# 310

Wow--I just found out that this is my 310th post on this blog! That is alot of writing!

I am getting so excited for the holidays. I'll have family here in just 5 days!!! We went out and got some fresh wreaths--they smell great! We also found some stockings that look great with our fireplace. And of course, the first light we flip on every evening when we get home is the switch that turns the christmas tree lights on. I listened to some Ella christmas songs, and the charlie brown christmas cd yesterday. I find myself singing christmas songs even when the music isn't on.

I've been so bad--I took pictures of our lighted tree 2 weeks ago, but I still haven't downloaded them to the computer. I'll have to remember to do that soon!

a million homes without power

And we got lucky. No power outages, no real leaks ( although we did see a little water in the basement, it actually seemed to be even drier there this morning). Both of our workplaces have power. But it is kind of a ghost town at work. I guess some people decided it would be better to stay home than make their way into work. There has been some flooding and cars stalling out in the water, so depending on where you live, it probably does make sense to stay home.

Just wanted to let you all know we are safe and uninjured!

big storm--worst winds of the season

They are predicting many power outages as a result of the wind/rain. It has been pouring here all day--and from 2pm on, the nat'l weather service is putting out a high wind warning for this area of washington. I really hope we don't get our power cut off, but just in case, we've got duraflame logs! Those won't get us very far, though. I heard that an alarmist email went around that was saying things like make sure you have wood and food and plenty of cash (because credit cards won't work). It makes it sound like we are in for a hurricane or something. I guess the winds might be that bad--but I think they usually make it out to be worse than it is.

I postponed a dinner party I had planned for tonight so that everyone can be home safe before anything gets too bad. Luckily everyone is available for sunday night, so we rescheduled for then. Also luckily, we had not bought the fish yet, so no worries about it not keeping!

did you hear? .....soy makes you gay

This is one of the most ridiculous things I've heard in a long time. Apparently there is a guy out there who is saying that soy is what is causing more and more people to be gay. See his whole column here . I don't even know what else to say--in some ways I find this ridiculously funny--how could someone be so stupid. He actually says that soybeans are feminizing! If that is his argument, then how do you account for the lesbians? Is he saying that soybeans only affect men and their propensity to be gay? I think he is missing a link /or has a synapse somewhere that just stopped firing.

This quote "It is difficult to imagine just what WorldNetDaily’s standard is for rejecting a column or article – but whatever it is, it is apparently set so low that “soy makes you gay” manages to exceed the criteria" is so true. Who would ever think to publish something like this!

bit breezy

To say the least! Last night we had some hard rains and heavy winds. Let me tell you --when I was walking to the car, I had my umbrella completely horizontal to block the rain and wind. My top didn't get too wet, but my pants were clinging to my legs by the time I got to the car. And the wind was so bad that it stopped me in my tracks a couple of times. Of course, since I was holding the umbrella horizontal, I also had a hard time seeing where I was going, so that made the walk a bit slow! ;-) I have one of those automatic umbrellas, and the wind was pushing the umbrella from the undone position almost back to where it is before you open it up!

What a mess! But this morning David and I discovered the tiniest blades of grass sprouting from our muddy backyard where we laid down grass seed. Yea!!! Maybe we'll have some visible green color by the time my family gets here.

no more phone

Not only have David and I moved into the information age by getting cell phones, we went so far as to cancel our home phone line. You can no longer reach us on the 729 number. Big stuff. As far as I can tell, we have way more minutes than we will ever use, so please don't hesitate to call. If you need either of our new phone numbers, email me.

It has been a rough few weeks, and it seems that sometimes I think I can deal with the sadness, and other times, when people send nice cards or say nice things, I can't hold it in anymore, and I just start crying. I miss Maggie ALOT.

So many people have told us that we should get another dog soon, that it helps with the pain. Well, we started looking for dogs. I'm hoping we'll find one by christmas. We've seen a few we liked on petfinder.com, but when we met them, they weren't quite what we thought. I'll keep you up to date on the search, and post pictures as soon as we find our new family member.

snow and ice

Monday we got some snow and hail, and all of it turned to ice on the roads. David and I took a few pictures. It isn't a lot of snow by most people's standards, but it certainly shut down the city yesterday. We are supposed to get more snow tonight.

