Troubles McSteans

My brother Doug is having a heck of a week. After returning home from the hospital with Kristen (who I hear is recovering and should be A-ok for the wedding, thankfully), he had to take his kitty Digger to the kitty ER in the middle of the night. He had a surgery consult the next morning to decide if they should attempt to remove a mass as well as part of some intestine (ironically, the same surgery Kristen had just undergone). If Digger had been a younger cat, Doug would have without question done the surgery. But Dig was 14 and has had a number of other medical trials recently. Doug made the difficult decision to say goodbye to his friend. Ryan said it better here , but Digger was a great kitty. I am sorry I didn't get to spend more time with him, because he was always super friendly and sweet when I went out to visit Doug. He had a good life and was even playing and frisky when we were in Berkeley this summer. I know Doug and Kristen will miss him tremendously, and my he...

I've been sick since Saturday and whatever I have is showing no signs of slowing down. I thought it was allergies until Monday, when I started feeling achy. What's worse, Ryan walked in the door yesterday at 4:00 announcing that he also had the crud. He stayed home from work today and is upstairs hibernating. This is not good. We're supposed to be leaving for the Dug's wedding in exactly one week. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this passes quickly. The good news is, Kristen got out of the hospital yesterday and is resting at home. It looks like she'll be able to attend her own wedding. Hooray!

So 2 weeks before the wedding, my brother's fiancé, Kristen, has landed herself in the hospital for a good spell. I guess she twisted part of her intestines and has to have some minor surgery to remove that part. When I last heard from Doug (last night), they still weren't sure if the surgery was going to be last night or this morning so I'm hoping the operation went/goes well. As these things go, on the whole the hardest part is rarely the surgery itself. Apparently K will have to remain in the hospital for a number of days for recovery where she won't be able to eat or drink anything. Boredom and feeling helpless and trapped is often the worst part of any hospital stay. What a thing to happen so close to the wedding. I'm sure she's already stressed enough. It's times like these I wish I could be there to help out, to do something . I do know that Kristen and Doug have a large network of great friends in the Bay area who I'm sure will be able to ...

Rain I'm glad I went to the grocery store before the rain started. I kept eyeing the darkening clouds on the way to my car and luckily I got home just in time. We need rain so bad, though, so this is a good thing. The dogs disagree and Scout was forlornly staring out the window earlier. It was kind of sad. Thankfully Ryan got up this morning before work and took Lucy and Scout for a walk so they're tired enough for sleeping away the afternoon instead of letting the storm make them anxious. Plumbing So the plumber was supposed to stop by yesterday afternoon to fix our leaking sink. At noon he called to touch base. At 4 he called to let me know his current job was giving him more trouble than he had anticipated and he was running late. At 7 I tried calling him twice to see if he could just come this morning instead, but had to leave a message on his cell phone. Since I didn't have a sink, we had to go out for dinner, so Ryan and I left a note on the door saying for h...

One step forward, three steps back So last week Scout learned to sit. I know I posted a picture of her sitting the previous week, but I think that was due more to coincidence than her comprehension. But now she's got it down. She'll do it mostly with the first request and even sans edible reward. We're also well on our way to "lie down" as she hears it all the time. She is picking up the art of fetching, although not so much with the "giving back" once she's returned to the porch. Then again Mel was never so good at that part, either. She's been pretty good when we leave her alone, up until Sunday night. Scout had a major anxiety attack while we were out at Ryan's parents' house and took her frustration out on a number of Ryan's books. If you'd like details, you can read Ryan's account of the incident . Scout is clearly not as comfortable here as we assumed, which is normal for an animal in a new environment, but noneth...

Doug visits a pet cemetery These were taken completely independent of each other, years apart: