A Week of Crazy

It has been a week of crazy, but I did get a little knitting in. The second sock from the Vilai pair is coming along nicely. Sunday night I discovered that I had only made the cable on one side. I was about six rounds past it, so I had to tink back to where the cable is made, and it isn't easy to do that in lace! You really have to pay attention when you're knitting this sock! 

Why was this past week crazy, you might ask? Well, remember that yeast infection Sandy had in his ears? We've been treating it with ear cleaner, followed up about a half hour later with some ointment to kill the fungus. I've been working that into my schedule twice a day as I was doing other things. We had an appointment on Friday with the vet for a recheck. The whole family goes for these appointments, so there we were, the four of us, in the vet's examining room. Good news! Sandy's ears looked good, but the vet wanted to do a cytology (lab) check, just to be sure. While we were talking about that, I asked if a yeast infection could be passed from one dog to another, as Dusty had been scratching at his ears for the last couple of days. I had been careful to wash my hands each time I treated Sandy's ears, just in case I could accidentally spread it from one dog to another. The vet didn't think it was likely for one dog to catch the infection from another dog, but he had a look at Dusty's ears. Sandy found it very interesting to see Dusty get his ears checked, too. Dusty's on the wellness plan, which covers office visits, dental, and heartworm/flea/tick prevention, along with a discount on tests and medications. (The young woman in grey is a new technician who is shadowing the team, learning the ropes.) 

When the cytology check was done, Sandy was proclaimed cured, but now Dusty had it. (Sigh!) We left the office with a new tube of ointment. I had already picked up a new bottle of the cleaning solution a couple of days before. So I was in for another two weeks of treating the ears twice a day, this time with Dusty.

The rehearsals for the Summer Choir intensified with a session not only on Monday, the usual time, but also on Wednesday, and both rehearsals were extended until 9:00 PM.

Our instrumentalists joined us for Monday's rehearsal, and all of them came again on Wednesday, except for the percussionist, who had a conflict. I still didn't feel ready, in spite of all the extra help we were getting from our director, Christian. He had given us a playlist on YouTube, which was very helpful.

I resolved to spend a lot of extra time working on the passages that were giving me trouble. Then our internet went down. Not only did it go down, but it was down for several hours. I could audiate (or imagine the music in my head) while looking at the music, but I'm not skillful enough to be sure I have it right, so it was distressing not to have access to the practice music during our final week before the concert on Saturday. The next day, the internet went down again. I called our provider and learned that they expected to have it back up by "noon tomorrow." It didn't actually take that long. It came back in the early evening, but it was still several hours of no access to the recordings just when I needed them most. We are speculating that the outages have something to do with the new construction taking place on the other side of the trail near us. We think someone accidentally cut a cable. Twice. I managed to get in some good practice sessions with the time I had. We were expecting company from out-of-town on Saturday before the concert, and I was still working to get the tidying, dusting and scrubbing done, so Charlie could vacuum the whole house. I listened to the playlist on my phone while I worked.

Our friends, John and Kathy, who were fellow expats with us in Indonesia in the '90s, arrived about lunchtime on Saturday, and we had a quick lunch and a long chat to catch up. When it was time to drop me off at the library for the concert, we all piled into our car and took off. They were all staying for the concert, of course. We hadn't been to the new library yet, although we had driven by it. One of the parking areas is covered with solar panels, presumably staff parking, and that was where Charlie dropped me off, after turning down the wrong street. I had to hustle to get to the door, which was on the other side of the huge building and then had to find the large multipurpose meeting room, where risers and chairs had been set up for our concert. I was almost five minutes late. One of the first things I saw when I entered was this amazing sculpture, "Juniper," by John Grade.

I didn't have time before the concert to look around, but we did later. I thought it was fascinating that they had windows looking into the book return area, so we could watch books being conveyed and sorted using a conveyer belt. Two young children were standing with their noses pressed to the glass, watching it happen. I gathered they had just returned some books, because there were children's books on the conveyer belt. (This photo is from an article about the opening of the new library that appeared in the Bend Source.)

