Poor Puss!

 My poor little cat has had a rough time.

Just before I left for the cruise I noticed she had some plugs of hair out of her back and a sore spot there.  I didn't think much of it, but when I got back home the next week, I found that the sore spot was infected and leaking pus.

I trimmed her fur back a bit and doused the area with peroxide and applied a bit of antibacterial ointment and the area seemed to be healing.

Then a week later I noticed more leaking...a lot. So I treated the wound again a deep puncture wound, and it seemed to improve, but, it happened again...lots of leakage and poor Puss sleeping a lot and not doing well.

Of course her regular vet was closed the next day but I was able to take her in to a different vet in town.

So yes, she had infection and fever. They gave her an antibiotic shot and cleaned up the area.  

Such an indignity...they shaved a big spot.

They sent me home with antibiotic drops and a package of treats...and a much lighter pocketbook.

A good veterinary clinic though. I'd use them again in a pinch.

Puss was good about swallowing her medicine and started healing. 

I have no idea how she got hurt.  

Something in the woods or a fight with another animal?

The Sasquatch caught this picture of a coyote with his Trail Cam.  

It's in my driveway, not far from the house.  Could it have grabbed Puss?

That little kitty better remain alert!

I'm having sort of a miserable day today.

This is what's on the menu.

Yep, colonoscopy tomorrow.  Too much information?

air fryer recall

 Amazon emailed me a notification that the Cosori air fryer I bought a couple of years ago there, had been recalled.

Instructions from the manufacturer website told how to get a product replacement.

I had to submit a photo of the air fryer with the cord cut in half along with serial numbers and so forth.

They had a few items to choose from as a replacement...another air fryer, an electric coffee pot...and the item I picked...a counter top toaster oven.

They shipped it to my home. It's pretty nice and normally much higher priced than the air fryer.  It even has an air fry setting too.

Usually, I don't like a lot of things sitting out on the countertops but I think this will be handy enough to make an exception.

I wasn't really sad to see the air fryer go. I haven't been using it much.

I hated to throw it in the trash, though, and was sort of tempted to repair the cord...but the recall was because of potential fire risk so I did throw it away.

Oh boy! I've made some wonderfully delicious toasted cheese sandwiches with the new toaster oven!

The bad part is they are really fattening!

Well, there is one more bad thing. If the toaster oven is on very long at a high temperature it's too hot to be under that upper cabinet.

A line of glue from the cabinet frame softened up and fell out! Sheesh!

I'll have to slide it over by the window when I use it.

finished the sailboat quilt

 This little sailboat quilt was fun to make.  Quick too, because half of the the blocks were solid, not pieced.  The pattern directions were well written and easy to follow.

I made a small change by using three borders on the outside.

I was able to use fabrics from my stash and batting from the big roll I bought a few years ago.

I was happy to use the fish print fabric...the fish are small and work out okay with the boats.

I quilted it by machine with my usual meandering design.

The backing wasn't a perfect match but it had a cute print of boats and lighthouses.

I didn't have quite enough of the fabric for the length so I added a strip of solid blue.

After all, it is a patchwork quilt.

Usually, I make rectangular quilts, rather than square, but this pattern looks cute in the square shape.

I will be mailing this one off right away. As I mentioned before, it's for a baby boy that was born in the fall and I was late hearing the happy news.

I've been on a cruise

 It was a welcome change from our gloomy cold winter days...an eight day cruise to the Caribbean.

The morning I was scheduled to fly out at 6am to board the ship that day, started off bad.

I got a text from the airline that the flight was rescheduled to leave at 10am...four hours later and not enough time to get to the ship!

  I went ahead to the airport anyway and they worked with me and got me there a bit sooner. By the time I collected my suitcase and found the taxi area (too late for my prearranged transportation), I had only an hour to get to the port...a 45 to 50 minute drive! 

The taxi driver saved the day when he found out my predicament. He drove really fast!

I was the last person on the ship with only 12 minutes before boarding time cut off.

Everything turned out okay though. In the future I won't risk flying the day of the cruise...I will fly a day early.

So, the first port stop was Nassua, Bahamas. There were five big cruise ships in port that day...a lot of visitors!

I had scheduled a trip to Blue Lagoon Island which included a sailing there on an open double decker boat.

Lots of beach goers but plenty of chairs.  This was a pretty good view.

Another port was Coco Cay, Royal Caribbean's private island. They have a huge water park there and all sorts of activities.

I was just interested in beach time.

I'll tell you how I got a seat so close to the ocean. It's sort of funny to me...in the next chairs were a young couple, and the lady had on one of those thong bikini bottoms.

I mean her whole butt was bare.

