HoundBlog

Chrystalyn is HERE! Oh WOW has she grown! She’s 5’7″ tall and is a carbon copy of her mother! She’s wearing glasses. She’s all grown up!

I don’t know what she and Ken will be doing this week – he hasn’t told me of any hard and fast plans that he has. They talked about going to a movie, but the one she wants to see isn’t playing here yet. He said something earlier about taking her to Carowinds. And then Pam had wanted to meet up to do something. Whatever they do, they’ll have fun.

I have to call the vet today to make an appointment to remove Camilla’s toe. It got some better, but it’s back looking worse than ever now, so it’s got to come off. Poor baby — she’s not got the best of feet anyway and I hate that she has to have that toe removed.

I hope to get some photos of Chrystalyn online before the week is out.

Meanwhile, everyone take care, stay cool, drink lots of water!

Love to all,

Margaret

Hi everyone — it’s nearly 10:00 pm, so you probably won’t read this until tomorrow. But that’s OK.

I took my camera with me to work this week as I was determined to get some photos of the awesome dawn skies we’ve enjoyed this week. Of course one morning we had some fog, but it made for a cool photo.  Can you see how it’s laying in a layer right above the ground? And the colors in the sky are so pretty!

This morning we didn’t have any fog, but we did have a gorgeous sunrise! I was actually a bit surprised that the camera did so well with the sun being so bright. We actually got a bit of rain this afternoon as this morning sky promises with it’s rosy dawn colors. I know I have a long commute and complain about it from time to time, but it’s seeing things like this that make it all worth while.

I’m glad Colin, Becky and Sio got back to St. Louis OK today. I know they had a grand time and I can’t wait to see Colin’s photos. Hope he doesn’t take too long to get them up.

I talked to Kristi this afternoon and Chrystalyn’s ankle is doing really well. She has a brace to wear and exercises to do to strengthen it, but apparently she didn’t damage the growth plates. She has the official OK to go to Carowinds with Ken and he’s as excited as any 10 year old would be at the idea.

Well, I guess I should get in bed. Tomorrow is another long day and there is lots to get done.

Love to all,

Margaret

Good morning! What a beautiful morning it was this morning! Maybe we’ll get some rain this afternoon. That would be nice.

I go pick up Payne today from Michelle. Gosh I’ve missed her! She didn’t win anything while she was gone. Michelle said she showed really well for her, but no points. Oh well, that’s dog shows for you. We’ll be going to West Virginia July 5&6th, so maybe we’ll do something there.

Ken leaves Saturday for Orlando to pick up Chrystalyn. We are so looking forward to her visit! I know Ken has some plans up his sleeve, but some things depend on how her ankle is. Hopefully, it was just a bad sprain and she’s back to 100% by now.

We are still dealing with issues resulting from our upgrade of software over the weekend. Evidently quite a few things are now broken that can’t be easily fixed. Thankfully they don’t have anything to do with my databases, so I’m off the hook (bad attitude, huh?).

I keep hearing about flooding in St. Louis and am hoping that Colin and Becky’s house is on high land and not involved in any of that. I really feel for those who have lost their homes.

Guess I should get back to the things I can handle.

Y’all take care now!

Love to all,

Margaret

Well, the upgrade didn’t go well at all. I arrived at the office a little before 8:00 pm on Saturday and went home at 2:00 pm Sunday. I got in bed Sunday afternoon a little after 4, got up at 7:30 or so and ate something, then went back to bed so I could start my day today at the usual time.

Our “partner” grossly underestimated the length of time it would take the program to update, and on top of that had me spinning circles for 3 hours as we tried to start the update AFTER applying a service pack instead of BEFORE we applied it. It was only after I did a complete uninstall of the upgrade, removed the service pack and started all over again that the upgrade even started. It took slightly over 10 hours for it to complete and we still need to apply the service pack and rerun the utilities program. My boss elected to defer that until another time (possibly this coming weekend — I haven’t talked to him yet to find out). This was an incredibly frustrating, not to mention exhausting ordeal and I am less than happy about it.

Woke up this morning to fog although it’s pretty much burned off by now, it was a nice cotton-wool wrapped drive to work. It wasn’t a dense enough fog to affect driving as visibility was pretty good. It let me stay in a zoned state at any rate. And now reality is hitting, but at least I had the cushion this morning.

Well, my people are coming in and everyone has questions, so I need to get to work.

Love to all,

Margaret

Well, tomorrow night is the big upgrade project. I have completed the last of the preparatory steps, so now we just wait for the witching hour, shut everyone out and work our magic. We’ve allocated 8 hours to complete it, but if we’re lucky, we might be able to get it done in 3.

Tonight I went to the gym for my last meeting with the personal trainer. We did all 10 of the last two sets of exercises which work the arms in a very detailed manner. My arms feel like they are about to fall off, and I’m sure I’ll be sore tomorrow. Not SO sore I can’t stand it but sore in a way that lets me know those muscles were worked and are getting stronger. Some of the things were a bit awkward due to my upper arms having been broken years ago and healing back crooked, but I managed to do them all although some had to be done with lighter weights. I was really late getting home from work — if Ken hadn’t stopped at the grocery store, he would have beaten me home.

I have a lot to do this weekend — finish getting the room ready for Chrystalyn’s visit, shop for some bedding for her bed, get the laundry done, clean house and groom a few dogs. On top of the project for work. Oh well, what’s sleep, right?

Did you see the comment from the guy from the purple martin society asking me about the grosbeaks? I’m so thrilled that someone like that found this little blog of mine and it’s endless prattle about birds and family junk. That might be my 15 minutes of fame 😛

Did you see the TV Land awards? Jonathan Winter was on and Ken and I were remarking on how well he looks and wondered how old he is. Believe it or not, he’s younger than Ma! He was born in 1925! He’s still funny, too. I stopped watching when Mike Myers came on — I don’t like him much at all.

Well, it’s late and I need to toddle off to bed.

Love to all,

Margaret

Ken’s tests have all come back negative, so we are still in the dark as to where his stomach pain is coming from.

I met with a personal trainer for the first time Monday — I just felt like I needed some direction in my exercise program and she’s providing that. She isn’t certified yet (which means I got her services pretty cheap!), but goes for her certification test on 7/19, so it’s just around the corner. Jennifer is very nice and very careful that I don’t do anything to aggravate my knees! She’s also a stickler for form, telling me that I’ll have less chance of hurting myself if I’ll hold my body in the right position while doing the exercises. We did all leg work Monday and today we did upper arms. Friday we’ll do a different set of upper body and abs. I also did 15 minutes on the elliptical machine which was a real challenge. I was wringing wet when I got off the machine!

Ken and I both caught some kind of stomach virus over the weekend (just what he needed, right?). I spent most of Sunday in bed as I was just too miserable to move. I still have stomach cramps and so on, but don’t feel bad in general. No appetite, but that just means I’m losing some weight which I needed to do anyway.

We went Saturday to see the Indiana Jones movie. It had some corny spots in it, but was a great Saturday afternoon flick. It was kind of sad to go without John and Eddie in tow, since that’s how we saw the last Indiana Jones movies 😛

We’re getting ready for Chrystalyn’s visit the first week of July. I’ve cleared out the dog room of all it’s doggy paraphernalia and have put up a twin bed and emptied out a drawer in the dresser that’s been hiding in the closet for her to put her clothes in. 

I’m headed to West Virginia the Friday she leaves. It’s one of those tiny shows that doesn’t get much of a Whippet entry, so I’m hoping against hope to finish Butterfly up there. Our little friend Michelle has entered her puppy dog and a friend of hers is sending another male Whippet, so there  will be one point in dogs and Michelle also entered her bitch, which means there will also be one point in bitches. Now Butterfly just has to win, so you all keep your fingers crossed!

Well, I think that gets you all caught up with us.

Love to all,

Margaret

Well, Ken went back to the doctor’s this morning and she can still feel a second tear in his abdominal wall, so he’s got an appointment this afternoon with a surgeon. Fortunately, this type of repair can be done laparascopically and outpatient, so he’ll have a minimum of discomfort and not be out of work for long. I’ll keep you posted on what the surgeon says after he sees him this afternoon.