In Memory of Maggie

In memory of Maggie, who left us on Saturday November 18th, 2006.

I keep trying to remember that the kindest thing you can do is let your pet go quietly and quickly without all the pain and suffering that people experience when they are sick and no cure is available. (from Ann F.)

It is hard to not feel guilty about making the decision to end your pet's life. She would have been in continuous pain that was not alleviated by medication, had we not decided to 'let her go'. I just have to keep telling myself that she is no longer in pain, and is much happier wherever she is.

I miss her so much. When I wake up in the mornings, I still expect her to be right by my bedside, poking her cold wet nose in my face. When we come home at night, I still expect her to be there right at the door as we come in, and not even let us put our things down before she asks for attention.


There are so many times when I think back to the fun we had. When we went to the park down the street from the condo and played off-leash even though we weren't supposed to. The times we went to the dog park and she ignored the other dogs because she was so focused on us throwing the ball to her. The little squeaking noises she made when we were in the car getting close to a place she really liked.










She liked to be wherever we were. That included when we were just hanging out on the deck enjoying some homemade guacamole. She would bring her devil ball (in her mouth at picture on left) and lay down on the deck with us. More than once she put her devil ball down on the deck and it rolled off down into the bushes 4 stories below. Of course, more than once we trekked down to the bushes full of spiders and other creepy-crawlies and fished her devil ball out. It was her favorite.












She loved to walk. She indulged me many a sunday morning when I wanted to explore the new neighborhood or go down to Fremont. She and I would walk for an hour or more, and she still wanted to go longer! That is one of the big things I will miss about her. I loved to go for long walks with her. She gave me a reason to go out and I might not have done it otherwise.







She was always so happy. As my Aunt Ann says: "I have always thought of our pets as “little angels” put here to be our companions, protectors and friends. Dogs know when you’re happy, sad or lonely. They love you unconditionally and all you need to provide is love, food, exercise and basic medical care. "









How could you not love a dog that looked at you with such big brown eyes, and would wiggle her eyebrows so you knew she was trying to figure something out, or keep her eye on you?

















With Thanksgiving coming up, I want to express how thankful I am that we got to spend the time that we did with Maggie. She certainly enriched our lives in ways we never thought possible. I know her life before us wasn't 'bad', but I like to think that she had a better life with us than with her previous owners. We played and exercised together, and fed her good healthy food, and did what we could to make her life more enjoyable.





She is so pretty. The gray on her face just makes her all the more unique and interesting. She had a wonderfully soft coat that was enjoyable to pet. And she was fairly good about letting us bathe her so she would have a nice clean soft coat. The baths also helped her itch less. Boy- we really did everything to combat all her itchiness. I don't think we ever knew for sure what made her itch more at certain times than others. But we did what we could to make her feel better.












David and I spent all our time with her on friday and saturday before we took her to the vet. I would just sit where David is in this picture and pet her. She loved to be touched, and I like to think that having all that attention helped her to relax and feel a little better.








Here we are playing in the park down on Lake Union. She wouldn't let her eye off the ball, so it was hard to trick her into running when we didn't actually throw it. She really loved that park. When we went there on hot days and played, she would go fetch the ball, and take it to a shady spot to lay down and rest for awhile.







She was so tired toward the end. She wouldn't get up to eat, drink or go to the bathroom. Even her favorite toys didn't always get her attention. I took lots of pictures and short videos of her the last two days. But most of the memories I have of her are during her happier, healthier days.









We were buddies, and she was family to me and David. I've never felt this way about an animal before. Sure, I had pets as a kid, but I didn't bond with them the way I bonded with Maggie. I worried about her, and I thought of her before I thought of myself.
















If we gave her both fetch toys at once, she would hoard them unless we could wrestle one of them away. These two toys, the pink football, and the red ball were her two favorite toys to play fetch with. Sometimes she would carry the toy all the way back to the condo in her mouth. It was a good thing they had big holes in them so she could breathe!













If we were working on the computer, she would sometimes come and push her nose up under our arm so we couldn't type. She always wanted love and attention, and she had so much love to give us.















