My (perhaps controversial) thoughts as a "newbie" to CA.
Comments
-
This was the tomato thief. I sure miss him.
-
JBeans--- Zaky got you right in the eye! Super photo!
-
MelissaDallas--Awwwwwwww.....a sweetie...dogs put their whole selves into their faces.....bet you do miss him....
-
JBeans--60 pounds!!! Holy Bee-Food! That sounds sooooo exciting...to watch such a thing develop and grow like that!
What's Zaky's "take" on the bees?
Hats off to the bee-keeper!
And that reminds me: you're wearing such a cool hat in that photo! Love your style! And love the little "hat"--or is it a stole--you're wearing in your avatar photo---any relation, perhaps?
-
Trill, no apologies! I love your stories!
JBeans, great photo of Zaky and you!
MelissaDallas, what a sweet looking fella!
-
Diarrhea of the fingers! Hahaha I love it! And I also love reading your stories! You have an amazing way of making us all chuckle or down right get a good laugh going! Keep it coming Trill!
-
Melissa~ what an awesome picture of your tomato thief! He shows great love in his face. If love was all it took to keep our precious pets here with us,they'd live forever! Beautiful dog.
JBeans~ 60 lbs of honey?! WOW! That would last my DH and I about a year. We love our honey!
I love, love, love the picture of you and Zaky. Such love!
-
Well, letrozole has given me occasional “constipation of the fingers,” aka stenosing tenosynovitis (trigger-thumb). Of course, I have yet to try speech-to-text.....
-
DisneyGirl and Lori-- Thanks so much for not accepting my apology--so no more apologies from yours truly!
Onward and upward with the stories!
ChiSandy--"Constipation of the fingers"---ouch! I'm sometimes tempted to try speech-to-text but if Spellcheck's often odd re-interpretations of what we've typed are any gauge, it could be, at the least, hilarious....
(The topic reminds me of David Sedaris's essay collection he titled based on the English translation of a sign--Japanese? Chinese? Indian? can't recall--posted on the back of a door in a hotel room and to be referred to during an emergency:
"WHEN YOU ARE ENGULFED IN FLAMES....")
(I think he should have titled his next book "IT WILL BE TOO LATE.")
-
You know, there is a thread here on the boards about "What Do You Love About Summer?" and the answers are all sweetness & light. I reluctantly restrained myself from a "downer" reply, but I'll bet most of them don't live in Texas. We've entered vampire season now, where you hide from the sun at all costs and with nary a blind or curtain open until almost November. I'll feel like a live in a cave. It's 8:30 and still 95 and it's not July yet. Hasn't dropped below 80 overnight this week.
That old red dog was the best boy ever, and I didn't intend to keep him. My next door neighbor found him pooped out at the gate to her backyard at the end of July one day and she came and got me. All he would do was bare his teeth at us. We gave him water and when he finally stood up we saw he was emaciated, probably about six months old. I had to carry him to my backyard. Took him and got him checked out and the vet said "all that boy needs is some feeding up." I was going to find a home for him when I got him healthier and stable. A few weeks in he started limping-the vet thought partly from having so little muscle mass, but his hips were loose too, though not frankly dysplastic. By now I'd figured out I was going to need to keep him. He worried me for a while because he very ferociously objected to letting anyone else in the house. When we finally worked through that, he was gold. Quiet, never got in anything, never tore anything up. Many years later when I got my last Belgian puppy old red morphed into a devoted "mama dog" and the two adored each other. The Belgian was never happy again after old red dog died.
-
Oh MelissaDallas,
Your old red dog was wonderful. It's amazing how they sneak into our lives and forever change them. Was he a heeler/ a cattle dog? He sure looks like he's got that in him and I find it nice because that is what my tomato thief Zaky is. He is a cattle dog and he too wasn't meant to be with us. We had already taken in one cattle dog (my girl Diamond who is far too proper to steal tomatoes - she waits for them to be given to her) from a shelter when a friend of a friend who did animal rescue sent us pictures of a dog found near a major highway and looking pretty rough with a broken canine tooth. He was found by a lady who took him in for a bit but he just couldn't stay with her. Anyhow, the friend of a friend figured since we had one already we might as well have another, my fiancé (now husband ) said no we couldn't just have another dog with how much we did but that no turned into a yes when we saw him playing with a ball by himself at a shelter and and looking so lonely. He's been with us now for 11 years. We still are lucky to still have our girl Diamond too and both are quite fine with the bees which is a great relief as one of their favourite summer pastimes is to snap hornets out of the air and eat them.
