One Crashed Right Into the Cuckoo's Nest

This was an interesting news article

2008-07-09T08:14:00.001-07:00

What if we threw out all the illegal immigrants?

In my area, it would be mostly agricultural jobs and restaurant jobs that are affected. Would the loss of immigrant workers have an effect where you live?

Summertime

2008-06-30T23:08:00.000-07:00

Now that it's finally not raining all the time, we've had some lovely weather. I got to enjoy a sunny 78º midwestern summer day today. Frodo had a baseball game this evening - actually, he had two as we are getting near tournament season. The first game they easily won. It was delightful soaking up the sunshine, a light breeze blowing just enough to keep us from feeling too warm. The second game, they still won, although not as easily. The sun started sinking in the sky and out they came. The mosquitoes.

Oh. My. Goodness. I cannot believe all the mosquitoes. Granted, we were expecting them once the rains finally stopped. We have mosquitoes every year. They aren't unusual. And after flooding rains, we get what is termed as a "flood hatch" - a huge explosion in the mosquito population a week or two after the heavy rains. I guess the unusual amount of rain we had contributed to the unusual number of mosquitoes we now have. Locally, the public health department uses traps to monitor the number of mosquitoes in the area. About 10 days ago, they had low numbers - something like 50 mosquitoes per night in the traps. Recently, they are getting nearly FOUR THOUSAND mosquitoes per night in the traps. That means we've had an 800 fold increase in our mosquito count this past week. That's a lot of 'skeeters!

One positive in all this - the floodwater mosquito is NOT the one that carries West Nile Virus. I'll keep reminding myself of that as I'm taking iron supplements for all the blood loss.

And the flooding continues...

2008-06-14T19:43:00.000-07:00

In my last note, I mentioned how I was mesmerized with the houses falling into the river in the Wisconsin flooding. Now, I've been seeing the flooding in Iowa and I'm no longer mesmerized. Now I am heavy-hearted.

I lived in Cedar Rapids and the surrounding area when I was younger. It's a wonderful city with even more wonderful people. The photos and videos I've seen coming from there are shocking. The river that flows through the city (the Cedar River) crested over 31 feet above normal level. Look up to your ceiling. How high is that? Mine is your standard 8 ft ceiling. So that means I need to quadruple that height to get an idea of how much higher than normal the river rose. Can you even imagine having water that reaches the second floor of your home!?!?? Or higher!?!?!? I only had a couple inches of water in my basement a couple months ago, and that frustrated me. I can't imagine having my entire home's contents floating around....

Because I consider that area my "hometown", I've been wishing I could help somehow. I can't get there due to flooding and even if I could, I don't think there is much to be done for now until the waters recede. So I've done some searching and found some ways for me or anyone to help financially.

First option is through the local Salvation Army. They provide food and drink for people affected by the flooding as well as volunteers, emergency workers, or any others in need.

Next option is through the local Red Cross chapter. (On the left, click on "make a donation", then click on "Donate Now".) They provide shelter, food, and snacks for people who have been forced from their homes due to flooding.

If you want to help physically by offering materials or volunteering time, here is one website that has been set up to connect people for those needs.

For other updates, you can get information from the local newspaper's website. Near the top is also a link that says "How to help people in Cedar Rapids". It is in a blog message format - the original post is there, and updates and other information are in the messages section.

Fortunately, some drier weather days are in the forecast. I hope the citizens can all get in and start their cleanup and recovery efforts soon.

I'm a bad blog mommy

2008-06-10T21:19:00.000-07:00

I've been so neglectful. Call BPS (Blog Protective Services) and turn me in. At least it looks like it didn't completely starve to death.

I have been a busy girl. Frodo is playing or practicing baseball nearly every day with his team this year. Running him around to these various practices and games is insane. If I had more kids, I'd go crazy getting them all around to various activities. :P

This is the last week of school. Frodo's teacher decided to put on a class play. I get a note home on a Wednesday night (of course Frodo gives it to me at 9pm...) stating he is to have a costume into the classroom by Friday. Ummmm..... Eek! I plowed to Goodwill on Thursday evening to see what I could find and then sat up that night altering the clothing to fit Frodo. And my sewing skills leave much to be desired. Needless to say, his costume is held together in various places with lots of safety pins. (Sort of like my kitchen curtains that I hemmed with a stapler.)

I decided now is the time. It is time for me to eat healthier. Basically, it is time for me to lose some weight. I started Weight Watchers on Saturday. I've been eating good since then, and I have to say, I'm feeling surprisingly good. My goal is to lose somewhere in the neighborhood of 30-40 pounds. A friend was supposed to start with me, but she's always got excuses. That just means the time isn't right for her. When she's ready, she'll get going. She doesn't want to let go of her food the same way a smoker doesn't want to let go of cigarettes. (She also happens to be a smoker that doesn't want to quit. And a drinker that doesn't want to cut back. ) Honestly, I think she has a lot more issues to deal with, but once again, she's not ready to face those issues.

I'm watching Letterman right now - Alanis Morissette is singing. Anyone else remember her from the "You Can't Do That On Television" days? Hee hee. Before her, the guest was a UFO specialist named Jeff Peckman. That was an odd one. His looks reminded me of someone, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

I've been mesmerized with the footage out of Wisconsin with the houses falling into the flooded river. Mother Nature is mad about something!

BRAND! NEW! CAR...

2008-05-13T20:50:00.000-07:00

...PET!!!

The flooded basement is now a dry basement with new carpet. I'm lovin' that new carpet smell! Not lovin' having to move the furniture yet again, but what can ya do? I really like the new carpet better than the older stuff we had in there. The color is better.

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Frodo has started baseball for the season and it's a complete 180º from last year's team.... Last year his team won the championship and had a phenomenal team. This year, not so much. They're 1-4 on the season so far. It's like the kids just aren't into it at all. Hopefully that will turn around soon. I'm just glad other kids besides mine dropped the easy pop fly tonight. Takes the "bad parent" pressure off me! Phew!

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I went to a book clearance sale today. I love books. We somehow lost our copy of Harry Potter #6 (I think it was loaned to someone that never returned it....). I was inexpensively able to replace it in our home. Yay! Once Frodo and I are done reading the "His Dark Materials" trilogy by Philip Pullman (the first of this trilogy is "The Golden Compass") maybe we'll pick up on Harry Potter again. We'd read up through #5 when we stopped because we couldn't find #6 anywhere in the house. And you know what? I haven't ready Harry Potter #7 yet. Call me crazy. I think I'll experience it while reading it through with Frodo.

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I spent my Mother's Day moping over the fact that neither hubby or Frodo even bothered to wish me a happy mother's day. Brats. So the next day I went shopping and bought myself my own mother's day presents. First, I got myself a new set of earbud headphones for my not-an-ipod. The ones that came with the MP3 player were so big, I could hardly get them in my ear to hear. And when I did, it hurt. I had to look through all the colorful earphones to find pink because if I bought a set of comfy earphones in a neutral color, one of the boys would have them in use ASAP. And they have MUCH waxier ears than I do!

Then I bought myself a teakettle. I've always wanted a teakettle. It's just so much quicker and easier to heat up water on the stove in a teakettle than it is to heat water up in a cup in the microwave. (Maybe my microwave is just that crappy!) And heating water up on the stove in a saucepan is just fine. It's just the pouring of the water out of that pan that is difficult. So now I own a pretty black teakettle.

And that's just how easy I am.

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My basement.

2008-04-15T22:06:00.001-07:00

It flooded.

We had a record rainfall late last summer. That was followed by record snowfall this winter. Then this past weekend, we had another heavy rainfall. Sometime between 3:30am and 2pm on Saturday, our sump pump decided it was done working and punched out. Permanently. Hubby heard the sump pump run at 3:30am. We went downstairs at 2pm and were met with *squish* underfoot. In the corner of the basement by the sump pump, we had 2 inches of water. The rest of the basement was anywhere from 2 inches to barely damp.

I kept repeating the mantra, "At least it's not sewer backup. At least it's not sewer backup. At least it's not sewer backup." We dug out the shop vac and put it to work inhaling water. I placed a call to a couple friends begging for an extra shop vac and an extra dehumidifier. Both were promptly delivered along with helping hands.

I went to the home improvement store and purchased their last vertical switch sump pump. (The only kind that fits in our sump well.) I also bought a big fan. We swapped out the old pump for the new one and it works beautifully. Yay!

We then got our carpet pulled up so it could start drying. I talked to a couple people and they said we had to get the pad up ASAP to facilitate drying. So we did that. We had two dehumidifiers and two fans running and 3 days later, parts of the carpet were still wet. And now it was starting to smell.... And it wasn't flowers!

So today, I ripped out all the carpet and it's all at the curb. We just had this carpet put in 2½ years ago, so that was sad. Fortunately, we bought cheap carpet!

Everything is drying nicely now. (Concrete dries fast when it doesn't have wet carpet sitting on it. I went browsing today for replacement carpet. Hubby is going to bleach the floor tomorrow to make sure the mold is dead.

Bad parts: all the work to clean it up, the smell of wet and musty carpet, the loss of carpeting that was newer

Silver lining: It is forcing me to clean out the basement storage, I found out I can replace a sump pump, no furniture or other items weren't ruined, and it wasn't sewer water!

I hope that never happens again. What a PITA!

I have a sad friend.

2008-04-15T21:51:00.000-07:00

My friend had applied for a promotion last year. She is a police officer and she wants to be a detective. She didn't do so well in the process and consequently, she did not get promoted. She decided to try again this year.

This year, she aced the exam and got the highest score of all the applicants. Then came the interviews. She aced the interviews and got the highest ranking of all the applicants. The other detectives wanted her to be the next one added to their group. Other supervisors recommended her. The lieutenant in charge of the process placed her first on his list of recommendations. This recommendation list was forwarded to the chief.

The chief reviewed the rankings list. The chief chose someone else. Someone that wasn't even on this recommendation list. My friend does not know why she was passed up and she is very sad. I just spent two hours on the phone with her, trying to help her through this. Part of me wants her to go stomping into the chief's office to demand an explanation. Part of me wants her to just put her shoulder to the wheel and try again next year. Part of me wants ME to go stomping into the chief's office to demand an explanation!

I think I finally persuaded her to go talk to someone. She feels like she can't trust anyone in the office to talk to. I finally suggested she call an old co-worker who was more of a mentor during his time there. I hope that will help. I feel helpless and I really don't like that feeling.

I recently found...

2008-04-08T07:37:00.000-07:00

...the joys of Stephanie Plum. I had asked some online friends if they had any reading suggestions. More than one recommended the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich. So I took their advice and I'm hooked! These books are easy reads and very entertaining.

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I survived a 5th grade sleepover this past weekend. Frodo never had a party for his birthday because March was just too busy for our family. He invited his friends from school, so my home hosted four extra boys on Saturday night. The best part about boys? All they need are food, video games and nerf dart guns, and they are a happy bunch for many hours. They would've been happier for longer, but we finally forced them into sleep mode at 5am.

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It was 63ºF and sunny on Sunday. I dethatched the yard a bit. Ok. I lied. I dethatched the yard a LOT. I have a plentiful number of bare spots in my lawn now thanks to the voles that hid under this winter's deep snow. I was going to spread some grass seed to fill in the spots, but it's back down to the 40s again and is scheduled to snow again tonight. Sigh. This has been the worst and longest winter I have ever experienced. We never had this much snow even when I lived in the great white northern parts of Minnesota. Maybe now I'm starting to understand why people spend winters in the south.... Any suggestions of places to spend winter?

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Triple population of the little town where I grew up.

2008-03-24T17:37:00.000-07:00

Sad day.

I'm driving down the road today...

2008-03-13T19:42:00.001-07:00

...and I see a Prius. Then another Prius. Then I begin to wonder - what's the plural of Prius? If the plural of "cactus" is "cacti", and the plural of "octopus" is "octopi", then is the plural of "Prius" "Prii"?

Then I had to stop thinking about it and go back to hollering at the people that don't know how to drive.

Blah, blah, blah....

2008-02-28T21:01:00.000-08:00

Absent, blah, busy, blah, time flies, blah, sick, blah blah....

Whatever. I'm not even going to bore you with what I've been up to or anything along those lines. I'm just going to jump into a rant.

I was driving home from work today and listening to the radio. There was an interview going on with the author of this article. I was shocked. I was shocked that something like this was going on. But I was more shocked that it had been around for so long.... I automatically assumed this was a Bush administration creation. I was surprised it existed before the current administration. One of the creepiest lines in there for me was this:

“He urged InfraGard members to contact the FBI if they “note suspicious activity or an unusual event.” And he said they could sic the FBI on “disgruntled employees who will use knowledge gained on the job against their employers.”

Wow. That's quite a bit of power.

It reminds me of the stories of the Germans who turned their Jewish neighbors in to the SS.

I'm sounding a bit *deep thinking*, aren't I? I have other rants to tackle, so watch out! (And no, I'm not PMSing.)

I'm still around....

2008-02-14T21:29:00.000-08:00

...I've just been too busy shoveling. And being ill with a cold.

We've had over 6.5 feet of snow here so far this winter. It's snowing every other day. I'm very tired of this winter.

And I've had a cold for 11 days now. I'm very tired of this cold.

Frodo wants a hamster. I told him he couldn't have one until he cleaned his room. At the rate he gets around to cleaning his room, he might not have a hamster until he moves out.

The Farmer Takes A Wife....

2008-01-22T07:49:00.000-08:00

Well, I must say "Farmer In The..." got my laptop back to me very quick. It was gone for a total of 68 hours. I kid you not. It left home at 2pm on Tuesday and was back by 10am on Friday.

During that 68 hours, my laptop got some cosmetic surgery done on it's spa trip. I have a functioning mouse button again. The screws on a loose hinge for the monitor were tightened. The stuck hard drive was removed and re-inserted to be removable. It had a diagnostics check done. And it came home with a note telling me all about it's trip.

The only downside about it's trip - it needed a brain transplant. I got the laptop back with the old hard drive in it. The note that came back told me that diagnostics showed the hard drive needed replacing due to it being defective. Fortunately, since I haven't had this laptop for long, I didn't have any photos or anything of the sort stored on it. So I got the new hard drive delivered, and performed the transplant surgery yesterday. It went well. Only minimal blood loss of some email addresses and favorites links. Little by little, those will get replenished. It's sort of nice to have very few items in my favorites folders. Sort of like spring cleaning without the dust!

Anyone have some extra Valium?

2008-01-17T05:15:00.001-08:00

My laptop is gone. I told my laptop it was going to a computer spa for a tiny amount of cosmetic surgery. I hope it comes home soon. I'm now cheating on it with my old flame - the desktop. The desktop might be slow, but it still works.

After my incident of not being able to get the hard drive out, I spoke with some hilarious technicians that dress in white shirts with skinny black ties and floods. They work out of a store where Frodo and I found the lights of the first word burned out, so the store just said "BUY". We still laugh about that. I was telling them of my predicament. They told me they weren't surprised as that particular computer company has a reputation for horrible customer support. (Next time, I will splurge for the protection package that will allow me to get my computer fixed locally.) They told me to try and get this company (which from here on out, I shall refer to as *Farmer In The....*) to send me the part and they could fix it for me in a day. For a small fee of course. I was willing to pay that fee, so I went home to place a phone call.

This time, I didn't catch the name of the gentleman (I use the term loosely) on the phone. He was a bit short with me. Whatever. Basically, he ended the conversation telling me they cannot send the part and to send the laptop in with the hard drive still installed. (Pass more Valium!)

The next day, I get a phone call from a different technician with Farmer In The.... I think he was sent to smooth things over. He assured me he was going to be the only technician dealing with this "case" from here on out. On my laptop, I have an email with his name in it. Of course, my laptop is away for it's little spa vacation, so I have no clue who this person is. He said he would be keeping an eye on my computer for me through the repair and return process. He used some phrase about "taking ownership". Sounds like someone has been to a lot of business classes.... I'll take it, as canned as it sounds. It's nice knowing I have ONE person to deal with. Besides, they gave me someone who's accent isn't as thick so I can actually understand him. (Do you think they got my surveys? LOL.)

So I password protected my computer and sent it on it's little vacation on Tuesday. I wonder if it will bring back a t-shirt for me?

New Year, New Look

2008-01-07T18:22:00.001-08:00

Not too terribly exciting, as I am not of the artsy kind and therefore cannot make myself any sort of masthead that isn't a template. I just thought I'd do a little rearranging is all. Now to tackle the living room!

Or not.

It's only the 7th of January, and it already seems like we should be facing February about now. All the fog outdoors has fogged my brain. All the Christmas decorations are down and stowed for another year. I didn't make any new year's resolutions because I just don't do resolutions. I always flop at them, so years ago, I decided I wasn't going to set myself up for failure anymore. And I like it like that. Besides, it's a crappy time of year to try and motivate me to do much of anything, let alone get me to start exercising or eating healthier or anything not fun like that.

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I've spent some quality time the past couple weeks with the customer and technical support folks at the company that made my laptop. You see, I love this laptop soooo much, I've gone and worn out the left mouse button. It's still covered under warranty, so I started with the online chat option for technical support. I logged in. The pop up window told me the average wait time was about 28 minutes. Whatever. I did other things for 28 minutes.

A chat window pops up saying "Balraj" was the "Agent" who would be chatting with me. Two seconds later, the session closes on it's own. Grrr. I open another request for a chat. Another 28 minute wait.

Next chat that opens for me is with "Agent Santosh". (Do you think maybe this company outsources their tech support?) I spend TWO HOURS online with "Santosh" getting him to understand that this wasn't a software issue, but a hardware issue. The button is broken. The touchpad works fine. Everything else works fine. It's just a broken button. All I want to do is get it fixed under my warranty!

Finally, I think he gets it. I am informed I will receive a box over the next few days in which I will pack my laptop to ship it for repair. (Oh my goodness! I'm already having a panic attack over the concept of being separated from my computer!) I am also informed I will have to REMOVE my hard drive before shipment to keep it safe. (Pass me the paper bag! I need help breathing!) I'm usually a handy person, but I draw the line at messing with my computer. He tells me detailed instructions will come with the package, telling me how to remove the hard drive and he assures me it's quite easy.

