My step-mother is now out of the hospital. They stabilized her blood pressure, pumped her full of IV fluids, gave her several breathing treatments, and kept her loaded up on anti-nausea meds. They still don’t know what caused the chills and vomiting, but I suspect dehydration may have been the cause of the low blood pressure.
I had lunch (bbq) with my mom yesterday, and will see her again on Thursday when she meets with the surgeon.
I miss my babies.
We got a call this morning here, at my sister Donna’s house, from my Dad, telling us my stepmother was admitted to the hospital early this morning. She had been feeling unwell for a few days (she missed Thanksgiving because of it), and hadn’t been able to keep any food down. When he brought her into the ER to get checked out, her blood pressure was very low. The reading has varied anywhere from 60/40 to 163/46. They’ve done testing, and so far have been able to rule out pneumonia, flu, and diabetes. Suspects are heart, kidneys, and lungs, with lungs heavily favored as the cause. So they’ve been giving her lots of anti-nausea medicines and some breathing treatments.
And the hits just keep onnnnnnn comin’.
Hi, everybody! We made it in to DFW just fine, after a layover in Denver. Thomas was an amazingly good traveller. During the first leg of the trip, he nursed and slept through takeoff and landing, then played the rest of the time. During the second half of the trip (for almost 2 hours), he sleep-nursed the entire way. It was a quiet ride, but I was parched by the time we landed! I was seated next to a doctor between Denver and DFW, and I fear I pestered him just a little bit with my inane conversation. Ah, well, that’s what happens when you travel amongst the common folk! ;)
I saw my mom Monday night. She looks well, if a bit tired. She didn’t know I was coming, so we surprised her by telling her my sister Donna needed to do some costume-sewing for a play this weekend. She seemed completely surprised, and we had a nice chat over dinner, and she held the baby LOTS. I was going to see her again yesterday, but circumstances prevented it.
By “circumstances", I mean gale-force winds (gusts to 70), rain, hail, and tornadoes. My brother-in-law was at work, when his car (and 250 others) was attacked by a marauding tornado. It blew out hundreds of windshields and windows, and even moved a few cars a couple of feet. We saw all kinds of debris on the road, torn billboards, heard about power lines, etc. Lucky for me, it passed just north of Donna’s house (where I was today), but now that we’re 3 adults down to one car, getting around could be a challenge. We’ll just see how it goes.
Mom’s supposed to talk to her regular doctor and the heart surgeon on December 2nd. Hopefully I’ll know more then about what the next step is, whether surgery or more testing. The waiting is awful.
Tomorrow I’m planning to surprise the rest of my family at Thanksgiving dinner. As far as I know, none of the rest of them know I’m here, so it should make for a great time. I’m really looking forward to it!
I hope everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving with the people you love.
I would just like to take a moment to wish everyone a very happy Thanksgiving and to send my warmest thoughts and wishes to Dana and her family. We’re all thinking of you Dana! Please keep us posted on how things are going. Hurry back soon okay? My posts aren’t nearly as intriguing as yours. We miss you!
I hope everyone is doing well and if you have any travel plans for the holiday, please be safe and alert. It’s a crazy world out there!
Yesterday was a down day for our squadron. We had what was called “Wingman’s Day” here at Andrews. It was more like a day of briefings on topics such as suicide prevention, sexual assault and bascially how to look out for one another in the Air Force. Apparantly suicide in the AF has become a problem and the numbers have gone up. We watched a video by General Jumper and last year alone there were 57 deaths that were the result of people taking their own lives. Now to me, that number doesn’t seem so bad considering how big the Air Force is. I am not trying to come across as insensitive because I think every life is precious. This has been the 4th suicide briefing I’ve attended in the whole 7 months I’ve been in. But hey, if it raises awareness and makes us all more attentive to the warning signs of depression and suicidal tendancies then I’ll go. (like I have a choice.)
Anyway, after that we had what was called the “Sam Fox” run. Andrews’ mascot is a red fox by the name of Sam. Every squadron had to meet out on the flight line in red t-shirts around 1430 (2:30 PM) and run a mile and half down the flight line. Andrews has two active runways so they closed one and about 900 of us ran. Of course that isn’t the WHOLE base. Andrews is a busy place and we still had a mission to accomplish so people stayed behind. Anyway, I hate running in crowds like that because for one, the people in front of you won’t go or the people behind you step on your heels. It took me back to the days of basic where we had what was called the Airmen’s run. On the day of graduation all the squadron’s run three miles while family waits at the other end cheering and seeing their kids for the first time. It’s really cool, only I almost took a girl down in our flight because she WOULD NOT go and she whined the whole way and was getting way too smart for me. She was running in front of me and since we couldn’t pass I kept stepping on her heels so I told her to speed up. She kept turning back giving me smart butt replies and I told her it wouldn’t happen if she would just shut-up and run. I ended up getting chewed out by the TI who was running with us on the outside of the flight. The only reason I kept myself in check was that I was posed the threat of being recycled (that’s when they put you all the way back to the first week or so of training for punishment) on the last day and that was NOT gonna happen on the account of a little twit-head.
So, we all gathered outside on the flightline and had our picture made and then did our run in the freezing cold and of course it started raining. I had to walk the last part because the guys in my flight were making me laugh so hard that I forgot to breath right and ended up with a pain in my side, plus I was wet and cold. Some guy from the med group was running with this huge drum strapped to his front with the AF logo on it and was pounding it while we ran..just to be goofy I guess and to keep the spirits up while we huffed and puffed down the runway. Then we had some guys throwing a football to people in the flight while we ran so we tossed it back and forth among the crowd…(keep in mind with 900 people the run was slooooow..). Anyone who is interested may log into the AF homepage by clicking on www.af.mil They were taking pictures from the air and rumor has it we may be on there, but it’s not for certain. But it’s still a neat look into the AF side of things!
I’m still not sure out of the whole day what the sole purpose of the run was for but hey, I got to go home early so I can’t complain!
“A good friend can tell you what is the matter with you in a minute. He may not seem such a good friend after telling.” - Arthur Brisbane
Hey everyone! Here’s a great a big howdy from Tennessee. That’s one great thing about a lap-top, you can take it with you wherever you go and hook it up just about anywhere!
Actually I had to make an emergency trip home because a very dear friend of mine who suffers from a liver disorder has become very, very ill. So I made a last minute trip home for the next few days. He is in Vanderbilt hospital. He and I go way back. He is the Assistant D.A. for Sevier and Jefferson counties in Tennessee. Anyway, I am not sure what the disease is called but it’s hereditary and the blood does not thin properly. Anyone know what it’s called?
For those who do not know, Andrews is my very first assignment for the Air Force. (I say that proudly because I am a part of the presidential support team!) I reported in on 16 August and I haven’t been home since I arrived. Sooo..today I took my copy of MapQuest directions and set out for the good ole Volunteer state. Suffice to say, I ended up lost three times before getting out of the D.C. area. Each time I would go back to base and start all over again and I still ended up in circles. Dang ole Beltway. It’s a mess and very confusing. I ended up somewhere in Alexandria, VA and had to finally ask a lady at the gas station how to get back to where I started. sigh…it’s sad because being from the south I’m just naturally friendly..but these days people just don’t know how to take other people ya know..? You don;t know if they’re going to shoot at you or run off with your car. I felt like I needed to approach her with a white flag or something..saying “peace.”
When I get lost in an area I don’t know well, I tend to panic and get all worked up. Not to mention, I was coming off a 12 hour night shift with hardly any sleep, it was a nasty drizzling rain, the kind that screws up your windshield with muck and haze, and on top of it all I was really worried about my friend. I think I may have cut a few people off by accident as I saw the exit I needed to take last minute, and I was to the point of losing all military bearing and wanted to pull over and cry. If I could make highways..I would invent little drive thru places along the side that you could pull your car into and get your bearings when you’re lost and have 24 hour attendees that could give you directions.
Eventually, I found my way but never soley rely on MapQuest. Some of the exits are wrong. I do have to hand it to the men though..ya’ll are good with directions..it’s like you have a built in navagation system or something..even though you may not stop and ask for directions everytime time you men do eventually find your way. I envy that, because I have no sense of direction and being a single female traveling alone it would have been really nice to have a guy with me at that moment or at least the “navagational system". :)
sigh..what a day!
Stolen from someone’s signature line:
Conservatives: Kill murderers, save children.
Liberals: Kill children, save murderers.
It has been often (11/18) pointed (11/15) out (July 13) that I have a “thing” for Liberal Larry. If you are not already reading him, you should be ashamed. He’s the most gifted satirist on the Internet - possibly in the world. His latest missive is the best of the bunch.
