Riding Doc

Today I rode Doc around the pond before our lesson with Betsy. He was very good. 

This brings the blog up to date..finally. Whew!

Happy Birthday, Dennis

Monday, Nov. 28, was Dennis's birthday. On Sunday, Mom made cream puffs (instead of a cake) and we celebrated Dennis's birthday at her house. On Monday, Dennis, Mom, Uncle Johnny and I had lunch at Mister A's restaurant in San Diego. Afterward, we went to Extraordinary Desserts in downtown San Diego. Wow, what beautiful desserts! We ate them.

Dennis and Uncle Johnny at Mister A's

Happy

About the time Spike had his seizure, Happy came down with "moon blindness." This disease causes inflammation behind the eyes, which is very painful and causes temporary blindness. This is the second time she has had the condition. It is a recurring disease that people used to think was caused by the moon, thus the name. We have been treating her with medication to control the pain and inflammation. She has to wear a mask because her eyes are very sensitive to light. This mask blocks out 99% of UV light and is made specifically for this illness. Poor Happy.

Custom Designs

I made this wine bottle for a friend who provided the label. I slumped the bottle, decoupaged the label, and decorated the bottle with raffia, grapes and a gold charm.

This is a pendant I made for a customer who wanted to give her husband a very special anniversary present. He is a Vietnam vet, and she wanted me to make a pendant in the colors of the Vietnam Conflict.

The green in the pendant is more sparkly than shows up in the photo.

Jewelry

Here's some of the jewelry I've been making. My sister took some of my glass pendants to her Titanium RV rally and sold them at their mini-craft fair. Thanks, Angie.

Spike

Spike had another major seizure the night after we took him to be groomed. I don't know if it is a coincidence, but it happened a couple of months ago after he'd gone to the groomer.  My sweet doggie is 16, partially blind, and almost totally deaf. He spends most of his time in the closet where he feels safe.

Pretty Kitty

T.R.O.T.

Me

I'm so glad Doc relented and went through the gravity gate because we finally found the lake in the Laguna Mountain forest! We've been looking for it for a really long time and even thought it had dried up. But as you can see, the lake is still there, if a bit diminished by the drought.

It's really, really hard to take a photo on horseback. Joyce cut off Doc's body and I cut off her horse's head. Not on purpose.

Joyce

Big Laguna Lake

Jennifer Marie Brown b. 9-28-11

My great niece, Jennifer Marie Brown, sister to Amanda and daughter of Kristy all lined up in Kristy's hospital bed. Angie and Mom are in the picture, too.

Bill Homer's 70th Birthday

Mom, Dennis & I attended Bill Homer's 70th Birthday Party on September 30. Bill is married to Joanne, who works in our office. It was a really nice party.

Doc

 Joyce and I were going down the trail in Laguna and we had to go through a gravity gate, which is a swing gate with a bar at the bottom, elevated about a foot or so. Doc wouldn't go. Mind you, he has been through plenty of gravity gates, but he didn't want to go through this one. Probably he thought he would bump his legs or something. I don't know, except he sometimes gets something in his head and then there we go.

Here are some photos of Betsy taking Doc over some small jumps to give him confidence. After a few lessons like this, he finally went through the same gate when we went on the trail again.

Rain

The last time I took a walk on the trail I took this photo of the creek full of water.

My Poor, Poor Blog

Yikes! We got  back from vacation needing a vacation. My left hip and leg have been giving me trouble...pain that sent me back to my orthopedist to see what the heck was wrong. Bursitis and muscle weakness apparently. So,  back to physical therapy. I've been going for three weeks now and doing exercises at home to strengthen the muscles to support by wrecked knee.

In the meantime, I guess I missed a few weeks in my blog. Here's a recap:

At the end of summer, we were visited nightly by a family of raccoons. They broke two bird feeders and made a mess of the cat feeding station in the breezeway. But they were soooo cute.




All of a sudden Doc decided he couldn't (wouldn't) step over the bar in the gravity gates they have in the forest. So we set up some small jumps to give him confidence. This is Betsy taking him over a little jump.