Ouch! I want to scratch!

Early Friday afternoon I was chopping up some cucumber for my lunch when it felt like something was crawling on the left side of my forehead. I had the knife in my right hand and was holding cucumber parts in my left hand. I brushed the back of my left hand over the "tickly spot" on my head. As my hand left my forehead and was headed back to the cucumber, I felt a sting. Unfortunately, I reacted on instinct and immediately brushed the back of my hand against my hip without looking first. You know the "GET IT OFFA ME!" instinct. When I looked at my hand there was just a tiny gray smudge. I felt like I had been bitten or stung by something so I washed my hand and put some benadryl cream on it. I then continued making my lunch and went about my day.
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I forgot all about the whole incident until Saturday evening around 6:30. I was talking or watching TV or something when I realized I was scratching the hell out of my left hand. Once I realized what I was doing, I remembered the Friday event. I looked and sure enough there was a bump there. I put some more benadryl cream on it but it would not stop itching. Later, we were watching Children of Men and I realized I was having a hard time following the action because of the itching so I did my usual: I froze it. When I have a mad itch I hold ice on it until it becomes comfortably numb. Well that worked and again, I forgot about it. Until it woke me up after I had been asleep only two hours. I got up and applied more benadryl cream and willed myself to not think about it and go back to sleep. (That was a funny internal process!) Two hours later, the itch woke me up again. This time I got up and made another ice thing (one cube, with one layer of paper towel topped with one layer of cling wrap). I laid in bed and held it in place until I couldn't stand it anymore and went back to sleep.
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This afternoon I decided it might be a fire ant bite so I decided to treat it like one. I swathed it with alcohol, cleaned a needle with alcohol and stabbed it. And squeezed and squeezed. Then more alcohol. That's usually the end of the itching for me with fire ant bites. I went about my business of sanding my bathroom walls (yes, still doing that). As you might have guessed, the mad itching returned. Right now it looks like a Barbie boob - if Barbie were an A cup and had a really bright nipple. I am currently treating it with 2.5% hydrocortisone cream and that is helping. I'm leaning now towards some sort of spider rather than a fire ant. Next time I will look before I react. At least I'll know what I'm dealing with.

Normal Again?

I just want to thank everyone who comments here. My week was awful until today and the fun comments on my last post did make me feel a little better every day. If this is a taste of what menopause is going to be like, I am SO NOT looking forward to THAT.

Monday I had awful free-floating anxiety and as much as I tried to rationalize everything, I just couldn't shake it, which made me feel depressed. Tuesday morning I had a long awful dream involving losing my daughter (who was about 10 or 11 in the dream, although she's actually 22) in Greece. An old friend tried to help me find her and we looked and looked and I never did find her. It was a VERY LONG and tiring dream. I wasn't blue on Tuesday, but still had the anxiety and tenseness all day which lead to feeling tired and worn out. On Wednesday, I felt tired and aggitated. My Meals on Wheels delivery did NOT go smoothly. We had flowers to give out for Easter and they kept falling over and spilling water in their box and it seemed like the glass vases were going to break every time I hit a bump. On top of that, I had a new person, read my mapsco wrong and had to keep pulling over to look at the map. I made it through that by making myself laugh with this thought, "This day sucks. I embrace the suckiness of this day." Once I came up with that mantra, I felt better. I went straight home after lunch and took a two hour nap. My daughter came over with dinner and we watched Beaches. (My Sweetie had a vendor engagement, poor thing - he had to go spend several hours in a platinum club box at a Dallas Mavericks game.) My daughter is a HUGE Bette Midler fan, but had never seen Beaches. She got mad at me at the end when it made her cry - but in a funny way.

This morning I dreamed I was doing some sort of commando raid (I think I had a machine gun) with some people in a nice big house and we all got killed. Then we were revived as zombies, so we had to get wigs because dead people don't have hair. I got to pick out my hair. I just pinned it right to my head. Then we decided to stay in that house and run it as a Bed and Breakfast and I was going to be the bartender. I went to the kitchen and was mad because there were dirty dishes in the sink. But wait, the absurdity doesn't end there. So me and the other zombies are all out in the back yard and all these random pieces of tan paper start raining down from the sky. One of the other zombies says, "I think they are giving us a ticker-tape parade!" And I said, "Or maybe the rest of the world has been blown to bits and this is the fallout." Then I woke up. And oddly enough, I felt normal again.

Separated at Birth

I saw Quentin Tarantino on Leno tonight and I kept thinking, "Oh, my! He looks like that puppet." Josie has done several "Separated at Birth" blogs so I have to give her credit for making me think of it. Oddly enough, I checked her blog before I posted and she had just posted another one! In case you're not familiar with the image on the left, the puppet's name was "Madam" and she was part of the team of "Wayland Flowers and Madam." They even had a TV show in the 80's. I was never a fan and don't particularly like puppets as entertainment. Well, maybe the scene in The Sound of Music: That's pretty cute. Anyway that was the closest picture of Quentin I could find, but he has lost weight in his face and really looks like that puppet.

Latest Goings On

On the bathroom saga: I finally got to roll the first coat of primer on Thursday. I RAN OUT OF PAINT. I was not expecting that. I guess there is a lot more wall in there than I thought. My Sweetie brought me a new can of primer today. I have one small wall section and all of the edging or cutting (whatever you call it) left to paint. I had some buckling and peeling, which I expected. My contractor from the shower job had told me that he was surprised that the walls had not been primed. Saturday will be 1: fixing all the bad spots and 2: finishing the edges with the primer. I was really not expecting to need two gallons of paint. Now I know to get two gallons when I lay down my first coat of green. It was great to finally see the walls all one color. That weird 135 degree corner I had to totally redo came out fine as did the "horrible wall section from hell" that had given me so much trouble when I was stripping the wallpaper. My daughter came by tonight and was impressed with my work. I'm looking forward to the next step. Well, except for the ladder part. I get vertigo on ladders. Maybe I can stand on a chair.
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Strange Birthdays: Thursday was my 2nd husband's 50th birthday and it freaked me out all day. I just can't believe he is 50. My first husband turned 50 last October and that didn't phase me at all. I don't know why I was so weirded out. I did call my daughter and Mom to remind them to send 2nd Husband an e-mail for his birthday. He was a really sweet guy. My Sweetie will be 40 on April 5th and that seems odd too. I guess the round numbers just stand out more.
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March Badness: I really sucked in the March Madness brackets this year. As of right now I am only one person away from being on the bottom of about 50 people (that guy must feel worse than I do!). I DO still have my Final Four teams eligible, but that could change this weekend.
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Drink to my health!: About an hour ago I noticed there was a voice message on my cell phone. What is this? No one leaves messages on my cell phone. It was from my gynecologist's office. I had a PAP smear on the 14th and I asked "So what happens if I'm still shedding endometrial cells?" and he described something so horrible, my brain just went "FRIP, FRIP, FRIP." It involved an IV, general anesthesia, a D&C and whatnot. I don't even remember what the procedure was called. BUT. The message on my cell phone said my PAP smear was normal. That was awesome!

