loracs | Recent Entries

I bought some at Costco today. I won't taste it until Saturday's party, but it's Sticky, it's Toffee and it's Cheese.

My mantra for shopping today was "When it's gone, it's gone." I always over buy for parties. I have to remember not EVERYONE will eat some of EVERYTHING. I over bought a few things (probably didn't need 2 jars of the artichoke tapenade), but mostly I think I did okay. The real test will come tomorrow when I do the last grocery store run. Maybe just one more jar of olives?

Current Location: home
Current Music: xmas songs - in my head

This is a short week for me because I am taking 1/2 Thurs. and all of Friday off. In the spirit of getting everything done this week, I stayed after work for about 30 minutes on Monday. Just as I was heading for the elevators the fire alarm went off. I forgot they were testing the system this week. I work on the 7th floor and, of course, the first thing a properly working fire safety system does is send all the elevators to the first floor and lock them open. I had the option of waiting an indeterminate time while 4 people checked out all floors to make sure the fire doors closed and other safety things were in place or I could walk down the stairs. I had a million things to do after work, so I chose the stairs. By the time I got to the van my legs felt like rubber and they continue that way for most of the evening. Today the pain set in, luckily it's not my knees but my quadriceps. Going from sitting to standing or standing to sitting is a killer. Even the 5 or 6 stairs to the laundry room sent spasms that were painful enough I needed to use the handrails.

On the bright side of this evening, I managed to finally make the rum balls. The chocolate sugar bombs are drying out and will be ready to put away in the morning. They should be just right for the party on Saturday. As the official taster (stonebender and dbubley don't like them) I will say I felt a slight buzz by the 4th one. I'm a cheap drunk though, so they really aren't that strong.

Well, here I sit again at 3 am when I have to get up around 6:30 am. Where do my brains go at night?

Current Mood: tired

Why am I up at 2:15 am eating an avocado and crackers? The short answer - I'm hungry. Longer version would keep me up writing until 6 am when I have to get up for work, so I'll just have settle on the short version for now.

Current Mood: anxious

Current Mood: silly

I know Turkey day hasn't even come around, but I am (and have been) in xmas decorating mode for several weeks now. I'm currently at the stage of xmas crap everywhere waiting to be sorted and displayed. This year is a major triage year. It's been a long time since I CAN put everything out, but now I'm even making decisions to let some stuff go: one box for Good Will is already filled.

I still love to see it all, but I'm not sure how many more years I can do this level of decorating. As it is, I've had someone move most of the boxes from storage to the house. And Guy's attendant, Stacy, really helps me out with covering the bookcases.

I wonder if I'll scale back at some point or just stop all decorating cold turkey one year? If I do stop, it will break a tradition of 40 years. I was about 10 years old when I started drawing xmas decorations, coloring them, cutting them out and hanging them on the wall. Somewhere there is a Thanksgiving picture from this time with my decorations already up. I doubt Dad noticed, he worked so much and Mom was very tolerant of my budding obsession.

Even during years of transition, I had a few decorations out. My first year in California, I had just moved into my apartment in late November. This was MY first real xmas tree. My furniture hadn't arrived yet, but I had a tv tray, a folding chair and a xmas tree in my front room. We moved into this house right after Thanksgiving in 1999. Again, I didn't have any front room furniture (it was on order), but we had a real xmas tree!

I was too young to remember when my family had a real tree. My first memories were of a silver tinsel tree with the revolving colored spot light. After that, we had a fake tree because my Mom hated cleaning up the messy needles and my Dad had an extreme fear of fires. Each of our houses were one level, so we could easily jump out of the window - two level houses were unacceptably dangerous in his eyes. The two houses he "designed" had a connecting closet between the two bedrooms. He was always after Mom not to load the floor up with "junk" because that was our escape route. We could get to my parents and they could get to us, if either bedroom door became blocked. While we never actually practiced this, it was talked about enough that there is little doubt in my mind that if I'd ever smelled smoke in the middle of the night, my first instinct would have been to head for the closet.

Enough with the writing, for there is decorating to be done!

Current Mood: busy

I work in a "Department of Information Technology", so for Halloween I went as "D.I.T.zy", the clown administrative assistant, yielding giant green plastic scissors ready to cut red tape, hair or shred secret documents. The other woman is my boss dressed as a vampire. We had a very fun Halloween party. I won a $15 gift certificate to a coffee shop for best costume.

