Saturday, December 1, 2007

More pictures

Candace, Missy, Meg,
and Laura

Candace and Ryan

Okay... Obviously, this is not Pam and Ryan. Somehow 2 pictures ended up in cyberspace and are out wandering about hand in hand... This is Ruger, my fat boy, looking very dejected since he had to wear a belly band. My apologies to Pam and Ryan if they saw this and thought I was being rude. Well, I am rude, but this was unintentional!





Ben and Buttercup. It's so nice to have a furry sister to lay your head on at the end of a busy day.





What 'chu lookin' at Willis? Ha ha ha... Ben and Buttercup. (And the snaky cord from the rug cleaner that never gets put away...)









Icing anyone?






No snow darn it, but we had some ice. Not even much ice to speak of, and by noon it was raining. THAT we had quite a bit of! I was looking at some photos from Minnesota tonight, darn, wouldn't 19" of snow be nice? (You can't tell I work at home, can you?)

I've got one nerve left...

And my neighbors are standing on it. Hell, they're dancing all over it! Why do these people insist on revving the engines of their cars for 5-10 minutes before they drive away? I'm trying to work, I don't feel good, and all I hear are engines revving and revving and revving... If I felt better I'd go over there and clock somebody. Of course, if I felt better, it might not be so annoying!

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

The verdict is in

The doctor's PA called me back today. All the bloodwork is fine, and the heart monitor was basically okay. A couple episodes of tachycardia (rapid heartbeat) and a couple episodes of PVC (premature ventricular contractions). Neither of which is really any big deal. She asked me if I had an episodes that I knew of when I had the monitor on. Of course I didn't. She wants me to try an event monitor which I would have for 30 days or so, you only put it on when you're having one of your "events". I told her I'd wait and see how things go. If it keeps up I'll go get one, otherwise, I'll just wait and see what happens. I had some problems with this about 4 years ago and nothing came of it. I still think it's just anxiety since the holidays are always hard for me anyway. I've totally cut all caffeine out of my diet. As a matter of fact, I haven't even had a caffeine-free Diet Dr. Pepper in almost a week. I don't know how long that will last though, water is getting pretty darn boring! I even bought a bunch of bottled water thinking that would be more appetizing, but it's really not. Ick. I got some Crystal Light to help, but I'm not a big fan of Crystal Light, so that's only good for one bottle a day. I'm working on losing some weight. I hate to admit it because I feel like that always jinxes me, but I am, so we'll see how that goes. I wish I could get rid of this darn prednisone, it's just nasty stuff. I've even started taking vitamins again. Gak.

Mom had her Cardiolite stress test at the cardiologist's today. Her doctor is on vacation, so someone else will call her with the results in a few days. Hopefully, there won't be anything wrong, or at least something that easily fixed. I love my mother-in-law. I'm truly blessed for having such a wonderful woman in my life. Kind of makes up for the lousy mother I have! I was really worried about this test after talking to John's mom in Ohio last week. She was telling me when she had her heart test they wouldn't even let her off the table, they immediately transferred her to Cleveland Clinic and she had to have quadruple bypass! Thank goodness that wasn't the scenario here. I always am sure the worst possible thing is going to happen! Such a worry wart.

It's gotten colder. Blah. I hate the cold. They're talking the possibility of an ice/snow "event" (what ever happened to the good old fashioned winter storm?) this weekend. I don't mind the snow so much, but ice... I hate ice.

Missionaries are coming over for dinner tomorrow. Steve made a huge pot of meatballs and spaghetti Sunday night, so we're having that. Good meatballs! I'm trying to figure out how to fit in spaghetti and meatballs - and a piece of garlic bread - into tomorrow's meal plan. I may have to forgo the garlic I bread - sniff... Maybe I can console myself with a Diet Dr. Pepper (caffeine free of course). My mom used to make really good garlic bread. (I have to admit, she may not have been a good mother, but she could cook!) She used pull apart bread, which I don't even think you can buy anymore, I haven't seen it for years! It was so freaking good. Probably why I look like a whale now - too much garlic bread. And chocolate chip cookies, spice cake, macaroni and cheese... the list is endless...)

Only 2 more pay days until Christmas! Holy Cow! Where has the time gone? We still haven't gotten our Christmas tree. I've been toying with the idea of getting an artificial tree this year. Kind of hard to convince Steve, the die hard forester, but I hate the mess of a real tree. Plus, Christmas is at our year this house (like you haven't heard that 100 times lately) and I want to put it in the family room. The wood stove is down there, so real trees dry out so fast... But, I took a look at the Michael's ad this week and nearly had a heart attack over the price of artificial trees. Are they freaking kidding?! There's no way in hades I'm going to pay $299 for a fake tree for my dogs to pee on! We usually go to a tree farm near Ft. Calhoun and pay about $25 for a live tree. Hm. Maybe it's worth the extra money not to have to be sweeping pine needles or getting a pine needle stuck in my foot in July. Nah... I saw some for $100, but they look like Charlie Brown's tree, sorry looking things.

Poor Benny isn't liking the cold very much. I carried him out to the mailbox with me this afternoon and he was shivering before we even got to the street! When we came in I dug up one of Charlie's old sweaters for him. He looks so cute, but he's much longer than Charlie was, so it's not quite long enough. Toby was shivering this afternoon too, I think it's the wood floors. Try to put on a sweater on a dog who doesn't like you sometime. I have to imagine it's somewhat like giving a cat a bath. Or wrestling an alligator with one arm tied behind your back. Granted, the dog is paralyzed in back, but his teeth are in the front! Yowza! I barely escaped from that experience with all my digits intact. Steve got on eBay tonight and bought Toby a coat like Charlie's old one, it has Velcro in front and a Velcro strap that goes around his waist. Nothing to go over the head or try to fit his paws into those little holes. Much better.

