Is it Friday yet?

Woke up an hour late.
Mom called & told me not to worry about picking up the crown molding for her lab, that she could do it tomorrow.
J took Moira to school. (She was late.)
I went to parents' house, made dad & C breakfast. (French toast, yum.)
Went to psych appt. (Was late.)
Learned can't have C with me at appt, filled out paperwork, will reschedule when I have a babysitter.
Went by mom's school to drop off some of her papers.
Went back to parents' house, warmed up lunch for C, paid some bills with dad.
Went to counselor's appt.
Went to J's work, picked up him & car seat.
Got lunch with J on way to picking up Moira from school.
Took J back to his office.
Went back to parents' house to check on dad, waited for mom to get home.
Waited for J to get there, left to go home.

***EDIT***
Not sure how I forgot this... on way home, car ran out of gas. Coasted into gas station after dying in middle of intersection. (J & I had switched cars; he told me it needed gas, and MAN did it need gas - barely got to the darn gas station.)
**********

Arrived home, found power was off.
Drove looking for a network to get on to pay power bill.
Paid power bill, had 2 hours to kill before power was turned back on.
Went to Uncle Patrick's house (THANK YOU!) and watched tv.
Went home - power on! Yay! Came inside, went to bed.


What a way to start the week, you know? How was YOUR monday?

You can have one - ONE! - at a time!!!

#(*$&@(%&(@#$&

My son is much worse than my daughter was - inevitably, he's nursing on one breast, and feels the need to tweak the other nipple. I've managed not to break his fingers yet, but I've been tempted.

Yesterday was entertaining. Patrick and Justin cleaned out the den! We now have an adult room. A place to put puzzles, woohoo! In the process of putting boxes of not-gotten-unpacked-or-sorted crap into the shed for the near future, J found one of my old keychain mace things, and handed it to Patrick saying "Wanna mace somebody?" Patrick, who is roughly half deaf, didn't quite get what J was saying, and as he messed with the thing, maced J in the face.

So I'm in the back bedroom trying to put the kids down for a nap, and Patrick comes back and says don't worry, but I've maced your husband. (That explains that sound out back that sounds like projectile retching, I think to myself.)

It's never dull around here, you know?

It's started already

It's a lovely early spring rainy day. I generally like this kind of weather. Yesterday I started the medication switch, and it's amazing how quickly I feel an effect. Last night's dreaming was full of anger and depression and paranoia... and betrayal... first dream I was in a mental institution, and angry at the doctor telling me what to do or what was wrong with me. I remember yelling at him as I went to take a shower that if the world didn't suck so bad I'd be perfectly fine. He & J were agreeing about something. After J woke me up coming back to bed from finally getting M to sleep (and I'd probably been asleep an hour at most) I had a dream about being in the military with my husband and him deciding to do something that involved him being shipped away from me, and being fawned on by young enlisted women... and in both dreams, oddly enough, sex got interrupted. I just realized that.

Listening to the sound of the rain was nice last night, however. I was a little wound up thinking about my parents and all I need to get done, and couldn't relax easily. I'm about to go take a nice, long shower with some yummy smelling body wash I got on clearance.

tired posts aren't anywhere near as fun as drunk posts

If the time stamp on this entry is correct, you'll see that I'm writing this at ten til 3. AM.

I just got back from my parents' house. Dad fell out of bed trying to get to the bathroom. Mom called a neighbor who helped her get him up (bless them; am dropping by a thank you card in the morning) and after dad messed up the bed, I brought underbed pads etc.

You'd think changing diapers for 3 years would make me immune to the smell of poo. I gotta say, 85 yr old man poo smells a lot different than toddler poo. Yikes.

Anyway, I'm just now beginning to get a taste of what it's going to be like to have elderly parents and be an only child. I've been worried about it for years, but I don't think I was prepared.

I'm now wondering how much that house down the street is listed at.

Sleepy time now. Must get myself more in order in the morning.

Well, it's a start

Last night is the first night I've gotten any restful sleep in three days. I still woke up feeling like I'd been beaten with a bar of soap in a sock, though.

Dad's coming home from rehab today! I hope he does okay at home; I'm probably going to be spending a lot of time over there.

I wonder if I can get Christian back to sleep....

Oh, and we celebrated with Uncle Patrick last night - happy days!

My doctor's appt. is tomorrow; we'll see how that goes.

