Magic in a bottle

I truly believe in using "green" cleaning products. I am partial to Seventh Generation, Mrs. Meyers, Method, Caldera, and Green Works. In a selfish way, I just don't want chemicals all over my kitchen counters. And I definitely don't want Iona to get anywhere near them. From an environmental standpoint, I would like to keep nasty things from getting into our groundwater and oceans. Living coastal for so many years certainly makes you aware that EVERYTHING ends up back in our water.

So lets throw in a caveat. We have had a housekeeper since 2001. It started with every other week, and then quickly became a weekly thing. We actually had three different housekeepers over the years, but Maria was absolutely our favorite. I would have loved if she could have moved with us from California. I point out the housekeeper thing simply because it shows that my physical and personal interaction with cleaning products has been rather limited. Someone else always made sure that my house sparkled.

Until now. Since moving here, we've been on our own.

With that said, there are always "green" exceptions. For example, Michael insisted that I buy real Windex because the mint scented natural product I normally use was leaving streaks on his plasma TV. I also need a little Tilex in my life because I periodically want the smell of bleach to permeate my bathroom. Bright. White. Bleach. Clean. Admittedly these don't make me feel guilty for stepping away from the natural products. Until this week that is.

We needed to clean the condo for the final walk through tomorrow. Things all looked great until I realized that the oven still needed to be cleaned. Yes, I realize that many people will want to punch me with this statement...but I haven't had to clean an oven in about eight years. Maria did it. And she did it fabulously. So I threw all my environmental pride out the window and bought some Easy Off. DAMN, this stuff works! Granted you have to open all the windows and vacate the premises, but the oven is shining. Every girl has a compromise to make, and I just found mine. Easy Off, you have a place in our home and my heart.

Update on the Pig

Nothing too new to report on Iona. We will know more next week after she is admitted to the NC State Vet School. She goes in on Monday for a thyroid nuclear scan. Basically she is injected with a radioactive iodine that will show the placement and size of the tumor (hopefully only one) and help the oncologist determine if surgery is feasible. She can't come home until all the iodine is excreted from her body, so she could be there from 24-72 hours. Michael wanted to know if they hold a Geiger counter up to her belly in order to make that determination.

We should know how to proceed by mid-week.

In the meantime, you would never know that something is wrong with her. She is still a nutcase that wants to sleep in the bed at night and get up early simply so she can eat breakfast. Sure there are "symptoms" now that we can attribute to hyperthyroidism - the urinary infection that won't go away and the increase in water consumption. The bursts of energy and the assertiveness still seem to be typical corgi behavior though!

We've always said she's special, and she continues to prove that. Apparently a groomer, a dentist and a dermatologist just weren't enough for her contact list. Now she can add an oncologist and a radiologist. If she keeps this up she'll need her own Blackberry to keep track of all this. A Blackberry and some thumbs.

Corgi and "The Big C"

I love my dog. I think she is amazing and she makes me terribly happy. She was Michael's companion during all my travel and I owe her for that. She is independent, beautiful, bossy and obstinate and stubborn, and I think these are tremendous qualities for any girl. She is also the perfect color of orange and it is probably not an accident that our House matches her palate.


None of this is a shock to anyone that knows us. Iona is the first dog we've ever owned as a couple and she's been "special" since the first day, I found her eight years ago on a corgi rescue website, and adopted her on the spot. Over the years I've purchased a car and a house without Michael ever seeing them, but it was this dog that caused him the most consternation. "What? You adopted a dog? A dog that is coming on Saturday?" That day an overweight damaged dog entered our lives and we've never been the same.


At 42 pounds she was was close to 20 pounds overweight, which contributed to her future hip dysplasia and arthritis. She was also obviously abused in some capacity as she came with serious trust issues. After the first 6 months, none of that mattered. We were smitten.

It appears that our sweet girl now has cancer. She's been diagnosed with asymptomatic hyperthyroidism. We were at the specialist today and they found a mass along the right-side of her jaw. A tumor on the thyroid. Now she needs to go to the vet school at NC State and get a thyroid nuclear scan to determine if it is truly cancer and if we can do surgery.

I love this dog. We'll do what we need to do, as long as she's OK. Right now she's sleeping on the couch next to me, with her head on a pillow. Right where she belongs.

Dinner Parties!

One of the things I have missed most throughout our House transition was the ability to host dinner parties. It is such a wonderful way to spend time with friends and I have looked forward to restarting that. The plastic house just wasn't ours and I never felt comfortable with people there. The condo just embarrassed me. Fortunately the House now has a dining room that makes me eager to dine, drink and simply socialize.

This was honestly a room that wasn't terribly off. The moldings were interesting and the floor was in decent shape. We could have simply replaced the light fixture and painted and called it a day. But that would have been too simple for us.

This room already opened into the kitchen which was fabulous. It was also the space on the other side of the living room wall that we were eager to remove. Once that wall came down, our work could truly begin. OH - and let's not forget about the stupidness of the human that covered the fireplace with trashy tile and a green gas stove. Yeah, that was just not going to be OK.

So the demolition began. The walls came down, the lights came out, the brick exposed and the walls repainted. Once the dust settled, the work really wasn't so terrible. It also helped considerably when the holes were all patched and the House could actually hold a stable temperature.

Michael still has to finish the mantle and the trim around the fireplace (yes dear, that is on your list). We felt good enough though to finally invite people we like over and actually have that dinner party I've been craving. There was something so deeply satisfying about sitting with good friends around the dining room table and eating and laughing like the rest of the world on a Saturday night. It was so, so, so worth the hangover the next morning.