like you care

New Zealand's "Pancake Rocks"

2006-05-01T07:17:00.000-07:00

punakaiki "Pancake Rocks"
Originally uploaded by qofd.

Click on the photo to get to Flckr, then click "all sizes" to see it bigger.

Red fox kit

2006-04-15T19:11:00.000-07:00

Camera, what camera?
Originally uploaded by yvonne11.

Click on the photo to see the cutie in a larger size.

2005-08-20T05:00:00.000-07:00

Mirfy's having trouble with one of his front legs, which is really tough on him. He puts so much weight on his front legs, putting as little as possible on his back legs. With a front leg lame, he's hobbling pretty drastically.

I'm pretty sure the dogs got into a fight the other day -- Mackenzie has a puncture wound on her muzzle, which I discovered yesterday. Mirfy front leg problem started the day before yesterday, so I'm thinking he might have strained it when making a sudden lunge for Mackenzie.

Anyway, this is something he really needs to get over as soon as possible. He's having trouble getting up and down the ramp and even just drinking water is hard. I tried putting the water bowl on the box I use to raise his food bowl to a comfortable level, but he didn't like it that way.

Right now he's dozing in the spot he last fell -- by the water bowl.

Good news from the vet

2005-08-17T10:57:00.000-07:00

I took Mirfy for a follow-up exam of his lesion on Monday, and the vet was pretty sure it was going to heal eventually. I asked if the skin around the wound looked okay (I was there was dead skin) and he said it did.

Mirfy is happy to continue with his antibiotics, since he gets the pill in a piece of hot dog. I'm continuing with the salve, too, although I now have greasy spots on the study's carpeting (he likes to lie on that side). I'm not worried about the carpeting, though; it's pretty old.

His mobility continues its slow deterioration, though. Monday morning I discovered he'd had a bowel movement overnight while lying down, and hadn't moved since he'd had it. But then Tuesday he ran full tilt to bark at the mail carrier next door. Today he's gotten up and is moving around, but he's stumbling around and looking frail and weak. My husband thinks it's time to have "the talk." All I want is for him to see another autumn. He loves 50-degree weather so much. He might even chase a tennis ball again, like he did one day in March.

Mirfy vigil, with variations

2005-08-09T17:04:00.000-07:00

I got to sleep in the living room again last night, because Mirfy didn't want to (or couldn't) get up to go outside for his last bathroom break. (I've done that a couple of other times since I last posted about it.) This time I found out that I would wake up if he got up, which I'd been wondering, because he did and I did. Partly because he now whimpers every time he gets up, which takes about ten minutes. And there are small thumping noises as he tries to get his front legs under him properly. Poor old guy.

Anyway, I don't know when I got to sleep, but I got up around 2:00 when Mirfy got up, and went outside. Then I slept in my bed until almost 6:00, when I had to take some naproxen for cramps. (They didn't get bad, so yay for that.)

But the worst part is that yesterday I found a bleeding wound near his shoulder. I have no idea how what caused it. I have a hard time believing that Mackenzie bit him; she's never even tried to nip at him, even when he nipped her. And I haven't observed any changes in their dynamics.

I couldn't get a good look at it last night, because of the matting, so I wasn't really prepared for the nickel-sized open wound that was revealed at the vet's this morning. It can't be stitched -- it's not a cut. Either a bite has torn a small amount of skin off, or a cyst has burst (could I have done that by brushing him?), or it's a ulcerated lesion due to skin cancer or some other skin disorder.

Not only can it not be stitched, the vet doesn't want it dressed or covered. It needs to dry up (and, I guess, form a scab, under which new skin can grow). I get to put a salve on it three times a day, plus he gets an antibiotic. So for the next week, I need to make sure it's not getting any worse, while not getting to impatient for it to get better quickly. And make sure it doesn't get dirty.

So, an uncovered open wound -- kind of sad and scary and just plain "ugh" all at the same time.

More movies: The Aviator, Howard Hughes, Kate Hepburn

2005-08-06T12:02:00.000-07:00

We PPVed The Aviator the other day, which I liked. It's awfully sad, though, assuming the details about his disorder are accurate. The ending is really effective. I now have a favorite Leo Di Caprio movie, which just feels weird.

