Happy New Year's Eve

I finished the green sweater and went to get started on the socks when I realized I don't have the right sized needles - the patterns I do have the right sized needles for I don't have enough yarn for. I sent off for the right sized needles but will be doing mail box duty as they have to come all the way from Vancouver so in the meantime I'm finishing up the afgan and maybe doing a bit of reading. Eek. I had an ok day at work, nothing major but a lot of running around. One of my patients has a fairly new aide who is hoping to go to nursing school so I find her sweet and amusing - everything is an emergency and is dignosed to the 10th degree so I end up spending quite a bit of time on our visit. The patient enjoys the attention though and I'd rather have an aide that reports everything than one that reports nothing (until it falls off or turns green or something). When I spoke to the office I was told she'd be getting counseling but I said the magic words - "possible student nurse" so hopefully they'll be kind to her also until she gets over it. Most of us do.I got home around 5 and looking foward to being off tomorrow - and not being on call. I checked my email and there was one from the relative that doesn't like me. I of course went to delete it but curiousity got the better of me. Silly me, what was I thinking? Next time I'll delete it right off the bat but there are times in life you just can't help yourself. I can remember once when I was a kid going in the downstairs bathroom and being very surprised at seeing the ceiling over the tub sloping down in a strange bulging way. I stood on the edge of the tub - and I can clearly remember thinking as my finger neared that odd curve that MAYBE I should leave it alone - but my hand continued along it's pre-destined course and I was instantly covered in water and wet sheetrock from the leaking pipe above. So, same song, different chorus. The thing is - it's a new year and I have so much more going on in my life and I'm off tomorrow! So the email is gone and my first resolve of the new year is to listen to that little voice, because 99% of the time it's right. Happy New Year Everyone

The Tater Mitts

I posted pictures of the Tater Mitts yesterday but didn't mention them, so today they get my Official Opinion. The reason I bought them for David for Christmas was because we'd seen them on tv and he'd been interested - but not in a potato related way. The reason he'd wanted them had more to do with Claw The Evil Cat - he thought they would be an excellent way to retaliate for her midnight attacks and her general evil behavior. His plan was to grab the cat with the Tater Mitts the next time she bit him and rub her bald. That made me laugh so when I saw them on sale at Giant Eagle he got a pair. What they look like is a pair of heavy duty dish gloves with fish tank gravel crazy-glued to the palms, Adam and Jackson didn't think much of them. David decided to try them out for thier official use, so he piled the potatoes in the sink and went to work. The first thing he noticed was you have to run water as the Tater Mitts clog up immediately with what little skin you manage to rub off and you need to rinse them constantly. So he rubbed the potatoes for a bit and then I rubbed the potatoes for a bit longer. The end result was the potato looked like it had been tied to the back of the car and dragged for a few miles, suffering from a mild case of Road Burn. However, after about 15 minutes and who knows how many of gallons of water we gave it up as a bad job and went back to the Tater Peeler which incidently cost about a quarter of the price and took about 3 minutes. We haven't tried them out on Claw yet as first of all it would probably take most of the day to rub her bald and I doubt she would stand still that long and secondly she isn't overly smart but is smart enough to stay away from the Tater Mitts.

We Are All Of Age Now

I managed to take my 4 hours of personal time yesterday for Jackson's 18th birthday - I begged a patient to let me see him early so I managed to squeeze in all 4 patients before 1 pm and made it home by 1:15. Jackson being Jackson didn't want much in the way of birthday stuff - we took him out to Cheddars for a late lunch, went shopping at his favorite book store and then cake at home. I'm taking him up to the Meadowbrook Mall today in Clarksburg to spend some of his loot and I'm looking foward to just hanging out this weekend as we all know last week was a long one. Christmas went well, it was so nice having both the boys home for the holidays - I wish I could've spent more time with Adam but I did manage Christmas Eve and Christmas so I can't complain too much. One of the best things about being in home care is always being home for the holidays - and being awake for them to boot! Everyone got what they wanted - Adam bought me the entire Little Britian series which I can't stop watching, it's probably one of the funniest series I've ever seen and I now have ALL of it. I finished my sleeveless cotton sweater last night and am now scoping around for the next project. I'm thinking Socks but I don't know if I'm brave enough to attempt them - they look hard and you have to make two of them relatively the same size and shape. In case you're wondering - Sprint has not called since the other day so I'm hoping I'm past that and that Mary has learned her lesson.

