Oh for the love of dog. . will someone MI me? Thanks.

Ok, but only if you're sure. Last time I MI'd someone...

1. Stress from above at work.

2. Stress from below at work.

3. Stress from within at work.

Done!

1. At home today cuz I worked Saturday. So far so good, went to the hardware store for curtain rods and finally put some curtains up. The folks are coming for Thanksgiving, which is providing some much-needed impetus for actually making our home seem livable.

2. Listening to a webinar for work even though I'm supposedly off. It's good and interesting though, and I'm just blasting it while I get some puttering done in my office.

3. HopefuL!

Bad.

The Fella's mom is in hospital with chest pains, prognosis tentatively good if all goes well today. Please be sending good vibes.

1. Elsa, I'm so sorry. Vibes, consider yourself sent.

2. I won a Conan shirt on the last day they were available! How can this be? (I guess my brother's got his Christmas present now... hope he wears an XL!)

3. KathrynT (of the green) had her baby! She was supposed to go to the birth center, but they were FULL, so they went home and had him there. (She benefits from having a crazy '70s house with a giant red jacuzzi in the master bedroom.) I am SO happy for her, especially because she gets to be at home all snuggled up and comfy.

4. I totally have things to do today. What are they?

1. Sat through the most brain-numbing two-hour presentation this afternoon. Endless powerpoint slides of graphs, with two statisticians explaining what they meant. Which to me was zero.

2. My planned theatre trip this evening is off because the roads round here are flooded (we've had very heavy rain today) and I'm too chicken to try to drive through it, in my low-slung ancient Ford.

3. But as consolation, there's a documentary about Cantona on tonight, which I'll record for lustful consumption another day.

Went to pdoc. Boohooed. Discontinuing Paxil and told to have blood tests sent from GP to her for review. Am probably going to be starting Lamitcal on Wednesday. :-/

Back at home after CVS and grocery store, feeling like bedtime is near, but at least I took a shower.

I just bought plane tickets to go see my mother, brother, and sister for Christmas. My travel days are December 23 and December 26, so things are bound to be crazy at the airports, and let's not forget the possibility of snow on my end. The tickets cost more than I can afford, and I also have to board the cat. Clearly, spending the last 3 Christmases all alone has made me desperate.

1) Lame horse was down in the same spot all night, but got up when I insisted this morning (with some help) and has been on her feet since. Oh good.

2) Pair of corner shelves that I bought came with crappy, crappy anchors and instructions that made me consider MAKING A SHOUTY POST. But through sheer force of will and determination, I made them work and now I have corner shelves. And I can stop storing my spare TP on the back of the potty, where it falls off.

3) Having a kind of lonely day. Didn't really see people much this weekend (well, I saw the vet for a long while on Saturday; does that count?), which is when I usually get to see people, and now I'm looking at another week coming up before I see people again. Maybe I'll go play with a horse.

4) thinking good thoughts for Elsa and pjern.

1. Didn't start working until around 11am so I am BEHIND
2. Tired and not looking forward to this evening with a cranky kid who didn't go to sleep until 10.30 last night. argh.
3. Had weird, weird, disturbing dreams all night.

Wonder if coffee designs are a local thing? Never get that here in the alleged home of coffee people, Seattle. Loved the tree I got in my latte foam last time I was in Portland, though.

Had a very mediocre weekend as my normally sweet husband is in his butthead Mr. Hyde mode right now. I did get more of the office, my endless project, cleaned up. Also learned more about new camera, started figuring out Paint shop pro program. And finished Dragon Age Awakenings extension, which kind of isn't worth the effort. And half taught my Aussie to "spin."

Monday has been a mixed bag but am working my way through my in box and do feel virtuous about taking the train in this AM. Wish I hadn't left my reading glasses at home though! Making do with cheaters.

