The puppykins amuse the hell out of me. They trot around the house like little ponies, pounce off the backs of sofas like cats, paw at each other on their hind legs like miniature lions, and burrow under the covers like little weasel-eels. Very rarely do they act like dogs.
January 2007 Archives
I liked Season 2 just as much as I liked the first one. Maybe even a little better because Catherine and Sarah didn't annoy me quite as much in this one. Even though Greg's hair started off awful, I'm happy it returned to normal before the end of the season. And I would gladly lick ice cream off of Warrick's stomach. My main complaint is that the little subplots, the ones that deal with the CSI's personal lives, are very choppy. I still don't know what happened with Catherine's child services investigation or that inspector guy she was seeing. The inspector guy made a brief appearance in Episode 5, but that's it. I am not a fan of unanswered questions, ya'll.
And after getting my hopes up, there's no jury duty tomorrow after all.
I'm supposed to show up for jury duty at 9am on Thursday. Yay for sleeping in!
I loved the Ginger Snapped smooch when I was just sniffing it in its jar, but now that I've actually used it, it's been bumped up to a must have. It smells fantastic, it's not oily, and there's a pleasant warming sensation just as the description promises.
Episode 2 - Dale Midkiff: Buck from The Magnificent Seven
Episode 2 - Danielle Nicolet: Caryn from 3rd Rock From the Sun
Episode 3 - David Sutcliffe: Christopher from Gilmore Girls
Episode 3 - Brenda Strong: one of the clan leaders in an episode of Roar
Episode 4 - Christopher Wiehl (also in Episode 14 of this season): Buffy! (Owen from Never Kill a Boy on the First Date)
Episode 4 - Lisa Brenner: she was in The Patriot and had a guest spot on The Magnificent Seven
Episode 4 - Tess Harper: Fairlight Spencer from Christy
Episode 5 - David DeLuise: Bug from 3rd Rock From the Sun
Episode 6 - Dylan Baker: Spiderman 2
Episode 6 - Jeremy Renner: S.W.A.T.
Episode 7 - Currie Graham: guest spots on Pacific Blue and Witchblade
Episode 8 - Melinde Clarke: guest spot on Xena
Episode 9 - Brigid Brannagh: reprised her Season 1 guest spot role
Episode 9 - Michael Cudlitz: Buffy! (Bob from The Zeppo) Also in D3: The Mighty Ducks
Episode 10 - Nicki Aycox: Jeepers Creepers II
Episode 10 - he was in Spiderman 2 and played Gavin Park on Angel
Episode 10 - Geoffrey Blake: he was in The Last Starfighter and had a recurring guest spot on Renegade
Episode 11 - Marcia Cross: Desperate Housewives
Episode 11 - Kelly Connell: reprised his Season 1 guest spot role
Episode 12 - Amanda Wyss: she was in Silverado and had a recurring guest spot on The Highlander
Episode 12 - Robia LaMorte: Buffy!
Episode 12 - Nick Chinlund: Buffy! (Major Ellis from Into the Woods and Listening to Fear
Episode 14 - Tom Irwin: My So-Called Life
Episode 15 - Janet Gunn: Silk Stalkings
Episode 17 - Bruce McGill: a guest spot on The Magnificent Seven
Episode 18 - Joseph D. Reitman: Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
Episode 19 - Doug Hutchison: Batman and Robin
Episode 20 - Diane Farr: Roswell
Episode 20 - Steven Hytner: Roswell
Episode 20 - Ed Lauter: he was in The Rocketeer and had a guest spot on The Magnificent Seven
Episode 21 - Anthony Starke: Ezra from The Magnificent Seven
Episode 22 - Darlene Vogel: Chris from Pacific Blue
Episode 22 - Kari Wuhrer: Anaconda and Sliders
Episode 23 - Bill Sage: American Psycho
Today was the last day of the antibiotics, and my head hurts worse than it has since the weekend this headache started. My neck feels like it'll snap in two if I move the wrong way. I might believe it's sinus-related because now my ears are aching from the eardrum out, all the way up and down my jaw, behind my eyes, and around my head. The only thing I can think that might have caused this (other than my sinuses, which are obviously plotting a takeover as I type this) is that I didn't take a muscle relaxer last night because I'd had a glass of champagne and wasn't sure if or how that would impact the medicine. I suppose it's possible that the newly-diagnosed TMJ kicked in and that's why I'm so miserable today, but that's just speculation. In any case, the muscle relaxer helps me go to sleep, but as far as I can see it hasn't done much for my head. Wednesday will bring a phone call to my doctor for a return appointment, and that will probably win me a trip to the radiologist. Until then, you can find me curled up in a ball, whimpering, with pillows over my eyes and ears.
Yesterday was a weird combination of things. We'll start with the weather, which has been cold and snowy ever since the snow on Sunday. There was a teensy bit of flurrying while I was driving in to work that stopped shortly after I got in, only to pick back up again off and on throughout the day until upgrading from "flurries" to "light snow" around 1:30. At that point the snow started falling lightly with the sun still shining, but 15 minutes later the sky was dark grey and the snow was falling harder. During the time it took me to ponder leaving early to ensure I'd be on time for my doctor's appointment, the sun came out and the snow slowed down to just flurrying again, so I decided to just stick with my original plan and leave at my normal time. The traffic on the highway was crawling when I merged on, and it didn't get much better for the rest of the trip home thanks to the snow flurries that made their presence known every so often. Thankfully the snow stopped for good just after I got home so I was able to take the puppies out and change clothes before leaving for my appointment. Which brings us to the next thing on my list.
I called my doctor's office on Monday to see if I could get an appointment that day because I've had a headache since Thursday and some sharp pains in my abdomen. I was not happy to learn that the soonest they could get me in was Thursday, but I took the appointment anyway with the plan to cancel it if I was feeling better during the week. I still felt awful yesterday, so I kept the appointment and learned that my problem(s) could have a couple of different sources. I have TMJ (another medical inheritance from my mom's side of the family), which could be causing the head/ear/neck/shoulder pain, or it might be because of a sinus infection. But then again, it could be caused by something different altogether. My doctor prescribed an antibiotic and a muscle relaxer for me to try for a week with the idea that if it's a sinus problem, the antibiotic will take care of it. If it's because of the TMJ, the muscle relaxers will hopefully relax things enough that I don't continue to grind my teeth into powder while I sleep. If neither of those help, I have to get a CAT scan to see what else might be going on. She also had the nurse take a blood sample to see if the abdomen pains were being caused by anemia or an infection of sorts. Every time I had blood drawn in the last year or so (which has been far more frequently than I'd prefer) not only have the nurses all commented on the "beautiful vein" in my right arm, it seems like they all put the needle in at the exact same spot too. The nurse yesterday did the same thing on both counts as well, and I'm a bit worried that the needle mark in my arm may be permanent.
I left the doctor's office and dropped off my pills before heading to the signing office of the new gym that is being opened right in front of our neighborhood. Even with a yearly re-signing fee their rates are cheaper than what we're paying for our current gym, and the facility itself is very impressive. They're going to open up early enough that I'll be able to work out before leaving for work, and I'm really excited about their evening yoga, pilates, and tai chi classes. The only downside to all of this is that the gym won't open until either the 8th or the 10th of next month.
After I left there, I stopped in at our current gym to cancel our membership, picked up my prescriptions, and headed home where I was pleasantly surprised to find my Villainess order waiting for me. (I placed the order on Tuesday, so that's some super-quick shipping.) Karinne introduced me to Villainess last year and generously enabled me with a bunch of samples and a bar of Gloop. Later, she enabled me with a bar of Bathory. I still love Gloop just as much as I did when I first tried it, but my favorite from the order is the Ginger Snapped smooch. It smells just like gingerbread, and I'm hard put to keep from eating it out of the jar instead of scrubbing with it like I'm supposed to.
