Kidney Stone Worse than Childbirth??

While we're on the topic of kidney stones, my DB (Dear Brother) had a kidney stone and he claims the pain is worse than childbirth (I'm unclear as to how exactly he knows what the pain of childbirth is like, but whatever). Now, I've been through childbirth and it was pretty darn painful. Kinda hard to believe a kidney stone is worse than that.

If you are a woman and you've been through childbirth AND had a kidney stone, I'd love to hear your assessment of the pain. Enlighten us, please!

Our Trip to the Emergency Room, Part 3

So Dr. Pizzaman comes in the with results - she's got a kidney stone! He seemed very surprised by this - apparently kidney stones in children is very uncommon. But the great thing is we could leave! There wasn't anything else to do but give her pain relievers, have her drink plenty of water and wait for it to pass! He wrote a prescription for Tylenol with codeine and told us we could go. (He did also suggest we try to recover the stone once it passed, and gave us means to do that, but I'm not going to gross you out with all that.) I couldn't believe it! Woo hoo! Now what I haven't mentioned is that we had plans to go to Lake George that evening and stay for a couple of days. Throughout this ordeal, DD kept asking, "Can we still go to Lake George? Please?" And I just kept telling her we had to figure out what was wrong first. So the minute Dr. Pizzaman leaves, DD asks if we can still go. Seemed kinda crazy, but I guess we could? So I thanked the Lord, and started gathering our things as the nurse came in to take out DD's IV. Once that was taken care of we were pretty much ready to go, only it was a pretty chilly day and since DD had barfed on her sweatshirt, I took off mine and put it on her. It was only about 10 sizes too big for her, but whatever. I kept asking DD how she was feeling, figuring at some point the morphine was going to wear off, but so far so good. We stopped at our local pharmacy and handed in the prescription. We wandered around while we were waiting. After a few minutes the pharmacist told DD, "Don't worry honey, I'm almost done with yours - you must be feeling pretty miserable." That kinda took me by surprise, but then I looked at DD. Poor DD, hair had barely been combed that morning and by now it was kinda stringy and messy from the ordeal, and she's wearing a giant sweatshirt that goes to her knees. She did look pretty pathetic. Well, we didn't dispel the myth - just got our prescription and left. Kept asking DD, "Are you feeling any pain yet?" Not only wasn't she feeling any pain yet, she told me she was feeling great. Okaaaaay.... So we get home (and DH was there) and I run around throwing stuff in a suitcase to leave for vacation. Ask DD how's she's feeling. She feels fine, no pain. Hours later and still no sign of pain. Next day, no pain. Ya know, she must've passed that stone like, before we left the hospital! Never had any more pain. The thing I am glad of though, is that I'm glad she didn't pass it before the cat scan - or we would never have known what was causing her all that pain! I wonder what would have happened. Probably would've stayed at the hospital for a few more hours until they discovered she wasn't in pain anymore then sent us home. Then I'd have to lay awake every night wondering and worrying what on earth had been wrong with DD and was it going to happen again? So I'm very thankful the stone stayed in for the photo op.

Oh, and by the way, if they pump you full of saline at the hospital, turns out you have to go to the bathroom a lot later. And that's what happened to DD, you know, while we were traveling up to Lake George. And just FYI, it is not easy to try to recover a kidney stone at rest areas.

Our Trip to the Emergency Room, Part 2

(Part 1 of this saga is here.)

So, now I have to get DD to drink the 3/4 full hospital pitcher of "contrast material". It looked like water so I figured hopefully it wasn't too gross and that it wasn't going to be too difficult to get DD to drink it. So she drinks about a cup and a half. And then, let's just say, it all came back up for a visit. Half of it on the poor kid's sweatshirt. So she asks me to take that off her (she had a t-shirt on underneath luckily) and I buzz for the nurse. The nurse comes and I tell him what happened. So he brings some anti-nausea drug that he tells her to put under her tongue, and brings a fresh pitcher diluted with apple juice for her to try to drink. Tells me to have her try drinking it in 10 minutes once that thing under her tongue has dissolved. So by now the morphine is really kicking in and she's getting verrrry sleepy. She also asked me to put on the tv. She picks Curious George. Which I hate. (Have you ever seen that show? That monkey is SO NAUGHTY. And all anyone does is just laugh it off or give him a mild scolding. It drives me crazy. That monkey needs a MAJOR TIME OUT. Him and Max from Max and Ruby.) So I get about a cup of the liquid in DD whilst listening to that stupid monkey wreaking havoc, and surprise, surprise, DD barfs it all up again. Sigh. So I buzz the nurse. Nurse comes. Gives DD something that sounded like phenergan(??) right into her IV that was a stronger anti-nausea drug but also would probably make her more sleepy. Brings a new pitcher. Great, so now I gotta try for a third time to get my increasingly sleepy DD to drink this stupid stuff while listening to Curious George getting in trouble. Turns out third time was a charm and DD was able to drink enough of the contrast material and Dr. Pizzaman orders a cat scan. Also, Scooby Doo came on. So a new nurse comes in with a rolling bed that DD gets on and they wheel her to the room to do the cat scan. I have to say DD looked very small and pathetic on that big hospital bed. That was not an easy mommy moment. Actually none of these were easy mommy moments. Now I've never had a cat scan so I didn't know what to expect, but the way the nurse explained it to DD was that the machine was like a big donut, and DD was going to get on this narrow bed that would move her into the donut hole. Then the big donut would talk and tell her to hold her breath, and then tell her to breathe, and before she knew it, it would be over. DD was very brave and scooted onto the table, and luckily the nurse let her keep Moo Cow under her head (the picture of the little cow on this blog is Moo Cow). Then I had to step outside. I was glad Moo Cow could stay with her. So I went outside and paced and prayed. And in about 10 minutes the nurse opened the door and said DD did great. So she wheeled DD back to her room. And then guess what we got to do? Wait and wait some more. DD fell asleep and I watched Scooby Doo and just prayed whatever was wrong was not worse than appendicitis. I could handle appendicitis. After about 30 minutes, Dr. Pizzaman came in with the results.

