A little bit more then lots of rambling

I took my computer to the repair place today. Probably won't hear anything until late tomorrow at the earliest. So here I am struggling along on Superman's laptop. I miss mine.

Diva saw the doctor. She's sick, but not with the flu. They did a nasal swab. Diva was all like "WTF?" when the nurse came at her with the long one-sided Qtip lookin' thing. I was good and didn't even laugh at her or nuthin'. She had a fever of 101 at the office. We didn't have a working thermometer so I wasn't sure what kind of fever she had. The doc prescribed a course of antibiotics for her. I feel sorry for the poor Diva. She obviously feels like shit. I picked up a new thermometer at the drug store when I got her medicine, and this evening her temp was 102. I gave her some Tylenol PM (the generic version) and she's sound asleep again. I got her some fruit juice and Gatorade and encourage her to drink a lot. Which means she'll wet the bed profusely, which sucks, but she needs to wash this ickiness out of her system.

Light has been in communication this weekend. She and her boyfriend have terminated their romantic relationship. Thing is, he moved into her apartment a few months ago and doesn't have anywhere else to go or enough money to get his own place. So now Light no longer lives with her boyfriend. Now she lives with a roommate who just happens to be her former boyfriend. She said they are on friendly terms, thankfully, which is the only way this roommate situation will work. I met the guy. I like him. But evidently they aren't good as sweethearts.

Light also told me that she'll be graduating either in May or August. I didn't realize she was graduating so soon. I'm so used to her being in Pennsylvania in school, it seems like that's where she belongs. I'm sure she is ever so ready to be done with school now, though.

While at the doctor's office with Diva this morning I got the results of my blood work. I had my annual physical last week with accompanying blood work. My cholesterol numbers are better, not that they were bad before. My glucose was a little bit high, but the nurse did an A1C check while I was there today (it was supposed to be part of the blood work, but didn't get ordered or something) and my A1C was only 5.5!! It's supposed to be less than 6.0, and a few years ago it was hovering at 6 or slightly above. My doctor had me coming in for blood pressure and A1C checkups every 4 months. When I changed my eating habits a couple of summers ago and started losing weight, my bp and A1C numbers went down. Duh. It's what the doc had been telling me to do for years! Last A1C about 4 or 5 months ago was 5.8 if I remember. Today was 5.5! Yay me! No, I am not diabetic. Doc says perhaps I'm pre-diabetic, whatever that means, but it is NOT "diabetus." With my numbers improving, it looks less and less like diabetes. So it's all good.


And now in interesting stuff from my inbox, I present a very expensive house. With what they're calling a "wrap around pool." Call me old fashioned, but to me, a wrap around pool is really a moat. I mean, what else could it be? Perhaps the moat doesn't encircle the palace house entirely, but in the olden castle days of yore not every moat completely circled the structure, right? Especially if there were geological structures that prevented bad guy access to the place, then the moat didn't need to go all the way around. Like for instance a cliff or very large rock beside the castle probably would work as well as a moat right there. So imagine this: a castle surrounded 25% by a steep cliff and 75% by a moat. Trust me, it'll work.

OK, this moat circles the castle. But not all moats did, right? 

Back to the more mundane. I have pictures to share. Not the ones of palaces and moats, but ones I took myself with my camera that I can't find the battery charger for. I can take the SD card out and load the pics to my computer.... wait, I don't have my computer. Shit. I also can't take any more pictures until I figure out how to charge the damn battery. If only I could find the box the camera came in. I bought it in April of this year after the disastrous canoe trip down the Juniper Run when I took my old camera swimming with me. Twitch was living here in my office, using my desk (OK, it's actually his old desk that I took over from him when he moved, but that's beside the point). So I doubt the camera stuff is in the bottom drawer of that desk, which is where I think it ought to be. Maybe it's on the little desk we moved into our bedroom when Twitch moved back home last December. That desk has accumulated a LOT of stuff on its surface. I'd show you a picture, but my camera isn't charged. Actually, I probably wouldn't because it's embarrassingly messy. Anyway, I might try excavating this little desk tomorrow and see if I can find the camera peripherals. Since I'm looking for the camera peripherals I probably won't find them. I'll find many other interesting and useful things, but not what I'm looking for. That's the way of the Java. 