Join the new adventure!

After several conversations with guy friends of mine over the last week or two, I decided to start a blog that's a collection of romantic ideas for people who seem to have trouble thinking something up.

Come share your ideas!

My head hurts

Before I start my bitching, I do have to say that on the bright side, I did notice today for the first time this spring the wisteria blooming. So I started looking at all the flowers that were blooming... saw both white and purple wisteria! Woohoo!

Anyway, I'm tired of stupidity. Aren't you? I don't even feel like going into details now. Not worth it. As long as there are humans alive, there will be stupidity. Maybe that's what heaven is - the absence of stupidity.

And all the stupid drains to hell. Hell is other people. Other stupid people. But you know, if everybody in hell is stupid, then none of them would realize they were in hell...

Maybe we're in hell now. That would explain a lot.


Dad comes home from the rehab hospital tomorrow. I have to go tomorrow morning and install the bed risers, the toilet grab bars, and perhaps the shower seat - we might wait on that last one.

What a year

It's only March, but I feel like we've been running full tilt for most of the past 3 months.

Dad's still in the rehab hospital, but he's doing well, and he might get to come home this week. We need to do some work to the house to make it safer for him to come & go & move around - if you know a good local contractor, please let me know, as some of it is extensive work. (Both the bathrooms need to be replaced)

My brother came down this weekend with his wife and two kids - okay, well, half-brother. It was good to see him. Even if he is a republican.

My sister-in-law and her two kids are now in town... I'm not sure if she's talking to me or not, and I'm not in the mood to deal with drama, so hopefully things will go smoothly.

And the news du jour: my mood swings have started up again. *sigh* Well, I had three years of relative sanity, so hopefully I can use those as a sort of litmus test for where I'm at emotionally at any given point. I just realized that only part of the reason for my recent weight gain was that I'm a lazy couch potato that doesn't eat particularly well - the weight gain with zoloft is 15-20lbs. Urgh. Hard to not be depressed when you put on extra weight. :) I think I'll ask my doc about Wellbutrin. And J did some research and discovered that ultradian cycling might be caused by a thyroid imbalance, and that synthroid, when given to some people, balances out the mood swings - whether they've tested hypothyridic or not. So it looks like I have a few options; we'll see what happens.

As soon as I can afford to get a bicycle, I'm going to start riding again! I actually have three people that are willing to go riding with me (one of which being J, but he doesn't have a bike yet either) and I can't wait. I'm hoping to get the kids one of those bike trailer things so they can sit in it and ride along - them both being too young to _bike_ the St. Mark's trail with us, and I don't feel safe with a baby seat thing up on the bike. I'm not that coordinated.

Anybody got a bike they wanna donate?

Anyway, it's almost 11:30 and I need to go to sleep. I hope all is well with y'all out there in electronville; have a good week.

say that again?

%47%65%65%6B%73%20%6F%66%20%61%20%66%65%61%74%68%65%72%20%66%6C%6F%63%6B%20%74%6F%67%65%74%68%65%72%2E%20%20%49%66%20%79%6F%75%27%76%65%20%74%72%61%6E%73%6C%61%74%65%64%20%74%68%69%73%2C%20%79%6F%75%27%72%65%20%65%69%74%68%65%72%20%61%20%64%65%64%69%63%61%74%65%64%20%66%72%69%65%6E%64%2C%20%61%20%63%75%72%69%6F%75%73%20%67%65%65%6B%2C%20%6F%72%20%73%6F%6D%65%74%68%69%6E%67%20%69%6E%20%62%65%74%77%65%65%6E%2E%0D%0A%0D%0A%49%27%6D%20%67%6F%69%6E%67%20%74%6F%20%73%74%61%72%74%20%6C%6F%6F%6B%69%6E%67%20%66%6F%72%20%61%20%6A%6F%62%2C%20%73%6F%20%69%66%20%61%6E%79%20%6F%66%20%79%6F%75%20%6F%75%74%20%74%68%65%72%65%20%68%61%76%65%20%68%65%61%72%64%20%6F%66%20%6F%6E%65%20%49%20%6D%69%67%68%74%20%6C%69%6B%65%2F%62%65%20%67%6F%6F%64%20%61%74%2F%6D%61%6B%65%20%64%65%63%65%6E%74%20%6D%6F%6E%65%79%20%61%74%2C%20%6C%65%74%20%6D%65%20%6B%6E%6F%77%2C%20%6F%6B%61%79%3F%00

Have you seen Animal House?

