Booming Banter

 

Today sees the start of the Lunar New Year. In China, Japan, Tibet and of course in every country where people of these cultures live this is the biggest celebration of the year!

With family members from both China and Tibet we of course have to make sure we join in the festivities. This includes a red envelope for the lad and a pill in a pocket for the pup. So much easier than Santa visits!

We’ll be making dumplings tonight too and stuff Dibley’s meds in one as a special auspicious start to the new him!

For the Chinese this is the year of The Earth Pig. For Tibetans it’s the year of The Earth Boar!

The last time we had an Earth Boar / Pig year was 1959 the year when many of my friends from schooldays were born.

People of this sign are said to be full of love and generosity. They are social and affable and have all sorts of other great gifts! They may run a little late at times though just like the piggy who was last to arrive at the Buddha’s ball!

As I have learned from Chinese friends if it is your Year you must prepare yourself for the challenges that will come your way by wearing red underwear!

So ladies get yourselves to Victoria Secret or at least to Marks and Spencer as soon as possible. Boys better buy boxers!

Blessing # 240 – Piggy Pals

 

 

So here we are back at Dibley’s Docs!

His tests last week confirmed he has Cushings. When he was given the dexamethazone that should suppress cortisol production his level of cortisol fell only briefly and rose quickly again to its elevated level.

This profile suggest pituitary involvement but an adrendral tumor couldn’t be ruled out until an ultrasound is done.

The consultant radiologist was scheduled at the clinic today so we got lucky to get this done quickly.

She looked to see if both his adrenals are the same size. If they are then he has a pituitary issue if not then we have another problem.

Great news for all Dibley lovers his adrenals are fine just a little enlarged but no tumor.

To do the scan Dibley’s tummy had to be shaved revealing not just what is inside but also the full extent of his little pot belly.

 

In a sense this is good because now we’ll be able to watch thst tummy shrink as he starts his meds tomorrow.

Blessing # 239 – All Set To Bounce Back

When we moved to China in 2001 it was difficult to find a good plain yogurt. All that was on sale back then was super sweet, artificially flavored gummy stuff.

Yogurt is an important part of Indian cooking and so Krishna decided he’d make some himself.

This is pretty typical in Indian households and not so difficult provided you have the starter seed. This culture is something of a family hierloom and often given by a mother to her daughter when she marries.

Of course in China we couldn’t find the starter and our Indian family were thousands of miles from us. So on a trip to Switzerland I smuggled a few of the best live and active bifidus home in my suitcase!

The critters worked a treat and without fail for our remaining three years in China Krishna made a big batch of yogurt once a week.

Friends raved about how good this was and we’d often send them home with tubs of it to keep their tummies in good shape. He could have gone into business if he’d set his mind to selling his potion!

Once Aaron came along he’d purée it up with seasonal fruit and stuff it into him to make sure his immune system was up to speed! It  certainly did him no harm!

On leaving China there was no longer a need to make yogurt as it was in abundance back in Switzerland and the thought never crossed our mind until very recently when we were budgeting.

Milk being so inexpensive here and yogurt quite the opposite we decided to give DIY a go again. We tried with the plain yogurt that we’d bought on our budget but all we made was sad sour milk!

Now though we were curious could we find a good started? So as soon as the budget ended we bought the best yogurt we could get! Every feature was present organic, all natural, whole fat with live and active cultures! If this didn’t work nothing would.

With anticipation Krishna got to work a few days ago. It was one of those days when it was about minus thirty outside so the air temperature inside the house was a little chilly even with the heating on full blast.

After twenty four hours all we had again was a slightly sour smell until he decided to set the pot over the heating vent itself.

BINGO! The next morning we had a beautiful white as snow creamy yumminess. It gave us a really good feeling to see this little bit of tradition restored.

Now all we need to do is make more and more to keep all those healthy little loves alive!

Blessing 238 – What Works Within

 

My friend Jackie posted this beautiful photo that she’d taken from the air this morning when her flight was coming into land at Belfast City Airport.

The photo clearly shows the Neolithic stone circle at Ballylesson that we lovingly refer to as the Giants Ring.

It is just about a mile from where I grew up and where a lot of walks were taken with boyfriends!

Holy Trinity Ballylesson, the church where we went as a family and where my parents are at rest overlooks the ring from an elevated point.

The perfection of the circle is so clear from Jackies photo. It is hard to imagine that it was made more than 5000 years ago and that, give or take a half mile or so, has been a site of worship ever since.

The most famous of these circles is Stonehenge in England but they are scattered all over the UK and Ireland. Another beautiful one that has featured in Game of Thrones is at Ballynoe. This is close to where Saint Patrick established his first Church at Saul and where our dear Saint is buried at Downpatrick.

Its not just in Europe though that we have sites like these. Each one of you could for sure share a story from your own homelands.

In Ohio there’s the amazing Serpent Mound in Adams County and just round the corner from our home the Olentangy Caverns. Nature carved the Caverns but the Wyandotte Indians made them their home.

The permenancy of these structures is a humbling perspective on the ingenuity of our ancestors.

Worth remembering next time we think we’re smart! Good idea to look for one close to home!

Blessing # 237 – History On The Doorstep

Last night brought a good six inches of snow so at five this morning school called to cancel.

A friend had her birthday party yesterday and when we took some photos I was under a spot light. This highlighted perfectly the brilliance of the grey roots of my hair!

Since most everything that was to be done had been done over the past few days what better thing to do than get out the hair dye.

