The Windex Warrior Take 2

Photo Credit: asobitsuchiya via Flickr

The invasion has returned. Yes, the fucking ants are back. And yeah, I still hate ants. Nothing creeps me out quite as much as seeing ants crawling across any part of my kitchen. I have been obsessive about keeping things cleaned up in my kitchen because I really hoped that my initial victory over the ants meant they were gone for the summer. I was delusional.

Not only are the ants back but I found out they are addicted to more than Fig Newtons. While Fig Newtons may be crack for the ant set, cereal is evidently like pot for the ant set. It seems to make them hungrier and hungrier...to the point where they got into sealed bags and boxes of cereal. I had to throw out a box of beignet mix and over half the cereal we had in our house.

This pissed me off. This pushed me over the edge. This time those ants fucking broke me. Windex was just not enough. I broke out the big guns. I went for the ant killer. I try really hard not to use anything toxic in the kitchen area because that means that everything that was already cleaned has to be scrubbed down again to get rid of the chemicals. I have to admit that there was a deep visceral satisfaction in stopping those fuckers ants in their tracks and knowing that I was creating an impenetrable barrier to those creepy crawlies. Now, I'm not deluding myself this time. As long as it's hotter than Hades here in the South, those 6 legged bastards will keep coming.

But, from now on, I'm armed with weapons of ant destruction. Game on bastards.

And two shall be one...NOT

The people promoting Amendment One in North Carolina described it as supporting the sanctity of marriage. Sadly, many people didn't stop to consider the many effects this poorly worded amendment (or, if they did, they didn't give a shit which is even sadder. One of the many things opponents warned about is the fact the Amendment One voids "other types of domestic unions from carrying legal status, which opponents warn could disrupt protection orders for unmarried couples."

Y'all, I'm sorry to say that this exact thing has already started happening. Last night, there was a call for a domestic disturbance in a small town not far from where I live. When the cops arrived on the scene, they found evidence of a domestic disturbance involving physical violence and one of the involved parties was taken into custody and they headed to the magistrate's office for processing.

Now, in North Carolina, when the police are called to a domestic disturbance and someone is taken into custody, that person can be held for 48 hours to ensure the safety of the injured party. I don't know the specifics of the disturbance the police were called to last night, but I'm sure the injured party was relieved to have at least 48 hours in which they would be safe and could decide what to do.

The problem is, they didn't get those 48 hours. When the police got to the magistrate's office, the magistrate told the police that his hands were tied. Under the new amendment, this was NOT considered a domestic disturbance because the altercation was between a homosexual couple. Since it wasn't a domestic disturbance, the 48 hour hold was not enforced. This means that even if the individual was charged with assault (don't know if that happened) they could still get out almost immediately and their partner was potentially in danger.

Y'all, this isn't fucking fair. It pisses me off that people will be endangered because to the fucked up legislation that is Amendment One. This really makes me so angry and sad  that I can't even begin to express it.

Frustrated, Frazzled, Flustered...

rustrated, frazzled, flustered, fraying at t he edges...all those words describe me right now. I recently had to wipe the hard drive on my beloved laptop and reload EVERYTHING from the operating system on up. She had been working fabulously (another f word). In fact, she was running better than she had since I inherited her from my mom. I was so happy with my laptop. I am not so happy now.

Being good, responsible computer owners, we always make sure to run regular windows updates and we always inoculate our 'puters against the latest viruses. When I went to bed last night, the laptop lovely was running beautifully. Then, my husband got home and downloaded the windows updates and updated the virus protection and, for some reason, this pissed off Madame Laptop. She pitched a bitch fit this morning and was having a myriad of issues from not letting me click on the Facebook like button to not loading all the pictures on my blog to refusing to load the post editor properly.

We tried everything including going back to a restore point from earlier this week. Nothing worked. It makes no sense whatsoever that a simple windows update would fuck my computer up so horribly but that's what happened. At this point, the only solution is to wipe her once again.

Maybe the fact that another piece of electronic equipment is giving me such a hard time means that my camera is going to come out of hiding...surely that's not too much to ask!

What F word (heheheheheh, I said F word), describes your mindset today?

