Good Thursday

Ok, I realize that is not ecumenically correct - but I don't care.


My arm is feeling better, thank you for asking. I must have pulled a muscle in my shoulder or something, although for the life of me I can't remember doing anything that would have caused it. I do have to keep reminding myself "DON"T LEAN" on my elbow when I'm reading or typing at the computer. Anyhow, it is better. Still needs a bit of healing, but I'm glad at the progress

The new shoes apparently have solved the ankle/tendon thing. I still do go barefeets at home, and wear flats maybe once a week to work - but I'm not in any pain anymore. This is a good thing.

Leandra is back home from the hospital. Guess they kicked her out for bad behavior. *Ducking from Lea's throwing shoes at me* I've always heard that Chemo is a rough ride, and she's certainly getting her share of rough ride. I hope they can find something to get her through it a little less painfully and weak.

My peony bush is doing well. It has 4 buds on it this year - up from 2 last year. I think I will need more ants. Jim at work tells me that I don't need ants, that it is a old wives tale that the ants open the peonies - but I think I will need twice as many ants as last year. I hope this plant doesn't get TOO big - I don't need all that many ants in my yard.

249 days.

Mid May Already?

Amazing how the days all run into one another anymore.

Leandra is in the hospital. Between the blood clot in her ankle, and her inability to eat anything, and total lack of energy, it's probably the best place for her, but I imagine she's wishing she were home and bored out of her skull. I am going to look on the bright side and figure that "no news is good news" - because I know that if anything horrible happened, her daughter or sister would call me.

It is sooooo frustrating being here and unable to do anything, but I guess it would be MORE frustrating to be THERE and unable to do anything. At least being 2000 miles away gives me a mental "excuse" to temper the frustration.

250 days

A science experiment gone horribly, horribly wrong!

People need to be more like Volkswagens. We need interchangable parts. Like a Barbie Doll, sorta. So I could go to the parts store, order up a new arm for the one that is giving me fits, and just pop off the old one and pop on the new, Voila! no more achey arm!

Dad sent me more of his "conservative" propaganda by mail. An entire 4-page tirade against Senator Obama. Gee, Dad, I'm sorry, but it seems to me that calling your wife a Cunt in public - as Senator McCain did - certainly is more Anti-Family than supporting the right of same-sex couples to adopt children.

So - my S-I-L has developed a sideline - he's putting his photos on to postcards, then selling them thru the local merchants. Excellent idea. B takes great photos, he's exceptionally talented. I totally love the one that Amanda sent me. I'm really glad she found herself such a great guy and that they're happy.

So I have this stench stuck in my nose. You know how sometimes you hear a song and it gets stuck in your head and you can't stop it? Well, this morning, it being trash day and all, I decided to check the fridge for science experiments and found one. I tossed it out, rinsed and poured bleach into the container, and immediately took the trash out. Too late. Whatever that was, it is coming back to haunt me periodically today. Euchhhhhh. Mental note: Check for science experiments more often!


Sometimes I have trouble thinking of post titles. Today would be one.



255 days

Thursday in My Office

It really is hard to believe that just a few weeks ago it was threatening to sn*w again. The trees are blooming, or beginning to leaf out, there are flowers all over and some guy was walking down the street in shorts and a t-shirt yakking into his cell phone.

It's still a bit too chilly to go have "lunch with Grandma", but soon it should be fine - as long as the ground dries out enough to actually sit on it.

I really wish I could have slept in today. I'm still kind of groggy. But! The Bank Statement arrived today, so I've got something to sink my teeth into this afternoon. Figuratively. Bank Statements do not taste good.

256 days

Overheating

Meh. It's hot in this office. I have the fan blowing, but it's still uncomfortably warm. I am almost NEVER cold in my office/cubicle. I sit just on the other side of a cinder block wall from the manufacturing area - headers and rollers running most days full-out right on the other side of the wall, almost. Sometimes the banging gives me a headache.

I wonder - is all I ever do is to gripe about stuff? I don't like being like that. I really do appreciate so many things - my friends, my family, most of my books (That "Labyrinth" one turned out to be not so great), the pink tree outside the office window in front...

Someone in the neighborhood has a white tree, because this morning there were little white flower petals all over my windshield. It was rather blustery last night, so I suppose that's why. All that hot air blowing in from Senator Clinton's campaign in Indiana, I suppose... *SNARK*

Something ate my little jalapeno pepper plant before I could get it planted in the dirt. I am distraught!! I hope whatever hungry critter downed it gets indigestion!

As long as it wasn't a skunk.

So I see where Senator Clinton squeaked by in Indiana by 2% of the vote and is touting it as a huge victory and vindication of her campaign stragertys. *yawn* Darlin' - even the hard-core pundits have given you the hook signal. Do you REALLY need me to sing?

