It would be a better picture, of course, if I had cleaned the mirror first, but beggars can’t be choosy.

This one’s not much better. The mirror is cleaner, but my camera focused on the actual mirror, not the reflection. So, you know, take your pick.

This little guy has been quiet today. I took him to the vet for his annual check-up yesterday and, $192 later, it turns out that he has an ear infection.

Not a bad one, mind you. In fact, the vet told me we’d caught it really early. The part that astounded her was that this is the FIRST ear infection my 9-year old spaniel has ever had. When I said so, her jaw dropped. “A spaniel?” So obviously we’ve been doing something right, huh?

Of course, now I get to be Chappy’s FAVORITE person because two times a day for the next two weeks, I get to put drops in his ear. You know, those cold, oozy things that tickle and itch all the way down the ear canal? Yeah, those. Chappy just loves those.

Now, here’s something you never thought you’d see here. I won a contest over at FiberFarm.com and the prize was six skeins (Six!) in one of three colors of yarn. I asked Susan which she thought would be best for me and she suggested “Catcher in the Rye,” which came yesterday. Except, um, I think this is really well named because it looks to me like the shade of orange deer hunters wear to make sure they’re not accidentally shot. (Trust me, it’s even brighter in person than it appears in the photo.) I like orange–you know that–but this is bright orange, and well, I don’t like it. Much as I adored using her yarn for my Salem Hooded Jacket (as seen above), and think her yarn and colors are generally awesome, and grateful as I am to have won a sweater’s worth of yarn … I’m sending it back with regrets. If I had any dyeing skills at all, I might have kept it and tried over-dyeing to tone the orange down to something a little rustier, but since I don’t, I figure it’s better for the farm to get the yarn back to sell than for it to sit in my stash unused and unappreciated. (Well, not unappreciated, because like I said, I’m super grateful, but under-appreciated as regards to color.) It’s great yarn and it deserves better. So … back it goes, with my thanks, because that seems the right thing to do.

I know. You’re really grateful that you were sitting down while you read this, aren’t you? That news would have made me fall over in shock, too.

One more thing–remember when I mentioned this adorable book a couple months ago? IT’S A BOOK by Lane Smith? Oh my God, it’s like the best picture book EVER.

Here’s a reminder:

The perfect children’s books for all us book lovers … because, as much as I love and appreciated computers and e-readers and smart phones and all that? A real, paper book is still something unique.

Now, wish me luck. Tomorrow I go to the ondontist for a root canal that my regular dentist doesn’t feel equipped to deal with, for a tooth that’s apparently infected and more urgent than the one that fractured a couple weeks ago and still has a little, temporary seal on it until it can be addressed. Which, likely, means it’s going to be pulled, along with my one and only wisdom tooth, just as soon as this OTHER trouble-making tooth is taken care of. Yikes. My mouth and my checkbook are neither of them looking forward to this. I’ve never had a tooth pulled before.

(Yes, I only have the one wisdom tooth, the other 3 just aren’t there, and we wonder if my having been 7 weeks premature might have had something to do with that. Anyway, it’s hung in there for decades, now, but it’s at a point where it needs more work than it’s worth and it’s better off just being pulled, and since it’s right next to the fractured tooth that would really need an implant to fix properly anyway … might as well do them both at the same time. Ouch. Not looking forward to that, either. And, did I mention that my checkbook is terrified? But, really, let’s not talk about it, huh? Tomorrow, though, is a root canal on a completely different tooth on the other side of my mouth. Sigh. Have I mentioned how much I hate my teeth?)

Tags: Chappy, Finished Knitting // 6 Comments »