Random Ramblings - December 17th 2019

Temperatures have been quite low around here lately. Mostly only a few degrees above freezing, with it dropping below freezing several times, especially - though not exclusively - at night. Some days have been wet, others not, though we've had more dry days than wet ones. But all days have been on the chilly side. No snow though, unfortunately. There's still time... Plenty of Winter left. I'd love some to show up though. I need to introduce Logan to it. Plus, I want to play with it myself. Lilie loves it too, so she wouldn't mind if we got some snow. In fact, she'd be delighted, especially since I tend to keep wanting to go outside when it's snowing, and she gets to come with me when I do. I wonder what Logan will think of snow when he gets to see some... I can't wait to find out!

What's your weather been like? Do you have snow? If you do and don't want it, please send it to me.

Anyway, make yourself comfortable. I'm trying to catch up on all the random happenings from our corner of the world up to this point, so this might get long. There's probably going to be some topic hopping too. Just to warn you. I set myself a list of things I wanted to do before the end of December, so that they were done before the holidays - or, more spacifically, so they were done before the end of the year - and this post to catch you up on all the random happenings around here is part of that. We may not lead exciting lives by some people's standards, but I had some things I wanted to share, so they're all gathered together in this post. Anyway, let's get on with it. So...

Logan's a good sport.



In the picture above, I'm cuddling Logan while he wears my dressing gown (robe) with his paws through the sleeves and everything... The sleeves obviously had to be pushed up a lot for his paws to be visible, and you can tell by the robe's many folds that it's WAY too big for him. But he's wearing it as best as a dog of his size could wear a robe of that size.

I put the robe around him, just messing about, and he moved his paw as if to put it through the sleeve. He's such a good sport about playing any game, even dress-up, that I couldn't resist seeing if he'd let me put it on him properly. As you can see from the photo, he did let me. He just stood there and let me do it. Then I picked him up and cuddled him, which is when Kelly took the photo.

Of course, he deserved a good treat after that...


The bed he's enjoying his chewie on is one of the new dog beds we got recently. Officially they're Christmas presents for the dogs, but we gave them to them now, since Logan needed a bed he could stretch out on (he only just manages to cram himself in to his basket now) and we thought Lilie would appreciate something more spacious for those times when she decides she doesn't feel like sleeping in our bed all night. Though we call each bed either Logan's or Lilie's bed, and the one in the computer room is officially Logan's one, we don't stop them using each others, as you can see from this next photo, where Lilie is trying Logan's bed out:


They both seem to like the new beds, though Logan was a bit unsure at first, and went to his basket initially, before obviously deciding he liked the idea of the more spacious bed.



They got new bowls as early Christmas presents too, because Logan needed a bigger one, and Lilie was still using her first puppy one so just needed a new one. Both are ceramic bowls. Lilie's is a pink one that says "Diva" both inside and outside, and Logan's is blue inside and brown with the word "Dog" and a little picture of a dog on the outside. Here are photos of them both:


I can easily tell them apart, because Logan's is slightly bigger, and because the writing and picture on the outside of Logan's bowl is tactile, which is cool. I knew his bowl would be slightly bigger, but only realized about the writing and picture on it being tactile when it arrived. Makes things easier for me, since it's me who feeds them, and though they both have the same food, Logan does have a little extra. Well, he's bigger, so he should, right?

But, anyway... They will, of course, have a couple of toys and treats when Santa Paws makes his yearly visit, despite having new beds and bowls. Can't have them missing out on toys and treats just because they needed those things, can we? *wink*

Besides, they don't understand the concept of early Christmas presents, and will think they got left out if they haven't got anything for Christmas day. Especially Lilie, who's got some familiarity with the fact the Christmas stockings mean toys and treats are meant to happen... Even if she's not sure why, or how the whole thing works.

Logan does understand about toast and sweetie ball time though.

"Toast and sweetie ball time," - for those who missed it being mentioned in Logan's post last month - is when Logan and I share some toast before the dogs have their bed time treat balls at night. Lilie's invited to share some too, but usually isn't interested. Logan, however, loves his toast, and will let me know if it's getting late and he hasn't had it. Though he's happy to accept the sweetie ball first, skipping the toast completely is not an option, as we discovered recently.

I was tired, having hardly slept the night before, and been prevented from taking a nap (it was one of those times when every time I started to drift off to sleep, something happened to pull me back awake, and then it got too late for a nap, because I had to get up for dinner). So Kelly told me to just go to bed early.

As much as I wanted to, I objected that I couldn't, because Logan needed his toast, and would be upset if he didn't get it. I didn't want to do his toast too early, or he'd start expecting it too early.

Kelly insisted he'd be fine, and I should go to bed.

I disagreed, but was too tired to do so for long, and ended up giving in.

When I woke several hours later, it was to learn that Kelly had ended up making some toast to share with Logan, because apparently my Logi-Bear wasn't impressed at the lack of toast, and Kelly was left with the choice of sharing some toast with the dog, or waking me so I could do so. Knowing I needed the sleep, he chose the former.

Logan had gone to sleep with me originally, having his treat ball when he did. He then got up around the time I usually do the toast and pestered Kelly - complete with the full on sad puppy dog face - until he gave in and made some toast, after which he happily went back to bed, curled up beside me, and slept peacefully.

Kelly said Logan looked so sad that he just had to give in.

I said, "I told you he'd be upset if he didn't get his toast."

Logan is very food motivated. Can you tell? *wink*

Lilie was apparently offered toast too, but wasn't interested. She's not food motivated at all.

By the way, speaking of Lilie - and sticking on the subject of the dogs for a little longer - Lilie had a vet checkup on November 21st. The vet says she's perfectly healthy. Also, she's maintaining her 9.8 kilo weight, which is a good thing. In theory, she doesn't have to go back now until her shots are due in about six months time, unless she goes with Kelly just for the trip when he's picking up her flea and worming stuff, which she sometimes does.

I'd usually have one of the dogs tell you about all this stuff... I'd have Logan tell you about the missing toast, have one of them tell you about their new beds and bowls, have Lilie tell you about her vet trip herself, and maybe also have her tell you about meeting my Dad for the first time - yeah, she's almost three, and hasn't ever met him before. But I had several pet interviews come in close together, and don't want to make people wait too long for their interviews to go up if I can avoid it, so scheduled three back to back, and I already have things planned for the last three Fridays of this year too, along with tentative plans for the first couple of Fridays in January. So I figured I'd just tell you myself about all these things, including how Lilie's vet appointment went, and what she thought of meeting my Dad.

To be honest, those who know Lilie at all will be able to easily figure out that she was super excited to have a visitor come several days in a row. Logan too. They were both extremely pleased to see someone new, greeted Dad eagerly each morning when he showed up after spending the night in his hotel, watched sadly as he left each evening, and waited eagerly for him for the first couple of mornings after he was gone, expecting him to show up again. They love making new friends, and my Dad was apparently no exception to this rule. I'm not surprised, since I have yet to come across anyone who is with them... Lilie and Logan are both very friendly and social dogs.

Before we stop talking about the dogs - well, so much anyhow - here are some photos from when we took them for a long walk around the park a couple of weeks ago... So that you'll get to see them this year. It was a dry day, though quite chilly. As I said at the start of this post, most days have been quite chilly recently, with some wet and some not. But this day was one of the dry ones, and a quiet day for us too, so we took them for a long walk in the nearby park, to give them some grass sniffing time, and let them feel the grass and mud on their paws for a change.


