Monday in Deming

On Saturday before he left, Dave got a good picture of Lulu:



Look at those big brown eyes! Lulu is a sweet little dog. She's a bit high strung, but such is the way of dogs of a certain size.

Here are Lulu and Dolly with Booboo, the remaining sister of the pair my mom got about twelve years ago. (Yogi, the other sister, died a few months ago.)



Like Yogi and Booboo, Dolly and Lulu are sisters. You can't really tell by looking; the only thing they have in common is that they're both little dogs. Lulu's the bigger of the two--always has been, always will be.

Today

This morning I got to go with my mom to have her dressings changed. I wish I had taken my camera. (I think the dressings were in worse shape than the incision.) The nurse soaked the bandages with Betadine before he put them against the incision, then he wrapped the whole thing in ace bandages. Of course the Betadine started to soak through the ace bandages and as we walked out of the doctor's office, the nurse said about the rust-colored stains, "Oh, and that's not blood. A lot of people worry that it's blood coming out." I said, "It's not blood, it's Betadine, no? Anyway, if I couldn't tell, I'd just taste it."

After, we had to run to the hospital where my mother works so that she could start finishing the paperwork she needs to take time off to have the surgery she already had. I got to meet her supervisor, Paul, who I'd guess has been playing Santa for about the last fifteen years at least. I'm sure he makes a pretty good Santa too, except that he's too tall and he's from Georgia (I think) so he adds about four syllables to each word he says. I saw good ol' Paul three times today because after I took my mom home, I got to messenger paperwork back and forth from her to him.

Oh, but this is an awesome thing:

This morning, I had to go into the hospital lobby to wait for Paul to come out and meet me. The lobby in the tiny hospital is roughly the size of a small bedroom and there's a gift shop that is--no joke--about the size of a large walk-in closet. Out in front of the gift shop was a tiny cart with a couple of shelves of used books.

Of course I had to buy a few.









Of course, the last one, Fire on the Snow by Barbara Cartland, is my favorite. Check out this guy's expression!



That chick don't look too happy, either. Here's a sample from the book:

Their eyes met and then, unexpectedly, the Prince asked:
"Who has beaten you?"
Alida felt the colour rush into her cheeks in a crimson tide, until looking away from him towards the fire she answered:
"My...Uncle."
"How could any man beat a flower?" the prince asked in such a low voice that she felt she had not heard him aright.

It's CLASSIC! That's some awesome writing. How can any man beat a flower?! You can just see Mr. ChestFullOfMedals's face as he says that in a low voice, can't you? That's ART!

The other awesome thing about the books:



These little notes...



...and stamps that show that these crumbly (not crummy, crumbly) little paperback books have gone from owner to owner and crossed the country. Well, this is the end of the road, Little Miss Sappy Barbara Cartland novel.



Hahaha! Zap! Now you're paper beads.

So after I found the books and came home and shuttled paperwork, it was time for the requisite daily trip to Walmart. We're having a frozen lasagna for dinner and I wanted to make some cheesy garlic bread with it. After I checked the expiration date on my mom's parmesan, I decided to get some new. That was today's reason for the trip to Walmart. (Yesterday it was craft supplies. The day before, it was road snacks for Dave.) Yes, Walmart is the nearest place to shop for groceries (as far as I know). I came home with the parmesan, a loaf of garlic ciabatta, and part of Dave's birthday present (which is a surprise).

Then we had lunch (a vegetable pasta salad that I made yesterday and some deviled eggs) and I did some more craftish things.

I'm trying my hand at some Latina chica chandelier-type earrings. I'll show you some of them tomorrow, but here's a preview:



Those bad boys are, yes, mismatched on purpose--and nearly five inches long. They're not beginner earrings, that's for sure.