The media will, I'm sure, make a big deal about Mrs. Clinton's sex, yammering on about how the country apparently isn't ready for a woman President. I call bullshit. I think this country is more than ready for a female president - just not THAT female. Mrs. Clinton comes with too much baggage. BJ-gate (Why is every scandal now a "gate" since the Nixon hotel thing? Isn't that rather... um... stupid/cutsey??), Whitewater, all those people the e-mails claim she's had murdered... Not to mention already 16 years of Rush Limpbaugh stockpiling ammunition against her. She's not charismatic, she's not likeable. I wouldn't invite her over for dinner. We need someone who actually CAN relate to Middle Class and Disadvantaged Americans. We've seen what 8+ years of pandering to the upper 2% has gotten us.

Ok, enough politics, I'm beginning to feel an unwelcome surge of negative energy and adrenaline that I really don't need.

That is, by the way, the major reason I stopped blogging about politics. Anger management isn't easy, but deliberately working myself up because of political things that I can't do a damn thing about is and has affected my health - so I'm trying to catch myself before I get caught up in the negative energy surge.

257 Days

Kili, The Self-Patting Cat Branches Out

Coming down the stairs this morning - my arms and hands are full of things that need to go from "up there" to "down there" (exactly HOW did I manage to get the dishwasher detergent upstairs???)

On top of the stack was a hairbrush, and as luck and my clumsiness would have it, it slid off the top of the stack and bounced down the stairs, landing brush-side up on the floor at the foot of the stairs.

I went to put the other things down so nothing else would fall, and when I turned around to get the brush - there was Kili, rubbing her face and neck on the bristles. Brushing her own self. *chuckle*

There have been times when she's gone walking back and forth underneath my hand dangling off the sofa - self-patting cat, I call her then; but I've never seen her be a self-BRUSHING cat before! She does, however, enjoy being brushed a lot more than her sister Mindi - who thinks the brush is a devil-spawned torture device and yelps and wiggles and squirms and hisses whenever the kitty brush is anywhere near her.

I'm still chuckling thinking about Kili's new trick. Maybe it would be worth thinking about finding a way to mount some brush bristles on a scratching post and let the kitties brush themselves while I'm at work?


*Note. The brush has been de-furred, de-haired, washed and sanitized before putting back in the downstairs washroom.

258 days

T.G.I.F.

Oh man, what a week. I can't wait for 4:30 today - so much to do/done/still waiting and I feel like I'm riding a merry-go-round where every time I think I've gotten somewhere I find myself back where I started.

There's tons to do at home too - and I have to admit I'm not in the least motivated to do it. Perhaps an advil or 2 might help. Seems every time I start something either the back or the knees start to complain about it. I'm thinking maybe the advil will give me a bit more time on the clock before I have to sit down and recoup.

I think I'll go out this weekend and buy a bajillion (exact number) bright pink geranium plants and petunia plants and that packet of sweet-pea seeds I forgot to buy earlier - and a couple baby tomatoes and peppers. Then I have to put on some "I don't care about these shoes" shoes and wade thru the muddy garden bit in the back to rescue the wire plant stands that are slowly sinking into the muck - and put some kind of feet on them so they stay on TOP of the ground, and put the tomatoes and peppers and maybe a couple of flowers in too. THEN - and only then - I will take a photo of THIS year's lovely garden-spot and post it up here. Maybe.

262 days

Vanilla & Book Review & Mini Political/Religious Rant

Vanilla/Caramel tea is weird.

It's not icky - in fact it's somewhat tasty. Somewhat, because you smell the vanilla, but all you taste is tea. I imagine that if I took tea with milk and sugar and stuff it would be far different, but I am a tea purist - nothing but what is already in the teabag goes into my hot water drink!

I do love vanilla, however. Which is strange. I remember as a young child going to Shirl's Drive-In (now gone - sigh) with Mom and Dad, and getting a CHOCOLATE milk shake. Dad would get vanilla. I started in on my career of chocoholism very early in life. Now, however, if I succumb to the evils of milkshakey goodness (not often - too sweet!) I am as likely to go for vanilla as I am chocolate. Strawberry, however, still makes me gag and wanna puke.

I have vanilla air fresheners, vanilla body wash, (because they don't make a really nice spicy jasmine anymore) and vanilla coffee. I suppose it is just a short skip from vanilla coffee to vanilla tea - but it is weird.

Been having grapes fits lately. Finally broke down and bought a clump when at the market the other day. I suppose I'll get through this clump and then not want any again for a few months.

I don't know if it is fair to review a book before you finish reading it, but this one has me wanting to do just that - perhaps I will give it "further review" after I've finished, but right now that doesn't seem likely.

