Zzzzzz.

Boy do I have stories to tell! But not tonight. I've just gotten off of an unplanned 12 hour shift. Lots of stories indeed. I need to sleep now. Am supposed to go to the gym at 6:30am. Hmm. Well, I'll do my best. And I WILL get off on time tomorrow. Planning on taking my girl out to a restaurant she's been wanting to check out for the anniversary.

Be well.

Goodnight.

And then there's what I actually did...

Right then, so the day was productive, but I did not even start the taxes. Instead I did this:

1. Blogged, surfed, and chatted for a goodly amount of time over coffee and then a cup of tea. I suppose I do deserve to laze about on my day off for at least some of the time.
2. Washed K's coat. It was still in the laundry since the airbag incident and she is refusing to wear it - instead opting for a Spring jacket - even though it's barely ZERO outside.
3. Tidied the living and dining rooms. Certainly can't organize my finances unless my surroundings are organized.
4. K came home for lunch - Yeah! Chatted and had a bite.
5. Hung up K's coat and put in new load of laundry. I've got to do something that I said I would today!
6. Cleaned up the kitchen. Who can do anything before you can see the counter!
7. Organized desk. Again, how can I possibly know what bills to pay unless I'm organized.
8. Balanced checkbook. I need to know how much I can pay to who.
9. Paid bills.
10. Called Wells Fargo to change address.
11. Called Verizon to find out that they still don't have my account straightened out to before-move status.
12. Reformatted bill paying chart. Um, don't ask. It just makes me feel better.
13. Hung up laundry to dry.
14. Laid down to rest my achin' back and read an Alice Walker short story.
15. K returned from work: snuggle, chat, discuss dinner options, eat bread and cheese, took nap.
16. Made potato Leek Soup and just ate a bowl of it while watching "Medium".
17. Now I'm off to pack up the rest of the soup for lunches and then to bed :)

Here I am. Woke up and had breakfast with K, but then she went off to work and my normally very busy and hectic Monday day off finds me sitting here alone. I will get used to this, but I am not used to it yet. One car means that I need to make the usual appointments and shopping for chores that I do on Mondays at other times when the car is available, ie. before work, after work, and usually with K. I always knew I was a very independently minded person, but WoW! I am *really* disliking having to depend on K for getting me to work on time and having to coordinate our schedules so that I can go to appointment or just do mindless stuff. Sometimes very important mindless stuff, mind you, like shopping for our anniversary, which happens to be this Friday. Usually I would just take myself out shopping with some vague ideas of what I want to get for her and end up finding something. But now I really have to put some thought into it. First, I need to know exactly what I want to get her, then I need to know where to get it, and finally, I need to be able to arrange to go and pick it up - without her - without causing suspicion. Eeeek. Think. Think. Think.Eventually, I will learn to enjoy this time home alone. It will allow me to do some of the things around the house that I never seem to have time to do (bills, small repairs, organize file cabinet, plan wedding, paint, etc, etc, etc). I will now go and assess the situation...

Ok. Things to do today:

1. Wash a load of laundry.
2. Pay bills.
3. Clean up random glasses and mess from housewarming yesterday.
4. Hang load of laundry to dry.
5. Wash another load of laundry.
6. Wash dishes.
7. Wipe down counter and stove.
8. Clean litter box *uhg*
9. Spontaneously manifest a clothes dryer in our basement.
10. Ok, fine, hang laundry to dry.
11. Motivate myself to do pilates.
12. Do pilates.
13. Take a much needed shower.
14. Call various hotels to see about reserving a block for wedding.
15. Fix a cup of tea and wait for my honey to come home while reading another short story by Alice Walker.

Or I could:

1. Pay bills.
2. Do Taxes.
3. Continue doing taxes.
4. Keep trying to figure out damn taxes.
5. Vent to K when she gets home about those Godforsaken taxes.
6. Go to the gym with K and work off frustration.
7. Come home and finish taxes.

Well. The bills and taxes do need to be done. But, wouldn't it be nice to get all that other stuff done...

