Tell you all my secrets

I really did plan to write an update, but time just got away from me yesterday.

 

Hello and  welcome new people!  The friendzy is still going strong, you should definitely check that out below.   I will be reading more and commenting today (since Little Boss has the day off - muahahahaaa!)

 

I haven't spent much time working in the crawlspace.  lonelydumptruck has been going strong on the vapor barrier and filling odd holes he found dug under the foundation on one side.  Our best guess is they had to be dug to get at pipes to fix a broken one?  Mommie has a carpenter-friend who is going to come help us bang this out all day Sunday.

 

Most of my energies have been going to the real estate mail out and little tasks like washing out all the tins for cookies.  The catchphrase this holiday season is Debt Reduction, so we're going to be making all the presents except for our parents, Boo and Kenzie.  Neither of us are crafty, so food is the word.

 

I have at least two ribs out of joint, the hokey pokey rib and one behind my left shoulder that's sending flares all the way to my ear.  Luckily Dr. Buddy can squeeze me in this afternoon, but I have a feeling this will put a damper on skating for scrimmage tonight. I'll probably still go to help as a non-skating official.

LonelyDumptruck has been in my hometown for a week visiting my folks, hanging with the Pack of weiner dogs, shopping, seeing burlesque.  Oh, and doing training for work.  That was the real reason for the trip.

 

Sunday afternoon I dropped him off at the airport and then headed over to the real estate to work on the mailout until my eyes started to bleed.  I picked up Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Don't Be Afraid of the Dark from Redbox and heated up some soup for dinner.

 

I ended up re-watching the mid-season finale and then the new episode of Walking Dead.  I should have waited for LonelyDumptruck, but I couldn't bear waiting another week to see what was going to happen.   LonelyDumptruck called several times.  He was having trouble opening the file with his resume/application for a new position so I had to resend it in various formats.

 

Years ago I read the original novel of The Planet of the Apes and I loved it.  I haven't seen all the sequels from the 70's but, I admit, I want to see them.  Rise of the Planet of the Apes was alright.  I liked it right up until the moment

( Spoiler be here )

I made it through about half of Don't Be Afraid of the Dark before pooping out.

 

Monday night I went over to Geolinguist's sister's house to pet the kitties and meet the chickens.   Lila was a perfect calico lady, but I offended Caddock by calling him the Orson Wells of cats.  In my defence, he looks like a cross between a Main Coon cat and a palomino.

 

Feeding the chickens was fun.  When I was a little girl and we went to visit Grandma and Uncle H.O.'s family in Iowa, one of my jobs was collecting the eggs, so it was cool to get to do that again.  I wasn't very good at getting the chickens to get off the eggs when I was little and the chickens would peck at me.  Monday I got one egg but I couldn't get the chicken off the other.  She was too polite to peck, though.

 

After that we had good beers and bruchetta at Midnight Sun.  None of the main courses looked appealing,.so we crossed town to Table Six so Geolinguist
could have a burger and I could get ravioli. 

 

I finished Don't Be Afraid of the Dark when I got home.  It was beautifully shot but, ultimately, uninspiring.  I'd read it was based on a TV movie and it still had a real teleplay feel to it.  I could tell where commercials wanted to go.

 

Tuesday I went over to the real estate office for a little bit, until LonelyDumptruck called and I went home so he could tell me about my Valentines gift.  He'd hidden a bottle of tequila for me and then bought a flask for himself so we could have a drink together before he went to a burlesque show. 

 

A few shots later I settled in to binge on episodes of The River, a new show Mountain_Hiker recommend to me.

 

Imagine a television nature show host  beloved like the Crocodile Hunter or Marlon Perkins has gone missing in the Amazon and his wife and estranged son go to look for him with a camera crew and producer who hope to turn the hunt into a new season of his show.  They turn down a fork in the river that isn't supposed to be there and veer off into some serious Lost territory. I am really loving it.  I can see where some of the conventions will wear thin if they don't change them up - the monster of the week and using one character for The Perils of Pauline plots - but so far it is off to a good start.