I'm reading this strange book - "Labyrinth" by Kate Mosse. Says it is a "NY Times Bestseller" - FWIW. Frankly, it is annoying me. It is one of those 2-storys-intertwined back-and-forth books, where just when it becomes interesting in one storyline, the author stops and inserts several chapters of the alternate storyline. Right about now I'd like to find Kate Mosse and strangle her with her own paperback novel. Grrrrrr. I like both stories, but this whole build to a climax then switch tracks - 'Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch' shit parlor trick is getting old. Cut to the chase, Wench!!!!

Ok, fortunately I read a number of other blogs, because I'd hate to think that I was the ONLY PERSON IN THE US of A that thinks that this entire Rev. Jeremiah Wright thing is the biggest mountain anyone has EVER been able to make out of a molehill and should be in the Guinness Book of World Records as such.

It occurs to me that:
A) Reverend Wright has the right to his own opinion, no matter how Wrong, and
B) Senator Obama really has no control over the opinions of anyone other than *drumroll* Senator Obama, and
C) Reverend Wright isn't up for election.

Hate to have to say this, HillBots and Repukelicans - but there have been PLENTY of things that Pastors/Ministers/Priests/Saul of Tarsus have said that I vehemently disagree with - but that doesn't mean I would automatically condemn them to hell - except for Saul of Tarsus.

Not wearing a flag pin today either. So there.

264 days

Photos I Can't Post

Because I can't TAKE them.

Been trying for a week now to get a photo of the pink HummVee. She (I assume it is a she - what MAN would drive a neon-vinyl pink hummer?) has been spotted twice, but both times I was driving past her too fast to get a snap. Grrr.

Another is a photo of Mindi with her fangs hanging out her mouth. Cat has a 7th sense about the camera - she'll do it all day long, but as soon as I turn on the camera, she licks her chops, tucks the fangs in and buries her nose in her feet. This is obviously deliberate - but just like a small child, impossible to stop.

Kili has been yelling at me a lot every morning lately. The water bottle is empty. The water bowl is empty. Either the cats are unbelievably thirsty - or the water bottle has sprung a leak. I suspect the leak. Fortunately those kitty water-cooler dishes are pretty cheap so I can get another one this weekend.

Had a long talk with Lea yesterday. Was great - she sounded quite a bit more chipper and less like she was about to go into a coma from lack of sleep. She needs all the strength she can muster to fight this disease, so I'm glad she got some good rest. She's thrilled because for the very first time in her life, a doctor has told her she SHOULD eat anything and everything she wants - including all the chocolate she can stand. *chuckle* Hellova way to get that kind of permit.

We used to have a bunch of stores out here - called "Fannie Mae" - candy stores. Chocolates of all description. The store clerks were told that they could eat as much as they wanted of the choccy. I'm told that after a week or so, they never wanted to touch another piece of chocolate again. Just warnin' ya, Lea!!

265 days

The coming of Spring

Today there is a daffodil beginning to bloom in the back yard garden. Why do I call it a "Yard" when there is, in fact, no yard at all, but instead a small deck, a concrete patio, and a tiny gardening plot full of perennial flowers and a few pots that will have SOMETHING in them later Next month?

Anyhow - it is pretty, and it reminds me to keep the hope alive - keep sending good healing energy to Lea - and that I seriously need to get the edging fixed up this year, since to the best of my knowledge, we do NOT have another round of garden-trampling repairmen due to run amok through the area.

Even the rhubarb, which I thought had died due to squirrel-digging damage, is starting to make baby leaves. I love Spring.

In other news...

I got my new blood-pressure meds last nite. They are excellent. Not only do they come in A BOTTLE!!! Instead of those annoying paper-backed-foil packets, they also are kind of pale pink - and have a HEART stamped into them!!! How cool is that???!! A little tiny pink heart embossed into the tablet. Gotta love it.

So anyhow - I also found out that my insurance isn't QUITE as unreasonable as I thought - they are paying all but $30 on my test-strip prescription refills, and I did find this new heart-stamped blood-pressure med at a reasonable co-pay, so that's all good. As much as I whine and bitch about the insurance here, I'd be floundering without it. Not to say it couldn't be better, of course! (Just in case someone from work read this and thinks I'm complaicent now...)

Mental note: Take note when you get a papercut, and do NOT use "Instant Hand Sanitizer" lotion with gobs of alcohol until it heals up some... OWIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Costco last night had these totally awesome 7-layer burritos. I bought a box - they are yummy. However, it seems as if the 7 layers of stuff (chicken, cheese, guacamole, sour creme, etc) are layered the short way, rather than the long way. So when you eat the burrito, instead of getting all 7 flavors in one bite, you get a mouthful of tortilla + chicken, OR tortilla + guacamole, OR tortilla + sour creme... which is ok, I suppose, but weird.


272 days