Blogging 2007 Style

I was clicking around and stumbled on Karla's blog. She did an interesting thing for her year in review, which was to link to one previous post from each month of 2007. I think it's fun to go back and read through old posts to see where you were and what was important back then.

Before I list my posts, let me say this - 2007 was kind of a hard year for my family. We had some good ups, but we also had a lot of shocking downs. Many of these I have not blogged about because they were really too personal to other people to mention to the world. Also, I think I kind of used blogging about silly news stories and my crazy kids as kind of way to keep sane in the midst of all our crises. If you can't find something to laugh about and make you happy - well what's the point??? Suffice it to say that we all fervently hope that 2008 will be really uneventful.

Enough of that. Here's my list:

January - "A Great Big Long Rant"
Me ranting?? No way!! This is about a documentary I saw about the MPAA - the people who stick PG or R on movies.

February - "Carbon Neutral, But Chock Full O'Methane"
Surprise, surprise - another rant. If you're super-green you'll hate this one. Go plant a tree instead of reading this.

March - "Tasina Appleseed....or how I learned to hug a tree"
Ha ha! This post is the culmination of an argument that began with the February post. I had a mostly fun/kinda serious back-and-forth going with my aunt (via MySpace) and this was my last word on the subject.

April - "Strange News, Good News, and Really Weird Views."
I must be doing something wrong when I link to news articles because all these links are broken? Or is it that they (the news folk) only keep them active for so long? Anyway, I mostly put this one up because it's one of the few times I blogged about Jeff (hubby) - just skip down to the parts about him.

May - "Um"
The picture still cracks me up - click to see.

June - "Beautiful Video"
Wow only 5 posts in June. Bad blogger.

July - "Chantix - Day 1" and "Chantix - Day 8"
I'm including two here just so you can see how far I've come now. I don't even really think about smoking all that much anymore. The smell of smoke on people just makes me want to gag too. Wow. I can't believe this was just back in July.

August - "Sing!!!!"
This is about 3 weeks smoke-free and was a happy side-effect of quitting.

September - "One last post"
Another rant. I'm starting to feel like kind of a brat.

October - "Never a dull moment"
Tasina - 0, Stairs - 1

November - "Hey Ya!"
What really happened with the stairs.

December - "Nice try though"
Sigh - another tantrum. I guess I know what my resolution should be for this year.......NOT.

HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone!!!

Weeping Meatloaf

I hate meatloaf. It's just never really impressed me in any way. But I was watching Good Eats with Alton Brown and he did a meatloaf that I thought looked really good. (Maggie calls the food shows "food porn" which never fails to crack me up.) The basic premise of Alton's meatloaf is that you don't cook it in the loaf pan - you turn it out on a cookie sheet so that you have more surface area for the yummy glaze. This seemed to make all kinds of sense to me and I think it is valid logic. The problem is that the REST of the recipe was kinda yucky. I have named this recipe Weeping Meatloaf (and I hope Mr. Brown doesn't sue me) for three reasons.

1. 1/2 onion and 1/2 a red bell pepper go into this thing. My eyes were just streaming tears.
2. When it finally came out of the oven, there was a pool of really nasty looking grease weeping out of it and pooling around the base. Not yummy.
3. Spending this much time, effort, money on new gadgets, and tears on this thing makes me cry even more.

Furthermore, I found the recipe to be annoying. I'm not the world's most precise cook - I usually just throw things together. But if I give a recipe to someone else, I try to figure out measurements that will be meaningful to the other person. Weeping Meatloaf calls for really imprecise things like 1/2 onion (size? color?), 1 carrot, 1/2 red bell pepper, 3 cloves garlic, dash of this, dash of that, etc. Not super helpful.

In any event, this thing wound up tasting like a big greasy baked vaguely loaf shaped lump of taco meat. Whoopee.

Here's the link in case you have to serve a meal to people you don't really like.

Weekly Winners 12.30.07

Idea, organization, and all-around coolness the brainchild of Lotus.

I'm so new to this. Please click pictures to view fuller. If you have any tips on how to put these on here in a more interesting way (MAGGIE HELP ME), please let me know.

LOLCAT

LOLKID

I'm really going to regret this at bedtime.

This is so naughty that it makes me want to hyperventilate.

I'm peenching ur head.

GASP for real

I think I just hyperventilated.

Really.

Dylan was vacuuming the living room (because of the styrofoam - pictures tomorrow) and Noah threw a sock at him. Dylan then accidentally vacuumed up the sock. This alone was funny but when you add in the look of horror and panic on Dylan's face when he saw the sock spinning around in the little collection basket thingy it became unbelievably freakin' hilarious. I started laughing....this gets so confused....I like blacked out for a second or two....and then my hands and face were all tingly....and my head felt like it was shaking back and forth but it actually wasn't.....then I felt all dizzy. A couple minutes later I felt perfectly fine.

Weird. Dylan says that kind of in the middle of laughing I took this huge, deep breath before the weirdness happened. Maybe I'm making too big a deal of this but it just felt so weird. I'm assuming I didn't do something really scary like have a quasi cerebral hemorrhage or a mini-stroke.

If you've ever hyperventilated (or had a quasi cerebral hemorrhage or mini-stroke) and any of this sounds familiar, please let me know. No more crazy laughing for me for a while. I think I'll be morose for the rest of the weekend. :-\

GASP

Just got my bill from the ambulance company. I'm really glad the billing department is not running the dispatch department - this accident happened two months ago. Here's the breakdown:

BLS Emergency - $369.36 I have no idea what "BLS" is. Maybe...."Blubbering Lug Slipped?" Does this charge differ based on emergency? Is this the "clumsy fool Aunt Bunny-ed down the steps" charge. (10,000 bonus points if you get the Aunt Bunny reference.) Is there a "moronic idiot with a power drill" emergency charge that costs more?

BLS Mileage - $9.17. The hospital is, at most, 3 miles from my house. I guess they're figuring about $3.00/gallon for gas?? Who knows?

Decontamination - $39.87. WTH???? No one sprayed me with Lysol or Clorox that I can remember. I know my basement steps needed to be vacuumed, but I don't think I needed to be decontaminated after touching them. Sheesh.

BLS Pers Care Supply - $20.48. Again, no clue. "Personal Care Supply"???? No one gave me Kleenex or wet wipes. Maybe this is for the gloves that the paramedic had to wear to protect herself from my contaminated filth.

BLS Disposable Sup - $0.00. Ok, no argument from me on this one. I'll pay it.

Pulse Ox Probe - $37.55. This is either that thing they stick on your finger to measure your blood oxygen or someone made a side trip to perform veterinary services on a farm animal and are trying to pass the charges off on me.

All I can say is I LOVE AFLAC. I submitted this bill to my AFLAC rep today and it takes less than a week (generally) to get a check from them. Quack quack. I'm sold on them for life.

Finally, some pictures!!

Happy Brothers
Perfect Christmas Portrait
Lying to Santa
That's way too much flash lady!
Bye bye ghetto camera

Tagged!

I'm such a newbie at this. I only learned what a meme was like a month or so ago. Well I have now been tagged so here it goes:

Name Game Meme

Tagged by: Lotus

Using the first letter of your name, answer these questions. They have to be real answers, nothing made up, and you can’t use your own name as an answer.

1. Famous singer: Tony Bennett

2. Four letter word: Tail

3. Street: Tenth

4. Color: Taupe

5. Gifts/presents: Tableware

6. Vehicle: Toyota

7. Things in a souvenir shop: T-shirts

8. Boy name: Tim

9. Girl name: Tina

10. Movie title: Tango & Cash

11. Drink: Tea

12. Occupation: Teacher

13. Celebrity: Tom Cruise

14. Magazine: Time

15. U.S. city: Tallahassee

16. Pro sports: Tennis

17. Fruit: Tangerine

18. Reason for being late for work: Taking a nap

19. Something you throw away: Trash

20. Something you shout: Tag me with a meme again and I'll kill you!!!

I’m tagging: Julie and Kathleen (I'm not sure how to link to a MySpace blog and she might not want me to anyway.) I'm tagging these two because 1. I'm a dork with not many blog friends and 2. J and K are going to be REALLY hard!! :)

Pictures this weekend - I swear!