So here's to Maggie, our first family member, our first dog, and a wonderful teacher of unconditional love.

maggie update part II

I can barely stand to type this, but I thought you all should know what we are dealing with. Well, the radiologist sent back his results to the vet. It turns out that it is cancer. It is in the lumbar area of her spine, and has chewed away some of the bone there. The radiologist said that a primary bone tumor or other cancerous lesion should be assumed. The pain she is experiencing could be a result of the chewed up bone, or the tumor impinging on her spinal cord. A tumor of the spine is pretty bad because there is no surgery you can do to fix it. If the dog had a tumor in their leg, they could amputate the leg and the dog could still do well with three legs. But you can't do that with the spinal area. The only option is radiation therapy for this type of tumor.

We have upped her dosage on a pain medication, but it doesn't seem to help her very much. She still can't get up the stairs, and she can't really squat to go to the bathroom she is in so much pain. The vet tells us that if we can't get her pain under control, we need to let go of her. We are heading in that direction as far as a decision on how to deal with this. I know my sadness isn't coming across through my words very well. I am devastated by this prognosis. I want maggie to not be in pain. It is so hard to watch her try to walk and try to go to the bathroom. We are really struggling with this decision of what to do to help her.

update on maggie

Maggie got more x rays at her appt today. The xrays are going to the radiologist and they will let us know tomorrow what the situation is. The Vet says that she's pretty sure it isn't a bone cancer, but that we may have to take her to a neurologist to find out what is causing all this pain. Then we'll have to figure it out from there. Basically, we don't have any answers yet. They gave her some morphine to make her feel better, but when that wears off hopefully the higher dose of the pain medicine will help. I'll be home tomorrow around noon, so I'll get to spend the afternoon with her.

I have no idea what this is going to cost us, or if we can even afford it. What do you do when you can't afford a $10,000 surgery for your dog? I don't even want to think about it, and until we know more information there is no decision we can make.

Still in Atlanta

and it is killing me. I am so ready to be home, not the least of which is because I am tired of sleeping in a hotel bed and that I miss David. But i think right now, my biggest reason I want to be home is because maggie is doing very poorly. she didn't get out of her bed this morning or yesterday morning, and david had to spoon feed her canned food just to get her to eat. the anti-inflammatories and the pain/narcotic medication don't seem to be helping. David is taking her to the vet today (actually he should be there right now). He is doing a great job taking care of her, but I just wish I could be there to help. David said she could hardly climb the two stairs to get from the yard to the deck. It is so bad. She is barely drinking too--which I'm sure is making all of this worse. Please cross your fingers, or whatever it is you do, to send your good thoughts to maggie.

last minute

I'm heading to Atlanta for work next week--does anyone know good restaurants in atlanta?  I'll be staying near the Georgia Tech Campus, and won't have a car, but can use the train (MARTA) to get places.

Any ideas?

I'm three for three

If you recall, awhile ago I mentioned submitting abstracts to a conference which will be held next year in Hawaii. We submitted three abstracts, all of which I was a co-author of. Well, all three abstracts have been accepted. That means that I have three papers to co-write before January 17th. It also means that additional data will need to be collected before that time so it can be included in the paper. I'm going to be a busy woman. Right now I'm trying NOT to think about how I am going to get it all done, and just trust that I will get it all done. I'm not letting the stress take the joy out of the fact that I am for sure going to hawaii next summer.

Vancouver pictures

David and I went up to Vancouver BC last wednesday and stayed until sunday. I had a work conference up there and had to give a presentation, so we thought we would make the most of the work paid hotel room. Here are our best pictures.

Here is nice garden we could look down on from our room. We were on the 24th floor.

This is the view from our room. All the rooms in this hotel were corner rooms, so we had windows on two sides of our room. Nice! We could see the water from both walls of windows.

This is the view out on the balcony looking the other direction. The big hotel to the right is the hotel where the conference was held.

To prove we were there...here is the first of a handful of pictures of one of us/ both of us.

Here we are...on our balcony.



Here is a view of the museum of anthropology in Vancouver. this is from the side. We thought it was a great building. Cool from the outside, but even better from the inside. I guess I forgot to include a good picture of the inside. oh well. Trust me. It is a great gallery space inside.

View from the front.



Some of David's favorite North American Indian masks. They were mostly from Salish and Haida tribes.

Here is a nice totem in the main area.

this is a carving of a seawolf with seals

Close-up of one of the masks

Here we are outside of the museum. they had quite a few totems outside too.

