Halloween

We don't really do much for Halloween at our house. Cody is adamant that we not celebrate the holiday. However, I did wear my Great Pumpkin socks.

Jake is unimpressed.

I have quite a few Halloween decorations, but in the interest of puppy teeth, I didn't put any of them out except for my fake light up jack o lantern.

Tomorrow, it will be turned off, and turned around to do double duty as a plain pumpkin. I've had many of my fall decorations out for a while now, but sometime in the next few days, I'll put out my Thanksgiving specific ones. I won't put out as much this year as I usually do, again in the interest of puppy teeth.

Later, I watched It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

I bought some candy, just in case we had some trick or treaters, but alas, none came.

Probably because once the football games started, I turned out the light and locked the door. Unfortunately for me, both of my teams played at the same time. Fortunately for me, one was on TV and the other on ESPN360.com.

So I watched LSU crush Tulane 42-0 on the computer, and Texas rout Oklahoma State 41-14 on TV. This was supposed to be the toughest game left on Texas' schedule. If they can win out, and they have a very good chance of doing just that, they will most likely play in the National Championship game.

Here is your Halloween treat, a Gratuitous Colt McCoy photo:

(Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

What did I do while watching all that football? I knit on my second bandwagon sock, down to the toe decreases.


Hey, I gotta save something for the Cowboys game tomorrow!

Not Much To Blog About

It's raining. Again. Or should I say STILL.

I'm coughing. Still. But I bought some more cough medicine today, so maybe I can get some sleep tonight.

We are working tomorrow. Good.

I'm going to bed early. Night...

Conversations With Cody

Me: You need to hurry up and take out the trash so I can go take a bath.

Cody: That makes absolutely no sense at all.

Me: I'll watch the puppy while you're taking out the trash, then when you get back, you can watch him while I take a bath.

Cody: Well, when you put it that way...

As If That Wasn't Trouble Enough

After everything I've gone through in the last two weeks, I got a migraine today at work. I haven't had one of those in years--like about 8 or 9. I used to get them, but not that often, then I suddenly stopped. Like I said, it's been years. Fortunately, today's was a mild one. As soon as my vision started getting those flashing sparkles in it, I went into the bathroom and sat with my eyes closed until they went away. I just wonder what set it off. Stress maybe.

It was another long day, too. I had to go in early to work, and it was raining. I dragged Rylea around the yard trying to get her to poop, but she never would. I knew it would be a long day, and that she wouldn't have a chance to go for quite a while. I was sure I would come home to find poop on my floor, but no. She was a good girl.

Like I said, I had to go in early, and work a 9 hour shift, then right after work, I had to run home pick up Jake, and run up to the school. Cody had checked out a tuba to practice with over the summer, and needed to take it back today. I had him load it up into the back of the Jimmy this morning so I could run it by right after work.

I was on the way up to the school when he called wanting to know if I was coming up there. I said I was on my way, but then when I got to the school, I waited and waited and eventually had to go find him, puppy in tow.

He got the horn turned back in, and it was off to the vet for Jake's next round of puppy vaccinations. The vet asked if he was feeling better, and I said he was still coughing, but had his energy back. He listened to Jake's lungs and said they sounded a whole lot better, so he is well on his way to recovering from his respiratory infection.

We also talked about getting Jake's dew claws removed. Now, normally, I'm not a big fan of surgically altering dogs for appearances sake. I won't crop their ears, nor dock their tails. On the other hand, I don't go all schizoid on those who do crop or dock. Still, I've heard enough horror stories about dogs getting their dew claws snagged on stuff and sometimes even ripped off that I feel that we should go ahead and remove them. One of Jake's is pretty floppy as it is. Anyway, the vet said that it's better to do it when they're just a day or two old, but Jake didn't have his done that early. Now the vet wants to wait until he is a bit older, like 6-8 months old. He said Jake will be stronger then, and better able to handle the surgery.