Fast forward to today. I have the box. I decide it's time to get the repair done. I get out the instructions for removing the hard drive. The two screws holding the cover on are removed. I set the cover to the side. The instructions tell me to slide the drive to the left, then pull up on the tab to lift it out. I try to slide. It won't budge. I try and try and try. It won't budge. I'm wondering if I can use the screwdriver as a lever to move it? I'm too afraid to try. I don't want to break my 'puter!

There is a phone number on the instruction sheet telling me if I experience any problems, I am to call that number. So I do.

I get through to someone on the phone much faster than I did online! On the phone, I got "Usha". Usha asked me all sort of questions such as, "Are you looking at the front or the back of the computer?" and "Did you remove the two screws from the cover?" I keep my composure the best I can because I know she has to ask these questions since not everyone will do those obvious things. After almost an hour of discussion with "Usha", she comes to the conclusion that maybe I need to find a local technician to help me get the hard drive out. I thanked her for her time and hung up.

I think I'll have a local technician just fix my computer. I fired off an email asking if they could just send me the part. I'm waiting to hear back.

Wow, was that a rant and a half.... Sorry.

It's almost New Year's Eve....

2007-12-30T10:21:00.000-08:00

When someone asks you what comes to mind when "New Year's Eve" is mentioned, a large portion of us will come up with the ball drop in Times Square. When I was younger, I used to wish I could be there. Now that I'm older and less fond of crowds, I'm quite happy to watch it on TV. ;)

You can still be a part of the fun at Times Square without being there. For the first time, you can get a message printed on a piece of the confetti that floats down at midnight. Just visit this link http://tinyurl.com/2c5efd/ to enter your wish for the new year!

And have a safe, and happy New Year's Eve!

One nice thing about....

2007-12-28T05:18:00.000-08:00

...suffering through the family celebration the prior weekend, is that our holidays were nice and quiet around the cuckoo's nest.

We went out for Chinese on Christmas Eve, then drove around and looked at lights. After we returned home, we watched the Harry Potter #5 movie. I really like the books better. The movies are good, but they leave sooooo much out!

Frodo had a difficult time falling asleep that night. He was so very exicted to have morning come so he could open presents! I think he finally fell asleep around 1am. Then he was up at 6am. Ugh.

Christmas Day, the three of us just laid around and played with our new stuff. I put a pot of my homemade chicken noodle soup on the stove and we munched as we needed. It was a nice, relaxing day.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

Another catastrophe averted.

2007-12-20T21:33:00.000-08:00

Family Christmas celebration. I has it.

This past weekend marked the annual family Christmas celebration. We had all (both) the parents here, my sisters and their families, hubby's sister and her family.... Sounds lovely, eh? Usually, it adds up to a pile of stress for me.

The past couple years, I've been hosting it. Not out of a desire to host it, mind you. But more out of a *nobody-else-is-stepping-up-to-the-plate* situation. Hand me the bat and the helmet. I'm up yet again.

Of course, Saturdays work best for everyone else, so we have it on a Saturday, even though a Sunday would work better for me. First, I have to clean house and the guest bedroom a few days early for the parents' arrival. Then they move in for a couple days and throw all sorts of schedules out of whack.

Then, Saturday morning comes, and I'm up getting some final food prep ready and doing some better cleaning. My sister-in-law had spoken to her dad a few days earlier - "Do you think we could bring our new puppy? It can't stay home alone very long." And of course, sis-in-law gets what sis-in-law wants, and we have yet another guest. My cat will be thrilled. So will hubby and Frodo who are allergic to dogs.

Father-in-law forgot to mention to me that sis-in-law also mentioned she would come early so she and her hubby and kiddo (and the new puppy) can visit with grandma and grandpa before everyone else gets there. So here I am, unshowered, in my sweatpants and tshirt, sweating like a triathlete in August in Texas, while wrestling with the vacuum and the slipcover on the couch, and my doorbell rings. Oh ho! Welcome! Never mind that I was vaccuming the FURNITURE which I rarely do, because I hate cleaning so much. I am doing it only because sis-in-law is allergic to the cat and I am being kind enough to get up as much cat hair as I can. A dirty scowl is thrown dad-in-law's direction, which he conveniently does not notice as he stares adoringly at his perfect daughter who has just arrived....

I finish wrestling with the vacuum cleaner and banish it to the closet. I slide the ham in the oven. I jump in the shower. I'm just waiting for someone to knock on the door because they want something from me..... Fortunately for me (and everyone else within any sort of earshot and the potential responding emergency workers) it doesn't happen.

After a nice shower and some appropriate clothing application, I re-enter my kitchen to find sis-in-law has brought all sorts of nifty appetizers and is currently spread out all over my counter preparing all of them. ("I just thought it would be easier to get it all ready here. I hope you don't mind.") Do I have a choice? I pour myself a glass of wine.

Others start arriving. I'm trying to finish up the rest of the meal while everyone is milling around my largest counter space because that's where sis-in-law set up all those appetizers. The ham won't get hot. The potatoes are getting cold. I hate cooking. I pour myself more wine.

Dinner is finally ready. Not much is consumed because everyone filled up on appetizers. After eating, everyone adjourns to the living room for presents. I leave the leftover food and dishes for now.

The kids open presents first. It's so much fun to watch them! Little sanity boost!

Presents are done. Kids want to play. I have leftover food and dishes! Does anyone help me? My mom wanders in at one point and talks about how she "wishes" she could help but she can't because of her poorly healing incision after her surgery that was two months ago. I get the food put away. I get the first load of dishes in the dishwasher. (Thank all the goodness in the universe for dishwashers!) I pour myself another glass of wine.

I come to the living room, finally able to have some time to relax and visit. My brother-in-law starts packing a few things up. He and the youngest of the clan are heading home to get her in bed.

My mom and one of my sisters had been talking for weeks about having a "Wii Tournament" where we could play some games and have fun. The kids are looking forward to it. I play one round of bowling against three of the kids and no other adults. Then everyone decides "it's getting late" and "we better head home". I sniff my pits. I remembered my deodorant today.

Next thing you know, everyone is gone. I did NOT have a good time. I don't want to host this again for quite awhile.

Sunday morning I wake up. (That's always good.) Except this morning is much different than most mornings. This morning, I am sick.

Someone left behind a stomach virus.

Seeing as I'm lazy...

2007-12-10T07:08:00.000-08:00

...about blogging, I thought I'd continue my laziness streak with a "Getting To Know You" swiped from Cursing Mama.

Getting To Know Your Friends - Christmas Edition

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? I try the wrapping paper route as much as possible. Sometimes you HAVE to use the gift bag though.

2. Real or artificial tree? I grew up with an artificial tree. I always wanted a real tree. I married hubby. I couldn't get my real tree because hubby is allergic to them. :(

3. When do you put up the tree? Usually the weekend after Thanksgiving. This year, it got up yesterday. And only because I'm hosting family christmas celebration next weekend.

4. When do you take the tree down? It comes down somewhere around New Years. It all depends on how sick of it I am.

5. Do you like Eggnog? No. Yuk.

6. Favorite Gift you received as a child? My sister and I got the Barbie Dream House from Santa one year. Wow.

7. Do you have a nativity scene? We got one from ds's great aunt's estate somehow. Otherwise, being the heathens we are, no, we do not have a nativity scene.

8. Hardest person to buy for? My one sister and her dh. They are the only ones getting gift cards this year.

9. Easiest person to buy for? This year, amazingly, it is hubby. That is unusual.

10. Worst Christmas gift ever received? Nothing specific comes to mind.

11. Christmas Cards...Snail mail or E-mail? In this day and age of so many electronics, I still prefer snail mail cards.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? It's A Wonderful Life.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Usually sometime in December. This year, I started in November though!

14. Have you ever 'recycled' a Christmas present? As in "re-gifting"? No I haven't. I just haven't had the need to do so.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Frosted sugar cookies. Mmmmm...

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Clear. And it's pre-lit and that rocks. I will NEVER buy a tree that's not pre-lit ever again.

17. Favorite Christmas Song? The Carol of the Bells. Except dh has ruined it with this viral video from a few years back...

18. Travel at Christmas or Stay Home? Do NOT get me started on this one.... I'm stuck hosting. Again.

19. Can you name Santa's Reindeer? Only if I'm singing the song.

20. Do you have an Angel or a Star on top of your tree? An angel. And she doesn't stay up properly, so there is a chopstick rammed up to her brain so she won't keep tipping over.

21. Open the Presents Christmas Eve or Morning? Morning. Because sometimes hubby is working christmas eve.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Rude people. Oh wait, that's sort of a year-round issue....

23. Shopping...Mall or on-line? I think I did about 50/50 on that this year.

24. Do you decorate outside for Christmas or just inside (or at all?) Outside, we have white icicle lights topped with a string of blue lights . This year, to piss hubby off, because he was being a dork and hates too much outdoor decor, I added a light-up snowman and some hanging light-up snowflakes. I've threatened to add more.

25. Favorite Christmas cookie? Frosted sugar cookie.

26. Do you own Christmassy clothing or jewelry? No.

27. Do you believe in Santa? Of course!

I hear a noise...

2007-12-02T22:33:00.000-08:00

...outside. It's my crazy postal worker neighbor shoveling snow. It's 12:30 am.

I was sitting here thinking how weird this was until I remembered I was considering doing the same thing 24 hours ago.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

2007-11-22T10:23:00.000-08:00

As many of you are stuck spending time with family you'd rather not spend time with, I am enjoying my Thanksgiving immensely. And it's not because I get along so much with my family. We are part of a tradition among friends we call "anti-family Thanksgiving". It's exactly what the name implies - a Thanksgiving with no family.

It started about 6 years ago. Medicine Man has a friend out of state. (I call her Pretty Woman.) She was complaining about having to spend the holiday with family she did not want to spend time with. He told her to ditch the family and come visit here. So she did. She and her family told their families to stuff it, they piled the four of them into the minivan, and drove 1000 miles to spend Turkey Day here in the great white north. Others in our circle of friends had to work various parts of Thanksgiving and couldn't travel for the holiday weekend, and thus began anti-family Thanksgiving. Since that one, the rest of us who live here get together every year. We keep trying to have Pretty Woman and family join us again, but it's a long trip for them, so they haven't made the trip again.

For anti family Thanksgiving, it is comprised of my family of three, Frodo's "sister" and her parents, and Aunt Jen. This year, we've added Medicine Man's sister (she's a friend of mine and Aunt Jen's, and she's cool, so she doesn't count as being banned as family) and her two teenage daughters who are very neat gals. We ate Wednesday this year since every single one of us was off work on Wednesday. I provided reasonably clean house space since my home is the only one that would fit that many people. Aunt Jen provided the cooking. She made her WONDERFUL grilled turkey. Yum yum yum! We all stuffed ourselves silly with food and drink yesterday. It was a wonderful day. I strongly recommend anti-family holidays. There is a lot less stress involved.

I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving, with family or without family.

Going on a stroll through the internets

2007-11-15T04:38:00.000-08:00

So here I am, peacefully sipping my morning coffee, booting up the laptop. Up comes my homepage. It is my homepage because my ISP put it there and I've never changed it. On the page today is a news story about the House of Representatives passing a war funding bill with a timeline for withdrawl included. We all know it's going to get vetoed, and then not have the necessary majority to override the veto. The Democrats said, "they wanted voters to know they weren't giving up." Whatever. From the beginning of the change of power, the Democrats rolled over like a dog waiting for it's belly scritch. No growling, no biting. This is more akin to a tail wagging saying, "See look! I'm still friendly!"

After being thoroughly depressed by thinking about the war and the lack of balls most anyone has in Congress (there are a few that still have balls. And teeth!), I backed up to the homepage again.

There I find my next reading: an article claiming Barack Obama broke the law by not putting his hand over his heart during a playing of the national anthem. Want to know what surprised me most in this article? A link that was provided showing that it IS a law that you are to place your hand over your heart during the anthem! Holy guacamole batman! So when I'm at a ballgame, about half the crowd should be ticketed..... I'm thinking holding a beer in your hand isn't the same as holding your hand over your heart. I love reading the history behind where things such as the national anthem and the pledge of allegiance came from.

Oh look! At the and of the Obama article! A link about the history of the Pledge of Allegiance! It's a good read. One thing I got out of it that was that as long ago as the Civil War, religious zealots were stating that the terrible things that happened to the United States, happened as "divine retribution" for not being a Christian nation. I did not realize this had been going on for 150 years.... I thought it was a newer phenomenon, that had only occurred once before during the McCarthy era in the supposed "fight against godless communism".

Next article this links me to is about the state of Georgia's new drought relief plan: prayer. If it works, you know the religious right will be all over it like a cheap suit. And if it doesn't? I'm sure it will be due to punishment for our godless ways. (can you see me rolling my eyes?)

I'm done strolling the internets for now. I think I'll go play one of my additcing web games.

There's something to be said...

2007-11-13T21:06:00.000-08:00

...about having some curves!

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=3859175&page=1

A new study says women with a higher waist-to-hip ratio are more intelligent. Let's hear it for womanly curves!!!

*******************************************

We had the always exciting (yawn) parent/teacher conference day yesterday. Fortunately, it's never been a conference where we are told about all the problems our child causes. But we also don't get the packet about the "gifted and talented" program either. I'm never quite sure if I should be pushing Frodo a bit harder or not. I was raised with VERY high expectations. A report card with six As and 1 B got me an interrogation about "why did you get a B in that class?" Ugh.

Oh wait. I think I just answered my own question.

******************************************

I understand some of you will hate me for this. But I have to say it because I'm so darned excited! I've actually started my christmas shopping already. I can't remember the last time I started shopping before Thanksgiving. I'm quite proud of myself. Of course, I've made a whopping THREE purchases is all. But hey! It's a start!

I had a surprise yesterday...

2007-11-06T18:55:00.000-08:00

Along the mall theme yet-

Frodo, hubby and I were at the mall yesterday. It's after Halloween. And there wasn't any Christmas music playing yet! And even though they were starting to get decorations up, it wasn't all decked out already. I was pleasantly shocked and surprised! Maybe retailers really ARE starting to catch on!

Now, if I can just persuade them from using the phrase "lowest prices of the season!" ever again.....

Are there any answers to this?

2007-11-05T18:17:00.000-08:00

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21582725/

After reading that, I have a few lines of thought on the subject.

1) When I was a teenager (a couple decades ago), we occasionally hung out at the mall. I don't remember it being a problem then. We often walked around and chatted. Often we browsed. And even spent money! Nobody worried about curfew at the mall unless it was a weekday and you were supposed to be in school. (Like when I was in college and got carded by the mall security guard who thought I was skipping high school classes.)

2) Is this legal? Can they really ban certain groups of people from the mall? Can we take this another direction and start banning elderly people at certain times because they walk too slow? Or can we ban strollers at certain times because they block an expedient walking flow?

3) Telling them to stay out of the mall will just move them somewhere else. Next thing you know you'll have roving gangs of kids wandering the ailses of Target. Or Piggly Wiggly.

(Ok, this is starting to become more than "a few lines". Whups.)

4) And when crime starts going up in some neighborhoods, and the residents start hollering it's because of "these kids who have nothing to do", I wonder if they will blame the malls for kicking the kids out.

5) Whatever happened to good old fashioned respect? Why are there roving gangs of kids intimidating folks in the mall? Why do they have no sense of courtesy? (I know, that was more of a rhetorical question....)

6) And why lay a rule flat out banning ALL teens instead of just holding the poorly behaving ones accountable?

After all those thoughts, I will add - my hubby, being a cop, can legally carry a concealed weapon at anytime and almost anyplace. He normally doesn't. We live in a pretty decent city overall. However, when he goes to the mall, he carries. And as a family, we have some entertainment watching the gangs that occasionally hang out. It's fun to try and figure out what one common denominator they have such as they're all wearing something blue or they're all wearing items only on their left side. I think everything is just symptomatic of a larger problem: kids with no or very poor adult guidance. (Such as the mom and daughter duo recently busted around here for stealing a car to drive and get more drugs. Wooo Hoo!! What good parent/child bonding time!)

Then there's always the *nature vs nurture* argument to throw in here too.... I'll save that discussion for another time.

Proof that God isn't always on your side

2007-11-01T04:39:00.000-07:00

I was pleased to find this news story this morning:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/10/31/funeral.protest/index.html

I'm all for First Amendment rights. This group has been to my town to "share" their "message". And I feel they have every right to be in a public space speaking their mind, even if I don't agree with what they are saying. But they completely crossed the line by attending funerals to protest. The church members' lawyers argued the funeral was a public event. I do not agree. And I'm so very glad the jury in this case agreed with my thoughts on this as well.

My only worry is that this might be the start of many lawsuits that could limit free speech.

The good and the bad

2007-10-31T16:20:00.000-07:00

There are mostly good things about Halloween. I love the chocolate. I love seeing the kids dressed up. I love the chocolate. I love the jack o'lanterns. I love handing out the candy. I love the little girl dressed as a fairy princess who saw my cat and instead of saying trick or treat, she asked to pet the cat. I love the chocolate. I love the fun. I love when kids are polite. Did I mention I love the chocolate?

There are just a few things I don't like about Halloween. I don't like how it's almost always cold here for Halloween. (At least it's not raining or snowing this year!) I don't like when parents drive in a car along the street following their kid instead of walking with them. (Lazy wimps!) I don't like the older kids that don't even bother dressing up, but will still come to the door with a sack. (I'm fine with the older kids trick or treating, just make a little effort in the costume department!)

I think I'd like to start the trick or beer tradition in our neighborhood.

Any good or bad surprises for you for Halloween?

Happy Blogaversary to me!

2007-10-31T10:02:00.000-07:00

I'm 3 yrs old in blog years today.

Have a fun and happy Halloween!

Something to do this weekend

2007-10-23T17:36:00.001-07:00

If you don't have plans (or your plans aren't as cool as this) you could always enjoy some time with like-minded folks:

http://oct27.org/

I tried....