I’m closing in on my time card project — still have wonky stuff in it, but there’s only so much weeding out of bad data that I’m able to do. We do the upgrade on the 21st and that’s going to be a big hairy deal. I’m not looking forward to it at all.

I hear Colin and Becky have had some interesting experiences weather-wise on their trip! Hope they weren’t planning on climbing Mt. McKinley as part of it. It snowed there while we here in the east are experiencing temps in the 90’s.

That’s it for us.

See ya later!

Love to all,

Margaret

Did nothing at the dog show — Tigger won his class both days but that was the closest we got to any points. We had a great spot for the camper, though with tons of room and although we let the club use it for their health clinic, it was no big deal. Ken went to work when he finished showing and I laid down for a nap. It worked out just fine.

I was a bad person last week and didn’t hit the gym once, but I did stop today and work out on the machines. I tried to do the treadmill, but gave up after 1/2 mile because my calves kept cramping. I’m sure it has something to do with the heat and all the water I’m drinking these days. Guess I need to get some bananas to keep the potassium levels up a little higher.

It is hotter than all get out here. Got up to 99ºF today which is too hot for the first week of June. We’ll be broiled by August at this rate and of course, while the Midwest is drowning, we’re dry as a bone to top it off. My flowers are parched. I noticed the blackberry bushes looked like they had a ton of berries on them, but today they appear to be all withered. No wonder the birds are flocking to my feeders like they are.

The Blue Grosbeaks are raising babies in the purple martin house – I have two pairs of them. The Cardinals have raised a big clutch of 4 and they’re all 6 of them at the feeders tonight. The Carolina Wrens have abandoned ship — headed for cooler climes I guess.

Ken says he’s feeling better but goes back to the doctor’s on Wednesday, so we’ll see what she says.

That’s it for us!

Love to all,

Margaret

Leaving as soon as Ken gets home for Asheville and the dog show this weekend. He’s got the truck hooked up to the camper, so it’s just a matter of putting the dogs and any last minute things in it and we’re off.

I groomed the dogs this morning before work and did toenails and cleaned teeth just a bit ago. Then I went to Greenwood to see if I could find someone to cut my hair. I had to stop at 3 places before I could find anyone and she did a fine job for $15. Funnily enough, her name is Linda Cox — I wonder if she’s some relationship somewhere along the way.

Gotta run — time to get rolling!

Love to all,

Margaret

I’ve been sadly neglectful of this faithful blog this past 10 days or so. I apologize!

Let’s see… well, you know I got a new car for my birthday, so maybe it hasn’t been that long really.

Ken went back to the doctor yesterday as the pain in his stomach and back hasn’t abated despite finishing the antibiotic. She feels like he now has a second hernia. She gave him steroids and pain killers which  relieved his discomfort a lot and he goes Friday for some massage therapy to help his back and then back to the doctor on Wednesday to possibly refer him to a surgeon about the new hernia.

Chrystalyn called me the other night to wish me a belated happy birthday. She fell the other day and twisted her ankle pretty badly — she’s in an air cast and they are afraid she damaged the growth plates in her ankle. She was supposed to see an orthopedist today, but I haven’t heard how that went.

Chris celebrated his birthday on the 2nd. I know Ken talked to him, but I had a meeting last night and forgot to ask what they talked about and how everybody was.

We have a show in Asheville this weekend. We have 3 Whippets and Payne (crested) entered. Keep your fingers crossed for us! When that show is over, Payne leaves with Angela and Michelle to go to a couple of shows in Arkansas. She’ll be gone a total of 3 weeks as they are going to Texas the week between the two Arkansas shows. I’ll miss my little girl! I know she’ll be good for them, though.

Work has been steady. We’re going to be upgrading the software on the 21st. We were going to do it this weekend and I was going to have to drive to Greenville Saturday night to get it done, but they decided to put it off a couple of weeks so some key people could get back from vacation.

Well, I think that catches you up on us. See, you weren’t too out of it.

Love to all,

Margaret