Back home to drop off Cody and Jake, then I had to run back into town and pick up myself some more lactose intolerance supplements. I was so tired that I decided to run by and pick up fast food. I got all the way home and I sat down to eat, I realized that they'd given me the wrong hamburger. At first, I was going to just let Cody eat it, because it had mayonnaise on it, but I decided that no, they were going to give me what I paid for. So I drove all the way back into town and made them redo my hamburger. Even with me standing there, it took them three tries to get it right, but they gave me two free apple pies for my trouble.

Finally, at 6:00 PM I was able to get home and sit down for a few minutes--long enough to eat. Then I had to clean up a few puppy spots. Jake, at only 9 weeks old, already knows how to ask to go outside when he needs to --you know--go, but he can't yet hold it if we don't let him out right away. Cody doesn't always get up and let him out when he needs to go. I remind him that if the puppy is too much trouble, I'm sure we could find him a home where they want to take care of him.

I still need to clean up the kitchen, but I think I'll let that wait until morning. I'm going to bed.

I'm tired.

It's My Turn

After every other living thing in this house has been either sick or injured, you knew it had to get around to me eventually. I've been coughing for two days, and this afternoon started running a fever. At last check it was 99.8. Cody said, "I didn't give you my flu, did I?"

I said, "I hope not, but it's a possibility."

That being said, there will be no post game post today. It's in me, I just don't have the energy to get it organized. Eh, most of you skip them anyway.

AP Rankings

I swear, I just don't understand those AP folks. I don't know how they come up with the rankings they do. It's just this--last week's #1 team, Alabama barely held off unranked Tennessee. Last week's #2 Florida struggled against unranked Mississippi State, yet those two teams are still #1 and #2--only this week they swapped positions.

Texas blows out Missouri, who is expected to win their division, 41-7, and they rank #3. And get this, Texas Tech was demolished by Texas A&M, who is pretty sorry, 52-30 yet they still received votes. They didn't crack the top 25, but they got votes. The USA Today poll is the same.

It makes me wonder what criteria they use.

Well, they're media folks anyway. We all know how reliable the media is, don't we?

Tiger Kind Of Day

It was a Tiger kind of day around here. Football wise, that is.

The LSU Tigers were playing the Auburn Tigers in Death Valley. Unlike the nailbiters of the past, LSU handled Auburn easily, winning 31-10.

At the same time, the Texas Longhorns were playing the Missouri Tigers. They got themselves some style points, winning 41-7, while #1 Alabama struggled against unranked Tennessee. They blocked a last second field goal to hold the Vols off 12-10. Second ranked Florida also struggled against Mississippi state, but capitalized on some mistakes to hang on to a 29-19 victory. Texas, on the other hand didn't struggle at all against a team that was expected to be one of their toughest matchups. Colt McCoy finally played a game in which he wasn't sick, and looked like his old self again. ABC, however, decided that the game wasn't competitive enough and switch its coverage to USC vs. Oregon State. I really hate it when they do that. I wanted to watch Texas play. I don't care flip about USC. What I do care about is

your Gratuitous Colt McCoy photo.



Oh, and Texas A&M hung 52 points on Texas Tech.

Just for the record, you know.

Play With Me

Won't you, Auntie Rylea? Play with me, Auntie Rylea.

Don't hide under the computer desk, Auntie Rylea. Play with me.

What's this black thing? Maybe it will play with me.

No? I'll play with my mousie, then. Take that, you dastardly blue mousie!

Oh, look, there's the cat!


Bad idea, Jake.



Bad idea.

Major ShakeUp

For those of you who don't know, the place I work is closely tied to the housing market. With the economy the way it is, we've had a rough couple of years. We've worked 4 days a week for about half the year for the last three years.

Today, they called a meeting for both shifts, and announced a major shake up. They have decided to combine the two shifts into one, and only run day shift. This will be a long term change, until the economy picks up. In order to do this, they had to lay off 49 people. Fortunately, I was not one of them.

What it means is that for the rest of us, we will be able to get more 5 day work weeks than we would have otherwise. Sucks for those 49 people, but it'll be better in the long term to ensure that the plant is able to stay in business.

