i miss him

My dad's been gone for 7 1/2 years.

While I don't usually miss him so much this time of year, I was watching Little People, Big World, and saw that their best friend passed on, and it was sudden, and quick, and unexpected. It made me think of my dad.

When I was a kid, this time of year was quiet. The harvest was in, everything that could be repaired probably had been by now, and the sows weren't going to farrow for at least another month and a half. This is when my dad would get fat and sassy (yeah, right, the man never broke 160. he was 5'6", and definitely not a fat man. during really busy times, i think he was lucky to be 140).

"HO HO HO! MERRY CHRISTMAS!" i can remember hearing that on several christmas mornings. my dad had a big voice for such a small man. he could rattle the windows.

i remember he could never say "banana." it was always "balana." He was very sick as an infant, and spent most of the years we learn language not hearing anything. When he finally began to hear again, it was never quite right. the Nebraska School for the Deaf focussed on sign language, rather than speech. i credit my ability to understand most people to the fact that i grew up hearing "mangled" english.

i don't miss him much this time of year. he's not as close now. wait for spring. when i drive in the country, and see farmers planting at all hours of the day and night, i hear my dad's hollering for more seed corn. when i see the corn growing up and up and up, i hear my dad talk about when they were kids and how corn grew during WWII (he wasn't allowed to serve, for obvious reasons, although he tried). My favorite smell is corn pollinating in july. Seeing combines on the road makes me remember rides on the tractor, going from field to distant field (although my dad NEVER took his equipment on the highway. if it needed to go to town, he had it trucked. said it was too hard on the tires to drive on the highway (and those tires were $500 in the 70's!))

i miss my dad

we remember

One year ago, today, the nation's worst mall shooting occured in a place i've been several times. maggie webb, angie schuster, janet jorgensen, dianne trent, gary joy, beverly flynn, gary scharf, and john mcdonald were lost that day. their families still grieve, as do we all.

never forget.

i was at miss violet's when the shooting happened. i was driving down to sean's school, when carin called me and told me "don't go to westroads. there's been a shooting." as we watched, and heard the stories, and the horror, and saw the tears and fears, we cried.

never forget

Her name is Frances

A couple of button down shirts. Some paper towels. Toilet paper. A book of stamps. Simple things. But that's all I know. These are what she wants for Christmas.

I found a giving tree at walmart today, for seniors. I went through all of them, and thought, "which one shall i pick?" when i saw Frances, I knew. What kind of life is she living that her wish is for paper towels and toilet paper? I almost broke down right there in Walmart, and every time i looked at the tag i'd taken from the tree, i'd tear up again. in fact, i need a tissue right now.

I'm so grateful for the fact that my mother isn't in that position. But Frances is someone's mother, aunt, or sister. So, I bought what she asked for. I hope it makes her Christmas a little brighter.

postcrossing

I'm having a bit of fun. I joined www.postcrossing.com, which is a free service. you register, and ask for addresses to send post cards to, and when they're received, your name gets put in, and then you get post cards back. i've gotten them from china, germany (twice), the netherlands, the phillipines, lithuania, south africa, the us (west virginia, ohio and utah), and the last from spain. i actually replied to her in a small amount of spanish, let's see how she responds, lol.

i'm enjoying this. i've got odd postcards from interesting areas. and i'm keeping them. much to mark's chagrin, lol. right now, i've gotten 12, so my collection fits in one drawer of the desk. i've been going to the local bookstore, and getting nebraska postcards from there. however, their collection is kind of limited (a lot of them from the mormon cemetary up the street (they ARE the winter quarters bookstore, lol). i need to go to the zoo, and get some cool ones there.

the best part? all it costs me is the cost of the postcard AND postage. it's 97 cents to mail international, and 27 to mail in the us. wheeeeee!

Remind me

I didn't craft at all yesterday. It was a bad day after I got home from Miss Violet's. The school called, and Sean got suspended again. This is his 5th suspension (and we still haven't finished the semester yet). I won't go into why, except he needs to learn to control his mouth.

It was a tense afternoon, and evening. Sean was absolutely livid when he got home, as was Mark. While dinner went well, there were specific tensions. Sean asked for ice cream, and I decided that he could have an ice cream sandwich, rather than the last of the drumsticks. That pissed him off, so he went upstairs rather than have any. Mark got bent out of shape, and went to bed.

Then Sean came down and proceeded to puke for an hour. He'd get up, puke, then lay on the floor in the bathroom. I won't go any further than that, for those of you who are a bit sensitive stomach-wise. He fell asleep on the bathroom floor, claiming he was going to stay in there for the night. I finally woke him up around 9, and he decided he felt a little better, and could go upstairs after all.

With a bunch of other stuff going on (in case y'all didn't know, I'm the Managing Editor for the Daily Chum, and i was working on some major stuff (watch that space after Thanksgiving. you'll love it!), and ended up not touching fiber or needles, and going to bed at 11:30.

Today, I picked up my crochet (AC4C are asking for strips to piece into blankets, as they're faster to join, for the Pine Ridge Reservation), and after 3 stitches, I could feel the peace and harmony flooding through me.

So, do me a favor. If you see me on Plurk howling about insanity, or if i bitch here about the nuttiness that can be and is being the mother of highly intelligent children (not to mention Sean's other issues), ask me if i've picked up any fiber. Doesn't matter what, be it spinning, knitting, or crocheting (not sewing, though, that causes me more stress). Remind me. I need it.

Red Neck Fire Alarm

And now, for a little levity

Get your dose today!

get the word out.

as many of you know, sean has asperger's. he also has ODD (oppositional defiant disorder), ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and OCD tendencies (obsessive compulsive disorder). the OCD isn't full blown because he isn't completely compulsive about things, but it can manifest itself at any time (when he's nervous, he'll pick his lip or his fingers, or anything else to bleeding).

here's what i propose. the biggest problem sean is having at school at this point is a lack of understanding. students, staff, and even a few teachers (i won't go into which ones, but i have my ideas) think he can control all of his behaviors, and just needs a good kick in the pants. what they fail to realize is that the last word in all those alphabet soup diagnoses is DISORDER. not working right. i don't wanna say that sean is disordered, but what he is is different.

i propose that we get the word out. if more people knew what asperger's was, and how it works, there might be more understanding. sean is a brilliant young man. he blows everybody out of the water in his biology class. there is actual discussion of putting him in honors chemistry next year, not because his grade in biology supports it, but because of what he says in that class. i'm sure i've said this before, but he has a college level chemistry book that he asked for a few years back. HE UNDERSTANDS IT. he understood it when i bought it. he and mark will go through it, and try and figure out what would happen if you combined this element with this element. also, his IEP teacher thinks that if he's in an AP class, the kids there have a different level of maturity, and be more tolerant of how he is (which is what he's getting in his biology class. the teacher is fantastic, and i've been told there's a group of kids in there who help sean as much as they can (not with homework lol, but other ways) and missed him while he was out of school).

most of all, if more people accepted sean for what he is, different (and not really all THAT different), he might be more accepting of himself. i know there is a small part inside that says "what the hell am i doing." he's told me. he knows when he's done wrong, but just can't stop sometimes. i just wish the life lessons in socialization were a little more gentle (unlike the young man who punched sean after sean kicked him for getting in his face because "you're weird.")

i have a new motto in life.

Normal is the setting on a dishwasher, not a description of people.

i have a dream

a caveat, first: i think it's great that barack obama won. i honestly think it will be a revolutionary change.

however, here we go.

I have a dream. I have a dream that some day it won't matter if you're black, white, red, or yellow, male or female, tall, small, skinny or fat. It won't matter. I have a dream that a person will be judged on their merits and skills, on who they are, and not what they are.

