Enough With The Dog Already!

Too bad for you - my blog, my pictures, my dog - mine mine mine. Pearl is my respite after a hard day - she's such a pest and so amazingly wierd it's hard not to get sucked into her Universe Of Bizarre Behavior. The pool is great fun of course, lately I've been training her to keep away while I swim. I don't mind her in while I'm swimming but I do mind her attempts at rescue, and very poor attempts at that. They tend to involve her swimming right at me, a look of Determined Insanity as she barrels right over me and pushes me under. Somedays I think she might have an insurance policy on me - but she's improved and I actually got to enjoy the pool without having to avoid my Rescuer.. Work has been as you might have guessed very stressful lately. Our part time nurse is quitting in two weeks which leaves me holding the bag again. And worst of all - our business has picked up, we're getting patients all over the place and more coming. We've been getting more peds and cancer patients, both of which need extra time and phone calling - and then there's the oncology peds - they're a job in themselves!! Thank goodness I decided to go ahead and do my Monday visits or we would've been really stuck. The weather has been getting pretty hot, it was in the 80's today so I turned on the air as soon as I got home. We had a little bit of rain but not the thunderstorms they've predicted and then after that it was sun sun sun! I hope we continue the trend as I'm off for real this coming weekend!

Rainy Days and Monday. Eew.

Just to be clear about the pictures from yesterday with Pearl and the vacuum cleaner - she is NOT being attacked, she is the attacker. She's obsessed with the vacuum and leaf blower and it's impossible to get either done with her around. The leaf blower is worse, she positions herself directly in front of it and all you end up doing is blowing the dog's cheeks out. It's hard to make her stop as it's one of the funniest things I've ever seen in my whole life and you end up just standing there laughing (I'm including some pictures from last year). She loves to wrestle with Jackson and comes flying straight at him to get the game started - he gets annoyed with it sometimes ,but she's pretty persistant and he ends up participating whether he likes it or not. I heard from Adam this morning, he'll be flying into Washington on the 8th and then will be flying into NY around the 19th - just a little warning Grandma Connie. I finally did get in the pool yesterday - it was GREAT. And this year I think we'll get more use out of it because last year it was halfway through July before we could use it because we had to have the liner redone. I've been scrubbing down the furniture and leaf blowing when I can sneak it by Ghengis Pearl. I'm off to work this morning, but at least I'm not missing the weather.

A Day Off.

I saw a great sign at a church around here - most of the churches like to put puns and thoughts on thier signs - some of them are hilarious and some are very thought provoking. This one said "He who angers you, controls you!" - that one had me thinking for a few miles, because the more I thought about it, the more I realized it was very true. I spent a few hours in the office yesterday, I had a couple of visits and yoga so I figured I would spend some time catching up on paperwork. It worked out well, I did paperwork and made phone calls, did a visit, went to yoga and then made my next visit which was much further. Jackson went swimming for a little while yesterday so he got to be first in the pool - he said the water was pretty nice. By the time I got home it was too late to go in, so perhaps today. I've got to work pretty much all day tomorrow which stinks but there's nothing I can do about it. We're doing the shopping today, not much else going on. I need to get more strawberries to make short cake of course. Here's how to make it sugar and fat free - Walmart is where I get the sugar free angel food cake - 60 calories per serving I might add! I use about 4 packets of Splenda per pint of strawberries - but what you have to do after you cut them up and add the Splenda is shake them very hard - and a lot to get the juice to come out as artificial sweeteners don't macerate the berries like sugar does. Then you add sugar and fat free Cool Whip - it doesn't taste exactly the same but it's pretty darn close. The weather was supposed to be rain and thunderstorms all weekend - as per the Crack Weather team. Hmm. As far as I could see it was in the 80's and very sunny, but what do I know?