To be continued...

So I Mowed the Lawn Yesterday....

I PROMISE I *will* get back to the Emergency Room Saga in my next post, but I just HAD to post an update to my Pushmower Saga. (If you're unfamiliar with the Pushmower Saga, read about it here and here first - and be sure to read the comments on the second post.)

So, yesterday I had to mow the lawn. I decided to incorporate DH's two suggestions into my lawnmower starting procedure. His suggestions were to prime it 5 times instead of 3, and, he thought because of my artificial nails I was not expanding the primer bulb enough and I should find something else to use (and thus my post about looking for a fake finger). So, since a fake finger was not readily available, I looked around for something else that might work. I decided I would try this stick. So I stuck the stick in the primer bulb and primed it 5 times.

In the immortal words of my brother:

First pull, baby!

We Interrupt The Emergency Room Saga for This Break

This is where the clan went for our annual Memorial Day picnic. But I'm not going to say where this is. Because the place we used to go for years and years (Lake Taghkanic State Park) got discovered by, let's call them "outsiders", meaning people not from our area. Now where I live most people are raised with good manners. Yet these "outsiders" came and they blasted their music so you couldn't hear the birds or the sound of oars on the lake. They used foul language so you felt uncomfortable with your kids there. And maybe worst of all, they didn't clean up after themselves and left trash ALL OVER when they left - which costs us tax dollars to pay the rangers to clean up and dispose of that! So we stopped going to Lake Taghkanic and found this other little place, which is going to remain our little secret so it stays this nice....

Our Trip to the Emergency Room, Part 1

So about 7:30am Thursday morning DD comes into our bedroom crying and half screaming that her back hurts. Now this is the child who reacts with nearly the same amount of drama over a papercut (I am SO not kidding!), so at first I wasn't that worried. However, after trying to distract her, and talking to her, I could see she really truly was in a lot of pain and changing position or whatnot didn't seem to help. The pain seemed to be in her right side/back, so I thought maybe it was her appendix? Or who knows what? And she was clearly in a lot of pain - she could hardly stop crying, so I threw on some clothes, threw some clothes on DD and put her in the truck and drove to the hospital. On the way, she was crying less, but she was very white. Not easy to concentrate on driving to the hospital during rush hour, while trying to keep checking on your kid to make sure she didn't collapse, and also keep up fervent prayer. So we get to the hospital and park. I pretty much sorta knew where the emergency room was, but, would you believe I have NEVER in my life been to the emergency room?? I know, I must lead a charmed life or something. Whatever. Anyway, it wasn't too hard to figure out the entrance was just past the ambulances, so I found it and we went in. Now I've heard the horror stories from other people about how you can wait for hours in the waiting room before they get to see you, however, Thursday must be a slow day for emergencies because there was hardly anyone in there and DD was seen right away by the doctor, who poked and prodded her and asked her some questions. And then right away they gave us a room. That gave me a false sense of how we were going to be treated, however. Because then we waited. And waited. And waited. All the while poor DD is like dying of pain. I pushed the nurse button and a tech came in and I asked for some pain relief for DD. She said she'd get a nurse. And we waited. And waited. I finally went out to the nurses area and began practically yelling "Can my kid have some pain relief, she crying in there!" Nobody seemed to care that much truthfully, but they did tell me the "charge nurse" (whatever that means) was with someone, but DD was next to get an IV and with that pain meds. So we wait. And wait. Finally the "charge nurse" comes in, and she sure didn't seem in a very happy mood. She looks at DD's arms, puts the tourniquet thing on each one, slaps her arms a bit and decides she can't find a vein and she'll have to call the IV team. So guess what we did next? We waited. And waited. And waited. Finally another nurse came and she was a little nicer and wasn't AS grumpy. She tried on DD's right arm unsuccessfully to get an IV in, but thankfully she did manage to get it in her left arm, and took some blood. Now, DD is very petite for her age (9 yo) but I have to admit I was kinda surprised how much trouble they had getting an IV in. I mean, I realize she's small, but don't they have BABIES and TODDLERS they have to get IVs in? Surely they are even smaller than DD, how do they get IVs in them?? Or God forbid what if DD was in an accident or something and needed an IV right away - how would they have managed that quickly? Anyway, then DD's "regular nurse" - Tom - came in and hooked up a bag of saline and then gave her 1/2 milligram of morphine (I think that's how much). I was like, "Whoa, morphine??" But Tom said that's commonly what's given. Tom was pretty nice by the way, thank goodness. At this point the Dr. comes in, who I forgot to mention looks just like the old Italian guy who own the pizzaria nearest my house, except the Dr. isn't wearing a grease stained undershirt (or maybe he was and it was covered by his white Dr jacket). So far I am not feeling a huge amount of confidence in the staff, but I'm just praying God is helping these people out. And it's not like I can just say, "Well I'm unhappy with the service we're getting here and we're leaving and going to another emergency room!", ya know? So Dr. Pizzaman tells me they'll run bloodwork and see what that tells us, and in the meantime, try to get her to drink this pitcher full of contrast liquid so they can give her a cat scan and see what's going on.
To be continued...