The Murder of Crows

So I'm getting off work the other night just as dusk was setting. I parked in the lot across the street so I had a bit of a stroll to get to the car. Now, I must tell you, there is this phenomenon that happens where I work: At dusk about 500 to 1200 crows swarm over the building where I work. The entire sky becomes dotted their swooping back and forth. Now, normally I am awed by this freakish happening, but as I was walking across the open parking lot, I noted the insane number of crows circling above me and became somewhat alarmed (understatement). My first reaction was still, wow, but that was quickly followed by, ut oh!

The sheer panic that I felt as my ears tuned into the very distinct SPLAT!...SPLAT!...SPLAT! splat! SPLAT! splatSPLat!splAT! AAAAAGH!!! Ok, just what do you do when you are targeted to be bird-bombed by 500+ crows!!! Which way does one go!!!?!?! What do you do?!?!?! Run? Dance? Freeze? I couldn't exactly duck for cover in an open parking lot! I held my breath (as if that would do any good) and ran to the car with my shoulders up by my ears - you know just in case one got me, then at least I wouldn't have to feel it in my ear!!

Somehow I made it through without being unpleasantly splattered, but the car I'm borrowing for the week was not so lucky. It has been riddled with brightly colored bird bullets. I think it will live. But if it dies in my care, I will blame the murder of crows. You know that's what they call it - not a flock, not a gaggle, but a murder.

I saw a post on a message board, by thenostromo, that also cited James Lipton's "An Exaltation of Larks" as devoted to the numerous appellations for a grouping of animals, many of which originated as hunters' terms and have been in the language for centuries. Here's a gleaning from his book:
A covey of partridges
A murder of crows
A rafter of turkeys
A brood of hens
A fall of woodcocks
A dule of doves
A wedge of swans
A party of jays
A company of parrots
A colony of penguins
A cover of coots
A sord of mallards
A dissimulation of birds
A peep of chickens
A pitying of turtledoves
A paddling of ducks [on the water]
A siege of herons
A charm of finches
A skein of geese [in flight]
A tidings of magpies
A cast of hawks
A deceit of lapwings
An ostentation of peacocks
A bouquet of pheasants
A congregation of plovers
An unkindness of ravens
A building of rooks
A host of sparrows
A descent of woodpeckers
A mustering of storks
A flight of swallows
A watch of nightingales
A murmuration of starlings
A spring of teal
A parliament of owls
An exaltation of larks

Oh tired tired tired.

Almost to bed, but a quick note before I go. After the whole dillema of how we are getting the invites, etc. out, we are making them ourselves afterall. The high prices I had figured out for making them were based on some very expensive paper we had found. We - well, K - ended up finding a much better deal, so she bought all of the supplies we would need yesterday. I was still cringing today because I didn't think it would really save us that much money and we are rather short on time these days. But after breaking through our little miscommunication K let me in on the secret that everything she bought only cost $25!!! That is great! Her parents let us use their very nice printer, and we were able to borrow a paper cutter, so really it is a much better deal to go the way we are now. And guess what - I think I'm going to like them a lot! I get to have my eyelets/rivets/gromits or whatever you want to call them and she gets to have her velum. We compromised and took some new pictures, so we are both more pleased than we were with the original one. They will look good. I will go to sleep now because I have plenty of gromit pounding to do tomorrow.

Wow!

I am so impressed with myself right now. It is before 9am and I have been to the gym, showered, dressed, put away the drainer of dishes, put away the laundry, started another load and I am now enjoying a cup of coffee while I post. I'm usually just rolling out of bed by now, but I started a very early morning aerobics/lifting class. I was debating dropping it because, well, it is at the ungodly hour of 6:30am, which of course means I've got to be up at 6am. And that, my friend, is earlier than I have been accustomed to since the insanity days of crew. Lately I've gotten quite comfortable rolling out of bed at 8:30 or 9am, which still gives me a good hour before I have to be at work, but Wow! I've gotten so much done this morning and if feels good to be accomplished this early in the day. I will also keep that class because now with being a one-car family, I'd like to make sure that I do actually get to the gym at least the three times a week that the class is scheduled.