For me part of the fun of watching CSI is the familiar guest stars, although it gets pretty aggravating if I can't remember what else I've seen them in. Here's a list of the ones I recognized from Season 1:
Episode 1 - Krista Allen (also in Episodes 11 and 13 of this season): Billie from "Days of Our Lives" (also in Episodes 11 and 13 of this season)
Episode 5 - Milo Ventimiglia: Jess from "Gilmore Girls"
Episode 5 - Elena Lyons: "USA High"
Episode 5 - Kelly Connell: Buffy! (He was the bug man assassin in both parts of What's My Line)
Episode 6 - Tony Crane: Remy McSwain from USA's "The Big Easy" (I had such a huge crush on him)
Episode 6 (and others) - Pamela Gidley: Brigette from "The Pretender"
Episode 9 - James Avery: Wil's Uncle Phil on "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air"
Episode 9 - Deirdre Quinn: one of the contestants from Miss Congeniality
Episode 10 - Mark Moses: CreePaul from "Desperate Housewives" (Mike gets credit for this one - I still haven't seen a complete DH episode)
Episode 13 - Mark Valley: Jack from "Days of Our Lives" (bonus: He plays Krista Allen's pimp in this ep)
Episode 17 - Brigid Brannagh: the banshee from "Roar"
Episode 21 - W. Earl Brown: Dan from "Deadwood"!
Episode 22 - Shonda Farr: Buffy! (April from I Was Made To Love You)
Episode 23 - Gregg Henry: some dude from The Black Dahlia (we also watched that this weekend) and Logan's dad on "Gilmore Girls"
As you may recall, I called on Friday evening to find out if I needed to show up for jury duty on Monday, (I wasn't, all was well with the world, especially since most of my day yesterday was spent on the couch watching the rest of CSI Season 1 courtesy of the snow), but at some point I must have forgotten that I had to call EACH DAY to see if I was needed, because jury duty didn't cross my mind at all last night. I didn't think about it this morning either, until I was in the shower getting ready for work. As soon as I finished my shower I dripped my way over to the phone and called the automated service to see if my plans for the day were going to be totally disrupted, which, thankfully, they weren't. I really dislike last-minute changes so even thought I would've still had enough time to get ready and map out my route to the courthouse, I wouldn't have been to happy about it.
I went grocery shopping on Sunday even though it was supposed to snow that afternoon. See, in this part of VA there is a mad rush to the stores for necessities (bread! milk! toilet paper! cheesecake!) whenever it is supposed to snow, and there I was, blindly heading into the lion's den. Luckily the hordes seemed to have already descended and scavenged up all their required necessities, leaving me to shop in relative peace. Oh, sure, there were still more people in the aisles than I would have preferred, but it could have been so much worse. Out of the entire store, there was only one family that even merited complaining about (the matriarch was sporting a large rhinestone spider on her jacket), but that's an entry for another time, if at all. I was in and out of the store in just over 40 minutes, and I left with cherries and nectarines. I love fresh fruit.
And it did snow on Sunday, btw. It started while I was in the grocery store, came down heavier while I was at my parents' house for a quick visit, and kept coming down steadily until nightfall. At some point it sounded like it turned into freezing rain, but I'm not entirely clear on what differentiates freezing rain from sleet, so I can't swear to that.
I'm not much on tv, so it's not at all unusual for me to hear about a tv show and not have any clue what the fuss is all about. House? Sounds sort of interesting, but not something I'll slit throats to see. Veronica Mars? Eh, I'm still not entirely sure what the show is about. I know Grey's Anatomy has something to do with doctors, but that's where my knowledge stops. And so it goes until I am introduced to a tv show on dvdbecause I love watching shows on dvd. I don't have to deal with commercials, not even to skip through them courtesy of TiVo, and I only have to put up with cliffhangers if it's the season finale' and the next season hasn't been released yet. And so it goes with my newest tv show addiction - CSI: Las Vegas. Mike got into CSI:LV a little bit last year, but at the time it was an off and on thing. That changed when we picked up Season 1 while we were in Best Buy this weekend. We burned through a good chunk of the episodes on Sunday and finished the rest yesterday, and I'm very grateful there wasn't a cliffhanger in the last episode since we haven't picked up Season 2 yet.
