Ramblings

I signed up to do nablopomo again, which is the post every day during the month of November thing. So look forward to me hitting your updated RSS feed list every day, okay? I'll sign up for holidailies, too, assuming they do it, so really make that every day for two months.

So, I have this thing that I'm calling a food pocket in the upper part of my throat. Every once in a while when I'm eating, pieces of food will get caught in the back of my throat. They don't make me feel like I'm choking, they're just there where they shouldn't be, and I have to cough them out. It's been happening for a while, actually, but lately the pieces of food getting stuck are larger, and they're sometimes harder to cough out. I'm going to the doctor on November 5th, so I'll be talking to her about that, don't worry. Today an Advil got stuck there, so I had to cough it up and swallow it a second time. That wasn't fun. (It was a generic Advil, so no sugary coating, unfortunately.)

It's funny, though. I googled it, and of course found out that I could have cancer. I don't think I do - I am not a hypochondriac, by any means. Still, I think it's funny that if you search for any medical symptoms, you'll find someone saying you could have cancer. It's interesting.

I have a headache today. And apparently this is an entry of random thoughts. I hope you don't mind. :)

So, yesterday I finally made homemade bread successfully! Or rather, home BAKED bread. I didn't so much make it, as buy it frozen at the P&C, thaw it and let it rise, and then bake it. But you know what? It was super easy and it turned out great - it rose nice and high, it was airy and light inside, and it tasted fabulous. I'll still try making bread from scratch again at some point - I have to figure out for sure what I was doing wrong - but for now, this is bread without the trouble. So I like it. I could have eaten the whole loaf.

I also made donuts again yesterday. I made them thicker this time, so they look more like real donuts. We got less because of that, but so what - they're still good. I also got my first hot grease burn, but it was just a dot. Nothing major. I was putting some donuts into the basket, and it fell off the side of the fryer and into the grease, which splattered up and hit me on the fleshy part of my hand, under my thumb. It hurt quite a bit at the time, but today there's just a small white dot, and no pain at all. So that's good.

Okay, I'm done rambling. See you tomorrow with kitty pictures. :)

Happy List, October 13 - 18, 2008

Woo, an on time happy list! Amazing, right? I've added pictures again, for your enjoyment. I took these in my yard on Saturday.

Monday: Spending the day with J, woo! I love when we have week days off together. We watched a couple of movies, and I went and got us subs for dinner. It was a very nice day.

Tuesday: Celebrating our first date anniversary with J - two years! We celebrated a week early, because we both had the day off. We went to dinner at very nice Italian restaurant that we've been to a couple of times before. I'm very happy that we're in each other's lives.

Wednesday: I got to the 9" mark on the back of my sweater and did my first ever increases - successfully! It's a small thing, but I was happy about it.

Thursday: Waking up with J, and cuddling together before getting up to get ready for work. It was very nice. :) I got some good quality Sims time in at night, too, which is always fun.

Friday: Getting paid, and getting my bills paid. It feels so good to get them paid every week.

Saturday: Getting an e-mail from J's Dad. He saw that a movie we had talked about back in July was on (12 Angry Men), and he wanted to let me know in case I wanted to see it. I just thought it was nice that he thought about me - I'm glad that my future in-laws like me. :)

And here are some more pictures of fall from my yard.

Critter Pictures, Doggy Style

Ha! I said doggy style.

Willow











Willow loves her cauldron. Which is fitting, given that she's named after Willow Rosenberg from Buffy, who was a witch! Although I don't think she used a cauldron much. But still.

I let the dogs outside the other day, and Willow went and sat in the driveway, all by herself. I let the other dogs in, and she was still sitting there, so I took her picture through the window. She ran in shortly after. She's a funny dog.

Bernie



This is the picture I was on the floor taking when J started wrestling with me and making me laugh so hard (see my Happy List post from Wednesday). I wish Bernie had been looking at me when I took it.

Scruffy Duffy

I call him Scruffy because he's all fluffy and needing a haircut. Still, he's the cutest, isn't he?

Rosie

I posted a picture of her in front of the door last week, too, but what can I do? She spends a lot of time asking to go out. :)

Pretty Rosie is pretty even when I'm looking straight down at her with the camera.

