A Very Dramatic Trip to the Dentist

Diagram from www.childrenshospital.org

Our daughter, fortunately, has very nice, pretty straight, cavity-free teeth.  There was just one minor problem.  One of her upper canine teeth came down a little bit forward and did not completely push out the baby tooth below.  The result was that the canine did not move all the way into proper position, and the baby tooth never fell out and was sort of jammed between the permanent tooth and gum.  The dentist referred to this as being "locked" and apparently it's quite difficult for a kid to try to get a baby tooth out that is locked by themselves.  Therefore, the Daughter had to go to the dentist to have the baby tooth removed.

<insert incredible 13 year old drama here>

Sigh.  Armed with every threat imaginable, coupled with the bribe of many wonderful rewards, I took the Daughter to the dentist yesterday afternoon with the stern instructions that she was to be calm and brave and there is to be NO DRAMA.  You would think the way she was acting that no one in the history of mankind had ever had a tooth pulled, and lived.  Oy.

Anyway, I walked with her to the exam room, and at the dentist's suggestion, I left  and parked myself in the waiting room (YES!).

(Our dentist is super awesome, btw.  It's a bit of a trip for us to get there, but it's SO WORTH IT.  I'll even tell you who it is - it's Dr. Phil Williams, in Hyde Park, NY.)

So I sat there, straining my ears, flipping through magazines, Avon brochures, supermarket flyers, wolf camera coupons... I realized *I* was so nervous that I wasn't even seeing any of the words I was "reading", so I just decided to pray  instead.  While straining my ears for crying/drama/etc...

Finally the hygienist came out and said the tooth was out and my Daughter was so good through the whole thing!

(I was wondering if she had the right mom, but sure enough, she led me to the exam room where my daughter was, ha ha...)

As I'm walking with my daughter up to the counter to pay, I notice she looks very white, and I can feel that her back is sweaty.  Can you guess what happened next?

Down she goes!  Fainted right there in the waiting room.  Luckily I had my arm around her and could ease her gently to the floor.  She was barely out for but a few seconds, but we let her lay on the floor for a minute, then eased her into a chair and made her put her head between her legs.  Within 10 minutes she was feeling much better, and we were laughing about it by the time we were in the truck ready to go home.

(The last time this happened was after she got a shot at the doctor's, although that time she felt herself "going", so I had her kneel on the floor with her head down and we "saved it", but she still got the clammy sweats.  I'm pretty "fainty" myself, so I guess I know how to handle it.)

So the kid managed to create some drama at the dentist anyway, lol!

She admitted the tooth extraction didn't hurt at all (which Dr. Phil had even "pinky swore" with her that it wouldn't) and it wasn't pain that made her faint - more like the relief and release of the anxiety of the whole thing?  Anyway, hopefully she won't be so scared of any future dental work, and I'll know to leave her in the exam chair for a few minutes until she's sure she's ok, lol!

We stopped for a congratulatory meal at McDonald's on the way home.  :-D

Anybody have any funny dentist stories?

The end.

P.S.  I asked my daughter if it was ok to write about this on my blog and she was totally fine with it, so I don't want anyone thinking she's going to be embarrassed or upset I told this story.  And she knows she's a drama queen, lol!!

More Thoughts Too Short For a Whole Blog Post

Our cat Q-ee kept banging this cabinet trying to get to the garbage inside in the middle of the night, so we set up this "booby trap".  (That measuring cup is filled with water.)  Took him getting doused 4 or 5 times, but he's stopped trying to open the cabinet, at least for now.

Daytona 500 was postponed because of rain until tomorrow, dang it!  In the meantime, if you're on twitter there are a lot of drivers and NASCAR folks on there.  Mark Martin:  @55MarkMartin, Darrell Waltrip: @AllWaltrip, NASCAR: @NASCAR, Mike Joy: @MikeJoy500 plus lots more if you search around.  They are interacting a lot with the fans and answering a lot of questions - especially Mark Martin.  I also recommend following @Jeff_Gluck - he is a terrific NASCAR Sprint Cup reporter.  (Even if you're not using Twitter, you can still click those links and read what they are saying on their individual Twitter pages.)

