Saturday, January 28, 2006

Food for thought

Are ya hungry?

First, read this story.

It's been a common story the past couple years. How can they have a job they cannot execute to the fullest? If I am told by the doctor I work for to give a child an immunization, but refuse to because of MY personal beliefs, I could potentially be fired for not fulfilling all the expectations of my job.

Change the scenario a bit - Imagine a paramedic comes upon a man having a heart attack. But the paramedic feels that intervening would be going against "god's will" for this man's life (and death), so therefore refuses to provide assistance? Do you think that would go over well? Especially if it was you or a close family member of yours having the heart attack? I bet not.

When someone decides to be a pharmacist, I would think that if they had religious beliefs that would prevent them from dispensing a medication such as birth control pills or the morning after pill, they would hopefully choose to work in a situation that would keep their exposure to filling this type of prescription to a minimum. Same as a nurse that has religious objections to birth control wouldn't work in a gynecology office. Or a person that has religious objections to the consumption of alcoholic beverages wouldn't work in a bar. Or a person who has religious objections to the eating of pork wouldn't work at a spam factory. (Ok. I'll stop. I think you get my gist.)

And here's another thought I've had: If one has an objection to birth control pills or the morning after pill due to religious reasons that they cause death of a living thing (a fetus or the possibility of a fetus), do they they have an objection to antibiotics since those medicines also kill living things (bacteria)?

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Yawn!

I was soooooo tired yesterday I couldn't keep my eyes open! Thank goodness I didn't have to work because I would've been completely useless. I pretty much slept the whole day. I have the comfiest couch. :D

I babysat *the monsters* on Sunday for 7 hours and I didn't even feel like I needed to drink a whole bottle of tequila when I was done! *The monsters* are my nieces and nephew - Barfy Baby (11 months), Angel Child(3 years), and Demon Spawn(7 years). Usually an hour or so with them and I'm ready to head home and hit the liquor.

Right after their parents left, AC had a mini-meltdown. I think she wasn't feeling well or something. She curled up on a recliner, covered her head up with a blanket, and let me know she wanted to be left alone. Then she fell asleep for an hour.

Once she woke up, it was time for BB's nap, and she went down very easily for me. So AC and DS and I watched the movie Madagascar while she slept. She woke as the end credits were rolling.

Then DS started complaining about a headache. And I had noticed his voice sounded funny earlier.... A sound I call "strep voice". He spiked a fever of 104 and I dosed him up with ibuprofen and had him lay down. He fell asleep for awhile. While he slept, BB and AC and I went to the basement and played with some toys and with AC's "Dora" computer game. While I was holding BB, I thought she felt warm.... I'm glad I brought some Purell with me. I used a LOT of it.

Basically, one of them was always asleep. And since the two older kids weren't up to their usual level of activity, they weren't picking fights with each other the whole time and therefore, the day was much more peaceful.

That evening, my sis took DS to the urgent care clinic where the doctor there didn't think he had strep since he wasn't complaining about a sore throat. My sister insisted on a throat culture. Turns out he had strep throat. I tell ya, sometimes those urgent care docs don't know what they are doing. ;) I haven't worked 10 years in peds for nothing! Hee hee.

Then the next morning my sis took BB to the pediatrician since she was feverish and very fussy and it turned out she had a double ear infection. I wonder what AC will come up with. ;)

I figure I was so exhausted yesterday as my body was busy fighting off all the germs I was exposed to the day before! LOL!!!

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

This is... well...

The only word that comes to mind for me is disgusting. Wait. Let me get out my thesaurus. Here's more words: sickening, awful, creepy, revolting.... What am I all up in arms about do you ask? This news story. Go read it. I'll give you a minute.

So? How does that make you feel? See why I feel disgusted? This has the rotten smell of McCarthyism. The putrid stench of the Salem Witch Hunts. How far will the extreme right go before people actually start to complain? Or even take notice?

The current adminstration thinks it's perfectly acceptable to torture terror "suspects", even though one of the *bad* things Sadaam did that necessitated his ousting was that he tortured his own people. Anyone who disagrees with the current administration is instantly labeled "unpatriotic". Each and every day I am more and more convinced we are less of a democracy. Everybody get out your brown uniforms, put on your knee boots, and practice your goose stepping! Because that is the road we are headed down!

Monday, January 16, 2006

Let's go ride a bike!

I learned to ride a bike when I was 4 years old - my best friend across the street got a bike and I wanted to learn how to ride it. So I did. (When I get it in my head that I want to do something, look out!) I can remember that bike - it was a boy's bike since my best friend at the time was David. It was orange. And it was too big for me. But I still did it. So for my 5th birthday my parents bought me my own bike. It was powder blue and had a banana seat.