Indeed, it is thanks to the tireless work of prominent democrats like Gov. George Wallace and Sen. Robert Byrd that blacks are now permitted to drink from the same water fountains and ride the same buses with us regular people. Every civil rights victory, every advancement in the struggle for racial equality, blacks owe to white democrats. That makes it all the more infuriating when a few unappreciative Uncle Tomasinas flee the plantation and go runnin’ off through da swamp bein’ chased by GOP hound dawgs. Condi can act all high and mighty, talk like them white folk and live up there in the big house wit’ da massah all she wants - but if it weren’t for the Democrats, she’d still be sittin on the porch back in Alabammy, shuckin’ peas with the rest of the pickaninnies.
When I have “the hots” for a guy, I (half-) jokingly blurt out, “I’d do him.” But where Larry’s concerned, I’d do him. And I’d let him bring a friend.
“Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.” - Mark Twain
Sometimes working the all-nighters proves to be slow and boring…so we do anything to keep ourselves awake or entertained. I personally tend to surf the web quite a bit. I came across this site. I tell ya what now..and I thought I had been conned into some doozy bridesmaid dresses over the years. Whew! The shoe section is pretty interesting too.
When I worry and when I’m under stress, I tend to develop a mild case of insomnia. It hasn’t ever gotten so bad I couldn’t function; I’m just grouchy and irritable and TIRED all day. The last few days have been like that. I’ll have to try my best to get some rest before Monday, because traveling with an infant isn’t exactly fun under the best of circumstances; the last thing I need is to be short of patience and exhausted to boot. Anybody have suggestions for how to get to sleep when your mind is racing too much?
My transition from the civilian life to the
world of combat boots, BDU’s and dress blues was nothing short of an
adventure. Good ole basic training. I grew up the oldest of three girls
in a small town in East Tennessee. I admit, I was and still am a bit of
a girly girl you could say. I don’t think my parents ever imagined any
of their children as military material. ME of all three girls was the
one they’d least expect to join up. I remember during the days I was in
DEP awaiting my leave date one parent would just look at me and just
bust out in hysterical laughter or one would refuse to speak to me.
They had it in their minds I would never survive military boot camp.
Hey, my grandmother did so I knew I could! I was ready to show them and
although it was theee hardest thing I have ever done it was the best
thing I’ve ever done for myself.
The night I arrived at Lackland
AFB is almost a haze now..but I remember it feeling like a really,
really bad dream. I remember the TI’s were waiting..practically rubbing
their hands together ready to torture new troops. All I wanted to do
was blend in and go unnoticed. I prayed that. From the advice of a few
other enlisted members I was told if they didn’t know your name you
were doing good. So I had planned to make it through 6 weeks of
bootcamp unnoticed. YEAH RIGHT! That first night we were bused to our
squadrons and had to stand at attention with our luggage at one side.
The TI we had was a hard-core mean woman that at first out the fear of
God in me. We had to do this drill where she would tell us to drop our
bags and pick them up..drop ‘em again and pick them back up. The poor
soul who was still straggeling or moving when she said pick them up was
in for hell. It just so happened that in addition to my one duffle bag
I had brought a shoulder bag as carry-on for the plane. It had my Bible
and other necessities that I had planned on keeping with me to get me
through the 6 weeks that lay ahead. For some reason that night..and I
don’t know if it was due to being scared to death or just sheer bad
luck..my shoulder bag wanted to slide off my arm every time. It was now
3am and we were tired and scared and because of me and this bag we had
to repeat the drill over and over until I could get it straight. Ech
time everything would fall out..I had change that spilled all over the
squadron, papers, frilly underwear, and whatever else I thought I could
stuff into that thing. So much for blending in. I remember my TI..SSgt.
Holliday was her name..came and stood inches from my face and was
screaming very loudly at me that I was going to be the idiot of the
flight. BTW..frilly underwear is just not a good idea because when they
come in for red line inspections they go through EVERYTHING and the
male TI’s really have a hay-day with that kind of stuff. Well, I
believe things happen for a reason and maybe this was God’s way of
making me stronger because I held up well by the end of basic I was
pretty cool with this TI. Although there were others I would have
gladly put a curse on. I couldn’t march worth a flip right at first and
I was always the one called out or put to the back of the flight or
called ridiculous names because of my lack of coordination. Looking
back though, basic really wasn’t all that bad..it was actually kinda
fun! You learned how to survive..how to listen for those taps on the
TI’s shoes. I was called Trainee Poptart by many of the TI’s in my
squadron because one day in chow I was walking by the snakepit (the
long tables where all the TI’s sit and yell at you while you eat) with
a poptart. I dropped it and when I went to pick it up I kicked it and
it slid right under the snakepit table. All I could think was “Oh
crap.” I saw the sneer on the guy’s face before I even actually looked
at him. I was his bait now. I remember it caused a scene because I saw
the nervous stares of other flights as they tried to eat yet catch the
action out if the corner of their eye while the TI’s harrassed me, and
the girls were asking me what the heck happened later on that night
after lights out. I ended up having to stand at attention and give a
reporting statement as “Trainee Poptart reports as ordered..” and any
other ridiculous thing they could make me do.
Yep, basic was an adventure! I crossed into the blue! It was the
coolest experience of my life and now I have this cool job (yet often
times stressful) that I can go to everyday. I have SO many stories from
those 6 weeks it’s incredible. Anyway, I have to get ready for work
again..I am working the night shift today so I’d best go and grab a
bite before time gets away from me. Take care everyone! I will be back
soon.
Stay tuned..just as soon as I get time between shifts I’ll share some basic training stories with you guys..
Hi to all of Dana’s readers! I’m Kelli and I am filling in a little for Dana while she’s away. (Thanks Dana for the opportunity to do this..you’re so awesome!) Anyway, to tell you a little bit about me I am active duty Air Force stationed at Andrews AFB, MD. I work for Air Force One and just about any other military aircraft that come through here. It’s a pretty awesome job…the shift work just takes some getting used to. We’re a 24 hour operation so my schedule changes all the time. We also get alot of the wounded coming back from Iraq and that’s just something right there. It really hits home for me when I see those guys and gals being loaded onto buses. Anyway, I am trying to start my own blog soon, so this is a great way to get my feet wet and learn the world of blogging. Any advice you guys have please feel free to pass it on! I’ll be back soon.
My friend (and frequent commenter) Kelli has agreed to step in and help pick up some of my slack while I’m gone. She’s never blogged before, so please be kind. I’m sure she’ll have some interesting things to talk about. Thanks, Kelli!!
I’ve booked a flight to Texas on Monday. I’m not sure when I’ll be back, since I’m not sure when the surgery will be. I’m taking Thomas with me, but the older two kids will stay home with Mike. I will have access to email while I’m there, but I don’t know how much time I’ll have, and I know I’ll have to get some work done while I’m there. So, I don’t know if I’ll be blogging or not. Hopefully the trip won’t ALL be gloom and doom, and I’m even looking forward to certain parts of it (like my mom getting to see Thomas for the first time, and a big Thanksgiving, and maybe even Olive Garden with my sister). I don’t have any guest bloggers lined up (Kelli? You wanna?), but still might be able to sneak in a post or two now and then. Probably not the regular journal updates, though; that’s just a little more pressure than I think I can manage. Oh, and if you’re a family member and are reading this: DON’T TELL! It’s supposed to be a surprise. :)
Thank you to everyone for their thoughts, prayers, well-wishes, and support. We need ‘em.
I just got a call from my sister. My mom’s out of surgery now, and she’s doing well. Unfortunately, there were a couple of surprises. Her kidney functioning is down, so they’re going to try to address that on Friday (more tests). It may have just been temporarily down, but it will be a factor. Also, the surgeon told her there was something he’d never seen before: the coronary veins have attached themselves to the tumor. Now, I’m no heart surgeon, but that sounds really, really bad to me. They’ve ordered an MRA to find out whether the veins are functioning or not, and just how this will complicate things. No word yet on when the open-heart surgery will be, but my sister says Mom’s pushing to have it after Thanksgiving. Hopefully I’ll know more by the end of the week.
I’m scared.
I woke up at 8 from a horrible dream about being trapped in a room with a bunch of kids and caretakers. It was like some enormous daycare held inside a skating rink or something. I saw a beautiful black man, and started flirting with him from across the room. We were all making our way out of a revolving door, when we noticed a murderer had stuffed someone into a mailbox by the door. “My” flirt said to the killer (a Mafia type), “I don’t like that… I don’t like that at all.” He starts to go through the revolving door, turns back to look at the killer, and the killer rams the glass door into his face and starts shooting at him through the glass. Pandemonium ensued, with everyone running around trying to get away. The kids disappeared from the dream, thank God, but the killer was shooting down adults like caged rabbits. I ducked into a room with about a dozen others, but the killer was right behind us and busted into the room just as I woke up. Scary!!
I had an email brush fire on my hands once I got upstairs, so I tried to stamp it out. Then I had a shower and an early lunch of spaghetti leftovers, followed by more work.