Possible Solution to my Lawnmower Starting Problem

After the emergency room ordeal, we got off to an early start for the holiday weekend, so just a quick post for now...

My family seems to think that maybe when I prime the mower, the primer "bulb" doesn't fully spread out and draw enough gas because of the pointyness of my longish acrylic nails. So what - I'm supposed to find something else "finger-like" to use to prime the mower?? Like what? So I even searched the internet and I have discovered, it's not easy to find a fake finger. There's no "FakefingersRUs.com" or anything like that. However, if I could get one, imagine the practical jokes one could play with it. Imagine if you left this on the counter at McDonald's. Or sent it though the drawer at the bank drive up. Or threw it in your neighbor's pool.
Don't worry - if I had one I'd just use to start my lawnmower.

Emergency Room

That's not the topic I planned to blog about today.

I spent pretty much all day with DD in the emergency room. We're home now and it seems like she's going to be ok. We're exhausted and hungry and I didn't even take a shower yet so I'll have to tell this whole story another day.

The end.

Three Things that are Cool About Me

My brother works for Google and all he got me is this lousy t-shirt... Just kidding, it's way cool!

This is *my* truck. That I love even more than my new washing machine. See that little dent by the tail light? *I* did that. Mowing down the mailbox of one of my Avon customers - can you believe that? THAT was embarrassing. Whoops!

I have an amateur (ham) radio Technician license! I could talk on that radio if I wanted to. (I haven't yet, 'cause I'm too scared, but the important thing is I could!) I had to learn a lot of really technical material to pass the test. (Ok, actually I memorized the entire pool of 300 questions. Yes, I really did! But hey, isn't that an accomplishment too??)

The End

P.S. Hey, by the way, DH and I are married 14 years today. Now THAT'S an accomplishment in this day and age!

Bad Idea Jeans

Anyone remember this? DH and I use this phrase as part of our vocabulary.
For example, me trying to start the pushmower? Bad Idea Jeans. Getting rid of John Gambling from WABC radio? Bad Idea Jeans. Putting Kathie Lee Gifford on the Today Show? Bad Idea Jeans.




[ open on group of guys sitting on a bench on a basketball court, laughing ]

Guy #1: Hey, we've got our apartment. We ripped up the floors, pipes, wiring, and having everything completely redone.

Guy #2: You're renting, right?

Guy #1: Yeah.

[ image on screen: BAD IDEA ]

Guy #3: Well, he's an ex free-base addict, and he's trying to turn around, and he needs a place to stay for a couple of months.

[ image on screen: BAD IDEA ]

Guy #1: [ tosses bottle to Guy #2 ] Head's up!

Guy #4: Now that I have kids, I feel a lot better having a gun in the house.

[ image on screen: BAD IDEA ]

[ close-up of the jeans they're wearing, the label reads: BAD IDEA JEANS ]

Guy #3: I thought about it, and even though it's over, I'm going to tell my wife about the afffair.

[ image on screen: BAD IDEA ]

[ more shots of BAD IDEA jeans ]

Guy #5: I don't know the guy, but I've got two kidneys and he needs one, so I figured..

[ image on screen: BAD IDEA ]

Guy #2: Normally I wear protection, but then I thought, "When am I gonna make it back to Haiti?"

[ image on screen: BAD IDEA ]

Announcer: Bad Idea Jeans.

[ shows a group of tough looking basketball players on the court ]

Guy #1: Hey, you guys ready? Let's bet these guys! A hundred bucks.. make that two hundred! Two hundred bucks!

[ fade to image on screen: BAD IDEA JEANS ]

[ fade out ]

(Got this from Saturday Night Live Transcripts webpage)

The End.

I Was Gonna Put in on Ebay but DH Ate it....

The other day DH was eating some tuna salad I had made with a couple of slices of rye bread. He took a few bites of the rye then came over to me and showed me how he had somehow eaten it into a bread face:

I was gonna put in on eBay, but DH ate it. Oh well, there went our millions...