1. Giving a presentation tonight in class. Hopefully it'll go well! I need a good grade after the midterm, which I don't think I did so hot on.
2. I think I need some red velvet cake with my dinner tonight.
3. Not much to eat at home. Need to get to the grocery store ASAP- maybe tomorrow?

1. Cold
2. Going to a meeting to find out if I'm getting more staff or less staff. Debating whether or not to ask Big Boss if I'm even in the running for promotion. I don't think I will. This guy's going to keep stringing me along as long as he can.

1. Glad that the time has arrived where we stop fucking with time. Awake in daylight, well rested and ready to go.

2. Looking forward to Zumba tonight - I'm peppy, I like this routine, and I have a girlcrush on my my instructor - she's so tiny and pretty and loud.

3. Salt cravings/mouth hunger nearly unbearable at work. Trying to cut down on salt, but not having bouillion or sunflower seeds to suck on is making me totally orally crazy.

4. Work starts on the home renovation Wednesday. I'm terrified. This will be the year without the holidays.

5. Good thoughts for Elsa's Fella's Mum.

1. Long, weird night. 10 hours of sleep, 2 at a time, with awake patches ranging from 10 minutes to 2 hours inbetween. And very busy dreams with an odd soundtrack tying all the dreams together: music from a Weird Al wannabe that dream me was supposed to be reviewing.

2. I got my Machine of Death book. If you don't know about this, it started as a one-off webcomic joke that turned into a long on-line discussion that turned into a writing contest that turned into an experiment in vanity publishing that turned into a best-seller at Amazon that beat Glenn Beck for one day. (And I bought it the next day) Also in mailbox: Costco coupons, including one for big jars of Nutella. If I got a reading from the Machine of Death today, it'd read "DIES FROM NUTELLA OVERDOSE".

3. Seriously, everything's good... too good. Worries about my new computer, aging father, budget for medicine, memory lapses, all turned into nothing to worry about over the weekend. I could do absolutely nothing for the rest of the year, or build that network of silly little websites and blogs I've been meaning to get around to all year. Leaning toward the nothing. Does that make me lazy or just extremely relieved?

1. Feeling more confident lately.

2. Took it to new heights earlier, and it looks like it might actually work out.

3. I am totally wide open to whatever the future holds for me.

Thanks for vibes, y'all; you vibe well! The Fella's mom is out of surgery and signs look good. We are collapsing now, with relief and gratitude.

1. Keeping the home fires burning by hauling wood and stoking the fire every 25 minutes.

2. My entire grown-up conversation quotient of the day was filled by the three Amish men re-building my barn doors. We talked about...doors. And plastic buckets. (galadriel, glad your horse is OK.)

3. Looking forward to shampooing the rugs tonight, yay.

It's the little things, you know?

AAAAUGH! The lame horse just blew a (humongous) abscess out of the *other* front hoof. Oh nasty, this is huge and now the whole leg is swollen and the poor thing is *still* putting all her weight on that same leg. The abscess in the one she IS lame on must be epic.

Poor, poor mare. She is having such a rough time. She is in so much pain she doesn't even want to eat.

That's good, Elsa.

*hugs galadriel*

My Monday?

Sinus infection/depression which both came on at the same time. Called parents and my brother picked up. He was civil. Bought bread at Roadfood endorsed bakery. My place looks like the Collyer brothers again and I need to straighten up and get rid of a bunch of things before I get the contractor in for a preliminary for the bathroom remodel. I don't know how long that's going to take.

Discovered that someone stole my bank account # several years ago and because the debits are more than 60 days old the bank won't do anything. I do have the slimeball's name and address, but need to get all the records together before I can report it. I've switched to another bank but am keeping the old account open until this is resolved.