Last night K and I actually went to the gym together! Getting myself to the gym is one thing, but getting K to go to the gym, well, that is miraculous! Afterwards, she took me to the pub for burgers and beer. That was something - both of us still sweaty, in our gym clothes, and just at tad self conscious about being in public with our appearance as such - but it was delicious, and it was a lovely Valentine's Day dinner because it was all about us!

Toxic Update

"Everyone has their impression of the big comfy pillow. Then this air bag comes out and whacks them in the face." ~ Alan German, chief of accident investigations at Transport Canada, from this article.

Long story short: It wasn't me who got in the car accident, but K. She is mostly fine - I mean no blood or hospitals were involved, but the air bag went off and from it she has a chemical burn on her lip, a rash on her cheeks and chin, as well as a bruise on her chin. Her nose got it pretty good too, but no bruise there, just very tender. K was very freaked out about all the smoke and dust that came out of the air bag after it popped - she likened it to breathing Napalm. When she tried to catch her breath after it happened she couldn't breathe and started sputtering and coughing because of all the stuff in the air.

With all of these symptoms, I did a little research. When I first looked into it everything I found seemed to be telling me that there was nothing to worry about, nothing but cornstarch, completely safe. K was skeptical. The stuff was not white, but black. Ever heard of black cornstarch? Yeah, me either. Then I found a government website on how rescue workers should handle deployed air bags ("Wearing gloves and eye protection -Keeping the dust away from the patient's eyes and wounds -Removing gloves and washing hands after exposure to the dust") because there could be sodium hydroxide present. And that, my friends, is otherwise known as LYE. You know, that toxic substance known to cause chemical burns, blindness, and such. In my line of work, people who have tried to kill themselve with the stuff usually end up jumping off bridges because it's just too painful. For a breakdown of what exactly this stuff does check The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Hmmm, so much for completely harmless.

It wasn't her fault - the accident. The other woman pulled out in front of her and ended up getting a citation for something like obstruction of throughway traffic. So in the very likely scenario that K's car will be totaled (at more than a thousand bucks a pop - pun intended - the cost of replacing the two air bags will be more than what the Blue Book value is, and that's not including front end damage), she may at least get a sizable check, if not enough to replace the car. And because she was on the job when it happened either the insurance or workman's comp will likely pay for the chiropractor that she may need with her back now more sore than it's been in quite awhile. Meanwhile, we will have to do some very fancy footwork to get us both to our various appointments on time this week. Having a one car family takes advance notice for coordination of schedules, so this week's appointments will either be rescheduled or take a great effort to get to, and hopefully not missed or late .

Did you know that airbags are filled with toxic dust?

Yeah, well I didn't either until today... We may have just been reduced to a one car family.

More to come on this topic when not so tired/worn out/tight on time.

Ever want to be on ER?

Usually work is work, and even though I spent much of my time in the ER it is very unlike the show. Today, however, work today was a bit excessive. I only saw one client myself, but the ER was at full capacity, with five of the clients being there for mental health reasons. Yes folks, it was once again one of those days when we had more clients than we have clinicians, but this time the ER staff was breathing down our necks because they were full with medical situations - no, no, no big drama like gunshot wounds or cardiac arrests today, but you wouldn't know it with the urgency that the nursing staff and doctors were bustling about and telling us to"This woman needs to get upstairs right now! We just don't have room for her down here." I remained calm though. That's my job after all, isn't it? To stay calm in the midst of chaos. So I tell the woman, "When I've had a chance to read the chart, I will evaluate her and only then can I make the determination if she is appropriate to go upstairs [this is the psych ward by the way]. If she is appropriate, I will do my best to get her a placement as quickly as I can. A pre-approval has already been made if she is appropriate, but even then the evaluation [ten pages] still needs to be typed up before they will actually take her upstairs as you know." The woman - I believe she was the charge nurse - looked at me scornfully and muttered that "If we don't clear some of these bays we're going to have to go into diversion!" She then turned to get on someone else's case.

You know, there is only so much I can do. I'm going to be as calm as I can in the process, but when people are yelling at me to do my job faster than I am capable - or for that matter, tell me to bypass what my responsibilities are, well it gets me a little irritated. And I guess that's still where I am. More tired than irritated really, but tired never helps irritated. It is now several hours after the incident, but I am still just beat from it. The client, by the way, did go upstairs. And I'm fairly proud to say that she was out of the over-packed ER within the hour - record time with someone who needs hospitalization.

