Happy Tuesday!

May I share the positively delicious wallpaper that I have as my new desktop background?



You're welcome.

I am still not liking the new Facebook. The feed no longer includes a lot of the interesting stuff, so I feel like I have to visit a person's page to see what is going on. BLAH. I can't visit everyone's page! I am very selective about the people I stalk on FB. *sigh*

And the slowness. Oh man. Especially in the evenings. It's all those ginormous profile photos next to every post.

The new Jim Gaffigan special on Comedy Central, "King Baby," is really good. Nothing beats the old Hot Pockets bit though. I've heard it a thousand times, and I still fall out of my chair laughing when I hear it again.

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A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Trailer

So. The color guard has a backdrop made of canvases with words painted on them. They come apart for transport and clamp together for the show. There is one panel with part of a word that happened to end up saying "ASS," which has made everyone giggle all season long.

We floor crew moms carried the panels out to the trailer after competition this weekend. We were standing there and the director comes over to announce, with a sweeping gesture towards the canvases, "I am going to auction off the ass at the Silent Auction."

A mom said, "I sure hope you are referring to the backdrop and not us."

The auction buyers should be so lucky. Heh.

The girls did fantastic! Best show of the year. And still came in one place behind the SAME GUARD by half a point. GAH. The two guards have been 1st and 2nd in almost every regional. For state, they were 4th and 5th. Well done! So ends winterguard '09.

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Just Got Paid.... Friday Night...

Nah, not really. I was just listening to the song. Got the NSYNC playlist going.

What. :p

I had a small bump taken off my face yesterday at the dermatologist. I had one done a few months ago. I'm getting a bit addicted to the procedure, I think. It's so quick and even a tiny skin blemish looks better afterward. The bad thing is you have to keep the area covered for a few days. Honestly, a giant, spiky, purple scar on your face would be less distracting than a little circle bandaid.

I did discover "clear spots" bandaids, and the little square that isn't clear happens to match my complexion perfectly. Then I cut the sticky part to a minimal border around the square. Yeah, it's an art.

Now I'm out of bumps. Bummer.

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Thursday

Thanks to Cate for the heads-up------ Prince was on Leno last night and will also be on tonight and tomorrow night. Eee!

American Idol Motown week was just a'ight for me. I did really enjoy seeing Adam do a less "out there" performance, which I knew he could do. I also like that he maintained a little edginess though, even with the suit look. And Allison was AWESOME. Wow. Great song choice. What a voice. I also liked Matt and Danny and Anoop, as usual, although nowhere near as much as the first two. A side note: Matt is a combination of my brother-in-law and Justin Timberlake.

I now have TWO spring outfits. And a pair of white capris. Woohoo! Meanwhile, I'm just glad it turned cool again.

My girl Donna started a personal blog, which I am certain will be fascinating, considering all her travel adventures and her talents as a writer. Problem is, since she told me to get on it, she hasn't updated at all! It's been like over a week. She's home from Miami now, and I expect a full review. With photos.

Last week's Friday Five
"Stranded on a desert island" You can only take one thing from each category. What is it and why are you taking it?

1. A food that can be planted and regrown.
Potatoes. It just sounds like the most filling vegetable, so I might be able to survive on whatever plants I managed to keep alive. I would say tomatoes, another favorite and rather prolific, but the heartburn would eventually kill me.

2. A person you haven't seen in a long time.
Ina. We could giggle forever about nothing. Fantastic entertainment value.

3. A book you (were) read as a child.
The Velveteen Rabbit. My favorite book from childhood. Love a good tear-jerker.

4. A celebrity.
George Clooney. It's obvious why I would want him there. Am I right, ladies?

5. The entire episode run of a television show (it's a very nice desert island).
I would say "Entourage," but it only has a few seasons. I'll go with "ER."

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Spring!

I now have one spring outfit that fits me, people. ONE. I got it at New York and Co. yesterday, which was amusing because when that place was Lerner and I was 16, it was my fave place to shop. Ooh, and Clothestime. Awesome, dude.

Anyway, it is oh-so-cute, but I need more clothes. The shirt I have on- one I wore on Labor Day weekend- is so saggy that it ain't makin' it outside this house today. You know what that means... the boobs are going, along with everything else. Good grief. Why does that happen? Whyyyyy?

*sigh*

You'll spot me easily at the store this morning. I'll be the one in baggy jeans and a droopy t-shirt. Perhaps I should wear sunglasses and a hat.