Frodo got a red bicycle for his 5th birthday. It was his favorite color. He was petrified to ride it because it went "too fast". No biggie I thought. He'd get on it the next year.

The next year, he's six and he still doesn't like the bike. He doesn't like how it's tippy and the training wheels catch. He wants nothing to do with it. He still thinks it goes too fast. I don't push it. I get him a scooter instead so he has *something* to ride up and down the sidewalk.

The following year, he's seven. I go to pump up the tires on his bike and I bust one of the stems on the innertube of the tire. We go to the store and get a new innertube. I take the tire off to exchange the innertubes and pieces of the axle go everywhere - there are sprockets in my lap, a screw clanking on the ground, ball bearings rolling down the driveway.... Ack! He's been on this bike about 3 times and it's kaput! We go to the store again to see if I can buy new parts for the bike. It's cheaper to buy a new bike.... So he gets a new bike. This time it's a nice blue color. Hubby takes him to try and learn to ride it. They get home after hubby has lost any patience he had, and Frodo prefers the scooter. Actually, he LOVES his scooter. His friends are now riding two wheelers. He can almost keep up with them with his scooter! Hubby is getting irritated that his son doesn't know how to ride a bike. I tell him to lay off - eventually he'll learn. When he's ready.

Right now, he's eight. 2 months shy of turning 9. Today is a nice day, especially for January in the midwest. It's sunny and 45. There's no school today. I say, "we're going outside and enjoying this weather. Let's take your bike over to the school and I'll teach you to ride." Frodo sighs, puts his shoes on and down the street we walk....

We reach the school. I take the bike to the top of a small grassy hill. There's no training wheels on it. I show him the first step he's going to take - sit on the seat of the bike, give it a little push with your feet, lift your feet up a little, but don't put them on the pedals - just coast down the hill and use your feet to catch you if you tip. I went first. He laughed since the bike is waaaaay too small for me. Then he tries. No problem! I have him repeat the process many times. "How many times do I have to do this?" he asks. "Until you're comfortable" I say. He says, "What's the next step?"

"Next, while coasting down the hill try to put your feet on the pedals, but don't pedal yet. Just coast." Down the hill he goes. Feet go on the pedals! Then feet start pedaling.... He rides his bike on the grass in a big arc. I'm clapping and cheering. He's beaming and laughing out of pure excitement and pride. He brings the bike back and wants to go again. He does this many times with just a couple minor falls. He says, "It's hard to pedal on the grass." I tell him, "Yep. It's easier on the pavement." He says, "Lets go over to the pavement."

We walk the bike over to the pavement. I get on the bike again and demonstrate how to start to pedal a bike on a flat surface. He laughs again, telling me I look so silly on a little bike. I hand the bike back to him, and after a couple tries, he figures out where he needs the pedals to be to start, and off he goes. He rides in circles on the pavement for 20 minutes. I have him practice braking and starting, slowing and going faster. He says, "Now I want to go home and show dad."

We get home and have dad come outside. Aunt Jenn is here, and she's tickled pink to be present for this. Dad is flabbergasted. We were only gone for 30 minutes. Frodo now asks to ride down the sidewalk so he can go show his *sister* and her parents. I walk down with him. They get out their video camera and shoot a few minutes of him showing off his new skill.

When we get back home, Frodo says to me, "I think a miracle happened today."

Sunday, January 15, 2006

My kitty cat...

...is sitting on the chair behind me. She's asleep, but she's moving and making all sorts of weird noises in her throat. I thought only dogs did that.

I wonder what she's dreaming about. Maybe she's dreaming about playing with her favorite toy - the ring from the milk jug. We can get her all sorts of neat toys, but she never plays with them. She goes bonkers over the milk jug rings though!

I should probably be asleep and dreaming now too....

Saturday, January 14, 2006

Bill O'Reilly was my ticket agent

I had the STRANGEST dream the other night....

I was at the airport. For a reason I do not know, I was going to NEWARK. (As in New Jersey.) And as my title states, Bill O'Reilly was my ticket agent. He tagged my check in suitcase and sent me to the line for the security checkpoint.

I get on the plane and off we go. I have one layover. It's in GREEN BAY. (As in Wisconsin.) For some reason, I was too late getting into Green Bay to make my connecting flight to Newark, so I'm stuck in Green Bay trying to get on another flight. I had access to a laptop computer where I was searching the internet for flights. I couldn't find another flight! Everytime I found one I thought would work, it was too late for me to catch it or it was full. After being stuck in Green Bay for 9 hours, I finally walked through the airport to a ticket agent at a counter. (This one was a friendly woman, not Bill O'Reilly.)