2007-10-21T22:02:00.000-07:00

I tried to fix the mower. I finally gave up. I ended up using the push mower on the extra-long grass with all the leaves. Basically, I would mow one "stripe" up the yard, stop, empty the bag, do another stripe, stop, empty the bag.... It got old very fast. After awhile, I ended up hollering for hubby to get out and help me. I would mow then make him dump the bag. It worked for me. (He definitely had the harder of the two jobs. Heh heh.)

Hubby and I were going to push the old mower back into the shed in the backyard, but decided it was too far to push it, so we put it by the curb. I had planned on making a sign: "free if you want it - it doesn't work" and see if someone wanted to take it. I didn't even get the sign made when someone stopped and asked me if I was getting rid of it. (Usually, if something is by the curb - in that section of grass between the sidewalk and street - it's there for the trash.) I told him all about it, and said if he wanted a fall/winter project, it would keep him busy. We agreed on a price (free) and off it went! I'm glad to have it gone. It was fun to practice and learn some small engine mechanics on that mower though. I got some good experience out of it.

Tomorrow's project? I'm going to replace a light switch in the bathroom. It seems it's haunted. It sometimes doesn't want to turn the lights on. And if you leave the switch in the *on* position, the lights will finally decide when they want to light up. I'm pretty sure it's just a bad switch, so tomorrow is a visit to the home improvement store! Yay! I'll probably come home with all sorts of stuff to put in that bathroom instead of just walking out with a 50 cent light switch....

Hubby didn't get home until 7am today. And it will be that late again tomorrow morning. Most gals would be ticked off to have their hubby come home at 7am. Mine is guarding a crime scene tonight. I'm so proud of him and the work he does. He usually enjoys it too. He has no desire to move up in rank. He's happy in the position he's in now. I joke that he'll retire right where he's at. He doesn't joke that it could be the truth.

Ladies Man

2007-10-18T21:15:00.001-07:00

Waitress: "You impress me."

Frodo: "That's what they all say."

Go figure!

2007-10-17T20:21:00.000-07:00

Mom went home from the hospital today. They were doing the "advance diet as tolerated" bit, so every time they brought her something to eat, they increased the "complexity" of the item. For supper last night, she had mashed potatoes, apple crisp, and pork tenderloin! And she felt like going home. So the doc said all was looking well and we'll see ya later!

***************************************

We have a riding lawn mower that is stored in a shed and it only comes out in the fall when all the leaves start blanketing the yard. This year, I tried getting it out and running, like I do every fall. But this year, it wouldn't start. I'd turn the key and get nuthin'. Not even a *click* noise. So I proceeded to check everything I could think of - I checked the battery. (Charged and fine.) I checked the gas tank. (Small amount, just to get it going.) I checked the oil. (Looks good.) I made sure all the safety precautions were correct - someone sitting on the seat, depressing the clutch pedal, and the cutting deck is raised. So out came the owner's manual with the "troubleshooting" section. As soon as it started saying things such as "get two wires and cross them over the selenoid" I knew I was in too deep. So I called a service that actually comes to your home and does work on small engines.

He came the following day. Nice guy. I watched what he was doing so I could learn a little bit. He started by doing the same steps I did. Then he did the "cross to wires across the selenoid" thing, except he used two screwdrivers. We got spark and appropriate noise. So that part is fine. He figured we had a bad ignition switch, and installed a new one. No change. He asks me for the owner's manual with the electrical diagram. (I already had it open to that page as I had perused it myself the previous day.) He says that he could load it up in his truck, take it back to his shop, test all the wires, and try to figure it out but that would probably run me a couple hundred bucks.

"Do you want to spend that kind of money on a 16 year old lawn tractor?" he asks.

"Uh, not really", I reply.

"Well, there's one other thing you can do. But I can't do it myself because of liability. But if you're interested, I can tell you exactly what to do. And it'll only run you about 10 bucks total" he says.

"Speak to me!" I say.

He proceeds to tell me he thinks maybe one of the safety switches is bad. Doesn't know which one, but they can easily be bypassed. All I need to do is go to the automotive section of the local *Farm and Barn* store and buy a switch. He describes the switch to me. And I'll need some wire if I don't already have some. After I get home with that shopping list of goodies, I am to drill an appropriate sized hole in the fender of the old lawn tractor - near this selenoid. Then I can attach a couple wires to the switch and a couple wires to the selenoid, and *voila!*, I can push the button to start the mower.

I tell ya, I learn something new every day.

So I went shopping. Came home with the bounty from the farm store. And I installed the switch all by myself. The retired neighbor across the street came over to ask what I was doing and he was impressed. I tell ya, I would MUCH rather do this kind of thing instead of the dreadful cleaning, laundry, and cooking crap.

It took me about an hour. I got it all hooked up. I just *had* to try and start it. I pressed the button. The engine was trying to turn over, but wouldn't catch, so I released the starter button and let it rest a moment. Then I pressed again. It tried again, and I did not get the desired result. Rest again little red lawn tractor....

One last try - I press the button. Once again, it's trying to start, but not quite making it. I release the button. Uh oh. It won't stop trying. Oh crap. I jiggle the button, I press and release it again. Nothing stopping. (But the engine not starting either.) I jump off the seat only to notice smoke/steam coming from underneath. I quick grab a screwdriver and unhook one of the wires and it finally stops. And something smells. It's now late and dark. But at least my garage is not on fire. So I go to bed somewhat satisfied that I was able to get the machine to at least *try*! I was electrocuted as a child after sticking a key into a light socket and I have had a very healthy respect for electricity ever since. So this was a big step for me to attempt this! (Any one else singing the schoolhouse rock "Electricity" song right now? Or is it just me?)

Today, I volunteered in the school libray then spent the afternoon trapped indoors at a stupid computer class for work. (System upgrade! Yee haw. Reread that with sarcasm if you missed it the first time.) I never got to check and see if I fried some wires. I'll tackle that again later. For now, the tall grass praire that is my yard will just have to wait for it's trim.

And I'm just a rambling fool tonight. I'm struggling a bit with my depression crapola. I've talked with others who are also struggling recently as well. I hate this part of this time of year. I wish the rain would stop so I could play outside more. Sigh. I did play hooky from work on Tuesday afternoon this week, and that was good. :)

How the eff???

2007-10-15T20:54:00.000-07:00

How in the world do I reply to the folks that post to me? I've replied to posts on other blogs and bloggers have occasionally sent me a nice email reply. How does one do that? If I reply to the note from my email, I get a return email. So how do I do the friendly reply thing? I like to be friendly. I don't want to be rude.

That's all I wanted to know for now. Back to your regularly scheduled programming.

By the way...

2007-10-14T11:32:00.000-07:00

...my mom is doing well. Her surgery went well, recovery was a bit harsh with them trying to deal with pain management for her. (She eventually had an epidural placed and loved it!) Other than that, The staff at this small northwoods hospital is great. They are knowledgeable and very friendly. (Some of the small town hospitals around my area are known for being the kind you should drive right past, even if you are squirting blood from your neck....)

And FIL has been behaving for the most part. He's had just a few moments where we need to redirect his train of thought. I think just having someone there with him has helped him. When he's alone, I think his mind starts thinking all sorts of crazy things. But as long as someone else is there, he has something to focus on.

So thank you all for your thoughts during this time. Overall, things are going well. We just have to have time and patience as her body does it's healing now.

Thoughts on motherhood

2007-10-14T10:12:00.001-07:00

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21292612/

I found this interesting article that talks about which jobs have the highest rates of depression. At the top of the list is "personal care workers" - those who care for children, elderly, and disabled. Second, are those who "prepare and serve food", such as waitresses and cooks. Tied for third are health care workers and social workers.

Now look at those above job duties and think of what moms do. They care for children and parents, and occasionally disabled children or parents. They prepare food. They are nurse and counselor for the family. And the more a person spends at home doing these things and nothing else, the more she runs the risk of falling into depression.

Granted, some moms thrive on being a mom. And I'm the first to admit that I'm jealous of those moms that can handle all those duties with happiness and grace. For me, I need a little bit more of a balance - I need some time at home and some time away from home. I can't have too much of one or the other, or I am out of balance. I *could* work more and have more money, but then I would be out of balance.

I fully respect every mom's choice of what works for her and her family. For some moms, that means working full-time. For other moms it means staying home full-time. For me, I need a bit of both. When Frodo was a baby, I stayed home almost full-time. (I worked very limited hours, and only when hubby was home with the child.) I spiraled into a severe depression quite rapidly. I finally got treatment for it and improved. Then, when my nephew was born and my sister and her hubby were very broke and she needed some daycare, I stepped up. I thought I could handle it "this time", especially since I knew it was just part of the day and I could sleep at night, and because I was being treated for my depression.

I did NOT do well again. I got the "fun" of post-partum depression without the fun of being pregnant again. I'm just not wired to be a stay-at-home mom exclusively. Just like I'm not wired to be a full-time working mom either.

And that's what all moms need to figure out - what is a good balance for you? Because if mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!

Getting familiar with a long drive....

2007-10-09T05:06:00.000-07:00

I was just up north this weekend to visit *the parents*. It was planned a short while ago and baby sister and her hubby were going to be there too. I was excited to visit with everyone and to see the beautiful fall leaves.

Then mom emails on Thursday that a surgery that was in the works for her had finally been set. For Wednesday. Not a problem. Except for her hubby....

Last time mom was in the hospital, he was a basketcase. Actually, that's an understatement. What's beyond basketcase? And you'd think that since this hospital visit is planned ahead, he'd deal with it better than a surprise hospital stay, but nooooo. He's just starting his beyond basketcase-edness ahead of time. But since this hospital stay is planned, much planning and plotting has conspired. And the first part of this plan involves me.

I'm driving back up there after work today so I can basically babysit a 72 year old man.

Let me back up a bit and explain her hubby. First off, he was my father-in-law before he was her hubby. I just did a blog search and I can't find where I've ever explained this. My hubby and I met almost 20 years ago. Both our sets of parents were still alive and married to each other. My parents divorced in 1991. My mother-in-law passed away from ovarian cancer in 1998. She used to do typing for my father-in-law's work on occasion. After his wife was gone, FIL needed some typing done. He knew my mom was a secretary, so he stopped by her work to ask if she would work for him occasionally as a typist. She asked what he needed typed and he handed her a few papers. She typed them up in no time flat and refused to accept payment since it was easy and took no time. He insisted on paying SOMETHING, so he offered to take her out for lunch. They had a nice time and realized they enjoyed each other's company quite a bit. They started dating. Then in August 2000, they eloped to Las Vegas. Family holidays have been so very easy ever since. ;)

Anyhow, fast forward to last winter when mom was hospitalized and FIL was misbehaving terribly. He was trying to sneak into the hospital after visiting hours after being kicked out for not leaving. He is like a toddler - always poking and asking questions and wanting to talk and wanting attention. It's exhausting. This is how he is on a routine day!! And the more stressed he is, the worse he is. The more tired he is, the worse he is. The more pain he has of his own, the worse he is. (He has a chronic back problem.) So him trying to sneak into the hospital after visiting hours so he can barely sleep in an uncomfortable chair and constantly bother mom and not eat and not remember to take his own medications or even take care of himself at all is setting him up for nothing but trouble. He's actually been known to try and CLIMB INTO THE HOSPITAL BED TO SNUGGLE. I am not kidding. (He has no abandonment issues from his childhood, does he?!?!??)

So when I get there, I will be hiding all sets of car keys. He will be instructed to not drive anywhere - I will be his chauffeur. I have a release of medical information so the medical staff can discuss mom's condition with me since FIL was such a poor reporter before. I will be speaking to the nurses to let them know that he has a past history of misbehaving. And the brief time he will be left alone when I leave to come back home but before sister-in-law gets up there, he may try to misbehave. They will have my phone number to reach me. (And I also happen to know the sheriff of that county - it's the dad of a good friend of mine. Heh heh.)

And I already informed FIL that I do NOT have bail money.

Way to go Senate!

2007-09-28T05:03:00.001-07:00

Kudos to the Senate for passing this bill!

Boos to the president for vowing to veto it. It will then go back to the House and Senate to try and get the 2/3 majority to override the veto. More kudos to the Senate for already having the 2/3 majority support. Boos to the House for not having that support.

Too bad we don't have universal healthcare so this wouldn't even have to be a worry!

Just a quick note to say...

2007-09-26T19:36:00.000-07:00

I *heart* this judge:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20999950/

Maybe there are others that would like to bring more provisions of the Patriot Act to her court. I'd love to see the whole thing tossed out! :)

Thank you!

2007-09-26T10:28:00.000-07:00

Thanks MidlifeMutant, KinnicChick, and CursingMama for the advice you have given. I always find it helps to hear from others, especially those in "been there, done that" shoes.

I guess I'm struggling with the visit, not so much because I want to see grandma, but I'm thinking it's expected of me to visit. It's not that I need any chance to say goodbye, it's not that I'm worried about any memories it might make or not make. It's that I believe it is EXPECTED of me to do this.

Both my sisters are driving there this weekend. When I mentioned to lil' sis that I didn't feel I had to go since grandma has no clue who I am anyhow, sis replies, "I'm not going for grandma, I'm going for aunt." (Grandma's daughter - the one who has been taking care of everything.) Now I'm going to look like the "bad" one who didn't show up. ::rolling my eyes here:: I think we'll be going there in a few weeks again anyhow for a funeral since the decision was made to not give grandma a feeding tube.

So I thought this through a bit - I think instead of going now, I might send a card to my aunt. Telling her thanks for taking care of all this and that I hope she's doing ok. She and her mother had a very "difficult" relationship and never really got along, so I feel bad for aunt - it's as though she's being punished by having to do this all herself. Know what I mean?

I think that's what I might do. I think I'll go shopping now and pick out a card.

Grandma's outta the hospital and the stray cat never came back

2007-09-25T06:47:00.000-07:00

That pretty much sums it all up.

After being put in the hospital and having all sorts of tests run, they found nothing physically wrong with grandma. She was sent back to the nursing home where she still refuses to walk and refuses to eat. She's combative with the staff - hitting and scratching at them. The decision was made not to put in a feeding tube - she'd most likely only rip it out anyhow. Goodness help me, but if I ever get that far gone when I'm old, I hope I have the decency to off myself instead of putting everyone else through so much.

I'm struggling with the "should I visit her" feelings. I don't have a close relationship with her. She has no clue who I am. She doesn't recognize her own daughter. What do you think?

******************************

The calico never came back. I asked around the neighborhood if any others had seen her. Turns out about halfway up the block, there are two houses that have trouble with her trying to move into their garage all the time. Any of them would be happy to take them in, except she "belongs" (I'm using that term loosely...) to another family a little farther up the block. This family has basically abandoned her. She had kittens about 12-14 weeks ago. They don't take care of her at all. But then again, they don't do a very good job of taking care of their 6 year old child either. If I see the calico again, I'll probably take her to the humane society where she can get a good home. She's such a sweetie, I'm sure anyone would be happy to have her. If I already didn't have a spoiled rotten cat, I'd take her in!

Interesting turn of events.

2007-09-19T20:37:00.000-07:00

My sister's little one with the Lego up her nose? Ended up in the operating room to get it removed. It wasn't coming out and they didn't want it to stay there where she might inhale it. She's fine. No more Lego in the nose, and no hard feelings against the staff at the hospital.

I've made a note in my head that if it's an M&M, I will advise people to wait until it melts. Melts in your mouth and nostril, not in your hand!

****************************

About the braces Cursing Mama, I should have the orthodontist submit it to my health plan and see if they cover any part of it! (I doubt it, but it would be worth a shot.... It can't hurt to ask.) Although, my health plan is stupid and won't even pay for Frodo's allergy medicine, so we pay out of pocket for it - I can't imagine they would cover any part of the braces. But then again, they are so stupid, they just might....

***************************

It's a gorgeous night tonight - cool and not humid. I'm sitting here enjoying some quality 'puter time, and I hear a noise at the door. I walk over to the door and find a cat out there. It's a calico. (I will call her a 'she' from now on as nearly all calicos are female. Nifty little trivia!) She looks pretty young, but isn't a kitten anymore. She also looks pretty scrawny. She's meowing at my door as though she lives here and I might let her in.

I step outside to check on her. She rubs up against me and purrs and meows. I sit down and pet her. My kitty, the queen of the household does NOT approve of this, and lets me know. She hisses and hisses like I've never seen her hiss before. She's hissing so hard, she sounds like she's trying to hock a loogie. She's growling. Of course, she can act all big and tough - she's inside behind the screen door where she's comfortable, safe, and fed. She definietely does NOT have those motherly instincts you hear about in the news where a cat takes on the responsibility of raising a baby bunny or something.

I'm thinking this stray is awfully cute and sweet. If my kitty were not so averse to it, I would've considered keeping it. Even though she had all her claws, she was pretty filthy, and had some oozing sore under her chin....

I kept petting her for awhile. She was a very friendly cat. I decided the least I could do is offer her a bite to eat. I asked dh to bring out a small bowl of cat food. He brought a fairly large amount, lol. (I always say a good measure of a man's character is to watch how he treats an animal!) She dug into it as though she hadn't eaten in a week. (She probably hadn't.) I came back inside to allow her to eat in peace. And also to check on my own kitty.

I found my kitty sulking in the corner of the bedroom. She did not want to be touched. I tried to pick her up and pet her. She squirmed down, glared at me, and sulked off. I swear, she's like having a teenager in the house. I suppose it's "just a phase".

After the calico ate, she sat on the step for a few minutes. Then she just left. Now I'm feeling sort of used. I wonder if she'll call....

The braces are on again

2007-09-18T20:15:00.000-07:00

Frodo got braces today. Again. Last year, he had partial braces. just the four top middle teeth in conjunction with a palate expander. (We're working on correcting a severe underbite.) The braces and expander came off late last spring, and a retainer was given to hold the current work in place until his mouth "matured". (Meaning we needed to wait for some of those baby teeth to work out and the adult teeth to work in.)