This derailed quickly into a complete makeover. While the hair was cooking out came the face pack and while that was wrinkle wrecking the reserves of beauty products were ravaged in the hope of finding a new mascara.

There must have been a dozen different makeup remover products, gallons of night creams promising miracles, chapstick to last the rest of my life and enough dental floss to stretch to the moon an back. Of course not a single spare drop of mascara.

All this underscores a point on which good intentions have been wasted many times! Makeup that goes on faithful each morning before leaving the house must be removed and teeth flossed before going to bed!

Got to give it another go!

Blessing # 236 – New Month New Resolutions!

Today the furball is at the hospital to have some blood work done. This is the first step to confirm the diagnosis of Cushings Syndrome that is suspected.

Aaron has another day off school so he came with us and comforted his “bro” as we waited for his tests to start. We are certain he knows what’s going on.

Today the doctor is going to conduct a low dose dexamethazone suppression test. He’ll measure the levels of cortisol in Dibley’s blood before the injection of dexamethazone and periodically throughout the day.

If Dibley’s cortisol production falls then he hasn’t got Cushings if it doesn’t fall to the level expected then he has some malfunction of the adrenal gland.

We won’t know the cause until another test at a higher dose of dexamethazone is done and that will have to wait for another day.

All these interactions of brain, organs and hormones is so mind blowing.

To think that Claude Bernard predicted this two hundred years ago, that William Baylis confirmed it one hundred years later when he found secretin and that Banting and Best and a very special puppy built on this to bring us the life giver insulin is about as good as science gets.

The difference these discoveries have made to the lives of so many and continue to have day after day  is amazing!

Blessing # 235 – Brilliant Minds

 

 

As school was closed for the day we decided to try our hand at making crepes.

Aaron had signed up to bring these to French class on Friday as they are going to celebrate French pancake day.

We figured we’d give them a go ourselves and if they don’t work out we still have time to get them ready made at World Market.

Just as we were making the batter our friend Phyllis texted us from Belfast to make sure we were staying warm.

This brought back memories of delicious pancakes called BRIKs that we had eaten on vacation with Phyllis in Tunisia many years ago.

The Brik is a feat of culinary engineering that is mesmerizing. Inside a vertical crispy pancake stands upright a whole fried egg! Has to be seen to be believed.

We got to thinking of all the different ways the same basic batter is used around the world. With just a variation in consistency you have pancakes, hotcakes, blinis, dosa, fritters, waffles, fried dough and many more yummy treats like the Brik!

In the end almost every county seems to have it’s own tradition. Some may be slimmer than others and dressed with finesse. Others may be quite chunky, salty or quite sweet but just like people they are all alike from the inside out.

Bears remembering we are all simply variations on a theme!

Blessing #234 – Snow Day Reflections

They say the Eskimo people have forty words for snow. It comes in many shapes, textures and forms. We Irish probably have just as many words for rain!

Right now across a very large segment of North America we need to pull out ever word imaginable for COLD in readiness for an Artic Blast descending upon us.

We’ve been warned that records are likely to be broken and that a cold like this has not been experienced by a whole generation.

Some warnings seem funny at first  like avoid breathing deeply and stop talking! They are deadly serious though!

With actual temperatures way way way below freezing and wind chills pushing us to that magic number of -40 where Fahrenheit and Centigrade meet we better listen or get frostbite.

Let’s pray that social services can reach those who live rough on the street and get them into warming shelters. Let’s also give credit and gratitude to all in the emergency services who will brave these temperature to take care of any of us who might need them.

Blessing # 232 – Those on Call

Jackie, a dear new friend has a very big family. There are so many kids and grandkids that they hire a hall to celebrate Christmas together.

Their Christmas celebration took place last weekend and Jackie had been preparing for this for some time.

Jackie is really great with a crochet hook and had decided to make all 31 members of the family a personal gift. Last week she mentioned she was working hard but wasn’t sure she’d manage to get everything finished in time for the celebration.

Imagining that she might be making everyone a scarf or hat or some such item I was struggling to understand why she was worried about not finishing on time.

This morning I found out why. Jackie had made each one of her family a blanket. Each one is unique and unbelievable beautiful and huge!

What a lot of time and effort was poured into this amazing endeavor and what a great mother she is wrapping her kids and grandkids in such love.

Blessing # 231 – Inspiring Women

Our experiences over the past three weeks coincided with the government shut down in the USA.

Each night the news carried stories of hard working people being forced to go to food banks because they had no pay checks coming in.

We were doing this as an experiment. Many are not in such a fortunate situation.

It brought back memories for Krishna of his childhood when his mother struggled with a tight budget and a growing family.

He said that these past days he sometimes hesitated to take something that he thought Aaron might enjoy like a cookie or cupcake. I wasn’t so gracious! This could explain why Krishna lost three pounds and I lost just two!

Aaron as you might expect rocked the weight loss stakes with a full six pounds off. He says he is feeling really good and he wants us to keep the portion size at the new normal. If we don’t cook for an army then he can’t eat for one!

Tonight we are going to celebrate with plenty of pizza and ice-cream. Hardly an extraordinary extravagance but something we missed. Pizza is crispy and colorful and ice cream is cold and creamy. These contrasts were perhaps the things missed most.

As for going wine free well that was a challenge for a day or two but I just couldn’t believe how much better I slept without it! Cheers to that fruit infused H2O!

Blessing # 230 – Better Understanding