June 2007 Archives

Mine: The Backstreet Boys are releasing a new album this year. (I thought it was going to be sometime this summer, but it appears I might have misheard and it will really be out sometime in the fall.) Trufax*: the only BSB album I do not have is their greatest hits album.

His: The Spice Girls are back together and are kicking off an 11-city tour in LA this December. (I'm not much of a Spice Girls fan, but I'm eternally grateful that out of all the bands from that timeframe, Mike likes them more than he likes OMC.)

*stolen from Karinne, like everything else (and, like everything else, there is a good chance I am not using it properly)

Mike and I watched Ghost Rider Tuesday night. As with so many lately, I didn't love it, didn't hate it - it was just a decent movie. The storyline was okay (although I am tired of romance being written into movies where it does not belong and does nothing to enhance either the story or the movie overall), the effects were okay, and the actors did a decent job. Sam Elliot and Donal Logue were my favorites, but I don't think Nicholas Cage did a bad job as Johnny Blaze. (I can't be considered a Nicholas Cage fan by any stretch of the imagination, so for me to give him even that much is pretty impressive.)

*** SPOILERS ***

I'm tired of hearing about iPhones. I like new gadgets as much as the next girl, but this one just isn't doing anything for me. I have a phone I like well enough (although I wouldn't mind if it were a bit thinner), a PDA I heart, and my beloved iPod and iPod nano, so I'm all set on those fronts. Would I like it if they were all combined? Not really. Cell phones are prohibited in our gym; I'm not sure if they'll make an exception for iPhones, and there is no way I'm going to choose to work out without listening to music. Combining my PDA with the other two devices doesn't have any appeal for me because I don't need or want to have it with me all the time. Out of all three devices, my phone is the one I carry with me everywhere I can because I need it more often than I need the other two. I know other people have different mindsets about that and different device priorities, and I understand why the iPhone is a big deal for a lot of people, but for me, it just isn't. In fact, I don't think I could possibly care less about it. I'm not going to cancel my current service contract so I can run out and buy one, I'm not going to drop over $500 on it, and I don't ever see it being something I would go stand in line to wait for. I'll leave that to the fanbois.

things that make me happy today:
- my car is back!
- we have a pretty new tv + tv stand
- we're getting a new bed (no specifics on it yet, but we're going to look at them this weekend - it's definitely going to be a king, though)
- I ordered more water bottles on Tuesday, and they got here yesterday. <3 water.
- tomorrow is the farmer's market! Zucchini bread! Fresh blueberry muffins!

things that make me sad today:
- the fruit I made a special trip into Wawa for this morning is awful. The grapes are mushy, the strawberries and blueberries didn't even look good enough for me to consider buying, and the tomatoes from the salad are pretty bad in their own way too.
- I have to work late(ish) today. That never makes me happy on a Friday.
- I have no canned pumpkin with which to make yummy brownie muffins.

Last night was rough. Mike and I went to bed at a decent enough time (around 9:30), but we were woken up around 10:15 by the doorbell when A stopped by to pick something up after work. The dogs heard the doorbell too and went flying downstairs, barking like the world was ending, which was pretty unnerving. Once we went back to bed, it was hard to fall asleep again thanks to the hammering we kept hearing, punctuated by the sound of power tools (a saw, I think). I don't know how long my nocturnal neighbor was busy in his garage because I fell asleep after half an hour or so, but I do know that I gave serious thought to getting up, going outside to find out his house number, and calling the cops. I understand that there is always a project that needs taking care of around the house, but 10:45 is not the time to bust out the circular saw and make new bookshelves, or whatever the hell he was doing.

I can't even be trusted to dress myself anymore. I just had to fix my underwear because I put it on inside out this morning and didn't realize it until I went to the bathroom a few minutes ago. I'll have to get Mike to check and make sure I'm presentable before he leaves for work tomorrow.

iGive is a corporation that hosts an online shopping mall; if you shop through them, participating vendors give a percentage of the price of your purchase to the cause of your choice. Since I found out about it from DRNA last December I've been shopping through iGive when I can, although sometimes I don't think to check and see if a store participates until after I've already made my purchase. Over 650 stores are currently participating, and some of the purchases I'm kicking myself about not making through iGive include ones from the Disney Store, Designer Linens Outlet, Novica (12%, argh!), and the A&E Store. I did remember when I bought my water bottles, though.