Speaking of faces, check out this website - Spot the Fake Smile. You look at 20 very short videos of people smiling and you have to determine for each smile whether it is a "real" smile, or a "faked" smile. I tried it and after like the 4th one, I was like, "I think I'm totally getting all these wrong..." It was much harder then I thought. To my total surprise, at the end I got 16/20 right! Give it a try and see how you do!

The end.

Have Ya Seen Geraldo Rivera Lately?

Usually I watch CNN (I kinda have a little "thing" for Anderson Cooper - and yes, yes, I know he's gay) but tonite they're showing "We Were Warned: Out of Gas" or something like that, and I know I can't watch THAT kind of freak-you-out-show before bed, so I put on Fox News and Geraldo at Large is on.

Oh my goodness - have you seen Geraldo Rivera lately? He is totally morphing into Rip Taylor!!

The end.

GAH and New Church and my Secret Ingredient

GAH! Didja see my brother's comment?? Brother vs. Pushmower

And, we've been going to a "new" church which is actually a church plant from our "regular" church. Today we weren't able to meet in our usual place, so instead we sort of had a meeting at someone's house to talk about how things are going, find out our thoughts, and see if people were ready to commit to some things that we want to do... It was really exciting and I felt really positive in the direction that things are going, and my confidence in the leadership is increasing. Our last experience in a small church, where we became very involved, ended somewhat badly and really soured us. But I'm feeling good about this.

Some of my family peeps including DH are out golfing and later we're all meeting at my DB and DSIL's house for BBQ. I'm making doctored up baked beans in the crockpot and oatmeal raisin cookies (with substitutions that make them choloesterol free for DH and Dad!). Though the oatmeal raisin cookies are from a mix, I did add my secret ingredient, which I will reveal to you, my faithful blog readers - nutmeg. I believe it is the nutmeg that won me 2nd prize in the Dutchess County Fair years ago for my oatmeal cookies. It just adds a warm, homey taste - I don't know how else to describe it. They're just coming out of the oven now. I'm going to try one to, you know, make sure they're not poisonous or anything - don't want to accidentally kill any of my peeps, so I should, you know, test one...

Brother Vs. the Pushmower

Ha! My brother called last night and asked if he could borrow our pushmower.

He came and picked it up this morning and I told him he has to count and tell me how many pulls it takes HIM to start it!

(He has a flat driveway though and will not have gravity on his side, so he may be at a small disadvantage.)

Maybe for fun this summer I can take the pushmower around on a "Start the Lawnmower Tour". I could give out prizes for those who can start it in one, prize for the most pulls to start it, prize for anyone who hits themselves in the teeth or otherwise injures themselves, best form and style while starting....

Edited to add: Be sure to read the first comment below - it's from my brother...

Five Things

Five Things You Might Not Know About Me

1. My most hated meal is scallops thermidor. My Mom was a great cook, but although everbody else seemed to love this meal - BLECCCH!!!

2. I've been an Avon Lady for 4 years.

3. I was diagnosed with scoliosis when I was 8. (I had the S curve.)

4. I read both Newsweek AND The Enquirer.

5. I once worked for Artistic Greetings in Binghamton, NY doing data entry typing in addresses. Did you order address labels in 1994? I might have typed in in for ya. It was horrible by the way.

Me Vs. the Pushmower

So I mowed yesterday. For those who don't know, we own just under 3 acres and unfortunately a lot of it is lawn. We have a lawn tractor for mowing, but there are areas that can't be reached with the lawn tractor, so I push-mow those areas first. Then, after I do all the mowing there's the trimming of the areas I can't get with the push-mower. I use hand clippers for that because I am weed-wacker-incompetent. It's a very tiring and time consuming job, but I have cool hearing protection that I can plug my ipod into, so at least I can catch up on podcasts that I like. And I look stylin'. It's what all the lawn care specialists are wearing these days.

The hardest part of all this is getting the push mower started. It's not like I'm a weakling or anything, in fact, whenever someone doubts my strength I remind them that I'm, "strong like bull" (said in a Hungarian accent). I've lifted plenty of heavy things in my life, I even once was a "man" on a two-man auger when DH was building the shed. However, this lawn mower tries to get the best of me every time. And it's a decent lawnmower - it's not a rusty old Kmart mower or anything like that. I prime it 3 times as per DH's instructions (and I HAVE tried priming it more, but it doesn't seem to make a difference), then I roll it over to the downward sloping area of the driveway to get gravity on my side. I grab the pull handle with one hand. I then push the mower away from me down the driveway as hard as I can with my left hand, while yanking with all my might with my right hand on the pull cord. I think I also kick my leg out or something, I'm not sure. (Once I hit myself in the teeth with the pull handle, I don't know how, but thank goodness I didn't hurt myself.) This whole process takes incredible strength and coordination. Despite this, today it took me 15 pulls to start it, which is average, sometimes it takes me as much as 20-25 pulls. I count. I know I'm getting close when I hear "putt putts" and smell gas. Sometimes I mow when DH is home and he starts it for me. He can often get it started in one, ONE PULL. Even he doesn't understand how "strong like bull" me has such trouble. I mean, I am seriously using all my might each time I try to start it.

