Unfair policies

I took the husband to his appointment with the orthopaedic surgeon yesterday. We also took the many papers that his health insurance company had sent to us, explaining FMLA, and short term disability, and some forms that needed to be filled out. Some by us. Some by the doctor. I know the insurance company wanted the doctor (or his staff) to fill these forms out because they were prefaced with a letter stating: Dear Medical Provider, please complete these forms and fax back to our office at ###.
This procedure is nothing new to us. Last couple of times the husband has been off with either his foot surgery or last knee surgery, we went through it all before. I would fill in as many of the blanks as I could, patient name, address, employer, etc., and leave the medical questions for the medical personnel. I'm doing half of their work for them! There is one person at the dox office whose sole job is to fill out medical forms for insurance companies. I know this for a fact because they've told us in the past that's all this one person does.
So imagine my surprise when I went to hand the double-sided form to the girl behind the counter yesterday, only to be greeted with a sign that reads: "Effective 07/01/06 there is now a $10 fee for EACH form that you give us to fill-out. This fee must be paid in advance."
I nearly shit a brick! You've got to be kidding me!!!! I felt the tears rising, threatening to spill over at any moment. This is SO UNFAIR!!!
The insurance company is the one that requires the doctor to fill out the forms... why doesn't the insurance company pay the fee??? Why am I being penalized? Especially when I've already filled out 1/2 of the form to begin with???
I was livid! I tried not to be too nasty, but I'm sure I didn't succeed when I snarled the question at her, "so does this form count as 1 or 2 forms, since it's front and back?" Luck was on my side that since it was only 1 piece of paper, it counted as 1 form.
Honestly!! Shouldn't completing these forms be a part of their service?? And why not just tack these ridiculous charges on to the bill they send to the insurance company??
I'm not happy about this!!

One down...

It FINALLY happened. After much begging, pleading, nagging, etc. etc., the husband turned in his gear, fire pager and uniforms to H.C.F.D. and resigned.
Can I get a loud WOOOOO-HOOOOOOO!!!!!!?
He now only has W.F.D. to make runs with... but not until his knee has healed, which doesn't look like it's going to happen anytime soon.

To Tell The Truth...

To Tell the Truth....
My friend Tina tagged me for the 8 truths and a lie game. It's very easy I will make 9 true/false statements about myself, but only one will be a lie. It is your job to guess the lie and post it in a comment. I will post the correct answer (admit to the lie) on July 11th.

#1) I once waited on football hall-of-famer and Ace Hardware spokesman, John Madden.


#2) I once went on a date with a black man.

#3) I fell out of a moving Jeep and was dragged down the street.


#4) I once tried marijuana.


#5) I've been known to eat ketchup by the spoonful.

#6) I've been involved in a high-speed car chase.

#7) I have a knack for remembering useless facts.

#8) On more than one occasion, I've been confronted with someone holding a gun and threatening to blow their brains out.

#9) I used to eat peanut butter by smearing it on my knee and then licking it off.

Okay, see if you can determine what's fact and which one statement is fiction.
Feel free to come up with your own "To Tell The Truth" and post it on your blog-site.

Pro-Wrestling

Beware, this is a long blog...