In Memory of "Squiggy"

I found out today that one of my Meals on Wheels people died last week. I didn't know these guys very well even though they were on my route for almost 3 years. I've never really mentioned them before, just mentioned the horrible construction that seemed to take an eternity in their trailer park. I think that was back in 2005. Their trailer was paint-balled last year in yellows and greens and I remember feeling profoundly sad that some punks probably did that because they knew a gay couple lived there. I can't say the man's name because of MOW confidentiality, but he always reminded me of Squiggy from "Laverne and Shirley." I used to refer to his partner and him as Lenny and Squiggy (not to them of course) even though the Lenny one didn't really look like Lenny.
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On a few occasions when "Squiggy" answered the door, when he wasn't heavily medicated, he was quite talkative. He told me that he had spent several years in a wheelchair and had been told at one point that he might never walk again. They did have a ramp to their door. Squiggy was always on his feet when I saw him, except one time he answered the door from the floor. I was alarmed but he assured me he had just fallen upon answering the door and it was quite common for him. He once told me that he needed more back surgery but just didn't want to go through that again.
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I asked his partner today what he had died from. He told me that his teeth had gone bad and turned septic and that it had entered his bloodstream. He said he refused to go to the hospital. He put on his best favorite outfit and laid on the bed and died.
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I knew something was wrong when I knocked on the door and heard, "Come in!" I had never entered their home before. It was a giant mess as if it had been ransacked. "Lenny" told me he was going through "Squiggy's" things. He told me Squiggy was 52 and that they had been partners for 31 years. He was so sad. He said, "If he had gone to the hospital they could have given him an antibiotic IV." I told him that I knew someone who had died of the same thing IN the hospital. Very little solace, I'm sure. But Lenny did admit that poor ole Squiggy was just worn out.
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Rest in Peace, Squiggy.

These Vagabond Shoes

Live from New York!: My Sweetie came home from work on Friday and announced that we would be spending a weekend in NYC in June. I was completely taken aback. For years I wondered if I would ever see New York again. I went two years in a row to see Duke play at Madison Square when I was a teenager. I haven't been since. At first I was excited, then I felt very nervous and self-conscious. All I could think was, "I'm too fat to go to New York and I don't know what to wear." Plus, after reading Overheard in New York, I thought, "I'm going to be one of those bumpkin tourists that New Yorkers make fun of!" I am the most casual of dressers and have been wearing the same old summer shoes for about 4 years. I will definitely need new stuff. After giving it more thought, I figure that there will be MOSTLY tourists in New York on a weekend in June. Maybe I can just blend in. I hope they will all be fat. And have thicker southern accents. And bad shoes.

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Light at the end of the tunnel: Tomorrow after a little more prep work, I will be putting a coat of primer on my bathroom walls. I can't wait! I still can't believe I started this renovation last June. That's CRAZY! I may need to do some more wall work, but at this point I decided that having the walls all one color would help me to see what else I may need to do. I did put away the power sander today and my shoulders were so thankful. That thing really "put some hurtin' " on my shoulders and upper arms. My mudwork seriously improved over time and I think my corner work came out pretty well. I had one regular corner and an odd corner - 135 degrees - which needed a lot of work. (By the way, I just had to draw a picture and access the tiny geometry part of my brain to figure out the angle of that odd corner.) I can't wait to get that coat of primer on. I may even get up early. Yeah, right.

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Weird thought: I was wondering something odd the other day. If a wasp were in your car and you noticed it after driving several miles, stopped, and let it out, would it find its way back home? Or would it wander around aimlessly and die? Or would it just start a new life in its new location? Does anyone know an entomologist?

A Snake Story

My Father-in-law, "Froggy" sent this story to me today so I asked if I could post it on my blog. He's a real Texas "Good Ole Boy" and has millions of stories. Here is his snake story:

I don't know how many of you saw the news about the pipeline fire in Parker County, Texas. It is located on my former in-law's ranch just north east of Lake Weatherford. The ranch was purchased by Bill McDavid in 1961 and named the Bull Goose Ranch. Soon after he purchased it, we discovered what came to be known as the "snake pit." The former owner (s) had dumped their garbage and trash in a gully formed by erosion. I had discovered and dispatched a world record western diamondback rattlesnake at the site and my mother-in-law gave orders for the den to be destroyed. The trash attracted rodents, a smorgasbord for the snakes.

At that time, we loaned our cosmetically challenged used cars to undercover DEA agents. They needed cars that blended in with the surroundings on stakeouts. In exchange they gave me some tear gas bullets in .22 and .38 calibers. I fired several of these rounds in to cracks around the pit without any results. One of the agents gave me a half dozen tear gas grenades which he said should do the job.

My father-in-law flew up from Houston one day with Alan Shepard, the astronaut, his partner in banking, cattle and some quarter horses. He wanted to know about the snake pit and I told him about the tear gas grenades. He wanted to watch so we loaded up and went to the ranch.

Erosion had created a cave which I suspected housed the serpents. I very carefully climbed the wall leading up to a large crack where I planned to toss the grenades. My father-in-law and Alan were standing, looking over in to the pit to watch. I pulled the pins on the grenades, and tossed both of them in to the crack. The wind was blowing just right to force the gas to the back of the cave. It was also blowing just right to spread the gas where Alan and Bill were standing in business suits. They backed away but not quick enough. They were hacking and sneezing and were still suffering on the way back to town. I noticed that I was also feeling the effects. We decided the gas had impregnated their clothing. A stop at Bowden's department store for a set of khakis for both men and finally some relief.

We didn't see a single snake as a result of the tear gas. I decided more drastic steps were needed and assembled the things I would need. Five gallons of gasoline, about twenty feet of half inch copper tubing, a funnel and matches. With the help of one of my employees who wasn't too keen on snake killing, we poured the gasoline down one of the cracks where the tear gas had exited. I poured a long back trail of fuel, tossed a match and ran. I can only describe the results as a miniature Hiroshima Atom Bomb blast. The fire only burned for a few minutes and we looked over the edge to check for survivors As far as we could tell, there were none. There were pieces of snake and some things we thought might be large rats. To my knowledge, there have never been any more snakes in that area.

Froggy

OUCH

PLUS

(+)

Humming Christian Music Dentist With Needles and Drill

EQUALS

(=)

THIRD LEVEL OF HELL

Pictures!!

I finally got my pictures developed. I had two rolls so there was a LOT of stuff. My Sweetie will not let me post his picture so I can't post the REALLY hot one of him in San Diego which I am going to frame. Or our anniversary picture - we have our picture taken every anniversary to add to our wedding photo album. Or the cute ones of us in San Diego, although I did put one of me from one of those down below. I think I'm going to make it my new "me" picture on my profile.



Here it is! My new shower! See the light? The floor and the back of the niche were done with the little tiles that make the border trim. Or whatever it's called. The new showerhead that came with the handle is very cool looking but I love my old water massage, so I'll just save it in case we ever sell the house.

This is my Very Dorky Christmas Pajamas photo, complete with dorky Christmas socks. I do have two legs. I just always sit on my left leg. I don't know why.

This was taken at a restaurant in San Diego. I love the sidewalk seating in the Gaslamp District!

This is Jake being ultra hip with his shades on. He's 18-years-old now. Old enough to vote! This is what cat people do to their cats. If you are not a cat person, you won't get it.

I love this picture of Jake and My Sweetie resting cheek-to-cheek on the couch.

I think this one speaks for itself. It was fun getting to see the Hotel Del again. It hadn't changed a whole lot, but is apparently about to. There were signs in the "mall" area. It's all changing to offices or apartments or something. I forgot.

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It was great finally getting the pictures back. In this age of instant video/photo gratification, it's still fun to get pictures back that were taken two and three months ago. You gotta love that "oh Yeah! I remember that!" factor.