Excuses, excuses, and love

Ok. I know I promised Christmas tree pictures. I'm a horrible tease. You certainly won't get them now because we are at my mom's. BUT!!!! I have something like an excuse. I have a cousin that has always been more like a niece to me. I love this girl with all my heart. She was very ill and I was beside myself with worry. I am thrilled to announce that she is now ok AND that I am a proud new great-"aunt" to her gorgeous little boy who was born yesterday. Woohoo! Mom and baby are doing well and I'm going to pester her mercilessly until she brings him home for a visit so that I can plant kisses all over him.

Further happy news - apparently someone heard/read my temper tantrum from a few days ago and magically dropped a $300+ insurance check in my mail. In the interest of good pictures (and, I'm sure, shutting me up), dear sweet hubby went out and bought me a fancy schmancy new digital camera. So I PROMISE that I will put up pictures (nice ones) before the end of the year.

I don't know that I'll post again before Christmas so......

To all the Chantix/Quit Smoking bloggers - I'm so glad we all gave ourselves such a wondeful present this year. Not only did we quit smoking, we also found some of the coolest, funniest, most honest, and most supportive people on-line.

To all the Mom Bloggers - I hope the little brats appreciate all the money we spent. Uh, I mean, I hope you and your families have a nice holiday. It's nice to know I'm not the only mommy quietly going nuts in front of my computer.

To all my other readers and blog friends - thank you for all the comments and gems that made me think, laugh, gasp, and roll my eyes.

Also thanks to everyone who left such nice comments about my knee injury and didn't once tell me to quit complaining, get over it, and learn to walk the dang stairs already.

Ok ok, I'm a jerk

LOL. The Thanksgiving pictures are, indeed, on the laptop. So most of that tantrum from yesterday was for no good reason at all. Of course now the tree pictures are downstairs on the PC. So I think what I'll do is give you a turkey picture and put up the tree pictures later tonight when I finally get downstairs.

Interruption. The doorbell just rang. I received something I ordered from Amazon. Also, someone sent me a package of really nice cheeses. Cheeses are as good as (maybe better than) hot chocolate for making me a happy camper. Thank you from the bottom of my heart cheese sender person.

Here's the turkey...I need to find some crackers and a knife:

Nice try though

Introduction.
So I was all set to be a better blogger. I was going to put up my Thanksgiving pictures, my decorating the tree pictures, and even offer to email any (weirdly) interested parties the pictures of my Franken-knee. I swear I was going to do all these things. But then it all just started to go downhill.

1. Ghetto camera.
I got my digital camera free when I bought my laptop. (Lucky for me or you'd still be looking at bad scans of crappy Polaroids.) Well at some point the digital camera got dropped and the spring loaded battery compartment door broke. This causes the batteries to be loose and the camera won't work. Normal people might buy a new camera. Not El Cheapo. I just slapped a rubberband around it and called it good (nevermind the fact that the rubberband doesn't really hold and I'm going through batteries like a....LOL....all my similes are nasty...forget it). So anyway, I sat down here with ghetto camera, the batteries are dead, and now I'm already cranky about the whole operation. (If you find "ghetto camera" to be racist in some way, just switch it to "rez camera" and back off.)

2. Idiot me.
After I FINALLY get ghetto camera working I realize that I deleted all the pictures from Thanksgiving without downloading them. Moron. Somehow I managed to do this without deleting the Franken-knee pictures. I'm not sure how this happened. But it was almost surely I who did it. Luckily my dad was also taking pictures at Thanksgiving, but those pictures are sitting 50 miles away on his computer instead of RIGHT HERE IN FRONT OF ME THIS INSTANT LIKE I WANT THEM TO BE!!!

Sorry. I didn't even do a tantrum alert.

3. Possible further idiot and most certainly lazy me.
There is a teeny tiny chance that the Thanksgiving pictures DID get downloaded and are, in fact, upstairs on the laptop. I have a Vicodin-hazy memory of Jeff downloading some pictures at my request. Why not go check? Because the laptop is upstairs and I am downstairs. Everyone remembers about me and stairs, right???? Furthermore, Jeff is gone, Noah is sleeping, and Dylan probably isn't speaking to me (for a whole host of other making-Tasina-cranky reasons). I am WAAAAAAY too chicken to try the stairs alone. Plucka-plucka. And I'm also WAAAAAY too pessimistic (at this point) to believe that dragging my lame ass up there will result in there actually being pictures on the laptop. I think that they WILL NOT be there and I will just be more mad....and having to navigate the stairs again.

In conclusion.
I'm very sorry that you came here to my blog expecting maybe a pleasant little snippet or (how hopeful of you) maybe even some pictures and INSTEAD got me having a tantrum and being kind of a brat.

P.S. At least I'm not smoking. That's good.

P.P.S. Remember a couple of posts ago when I was so happy that the $40 monthly smoker fee is coming off my insurance? We found out today that Jeff's insurance (which covers him and the boys) is going up $40 a month. :-/

P.P.P.S. I promise to try very hard to NOT be like this tomorrow.

P.P.P.P.S. Maybe.

P.P.P.P.P.S. What I really need is some hot chocolate. But that's upstairs too. :(

For the mice

Julie thought that maybe glow in the dark cats would be good for mice. But according to this article, I think the mice are going to be just fine.

I was kind of gently reminded that I have been a bad blogger lately. Sorry. I guess NaBloPoMo wore me out.

I have been back to work. I still have some swelling in the evenings, but I'm not using the evil evil cryo cuff anymore. No thanks. I also am having a really weird pain that is very hard to describe, but I'll give it a try. OK - this surgery cannot avoid some amount of nerve damage to the front of the leg. So from right below my knee to my ankle I have numb spots. They are very superficial - it's just the skin that's numb....I can feel pressure. Well anyway, I get this shooting, burning pain that goes up and down the front of my leg. It's pretty bad. Have you ever gotten your hands or your feet REALLY cold? Like just-this-side-of-frostbite cold? And then when you start to warm back up it's unbearably painful? That's what this feels like. It seems to happen only at night. I don't know if it's because I'm in a physically different position (lying down or whatever) or because of the stress on the leg during the day. It's really not fun. Also, today was the last day of the crutches. I have been trying to hobble around the house for the past couple of nights. It's very scary. The whole leg is very weak because it hasn't been used. It's almost like I've forgotten how to walk - I can't remember how to make the motion....I feel like I look stupid too. *sigh*

Sorry - I didn't mean to go off on a long pout. It just seems very weird to me to not have any pain at all in either the area of the original injury or the hamstring (from where the new ligament was harvested). I get a little tiny bit sore in the middle of the knee....but not horrible pain like this nerve thing.

Ok - Jeff just brought me a mug of hot chocolate. I am a happy camper now. Leg schmeg. I have warm chocolate liquid and marshmallows. Woo hoo!!

So many kinds of wrong

Glow-in-the-dark cloned cats (not Kats).

What a horrible thing to do to living creatures. I'm not 100% against cloning - I think there could be real medical reasons to do it. But to make a designer glow-in-the-dark kitty????? No.

We're moving

Cougars. 'Nuff said.

(Ok, Deadwood is a couple hundred miles from here - but it's a SMALL STATE!)

Weekly Non-participant

I see a bunch of my blog friends have been doing something called Weekly Winners. They pick their favorite photos from the last week and post them. It's been neat looking at all the pictures. I go through cycles with my picture taking. Sometimes the camera is glued to my head for weeks on end and at other times I just can't seem to remember to take pictures. Somewhere in the middle is where I am now. I've only been taking pictures of "big" occasions - Halloween, Thanksgiving, etc. Then it takes me forever to remember to get the pics off the camera. (Hey - part of that is due to the injury. All the camera software is on the PC which is downstairs. I've been blogging and doing almost everything from the laptop since the big fall. Furthermore, there are only so many good pictures that one can take from the couch - I've been sitting in this spot for a month and am completely sick of it and the view.) Anyway, I've really been enjoying all your photos and maybe will join the game.....sometime.