Once upon a time, many, many years ago (over 15 years ago) I was a fan of wrestling, ie: the WWF, WCW, etc., etc. I'm almost ashamed to admit that now, as the sport, and I use that term loosely, has become such a joke.
Back when I was a kid, if my father was home on Saturday afternoons, he'd turn to Wave3 to watch an hour of wrestling. I grew up watching the likes of Jerry the King Lawler, Bill Dundee, Stagger Lee/Sweet Brown Sugar, Stan Lane and Steve Kern, and so on. And eventually it got to the point that even if dad wasn't home to watch, I got into the habit of tuning in.
As I got older, there were suddenly 2-hour shows in the evenings in larger venues featuring the WWF & WCW (for those of you that don't know what those stand for, that's the World Wrestling Federation and the World Championship Wrestling), which fed my addiction to the sport. The WCW is now defunct, I believe having merged with the WWF, and the WWF is now known as the WWE, because of some confusion between them and the World Wildlife Foundation or something like that. That all happened I think in the late 90's or even after the turn of the century, long after I'd stopped watching.
I wasn't alone in my fascination with professional wrestling. There were kids I went to school with that were totally ate-up with it!! Spent small fortunes on the collectible trading cards, and attending the matches at the Gardens every Tuesday night. I dare say, that's even something that John & I had in common when we were dating and first married. By the time I was out on my own and had cable t.v., I could feed my addiction to wrestling several hours a week!!
I know, several of you are no doubt rolling your eyes big-time, unable to believe that I'd be so drawn into that "sport". In my own defense: back then, it wasn't quite as hokey and dramatic as it is now. Yes, I know much of it was staged, even back then, but the wrestling of 20 or 30 years ago is nothing like what it is now. While I haven't watched wrestling in many, many years, I'd still be willing to bet that during a two hour t.v. program, less than 20 minutes of it is actually spent wrestling in the ring. All the wrestlers and their managers are too busy running their mouths, dragging out the "story-line", much like a badly written soap opera.
I bring all this up because of the tragedy I'm sure most of you have heard about in the news this week regarding pro-wrestler Chris Benoit and his family. He apparently murdered his wife and young son, then took his own life. While the finally autoposy reports haven't been released, there is much speculation that perhaps steroids (roid-rage) played a part in it.
Who knows?? I've long suspected that if anybody in the world of wrestling is using, it's Vince McMahan, Mr. Chairman himself. I remember some 20 years ago when he was nothing more than a "reporter" for the wrestling world, he along side Mean-Gene Okerland (sp?). Vince was nothing more than a puny little wimp of a guy. Next thing I know, I catch a glimpse of him years later, owner of the wrestling world, pumped up to huge proportions. I'm sorry, but working-out in a gym in and of itself doesn't make someone that big! Don't tell me he didn't have "help".
On to my next point...
I watch the USA channel every evening, watching reruns of Law & Order SVU. Unfortunately, on monday evenings, after the 8pm showing, it is followed by two hours of WWE. **blech** And of course all week long, I'm inundated by commercials for the WWE and "what's going to happen next week...?" b.s. It's only through these numerous commercials that I have the misfortune of knowing what's going on and unfortunately know more than I want to know about this cheap soap opera. Apparently, a few weeks ago, Mr. McMahans' limo blew-up, supposedly with Vince inside. They have been dragging this story-line out with "what will become of the WWE, now that Mr. McMahan's dead?", and "the federal investigation continues, blah, blah, blah" crap. I never believed for even a moment that the man was really dead, but would in fact miraculously re-appear when everyone least suspected.
Okay, so Monday morning, after hearing on the news about what had happened to Benoit and his family, they showed Vince giving his regrets to the family and mourning the wrestling worlds loss, yadda, yadda, yadda.
Hmm, amazing how he (Vince) returned from the dead so suddenly.
I wonder what this is going to do to the dead-Vince story-line???
I just hope they don't somehow turn the Benoit family's tragedy into part of their cheesy story-line, just to sell tickets.

GOT to HAVE it!!!!!!

