Month: October 2010

Happy Halloween!

Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way…. no really, I’ll be giving out candy later to the few intrepid souls who still brave the house to house trick or treating in this area. For that reason, I insist on buying “good” candy. By that I mean chocolate candy bars. I’ve even tried to become tolerant of the vehicles that vomit a bunch of kids out of its doors to have them race up for their handful of candy and then pile back in, only to go a few feet to the next lit house and do it all over again. How lazy can you get?! Still they came out, so they get the goods.

But that’s not what this blog is supposed to be about. It’s about 101 Nights of Great Sex, right?

I made some great butternut squash soup, cornbread, a fresh salad and some apple crisp from freshly picked apples from the orchard for dinner tonight. While I let the soup bubble away in my cauldron, I popped a beer into the freezer (’cause I actually like my beer to be more like a slushy than a beer) and decided to wander the neighborhood for a little bit.; As we were heading for home, Hubby noticed the corner of a book peeping out from under a carpet of crunchy leaves and bent for further investigation. He crowed in delight at his good luck to find “101 Nights of Grrrreat Sex”, by Laura Corn. (could this be considered our candy Corn?) The premise of this book is that there are 101 pages that are sealed. You are supposed to pull out a page, tear the perforations and reveal the information/suggestion. I can totally relate this to unwrapping a piece of chocolate with a hidden center. Yes! What a great find for two empty-nesters, or as I like to say, 2nd time 20’s with more money!

When I got home, I liberated my beer from the freezer ’cause it was just right. We’d been listening to KDFC, a classical music station in San Diego, all afternoon. They were supposed to be playing “Scary Music” – as if classical music could ever be considered scary – and one of the most misunderstood songs of all time came on… Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. Sure, this song has been repeatedly used for horror flicks due to it’s strong sound, but it’s totally wrong for what the piece is actually about… Sooooo……….

Lemme edu-ma-cate you guys a bit. (I know, how can a woman who likes slushy beer and says “edu-ma-cate” teach me anything?) Trust me… just ’cause I like informality, doesn’t meant I don’t know about this.

Carmina Burana is literally “Songs from Beuren” and are, basically, ancient text set to music about sex, drinking, love,sex, greed within the church, gambling, gluttony and sex! There is nothing evil about it at all, unless you consider that the would-be monks were lamenting all the stuff they’d have to give up to join the monastary. Girls,gaming, drinking and sex… you know, the basics.

But the cool thing, you see, is that for me.. it was perfect!! Here I was, freshly gifted by the universe with a book of fun things to try and a slushy beer and on comes Carmina Burana to remind me of all the adult fun I could still enjoy on Halloween. Tomorrow is All Saint’s Day, and I’ll atone then.

For those who are swearing they have NO idea of what song I’m talking about, just listen to the first few notes. I’ll be SHOCKED if you’ve never heard this attached to some horror show or sporting event.

And if you don’t trust my take on Carmina Burana, take it from Marin Alsop of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, my hometown favorites. She discusses Carmina Burana second in this video, but you can hear the song behind her explanation.

I was trying to spare you all the gory details and I still will, but I think you’re gonna get my drift soon enough.

For those of you with tender sensibilities, my apologies in advance.

Tomorrow I’m having a test done that requires much prep. Let’s just say I’m detoxing.

In between detox sessions, I got a phone call from my Dr.’s office that I couldn’t take immediately, due to a work phone call. When I listened to the voice mail, it was from the nurse who was calling me with the results from the scan I had on Monday. She didn’t leave a message that said, “All is well, please schedule a follow up.” or “Dr. wants you to make an appointment with X.”, she said, “Please call me back.”, which  I promptly do, but she’s not at her desk. So, I’m waiting.

I experience anxiety in my guts, with expected detoxing results, so now I’ve got double the prep working.

Then the phone rings and I’m thinking it’s the Dr.’s office and I’m right… but I’m wrong. It’s the office of the one I’m prepping for tomorrow. All kinds of things start rolling through my mind about how cranky I’m going to be if they cancel this, but how I’d love to have a sammich when the girl on the phone says, “I was verifying your benefits and there seems to be a $397.00 balance for your deductible. You’ll need to pay that tomorrow.” Wha? I mean, if that’s the way it is with my insurance, ok, but do you think that maybe telling me this 16 hours before the procedure is just a little shortsighted?? What if I didn’t have that money. The policy is that if you cancel under a 3 day window, you get slapped with a huge fee, so what would be done if I said… um… oh well, I ain’t got that right now? And honestly, I can find it, but it’s not like I don’t have to juggle a bit to get it.

I think I already established that I internalize stress in my guts.. so now I’m triply prepped… lucky me, but I certainly will be thoroughly detoxed, I’ll tell you that.

And because I love you all so much?, I didn’t pick photos for this blog!! Lol.

I looked at my blog from yesterday and wondered what I was on last night. How about you? Did you wonder what had gotten into me, too?

I’m blaming the moon. Ok, I know it wasn’t a full moon, but that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

So- today – onward and… well, maybe just onward.

