Inane Chatter

…(’cause it sure feels like that sometimes)…I’ll write about something else.   Like how disgustingly good it feels to run when you’re in the third or fourth or fifth mile and you’ve gotten past the REALLY tight calves and you’re running slightly downhill and “Under Pressure” by Queen and David Bowie starts to play and you’re singing along (through the panting) and you know you’re  hungry, but it’s not that long before John will be home and you can hug him (I can hug him – nobody gave you permission), but maybe not until after the shower ’cause no one appreciates a sweaty hug (and did I mention that my fifth mile is mostly downhill and I was flying?), and then we’ll grill hot dogs for dinner.  ‘Cause it’s spring!  Close enough, anyway.  It was 63 degrees out when I left the house to run this evening.

I finished The Road the other day (Sunday, I think).  I know Mom and Dad thought it was the most depressing thing they’ve ever read, but I liked it.  Yes, it was a bit (a lot) depressing, but that doesn’t make it a bad book.  I definitely want to see the movie.  And now I’m re-reading Bel Canto.  I love it.  It’s beautiful, it’s lyrical, and all of a sudden I feel like I’m in a Frank Sinatra song (“You’re much to much, and just too very very to ever be in Webster’s dictionary”).  Anyway, I love it.

I was expecting it, I really was, but it still took me by surprise.  Roxy had another seizure (two, really – a cluster) about 9:15 last night.  Since December, she’s had a seizure every two to three weeks, and each one has been followed by a second one within 12-18 hours.  And in most cases, one of each pair has been a cluster seizure.  We raised her dosage about a month ago (I think), and I’m keeping the vet up to date.  I don’t think they have any solutions for us.

I guess I was awake anyway, and getting up at 5:15 is something I need to start getting used to, but I wasn’t ready for that this morning.  I heard something, and pretty soon after that something resolved into the sound of Roxy convulsing.  I dashed downstairs and found her under the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs.  Poor thing.  I pulled the gate off of her, made sure her head was free, and waited it out.  It was a normal seizure, no cluster this time, and she took her usual half hour to shake it off.

We were both up and irretrievably awake, so running, breakfast, and getting to work all happened a little earlier than usual.  Not a bad thing, I guess.  We took the dogs for a long walk yesterday afternoon (I really like taking walks with John.  And the dogs.  I need to convince him that we should make it a habit.  Even if it’s just a weekend habit.  I like it.), so my legs weren’t completely unprepared for this morning’s run.  I was a little stiff, but it felt really good.  Best thing?  It wasn’t cold.  Yay!

SPRING!  I know it’s not spring yet, but it’s starting to look like it.  It’s sunny, it got up to 50 degrees, we ran a race, the dogs spent the day outside, and I almost opened some windows.  More progress on that tomorrow, hopefully, since the high is supposed to be 55 (!).  It’s been a very cold winter, and I am SO ready for it to be over.

For the last two and a half weeks, ever since John coaxed/supported/shamed me into registering with him for the 5-mile race, I’ve been dreading today.  I wasn’t at ALL prepared to run 5 miles (high winds, snow and ice on the sidewalks, and being forced to run in the neighborhood streets are my main excuses), so my plan was to run as much as I could, counting on adrenaline to help a little, keep a steady pace, and then if I need to walk, try to walk only for one minute and then jog for at least three minutes before walking again.  So I had a plan.  I also took a peek at last year’s race results and I knew that at least a handful of people took between 70 and 85 minutes to complete the race, so I was fairly confident I wouldn’t be last.  But you never know.  Maybe those people decided never to run 5 miles again so they didn’t bother registering this year.  I told John (who wasn’t feeling all that great about it, either) to look for me around 60-67 minutes.  Closer to 67.

It was a beautiful morning (and it’s been a beautiful day), but pretty breezy, so it was still plenty cold (wind chill in the upper 20s, I think).  We joined the crowd at the starting line and John asked me where I wanted to fit in: front, middle, or back?  Definitely not the front (I’ll get trampled, plus I’ll just be in the way of all those super-serious, super-fast runners), and I was pretty sure I didn’t want to be in the back (why start there?  I’ll get there eventually on my own), but in the middle, there’d be all the psychological pressure of watching all those runners pass me along the way.  I said something to that effect to John as we threaded our way to the back of the first third of the crowd, and he said, “Well, you know what it’s like.”  I’m pretty sure he didn’t mean that I should be used to watching runners pass me.  Pretty sure. 