Around eleven I decided to work on the reconstruction project a bit more. I got one small section of sheetrock (6″ wide) put up, finishing that job on one wall. I worked on the last large section, but finally decided that a) it still needs a tiny bit of trimming because of an anomaly under the bathroom door, and b) I’m going to need help getting it into place. There are three outlets in that one 3″ section of sheetrock - two at the bottom and one near the top - and it’s too delicate a process for me to manhandle in there all alone. So, a project for another day.
Practically the rest of my day was devoted to placing an order for pictures at Shutterfly. I worked on that from probably 12:30 til Iron Chef came on at 8. All of my pictures are digital, and I order prints at Shutterfly. Trouble is, I hadn’t placed an order for over a year, so there were almost 500 pictures to upload!! I did take a short break in there to visit the post office and pick up a package for the kids’ Christmas. The holiday season is upon us!! I also helped Adam write a letter to Santa (wherein he asked for a pirate beach, pirate CD, pirate game, and pirates - need any hints?), and tried hard not to grind my teeth where he’d notice.
Speaking of teeth, I also made an appointment today with a dentist. I have a teeth that needs to be pulled, and have been putting it off for far too long. I’m not looking forward to it AT ALL, but it has to be done, assuming I’m still in town next week.
Mike made a ham casserole for dinner, after which there was chocolate ice cream. My back was a little tender, so I let Mike do most of the baby-carrying. After dinner, we trooped back upstairs. I did some work while pictures kept uploading, then we watched Iron Chef (corn) at 8. The challenger got SPANKED! I don’t care how good you THINK your food is, you just cannot offer only two dishes and think you’ll win. Not gonna happen.
I am SO looking forward to January, when Iron Chef America starts! I’m going to watch it RELIGIOUSLY. I don’t remember how the kids got to bed, except that I didn’t get to bed, myself, until after 3:30 in the morning. My mom’s exploratory surgery (I forget what it’s called, but it’s not the open-heart one) is tomorrow, and I’m worried about her.
In the first lesson of Girl School (November 15 entry), I explained that it is never, ever, ever okay to flirt with the husband of a girlfriend, nor with any other male she has marked. Marking is a very important part of maintaining boundaries for many different species of animals, and it is equally important for maintaining female friendships. “Marking” is a way of indicating that a particular male is part of your territory, and that he is therefore off-limits.
Some indications of marking are obvious - wedding and engagement rings, for example. But it isn’t just the guys your friends have managed to drag down the aisle that are off-limits to you. Any male that your friend is dating is equally taboo. Same with guys she has expressed an interest in pursuing, or that have expressed an interest in pursuing HER. This is a little bit finer a line to walk, so I’ll elaborate.
1) If you’re at the bar/club/office party with your single girlfriend, and she points out a guy and says to you, “Wow, he’s hot! Look at that butt!” then he’s still fair game. If she then goes over and talks to him, he’s out-of-bounds.
2) If she points out a guy and says something along the lines of, “He’s so cute. I wish I had the courage to go talk to him” then he is definitely marked. Even if your friend never approaches him, she still has him marked, as far as you’re concerned.
3) If he buys you both a drink, you can both still take a stab at him. But whoever gets in the first real flirt has him tagged, and the other girl MUST back down.
4) If he flirts with her, but she tells you she’s not interested, you can still give it a go, but why bother? Who wants to be second choice?
5) If your friend has marked a guy, and said guy then flirts with you, or offers to buy you a drink, you must graciously turn it down. The only exception is if he offers to buy you both a drink, and is flirting with you. Then the proper procedure is to accept the drinks, then casually work your friend between you and the guy, and graciously make an exit. Then it’s up to him whether or not to take up with your friend or not. We call this maneuver the “Hand-Off.”
6) Your girlfriends’ ex-husbands, ex-boyfriends, and ex-lovers are ALL marked. That brings up an important point: once tagged, ALWAYS tagged. There are something like 3 billion men in this world: find someone else!
That’s about it for marking. Next lesson in Girl School: proper etiquette for borrowing/lending.
SexyHusband just pointed out to me that a chapter from a book I co-wrote is included in the latest edition of MSDN. The publisher decided not to revise that book with the latest edition of Access (for what reason, I can’t guess). Seems a pretty poor decision in hindsight, huh?
Update: The direct link to the chapter is here.
I haven’t had much luck lately getting around to the artistic part of my job when I still had the energy to actually THINK artistically, so today I decided to do that part first. I had three quilt patterns to design, so I did that all morning and into the afternoon. I finally finished it, though, so I’m more ready for the anniversary Crawl that starts in January.
While the kids were watching their movie (Ice Age), I popped in some Otis Spunkmeyer white chocolate and macadamia nut cookies to bake, then did a load of dishes. Then it was back to the grind! Adam printed off a beaver mask from his computer game, and I helped him take it from something he’d printed on paper to something he could actually wear.
Awhile later, he printed out some “stickers” (just pictures of animals on paper) and a habitat. I was initially annoyed with him, because both Mike and I had explicitly told him NOT to print. Then we realized he had simply misunderstood our directions, so we both took some time out to help him. Mike took the 4-sheet habitats and taped them together into wholes. I cut out the corresponding animals and made them sticky. At first, I accomplished this by running them through my Xyron sticker machine. It ran out of paper, however, so I ended up just taking Scotch tape and rolling up little bits that he could use to make them stick to the page. So basically, we had two art projects and one lesson in habitat all in one day. Maybe not the most structured homeschooling ever, but I’m counting it!
For a change, I made dinner tonight. I whipped up some spaghetti, corn, and garlic bread. For the sauce, I used our own canned carrots and tomato sauce, but also threw in a can of tomato paste, some onions and garlic, chopped red and orange peppers, ground beef, and a little tiny bit of rosemary. I thought it turned out quite yummy!
We again watched Iron Chef (cabbage), and this time the challenger won. Mike didn’t stay for tasting and judgment, though, because Adam was being wild and driving him nuts. We had a little more work, then Mike took Thomas for a bath, and I let Kayla and Adam have a bit more Food Network. Once I fished Thomas out of the bath, the kids and I went to bed for storytime. Mike came in between books, and tried to help me get everyone settled. It was soon obvious that this wasn’t going to work, however, so he took Thomas upstairs and I got the other two to sleep.
This is the first in what (I hope) will be a series on a very important part of female relationships: Girl School. There’s no official campus (though classes are often held in girls’ bedrooms, junior high restrooms, and malls across America), no professors (students learn from one another), and no textbooks. There is, however, a very rigid curriculum, and that’s what this series about. Girl School is a list of lessons and rules you must abide by in order to be a functioning member of the Sorority. Margi and I talk about Girl School quite frequently, and the inspiration for this blog topic comes from her.
As with any other school, many students flunk out of Girl School. Whether willfully or out of sheer stupidity, they fail to master the (simple, really) rules; they don’t learn the lessons. Girl School Drop-outs. You all know who these women are. They’re the ones who flirt with your husband while calling you a friend. They grab the last cheese danish at the bakery and don’t offer to share. They claim to be too busy for you when you call to cry about your latest breakup. They just don’t get it.
So, as a service to all the Girl School Drop-outs who wish to regain a place in the Sorority, and to the men out there who don’t understand the definitive rules by which we conduct our female friendships, I bring to you: Girl School Rules.
Rule #1: Never, ever, ever flirt with a man who is “taken” by a friend.
It’s perfectly fine to flirt with married men. Really, it is. As long as you never try to take it further than that (meaning no physical contact), and you never do so in front of the wife, it’s cool. Nobody gets hurt. But you may never, ever, ever flirt with the husband of your friend. Really. Not under any circumstances. Even if your intentions are innocent, it will just not ever lead to anything good, and will usually cost you your friendship. Resist the temptation. You can praise him to your friend, in private, but never in view/hearing of the male in question. Same goes for boyfriends, fiances, and others of the male persuasion who have been marked*.
* I’ll cover “marking” in Rule 2.
What is with the current trend in food? It’s not enough anymore for something to just taste good. Now it has to turn your tongue green, come complete with candy bugs, or be offered in a newer, more disgusting form. The latest in this trend: printed Pringles. You know where they’re going with this, right? ADVERTISEMENTS. It won’t be long before you pop the top, only to find a slightly smudged ad for Coke on the top of your chip - “Feeling thirsty? Grab a Coke!” It’s enough that we have to “eat” ads that are fed to us via television, radio, and the Internet. Do we really need to make it literal?
Mike woke me up this morning to tell me the Blogson and Blog-grandson were leaving. I told him to say goodbye to them for me, as I was nursing, but then changed my mind. I woke up and started a pan of cinnamon rolls, and induced them to stay 15 more minutes so they could partake. We had one last chat, a bit of pastry, then they went on their way back home and I went to work.
Mid-morning, the kids got a movie and Mike and I took another look at our budget. We decided we could spend more than twice as much on the kids as I had originally thought, so I spent most of the rest of the day doing more shopping, and updating the kids’ wish list. I also squeezed in a couple of hours of work for QuiltIndex, though I never did get back around to designing the quilts, like I had wanted. I just ran out of brain power before I could get to it.
