So far, I haven't had too much trouble with the bean. Granted, I'm only about 3-4 weeks along. My estimated due date is just in time for Fred's birthday in late Jan/early Feb.
Still, there are a few things that I've already noticed. My pants are fitting weird. Not so much as to LOOK weird, just that they feel weird. The thighs are actually getting a little loose, while the waist and hips are tightening just a little bit - not much, like I said - just enough to notice... It's like the water weight gain prior to a period. Not really anything major, just vaguely wrong.
Chocolate seems to not like me much. In fact, I'm not really into much in the way of sweet solids lately. If I want sweet, I want it in liquid form... Much more interested in the salty/spicy snacks.
Speaking of food, I'm not really interested in it. I'm trying to eat breakfast and lunch, but I think I've only consumed about 1300 calories today so far... Granted, no dinner, but it was breakfast, lunch, and snacks... I normally have about 2000 calories, sometimes a bit more.
I am eating, I'm just not that interested. So, I eat until I feel full - normally about a 1/2 cup to a cup of whatever, then put the rest away for later. Sometimes I'll eat more later, sometimes I won't. I'm finding that I'm feeling better if I do the little itty bitty meals - otherwise I feel sick to my stomach.
The downside of all of this is, in order to comply with the doctor's request, I've had to cut out my caffeine consumption. I haven't had any in over 36 hours, which most likely explains the headache I haven't been able to shake for the last 8 hours. I took two excedrin (I know, it has caffeine in it, but hardly enough to worry about), and my head seems to be better.
The only big thing I'm really worried about at this point is the weather vs. my clothing... I don't have much to wear that's summer-y, that will work for "maternity" stuff... The only place that sells maternity wear in my sizes are Lane Bryant (lack of choices there), and JC Penny (nice stuff, need to get money to purchase it).
So - if any of my dear readers are in the local area, and have either light-weight fabric or maternity stuff in a 2x to 3x size, please let me know. I will arrange a time to pick it up and take it off your hands. :-)
~M
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Monday, May 28, 2007
A thousand words...
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words... That is quite possibly true. I've been feeling rather berift of words, lately. Perhaps it's because of what I found out this weekend.
You see, I began to feel just... well... not quite right. It wasn't anything in specific, but I knew that something was going on.
I figured, on a lark, to take a home pregnancy test, to see what I could see... Knowing full well in my heart that it was most likely in my head, and as soon as I did it, I would see that I wasn't, and everything would be back to normal.
I got up early in the morning Saturday, after Fred had left to the event, and took one...
I wasn't sure what I was seeing, so I had to look at it from a different angle. My brain, such as it was after only a few hours of sleep (and bad sleep, at that) wasn't allowing me to compute what I saw.
Indeed, I did finally have a brain s'plody and it all made sense at that point... I sent picture messages to everyone that I knew of what I had seen, just to make sure that I wasn't reading anything incorrectly.
Of course, reading the information on my work website about pregnancy told me I should take another test a few days later, just to make sure nothing is malfunctioning. So, this morning I took another one.
That one looked about the same as the first, and I again had to look at it from another angle, just to make sure I was actually seeing what I thought I saw.
So, yes. The answer is, we are having a bean in about 8.5 months. I am calling the doc in the morning (as today is a holiday), and finding out all that I need to.
In the meanwhile, I'm taking pre-natals, children's chewable vitamins, and drinking lots of O.J. I don't seem to be sick, per se, but I will say that chocolate, as of last night, does NOT taste good... I hope it comes back. I love my chocolate.
~M
You see, I began to feel just... well... not quite right. It wasn't anything in specific, but I knew that something was going on.
I figured, on a lark, to take a home pregnancy test, to see what I could see... Knowing full well in my heart that it was most likely in my head, and as soon as I did it, I would see that I wasn't, and everything would be back to normal.
I got up early in the morning Saturday, after Fred had left to the event, and took one...
I wasn't sure what I was seeing, so I had to look at it from a different angle. My brain, such as it was after only a few hours of sleep (and bad sleep, at that) wasn't allowing me to compute what I saw.
Indeed, I did finally have a brain s'plody and it all made sense at that point... I sent picture messages to everyone that I knew of what I had seen, just to make sure that I wasn't reading anything incorrectly.
Of course, reading the information on my work website about pregnancy told me I should take another test a few days later, just to make sure nothing is malfunctioning. So, this morning I took another one.
That one looked about the same as the first, and I again had to look at it from another angle, just to make sure I was actually seeing what I thought I saw.
So, yes. The answer is, we are having a bean in about 8.5 months. I am calling the doc in the morning (as today is a holiday), and finding out all that I need to.
In the meanwhile, I'm taking pre-natals, children's chewable vitamins, and drinking lots of O.J. I don't seem to be sick, per se, but I will say that chocolate, as of last night, does NOT taste good... I hope it comes back. I love my chocolate.
~M
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Interesting new development...
So, I have an interesting new development... I'm not going to say much here, at least not right now. However, I can tell you that I'd better get to Walgreens soon to get what I need...
~M
~M
Friday, May 25, 2007
Buh Bye!
Fred is off this weekend to the first SCA event of our normal tourney season. The downside, I will not be able to tourney with him at all. This sucks total large green donkey dicks, and I'm not happy about it. However, I am dealing with it, if nothing else. Got really good and pounced last night, so that helps.
I get Speedboy for the weekend while Fred's away, as we had to spend cash on replacing a window that he broke - so we didn't have enough to take him with. This will be interesting, as I work late weekends.