I was talking to one of my sister-in-laws and she was telling me how much cool stuff she's found on Pinterest.  I've been to Pinterest before, and it is really, really cool but...I think it makes me feel overwhelmed and discouraged because I know I'll probably pin a hundred recipes I'll never make, a hundred home design ideas I'll never do, a hundred crafts I'll never make, etc. etc. so...why even bother?  Lol...  Well, since my sister-in-law was telling me what great things she found, I'm going to give it another look tonight.  (Also, neither of us were sure how to pronounce "Pinterest", so I looked it up - "Pinterest" is pronounced like "interest" but with a "p" in front of it.)

The Husband and I love the show "Gold Rush" but that is just too much work for too little gold.  It's just too much; I couldn't take it.  And every show I want to cut Todd's beard off...  If you like Gold Rush too, the Gold Rush forum on the Discovery site is interesting / entertaining.

I love Sonic!  My favorite thing to order is the Bacon Cheeseburger Toaster Sandwich and a Diet Coke with watermelon flavor!  Oh, and side of TOTS!!!  I know, so bad!!!  

I recently read a book by a local Hudson Valley author (Chris Orcutt) that I really, really enjoyed (and you know how I've bemoaned trying to find good books to read that aren't too "gritty" with excessive violence/sex/language).  It's called A Real Piece of Work and it's a PI/Mystery novel about the detectives Dakota Stevens and Svetlana Krush.  I'm not very good at writing book reviews, but I thought it was sort of James Bond-esque but a bit wittier.  Indie Book Review wrote a great review here if you'd like to know more.  You can download A Real Piece of Work for your Kindle or Kindle app from Amazon and it's only $4.99, which is an excellent deal for such a good read.  Currently it has 61 out of 70 five star reviews!  (The other 9 reviews are 4 stars.)  The second book in the series is already written and being readied for release!

The Iditarod starts in only 5 days!

I love Sonic!  My favorite thing to order is the Bacon Cheeseburger Toaster Sandwich and a Diet Coke with watermelon flavor!  Oh, and side of TOTS!!!  I know, so bad!!!

We recently watched The Manhattan Project movie.  It's an older movie, but I had never seen it.  Good movie if you're looking for something to stream on Netflix.  John Lithgow had almost a full head of hair back in the 80s!

Speaking of movies, I don't watch the Oscars or any of those awards shows for actors.  When they have award shows for doctors who perform lifesaving operations/find cures for diseases, our servicemen and women risking their lives for our freedom, firefighters who run into burning buildings to save people, single moms who work three jobs to keep food on the table, etc., etc. I'll watch.  I can't believe there are multiple televised award shows with parties and hoopla to "honor" people for acting.  That is so. beyond. ridiculous.

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Why Do People Often Have More Than One Guitar?

Beautiful, huh?  It's a gibson melody maker.

I got to thinking the other day, after a previous post waxing about my desire to learn guitar better someday, that it's not uncommon for someone to own more than one guitar, yet, how often does an ordinary person own more than one piano?  Or more than one violin?  Or more than one flute?  Or more than one saxophone?

I guess it's probably because guitars come in so many cool styles.  I mean, have you ever seen a cherry red flute?  Or a piano with flames?

Here's Gene Simmons' (from the band Kiss) "axe" guitar:

I must say, I've never seen a piano shaped like a weapon.  But maybe you could make a piano that looks like a cannon, or a tank or something...  Then if no one likes your playing, you can shoot them or run over them, lol!

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My Cousin Left This Surprise on My Driveway

I came home the other day to find these items on my driveway.  I knew right away who they were from.

You know how when women are stressed they eat chocolate?  Well the other day my cousin and I ate half a cake.  So I was glad for the "emergency chocolate" I could use when there was no cake around, ha ha....