Mike made a delicious dinner of barbeque pork ribs, mac-n-cheese, and fried peppers. I made some cheese popcorn (from scratch!) afterward, and the older kids and I watched various television shows - Emeril Live, the Food Network All-Star Thanksgiving Special, the Music Awards - while we shared the bow of popcorn. Adam fell asleep on the couch, but Kayla was still going strong. Getting her and her brother both to sleep was a complete nightmare, and I ended up going upstairs alone, I was that tired.
Tammi of Road Warrior Survival now has a new part-time gig: contract wedding singer for Disney! Go on over and congratulate her!
It was mostly a working day for me. Nothing really remarkable, except for dinner (roasted chicken legs, roasted potatoes), a bit of chores, and Iron Chef (turkey), with very little to distinguish the time. *yawn*
The latest Carnival of the Recipes is up. Go check it out. Those Marbled Cheesecake Bars sound goooood!
I managed to get a little bit of work done this morning before rushing off with the two oldest kids to storytime at the library. I passed Blogson and his son on the way - they were coming back from early morning hunting for a thawing break - and said a quick goodbye before herding kids to the truck. Storytime itself was pretty uneventful, except that one of the other moms (Nancy) and I sat around complaining about the doctor who misdiagnosed Kayla last year. He did the same thing with Nancy’s son, calling meningitis instead of what it actually was: influenza. In our case, he was suspecting meningitis when it was really pneumonia. We both agreed that he had probably missed a case of meningitis in his residency or something, making him overvigilant and too quick to diagnose it now. Well, lo and behold, I read the paper later in the day and found out that he had died recently, of cancer! I knew he’d had cancer before (it was covered in the paper several months back), but never really registered what kind. Made me feel like kind of a puke for having dogged him out earlier in the day, though, even if he did technically deserve it.
After storytime I made three quick stops: post office (for postage stamps), my friend Tracy’s house (to pick up acrylic stamps), and Nancy’s, to pick up catalogs for a book party I’m hostessing. Once we got back home, Blogson was just about to head back out. Blog-grandson was too tired to go out again, so he kicked back at the house with us - playing computer games, watching television, and entertaining Adam. I don’t think he ever DID eat lunch, but he at least had some goldfish crackers. Hell, it’s not like I didn’t offer!! Anyway, he was a big help in keeping my oldest two cyclones entertained so I could get some work done.
Late in the afternoon, we received a package that included a check, so I made a quick run to the bank. I had planned on going in on Monday or Tuesday to hang out with Vicki, but after calling and chatting with her, that’s looking less and less likely, because of scheduling. So I loaded up the boys and headed to the bank for the deposit. They ALL fell asleep for some part of the trip, and I was a bit jealous I couldn’t have a nap, too!
Mike made a yummy roast and fresh bread for dinner, and we all had big servings of it. Even the kids deigned to eat some! It wasn’t long after that it was Iron Chef time, and since my honey was performing his magic on potatoes, I had to watch. I started a scrapbook page while we watched, and wanted to finish it before getting back to work. Adam had convinced Blogson and Blog-grandson to play Candyland with him, but he (Adam) was so poorly behaved and belligerent that I sent him to bed. I finished my scrapbook page, then went up to work while my blog-family went out to bed. I ran out of steam about 10:30, and took the younger two down to bed. I got Thomas to sleep, and was working on Kayla when Mike came to bed. Unfortunately, the shift in positions managed to wake Thomas up, so Mike had to cart him to the upstairs bed while I finished getting FussyGirl to sleep.
Sometimes I run across something on the Internet, something that so perfectly expresses my own thoughts and feelings that I know I could’ve said it, just like that. This is one of those times:
There isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t stop and marvel at my good fortune in finding Heather. That I share my life with someone so incredibly talented, giving and beautiful is not lost on me. It is rare that we get to live with our best friends. Even more rare is being inspired by them in the purest possible way. I can’t imagine being with someone else, I’m just sorry that I’m not more healed from my past.
Via dooce
Like Martin Luther King, Jr., Yassir Arafat was a man with a dream. A dream that he was back in high school, walking around in his underwear. Then he was falling, and there were some squirrels, and that’s all he remembered.
Even though I didn’t get to bed until 2, my body decided it was time to wake up at 6:30. I knew I’d have to get up soon, anyway, so I didn’t go back to sleep, and instead tried to squeeze in a little work. About 8:15, we all left for preschool. It was a fairly uneventful day, except that we had our fire drill, and Kayla had a minor meltdown because of it. The plan is that the moms come out on one side of the church, and the kids come out on the other, and NEVER THE TWAIN SHALL MEET. But Kayla was screaming and kicking and flailing, so I said, “To hell with it” and went to rescue Kayla and her teacher Marcia from each other. My girl does not like interruptions to her routine!
After sitting with her through storytime, she was fine, and I was able to slip out. The rest of preschool went off without a hitch. Afterward, we went to McDonald’s for lunch, then tried to go to the bank before we remembered they were closed. The grange was open, however, so we got feed and groceries, then came home. My blogson and his son were already here, hunting the GreatWhitetailBuck, so I just got right to work. I work, work, worked all afternoon, until the hunters came back from the trail. I went down and socialized a bit, then came back up to work (I’m hella behind). Mike cooked a yummy dinner, and we all dined together (with minimal fuss from children, amazingly).
Afterward, the guys all handled dishes, and I went back to work. We all watched Iron Chef (mushrooms) together, then .. well, you know what I did. The kids all played together with BlogSon (that man is a saint), until they hit the hay for the night. Kayla fell asleep in my lap, I read a story to Adam and got him to sleep, then tried to nurse Thomas out. Unfortunately, I was only two for three, so Mike got to bring him upstairs to fuss.
Today was my playdate!! Well, actually, I had to go to Spokane to donate platelets, and since I was going to be there anyway, Margi and I decided to spend the day together. My intention was to leave the house at 9AM, but you know what they say about intentions. Instead, I was at the door sometime around 10:30 - bringing Kayla and Thomas along with me - and I got there around noon. I quick-scarfed down some yummy sausage and egg biscuits and a Vanilla Coke, then headed over to the blood center.
My intention was to donate platelets, and have them credited to my friend Vicki. I did the initial intake paperwork, and my interview, and everything went off without a hitch. Then I sat down in the huge overstuffed chairs and had some blood drawn for a platelet count. That’s where things started to go wrong. (Aspiring authors: that’s called foreshadowing.)
To donate platelets, your own platelet count has to be at least 150. As I was sitting there, one of the nurses walked up to the other donor there, and told her, “Your platelet count rocks! It’s 433. I’ve never seen one so high!” I had no idea what the scale was, but 433 sounded good. My friend Vicki, who’s going through chemo, struggles to keep hers above 50. I’m a very competitive person by nature, so I thought, “Well, if hers is 433, SURELY mine will be 440!” I no sooner processed this thought, than my own nurse walked up and told me that my platelet count was only 143, so I couldn’t donate. I was crushed! I had so wanted to do this, and now felt like a failure. She told me all was not lost, and I could donate whole blood instead. I didn’t want to have wasted the trip, so I climbed out of the (really, really) comfy chair, and toddled on over to the whole blood area.
My phlebotomist was this fresh-faced, new thing, and while she was completely confident when she took my history, she seemed less assured at drawing blood. While I don’t have the kind of veins SexyHusband does (they leap out of his arm, grab the needle theirdamnselves, and pop it in), I’ve never had anyone have trouble finding them. But this girl did. First she had to put on a pressure cuff and have me squeeze a ball, then she pressed, pushed, poked, probed with her finger and finally called her supervisor over. Her supervisor confirmed that, yes, in fact, I do have veins right there and can’t you feel them? NewGirl got out her little blue permanent marker and made two dots, one on either side of where my vein was. Then she grabbed the needle.
Now, while I don’t generally ENJOY pain, I tolerate it pretty well. Hell, I’ve given birth to three children, and two of them were completely and utterly drug-free (the other one wasn’t, technically, but still WAS). So you can imagine my surprise when NewGirl hurt me enough to actually yelp a little bit. She said, “Sorry.” Then she kinda sat there with this “Oh, shit” look on her face, and the needle NOT in my arm. In hindsight it was a little funny to watch, because you could kind of see her thought process happening. She first informed me that she had, in fact, gone THROUGH my vein, and not into it. But still, she sat there with the needle poised scant inches from my arm. I asked, “You want me to hold that, while you go get somebody?” She said, “No, just hang tight for a minute.” Finally, she managed to catch the eye of her supervisor.
NewGirl: I went through it again.
(pause)
Supervisor: You did not.
NewGirl: Yeah. I did.
Supervisor: Are you sure.
NewGirl: Yeah. Yeah I did.