Work is progressing along. I was taken aside yesterday and told by my trainer that some people have complained about me at the call center, saying that I wasn't receptive to their suggestions. I have NO idea what she's talking about, and the trainer was confused as well. The only people I can think of that HAVE given me advice or suggestions I've given a full thank you on - other than one person, who drives me batshit. She is also the one that ended up getting me pissed yesterday - first for having a really condescending tone in her voice when she told me something, and then for coming up and bumping me out of OT (union shop, people with more time in can do that). This is the same woman who, when asked for the last month to do ANY OT, she said no, because she didn't want to do it... Now she decides to do it, and it's ONLY on days that I signed up for, and ONLY for those times... Things that make you go hmmmmmm.
In any case, I like my trainer - so I told her that I would be more aware of my actions over the next week and see what was going on. We'll see whether things get better or not... If not, it won't be me, I can assure you.
One other thing about work - we have a resident pidgeon. I'm serious. He/she/it perched on the window outside my desk, and was there all day, from 7 am til I left... It will be interesting to see if it's still there tomorrow...
~M
I get Speedboy for the weekend while Fred's away, as we had to spend cash on replacing a window that he broke - so we didn't have enough to take him with. This will be interesting, as I work late weekends.
Work is progressing along. I was taken aside yesterday and told by my trainer that some people have complained about me at the call center, saying that I wasn't receptive to their suggestions. I have NO idea what she's talking about, and the trainer was confused as well. The only people I can think of that HAVE given me advice or suggestions I've given a full thank you on - other than one person, who drives me batshit. She is also the one that ended up getting me pissed yesterday - first for having a really condescending tone in her voice when she told me something, and then for coming up and bumping me out of OT (union shop, people with more time in can do that). This is the same woman who, when asked for the last month to do ANY OT, she said no, because she didn't want to do it... Now she decides to do it, and it's ONLY on days that I signed up for, and ONLY for those times... Things that make you go hmmmmmm.
In any case, I like my trainer - so I told her that I would be more aware of my actions over the next week and see what was going on. We'll see whether things get better or not... If not, it won't be me, I can assure you.
One other thing about work - we have a resident pidgeon. I'm serious. He/she/it perched on the window outside my desk, and was there all day, from 7 am til I left... It will be interesting to see if it's still there tomorrow...
~M
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
A Meme? Wow...
Lil did this, and I thought it would be fun to go through it myself... I *did* add one or two authors, because I didn't "enjoy" a lot of what my 11th grade English teacher would have called "The Classics" (she is, I am sure, having heart palpitations as I type - the horror!).
Using the list below the cut, bold all the titles that you’ve read. If you’ve read other titles by the same author, add them under that author.
Delete nothing! Play along, and leave a comment to let me know you did so I can check out your list.
My list:
The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
Angels and Demons
Emma (Jane Austen)
Pride and Prejudice
Sense and Sensibility
To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (J. R. R. Tolkien)
LOTR: The Two Towers
LOTR: The Return of the King
The Hobbit
The Silmarillion
The Book Of Lost Tales Vols. 1 & 2
Unfinished Tales
Anne of Green Gables (L. M. Montgomery)
Anne of Avonlea
Anne of the Island
Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
Dragonfly in Amber
Voyager
Drums of Autumn
The Fiery Cross
A Breath of Snow and Ashes
Lord John and the Private Matter
A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (J. K. Rowling)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
The World According To Garp
The Hotel New Hampshire
Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
The Stand (Stephen King)
Salem’s Lot
Night Shift
The Dead Zone
Firestarter
Cujo
Different Seasons
Christine
Skeleton Crew
The Green Mile
Hearts in Atlantis
Dreamcatcher
From a Buick 8
Misery
Desperation
Insomnia
Pet Sematary
The Tommyknockers
Gerald’s Game
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
The Langoliers
Needful Things
Thinner
The Dark Half
Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë)
The Catcher in the Rye (J. D. Salinger)
Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
Little Men
The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
The Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Life, the Universe and Everything
So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish
Mostly Harmless
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency
The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë)
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Silver Chair
The Horse and His Boy
The Magician’s Nephew
The Last Battle
Out of the Silent Planet
Perelandra
That Hideous Strength
The Screwtape Letters
East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
Of Mice And Men
The Grapes of Wrath
The Red Pony
Tortilla Flat
The Pearl
Cannery Row
Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
The Five People You Meet In Heaven
Dune (Frank Herbert)
Dune Messiah
Children of Dune
God Emperor of Dune
Heretics of Dune
Chapterhouse: Dune
The Dragon in the Sea
The Santaroga Barrier
The Dosadi Experiment
The Jesus Incident
The White Plague
The Lazarus Effect
The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
The Fountainhead
We the Living
Anthem
1984 (George Orwell)
Animal Farm
The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
Lady of Avalon
Priestess of Avalon
The Forest House
Falcons of Narabedla
The Door Through Space
The Colors Of Space
Survey Ship
Warrior Woman
The Planet Savers
The Sword of Aldones
The Bloody Sun
Star of Danger
Winds of Darkover
World Wreckers
Darkover Landfall
The Spell Sword
The Heritage of Hastur
The Shattered Chain
The Forbidden Tower
Stormqueen!
Two To Conquer
Sharra’s Exile
Hawkmistress!