Mow Mow Mow Your Yard

Lately, if you're outside at my house, you're obligated to grab a mower and participate. I have a small one and in the mornings while I have Pearl outside I do all the edges and around the trees. I try to get her out for at least 45 minutes before work and it gives me something to do, other than clean the pool which is ongoing. I am finally getting my solar cover, after asking the The Person That Hangs Out At Lowes a million times I asked Susan who's dad owns the home supply store in Mannington - he's going to order it and then I'll pay him - he can even have it shipped right to my house which is very nice. We've been getting letters from Adam, he's having a good time and getting ready to come back, he's been saving his money too which I'm glad for. Hopefully by the time he gets here the pool will be swimable - although it should be as it's almost the mid 70's now. Work is getting a bit better, we've been discharging some patients and the rest are being organized. The only bad thing is there's no way for me to take Monday off - as it is there are 10 patients that have to be seen that day so I'll be working on through. The LPN will be working too so we should have it covered.We are still working on Ray coming out, his window is being fixed so hopefully he'll be making a guest star appearance in the near future. David is continuing work on his project in Blacksville which is moving right along. We are a busy bunch, arent' we?

Ship Ahoy!

We've been getting emails from Adam tracking his progress in his Escape From The Navy - after 5 years he is done. He's off the ship officially and is now residing in the barracks, he has to do community service while waiting for his debriefing and back to real life classes to begin in Washington but he sounds good and very happy. He'll be flying to NY after that and at some point will be in WV. It'll make for a busy June, Jackson will be finishing up with 11th grade and starting summer school - he'll be working with David for the summer too. David could use the help and driving wise it makes sense, David will pick him up at 12:30 and take him straight to the job site. I'm a little bit down this morning, apparently our charts at work suck and are all wrong,  I suppose the Nurse Of The Year honeymoon is over. It was  discouraging but after spending 3 days with Diana from the main office I have a much clearer idea of what the charts should be looking like and have something to work with. I already have a plan and Susan and I will be working on further organization. I'm on call this weekend so there's no breaks for me which is stinky. The weather is calling for rain, rain and more rain - I'm hoping they're wrong as the pool is heading toward the mid 70's and that's warm enough for me to swim!

On The Mend

Well, it wasn't the food. David and Jackson have both been home for the past two days completely laid up in bed. I think they had a virus or something - whatever it was it involved fevers and diarherra, both agree neither of them had a good time. But they were feeling better today and tonight they're both up and about and ready to get back to work and school. Jackson even hit me up for the $20 I'd forgotten for last week's allowance - I told him I wanted to see if he was going to make it before giving it to him. I've been feeling quite spanky so I seem to have dodged that bullet which is good as I don't have time to be sick. It's been a crazy week at work, I've been spending time with the person from corporate who did take me and the boss to lunch - other than that we've been going over charts and paperwork to improve our performance and reimbursement schedule with medicare and medicaid. Doesn't that sound totally smart and stuff? We got no response on our last ad for a visit nurse so I've been tweaking that too. And all along we've been getting hit right and left with admissions, we just run and run! We've got everyone but the janitor seeing patients and they just keep coming. Pearl has been a bit bored after spending time performing her Hostess With The Mostest Duties - she needs another guest to hostess! I have tried to impart upon her that guests do NOT like the hostess to stand on them, but she seems to feel they don't mind and thinks it adds a dimesion to thier visit that they wouldn't get elsewhere. We're working on getting Ray out here, his window project is FINALLY underway so hopefully we'll see him before the end of spring.

Visit's End

Yesterday was shopping day - we went to Bob Evans for breakfast after a late start -but it was Sunday and we were lollygagging. There's no reason to hurry around here anyhow, most stores don't open til 11 or so anyhow. We got to the restaurant around 10:30 and were seated right away, we loitered a bit and when we left we were glad we got there before the crowd started coming in - they were lined up all the way to the door! I had gotten Maryann a gift certificate for Gabriel Brothers and I had to get clothes for work - I've discovered recently I have 3 types of clothes - Big Events, Loitering Around The House and Scrubs. So I'm having to increase my office wear which isn't easy - I get sidetracked by the Loitering At Home wear and Funky Clearance and I come home with everything but what I really need. We were there for quite awhile with Dad complaining loudly, I toyed with the idea of calling security but figured he would probably get into it with them and put up a fight,etc so I just ignored him. We did a brief stop at Barnes and Nobles and then back home. I got to pick the restaruant, Golden Corral Buffet which I LOVE - total fun. I took way too much dessert and ended up not even eating half of it, I think I overdid the eating thing this weekend and will be paying for it for awhile. This morning David, Jackson and Maryann are not feeling well - we thought it might have been something they ate but they didn't eat the same things so we'll have to see. Dad and Maryann left a little while ago and I have a couple of hours of personal time this morning so I don't have to be to work until 10:30 or so. The person coming to see me from the office in Pittsburgh isn't coming from Pittsburgh as I thought - she's coming from the Corporate Office in FLORIDA - double Eeekk!! Way big deal I think. Good thing I have new clothes, isn't it?

