Now You See It, Now You Don't!!

Yep, after many many years Jackson has lost the hair. He's claiming it's due to David but considering the first thing he did when we got home was have me take pictures and then email them off to all his friends - he's not unhappy. The girl that cut his hair was a nervous wreck, she was fairly new but was a Hot Chick so anything she did was ok with the boy. She was going Oh My Gwad as she was cutting off the very long parts and Jackson was like just keep going. So he is a Neat and Tidy boy these days. He also managed to unclog the john that he jammed up yesterday after a secret trip to home Depot. We took him out to his favorite chinese buffet and he did make a little extra cash off the haircut so he was a happy boy yesterday too. They're still predicting a major snowfall for Monday so I guess I'd better finish up my shopping today.

The Boy I Am Considering Killing.

Jackson developed a problem with his toilet this morning in which it does not drain right. Further investigation has uncoverered the fact that SOME people have trouble distinguishing thier "toilet" from thier "trash can" and they have now been advised that in the event thier garbage is full, that it is NOT prudent to flush the excess. Sigh. Hopefully a little Drano-type stuff will help as attempting to explain the dynamics to David will be a bit tough and might even involve some yelling since David will be the one negotiating the underworld of our house. It started to snow again this morning but just a dusting, we're expecting "significant" snowfall on Monday - whatever that means. That works out well in my world since I'm working 7-7 on Sunday and then off on Monday which means if everthing goes as predicted I'll miss the bad parts. I've been doing alot of walking lately, both on the treadmill and in the neighborhood. The nice thing  about them not letting dogs run is you can walk forever without being chased down by someone's dog that the owner will insist is "just the friendliest thing" while the animal is eyeballing you like a Big Mac. I'm taking ACLS on the 8th, they somehow messed up my schedule so I've got to do 8 hours of ACLS, go home and then come back for an 8 hour shift - but then I get an extra day off (sort of!) so it works out. Jackson and I are off to Dixon City this morning for him to finally get a hair cut, I think he's sick of having to take care of all that hair and is ready to get rid of it. Not to mention if we can't get the toilet/trash can thing straightened out it will go along way with Dad.

Row Row Row Your Boat

Vincent has become, as most people know, a very valued member of the family. Now he's truly fitting in by being a Loony Cat. Over the past few months his obsession with running water has become quite apparent - and now he has a new found activity of playing in the bathtub. He gets in there and flies around and then just bounces around the bathroom in general. He waits outside the door  hoping to see the toilet flush and is my occaional pal when I brush my teeth or wash my face. He breaks in while we shower and it's not unusual these days to see a pair of little black ears peeking past the curtain. He decided to be brave and  ventured out into the snow yesterday but was back in the house before I was. The dogs enjoy it and we got more snow overnight, with more predicted later in the week. I started walking yesterday, I have about 10 pounds to lose, gained partially because I've been unable (or unwilling) to go to the gym. Faced with either the prospect of losing it or having to buy a new wardrobe if this continues I've decided to bite the bullet and get moving. I've found that as I get older the pounds that used to just come off now stay on like cement. It's hard to stay the course when you work at it and nothing happens or you put in a large effort with little result but I need to take care of this before it gets unmanagable. Sigh, grapefruit anyone??

The Latest Fashion

I took a tiny break from the poncho, which I might add is taking YEARS to complete and it still remains homeless. I made this hat because I liked the earflaps (and you can tie them up for summer wear as demonstrated in picture #2) and it's currently on it's way to Farmington, Maine for Celia since she's one of the few people I know that seriously could use the earflaps. I'm actually almost done with the poncho, but as we all know the last bit is always the longest  and I'm currently making myself finish it. If I don't, it'll sit on a closet shelf for years, haunting me until I finally lose the directions and throw it out and then feel guilty for wasting all that time and effort for nothing. Jackson and I went to see Constintine yesterday, it was pretty good and Jackson particularly enjoyed that God gets his ass kicked a little bit. He's still going through THAT phase of Drama And Darkness but occasionally a little light peeks through so we'll just ride it out. The movie theater here still amazes me, afternoon matinee is very popular and the parking lot is always 3/4 of the way full, even for the first showings. We got home around 5 pm and then went out again to the chinese buffet, so yesterday was a good day. David is currently negotiating another job and while he's not busy doing that, he's busy breaking the rules with the Gestapo. He was thinking they were maybe tailing him, but I think he's just got a little bit of paranoia going. He finished the front of the house, it's hard to tell in the picture I posted but it does look much better. He'll probably do the entire house eventually since he doesn't seem to be able to help himself and leave anything alone. We got about 5 or 6 inches of snow last night so school is cancelled which is ok. They were supposed to have today off but they took it away due to all the snow days they've had and now have had to give it back since it, well, snowed. I'm sure Jackson's weeping will be held to a low minimum, perhaps a few tiny sobs into his pillow. He generally doesn't get too upset over school closings. David might be going to NJ this coming weekend, Ray's sister's house is getting ready to be sold and he wants David to have some of his sister's furniture so if it doesn't snow that will be the activity for the weekend for them and Jackson and I will be on our own. Sleeping late and eating doughnuts!! Whoo hoo!

