Living with dogs

At 1:25am I woke up to Dante barking his head off. Since Dante is a hound mix of some sort, his barking sounds like he is being murdered. BARROOOOO! I stumbled down the stairs and as I turned the corner, both dogs skulked out of the kitchen in a "cheese it!" maneuver. I walked into the kitchen and discovered that Mollie had discovered some rolls I had thrown away (and had apparently forgotten to lock the trash can). Yes, we have a locking trash can in the kitchen. Mollie was of course nowhere to be found suddenly, but Dante was fervently protecting a single tiny roll he had stolen from her.

Dante was barking his fool head off in the middle of the night to tattle on Mollie for getting into the trash and not sharing the rolls she found. I was actually unsure if I should smack Dante or pat him on the head.

I shook my head and went back to bed. Then this morning when I was brushing my teeth someone sent me a text message. Mollie was suddenly in the bathroom trying to sit on my foot and shaking like a leaf. My dog is scared of the noise my iPhone makes when I get a text message. The logical thing I decided to do was sit in the walk-in closet with her this morning and scroll through text sounds while petting her trying to pick one that worked the best.

I would play one and Mollie would look at me sadly. Then I would try another and she would try to bolt out the door. I'm considering getting a bag of dog treats and having a lengthy text conversation while leashing the dog to my leg and handing her treats with each incoming volley of words. Laura, you're on notice for said conversation.

The most wonderful time of the year

I did some Christmas shopping today. Let's not get all crazy and think I went into a store or anything. I wandered around on the Internet and clicked "checkout" a few times. It was fun. The very fact that it was fun should be telling. I fret about Christmas shopping every year. It wouldn't be December if I didn't break down in tears at least twice over gifts.

I have worried that I haven't gotten equitable presents for our friends and family. Are we doing "big presents" this year for my family or his family? I have a Google doc that goes back at least five years listing what we have given as gifts just so that I can try to be consistent.

I have worried whether we should ship gifts or wait until we see them in person. What if we won't see them until late January? What if it's spring? I can remember getting mad at Rich in years past for picking out gifts that were difficult to ship because they were 28" long and not in a box. Just looking at the oddly shaped item would make my stomach knot.

Most of all, I have worried that I haven't gotten the right gifts for Rich. There aren't any things we desperately need to have and we're pretty happy already, so I can never think of what to get him. I always want to find something special and then I over think it. That's where most of the tears happen is when I see Rich getting excited about surprises he has gotten me and I haven't found a single thing for him. I get all panicked and somehow think he's going to be upset with me. Really, he would just like his wife to not burst into tears when he mentions Christmas (poor guy).

This year, Rich's surgery has given me an advantage. I've bought a few presents for Rich. I've bought a few presents for friends and family. For folks we probably won't see, I've picked out very small things. For folks we will see, I'm just getting things that please me and ignoring price tags to make everything match. And if there are a few people who get nothing this year or their present comes in March, I'm sure they'll understand. Suddenly gift giving is fun again and not a chore. And all it took was a 14" incision in my husband to give him the shopping handicap and let me catch up.

Back in the swing of things

I'm happy to report that Rich is doing very well. Saturday we went to Richmond to attend a few meetings at Unevent and see a few friends. It was good to see folks. Rich impressed me by driving the entire 90 minutes to his folks' house on the south side and then again driving to site about 30 minutes away. But he is the world's worst passenger so this is a wonderful milestone.

We discussed medieval stuff for a few hours and then headed back to retrieve our kid that had spent the day frolicking at the Childrens Museum and not napping (which I figured). I was concerned our son might come apart at the seams at 6:45pm but he held it together and we had a lovely dinner. I learned from Ian that dipping Doritos in ketchup is actually kind of tasty.

We pulled away from the restaurant and I think both he and Rich were asleep before I got on the highway. I had a very nice drive listening to whatever I wanted on the radio. The excitement of the day tuckered Rich out a bit, but he rallied to co-chill with the Smiths as they returned from their own festivities to our house.

Saturday's fun left Rich to recover for most of Sunday but he still was pretty active and has been eating really well. He's gained about five pounds so far, so we're heading in the right direction.

Today he went to work and drove himself. He lasted all day, only taking a brief nap in his office after lunch (he noted that going out to lunch was more tiring than his entire morning of working at his desk). And he's had a pretty mellow evening of dinner (thank you, Terri!), football on the TV and a good book. Ian and I went to Target to research Christmas decorations and that led to a late bedtime, but we all did okay overall.

So now we're just hanging out. This may be a boring update, but it pleases me that we can have such a mundane set of days so soon after surgery. It was only three weeks ago that I was looking at cell phone pictures of my husband's intestines only hours after they had been taken. Today has been much easier to handle.