Riley — Page 18

The Art Museum

April 21, 2012 at 8:00 am by Claudia

On Friday, I had a bit of free time before rehearsal, so I went to the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford’s beautiful art museum. It’s the perfect size, not so huge that you find it overwhelming. There is currently a special Andrew Wyeth Exhibition going on that shows some of his paintings along with the studies he executed of each subject. I saw the Atheneum’s collection of paintings and a Civil War Exhibition that included a letter handwritten by Abraham Lincoln to Horace Greely. That gave me goose bumps. I stand in awe of Abraham Lincoln.

This sculpted trapeze artist hangs from the ceiling of one of the rooms.

And this beautiful stained glass ceiling is in another room.

This is one of my favorites from this museum, “Two Girls with Oleander” by Klimt.

I included this because it’s “The Tempest” by Magritte. And that’s the name of the play I’m here to coach.

This is “Autumn in the Village” by Marc Chagall.

There were beautiful sculptures and antiquities. I had a lovely time and plan to go back again. Because I’m working at the theater, I get in free.

My schedule is filling up – so much so, that I can’t go home this week. I’m sad. However, it would be too hard to drive all that way for just one day at home. I broke the news to Don last night. I know he would like me there for a few days as we had a scare with Riley on Thursday night. He was bleeding from his mouth (the right side) and Don couldn’t get near him to figure out what was going on. It was very frightening. We finally decided that Don should take him to the Emergency Vet and, miraculously, on the way there Riley stopped bleeding and seems to be fine today. Thank goodness. There must have been some injury to the right side of his mouth – a cut or a sore of some kind. He was fine on Friday. He ate his food and he didn’t bleed. Keep our boy in your thoughts, okay? He’s had a hard time of it and I want him to be with us as long as possible.

Have a good Saturday.

Around the House

March 26, 2012 at 11:25 am by Claudia

esterday I was in the mood to clean. I’ve long since learned that I have to be in one of those efficient, determined moods to do any deep cleaning. I tackled both bathrooms and the kitchen. If you are a longtime reader of this blog, you are more than aware of the fact that I hate cleaning the bathroom. I abhor, detest and dislike intensely cleaning the bathroom. I even wrote about it in this post.

I even washed the fake fruit in this bowl. Oh, I forgot; the thing to do is call it faux fruit. But really, it’s fake fruit.

Now it’s clean and spiffy, as are the countertops and the island. Side note: since I’m in the mood to use the word ‘detest’ let me add that I detest our tile countertops (the grout never looks clean) and I also detest our humongous black microwave. It takes up too much space. But since it came with the house and is still working, I can’t get rid of it. Oh, and I cleaned the inside of the microwave.

Do you see that piece of paper on the butcher block? Here’s what it says:

These are the kind of love notes my husband and I leave for each other. Mr. Riley has a debilitating disease which involves his spine and hind quarters. His poor muscles just don’t have the control they used to. So, if Don is working late, I leave him a note with a Riley update in hopes that if we cover our bases no ‘incident’ will happen during the night. We love our boy and aim to make his life as stress-free as possible.

Speaking of my husband, this pile of his washed and folded clothes has been in this chair for 3 days. Any bets as to when he will take it upstairs?

The other night, Don was waiting for Riley to, you guessed it, poop and sat down on the bench. He decided to play with his jumping jacks. The next morning I arose to find the guy in the center (soldier?palace guard?) decapitated. He has since been repaired. The monkey was also decapitated at one time, which is why his head is permanently cocked to one side.

Aren’t these flowers Easter-like? I found this mixed bouquet at Trader Joe’s and it reminded me of Easter eggs and Easter baskets and Spring.

Today it is very windy and tonight the temps are going to go down to the mid-twenties. A hard freeze. I’m worried about my lilac bush and all the other plants that have popped out of the ground in this early Spring.

Have a marvelous Monday!

A Stealth Attack

February 13, 2012 at 10:04 am by Claudia

Our boy Riley has issues. One of them: absolutely no to any nail cutting. He will instinctively try to bite anyone who goes near his nails. In the past, we’ve dealt with this by giving him a little sedative before a visit to the Vet hospital. He would get pleasantly groggy and the deed would be done. But the last few times he’s had the sedative, he’s had an increasingly bad reaction to it. The last reaction was so strong that he was out of it for over 24 hours. Obviously we will not use it any longer.

But the nails are a problem. Especially for a boy who is finding it harder and harder to get around, especially on the hardwood floors in the kitchen, because of the progressive disease that has hit his spine. (Yes, we have throw rugs, but they can’t cover every inch of space.) What to do?

Stealth nail cutting. Last night, I sneaked the nail cutters into the den (on my dinner tray.) When he was finally fast asleep, I knelt beside him and clipped whatever nails I could get to. This will have to be a slow process over the course of several evenings – especially since I got a little over-zealous and clipped one nail a bit too much, causing it to bleed. Luckily I have some of that stuff that Vets use to stop the bleeding.

I know better. I used to work for a Vet. Lesson learned a second time. He’s okay, the sweet boy. More nail cutting is scheduled for tonight.

(I originally wrote ‘snuck.’ But then I wondered if that was the correct past tense of sneak. Turns out it isn’t. So ‘sneaked’ it is.)

Finished another scarf – this one is wool in a deep red shade. Is it just me or is red hard to photograph? The beautiful scarf that Mer wove was a challenge – I never seemed to capture the right shade. Too much fussing in photo editing invariably made the red too brassy. Both scarves are deep, yummy shades of red.

More yarn is on the way. Some of you have requested special orders or missed out on one of the color combinations. I’ll do my best to get them in the shop as quickly as my fingers and hook will let me. I’m also crocheting some more in the silk and bamboo combination – they are perfect for spring and summer and feel so silky to the touch.

I’m off to run some errands on this Monday morning. Have a great day.

The Art Museum

Around the House

A Stealth Attack

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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