Note: More than 24,000 organizations are listed with iGive as causes, and if you use this link to sign up with iGive, the cause of your choice gets an additional $5 donation the first time you shop.

I've had the post office on my errand list for over a month now, and I still haven't made it in to pick up some $.02 stamps. I checked online this morning, and shipping for the stamps is only $1.00, so I went ahead and placed my order. In less than a week I will have the stamps without having to stand in line. I normally hate paying shipping charges for something I can get locally, but in this case that $1.00 is keeping me from having to deal with the traffic, wait in the perpetual lines at our local post offices, and then deal with the postal employees and the other people in the line with me. I consider it a dollar well spent.

Usually I have a very accurate sense of what day it is, and since I write the date several times a day at work, I'm pretty good about getting the date right too. Not so this week. This week has me all befuddled, maybe because Monday was so weird. Whatever the reason, I'm hard put to remember what day it is this week. Yesterday felt like a Monday or a Wednesday, today feels like it's Thursday, and please, for the love of God, don't ask me what date it is.

things I am not crazy about but need to man up and do anyways so I will feel better, dammit:

- wear my stupid mouth guard every damn night. Even thought it falls out sometime before I wake up, and I have to play hide-and-seek with it every morning.

- use my nose spray every morning. I'm having more and more trouble breathing lately, and before I run back to the allergist, I need to make sure I'm doing everything she suggested.

- eat more vegetables. (I checked "The Sneaky Chef" out from the library to try to make this one a reality - I need to hide the veggies from myself more than I need to hide them from the kids!)

- work out. Every day.

- give up the refined flour stuff already.

I got a letter in last week's mail from a company trying to sell me on getting a home equity loan through them. That in and of itself is not unusual; we get letters like that (refinancing, home equity loans or lines of credit, etc.) several times a week. What set this one apart was the detailed information it contained. The company listed all the accounts we could "pay off" if we got a home equity loan through them, and it listed the exact amounts remaining on both our mortgage and my credit card. I was equally disturbed and spun up about it at the time, and when I saw this article on mortgage triggers in Get Rich Slowly's daily roundup this morning, it set me off all over again. I don't like random companies being able to pull all of our detailed information like that, and I really don't like them including it direct-mail solicitations. That seems extremely invasive to me. Unless I am trying to open an account with a company, I don't think they should be able to get access to my credit information. And if they're able to get access to this information without my permission, why have I had to sign release forms in the past so companies I AM trying to do business with can check my credit?

I came across this interesting idea while I was reading the recent posts on Curbly this morning. It wouldn't have occurred to me to make my own bathing suit because I don't like working with the fabric they're usually made out of, but working with a t-shirt shouldn't be that difficult, and this would be a good way for me to finally use some of the t-shirts that have been sitting in my closet forever.

Back in March, Stacy compiled the JN & Friends Comprehensive Beauty Lists. At the time I was using Urban Decay's Skyscraper Mascara, which is pretty good as far as mascara goes, but I'm always trying to find the "perfect" mascara so I paid close attention to the mascara recommendations. The comments about Definicils sounded like what I was looking for, and when my Skyscraper Mascara got old and clumpy, I turned to Lancome for my newest mascara. So far, I heart it. It does indeed wash off with soap and water (that was my only real complaint with the Skyscraper Mascara - after washing my face, I would invariably have black smudges under my eyes that I'd have to grab a q-tip to take care of), it hasn't flaked or clumped on me yet, and it did not cried off when I sniffled my way through six episodes of CSI: Miami last night.

Jordan is an endless source of amusement (and pee, but that is a story for another day). The guy is here fixing our walls, and he has a Nextel. I know this because it chirped while he was downstairs spackling in the laundry room. When Jordan heard the chirp, he picked his head up from the chaise where he and the other two weasels were napping, and every time the Nextel chirped, he cocked his head to the side.

:chirp:
:Jordan cocks head to the left, a puzzled look on his face:
:chirp chirp:
:Jordan cocks head to the right, still looking puzzled:
:chirp:
:Jordan cocks head back to the left, now looking confused:

Like last night, it was hilarious to watch but loses something in the translation from action to words. I need to videotape him all day long so I can share these moments with you in the proper format.