As far as the show goes, so far, I love it. I like the storylines for the most part (I prefer the ones that don't make me tear up, for obvious reasons), the way the show is filmed is great, and I think the characters are awesome. No, not all of them; Grissom, Warrick, and Greg are my top three favorites, followed by the coroners, Nick, and Brass. Sarah and Catherine are at the bottom of my list because they drive my shit up the wall. They have their good moments, to be sure, but I'm tired of the way they both slam on Grissom for staying detached from the victims. And Sarah getting fired up on her abused women bandwagon is really getting irritating, as is Catherine's mother hen/Mother Superior routine. Also on my Tired Of list? The slow-moving secondary plot lines. What happened with the child services investigation Eddie siced on Catherine? Did Warrick gamble again on CSI time? What's the deal with Catherine and that inspector guy?
On a somewhat side note - Mike is super good at figuring out who did what. He's a little off on the specifics now and then, but he still gets the main points right. It is very rare that I can "solve" one that he hasn't already figured out.
It's hard to make the choice that takes you far away from where you used to be. Much easier to handle it the way you always have. It's almost automatic now, almost a part of you. As natural as crying when the dog gets hurt in the movie or getting angry when the driver just ahead does something stupid or getting scared when it's after midnight and the moonlight is making the shadows move. When you don't have a lot left, that's not the time to try to make a change, but it's the only time to make this change. But that's when it's hard to remember why you wanted to make this choice, this change, in the first place. It doesn't help, doesn't take the feeling away, doesn't make anything better, but it's all you can do because you know you want better. In the morning the sunshine will make it clear that you made the right choice, but it's hard to hold on to that decision until then.
Maddy has been burping in my face recently, and I am trying to determine whether or not this is just a coincidence (three days in a row says that it might not be). It goes something like this:
Maddy: [Snarfs down food in kitchen.]
Mike: [Is gaming in living room.]
Kate: [Is reading, also in living room.]
Maddy: [Runs out to living room.
Maddy: [Jumps on chaise to get attention from Mike.]
Mike: [Pets Maddy for a minute before moving her off chaise to continue gaming.]
Maddy: [Runs over to couch to get attention from Kate.]
Kate: [Gives cute, wriggly, furry puppy attention.]
Kate: [Cannot resist cute, wriggly furry puppykins when they are so! happy! to! see! her!]
Maddy: [Stands up.]
Maddy: [Puts paws on Kate's shoulder.]
Maddy: [Looks cute.]
Maddy: [Puts nose right in Kate's face, like she is going to give puppy kisses.]
Maddy: Burps. [Right in front of Kate's nose.]
Kate: [Disgusted.] DAMN IT, MADDY!
There was a slight variation on this yesterday - she put her paws on my shoulder, yawned in my face and then burped, mid-yawn.
I have to wonder, why doesn't she burp in Mike's face? She's certainly in prime position to do so when she's on the back of the chaise, scampering around like a little rodent trying to get as much attention as possible from him. Is it because she doesn't have to yet? Is it because she knows he is not likely to say, "Oh, a puppy burp! How cute!"? (Note: I'm not likely to say that either. Kibble burps are not pleasant.) Or is it because she is saving it for me? Right now I'm going to continue giving her the benefit of the doubt and chalk it up to coincidence, but I'm not completely dismissing the possibility that she's doing this to express her displeasure at the late days I've been working this week.
I need new jeans. The ones I bought last year still fit and they're not terribly worn out yet (well, two of the three aren't), but they're not BFF with all of my shirts. If the shirts hit at a certain spot on me, my curvy hips look enormous, and that is A Problem. It's not a look I want to cultivate, y'all, so it is time for new jeans. Unfortunately, this means I actually need to shop for said jeans, and that is Another Problem. I hate shopping for jeans.
No jury duty for me, at least not this Monday. I have to call Monday "for further reporting instructions." I would really like to be a juror; I think it'd be an interesting experience if nothing else. However, I'm not too keen on the idea of finding my way around another city and dealing with the parking. I didn't inherit my mom's lousy sense of direction (she circled Houston four times on one of our visits there when I was younger, and it was not because I wasn't telling her which exit we needed to take), but I still tend to get very unsure of myself in unfamiliar settings and start wondering if I'm lost, oftentimes prematurely. I always end up doing fine in those situations because I'm pretty good with directions and I've never been one to hesitate to stop and ask for directions if I think I'm lost, but knowing this does not prevent me from getting very, very nervous about it and stressing more than necessary beforehand. I'm much happier navigating from the passenger seat and letting someone else do the lane changing, etc. At one point I was fairly familiar with driving in the Richmond area (I used to date a guy who went to college there so I'd drive up to see him every weekend at the time), but it's been several years since I've had any reason to be in that area. With all that said, I'm off to go look at different ways to get to the courthouse...just in case.