Then they BOTH had the “Oh, shit” look, although the Supervisor’s was quickly replaced with the “Gotta fix this” look. MUCH paperwork ensued. The first bag had to be thrown away, of course, as it was no longer sterile. The Supervisor took the blood from my other arm (the one from which blood had been drawn earlier for the platelet test), and seven minutes later I was on my way. I was, however, there long enough to watch NewGirl get a little bit of an ass-chewing. Wasn’t pretty.
Anywho, once that was over I packed my pincushion ass back into the truck, called Mike to tell him the disappointing news about platelets (any doctors read this, and know how to increase my platelet count?), then headed back to Margi’s. Kayla was happily playing and Thomas was snoozing away on Margi’s chest when I arrived. Apparently everything went well, although Thomas starting hunting for the promised land on Margi, and was sorely disappointed when it was not presented.
We spent the rest of the day hanging out, talking, eating pizza (Papa John’s is the shit), and playing with birds and children. I kept meaning to leave, but there kept being more to say, so I didn’t actually depart until 11:30PM. I loaded sleeping children into the car, got gas (after a false start at a station that wanted me to come inside, I think not), and headed home.
I woke up a little after 8, and had a breakfast of the last white chocolate and macadamia nut cookie from a batch I made yesterday. Ahhhhh, nutrition!! I woke up feeling a little bit stuffy, and worried I might be coming down with another cold. Luckily, it got better after I sat upright for awhile.
I dove right into work and stayed that way until lunchtime, when the kids and I had leftovers.
Now that Mike has finished doing the electrical work in the third wall, it’s time for me to get back to work on the “reconstruction project.” (8/25 entry) For those new to Note-It Posts, I’m (very) slowly converting our den into a bedroom for Mike and myself. First we cleared the room, then Mike took down all the paneling and removed the carpet (that was way back in March), and ever since I’ve been taking down sheetrock, adding outlets, replacing/installing insulation, and putting up sheetrock. Today, I insulated the entire third wall, and put up one whole piece of sheetrock. All I have left is one more piece of sheetrock on that wall, a bit over the bathroom door, and a 6.5″ wide strip on the opposite wall. Then the real fun begins: building the fourth wall!! At least I’m making progress again.
I was pretty sore by the time the piece of sheetrock was up, so I didn’t do anything else physical for the rest of the day, and instead just worked. This was hampered by the fact that I had crushed my left index finger with a hammer (and cussed a blue streak, too, I might add), but I managed.
We had leftovers for dinner, and I had ice cream for dessert. I did some more work, and missed Iron Chef. I’m forever trying to catch up, and this time I was just too far behind to even contemplate taking an hour off.
Jay sometimes comes off as this gruff, kinda abrasive guy, but in reality he’s a sweetheart.
Amazing how a simple song can transport you through space and time. From young, dumb, and full of cum to fat, bald, and responsibilities piled up to my eyeballs… I missed the 1988 me. […] Then I picked my kids up. One look at them and I wouldn’t trade the 2004 me for anything else in the world. I wouldn’t go back to the 1988 me if you paid me. Kids’ll do that to you.
…only one more sleep before I get to go see my good buddy Margi! I expect much mayhem, madness, and pizza shall ensue. Naked Wiccan dancing scheduled for 11:30 PM, in case anyone wants to join us. Just try to avoid the nipples whilst we’re doing the moonlight shebop out there; gets cold at night in these parts, and those suckers can be mighty dangerous!!
“In place of the open, free society we enjoyed before Bush stole the office, these backwards, evangelical inhabitants of the red states seek to install an extremist Christian theocracy where gays are unwelcome, women are forced at gunpoint to carry their unwanted fetuses to term, and Kevin Bacon is strictly forbidden to dance.”
What the hell is the world coming to???
“It is our responsibilities, not ourselves, that we should take seriously.” - Peter Ustinov
Here’s the recipe for Chicken Tetrazzini I
took last night. I omitted the sherry and didn’t have apple juice on
hand, and you could tell it needed just a HINT of something sweet, so
be sure to add a couple tablespoons of either sherry, apple juice,
orange juice, or something with a bit of sweetness.
Chicken Tetrazzini
8 ounces spaghetti or linguine
2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
1/2 cup sliced green onions (4)
2 tablespoons margarine or butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon coarsely ground pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup milk, half-and-half, or light cream
2 cups chopped cooked chicken or turkey
2 tablespoons dry sherry or apple juice
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup sliced almonds
2 tablespoons snipped fresh parsley (optional)
1. Cook spaghetti or linguine according to package directions; drain.
2. Meanwhile, in a large saucepan cook mushrooms and green onions in
hot margarine or butter till tender. Stir in flour, pepper, and nutmeg.
Add chicken broth and milk all at once. Cook and stir till thickened
and bubbly. Stir in chicken or turkey, sherry or apple juice, and half
of the Parmesan cheese. Add cooked spaghetti or linguine; toss to coat.
3. Transfer chicken mixture to a 2-quart rectangular baking dish. Sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan cheese and almonds.
4. Bake in a 350 oven for 15 to 20 minutes or till heated through. Sprinkle with parsley.
I woke up pretty early in the morning (6:30) and set to work answering email. I realized I had forgotten to take care of some details for the Mall Crawl on Sunday, so I got those taken care of, and started adding a few shops to Scrap-Poodle.
At lunchtime, I got leftovers for myself and the kids’ usual lunches. After I ate, I went down to start making my Chicken Tetrazzini for the recipe swap. I got it to the point where all it needed was 15 minutes’ baking, then went back to work for a couple more hours. Around 4:30 I went and popped my tetrazzini in the oven, had a shower, then started packing up to go. I tried to leave early, but still ended up getting out the door right at 5:30 (my “absolute latest” time). I’m just convinced that, no matter how much time you have, that’s how long it will take you to get ready. If you have 2 hours, it will take two hours. If you have ten minutes, it will take ten minutes. Why I ever even bother to leave early, I’ll never know.
The swap was nice, albeit quiet. I think everyone was just tired (it being Monday), and we didn’t really have much to say. Still the food was good (mine got a little cold on the drive, though), and I managed to get out of there buying only a Coke and a bottled water. Amazing, huh?
Thomas slept on the way home, but was wide awake when we got back. So were the older two. I was already tired, so it wasn’t long before we took everyone down to try to get them to bed. I tried to stay with Kayla and Thomas so Mike could get Adam to sleep, but neither of them was having it. Thomas, in particular, was just screaming - he wanted to PLAY!!! So Mike took Thomas upstairs and Kayla and I fell right to sleep.
Mike and I sit across the room from each other - maybe ten feet apart - but we often chat via email and IM. It’s just more convenient to have conversations and share links that way when we’re both working, rather than be constantly interrupting each other. Anyway, everyone who’s read this blog for any amount of time knows that I voted for Bush. Mike, being an anarchist, did not vote (and has not voted since long before I knew him). But we often discuss politics, and he is extremely well-read on history, politics, foreign affairs, and domestic policy. Here’s a conversation we had this morning (slightly edited for readability and clickability, but not for content):
Mike: I
wonder how long the NYT will keep publishing whiny op-eds. “This is
scary. How do you make a rational political pitch to people who have
put that part of their brain on hold? No wonder Bush won.”
Dana: It’s all over the mainstream media and all over blogs.
You know that post (November 5 entry)
I did about how are we gonna bridge the gap? Some asshat came by and
posted this comment: “You shan’t be bridging any gaps, my dear. We
don’t want them bridged.”
Mike: I’m getting a bit tired of the “everyone who voted for Bush is a homophobe” stuff, too.
Dana: Yeah, I know. That’s what’s so maddening about
it; they’re trying to paint everyone who voted for Bush with the same
broad brush: we’re all Christian, we’re all homophobes, we all hate
women, we’re all rich, we’re all white. I’m only 1/5 of that. And then
there’s the “no one with two brain cells to rub together would vote for
Bush” line. I mean, how do you respond to that? And after awhile, you
start to think: why should you bother? The left wing of the Democratic
party has just gotten so hateful, so arrogant, so blinkered, it’s like,
what’s the point of talking to them? They’re absolutely closed off to
discourse. And THAT’S why they lost so much in the last election -
because they’re fuckin nuts. (hey.. can I blog this?)
Mike: Heh
Dana: That’s a no, huh?
Mike: Huh? I don’t care.
Dana: Not gonna publish private conversations without
permission. You’ve been pretty quiet publicly about politics, so I
don’t want to “out” you.
Mike: Anyone who reads Larkware closely
enough knows I’m an anarchist. I’m not pro-Bush, you know, just anti-the-stupid-arrogant-Democratic-analysis.
Mike: http://www.clrsql.com/weblog/ - check out the 11/7 entry.
Dana: Re: that link, yeah, there was a protest in San Francisco over the weekend.
People were holding signs saying
“Can we secede already"? As for SF, my thought is, “PLEASE!!! PLEASE do!”
Mike: Of course the problem is they include WA in the list of
states to secede. We might have to move a few miles east.