That is my dream

A Bone to Pick

Christmas is shot this year. Guaranteed. Wanna know why? I've got doctor bills to pay. Why, yes, I do have insurance. What of it?

When I checked into putting Sean into partial care 2 weeks ago, they told me that it would cover 50% up to $130 a day. That makes me responsible for $65. God knows what they've contracted it at, but that's what they cover. Sean was in partial care full time for 4 days. I have to call and find out how much they cover for transition days. There were 3 of those. Then there's the hospitalization. Dunno about that one either.

Here's the stinky bit. I CAN'T CHECK ON THE WEB. even though there's a website. i don't have authorization. it's mark's insurance. but i'm supposed to! We got a letter at the beginning of September that they were issuing new insurance cards as of october 1 (haven't seen mine yet, and i've been diligently checking the mail), and that spouses would be given log-ins so that they could check things like providers, and balances (it's a $750 deductible/person, with $1500/family, in network. don't even wanna discuss out-of-network. i think it's $1500/person, and $3000/family, but don't quote me), and coverage. haven't gotten it yet. it's FUCKING OCTOBER 22, PEOPLE!

Because of Sean's UTI problems earlier in the year, he met his deductible months ago. But as of right now, I'm still responsible for at LEAST $260 *for M-Th of last week, not to mention the rest. I'm still paying off the urologist from march for sean, and mark's facial surgery from EIGHTEEN MONTHS AGO. And now i'm going to have new bills for sean at this same damned hospital. GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER, FOLKS. When mark had the s urgery, i had received SIX SEPARATE BILLS. Radiology. Anesthesiology. Surgeon. Lab work. Hospital. and (this one pisses me off huger than big) RADIOLOGY CONSULTANTS. because his dad had skin cancer, they wanted to x-ray his lungs (had to do 2, cuz his lungs are so long, lol). so, they had a radiologist to take the picture, and a CONSULTANT to look at it! WTF. still paying the hospital and the surgeon (at least the surgeon doesn't send snotty letters EVERY MONTH even though i'm paying monthly).

and i won't even get into therapy, which will happen with sean eventually. the sad part? they'll only cover 26 sessions a year. and you have to reapply every so often during the year to v erify that you still need the services. he'll be ok for the rest of this year (there's only a tad over 2 months left), but next year could get dicey.

such is the state of mental health care. and it pisses me off.

*and this is beyond the $250 mark pays a month for the insurance. i can remember not so long ago when i paid $60 every 2 weeks to cover me AND all 4 of my kids. *stomps off in disgust*

it happened again.

I've hoped and prayed it wouldn't happen again. I've fought, and struggled, and done everything in my power to prevent it. However, it wasn't up to me, cuz I'm just the mom.

Sean's in the hospital again. We've been fighting this battle since school started. He's not adapting well to high school. He's been suspended 3 times, and the quarter ended today. He's been in fights, been picked on, and been outrageous in a not-so-good way.

We had him in partial hospitalization all last week (it's like a day-long therapy session), and were about to transition back to school full time, when he pulled his stunt. He didn't hurt himself, (and honestly, i don't really think he had any intention of doing what he threatened) but he made the threat, and at partial care, so it was grounds for immediate hospitalization.

He's there now. He will be there for 2 or 3 days.

This is so hard. i KNOW it's not my fault, that mark & i have done everything in our power to help him to adapt. he's been put into smaller classes, he's been moved away from kids who would torment him because he's different. it just wasn't enough.

but my heart hurts. i cried last night because i miss my baby boy. i miss him now.

dammit

Music Meme

Here's the deal.

The rules:A.) Go to musicoutfitters.com
B.) Enter the year you graduated from high school in the search function and get the list of 100 most popular songs of that year
C.) Bold the songs you like, strike through the ones you hate (i'm going to bold the ones i couldn't live without that year)
I graduated in 1984 (cringe).

The list:

1. When Doves Cry, Prince
2. What's Love Got To Do With It, Tina Turner
3. Say Say Say, Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson
4. Footloose, Kenny Loggins
5. Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now), Phil Collins
6. Jump, Van Halen
7. Hello, Lionel Richie
8. Owner Of A Lonely Heart, Yes
9. Ghostbusters, Ray Parker Jr.
10. Karma Chameleon, Culture Club
11. Missing You, John Waite
12. All Night Long (All Night), Lionel Richie
13. Let's Hear It For The Boy, Deniece Williams
14. Dancing In The Dark, Bruce Springsteen
15. Girls Just Want To Have Fun, Cyndi Lauper
16. The Reflex, Duran Duran
17. Time After Time, Cyndi Lauper
18. Jump (For My Love), Pointer Sisters
19. Talking In Your Sleep, Romantics
20. Self Control, Laura Branigan
21. Let's Go Crazy, Prince and The Revolution
22. Say It Isn't So, Daryl Hall and John Oates
23. Hold Me Now, Thompson Twins
24. Joanna, Kool and The Gang
25. I Just Called To Say I Love You, Stevie Wonder
26. Somebody's Watching Me, Rockwell
27. Break My Stride, Matthew Wilder
28. 99 Luftballons, Nena
29. I Can Dream About You, Dan Hartman
30. The Glamorous Life, Sheila E.
31. Oh Sherrie, Steve Perry
32. Stuck On You, Lionel Richie
33. I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues, Elton John
34. She Bop, Cyndi Lauper
35. Borderline, Madonna
36. Sunglasses At Night, Corey Hart
37. Eyes Without A Face, Billy Idol
38. Here Comes The Rain Again, Eurythmics
39. Uptown Girl, Billy Joel
40. Sister Christian, Night Ranger
41. Drive, Cars
42. Twist Of Fate, Olivia Newton-John
43. Union Of The Snake, Duran Duran
44. The Heart Of Rock 'N' Roll, Huey Lewis and The News
45. Hard Habit To Break, Chicago
46. The Warrior, Scandal
47. If Ever You're In My Arms Again, Peabo Bryson
48. Automatic, Pointer Sisters
49. Let The Music Play, Shannon
50. To All The Girls I've Loved Before, Julio Iglesias and Willie Nelson
51. Caribbean Queen, Billy Ocean
52. That's All, Genesis
53. Running With The Night, Lionel Richie
54. Sad Songs (Say So Much), Elton John
55. I Want A New Drug, Huey Lewis and The News
56. Islands In The Stream, Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton
57. Love Is A Battlefield, Pat Benatar
58. Infatuation, Rod Stewart
59. Almost Paradise, Mike Reno and Ann Wilson
60. Legs, ZZ Top
61. State Of Shock, Jacksons
62. Love Somebody, Rick Springfield
63. Miss Me Blind, Culture Club
64. If This Is It, Huey Lewis and The News
65. You Might Think, Cars
66. Lucky Star, Madonna
67. Cover Me, Bruce Springsteen
68. Cum On Feel The Noize, Quiet Riot
69. Breakdance, Irene Cara
70. Adult Education, Daryl Hall and John Oates
71. They Don't Know, Tracy Ullman
72. An Innocent Man, Billy Joel
73. Cruel Summer, Bananarama
74. Dance Hall Days, Wang Chung
75. Give It Up, K.C.
76. I'm So Excited, Pointer Sisters
77. I Still Can't Get Over Loving You, Ray Parker Jr.
78. Thriller, Michael Jackson
79. Holiday, Madonna
80. Breakin'... There's No Stopping Us, Ollie And Jerry
81. Nobody Told Me, John Lennon
82. Church Of The Poison Mind, Culture Club
83. Think Of Laura, Christopher Cross
84. Time Will Reveal, Debarge
85. Wrapped Around Your Finger, Police
86. Pink Houses, John Cougar Mellencamp
87. Round And Round, Ratt
88. Head Over Heels, Go-Go's
89. The Longest Time, Billy Joel
90. Tonight, Kool and The Gang
91. Got A Hold On Me, Christine McVie
92. Dancing In The Sheets, Shalamar
93. Undercover Of The Night, Rolling Stones
94. On The Dark Side, John Cafferty and The Beaver Brown Band
95. New Moon On Monday, Duran Duran
96. Major Tom (Coming Home), Peter Schilling
97. Magic, Cars
98. When You Close Your Eyes, Night Ranger
99. Rock Me Tonite, Billy Squier
100. Yah Mo B There, James Ingram and Michael McDonald

some of those i'd like to have bolded twice, i love 'em so much (cum on feel da noise, girls rock your boys, we'll get wild wild wild!)

name game

i think i've done this before, but it's fun, hey?