My ears hurt, my face is starting to feel slightly swollen, and my neck and shoulders are tight, but I can't tell if I'm starting to get sick or if I'm just feeling crummy because I didn't sleep well last night. It took me forever to fall asleep when we went to bed (my tossing and turning kept Mike awake too), and when I finally did go to sleep, I woke up to
puppy: (hork)
Mike: "Shit!"
and a large puddle of dog-vomit on the bed right by our pillows. Even thought it didn't take us long to clean everything up and go back to bed, I still felt like I'd been run over this morning when the alarm went off. I'm so happy it's Friday.
The earth is doomed. It began reluctantly with Kelly Clarkson and "Miss Independent." Shortly after that, I grudgingly discovered that I liked "Invisible" by Clay Aiken. When Mike bought both of Kelly Clarkson's albums, I officially had to admit that I'm kind of a fan. Last year Bo Bice got a (tiny) foothold with "The Real Thing," Mike and I went to a Kelly Clarkson concert, and I was sideswiped with Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats." A couple months ago I gave Daughtry a listen and discovered that, not only did I not hate them as much as I thought would, I actually liked them enough to by their album. (I am still not pleased that Fuel wanted to get Chris Daughtry as a replacement for Brett Scallions though.) As if all that wasn't bad enough, I heard a song on the way in this morning that I really liked, so I looked it up a few minutes ago only to find out that I've been suckered in by Kellie Pickler with her "Red High Heels." I'm almost afraid to ask what's next.
I was talking to my boss yesterday about my upcoming jury duty, and while I was telling her that I may not be in tomorrow because of that, I started to doubt my memory. I remembered reading on the paperwork that I would need to call on January 19th to see if I had to show up for jury duty, but that didn't make sense to me. Why would my two weeks as a potential juror begin on a Friday? That's when the tendrils of worry began to creep in. What if I was remembering the date wrong? What if I was supposed to call at the beginning of this week*? What do they do to people who just don't show up for jury duty? Does it involve a fine of some sort? I fretted over this stuff until I left work, at which point I promptly forgot about it until I was getting ready this morning and decided to spend the majority of my time looking for the jury duty paperwork. I remembered the date right, but I'd gotten the rest mixed up. I am supposed to call tomorrow after 6pm to see if I'm needed for Monday, which makes so much more sense than calling Friday morning to see if they need me that day. I obviously haven't done this before.
*the fact that Monday was a holiday didn't occur to me at this point
A QC reference I actually get without Mike explaining it to me? Only because of my love of the Highlander.
There can be only one:
I usually try to squeeze a lot of stuff in my day and then end up stressed because it can't all get done, so I tried something different today - slowing down. I left for work on time and consistently drove 5 miles above the speed limit. I went a little faster a couple of times when I needed to pass someone, but the rest of the time it was a nice leisurely drive in. I got in to work a few minutes early instead of a few minutes late, and I liked it. It was a hectic day at work so it was hard to take things slow there, but I started again when I left work. Normally when I drive home on late days I gnash my teeth at the traffic and gripe about how much I hate working late because of it, but today I kept the gnashing and griping to a minimum. I didn't shout at the other drivers, I tried not to tailgate, and, again, I kept my speeding to a minimum. And I was much less stressed when I got home than I usually am on late days. I didn't rush around the house when I got home, but I did keep working steadily, and before Mike got home I'd taken the puppykins out, started a load of laundry, loaded the dishwasher, brought the trash can in, took the recycling out, emptied the puppies' litterbox, started getting his lunch ready for tomorrow, and prepped his nightcap.
Not only did Mike say the turkey dinner was "titacular," he declared it the best turkey he'd ever had, and he actually ate white meat, which he never does.
The Chargers lost by one field goal, which makes me sad because they could've won the game, but I'm happy that they made it to the playoffs at least, and even happier that the game didn't go down the same path as the Ravens game did on Saturday.