The course took us through neighborhoods in Ashburn John and I don’t typically see, and there were a few people out cheering us on.  There was a big hill near the end of the first mile, and just after it, a woman shouted from her front porch, “It’s all downhill from here!”  She was mostly right.  There were a couple of times the course doubled back on itself, so I could see that I wasn’t actually last, or even that close to last (definitely in the last third, last fourth, maybe even last fifth – I’ll post numbers when the results are up).  One of the times we doubled back, though, I saw a guy juggling.  While running.  He had 5 (maybe 4, but I think five) red balls in the air at once while he jogged up the hill.  Pretty cool, very weird.

Just after the 3-mile mark, I realized I was doing better than expected, averaging about an 11-minute mile, and I started daydreaming about finishing in under an hour.  I wondered if John would even be looking at the finish line that early.  (Of course he would.  There isn’t much else to look at.)  Any walking I did was for less than a minute and not all that often (4 or 5 times total), and I was still on track at the 4th mile, so I ran the entire 5th mile and managed to pick up the pace at the very end, enough to feel like I was going to throw up as I crossed the finish line.  That’s the way to do it.    It passed, quickly, and John was there, and my time on the clock was just under 55 minutes.  I don’t remember exactly what, but my official time should be lower since it didn’t start until I crossed the starting line.  My watch said 54:24.  You know that means?  That I can do that without training for it?  It means I can do better.  And it was fun and I liked it and I won’t be afraid to do it again.  Another side effect: my fear of 10Ks disappeared.  I can DO this.

I just checked.  Results have been posted.  My official time (matches my watch exactly, for once) is 54:24.  Out of 280 women, I finished 241st.  John finished 197th out of 316 men with an 8:45 pace.  My pace was 10:53.

I can do better than that.

Anyway, we got home, had breakfast, cleaned up (ourselves, not anything silly like the house), and then John had to stay close to his computer since he’s on call to work today.  I talked to Jess (we’re making lots of plans), and then we filed our taxes.  John wants to buy an external hard drive today (and I need a new Scalzi book) AND I really want sushi for dinner, so we’re heading out soon to do all (at least some) of that.  The big decision for the evening is whether we eat out or bring sushi home (and snuggle in for TV or a movie).  Tough call.

I hate when this happens, but I’m just not inspired to write much tonight.  John is in the basement with the band, auditioning a bass player (who, based on an introduction and about 15 seconds of eavesdropping while they got stuff out of his car, seems like a perfectly nice, normal person), so it’s hard to concentrate.  I’ve been trying to read through a few blogs I’ve bookmarked to see if I want to keep reading them, but it’s hard to tell when all I can hear is Lloyd singing “I used to love her, but I had to kill her”.  Kind of distracting.  And the dogs are demanding attention in ways that make it difficult to type.  Roxy keeps licking my hands and Riley was pawing at me.  I played with them a little, but that wasn’t enough, apparently.  They’re outside now.

Oh, I gave up on Bodily Harm.  Nothing was happening.  I need plot.  This is not to say I’m giving up on Margaret Atwood.  Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood, or maybe I’d like another one better.  I refuse to believe The Handmaid’s Tale was a fluke.  ‘Cause that’s just not fair.  When I really like a book by an author, I want to read everything they’ve written.  And I expect to like it.  So I’m a little disappointed.  But speaking of reading everything an author has written, my fallback  once I decided to give up the Atwood book was to read a new(ish) Orson Scott Card book.  So I’m very happy. 

From what I can hear, the (possibly) new bass player sounds really good.  We’ll have to see what the guys think about how he fits in.  That’s my favorite part.  I love gossip.

Complete and utter failure.  Worst ponytail EVER.  I took the dogs for a short jog this afternoon, and for the first time in months, I put my hair into a normal ponytail instead of the double-decker thing I’ve been doing (which has been working just fine).  Because the ponytail wasn’t tight enough, it slid down the back of my head, freeing all the shorter hair in front to flop around in my face.  I couldn’t just tuck it behind my ears (over and over and over) like I usually would because I was wearing my ear grips to keep my wittle ears warm, so I didn’t have ears behind which to tuck the hair.  Behind which.

