Fall and Rain...

It's raining today in Portland...
I LOVE it.
I see these hills out of my window at work. The closest ones point at the Willamette River, and the ones in the distance point to the Columbia River. Right now, their tops are clinging to these gray puffy mist clouds. Pretty soon, it will become too much and the rain clouds will slide down the foothills' sides and drench downtown.

It is cozy and exciting.

The leaves are beginning to turn colors, but only their tips. Soon it will be a full explosion of color.

I have plans to save some leaves this fall. Last fall they were gorgeous reds, purples, oranges and yellows. They looked like butterflies when the wind swept them up.

We have these gigantic windows at home. The couch and fireplace are right inside. I can't wait for the rain to come down and to bundle up with my sweetie on the couch, all cozy and indoors.

Dog door bell

I love this idea, and I'm wondering if it will work...
I've heard of putting a rope with bells on the door so that the dog bonks the rope, bells ring, and you know the dog needs to.. ahem... go outside. My friend does this with her dog with good results.

But my worry is that it will get annoying, having that bell ring every time we go in and out the door. I wanted something only Maddie would do, so she could really associate BELL with OUTSIDE (though she may associate it with WALK, and then we'd hear BELLS all the time).

Then I found this little bell. The idea is adorable.

Too cute.....

Sister update!

Good news-- she's better!

They determined that the initial symptoms were a severe migraine. She now has a neurologist, and they get to determine if something in particular triggers her migraines. I didn't know a migraine could cause body numbness and slurred speech, but apparently, they can. And even temporary blindness (yow).

So that was the cause of the morning ER visit. The afternoon ER visit was caused, most likely, by a torn back muscle. Again, didn't realize one could be in so much pain from that... the pain was likely amplified by the back procedures done earlier in the day. I've never seen anyone in so much pain though, and it was truly terrifying.

Monday through Thursday, she was unable to sit upright (or get beyond lying down) without dizziness, nausea, and a thumping headache. Cause? A spinal headache, which is rare, but can happen from a spinal tap. Basically, your body didn't patch the hole created when the spinal fluid was taken, and spinal fluid leaked as fast as your body made it. Your brain, as a result, does not have as much spinal fluid around it, and your brain sits lower, causing the dizziness, nausea, and thumping headache.

They took blood from her and put it by her spine around the leak. The blood clotted, stopped the leak, and she's all better! Well, she said she felt like a horse kicked her in the back... but otherwise fine.

Damn that horse.

But now, she gets to deal with a friend of hers (whom she's in the past said "no" to being her boyfriend) who thinks because he helped her out during this trying time, that now he has possibly the opening to be her boyfriend. Oy!

Have I mentioned I'm glad I don't have to date anymore?

Thank you for all your worries. I'm so glad she's doing better! It was really a horrible week for her last week.

Mom, meet Granddog

My mom with Maddie...

Let's just say the dog was almost smuggled home with my mom in her sweater. She didn't want to let her go. :)
And Maddie? Um, based on the photo above, she was very content with her new friend.

Judgmental Cat

Judgmental Cat... is judgmental.

Cat mob

I'm beginning this post in the bathroom this morning because I am classy like that. As in, I'm talking about the bathroom, I'm not writing this in the bathroom. Sigh.

So I'm in the bathroom this morning and what do I see? A little gray fur paw under the door. It was moving around, back and forth and wrapped around the bottom of the door (so the paw owner must have been on his back to do that acrobatic stunt).

What was he thinking? That'd he'd catch me? We've done this trick before... paw under door, and the moment you touch it WHOOOSH! paw gone. He's been on the other side of the bathroom door lots of times, so what does he think he's going to find? It's like an odd fishing expedition.

So I open the bathroom door and I find....

three cat monsters staring. I felt teamed up on. Like I had no choice but to offer food and abide by cat mob wishes. Really, I knew they were hungry, but the cat mob... and they all were looking at me like a human would with one eyebrow raised.

"Oh really? Have you REALLY not fed us yet? Tisk tisk tisk..."

My life in the mornings has become an exercise in agility. Avoid dog crate. Step over pet gates. Lift food, don't spill. We have the cat set-up in a room with a small pet door on it because Fluffybutt loves to scarf down cat food. Seriously. Scarf down. WOLFS that food down. I wish they could put whatever's in that cat food in her dog chow. I'd have the largest pup on the block.

So I grab the cat food scoop, walk into the cat set-up room, pour the food in and get fresh water for the monsters.