Well, the retainer only fit for about 2 weeks. Then those baby teeth started doing their thing and the retainer didn't fit right. We got it adjusted a couple times. Then the permanent teeth started doing their thing and the retainer would just pop right out of his mouth. Next thing you know, it's only a couple months since the braces came off, and we're being told it's time to put them back on again. On all the teeth this time. I wasn't ready for this. And our checkbook certainly wasn't ready for this! A couple chats with the nice gal that runs the orthodontist office, and we didn't have to make a down payment this time, and the whole price is spread out over the 18 months the braces are scheduled to be on. This boy is gonna have one EXPENSIVE smile! Maybe I'm just making up for my parents not putting braces on me when I should've had them?

He's a bit sore tonight. Either he's handling it well, or the tylenol and naproxen are working good. Maybe it's both. We made a trip to the grocery store to pick out *soft* foods. The assistant at the orthodontist office let Frodo know when she had braces, she got to have a milkshake every night.... (Thanks! Not!) At least Frodo says I make a good milkshake.

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I am in love with a song. I visited Priscilla's blog tonight and she has a post with a slide show of her granddaughter playing some drums. The song she has with the slideshow is amazing. I keep letting it play over and over in the background tonight. I did a lot of searching online to find out the name of the song since clicking on the "song info" link took me to a profile of the artist. The song is called "Praying Mantis" by Geoff Bartley. I think I might be getting myself a CD! ;)

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I went to the doctor last week. I've been diagnosed with hypertension. Does this make me officially old? I was put on a medication - hydrochlorothiazide, aka HCTZ. My headaches seem to be slowly subsiding. I had a very sedentary day over the weekend and had no headache that day. Looks like I need to start leading a life of leisure, ha ha! After a week on the med, my BP was down to 136/92 today. I like that improvement. I'm supposed to stay on it for a month and monitor my blood pressure during that time, then call the doc back to discuss. Hopefully it will keep going down!

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My little sister called me twice today. Once to tell me that our aunt had called her to let her know our grandma was admitted to the hospital today. Grandma has been living in a nursing home for about 18 months (see this post for the history as to why she's there.) It seems that grandma decided one day she didn't want to walk anymore. They checked her out and decided she had a bit of a urinary tract infection. Then she decided she didn't want to eat anymore. They had someone sit with her and feed her, but she just spits it all out. They have put her in the hospital to continue the antibiotics for the UTI, and will most likely drop a feeding tube in her if she won't eat. Auntie said we don't have to come - it's not "last days" type stuff - she just wanted to keep us updated. But I have this feeling I'll be paying a visit shortly.... I had one of my *twilight zone* moments today where I had been thinking about grandma earlier this morning, and little sis called me a couple hours later....

Then little sis called again later - it seems her youngest decided it would be interesting to shove a Lego in her nostril. She wanted to know if I knew any tricks for getting something like that out, or if she needed to take her into a walk-in clinic. I gave her my two best methods - blow the nose while keeping the other nostril closed (didn't work) and use a decongestant nose spray to help shrink the area, then blow. That didn't work either. So off to after-hours care they went. I'm wondering how the visit went.... I bet the little gal won't be sticking a Lego up her nose again! The ear might be another story though....

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My kitty is snoring. That's weird.

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Ok. I'm done rambling for tonight. Time to reque the song yet again! :D

Japanese Politicians Do It Quick

2007-09-12T04:19:00.000-07:00

Our government could take a lesson from these pages:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20732735/

Bullet points from the article for you:

support rating down to 30%
opposition party wins parliment control (only in one house!)
a string of scandals in the government

(Sounds slightly familiar, eh?)

Now THAT'S the way things should happen!

More bodily complaints.

2007-09-06T17:26:00.000-07:00

Is this the crap that starts happening as you near 40? I've had headaches for at least two weeks. One even woke me up out of a dead sleep the other night. On a whim recently, I stuck my arm in the blood pressure machine at the pharmacy. 148/98. (I've been stuck around 135/85 for the past 5 years or so.)

I waited a couple days and checked again. Same reading.

My headache went away for a couple days, and last night while Frodo and I were wandering Target, I stopped at the blood pressure machine at the pharmacy, expecting to find a lower number since the headache was gone. I was in for a surprise. It was 150/100.

Today, the headache came back. I asked a co-worker to check my BP for me. 148/100. What the heck is going on with me?? I don't feel sick otherwise.

I suppose I should go to the doctor. Sigh. I'm sure I'll just get another medicine added to my personal pharmacy.

Ok. I'm done whining.

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Frodo has been in school for three days now, and he LOVES it. He adores his teacher. He's been coming home every night telling me about all sorts of fun things. Last year when we'd ask him "what did you do at school today?", we'd get the answer "I dunno" or "nothing". This year, we're getting all sorts of interesting answers. One involved a quiet conga line down the hall with the school superintendent in the lead. Another story talks about a class contract - the kids made some rules and the teacher made some rules and together they have a class contract that they all sign, including the teacher. I'm starting to wonder if Frodo's teacher worked in human resources somewhere before teaching. LOL.

Mixed emotions

2007-09-04T05:00:00.000-07:00

It's the first day of school for Frodo. Hooray for being back on a routine schedule!

But it's a tad bittersweet today as it's the beginning of his last year in elementary school. It seems like he's only been in elementary school for 3 years at the most! That feeling ranks right up there with the feeling I got when I realized my 20th high school class reunion is coming up. And I think that feeling is regurgitation.

Proud of Iowa!

2007-08-31T04:43:00.000-07:00

I don't go around broadcasting the fact that I was born and (mostly) raised in Iowa. (Mostly because everyone starts asking me about what it was like growing up on a farm. I never lived on a farm!) But today, I can say I am proud to be from Iowa:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/08/30/iowa.samesexmarriage/index.html

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And I sit here just giggling my head off at the scenario Senator Larry Craig has himself wrapped up in right now. So much for Republican Family Values what with him, and Vitter and Foley. I bet many more of those right-wing senators are shaking in their boots hoping they aren't caught next.

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After some really hot weather followed by some really soggy weather, we are finally being rewarded in the midwest with some beautiful weather. Upper 70s/low 80s, sunny, and NOT humid weather in the day with cooler nights. It's heavenly. Except for the hungry mosquitos. After all that rain, we have an explosion in the mosquito population. We've been spoiled in that respect this summer with the warm, dry weather. That is NOT mosquito friendly weather, and therefore, we've had very few. Now we have LOTS and they are HUNGRY. Let's hear it for eau de Deep Woods Off!

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I hate lots of stuff

2007-08-28T22:24:00.001-07:00

Maybe "hate" is a bit too strong a word. Nahhh....

I have a list of things that are bothering me today:

I hate my current backache. It's low in my back. It started a couple weeks ago, and I blamed it on getting my period (I get back cramps sometimes). But just yesterday, it got worse for no specific reason. Other than the fact that I spent extra time sitting on my ass playing Peggle. That is one addicting game!
I hate people that always blame their problems on others. Let's blame a newspaper? Whateverrrrr.... Sorry, but if you're a politician, you've developed a thick skin and what a newspaper says will not affect you. There is no way you could reach higher office without being able to ignore what some newspaper editors have to say about you. And a "wide stance when going to the bathroom"?!?!? I nearly fell over laughing about that one.
I hate famous people that *suddenly* find God or Jesus when it seems to suit their needs. (Yes, I'm talking to you Michael Vick and Paris Hilton.) Give me a break. It comes across as so fake and insincere.
I hate stupid drivers that shouldn't have a license. I think I'll start keeping a pen and paper handy so I can jot down some license plate numbers and post them publically on this website. I was >this<>
I hate rain right now. We're a bit soaked here right now. My grass is growing like it's on steroids.

Even though I'm full of complaints today, I do have things I love:

I love the visit we had at my ds's school tonight. We had a brief "come and meet the teacher" night at school. All the kids got to see who their teacher is and where their classroom would be. Frodo's teacher this year is a new one - fresh outta college. He's young. (26) And yes, I said "he". It's not often you meet a male teacher that likes teaching elementary school. Frodo is THRILLED to have a male teacher. And the teacher seems to have a great sense of humor that will match Frodo perfectly. This should be a good year for him.
I love Leinenkugel's Honey Weiss beer. Mmmmm.
And Reese's Pieces. Mmmmm again.
I love air conditioning. It rocks.
I love true-life forensic science tv shows. Maybe that will be my next career.
I love the website I Can Has Cheezburger. I save it as the last site I visit each night so I can go to bed with a smile.

And I love sleep. And with that, I'm off to bed. After I check ICHC. :)

I need a vacation from my return from vacation

2007-08-13T20:28:00.000-07:00

I always make sure to clean my house before vacation. It takes one thing off the list of things to do upon returning. It finally rained while we were gone, so I had a jungle to mow. And all the laundry! And unpacking! And checkbook balancing! And grocery shopping! It's enough to make one consider swearing off vacations. Just briefly.

I would never give up that one week each summer we spend at the lake. It's heavenly there. Except for when it gets really hot and the cabins don't have air conditioning. We only suffered one day out of the whole week. I think we were the only place in the nation below 90 last week.

I got to go fishing quite often. I love going fishing. It's so serene. Mostly, I like the water and the sunshine and the trees and listening to the breeze and the loons. And casting is like meditation - casting out, reeling in, casting out, reeling in.... Over and over. Half the time, I could care less if I caught any fish. (Especially since I don't like to eat any.)

The days go by too quickly when we are there. What I wouldn't give to have Trek-like transporter to get me there whenever I wanted! Or at least my own private pilot and jet. That will be for when hubby and I make our 19th million. (We already have plans for the other millions so far. I think we're on 19th now.)

Highlights of the trip:

Frodo was swimming one day and had some bluegills nibbling on his ankle. He wasn't so fond of that. I thought it was hilarious. I give him tons of credit though - even after that happened, he was back in the water swimming the next day!
Medicine Man brought his sister along. She was LOADS of fun and just a treat to hang out with. She's a wise woman who has been on a very bumpy road in life, but now makes the best of things. My kind of gal.
Baby sister and her hubby came for a few days. The last time she was there, I was 18 and she was 7. (She's 26 now. I'll make you do the math for my age.) That was the first time I took hubby to this lake. It was the summer my grandpa was selling his house on the lake.
Sis-in-law behaved. I was worried she would feel like she was not busy enough, and would pester all of us to go do things all the time, but she did ok! Yay!
Between me, hubby, sis-in-law, her hubby, and a very old book, we pieced together how to play canasta. Hubby and I used to play canasta with his parents when he and I were first married, but since mom-in-law passed away, we haven't played. It's a fun game. (Am I old for thinking canasta is fun?)
We saw some weird fish activity in one part of the lake - we kept seeing areas where littler fish were *bouncing* on the surface of the water. We figured a larger fish was preying on them and they were trying to escape. Then just once, we saw a muskie swimming along with his head sticking out of the water, like it was some sea monster. It was the oddest thing I'd ever seen. Unfortunately, the camera was not fast enough to catch this strange behavior. I did some research online, and can only find one reference to this behavior. Maybe sometime I'll find some old-time fishing guide and ask him about it too. It was really neat to see, even if it was strange.
The mosquitos and deer flies were in lower numbers than previous trips. :D

Lowlights of the trip:

Baby sis has taken up smoking again. Sigh.
I got a deer fly bite on my finger. My ring finger. With my wedding ring. I react pretty severely to deer fly bites - the little monsters (which I am sure are straight from hell) are the bane of my existence. (Check out the part in that link about how they bite.... Yeouch!) I tried getting my wedding ring off. It's already a bit small since I weigh about 30 pounds heavier now than I did when I was married. I couldn't get it off. My finger puffed up to about three times it's size. It started turning purple from loss of circulation. I iced it. I took Benadryl. I started walking toward the resort owner's home up the lane to get a pair of bolt cutters or some sort of tool to cut my ring off. (The ring can be fixed. I didn't like the idea of losing my finger.) Then the ice and Benadryl started kicking in and the feeling started returning to my finger. It's 4 days later and my finger is looking just a teensy bit puffy. When I get three wishes from a genie someday, I will use one of those wishes to get rid of deer flies.
I cried the last night we were there. I didn't want the week to be over. I've never been that emotional at the end of the week before. Sigh. (And no, I'm not PMSing. I checked thinking that was the case.)

I like how the highlights outnumber the lowlights. That's always a good sign.

VACATION!

2007-08-02T21:08:00.000-07:00

The car is packed. I'm ready to go. Have to wait 'til morning though....

Planned a new driving route that won't take us through the Twin Cities. We weren't going to have to drive over that particular bridge, but traffic in the Cities is bad enough, and add in all that re-routed traffic, news people, and I'm certain there are gawkers too, and I don't want to deal with all that. It sure is a scary and very sad situation.

I broke my fishing pole getting it into the car, so I'm gonna have to get a new one tomorrow too. :P

I'll be back late next weekend!

Crappy Week

2007-07-28T10:09:00.001-07:00

Our internet went down this week. I hate when my technonlogy doesn't work properly. Turns out we had a defective power cable on the wireless router. It only took four phone calls and two visits from the technicians over 3 days to figure it all out....

Thursday, my sis-in-law called once asking for professional advice about her daughter's stomach ache. Then she called later asking hubby about a flooded bathroom. My hubby is NOT a plumbing person. He told her to call a plumber.

Friday morning, sis-in-law called again about her daughter - "stomach ache is worse, what do I do now?" I tried talking to her, but ended up telling her I'd put her on my doc's schedule that morning because she needed extra reassurance. I got in my car to go to work and found my clutch wasn't working. So I had to get into hubby's car and take it to work.

Once at work, I put my niece on our schedule, and called the dealership about my car. Fortunately, I'm under warranty. We got a tow truck lined up. I called home to get hubby awake to let the tow truck driver in our garage, but he wouldn't wake up for the phone. I ended up calling a friend that lives up the street and gave him the access code to our garage door opener and he took care of things for me. :) Turns out something called a "clutch slave cylinder" went bad. Never heard of it. They were able to get it fixed that day and I got my car home after work! I loved signing the paper saying it was $0. The warranty has paid for itself now. Yeah!

Now I have a half dozen things to do today before Frodo and I are gone for a couple days again. Then I come back, work one last day, then pack for vacation! I can't wait for Friday to come when I get to start the drive.

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As promised, here's how the presidential selector matched me up:

Your Results:
1. Theoretical Ideal Candidate (100%)
2. Alan Augustson (campaign suspended) (83%)
3. Dennis Kucinich (83%)
4. Barack Obama (80%)
5. Joseph Biden (75%)
6. Wesley Clark (not announced) (73%)
7. Hillary Clinton (73%)
8. Al Gore (not announced) (72%)
9. Christopher Dodd (72%)
10. Michael Bloomberg (not announced) (69%)
11. John Edwards (67%)
12. Mike Gravel (66%)
13. Bill Richardson (58%)
14. Ron Paul (55%)
15. Kent McManigal (campaign suspended) (46%)
16. Elaine Brown (42%)
17. John McCain (30%)
18. Rudolph Giuliani (30%)
19. Tommy Thompson (28%)
20. Chuck Hagel (not announced) (20%)
21. Mike Huckabee (20%)
22. Mitt Romney (20%)
23. Newt Gingrich (not announced) (15%)
24. Fred Thompson (not announced) (13%)
25. Sam Brownback (13%)
26. Tom Tancredo (12%)
27. Jim Gilmore (withdrawn) (11%)
28. Duncan Hunter (10%)

Not too many surprises.... except for the person I matched most to, I had never heard of before. Ideally, I'd still like to see Russ Feingold on the ticket, even though he has stated he isn't going to run. :(

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If I don't get off my arse now, I'll end up sitting here all day, getting NOTHING done. I don't have that luxury today. Darn it all. Later!

Having trouble deciding....

2007-07-18T16:20:00.000-07:00

...about who to support for the 2008 presidential election? I mean, it's only 16 months away. Who hasn't already decided? (Ha. Re-read the previous two sentences with sarcasm if you missed it the first time.)

This starting extra early crap just bugs the heck outta me. We're gonna be so burned out on "presidential politics" by THIS November, let alone NEXT November.

If you're interested though, here is an online tool that helps match you up with the candidate that best matches your stance on issues:

http://www.selectsmart.com/president/2008.html

Then come back and let me know who you matched up with. I took it, and my first choice came up with "Theoretical Ideal Candidate". I bet I could write that one in....

I'll let you know who I matched best with later.

Sleepover!

2007-07-16T22:13:00.000-07:00

Remember going on a sleepover at a friend's house? The tv, the talking, the playing, the fun. It was so awesome to be able to sleepover with a friend.

Now I'm on the flipside of the sleepover - I'm the parent. I still don't think they're asleep. But hey, I don't have to look nice when the plumber shows up in the morning. ;)

Frodo's best friend is here tonight. They don't go to the same school anymore, but we still get them together often. They're two peas in a pod.

Originally, Best Friend came over to play for a few hours. Then the boys were begging us to have a sleepover. We caved. They're having fun and they really play well together.

Maybe as grown ups we should occasionally have sleepovers - stay at a friend's house and eat lots of treats and watch whatever we want to watch on tv. I bet we can't stay up as late anymore though.

This cracks me up...

2007-07-13T05:25:00.000-07:00

This website gives me the giggles:

http://icanhascheezburger.com/

...even though the grammar and spelling gives me the heebie-jeebies a bit. It's part of the charm though. It wouldn't be quite as funny without the weird spelling and grammar - it forces me to read the captions with a funny accent.

Have a happy start to your weekend!

This smells funny...

2007-07-11T20:24:00.000-07:00

Bush orders Miers to defy House subpoena

Actually, the whole "executive privilege" use stinks to high heaven. What do they have to hide that they don't want anyone finding out? Only the guilty run from questioning....

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Frodo's baseball season is done. His team won first place in the league and then first place in an end-of-season tournament. He had phenomenal coaches. And the team was a whole bunch of nice kids. Usually there's one or two that are, well.... BRATS. Not this year! Two great coaches plus 11 great kids equals a really fun season. I'm gonna miss it! (And I'm gonna miss seeing the good lookin' coach every now and then too, lol!)

