Catching Up

Not that I've done anything worth catching up on, but it's been a couple of days, so here I am.

Let's see.

Oh, I've been having some gut issues, but I think they're all due to some changes I made in my diet, so I'm unchanging them back, and things are a little better. But between that and allergies, I've been not the clearest head on the block. However, I remembered to use magic Afrin about an hour ago, and my sinus headache is ebbing for the first time since Wednesday. Can't argue with that.

We had a lovely lunch today with the Sibs and Wonderful Niece. I don't know how we let the getting together lapse for so long, although I suppose the three of them were away at school here and there for a period of years, so maybe that's it. But it's wonderful when we're together. The only thing missing is Good Guy nephew, but including him would require including his fiancee, which would require including W.N.'s husband, which would lead to inviting Little K, and really ... just can't do that. Too many people for conversation, for one, and waaaay too many people from that side of the family; my kids would feel totally outnumbered. Sometimes, they just want to see their actual cousins that they grew up with, and who can blame them? And W.N., fortunately, has the sense to be independent from her husband, and doesn't feel the need to include him in everything. Nor he her; he's away this weekend doing some charity thing he does from time to time. (Not sure what it is; it either raises money for Special Olympics or involves putting on shows for Special Olympics participants. Or both.)

So, that. I've also been a little more focused on music lately than I have been for awhile, so I was tinkering with iTunes again, and also testing out the various headphones that I have. Headphones are hard for me because of my hearing and hearing aid issues, but I do have one pair that works well -- really well -- but isn't that comfortable for the long term. Anyway, something made me think of Neil Diamond so I thought I'd see how much of his stuff I had, and there was practically none. I couldn't imagine that I owned no Neil Diamond CD, so I went to check and I did, of course, but what I had was a three disc set that I remembered, as soon as I saw it, were the very first CDs I ever owned. I had resisted CDs because I figured as soon as I got into them the technology would change again (although MP3s waited a few years to come in), but one year for my birthday the Hubs gave me a Discman player and a Neil Diamond set, and I was off. I just never put them all in iTunes, so I did that and then listened on the good headphones, and you know ... it was wonderful. I expect to be blasting Neil Diamond in the car for the next week or so.

And then, to my surprise, My Fair Lady was on TV this afternoon, and oh ... I love that, too. Those songs are just incredible. Oh, and I watched Juno last night, which I enjoyed, although I don't know what all the fuss was about.

And now ... that's it. I am most emphatically not bringing my lunch tomorrow, nor will I have anything for breakfast here at home except yogurt. (I just started eating Greek yogurt, which is fantastic.) 17 days to go. Once school is over and my evenings and mornings move at a more leisurely pace, I will happily go back to preparing my own food. (Well, let's not be crazy here. I'll prepare breakfast and lunch; I make no promises regarding dinner.)

WATCHING 60 MINUTES :: ENTRY #1768

The Vicious Circle of Life

I went to the doctor today.

Now, this is the kind of crap I've been reporting in my other blog, which is mostly about my weight and other health obessions, but this is pretty much the event of the day today for me, so here you go.

First of all, I really, really like this new doctor. I find her very perceptive, and very forthcoming with information that, you know, the doctors I've been seeing for years and years could have told be before. Hey, maybe they don't know (although I doubt that.) For example, I was describing my allergic reactions this year, and how my ears are being affected, and she said that yes, tinnitus patients often report that the noise gets louder during bad allergy seasons. Really! Take that, Harry Katz the Sinus Man.

Anyway, my blood pressure was great -- 110 over 70 -- although I didn't get cholesterol results because the doctor's office neglected to tell me that I was supposed to have blood work done last week. I'll get it done tomorrow and then they'll send me a report next week. I expect good results there as well.

We did discuss my weight; she was pleased with the 10 pound loss since my last visit, and confirmed that the way I'm eating (lots of fiber, limiting sodium) is a good plan. She said, however, that the only way I could really lose weight is by concentrated, vigourous aerobic exercise every day, for example, 40 minutes of hard work on a treadmill. And we all know that's not happening. My sodium sensitivity? Part of menopause. Once again, I did not know that.

As for having a heart work-up and a consultation with a cardiologist, she sees no symptoms but recognizes that I do have several of the risk factors, so she says it couldn't hurt. The office is going to call me back on that one to schedule.

