The Vegetables For The Week And Other Things

The
The only vegetable I had to look up was the chidori kale. I thought it was something you plant as an ornamental in your garden. Turns out you can eat it too. I thought I didn't like radishes but it turns out I do, or at least these beautiful organic ones. I'm fixing the Chinese cabbage tonight in a stir fry with lots of garlic, onions and Asian chili garlic sauce. Add to that a barbecued steak and you have our dinner for this evening. My goal every week is to use up all the vegetables I get. We accomplished this last week and are shooting for doing it this week.

Four weeks ago tonight I was having a glass of wine with my friends Jean and Nancy. That was when Nancy told me she had metastatic cancer in her liver, lungs and bones. The doctor had given her a year to live. The cancer metastasized from her breast cancer 14 years earlier. Tonight she's in the hospital because she had a stroke, is paralyzed on one side and can't speak. This is a woman who is an accomplished ceramicist. Her hands and her clay are her loves right after her husband Richard. I just can't believe how cruel life can be to the best people.

We had our puppy raiser phone interview this morning with Canine Companions for Independence (CCI). If all goes well we will pick up our puppy on Tuesday July 14th at 2 p.m. in San Rafael, CA We will go through an orientation and then take the little critter home. I learned a lot on the call. Females are not fixed. When they go into heat you have to bring them back to CCI for kenneling. That could be as long as three weeks. During the 16 to 18 months we might have a female puppy, she could go through two cycles. I guess that's when we take our long trips.

On Monday my sister moved to a rehab facility where she will be until she is able to go home. Don't know how long that will be. It's going to be really good for her emotionally as well as physically. She gets to wear clothes. Imagine that. It's been four months since she's done that. Also, she eats in a dining room (gets there in a wheel chair for now) with other people. Kerry is very jealous of her flat screen TV. We are flying to visit her on June 17th for ten days. He will probably just move in and watch tv all day while she's in physical therapy.
Also was astonished to learn that only 35% of the puppies raised go on to be service dogs. If our puppy flunked graduate school then we would have first dibs. We still have to have our home visit but the woman who interviewed us today said we sounded like good candidates. We chose July 14th for pick up because we come back from Albuquerque the night before.

Puppy is immediately enrolled in puppy kindergarten. We take the dog once a week until he or she advances to first grade. Then the requirement of training classes is reduced to twice a month.