Preston County. Where All Your Dreams Come True.

The weather decided to behave yesterday so instead of shopping, I took Dad and Maryann on the Grand Tour Of Preston County. We drove out to Bruceton Mills first and did breakfast at the Hardware Store/Mills Restaurant - the service as usual is soso (they only have one waitress) but the food is wonderful and all the butter you can eat. We stopped in the general store next to it so they could get some of the local products and souveniers. I took them to see the old Iron Forge near Albright so they could take pictures, Jackson insisted on getting as close to the rapids as possible. I had to laugh when I took thier picture together - Jackson looks like Andre` the Giant! The off to the Route 7 market, Dad got buckwheat pancake mix and some other stuff and then back home after the tour. We went out to dinner a little early, Saturday is a bit dicey in finding a good place to eat that doesn't have a line in front of it. Around here EVERYONE goes out to eat on the weekend so all the restarurants are packed. We went to Triberios off of route 7 - it's a family run italian place and we love it. Dad wanted to pay the bill - it cost him $130, isn't it more fun when it's not your money? The food was excellent, I love thier tirimusu and Maryann had the strawberry shortcake. Dad is diabetic so when we got home I made him some of my sugar and fat free strawberry shortcake which he was pretty impressed with I think. I made them chocolate tofu pudding the other night and for all of you sitting there thinking EEWWW - ask Dad what he thought of it. If I don't say anything, most people think I'm feeding them chocolate mousse instead of fat and sugar free tofu! And we stopped at Sam's Club to buy Jackson TWO cases of Yoohoo which he is horsing down  like a man in the desert. Since it's pretty much skim milk there's no limit on how much he can have -the first 6 pack is gone this morning. It looks like it would like to rain today so we're going on a big shopping tour today, I gave Maryann a gift certificate for Gabes so that's on my list!

They're Here

Pictures tomorrow. I had everything planned out of course - I would get to work at 7:30am, be out by 9 and have my admission done by 11 - then zip to the grocery store and back home in time to greet Dad and Maryann. Jackson decided to see how slow he could go - he was late for school and I arrived at work at 8. Due to the huge influx of patients I spent most of my time getting authorization from the insurance companies - each one of course having different requirements. My new patient was not answering his phone so I put in a call to the hospital - yes, he had left yesterday in the afternoon. By now it was 10 so I headed over to PA to see if he was home - of course he was. I was out by noon and on the way back to the highway put a call to Dad to see where they were. They were actually closer to home then I was so I zipped down the back roads and just managed to get home about 3 minutes before they did. Pearl had been in the house by herself all morning so Dad and Maryann got the Extra Special Wild Greeting which involved leaping, twirling, and jumping in thier truck. I made them so coffee and after getting settled they decided to take a nap before we went out - when the "nap" stretched into 4:30 I called David to pick up pizza on the way home. David went to pick up Jackson from Becky's around 7 and then we just sat around visiting for the rest of the evening. I think we'll head out to Preston county today, Dad is looking for seeds and yardsales and you'll find both in that direction. On Sunday we'll be shopping because I think the weather report is calling for rain. But today is supposed to be nice so we'll be out and about.

On The Way

My dad should've left this morning around 3 - he expects to be here early. I'm going into work early this morning so I can leave at noon - hopefully. We still have some admissions to do and I have to make sure all the loose ends are tied up. Then I can run home and get the rest of the stuff done around here. Pearl has been foiling my efforts to keep the house clean - last night she graciously unstuffed her bunny and ate two plants. And of course the clouds have moved in - last night a large black cloud insisted on hovering over the house and raining on us intermittenly. But the pool looks good! We ran it for a couple of days and I'm glad we spent the money to have it professionally closed as the water is just as clear as it was when we closed it. We have to get supplies and I'm not allowed to ask if they sell solar covers at Lowes ANYMORE or David will kill me. I thought that was a bit steep but apparently he will get the cover when he gets around to it and if I'm so interested I could get it myself. Pearl of course has been eyeballing the pool and it's only a matter of days before she hops in. I've got to clean up the floats - it's a lot of work but I enjoy having the pool so I' m not complaining.

