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Hi,

So, an OK birthday by the usual standards. Had a fairly nice meal out (despite Dad's ketchup not making an appearance, Mum's potato being hard as a rock on top, there being a serious lack of breadsticks, children screaming in the background, and NO BIRTHDAY CAKE! I didn't get CAKE! I WAS SCREWED!)

Otherwise, lovely presents all around. Got the bookends that have been in my mother's room for a month. My sister sent some lovely presents, and Mum bought me a set of measuring cups/spoons like the ones I got her for Christmas two or three years ago (her set is awesome and I wanted one.)

Not much else going on. I have an interview with Anchorage, AK on Wednesday. Crossing fingers.

Gotta go turn on the dryer.

PS: I will post the Reichenbach notes as soon as Echo stops biting everything that comes to paw.

Ta,
Bec

Having A Frustrating Day

(Warning-I talk about lady bits here. Look away if you don't want to know.)

Having a frustrating day today. The puppy won't go down for a nap, I feel awful, and today was the day that I had to (look away now if you're squeamish) use my vaginal dilators to try and push my muscles to admit anything more than a finger (I try to do it every other day.) It's actually medically necessary because I can't have a pelvic exam until I make some room for the speculum. Now I tore just inside my front door thanks to the steroid cream for the lichensclerosis thinning the skin and that means I have to refrain from using the dilators until my skin heals...meaning I lose days that I could be attempting to get the stupid, stupid, stupid second-smallest dilator more than halfway up inside myself.

I am very tired and frustrated and I have an appointment on the 29th, and she's expecting progress. She's not going to get it. I have tried everything, but since I was lying on the bedroom floor crying my eyes out from frustration and pain today, I don't think we're going to make much progress without outside help.

AUGH!

I have to go meet Mum down at the bottom of the driveway, so talk to you later.

Ta,
Bec

April

Not much going on. Echo's a biter-clothes, arms, hair, me, me, Mom, me. I have little holes in one of my shirts and little marks from her teeth in my arm. She's a baby; she'll get over it. We're going to try to get her in obedience training to teach her to go outside (still working on that one) and not to bite (lots of work needed there.) We've got sit and shake, she's finally getting kennel training, she loves people and she's affectionate, so no worries. Mum's brushing her (she screamed all the way through it as if she was being murdered) and nail-clipping (ditto.) Getting her used to these things in her babyhood means we won't have an angry dog who doesn't want to be touched like Whisper was.

We've finally started melting this week after a really ridiculously cold winter that still doesn't seem to have let go. Everyone wants spring. Now.

Lots of work to do. Gotta go.

Ta,
Bec

Echo Arrives

Didn't get the job; so back to the drawing board.

Puppy's here. She's all of two pounds but has a bit of a stubborn streak and a temper to match (I'm nicknaming her Tempest in a Teacup; we really named her Echo.) She gets tired and gets demanding and will thrash and scream to get what she wants (should have named her Carlotta.) Mum told her she's not going to play primadonna around here (cue snort of laughter.) We finally got her to go to sleep; she wants someone in sight when she closes her eyes but Mum and I were kind of busy at the time, so she kept toddling out to the kitchen to find me or Mum.

Here's a photo of our girl-she's either running through the house at top speed or she's sound asleep, so she's particularly hard to catch with a camera.



How could anything that cute be a primadonna, you ask me. It seems to me the cute ones we get all are insanely smart to boot (she is. She knew going on the floor this morning was wrong and went scurrying out of the room to hide under a bed, and she hasn't even been here three days.) They're so challenging and yet so much damn fun.) And because they're smart and because they're cute, they promptly take over and we let them and pretty soon they're sleeping on the couch in a little black ball like a little angel.

I have to go take a shower. Hopefully she sleeps through it so her screaming for attention doesn't wake up the entire house.

Ta,
Bec