Potpourri

I finally finished my taxes (took 5 days!) and we're getting a refund! Yay!

We went to "family education day" at the place where my daughter's staying, and it was really informative. Plus we got to visit with her, too!

My dad had surgery this morning on his hand, because the surgery they did 3 months ago didn't work. But he came through with flying colors and is back at home, doing great!

Yesterday he came over to watch the baseball game with D. I only like watching football on TV, but I didn't want to miss any time with him before the surgery, so I sat out there and learned how to Quill. I had bought a beginner's kit about a year ago and had never opened it. This is where you take little strips of paper, roll them up, and spot-glue them together, LOL. Anyway, this is my first attempt. You can tell the paper's not straight in a bunch of places, but I think I'll embed it into polymer clay and see if it looks better:


Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Do you Know Your Arse from your Elbow?

I got this from my friend Brandy's Yahoo forum...
It's hiliarious. I scored 12 out of 14!
Try it HERE

News Blooper

This isn't a new clip, but I've never seen it before...

More Life

The puppy's MUCH better - we have a hard time keeping her quiet as we're supposed to do for 7 days.

About my youngest' birthday being the same as many of your oldest' birthdays... when my son was in junior high, his friends came over one night and told him that he had such young, cool parents. The very next day, my youngest came home from 1st grade and told me that she had the oldest parents in her class! LOL

My kids are nearly as much of a wise-ass as I am, though... one year I made cupcakes for my youngest' grade school class at Christmas time. The cupcakes spelled out "Merry Christmas," as below:
I left the cupcakes on the counter and after she went to bed, I went to put them up. This is what they looked like:
Apparently the teenagers had found them. Well, at least they didn't eat them...

Life just never ends around here. I know that' s a good thing, but I sure wish it would just slow down for a while.


We (two of my daughters and I) got to visit my daughter in rehab on Sunday. It is a wonderful place, and my daughter still LOVES it there! But we didn't know we could bring cakes or cookies or anything, so next time we will. She sang a song with a friend, and it was so pretty - both of her sisters had tears in their eyes as we had not heard her sing so well in a very long time, since before she moved out with her boyfriend at 16.


Gross warning for those of you who are sensitive to body functions... The puppy got spayed today. While she was at the vet's I made her a great big fluffy pillow to lie on. I picked her up at the vet and she lay on it on the ride home. I had to get the neighbor to get her out of the truck for me, then she was able to walk up the steps on her own. As soon as she got in the house, she did a huge pile of #2 in the middle of the floor. I no sooner got that cleaned up, and she upchucked yellow fluid all over the throw rug, and then did #1 on the other throw rug. I got those in the washer to rinse and drain, came back upstairs and she had upchucked a little more on the floor. But for the past 3 hours, she has been lying peacefully on the wood floor, and will not put one foot onto the new pillow. Figures.


My "baby" will be 20 tomorrow and just announced that she is moving to Florida with her fiance in May. She will be gone before daughter #3 gets out of rehab! So that sucks...


I got back at my nephew last night, at least somewhat. I told him that our ISP had cut off our Internet Service because of his stealing that movie. Then I handed him a letter from the IRS. It was supposed to be his tax refund, but he opened it and it was only a piece of paper with a non-negotiable check for zero dollars. He had expected the IRS to take a debt out of it but he had expected to get some money back after they did that. So while he is saying he’s going to call the IRS and Comcast in the morning and set both of them straight, I asked him if he knew what day it was. Then it dawned on him that it was April Fool’s Day. Our ISP had not cut off our service, and I handed him his real envelope from the IRS that had his refund check in it for about $488.00. He had fallen for every bit of that! BTW, our ISP has NEVER answered any of my communications, but the Internet connection's still working...


My pick for leaving AI tonight is Kristy, and I think that Kristy, Ramiele and and Sayesha will be the bottom 3 (if there is a bottom 3). I think Sayesha has the best voice of all the women there, though. Lest you believe me to be a TV fanatic, this is the only TV show I watch with any regularity. I probably watch less than 4 hours of TV a week. And I have no idea why I feel the need to rationalize watching TV to you.


Gotta go check on the puppy!