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The Mom Meme

My mom passed away a couple of years ago (gosh it seems like yesterday!), but I'd love to answer these questions about her!

Sunday Stealing: The Mom Meme

1. What is something your mom always says to you?
"Do what makes you happy."

2. What makes your mom happy?
Nice follow-up.
Traveling, particularly in Europe, made her happiest. When she could no longer travel, it was hanging out with family and friends.

3. What makes your mom sad?
Seeing others in emotional or physical pain.

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
She was very witty and always had a clever comment for every situation. We were constantly laughing together about something.

5. What was your mom like as a child?
Smart in English. Hated math and science. Wonderful singer. Played piano exceptionally well, at church and as an occasional performer in other venues. Very bubbly.

6. How old is your mom?
She died at 62.

7. How tall is your mom?
She was 5'3.

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
Crossword puzzles

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
She spent a lot of time chatting on the phone and hanging out with friends on the nursing facility staff. She was at least a generation younger than most of the residents. The staff loved her.

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
It would have been for cooking or baking. She was a total whiz. "Mrs. K's Cookies" or something like that.

11. What is your mom really good at?
all things creative, piano, cooking, baking, sewing

12. What is your mom not very good at?
Hang gliding. Chinese. Calculus- she totally didn't get it.

13. What does your mom do for a job?
She was an administrative assistant for the Army Intelligence Corps as a young woman, then a stay-at-home mom, then a graphic designer, and finally an accountant for small businesses.

14. What is your mom's favorite food?
Tacos.

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
Her integrity and kindness.

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
Bugs Bunny. She was very funny and sarcastic. Always smiling.

17. What do you and your mom do together?
When she became homebound, we listened to music a lot together and watched movies.

18. How are you and your mom the same?
Our sense of humor was the same. Also our love of music. We're both optimists.

19. How are you and your mom different?
Our political views were pretty different. And I looooove math. :)

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
She always kind of beamed when I walked into the room. Or maybe she was always beaming and I just thought it was me. (Only children. Yeesh.) She also said so every time we saw each other.

21. What does your mom like most about your dad?
Mom was always a sucker for a good dancer, and Dad is very much that! He took her out dancing quite a bit. She also liked that he is very gregarious and the center of attention while she liked to be more in the background.

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
Mom's favorite place was this little mom and pop Italian restaurant in Friendswood, where you could get a cozy booth and visit with a friend for hours, drinking wine. Good food and good friends. She loved it.

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Bonus Post: Anderson Cooper

This is for Laura, since she's never on Facebook and is totally missing it.

From the AC 360 Facebook page:



I find this to be one of the hottest pics of him, like ever. He's all geeked out and casual. And chatting with me on Messenger. Ha. Despite the Apple computer.... still sexy.

p.s. The pic is bigger if you click on it.

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Elton John / Billy Joel

Went to the concert last night in San Antonio. Phenomenal. We're doubting this duo will tour again, although I was doubting it after missing their last tour a few years ago and here they are!

Elton John didn't talk much, and he played several obscure songs, prompting many to take a beer break. With songbooks like theirs, I think most of us were there to hear the hits. Billy sang two not-as-popular songs of his, but with both, he told a little story which made them more interesting. He also specifically asked us not to go get a beer. LOL. I just read a review from another city, where the reviewer complained that they just played "the same old songs." Sorry, but the crowd went crazy during all the hits and was notably sedate for the few lesser known ones.

I did love Billy Joel's funny banter, and "The Ballad of Billy the Kid" that he said he doesn't usually sing, but he sang it since he was in Texas. He introduced it with a terrible John Wayne impression. Afterward, he pointed out all the inaccuracies in the lyrics, and said he's just a kid from Long Island, so what the heck does he know. Haha.

Wonderful concert. I'm so glad I got to be there.

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Funny Thing from Spamalot

I was just telling Kimberly about this. Forgot to note it in here.

There is a part in the Holy Grail movie, on which the play is based, where the Knights Who Say "Nee" suddenly declare themselves the Knights Who Say "Ecky Ecky Ecky Ecky Pikang Zoop Boing Goodem Zoo Owli Zhiv." In the Spamalot play here last weekend, the knight said, "We are now the Knights Who Say 'Ecky Ecky Ecky Ecky Pikang Zoop Boing Goodem Zoo Owli Zhiv- The eyes of Texas are upon you...." He put up his Longhorn fingers and started singing. It quickly became clear he was going to sing the entire song. Ahahaa! So everyone joined in and sang. (Not me, of course, but almost everyone else in the place. I didn't boo or anything.) It took like a minute. Hilarious. Then King Arthur's line is something like, "Okay, Knights who say 'Ecky Ecky..... whatever..." The extended singing made it even more funny.