I was reading some of One Frugal Girl's thoughts on "100 Simple Secrets of Happy People," and the following passage she quoted from the book really jumped out at me: "Don't confuse stuff with success." Material possessions are how some people define success, and it's a trap I fall into more often than I'd like; I start thinking about things I want, and I get caught up in that, feeling unhappy because I don't have that stuff instead of realizing where I am and what I have.

In approximately two hours, people will be here to fix the cracks and pop-outs in our walls and ceilings.

Plus: Our walls and ceilings won't have cracks and pop-outs anymore!
Minus: People! In our house! Must clean!

Plus: I didn't have go to work this AM.
Minus: I'll have to go in this afternoon. Yeck. Also, people! Cleaning!

Plus: Once this is done we can think about painting.
Minus: People! Cleaning!

Jordan is hilarious. He was trying to get on top of the comforter, and twice now, instead of just climbing up like a normal dog would, he's leaped straight up in the air to land on the top of the comforter. I wish I'd been able to film it - he looked like a little mountain goat leaping on a rock.

My camera is still not working, but getting it fixed will have to wait until after my car quits throwing a temper tantrum. Early last week, my car started shaking worse than normal. It kept this up all the way in to work and all the way home on Tuesday, so Mike and I dropped it off at the shop that afternoon and found out that it was shaking because oil was getting into the spark plug tubes, causing it to misfire. Fixing this requires a new valve cover, new seals of some sort, and a tune up. It's also time to replace my left front axle. Oh, and if I want a/c that actually works, I need to replace the dashboard switch. The problem with that? My car is 14 years old, and from what the people at the shop told me, Honda doesn't make parts for it anymore. The axle is taken care of, and we're dropping my car off at my mechanic's tonight, but fixing the a/c is going to require a lot of phone calls to junk yards. Or I could just push the car off a cliff.

The brother of one of the girls in my sister's grade in high school just died in Afghanistan. He was 23. I remember him as a gangly, goofy middle-schooler, obnoxious in the way that middle-school-aged boys are known for, but he was a husband and a paratrooper. According to the article, he would have celebrated his third anniversary with his wife in August and was supposed to come home for a break in November; instead, he died on patrol in Afghanistan on Thursday. I hate the fact that our troops are overseas fighting an unofficial war, a war that we shouldn't be in. I hate that the president is refusing to establish a timeline for withdrawing our soldiers. I hate that people are losing their lives, leaving behind grieving loved ones, for something that isn't really our fight.

I woke up exhausted this morning, which is the same way I woke up yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before THAT. It can't be because I'm staying up ungodly late, because I'm not. I've been going to bed with plenty of time to get in enough sleep, and yet I am far from waking up rested. Yesterday I read an article on sleeping effectively, and I think my problem may be the varying times I go to sleep and wake up. During the week I go to bed around the same time every day (between 9 - 9:45, which is later than I think I should be going to bed) and I wake up around the same time too (4 - 4:15), but on the weekends, anything goes. I stay up as late as 12:30 and then get up as late as 8-something. Oh, I get up between 5 and 6:30 to take the dogs out, but as soon as they're done outside, in we go to get right back in bed. I need to do what the articles I keep reading suggest - go to bed at the same time each night and get up at the same time each morning. Maybe that will help me feel like I'm actually sleeping at night.

I cannot say enough good things about the brownie muffins. Seriously, make them now, do not pass go. They're super easy (one 15 oz can of pure pumpkin + 1 package of devil's food cake mix - combine and bake for 20 minutes at 400°), and they taste fantastic. The pumpkin cheesecake pie, on the other hand, was quite meh. The pumpkin-cheesecake mix was good, but it is not a combination that belongs in a pie, at least not until I tweak the filling a little to make it more solid. If you want pumpkin cheesecake pudding though, that's fairly easy too: take a box of the no sugar, no fat cheesecake pudding, add two cups of fat-free milk, mix, then add a little bit of pumpkin - maybe 1/2 cup - and pumpkin pie spice to taste. Combine all (I used a mixer to make sure everything got nice and smooth) and refrigerate. The end.

My stitch-site actually hurts (and looks) worse now than it did pre-stitch removal - I'm not sure whether or not that's normal. Regardless, I'm sure I will end up fretting about it until it either heals or turns a nasty shade of green, at which point I will realize that it is time to make a follow up appointment STAT.

It feels like I've been in the kitchen most of the day, although in reality it's just been for the past four hours. I made guacamole and salsa (using up some of last week's farmer's market purchases), a pumpkin-cheesecake pie, and brownie muffins. The brownie muffins turned out fantastically, and I'm still waiting to find out about the pie. I originally was going to make a key lime pie (one of the vendors at the farmer's market this morning had a display of key lime pies, which is what gave me the idea), but when I made the filling, it, well, reeked, so I dumped it down the disposal and pulled out canned pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice, and two boxes of cheesecake pudding. If it turns out well, I'll write the "recipe" up and post it.

My stitches are out, the kids have all eaten, I made a vat of red sauce earlier and have used almost all of it (one pan of lasagna [for Mike when he gets home], one pan of mixed-manicotti, 10 mini-pizzas), H has had her bath and is watching one of her movies, the boys are downstairs (one on the computer, the other gaming), and I am in our room, sitting on the floor with my back against the bed, playing on my pretty new laptop, letting my poor, achy, tired legs rest and listening to Max breathe next to my ear. Occasionally I take a break and burrow my face into her neck, disturbing her just so I can get a snootfull of that warm, sleepy dog smell I love so much. If it weren't for the kitchen I still need to clean up, I could crawl under the covers and go to bed now, feeling like everything was complete. For now.

I SHOULD be working on vouchers and timesheet entry, but instead, I'm poking around on the internets looking at toys I had (or coveted) at various points throughout my childhood.

had:
My Little Ponies
She-Ra
Strawberry Shortcake
Sweet Secrets (I think my sister and I each had one or two of these, but I'm not 100% certain of this)
Pound Puppies
Lady Lovelylocks (we only had one LL doll, and my sister and I fought over her fairly frequently)
My Little Ponies
She-Ra
Smurfs
Sylvanian Family / Maple Town
Colorforms
the Weebles haunted house (until today, I thought this was a Fisher Price haunted house, to be used with the people & playsets they made for kids in the mid-toddler to early grade school years)
Lite Brite
Care Bears
Star Wars
Li'l Miss Makeup
Glamour Gals
Lincoln Logs
Princess Magic Touch (this is the toy that started this whole toy search; I remembered what the doll looked like and that one of the playsets had a piano, but could not for the life of me remember what the hell the dolls were called. As it turns out, I found the name by accident, after I'd already searched several different pages and was browsing random 80's/early-90's toy sites in despair.)

coveted:
Charmkins
Sweetie Pups
Yum Yums
Cherry Merry Muffin
Cupcake Dolls
Keypers
Rose Petal Place*
Moon Dreamers
Puppy Surprise
Precious Places*
Rainbow Brite
Quints
Baby Surprise*
Popples
Get-Along-Gang*
Kit and Kaboodle
Poochie

* these are the ones I really really REALLY wanted as opposed to just begging my mom for once a month or so

There was a small Netflix wait for Ghost Rider, so Mike and I got Fun With Dick and Jane to watch in the interim. Can't waste any of our precious Netflix time, you know! Anyways, the movie wasn't bad, although I'm glad I didn't buy it.

*** SPOILERS ***

It doesn't feel like it's been ten days already, but I'm getting my stitches out in less than eight hours. I'll be glad to see them go. Tonight I can go back to taking baths! And swimming! (In that order. I'm not a fan of shaving my legs in the shower, so I have some serious leg hair to hack off before I don a swimsuit this weekend.)

Mike scared the snot out of me last night when I was leaving the bathroom. He was waiting for me right outside the door, so as I walked out of the bathroom after turning the light off, I walked right into him. And screamed, of course. At the same time, I grabbed his hands and dug my nails into them - he called it clawing, but I think that's a little extreme - and wasn't able to let go until I stopped screaming. He lives for this shit.

Mike scared the snot out of me last night when I was leaving the bathroom. He was waiting for me right outside the door, so as I walked out of the bathroom after turning the light off, I walked right into him. And screamed, of course. At the same time, I grabbed his hands and dug my nails into them - he called it clawing, but I think that's a little extreme - and wasn't able to let go until I stopped screaming. He lives for this shit.

I'm getting closer to my early Christmas shopping goal. So far I've gotten all of my brother's present, part of the presents for Mike, the kids, my nieces and nephews, and most of the presents for my sister, her husband, and my mom. It looks like I may actually reach my goal this year!

Mike and I watched Pan's Labyrinth last Wednesday. I'd heard a lot of talking about it, but nothing very conclusive, so I really wasn't sure what to expect; I didn't even remember hearing that it had subtitles. Overall I thought the movie was okay. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it either.

