Mom Update

For some reason, Vic's mom has taken a turn for the worse today. Hopefully this is just a temporary setback. It became very difficult for her to breathe and initially the doctors thought she had pericardial fluid obstructing her lungs, but now they're not really sure. They are going to put a scope down her esophagus tomorrow to take a better look and hopefully figure out what the problem is so we can start treating it. So, in addition to the 6 or 7 tubes she already had stuck all over her body, she now has a rather large breathing tube shoved down her throat, too. Needless to say, she's miserable...and so is Vic.

Feast One Hundred & Sixty Two
Appetizer
How are you today?
Frustrated because the Tigers were eliminated from the playoffs and because I still haven't found a job. Concerned because of Vic's mom's current condition. Giddy because I am starting a new cross-stitch (little mousies sewing). Anticipatory because my first week of classes is now over and I'm ready for the next 12 weeks to get going. And lucky because I have Vic whose nurturing side has really been highlighted since her mom's illness.

Soup
Name 3 television shows you watch on a regular basis.
Ugly Betty - I love Amanda & Mark
Grey's Anatomy - Hopefully there will be less whining this season
Masterpiece Theatre - They usually have British shows and we love the way those Brits talk

Salad
What’s the scariest weather situation you’ve experienced?
Hurricane Ivan in 2005 - it was the final straw in our decision to move north.

Main Course
If you could wake up tomorrow morning in another country, where would you want to be?
Ireland, definitely

Dessert
What do you usually wear to sleep?
A roomy t-shirt and boxer shorts.

Escapee

What would you do...work at a job that pays well-ish, but that you hate, or work for less money, but in a position that makes you happier? It's hard to put into words just how miserable I was at my last job ~ when I quit, it felt like I had escaped from prison. Of course I didn't realize how difficult it would be to find another job, but I really don't think I would have changed my mind had I known. It's been great being off and I've gotten a lot of little stuff done around the house since I have all this free time, but I either need to win the lottery or find a job soon.

I've already interviewed at a couple of places and have a final interview at one of them this Thursday, so I guess things are looking up. I know that great job is still lurking out there somewhere. I just have to find it now. I'll miss being a housewife, though. I'm hoping a winning lottery ticket is also lurking in the nearby area.

School starts again tomorrow night. This quarter I'll have Microbiology on Wednesdays and Intro to Windows for five weeks on Thursdays. The Windows class should be an easy A ~ it's one of those required classes every student has to take. Yawn. Hopefully Micro will be interesting and not too difficult.

Autumnal Feast

Happy Autumn! I really love this time of year and I'm really looking forward to the new leaf colors in the coming months. I'm hoping for a chilly October and November and a mild winter. I'm also hoping I'll fit into last year's winter clothes!

Vic's mom's surgery went very well. She'll spend the next 10 days or so in ICU and she's in quite a bit of pain, but I think that's to be expected after having her insides all cut up and rearranged for the last 6 months. The doctor promised "no more surgeries," so now we just have to concentrate on getting her well again. Hopefully she'll be annoying the hell out of Vic in a couple weeks ~ that's usually how we can tell she's doing better.

We are babysitting a friend's dog this weekend. Actually it's just overnight, but it's going to seem like a week! Abbie is a chocolate Lab and only about 2 years old, so she has boundless energy and is practically bouncing off the walls. She's quite a change from our Shannon who is 9 years old and happiest when she can take a nap all night. Shannon is just very mellow where Abbie is a total spaz!

Feast One Hundred & Sixty One
Appetizer What is your favorite type of art?

I don't think I have a favorite. I really like paintings (any medium) of landscapes, especially nature.

Soup When was the last time you got a free lunch (or breakfast or dinner)? Who paid for it?

I guess that would have to be on my last day of work. The Lt. bought us pizza for dinner.

Salad On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how emotional are you?

About a 4 for every day emotional-type stuff. However, for some reason, I really get weepy about sports. Whenever I hear the playback of Ordonez's walk-off homerun that sent the Tigers to the World Series I get teary eyed. Vic usually laughs mercilessly at me.

Main Course Approximately how long do you spend each day responding to emails?

Hardly no time at all. Very few people send my emails that require a response.