Dana: Nah. They start talking about seceding and
they’ll just finally do what they’ve been threatening to do and split
WA right down the Cascades. And good friggin’ riddance.
The kids woke me up about 6:30. Being surrounded by a houseful of morning people kinda sucks sometimes. I decided since I was awake anyway, I’d better get some work done.
Conversation I had with Kayla mid-morning:
Kayla: I have a owie.
Me: Where is it?
Kayla: It’s right here, in my poop.
Needless to say, that’s one owie I didn’t kiss to make better.
Around 11 or so, I just couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore so I had a nap. I never really fell deeply asleep, but at least I felt more rested than when I started. I popped a movie in for the kids, and started in on the Christmas shopping for the kids. In fact, I got it about 95% done, all in about four days! I love the Internet.
We all had a late lunch, then I started making the recipe cards for tomorrow’s swap. I even made up a second set of cards to take, in case I end up missing the next swap in two weeks. That took most of the night, with a little break to have dinner (tuna noodle casserole) that Adam made.
After everybody else had gone to bed, Thomas and I stayed up nursing and playing Sims. My Sim figured out she was a lesbian, and has started hitting on this really hot chick from the neighborhood. She also got herself a roommate, and it’s kind of funny to watch the clean one pick up after the sloppy one, and get all bitchy about it. But the sloppy one is the good cook, so they kinda work together.
To the busybodies concerned
citizens who stalk the Wal-Mart handing out unsolicited advice: thank
you for your interest, but I assure you - my son really WILL NOT freeze
to death in the 20 seconds it takes me to walk from my truck to the
store, nor in the 20 seconds it takes to walk back. You do not need to
ask about his clothing as if maybe I somehow dropped his long-sleeve
romper and down baby parka in the parking lot on the way in. It’s also
rude and irritating for you to ask the baby if his Mommy knows where your blanket is. He’s fine.
What do BYU students do for fun? Heather has the answer. (Just scroll down past the boring story for the pictures.)
Food Network is having a contest: host your own Food Network show. I should send in a tape; maybe I could have a show called “Meals for Mommies", which would be a show entirely centered around foods you can cook one-handed while holding a baby on one hip. I could have special episodes: Broiling for Breastfeeders, Dirty Diaper Donuts, Tater Tots for Teethers.
Think anybody would watch?
A couple of people had asked me for a picture of Vicki’s quilt. Here’s me and Vicki, on the morning I gave her the quilt.
Woke up and got to work right away, this time on Scrap-Poodle. I added a few more shops, answered some email, and did a tiny bit of updating to parts of the site.
I got lunch for kids, then put brownies on to bake for Vicki, to go along with the stew Mike made last night. While they baked, I had a shower and got dressed. Then I made myself a TV dinner (meat loaf), packed all three kids up, and headed into town. We stopped at the grange for gas, then went to Vicki’s. Our oldest four had a great time playing together and making an absolute mess of their basement. Vicki and I sat and chatted for a few hours, and I tried to keep Thomas occupied - he mostly wanted to be held. Once Kayla and Adam started showing signs of fatigue, I decided we needed to go. I helped them clean up, then we went to Wal-Mart, McDonald’s (for kids), Taco Bell (for me), gas station (for water), and home (for a rest for Mommy!)
Everyone fell asleep on the way home, but Thomas was just waking up as we drove up. Mike managed to get Kayla to stay asleep while he brought her in, but Adam woke up as Mike was getting him out of the truck. So the boys and I spent time upstairs - they played, Mike and I worked. I eventually got too tired to focus on being productive, so I just played Sims instead.
First, I used the motherlode cheat (courtesy of Margi) to make my Sim rich. Then she quit her job. Then she started adding shit to her house - a hot tub, a swimming pool, a telescope, a chess table, a fence, some lighting. I still haven’t gotten brave enough to do any structural changes to the house, but I will, eventually. She needs a damn bathroom downstairs, so she doesn’t have to run upstairs every time she needs to pee. Hell, maybe I should just build her an outhouse in the yard. ;)
I am the number two hit for why people wont get off their asses and do some charity. Make of that what you will.
I am also the number one hit for “knocked up” gun toting. That just seems somehow too appropriate.
I woke up around 7 and got straight to work. I was at the computer all morning, then got the older kids ready for storytime at the library. They did alright without me this week, so I once again got to chat with the moms (only two others this week). That was kinda nice, until some local issues surfaced. I won’t bore you with the details, but suffice to say there’s a bit of competition for who’s going to do concessions, between BETA (the group I’m in), and the Community Club (the group the other two women are in). I wasn’t crazy about being put on the spot, but I suppose it’s unavoidable.
The kids got their movies and books, then I herded them both back home. I had pizza for lunch for myself, and got the kids their usual - peanut butter/jelly sandwich and corndog. They ate lunch while they watched their library movies - a rare treat.
As for me, I had to get back to work. Well, work and a little blogging (two entries down). That particular post took the better part of two hours.
Mike made a yummy beef tip stew for dinner, and I had vanilla ice cream with Milky Way sauce for dessert. Yum! Afterward, I was just about to settle into more work when my mom called. She gave me some bad news (previous entry), and I was pretty shaken and disappointed. I called my older sister to talk about the situation, and get more of a feel for how things were going and how everybody was handling things. Nothing is decided yet, but I might be taking a trip back to Texas in the next couple of weeks. If anyone in the family is reading this DON’T MENTION IT TO MOM. I don’t want her to get her hopes up, in case it can’t happen.
I
gave Kayla a bath, then tried to work but I was pretty distracted so
didn’t make much headway. Adam had already gone to sleep, so Mike and I
took Kayla and Thomas to bed. Well, we TRIED. Kayla refused to quiet
down, so she ended up being taken back upstairs with Mike to tire
herself out more.
tried to work, mostly distracted
I just heard from my mom a little while ago, and it turns out the surgery is going to be much more serious than she expected. The procedure she thought was the surgery is really just exploratory. The heart surgery will be open-heart. No word yet on exactly when it will be, but we’re guessing probably the week of Thanksgiving, or the week after.
Damn.
Any prayers/good thoughts/healing vibes would be much appreciated. For those who send your blessings out by name, my mother is Della Coe.
Thanks.
A new song I heard for the first time on Thursday, this is I Think the World Needs a Drink by Terri Clark.
Turned on the TV
More crime in the streets
More trouble in the Middle East
And fires out west
Politicians flingin dirt
Got dissension in the church
Another lawsuit in the works
Man you talk about a mess
Too much tension between Miss Liberty and The Eiffel Tower
It’s about time we all made up at some big Happy Hour
I think the world needs a drink
I think enough’s enough
She’s been spinnin’ around so long I’d say
She’s pretty wound up
Calm down, sit back, relax
Tear up the contracts and save the ink
Yeah I think the world needs a drink
I bet we’d get somethin done
Over 2 for ones
Rubbin elbows with the big guns
Wouldn’t that be cool?
Call all the rich and the poor
The peacekeepers and the warlords
We’ll cut some deals over nothing more
Than a shot of 90 proof
There ain’t nothin wrong a few cold beers can’t iron out
In fact you tell me just when and where and I’ll buy the first round
I think the world needs a drink
I think enough’s enough
She’s been spinnin’ around so long I’d say she’s pretty wound up
Let’s all calm down sit back relax
Tear up the contracts and save the ink
Yeah I think the world needs a drink
Hey let’s all calm down, sit back, relax
Tear up the contracts and save the ink
Yeah I think the world needs
Don’t you think the world needs a couple drinks?
I know I do
Yeah that’s right.
“They should be loaded up onto boxcars and sent away before they turn the whole country into a fascist state!” - Liberal Larry
There is such a thing as losing gracefully. This ain’t it:
The election results reflect the decision of the right wing to cultivate and exploit ignorance in the citizenry. I suppose the good news is that 55 million Americans have evaded the ignorance-inducing machine. But 58 million have not.
[…]
The history of the last four years shows that red state types, above all, do not want to be told what to do—they prefer to be ignorant. As a result, they are virtually unteachable.
We have a very, very long way to go to bridge this gap. Pundits like this don’t incline me to even try.
This is another story by Tammy Lewis that appeared in this week’s Whitman County Gazette:
Carolee Warner of Garfield doesn’t like to watch the news. It upsets her, she said. That national news also upset her 19-year-old grandson, Joe Manning, who is serving in the Marine Corps and is stationed in Fallujah, Iraq.
Manning, the son of Bruce and Ilene Manning, grew up in Garfield until his junior high years when the family moved to Indiana and then Colorado Springs. He graduated in 2003.
Manning was injured the first part of October when shrapnel from a bomb hit him in the face. The family received a phone call the first part of October from him saying he was in the hospital, but okay.
“It was a minor injury, but he still received a purple heart,” Carolee explained.
During his hospital stay he was able to catch up on the latest news reports.
“I just returned from our operations in Hit and Rawah. I was disappointed to find the news didn’t mention either of them, as they were decisively in our favor,” Joe said in an email home last week.