*** SPOILERS ***

(Thank Mike, because if it weren't for him, this warning wouldn't be here. I am thoughtless like that.)

I wanted to see The Messengers ever since I first saw the previews for it. Mike and I finally watched it last night, and I'm a bit disappointed. I think the story was such that I could've really enjoyed the movie, but the way it turned out felt like it was just a copy of a bunch of movies. There was a lot about it that just didn't click for me, like the cast's chemistry and interaction. I think Dylan McDermott is pretty hot, but for the most part it was hard for me to buy that they were a family. While some of the scary parts were creepy (one of them actually sent me ducking under the covers), even those weren't as good as they could have been. With all that said, it successfully creeped me out enough that I scampered downstairs to turn off the lights and set the alarm, and when I got back upstairs I was not happy to see that one of the lights was still on. For a few seconds my imagination tried to convince me that something had turned it back on after I turned it off, which resulted in me racing downstairs, surveying the room to make sure there was nothing waiting to pull me into the floor, turning of the light, and racing back upstairs as quickly as possible.

ETA: Holy hell. I just learned that Penelope Ann Miller was Brenda in Adventures in Babysitting. I don't think I would've ever put the two together on my own. Wow.

Over the weekend I:

1. went to the farmer's market. I love going and looking at all the fresh fruit, vegetables, and plants. I also like knowing that I'm getting locally grown produce. Going to the farmer's market always gives me an urge to start a garden of my own.
2. did a fuckton of laundry and actually put it away
3. walked to gym on Saturday and Sunday. It's a little over a mile each way, and if I walk quickly, I can make the trip in 17 minutes. The trip to the gym is mostly downhill, which means the trip back home is mostly uphill, and I wish I could reverse them. I have more energy on the way to the gym, but after spending 30 minutes on the elliptical trainer, I don't have as much energy - certainly not enough for an uphill trek home.
4. made an effort to make healthier and more productive choices
5. cleaned up a large chunk of the floor on my side of the bed
6. made a lemon velvet cake with buttercream icing. The cake turned out great, the icing, not so much.

I've been offline since Friday afternoon, so I have three days of posting to make up for, and I'll start with a belated "Happy Father's Day" to Mike. We had the kids this weekend because of Father's Day, and yesterday morning we started off with a big breakfast. H helped me make sausage, turkey bacon, eggs, biscuits, and blueberry muffins (those will get another entry of their own), and after breakfast, Mike opened his presents. The kids each drew Mike a picture and we got a picture frame with three openings to put them in. They also got him Forza 2, H drew a picture of her and Mike to put in a small frame, and Z and N decorated the gift bag with comics. After the Father's Day gifts were opened, Mike and the boys settled down to play some Gears of War. They took a break when A stopped by for a Father's Day visit, and then again for dinner, and finally had to call it quits when it was time for us to leave to take the kids back.

Happy Father's Day, sweetie.

I know I've mentioned it before, but I love Miss Doxie. I read this for the first time the other day, and it is just as funny every time I've read it since then.

I've been looking for a water bottle solution for the past few months, and when Chris wrote about the water bottles her family uses last month, my ears perked up. I toyed with the idea for a bit after reading that, and after much internal debate, on Tuesday I decided to go ahead and take the plunge and ordered three of these bottles (one of these and two of these) to take to work with me. This was my first I order from Eastern Mountain Sports, and thus far, I am thrilled with them. The order shipped out that afternoon, and yesterday afternoon the UPS man brought me a box containing my precious water bottles. Now to see if they live up to their "no plastic taste" promise.

Dear Self Magazine,

Earlier today you sent me an e-mail stating that Bathing Suit Season is Almost Here! I don't know where the headquarters for your magazine is, but here in Virginia, Bathing Suit Season is here ALREADY. In fact, for my neighborhood it officially began Memorial Day weekend, but it was certainly hot enough to make the idea of prancing around in a swimsuit appealing well before then. I'm sure people in the Arctic Circle have PLENTY of time left to take the Self Challenge and get bikini-ready, but for me, that time has come and gone. My neighbors have already seen my out-of-shape body with it's soft tummy and larger thighs over the past few weekends. My only option at this point is to start getting in shape now so I will be ready for next year, which I will be, no thanks to your after-the-fact e-mails.

