Hey, y'all. I woke up early this am, so I'm working on another blog. This one is going to be mostly about Yes Dear, since I've hardly talked about her at all. She is still with me, thank God. (And that has been in question a couple of times lately, so... I'm really grateful she is still with me. And she is back to her normal, bossy, rules the roost self. Which I'm also grateful for.) But first, I want to tell you a little more about my brother. He's a great guy. I just love him to death. Sometimes, though, he drives me NUTS. This past spring, he decided he didn't LIKE my bedroom furniture. So I had to have new. Nothing else would do. Since I can't afford bedroom furniture, he paid for it. So I got a bedroom set. (It's the first time I've ever had matching bedroom furniture. So it was strange.) I did get to pick it out. So I picked out a sleigh bed, and the matching dressers etc. There's a chest of drawers, a dresser with a mirror, a nightstand, and the bed, with underbed storage. It has six drawers underneath, and they're pretty big. A LOT of my stash is now stored under the bed. And I have other stash in the chest of drawers. And towels and sheets and my CPAP supplies are in a drawer too. The rest of the drawers are filled with clothes. And other assorted things. There are a couple of teeny drawers, and one of them has knicknacks, and one has my hand brace and the attendant hand socks. For just in case. He also got me a new desk, and then was mad at my mom for picking out one that had to be put together. We found it at Staples. It had a sale card on it, for fifty dollars off. But the sale was from last week. So, since she wanted the fifty dollars off, she bought it. She put it on her credit card. And then, it was delivered, and he paid her back for it. But I got to put it together. David did tighten the cams for me, which ticked me off. (Apparently, his hands are much stronger than mine. I turned the air a little bit blue about that, lol.) So here are pics of the bedroom set and the desk. I'm gonna put them side by side, if I can. (That may take some research, lol.)

As you can see, it's a sleigh bed, which I really like. I've liked sleigh beds for as long as I can remember. I asked for a firm mattress, as they picked it out and bought it. (My brother and sis in law did.) It's VERY comfy, and so I'm really happy with it. I was NOT happy about getting the mattress on FRIDAY, when my old furniture was picked up on MONDAY. I had to sleep on the sofa bed for five days. Sunday through Thursday. And boy, it was NOT comfy. It's also louder in the living room since we're so close to the street. So I had a hard time that week. But it was totally worth it. And now, I won't have to go through that ever again, I hope. Anyways, YD had to be in the pic I took yesterday, of the bed all made up with my fave sheets on it. (She always has to be the center of attention, ya know, lol.) So that's my new bedroom.