The letter goes on to explain how the towns’ police forces had been murdered and terrorists were in charge. After American forces took control without much of a fight, the cities were cleared of explosive devices which littered the area.
“Both cities are now being patrolled by Iraqi government foces,” he writes.
Manning has been in the middle east since the end of June. He serves in the Marine Crop as a field engineer or explosives ordnance specialist. In that role he is one of those clearing and restoring those areas hard hit by the war.
His father Bruce also served in Afghanistan with the Army Reserve and has seen things first hand.
“It is just frustrating that the positive things don’t seem to make the media,” Carolee said.
It has been a long month or so since Carolee and husband, Larry actually spoke to Joe personally. Emails forwarded through other family members are about all they have had for awhile.
“It seems to me he doesn’t have a lot of access to phones,” said Larry.
An occasional short phone call, with a typical bad connection, is the extent of their calls. Even so, Carolee said, she gets a whole different view of the war through those conversations than whens he watches reports on television.
I’ve decided to take down the Bloggers With Boobies (12/3 entry) and Bloggers Who Support Bloggers With Boobies (12/7 entry) blogrolls. It’s been a great year, but I think it’s just time to move on to new things. Thank you to everyone who linked to this site through one or the other blogroll over the past months. I really do appreciate it. :)
It could be just me, but I think you shouldn’t put out a “greatest hits” album until you’ve done more than four records.
Mike tried to wake me at 7, but I wanted to sleep in until the last minute. So I kind of hit my human alarm clock’s snooze button. He woke me up for good at about 7:30. We got the kids ready and headed out for pre-school. Today was cleaning day, in which all the parents converge on the classrooms and wipe everything down with bleach. The pregnant moms ended up manning the dishwasher (my job last time), and the nursing moms mostly sat around together chatting and nursing. Thomas is still young enough yet that we don’t put him in the infant room, so he hung out with me. Mike took up my slack, though, so I didn’t feel bad.
OK, now, without naming names, I’m
going to gossip a little bit. There’s one pre-school mom who - I swear
I am not exaggerating - never shuts up. She’s like
the conversational equivalent of the Energizer bunny; she just keeps
going and going and going … It’s virtually impossible to get a word in
edgewise. She also talks really slowly and deliberately (think science
teacher from The Wonder
Years), so talking to being talked to by her is a
lot like listening to Diane Rehm
(i.e. maddening, exhausting, and sleep-inducing all at the same time).
Mike thinks she must breathe through her ears, because she never pauses
to take a breath. That would also explain why she never hears you
trying to interrupt her. Do you know people like this, or is she an
anomaly?
For once, we didn’t go to McDonald’s for lunch. Hooray! Both kids said they’d rather have something from the grocery store instead. So we trotted off to the grange and the grocery store. They were having a 13-hour baking sale, so we stocked up on things like walnuts, pecans, and brown sugar.
Back home, Mike and I both got right down to work. I was going pretty strong, then my Dad called to chat. It was really good to catch up with him, since I hadn’t talked to him in over a month. We spent a good hour on the phone, talking about gardening (can you believe he’s just letting okra rot on the ground?? THE SHAME!!), kids, health, and of course, the election. My family is Texan, so you can probably guess which way they voted.
After the call it was back to work. I went pretty much full force dinnertime, then got right back to it until the younger two got so tired they needed to be taken to bed. Mike had already gotten Adam to sleep, so he joined the rest of us. Thomas basically screamed his lungs out non-stop while I read to Kayla, then I turned the lights out and nursed him to sleep.
This story by Tammy Lewis appeared in our local Whitman County Gazette.
Students at LaCrosse are getting a jump start on their holiday gift wrapping. These are not ordinary presents, though. These gifts are bound for the Middle East where the students hope the contents will make American military personnel just a little more comfortable while they are away from home over the holidays.
“Personal care items, coffee, writing supplies, books, magazines - We are trying to get things for them that they can’t get there,” said Di Brink, para-educator, who is heading the project.
Students have been collecting the items for the care packages since mid-October and will continue through the end of November, she said.
“We were going to cut it off on Veterans Day,” she said. “But we will keep going as long as we continue to get support from the community.”
Students came up with the idea for the project after studying current events and thinking about the upcoming holiday season.
“The kids thought it would be cool,” Brink said. “We have been studying it (Iraq war) and reading about it in the paper.”
Donation boxes have been placed in various locations in LaCrosse and Dusty. Along with personal items, nonperishable snacks such as granola bars and fruit leather are also being included.
“We are encouraging the kids to write letters,” Brink explained.
Students will write letters and pack the boxes. Brink will then mail them to a soldier stationed in the Middle East who will distribute them. Shaving cream, chap stick, handi-wipes and sunscreen are among some of [the] items being gathered.
The first mailing, a copy paper box packed to the brim, will be put together this week and mailed with the use of donations for covering the postage. For information or to donate contact LaCrosse School.
I just want to say that this is the best bra I’ve ever owned, seriously. I *heart* this bra.
Hey, Harv, does this qualify me for the Carnival of the Pajamas? ;)
“My husband said, ‘It’s me or the scrapbooks!’ So, I took pictures of him packing his bags and I made my best page yet!” - Unknown
From “Break Down Here” by Julie Roberts:
Somethin smokin underneath the hood
It’s a-bangin and a-clangin and it can’t be good
It’s another 50 miles to the nearest town
Everything I own is in the back in a Hefty bag
I’m outta cigarettes and I’m down to my last rag
Now, that is desperate!
I woke up about 8, wondering whether or not Kerry had conceded. He hadn’t by that point, but of course did later in the day. It was a much-appreciated, classy gesture. Would’ve been classier if he had done it last night, but you take what you can get.
I did Adam’s reading lesson with him this morning. He had finished Curious George Learns the Alphabet, so we started a new book: The Planets in Our Solar System. His vocabulary and reading skills continue to improve. Words he got all on his own from this book included telescope, probably, chunks, planet, and evening. For new readers: Adam is my four-year-old son. He started learning to read about seven and a half months ago, and is already reading at a second-grade level.
Me? Proud? Why would you say that?
I spent a tiny bit of time this morning helping a load of laundry along, then had an early lunch (hate time changes) of last night’s yummy leftovers. After that, I got lunch for Adam and Kayla (pb&j and corn dog, respectively), then did a load of dishes. Yes, that’s right. I did a load of dishes. Try not to go into shock. ;)
Once that was done, I spent a little time making more greeting cards and watching CMT. There were several new videos I hadn’t seen yet, including some I now wish I hadn’t. Big & Rich’s Holy Water made me cry. I couldn’t find the video online anywhere, so I just linked the lyrics. The video is about women who have suffered through abuse and are trying to find someone to help them heal from it. It’s about emotional rebirth, and while it has a lot of obvious religious overtones, it still touches me. For those who don’t know, I was a victim of child sexual abuse for a number of years, and it still affects me a lot, at the most unexpected times. I spent much of the rest of the day trying very hard not to retreat from the world (defense mechanism), and being pissed off that even after all these years it STILL bothers me.
I went back upstairs and did some more work. With two sites to run now, there’s never any shortage of things to do or email to answer. I’m glad both ventures are so successful, but it certainly does take a lot of time out of the day. Mike made stir-fry and mac-and-cheese for dinner, but since the baby was asleep in my lap - and we didn’t want to move him - he just brought me a plate to eat upstairs. Sometimes you really do have to let sleeping babies lie.
After dinner, I spent an hour or so playing Sims2 (mostly going through the tutorials). I decided a pre-made family of four was too hard to keep track of, so I built one Sim - a “mini-me” - instead. I set her goals and personality to be as similar to mine as possible. So far, she’s frighteningly close to the way I behave - she’s a terrible cook (she burned a friggin POPTART, I mean, come ON!!), she hates to clean, she NEVER gets enough fun or has enough friends/socialization, and she spends too damn much money. I’m trying to improve her disposition, but if she tells me one more time she “doesn’t feel like doing that", I might have to drown her in the bathtub!
At 8, we all trooped downstairs to watch Iron Chef (mango), then I came back upstairs and chatted online with Mike. I played more Sims until bedtime. Not the most productive day, ever.
I am a bad, bad, bad mommy. I completely forgot that I’ve had a blogdaughter for several months! Maybe it’s like a weird kind of blog soap opera, and I had temporary amnesia or something. Anyway, be sure to check out blog daughter Prochein Amy. I met her in person, even, when I went to Texas for a visit earlier this year, and she’s a very nice person! I know, I know, she must get it from her dad, whoever he is. ;)
It’s bittersweet, but the Hook-a-Thon has now come to an end. I’m thrilled to report that we raised $7300.20, in under four months! Thank you to everyone who participated in various ways. You should all be proud of your contribution.
In the tradition of Harvey, I’ve decided to add a blogroll for my blogchildren and blog-grandchildren. So far I have two of the former (though one is wayward) and one of the latter. I haven’t been nearly as prolific as Harvey!