Bizarro World

In a true case of bizarro contrasts, earlier today I was writing about my passionate love for books and how I dream of having a full blown reading room. Tonight, I am learning how to properly dismantle a book. The thought of dismantling a book kills me but I have a job to do with a book that is somewhat time sensitive. The handheld scanner I spent huge amounts of time researching is a great little scanner but it refuses to do what I need it to do so I can complete this job. I'm starting to think the only choice might be to dismantle the book or to retype the entire freaking book by myself and that would be overwhelming. ARRRRGGGGHHHHH

It's ALIVE!...no, it's not...

I was so excited when the tech gurus at Staples called and said they had my computer booting up again. I was not so excited when they told me that a few viruses had worked their way through my virus protection and were frakking up my hard drive.

Rather than shelling out another bundle of cash I don't really have to spend, I decided I would take care of that myself. After all, we've done the reformat, re-install the operating system dance before and it really isn't that hard. So, after we got back from Marty's chiropractor appointment, I started the whole process. I got it all done. My beloved 'puter was booting up and had a fresh, clean slate. The lovely tech help guy over in India told me exactly which drivers I needed from the Dell website and I put those on a flash drive so I could finish fixing my laptop.

I followed his instructions exactly. I loaded the systems utility driver and then rebooted the 'puter...or, more precisely, tried to reboot the 'puter.  It told me no operating system found. Well, fuck me. So, I repaired the system, tried again with the systems utility driver, and, once again, systems utility driver + fresh clean system = disappearing operating system.

So, I'm back where I started. I have to format the damned hard drive AGAIN. I have to re-install Windows AGAIN. Then, I have to convince myself to believe introducing the drivers to my fresh clean system won't fuck it up again.

I think I might just be back to hating March 2012.

It's official...*UPDATED*

I have officially screwed up NaBloPoMo. I am way, way behind on an Alexa review group I am in. I've sucked at the first few days of ICLW. My house is a disaster. And, Marty is on Day 26 of his migraine.

Cruz: Pity party of one, your table is ready.

March sucks.

I demand a do over.

*Updated to add that my beloved laptop decided to die today. Couldn't even get the reinstall feature to work. My baby is in Staples' hands right now and I'm praying it comes home running.

You Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'?

I Said You Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
You Got To Be Startin' Somethin'
I Said You Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
You Got To Be Startin' Somethin'

I'm beginning to think I did my children a disservice when I taught them to be nice kids. Once again, a bully has targeted one of my children. The big difference is that this time the bastard has targeted Joey. About a month or so after school started, Joey started telling me about this kid who was aggravating him in class. It started small. This kid would talk to him over and over and over again, quietly, repetitively, poking at him verbally until Joey responded by either asking him to stop or by answering whatever this kid was saying. And, the kid would keep going until Joey answered loud enough that Joey would get caught by the teacher and chastised for it.

Then, it progressed to full blown physical assault. Most of the time, this kid would do something to Joey in class (like the time he tried to knee Joey in the balls but hit his thigh instead) and the teachers would step in before Joey could defend himself. About 2 weeks ago, this not so little bastard punched Joey in the face. Luckily, Joey used his Tae Kwon Do training and was able to prevent this kid from landing a second blow. Joey came out of it relatively unscathed and the other kid did get in trouble.

This afternoon, I got  call from the school principal about forty-five minutes before school was due to let out. The little bastard put his hands on Joey again. He started by splashing water at Joey in the bathroom and ended up pushing him hard backwards causing Joey to hit his head on the wall. After the kid splashed him, Joey was mumbling under his breath...saying things quietly that would have gotten him in trouble if he said them out loud...but, he did that in response to the splashing. The principal gave me the typical spiel about how they were encouraging Joey to avoid this kid and trying to give him the skills to deal with it by going for help. I told her I would never tell my child to be a door mat...that while I have expressly forbid my kids to be the one starting something...that they would have my full support if they retaliated physically. I also told her this was the second time in less than 2 weeks that this kid had attacked Joey and it needed to stop now or I would involve outside authority (read the police). The Principal, Mrs. S, said they really hoped Joey would follow their advice because she didn't want to see Joey get hurt (the kid bullying him is a big 13 yr old still in 5th grade). I'm afraid I wasn't too diplomatic. I laughed and said if this kid didn't stop and pushed Joey to the point of responding that Joey wouldn't be the one getting hurt because Joey has his black belt in Tae Kwon Do. This same kind of general nonsense went on for a while longer. I thanked her for calling to let me know Joey was ok and reiterated my stance on things.