John has been in the driveway all morning replacing the rear brakes on the mustang.  It’s not supposed to be this hard.  That’s true of EVerything he does to this car.  Except when he replaced the drive belt a couple of weeks ago.  That one went pretty well.  He got the driver’s side done, but he’s having trouble compressing the piston back into the caliper on the passenger side.  I’ve been googling the problem, but he’s got the right tool and he seems to be doing all the right things.  He’s not ready to assume the caliper has seized yet, but if he can’t fit the new brake pad in, he may have to replace the caliper.  And that will mean he won’t be going to his cousin’s new baby’s christening.  Because it will take the rest of the weekend (bleeding brake lines, replacing parts, adding fluid, etc) and he won’t have a car to drive until it’s done.  So we’ll see.  But if he does go, he’ll leave for PA tonight to spend the evening with his family and then drive to Long Island with them Sunday morning for the christening.  He’ll stay with his parents in PA Sunday night and go to work from their house Monday morning.  So I won’t see him again until after work on Monday.  On the plus side, I’ll have Indian for dinner and watch movies he’s not interested in.  But that’s only fun for one night, not two.  Oh!  Speaking of movies, we watched 500 Days of Summer last night.  We both really liked it.  Joseph Gordan-Levitt was fantastic, and while we didn’t like Zooey Deschanel’s character as much, she was really good.  John couldn’t decide if he thought she was really attractive or not.  He said he wasn’t sure if he’d call her beautiful, or even pretty, but he wants to keep looking at her.  So at least he thinks she’s interesting.  I think she’s very pretty.  She’s got that blue eyes with dark hair thing I’ve always liked.  Like Liesl in The Sound of Music.    And I will watch the musical number (from 500 Days) at least three more times before I put the movie back in the mail.

Things I Like (in no particular order):

• Reading fiction, anywhere, anytime
• my dogs
• all dogs
• PUPPIES!
• And kittens
• And cats that actually like people
• chocolate
• milk chocolate
• white chocolate
• Paul Reiser
• Mad About You
• Saturday mornings
• sunny days (“sweeping the…”)
• summer days
• trees
• books (and their smell)
• big band music
• lists
• flowers
• BIG bathtubs
• showers with real water pressure
• manicured lawns
• manicured nails (my own, anyway – don’t much care for anyone else’s nails)
• clean sheets
• John’s clean, just-out-the-shower smell (much better than his just-came-back-from-a-long-run-sweaty smell)
• John (duh)
• everyone else I like (but won’t list here for fear I’ll leave someone I like off the list and that person (let’s call this person “H” for “hypothetical”)  will notice and be mad at me for leaving her (or him) off (even though it was an accident and I really do like H) and she will stop visiting my site, assuming  she was visiting and reading anyway, but if she wasn’t, she wouldn’t know I left her off and she wouldn’t get mad and stop reading, so I guess H was reading, which means, again, that I shouldn’t list anyone because I might leave someone off and she’ll get mad and stop reading)
• decorating with books
• my pretty new dining room table
• Ellen DeGeneres
• working from home
• that relaxed feeling as you drift off to sleep

Speaking of that last one, it’s getting close to my bedtime.  More accurately, it’s getting close to that time when I should be in bed reading.

After I got home from work today and found Roxy totally okay in her crate (no more seizures today as far as I can tell), I went back out to the store to pick up a few things I’d left off the grocery list Monday morning.  Can’t go to Bloom anymore ’cause the one nearest us closed.  I didn’t feel like braving route 7 in rush hour to go to Wegman’s, and Safeway was just that much too far away, so I went to the next closest store to the house: Giant.  Not my favorite place.  I only needed to get four things, so I didn’t write them down, but since I have this habit of forgetting even short lists, I went with my second-best method of remembering them: repetition.  (Second use of the colon in as many sentences: overdone already.  Third!)  I started repeating “Grated cheese, feta cheese, cereal, Oust.  Grated cheese, feta cheese, cereal, Oust.” to myself.  By the time I got to Claiborne, it was a chant with the emphasis on the first syllable of each item.  By the time I got to the parking lot, I was slurring the words a little (yes, I was chanting out loud) so it sounded like “Graded cheese, fetid cheese, cereal, Oust.” Who wants to eat graded cheese and fetid cheese?  That’s how you make your groceries sound disgusting.  End of lesson.

Does anyone know how to make the house stop smelling like scallops?  I sauteed scallops for dinner Monday night, and ever since then, the whole first floor has reeked of raw fish.  That’s why I bought Oust.  I figured I could try this odor-eliminator thing.  So far, not so good.  I can still smell scallops underneath the Fresh Linen scent.  And that’s almost worse.  I’m not sure what to do, since it’s WAY too cold to open the windows and let the kitchen air out.  I’ve cleaned the counters, run the disposal, thrown out the…hm.  The plastic container the scallops came in might still be in the trash can.  But the smell doesn’t get stronger when I open the door to the basement (where we hide the trash can from the dogs).  Still, it’s worth a try.

Wondering what my first-best method for remembering things is?  I bet you can guess.  I’ll tell you anyway.  If I really want to remember something I WRITE IT DOWN.