1.Your rock star name (first pet, current car)

Penny Town & Country



2.Your gangsta name (favorite ice cream flavor, favorite type of shoe)

Chocolate Birkies (funny, sounds like a hippy name to me, lol)



3.Your Native American name (favorite color, favorite animal)

Blue Dragon



4.Your soap opera name (middle name, city where you were born)

Ruth Blair



5.Your Star Wars name (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 of your first name)

Olsmi



6.Superhero name (2nd favorite color, favorite drink)

Plum Ice Tea

7.NASCAR name (the first names of your grandfathers)

Kelsa Henry

8.Dancer name (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy)

Dirty Jack Heath

9.TV weather anchor name (your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter)

Thayer Tallahassee

10.Spy name (your favorite season/holiday, flower)

Halloween Violet

11.Cartoon name:(favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now)

Mango Jeans

12.Hippie name (what you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree)

Pancake Magnolia

13.Movie star name (first pet, first street where you lived)

Penny Monroe

Go ahead gang, play along! (yes, i know, this was started MONTHS ago, but i've been a plurkaholic. forgive me. Oh, BTW, clicky on my dragon egg! pretty please?)

i can dig it

i don't normally discuss politics on this blog (that and religion are the two things that can cause the biggest fights). but i think i can get behind this ticket

My Soul

ok, this sounds like it's going to be a religious post, and maybe it is, to a point. but. here's the deal. i'm a plains girl. i have never lived anywhere else. while i long for the sea, i sometimes wonder. maybe it's the openness i crave. i went to new york a few years back, and i was stunned at the number and variety of trees. even in the fields in the country, they were surrounded by trees. it *almost* made me claustrophobic.

one of my favorite shows is Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations. Tonight, i'm watching the Egypt episode. Right now, he's in the desert with the Bedouins. and it appeals. the openness, the barrenness. knowing that there's nothing between you and the horizon, which is miles away. While i found the trees beautiful, and i find mountains beautiful as well, i long for open spaces.

when we went to tybee island, when we visited my brother in georgia, my favorite time was walking the beach. nothing before me but miles and miles of open beach, and to the east, uninterrupted ocean.

i think it's my pioneer soul. both my grandmothers crossed the plains in covered wagons. the older of the two didn't go far (she was born in mondamin, iowa, and they continued on to the tekamah, nebraska area when she was 6 weeks old, although they came from further east), but my younger grandmother was born in 1905, and travelled from iowa to wyoming when she was 5. considering horses/oxen were lucky to get 10 miles a day with those heavy burdens (it's 700 miles from here to gillette, the largest city where they settled), it was a long ass trip.

my grandpa ran away from home in indiana when he was 15, in 1903, so probably, he travelled the same way. i don't know about my other grandpa, except that he was born in germany in 1892, and travelled with his family to wyoming when he was 18 (it just occured to me that he and my grandmother went to wyoming at the same time, lol). he was the eldest of 10 children. maybe they took the train, but i kinda doubt it. 10 kids on a train?

either way, i crave open spaces. i miss living in the country, where there are miles to the next neighbor, and not feet (i often hear the neighbors coming & going from my bedroom, as their driveway runs right next to it). mark wants our next home to be in the country, but it's not feasible at this time, with both boys in high school, and both our folks here in the omaha/cb area.

maybe later.

we drove out to wilson island today, to double check everything for the family reunion that's coming in 3 weeks. it was wonderful, seeing the horizon miles away again, and open spaces. the river was even open to the sky. i'm supposed to go back on wednesday to check the electrical hookups (we're renting 2 camping spaces so that we have enough electrical hookups for all the food, lol). i may sit there for a while, and just absorb the open.

Just the Meme for me!

Got this from Stephanie. A little something to get the tummy rumbling. This is the Omnivore's Hundred list of foods the gastronomic Andrew Wheeler thinks everyone should try at least once in their lives.

The rules of the meme: bold those you have tried, strikethrough those you wouldn't eat on a bet.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile (does alligator c ount?)
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese (not that i would again!)
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float(not now though. had to drink warm rootbeer as a kid when i was sick, ugh!)
36. Cognac with a fat cigar (won't ever take up smoking, so not an option)
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu (if i ever go to japan, i might give it a shot. it's not available in the us)
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal (not voluntarily, ugh)
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake(all of the above, lol)
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho (made it, too!)
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill (venison. the deer trashed our car, i figured it was only right to eat it)
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict (and any variation therein)
83. Pocky (or something similar).
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam (i like it almost burnt)
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

ah, the joys of a culinary arts degree, lol. I've tried 63 of these things. you'll note t here's only 3 i won't do. sorry, just cant' eat secretariat.

link me if you do this, it's too cool!

meme me up, scotty!

Fifty things you didn't know about me. At least I don't think so, lol.


1. Do you like blue cheese? is there anything that blue cheese can't go on? of course!

2. Have you ever smoked a cigarette? nope.

3. Do you own a gun? not now

4. What flavor do you add to your drink at Sonic? COCONUT!!!!!!!!

5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? Nope.

6. What do you think of hot dogs? Wimmers NC weiners (prefferably the red ones!)

7. Favorite Christmas Song? Mary, Did You Know (Kenny Rogers/Wynona version) makes me cry every time.

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Milk

9. Can you do push ups? Yep! And from the toes! YES! while i've become a chunky monkey, i've still got guns, lol!

10. Favorite movie? Highlander, Director's Cut (i wore the video tape out!)

11. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? a sapphire necklace hubbie gave me when he gave me my engagement ring (if we're not counting wedding jewelry, lol)

12. Favorite hobby? KNITTING! (imagine that!)

13. Do you work with people who idolize you? i am THE adminnie. what do you think?

14. Do you have ADD? wouldn't surprise me if i did, since 3 of my 4 kids are adhd

15. What's one trait that you hate about yourself? my tendency to sit on my ass when i need to get off of it

16. Middle name? Ruth, after my grandmother.

17. Three thoughts at this moment: The race thing is still very heated, and as long as one doens't think the other understands, it will still be a race thing. I need to eat breakfast. I have to go get Sean from summer school in an hour, where did the time go?
18. Three things you bought yesterday. iced triple grande caramel macchiato, tall breve latte, and Sean's final 8th grade grades (he lost a book AGAIN! i swear, i'm not letting him check anything out any more!)

19. Name 3 drinks you drink regularly. ice tea, cherry 7up and Water.

20. Current worry right now? my daughter paying her bills (she just got a job after being out of work for 2 months)
21. Current hate right now? political commercials

22. Favorite place to be? at stitch & bitch

23. How did you bring in the New Year? watched it with my sons (my husband can NEVER make it any more, lol)

24. Where would you like to go? scotland, ireland, sweden (for hubbie), and the bahamas

25. Name three people who will complete this. dunno

26. Who's answer do you want to read the most? dunno

27. What color shirt are you wearing? navy blue ben franklin t-shirt i got on vacation in georgia

28. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? No.