Up And Running

What is this crap! Jeez - you turn your back for two minutes and the next thing you know your pictures are slinging around like nobody's business. Oh well, I'm just glad I don't have to give up the blog. What I did was reload my AOL and it (hopefully) has fixed the problem. Anyhoo to catch up a little, Jackson has become the Dairy-meister. David is glad on one hand he can drink milk so we can cut out alot of the soda and sugary drinks, however he's a bit dismayed as Mr. Boy has managed to wipe out an entire case of Yoohoo in under three days -and worse yet it was DAVID'S Yoohoo bought especially for him by him. Then Mr. Boy ran off to the place he's been drooling over for the past two years since it opened - Stone Cold which is a high end ice cream parlor and is just as good as he thought it would be. He's had no trouble at all but we do still keep benedryl on hand just in case. Work has been booming - we picked up FOURTEEN new patients in 4 days and are calling out everyone. We still haven't found a visit nurse so we've been working on the ad and maybe we'll find someone next week.

The Blog Is Sinking Quickly

When I got up this morning and tried to do an entry on my blog - I couldn't. I don't know what everyone else is seeing, but what I see is a blank Quicken movie screen where the pictures should be and the Active X box about 20 times. When I delete the boxes my AOL freezes and we have to reboot the computer. The only way I've gotten on now is to go to my profile and the latest update.My sister said when she sees it, the pictures zoom in and out - I honestly have no idea. And it seems to be just my blog. Anyone with any ideas on how to fix it, I'm all ears. I've had this blog for over 3 years now and would hate to start over again. This has become my childhood diary all over again, but with pictures, I'm a bit shocked at how attached to it I am - so any solutions would be welcome.

Busy Bees

The bird feeder is a big hit with the local avian population, they discovered it yesterday and it's been bouncing rather merrily on it's bungee cord ever since. We use a bungee cord to hang it because it keeps the birds from pulling it down (around here they pile on it) and it's easier to get down to fill. Daily. It's driving Pearl crazy, she's pointing all over the place and there's no end in sight. Everytime she thinks she's done, another squad appears. David spent part of the day home today to get the lawn mowed - AGAIN, it's not even June and we're already tired of the lawn. But I have to say, when you're sitting out front under the giant trees, it's worth the work. I know I take a lot of pictures of our yard, but it's so pretty it doesn't look real most of the time. David's busy draining out the pool cover, the frogs will just have to make better choices next year, won't they? I took the LPN with me on a couple of visits so he could get an idea of what we do, of course both patients were difficult sticks, but he seems to be up for it. The weekend wasn't overly busy - I pulled a PICC line from my little pedi patient one day - totally cute. The kid was sitting there hollering away until I yelled "HEY!". The kid was WHAT and I said IT'S OUT. The next day I drove 45 miles to find the patient had gone back to the hospital, but all in all, it wasn't bad. David took me, Jackson, and Becky to Garfield's on Mother's day which was fun - we do love the food there! We went to the bookstore and then grocery shopping. David worked Saturday at Becky's house helping Bob with the siding so he didn't have too much free time this weekend either. I went to yoga on Saturday - I think I'll be continuing with it as it's interesting.

Experimenting With Connie's Grandson

Jackson has been very allergic to milk since he was about 13 - he breaks out in hives all over and his face swells so for the past 4 years we've been very careful. Every where he goes there was benedryl tucked somewhere, but we've noticed over the past few months things that gave his a smattering of hives (cheese for example) seem to have no reaction. David brought YooHoo into the house a couple of weeks ago and Jackson has been hounding me to give it a go. Of course he kept asking after 9 pm and I told him repeatedly NO because if he had a large allergic reaction I would have to take him to the ER and I had no intentions of sitting down there at night with all the drunk college students. So yesterday early afternoon he slammed down a can of YooHoo and a few hours later - nothing!! He was quite delighted and was plotting all sorts of Ice Cream Socials and Chocolate Milk Festivals - David and I told him that would be ok, but for the time being a little at a time. Speaking of allergies, I see our Poison Ivy is coming in well again this year, we keep mowing it back but it comes creeping in daily. It grows all over the trees, we have some that you can barely see the bark. I usually end up covered by the end of May, something to look foward to I guess.