We're going to put up the tree today. That's picture worthy. I love having the Christmas tree up. It's a pain in the butt with the cats and world's tiniest living room, but it still looks so pretty. It will help the view from the couch immensely!

Noah and I were eating baby carrots yesterday and talking about what different animals eat. Here was his contribution:

"Blueberry dogs eat blueberries and they live in a blueberry world."

Maybe not exactly true, but it makes a wonderful mental image.

Four Months!!!

Four months smoke free is a very important marker for me. After being smoke-free for four months, I get to remove the smoker penalty from my health insurance. I am now saving an extra $40/month on top of the other savings from quitting. Yippee!!

Random

Got the staples out today. Didn't get a chance to save one for Noah. I did, however, get a set of pictures of the inside of my knee. I'm thinking about using the images for our holiday cards this year. They don't really look like anything. I found myself politely nodding at what the doctor was showing me just like you do when someone tries to point things out on an ultrasound picture. I thought about posting the pictures up here, but that seems really grisly.

So I did finish "The Time Traveler's Wife." It was pretty good. A keeper. One I'll likely read again. There are still some free will issues that bother me. I just don't think the wife had many options but to marry the guy. It borders on creepy that he seemed to kind of groom her to be his wife. It got me on a line of thought that could lead to crazy-ville. There seems to be a certain percentage of life that is governed purely by randomness. No matter how many plans you make or how careful you are or what you do, things will happen to you just because. Like....falling down the steps or whatever. How much of the rest of my life is changed because of what happened on those steps? What would be different right this instance if it had never happened? Or....what if Noah was a girl? Would something more fundamental than my floor being covered with Barbies rather than Hot Wheels happen? Or that horrible mall shooting on the news today. Things like that really drive me nuts. What if one of those people decided to go shopping yesterday instead of today? I really can't let myself go down these paths very far. I have to believe that the percentage of our lives that are ruled by chaos is so tiny that the chance of major changes is very small. Maybe that's being completely naive, but if life were HUGELY random, then what would ultimately be the point of planning anything?

There was one other part of the book that bothered me. One of the characters voices the opinion that adopting a child is "cheating" and that they must have a "real" child. The character who says this is otherwise an appealing character - it's not a "bad" character who says/does other "bad" things. I find that viewpoint to be really offensive. Certainly adoption isn't for everyone, but why paint it in such an unflattering light? That attitude makes it seem like the love that adoptive families feel for each other is also not "real" and that it's just a sad substitute for a "real" family. I would hope the author didn't intend to come across this way, but she did.

Swell Time

I tried to go back to work today. By 2:30 my knee had completely ballooned up and hurt like a....thing that hurts bad. I was not a happy camper. I had to come home and elevate it and put the evil cryo cuff back on. I've had many jobs I didn't really like and taken classes that were mind-numbingly boring and would have PAID for a reason to stay home at those times. So now when I have a job I do like, people I like to work with, a ton of stuff to do....of course this happens. I was able to do some stuff from home. It's just frustrating. I even called my mom and had a tantrum over the phone. Bleh.

I have to see the surgeon tomorrow. I wonder if he's going to take out the staples. I have 14 staples covering 3 incisions. Noah has been wildly curious about the staples. He first wanted to know if they hurt (they don't). He then wanted to know if I would have them forever (I'd better not). When I told him that the doctor would take them out he wanted to know if THAT would hurt (I don't think so) and if it would bleed (maybe). I was worried that he would find my leg scary or upsetting - but he's cool with it all. He's mostly curious. I almost wish I could take him with me when I get them out. Is that creepy? (Kat???) Maybe I'll save one for him.

I'm reading a very strange book called "The Time Traveler's Wife." I think I like it. I really like the idea of time travel. This book is kind of messing me up though. The wife of the title meets her husband when she's 6 and he's....I don't know...way older. She keeps meeting him throughout her childhood/teen years. Then they "really" meet when she's 20 and he's 28. But as he gets older he goes back to visit her when she's younger. Ok. Well he would not have done that in the future if he had not met her and married her at 28 right? But SHE would not have loved and married him at 20 if she had not known and loved him since she was 6. Right? I don't know. I'm not sure that it matters ultimately. One thing I do like about the book is that it's about people my age in my time. Does that make sense? The wife character was born in 1971 and grows up liking the same music and movies as me. While there are tons of books in many time periods that I love, it's kind of nice to read something truly contemporary once in a while. Maybe reading "older" books is the only way we ever time travel. Who are we and where are we when we read those?

Quite Possibly the Dumbest Thing I've Ever Read

There are lots and lots of good reasons to try to make a marriage work. There are also many understandable reasons to leave a marriage. People have their own reasons for doing whatever they do. But I honestly cannot imagine a scenario that would go something like this:

"Honey, I'm leaving you - it's over."

"You can't leave me."

"Why not?"

"Because it's bad for the planet."

Give me a break. This makes me want to burn tires again.

Also - I saw that tortoise and hare Chantix commercial tonight. I know it's not the same guy, but the narrator sounds just like the guy from those old 7Up commercials. I kept expecting to hear, "Nevah had it, nevah will."

Stew

Here's a beef stew I made up. I read through a lot of different beef stew recipes and this is my version.

Ingredients

olive oil
beef stew meat
2/3 cup flour
salt & pepper to taste
2 cans beef broth
1 can Italian style diced tomatoes
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup red wine
1 tsp thyme
yellow onion (I just cut off a side and put it in like that - didn't dice)
2 cloves garlic
1/3 cup diced portobella mushrooms
1 package frozen mixed vegetables (corn, carrots, green beans)
1/2 box rotini

Directions

Heat olive oil in large skillet.
Combine flour, salt, and pepper in a baggie.
Dredge stew meat in flour mixture.
Lightly brown meat in batches.
Remove meat to crock pot/slow cooker.
After all meat is browned, slowly add 1 can beef broth to skillet to make a roux (make sure to scrape up all yummy brown bits), then dump into crock with other can of beef broth.
Add diced tomatoes, red wine, bay leaf, thyme, onion and garlic.
Cook on high for 4 1/2 hours.
45 minutes before serving, add frozen veggies, mushrooms, and rotini.
Continue cooking on high until noodles are tender.
Serve with crusty bread.

This turned out really good. Perfect for a snowy winter day. I might make some changes next time though. I prefer to use beef stock for things like this - broth has so much salt. I might also try different mixed vegetables - maybe carrot/broccoli/cauliflower/water chestnut. Colorful noodles might be fun too - or maybe egg noodles. One nice thing about recipes like this is that you can add/remove things as you like.

P.S. In the interest of full disclosure, I should note that Jeff actually *made* this - but I made it up and walked him through it. But now he knows how to do and can from now on!!!

Big Dork

Ok - maybe every 13 year old kid in the country knows how to do this, but ** I ** just figured out how to get videos off my phone and on to YouTube. I was going to subject everyone to a little clip of my stitches and gigantic disgusting bruising, but I figured this was WAY cuter.

Snow

We're getting our first snowfall today. It looks really pretty from my perch on the couch. I'm not looking forward to dancing around in it with my crutches, but I'll just have to make do. Actually, by the time I go anywhere on Monday this will probably all be gone. Jeff took Dylan out for his first drive in snow. That's upsetting. I can just HEAR the gray hairs springing out of my head. I guess he did ok - I don't really want to know. We're supposed to get 3 to 5 inches. The first snow is always kind of scary. You have to remember how to drive in it and walk on it and all that. The summer makes it easy to forget.