There was an *end-of-season* team party tonight at the home of one of the parents. It was loads of fun. The weather was perfect for an outside party. As some of us were chatting on the patio, I touched my hair and realized some pine sap had dropped onto it from a tree above. I've had pine sap on things before and it is nearly impossible to remove. I was worried what I was going to have to do to my hair! When I got home, I did some poking around the internet, and found a site that mentioned different "remedies" for removing pine sap from cars, tables, tents, and pets. And guess what works? Deep Woods Off. Living in one of the states that claims the mosquito as the state bird, we fortunately have some in the house.

I was a bit leery about spraying the Deep Woods Off on my hair. What would it do to my hair besides repel mosquitos and ticks? I figured I really didn't have a choice - the only other way I was going to get pine sap out of my hair was to cut it out. So I sprayed. Then rubbed the sap area. Then rinsed with warm water. Then I decided I better wash the Deep Woods Off from my hair, so I grabbed the closest shampoo I could find - a strawberry scented kids shampoo. Now I smell pine fresh AND strawberry sweet! But I don't have pine sap in my hair anymore. It really works! I was shocked.

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On another personal hygeine note, I have horribly cracked skin on the heels of my feet. Does anyone have any suggestions for improvement? And I can't do the thing with the socks on the feet with lotion while I sleep. I can't sleep with socks on my feet. I just can't. I have a couple weird quirks like that. (Another is that I can't have my hair over my ears. Both of those things drive me absolutely nuts.)

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My next gripe is about gas prices. In an unusual stroke of luck, I filled up my car the day BEFORE the prices took a big jump up. (Usually I don't go to the gas station one evening just to find the next morning the price went up 10 cents a gallon.) I filled up two days ago at $3.04. Today, the price is $3.40!! I know the news - some refinery is down for repairs and another is flooded in Kansas. Whatever. It's not like we see the prices come back down when the repairs are completed and production is back online.

I honestly think the past increases in gas prices are just "conditioning" for us. They jump up 20 cents, then fall only 5 cents. This cycle goes on and on until we're conditioned at a point now where we'd be tickled pink to see gas below $3 per gallon. And this as the oil companies are making HUGE profits.

I'm so tired of the greed culture we have in the US. Money above everything! It makes me ill.

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Two very different perspectives....

2007-06-25T19:48:00.000-07:00

I just read two very different stories with two very different endings. I REALLY want to share them with all of you.

Story 1

Story 2

After reading them, please share your thoughts. I have thoughts I want to share, but I don't want to spoil the endings.

I think....

2007-06-24T10:10:00.001-07:00

..that nudge in the last set of comments was directed towards me to say something. :o

I know I've been absent. I've been busy. (Crappy-ass excuse, I know.) Here's something I was busy with about 10 days ago:

Yep, I went and got a tattoo. I used my birthday money for it. :D I've been considering a tattoo for about, oh, almost 20 years (since I was in college - the first time). This is an angel on my shoulder. The flash reflected in the bacitracin ointment. Once it finishes healing, I'll get a better photo. I still have some dry/peely patches in a couple spots.

Other than that, it's just been status quo for me - nothing exciting, nothing dramatic, nothing earth shattering. I'm a boring person.

At a very odd time of year, I've been having some up and down mood swings. Usually in summer, I do pretty good. Nothing in particular has triggered this. I'm just having some *blah* days. (But some good ones scattered in there too!) I think I just need a vacation from work. I have one coming up in about 5 weeks. Now that I've just counted that down, it's nice knowing it'll be coming soon. :)

I think I also just need to stop reading/watching the news because it just ticks me off.

If I had more money, I'd be spending more time outside doing some landscaping/gardening work. I have so many ideas for my yard. But right at this time, any extra money I have is going to pay for a speeding ticket I got. (Yes, the wife of a cop can still get a ticket.) I was in another county where nobody would know hubby. And yes, I was speeding. So Tuesday, I can go to court and get it reduced a little for showing up like a "responsible" citizen.

Little League baseball season is *almost * over for Frodo. Currently, his team is in first place. I love his coaches this year. Last year's coach was pretty boring - hardly ever held practice to teach the boys anything. This year's coaches have practice occasionally, and it's fun watching the kids improve over the season. And they are nice guys too. There's one kiddo on the team that is a phenomenal player. When he goes pro, I'll let you all know.

I need to mow today, but I also feel like taking a nap. Always responsible me will go mow though. Sigh. I've gotta stop being so responsible. ;)

Thank You Cindy

2007-05-28T22:04:00.000-07:00

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/5/28/12530/1525

You are one of my heroes.

Light at the end of the tunnel

2007-05-23T10:02:00.001-07:00

I'm nearing the end of a 12 day stretch of work/obligations. Today is day 10. Saturday, actually, Friday night, cannot come soon enough. There will definitely be some beverage consumption of the alcoholic type this weekend.

At least I'll have a kick ass paycheck. That should cover the new clothes for my growing boys. Yes, plural. Frodo doesn't fit in ANY of his shorts from last summer. Last night, we went shopping at Kohl's for some new ones. (I *heart* Kohl's!) Hubby needed some new t-shirts, so he picked a few out. While we're shopping, he mentions that his shorts from last summer have "shrunk". Ummmm.... That isn't accurate sweetie. They didn't shrink. You grew.

Sigh. Time to head to part 2 of "electronic medical record" training. :P

Sooooo white trash....

2007-05-12T19:30:00.000-07:00

Frodo and I went to the mall this evening. I had a coupon for $10 off a $10 purchase at Penneys, and I'm not one to basically turn down free money. I was hoping to buy myself a shirt or two, but I couldn't find anything I liked. Frodo ended up with a pair of shorts and a new t-shirt for $8 after the coupon, so at least it got some good use.

At our mall, a couple stores have taken to putting in CARTS. It looks quite Wally World-ish with carts in those stores, but oh well. What really gets to me though, is the people that take the carts from those stores and push them around the mall!!! There are signs in those stores that specifically state 'The carts in this store are provided for use while shopping in our store and are not to be removed from the premises" (but it probably says it more concisely than I just did). I just don't understand the need to push a cart around the MALL. It's so damn tacky. And the cart pusher looks like a total dumb ass, not only because he/she is pushing a cart in the mall, but also because they were dumb enough to not see (or even to be able to read )a sign that said to leave the cart in the store.

Ok. I'm done ranting on that subject for now. And I'm about to fall asleep sitting up in my chair. (Yay for tapering to a low dose of prednisone! I can sleep again!)

Chewy.

2007-05-08T20:49:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend, my sweet hubby went to the grocery store and purchased some orange juice and chicken soup for me. Mmmmm.

I opened the second container of orange juice tonight.

It's "Lots of Pulp".

There's nothing quite like having to chew your OJ.....

Maybe I can make some smoothies out of it.

I thought I was gonna die....

2007-05-05T21:45:00.000-07:00

Well, not quite, but that option might've been a little more pleasant.

Starting late Tuesday night, I had a little bit of a cough. It started while I was digging in some boxes in a slightly musty corner of my basement. I was getting ready for the big garage sale weekend by finding the last of the items that were doing nothing but taking up space. I figured the cough was due to the musty smell or some dust I stirred up.

Wednesday, I woke up with *that feeling* - you know, the feeling that you're coming down with something. I tried to ignore it. That lasted all of about an hour before I was ready to take a nap. I napped for a couple hours and felt a little better, so I worked on carting all my priced items over to my sister's house for the garage sale.

While we were unpacking some boxes into her garage, you wouldn't believe the number of people that kept coming up and looking around like we were having the sale right then and there! We had our cars in the driveway, and things in boxes everywhere. At least some people had the manners to actually ask if we were ready yet. So at least all of humanity isn't dumb as a box of rocks. Just part of it.

Thursday, I got up and had to do one of my least favorite things to do - call in sick to work. Seriously, I'm one of those psycho people who feels uber responsible about things like that. I know. I'm weird. I have a great boss though, and I really like my job.... (And it helps that I don't have to work full-time. I can stay out of the crappy office politics that way.)

Back on subject though - my immenent death. I called in sick Thursday because I spiked a fever of 104 with painful chills and had a terrible cough. My whole body ached. I hoped a day of rest, fluids, and acetaminophen would get me back on track.

Friday, I got up, and I wasn't better at all. I was worse. I was still running the high fever, I was still incredibly achy, and now I couldn't speak without coughing. I called in sick to work again. This time I didn't feel as bad about calling in because I felt like I had been run over by a truck that then backed over me a couple times then parked on my chest and revved it's engine before taking off and dragging me behind it down the interstate.

My hubby worked the night before and was sleeping, so I waited it out for a bit before I made him take me to the doctor. I spent a few hours at the doctor's office getting an IV since a high fever and a bad cough cause one to get dehydrated faster than one can drink orange juice and water. A bag of fluids and a shot of pain reliever later, and I was quite surprised at how much better I felt. I was also surprised that my teeth weren't floating. I really thought I was doing an ok job of keeping myself hydrated. I wasn't. After the IV, I got hooked up with a handful of prescriptions - prednisone, codeine cough syurp and an albuterol inhaler.

Tonight, the second day of taking prednisone, I'm a bit wired and unable to sleep. I guess that's where the codeine will come in? I still cough, but only if I move around. As long as I stay still, I hardly cough. And I can *almost* speak a whole sentence without a cough tonight! I like when things show a progression in the right direction.

This was a pleasant reminder that just because it's nice out doesn't mean influenza isn't still around. (Check out the recent spike on this surveillance graph from the CDC.) And that if I'm ever offered a flu shot in October again, I will definitely be WAITING. Hubby and Frodo got their flu shots in December and skated right through this with minor problems. I had my flu shot in October because an *extra* was lying around the clinic on a Friday afternoon and we didn't want it to go to waste.... From now on, I stick to my Thanksgiving flu shot schedule!

At least now I don't feel like I'm going to die. Now I'm going to see what I can do about getting to sleep while on higher doses of prednisone....

No kidding!?!?

2007-04-30T21:23:00.000-07:00

I was at one of my least favorite stores earlier today. Wally-hell is just one of those places I go to only when I HAVE to.

As I'm leaving, I notice a bulletin board by the door. On the bulletin board is a collection of recall notices. One mentions the Easy Bake Oven. It states, "Young children can insert their hands into the oven’s opening and get their hands or fingers caught, posing an entrapment and burn hazard."

And I'm thinking that this was pretty much standard knowledge - that if you stuck your hand in the Easy Bake Oven, it would get burned. I guess not.

My other favorite on the board had to do with a building toy called "Magnetix". With a name like that, guess what it has plenty of in the set? Did you say magnets? You're awfully smart! This recall states, "If a child swallows more than one tiny powerful magnet detached from the plastic building pieces or one such magnet and a metallic object, the objects can attract to each other inside the intestines". The last science class I took told me magnets had this fancy trick of being attracted to each other or other metal objects. Once again, I didn't think this information was a surprise.

This all remids me of the Bill Engvall skits with "Here's Your Sign".

G'nite!

Shiny!

2007-04-26T18:01:00.000-07:00

I'm typing this post on my fancy, new-fangled laptop! So if things are spelled wrong, it's because I can't type for crap on this keyboard. The desktop has this big, ergonomic keyboard. I have a hard time typing on this flat keyboard.

It's purty. It's shiny. It works fast. It's wireless! I can sit on the couch and surf the 'net! When it's nice out again and stops raining, I'll be able to sit OUTSIDE and surf the 'net. Technology rocks!!!

I'm considering putting a password protection on the laptop so hubby can't use it when I'm not around. I'm afraid he'll visit some website and try to upload some great new *internet accelerator* or what not. Hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. And if it's new, don't get it messy!!! I think I have him threatened enough that he'll leave it alone....

I spent the last couple evenings moving all my favorites from the desktop to the laptop. It's almost like packing up and moving house. You don't realize how much crap you accumulate in just 3 years until you have to move it. One by one, I clicked on every link in my favorites folders. I found some that were no longer valid, so they got deleted. I found some I never realized I had. They didn't get moved. I found some I loved and had forgotten. Then, as I would decide which ones were keepers, I would copy and paste a link into an email. I sent the email to myself, and opened the email on my new computer, opened each link, then saved it. I wonder if there's an easier way.... Too late now.

My next project will be to make backup files of all the photos on the desktop. How do the rest of you store your digital photos? On CD? On a jump drive? At a photo hosting website? Heck, I probably have enough printer paper to print a copy of each one out. (Some "buy one get one free" sale at Office Depot.... I'm a sucker for a bargain.)

I should've seen this one coming

2007-04-16T20:28:00.000-07:00

I have a few bucks saved up towards a laptop for myself. Just think - I'll be able to spend time on the internet without hubby leaning over my shoulder. I'm in heaven just imagining it!

A few nights ago, dh asks me if I had purchased one yet. (Um, no. I'm short at least $100 yet.) He tells me, "Go ahead and buy one." It will be my birthday present. I'll chip in what I've saved and the rest will come out of our *general fund*. Then he won't have to buy me anything for my birthday or Mother's Day. (I make it so easy for him, don't I?)

Tonight, I found a great deal on a "Scratch-n-Dent" model from a well-known company who's name ends the nursery song "The Farmer in the____". He says, go ahead and buy it! It's a great deal!

Barely an hour later, I get the question:

"Can I buy an XBox 360 now"?

Twice in one day!

2007-04-13T19:08:00.000-07:00

That doesn't happen very often.

I'm talking about a blog post. Get yer mind outta the gutter. ;)

Cursing Mama had a cool Fun Friday link, and now I wanna share it too. It's pretty neat.

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

If you do one too, let me know. Do you think it matched you pretty well or not?

Officially...

2007-04-13T05:00:00.000-07:00

...we got 5 inches of snow. But over half of that melted yesterday. That makes me happy. It looks so strange to see such green grass peeking out from under the snow. I'll probably have to mow this weekend. LOL.

I've been researching laptops and how to get them hooked up to my internet. The night it was snowing, I was browsing the home website for my ISP to see if they had info about it. I found a page about wireless internet services. I wasn't seeing the exact info I was looking for, as in it didn't tell me any prices, but it did display a phone number. So I called.

I got a pleasant guy on the phone named "Tim". I told "Tim" I wanted to find out if I could get set up with wireless internet and how much would it cost me. He asked for my zip code. Then he thought out loud, and mentioned how he was getting sooooo many calls from my area that night and wondered why that was. I informed him we were all snowed in, so we were bored. I wonder if he realized I was serious.

Anyhow, "Tim" was very helpful. For an extra $7 a month and a one time installation fee of $100, we can have our home wired for wireless. Seeing as all the other websites I perused such as NotTheBestBuy or CircuitousCity were telling me it would be $130 or more for an install AND I had to buy my wireless router, I'm thinking my ISP sounds like a great deal. On to finding the right laptop for me! I'm searching for one that doesn't come with Windows Vista. It's too new and has too many problems yet, so I want to stick with XP for now.

Look at what kind of trouble I get myself into when I get snowed in....

I have a couple rants this morning

2007-04-10T05:18:00.000-07:00

Remember my post just a couple weeks ago about the spectacular 80º weather? Well, Cursing Mama was right (as I knew she would be). We're getting snowed on again. Check out this forecast:

TONIGHT:Cloudy and breezy with rain this evening, changing to snow; overnight accumulations of 1"-3".

WEDNESDAY:Cloudy, breezy and cold with snow; additional accumulations of 3"-4". Storm totals: 4"-7".

I think I'm gonna barf. I usually say one good thing about snow at this time of year is that it melts fast. I don't know how fast 7 inches can melt though!

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Next up to bat is a computer rant. Not internet, not email, just the computer itself. It's only a couple years old. I suppose that would mean it's in the jurassic period on the geologic timescale of technology. But it's got so many little glitches in it anymore. And I fully blame hubby. He's forever downloading new anti-virus software and firewalls and other "protective" goodies. But every time he downloads a new one, we have MORE problems. For example, right now, I can't open my email account unless I go in a backdoor way. And every time I do a search on a search engine, I get automatically redirected to bogus sites that have NOTHING to do with what I searched on.

I think we're at that point in our relationship when we're going to have to go separate ways. Separate computers that is. How dorky would it be to have two desktop computers in the house? I think I'll start saving towards a laptop for myself. Then he can download any darn thing he wants on his computer and it won't affect me. I'll just have to figure out exactly how to hook a laptop up to our cable internet.

And then I'll have to make sure he doesn't touch the laptop to try and "help" me with anything.

Smell like what??

2007-04-06T05:21:00.000-07:00

Once a week, I volunteer at the library at Frodo's school. I have so much fun there. (Honest! I do!) When I'm there, a whole bunch of kindergarteners come in and they are such a riot. Some of the kids just grab the first book that they touch and come to the desk to check it out. I find myself asking a 5 year old, "Did you really want to read a book about the state of Massachusetts?" Usually the answer is, "Oh. I saw the picture of a boat on the front and thought it was about boats."

Then there's the kid that wants books ONLY about trains. The library has maybe 12 books on trains. He's had every one of those books checked out twice. Now he asks us for more train books, but he's seen them all. We've tried telling him that's all we have, he needs to find books about other things if he doesn't want those train books again. "How about planes?" I ask.

No.

"Cars?"

No.

"Rockets?"

No.

"Massachusetts?"

Recently, one boy was standing next to me and he leans over and says, "You smell like my mom."

I *think* that was a compliment.

Ohhhhhh Yeahhhhh!

2007-03-26T21:33:00.000-07:00

Oh. My. Goodness.

The weather. It has been absolutely incredible the past couple days.

You can tell I'm a midwesterner - I talk about the weather. It's a major form of communication in this part of the country. We midwesterners will talk about the weather all the time with anyone. It's natural small talk. I think it's because we can be so darn polite and not discuss politics or current events with people such as the checker at the grocery store or the dental hygenist. We'll talk about the weather. It's safe ground. If it's been raining a lot, we'll comment about how much rain there has been and someone will eventually say how it's good for the farmers' crops. If it's cool, we'll comment on the refreshing temps and someone will eventually say how it's good for the farmers' crops. If it's sunny, we'll comment on how long it's been since we last had a clear day and someone will eventually say how it's good for the farmers' crops.