29. Can you whistle? like a bird (and apparently i passed the ability on to liam, i AM whistler's mother!)

30. Favorite color? tie dye (is that a color?)

31. Would you be a pirate? ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! Aye, Matey!

32. What songs do you sing in the shower? it's the only place i DON'T sing, lol.

33. Favorite girl's name? Deirdre

34. Favorite boy's name? Kelsa (my dad's name)

35.What's in your pocket right now? more like, what's NOT in my pocket, lol.

36. Last thing that made you laugh? something on Plurk

37. Best bed sheets as a child? the flannel sheets my mom would put on in the w inter

38. Worst injury you've ever had? burnt all 4 fingers on my left hand and the ER threatened to cut my wedding rings off

39. Do you love where you live? read previous post, lol

40. How many TVs do you have in your house? 5 (one is the game tv for the kids, one in our bedroom, and the living room one are used)

41. Who is your loudest friend? it's probably a tie between me and Miss V (we both got lungs, lol)

42. How many dogs do you have? none

43. Does someone have a crush on you? Only my husband!

44. If you could marry a movie actor/actress who would it be? Keanu Reeves. no ifs ands or buts about that one

45. What is your favorite book? the outlander series

46. What is your favorite candy? dark chocolate that snaps with nuts

47. Who is your favorite sports team? Don’t have one.

48. What song do you want played at your funeral? amazing grace played on the bagpipes

49. What were you doing at 12 AM last night? plurking my brains out

50. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up this morning? crap, i gotta get sean to school

Beaches, Booze & Buffett

I don't think i can explain it. I'm a midwestern girl, born & raised. have never spent more than 24 hours at a beach, at any one time, and can count the time i've been to either coast on one hand. flat lands and cornfields are what i know.

what i want is ocean. a friend is going to a jimmy buffett concert in the next week, and posted some videos on her blog. i watched the first video, and cried. watched the second, and cried again.

i'm not ashamed to admit i'm a parrothead. i've read all of jimmy's books. at one time i owned every cd, except the very first album, which is very hard to find. but there's something about his music, no matter what style it is (i've heard country, pop, reggae, big band swing, and everyother thing except rap), it makes me think of the ocean. good times on the boardwalk, watchin' people go by. sitting by a bonfire on the beach with your honey, a good brew, and good friends. walking in the surf, thinking simple thoughts.

Smelling the salt air, feeling the breeze and the spray on your face, and the sand under your feet.

I think, maybe in a previous life, i lived on the beach.

forgive

a lazy blogger. in case any of you are curious, yes, there was some crazy ass weather in the omaha area again, and no, we weren't directly affected by it, other than a wet basement (it's not been dry since mid may, i swear!) mu in-laws ended up with some minimal roof damage and skirting damage, and lost a good part of their small garden, but they're fine.

as for the boy scout camp? apparently, sean went to school with the boy from iowa, when he was living in west point. he's never said anything, but the day that they did their little montages on the news, after Aaron's was done, sean came out of the spare bedroom, gave me a hug, and said "i love you." i think he knew.

and on to life. it's been madness, hectic, and crazy. we did finally get the med crap straightened out, and should be fine until october. now that i know it has to be done, i'll be better prepared when we get that far. i still can't convince mark to complain at work. i'm about ready to contact HR myself, and find out what I can do (it'll piss him off, but this needs to be addressed).

summer school for liam is over and he PASSED! he got 2 B's and 1D. not thrilled with the D, but it's still passing. so, summer band madness starts, lol. we do have a small interval between liam's summer school and sean's. his starts july 17, and he's a little nervous. mark took him to his med check appointment yesterday, and sean told the doctor that he didn't want to go to central, because he missed his teacher at L&C. the hard part is getting it through to him that teachers are ephemeral. it's rare to have the same teacher 2 years in a row, particularly in a bigger school. i think he'll be fine, but i may arrange for a visit or 2 to his old teacher, just for comfort's sake.

and now, for some fiber news! i've taken over the editorship of the Daily Chum, and am busier than a one legged man in a butt kicking contest. it's fun, though. the hard part, is since i'm doing ESotD, is resisting all that delicious fiber! i'm taking lots of "resisting the yarny call" points on Knit Wars, lol.

i'm also in Tour de Fleece, on the L&V team. I've been good so far, and have spun every day since it started on Saturday. Saturday, i plied my second-to-last spunky club shipment, called "everybody likes pie" (please correct me if i'm wrong, lol, the slip went awol when mark decided to clean, lol). i think it's falkland wool. i liked it in singles, hated it while i plied it, but like it plied up. go figger.

This is it wound into a center pull ball in preparation for plying. i like doing it this way, as i can use up all of the fiber. i also worked on some bunny fluff i got from Miss V last year, but since it's so fuzzy, i can only work on it when the fan isn't on in the living room.

i've actually convinced mark that having the air a little warmer is better, and we compensate by using a room fan, when he's particularly hot. that's been happening alot this year, as he's decided to do as much as he can outside. so far he's cleaned up all the branches under the walnut tree, built up an area around the air conditioner (we're going to put in some fill dirt, then put down ground cloth and mulch, to help with the weed situation around there), rearranged the shed, and pulled up all the fence around the garden area. this includes all the concrete chunks he had up against the fence to prevent critteration. his original plan was to have the fence go all the way back to the shed, with just the one gate by the back patio, and be able to access the garden from the back through the shed (it has two doors). that plan never went all the way through, so up the fence came. now we gotta apply brush killer, to deal with all the small trees and grapevines that decided to make the fencerow home. speaking of the garden, i've not gotten much out of it yet, but we've had definite progress. I ended up pulling up the mustard greens because they bolted, and we couldn't get at them half the time because of all the rain. We did eat some baby greens, mixed with some of the mixed lettuces i've planted and store-bought romaine (couldn't find romaine seeds, or i'd have grown that myself, as well!). We did get some peas this weekend, but shelled only came out to a handful, so i mixed them with some frozen peas we had. they were yummy.

We've also got one egg plant growing out front! i decided it was better not to go with the traditional eggplant, as they get too big for one meal, and i can't convince anyone 'round here that eggplant parmesan would be good. but it's HUGE! well, not really, but i'm very pleased with it at this point. there are about 5 more blossoms on the plant, so i have high hopes for more. so far this was the 3rd blossom, so maybe i'll get a fruit out of every 3rd bloom? cross your fingers.

Other than that, there's the A4A stole i'm working on. No pic yet, but it's at 40", and they want 80", so i'm halfway. I've been using bits and pieces that i've had around, to include a bag of scraps sent to me by Deb, plus some doubled sock yarn. it's a simple feather & fan variation, but i like it lots. it's definitely colorful! however, it's actually quite muted from my usual color palette, lol. the last thing i have today is that i've dug into my CMF stash (pre teyani leaving), and am spinning Big Yellow Taxi. I'm making my own sock hop yarn, as i want to make nanner socks. what are nanner socks? well, the pattern is no longer available, but Wendy of Wendyknits gave it to anyone who was on Plurk. Oh yeah, Plurk. now there's a time suck! www.plurk.com. i like itmuch better than twitter, because it's threaded. and it has fun emotis like dancing nanners, lol.

and Erin, no i haven't forgotten the meme. i've just been having trouble downloading a picture i want for it. go figger, lol.

when will it end!

ok, first off, i want to thank those who tried to help with my mom's insurance thing. apparently, she'd been paying for herself AND my dad (who's been gone for 7 years). the insurance company wants us to send in a copy of my dad's death certificate, a letter explaining why we didn't do anything about the insurance, and a letter asking for it to be cancelled. They won't refund her money for herself, but they will refund for my dad. oy vey.