About three or four years ago, while looking through some store ads in the Sunday paper, my husband spied an object and declared that we needed it. I didn't even bother looking at the object in the Meijer ad, because if I looked at every item my husband saw and thought was either a good bargain or a necessity we just HAD TO HAVE!, then I'd spend all my time looking at ads with him and ultimately, shopping for said useless items.
A day or so later, we were at Meijers, and he wondered off, much like a small child in search of the toy department, only he headed for the "big boys toy department". reads: automotive dept.
A short time later, he came back with the new toy that we JUST HAD TO HAVE!, a car battery charger.
I rolled my eyes and he quickly launched into all the great things it could do.... 1) it could jump-start our cars if the batteries should fail us, and we'd no longer have to wait on AAA or the kindheartedness of a neighbor to bale us out, 2) it had a really, really bright spot light on it that we could use on camping trips. Um, yeah, because we've so often needed a bazillion watt light to shine into the eyes of unsuspecting woodland creatures. More rolling of the eyes. 3) it could act as a power source to plug in a radio or whatever, in case the power went out. Sure, okay, but isn't that why we have a battery powered radio in the first place?
I was tired of arguing, the gadget was on sale, so I caved and let him get his new toy. He got it home, read all the features over and over again on the outside of the package, and then the charger proceeded to just sit there for several days, untouched.
Finally, after I pointed out that the charger was doing no good sitting there collecting dust, and that it needed to be plugged in, in order to build up it's charge, he finally took it out of the package and plugged it in. Once charged, he unplugged it and stuck it out in the garage.
Months later, he was met with the opportunity to use his new toy when his 4-runner failed to start. He ran for his charger and applied the jump-starter gadgets, and nothing happened.
Oh, did I forget to mention that you need to keep the charger charged at all times? It loses it's charge when it just sits, unused for months at a time.
Of course we had to call AAA to come start the car, and John plugged the charger in to re-charge it. Then when it was done, again returned it to the garage. When again the opportunity arose to use it, the whole scenario was again repeated. And again, and again. Not once has it ever been charged and ready to jump-start a vehicle.
There have been several times that charger would've come in handy, if only it had been charged and ready to go....
Yeah, we just HAD TO HAVE IT!!!

One man's trash...

Our family is having an auction this Sunday, in an effort to clean out the multiple sheds and garage my grandfather had cram-packed with his "treasures". We see most of it as junk, but somebody out there may just view the stuff as a treasure. Most of us have been going through our own closets, attics and garages, cleaning out some stuff to add to the auction.
I had great hopes of my husband making a big contribution to the event when he cleaned out our garage of his "treasures", but I'm afraid reality is quickly setting in on me and it won't happen.
So far, the only thing he's made any effort to contribute is the box full of old caster wheels that he pulled out of a dumpster the other day while at work. Yes, there, I admit it, my husband frequently goes dumpster-diving. I say this with my head hung low in shame.
I can't seem to make him understand that these things are in the dumpsters for a reason, and that we really don't have any need for these things he brings home. I can't help but wonder if somewhere along the line, in fact he isn't the one that's biologically related to my grandfather instead of me.
I also had great hopes of going through my husbands piles of treasures in our garage while he was at work, and sneaking some of these treasures out of the house to contribute to the auction, without his knowing it. However, now that the husband is off work for a week or so with his injured knee, and him following me around the house at every step because he's bored out of his mind, I'm now unable to accomplish what I'd wanted to. Ho-hum. I'm afraid our contribution to the auction will be minimal. : (

Wide Shoulders

We women seem to have a love-hate relationship with our shoulder pads... or at the very least, I do.
So many of the sweaters, dresses and blouses we purchase these days, come with shoulder pads already sewn into place. They make our sloped shoulders look so nice and broad, not so stooped. Helps the article of clothing to hang on our bodies a little nicer.
But for those of you that have ever washed an article of clothing that has these pads in them, you know exactly what happens after a couple of washings... the foam part of the pad either slips out of the material it's encased in, or the foam part becomes so bunched up inside of the material, that you can never get it to lie down like it's supposed to, or else one of the 3 or 4 spots it's attached at breaks, and then the pad becomes very twisted and knotted up.
You get so frustrated with the lumps and such sticking up from your shoulder that you give up trying to make the pads lie down properly, that you grab the scissors and end up cutting the pads out of the clothing. Now when you put the dress (or whatever) on, it just hangs there like a sack, you may as well be wearing a burlap bag .
So my big question is, why do the clothing manufacturers torture us so with these little foam pads??? Couldn't they attach them with little hooks or snaps or something, so we could remove them before washing?
Does anybody else out there have an answer to my dilemma?

Dog owners beware!