Oh. Maybe I've just let you in on the secret as to why midwesterners are so interested in the weather all the time....

Anyhow, the farmers have no crops in the fields right now, and I'm gonna tell you about the awesome weather.

Yesterday it was 76 and sunny. In March! I actually had to close some windows in my house because it was too humid. In March! Today, it was 80 and sunny. In March! Today, I wore shorts and sandals. In March! It's almost midnight and I have all my windows open because it is so nice outside. In March!

This feels so. darn. GOOD.

Silly musings

2007-03-22T17:32:00.000-07:00

This struck me as funny on my way to work the other day - a car with a French sounding name on it with a "Boycott France" bumper sticker. Now I've learned that Chevrolet is a Swiss name. So maybe it's not as funny as it was on my drive to work.....

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On St. Patrick's Day, it was the birthday of a good friend of mine. She and I were going to go to the casino that night since that's what she wanted to do. My mom came along with us. My mom is pretty cool most of the time, so that's ok.

I won $300. Woo Hoo!!! I have it stashed away from hubby so he won't take any of it for his Xbox 360 fund. We need another gaming system in this house like we need a hole in the roof.

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I saw my sweet little 2-year old niece this weekend. She's a riot. She's got a quiet, sweet little voice. (Unlike her older sister and brother.) She does something that puts me in stitches though - instead of saying "daddy" to her dad, she calls him by his first name.

I think I'll teach her to say "Hey Homer!"

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I spent a couple days home sick this week. The fun at the casino came with a price - I caught a bit of a cold. And I was having such a good winter in terms of illness! It's better now. Mostly at that "nusiance" stage. I despise being sick. It really puts a cramp into my week.

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Speaking of putting a cramp into my week, I was offered some extra hours at work. I took them up on it. I'll work a day in Family Practice each week. I wonder how many of those days I'll come home saying "I like Peds" over and over.... I took it for the extra moola, but it also bumps my FTE up into a range where I'm eligible for all sorts of benefits. That right there will be soooo worth it! Not that I have have a job with all sorts of awesome bennies, but hey, every little bit counts!

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I know there were all sorts of other things I was going to write about, but my memory is shot right now. I should jot more notes. But I need more post-it notes around this house like I need another gaming system.... ;)

I have a little updatin' to do!

2007-03-15T21:27:00.000-07:00

In my last post, I was complaining about all the snow. Well, on Monday, it was 69ºF here. Needless to say, the snow disappeared. Although it's back to the chilly temps now, it sure was nice to have a taste of spring.

My mom is doing fine. She's having a few issues with different foods bugging her tummy, but overall, she's feeling ok.

My friend Medicine Man got his CAT scan results. Nothing there. The radiologists decided the xray must've just had a shadow of some sort on it. Phew!

Frodo turned 10 last weekend. He had a slumber party with some friends to celebrate. And you know what? I would totally do the slumber party thing again. (Now you all know I am completely crazy. I don't deny it.) Except I'd do it during nicer weather when they boys can run OUTSIDE and play as opposed to all over the inside of my house. I don't have that big of a house for 5 boys to be playing nerf dart tag and nerf sword fights and nerf whatever else inside.

Hubby was turned down for LASIK surgery (his cornea is too flat), so he got fitted for contact lenses. He's never been able to bring himself to wear contacts before, but he was sooooo sick of wearing glasses (he's been wearing them for 30 years) he was finally motivated enough to allow himself to touch his own eye. (Oh, the horror! Having to touch your own eye!) His contacts came in and he wore them for the first time on Tuesday. He's doing ok with them. It's gonna take practice. It takes him awhile to get them in and out. But I'm sure in time, he'll be like an old pro. It sure is weird seeing him without glasses!

And now the Queen (aka: the cat) is bothering me to go to bed. I suppose I can try. The large diet Pepsi from Taco Hell at supper was not the best choice..... Too much caffeine so late at night.....

So "Christian" of him!

2007-03-15T21:24:00.000-07:00

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17627601/

These few words stood out for me:

"after the victim declined to buy his religious CDs"

Scary.

Spent the weekend shoveling

2007-02-27T06:20:00.000-08:00

Is that supposed to be the grown-up version of playing in the snow? I'd rather build a snowfort.

We got 15 inches of snow starting Friday night. Half of it was on Friday night, so I got up Saturday and snowblowed and shoveled. I was actually enjoying myself. Then the other half came Saturday night, coupled with thunder, lightning, and high winds. Thundersnow is cool. And since I didn't have to go anywhere, the blizzard was cool too. Then Sunday I got to shovel more. I didn't enjoy myself so much that time. The snow was wetter and much heavier. And the snowplow left a pile in the end of my driveway that was 4 feet high and at least as wide. (It was equal opportunity - everyone got their own snow pile at the end of their driveway.) I enjoyed being snowed in this weekend though. It was a very relaxing way to end a stressful week.

My mom was discharged from the hospital on Friday. I actually got to talk to her. She sounded sooooo much better!!! It was good getting information directly from her and not filtered through her hubby.... We discussed that maybe in the future, she will authorize me to recieve medical info if she's ever in the hospital again. It turned out some of the info from her hubby was inaccurate. (In hindsight, I'm not surprised at that.) She was NOT jaundiced. She did NOT have a reaction to a medication. She was just infected. That's it. So they bypassed the oral route for antibiotics and gave them to her IV along with some fluids and *ta-da*! She's improved!

My friend, Medicine Man, has not heard a thing yet about his CAT scan results. To me, this is good news since I know that if it looks like something horrible, they call you ASAP.

Thanks to over-the-counter medication, my hoo-hah feels MUCH better.

And it turns out I was PMSing this weekend.... Go figure. Maybe I would've handled the stress better had the PMS not been part of it. I feel fine now. Thank you Cursingmama and Midlife Mutant for watching out for me. >smooch!<

I think I will celebrate now by taking a nap. :D

I'm having a...

2007-02-22T21:52:00.000-08:00

...shitty week.

I worked extra this week, so that threw me off to start with.

I haven't been sleeping well all week. I'm waking up frequently in the middle of the night. No reason. I'm usually a pretty sound sleeper though, so it's bugging me.

My father-in-law/stepdad called yesterday to let me know my mom was hospitalized with diverticulitis and a reaction to a medication she was taking for the diverticulitis. (She became jaundiced.) So I spoke with him at 8:30 pm last night and asked that he call me again today to give me an update. I left a message with him at 9:30 this morning telling him he could call my cell phone as I would have it in my pocket at work today. He never called.

I talked to my sister-in-law though, and it turns out he had a moment to call her. Nevermind calling any of mom's daughters to let them know how their mom is doing.

I called again at 7:30pm tonight and had to leave a message since his phone is turned off. I tried calling the hospital because some of what he has told us doesn't make sense. Of course, the hospital won't give me any information because of HIPPA laws. (I had to try though.)

Then about 9pm, hubby called his cell phone and he answered. He had a bad signal though, so he said he would hang up and call back. When he called back, I could not talk to him. I was/am quite upset with him. I was already ticked after talking to him last night because he has this *knack* of ticking off the hospital staff. For whatever reason, when someone he knows is in the hospital, he thinks everyone should be spending all their time on HIS family member. Nevermind the more critically ill patient or the post-surgical patient or anyone else. He wants them all to jump and grab their magic wands and fix everything NOW. He was told to leave at 8pm last night due to visiting hours being over. He was telling me on the phone he was going to sneak back in. I hope he doesn't get arrested for trespassing on top of everything else.

Today, mom is a bit better. She's still tired and weak from the infection and still sore. But she no longer has a fever. They won't let her go home until she poops. Seems like a reasonable request since she's in there for bowel issues.

Another thing I'm dealing with - My best friend (Medicine Man) has been on my mind a lot the past 3 days. Since he'd recently told me he and his wife are having some troubles, I was chalking it up to that. Well, I spoke to him this morning - turns out I had good reason to be thinking about him. He'd been to the doctor due to a cough that wasn't going away. They did a chest x-ray and found a spot on his lung. So he had a CAT scan yesterday and is awaiting those results. For cryin' out loud, he's only 37! He can't have lung cancer! He doesn't smoke. He's not a healthy eater and not much of an exerciser. Maybe this incident will get him on a healthier track in life. (He tends to drink too much, IMHO.)

And to top it all off, I'm coming down with a yeast infection. Darn it all, I only had one in my whole life until the past few months. I've had three in the past 4 months. Grrrr....

So I feel like shit. And it's gonna snow this weekend. A lot. Sigh. I think the air will be just right for drinking.

I've always...

2007-02-22T21:48:00.000-08:00

... HATED meetings. Most of the time, I think they are a useless waste of time. And now I present to you, results of a study that state "meetings make us dumber".

Priorities

2007-02-20T20:52:00.000-08:00

Here is the current list of "most viewed" stories on MSNBC as of 10:50pm central time tonight:

• The Price of Survival (talks about the cost of search and rescue operations on Mt. Hood)
• Blair to announce Iraq troop pullout timetable
• Britney Spears checks herself into rehab
• Boys prove boring on 'American Idol'
• Gambia's president claims he has cure for AIDS
• Spears' rehab stint is her second attempt
• Drugmaker stops lobbying efforts for STD shots
• Audit finds U.S. anti-terror statistics inflated
• Surgeons who play video games more skilled
• Britney Spears shedding more than her hair

Let's discuss this a bit. Three of the top ten "most viewed" stories are about Britney Spears. One is about "American Idol". One talks about how much it costs to rescue people who climb a mountain. Another talks about how a vaccine maker has stopped lobbying to have states require the HPV vaccine. (Don't even get me started about how they called it an "STD shot".) And also on the health front, our surgeons should be playing video games, and a modern day medicine man (who happens to be president of an African country) says he has a cure for AIDS.

Oh yeah.... There's this war thing going on in Iraq. In all the excitement over Britney, it looks like everyone forgot about it! Except for Britian which now has a timetable for troop withdrawl.

**********************************

I have a few stories I'd like you all to read. In all the "excitement" about Britney and Anna Nicole and American Idol, this type of information doesn't get enough air time or print space.

Wounded and Waiting

Soldiers face neglect, frustration at Army's top medical facility

The Hotel Aftermath

Yes, those stories are long. Not everything is packaged in a pretty little USA Today type snippet. But it is important that the stories do not get buried under troubled blond girls and lost weekend warriors. But when you're done, I have a couple questions for you - especially for anyone who has one of those "support our troops" ribbons or bumper sticker on their car. I want you to tell me, a) is our country REALLY supporting our troops and b) are you?

Of course, AFTER being publically blasted about this over the weekend, the Army is finally making some moves to fix things up. And some other folks are jumping in on the action as well. All I know, is that if any one of you went to visit a relative in a hospital room and it had molded tiles hanging from the ceiling, or dead cockroaches on the floor, or mouse droppings, or a hole in the ceiling of the shower so you could see the bathroom on the floor above, I'm sure things would get ugly pretty darn fast. And can you imagine having ALL of those present in one room? What a way to treat our wounded vets.

I think I just got an ultimatum...

2007-02-15T21:01:00.000-08:00

As I tried to log in here tonight to type a few words, I got a page TELLING me to verify my account to ge the "New Blogger". In the past, there had been a little spot somewhere that I could click and just get to my old Blogger "dashboard". That spot did not exist that I could find at all tonight. Ok! I give!

So now I have this new version. I don't feel like poking around at it tonight. Another night I'll nose around and see what I can find.

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Did everyone enjoy Valentine's Day? I would like it to be just like elementary school - where you get to decorate a shoebox to leave on your desk and people just drop little valentines and sometimes candy in the slot that got cut in the top. Good times.... gooooood times....

Valentine's Day in our house is pretty low key. I have always forbidden my hubby from buying me flowers for Valentine's Day because they are just waaaaay too overpriced. However, he is welcome to shower me with floral gifts any other time of the year. Doesn't happen too often though. We did the card thing. And he got me a really nice card, not a silly one. It put a tear in my eye. I love it.

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I did our taxes recently. Looks like we'll get a decent enough refund. Hubby is asking that we spend it on him getting eye surgery so he can get rid of wearing glasses. He has an appointment the end of next week to be evaluated to determine if he's a good candidate for lasik surgery. If he's not, we're gonna discuss his fear of contact lenses. He's just so tired of his glasses fogging up in the winter. Especially in work situations.

It would be weird to see him without glasses.

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Lately, I've been struggling with my body image. I wish I was slimmer. As in a LOT slimmer. As in I need to lose at least 30 pounds. I just do NOT have the patience for a diet right now. And I've been too blah or busy to exercise. I think this is just a bad time of year to evaluate this. I should just push it aside and think about it more next month. And I should be grateful I don't need to lose 130 pounds. Or that I'm not starving. Or that I have cancer. Things could be so much worse. And I'm glad they aren't.

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Not quite as blah

2007-02-13T06:56:00.000-08:00

When I got up Sunday, I was feeling like it was going to be a better day than Saturday. Saturday, I was just so *blah* - tired, headachy, a little depressed.

Sunday was just ok. I ended up spending a little bit of money (the last of my christmas money) on a pair of ice skates. For the first time in two years, there was ice on the rink at the park and it wasn't 40 below. All on the same day! I was dying to skate! A couple years ago, I rented a pair of skates for the winter. Hockey skates. I originally learned to skate when I was a freshman in high school and got a pair of figure skates. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't quite get the hang of it. A friend recommended I try hockey skates instead - they have a firmer boot so your ankle has more support. And without the *toe pick* thing at the front, you don't trip as much.

Or so she said.

Well, she was RIGHT! I loved it! She and I and Frodo skated quite a few times that winter. Frodo took lessons (and I watched and learned myself). It was fun.

Last winter, it was too warm, so there wasn't any ice on the rink at the park. This winter started out that way, but mother nature made up for lost time recently by dipping us waaaaay below zero for multiple days in a row. So now there was ice. And it was a balmy 18º on Saturday. Unfortunately, the parks crew has done a horrible job maintaining the rink, so it was all bumpy and even had some potholes that you could fit an entire child into. But we skated anyhow.

After skating, we came home and helped Frodo make his valentine "mailbox" for school. I remember making those in elementary school. It was so much fun. Prior to this year, Frodo's teachers just had them staple a couple pieces of construction paper together to make a pouch. I always thought that was lame. So hooray for this year's teacher!

After Frodo went to bed that night, my friend and I stayed up talking. For a few HOURS. She's been quite down the past week, so we talked about the differences between normal blues (because she didn't get a promotion she tried hard for and really wanted) and depression. We've both been down the depression road before. I think it helped her some just to talk to someone who understood. We came to the conclusion that if she doesn't feel better in a week or two, she needs to call her doctor and get her prescription increased.

Monday, I had all sorts of plans to get things done. Again, I felt tired, headachy, and a little depressed. By 11:30am, I was under a blanket on the couch and in short time, I fell asleep. I slept for six hours. Sheesh! There are some NIGHTS I don't get that much sleep! And even after that, I was still all *blah* the rest of the evening. I don't know what's going on. If this doesn't stop by next week, I'm gonna go see my doctor. (And probably just get the same old line I always get - "I don't know. Must be a virus." Whatever.) At least today I'm not as blah. That's good.

Blah.

2007-02-10T20:01:00.000-08:00

That about sums it all up for me. I just feel *blah*.

In Memoriam

2007-01-31T18:37:00.000-08:00

A fantastic journalist and author, Molly Ivins has passed away today. She will be greatly missed.

"What you need is sustained outrage...there's far too much unthinking respect given to authority." ~Molly Ivins

Finished the workout...

2007-01-30T21:38:00.000-08:00

...for the shredder, that is. It is in top form for the new year after all that exercise!

And I even started on the next dig site - The Thing. Right now, The Thing is cleared off nicely. Just don't look at the dining room table or the kitchen counter.... Because anything that wasn't tossed or shredded is now neatly piled on those two surfaces, waiting to be assigned to their new homes. :o

And Lori, I think everyone has some surface like my Thing. If they say they don't, either they lie or they are in need of some serious therapy for their compulsion to keep things tidy. We have more than one spot that gets all sorts papers and stuff dumped on it. Besides The Thing, we have our computer desk, the kitchen counter, and the dining room table. Ours gets filled up mostly with papers from school. School is the second biggest source of our incoming paper. (Junk mail is the largest source for us.) At least at the dining room table, we can push it all over to the fourth seat since there's only three in our family. ;)

I've now consumed a delicious malt beverage, and am feeling quite content. I will now go to sleep and see how far I get tomorrow with the piles of stuff from The Thing.

I sure hope I don't dream about it....

Overheated

2007-01-29T19:56:00.000-08:00

Not me. It's below zero wind chills here, so I'm not the overheated one. I just spent some quality time with my shredder, and it decided now is a good time for a break.

It's that time of year! Time to dig out the old boot box full of statements and receipts so I can get ready to do our taxes.

Woo Hoo.

Actually, I *sort of* look forward to it. But it's only because we're the kind of people financial planners can't stand - we set ourselves up for a refund each year. (Some blah-blah-blah about keeping that $20 a month for yourself and invest it and get interest instead of loaning it to the government tax-free. I get it. It's just that if I had an extra $20 a month, chances are it would disappear faster than a snowball in July.) The part about finding out about what our refund will amount to is what I look forward to. And since I've been doing our household taxes for years and years and years, I'm not terribly intimidated by it. The very first year we had our house and got to itemize our taxes, I did them by myself, then we took our stuff in to an accountant and paid him $50 to do them. I wanted to compare. (Basically, it boiled down to finding out if I could follow the directions.) How did I compare to a professional accountant? We matched. I was so proud of myself. Just gimme my accounting degree now.

The past few years, I've done our taxes online. The one part about doing them online that really burns me is that I have to type in the full name and address of our employers. I think I should be able to type in our employers' tax ID numbers and the info should pop up for me.