Once again, a demonstration of our Prez's capabilities...

Do check out Ardist's comment on the Prez and the Post It.

Trying to avoid becoming a candidate for such an ad:

I haven't posted in awhile because work has been a little to hectic and at home we've been trying to figure out Save the Dates and other wedding planning.

THIS VERY DETAILED SECTION IS FOR MOM (others are welcome to read, all are welcome to respond)
We had planned on making our Save the Dates and Invitations, but I'm not sure that will actually save us money. We went to a craft store last night and came up with a lovely combination of papers to make them all, but each sheet of paper is between 79 and 99 cents (um, how so you get the cent sign?). That is probably fine when considering the Save the Dates because we would be able to get three notes out per sheet of paper (the actual size would be 1/6th of a sheet, but we really like the translucent vellum overlay, so it would really equal 6 notes per 2 sheets, ie, 3 notes per card - wow, I guess I can get a little technical at times). Anyway, anyway, by the time we add it up, what with the paper, grommitty eyelet thingies, ribbon, envelopes, inevitable printer cartridge replacements, and TIME, well $425 isn't looking that bad for the invites I saw through David's. Now we this isn't what we had in mind, and will probably go through our good friend of ours who has just started up a printing business, but this at least give us an idea of how much it will cost - and that is with the Save the Dates, the Invitations w/inner and outer envelopes, Response Cards w/envelopes, a Reception Card, and a Details card. When I go back to making our own, without the cost of the ribbon, eyelets, or TIME and SANITY, and making a very conservative estimate on how much paper we would need, it comes out to - OH! $430!! Anyways, we will be giving Rachel a call shortly and seeing what she can do for us.

BACK TO THE REGULAR VIEWING AUDIENCE
Invitations aside, we did pin down our photographer. Drove all the way out to Wrentham and met him today. He is so nice, but most importantly, he does FANTASTIC work, and we could really tell that he cares about making the event as stress-free as possible. Also, he sets up a website that all of our guest can access and order their own prints, and where we can design our album if we find some way to - hopefully - afford to get an album! I also sent out an e-mail to the woman we want to be our officiant. She has been very outspoken about supporting gays and lesbians in our right to marriage, and has even written an article on the subject. If you have any questions about why we'd want the right to marry - thank God we live in the one state that recognizes us - the article is a quick and informative read.

Even with getting all of this done we are WAY behind schedule! Reception site, florist, list for maids of honor, hotel rooms, save the dates, ordering my gown, figure out where we'll do our hair, and register.... that is so not all of what we need to do RIGHT NOW!!! Aaaaaagh!

Our Landlords are Rockstars.

Five days ago I posted about how we live in a house of noise and that I was completely fed up with the banging and clanging of pipes and my absolute frustration at not getting a proper night's sleep because of it. Three days ago I send our rent check off with a note telling them about the pipes. And just two days later, yes folks, One Day ago, that's only a day's response time when you account for mail delivery, the landlords send over a heating repair guy who fixed the pipes!!! I have never had a landlord respond so quickly to a problem unless said problem was going to directly cost them money or damage to human life! And then, then, they called us later in the evening to thank us for telling them about the problem so they could fix it! Not only that, but they said to take some money off of our next rent check for putting in a door closer that I picked up - even though I stupidly lost the receipt! This almost makes up for not having closet!

Too crazy a day.

Yeah, by the time I got home (even though it is now only minutes away), went over to feed the animals (pet sitting while K's parents are away), and had something to eat I crashed. Couldn't possible withstand more heartbreak in one day between Alito getting confirmed, Coretta Scott King dying, and someone else going postal and going on a killing spree, I just don't have the heart to hear the inevitable lies, half-truths, and rosy outlooks that will be presented in the State of the Union. I napped instead and now I feel less exhausted, but more sore. I'm really surprised how much pilates makes a girl's muscles work! Just two mornings and I'm sore like I ache like I'm on the crew team again!

