Poppies and puppy

Bed Bug Bite

I admit that being busy is not reason not to blog. But at least it explains why I didn’t. There were plenty of things to write about, not sure all of them worthy but mostly it were just a lack of je ne sais quoi, not exactly a muse since I have many who visit me.

I will soon be posting photos of my tulips; I never cease to be amazed by their beauty. They are pretty rare in Rio, while I was growing up; to me they are a bit like princesses, or any other thing I just read about in books but never truly experience. I do need to remember to take the bulbs from the ground the coming fall and get them un-clumped since now I have quite a few that simply got together, like they are ready for a garden party.

It has been unusually dry for April (I AM NOT COMPLANING), actually the weather has been gorgeous the past 2 weeks, sunny days and coldish nights, very good for sleep if you don’t have a very unhappy dog crying from 3 AM on. True he has reasons to be unhappy.

Last week we discover that Jack has a terrible UTI and also an enlarged prostate. The vet advice was to get him neutered as soon as possible since it will get worse if we keep him intact. Because Jack comes from very accomplished parents (the dear boy has champion blood in him, of course I knew about that without looking at his papers) we had to get the whole “neutering” idea approved by the owners of his parents since we did sign a contract saying we would NOT get him neutered. They were most gracious and agree since it is due health issues.

Yesterday we took a happy and unsuspecting dog to visit the vet. There was a funny moment when the nurse was giving us instructions how to take care of Jack, she asked how we call him, being his name Frito Jack, so she goes like: “you use Frito, Jack or both names” so I had to tell her that I often call him bug.

 

Jack is a little bit of a clown without the help of a giant cone attached to his head. Now he is the impersonation of the sentence “miserable as a dog”. Yesterday he was not supposed to eat much, just a handful of kibble to take with his painkiller/anti-inflammatory pill and I had to hand feed him since he could not figure how to approach the bow with the cone on.  He also had a hard time when we went for a walk before bedtime, it seems the cone get in the way and he just keeps looking at us with that “what the heck is going on?” expression and the one that says “how I am supposed to get a good sniff and find a place to pee”. 

It was not even 3 AM he woke up crying and nothing would make him better, he was banging on his crate, not even 2 feet by my bedside. No amount of soothing talk helped. I felt tempted to allow him in bed, even knowing he is a terrible bed companion, he trashes all the time, cannot be still for longer than 5 minutes. Since the bed is really high, he usually has problems to jump on it even when he is all ok, I decided against it, but oh boy he was bawling.

I even end up suggesting he might need to go out, yes I know, not a tempting idea at 3:30 AM but alas, He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed did get dressed and took him for a quick visit to the grass in front the house. At times like this I feel very proud of He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed.  Jack did perform but it was not what was making him miserable, by then we knew he was in pain but he is not to take another pain killer until tonight. It was one long night, after some 2 and half hours we gave up and got up.

Now he still looks bewildered but he is starting to learn to navigate the giant cone, sure we will have some bruises due to the banging of the legs (our legs) but since it cannot compare to his discomfort I will suffer (almost) silently.

Now both dogs are snoozing and I have to agree with He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed it is amazing how parents can do it, I mean newborn babies will go like that for months, I have an improved appreciation for those people that can still have a life in less than 3 hours of sleep a night!

I will try to give his medication a bit later tonight and see if it helps us all to have a few more hours of sleep. We can only hope the bed Bug will not bite.

Emotional Alzheimer's

Before He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed got in the picture I had a few other relationships. A couple of them were very meaningful ones and some just for the fun of it. I cannot say I learned a lot but I did learn something. Men are different from us.

If you want something you have to say it, if you specifically do not want something you also have to say it. Is that simple. Mmmmm,kay you might still not get what you want but they will appreciate you cutting the bs. Guessing is not something they like to do, they don’t enjoy it, and they don’t believe it is some sort of sport.

Yes means yes, no means no. Not much grey area there, I truly believe maybe is a female word.

If you ask him what he is thinking and he answers “nothing”, it might be a lie but it certainly does not mean you should start to probe. When a woman answers: “nothing” that is an invitation to dialog, men simply think it is an easy way to avoid a potentially long talk.

Now, it is simple, so how come from time to time I manage to forget all this stuff?

Fresh curls!

It has been a while since I felt as fresh as dew at dawn, and nope it did not happen today either but last week I had a couple of good days and I feel like I should have stop by here to tell you all about it but somehow time just slip away.

It always feels special to have a girl day out to have hair and nails done. To make it even better it is something always done with my special K, not a brand of cereal but one of my very BFF. I was in daring need of some mood boost and special K is just the one to do it for me. I cannot think of anything, apart from a magically achieved 20 pounds weight loss, that can give the same amount of oomph!

So off we went to let Jane do her magic on our hair , this time my hair magic involved a more dark chocolate brown silky color and a shorter cut, then we got a quick bite in town and got ready to have our nails and spend even more time talking about everything under the sun.

At this time of the year special K is awfully busy so it has been over a month since the last time we got together, way too long.

Friday to make the week even better we both volunteer at a fundraising wine tasting, we had a reason to get the nails done since we worked at the reception desk, getting tickets, giving change and doing the fun part that is stamping people hands with smiley faces to allow them to either the regular room or the VIP upstairs. It is quite funny how you can get such a different reaction from people, some are so nice about it and some just so weird, hey the ink will vanish with simple soap, one would think they thought it was a permanent tattoo if you see how some wince!

I was feeling specially good because I got tons of compliments due to new look since I had my hair straight, some people did not even recognize me ( that was overdoing it cause it is not like I had plastic surgery, even if I am starting to wish for it).

Today my curls are back, what makes He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed much happier since he was never a fan of my unnaturally straight hair (sometimes I think he wishes for the rain to make me more curly!), along with the curls I also welcome myself to a better mood, not sure if it is just wishful thinking but I have great hopes for this coming week.