own blog post.

First off, remember that whole crunched by a semi thing from January? Well, last month we finally got everything settled with the insurance company. The car had already been fixed (that happened pretty rapidly) but it took a while before all the medical visits were done. Now, though, everything is all signed off on and we got a check covering the medial-related things and a little bit extra. And that little bit extra leads to the next bit of news.

We got a new mattress! We've needed a new one for a bit now - our old one was about eight years old and did no favors to my back (or Dan's neck). But with us being on budgetary lockdown this year to save a nice chunk of change, we weren't quite sure how we'd swing a new mattress anytime soon. So yay for semi-trucks, I suppose? Anyway, we got a Stearns & Foster mattress, which are supposed to be quite the thing (though I had never heard of them, but then, I don't follow mattress fashion) and, naturally, we got it at Costco. It's so fantastic. It's soft and comfy but has fantastic support. My back is so much happier now! (It's this one if you happen to be shopping for a new mattress.)

In other news (warning: here's the dental news), Gidget seems to be doing well. She's on pain meds and is camped out in our guest bathroom where she has constant access to canned food. (We'd let her leave if she wanted, but I think the rest of the house pales in comparison to the food access.) We have a check up in a month so hopefully nothing pops up that we need to make an earlier appointment.

Speaking of kitties, Sam is still doing awesome on his anti-depressant. He's now acting like a real kitty - even purring when pet sometimes! That's pretty big news from him because he could get skittish easily when getting attention. Now we just need to work on getting him below sixteen pounds. (The weight loss challenge has hit a bit of a snag as no one is losing weight anymore!)

A bit of a knitting update: I almost missed it but I realized last week that September was my one year knitting anniversary! Yep, as of a few days ago, I've been knitting for a year now! And coinciding with that anniversary, I made probably my most challenging item to date: slippers!

They are done with a technique called twined or two-ended knitting, which is a traditional Scandanavian knitting technique. But the technique wasn't really that challenging (though it was time consuming, mostly because you have to keep untwisting the yarn). The complex part was understanding the pattern!

The pattern is from a book called Knitting Scandinavian Slippers and Socks and it's nice in that it has lots of pretty pictures that show how to do twined knitting, step-by-step. That's awesome and helpful. But the way the book is laid out meant I had to flip back and forth from the pattern I was working on to the basic slipper pattern, back to my pattern, over to the stitch explanations, back to my pattern... and in all that flipping (particularly when going to the basic slipper pattern that is spread over pages and pages because of the step-by-step pictures), I missed some details here and there. Which meant picking up the stitches and making the cuff on these puppies? A lot harder than they should be. Ah well, I'll just count it as a learning experience - learning the right way to do it and learning how to fudge things enough that the wrong way doesn't look wrong!

Anyway, they are a bit loose (though I knew that when I decided to make them since they are for a women's 9/10 and I'm not) but they are super toasty and fit remarkably like a pair of bootie slippers Dan has that I always steal from him. And it seems that the fact that they are 100% wool help my feet not get sweaty. (I know you wanted to know that last bit.)

Of course, finishing off that project meant it was time to start a new one. So what's next? I'm making a sweater! Squee! It's a cardigan actually. I just cast on for it the day before yesterday and currently have something not at all resembling a sweater. It's more like a small belt or something. But that's okay because I knew it will become sweater-like the more I work on it. YAY!

Sadly, I have no picture of it yet (as there's not really much to photograph), but here, have a picture of the yarn I'm using and my gauge swatch.

  

Hopefully there will soon be enough of it to photograph!

And I think that's about all the news that is news (and probably some that really isn't.)

Oh wait, I take that back - there is one more dash of news! Apparently my whole shoulder issue is contagious because my mom's having problems now. Only she decided to one up my bursitis and actually break her collarbone! What a showoff! (Just kidding! I mean, she did crack her collarbone, but I'm positive that she didn't do it to show me or up for any other reason because OUCH! She's having a non-fun time of it ('cause, hello! Broken bone!) so send her happy wishes and thoughts, k?)

Okay, that's really it this time!

Surprise! More Dental News!

Shockingly, I have more Gidget-dental news. (I swear, this blog is becoming the Kitty Dental Update blog.)

Gidget is back at the dentist today to have another x-ray since the chlorophyll gel did not help enough (the severity of her pawing was reduced, but it was still in the moderate-to-severe category).

I just spoke to Dr. Bloom and she said Gidget has two issues currently: an ulcer in the back of her mouth and a canine that is undergoing surprisingly fast resorption. Today, they are going to laser the ulcer to remove all of that (and hopefully prevent a reoccurrence) and remove the canine tooth. We are currently leaving her other teeth in but, if she continues to experience discomfort, we will go ahead and remove the rest of the teeth.

Hopefully we won't end up with two toothless kitties running around (well, two and a half if you count Bitty since she only has two "real" teeth), but I'd much rather have a toothless Gidget than a pained Gidget. But fingers crossed that this takes care of everything and she'll only be partially toothless!!!

Dental News

Just a quick update on the Saga of Gidget's Teeth. We went to the dentist yesterday since Gidget had begun pawing violently at her mouth (again).

We have a few options open to us. Right now we have an experimental gel (though the dentist said she wouldn't add Gidget to the study) that is chlorophyll-based to hopefully help with the pain and inflammation in Gidget's gums. If her problem is immune-based, this could help. If, however, she has stomatitis (which is what Cocoa had that cause us to remove all of her teeth), it might not help and we have to take more x-rays to see what teeth are having issues. (But, per the dentist, it takes six months for dental damage to be viewable by radiograph so we could have up to four more months to wait before her teeth show up as damaged since her last x-ray was two months ago.)

