A Catch-Up Post. Finally.

So much for sticking with blogging at least once a week for Thursday 13.  Since it has been a while, I have some catching up to do, so here are 13 things, not on a Thursday.  As usual, for this kind of post, not all of the pictures are related to the post. 

1.    We didn’t have any damage from Hurricane Ian.  I know a lot of people weren’t so lucky, but we didn’t get any of the horrible weather we were expecting.  We even had nice sunny weather by the end of that weekend.

2.    We went on vacation during my little blogging break.  We rented a house on Folly Beach for a week and got home on Saturday.  We had a great time and didn’t really want to come home.

3.    Our neighbors very kindly took care of the cats and were even fine with giving Howard his shots. 

 

4.    I’ve gotten a little better at giving Howard his shots. When your 15-year-old neighbor does it with no trouble, it kind of shames you into sucking it up a little more. 

5.    We timed our vacation quite well to avoid the cold for a while longer.   Our area had its first hard freeze and even dropped down to the 20s while we were gone.  This week it’s back in the 60s and 70s.  I’m happy to avoid the cold for a while longer!

6.    We ended up taking down a small-ish rose of Sharon tree in our backyard.  It had vines growing on it (I’m not sure what the vines were; it wasn’t anything we planted or wanted) that were growing on cable/internet lines.  Our neighbors were having internet trouble, and the technician who came out told them it was because of the vines on the lines. 

 

7.    I didn’t take a picture before because the original plan was just to take down the vines and some branches, but the project kept going.  There are power (service lines which apparently the power company doesn’t maintain or service), cable, internet, and phone lines there, and it seemed like every trim just moved branches closer to another set of lines, so we finally opted to take the whole tree down.  I don’t know what possessed someone to plant a tree there in the first place!

8.    Taking a tree down is seriously hard work!  It didn’t seem like a large tree until we started cutting branches, but then it seemed like a massive tree.  Our neighbors very kindly helped us with it.  They felt like it was at least partially their responsibility since it was their internet was having trouble, and we felt like it was our responsibility since it was our tree in our yard. 

9.    I’m very glad our neighbors are so nice and that we all get along so well!  And I’m so glad they helped us!  Even with their help, it took the vast majority of a weekend to get it done. 

10. I learned how to use the electric chainsaw during the tree removal.  I enjoyed using it and wouldn’t mind using it again when we have another project that we need to use it for.

11. After all of that, it turned out that the tree and vines weren’t the cause of the neighbors’ internet issues.  They’re having ongoing problems with it, and subsequent technicians have told them it sounds like the first one just didn’t want to do anything, so they blamed the tree and vines.  We don’t regret taking the tree down, though, because with it being near so many lines, it was probably only a matter of time before it did cause someone problems. 

12. I finally started work on the crochet cat couch for my sister.  Technically, I haven’t started on the couch, but I’m almost finished with the dust ruffle.  I think it’s looking like it’s supposed to, so that’s promising. 

 

13. I’ve also made two of the squares for the blanket.  I had hoped that the multi-colored squared would be different enough to use all multi-colored squares, but after I made two, I didn’t think I would like how the blanket looked with just those, so I’ve decided to make some solid-colored squares in some of the colors from the multi-colored yarn.  I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to do the blanket, so I’m open to suggestions and ideas.

 

So what have you been up to for the past month? 

Thursday 13: The Storm Is Coming

Thursday 13 seems to be my regular thing now, so here’s this week’s edition.

1.    You might think that living over four hours from the nearest beach means that we’d never be impacted by hurricanes.  That is not the case.  Quite often, the wind and rain head straight for us, stall against the mountains, and hang out for a while.  We definitely don’t have it as bad as the people on the coast, though!

2.    The wind has been picking up all day, even though we’re not supposed to start getting the worst of Hurricane Ian’s second landfall until tomorrow.

3.    Anticipated wind and rain from hurricanes always makes me think about when we got Charlie and Mortimer.  Remember how they started off as short-term fosters ahead of Hurricane Florence? 