When all is said and done, do you think they are eating? Nope. They look smug, the beasts, as if they're thinking "boo ya, told you we could get her to do it."

Cat mob: 1, Me: 0.

On an unrelated note, I ate too many pear tomatoes that one of my secretaries brought in yesterday. Gurgle gurgle stomach is not good. But they were oh-so delicious.

New addition! Meet Maddie!

I had to wait until I told my sister. But, now that she knows...

Meet Madeline "Maddie" Fluffybutt (that name changes) Kaiser! Maddie is a tri-colored fluffy corgi, and we just love her. Very smart. She understands "NO" (whew), she has about an 85% success rate with the bathroom, and she Looooves her tummy scratched. She's 11.5 weeks old.
Right now, one ear is up but a little floppy. The other ear has some uumph to it, but hasn't quite gotten up.

Her head will eventually be all red, and there will be some red on her legs as well. She'll look like a german shepherd (color-wise and ears) but with short legs and no tail.

And, of course, she has a CORGI BUTT! Love it.

And she's a ham. And very curious. This is also a good shot of the one ear up, one ear down.

"Why you lock me in heres? I'm in the car... I can ride on your lap, right?"

Asleep, in the car, on her back, on the ride home. No sweat for this little puppy.

LOVE the tummy scratches!

If her water bowl is more than half full, she will plop her front paws in it and dig. It's really funny to watch. And, since she doesn't mind being wrapped up in a towel afterwards, it's fun and non-messy.

She LOVES Rumpole. LOVES him. That cat has the patience of 1000 monks. Seriously. She will run across the room and TACKLE him. Full-on tackle. Bite his toes, chew his ear, lick his face. And he puts up with it. If he bats her, he's playing and there are no claws. We have heaped praise on this cat because we are SO impressed with him.

Sister news

She's doing a little better, but still not at work. Poor thing! My folks are still there with her, so she's in good hands. :)

Thank you all for the thoughts and well-wishes!

Oy.

What a last couple of days.

Minor thing: Whacked my foot against the wall by accident. Two very bruised, very sad looking toes. I don't think they're broken, but ouch.

Major thing: My sister was in the ER twice on Monday. Early monday, just after I had carpooled work, I got news that my sister was in the emergency room. She woke up at 3am to a headache that felt like someone was stabbing her head with a knife. She gets migranes, and she said this was 1000s of times worse. She called the advice nurse, who said for her to go to the ER immediately. She called a friend to drive her, and then called my parents while she waited because she was freaked out.

While she was talking with them, her left side went numb and she started to slur her words together. She got off the phone and immediately called 911.

The ER did an MRI, CAT can, and a spinal tap. That's when I got the news, and I immediately hopped in a rental car and drove up to see her. She was released before I got there, but then, in the afternoon, new symptoms presented themselves and we had to rush her back to the ER again.

Her pain for the headache was listed as a 9/10 on the pain scale, and in the afternoon, she was a 10/10. This from the kiddo who had teeth pulled WITHOUT anesthesia (she has a HIGH pain tolerance).

On Tuesday she could not walk-- the moment she went from horizontal to even sitting up she'd get dizzy and throw up. This made the trip to the neurologist and doctor interesting on Tuesday. She's still in a lot of pain and the nausea and dizziness have continued. She's on a lot of vicodin and IB profen. My parents flew up on Tuesday, so I was able to get back to work. But I am so tired. They're continuing to update me.

I now have a little understanding of how husbands feel when their wives are in labor. Yes, the wife has the physical pain. But it is tolling, exhausting, and horrifying to have someone you love in immense pain and not be able to do ANYTHING about it except to be there with them.

So keep her in your prayers. She's a bit better today then Tuesday, and a bit better on Tuesday than on Monday, but she's still not herself.

Heidi Klum...

My husband does NOT like Heidi Klum. I've never heard someone describe someone else's attire so much as "hookerish." I'm not quite sure what brought on this dislike, but he does NOT like her.

We watched Project Runway last night and the discontent was obvious. Her hair, her dresses. This is a common occurrence when we watch the show, much to my delight. And the comments he has on the pieces created range from "that's butt ugly!" to "that's quite lovely." The ugly ones get many more curse words, as do the contestants that are annoying.

My favorite though last night? When Heidi gave the two cheek goodbye kiss? B says "ugh. If i were a contestant I wouldn't let her kiss me. I'd get a bunch of diseases."

Hilarious.