now, for my own insurance woes. Sean is on high doses of medication. as such, the insurance company we now have covering prescriptions requires prior authorization for 2 of his medications. here's where the fun begins. i didn't know about the whole prior authorization need until i took in a prescription, and the insurance refused to give me the whole amount (120 pills). then we got to wrestle around with it for a week and a half, and have the doctor's office talk to the insurance company, and the insurance company take FOREVER to get the prior authorization in place before they would give me the other 30 pills. (the insurance believes he only needs 3 pills a day, as opposed to myself and his doctor thinking he needs 4. needless to say, the thought that an insurance company can dictate how my son is treated, as opposed to me & his doctor? infuriating as hell). fortunately, in this case, we were able to do it without my having to pay a second copay.

fast forward a month. sean also takes adhd medication, which is a controlled substance. for his age, he takes a pretty hefty dose. this medication, as well, needs a prior authorization. when the doctor's office failed to mail this month's prescription to me, i ended up not getting it until i only had pills for a few days (4 to be exact). i took the prescription in on friday afternoon 2 weeks ago, and picked it up after 5. or tried to anyway. the prior authorization had expired. nobody knew why, it shouldn't have, because this insurance company took over april first, and prior authorizations are for 6 or 12 months. this is only mid june, folks. so they refused to fill the prescription. the insurance company refused to talk to the pharmacist about it, because it was after 5 on friday, and their prior authorization department was already closed. so was the doctor's office. so, the pharmacist told me she would fax the necessary info to the doctor's office for the PA, and would work on it monday & tuesday. tuesday night comes, still no PA, and i'm now out of pills.

if you've ever dealt with an ADHD child who really needs medication (not all of them do, but some need it desperately), you know that every parent absolutely quails at the thought of no medication. we don't even scale back in the summer, because he needs it ALL THE TIME. so, i was forced to take the 30 pills that they would give me without PA, so that he would have medication for the next few days while everything got straightened out. the pharmacy, doctor's office AND insurance all told me that i would need to get another 30-pill prescription to make up for the one the pharmacy had to alter in order to get me medication.

once again, the doctor's office fails to mail my prescription, even though i talked to the secretary, and verified that they had the correct address. fast forward to this morning. i dropped off the prescription, and asked them to call me if it didn't go through. at 11, i got the call saying it wasn't going to go through. so i called the insurance. after being on hold for something like 20 minutes while they wrangled all this, they finally got it to go through (apparently, the system was treating it as a new scrip, and i was filling it too soon (i understand trying to keep a tight control on medication like this (people steal them to get high with), but this is driving me nuts!). however, they were going to make me pay another copay, even though it was just finishing filling out the previous prescription, because it had a different scrip # (controlled substances are written out on numbered scrip pads, and monitored by whatever agency takes care of it, to make sure the doctor isn't giving out too many to too many people). the pharmacy did say that i could probably call the insurance and explain the situation, and they'd reimburse me for the $30, as i'm really not supposed to be paying double like that.

i call the insurance company and find out 2 things: 1) the prior authorization had NEVER EXPIRED. she doesn't know why it showed up as such. it's good through october. this crap should never have taken place in the first place. 2) in order to get my $30 back, i have to cancel the 30-pill prescription i just took in this morning, and get a new 60-pill prescription from the doctor. and because mark hasn't logged in to the insurance website since they switched, i don't know passwords or anything to get into it, so they're mailing a form to me, so that i can get my $30 back.

and when i complained back 2 weeks ago? the insurance company said i needed to take it to the insurance holder, i.e. mark's employer. mark didn't want to do it because "i'd waited too long to get the prescription." WTF? i had called the prescription request in to the doctor's office when sean had a 10 day supply. i can't call it in much earlier than that. i did what i'm supposed to do. the doctor's office failed to mail t he scrip when i had asked for it. we are having a serious talk tonight, and if he doesn't go talk to hr or benefits or whomever he needs to speak to about this, there are going to be problems. i should not have to go through this EVERY FUCKING MONTH.

small wonder i have a headache, eh?

a sort of meme

Mark's aunt sent this to me and i thought this would be kinda cool to do as a meme. leave me a comment if you do this (i prefer not to tag people if i can help it, lol)

the premise is you have to come up with ONE word to answer t hese questions. it doesn't have to be the same word, though, lol.

1. Where is your cell phone? charger
2. Your significant other? faithful
3. Your hair? long
4. Your mother? strong
5. Your father? missed
6. Your favorite thing? family
7. Your dream last night? knitting
8. Your favorite drink? starbucks
9. Your dream/goal? enjoy
10. The room you're in? main
11. Your ex? annoying
12. Your fear? loss
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? happy
14. Where were you last night? Home
15. What you're not? stupid
16. Muffins? YES!
17. One of your wish list items? friendship
18. Where you grew up? Nebraska
19. The last thing you did? nap
20. What are you wearing? shorts
21. Your TV? off
22. Your pets? cats
23. Your computer? loud
24. Your life? happy25. Your mood? satisfied
26. Missing someone? dad
29. Favorite Store? book
30. Your summer? hectic
31. Like someone? smile
32. Your favorite color? blue
33. When is the last time you laughed? today
34. Last time you cried? friday

Ghosts

My dad died 7 years ago. At that time, we thought we knew about all the policies my dad had. A few years later, we discovered that he'd gotten some insurance, and my mom, not knowing, had paid for the policy for that number of years. We found out that they were unaware that he'd passed away when we got a letter from them asking for a death certificate FOUR YEARS after he was gone.

Today, it happened again. My mom's heart doctor's billing office called, and I found out that the insurance that my mom's been paying for for 7 years is NOT long-term care insurance, but Medicare supplemental insurance. She already has a supplemental insurance policy with a different company. Here's the kicker on that one: it's illegal to have two supplemental policies. You can have a secondary policy, but not two supplementals.

So, now comes the fun part. What the hell do we do? I have to go talk to my mom, and call the second company, and find out what we can do. The billing specialist said she didn't think my mom would get in trouble, because the main name on the policy is my dad's, and it went effective 3 days before he died. In case you don't know the time line, he had a stroke on May 22, 2001. He died June 4, 2001. I think, after my grandmother died on May 2, he decided to change policies, took care of it (and didn't tell my mom, because he took care of the bills), and then got sick and died before he could tell anyone. I'm hoping that maybe, just maybe, if there is no long-term care policy, that we can switch this to that, and there will be no harm, no foul. I don't know at this point.

Anybody out there have any ideas?

mosaic of me

i've seen this 'round, and decided to do it. i will say picture #1 was NOT my first pic (it was minnie pearl, a woman that ihave admired for many manyyears (and am as loud as!)), but i must say, it fits me ok. the last one onlyhad 4 pics to choose from, though, so i chose the one WITHOUT the funny looking guy.

The rules:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into the mosaic maker (link below).

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.
i was gonna list the credits, but apparently the code was fubared, so no go. sorry! i enjoyed this.

long time, no post

i think a bout blogging. honest, i do. but a lot of my online time is spent doing L&V things, or twitter, or the endless task of catching up on my bloglines, or yahoo, and with the kids out of school, my time is less my own than normal. so posting s uffers.

no pics, although i'll try for some tomorrow. laminaria stopped for a wee bit, cuz i realized i hadn't done much charity crafting last month, and felt the need to do so. hence, the hat/baby sock set, green booties, and 12 squares drying all over the house (they're wool, so no dryer). may's project was for nunavit, in canada, for a birthing center (rankin island, i think?). they asked for wool cuz it never gets truly warm there.

anyway, the real reason why i'm posting.

my mom went in the hospital for a couple of days last week. all in all, it wasn't a big deal, but it scared me to start with. tomorrow is the 7th anniversary of my father's death from a massive stroke. when my mom called me last thursday and told me she was dizzy, i worried. the doctor's office said to take her to the ER, so i drove over there quickly, and hauled ass up to the hospital. she was definitely off balance, because while i was helping her out to the van, i could feel the wobble.

