WHEW PSA for the ladies

Well I have finished my medical care for this week. My echo stress test went well and if there is anything it may be the old prolapsed Mitral Valve, so no biggy. And I did not have to wait at all, walked in early and was taken immediately. Then the lady parts doctor and again no waiting, in and out in 40 minutes. And there was a lot of conversation at the lady doctor, she has changed her hairstyle. And I learned something new. Female Information Alert . . . there are these wipes for both areas down there and my doctor shrieked Never, Never, Never use those products. I mentioned the one said it was specifically for itching and she was back to the never, never. Itching is a normal symptom of menopause and it can turn into a "condition" if not treated properly and the preservatives in the wipes can worsen the itching and bring on the "condition". In an emergency you can get 1% hydra cortisone from the drug store. I have a prescription. No more wipes. Ever.

My phone is broken. I do not have a clue how this happened and I am dreading telling Big Daddy as we will have to have phone appliance discussions. I hate those conversations. So no pictures until the phone is fixed unless I get Punkin Head's camera out again.

Yesterday it was decent for running about, in the mid 50's so no coat needed. Today it is back to cold and it is snowing. I think we are moving into the February gray days, as I recall this is the month for the fewest days of sunlight. Yuck.

Off to a new week

I was up and about bright early this morning so I could take my Valium in time to go to the dentist. Today was filling of the cavity day. Appointment at 8:30 and I was home by 9. First filling without a shot and it was nothing. They really have improved dentistry.

It snowed last night, a few inches, and then rained and iced on top. Sammy Dog was not happy-step and drop through the ice-kerplunk. And the snow removal rushed over to collect their fee for snow removal on a day when it will reach the high 40's, and they forgot to do the front walk. That did not make mama happy.

Gotta do laundry, later . . .

It is Brr colder than yesterday

WJR tells me it was zero this morning at 5:30, currently Oscoda is minus 2. Won't start warming up  until the end of the week. I remember these times when 32 degrees could seem balmy.  I can't see out the kitchen window it is frozen solid.

On the other hand Our utilities for last month were about 100 bucks less with the new furnace. So that is something.

The doctor called again and I am now taking fish oil 3 times a day. I feel like I am on their speed dial. Oh and yes, the now 2000 units of Vitamin D.

I wanted to re-read Anne Rice's book about the Mayfair witches and our library had to borrow it for me. This book is from the Hasting's Michigan library. That may be another new hobby to see how many obscure and different libraries I can get books from. Punkin Head is volunteering in a school library program and it is amazing how many people do not know how to use the library. And some of the school rules boggle the mind. I was amazed we had a op/ed in the paper about how we are crap because our kindergartners are flunking kindergarten.  WTF, how do you flunk kindergarten?

It is BRR cold

Today we are 19 over 6, tomorrow the high will be 12. Yep that is January weather as I recall.

The blood oranges are in and we are happy. I love blood oranges, they are the only oranges besides Mandarin that I eat. I am not an orange fan. I am not a fruit fan except for berries and I can't eat the good ones any more as I have the diverticulosis. Just don't want to risk it.

I went to the dermatologist this morning and he gave me some stuff for the face and the ankle. When he looked at my tube of Chinese medicine, he said,"What is this shit, you know you can't trust any of their meds, this is Chinese shit". So now I have U.S. shit and I hope it is better. This doctor is rather well known about town as an eccentric.

I have Robins in the front yard eating the berries off the Bittersweet vine. It snowed just enough to thinly coat everything.

Well Barry is on TV getting sworn in the for the people to wave and shout. The real swearing in was yesterday as legally required and now today we have the dog and pony show. I think this should be outlawed. One inauguration per president is enough. Maybe if the next president is a white guy we could adopt this. If it is a woman we gotta let her have 2, can't start a new trend with another first.

Here is my question

Just how do you get all snuggled up and covered with your tootie toy with no help. Come on there are 2 blankets on that chair. That had to take hours.

Me and Michael Jackson

Going along with my New Year's resolutions I am in a flurry of job seeking and doctor's visits. I did go to the internist last summer and decided I never wanted to see him again. And we both had medication left from China so we were fine on the prescriptions. Well I found a new internist and I really like him. He is from Nigeria and has a great sense of humor. He really did not like my stories from China and decided I need a colonoscopy and a camera down my throat to look into my stomach. Well I told him that was going to require extreme Valium just to get to the testing place. He told me not worry they are using new drugs now for the test, Propofol. I said just like what killed Michael Jackson and he said yes, with some excitement in his voice. I am hoping this works out better for me than it did for Michael.