We don't go to the park with them all that often, prefering to walk them along the seafront most of the time. So, since most of their walks happen along the seafront, going to the park is a treat for them. Plus, if we go around the whole park, like we did on the day the photos were taken, it's a long walk that has even Lilie tired by the end of it, so it's a treat for us too, because they need a good long nap afterwards. *wink*

Kelly also took Lilie for a walk to one of the other local parks. It's further away; it's the one right by where we used to live, where I used to walk Kero. Now that I think about it, I haven't been there since we lost him. Anyway, Kelly and Lilie went there, just the two of them, while I had some one-on-one time with Logan. I took him to the end of the street and back (the furthest I risk taking him on my own) and then did some one-on-one play time and training time with him until Kelly and Lilie got home.

We do that sometimes, so the dogs can have a bit of individual attention, and a break from each other. I mean, they get on great as a rule - apart from the odd bit of, "He stole my toy," or "She's sleeping in the spot I wanted to," squabbling, like you get from human kids - but I'm sure they appreciate having some time apart every so often. Not to mention, the one-on-one focussed attention each of them gets from one of us while it's happening is good for them, and likely very welcome. They seem to enjoy it anyhow.

Kelly took the camera with him and got a couple of photos for me to share. One of the shots even involves Lilie. So here they are:


We have no idea who the people walking their dogs in a couple of the photos are, and they're only in the shots because he was trying to get photos of the park, and they happened to be where he was aiming. But never mind.

Oh, OK, here's a few more phuppy photos, because I can, and because Lilie and Logan are so cute...


Anyway...

We did a big clean up the other day. We do one from time to time, and right before Christmas seems to be a popular time for one of them to happen; a big clean up right before the holidays seems to be a thing we do. I know of a few other people who do it too. Because, you know, there's not already enough to do ready for the holidays without that. *wink*

Thankfully, since I've got a lot more energy this year, I was actually able to be helpful. Last year even doing small tasks like plugging in the hoover for Kelly, or fetching small items, etc, would tire me out quickly, and I'd need a nap, so Kelly ended up doing most of it on his own before. This year I did my fair share, and even managed to play with Lilie and Logan in between tasks, while Kelly was resting. This despite hobbling about on a bad foot.

Why bad foot? Because I somehow managed to take a chunk out of my little toe on my left foot.

Don't ask how, because I'm honestly not too sure how I did it. Seriously, I don't have a clue how it happened. It was before we started the clean up too, so I can't even say it happened somehow during that. I just noticed it was painful, discovered dried blood on it when I prodded at it to figure out why, so called Kelly to take a look. This was a week ago. It's healing, but slowly, and in the meantime my foot hurts, and is awkward to walk on because of how it's bandaged up.

It might have been more healed by now, except I keep stubbing it on things. Isn't that always the way though? You have an injured body part, you're bound to keep hitting it on things as you go about your day... It's one of those unwritten laws of the universe or something. Or, it was unwritten, until we all started mentioning it online. Either way, I keep doing that, which is part of why we have it wrapped up the way we do... It's to protect it as best as possible. Still hurts like mad when I stub it on things though, as I'm sure you don't doubt.

I'm hoping it heals up properly very soon, or it's going to be interesting walking to Oscars for our Christmas dinner on Monday. It's getting there. At least I can now put shoes or slippers on again, so it should be fine. I hope.

Oh, and... On the theme of medical stuff: Kelly had his dentist appointment at the end of November, like he was supposed to. His painful tooth isn't sorted yet though. They're making him wait until today (December 17th) before he actually has anything done to sort it out. So he's had to wait three weeks. This after having had to wait a couple of weeks to be seen in the first place. So, he's been trying to get it sorted for over a month in total.

Yeah, I know. Both of us think it's stupid. Though Kelly thinks part of it is because a lot of people seem to be wanting to get their appointments in before the holidays, so their slots are filling quicker than normal. A theory based on the fact the dentist was packed when he was there, which is unusual for our dentist... We've never known more than about two or three others to be there waiting at any given time, yet Kelly says there were many more than that this time. Apparently there were a couple of dozen people there when he was there. But, whatever the reason, he's not getting anything done about the tooth that's bugging him until today. Good thing he's learned I'm right about how well clove oil works, that's all I can say.