More dog pics

My daughter sent a pic message to my cell phone this morning of her dog - the dog is 14 years old, another family dog, and I gave it to my daughter when she moved out. The dog is a peek-a-pom; half pekinese, half pomeranian. Here's the pic:


Well, at Christmas, she had me take several pictures of her, her boyfriend, and the dog. I always take a lot to get a best one. But one I really liked. My daughter and her boyfriend look great, with big smiles, but the dog... Well, here it is (I cut out everything but the dog). This is what I sent back to her cell phone as a reply...

LOL, aren't I a terrible mother?

Mixed Up

Brain Lateralization Test Results

Right Brain (54%) The right hemisphere is the visual, figurative, artistic, and intuitive side of the brain. Left Brain (50%) The left hemisphere is the logical, articulate, assertive, and practical side of the brain

Are You Right or Left Brained?
personality tests by similarminds.com

This little quiz takes a few minutes but it's fun. I really had thought I was more right brained than left brained. It seems I'm pretty much both. I love anything artistic, and the few free moments I have, I'm playing an instrument, writing, cooking or making something. But then again, I love chess, editing, logic puzzles, sukoku, any kind of puzzle. What side of the brain do you live in?

This reminds me of my lawyer cousin. He and I used to play chess (when I lived near him) a lot. He won consistently until I read a book on strategy and then I started winning, which totally blew his socks off. He just couldn't figure out how I was beating him. Now, mind you, this was about 20 years ago, when recreational weed was not a big deal. (Well, I suppose it isn't to some people even nowadays.) He decided that he could play chess better when stoned. I hated weed - the few times I'd tried it, it only made me cotton-mouthed and paranoid. He knew this, so he suggested we play after smoking it. So, we'd go outside, smoke, come back in, and I'd win nearly every game! The thing was, he didn't know I was actually blowing OUT on the joint, avoiding the smoke cloud, and never once got high. LOL. But he thought he was playing better when high, when he was actually playing worse. It's strange what weed can do to a person.

I had another cousin who spent years getting high before he finally quit and began to get motivated in life. I was about 18, and I would go over his house just to mess with him and his friends while they were high. I would take the remote control to the TV and hide it. After no one could find it and they forgot about it, I would secretly increase the volume a little at a time - they would never notice it until it got so loud that they couldn't hear each other talking. One of them would get up and turn the volume down. I would do this over and over again and they never figured out why the volume kept getting louder. Or sometimes I'd change the channel and no one would notice for about five minutes. Inevitably, someone would say, "Weren't we watching so-and-so?" Then they'd all argue about whether they'd been watching it or not. Too funny. I think I had more fun then they had, as my little 'tricks' kept getting stranger and stranger, yet they never figured out that it only happened when I was around. And of course, they made fun of me for not getting high with them, but I think I had the most laughs...

Then again, I used to manage a convenience store when I was about 22, and one of my female clerks was a very good worker. She stocked the cooler better and faster than anyone else; she never made mistakes on the register, etc. One day she came in and she looked like hell. Her hair was a mess and she had bags under her eyes. I made her go look presentable and when she got out of the bathroom, she told me she felt really horrible. She stocked things on the wrong shelves. She wasn't her usual cheery self with the customers. I couldn't send her home as I had no one to cover her shift, but I just fixed her mistakes and went on with my work. At the end of the day, she told me that she had run out of weed the night before and couldn't score any. In other words, this was the first time I had ever seen her NOT high. Strange.

My daughter

Well, I only got through 3 blogs when I went to Tracy's blog and she had this mind-blowing video there, so I've put it here... this is exactly where my daughter's at right now...




Wish I could send this to her now but no email or tapes can be sent. I'm going to keep it until she gets out to remind her of where she is in her life.

Update

I can't believe I haven't posted for two weeks! Well, here's an update and hopefully I'll have more time to get on here soon...

The puppy is STILL in heat. She tore off the pull-ups, then we put pants on over that, which she also tore off, so we had to devise something else - here it is... adult diaper, pantyhose and suspenders, LOL. This is a cell phone pic, so it's blurry, sorry...


All the neighborhood dogs have decided to hang out here and one of them dug under our fence to get to her. I had to chase him off and the owners came and got him, but he's still out there today! It really sucks having to go outside with the dog every two hours to make sure she's safe. Before, I could let her play in the backyard by herself for an hour or so. She'll be spayed when this is over. She would have been spayed before we got her at the animal shelter, but she was a special needs dog with a genital malformity so they said she couldn't be spayed until after her first (and last) heat. At least, we've already paid for it when we got her!