I guess men couldn't sit there without their wives getting angry about them enjoying the view...so the seats were empty.

I didn't mind...butts all look alike to me. Sorry, no photos. That's just my knee in the photo below.

Getting back on the ship. It is huge. It is the largest cruise ship in the world. That is, until it's slightly bigger sister ship is completed.

Later there was a port stop in Jamaica. My tour there was disappointing. It was described as a tour of the city then beach day, but it was mostly a bus tour and only 45 minutes beach time. It was sad to see the dirt and trash everywhere in the city and unemployed men hanging around on the street corners.

I wished I had stayed on the ship that day.

I did see these pretty little birds at the beach...

My favorite stop was Labadee Haiti.  Royal Caribbean either bought or leased this area and it is fenced and secured for guest safety.

 Beautiful blue water with views of jungle mountains.

Here is the ship...Wonder of the Seas. My cabin was on the 8th deck in that windowless front corner.

It was fine though, clean and quiet.

Another beach day for me.  Actually I was to the side of the beach area.

Still near the ocean but no swimming from these rocks. Quiet and relaxing here.

I wonder if the beach sand was here or did they ship it in from elsewhere?

Late in the afternoon...I practically had the beach to myself as everyone headed back to the ship.

There is so much entertainment and activities on the ship. Royal Caribbean has something for everyone.

I did get to see their major shows, including an ice skating musical and a high dive performance show.  Of course there is plenty of food of all kinds. 

Lots of families and children on board. With so much going on it can be a little difficult to just find a quiet spot to sit and gaze out at the ocean. That makes me miss having a balcony cabin.

I had a wonderful time though. It was uplifting and refreshing. I'm looking forward to going again.

Progress on the sailboat quilt

 I'm making good progress on the sailboat quilt. I have all the boats sewn but they will get a border around each one to tilt them to the left or right.

I like this pattern...quick and easy to sew!

Some quilters have a flannel wall panel to hang their blocks on while creating their design.  I have been laying mine out on the floor for so long that I will just stick with this method. But Puss enjoys walking around and mixing up my layout,  so I snapped that photo to remember my arrangement of boat colors.

Here is another small project I was trying to finish before Christmas, but didn't get it done until now.

It was a printed panel of fabric designed to make a wall hanging.  I can't remember where it came from. Either it was in a pile of fabric a quilting friend brought in for give-away or something I bought from a quilter who was selling her stash for a dollar per yard.

I just layered it and quilted around the shapes printed on the fabric. Sort of messy because it seemed monotonous to work on.

I put it away with the Christmas stuff but unless I grow to love it next Christmas, I will donate it to the thrift store.

I also quilted this little mat that I had sewn from leftover scraps from a small quilt.  It was fun to do because I like that print fabric together with the blue.

 Nice cool crisp colors for January.

 Well, now back to work on the sailboat quilt!

starting a quilt

 I learned there is a new(ish) baby boy in the extended family that I hadn't  even heard about.

A good reason to make a new quilt!  It's always more fun to sew a quilt when there is someone to give it to.

I paged through my "Big Book of Baby Quilts" and chose a pattern with sail boats.

I wanted to use fabrics from my stash and I had plenty of colorful scraps for the boats and even some fabric with a wave (water) print to surround the boats.

I thought it would be cute to use the fish print as alternate blocks. Now I need to choose one more fabric.  I like the yellow print above but it's pretty busy looking.

Below, this blue print is calmer and matchy, but it's sort of "bleh" looking.

This gold print below is like a lot of little suns shining on the boats, but again, very busy.

I'll keep rummaging around in the closet and hopefully find something suitable.

I've made a couple if sailboat themed baby quilts in the past. Different patterns though.

This one made around 2008.

This one in 2017.  I like these sailboats best, because of the little flags, but I think they were tricky to sew...paper piecing.

The weather forecast shows a string of wet, gloomy, cloudy days ahead.

A good time to be inside at the sewing machine!

Cooking for a few meals

  Cold salads and sandwiches seem so unappealing during these winter months.

I've gotten into the habit of eating hot soup for breakfast. It's quick to heat in the microwave and stays nice and hot while I'm eating it. 

So, here is my soup for this week...

Celery, carrots and onions then later add broccoli, yellow squash,shredded cabbage and a bag of frozen lima beans.

Then added some leftover turkey from the freezer and a big box of chicken broth and some seasoning.

It came out pretty good.  The limas are a bit starchy for a lower carbohydrate way of eating...but with all the other veggies in the soup only a few limas end up in each serving.

While the soup was simmering I turned on the oven and cooked a pan of Italian sausages with bell peppers and onions.

That gives me a few days of meals to microwave too.  

Looks like it will be easy kitchen clean up this week!