More Thanksgiving Preparations

Cranberry sauce ... Check!

Graham cracker crust ... Check!

Key lime pie ... Check!

We'll whip the cream tomorrow. It's going to be so good. 

Very busy in the kitchen. 

Thanksgiving begins

In the years since my father died, Robert and I have hosted Thanksgiving many times. This year my mom is hosting it again and I'm starting the preparations today. I'm making do-ahead potatoes which should be made two to three days in advance. 

Tomorrow it's going to snow! The plan is to make key lime pie while listening to Christmas music. 

Poor Lilo

Poor little Lilo has screaming diarrhea. The vet doesn't think it's a side effect of the radiation but she gave us some medicine anyway. Waking up in the middle of the night to a blowout mess is not fun. I'm still doing laundry. 

It's right before Thanksgiving and I'm ready to put up my tree but I'm not going to yet, because we are having some of Robert's nieces stay with us over this next weekend. We are celebrating Robert's mother's 85th birthday with a luncheon party on Saturday. We chose this weekend for the party to allow all the out-of-state families to travel to NH. This party has been in the works for many months and I know it gave Mrs. Gaimari a lot of pleasure to anticipate. She made the guest list over the summer and Robert and I have done most of the planning and leg work.

Tomorrow starts another week of radiation for Miss Lilo. Good thing it's a short week. I really enjoyed the weekend, not having to drive to Waltham and I think Lilo did too.

Trail cams

Last year for my birthday, Robert got me a couple of trail cameras. We set them up on the fence around the dog yard, pointing into the woods. They are motion activated and will take three pictures and then a one-minute movie. A lot of the time we capture squirrels frolicking, so we've nicknamed them the squirrel-cams. Every once in a while, they do catch an interesting visitor or visitors.  These are out of order and most have been seen on Facebook before, but I thought I'd add them to one blog post.

 A coyote

A racoon

 A large deer

A turkey 

A coyote

 A fisher

A bobcat

 A turkey

A fisher

 A coyote

A deer

 A deer

A possum

A fox

Happy birthday to me!

One week of radiation down, two more to go. I haven't looked forward to the weekend this much since I worked or maybe since I was in school. Today we were home by 9:00 am, so that was nice. 

I shouldn't do this

But I do. I always make sure I'm almost stopped. It's always during heavy traffic so we're going slowly. 

The sunrise was so pretty this morning. The colors were very pastel. One good thing about having to leave so early in the morning are the sunrises. I wouldn't see them otherwise. Another good thing are the swans in the pond at the exit where I turn off the highway. They are so pretty. 

The birds are back

I'm happy because yesterday afternoon we put out our bird feeder on the porch. This morning the back yard is filled with chickadees, titmice, bluejays and mourning doves. They are flitting all around, stopping at the feeder or at the pond to take a drink. The bears must be asleep by now because it's very cold this morning.

Today was day 2 of radiation for Lilo. Traffic sucked going in again, but there was suspected black ice from yesterday's rain. We still got there earlier than yesterday, though. Going home is a breeze, comparatively.

This is a picture of Lilo's scar area. The horizontal one is the first surgery and the vertical one is the second surgery. This picture was taken before she started radiation. I want to monitor her hair loss and any possible skin effects.

In the meantime, Lilo's getting all the blog attention, so here's a picture of Bobby.

One down, 14 to go

Today was Lilo's first day of radiation. We left the house at 6:00 am and ventured into the dark rainy morning. Traffic was snarled a bit around 495 but we made it with time to spare.

They took her in at around 8:00 and brought her back out around 9:00. Next time should be a bit faster because they did a CT scan this morning to measure her chest wall to minimize the amount of radiation going into her chest. 

When they brought her out it was as if no procedure had occurred. She was her same normal self. We made the trip home in half the time of the trip down. 

Lilo slept well in her new car crate and bed both ways. 

Brunch with the family

Martha had a very good idea for us to get together on Sunday morning for brunch. 

Tucking the pond in for the winter

Today we took the net off the pond, turned off the waterfall and buttoned up the pond for the winter.

Lunch with a friend

Today I had lunch with a friend from law school, whom I hadn't seen since graduation in 1998. It was fun getting together, but it made me realize how long ago that was. Many of the people she mentioned I couldn't even remember. I'm glad I went to law school, but I'm even more glad that I'm not a lawyer. My friend doesn't practice law either. 

Feeling better

So all the drama and anxiety we had over Bobby at our house before traveling are over. I think he must not have felt well for a few days and then my anxiety fed Bobby's and it escalated from there.  He had a really good time at the kennel and the pictures showed it.

Home

Last night we flew home after spending the day at Animal Kingdom. We saw Festival of the Lion King which is a really great show, and then went on safari and had lunch in Asia.

One of the things I love the most about Disney is pin trading. Cast members wear lanyards with trade pins on them. They release sets of mystery pins and the goal is to collect certain sets. I love the hunt. I was able to complete a set from 5 years ago just the other day. Here are some of my pins.

I'll miss the sun and the fun but I'm glad to be home.