But what I came to tell you is that I have pictures of the room we've been painting. This is the room that Twitch most recently occupied. It was my office before he moved home in December. It's meant to be a formal dining room in the overall design of the house.  We are tentatively planning to move our bed in there when we finish painting it so we can clean out our bedroom and do these major upgrades to the master suite. So right now I don't know what to call that room. Office/dining/bed/guest room? We painted it yellow above the chair rail and gray below. And I intend to put yellow vertical stripes on the yellow field. The yellow was supposed to be cream, but it's a bit yellower than the paint chip implied. Paint does that, I forgot. It's a pleasant yellow. Sproing says it looks like the color of Blue Bonnet Margarine. (I think that's the brand he indicated. We use dairy butter, so I'm not too familiar with margarine brands.) We have many partially empty cans of yellow paint from other projects, and I know there's a very light yellow that I hope works well against the not-cream margarine color. I've painted a test patch of the Blue Bonnet Yellow and need to get out my contrasting yellows to give it a try. My goal is a very faint contrast yellow on yellow, vertical stripes of approximately 12 inches. Coincidentally and conveniently, the paint stir sticks available for free at Lowe's are 12 inches long. Ain't that a treat? 

Superman and I were very efficient this weekend and got that room all painted. We'd done the priming a few weeks ago, just over the very dark blue/gray that was there before. When it was Light's room she painted half of it as a dark storm, the other half as a light blue sky with lighter blue or white sponged over the sky. We didn't need to prime the light parts. The dark bit needed three coats (maybe it was only two) of primer. The whole thing is yellow now and looks all kinds of solid. Nice. No light blue/dark blue bleeding through the yellow. 

It's late, I'm tired, and I don't know if this still makes any sense. Or if it made sense to begin with. 

OH, wait! I have more blood work news to relate. I'm anemic. My new doctor (actually a Physician's Assistant - PA) (because my old doctor, who wasn't old, retired this summer and I'm still in mourning over that) wants me to have a test... EGD? Yes! Thank you Google. It's an esophagogastroduodenoscopy. How cool is that!? I don't know how to pronounce it. Aka an upper G.I. endoscopy. I know how to pronounce that. Anyway, the PA, Jillian, wants to make sure I don't have any internal bleeding. I just had a "scopy" of the other end this summer, so that's been checked out. The procedure is scheduled for Wednesday the 6th. I'll need a driver, and can't eat anything for 5 hours preceding the procedure. (Alliteration, for those English majors out there.) But about the anemia thing, I've been cutting back on my meat consumption and I suspect I just haven't been getting enough iron in my diet. I'd much rather have to eat more leafy greens or take iron supplements than have internal bleeding or esophageal cancer, you know? I'll be sure to update you on this esophagogastroduodenoscopy, though. (Damn, that's fun to type!) 

The anemia would explain why I've been so tired lately. Anemia and staying up too late. Yeah, I'm going to bed now. Goodnight. 

Meanwhile, back in Javaland...

I couldn't resist the LOLcats. 

(the cat is the most interesting part of this whole post. the rest is rambling drivel with much boring detail about my activities of the last couple of days. I recommend you skip it.)

I have been doing stuff since my last post. I've been thinking of you, thinking about telling you stuff. Interesting things come to me as I'm going about my day, things I want to tell you, things I think you'll appreciate. Occasionally I can remember them once I sit here to write. 

Let's start with yesterday. Friday. No, let's start with Thursday evening because that gives the background info for Friday. We'll do Thursday evening, then Friday, then go back to Thursday morning, 'cause that's the way I want to tell it. My blog, my rules. ;)

Thursday evening I went to college town to bring Light home for the weekend. Right now our vehicles are in a sad state of disrepair. Have I mentioned that the van (Big Bertha) has transmission issues? Ugh. We need to do a cost analysis to decide whether to fix her, trade her in as-is, drive her into the river, or begin living in her. Manny, my beloved F150 pick-up truck, has some issues. He always has issues. He's a very butch queen, really. Very high  maintenance. His battery has reached a state of exhaustion rendering him unable to get it up, so to speak. So there he sits, decorating our driveway. 

(Seems my ADD is running rampant today. You know, the ADD that my psychiatrist says I don't have. My brain is telling rambling stories worse than usual.) So, we are not comfortable taking either vehicle out of town. We rented a little Toyota something-or-other from our neighborhood Enterprise franchise. I picked it up around 4:00 Thursday afternoon and headed up to college town to get Light. I was so sleepy! It was tough to stay awake to make that drive. But I did, and rested a while in her dorm until she was ready to go. We got home safely, though I was still very tired. 