I was supposed to wait until Monday to take a shower, but I couldn't stand it anymore. My hair felt like it had been dipped in Crisco. I didn't get my incisions wet so I think I'm ok. I think I needed the psychological boost of being clean and dressed and sitting up. Stewing in my own stink was just making me depressed. I feel way better now.

The pain is not nearly as bad as yesterday. In fact, I haven't taken a pill of any kind at all today. It only hurts if I put any pressure on it. It's really hard to explain. And it doesn't hurt anywhere near the knee itself - but down by my ankle. I know that doesn't make any sense - but I think that's where the nerve endings come back to life. My harvested hamstring is a little sore too.

A friend of mine who I know reads this blog from time to time is getting married today. I really wanted to be there for it, but there's just no way.

S - He's a lucky guy and I wish you all the happiness in the world!!!

Wrong

I blogged too soon. The pain today has been almost unbearable. It feels like someone is taking a blowtorch to my leg as it simultaneously splinters into a million pieces. I've got my leg in the motion machine right now. Surprisingly, doing this doesn't hurt. It's only when ** I ** try to move around. It doesn't make any sense to me at all.

The whole day has been so surreal. I actually did some work from my work laptop. I've watched movies. I've wept in agony. I've Twittered. I napped, ate, got sick. Now I'm blogging. I can't believe I've done all this in one day. Being in the movement machine must be like entering a parallel universe. Ha. Happy pills kicking in I think.

I really hate that cryo cuff. It is now making me freezing cold and it's really loud. It's super irritating. I understand I have to use it or else my leg will swell way up. But I hate it.

Getting really sleepy now. Maybe time to zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Franken-knee

SCROLL TO BOTTOM FOR UPDATE

I made it out of the Dead Zone. Yippee. I'm actually not in all that much pain either. Thank you, Vicodin. The Dr. said that the ACL repair was perfect. The cartilage was not too badly damaged and should heal on its own. I do not have to wear a brace - YAY!!! But I do have to use crutches for two weeks and cannot put any weight on the left knee. This will allow both the cartilage and the hamstring (from where the new ACL was harvested) to heal up.

I have this contraption around my knee. It provides constant cooling to keep swelling down. We put ice and water in the cooler part and it pumps in through the tube to the pad that is strapped around the knee.


I also have this fun machine. This moves my knee for me. I have to do it for 2 hours, rest an hour, 2 more hours, rest and hour....you get it. It doesn't hurt too much - it's not the bending that hurts, but when it gets straightened. It also kind of stinks because I have to be on the floor for this so that it can be flat.

I also have some lovely staples up and down the knee. All in all - I look a mess. But I feel pretty good considering everything. I can't take off the bandages or shower until Monday. YUCKY!!! I'm gonna be a STINK mess by then.

Thanks to all of you who left the nice comments on the last post. It really does help to have people wishing the best.

(P.S. - To all my Chantix buddies: it was sure nice not to be Jonesing for a cigarette on top of all my pain. I'm so glad that's all behind me now.)


FRANKEN-KNEE!!!!

Somewhere my love....

No wonder I love Dr. Zhivago. Turns out that most Native Americans came from Siberia. Neat.

Well it turns out I'm really morbid. All day I've been thinking wretched thoughts about my surgery tomorrow. That's just how I am. My dad once told me that I spend so much time and energy worrying about things that MIGHT happen, that when something actually DOES happen I don't have any resources to deal with it. Meanie. He's right though. I'm a worrier and fretter and a worst case scenario-er. Maybe it's not the most mentally healthy way to be, but think how happy I'll be when I wake up and realize that I did not actually slip into the Dead Zone with Stephen King. If you expect the worst then anything marginally better than worst is fantastic. LOL. What a load of BS huh?

Here's the real issue - I'm a control freak. I don't even like to be the passenger in a car. But I have to just trust these total strangers to knock me unconscious (but keep me alive), put little cameras in my knee and cut things and bolt things and rearrange things (while keeping me alive), sew me all back together, and then WAKE ME UP (preferably with non-scrambled brains).

I'm sure it'll be ok. I'm just a little teeny tiny itsy bitty bit scared. :(

See ya'll on Thursday.

Tee-hee

Someone sent me this joke and I think it's FUNNY!!! Jeff doesn't like it for some weird reason.

South Dakota Women

Three men were sitting together bragging about how they had given their new wives duties.

The first man had married a woman from Minnesota and had told her that she was going to do dishes and house cleaning. It took a couple days, but on the third day he came home to a clean house and dishes washed and put away.

The second man had married a woman from North Dakota. He had given his wife orders that she was to do all the cleaning, dishes, and the cooking. The first day he didn't see any results, but the next day he saw it was better. By the third day, he saw his house was clean, the dishes were done, and there was a huge dinner on the table.

The third man had married a girl from South Dakota. He told her that her duties were to keep the house cleaned, dishes washed, lawn mowed, laundry washed and hot meals on the table for every meal. He said the first day he didn't see anything, the second day he didn't see anything, but by the third day some of the swelling had gone down and he could see a little out of his left eye...enough to fix himself a bite to eat and load the dishwasher.

No E.Q.

Remember like 10 years ago everyone was talking about how the "emotional quotient" was just as important as I.Q.? My E.Q. is nil. I know that sounds like an exaggeration, but my mom can back me up on this. We watched this 20/20 or Dateline thing about E.Q. and they said a simple test you can do to your own child (5 is the optimal age) is this: 1) offer them a piece of candy 2) tell them that they can have that one piece right now or if they can wait 5 minutes they can have an additional piece 3) leave the child alone for the 5 minutes - if he eats the candy, bad E.Q. - if he doesn't, good E.Q. Anyway - at the time this was a big news thing, Dylan was 5 years old. My mom and I watched this 20/20 thing and by the time it was over, Dylan was already asleep. I actually wanted to WAKE HIM UP to do this test because *** I *** couldn't wait over night. Too funny.

This ridiculous preamble has a point. I had to have a pre-op physical today. It appears that I am healthy enough to cut open. Good to know. But the doctor made me do a chest X-ray and I was really offended. He said that I don't get to erase 20 years of smoking with (almost) 4 months of quitting. Well fine. Jeez. Did it have to be put so bluntly?? I KNOW I haven't erased all that damage, but the way he put it just made me kind of....I don't know....frustrated. I wanted to light a cigarette purely out of spite at that point. And I actually normally like my doctor. Grrr.

Also I was told "good luck" when I said that I wanted to be back at work on Monday. Not that I'm some workaholic nut - but I like my job and the people I work with, I don't have a lot of leave left, and anything I can't get done either piles up on my desk (yuck) or becomes someone else's problem (not fair). I WANT to go back Monday. I want this leg thing to be over....YESTERDAY.

I'm tantrum-ing again. I'll stop. I was talking to a friend who also has an injury and we decided that we're just being big babies. There are people who live with permanent disabilities every single day. At least there IS an end to this for me. I really shouldn't complain. Must be a brown thing. ;)

Brown?? Seeems boring

What's Your True Color?

My Result: Brown

You're brown, a credible, stable color that's reminiscent of fine wood, rich leather, and wistful melancholy. Most likely, you're a logical, practical person ruled more by your head than your heart. With your inquisitive mind and insatiable curiosity, you're probably a great problem solver. And you always gather all of the facts before coming to a timely, informed decision. Easily intrigued, you're constantly finding new ways to challenge your mind, whether it's by reading the newspaper, playing a trivia game, or composing a piece of music. Brown is an impartial, neutral color, which means you tend to see the difference between fact and opinion easily and are open to many points of view. Trustworthy and steady, you really are a brown at heart.

Take this test >

Boo Blogger

Is anyone else having trouble embedding videos today? I just did the one below with no problems. I wanted to put a new one up. I'll just give you the link here. I thought this was pretty cute.

I know we're all stuffed but I'm going to put up another recipe. We had this for dinner tonight as a break from all that turkey. Served with a cold pasta salad (from a box) and fresh broccoli.
I found this recipe at AllRecipes.com.