The thank-you cards are all made, but not written yet. I'm not stressing that right now because, as far as I'm concerned, I still have until tonight to get them finished. And if I don't, well, it's not like I've ever sent late thank-you notes before.
The last few list items that were checked off yesterday include:
starting the layered Jello (I got through orange before I had to stop for the night), setting up the online bill payments for the new account, and a trip to Costco.
I've been up since 3:30-ish and have done four loads of laundry since then (most of which have already been put away), cleaned our shower (the bathroom still smells like bleach), cut up a small ton of Mike's old t-shirts for cleaning rags, completed one crossword, picked up where I left off yesterday with the layered Jello (yellow through purple), and played a couple games of Sudoku. I still have to do approximately five more loads of laundry, write my thank-you notes, and finish cleaning up the kitchen from the residual turkey dinner mess. I'm sure I'll think of other things that need to be added to that list as the day wears on, but for now, that's enough.
The Ravens lost, and the Colts' kicker kicked five freaking field goals. I am less than thrilled. On to the lists.
from the list for yesterday:
- made and addressed birthday cards
- started making thank-you cards
- went to the grocery store
- returned books (didn't pay my fine or find any new ones - those things will have to wait for a day when I have more time to spend there)
- successful de-cluttering
write-ins:
- watched Talladega Nights
- drank sparkling grape juice (a bottle of red and a bottle of white)
- played Sudoku on my DS
- had a molasses cookie from Starbucks
today:
- make turkey dinner (the turkey is in the oven)
- watch Chargers game
- finish making thank-you cards
- write thank-you notes
- several loads of laundry
I just found out that the Ravens game is today at 4:30, not tomorrow like I'd thought. Good thing my sister set me straight, otherwise we would have completely missed the game. I just checked, and the Chargers are definitely scheduled to play tomorrow though, so at least I didn't get it all backwards.
from the grown-up list:
- opened a bank account
from the frivolous list:
- painted my toenails (with the pretty nail polish from the pedicure/foot care kit Mike and the kids got me as part of my Christmas present. red! and sparkly!)
- looked at shirts and tried some on, but I didn't love them, so back to the rack they went
- bought one pretty new belt and plan to buy a couple more online tomorrow now that I know what size I need from that store. Bonus: my total, including tax was $4.03. I love you, clearance!
write-ins:
- finished Lisey's Story
- went to Borders, got some mud-pie cheesecake (meh), and finally bought Dark Moon Defender. I didn't want to get it at first because it's only out in hardback right now, and paperbacks will always be my first love when it comes to books. Also, I wanted to wait until after Christmas because I have been told once or twice that I am hard to buy presents for, which amazes me, but there you have it. Since it was not in my stocking and I am still in desperate need of reading material (please note that a trip to the library is not on either of the lists above), I decided to go ahead and get it this time. As much as I love the series, there's no way I'm going to be patient enough to wait until each new book is published as a paperback, so I might as well resign myself to the fact that this is one series I will collect in hardback.
- had a caffeine-free root beer and a bean and cheese burrito at Baja Fresh
- watched some of Will and Grace: Season Three
on the schedule for tomorrow:
- pick up cardstock for thank-you notes
- make and write said thank-you notes
- make birthday cards
- go to grocery store
- go to library (return books, pay borderline astronomical fine, remember to renew them next time)
- set up online bill payments for new account
- not-so-sporadic de-cluttering so that when we have people over tomorrow night, they will have somewhere to sit and put their drinks
Monday is a holiday and I'm off today, so I'm enjoying the first of four mornings that will not be spent at work. My serious grown-up plans for the long weekend involve grocery shopping, opening a bank account, clipping the puppykins' nails, making and writing thank-you notes and birthday cards, sporadic de-cluttering, and the occasional load of laundry, as needed. My frivolous plans include Football Sunday, buying a new belt or two, buying a new pair of shoes or two, looking for a couple of new shirts so I can dress up my way-too-casual wardrobe a little, making layered Jell-O, painting my toenails, reading through some of my small mountain of magazines, and going to the library because, holy hell, do I need new reading material.
