Fourth of July 2007

We had another neighborhood cookout today. I made sloppy joes and blueberry cobbler. The sloppy joes were perfect for me, but a bit too spicy for some of the other folks. So I'm eating another one right now. I have a penchant for Red Devil sauce.


Two new people joined us today, Beth and Denny. They live around the corner, but we chat often when I take Katie for her walks. We all missed Ellen, though. It looks like Patty must have tried some of my sloppy joe sauce!

David really enjoyed seeing Katie again. They played hide and seek, with David doing most of the seeking.

A few of us took the afternoon off, sitting and chatting. I even tried to sneak a nap in.

But once the football started getting tossed around, it was too dangerous to nap.

Tina caught one!


After a short bike ride that ended in disaster (a skinned knee), David powered down in his mom's lap, Beth and Denny headed home, and Karen, Tina, and I went to see Transformers.

A weekend wedding celebration

My best friend held a wedding reception for his oldest daughter last Saturday. The new bride is on the right, and her sister on the left. They MUST take after their mother, because my friend just ain't that good lookin'.

There was some kite flying, some cornhole playing, and horseshoe tossing, not to mention nearly non-stop chatting with old friends and new acquaintences.















We ate roasted pig (YUMMY), roast beef, delicious garden and pasta salads, and an incredible fruit salad and loads of pastries that the bride's mother made, as well as wedding cake. Ice cold beer washed the food down.


You KNOW what's gonna happen next....



Rick made every man at the party jealous with his new fire ring. Yup, that's all stainless steel. Welded. With 8" legs and 3/8" round bar stock welded into the bottom. Damn. I want one too!


We stayed up late talking about life and love, while joking and laughing, and a little bit of crying. The youngest daughter has some life decisions to make, and I was truly amazed by my friend. I saw a side of him I never thought I'd see. He told her that she would always have someone there for her, that she was the most important half of his life, shared with his other daughter, and that he loved her. Jeez, I almost started bawling!

Katie's third bath of the day

My friend Tina offered to give Katie another skunk treatment. She carefully washed Katie's face with the solution, then let it dry. Tina then gave her another bath to get the chemicals off her fur.


I dried Katie off as well as I could, but it was getting dark outside, and too cool to let her dry off outdoors.


Katie is so cuddly!

Katie is a stinker.

Late last night, I took Katie out on the front porch while I waited for my next door neighbor, Tina, to come visit. I foolishly left her collar off, as I usually do at night so she doesn't get chafed around the neck. Well, wouldn't you know she saw something over by Ellen's garbage cans, and took off after it. Of course, it had to be a skunk. Katie chased that poor animal all over the yard, into the next yard, into their backyard, then even further down the street. All along the way, she kept getting sprayed. I could smell it. I could hear the skunk spraying her. She even started sneezing, but she just kept going after it. Katie wouldn't come when I called her, and since I didn't keep her on the leash, I couldn't grab her. She moves pretty fast for a 9 year old! Finally, she got tired enough that as she walked by me, still hunting down the skunk, I was able to pick her up and take her home. She spent the night outside, of course.



I took off work to bathe her. Two baths didn't do it, so I called my friend Rick for advice. He suggested tomato juice, which I thought was just an old wive's tale, but he said it works. He also said I could get something at the pet store. I didn't want to use tomato juice, because I was worried that it would stain Katie's coat, so I went to the pet store for something. I applied the solution according to directions, but I was very careful around Katie's eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. Since she kept getting sprayed in the face as she chased the skunk, I don't think I was able to get it all off her. She's still got a faint skunky odor. Here, I used the old watering can trick so I could wash off the soap without using the higher pressure hose.


I talked to Charles today. He said Katie did this before, so I guess she didn't learn her lesson then, or now. I learned my lesson though, no more going outside without her collar and leash!

My friend Ellen died tonight

She died at approximately 8:20 pm EST. I was holding her hand and talking with her.

I'm trying to decide whether or not to post about the experience, because, while it will help me, it may be construed wrongly by her friends and relatives, if they should read it.