At this point, I fully expect to get a call from the school in the next week or two. I'm expecting this call because Vic and I have told Joey he has our full support and full permission to take the little bastard down if he lays a hand on him again. We also told him that if the kid goes down and stops fighting him, Joey should back off but, if the kid keeps fighting then Joey should continue to use every bit of his skill to defend himself. We will deal with the school afterward and we WILL call the police on this kid if this happens again. I will NOT have another one of my children made miserable. I will NOT let another one of my children be driven to the point that they say "I'd rather die than go back there" when they mention school. The big difference is this time the bullying asshole has gone after Joey and Joey will fight back.

Bring it on.

Sabotaged

Once again, my best laid plans have been destroyed. All I can say is that Nyquil doesn't have shit on this cold going around my house.I had grand intentions of writing a coherent, thoughtful post after my kids went to sleep. Instead, It's been a litany of cough, cough, hack, hack "Mom, I can't breathe" "Mom, I feel sick" "Mom, mom, mom,. mom..."

I am beginning to think my children have a built in alarm that goes off and signals the germies to invade anytime I get anywhere close to having adult conversation with my friends. After all, today is Monday night. That means tomorrow is Tuesday also known as the day children get sick so mom can't go to craft group. Pray for my sanity and a miraculous, over night improvement.

The Secret Sperminator

How would you feel if a newspaper came to you and told you your husband or partner had donated sperm to at least 9 couples and at least 3 of them were pregnant? Additionally, he had done this completely without your knowledge and didn't plan on telling you until after the children were born.

That is the situation facing Kathy Johnson, *"former Mrs. Alabama, a former director of the Alabama Broadband Initiative, a former director of Children First Foundation and director of the Alabama Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy." Mrs. Johnson's husband, Bill, a former top state official and Republican gubernatorial candidate in Alabama, has been working in New Zealand with the recovery effort from the deadly earthquake. While in New Zealand, Bill decided to pursue a desire to be a biological father, a desire he should have given up when he married a woman who had had a hysterectomy. Not only did Bill pursue this without his wife's knowledge but he pursued it without going through the rigorous screening processes in place in New Zealand's fertility clinics. He chose to go through online donor registries to meet women who wanted to get pregnant. Additionally, Bill compromise the very values he claimed to believe in during his campaign (values I don't share). Instead of holding tight to his anti-gay marriage stance, he donated to at least one lesbian couple.

Furthermore, Bill Johnson is now upset about the newspaper story dealing with his activities. He *"said publication of the story would make it difficult for him to stay in New Zealand. 'I've been trying to get my wife over here, my family over here ... so I can be around for these children,' Johnson said, according to the Herald." As if what he did wasn't bad enough, he had been trying to uproot his wife and family and move them to the other side of the world when he didn't even plan on telling them about the babies until after they were born. This secret sperminator is truly a scum sucking bottom feeder.

How would you react to something like this? Kathy Johnson has (so far) reacted with class and dignity. I think I might have gone for the cut his balls off response. Weigh in with your opinion.


Quote marked with a * are taken from a story on al.com
More information can be found in a Montgomery Advertiser article

I Call Bullshit on Mississippi Proposition 26

The raving right wingers are at it again. Over in Mississippi, they are trying to pass Proposition 26. Proposition 26, otherwise known as the Personhood Amendment, would grant the status of human life to embryos.

This would mean almost all abortions would be illegal. If you had an abortion, you would be a murderer.

This means if you undergo fertility treatments and discard extra embryos in Mississippi, you would be a murderer.

In the ALI community, we all know people  who have undergone IVF after IVF and, despite numerous transfers, not a single embryo has stuck.

Fertilized embryo equals the POTENTIAL for human life. It is NOT the same thing as a living breathing human being.

Please y'all, spread the word on this fucknuttery. If you live in Mississippi, fight to have this voted down. The vote isn't until Nov. 8th. There is still time to stop this bullshit from becoming law.


* A HUGE thanks and shout out to Monica Mingo for making me aware of this insanity.