Today, my job is to find a new way – without using regular mass email- to send out a directory for work.

Dilemma:
My old system was obliterated by the evil forces of darkness.. in fact, I should repost the picture of the cat catching the boy on fire again since it’s kinda appropriate.

No, actually, it’s all just a control issue that resulted in mass deletion, but be that as it may, I’m still not able to send things out the way I used to.

Hmmm.. I’ve digressed…no, actually, I think I still may be on track here. Since it is election season let’s do some Fact Checking, eh?

1. Fact – Last year I could send out mass emails with an attachment from a source I no longer have access to.
2. Fact – This year I still need to send out the attachment, with the same factors and criteria as before, and I need to find a new way to do this.

Yep.. seems to be pretty accurate to me! Lol~

The dilemma is:
1. I have many email addresses on my lists that are fairly sensitive, and have some uber spam blocking  software.
2. The information I have I can’t just “post” as a download from our website, because it has personal information in it.
3. The email server I’m using doesn’t allow for attachments because of spam issues.
4. The company said I’m not allowed to print it because it takes up too much paper.
5. Google docs obliterated my formatting.

I’ll let you all know how it works out, but if there are any suggestions, I’m open and listening.

UPDATE – I figured out how to get around this. It was almost as if I wrote the blog, walked away and *PING* the solution came to me!
I should know that when I’m determined, NOTHING will get in my way and I’ll ALWAYS find a way to succeed.

As for the rest of this blog – meh.. I was frustrated. It’s now time for fluffy bunnies and happy butterflies once again….

The trees wore beautiful colors today against the steel gray of the overcast sky. Gorgeous.

I’d love to hug two of the women at work today, who helped me to cut and sort the tickets for the Winter concerts.

I’m not really paying attention to the elections. I know I should, but I don’t trust anyone who pays someone else to write their speeches. I’m not voting for a spin doctor, I’m supposed to be voting for an actual candidate.

My knitted socks are coming along quite nicely. I’m very proud of the fact that I’ll at least TRY to learn something new. Since I knit in the “continental” style, I had to work pretty hard to get it in my head how to purl in that fashion as well.

A fad spread through Europe in the 15th century, when wealthy sophisticates bought pricey pewter plates for their dinner tables. The plates became the silent killers of the Middle Ages. Food that was highly acidic would leach lead into the food, killing many upper-class diners with lead-poisoning. People noticed that the poisoning happened most frequently when tomato sauce was served. For the next four hundred years, rich Europeans thought tomatoes were poisonous and refused to eat them.

I’m planning on making turkey cupcakes. Yep, you read that right.. turkey cupcakes.

I’m against slots at the Mall.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

see more Engrish
‘Cause NO ONE wants to be treated like POTATO!!

I like bright pink duct tape, but the “tie-dye”  look is a close second.

I don’t have a costume for Halloween yet. I like to do something when I hand out candy. I don’t want to be a fairy, or a witch, or anything you’d expect…who am I kidding… I won’t be dressing up… or will I??

I had to go in for some NU-cle-ar medicine today, and let me tell you, I’m glowing!

No, I’m not preggers. In fact, when the woman asked me if there was any chance I was pregnant, I huffed such a loud PHFFTTT.. that both the women next to me and the tech started to giggle. I’m guessing it was an effective Phffft!

I had to go in today to get a parathyroid scan. Are we ready for our medical lesson for the day, boils and ghouls?

The parathyroid glands are small endocrine glands in the neck that produce parathyroid hormone. Humans have four parathyroid glands, which are usually located behind the thyroid gland, and, in rare cases, within the thyroid gland or in the chest. Parathyroid glands control the amount of calcium in the blood and within the bones.

The parathyroid glands are four or more small glands, about the size of a grain of rice, located on the back side of the thyroid gland. The parathyroid glands are named for their proximity to the thyroid but serve a completely different role than the thyroid gland.

 

The major function of the parathyroid glands is to maintain the body’s calcium level within a very narrow range, so that the nervous and muscular systems can function properly. (Lol.. no wonder I’m a twitchy bundle of nerves sometimes..)

 

When blood calcium levels drop below a certain point, calcium-sensing receptors in the parathyroid gland are activated to release hormone into the blood. PTH affects the perception of well being and absence of PTH can be associated with feeling of fatigue and anxiety. (Anxiety? Who me? Nahhh…)

 

So, long story short, my PTH is high, and my blood calcium is high – again- and my doc said she wanted to see what’s going on. That means a radioactive isotope is injected into lil ol me, and then they tell me to lie still for 40 minutes while they take purty pictures of my neck area. Then they tell me to go away for a few hours and come back and then lie still for an hour so they can take some more pictures.

 

We’ll see what the Dr. thinks in a few days. In the meantime, I’m just radio-active.

In my last blog, I mentioned that we were going to meet up with my sister and aunt and then go play Bingo. Although the dinner part went fairly well, the Bingo was a bust.

