Change of plans...

As of Friday night I had great, productive plans for Saturday... Mark has to participate in a rescue diver certification course part of each day all weekend - it is the next step in his Dive Master certification. My plans included cutting all the fabric for, and recovering the other cushion in our aft cabin, cutting the memory foam topper for our fwd cabin, and maybe even starting on the fabric cutting for that berth. It was a little industrious considering how slowly I sew with my little sewing machine - but I had  a plan, dammit, and I intended to stick to it.
Meanwhile, Libby had another plan.
Libby is our nine year old little dachshund and she has not been feeling very good for about a week. Yesterday, as Mark was getting ready to head out, her nose started bleeding. A lot.  We did a run down of her symptoms and I did a Google search.
Swollen eyeball
bloody nose
stiffness/general pain
no energy
reverse sneezing - she always does this, but it has been much worse lately
shivering
Google said it was likely a tick bite. Or a brain tumor.  Remember that camping trip in the mountains 2 weeks ago? Yeah, me too, so I chose tick bite.
I ended up spending the next couple of hours with her at the emergency vet doing blood work and getting some meds that are apparently the liquid equivalent of diamonds: both expensive and hard to find.
I took her to the condo to make her some pumpkin and rice (she had also quit eating by this point) and to try to get her magic meds into her system.  The liquid diamonds were not so bad, but trying to shove the pain pill down her throat did not go so well.  The first one ended up dissolving before I could get her to swallow it.  Molly ate the second one. (She was getting really jealous of all of the attention Libby was getting amd wanted in on the action. )  I had tried shoving the pill in cheese and peanut butter and even crushing it and putting it in beef broth. I eventually gave up until Mark got home and we could tag team the shoving-down-throat method.
The antibiotics are clearly working. She is not 100% back to normal, but she looks a little less like Steve Buscemi and more like herself. She is also eating again.

That leaves me with a few hours to get a little work done before I have to head out to Tybee Island for a TRX demo I have to give at 2pm. Guess I better get to work! Happy Sunday!

Sailing Luna Sea Pedals for Cancer

Patrick’s Ride is a fun, challenging fundraising ride from Savannah to Augusta, 140 miles plus in one day! 

Patrick Booton is a champion of cancer survivorship. Patrick, a now retired radiation physicist, has played a role in helping many people of all ages battle cancer. He has also had own battles with cancer – twice.

All proceeds raised will benefit children and families with cancer at the Children's Hospital and the Curtis and Elizabeth Anderson Cancer Institute at Memorial University Medical Center

Please use the link below to donate to help those touched by cancer.

http://www.patricksride.com/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=1072891&lis=1&kntae1072891=6A81BEAF7FD24839AAAD73D3F0A790B9&supId=303012156

Big Nasty!

We did it - we finished the new, longer course in the Big Nasty Mud Run x4!  It was my second and Mark's first.  Instead of rambling on about it, I'm just going to give you guys a photo play by play - Mark did a great job of shooting pics on the sly.  Enjoy!

The gang headed in for our wave

Still clean and smiling  :)

Our wave - getting ready to go!

Just the beginning...

Not so smiley anymore

Over, under, over, under

That's a big wall... (way over there on the right.)

Sizing up the wall

Mark lost one of his soles

Particularly stinky tunnel water

 

Getting a little pooped at this point

Mark lost his second sole.  He's officially soul-less

We made it!

Only one person on the team had to complete this - so I skipped it the first go round.  We went back so I could do it at the end.  It was tough!  (lot's of grunting going on with this one...)

Here's the mudhole Mark lost his second sole in.  He wanted to go for round two.

Rinsing off at the bottom of the slide.  The only way to get remotely clean.

Team Luna Sea survived!  But we're not getting off the couch anytime soon.  Wonder who can deliver us some dinner...

Impromtu Sail

Our delivery captain contacted me yesterday. He said - right after the delivery - that he wanted to take us out one more time for another lesson.  That was at the end of June.  We've been going out on our own since then.  He's also a charter captain, so his days off are pretty much opposite from ours. (who am I kidding - I'm pretty much "off" everyday - they were opposite from Mark's)  He had a last minute charter cancellation for today, so we took him up on his offer for a sail this afternoon.

Thanks to the Tammy Ann for getting a good shot of us under sail!

We went out for a sail - we decided (he decided) we should go into the wind and practice our tacking.  We've been tacking - but we haven't really known how to use our tale-tails/wools and now we do!  So cool to figure out the actual hands-on use of those suckers.  I've read about the theory, but things just don't make sense to me until I get hands-on.  And today we did.  We took turns at the wheel and handling the lines - and we learned a few things.  The winds were light and the sun was out - so even though we didn't get above 5 knots, it was a gorgeous few hours on the water.

Then it was time to dock.  We've gotten better at docking. But this time I was feeling a little pressure - the captain was on the boat, and instead of following my gut like I normally do, I was listening to him and second guessing myself.  It took two tries (and apparently the mishap on the first go round was not my fault) but we got her back to the dock safe and sound.  All in all it was an educational day and we feel like we got some more good time on the water. I'm getting better with heeling.  Still makes my stomach flip a little, but it's becoming more like a roller coaster and less like my "house" is going to roll.

Tomorrow morning team Luna Sea it hitting the Big Nasty Mud Run Walk.  I love the obstacles!  I detest the running...  And after that it's off to the boat to head up the bosun for the first time - to hit some rust and hang some cd's (the birds are the current bane of my existence) and to hang the netting on the life lines.  I'd hate to have a wiener splash down during a sail just because we never got around to hanging the safety net.  I think there are a few more chores on the list.  But it should be a fun weekend -somehow we always manage to squeak in a good bit of fun ;)

What are you guys up to?

Change of Scenery

It's been quiet on the blogging front.  But we've been humming right along, like busy little bees.

Thursday I headed over to Luna Sea and grabbed our raincoats and a few other things, swapped out the A/C power cord for the shore power, turned off the solar panels, checked on the bilge again (it seems to be holding a little water, but that water appears to be the A/C runoff - more investigation on that this week, I guess.) Then I hightailed it home and finished up my online homework for the week and got my backpack loaded.

Friday morning we got up before the crack of dawn, loaded up the wieners and headed to Pisgah National Forest - Brevard, NC.

Molly likes to hop from rock to rock with me.

If I'd thought to pack a swimsuit in the middle of September, I would've been right in that swimming hole with the few brave kids at the camp.  It's what I like to refer to as Refreshing in water aerobics. 

The dogs and I checked out a few trails, but mostly just made up our own along the river.

Hard to believe people will be flooding the area in 3 weeks or so to see the turning of the leaves...

Molly followed me right into the river, as usual.

This picture would imply that Libby did the same - 

- but this one is more realistic.  Took some serious coaxing to get her off the shore and into the chilly water.

Mark rode with the gang all 3 days.  I took the puppies hiking on Saturday.  They love running around in the woods (and poison ivy...).  It was perfect weather - shorts during the day with sweatshirts/jackets/jeans and a fire at night.  Ideal tent camping time of year.

It was a nice 3 day break - but also great to get back home and back to boat projects.  I hear a rumor that Mark is actually going to write a post on the companion way doors he's been slaving away on...