So now we're wondering what they do there in other cities, especially where there isn't an obvious song reference. Hmm. I guess there may be a song relevant to most.

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Sea World

Dad called and told me he's been out of the country for work for three weeks so far, in Pakistan. Now he's in England for a month, then off to visit the fam in Germany for a week before returning to the US. He says he hasn't had much time to get online or anything, so he wanted me to know he hasn't fallen off the face of the earth. He also has some sort of special international phone I'm supposed to use now to get in touch with him. Who is he- James Bond?

Sea World was a comedy of errors today. First we saw the ever-funny sea lion caper show. Funniest part was that Seymour the sea lion was NOT doing his tricks. He was close sometimes, but eventually he literally just went into the water and started swimming around. The trainers didn't know what to do at first to continue their show, but they recovered and laughed off the parts where Seymour was supposed to be there doing something. Seymour just watched from the water while he played.

Every food and drink stand or restaurant was so incredibly slow. Lines stretched for yards and yards across the walkways. I've never seen such a thing at any amusement park, even during mealtimes on summer Saturdays. At one stand, the line inched along for twenty minutes and then came to a standstill when the cash register broke. The dinner line took about 45 minutes. That's about the same as the Steel Eel roller coaster line.

The Pirate 4D movie screen went black about halfway through the movie. Picture a packed theater completely dark for about three minutes before someone turned on a cell phone light and made their way out to get someone to turn on the lights in there. People booing. Children crying. It was freaky.

But the best show was the Shamu show, as always! It never disappoints. And the beluga/dolphin show was great, too. There is a baby beluga (baaaaaaaaby beluuuuuuuuga, oh baaaaaaaby baluuuuuuuga... Anyone listen to Raffi anymore?) and it is allowed to swim along with its mom. It occasionally does some of mom's tricks with her. SO cute! He doesn't get treats though, since he's not officially training.

Quote of the Day
Mother to her 3-year-old alongside the little dolphin enclosure pool: Taste the water. It's salty!

Uhhhhh... EWW.

Overall, fun! But they really need to do training or something with the food service folks. Hire more people. Something.

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So...

Remember my full post about quitting web design for good? That very afternoon someone called and offered me a design project. The path to it is a long, winding networking story. Basically I wanted to say no, but I decided it could be important for me to take it.

So now I am up to my eyeballs in design work. New medical company out of town. The owner is here. Must come up with three design options by next Friday. Luckily for me, there is another designer who will take over after I provide the initial website. He will add all sorts of interactive database functionality that I just am not familiar with. They need to add it over time as they figure it out anyway, so it has worked out PERFECTLY! Yay!

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Day 3 Spring Break Tour

Made it to Cave Without a Name today. Did you know a local kid won $250 for naming it that? He said it was so beautiful that no one could name it. Nice angle there, kiddo.

It was really nice. It's huge, and yet the group was small and the feeling is more up-close and personal than other cave tours I've been on. There aren't any physical barriers to things, so you can get up on stuff and get a good look. No touching, of course. I would definitely recommend it.

We stopped for ice cream in Blanco on the way home. We haven't had ice cream in forever, so it was delicioso!

Okay. American Idol. My liking a contestant during the tryout portion of the season is almost always the kiss of death. I admit I hated Alexis' song this week. Hated it the second time even more than the first. But I think she has such great potential. Oh well. Now one of my early faves is off, and I can move on to my next fave. Not that I'm fickle like that... but I'm even a little disenchanted with my other fave, Danny, this week. Anoop was my favorite and I loved Kris and Matt, too. On to next week!

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Spring Breakin' It

Monday we went to Enchanted Rock. Beautiful thing. The Summit Trail is easy enough, but if you are not fond of heights, think twice. The angle of ascent is ridiculously steep the last half or so, and coming down is the difficulty there. Wear rubber-soled tennis shoes to help you stick to the granite.

Then we headed to nearby Llano to eat at Cooper's BBQ joint. Any meat restaurant with a line out the door at 6:30pm on a Monday night makes me think of Sweeney Todd. Lauren's face when I announced that at the table?