I fear this will be a long blog, but I'll try to keep it as short as possible.
There are some horrible things happening in some of the nearby counties where I live. I haven't yet heard of them happening in Jefferson Co. (KY) (but that doesn't mean it hasn't happened)... but it's hitting Oldham, Henry & Trimble Cos., and even over in Jefferson Co., Ind.
Many dog owners are having their pets stolen, tortured, or even out-right murdered. Most of the dogs I've heard about are of the larger breeds, ie: danes, huskies, mastiffs, but there have also been some other breeds stolen as well.
One lady had her mastiff stolen from her kennel, only to have it "returned" a few weeks later. How was it returned? Dead, dumped in a small pond in her back yard. The same day it was returned, two of her other dogs were poisoned in their kennels.
Another lady that has huskies, came home to find one had had it's throat slit, and the other dog strung up and hung.
Another family had it's home broken into, but the only thing stolen was their spaniel out if it's dogcrate in the basement. Fortunately, their dog was found several miles away, wondering along a country road.
And yet another dog owner had someone attempt to break into her kennel. Something must've scared off or interrupted the dog-napping, and all of her dogs are accounted for. But that doesn't mean they're unscathed. As a result of the attempted break-in, one of the dog's kennel gate was left unlatched, unbeknowst to the owner, one of her male dogs got out and got into a horrible fight with the ther male, nearly killing each other.
Fortunately, both dogs lived, leaving only battle-scars on each other and a hefty vet-bill for the owner.
I can't imagine what could drive a person (or persons) to steal anothers beloved pet, or worse, do injury or cause death. Granted, many of these are valuable show dogs, but obviously, the criminals in this story weren't stealing the dogs for their value in the show ring. I can't imagine the emotional torture these owners have had to endure. It would be bad enough to lose a pet to a natural death, or just to have them run off and not be found, but to know that someone purposely stole them and may be mistreating them would be unbearable to me. And for those poor owners that have had to come home to find their beloved pets dead, by someone else's murdering hand, well, I just can't comprehend that.
I hope whoever the guilty person/persons are, are apprehended and soon. The police don't seem to be taking much of an interest in the situation, but from what I understand, Wave3 news has been working on an investigative story, and will be airing it soon. I hope this puts some pressure on the police to do something. And when the criminals are caught, I HOPE the judge throws the book at them and imposes harsh penalties... even though I know in reality, little will be done as the judicial system doesn't do much to those that harm animals.

Nancy Drew

I've been meaning to blog about this for several days, but kept forgetting. When I went out at lunch and drove past the movie theater, I was reminded of the blog that's been weighing on my mind.
There is a movie out now titled "Nancy Drew". When I saw the previews a couple of weeks ago, I was somewhat irked at the film makers. From what I saw on the previews, it looks to make a mockery (spoof?) of the Nancy Drew mystery books that I grew up on... that so many of us grew up on.
I LOVED her books. I read every single one of them, many of them two or three times over. I dare say it was from reading all of her books, many of the Hardy Boys, and all of Trixie Beldon books that I became such a crime & mystery addict today. I love those "puzzles" of trying to figure out who-done-it?
Countless times did I drive my parents and/or grandmother crazy as a kid, begging to be taken to the library so I could check-out my limit of Nancy Drew books, only to read through them lightening quick and beg to go back only a couple of days later so I could get more. I LOVED to read, then, and now, and I take complete offense at Hollywood's efforts to poke fun at my childhood "hero". That's definitely one movie I won't be going to see or renting from the video store.

Sticks and stones...

Sticks and stones may break my bones....
but it's the dog slamming into me that really hurts!
Ah yes, my sweet little Olivia has struck again. Last year, she took a flying leap, I caught her, and have suffered through many back pains and a herniated disc as a result.
Now, this past weekend, she slammed into John's legs, nearly knocking him over, and as a result, he now has a torn meniscus in his left knee.
I know a few of you are probably thinking: I'd be getting rid of that troublesome mutt.
I say: Bah!
If your human-child caused you aches and pains, whether physical or emotional, would you get rid of them? Probably not. Nor could I do such a thing with one of my 4-legged children.
Oh sure, if I thought what they were doing was deliberate, such as biting or attacking, I'd do the right thing, for all of ours safety, and dispose of a dangerous dog.
But Olivia isn't a deliberately dangerous dog. She didn't know I was going to catch her, so I guess that incident was my fault. And she certainly didn't mean to plow into John, that was sort of a case of wrong place/wrong time. The little darling's vision isn't the greatest in the world, especially her peripheral and her lack of depth perception. She just happened to suddenly spin around and didn't realize her daddy was standing there, thus nearly knocking him down.
I finally convinced the husband to go to the Immediate Care Ctr last night and he was diagnosed as having a torn meniscus (cartilage in the knee). So the doctor ordered him off work for a week and to stay of his feet as much as possible. Good luck to me, trying to keep him sitting still for a week... I'd probably have more success trying to measure a live snake.
Hopefully a weeks rest will heal the problem. If not, I fear arthroscopic surgery. **gulp**