DisneyGirl and WenchLori - I agree with you both - no apologies from Trill. I love to read the stories.
Trill - got that? No apologies. :-) And yes, my stole in my avitar photo is a relation. Zaky' much younger brother and my youngest son (I have two boys) Eric. He is 3 now but when that photo was taken he was 2 and sitting on my shoulders at the local fall fair watching the tractor pull. What fun!
-
My baby raccoons are growing way to fast!
-
Can you see "Bob The Cat" hiding behind the cable?
-
A squirrel and chipmunk sharing the bird feeder pan. The chipmunk is hilarious! Once his cheeks are full it uses its front paws to shovel more seeds in! His head is bigger than his butt by the time he's done!
-
Hi all-- Am having a ball here in my room as the worker works to repair the hole in my hall wall and the unfinished bathroom wall--don't know if you recall but there was a water leak from above back in early April and they are---3 months later--finally fixing things. I'm sure the guy wonders what's going on in here as I giggle at your stories and photos... Lori, the raccoons are humongous! Impressive! And the squirrel with the fat cheeks---that's hilarious! Bob the Cat is so cute.... And JBeans, love the story about catching hornets with their teeth right out of the air....such bravery I'd never possess in a million years! Am sure the hornets wonder what the hell? as they're being gobbled up....
We had a dog--think a stray that got absorbed into the rest of the four-leggeds--who every time he came up to you raised his head and gave this big toothy grin. Mom swore he needed braces but us kids were so delighted, laughing our sides off, we failed to find anything but humor in the situation... He never got those braces, just grinned toothily into old age and then off to heaven with a sense of humor about him the whole way...
-
Lori---I'm sure it's not but that looks like a big pan of scrambled eggs you have out for the raccoons....
-
Oh my gosh Trill! I spoil my critters but I'm not cooking them any eggs Hahahaa
They are gathered around the same bird feeder pan the squirrel and chipmunk uses. The container in the back is filled with corn, peanuts and dried fruit. It's called Critter Cafe! That's a great name to name my deck! The Critter Cafe!! I'll start on my decksign tonight!
-
Lori--Yes, that would be a super name! How's the sign coming?
OK, you said you'd not cook scrambled eggs for your critters, right?
And that the pan is full of corn, peanuts, and dried fruit.
But let me see something...wait...I'll get my calculator.
OK. I just got back from Safeway so my head is full of their, ahem, upsold prices...
Corn isn't cheap---four ears of fresh white corn there were three bucks. (Unless you're one of the lucky ones who can eat the corn they give to horses that's as hard as the teeth--horse's teeth--that chomp them.)
And peanuts? In any form they're not cheap, either. I love peanuts and know that a three pound bag of unshelled peanuts is like ten bucks. (The only form I reject is the powdered peanut butter I found today in Walmart. Yes, you heard that right: powdered peanut butter. I can see this as a big frat hazing challenge for in-coming freshmen in the fall: tip your head back and sprinkle some in your mouth and see how much powdered peanut butter you can "absorb" before your mouth is wallpapered with the stuff and you can't speak and can only barely breathe....)
And dried fruit? Holy Dried Apricots! That stuff is crazy expensive!!!
Lori, fess up--you can't HELP but spoil your critters!
Off the point a bit. I just heard about the British bail from the EU. Are people blind to the fact that nationalism doesn't necessarily equate with good--or prosperity? It looks great on a billboard and seems all lump-in-the-throat jolly at first blush but we only have to look at Putin's almost rabid pro-nationalistic followers and at the "little" nationalistic movement that led to the formation of the National Socialist Party in Germany. I get the feeling that the pro-nationalistic Brits who are ticked at immigration and its impact on their earnings and jobs--or lack of them--and who were the majority of those who voted to bail out of the EU will NOT be the beneficiaries of much good in the end, any more than Russia is in better shape with Putin or the Germans were under Hitler....