Yours truly,
Kate

Things I know today:
my stitches are still itching like mad
but that part of my back is still numb so it's weird when I try to scratch the area around them
I'm only happy when it rains
Good Charlotte is going on tour with Justin Timberlake. This disappoints me greatly.
my gums hurt from the floss cutting into them this morning
something in Papa John's pizza is one of my triggers
ditto for my favorite microwave popcorn
my follow-up appointment with the neurologist is this afternoon. I forgot about it until yesterday morning.
coupon codes that are not supposed to expire for another 10 days but don't work when you enter them
Invader Zim quotes crack me up, particularly the phrase "Have you the brain worms?"

There was another storm last night, even better than the one the night before; the thunder was louder, right on top of us at some points, the lightning was brighter, and the rain came down even harder, drowning out all other sound when it was pouring. It started shortly after I went to bed, so I fell asleep listening to the storm. I love nights like that.

Stupid stitches. I'm petrified of pulling them so I'm moving very gingerly whenever something comes up that requires action on my part. And to make matters worse, they itch like holy hell, but there's nothing I can do about it except gnash my teeth and try to forget about them. For nine more days.

It's pouring again, really coming down hard, battering the windows and roof (the power's flickered twice so far), and I'm propped up awkwardly in bed listening to the rain and thunder, trying not to move too much because I am deathly afraid of pulling on my stitches.

The cyst-removal appointment was, as expected, not a huge deal, although the nurse that assisted the doctor was, quite possibly, my favorite nurse evar. She took my sandals off for me so I didn't have to worry about them falling off during the procedure (note: do not wear sandals when you will be lying face-down to have something removed from your back), talked to me throughout the whole procedure to keep my mind off the fact that my back was being cut open and scraped out, and patted my arm when it looked like I wasn't doing so well. Mike was awesome too, as usual, once he recovered from my marathon Gobstopper crunching session (apparently it is hard to concentrate on sudoku when someone is nervously snarfing down Gobstoppers less than 10 inches away from your ear) and held my hand the entire time. The surgeon was very personable, maintaining just the right level of banter to keep things flowing, and he was very good about explaining what he was doing and why. He went out of his way to let me and Mike see the cyst (a bit of fat came out with part of it, and I don't know if you've seen actual human fat before, but that shit is GROSS) and he was very generous with the numbing stuff when I felt him cutting in to remove the cyst and again when I felt him begin the stitches. The needle was as bad as I thought it would be, and feeling the cutting and part of the stitches wasn't a highlight either, but most of my discomfort during the whole thing was just me being jumpy and worried. The sensation of them working on me freaked me out more than anything. Everyone was very nice about that though, and soon enough, I was cut, scraped, stitched, and ready to leave with a small set of stitches to mark the occasion. I'm scheduled to come back in ten days to get them removed, and until then, I can't go in a pool, hot tub, or take a long bath, although I can work out if I want to, as long as I don't lift any weights. Pulling on the stitches seems to be a bad idea, so my goal is to avoid it like the damn plague, which brings us back to me lying on the bed, awkwardly propped up so as not to lay on my wound.

I got up to make popcorn, and while it was popping, I went to the bathroom. When I got back I looked at the clock on the microwave and freaked out when I saw that it said 1:22. "1:22?!? How the hell can it be that late ALREADY? Noon was just a few minutes ago! I can't be making popcorn - I need to leave NOW, so I'll be home in time for my appointment!" I only hyperventilated for a few seconds before I realized my mistake: I was looking at the time left for the popcorn in the microwave, not the actual time. I can't tell you how dumb I felt when it occurred to me that it COULDN'T be 1:22 because now the clock read 1:18. :sigh: Apparently, stress makes me fall the fuck apart.

I put my damn shirt on backwards this morning and didn't notice it until I took a bathroom break a few minutes ago. I am losing my mind.

Cyst-removal commences in less than ten hours, and I am six different kinds of nervous, if not more. My chest is tight with that weighted sensation, like a large rock on it - that feeling that SOMETHING is coming up, and it is Not Good. I know it is not really a big deal; it's an outpatient surgery, one that people probably get every day, probably an in-office procedure for me, in fact, so why is it such a source of anxiety for me? Because I don't know what to expect. To my knowledge, the only stitches I've ever had have been in my mouth, and I don't know how similar (or not) this afternoon's experience will be to that. I have several questions vying for answers about this afternoon and the aftermath. Will I be able to shower today if I want to? Tomorrow? How will this impact my gym time? How is it going to feel when the doctor is doing the cutting? The stitching? How is it going to feel afterwards? I am also more than a little apprehensive about the shot that I am assuming they will use to numb me up before beginning the surgery. I'm not fond of shots even under the best of circumstances (although, how good can things really be if a shot is required?), but when I'm already fretting about something, the possibility of a shot being included in the mix does not make it easy for me to stop worrying about it.