they did a cat scan, and found what they were calling a TIA. a mini-stroke. when the doctor told me that, a large part of me was screaming inside. not again! my grandmother, who also passed away 7 years ago (33 days before my father, it was a WONDERFUL year), had started the downhill slide with a stroke the day after thanksgiving.

she went into AL for the winter, then had another stroke in the spring, which caused her to fall, and break a hip. my mother's cousin was guardian since my mom was so far away, and they had determined the best course of action was to put her in a nursing home. she passed away that night. nurse checked on her at 2 am, and she was sleeping peacefully. checked again at 4 am, and she was gone.

anyway, the dizziness was my mom's ONLY symptom. and it was predominantly light-headedness. this is important. they decided to admit her, so they could do more intensive testing. that afternoon, a neurological med student came up, and got as much info as she could about what happened. the neurologist came thenext morning, and we found out that it wasn't a TIA. apparently, she'd had an incident a long time ago, and that was what they'd found in the cat scan. it's not uncommon in people my mother's age (80) to have those kinds of things. we never knew because she'd never exhibited any symptoms. so, now what? she'd been hanging shower curtains, and had gotten dizzy after looking up and putting her arms up several times. problems with carotids or vertebral arteries? neck ultrasound it is. however, that wasn't it. then, the nurse noticed that when my mom was resting, her heartbeat was normal. when she'd move around, her heartbeat would double. hmmmm. call the cardiologist. they say she'd better stay one more day, and they start discussing meds. they tell me 50 mgs of a medication used to regulate her heartbeat. i'm confused. no, supposed to be 150. so they double check the chart. they called walgreens for the doses, and walgreens told them 50.

it seems there was a mixup between the cardiologist's prescription, and what walgreens interpretted it as, and she'd been short-changed since JANUARY. some days. so they upped it to what it had been before, and things went back to normal. she went home saturday morning, and we even went and wrestled witht he bank about a fuck-up they did.

except. as i age, i see fewer generations ahead of me. it's always felt like the older generations were a barrier between me and time itself. my grandmothers have been gone 7 & 16 years, respectively. my grandfathers died in 67 and 78. in my father's family, the only one left is my aunt frances, and she's 90 and in the nursing home. my mother is an only child, andall her cousins are either aging, or gone themselves. as the youngest granddaughter in my generation, i have several cousins who have retired. the oldest 2 are 78. the barrier is slowly dissolving. the only things standing between me and that vast abyss of time are my mother and aunt. and the aunt is standing on ice with one foot, and a banana peel with the other. my mom is doing alright, but she's got a laundry list of heart-related problems, as well as a laundry list of medications.

today pushed it a little farther along. she called me again this morning, and said she had a cut, and wanted to see the doctor. she's on blood thinners, so this concerned me. she had been folding up a card table last night, andit got away from her, and smacked the back of her right knee, and cut her. she had bandaged it, and gone to bed, not thinking muchof it. she got up this morning to find it bleeding again, and blood on the sheets. i didn't know what was going on, so to the ER again, we went. they removed some torn skin, cauterized the bleeding, bandaged it, and sent us on our way. she's fine. we even went grocery shopping this afternoon (and she's a power shopper, lemme tell you. $105 later, we went on our way).

except. i'm terrified of losing my mother. but i know that i will be the one on the front line when it does finally happen. the brother who truly cares is in georgia, and the other one is too involved in his own life to even bother coming to visit on a regular basis (he goes for months without calling or visiting, and then, visits when it suits him, and he's only 1 1/2 hours away). some day, i will get a call, or find her, or get more bad news. i know it's inevitable.

Instructables

Ok, first off, to let you know, i'm a BzzAgent. That means i try things out, and sometimes get free stuff. Click here to get more information about it.

Meanwhile, I wanna tell you about Instructables. It's this really cool site where people can load instructions for just about anything. I clicked around on some of the food ones, and found some interesting recipes. They run the gamut, though. I saw one that would teach you to make a CD player from an old Gameboy!

They usually come with 5 steps, and each step has a series of photos to go with it. Prime example was the one i clicked on about making authentic Texan flour tortillas. The last pic in the series for one step shows you the texture of the dough! How cool is that!

I'll be scanning it for some fibery stuff, too, but, of course, the food stuff grabbed me first, lol.

Go check it out!

Lookee what i did!

While I'm a bit late to the party, Claudia is doing this BAT/KAT thing, where you replace car trips with walking or biking. Since my bike is out of commission right now (it needs brake work, sigh), I'm walking. I've never officially signed up for it, but definitely did my thing yesterday.


As many of you know, hubbie and i each own a house. Since there is no garage or shed at my house (and i've had one lawnmower stolen from the back yard already!), we keep the lawnmower over here, and transport it over there every week. Yesterday, I took Liam over, and got him started mowing. I needed to go get lawn bags, so i had planned on driving back over to Walgreens, when I realized it would be just as easy to walk to No Frills (local grocery chain) which was a little closer, and I could hunt for aluminum cans as well, as the Florence Days parade had been the day before. So, I toddled my fanny over to the store, bought lawn bags and mother's day cards (don't ask, i never remember until a day or two before, even though i KNOW i'll need cards whenever i'm near a cheaper source), and walked back. Net results? A nice walk on a nice, sunny day, a BAT/KAT, and 6 aluminum cans!

Now for a pet peeve, where the cans are concerned. People. There are better ways to deal with your cigarette butts than popping them in an almost empty can. And the culprit lives very near my house. I regularly find diet mountain dew cans with butts in them. this time it was one DMD and one pepsi can. i shake them out as best i can. hope the can recycling place doesn't mind, lol.

And, for Tikabelle, my review of the laminaria pattern i've been knitting, from knitty. Admittedly, i'm not even halfway done, but so far this pattern is INCREDIBLY EASY. i think the toughest part so far has been the 3into9 stars (go look at the pattern, lol), and the 2into9 stars. that and when i'm purling back, i have to pay special attention to those, because it's easy to catch 2 loops together (even the 2into3's and the 3into3's have that tendency, lol). and yes, i'm doing it in a variegated yarn. It's my birthday yarn from miss v and carin, who dyed it especiallyfor me, lol. while i think the pattern would have stood out more in a solid, i like how it's coming out in this. it makes me think of that iris painting (but i can't remember who painted it, lol. monet? van gogh? i'd have to look it up, lol)

and a pic!
Laminiaria! I'm tickled pink, that i got the texture to show. i'm all the way through the transition chart, and into the first blossom chart, but it's kinda hard to tell, as once you get so far, lace just looks like a bucket of boiled ass, to quote my favorite cuss-creator . Want a close up?





This shows a closeup of the beginning of the blossom chart. Doncha just love the colors? I think the one thing i would change about this if i did it again, would be the direction i did the 3into3's. i did them the same direction for both halves, but i think next time i would do mirror image. I don't do ssk, i do knit in front or back loop, and i get the same look. since i knit so differently from everyone else, i doubt anyone else could replicate it, lol, so don't do like i do, lol.



and, just because i told her i'd post this pic:



this is tara, who, besides miss v, is our local pusher fiber enabler purveyor. She had been reskeining some of her stuff, and we thought this skein of henrietta matched her bandana, so we made her model it. Wheeeee!

ok, i'm off to knit some more on my laminaria, just cuz i love it so much!

this is interesting

Go read this article. I am an unrepentant bare-footer. Even as a small child on the farm, I refused to wear shoes, much to the chagrin of my father. He had a cousin who had to have a large splinter surgically removed, because she went barefoot. Now, I find out that I was right. Being barefoot is better for you!

Mark's doctor told him he should probably never go barefoot again, after his surgery 2 years ago. However, I've noticed something. Mark, as most of you have noticed by now, is incredibly tall. As in, he's the same height as Michael Jordan. He's 6'8". That's standard door frame height. Yes, he barely misses doorways, and if he's not careful, he'll hit his head. The boots that the shoe doctor recommended add an additional 2" to his height, which means he's ducking through doorways.