Hmmm.... What other part do I not like about doing them online.... Nothing! Seriously. It's quite easy. And I do the freebie ones. (Call me frugal, not cheap!) Unfortunately, I have to type the info in twice for that - once for the IRS, and once for my state. The online programs that do the federal forms for free will charge you a fee to file your state forms. Screw that! I won't pay them $15 to do something I can do myself. Now if it were plumbing, that's another story. I can't always do that myself. So I will pay a plumber when I need to.

Going through the boot box is like excavating an archaeological site. It's layered chronologically with the newest stuff at the top and the older things at the bottom. I find things I forgot happened over the past year - for example, it was only in July that we got to dump the sorry ass old cell phone service (rhymes with Sing-you-ler) and sign up with one that has given us ZERO problems (the awesome one rhymes with You-ess-Sell-you-ler). Frodo just got his braces this past August. (Seems like longer.) And it was just 11 months ago that we had the new shingles put on our house.

After tackling this pile of shredding, my next project will be to clear off "The Thing". I've mentioned "The Thing" before. In fact, it was really cold the last time I mentioned it, which coincidentally was probably the last time I cleaned it off too.

I don't know what he wants me to do...

2007-01-15T20:51:00.000-08:00

Frodo has a hard time falling asleep some nights. It makes me crazy. He'll lay in bed for all of nine minutes, then he'll come tromping out to the living room and announce that he can't fall asleep. So I march him back to the bedroom, telling him he hasn't tried long enough. He tries for about eleven more minutes and comes back to the living room. One time out to the living room is ok with me. A second trip? No way. Not unless you have a severed limb or your room is in flames.

"Go back to bed", I say.

"But I caaaaan't fall asleeeeep!", he whines. (My skin crawls when I hear whining.)

"Read. Do some deep breathing. Relax. But get yourself to sleep because 6:45am comes mighty early."

Stomp stomp stomp stomp stomp to the bedroom.

Ten minutes later, I can hear whimpering and the starting of crying from the bedroom. He's so lucky I have a vow of no physical violence.... ARGH! Just how does he think making me irritated is going to help him get some sleep?

It's now two hours since he first went to bed. He came out yet again a few minutes ago. I told him to put himself on the couch to sleep. Sometimes that works for me. If he's just feeling lonely, he's in for a big surprise when I go to bed shortly....

Maybe the clackety-clack noise of the typing will have lulled him to sleep.... I can only hope.

Getting scarier every day

2007-01-05T05:01:00.000-08:00

Using another one of his infamous "signing statements", President Bush last month gave authority to the government to open US citizens private mail. Supposedly, it's for foreign intelligence collection. I think it's just putting us yet one step closer to a fascist political system.

Before any of you start jumping up and down and saying to me, "I have no problem with it. I have nothing to hide", I want you to stop and think for a bit. First off, do you think it is just fine for your neighbor to take a letter from your mailbox and open it? No, you would think that is NOT a good idea. And you might even think it was illegal to tamper with someone else's mail, right? And you'd probably never open your neighbor's mail because you would think it's wrong. What makes our government any different than that? Oh yeah. I forgot. They're "protecting" us from the boogeyman.

What would stop the government from opening your mail, then taking something you wrote out of context? (The fancy word for this is "contextomy".) Think of it like this - You write a letter to your mom. In the letter you state, "The dogs are driving me nuts. Spot is always eating my shoes and Fido is always climbing on the furniture. Sometimes I want to strangle them. Of course, I'd never do that. Maybe tomorrow will be better."

Now, take some of the phrases out of context, and you could get this: "Driving me nuts... strangle them... maybe tomorrow..." Out of context, it could sound like you are going to strangle someone tomorrow. I know, that's a bit of a lame example, but I'm still waiting for the caffeine to kick in this morning. But you get my point.

So for me, it's not that I have something to hide, except for I'd prefer most people not find the *special box* in the bedroom. I just prefer our government go the route currently established by law and get the warrant before opening my mail. Checks and balances. The basis of constitutional system. It's there for a reason. And it's a good thing to have.

Did an opposite thing today.

2007-01-04T21:54:00.000-08:00

Most people are working towards their new year's resolutions by signing up at the gym.

Today, I stopped by the gym and CANCELLED my membership. It wasn't worth the $80 per month expenditure for our family to pretty much never use it. If we decide we want to go swimming at their pool one day, then we'll bust out a few bucks and pay for a day pass. It's waaaaay cheaper for us to do it that way.

The manager at the desk says to me, "We'll miss you!". I'm wondering how they can miss someone that hasn't set foot in the building in the past 4 months....

Oh yeah - they'll miss my nearly $1000 per year.

Today is a good day.

2007-01-04T20:07:00.000-08:00

A VERY good day.

Nothing particular happened here at the Cuckoo Nest home. It all happened in Washington DC.

For starters, our nation has it's first female Speaker of the House. I've always said it, and I'll continue to say it: The more women we have in leadership positions, the better off our country will be. (And the UN backs me up on this.) Madame Speaker gave a great speech today. One of my favorite lines: "Hope: That is what America is about. And it is in that spirit that I serve in the Congress of the United States."

I sure hope that the other senators and representatives serve in that same spirit.

And hallelujah! The republicans are finally out of power in Congress! I couldn't be happier. Now to make sure the Democrats follow through on their "first 100 hours" promises. Many Americans will be watching.

And hoping.

Only three days into the new year...

2007-01-03T21:09:00.000-08:00

...and I haven't broken any resolutions!

But that's only because I don't make any. I don't feel the need to set myself up for failure. I am successful enough at failure, so I figure, why add more?

BUT, for a household with no resolutions, you should see what we've done in these first three days:

1) Consolidated every bit of our debt into one loan. In 36 payments, we will be debt free (except for the mortgage - there's no way we could pay the house off in 3 years unless we won some sweepstakes or lottery.)

2) Shredded every credit card. We are NOT going to get into that crappy credit card cycle again! We are going to learn to budget and work with an allowance.

3) Researching a treadmill for use at home. Hubby was actually the first one to suggest it. Bye bye gym membership! Hello to walking/running while watching whatever movie/tv show I want to see!

I'm quite proud of us for doing this. I can't wait to see the fruits of our labor!

********************************************

From school today came a slip of paper in Frodo's folder. Bright yellow in color, it's a permission slip for Frodo to join chess club. At first I was surprised. Hubby and I used to fret and worry that two brainy geeks equalled a dumb jock, and that poor Frodo was destined to a life of sports and becoming an insurance salesman. But as time marches on, we're finding he's less of a jock and more like us. Thank goodness for dominant genes!

I'm not the chess player in the house. I prefer Scrabble and other word games. Hubby is the one that likes the strategy games. Frodo is liking them too.

So I signed the permission slip.

As I'm tucking it back into his folder, I ask him what about chess club interested him.

"The trophy I could win at the tournament later this year!"

Maybe he's a little bit "dumb jock" after all....

I just had some good entertainment

2006-12-27T23:26:00.000-08:00

I have a site meter that shows me all sorts of cool things - how many visits a day I get and where the visits come from are parts of that info.

I'm in the list that shows me the "referring URL", and oh my, is that ever hilarious! I have the usual referrals from other blogs that I link to or I comment on. But the ones I enjoy the most are the ones that are referred to me through a google search. Here are some of the search terms that pointed people to this website:

"cuckoo's nest concerts" (I can see where that one came from)
"Cuckoo in December" (I can see that one too)
"twitchy lower eyelid" (I remember mentioning that once....)
"keri mythbusters video" (I wonder what exactly the searcher was trying to find there....)
"powder for sore throats on bill oreilly radio" (Trust me, you won't find anything positive said about O'Reilly here, let alone any info about sore throat powder from his radio show!)
"what animal makes nest in ceiling of basement" (Ewww. I don't wanna know.)
"worried about earlobe creases" (What? Huh? Should I be?)
"cuckoo's next, antidepressants" (If you wanna talk, I'm always willing to share.)
"flannel lined jeans" (If you live in a cold climate, these are THE BEST! When you can find them. Not many stores carry them.)
And this is my personal favorite: "palestinian urological association" (Oh my. I have no idea why that linked here. I didn't even know there was such a thing! Look how my horizons are broadened by the internet! Whee!)

If you have a site meter of some sort, what sorts of searches bring people to your blog?

Hopelessly Addicted

2006-12-27T23:09:00.000-08:00

Frodo's Wii.... I love it. I'm having so much fun with the Wii Sports. Except for the tennis game. That one pisses me off. I swing like I would a tennis racket and I never hit the damn ball on the tv. I'm better at real-life tennis.

I'm good at Wii golf. (I don't like real golf. But then again, I haven't played in almost 20 years, so maybe I ought to give it another try?) I even got a hole in one tonight! Whee!!!

I'm ok at Wii bowling. About the same as real bowling. Just ok.

Then there's Wii baseball. I like that one too. Once I figured out the darn rules. (Infield hit = out in most cases, outfield hit = single, double or triple depending on how long it takes one of the characters to reach the ball.)

Wii boxing I did once. I'm not too fond of it. It's just wild arm swinging with the controllers. Whatever. I can wildly swing my arms anytime. I don't need the added stress of trying to pummel a character that reminds me of Fisher Price Little People.

I haven't broken a window or the tv screen or any lamps yet. I did accidentally smack the cat though because she came up behind me as I was swinging my *golf club*. She seems to have forgiven me. Which is good because I buy her food.

Why do I say I'm hopelessly addicted? Because after Frodo goes to bed, I'm still playing.... Every night this week.

No, I did not...

2006-12-25T21:18:00.000-08:00

...fall off the face of the earth. (Although some days, it would've been more pleasant than the alternative I got, I think.)

I hope you've all enjoyed a pleasant christmas/hanukkah/solstice/whatever you celebrate. Honestly, I really don't care which you celebrate. I just hope that you enjoyed some good times with friends and family. That's really what the season is about - celebrating the son/light/sun/whatever, but also to celebrate it with others that make you happy. (And a little time with those that make you crazy thrown in for balance as well.)

For me, the celebration was with 14 other family members. And it was nearly derailed this year by strep throat. Frodo and I got to spend 2½ hours at the urgent care clinic Friday night. Yippee. Next time, I avoid the hassle of the doctor that doesn't know what the heck he's doing (he was "surprised" the strep test was positive, even though Frodo had classic strep throat symptoms ) and take care of things myself. (Field trip to mom's work after hours! Whee!) But a couple doses of amoxicillin later, and Frodo was back to his usual self, and the festivities were back on! I cleaned. I cooked. I cleaned again. I collapsed in bed that night.

I think I'll persuade someone else to host it next year.

*************************************

For the first year ever, Frodo looked forward to the annual tradition I've done with him of going for a drive to look at christmas lights on christmas eve. That made me quite happy, since in prior years, he'd pretty much just *tolerated* it. After growing up in a family with few positive traditions, I try hard to make a few traditions that stick and will hopefully become good memories for Frodo. He's now decided we need to decorate our house like some we saw last night. He brought my digital camera along to take photos so we would have ideas for next year. I hope he is comfortable with ladders and electrical wiring next year!

After the drive, we came home, popped some popcorn, and watched "The Polar Express". After the movie, we put the Santa Key on the front doorknob, brushed teeth, and read "The Night Before Christmas", in pop-up style. After that, I had to keep myself awake to be able to take care of Santa things. (Hubby was working - protecting the county from itself as usual.)

After putting out Santa stuff, I finally crawled myself into bed. Frodo was at my bedside at 5:45 am. (Yes, FIVE-FREAKIN'-FORTY-FIVE-IT'S-STILL-DARK-A-M!) He whispers, "Mom. Santa came!"

"He did?" I whisper back.

"Yes mom. I got the Wii I asked him for!" (I'll share that story later.)

"You did?" I whisper again. "That's awesome! Now go back to sleep because it's too early to be up and playing with it."

He crawled in bed with me, only to flop around for a little over an hour. Each time he'd flop, I'd move, then hubby would pat my arm or leg.... Finally at 7:10am, Frodo whispers, "Is it late enough to get out of bed yet?" I knew any attempt at sleeping was futile by that point, so out we went to see the booty Santa had left. I decided the tradition of Santa not wrapping presents turned out to be a good one - with hubby working until 3am, then getting home and to sleep at 4-5am, it buys us some time on christmas morning when Frodo can play with the stuff he got from Santa while hubby catches a few winks.

****************************************

This Wii Frodo got - He gets to ask Santa for ONE thing each year. This year, he asked for a Nintendo Wii. Fortunately, Santa had told Frodo, "That's pretty new. I might not be able to get it for you this year." Oh, do I LOVE Santa!

I spent every day for a week going from store to store trying to find one. I'd ask everywhere, "when will your next shipment come in?" only to be constantly told, "we don't know". I got sick of finding empty Wii boxes that were put out for decoration only. (Evil! May you spend time in that special part of hell reserved for the person who invented the thick plastic packaging nearly everything comes in now and the person who invented the idea of using 75 twist ties to hold a small toy in place in it's box.) The last day I tried, I called home to hubby telling him that the procurement of a Wii was now in HIS hands. I'd had it up to ^here^.

Fast forward about 8 days, and hubby has done not a single thing towards his job of obtaining the Wii. One Saturday evening, while hubby was at work, Frodo and I headed to the mall to pick up a couple gift certificates. One was at the video game store where I was getting a gift certificate for my nephew. While purchasing the gift card, Frodo was off checking out the Wii display. I lean in towards the high school kid working the counter. "So. Will you be getting any Wiis in tomorrow?" I ask

"Maaaaayyyyybe" he quietly replies without looking up.

"I see." I reply. "What time do you open tomorrow?"

"8am."

"So, if I get here at 8am, I might have a good chance at getting one?" I ask.

He leans forward and whispers, "Get here before 8am."

I purchase the gift card, thank him, and Frodo and I stop for some ice cream.

The next morning, I'm up at 6:45am. I throw on a baseball cap and jeans, and head out the door. I decide to grab a McMuffin and coffee at the McDonald's drive-thru. Mmmm. I get to the mall and it's 7:15am. It looks fairly deserted in the parking lot. (Ahhh... Not so fond memories of the days when I worked at the mall....)

My coffee and I walk to the entrance door and find four people standing there. It turns out they are there for the same reason I am, but only because they tried a couple other local merchants first, just to find out they got there too late by 6am.... Three of the people are in one group - college students - one of their group is going to purchase one and the other two are just along for the entertainment of being there. The fourth person there is a mom who is hoping to find one for a christmas gift for her 11 year old son. I told them the story of my discussion with the video game store worker the night before, and they all hope (as do I) that nobody else has found an open door on another side of the building....

We stood there chatting for just a couple more minutes, and a mall security guard unlocks the door and lets us in. As we approach our destination, there is a small, handwritten sign posted on the gate: "We have 5 Wiis available for sale this morning. Please form a nice line." Bingo!

As we were talking there, another person joins our little group - a 14 year old boy who was trying to find one for his brother for a christmas gift. His mom joins us a couple minutes later. They will be the purchasers of #4. All of us had a very nice time chatting while we waited. I'd brought a book along with me to entertain myself as I waited, but I never needed it. What a nice bunch of people we had there! Purchaser of #5 showed up about 10 minutes later - a dad who was looking to buy one for his 9 year old daughter.

As I purchased mine, the same high school kid from the night before was working again. After I bought it, I went to the food court in the mall and bought a McDonald's gift card. I took it back to him and told him I wanted to buy him lunch because of how much he made my day and how much I appreciated what he had told me the night before.

"But I didn't say anything specific!" he said.

"Exactly" was my reply.

So a big public thanks goes out to "Jon" at EB Games. For saying nothing specific. And for saving one mom's sanity.

**************************************

I, for one, am happy to see the holidays done. I enjoy the extra opportunities to teach Frodo about giving, not only to friends and family, but to those less fortunate. It's a lesson that is discussed throught the year in our home, but the holidays gives us the extra opportunites that don't exist other times of the year, such as through the "Adopt-a-Family" at my work, "The Giving Tree", and the Salvation Army red kettles just to name a few. We are lucky people who have enough spare money that we can afford internet access. Frodo has learned we need to share the blessings we receive.

I hope your holidays find you healthy and happy and blessed.

Whirlwind

2006-11-27T21:15:00.000-08:00

Ever feel like you've been caught in a tornado and it took a long time to set you back down? That's me.

It all started about two weeks ago. I had two appointments and a meeting on top of my usual stuff that week. Then hubby left for 6 days to go deer hunting with his dad. While the two of them were off hunting, my mom came here to hang out and avoid the testosterone that was going to be flying fast and furious up there. I get along great with my mom, but she sure can throw me off my schedule! I'm used to having some time in the evening after Frodo has gone to bed. It's my unwind time. That flew right out the window with mom here. Ugh.

Hubby left on a Wednesday. It was after the appointment days and on the meeting day. Thursday and Friday, I worked. Friday night, Frodo went to a college basketball game with his aunt and cousin. After the game, I had to go pick him up. We got back home after an ice cream stop (who can turn down a hot fudge sundae from Culver's?!?). The next morning, I was up earlier than I wanted to be up. That afternoon, we went to a movie with my sister-in-law and her daughter. Happy Feet is an interesting movie. Then we went to dinner and my niece wanted Frodo to spend the night at her house. My sister-in-law was willing, so off he went. Mom and I and a friend of mine went to a casino where I proceeded to feed the slot machines some cash. They should be well fed now. :P My friend won $100 though, so that was good.

The next day, mom wanted to go shopping. We shopped. After we got home, Frodo came home, then hubby and his dad arrived as well, with blaze orange and guns in tow. My house looks like deer camp bomb exploded. Monday finally rolls around. My head is spinning. Having my father in law around is like having a toddler around. He's always busy and fighting a nap. Just like a toddler. There's good reason I have an only child....

Mom and dad in law stick around until Tuesday. They leave, I try to get my house back to normal, and next thing you know, it's Wednesday and I'm going to work.

