Last week, I got hit with a bout of hives that lasted four days.  No fun.  None at all!  And I traced it back to the fact that I had stupidly worn a brand new pair of jeans before they were washed.  Four days of insane itching it way more than enough to make the point that I need to wash my new clothes before I wear them.  Or is it?

I just realized that I am wearing a blazer that I just got and have not washed yet!  I am wearing a short-sleeved sweater under it so I have two-thirds of my arms and my wrists exposed to this horror!!

I’m already starting to get itchy...Crap.

I FINALLY got around to taking pictures of the cats today.  Since Expression Engine and I do not get along at all, I’m not even going to try and load them here.

Head on over to my Flickr site, if you want to see the newest shots.  I could not get a good picture of Kahlua because she just wouldn’t stop sparring with her sister, so I’ll try and get a better one later on.  But for now, there are pictures of our six babies - Phoebe, Maddy, Valley, Courtney, Bella and Kahlua!

Sometimes I get embarrassed for myself much later than the situations that should have caused the embarrassment.  Sadly, many, many of those situations involved alcohol - usually a LOT of alcohol.

As I sat and listened to one of my favorite songs this morning, I was reminded of a time when I sat with Buzz in our library, listening to the album from which this song comes, and breaking this song down into itty-bitty bits of major philosophy.  Naturally, there was much imbibed before this time.  I would go back over and over certain parts of the song and say, “Just listen to these lyrics!  I can’t believe they are so...” - you fill in the blank because it’s all been said before - heart-breaking, sad, lyrical, whimsical, brilliant, insightful, whatever.  I do it whenever we have drunken music nights.  And I am always so damn serious!  Like I had just deciphered the Rosetta Stone and found that it was written for me personally.  I’m a fool for my music.  And coupled with the hooch?

Ain’t nothing in this world like Johnnie Walker wisdom. 

I’m just remembering one of my all-time favorite movies.  “Love Actually”.  And I didn’t even know just how special it was to me until today.  I started thinking about all of the situations and characters and, dammit, that final scene that will make me cry forever and ever.  I’m not sure there’s a better movie ever made for heart-warming, heart-breaking, relationship-y, love, love, love things.  I was going to try and highlight some of my favorites but I think that I love every single one of the relationships in that movie.  They all have something very special about them (even that one with Laura Linney - it’s very sad but very special anyway).

Now I want to go see it again!  We’ve added it to our “must watch every Christmas” list, and we do, but I think this movie deserves a semi-annual or, dare I say, quarterly viewing!

If you stop by and are of a mind, drop me a comment with some of your all-time favorite movies. 

I am struggling in a big giant way.  I have less than 24 hours to decide who I’m going to vote for in the PA primary tomorrow.

I have been going over and over and over and over all of the things that I’ve seen and read and felt in my gut. 

You see, I have a view of present-day America and I feel like we are teetering on the edge of destruction.  Everything all around me is in the toilet.  Gas prices, housing catastrophes, the war in Iraq, our military being stretched so thin you can see through it, stagnant wages, lack of respect worldwide, falling dollar value, unemployment, health care, and big-time oil companies rubbing their big fat bellies all the way to the bank.  It’s an absolute mess.  And I’m not about to sit around and let that continue when I have a teensy little bit of power to prevent it.  I like the message of hope and change and shunning of lobbyists that Obama is presenting.  On the other hand, when I revisit how I think we as Americans are faring at this point in our history, here’s what comes to mind...it’s a scene from “Six Days, Seven Nights” between Harrison Ford’s character Quinn and Anne Heche’s character Robin…

Quinn Harris: I thought that’s what women wanted.

Robin Monroe: No, not when they’re being chased by pirates, they like ‘em mean and armed!

Yes, I do like the message of hope and change but, doggone it, right now, I feel like America is being chased by pirates and I want a “confident captain” who is mean and armed.  And I feel like Clinton may be that confident captain.

Oh, ugh.  I simply cannot decide!  Do I go with who I think can be an immediate and strong force to get us out of what I consider to be the worst condition I have seen in my lifetime?  Or do I go for the long-term future plans?  The clock is ticking and the voting booth is looming large in my mind.  And I’m not happy about it!

I’ve talked about this before but, damn, it’s got me all fired up again!

I have a 12-inch tall, 6-inch wide recycle bin at my desk.  I go through a lot of recyclable paper in a day, especially when I’m working on the kind of project I’m currently working on.  I tend to get the thing right around a quarter full before the end of the day.  And, I must admit, I’m pretty OCD about it.  I do not crumble up the paper - it goes in as a whole sheet, thereby allowing me maximum usage of the space.

I just came back to my desk and there are three wrappers from paper that was added to the printer right behind me in my recycle bin.  They are crumpled up and shoved into my recycle bin.  Now, it’s completely full and I can no longer add any paper to it.

