July Pointless Lists

End of July.  How is that even possible?  July has always been my favorite.  The weather is nice, the food is good, and the days are long.  What more could you ask for in a month?

Skilly had to go to the vet yesterday.  This Friday, when Abby and I were up watching the Opening Ceremonies at all hours of the night because we're stupid awesome (it was her 13th birthday, and it's not like the Opening Ceremonies happen everyday.  PLUS.  Voldemort defeated by Mary Poppins?  Does it get any more confusing better than that, ever?), Skilly came in from being outside with his left eye closed tight.  He'd try to clean it and just cry.  This heart wrenching, horrible cry.  Abby and I would try to look at it, and he'd cry some more.

It was awful.

Since it was the weekend, we decided to take the "wait and see" approach.  Sometimes we even thought he was doing better.  His eye was still closed, but he wasn't crying.  That's progress, right?  But on Monday, nothing had changed, and he even had some gross red discharge around his eye.  Obviously, that's not that great of a sign.

Skilly is in touch with his feminine side.

The vet was awesome and took us right away--even switched around the schedule to accommodate us. Skilly was NOT happy about being in his cat carrier, or being taken down the steps into the garage, or being in the car, or driving.  "Not happy" doesn't even begin to describe it, but English is very limited, so what do you do?  Once we got to the vet, Skilly had quit crying.  Probably because his spirit was broken.

The vet opens up his carrier--it's this canvas thing that zips down--and Skilly just lays there like the angel that he is.  She's all like, he might have a foreign body in there, and then she numbs his eye, and then a few minutes later PULLS THIS ONE INCH GRASS SEED THING OUT OF HIS EYEBALL.  I wasn't sure what I should do first, throw up or pass out.  It was truly disgusting, and truly horrific knowing that I'd made my furry little baby boy suffer all weekend long.

Skilly gets antibiotic drops in his eye three times a day for the next week.  The drops are not his favorite, but he can open his eye now and it even looks less cloudy--he had some cornea damage that we're supposed to keep an eye on, which makes sense when you think about it.  He also rubbed off all but two of the whiskers over his eye, and the hair is looking pretty thin there, too.  He's a lot less vain than I am, though, so this does not bother him.

The end.  Pointless List time!

Madie probably needs equal time, right?

Books read:
PEOPLE!  I've already mentioned this, but I finally finished Game of Thrones: A Clash of Kings. Practically two full months it took me to read that sucker.  I enjoyed the book very much, but I'm taking a break before I read the third one (which yes, I've already purchased).  I'm not sure if it took so long because it's a huge book or because I've been spending way too much time on my poser iPad looking at stuff.

Then I started Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and I also mentioned this already, but my parents gave me the whole series on ebook for my birthday.  Today, incidentally, is Harry Potter's birthday.  (And JK Rowling.  Coincidence?)  I've been thinking about Harry all day and pretending it's not sad AT ALL that, as a 40-year-old, I still love him.

Movies watched:
Um, what?

Hey, though, when we were on vacation and had cable TV, we discovered a couple of shows on the History Channel: American Pickers and Pawn Stars.  So we've watched a few episodes of each on Netflix since we've been back.  That's something, right?

Canning and freezing exploits:
This weekend I canned 24 jars of dill pickles, but one of the jars broke so I only have 23 in my cupboard.  I've also canned 14 quarts of cherries and, now that I think about it, still have another huge bag in Eric's beer fridge that I need to make into jam.  I did make 7 pints of raspberry jam using our very own raspberries, and I've frozen quite a few packages of berries, too.

I've been drying apricots (Johanna is a big fan), made a couple batches of pesto, and 8 quarts of tomato sauce.  These things all get frozen solid because I'm afraid my tomatoes will try to kill me, plus what else are you supposed to do with dried fruit and pesto?

Garden update:
In some ways, the garden is just a big disappointment this year.  I've got only two zuchinni plants that survived out of... I don't know... more than a dozen seeds, anyway.  What. Ever.  Also, our green beans are just pathetic.

One of the 11 varieties of hops Eric grows.

But the tomatoes are doing great, and the raspberries are rock solid.  The blackberries are beginning to ripen.  Eric's hops actually look pretty good this year.  The dill was awesome, my cilantro has totally flowered, and the carrots might not suck.  I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Things I learned:
Turning 40 isn't so bad.  Cats are tough.  You can find a fedora at the county fair.  Letting your freshly turned 13-year-old dress you for work can be interesting.  And losing your glasses is NOT awesome.