My dad's completely recovered but a little weak, and they've put off the surgery to try a medication instead. Now he's complaining that he goes to the bathroom too much, LOL.

I got my truck back - it was $1800 for the few little dings... had to charge the $1000 deductible on a credit card.

After contacting my ISP four different ways, they have never bothered to call, email or write me at all but the connection's up so I guess that's over with, I hope.

My computer's still working but it gets real slow if I have more than two windows open - I often need to use 3 or 4 programs at once. I have added three memory cards so it isn't that. I think it's just old. I've run all the diagnostics, deleting temp files, etc... it particularly doesn't like blogger!

Everyone I know here who was sick has been recovering, yay!

My daughter who's on probation ( see previous post 2/26) admitted to me shortly after my last post, that she smoked weed at a friend's house. Which would mean she'd fail her next drug test, which they do monthly. I'm thinking, how could anyone do something that stupid, knowing they'd go to jail if they fail the test? An addict, of course. She moved out when she was 16 to live down the street with her boyfriend. All they did for 3 years was smoke weed and probably other drugs. I never gave them a dime, thinking that she'd come back eventually, but his mother and grandfather supported them with groceries etc... enabling them to live that way for so long. She finally came back when he became violent, and I've only had her a year before this DUI and crap.

So we spent several days researching drug abuse rehab centers - she has no insurance. They all wanted from $10,000 on up for a month's treatment. One place told us that they don't do therapy. They hook you up to IV amino acids and stuff once a day for 10 days and you're cured. Right. They wanted $12,000 for that.

Finally, God or someone smiled on us. We found a christian treatment home that charges less than $2k, which she can pay back after "graduation." Then we had to go get labs done to prove she has no communicable diseases - fortunately we got that free from a local drug abuse center that's outpatient only. Then we had to fill out multiple forms and go to court to get the judge's permission for her to enter the rehab home, since she won't be able to pay probation or go to the meetings while in there. Fortunately, the judge agreed - this is amazing, as he is a wheelchair-bound drunk driver victim.

We had to buy her a few things to take with her - she'll be there 2 months. Then I drove her there, which was a 3 hour driving trip. I couldn't hardly walk two days later, as driving is what really kills my back. But I'm better now! She was not allowed to contact us for a week, except for snail mail. Then she got a 10 minute phone call yesterday - she loves it there! I have high hopes for this center, and they are greatly respected in their small community, and the girls do community service in nearby businesses. They do AA and NA programs, and a lot of church programs but she is remembering how much she loved church when she was little. All the girls were in AWANA and loved it.

In the meantime, we're not allowed to visit her unless we attend Al-Anon meetings weekly. I've been to two already - that's an eye-opener. This is the first I've ever dealt with anyone with an addiction, and most of those members have like several addicted family members. Anyway, we get to visit her (my two daughters and I; D hasn't expressed any interest in going) at the 3-week mark for one hour. (And the long drive again, but oh, well...)

D is back in baseball. I had to charge our groceries for two weeks so he could write a check for the season. That is where he injured his shoulder so badly. It's not 100% healed but the doc gave him a release. I fully expect him to injure something else soon, as he thinks he can play as rough as the 20 year olds and come away unscathed...

Our 20th anniversary was last week. He had to work late every night but Friday, and we spent one hour together on our anniversary. I told him not to bother getting a card on his way home from work that night at 10 p.m. I knew he hadn't already gotten anything. I'm not sure I even care. I don't feel much of anything about it. Hasn't been hardly any play time since my mother died, and I've grown used to that. At least he started using his CPAP machine again, so I moved back into the bedroom, but then he takes it off after he falls asleep! The minute he starts snoring or moving the bed, usually less than an hour after we go to bed, I kick him out to the sofa. LOL. If you came here looking for happy couple stories, sorry, you'll have to wait for the fictional ones!

Well, I've got at least eight projects waiting on me right now - will try to visit your blogs today as I want to know what's going on with everyone!