So then we rented Hell's Angels. We've only seen half of it, but I saw the most important part -- the zeppelin crash. Extraordinary. Audiences in 1930 must have gone nuts when they saw that.

Then I happened to have a day off when one of the movie channels was running a Kate Hepburn marathon, and saw just bits and pieces of most of them -- Suddenly, Last Summer, Long Day's Journey into Night, The Lion in Winter. But I watched all of the first one, after missing the first 20 minutes or so, a little-seen (and little-liked) 1946 noirish film called Undercurrent. I liked it quite a lot, even though Kate was not right for role in 1946 (would she ever have been?).

The film uses a recurring piano theme as a plot point, and it took me the rest of the day to figure out where I'd heard it -- Carlos Santana based his song "Love of My Life" on a Brahms passage, and that was the Brahms.

Old movies

2005-07-25T16:16:00.000-07:00

I don't watch old movies the way I used to, but I still have a soft spot for them. Yesterday, I saw a good amount of Now, Voyager. I love that movie, except for the ending. Even the creepy kid. (Kids in old movies often creep me out.)

I also saw maybe the first 15 minutes and the last half-hour of Summer Stock. (I usually go walking with a friend on Sunday mornings.) I used to be a huge Gene Kelly fan, and had never seen this one. Somehow I'd gotten the idea that it wasn't very good, maybe because it was directed by Walters instead of Minelli or somebody like that, but what I saw I really liked. Except for Phil Silvers, one of the worst of the "second bananas."

The best second banana was Donald O'Connor -- I saw There's No Business Like Show Business last week, for probably the fourth time in my life, and I still don't like it. (I used to be a big Donald fan, too -- and Fred Astaire was practically a god to me.)

Currently

2005-07-10T14:02:00.000-07:00

Webpage I'm currently reading: Twin Peaks Timeline (spoilers)

I still count Twin Peaks as one of my favorite television shows, although it wasn't something I was fanatic about, and I've never been that taken with its mythology. It's one of those shows that I watched for the humor, mainly. So yesterday I saw the first half-hour or so of Fire Walk with Me, the TP movie, and started looking up TP stuff that I was foggy on. I've had this page up on my PC ever since. Basically it confirms for me that it was as impenetrable as I remember, and there are no definitive interpretations, but also allows me to get caught up in the intracacies again.

Book I'm currently reading: The Broker by John Grisham

Grisham is a little out of his league in this one, I think -- governmental stuff and CIA-type intrigue are not his strong points. But I always enjoy his plotting, and this one has one of those protagonists that you can't actually count as a good guy, but you root for anyway. He does that pretty well.

Last movie I saw: National Treasure

I liked this a lot more than I should have, considering the plot holes and some stilted dialog. And didn't really like the chick with her weird accent. But Sean Bean and Nic Cage were good, and the pacing was really excellent. I found the flaws completely forgiveable. It's always a good sign when coincidences and repeated lucky breaks make you chuckle rather than roll your eyes.

Music I'm currently listening to: Jackson Browne

K. made a JB compilation CD, which I've got in the car. I find I'm not that into the songs of his I used to like best, but instead like "Lawyers in Love," "Tender Is the Night," and "Somebody's Baby" (so far). His voice has always fascinated me, so pure and straight-forward. And in my range, too, which is a big plus for singing along (that's such a difficulty with They Might Be Giants for me).

typoGenerator

2005-07-08T16:08:00.000-07:00

TypoGenerator doesn't generate typos; it generate typographical graphics. I'm a bit disappointed in the lack of variety in images, but it's still fun to play with. Here's one I did.

Homebody

2005-07-08T15:46:00.000-07:00

I'm such a boring person. I've had two days off, Thursday and Friday (I work tomorrow), and I spent them doing housecleaning, interacting with the dogs, and getting things like a haircut and an optometry appointment out of the way.

Even my hardest-working days off involve lots of dog breaks, internetting, and coffee-drinking, so I always enjoy myself. Getting stuff done is what makes me feel good, and I got tons done.