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Friday my daughter took me across town to get My Sweetie's birthday gift. He will be 40 on April 5th so I wanted something really special and I came up with something I thought was AWESOME. I wish I could share but he reads this sometimes. I can't wait to tell you after his birthday! After our little trek we did some happy hours and I met one of her new friends. She seemed like a really nice girl.

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The bathroom is finally moving forward. We got a lot done today. I'm already doing mud work and wall repairs. I will probably do my primer coat next weekend. This week is going to be all fun and games what with getting my crown replaced on Tuesday and my pap smear on Wednesday. Plus I wonder how long it will take me to get over this lost hour from Daylight Savings. I just lost it a few hours ago and I miss it already. The weekend has been good so far. I hope today will be as productive as yesterday!

One of My Jobs

There's an ad on TV that's currently running where a guy talks about all the different types of bosses he's had and I thought, "Hmmm, that would make a great post." And that made me think of all the jobs I've had. And that made me think of this old newspaper clipping I had of me running camera for a cable show. It was in the Dallas Morning News and I was all proud of myself for being in the paper. At the ripe old age of almost 20 I had already been to Times Square on New Year's Eve, been to a Super Bowl and been interviewed on a local TV station and on a radio station (Yeah I was like Forest Gump like that). I was so tickled about being in the Dallas paper, but when I showed people the clipping they all said the same thing. "What's with your lips?" Here's a close-up:

Maybe it's not that clear in this old clipping, but I was doing this weird lip-pursing thing. And that was the only remark I got. I was more excited about being in the paper than I was about being on TV or the radio because, because I had something to keep. People didn't have VCR's when I was on TV, so if you didn't see it, you didn't see it. I didn't see it.

What happened was, I was majoring in Media Productions at Tarrant County College and I was hand-picked by my teacher to intern at Storer Cable. It was fun, I earned credit towards school, and they kinda promised me a job. It's funny when I look back at it, but after the semester was over I kept phoning my contact at the cable company saying, "So where's my job?" I think they hired me because they were tired of my phone calls.

It was a fun job for the most part. It was a combination of running local programming (basically putting giant videos into a machine and logging the times for the FCC) and doing local video productions. I hated covering city council meetings, but I loved taping the chamber of commerce luncheons because they were at fancy country clubs and we got to eat there for free. I guess the highlight was taping the Texas high school football playoff (or championship?) at Texas Stadium. Not that I'm a Cowboy's or even a football fan - it's that as I stood in the camera niche in the stadium I kept thinking of all the professional cameramen who had stood in the exact same spot. Plus we had access to the whole press area. I was walking around thinking of all the famous people who had been in the same spots. Howard Cosell and all kinds of people. And it even snowed a little that day (just flurries), so it was all happy crazy. I also met the first guy I lived with on that job. At the ripe old age of 21 I finally moved out of my parents' home. We weren't madly in love, we were just tired of living "at home" and so far from work. It was a "live-together of convenience." I always wonder what happened to that guy. He was really sweet.

Bad Tooth News: I will see the endodontist today to either clear me for a filling replacement and a crown or a root canal. I vote for the first option. Wholeheartedly. And that's all I have to say about that.

Tidbits

My Father-in-law wanted me to make this pic for him. I have no idea why. I should have done something with the skin tones, but I'm lazy. What do you think? I made it from this:

and this:

Some TV Commentary: We, okay, I sucked at this week's American Idol castoff picks. My Sweetie had Ajay and Leslie, so he got one each. His other picks were Haley and Sanjay. I had Sanjay, Phil, Gina and Sabrina. My Sweetie: 50% Me: zilch

I've been reading a lot about how "Lost" fans are so furious this season. I guess I'm not a rabid enough fan to be all mad about it. We just watched this week's episode tonight and I really liked it.

The bathroom saga: I did some preliminary mud/wall stuff today. So far so good. I also took my second nighttime shower so I got to enjoy the light in the new shower again. I loved it! Tomorrow I will peel more tiny wallpaper bits and ponder getting the filling replaced in my bottom right first molar. Wow I actually realized there is something worse than peeling those last stubborn wallpaper remnants!

Don't Try This At Home (Please!)

Lolo and I were talking about comb overs yesterday (don't ask me, she started it) and she said the funniest thing. She's 31 and she said something like, "I can't wait to meet a guy my age who says, "Twenty years from now I'm going to have a kick-ass comb over.'" (I don't remember the exact quote because I drink a lot of beer and I don't record my phone conversations.) That was funny to me because EVERY guy with a comb over was once a young guy with hair. Did ANY of them plan it? How do they grow that giant flap of hair? Do they grow all their hair long first and then just have their barber cut the rest?

What really freaked me out was when I looked up "comb over" (because I didn't know if it was one word or two) I found out it was patented in the 70's. Patented. In the 70's. That's right. The era that brought us so much style. Anyone surprised by that?

Stow and Sleady Wins The Race

We were on our way home from Lowe's today when we passed the house on the corner at the bottom of our street. I said, "I wonder if those people ever finished that project (something to do with their pool and fence)? Have you ever seen anyone take so long to finish something?" My Sweetie burst out laughing. I was confused at first. I said, "Are you laughing at me?" He laughed harder. I said, "Oh! You're laughing at me because of the bathroom." And yes, the same project I started in June. Well, what happened was, that bathroom was just too hot to work in during the summer. I DID get a lot done during the fall, but then it was Christmas, and then I injured my knee. Now that the workmen have been in there and my shiny new shower is installed I am ready to finish.

Wallpaper wise, all I have left are the bits around the windows (three long narrow windows over the tub), around the closet doors (which we just removed today and I have more to say about later), and around the outlets and light switches. I bought all the stuff today to prep and repair the walls. I also brought home new paint samples because I have changed my mind about the color. After all of this work, it has to be JUST RIGHT. I was going to do a seafoam green, and do beach and ocean type decor. Now I've decided to go with a deeper green and decorate with a forest decor. I'd like to use some of my photos from Muir woods. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but I'm going to do a sponge technique. The bad part is all sponges are different and I'd like to buy about 4 of them to find a pattern I really like and they cost about $12 each. I guess it will be worth it. I did the sponge thing on my other bathroom and I really love it.

About those mirror doors: We have the jack and jill set-up in our bathroom with a sink/vanity and walk-in closet on each end of the bathroom. The closets have mirror doors sort of like the ones pictured above except they are just single doors. I have also mentioned before that those two sections of the bathroom are carpeted with tile between the two sections. I know, it's pretty retarded. Anyway, the closet doors stick on the carpet. They were set too low and I've always been terrified the mirrors would just snap, because, well, glass doesn't bend. So it's always been kind of a bitch getting into our closets. We're going to move them up when we put them back on. That's going to be so nice not having that drag on the carpet and not having to worry about the glass breaking. I made a place for them out in the garage and we were out there having a smoke when I said, "Why did we put up with that for almost six years? We could have moved them up before?" I think My Sweetie just said something like, "I don't know." I said, "I know. We're just low and slazy." Then I laughed really hard for a good 4 minutes. I hadn't had a good spoonerism like that in a while (although I did come into the house the other day, yank my socks off and say, "Yuck, my wet are all feet!")

All the Stuff I hope I Remembered I Wanted to Post

First, I must pronounce that today was the official Dallas/Fort Worth opening day of the shorts-wearing season for the year 2007 which I celebrated by shearing the winter wool from my legs with the Oster Turbo A5® EquineSingle-Speed Clippers. I kid. Well, about the brand anyway.

As for my "American Idol" predictions, we got both guys and missed both girls, but in all fairness, I had given Amy a 5 and Nicole a 4.