Frozen turkeys are on sale, and I'm toying with the idea of making a turkey dinner on Sunday for us to snack on while we watch the Chargers and then the Ravens. I've got stuffing, cranberry sauce (for me), veggies (for Mike), and potatoes, so it's all possible depending on when I get to the grocery store.
The Chargers' first playoff game this season is against the Patriots this Sunday, and right after that the Ravens play the Colts. I'd prefer to see the Chargers go to the Super Bowl, but it'd be okay if the Ravens make it instead.
Turkey Hill's Tastykake chocolate cupcake ice cream is heaven on a spoon.
We made it to our haircut appointment on Saturday, and it's so nice to have healthy-feeling hair again.
Mike bought Bomberman for me over the weekend, and it's a really fun game, although I'm sure I'd like it even more if I could figure out how to save after each level.
And finally, this zit at the edge of my nostril needs to go the hell away. It's unsightly and uncomfortable, to say the least.
Mike and A picked this up Sunday afternoon, but since he and the boys began playing each other as soon as they got home with it, I didn't get into the game until after we got back from taking the kids to their mom's. Mike played for a while in career mode to unlock more songs then we played against each other for a while until he took a break to read one of his magazines, at which point I began my career. The songs on "easy" are a lot, well, easier on this one than they were on the first Guitar Hero - even the ones in the "Return of the Shred" category, which surprised me. By the time I got to that category on GH1 I was fighting to make it through the entire song, but on GH2 I got an almost-perfect score on a couple of the Shred songs. I don't like the song selection quite as much as I liked the one on GH1 ("Cherry Pie," "Surrender," and "Killing in the Name Of" are the exceptions that I've unlocked so far), but that may change as I play through on "medium." My next goal is to unlock "Sweet Child o' Mine."
So, allergy testing? I'm not a big fan. I mean, I like knowing what exactly I'm allergic to, but I could do without the actual testing process. I was a little nervous going into it because I found out on Saturday that the testing was more than likely going to involve poking things into me (naively I'd thought they would just put patches of things on my skin and then I'd come back in a day or so to be checked for a reaction), but when the nurse got into the room she pointed to my eyebrow ring and said that if I could handle getting that done, the allergy tests would be nothing. Ha! The first round of testing didn't involve any needles at all, but it felt like the nurse was poking a freshly sharpened pencil in my back and twisting it. When that was done we had to wait 20 minutes to see what would react. My back was stinging from the poking and I was getting a migraine so Mike kept me distracted by talking about the tattoos I want to get. Before I knew it, the 20 minutes was up and the nurse was back in the room. After checking my back she brought me some ibuprofen (for my head) and cream (for my back), then went to talk to the doctor and came back with a tray of needles that Mike recommended I not look at until after she was done poking me. I took his advice and was happy I did - she gave me 19 shots so that tray looked a little bit scary. The nurse and doctor both said that the shots wouldn't hurt much at all, but after yesterday, I have to disagree. I don't care what they say - even if a shot is only going into the top part of the skin, it still hurts just as much as a regular shot. Mike held my hand while she gave me the shots in my arm and then she left the room again, this time for 15 minutes. When she came back she gave me more of the cream for my arm and popped in a video on dust mites for us to watch while we waited for the doctor to come back in.
According to the results, I'm sensitive to cockroaches (ick) and allergic to dust, mold, and cats. (I also learned that my allergy to cold has a name - cold urticaria - and that I need to be careful when jumping into cold water because sudden immersion means I could go into anaphylactic shock. Exciting!) People with dust mite allergies need to have special covers for comforters and pillows, wash everything in hot water, vacuum the bejeesus out of the carpet, and keep the surfaces clear of dust, which in turn means that I need to buy said special covers, run Pint-Size daily, switch from washing the sheets in cold water, and get rid of the clutter covering most of those surfaces. One of those is going to be much harder than the others - I'll let you figure out which.
Today's mail brought me the skeleton key wallet I ordered from Urban Heirlooms a week ago. It came in a pretty package and is much less scary than the other skeleton key. I love it.