Just. Sayin'.

(I'm kidding. It was really awesome!)

Today, we were going to Boerne to the Cave without a Name (that is the name), and stopped at our friends' first for Lauren to feed their cat, since they're in Chicago. She discovered a huge leak coming through the kitchen ceiling from the bathroom above. While we were cleaning the floor of rusty water, the ceiling started to come down. Yikers! So we stayed while the plumber came to fix everything and missed going to the cave. We'll head out there in the next few days!

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Hello Spring Break!

Dragged out all my warm weather clothes and they are all at least one size too big. Thank you Sharon Mann. Gotta shop. Zoiks.

We saw Spamalot last night. Oh so funny. All the great film scenes are in it, except my favorite one with the Bridgekeeper. ("What... is your favorite color?" Bwahaha!) Unfortunately the guy behind me felt compelled to quote along most of the night. I almost turned around to tell him I drew the line at singing, when he started in during "Bright Side of Life." Luckily he stopped. His mortified wife probably kicked him. Richard Chamberlain is playing King Arthur, and I cannot tell you how cool I think that is. He was great. Merle Dandridge was awesome as the Lady of the Lake. What a voice she has. The Lady of the Lake and her "Laker Girls." LOL. Cute.

Yesterday I made the most dorkass move that I've made in years. I've removed one of my websites from the web, so I needed to delete the blog as well. Went into my dashboard, which shows all the blogs for my websites, and deleted..... the wrong one. Not only that, I announced the death of the other website on that same wrong blog before deleting it, so everyone on that feed got an erroneous message, then no blog. Luckily, I put it back up at the same URL and the feed is still there and should continue, even though the previous gazillion posts aren't there anymore. Cannot believe I did that.

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The New New Facebook

The new new Facebook represents a fundamental change in the way we use Facebook. I have no idea how Twitter works, but I have read that is what Facebook is trying to emulate with the new new News Feed setup.

Is my status different from what's on my mind? I don't know, people. Whatever is on my mind becomes my status. Is there no "is" anymore? Whatever will we do without that forsaken "is"????

"Kathy IS confused." Tweet.

First, the Good

Well, you can hide people in your new new News Feed, like that friend who has filled yours up with surveys every day for the last two months. Oops, that was me! (Sorry.) Just click the hidden X next to any of their stories. If you want them back in the stream (I've really cut down on the surveys. Over there anyway...), just go to the bottom of the news feed page and there is a link to see hidden friends. You can unhide me them from there.

You can also customize the news feed by using Friend Lists- setting up a Friend List that has your top friends on it, so you can see just their posts at a glance, or your coworkers, so you can quickly see what they are doing. Not that you would be Facebooking at work, but you know, just in case. You set up Friend Lists on the new new Friends page and they will appear on the left column of the news feed for you to click.

I can't say enough about the tastefully rounded corners on the pics. I love rounded corners on the web. Love 'em!

The Bad

Ack! There's a tastefully-rounded-cornered ginormous profile pic next to each entry on the Wall and News Feed. We'll get to that in a minute.

The News Feed doesn't post everything anymore. It seems to not show people having added friends, become a fan or that sort of thing. Hate that. Eventually someone is going to add my lost Doug to their friends list and I want to be notified, dag-nabbit. Now I have the feeling I need to actually visit a person's page to see what they're up to. Not that I don't have a few people whose pages I routinely take a look at. Not in a "common Facebook stalker" sort of way, of course.

The new new Wall has done away with dates. Stories are in order by date, but without any visual delineation, so it all appears as one big stream of too much info. Blech.

The Ugly

Everything looks really large. I always had my Wall and News Feed set to one-line stories, so I can see the most info on a page, with the option to dig deeper if I chose. Since the News Feed and the Wall include the person's big ol' profile photo with each story, it makes every entry a certain minimum length. They've also taken away some of the light blue boxes that were around certain types of posts, which makes everything look very white and expansive.

Of course, everything takes a little getting used to. I'm going to go read through a Twitter tutorial to see how I'm supposed to use my status now.

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Friday Five

1. If your car/bike is wrecked (if your mass transit service goes belly-up), do you know what you would do to replace it, perhaps even have the car or bike you want already picked out?
I don't have anything picked out. I drive my cars until they croak, and mine is only a couple of years old.