Salmon Rosemary Burgers

INGREDIENTS
2 1/2 pounds king salmon fillet, skinned and de-boned
1 cup dry bread crumbs
1/2 cup minced red onion
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons prepared horseradish
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil

DIRECTIONS
Prepare the salmon by cutting into strips, cutting the strips crosswise, and chopping the fish until well minced. Be sure to remove any remaining bones.
In a large bowl, mix the minced salmon with bread crumbs, red onion, Dijon mustard, horseradish, and eggs. Season with rosemary, salt, and pepper. Chill at least 30 minutes in the refrigerator.
Preheat an outdoor grill for medium-high heat.
Form the salmon mixture into 8 burger patties. Lightly coat each patty with olive oil.
Place salmon patties on the grill, and cook 4 or 5 minutes on each side.

We make a 1/2 recipe and adjust the ingredients accordingly. I usually use shallots instead of red onion - mostly because I don't ever use red onion for anything else and I always have shallots on hand because I love them. If it occurs to me to get fresh rosemary then we use it, but dried works fine in this too. Don't be scared by the horseradish. I'm no fan of that stuff either - but you do not get a big huge horseradish taste, it's very subtle (but necessary). Also, we always make these in a pan on the stovetop with a little olive oil. I was too nervous that they'd fall apart on the outside grill and get all smashed on the George Foreman grill. The taste great out of the pan - brown up nicely too. Jeff eats his on a bun with lettuce and tomato. I don't like all that bread so I just eat mine with a couple drops of soy sauce.

By the way, the Sweet Potato Casserole recipe I posted a few days ago was a big hit. My parents really preferred it to the gooey sweet marshmallow yam thing.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Can't.....move.....Food.....coma.....taking.....over.................zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Gobble

I hope you are all enjoying your Turkey Day!!!

(Actually, I'm wildly jealous at the thought of allllllllll you people eating allllllll that yummy food right now. We're never doing this a day late ever again!!)

Guilty Pleasure

I'm likely the biggest dork in the world, but that's ok. I still get all a-flutter for Adam Ant.

(Yes, I see the weird crotch strap outfit and the make-up. No, it doesn't bother me. Yes, it would bother me on anyone else....HAHAHA. I'm getting a seriously twisted mental image of my dear hubby dressed up like this. hahahahahahahahahahahaha)

Enjoy

Guilty

I didn't want to hike forever at Wal-Mart so I used the handicapped sticker thingy. What if a *real* handicapped person needed the spot? I'm a jerk. I told myself I wasn't going to use it until after the surgery. But Wally World was packed (with all the other idiots who put off their shopping until tonight), and my leg hurt, and I was tired, and I was lazy. What if I've totally messed up my karma and now I really WILL have the brace/crutches for 6 weeks?

Enough about me. I hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving tomorrow. We're not eating until Friday (for a complicated reason), but I hope you all stuff yourselves silly. I've been reading some recipes put up by other bloggers and everything just sounds so yummy. Here's our menu:

Turkey (we use a counter-top roasting oven)
Stuffing (some in the bird and then my dad makes his own giblet stuffing)
Wild Rice Casserole
Sweet Potato Casserole
Fresh Asparagus with Hollandaise Sauce
Fresh Green Beans with Some New Sauce My Mom Discovered
Peanut Butter Pie
And the only reason to make any of this food (except dessert): GRAVY!!!!!

We don't ever do rolls or regular mashed potatoes - there's enough carbs up there already.

Pain/Hope

I hurt my knee...like...more. I was lying on the couch and tried to get up and kind of...did it wrong I guess. I actually yelped and started crying. I even scared Noah. That's always a good thing - scare your own kid. Anyway, I had to take a pain pill last night and it hurt like a @#$%^&*!! today. I can't wait for this to be over.

Despite all the cigs and all the extra weight and some random events like a bum gallbladder, I've always been fairly healthy. At least healthy enough to pretty much do what I want to do when I want to do it (assuming that "what I want to do" doesn't involve looking really good in swimwear!;). Being constricted like this is just horrible. To not even be able to get up when I want or to carry Noah or whatever is just.....offensive. I'm offended by this.

I know I shouldn't whine. I know it could have been worse. But.....*sigh*

I'll stop the pity party now. Let's try to think of something positive. Let's find one small silver lining. Like....maybe since I don't smoke anymore, the surgery won't be as dangerous. Like...I've learned what a great teenager I really have - one who can be a rock when it really isn't his job to do that. Like....my husband is the most non-complaining person I've ever met. Like....the people I work with are all basically really nice, helpful, and understanding. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. Om.

:)

Something to think about

My regular readers and people who *know* me also know that I am not one to promote causes or be a Miss Do-Gooder. But I read this article and I think this is something we could all do this holiday season. We're all planning to pig out this week and that just isn't possible for everyone. We all have something in our pantry that we're not using or could afford to give away. Drop by your local food pantry and drop off some food. You might be giving someone else a good holiday as well.

Food pantries struggling with shortages

My new favorite author is....

....Jacquelyn Mitchard. I've read most of her books. They've all just been kind of ok to me - until tonight when I read this line from The Breakdown Lane:

"I considered camping a sin not for but against nature, a form of primitive subjugation, disguised as recreation, a way for men to beat their chests at the dawning and women to wash the same dishes fifteen times a day, and with sand."

I've never seen a better way to explain to Jeff for the billionth time why I don't want to go camping. Thank you from the bottom of my heart Ms. Mitchard.

Tired

I am mentally fried. I've been working all weekend in order to make up for some of the time I missed with the knee injury. I still have at least an hour or two of stuff that I could be doing. Maybe later. I'm sick of it right now. Still it's very nice that I can work from home. I would have already burned up all my sick leave by now. I will be out of work at least 3 full days with the surgery, plus there are the further PT and follow-up doctor appointments.

Speaking of PT, that went really well. The therapist showed me some exercises to start strengthening my leg and some that she will have me do after the surgery to get back to normal (as normal as I ever get anyway). She was one of those medical professionals that seem so rare anymore - someone who actually takes the time to explain things. I hate when medical people either condescend to me or just assume that I'm going to blindly follow their god-like decrees with no explanation. But this lady was nothing like that at all - she explained what each exercise was supposed to accomplish as well as what the entire PT process would accomplish. She really made me want to work at this because I can easily see that such work will provide me with a tangible result. I was so apprehensive about this and I feel so great about it now.

Finally, just an observation - I've been hitting the NaBloPoMo randomizer (that doesn't seem to be terribly random) as well as the blogger random button and noticed that MOST of the bloggers out there seem to be women. Have you all found this to be true? I mean, look at my links over there - only one of them is for a guy. Why is this the case? Or is it just a function of NaBloPoMo and Blogger? Maybe other blog hosting sites have way more men? Maybe we just can't shut the hell up in any forum? Who knows??? It just kind of struck me as interesting.

Oh gross - I just saw a turducken put together on the Food Network. I don't care how it tastes - that just seems kind of obscene to me. I once read about a recipe for a hot dog with hamburger wrapped around it and bacon wrapped around that. Do we REALLY need to be pigs like this???

I promise

I do solemnly swear that I will NEVER give someone a raspberry again. Because this is what it REALLY looks like!!

More recipes

The first recipe is going to be wildly imprecise - this is something I never really measure. If you like more mushrooms, use more mushrooms. Go crazy. Have fun.

Wild Rice Casserole

1 - 1 1/2 cups wild rice
4 - 5 cups of chicken stock (preferred) or broth
3 tbsp butter
3/4 cups each finely chopped yellow onion, celery, portobella mushrooms
1 can water chestnuts, diced
1/4 - 1/2 cup soy sauce
1 small bag of slivered almonds, toasted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large covered saucepan, simmer rice and chicken stock for 45 - 60 minutes. Rice should be mostly opened, yet still hold some firmness.
While rice is simmering, melt butter in large skillet over medium heat. Saute onion, celery, and mushrooms until tender, but not brown.
Drain rice and RESERVE THE REMAINING STOCK/BROTH (more on this later).
Combine rice, vegetables, water chestnuts, and soy sauce in a casserole dish. Sprinkle slivered almonds over top of casserole.
Cover and bake for 30 minutes until all ingredients are thoroughly heated.