In the mean time, it's been difficult getting Gidget to eat and she's lost some weight, so we are currently trying to tempt her with lots of canned food. Nothing has hit big yet, but I have found she loves beef-flavored Pill Pockets. So I'm augmenting her diet with lots of those.

We have a dentist-directive to call next week to see if the gel has helped. Her problem is fairly cyclical though, so even if she's okay next week, I'm not going to hold my breath that she's all better until she can go two to three weeks without pawing. But still, fingers are crossed!

I Made Something!

A couple of days ago, I finished my OMG-this-is-taking-so-long-why-isn't-it-finished-yet project! Yay! I made a bathmat to put down for post-shower wet feet.

It's nothing amazing, but I like it and it works great! Which means I can get rid of the green one I had in there that didn't match anything.

Of course, I've got about five other projects I'm dying to do (and even have the yarn for), but naturally I was derailed when I saw a pattern for this pair of slippers. While I'm sure my cold feet had something to do with it (I just decided to start wearing socks again yesterday), I kind of fell in love with the obnoxiousness of the slippers themselves. So I'm making some.

Oddly enough, it looks like I'm using the same colors as the pattern, but that's not exactly true. The pattern calls for a bright pink and a yellow; I'm using a muted pink with a orange sherbet-y color. It doesn't help that, for some reason, my camera has issues with getting red/pink/orange just right when taken under the yellow fluorescents.

Anyway, I'm on the foot of slipper two, then I just have to do the cuff on both of them. I hope to have warm feet in about a week! (Though honestly, these are wool slippers so they might be a bit too warm for my feet for a few more months. We shall see! But I don't really make things to have them... I make things just to make them - and I'm having fun learning how to make these!)

Okra and Weirdness

The weather has turned cooler, which I'm not too thrilled about. For a while, though, our garden plants liked it. But a couple of days ago, the Marglobe tomatoes (which had really perked up when we had a "cold" snap a few weeks ago and temps went into the 80s) decided they were done and promptly kicked the bucket. The grasshoppers took care of any delusions of grandeur the Rutgers tomato plant may have had. The butterbeans gave up the ghost long ago and the jalapeño and banana peppers are the only peppers still alive (though the jalapeño looks unhappy about it). The Romas are still riding high from last month's cooler weather though I'm not sure if anything will come of all those blooms.

But the okra? Is a champ. In fact, I just got four okra from it this morning - the most it has put off at once all year! And there are still three or four baby okra on it, a few blooms and two okra that I'm leaving in an attempt to save some seeds for next year. It's the only plant that hasn't been totally disheartened by the broiling Texas summer and I hope it keeps on kicking for a while!

In other news, we had a strange visitor today. Well, we had a couple. First off, our neighbors have a new-ish kitten and puppy, both of which decided to frolic in our back yard today. Honestly, it was pretty cute but really drives home the fact that we desperately need to fix our fence. The gate has a huge hole in it. Why, it's big enough to allow a puppy in! (For the record, it's about a fifteen pound puppy, so not like a four-pound baby. Which means, yeah, the hole in the fence is not tiny, either.)

But after returning said puppy to her owner's arms, I noticed another little uninvited guest.

Quite the funny looking caterpillar, isn't it? I think it looks like Sanrio's Keroppi. Just spikier.

I know that this guy and his friends might love to nibble on my okra and other assorted growing things, but I can't find it within myself to kill caterpillars when I see them. Too many fond memories of playing with them as a child. (Well, that and they make a horrible squish - I can't kill things that you feel crunch or squish when you stomp them. Yuck!) He was on the brick of the porch so I just left him there. After taking many photos of him. Such an odd creature!

Sling-les-ness

Just a bit of an update on my shoulder tendonitis/bursitis issues.

As of yesterday, I have been slingless for one full week. One week in the sling helped marvelously, so this past week has been spent trying not to overdo things and regaining full motion to my shoulder. I have had to spend some short times back in the sling when things just hurt too much, but overall it's gone quite well. I think I've pretty much (finally!) gotten full range of motion back, though I'm still having issues with how much pressure/weight I can apply/lift with my right arm. Hopefully that can be resolved in a few more days.

Fingers crossed!

In other news, Dan's making more beer. This weekend he's making another pumpkin beer and next weekend he's going to make an orange honey wheat beer especially for me! Yay!

My First Top!

In all of the years I've been crocheting (and the one year I've been knitting), I've never made apparel. Hats, scarves and even gloves sure, but not any actual clothing.

Well, now I have!

I'm pretty pleased with it! The pattern was just one size and it would have been a bit small for me, so I made some massive adaptions (check out my Ravelry project for the specifics on that). So the fact that all that math-work turned out makes me happy. I've made lots of math-based adjustments for both Dan's gloves and my alpaca hat but I'm not 100% confident yet in my ability to adapt a pattern properly.

Anyway, I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. It's not perfect - the lace at the top wants to curl a bit and I'm not in love with the way the yarn colors pooled - but I feel pretty accomplished making something wearable and comfortable. The yarn is massively soft so it is so comfy to wear. In fact, I'm wearing it now!

I will have to make sure no kitties try to dance on it, but hopefully it will wear well so I can really enjoy my first knit top!