I'll Be Taking Names

Yesterday Sprint called me one too many times. I've been oncall this week and for the past 2 Sprint's been calling my phone between 4 and 6 pm - the exact time you get those hinky patient calls. This has caused me to go racing up 3 flights of stairs and to the back bedroom only to be offered another phone line - I've pushed to "no" button, asked them not to call, etc.. Yesterday I ran all day and at 5 pm - you guessed it - my phone rang. Whoa betide that fool. Mary greeted me and started her spiel to which I told her she had no right to call me, that I had been put on the no call list TWICE and I didn't feel my own phone company should be harrassing me. To this Mary attempted to continue to sell me another phone line - I cut her off and told her that I was NOT paying Sprint to call me nightly, that I had already spoken to them NUMEROUS TIMES and I needed to know how to make the calls stop. Mary suggested the no call list which I shot back I was already on it and now I would like her to put the supervisor on. Hmm. She told me - and here is where not only did I go over the edge but was catapulted straight into space - that she'd see if a supervisor could call me since they were all at lunch right now- and SHE WOULD CALL ME TONIGHT(please note I was waiting on a line during this conversation which was a lovely way to pass the time unless you were standing near me...) I let Mary know that since I'd been called every night for the past two weeks I really didn't think ANOTHER phone call was a good solution, did she??!! And then, in my best Exorcist Voice  I said "It's 5 o'clock in the afternoon and everyone is at LUNCH? I don't think so - you'd better go get the manager NOW MARY" - and lo and behold there be the manager( a bit of advice here - when fighting with any company always get the name of the person you're talking to and use it often - it freaks them out much better). He didn't make much headway and was quite disconcerted when I told him I thought I should be able to cancel my phone service with no early termination fees which he said I couldn't do,etc.. He told me he was taking Personal Responsibility to make sure I wouldn't be called again - I told him I hoped so because if I EVER got called again I would go crazy - since I was already doing my best Exorcist Voice that probably gave Russell something to think about.  So, I think I may be on the no call list for real this time - we'll have to see. Otherwise Russell Morgan the manager and Mary have bought themselves a whole pile of trouble.

I Think My Journal Broke.

I've been having problems with my journal for the past few days and am not sure what happened. I can't see any of the entries on it - the pictures are there but no words. Does it look like that to you guys?? I can see this entry, but the rest of the page is blank. AOL is no help as we no longer pay for it so no customer service. Anyhow, I had to go into the office briefly yesterday to hand in the mountain of paperwork I had generated over the weekend - Adam got to hang out with Susan - but then that was it. Christmas Eve went very nicely, we went out to Ruby Tuesdays for an early dinner and bought Christmas dinner on the way home. EVERYTHING is closed here for the holidays so for the past few years we've been staying home. Last night I slept - and no phone calls. Oh well, Merry Christmas everyone!

Merry Christmas Eve!

Well, Sunday turned out to be as much as a fiasco as Saturday. I started off at 8:30 am so one of my peds patients wouldn't have to see me on Christmas eve, when I arrived the Under 10 Crowd had already been indulging in cake and candy and were alternately whizzing around the room and crying. I brought gifts for the whole posse which were spirited off since it's not Christmas yet, much to very (vocal) disappointment of the crowd. That was actually fun and then off to the rest - a ton of driving but I got home around 2 pm. We went to the new Cracker Barrel and right before I got my food - my phone rang. Sigh. I rushed everyone through thier meal and then raced off to yet another admission arriving home just before 7 pm. I got up early this morning and finished up the paperwork and took Adam into the office with me so I could finish faxing and letting the director know any changes. He got to meet a few of my co-workers and then ran over to Starbucks next door for some coffee. We went to Gabe's after that, I had to pick up some pants for David so I would have something to put under the tree - for the past few years we've just exchanged token gifts and then go shopping in January when everything is on clearance and you can REALLY clean up. So I am (presumably) off today since I did a total of 11 visits over the weekend and oncall after 5 pm and then oncall for Christmas. For Jackson's birthday this coming Friday I'm taking the rest of my personal time so we can do something - he's leaning toward a movie and dinner with his PARENTS - the Geek didn't fall far from the tree, did he?

Is It Friday Yet?

I'm having problems with my blog - it keeps telling me AOL doesn't support this browser and to update it, but when I try then it tells me I already have the lastest browers so I have no idea - I'll try to reload the AOL when I get a chance. Adam arrived here yesterday in good time and spent the day hanging out with David and Jackson. I spent the day working. I had THREE admissions covering about 200 miles so I started off around 8:30 am and got to the exit home around 4:30. Then my phone rang and the one patient I had done much earlier in the day had developed a problem so I had to turn my car around and drive an additional 90 miles since of course it was one of the further out patients. So I arrived home about 7:30 pm - and today doesn't look much better. Our office is open for Christmas Eve which I was very surprised about - but considering the way they treat the nurses I suppose I shouldn't be. I'm trying to take off for Christmas eve, I moved my patients to Sunday (which is why I'm working today) but I think Monday is shaping up to be a mess so who knows. Adam is having a good time I think, I hope and we'll have Christmas together at least.

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