Hitchcock's back!!

I hadn't seen any advertising yet this "summer" for the Louisville Palace's movie series, so I went on-line this morning to investigate. Ooh, what a treat I was welcomed with!
The Palace is once again running a series of Alfred Hitchcock movies, and it starts next week (29th). I love it!!!
Glad I checked when I did, else I might've missed some of the movies.
There are a few I've never heard of, a few of them are the same ones they showed a couple of years ago, and a few of them I've seen, either on t.v., or I might even have on disc... but there's just something about watching those movies on a larger screen!! I can't wait 'til next week!!
If you're interested, visit the Palace's website: www.louisvillepalace.com

Change please

We needed some change for our petty cash fund at work, as it was mostly 20's and 50's. I took 2-$50's and 3-$20's ($160.00) to my bank to get it broken down into smaller bills. I had a post-it note stuck to the money requesting a mix of $1's, $5's and $10's. I sent the money through the tube at the drive-thru, and also verbally requested the same thing over the intercom.
When the teller sent the money back to me, she had broken the 2-$50's down into the smaller bills I'd requested, but left the $20's untouched.
Um, excuse me, did I request leaving the $20's whole? Why would I have sent them to her if I wanted them back as is????
Ditzy teller!

Hazardous sleep habits?

I woke up with an awful crick in my neck this morning. The range of motion in my neck is slowly improving as the day wears on, but this morning, YIKES! but it hurt!!
What on earth am I (or any of us for that matter) doing in my sleep to cause such aches and pains?
Is it the pillow(s)? If so, wouldn't I wake up with a sore neck every morning?
Am I doing some kind of aerobic work-out or gymnastics in my sleep? I doubt it, or else I'd probably ache everywhere else too.
Have I been doing head-stands in my sleep? Doubt that too, as I'd probably end up with some broken bones from my efforts.
So what gives?
What goes on while I sleep to cause my neck to ache?

I got a work-out and Mickey's dead.