**PS...I don't want to turn this into a huge debate about when life begins. I just truly believe this is an individual decision that we all must wrestle with and the government has NO RIGHT to tell us how to handle it.

Care Factor = Zero

I am sick. I have my son's cold and it is about 100 times worse in me than it was in him. It SUCKS. My body hurts. My sinuses ache. It's an effort to do anything. Being sick has reduced my care factor to zero...no, less than zero. Marty was taking a shower and twice it sounded like he slipped and hit the sliding door. Rys looked at me and said, "What's he doing?" My response was a heartfelt "I don't know and, as long as he doesn't come crashing through the door, I don't care." Rys responded, "So what you're saying is you don't care what happens as long as you don't have to drive him to the ER." "Pretty much," I said..."and, if he goes to the ER, he better get admitted because I don't want to pay that damned $250 copay." Care factor = zero. She LAUGHED at me...said I was funny when I was sick.

Once Upon A Time...

Once upon a time, a major dipshit screwed over my friend. Correction, twice upon a time, a major dipshit screwed my friend over twice...more twenty years apart. A little over 20 yrs ago, my dear friend Kristi was dating this guy who went by the name Corey. Now Kristi is smart, funny, beautiful, and will bend over backward to help her friends. In other words, she is fabulous. And, Kristi was deeply in love with this guy Corey. She thought he could be the one. She thought he was the one until the day she found out he was a scum sucking bottom feeder who would fuck just about anything that offered it up to him. Like most women in her early twenties, Kristi didn't deal well with being fucked over. So, as she left, she took it out on something near and dear to his heart...his motorcycle...fed it a whole engine full of sugar. Sadly, despite striking out at him, his betrayal affected her for many years to come.

Fast forward to earlier this year...Kristi was having a major problems with her car. Her normal go to car guy wasn't available so she posted a query to her friends on facebook asking about it. Now, Corey had shown up a few months before on facebook and, when she asked about her car issues, he told her to contact him with the details of the car problems. Well, one thing lead to another and Corey started calling and "sniffing" around. His life was still entwined with another woman and Kristi told him to stay away until his life became uncomplicated.

Turns out it wasn't too long until Corey supposedly "uncomplicated" his life and was free to pursue Kristi. And, pursue her he did. He called. He came around. He talked the talk. He said the reason he cheated on her years ago was that with everyone else he could see the end and with her he couldn't and it scared him to death. He actually owned up and apologized for what he did to her. That boy kept talking the talk and appeared to be walking the walk which would prove he was a grown up, a real man. Kristi held back for a while. She was trying to be smart and protect herself but the rat bastard finally broke through her defenses. He convinced her he had really learned from his past mistakes. He even called her when his ex contacted him...told her he wanted complete transparency...said he wanted nothing hidden. And, then the bastard did it again. Kristi was confronted with irrefutable proof that the scum sucking bottom feeder was playing around in one too many sandboxes.

Now, Kristi told me that she isn't going to lower herself and strike back at him. But, she forgot (bwahahahahaha) to tell me not to get him back. She is a fabulous woman and I want to make him sorry for the way he treated her. I have all his contact info and he doesn't know me from adam. I thought I might start out with a text saying "OMG honey, I'm sooooooo excited. The test was POSITIVE." Then, I thought I'd wait a day or two and send a message saying "Oh shit. Oh fuck. My life is over. It was positive." He's been doing enough scummy things that I'm sure his mind will go to the worst possible scenario. I foresee mailing lists and postings on sites like Don't Date Him. The beauty of this is a can stir up a shit storm without doing anything illegal. This bastard will learn not to fuck with women (especially women that are my friends) that way...or, he won't and I'll just have fun letting my inner bitch out to play. Either way it's a win/win situation.

Let the games begin!...and, Kristi, I love you.

The Manatee is a Hussy

I have come to the inescapable conclusion that my van aka the Manatee is a total hussy. Now, I'm sure most of you simply can't conceive of a van being a hussy but there honestly isn't any other explanation.

We love her. We clean her. We take care of her and feed her lots of gas and top off her oil. Yet lately, that just doesn't seem to be enough. First, we sent her to the mechanic to replace the messed up tension pulley in the engine. Everything seems ok for a little while. The Manatee was running smoothly. Then, the compressor in the air conditioner seizes up and breaks the belt. Ms. Manatee got herself bundle back off to the mechanic. After a two day stay during which the Manatee was cossetted and pampered, she came home with her air conditioning working well enough to freeze you out of the van and, yes, she was still running smoothly...until late yesterday.