Proof positive that it's cold - Steve just woke up and asked me to get another blanket for the bed. We already have one wool blanket on, plus the comforter. This from the guy who thinks good camping weather means you have to shovel the ground for a place to put your tent!

That's all the boring news from the still coachless Husker nation.

Calling it an early night.

I still can't type on this #$%^$& thing, but I think I'm getting a little better. Darn it all...

The hospital is doing some darn thing, so we had to quit working at 10:00 tonight. What a shame. And I was just getting started! lol! Hopefully, everything will be up and running tomorrow like it should. Hopefully, I said...

I posted a lot of my pictures from Cleveland, A Christmas Story house, and Amber's baby showed on my Picasa web page. I was too lazy to do Flickr... (I know, I know...) Anyway, check them out at www.picasaweb.google.com/mindikurtz They're not spectacular photo masterpieces, just a bunch of people having fun!

I got a couple books at Amazon.com about epitaphs and graves from the early American times until now. Very interesting. Way back when they used to practically put a person's life story on their gravestone, made for some interesting reading. I like some of the funny ones though. I found an epitaph for my headstone "The shell is here, but the nut is gone". I think that's just perfect! ROFL I'll have to find the links to some crazy markers I saw on Find A Grave, one is obviously a Scrabble lover, that one was really cool... Okay, that's it. I've backspaced and moved the cursor for the last time tonight. I'm going to bed.

I read on my brother Marc's blog that he's down with a pretty nasty cold - Wishing him lots of warm get well vibes! Take care of yourself and don't try to go to SF tomorrow. They'll be fine without you. Think of all the ticked of people who'll be after your hide after having to ride in an airplane with you hacking up a lung! Don't' do it! Take care of yourself!

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Diagnosis - I can't type on a laptop

I got my computer back from B est Buy this morning. They wouldn't let me return or exchange it because I was 2 days past the deadline. Never mind the receipt said anything you buy as a gift between Nov 1 and Dec 24 is eligible for the extended deadline of 30 days. Apparently that has to be preapproved by a manger - although it doesn't say that anywhere. Okay, and technically it was only a gift for myself, but still. They had the Geek Squad look at it, and they can't find anything wrong with the keyboard. They said I had to be touching the mouse pad and that's why the cursor jumps all over. Yeah. Whatever. I can type on Meg's laptop just fine. I could type on Steve's laptop just fine. I guess this only happens with cheap laptops that you buy at Best Buy. I should know better than to buy anything there, we've gotten into it with them before last Christmas when I needed to exchange a gift. They tried to tell me they didn't sell what I was trying to exchange. Even when I brought them one off the shelf they said the UPC was different, so it wasn't their product. Urgh. I'll never learn.

The sun was shining and the weather was glorious today! The snow is all melted from last week, and it sure doesn't feel like the last week of November! I'm liking it just fine!

Steve and I went and picked up a rescue tonight and brought him home for a short while. I thought the foster mom was going to get him tomorrow, but she came and got him tonight, so he wasn't here very long. He was so cute. He's a 14-month-old red longhair by the name of Riley. I was so sweet, even played with Toby for awhile. He sure didn't want to go when the foster mom came and got him. I hope we (NDR) can find a new home for him soon. He's a real sweetheart!

Tami, our ex-lead supervisor, got the manager job permanently last week, so she sent an e-mail asking if anyone was interested in the position of lead transcriptionist. It was be kind of fun I guess, not having to type the entire 8 hours, make the day go faster, but I'm not driving all the way to Fremont every day. If we lived closer, I might consider it, but I don't think so. I don't know if anyone else is going to apply or not. I think Denise would be good for it. Anybody but the slug at night. Of course it might be interesting to see her actually work for a change. She's another reason I couldn't do it. I couldn't be objective when it comes to her, I just couldn't. She never, ever works on time or for her entire shift. I don't know how she manages, but she does. As a matter of fact, tonight she still wasn't working at 9:30. Bah, I'm not going to worry about it.

I took the Holter monitor back to the doctor today, so I guess I'll hear from them tomorrow. I didn't feel a single palpitation the entire time I had the thing on. Unless it happened during the night, they're not going to find anything, I'm thinking. Again. Which is good news on one hand, on the other hand it's annoying as the devil to have them and no know why. Well, other than anxiety, which is what I'm pretty sure it is. I've always been unsettled over the holidays, ever since I was in about high school. I'm not sure why, but then having my grandmother pass away in early December, and having to put Charlie Brown to sleep last year at Christmas have made it seem a little bit worse. Let's hope the rest of the year goes smoothly and I can keep the old anxiety monster at bay.

We got some outside Christmas decorations over the weekend. Not much, but just 6 spiral trees with multicolor lights. They're only about 18" high and we have them in front of the house. I think they look so festive! I really wish I had gotten the inflatable Eeyore a couple years ago from Disney, but I didn't. It was so cool, Eeyore was on a sled with his ears flying backward and this hysterical expression on his face. It was 6 feet long and I really, really wanted it, but at the time I thought it was too expensive. Now I can't find it. Isn't that just the way it goes? Home Depot had a huge Tigger, over 7 feet tall, but I don't care much for Tigger. We still have to get our tree and I have to dig the Christmas decorations out of the storeroom. I better get busy or Christmas will be here and gone before I'm even ready!

Guess that's it for tonight!