 

A dear theater friend is in town visiting for the week and extended an invitation for people to meet him for dinner at an Italian restaurant near the real estate office Wednesday night, so I worked for a bit and then headed over.  Only two other people came, but it was awesome to see him.  We shared mussels and I ordered spaghetti.  Both were thick with cloves of roasted garlic the size of new potatoes.  I'm petty sure LonelyDumptruck could smell me all the way in Tacoma. 

 

I desperately wanted to watch the new episode of Top Chef, but I forced myself to wait until LonelyDumptruck gets home.  Instead I took a muscle relaxer and watched old episodes of Top Chef Masters until the challenges started to bleed together.

 

Thursday night was even more low-key.  I skipped the real estate office in favor of getting a few chores done and then house managed a show.  They sprung a Q & A on me, so I got done later than I planned but I still got to talk to LonelyDumptruck and watch some cooking TV.

 

I didn't know when LonelyDumptruck was coming home, so I signed up to house manage every night this weekend.  CrownWench picked him up at the airport and dropped him off at Beartooth for a brr-lesque hostess' birthday gathering.  I'm hoping to be done in time to join them.

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We didn't end up crossing much off the to-do list last night.  I have Tuesday and Thursday afternoons off from the Warehouse of Misfit Toys so I can work with Mr. and Mrs. Real Estate, but they didn't need me again yesterday, so was able to work from home for them a bit and do laundry before making (what I hope will be) the last run to the post office.

 

LonelyDumptruck and I volunteered for a GIFT handout at Beth Shalom Congregation last night.  They had a big room set up with tables so gifts were laid out by age range and food stuffs on the other end of the room.  People came through with forms listing how many people were in their family and I was a "shopper" taking them around the food tables and bagging up the proper amount of gravy packets, dinner rolls, canned green beans, bags of pears etc. for them to take home.  LonelyDumptruck was outside showing people where to park and breaking down cardboard boxes.  It was great, but ultimately too much lifting and I was pretty miserable by the end.

 

Rodney's cat, Phoebe (Babo's girlfriend), passed away yesterday, so we went over to his house for a while after volunteering so tonight we should trim the tree, make cookies and all the other holiday things left on the list.

Posted via LiveJournal app for Android.

"I'm so sorry. I am just so, so sorry."

These words punctuate each and every appointment I have with the physician I fondly refer to as Dr. Buddy.

He's a wonderful, well-meaning man. You can tell his heart just breaks when he faces a patient he can't really help. Like me. He is the one who finally caught the fact that scoliosis and Scheuermann's Disease are major factors contributing to my chronic back pain. As soon as he saw the standing x-rays of my spine, three curves with correlating rotation of the discs, he sent me over to a surgeon who uttered the other three words I hear at every appointment other than those with Dr. Buddy: "EVERYBODY has scoliosis!"

I have been seeing Dr. Buddy for three or four years, through nerve tests, brace fittings and adjustments. Three or four years of "I'm so sorry!" Sorry about my pain. Sorry he can't do more. Sorry he didn't think of treatments like Botox injections sooner.

My last appointment he was pushing ribs back into place - the rotation of my spine causes ribs to do the hokey-pokey at random intervals. As he leaned his full weight into my torso, I am rather ashamed to say I farted. And it was not a girly fart. It was not a stealth fart. It was a wall shaker.

For the first time I was able to say to him, from the bottom of my heart, "I'm so sorry! I am just so, so sorry!"

(I am not taking part in therealljidol, the prompt just crossed well with something on my mind today.)

It snowed again today. When I went home for lunch it was dumping huge, fat flakes that were just starting to stick to the porch. When I went back to work the whole porch was white and it was starting to stick to the grass. Around break-time we were getting flakes the size of half-dollars, I shit you not. I blame mischief_wa: she wanted to see snow while she was here.

The sun was out and it was nice and warm at 5. George's thermometer said it was in the 50's, but he lies if he's parked in the sun. We were agreed on the fact it was not quite 40 by the time I got home. George has become a pididdle, by the way, not sure when that happened. A co-worker told me as soon as I walked into the office yesterday and one of my office friends called the moment I got into the parking lot to let me know about it today. George is overdue for his 10,000 mile check up any way, so I'll just let them know when I take him in. I have to get the snow tires off by the end of the month too.

lonelydumptruck doesn't have rehearsal tonight so we'll probably go to one of the plays closing this weekend. Tomorrow is still up in the air.