Better Day

Jake is doing much better today. When I got home, he was still laying around, but didn't look quite as dull. What was worrying me, though, was that I couldn't get him to eat or drink. He just didn't seem interested. For him to get dehydrated was a real possibility, and I know that with animals, that can be a downward spiral. They don't understand that they need to drink even if they don't feel like it. The more they get dehydrated, the worse they feel, the less likely they are to drink, the more they get dehydrated, the worse they feel. So, I did what any good puppy mom would do.

I tricked him.

OK, I didn't really trick him. I had some chicken broth in the cabinet, so I gave him some of that. It's mostly water, anyway. He drank every bit of it up. Once he was rehydrated a bit, he really perked up--so much so that I had to put him back into his kennel to keep him from overdoing.

About an hour later, he started eating again. Things are definitely looking brighter for him.

Rylea, on the other hand, is mad because I won't let her run loose any more. I said, "You're just going to have to get over that, dog. I can't trust you any more."

Oh, well. That's what happens when you won't stay out of the street.

Knothead.

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When It Rains

Last Tuesday, Cody got the flu

Last Thursday, Rylea got hit by a car

Today, when I came home from work, Jake was sick. I took him in to the vet and he has a respiratory infection. The doc gave him some medicine, but he's still just laying around.

I'm exhausted taking care of all my sick critters.

The Best Play

of the day:

Pigeon covers kickoff

By the way, I was right about the college rankings. Texas slipped to #3, and Florida slipped to #2. Alabama is the new #1. The first BCS rankings came out today, too and Florida is currently #1, followed by Alabama, then Texas. Surprisingly, LSU is still in the top ten, coming in at #9 in both polls. I just don't think they're really playing that well. They've just had a couple of big plays that pulled them out of some of those games.

Dallas had a bye this week, so I enjoyed watching New Orleans put the smack down on the New York Giants. The rest of the NFC East also lost, Washington falling to Kansas City, and the Eagles losing to, of all teams, the Oakland Raiders.

Brett Favre is still undefeated, as the Vikings hold off the Ravens. And the Titans are still winless as they fall to the Patriots 59-0.

I'm not going to make it to the end of the Chicago/Atlanta game. I'm tired. I'm going to bed.

The Week From Heck

That's what this has been.

It started off with Monday, and just being Monday is bad enough. Tuesday is when Cody woke up with the flu. Between taking care of him, and a puppy, too had just about worn me out.

Still, by Friday, Cody had improved enough that he was ready to have a little birthday party, just family. I was so tired that I broke down and bought him a cake, even though I wouldn't be able to eat any of it myself.

We were going to forgo the candles because of the risk of spreading the virus, but I said that I probably was going to get the flu anyway.

We knew he still wasn't feeling well because it took four blows to get all the candles out. We knew he still wasn't feeling well when he just kind of faded in the middle of the party. I sent him back home to lay down, and I wasn't far behind him.

As if a child with the flu and a hyperactive puppy wasn't bad enough, Rylea got herself hit again.

Normally, she stays out of the street, but the one vice I've never been able to break her of is that she likes to follow me down the road whenever I go anywhere. When we go into town, it isn't so bad because she stays well off the road. However, when I go to work, she likes to run on the same side of the road I drive on, so she has to cross the street. Thursday morning, as I was leaving for work, she had crossed the street and turned around to see if I was coming. When she did, she stepped right in front of an oncoming car. The car had slowed down, and really just bumped her good, but she re injured the leg she had hurt when she was a puppy.

I think if the leg had been healthy in the first place, she likely wouldn't have been hurt at all. When I went to pick her up today, I saw that the veterinary assistants had had a little fun with her cast.

You know, I live outside of town so that my dogs will have room to roam. There are cow pastures, and cotton fields, and woods, and ponds. I hate the idea of putting a dog in prison, but I think Rye has just sentenced herself to a life of incarceration.

You know what else, I hate those people who think that just because they're driving on a "country" road, they can drive as fast as they want to, with no thought to who they may be putting in danger. Yeah, we don't live in town, but there are dogs on this road, and more importantly, there are kids on this road. It's not all about you, you know.