So basically, once I get it started I'm totally exhausted.

Maybe I can get my Dad to make me one of these:
Lawn Mower Bike

Once *I* had a Tantrum Over A Piece of Garlic Bread

Oh have you seen this?? SO FUNNY!!!
Who hasn't had a moment like this?
I'm just glad none of mine are on film. That I know of.

NOT SAFE FOR WORK, MAKE SURE THE KIDS AREN'T AROUND:
Bill O'Reilly tantrum

Off to commune with the lawn!
The end.

Hood's Maine Blueberry & Sweet Cream

As promised, after finishing the Southern Lemon Pie ice cream (which was good to the last little bit of shortbread crust!), I got this enticing flavor that I'd been eyeing. Now I was wary because I'm a bit of an ice cream snob. I don't usually like some of the cheaper ice creams because they pump too much air into the ice cream and I find them too "mushy". I like nice dense, solid ice cream, so I was prepared to be a bit disappointed. However I was pleasantly surprised! It's not as dense as Ben & Jerry's (have you ever had the Chubby Hubby flavor? So. good.), but it wasn't bad. There was also a LOT of blueberry flavor swirl - a lot. They also didn't cheap out on the blueberries - there was a fairly good amount of actual blueberries mixed in. It is quite yummy and it has a really nice bold blueberry flavor. The only thing that I wasn't sure about is the fact that the blueberries in it are frozen. I mean, a duh, of course they're frozen. But because they are frozen they taste kinda like little soft ice balls and not really like blueberries. I don't see any way to fix that though. But, overall I was pleasantly surprised and if you like blueberries, you'll like this for sure. I think it would also go good with sugar cookies for some reason. Or Lorna Doones. Hmm.

I don't have another ice cream lined up to try, if anyone has a favorite flavor to share, I'm open to trying any ice cream.

Oh my goodness, finished the painting today. It was such a pain in the neck and I had to use at times a broom handle with different painting implements either screwed on the end, or taped on with packing tape, while standing on a ladder, to reach the walls on top of the cabinets. (I spent half my time wiping paint off the cabinets, the ceiling and the floor as I awkwardly banged the stupid broom handle with a painting implement on the end all over the place.) I also totally didn't realize I was going to have to move the refrigerator. But I did, and I even cleaned the floor behind the fridge which I consider an act of bravery (pats self on back).

Guess what I get to do tomorrow?? Mow the lawn! Hey, at least I get to be outside and breathe in gasoline fumes instead of paint fumes, that's a welcome change.

It's ok, I actually don't mind mowing the lawn too much. The hardest part is getting the push mower started. I'll explain that process tomorrow, this post is long enough. The end.

My Beanie Babies 2.0 Surprise

(That's "Motherly Bear" - isn't she so cute??)

Ok, so I got time yesterday to get back on to the Beanie Babies 2.0 website and I was able to finally get some more beans to fill up my "hunger meter" so that finally all my meters were full and I completed my first Beanie Adventure - woo hoo! So I waited with anticipation as Mayor Bean (or whoever he is) appeared on my screen to tell me what wonderful thing happens now that I have 3 Beanies and I filled all my meters!

WHAT COULD IT BE????

He gave me a watering can.

???

That can't even be used yet because the garden area it can be used for is "Coming Soon".

???

Suffice to say I was just a wee bit disappointed. Ok totally disappointed. A little angry even. Starting thinking about how unfortunate it would be if Mayor Bean was in a mysterious accident....

So now I'm going to go spend my time on something worthwhile and finish the stupid painting. All I have left now are 3 walls in the kitchen that have the cabinets on them. There's not a lot of wall space but it's gonna be a pain in the butt. At least I'll have Rush on the Dittocam to keep me company.

By the way I was glad Amanda lost on Survivor. Her constant "glazed over" look drove me crazy - I couldn't believe someone else mentioned it at tribal council!! I wasn't thrilled with Parvati winning, I wanted Cirie to win - I thought she played the best game of the last 3 women. At least James got the $100,000. That I was happy about. The next Survivor location looks really interesting - Gabon, Africa. Also it's going to be shot in HD. Not that that's gonna matter to us - our newest tv is 14 years old. I'm tellin' ya, if thieves ever break into my house, they're going to be pretty disappointed with our stuff.

5/12 10:00-11:00PM : Read 3 Political Articles

Good grief people! I love to keep up on politics but some of these articles go on and on and on... Just for kicks I just copied the one I was just reading into Microsoft Word and did a word count - over 1,300 words! People, can we not get our ideas across in a few less words? Or do these writers think if they write a lot we'll think they know what they're talking about? I don't want to have to schedule an hour of my time just to read 3 articles. I've got soap operas to watch and bon bons to eat, people!

