Who goes there? Please leave comments so (An Aries Knows)!
Today Tim took The Compound Dogs to Happy Tails Dog Spa for the Annual Charity Dog Wash. This year, the dog wash benefited Miniature Schnauzer Rescue of Houston. Happy Tails is also a vital part of the great work done by Scout’s Honor, rescuers of Tim’s former foster dogs EZ, Tyson, and Gypsy.
Some Compound dogs seem to have appreciated the event…
more than others…
I’ve been wanting to use this button for a long time.
I’m a Quilt Diva not because I quilt. This Aries doesn’t have the patience for that kind of detailed work and delayed gratification.
But I love quilts. This is a composite of sections of all my quilts.
The quilts are on beds in our house and Tim’s apartment. Some of them hang. Some are part of pillows or table runners. Some are folded in stacks on our window seat. Nothing (except food) makes Margot happier than when I drag a quilt to the couch or the bed for a nap. She snuggles under it, or lies on top of it with her head resting on my ankles. Guinness lies next to it. A few days ago, Tim came over while I was sleeping and whispered to the dogs to come outside. He said they pretended they had to stay in and guard me. But I know they’re just Quilt Divas, too.
It amuses me when Tom buys a big batch of chicken feet to add to the dogs’ raw food because it feels like we have Voodoo Kitchen. I tried to take a picture of Margot and Guinness eating their chicken feet, but there’s not a camera fast enough to capture such a snackfest.
As you know, Tim is dogsitting EZ for a few days while her forever person is out of town. Since EZ doesn’t play well with other dogs, Rex spends his days over here. Don’t pity him. Sure, he doesn’t get to hang out with Tim, but it’s like going to Grandma’s house. Here, he gets TREATS, including not only a chicken’s foot, but his usual spoonful of yogurt while the girls are eating their dinner. When he finishes, he’ll have a temporary yogurt goatee, but even CSI wouldn’t be able to find a trace of yogurt on that spoon.
Today I did a most unsluglike thing. I blame Tim for my relapse into behaving like a Woman of Action. After I woke up and did some of nothing, he came over and suggested that we go to the gym. I LOVE going to the gym. Whenever I’m going regularly, it makes me happy. But when I haven’t been going, forcing myself to return that first time is TORMENT.
But we did it. Even though Tim has to take it really easy because of his healing lung, and I’ll have to build back up to my former level of activity, we took that first step. I moronically couldn’t find my membership card once I got there because the zipped section of my gym bag where I keep it had vanished. Oddly, that section reappeared later. Must have been the Spirit of the Great Slug who tried to thwart me.
At least I didn’t forget my lock combination.
I generally tell Tom not to get me anything for my birthday, Christmas, or anniversary. This is because every year when we get our tax refund, I buy myself one big-ticket item. (Last year, it was my Nikon, the BEST FREAKING INVESTMENT EVER.) This year, I decided I wanted this:
A few years ago, when susanstinson got hers, I totally enjoyed reading about how much she loved it. A bike makes so much sense in my neighborhood; everything I need and want is within a few blocks. I have a regular bike (it needs new tires), but I noticed the last few times I rode it that I felt really nervous about my balance, especially when my backpack was loaded with a lot of weight.
This three-wheel bicycle not only will solve my balance problem, but it has that nifty basket for carrying more stuff than I can in my backpack. Even though it’s a single speed, hello, I live in the flattest of the flatlands.
However, due to the economy and my desire to be more cautious with our budget this year, I decided I shouldn’t buy the bike. Then it was pointed out to me that Academy–the sporting goods store where I’d hoped to buy it–offers online gift cards.
SO… I am NOT soliciting birthday gifts. I generally discourage people from buying stuff for me (I think it’s enough that you buy and tell people about my novels). But I do have friends and family who read here and get me something for my birthday every year anyway. This year, if y’all really want to give me something, you can go to Academy’s web site and get me a gift card to their store. I’ll put anything I receive toward this bike.
Note: My mailing address is located in my left sidebar.
