up a Saturday without a paddle

Saturday started out rather strangely. It was the first Saturday that I can remember where I didn't have paddling practice or an outrigger race AND I wasn't sick as a dog. I guess my back injury counts as a variety of illness, but if you aren't spiking a fever or coughing up technicolor ick it isn't really being sick. My back is feeling somewhat better, slowly, as is the cut on my thumb. I have been having difficulty finding a style of bandage that will stay on. As you may know, thumbs are extremely mobile and not easily encouraged to hold still and rest, not unlike myself. All the waterproof, seal around the entire edge style tend to pop off within 10 minutes of application regardless of the size. And if antibiotic ointment has been applied they come off even more quickly. I finally went with the knuckle style made from stretchy fabric, they look like a rounded capital H, two legs wrap around the thumb itself and the other legs extend down the wrist. They actually stay on for a few hours, longer if treated nicely.

Initially at a quandry as to how to fill a day sans paddling, my fears were quickly laid to rest. I still needed to sift through my remaining apartment building storage unit. The plan was to transfer some things to the big off site storage unit. I managed to do that solo without further damaging myself! Even got the stuff down to the other location in a single trip.

Next on the agenda was moving my little laser-type sailboat down to SSP for storage. I was not so delusional as to believe I could get the boat on top of my car by myself. Ten or more years ago and with a car having a more sloping rear window I was able to do it. My back was more healthy then than it is now and the Forester has a vertical rear window, not so good for sliding boats up. I found a neighbor who could help lift it up and I knew I'd find folks down at SSP who could help me lift it off the car. With the boat now down at SSP I suspect I'll be sailing it more frequently. Anybody want to go for a sail? And looking for a link to describe the boat I've found out the make and model, it's a Barnett 1400, I think. The good news is I know that I can get a new sail for it and it will probably be the right thing and cheaper than having one custom made by a different company.

Sunday was a good day as well. Went to breakfast with a couple of friends who then came over to my place afterwards. Llelo is such a goof when people come over. He feels that anyone sitting on the couch has extended him an open invitation to jump into their laps and cover them with hugs and kisses. One of the friends was a boy of 21 months, fun, active, curious, and having a good time with the toy VW Beetle I have. Gus was feeling some anxiety having J in his house and spent the entire visit sucking on his ducky, his equivalent of a security blanket. They tend to get rather nasty, I have a few in backup so they can go through the wash as needed. Aside from Gus, a good time was had by all. After the friends left the dog boys were overcome by naps, they were out cold almost immediately. I parked myself on the couch to watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail and woke up a few hours later. What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than napping on the couch with a dog curled up in your lap.

KERPOW

Having my thumb bandaged up blows. It makes it hard to type and it still hurts, too. Pout, pout, pout. I'm not going anywhere tomorrow. It is a difficult place to have bandaged. I've taken off the massive gauze wrap that was to help keep me from bumping it and the band aid is peeling off and not doing a good job of sealing the wound. I may need to buy another box of band-aids, a different shape, a different size, something is bound to work.

A funny thing happened Monday afternoon. I took the dog boyz to our neighborhood park for a little run around and our neighbor, Kyle, came along, too. The boys always like to have a good run after the Chuckit Flying Squirrel. Gus races for the toy and Llelo races after Gus. On our way there we saw a neighborhood dog that Llelo likes to play with so they turned around and came back to the park to play with us.

Now Gus is very, very passionate about his fetching. Corgis are fast, a passionate corgi going after his toy is very fast. Llelo was racing around like a crazy man with Riley, the yorkie on steroids (he huge for a yorkie, over 15 lbs). Neither dog is even aware of the other one. Can you see where this is going? I throw the flying squirrel and Gus takes off, Llelo is making a loop with Riley hot on his heels when WHAM Gus and Llelo collide. Both are knocked back over a foot they have hit so hard! Llelo actually looks stunned for the briefest of moments, then shakes his head and takes off again. You could almost see the little birdies and stars circling his head. Gus had already taken off for the flying squirrel. Silly dogs.

It Was A Brilliant Plan ...

I have come to really like bread pudding. It's something my mother always enjoyed but when she'd bake it I tended to think it was gross. What can I say, I was younger, much younger, and less willing to try different things. Then one day I saw a recipe on the side of a rice milk container. I thought I'd give it a try. Yum-mee! I had this epiphany at least a year before my mother passed away so I could inform her of my previous foolishness and let her know I'd finally come around to be a believer.

A consistent problem I've had with my bread puddings is the raisins, they tend to float to the top and burn or if I've poked them down they sink and burn at the bottom. A friend suggested soaking them in hot water for a while before putting them into the mixture. Ya, good idea, still ended up with burnt raisins, not quite as many but it still wasn't the solution I'd hoped for. The other day at Trader Joe's I had a flash of brilliance: I bought a couple loaves of cinnamon raisin bread! This morning it was time to test the theory. I was slicing the bread and managed to take a chunk of the fleshy part of my thumb in addition to the bread! Yowza! I could tell right away this was more than just a regular band-aid type of flesh wound. I called Diane who agreed to give me a ride to the hospital. After 45 minutes I told Diane it was ok for her to head back to work, that Mark would come collect me after they were finished. I waited in the ER for over three hours! And was still never seen. I had called Mark and asked him to try and locate an urgent care clinic, which he did. There is one on Aurora and 85th. The doctor had already started to clean the wound before I finished the first page of my paperwork, that really smarted. An injection of something-caine, followed by two sutures, then a massive hand wrap. The doctor filled out her paperwork, asked me to make sure to sign the page giving her permission to treat me, and then I finished my sign-in paperwork. Then off to sign-in and out, and then take my leave. Took all of 25 minutes enter to exit. I'm definitely going there next time I try to hack off a limb.

After Mark brought me home I was faced with a large pile of cut up bread and no bread pudding. On the plus side, such as it is, my injury occurred during the next to last cut of bread. Now all I needed to do was beat the eggs and make the custard. It's in the oven baking and my hand is starting to really hurt. I think I need to take a break. I'll post back after I've tested the new iteration of the bread pudding. Oh, and if I hadn't decided to pass on the race due to my back I'd have to for the sutures. Bummer!

The bread pudding is out of the oven now. It's pretty tasty, not quite what I'd hoped in terms of the raisin factor. Biting into a plump, juicy raisin is just yummy. I think I'll try the soaking again, someone else suggested soaking in boiling water, I'd used hot tap water last time. I'll keep you all posted on the next iteration of the bread pudding test!