Yesterday, the boys and I joined my parents for a day trip to Wet 'n Wild Emerald Point Water Park. Before we left, I had my dad check the oil in my van...just to be on the safe side. The trip there was uneventful and, once we got there, lots of wet, happy, silly fun was had by all. By the time we packed up and headed home, the boys were nicely browned and more than a little tired. I, on the other hand, was a shade scarily similar to the color of the Cheap Sally Dance Party tote bag I was carrying...

I think the Manatee was a bit put out about having to sit and wait in a dirt and gravel parking lot all day because she pitched a fit on the way home. We were driving along and I saw something in the road a little bit in front of us. It didn't look that big but just big enough to make me think "What the hell is that?" There was literally no time and space to avoid going over it since it didn't appear until the car just in front of us passed by it. So, after thinking "What the hell is that?", I quickly followed it up with "What the hell was that noise?" as something thumped near/under my van. I wasn't too concerned because it sounded like a smallish rock or stick bouncing off the frame. Shortly after that, Manatee started pitching her little fit. Every time I stepped on the brakes, my oil light and alarm went off. We weren't that far from home so I pressed on but the frequency of the warning light and alarm going off was getting worse and worse. I honestly figured it was a fluke and Manatee was just bitching because she was still running smoothly. When we got home and were unloading the van, I noticed a greasy film on the back window...still was just chalking it up to road grime. After I got the kids settled down for the night, I headed back out to give Manatee her yearly bling (registration sticker). When I walked around to the back of the van I noticed that greasy film covered the bumper, the entire back door, and the rearview window. This started my spidey senses tingling and I was concerned...especially after I looked under the van and saw a small puddle of oil. I called Vic (he was at work) and we came to the as yet unproven conclusion that something punctured the oil pan. So, Ms. Manatee is temporarily out of commission.

I started looking at the facts and the sequence of events and repairs and came to the inescapable conclusion that Ms. Manatee is a hussy that has the hots for her mechanic. What other explanation could there be?

Blowin' in the Wind

Marilyn in Chicago

Last night, I was watching the news and there was a little story about a big statue of Marilyn Monroe that is on display in downtown Chicago. The statue shows off Marilyn's famous pose from The Seven Year Itch, the one where the air from the grate catches her dress and makes it fly up. As with any piece of art, there were some people who loved it and some who hated it and some that debated whether or not it qualified as art. And, honestly, I think everyone is entitled to their opinion on this. But, there was one women who responded in such a way to the statue that my jaw dropped a bit and I had to shake my head a bit. This woman made me think that we truly have become *"The United States of the Offended." This woman was horrified that a statue like that be on display where children could see it. In her opinion, this representation of an iconic moment in film history was offensive and highly inappropriate.

Marilyn from behind

What could be so wrong with a statue of Marilyn? After all, even though she was considered a sex symbol, her film costume never revealed too much skin. That was par for the course in the era her movies were made. Gasp, the back view of the statue shows Marilyn's granny panties. Now, granted that was pretty risque back in the day but not now. Any child who goes to a pool or the beach sees a lot more skin than that statue shows. I seriously doubt any child will be corrupted by the sight of the granny panties. And, I can't imagine anyone  being too warped by people posing and pretending to be shocked by the statue.

Do you think I'm right and people need to get over their uptight selves or do you think the woman in Chicago was right and a statue like that should be off the streets? Have you ever been offended by a piece of art others considered harmless? If so, do you mind telling us about it?




*a term coined by Robert D. Raiford from The John Boy and Billy Radio Show

Regularly Scheduled Blogging To Return After This Vent

Money problems fucking suck.  More specifically, working your ass off, cutting all corners you can cut, and still living paycheck to paycheck and one disaster away from financial catastrophe suck. Like all government workers, my husband hasn't received a pay raise (not even a cost of living raise) in three years. On top of that, our medical insurance has gone up, our grocery bill has gone up 50% in the past year (and that's with cutting back and going generic on everything we can), and, God knows, gas has gone way up. It is killing our budget. We don't use credit cards, so no debt there. But, because of our fridge disaster earlier this year and the emergency vet bill for Freddy we had to pay off, we are behind on normal bills. If we could just catch it up, we'd have everything covered but trying to find extra to catch up is hard when everything costs so much right now.

