Lilly Home & Recovering After Mast Cell Surgery

Last Wednesday, Lilly went to see Dr. Barkdoll due to a recurring lump on her side. It appeared during mosquito season, along with dozens of other lumps thanks to our unusually heavy infestation of the little bloodsuckers this year. It went away as an insect bite is wont to do. Then, out of the blue, it was back but bigger. This was the warning, a sign that this one pea sized lump could be a mast cell tumor, a form of cancer common in boxers. When she stopped jumping on him and licking him, Dr. Barkdoll was able to examine it and we decided that it needed to come out.

Friday morning she went in and was home Friday late afternoon with a six inch incision with staples over her passenger side shoulder. Among my instructions was 'keep her quite and calm'. Right, my whirling dervish has to be calm. Late Friday afternoon I made my first panicked call as she kept scratching every time she fell asleep. When the doctor called that evening to see how she was doing, we decided that I couldn't spend the next week awake when she slept to grab her feet. Saturday Morning she met Dr. Barkdoll at the office to have a hobble put on her hind foot to prevent her from opening her wound. That proved futile and the doctor made her a dressing that looked like a designer jacket made of tape and ace compression bandaging. It is quite the fashion statement and has done a perfect job. It comes off Wednesday and staples out Saturday if all goes per plan.

Lilly has one from abjectly miserable, to very unhappy boxer to an utter pain in the neck. Her main goal is to go outside and roll in the grass, her secondary goal is to run like a fool; my goal is to prevent her from doing what she wants. To keep her quiet, I sat in the chair with her and a lap top and let her pick a treat for herself and I picked some yums for me all from Bonanzle shops. She loves the gift basket of biscuits because it's something different every day. The cookies are all home made and baked fresh to order. I even think they smell great when I open a package so I can only imagine how wonderful they smell to her. They were the first thing she ate after her surgery. Thanks Shasta for making such a wonderful product!

On the hottest day of the summer, we were thrilled to be able to take to the sea on the lobster boat "Miss Jilly". I can't recommend this wonderful trip highly enough both for the seasonal tourist and the lifelong Maine resident. Captain Brian is not only a skilled navigator and professional lobsterman, he is also an educator, teaching about lobsters, lobstering and the sea life living in Eggemoggin Reach. He and his wife Jillian are a true team, pulling the pots, measuring and banding the catch together and cleaning the boat at the end of the haul.

The Miss Jilly is a beautiful, well kept fiberglass hull traditional lobster boat with a single winch for pulling the pots to the rail where manpower takes over. Heading out, we basked in the sun and enjoyed the ocean side view of the mansions along the shore and the sail boats taking off for the day's sailing. Due to the heat and humidity the air was hazy so photo ops were scarce. A treat was seeing the rock outcroppings that were covered with gulls and cormorants relaxing in the warm summer morning. The view from the stern, with the wake forming fractal patterns was hypnotizing and we hated to see the day end. This trip is a definite repeat for next year and the next, and the next ....

For more info, check out A Fishin Sea Charters for all the different tours offered. There is everything from a 2 hour lobster tour to a sunset lighthouse cruise with a Downeast clambake. There is even deep sea fishing which I think would be a most wonderful way to enjoy Maine and her ocean bounty.

The Grand Finale - 5+ Pounds of Goodness

Make a Statement with a Brooch

With vintage brooches being seen on a wide range of people ranging from the First Lady, to the President's cabinet members, runway stars, and millions of main stream Americans, the brooch is enjoying a resurgence that is long overdue. Produced in styles as varied as a simple one inch diameter circle to wild conglomerations of rhinestones in a rainbow explosion of color, there is always the right brooch to match your mood. Feeling cheery? A 60's style flower brooch is just the ticket for you. Dealing with a reptilian client but still have to make nice? Only you will know what the four inch long rhinestone encrusted snake on your lapel really means. Feel like a victim of fashion? Buck up - there's a brooch that has that covered too. And on Friday do you feel the need to just fly away? Pull out your sterling Pegasus and dream of touring the clouds from your faithful steed's back.

No matter what your taste, there's the perfect brooch out there for you, or rather brooches since once you start you'll find that there is a new special brooch around every corner if you just look for it. Half the fun in wearing your latest lapel treasure is the memory of the hunt, that ah-ha moment when you and your brooch meet for the first time.

Attack of the Boxer Brigade

One boxer is a clown, a pal and a chair warmer extraordinaire. Two boxers are double fun. Three or more boxers are a brigade rolling over anything in their path with a zest and joie de vivre that is unparalleled in the dog world.

Because of their personalities and their unique faces and bodies, boxers often find themselves in paintings, jewelry, clothing, home decor and photography. I just completed a new hand picked list on Bonanzle. For those not familiar with Bonanzle, it is a vibrant new online marketplace with an amazingly diversified group of sellers and products. One feature is the ability for users, both sellers and buyers, to create showcases of good dedicated to individual topic or themes. My newly completed list, dedicated to these canine jesters, is called Attack of the Boxer Brigade. And here it is, in all its canine glory - Attack of the Boxer Brigade. !

What are Jewels by Fractal

Jewels in our lives are many different things. They can be the physical pieces of jewelry with which we adorn ourselves, the people who become the jewels in our lives and the jewels of nature which surround us. We just need to open our eyes to all of the beautiful possibilities to add beauty, in all its glorious forms, to our lives.

Featured here will be jewels that I have made and are available online at Fractal's Booth, fractals I have generated and wish to share because of their beauty, and images of natural beauty I have found and captured.

Before departing today, I'll leave you with a thought. Look around. Yes, take your eyes away from your monitor and enjoy something in your environment just for its uniqueness and its beauty. You have just found your jewel, now go find more!

Joy and sparkles 'til later,
Betsy