Otter: Take it easy, I'm pre-law.
Boon: I thought you were pre-med.
Otter: What's the difference?



Those of you that know me know that for a long time I was aiming at med school. I'd thought about specializing as an ob/gyn - at least until I spent a good deal of time volunteering at an ob/gyn's office. I decided that midwifery was more my speed.

Lately I've been reconsidering. I've gotten so frustrated and fed up with politics that I've felt the urge to get involved and try to change it. (When I'm not so sick of other human beings that I just want to buy a private island and tell the rest of the planet to fuck off, that is.)

I'd been thinking about this quote by Otter, and worrying that perhaps people weren't going to take me seriously, and wondering why I seemed to have lost my desire to be a physician, and it suddenly occurred to me: I'm doing so much nurturing and caretaking now, the idea of doing it for a career exhausts me.

I've got two small children, a husband, two elderly parents, an elderly aunt... so we'll see what I decide to do when I'm actually able to go back to school.

Donations to my college fund are welcome. {wink}

I'm not sure I'll ever sleep again

I wasn't reading any true crime stories or anything, but I had the most horrible, most detailed dreams about a serial killer...

Very. Detailed.

This is not an auspicious way to start the week...

Guilty pleasure admittance ahead...

Once again, the Academy Awards show is upon us. I had forgotten that Jon Stewart was hosting this year; I was actually thinking of watching it for him.

It's 11:30pm, and what I'm doing is sitting on my laptop looking at pictures. My guilty pleasure is drooling over and criticizing the outfits.

My only problem is a lack of a person to babble to about this. So congratulations, you the reader get to hear it this year, because I feel like talking.

Judi Dench is such a classy lady. I like her outfit.

Felicity Huffman has A- cups; and that dress would probably go better on a woman with at least a LITTLE cleavage.

Selma Hayek, MROWR! Gorgeous color. Very flattering on her.

gotta go to bed... maybe more later.

amazing

The hospital has a guest wireless network. Bless them.

Note to all you parents and not-yet parents out there: HAVE MORE THAN ONE CHILD. When you get old, and need taking care of, your child will appreciate having siblings to call on for help.

And you siblings out there? If you have an elderly parent and one of your siblings lives in town and the rest of you don't, and something happens, you damn well should help in whatever way you can.

My brother is coming down next weekend, bless him.

And bless the friends & family around here who have helped out with my children while I'm trying to be a good daughter.

Those of you who pray

Please keep my father in your prayers/thoughts/meditations/whatever.

He fell Friday afternoon. He stayed home thru the weekend, but seemed to get progressively worse.

To make a long story short (cause I'm effing tired) he has a compound fracture of his L1 vertibra. He'll be in the hospital for at least 3 days and in rehab for "weeks" according to the doctor.

Not the best news for an 85 year old. Keep your fingers crossed.

It's crack!

Those of you familiar with J's incredibly yummy chicken salad can imagine the taste of this... those of you who aren't, GO MAKE THIS. SOOOOOOOOO good.

Chicken salad
In a big bowl, put:

3 large cans chunk chicken (white & dark in water)
12oz diced celery
6oz chopped walnuts (don't skimp!)
oregano (dried)
parsley (dried)
dill (fresh)
tarragon (whole leaves, dried)
celery salt
kosher salt
cracked black pepper
2 tbsp dill pickle juice
1/2 cup sweet pickle relish
2 tbsp brown mustard
at least 1 cup mayonnaise (adjust for consistency)

liberally salt and pepper the insides of four de-topped and scooped out green bell peppers, stuff with chicken salad, top with swiss cheese, broil in oven until cheese is bubbly.

Wow. Just, wow. And incredibly filling.

Gotta go run quick bath for kids. G'nite, y'all!

yummmm, pork loin

Patrick made us dinner at his place - one of the best pork loins I've eaten, which is saying something considering how well J cooks.

The entertainment for the evening, now that was something.

I have one thing to say about Napoleon Dynamite: wtf? And yes, the cymbal player at the Prism concert looked just like him.

Robots - now THAT was a trip! Of course, it was an underdog sort of film, so nobody's surprised that I liked it, I'm sure. Besides, it's got Robin Williams! How can you go wrong?