My new blog-grand-daughter - who is the daughter of my latest blogson Kool-Aid - is Michelle. She’s a mom and military wife, currently living in Japan where her hubby is stationed. Her husband is deployed to Iraq. Please go by and give her a “hello", and if you’re American don’t be shy about throwing in a “thank you” or two, as well.
Now, I wonder who my next blog-child will be… *coughcoughKellicoughcough*
One other thing about yesterday’s election coverage. ABC is the station I watched most of the time, and of course they had a number of commentators throughout the night. I didn’t catch all of their names, and I didn’t take notes. They had one Black guy on who they said was a regular host on NPR. I had never heard of him before, so he must not be on any of the shows I usually pick up out where I am (we listen to NPR rather a lot). This gentleman (does anyone know his name) was apparently their “go-to” guy for issues surrounding “the Black vote.”
First of all, do Black people and white people really care about such different issues that they have their own vote? And if so, why do we never hear anything about “the White vote"?
At one point, ABC was talking about voter turnout, and whether an increase in Black voters would benefit the Democratic party. This guy mentioned how Democrats often “owed the election” to “the Black vote", and how Black voters wouldn’t always be able to “save the election for the Democrats.” I’ll leave THAT point to the commenters here, if you’re so inclined. A more important point - one that just made me drop my draw - was when this guy said the Republicans had “raised the bar on rewarding Black America” when Bush appointed Condoleeza Rice and Colin Powell, and that the Democrats would have to do more than just give them the usual posts (eg. Housing and Urban Development) to “reward” Blacks for voting for them.
Um.
What? The? Fuck?
Nobody needs to “reward” anybody in any way for their vote. You vote because you want to have a voice, or because you want to influence who is making decisions that affect you and the rest of the world, not because you expect a “reward.” Was this clown for real? Did he SERIOUSLY just use a national network to call for bribes? What ever happened to choosing the best person for a job, regardless of his or her race, gender, religion, etc. White voters consistently poll higher for Republicans than Democrats. Does that mean we White folk are owed some reward for voting our interests?
Well, hallelujah. Looks like we’ve finally ended election 2004. For the first time in over 15 years, the same person won the popular vote as won the electoral vote. I would hope this would stop all the hysterical screeching from the left-wing, but it won’t. There’s already talk of voter fraud because of the Diebold voting machines, voter suppression, and the like. The fact of the matter is there’s no outcome - short of a Kerry win - that would have satisfied many people. Now that the Bush Administration and the Republican party have received a mandate from the American people, there is all manner of lamenting about the end of the world, fascism, theocracy, and on and on.
As my mother would say, “Shut up and take your medicine.” Despite the superior attitudes of many on the left who claim the rest of us are mindless sheep, fanatical religious zealots, or hate-mongering idiots, the fact of the matter remains that yesterday more voters believed Bush was the man best qualified to lead this country in a time of war. Period. He’s not a perfect man. He’s never claimed to be. But for all the Doomsday predictions (ironic, dontchathink?), there has been no credible evidence of the kind of things we’ve been so often warned about by the left: religious intolerance, squashing of reproductive rights, quelling of dissent, rape, pillage, plunder. It’s simply a truism that this nation and its citizens are swinging more toward conservativism. We aren’t ALL conservative because we think God is telling us to (just take a look at most of the blogs on my roll). Many of us simply think that decency, hard work, personal responsibility, and the spread of freedom and liberty are the values we should espouse.
Do I approve of everything the Bush administration has done? No. I think you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who thought the past four years had been a beacon of perfect government. I don’t like the push to federalize marriage, education, or healthcare. I cringe at the dramatic increase in spending and the deficit. I wish to God he were a better public speaker. But I do think he is trying his best, and that he has his priorities straight. I think he’s the man most willing to work with the opposition party when it counts. He’s guided by his convictions - as are we all - and that includes his faith in Christ. I don’t happen to share that conviction, but though we take different paths, we arrive at most of the same conclusions about how people should live and work together.
I am relieved and glad that he’s been re-elected to the presidency, and I hope we’re able to use the next four years to try to come together as a nation and put the bitterness, hand-wringing, and superlatives behind us. I hope we’re able to help move the Iraqi and Afghani people toward a freer, more open society. I hope we’re able to rein in spending, and reform (I’d say do away with, but I’m a realist) Social Security. I hope we see a strengthening of our military, and continuing growth of the economy. I hope, in short, that the nay-sayers are wrong.
Another morning for firefighting. I fear this is going to be the pattern for the next month: wake up, beat back the overnight email, try to add a few more shops to either QuiltIndex or Scrap-Poodle, read through my scrapbooking mailing lists, lather, rinse, repeat.
Thomas is now definitely at the “interact with toys” stage. He wiggles around on the floor (you can’t really call it “crawling” yet) - sometimes scooting forward, sometimes backward - and likes to have a few toys to try to grab for and stuff in his mouth.
And do you want drool? We got your drool!!
For lunch, I grabbed a frozen meal. I decided to make it in the oven, though, instead of the microwave. It was chicken parmigiana, and it was good!! It even had a piece of garlic bread you make in the toaster, and that may have been the best part! Definitely going to have to buy that brand again (will post the brand name when I find out which it was; the box was destroyed in a tragic burning barrel fire).
I did some more work after lunch, then about 4PM I went downstairs to start watching election coverage. I stayed up watching until after midnight (with one break to watch Iron Chef horsehair crab). While I watched, I finished up some snowman paper piecings and made some cards. When I finally gave up and went to bed, it seemed that everyone knew who the president-elect was except John Kerry and John Edwards.
I was not in the books. I’ve voted in every election in my district since moving there in 2000. I recently moved but hadn’t changed my voter registration (as advised by the County election board) since the move was outside of the timeframe to change voting districts.
[…]
They turned everyone (that was not in the books) away.
As I left on my way to the County Election Commission to file a complaint, I asked ten different people who were also denied a vote because they weren’t in the book, “Are you Republicans?”
All ten replied, “Yes.”
“Did you vote in the primary?”
Nine, “Yes.”
I noticed more people than usual at my polling place, too. Gosh, I must’ve waited 2 or 3 minutes! (There are approximately 320 people in my whole town.) But everyone was polite and courteous and upbeat, except the ladies handling the ballots. You could tell they were nervous and tense. I think everyone’s feeling it this election.
Did you?
(Feel free to steal this image to use on your own site, if you want. Please right-click>Save As.)
Sally of Whimsy Capricious relates a horror story that many of us parents have gone through. I know I have.
First day of the Mall Crawl, so most of my day went for fighting fires. The code has been reused so much that there are never any MAJOR bugs, but there are always a couple of shops who get their links wrong, or a few users who forget to enable cookies, or someone who doesn’t know the difference between registering and logging in. There weren’t any real major hurdles; nothing at all like the first two crawls. But I also never managed to leave my desk for very long during the day. It’s just as well, because I was having some residual owieness from my back, so I took it easy and tried not to lift anything heavy, like children or the truck.
Lunch was leftovers, dinner was pigs-in-a-blanket (a compromise meal for Adam). We did watch Iron Chef (broccoli) at 8, and I would have eaten most of the dishes they made. I cleaned my sewing machine off of my desk, which freed up space for scrapbooking and cardmaking. I would’ve worked on some snowman paper-piecings I had started, but Thomas insisted on being held by me to stop screaming, so that’s mostly what I did. Maybe tomorrow. :)
About 9:30 I just completely ran out of steam, so I took the older two down to bed. I read them two books (each chose one), then it was lights out. Adam was asleep almost immediately. Kayla was less amenable, and she fought it for an hour. Finally, Mike brought Thomas to bed with me, and took Adam to his own room. Then he came back and helped gentle Kayla to sleep while I nursed Thomas down. I was out before I knew what hit me.
Now, those who read me regularly know I can have the attention span of a gnat. So it should come as no surprise that I forgot to announce a winner to my last Caption Contest (October 18 entry).
No offense intended to the other entrants, but Lisa won this one hands-down.
“This is the wrong ball, at the wrong place, at the wrong time!”
Blogson Subliminal Kool-Aid has really outdone himself, with his new poem, ‘Twas The Day Before Voting.
Lawns cluttered with posters to the point of extreme,
Outdoing the neighbors, it’s almost obscene.
When what to my wandering eyes should appear,
Hollywood assholes with another Bush smear.
Just amazing. Way to go, KoolAid man!
A huge, heartfelt congratulations to Sgt. Maj. Hook on his recent promotion! I’m so proud of you, Jim. No one deserves it more.
What happens when two men take a woman target practicing on her birthday? Christina knows.
I called my mother to apologize, and I said, “Mom, I am so sorry. It just broke right there in the middle of the freeway.” And then, in a moment of sheer insanity, I said to the Avon World Sales Leader, “It just lay there on the windshield like a limp dick.”