You can make most of this well before serving. I usually make everything but the almonds the day before - if they sit in the casserole they get soggy. But sure to use the soy sauce to your taste. I like a lot, but most don't so I add more to my own plate.

About the reserved chicken stock/broth. My mom and I have discovered that if you use this reserved broth when making turkey gravy, you will have THE tastiest gravy ever. You also get the added thickening of the rice starches (though you still will have to use another thickener - we use cornstarch). The rice adds an amazing flavor to the chicken stock. If you're not making a turkey (or anything else that needs a gravy/sauce), freeze the reserved stock until you do. If you REALLY don't want to keep it, email me and I'll give the address where to ship it C.O.D.!!!!

One thing I've done is cooked up cubed chicken breasts and added it to this with some parmesan cheese - a whole meal in one bowl.

Ok now for a more precise recipe. I am not a huge PB fan, but this is amazingly light and airy and really REALLY good. I found this in a magazine a couple of years ago and my whole family just loves it.

Peanut Butter Pie

1 prepared chocolate cookie pie crust (or graham cracker)
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
8 oz cream cheese (at room temperature)
12 oz container of thawed Cool Whip (I should a put a TM thing here, but oh well)
1 jar of hot fudge topping (about 12 oz)

In a medium bowl, use a hand mixer on medium low to beat together the peanut butter, cream cheese, and sugar.
Gently fold in about 2 cups of the Cool Whip.
Spoon mixture into pie shell, using a spatula to smooth mixture to edges of pie.
Reserving 2 tbsp of fudge, place remaining fudge in microwave safe bowl or glass measuring cup for 1 minute or until melted. Stir.
Spread hot fudge over pie to cover entire peanut butter layer.
Refrigerate until serving time (at least 1 hour).
Just before serving, spread the remaining Cool Whip over the hot fudge layer, being careful not to mix the two layers.
Place 2 tbsp hot fudge into baggie and knead for a few seconds. Cut a tiny hole in the corner of the baggie and drizzle fudge over pie.
Repeat this procedure with 2 tbsp of creamy peanut butter.

I was going to blog about my physical therapy appointment, but I'm so hungry now that I gotta go eat!! I hope you try and like these recipes.

I can't wait for Turkey day!

I am not a fan of sweet potatoes. I think they taste like....well....like yucky. But my husband seems to like them, so every big holiday I make that revolting sweet potato/marshmallow thing. That thing just looks so gross and it cannot be good for you. I found this new recipe from the Food Network that seems slightly less offensive and I thought I'd give it whirl. Hubby said he'd be willing to try it out. If any readers have had anything like this, let me know. I'll post my famous wild rice casserole recipe tomorrow.

Sweet Potato Casserole

2 1/2 lbs sweet potatoes (about 3 large), scrubbed
2 large eggs, lightly beaten with a fork
3 tbs unsalted butter, melted plus more for preparing the pan
2 tbs packed dark brown sugar
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
pinch of freshly grated nutmeg (I'm subbing dried here)
freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup coarsely chopped pecans

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Put the sweet potatoes on a baking sheet and pierce each one 2 or 3 times with a fork. Bake for 45 to 60 minutes or until tender. Set aside to cool.

Turn the oven down to 350 degrees F. Scoop the sweet potato out of their skins and into a medium bowl. Discard the skins. mash the potatoes until smooth. Ad the eggs, butter, brown sugar, salt cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and pepper to taste. Whisk the mixture until smooth.

Butter an 8x8 inch casserole. Pour the sweet potato mixture into the pan and sprinkle the top with the pecans. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes until a bit puffy. Serve immediately.

Darn

I missed a day. I am a NaBloPoMo failure. I was REALLY tired last night and just collapsed - that's why I'm doing this at 4 am. Oh well - I didn't smoke yesterday. I more interested in keeping quit day to day than I am in posting.

Strange

I just read a story that TV Land and Entertainment Weekly have come up with a list of the 50 greatest TV icons - this will air on some channel some time..I didn't really pay attention to that. I get kind of sick of these X number of greatest Y lists. (Although this list apparently puts Johnny Carson first - I gotta agree with that. I STILL miss him at 10:30.) Anyway, what struck me as strange is that I went to the TV Land website to see the whole list and apparently this thing is sponsored by Chantix. I have to wonder why Chantix would choose to sponsor this event, of all things. I just find it kind of ironic given how many early TV shows were sponsored by tobacco companies. I didn't see the whole list, but I would assume that many of these "icons" are going to be from older shows (e.g. I Love Lucy, The Honeymooners, etc.) where smoking was A-OK. Maybe the makers of Chantix are trying to target all those folks who grew up smoking right along with those shows and are now trying to quit. I actually find that kind of infuriating for people in that demographic. (I may miss Johnny but I Love Lucy and The Honeymooners were WAY before my time.) To go years and years seeing all that cigarette advertising and now have to sit through quit smoking advertising. Honestly - I'm thrilled that I was able to quit smoking with this pill, but...I don't know...it seems so pushy to be sponsoring this thing. Maybe I'm being weird, but I just find the whole thing slightly distasteful. Does anyone remember what killed Mr. Carson?? Emphysema. I guess Chantix was too late for him.

Ok, now I'm REALLY going to bed.

One break - please

I've managed to pick up a cold. I've been sitting on my couch for most of the past three days so I'm not really sure how this is possible. My head feels about 2 sizes too big. I'm off to bed soon. Cheers. *sniff, achoo, hack*

:)

Hey Ya!

I can't lie anymore - here's what *really* happened:

(click pic to see)

Veteran's Day

Thank you so much to all the brave veterans out there as well as those actively serving right now - especially Chris Dx.

Here's a link to the history of how the day became a holiday. As Maggie noted, this is not supposed to be about a day off work or getting a good deal on sheets at Penney's.

Hahaha

Someone left me this comment on my MySpace page. Too funny. Although I didn't go head over heels.

Here's what we had for dinner.

Sherry Pork Chops (my mom discovered this recipe)

4 thick cut boneless chops, trimmed of fat
1 - 2 tbsp olive oil
1 - 2 cloves garlic, minced
1 beef bouillon cube
1/2 teaspoon tarragon
1/2 cup dry sherry

In a large skillet, heat olive oil on high.
Brown chops on both sides.
Turn heat down to medium low and add the remaining ingredients
Cover and cook over low heat about 45 minutes or until chops are tender
**I always turn the chops once during this process...also check that the liquid has not evaporated....add more sherry or water if this occurs....the sauce is to die for***

Dauphin Potatoes (from a Dayton's cookbook)

4 large russet potatoes
6 - 8 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups shredded Gruyere cheese
salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 cups whipping cream

Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Peel and slice potatoes to about 1/8 inch thickness. Soak in cold water several hours or overnight. Pat completely dry.
Put 1/4 of potatoes in a single layer in a 9x13 baking dish. Sprinkle with 1/4 garlic and 1/4 cheese. Salt and pepper to taste.
Repeat this 3 times to make 4 total layers
Cover with foil and bake for 1/2 hour
Remove foil and return to over for another 1/2 hour
***This dish is incredibly rich and not for the shy of fat/calories. It may not be the best thing for you, but it's DELICIOUS. I've had times when the potatoes were too thick or I misjudged and wound up with 3 layers - tasted fine.***

We are total dorks

We're sitting here like brain-dead zombies watching Ninja Warrior. They redesigned the course and it's all very exciting!!! I blame my son for getting us hooked on this inanity. I don't know what it is about this show - maybe the camp factor. Or maybe we're just tacky and have bad taste...I dunno.