Is It Summer Already?

Here are the seasons in West Virginia - Fallwinter. Winter. Mud. Summer. I actually enjoy the muddy part in a childish way - it's so disgusting it's funny. But the tempetures have been hovering around the high 70's to low 80's already - David is trying to hurry the roof on his job before the weather gets blistering. He'll probably be in Blacksville all summer as the people he's doing work for have other projects and other family members - he's not complaining as they're very nice to work for. Jackson will be joining him this summer, he's signed up for two semesters of summer school to make up the 10th grade english and it would just be  too difficult for him to try and find a job to fit into that schedule, not to mention trying to drive him back and forth. I've got plenty to occupy my time this weekend, I have one admission, I have to call for another, and I'm up to my ears in paperwork. I also want to work on the pool area this weekend, David has been sneaking the tadpoles out when I'm not looking and throwing them in the grass. His point is if they could produce a million tadpoles in a week, he;'s sure there's others around.

Let Them Eat Cake

At last count I have eaten 4 cakes in the past two weeks. First there was my birthday cake at home, then a cake at work. David's birthday cake and then another one yesterday for congratulations on the Nurse of the Year thing (yes, I am blowing my own horn - I've never been anything of the year so let me enjoy it for 5 minutes!). The only problem is I can only spend so much time on the treadmill and yesterday after about 10 minutes developed shooting pains up one leg.  So my two choices are: to drag one leg faster or to stop  eating cake. I am still thinking about it. We hired a part time LPN at work the other day so I'll be hauling him around Monday showing him the ropes and I'm on call this weekend so I am busy busy. I'm waiting for another package from Knitpiks whoo hoo is all I can say! I know I don't need anything else but they have such cool stuff and it's so reasonable. I mean wool for a couple dollars a skein? It would be a crime NOT to order it! (of course when the Yarn Hater sees it coming there might be a homicide in the works.....)David continues on his project in Blacksville, he took pictures yesterday and I can't believe how much progress he's made in the past week or so. Jackson was out there yesterday with him  after school putting down tar paper as they've predicted rain for today. Jackson will be doing summer school this year to make up an english, it's annoying but there's no way around it. We've heard from Adam, he's targeting June 8th as his discharge date and is chomping at the bit. I can't blame him, I'm getting that way too!

Random Stuff.

Pearl has gotten quite demanding about the OUT thing - I can't blame her as she's in the house on her own now for 9 hours a day. But it's very hard  - the second you come home she hits the door like a hurricane in an effort to get out and then wants to stay there. We moved the smaller table and chair set to the front of the yard under the tree so I eat out there and read while she annoys the birds and stuff. But then we have to do indoor things so she hangs on the door whining to go back out until you want to shake her. David's in Fairmont tonight at the shooting range with his friend Cecil. He'll pick up Jackson from Becky's on the way home so I have the house to myself for a little while. I'm pretty tired though - the 2 AM Girl was by last night, she was worried about Ray and getting authorization for the new pediatric patient and maybe the cancer patient's labs were rejected since I had to use the small CBC..... I wish she would go bother someone else. Then Pearl started in around 3:30 am since I was awake - David asked her if she wanted a smack which I thought was funny - remember when you annoyed your parents and they asked that question?  I mean, how are you supposed to answer that? - "Wow! A smack! Sure, I'd love a good smack!". Pearl considered it and decided against a smack and went back to sleep. I fell asleep for a little while and then up for the daily grind. I didn't have to do any visits today and got a bunch of stuff done, including  orientating the new part time LPN we've hired. I'm also trying to cut down on swearing, apparently it's out of hand even though I don't think so. I'd like you to know I would love to write a bad word to emphasize, but won't as I do NOT have a potty mouth.