But, he's awkward. Never played basketball, even though he was this tall at 16. He just has no grace. Unless he's not wearing shoes. He will wear socks non-stop (even when he sleeps; he has calluses that catch t he sheets, and drive him batty, and yes, we go through a lot of socks), but if he's in the house, the shoes come off. While he's still not Mikhail Barishnekov (and i know i didn't spell that right, lol), he's much more comfortable moving around the house. It's almost like watching long, leggy birds, like cranes or herons. A long, lean grace that's beautiful to watch (and trust me, i like watching, lol).

Any way, this has made me decide something. I'm going to walk barefoot much more (although i do a lot as it is!). the biggest hazard is broken glass. So i'm thinking about investing in some of those "barefoot" shoes you see. I was at parent-teacher conferences in march, and one of the band moms (who is a physical therapist) was wearing a pair. So I know where to get them. I think I may be checking them out tomorrow. And the thought of wearing them? Bliss.

I know, I know

It's been two weeks. And guess what? No real post, but i thought this meme was interesting!

What we have here is the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded. Bold the ones you've read, underline the ones you read for school, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
The Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies (have it at home, might read it)
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The IliadEmma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
1984 (although i read it for the 2nd time on my own!)
Angels & Demons
The Inferno (and Purgatory and Paradise)
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes : a memoir
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers

ok. i don't feel like such an airhead, after all. i've read some of the tuffies, and many of these (like watership down and 1984) i'd read on my own (we covered 1984 in school AFTER i'd read it the first time. gotta love a school librarian who keeps the classics in a school library)

random Wednesday

1. My local post office station put Darth Vader and Emperor stamps on tax returns yesterday. RAWK ON!

2. Sean was in shock yesterday morning when he found out that shi'itake mushrooms are real, and not just a veiled way to say "shit."

3. Sean does not like shi'itake mushrooms (we went to Mt. Fuji for my belated birthday dinner, and had sukiyaki)

4. I am knitting. Buttloads, in fact. Just not posting.

5. Will i ever blog regularly again? Don't know. there's so much out there to take my attention elsewhere, particularly since i post regularly on the daily chum.

6. I taught myself a new spinning method yesterday. Cableing. I was inspired by the article in the latest Spin-Off. I like how it looks. I used Party Dress from the December Spunky Club, and this definitely toned down that bright ass lime green. It's a lot of work, though. The hardest part? Running the plied yarn through the wheel again to get extra twist for the cabling.

7. Head colds suck. majorly.

this is kinda cool!

for those of you who think spring isn't happening fast enough.

click anywhere in the black, or better yet, drag your mouse around.

i done seen it all

it's a freaking mouse pad. bad boy!

ok, so it's cheesy

i'm watching the hall of fame induction ceremony for the WWE. yes, wrasslin'.

however, you have to realize, i grew up with this stuff. my dad loved it. he was always talking about "them sumbitches" that were the bad guys. have you noticed, there were always bad guys? when i was growing up, it was nick something or other. i don't know what it is now, i've kind of lost touch with it.

but i bet, if my dad was here now, he'd know what the rock was cookin'.

good times.

Meme me

no, this is not all memes, all the time. i just keep finding ones i like, lol.

this one has you using the letter from your middle name, and as before, you can't use your middle name for the name portion


1. Middle name letter: R (for my grandmother)
2. Famous artist/band/musician: Rembrandt
3. 4-letter word: Rats!
4. U.S state: Rhode Island
5. Boy name: Robert (my brother's name, lol)
6. Girl name: Rebecca
7. Animal: Raccoon
8. Something in the kitchen: Rolling pin
9. Reason for being late? Road Rage!
10. Body Part? Ring Finger
11. Drink? Roy Roger
12. Something you shout: Rah! Rah! Rah!
13. Something you eat? Radish
14. A movie you've seen? Return of the King

not gonna tag anybody, b ut feel free to swipe this!

Another Meme!

I saw this meme at Deb's and thought it sounded fun:

The rules:

1. Pick 10 of your favorite movies.
2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie (or get them out of your capacious memory).
3. Post them on your blog for everyone to guess.
4. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
5. Looking them up is cheating, please don’t.

And here we go!

1. Whoa. (Jen, you're close with guessing keanu reeves, but which one, lol?) The Matrix - Carin (and yes, i know that he says it a lot of times, but this is the movie i was after, lol)
2. When I was your age, television was called books. Princess Bride - Michele
3. Your father wanted you to have this when you were old enough, but your uncle wouldn't allow it. Star Wars - Michele
4. The ring cannot be destroyed, Gimli, son of Gloin, by any craft that we here possess. Lord of the Rings - Michele
5. On your wedding night? Ay hija, no. You need room, to maneuver.

My daughter can trace her roots back 400 years to the best families in Mexico.

Talking between men and women never solves anything. Where we think, they feel. They are creatures of the heart. yay! i knew i could count on Ina to come through. A Walk in the Clouds.

6. It's better to burn out, than fade away. HYAH! Highlander (the movie, not the series) - Sarabeth (and i'm amazed nobody got it until now!)
7. I won't be going alone, because believe it or not, someone's asked me! And I said yes!
Bloody hell. She's lying, right? Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - Michele
8. Ah, you're missing a picture, Mr. Gray.
And you don't miss a thing, do you, Mr. Quatermain?
Oh, sometimes. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - Michele
9. It's only one fly in the serum. I can't reproduce it. Medicine Man - knitfink
10. And when were you hoping to dine with us?
Two years from tomorrow. The Lake House - knitfink

have fun!

ETA: And here I thought I'd picked some hard ones! Michele got 5 of them!

ETAA: i added a couple more quotes to #5. come on gang, you can get it!

and a hint. most of these movies either have keanu reeves or sean connery, lol.

A Meme

hey, i'm super happy for easy posting

Grab the nearest book more than 123 pages long.

Turn to page 123 (duh!)

Read sentence 5:

Book: Krystonian Adventures

Quote: "Get lost hogface!" shouted Poffles."

This was a book given to me, but swiped by Sean. hence the reason it's the nearest book to the computer, lol.

Tag 5 people.

Consider yourself tagged, i'm way late to the party. Thanks to Erika for posting it though.

i have to admit it

i've always said that there's too much reality in my life to watch so-called reality shows (i don't count anything on the discovery channel, learning channel, or any of those. they are real life shows, not created reality). however, i do have one guilty pleasure.

Dancing with the Stars.

I just watched the second half tonight, and I have to say i am in AWE. Marlie Matlin is a well-known deaf actress. AND SHE'S DANCING! and dancing well! Brava!

so, you know, with my mom being deaf, that i gotta root for her. unfortunately, i won't be able to vote this go-round because i watched it too late (i wouldn't vote for her if she had danced badly), but i'll be giving her all my extra votes!

woot!

and back up again!

The House and Senate are working on a mental health bill that will require insurance companies to cover mental health issues equally with other health issues. speaking as someone who has had to use the insurance this is HUGE! sean's deductible for regular stuff? his mental health deductible is TWICE that. i owe his psychiatrist $150 for his last visit. i figure by the end of the year he won't have met his deductible, but i'll have a huge psychiatric bill, even though we have insurance. maybe this will help that.

NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

Patrick Swayze has pancreatic cancer. yeah, some of the movies he made were goofey, or hokey. but, man, ya gotta hope for him. he's 55. too young (isn't it always, though?)