The Shower Scene: General Contractor Guy and a new other guy came this morning and hooked up the shower light, replaced the bad baseboards, painted ALL of the baseboards as well as the door trim, and installed the fixtures. Contractor Guy even did an un-related tape and bed repair (this is the bathroom I've been "preparing to paint" since last June). I don't know if he was just being nice or if he will charge me for that. They were finished and gone by 12:45. I moved all of my stuff back into my bathroom. Everything is perfect except I am still waiting for this:

I'm hoping it will be here tomorrow. I had something similar in there before but it was old and grodey. This one was so inexpensive, I could get a new one every year. Anyway, GCG is coming back tomorrow to do final paperwork and demand money. The only thing left is they are going to clean the carpet but I guess someone else does that and I told him I wanted to wait until next week. I didn't say, "I'd rather schedule that for next week because I AM REALLY FUCKING TIRED OF HAVING TO GET UP SO FREAKING EARLY AND HAVING PEOPLE IN MY HOUSE ALL DAY." I only said the first seven words of that sentence. Out loud, I mean. Also when he said he would be here tomorrow, I said, "That will have to be in the afternoon. I'm not getting up early again." Because, well, I'm just not. I was starting to feel like a Zombie. And not in a good Zombie way either.

Weird Wednesday: I got to the church (where we pick up the food) and a senile old man that had been called to sub for route 3 had taken MY ROUTE and he was already gone. So I had to drive route 3 and even though it was my old route, there were only 3 people on it that I knew, so I had to look up ALL the other people on the Mapsco. One of them was WAY THE BEJESUS away and three were apartments, and two of those were upstairs. Hmmmm, maybe that old man is not so senile? The two guys that live together from my old route were really happy to see me and and would not let me leave. R was leaning in my truck window and yakking away, so I kept saying, "I really need to go." They are really nice guys and not much older than me. It was nice to see them again, but that was the only good part of that route.

The weirdest part of the day was when I stopped in at Italianni's for a few beers. I had already had lunch somewhere else, hit the grocery store and decided to stop in because my favorite bartender is moving to Colorado in March. Well this guy sitting two seats down says, "You're 'Geewits' and you do Meals on Wheels." and I said, "Oh, were you at Friday's last Wednesday?" No. "Have I met you here?" Then he says, "Wrong guy, wrong bar." And I could see he was getting agitated that I didn't remember him, so I said "Just tell me!" Oh. My. God. This is where it got weird (and the bartender heard this whole thing): He said, "Last year at Bennigan's on St. Patrick's Day, it was a Friday and we talked for two hours! I called in sick to work so I could stay but you left to go home to your husband. You told me you came here (Italianni's) and I've been coming here for a year looking for you." How freaking creepy is that? He even remembered that the reason I was there was because I had been to my dentist whose office was nearby. I just made a light joke like, "Well it's an insult to the Irish and St. Patrick's day that you even remember anything from that day!" Then he kept trying to make creepy sex talk and I let him know it wasn't funny and then HE LEFT! Just like that. The bartender kept saying, "He called in sick to work?" It was very strange. Hopefully he can now focus on something else for the next year. If I really talked to him for two hours last year, he must not have been as creepy or I think I WOULD have remembered him, but then I've always had an odd selective memory and never remeber icky things. St. Patrick's Day is on a Saturday this year, and I'll be back at Bennigan's but My Sweetie will be there with me.

Have a great Oscar weekend. My Sweetie and I always make our picks and he always wins, but I still love doing it. I have about 4 categories left to pick so I need to do some research.

More to Come

I'm going to post about my weird Meals on Wheels Wednesday and the final results of my shower repair (they are in there working right now) late tonight. I wanted to get in my "American Idol" predictions for the 4 people voted off tonight.

My Sweetie and I both made lists and ranked each performer on a 1 to 10 scale. According to our ratings, The two guys voted off will be: Rudy (Me: 5, MS: 3) and Paul (Me: 4, MS: 3)

The two girls voted off will be: Leslie (Me: 4, MS: 4) and Alaina (Me: 2, MS:2). I actually gave two other girls a 4, but since My Sweetie gave them 5's, I decided to go with averages and picked Leslie.

I won't know right away how we did, because I will be watching "Survivor" and then a Duke basketball game. I am going to record it so I can speed through it on my DVR without having to listen to Ryan Seacrest try to build drama for an hour.

Until then...

Ramble On (or How To Make A Short Story Long)

That's a picture of me and the people working on my shower. Okay, not really. That's a picture of three Klingons. Okay, it's really a picture of two Klingons and a drunk person in Vegas. The drunk person is on the left.

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I was excited about FINALLY not having to get up early on Sunday, but I kept waking up from dreams about stuff I wanted to tell the contractor and the tile guy. I am going to make a list when I finish this. I hope I remember everything. The tile guy came on Saturday and installed the new shower pan and made the walls and the niche with cement board. He also sealed them with that bright pink membrane stuff that smells like brain damage in a can. I am not spatially oriented and he's not the brightest tool in the shed. We both spent quite some time going over my design for the tiles. I wish I had a video of it. Picture two squirrels trying to build a doghouse. Or something like that. I think (HOPE) we finally got it figured out because in the morning he will be laying the tiles. I'm tired of thinking about it, tired of getting up early and tired of having people in my house.

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We finally went to the grocery store for the BIG shopping. We were out of almost everything. I was making up crazy meals lately. (I don't mind running by the grocery store on Wednesdays after Meals on Wheels, but only to pick up a few items.) We were smart and went out to eat first and I decided to try to make the best of it. It was taking so long, at one point I actually went out to the car for a beer and cigarette break. That's the way to grocery shop!

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Oh yeah, the reason I brought up the grocery store: A couple of years ago we stopped smoking in the house. Generally we smoke in the backyard - we have a deck and patio. We do not have any outdoor covered areas though, so if it is raining or cold and windy we smoke in the garage and we usually open the door (it's a regular door to the side of the house, not the garage door) however, late at night and when it's REALLY cold, we smoke in the guest room. We do have a (very loud) air filter in there, but it can start to smell because the room is pretty small.

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Okay the reason I brought all that up is, I was looking at air fresheners and I noticed several of them had the scent "linen." Now maybe I'm just silly, but isn't linen cloth? Does cloth have a smell? I once owned something made of linen and it had to be dry cleaned. It always smelled like dry cleaning fluid. Even if you washed it at home, it would just smell like whatever your laundry detergent smelled like. It's not cabbage. "Cabbage has a cabbage smell," as Katie (Marjorie Main) said in Meet Me in St. Louis, but I don't believe that linen has a linen smell. My guess is the smell guys came up with a nice scent that didn't really smell like anything in particular and couldn't figure out what to call it.

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I looked up "linen" and it's a cloth made from flax. I take flaxseed oil every day. I wonder if I smell like linen? Naah. I probably smell like smoke.

Progress Report Day One

10:25 a.m. The contractor and the tile guy are tearing out the old tile. They actually got here at 9:00 and we discussed things, I signed things and I picked out grout. Then they left to buy stuff and now it has STARTED! (I met the contractor at Lowe's yesterday to pick out tile and come up with a design. I am happy with everything so far!)

12:30 p.m. The men went to lunch and all is quiet. That jackhammer WAS LOUD! The walls are stripped, the curb is gone and the floor is mostly out. They have theories on what caused the leak. Yesterday the contractor told me there was no work on the weekends, then today he asked if they could come back tomorrow. I thought that was a little odd. I said, "Sure!" The tile guy said he would be done with his part on Monday. That would be nice.

