Yuletide blessings

Last night's Yule / Winter Solstice celebration was lovely!  I roasted Cornish game hens, stuffed with garlic and home grown sage, along with some carrots.

Dessert is shown above.  Medieval style honey cakes, and real wassail!

Here's the whole table, when dinner was served...

I really want some forged silverware, to complete the medieval look!  I know where I can get some, it's just a matter of ordering it-- and PAYING for it, HAHA!

The pewter plates, and pottery goblets, from the estate sale this past summer are PERFECT!
A lovely friend sent me the napkin rings just in time for dinner!  They match the plates exactly!
(she also sent the holly table runner last year! Robina, you were with us!!)

I woke up at 4 this morning with leg cramps, and never really went back to sleep, so I got up at 7 and made coffee.  We had reheated honey cakes with our coffee, and greeted the sunrise!

This past week has been interesting.

Little Tiny was lethargic (all he wanted to do was cuddle, he stopped playing), and stopped eating, and had to go back to the shelter vet.

We were afraid we were going to lose him!  He lost half of his body weight in 2 days of eating little to nothing!!  We tried everything we could think of, and he gradually stopped altogether.

They said he had an upper respiratory infection (they called it kennel cough) that was bad enough that he couldn't smell his food.

All we noticed was that he sneezed once in a while, and had a tiny bit of nasal crust, but apparently, it was worse than it looked!

They didn't tell us what they did for him, but he was at the shelter all day, and we picked up a fully revived kitten!  My guess is they gave him a steroid injection.  We also have antibiotics to administer at home.  He was fine with it at first, but today, he really fought it!

Friends had recommended a specific brand of food (one of them called it "kitten crack"), so we went out in search of it after we picked him up, but didn't find any on the way home from the shelter. 

That night, we fed him his kibble and some of our grown up cats' food, and he gobbled it up.

We found the recommended food the next day, and he has been eating like a champ!

He's put his weight back on, and is a normal, active, playful kitten!  No more lethargy!  But also no more cuddling..... I miss that, and hope to see it return!

We introduced him to the other cats Thursday and Friday nights, and he has been out free in the house when we are home.. and awake.  He and Dave still stay in the guest room at night, with the door shut.

He and Pete get along great, but Annabel is still upset.  At first, she was hiding, but now she stays out and just growls at him.

Poor babygirl. I knew she'd be unhappy.  I hope it wears off soon!!

He's VERY fast, and VERY small, so we have to really watch out for him.  Dave stepped on him once already, and he shot out of the front door once, too. EEK!!

He has NO fear, and chases big Pete all around the house.  Pete is getting a lot of exercise!

We had a long list of names for Little Tiny, but since this was Dave's idea, I let him choose.

He chose Franklin.

There's a Grateful Dead song called "Franklin's Tower,"  and one of the lyrics is "May the four winds blow you safely home."

Our little kitten was at death's door, one way or another  (being a black kitten up for free adoption in a cruel world, and then getting alarmingly sick alarmingly quickly), and we saved him.

He now has a home, and if Annabel doesn't kill him, he'll be safe and loved!

I had my third treatment on Tuesday.  My nurse called, and my blood counts are a bit concerning, so I am taking some extra steps to raise my potassium levels (no wonder I have been having so many leg cramps!), and to encourage my body to produce platelets.

A couple of liver enzymes are too high, which can happen with chemo, so I am not allowed to drink hard liquor.  She said a little wine or beer are okay, which is all I have been having since we started anyway.

Nurse said I SHOULD recover well over this week off.

I will have  my labs drawn on Friday, so that the results will get to Doc on Monday.  If things are still bad, I may not start cycle 2 on New Year's Eve.

We'll see.

I've been pretty fatigued, but I am also not sleeping well, probably due to low potassium and leg cramps!

I was taking potassium supplements already (for years), but it's not doing the trick, so I am eating bananas, which I don't like, and drinking orange juice, which is super high in sugar, drinking V8, and eating miso soup, and sweet potatoes, and making electrolyte enhanced water, and staying hydrated....

Another reason I don't sleep is that I have to get up to pee so often!

I can't do the keto diet, AND consume all of the stuff I need to eat to raise potassium, so my hydration process is less efficient, and I pee a lot more.

When I was fully adapted to low carb/keto, my water metabolism was GREAT!  I drank my 8 glasses a day, and didn't have to pee every 20 minutes!

Sigh.

(FYI the low carb/keto lifestyle is touted as being anti-cancer-- but my cancer came back during the year I was experimenting with keto, so I have nothing more to say on that subject!  However,  I felt great, I wasn't retaining water, and I lost just enough weight to feel good in my clothes again.)

My office decided to close tomorrow for a software update, so I got to take that vacation day back, but either way, I am glad to be off for 5 days.   I can take naps!

Today, we don't have any plans except to maybe go to some of the local antique stores.  Dave wants a new-to-us butter dish.

Then, once back home, we will start preparing the house for Christmas Eve company.

OH, and Eric has contacted me, and is taking me ... just me... out for dinner tomorrow.  Should be interesting.


Happy rebirth of the solar year, if you celebrate!  Happy SUNday!!!