Stuff and Things

1. My kids were doing a pottery camp the past few weeks. They learned some really cool stuff and I wished I could have taken it too. While they were there, I dyed some yarn and worked on business things. Last week we got to pick up all the cool stuff they made. One thing puzzled me. The kids were supposed to sculpt some kind of food out of clay. Most of my kids made pie, cookies, pizza, and other easily identified food. My 5 year old made "moldy french fries" (because he wanted to paint them green but the teacher said they had to be realistic) and "fox fudge freakout ice cream". Once I knew what they were, I could tell, but I am constantly intrigued by his mind. I love that he problem solves and figures out creative ways to stay within the rules. I know when he begins Kindergarten, there is the potential that the teacher won't "get" him and it will be a problem, but I love it.

2. Maya got spayed on Friday. Although I was sad, I was sort of excited about sleeping in Saturday morning with no dog to have to take out early. It didn't quite work out that way because I was so worried about her that I couldn't sleep. I ended up much less rested than if she had been here. We did all kinds of things Friday to try and take our mind off of what was happening to her. We went to a reptile zoo and saw an animal that really freaked us all out. He was behind glass but the tour guide told us he can break any bone in a human's body with his tail. Even the skull or femur. Then she said that his saliva was so toxic to people that an adult would be dead within 2 days of contact. The animal (no idea what he was) was staring at us and watched our every move as we saw different animals in the same room. I was getting really creeped out and was trying not to act like it in front of the kids. The first thing they said when we turned the corner was "that guy was freaky". They had noticed it too. We then saw some kind of snake that would kill people even if they had the anti venom. Apparently he locks his jaw on you when he bites and continues injecting poison until the victim is dead. The tour lady said that even if the antidote was there, you'd run out before the snake ran out of poison.

3. Speaking of Poison, they are touring near me. I won't be able to go, but how cool would that be? Even though now that I have watched all the Rock of Love (including Rock of Love Bus) I have no attraction to Bret at all anymore. He sort of grosses me out a bit now.

4. Speaking of bad reality tv shows, I record Daisy of Love to watch on the treadmill. It is an amazing thing that some of the people on the show survived long enough to be adults. Some of them seem to lack common sense at an astounding level.

5. I just opened the mail and found out that my blood work was great. Everything that was supposed to be in the normal range was, everything that was supposed to be absent was, and everything that was supposed to be low was. How awesome is that?

6. I took my girls for their first pedicure on Saturday. My reasoning is kind of strange and morbid. I know everything will be fine with my surgery. Yet I can't think about it without thinking about all the things I would miss if something did go wrong...not just necessarily with the surgery, just in life. All the things I keep thinking about doing later, well, who knows how much later there is, you know? Not just for me, but for anyone. That's one of the reasons I didn't go with my instinct and wait to start the yarn stuff until after my surgery. I keep being all practical with everything, which is fine in some cases, but it is also fine to just try something and see. It is fine to not wait until everything is exactly right for whatever it is and just go for it.

7. Which is why we spent the day at the beach today and had a wonderful day. It was beautiful out, not too hot, not too cold. We had a lovely picnic there. Just a beautiful day all around.

8. I have 2 weeks until my surgery, which basically means I have only 2 weeks left of summer with my kids. I could look at that with sadness and be upset about how much I will miss, but instead I am choosing to look at it as how lucky I am to have two whole weeks to cram in as much fun as we can.

9. Speaking of surgery...Maya is doing fine after hers. I was laughing when the kids asked what she had done because basically she had the same basic surgery I will be having. I think. Isn't spaying a hysterectomy? When we dropped her off, they asked if we wanted to pay extra for pain medicine to bring home. I was expecting it to be super expensive or something because why else would they ask. It was $20. Do people really not spring for the pain medicine after their dog has major surgery like this? Is $20 so much that it needs to be an option? It would be unheard of to give a human surgery like that and the not be willing to shell out for the pain medicine. It boggles my mind that people can be cruel to animals and not think they realize or whatever.

10. Maya spent a lot of the rest of the weekend snuggled on my lap while I knit. She isn't allowed to go outside for 11 days, isn't allowed to play (how in the world do you stop a puppy from running around and playing?) and isn't supposed to go up the stairs for 11 days. Frankly if I knew how to keep her from going up the stairs, I would do it permanently but since I don't, we will just have to hope she doesn't hurt herself too badly when she sneaks up there.

I did a lot of knitting while she was on my lap.These are knit with my Wildflowers yarn.

And below are mystery socks that will have the next clue/part of pattern out on Wednesday and the one after that on the 22nd (I think). I can't wait to knit the rest of the socks. Hopefully I will have them done by my surgery so I can bring them to the hospital.