The pop-up coat store at the corner of 57th and 6th has returned. The people they hire to pass out ad cards get in people's faces on the sidewalk and the fucking cards are scattered everywhere.

galadriel:

have you tried soaking the abcessed foot (feet?) in a 5 gallon bucket of warm (~105°F) water containing a cup of epsom salts?

my mom's epically crazy hunter got horrible horrible gravel abcesses frequently, and about the only thing he WOULD actually stand still for was a warm epsom soak.

granted my Knowledge is about 20 years old at this point but our old country horse vet who taught us this practise swore by it, and it never failed us. I grew up on a 40 acre horse farm and spent my entire youth (to age 26) dealing with, showing, handling, caring, feeding, and maintaining a variety of equines from my old Pony Club hack through a variety of idiotically overbred QH halter horses, right up to my six-figure FEI 3 star show jumper. So, I kinda have some experience.

the only other option I know of for immediate relief of hoof abcesses is to call the farrier, which is spendy as all hell, and not guaranteed to locate it if it's really high up or close to the white line. If you don't relieve the abscess fairly quickly, you maybe risking founder in the affected foot if it gets hot enough, which you probably already know, right?

crap, something else I remembered - do you own, or have access to, a hoof knife? The reason I ask is if and when you are able to soak her bad foot, you should also clean it out really, really well. If the bruise / abscess is in the sole of the foot, which they often can be as the result of a puncture wound of some type, you'll be able to see some damaged / blackened sole around the bruise or puncture. At that point you'll want to try to (very gently, and this will probably be pretty ouchy for your girl so make sure she's cross-tied and otherwise restrained and/or distracted) pare away the surface of the damaged area with the hoof knife in order to get at the abscess and release it. Go slowly, make very shallow parings, and keep putting the foot back into the water to clean away the trimmings. Refresh with clean water when it gets murky. Keep your face away from it while you're trimming, too, as a released abscess will "pop" / spurt an ungodly nasty amount of pus/goop, but it will be an unbelievable relief to her when it finally bursts.

If you are finally able to burst the abscess, be sure to clean/irrigate it thoroughly with Betadine (good) and/or lots and lots of distilled water (better) or sterile saline solution (best). You can make your own sterile saline for irrigation using 9g plain table salt to 1 litre distilled water; make sure you sterilise your containers and heat the solution to boiling, then cool to at or below body temp (~100°F) prior to using.

Good luck!

By the way, since you mention it's been a while. They've got these awesome things now, "soaking boots" that are hoof shaped and waterproof. You put them on the hoof and they stay on. You use a lot less water and epsom in them--and no more tipped buckets because the horse shifted! (Or spooked, or kicked, or just plain refused to be soaked and dumped the bucket on purpose...) Duchess is a major pain to soak, and these things are too useful for words.

galadriel, good thoughts your way and gentle scritches to your horse. I hope she starts feeling better soon.

1. I just made tacos that were really really really good. Mmmmm, tacos.

2. This is my last real week of temping in my partner's office, which is good because it's a lot of work, but I'll miss talking to people who aren't my therapy clients during the day.

3. I beat my brother this week in fantasy football. Take that, bro. Bwah ha ha.

1. Giving a presentation tonight in class. Hopefully it'll go well! I need a good grade after the midterm, which I don't think I did so hot on.

Presentation went well. And I got a B+ on the midterm!!! YAY!!!

Whoohoo! Duchess (the lame horse) is on her feet this morning, quite a ways from where she was at midnight last night. Looks like we may be past the very worst of this flareup. She's still wobbly, but she's not so miserable she won't even stand. This is major improvement.

Good news, galadriel! So good to hear she's improving! It can't be easy to wrangle a hurt and scared horse. Sending good thoughts your way, now that I can spare some.

Damn, she's down again and colicking (probably from pain and stress). I really thought we were past the worst of it this time.

Still colicky this morning, but better.

Her hooves are making this awful "squish" sound when she walks. It's pretty scary.

Aaaand another abscess blew out the bad hoof. Looks like that's what made her so upset last night and this morning. She's a lot better now, if draining stenchful bloody goo from both front feet. This is a relief.