Henri!... O Yuck!

I spent all day yesterday trying to make judicious decisions in the kitchen about what to throw away, what to put in storage somewhere else in the house, and what to take with me to Lara and Kimmo's for the duration of my stay there.

It was as bad as going through clothes or anything else and trying to decide what to keep and what to give to the Goodwill. Just as with a nice pair of pants that are in great shape but don't fit properly any more, I had a hard time deciding whether or not I'd like to make curry or pozole in the next few weeks (am I being optimistic here?...). I also made a box for the food bank.

It's a little disheartening when, at first glance, there's NO visible difference in my kitchen. But, my fridge is unplugged and probably 70% of the cupboards are empty now. I feel like I keep walking around my house and seeing spaces that need to be cleared for demolition. Like I'll put something in my coat closet and then realize, hmm I'm actually going to have to move that again because that's coming out.

Anyway, through the course of the day yesterday Henri got out of the yard a few times. It's no biggie 'cept he's deaf and defiant. He never goes very far or runs away really, he just goes to the nearest garbage can with interesting contents. As I was emptying the kitchen yesterday and the day before, there was all kinds of interesting stuff in my garbage can. So as I was taking loads of boxes out to my car I wasn't too surprised to see a Beagle butt wagging from the depths of my overturned outdoor trash can.

All the things I'd thrown out in the last two days came to mind: mayonnaise I didn't like--nearly a whole jar, pickles, peppers, pita chips. Aagh. Honestly though, the story might just as well have ended at mayonnaise. It'd been in there for 2 days. That was just not gonna be good.

So for the rest of the day I put up with Henri's demanding to go in and out. Hopefully if I did that he'd do whatever expulsions he needed to, outside. And so the day went.

Finally around 8pm I'm packing the car to head up to Lara and Kimmo's. 4 boxes of kitchen stuff and a couple bushels of clothes, at least to start. It was just after 9 by the time I actually got to their house. Unloading the car went much more quickly than loading, of course. Then Henri and I settled down to relax a bit with a glass of wine (no wine for the beast of course).

A little later when I'm going to bed I noticed Henri's still looking a little bloated. H is a small dog. His figure is pretty telling when he's ingested too much. All I can think is it's gonna be a long night.

I got up twice in the night to let him out and to have some water. Still, pretty good if he's not puking--or worse--I think.

But then at 6:15 a.m. I hear him heaving in the corner. Dang. Cleaned that up, then I think, well at least now he's done.

WRONG! When I feed him, he has no interest in his food. Shoot, it's not over. H is always interested in his food. 9 a.m. I come back to the bedroom to get dressed after a shower and I hear the same gacking in the other corner of the room behind the bed. Ugh. Funny the way methods of cleaning this stuff up reminds me of my early youth and cleaning cloth diapers when my younger siblings were babies and toddlers. Vivid memories, I'll spare you the image details (in case you're not nauseous already).

After cleaning that up and getting dressed I head upstairs to join Lara and Kimmo for coffee and the morning news. [I love being in a house with people and activity. When I'm done with my remodel, I'm finding a housemate or two.] Come to find out Henri puked in their bedroom last night. Shoot! No sooner do we determine that we'll try to keep the bedroom door closed than Kimmo discovers that H's done it again this morning. UGH!

Well, Henri seems to be on the mend. He's not shivering any more and he's able to relax. Anyway the bedroom doors are closed, so there are a few fewer corners for him to target. Whew!

So the day begins. We've got furniture and appliances to move around at L & K's, and I probably should get back to that kitchen for a few hours today. "Be brave" Dave said. I laughed, but it's true that's what I need to do. I need to be brave and heartless with all my crap.