Thendara House
City of Sorcery
The Heirs of Hammerfell
Rediscovery
Exile’s Song
The Shadow Matrix
Traitor’s Sun
The Fall of Neskaya
Glenraven
The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
Eye of the Needle
The Key to Rebecca
On Wings of Eagles
Lie Down with Lions
Night Over Water
The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
She’s Come Undone
The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
The Valley of Horses
The Mammoth Hunters
The Plains of Passage
The Shelters of Stone
The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
The Bible
The Koran
The Torah
The Book of Latter Day Saints
Anna Karenina (Leo Tolstoy)
War and Peace
The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
The Three Musketeers
Twenty Years After
The Vicomte of Bragelonne aka The Man In The Iron Mask
Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
A Tale of Two Cities (Charles Dickens)
Great Expectations
Oliver Twist
Nicholas Nickleby
A Christmas Carol
David Copperfield
Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
Speaker for the Dead
Xenocide
Children of the Mind
Ender’s Shadow
Shadow of the Hegemon
First Meetings
Empire
Red Prophet
Alvin Journeyman
A Planet Called Treason
Lost Boys
The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
Tim
The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
The Time Traveler’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
The Vampire Lestat
The Queen of the Damned
The Tale of the Body Thief
Memnoch the Devil
The Vampire Armand
The Witching Hour
Lasher
The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned
Servant of the Bones
Exit to Eden
Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
Love in the Time of Cholera (Gabriel Garcia Márquez)
One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ann Brashares)
The Second Summer of the Sisterhood
Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood
Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
Les Miserables (Victor Hugo)
The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
Bridget Jones’s Diary (Helen Fielding)
Shogun (James Clavell)
King Rat
Tai-Pan
Noble House
Whirlwind
Gai-Jin
The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
In The Skin Of A Lion
The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
A Little Princess
Sara Crewe
The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
Charlotte’s Web (E. B. White)
Stuart Little
The Elements of Style
Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
Good Omens (Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman)
Thud (Terry Pratchett)
A Hat Full of Sky
The Wee Free Men
Going Postal
Where's My Cow
The Last Continent
Monstrous Regiment
Jingo
Maskerade
Feet of Clay
Interesting Times
Hogfather
Night Watch
Men At Arms
Soul Music
Lords and Ladies
Small Gods
Reaper Man
Witches Abroad
Thief of Time
Eric
Moving Pictures
The Truth
Guards! Guards!
Pyramids
The Fifth Elephant
Mort
Sourcery
Wyrd Sisters
Carpe Jugulum
Equal Rites
The Color of Magic
The Light Fantastic
Johnny and the Bomb
The Art of Discworld
Wintersmith
Only You Can Save Mankind
Johnny and the Dead
The Bromeliad Trilogy
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
The Last Hero
Swan Song (Robert McCammon)
Watership Down (Richard Adams)
Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
Blindness (Jose Saramago)
Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
Lord of the Flies (William Golding)
The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
The Matarese Countdown
The Road to Omaha
The Bourne Ultimatum
The Bourne Supremacy
The Aquitaine Progression
The Parsifal Mosaic
The Matarese Circle
The Holcroft Covenant
The Chancellor Manuscript
The Gemini Contenders
The Road to Gandolfo
The Rhinemann Exchange
The Matlock Paper
The Osterman Weekend
The Scarlatti Inheritance
The Outsiders (S. E. Hinton)
That Was Then, This Is Now
Rumble Fish
Tex
White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
Ulysses (James Joyce)
The Past Through Tomorrow (Robert A. Heinlein)
Expanded Universe
Requiem
Grumbles from the Grave
For Us, the Living
Sixth Column
Beyond This Horizon
The Puppet Masters
The Rolling Stones
The Star Beast
Citizen of the Galaxy
Starship Troopers
Stranger in a Strange Land
Podkayne of Mars
Glory Road
Farnham’s Freehold
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Time Enough for Love
Friday
Job: A Comedy of Justice
The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
To Sail Beyond the Sunset
The Girl Who Heard Dragons (Anne McCaffrey)
The Ship who Sang
Partnership
The ship who Searched
The Ship who Won
Crystal Singer
Killashandra
Crystal Line
The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall
Dragonsdawn
The Renegades of Pern
The Masterharper of Pern
The Skies of Pern
Dragon's Kin
Dragonflight
The White Dragon
Dragonquest
Dragonson
Dragonsinger
Dragondrums
Dragonriders of Pern
On Dragonwings
~M
Using the list below the cut, bold all the titles that you’ve read. If you’ve read other titles by the same author, add them under that author.
Delete nothing! Play along, and leave a comment to let me know you did so I can check out your list.