Now we're working on a Thanksgiving potluck on Nov. 16 and then the Xmas party at a nice local restaurant in Dec. Party, party, party! And I still have a basket of Halloween candy on my desk.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: work

Don't know if it's life stuff right now or seasonal stuff, but I'm restless, tired and bored all at the same time.

I hate getting out of work when it's almost dark, so the time change could be part of it. I'm having some weird sensation things in my leg and that's making me jumpy. I have work to do AT work, but I have more work to do AT home, where I'd rather be. Xmas decorating time is here and I'm having trouble getting started.

serenejournal is having surgery on Thursday. Another non-LJ friend is having surgery next week for colon cancer that will leave her with a permanent colostomy. Medical stuff depresses me.

I've been cleaning and rearranging the home office (or study as

stonebender calls it) and I came across two items that had me in tears last week. A picture of a ex-coworker with her daughter at one of my xmas parties about 4 years ago. Almost 2 years ago the daughter, at the age of 16 was beaten to death in her home by a schoolmate. The second was a picture postcard I send out in 1999 when our dog Klipper died. It was one of the last pictures I'd taken of him.

Now you can add teary-eyed to restless, tired and bored.

Current Mood: listless
Current Location: work

The people who created the pirate ship in their front yard are realtors. On their sales page they have a link to a visual tour of the ship and how they created it. Very fun. http://www.visualtour.com/inventory.asp?u=6190

I've been up way too late finishing up my costume. This is my first Halloween at this job and they make a big deal out of it. We decorated the hallways last week and passed out pumpkins to each section. Today those we are in costume and want to can go on the "reverse Trick or Treat" where we walk throughout the building and give out candy. They are buying pizza for everyone for lunch and there will be prizes for the best costume and the best decorated pumpkin. I did our sections. I used the pumpkin on its side so the stem is the nose. We had some "Mr. Potato Head" kind of ears, mouth, shoes and hands. I carved out a hole for the eyes and stuck ping pong eyeballs in them. A long black pony tail wig with a Dept. of Info Tech. cap completed the look. I hope to find a small piece of cat5 cable to put in his hand. And I also have a thought balloon with a cartoon of a "Franken-computer" attacking a person to stick in place.

If I get a decent picture of my costumed self, I'll post it. Now, off bed because I have to get up 1/2 hour early to get dressed.

Boo ya'll

Current Mood: chipper
Current Location: home sweet home

Yesterday I saw a croc on a leash in Oakland, today I saw a pirate ship filling the front yard of a house in San Leandro. It was about 30 feet long and it looked pretty substantial. Tattered sails flapped above ghoulish pirates and blinking scary eyes flashed in the galley windows. I had to turn around and go back because

stonebender didn't really see it and, unlike the croc sighting, I had a witness to this one. As we continued our trek home we saw another pirate ship in a front yard. This one was much smaller, maybe 15 feet, but just as detailed. I'm going to try and go back and get a few pictures of the big one - it's very cool looking.

As I was driving home from work today, I saw something I have never seen before outside of a cartoon. On a street lined with apartment buildings, only 5 blocks from the main street in downtown Oakland, California I watched a man walk a crocodile on a leash. The croc was in a high walk position, just grooving on the 80 degree weather, taking in the sights. Can you housebreak a reptile? Did the owner carry a "poop scoop" bag? They we're headed in the direction of a McDonald's only a 1/2 block away; perhaps they were heading out for an early dinner. Is is even legal to keep a croc this size as a pet?

Seriously, if this guy was walking the croc in his neighborhood, then he had to live in an apartment or condo because he was maybe 15 blocks away from the nearest single family house. This was not a tiny little lizard either; I estimate 3 to 4 feet long. I even looked around for the tell-tale white trailers of a movie shoot. Downtown Oakland and around Lake Merritt have been used a fair amount for location shots. We had an elephant in the lake years ago for a scene in a movie (I think it was "Made in America" with Whoopi Goldberg and Ted Danson.) The crocodile was only a couple of blocks from the lake, so maybe he was an "actor" on a "walkie" during a break. But no, there was nothing to point in this direction, so I'm left with a man and his pet just out for a walk.

File this under weird, but true.

Current Mood: curious

Not particular bad drama (although the only really good drama is on the stage/movies/tv), but drama never-the-less.

stonebender was going to take me out for dinner Sunday night at some fancy restaurant in S.F., but I was sick all weekend. The doctor failed to mention the possible 4 - 6 weeks of gallstone like pain you can get after gallbladder surgery. I was in so much pain Saturday night, I thought they made a mistake and didn't take out my gallbladder at all. Sunday was better, but still not feeling well enough to go out.

