If You Can't Say Something Nice...
Say Something Vague

The Drought Continues

I'm sorry that blogging is so sparse here.

Part of the problem is that the world is so ugly and sad right now. I'm so horrified and distraught by all of the fighting, the constant threats of global destruction, and the horrible way that the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse (Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice) are running us straight into hell.

When I write here I want to write about important things. Things that I'm thinking or experiencing. But I don't want to constantly be writing about the things that make me angry or sad, because I really don't need that. I had to give up my daily reading of the political blogs. It just wasn't good for me as someone who already suffers from pretty intense depression. I have to really work at avoiding those things that I know are going to make me feel more hopeless and lost.

So right now it's all about knitting. Reading knitting blogs, and actually physically knitting. That is both my escape and my release. I enjoy it and it relaxes me. I love looking at what everyone else is doing. I've joined a new knitting group that meets a couple of times a month, and that has been good for me.

Maybe it's burying my head in the sand to avoid the fallout from a world gone mad, but I am really enjoying the creative outlets when I can do them. And it's what I need. Self-imposed therapy, I guess.

I guess what I'm saying in a horribly roundabout and disjointed way is, this blog is going on a hiatus. I don't know for how long. For now, I'm going to try to post a bit more frequently on my knitting blog, but even that will not be daily. I love keeping in touch with all of you. Someday I would like to have a single blog location where I can write about whatever I want, but you should know that it will likely be predominantly craft-related (sorry, guys).

For now, though, I'm officially taking a break. Thanks for your understanding. I love and will miss all two of my consistent readers! ;)

So, I Had a Birthday

Yep, happy birthday to me. And what did I get??


Good Things

*A card and lunch from my co-workers (Benihana! YAY!)

*A very cool knitting gift from The Boy (the kit)

*A chicken pasty for dinner, alongside my favorite black & white cookie (procured and served by The Boy)

*A cool bracelet from my mother-in-law (it's made from the handle pattern of an old silver spoon and a silver chain, hard to describe but very pretty)

*A Happy Birthday duet on my answering machine from two of my dear girlfriends

*Happy Birthday emails

*Happy Birthday phone calls from loved ones

*A card from my father-in-law

*A card from the dean here at Whattsamatta U


Bad Things

*US government admits to secret prisons

*ABC to air propaganda-laden fake 9/11 story

*Scholastic plans to distribute fake 9/11 story based on ABC's docu-fairytale (But then they bow to pressure and pull materials off their site)

*Bush, clearly not understanding what fascist means (and how perfectly it applies to his own administration), refers to those in the Middle East who "we must defeat" as Islamo-Fascists. Repeatedly.

*The abhorrent administration refers to anti-war advocates and detractors as Nazi appeasers

*The Crocodile Hunter dies. :(

*A two-day migraine (Wed-Thurs)


***********************************************************

So to summarize: I have great friends and family.

I have a traitorous head that likes to be mean to me on important days.

And we all have a bad government that we MUST work to neutralize by eliminating Republican control of all three branches of government, bringing in oversight and balanced political endeavors. And maybe, just maybe, impeachment proceedings.

Hello, Michael*

My car talks to me. !!!!

Last week I was driving to lunch, listening to talk radio when suddenly my radio cut out. I figured it was some fluke with the station when suddenly a voice boomed out of (all 6 of) my car radio speakers, "Hello Stephanie! Our records show that you have not blah blah blah On*Star. In just a moment blah blah customer service rep blah blah." And then a woman's voice, "Hello Stephanie!"

The woman then proceeded to have an all-out conversation with me while I drove and, eventually, pulled over into a strip mall parking lot. It sort of creeped me out. I also felt like there must be a hidden camera in the car and couldn't help myself from looking around while she talked.

And then, on Friday... my car emailed me! GAH! Where will it end?



*You DO know what I'm referencing, right?

Is it?

Is it cute or sad that I last saw my husband at 6am, and I'm giddy excited that he's coming to have lunch with me at 12:30pm?

The Boy

The Boy had his big nursing test today! Yay! Months of study, years of preparation culminated in this one grueling test, and he's all finished.

I told him to just imagine what he can do with all that newly free time. Mop the kitchen and bathroom... Vacuum... Help sort our old kitchen items and replace them with all the new wedding ones... Laundry...

Why do you suppose he was curled in the fetal position, softly weeping?



Okay, okay, he didn't weep. He just looked a little less than really super thrilled. Wouldn't want you to think he's less than manly. :)

Dorkitude

In case you were in doubt about my level of dorkiness, let me reassure you that it remains consistently high.