The concert went well. We had a standing-room-only crowd in the huge magnificent "meeting room," and the acoustics were amazing. 

Christian told us we had sung the pieces better than he had ever heard us do, and the praise seemed genuine. 

(Last two photos from Central Oregon Mastersingers' FB page.) 

While getting ready to receive our friends on Saturday, I thought about the fact that they had been away from home with their trailer for 11 days, and suggested that they might like to have a shower and do some laundry, which they appreciated. During the week, somehow, the cleaning had all gotten done, and I had managed to make a batch of my Corn Salad to have with the salmon Charlie bought a couple of days before our friends arrived. Saturday night we had a late but nice dinner. We had a dry riesling and a purchased cheesecake for dessert. We talked until late into the night.

Also this past week, the manuscript came back from Alexa (no, not that Alexa; this one is a real person and an excellent editor), who was doing the proofreading/editing and pre-publishing preview for the new book. After making the changes she recommended, I had to work around the internet outages to be able to upload it to BookBaby, which cost me an extra day. However, I got it submitted and received no "uh-oh" email back, so the proof copy is now in production. I hope it gets shipped out today. Here's a look at the front cover.

I find I'm more excited about this book than I have been for any of the others. 

While the internet was up and available, I made a quick check of social media. I had to laugh at what Facebook's Meta AI app thought would be a good subject for turning into a comic strip: a picture I took of one of our Finnish hand-painted sunflower dishes. (I didn't bother to have the comic strip produced.) Sometimes AI comes up with things that make me not trust it for anything important.

Also during the week, while all of the above was going on, I received an email and a text from my credit union, telling me they had put a hold on my credit card due to a couple of charges they suspected could be fraudulent. I checked them out, and they were companies I had never heard about and certainly didn't buy anything from, so I followed the recommendation of my credit union and regretfully cancelled my card, which wasn't even two years old yet! That necessitated contacting every place I had subscriptions or regular scheduled charges. I estimate that it cost me another half a day, and I'm still not done. Every time I buy something online for the foreseeable future, I'll have to put in my new card and delete the old one.

Sunday we had to hook up the trailer and back it into its space in the backyard, because the landscaper is coming today to start work on the xeriscaping of our front yard.

As if the week wasn't crazy enough, I got the news that our granddaughter Daphne was going into the hospital. She isn't expected to be there long and is doing well, but phone calls and texts were involved, our daughter keeping family informed, including one phone conversation while we were driving to the vet. It was just one more thing during an overloaded week. Did I mention that we had a Madroña pop-up meeting? No? Well, it was a nice break, and we always have to tell everyone what we were grateful for this week. I had a long list of all the crazy during the week and how grateful I was that most of the issues had already been resolved.

One more thing to be happy about: The new official trailer of LAIKA's "Wildwood" is out, and it's getting rave reviews, including this one from Gizmodo! (In case you're new to my weekly blog or hadn't read about our connection to LAIKA, our younger son, Peter is a technical director for special effects (not his official title, I don't think), and has been with them since the beginning of "Coraline." October 23rd the movie comes out, and I can't wait!

I have a lot of difficulty responding to comments to my blog posts because of technical issues beyond my control (my lack of understanding of how things work). Message me on Facebook, Ravelry, BlueSky or Spoutible if you need information.

If you have a few minutes and are willing, please go to Amazon or B&N and search for Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook by Peggy Stuart". Every click on the page for the book makes it more likely they will keep a good supply in their warehouse and stores. If you are outside the US, you may have a separate website for these retailers. If you have a copy of any of our books, including Emil, Mariah, Classic Tales Retold, Our Favorite Verses, More Classic Tales Retold or Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, please leave an honest review on the websites, especially if you bought from them.

Where's my blog: If you want to follow my blog, go here and sign up to follow.

What's on my needles: Still working on the Vilai socks.

What's on my iPhone: Still listening to Wildwood by Colin Meloy, but I didn't get any time to listen this week. I can't wait to get back to it.

