Surviving the Holiday and Biscuits

Fourth of July has come and gone, so has my energy.  Angie and family, Gary and I spent the holiday at the Coles Casa.  We swam, had a few beers, ate dinner, and played cards at their house.  No, they weren't there, they were on holiday in Michigan with Sue and Clay.  Hey, that's what happens when you give me a key to your house.  I do want to say, we took our own food and drinks, even our own playing cards.  We had a great time.  You can actually see some fireworks from the back yard, even more from the front yard, but the premium view point is the end of their street.  That is where Morgan got her first whiff of marijuana.  Only people who live in Garland would stand on a street corner, smoking weed from a bong!  Morgan couldn't figure out what she was smelling, so Angie told her loudly that it was someone thinking they were above the law, and doing illegal drugs.  THAT impressed Morgan. 

Here are some pictures I took with my new camera.  I am still trying to get used to it.  It works like an iphone... everything has an icon.  Still too new for me to do anything "quickly" with it.  I guess that will come with practice. 

A tripod is a must for night shots, and I didn't take one, so these are a little blurry.

We called it an evening around 10:30. 

Saturday, Angie and the girls went over for a few hours and swam again.  Sunday, Chloe and I went over and I did some aerobic exercise in the pool while she fed the cat and played on her Nook.  I also did a quick mop of the floor, to erase all evidence of our visit.  I “think” everything was in the same condition as when they left.

Monday, just a regular old day around the house.  Angie took my iphone in to the Apple Store at North Park for me.  I am so tired of working with them.  She didn't want me to go, said I always give too much information and it confuses them.  Well, I like to tell them how I've already worked with them 3 times, and resetting it to zip and manually adding everything back like they said is getting old.  It also never fixes the problem. 

Gary took Stella for a walk around noon, and I went to Michaels to shop for a while since I couldn't play on my cell phone.  I managed to find a few craft projects to do while Joyce is here.  We’ll be painting a beach scene at some point.  I also found some painting projects for the girls and I to do.  I came home around 2pm, and Gary and Stella were not here.  I started to worry that Gary had gotten too much heat and was in trouble, cause they'd been gone way too long.  I called his cell phone, and for once, he answered.  It was then that he told me Stella had run into the woods chasing something and he couldn't find her.  It had been two hours.  He'd tried to call me and I didn't answer the phone.  Well, duh!  Angie had it.

Off I go on my bike to the woods.  (I had fallen over the weekend and was really still sore legged, but I was upset so I worked thru the pain.)  I looked for her as well for an hour or so, then frantically called Angie.  She was on her way home with me NEW iphone (Thank you Angie and Apple) and she'd get us some help.  She put it on facebook and tweeted her buds, and we had all kinds of help.  It was hot, and I can only ride so long... so I came home and got my car and drove around the perimeter of the park looking for Stella.  It is a natural preserve, probably around 60 acres or so.  NADA!  I did manage to never yell at Gary for not having her on the leash.  Honestly, I was too upset to do that... crying was easier. 

FINALLY, a little over 6 hours after she got lost, a couple that had joined the search (we never even got their name) found her, unable to walk.  They were carrying her when they found my son-in-law, Eric and turned her over to him.  She wouldn't walk, so he carried her the 2 miles home.  Talk about some relieved people.  Morgan, especially.  She told me that she was so glad we found her, cause it was all she had left to help her remember Provine, the name she always called my Dad.  I love that child!

Stella wouldn't walk, but I got her to drink some water.  About 30 minutes later, she started puking.  It was nothing but grass, mud, and a few small pebbles.  I made a Whataburger run while Angie shampooed the carpet.  Stella finally managed to drink and keep it down, but wouldn't eat.  Angie called our vet at his home, but he wasn't home.  Stella slept, and a couple of times during the night when she'd wake me up, I went and got her water, which she'd drink and go back to sleep. 

Tuesday morning, I had a dental appointment.  The vet agreed to see her at 2:30, but I also had a physical therapy appointment at 3pm, so Angie agreed to take the dog in.  She was running late, so Gary had to take the dog and attempted to meet Angie there.  As I was walking out the door to go to PT, they called and informed me I wasn't there at 2:30, so I'd have to reschedule.  WTF  No one told me I had to be there early, and no they wouldn't have time to do everything.  I reschedule for Thursday and head to the vets office.  I drove up the same time as Angie, and in we go.  Gary was in the room already, and in Angie, Chloe, Morgan and I march.  Travis, the vet, is also Angie's next door neighbor.  He came in before the tech did the pre-work, and said he heard there was a crowd and wondered what was going on.  He was a good sport, and Gary left immediately. 

He checked Stella over, it was almost time for her yearly checkup anyway, and he said she probably was just extremely dehydrated yesterday.  Even though she was drinking and not eating, as long as she'd quit throwing up, she'd be okay.  Instead of giving her her annual shots, he delayed doing that til next week because if she had a reaction to any of the shots, he didn't want it to be confused by the heat episode.  If we went ahead and paid for everything that day, it wouldn't be an additional office visit, or emergency visit, and it would all fall under the yearly exam.  So, next week, I'll get her groomed and they'll actually administer the vaccines, etc. while she's there.  He is so sweet.  He also said we should have called back later that night.  He didn't mind.  As of today, Stella is back to normal.  I still haven't yelled at Gary, but I do now need to get her microchip info updated, and renew Stella's city license.  Bad Mimi.... I tend to not do the paperwork, but I do keep her current.  I am going to take care of all that today.

Other than that fiasco, it's been really quite here..... yeah right.  We had a marathon Hand and Foot game last night, and I cooked a thank you dinner for Eric.  Angie isn't in to seafood, or fish, so I made a great dinner.  I made grilled salmon with herb sauce, and some of the stuffed shrimp I bought when Margie and I went to Louisiana to play in a golf tournament, some lemon rice, and some homemade biscuits.  Well, homemade, but semi-scratch.  They were 7-up Bisquick Biscuits.  They were so easy and so good, I'm sharing the recipe.

 

 

One thing NOT in the recipe.  I put some extra Bisquick on the work surface, and worked the dough so it wasn't so sticky.  I had a few left over from last night, and they tasted just as good this morning heated in the microwave. 

 

The rest of my day is going to be spent cleaning this pig sty I call home.  Just seem to find other things to do that are more fun. 

 

I hope you all had a safe and happy fourth.