2. A client/friend gives you a lottery ticket, which wins you a prize worth (after taxes) ten times as much money as you earned/received last year. What will you do with it?
I would give the client/friend some part of it. For the rest, I would invest half in a mutual fund and put half in a money market fund or account.

3. Fight or flee?
Usually I would flee. Depends on what's at stake.

4. Someone performs a random act of kindness that is exactly what you need on a bad day. If you wish to pay them back, would you write a poem, bake, buy something, or what?
Bake something. We don't eat dessert around here much anymore, so I like to bake when I get a chance.

5. Your manager commands you to pick a charity to contribute to. Do you resist? If not, which charity would be your first choice?
MD Anderson Children's Art Project.

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Contract Web Designer No More

I've said this for a while now, but after turning down a big new project this morning, it is "officially" official. I am no longer available to do web design for other people. It's never been my favorite thing. I love designing my own websites, getting the vision of what I want, putting the code in place to get it perfect. I have not really enjoyed taking another person's vision and doing all the work and rework it takes to get it to their "perfect." A few people can make their ideas clear from the beginning, but most take a few rounds to figure out what they like and don't like (especially people who don't design websites, which are 99.9% of clients, right?). Even for a high contract rate, it isn't worth the headache to me.

I'll just do my own sites and anything the Foundation needs. And now- we do the dance of joy!

Loved Kelly Clarkson on AI last night, btw. I was sorry to see Jorge go. He is such a positive person. Great voice, but I think his stage presence was an issue. Then again, a lot of the Top 13 have that problem at this point. I'm not sure why Jasmine went home, but if you don't have people voting for you, you probably won't sell records either. I thought she was good. Maybe a little boring?

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Sunday Stealing on Wednesday

Every now and then, you have to step back from your Facebook Flair corkboard and take a good look at what it says about your current mood. Let's just say there are an inordinate number of drinking, television and "I'd rather be at the beach" sorts of buttons on my corkboard at the moment. Is it Spring Break yet?

Sunday Stealing: The Random Question Meme

1. How old do you look?
40

2. Where do you live?
The ATX, baby! Austin, TX.

3. Are you waiting for something?
I am waiting for Daughtry or David Cook to come to Austin. Heh.

4. What’s one pet peeve of yours that is not common?
Seeing something misspelled in print or on TV.

5. Do you want/have kids?
I have one.

6. Have you ever thought about converting your religion?
From Christianity- no. I was confirmed in the Catholic church, but have attended exclusively Protestant churches as an adult. I have never officially become a member of another type of Christian church. Probably would not.

7. Last shocking news you heard?
That Grant and Amy had their baby a couple of days ago. I thought James was 8 months old. Must be 9-10 months!

8. What was the last thing you drank?
Water

9. Who do you most look like in your family?
My dad.

10. If you could have something right now, anything, what would it be?
A Wii Fit, to do the snowboarding game.

11. Where does most of your family live?
The United States. lol. That's about as specific as I can go. Well, wait. Two of us live in Texas. So... Texas.

12. Where did you grow up?
Mostly Houston. I spent two years in Kansas City when I was 5-6 years old.

13. Where do you want to go on vacation?
Charleston, SC.

14. Have you ever had a panic attack?
Once. OMG. So scary. I was at the mall with my mother-in-law. She took me to the ER because I was sure I was having a stroke and a heart attack at the same time.

15. What can’t you wait for?
To see Elton John and Billy Joel in San Antonio next week.

16. When’s the last time you told someone you loved him or her and meant it?
Yesterday.

17. Have your parents ever smoked pot?
Ahahahaaaaaaaa! No.

18. Want someone back in your life?
I'm still looking for Doug, who disappeared to Dallas about 5 years ago.

19. What do you order at the bar?
Blush wine or Shiner Bock, usually.

20. When was the last time you cried really, really hard?
Unfortunately, Monday.

21. Ever licked someone’s cheek?
Gross. No.

22. What is your favorite thing to eat with peanut butter?
Apples.

23. Where were you on July 4th, 2008?
On a cruise up the New England coast.

24. What are your nicknames?
Kath, K, Meg

25. If you could go back in time, how far back would you go?
Sometimes I think it would be romantic and wonderful to live in Renaissance times. Probably not, in actuality. So, I'll stick to 1984.

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Chris Daughtry's Vlog Update

LOL. Daughtry vs. the Jonas Brothers... "May the best man win." The album- June/July drop date. WOO!