What's on my sewing machine: Still put away until the next project.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: The Writer is sick, and the dolls worry about how they will get the next story out. And who will clean the house? They work it out, of course, in Working Together.

What's my tip of the week: A silicone mat that can be used in baking is a good alternative to parchment paper, but it will need to fit your pan. I use mine all the time. I got it from Chef's Corner Store in Centennial, Colorado. (This isn't the exact one I have, but will give you an idea.) I used it on a rimmed cookie sheet to bake the salmon, since Charlie discovered our barbecue has a gas leak.

Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog, and they are reproduced in print with a few changes.

Book #7 is in the works.

If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less, only 8%, because the vendor gets a cut. My author's page at Book Baby is here. Scroll down and click on any of the books that interest you. Find my books at Barbara's Bookstore as well, or ask your local library to order the books.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

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Tails or Tales of Summer

The second Vilai sock is coming along. It's easier than the first. Maybe because I have a few of these pattern repeats under my belt.

We were pestered for several days this week by a fly we named "Houdini." He couldn't do what most of our self-respecting fly visitors do and bang himself against the window until he died on the windowsill or try to get a drink from the dogs' water dish, fall in and drown. No, this fly wanted to hop onto our bare arms, necks, legs or whatever part of our bodies he could reach, or investigate the countertops in the kitchen or tease the dogs (although they did find that entertaining). Usually we don't see or hear from them, but Houdini was different. Whenever I tried to swat him, he saw me coming and flew away. I put a piece of apple (because I noticed he was attracted to our apples in a bowl on the kitchen counter) in a big jar and was ready with the lid to put on as soon as he flew in, but he ignored the treat in favor of my open laptop, maybe wanting to check his social media accounts. His folly, though, was investigating a piece of used paper towel on the counter near me. I had the flyswatter within reach, so I moved slowly to pick it up, checked my aim and whack! We would notify the next of kin...if we knew who they were and how we could reach them.

The dogs and I walked almost every day, and sometimes Charlie joined us. A couple of days it was too hot and/or the AQI was in the hazardous range. During one of our walks I got the boys to pose for me at this little garden along the trail.

We've been keeping our eyes on the construction taking place in what used to be a huge wooded area between the trail and 15th Street. They're building rows of little townhomes or quadraplexes in the area closest to where we walk, and they've already built a huge apartment building along the street on the other side. A picture of the proposed development we saw when we were walking along 15th Street a couple of weeks ago showed a pool, so it will probably be a condominium/HOA development. The chain-link fence keeps nosy neighbors and probably ICE out––we frequently hear Spanish spoken on the site.

There is still enough of the woods left to walk through...for now.

This was our route each day we walked, a screenshot from the Walk for a Dog app. Sandy doesn't like the heat, which is always much greater in the sun, so he rushes to get to the next shady spot. Some days this week we were lucky enough to be able to walk early or late in the day when there were shadows on the trail.

On Saturday, we met up at Trinity with a couple of other people for a planned hike in La Pine State Park. I had suggested it last month, and Valerie, who is in charge of organizing the outings had driven down to check out the trail we would use. She elected to take us through the Couger Woods (no relation to Tiger Woods) to end up at the Big Tree, so we would have a destination for our hike. The plan was to carpool down to the Park, but we ended up all riding in Valerie's Jeep, because we were only four people and two dogs. There's a $10 day-use charge, so we saved money by riding together. You pay by using your phone to capture the QR code from the sign at the trailhead, but no one could get it to work except for Charlie, who has a relatively new iPhone. So he ended up paying the fee, which was OK, because Valerie paid for the gas to get there and back.

The Big Tree is a Ponderosa Pine, several hundred years old and worth seeing. We enlisted another visitor to take our photo from each of our phones.

Most of the trail is just dirt, but there is a parking lot just above the Big Tree and the wheelchair accessible walk down the hill to the attraction itself is asphalt. If you don't want to hike but want to see the Big Tree, you can park in the parking lot and just take the short walk down to where the tree is.