My camera is not working, which means I can't take a thousand and one pictures of my puppies at any given moment. This makes me sad. I am also sad that my pretty camera of less than three years is not working. I didn't even drop it or anything!

I'd heard plenty about Invader Zim before, but nothing about it caught my interest until Mike picked up the boxed set (last week) and we watched some of the episodes with the kids (this past weekend). Now? I'm hooked. The show is hilarious. Zim is voiced by the guy that voiced Dag from the Angry Beavers (spoot!), and he does an equally good job of voicing Zim. GIR, Dib, and Gaz, are all good too. In a nutshell, I can't help but like a show that has lines like "I told you would forever rue the day you messed with ZIM! Now, begin your ruing! I'll just sit here and watch." I'm just sad that I got into Zim too late to pick up an "Obey Pastulio!" shirt.

Shortly after Jordan's initial trip to the vet to get fixed, I noticed that there was something that looked like fishwire sticking out of his incision. It was still there a couple of weeks later, so two weeks ago I took him back to that vet. The somewhat harrried-looking vet took a quick look at it and declared that it was part of the sutures, but now that almost a month had passed, Jordan should be all healed inside and it was safe to cut it, which he did. I rabidly checked that spot on Jordan for the next week and was happy to see that it seemed to be healing nicely. Fast forward to this morning, when I noticed that the incision site is not all clean and healed, like it should be. Instead the area looks quite infected with a purple-ish shiny looking bubble of fluid at the site. Looks like Monday morning is going to bring another call to the vet, but I'll be calling our regular vet this time. I'm not very confident with the other vet at this point, so even if I have to pay to bring Jordan in to see our regular vet, it'll be worth it. After over a month, my poor little man should be completely healed, not still dealing with problems.

Except right now it's less of a "fallin' rain" and more of a "torrential downpour" out here. The rain is pelting the windows, the lightning flashes are blindingly awesome, and the thunder is quite loud, to say the least. The storm announced it's presence with some distant lightning and thunder just as we got to the pool earlier, and it's been building up to this ever since. Thank God I already took the dogs out, because there is no way in hell they'd even think about going out in this weather, especially not Mister Jordan.

When I opened my water bottle, it splattered all over me, so not only do I have bright pink fingers and streaky jeans, NOW I have water splashes all over my lap too. :sigh: I'm looking forward to leaving in a few minutes to go home. It's supposedly ungodly hot outside, but Mike let me take the truck in today, so I'll have a nice cool ride home.

Meanwhile, back at stately Wayne Manor, I have a bit of a dilemma: I have thoughts that I want to write down, but I don't want to write them here or anywhere else online because they're not thoughts I ever plan to share. I do want to write them down though - it helps me think things through to put my thoughts into words where I can see them - and I want to be able to go back and look at them at some point if I should so choose. What's a girl to do?

My fingers are pink, courtesy of the pen that leaked while I was writing this morning. Too bad I didn't notice that before scratching my legs; I could've spared myself the pink streaks that are now on my jeans.

It's time for more window shopping. I don't wear barrettes often, but I think these are some of the cutest I've seen. I heart this wallet, and if this had one of the bad kitties on it (preferably Sabbath or Neechee), I'd buy it in a heartbeat. They have Emily bikinis and beach towels as well, but, again, none with the kitties on them, which disappoints me greatly.

This week has been hell on me for headaches, and it's taking a noticeable toll. I'm tired (staying up to watch CSI probably hasn't helped that much), run-down, short-tempered, and my sense of humor has all but vanished. I can't wait for Friday afternoon.

This week has been hell on me for headaches, and it's taking a noticeable toll. I'm tired (staying up to watch CSI probably hasn't helped that much), run-down, short-tempered, and my sense of humor has all but vanished. I can't wait for Friday afternoon.

I like all of the seasons we've watched so far, but Season Five may be my favorite, in spite of Ecklie splitting up the team. The two-part season finale (written and directed by Quentin Tarantino) was good, and I really liked the way they handled the 4x4 episode.