What else is going on? My husband bought a jar of Planter's Peanuts. On the back of the jar there's the list of ingredients - "Peanuts, salt, etc..." and then there's a disclaimer that reads - "CONTAINS: PEANUTS" Ummm...yeah...we were kind of WANTING that. The word "peanut" is on the PEANUT-SHAPED jar in at least eight other spots. So...WE GET IT.

Knee news: I had to take a Vicodin last night. I was really disappointed. I haven't taken one of those in over a week. I'm not a big fan of narcotics (and I rarely drink) - waaaaaay too much of a control freak to enjoy being buzzed/drunk. (Ok ok....for those of you that *REALLY* know me....that should read, "to enjoy it ANYMORE.") Anyway - the pain in my knee has changed from a sharp, stabbing surprising thing to a dull ache. It's as if my knee is just quietly sobbing. No big outbursts, no tantrums, no screaming....just a consistent, heart-wrenching sobbing. Well it was keeping me awake so I finally caved and took a pill. I hate this.

My orthopedic surgeon approved me for a handicapped parking sticker. On the form he had to fill out, he had to estimate a date of full recovery. He put 4/1/08!!!! OMG!!! Are you kidding me??? How depressing. Maybe he was just trying to go as far out as possible - I hope. Sheesh. I wouldn't have asked for the parking sticker if we didn't have winter coming up. The nice weather has not been that much of a problem, but I didn't want to be dancing around icy/slushy/snowy parking lots on crutches. I'd probably just wind up tearing up my other ACL. Did I mention that I hate this?

I know someone who has a rotator cuff injury that also needs surgery. We were arguing about who's injury was worse. I think I have to concede to the rotator cuff. I'm not all that active a person - sitting around reading, watching TV/movies, surfing/blogging is what I'd be doing anyway! But not having use of an arm would be really bad. Now, if I wind up on crutches for 6 weeks, then I think I get the title back - you can't use EITHER or your arms when you're on crutches. We'll see how it goes.

I hate to end this post on a downer. Dylan went up to help his grandparents with some outside work. He's such a great kid. I asked him if he could take time out of his long weekend to help them out and he was MORE than happy to do it. It's also nice that he can drive up there on his own and just handle it. I'm sure we all know a lot of teenagers who would have refused or whined all the way through it - but none of that from D. He's so great. I cannot believe how incredibly lucky I am to just have a nice kid. So many teenagers are so completely unpleasant to be around - just surly and ugly. But Dylan is usually happy and cheerful. (His little brother is an entirely different story - that kid is like a mood hurricane.)

Well I've raved on for quite a bit here - and my favorite NW competitor is about to go!!! Yay!!

Well this is embarrassing

All that time spent in grad school and this is what I get? Well that was money well spent. I'll have to start using big and/or obscure words on here from now on. *sigh*

Get a Cash Advance

I missed another one!

I missed another one of my own anniversaries!! Yesterday was the 3rd calendar month smoke free (except for that one). One more month and the evil smoker penalty will come off my health insurance.

Most days I don't even think about it. The accident has caused some stress which has made me wish for one - but the thought of dragging my limpy self off to the store for smokes is just absurd. It's only ever a very fleeting thing anyway.

I have my first physical therapy appointment next week. I'm supposed to have some sessions before the surgery to strengthen the leg - I haven't been using it much and it's really weak. We did some shopping last night and I didn't wear my brace. I figured the shopping car would be enough support. NOT REALLY. By the end it really hurt as did my good leg - it was getting all my weight. Hopefully the PT will help me work some of these issues out. I've never had PT of any kind - does it help? Is it horrible? Let me know.

It's 4 am crazy time!!

Don't ask why I'm up.

I've been hitting the NaBloPoMo randomizer button for about an hour. There are some strange rangers out there. I found a post about the evils of alcohol (maybe so....but I'll always have wine in my house) and a link to 20 things that are more dangerous to kids than lead paint in toys. One of the 20 was shampoo. Uh....sorry - I'm gonna insist that the boys shampoo. The guy was a nut - apparently every product in the known universe contains carcinogens - including sunscreen. OH WAIT - that should be every product except the ones this guy kept pimping. He kept referring to a natural products website. Nice. Subtle. Must be a shareholder (unless capitalism causes cancer as well??).

I find fanatics of all kinds to be really scary. Believe what you want to believe....but when you start ranting and preaching and refusing to accept reason or reality....well I have no time for you. Crazy. I think the scariest fanatics are those that insist that some *thing* is the cause/root of all evil and all the problems in their lives or the world. Laundry soap caused my cancer! Pat Conroy made my daughter promiscuous! South Park made my kids swear! Klaatu the space clown made me do it! I understand things happen to people. Bad things. People can be hurt by random things. Maybe some products are dangerous. Maybe Klaatu the space clown is real. But what are the alternatives? Live in a plastic bubble. Shield yourself from life. Spend all your time hating and festering?

Maybe I should start a national campaign against stairs. Or heels. They hurt ME...so obviously none of YOU should get to make any choices about using them. I'm also going to ignore the fact that billions of sure-footed folks gaily traipse up and down the stairs billions of times a day. That's irrelevant. Because of my ONE RANDOM THING....no one should use stairs. Ever again. I think I'll also insist that the lawmakers require all of us to install elevators in our dangerous, multi-story homes.....at our own expense. We'll have to start a new alphabet agency. How about....STEP = Stairs Traumatizing Every Person? I'll have to get some celebrity endorsements. Maybe Britney....I bet stairs are not her friend. Then I'll have to find a sad politician with no real ideological foundation or belief system to make a documentary about it. (Keep in mind that my celebrity and politician will continue to use stairs...it's the rest of YOU who can't handle it and need protection.) I'll make the news show rounds and get into a screaming match with Olbermann or O'Reilly. At some point during the scream fest, I'll tear up a little and yell, "Think about the children!!!" That's the best way to scare people - I'll have some horrible images of crumpled children at the bottom of stairs doctored up. Maybe I'll get some crazies to hang around stair-areas and spray the users with blood or throw crutches at them. At some point, maybe a photographer will catch me on the stairs. I'll have to make the news show rounds again for my mea culpa tour.

I'm going to be really busy. I'd better get to bed and rest up for all of this.

Waaaahhh!

It's surgery. !#!#@%%$^%$$#@#@#!@!

Icky stuff below - don't read if you're squeamish.

My ACL is completely torn in half. This is not fixable. The surgeon will have to harvest from my hamstring and like fashion a new ligament. YUCKY!!! (There's another option, but it's even yuckier as it involves the word "cadaver.") Also, it appears that my cartilage (meniscus) is also torn. The MRI was not clear about how bad that tear is. If he does have to do extensive repairs to the cartilage, then I will be in a brace AND on crutches for six weeks. I'm really hoping that the cartilage isn't too bad. Six weeks is a long time. The surgery will take place the end of the month. Boo hoo.

In other depressing news, I had a little panic attack at the top of the steps last night. I looked down and just got kind of sick feeling and panicked. The dreams are still bad too. This just seems so silly to me. Like my own mind is torturing me. There are WAY worse things that happen to people and they function just fine. It makes me feel totally self-absorbed and babyish to still be freaking out about the steps.

Enough of my knee....it's getting boring even to me.

I read today that a high school in West Virginia is banning books by one of this country's best contemporary authors - Pat Conroy. Two of his books were assigned in an ADVANCED OPTIONAL English course.....for SENIORS. It seems that the parents feel that Mr. Conroy's books feature too much sex and violence. Are you kidding me? I can almost guarantee that Mr. Conroy's books are the TAMEST exposure these kids have had to sex and violence. The parents make it sound like it's two books full of bawdiness and smut. One poor, sensitive soul could not even finish reading it because it was so awful. I wonder if this woman has read the Bible lately. Pretty gory stuff in there.

It's pretty ironic that I read this news story today. I just re-read all of his books. One of them, the Prince of Tides, I have read to shreds. Mr. Conroy isn't for everyone, but I have loved every single thing he has written. His powers of description are astonishing. Make sure you read Beach Music (one of the "bad" ones) on a full stomach - the way he describes food will have you drooling. I could understand the problem if these kids were younger. As a parent I do believe that somethings are not appropriate for kids of certain ages. But for older children, I think a truly responsible parent will teach their kids how to understand and interpret the things they hear and see - not shield them forever.

Well - that was a big rant. I just hate the idea of censorship....especially in such a stupid case. I would be THRILLED if my boys ever read Mr. Conroy's works. A perfect example of how much more right he is than the parents is right here:

Because the two books were temporarily banned "every kid in that county will read them, every single one of them. Because book banners are invariably idiots," Conroy wrote in the letter published Oct. 24 in The Charleston Gazette. "They don't know how the world works — but writers and English teachers do."

Here's a link to the full story.

Claustrophobia

I never thought this was a problem for me. I do have to admit that the MRI machine kind of freaked me out yesterday - and I went in feet-first. I cannot imagine going into one of these things head-first. Note to self - request sedative before any head-first MRI. Also I had no idea the machine would be so loud. Think - klaxon. I felt like all of a sudden a military-sounding voice was going to start screaming, "Dive! Dive!" Weird. And OF COURSE the guy operating the machine couldn't tell me anything. That just frosts my cookies. I'm sure there are all sorts of ethical and legal reasons why a radiology tech can't tell you anything....but come on. These people have probably seen more of these images than any doctor. They have SOME idea of what's going on. I'm such an impatient person and it's just wildly frustrating knowing that some dude here in town KNOWS whether my ACL/MCL/meniscus are all torn up and I don't. GRRRRRR.

Rays of light

In the midst of all drama I have been so thankful for my boys. Dylan has been such a HUGE help - and without one single word of complaint. I don't think I would have made it through this last week without him. He has run errands, watched his brother, helped around the house, and has been completely upbeat, supportive, and understanding. Noah has been (mostly) an angel too. He really surprised us this evening when he began talking about a cornucopia. They made one in art class today. I was just shocked to hear him use such a big word. My sweet boys have kept me smiling despite all the bad stuff.

But hands down the funniest thing that happened this past week was from Dylan. He has a curfew of midnight on the weekends. At about 11:40 pm on Saturday night I get a phone call. "Hey Mom, doesn't that clock thing happen at midnight? I should get another hour." I never laughed so hard in my life. First I told him that the "clock thing" actually happens at 2 am, NOT midnight. I further asked him if he was willing to come home an hour EARLY next spring for the next clock thing. He said no. In any event, I felt he deserved points for creativity and for putting a smile on my face. He was allowed to stay out until 12:30.

I'd post a couple of pictures of my guys, but I'm blogging from the laptop and have no recent pictures on here.

I don't believe it

I missed my own bloggiversary. I started this little thing on 11/2/06. The title of my first post was "Wow I hope this isn't lame." And now here we are a year later and I am actually lame. That makes me giggle.

A new perspective

Here are some things I've learned about life with an injury and crutches:

1. Everything is much further away than it seems
2. Wow, I have really short arms
3. Pay attention to bathroom needs because (see #1)
4. We are a household of slobs - there seems to be a LOT of stuff scattered about my floors
5. I actually do have some muscles in my arms....and they HURT
6. The ground is really soggy early in the morning and will sink if enough pressure is applied
7. Stairs are scary
8. Curbs are annoying
9. There is no way to use crutches and carry an umbrella
10. "Don't make me get up" is a meaningless phrase to a 4 year old who knows you're on crutches
11. Cats have an uncanny ability to find the spot on your body that hurts the most - and flop down on it
12. Cats fear crutches
    
13. My soft squishy couch is really kind of a pain in the ***
14. From now on, every bathtub in every house I ever live in will be handicapped equipped/accessible - just in case
15. I'm whiny
16. There's nothing on TV
    

Chupa-update

A couple of months ago I blogged about someone finding a chupacabra carcass. Turns out it's just a coyote. I guess I'll stay a skeptic on all that other stuff too!

Where oh where?

Where have all the bloggers gone? It seems like every single blog in the world

h....a....s.......s....l....o....w....e....d.......w....a....y.......d....o....w....n.

What's going on? All those new non-smokers have so much new energy that they can't sit down long enough to blog? (I'm sure this is true of Miss M - all that coffee!;) All the political pundits gearing up for the big race? All the family bloggers hunkering down for the holidays? *sigh*

Y'all gotta get typin'! Have pity on your one poor lamed up reader!!! I've been guilty of this as well. It is really hard to do one of these things on a regular basis when you also have the rest of your life to handle. Kids, family, friends, work, keeping up a home - you have to prioritize. I sometimes feel like I'm just writing this to "hear" myself "talk." I'm not sure. Also I feel like the people that REALLY care about anything I write - well I talk to them all the time anyway. Who knows? There must just be some blogger malaise going around.

Guest Blogger

Tonight we will have Noah as a guest blogger. He wants to share some Halloween experiences with you.

Mommy said I could share some pictures with you.

First Mommy needs to get pictures off her camera sooner because these are not of my Halloween costume. These pictures are from "Talk Like A Pirate Day" at my school. I also think it's really scary that Mommy alphabetizes all her books. (Click and you'll see.)

Ok next we have me and my Daddy carving pumpkins.

It might look like Daddy is doing all the work (and he's CHEATING with that paper....I thought Daddy was an artist!), but really I'm supervising.

Also, someone has to stand around and be cute and charming. This is a lot of hard work for a boy.

Daddy is so into pumpkin carving that he has no idea I'm standing near all this dangerous stuff. He's very lucky that I'm such a good boy that I would NEVER get into naughty stuff. Mommy says I'm a devil-boy because my eyes are all red. She says I look like I'm just about to be really naughty. She's so wrong.

Daddy says this is supposed to look like a pirate ship. I don't think he knows what he's talking about. We never did get a chance to see it with a candle because Mommy fell down. She looks really funny with a big thing on her leg and crutches.

Finally, here is me dressed as a spooky skeleton (NOT Batman). Right after we took these pictures, my Grandpa took me out for trick-or-treating. I got lots and lots of candy and had a really good time.

Preliminary findings and crazy dreams

Saw the orthopedic surgeon yesterday. He feels I have stretched or torn my ACL, MCL, and medial meniscus (go look 'em up, it's kind of neat how a knee works on a non-clumsy person). I will be going in for an MRI on Monday to determine if it's a tear or a stretch. A tear means surgery. Bleh. The Dr. thinks it's a tear. Bleh bleh. In any event, it will be next Wednesday before I have the final news. He also said that I don't have to use the crutches AND wear the brace, but I have to use at least one of them. For some insane reason, he thinks I could fall and hurt myself. I have no idea where he would get such an idea! The knee still really hurts - especially if I move around too much. Luckily I have VERY nice bosses and they are cool with me working half-days in the office along with working from home. Hopefully I won't have to burn up too much of my leave. This is really going to be a horrible process. But like I said originally, it could be have been WAY worse. We have this huge glass and metal desk near the bottom of those steps - I could have bashed my fool head on that thing. Brr.

I have finally quit taking the Chantix. (And really, who needs Chantix or smokes when you have Vicodin??? hahahaha) I had kind of hoped that my crazy dreams were all done. This is not the case. I have been having horrible dreams where the fall happens again and again. It's very vivid and scary. I think I might have a touch of PTSD. I wake up waving my arms like I'm trying to keep myself balanced. I also keep hearing my own screams in my head. I honestly do not think I've ever screamed like I did when I finally hit the floor.

Wow this post seems like kind of a downer. I really don't feel too down, despite the circumstances. (Two other things happened since my fall - one REALLY horrible, and one bad like mine - but they are things that are VERY personal to other people so I don't feel it's appropriate for me to write about. Let's just say I hope this is the end of the bad luck for a while.) It's going to be a long haul, but I feel fairly upbeat. Honestly, I think the quit has helped. Now I can tell myself, "If I can quit smoking, I can SURELY do this!!" It's kind of a nice pick-me-up.