Cheddar and Sour Cream, Yum

I was just sitting at work, dying for something but I didn't know what. A bag of cheddar and sour cream Ruffles from the machine outside of the office just totally saved my life. Even if it did cost 90 cents - and it's one of those little bags that I still think shouldn't cost more than a quarter. Whatever. Sometimes you just need the chips more than you need to be thrifty.

In a semi related note, I have to go to the doctor on November 5th for my annual check-up type visit. I should be eating less and exercising in a last minute effort to get my weight, cholesterol and blood pressure at least slightly down. But I'm not. Why, when I know what I need to do and what will make me healthy, do I keep doing the stuff that is bad for me (but tastes and feels oh so good)? I know I'm not alone in this, but I still wonder why I can't get control of that part of my brain. I can quit soda and then limit my intake of it when I start drinking again, I can quit chocolate for 40 days (but not limit my intake of it when the 40 days were over), but I can't make myself like to eat fruit and veggies or make myself limit the fattening, greasy stuff. And forget exercising - ick.

I don't know. I'm a mystery to myself sometimes.

And I'm not making any sense, so that's all for now. Doggy pictures tomorrow, so make sure to check back. :)

Happy List for 10/5 - 10/11

You may have guessed that I forgot to e-mail my Happy List to myself before I left work on Friday. What you may not have guessed is that I had a four day weekend, so this week's Happy List is incredibly late! But here it is. And to punch it up for you, I added some pictures of the campus where I work, all dressed up in fall colors. I was walking across campus this morning, camera in my hand, and just had to keep stopping and taking pictures. Pretty, right? I thought so.

Anyway, on to the list.

Sunday: The Dolphins won again! Which makes J happy, which makes me happy. Also, we got Chinese food for dinner! I love that, and we don't get it often, so it's a special treat when we do. I also played the Sims some, and finished Schuyler's Monster, which was very good. I love Sundays.

Monday: I won a gift certificate for dinner for two at a steakhouse! I paid a dollar to enter this raffle, mostly because I wanted change for a five, and it totally paid off! And I never win anything, so this was a very nice surprise. Also, that evening J and I laid in bed and watched the Peanuts Halloween special, which I love. Poor Linus never gets to see The Great Pumpkin, but he still keeps his faith!

Tuesday: Um. Tuesday was apparently a not great day. I couldn't think of any happy things. :(

Wednesday: My freezer got fixed! Also J brought me the most beautiful roses. I love roses so much, and have enjoyed looking at them the whole week since.

Thursday: Hearing (and chair dancing to) You Don't Mess Around with Jim by Jim Croce. Such a fun song! Wandering around the house and yard, taking pictures of the animals for my first critter picture post. It was a beautiful day, and a fun thing to do. And they didn't mind being stalked. :)

Friday: Finding out that my gift certificate (see Monday's Happy Things) is going to be delivered next week. Woo! Also, the end of the work day brought the beginning of my four day weekend!

Saturday: I had a very productive day, with just the right mix of getting things done around the house and having time to do fun things. I made doughnuts for the first time! I played the Sims, I read, I knitted, I did housework, I took the recycling to the dump. It was a nice day.

Sunday: I got to spend the morning with J, even though I didn't think I was going to get to see him at all (his work schedule changed). At one point that morning I got on the floor to take a picture of Bernie, and J came over and started wrestling with me, and I was laughing so hard I was crying AND I couldn't breathe. It was amazingly fun. He's a fun guy to have around, and I am very lucky to have laughs like that, when not too long ago I'd go a whole weekend without even seeing another person. I am grateful for him every day of our lives together.

Edit: Uh, I accidentally posted 8 days of happy things. I don't want to remove the last Sunday entry now, so have a bonus day of happy things, on me! :) Next week you'll only get six, so it'll all balance out.

(This is outside of the building where I work.)

Cat Picture Day

My first cat only picture day! No pictures of Lucy this time, because she wasn't around when I was taking pictures, but I managed to get a couple of Kate this time, so it balances out.

Sable



This last picture of Sable isn't so good, but I love that I caught her tongue peeking out of her mouth.