At least I had football to look forward to this weekend, or so I thought. About Thursday, I realized that the Cowboys, the Colts, and LSU all had bye weeks this week. The only redeeming game was the annual Red River Rivalry between Texas and OU. It was a low scoring, defensive game, but Texas won 16-13. It probably won't matter that OU has a good defense. It probably won't matter that Texas won on a neutral field. (It didn't last year.) It certainly won't matter that Colt McCoy had been sick all week, and had an injured thumb. In college ball, if you don't win by an absolute blowout, you might as well lose the game. That's why, except for the required division/conference games, most of these top teams play smaller schools that don't have as good of a football program--so they can rack up those 53 point games. So they can rack up the style points.

Hmmm, Florida struggled against Arkansas, and only won on a last second field goal. I wonder if they will slip in the polls, too. Did they get enough style points? That's why I prefer pro football, where a win is a win, and that's all that matters.

Nevertheless, here is your Gratuitous Colt McCoy photo.

(Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

And here is something I haven't posted in a while, a Saturday Sky:

It started off clear this morning, but as the day went on, clouds began rolling back in. A strong North wind has been blowing, and it's been chilly enough for my heater to come on. This weather has made me want to put on some Christmas music and make cookies.

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I Thought

it was supposed to be mostly sunny today. Somebody forgot to tell the sky:

Well, here's a little ray of sunshine for you.

Yes, he was doing what you think he's doing. It's the only time he's still enough to get a photo!

Even If You're Not

a football fan, this story will touch you.

Sixteen Years Ago

Cody came into the world and into my life. We celebrated his birthday by having the flu.

Not really. Well, yes really. He has the flu, but we didn't choose to celebrate his birthday that way. He is feeling a bit better today, but is still pretty miserable.

What a way to spend a birthday, huh?



The most shocking news of the day is that Cody actually got a birthday card from his father. Shocking, because for 16 years, he'd wanted nothing to do with us. Now, he sent a birthday card. I was trying to be nice, but I just couldn't resist.

"If he suddenly wants to start being a dad," I said, "he can chip in for some of that $100 bucks I just spent on flu medicine for you."

I really did try...

Lesson For The Day

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Never cough in the middle of a swallow. It doesn't work too well.
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Sickness

Cody has the flu.

He woke up not feeling well this morning, and took his temperature. I was eating breakfast when he came into the room and said, "Mom, I've got 101.2 temperature." I said, "You go back to bed!"

I gave him some acetaminophen and settled him in on the couch watching DVDs. I went on to work, thinking that if he was still sick tomorrow morning, I'd take him to the doctor. However, that 101 got more and more worrisome, so as soon as the Dr.'s office opened, I called and made him an appointment, pausing to thank God that we still have quality health care in this country--though that seems to be about to change.

When I got came home from work to take him to the Dr, I checked his temp again, and it was 102.3, and that was after two doses of Acetaminophen. They did a flu test on him, but it came back negative. His Dr said that despite what the test said, he thinks it's the flu anyway. He told me that those tests have up to a 70% inaccuracy. He didn't test Cody for swine flu. He said that the CDC would not allow them to test at the office, and the local ER was only allowed to do three swine flu tests per week.

Dr said that those tests were mainly so the CDC could track swine flu, because the treatment is the same as it is for regular flu. If I really wanted to confirm H1N1, I would have to take him to LeBonheur Children's Hospital in Memphis.

The Doctor gave him some Tamiflu to help with the flu symptoms, and an antibiotic. The deaths that occur from flu aren't really from flu, but from secondary infections--thus the antibiotic as a precaution. He also said that since we caught it within the first 24 hours, Cody ought to bounce back pretty quickly.

Anyway, Cody'll be out of school all week, and he'll have to miss the band contest this weekend. He is majorly bummed about that. He loves being in the band and takes those contests very seriously. Not only that, tomorrow is his birthday, and he's going to be sick on his birthday. Poor baby.

Funny how life comes full circle. I had a serious case of the flu back during the first swine flu outbreak, back in the '70's. Now during the Great Outbreak of the 00's, my son has the flu.