 

4.    Charlie and Mortimer have been officially ours for almost four years now.  Time flies, doesn’t it?

5.    Charlie and Mortimer are still best friends. 

 

6.    It definitely feels like fall now.  In addition to being windy, it was fairly chilly today.  I spent a lot of time walking between buildings at work today, and it was downright cold at times.

7.    Other than the wind, the weather was beautiful today, with gorgeous blue skies.  It’s so weird how much it’s supposed to change in the next 24 hours.

8.    Howard’s glucose level is still improving.  Dr. D. has had us lower his dose back down to five units twice a day.  He goes next week to have it checked again.

9.    Duke did not eat any rodents or other creatures this week.  We’re very happy about that!

10. Yesterday was our 14^th wedding anniversary.  Work has been busy for both of us this week, so we didn’t do much for it.  

 

11. Nick’s mom and stepdad will be celebrating their 16^th tomorrow and my aunt and uncle celebrated their 15^th earlier this month. 

12. We went out for a work dinner with people from my job tonight.  It was nice.  We had a good time, and the food was excellent.  Nick finally got to put faces with names. 

13. We tried Turkish Delight for the first time this week.  We both like it.  I think it’s kind of gummy bears, but tastes less artificial.

 

So what about you?  What have you been up to this week?  Are you getting (or expecting to get) bad weather from Hurricane Ian?  Do you like Turkish Delight? 

Thursday 13: The First Day of Fall

1.    Duke is home from the vet.  We picked him up on Friday afternoon, and he seems to be feeling great.

 

2.    Duke chose to demonstrate just how great he feels by eating a rabbit on Tuesday morning.  I wasn’t able to get it away from him.  His vet is having us call every morning to tell them how he’s doing and said that eating a rabbit wasn’t ideal, but they were glad he’s back to his usual (bad!) behavior.

3.    Just in case the rabbit wasn’t enough to clue us in that Duke is fully recovered, he caught and killed a possum on Tuesday evening.  Nick was able to get it away from him, so he didn’t eat the entire thing.  Again, the vet says it’s not ideal, but it definitely proves that he’s recovered. 

4.    Catching a rabbit and a possum in one day is also very impressive for a twelve(ish) year old three-legged dog.  Don’t ever think that tri-paw dogs don’t lead full, active lives!

5.    Howard also seems to be feeling much better, though he’s not demonstrating his good health by killing rodents.  He has finished his antibiotics and seems to be back to normal.

 

6.    Howard’s glucose is finally at a good level.  It was excellent when the emergency vet checked it last week and excellent when Dr. D. checked it twice this week. 

7.    Dr. D. is a little concerned that it may be too good (coming down too much, too fast), so we have an appointment to check it again next week instead of waiting two weeks in between checks.

8.    It doesn't feel very much like fall here yet.  I know today is only the first day, but we’ve gotten up to 90° this week. 

9.    The basil is still going strong.

 

10. We still have some roses blooming.

 

11. We have one lone lilac bloom.

 

12.  We do have one fall plant, though.  Our neighbor Lori works at a plant nursery and brought us these mums. 

 

13.   I did not get started on the cat couch over the weekend.  After all of the vet trips, we were both ready for a weekend of not doing much.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to get started on it this weekend.

Thursday 13: A Busy Week

I was hoping to post again before this, but since I didn’t, I decided another Thursday 13 was in order.  It has been a busy week.

1.     Duke has pancreatitis again.  We’re not sure how he keeps getting it.  He had it in April, and we’ve been careful about not giving him too much people food since then.  We took him to the vet on Tuesday, and Dr. M. wanted to hospitalize him.  We’re hoping he’ll be able to come home tomorrow.  He’s eating again (always a good sign with Duke) but still has a fever. 

 

They sent us this picture of him today.  He likes everyone there, so he's happy.

2.     Dr. D. had us bring Howard in on Saturday morning and show her exactly how we were giving him his insulin injections.  Given Nick’s EMT background, no one was really expecting an issue with how Howard has been getting his shots.  Howard’s insulin dose was due before the appointment time, so Dr. D. had Nick demonstrate with our syringes and a bottle of saline. 

