UTI, Anaikatty, Homoeopathy and Tomatoes

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="456" caption="Interesting car I saw on the road. Yet to try Mini Melts though. Any good?"][/caption]

I've been procrastinating for a week now, sorry for that, I just got real lazy. :)

I've been away from my weekly updates for a couple of weeks now. So, I guess I need to catch up. A lot happened over the last few weeks and I think a couple of them will become full blog posts, but here's the short of it.

I got a UTI. Oh yeah, it's as terrible as it sounds. I guess if I hadn't had a family of doctors, I'd have suffered more :( But the Mom's together put me to rights; nothing beats being taken care of by Mom when you're ill. So, UTI stands for Urinary Tract Infection, which isn't so bad except for the discomfort but it requires immediately attention, a culture test and medication. If it's ignored or medication is delayed the infection can move into the kidneys and then it's real trouble.

Anyway the UTI got better but I guess since my immune system was compromised I came down with the flu. I don't mind falling ill once in a way (I love the pampering) but two illness one after the other are a piss-off. I enjoyed my week at Mom's but didn't much done at all. Now maybe that's a good thing. :)

Che and I stole another quick vacation (before the dogs got back home) to Anaikatty, a little town that sits bang center on the Tamil Naidu and Kerala border. The trip was fun, especially since Dad, Shiva and Saravana also joined in. I met an interesting couple who work at the Bethany Medical Center there who dream of moving to a big town like Bangalore. How I wish I could make them see just how good a life they have, but that's a conversation for another time.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="461" caption="The hills look beautiful from here"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="491" caption="Satyamangalam ghats were a joy as always"][/caption]

Anyway I was talking about Anaikatty and the border which I thought was cool. Now, the town main market has a bridge in the middle that marks the border. On one side of the bridge there were a line of lottery shops and not one when you cross to the other side. When I remarked about it I got to know that in Tamil Naidu sale of lottery tickets is banned so in Anaikatty all you have to do is cross the bridge and buy it in Kerala, same for stuff banned in Kerala. Pretty cool nah? :)

Our return and my flu bout being over marked the return of the dogs. Oh it's not that simple as anyone who has dogs will tell you. Before they return the house has to be doggy-proofed and checked again. All doggie stuff aired and cleaned. And then after, they step in, starts the week of bathing, cleaning and tick picking that feels like forever. But with all of that, it's good to have them back. The house is full again. :)

In the doggy arena the other updates are that we started Buddha on homoeopathy medication for his heart condition and arthritis. It's been two weeks and I'm definitely seeing a difference in him. I'll keep you posted on how the homoeopathy worked out. I also finally got my hands on some clickers and I'm all excited to use them to work with the dogs. Sindhoor had introduced me to them a couple of weeks back, but they weren't easily available. If you've used clickers before, I'd love to hear your thoughts and tips.

Well, what else... This is what happens when there so much to talk about :P Ok, on the gardening front. I lost all my tomatoes to the monkeys on my friends roof but I did get a resonable harvest of chilles and learned some good lessons on gardening. The silver lining to my loss of tomataoes are two tomato plants I planted in pepsi bottles in my balcony, which have grown well and now have fruits. With the dogs to guard them, I think they'll get a chance to ripen and I can't wait to try them out. It's time to plant the next batch and I'm looking forward to trying out new veggies along with the ones I've already grown. This time I'm trying purple turnip, white bringal and cherry tomatoes along with the earlier tomatoes, chillies, basil, celery and spinach.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="414" caption="Tomatoes in a bottle"][/caption]

Aside from all of this, I've been playing with the idea of shifting my blog to a more recognisable domain for me. I'm thinking freya3377.com /.in would be more appropriate for me since that's my ID across the internet and more people know me as Freya rather than Fatema. What do you think?