Dessert To what temperature do you usually set your home’s thermostat?

It really doesn't matter what temp I set it on because Vickie always changes it to something colder.

Just Around the Corner...

Down the Lane

I felt like adding a little color to today's blog and chose the above picture to do it with. Hope you like it. It seems very relaxing to me. I love the colors and the winding road and the bicycle. That's kind've how most of my evenings seem to me ~ relaxing. I had my second interview at Piper Industries and feel I did pretty well, but I don't think I got the job. I think the interviewer got the impression that I wanted something more than just 30 hours a week...and she's right. I can't help feeling that the "really great job" is just around the corner, but I just can't seem to make it to the corner. If offered the job, I'll accept, but I'll continue to keep looking around corners...or down the lane.

On the upside, being a housewife is great! While looking for jobs for myself, I've also been looking for higher paying jobs for Vickie. If I can find her a nice $30 an hour gig somewhere, I could stay home permanently. Maybe volunteer at the library or join a morning bowling league. I've really enjoyed keeping the house neat and tidy. I try to do something significant around here daily. If I don't hear from the Piper lady by Monday, I think I'll start painting the kitchen.

Aaarrrgghhh!

Pirate
Originally uploaded by wahoo1265

I guess I'm not one of those people who can whine "I never win anything." In the past I've won several contests, some kick-ass cool like our recent trip to London and some just blah like the Wendy's beach towel that we now use to dry Shannon off after baths. But yesterday I won another cool prize. On the way home from a job interview (more on that in a bit) I was caller 10 on the "beat the box office" contest and won 2 tickets to the upcoming Springsteen show in November!!! Yea!!!! The tickets don't even go on sale until Friday, but I know they're going to be $$$, so I didn't even think about going ~ who wants to spend heaps of money for seats that'll practically be out in the parking lot? But free, now that's a different story. I was so excited that I didn't even ask where the seats are. I guess I'll find out when the radio station promotion guy calls back in a few weeks. Bruce concerts are a blast ~ I've been to a few, one in a huge soccer stadium in Germany (1985). He always puts on an excellent show. I can't wait till November.

After sending out literally dozens of resumes, I finally got a call from one of the places. I had my initial interview yesterday and was called today to go to the second interview tomorrow. The job seems pretty cool (it's kind of an office assistant/gopher position) and the people seem nice, but the pay definitely sucks. And it's less than 40 hours a week, so no benefits either. But some money is still better than no money and it works great around my school hours. I haven't been offered the job yet, but at least things are starting to move in the right direction.

Did you know that today is "Talk Like a Pirate Day?" The day is almost over and I missed out on all the fun. The media really needs to make the public better aware of such things.

Leafless

This turned out to be a pretty uneventful weekend, but relaxing, which was really nice. We got the gutters cleaned out and put up the "leaf stay out" mesh stuff. My main job was to hold the ladder and get pelted with wet bunches of leaves. I excelled at both.

Vic's mom has surgery (again) this Friday, so we'll be spending the whole day at the hospital. The surgery is supposed to last several hours. Waiting around a hospital waiting room all day can really be frustrating. And tiring. Her mom is anxious to get the surgery over with already, but she's also a little scared, so I hope having me and Vic there will make her feel a little better.

The Weekend Ahead

Leafy Gutters
Originally uploaded by wahoo1265

This picture pretty much sums up what our weekend is going to be all about ~ cleaning out the gutters and putting up "leaf stay out" things over them. Autumn is fast approaching southeast Michigan. It's starting to get dark earlier in the day and apple festivals are in full swing every weekend. We'll probably wait to take our annual trip to the apple orchards until October, but the yardwork is going to have to start happening soon. We decided to take care of the leafy gutters first and we'll probably be ordering firewood soon.

Autumn is my favorite time of year, more so since we moved back north! I love sweater weather and the beautiful orange and red leaves that will be soon gracing our yard. Everything just looks and smells great outside!

Vic's mom has her surgery to reattach everything this coming Friday. If everything goes as planned, she'll spend about a week in the hospital and then will gradually start back on solid food soon after that. Hopefully she'll be feeling good by Christmas. I expect her to be at 100% by then, but hopefully she'll be back on solids and able to move around a lot better.