I know I'm painting this with a huge, huge brush but can't help but sense some parallels...
OK, they say that those who don't learn from history will be forced to repeat it.
I just learned that the leading question googled in England today was "What is the EU?"
They don't even know what they've been a member of for four decades?
How can they learn from history if they don't know what it is in the first place?
-
Very well said Trill. Putin is a nightmare!!
I buy the "critter chow" at Menards for $10 a 40 lb bag, so a lot cheaper than human chow :-)
I found a piece of barn board that I'll use for my sign. I'll have to dry it out before I can start painting. Maybe by Sunday... I hope :-)
-
Wench Lori - Mmm.
C'mon down to the Critter Cafe.
Love it. With Trill's prices you could cut what you buy, re-sell at a health food store and with the profit buy and keep chickens to lay the eggs to scramble.
Love your pictures of the critters.
-
Yesssss!
Lori, JBeans has the right idea! Let's set those raccoons up with some scrambled eggs!
It does mean, though, that, you know, you might have to do a bit of, you know....cooking.
But hey! Look at what would be gained!
Raccoons dining on omelets!! Now THAT would make a great photograph!
(We had a raccoon named Jody once, and he had these fastidious little hands and fingers---I could even have sworn that when he sipped or ate his little finger was poised in midair.)
Lori, seriously, I want some of that $10 critter chow. THAT's the kinda stuff we should all be eating--not this chic "artisanal" stuff that drains our pocketbooks and is gone in a flash and will prolly one day be found out to be---toxic. Like the fancy and oh-so-cute labels were printed with a poisonous ink.
I'll bet on good ole Menard's we'd be better off.....I mean, If your fluffy, beautiful guys hanging around that pot are any testament to the health benefits of M's, then let's all have at it!
I'm in!
(Pssst, um, Lori, by any chance have you ever snuck some of that M's into a meal and not told DH--or nibbled a bit of it yourself? Just wondering.....)
(But then could it taste any worse than plain tofu? Not tofu all dolled up with stuff: plain tofu. You know, the stuff that looks like the stuff us kids rubbed out from between our toes in the summer, gathered and bleached and congealed and chilled.
And what about quinoa? What ABOUT it? I bought about ten pounds of it during the bc business and then got so tired of forking it up--and I don't mean quinoa with fancy and exotic spices and an infinite array of "add-ins" that make it no more like the quinoa the Mayans grabbed up with their fingers-turned-into-spoons--I mean plain QUINOA!
Plain quinoa tastes like massed eraser rubbings and NEVER GETS OUT OF YOUR TEETH! I have quinoa in my teeth from back in December, all moved in a rear molar space, curtains hung, flowers on the sill....)
Lori, any chance you'd swap me some Menard's for eight pounds of quinoa?
I bet the raccoons would love it!
Come on--they love EVERYTHING!
They eat stuff goats reject!!!
-
MelissaDallas,
I totally agree with you about summer in Texas. It's mostly miserable. I live near Fort Worth. It seems like this year we are having August temperatures in June.
We used to live in Oklahoma. Summer is just as bad there.
The first barely cool day in the fall is like a gift from heaven, and we're a long ways from it. Thank goodness for air conditioning!
-
Ok, so after so much prodding I found some left over eggs in the back of the fridge so I put them out for the critters. I'm not sure who enjoyed them but they were gone this morning. I'm still not cooking for the critters but they can have all the left over eggs they want.
The critter chow I use I've never tried.It has added protein and vitamins in it for healthier hair, bones, young etc I'll send some to anyone willing to try it. I'm worried my hair will get out of control like Loverly's feet and the last thing I need is 6 to 10 young running around my house!
-
Hi Lori--- (I have no idea what six to ten young means......And what does M's have to do with Loverly's feet? And WHO is Loverly?)
