More puppy piccies!

Our puppy is 3 weeks old now. She weighs 380 g (13 oz) and is a very forward and adventurous little pup - she takes off to explore while her sisters and brother are just sniffing the yellow bunny/duck toy thing. The breeder says "she has a mind of her own!"


The pups had their first solid food yesterday - Farex with egg yolk and creamy milk. Our pup climbed right into the dish!

The breeder says that this week they should start staying awake a little longer than just one minute, will begin playing with their siblings - chewing tails etc, and maybe just venture out of their bed on their own.

We should be able to visit her in a couple of weeks :)

We're calling her Petal.

Holidays?

Well, the fun and relaxation hasn't exactly kicked in as hoped. I have lunched with some friends, which has been truly nice. But my vile FIL has been extra demanding. He's been feeling sick, and keeps calling us up saying he's 'never felt this bad before' and 'I'm really crook (cough) (cough)', and carrying on.

We say : "It sounds like you have a virus, go back to bed, rest, drink plenty of fluids." But oh no, that's not good enough. He keeps pestering and calling, protesting that he's practically dying, until we (ie I, seeing as DH isn't well enough) drive him to the medical centre, where we then wait ages to be seen, only to have a doctor tell him that (you guessed it) he has a virus, go back to bed, rest, and drink plenty of fluids.

Aaaaaaaaaargh!!! TWICE he's done this to me in the past week, this morning waking me at 7am, after I'd had a whole 5 hours sleep ... plus there was a GP appointment I had to take him to last week, and medical appointments (x-rays, blood tests, and so on) in the weeks ahead. Add to this his total self-obsession, dementia, severe complaining-itis, almost-autistic Aspergers, and disregard for anyone else, and it's a recipe for ... high blood pressure, to say the least!

He complains about every single appointment, and every test, accusing all the doctors and medical staff of "only being in it for the money" (which is deeply offensive to everyone who's trying to help him, and ridiculous on so many levels, not the least of which is that he's a veteran and all his medical bills are covered by Veterans' Affairs!). He endlessly complains "I'm sick of all this medical stuff, when is it going to all end?!" and I now just say "When you're dead!" - he's 86 for f***'s sake, what does he bleedin' expect?!

Think I'll go bake some bread, and punch the dough. A lot.

And I'm having to work. I know it's good to be in demand, but honestly guys - I need a break! My syndicator needed Anzac Day puzzles, which I wrote yesterday, and new Gourmet crosswords (next week's job) as Reader's Digest have bought up most of my stock (only about 10 of them) to go into a puzzle booklet (ie just one-off sales, not an ongoing contract). Very happy about the Reader's Digest connection, I really am, but ... !!

Okay, trying to calm down. Some knitting content : The Mitred Baby Jacket, back view - close to completion. Damn, there are a lot of ends to darn in! I'm doing them as I go to minimise the pain at the end ;)


Proof of drought (does this make it drought-proof?) .... our backyard with bare earth for 'lawn'. Veggie garden going so-so.

On the funny side, check out Cock & Bull, my new favourite web comic. I love this strip in particular ...

I can see!

This little pup is likely to be ours, she is white with black patches, and opened her eyes on Wednesday! She's doubled her birth weight in 2 weeks, which is really good too. So cute! We'll be able to visit her in person in 3 weeks. And then we can take the photos ;)

As of this afternoon I'm on holidays! Well, I'll probably have to write a couple crosswords for my syndicator, and do a few business chores in the next month, but otherwise I'm off work, no books, no projects! Yay! Even did some screen printing with Dotter this arvo for funsies (she added a Mac computer 'on' symbol to this top). Note totally dead lawn. No significant rain for several months does that ...


The house inspection went well today, it was good to meet the owners (a depressingly young couple with two young kids ... and here we are in our mid-40s, still renting, sigh). Still, they had a good look around, and we could present them with our 'wish list' - pave some of the yard near the family room so it's actually usable - our entire 'lawn of weeds' is dead anyway [highly unlikely]; a screen door for the family room [likely, but we've been asking for this to be fixed for 18 months, get a wriggle on!]; more tam bark for the front garden to cover the so chic exposed black plastic and weeds [hopeful]. Our real estate agent was nice - she said this inspection counted as a regular inspection, so we don't need another one for 6 months, yay!

Son is out of work again (the bakery offered him a cleaning job, 3 hours a day with 9am starts - he lasted 5 days) ... it's all too hard, he gets overwhelmed, and physically 'shuts down'. It's clear that the Asperger's presents bigger hurdles than we were aware of. The past two months have certainly provided a lot more evidence and data - even if I feel like I've aged 10 years in that time! It's been pretty awful and frustrating for all concerned, and I feel very badly about letting the bakery down, as they bent over backwards for him, really like him, and desperately needed the help.

We're getting some help (yes, really) from Centrelink, in getting him some financial support and into the Disability Employment Network. He has more than enough official 'points of disability' to qualify easily. A provider within DEN can offer lifetime support, in helping him get ready for a job, finding an appropriate job for him, and helping him stay in it. I think it's what he needs. Onwards and upwards hopefully.