This makes me completely insane!  I’m sure it has nothing to do with my OCD, no!  I’m telling you, I am so considerate of other people’s trash cans.  I will not put anything into anyone else’s trash can or recycle bin if I know they are in the office that day.  I will carry whatever it is with me until I’m either back at my desk or pass by one of the common area trash cans or recycle bins.  And because I do this, I want everyone else to be just as considerate of my personal space as I am of theirs.  Is that so much to ask??

As we approach Earth Day ‘08, I am happy to report that Buzz and I are approaching it in our brand new hybrid car!  (I should really have some pictures to back this up, no?) Seriously, we did buy a hybrid - and we love it!  We traded in our Toyota Highlander (18 mpg) and got a Toyota Prius (45 mpg), rated by Consumer Reports as the greenest available car on the US market right now.  One of the fun little things it has is a fuel consumption matrix - yes, not a gauge, a full-blown matrix.  We can see just how fuel-efficient we are being and we are averaging between 42 and 50 mpg, depending on where we are driving.  Since we put just over 8000 miles on the Highlander in one year (we don’t go anywhere, really), we’re thinking that we may never have to fill up the Prius again!  That initial full tank that we got from the dealer may just be a life-time supply. 

We’re actually turning into latter day hippies of a sort, I think.  We’ve started our very first garden, wherein we hope to grow a whole LOT of food and not have to buy the crap they sell at the grocery stores where the produce is full of preservatives, waxes, and insecticides.  We will be starting a compost pile to help with our garden and lessen our throw-away waste products.  We buy organic foods, we cook just about all of what we eat from scratch (no processed foods here!) and did I mention the bran?  In our bread.  Which we make ourselves.

Now with our green car sitting in the garage next to our recycle bin, we are feeling like we’re doing our little bit to help the environment and lessen our dependency on foreign oil.

Next up?  Fluorescent light bulbs in the house!

And on a completely unrelated note, we are starting to see a lot of progress with the new kitties!  Yesterday, I went in to “their” room to get their bowls for breakfast.  Kahlua came out to greet me, as she always does, and Bella always stays put in the mornings.  So I never see her but I do talk to her while I’m in the room.  I gave her my standard morning greetings and general silly talk and then headed downstairs to fill up the bowls with food.  In the kitchen, I started to gather the other 12 bowls from the floor and happened to glance over at the bank of kitty beds that are lined up by the sliding doors in the breakfast area.  Who’s in one of those beds?  BELLA!  As far as I know, this is the first time she’s been out of the upstairs room in weeks and she looked just as comfy as can be laying in the kitchen!  I was delighted!!  It didn’t last long and she headed back upstairs when things got really bustling in the kitchen but she did chase Maddy out of “their” room last night and into the hallway so this lady is getting bold.  She just might knock the other alpha cat off her rung.  We’ll see but she is showing some real moxie right now!  I’m so proud of her!!

And on another completely unrelated note, I went to my very favorite orthopaedic specialist last night and got a prescription for physical therapy and orthotics for my plantar fasciitis.  (Yes, Statia, I will be going to PT - FINALLY!) What the GP had had me doing was making things much worse so I’m hoping that it will all get turned around now.  The good news is that the ortho guy told me that I was still in early stages and there wasn’t much damage so he has high hopes for full recovery.  I just love this guy!!  Next Thursday, I get measured for my orthotics, which I should have about a week after that.  Then I start PT and, hopefully, in less than two months, I’ll be feeling much better and will be able to go hug my treadmill again.  We have a love/hate relationship but I miss her!

There.  How’s that for a lot of blah-blah-blah??  Hope you all have a good day and (for my fellow Pennsylvanians), don’t forget to vote in the primary next Tuesday!  Our voting place burned last week, so I don’t know where we’ll be voting but I will hunt down a polling place on Tuesday if I have to traverse the entire state to find one!

I sure know how to eat right!

Today, so far, I have had one cup of half regular/half decaf coffee (black) and a bowl of Take Heart Oatmeal for breakfast.

Mid-morning, I got a cup of decaf (black).

Lunch started out very small.  I had a non-fat, sugar-free blueberry yogurt and I was going to stick with that until dinner.

Then it all fell apart.

I had a piece of cake.  Mmmm...cake!  (That was my favorite part of the day!)

But, truth be told, my day is not so bad - even with the cake - in Weight Watchers’ terms.  Breakfast was 3 points, the healthy part of lunch was 1 point, and the cake was 7 points.  I still have more than half of my points left for the day.  I’ll just be good for dinner and I’ll be just fine!  (I know that this is not what they had in mind but sometimes ya just gotta eat the cake!)

OK, despite the bad press, it didn’t actually happen that way.

Ya see, standing at the end of our driveway, we can see right into Statia and Meester‘s neighborhood.  A call was placed to ask what the hell was going on IN-THE-NEIGHBORHOOD, not how come your house is on fire?  The whole problem was that they were not at home when we called.  Had they been at home, they could have calmly answered that the raging fire was not in their neighborhood, but behind their neighborhood. 

So the misunderstanding and hyperventilating is all their fault for being at the store when they should have been at home!  So there!