Gracie

Gracie still likes getting into Bernie's crate sometimes, like she's reminiscing about when she lived in one for three months. :)





Zelda



Kate



Katie is my fat cat. :)

Doughnuts

Well, I'm having a lot of problem with the bread baking thing. I tried making it two weeks in a row, and it came out all dense and flat. The first week I blamed the oven because it died in the middle of baking, but the second week the oven was working fine - it was all me screwing up. Sigh. But! I may not be able to make bread to save my life (yet - I am determined to get it right), but look what it turns out that I can do! Today I made cake doughnuts for the first time in my life.

The recipe for these is from a Betty Crocker cookbook, and it's one my Mom used to make from time to time, so it is very familiar to me. I was remembering her the whole time I was making them - it was nice.

Anyway, I mixed them up while the oil heated, and then I used a biscuit cutter (what I have to use, since I don't have a doughnut cutter - but it's about the same thing, just a bit smaller, I guess, since I got 3 dozen doughnuts out of a recipe that was supposed to make 2 dozen) to get them doughnut shaped (and doughnut hole shaped), and then I put them in the oil.

And they came out great! We can eat them plain, or dip them in powdered sugar or cinnamon sugar (both of which I have in sandwich baggies, ready for doughnut coating).

Mmmmm.

Pet Picture Day

I got the idea yesterday for a new regular feature here on my blog. One day each week I'll post new pictures of my cats, and one day each week I'll post pictures of my dogs. I'm figuring Tuesdays will be Cat Picture Day, and Fridays will be Dog Picture Day. Except this week, since I didn't think of it until Thursday, so for this week only, Friday is Cat AND Dog Picture Day. :) Ready? Okay, here we go.

Cat Pictures for Sally (my friend who I was e-mailing when I thought of this idea):

Gracie and Lucy like to cuddle together in this chair to sleep.

My beautiful Lucy.

It was nice enough to open the windows for a little while yesterday afternoon. Sable likes the fresh air.

Zelda looks like she's smelling the flowers (those are the beautiful roses that my J gave to me), but really she's just wondering why I'm not petting her instead of taking her picture.

There aren't any pictures of Kate this time, because she was hiding in her house. She does that most of the time.

Dog Pictures for J (because two of the dogs are his, and he loves my two also, and because I love him)

My Bernie is gorgeous, isn't he?

Rosie says it's time to go out, please.





Bernie loves to smell the breeze.

So does McDuff.



Bernie also loves to roll on the ground - driveway or grass (as seen here), dirt or snow, he doesn't care.

McDuff likes to follow Rosebud around.

Rosie's nose is always to the ground - it's a hound thing.

Willow doesn't like to go out anymore than necessary, but she loves to sit on the futon and look at me over the back of it. :)

Okay, That's Enough

I've had enough of things breaking, okay universe? First my computer, then the oven, then the freezer.

Yes, our freezer wasn't working. I had someone come out and fix it yesterday. It turns out that water from the defroster had gotten into the fan area, and frozen, which kept the fan from working, which meant the cold air wasn't circulating into the freezer. Sigh. We lost some fish, but that was the worst of it. I was able to save most everything else.

Still. If nothing else breaks for a while, J and I will be very happy.

He did, however, surprise me last night by bringing me a dozen roses. :) They're so beautiful. Roses are my favorite flower. I'll post a picture of them with my happy list on Sunday, because you know they're what made me happy yesterday.

Happy List, 9/28 - 10/4

Here are the things that made me happy this week.

Sunday: J coming home a little earlier than he thought he would, meaning I actually got to see him for a couple of hours while I was still awake. That was a very good thing, because I was missing him like crazy.

Monday: I have a visual for this one. Please see below.

Mmmmm. :)

Tuesday: My Sims computer is fixed, and for only $40! Woo! Also, laying in bed with J and watching TV, while recovering from donating blood after not getting much sleep the night before.

Wednesday: My oven is fixed! And I have my computer back! Also, watching Sable as she hid around the bookcase from Zelda, and then pounced on her when Zelda came into view. Sable makes me laugh so much.

Thursday: J hugging me and consoling me when I was so tired that I was crying, after another night of insomnia.

Friday: Finding out some very good news from my health insurance company. Talking this news over with J, and deciding to do something I've wanted to do for a while. (Sorry for the cryptic, but it's a personal thing - and one of the personal things on my 101 list, as a matter of fact, so I'll be able to mark it off soon.)

Saturday: Finding out that Rosebud's puffiness was just an allergic reaction to a bug bite or something, and that she wouldn't even need medication. Seeing her back to normal by the time J got home from work in the middle of the night. Also, relaxing and watching TV and playing the Sims. Ooh, and making macaroni and cheese for dinner.

