Ole

I am glad the week is over - it's been a douzy. Ole tore his ACL yesterday and is scheduled for TPLO surgery next Thursday. I spent the entire afternoon and early evening at the emergency vet - it was a huge drag. He was drugged out last night, tongue lolling out and all. I slept downstairs with him since he seemed to prefer the couch over the crate. We were sure he would pee or poop in his condition, but he didn't. Rockin' dog. I hadn't been able to get his meds into him this morning so stopped off at Safeway on the way home from picking up the kids. A pre-cooked, microwaveable pot roast later, and the meds are safely in his tummy. We also got hot dogs, so a tupperware of carnivorous delights await him for the next few weeks.
We are still discussing the surgery. He is 12 years old, after all. X-rays show no arthritis, which is amazing, and the vet thinks he has at least 2 years left in him if not more. The recovery is 2 months, but he would regain full mobility. Ugh. If only we had buckets of money - we wouldn't think twice about it. We love him so much - he is such a fantastic dog. But ...

In other news, I've started a new blog chronicling my local eats (re-vamping my enthusiasm from a few years ago). While it is 50% green, the other 50% is purely financial. With the exception of fruits, veggies, soybeans & GF baking mix for the kids, we are trying to only eat from our CSA. Visit, if you like!

Hanukkah begins a week from tonight. Sam's blanket is limping along. I am almost finished with green; blue will be a tough one because it's in the stockinette stitch rather than just the knit stitch, purple will be fast and half a white too. Basically, I'm home free when the blue is finished.

I've also menu-planned through the end of the year, doubling and freezing batches of squash soup, stews and chilis. Between those and roasted root veggies, our dinners will be nourishing and free! I've scaled back our Hanukkah plans this year so we'll have more time together as a family and less party-hopping. Although I love a good party as much as anyone, the boys have school and we'll need to keep it mellow this year. Our chavurah meets tomorrow and will celebrate Hanukkah a week early together. This is my favorite chavurah of the year, perhaps because of the delicious food (we are always in charge of the jelly donuts. Heh.)

I'm hoping the remainder of 2009 will not be too crazy, but relaxed and focused on the family. And I still need to get the holiday letter written and a picture taken. Hmm. Too bad I deleted all the pictures from iPhoto - it will take forever to sift through all the random unnamed jpegs. *sigh*