Roxy had another seizure this morning, just after 4am.  I expected another one, but I was kinda hoping for some time after we woke up.  It was a short one, and her recovery was ridiculously quick, like 5 minutes.  She got up from convulsing, walked around the kitchen a little already wagging her tail, and then asked to go out.  I let her outside (and kept Riley in with me).  She left the deck and came right back up a few seconds later and asked to come in.  Once inside, she started hinting heavily that she wanted a treat, so I made her sit and lie down for it, which she did with her regular enthusiasm.  She seemed normal again already, so I went back to bed.

She’s fine this morning, but I’m going to crate them both during the day so I can tell for sure if she has another seizure.  If she does, I have an appointment scheduled to take her to the vet this evening.  Fun day.  I wish I could stay home.

Sometimes I really love my vet.  Roxy had two seizures (cluster again) when I got home from work.  She started to act a little weird, then like she couldn’t stay on her feet, then normal.  About a minute later, she started to lose her balance again, and then she fell over and started convulsing.  I was right there, so I could keep her head from banging on the floor over and over, and I could keep Riley off of her, ’cause he tried to do whatever it is he does.  He hasn’t been my favorite dog tonight.  Anyway, she convulsed for 30 seconds or so (maybe 20 – it’s really hard to tell), and then it was over, but she gave that high-pitched whine, the one that says something hurts BAD.  She got her feet under her and headed for the family room in a hurry (she was in front of the pantry before), but when she got to the front window, she hit the floor again for more convulsing.  When that was over, she tried to get to her feet again, but couldn’t.  I helped her up, and since then (about an hour), she’s been wandering around the house.  Slowly getting better.  A few minutes ago she nosed around my dinner, so a full recovery shouldn’t be too far away.

Anyway, the vet.  About ten minutes after the cluster seizure, I called the vet to get Roxy’s file updated.  Told them about the seizures, told them she’s still recovering, and they told me to call them if I need them (they’re open until 8pm), and they’ll leave a note for our vet to call us tomorrow.  Nice, but routine.  About ten minutes ago, they called back.  Just to check in.  Because they’re nice people.  They were closing for the night and the vet tech wanted to see how Roxy’s recovery was going.  She reminded me that even though our vet doesn’t get in until 8am tomorrow morning, they open at 7, so I can call or we can come in if we need to.  And the emergency vet is always an option if we need it.  I love them because they called.

Why is Riley not my favorite dog right now?  Let us count the ways:

1. He had his teeth on Roxy’s neck when the first seizure started.
2. He tried to get her again during that seizure.
3. He snapped and snarled at her in the kitchen while she was recovering.
4. He barked meanly at her in the family room, also during recovery.

I was right there each time, and I yelled at him each time.  If the teeth on the neck thing is doggy instinct trying to hold her down, that’s one thing.  But the snapping, snarling, and barking is just mean.  She wasn’t in his way, she wasn’t stealing his food, she wasn’t even stealing his attention.  I make an effort to pay attention to him even when she’s recovering precisely so he doesn’t get jealous.  He doesn’t always react this badly, either.  I don’t know what his problem is tonight.  And yes, I’ve forgiven him already.  I don’t think his pea brain would remember why I was mad at him, if I still were.  If he ever knew.

Oh, good, Roxy’s normal again.  She shook her whole body and when she was done, she came over to me, tail wagging, tongue out, looking happy, and begged for food.

I just remembered the one thing that annoys me about our vet.  She’s going to push the really expensive dog medicine again.  We can’t afford to spend $300 a month on medicine for the dog.  And that’s just one of the three medicines she takes daily.  Who can afford that?  But she’s my puppy….

We met Baby Alex today at brunch with Greg, Amanda, Erik, and Margaret.  He’s SO cute.  See?

And he was on his best behavior.  He only fussed a little, and only right before we left the restaurant.  Margaret and I are in love.  With the baby.    (It was good to see Greg and Amanda, too.)

After we left our friends to head home, we stopped at Hole in the Wall Books, our favorite local used bookstore in Falls Church.  It was supposed to be a quick stop (John’s looking for something in particular), but of course that didn’t happen.  We chatted with the owner for a while about the snow, then we browsed (I found about 12 books right off the bat), and then we chatted some more while the owner rang us up.  And since we were chatting, we took our time, and I found three more books.  I love used bookstores.

