(Jebo... the king of the castle...)
While sitting here on a Sunday waiting for the triptophan from Thanksgiving dinner leftovers to kick in, I thought I'd catch ya'll up with the quarterly report. That's right. I clearly haven't provided enough regular updates this year to meet the minimal requirements to qualify as a blog.
Hmmm... let's see... where to start? In June our little cat Hazel stopped eating regularly. We took her to the vet, and they gave her pain medicine to see if it would help her regain her appetite. It did allow her to start eating again, so we thought she was doing just fine. Later on in the summer we noticed that Hazel was throwing up more than normal, and there wasn't a hairball present as a cause. She also started losing weight and acting differently, so we took her to the vet again. They referred us to a larger animal hospital in Jamaica Plain (a suburb of Boston), so Jason took her in to the emergency room. After examining her they suspected that she had a mass obstructing her abdomen and interfering with her digestion. They also thought that the mass might have been caused by some form of cancer.
Hazel went into surgery on the morning of September 11, and we were able to go see her later on that evening. The doctor removed a mass that was almost entirely obstructing her intestine and she also took three tissue samples to check for lymphoma. We were able to bring Hazel home on the evening of September 12, and she was prescribed special soft food to help her gain weight.
Fast forward a month and our little lady is finally back to her old self. Her stitches are out, she's gained back at least two pounds, and she's running around the house trying to score bits of milk and yogurt whenever she can. Although you can see in the picture above that she's still working hard at growing the hair back on her little leg (it was shaved to give her an IV) and her belly. She does still have cancer in her intestines, but we've decided that as long as she isn't in pain we will just let her be since she's pretty old for a house cat.
A week after Hazel's surgery I went to San Jose, CA for a week to attend a work-related conference. I have another conference trip coming up the week before Thanksgiving. Another week of talking to customers about our product, but this time in New Orleans. I always look forward to these trips as they're one of the few times I get to meet up with my coworkers from the UK.
I think we've finally turned the corner into fall in New England. The days are consistently cool so I pulled out the last bits of our garden. Our tomato and green pepper plants were still hanging on, but they weren't producing much. I'm going to puree the green tomatoes this afternoon. I actually have a pretty good recipe for chocolate cake that calls for pureed green tomatoes, beer, and instant coffee. I think the two peppers will go nicely in some turkey noodle soup, so their days are numbered too.
While I'm doing random things around the house today Jason is in southern Maine with one of his tennis buddies. Bruce is older and doesn't drive any more, but once a year he takes a trip up to Waterville to golf and visit some friends. Jason drove him this year, and it sounds like they're having a good time. Jason has Columbus Day off from teaching, so they may stay overnight somewhere and head back tomorrow.
My trip to Cambridge went really well. I had a great time working with my colleagues face-to-face, and also attending the 38th Cambridge beer festival. Here are some pictures of the flat I stayed in during the week, as well as a picture of the green where the festival was held. The weather was gorgeous. Perfect for sitting on the grass with a pint of real ale. 
Friday morning I'll head from Cambridge to London's Gatwick airport for the true start of my vacation. I fly directly to Venice, Italy, where I will meet up with Jason and his mom. They will have arrived three hours earlier from Boston via Zurich. 
Better late than never, right? Here are some photos of our Christmas wreath from this year. We decided to do a wreath instead of a tree because we were late decorating this year, and finding room for a large tree requires us to rearrange a lot of furniture.
(Jebo... the king of the castle...)
We spent our first anniversary car camping at The Cape. We found a great campground where we could walk through the woods to the beach. Saturday morning and early afternoon was spent lounging on the beach watching the seals and throwing sticks for two random German Shepherds who decided to keep us company. We had a late lunch in town while watching the US play Ghana in the World Cup. For dinner that night we made a gourmet foil packet meal in our campfire... steak with goat cheese, fresh rosemary, and mixed vegetables. Yum! Then Sunday we swam at a local pond. The water was so clear and warm! After getting some ice cream we headed home.
Minute Man National Historic Park Reinactment. Cold, cold cold!