Saturday

Puffy Rosie.

This morning I had been up for about an hour or so, I was still lolling about in my pajamas, playing the Sims, doing laundry and just easing into my day, when I noticed something odd about Rosebud's face. It looked like there was something wrong with her eye, but when I got closer to her, I noticed it wasn't just her eye - her whole face was all puffy. I was a little concerned, but not overly alarmed, until I felt a swollen lump in the baggy skin on her throat, too. J was at work, so I called him to see what he wanted me to do. And thus started an hour of calling vets around here, calling my (former) vet, and not having any luck with any of them. (My former vet told me that she couldn't see Rosebud today, and suggested I call an emergency vet. I have paid thousands of dollars to these people in the last eight years or so, and this, on top of some things that happened with Gracie when her leg was broken, led me to say I will never spend another dollar at their practice again. Hence my calling them my former vets. I mean it, too - the next time someone needs to go to the vet, I'll try someone around here.)

Anyway, eventually we ended up with J calling his usual vet's office. He didn't think they had Saturday hours, but they did, so I loaded Rosebud into the car, and we drove down there. J met us there, and poor little shaking Rosie got herself examined. My initial instincts were right - the vet thought she had probably gotten stung by a bug of some sort, and was having an allergic reaction. It wasn't severe, and it wasn't affecting her breathing, so she's going to be fine - the puffiness will go down on its own eventually.

So I hugged my poor worried J (he loves that dog so much), and I drove Miss Rosie home, and we've had a quiet day since then. She's been sleeping on the couch in a nice warm room, and I've been playing the Sims, doing laundry and watching TV, while checking on her every half hour or so, to make sure she's still doing fine.

She is.

She's tired after a stressful day.

Oh, and I also made myself dinner - I made J's Mom's homemade macaroni and cheese recipe.


Doesn't it look good, all baked up?


It was very yummy. I had two plates, even though I shouldn't have. It was too good to stop at one. Now I'm very full, but that's okay. I don't mind. :)

Oh, and my oven is fixed! We had a repairman come out on Tuesday morning (or Wednesday? I lose track of the days), and he just had to adjust the pilot light. Now it works fine, so my macaroni and cheese got to bake as long as it was supposed to. Yay! I might try making another loaf of homemade bread tomorrow.

Oh, and one more thing! Since I have finally finished that baby blanket, I decided to go ahead and start making a sweater for myself. I got the needles that I needed yesterday, and I started it this morning. So far the back of the sweater (the part I'm doing first) is only about an inch high, so I have a long way to go. I'm very excited about it, though. I hope it comes out all right (and I'll share pictures when it becomes some sort of recognizable shape).

And now I'm going to go fold the dry towels, and maybe watch some of the TV shows I have on the DVR. Happy Saturday, people!

Vote

I liked this. It's an important message. And this is coming from someone who never cared enough to vote before four years ago. But somehow my hatred of George W. led to me caring enough to want him gone. And now, even though he is guaranteed to go (thank goodness), somehow I'm still caring enough to go out and vote again this year.

Do you?

And do you think this whole "caring" thing is part of getting old(er)? If so, I guess I can live with that. :)

Insomnia

I seem to have developed a case of insomnia. According to Wikipedia, the type I'm going through is "middle insomnia," meaning that I wake up in the middle of the night and then can't fall back asleep. It happened last night, it happened Monday night, it happened Friday night of last week, and I think it happened one other night, too - whatever night it was that Bernie woke me up peeing on the floor.

I don't know what's causing this - although I have my suspicions (it's not J or the animals (the animals might have woken me up two of those times, but they didn't keep me from going back to sleep), I'm not unduly stressed, so there is only one other conclusion I can draw, which I won't name here). I just know that it sucks trying to get through a workday on four hours of sleep, when I've always been the type of person to require at least seven hours in order to function well (preferably eight or nine).

So last night. I got up at 2:30 to use the bathroom, went back to bed, and then lay there, tossing and turning, for an hour. I got up and walked around the living room, sniffling a little because I knew the hard day that was coming, and I couldn't prevent it. I went back to bed. I got up and sat on the futon and petted the cats. I went back to bed. I got up and turned off the chimes on the grandfather clock, because I was just laying there, listening to it count off every 15 minutes of sleep that I was missing. I went back to bed. And finally I went back to sleep, for about half an hour.