We got back to the house much later than we originally expected (and yet, not at all annoyed  by that because, come on, books and babies (and friends, right, can’t forget about them)), but the sun was still shining, so John disappeared into the basement to play his guitar and I took the dogs on a short walk (really cold).  Walking the dogs is only noteworthy because of what I overheard.  There were three girls playing on top of a mountain of snow in someone’s yard, and one of them said:

“I’m a 12-year-old girl, but my mom keeps telling me I have to be proper.  I mean, I’m twelve.“

For a second, I thought she had to quoting from a movie or something.  What mom would say that?

Things I’m doing to get out of this hibernation funk I’ve been in since the snow started:

1. Train the dogs.  I started practicing down with Riley and stay with Roxy, and I’m meeting with a trainer this coming week to work on leash manners and come when called.
2. Clean the house.  Our room looks like a cave.  Clothes are EVERYwhere.  And there’s stuff piling up on all surfaces downstairs.
3. Get outside.  Yes, it’s cold, so I won’t be spending lots of time outside, but it’s good for me to see the sun and breathe fresh air.  Dogs like walks and so do I.
4. Meet with the financial guy.  I need to ask him tax questions and we need to finally pay off the student loan.
5. Buy the new dining room table!  But not until I’ve cleaned up enough downstairs and found places for everything so we don’t immediately cover our new dining room table in crap.  But that might be today!

More later, I’m sure.

The snow makes running really difficult.  Impossible, really, unless I’m willing to run in the street instead of on the sidewalks.  I could do that in the neighborhood – you know, I might.  I have to do something, and exercise DVDs just aren’t calling out to me.  That should probably be #6, with eating right (and less) #7, but those are all-the-time things.

And here’s a picture for Corey.  It’s me, wearing all the clothes I could find ’cause we were taking the dogs for a walk around the neighborhood, standing next to the biggest pile of snow we have.  John took it Thursday evening, so there’s already been some melting and settling.

Now I have everything I want (for today).  We have a fire blazing in the dining room, and John and I are set up on our laptops across the table from each other.  Riley is on a towel on the floor to my right, and Roxy is on the dog bed in front of the fire.  I have a glass of wine, classical music is coming from the family room, I’m wearing my pretty new shawl from Jess, and if I really want to, I can watch the Super Bowl ads on hulu.com.  I may even turn the TV on at some point during the game (John has expressed an interest in seeing The Who during the half-time show).

We did a lot more shoveling today and managed to get both cars out of and back in to the driveway, so we know we can get out tomorrow.  Then I was done shoveling, but John decided to be a good neighbor and help the downhill neighbors clear their driveway and sidewalk.  I played with the dogs in the backyard.  Then I made John come out with the camera and see it, ’cause it’s really funny to see them try to stay on top of 3 feet of snow.  Which they wouldn’t even try until I jumped in first.

Here’s John shoveling the sidewalk:

And here I made him pose:

And here’s the neighbor with the snowblower who could make a TON of money if he wanted to rent that thing out to his neighbors (or a ton of friends if he wanted to clear everyone’s sidewalks for free):

The poor buried mailbox again:

And the path I dug to it so the mailperson can deliver the mail:

The view down the street:

The view up the street:

The house, with a clear driveway, clear cars, and a TON of snow piled in the yard:

Here’s a short series of Riley in the backyard.  First, sitting nicely but not looking at me:

Second, getting WAY too close to the camera.  That’s his nose in the top right corner.

Third, Riley singing “STOP in the name of love!”:

Me and Riley swimming through the snow:

Roxy coming over to see what’s up:

And here she is, glad to get away before the wrestling and the hand-chewing started:

The hand-chewing started when I grabbed Riley’s lower jaw:

Riley, trying to crouch in the snow and failing miserably:

And here, apparently, he’s trying to fly, but his little ears just aren’t big enough:

Riley and I are sitting on top of 3 feet of snow and..yelling at each other?

And here’s a series of Roxy going “Okay.  Enough with the yelling and playing.  Can we go inside where it’s warm now?  What is WRONG with you people?”

Riley’s sneak attack…

…Ended with kisses:

Then he went back to my hands (coated in bacon maybe?):

Apparently, my hair was coated in bacon, too:

Riley officially won, though, by STANDING on me as I tried to get up:

Okay, enough pictures.  Really.  And it may look like I was having fun in the snow, but don’t believe everything you see on the internet.  That smile was photoshopped.  I had a dream last night that the snow had melted away overnight and I was so happy.  Then I woke up.  Snow snucks.