Current Photo Friday theme: Morning Routine
Occasionally when I’m getting into my car to leave The Compound, I can feel eyes watching me. I always automatically scan an upstairs window in Tim’s apartment, where he made a little spot for EZ, then Tyson, and sometimes Rex, to watch the world. Wednesday, when I got that eerie feeling of a steady gaze trained on me, there was no doggie in the window. Then my eyes shifted left, and I saw:
Which upon closer inspection, became:
Cats crack me up.
This morning I was trying to select a button for Button Sunday when Tim called and said his chest tubes were out and if his X-ray was good, he’d be released from the hospital. Buttons forgotten, I jumped in the shower, rescued him from the hospital, then we filled his prescription and picked up some lunch. After eating, I proceeded to “nap” for almost four hours, secure in the knowledge that Tim was within Compound security, guarded over by Rex.
Tonight, Tom picked up dinner for us (Tim finally got his Barnabys salad!), and we watched the first episode of this season’s Survivor and the first two of seven Y&R episodes we’ve missed. (Now that he’s a Bradsicle, the show provided lots of flashbacks of the bare-chested Don Diamont when he first joined the soap in the 1980s.)
In all the excitement, I forgot that I never gave you a button. Let me restore order to your existence.
I did a lot of napping Saturday because I needed it. I was hoping to get “that” call from Tim: the one in which he said, I’M FREE! PICK ME UP! Sadly, it didn’t come. But he did spend several hours today without having his chest cavity suctioned and seemed to respond well. Maybe tomorrow they can take out the chest tubes and release him.
Meanwhile, Tyson is having a slumber party weekend. Another potential forever family wanted him to spend a couple of days with them to see how they get along together. As before, this is bittersweet. Tyson is such a freaking adorable dog that while I want him to find the perfect home, not having him here is sad, too. Hopefully if they do decide he’s right for them, Tim will be able to see him later so they can have a proper au revoir moment.
It was a kind of weird Valentine’s Day. Tom did maintenance-type stuff in Tim’s apartment. Then while I went to spend the evening with Tim in the hospital, Lindsey came to The Compound to give Rhonda some good snoozing alone time because she’s so sick. Thus Tom and Lindsey ate dinner together. When I asked Tom if Rhonda and Lindsey were disappointed about Valentine’s Day, he told me Lindsey said every day’s like Valentine’s Day for them. I thought that was pretty sweet. Me: I’m grateful for days when nothing much happens around here except hanging out without mosquitoes, hurricanes, heat waves, trips to the people or animal ER, or palmetto bugs.
Tom sent Tim a card and some chocolate, and I got him a puzzle for us to work on when he gets home. I’ll save a photo of that for later. I also took Tim a surprise visitor dressed in sexy Valentine’s Day finery.
Nothing says Backwoods Barbie like a giant hospital urinal in the background.
Dolly’s fabulous shoes provided courtesy of Mark G. Harris.
Tim’s surgeon came in tonight while I was there. Tomorrow they will turn the suction off on his two chest tubes. If all goes well, they will remove the tubes. If all does not go well, it sounds like surgery again.
So… He could be home by Sunday, or he could repeat the joys of a thoracic epidural, surgery, and being trapped in a hospital room with the loudest freaking people on the planet. Let’s hope for the best.
I’m getting a late start today because as so often happens when I think my schedule is under control, my body decides otherwise. Though I didn’t get a migraine, I got the vision problems that come with one. That means lying down until I can see to function–not to mention drive–again.
But now Tom’s dinner is ready, I can see, and it’s time to get moving. I’m taking a plate with me to the hospital so I can eat with Tim this evening. Tom won’t thank me for the lima beans because he doesn’t like them, and Tim won’t thank me for eating them in front of him because he loves them as much as I do. Maybe evil from Greg and Rhonda is starting to seep through my Shield of Goodness.
While I’ve been busy elsewhere, an early spring has come to The Compound. I leave you with this photo to thank you for your continued good wishes for all of us here, especially Tim. And behind the cut are a few more to add to a virtual garden for you.