Click here to see

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Tuesday

Just saw the Nasonex commercial. I am mesmerized by Antonio Banderas' sexy accent. It so doesn't fit the bee character, and honestly, there are points where I barely understand him. But by golly, I love that ad. Nobody else could make side effects sound as pleasant.

I'm home today. All day, possibly. Sears Repair Services gives you a window of 8-5 for their guy to show up. *drums fingers* I feel the walls closing in already.

I decided on a whim to check out the possibilities of returning to work. My old company is ALWAYS hiring people in my former position. So I bopped over to to the website to see, and they are, for the first time in 15 years, not hiring in data management. WOW. I'm seriously shocked, but there you go. I checked out competitors, and they aren't hiring either.

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Fashion Don't

I'm dressed the other day in something I think is really a smart outfit. All black, except for a bright red denim jacket. Crisp. Perky. Love it.

I take off the jacket in the house, so I have on a tight black tank, tight black pants and black boots. I'm actually diggin' it minus the jacket. I'm thinking I look like Lara Croft.

My daughter comes around the corner. "You look like a ninja."

Eh.

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"Will This End Up on Your Blog?"

People have started asking me this question, usually after funny or embarrassing things happen in real life. "Am I going to read about this on your blog tomorrow?" The answer is... yes! Especially if you ask.

On that note- Laura went to a coupon exchange Thursday night, while I was still laid up in bed after the "surgery with zero recovery time." This coupon party was with people she doesn't even know. (Okay, she made Teresa go with her. Still.) She thinks I'm being sarcastic when I tell her I think it's cool. What. Just because I'm sarcastic a lot? I would never make fun of your little coupon buddies, L. :p

Mind you, I used to do coupons religiously as a young mom, and couldn't convince her to do it at all back then! (AND, she was buying herself and her two children three individual pretzels and three drinks at the mall while Lauren and I shared one, but I digress...) Over the years I decided it was a waste of effort, but in these leaner times, I think it's a wise and wonderful thing.

Laura is one of those people who has the hobby down to such an art now, that she can display a shopping cart full of items and announce she paid only 42 cents for the whole shebang. *wild applause* I am seriously impressed. She even has a notebook with her own highly sophisticated Coupon Organization System (COS).

So I have decided I need to attend one of these underground "coupon parties." And I simply must meet The Coupon Guy who was there, who has an even more technologically advanced COS than Laura. I am all about organization systems. Heck, I'll take up couponing just to possess a new organizational tool. Where do I sign up?

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Anesthesia

Okay. So, I was talking with Luis, my nurse anesthetist who assisted the anesthesiologist during my day surgery yesterday. Before you go into surgery with general anesthesia, they give you something to relax you. Then when you are in the OR, and have moved yourself onto the table and everything, they get you prepped and put you out.

I told him that for some reason, the last surgery I had I fell asleep from the initial medicine before I even got out of the pre-op area. I figured maybe I was more sensitive to the meds now or something.

He laughed. He told me that they used to use Valium and now they use Versed in that pre-med. Versed has "amazing amnesia properties." He said that all that stuff still happens, with the moving yourself to the table and talking with the staff, etc., but you just have absolutely no recollection of it.

I said, "Get. Out."

"Really!" He laughed again. "You are talking and interacting and moving around and not asleep until they count you backwards from 10, just like before."

I cannot believe it. And of course it happened the same way yesterday! SO weird! I wonder what the heck I said and did for ten minutes before surgery. That stuff could easily be used for nefarious purposes. lol.

p.s. Zero recovery time is a myth, thankyouverymuch.

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You Know You're a Net Junkie When...

You're on Blogger ten minutes before you head to the hospital. :D

I'll be home in a few hours with zero recovery time, so I'm told. Knock wood and all that... Have a great day, y'all!

Saturday 9 (from last weekend... you know the drill)

1. What is the last "white" lie that you told?
I can't even remember any. None recently.

2. Can you forgive a liar?
I can, but I will always take whatever they say with a grain of salt. Fool me once...

3. Do you tend to exaggerate or underestimate?
I exaggerate, but I'm very obvious about it. I like the words "gazillion" and "massive."

4. Do you hold a grudge?
Unfortunately, yes. Probably my worst fault. On the up side, if the person apologizes, I am almost always very easily moved to forgive.