Anyway, there shouldn't be any issues at his appointment today. Kelly's dentist appointments usually go smoothly. They don't have the issues with numbing him and such that they do with me, for example. So, if I say nothing more about it, it means it all went as smoothly as expected. If there do end up being any issues, I'll tell you about them in the new year.

The other thing worth mentioning that's happening this week is my Mam's birthday, which is in two days time (December 19th). So, happy early birthday, Mam! I don't know if she'll see this... Sometimes she reads my posts, sometimes she doesn't... But I'm saying it anyhow. Of course, I'll say it to her over the phone on her actual birthday too.

Oh, and... Speaking of birthdays...

Here, at last, are the photos of my birthday cards. One is from my Nan and Dad, one is from Rita, and the other is from my Grandma.


It only took me a month to get you those photos. That's all. But, hey, at least I got there in the end. *wink*

Also, remember how I told you I got the unicorn cookie cutter set for my birthday? Well, here are some tofu unicorns - or "tofunicorns" as the people from the vegan group I'm a member of on Facebook have decided they should be called - I made with the whole body unicorn shape in the set, because I could...


The set also contained a few other shapes, including a unicorn head you'll see later in this post.

I can't believe how popular those were. Seriously, they got about 400 reactions on facebook, all of them positive, and most of them from people I don't even know via the vegan group. Well, if anyone's interested, they tasted great too; I coated them in a mixture of herbs and spices, and then cooked them on a baking tray in the oven for about 30 minutes, turning them over half way through - just in case you want to make your own. Maybe you do. I mean, someone commented that I might have started something now. That's fine by me. I think it would be great for us to have fun shaped meat-free options. Vegan versions of the unicorns, dinosaurs, etc, you can get made out of chicken and turkey is the whole reason I wanted to make tofu unicorns. I didn't see why meat-eaters should get to have unicorns and not me. So, since I could, I used cookie cutters to make vegan-friendly edible unicorns to go with my dinner. I'd actually consider it a great thing if others started doing it too. I'm sure the children of vegetarian and vegan households would be delighted. Just get a block of tofu, slice it down the middle (the block is usually about two inches thick, so I sliced it so it was only an inch thick) and have fun with your favourite cookie cutter shape. If you can find a cookie cutter in the shape, you can make any shape you want to. Unicorns, dinosaurs, rocket ships, fairies, etc. Then pick your favourite seasoning combination, bake them in the oven, cook some veggies to serve with them - or make some salad if you like - and enjoy.

Speaking of making things:

I had my first attempt at making my own nut butter a couple of weeks ago. I made one involving hazelnuts, peanuts, and walnuts.

It turned out OK. Not amazing, but not too bad either. It spreads on my toast, and tastes good on it, so I'm happy with it. It won't be winning any prizes, but I don't think it's too bad. Next time I'm going to not try and blend the whole batch at once, since that's the only real issue with it: it's not as smoothe as I'd have liked, and really wasn't blending more, so I gave up. I'm pretty sure it's because I was trying to do too much at once. I'll try a smaller amount in the blender at a time next time, and let you know how that works out. Could probably do with a bit more salt too.

Speaking of making things: my November Makerly Crafts box arrived at the time it was meant to. It contained a kit to make a Christmasy ornament. I forget exactly what kind of kit they actually called it, and can't be bothered to either have Kelly look, or go look on their site or social media to find out. It makes me glad I decided to wait until November's box before stopping my subscription though. Yes, you read that right. I stopped my craft box subscription.

It's nothing against them... They're awesome kits, and great for the money too. I'm just not getting around to doing the kits, and have even given some of them away, because I know the chances of me even attempting them are slim. I just kept my favourites; I just kept the ones I was most eager to try and do at some point. Hopefully in the not-too-distant future, but we'll see. Either way, I'm no longer subscribed to automatically get the kits every month.