And as for the Moon Pies...  My cousin and I occasionally were able to have a sleepover at our Grandma's house and we used to spend the day sneaking candy and snacks - banana Moon Pies in particular - and would hide them under the bed we slept in.  Then after being put to bed, we'd stay up and eat the candy and snacks we had secretly worked to stash all day.

We found out years later that our Grandma totally knew all about what we were doing.  But she let us, isn't that so awesome??  She was a great Grandma...I miss her still...

Anyway, I have NEVER seen a box of banana Moon Pies since - but when I saw that box on my driveway there could be no one else those could be from but my cousin!  (In case you now want Moon Pies, she got them in the Cracker Barrel Restaurant gift shop.  They come in chocolate too, fyi.)

Everyone should be as lucky as I am to have a cousin that leaves them Emergency Chocolate and Moon Pies in their driveway!!  :-D

Do you have a special childhood treat?

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Here's My NASCAR Fantasy League Team - Whaddaya Think?

Before I reveal my team, in case you didn't know/remember, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is my favorite driver.  For the top of this post I chose to use this picture of him in which I think he is quite attractive, rather than the picture the Husband showed me the other day.  It's from an article called, "Creepy Dale Earnhard Jr. welcomes you to Daytona", which I must admit is quite amusing...and accurate!  Here is the more recent photo from that article:

Sorry for ruining all your Dale Earnhardt Jr. fantasies.

For quite a few years now, the Husband, some friends and relatives and I have played together in a free NASCAR fantasy league.  The very first time we played, I won, and my Dad bought a plastic tiara for me as my prize.  The following year I passed along the tiara to the next winner (all the other players are men).  Also, somewhere along the line a plastic Solo cup with some sort of congratulatory message was added to the "grand prize package".  Usually we try to get a picture of the winner wearing the tiara, which is very amusing as it's not been me since the very first year.  :-D

So anyway, here is the team I got this year.  The league we use has a draft where you rank all the drivers according to who you want the most to the least, and then there is a random "serpentine" draft (whoever goes first in the first round, goes last in the second round, etc.) which occurred last night.  You chose 4 drivers each week to compete head to head with another team (one driver of your choice sits out each week).

Dale Earnhardt Jr.

AJ Allmendinger

Marcus Ambrose

Paul Menard

Aric Almirola

I was extremely happy I got Dale Earnhardt Jr. (after not getting him last year - you know who got him???  The Husband!!!  I told him this year he'd better not even put him on his list of wanted drivers because if he thought I was mad last year........)  The rest of my team is "meh" - no other "superstars" which is disappointing, but on the other hand Allmendinger, Ambrose and Menard are "ok" and some of the other teams have a couple of "superstars" and then really crappy other drivers.  So maybe my "middle of the road" team will end up ok.  Of course I'm hoping this is Junior's totally incredible breakout year and will lead me to the Fantasy League championship so I may again wear the tiara!  :-D

Now I have to go study who the heck is in which car.  There is always a bunch of "switcheroos" during the off season and it always takes a few races to keep straight who is in a different car, who has a different sponsor, etc.  With the rough economic climate, I know sponsorships have been really hard to come by which means sometimes there is one sponsor for some races and another sponsor for other races, which makes it even more confusing.  In fact there are some decent drivers without a ride this season and probably have to think about walmart careers instead...

I always thought since Danica Patrick is a woman there are certain sponsors she could get and capitalize on like driving the Tampax car, or the Nice N Easy Haircolor car...right?  How about the Motrin PMS car - I bet the guys would get the heck out of her way then, huh?  Lol...

Don't forget the Daytona 500 is this Sunday!  Are you going to watch?  Who is your favorite driver?

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The Geocaching Stat the Husband is Trying to Improve

A fun geocache the Husband found recently

My Husband is a software engineer and has a very "analytical" brain.  I joke that he has a spreadsheet and/or a "system" for everything (but he kinda does).  He also loves statistics, which goes along well with his love for geocaching - on the geocaching website they offer all kinds of stats about your "finds".  He's always being tempted to improve this stat, or the other stat...