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Trout Fishing in America and I Ate All the Beans in Beanie World

So, I want to tell you what we did Friday night. Some very good friends of ours invited us out to a local place called the Towne Crier Cafe in Pawling, NY. From their website: "Since 1972 the Towne Crier Cafe has presented the finest in folk, jazz, blues, Celtic, bluegrass, cajun, zydeco and world music." There was a duo performing there that they had been going to see for the past 10 or 12 years called Trout Fishing in America. Their music was a very eclectic mix of folk, family, jazz, rock...and?? They put on a very entertaining performance, we're still singing some of their songs. Some were "family" oriented - hilarious songs like: "Your Name Backwards", "Are We There Yet", and "It Did it All by Itself", but there were some other great songs from a more adult point of view like "It's Not Bad" and they finished up the night with an unbelievable all out rendition of "Not Fade Away". Loved it. During one part of the evening, Ezra was talking about his dream to build a treehouse and then he sang a song about this dream. He mentioned that there is a slideshow of the treehouse he built on the website, so I took a look on Saturday. People, this is like an actual house built in the trees. How crazy is this - there's a WOODSTOVE in it! And at first I was like, ok, I'm no engineer but I do not see HOW these trees can support this house!! I mean after all, these guys are from Arkansas, maybe they don't know so much about engineering there?? (JUST KIDDING.) But I looked at the slideshow again and I looked closely and ok, whew, they do have some steel supports, so they ARE cheating a little, but at least I could relax and stop worrying that they're going to be sitting in there one evening, warming themselves by the woodstove, listening to the crickets and suddenly this house falls 30 feet to the ground! (So now I only have to worry it's going to go up in flames from a spark from the woodstove.) It's really beautiful - there's even stained glass over the door, check it out, it's so, SO cool!

I was going to review Beanie Babies 2.0 but without going too much into it, I need to find one more "food bean" before I can see what happens now that I have three Beanie's that I've added. Now that I have a third it's supposed to unlock some new "Beanie World" or something. So I ran all over "Beanie World" eating beans to fill up my hunger gauge or whatever and it's like one stupid sliver away from being full, and apparently I seem to have cleaned out the entire Beanie World of beans and I'm not sure when I can get more, so we'll all have to wait in suspense. As in real life, maybe eating too many beans in one day isn't good for virtual friends either. Maybe tomorrow.

What Do You Get a Conservative Republican Mom for Mother's Day?

Why a subscription to Rush 24/7 of course! (In case you don't know, that's special access to Rush Limbaugh's website) It's pretty cool - not only can you download his 3 hour show if you miss it, get access to his "Stack of Stuff" (material he uses for show prep), but you can even watch him live during the broadcast on the "Ditto Cam". You can also stream his show live from his website and instead of listening to commercials during the breaks, you get to listen to parodies that have been on the show. I'm going to be savoring the next 52 weeks of Rush Limbaugh for sure!

(Incidentally, for Mother's Day I also got some very pretty flowers from DD and an adorable Beanie Baby 2.0 called "Luckier" - similar to Webkinz there's a website you can log onto and play games - I'll go into it more and give my review in another post. I also want to post about where we went Friday night and the very interesting musical group we saw - but again, I'll save that for another day.)

Speaking of Rush, love him or hate him, the man is brilliant. This has been a particularly interesting election process so far, and I have been listening to him a LOT this year and I must admit the whole "Operation Chaos" has been especially entertaining. Would you believe there's even a Wikipedia entry for Rush's Operation Chaos??

Of course the Democrats are either denying Operation Chaos is having any effect OR they're criticizing it. And as much as I do love El Rushbo, I heard a sound bite from Chris Matthews that really made me stop and think:

"Anyone who voted to screw up the political system of this country with the purpose of mischief should carry that with them the rest of their lives. What a ridiculous way to use the vote for which people fought and died — to use that vote to make mischief."

Wow. Light bulb moment.

I am totally embarassed and deeply sorry that I forgot what a privilege it is to have the right to vote and that it came at a cost. Heck, as a woman I forget that women didn't even have the right to vote here in my own country until 1920 - there are still countries today that I wouldn't be able to vote in just because I'm a woman.

So here we are playing games with our election while the poor souls in Burma/Myanmar are dying unnecessarily because of the actions (or lack thereof) of the military regime they. can't. vote. out.

Thank God I Don't Have to Listen to Imus Anymore!

I'll flat out admit it. I LOVE talk radio. I don't even watch tv during the day - I listen to AM RADIO - yes, AM RADIO! (Although I can listen via my computer if I'm at home and actually join the 21st century.) I even listen to the radio in the bathroom when I'm getting ready in the morning. (And no, I don't know what's wrong with me.) I've been listening since I was in my late teens, so this affliction is nothing new.

Anyway, my station of choice has always been 77WABC. They USED to have a GREAT show on in the mornings - it was called Curtis and Kuby, named for well known leader of the Guardian Angels Curtis Sliwa, and Ron Kuby, a famous lawyer with very liberal views. It was great because they both had pretty much opposite views on things, yet they could debate intelligently and respectfully. Although I'm conservative, I enjoyed hearing Ron's point of view, and occasionally I even agreed with him!

