Frankly My Dear, I don’t Give a Clam

News flash…Summer is not over. Nope not at all. Don’t believe me? Just ask my sister.

We just had an awesome weekend.  In my family you don’t just go visit someone. You need an excuse like a wedding or funeral or birthday and the perfect excuse presented itself this weekend. This was the weekend of the Scallop Festival.

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Now anyone who follows this blog knows I am a sucker for a plate of scallops. Well my sister is the same way. So I was pleased, if surprised when my sister said she was willing to drive over from upstate NY  for the weekend and go to the Scallop Festival with me.

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Sandy arrived Friday night and after getting her settled we went to the Longhorn Steakhouse for dinner. I have to tell you their $12.99 dinner combo is an amazing value. We started with a salad. (we both chose Caesar), then a sirloin steak (6 once  which can be upgraded) cooked to a medium rare perfection with a baked potato that was really baked, not microwaved. Even though we were pretty stuffed we couldn’t say no to the cinnamon carrot cake for dessert.  Yummy! and all that for only $12.99 each. The service was excellent too.

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We returned home and rolled out the air mattress for me to sleep on . Sandy got the bed. I expected the cats to be all over me since I was on the floor at their level but no, Rocky checked out the situation and retired back to the living room.

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Buddy had to see if he could get the bed from Sandy so he took a leap right onto her back. I’m not sure who was more surprised but he didn’t linger. He jumped down, landed on my air mattress, took a couple of staggering steps to solid ground and apparently gave up.

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He did persist in standing guard at the bathroom door whenever someone was using the facilities.

So after a good night’s sleep and breakfast the next morning at I HOP we were ready to check out the Scallop Festival in Falmouth (on Cape Cod), MA

That Made My Day

Some days things just don’t get any better and then something happens that proves there are still nice people in the world. Not that I ever doubted it since I have many nice people in my life.

I had a long list of errands to run today and started out early. I wanted to get done early because I was going to take some pictures of a friend’s puppy for her. I’d taken some last weekend but poor little puppy was so tired from all the excitement around the pool that we didn’t feel we really captured his puppy cuteness, hence a do over.

Here’s a few shots from the first shoot.

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So today we tried again. Little Henry was certainly more lively  and we had a couple of photo bombs from big brother Jack.

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But Henry still has a soulful eye roll as his signature look.

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Even their cat Autumn graced us with her regal cat-ly presence.

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Finally I think I got a “keeper”! It almost looks like he’s smiling.

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I had a great time. It was just about time for lunch when I left so I decided to stop at Friendly’s for lunch. I was waited on by a new waitress who explained she was in training. I promised I wouldn’t bite her and we laughed. I gave my order and pulled out a book.SIL_ChocolateIceCream_Friendlys.800No one came by my table except the wait staff and I enjoyed a quiet meal. When it was time for my check the first waitress  told me it was all set. I misunderstood and said ok, bring it along. I’m ready for it. That’s when the 2nd waitress chimed in. “No, you don’t understand. Your check was paid for by another customer.”

I was flabbergasted! I’ve heard stories about kind strangers doing things like that but I never expected to have it happen to me. I looked around  to see if I recognized anyone but the restaurant was filled with strangers.

The staff finally told me that it was the man in the booth behind me (who had already left) and I should”pay it forward” which I intend do. I will start looking for that opportunity right away.

All I can say is that it was such a nice surprise. It took my nice fun day and really put it “over the top”. Thank you kind sir, and may you have many wonderful days too. You certainly made mine!

 

In Sickness and in Health

Hi Everyone: wave Just a quick update. Buddy is on the mend I think. Buddy2014 005a copy   I was amazed at the number of people who reached out to me about Buddy. He’s certainly been going through his health challenges. At his annual physical the Vet detected a fairly prominent heart murmur so we ran a series of blood tests to see if the problem could be isolated. The last test was a cardiac series and we wanted to avoid that if possible as it was expensive. The first panels showed an elevated thyroid so we started Bud-man on .3 ML of  methimazole with monthly follow ups. IMG_20150808_122205 It seemed that each month we got closer but not close enough so up went the dosage. By the time I took him in Thursday for his follow up we were at .7 ML but this time the result was different. The heart murmur was gone and his thyroid numbers were in the low normal range. That bought us a reprieve of sorts. Instead of following up in 30 days we could wait for 60! Buddy 004a     That’s when Buddy decided to upset the plan. By Saturday he was throwing up clear fluid every 30 minutes. The poor thing was shaking. I know cats throw up everything from hairballs to half digested food from eating too fast but this was nothing like I’d ever seen. Of course this all took place after my Vet closed at noon. I considered taking him to an emergency vet but then he seemed to get  a bit better. He ate some chicken broth and kept it down and even went to sleep. more cats 001a Sunday morning he ate his breakfast and I thought we’d gotten over the worse but then in the afternoon it all started again. My pet sitter recommended  Pepcid AC but I hated to try to “pill him”. I tried hairball remedy and more broth but he had no interest. I was really getting concerned but Monday morning he was up bright and early and teasing for breakfast. Kats 004 copy   Again things seemed good until Monday evening. Right after dinner Buddy delivered his half digested food right back up. Tuesday morning Buddy seemed fine but he only picked at breakfast. He didn’t gobble it down like he usually did. I had to go to work so I crossed my fingers and left some dry food out for him to nibble on and lots of fresh water. On my way home I stopped at the Vet’s office and picked up some pill pockets. As soon as I came in both Rocky and Buddy met me at the door. I slipped 1/4 tab of pepcid AC into a pill pocket and offered it to Buddy. Gone in 2 seconds flat! Success! And so far it’s worked.

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He ate his dinner with some of his old appetite and so far it has stayed inside , not outside his little cat body. I’m really hoping we’ve turned the corner!

Anticipation

In the words of Carly Simon

Anticipation, Anticipation
Is making me late
Is keeping me waiting

And that’s where I am with travel right now.

It looks like work has really slowed back to a manageable/ normal pace. I even have another weekend off! But this time I have a sick kitty so I’m sticking close to home to keep an eye on him. It’s Buddy and he woke me up this morning vomiting. Cats throw up but this is different. He’s not barfing hairballs but just clear bubbly fluid. Fingers crossed he’ll bounce back quick.

So I took the time to get my travel plans pinned down and submit my time off requests at  work.

The first trip planned is late fall and it’s an Amtrak vacation. Sandy & I will fly into San Antonio for 3 days. We’ll get to experience the river walk

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and see the Alamo.the_alamo_mission_in_modern_day_san_antonio_2_postcard-r351d5d6b383e4cb4901643fb529c4a45_vgbaq_8byvr_512Then it’s onto the train for a day on the rails traveling to New Orleans.

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I’m sure I’ll have a lot to say on this trip and lots of pictures to share. Something to look forward to…Like I said…Anticipation!