My list:
The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
Angels and Demons
Emma (Jane Austen)
Pride and Prejudice
Sense and Sensibility
To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (J. R. R. Tolkien)
LOTR: The Two Towers
LOTR: The Return of the King
The Hobbit
The Silmarillion
The Book Of Lost Tales Vols. 1 & 2
Unfinished Tales
Anne of Green Gables (L. M. Montgomery)
Anne of Avonlea
Anne of the Island
Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
Dragonfly in Amber
Voyager
Drums of Autumn
The Fiery Cross
A Breath of Snow and Ashes
Lord John and the Private Matter
A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (J. K. Rowling)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
The World According To Garp
The Hotel New Hampshire
Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
The Stand (Stephen King)
Salem’s Lot
Night Shift
The Dead Zone
Firestarter
Cujo
Different Seasons
Christine
Skeleton Crew
The Green Mile
Hearts in Atlantis
Dreamcatcher
From a Buick 8
Misery
Desperation
Insomnia
Pet Sematary
The Tommyknockers
Gerald’s Game
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
The Langoliers
Needful Things
Thinner
The Dark Half
Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë)
The Catcher in the Rye (J. D. Salinger)
Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
Little Men
The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
The Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Life, the Universe and Everything
So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish
Mostly Harmless
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency
The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë)
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Silver Chair
The Horse and His Boy
The Magician’s Nephew
The Last Battle
Out of the Silent Planet
Perelandra
That Hideous Strength
The Screwtape Letters
East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
Of Mice And Men
The Grapes of Wrath
The Red Pony
Tortilla Flat
The Pearl
Cannery Row
Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
The Five People You Meet In Heaven
Dune (Frank Herbert)
Dune Messiah
Children of Dune
God Emperor of Dune
Heretics of Dune
Chapterhouse: Dune
The Dragon in the Sea
The Santaroga Barrier
The Dosadi Experiment
The Jesus Incident
The White Plague
The Lazarus Effect
The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
The Fountainhead
We the Living
Anthem
1984 (George Orwell)
Animal Farm
The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
Lady of Avalon
Priestess of Avalon
The Forest House
Falcons of Narabedla
The Door Through Space
The Colors Of Space
Survey Ship
Warrior Woman
The Planet Savers
The Sword of Aldones
The Bloody Sun
Star of Danger
Winds of Darkover
World Wreckers
Darkover Landfall
The Spell Sword
The Heritage of Hastur
The Shattered Chain
The Forbidden Tower
Stormqueen!
Two To Conquer
Sharra’s Exile
Hawkmistress!
Thendara House
City of Sorcery
The Heirs of Hammerfell
Rediscovery
Exile’s Song
The Shadow Matrix
Traitor’s Sun
The Fall of Neskaya
Glenraven
The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
Eye of the Needle
The Key to Rebecca
On Wings of Eagles
Lie Down with Lions
Night Over Water
The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
She’s Come Undone
The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
The Valley of Horses
The Mammoth Hunters
The Plains of Passage
The Shelters of Stone
The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
The Bible
The Koran
The Torah
The Book of Latter Day Saints
Anna Karenina (Leo Tolstoy)
War and Peace
The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
The Three Musketeers
Twenty Years After
The Vicomte of Bragelonne aka The Man In The Iron Mask
Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
A Tale of Two Cities (Charles Dickens)
Great Expectations
Oliver Twist
Nicholas Nickleby
A Christmas Carol
David Copperfield
Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
Speaker for the Dead
Xenocide
Children of the Mind
Ender’s Shadow
Shadow of the Hegemon
First Meetings
Empire
Red Prophet
Alvin Journeyman
A Planet Called Treason
Lost Boys
The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
Tim
The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
The Time Traveler’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
The Vampire Lestat
The Queen of the Damned
The Tale of the Body Thief
Memnoch the Devil
The Vampire Armand
The Witching Hour
Lasher
The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned
Servant of the Bones
Exit to Eden
Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
Love in the Time of Cholera (Gabriel Garcia Márquez)
One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ann Brashares)
The Second Summer of the Sisterhood
Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood
Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
Les Miserables (Victor Hugo)
The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
Bridget Jones’s Diary (Helen Fielding)
Shogun (James Clavell)
King Rat
Tai-Pan
Noble House
Whirlwind
Gai-Jin
The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
In The Skin Of A Lion
The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
A Little Princess
Sara Crewe
The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
Charlotte’s Web (E. B. White)
Stuart Little
The Elements of Style
Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
Good Omens (Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman)
Thud (Terry Pratchett)
A Hat Full of Sky
The Wee Free Men
Going Postal
Where's My Cow
The Last Continent
Monstrous Regiment
Jingo
Maskerade
Feet of Clay
Interesting Times
Hogfather
Night Watch
Men At Arms
Soul Music
Lords and Ladies
Small Gods
Reaper Man
Witches Abroad
Thief of Time
Eric
Moving Pictures
The Truth
Guards! Guards!
Pyramids
The Fifth Elephant
Mort
Sourcery
Wyrd Sisters
Carpe Jugulum
Equal Rites
The Color of Magic
The Light Fantastic
Johnny and the Bomb
The Art of Discworld
Wintersmith
Only You Can Save Mankind
Johnny and the Dead
The Bromeliad Trilogy
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
The Last Hero
Swan Song (Robert McCammon)
Watership Down (Richard Adams)
Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
Blindness (Jose Saramago)
Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
Lord of the Flies (William Golding)
The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
The Matarese Countdown
The Road to Omaha
The Bourne Ultimatum
The Bourne Supremacy
The Aquitaine Progression
The Parsifal Mosaic
The Matarese Circle
The Holcroft Covenant
The Chancellor Manuscript
The Gemini Contenders
The Road to Gandolfo
The Rhinemann Exchange
The Matlock Paper
The Osterman Weekend
The Scarlatti Inheritance
The Outsiders (S. E. Hinton)
That Was Then, This Is Now
Rumble Fish
Tex
White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
Ulysses (James Joyce)
The Past Through Tomorrow (Robert A. Heinlein)
Expanded Universe
Requiem
Grumbles from the Grave
For Us, the Living
Sixth Column
Beyond This Horizon
The Puppet Masters
The Rolling Stones
The Star Beast
Citizen of the Galaxy
Starship Troopers
Stranger in a Strange Land
Podkayne of Mars
Glory Road
Farnham’s Freehold
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Time Enough for Love
Friday
Job: A Comedy of Justice
The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
To Sail Beyond the Sunset
The Girl Who Heard Dragons (Anne McCaffrey)
The Ship who Sang
Partnership
The ship who Searched
The Ship who Won
Crystal Singer
Killashandra
Crystal Line
The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall
Dragonsdawn
The Renegades of Pern
The Masterharper of Pern
The Skies of Pern
Dragon's Kin
Dragonflight
The White Dragon
Dragonquest
Dragonson
Dragonsinger
Dragondrums
Dragonriders of Pern
On Dragonwings
~M
Sunday, May 20, 2007
1 month and counting...