5. What's the biggest lie you've ever told?
Mom had a stroke and went into a nursing home. A year later, the doctors said she wouldn't ever be able to leave nursing care, so we sold all her furniture and stuff. We told her everything was in storage. I kept all her mementos, of course. (I still have them, matter-of-fact.) She even asked about things now and then, and I always said that we had them. Eventually she told me to sell everything. What a relief that was. I think she had a suspicion all along that her stuff was gone.

6. Are there times that you feel that it is okay to lie?
Sometimes, if someone is in a fragile state of some sort. Like when people are seriously injured in a car accident and the hospital staff purposely don't tell them someone else in the vehicle has died. (Or someone is not yet ready to face the reality of life in a nursing home...)

7. Did you ever end a relationship because of lies?
Nope.

8. Do you think you can tell when someone is lying to you?
Yes.

9. Have you been caught lying?
I only tell the occasional white lie. (Other than the big one listed above. lol) I'm sure I've been caught at some point, but no one has called me on it.

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Ahhh Surgery

I'm just giddy at the thought of general anesthesia... again. Ever since my surgery a year-and-a-half ago, there has been a tiny piece of granulation tissue, unhealed tissue that is stuck in a phase of the healing process and will never heal, at the site of my internal stitches. The unhealed tissue isn't painful or dangerous, but it is highly annoying when it bleeds ever so slightly every now and then. I can't take it anymore, so it's gone tomorrow! Woohoo!!

My favorite part of pre-op was asking my doctor if I could have heavy sedation instead of a general, and she said, "Most people like to be asleep during this type of surgery." I said, "Oh I WANT TO BE ASLEEP." The thought of retractors and clamps and chainsaws all up in there makes me wanna run for the hills. I was just under the impression that for short surgeries, one could have heavy sedation to the point of being asleep. The nurse said if you do that, sometimes you will wake up if something particularly painful occurs. Um, NO THANKS.

They both told me that I should talk to the anesthesiologist in the morning. I will take his face in my hands and look him square in the eyes and say, "Please. Put. Me. Out."

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The Bast... errr... Bachelor

O. M. G.

Last season, everyone I know who watched The Bachelorette fell in love with Jason and thought he was this kind, cute dad. We all felt incredibly sorry for him during the finale, when DeAnna let him actually get down on his knee before telling him she wasn't in love with him. (Here is where I remind everyone that you have to suspend your belief that people have to go on more than a few dates before getting engaged... just go with it...)

This season we watched Jason hop casually from bed to bed from about day 1. He wasn't as kind a person as he had appeared to be the previous season. He claimed to be in love with a bunch of the girls. Just ick. Then this finale, he breaks Molly's heart (I was going for Melissa, so... eh.) and then asks Melissa to marry him and gets the cutest, most excited proposal reaction ever, and THEN breaks off his engagement on national television to go back to Moll? Please.

He should have at the very least talked to both women in private, rather than on national television. I cannot believe Molly even took him back.

Jason's ending was even worse than Brad's! At least Brad didn't lead anyone on. And there's another hour tonight? What could that be? Maybe Molly came to her senses and will break up with him on national TV. Then he'll ask Jillian to take him back.

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Eek.

At Guard competitions, Jeff and I are separated most of the day. He is on floor crew and I do video. The two jobs are mutually exclusive, because of two things:

1) the floor crew must sit on the "back side" of the gym during the performance; therefore, they can't see squat to take video
2) the floor crew is rolling out/up the floor and setting backdrops, and wouldn't have time to run up to the rafters to video the show in-between anyway

Normally this works fine, and we meet up here and there through the day. Jeff's parents are here this weekend, and yesterday evening, when we were gathering for what was to be a lovely dinner experience at the concession stand, we come out to find Jeff sliding down the wall to sit on the floor. He's really pale and when I get to him, he's broken out in a cold sweat.

He announces, "I haven't been able to catch my breath for about 3 hours." Holy #%$! What?! He has been out of breath since helping with the floor... twice... He says he feels better about it now though, because he's realized why: he gave two pints worth of red blood cells on Friday afternoon and he wasn't supposed to do anything strenuous for the next few days. Ohhhhhhh. Well okay then. (Yeah.)

So I watch him carefully, with my hand inconspicuously hovering over my cell to call 911 as my in-laws and I "casually" chat with another guard mom. It took him about a half hour of relaxing and deep breathing to finally recover.

People. If you can't catch your breath for more than... oh... 2 minutes, let your wife know.

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