Then the alarm rang.

I called in late and went back to bed after taking care of the animals, but I didn't fall back to sleep. I just lay there. So finally I just got up and came to work (after crying on J's shoulder a little bit about being so tired - I'm such a baby).

I don't know if I'm right about what's causing this, but I do know that I'll be going to the doctor later this month for my annual female stuff anyway, so I WILL be talking to her about my suspicions.

I can't take this. I need my sleep.

Yesterday's Lesson

What I learned yesterday: When you're already exhausted from having a bad night of sleep, it is probably not a good idea to go ahead and give blood, just because the Red Cross is set up in your building.

So, yes. I got a horrible night of sleep on Monday. I was woken up at about 2:30 or so, by one of the cats meowing for food, and when I got back to bed, I just couldn't get back to sleep. I lay there until at least 5:00 in the morning (the last time I looked at the clock was 4:45, but it was still a little while before I fell asleep), and then I got up at 6:30 (okay, 6:40, but the alarm went off at 6:30) for work, as usual.

I was exhausted.

But when I was going to get some lunch, I noticed that the Red Cross was set up in the gym in my building. I haven't given blood in a long time, because my iron is usually too low. But I have been eating mini wheats for breakfast every day, which are pretty high in iron, so I thought it might have a chance of being high enough for me to give.

I like to give blood. It could be me or my family or friends needing it someday, you know?

But I was so tired. Did I want to make the effort? Not really. Did I think I should? Yes. So I did. I figured my iron might be too low, anyway, and at least I'd have tried to give, meaning I could go sit back at my desk guilt free.

My iron needed to be 12.5. It was exactly 12.5. So I gave a pint.

An hour and a half later, I was feeling so tired and so, well, crappy, that I couldn't sit up straight any longer. I went home early and I got into my PJs, and into my bed, and I stayed there, with short breaks, until 6:40 this morning.

I feel great this morning - full of energy. But I learned my lesson. Next time the Red Cross comes to work, I won't try to give unless I'm well rested - guilt be damned!

You Have To Be Nice To Me Today

The Red Cross says so.


Did you know it's pretty hard to take a picture of your own upper arm? Because it is (that's where the sticker is).

Anyway. I'm tired today. The cats woke me up in the middle of the night, and I had trouble falling back to sleep after I had shut them up, so I'm about three hours short. My brain isn't working well.

So of course, giving blood was a great idea. :) But they were here, so I had to try. And I'm glad I did - someone will be happy to have that blood.

Happy Things

I forgot to e-mail my list to myself again on Friday, so I'm posting these a day late. But I'm still PMSing in a huge way (I'm ready to cry this morning if anyone says anything wrong to me, even though I have absolutely no reason to cry - hormones suck butt), so I'm really doing well just getting them posted at all.

Sometimes being a woman really sucks.

Okay, on to happier things from the last week.

Sunday: I had a really nice day at home with J, playing Sims, knitting and watching TV. Also, the Dolphins won, which made him happy, so it makes me happy.

Monday: J and I got home at the same time, which I don't think has ever happened before. It was nice. Getting an hour to Sim, and spending it playing an orphan family. It is a fun challenge, and everyone survived, woo!

Tuesday: Sitting in the living room at night, all the animals being quiet, the TV not on, with Sable sitting on my shoulder, purring and rubbing her head into my jaw. She's so sweet. It was a very peaceful moment.

Wednesday: I got Molly, my humidifier, in the mail! Also, watching J sleep for a few minutes, after I gave him a nice massage. It was very sweet.

Thursday: Sitting on the futon with Willow, watching TV and crocheting. And of course, J. He makes me laugh.

Friday: Starting the day in J's arms, not wanting to get out of bed. Ending the day in J's arms, not having to get out of bed.

Saturday: Starting the day with chocolate milk and a Kit-Kat. Mmm. Getting some great hugs and kisses from Willow when the oven wasn’t working, and my brownies were trapped in a half-baked state inside.