2:00 p.m. It has slowed down in there the contractor is putting in the new shower fixtures.

3:45 p.m. I was dozing on the couch watching Ellen when they decided they needed to go in and out eigteen THOUSAND times, slamming the door behind them. It was not conducive to a good nap.

5:15 p.m. I just walked the tile guy out. The contractor left about 1/2 hour ago. The tile guy and I discussed the placement of the niche and the decorative band of smaller tiles that will go around the shower. Then we sat in the garage and had a beer and a smoke together. I like to make friends with the people doing stuff in my house.

The light box is in place, the new drain is in and the wallwork around the "door" of the shower has been done as well as the curb (the tiny wall you step over to get into the shower). Tomorrow will be the fixtures (I was wrong earlier, he was doing stuff with the pipes), the shower pan, the cement board, the niche and the wall tiles. He expects to do the floor on Monday and be finished with the tile work. Yay! But I sure am glad to have those people out of my house!

How Rude!

I thought we would have flowers or something nice to give to our Meals on Wheels people today. They sent cookies. There was a note that said, "Do not deliver cookies to the diabetic clients." So the cookies were only for the people who get "regular" meals. My two favorite ladies that I have had for about 6 1/2 years now are diabetic and so I had nothing for them. I wish I had known. I thought that was rude.

You Heard It Here First

Maybe they should make edible Crazy String for cats.

Good idea or bad idea?

On the Bright Side!

The insurance claims adjuster was AWESOME! All we have to pay is our $500 deductible and the insurance company pays the rest - TO REPLACE THE ENTIRE SHOWER! If I want any extras, and I do, we have to also cover that. I want to get a built-in shelf or niche or whatever and also a shower light. They are also set-up with top notch contractors and I have an appointment with an estimator for Monday at 3:00. It's kinda funny that I was so mad at myself for taking so long in there with getting the wallpaper stripped and painting and now I'm SO GLAD I haven't painted in there yet. That would have been a bitch. Now I get a modern updated new shower at a fraction of the cost of just doing it for fun. Also, I finally got wise and took off my great shower head and put it in the other bathroom. I figure I'll be using the other shower for a while, I may as well not have to suffer any more. I'll still have to live with Step 5 of hell, though. I hate having workmen coming and going all day. It really throws your whole day off. I hated having those guys that built my deck over here every day and THEY WERE OUTSIDE! The guys that replaced my other bathroom floor last December were here less than 7 hours and it seemed LIKE AN ETERNITY! I will just drink A LOT of beer and watch TV. The end result will be worth it.

I saw the weirdest thing on Wednesday. I was on the highway on my way to pick up the Meals on Wheels food. I was behind a pickup truck with some stuff in the back. It looked like a microwave oven was just sitting on top of something without being tied down. I thought, "Why is that microwave just sitting there? Won't it slide off?" As I got closer I saw it was sitting on top of an oven. I kept looking to try to figure out why it didn't just slide off. I finally got close enought to see, as I passed it, that the microwave oven WAS ATTACHED to the oven. So basically it was a microwave oven on top of an oven with no stove top. How weird is that? What would you use that for? It was very strange.

I'm looking forward to Saturday Night Live. The guest host is Forest Whitaker. I'm expecting an awesome show. Have a great weekend!

The 6 Steps of Hell

The verdict is in. We need the whole shower pan replaced which entails sheet rock and tile work. Tomorrow will be the first day of the 6 step process of home repair (that I can't do myself) HELL:

Step 1: Spend what seems like the whole day on the phone explaining your problem over and over to see if someone will come out to give you an estimate.

Step 2: Waste several days waiting for strangers to come into your house and look over your stuff and write down HORRIBLE GIANT AMOUNTS of money on their estimate sheets.

Step 3: Brood and cry into your beer while you compare the estimate amounts to things like: cost of two airline tickets to Hawaii, A three-day getaway to someplace, or an entire new wardrobe. And I was just guessing there because the estimate may well equal all of those things combined.

Step 4: Make a final decision and then plan your life around having strangers working in your house.

Step 5: Live each day with all the strangers coming and going and telling you at various times that they didn't know "THIS was gonna be like THAT," and the only way it can be fixed is by spending more money and/or ordering something that will take about two weeks to get.

Step 6: Hand over a GIANT HORRIBLE amount of money to someone you've come to loathe and despise (and love in a sick Stockholm Syndrome manner).

Yay, is this gonna be fun or what?


UPDATE * * * UPDATE * * * UPDATE......

The insurance company told me not to do anything until the claims adjustor looks at it. He won't be here until Friday morning at 10:00. So I'm just going to enjoy having a high sixties degree day for Meals on Wheels tomorrow, enjoy the new season of "Survivor" on Thursday and then start the "process of hell" on Friday.

Home Repair Despair

I would draw a diagram of my master bathroom but it is nearly 4:00 a.m., so I'll just try to describe it. There is a vanity and a closet on each end (the west and east walls) and these areas are carpeted. Between these two areas is a tiled area with a garden tub on the northern (exterior wall) opposite a shower and toilet on the south wall. On Saturday I discovered that the carpet was soaking wet on the west vanity side. I had showered and knew it was shower related because my shower had been draining slowly and was backing up some.

I called the plumbers on Monday and told them to come on Tuesday after 10:00 a.m. I set my clock and got up. I carried the phone with me all day. They had called early to tell me they would call when a plumber became available. My daughter called once that afternoon and like a loon I shouted, "Call back on my cell phone! I Have to get off the phone!" (I don't have call waiting - I hate it.) Finally, close to 4:00 that Tuesday afternoon, they called to apologize and reschedule for the next day. Well, Wednesday comes after Tuesday and I had Meals on Wheels, grocery store, etc. so I told them Thursday after 10:00 a.m. Again, I set my clock (I usually sleep until 12:30 or 1:00) got up and dilligently carted my phone around like a cat would a freshly killed mouse. They called shortly after 10:00 to let me know they would call when a plumber became available. They called around 11:30 to ask if I would need any drain work because they had a plumber available but he had "no drain equipment." And that guy's a plumber?!? WTF!?! So I said, "Uhm, yeah, I'm gonna need somebody WITH drain equipment." They called at 1:30 to say, "This is a courtesy call to let you know we will call you when the next available plumber is on his way over." You gotta love that phone call that says "We are calling to say we're gonna call."

I had a roast I needed to marinade for Friday's dinner and chicken breasts to marinade for tonight's (Thursday's)dinner. I did not want to miss the phone call, so I figured out a way to marinade my pork roast with only one hand (it required rubbing an olive oil paste all over the thing) and it was quite tricky. However, I knew I couldn't clean chicken with one hand, so I was going to wait to hear something. At 3:55 they called to say the guy was on his way. In the past when a service company calls to tell me someone is on the way, the guy shows up in 15 or 20 minutes. I thought, "Great! I'll have the chicken done before 5:00 and it will have two whole hours to marinade." The guy didn't show up until FIVE O'CLOCK!

He said the water leak problem was one of two things: Either my shower pan was leaking - which is bad news or it was leaking around the tiles where the caulk was not good. Last fall I recaulked the bathtub in the other bathroom with the full intention of also redoing my shower. All the stuff is in there, but I never got around to it because it was SO MUCH MORE FUN to strip wallpaper. So on Friday (legally, TODAY) I'm going to recaulk my shower. I imagine this will be a blast what with my bad knee and all. After the caulk has cured, I will shower in there again and if it still leaks, well then it's the shower pan. Crap.