Mirfy is doing okay. It's still a challenge getting him to get up and go outside at bedtime. I think the problem really is that he loves being in the living room with us, and doesn't want to be confined to the study all night. I can't really blame him, but I don't trust them to have the run of the house overnight.

Mirfy vigil

2005-06-29T20:39:00.000-07:00

Mirfy is having more trouble with his hips and back legs. Sometimes he stands, and his hindquarters start sinking. So he takes a few steps, then stops, then they start sinking again. I watched him do that, over and over, for what seemed like most of Friday (which I had off last week). Finally, after standing still to eat a few bites, his hindquarters sank to the floor, and the rest of him followed. I gave him some food on the floor, but he must have been exhausted and he fell asleep.

His main problem, though, is getting back up. I've been letting the dogs stay inside overnight for a long time now, and since the hot weather started I've been more inclined to let them stay inside while we're at work, too, but it's necessary that they go outside for a bathroom break right before bedtime, and right before I leave for work. It's been getting harder and harder to get Mirfy up for his bathroom breaks. We've resorted to incentives of increasing persuadability, up to deli meat, and last night the deli meat didn't work. My husband was so worried that he stayed in the living room all night, to be there if Mirfy got up to go outside. But he never did. He didn't get up until I rose in the morning, around 6:15.

Tonight, my husband went to bed early, and I'm on Mirfy vigil. He got up around 10:15 to go outside, which is good, but he cried a little as he was doing it. This is new. It's obviously been difficult for him for a while, but the little whine noises started, I think, yesterday. Plus, when he was outside, he kind of collapsed, and it took him a while to get back to his feet. Most alarming, after he got up one of his back legs looked really out of whack -- instead of bringing it forward with each step, he kicked it backwards. Kind of like it had a hitch in it he was trying to get out.

That was 40 minutes ago, and his leg seems to be better now. I've been hand-feeding him, and talking to him, and just keeping an eye on him since them. I guess we'll try another bathroom break, then I'll go to bed.

Back from vacation

2005-06-22T16:53:00.000-07:00

I had an event-filled two week vacation, most of it taken up by a trip to Wisconsin to see my mother and my brother's family.

High points of the visit with my brother include a trip to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, a visit to a local landscape store to buy rocks, and playing with their new kitten.

Then back to mom's and off the next day to Madison for her surgery. I was able to sleep in the hospital room, which was not as comfortable as a hotel, but really better all around. By taking lots of walks in the hospital hallways, we convinced the doctor to let her go home the next day. I drove her to her first follow-up appointment on Friday, and she should be able to drive herself this Friday.

I got back Monday evening, and had yesterday off to do laundry and catch up with housework. Although between getting some plants in the ground and anxiously observing poor old Mirfy, I didn't get a lot of housework done.

Mirfy seems to be deteriorating somewhat. It's just his mobility (and of course I have to assume he's in pain.) Basically he doesn't seem to want to lie down. He takes a few steps, then stops. After stopping, his hindquarters immediately start to sink slowly down. Then he takes a few more steps, then stops, and it repeats over and over again. He did this for hours yesterday, until he started eating around suppertime. Of course after a few seconds of standing still to eat, his hindquarters collapsed. By this time he may have been pretty tired, too. I put some food on the floor for him to eat, but he fell asleep pretty quick. Tonight he came in after work and did only a small amount of the walking/stopping/sinking routine before trying to eat and collapsing. But once he was down, he seemed relatively okay and ate a good amount while lying on the floor before falling asleep.

While I was gone, the hubby installed the most excellent dog ramp for him, because the study (which is where the dogs eat and sleep) has two steps going outside, and he's been having trouble with them. So that was obviously done just in time.

This might be kind of a rough summer.

Vacation

2005-06-07T06:55:00.000-07:00

Today we're getting ready to leave for Wisconsin tomorrow, for my niece's graduation. (I'll also be staying another week to help my mother deal with some surgery. I get to rent a car for my return, yuck.) There's not a lot to do; in fact, it's mostly mental -- making sure I'm not forgetting anything.