Updates

I've finished the first chart of my Queen Anne's Lace, and am about to start the second.

It's hard to take good photos when it's all squshed up on the needle.

And as promised, here is a cute puppy photo:

Kindly ignore the teenager glaring at the camera.

Rylea says, "I'm still cute, too."

Yes, you are, sweet girl!

The Man Of The Hour

>
Somewhere under that pile of bodies is a man. Somewhere under that pile of bodies is a record breaker. Somewhere under that pile of bodies is a hero.

With number one receiver Roy Williams out with a rib injury, the team knew that someone else would need to step up and fill that spot.

That someone was


Miles Austin.

With the offense struggling, and Kansas City leading 10-0 off of two Cowboys turnovers. It was time for someone to give this team the spark it so desperately needed. The spark was provided by a Tashard Choice touchdown.

That spark was kept alive by DeMarcus Ware's two sacks--his first of the year.

The spark was nurtured by a Jay Ratliff block of a Ryan Succop field goal attempt.


But it was Miles Austin who fanned that spark in to a blazing flame. With 10 receptions for 250 yards--breaking a team record held by Hall of Famer Bob Hayes since 1966--, it was Austin who had fans asking "Roy who? Terrell who?"

It was Austin who broke a tackle to score the go ahead touchdown late in the fourth quarter.


And after Kansas City tied the score in the last few seconds of regulation play, it was Austin who once again shook off a defender to score the game winning touchdown in overtime.

That's why it was Austin on Mark Colombo's shoulder.


That's why it was Austin embraced after the game by offensive coordinator Jason Garrett.


That's why it was Austin being mobbed by his team mates in the Kansas City end zone.


Because on this day, for this game, it was Miles Austin who was the hero of this team.

Band Festival

Cody had a band festival here in town today. He told us that the band was supposed to perform at 4:15. However, when we got there, they had added some more bands to the program. They were supposed to compete up in Tupelo, but due to poor field conditions, they moved them down here. Since the host band always goes last, we had to wait until they were done.

This wasn't a contest, in that they didn't compete against each other. They competed for ratings. They could earn a score of 1 through 4, with one being the best. Still, out of the 19 band that performed in the afternoon session, 17 of them got overall scored of 1. It's like they just have to show up to get a 1. And when they hand them out like candy, do they really mean anything?

Nevertheless, here is the video I took. Sorry it's so shaky. It was pretty chilly out there. Plus I really need a better camera, but that's going to have to wait until times get better.




After the band competition, I came home and caught most of the LSU/Florida game. Florida won, as I expected 13-3. Still, I guess it's sort of a moral victory that LSU was able to hold them to only 13 points and a single touchdown.

Oh, the conundrum! Texas was playing at the same time! They were about a quarter ahead of the LSU game, so I watched most of Texas' second half before switching to the LSU game. Texas won handily 38-14. When they took Colt McCoy out of the game, that's when I stopped watching.

Gratuitous Colt McCoy photo:

When they take Colt McCoy out, the game's pretty much over anyway.

Changing Weather

I went into Wal-mart this afternoon to do my weekly shopping. While I was in the store, a cold front blew through. I hung around in the store until the rains stopped, and by the time I got out, it was 10 degrees cooler than it was when I went in. I was going to post some gratuitous cute puppy pictures, but it has been so dreary and drizzly that I didn't take any. I spent most of the afternoon knitting on my Queen Anne's Lace shawl.

I hope the rain moves off before tomorrow. Cody has a band contest.

One Drawback

to my new spot cleaner, is that I now have clean spots in an otherwise dirty carpet.

Sigh

Knitting, and pretty much everything else got put on hold when I got out of the bathtub to discover Cody asleep on the couch, and puppy poop all over the living room floor. I woke Cody up, made him corral said puppy and clean up said poop. He made sort of a half hearted attempt at wiping said poop up, so I had to take care of the rest. Fortunately, I had JUST TODAY bought a Dirt Devil spot scrubber. Sort of a hand held mini shampooer. And I had bought it for that very purpose.