Today

This morning I felt Bernie nosing me in the arm, even licking me, while whining. I didn't know what time it was, and didn't look at the clock, but for some reason I thought it was time for J to get up for work (or almost), so I ignored Bernie. Then I heard him start to pee on the floor. That got me up. And it was only 4:08, so it wasn't anywhere near time for J to get up. Lesson learned. I will never ignore Bernie when he comes whining to me in the middle of the night again.

Once I got up, let him out, cleaned up the pee, let him back in, washed my hands and went back to bed, I was pretty much awake. I didn't want to be, but then you don't always get what you want, right? So I lay there, awake. J got up for work, then got ready, then came in and got the dogs and let them out. Then he came to say good-bye to me, handing me that king sized Kit-Kat bar that I wrote about earlier. I love a man who hands me chocolate at 6:00 in the morning, I really do.

After he left, I finally managed to get back to sleep, after kicking Willow out of the room for being noisy, and then letting her back in once she started scratching on the door from the living room side. I got up at almost 8:00, still tired, but ready to start my day. I had a lot of plans for today! I was going to:

Finally finish that baby blanket
Make homemade bread
Make brownies
Dust the furniture
Vacuum the floors
Mop the floors
Clean the bathroom
Do all of the laundry

Good plans, right? Here's what I actually did:

I finally finished that baby blanket (but it took me from about 8:30 in the morning until about 4:45 in the afternoon, and almost killed my right wrist - I have a bit of carpal tunnel or something, and the repepitive motions of crocheting really bug it after a while).
I made the brownies (with some trouble).
I attempted to make some bread (but learned that my bread maker is broken. I ended up with a lump of hard, unrisen, browned dough).
I did all the laundry.

Sigh.

First, before I go any further, I should tell you - I'm PMSing. Big time. I got all emotional and mushy this morning when watching Made of Honor, and e-mailed my mush to J. That was the good part of my PMSing.

I melted down later. The blanket was taking forever. The bread didn't work. I mixed up the brownies and put them in the oven, and then the oven for some reason stopped lighting (I have a gas oven/stove), when the brownies were only half done. It finally lit up again, after I melted down over it, asking the universe why it was keeping the brownies away from a hormonal woman who had just finished up 40 days without chocolate. Isn't that enough? What more do you want, universe?!?

Just in time to keep me from laying on the floor in a full-on fit, the oven lit up once again, and shortly thereafter, just an hour or so after they should have been done, the brownies finally finished. Whew. Is the oven broken now? Or was it a temporary anomaly? I have no idea. I'm hoping for temporary.

Then I spent ten minutes on the floor, hugging on Willow, who gave me some very nice hugs and kisses back. That helped. I also sat on a chair in the dining room and watched the rain falling into the pool. That helped, too. Then I finished that blanket, and that helped a LOT.

I made myself some mini pizzas for dinner (using the toaster oven, which thankfully is still working fine). I burned my tongue on one a little, but not badly. I shared the last mini pizza with the dogs. They liked that. Then I went out and frosted the still warm, but not too warm brownies (did I mention they are frosted brownies? Because they are, and they are heaven in a pan), and I cut a big one and ate it. I got chocolate frosting all over my fingers, and I loved every second of it.

I feel a lot better now. How did I ever go 40 days without chocolate? I don't know, but I am never doing that again. That's a second lesson I learned today.

To recap:

1. Never ignore Bernie when he whines and licks my arm in the middle of the night.
2. Never again attempt to live my life without chocolate. It's just not worth it.

Okay, me and my hormonal self are going to go watch some TV and relax, chores be damned for now. But first, take a gander at these.

The blanket, all folded up and ready to go. I'm going to find a gift bag for it this weekend. Michelle? I hope you'll like this. The two dark colors aren't showing up quite the same here as they are in real life - the one is more mauve than purple, like it appears, and the other one isn't quite so dark brown. Also, since I have no idea when I'll see you guys again, I'm going to deliver this to Donna on Monday. I figure she'll see you way before I see you again.

They really are heaven in a pan, and were totally worth waiting two hours for. But I still hope there isn't really anything wrong with the oven.

Okay, I'm out of here. I'm going to go relax and watch TV for the rest of the day. And maybe I'll vacuum, before the house gets completely taken over by animal hair. Oh! And I almost forgot two more things. First, finishing that baby blanket was on my list of 101 things, so I get to cross it off. That's two items crossed off in one day, woo! Second, have some cuteness to make you smile: