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I powered through my knitting and whew - I'm finished with what I needed to get done. Knitted items aren't really finished when you stop knitting; you still should block them to make the stitching relax and look nice. That means soaking the item in a tub of cool water with some wool wash, then wringing it out gently and shaping it, and letting it air dry. Which is not a fast thing in cool weather, but I figured out that if I place the items in my closet and shut the door, it becomes a little warming room whenever the heat kicks on. I'll have pictures to show you of what I've been working on after Christmas...some bloggers do a New Year's Resolutions post, but I do a knitted Christmas gifts reveal post instead.
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We bought a bed for our second guest room so that both kadults will have an actual bed and room to sleep in when they're here for Christmas. The bed was delivered yesterday, which meant that I had to figure out where to place it in the room and shove aside all the boxes of childhood treasures waiting for said kadults to go through while they are here. I also had to let go of getting that room perfectly set up because I don't want to rush it and just randomly buy stuff to make it guest-room-like. So for now, it's a bed in a room. AND I'M OK WITH THAT. Seriously.
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Paco update: I accidentally bought the wrong kind of dry dog food for him last week - I normally buy Wellness Core, but I grabbed the bag of Wellness Core RawRev - the bag is the same color, so honest mistake. We decided to open it and see if Paco liked it - if he didn't, we'd donate it to the animal shelter, but if he did, I didn't have to make another trip to the pet store. Guess what?
Can't talk. Eatin.
We poured the bag into his food can and he shoved his head inside and started gobbling away. Paco is normally a dog who can take or leave his kibble until he's realllllly hungry, but he LOVES this food. It has raw turkey in it along with the kibble, and for the first few days, his bowl was constantly needing refilling. One day I discovered that he'd picked out most of the turkey and left the kibble - that's like just eating the marshmallows from a bowl of Lucky Charms! I waited until he ate the kibble before refilling it. Maybe with this new love of food, he'll put on some weight. His spine has been pretty prominent and he's only weighed about 24 pounds for quite a while - he could stand to put on a few pounds.
It isn't all great in Paco's world, though. Over Thanksgiving we noticed that he had a bunch of bumps from his neck down, and he was yelping if I petted him and touched a bump. Another vet visit with our traditional vet selfie:
Mom. I not lik dis.
And it turns out that our vet thinks he is having an allergic reaction to the antibiotic he was taking for a little mouth and skin infection. She felt so bad about this! He has such a rough time with antibiotics that we tried something different, and it almost cleared up the mouth infection but his poor body is a hot mess. So now we are bathing him with a medicated shampoo three times a week and hoping to see some improvement. As you might imagine, he's not enjoying the extra bathing, not one bit. I'm not either, because when I'm drying him off afterward, even though I'm only patting him with the towel, not rubbing his fur at all, he yelps and cries and then I feel bad. And as a result of that, he's getting a little extra spoiling:
Waitin' for dad to share ice creeem.
We added a round of prednisone to his care yesterday; fingers crossed this does the trick in pushing him toward feeling 100% again. I felt a bit silly when I went to the Target pharmacy picked up a prescription for myself AND my dog, but hey - this is my world, LOL.
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Our marathoners have 20 miles on tap for tomorrow. TWENTY. Our halfers only have 10 miles, which any other time seems like a lot...but TWENTY. I'll probably run 5 miles. I'm enjoying this not training for a big race, can you tell?
Have a great weekend!
Poor Paco! I hope he can catch a break and feel better soon (Also, I’m reminded that a pet can be as worrisome as a child.)
ReplyDeleteHonestly, the thought of running anything more than 10 miles is what took me out of distance running and has kept me out. Good luck to your marathoners.
No kidding on the pet/child connection - although I swear I am taking him to the doctor more often than I had to with my kids, sigh.
DeleteGood luck to them, indeed. It does not sound appealing, does it?