One Crazy Kind of Day

At work - wanted to update earlier - what a joke. We consider ourselves busy when we have every person doing an evaluation. Today we had two people working and seven evaluations. I am simply amazed that I am leaving on time. Tonight K, myself, and friends will convene in front of the television to watch the State of the Union, heckle, and craft. Perhaps the heckling will alleviate the depression that I'm trying to ward off re: Alito. Then again, watching Baby Bush play leader may make it worse...

please work...

While I'm able to sign in and type this post up, I have no idea if it will actually post to my blog - for my blog seems to have disappeared somehow. No one can access it. And I'm not even able to view it except by single entries. Very discouraging. I'm hoping against hopes that by posting this it will somehow republish the whole thing and my answers will be solve. In the meantime, if it doesn't work, I have written a note to the kind techies at Blogger.

Edit: It worked!!! Yeah! [ok, now keep working, and don't do that again!]

I found my dress!

Yesterday we went to look for bridal gowns for me. I had several that I wanted to look at so we had a grand-trying-on-fest! The first one that I tried on turned out to be it! At first I wasn't even going to try it on because the idea I had was that K would wear the froofy wedding gown and I would wear a coordinating, elegant, but definately un-froofy dress. So because the bottom is much more full than I had envisioned, I was just going to try it on to appease K. Turns out, though, that I absolutely LOVE it! The side bow thingy will definately be taken care of and be replaced by a plain sash around the waist, and I'm getting a wrap in the same material that I can wear over my shoulders if I want, but otherwise this is it!


The picture is a little dark, so you can't see the whole thing, but Oh! how I love it. I did try on many other dresses yesterday - and in the past couple of months, and some were ok and I could have lived with them, but when I tried this on I felt like an absolute queen! It coordinates nicely with K's dress too so we will look just fantastic! I wish these pictures were taken in the same light so you could see just how wonderful they will be together, but I'll trust you'll use your imagination. I've got many a errand to do now for the rest of this day off, so I'm off.

At the request of Ardist

So Ardist requested that I post some of my paintings since I was mentioning it the other day. Most of my work remains tucked away in the back of the closet where they were put after we moved, but these are the results of my most recent endeavors, since the new year when we moved in.
My favorite of these three is the one that I call Feather-Light (top), but it is just a shade lighter in actuality. I had another that I intended to post, but somehow lost the image when I saved it as a draft (at the in-law types currently). I'm not especially happy with the focus on the blue one (bottom). More to come later, I'm sure. I love this stuff. I never know what I'm going to come up with when I start a painting, which I think is why I come up with so many different styles.

P.S. I still find it frustrating that some of the glitches in Blogger do not allow for a) seeing what your post will actually look like when you go to publish, and b) that it leaves great blank spaces (such as above) that could be used much more efficiently.

The house of noise.

Oh how I long for peace and quiet. I want to live in the woods - away from traffic, noisy neighbors, and barking dogs. These are all inconveniences that have become apparent since moving to our new pad. I'm sure all of this will urge us into the buying market sooner than later, but we can deal with them. I'm beginning to tune out the traffic and dogs, the neigbors - as you will see, are a challenge - but all of that is livable, right now the real problem is the banging and clanging pipes.

We're still looking for ways to deal with the noisy neighbors. At 4 in the afternoon when their music reaches earsplitting levels we have left numerous times and on occasion we employ what I like to call the "1812 Technique": The use of the 1812 Overture at top volume to compete with the sounds of "I Love Rock 'n' Roll". K's parents gave us the idea, and we don't actually have that particular piece of music, but we do have the William Tell Overture, and it seemed to do the trick. At 7am, however, I don't want to hear any music that will rattle the walls, regardless of its level of classical greatness. So when, three mornings ago, we were awakened by a very rendition of "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" (this must be their favorite song) resulting in the vibrations of our walls and bed, I had no choice but to drag myself out of bed and sleepily knock on their door - numerous times before they actually heard me through the music. Each time I knocked I tried to calm myself, because, of course, by now I was more than a little testy having my sound sleep interrupted. Finally after the third knock, I hear, in a loud, angry, and demanding voice, "WHO!?!" Remain calm, I tell myself, "Your neighbors," I say as pleasantly as I can. They of course don't hear me because I am not screaming above the music, so I then hear, "WHO IS IT!?!" I must say that by now I am not feeling very calm, and I want to scream Well, who do you think it is at 7am when your music is on that loud!?! I am not nasty, however, and I repeat myself with enough oomph to have myself heard over their noise. I'm not sure if the woman actually heard me because she opened the door with a snarled, "What!" I, as politely as I could muster, requested that she please turn the bass off or the music down or something. I then, in an effort to remain in good relations, said I thought photo of her dog that decorates her door was cute, and staggered back downstairs, to put my head under the pillows against the low roar of her ever-playing favorite song.