One more month and I will be getting the final prep done for the wedding... I am starting to freak out at this point because of financial issues. Things are just not *quite* gelling together as I would like them to.
I still need to get trim, elastic and tape - that will be tomorrow... along with heading to PetSmart, Owajimaya and WinCo for other shopping...
I just ordered my shoes, but I have no idea if the girls have ordered theirs. I am having to get the marriage license as of June 1, since I can't seem to get enough money at this point to pick it up sooner... Fred's finances are still not cleared up at work, so we are still a little short. *sigh*
Work, on the other hand, seems to be going fairly well. We had an upset in the staff earlier in the week. The pocket boss (tm) is gone, so we are really short-handed on the phones still and now our boss is also short-handed. I'm going to do as much OT between now and the wedding as I can, so that I can have extra cash, not to mention helping out on the phones.
I'm getting better with everything there, but it's slow going. It's not a job that you can learn in 6 weeks and then be fully comfortable with. I am going to be learning more and more each day I come in, and I was told by one of the gals who has been here 20 years that she's STILL learning stuff... Things change, so you can't get used to how they "were".
Anyway, time for me to sign on and get to work. Thank heavens tomorrow and Tuesday I have off. Time to recover and do stuff at home I'm supposed to be.
~M
I still need to get trim, elastic and tape - that will be tomorrow... along with heading to PetSmart, Owajimaya and WinCo for other shopping...
I just ordered my shoes, but I have no idea if the girls have ordered theirs. I am having to get the marriage license as of June 1, since I can't seem to get enough money at this point to pick it up sooner... Fred's finances are still not cleared up at work, so we are still a little short. *sigh*
Work, on the other hand, seems to be going fairly well. We had an upset in the staff earlier in the week. The pocket boss (tm) is gone, so we are really short-handed on the phones still and now our boss is also short-handed. I'm going to do as much OT between now and the wedding as I can, so that I can have extra cash, not to mention helping out on the phones.
I'm getting better with everything there, but it's slow going. It's not a job that you can learn in 6 weeks and then be fully comfortable with. I am going to be learning more and more each day I come in, and I was told by one of the gals who has been here 20 years that she's STILL learning stuff... Things change, so you can't get used to how they "were".
Anyway, time for me to sign on and get to work. Thank heavens tomorrow and Tuesday I have off. Time to recover and do stuff at home I'm supposed to be.
~M
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Alone...
So, this is the first week that I'm technically without my umbilical cord hooked up at work. I am on my own, with a mentor by me, and am doing pretty well with everything so far. Of course, I'm sure, now that I've said this, todays calls will be the most bizarre, odd calls known to the call center. Yay me.
I saw Lil yesterday. She's in her first week of training here, so we aren't working at the same time. Most of us don't work the same time, since there's so few of us, but the call center is open 24/7. I gave her the necklaces that I made for her and Jordan for the wedding. They're in a gold setting, which I know isn't her favorite, but it's going to look fabu with the dresses, so there's that...
In other news... speaking of dresses - I have most of the sewing done on all the dresses now. I need hems done, lacings done, and trim sewn on, and then I'll be completely done. My plan is for everything to be complete by the end of May. Yay me. Though, I'm going to need help with my dress, because pinning things onto the dress while I'm in the dress (specifically on the BACK of the dress) is not my forte. I just can't bend that way.
I still need to shop for shoes, which I'll probably do at the beginning of June. I'm still begging people at work to take my Friday off. I found a taker for Thursday, but not Friday - so, I'm asking the part-timer if it would be cool. He's been muttering that he needs more hours, so perhaps it'll be a bonus for him...
Anyway, it's about that time, so...
Ta!
~M
I saw Lil yesterday. She's in her first week of training here, so we aren't working at the same time. Most of us don't work the same time, since there's so few of us, but the call center is open 24/7. I gave her the necklaces that I made for her and Jordan for the wedding. They're in a gold setting, which I know isn't her favorite, but it's going to look fabu with the dresses, so there's that...
In other news... speaking of dresses - I have most of the sewing done on all the dresses now. I need hems done, lacings done, and trim sewn on, and then I'll be completely done. My plan is for everything to be complete by the end of May. Yay me. Though, I'm going to need help with my dress, because pinning things onto the dress while I'm in the dress (specifically on the BACK of the dress) is not my forte. I just can't bend that way.
I still need to shop for shoes, which I'll probably do at the beginning of June. I'm still begging people at work to take my Friday off. I found a taker for Thursday, but not Friday - so, I'm asking the part-timer if it would be cool. He's been muttering that he needs more hours, so perhaps it'll be a bonus for him...
Anyway, it's about that time, so...
Ta!
~M
Friday, May 11, 2007
Brown-bagging it...