Light came home for the weekend to get her wisdom teeth removed. The closest oral surgeon who participates with our insurance is in Augusta, GA, an hour and a half south of here. That's the other reason we rented the little car, to drive down there and back again. We shot out of town Friday morning at 9:30-ish for her 11:15 appointment with the oral surgeon. Making good time, we got there with 15 minutes to spare. This is significant because the interstate that runs through Augusta is currently undergoing extensive renovation. Some days some exits are open, other days they are blocked. It's a crap shoot even for the folks who live around there. Augusta has never made much sense to me, navigationally. I'm usually pretty good with directions, can get around fairly well in new places. Augusta, GA, Athens, GA, and Charlotte NC are cities within a few hours driving distance that befuddle me. So I was quite proud of myself for getting to the surgeon's office in time. 

The waiting room was HOT. I survived anyway. Light is cold natured, while I am hot natured. The poor child's hands and feet are perpetually cold. I don't know how she does it. I sat in the waiting room for however long. Didn't really pay attention to the time. Eventually Light was finished, so we got in the car and came home. Poor kid was in a fog. She had her top two wisdom teeth removed. Thanksgiving of '07 she had the bottom wisdom teeth removed. Hopefully she's now finished having wisdom teeth removed. Rumor has it that she only had 4. I hope that is the case. 

And I was so sleepy on the way back to Greenwood! Did OK. Got back to town and had to take Light's prescriptions to the pharmacy. Also swung by (way out of the way) the family practice office to pick up Sproing's Ritalin prescription. He didn't have any Ritalin at school yesterday. His teacher is a saint. So I got the scripts to the pharmacy, topped off the gas tank (a Toyota Whatever-that-was has a MUCH smaller gas tank than our '00 Chevy 3500 passenger van.). Then I met Superman at the rental car place. I returned the car less than 24 hours after I picked it up, so incurred the one day rental charge instead of the two day. We planned it out carefully, and I'm so glad it went as planned. That's a good day. 

Came back home, crawled into my bed beside Light who was sleeping under a pile of quilts on her Daddy's side of the bed, and we both napped. I was so tired! She was so sore and sick! Poor kid had the upset stomach reaction to the knock-out juice they gave her. She also swallowed a lot of blood from the incisions in her gums. Blood typically doesn't sit well on the stomach. She had a fit of vomiting late last night. I felt so bad for her, but unfortunately there wasn't really anything I could do but sympathize. She went to bed around 1:00 and I think she slept through til morning. She feels much better today, though is taking her Percocet. Perhaps that's why she feels better.

Now, back to Thursday morning. That's when Lander scheduled the New and Transfer Student Orientation. I got the flyer, which said something about talking to your advisor (did that already), registering for classes (did that already), taking a tour of campus (did that already), and getting your parking pass and ID. I hadn't done the latter, but figured I'd do that while everyone else was in the orientation meeting so I would miss the long lines. I'm smart. I think I made a good choice skipping orientation. Indeed I was finally able to get my ID and parking pass. The bureaucratic requirements holding things up were fulfilled somehow. I think it was magic, or perhaps a fairy godmother. I did something, followed some vague directions sent to me in an email from some lady in financial aid. I didn't understand it exactly, though I think it had to do with officially accepting my financial aid package, which I know I already did. Perhaps something changed with the package. Seems they've given me even more money to work with. Not necessarily a good thing, as it's all student loan and I have to pay it back. Really I'd much rather have free money that I don't have to give back. Wouldn't you?

I mentioned that I've been tired. Did I tell you I saw the doctor a couple of weeks ago? I asked him to check my hemoglobin. I suspect low iron. The doctor jumped on that suggestion and ordered a complete blood work up. Well this week I received the results of the blood tests. No, I'm not pregnant. (did I frighten you?) But my iron levels are indeed low. He has prescribed an iron supplement, once a day every day, and he wants to check my iron level again in 8 weeks. My cholesterol numbers are beautiful despite my diet and lifestyle. Good genes, you know. My blood sugar, however, is slightly elevated. He prescribes a weight loss diet and moderate exercise, of course. He prescribes that nearly every time I see him. I am taking the iron tablets, and I only had candy bars for a meal twice this week. *sigh*

Classes begin Monday. I have an 8:00 class on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. That was the only unit of that course still open when I registered. My first class on Tuesdays and Thursdays begins at 9:30. I wish I had bought my books this week, but I didn't have the chance. I can get a book voucher from financial aid to pay for my books. That will charge the books to my loan. The loan details didn't get cleared up until Thursday, and I had all the other business with Light and her teeth of wisdom to handle Thursday afternoon and Friday. I will investigate the matter of procuring my textbooks Monday afternoon when my classes are over.