But here's the biggie. She cut the dose of my estrogen/progesterone in half. This is the first step to getting me off of them completely, which she says will take TWO YEARS. Can you believe that? My gynecologist, you may recall, said that if I want to stop taking them, I should just stop. She must know that this would be very difficult for me. As it is, the doctor said today that I should anticipate all the lovely features of menopause to intensify, including hot flashes, night sweats, and mood swings. Not to mention that I will be more sensitive to sodium and it will be harder for me to lose weight. She said that in two or three weeks, I will be very unhappy.

Doesn't that sound like fun? And that should just about coincide with the anniversary trip the Hubs and I are taking. So I figure, I can put off the medication change until after that. What's two weeks out of two years?

So hang on, folks, the next couple of years could be a bumpy ride here at Chez Chai.

WATCHING THE GOLDEN GIRLS :: ENTRY #1508

Where Can I Even Start?

At the punchline, I guess: my good ear is down again. It isn't even scary at this point -- three times in a month -- just annoying. It's not going to kill me, but it's going to annoy me until I die.

I'll spare you the details except to say I had it this morning, it got better by the time I was sitting in the doctor's office at 10.00, and it got much, much worse after school. The sibilant ear noise is drowning out most other sound, or distorting it. The doctor is puzzled, curious, and stumped. Oh, good. For now, we're trying more antihistamines, which will, in his words, knock me flat on my ass. I really don't think it's more than allergies. It got very active when the pollen got bad, and otherwise hadn't bothered me for a year or two, I think. The prednisone helps, which means it's some kind inflammation, and not another tumor or a blood clot (one of Harry Katz's possible theories).

Voices and sounds are strange and distorted. The laugh track on a TV show sounds like somebody guzzling up the last drops of a drink through a straw. Eeuw.

In other news, I picked up my hearing aids after school. Ironic, isn't it? I can't even try them out until this other thing clears up.

Although I'm okay now, I was very bummed by this and other surrounding crap this afternoon. K was in a bad mood, which is never pleasant for me. I understand why and all, but please. Do not take your moods out on your mother when you are 23 years old. (Oooh, there's something coming back to haunt me. Sorry, Shirl, really.) I won't even go into all the other nonsense going on; I don't even know if I can recall it all. But I'm better.

I had dinner last night with E and the Chum, and I really, really loved seeing E. (I generally only see her once or twice a year.) But she's checking her email regularly now, and we've already emailed today, so I'm hopeful for seeing her more. She is the one person in my 3D world that I would give full access to my diary and archives. I don't know if she'd want it, and I wouldn't want anyone else stumbling across it on her computer, but I would. Hopefully, we'll get together more this summer.

BTW, I have to say: I LOVE GOOGLE READER. Google Reader is changing my life, folks, or at least, the way I use the Internet. It's da bomb. Thank you, thank you, bluesleepy, for suggesting it, and golfwidow for giving me the final piece of the puzzle.

I believe I am going to put a Google Groups notify box up in a day or two, and take off the blogarithm thing that's there. I think I can do the GG and keep it up, but I'm still testing it out.

My mouse died this afternoon (prompting K to ask if I hate meeces to pieces), but after a few reboots and resets, I got it going again, and got the computer to recognize the bluetooth. I must say, this is the most trouble I've ever had with the Mac. Love this thing. And I shop at Ikea, too, Jane! (But I don't wear Pumas. So there.)

And now, a fond good-night. I have points-worth of snacks to consume before I sleep (should that ever occur.)

watching Reba :: entry #1487

Reviews, Movie and Apple

(For details on using Google Reader in place of the Buddy List, look over here.)

First, let me say how delightfully itch-free I am today, courtesy of my new favorite wonder-drug, Zyrtec. I could do a freaking commercial. I was a mess yesterday, and today, fine. The human body is so weird.

Since I started my exploration into the Wide World of Apples, I've tried

• Fuji
• Gala
• Braeburn
• American Cameo
• Pink Lady

They were all pretty good, actually, but the Pink Lady and the Braeburn didn't stand out at all. I still have left to try Royal Gala (which I think are the same as Gala, just smaller), Rome (which are baking apples?), and Granny Smith, which is what K eats so we always have them around. I haven't seen any other varieties in the stores here, although there was a sign above the apple shelf that said "Empire", but none of those in the bin.

