My Single Mom Life

I'm really not sure what caused it, but something I ate yesterday did a one-two punch on my stomach.
It (my stomach) was a bit upset last night before I fell asleep, but man, when I woke up this morning, I was sure that every ounce of food I've eaten in the last week was making an explosive get away from my body.
If it was the subs from Publix, it hasn't affected the boys, at least I don't think.
They are fine from what I can tell.
So anyway, I'm wicked way tired from spending the entire first half of my day running in and out of the bathroom expelling the contents of my bowels and intestines, so if I'm not around much today, it's because I'm trying to rest and not upset my stomach any further.
Later days.

Posted by Kat at 1:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

We had a really good time at Mindy's house yesterday afternoon and evening.
Good food, conversation, the kids all played video games while Mindy and I chatted and her husband leveled up on WoW.
I was way stiffened up by the time we got home, and laid down for about an hour or so, then I got up and dealt with emails and stuff.

I woke up this morning with a migraine from hell, and have been fighting it unsuccessfully all day and night now.
So seeing as I was defeated, I just laid around and watched movies for most of the day interspersed with going back and forth with a Bill Keller fan on a websites posting section.
There's nothing more fun than knowing more about the scriptures than the people who claim to live by them.
You all do know that no preacher is supposed to receive any pay for preaching the word of god right right?
Look it up, Corinthians 9:18.
The Keller fan has been refusing to acknowledge that little part of the new testament.
Keller has an income of $1million dollars at the end of the year, yet he tells his flock and tv viewers, that he only takes $60k as a salary.
He's a liar and a fraud, and it's time people start learning the truth about this very corrupt tv minister.

So anyway, today we watched the movie Funny Games (2008).
I just want to warn you that this remake starring Naomi Watts and Eli Roth, is absolute garbage.
I don't give a crap that it's a social commentary on our obsession with media violence, when at the crucial moment of the film, the bad guy picks up the tv remote and rewinds the movie to change the outcome, that's a complete waste of freaking time.

But we did watch a movie that we all really liked on Friday night, Otis, starring Jere Burns, Illeana Douglas, Daniel Stern, Kevin Pollak and Ashley Johnson.

After being captured and tortured by the psychopath Otis (Bostin Christopher), teen cheerleader Riley Lawson (Ashley Johnson) escapes and informs her parents (Daniel Stern and Illeana Douglas), who quickly sidestep the sluggish FBI and take matters into their own hands. But the Lawson's revenge plan hit a snag when Otis's unusual brother (Kevin Pollak) enters the picture. Jere Burns co-stars as the FBI agent assigned to the case.

I suppose I should get back to work now.
I have some stuff I need to do before I can go to bed.
I hope when I wake up in the morning this migraine has left.
It feels like my right eyeball is going to pop out any second.

Posted by Kat at 9:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We're all finally awake, and the teens are taking their showers, then I'll head in to take mine.
We're heading over to Mindy's house this afternoon for some bbq and video gaming.
Not really sure how long we'll be gone, but we'll be off having a good time.

I hope y'all have a great day and enoy your weekend!
Later days!

Posted by Kat at 11:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

My medical tests went off without a hitch, and much faster than the estimate they had given me.
They said it would take any where from 2.5 hours, to a possible 4+ hours.
I went in at 10:30am, and was out by 12:15pm.
I really, really liked the seated/open MRI machine.
That was awesome.
They had a huge flat panel tv in the room with it, it was on the Fox news channel, *gag* but eh, it was better than nothing.
They did my neck MRI first, then I had to sit sorta sideways while they did the shoulder MRI.
Then I went in for the CT, and when it was done I went out and waited for Mindy to pick me up.

Then we stopped off at Publix really quick so I could get the cat food, toilet paper, paper plates and trash bags I didn't go get yesterday.
Just as I was heading out the door yesterday afternoon to go, it started raining a little bit.
Rather than risk getting soaked, I just waited.

I took the above picture while waiting at the medical park for Mindy.
These bushes of flowers were all over the place, and they were just so pretty and bright in today's over cast skies.
I love that beautiful coral color of the flowers.
I have no idea what kind they are, but they are just really pretty I think.

I barely got any sleep last night, perhaps 3 hours, my alarm never went off, so I woke with a quick-start panic to my day.
Mindy's clocks at her house were all off by like 20 minutes, so she was running late as well.
We had a good laugh about that though.
It's kinda funny that we both were totally screwed up this morning.

Tomorrow, both our families will be getting together to spend some time hanging out.
Maybe the beach in the morning, a little bbq in the afternoon.
The teens can all drive each other crazy playing video games.
It'll be nice to be leaving the house to do something fun, rather than the usual leaving the house to go do sucky stuff like doctor's office visits.
I need a just take it easy kind of day.
I'm always doing stuff, so it will be really nice to just chill out for a few hours.

Well, off to try and catch up on all my blog and forum reading and stuff I do with those.
Later days.

Posted by Kat at 5:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I woke up late, my alarm didn't go off, bad start to a long day.
I'll be back around whenever the hell I get back around.
Later days!

Posted by Kat at 9:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A friend of mine on the local forums, messaged me tonight to say thank you.
She said that during all of her recent health issues, all of the pain she deals with, and all the emotions that come from living with chronic and debilitating pain, she had a really bad day a few weeks ago, and I was the only one who responded to her very frustrated post where she was ranting about it all.

She said she had been sitting there that day, was in so much pain, just wanted it all to end, and was seriously considering swallowing all of her pain medications at once and just going to sleep to never wake up again.
Because I replied, because I understood what she deals with and took the time to talk to her, she changed her mind.
"I never wanted to say that I was suicidal before but obviously there were times when I was. And you were the one there one day when I was so close to downing all my pills. You were the voice of reason and you made me feel like I wasn't alone for once.
So for that, I sincerely thank you."

I didn't reply to her that day with the thought of changing her mind, her post said nothing about what she was really thinking, it was just one of those posts where someone rants about how frustrating living with chronic pain is, and I replied because I do understand that.
I deal with it every single day of my life, and years ago, I had those same kinds of thoughts myself.
I didn't say that in her thread, I just talked about living with chronic pain, the medications I take, doctors appointments, the frustration of it all.
It was, I thought, just two people sharing a shared experience.
I had no idea that our conversation was saving her.

When I got her message tonight, I started crying.
I couldn't help it, I thought about how close I was to losing a friend, and what if I hadn't been on line that day, what if no one at all had responded to her, and that I was so happy to read that she had changed her mind.

This internet is a crazy thing huh?
It connects us to fun and games, music, movies, blogs, forums, all kinds of cool and interesting things to do and see, and most importantly, it connects us to other people and has an effect on those people we meet.

Her message still has me shaken up a bit even though it's been several hours now.
I could have lost a friend if I had not been on line that day, and that really is shaking me up.
I am so glad she is still here, so so glad, but wow, this box sitting on my desk, it's more than a toy I play my Sims on, it's more than a keyboard I do work on, it connects me to people in a way I've never experienced before tonight.

Posted by Kat at 1:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I keep meaning to ask one of the girls who works at my pain doc's office, what she's been taking to help her lose weight, because she is literally just melting away.
I'm wondering if the stuff she's been taking contains Phentermine or one of the many other weight-loss supplements, because whatever is in the stuff, is really working.
I know that his office sells it, it's about $50 I think, but it's behind a locked glass cabinet, so I can't read the ingredients.

And when I say this girl is melting away, I mean it.
Just 3 months ago, she was a really big girl, well over 200 pounds easily.
She is now down to 150, and her clothes literally hang off of her.
She said she has to keep buying new pants and shorts almost every week, because the weight is just coming off that rapidly.
I can't believe it, the stuff is really working.

I want to try it, but I need to know what's in it because I have had a bad reaction to chromium picolinate in the past, and ginseng makes me too shaky.
But yeah, I have just been watching Lacey drop the weight off and I am so impressed and jealous.
I want that, I want the weight to just fall off of me like it is with her.
I need to see that list of what's in it!

Posted by Kat at 2:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

A little bit ago, I posted my entry to try and win a digital photo key chain from Today's Gizmos.com.

Well I just swung by her blog to check and see if the winners had been drawn yet, and using random.org to choose from all the entries, I was chosen as one of the 3 lucky winners!
Winning it is very cool, I've over loaded my cell phone with pictures of my kids and stuff, so this will be awesome!
It can hold up to 70 pictures, and you just add them to it using a usb cord.
What I didn't know about the contest, was that the winners would also get to add a small custom engraving to it.
Now to think of something to engrave on there.
Hrm....

Thanks again to Today's Gizmos for having this contest, and to Wholesale Keychain for providing the prizes and doing the custom engraving for the winners!

Posted by Kat at 12:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The teens and I watched the Baby Borrowers tonight on NBC, and I'm pretty sure we'll be watching it all the way to the end.
Some of those teenagers who came in there all gung ho "I want a baby, I love kids! I'm great with kids!", learned really quick that no matter how cute you think babies are to look at, they actually require you to do more than hold them and dress them up cute.

I have a feeling more than a few of these teens came from families where they were spoiled by their parents, all the best clothes, shoes, schools, jewelry, Sector watches, and lives that didn't require them to lift a single finger.

Take Kelly and Austin.
Kelly is a spoiled brat of a girl.
She refused to wear the pregnancy belly, she screamed at Austin and threw a temper tantrum, and she thinks she can be a mother?
Uh, no.

Then there's Cory and Alicea.
Here's another young girl who is obviously used to getting her own way.
She was absolutely terrible with the baby, she was swearing, said the baby could "starve" because it was being fussy about eating, she cried several times during the episode.
It got so bad with the pure neglect of taking care of the baby, that the real mother had to come over late at night and tell these two idiots that the baby needed to be fed, have it's diaper changed, and bathed, and put in clean pajamas.
Seriously, they didn't do any of those things, and when the mother came over to tell them all of that, Alicea made excuse after excuse why she didn't feed the baby, bathe it, change it, she said it was the babies fault. She actually said the baby was refusing to eat.
Honey, as a parent, you HAVE to feed the baby. You are the adult who knows what's best.
You must be patient and not throwing a hissy fit if the baby spits some of it back out.
They do that.
A lot.

All Daton and Morgan did was fight with each other.
Daton was another crybaby of a girl.
I think their couple bio says everything about these two that anybody ever needs to know about how they are as would-be parents.
This on-again, off-again surfer couple has been dating for over a year and a half. Morgan and Daton live a life that is virtually free from responsibility where they get to surf and skateboard everyday. Still dependent on their parents financially, they feel that this social experiment is about taking on new responsibilities and will put their relationship to the ultimate test.
'Nuff said.

Jordan and Sasha actually did pretty good.
When they opened up the door to the baby room and saw all of the items that needed to be put together like the crib, changing table, and dresser, clothes, toys etc, Jordan told Sasha who was wearing the pregnancy belly, to go lay down and rest, he would do it all, and he did.
He built every single piece of furniture and made the room look very nice.
They only had one rough night of the baby crying, but they got a handle on it pretty quick.

Sean and Kelsey.
Kelsey wants to be a mother, right now, Sean knows he's not ready for this, so he's actually enjoying watching her have a hard time when the baby cries and things become difficult.
These two didn't do too bad, Sean actually has a decent thing going on with the baby, he bonded to it, and the baby bonded to him, rather quickly.
Kelsey is struggling a bit, only a few moments of frustration and tears, nothing at all like the way Daton and Alicea were though, which is a good thing.

This week's episode ended on the eve of the very first day with the babies.
They will have the babies for 2 more days, then move on to toddlers, pre-teens, teens, and then elderly parents to take care of.
Oh, and whatever and how many pets the "families" have too.

I really hope a lot of teenagers are watching this, and I think there might be from checking out the poll on the main page.
But it looks from the results that a lot of teens who are voting in the poll, think being a parent in your teens is best.
These are the current results as of the time of this post;

When are couples best prepared to become parents?
A) Teens
45.48%
B) 20's
25.90%
C) 30's
27.56%
D) 40's
0.78%
E) Later
0.27%

Yeah, teens think being a teen parent is the awesome.
I'm hoping by the time this show/social experiment ends, those numbers will change, or the show will at least have a positive impact on some teen-aged girls.
I know there has always been, and there will always be, teenage moms, but we can hope those numbers decrease right?
Maybe they just don't get it, how hard of a job being a parent is, even if you are happily married and financially ok in life, own a home and all that jazz, being a parent is the single hardest job I've ever had in my life.
I still struggle from time to time, babies don't get handed to you with a manual when you walk out of the hospital.
They just get bundled up and handed to you.
You might get a gift bag from Enfamil or some other baby formula company, but there's no manual in that bag either.

Anyway, the teens and I watched the show together tonight.
They actually paid attention to it, sat through the entire hour long show, and said they'd watch it every week.
Maybe it will have a positive impact on my boys.
I'm so not ready to be a grandmother just yet.

Posted by Kat at 2:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

It's time for another round of Remember Wednesday, a new-ish weekly music meme that Jade started.

This week I bring you "You Got Lucky", by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, off of their 1982 album "Long After Dark".
This album went gold by the way.

The song "You Got Lucky" was awesome by itself, but made even better by MTV, who actually played music videos back then.
None of this stupid crap they do now, it was music videos 24 hours a day, and bands outdid themselves to try and out do other bands and artists.
It was a fun time, I loved MTV.
I was awake and taping (on the VCR baby!) the day MTV launched on August 1st 1981, at 12:01am.
My parents let me stay up for that, I was only 11, but I think I begged and pleaded for weeks before it actually happened, doing chore after chore, walking the dog, raking leaves, mowing the lawn, whatever it took to be allowed to stay up and record and watch those first awesome music videos.
I still have the tape too.
I've shown it to my boys who were totally mesmerized by actual music videos, rock music, and the coolness that was MTV.

Today, MTV barely shows any videos at all.
It's all pop and youth culture shows now, "reality" shows like The Hills. *gag*
MTV used to be really great, I wish they would have never left that format, I think bands still strive to make awesome videos, I've seen them on Youtube and other sites like Yahoo video, but MTV was just awesome, ask any kid who grew up in those first 10-15 years.
By the mid 1990's, they had completely changed the format, limiting the airing of actual music videos to just 4 programs.
MTV Live, Total request, Say What? and 12 Angry Viewers.
It officially became the suck after that.

But man, those first years of MTV, wow.
I was introduced to so many bands, so many different styles of music, they played pretty much anything and everything, and in 1982 when I saw "You Got Lucky", I couldn't take my eyes off the screen, and my ears were on fire.
I know the band had been around since 1976, but it was the album Long After Dark, and this video that really got me into the band.
The opening of the video is in a future wasteland where a tent is filled with all the latest technological electronics of the time, so outdated now, tvs, arcade games, jukeboxes and guitars, and the song begins to play, that opening rift, man, it still gets me sometimes.
You'll actually have to go to youtube to see it, embedding has been disabled, but this was just such an interesting and cool video.
Check it out.

You better watch what you say
You better watch what you do to me
Don't get carried away
Girl, if you can do better than me
Go...yeah, go
But remember

Good love is hard to find
Good love is hard to find
You got lucky, babe
You got lucky, babe
When I found you

Posted by Kat at 11:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I love how Dove chocolates come with happy little sayings printed inside the wrappers.

Posted by Kat at 10:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I absolutely LOVE my hair when I straighten it, it is so soft and silky.
It looks awesome!
See, check it out!

Hee hee, I just love how it looks!
Anyway, if you do straighten your hair, what kind of flat iron do you use?
I have a wicked nice one that I find so easy to use, but a lot of the Tampa girls from the local forums, swear by their Chi's.
They all have a one, but a different model number.
So basically one of each of these on this page, http://www.misikko.com/fachiceflir.html.

We have several threads on the forum's 'secret' girls forum, about make-up, girly stuff, hair care items like shampoos, conditioners, styling products and flat irons.
I think I'm the only one who has a flat iron that isn't a Chi, but that's ok.
The girls are always super awesome with helpful tricks and stuff.
When I told them I finally got one, they were psyched to help me find the right styling products for me, because my hair is so thick and naturally wicked curly, they've seen it in real life, and they were always telling me to get a flat iron.
They may all use Chi's, but all the styling products can be used with all models of flat irons, and they gave me some great advice for products just right for my hair.

After they all gave me input on products they use, I went and bought the ones that the majority of them recommended, and tried them out with my hair and flat iron.
The majority of them recommended Chi styling products, and yes, they really did work awesome on my hair.
I'll have to do it again since I bought the stuff and show you, it comes out so much better now than that first time I did it.
So yeah, what kind of flat iron do you use?
Do you have a Chi or something different?
What is the best styling product you've found works best for your hair and the flat iron?

Posted by Kat at 9:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Poor Bill Keller, that's what happens when you run your mouth and hide under your religion.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) - The Internal Revenue Service is investigating a St. Petersburg televangelist who criticized former presidential candidate Mitt Romney during the Republican primary.
Bill Keller hosts of a live television program on the Internet, and his tax-exempt status as a church prohibits him from endorsing or opposing candidates for public office. But in one broadcast, Keller said a vote for Romney was a vote for Satan.
Keller says his comments were based on religion, not politics. He says he took issue with Romney, a Mormon, telling people that he was a Christian.
Keller says he is prepared to fight if his ministry loses its tax-exempt status.

Since he began his Live Prayer Internet ministry in 1999, he has skewered Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses and Scientologists, calling them false religions and cults. He also speaks against abortion, calls Oprah a "new age witch" for embracing diverse religions and says megachurch pastor Joel Osteen is a "gutless wonder."
In May, Keller raised the ire of Americans United for Separation of Church and State when he wrote devotionals on Liveprayer.com saying that a vote for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney equals a vote for Satan. The group asked the IRS to investigate Keller for a possible violation of tax laws, which prohibit tax-exempt nonprofit groups from engaging in partisan politics. Keller, took the debate to a national audience on The O'Reilly Factor, where he sparred with host Bill O'Reilly, who called Keller's words "irresponsible, un-Christian, uncharitable and flat-out wrong."

I even went back and forth with one of his flock who answers his emails, and just read some of this crap that he allows people to speak in his name.
This isn't a good person, he shouldn't even call himself a Christian.
He's nothing but a hate-filled asshole, and I personally, will be very happy the day the IRS yanks away his tax-exempt status and starts investigating his so called church.
I am willing to bet they find lots of interesting things in his financial record books.
Heck, he probably has two sets.

Posted by Kat at 5:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I have no idea what that means, but the radiology place called me about 10 minutes ago, just as I was heading in to take a shower, and said they needed to reschedule my appointment for today due to an "in-office" issue.
I don't know if that means a pipe burst, a tech didn't show up today, or they are having a mechanical problem, but if it's a mechanical problem, um yeah, reschedule me.
They said they had to call all of today's patients and reschedule them for Thursday and Friday.
All of today's morning patients will be seen tomorrow, and this afternoon's patients will be seen on Friday morning.
I'm totally ok with this, I mean, if it's a mechanical problem, I'd rather not be inside either of those machines until they figure it out ya know?
Ha!

But I am happy that they called me as early as they could, I was getting myself ready to go.
Sis couldn't give me a ride, so she dropped off a loan of cab money early this morning, at like 8:30am.
I was all sleepy-eyed and groggy when I opened the door, but greatful.
It's just too hot out to take the bus there.
I can deal with the bus back.
It's one thing to be all sweaty on the way home from a doctor's appointment, than it is to get all sweaty on the way there.
"Please remove all your clothes and jewelry, and put on this lovely opened back gown, and have a seat on this cold plastic chair for a minute."
Sure.
Plop my sweaty fat ass on an ice cold chair in an ice cold MRI room, hair completely frizzed out from the humidity and sweat, and looking as though I need another shower.
It's rather gross weather we're having this week.
You step one foot outside, and you immediately need to take another shower.
It's sticky and gross out.
So yeah, it's ok with me they rescheduled.
This gives me today to do a bunch of stuff around here I didn't do over the weekend.
Later days!

Posted by Kat at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Oh man, I really wish I had some extra money right now.
Buy.com has an awesome sale price on a Westinghouse 26inch LCD HDTV right now that I would so love to have!

A 26 inch set is the perfect size for our house, it's the same size I have right now with my regular tv.
It's a refurbished one, but that's ok, I don't need to have a brand new one, used and reconditioned is a-ok-fine with me.
Heck, the tv I have right now is used.
It was given to me by my sister's boss when they bought a new tv for their house.
And this one looks good.

The Westinghouse has a 26" screen, with 16:10 aspect ratio, and can produce 16.7 million colors with a resolution of 1366 x 768.
That sounds so saweet!

It also automatically finds and switches to the best digital source for the cleanest picture, so no more of that messing around with the remote that came with my converter box, the tv will just find the best channel for me if I choose, for example, channel 40, the local news channel, which is so hard to tune in with the converter box.
It has two HDMI inputs so that if I hook up the dvd player, it will still give me the cleanest picture.

I can't afford a new tv right now, not in the foreseeable future either, but I hope when I do get some extra money, Buy.com will have another really good deal on a digital tv.
I'd really like to have one before the analog broadcasting stops completely in February 2009.
It's so hard to tune in channels right now with the converter box.

My antenna isn't strong enough to pick up all the local channels clearly, so it gets frustrating trying to watch the local news and the picture chops up or disappears completely.
I will have either a new digital tv or a much stronger antenna before the switch happens though.

Posted by Kat at 10:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On ABC right now, it's the show "I Survived a Japanese Game Show", and this stuff is absolutely crazy!
These Americans have absolutely no idea what the heck is going on, they have to dress up in crazy costumes, eat crazy foods they've never eaten before, and do all of this stuff without knowing a single word of Japanese.
It's hysterical!
I think this is my new favorite game show!

I did like the place they get to stay while they are there though.
It's like a condo hotel kinda place, but the beds are hard as rocks and on the floor.
And the mama-san who is like their house-mother, she isn't so sweet.
She yelled at them to go to bed, take their shoes off, "No shoes in house! No shoes in house!"
Seriously, this is my new fave show.
It's awesome!
I hope they play human tetris though, that game is so seriously funny, I nearly pee every time I watch it.

Posted by Kat at 9:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I wish I had had some extra cash on me tonight, because Publix had this huge shelf section filled with all sorts of clearance items.
They had so much stuff on it like some really nice place mats, their cute little matching salt and pepper shakers, table cloths, candles, soaps, laundry detergent, baby items, and holiday items.
All of it marked way, way down.
I always look at the clearance section, and if there are any good deals on food items like canned foods or pastas, I snag those right up because I like to keep my cupboards stocked with the basics.
I did grab a couple different spices they had on the shelves, and I asked the manager who was stocking even more items on it, why these were all so cheap now.
He said they had decided to no longer carry that particular brand of spices and herbs any more, so they had to make room on the regular shelves for the other brands and a new brand they now carry.
I bought 4 bottles, cinnamon, oregano, basil, and garlic salt.
All 4 bottles were normally priced at $2.99 each.
I got all 4 of them for exactly $2.00
Bargain-o-rama baby!

I picked up some more lunch meats, ham and Genoa salami, more bread, a pound of burger so I could make spaghetti later in the week, and some subs for dinner tonight.
Summer is sub and lunch meat season at our house.
It's amazing how much teenagers can eat.
I just went shopping on Thursday when I got paid, and had bought ham, salami, and roast beef, a pound each, and when I came home from the doctors today, all of it was gone.
It lasted about 5 days, that's not too bad I guess, with all 3 of us eating it I suppose.

Oh!
While I was waiting in line and ordering the lunch meats, Sebastian was waiting to order the subs.
The guy who was working the sub counter completely ignored him, and waited on 3 other customers who came to the counter after we did.
I got done getting the meats and walked over there, and Sebastian was like "Mom, let's just go, he keeps ignoring me, let's get something else, he won't wait on me."
The guy heard him, and I looked right at him and said, "I've been standing over there getting what I need and watching my son. You did ignore him, you took people who were in line after him, why? We are in here all the time, you know him, he buys subs all the time."
He tried to say he didn't see him, and I said "You didn't see this 6 foot tall young man standing here?"
He stuttered an apology, and a lady who always works in the deli and usually waits on the teens, came over and pushed the guy out of the way and took Sebastian's order.
There was a manager standing there, she heard the whole thing, and she pulled the guy aside and spoke to him. Then the guy took off his apron and walked into the back room.
Maybe she sent him on a break or fired him, I don't know, but I do know that this isn't the first time he's ignored the teens when they order subs or deli meats.
Mark can't stand the guy, he says he does it to them all the time, and Mark has had to raise his voice to get service.
It's not like the teens are really young kids with no money, they always pay for everything the buy, and the amount of times we are in there buying subs and other lunch meats from Publix, you'd think they would treat them a little better.
Maybe that guy just hates teenagers, and I know some teens can be real idiots and troublemakers, but my boys are always respectful and polite.

I've like totally rambled on, sorry about that, but bad customer service just irritates me.

Posted by Kat at 7:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I cleaned out my SD card from my camera, so I have tons of room on it to take pictures with, and in a little bit, Sebastian and I are heading to Publix to grab some easy and light food for dinner, and then something for the teens to eat for lunch tomorrow because I won't be home.
I always take my camera with me because I just never know what I'll see along the way, or even while I'm in there.

Tomorrow I have to go have a 3D CT scan done at 12:30, and then a cervical (neck not cervix) and shoulder MRI at 1pm.
I'm hoping my sis can drop me off at least, and then I'll take the bus back home.
The radiology place called me back this afternoon (at frigging 3:45pm) with these appointment times, and so I had to ask sis if she'll be able to drop me off because Mindy already has plans to take her daughter swimming tomorrow afternoon, and I'm not going to screw that up.
I'd rather be swimming with them instead of spending 2 hours inside giant machines being scanned I tell ya.
Katie, Mindy's daughter, is such a good sport.
She goes with us to my doctor's appointments, and it's boring as hell.
I get bored sitting there waiting, so being an 8 year old in a boring doctor's office is pure torture.
I think she does great though, she does her best to behave and wait it out, and my doc was running behind today, so yeah, major long boring waiting time.
I'm pretty sure bus 15 runs the full length of Clark road, so I should be able to catch it and ride it back to at least the intersection by my street.

I've had so many of these tests in the last 6+ years now, I wonder if my organs glow by now.
Seriously, I've had 17 MRIs, 13 CT scans, 4- 3D CT scans, well over 100 xrays, and then about 10 or so specialized radiation type tests where they strap you to a table and inject dye in your spinal canal and tip the table all over the place.
I'm not a fan of the 3D CT scans though.
That stuff they inject you with, it makes you get instantly hot, you get nauseous, and it feels like you pissed yourself.
It's not too much fun, and then I have to go straight from that test into the MRI machine.
I think Doc M. checked off that I can use the seated MRI machine though, which is cool because you sit on this special chair, and the front of the machine is open.
So it won't be as claustrophobic as the laying down machine.
I'm just going to go do it and get it over with though.
I don't have much choice anyway, so do it and then sit and sweat while for the bus to come back home.
That's another reason for me to need my mp3 player charged up.
It'll keep me from losing my mind while waiting for the bus.

Posted by Kat at 5:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I had to go to bed early last night because I had to get up for my doctors appointment this morning, and I have this routine, habit, whatever, that I do before I actually fall asleep.
I have to go in and make my bed, straighten out my sheets, turn on my lava lamp, (yes, I do have one and I love it) and then get all settled in and comfortable before I pop my earbuds in.

I was thrown totally off last night because my MP3 players battery died after playing just 3 songs.
It has an internal battery that charges by usb, and it would have taken a long time to come back out here, plug it in, and wait for it to charge up, so i said screw it, I can sleep without music tonight, and I'll charge it tomorrow.

Wrong!

I had the worst time falling asleep last night.
I tossed and turned, and tried to think of lyrics to songs, hear the tunes in my head, but it didn't work.
I really do need to hear music so I can sleep.
The louder the better too.
When I came home from the docs, the first thing I did was to go get my mp3 player and bring it out to charge it up.
Tonight sleeping will come easier.

Posted by Kat at 3:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Oh yes I did.
See, Saturday was just super crappy weather, it rained and rained, and so my joints ached something fierce.
And because they ached, the easiest, most non-painful thing to do was to lay on the couch all day and night.
I have watched pretty much every single movie we own at least 3 times each, so I clicked through the channels at 8pm and landed on ABC.
The Disney movie logo started across the screen, so I was like ok, cool, maybe a good animated film or something.
Nope.
ABC was doing the world broadcast premiere of Camp Rock with the Jonas Brothers.

I have teenage boys who enjoy the Disney animated movies, we all dig those, we are planning on going to see Wall-E if we can, but this tweeny bopper shit?
Um, no.
Mark and Sebastian would rather be stabbed in their eyeballs with hot knives, and have their ears cut off with a dull rusty nail, than to watch and listen to anything tween-ish.
They nearly died when their cousin Helena was here for a week last summer, and all she listened to was the High School Musical soundtrack.
The day my sister Jo took all of them to Busch Gardens for the day and Helena wanted to listen to the soundtrack on the car stereo, was a lesson in patience and selective hearing for the boys.
They were bug-eyed and stir crazy when she dropped them off late that night.

So anyway, I'm laying on the couch, nothing else is on tv at all, so I settled in and watched Camp Rock.
They heard some singing and came out to see what it was, and both of them in 2 part harmony said "Aww hell no. Mom! What are you watching?!"
I explained that there was nothing on, my bones hurt, so the Jonas Brothers it is.
They turned around and left, retreating to their game room, and closing the door tightly behind them.

I watched the entire thing, all the little conversations between the commercials and the movie where the Jonas Brothers talked up their album, what's going on at Disney, and promoting their new cd and video which was making it's world premiere at the end of the show.
I was mesmerized I tell ya.
I thought the movie was absolutely the suck, but I couldn't turn away from it.
I was like hypnotized by these teenagers on my screen.
The constant breaking out in song, the dancing, the absolute gayness of it all, held me captive.

I have absolutely no idea how mothers put up with this crap, and I don't understand how mothers can even be fans of this stuff.
I guess I would understand if I had a few pre-teen daughters who dug this shit, and because it is oh so wholesome and clean, it's good tv viewing for tweens, but dear god gag me.
It was sicky sweet, sugar-gumdrop gag-worthy crap.
And now there's a High School Musical 3 coming out?!
I haven't even seen the first 2, and honestly, you'd have to tie me down to a chair and pin my eyes open like in A Clockwork Orange, to make me sit through any of those.
If they are anything at all like Camp Rock, I'd sooner be dead.

But if you haven't seen it and want to, click that link up there and you can watch it absolutely free on the Disney website.
The whole thing.
I'm sure there are some tweens who will do just that, they'll watch it a gazillion times, because those Jonas Brothers are just so dang cute in their emo tight pants and sugary sweet good boy charm.
Me?
If I ever have to watch another one of these types of movies again, I'm going to make sure I have some booze on hand, and I'll make a drinking game out of it.
Every time some emo-tight-pants-wearing over the top happy boy breaks out in song or dance, I'll take a big drink.
That should make the movie much more enjoyable.

Posted by Kat at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

I need to be totally alone in the bathroom for like 20 minutes, so I can Veet off all my legs hairs.
The problem is that we only have the one working bathroom, and it never fails, as soon as I get in there and ready to do my stuff, one of them needs to pee or take a dump.
Usually it's taking a dump, so now that I'm standing in the tub with the shower curtain drawn, they proceed to take the most foul smelling turd of their lives, and I'm trapped in there with the stench of whatever it is that's been rotting in their intestines for the last 2 days, and stuff all over my legs.
Trapped.
I even go so far as to ask them if they need to use the bathroom before I get started, and they always say nope, it's all good mom, go for it.
I think they hold in their turdnuggets until I'm in there taking a shower or removing leg hairs.
I swear they do it on purpose.

But what I might do is give them like a huge bowl of chips and other foods, make them a couple of sandwiches, some sodas, and maybe, just maybe, they'll be so busy eating and playing video games that I might actually get to remove the leg hairs and wash my hair before the stinky dumpers have to smell the place up.
And what's really terrible is that there is a can of air freshener sitting right on the back of the toilet, and they purposely don't use it after taking a dump if I'm in the shower.
Mark will come in, say sorry mom, I gotta drop the kids off at the pool, and then he'll stink it way up in there, and I'll tell him to spray the damn air freshener, and he'll laugh and say "Nope, smell it, smelllllll it! Mwuahahaahhaa!" and then leave the bathroom with me stuck behind the curtain with goop all over my legs and I can't get out and spray the air freshener myself.
I'm telling ya, they do it on purpose.
I just know it.

One of these days, I'm going to hold a big nasty turd in, I'll make my chili cheese dip and eat all of it and then wait until the next time I have to go, and then when one of them is in the shower, I'll say ooops, sorry, I gotta drop the kids off at the pool.
And when I'm done, I'll take the can of air freshener out of the bathroom when I leave.
And shut off the light too.
Mwuahahahaha!

Posted by Kat at 7:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I am still as shocked and saddened today as I was last night upon hearing the news that George Carlin has died.
Of course, people don't say someone died any more, they say they've passed on.
Carlin said that in one of his skits about words, soft language, it's wickedly funny.

But it's already started.
People everywhere in blogs today, and on the news, and there will be newspaper cartoons drawn up, about how he's in heaven now.
But no, he isn't.
George Carlin was an avowed atheist, and just because others believe in god and heaven, does not mean Carlin is with Jesus now.
That's those people's beliefs, not Carlin's.
People should just take a few minutes and read Carlin's bio.
All those jokes about religion weren't just jokes to him, it's how he felt, he really did not believe in god, jesus, heaven, hell, none of it, and by saying he's with god now is really disrespectful to him as a person.
Just watch this clip where he talks about death, it's not just a joke to him, that is how he felt.

There is no 'up there' he said, he really doesn't believe it exists, he was an atheist.
To say he's in heaven with god now is just disrespectful to him.
I mean, just imagine if after you died, if people started saying the exact opposite of what you believed?
How would you feel about that?
Well, you wouldn't feel much, you're dead, but do you like the idea of people saying the opposite of what you believed your entire life?
You wouldn't want that, you'd want people to remember you as you were in life, to say what you believed so strongly in.
If you believed in god, you'd want people to say that you are with jesus now right?
To be respectful of your beliefs right?
But if you didn't believe in it, you'd want people to say that, to let it be known that you didn't believe if people said you're with god now.
You'd want the truth to be told about you and your beliefs.

I've been reading blogs through my feed reader all day now, and so so many of them think all those jokes were just that, jokes, and they are saying he's with god now, he's at peace finally, he was such a troubled soul but now he's with god, and he'll be at peace for once in his life.
I don't think he was a troubled soul at all, he said exactly what he felt, what he believed.
He was at peace in his life, he battled his drug addictions and over came them without a higher power, he did it on his own.

Why is it that as soon as someone dies, everyone says they are with god now, they'll be at peace finally?
Why can't people respect the person who has died and what they believed in?
It just bothers me that so many people have no respect for his true beliefs.
They want to believe he's gone to the heaven they believe in, and that's not what he believed.
He's just dead.
He was here yesterday, and now he's not.

Posted by Kat at 2:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I was in the other room starting the laundry, Mark was in there helping me, and Kali, my old lady kitty, tried to jump up on her box where she sleeps, and missed.
She bonked her head on the side of the box, and then sat down, looked up at me, and let out this pitiful little squeak of a a meow.

I had to pick her up and put her on the box, and then she mewed a little bit more, her eyes looked all sad.
Mark started to laugh at her, and I said no, don't, she's an old lady now, she missed the box for the first time ever, this is a sad day for her.
Mark started petting her, and she really did look sad and embarrassed, it was cute and pitiful all at the same time.
She's getting so old now that she can't even jump up on things right any more.
Poor kitty baby.

Posted by Kat at 1:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I've been doing a lot of thinking and planning about my jewelry business.
I want to get back to it so so bad. I miss it like crazy.
I have all these beads and gemstones that I bought when I was out and just purchased in the hopes I can get back to making jewelry again soon.
But when I do get the all clear, I also want to pick up some custom boxes to ship them to my customers in.
I've seen some really cute boxes from other people on line, and I want them.
They hand stamp them with their business logo, or just a fun little print, and people really like them.
It makes the whole thing come together in a very neat look, a finished look.
I will get back to it soon I hope.
Just need to get this pinched nerve stuff taken care of, and then I'm going to get busy on some of my plans.
I miss doing it so much, it was calming and soothing, and when I'd complete one and my customers let me know how much they liked it, it was such a good feeling.

Posted by Kat at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It has been reported that comedian George Carlin has died at age 71, from heart failure.

Comedian George Carlin, a counter-culture hero famed for his routines about drugs and dirty words, died of heart failure at a Los Angeles-area hospital on Sunday, a spokesman said.

In the 1978 case, Federal Communications Commission vs. Pacifica Foundation, the top U.S. court ruled that the words cited in Carlin's routine were indecent, and that the government's broadcast regulator could ban them from being aired at times when children might be listening.
Carlin's comedic sensibility often came back to a central theme: humanity is doomed.
"I don't have any beliefs or allegiances. I don't believe in this country, I don't believe in religion, or a god, and I don't believe in all these man-made institutional ideas," he told Reuters in a 2001 interview.
Carlin, who wrote several books and performed in many television comedy specials, is survived by his wife Sally Wade, and daughter Kelly Carlin McCall.

George Carlin was a wicked funny man, I loved pretty much every joke he's ever made, and I loved his cynicism, his wit, and all his dirty jokes.
The world just lost one of the greats.
Because this clip is what really thrust Carlin to the forefront, here are the 7 dirty words you can't say on television.
If you have small children or are offended by dirty words, don't click play.
You will be sorely missed Mr. Carlin.

Posted by Kat at 1:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

It has been mad raining here all day long, my joints are like freaking out.
I've just been laying on the couch curled up in my blankets, watching crappy movies on the tv all day long.
I hope to be able to move better later on.

Posted by Kat at 4:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

17 girls at Gloucester Massachusetts high school, entered into a pregnancy pact, and only one of them is above the age of 15. She's 16 years old.

17 girls at the high school have become pregnant this year, with half of them sophomores who had entered into a pregnancy pact. All but one of the seven or eight girls who set out to become pregnant are 15 years old; the other is 16. Most got pregnant by their boyfriends, but one father is reportedly a 24-year-old homeless man.

"Gloucester is a very, very proud community," she said of the heavily Roman Catholic and insular town that is accessible only by a bridge from the mainland. "It has a long tradition of fishing industry that has really gone away in recent years. Jobs are not there anymore. The jobs that these young people thought they were going to have are disappearing."
The kids, she said, can't see a way out. "None of them have a very strong life plan," Kingsbury said. "Being a mother became something they can do, gave them an identity: 'I can be someone. I can be a mother.' They didn't really have an alternative. Nobody offered them a better life."

Then there's the 24-year-old homeless man whom one girl chose to father her child. What to do with him?

Posted by Kat at 3:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

About a month ago, Mark was clipping his toenails, and he always clips them too short, and this time was no different except he clipped off a huge chunk of skin.
So I cleaned it all out and bandaged it really well with some staphaseptic.
I told him to A) leave it alone, and B) keep it clean and bandaged until it heals.

Well just like most kids, he kept picking it at it.
His excuse was that it was itchy, so removing the scab made the itch go away.
It's been a whole month and that damn thing still isn't healed.
I thought it was, that last time I yelled at him to leave it alone was about 2 weeks ago, and every time I asked how it was doing, he said it was fine.
Liar.

He's been picking at it non-stop and it looks absolutely disgusting!
so I cleaned it all out again, more staphaseptic, and this time, I secured the gauze bandaged to his toe with 3 wrap-arounds of duct tape, and then smacked him on the back of his calf when I was done.
I told him if he removes that to pick at it, I'll smack him again, this time only harder.
When he takes a shower he can take it off, and then I'm bandaging it again.
He seems to think this is some kind of joke, but it's been a whole month of this and if it gets any worse, they'll have to chop his damn toe off for either a MRSA infection or gangrene.
He laughed at me, but dead tissue is dead tissue, and they'll take his toe if they have to.

Why do kids have to do stupid stuff like this?
Why can't they just leave their scabs alone?
It would serve him right at this point to get his toe lobbed off.

Posted by Kat at 11:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

My neighbor called me this afternoon, she needed my help installing a new memory card in her desktop computer.
No problem I said! I've done this a lot, be right there.
I get in there and took one look at what she bought, and it was obvious it wasn't the right kind.
She bought laptop memory cards.
Laptop cards are fatter than desktop cards.

Anyway, she has a Dell desktop, and she at least knew her computer was a Dell when she went to the store.
But I'd like to know what kind of yahoo salesman didn't ask her if she has a desktop or laptop.
Or maybe she just picked one out on her own, looked for the little signs that say compatible with Dell, Acer, Gateway, Sony, etc etc.
So I had the oh so pleasant job of telling her she got the wrong kind, and she was pissed off, said she thought she was doing so good that for once she didn't need my help, started to get really upset and almost started crying.
I told her to put it back in the package and take it back, and hopefully the store will let her exchange it out for the correct kind which I wrote down for her.
I wrote down her Dell model name and number, and the size memory card she wanted, and her oldest son who is visiting is going to try taking it back.
He's the one who drove her out to get it, and tried to help her install it.
He's 19 and obviously knows as much about computers as she does.
Not much.
I told her when he gets back if they let him exchange it for the right one, that if her son couldn't install it to call me.

There are certain things I don't mind helping her with, like her computer stuff.
She's an older woman, and this is the first time she's ever had a computer, and she didn't even know how to get on the internet when she first got the computer.
She thought all you had to do was set up and plug everything in, and open IE up, and it would just go to the internet.
When it didn't just go and I had to explain that she needed an ISP, she had no idea what that was.
When I explained it to her, she was like, "Well how do I get one of those? Do I have to have a special kind of plug, and where does it plug into? There are no ISP plugs on my walls?"
I couldn't help but laugh, that was kinda cute, something an older person with no computer knowledge at all would ask.
So then I had to explain to her that she needed to call Verizon or Comcast, and tell them she needs internet service, DSL if she went with Verizon, or Comcast if she went with cable.
She had Comcast cable for her tvs already, so I told her to just call them and they would come out and hook it up.

She's getting better at it all the time, she finally learned how to print things after only showing her about a dozen times.
Then when she got a little cheapo digital camera, I taught her how to upload them to her computer, and then taught her how to attach them to emails.
She takes tons of pictures now and sends them to everyone, she loves it.
But of course being so new to the internet, she is caught up in the annoying forwards and chain emails.
She sends me dozens of them every single week.
At first I tried to tell her that all those forwards and chain emails are junk, crappy stuff that people send and expect to get back after we've sent it on to all our friends, but the majority of people on the net hate them with a passion.
She apologized, but she keeps doing it.
I just delete them now and when she asks if I read that cute email with the little bunny and the angel, I just say yes, it was so adorable and funny.

I don't even want to tell you how long it took me to help her when she bought a camera phone.

Posted by Kat at 6:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I really wish I had enough money to be able to start looking for some flight deals to be able to fly back up north to Maine right now.
I just went for a walk to the corner store, and it is sooo hot and humid, blah.
I took a shower this morning, and now after taking that walk, I feel like I need another one.
It's gross outside, sweat is gross.
I'll probably take another shower just to rinse and cool off a little bit in awhile.
I had to take one the other night at like midnight, because it was just so humid, my skin felt slimy.

I do need to go to the grocery store either this afternoon or tomorrow morning maybe, need some more beverages for all of us.
The boys drink a lot of water, and they said the tap isn't tasting as good today, so I want to pick up a couple gallons of spring water for them.
It probably tastes gross because of how hot the water is.
You turn on the cold water, and it comes out hot, and you have to let it run for a minute or two before it even starts to feel remotely cold.
Warm water always has a distinct taste, at least to me it does.
Heck, even cold water tastes weird to me.

Posted by Kat at 2:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mark's acne is getting worse as the summer goes on.
He's not turning into a pizza face by any means, but when he does get a break out, they are HUGE zits.
I feel so bad for him because it just sucks to have this giant whitehead on your face.
He had a bad one yesterday, right in the middle of his forehead, and he had to go out to lunch with George and his wife Amy.
He was begging me to do something, so I sterilized a needle, and lanced it so it could drain out.
Gross, I know.
So after it drained and most of the gunk had been gently squeezed out, we cleaned his face really good, and I dabbed on this stuff that is supposed to dry them out quickly.
It looked much better by the time he had to go, so he was very happy.
But I really do need to find him something that will prevent breakouts before they get to monster status.
I'm going to keep looking and hopefully find something that works great before school starts again in August.

Posted by Kat at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I watch so so many movies, with no cable and it being scalding hot outside most of the time, watching movies is my enterainment all of the time.
I have a fairly decent tv, it's good size, but I would absolutely love to have one of those plasma mount tvs.
A big one.
Not movie screen huge or anything, but good sized, like above 30 inches or something.
Most movies on DVD are now in HD, and it's been said that Netflix will eventually be moving to all blu-ray, so a nice digital tv would be so totally kick-butt to watch them on.
Don't get me wrong, my tv does have a nice picture, my new LG DVD player my sis bought me, is awesome, but a bigger digital tv that was meant to have all those awesome HD and blu-ray movies on would be so so nice.
I'd hook the surround sound back up too.

We got our new rentals from Netflix today, we got The Bucket List and Unknown.
I really want to watch Unknown tonight, but Sebastian absolutely loves the show Wife Swap.
It is kind of interesting, and tonight's show is looking like a good one too.
The farmer/truck guy, looks like a total jerk and the show just started.

Posted by Kat at 8:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

When I saw the soda can caps, Snap Capp, posted on Dyane's blog, I was like cool, I could really use those.
I buy and drink soda from cans because it is cheaper to buy cans than it is bottles, but with a can, it can lose it's carbonation rather rapidly.
So went to the site Dyane posted, and ordered my own 3-pack.

The Snap Capps came today, and of course I had to immediately try them out.
The 3-pack we got came in 1 blue, (Sebastian) 1 green, (Mark) and 1 purple, (Me) 1 for each of us.
Click here to see how they work, they are very cool.
It was $9.99 for the 3-pack, and $7.19 for FedEx delivery, (the cheapest on the list) but in the long run it will save money over all because there will be no more wasted cans of soda when they lose their fizz.
You can also buy them at Walgreen's for $2.50 each, and at the official site, they are working on getting the on line ordering page set up.

I know that once my soda loses the fizz, I'm no longer wanting to drink it, I absolutely hate flat soda, so with a bottle cap on it, it stays fresh.
I'll be able to keep a cap on it, it won't lose carbonation, and when I'm ready for bed, I can just make sure my cap is on tight and stick it in the fridge.
Come morning, my soda will still be fresh.
I'm quite impressed with these so far, and knowing that the teens and I won't be wasting any more soda because they lost the fizzy fun, and money, I know that these will be in constant use.
They are plastic and can just be rinsed out under the faucet too, easy to clean!
Oh! And because of having an air tight seal around the can, and a good tight twist on/off cap, they do not spill!
I tested this, and there are no leaks at all, so it's perfect for your kids and teens, no more spilled sticky soda messes!

We've been using them all day since they were delivered this morning, and they really do work.
Not a single one of the 3 sodas I've had today, has lost it's fizz at all.
And maybe I'm just thinking it happens, but the sodas actually feel like they are staying colder longer.
Maybe they are because no cold can escape, and no heat get in.
I dunno.
But I really love these and will probably buy a few more just to have on hand or in case one accidentally gets tossed.
I can totally see that happening with the teens.
So yeah, love 'em, and if you drink soda or heck, even beer from cans, you should try these, they really do work.

So thanks Dyane for posting about these, I would have never even known they existed if you hadn't.

Posted by Kat at 4:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

My neighbors.
*sigh*

I was laying on the couch trying to catch a little nap, not much sleep last night thanks to Shahiro, and they called.
They wanted the phone number for the cab company.
Um, the cabbie gave them a card last time, and she programmed it into her phone, but ya know, gotta call me for it anyway.

What I need is like a cell phone repeater or some kind of machine, that repeats information and just replays it for when they call.
I can record some scenarios that they would need answers to like the cab company, the phone company, and all the food delivery places.
Then when they call, instead of answering, the machine will pick it up, recorded with my voice of course, make it say hello, and stuff, then ask what they need.
"You need the number for the cab company? It's 922-6666. Is that all, cuz I'm right in the middle of some important stuff here? It is, great. bye."

Some get right on making that for me ok?
Thanks.

Posted by Kat at 3:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Wake up Americans!
What is happening in parts of Iowa from the flooding, is just as bad as the water itself.
Government "strike teams" are invading people's homes, harassing the owners, and threatening them with arrest, for being in their homes and questioning the illegal searches of property.

Cops break down doors, threaten residents who question them as part of martial law conditioning, authorities prevent people from re-entering their homes

Shocking footage out of Cedar Rapids Iowa shows cops and government employee "strike teams" breaking into houses of flood victims and threatening anyone who questions their actions in complete violation of the 4th amendment right that protects against unlawful search and seizure.
No warrant, no knock home invasions are being carried out on the flimsy pretext of "checking for structural damage" as cops harass and threaten with arrest people who refuse to have their homes ransacked by thugs in uniforms.
Cedar Rapids police chief Greg Graham promised residents over the weekend that "Law enforcement officers are not entering homes," and that firefighters would only enter homes through unlocked doors and windows yet the video clearly shows locked houses being broken in to.

The 4th amendment states, "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

Just because a natural disaster happens, does not give ANY government office the right to declare martial law, invade our homes and property, seize our legally owned and obtained weapons, for any reason.
They must obtain a warrant which states their reasons for the search and seizure of our personal effects.
A lot of these "strike teams" are made up of law enforcement officers, fire fighters, and utilities workers.
Excuse me?
When did all these people become structural engineers, and be able to legally determine whether or not a home is safe?

Even if there was a legitimate reason to inspect homes, why on earth do they not even bother to knock on the door?
Cops immediately attempt to break in or climb through windows uninvited because this procedure is all about sending a message - when a crisis unfolds we are the bosses and you - the peasants - will yield to our tyranny.

What I think the government learned, was that declaring an illegal martial law, illegally removing the lawful weapons, and removing people from their homes, worked out so damn well in New Orleans, we might as well do it during every natural disaster.

Posted by Kat at 10:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

She's not really a kitten either.
Shahiro will be 3 years old in November, but she is still this tiny-baby, kitten-sized cat.
It's not normal.
Everyone who comes over says; "Aaww, what a cute kitten!"
Um, she's 2 and a half.
"Oh wow, she's so tiny! Was she the runt of the litter?"
No, I think she's just retarded.

Anyway, I have all these cardboard boxes under my bed with stuff in them, there isn't much in the way of storage in this house, so when I got my bed risers, I gained some under bed storage for all kinds of crap I couldn't put anywhere else.
Shahiro was under my bed almost all freaking night playing in the boxes!
I could hear her all night, jumping in and out of them, playing with the things inside the boxes, and being totally annoying.
I kept yelling at her to get out, smacking the box spring, and she would run out of the room.
I would hear the little jingle bell on the collar she wears, jingling throughout the house, and be like ok cool, she's gone.
I'd fall back to sleep, and then I'd hear it.
Jingle jingle, crumble, dive, bat, swat, scratch, jingle, meow, jump, crash jingle and bang.
She was back.
Over and over.

I finally had enough, I wasn't getting any sleep in my room, so I came out to the living room, hopped on the couch, and curled up in a blanket.
Then I heard it.
Jingle jingle, scratch, meow?
I opened my eyes, and by the glow of the tv, there she was, up on the couch with me, standing on me, purring and kneading her paws on the blanket and my chest underneath.
I was all WTF Shahiro!
What do you want?
To annoy me all night?
Why?
Whhhhhhy?!
She stepped up close to my face, rubbed her cold wet little nose on mine, bonked her head on my chin, and curled up in my neck to go to sleep.

Maybe she sees me as her momma or something.
When we first got her, the boys were at school all the time, so she was with me all day long, had to be near me, and often spent her days curled up in my lap while I was on the computer.
She is still small enough to do that, she honestly has never grown any larger than when we got her, and maybe all that playing around under my bed was just her wanting to play with me, be near me.
We finally both drifted off to sleep, her on my chest with her head buried in my neck and a paw resting on my arm.

That is until about 7:15am when she decided it was time to get back up and go play.
And tore off of me by using her claws as leverage on my chest.
Ouch.

Posted by Kat at 8:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I'm still doing good with my attempts to lose weight, I've eaten pretty healthy today.
Grapes, some juice, baked chicken for dinner with some salad, not bad.

I got most of my paperwork done today, it's a total fricking pain, and I should have it all completed within the next few days before I can get it printed out.

I absolutely loved this story today.
The two old ladies who had been in a loving and committed relationship for 55 years, were finally able to get married today.
They finally had the legal right to be together.
That's awesome in my opinion.
How many hetero marriages last that long huh?
Yeah, something to think about.

Posted by Kat at 8:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I have a busy day ahead of me today.
I have to get my interrogatories done for the child support hearing that has once again, been moved due to his attorney not being available on the date scheduled.
What are interrogatories?
They are questions about what kinds of things I own, how much money I have in the bank, (Ha!) and other stuff like that.
To give you an example;
Please identify in name location and value, all stocks, bonds, mutual funds, investment accounts, or other securities which are in my name or I am the beneficiary of.
Real estate owned by me, safety deposit boxes, or other valuables being held in my name, any kind of properties that I may inherit, any automobiles, snowmobiles, boats, motor cycles or other motor vehicles.
List all my websites and how much I earn per month from each of them.

Well let's see, I have no stocks, bonds or mutual funds, none of that stuff.
Never have, never will.
I can't even win at Monopoly and I'm supposed to be playing the stock market?
I don't own a house, I rent, no safety deposit boxes or any other valuables, there is nothing in my name from anybody, I am not inheriting anything either, my parents are old and on social security themselves, I don't own any vehicles or boats or motor vehicles of any kind.
If you've been reading along, I walk to the grocery store and cab it back if I buy more than we can carry, and my friends give me rides to my doctors appointments.
This is the only website where I make any type of income, and I am bound by the rules of disability to an earning limit.
I do not ever go above that, heck, I don't even come close to that amount even if I wanted to.
I have to attach copies of my disability statements, get letters from doctors, and all kinds of other crap.
This is completely ridiculous, and I do hope the attorney enjoys seeing it all.
He thinks I'm sitting on some kind of fortune here, I'm not, and those of you who have been reading for a few years now, know me in person, know this.
I don't own shit, I am broke all the freaking time, but yes, let's print it all out so the attorney can try to say I earn a ton of money and own all kinds of valuables and property so my ex-husband can pay less than $21.00 in child support per week.
He honestly believes I'm sitting on a goldmine and lying about my health and income.
I hope he chokes when he gets all this stuff.
Idiot.

Posted by Kat at 1:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

We watch a lot of movies here, the teens and I are huge fans of films, and they are so totally my kids.
They love horror movies as much as I do!
Tonight's dinner and a movie fest is a flick from 1982, and was based on the E.C. horror comics of the 1950's, Stephen King's Creepshow.
The screenplay was written by King, and it was directed by George Romero.

There are 5 short films on the disc, Father's Day, The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill, Something to Tide You Over, The Crate, and They're Creeping Up On You.
All of the actors of these short stories are very famous stars, Leslie Nielsen, Hal Holbrook, Ted Danson, Adrienne Barbeau, Ed Harris, E.G. Marshall, and as he always has done, even Stephen King himself makes an appearance in the starring role of Jordy Verill.

All of the stories are good, and even though the movie is 26 years old now, it still holds up pretty well.
For the time, 1982, the special effects were on par with all of Hollywood, they look completely out-dated now, of course, and in some of them like Father's day, totally cheesy, but one of them still scares the crap out of me to this day.

The Crate.
It's the longest one on the disc.
It stars Hal Holbrook as a sort of loser professor at a local college, whose wife is a horribly nasty woman.
"Billie" is played by Adrienne Barbeau, a drunk and offensive old hag, who makes his (Holbrook) life hell.
When a colleague of his finds a really old crate under the stairs at the college with a really hungry creature locked away inside that has eaten two people already, he finally finds a way to get rid of his verbally abusive and hated wife.
He lures her to the college on a made up story of a young co-ed being sexually assaulted by his colleague, telling her she's the only one who can coax the young girl out from under the stairs.
Once she gets down there, he stirs the monster awake, it devours her, and then he dumps the crate off a cliff into the ocean.
He and his colleague think it's all over, no evidence of any foul play, but the monster breaks free of it's crate under the sea in the very last scene.
This is also the bloodiest one of the five, and it's definitely the scariest.

I've seen Creepshow about a dozen or more times over the years, and it still doesn't disappoint as a fun movie.

Posted by Kat at 8:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's been a super quiet summer day here.
The teens and I haven't done much at all, we have been playing some games, watched Clerks II again, and for dinner I'll be making enchiladas.

This news story has been on my mind all day.

TURLOCK, California (AP) -- Police killed a 27-year-old man as he kicked, punched and stomped a toddler to death despite other people's attempts to stop him on a dark, country road, authorities said.

Posted by Kat at 4:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

My friend Mindy and her husband Chris, own an on line store called Regalo Boutique, and they are having a contest for a new sales announcement header for their summer sale.

You have until Wednesday to submit your headliners and the voting will take place this Thursday with the deadline to vote for your favorite until 11:59 p.m. EST.

The Grand Prize: Will have their headliner used in the Summer Sale and will receive their choice of Regalo Boutique (RB) merchandise totaling $50.00.
First Runner Up: Their choice of R.B. merchandise totaling up to $35.00.
Second Runner Up: Their choice of R.B. merchandise totaling up to $20.00.

I would really like to enter, but I don't want to enter and possibly be chosen as the winner, and have someone say that I only won because Mindy and I are friends ya know?
I want it to be as fair as possible, but if voters choose mine, someone may claim it's not fair.
Mindy and Chris want me to enter because they like my writing style and think I could enter a good one, but I don't want anyone to think anything bad of Mindy and Chris, or me.
Understand?
Maybe what I'll do is just submit an entry anyway, but not actually be part of the contest, just give them more options to choose from without having to award me any prize.

But YOU!
You all need to go enter!
These are great prizes, they are awesome quality and beautiful, you just have to enter!
Go! Go now and enter to win some awesome stuff of your choosing from Regalo Boutique!

Posted by Kat at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have been wanting to and trying to, lose weight.
I know I need to, and not really a lot either, just about 20 lbs or so.
So I have been reading a lot of diet pill reviews on line, learning about all the new diet pills that are out there, but I'm losing weight anyway, without pills and actually, without much working out either.

I'm just getting fuller, faster.
I made mesquite bbq'd ribs and a caesar salad for dinner tonight, 4 ribs per person, and a nice helping of the salad.
I was only able to eat 2 ribs, and they were actually very small, from the smaller end of the ribs I bought, and my salad.
I ate my salad first, and then ate the 2 ribs, and when I picked up the third one, I just wasn't interested in eating it.
I ended up giving the remaining two to Mark.
I felt totally full, and really kind of over full.
It's been this way for a few weeks now, I just don't have much of an appetite anymore.

Yesterday was the same when I bought the subs for us.
I bought us all full length subs, and I had eaten about half of a half, got a phone call, and when I came back to sit down and finish eating, I had completely lost my appetite and felt full.
I don't know what is going on, but I like it if it helps me lose weight.

Posted by Kat at 9:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I went and did my actual grocery shopping for the week today, and wow, the prices of food are just continuing to rise and rise.
Most of the coupons I had in my stash, were not for any food items that I needed, and the only non-food item that I needed to get (because I forgot) was dish soap, so no coupons were used this week.
That makes for a painful shopping experience.
I somehow managed to save $20.89 on in-store specials, but that's nothing really, and not what I'm used to saving.

I just don't know how I will be able to make the food and the food budget, get us through the summer months while the teens are out of school.
During the school week, I am the only one home during the day, and I barely eat any lunches most days, but now with them home, I actually have to stock lunch items.
They get reduced meal prices at school, so during the school year, I mainly just have to worry about dinner and breakfast.
On the weekends, they sleep during breakfast and lunch.

The prices on food are rising and rising, and it's getting harder and harder to manage meals on my super tight budget.
Last year at this time a loaf of white sandwich bread was just .89 cents.
That same loaf of bread today is $1.29.
That may not seem like a lot, but when you have 2 teenagers who need to eat, that's a big jump in price.
The same for the price of meat, chicken, milk, and non-perishables.
Everything has risen in price anywhere between .49, to on some items, as much as a $2.00 price increase.
It's crazy!

How are all you moms managing so far?
And single moms, what are your plans to save as much as you can on just your one income?

Posted by Kat at 6:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I was surfing around the net looking at allergy remedies for Mark, he suffers terribly in the spring and summer when things are blooming, and even with all the windows and doors closed up and the ac on, if anyone opens the door, pollen and other allergens blow in, and he ends up sneezing for the next hour.

So I was looking for cleaning supplies and air purifiers to help clear out some of these allergens when they do come in, and I came across Sebo vacuums.
They have that Hepa filtration system, like a lot of newer vacuums do, but they have customer testimonials that say theirs are the best.
I don't know, I've never even heard of this brand before.
I really do love the vac I have now, I think it does an awesome job, I mean, the bag less canister thingy fills all the way up to the top every single time I vac, with dirt, cat hair, and all kinds of different colored dust and stuff.

His allergies have been doing better, but to keep it that way, I have to run the vac nearly every day.
He's not allergic to the cats, but there's got to be something else getting in here that makes him sneeze so much.
I need to get some good and strong cleaners that won't set off his allergies too.
Some of the chemical ones and bleach cleaners make him sneeze, but I even tried some of the "green" cleaners, and the scents they have in some of them, make him sneeze awful.
He cleaned the bathroom with one, and his eyes were all red and itchy, and he sneezed for several hours after, so even stuff that's supposed to be good sets off his allergies.
Bah.

Posted by Kat at 4:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I want to wish my dad a happy father's day today.
I don't get to see him nearly enough living so far away from my parents, but I think of him often.
I'll hear a brass horn, and be reminded of my dad playing and his love of music.
I get my love of music from him.
There was always music playing in our house, and my dad, while certain types of music were his favorite, he had an appreciation for all types, and would even tolerate my loud heavy metal blaring from my bedroom.
I hope my dad is doing well today, is happy, and knows how very much he is loved and missed.

A funny thing happened at Publix yesterday, when we went to get our subs for lunch.
They had a table right inside the door, where an employee was helping kids decorate a cookie cake for their dads.
She asked Sebastian if he'd like to make a cake for father's day, and he turned to me and said; "Mom, would you like one? I have the money to buy it?"
The employee looked confused, so I told her I was a single mom.
She said "Oh, I'm sorry. I just thought..."
"It's ok" I told her, "everyone always thinks that every kid has both a mom and dad at home, single moms do both jobs, but we only get 1 holiday."
She looked kind of embarrassed, but I didn't mean to embarrass her, I just wanted to explain why he asked me if I wanted it.

It's also funny to me, just how many little things they had set up around the store for father's day.
Tables with things to color for dad, a display of cards and gifts for dad, and in the meat department, a big sign that said, "Grill a big steak for your dad!"
And at every one of those "stations", an employee offering to help Sebastian find the perfect gift for his dad.
At each one, Sebastian would turn to me, chuckle, and say, "After how many years shopping here, have they ever seen me come in here with anyone but you? Have they ever seen me with a dad?"
We both got a laugh out of it, but it is kind of interesting after 10 years of shopping at that store 2-3 times per week, that they've never noticed we don't come in as a traditional family package.
They know us, they know our names, they always ask how we're doing, and if I go alone, they know enough to ask me where my boys are, so they do know who we are.

So anyway, happy father's day to all the dads, all the single dads, and all the single moms who are both mom and dad.
You all deserve the cookie cakes, the cards and gifts, and yes, even the big steaks done on the grill.

Posted by Kat at 1:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Sebastian and I decided to walk down and get us all some subs for lunch, and the going out of business Boogie Woogie cd, dvd, and video game store, is still open, and now everything is up to 75% off.
So we swung in to check and see if they had any more good deals.
All their used dvds are now another $3.50 off, so movies are super duper cheap.
I found buried amongst some truly horrible titles, the 1990 film Pump up the Volume starring Christian Slater.
Anyone remember this one?

When a book on Lenny Bruce falls into the right young, disaffected, youthful hands, the FCC has its work cut out for it. Christian Slater plays a quiet high school student whose alter ego "Hard Harry" cries injustice and spins punk and rap records from his basement at night for a growing fan base who finds his radio frequency. When the ultra-conservative school administration starts swinging, Hard Harry's fans rally, and Slater gets the girl.

And unlike most teen movies of the 80's and 90's, there is no prom, there is no wrong side of the tracks love story with a super happy ending and pretty pink dress, this is teen rebellion with all it's angst and problems, from suicide, to coming out of the closet in a defining moment kind of way.
Instead of the usual stereotyping of being a fag, Hard Harry instead tells the young male caller how he finds the bravery of people to be amazing, and with that he signs off for the night leaving his listening fans to ponder the coming out confession and who they are as well.

The movie has it's absolutely silly moments as well, it's truly stupid in some parts, but hey, no movie is without it's flaws.
But Pump Up the Volume is a really decent flick and has an amazing soundtrack.
Liquid Jesus' anthem- Stand, to Chagall Guevera's Tale O' The Twister, and Concrete Blonde, Peter Murphy, The Pixies, Soundgarden and Sonic Youth.
The opening song that is played several times throughout the film, Everybody Knows, is done by both Leonard Cohen and Concrete Blonde in the film, yet Cohen's version is noticeably missing from the soundtrack.
I prefer his version over the latter myself.
His voice is raw and real, and his version is slowed down a bit, allowing you to hear every word, and really get a feel for the meaning behind the lyrics.

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
Thats how it goes
Everybody knows

Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died

Everybody knows, everybody knows
Thats how it goes
Everybody knows

Anyway, it's a good a movie, on a scale of 1-5 stars, I give it a 3.5, and only that low because of some of the silliness.
I really think they could have left that out and had a truly remarkable teen rebellion film on their hands that was unlike every other teen movie past or present.

Posted by Kat at 5:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

When Mike (Josh Randall) and his girlfriend, Sheryl (Brianna Brown), go hiking in West Virginia, their idyllic getaway quickly turns into a nightmare they can't seem to wake from. Their choice to follow a less-traveled trail brings them face to face with a homicidal backwoods family with a creepy religious agenda. The next day, when Sheryl vanishes, Mike must comb the woods to find her, enduring a series of horrific events.

That is the basic plot for Timber Falls, directed by Tony Giglio, and starring Josh Randall, Brianna Brown, Nick Searcy, and Beth Broderick.

This movie was so much better than I thought it would be, I just rented it because I love horror/slasher flicks, but it didn't disappoint at all.
It had a pretty intelligent story, pretty decent acting, and it moved at a pretty fast clip.
There wasn't a single moment you could turn away from the screen due to any type of boredom, it really kept you involved and paying close attention.
It has all of the elements that are lacking from other horror movies, and that you wish those other movies had, like the decent story and decent acting.

Our main characters, played by Randall and Brown, are two of the dumbest hikers ever though, they do one stupid thing after another in the beginning of the movie like taking a trail that they know is not patrolled by the park rangers, continuing on that same trail even after meeting up with some backwood rednecks that are far from helpful and nice, and Brown (the girlfriend Sheryl) is especially stupid for going for a morning swim in the lake by herself after the troubles they had just the day before.

The twisted backwood religious family, is absolutely crazy and sadistic, but absolutely totally enjoyable!
Their whole need for kidnapping young couples is because the wife, Ida, cannot carry a child of her own to term, and with the help of her husband and park ranger himself, Clyde, and her deformed by fire brother Deacon, they kidnap and force young healthy couples to have sex and conceive a child for Ida to raise as her own.
If the couple isn't married, Ida marries them in the eyes of the lord, and then forces them by horribly torturous means, to produce a child for her and her husband.
They (Sheryl and Mike) probably would have complied with the forced sex if maybe, just maybe, the religious freaks would have cleaned the blood off of Sheryl, and put her in something a little more enticing like a nicer nightie or some sort of sexy babydolls lingerie.
Blood and a white gown with a big ol' cross on it, isn't exactly sexually appealing.

Mike (Randall) endures the absolute worst of all the injuries and torture in this movie.
When he realizes Sheryl is gone, he goes running through the woods to find her, trips, and ends up with a stick stabbing him deep in his arm.
He removes it and ties a bandanna around it, only to run into the first group of rednecks again, and getting into a knife and gunfight where he's hit hard several times, and cut across one of his legs.
He survives that, only to step in a bear trap just a few minutes later.
He is "rescued" by Ida only to find out just a little later, that she is the captor of his girlfriend Sheryl.
He is whipped by cat o' 9 tails, branded with a branding iron, beaten, stabbed, hit about the head with the butt end of a shotgun, a shovel, fists, and finally a huge knife to the gut.

I don't want to tell you any more, I really think that if you are a fan of slashers and horror films, that this is one you should definitely rent because of how much slashing takes place, and because it's actually a very intelligent horror film.
I was very surprised at just how well the story was done, and I really think that if they had a bigger budget, some better cameras, and some A-list actors in the lead roles, that this movie could have done really great in theaters.
It was only released in 49 theaters nationwide.
I really believe that despite the above, that this is a really good movie, and it even left it open for a part 2, which I would definitely see.

It scored poorly on Rotten Tomatoes for some silly parts, (what horror movie doesn't have a few laughable scenes?) only having 1 "fair" review out of a total of 4 reviews, but ranks highly of the reviewers on Netflix, getting 3.5 stars out of 5.
It gets an "ok" rating and a pretty good review at BoxOffice.com, calling it "a perfectly serviceable scary movie."

On a scale of 1-5 stars, I give it a 4.5.

Posted by Kat at 11:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I just heard the news that reporter Tim Russert has died.

WASHINGTON - Tim Russert, NBC News' Washington bureau chief and the moderator of "Meet the Press," died Friday after being stricken at the bureau, NBC News said Friday. He was 58.
Russert was recording voiceovers for Sunday's "Meet the Press" broadcast when he collapsed. He was rushed to Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, where resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful, said Russert's physician, Michael Newman.
Newman said the cause of death was not immediately known.

He has an extensive and impressive background from being a senate staffer before going to into journalism, he received an Emmy for his coverage of of President Reagan's funeral, 48 honorary doctorates, countless awards for excellence in his career, member of the broadcasting hall of fame, and on the board of the baseball hall of fame.
He was a trustee of the Freedom Forum's Newseum and a member of the board of directors of the Greater Washington Boys and Girls Club and America/s Promise - Alliance for Youth.
He was also named father of the year by several different organizations over the years.

This is just a shock and tragic loss of a man I admired.
My heart and thoughts are with his wife Maureen and his son Luke.

Posted by Kat at 6:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

There's a contest going on over at Today's Gizmos.com, for a very cool gadget!
She is giving away 3 digital photo keychains to 3 lucky winners.
You can read the rules and how to enter, in this post at Today's Gizmos.com.

I really like this silver one, it has 4.8MB of internal memory, so it can hold up to 72 pictures.
That's very cool.
No more wallets stuffed full of pictures to show people the kids and other stuff, you can just slide through your pictures much like using the pictures folder on your computer.
Wholesale Keychain has tons of cool keychains, digital and car specific to choose from.

I hope I am 1 of the lucky 3 winners, I would love to have a cool digital photo keychain!

Posted by Kat at 5:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I went and saw my surgeon today, Doc M., and he did a few xrays, physically examined my shoulder, and told me that the shoulder blade area pain is probably due to a pinched nerve in my neck, and it's actually not that uncommon.
He said that he has had patients, and has been at scoliosis conventions with other surgeons, who said that many scoliosis surgical patients end up at some point down the line, even as far out as 5 years after the surgery, with a pinched nerve in their necks that is the cause of this pain in the shoulder blade area.
He ordered an MRI of my neck, so I need to make that appointment on Monday.
It should be fun.
I'll have to wear this like anti-magnet sheet or suit, depending on where I go, that allows me to be in the MRI machine without being all magneticy due to the hardware in my body.
He also asked for my pain doc to fax him the results of the CT scan that they did, so he can read through those and see if he can determine anything from it.
If not, he thinks the MRI will show the pinched nerve in my neck.

Now why do I have that sore on my shoulder blade?
He asked me what I had been doing to myself, I told him nothing really, it was just a little red and bruised when this whole thing started, and then my pain doc started doing those trigger point injections.
I had 1 injection per week for 3 weeks.
Doc M. believes that the sore was actually caused by those injections.
When I told him that 1 was Decadron, 1 was Decadrol, and 1 was an anti-inflammatory mixed with a steroid, he said that those injections are more than likely the cause of the sore.
He said I must be allergic to at least 1 of the ingredients in the injections, and it caused the sore to appear.
Then every time he did 1, it caused the area to get worse until it finally ended up being a full blown infection.
So he told me to tell the pain doc, no more trigger point injections of any kind, because we don't know which ingredient it is that is causing the allergy.
That works for me!
Those injections never helped me with the pain anyway.

I should have gone to see my surgeon when this whole thing started, instead of trusting my pain doc to be able to figure this out.
When I told Doc M. what happened at the ER, he was angry.
He said that doctor should have examined the area and realized it was infected, which was also causing the area to be more sore than just the pinched nerve, and not treat me like I had a heart attack.
He said the EKG was as far as they should have gone, especially after telling them I already have a blood clot filter in there.
I had that put in about a week before the surgery, and when they did the angiogram, they could have damaged it.
But luckily they didn't.
He was able to see that it's still in place and ok when he did a spot xray on my iliac (hip joint) screws.
The left side one, which is the broken one, is doing ok.
I have new bone growth, a lot of it he said, growing all over and around, and in between the broken part of the screw, which is helping it be stable.
He really doesn't want to take those iliac screws out for a few more years, or never, if we can help it.
So he said we'll keep checking on it periodically to see how it's doing, and if the screws are still causing me pain in another year or 2, then we can take them out.
He'd really prefer not to though, because those screws really do help hold all the hardware in place.

So here we go, a pinched nerve is possibly and probably, the reason why my shoulder blade is so painful, and the sore is an infection caused by an ingredient in one of the trigger point injections.
I totally should have just gone straight to him.
I would have saved myself a ton of money, time, and pain.
That's my fault, I spent 2 months in pain and getting an infection, when he had the answers all along.
Ok, gotta go call the pain doc and have him fax over the CT scan results.
I'll catch up with everyone later on this evening.

Thanks again to Mindy and her daughter Katie, for taking me all the way there, and to 2 different pharmacies when we got back.
I totally appreciate it.
Thank you!

Posted by Kat at 4:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

This afternoon and evening, is just dragging by.
Probably because I'm not as busy today as I normally am.
It's been rainy off and on, so my joints are stiff, so I've been trying to take it as easy as possible today.
I have a long car ride tomorrow, and tend to get super stiff riding for that long, so yeah, I tried to have an easy day.

But that's just not possible when you have a needy neighbor.
I try so hard to be understanding of her, I really do.
Disabled, lonely, bored, lonely, Oh I said that one, um, alone even if her husband and son are home, so she's very needy.
She calls literally 5-10 times per day, needing help with a multitude of things.
She dropped her glasses and can't reach them, she doesn't understand her health insurance, can I come explain it to her, she needs help with her laundry, or like today, her cat knocked over the tv stand and now everything is on the floor behind it, and she can't watch tv.
Oh, and then she needed stuff from the store, and was I going to be going.
Um, no, I went yesterday, with her, and she bought $241 worth of crap.

So yeah, she needed someone to come fix all of her tv stuff.
Sebastian is not home, won't be home till tomorrow morning at 8am, and Mark was asleep all day.
I let him sleep, I don't have a problem with that.
She did though.
She wanted me to wake him up to come pick up and fix all her stuff.
I said when he wakes, I would ask him, but I'm not going to make him do anything he doesn't want to.
We are not going to spend our whole summer taking care of her and her home.
It's already started, it's been this way for awhile.
Her son is a lazy jerk, he won't do any chores even if she pays him, so she asks my boys, and because I've raised my boys to help people who need it, they do.
So she's taking advantage of us.

Today, I said no, I wouldn't make him do anything, he needs a break, a day to just have fun.
And I also played sick.
I know, it's terrible of me, but she has called no less than 7 times today, and each time I have told her I am not feeling well so I won't be going to any stores or doing anything, plus, my back hurts and I need to rest.
And when she kept calling, I had Mark answer and tell her I went to bed due to not feeling well.

I feel horrible about lying, but even after having said no to her, she continued to call and request help with stuff.
I felt like I was left with no choice but to lie.
I do not like lying to people, but when I say no and it's completely ignored like I should just do what she wants, I had to in order to just get some peace and quiet.
And I really believe it is because of how needy some of the people in my life are, that I have a very hard time asking others for help even if I truly need it.
Mindy offers so often to help me, and I know I need help sometimes, but I don't ever want to be seen as a burden or hated because I need help sometimes ya know?
Does that make sense?

So I'm going to go take care of a few things I need to finish up for myself tonight, and then I'm going to go make some popcorn in the popcorn machines, and watch some bad tv shows or play with my Sims until I need to go to bed.
I set several alarms including a wake up call, so I will be ready in the am.
Later days.

Posted by Kat at 8:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Have any of you ever heard of a diet pill called anoretix?
It's certainly an interesting name for a diet pill?
I came across it while doing some random surfing, and was so taken by the name, I went and read the site.
It looks like it may work, but I'd want to know if anyone else has taken it before I order something like that.
I definitely need to lose some weight, but I also want to be safe while doing it.

Posted by Kat at 1:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This story just breaks my heart.
You really need to read this whole article, it is just so sad.

She was 82. He was 95. They had dementia. They fell in love. And then they started having sex. Because both Bob and Dorothy suffer from dementia, the son assumed that his father didn't fully understand what was going on. And his sputtering cell phone call reporting the scene he'd happened upon would have been funny, the manager said, if the consequences hadn't been so serious. "He was going, 'She had her mouth on my dad's penis! And it's not even clean!' " Bobs son became determined to keep the two apart and asked the facility's staff to ensure that they were never left alone together.

After that, Dorothy stopped eating. She lost 21 pounds, was treated for depression, and was hospitalized for dehydration. When Bob was finally moved out of the facility in January, she sat in the window for weeks waiting for him. She doesn't do that anymore, though: "Her Alzheimer's is protecting her at this point," says her doctor, who thinks the loss might have killed her if its memory hadn't faded so mercifully fast.

Before Dorothy came along, the manager said, Bob was really kind of a player and had all the women vying to sit with him on the porch. But with Dorothy, she said, "it was love." One day, the staff noticed that they were sitting together, then before long they were taking all their meals together, and over a matter of weeks, it became constant. Whenever Bob caught sight of Dorothy, he lit up "like a young stud seeing his lady for the first time." Even at 95, he'd pop out of his chair and straighten his clothes when she walked into the room. She would sit, and then he would sit. And both of them began taking far greater pride in their appearance; Dorothy went from wearing the same ratty yellow dress all the time to appearing for breakfast every morning in a different outfit, accessorized with pearls and hair combs.

When Bob's son became aware of these trysts, he tried to put a stop to them--in the manager's view because the son felt that old people "should be old and rock in the chair." When I called Bob's son and told him I was writing about the situation without using any names, he passed on the opportunity to explain his perspective. "I don't choose to discuss anything that involves my father," he said, and he put the phone down.
But according to the facility manager, the son was convinced that Dorothy was the aggressor in the relationship, and he worried that her advances might be hard on his father's weak heart.

Dorothy's son-in-law, who is a doctor, suspects Bob's son of fearing for his inheritance. Bob had repeatedly proposed for all to hear and called Dorothy his wife, but his son called her something else--a "gold digger"--and refused to even discuss her family's offer to sign a prenup. According to Dorothy's daughter, Bob's son told her, "My father has outlived three wives, including the one he married in his 80s, and your mother is just one of many." But surely Bob's safety was a true concern, too, and maybe his son had religious or moral qualms? "I don't think so," the manager said. "I don't think he meant his dad any harm, but he couldn't see what his dad needed....He wanted his dad to have a relationship but on his terms: You can sit together at meals, but you can't have what really makes a relationship, and be careful how much you kiss and don't retire to a private place to do what all of us do."

When her daughter mentioned Bob's name--Bob, who was led away in January, shouting, "What's going on? Where are you taking me?" right in front of her--it wasn't clear how much she remembered: "He came and he went, and there's nothing more to say."
Though Dorothy might or might not remember what happened, "there's a sadness in her" that wasn't there before, the manager said. Bob "gave her back something she had long lost--to think she's pretty, to care about her step and her stride." She eats in her room now rather than in the dining room where she shared meals with Bob. And she no longer plays the piano. A new couple in the facility has gotten together in the last few weeks. The manager called their families in right away and was relieved to see that they were happy for their parents, and the families have been taking them on outings together. As a result of the whole experience, the manager, who is 50, recently had a different version of "the talk" with her 25-year-old daughter, instructing her never, ever to let such a thing happen to her or her husband: "I hope I get another shot at it when I'm 90 years old."

I know most of us don't like to think about our parents having sex, or our grandparents, but just because people reach a certain age, it doesn't mean those desires and feelings just vanish.
There are stories out there about older couples who when one spouse dies, the other dies within the year, and doctors and family believe that the spouse left behind, died of a broken heart and loneliness.
Life in nursing homes is hard enough for the elderly.
If you've ever had an elderly family member in a home and gone to visit them, they are cold and lonely places.
The elderly love it when family comes to visit them because of how alone they are.
They may be in a building full of people, but in their rooms, they are alone, they spend hours and hours per day, completely alone with no one to talk to, no one to love them.
I think it's awesomely wonderful that two old people can find love again, be happy, and it's so sad and selfish, to take that away from them just because they are old or may have dementia.
Having Alzheimer's doesn't mean you have no feelings any more, it just means you don't have the memory you once had, and it certainly doesn't mean that you shouldn't be allowed to love.

I really hope that my sons will allow me to be happy in my final years if I'm lucky enough to find love again.
They may not want to think that old people having sex is ok, but all people have those needs and desires.
Just be happy for them that they found love and happiness again.
They don't have much time left, just let them be happy and be loved, be in love.
It's one of the greatest feelings in the world, and no one should be denied that, especially in their final years of life.

Posted by Kat at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I had to wake up at 7:30 this morning and get Sebastian up so he could be picked up by my sister at 8:15am.
I had set both my alarm clock and my cell phone alarms so that I would get up one way or another.
Apparently, when the alarms went off, I did indeed get up, walked into his room and woke him up, had a conversation with him, went to the bathroom, got a drink, and said I'd be right back.
I don't remember any of that.

What I do remember is being busy making a gift basket for someone.
I had flowers, skin care supplies, candies, drink mixes, and all kinds of other stuff in this gift basket, and all over the counters and tables in my house so I could make more of them.
I guess.

And I didn't come right back either.
I didn't actually "wake-up" until the phone rang at about 8:10am.
My sister was calling to say she'd be picking him up a little bit later.
He's spending the day with her at the house she works at to play with Matthew, the brother of the boy she takes care of.
Both Matthew and Sebastian, have pretty much nothing to do this summer, and they get along really well, so they beg the mom and my sister to be allowed to play a few days a week.
I don't mind it, it gives Sebastian something fun to do, and it allows Mark to just be by himself and do his own thing.

But why is what happened this morning not a good thing?
Because I need to get up at 7:30am tomorrow morning too, for my doc appointment in Tampa.
If I'm in such a deep sleep that I don't really wake up, it's not going to go well.

Posted by Kat at 10:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The family of the truck driver, Raymond Neumann, who was killed last week in that crash on the interstate, needs your help.

Raymond was a loving and devoted father of three children, he worked as hard as he did to provide for his family that he loved so much.
His oldest son David, has built a website in remembrance of his father, and they are in need of any sized donation that you can give them.
Donations can be made at any Suntrust ATM or Banking center, and must be made out to David or Karen Neumann, account #1000076140832.
You can go to the site and read about Raymond, his life and his family, and see pictures of him and his children.

When David contacted me about the site, I could tell this was a young man grieving for the loss of a man who meant the world to him, and by the way David spoke, I could tell that Raymond was the devoted and loving father that they say he was.
David is a well spoken and articulate young man, his words touched me and brought me to tears, as I read about this so very tragic and unexpected loss.
I think Raymond would be very proud of his son David, for stepping up and trying to do everything he can to help take care of his mother, and his younger siblings in this very sad time.
Instead of just being able to grieve the loss of his father, he's trying now to help take care of his family in his father's absence.

If you are able to help out, any sized donation, or even help by spreading the word on your blog, please help spread the word local Florida bloggers , please give or do what you can to help.

Posted by Kat at 10:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It seems like everybody on line knows at least a little about SEO, and those that don't, know they want to because they want to make money.
I'm making some changes to this blog over the next few days and weeks ahead, so I've been doing a little reading on this subject tonight in between doing other things I have to do.
I promise, when I get ready to do these changes, I will let you all know.
I'm not shutting down or going on an extended hiatus, but I'm making some big changes that I think have been needed for awhile.

There are a lot of companies out there I've come across that promise you SEO results, and I know some people who paid a few different companies to increase their SEO, and promised to help drive traffic and sales to their websites, only to be ripped off.
They never saw an increase in traffic, so obviously what was promised didn't work out, and they lost thousands of dollars.
Not even making back what they paid for the service, and feeling very let down.

A way to know if the company you're going to use knows their stuff, is if they offer you a free SEO report, have plenty of information available for free for you too read, and they just have a ton of resources and links on their site for you to check out before you invest.
There's a San Diego SEO Company by the name of Best Rank, that has all of that for potential clients to check out.
Heck, they even have a blog just like most of us have, where they talk about what they do, what they are working on, and even some of the issues they have had while working for a client.
They are honest, which I find refreshing in this industry.
You really should check out their blog and read the June 9th entry.
They had some serious issues with a client's site, and had to really dig deep to find out what the problem was.
Not only was it cool to see how they were honest about the issue, but also how they resolved it.
I learned a lot from just that one entry.

Posted by Kat at 10:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When I got my first little baby computer, an Emachine, back when I first moved here in 1997, I had it set up much like I do now, except that every time I was on my computer, my right shoulder and arm would hurt after about an hour of using it.
It made me not want to be on it at all, and I loved being on it just as much as i still love it today. *hugs the tower lovingly named Ace*

I complained to my sister about it, and she said it was because of the mouse I was using.
It was a standard 2 button mouse and a mouse pad.
When you have one of those, you are moving your arm and hand all over the place to click around on the screens, and the way I was sitting combined with the way I was moving my arm, was causing me pain.

So she explained to me what computer ergonomics was, and took me to a store to get a mouse I wouldn't have to do that much moving with.
She bought me an ergonomic trackball mouse that day, and I've never looked back.
It instantly felt better, my shoulder and arm never hurt again.
In the last 11 years, I've now been through 2 of those trackball mice, and when this one dies, I'll just get another one just like it.
You should totally try an ergonomic mouse if you are having pain in your wrists, shoulder, or arm after being on the computer.
Trust me, it will make you feel tons better!

Posted by Kat at 9:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My neighbor needed to go grocery shopping, and she's currently not allowed to drive due to her health, so she asked me to come with her in the cab.
She hasn't ever ridden in a cab.
I know, I was like what?
Who has never ridden in a cab?!
So yeah, me being the good person I am, I called the cab for her, and agreed to go with her.
She spent nearly 2 hours shopping.
Up and down every aisle, had to look at everything even though she had a list.
And it wasn't a big list either, but by the time she got done, she had filled the basket on the motorized scooter she was riding in, and a whole other cart which her son was pushing.
$241 later, she thinks she got everything.

I did need a few things, cereal, milk, dinner for tonight,pet supplies like the cat food I forgot to get the other day, more soda, kool-aid, and a few other things which are completely slipping my mind right now.
Then I just followed her and her son around while she looked at everything.

I can't do that.
I'm one of those people who knows what I need, I go in, get it, and get out.
I cannot spend hours in the grocery store just looking at stuff.
They have food, household cleaners, and basic household crap, why could you possibly need to look at everything?!

So we finally checkout and go outside to call and wait for the cab.
It took them about 10 minutes to get us, but damn it was hot, and damn was she complaining.
So we get home, I had already called the teens to meet us in the driveway to help unload the goods, ours and theirs, because her kid is a lazy bum, and we've now been home for 3 hours.

She just called me to ask if I ended up with her bag that had paper towels in it, and "God only knows what else!", and I said nope, your son was the last one to take groceries from the cab, ask him what he did with it.
She said he doesn't know, which translates to he left it in the cab.
So she needed their phone number to call them and ask if they found her bag of groceries.
For a brief second, I thought she was going to ask me to call them and ask, but amazingly she didn't.
I gave her the number, wished her luck, and hung up.

I don't understand how it took 3 hours to figure out she was missing a bag of groceries, but whatever, I did my good deed for the day, the teens did theirs.
I'm tired again, and I need to find something to eat for dinner.
I bought the teens subs and salad, so they are full and happy, now for me to eat something before I pass out.
All I've eaten was what I had at McD's today.
Later days!

Posted by Kat at 7:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

It's time for another round of Remember Wednesday, a new-ish weekly music meme that Jade started.

This week is all about the Journey.
I've always been a big fan of their music, they are a solid rock band.
Each member a master of his instrument, and when combined, they all come together with an amazing sound.

Back in the early 90's, my friend Shell and I would go down town, down to the beach clubs like Mr. Goodbar's, (where they still play) and a few other bars and clubs, and see a local band called Riot Act.
Riot Act was one of those good-time bands, they played some of their music, but they mostly played covers for the tourist crowds who came in to hear rock music they knew and loved.
Guns n' Roses, Whitesnake, Bon Jovi, 80's rock songs mostly, but nothing got the crowd going like when they would play covers of Journey.

The lead singer, Johnny, just had the voice that could pull off a damn good interpretation of Steve Perry.
Put his voice with the very talented members of the band, plus a good Journey hit like "Don't Stop Believin', Send her My Love, or Faithfully, and the crowd would eat it up, the place would be filled, over capacity on most nights, and it was guaranteed that you would have a good time.
They did an amazing cover of Separate Ways, one of my personal favorites of Journey, and wow, it was always so awesome to hear it played live, you'd get goosebumps when Johnny hit those high and long notes.
Shell and I would make a point of being there whenever Riot Act played, or as often as we could.
The both of us were young mothers of young toddlers, but we'd get a babysitter and head on down to the beach for our one night of fun and music, after a long week of taking care of kids and working, and Shell going to college.
We could let loose, and hang out with our friends, have a good time and just rock out with Johnny and the guys.
I think at one point, both of us actually worked at one of the clubs they played at.
I was a waitress at the Whitehall, and I believe Shell was a the only female bouncer at Goodbars.
It was a good time, good memories of being with a good friend.
So here is my Remember Wednesday song for this week, Separate Ways by Journey.

If you decide to play along, make sure you go to this week's post on Jade's blog, and leave a comment so other music lovers this week can come read about your music memories too!

Posted by Kat at 1:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I was finally able to get Verizon to take my money!
I had to call their executive customer service department, and I got that number from Lisa of Wild Rose rpgraphics, so thank you sooo much Lisa!

Today is the 11th, I basically had until tomorrow to get them to take the money, and they still hadn't, so I called the number Lisa gave me and explained it all, years and years worth of frustration of just trying to pay my bill every month.
I had given them checking account numbers, savings accounts, credit cards, debit cards, I was literally begging them to take my money every month so I could have internet service, and for some reason, it was just never going through.
Sometimes if I called, the payment would go through right away.
Other times, it would only charge me $1, but most of the time, it just wasn't billing me at all, and so every month for the last 2 years, I've had to call and beg them to take my money.

So I spoke to an executive customer service rep, explained it all, and I said to her, "You have absolutely no idea how frustrating it is to have to call Verizon every month and beg them to take my money. How many customers actually beg you to take their money? But that's what I've been doing, begging, and I shouldn't have to beg you to take the money."

She laughed and said, "No, usually people call and beg for more time to pay their bill, you're the only person I know of who calls and begs us to take their money."
And not only did she take my money, she gave me a direct number to call every month if this happens again, and they have the authorization to charge the card right then and there.
Now why, in all the years that I've been calling and begging, did none of those other reps, give me this direct number?
I don't understand, they knew I wasn't able to pay my bill by the automated biller, so why didn't they just give me that number?
Anyway, I'm glad it's paid and now I have a number I can just call once, no more 3-4 times a month having to call and beg to pay my bill.

Posted by Kat at 12:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I just got back from my pain doc appointment a little bit ago.
The pain doc is till not sure what it is, and is very glad I'm seeing my surgeon on Friday.
He said no matter what it turns out to be, call his office, and tell one of his nurses when I get home from that appointment.
I'm still banned from doing any ellipticals workouts until we know what it is, but amazingly, even without working out, I've lost some weight.
I told him it's not that amazing, I've been sick the last few days.
When you're vomiting and the smell of food makes your stomach turn so much you can't eat, it's pretty damn easy to lose weight.

But I am doing better today.
I've been taking it so easy the last few days and having the teens put staphaseptic on the red spot, so I was able to eat last night and today.
Mindy drove me again, and we took her daughter Katie, and Sebastian.
When we got done at the docs, I had promised Katie that if she was good and patient while waiting for me, that I would treat her to McDonald's for lunch.
But when we got out, it was still too early for lunch, so we went to Best Buy and bought Sebastian the graphics card he needed for his computer.
He had most of the money in a gift card he got for his birthday from his Aunt Heather, and I paid the balance.
Then we got to McD's, and ate, then came home.

I installed his graphics card, and then he installed the rest of his Sims games, and now he's a happy camper.
I'm way tired, and need to rest for a little bit, and then I have a lot of catching up to do.
Later days.

Posted by Kat at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There is not much going on here, it's been one of those very quiet days where you just sit and think, watch stupid tv shows, and try not to sweat to death.
I could complain that it's hot outside, but I won't.
I know that it will be much hotter for Mark when he has to mow the lawn later.
I'll still be inside the house where it's at least 30 degrees cooler.

I have a great deal on my mind and it's so hard to not let it spill all out and flow all over everything.
And you might say, why not Kat? Why not let it all out, why hold it all in?
And to that I have to say because it's mine.
It's all my stuff, I own it all, and there is so much bad already out there, and everybody has their own bad they carry, why add more to the pile?
I don't buy into any of that Pollyanna bs, but I do have to find a way to deal with my stuff that doesn't affect every one else.
But I also need things from people, and let me tell you, it is terribly disappointing when you're told over and over that you will have what you need, but then it never comes.
I'm holding onto problems that aren't mine, and I need to stop that.
If people don't want to come through with what they are supposed to, it's not me, it's not my fault, and even though it makes me angry and disappoints me, I don't own it, and therefore it's not on me.
I have to stop taking it on me.
I'll do what I am supposed to, and that's all I can do.
And maybe none of this makes sense to anyone, and I'm still working it all out, I am getting there and learning that I can't make people do anything, I can only do what I'm supposed to.
I've been disappointed for days now, waiting on things, and I need to let it go because it's obviously not going to happen until they are damn good and ready to do it.

I'm going to try and make this summer fun, do fun things, at least try to.
I'm tired of sitting around waiting on everyone else, respecting them and their time, when I should just be off doing, living, enjoying, and not waiting for people who have no respect for mine.

Posted by Kat at 4:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

That is my left shoulder as it appears today.
I have been telling doctors for almost a full 2 months now, that something is seriously wrong.
They did xrays and CT scans, and said they couldn't see it.
They gave me pain medicine, but begrudgingly, like I was just seeking.
I told my pain doctor and the ER doc the other night, that something was seriously wrong.
It burns, it feels like it's tearing, it itches and pulls.
Leaning forward causes horrible pain to tear through my shoulder blade area, and they treated me like I was crazy, like it's all in my head.

Does that look like it's all in my head to you?!
I had mentioned that it might be a pressure sore, but they blew that off.
I really think it is.
It's bleeding now when touched.
Mark cleaned the area with a wash cloth today, and it started bleeding in random spots within that whole spot.
The skin is broken he told me, it doesn't feel right when you touch it, it feels squishy he said.
And it hurts so freaking bad.

I see the pain doc on Wednesday morning, and my surgeon on Friday morning, between the 2 of them, they need to figure this out because it is clearly not nothing.

Posted by Kat at 6:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

And sick as well.
I'm not doing so good today, I've gotten physically sick a few times since waking up, I have a slight fever, and this shoulder thing has gotten much worse.
Not just in pain, but the skin is not looking so good.
Mark was helping me, was going to put one of the pain patches on it because it's just burning something fierce today, and he said it's all red and not good looking.
I checked it out in the mirror, it's not so good looking.
I decided against the pain patch, I don't want to irritate the skin anymore than it already looks.
I'm just going to go lay down for awhile, try to get some rest.
Be back around later.

Posted by Kat at 1:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

If any of you have ever used E.L.F. makeup, you know they are only $1 for most of the items on the site, and the quality is really excellent.
But they have 3 different coupons that you can apply during checkout which makes your savings even better.

Spend $15, and use coupon code CAROLINA to get $7.50 off.
Code RADIO gets 50% off of your order (up to $15).
Code ECTAPDY gets free shipping for over $10 worth.
Can use multiple times (use them every time you shop)

So what's in my cart to buy when I get paid this week?
Brow comb + brush
Concealer brush
Wet Gloss Lash & Brow Clear Mascara
Eye Shadow Brush
Eyeliner Brush
Foundation Brush
Tone Correcting Concealer
3 Plumping Lip Glaze
Nail Block
Nail File Set
Pre-designed eyes compact which includes:
Compact
Ivory
Sage
Periwinkle
Wisteria
e.l.f. Professional Complete Set of 12 Brushes
Brightening Eye Color shadow palette in name Ivy

Total 21 items
Subtotal = $31.00
Shipping + Handling = $6.95
Subtotal before tax = $37.95

Then we apply the coupons!
Subtotal = $31.00
Free Shipping! - $6.95
50% Off up to $15.00 - RADIO- ($7.50)
Subtotal before tax = $23.50

Both RADIO and CAROLINA, take off their discount only on the first $15 spent, either one takes off $7.50.
I used RADIO and ECTAPDY on my order.
It's a really great deal if you love makeup.
All of those items for that price

Posted by Kat at 11:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I had Sebastian scrub the tub with Soft Scrub today, it really needed it.
Teens are nasty, dirty, filthy creatures, who just leave layers of brownish colored soap scum on the sides and bottom of the tub, so I had the biggest dirt covered teen clean it.
Sebastian is the one who goes outside all of the time with no shoes on, runs through puddles, and climbs trees, plays for hours on end in the dirt and grass, and then comes in the house and proclaims he "must wash his feet."
He does wash his feet, but he does not wash the muddy filth down the drain when he's done, he just leaves these brown foot prints on the bottom of the tub.

Anyway, I had him clean the tub and I put the Soft Scrub in the tub.
Had I left him to do it, the brand new bottle would have been empty.
Just squirting it in there so he could clean, and then being the one to take the shower sprayer and rinse the tub after, all I can taste and smell is bleach.
I've blown my nose, brushed my teeth, rinsed with mouthwash, and I even went so far as to squirt water up each nostril a few times in the hopes of rinsing the bleach off of any nose hairs that were clinging to the smell of it.
Nope.
Everything still smells and tastes like bleach.
Dinner should be just scrumptious.
Not.

And speaking of dinner, as I was removing the foil for the last 10 minutes of baking, the scalding hot steam escaped in a quick gush on my poor left index finger that was trying to remove the foil.
I let out a scream only someone in extreme pain could possibly make, and Mark came running.
He finished removing the foil and pushed the rack and pan back in, and closed the door.
This is HUGE for him, as he always fears getting burned by the oven.
Perhaps it's all these years of watching me sustain burns that made him that way.
Hrm.
Then he ran the cold water, grabbing me by the arm and forcing my finger underneath while he searched for ice from the freezer.
We don't have any ice, so he grabbed a bag of frozen broccoli and made me hold it on there.
I now have a lovely steam blister on the top of my finger.
Yay.

Now I have to go take dinner out and serve it up, and I'll be glad when that's done.
Just bending to put it in there, remove the foil, and now one last time to get it out, is seriously no fun on my shoulder.
I'm going to eat and take a pill, and then watch some crappy tv for the night.

Posted by Kat at 5:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Scoliosis is an abnormal curve of the spine that causes it to twist from side to side, and may also be rotated. It is an abnormal lateral curvature of the spine.
On an x-ray, the spine of an individual with a typical scoliosis may look more like an "S" or a "C" than a straight line.
It is typically classified as congenital (caused by vertebral anomalies present at birth), idiopathic (sub-classified as infantile, juvenile, adolescent, or adult according to when onset occurred) or as having developed as a secondary symptom of another condition, such as cerebral palsy or spinal muscular atrophy.

Scientists, with the help of current patients with scoliosis, have recently discovered that it is genetic.
They have discovered that there is a gene (CHD7) that is passed from parent to child, associated with idiopathic scoliosis.
More females than males have it, yet males can have it as well.

Scoliosis.org and the U.S. House of Representatives Proclamation by Pennsylvania Congresswoman Allyson Y. Schwartz invites the President, Governors, officials and the American People to join with her and the National Scoliosis Foundation in recognizing and reaffirming our commitment to increasing the awareness of scoliosis. The Proclamation highlights the importance of early detection and treatment of scoliosis in trying to prevent or alleviate the worst effects of this spinal deformity for our children.

I was diagnosed with scoliosis at the age of 12, and had therapy for it which involved basic stretching techniques and other exercises, but the doctors back then did not think that my curve required a brace or surgery at that time, and told my parents that they did not believe my scoliosis would progress any further.
How wrong they were.

During my late teens and early 20's, I only had pain a few times a year, but would often throw out my neck, and sustain injuries to the left side of my body.
I would lose my balance and fall, causing me to injure my left knee, or twist my left ankle.
I sprained my left ankle about 8 times a year.
After the birth of my first son, I started having pain in my lower back after any strenuous activities.
After the birth of my second son, I was told that due to the curve of my spine, it was not recommended that I have any more children.
I began experiencing pain on an almost daily basis even if no activities were done.
I would be at work and after just a few hours on my feet, I would be in agonizing pain.
I was downing full bottles of Tylenol and Advil about 3 times per week, over 100 pills per bottle, just to make it through my work week.
If I was asked at work to do things like mop the floor (at a whole foods store) or unload furniture off the truck, (Pier 1 Imports) I would be in so much pain that I would cry the whole way home from work, and have to order dinner for myself and my sons because I was unable to stand to cook anything.

By December 2001, I was no longer able to work due to constant pain in my lower back and left side rib cage hump on my back, numbing in my legs, lack of circulation to my legs and feet, and my pain had forced me to be unable to keep a good posture all of the time.
I was usually hunched over, yes, much like a hunchback, because that position alleviated the lower back pain.
I would either have to lay on the couch or bed, or when sitting at my computer, my legs would have to be propped up on an end table, not a foot stool, because it created the curve in my body that allowed me to be pain free while sitting in a chair.
I was told by an orthopedic specialist that if I continued to work, I would cause irreparable harm to my spine and nerves, and I was destroying the discs in my lower spine even further than they already were.
I had completely flattened discs, stenosis, and had severed the majority of the nerves and veins going through my pelvic region.
He ordered me to stop working and get surgery immediately, or lose my ability to walk within a few years.
He was unable to perform the surgery I needed.
And so were 18 more orthopedic specialist surgeons in this field, as the majority of their patients were children or teenagers, and my spine and the damage done was beyond their skill level.
It took fighting with my insurance company for almost 5 years, to allow me to see a surgeon out of network, the only surgeon who was qualified to do it, and the only surgeon willing to take it on.
They insisted I see their surgeons first.
By the time they finally relented and allowed me to be seen and treated by him, I had seen 21 different orthopedic specialists.
I consider him the man who gave me my life back.
I met him in November 2005, and had my surgeries in February 2006.
I had 2 surgeries 1 week apart, lasting 24 and a half hours in total.
You can read my surgery story if you are new to my blog or just curious what the whole procedure is like.

Did my surgery fix me fully?
No, I still have problems like my recent shoulder issues, but we are working on those.
I don't regret the surgery at all, even with the current pain issues I'm facing.
I would be in a much, much worse place today if I had never had it done, I know that, and I am so greatful to my surgeon and his whole staff for what they did for me.
I do have most of my life back, I am no longer hunched over, I'm not in a constant state of pain in my lower back and the "hump" any more.
I'm able to go out and do things, I can walk again without having to stop from debilitating pain.
I can sit in regular chairs without having to put my feet up or have pillows all around and under me, things are so much better today than they were from 2001 to the beginning of 2006.
I still can't work a normal outside the home job, but I can almost do everything I did before the pain got so bad.

If you have kids, please please get them screened for scoliosis, even if no one in your family has ever had it.
It is genetic, but it's also one of those things that just happens.
Get your daughters screened, get your sons screened, and if there are signs of a curve, get them treated now, don't wait, please don't wait, take them to a scoliosis specialist and have them taken care of.
They have much more comfortable braces for teens now, much better than the one I would have had to wear when I was a teen, it can be worn under clothing and it fits so close to the skin, no one can tell you have it on. I've seen it, it's so nice, and the teens I've talked to who wear it, say that it's very comfortable, they actually like wearing it because it keeps them standing up straight, yet they have totally free movement to play sports, run, and any other activities they do.
If only the doctor back when they found mine, had just treated me correctly, maybe I wouldn't have had the problems I ended up with.
I don't blame him, they really didn't know back then that it would truly get worse for me, they figured I had stopped growing and therefore my spine was stable.
Because it can be genetic, I have the boys screened for it every 6 months at their regular well-child appointments.
So far so good, it doesn't appear that either Mark or Sebastian have it, but I will continue having them screened because it can show up later in life too, and because I have it, it is important that we screen them at every single doctors appointment all through their teen and young adult years.

June is National Scoliosis Awareness Month.
Be aware, get your kids and teens tested and screened, and take care of it now while they are young, because kids and teens heal so much faster from the surgery (if it's needed) than adults do.
Kids and teens are usually up and running, playing, and back at school within 3-4 months after the surgery. Adults can take anywhere from 1-3 years to be back to any sort of a normal life.
Take care of it while your kids are young, save them from being in pain and severely deformed later in life.

Posted by Kat at 1:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Source

MANATEE COUNTY - Raymond A. Neumann, the tanker truck driver critically injured when his rig plunged from a bridge and exploded on U.S. 301, died this afternoon at Tampa General Hospital, a family member said.

Neumann, 54, was driving south on Interstate 75 on Wednesday when he swerved to avoid a pickup truck that authorities say spun out after merging onto the highway from U.S. 301. Neumann's truck, carrying 8,000 gallons of fuel, struck the vehicle before plunging over a bridge and exploding in a fireball that damaged the bridge.

Construction crews are working to rebuild the section of the bridge that was damaged in the crash and fire.
Southbound traffic on Interstate 75 is expected to be diverted Monday onto the northbound lanes of the highway.

Zep Construction of Fort Myers, was the lowest bidder for the reconstruction of the damaged bridge, and the state Saturday awarded a six-week contract for $1.7 million.

75 and 301 is pretty much the way I need to go on Friday to get to Tampa to see my surgeon, Doc M.
I'm sure we could take US41, but even that will be packed.
In order to make sure I get to his office by 11:15am, we will need to leave no later than 9am, possibly even earlier depending on how the traffic reports say things are going all week.
I'll be paying close attention to it all week, that's for sure.
75 is the fastest way to get from anywhere north, to anywhere south in this state, so having an entire section of the southbound lanes closed off and rerouted to merge with the northbound lanes, is really an awful huge mess.
But my thoughts are with Mr. Neumann's family and friends, he was just trying to avoid hitting the other driver.

Posted by Kat at 8:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"Thank you for choosing Verizon Online. Unfortunately, we are unable to bill your Verizon Online service charges to the credit card you provided. To avoid disruption of your broadband service, full payment is required immediately. If your bill is not paid within 10 days of the date of this notice, we will have to disconnect your broadband service. Please pay immediately to avoid interruption of your service."

Once again, Verizon has failed to charge my card.
The money has been sitting there for weeks now, they were supposed to take the payment on May 28th.
They did not.
On June 2nd, they sent the above notice.
Due to how I was feeling, I did not call them until June 4th, I told them the money is there, confirmed my card numbers, told them to take the frigging money, and give me a confirmation number for this call to verify that I am trying to pay my bill.
They said, "We are very sorry that this is happening again, but we promise you that your service will not be disconnected."
I told them don't promise me that, because the same shit happened last month, and last month, you shut me off again.
They swore the charges would go through that day, June 2.

I waited 2 days and checked my online account again, and again, they did not take the money.
So I called them again yesterday, June 6.
I told them to please take the frigging money, if I get disconnected again because their automated biller can't charge the card, I'm going to be fucking pissed.
Yes, I was very nasty with them because come on, this has been happening to me for well over 2 years. It doesn't matter which card I use for the auto billing, I've used 4 different cards over the years with them, my account is screwed up, no one can tell me why, and they don't charge me, my service gets shut off.
I begged the guy to take the payment right now, I said "I'm begging you people to take the money. I shouldn't have to work this hard to pay my bill every fucking month for over 2 years."
And once again, they promised me the card would be charged that day, June 6.
I said don't make me anymore fucking promises. You do this every month, you promise I won't get disconnected, you promise you'll take the money, you don't, and my DSL gets shut off.
I work from home, I need my service on all the time. I pay for it to be on all the time, at least I fucking try to.
I actually beg them to take the money.
That's how pitiful this situation has become.
Me, begging Verizon, to let me pay my bill.

The gave me another confirmation number, promised the card would be charged yesterday, and wouldn't you know it?
It's still not been charged.
I swear, if my service gets shut off, I'm going to fucking kill somebody.
I technically have until June 12th to get this resolved, but I don't trust that.
Last month, they shut me off within 6 days of the notice, not the 10 days like they said in the email.

I'm going to have to call them every freaking day until they take the money.
Don't they want the fucking money?!
They do, or otherwise they wouldn't be sending me shut off notices and disconnecting me all the fucking time!
I fucking hate Verizon!
I really wish I had other choices for phone and internet besides Verizon and the even more evil Comcast in this area, but I don't.
Comcast charges way too much, and Verizon's service and customer service, is just fucking shitty.
When my DSL is on, it's great, but if they don't charge for the service, it's an actual battle to try and pay my bill.
I shouldn't have to beg and plead with them to take the money every month.
This is fucking ridiculous.
I've blogged this situation every time it has happened.
I went through my site's archives for the last 4 years, and there are a ton of posts about Verizon not taking their money, the shitty service, the accidental shut-offs, and the non-stop pleading with them to fix my account.
I'm so fucking fed up with them!

Posted by Kat at 2:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Sebastian and I went to Publix yesterday to buy more food for the food-inhaling teenagers, and I decided I wanted some ice cream.
They were out of the fudge royal we all like, so we decided to get some Ben & Jerry's.
That's when we spotted these diet sized(?) ones.
They were only $1, and they only had 2 flavors, so I grabbed 2 cookie dough and 2 chocolate fudge brownie ones for the boys, and I got myself a regular sized Phish Food.
But aren't these cute? Have you seen them?
Adorable baby or diet sized ice cream!

Hopefully after I catch up on some of my bills this month, I can start shopping for some slipcovers for the sofa and love seat.
I do love my leather furniture, but in the summer, your body sticks to it.
It's rather gross and uncomfortable, so I want to find some nice burgundy colored slipcovers to put over them.
I need to get caught up on everything though.
I've had so many doctors appointments to pay for all last month, 3 so far this month, and another big one coming up on the 13th.

And I really hope the DOT has fixed things on the interstate by then, so that I can actually make it to my appointment on time.
We had a tanker truck fall off an overpass and explode a few days ago, which made the southbound lanes of both the overpass and the lanes below where he landed, get destroyed.
They demolished the overpass yesterday, and it will take up to 6 weeks to rebuild the new section.
For now, they are putting a divider on the north bound lanes, which will make it 2 lanes going both north and south on just the one stretch of road.
It's a big mess.

Posted by Kat at 12:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Born with an acute sense of smell, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Ben Whishaw) resorts to dark deeds in creating a perfume that captures the essence of a woman in this 18th-century thriller based on Patrick Suskind's best-selling novel. The disturbing intensity mounts as Baroque-born Grenouille's obsession to create the ultimate scent moves from innovation to murderous aberration. Alan Rickman co-stars along with Dustin Hoffman as a master perfumer.

We watched Perfume - The Story Of A Murderer tonight, and it is absolutely fascinating.
The story is so well done, the narration, the acting, and the period dress, everything about this movie is perfect.
It is rated R for "aberrant behavior involving nudity, violence, sexuality, and disturbing images", and yes, it deserves that rating, but wow, this is just such a great story.
It's disturbing and dark, Jean-Baptiste's obsession with capturing the scent of women as pure essence oils, and what he does to get them, is disturbing yet sensual.
He takes great care of their skin and hair, gentle touches to the skin, it's painful to him.

Each perfume is made up of a top note, a middle note, and a base note.
By adding just one more oil, you completely change the scent of the perfume, and Jean-Baptiste wants nothing more than to capture and save forever, the very essence, the souls, of women.
His obsession leads him to first try to get women to let him cover them in animal fat, wrap them in cloth, and then after a few hours, unwrap them and squeeze the fat into a pot mixed with alcohol to boil it, and have the liquid evaporate and rise to the top of the oil maker, where the essence oil will then drip down into a vial.
But the women think he's just some kind of kinky rapist, they don't understand, so they try to escape and he's left with no choice but to kill them in order to capture their scents.
I will not spoil this for any of you who may be interested in renting it from Netflix or your fave movie rental place, but it has a really great and sad ending, yet the perfect closing for the tale.

This really is a very interesting and captivating movie.
It held both the teens attention through the entire movie, a full 2 hours and 27 minutes, and when it was over, they said how much they liked it, and that I picked a really good one this time.
Haha! I pick a lot of good movies dammit!

Posted by Kat at 9:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It is so damn hot here in Florida in the summer months, that even if you're not normally a heavy sweater, you will be perspiring more than usual.
My mom sends me coupons all the time, and in one of the batches about a month ago, was a $3.00 off coupon for Secret Clinical Strength deodorant.

It's more expensive than the regular Secret, about $8.99, so I saved a few bucks using the coupon.
I've been using it almost daily since I bought it, alternating between the regular and the clinical for comparison, and I gotta tell ya, this product does what it says.
On the days I wore the regular and it was steamy, balmy-hot and humid out, my pits felt a bit moist.
Gross visual I know, but I also know that you know what I'm talking about.
On the days I wore the clinical, no dampness, no perspiration, not even a drip of sweat from the 'ol arm pits.
This stuff works and it works really well.

I've tried the maximum strength of at least 10 different antiperspirants, and I've even tried Maxim, which was sorta sticky feeling, and the Secret Clinical Strength works better than all of them.
I'm way impressed with it.
So if you're the type of woman who sweats a lot and you're tired of trying a million different brands, or even getting a prescription for the heavy duty medical strength antiperspirant, give the Secret a try, it works really awesome.

Posted by Kat at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Every now and then I like to go through my stats and see all the various search terms that bring people to my blog.
Here's some of the unusual and funny search terms.

original little mermaid cover (people like the phallic cover)
bbbbbbbbb (um, yeah)
sims having sex (they can and they do)
Las Vegas travel I was going to go to Blogasm '08, but my plans fell through.
mumenshantz. I still have the piece of art Mark made.
check n go florida settlement. This still hasn't been settled yet.
dry nail strip. These really do rock.
the walrus and the carpenter were able to get the oysters to trust them based on promises they made to the oysters then in the end they ate them. like politicians. (Dogma)
ex girlfriend child support maine 2008 may maine may (No, I'm the ex-wife, and the hearing is now July 16th, but thanks for checking on me current girlfriend. That's so sweet of you!)
i believe license plate. Shot down by the senate! W00t!
infant swimming resources. Every parent with a pool should teach their kids to swim.

And curiously, the most searched for keyword coming in at over 100 searches;
stick figures. I have no idea why people search for that so much.

Posted by Kat at 11:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I'm pretty sure my street has a new mailman, I never see the regular guy anymore at all, heck, I never even see the mail truck anymore.
But whoever is delivering the mail now, keeps giving me my neighbors mail.
Not my next door neighbor, but a neighbor 10 houses up.
Our house addresses are exactly 1 number dfferent.
I'm 5328, and they are 5428.
I don't know how they can make that mistake repeatedly, there's a big difference in the appearance of the numbers 3 and 4.

But anyway, once again, I got their mail which includes the husband's guitar magazine, and the wife's furniture catalog.
From reading the address info on the back of it, I think she's an interior designer.
I have to confess something.
I flip through their magazines before I send Sebastian up the street to stick them in their mailbox.
Is that a crime?
I know you can't tamper with other people's mail, like open envelopes and stuff, but these are magazines with no seal keeping them closed, no plastic wrap, just wide open and ready to be read magazines.
Am I breaking the law by flipping through them?

The guitar magazine is very cool, there are some beautiful ones in there, custom designed and painted ones, and an order form to get a custom painted one if you want one.
They are way expensive though.
And her furniture mags, oh man, I love looking through them.
The pieces are just so gorgeous, and the beds and sofas look incredibly comfy, and there's all these paintings and throw pillows and stuff that you can buy to make the whole room come together.

But I get done flipping through them, get done oohing and ahhing over the stuff, and then I send Sebastian up the street to plop them in their mailbox.
What's funny about this mail mix-up is that they never get any of my mail, I've asked, and nope, they don't.
I need to stake out my mailbox one of these days and drive home to the mail person that 3 and 4 are not the same number, and he needs to pay closer attention to what he's cramming in my mail box.

Posted by Kat at 12:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We ended up not going to Mindy's for dinner tonight, I had a rough day adjusting to the meds.
It's been about 2 years, since the surgery actually, since I've taken any oxys, and they hit me hard today.
Between how hot it was, and how strong they are, my stomach was doing the ol' back flip and making me nauseous all day.
They are helping with the pain, taking the edge off so I can actually pee without crying, but I've spent most of the day laying down on the couch.
I'm sorry Mindy, once I get adjusted to them and my shoulder starts feeling better, we will do dinner.

Did any of you watch Fear Itself on NBC tonight?
Tonight's first episode was called The Sacrifice, and it was about vampires.

I actually liked this, and it gives me hope that future episodes will be good too.
It reminds me of the old Twilight Zone or Outer Limits shows that used to be on.
Every week, a new story.
Next week's episode is called In Sickness and In Health, the episode guide says it's about a private investigator is driven over the edge while on a stake out in a haunted mansion, and it stars Eric Roberts as the PI.
All of the episodes are written and directed by some big name directors and writers like John Landis. You can read who else is doing episodes both in front of the camera and from behind it.

I used to love the show Amazing Stories that was on back in the late 80's.
Do you remember that show?
I used to love that show.
Anyway, I have big hopes that this show gets better and better every week, and more people tune in to watch it.
It's a great summer time show in my opinion, better than all the stupid reality crap tv shows, talent shows, and stupid game shows, that are planned on just about every network for the summer season.

Posted by Kat at 11:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Poor Mark, he inherited his father's bad face genes, lots of acne all the time.
We've tried just about every single product that others have suggested were the absolute best acne treatment they ever used, and we're still not getting great results.
He has some good days, but most of the time, he's got at least 3-4 zits right smack in the middle of his face, and boy doesn't it drive him nuts.
I just keep reminding him to wash his face really good while he's taking a shower, and use the face pads when he gets out, and then for pimples that are already there and formed, I have this tube of stuff that like instantly dries them out.
We've also done the plain white toothpaste on the zits over night, but eh, it's summer, he has bad genes, he's stuck with the zits.

Tonight, the teens and I will be going over to Mindy's for dinner, I have no idea how long I'll be able to stay though.
The meds are helping, but I'm still getting waves of spasms, and if I move too much, bam! Instant muscle freak out happens!
I slept ok last night, only woke up twice due to pain, but I really am trying to give my shoulder as much rest as I can so it heals.
Not over-doing anything, heck, I'm barely doing anything at all. haha

Ok, I suppose I should get going and check on stuff I'm supposed to do from my chair, and then I'm going to lay down and watch some tv while I rest my shoulder again.

Posted by Kat at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I'm taking it easy and resting as much as I can, the new meds are starting to really help take the edge off the pain.
I'm able to sit up without having waves of pain tear through my shoulder and chest, but I'm still taking it easy and not moving too much.
But I got my two new movies in the mail from Netflix today, so that gave me an excuse to lay down and rest for 2 hours.

I rented Frontier(s) and Perfume - The Story Of A Murderer, but I just got done watching Frontier(s).

As riots break out all over Paris after a right-wing government is elected, reluctant thief Yasmina (Karina Testa) recruits a few friends to exploit the bedlam by looting. With the police on their tail, the gang splits up and regroups at a hostel near the Luxembourg border to divide their haul. But the decision proves fateful when the innkeepers turn out to be neo-Nazi freaks who want to make Yasmina the brood mare for a new Aryan master race.

The movie is in French with English subtitles, but it's very easy to follow along.
That is if you are keeping your eyes open, or peeping through your fingers as they cover your face.
Frontier(s) was part of the 8 Films to Die For for 2008, but because of it's extreme gore and graphic imagery, the director was told to cut out a bunch of stuff in order to remain part of the horror fest, or go it alone and be rated NC-17.
The director loved his film, every single scene, so he chose to take the NC-17 rating, and be forced to a very limited theater release on May 9th, and then it went straight to dvd on May 13th, in the same full unrated, uncut, "sadistic glory" it was meant to be seen in.

I just got done watching it, and OMG, it is so graphic, so violent, and if I ever do get to travel to anywhere in Europe, I will never stay in a hostel, and I will definitely get myself some travel health insurance before I go just in case here are sickos at the normal hotels too.
Every single European movie I've seen in the last few years has had it's victims stay in hostels, and they all die horrible deaths save for one person, the sole surviving hero or heroine.

This movie was really good if you are a fan of gore and torture type movies.
If you loved the Hostel series, and enjoyed the graphic violence of High Tension, you'll like Frontier(s).
It's kind of like Texas Chainsaw Massacre meets Hostel.
We have a seriously whacked out Neo-Nazi cannibalistic family, looking for a healthy young woman to breed new members of their pure blood family.
When Yasmine and her band of thieves make the terrible mistake of staying at the hostel, things quickly go wrong.
Each person gets picked off one by one in very gruesome ways.
A lot of the stuff is some of what you've seen before, but it's action packed, fast paced, and our heroine gets a bit crazy, as anyone would in this type of situation, and she makes it out alive in some very tough and bloody battles.
I won't tell you much more, but Yasmina is a likable character, you sympathize with her, you want her to survive and get out of there even if the cops she's running from are the only way to escape.
Anyway, it's a decent film, I can totally see why it's rated NC-17, it's really gory and graphic, but very good.

Posted by Kat at 8:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I have been having some really serious pain from my shoulder thingy, and it moved to the front, in my chest.
My ribs feel like they are broken, but they're not.
The Norflex injection I had on Monday, never kicked in to take the pain away.
All it did was make me vomit while I was waiting at Walgreen's to pick up my script for the Norflex pill muscle relaxer.
I had to excuse myself and run to their restroom.
Mindy has been running me back and forth to the doctors, the pharmacy, and last night, her husband drove me to the ER.
The pain was so intense all day yesterday, and I kept refusing to go to the ER, but Sebastian called Mindy and told her I really needed to go, that the pain was so bad, I could barely move.

So her husband Chris came over and drove me there, where the doctors were concerned that I may have had a heart attack.
My blood pressure was through the roof, so they did an EKG, an angiogram, a chest x-ray, and another CT scan with contrast this time.
They thought maybe a heart attack or a blood clot, but it was neither.
I kept telling them and my own doctor, that this is the muscle or a pinched nerve, by the way it feels.
If I bend over or even move too quickly, even just a tiny movement, it feels like my muscles are ripping and they burn.
No one has the slightest clue what is going on with this, the ER doc said perhaps it's too much muscle growth around the fusion, or a pinched nerve, or maybe a tear in the muscles, but he really doesn't know.
His parting words to me last night at 11pm were, "I have never seen a fusion this big or anyone with this much hardware inside. Your spine is beyond the realm of my medical education. You really need to go see your surgeon. I think he's the only one who is going to be able to figure this out."

I went back to my pain doc today, told him about last night, and he's just as stumped as the ER doc was.
He suggested that I may have to go to the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, to have them run a full battery of tests. He's thinking it's an ulcer or my pancreas, maybe my gallbladder.
He just doesn't know.
I've had an ulcer, this does not feel anything like an ulcer.
I'm not throwing up, I'm not getting the diars, my stomach does not hurt.
This is my shoulder blade right next to my spine, and my chest between my breasts, and under my left breast, it's the muscles, not the stomach, and the gallbladder is on the right side of the body, not the left.
It could be the pancreas, that's in the middle, like right below the rib cage, but I don't have pain there.
He gave me a much stronger pain pill this time, 15mg oxycodone, and to take 1 tab 3 times a day as needed for pain.
I just got home a little bit ago, and took one, I'm waiting and hoping for it to kick in soon.
It hurts to sit, lay down, pee, and OMG, typing is absolutely killing me.
Any movement of my left arm is sending shooting, stabbing, burning pain into my chest and shoulder blade.
It feels like the muscles are ripping apart.
I can't take much more of this, this new med has got to work, it just has to.
I have work to do, and the boys, the poor boys, have been eating sandwiches and frozen pizzas since Friday.
Mindy said if it still hurts too much, she'll either bring a hot meal over for them, or come cook something for them here.
I'm hoping that I can at least walk Mark through cooking something, and when it's done, I'll take it out of the oven.
Both the boys have this fear of getting burned when taking something out of the oven.
It's silly I know, but they are always so afraid they will burn themselves on the pans or the rack.

I have to call my surgeon and set up an appointment for as soon as possible.
I'll do that in a little bit, I need to rest a bit first, I'm tired and in agony.
I need to see if my sister can take me, and if she can't, Mindy said she can do it.
I hate asking people to give me rides and ask for help, his offices are so far away.
He has one in Safety Harbor, and one in Tampa, but both are a pain in the butt to find.
Sis and I get lost every single time, and we've been there multiple times now.

We take for granted the various muscles in our body, and what they allow us to do, until those muscles get injured.
Simple tasks like pulling up and down your pants to pee, it's such an easy movement, we do it all day long, but even that so easy movement, is torture right now.
Brushing my hair after a shower, sends waves of pain through my shoulder, washing my hands, brushing my teeth, such easy tasks, are murder.

Posted by Kat at 1:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

I have not been and may not be, around much at all.
I am having a really serious issue with my back and shoulder, I am in so much pain I can't even describe it to you.
A trip to the doctor today and an injection of some kind of pain medicine, has not helped me.
A new medicine has not helped me. I am in so much pain, I just want to curl up and cry.
It hurts to type, pee, lay down, everything.
I can't take much more and am thisclose to going to the hospital because nothing is helping, but something is so clearly wrong, this is not normal to be like this.

Posted by Kat at 4:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

My little baby boy is 15 today.
He is no longer small enough to fit on my lap, he's almost 6 feet tall.
He's smart, and handsome, funny, and a great human being.
He's caring, loving, and helpful.
And he's grown up right before me, in the blink of my eyes.
He's awesome, and amazing, and I'm so proud to be his mother.

Posted by Kat at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)