News not related to my shower woes: My Meals on Wheels training day went well. She was a cute 36-year-old and quite friendly - I had her drive me in her car because of my knee. She had recently sent her hair off to Locks for Love. I thought that was sweet. Everything went well and it was nice just to be out. I had a fun lunch at Bennigan's and then some beers at another place with a girl that I know from Bennigan's. I almost enjoyed going to the grocery store. My knee was pretty much okay for driving. The only problems with my knee were from getting in and out of cars. It's a lot better though. I just hope I don't irritate caulking the shower.

Is That a New Earring or Were You Tagged?

I got tagged by Ian for the "6 weird things about me." I pretty much thought this whole blog was weird things about me. I'll try to come up with 6 weird things:

1. I automatically don't like guys that look very northern European: meaning very pale skin, very light colored eyes and blonde hair. I have no reason for this. I probably should not go to Minnesota.
2. I've only been friends with one female in my whole life who dyes her hair blonde. I only accepted it because she had turned fully gray in her 20's. I just can't be friends with bleached blondes. I don't get it.
3. I have more fun (and am more comfortable) with strangers than I do with people I know.
4. I wash my hands probably twice as much when making a batch of deviled eggs for non-relatives.
5. I think people who have different political beliefs than I do are "just stupid."
6. I've broken the same bone twice - with TWO DIFFERENT bones. (Maybe I'm "just stupid")

These are the rules according to Ian:

THE RULES: Each player of this game starts with 6 weird things about him/herself. People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things, as well as state this rule clearly for the next tagged people. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged, and list their names. Don't forget to leave a comment on their blog that says, "You are tagged," and "tell them to read your blog."

Well, since three of the people I would have tagged (le nightowl, tai and djn) were also tagged by Ian and I think Josie and Jeanette just did this recently, I'll just tag Gary, Lone Grey Squirrel and Jr's Thumbprints.

You Can't Make This Stuff Up

I kinda glossed over the Wednesday night of January 3rd in my January 5th post, but something funny/annoying happened. What happened was, my daughter, who knew better, accidentally left the guest bathroom door opened. Rufus, our crazy cat, took that opportunity to roll an entire roll of toilet paper into the toilet. I DID mention that we had spent most of the evening at a bar so we were a little slow. When I discovered the toilet paper mess, I yelled for Kate and told her, "Look what you did!" We both stood there for a few minutes trying to figure out what to do. Finally I said, "Okay, we can't flush that much toilet paper. I'll get you some latex gloves. You can pull it out and put it into some double-bagged Target bags and I'll take it outside." So that's what we did.

I have a friend I'll call "Z." We do not spend a lot of time together as she has a young active family and works full time. And she doesn't drink - which is my full-time hobby. She lives on the other side of the metroplex, but we do spend a lot of time on the phone because of her insomnia (and I'm always up at night). Z called Monday night to tell me she had a conference on Tuesday on this side of town and would have a 1 and 1/2 hour break for lunch. She asked if I would be up (as in awake) for her to come over and hang out. I told her to call me when she was free and ready to come over. I got up and we were having a good ole visit when I noticed the bathroom door was open. I ran in and caught Rufus red-handed (black-pawed?) perched on the toilet and rolling the toilet paper into the toilet. I said, "Oh, Z, you left the bathroom door open!"

Z came into the bathroom and saw the reason for my distress. She immediately said, "Well give me some gloves and a grocery sack and I'll fish that out." I was VERY impressed and told her that's exactly what we did when my daughter left the door open. (I should have told her that she came up with the idea much faster than I did. But she doesn't drink so it makes sense.) Anyway, she took care of it, we laughed about it and a little bit later it was time for her to leave. About 20 minutes later she called and asked if her wedding ring had been left on my bathroom counter. I looked, told her, "Yes," and she said she would be by some time this week to retrieve her ring.

Today (Saturday) Z called. She said, "I'm on my way over. Don't be surprised if (my husband) calls. He doesn't believe my story." I was all ??????? Apparently, he didn't buy the cat/toilet paper story and thought . . . Hell, who knows what he thought (or thinks) but he thought she was lying. I'm still flabbergasted, shocked, surprised, flummoxed and just generally confused about the whole thing. He thought she was lying? WTF! YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP!!

Knee Update and Squirrel Story

My knee is healing slowly. Very slowly. I called Meals on Wheels on Monday to tell them I would need a sub for Wednesday. I realized that I had not been out since Wednesday the 10th and was getting cabin fever. Yes, me, the anxiety disorder/borderline agoraphobic actually wanted to go out. So Tuesday night we met my daughter at Razzoo's. I did not want to leave once I got there. I stretched it out as long as possible, but we finally left after my third beer. The hardest part was trying to get my right leg in the car. It would have been a lot easier if we had been in England and the passenger side was over there (on that side of the car, not in England.) I finally was able to kind of almost stand up in the car and swing my leg in. It was actually funny.

The part I dislike the most is I can't quite lift my leg as high as I would like in the shower to wash my right foot. (Oh a funny little thing happened in the shower today. Duke was playing at 6:00 and I got in the shower around 5:30. The first time I looked at the clock it was 20 'til, so I was taking my time. The next time I checked the clock, it was 20 'til. So I looked at the clock a little closer and it was 20 'til 2:00 and the second hand was not moving. I just thought it was goofy that I hadn't even noticed the little hand.) Anyway, it's frustrating that I can't really reach my right foot very well. I was telling My Sweetie how I feel like I'm walking around with one dirty foot. He said, "Maybe we should get you a shower monkey." Then I was picturing a little monkey washing my foot in the shower. And maybe washing my hair and scrubbing my back. Which is a pretty funny picture but in reality I am afraid of monkeys. Which leads me to. . .

Why I'm afraid of squirrels: It was the spring of 1981. I was still recuperating from my car accident. I was seeing a physical therapist for my arm but my broken leg and pelvis had pretty much healed. It was a very nice day and I decided to get some sun. I took a blanket out to the little greenbelt between my Dad's apartment and the woods. I had been out for a while when I started hearing a lot of noise off to my right. I looked over just as a cute little baby squirrel came bounding out of the woods. It was quite a way down on the greenbelt. In that sing-song voice that one is wont to do with animals, I called, "Hey little squirrel, hey little squirrel!" Well that little squirrel stopped and turned torwards me then started bounding toward me at full speed! It was so unexpected, it freaked me out and I jumped up and ran into the apartment, pulling the sliding screen door shut behind me. The little fence around the back patio was about 5 inches off the ground. That squirrel popped under the fence and climbed right up the screen door to my eye level! He just clung there chittering away. Say what you want about being afraid of squirrels but I KNEW this was NOT normal squirrel behavior. He stayed up there for some time. I was yelling, "Get down! Go away!" Finally I just closed the glass door and the curtain. I waited about 2 hours to retrieve my blanket and suntan lotion. And I never sunned out there again.


Meals on Wheels called me this afternoon and wants me to train another person. I felt like such a big girl!

Stupid Phrases and Size Does Matter

I can't think of the name of the online dating service - it's not match.com - but I remember when their commercials first aired. They claimed they had some comprehensive questionnaire with like a billion questions to help people find their perfect mate. I remember one of the "questions" floating by. It wasn't a question but a statement that I suppose the respondent would rate on a scale. The statement was "I find humor in everything." If the scale was 1 (least) and 10 (most), who on earth would click the 10? What a stupid "question!" I sincerely hopes no one finds humor in war, famine and disease. It should have been: "I try to find the humor in most situations" or something like that.