It seems to be settled, then. I like apples. It's like when the government does one of those studies that cost millions of dollars and they come up with results that were so DUH that you can't believe they did a study, like the reason that babies cry is that they're unhappy, or something like that. Anyway, apples are good. You heard it here first.

We haven't had rain yet today, but it's coming, and the skies are darkening. There was no place to go today, really, so K and I finally watched The Queen, which had come from the blockbuster online people. As we expected, it was an excellent film, and Helen Mirren's performance was really outstanding. You almost don't think so, because she's so under-stated that you can believe that she really is Queen Elizabeth, but of course, no. Very much worth watching.

Tomorrow begins the countdown for the last three weeks of school. Can't believe it's almost over. With any luck, K will get some working days out of it.

I'm going to post and give the Sibs a call. Tomorrow.

watching Batman :: entry #1484

While I Have the Chance

I'm having a strange day.

Without going into TMI detail -- although I'll tell you where you can find it -- I have spent a good part of the day either scratching or sleeping. Whatever I've got here, it is damn annoying. The only thing I can be pretty sure of is that since I've had it to one degree or another for over six weeks, I'm not having a life-threatening allergic reaction to something. I really think that this year, the seasonal allergies are just taking themselves out on my skin.

I've been in a quandry over my physical state in general, mostly my weight loss and lack thereof, and certainly keeping a diary has helped me in a lot of ways, so I thought I'd start a little blog on the side, just about my eating and weight and other stuff. It's not private -- it's here -- but I don't know that anyone else would be interested in reading it. It seems to be good for me to be writing it.

Also, it gave me a chance to try Wordpress, which seems to be where half the dland folk are going, either there or here at Blogspot. I wanted to compare. So far, they both seem okay. I do wish there was a way to bring my dland archives over here to Blogspot, though; I haven't found a way and I don't plan to move my regular diary to Wordpress. Well, at least dland finally let me download a backup, so I have that.

That's my update, such as it is. Time to go put on more benadryl ointment.

watching VH1 :: entry #1483

Apple Review

The new apple of the day today was a Gala, and it was excellent. And of course it was COLD! How -- why -- would anyone eat an apple at room temperature? Apples must be cold and crisp! That's what makes them apples, eh? Okay, okay, and I'm trying a Fuji tomorrow. I don't know if I've ever seen a Honeycrisp around here; I'll have to look in the fancier supermarket over the weekend. Maybe.

K passed her exam with a very respectable 88 -- a B+ -- which should give her a solid B for the course. And now she never has to know anything about economics ever, ever again, much like her mother.

I'm very itchy tonight; I took a benadryl about a half hour ago. Oh, my hearing is better today, too, so the magic prednisone is doing its job. I'm sure that the hearing thing is just another one of this year's allergy reactions, as the hives are; wherever I go these days, pollen is flying through the air, settling on the car, settled on my shirt before, even, when I was out.

I finally took the Sibs out for her birthday dinner, to the Cheesecake Factory, so as you can guess, I ate a very healthy dinner of grilled shrimp with no butter, steamed broccoli, and then a piece of key lime pie cheesecake. I can't even figure out how to put that into my WW food log, unless I write "... and then I ate a million points." But hey, that was hours ago, and I'm not hungry yet; haven't eaten a bite since I got home. Maybe I should eat a piece of cheesecake every night.

Then we went to the Land's End store at Sears, and I got a few little things, so now I'm going to try on the lightweight sneakery-shoes I got and see if they'll be good for Walking Away Pounds right here in the comfort of my own home. As soon as I stop scratching.

watching Friends :: entry #1481

Yes, Scarlet

Today is, indeed, another day. Let's see where the day took me.

Hey, here's a suprise. I woke up with my good ear all blocked again. Looks like this year, the lovely spring allergies have decided to attack me in the form of inner ear blockups, and hives. I'm adjusting my allergy meds tonight -- taking a benadryl instead of a zyrtec, that's for the hives -- and I started a three day course of prednisone this morning, although if I wake up this deaf tomorrow, I'm making it a four day course. This deaf thing is wearing very thin.

I didn't have to be at work today until 8.30; usually I get to school at 7.00, so that left me with time to kill. I Walked Away Some Pounds -- really -- and then reported to the Board of Ed. office for my workshop. It was as I anticipated, and yes, I will be facilitating at the all day workshop in October, the one I usually skip. Guess I'll have to skip the May in service next year. I'll be the one talking about using library resources.

I came home for lunch, by which time I had a killer headache, probably sinus, so there's that going on, too. Tell me, where can you live that allergies won't bother you? Not Alaska, I know; Alaska has its share of grass and trees and pollen. Maybe Antarctica, but of course, the ground is disappearing beneath your feet there, so that doesn't say much for property values.

Here's a quirky thing. When I was a kid, what I thought of as "apple" is what most people think of as a "Macintosh apple." I had no idea that there were other kinds, because my parents only bought Macintoshes. (They had a very limited menu, which I've described before somewhere.) Now that I am all grown up, I only eat Golden Delicious apples because I looooooove them. But today after the workshop, I was oddly motivated to go the produce market and buy a whole variety of apples, just a couple of each, to see if I like them. Now I will probably fall in love with Gala apples or something, and eat only them. I'm weird that way. I'll let you know.

Cosmic asked an interesting question: do I sign? The answer is that I do not (although it's a language I always wanted to learn), and it wouldn't help me if I did because no one else in my world signs, either. Signing -- and anybody, please, correct me if I'm wrong -- is the language of people who live in the deaf community, or who live with people who live in the deaf community. I do not, and the deaf community, I'm pretty sure, is not interested in people like me. I lost a substantial part of my hearing as an adult, but not all of it. I hear well enough to function in the hearing world the same way I did before I lost it, and even if I were to become completely deaf at some point, I would still live in the hearing world. I might learn sign at some point as a lark, or to help me along if I ever do lose a substantial part of what's left, but that's unlikely anyway. If I spoke sign, I'd have to have an interpreter with me all the time to sign to me what other people are saying, and I don't need that (and it would be really, really strange.)

The other deaf thing I don't have and don't want is a cochlear implant. For one, it's not suited to me because it's my actual acoustic nerve that's damaged, and that's what a cochlear implant implants to. There is some new thing, similar, called a "brain stem implant", which would work in my case. However, on December 17, 1991, I made an extremely serious vow that no human being was EVER to see my brain stem again while I lived (that's where my tumor was), and baby, I am sticking to that one like velcro. Like glue. Like crazy glue. I'm keeping my damn brain stem to myself from now on, thankyouverymuch.

Tomorrow is K's last day of the summer session, and she is studying like mad for her economics exam, which I think she will pass, because she exceeds expectations academically, but I think she is also genetically incapable of knowing this stuff. The Hubs, who was actually an economics major, has offered to help tonight when he gets back from his meeting. (Her mad math skilz come from me, of course.)

My headache is a bit better, and I'm having some shrimp for dinner. Maybe I'll take a quick run to the supermarket after that, since neither the Hubs nor K will be home for awhile. I didn't see R today, which is an achievement considering she doesn't live here anymore.

Okay.

watching Still Standing :: entry #1480

So It Goes

Some days are hard to follow with just regular days, but as the great man said, so it goes. Thank you all so much for your kind words and sympathy.

(I'm thinking, btw, that my reward tattoo when I've lost the rest of the weight is going to be So it goes. According to Kurt Vonnegut, it's what they say on the planet Tralfalmadore when somebody dies. It's what he's most often quoted for. I bet I won't even be the first person to get that tattooed, either.)

So, the next day. K is having a very hard time with it. R has a lot going on, and that distracts her, and I am just older, I guess. Of course it's sad; we are all sad. K, I think, is depressed. She needs something to distract her, too. Well, tomorrow we are finally having that lunch with the Sibs and her kids, Monday is K's last day of classes for the semester, and this week will be her last at the Giant Jeans Conglomerate. Hopefully, she'll also sub a few days this week.

In the meantime, my allergies have kicked in big time, and I woke up this morning (after a terrible night's sleep) with a sore throat, achy ears, and the whole stuffy/runny nose experience. I've been pretty miserable all day. My stomach does seem to be settling down, though. And we were distracted for part of the day.

R's roommate is moving out, not because of any falling out between them, but that was leaving R with a three bedroom apartment she couldn't handle on her own, and trouble finding a new roommate. Even though she was happy where she was, she realized that it would be best to start looking for her own place, alone. She had appointments to see two today, so K and I went with her.

One was a studio in a fairly large apartment building in Jersey City. Ten years ago, you would not have wanted to move to Jersey City, and ten years from now, everyone will be dying to move there. 2007 ... not so sure yet. Anyway, it's too far and the apartment, a studio, wasn't great. Then we went to see a one-bedroom in the city she's living in now, just a few blocks away from where she's already living.

It was just adorable. It looks like a very old building, older than the 1917 the owners think it is, and full of charming details. A small apartment building with six or seven apartments in it. I think it must have been a large single family house once, but was cut up into units long ago. There are three floors; the place was saw was on the third floor, up a winding staircase. (Love those.)

Anyway, it's two nice size rooms and a bathroom. The first room has the kitchen in it, but there's also room to make it a living room/dining room. And there's actually a back porch, of all charming little details. After much discussion, and R saying she would call the owners on Monday morning, she called them this afternoon, so the place is hers. I think she'll be very happy there. And it met one of her most important criteria:

She can have a cat there.

Which makes me feel worse for K, since now R has the chance to get her very own kitten, while K mourns for little Q. (We still have BooBoo, of course, who actually pooped in the litter box today, first time in years. Interesting.)

Okay, time to collapse somewhere.


watching -- :: entry #1445

Report

Well, the report from the medical front is that I am not having rashes from the pollen in the air or from the iron supplement I took for a few days. Once again, I am in a medical situation I have never ever heard of, although the doctor -- I saw her this morning -- tells me that she has seen it enough to know what it is in me. Here it is: when I get a virus of some kind, my body will now likely respond to it by breaking out in hives. Especially if I am under any other kind of stress. This happened in November, you may recall, the week after Thanksgiving. I had a stomach bug that kept me out of work for three days, and while that was going on, my back broke out in a rash that my since-retired doctor said was shingles. New doctor says it probably wasn't shingles. It's hives. She put me on a new anti-histamine routine, and says I can take benadryl three times a day and bathe in the benadryl cream, if I need to.

Swell.

My stomach flu is eh, not really limiting my activities or even what I eat, since what I eat has no relationship to how I feel. (I wouldn't eat spicy foods under any circumstances, and I really don't have to worry about anything else.)

What's the stress? Well, when this all started, which was more or less Monday, you may recall that I was living in Basement World and working my fanny off there, post-flood. Since then, we're on yet another death-watch for little Q, which I haven't mentioned here because I always freak out and think she's dying and then she bounces back, so maybe she will again, but still, it's stressful to keep an eye on her, to think about what's coming, and so forth.

Tomorrow, I'm going with R to check out a couple of possible new apartments. Sunday, it seems like we will finally get around to having lunch with the Sibs and most of her assorted children. Looking forward to that, anyway. It's such a dreary day today, cold and wet (but the basement's dry) that it's nice to have something to look forward to.

Yet another vacation week used up. Each time, it just makes me long that much more for summer vacation, or retirement. I know people who swear that they can never retire, because what would they do? Gee, I don't think it would take me two minutes to figure out what to do. I read four books, this week, I think, and am working on another. (By Christopher Moore, it's called Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal.) I got so much done in the basement, and got my closet in order. When I retire, if I can go through a carton a week, they can probably sell the house when I die instead of torching it rather than go through all the crap in it. I know that's what my sister has been doing, going through her attic and basement and closets. It must provide a nice sense of, I don't know, closure is the word that comes to mind, to know that you're not drowing in crap and that all your things are in order.


watching Dr. Phil :: entry #1443


watching Law and Order SVU :: entry #1498

Crash Imminent

The physical work of the last few days is certainly catching up with me. Everything hurts. The good news is that I think I'm done with all of that, or at least, with 95% of it. I have one more shelf to assemble tomorrow and then to put stuff on, but easy stuff like big packs of paper towels and toilet paper, not cartons of records or books. And I have the laundry room area to re-arrange, but just stuff on the shelves (which I assembled today) and really, that all can wait until summer. Yes, a fine summer project, that.

The allergens roaming about the atmosphere are not helping me at all. This year, I have a stuffy noise and the post-nasal drip from hell, along with occasional skin rashes. The rashes may be from something else, since I started some new supplements last week (that I discontinued today) ... okay, TMI. And you don't want to hear about my stomach problems, either.

I made the trip over to K's school today to see if I could pay the bill. Not so much of a trip, really; I went there on my way home from yet another journey to Target. They have their screws lose there. They looked at me like I have two heads and said "But we haven't even mailed out the bills yet!" Uh ... what? I never got bills for the last two semesters; why would I expect one now? And the DEADLINE that I must not miss? It's May 11. Since the kid will already be in her second week of class by then, forgive me for assuming the deadline would be before that. Morons. Anyway.

Once again today, I was on the move and didn't stop all day. I woke up at six and started then. So it's been a long day. All I have for tomorrow is the plumber, and the luxury of being home so I can take some stomach meds that might make me drowsy, but as long as I don't drive anywhere, I don't care. And since I'm home all day with just the one little task to do, I can read some more. I hope.

Otherwise, we're off in about 15 minutes to pick up R at the train, and then a quick dinner at the IHOP and she can drive her stained car home. (Really, it doesn't look that bad anymore.) It's raining again, which is a little nervous-making, but it's not raining hard, so I guess there won't be any more water pouring into the basement. It was beautiful most of the day today, but the temp dropped in the last couple of hours and I had to turn the heat back on. Bummer.


watching Reba :: entry #1442

Accidentally on Purpose

[copied from dland]

I appear to have bought a new coffee maker last night, by accident. I was thinking about it, and I put in my Amazon cart, and then I clicked on the Amazon homepage or something, and the next thing I knew, I got an email confirmation of my order. Hmmm.

Well, I was probably going to buy it next week anyway. Once again, I'm trying to develop the PERFECT morning coffee system, one of my never-ending quests. My goal here is to make Dunkin' Donuts coffee at home, using a pod coffee maker. It may happen. I'll let you know. If I don't actually go to the DD every morning, I can reclaim a good 10 - 15 minutes there. And yesterday morning, I asked for a decaf black, and a thermos fill-up of decaf black, and when I got to school, they both had cream in them. At least I'd have the sense not to put cream in my own coffee. I hope.

My immediate school crisis has been resolved, and I'm trying hard to let the rest of it -- the persistent idiocy -- go. The important thing for now is that I am no longer in a position where I would be likely to invalidate the entire state-testing procedure for my school, which is taking place next week. (They had made me a proctor in a special-needs room of kids; I have never even proctored a standardized test in my life, let alone in a room where kids need accommodations. This was a disaster waiting to happen. Now I'm just one of four proctors in a regular room, and I am more relieved than I can even tell you. They try to scare you to death about anyone messing up the test and what will happen, and it worked; I was good and scared. I haven't been doing this for 30 years just to lose my license and pension at this point, both of which were real possibilities there for awhile.)

I don't know if there's been some atmospheric change or what, but my eyes have been pretty good for the last couple of days. I'm even wanting to pick up a book and read again; I have so many books here waiting to read, but it's hard to maintain any continuity because I need to close my eyes so often to keep them moist. They're much better suited at this point to short bursts of reading, like magazines and websites. Which sucks.

And I looked at the new coffee maker website -- it's called a Senseo -- and there's $20 rebate. So I guess it all works out somehow. That was random.

What else can I tell you this evening? My hearing aids must have finally gotten the message that I'm dumping them next week, because they are hissing and popping and the sound is going in and out and ... well, mostly out. Very annoying.

I am so officially boring today. I'm going to watch the rest of the Idol results now.


WATCHING IDOL :: ENTRY #1389

Blah Blah Blah

[copied from dland]

I was majorly tired this morning, but somehow got over it, which is always nice. I had had a lot of trouble falling asleep last night, and somehow was moving slowly this morning, despite the fact that I allowed myself enough time to leave earlier because of the drive on the icy streets. Even so, I didn't have time to go to Dunkin' Donuts and brought coffee from home in my thermos. You know, it was okay. Will wonders never cease?

But my eyes were very bad this morning, which makes me feel more sleepy, and then they eased up around ... 9:00? 10:00? I don't know, but the day got better and very, very busy later, which was excellent. The big library news of the day is that we got our photocopier, finally, and the two guys who came to install it were very funny, like a comedy act, but also very nice and taught us how to make it do all its tricks. (It's a very basic machine, but it sorts, it duplexes, it staples, all kinds of stuff. The coolest thing it does is this: if I have a form or something that I often need copies of -- like the daily attendance sheet -- I can scan it into the copier's memory, and when I need more, just call it up and print it out without having a hard copy of it on the glass. Cool, eh?) As the guys were finishing the installation, there was already a line of kids waiting to use it.

We have three days off next week, Monday through Wednesday, for Presidents' Day and then what's left of what used to be our winter break, a week off. I think having three days off is great. But days off are never enough for the SCM; if they give us three, he must take one more, and so he is out tomorrow so he can begin the trek to his other home in Vermont. I'm sorry. I know the days are his and he can use them however he wants. But it's obnoxious to always take off the day before a school vacation. He hasn't missed a one since they bought that other house.

I got a call from the audiologist's office before and my new babies may be delayed, which makes me very sad. :( Especially since I already have plans for the afternoon of the morning I was taking off to get them! So now, everything is up in the air.

I agree with Yvonne, 10:00 is too late for Lost! Not that I didn't watch Idol at 9:00, but if I had to choose between them, I'd choose Lost without question. I haven't watched Idol for the last two seasons because it was on against other things I liked more. But I have to think about Lost, and it's hard to do when you're old and sleepy. Idol is just eye candy, so to speak; you can still enjoy it without really watching it or paying attention.

No stuff falling from the sky today, but cold cold cold. I had no inspiration to do anything at all after school, but I had to go pay for the car that was serviced on Monday, mail some mail (too late to mail it this morning), and get some stuff at the supermarket. And now, my microwave dinner is ready, and tomorrow's lunch is sitting in the fridge just waiting to be picked up, and hopefully I'll have the brains to take out tomorrow's clothes tonight. Looking forward to a better morning tomorrow (although the rest of today was okay.)

'Night.


WATCHING REBA :: ENTRY #1377

Sluggo

[copied from dland]

I am incredibly sluggish today. Not just tired, although I'm that, too. This is more like moving through molasses instead of air. Everything is slowed down. The fact that my eyes are really bad today and heavy and droopy is only making it worse. I got lots of shampoo in my bad eye today, and for awhile there, I really thought I was going to have to go to the hospital. Drama queen much? I don't know; my eyes are very sensitive, and especially this one, and it felt for a long time like there was something actually in there, or a bruise on the cornea. Anyway, it's left me somewhat Cyclopean all day, but What.Ever. I'm living. I'll live.

Even so, I feel like a sleepwalker all day, and I don't think it's just me. Media Girl said she felt that way, too. We had no classes in the library today, so it was slow. I expected the rest of my posters to arrive and we were going to figure out where they went and maybe hang some of them, but UPS hasn't been to the school yet -- it's about 2:00 now, although I'll post this later -- so it's a no go. My photocopier is finally coming tomorrow. And with any luck, a snow day on Wednesday.

Yes, it's going to snow on Wednesday, our first real significant snow of the season. Which is quite late for us, but one year we had no snow at all and then paralyzing blizzards for several days in March, so it just goes to show. Will they close schools? If they close the Bizarro Town schools then I am closing school for K, since she has to drive the 20 minutes or so to the college, and I know from personal experience that it will not be pleasant in the weather.

As sluggish as I am, I have several things to do this afternoon, including some errands with the Sibs and then R is taking the train here to B.T. and we'll grab some dinner and then pick up her car from the service station and she'll be off home. I've got a prescription to pick up and .... oh, something to take to the post office. Didn't post offices used to be closed on Lincoln's Birthday?

So, Sluggo. Sluggo, you may or may not know, is Nancy's best friend.

This comic strip is older than dirt; my father used to say that he always enjoyed reading it because it was the first comic strip he remembered from like 1924. Very early in my pregnancy with K, the Hubs and were in Kennebunkport, Maine for a weekend and picked up a local paper and they were running the Nancy strip, which surprised us because we thought even then that it was defunct. One thing led to another, and by the end of the weekend, our little unborn one had taken on the nickname Sluggo. That morphed over the course of the next several months into Little Sluggo, and then The Little Sluggo, then The Little Slug, and finally, The Slug. She's never quite forgiven us for that, for calling her a slug, but it was said with love. And it was a Nancy shout-out, which she's never fully appreciated, I think. Anyway, the name has a special place in my heart.