Aloha From Delaware

We had a good time at Janet and Diane's. The plan was for me to pick Jackson up from school parking lot in the back at 2:45 and drive straight to thier house. Jackson obliged by standing in the front of the school.I didn't know where he was so I tried calling his cell phone that he didn't answer because he thought I was that crazy spanish woman who thinks he's her son Justin. So I had to call David at home to call him to find out where he was. We got it all straightened out and off we went.  We were heading down the highway at 3:15 when my phone rang - it was David wanting to know if  I wanted this black suitcase by the couch. Sigh. So back to the house we went and that turned into last minute packing, bathroom breaks, etc so when all was said and done we got to Janet's around 6:30, it's about 2 1/2, 3 hours from here. We went out to Harry's Hotdogs and the waitress was making a little fun of the lone vegetarian having a Reuben without the cornbeef but she was nice. They've been doing tons of building in their area, I was amazed at how many more town houses have sprung up. That farm behind them is now another development sadly enough. We headed out for Delaware the next morning, Jackson's whole mission for visiting Aunt Janet was to buy an external memory and he's been saving his money for quite awhile. Since there's tons of shopping and no sales tax he made out pretty well. For lunch we did Kahunaville, which is like a little bit of the tropics in the middle of winter. Not really, but it's VERY tacky and alot of fun and you can get fake-y tropic meals. I didn't do too much shopping myself - after all the moving we've done the idea of adding more stuff to our house just isn't appealing anymore. I can no longer look at anything without thinking of how well it will pack. We had a quiet saturday night and watched a DVD - Troy which Jackson enjoyed because he loves mythology and I  enjoyed because I love Brad Pitt (who doesn't??). We headed out at 9 am Sunday  since I had to work the  7 - 7 that night. Ray was out for the weekend visiting David so I got to see him for a big five minutes I think. Davids' busy doing a bit of re-siding in the front of the house today and I took pictures to show to the gestapo since he once again does NOT have permission to do any of this. I'm considering blackmail.

Our Backyard

Well, one more night of work and then I'm off for two! Work has been getting shorter and shorter, but it's the same where ever you go, so there's no point in complaining about it. The temp finally dropped this morning and although they were predicting up to six inches we've only gotten a little less than a dusting. They're threatening again tonight but we'll see. We're leaving for Janet's tomorrow after Jackson gets out of school and should arrive around dinner time. Work was rather rough last night - ICU can either be very easy OR very not easy. I had two patients and spent the entire 12 hours running between the two of them. Hopefully tonight will be a bit easier! And I've run into THAT nurse - there's one on every floor. You know the one that pretends she writes people up and talks about them because "I just have to!". I overheard this individual telling someone that she's anal about everything and I guess that would explain why she's such an asshole! (pardon the french!)

A Dog In The Hand Is Worth Two In The Bush

Silly thing. David must be back since I can hear Copper whining upstairs and scampering around. Roman came over the other day with his three year old grandson Justin to see the dogs which of course the dogs loved. Justin is very cute and speaks only russian but being three is the same in all languages. Jackson and I are are heading out to Janet and Diane's this weekend, I'm still waiting to hear if Vincent is invited or not. Otherwise he'll have to be a bachelor with David. It's more fun to be a bachelor if you have testicles I think, but we all have our cross to bear. I get paid tomorrow and I'm looking foward to that, makes my life worth living. I had one patient( he has dementia) this week as we were turning him, looked at me and asked "how did you get involved with this group?" and when I didn't answer lowered his voice and asked "was it greed?". The aide and I were laughing and I told him money would have to be involved for it to be greed! The snow continues to melt but given where we live I don't think this is the last of it yet. David's in complete denial and is Peter-Panning it about the weather, poor deluded boy. The temps are supposed to drop back down to the twenties this weekend and I don't care how many times he watches the weather they aren't going to say anything different. He can clap his hands and click his heels all he wants!