Every so often, I end up having my brain heading one way, and the conversation another. I won't even notice until after I've piped up with whatever my brain wanted me to say - often to the chagrin of both myself and the amusement of others.
For instance, the other night, I wanted to make something to use up the rest of the black beans I had made a few nights earlier. I settled on a spicy stewed pork cassarole, with beans and rice. Quite tasty, especially over fresh-made tortilla chips.
Fred had mentioned afterwards that he was going to have to brown-bag his lunches until his next paycheck. We were sitting discussing lunches, dinners, and the success of yet another of my meals, relaxing in front of the telly.
Suddenly, Fred lets one loose - and I mean, it's a loud one. I am used to it by now, and don't think anything of it. However, apparently my brain is still stuck on him brown-bagging his lunches, and I somehow think that he might want to take the rest of dinner with him to work the next day. Without warning, I pipe up with...
"So, you wanna brown bag that and take it with you for lunch tomorrow?"
Fred pauses, then busts out laughing. I suddenly realize what it was that I said, and in what context it was taken...
I can't breath. Tears are leaking out of my eyes, and my face is red. My stomach and sides hurt. I am slumped over on the couch, and unable to do anything.
Fred is faring any better, since he's reacting to my laughing fits. Then I start responding to his... The cycle continues on for about 10 minutes, with the two of us ending up still getting the giggles for several hours later.
I still hurt... and it's still funny.
~M
For instance, the other night, I wanted to make something to use up the rest of the black beans I had made a few nights earlier. I settled on a spicy stewed pork cassarole, with beans and rice. Quite tasty, especially over fresh-made tortilla chips.
Fred had mentioned afterwards that he was going to have to brown-bag his lunches until his next paycheck. We were sitting discussing lunches, dinners, and the success of yet another of my meals, relaxing in front of the telly.
Suddenly, Fred lets one loose - and I mean, it's a loud one. I am used to it by now, and don't think anything of it. However, apparently my brain is still stuck on him brown-bagging his lunches, and I somehow think that he might want to take the rest of dinner with him to work the next day. Without warning, I pipe up with...
"So, you wanna brown bag that and take it with you for lunch tomorrow?"
Fred pauses, then busts out laughing. I suddenly realize what it was that I said, and in what context it was taken...
I can't breath. Tears are leaking out of my eyes, and my face is red. My stomach and sides hurt. I am slumped over on the couch, and unable to do anything.
Fred is faring any better, since he's reacting to my laughing fits. Then I start responding to his... The cycle continues on for about 10 minutes, with the two of us ending up still getting the giggles for several hours later.
I still hurt... and it's still funny.
~M
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Reflections...
I just finished watching most of "Living With Cancer", Ted Koppel's journey with his friend, a high-profile journalist who was diagnosed in 2005 with a brain tumor, lung cancer, and spinal tumors. As of March 13th, 2007, after more than a year of chemo, and then radiation when that didn't work, he found himself without any of the tumors because of a new therapy treatment that actually inscinerates the tumors where they are. They'd gotten rid of the brain tumor, and the spine tumor - but the lung tumors were more aggressive, and eventually grew despite the treatments given. So, he went to John Hopkins university where they treated him with this new form of surgery.
Because of where the tumors were placed, and how the treatment worked, it was relatively non-invasive, and he was awake through the whole procedure. He is not, however, cancer-free. It was interesting to hear all of this, and the other different stories of cancer survivors - both those with current cases and those in remission.
For those who may not know, who may be new to this blog, I live in fear of being diagnosed with cancer. It runs on both sides of my family, my grandmother dying from terminal cancer after a double radical mastectomy, and my father dying from complications of terminal cancer after removal procedures failed to successfully erase the traces of colon cancer he had.
I never really knew my grandmother. I remember meeting her once, when I was 10. My mother was adopted, and it took most of the 10 years I was first around to find her. When we did, it was really too late to forge a strong bond between all of us. She was diagnosed with cancer at 41, and by 62, when we met her, she was wheelchair-bound, and on a constant morphine drip for the pain. The tumors had spread even after the surgery, and had entangled in through her spinal cord, making further surgical removals too dangerous to attempt. She didn't have the money for chemotherapy, which at the time, was not covered by many insurance companies due to the risks involved. It was 1984, and the first time cancer touched my life. I didn't understand it. I can honestly say I still don't.
It was 1991 when cancer struck my family again. This time, it didn't seem too bad. My father, who never went to the doctor unless my mother drove him - not even to yearly exams - went in to find out why he had a scaly patch on his arm. It was karatosis - a skin melanoma, easily treated by simply removing the skin from the area and making sure that in the future, sunscreen was used properly. He used to joke that he'd eaten too many carrots, which was why he'd gotten it.
I graduated, went to college, and did the normal things that most teens do when they leave the nest - I didn't go back to visit as often as I might have. I had a car, I had no real excuse... I just could never find the time. Something else was always happening. I spent the first two months going back and forth between my dorm and my parents' home, a five-hour drive one way. But eventually the homesickness went away, and the phone calls sufficed. I started dating, and it was in January of 1993 that I found out Dad had been diagnosed with colon cancer and was in the hospital for a removal procedure of the polyps.
We were told that they'd gotten it all. We were told that the prognosis was good, and that he was on his way to recovery - at least, that was the information that Mom passed on to me. I was upset, scared, but I didn't go see him. I don't know why, I just didn't. I suppose I thought that he was still invincible, just like he had been when I was a kid.