The snow just stopped.  Maybe 15 minutes ago.  And the sun is out.  Our total is somewhere around 30 inches, maybe a little more in places.  Definitely more in the corners of our yard.  When we were shoveling this morning, the sidewalks (which were a little lower than the yard) had 24″ of snow.  We spent a couple of hours shoveling the driveway and part of the sidewalk, mostly to make sure we could get the car out if we really had to.  Tomorrow we’ll tackle what fell after we quit, the rest of the sidewalk, and we’ll try to dig John’s car out.  If he can swing it, I really think he should work from home on Monday.  The roads will be terrible.  We had a plow come through sometime last night, maybe early this morning, but none since then.  Our street has at least a foot of snow.  Snow snow-snow, snow-snow-snow.  I’m tired of it.  And it’s way too deep for the dogs.  The first thing we did today was clear a path on the deck, clear the deck stairs, and shovel out an area in the yard so they could get around.  They can blaze their own paths from there, although they really haven’t this time.  They’ve stayed under the deck overhang, where the snow isn’t as deep.  Mark asked for pictures (apparently, he needs proof – Hi, Mark!), so here they are.  Maybe it’ll all disappear overnight.  I’m ready for spring!

Snow depth on the bench around 9:30 last night:

Snow depth on the bench as of about 9:30 this morning (through the sliding glass door with snow on it):

Snow depth on the bench around 4:45 this afternoon:

The back corner of the yard yesterday afternoon (3-ish, I think):

The back corner of the yard around 4:45 today:

My flower bed, buried:

An evergreen in the neighbor’s yard, yesterday:

Same evergreen, after the snow stopped today:

Out the front door this morning:

The driveway, before shoveling:

John shoveling the driveway:

The house, after shoveling (and the buried mailbox):

The neighbors, also shoveling:

And Roxy, peeing in the clearing we shoveled for her:

You’re welcome. 

So yeah, we have lots of snow.  We came in from shoveling around 11:30 or so, showered, and then had breakfast even though it was after noon.  Hot chocolate (of course), cereal (Wegman’s version of Lucky Charms), and muffins.  And we watched a little TV.  Since then, I’ve been messing around on the internet, and John has been stealing cars and beating people up.  Seriously.  Oh, yeah, and we’re drinking champagne that’s been in the fridge since New Year’s.  It’s better aged. 

Woke up this morning feeling super lazy.  The dogs didn’t agree, so after a few minutes of listening to the frantic clicking of nails on the floor as they rushed back and forth from the bottom of the stairs to the kitchen and back, I got up, let them out, and then climbed back into bed.  About 20 minutes later, we heard attack-dog sounds from the backyard.  That’s occasionally a sign that Roxy is having a seizure, but since they were in the backyard, it could have been their response to a dog right outside the fence or something.  Either way, we didn’t like it, so we rushed outside.  The sounds had stopped, but Roxy was having a seizure and Riley was slobbering/chewing on her neck.  He does that sometimes (and has since the beginning).  The good-dog interpretation is that he thinks he needs to hold her still or hold her down or something and, lacking hands, he uses his mouth.  The bad-dog interpretation is that he senses weakness and goes in for the kill.  We’re 99% sure we can go with theory #1 (partly because it’s pretty clear that Riley loves her most of the time and partly because he always slobbers/gnaws at the back her neck, not her throat), but we don’t like it, so John grabbed Riley away from Roxy.  (Also, I’ve seen the attack-dog sounds come from Roxy, not Riley, who’s in mid-seizure, has no idea what’s going on, and quite naturally doesn’t want anyone chewing on her.)

Anyway.

Roxy convulsed, stopped, and then convulsed again (cluster seizure), and by then it had started snowing.  The poor thing looked tiny and pathetic out there, on the frozen ground with snowflakes falling on her.  After the seizures stopped, I helped her to her feet and walked her to the deck (I had to help her walk), carried her up the stairs, and got her in the house.  She was wet, seriously smelly (there’s a smell that goes with the seizures – not the fear stink, but it’s really unpleasant), and totally out of it, so I wrapped her in a towel and sat down on the kitchen floor with her.  After a while, she came around and headed for the food bowl (always a good sign).

About a half-hour later, we decided it was okay to leave her (and Riley), so we went to Dunkin Donuts for breakfast and then went to the book sale at the library.  And did I mention it was snowing?  And sticking.  The book sale was great.  Not all that organized, but lots of books.  We ended up with another 30 books and 7 or 8 CDs.