Aww, you got out the eggs and they ate them!!!! Yay!!!!
-
Ooops, that last part was meant for another thread. I must have copied it over somehow???
To explain a little...you wanted to trade quinoa for some critter chow. The critter chow has added vitamins and minerals to provide healthier skin, hair, bones and healthier young for the critters. I'll trade with you as I don't want to be hairy like the critters, or have young like the critters aka I don't want 6 to 10 of my own young running around my house as raccoons can have that many kits. The coons will eat your quinoa and you can have their chow. :-)
-
Hi Lori--- Thanks so much for taking me seriously! (When I was a (chronically clowning) kid, nobody ever took me seriously and this was a serious impediment to my un-budding self-confidence--although I so loved clowning and joking I'd not have given them up for all the "confidence" in the world!)
Thanks for offering a swap but in truth I actually ATE those ten pounds of quinoa--which is prolly why I hate it now.
I'm glad you clarified Loverly's feet and the young 'uns running around. Wow--raccoons can have that many babies??? I had no idea....
I was watching the Olympic diving trials and saw they were coming from Indiana---your state. Diving in the natatorium!
Beautiful day today--spent it painting shutters in the living room, Miss Panty casting a dubious eye--but a big beautiful one!--at my enterprising dab-dab-dabbing with my brush....it was so warm and the fan was blowing so energetically it was drying the paint on my brush before I had time to use it! Never had THAT problem before...
Happy Sunday!
-
Trill~ umm me too LOL
-
(((((((Trill)))))))
Guess what I have packed in my hospital bag?
I'm taking you with me!!!!
-
jbeans, my old red dog was part chow, as his black tongue, head shape, round eyes and silence testify to. The dark forest green carpet in my bedroom suffered greatly when he blew blond chow undercoat. I used to take a garage push broom and gather a kitchen trash can full of hair before I vacuumed to keep from filling vacuum bags so fast. I always figured the rest was something "soft"and easy like lab or golden retriever or something, but who knows? He crept and stalked prey like a cat.
I did once, many years ago, have a "found" stray who was part heeler. He was laying out in the yard on a hot summer day under our sprinkler when we lived in the country. He never left. Trill you would appreciate that he had a horrible underbite and was so ugly he was cute. He adored herding the garden tractor when we mowed.
I am amused at the hornet snapping. I ran over a bumblebee nest in the ground once with the lawnmower when my belgian sheepdog girl was in the yard with me and they swarmed us. It really scared me because I have awful allergies and was pretty scared I would have a bad reaction because I had never been stung before. I realized pretty quickly that I was okay, but the poor dog was just miserable and frantic. I had to run to the store to get benadryl for her, because I was out, for her, not me.
My sister used to put her leftovers out for the racoons. She finally quit when we were having a really severe distemper epidemic in the area.
I keep thinking about diving and parenting and helicopter parenting. When I was a tween/teen we went to the pool at one of the universities every day. It was a true Olympic pool with a very deep deep end and regular, high and super high platform diving boards. Do you think kids today would be strung like monkeys on the ladder and diving off the olympic platform dive like we did? Rite of passage then to do it no matter how scared you were. Had to fish your bathing suit bottoms or top back on before you surfaced on every dive
-
Lori-- Oh, that's so cool! I'm happy to be going along with you! And what a fun thing to help speed your time in the hospital! When is surgery again--isn't it July 21st? And is this in-and-out surgery or will you stay a bit?
Whatever happened to June--it's been flying by so fast... can't believe July begins on Friday!
Categories
- All Categories
- 679 Advocacy and Fund-Raising
- 289 Advocacy
- 68 I've Donated to Breastcancer.org in honor of....