I took a photo of it, but right now I'm too tired to go upload it.

Can't Get It Together

I really have a lot to talk about, but I just can't get my thoughts together today. So I'm going to do what I always do in this situation. Post a photo.

Or two...

In Case You Were Wondering

why there was no Gratuitous Colt McCoy photo Saturday, it's because Texas had a bye week.

In other college football news, after being upset by the Miami Hurricanes, still Bradford-less Oklahoma dropped all the way from #8 to #19 in the polls. Tim Tebow still has not been cleared to practice after his concussion last week against Kentucky. If he can't practice, he can't play against LSU this Saturday.

Both teams go into this game undefeated, and though I'm an LSU fan, I'm going to have to go with Florida this time. They just seem to have the stronger team.

That Creaking Sound You Hear

is the sound of the all bandwagon fans jumping back off.

Despite a good first half, Dallas just couldn't get anything going, and fell to the still undefeated Broncos 17-10. As each game passes, Roy Williams seems to be proving his critics right. He sucks.

He hasn't made a play since the first game of the season. If he wants to be the number one receiver, he has got to make those difficult catches. That's what champion caliber players do.

What was the difference between the first half and the second half? Marion Barber stood on the sidelines for most of the second half. What were they thinking? Since Roy Williams has proven he can't be relied on, and Felix Jones was out injured, why would you keep your biggest threat, and most reliable player, standing on the sideline?

And who in the world puts their FOURTH receiver up against probably the best cornerback in the league, Champ Bailey?

(AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)

And on what could have been the game tying drive, no less? Clearly, there is something terribly wrong in Dallas. And there's no prizes guessing what.

(AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)

Queen Anne's Lace

I'd started a Queen Anne's Lace shawl a few months ago, but it just wasn't working out. I was using Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud in Iris Heather, but the yarn wasn't right for the pattern, and I finally just ripped the whole thing out. The yarn just seemed too thin to be knit on size 8 needles. I don't know if it was just a bad batch or what. The other colors of Alpaca Cloud that I have aren't that thin.

I cast it on again using a different yarn.


This is Knit Picks Shimmer in Cumulus--which has been discontinued. It is supposed to be the same weight of yarn, but when I wound it, you can see how much thinner the cake of the previous yarn is.


I cast on using the Belly Button cast on, introduced to me by my buddy Opal. It's a whole lot better than trying to wrestle those needles, although, since you just end up knitting a glorified i-cord, why can't you just cast on and knit an i-cord anyway? I think with my next circular shawl, I'll try it that way.

Hello Young Fellow

When you bring a puppy home, you know that dogs don't live as long as humans.

Somewhere in the back of your mind, you know that one day you'll have to face losing that puppy.

But you don't have to think about that yet. That's a long way away.

Right now, he's just a cute little puppy with soft little puppy fur, and sharp little puppy teeth.

He'll make a good companion for your guitar playing, soon to be driving, teenage son.

Hello, young fellow. You've got some mighty big shoes to fill.

Show Me

good Lord! Is it October already? Well, here goes...

My bedroom calendar, only with my brother and sister in law instead of my adorable nephew Joshua:

My kitchen calendar:

My living room calendar, featuring Early Doucet, who now plays with the Arizona Cardinals:

And my office calendar, featuring the incomparable DeMarcus Ware:

And in the mail today, I got TWO, yes two issues of my Star magazine. One was last week's issue that just got here.

So, it was time to order more snake food. The best thing about ordering frozen mice is the dry ice. Did you know that if you put a drop of water on dry ice, you can watch it freeze solid before your very eyes? Cool, huh?

Then, of course, there is the fog.

Whispy tendrils creeping out of the sink and across the kitchen floor.

A sink full of fog...

And before you get all mother hen on me, yes, I know dry ice is dangerous. I know not to touch it. Even Cody knows that.

Speaking of Cody, earlier this week he said to me, he says, "Mom, if I tell you something tonight, will you remember it tomorrow?"

What can I say? The kid knows his mother.