She didn't have any other flights available to Newark. I asked if there were any other airports in New Jersey. There weren't. Finally, on the last flight available, flight 1066, there was a cancellation and one seat open. The ticket agent told me she personally knew the pilot of that plane and he was a wonderful man and a great pilot. I got on the plane. I found out my luggage was in Detriot. (As in Michigan.)

Then I woke up.

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I haven't had a dream I remember in quite some time. Now I finally have one and it's WEIRD. LOL.

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Well, now I know why...

...my friend wanted to have lunch with me. She wanted to see my reaction when she told me she was pregnant! Holy fire! This is the gal who always said, "I'm never having kids". I find out yesterday she and her hubby have been trying for FOUR YEARS, and went thru all sorts of fertility treatments. And here I thought she was just not wanting to have kids.... Wow. What a shock. A good shock though! I'm very happy for them!

Dh had made plans for he and I to go out to eat last night to celebrate our anniversary. But some germs put a damper on that - I've got yet another cold. This is getting old. I'm using some zinc stuff to help shorten it though. Hopefully after a nap today I'll be feeling much better.

Speaking of that nap, I'm headed back to bed. I'm beat.

Monday, January 09, 2006

I kinda like Mondays...

Before you have me committed to an institution (although, I might like the break!) for saying that, let me explain. I normally don't go to work on Mondays. So after a weekend of limiting my computer time so as not to neglect little Frodo, I enjoy Mondays where I can send him off to school and do whatever I want guilt free. (Well, ALMOST guilt free.)

Our anniversary was yesterday. Hubby and I have been married 12 years now. We met at the end of our senior year of high school, dated for 4 years and lived together for 2 years before getting married. That's 18 years all together. Wow. Half my life. And actually, half his life too since he's only a couple months older than me. We did nothing to celebrate this year. Usually we try to do the dinner and a movie thing, but hubby had to work yesterday. We'll just have to have a date another time. He did get me some yellow roses though. They are my favorite. :)

I'm supposed to meet a friend for lunch today. We haven't seen each other in a long time. She was the maid-of-honor in my wedding. We just don't have as much in common anymore. She got married just a few years after I did, but my life took the motherhood path and hers has taken the career path. It's not that we disagree on things, it's just that by going down different paths, we don't have as much in common anymore. Such is life. It's strange how life is like that though.

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Grrrr....

According to this news story, our president can choose (and has chosen) to throw our Constitution's democratic system of checks and balances right out the window. (If you are unfamiliar with the Separation of Powers, which keeps us from becoming a autocracy, please read up on it at this link.) It seems that by writing a little thing called a "signing statement", a president can pretty much say *screw you* to Congress. Signing statements were pretty rare items until the Reagan adminstration. Looks like the slide to fascism is getting more and more slippery each day....

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It sure will be fun to watch the dominos fall due to the fallout from the Abramoff guilty pleas. And as a sidenote, I'm NOT a fashion maven by any means since I live my life mostly in jeans and tshirts, but wearing a baseball cap with a suit? To court? WTF is that about? My 6th grade teacher used to stand by the door and pull caps off the kids' heads as they walked in if they didn't take them off upon entering the school building. I can just imagine Mr. H reaching out and yanking the cap from Jack Abramoff's head as he enters the courtroom, lol.

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I was listening to talk radio today and heard a caller ("Andrew from California") make one of the coolest statements I'd heard in a long time. You know those statements - the kind that make you look at the radio and shout, "YES!!!" as though you've just had the best orgasm ever. Anyhow, "Andrew" was taking issue with the fact that some people think that the military GIVES us our freedom. He argued that we are given our freedom by the Constitution. The military is there to protect US when OUR freedom is threatened.

I like that. Let's get our troops back home to protect OUR national security, OUR people, OUR country. Here.

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And if we all could only have half the balls this man did, the world would be a much better place. I wish him peace.

Here's our versions of "Liar, liar..."

I've always finished it, "...hanging on a telephone wire."

Dh finishes is, "...nose as long as a telephone wire."

His version makes no sense to me. I get the Pinocchio allusion, but I think it still sounds sorta dorky.

Monday, January 02, 2006

Finish this sentence...

"Liar, liar, pants on fire"

How do you finish this poem? Hubby and I each learned a different ending. I want to know if he's just weird. ;)

Sunday, January 01, 2006

Happy New Year!

I hope 2006 brings you all much happiness, good health, and a little extra moolah! ;)

As for New Year's resolutions.... I don't make them. I made a vow to myself about 15 years ago or so, that I would never make a New Year's resolution. And I've kept that. Throught the year I might set goals for myself. But I usually never have enough energy at *this* time of year to be successful at keeping any resolution. So why set myself up for failure?

If you've made any resolutions, I wish you the best of luck! Just let me know if I can be of support. If you haven't made any, why don't you have a seat with me, be lazy, watch some football, and eat some junk food! Hee hee!