- Test
- 322 Walks, Runs and Fundraising Events for Breastcancer.org
- 5.6K Community Connections
- 282 Middle Age 40-60(ish) Years Old With Breast Cancer
- 53 Australians and New Zealanders Affected by Breast Cancer
- 208 Black Women or Men With Breast Cancer
- 684 Canadians Affected by Breast Cancer
- 1.5K Caring for Someone with Breast cancer
- 455 Caring for Someone with Stage IV or Mets
- 260 High Risk of Recurrence or Second Breast Cancer
- 22 International, Non-English Speakers With Breast Cancer
- 16 Latinas/Hispanics With Breast Cancer
- 189 LGBTQA+ With Breast Cancer
- 152 May Their Memory Live On
- 85 Member Matchup & Virtual Support Meetups
- 375 Members by Location
- 291 Older Than 60 Years Old With Breast Cancer
- 177 Singles With Breast Cancer
- 869 Young With Breast Cancer
- 50.4K Connecting With Others Who Have a Similar Diagnosis
- 204 Breast Cancer with Another Diagnosis or Comorbidity
- 4K DCIS (Ductal Carcinoma In Situ)
- 79 DCIS plus HER2-positive Microinvasion
- 529 Genetic Testing
- 2.2K HER2+ (Positive) Breast Cancer
- 1.5K IBC (Inflammatory Breast Cancer)
- 3.4K IDC (Invasive Ductal Carcinoma)
- 1.5K ILC (Invasive Lobular Carcinoma)
- 999 Just Diagnosed With a Recurrence or Metastasis
- 652 LCIS (Lobular Carcinoma In Situ)
- 193 Less Common Types of Breast Cancer
- 252 Male Breast Cancer
- 86 Mixed Type Breast Cancer
- 3.1K Not Diagnosed With a Recurrence or Metastases but Concerned
- 189 Palliative Therapy/Hospice Care
- 488 Second or Third Breast Cancer
- 1.2K Stage I Breast Cancer
- 313 Stage II Breast Cancer
- 3.8K Stage III Breast Cancer
- 2.5K Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
- 13.1K Day-to-Day Matters
- 132 All things COVID-19 or coronavirus
- 87 BCO Free-Cycle: Give or Trade Items Related to Breast Cancer
- 5.9K Clinical Trials, Research News, Podcasts, and Study Results
- 86 Coping with Holidays, Special Days and Anniversaries
- 828 Employment, Insurance, and Other Financial Issues
- 101 Family and Family Planning Matters
- Family Issues for Those Who Have Breast Cancer
- 26 Furry friends
- 1.8K Humor and Games
- 1.6K Mental Health: Because Cancer Doesn't Just Affect Your Breasts
- 706 Recipe Swap for Healthy Living
- 704 Recommend Your Resources
- 171 Sex & Relationship Matters
- 9 The Political Corner
- 874 Working on Your Fitness
- 4.5K Moving On & Finding Inspiration After Breast Cancer
- 394 Bonded by Breast Cancer
- 3.1K Life After Breast Cancer
- 806 Prayers and Spiritual Support
- 285 Who or What Inspires You?
- 28.7K Not Diagnosed But Concerned
- 1K Benign Breast Conditions
- 2.3K High Risk for Breast Cancer
- 18K Not Diagnosed But Worried
- 7.4K Waiting for Test Results
- 603 Site News and Announcements
- 560 Comments, Suggestions, Feature Requests
- 39 Mod Announcements, Breastcancer.org News, Blog Entries, Podcasts
- 4 Survey, Interview and Participant Requests: Need your Help!
- 61.9K Tests, Treatments & Side Effects
- 586 Alternative Medicine
- 255 Bone Health and Bone Loss
- 11.4K Breast Reconstruction
- 7.9K Chemotherapy - Before, During, and After
- 2.7K Complementary and Holistic Medicine and Treatment
- 775 Diagnosed and Waiting for Test Results
- 7.8K Hormonal Therapy - Before, During, and After
- 50 Immunotherapy - Before, During, and After
- 7.4K Just Diagnosed
- 1.4K Living Without Reconstruction After a Mastectomy
- 5.2K Lymphedema
- 3.6K Managing Side Effects of Breast Cancer and Its Treatment
- 591 Pain
- 3.9K Radiation Therapy - Before, During, and After
- 8.4K Surgery - Before, During, and After
- 109 Welcome to Breastcancer.org
- 98 Acknowledging and honoring our Community
- 11 Info & Resources for New Patients & Members From the Team