Besides the Big Tree, we had some lovely views during the hike, occasionally getting a good look at the Deschutes River. There was a little smoke, but the AQI in the Park area was in the acceptable range, much lower than at home, so we probably wouldn't have walked if we hadn't been driving to another location with better air.

This was our route, out and back. 

On the way back, we stopped at Sunriver Brewing in Sunriver––they have other locations––for lunch. We sat outdoors, so the dogs could join us. (We couldn't have left them in the car, of course, because it was too hot.)

We're expecting company in a few days, so I've been spending some time doing some of the H-word. I thoroughly cleaned our bathroom and dusted our bedroom. A few days later I tidied and dusted the living/dining area and the hallway, including upstairs. Charlie will vacuum. We have offered our friends our guest room. We were neighbors with these friends during our time in Indonesia back in the '90s and have seen them only once since leaving Houston, when they came to stay with us in Park City for a family ski adventure. Although they have their own trailer and could sleep in it, the AQI has been fluctuating, often going into the hazardous range, so sleeping indoors in air-conditioned comfort will likely be healthier. Charlie plans to tidy up his mess in the kitchen eating area and vacuum the whole house, so I'll have to get the remaining rooms dusted. The powder room and guest bath will need just routine cleaning, and the kitchen hasn't been thoroughly cleaned for a long time. It will be a busy week, because we have an extra Summer Choir practice. Our performance will be next Saturday.

On Friday, Alexa took the boys bowling with some of their friends. Soren (he's the tall one) got a strike! He seems to be good at sports.

Sunday evening we watched the Coraline Watch Party from LAIKA.

The Portland Stuarts were having a guys' slumber party to coincide with the Coraline Watch Party. It was great. They gave some background information in the introduction, showed the film in its entirety (with no commercials) and then showed some extra material, like interviews with the voice actors and outtakes from the film. There were also some snippets from their new film, "Wildwood." The trailer for the new film will be out on August 19th. 

We feel like LAIKA is a family business, because Peter has worked there ever since they started with Coraline, which came out in 2009.

Also on Sunday, halfway (or a little more) across the country, Miss Daphne was making cookies.

The new book is getting the final proofing and I have a new quote from BookBaby for it. It was a relief to see that printing costs hadn't increased that much, in spite of the inflation we have experienced almost everywhere. I've started on Book 8. I want to get a few more books put together so that if I become unable to continue, they will only need proofreading and printing. I feel well, but I'm getting up in years, and one never knows. (Of course, we can get hit by a truck at any age.)

I have a lot of difficulty responding to comments to my blog posts because of technical issues beyond my control (my lack of understanding of how things work). Message me on Facebook, Ravelry, BlueSky or Spoutible if you need information. I do NOT need SEO services.

If you have a few minutes and are willing, please go to Amazon or B&N and search for Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook by Peggy Stuart". Every click on the page for the book makes it more likely they will keep a good supply in their warehouse and stores. If you are outside the US, you may have a separate website for these retailers. If you have a copy of any of our books, including Emil, Mariah, Classic Tales Retold, Our Favorite Verses, More Classic Tales Retold or Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, please leave an honest review on the websites, especially if you bought from them.

Where's my blog: If you want to follow my blog, go here and sign up to follow. 

What's on my needles: Still working on the Vilai socks.

What's on my iPhone: Still listening to Wildwood by Colin Meloy. And the playlist for our concert next Saturday.

What's on my sewing machine: Still put away until the next project.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: What is wool? Where does it come from and how does it turn into yarn? Mandy can explain in this story from The Doll's Storybook. Here's "Soft, Warm and Fun to Make."

What's my tip of the week: When dusting in the house a surgical mask can come in handy, especially if you have allergies. It won't keep out smoke, but it will protect you from pollen and other possible allergens in the dust you brush into the air. 

Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog, and they are reproduced in print with a few changes.

Book #7 will be coming out in a few weeks.

If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less, only 8%, because the vendor gets a cut. My author's page at Book Baby is here. Scroll down and click on any of the books that interest you. Find my books at Barbara's Bookstore as well, or ask your local library to order the books.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

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