I'll miss having my happy post. After all, this now means I won't have any coming, since they've now all been stopped for various reasons. One of them got stopped because they no longer do it, one messed me about with payments, and the other is just becoming a pile of boxes I'm not having time to do much more than find out what the kits inside are. Maybe I'll set something else up. Or maybe I'll just use the money to buy some of the books and DVDs I want. We'll see. For now, it's the latter. Or it will be, after Christmas.

On the subject of Christmas, today it's only a week until Christmas Eve. How did that happen? Are you ready for Christmas? Have you done your Christmas shopping? Are your holiday plans arranged? Or, do you not celebrate Christmas at all? Do you celebrate something else instead? Whatever the case, I'd love to know, so let me know in the comments.

I'm ready. Well, mostly. There are a couple of last minute things I want or need to do, but I'm mostly ready. I even have the few decorations I'm putting up this year set up. Including trimming the door with bells and mistletoe, and putting up the cards I've so far received from people...

(The cards are from Rita, my Uncle Philip and Auntie Bev, and another online friend named Corinne).

And setting up a display on the table that features my little wooden tree, the Santa decoration I've had since my first Christmas not living at home, my "Grandma got run over by a reindeer" reindeer decoration, a polar bear, a little light up snowman, and a couple of different candles (two real ones, and one LED one)...


The real candles are a "sugarplum fantasies" one, and a "let it snow" one. The first smells sweet, as you might imagine (it really does make me think of sugar plums) and the second smells kind of like a snowy pine forest.

That's all I'm bothering to put up this year.

Anyway, we spent a large chunk of Thursday baking holiday goodies.

I made Kelly some double chocolate brownies, which I won't be eating since they contain eggs (and are brownies, which I'm not a big fan of anyhow). He was happy for me to use vegan substitutes for everything else, but insisted he needed the eggs. I told him if he wanted to go out in the rain and wind to fetch some, he could have eggs in his brownies. I mean, it's not my place to tell him what he can and can't have in his food. He agreed, and did go fetch some eggs, so his brownies contain eggs, like he wanted. Here's one of the pans of brownies that were made for him:


Since he only wanted brownies, he has a couple of pans of them, where as I have a few small batches of different hings.

For me, we made ginger unicorns and shooting stars...


Choc-chip cookies...


Fruit cake...



And a couple of big mince pies, which were made to use up the stuff I had left from when I made the big batch of sweet mince pies I made back in November, and didn't get photos of. Here's the big mince pies though:


All my goodies are vegan friendly, of course.

Lilie and Logan weren't too happy about all the baking - especially since we weren't sharing the goodies with them - and wished we would stop messing with the cooker and stuff, and just play ball with them...


(Yeah, I found a way to get another puppy photo in there... I couldn't resist).

Anyway, we have the leftovers of all those yummy goodies to eat over the holidays (along with any other treats I might make, since I'm considering makeing some shortbread) Christmas shopping is sorted (apart from a couple of things I'm sorting last minute for one reason or another) and our plans are made. In other words, we're pretty much ready for next week.

So, what are our plans?

We're going for our Christmas dinner at Oscars on December 23rd (because the 21st falls on a Saturday, and I didn't want to do it on the weekend) and we'll be calling various family members over the holidays to wish them a Merry Christmas. That's it ,other than the eating of the holiday goodies we made, my plans to spend some quality time with some holiday movies and books, and maybe doing the holiday craft kits I have waiting to get done (if I feel like doing them). I want to keep things quiet and simple this year, which how few decorations I put up this year probably tells you. I need it this year, and we prefer a quieter Christmas as a rule anyhow; neither of us are large gatherings and parties type people, so the quiet and simple Christmas plans suit us best.

Now it's your turn. Tell me about your plans, and how ready you are for next week.