His latest endeavor is to have the longest streak he can of finding at least one geocache a day.  I don't even know what our old "record" was, but if he finds one today (which he will) that will be 60 days in a row he/we have found a geocache.

Yes, he's crazy, but in an intellectual kind of way, ha ha....

And it's a good hobby - it's gotten him out hiking quite a bit more than he probably normally would in the winter, and it doesn't cost much once you've bought the GPS (which I must admit can be pretty pricey, although it's not like having to buy horse equipment or ski equipment/tickets, etc.).

Do you have a slightly crazy Husband or hobby?

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Well I Lost All My Recent Photos So This is What You Get!

There are very few pictures of me on this blog, but desperate times call for desperate measures.  

If you read my last post, you know I had a computer crash.  I've pretty much restored everything, but I haven't gotten our recent photos from the Husband's computer yet.  I didn't want to disappoint you all by not including a picture with today's post, so I took one with my webcam.  Which I had to figure out how to do 'cause I rarely use the thing.  On the bright side, I learned something new today.  :-D

So, I finally decided what to do about my "Christmas Blubber" (extra fatness from the holidays) that I was pondering in an earlier post.  I joined a gym.  I know - I've always said I hated exercise.  Well, I guess I hate "dieting" even more.  I know, I know - you're not supposed to "diet" but every time I try to make "lifestyle changes", I can never seem to stick with them long term to maintain any weight loss.  I've already done Weight Watchers a bunch of times, and I've looked into other stuff like the South Beach Diet and HCG diet Austin but I guess the real problem is that I've tried the "eat less" and that's not working, so, let me try exercise.

There is a chain of gyms very near me that offer very inexpensive memberships, and so I asked the Husband if a gym membership could be my Valentine's/Birthday (which isn't 'til April, btw) gift.  He's usually happy to give me whatever I ask for if it saves him the trouble of figuring out what to get me, and then I get exactly what I want, so it's win-win.  :-)

I don't know why, but so far I really, really like going to the gym.  Maybe it's nice to be out of the house?  Or in the "zone" where no one can bother me?  Or in a place with no dog hair to be feeling guilty about cleaning up?  Or it just feels good to be exercising?  Or all of that?  Or something else?  I don't know.

One thing that is GREAT is that there is a digital scale in the locker room and unlike Weight Watchers, where you could go a whole week and then not lose anything at weigh in, it seems that every single time I weigh myself I weigh a little less.  Sometimes it's only by ounces.  But it's LESS.  EVERY TIME.  That makes me feel really encouraged.  I like that!

The only thing is that since I have never belonged to a gym, or seriously exercised before, I really don't know what exactly I should be doing.  I have some vague notions about target heart rates for a cardio workout or a fat-burning workout.  I think if you sweat that means you're working out at a good rate.

For the time being I like to alternate between the treadmill, the elliptical, the recumbent bike and some of the weight machines for my upper body.  I'm sure I should be stretching or breathing or something.

Any tips or advice appreciated!! :-)

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Do You Know What BSOD is?

It's the dreaded "Blue Screen of Death".

If you know what BSOD is, it's probably because your computer has had at least one BSOD.  I think it's pretty funny there's even a Wikipedia page for it: Blue Screen of Death.

In short, if you see that blue screen appear - it's bad.  Something in your computer has gone horribly wrong.

About a week ago I got the dreaded BSOD.  After trying many remedies, I ended up reformatting the hard drive.  It wasn't too bad as I had done a good backup in November, and really the only things added since then were photos, which the Husband has copies of on his computer, and stuff from iTunes which I could just re-download.  Not that it wasn't a giant pain in the butt or anything to totally replace everything on my computer.

Did some testing once Windows was up and running again, and found out I had "bad clusters".  Still not really sure what that is, but the disk checking utility said it fixed "them", and no BSODs since.  Yet.

