Life is good. Mom was in town visiting this weekend while husband was in Georgia playing rugby. We weren’t tourists as planned. Instead we went shopping on Saturday and yesterday hung around the house since Mom was hit by a cold.

In all, a quiet, relaxing weekend. I’m thankful for my wonderful family and fantastic life.

Makin’ Stock, originally uploaded by dcnstrctr.

This is what I did this afternoon. I roasted a chicken on Saturday night and saved the carcass. Combined with more carrots, onion, celery, peppercorns, and S&P and simmered for two hours. Yummy! I’ll pull it out tomorrow and make soup using the rest of the chicken from Saturday and the remainder of the roasted carrots, potatoes, turnips, and onion from Saturday too. Add in a little celery and VOILA!!

Happy Veterans’ Day!

Lucky likes to eat dirt, leaves, and grass. Most of the time this doesn’t cause any problems.

Last night, it did.

We got home from the Reverend Horton Heat show and tumbled into bed around 1 AM. Soon thereafter came the retching and vomit. Yuck. A quick clean-up and all of us went to sleep.

This morning, Lucky started making noise around 5 AM. Not unusual, but still earlier than we want him to get up. Husband tried (unsuccessfully) to get him to lay back down. He bounded out of bed and then peed on our bedroom door frame. We jumped up - me to get dressed to take him out and husband to grab a towel to put under him. I took him out while husband cleaned up and went back to bed.

I came inside and fed him a half and half mix of dog food and oatmeal. I made a cup of coffee and sat on the couch. As I got comfy, he started dancing around. I took him out again and he peed. Back inside we went.

I sat down and opened the laptop. About ten minutes passed. Pacing between me and the door. As soon as I got him outside again, he threw up his breakfast. Right in front of our door.

I cleaned it up as best I could in the dark and sat back down on the couch. Five minutes later - more dancing. By this time, it was 6:15. I woke husband up so he could shower and headed outside. After more peeing (I swear he’s a camel), he became cow-dog and ate grass. We went back inside and I started getting ready for work.

Husband took him out one more time before we left–more peeing and grass-eating. As we walked out the door, he was curled up in the chair looking pitiful.

We’ll see what the house looks like when we get home tonight.

It’s been a while. Here are the first fifteen songs that I heard this morning on the portable music player…

1. My Name is Jonas (Live) / Weezer
2. Gypsy Eyes / Jimi Hendrix
3. Baby Lou Tattoo / The Horror Pops
4. This Devil’s Workday / Modest Mouse
5. Evolution / Meshell Ndegeocello
6. 3×5 / John Mayer
7. Stay / Sugarland
8. Bankrobber / The Clash
9. Demon Days / Gorillaz
10. If you Knew (Live) / Jeff Buckley
11. Aye Davanita / Pearl Jam
12. Under Pressure / Queen & David Bowie
13. Kohoutek / R.E.M.
14. Orange Crush / R.E.M.
15. Trouble / Harry Connick, Jr.

(My flounce was premature. I still have things to say…)

I intentionally avoided saying anything political on this blog. That being said, when we went to bed last night, I felt great. Since yesterday evening, I’ve wanted to cry. Not tears of sadness – instead, tears of Hope. Joy. Optimism. Exuberance.

Everything seems a little cleaner today. Brighter. Shinier. The rain we’ve been having is cleansing – not gloomy.

The next few years will still be hard. As a nation, we have much to do. I’m hopeful about our future. I’m proud of my country. I’m thankful for the opportunities that exist.