We got home to find dog hair EVERYwhere, way worse than when we left, and Roxy out of again and soaking wet all the way around her neck.  She had a seizure while we were gone (leaving evidence by way of an accident in the kitchen), and Riley had done whatever it is he does to her.  So we threw him into the yard, John went out to shovel the driveway and sidewalk, and I swept the first floor.  Roxy used the time to recover.  Now she was all slobbery and gross AND she smelled bad, so we decided to give her a bath.  Actually, I did that while John mopped downstairs.  John took the doors off the shower so I could reach her better.  She behaved much better than usual during her shower.  She usually spends the time trying to escape, but she held pretty still for me.  Now she’s curled up on the dog bed in the dining room, Riley’s on the one in the family room, and John and I are both clean and hungry.  And it’s only just past 2pm.

I spent several  hours today setting up 6 new versions of my website.  You’re looking at version #1 right now.  And I’m including a screen shot of it at the bottom of this post so we can all still see it when I switch to the next one.  I’m not even really tired of the original version, but I thought I’d test a few new ones and see if I (or we – you have some input) like them better.

So this is what I’ve been doing for the last 5 hours or so.  We slept in (’til about 10:30) ’cause we stayed up late.  We watched Adaptation and then had to follow it with Modern Family ’cause the movie was so weird we needed to cleanse our mental palates with something light and funny.  And easily understandable.  It was after one before we went to bed.  We got up late, watched the first two-hour episode of Caprica while eating breakfast, and then we set up on the dining room table with our laptops again.

I was supposed to go to the grocery store today, and when I have to stop there on my way home from work tomorrow, I’m going to be really annoyed I didn’t do it this afternoon.  But right now, I’m very happy I didn’t go.  All we have to have before dinner tomorrow is stuff for breakfast (we have plenty for lunch), so when I go out to pick up dinner for tonight (yeah, we don’t have tonight’s dinner here, either, so I guess what we really have to have is breakfast AND dinner), I’ll swing by the Giant right next to the Indian place (’cause we’re having Indian for dinner – yay!) and pick up some cereal.

Then we’re in for the night.  And I’m getting pretty hungry, so all of that is happening very soon.  After I shower.  We did one of those lazy Sunday things and rolled from bed to couch and breakfast, and from there to the dining room and our laptops.  Didn’t shower, didn’t get dressed.

And Roxy just threw herself at the sliding glass door, so I should go let her in.  Enjoy the new site (and let me know if something doesn’t work)!  I’ll leave it this way for a day or two and then switch to the next one.

My big day went fine.  Nothing particularly exciting, but that’s totally okay.  It was busy and full of new stuff, and I think my head is going to be stuffed with information that I need to retain and be able to explain to others, but how can that be bad?  Before it gets boring, I mean. 

Oh, I lied.  Something exciting DID happen.  I got a Blackberry!  I have a brand new Blackberry Curve, and I don’t know how to use it.    It came with my email set up already, so I don’t have to worry about that, but I don’t even know what the number is OR where to find out.  I’m reading the manual and going through the tutorials.  I’m sure it’s in there somewhere.

I’m making salmon for dinner, and unwrapping the white paper packaging reminded me of how much I love the people who work behind the counters at Wegman’s.  Sunday, I had a funny conversation with the fish guy after he convinced me to buy this salmon instead of that salmon (better quality and cheaper, since it was priced by weight and not by piece) because my wearing a Boston College sweatshirt without ever going there reminded him of the time he wore a Sharks sweatshirt (not because he’s a fan, but because it was comfortable) in Pittsburgh and got snarled at by someone who was decidedly NOT a Sharks fan.  His joke in reply (“What are you, a Jet?”) went over the other guy’s head.  Anyway, he was a big guy, broad shoulders, big gray mustache, very loud.  A few weeks ago I got into a 15-minute conversation with the guy at the kosher counter.  I was buying kugel (potato and noodle) so I could check out their recipes (they make a delicious apple noodle kugel).  He talked about his mother’s kugel recipes, then latkes, then matzo balls, then about his grandkids, and how he’s a little annoyed (but in a good-natured way) that he’s expected to cook for everyone at home all the time when all he does all day at work is cook.  But his grandson asked him, so he did it.

I’m cooking and John’s home and I want to play with my new Blackberry.

Update: Roxy had another seizure just before 11pm.  I should have seen that one coming.  She’s had two seizures in one day that last couple of times, too.

I woke up to some unidentified noise exactly 15 minutes before my alarm was set to go off this morning.  I didn’t hear it again, I didn’t hear the sounds I associate with Roxy’s convulsing, and I didn’t hear Riley pacing back and forth like he does when he’s nervous (like when Roxy is convulsing), so I stayed in bed.  Wide awake.  I decided to take the dogs with me on my run.  I had an awful waking nightmare that the sound I heard was Roxy’s death cry and I would have to explain to my new employer, through my grief, that I wasn’t going to be able to come in today.  I told myself I was getting all crazy over nothing, Roxy’s fine, but maybe I should go for a short run to make sure I’ll have time to go through the 5 or so outfit changes it’ll take before I decide what to wear.

