To honor our Viking Ancestors (Who are spinning in their graves about now...)

We visited the Scandinavian Store in Elkhorn yesterday. Believe me, no drinking was involved. I swear.















This is Steve. I think he looks a little embarassed here, but I could be wrong...

This is my father-in-law, Bob. Now, Bob is 100% Swedish, so maybe that's why he looks so fierce. LOL!











Here are Steve and I together. Haha! Look at Steve trying to look like a tough Viking warrior in that first picture!

I have no excuses for this one. None at all.

Homebound

I was totally ticked at Steve last night, so Meg and I went for a ride and got home late. I guess to make amends he invited us to go out to breakfast this morning with him. Tom was coming up from Pickerell and they were going to brew some lambic. Of course I'll go. Free breakfast? Are you nuts? I woke up with a raging headache though, probably a carryover from the stupid flare that settled in my back and neck the past few days. When we got home from breakfast, I grabbed Ben, Jojo, and a book, and went back to bed where it didn't take me long to fall asleep again.

I enjoyed a 3 hour nap and woke up headache free! Woo hoo! Steve told me he and Tom were heading down to Beertopia to see what kind of new beers they've gotten in since last time Tom was in town (I'm glad I woke up feeling good and was ready to be sociable!). He asked if I wanted to go, but really, do you think Beertopia holds any appeal for this Mormon Girl? You're right. I decided to skip their trip, thinking I'd go use my birthday gift cards at Village Pointe while they were gone, but after they left I discovered Tom was parked behind my side of the garage and they had taken Steve's truck. Crap. It's not like there's nothing to do here, I just don't feel like doing anything. And I'm dying for a Diet Dr. Pepper and I'm out! I thought about walking down to the gas station about 3 blocks away to get one, but it's thundering and about to rain, so I nixed that idea too. Grrr.

Guess I'll just grab a glass of ice water, my book, and settle in on the sofa with the dogs for some reading. I hate not being able to go somewhere when I want to!

dammitall!

Why is it someone can go to medical school, can take a human being apart and put them back together, but still can't figure out worktype HP is history and physical, PH is preoperative history and physical, PC is preoperative consultation and CN is a consultation? What the freaking heck is so HARD about THAT?????!!!!! Sometimes doctors irritate me to the point of.... well, it makes me mad.

I love holiday weekends

Especially when I have to work. Not. Saturday went okay. I split the day working and doing stuff I wanted to do. Sunday was, well, odd. Check out my post about Charlie. I got about 4 hours of work done before we went to dad's for his cookout. It actually went quite well. I was totally expecting Pam to be totally antisocial to all of us after dad's anxiety attack and hospital stay on Tuesday, but actually she was pretty nice. Candace's parents came with Candace, Tony, and baby Ryan, so dad got to know them a little better. They're really nice people and really good role models for Tony and Candace.

Missy, Meg, Amber and I played Super Scrabble. I love that game, I could play forever! Which is probably a good thing when you play with Miss and Amber! LOL! Hey, I heart you guys! When we got home I finished working and then Meg and I played SS until 2:30.

I slept late on Monday and then woke up with a flare of my stupid MCTD. I had promised someone from RAGOK that I'd go to Ft. Calhoun and take some pictures of some grave sites for her, so Steve and I drove up there. I hobbled around the cemetery trying to find the graves for about 30 minutes, even after I realized there were no markers on any of them. I hate when that happens! I took some pictures of where the graves were, so she could see there were no markers. By that time my knee was hurting clear up into my hip, but Steve thought we should probably go out to West Lawn/Hillcrest and pay our respects to our families. Most all of our ancestors from both sides of the family are buried there, which makes it convenient. I'm glad we went, we found a marker for Steve's great-grandmother's uncle, so I got another photo for our family history while we were there.

We stopped home just long enough to take care of Toby and let the other dogs outside (and for me to grab a pain pill) before heading out to Steve's mom's for Steve's and Sue's birthday dinner. Mom had just gotten some roasted chicken and potato salad from Baker's. Bob's back is bothering him so they didn't want to cook out. It didn't matter to me! Mom always makes Sue an angel food cake, and a red velvet cake for Steve. Mike and Amy were there with the kids - I can't believe how big Gabe is getting! They're sprucing up their house for sale since Amy got a job in Memphis, and they're leaving in 6 weeks. I left not to long after everyone opened presents - I had Meg bring me home. I was rather annoyed that I worked like a demon all weekend and then the day I have off I have a stupid flare. Although there was some crappy weather around earlier in the day, which might have set it off. It's better today, but now my right hip hurts from walking funny because of the sore left leg yesterday. Some days you just have to roll with the punches, I guess.

This morning I cleaned up our room a little bit. I know I have to tackle the shower with some CLR, but I absolutely detest that job, so I'm putting it off for awhile longer! I have sewing stuff all over the kitchen, which I have to get picked up some time - how can you live in a 5 bedroom house and have no room? (Oh yeah, that's right, too much junk!) Mom's neighborhood is having a garage sale weekend after next, so I have to really get busy and go through some stuff. I know I have a TON of stuff to sell, it's just a matter of going through it and getting it over to her house. I hate pricing stuff.

I spent about an hour looking for my roller cutter the other night. I refuse to buy another when I know I have one, those things are about 25 bucks! I know it's here somewhere...

Haha!

http://www.onesentence.org/stories/692/

That one really cracked me up! I spewed Diet Dr. Pepper everywhere!

Did you see what I saw?

Of course you didn't. This morning I had the oddest experience ever. I had to run some errands and when I got home I pulled in the driveway and looked over to the side of the house because that's where the dogs usually congregate to bark at anything and everything. There stood Charlie Brown. For a second I just looked at him and then I realized who I was seeing so I looked back and he was still there. (Charlie went to the Rainbow Bridge in December 2006, in case you're wondering why this was so odd.) Charlie Brown was very distinct looking, he had no hair on his nose, so it was black; and he had no hair on his tail. Part of his tail was missing, so it was this bald little stub that never stopped wagging. And there he was. Just looking at me and wagging his tail. I must have stared at him for about 10 or 15 seconds, just not believing what I was seeing, thinking that it must be Jojo, but Jojo is an old dachshund and has a white face. The dog I was seeing had a black snout and no hair on his stubby tail. Finally, I looked down to shut the car off and grabbed my purse and packages off the passenger seat and when I looked back over there weren't any dogs standing there; and then suddenly Jojo, Ben and Ruger came running up to the gate and barking. Usually the second they hear a car in the driveway they're right there. I wondered later why they hadn't been there when I pulled in. It was the oddest thing I've ever expreienced. I mean it. He was there. I just get teary-eyed thinking about it. I suppose it's possible. People have guardian "angels" looking out for them, so I suppose you could have a guardian dog angel. So what do you think? Do you think dogs go to heaven? Do you think people can come back? I had an experience with that too, but I'm not going into that this time. This is about Charlie.