Dec 30, 2021
This house is full of fat girls. Mr. Peskie called my hounds “hippos” when he cared for them a few weeks ago, and I’ll admit they (and me) are a bit rounder than is preferrable. On top of that, Dharma has issues.
Dharma has USMI — the most common cause of urinary incontinence in adult female dogs (spay incontinence). She’s on medication and that works for the most part, but there are times she still has accidents. Those accidents occur more frequently the fatter she is.
A diet means that treats and special bones are limited along with food being decreased. What treats they do get are baked and have fewer calories.
Trips outside are no longer rewarded with a cracker smeared in peanut butter. Dharma hasn’t figured that out yet. Last night, about every 30 minutes or so she grunted at the bedside.
Grunting means “I need out,” in hound dog.
What she really wanted was some peanut butter in her empty belly. What I really wanted was uninterrupted sleep.
Tonight is our last Christmas celebration of 2021. Coco will be home, the Peskies will be here, Perry is off, and I’m making dinner. I’m so sleepy I’m not motivated to wrap the last of the presents. I may do what my mom did when we were kids… pull gifts out of the closet still in the shopping bags. Better still, I may just call in reinforcements.
PERRY!
** yelled in my best “always blame Perry for everything” voice.**
COVID cases are surging. They’re the highest they’ve ever been according to John Hopkins University. Thousands of flights have cancelled. We have live events scheduled for early January and I worry about the latest Omicron impact. One of the events has switched to virtual already.
Dec 25, 2021
Perry and I went to his Mom’s today — we always visit her on Christmas Day. It sure didn’t feel like Christmas in Indiana. It was 70° F or so and the sky alternated between sunshine and showers. During the holidays, I ALWAYS take a ton of photos. I started today with one before we left of Fred with his holiday meal…
I took a couple selfies on the way playing with Hipstamatic filters…
And, I even took a photo of the tree in the middle of the road in Aurora as we laughed about the arrows telling us to go around…
But sadly, I didn’t take one single photo of Perry with his Mom, her tree, decorations, etc. Not ONE SINGLE PHOTO! Still I was rewarded with good food, great gifts, and more sweet treats than Perry and I could eat in a month even if we shared with the Peskies. 🎄
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Dec 24, 2021
As I browsed Facebook this evening and enjoyed photos of big families opening Christmas gifts, I was thinking that I should’ve had a few more kids.
I think Ben should have a few more and Scott screwed up and had none and it’s too late for him now. Perry has no offspring to throw in the mix either (his sister has 7 kids and his brother has 5 – he wanted no part of that gig). With Scott and Tammy not making it in and Coco at her Mom’s… our Christmas Eve group was TINY.
And only half of our small group knows how to make a face when told to (unless you count Mozzie)…
Joking aside, I really wouldn’t change a thing when it comes to my family — size or otherwise.
Merry Christmas Eve!
Dec 24, 2021
In an earlier post I mentioned that the Chrysler team called me “STQ” for Shelley the Queen. I think I even talked about them reserving my room at the resort under “STQ,” and all the trouble I had proving the room was reserved for me. Yesterday, I mentioned that the Queen of England cancelled Christmas plans this year because of COVID — and I bragged that we were moving forward with our plans.
Well… I spoke too soon…
I’m typing this at almost 2:00 AM on Christmas Eve and the problems started yesterday morning. My favorite brother’s flight was cancelled… along with many other want-to-be travelers. The Omicron spike impacted flight and operational crews. While trying to get on an alternate flight, my sister-in-law, Tammy, called to let Scott know she was exposed to Omicron — her family members are about all sick.
She took a PCR test and will have the results tomorrow. If negative, she’s flying back to Vegas so Scott doesn’t spend Christmas home alone for the third year in a row. Ben and I will have lunch with the Peskies and plan to have our family Christmas once Coco is home on the 30th.
Do you see three letters (FFS) formed by water and shadows on the kitchen towel in the photo below?
I immediately saw “FFS” — and we all know what vulgar slang that stands for (click if you don’t). Since it fit our family’s Christmas challenge I had to take a photo. Did I mention my first call from Scott was just as I was taking TWO DOZEN EGGS out of a kettle to make deviled eggs? Again… FFS.
Have a healthy and happy Christmas! ❤️
TIL (Today I Learned): Germany started the tradition of putting up a Christmas tree.
Dec 23, 2021
The Queen of England has called off Christmas for her family because of Covid/Omicron. The Netherlands is locked down for a month. I could go on and on but y’all already know it. If that’s not enough to cause a bit of anxiety, there’s a commercial on either ID or Oxygen that airs in the middle of the night that says, “Alexa, play baby shark.” It’s on around 3:00 or 4:00 AM and twice my Alexa loudly played, “Baby shark, doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo doo. Baby shark, doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo doo…” before I figured out what was going on.
Now, Alexa kindly reminds me that “Baby Shark” was recently played and asks if I would like to hear it again. NO! Never.
When Jerilyn and Tader’s son, Jonathan, was a little feller, he pronounced BRICKS as BLICKS. I’m here to tell you, I followed Alisa’s recipe to the letter and these guys were like BLICKS! Oh, they were really good when they first came out and were warm — but the next day? BLICKS.
Although the Queen of England has called off her family Christmas, we’re moving forward with ours. Two this year, actually. For as long as I can remember, my Christmas tree was up and decorated on Thanksgiving. Never before have I put more lights on a tree just a couple days before Christmas. But this year, I did. Now all I have to do is drag stuff out of closets and wrap.
TIL (Today I Learned): The coronavirus has killed more than 800,000 Americans. Since vaccines have become available, close to 90% of the deaths have been the unvaccinated. The COVID viral load (the potency of the virus in a given carrier) is considerably higher in unvaccinated people.