The heat that started on Saturday, when we put in the rock garden, continues, and Sunday we finally decided that there was something wrong with our AC (which is actually a heat pump system). We had somebody come over Monday and sure enough, the system was completely out of freon, due to a valve problem. So now the house is cool and will maintain a decent temperature while we're gone.

We've had all sorts of heating/cooling problems with this house since moving in last June, but everything up until now was covered by the warranty, which turned out to be a great investment.

Japanese-inspired rock garden

2005-06-05T08:58:00.000-07:00

Rock garden
Originally uploaded by mara.

I'd been looking at a rock garden plan in a book on stonescaping for a while. Finally I bought home a photocopy on Friday. When I showed it to my husband, he really liked it and said I should do it. So I thought I'd try to put it in this weekend.

Turns out it took only one day. Saturday morning, around 10:00, we left for the rock yard. It took a while to figure out the materials, especially for building the little rock sculpture meant to look like a Japanese rock lantern. The key was finding natural or salvaged stone to use as a square post. They don't have any salvage at my rock yard, but they have an amazing array of "brick rock" that has straight edges and sqared-off corners, and we found a beautiful piece of purple-tinted sandstone to use as a post.

On top of the post, two flattish, squarish pieces were needed, plus small flat pieces to use to construct "pillars." I was happy to see some weird-looking clay-based stone that not only had the right size pieces for platforms, but also little flat pieces to build columns. They call it bark rock.

After finding that, the search was on for flagstone. I wanted something of a slate look, and luckily there was a group of gray sandstone that not only had the right look but was available for hand-selecting (rather than having to take the lot).

Finding the gravel, or stone mulch, had its own dilemna -- what colors? I wanted some contrast, but I wasn't sure how much. Black and white seemed extreme, but the white stones looked great with the grayish flagstones, and the black stones were sparkly, which seemed ideal because they're supposed to symbolize water. I was getting hot and tired -- those would do. As it turns out, the black/white contrast reminds me of the yin/yang symbol, so I kind of like it. It's not as naturalistic as what's intended, though. I may end up putting some beige or gray gravel in with the white.

After that, finding the small boulders was easy. They have a great selectio of Wisconsin granite, pink, black, and white. I choose a variety of colors and sizes, keeping an eye out for rocks with veins (found a great one -- pink with a black vein).

We brought it all home in two trips, with a break for lunch. After unloading everything to my site, I scraped the top 1-2 inches off the site to remove grass and weeds, and also to lower the whole area so that the flagstones and gravel would be at ground level.

I played with the flagstone placement for a while, then determined where the post for the rock sculpture would go. Hubby dug the hole for the post and we put it in. Then we put down a layer of plastic and cut a hole for the post.

Final flagstone placement was next, then the "mountain range" of small granite boulders. (They're going to be re-arranged, I think; I'm not quite happy with them. Plus I have some small ones to add.) Then the "pool" of dark stone mulch in the middle, uniting the sculpture, boulders, and the middle flagstones. Then the light stone mulch all around. Then the top of the rock sculpture, balanced on the post.

The plan calls for mortar to put the rock lantern together, but theirs is more complex than mine -- four neat pillars rather than the two roughly stacked columns that I have. So I'd rather not mortar, if I can get away with it. However, it's very flaky, soft rock and will probably at least chip if it falls, if not break altogether. So I'm still considering mortar.

There's room on both ends for shrubs and perennials, and room on the length-ways sides for low-growing stuff like sedum or rock cress, or a nice agressive ground cover like bugleweed. (I won't be putting any plants in the rock area at all; just around the edges.) It's pretty close to being a full-sun area, especially during the few weeks before and after the summer solstice. But I'm still observing the light to see if I can get away with any part-shade plants.

I was done and out of the shower by 4:30. What a fun way to spend a Saturday, although I picked a bad day to create a full-sun garden -- it was the first day to hit 90.