OH MY EFFING GOD!

ok, i know you're not all yarnies that read my blog, and many of you may not have heard of the Mystical Creations Yarn scandal. but i gotta tell the world. shortly after Gigi, of Socktopia fame, passed away, it came out that Danielle Glunt, of MCY infamy (crappy yarn, poorly dyed, lousy shipping (if at all)) had been in the hospital for a month, (then six months) and was dying of leukemia. and the family was "trying" to fill her orders, and offering all kinds of crazy stuff, because they didn't know what she was doing, and "come buy it all so we can pay her medical bills" and crazy stuff like that.

well, apparently, it was a lie. an employee has come forward and outed Danielle and her husband, Zach. If you've been burnt by this heinous pair, contact the New Mexico Attorney General, and file a fraud complaint. Let's keep this, this, this, gah, ihave no words, and you know that's saying alot, PERSON and her husband from burning anyone else.

meme me

i love memes. instant post!

this one is for books. do it if you wish, no tagging here. Bold the ones you've read, italicize the ones you're interested in, and leave the ones you don't care about.

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye(J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25 . Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner(Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91.The Skin of the Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce) New

interesting list, eh?

oh no!

Jeff Healy passed away yesterday at the age of 41. if you're a patrick swayze fan, you've seen him in Road House as Cody. I loved his stuff.

it amazes me

just for those who haven't read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (and i know there are a few, who are actually still interested at this late date), this is a spoiler alert!

i decided to re-listen to the books on tape again, and i'm on the last CD of HBP. it always seems so sad to me when Dumbledore dies. However, i've read this several times. but when Harry tells all the house heads and professor mcgonagal that the kids would want to stay for Dumbledore's funeral so t hey could say goodbye, but was unable to finish the sentence, and professor flitwick finishes it for him, i teared up. gets me every time.

on a happier note, i finally saw the stepford wives, with bette midler and nicole kidman. a bizarre concept, but oh my god, at the end, it was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO funny! i loved it!

so, i suppose i should s how some crafting finally, eh ?

This is a stack of 10 navy blue squares that i knit/crocheted for AC4C, for a woman who puts together POC (point of contact) afghans for Ships' Support. She does them in navy and maroon. I was getting together the stack of bright squares that i'd done earlier in february for another woman who is joining squares, and found another navy square, lol. i think i'll send this one to the POC woman, as the second one is supposed to get brights, and these definitely are NOT bright.

This lousy picture is the fingerless mitts i made for my FIL for christmas. the reason why there's only one is because he has the other one, lol! I had washed them, then asked Liam to get the laundry out of the washing machine, and i took them over to steph's and threw the load in the dryer. when i went back over there to get them, i only found one. so he got the one i had, since i KNEW i'd thrown them in the washing machine. needless to say, i found the other in the washing machine when i went to throw another load in the next day. unfortunately, it's still here, because the last few times we've gone over there, it's been forgotten here. the last time wasn't my fault, though, cuz mark was supposed to bring it, as i was picking up my mom to take her with us, as it was mark's mom's birthday celebration. maybe i'll just put it in the mail, lol!

this little set, and another one that looked pretty much like it, were sent to BPP, who send baby things, as well as older children's things to South Africa. The baby things go into a pack for new mothers, while the older children's things go to a safe house, where children (and sometimes their mothers) go to escape cruelty, abuse, etc. there was a story that a 12 year old girl showed up with her 2 younger siblings, because their parents were both dead, and she had run out of resources to take care of them on her own.

this hideously blurred shot is of the same sweater, with a ruffly hat. i used up all my pink yarns here to do both, which is why there's no booties. the booties i did with the r/w/b sets were crocheted variations on the knitted stay-on booties. i may just write one or two of them up, lol.

I also sent 4 bags, but i'm only showing you this one because i made this one up as well. it's backpack styled, with a flap, and a crocheted cord drawstring. i might just write this one up as well!

well, with all these blurry shots, i wonder if i should take my camera in for service! could just be the crappy light, though. this house is incredibly dark at night (it's so small, and the furniture is dark, too).

speaking of houses, we're selling mine. just as soon as steph and ashlie move out, and we can fix it up. i've spoken to my mom, and even though i owe her some money, she's willing to let the amount slide and we can roll all of the equity into a new house. mark's wanting to move out in the country, but those are hard to find, and i want to stay close to my mom. on top of that, if we move out of the county, it would mean starting over for the boys, and for sean in particular, we can't let that happen.

and i really do need to stay closer to my mom. last week, she had a doctor's appointment, but hwen i called her to tell her when i was picking her up, she didn't answer. after the third time, i had a panic attack, and ran out the door without dealing with my lunch dishes or anything. when i walked in, i found all her mail on the apartment hallway floor in front of her door. (she gets more mail than would EVER fit in her mailbox, so they just leave it in front of her door. since it's a secured building, and the complex manager is 3 doors down, i'm cool with that). that worried me as she's usually pretty good about bringing it in. i unlocked the door, and found her washing her dishes. WHEW! apparently, her TTY (a machine that lets her use the telephone through a relay system) had quit working, and she was unable to let me know. i looked at it, and realized that she'd spilled something sticky on it, so i called the service #. they told me to mail it in, and they'd let me know what was up with it. i should double check on it, because i mailed it monday. the bad part, is that those life alert thingies? you know, the old commercial "i've fallen, and i can't get up!" won't work for her. because they're sound activated. trust me. i've looked into it. admittedly, it was a few years ago, i should probably check again. you'd think, with as many older people who are hearing impaired, that t hey'd have some sort of system that doens't rely on sound, but they don't. growl.

anyway, i need to close this thing up, i gotta get up in the morning!

what to do

I don't know what to do. This is Joplin. You may or may not have seen her here before (i can't recall right off hand, she isn't out much). Joplin is 12. I don't know if you can tell from this bad flash picture or not, but she is extremely fat. She weighs at least 15 pounds, if not more. She has breathing problems. She even gets out of breath cleaning her front paws, which is about all she can reach at this point. She's extremely skittish. This has gotten worse as she's gotten older. The vet says she's part calico, and they get crochety when they get older. She hisses at everybody, even mark. yesterday, he reached out to pet her, and she had such a panic attack she almost fell off the sofa (mark has owned her for 11 years, and she was always "daddy's girl."). he told me she hissed at him again this morning. i have watched her hiss when sean gets UP from the sofa, where he's been sitting quietly next to her. she refuses to move, unless it's to eat, drink, or use the litter box. except lately? she's not been using the box. for a while, she was peeing in the dining room. the vet told us to make sure the litter box got cleaned daily, and to put bubble wrap where she'd been peeing, cuz they don't like the feel on their feet. this worked for a few months (once we got her past peeing on the bubble wrap). however, she's taken to peeing in FRONT of the litter box. and i don't think it's an accident, because she's picked the exact same spot three days in a row. even though we've cleaned it up every time.

so, it's come down to a decision. do we put her to sleep? we've tried to get her to exercise (cat toys, cat nip, even a laser pointer, which she chased for 2 days, then refused to do so after that), and tried to get her to lose weight. the hard part of that is that we also have jimi (i know you've seen him here, he likes to get in on my shoots!), and can't put him on diet food without him losing too much weight, and feeding them separately is impossible. it's been the main discussion around here for the last 2 days, and frankly, i'm the only one who doesn't dissolve into tears everytime it's brought up (it's not that i don't love her, but i'm the one who deals with her messes, sigh).

but when she is in one of her rare good moods, she's so lovey. purrs so loud you can hear her across the room. cuddles, and rubs her face on you. but they are rare. i wish i could get in her head, and ask her what she wants.

but i'm tired of walking into the house, and getting hit with that nasty ammonia smell, and i'm tired of getting hissed at when i have to move her to get at the remote for the tv (she will lay on it, and sometimes i think it's spite). she's never bitten me, but i'm waiting for it.

i think that mark and i have decided what to do, it's just him getting to the point where he's accepting it.

and i sit here and listen to the poor thing snore loud enough to hear over the harry potter cd i'm listening to.