I over-did it at work today. I think the weather is bugging me too so I'm going to give myself a break from the laundry even though I just got off my ass to be productive at lunch today.

My insurance company finally agreed to pay for a limited number of botox injections so I will start those next month. I still can't believe it has taken everyone this long to get ducks in a row - I had that nerve test done back in October and I'm finally getting treatment.

I had an appointment with Dr. Buddy yesterday. I've only had one appointment with him since the nerve test results and that was to work on the brace instead of my back. I hadn't realized it's been so long until Little Boss made a snide comment that Dr. Buddy had just turned into a piggy bank and maybe I should look into a different kind of physical therapy.

I really needed it. I had limited motion through most of my thoracic spine and a lot of disjointed ribs. He wants me to get back to coming in at least once a month, which I really need but had to stop for work. Little Boss was asking me to keep my appointments as close to lunch hour as possible while I was covering for the attendance-optional receptionist and then on the desk full-time.

I finally got fitted with the new hotness in braces too. I traded in the pelvic base with all the laces and snaps for "comfort shorts" so I just pull those and the entire thing straps together with velcro. He also changed the pattern to treat a classic left lumbar/thoracic curve rather than a straight pull-back on my shoulders.

Instead of a band going around each shoulder and connecting to the base on the opposite side and bands criss-crossed around my belly, I have one band that goes across my belly and velcros to the shorts, then the second belly-band wraps all the way around me and connects on top of the first band. Then one goes around my right shoulder, all the way around behind my back and connects to the shorts while the last strap goes between my boobs,all the way around my back and connects to the same strap. Basically it's pulling back my right shoulder and rotating my torso the the right while leaving my left shoulder and the lump alone. It's pretty fun. The plus side is I don't have to worry about things coming unsnapped or shoelaces hanging out of my ass anyone. The con is that there didn't seem to be a way to go to the bathroom without disconnecting the entire rig. I may have conquered that, though. If it works, I'll charge other patients for the secret to off-set the costs.

I've been covering the desk full-time since our attendance-optional receptionist left. Office Friend was supposed to be pulled off driving to take the desk, but this seems to be working out better for now. We're hiring, though, so Zod only knows what will happen next.

lonelydumptruck went home sick today. I wanted to join him more than anything in the world, but I'm completely shackled to the desk. Little Boss is out with kidney stones and the accompanying surgeries until at least Friday so they only way I'll get to leave work is if I barf on the Germ-o-Phobe's shoes.

After work I went to the play selection committee for ACT. Only 5 of us made it. Most of the plays on the short list to consider for the next meetings are ones I suggested or spoke out in favor of doing. I feel really good about that.

After the meeting was Afterlife rehearsal. We're finally getting some momentum, which feels really good. Plus I actually *acted* in a couple of the scenes. Who knew?

In back news, the hokey-pokey rib is becoming a fairly good barometer. It's hurt like hell right before the last 3 snowfalls. @whee.

All food experiments for me this Turkey day.

I made a maple-pumpkin-bacon cheesecake last night, plus a whiskey, cream and bacon sauce for the top. Jay and Lori came up to have dinner, Lori made spaghetti pie, so we ate the bacon strained out of the sauce and kept licking the bowl. The cheesecake was baked by committee (Is it done? I don't think so... How about 5 more minutes? I think it's done. How about 5 minutes, then you don't open the door and bake it for another 5?) The top cracked some, but I can't wait to try it.

This morning lonelydumptruck put the bird in while I played some Castle Crashers, then we made my traditional cheddar scalloped sweet potatoes but I used a fuck-ton of smoked cheddar instead of the usual rosemary cheddar from years past. I also found a recipe for candied sweet potatoes with cream and Kahlua that has to be better than the Great Yam Soup Disater of 2008. At my house the rule is that if it's a savory recipe, you use sweet potatoes. If it is a sweet dish, use yams.

The hokey-pokey rib is lodging a complaint with the comminsioner, so I suppose I should get into my brace before I do much more goofing off on the Xbox.