After dealing with the horrid stench of some rotting corpse in the wall next to my office, I finally decided to call animal control, just to see if they could point me in the right direction. I called the number, it was busy. While waiting a few minutes so I could try again, I was flipping through the yellow pages, and on a whim, looked under the heading "dead animals". I didn't really expect to find anything, but wouldn't you know it!, there was and it stated "See: animal carcass", so I flipped to that heading and found a number for Critter Control of Louisville. I called, and begged them to come remove whatever was making my office stink.
As we had a visitation going on yesterday, I didn't think it would look very good to have men running around the funeral home removing corpses (non-human of course), so I made an appointment for them to be here at 8:30 this morning.
He arrived, and I led him up the flight of stairs to my office, and directly to the scene of the smell. As we both stood there with our noses wrinkled, he speculated that there was probably a dead squirrel in the wall. He now needed access to the attic, so we went back down a flight of stairs, over to the opposite end of the building, then up two flights of stairs to the attic. We had to squeeze past boxes and other discarded junk that my pack-rat boss had stacked around, and I cussed him not-so-much under my breath for being as bad as my husband about not throwing things away because "they might be useful someday".
I dreaded opening the door the the attic, as I figured the attic would reek even worse then my office. I took a deep breath and we entered together, and I pointed him to the far end of the attic. I finally built up enough nerve to follow him, and finally had to exhale my held breath and inhale again. I was prepared to start gagging, but was surprised that the air only smelled of a musty, dusty attic.
The critter guy poked around, but couldn't find anything, nor could either of us smell anything. Now he wanted to look outside on the roof. So back down two flights of stairs and outside. He climbed his ladder, looked all around, but could find nothing. Now it was back inside, up a flight of stairs to my office again, so he could sniff around some more. Then it was back down a flight and then up two more to once again go to the attic. It was so dark in that corner of the room, his flashlight just cast shadows everywhere, I told him I'd go get a lightbulb and see if that would help. Now I went down three flights to the basement, poked around 'til I found the bulbs, then back up three flights to the attic. By now, I was getting light-headed from my "stairmaster" work-out.
When I returned to the attic, the critter guy was nowhere to be seen, but I heard a muffled voice talking to me from behind a false wall. He had opened a small scuttle door and crawled in behind the wall, and was doing a thorough job of looking for the offending critter. Nothing! He couldn't find a thing, and what's more, he couldn't smell anything. This could only mean that the critter was down in the wall next to my office, and he'd have to knock a hole in the wall to get it out. Back down two flights of stairs, then back up one to my office.... did I mention how dizzy I was getting from my work-out??
Once we were back at the source, we started moving boxes and stuff out of the way so he could get to the wall. There is a storage shelf that's bolted to the wall (because it's a flimsy piece of junk that would fall over otherwise), so he went out to his truck to get a cordless drill so he could unbolt the shelf. We moved all the supplies that were on the shelf, giving ourselves even more of a work-out. He finally picked the shelf up to move it out of the way, and there on the floor underneath the shelf was the offending carcass. A dead mouse stuck to a glue trap. UGH!!!
We've never seen any evidence of mice in our office or supply room before, so this came as somewhat of a surprise to me. Had I known there was a glue trap under there, I'd have looked there from the get-go, but I didn't know about it. How long the trap had been there or who put it (I'll assume our exterminator) and when, I've no idea. But trust me, the exterminator is going to get an earful next time he stops by.
The poor little mouse had chewed through a phone cord that ran next to the glue trap, fortunately it was a line that was dead and not used. Perhaps if it had been a good line, we'd have discovered his little corpse sooner when we went looking for the cut phone line.
I'm guessing it wasn't a very smart mouse... there is all kinds of food, crackers and the like in that room, right next to the fridge. But we've never seen any evidence of a mouse... no chewed wrappers, no droppings, nothing! But I guess where there's one mouse, there's likely to be more, so now I'll have to either stop keeping the food back there, or find a secure container to keep it in.
So I now feel like I've climbed Mt. Everest from all the stairs I've climbed, and I'm worn out. Right now I'm recouping before I set about to the task of putting everything back on that shelf, and the critter guy, who definitely earned his pay this morning, is off to go remove another carcass somewhere.

Raising a stink

There has been a foul stench radiating from the file/storage room that adjoins my office, for a little over a week now.
At first, it kind of smelled like rotting food, and I thought perhaps that some food item I'd thrown away had not been carted off by the cleaning service. I checked, that wasn't the case.
After a couple of days of this horrible smell, I finally worked up the nerve to sniff out where the smell was coming from. I narrowed it down to a corner of the room (far away from any food items), but right next to a window that on rare occasions gets opened when the weather is nice.
I really didn't recall the window having been opened recently, but perhaps my memory was failing me... and I though perhaps a mouse or bird or something had come in the window and maybe gotten behind a large shelving unit and died. I didn't poke around any further, instead I had all intentions of making the boss man take care of the situation.
Somehow, I forgot to mention it to him (how he could miss smelling it himself is totally beyond me!), and now he's on vacation, out of town.
When I arrived here on Monday, the smell had gotten much worse, and now smelled not unlike a dirty hamster cage, or some kind of animal pen at the zoo, on top of the rotten carcass odor. I poked around a bit more, and still narrowed it down to that same corner of the room being the "scene of the crime", but still could find no sign of an animal, living or dead. I had to point out the smell to my co-workers... I don't know how they've missed smelling it all this time either, perhaps I just have a really sensitive snout... and now we're all repulsed by the offending odor.
We're assuming something must've crawled into the wall, via the attic, and died there. Question is: what to do about it???
The smell just keeps getting stronger. The heat is only going to get worse this week. And the smell is venturing further and further away from our office, down the stairwell, and it's only a matter of time before some unsuspecting family will notice it. Do we really want the smell of decaying bodies (human or otherwise) filling the funeral home? I don't think so!! That can't be good for business!!
So how does one go about removing a dead animal from a wall???