Thursday, I'm up to bake a couple pies for Thanksgiving dinner. We have *Anti-Family Thanksgiving* with a group of friends. It started a few years back when Medicine Man was talking on the phone with a dear old friend of his from out-of-state. She was complaining that her family and her hubby's family BOTH wanted her and her hubby and kids at their homes for Thanksgiving and neither was willing to budge. She was frustrated. Medicine Man said, "come up here for Thanksgiving and avoid them all!" So she did. So began Anti-Family Thanksgiving. Ever since then, we have multiple but non-related families together for Turkey Day. It's sooooo much fun. This year's feast was at Aunt Jen's house. (She's really not related, but that's what we call her.) She grilled the turkey and it was FABULOUS. As always, it was a nice time. In fact this year, it was extra nice - the weather was warm and mostly sunny. We actually sat out on the patio for awhile and flipped through the Black Friday ads while the turkey cooked. It was a pleasant treat.

Friday, I was up a little early to do a little shopping. I wasn't one of those *up at 4am* folks. That's just insane. I was up at 7:30 though. I found a few good deals. I was pleasantly surprised at the politeness of the shoppers. Maybe they all had Anti-Family Thanksgivings as well.

That afternoon, the weather was VERY nice, so we put some lights up on the house. Just some white icicle lights topped with a string of blue lights. Usually, I'm the one that is out there all by myself putting these up (and doing the final gutter cleaning of the season). This year I drafted some help by the name of hubby and Frodo. Heh heh. Frodo actually WANTED to get on the roof with us. So I let him. He enjoyed the new perspective of our neighborhood. And he found out he's not terribly fond of heights. Just like his mom.

Saturday, we went to a college hockey game. Frodo had never been to a hockey game before, so that was fun. It was a good game. I also tried catching up on laundry that day.

Sunday, I was flat out EXHAUSTED. I got up, had a cup of coffee, checked my emails, ate a bowl of cereal, then plopped myself on the couch. And fell asleep. After I woke up, I was starting to feel a bit back to normal. Today, however, was what got me completely back to normal. Hubby was sleeping in from working last night and Frodo was off to school. Finally, some time for ME. It was divine. I mostly vegged in front of the computer playing games. (There's a nice selection of free games through msn.)

I'm finally feeling back to normal. Aaahhh.....

I want to know...

2006-11-12T08:46:00.000-08:00

...how dumb you have to be to put a rare stamp on an envelope and mail it! I keep seeing this story on news pages, and it's just bugging the heck outta me. If I had a stamp worth $200,000 I think I'd be keeping it in a safe deposit box. Not on my desk with the pens and envelopes.

I wonder if it showed up postage due.

**********************************************

My man, Russ Feingold, has decided not to run for president in 2008. Darn. He would make a WONDERFUL president. Unfortunately, too many people wouldn't vote for him since he's not the kind to bend over and kiss ass. He's got the most integrity of any politician in Washington. Keep up the great work as a Senator, Russ!

**********************************************

I went on an eBay binge this weekend. I got Frodo a pair of fleece lined jeans. I have a couple pair of flannel lined jeans, and they are THE BEST!

I also got myself a new bra. Since my surgery last year, I'm enjoying owning bras that don't cost $75 each. I'm enjoying owning bras that look normal and come in more than one color. My current favorite is one from Victoria's Secret - the shaping full-coverage bra from the Body by Victoria line. It's VERY comfortable. Even though I lost 5 pounds of breast tissue in surgery, I'm still a D or DD cup. So I have a bit more trouble finding those in my local store. (Don't know why they think everyone is a B or C cup!)

I also bought some of my favorite body lotion. It's Mary Kay's "Visibly Fit" lotion. It smells sooooo good and leaves my skin nice and smooth.

I *heart* eBay.

**************************************************

Have a happy Sunday everyone!

I saw the coolest...

2006-11-10T20:36:00.000-08:00

...bumper sticker today. It looked like this:

How neat is that? You can find it at this website.

Thanks to the guy driving the black Subaru down the highway yesterday for that eye opener.

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As Veterans Day approaches tommorow, remember you CAN honor the warriors without honoring a war. Many warriors have come home and started work protesting the war. You can read about them at many websites including:

Veterans Against the Iraq War

Iraq Veterans Against the War

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America

Vietnam Veterans Against the War

Military Families Speak Out

Veterans for Peace

Veterans for America

Bring Them Home Now

And veterans and their families opposing war are not limited to the United States:

Military Families Against the War

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My many, many thanks to all the warriors who have served in our nation's armed services.

Aaah....

2006-11-08T16:47:00.000-08:00

So THIS is what it feels like to have a non-stolen election? I like it.

Election ads are DONE. Hooray!

The House of Representatives is in Democratic hands! Hooray!

Everyone I voted for yesterday won. Hooray! But two statewide referenda went a direction I DIDN'T want them to go. :( I'm disappointed with my fellow state residents. I'm shocked at how hateful and spiteful and narrow-minded they showed themselves to be. At least the folks in Arizona got it right. A big round of applause to Arizonans!!!

My ballot was sooooo full of races and referenda, it had two sides. Yes, I still vote on a paper ballot. I like that too. It's an optical scanner system. I hope we never go to the touchscreen stuff. I'm too apprehensive about how insecure they are.

Sporadic problems happened during voting yesterday. You can read a collection of them here. The more you know about the tactics some people use to intimidate voters, the more you will know they can't use them on you!

I think yesterday was a good practice for the 2008 presidential election. I believe voters are becoming more educated about their local laws regarding voting. It's definitely a good start.

Election Day is here!

2006-11-07T04:49:00.000-08:00

It's Election Day. The time of year we as Americans can change who is in power if we aren't happy, or keep who is in power if we are.

If you don't know where to vote, or think your polling place may have changed, check here to find where you are to go to cast your vote. You can also visit that website's Search By State section for information regarding voting in your state.

Another fantastic Election Day resource is the Election Protection 365 program. You can read about the program through the link, but I do want to mention their Voter Assistance Hotline. It's 1-866-OUR-VOTE. Write down that number and take it with you. If you encounter or observe any voting problem, call that number. There have been many reported cases in the past in regards to intimidation practices, problems with electronic voting machines, and other issues that make it difficult for some voters to access the polls. This phone number provides a resource to help those that need it in regards to voting.

And lastly, if you encounter any problems, after calling the Voter Assistance Hotline, you are encouraged to share your story at the Voter Story website. It was set up as a central clearing house for voting problems to be reported.

Enjoy the chance to speak your voice today!

Gonna start off with a couple vents...

2006-11-02T20:50:00.000-08:00

First vent - I had a post going here. All typed up. Not done yet. I tried to access another website in a second window I had open, and *poof* everything is frozen. I get a pop-up box - "Windows has encounterd an error. Would you like to report this error to Microsoft?"

Well no shit, I wanna report this error! And who else can I yell at about it? And what the heck does my reporting of this error even accomplish? And why did everything I just typed get lost now?!?!? Argh!!!!

My other vent - If you're gonna cut me off in traffic on the freeway, you damn well better be going the speed limit I was going before you cut me off! And just because someone has a stalled car waaaaaay off the shoulder of the road does NOT give you reason to slam on your brakes and cause a huge accident just because you wanted to see what that person was doing. And my all-time number one driving chant: SLOWER TRAFFIC KEEP RIGHT. There are quite a few people in the city tonight that hopefully are growing huge warts on their noses after I wished that upon them today for their lack of driving skills.

You would think I was PMSing, but I'm not. Thank goodness. Becuase otherwise I'd probably be another news story.

Aaaahhh... I feel better now.

I'm stressing out a bit about next week's mid-term elections. I really have nothing personally invested in it - I'm not a canditate, nor do I play one on tv. I'm mostly worried about this election being stolen like so many others have been. No, I'm not a "sore loser". I've just been reading Greg Palast* too much lately. I was reading it last night, and Frodo came to me and asked me what the book was about. I tried my best to explain to him that the part I was reading was about some people cheating in elections. He asked, "How can they cheat?" I put it in a context he would understand - elementary school student council elections. His eyes got huge as he realized there were people in the world who were dishonest about something like that. He said it was impossible to cheat in the student council election - each student only got one piece of paper to write their two choices. Even fourth grade student council has a paper trail....

Speaking of explaining things to Frodo - I do have a funny story.

I was sitting on the couch the other day, working on a cross stitch piece. (That's my *crafty* thing I do. I can't wrap my mind around knitting, lol.) I don't even remember how this conversation started.... Frodo says something about, "Well, of course I'm a lot like you mom, you made me.".

Dh jumps in saying he had some input as well.

Ds stops and looks at him.... I'm thinking, oh no, here it comes. Time for THE big discussion! I'm running all sorts of possible questions and answers in my head. Will I need to draw diagrams? I hope not. I can't draw.

Dh says, "Yeah. You know, I told them I wanted a kid that behaved well, had a good sense of humor, and a great laugh."

"Them?" replies ds.

"Yep. At Babies R Us. What do you think they sell there? At Toys R Us, it's toys. So at Babies R Us, it must be babies!"

Enjoy the giggle!

*post edited on 11/7/06 to correct the link. The prior link took you someplace else. All better now!

Yee Haw! He's not fired!

2006-10-26T22:10:00.000-07:00

Hubby had an "administrative hearing" today. Basically, "administrative hearing" is the secret code for "I'm gonna bend you over and not even give you a kiss first".

They picked his driving incidents apart teensy bit by teensy bit. He was to respond with why he made the choices he did. The hearing took a little over an hour. But it's done. He enjoyed the fact that his sergeant (who is known around the department as "The Bobblehead") was more nervous than he was. That gave him a tad bit of satisfaction. Just 'cause you've got more stripes doesn't mean the brass intimidates you less! Heh heh.

He will find out within a month what his "punishment" will be. Most likely one of the following: either a nasty-gram in his personnel file or a two-day vacation without pay. We can handle either of those. If they choose the suspension, I just hope they're nice enough to sandwich it around his regular days off.

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Way to go New Jersey!!!!

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Cursing Mama had a nice post recently about voting. It's an important civic duty! How can representatives represent YOU if YOU don't vote?

Mid-term elections are on November 7th. Put it on your calendar now. Make sure you schedule time to vote. I don't want to hear any lame excuses about why you wouldn't or couldn't!

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We got two inches of snow here last weekend. That is just rude of Mother Nature to give us that kind of thing at this time of year! I hope she got it out of her system until December.

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I'm done babbling for now. Just thought I'd tell you that.

I've been running into...

2006-10-11T10:53:00.000-07:00

...lots of people recently, who state they are having trouble with depression. It's one of those diseases that nobody wants to talk about, but lots of people have. Sort of like how nobody likes to talk about having a yeast infection for example. So I decided to post about depression. (I'll pass on the yeast infection post for now, but if if I get a BIG demand for it, I'll reconsider.)

I can speak from experience. I've *been there done that*. I've battled depression for decades. Some battles went well. Some... not so well. What causes depression is different for each person. The brain is one of the facets of the human body that is least understood by modern medicine. Hence the reason that illnesses of the brain are hard to treat or understand.

For me, I have a combination of things. First, I have heredity. I have a strong family history of alcoholism, which I believe was family members self-treating mental illness. (Depression is commonly behind drug and alcohol abuse.) Another part of my combination is seasonal. My depression is less in spring and summer, and worsens in fall and winter. I have it year-round, but the intensity fluctuates by the seasons.

My first experience with major depression was when I was 15. I was sad, withdrawn, and cried a lot. I had suicidal thoughts, but wasn't willing to act on them yet. My family pretty much ignored me, thinking I was being an emotional teenager. I self-medicated by abusing inhalants. My depression fluctuated during the following couple years. Some times were better, some were worse. By the time I was 17, I had thrown myself into a workaholic situation - I just didn't allow myself any time to stop, because then I wouldn't have time to think. The few times I did have time to think, I was plotting how I was going to kill myself. I don't know what kept me afloat at that time. I really don't. My mind has blocked out a good 18 months of my life from that frame of time. I can honestly say I don't remember most of my junior year of high school, nor do I remember the first half of my senior year.

Then a time came where I emerged from that depression. Things just seemed to be going *right* for me. I was happier and enjoying things again. I had a boyfriend, a nice group of friends, had graduated high school and was getting ready to start college. Things went well for a few years. Then the seasonal depression started sneaking in here and there. Then the suicidal thoughts crept back in here and there. It's strange, but it seems as though my brain has a record it plays and sometimes the needle hits a scratch in the record and gets stuck in one groove until it gets knocked out of that spot. Those of you that have ever listened to music on a record know what I mean. Those of you that haven't.... I don't know how else to describe it. Sorry.

Then I had my son. After he was born, I fell into my deepest depression ever. There were times I would just curl up in a closet and cry. I'd cry in the shower. I'd cry myself to sleep. I'd cry while sitting on the couch. I'd cry when my son was awake, I'd cry when he was asleep. I felt like the worst mother ever. I felt I couldn't do a single thing right. I felt abandoned by everyone. I felt like a failure. Fortunately for my son, he doesn't remember that time of his life. When he was a little over 6 months old and I found myself sitting in my bedroom with a gun in my hand, I decided there was absolutely no way I could allow him to grow up without a mom. That would be the ultimate failure. And he didn't ask for this! It took me a couple days to build up the courage to call in and get an appointment to see someone in psychiatry, but I did it. I don't know why it takes so much courage to call in for that! I wouldn't hesitate to call my doctor if I thought I had appendicitis. Why should this pain be any different?

I was set up with a counselor right away who had me fill out a multi-page questionaire. Based on that questionaire and an interview, he marched me into the MD's office and had him prescribe me an antidepressant right then. That was Zoloft. It worked well for me for a couple months, then it wasn't working. The dose was increased and the same thing happened - it worked for a little bit, then seemed to fizzle out. I had my back-up plan in my medicine cabinet. I had a bottle of thirty Tylenol #3s that I'd kept from after childbirth. The bottle sat there, with a funky yellow and black striped label from the pharmacy on the side. I'd open the medicine cabinet and look at that label and know that I had an out yet.

I wasn't terribly fond of the MD I was seeing and I felt the counselor wasn't helping too much, so I switched to another clinic. I spoke with an MD there who put me on Celexa instead. That was *fun*. Ha! Celexa made me feel like I couldn't sleep. I would jump up and down in place. I was vacuuming at midnight. I was doing laundry at 3am. I would talk a mile a minute. I felt like I was wound tighter than a spring. (I got a lot done though. LOL.)

I went back to the MD and described my symptoms. He had me stop that medication right away, and to try and do a "wash-out" from medications. I was to try and get to a point where I wasn't taking any medication for at least a week, then he would start with a clean slate and go from there. Weaning off medications is NOT fun. I had headaches. I had what I call cotton head. I was dizzy. I felt nauseous. And the depression was sneaking back in. I couldn't completely get off the medication - I got down to half a pill of the lowest dose made every other day, and I could keep my symptoms in check to keep me mostly functional. The doc decided that was washed-out enough. He started me on Effexor XR. That was almost 9 years ago, and I've been on it ever since. I've had to tweak the dose a couple times, but other than that, it's been my saving grace. I feel normal when I take this medication. I like feeling normal. After being on it for a year, I dumped out that bottle of Tylenol #3s with the black and yellow label. Twice, that medication has shown up in my home - once after hubby had dental surgery, and once after I had my reduction surgery. Each time, they got flushed. I won't keep them. I don't need them as a back-up anymore.

I won't lie and say the suicidal thoughts never sneak back in. Remember the broken record analogy? The scratch is still present in my record. It just doesn't fall into the rut as much and it's very easy to bump the needle out of the rut anymore. Maybe a day will come when the needle doesn't even find that scratch anymore.

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Links for further info:

http://psychcentral.com/depquiz.htm

http://www.metanoia.org/suicide/

http://www.wingofmadness.com/

http://www.psycom.net/depression.central.html
*if you feel you might suffer from depression, take the quiz. Print out the results and hand it to your doctor. You won't feel like you have to start the conversation that way.

Honestly, I did NOT fall off the face of the earth

2006-10-05T20:34:00.000-07:00

Even though it appears from here as though I have fallen, I'm still firmly planted on midwest terra firma.

The beginning of last week my "Fall Projects" list looked like this:

stain and seal living room windowsill
put coat of asphalt sealant on driveway
remove half-dead maple tree
spread mulch around shed
lay brick at shed entrance
finish basement stuff

As of yesterday, the list looks like this:

~~stain and seal living room windowsill~~
~~put coat of asphalt sealant on driveway~~
remove half-dead maple tree
~~spread mulch around shed~~
~~lay brick at shed entrance~~
finish basement stuff

And I only crossed off the items I completed. :D I feel so damn productive! The weather was has been wonderful, so getting these things done has been a treat. Honest! I love doing those kinds of things.

I'm still debating whether hubby and I could take down the maple tree ourselves or if we should hire someone. It's not huge. Maybe 18-20 feet tall. I'll definitely wait until his arm heals though. I might be adventurous about house projects, but I'm not COMPLETELY insane. I'm sure hubby will go for hiring someone - he doesn't have the same passion for projects as I do. (meaning = he's sorta lazy when it comes to house stuff)

And notice on my list how not a one involved cleaning. That's my favorite kind of list!

Much better since my last post.

2006-09-25T06:14:00.000-07:00

Phew. What a rollercoaster week.

I am much better now. In fact, by Saturday, I was sick of having hubby around, lol. Today, he is back at work, on restricted duty. I am so glad to have some time back for me.

He saw the orthopedic doctor on Tuesday. They took the splint from the ER off, and now he has a regular cast. He will keep that cast on for 4 weeks, then they will remove it and re-xray his arm. If it looks healed, he will have 2 weeks of physical therapy to regain the strength back in that arm. If not, he will get a splint for 2 more weeks, then the 2 weeks of physical therapy. He's hoping it's healed after the 4 weeks, because he is anxious to get back to work. He's only allowed to push papers on restricted duty. BORING for him.

I have a nice, big list of house and yard projects I can work on.... Where to start.... I'm almost giddy with excitement!