My mom is going to be the principal of a new private school next year and she asked me if I was interested in teaching art 1 1/2 days a week. Those 1 1/2 days plus a small gas stipend would be worth $175 a week. On the surface, it sounds like the solution to our problem. But, the school is 70 miles away. Given the shitty gas mileage my aging van gets, it would take a full tank of gas to make those two round trips each week reducing take home to approximately $100...and that's not even accounting for the wear and tear on my van. The schedule is doable but just barely when you factor in school schedules for my 3 kids but it would totally blow up in my face if anyone was running late one morning. Damn it, why can't her school be her in town? The sad fact of the matter is that I've been out of the work force for 12 years and, with the levels of unemployment, it makes it incredibly hard to find any type of job that would work around the kids' school schedule (and that is a MUST because child care is scary expensive around here). And, honestly, I'm a bit worried about me not being 100% available with Marty re-entering school after the hellacious time he had before.

The other option is for Vic to find a third shift part time job. Remember, he works nights and, since he works 12 hour shifts, he works 7 nights every two weeks. Vic says he is willing but this scares me. His diabetes is just getting under control and the thought of him over working himself scares me to death.

Of course, Vic and his two (bio)siblings inherited a piece of property in Puerto Rico. If it selss, whatever money they get will be split three ways and, because of Puerto Rican inheritance laws, it will be TAX FREE. But, of course, thanks to the fucked up economy recession depression we are in, nothing is moving in the real estate market down there.

Honestly y'all, it frustrates the hell out of me that we scrimp and save and still have these issues. I know others have it a lot worse. Vic has a job, we have insurance, we have a roof over our heads...I just wish we didn't have to struggle to pay for the essentials. If you mad it this far, thanks for listening to my rant and thanks for letting me get it off my chest. And, if any of you come across a spare million bucks, did I tell you about the hole in my pocket and the money that fell out?

The Gremlins Are Back...

I should have heeded the warning to not feed them after midnight. My computer is frakked up again.  It may be tied to the multi-day battle against the virus we had not long ago, but it may not.  So, I'm going to be out of touch until sometime tomorrow.  The hard drive on the beast of a desktop is going to be wiped and everything will have to be reinstalled.  But, on the more positive side of things, we have all the parts to get my laptop up and running again. So, for the next 12 to 24 hours, we are going to be stuck with only one computer.  After that, we should be back up to 3 'puters.

Hasta la bye bye and I'll see y'all soon.

An Asshat Who Deserves The 9th Circle Of Hell

People who write viruses and put them on kids' game sites deserve to rot in the 9th circle of hell.  Thanks to an asshat of that ilk, I have spent the entire day getting reconnected to the internet and clearing the viruses off my computer. You know, part of me can admire the programming prowess it takes to produce a piece of code that allows a site to function seamlessly yet can wreak total havoc on others. But, the bigger part of me is royally pissed off that some little ass clown had nothing better to do with their time than create a virus that attacked and made my connection to the internet unrecognizable. I have cleared the virus off my computer twice (yeah, it got through a second time thanks to that frakking site) and I hope it is up and working for good.

I was also ready to consign all electronics to the 9th circle of hell along with the asshat virus writer.  Yesterday, the trackball on my beloved crackberry quit spinning to the right. It would got up.  It would go down. It would scroll left for so long it felt like I should have come back to where I started. It simply would not go right...that damned liberal thing.  I guess the crackberry had a little talk with the trackball after it heard my ranting and raving and cursing because miraculously the trackball decided to abandon the left leaning tendencies and returned to being a free thinking independent. There may have been a few threats to take a hammer to the computer and dismantle the crackberry...or there might not have...I'm just sayin'.

So, at one point, I had a dead laptop (yeah, the fucker died again...for good this time), a virus laden 'puter, and a recalcitrant crackberry. Since 2 out of the 3 have been restored to functional status and the beloved laptop has a weekend date with Vic the computer repair husband, my tenuous grip on sanity has been maintained. If someone could just tell me where my camera and keys disappeared to, all would be right in my corner of electronics heaven.

