Poor Gus, Poor Paws

Today is friday, and not a happy day. The weather is nice, Dan is coming home, but Gus has a problem. He has not been walking much for the past few days---we thought it was his arthritis, or the rain, or that he hurt his front paw somehow. But he's not been asking for walks, hasn't been eating, and I noticed that he had been chewing on his paw. We bought him booties for walking, which, though he looks funny and cute in, make me so sad to put on him.
so I finally brought him to a vet today. She turned out to be a wonderful gal, and a very good vet. She is not sure what the problem is. It is possibly a minor problem, an allergy to something that affected ALL FOUR PAWS. Yes, all 4 paws are affected, that's why the poor guy can barely walk! But wait, it might be worse. He might have an auto-immune disease, called "Pemphigus". I haven't looked it up yet, but she just said she hopes it isnt' that. There is treatment for it, but it's predisone, which is not pleasant for a dog. It can shorten their life span, but she was vague about this. We just don't know yet.
It was a very hard appointment because she had to shave his paws to check, since he's so hairy, then she needed to take a blood draw to really check this out. Cleaning and checking the paws took about 1/2 hour, and the attendant was sitting on Gus to keep him from moving. He was his wonderful, patient, stoic self. She then had to clean out his ears, because they have stuff in them, and then clean out his eye, which is runny! (I know that some of this is allergy related, as these happen all the time, but all at once, the poor guy!) I was sitting there comforting him.

She was wonderful with him, kept saying what a wonderful, patient good guy he was. And he was. When she was done, she gave him some treats, and he just wagged his tail and looked happily at her, like normal. We have to bring him back next week to see how all the meds do, to see if it's just allergies and an infection.
I was so thrown; I am usually very stoic, and i was fine in the office. I got out to the car and just choked up, and cried. (my tear ducts don't produce many tears, due to my BMT, so I can't really cry, but I did) I just came back and am sitting here, decompressing, feeling so bad for him. At one point, I was holding his head and hugging him, and I think he was shaking.
she gave him a bunch of meds, which is not good at taking, nor is he eating much, so I stopped at the nearest place near here, which happens to be a Burger King, and I bought him some french fries to hide the pills in! He did like those!

Mustard, Montana, Movies, and Merlot

Yes, it's been a while since we wrote, so we'll catch up now. On tuesday, I brought Dan to the airport for his trip to visit his brother, Jerry, in Montana. I then went over and put down shelf paper in Jay and Lindsey's new house in Alameda! It was really fun, Paula, Lindsey's mom, Lindsey and I were there for a while working, then Jason came over after work. This place is really nice, I'll include pictures some other time, after they move. It's a little Victorian, built in the 1870's, and in wonderful shape, updated, painted and spotless. Great windows and ceilings, and a separate entrance and downstairs big room and bath for visitors. Yeah!
Dan, meanwhile, got stuck in Salt Lake City, of all places. He called Matt, and since it was late, they decided to meet for breakfast the next morning, as Dan's flight was leaving late. So he got to see Matt, that was nice, but he was not very happy with the airlines, long story, just really frustrating.
He got to Montana, and found Jerry so glad to see him, it was really good for him to go. Dan will probably include some pictures later, and write his own words.
I did not do much on wed., I exercised, took care of some email business, then went to a movie, "The International." I love this nearby theater here, they have good movies, seats and popcorn, and many people go alone.
Thursday, I took a walk in the morning--it is finally really nice here! Warm and sunny. In the afternoon, I went into Sonoma to visit the HGTV (www.hgtv.com/dream-home) dream home. It was lovely, please go to the link and look at it. The best parts were the storage and the laundry room and den. The kitchen had two attractively built in pantries that were behind glass curtained doors, so it added to the ambience of the place and also held alot of dishes. I really liked that idea. The dining room was quite large, and had a little sitting area in it too by the window, another idea I really liked. The den had storage for wine in it, and lots of built ins, also a separate entrance. I could do therapy in there and serve my clients wine to help them open up, and they could come and go privately! All the counters were silestone, which seems much more practical and cheaper than granite. Oh, they had a little vineyard out in the backyard, I am including that picture.
While I was waiting for the tour to start, I shopped in Sonoma, and found these really nice prints that I bought! Do you like them? They are colorful, and painted by a local Sonoma artist. The yellow in the prints show the mustard that is growing here rampantly at this time of year, in face, it is the "mustard festival" in Napa right now.
Later, I met Kathleen for dinner in Petaluma. We ate at a cute, little place called Sooze's Wine Bar. There were only about 4 tables in it, and the owner cooks the meals from scratch as you order! We split a wonderful duck breast with a great sauce, and each had a deliciously fresh lobster bisque. It was an enjoyable day, I really had a nice time. Sonoma looks so beautiful today, with the sun out and the green beginning, the flowers beginning to bloom and the yellow of all the mustard!