They came down in May, to drop off a tent for me and say hello. I remember seeing him and yet not seeing him. He seemed out of focus, and in my mind, I don't remember hugging him at all, or even holding his hand, or kissing his cheek. I remember he was a little tired, and had lost a bit of weight, but I thought it was just the drive.
I spent the summer in the town I was going to school in, renting a house and working. I look back now and wonder if I shouldn't have gone up and spent the time with my father instead. I met a boy, fell in lust, spent the summer hazy with it, and was wrapped up with my own life so much that I didn't realize what was going on until Thanksgiving when I brought the boy up with me to visit the family and meet my parents.
I remember being very upset because the person who sat at the end of the table couldn't have been my father. He'd lost a good 60 pounds, and looked almost gaunt. My mother admitted she hadn't told me that his t-cell count had gone back up, and they'd had to put him on chemo. His most recent treatment had been 3 days before Thanksgiving, so he wasn't feeling well. He went to bed early, and I honestly don't remember seeing him after that, not even when we said goodbye and headed back down south to school.
It was to be the last time I saw him. I was in touch with Mom every week from that point on, calling or writing to find out what was going on. Mom was very optimistic, but I think it was mostly because she couldn't bear to deal with the idea that he would die. I remember three weeks before our birthday, I called and found out that Dad's t-cell count had skyrocketed. Mom was completely hysterical because she couldn't reach my brother. I asked how long the doc had given him, and she said anywhere from three weeks to three months. I promised I would call my brother, and I'd be up after mid-terms in two weeks.
I called my brother, and by some stroke of fate or luck, managed to reach him the first try. I told him what was going on and said he'd better just pack up the kids and go that day if possible to say goodbye. I knew, even then, that it was the end. Even so, I thought I would have time to deal with the things I needed to, so that I could get up there to say goodbye.
I called my mother the next week, and it was then that I found that my father had passed away. Not from the cancer, after all, but instead from pneumonia. He'd been in the doctor's office the week before and there'd been a bunch of people in for it. Because the chemo and radiation had weakened his immune system, he'd caught it and it went rampaging through him. He never stood a chance.
I don't remember much of the 48 hours after that. I remember images of driving up to my boyfriend's house, and then of him driving me to my parents. I remember my mother, worn, crying constantly, the house smelling funny... I remember staying in the apartment above his workshop and smelling sawdust and "Old Spice" - what my dad always smelled of. I remember not crying at all while I was with my mother, but breaking down when I was alone.
I went to therapy about this a few years ago, and have managed to get to a point where I've forgiven myself for not making it before my father passed away. I have a feeling he didn't want me to remember him emaciated or tired, or weary. He wanted me to remember him as he had been all my life - strong and steady.
I can't say that I'm a cancer survivor - I'm not. But I can say that cancer has touched my life. I live in fear of having an annual exam and finding something "not quite right" with the exam. I recently spoke with my doctor, who has told me I should have a colonoscopy by age 40, since my father had colon cancer. My first thought was "but that's for MEN". It's not - neither is breast cancer detection "just" for women. Cancer is cancer, and it doesn't care who you are, how much money you have, whether you're pregnant or finished having children. It doesn't care if you're gay, black, pink with purple polka-dots. It just cares that it has a host. And that's the scary part...
~M
Because of where the tumors were placed, and how the treatment worked, it was relatively non-invasive, and he was awake through the whole procedure. He is not, however, cancer-free. It was interesting to hear all of this, and the other different stories of cancer survivors - both those with current cases and those in remission.
For those who may not know, who may be new to this blog, I live in fear of being diagnosed with cancer. It runs on both sides of my family, my grandmother dying from terminal cancer after a double radical mastectomy, and my father dying from complications of terminal cancer after removal procedures failed to successfully erase the traces of colon cancer he had.
I never really knew my grandmother. I remember meeting her once, when I was 10. My mother was adopted, and it took most of the 10 years I was first around to find her. When we did, it was really too late to forge a strong bond between all of us. She was diagnosed with cancer at 41, and by 62, when we met her, she was wheelchair-bound, and on a constant morphine drip for the pain. The tumors had spread even after the surgery, and had entangled in through her spinal cord, making further surgical removals too dangerous to attempt. She didn't have the money for chemotherapy, which at the time, was not covered by many insurance companies due to the risks involved. It was 1984, and the first time cancer touched my life. I didn't understand it. I can honestly say I still don't.
It was 1991 when cancer struck my family again. This time, it didn't seem too bad. My father, who never went to the doctor unless my mother drove him - not even to yearly exams - went in to find out why he had a scaly patch on his arm. It was karatosis - a skin melanoma, easily treated by simply removing the skin from the area and making sure that in the future, sunscreen was used properly. He used to joke that he'd eaten too many carrots, which was why he'd gotten it.
I graduated, went to college, and did the normal things that most teens do when they leave the nest - I didn't go back to visit as often as I might have. I had a car, I had no real excuse... I just could never find the time. Something else was always happening. I spent the first two months going back and forth between my dorm and my parents' home, a five-hour drive one way. But eventually the homesickness went away, and the phone calls sufficed. I started dating, and it was in January of 1993 that I found out Dad had been diagnosed with colon cancer and was in the hospital for a removal procedure of the polyps.
We were told that they'd gotten it all. We were told that the prognosis was good, and that he was on his way to recovery - at least, that was the information that Mom passed on to me. I was upset, scared, but I didn't go see him. I don't know why, I just didn't. I suppose I thought that he was still invincible, just like he had been when I was a kid.