Feast One Hundred and Sixty
Appetizer
When was the last time you visited a hospital?
Last week when Vic & I took her mom to see the doctor.

Soup
On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being highest, how ambitious are you?
Probably about a 6ish.

Salad
Make a sentence using the letters of a body part. (Example: (mouth) My other ukelele tings healthily.)
Timid Owls Eat Skittles.

Main Course
If you were to start a club, what would the subject matter be, and what would you name it?
"The Stitch Witches" and it would be a weekly meeting of people who like to do needle crafts (cross-stitch, knitting, crocheting) while watching Tigers games.

Dessert
What color is the carpet/flooring in your home?
We have beige carpet in the family room, icky brown carpet in our bedroom, blue/grey tile in the kitchen, and hardwood floors everywhere else. (I just Liquid Golded them this week!)

Booby Update

You'll be happy to know (or maybe you won't care at all) that the Blue Footed Booby and the trunk he was sitting on in the middle of our family room have been moved to more appropriate locations in the house. I've also just completed organizing all our bookcases. When we moved in, over 2 years ago, we just upacked the book boxes and put the books anywhere on the bookshelves. I told Vic that I wanted the rearranging of the books to be one of our top priorities after we got everything unpacked. I guess my priorities shifted a bit because I just got around to the books today. It took almost 6 hours, but I think it looks heaps better.

Still no job, which explains why I'm getting all this stuff around the house done. I really really like not having a job, but unless we win the lottery, I'm going to have to go back to work somewhere soon. I can honestly say, though, that I don't regret quitting my job one bit. It was so bad there that I was getting physically ill...and was turning into quite the bitch, too. I'm confident something will turn up soon!

Booby

Since painting the family room, we are slowly hanging pictures on the walls and putting other stuff back where it belongs. Right now we have a medium-sized trunk sitting in the middle of the room and on top of it are several stuffed animals; all bears except for one yellow Peep bunny and a Blue Footed Booby. Thus the picture...

The Booby, in case you are wondering, can be found only on the Galapagos Islands (and in the middle of my family room, for now). I really like our Booby, but he is a reminder of the unfinished projects we need to complete. Most of them I am unable to do without Vickie's help. I'm pretty good at scrapbooking and cross-stitching, but you definitely want to keep saws or other plug-in tools away from me. Maybe the Booby will motivate us this weekend...

Feast One Hundred & Fifty Nine
Appetizer

Using only one word, how does grocery shopping make you feel?

Hungry

Soup

What is your favorite part about the season of Autumn?

The leaves changing color

Salad

Have you ever had any bad experiences online?

Not really. I hate when I get all those "enlarge your penis" emails, but I don't think that really counts as a bad experience.

Main Course

Name three things that make you happy daily.

Other than Vickie & Shannon...

1. the birdies and squirrels in our backyard

2. not having to go to my old job any more

3. the touch-lamp on my desk

Dessert

What one household cleansing or organizing item would you not want to be without?

A dustpan and the little broom that comes with it. (I'm always sweeping up kitty litter.)

Karma and School

I'd have to agree with Autumn Zephyr's statement about college; I feel like I've been going since I graduated from high school in 1984 and still don't have any type of degree. I've got tons of credits - probably enough for at least a Bachelor's, but just not all in the same field.

I've been pretty diligent about my latest scholastic endeavors, though. I finally settled on pursuing a degree as a surgical technician and I only have 3 classes left before I can actually start the program! This upcoming semester I'll be taking Microbiology (with lab) and Intro to Windows (yawn). My remaining class is only offered in the winter or spring, so I'll take it then.

I spent all day today doing the "job hunt" thing. I've applied everywhere, including online, but haven't heard from anyone yet. I'm trying to remain positive about the whole thing, and I have been getting quite a bit done around the house and that's always a good thing. I just keep hoping that some of that good karma will come my way soon!

LABOR day weekend

Vic and I spent our Labor Day weekend painting the living room (or the family room, depending on who you talk to). It was an icky shade of pukey tan. It is now a bright and cheery shade of Moonlit Yellow with an accent wall of Blustery Day Blue and Ultra Pure White trim. It looks about a trillion times better now. It would've been nice to just sit and relax, but now that it's done, I'm really glad we painted.