Peering Into The Future

David and I have been having an ongoing discussion for the past month as to what we're going to be doing in the next few years. This isn't a bad place to be and has quite a few things going for it(cows for instance!), but it's not really where we want to spend the rest of our days. Of course the problem is it's a big country and no matter how well you investigate, there's always some unexpected drawbacks and bonuses - not to mention flat out lucking out. So I think we will be moving on - eventually being the key word - since we have two moves under our belt already the next one will be much better planned than the latter! And we need to stay here for Jackson, although he's not terribly happy here, he doesn't want to have to start over again. We're leaning toward the Carolinas and might possibly be looking for a two family home. I think Ray would consider moving with us and if we can work it out, that would be best. I would hate to be too far away from him and I think we would worry too much about him with all that distance. My job has been going suspiciously well as of late, after all that's happened in the past year I have Waiting For The Other Shoe To Drop-itis, but so far so good. I was reading the local paper yesterday and am VERY glad I left Moses Taylor Hospital when I did - they're having financial problems and thier answer to that is they've frozen vacation accruals for the entire staff up until June -meaning that no one will be earning any vacation time - AND they're upping the amount people have to pay towards thier benefits at the same time. Hmm. I don't think that's a good strategy during a nursing shortage, but who am I to say? I took some more pictures of the finished room upstairs, it came out really well, didn't it? We've decided to furnish it as a den-sort of room since we already have a guest room and will put a day bed or futon in there once we find something we like and is cheap. Other than that, it's been very warm lately, it was 60 degrees yesterday and everyone was running around in just shirts and some people were even wearing shorts! Of course the snow is becoming a sloppy mess but that seems to be all over. Today is supposed to be in the 40's to 50's so I'll be putting Claw out. She hasn't ventured out since that thing tried to eat her, but you know what they say about getting back on that horse! Of course since she bit me this morning I might give her a little BBQ sauce massage before she goes out........

What Goes On When We Are Out

I'm on my 3rd day of working shifts, off one night and then back on again. I guess the honeymoon is over! The temps are up today, I haven't been outside but can hear the ice dripping off the side of the house. David has gone out and neglected to wake Jackson so he and I got up around the same time - I have a feeling we went to bed the same time also. David's been busy rearranging all the furniture while I was asleep, he completed the room he built upstairs and been busy furnishing it with the overflow furniture around the house. Since I don't have much to say today I thought I would do a recipe.

                                         Greek Picnic Pie

1 sliced medium zucchini, 1 sliced onion

3 tbsp olive oil, 2/3 cup Egg Beaters

1 cup cooked rice, any kind, 1 premade pie shell defrosted

1 box frozen spinich, cooked, and drained VERY WELL

3/4 cup feta cheese, 2/3 cup parmesean cheese

Saute zucchini and onion in olive oil, set to the side. Mix spinich, feta cheese, parmasean cheese, egg beaters together. Spread rice out on bottom, add the spinich mixture next and top with zucchini and onion mixture. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes to an hour and serve hot or cold.

Actually, this recipe involved yogurt, eggplant (eewww!!)and a few other things but I've adjusted it over the years. You can also add bell peppers.

Ice Cold Milkshakes!

I'm once again participating in my favorite hobby of cow stalking. I just can't help myself, I find them so interesting and so big! I hope one day to have a cow of my own, just one since I'm planning on only befriending it and not eating it. I saw this black cow yesterday and that is the kind I want. It's called a black angus cow and they are not allowed in the hideout as far as I know. I should probably get out the rule book, but I think since I'm not allowed to have bonfires or discharge firearms, it's a pretty good bet farm animals are on the list of DoNots. We got a delivery of firewood yesterday so Jackson will be stacking it when he gets home from school. He was still recovering from David's faux-pas the other day. David had removed the built in bookshelf in his room to spackle the wall and decided not to put it back as he felt it was too big. Then he was seized by heaven-knows-what and REARRANGED ALL OF JACKSON'S FURNITURE. This all took place when Jackson was in school and anyone that has had contact with a teenager can feel the pain. Jackson was beside himself and I still cannot get David to grasp the concept of Personal Space. David was all insulted because in his view he was doing Jackson a Big Favor by arranging things in the best way possible. Jackson actually declared to me that I was crazy if I expected him to "live like THIS" and he was considering running off. I told Jackson just to put it back the way he had it and David bought him a new - and smaller - bookcase which he boycotted for 24 hours by refusing to put anything on it and stacking everything on the floor in an act of Overt Defiance. Everyone is over it today and David hopefully has learned his lesson! I got the first half of the poncho done and am currently working on the 2nd half which is taking this side of Forever.