In between reconstructing and reloading software back on my computer, the router has decided to start dropping the wireless signal 10 or 20 times a day.  Been on the phone with tech support and tried a few things, to no avail.  A tech person is supposed to be coming either late today or tomorrow morning to most likely replace the router.  Not that I don't appreciate the exercise of walking over to the router 10 or 20 times as day, but it's a little disruptive, especially when I am trying to DOWNLOAD SOFTWARE ON MY REFORMATTED COMPUTER.

Oh, and we had a leak under the kitchen sink.

Gah!!@$$%#$!!

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I've Always Wanted to Play Guitar Better

Our daughter plays piano and violin.  I wonder how many famous pianists wear Silly Bands when they perform?

I've played piano since I was 8 years old.  When I was in high school, for a year or two, I took guitar lessons.  I learned enough to play basic chords and play some easy songs.  And that's really as far as I got.  While I like to play piano, you can't exactly play the piano around a campfire, or at a church retreat, or with your feet up on a porch railing on a cool summer evening.  I've thought that maybe one of the things I will do with the money that I win from Publisher's Clearing House is to take more guitar lessons.

I even have a guitar.  It was my Dad's.  My Dad plays guitar really well, and has cool stuff like an electric guitar and an amp.  That's another thing, unless you have a grand piano, who has a "cool" piano??  You don't see people bringing a piano signed by Liberace into the shop on Pawn Stars, but you do see really cool custom rock star guitars.  Are there any "rock star" pianos?  Maybe Elton John has one?

Even an ordinary person can buy "cool" guitars or amps like a Fender Stratocaster, or a cool orange ad5.  I mean, you can even easily have more than one guitar or amp.  I don't know where to get a "cool" piano, nor do I know anyone with TWO.  (And don't even breathe the words "electronic keyboard" or "electronic piano" to me.  I'm sorry - a piano is not "electric" and there's no "electronic" device that sounds or feels like a REAL piano.  Don't even bother arguing with me, and yes, I have played high quality fake pianos.  No.  Just no no no.)

Do you play an instrument?  Is there an instrument you wish you could play?

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More Thoughts Too Short For a Whole Blog Post

Our daughter hates "casseroles" or anything where all the food is mixed together.  So this is how I made Hamburger Helper the other night, all nice and separate.

I don't usually go for *any* of the stupid shows generally on tv during the day, however, I think I have a little crush on Dr. Oz.

Have you ever read the bible story about Mary and Martha?  (Here it is if you want to read it: Luke 10:38-42) The gist of the story is that Jesus comes to visit Mary and Martha, and Martha gets scolded for worrying about everything that needs to be done in the kitchen instead of spending her time visiting with him.  You know, I get what Jesus is saying there, but on the other hand, I want to know if Jesus ever had to cook for dinner guests?  There's a lot to do you know, Jesus...just sayin'.

I thought the Superbowl commercials were really lame compared to other years.  The Ferris Bueller one was really good though.  Regarding the half time show, I couldn't believe Madonna dressed so "tamely".  That was a pleasant and welcome surprise.

I think Hollywood should just stop making movies.  I think we have enough movies to last us a long time.

I love historical mysteries, like what really happened with the Donner Party, or the "Lost Colony" of Roanoke, VA.  In fact I was reading about the "Lost Colony" today, and it was TWELVE YEARS before Sir Walter Raleigh decided to find out what happened to his colony!  Niiiiiiiice.  (Good thing for him there were no raleigh nc attorneys back then!  Although, being there was NO ONE LEFT, I guess there would have been nobody to sue him, lol!)  Have you ever seen the show Brad Meltzer's "Decoded"?  They spotlight a lot of interesting history mysteries.  I also find the secrecy of the Free Masons fascinating.

What are your favorite mysteries from history?

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Wordless Wednesday: It Only Looks Like a Pleasant Scene

We were out geocaching, and our (newly) teenage daughter was mad and sulking about something and decided to go on ahead of us, but it looked so pretty, so I snapped this pic.  :-D