-- I passed my cat and dog handling exam! Woo! Despite taking three tries to pill the dog. I think I won points when she asked me to sex the cat and I said, "It's either a female or a male with gynecomastia".

-- Did I mention that our new landlord said we could get a cat? I've been procrastinating by searching Edinburgh cat rescue sites. (Um, and reading several Agatha Christie novels. Darn Nelle.)

-- My last exam is tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. I feel under prepared, yet alarmingly apathetic. Hmmm...

-- I am beginning to be alarmed by the amount of things that need to happen before we leave:
1. Take exam
2. Bake cake for bridal shower. (Anti-terrorist chocolate cake with caramel sauce!)
3. Go to Bridal shower.
4. Move stuff out of our flat (which is only about 10% packed right now) on Saturday afternoon and possibly Sunday.
6. Pack and get everything ready to go.
5. Clean like banshees from Monday morning to Wednesday afternoon while semi-camping in our shell of a flat.
6. We fly out Thursday morning!

-Yeah, on that note, I think I'll go pack. Or study. Or maybe read another AC novel.

Yesterday morning I drank a "grande sugar free vanilla skim iced latte" at Starbucks. Beck was singing "The Golden Age"; significantly better than the usual background noise there. I munched on some toasted fruit bread and read through pelvic fracture repair and hip dislocations. All told, it was not a bad morning, though I would have rather been reading the Agatha Christie novels Nelle lent me than Dr. Mosley's notes. For lunch, we met some friends for a picnic out in the Meadows on a gloriously sunny, though very windy day.

Today? Much less motivated. Think I'll head up to the Elephant House to see if I can divinate the future (or at least Friday's exam Qs).

More fun with the grocery bag. Password is "scotland" again.


Grocery Bag Swing from guitarmatt on Vimeo.

The general rule of thumb for teething is as follows:

first few days: slightly grumpy and warm. "Hmm, I wonder if he's teething."

next few days: slightly grumpier and less warm. "guess he wasn't... maybe he's growing/constipated/stressed/tired."

next few days: very grumpy, more warm. Gums swollen. "Oh, it IS teething. Here's a cold gel-thing."

Next few days: still very grumpy, gums look red and shiny. "Man, this tooth has to be coming in like, um, tomorrow. I hope"

Next few days: Steadfastly miserable (all of you), naps are contracted, Calpol flows freely. White dot grows under gum. "Geez, the poor guy. It's okay, it'll be out tomorrow."

Today: darkened spot on gums shows where it will come through aaaaaaannnnnyyyy second. Murder-suicide contemplated. Nursing lasts >30 minutes per session. All ready to collapse. Calpol dosed by the minute.

Yeah, it's been fun.

Everyone loves videos! Once again, the password on all of these videos is "scotland". You might remember this one from a really long time ago. Look how small he is!


Laundry from guitarmatt on Vimeo.

Here's the updated version:


Watching Laundry from guitarmatt on Vimeo.

Here's Hosea playing with some new toys he got today. Sometimes he takes a while to warm up to new toys, but he loved these wooden fruit and veg right away. You can't beat the satisfying "Clack!" of wooden toys.


Fruit and Veg from guitarmatt on Vimeo.

We bought them at Seesaw Toys, the shop where we bought Hosea's nappies as well. They just opened a new shop right down the street from the flat we're moving into at the end of the summer. We stumbled across it just yesterday while checking out our new neighborhood. The original shop is on the other side of town, so this will be much more convenient. While wandering around we also checked out the local Tesco grocery store and discovered that even though it looks smaller than the one we shop at now from the outside, it's actually a bit bigger with better selection. We're really looking forward to living in our new place.

Baby carriers, Price-style.

Physically: Much better, just a touch dizzy and cough-y.
Mentally: Drained-- got that "brain feels viscous and gritty, like jello mixed with sand" feeling
Emotionally: Exhausted and stressed at the amount of work left to do. Matt's even worse off. We need to get out of this flat and this country sooner than later. Anyone have vodka? Or chocolate?

Here are some cute pictures of HB. We love him, though he's a grumpy, non-napping wreck right now.


Showing off his UCD paraphernalia.


X-treme napping.


Whoa, noodles are so cool.


Mmmm, smoothie.



A package from Nana and Poppa! Hosea liked the box and the grapes best.

I pretty much loved this Mother's Day-- low-key without feeling forgotten. Matt bought me flowers on Saturday, and mom, dad, and the Richmonds sent a card with some (British!) cash in it.

Today way a bad day. Through the stupidity of Lothian bus drivers (and, later, the Lothian bus system in general and then, finally, my stupidity) I wound up walking or jogging for well over 5 miles this morning. I had my dog and cat practical (which I don't even remember, other than it took me 3 tries to give the dog a pill and I was still trying to catch my breath from running to the ED&C home), then tried to study in the afternoon. I say "tried" because I was so disheartened from the morning that I was really having a hard time studying. After staring at the "principles of internal fixation" fracture repair lecture for over an hour, I went home.