Episode 1 - French Stewart: Harry from "3rd Rock From the Sun"
Episode 3 - D.B. Woodside: Buffy! (Principal Wood, Season 7) and a guest spot on CSI: Miami, Season 1 (ep 12)
Episode 3 - Larry Joshua: Spider-Man
Episode 3 - Aisha Tyler: guest spot on Season 1 of "CSI: Miami"
Episode 5 - Dina Meyer: "Birds of Prey" (Batgirl/The Oracle/Barbara Gordon) and Saw 1 - 3
Episode 5 - Doug Savant: "Desperate Housewives" (this one is a total Mike catch. I'm still DH clueless, so the only cast members I would recognize are the main 4 chicks.)
Episode 6 - Summer Glau: "Firefly" and Serenity
Episode 7 - Danica Stewart: guest spot on Season 1 of "CSI: Miami" (ep 11)
Episode 7 - John Tenney: Tombstone and a guest spot on "Lois & Clark: the New Adventures of Superman"
Episode 8 - Lindsay Crouse: Buffy! (Professor Maggie Walsh, Season 4)
Episode 8 - Sarah Buxton: I cannot figure out where I've seen her before, but I know I have. Maddening!
Episode 8 - Sam Anderson: "Angel" (Holland Manners, Seasons 1 - 2), guest spot on Season 1 of "CSI: Miami" (ep 1)
Episode 8 - Don McManus: guest spot on Season 1 of "CSI: Miami" (ep 18), a guest spot on Dawson's Creek, Hannibal
Episode 9 - Jason London: Dazed and Confused, Mallrats
Episode 9 - Nana Visitor: "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine"
Episode 10 - Mae Whitman: Hope Floats
Episode 10 - Lobo Sebastian: Next Friday
Episode 10 - Michael Bryan French: I Still Know What You Did Last Summer
Episode 11 - Sebastian Roche: Roar! (Longinus)
Episode 11 - Ted Rooney: "Gilmore Girls" (Morey)
Episode 11 - Catherine Dent: Someone Like You
Episode 17 - Stephen Baldwin
Episode 17 - Wil Wheaton: "Star Trek: the Next Generation"
Episode 20 - Donna Murph: SpiderMan 2
Episode 20 - Teal Redmann: "Gilmore Girls"
Episode 20 - Eric Allan Kramer: "Lois & Clark: the New Adventures of Superman"
Episode 21 - Robin Weigert: Calamity Jane from "Deadwood"
Episode 21 - Chris Williams: Dodgeball
Episode 23 - Kim Johnston Ulrich: "3rd Rock From the Sun"
Episode 24 - Frank Gorshin: That Darn Cat, the Riddler from the old Batman series
Episode 24 - Michael Bacall: Buffy! (Eric from "Some Assembly Required) and Grindhouse (Death Proof)

Make sure your damn sunglasses are in their case BEFORE you drag it out to the truck with you and leave for work. An empty case will not shield your eyes from the sun, no matter how many times you look at it pitifully and wish that your sunglasses would magically appear.

This is important to remember at all times, but especially when you have a migraine and are counting on those sunglasses to prevent the sunlight from stabbing into your now light-sensitive eyes.

Our oldest son's high school graduation was yesterday morning. (I initially squeaked at the fact that the ceremony was scheduled for 9am until it occurred to me that 9am is a much nicer time tempereature-wise for an outdoor graduation than, say, 1pm.) The ceremony was nice, the speakers talked a little much for my liking (seriously, why does the president of the class need to speak? Isn't it just supposed to be about the valedictorian/salutatorian?), the sun burned my arms, I cried, Mike took lots of pictures, A graduated, everyone lived happily ever after, and I made a list of lessons learned, which will come in hand when our middle son graduates in three years:

wear sunscreen if the ceremony is being held outdoors
do NOT wear mascara. period.
bring a tripod for the video camera b/c my hands shake when I get super-emotional (also useful so I can step away from the camera to cheer for the graduate w/out recording my yelling)
leave my purse in the truck. there is nothing in it that I will need because I'll be busy recording the ceremony
bring a ponytail holder, otherwise my hair will blow in my eyes non-stop, and the camera will record shaky moments while I am trying to get it out of my eyes
start with a fully charged battery
come up with a plan BEFOREHAND for meeting after the ceremony