Well, someone at Citadel, who owns WABC decided, "Hey, let's bring Don Imus back, people must have forgotten about his offensive racial comments by now! We'll syndicate him and make loads of money!" So they canned Kuby and at least gave Curtis his own show later in the morning, although it was at the expense of JOHN GAMBLING, yes, JOHN GAMBLING! Even Curtis felt bad about pushing out John Gambling, who is a RADIO ICON! And so Imus took over the morning drive.

I listened to Imus, I gave him a chance. Many, many times, I tried!

I am SORRY people, he is SO BORING! And his sidekick comedians are NOT EVEN FUNNY! Can there actually be anyone who enjoys Imus' show??

Well, the other day, a ray of sunshine shone down from the heavens when I heard the news that John Gambling is back on at WOR710, which is actually where he used to be before WABC. From what I understand it was John who picked up the phone to call the bosses over at WOR, and THANK GOODNESS the powers that be at WOR were smart enough to jump on the chance to get John Gambling back on the air. So now, while I'm putting on my anti-wrinkle cream and spraying my hair I have something enjoyable to listen to! Now my world is happy again. I can go from John Gambling 'til 9, to Joan Hamburg until 10am (I never listened to her before, but she's interesting enough), then over to WABC for Curtis Sliwa, then El Rushbo aka Maha Rushie, aka Rush Limbaugh and then a bit of Hannity before I have to go meet the school bus. Bottom line: NO MORE IMUS! (Except for those INCESSANT Net Jets commercials!)

You'd think with all this talk radio I listen to I'd have meaningful things to say on this here blog, wouldn't ya?

Well you'd be wrong!

Anal Glands, No Release and Plankton

Got some painting done yesterday. Looks soooooooo nice - it's gonna look GREAT when it's all done. That cheered me up a bit, as well as finishing up the last of the "broken washer build up laundry" which was mostly bedding. So onto my overdue recap of Monday....

Do you know about anal glands on a dog? If you don't, you are lucky. If you really want to know all about them you can google it, however, let's just say that when a dog is frightened sometimes this noxious smelling liquid brown substance is released from the posterior region. Let me emphasize NOXIOUS smelling. It's not even like a poo or fart smell, it's worse. Anyway, Mr. Big Black Dog let loose on the way to the vet. THANK GOODNESS I had a small rug under him which caught it, but when I got home I threw that rug right in my washer and Lysolled the heck out of the back of my truck. The next time I got it, the sun had been beating down on the truck so I got to enjoy a superheated version of what smell was left. I drove around with all the windows down for awhile, and I am happy to say it seems to have dissipated. I apologize for even sharing that story with you, it's so gross isn't it?

Well the geocaching event was a lot of fun, but alas, no geocoins were released into the wild by DH. Got to put some faces to names of local cachers. DD and I shared a clam strip dinner. (You know, that used to be a staple, but you can't always find the clam strip dinner everywhere anymore. It was good.)

And, for those who don't recognize him, to the right is a picture of my little alter ego, none other than Sheldon J. Plankton, aka PLANKTON from SpongeBob Squarepants. Plankton is Mr. Krabs' business arch rival and the show's resident villain. Plankton runs the restaurant across the street from the popular "Krusty Krab" where SpongeBob works; Plankton's place is called the "Chum Bucket". Plankton's goals in life are to get the secret recipe for the Krabby Patty and to rule the world. He never succeeds long at either though. I don't know why I love Plankton so much. I don't normally like villains. I even have a McD's (or from somewhere) Plankton toy in my truck. You press a button on the back and his eye bulges. It's great!

Some (hopefully) quick errands to run this morning, then more painting!

Bear With Me...

I have a lot I want to tell about the vet visit yesterday (and why I had to Lysol my truck), the geocaching get-together, and I want to address the picture of the "angry alien cycloptic sausage creature" to the right (for those of you who don't already know who that is), BUT.... I have to get painting the kitchen and livingroom. I'm feeling very overwhelmed today with the house - more than just the painting - the myriad of other things that need to be done. I'm sitting here nursing the last of my coffee, just not wanting to get started....

I hope I get a lot done today.

Glad the Weekend is Over

Busy, busy weekend. Spent a lot of it doing laundry (still plowing through the last of the laundry "build up") and also had some obligations related to a Christian youth retreat DH and I have been involved with for wow, like 20 years. Sunday night we ended up driving a truckload of stuff that was at our temporary retreat location back to our usual retreat location AN HOUR AWAY, unloaded it, and put it away in the storage area our group uses, then drive AN HOUR back home. Didn't get home until close to 11pm. Poor DD, she was tired but such a big help - I had her put on her PJs before we left and there she was carrying boxes and signs down the hallway at the retreat place in her pink pajamas. Anyway, glad that's done. This morning I have to wrestle the dog to the vet. I have to drug him first though. 65lbs of big black dog who don't wanna see the vet is not easy to control. I may drug myself as well.

With all this driving around in my gas guzzler I've definitely been trying to keep abreast of the gas station with the best price. I found this website that lists the prices at your local stations - you just type in your zip code, it's pretty cool - Gas Prices MSN Autos.