We went to the MagLab open house thing on Saturday - it was amazing, but not as much neat stuff as I was expecting. I was expecting something like a magnet hands-on display like what you'd see at a science museum for the kids. And J & I laughed about this, but it was weird nonetheless: I felt okay when I got there. Started feeling progressively worse. Finally felt so crappy I told J I was done, and we left. As soon as we left, I felt better. We couldn't help but wonder if the high magnetic fields were messing with my funky body chemistry. So, next time we go, I'll see if it happens again. Of course, it'll be hard to test, because I might make something happen psychosomatically... but what the hey.

Am taking the kids into the doctor today for a look-see. Let him listen to their chests, check their ears & throat, that kind of thing. They've been sick for a couple of weeks now, so while I figure it's a virus, he'll know if there's anything bacterial going around or whatnot. {looking at clock} Which means I'd better go hit the shower with Christian.

Some random comments for the day

BWAHAHAHAHAHA

About Cheney, Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska (R): "If he'd been in the military, he would have learned gun safety."

Remember when Ann Coulter said the voters in Palm Beach County "stupid" and "feeble-minded"? She couldn't vote in the correct district herself! Hello, pot, this is kettle - YOU'RE BLACK.

Bob Cesca made a great point, which I'd like to restate here and add to.

The chances of you being killed by a terrorist attack on US soil is 1 in 88,000.

But you're more likely to die of....

Heart Disease:1-in-5
Cancer: 1-in-7
Stroke: 1-in-23
Accidental Injury: 1-in-36
Motor Vehicle Accident*: 1-in-100
Intentional Self-harm (suicide): 1-in-121
Falling Down: 1-in-246
Assault by Firearm: 1-in-325
Fire or Smoke: 1-in-1,116
Natural Forces (heat, cold, storms, quakes, etc.): 1-in-3,357
Electrocution*: 1-in-5,000
Drowning: 1-in-8,942
Air Travel Accident*: 1-in-20,000
Flood* (included also in Natural Forces above): 1-in-30,000
Legal Execution: 1-in-58,618
Tornado* (included also in Natural Forces above): 1-in-60,000
Lightning Strike (included also in Natural Forces above): 1-in-83,930

The more specific figures are based on 2001, the most recent year for which complete data are available. Other odds, indicated with an asterisk (*) are based on long-term data.
All figures are for U.S. residents.

According to the National Priority Project, using data from Congressional appropriations, the cost of the war in Iraq is currently about $242,029,505,571. (It will be higher by the time I finish typing this entry and click 'post') If we had spent that money in cancer research, motor vehicle safety, firearm safety, increasing healthy eating & excercise to reduce strokes & heart attacks, funding for fire fighters, swimming lessons, mental health support, building basements... we'd have saved more Americans and made the United States safer than what we're doing now.

You want to talk world-wide? You're more likely to die as a child from malnutrition & diarrheal diseases. We could put that money towards improving food production and distribution around the world, and funding medical access programs in third world countries...

*sigh*

woooooo!

There's a special place in heaven for Patrick, who has taken us to the Prism concert for two years in a row now. Or is it three?

I'm going to go all fangirl and write FSU and ask if the amazing marimba player would autograph my program. Then in a few years I can start looking for recordings by him or something.

heading to bed. Sort of. I'm down to 40KB on my harddrive, so I have to delete some things.

I think I'll make sure J takes multivitamins more often...

It's 9pm, and he's been asleep for half an hour or so. Maybe more. The kids are asleep, and I'm seriously contemplating going to bed too. If everybody in this house is asleep before 10pm, the devil better start knitting a sweater, you know?

Valentine's Day tomorrow - I hope it's a good day for everybody out there, whether you have a significant other or not.

AAAAAUUUUUUUUGH

spent all that time downloading the torrent, only to find out it was the wrong movie.

(#*&@(#$&!@(#@(&$#@#($*#(

And I was really in the mood to watch it, too. Have been for weeks now.



I'm going to bed. Hopefully I can leave the weekend's moodiness behind me and start tomorrow fresh.

OOOOOH, we're gaming Wednesday night! I'm so excited. I was thinking back; I'm not sure I've ever been able to finish a game - something always happened. J is DMing, and I can't wait to see how it goes - I think he's going to be really good. And a very close friend, whose reputation I don't want to damage by naming him here, is going to play with us! {SQUEEEEEEEE!}