I initially thought I could start taking my allergy meds again starting Monday, after my allergist appointment, but it just now occurred to me that if I can't take them before the appointment because they will affect any test results, I may not be able to take them immediately afterwards either, and that thought makes me weep. I'm not sinusy or drainy, but sweet tap dancing Father Time, I am itchy. Recently I had realized that, even though it's been cold outside periodically this winter, I've only gotten hives a couple of times. At the time it didn't occur to me that it might be due to the allergy meds I was taking, but now that I am not taking them, I'm getting hives every time I so much as look at an ice cube, and I begin to think that maybe, just maybe, Zyrtec D had something to do with it. Even when I'm not sporting actual hives, I'm itchy, and I'm really, really tired of it. Lotion doesn't help, scratching only buys me a few minutes, and since I can't claw at my skin all day long, I am at my wits end.
I have not had a haircut in just over a month, and the split ends are killing me. Mike and I have been getting bi-monthly trims for quite a while up until now, and it would seem that I've gotten spoiled by this regular maintenance. We've got an appointment on Saturday to fix this, but I can't promise that I won't grab some scissors and attack before then.
In April we're going back to the B&B we stayed at on our honeymoon for our first anniversary. I just made the reservations, and I'm so jazzed - about both the trip and the anniversary.
When I got home yesterday there was a package containing one sage-colored robot waiting for me on our doorstep. I waited to open it until after I let the dogs out (because I am a good dog-mommy), but I did call Mike to chirp and squeak about it as soon as I got inside. I didn't get to do much of a trial-run last night because the battery needed to be charged, but from the little bit of time I did get to spend with it, I can tell I am in love. It cleans the floor and chirps back at me - perfection!
Mike and I were talking about the movie Summer of Sam yesterday and decided that we'd watch it after he got home last night. I stopped and picked it up on my way home from work, and in spite of my worries that there would not be any copies of it in stock, there were two on the shelf. I didn't have to wait in line and the traffic getting home was painless, so it was a hassle-free stop. As we had planned, the movie was ready to go when he got home, and we made it all the way through in spite of the late (for us) hour, although at the end, I was very ready to go to sleep. Until we actually turned out the lights, then I was still tired, but not sleepy at all. Hate that.
As far as the movie went, I liked it. It's not on my list of favorites, and I doubt that I'll be watching it again anytime soon, but the story was pretty good, and I felt really, really bad for Mira Sorvino's character. Watching her try to please her husband only to have him cut her short each time was just this side of heartbreaking, and I was more than a little glad when she finally realized that the problem wasn't her, it's that he was an ass. (note: I do not like John Leguizamo. His characters have been weaselly at best, but usually assholes, in the few movies I've seen, and this movie did nothing to change that trend.) Adrien Brody's character was surprisingly appealing too (he's another one I usually am not too crazy about), and I was not happy when he got the snot beat/kicked out of him towards the end of the movie.
I finished watching the last disc of Roar last night, and I remember why I was more than a little bit in love with the show (and Heath Ledger). It's not a militantly historically accurate show by any means (I highly doubt that Diana's outfits are all period-correct Roman attire, and Mike pointed out that Heath's Irish accent was a bit lacking), but I completely look past that. The interaction between Connor and Fergus is well written and wonderfully acted, and I have yet to see anyone else with eyebrows as expressive as John Saint Ryan's. I'm sad that the show didn't have a longer run, but very, very happy that I have it on DVD so I can watch it over and over again.
I have new socks! They are comfy socks, and I love them. I love them even more because Mike bought them for me after waiting patiently in the store with me while I looked through the entire sock selection to pick them out. He is a prince.
Mike and I rang in the new year with lobster (him), key lime pie (me), whiskey (him), sparkling cider (me), and Clint Eastwood. It started with High Plains Drifter on the AMC Clint Eastwood marathon and continued Pale Rider, although we switched from AMC to Mike's collection of Clint Eastwood films at that point. We took a break after Pale Rider to run out and get some lobster then came back and started The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. We did not make it to the end of the movie, but we did make it to 2007 (12:08 am, to be exact) before calling it a night.
New Year's Day was very relaxed. We slept in, took a long bath, then went out. Because Mike let me plan the day we went to Kohls, Total Wine, Best Buy, and Chic-Fil-A, and after we got home we finished The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly and watched Old School.
