My first Dahlia

And what a beauty it is! :)

It's official!

As of Friday, May 25th, my lilies are taller than I am. And I was wearing 1.5 inch heels when Brian took this photo. It's MAY! They're only supposed to grow to a max of 4 feet for the tallest variety I bought. At this rate, they'll be up at the eaves when they bloom!

Growth

This is our friend Randi last weekend when she and John came to visit. She is FAR from the shortest friend, and yet three of my lilies are already taller than her. At this rate they may reach John's 6'+ height!

Crazy Cat Mom

Percy's spring coat is starting to come in, and his mane is clearly showing. This makes me happy, because he's a gorgeous cat. And do note that he's MAYBE a third of the way grown in. But I'm rather afraid to see what he'll look like after his next shave on Saturday. He's in the early stages of kidney failure and has lost a lot of weight. (Almost a quarter of his body mass.) I'm afraid he's going to look like just skin and bones :( :( :( But the vet agreed that since it's his "normal" we should go ahead and do it. It will also (hopefully) prevent any extra throwing up from hairballs. We have enough of that from the kidney failure. Poor dude. But he is 17 years old and in fantastic shape otherwise. We're trying to prepare ourselves for what we know is coming, but it seems like he's got a while yet. The prescription food has helped a lot, hopefully he'll manage to put some of that lost weight back on!

Twins!

So... Brian and I made a most awesome thrift store find this week. An apparently fully functional, in cabinet, OLD Singer sewing machine. For $30! SOLD! My "new" machine was made sometime in early 1910! It had an electric motor added at some point (possibly the 40's from what we've been able to find out), but the wiring is in such bad shape you couldn't pay me to plug it in.

While online trying to find more out about it, I came across a twin, fully restored, functional twin. On eBay, but the seller was here on Long Island. A few emails later, and Brian and I drove out the North Fork and brought home the twin. I now know someone who fixes them as a hobby, is a wealth of information, and REALLY helpful. She also had the treadle base for the machine (the wood cabinet was severely damaged), and sold us that for a song. All I need to do is build a top for it and I will have a treadle machine too! I am truly spoiled!

In return, Brian got a stop at his favourite pie place in the world. That particular pie was peach, and so fresh we were warned to lift the lid once we got it in the car. :) Two other frozen ones also came home with us!

My new hardware!

This is from today's x-rays, and the neurosurgeon likes what he sees. He also (with some effort, ouch!) took off the steristrips, so I can see the incision now. Not as long as it seemed from the mass of steristrips, so overall, no complaints! Another two weeks in the soft collar while PT rebuilds my neck muscles, then we'll evaluate when I go back to work. So longer off work than originally planned. Thanks heavens I have GREAT short term disability insurance!

A very lucky girl!

Our friends Randi and John drove out from Brooklyn for a visit today and brought me this gorgeous bunch of roses :)

Spring is close enough to here!

Brian got out the grill and cleaned it up ready to go. Unfortunately due to a scheduling miscommunication on my part, I didn't have time to try anything from the grill tonight :(

It's good to be crafty!

As part of healing from my surgery, I'm going to have to wear a soft neck brace for the next 3 weeks. They didn't have one that fit me properly, but were able to trim one down for me. Unfortunately, this meant it only had half the soft fabric covering, and had rough foam running on my skin. I also happened to have a soft, fuzzy remnant of flannel I'd picked up a couple of weeks ago. Ta-Da!

(I can't control the order it uploads the photos in, but hopefully this should show before and after.)

It's just a flesh wound...

Sometimes there can be too many choices

We went to Brian's favourite restaurant with friends on Sunday. The page Tina is holding lists just the daily specials. There are an additional dozen pages or so of the regular menu. Many jokes were made about rolling to determine what to choose!

Stop and smell the roses

Sometimes we need to just take time to remember that even with all the crazy stuff going on in our lives, we still have a pretty cool life.
We had tickets to a taping Friday night of a comedian we like in the city. I took the day off so we could have a nice sleep in (I made it almost until 7am!) and take our time getting ready to go in. Just generally take it nice and slow and relaxed.
What Brian didn't know was that I'd found a steal of a last minute deal, so we also had a hotel for the night, and lunch plans for Saturday with Friends at one of Brian's favourite restaurants!
We had a great time, and made it home late Saturday afternoon, just in time for the Henagans' Madi Gras arty! More incredible food (I am so not getting on the scales) and another fun late night. Today we're hosting gaming as usual on a Sunday, and tomorrow we're meeting up with another friend just to catch up.
I think I may need a vacation from my long weekend!

The plan for my teeth

Since my dentist is as big a geek as I am, he very kindly let me have a copy of the video of what the plan is for how my teeth will move over the next 13 months. Each "step" in the video is two weeks in real time, and another set of retainers. Wheeeee!

Little things that make me happy

This is Brian putting together the craft organizer I bought for myself and then realized I couldn't assemble. In September!

Sweetest Goodbye

I'm getting ready to put my night guard in for the last time. It has saved me much pain, many headaches, and much wear and tear on my teeth, judging from the marks! But tomorrow it will become useless as I am getting my braces! It's taken me ages to get to this point, and I am super excited about it!