Toad-ready

2005-05-06T14:57:00.000-07:00

I fooled around in the lamppost garden again today, pulling the tiny weeds, putting down a little mulch, rearranging rocks. I decided to turn the small rock pile around the lamppost into a toad house, then I added a 10-inch flowerpot tray to use as a mini-pond. If I decide to keep it there, I should probably set it into the ground, so it's at ground level. But part of the reason I left it sitting on top of the ground is because it occurred to me to arrange a couple of flat rocks to act as a staircase and I liked them. I have no idea of what my chances are of a toad actually moving in, but it's there just in case. (I wonder if I should go toading around the pond in the field across the street.)

Three rocks

2005-04-28T17:59:00.000-07:00

Three rocks
Originally uploaded by mara.

I finally got a photo of my new three-rock arrangement. That's a very old, large Japanase maple. There's another one to the right. I need to go look and see if the moss seems to be reviving. The moss on the rock in back is doing really well, despite getting a little bit of sun.

Big rocks can be too big

2005-04-25T07:19:00.000-07:00

I need to get a photo taken, but we placed two more rocks yesterday, near the front one that was all alone. I'm so relieved. I kind of bought the wrong rock -- it was easily twice as heavy as I thought it would be (which means twice as expensive). But I wanted one bigger than the first one, and one smaller, to make a family of three. So the size is actually quite nice. But it was a bear to move and position. In fact, I decided not to try standing it on end (it's somewhat triangular), even though the hubby was willing. So three reclining rocks instead of one standing and two reclining. Some kind of symbolism there, maybe.

The lamp-post garden, with rock piles

2005-04-23T07:12:00.000-07:00

Another view, with rocks
Originally uploaded by mara.

This is pretty much what the lamp-post, or triangle, garden looks like now. I've added just a few more limestone paver fragments, in semi-balancing piles. (That is, there's no real impressive balancing, but they look kind of precarious.)

We've bought two more big rocks for the front, also.

Close-up of boulder in triangle garden

2005-04-16T17:21:00.000-07:00

Close-up of back boulder
Originally uploaded by mara.

This was early on in the garden design process. The limestone rock on the left has since been moved, and more plants have been added.

Off my duff

2005-04-16T17:06:00.000-07:00

I had two days off this week -- Thursday and Friday -- as comp for working four hours on Sunday, and working today (Saturday), and I could very well have spent them playing Sims 2 all day long. I know because I've spent days off that way. But in April, with nice weather, even I can get motivated to do something outside. Plus I was expecting a houseguest (which ended up getting called off), so there was house stuff to do too.

The cool thing was, we ordered some rocks. One hundred dollars worth of limestone (two pieces too big to lift, so I'm calling them boulders, although they're pretty small boulders) and granite (nine pieces, all liftable).

I thought I knew where I wanted one of the boulders, and the more I looked at it, the more sure I was. I decided to prepare it for the installation of the boulder on Thursday, and also started planning the planting. I probably should have conditioned the soil with peat moss and topsoil, but decided to try it with native soil instead.

After the boulder was set in place yesterday, I transplanted two hosta, a Japanese spurge, a bit of dianthus (I'm not sure if will get enough sun, but what the heck), and today finished up with one more hosta, a goldenstar, and a ragged robin I bought yesterday. All in a triangle no more than five feet to the side. I only hope the dogs and step-grandkids stay out of it.

Reference desk

2005-04-06T10:14:00.000-07:00

Some of this morning's research (counting real reference questions and things that come up at my "online community"):

How much potassium is recommended, and what are the food sources?
How do I get an Armitron watch repaired?
The third prophecy of Fatima, and something a little more sane here
Online auctions

Color coordination

2005-04-06T07:47:00.000-07:00

4271317999
Originally uploaded by mara.

Looking again at the previous entry reminds me of how my husband teases me about color coordinating my pets. Black; black and white; and black, white, and gray. Mirfy used to have more black, actually, back when he was a blue-merle-wannabe (as shown in his puppy picture).

Plus, now that I think about it, our cars are black and white. Hmmmm.

Happy birthday, Mirfy

2005-04-01T14:26:00.000-08:00

Mara's pets
Originally uploaded by mara.

Mirfy's the one on the left. He's fifteen years old today (or sometime soon - I don't know why I didn't get his exact birthday).

The photo still amazes me. The animals get along okay, but they're really not as good as they look.