I caught this one just at the right time! Here is david showing how well he can mimic the totem. I love his goofiness.

Close up of part of totem.

We went over to the Granville Island Market to have a snack after the museum. Here is a colorful picture of the ferry that takes pedestrians from the market back to the city side.

Big tanker out on the water. Did I mention that it rained the whole time we were there? Well, all the time except for when we took these pictures. But can't you just see the storminess in these clouds? Rain in Vancouver is NOT like rain in Seattle. It will get you WET!

Here we have David drying out his shoes and shoe soles. This was a common occurence during the weekend, as the soles of his shoes have a crack which sucks up water as soon as you step in it. He had wet feet the whole time, poor guy.


We took a nice drive around Stanley park. Here is a view of the Lions Gate bridge.

You can sort of see the cruise ship terminal in this picture. It is easier to see if the picture is larger. It kind of has the same sort of tent like things that the denver airport has.

Here I am at a lookout point in Stanley Park. Nice view, huh? My hair was looking pretty crazy, so I decided to hold it back...but now that I look at the picture again, it kind of looks like my head has been transposed into a picture onto someone else's body. weird.

We waited at the border for about 1.5 hours. This birdie stole one of our triscuits. I think he must have been as hungry as we were.

Here is one of the main gardens at the border crossing back into the U.S.


And the whole reason they call it the "peace arch" border crossing. Here is the peace arch.

And then we drove home in more rain and practically collapsed when we got to our house.

now you don't

so here is the same area as the picture below, but without the brick wall. This is not a great picture. There was frost this morning and it was very chilly so I took the picture from inside. But it does give you some sense of where we are going with this.

now you see it... now you don't

Now you see it...the wall that is circled is already gone...and the next pictures I'll post will show you.

plantings almost there

So here you have the almost final version of our new plantings. We need to lay down additional mulch (David ran out last night-so we've got to go buy some more). The rocks are from the rock wall in back, and that may have been the most difficult part of it all. We had to get them all to fit right next to each other, which was kind of like a puzzle. We added a few more plants than the picture I took of all the plants on the concrete. I think it will fill out nicely.

Now we just have to put down some grass seed, more mulch, and we should be done! Well, almost done. Then we have to tackle the other side of the walkway. And then the bathroom. Or maybe the order of those will get switched...

Hope you enjoy the pictures!

planting done

Well, last night, just as it was getting to be too dark to see the ground, we finished planting our new bed.  We still need to plant the groundcover, and the cabbages, but the rest we amazingly got done yesterday after work.  We need to put the mulch in as well, but I'd say it is looking pretty good.  This morning we woke up to rain, so it was really good that we got it done yesterday.  And all the better for the plants to get some extra water to establish those roots.  Needless to say, it was too dark last night to take pictures, and this morning the rain made it not so pretty.  So, hopefully later this week I'll be able to show you the fruit of our labor.

working weekend

And by working, I mean manual labor. Here are some pictures of the work we did saturday and sunday on the yard. By the time we stopped working tonight (sunday), it was too dark to get a picture of our progress, so I guess you'll just have to be surprised by that some other day.

Here is my cutie taking a quick break to give me a smile.

This is mid-day on Saturday. The dirt hasn't been properly distributed across the yard yet, and the incline needs to be made slightly more obtuse.

Here is the progress by end of the day Saturday. Dirt has been distributed and smoothed over.

This morning, I made David sit down with me and draw out a plan of sorts so I could start to visualize what the yard with a bunch of plants would look like. Here is what we ended up with. Not all of this will happen right away, but some of it will. The thing shaded at the bottom is our house.
When we finally returned from the nursery, we put everything we bought together, and boy--it sure is alot.
Dwarf cypress in front, New Zealand Flax (spikey stuff) flanking it. On the left is some ornamental cabbage, and there is more behind this stuff ---see next picture.
Here we have some flaming red sea grasses (bright green groundcover in front of the sea grass), 3 little juniper bushes, and I forget the name of the things to the right. Oh well. We are going to try to plant them tomorrow and maybe a few other nights this week.

And tonight we hauled (okay David did most of the hauling), some big rocks and installed them at the bottom the slope to help stop erosion and run-off.

I'll post more pictures later. Our new camera is pretty fun!