When I confessed my depression and apathy to Matt, we brainstormed on ways to brighten me up. I was thinking about going to get a pedicure, but he had a better idea:

We gave Hosea to Emma and her kids for the afternoon (general love affair between the lot of them), and Matt and I went and spent my Mom's Day cash on dinner and drinks down at Ocean Terminal. We went to this "American-style" restaurant, shared a bacon jalapeno cheeseburger and hot wings, and split a bottle of wine. Then we went to a bar downstairs and Matt got a Manhattan and I got a (too sugary) vanilla martini. Yeah, for a woman whose sum total of drinking since before she got pregnant consists of less than tonights expenditure *combined*, I was feeling pretty tipsy by the time we headed back. That's the nice thing about not owning a car here: you just need to make it to the bus stop. :)

Anyway, I'm feeling a lot less down after having a splendid date with my wonderful husband. And I don't think it's just the wine. Yay!

I made cookies today! And they are (were) amazing!

I based my recipe on this one, except I subbed out whole wheat flour for 1/2 the all-purpose, and added 25g more butter (to counteract the "falling apart"-ness of hers). Here's the recipe I wound up with:

Whole Wheat Roasted Flour Sablés

- 150 g all-purpose flour (I used 1/2 whole wheat here)
- 75 g sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt flakes (fleur de sel, kosher salt, crushed Maldon... I used sea salt)
- 100g chilled unsalted butter, diced
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 to 3 tablespoons milk

Makes about 15-20.

Preheat the oven to 160°C (320°F). Spread the flour evenly on a rimmed cookie sheet and put in the oven to toast for 15-20 minutes, until the house smells like delicious roasty flour, stirring the flour around every 5 minutes or so. (It may become lightly golden in places, but it should not change color overall.) Remove from the oven and let cool completely on the cookie sheet. This will take about an hour; if you, like me, cannot wait that long, put it in the fridge for about 1/2 an hour.

Combine the toasted flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Add the diced butter and process until the mixture forms fine crumbs. Add the yolk and 1 tablespoon milk, and process in short pulses until the mixture clumps together when you squeeze it in your hand. If it is still too dry, add a little more milk. I used 2 tbsp milk.

(The dough can also be mixed by hand, using the tips of your fingers or a wire pastry blender. Handle the dough as lightly as you can.)

Line a baking sheet (one that fits in your fridge) with parchment paper. Take a small handful of the dough and squeeze it in your hand to form the shape you prefer -- either the simple "squeeze cookie" shape or a slightly flattened ball -- and place it on the prepared baking sheet. Chill for 1 hour, or 45 minutes if you seriously can't spend any more time chilling things while your house smells like you want to eat the friggum walls..

Preheat the oven to 180°C (360°F). Slip into the oven and bake for 13-15 minutes, keeping a close eye on them, until they're golden at the edges. Let rest on the sheet for 5 minutes then transfer to a rack to cool completely. If, while they're cooling, you *must* eat one, I recommend waiting until they've been on the rack for at least 10 minutes, or they'll be too soft and not delicously crumbly.

Yay, cookies!

p.s. Chris, this is the soup recipe I used the other day, except I used homemade veggie stock and I put in 3 medium sized parsips, too. Yum!

Guys, I wish I could tell you how much better I'm feeling. Unfortunately, I can't. I have apparently developed something called "labyrinthitis", which is making me feel seasick and nauseous all the time. It feels like the world is rotated just about 1-15 degrees from it's normal position. Yuck.

I passed my sheep handling exam (yay!), so now I have the dog/cat handling exam on Monday morning, then 4 more days of classes, then a week off, then Exam of Doom (tm), then I am 1/2way done with vet school!!!!!!

In the meantime, keep praying for us. Things are not so good here.

Yeah, still sick. Have adorably squeaky non-voice. Fever down to 101ish.

I'm here at school until 4. Boo. Going to crack on into some Fossum 'Small Animal Surgery'.

Tesco pomegranate and blueberry popsicles are lovely. I dream of them often.

Laura came over yesterday to help with Hosea since Matt was at this church conference thingie. Instead of using the time to rest, we cleaned our bathroom. Then we made homemade veggie soup with tomato-basil pistou, which was absolutely delicious. Nelle came over to help with the soup (the eating part). Good times, but a little slim on the "rest and recover" bit.

Alright, seriously. Fossum time.

Hey guys. Jeni's really sick as of last night. It seems like the flu even though flu season is past. It came on really suddenly and just wiped her out. Pray for her, ok?