Rain, rain, go away, and a picture for Inger

Sunday we went to the "Key Cinema Club." They have these in a few cities, such as Washington D.C., St. Louis, and a few others plus San Francisco. This is an organization that you can join, or go as a guest, and they preview movies prior to being released. So you get to see movies, all indies, I think, before they get reviewed or released. Today we saw "Two Lovers" with Joachim Phoenix and Gwenneth Paltrow. Dan did not like the movie at all, Jay sort of liked it, and Paula, Lindsey and I (Pat) did like it, maybe 2 1/2 stars. It's fun to go, you go in the morning, and they are careful to monitor that no one is bringing any equipment to make a copy. Interesting! This is apparently Joachim's last movie, or so he says, but, we'll see. We don't think he'll make it as a rap star, at any rate.
Later, we met Kathleen at a wonderful restaurant in Larkspur called "The Lark Creek Inn." It was great. Kathleen had prime rib, which was served with Yorkshire Pudding, Dan had Sole, and Pat had fried chicken, served with a buttermilk biscuit. This place is really great, I might want to return for a special meal. Lovely atmosphere, great food.
Pat
Monday was a hike in the Golden Gate National Park area, around Sausalito. We were looking for a trail, and when we found it, it was closed, probably do to erosion from the rains. So we took a different trail, which was also acting as a drain from the top of the hills. The 2-3 inches of rain are running down any incline that is present. Driveways, hillsides and paths all act as drains. I can see why there are flood warnings. All the creeks that were dry when we got here last week, are running with water. The rain is supposed to subside tomorrow, with some warming into the 60's and partly sunny. I am going to Montana on Tuesday for a few days to visit my brother Jerry. Weather there is in the 40's and cloudy. I'll be back on Friday.

Dan

The walk was good, strenuous, but so good to be hiking and exploring. When it rains in this coastal area, it is very different than when it rains in Michigan. You can see why it floods! The signs in the Marin Headlands Park were also very strange to us, to watch out for frogs in the road! (did anyone see the movie "Magnolia'?) So we didn't see any frogs, thankfully, as stepping or running over a frog comes close to a nightmare for Pat, but we did see a huge slug on the path. We took it's picture for our Swedish home exchange hostess, Inger, who told us when we visited that she likes all the slugs we saw on walks there. so this one's for you, Inger!

Pat

Sip, Nibble, Sip, and Rain, Sun, Rain

Happy Valentines Day, and Happy Birthday, Matt. Dan bought Pat flowers for the day, so nice! It feels like home.










OK, we're ready for the rain to stop for a while. This area has been in a drought, so the locals are excited that they are finally getting rain. For us, a week is enough already and we are ready for some sun and a little more warmth, though it has been consistently in the high 50's which is quite nice compared to Michigan. The rain has not really slowed us down much, but has just altered some activities.

Friday we went to Sonoma to partake of a wine matching at St. Francis winery. www.stfranciswinery.com. Last year when we were here, (see Pat's blog) we had joined their wine club, and we have received a few shipments of their Artisan series wines. We probably are not going to continue this, as we have since found other high quality wines which we prefer, but part of being in their wine club is a complimentary wine pairing. The way that works is they pair four wines, with four small portions of food. It is interesting to see how the wines and food compliment each other, the rule of thumb is to "sip, nibble, sip." One thing we learned was to eat something prior to enjoying this, as the quantity of food is very small and the quantity of wine is larger than the average pour in a vineyard. We had a great time and then visited two more wineries, Ledson www.ledson.com and Martinelli www.martinelliwinery.com. We found Ledson to be interesting as they offer a very large variety of wines and do not sell outside of the winery. Their tasting rooms are in a mansion that sets off the road near Santa Rosa. Martinelli is located in a very plain, wooden facility. We plan on exploring more of the 122 wineries in Sonoma, so that leaves us 119 to go. Probably won't accomplish that this trip, but it's a nice goal.

Saturday we had more rain showers. We did regular things around the house and stores, then went to a movie. We saw "The Wrestler", which was worth seeing. It is a very different movie. I'd give it 3 out of 4 stars. Pat gives it a 2 1/2.

Later in the evening we went to Rancho Nicasio. Pat found this place last year, and mentioned it on her blog. It is quite something, out in the countryside of Marin. It is only about 10 miles off of 101, through a very, very curvy road, beyond George Lucas's house, (yes, that George Lucas) and over hills and dales. It is a building that is over 150 years old and has a bar, dance floor, general store and post office . It is an old country bar, complete with moose and deer hanging on the walls. Their Valentine's Day entertainment was a group called the Baguette Quartet. They played old French dancing music. We had a ball. Many people were dressed for the occasion, wearing red, or french cafe clothing, and everyone got up and danced the fox trot, tango, waltz. We met one of the owners, who was sitting at the next table, Jane Brown. She and her husband were with another couple, and we had a very enjoyable evening dancing and talking with them. We plan on going back for more entertainment Check out the web site. www.baguettequartet.org

www.ranchonacsio.com