The Week from HELL

That's the only way I can describe this week! Hopefully it's over now! But I have to warn you; if you're looking for a postive, uplifting read, go here to Theresa's, not my blog! Anyway, now you'll all know why I've gone missing this week...

My dad went to the ER last week - they diagnosed him with kidney stones and bladder infection and sent him home on antibiotics and a screen to urinate through. By Monday, he'd been having chills, sweats and a fever. He called the doc, who sent him to the ER again. This time they admitted him (after over 12 hours), and he went downhill for the next 3 days, with delirium, fever, and acute kidney failure. It was the nightmare of my mother all over again. But this time things turned around; they discovered it wasn't the kidney stone causing the problem; it was the prostate. They cultured the urine and put him on the right antibiotic, and he began to improve and has just returned home with a catheter and surgery in a couple of weeks. Now, why didn't they figure that out the first time he went to the ER? It's like they find one possible culprit for your condition, and then ignore everything else and look no further. Really pisses me off, as Newton County Hospital in Covington, GA, did the same thing, which led to my mother's death last summer. The second hospital couldn't save her despite doing everything under the sun. But I'm very happy about my Dad improving for now!

I was coming home from seeing him at the hospital Thursday, when I turned left onto a four-lane highway. Just as I pulled out, a car came flying over the hill doing about 90 mph! I braked but couldn't avoid hitting her. So, I got a ticket for "failure to yield." I don't know if she got a ticket or not, but no one was injured, TG. My daughter was with me - she never saw the car either until we were already in the road, and she always looks both ways with the driver. Anyway, my truck folded this lady's car in from the front passenger door all the way to the end of the car, and my truck had some minor damage to the bumper/grill. The ticket will cost me $145.00 and the truck repair will be $1000.00, as that's our deductible (I doubt it will cost less than that.) The only good thing is that I get to drive a brand new Dodge Avenger with satellite stereo radio as a rental that my auto insurance is paying 80% of.

Then yesterday, I got an email from my ISP telling me I could be CUT OFF from all services because they got a report of copyright theft on my IP address. I looked at the alleged copyrighted material, and it was a freaking movie! I immediately knew it had been done by my nephew, who rents a downstairs bedroom - he'd told me the night before that he had that new movie! Only, he hadn't told me, he STOLE it! Oh, I blessed him out from one side to the other! I called my ISP and left a message - they didn't return the call. I emailed them and got an auto-response that had nothing to do with my email. I then wrote them a letter, faxed it to them, and then printed and mailed it to them certified mail, where they have to sign for it and I get the receipt saying they got it. If you're interested, I'll post a copy of what I wrote them, LOL. That took ALL morning to deal with!

Then today, while trying to update the website, my computer crashed at least a dozen times and Microsoft error reporting told me it was my Office 2000 causing the problem. I'd already done virus and spyware checks - nothing there. Of course, Microsoft no longer supports my version of Office, so I had to go buy a new one at $168.00 with tax. I thought things would go easy from there on. But I didn't have enough hard drive space to load the new program, so I had to spend several hours downloading graphics and stuff to CD's, and then archiving and deleting unused files. I finally got a lot of space free, and the package said you had to have Windows Service Pack 2.0 or higher. I didn't. So another several hours of updates because every time I updated one component, it would say I then needed the next one. Finally, I got to install the product, but it took almost an hour and then it wanted to update it, too! So I had about 10 stories to read & edit, and Word 2007 looks NOTHING like Word 2000. And it lost all my macros even though I selected in the install to bring forward my settings from the old Word. I finally know how to use the damn thing, like a half-hour ago. All this in between cooking dinner and playing with my son's toddler off and on. (I've deleted the "G" word from my vocabulary, thank you very much...)

Also this week, a friend's brother-in-law had open heart surgery and has almost died several times since then, but is presently hanging in there. Two local college girls were murdered - I have a daughter in college so that's scary. My "adopted" son, (friend of my son's for the past 13 years and has gone on family trips with us), well, his sister-in-law's father died Monday in a motorcycle accident and two days later he went to feed their dog again, and it was dead.

Hmmm... I just lost an hour of my life... I don't really like daylight savings changes.

On a positive (?) note, our puppy has just started her first heat. I've cut holes in my son's toddler's pull-ups for the puppy's tail, so she can be in the house and not soil everything. She sure looks odd!