I got up.  Went downstairs to discover Roxy in recovery mode, wandering around the first floor checking things out like she’s never seen them before.  So she did have a seizure.  She’s fine now.  But the seizure meant I decided not to take them with me.  And my run got shorter.  Two miles is not enough to calm me down, but I did go a little faster than normal.  Anxiety is the ticket, apparently, for a speedy workout.  I’m inside, I’m warmed up, and I really need to stop typing and get ready.

We’re learning Welsh!  Ci a bachgen are the first words John and I learned .  We’re using Rosetta Stone (it was his Christmas present from me).  Means dog and boy.  I think.     Could be dog with boy.  It’s hard to tell with just pictures.  We’ll probably buy a dictionary (if we can find one) this weekend.

I checked in an online Welsh-English dictionary.  A means and.  When it has an accent thingy on it, it means with.  So I wasn’t far off.

I checked off the last item on my to-do list (it kept getting bigger), and I still have at least an hour and a half before any people arrive.  And I just thought of one other thing I need, so I’ll come back to this.

I’m back.  I had to go to Hair Cuttery to pick up my hair spray.  They complimented my hair.    Yes, I know they’re paid to do that.  I think I’ll probably just go to them when it’s haircut time again, though.  I went to the new salon that opened right next to our neighborhood Bloom on Tuesday.  I had a 1pm appointment.  I got there about ten ’til, and Theresa, the woman I made the appointment with, told me that she was short a girl for some reason or another, and they had another one o’clock.  I wasn’t in a rush, and I had my book, so I let the other woman go first.  Really not a big deal.  They were playing spa music, and I very much enjoyed my hour of reading.  ‘Cause it was an hour.  Theresa popped by a couple of times to apologize.  Then it was my turn (and the woman’s haircut (the one who went before me) was really cute).  Theresa and I were chatting while she shampooed my hair, and I had just asked her if she lived close by and for how long.  She answered after she turned the water back on, so I have no idea what she said.  Things like that kept happening.  She did the same thing with the hair dryer.  Does she not realize that water and hair dryers make noise?  On top of that minor annoyance, she talked about God.  A lot.  God blessed me, God blessed her, God blessed me again, things’ll be fine as long as I’m communicating with God, etc.  Too much God!  And it’s awkward to ask someone to stop.  I mean, I could have, sure, but then she would have been uncomfortable (yes, I know I’m the customer), and I’d feel weird about going back.  I don’t feel weird about going back, but there were just enough annoying things to make me think I probably won’t.  But I like my haircut!

Review #2: Animal Au Paws.  They’re a local pet-sitting service, and I love them.  I love our sitter, at least.  She was assigned to us and came over before we left to meet the dogs.  And us.  She came over three times a day while we were gone and stayed half an hour each time.  She walked the dogs, played in the snow with them, and gave Riley lots of attention.  You know how I know all this?  She left notes!  There’s a note for every visit.  We read them in order when we got home and it was like reading a journal.  (Or a blog!  Duh.)  Very cool.  And they’re very reasonably priced.  The dogs seemed to do very well.  It’s nice to have an alternative to the kennel.

Okay, half an hour (assuming no traffic) before Jess, Chuck, and Cody get here.  Happy almost New Year!

Assuming, of course, that the snow doesn’t melt away today.  It’s Christmas Eve morning, and John and I are sitting at the kitchen counter in his parents’ house in PA.  John’s dad is sitting at the desk in the kitchen, and the three of us are ignoring each other in favor of our laptops.  John is working (let this be a lesson to you all: work sucks), and I just applied for two jobs (required for unemployment).  Emily and I went for a jog with Mabel this morning, John went for a jog by himself, Molly slept in, and Pat went to work at an absurdly early hour.  I was awake then, too, because I blocked her in last night and she had to wake us up so we could move the car.  She’s on her way home now.

We decided to use a pet-sitting service instead of the kennel this year.  We’re a little nervous about leaving the dogs loose in the house for so many days, but the sitters have five different ways of getting in touch with us, so we should find out pretty quickly if disaster strikes.

I’m just babbling now.  The plan for the day (since no one has any emergency shopping to do – a first!) is to go to the mall (outdoor mall) to soak up the Christmas ambience and then maybe go to a movie.  After breakfast, I hope, ’cause I’m getting hungry!