Another one that bothers me is "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem." Well that's not true. Let's say I'm in a room with a bunch of astrophysicists and they are trying to figure out how to land a craft on Enceladus (an active moon of Saturn). I obviously would not be part of the solution, but in no way shape or form could I be considered part of the problem.

Very close to that one is "Either you're with us or you're against us." Not true. Maybe I just don't care. An example here would be: There is a town that is 1000 miles away. An alligator is found in a pond. Half the town wants it killed, the other half wants it to live. I wouldn't be with or against either faction. I really wouldn't care.

Size Matters: I have a severe freakatude about spiders. If I see a large spider I will actually speak in tongues and do odd dances (convulsions). I saw a spider tonight and I actually felt my brain do some sort of calculation and decide that THAT spider was too small to freak out about. I have absolutely no idea what the criteria is for spider size. I guess some strange part of my brain decides on its own. If a spider is REALLY tiny, I will actually mash it with my finger, but I can't even be in the same room with a large spider. I wonder how that works?

Smells Like . . .

Except on Meals on Wheels Wednesdays, I usually start my day around noon and stay up until 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning. I also drink a lot of beer all day. I don't ALWAYS remember things I do at 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning. I got an e-mail the other day from a large big city newspaper asking my permission to publish my letter in their letters column. I had to go to my sent folder to figure out what the hell they were talking about. I can't say anything about it because I think they are going to use my real name.

A couple of weeks ago, again in the middle of the night, I got the great idea to send a suggestion to the S.C. Johnson company. About a week later I got a four page legal packet in the mail that contained

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

(yes it was in 36 pt. red all-caps boldface type) telling me how to legally submit my idea, along with a release form. I laughed and laughed. This line killed me:

Only those ideas with a patent or patent pending

application will be considered.

I don't have a copy of my "original idea" because I just filled in a box on their website, but I'm pretty sure it's not something you can patent. It was this:

Why don't you guys make a spray that smells like cedar?

That would be nice.

I Want My Smooth Back

Before I can finish my San Diego story or tell about my injured knee I have to explain something else. 2007, all 16 days of it, has been kinda sucky. Initially I had a hard time trying to figure out exactly what was going on, then once I figured it out, I had a hard time trying to convert it from an abstract concept to something I could put into words. I'll try to explain it. The expression I came up with is "I've lost my smooth."

Although I have my fair share of goofy moments (which have been well chronicled here), I'm a pretty capable person. Most of my life I've been several steps ahead of the game, imagining every possible outcome of any action, and planning accordingly. Also, when confronted with the unexpected, I'm quick on my feet. Lately I've been WAY off kilter. And particularly unsmooth.

We woke up in our lovely room, on Sunday, the 7th looking forward to our ferry trip to Coronado Island. My right foot was bothering me, particularly my little toe. Being the self-diagnostic type regarding anything about my body, I decided the problem was that my toenail was too long. Obviously clipping it would solve everything. And being the person that I am, I of course had nail clippers. I clipped that silly nail and decided everything would be fine after that. Shortly after lunch, as we were walking south on 5th avenue, I realized my problem was not solved. Still we continued to walk around stopping only once or twice for me to quaff some beers. We knew the ferry left on the hour and kept slightly missing our window of opportunity to head to the Broadway pier. Finally the timing seemed about right and we caught a cab for the pier. I was so happy knowing I would be sitting for 15 minutes. The day was gorgeous. I loved sitting on the ferry and looking at the water. I even had my little binoculars. For 15 minutes I forgot about my achy little toe.

We disembarked at a cheesy little tourist trap place. I was not impressed with the place although I found a surf shop with decently priced t-shirts and we found a little cafe where we had drinks on the deck and split a steamed artichoke. At the indoor bar, we asked if there were cabs for the grabbing to go to the hotel Del. The bartender said he could call for one and one of the patrons suggested we rent bikes to go there as it was only about a mile. My toe was KILLING me so that was not an option. We should have taken the bartender up on his offer, but we headed out and walked out to the public streets. Nothing. We did finally notice a shuttle stand. A shuttle to the Hotel Del even. So we sat there for 20 minutes to wait. Once we were finally on the shuttle, as I pondered my screaming toe ache, I realized I could have bought some flip-flops at the touristy place. The NORMAL me would have thought of that AT THE TIME, but not the new unsmooth me. So then I not only had a sore toe but was frustrated with myself. I continued down my path of unsmoothness. We walked through the shops at the Hotel Del. No flip-flops, just $145 moccasins and tennis shoes. No thanks. THEN I walked right past a bathroom - and yes I noticed it at the time. Since when do I not stop at a bathroom? I drink beer all day for crying out loud! Unsmooth. We ended up at the cabana bar out by the beach. Everything was gorgeous, the bartender was very nice, but I had to pee. And there was no way I was going to walk all the way back to that bathroom. I took my shoe off and the bartender gave me some ice. I iced my toe and had 2 or 3 beers.

The way to look for the bunnies was in the opposite direction of the bathroom, but I wanted to find the bunnies so we headed off that way. They are no longer there. I found the place where they used to be, but no bunnies. I hate to think of what happened to them. I'm sure they didn't just LEAVE - I mean it's an island, where would they have gone? Let's not think about the bunnies anymore.

We made it back to the main part of the hotel, found the bathroom and My Sweetie said, "Okay, let's just get a cab back to our hotel." Best plan ever! When we got back to our room, I took those shoes off and may never wear them again. Now is a time to mention that since it was such a short trip, I only took the one pair of shoes, but I did have my L.L. Bean moccasin slippers. Yes, my house shoes, or in this case, my smoking shoes. Our hotel was non-smoking except on the roof, so I had brought those to wear up to the roof in the mornings and late at night. Desperate times call for desperate measures. I decided to wear my slippers for the rest of the trip. If you want to feel weird, sit in a fancy restaurant in the Gaslamp District of San Diego in your slippers. Wearing them to the airport the next day was awesome though, and I may fly in them from now on.

At the airport, we pretty much had the bar to ourselves. I made up a game where we did a pictionary type thing of movie titles. It was pretty funny. And the plane! I think there were maybe 15-20 people on the whole MD-80. I haven't been on an empty plane in years! That part was NICE. I forgot to mention that I was full-blown sick at this point so I pretty much slept the whole way home. I didn't even have a beer, just orange juice - and if you knew me you would know that meant I was really sick.

On Tuesday, I was so sick I forgot to call Meals on Wheels and tell them, so I had to buck up and go out on Wednesday. Friday night brought the beginning of our arctic blast. It was basically a stay-in-the-house weekend. On Sunday night, My Sweetie bundled up to "go out and check conditions." He said, "There's no ice on the road." I heard, "There's no ice on the ground." Our power had been going out for about 5 minutes at a time. When it came back on the air blower for our spa would come on. We don't use it and it's very shrill so he had turned it off. Well, after he went to bed, the power went out again for about 9 minutes. It came back and shrill air blower was screeching away. I decided to go out and push that little button by the spa. "No ice on the road" does NOT mean "No ice on the deck." I know that NOW. My left foot went up on the deck, I mean sheet of ice, and every part of my body flew left except my right foot from the knee down. It all happened pretty fast but it was bad. Then I went straight down on my butt and burst into tears from the knee pain. I hobbled back into the house blubbering away, woke up My Sweetie, freaking him out. He cut the power to the spa and helped me settle down with an ice pack and a small ice chest of beers. The next day he bought me an Ace knee brace, and it is doing better - my knee I mean. Slipping on ice - not smooth.