At the end right after my flu shot he came back in and asked when my last EKG was and I told him  my physical in China and it was great. He said nuhuh, my EKG was abnormal. I never did trust those tests in China.  So I have to go for a stress echo test. Now I could research this on the Internet which I know is not a good idea for me, I mean surely there are some normal people with abnormal EKG's that are just fine. Then when I am on the phone Friday afternoon I had a call come in when I was already talking to someone and when I checked the caller ID it was my doctor's office. I really hate it when they call the day after you have tests. Nothing good ever comes of that. Well, when I called back they were closed. They close early on Friday. So I have all weekend to wonder why they were calling me.

Monday I go to see the dermatologist and naturally my face is clearing up as we speak. Thursday I am seeing the dentist which reminds me I need to pick up my Valium from the drugstore. I only take Valium when I am going to the doctor/dentist. Not the Internist though as that would mess up the tests. Then the end of the month is the stress test and Gynecologist which we just do not like to talk about.

And I need to call my recruiters on Monday and see if employment is in my future. I am on the fence about going back to my old job description. I keep thinking about how nice it would be to have a job that when you leave you are done working for the day.

I have a new hobby

I have decided that next spring, or late winter I would like to be in Fairbanks Alaska watching the Northern Lights,  that is what we call them here. For the rest of y'all the Aurora Borealis. I have wanted to see them again since the one and only time I did see them. They were spectacular and I must see them again. I have hung out at plane door windows hoping for a glimpse.

I researched all the areas that are best for viewing and of course cost to travel, hotel and food costs, costs for 47 layers of clothing, and comfort. Also a way to get out of dodge when it is over. The train to one spot in Canada lets you off and returns some days later. One place in Greenland only has traffic in and out once a week. The easiest access with the best ratings and results was Fairbanks Alaska.

Normal airlines and schedules, a bus ride of around an hour or less to the resort and things to do at the resort during the day while you are waiting for the lights. One of the delights to experience is a dog sled ride. Who can resist a dog sled ride. And it is only a 3 day commitment. I am figuring flying in staying in Fairbanks the first night, then off to the resort and maybe a night in Fairbanks before flying out if necessary.

So everyday for a month I have been charting the intensity of the lights to see if the times that they say are best are actually true. It has been low activity for awhile and supposed to be great around February-March time frames. I will let you know.

Breath That Smells like Death

Well, I looked this up on the Internet and thank goodness I am talking about my dog instead of the child most people are referring to. If my child smelled this bad we would be Blogging from the Mayo Clinic.

A few nights ago Sammy Dog decided to cut up at bedtime and he just pissed me off. So I called Big Daddy and told him to take that fancy piece of work into his bed and leave me to my peace.  I guess Sammy was not the most perfect of bed guests and that surprised me as BD has a rep as the thrasher from hell that sleeps like the dead. Apparently Sammy tried to wake him up with the old nose bumping and when that did not work he stood on his chest and nudged. It must have been at that moment in time that BD dreamed he was in a rotting fruit cellar trying to escape the odors of hell. Sammy breathed on him.

I have mentioned for months this breath and we had the vet weigh in on this. Vet says he needs his teeth cleaned and it has not been a year yet. We will see a different vet at the hospital.  The breath is bad, really bad.

Well, after getting his haircut on Saturday BD wandered over to the pet store and found a magic bottle of promise. No more bad breath from the junkyard dog. Oh no, we would now have fresh and minty smells coming from the hound.

I was busy and vaguely heard the "come to papa, get a treat" conversation in the background. The directions state you pull the dogs lips back and spray the contents onto the teeth. I guess BD missed the part about the foam because he and Sammy were both appalled when the foam exploded over his teeth and gums and ran down his dog lips. Sammy immediately began rubbing his head on any surface available while kicking his back legs high in air as fast as possible.

His breath smells no better and whenever BD looks at him Sammy puts his ears down. The bottle says it could take a few days.

Scratchin' my head

Phone call as related to me...

A  So Wednesday I went to Kroger's . . .

B  Oh we don't have Kroger's here

A  But you have things like supermarkets, right?

B  Yea

A  So on Wednesday after *pm the cooking people cook and you can watch them and for a quarter you get to eat what they make and you get 2 ounces of wine. Last night for 1 dollar I got a wine buzz.

So here is my question, did she eat all four meals or did she steal 3 people's wine?

And is it fair that we laugh at her?  She is a friend from high school and stays in touch with Florida Girl and the odd times she calls the information she gives is beyond bizarre. Actually I am amazed she is not in prison, she has done nothing wrong, but her husband is total toady creep and the prisons are full of innocent people and she is one of them. Trust me.

See No Evil

I have this great ability to not see what I don't want to see. I mean this literally. When we lived on the farm when we first were married I never saw the snakes after the first one. The first one was in a cement block hole in the ground, probably an old cellar. I walked up on my first visit to the house and there the snake was in the cement block thing. Now our little farm house was surrounded by fields of crops in the country and  I never saw another snake. Big Daddy was amazed, he said they were in the shrubs around porch and I never saw one. We had a little dog we got at the pound, about 10 pounds and short haired. I named him Scottyskins and he lived to kill snakes. I never knew. Big Daddy never told me these things until we moved.

The mind is an amazing thing. I sometimes call it self preservation.

My laundry room is in the basement. I think all basements are scary and that they probably have ghosts, criminals, and dead animals lurking about. Even though mine is referred to as a rec room, ceiling and floors and such, it is still a basement. And now the light in the laundry room is going kaput. It is one of those long things in the ceiling. There used to be 2 and now there is one, and it is gasping it's last breath. I can barely see it for the puffy shit hanging all over the laundry room that I am told is what the hot air goes through to heat our house.

I need a glass of wine. And I need to whine to Big Daddy that if I can't go downstairs when he is in Mexico it will be a horrible time for me, grieving and such for clean clothes and items in the pantry. Oh yes, the pantry is located in the laundry room.

I also cannot see the entire middle of the basement taken up by Punkin Head's, hmmm things.
******************

Okay a day or so later and I have quit whining. BD got a new light bulb for the basement and looked into getting a new transformer so the other light can also get a new bulb. Sammy is the happiest pup on the block as we are having the January thaw early and he can stay out a bit longer and wander a bit as the snow is receding.

Punkin Head has a big interview this afternoon and I have a introduction interview tomorrow morning. The other one did not work out and I am wondering if I am asking for too much money in the initial conversation with the recruiters. There is just a limit on how much money I will do that job for. I guess I don't need the money that bad. But that job was brutal in hours and expectations plus having to drive through the bowels of the cities dodging crack ho's and meth heads. Two of the plants I went to had murders, one multiple and those are only the ones I know of.

If this is not going to work out I may have to start looking for a "pin money" job, just to get out of the house and have something to do. I am going to join a gym in the next week or so, but that is not enough to keep me occupied in the winter. Will let you know tomorrow how things are working out.

I feel like complaining

We had 2 lightbulbs burn out in the kitchen this week. They are the new GE 4 times higher cost than regular light bulbs guaranteed for 5 years bulbs. They lasted for 11 months. Yes, they are guaranteed. If you still have your receipt you can mail them in and if you pay for shipping to your home they will replace them at no charge. Right. Just one more shitty company making rules no one can follow. Fie on you GE, this is the company where the head honcho thinks our government should emulate China as us regular folks are too stupid to make decisions.

I finished one of my Christmas books, "Jacobson's, I miss it so", by Bruce Allen Kopytek. It is the story of the greatest department store we ever had in Michigan. I remember back in the day I would get a telephone call just when I was running out of mascara from Carol. She was my makeup lady. If I did not have time to go in she would fill an order, put in samples and Fed Ex it to my house. Wonderful woman. And when they had end of season sales, those were real sales. And you saw everyone at Jacobson's. Now the stores are just crap. I went to Nordstrom last week and it just was tacky, sparse the sales staff was lacking in customer service. I think you should hold your personal interest conversations on your time not mine.

Now I am reading an old Lisa Scottoline I missed from 2000. I can't decide which book I will read next.

You can't teach an old dog new tricks

I call bullshit on that one.

That is my old dog, Remy, 5 pounds of hell oh wheels. He is in quarantine at the groomers. This is after he escaped the groomer, terrorized all the other dogs by running up to each cage and barking at them and biting the owner 3 times. And he only has a few teeth. I remember when I used to brush him he would bite the brush so hard some times his mouth would bleed. He was the cutest damn dog but so ornery. Keep in mind he created all this havoc on three legs. One of his front legs was broken as a very young pup and it took Michigan State University and over 5 grand to save that leg-and it never was the same. His new owners love him to death and apparently do not dispense any discipline. And he scared Sammy.  Note-we had to give him up when we moved to China.

Which brings us to the next photo, one of our gifts from the kids. Does that not look like our Sammy Spanky dog? I think this is hilarious.

And this guy created no problems at the groomer. And he is not a spoiled brat.

Late Christmas

One of the mansions on Lakeshore

Well we had our Christmas last night with the kids. We got Punkin Head an Aeropress coffee maker, it is a small plastic thing that you pour your cup of hot water in and it makes the best coffee outside of using a 700 dollar espresso machine. It is so lightweight and small it is easy to pack. We also got him the small electric grinder so he is now set and does not need to go out for coffee. He is like his dad and picky about the coffee. I do appreciate a nice cup of coffee but in the morning I will drink the Krups pot dry.

Oh we also gave Punkin Head one of our iron skillets. We still have around 6, we collected them for years. But just how many do you need and Punkin Head wanted one so I got Big Daddy to take care of that wish. And it was already seasoned. It still needs more seasoning though.

The kids got us some nice books which I will talk about later. The Fiancee liked The Cats book I got from Pearl,thanks Pearl,. I said it was about the Minneapolis Biteys and she said Liza Bean and I cracked up. We had a nice dinner, ordered in from The Dish and a nice time was had by all.

When Big Daddy went out this morning the whole town smelled like booze, as in dark colored whiskey. We were not sure if the Slavs were cooking up a holiday concoction until BD went further into town and the smell got stronger. The Canadian Club distillery is just across the lake where it meets the river so I suspect something happened there. And his trip out this morning leads to tomorrow's post . . .

I need to get my believer fixed

It is wintertime.

Because I just cannot believe some of the shit that happens here in Motown. Every once in while some asshat decides to get nekkid and then get drunk, or visa versa, and go out and drive around town. How do I know this, they always end in the paper thanks to our fabulous law enforcement folks. And they are usually "somebody" or at least "somebody" most people know. The latest is a Priest from across town.

The other amazing thing about the nekkid, drunk driving around town people is the current temperature this morning was 19 degrees F. Now the summertime nekkid people you just have to think are stupid but what wacko decides to rip all their clothes off when it is well below freezing outside. And don't even mention heated seats, I am thinking that could get mighty uncomfortable.

A while back one of our Detroit Lions football assistant coaches went through the drive-thru at Wendy's while nekkid and drunk. What truly amazes me is that this is a common occurrence here in Motor City. I don't hear of this happening in other cities but here at home driving while nekkid is just part of living the Detroit Dream.

New Years Resolutions

Remember the bird house guy, his Christmas decor.

I have made a few for the New Year, this is actually new for me, I never did this shit before. As you can see swearing made the list, I will continue with this habit.

Our entire lives were turned upside down and back again; we survived, prevailed and actually had a few good times-and we are now on the good side for this bright and shiny new year. So I have made a list of resolutions and I am mapping out a plan. Some of this should remain secret, at least until I must drag it out to be inspected.

The 2nd or 3rd resolution is to celebrate something every month. January does not have a lot of possibilities for a full out extravaganza. Some of the January holidays I cannot pronounce. Epiphany is a church holiday and I am not familiar with those rituals. However I found one that is right up my alley. Australia Day is January 26. I looked up the ways to celebrate this holiday and the only one we can do here is to eat Australian food. The pool will be closed on January 26, I guess they all have pool parties.

We are done cooking extravagant meals, our last hurrah was the Billionaires Bacon on Tuesday. We did have the black eyed peas for luck which we could not do last year. I can't talk about my books until after we have Christmas with the children. I have read a few from the library and I was amazed how many ebooks are the only volume readily available on the library site. I have had to order the last few books and Fatal Vision turned out to be a thick paperback from the Ann Arbor library. Right now I have Anne Rice's The Wolf Gift, I missed it and Florida Girl really liked it. And I finally finished Widow Of the South and decided to not read a follow up book, it looked too damn depressing.