a sad day

My friend's mother was buried today.  Things like that don't usually bother me too much, but this was different.  She was a wonderful woman.  She was caring and compassionate, and I don't think I ever heard anyone say a bad word about her.  If she had a point to make, she made it and would try her best to change our minds.  Especially her political views.  Yes, she was a die hard republican and my husband and I have always been very vocal democrats.  We had very lively conversations around election time and even recently with this crazy government shutdown.
Last time I saw her, she re affirmed that she was ready to go.  She was at peace and I think she was systematically saying good bye to all the people she cared for.  We lost her husband less than a year ago, and I think that took a huge toll on her.  I wish her peace, and I will miss her greatly.

Her family gave all the women pink roses on our way into the church.  The story is when she was born, her father had a great devotion to Saint Therese of Lisieux, and therefore named his daughter after the Saint.  She was known as St Therese of the little flower.  She wrote in an autobiography"What matters in life," she wrote, "is not great deeds, but great love."

"My mission will begin after my death," she said. "I will spend my heaven doing good on earth. I will let fall a shower of roses."

A wonderful tribute to a wonderful woman.  

The leaves are changing

Fall.  It is by far my favorite time of the year.  The only problem is that it is a reminder of the cold and snow that is sneaking to our doorstep. I love to see the leaves change color, but then they turn brown,  fall off and leave a huge mess for us to clean up.  We used to have a greyhound who loved the crunchy fall leaves.  We could never figure out if it was the texture or the noise that amused her, but she would bee line to any pile of leaves she could see and walk back and forth in them.  She always seemed incredibly happy as she crunched away!  What a cutie!
We're off tomorrow to the Halloween event at Universal in Orlando.  That seems to have become a rite off passage for fall too.  Let's hope this year it doesn't rain buckets like last year.

Happy Anniversary!

In two days we'll hit our 22nd anniversary!  Isn't that amazing?  As the song says, "what a long strange trip it's been"  We've been through a lot, most of it good.  Some of it sad, but we are still here and we are still together.  Now for the scary part... how about a before and after picture?

I guess 22 years hasn't been too bad.  A little grayer, a little older, but still going strong!  Love ya babe!

the stitches are gone!

Today, Sugar had her stitches out!  Her foot looks a lot better, but she does look like she is in some pain still.  She's still on pain killers, but it does look tender.  Of course if doesn't help that she is hopping on and off the couch and running around like a nut... She is still a puppy at heart, even at 10 years old.

On another note, I started crocheting again yesterday... It's been at least 9 years since my last project with yarn.  My husband said it would be just like riding a bike -- well, I was never very good at that, but the crocheting doesn't seem to be all that bad.  It's a long story why I took it up again.  The strange favors I do for friends never ceases to amaze me, even friends that I haven't seen in probably those same 9 years... oh well, small things do still make some people happy!

I also bought the dogs their Halloween costumes today....

first three days in pictures

So this was the first day after the bandages came off.... YUCK!

Below is day two.... thankfully she is getting better.

 Day three, post bandages.  She'll have the stitches out in four days.  She's getting around better, but I think that has a lot to do with the pain killers.... better living through pharmaceuticals!

so it's cancer

Great!  Out of five dogs that we've had since we've been married, this is the fourth dog we've had who has cancer... great!

Digital Squamous Cell Carcinoma, I think that's what the doctor called it.  We found out yesterday after her toe was removed last week.  Here we thought she had just dislocated her toe.  So, as cancers go, this is a "good " one.  Supposedly it doesn't spread to organs and for the most part it should be contained to the toe that was removed.  Therefore, hopefully there won't be any spreading.  Needless to say, I HATE cancer.  

On a good note, I was trying to find something that would make her bandages less slippery ( she's a tripawd to begin with) so I went to Target and got a pair of 4T baby socks with rubber grippers on the bottom.  It is working great, and it was cheap... $1.25 for the pair!

 As always, she is taking this is stride....  What's that saying about ignorance is bliss?  Why do we as her human companions always have to carry the burden of "knowing"?   I wish I could live in that blissful ignorance too....

This one is just Jazz being Jazz...  Isn't she a cutie?

name change

Sometimes I just have weird things that I think aloud about, that's why I decided to change the name...

So Sugar (my tripawd) has to have a toe removed on Monday.  It's always nerve wracking when one of my babies has to go to the hospital.  I know she will feel better when it is over, but right now she's looking at me with that look like I'm the worst person in the whole wide world and no one else would ever do this to her! We're such horrible people.  So, she's my little money pit... this episode is going to cost us close to $3000.  She already cost us $380 in x-rays and another $300 for a consultation and medicine and Monday should be about $2100.  Great! But what can you do?  She has to be able to walk (or in her case, hop)  Needless to say, I'm worried.  It always worries me when they are not with me.

Yes, that's her boo boo!

She's also 10 years old, another reason that it worries me when she is under anesthesia.  Of course the other greyhound has separation anxiety. So I've been trying to think of how I can do all my Monday errands with her by my side.  I can't even leave her in the car because she screeches like someone is killing her.  What a dilemma!

The one on the right is having the surgery and the one on the left is the crazy one.  One good note is that I do have health insurance on the two of them, so we'll see how that turns out this time around

one day three cameras

So yesterday was a very busy day.  My oldest brother is visiting from out of state, so we are acting like tourists.  We started the day at the beach with the pooches...

This was our Olympus Tough camera.
Then we went to the harbor islands....

• This is our Canon SX 30is.
• Then we went to fireworks on Revere Beach...

This is the Canon EOS Rebel SL1.

One day, three cameras.  There is always a reason to take a photo and make a memory.

some not so great shots

Ok so the first day with the new camera out in the world was not perfect.  I don't know what went wrong with these pictures, and I would take suggestions on how to fix them...

I'm not really sure where the shadows came from, or what to do about it to prevent them in the future.

This one was the same day same everything and no shadows... weird! 

NEAQ

We went to the New England Aquarium the other day.  I love watching the fish.  I could sit there all day.  It's very calming.  These pictures were all without the flash...

 And there are penguins, they are too cute!

Sea dragon

An eighty - something year old turtle

the girls

No new pictures today, but I thought I'd add some that I'd taken over the past few days of my favorite subject, my girls.  Our two "old lady" greyhounds are always willing to pose for me...

The black one is 7 years old and the fawn one is 10.  They of course think they are puppies and run and  play and chew on things like they are still young.  They are fun to have around.

Back to the older canon... yes, the fawn one is a tripawd, but we try not to remind her.  She is a cutie pie!

what to do with a new camera

So....  I bought a new camera.  Maybe that should have an exclamation mark instead, but I'm still get used to it.  It's the new canon rebel sl1.  So far, I have two lenses for it.. so far.  The one in the kit is an 18-55 and the extra one is a 55-250.

These were both taken with the 18-55 lens.  We are going whale watching this weekend, so hopefully I can try out the other lens (hopefully because we don't always get to see whales)

Anyway, I am still learning.  It's been a really long time since I've played with a non point and shoot camera.  How long? Maybe 20 years? Yikes, I'm getting old!

Just for comparison, the above two are from another of my array of cameras.  That one is the canon sx30is.  I love that camera too, but I wasn't getting the close ups that I was looking for.  Hence the thought that there will be more lenses added to the array.  

Dragonfly with the new camera...

Hummingbirds with the other canon.  Hmmmm, jury's still out