3.     Everything was right.  I bought the right needles, and Nick has been doing the injections perfectly.  I didn’t demonstrate (Yay!) since Nick does most of them, and I do exactly what he does. 

4.     Howard went to the emergency vet last night.  He started having severe gastrointestinal issues, and I called in case it was something to do with his insulin.  We were there for about three hours, and they gave Howard fluids and antibiotics and did bloodwork.  His glucose level was finally good!

5.     I really liked the vet we saw.  It’s always a gamble at the emergency clinic; most of the time, they’re great, but it seems like when they’re bad, they’re really, really bad.  This vet was awesome, though.  I hope we don’t need to see her again, but I’d be happy with any of the fur kids seeing her when we do need an emergency vet.

6.     I mentioned Duke’s pancreatitis to the emergency vet, in case it was related to what Howard had.  She said it most likely wasn’t and was just terrible timing.  I talked to Duke’s vet (Dr. M.) this morning and Howard’s regular vet, Dr. D., and they both agree that it’s only a coincidence that Howard and Duke are similarly sick at the same time.  Dr. D. was thrilled about Howard’s glucose when she got the report from the emergency vet.  He has an appointment with her next week to check it again, and we’re all hoping the level stays where it is.

7.     I hate that Duke and Howard are both sick, but I’m relieved that we don’t need to worry about the other five cats having the same problem.  That would be a lot to deal with!

8.     In non-vet visit news, I’m going to try to make my sister a crocheted cat couch for Christmas.  She doesn’t read my blog, so I’m not worried about her finding out.  She has been asking for one for two years now, but I’ve been scared to try it.  There weren’t any left-handed videos, but Crochet Crowd posted one recently, and I’ve been practicing the stitches.

9.     It only has three different stitches; single crochet, double crochet, and half double crochet.  I used the half-double for most of the mask adapters I made, so I’m pretty comfortable with that one.  I think I’m getting better at the single and double.

10.  I like the UK crochet terms better than the US crochet terms.  The UK terms seem to make more sense for what you’re doing.  I like the videos from this website, and she gives you the UK and US terms, so it works for me to learn from a UK site. 

11.  I ordered the yarn I’m planning to use, and it arrived this week.  I really like the gray and rainbow yarn in the pattern, but that yarn was more expensive, and I’m not sure my first attempt will be gift-worthy, so I opted for the less expensive yarn.  The gray is for the couch.  The multi-colored one is called Fiesta, and it’s for the afghan and the dust ruffle. 

 

12.  We bought the foam on Saturday after we got back from taking Howard to the vet.  Nick will be in charge of building the couch.  I’m terrible at things like that, and he says the pattern/building instructions make sense to him.  I’m sure the couch will take me a while, so I’m hoping to get started on it this weekend, assuming we manage to stay out of vet’s offices.

13.  We have cherry tomatoes again.  We’re pretty sure 2016 was the last year we planted cherry tomatoes, but we have some come back every year.  I think they should be called something other than cherry tomatoes.  Maybe immortal tomatoes would be a good name for them.

So what have you been up to this week?  

Books Read In August

I’ve seen several other bloggers list and do mini-reviews of the books they read the previous month.  I love seeing what other people are reading, so I thought I’d try it, too.

August was a fairly light reading month for me.  I always seem to read less during the summer and then read a lot more during the winter.  I’ll usually pick going swimming with the neighbors over reading in the evening, but there’s not much that can lure me outside during the winter.

So, here are my August books:

The Locked Room by Elly Griffiths.  It’s number 14 in the Ruth Galloway mystery series.  If you like mystery and you haven’t read this series, do yourself a favor and start reading it now.  I always love these books.  I’ve grown very attached to most of the characters, and I love that there’s a little bit of the story from all of their points of view. 