Poor Paco! I swear, when our dogs are hurting it's as bad as anything! Cocoa picks through her kibble too, looking for certain pieces and spitting out the ones she doesn't want. She does end up eating it all but it's just so weird. I've never had a dog do that before!
ReplyDeleteLOL on Cocoa - you should try this food, she'll be picking like crazy!
DeletePoor Paco he is really having a rough go of it lately. I hope this new med hes on helps with his skin problems soon nobody likes having to bathe a dog 3x a week. Maybe you have found his new favorite dog food a happy accident!
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your short run of just 5 miles while everyone else is out slogging through 20 miles. I only check your blog on Mon, Wed, Fri so I didn't see your post about your Dexa scan until today. I'm glad your bones are in good shape. I had one done a few years back and it looked like I was in the early stages of osteopenia seems to run in my bio-family. It will be interesting to see what changes there are when you go back.
Have a great weekend. Ours here is going to be a mixed bag supposed to rain this afternoon,we have ANOTHER cold front coming which,I am NOT thrilled about but such is life.
With early stage osteopenia, are you taking extra calcium?
DeleteWe had a cold front blow in overnight and it's very cold and windy. I bet this is the same one headed your way...bundle up!
Sweet Paco! Endless cuddles for the Wonder Dog!
ReplyDeleteHe agrees with you. :)
DeleteThose pics of Paco in his food can totally made my day! I hope he gets relief soon. It's so hard having aging pets. Darwin is getting a little skinny, too...but he has hip dysplasia so it may be a gift in disguise. What we do for our furry kids!
ReplyDeleteI mean...haven't we all wanted to shove our heads into a huge bowl of something delicious? Paco has no shame, which is the only thing keeping me from doing the same thing, LOL.
DeleteAww poor Paco! At least he has some new food he likes! I've learned to not pick up people prescriptions and dog prescriptions on the same day
ReplyDeleteFor some reason it just confuses the people at the pharmacy!
Good idea to do separate pick ups - I'll have to remember that.
DeleteAww, Paco :( I hope he does put on some weight. And that his skin feels better soon. Being a senior pet is hard! But all your love and care makes it easier for him!
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to see your finished knitting projects! The "after" knitting part is so annoying to me. Ha. I just want to be done when I am done. I am going to have a bunch of tails to weave in to the blanket I am working on!
Weaving in ends, blech. Plus every time I do it, I wonder if I'm doing it in the best way...surely there must be rules about how to properly weave in your ends? And would you believe there are knitters who make socks using scraps of sock yarn...they have so many ends to weave in! That does not appeal to me at all.
DeleteBoy, Paco has been going through the wringer lately! But the new dog food seemed to lift his spirits!
ReplyDeleteLOL, I agree with Kim--the "after" knitting is so annoying! I can hardly wait for your after Christmas knitting review!!
...and I think the hardest item to block is a shawl/scarf - so you definitely know the annoyance!
DeletePoor Paco! I sure hope he feels better soon! I'm glad he's enjoying the new food! :)
ReplyDeleteShelley, you make me feel much better that there are still boxes of kadult stuff in my son's room 5 years after he "moved out" I whittle away as best I can every time he comes home - take this! And take this! But it is a process, isn't it? And to pack it up and ship it would be expensive, which I always find reasons to avoid. It's the 2 boxes of books that are going to be the lingerers, I suspect. Anyway, the bonus for him is it still feels like "his" room a little bit.
ReplyDeletePoor Paco, if it's not one thing, it's another. Vet office selfies are cute, but geez Louise, you all could use a break :-(
Looking forward to the knitting reveals!
Darn it!!!!! I was thinking that Paco was over the hump of bad medical juju!!! Grrr! Hopefully the bathing will fix it and he can totally be on the mend and well again. Woohoo to food he loves!
ReplyDeleteYou came up in a conversation the other day. We saw the gingerbread house decorating kits and I laughed and said ‘in a few weeks I’ll read about the the ultimate gingerbread house challenge!!! ‘. Ok ultimate in my world at least!!