So, Sluggo I am today. All I'm missing is the cap.


WATCHING RAYMOND :: ENTRY #1374

Thursday Off

[copied from dland]

These are the socks that R made me for Christmas:

and this is the belt:

I'm weighing in on the Gerald Ford thing. Although I liked him very much at the time (personally, not politically), I'm afraid that what I remember about him are things that are not so great. For one, I remember watching him debate Jimmy Carter and saying something about Eastern Europe not being under Soviet domination and everybody's jaw just dropping -- including Carter's -- and knowing that he had just lost himself an election. On another note, my nephew, now 32 and pictured here in a recent post at his most adorable, was quite the verbal little kid. In 1975 -- roughly when the picture was taken -- we could get him to say, with great excitement, at the beginning of any baseball game: "Bicentennial fwag! Bicentennial fwag!" because, as you may or may not recall, the standard American flag was replaced with some bogus thing for a couple of years there in honor of the great Bicentennial of the nation. But his most amusing Stupid Kid Trick, which his father taught him in 1976, so he was about two, was this:

His father: "Jeff, what does Jimmy Carter do?"

Little Jeff: "Jimmy Carter make peanuts!"

His father: "Jeff, what does President Ford do?"

Jeff: "Pwesident Fawd fall down!"

On the other hand, I admired him and his family very much, and thought he should have been made our permanent ceremonial president, someone with no actual power but who makes all the public appearances. He seemed to have a great deal of integrity, a good quality in a president.

In other news, I'm enjoying these days off tremendously. Today I got my nails done -- more on that in a minute -- and then had a facial. Tomorrow I'm getting orientation on the weight machines at the gym and then the complimentary massage that comes with my membership. (Then an afternoon with the Sibs.) The funny thing about all this, the nails, the facial, the new make-up, is that I smell terrific.

Which leads me to my next problem, which is that I'm allergic like crazy this week, but I don't think it's to any of these specific things: the make-up, the other cosmetic smells. I'm reacting to every bit of dust in the atmosphere, and to other scents that I can't quite track down, but I've been sneezing like crazy. It doesn't seem to be a cold, but it's hard to tell sometimes. The SCM has been known to say things to me from time to time about how he was bothered by post-nasal drip and couldn't sleep the night before and has that ever happened to me? and I have to tell him each time that I've had permanent post-nasal drip since I was four; I was probably a teenager before I realized that every other human didn't have that feeling all the time like I did. But it's been bothering me more this week, I guess because of whatever it is that's irritating my allergies. Let's keep our fingers crossed that it really isn't all my fancy new make-up.

Oh, nails, I almost forgot. I may have asked this before, I don't know. Someone told me that getting your nails done regularly is "a New Jersey thing." Whatever the hell that means, but is it true? Are there no nails salons anywhere else in the country? (Not counting New York, as New Jersey goes, so goes New York City and the surrounding suburban counties.) We have maybe a half-dozen nail salons here in little Bizarro Town, all with names like Sexy Nails, and Sexy Nails II. (Yes, there's also a Sexy Nails III.) Or French Nails. Like that.

My last rant of the day is -- again -- my hearing aids. You know, I have these two devices clipped onto my ears that communicate with each other via RF (radio frequency) signals. This is the only way hearing aids are made now for my kind of hearing loss, but I'm increasingly aware that this is no longer a viable technology because there is just so much random RF signal traffic in the general world. It's increased exponentially in the last few years since I got these aids. At first, I wanted to complain about some new device in CVS that was causing the static, but now it's everywhere, randomly, in stores and in all kinds of places. It's time to replace the technology that powers my ears with something new -- bluetooth would be nice -- but it doesn't exist yet. I wish I knew where to complain to, maybe to the company that makes them. (Only one company does.) It's my understanding that there are so few people with my kind of hearing loss, at least people who have it and wear hearing aids, that the industry just isn't motivated to do much for us.

Anyway, I'm running out to CVS to pick something up (and to avoid folding laundry), so I know what to expect when I get there.

Damn, I smell good.


WATCHING DR. PHIL :: ENTRY #1333