Ofcourse, shifting blog means I need to learn a lot of new stuff. And if I'm making changes I might as well put in some improvements I've had on my list for a while now. With all this in mind I joined Blogelina's course a while back but haven't worked enough on it. It's a course that'll definiely help, from the little I've seen until now. The best part is the help groups you get access too. I've been learning a lot from other bloggers. But I've also been considering hiring help. Do you think I should or should I just stick with DIY? Do you know anyone cost-effective? (you can also read cheap :D )

I also travelled on the Bangalore Metro for the first time. I enjoyed it and thought it was quite cost effective. That said it's very basic, I guess the finishing touches will take ages. But I don't mean basic in just looks; I needed to use the toilet and there weren't any easily accessible. The one I used was a long walk away, clean, small and cost Rs.3.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="461" caption="The Metro token and the Toilet Ticket with time stamp"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="461" caption="I wasn't the only first timer. There was a group posing :)"][/caption]

I think there is more but I maybe this is already a lot for now. If you got till here, thanks for reading :D

It seems I wasn't the only one absconding the last couple of weeks. I hadn't been on the computer and Feedly on the iPad has not been working, so I was way behind on my reading. I was dreading Feedly but there wasn't so much after all, everyone else seems to have been on break too. :D Here's some stuff from friends that you may want to check out...

Life as We Know It -

Farida's story of how she didn't quit on Farheena's walking, warmed my heart.  She's one of those people I look up too, she is so much and has done so much. It's a gift to know people like her.

The world is a small place and and we make friends in some of the weirdest ways and places. Mariellen a friend of mine took a Mumbai Local Tour along with Andrew Adams a friend of Che's. Her post and photos make me long for the maximum city, Bombay.  :)

Doggie Doo -

Jennifer's post about 5 sounds that make her dogs come running got me listing out the sounds my dogs love. And I could think of only two off my head. :( Gotta think some more and make a post of it, don't you think? :)

Angel shared a great list of healthy veggies for dogs on her blog K9 Instinct. The only one that I'm concerned about is cauliflower. It causes gas in me, wondering if it would do the same in dogs?

I've been thinking of reviewing my dogs toys but Sindhoor beat me to it. Here's her review of the kong, wobbler and dead skunks.  I can vouch for these - Buddha loves his skunk, it's the only toy he enjoys; Cuckoo loves the wobbler and makes a racket with it at home and Senti the chewer, loves to chew on his kong.

Someday I hope to have a garden and with the dogs planning it is important. Martha's put together a list of edible flowers that I'm looking forward to plant. A good article to bookmark if you have pets.

Crafty Craft -

There are clothes I have that I don't want to give away but I'd love to reuse. Leah converted one of her soft tees into a simple cute summer dress for her daughter. Here's her method to convert tees into dresses.

We've been talking about putting up pin-boards at home for a while now. So I'm super excited to see Whitney's tutorial on making fabric pin boards. Can't wait to try it out.

I've been thinking about making and selling some quilled earrings but packaging them had me stumped. Ann's post on All Things Paper about Art Paper Packaging was perfectly timed. I'm looking forward to trying my hand at these. Don't you just love the pyramid boxes. :)

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="432" caption="Pyramid Boxes created by Hana Vyoralová"][/caption]

Stephanie's shared this lovely bib necklace design that I think would make for a nice baby bib too.  Adding it to my never ending list of things to make. :D

Book Nook -

Ebook Friendly had this rather cute cartoon by Angela Liao about the future for book stores. See it for yourself... :)

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="471" caption="Created by Angela Liao"][/caption]

Interesting that I haven't read even one of the 12 bestsellers on ebook friendly's list. Hmm... Have you read any?

Laura E. Kelly's put together this awesome infographic that classifies some 50 reader species. I'm an omnireader and hoarder. What are you?

Foodie Goodies -

My all time favourite food is dal rice, nothing in the world can beat my Mom's way of making dal. It's my comfort food. But the simple dal is a dish that comes is uncountable varieties. Here's Priya's method of making Dal Tadka. This one I've never tried before; should soon.

Glory shared this awesome looking Strawberry Lemonade Cupcake recipe that has me all drooling.  Can someone make this for me please :D

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="461" caption="Glory's Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes"][/caption]

Rather long post, nah? :D