All of that is annoying, but the problem in the past tow days has been the banging pipes. Since we moved in the pipes that feed the radiators, which of course give us heat, have made their presence known. At first I thought it was funny. At first they sounded much like a impolite belching contest. At first we could sleep through it. All the At firsts, however have changed. I no longer think it's funny. The belching contest has turned into a pot and barrel banging contest. And I can no longer sleep through it. Something has got to be done. Pillows don't work against the cacophony that seems to get worse in the night. The last two mornings I have woken up with a splitting headache. Aside from the headaches, it is also more than a little unsettling. They shake when they bang you know. The pressure builds up in there, they start to hiss, and finally the banging happens when the water finally pushes through (or however it works) resulting in thunderous banging and shaking. I've gone on the internet and found out that the pipes need to be bled. He he. Whomever came up with that term is a funny one. I'd like to strangle them myself, but hey, if making them bleed stops the noise I'm all for it!

much to do

There is indeed way too much to do. Just can't seem to get motivated to do any of it at the moment. I'd much rather paint. I set up a new canvas and will likely roll up my sleeves once I post this. Tomorrow, or over the weekend, or at least before we have our house warming I need to rearrange the office/dining room area. It is driving my batty. Very bad feng shui at the moment. I really don't know that much about feng shui - K is the expert on that - but I can just feel it. Way too boxy. And my back it towards the room when I sit here at the computer AND when I eat at the table. This makes for less time at the computer, and it also makes for more time eating on the couch. I also want to rearrange the bedroom. I'm just not happy having to crawl over K or the end of the bed should nature call in the wee hours of the morning. The spare room definitely needs to be attended to as well. Even if we did have enough money to buy a wardrobe, we don't yet have a place for it at all. Perhaps if the bedroom is rearranged we can squEEze it in there, and my idea is actually to fashion a sort of hallway, which would also serve as sectioning off for the office (very confusing to try to explain without a visual), but K has pretty much vetoed me on that anyway - I have not given up yet, but the only other place there is to put the wardrobe - did I mention how desperately we need one - is the spare bedroom, but right now it is quite occupied and quite full with boxes in need of unpacking. I also have several boxes in the office area that need sorting, I need to update our address with a myriad of people and companies, and last, but certainly not least, we desperately need to get on to some serious wedding planning! But really - all I want to do is paint. And so I am off to do it.

Back again!

Yes, yes, it's been awhile. Between the holidays, moving and being sick I just haven't had energy left to post. I'm finally beginning to feel fully human again. While I was sick I got myself quite enthralled in a mystery novel for a time there and spent every waking hour with my nose in its pages ("With No One As Witness" by Elizabeth George). I tell ya, I thought I couldn't live without my well-rounded addiction to crime shows, but with that book I didn't even miss the tellie. Did I mention that we get practically zero reception. Two channels come in quite fuzzy, but it's hardly worth the effort. Last night K and I watched a couple of episodes of X-Files on tape. We've got two or three more tapes left and then we will have to move on to something else. My vote is for getting season one of either "Six Feet Under" or "Monk". I've heard they are both good - any other suggestions? Not having easy access to the tellie also allows me to do things like continue unpacking, paying bills on time, and fixing the futon (which I did finally after it had been broken for close to a year!). I may install a doorbell this afternoon. But laundry should probably take precedence. Then this evening I'll take my baby out for a proper date. We haven't done that in awhile and it's time to ameliorate the situation.