The Locked Room is the only book I’ve read so far that takes place during the early days of the pandemic.  It takes place in the UK, so obviously, it’s a little different than it was here in NC, but I think the author did an incredible job of portraying what people were feeling early on.  It took me right back to all of the how long should I plan to work from home and how much should I change my routine type of questions.  She also did a great job of capturing the early emotional rollercoaster of “this won’t be that bad” to “this is terrible,” and everything in between.  I think, years from now, when someone wants to know what the early days of the pandemic were like for regular people, this book will do a great job of conveying that.  I assume that there will be more and more books coming out that take place during the pandemic, and I’m interested to see if other authors do an equally good job capturing all of the feelings. 

Pandemic writing aside, the mystery was excellent, as they always are with this series, and there was a lot of character development.  After reading the same characters for so long, you wouldn’t think there would be much room for more character development, but they reached new depths in this book.  I gave it five stars.  I’m anxiously waiting for the next book in the series!

If you’re a fan of the Ruth Galloway series, are there any other series you recommend?  I’m on the hunt for another good mystery series.

The Templars: History & Myth by Michael Haag.  We listened to this one on Audible.  One of my coworkers got us hooked on the show The Curse of Oak Island, and there are a lot of references to the Knights Templar.  My entire knowledge base of the Knights Templar came from watching National Treasure, so it seemed prudent to learn more about them.  Nick was interested, too, so it was an easy Audible pick.

I’m sure there are plenty of good and interesting books about the Knights Templar.  Unfortunately, this wasn’t one of them.  It was essentially a very dry list of facts, and the narrator's voice was extremely annoying. 

I tend to read fiction, so I definitely prefer a more narrative type of book.  I tried to factor that into my opinion of this book, but nothing about it was engaging.  It felt like “Fact One, Fact Two, etc.”  I think I would have liked it a lot more if there had been more about some of the people involved and less about building plans for temples, etc.  I gave it one star.  Nick reads almost exclusively nonfiction and said it was definitely on the drier side.  He gave it two stars.

Have you read an interesting and engaging book about the Knights Templar?  I’d definitely like to try another one since I feel like I was too bored to actually learn very much about them from this book.

The Ones Who Got Away by Roni Loren.  Here’s the goodreads blurb on it:

“It's been twelve years since tragedy struck the senior class of Long Acre High School.  Only a few students survived that fateful night—a group the media dubbed The Ones Who Got Away.

Liv Arias thought she'd never return to Long Acre—until a documentary brings her and the other survivors back home.  Suddenly her old flame, Finn Dorsey, is closer than ever, and their attraction is still white-hot.  When a searing kiss reignites their passion, Liv realizes this rough-around-the-edges cop might be exactly what she needs...”

I just couldn’t get into this one.  I started it in July and read a few other books in the meantime, which is never a good sign for me.  It wasn’t terrible, and I didn’t hate the characters.  I just didn’t feel anything for them.  There were a few points in the book where I thought things might take a turn and get more interesting, but they never did.  I gave it two stars, and I probably won’t try another Roni Loren book.  Hers are popular, but I’ve read one other one, and I didn’t like it.  I think maybe her style just doesn’t work for me. 

The Vanishing Type by Ellery Adams.  This is the fifth book in the Secret, Book, and Scone mystery series.  I love pretty much everything about this series.  It takes place in NC, and the main character owns a bookstore.  They’re classified as cozy mysteries, but I think they’re a little more than that.  They’re definitely not overly suspenseful, but I think they’re deeper than a lot of cozies.

There’s a group of four women who are the main characters, and there are some great secondary characters.  There’s usually some kind of literary twist to the mysteries, and there’s a lot of focus on the friendship the women share.  I’ll be honest; I usually find myself wishing I could join their book club and try to befriend them.

Each chapter in the series begins with a quote, and I love that.  Two of my favorite quotes in The Vanishing Type were, “A life with love will have some thorns, but a life without love will have no roses.” (Dr. Seuss).  “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.”  (C.S. Lewis).

Tara also likes the book.

As usual with this series, the mystery was intriguing, and I enjoyed all of the secondary storylines.  I gave it five stars.

If you’ve read and loved this series, are there any similar ones you recommend? 

And that’s everything I read in August.  I told you it was a slow reading month.

Have you read any good books lately?