Vegetarian On Aisle Three

Jackson and I went looking for David's birthday presents on Sunday in the hunting section at Wal-Mart. We got a turkey call and Jackson wanted to get him a squirrel call. Then he picked out a Distressed Rabbit call - and I put my foot down. I told him the last thing we needed was a yard full of rabbits! We had more than enough rabbits thank you very much - at which point the man shopping next to me (and looking like he'd like to laugh A LOT) very kindly told me using this call would not encourage rabbits to your yard. Just in case YOU need to know - if you use a distressed rabbit call the other little rabbit friends will NOT rush to your yard to save their friend. Quite the opposite - they'll hide and a coyote or bob cat will show up to see what you got good. So we have a rabbit call for David's birthday also and we also got him a birdfeeder. I've heard from Adam daily, he's getting very excited about getting out of the navy, I'm hoping there'll be no delays but we know the navy so I'm sure something will come up. In other news I'm still Nurse Of The Year - but it's for all 350 offices instead of just the ones in West Virginia like I thought, I also get some moola which is nice. I got a nice bouquet of flowers from my sister and her partner and they're residing on my desk at work as we speak. We're not going out for dinner for David's birthday tonight, with us getting home so late it would be pretty hard to enjoy it so we're getting a pizza and I have a cake and then this weekend we'll be going out.

Kick Back, Relax!

We went to Clarksburg yesterday -  I told David I wanted to go to AC Moores which set off a Lecture - that is SO boring. David goes blah blah blah, too much yarn, blah blah, abnormal, blah blah blah and I try to look concerned and stuff usually and then I get another Lecture as apparently I don't look as concerned as he thinks I should about my mental health (or lack thereof). But I had a gift certificate so he had to stop mid-blahblah. While I went to AC Moores he and Jackson went to the Tractor store where they not only sell tractors, but clothes and all sorts of stuff. After that we stopped at Barnes and Nobles because Jackson insisted I replace the book Pearl had started snacking on despite the fact she only ate the epilogue - he's such a pest. It was raining off and on all day but while outside I went to check out the pool area as we have to start getting that ready for the season soon. Much to my dismay there were about a million little tadpoles swimming around in the water caught in the liner. We didn't buy one of those inflatable balls that holds the liner up so the water on top is perfect for Frog Perculating. This puts me in a bad position vegetarian wise - do I cause mass destruction to the local frog population to get the pool open by June or do I wait and let all the little frogs grow up and hop away? They're not doing anything with the exception of the adult frogs who need to find something other to do then produce more baby frogs and make noise all night - and also, no one told them to be messing in my  pool cover anyhow. Bastards. The weather today is a bit cool, but sunny so I suppose I should take Miss Pants outside and let her run and maybe do a bit of weed whacking. All for now!

Guess What!!

Yesterday work continued to be a bit crazy - I had difficulty getting my first IV of the day, the second time I missed the patient started laughing. He said he'd never had a nurse go "Oh Shit!" - I told him it was the medical term which made him laugh more. I got it the 3rd time - it was the first time I'd missed him since I started so all was forgiven. Then I ran to the patient #2 and ended up yakking as I hadn't seen her in awhile. Then on the way to infusion #2 got a call about a problem with a clotted CBC from the previous day. Since I was on my way to no man's land I pulled off the road across from the  Orndorf's farm as that's the only place you can get cell service and played phone tag for a few minutes. I gave them the next patient's name so I could get calls and off I went. The second infusion went well with me continuing to play phone tag and the last call of the day was my boss Tammy who asked if she could put me on speaker phone. Hmm. The reason was that I am Interim's Nurse of the Year!! To say I was shocked was an understatement - I think it's for all of the offices (Interim is a franchise) as that's what Sophie said when I called later about the CBC problem. I can't believe it! And of course I was out of cell phone range so I couldn't call anyone, but the patient's mother sitting next to me on the couch said congratulations. Then it was back to real life. I drove to the patient's house that needed a redraw on the CBC - they live a few miles from the other patient but he was at the zoo so I went to lab and dropped off a set of labs from the other patient - and then got a call from the lab to let me know they'd changed protocol again and couldn't run the labs out of the one test tube. Peachy. So the Nurse Of The Year will be hiding for the weekend as she has had quite enough thank you.