We got delayed and ended up not getting out of the restaurant until 8:00 or so. By the time we went to the Bingo Hall, the place was PACKED. There wasn’t even one parking space, let alone 4. We decided to call it a night and said our farewells.

Since the Bingo hall is very close to the house I lived in while growing up, Hubby and I decided to cruise by to see the old homestead. After my parent’s died, I did this fairly often. Most people tend to go to a grave site to visit their loved ones, but I like to go to the place where the living happened, not the place where the external physical husk is buried. The house looked good and the people who own it now seem to be taking great care to fix it up. This made me feel happy and we left for home. At the entrance to the development, I glanced over to see my sister’s car and her waving madly at us. Laughing, I realized she’d done the same thing independently. She’d gone to say hello to Mom and Dad, too.

Every year, at the holidays, comes the opportunity for tension in families unless there is a clear plan for who is going where and when. I find this *choosing* to be uncomfortable and unnecessary, so I’ve decided to alter when we have our family get-together. Yesterday was our version of Thanksgiving, which I’ve called the Harvest Dinner.

Our tradition starts with a trip to the farm to pick some Granny Smith apples and then over to the pumpkin patch to get a pumpkin.

Number 4 with her beau. Her smile is so beautiful when she’s relaxed and happy.

Beautiful day, picking fruit and happy people…

Number 2 and his girl…they are geek, jr and his geek girl.  So familiar, yet so different!

This year, the pumpkin patch wasn’t as prolific or as good as last year, but we still found some great pumpkins.

And then we proceeded to gut the gourds! (Hubby calls this punkin’ guttin’ cam view)

While the kids carve their pumpkins, I finished up our dinner. I’d made some stuffed turkey tenderloins, gravy, stuffing, sweet potatoes, green beans with yellow peppers and pine nuts, cranberry chutney, bread, butter, gingerbread, cupcakes and pumpkin wontons with apricot glaze. (Somehow, I’m told this might have been too much, but I like to think that it just means that all have enough and I don’t have to cook for the rest of the week!)

Number 3 brought home a new friend as well and he looks very pleased with himself.

And then we all played what we call “The Screamie Game”, which is actually called Catch Phrase. We had a great time.

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

For my birthday back in August, I was gifted with Rosetta Stone programs for both Italian and German.

I didn’t start learning or using the program right away – like I should have- and when the end of September rolled around, I decided it was time for me to get cracking. I’d like to be able to minimally understand the people, read some signs and maybe even not embarrass myself if I have to ask a question in either language. I know this is an ambitious undertaking, but why not? I’m confident that I can get some of this down in a timely manner. (Manner – with an accent, this is the plural for man in German)
What you see above is a perfect example of the system I’ve come up with to work on multiple languages. I’ve learned some Italian to get me started, but when I had gotten to a certain point, I started the German program. Now, when I learn the German (Das Madchen rennt.) I immediately translate that to Italian (La bambina corre.) and then to English. (The girl runs.) I’m keeping a journal (giornale)  – haven’t gotten to that one in German yet – and I’m writing (scrive – schriebt) down all three languages to help me remember it all. I HAVE to step up my lessons though, because I’m finding once or twice a week is too long to go between lessons now that the Italian is starting more complex sentences. (Noi abiammo dei fiori bianchi.) I should probably get a little closer with the German to where I am in the Italian. Hubby thinks I’m nuts doing this simultaneously, but honestly, it seems to be the easiest way for me to do it so far.

Last year, we had a Sister’s Dinner at my Aunt’s house. Since then we’ve had a crab feast at my sisters house and a get together in February. This has become a healing time for my sisters and I. After the death of our parents, we all needed time to find where we were and deal with that in our own way. Now, instead of coming together because our parents wanted us to, we come together because WE want to.

Tonight, we are going to that fine dining establishment, Denny’s, to chat and visit with one another and catch up on my 72 year old Aunt’s ghost hunting adventures, and then we are going to go play BINGO! (Shhhh.. don’t tell, but Hubby LOVES to play Bingo.. hehehe)

I like to move things around now and then and try new colors and themes for my blogs, so I decided I’d had enough of the blue and pink on here and was going to try something new. Something FRESH! Something DIFFERENT!!

Notice it’s the same-old, same-old?

Yeah, me too.

I went to customize, chose some new colors and hit preview and all I got was gray. Gray, dull, dismal, gray – grey, gris. Blech. On top of that, it didn’t show any content, as if I’d erased my entire blog.
O. M. G.
That would totally suck.

In a panic, I hit that back button. I decided I’d rather have the blue and pink than risk obliterating my blog. At least until I figure out a way to print out the darn thing and put it in a notebook. Seems counter-intuitive, but I’d like to keep a paper copy to be sure I have my past, even if I decided to go live out in the sticks and give up electricity, the internet and all things social, grow a beard, own goats, stop bathing and become one with all the little creatures that would feast on my flesh.

Pah! Who are we trying to kid here? Me? Give up the internet?? And goats, nah, far more likely I’d own llamas… and rabbits. At least you can knit with those.

You’ll have to click through to YouTube, but I think it’s worth it.