Fuck Cancer

Can I just say that cancer sucks? A dear friend is back on chemo because of mets to her bones. It's hugely fucking unfair that she beats her original prognosis only to have it rear it's head this way.

And, I just found out yesterday that a family friend, someone who frequently spends holidays with my family, has pancreatic cancer. Even at it's best (stage 1), this doesn't have a great outcome...and she has a 14 yr old daughter. 

FUCK CANCER



ps...I'm sorry if you aren't in a place where you wanted to read a mini-rant.  This truly isn't what I sat down to write but it's what came out.

Advocating for Yourself

You are your own best champion.  Repeat after me...YOU ARE YOUR OWN BEST CHAMPION. Those of us in the ALI community, especially need to subscribe to this belief. Doctors, officials, or people with an alphabet soup after their name are not infallible and can make mistakes. I was lucky when I was going through my IF journey. My doctor and his wife had been IF patients themselves and this made him very willing to listen to suggestions and ideas for treatment.  In my case, I was the one who found the article in a medical journal that supported the need for lovenox in my case. Never hesitate to research your treatment or question a doctor if something doesn't feel or seem right.

Advocating for yourself can and does extend into other areas of your life. In our case, we recently had to advocate for ourselves with our pharmacy.  For many, many years, we had our prescriptions at CVS Pharmacy. Up until 2 yrs ago, we never had any problems with them.  In fact, up until 2 yrs ago, I would have recommended them to anyone. But, it went downhill 2 yrs ago and never recovered. Despite our telling them a million times that we did not want to fill our prescription for 3 months at a time, they did it every time forcing us to wait while they repackaged things. Then there were times that they didn't contact our doctor when they should have which meant extensive delays in filling Vic's meds...and you just can't do that with diabetes meds. But, the fatal blow to our relations ship with CVS pharmacy was when they tried to give us less and less medicine despite Vic's dosages staying the same and our insurance coverage staying the same. For example, until this crap started happening, one of Vic's insulin prescriptions would net him 5 boxes of medicine. Well, out of the blue, without warning, CVS gave us 3 boxes when we filled the prescription. Vic's dosage had NOT gone down. His doc had not changed his prescription. When we asked CVS about it, they blamed it on the insurance company. This is where we had to advocate for ourselves. We had to be our own champions. Many people would have just accepted that at face value and bitched and groused about those damned insurance companies. Since we knew when the insurance coverage had been updated, we knew this SHOULD NOT be the problem.  We checked with human resources at Vic's work and they confirmed that our insurance coverage hadn't changed so that shouldn't be causing problems with filling the meds. So, that meant someone at CVS was either totally incompetent or was completely dishonest and was ripping us off. Vic's endocrinologist was so incensed by what was happening that he said he was going to report CVS to the state pharmacy board. I don't know if it was just the store we went to or if it is the whole pharmacy chain but something was definitely rotten in Denmark and CVS lost some faithful customers. We've moved all our prescriptions to Walgreens and it is so nice to pick up Vic's meds and have everything be perfectly correct...all the meds present and accounted for and the price correct.

The moral of all this is...know your rights, know your coverage, research your situation, and stand up for what is right.

WTF?!?

I tested all the lights before I put them on the tree. 2 strand worked perfectly and the third strand had a "dead" section. So, I started at the top with the ones that worked. With the help of Marty and the almost 6 extra inches of height, we got the angel on the tree and started winding the lights around the tree. The two working strands didn't quite make it to the bottom of the tree but I figured it would be ok to use the partially working strand around the bottom. We got them all on and were so excited to light the tree up. I plugged it in, stepped back, and said "WTF?!?"

The angel is lit. The partially working strand worked out perfectly around the bottom. In between the angel and the partially working strand, NOTHING...NADA...ZILCH. That's right folks. The two strands that were fully lit on testing were fully dark on the tree. Obviously, electricity was making it through...light at the very top and at the bottom. I checked all the connections and one of the two previously working but now dead strands of lights decided to join the brightly lit crew again.  Nothing I tried got the last strand working so I guess I have to go try and find a strand of lights tomorrow.

The gremlins have taken over and so far they are winning.