My current favorite block of TV shows on Monday nights while my usual fare of sad sitcoms and outrageous dramas is on summer hiatus? Antiques Roadshow and The History Detectives on PBS. You may commence with the mocking.

Seriously, The History Detectives rock. I'm sorry, but they do. First of all, their theme song is Elvis Costello's Watching the Detectives. Secondly, there are two total nerds, like you would expect, a fairly attractive African-American guy, and a ridiculously hot girl that could not possibly be an antiques expert in real life or this would be a way more popular field.

The premise of the show is that people write to the detectives about objects that they have acquired that supposedly have some historical story behind them (the earliest film reel in existence, the first Coke advertisement, etc.). Then the History Detectives get to work detecting (duh). They travel around the country consulting with experts, and doing research in old labs and at obscure locations likely to yield info.

Yeah, so this is probably more than you ever wanted to know about the show.

Last Monday was a dark evening in my household, though, as the PBS fund drive precluded both of these shows. Inconceivable!* They better be on tonight if they know what's good for them.


*I probably should mention that last Wednesday I got to see The Princess Bride on the big screen. It was more awesome than you are imagining.


UPDATE: They were not on last night. Losers. Beware PBS! You have wronged the wrong dork!

[Insert Curse Word of Choice Here]!

I went to the dentist this morning. You can see where this is going, right?
Someone kill me now.

About a month ago I went for my semi-annual cleaning and was given the less-than-thrilling news that I have early-stage periodontal disease (gum disease, for those not 'in the know'). After very patiently and kindly explaining the disease to me, and assuring me that it was probably not my fault, since I do actually brush and floss, I was given the news that I would need this super deep cleaning and medication put at the roots of the particularly bad areas to try to reattach the gums to the teeth in those places. What a lucky girl I am!

Oh, and I needed a filling from the dentist.

Now, I love my dentist. I do. Not everyone can say that, but she is pretty kick-ass, and very, very nice. She's a 'gentle dentist' for wimps like me. I also love my hygienist. As nice as can be, and cute as a button.

But today I wanted to garrote them both with dental floss.

I went in for the filling first. While working on the filling my dentist noticed that the crown that she put in last year, on the tooth behind the one she was at-that-moment filling, was overhanging a little bit, creating a perfect place for bacteria to breed and contribute to the periodontitis.

So she asked if she could remove that crown and put on a new one, gratis. Not one to typically say nay when free goodies are at stake, I still hesitated on this one. I vaguely recall an equation that I learned last year when having 5 crowns done. Crowns = Pain. But the dentist said how important it is, and I always do what authoritarian types tell me ('cause I'm a sucker). So I agreed.

Unfortunately, this made me late for my super-duper cleaning, so the hygienist could only do 1/4 of my mouth instead of 1/2, as planned. If you haven't been the lucky recipient of this deep cleaning to help try to reverse some of the gum deterioration, let me tell you a little something about how it goes:

--poky thing shoots water into your gums to flush out bacteria and debris
--poky thing shoots medicated antiseptic wash into your gums to flush out bacteria and debris
--scraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaape, chunk, scraaaaaaaaaaape, bzzzzzzzz, scraaaaaasaaape
--more poky things with antiseptic
--more with the scraaaaaaping
--syringe shoots medication to the roots around the tooth/gum areas that are the worst

Sound fun? I assure you, it is not.

Did I mention that the entire right side of my face was completely numb from three shot of novocaine? (This harkens back to that whole 'wimp' thing.) Yeah. So I have fat lip syndrome, a twitchy right eye, and I slur my speech. SO attractive.

Anyway, after the hygienist finished with me, it was back to the dentist for my temporary crown. Woofreakin'hoo.

So now here I sit at work, throbbing pain from the recently reopened wound where my crown was, with the residual pain and headache that novocaine gives me. Oh yeah, and I apparently have one of the smallest adult jaws that they've ever seen at my doctor's office, so holding my mouth open long enough to do all this work? Magic.

And the even better news is that I get to go back THREE MORE TIMES in the next 6 weeks to finish everything up. Ask me how thrilled I am. Go ahead.

[Expletive of choice! Expletive of choice! Expletive of choice!]

Picture-O-Rama!

Yeah, no posts lately, but at least I'm finally uploading pictures.

Stay tuned for future stories (and goofy pictures!) including these gems:

1) He says the machine was broken, She says she's just that good

2) How I'm Going to Make My Millions

And more...


Finally! New car pictures to share.






Ain't he handsome??

And, for the heck of it, a super cute picture of The Boy with The Girl Beast


We did not stage that one. Inari jumps up in his lap and cuddles up with him all the time like that. So.Darn.Cute.

More pictures to come, but I want to go home now!