Tom's Balloons, Groomer and a Witch Doctor

This past week has been pretty boring.

Thursday was Tom's birthday...the first one since he died. I made Lemon Icebox Pies to celebrate his birthday. Penny and her kids had the great idea of us all signing a birthday balloon and letting it go. Of course, if you know me or my family, you also know things don't usually go as planned. We all signed the balloon and Penny started writing what seemed to be a novel on it (ok, so it was really a few sentences) and the balloon popped before something fell and hit her on the head.

We decided to try again on Friday. Penny got two balloons this time and her sons tied them together. After we all signed (without a long message from Penny) they let the balloons go and they wrapped around an electric wire. Needless to say, we decided not to try again.

I've been a little sick lately...sinus infection and it's now bronchitis. It's nasty and I won't go into details right now.

My birthday is tomorrow. I have no idea what we'll do. Since I'm on this gluten-free diet because of Celiac, if we did a cake it would have to be gluten-free. Mom hasn't cooked gluten-free and I don't feel like baking a cake from scratch...so we may just do ice cream or something.

Oh, another thing that happened was on Tuesday of this past week I took Chandler to the groomer for the first time. I got him from a lady that owns a kennel and it's taken a lot of work to get him as trusting as he is right now (he likes ladies more than guys, but will growl at anyone except for me and mom). Anyway, I was told that he is one of the best dogs with kennel syndrome that this groomer has seen, especially for being 2 years old...and a male. The groomer didn't get to do a lot because he was just trying to build trust, so after a bath (only his back and top of head), blow dry, and brushing, we left (with no charge since he didn't get to do everything). We go back today and the groomer is getting the clippers out this time. I'm hoping that he'll be able to give Chandler a cut, because he is scraggly looking with this long hair (at least an inch and a half long all over).

We also went to Rose Bud to see the "witch doctor." Barry Joneshill is an herbalist...natural healer...whatever you want to call him. Our trip there was interesting. I went in (his "office" is a few chairs just inside a health food store) and we looked around while he finished up with some other "patients." Anyway, I noticed that a lot of the things there were more expensive than the health food store I go to for gluten-free, casein-free foods, soymilk, vitamins, and spices.

When it was my turn, I had my mom go with me and talk to him first. We st about 5 feet in front of him (no tables or anything between us) and told him what was wrong with us. After a few minutes of silence and him scribbling (the way doctors do), he got some papers and stapled them to the cards he wrote on and came over.

He told my mom that she was too much like her father (who has been dead since around '83) and had a hole in her gut, along with a hiatal hernia which causes her coughing, shortness of breath and a few other things.

When he came to me, he said that most of my medical problems are because I have 6 kidney stones, gout, and my body doesn't produce hydrochloric acid. He gave me a list of herbal things to get (pineapple juice, cherry juice, some pills, and hydrochloric acid pills). I got them to try and we'll see how I'm feeling in a few weeks. He didn't address my sinus infections, bronchitis, or my constant wheezing though. Also, he told me that for me to lose weight, I'd need to stop drinking so much during meal times (limit myself to 8 ounces while I'm eating but can drink as much as I want before or after). I don't believe that though because I don't drink anything while I'm eating, only after...I don't even drink anything for like 30 minutes or so before I eat. Anyway...I'll give it all a try and see I guess.

It's a whole new week and hopefully it will be more interesting than last. It seems like I'm forgetting something, but if I remember I'll just write later.