Here Comes Trouble

You know how they say trouble comes in threes? That would mean I got hit from all sides yesterday. I got a call from Adam yesterday morning so he could Spring Another Surprise on me - I swear that boy has a policy on me. We thought he was coming home the end of July - he's like no, the middle of May! It took all I had not to start shrieking ARE YOU CRAZY - but he's very excited about this and is at the stage where you could say anything and he wouldn't hear you over the spinning wheels of future plots and plans. Work has calmed down - a little - I had time to deal with some issues and make plans and phone calls to deal with next week's issues. Then I find out the nurse that is leaving, the one I felt so sorry for because her husband had left her and she had to quit - had snuck over to the competition and had gotten hired as a supervisor over there. That stupid lying cow, I was so tempted to pick up the phone and call her right then and there, but I didn't. First of all, calling someone a stupid lying cow is unprofessional no matter how much you want to or they deserve it and second of all it would just give her an excuse not to show up all next week. So I emailed my boss and let it go at that. Sigh. THEN I get the mail when I got home and there's a letter from my insurance company to let me know that paid out a total of NINE THOUSAND DOLLARS to those two morons I bumped with my car back in November. There seems to a lot of stupid lying cows in West Virginia. I called the company and they were great about getting right back to me - the guy didn't have the finally estimate but ballparked the raise in rates between $150 and $350 a year - not happy, but liveable. But the cat still likes me and I do have my yarn so life is not so bad. Adam emailed us this morning and let us know he'll be getting out in June now which gives everyone a little bit of breathing room for now and I have my two infusions today, one of which involves bulldogs so hopefully today will go a bit better than yesterday.

Green Acres Is The Life For Me

I was finally sleeping well last night - after being kept up the previous evening  by haunting images of Adam Who Likes To Spring Crap On His Parents In The Middle Of The Night. Adam will make out fine, I just wish when he decides to make drastic decisions in his life he could do it A) a bit more slowly and B) at a reasonable hour. Anyhoo, I passed out last night around 8:30 only to be awoken at 1 am by a rather fierce thunderstorm. It took me forever to get back to sleep, then I was up at 4:30 am which was ok as I was going to Pittsburgh today. I met Sophie and Deb in the parking lot as I was driving this time around - Kevin and Angelena were following us and my GPS. We took the backway to Pittsburgh - it takes a bit longer but you don't have to sit in traffic so timewise it works out. When we turned down Big Six Road (don't you LOVE that name? I would love to live on that road just for the address) Deb said she'd never gone this way and I said Me Neither! I don't think she liked that, but the GPS got us there in good time. The seminar was more interesting that I thought it would be but you had to do group activities which I hate - it always makes me feel self concious and I worry I'll do something stupid or wrong. We found a table big enough for the 5 of us for lunch and guess who sat in the empty seat next to me again - the president of the company! So I couldn't eat the roll on my fish sandwich even though I wanted to - it was too big to eat politely and trying to eat that in front of someone who makes me nervous would have been a crap shoot at best. He's very nice and remembers everyone's name (even mine) which I think is impressive. The rest of the seminar went well and we even learned some stuff. I got home in good time to find David and Jackson mowing the lawn - all the rain and sunshine has made the lawn grow like crazy and it's so wierdly green it looks fake. Pearl just ran around and played as usual - she's so cute, isn't she? Jackson likes to mow the lawn at this point in time, of course it's only May!

Coming Home

Adam called us last night around 11-ish with news. He likes to do that as perhaps it makes it a bit exciting. There's nothing like being woken out of a dead sleep to hear some life changing events. Adam has decided to leave the military and will be officially sprung in July. Since I was bit bleary at the time, what I can figure is there was a miscommunication and his extension ends July with them thinking he would re-up (he didn't realize he had the choice). He's very excited of course as most people are when making a big decision and had we been more awake and orientated we would have been also. We're a bit worried, where is he going to work, etc but many people are not in the navy and truck around quite nicely with no problems. His game plan is to go to LI first to see family and then is negotiating with my sister for living arrangements. It's going to take a while more to digest this all, but I'll be glad to see him.