P.S.  Here’s what we saw:

I have discovered that I control everything.  Just yesterday and into last night, I was vehemently complaining about a problem that had no pleasant solution.  The only gentle way to solve the problem was for someone else to think of the solution and voluntarily take action, which wasn’t going to happen.

Well, it seems that I have caused an unpleasant solution to come about.  Yes, something terrible happened and the problem is gone.

While it’s a convenience in the long-run to have the problem solved, I feel awful about how it got solved.  Evidently, I need to be really, really careful what I wish for!  I had no idea that I was such an all-powerful being.  My influence on the universe is awe-inspiring!  Don’t get on my bad side, folks!

I’ve been dealing with various medical bothers for several years now.  All of which, my doctors assure me, if left alone, will kill me, sure as I’m sitting here.  I have been working very diligently on fixing the problems.

But here’s a typical discussion in a doctor’s office for me:

1.  Do you smoke? No.
2.  Do you eat red meat? Maybe once a month.
3.  Do you eat fish? Three to five times a week.
4.  Do you eat fried foods? No.
5.  Do you drink caffeine? One cup of half regular/half decaf per day.
6.  Do you eat chocolate? Maybe once every two months and then only a bite.
7.  Do you eat late at night? Not at all!
8.  Do you drink a lot of soda? I don’t drink soda.
9.  Do you eat spicy foods? Not any more, thanks to you people.
10.  Do you eat acid-y foods - tomatoes, oranges, etc.? Not very often.
11.  Have you been working on losing weight? I’ve lost 15 pounds since the 2nd week in January.
12.  Do you eat a lot of carbohydrates or refined sugars? Absolutely not.
13.  Do you eat a lot of fatty foods? Almost no fat at all in my diet.
14.  Do you eat whole grain foods or foods with a lot of fiber and protein? Yes, I do.
15.  Do you eat garlic? Yes, I eat a lot of garlic actually.

Oh, well, there you have it!  That’s your problem!!

What??  How can this be my problem?  Garlic is very good for me!  It provides all the flavor to the only foods I am allowed to still eat and it’s chock full of vitamins and good for lowering my cholesterol (which you told me is too high)!  How can this be a problem??

It’s not good for your stomach.  Stop eating garlic.

I hate doctors sometimes.

(P.S.  This discussion actually took place this morning.  Gah.)

I’m not scared of the computer.  I’m really comfortable with what it can do for me and, if I can’t figure something out, chances are good that, with a little perusal of help files or internet bulletin boards, even the stickiest situation will work itself out.

Except when it comes to the network.

You see, we have to have a special “magic” box in order to reach work’s network from home with our cable modem and several other boxes strung in the mix here and there.  And then there are several (or many) computers scattered through the house that are all on the same network.  I didn’t set up this monstrosity - I only know that I harbored a good, healthy fear of anything going wrong with it, now that all of our children have moved out.

Queue the scary music.

Yesterday morning, we had no internet connection.  After trying a whole bunch of things (like turning everything off and back on about 75 times each), we tried connecting straight from the cable modem to the computer, which worked.  Meaning that there was something wrong with one of the other myriad boxes that are normally stationed between the cable modem and the computers.  I cried a little.

But we persevered.  We talked it all out.  We reasoned.  We bargained with those blue boxes.  And one of those blue boxes we were bargaining with was the wireless router.  When all was said and done, we determined that the problem was probably with the wireless router.

Queue the triumphant music.

Well, Buzz and I have been talking about getting Time Capsule for our computers for a while.  Not only would it back up our computers (read: our lives) but it would also be a nifty, swifty wireless hub.  This was obviously the time to take the plunge.  Cool beans!  Off to the mall we went and we arrived home with a sparkly little Time Capsule with a shiny apple on the top of it.  “Piece of cake to install”, said resident Apple Genius at the store.

No, it wasn’t.  But again, we persevered.  We talked it all out.  We reasoned.  And in the end, we removed all but one of those little blue boxes from our network and we now have a slick, fast, simple and secure wireless network chugging in our house.  We even networked in a printer so you can print to it from any of the other computers.  Sweet!

I am very proud of us!  And I fear the network NO MORE!!

I’m normally very, very busy at work.  I’m currently very, very, very, very busy at work.  With a project that has no definitive end - just this phase of it will be over as soon as I can finish up.  If I worked eight straight hours per day on it, I could probably finish up this phase in the next week and a half or so and then be able to launch into the next, much bigger phase.  But there is no such thing as concentrating on one thing at work.  There are CONSTANT interruptions.

I have found that when I am very, very, very, very busy at work and desperately trying to finish something up, I have absolutely no patience with the interruptions.  None.  There is no wiggle room.  Every single interruption is viewed as the ultimate violation of my work space, seemingly fit for banishment to the fiery pits of hell (if my reactions are any indication).  That’s a little bit ridiculous, huh?

But there you have it.  By the time this project is complete, I will have alienated every single person I know. 

Of course, by then, I’ll have time to concentrate on my projects because no one will want to talk to me!  I guess there’s an upside to everything!