Tonite we're going to pollute the environment some more by driving out to a local Geocaching event to hook up with some fellow cachers. Trade some stories and travel bugs and geocoins. I got DH a subscription to a Geocoin club but he keeps saving the coins instead of releasing them into the wild. He loves to save things. I threatened him and said I'm not going to renew his subscription again if he's not ever going to place them. Let's see if he brings any to release tonite....

Turkey Hill Southern Lemon Pie Ice Cream

It's likely this will be the first of many ice cream reviews. I love ice cream. I am always on the alert for whatever is new. I found this new flavor last week. It is reeaalllly good. If you like lemon meringue pie, you would love this. The little shortbread chunks, the marshmallow blops that mixed with the lemon ice cream taste just like meringue - ah, just delicious. This would be perfect on a hot summer day. It's "Limited Edition", so if you see it, grab some!

I already know which ice cream I want to try next. I saw it at Hannaford. It's made by Hood.

"Maine Blueberry & Sweet Cream All the way from Maine's blueberry fields, rich blueberry ice cream made with real Maine blueberries and swirled with creamy vanilla ice cream makes for a truly scrumptious dessert."

Doesn't that sound good??

Now while I torture myself testing ice creams for you, my devoted fans, check out this blog by a guy who really does torture himself for his fans: (warning - his blog does contain foul language, so don't click if you're not ok with that): Steve, Don't Eat It

I'll stick to ice cream.

No Better Place on Earth Than the Road That Leads to Heaven

So I'm sitting with DH tonite and we each have our laptop and we're each doin' our thing. We have the ham radio on, listening in on the Mount Beacon repeater. There's been some big lags in conversation on the radio and I happened to stumble upon Neil Diamond in my internet wanderings. It inspired me to go to iTunes and listen to some snippets of his songs. Totally brought me back to my childhood - I'd come home from school to find Neil Diamond blasting and my Mom doing housework with her "Ninja Kerchief" tied around her forehead. I'm not sure how I went from Neil Diamond to Steven Curtis Chapman, maybe I was feeling nostalgic, but next I searched out Steven Curtis Chapman on the web and found his official site. I saw Steven Curtis Chapman, who is now a huge star, at a local church back in the late 80s before he made it big. He was one of the very first Christian artists I was ever exposed to. I bought his album "More to This Life" that night and played the heck out of that cassette! :-) Anyway, on SCC's website it amazingly has all his albums listed on there and all the songs are there to stream and listen to! The song I immediately wanted to hear is the song that brings me back to riding on a bus, late at night, my head vibrating against the cold bus window, my best friend asleep on my shoulder on our way to Urbana Illinois for a huge collegiate Christian convention, and thinking nonstop about this guy that I was pretty sure I was in love with (who was back home). I had my Walkman on with a cassette of SCC's newest album For the Sake of the Call (the official release date is 1992 btw, but the original release date is 1989, just so you don't think I've got my memories all mixed up). There was one song on there that was my favorite, that I listened to over and over on that trip, that just made my soul sing, and whenever I hear it, it reminds me of riding that bus in December 1989 - even the beat of it seemed to be in sync with bus bumping along the highway, and realizing I was falling in love with my very own present day DH. (My DH who incidentally right now is sitting just 8ft away from me, having no idea I'm getting all mushy over here. He's probably getting tired of me playing that song over and over again, ha!)

If for some reason YOU'D like to hear my favorite Steven Curtis Chapman song that holds these fond memories, you can go here, then click "play" on the album "For the Sake of the Call" and then press the fast forward button on the player until you get to the song "No Better Place". It's an awesome song. It pretty much says it all. Even today. Definitely today!

WJRE5500G[WW]

So we called my Dad last night (who is always a good sport no matter what wacky thing we ask him to do, though lucky for him this was very low on the wacky scale) and asked if he could give us a hand getting my new washer up stairs and into place. Got it all hooked up without too much trouble and gave it a test run. Works GREAT! And it's surprisingly very quiet too! I was also impressed with how much clothes will fit in it - it's big! Dare I say it was worth the wait? Anyway, if you're in the market for a new washing machine, I highly recommend this one: GE WJRE5500G[WW]. Thanks to Consumer Reports for the recommendation. But be warned - mine took nearly a month to get!

Besides the 200 loads of laundry I have ahead of me, I am in the process of painting. The first color that was too orange I used to paint one of our downstairs bathrooms, and it looks actually very nice in there. It doesn't seem too orange in there at all. Went back to Home Depot to take another stab at a color for our kitchen/livingroom and came home with Glidden's "Dapper Tan". Tested it on the wall and we have a winner!

Dapper Tan reminds me of Dapper Dan - do you remember that doll from the 70s? It was a boy doll and he had clothing and shoes with laces and zippers and buttons and it was for little kids to practice using the different clothing fasteners? My brother had Dapper Dan. I just looked on Ebay and he's not too expensive - there's a completed auction for a Dapper Dan still in original box that went for only $9.99! I also discovered they make a "new" Dapper Dan, but there's nothing like the original!

Look What's in My Garage