And now on to Yes Dear, since I segued so nicely. She has had a rough year this year. She had to go into the ER in April. I'm not sure of the exact date, but it was a couple of days after I got back from Columbus. I spent some time with my bestie, Julie. And she showed me how to do a simple beading stitch, Square Stitch. I was using Fire Line, which is a kind of fishing thread. And I was having fun with it. Until I got it home. I unpacked it the day after I got home, cause I got home so late. And I worked for a bit, and then put it aside to stitch. I had to go in the bedroom for something. So I left my newly threaded beading needle on the desk with my stitching. And Yes Dear came in and stood on the bed, chewing wildly on SOMETHING. So I picked her up, and BOTH ends of the beading thread were stitching out of her mouth. So I cut them, took her over to mom's, borrowed her credit card, and took her to the ER. (Mom told me repeatedly that YD would never have eaten the needle, and she wasn't that dumb. I insisted she WAS that dumb. Finally, she said it would be a waste, but go get X-rays to calm my mind.) So I took her out to the ER, with her howling in her carrier all the way. They did the X-rays, and yes, indeed, she HAD eaten the needle. They did surgery that night to remove it. Here's a pic of her a bit after her surgery, right after she woke up, and when she was still pretty dopy. You can see how her eyes are dialated, so she was still pretty loopy.I brought her home, and had to give her an antibiotic for five days, twice a day, which was absolutely MISERABLE. She HATES to take any kind of medication. Fights me to hell and back. She was supposed to get pain meds, but I gave them to her for a day, and then stopped. She wasn't hiding or anything, so I didn't figure she was feeling bad. I checked for redness around the incision everyday by giving her a chest rub. She came out of it with flying colors. Then Socks came. Socks was Paul's cat. She was about a year and a half when he had to move out. (His roommate used all the rent money he gave her for drugs, and then disappeared.) So he had to move out. And he couldn't take Socks with him. So we took her in to find her a home. To give you an idea of how much Yes Dear DETESTED having Socks in the house, here's a pic of YD looking at Socks. (If looks could kill, Socks would be six feet under, lol.)Anyways, until we found Socks a home, Yes Dear lived in the bedroom, and Socks in the living room and kitchen. Yes Dear cried a lot, and I kept going back to sit with her in the bedroom. Which meant not as much computer time. So that kind of sucked. But we did finally get Socks out of here. Then Yes Dear had a normal 12 hours, before she started hiding in a cubby on my desk. I thought it was watchfulness that she thought Socks was gonna come back, and then she stopped using the litterbox. I immediately took her to the vet. She had lost some weight, which she can't afford to do. They did bloodwork, and tried to get a urine sample, but no dice. So the vet said (which I expected) that it was probably a UTI or kidney infection. They gave her a stiff shot of antibiotics, and an injection of subcutaneous fluids. She looked like a linebacker when I brought her home. All the fluid was right up around her shoulders. Here's a pic.In the photo, you can see that her shoulder area is HUGE. And she had a lump on both sides for about six hours, and then you could hardly tell anymore. It absorbed quickly, which tells me she WAS dehydrated, and needed the fluids. I still feel bad that I didn't connect the hiding behavior with being sick, but she's much better now, so I guess it's okay. And then, a week later, the day after I gave her her flea meds (thanks Socks), she had a seizure. So again we went to the ER. They put her on seizure watch, and told me to go home for 12 hours. I got a few hours of sleep, and then went back the next day to pick her up. She hasn't had another once since, and the vet thinks it was the flea meds. (She was supposed to have another dose on the 19th, but no way am I giving it to her.) I was scared they were gonna say epilepsy, or daily meds. Since she hates them so much, I resolved that if that was the solution, I would have her put down. No way was I gonna make her miserable for two hours a day every day. She hates meds, and she hides from me when I go into the bathroom (where I usually give them to her. She won't come near me for hours afterwards, and never comes in the bathroom to get treats anymore). So I'm really glad she's doing so much better. She's currently sleeping on the couch. Once again, I'm calling her poodle paws. This time plural, cause they shaved BOTH front feet for the IV. Here's a pic of them, right after we got home from the ER.

So now that you're all updated on THAT mess, I'll post an actual STITCHY pic, lol. I posted a pic of Elijah's little project last week, or maybe it was Sunday. I'm not sure now. It's the Assassin's Creed Black Flag logo, done in a beautiful shade of dark purple. The thread is a Weeks Dye Works thread called Purple Majesty. I picked a dark purple, since that's more MANLY. I forgot to say last time, the fabby is white. I couldn't afford a piece of hand dyed, so I just used what I had in my stash for it. This past weekend was IHSW, which stands for International Hermit and Stitch Weekend. Basically, the idea is to stay home and stitch to your heart's content. However, this is my first one in a while, and I made the mistake of starting a really good book on Friday. Then another on Sunday. So I didn't get much stitching in. Here's a pic of where I was at the end of the weekend.Needleminder is Freddy Kreuger (very appropriate for me) from Gina's Unique Needleminders on Facebook.

That's all I've got for today, folks. Hope y'all have a great day (it's now eight am, yikes) and a good rest of your week. I've gotta run some errands today (one to the post office too, for a chart I sold), and then I'll be home sweet home for the rest of the day. Hopefully, it'll be a good one, for everyone. Later!!!