Cat Scratch Fever

My poor little Livvie has a case of cat-scratch fever. : (
My husband took her on a little stroll up our street this morning, and let her wonder up into a neighbor's yard. Said neighbor has cats that she does NOT keep confined to her property, despite multiple warnings from neighborhood association and despite the fact that she's breaking the law by letting them run loose.
Anyway, for a change, the cats were actually on their own property, and my husband let the dog drag him up the woman's driveway. Livvie then confronted one of the cats.
Olivia is harmless where cats are concerned. She's the only one of my dogs that actually gets along with the cats and tries to play with them and love on them. Our cats know and understand she's not a threat, so they rub up against her. As far as Olivia is concerned, cats are friendly, harmless creatures. She isn't aware that some cats have claws.
So she confronts the neighbor's cat, can't hear the cat hissing a warning at her, and proceeds to stick her nose in the cat's face. Neighbor's cat doesn't like the giant dog in his face, so he lashes out, claws bared, and claws her little muzzle to pieces! Poor Livvie!!! She has claw marks down her muzzle and nose.
Now I'm pissed at the husband for letting her get near that cat. Even if she doesn't know any better, he SHOULD! Darned MEN!!

All the news that's new & improved

Since I last left you on Friday, I've been to my doctor, had an ultrasound on my upper GI, and am now awaiting the results of that test. I feel about 90% better, whether from the meds, the diet, something else, or a combination thereof, but whatever! I've become a Jello-O connisseure these past few days. More on that topic later in this blog.
My husband's niece became a mother on Friday afternoon. Emma Layne Dunbar came into the world, the first great-grandchild in the family, making my husband a great-uncle. Congrats to Meghan & Luke!!
Finally, after weeks of delays, I was able to get in the pool this weekend and enjoy it. It was actually a bit on the coolish side, so I didn't really frolic in the water so much as layed on the raft and soaked up the rays. Yes, I know it's bad for me, but give me a break!... I can't eat any meat or vegetables or potato chips, or anything greasy or spicy or acidic or citrusy or with a tomato base right now, so let me indulge in something sinful!!!!
John's employer took several of us to the Louisville Bats game Saturday night. The tickets gained us access to one of the air-conditioned suites with all-you-can-eat food and drinks (sodas & water). The seats were fabulous, as long as you didn't mind staring directly into the setting sun all evening. There were seats outside as well, and once the sun kind of dipped down a bit, the temperature and humidity dropped and with the breeze, it was actually very nice out. The endless supply of food included: very large hamburgers (blech!), hotdogs (eh!), grilled chicken breasts, chicken tenders, all the fixen's for the burgers, dogs and chicken sandwiches, chips/salsa, potato chips/dip, peanuts, potato salad, cookies & brownies, oh, and chili, in case you wanted to make it a chili-dog. Normally, I'd have been having a field day with all the free food, but as it was, I could only sit and watch everyone else eat, while sucking on a bottle of Dasani water (blech!) and eating some dried Cheerios I'd brought with me. **POUT!!** I tried to look as pitiful as possible and get the boss to order a fruit tray or something I could enjoy, but no dice.
After what has seemed an eternity, I finally returned to my evening walks with the girls. I managed two miles without collapsing... considering I haven't walked in over a week, I thought that was pretty good.
I don't know if I mentioned this before or not... when I last went to p.t. on June 1st, the doctor said he was changing me to once-a-week visits for a while. If that seemed to work, then he was going to "cut me loose" at the end of the month to a once a month visit. I wasn't scheduled to go back until this past Friday, but considering what all my abdomen had been through that week, I stopped in and told them I was going to take a pass on getting stretched out. Besides, my back has actually felt pretty darned good of late. So I rescheduled for this coming Friday. How nice not to have to get decompressed or adjusted three times a week!
Okay, now on to the Jell-O news. I've been eating sugar-free Jell-O like it's going out of style these past few days. Fix it with 1/2 water and 1/2 diet sprite or 7-up and add some bananas... MMMmmmm good!!! I went to the store last night to purchase some more boxes of Jell-O, and while scoping out the many flavors they had, I noticed there was a melon-fusion flavor, but it wasn't available in the sugar-free. I thought, what the heck?, and picked it up anyway. Oh my gosh!! You wouldn't believe the difference in weight of the regular Jello-O boxes vs. the sugar-free boxes. I think one box of regular must equal about 4 or 5 of the s/f boxes combined!! It's amazing how much sugar weighs. I guess it's no wonder we're all so much over-weight if sugar weighs that much before it's even consumed!