For our actual anniversary meal on Monday,

dbubley made a very tasty meatloaf. When I came home from work, I added a baked potato, left over asparagus and some garlic bread and we had a very nice meal. Thank you

dbubley!

A few hours after dinner

stonebender said he wasn't feeling well. I felt his head and he was a little warm. It took us a couple of more hours to get to bed and by this time he was burning up. Since he didn't have any more congestion than he normally does with his allergies, we had a pretty good idea it would be cellulitius and not a cold. Once undressed, it was immediately apparent, with the bright red and hot patches on his inner thigh and backside, that we were right.

A 1 am call to his doctor's office service got us a call back in about 15 minutes from the on-call doctor. Once he explained what he had, she called in a prescription for an antibiotic at the 24 hour pharmacy. This pharmacy not only is open 24/7, but it has a drive through pick up. By 2:30 am I was back home with the meds. He is now sleeping under a heavy cover, staying very warm while his body fights this creepy little bug. We know from long experience that the sooner we get him on an antibiotic the better. Even 5 or 6 hours would have allowed it to spread over more of his body and he would be feeling crappier for longer. It's been at least 5 years since he's had this infection, we've become complacent; we use to keep a full course in the drawer to save waking up a doctor and my road trip in the middle of the night.

So that was our big anniversary drama. I could have done without it, but all in all, not the worst thing either. Overall, we're just tired of all the illness this year has brought to our family. Enough, okay.

Now, off to bed. I need to be up in about 3 1/2 hours for another fun filled day at work!

Current Mood: tired

Twenty five years ago today we made it official, we signed our first lease together. We have had 25 years filled with good times, scary times, hard times, silly times, boring times - the stuff of life. Together we have built a sturdy foundation of love and trust to hold us safe when we needed safety, to keep up warm when we needed warmth and expansive enough to add more love, more family and more friends over the years. Thank you

stonebender, for the past, for the present and for the future; for all these years of living happily in sin. I love you.

Current Mood: thankful
Current Location: work

I don't have your email, I thought I did. Reply here or send it to me at gillygrrrl@hotmail.com and then I'll send you the info we talked about on Sunday.

A week ago today I was sitting in the hospital waiting, waiting and waiting for something to happen. Checked in around 8:30 am, in the room around 10 am, IV in place around 1 pm, carted off to surgery at 6:30 pm, recovery room around 10:30 or 11 pm (keeping track of time was not my strong point here) and moved to a TCU room (transitional care unit) around midnight. At 6:30 am, after making the painful transition to uprightness about 10 times to go to the bathroom (what were they pumping into my veins - Beer!), I decided to sit on the edge of the bed. This is were I stayed until the very nice nurse brought in a comfortable chair for me to sit in around 10 am. My escape, facilitated with the help of stonebender and serenejournal, was around 2 pm.

With the help of family and friends, I have not only survived, but thrived during my period of near-deathness (a.k.a. basic, everyday, mundane, removal of the stupid gall bladder, millions of people the world over live happy, healthy, lives without one) surgery and recovery.

serenejournal helped out bunches and bunches (you know all that you did and continue to do.)

dbubley got up at some stupid o'clock hour to go with me to the hospital. Dbubley, my gall bladder and I had our last meal together and it was a biggie. Sharing our orders we had pancakes, waffles, eggs, hash browns, corn beef hash, bacon, ham and sausages. Yep, everything my gall bladder hated. I figured 1) I'll be in the hospital and they can give me pain meds if it gets bad and 2) this was my last meal for at least 24 hours. Funny thing is not only did my gall bladder behave (no pain at all), but my blood sugar numbers didn't even spike much.

Dbubley went home to take care of Gilly and give out updates on my progress and

stonebender took over at the hospital. He was there when they wheeled me off to the OR and he managed to get into the recover room to see me before he went home for the night. As soon as my doctor left (she escorted him into the recover room) the nurses were mean to him; having "people" in their space just wasn't okay. I know stonebender didn't want to leave the hospital until he saw me and they couldn't give him a time when I'd be transferred to the TCU, hence the recover room visit.

I've been off this week. I'm not suppose to lift more than 10 lbs, so serenejournal and

wild_irises have been helping out with stonebender - did I mention that his regular morning attendant, Stacy, was also in the hospital this week! She's going to be fine and should be back on Monday, but this has made everything more stressful for everyone. I'm feeling pretty good in the incision areas, but my back/hip has been acting up. I think, actually I know, I've been holding myself in very tense ways as I move and I'm sure this has put a strain on other parts of my body. This pain I'm familiar with and I can feel it getting better. Who knows, maybe one day soon I'll feel at home in my body again.

Current Mood: loved
Current Location: home
Current Music: silence

Happy Birthay

kalmn a.k.a top dog/mommy to Josie and Pirate!

Current Mood: okay
Current Location: home

It rained the night before last. I sat outside in the backyard. My head, in contact with the umbrella, experienced a steady tapping pressure; the sensation pushed though my body reaching my toes. The earthen smells, as deep and rich as a sniff of real vanilla or leavened bread baking, wrapped around me. Sometimes I closed my eyes; sharing full focus with the other senses.

Eyes opened; the concert of movement filled me up. Drops hit the concrete, the mud, the redwood planter, a plastic table, the large leaves of the fig tree; each contact required its own choreography. A catch and release predetermined by gravity, weight, speed, wind. It could all be translated into numbers; symbols explaining the why and how of it, and in the math there would be beauty, but not a type I can fully appreciate. I need the physical, the reality of wet and cold, the silence between the drops, a comfortable, familiar place to hang my id, ego and super ego. A place all three agree is good.

I watched the weather forecast this morning, another storm is coming in. The predicted amount, temperature, wind speed and duration were mapped and graphed. I translated that information into anticipated sights, smells, tastes, textures, sounds. While a sad imitation of what is to come, it still made me happy. The sky is grey now, the wind is picking up. I have my coat and umbrella by the back door ready for my exit. Once again I will be audience and performer, observer and participant, in the dance of water and wind.

What are ya’ll doing tonight?

Current Mood: hopeful
Current Location: home
Current Music: silence

I've been having gallbladder pain for a while now; actually saw a surgeon in July. I didn't like her, so I didn't pursue the surgery, plus I was feeling better. Did I mention that I hate, hate, hate the idea of anesthesia and being out of control of my body. And there's the death possibility thing too. I went through this about 3 years ago when I had knee surgery. While I don't like pain, I understand pain. I'm not terrified of pain. Death I have no experience with and it scares the shit out of me. Not being in total control of my body I am becoming more familiar with as I age, yet having no control over my body is another arena I have no experience with; again with the scared shitless.

Last weekend I had a bad attack and it lead to an appointment with my primary care doctor. She sent me to the lab for some blood work, she didn't like what she saw and made an immediate appointment for an ultrasound and alerted the ER I was coming in. This is Kaiser, so it was all in the same complex. Nine hours later, after much pushing on my abdomen by many doctors, I was sent home with an appointment to see a surgeon the next day. I liked this surgeon and I'm scheduled to enter the hospital Friday morning for a 6 pm surgery. She wants me in the hospital early to make sure my blood sugar is stable. I had a low while I was at the doctor's office. I've been eating very little and almost no fat, trying to be good to my gallbladder. Usually when I get a low, I know it, feel it, test for it and treat it and from start to finish it's about 30 minutes. This time I did all that and it continued for two hours. I'm signing off for the surgery, I'm undergoing the pre-op physical, I'm answering and asking questions, all the while I'm sweating, shaking and feeling crappy. Add the over-all feeling of dread and fear and I can truly say I was having a bad day.

After the appointment, I made my way on shaky legs to a bus stop, sat down and called

stonebender /

serenejournal (they were together in Berkeley) and

dbubley (she was at home.) Tears and fear flowed (more like a torrential rain) through the phone. I wasn't very coherent.

stonebender took off immediately to come find me. By the time he got there I was feeling more stable. While I waited I kept testing my blood, slowly eating a bagel I'd started 2 hours before and silently crying. I'm sure I was quite a site. This was right outside Kaiser’s main medical building and next to the hospital at the end of a shift. There were lots of people around, which would have come in handy if I’d pass out. While I waited for

stonebender ,

dbubley and

serenejournal took turns calling me on the phone to make sure I was okay. They didn’t know they were taking turns, but as soon as I’d hang up with one, the other one would call. What did we do before cell phones?

A million things are going through my head right now. I want to thank

clever_doberman , who came to the ER and stayed with me for many, many, many hours. I felt bad because they didn’t have a comfortable chair for her, so it was a pain in more ways than the boring way.

The first doctor I saw was a surgical resident. She asked if I had anyone at home. I said yes, I have two partners. Quiz look as she said “partners?” When I defined them as one domestic and one wild, she only looked more confused. I further explained that I had two partners, one man and one woman. I said it’s called polyamory. When she said “I don’t know what that means.” I said, “Well you must not watch much Oprah.” Just as she finally figured out that this 50 year old, fat woman was talking about two lovers/partners/significant others,

clever_doberman walked in. At which I announced, “This is L.E. and she is neither of my partners.” Fun in the ER!

I also want to thank

serenejournal , who came over to help

stonebender out and stayed the night. She made some wonderful veggie soup to eat when I got home. I was starving. I’d only had a glass of tomato juice, a few bits of cantaloupe, an apple, a banana and a slightly stale, plain, dry bagel all day long. At midnight, a warm meal was very much appreciated.

And a big thank you to my partners,

dbubley and

stonebender , both were ready to rush out into the cold, dark night to come to the ER, but I said to stay in place because I had a feeling I would be coming home. I love you both so very, very, much.

And the adventure continues . . .

Current Mood: nauseated
Current Location: home, sweet, home

Listening to the news, I just hear Bush say something like "I don't think nationalizing health care would be good for the country." I don't know about "the country", but it would be good for THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN THE COUNTRY!

Current Location: home
Current Music: silence

I'm going to be so tired soon, but I'm having so much fun right now.

First, let me say I don't consider myself much of a baker. I haven't really baked anything from scratch for a couple of years. Two years ago, for Stonbender's birthday, I made a German Chocolate cake and frosting completely from scratch. It was cold and rainy and the ramp on our van was broke, so we couldn't go anywhere. It was one of two things I could do to make a birthday celebration out of an otherwise yucky day. It came out okay (not great) for the first cake I'd tried in probably 10 years. Told you I'm not much of a baker.

Tomorrow is my work picnic. I'm in the dessert group and I volunteered for cupcakes. At first, I figured I'd just do the cake mix thing or even just buy some, but then I started searching on-line for something cooler. And I found the perfect recipe for the Department of Information Technology folks - coffee cupcakes with coffee frosting and a chocolate covered coffee bean on top. I want to make about 100 cupcakes - we're a large department. I measured out the dry ingredients last night so I could come home and just start mixing and baking. The batter is wonderful and we tasted the first batch and they are so moist, and I still have to frost them. I think they'll be a hit. I'm also planing on making come peanut butter cupcakes. It's going to be a long night. I'm only baking a dozen at a time. I can't find my other pans and I heard they come out best if baked right in the middle of the oven and there's only ONE middle.

I got the recipe at this link, but I thought making donuts to go on top was a little too much for me. And I'm making different frosting - whip cream frosting will not survive a picnic. http://cupcakeblog.com/index.php/2007/09/doughnuts-and-coffee-cupcakes/

Besides tripling the recipe, the only change I made was using salted butter (cuz that's what I had); then I didn't add the salt the receipt calls for. Maybe there'll be pictures later. Now off to mix and bake and frost and mix and bake and frost and . . .

Current Mood: chipper
Current Location: delicious smelling home

Instructions:

1. Go to www.careercruising.com
[EDIT: I've removed the password. Apparently it is being passed around without the permission of the "owner" of the password. It's a job counseling agency and they pay to have the password for their clients.]
3. Take the 'Career Matchmaker' questions at the upper left corner
4. Post the top 10 results.

My Results:

1. Marine Biologist

2. Zoologist

3. Microbiologist

4. Conservator

5. Animator

6. Pharmacologist

7. Artist

8. Medical Illustrator

9. Insurance Underwriter
10. Botanist

Interesting that Marine Biologist was a career path I thought a lot about; Zoologist and Botanist were in there too. Medical Illustrator - I can not draw a straight line! Insurance Underwriter - bleh.

Current Location: cube o'work
Current Music: NPR

Profile

loracs

February 2018

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28

Syndicate

Page Summary

Style Credit

Base style: Modular by branchandroot
Theme: NNWM 2010 Grounded by cheyinka

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated Mar. 17th, 2026 05:35 pm

Just Another Herd Creature

or How I Got a DW Account

Recent Entries

Sticky Toffee Cheese

A Night of Alcohol and Pain

Why Oh Why?

Is this as funny as I think it is or is it just because it almost 3 am?

Tis' the Season

Halloween photo

Ennui Is Me

Happy Halloween!

I know it's Halloween . . .

A First for These Old Eyes

Anniversary and Drama

Happy Five to the 2nd Power Anniversary, Sweetheart

KAT

To State the Obvious: I AM ALIVE minus one gall bladder

Go Forth and Celebrate!!!

Approaching Storm

Pain

Bush - need I add WTF!

(no subject)

Career Crusing Meme