I want my smooth back.

Two Words at a Time

Icy Weekend

Nice Fires

Weird Movies

Power Outages

Icy Deck

Injured Knee

Enough Said

More Later

San Diego Started Out Well. . .

For all of you "airplane cold" conspiracy theorists out there (you know who you are, and if you don't, just read the comments from the last post) I did NOT get my cold from the plane. Both my daughter and my husband were sick the week before I left, but being the psychotic, oh wait, psychic doctors that we are, we decide ourselves whether we have colds or allergies. Of course, both Kate AND My Sweetie diagnosed themselves with allergies. Yeah, I'm gonna say no. I remember as Kate was driving me to the airport on Saturday morning I said, "I have the weirdest sinus ache. It's just on the right side in like a 3 point triangle between my two eye points and the bottom of my nose." I decided to ignore it because I'm good at that type of thing. I got to the airport and breezed right through check-in and security. I found a Friday's near my gate and parked myself. I was more concerned with their TV just above me because Duke would be playing their first conference game at 11:00 and I knew I had time to watch the whole first half. Sure enough, the TV was tuned to ESPN. It was all good at that point.

I ordered a giant beer and started watching the game. I doubt any of my readers watched this game, but take my word for it: if you were a Duke fan you would have HATED this game! At home I cuss a lot when I watch Duke play, but I was sitting in a public place so I had to be aware of my "reactions." And believe me, I was having A LOT of reactions. I kept consoling myself with my usual mantra of "we will fix all of this in the second half," but it was hard to leave at halftime. I was on the starboard side of the plane in an aisle seat next to two broads who seemed to know each other but weren't really friends. They were kind of amusing. Also we had the emergency exit and I knew they could handle the heavy lifting in case of emergency while I would direct people and tell them to shut up, I mean calm down. On the port side next to me (with just the two seats) was a guy with a laptop that he had placed on the window seat table. He watched every single part of one of the Zorro dvd's. I couldn't even hear it and I grew tired of the "behind the scenes" stuff.

I didn't stop in the San Diego airport for a beer because, quite frankly, I did not need another one at this point, plus I was far more interested in getting outside for a smoke. It was fun going down the escalator and seeing the handsome young man holding a card with my name on it. I told him I was going out to smoke and he came with me. I thought that was cute. We went back inside and I pointed out my bag and he grabbed it. He was very nice and pretty much kept up with my incessant chatter. He told me that after he dropped me off he would be going to get My Sweetie from Torrey Pines. I said, "Tell him I'll be sitting right there." I was pointing at the bar diagonal to my hotel.

I got to the hotel almost two hours before check-in and was going to check my bags, but the clerk said the room was ready. That was great! I got to redistribute my stuff so I'd only have my tiny purse, AND brush my teeth. Oh yeah, the room. First of all, he said it was on the 7th floor. I was kinda disappointed. Then I walked into the room and was confused. It was a good sized room, but there was no bed, just two small couches facing each other. I walked to the end of the room and there was A DOOR! We had a separate bedroom! It was awesome. AND it was a corner room so we had windows EVERYWHERE! And there was a giant window seat cushion in the bedroom window. It was really nice. NOW it was time for a beer. I went down to that bar - the Gaslamp Tavern - and people were cheering and yelling at (for?) the football playoffs. I immediately asked some sports savvy looking guys if they knew how the Duke game ended. Yeah, not good. I was sitting next to two sisters from L.A. and we chatted it up until My Sweetie showed up.

We eventually went back to the room, got the camera, jackets and whatnot and headed out for the night. We bar hopped, had a great dinner, bar hopped some more, sang and danced in the street (HE said I did) and then headed back to the room. We were going to watch "Buffy" but we both crashed on our couches. I woke up after midnight my time (yes only 10:00 in California!) brushed my teeth and went to bed. Sometime in the middle of the night I woke up with terrible foot pain, but I was too tired to get up for Advil. That was a portent for the rest of the trip . . .


(And thank you all so very much for the "Get Well" wishes!)

Sick Sucks

I woke up in San Diego Sunday night with a horrible full-blown head cold. I made the mistake of doing my Meals on Wheels today, when I should have been home sleeping. I feel horrible. I will post the fun stuff when I am well.
:(

I'm Off!

I guess most people were getting back to their normal routines this week after the holidays, but not me. I guess I'll start next week. My Sweetie left for California Wednesday morning. After Meals on Wheels, I had lunch at Bennigan's, ran by Marshall's for some cute tops for my trip, hit the grocery store and came home. About 5 minutes later my daughter showed up and Wednesday night was one long party. We had a really good time at a new neighborhood bar. After we got home I showed her some youtube stuff and we started to watch my new "Buffy," but we both crashed. I woke up in my recliner at 6:00 a.m. and had to brush my teeth for about twenty minutes. Kate had Thursday off and stayed all day. We watched Phantom of the Opera around 2:00 and then spent the next two hours singing things like, "I'm going to get another beer now." and "What shall we order for dinner?" I did get a few chores done. Kate left late Thursday night. I spent today packing and organizing for my trip (like cleaning the humidifiers and watering the plants). Around 3:00 today, I was trying to print stuff for the trip and kept getting blank pages. I was getting very frustrated. I kept looking over every option for my printer, kept changing settings, yet kept getting blank pages. Finally I did the nozzle check thing and after the page printed out and I compared it to the screen I noticed 2 things: My nozzles are printing perfectly and I HAD NO BLACK INK. What happened was, when I replaced those cartridges recently, I put in one called "photo" and one called "color." I'm guessing one of them should have said "BLACK." So I ended up printing the scoring rules for gin rummy, Gaslamp District entertainment info, and MY PLANE TICKET in either red or green. It's all very festive. I'm not even sure which cartridge I should change to black, but I guess I'll just deal with that later. I have to leave for the airport in 8 hours, so I guess I should try to get some sleep. I hope I have fun. Fun is a good thing to have!

San Diego, I Hear Ya Calling

This is a picture of a room at the Gaslamp Plaza Suites - from their website - and I would swear it's the exact room we stayed in last year. Seriously, if I had leaned my butt on the minifridge, I could have taken that exact picture. I have a feeling we will be in the same room on Saturday. It's not a giant hotel and has several floor plans, but we've been guaranteed a top floor room facing south and I don't think there are that many up there -and some of them are privately owned. Anyway, I was looking at their floor plans here: http://www.gaslampplaza.com/floorplan.html and I sure hope we don't get a room with the bottom left floor plan because I won't be able to figure out how to get into the bathroom.

Last year we pretty much took it easy because of my healing broken foot. It's all here. This year I want to take the ferry to Coronado Island. The ferry dock (is that correct? ferry dock? It sounds like a character from Lord of The Rings) is only one mile from our hotel. I haven't been to the Hotel Del in over 12 years. I don't even remember what year I went. What I mostly remember was The Hotel Del Coronado had a bunny problem. There were bunnies everywhere. You had to "help" them out of the hotel sometimes. I love bunnies. I hope they are all still there.

So far, the long term weather predictions for San Diego are 66 - 70 degrees/day and 46 - 50 degrees/night. That sounds good to me. I'm looking forward to splashing through the bay on the ferry on a fine sunny 68* day on my way to see some bunnies. That's my plan for this Sunday. I would have added more but I was dizzy from stringing all those prepositional phrases together. And now I'm going to visit my own bathroom, because I know where the door is.