new diet

I'll try to keep this as short and sweet as possible.
I've been sick this week, ever since I woke up Monday morning. Nausea the likes of which I've never experienced. Much like Jerry Seinfeld (the show, not the real person), I can remember the last time I vomited, simply because I rarely do so, and when I do, it makes a big enough of an impression that I don't forget it. My last barf was November 4, 1999. This week, I was practically begging to throw-up, as I was sure it would make me feel better. But my stomach held it's contents, and I've suffered.
I went to the doctor Wednesday, while a definite diagnosis wasn't given, it was hinted that I might have pancreitis or possibly a gallbladder attack that mimics pancreitis. I looked up both on-line, and what I've experienced has most closely resembled pancreitis, sans the vomiting. I even had the fever to go along with it.
I should've weighed myself at the start of all this, because I've no doubt before it's over, I'll have lost a few pounds. How could I not? I've hardly eaten a thing since dinner on Sunday evening. Aside from popsicles and a little bit of melon, food has absolutely repulsed me at every turn. The doctor put me on a liquid diet (wasn't hard to do), and although I did finally get permission to eat something light (no meat and no vegetables, nothing spicy or greasy... what's left???), I've still not eaten much.
For the first time in my life, food holds no interest for me.
I know I need to lose weight, but I seriously doubt this is the way to go about it.

Ignorance is indeed bliss

Last night, I, along with 3 of my girlfriends and one 3 year-old boy, piled into an SUV and took a "fieldtrip" to see the progress being made on one of the girl's new home construction.
The young lad, "K", is so agreeable, he'll answer "yes" to anything you ask him, even if he doesn't understand what's being asked of him.
He was cracking us up at all of his "yes" answers, so we tested him.
K, do you like your new home? Yes
K, do you hate your new home? Yes
K, do you love your mommy? Yes
K, do you hate your mommy? Yes
Obviously he had no clue what "hate" meant, and I couldn't help thinking: how nice it would be not to know the meaning of hate.
Ignorance is indeed bliss.

If it sounds too good to be true...

Like the old saying goes: If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.
**sigh**
I normally delete everything in my junk folder without ever looking at them. But I was bored, so I skimmed the senders and subjects before clicking delete. Among the many pieces of junk was one with the subject line of: Secret Hotel Critics wanted.
Hmm, sounded intriguing. I've heard of people that actually do do those kinds of jobs, kind of like a mystery shopper.
Out of curiousity, I clicked on it.
The site that came up informed me I'd get $500 for each hotel I critiqued. Hmm, sounded too good to be true. I didn't trust the site, so I deleted it. But it did set the wheels in my mind to spinning, so I did a google search of : secret hotel critics.
The first link I clicked on had been deleted.
The second link took me to the exact same site I'd just deleted from my email. Well, now I read it a little more. It sounded way too good to be true. It told me to "click here" for a list of hotels in my area. I hesitated. Then I backed out of the site and clicked on a different google-hit. The site that came up warned of a scam, and sure enough, the site I'd just visited was on the list.
**sigh**
Guess I'll keep my real job just a little longer. But it sure would've been nice to get paid some bucks to stay in a hotel. Because believe me, if anyone has opinions and likes to critique such places, it's me!
Time to return to the real world now.
TGIF to ya!