They came down in May, to drop off a tent for me and say hello. I remember seeing him and yet not seeing him. He seemed out of focus, and in my mind, I don't remember hugging him at all, or even holding his hand, or kissing his cheek. I remember he was a little tired, and had lost a bit of weight, but I thought it was just the drive.
I spent the summer in the town I was going to school in, renting a house and working. I look back now and wonder if I shouldn't have gone up and spent the time with my father instead. I met a boy, fell in lust, spent the summer hazy with it, and was wrapped up with my own life so much that I didn't realize what was going on until Thanksgiving when I brought the boy up with me to visit the family and meet my parents.
I remember being very upset because the person who sat at the end of the table couldn't have been my father. He'd lost a good 60 pounds, and looked almost gaunt. My mother admitted she hadn't told me that his t-cell count had gone back up, and they'd had to put him on chemo. His most recent treatment had been 3 days before Thanksgiving, so he wasn't feeling well. He went to bed early, and I honestly don't remember seeing him after that, not even when we said goodbye and headed back down south to school.
It was to be the last time I saw him. I was in touch with Mom every week from that point on, calling or writing to find out what was going on. Mom was very optimistic, but I think it was mostly because she couldn't bear to deal with the idea that he would die. I remember three weeks before our birthday, I called and found out that Dad's t-cell count had skyrocketed. Mom was completely hysterical because she couldn't reach my brother. I asked how long the doc had given him, and she said anywhere from three weeks to three months. I promised I would call my brother, and I'd be up after mid-terms in two weeks.
I called my brother, and by some stroke of fate or luck, managed to reach him the first try. I told him what was going on and said he'd better just pack up the kids and go that day if possible to say goodbye. I knew, even then, that it was the end. Even so, I thought I would have time to deal with the things I needed to, so that I could get up there to say goodbye.
I called my mother the next week, and it was then that I found that my father had passed away. Not from the cancer, after all, but instead from pneumonia. He'd been in the doctor's office the week before and there'd been a bunch of people in for it. Because the chemo and radiation had weakened his immune system, he'd caught it and it went rampaging through him. He never stood a chance.
I don't remember much of the 48 hours after that. I remember images of driving up to my boyfriend's house, and then of him driving me to my parents. I remember my mother, worn, crying constantly, the house smelling funny... I remember staying in the apartment above his workshop and smelling sawdust and "Old Spice" - what my dad always smelled of. I remember not crying at all while I was with my mother, but breaking down when I was alone.
I went to therapy about this a few years ago, and have managed to get to a point where I've forgiven myself for not making it before my father passed away. I have a feeling he didn't want me to remember him emaciated or tired, or weary. He wanted me to remember him as he had been all my life - strong and steady.
I can't say that I'm a cancer survivor - I'm not. But I can say that cancer has touched my life. I live in fear of having an annual exam and finding something "not quite right" with the exam. I recently spoke with my doctor, who has told me I should have a colonoscopy by age 40, since my father had colon cancer. My first thought was "but that's for MEN". It's not - neither is breast cancer detection "just" for women. Cancer is cancer, and it doesn't care who you are, how much money you have, whether you're pregnant or finished having children. It doesn't care if you're gay, black, pink with purple polka-dots. It just cares that it has a host. And that's the scary part...
~M
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Slightly ill...
I'm feeling slightly ill today. I've had an on-again, off-again sinus issue of late, and today it was just too much for me. Had a temp of 99.5, and was feeling vomitous, so I called in. I didn't want to, and I have to say I'm kicking myself for doing it. But, there it is. My first day absent. Suckage. I can only hope that with copious amounts of water, hot tea, sinus medication, and sleep, I will feel better and it will go away so I won't have to miss any MORE work from it. I hate chronic sinusitis.
I'm still having the BBQ today, regardless. I can have Fred down at the grill and actually working. Most of what I have to do today is very minimal, and involves pointing while my two guys "tote that barge and haul that sail" type thing. LOL. I adore them. When I'm sick, they pamper me to the ends of the earth. A girl could get used to it.
~M
I'm still having the BBQ today, regardless. I can have Fred down at the grill and actually working. Most of what I have to do today is very minimal, and involves pointing while my two guys "tote that barge and haul that sail" type thing. LOL. I adore them. When I'm sick, they pamper me to the ends of the earth. A girl could get used to it.
~M
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Announcing the Cinco De Mayo BBQ event!
I'm holding a Cinco de Mayo BBQ at my house. It is, fairly obviously, going to be on May 5th, at 6:30 pm. Everyone invited, BYOB.
I'm contributing Carne Asado steak, marinated for 24 hours, and then slapped on the grill. I'm also going to make home-made re-fried beans and a bunch of rice.
If you'd like to contribute, please do so. Chicken and side dishes are welcome, and they don't have to be tex-mex to join in the fun.
This is also the LAST time I will have the ability to have a BBQ on the weekend. SO - if you want to hang out, and you'd like really good tex-mex cooking for cheap, come on over!
~M
I'm contributing Carne Asado steak, marinated for 24 hours, and then slapped on the grill. I'm also going to make home-made re-fried beans and a bunch of rice.
If you'd like to contribute, please do so. Chicken and side dishes are welcome, and they don't have to be tex-mex to join in the fun.
This is also the LAST time I will have the ability to have a BBQ on the weekend. SO - if you want to hang out, and you'd like really good tex-mex cooking for cheap, come on over!
~M
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