Speaking & Feasting

Thursday night was the first night of my Public Speaking class. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Of course I thought it would be mind-numbingly awful, so pretty much anything that didn't cause my ears to bleed uncontrollably would make for a great night, I guess. I don't think I've ever had a problem with speaking in front of people, but I should still be able to pick up some good tips anyway. It looks like the teacher is going to be pretty cool and the other students all seem pretty nice, so it looks like this shouldn't be too painful after all.

Feast One Hundred & Thirteen
Appetizer
What is your favorite herb or spice?
I like peppercorns, is that a spice?

Soup
Name a song you like but haven't heard in a long time.
"You Spin Me Right Round"

Salad
If you were to take just one minute to write down as many things as you can think of that you need (not want) to do, approximately how many things would there be?
Need? I have a nice house, a wonderful partner and a job that usually pays all the bills. I guess the only thing I think I really "need" is a better relationship with my mom.

Main Course
Tell something interesting about one of your family members (nothing scandalous, please, just something unique).
Vic has had surgery on her spine TWICE.

Dessert
What's the latest you've ever stayed awake?
That's kind've a dumb question for me since I work midnights. There have been a few times when I've stayed up for over 36 hours, though.

rhabdomyosarcoma

The first night of school didn't go too badly...I guess. There's really not a whole lot you can teach in a medical terminology class, at least that's the view my instructor has taken. It's about 99% memorization, so this means I have heaps of root words and prefixes and suffixes to combine and remember. That part isn't so bad, but it just seems like going to class is a waste of time if all the instructor is going to do is read from the book. I'd much rather just sit my happy ass at the house and memorize long words during commercial breaks of the Tigers' game. But I do get to meet new & interesting people at school - the kind that just wouldn't normally sit 6 inches from me in my living room and talk about who's dating who. And if I'm ever stricken with a malignant tumor of striated muscle I'll know exactly what to tell the doctor (see blog title).

Monday Night/Tuesday Morning

Monday night (Tuesday morning, actually) and here I sit at work blogging because we are still computerless at the house. Sigh! We should get it back in the next day or two and I can't wait! I'm pretty sure that we lost most of the stuff on our harddrive, which isn't a huge problem because we didn't have like 2,000 veteran's social security numbers stored on it, but I did have quite a few word processing documents and fonts and other "important to me" type stuff there and now it's going to be a real pain to upload all that stuff again. Then again, maybe Phil the nice computer guy will have some good news for me regarding the hard drive and I will have worried for naught.

Once again our weekend turned out to be pretty unproductive, while the Monday was crammed full of stuff. It seems like Vic & I have slipped into a kind of pattern the last couple of weeks where we stay up really late on the weekends and sleep in till like 11 or 12. In our defense, though, this was kind of a crappy weekend. I was sick most of Saturday & it rained off and on both Saturday & Sunday. Sunday was Vic's birthday, so we met her mom for an early dinner at a really nice restaurant located on the water (Lake St. Clair). There were about 50 or so swans on the lake and it made for a really nice afternoon. By the time we got home, we were stuffed and tired and just didn't feel like doing anything more strenuous then reading the paper and watching TV. Monday, however, I got up early (7:30!!) and ran all sorts of little errands all over town before I came home to cut both the front & back grass. So, once again, we are planning to finish the bathroom next weekend. We'll see.

Tonight is my first night at school. I have my books and other school supplies all loaded up and ready for learning in my backpack! The first night of class is always a dodgy one, because you don't want to get there too early and look like a geek, but then you don't want to get there too late and risk getting stuck with a terrible seat assignment. And then if you do happen to get the seat you want, you still run the risk of being stuck next to someone who either talks too much, never has their own pen or is just a total dolt. There is a very tiny seat-picking window and you have to navigate thru it just right. Wish me luck.

Fall

Fall
Originally uploaded by wahoo1265.

Fall (or Drop, as I like to refer to it) is finally upon us. Yea!! This is my favorite time of year. The leaves haven't started changing color around our neighborhood yet, but it's certainly been chilly. Vic & I have been wearing sweats all week and I've been getting all my cold weather clothes out and organized. I love layering.

It looks like our computer's hard drive has died and it's going to be at least 3 or 4 days until we get her back. I think we're going to have the computer guy just build us a new CPU instead of continually pouring money into our 6 year old model. It's just killing Vic not to have access to the internet. I guess you just don't realize how dependent you are on something until it's taken away.

Vic's birthday is this weekend. Her mom is going to take us out for dinner on Sunday and the rest of the weekend we don't really have much planned. Maybe I can get a little scrapbooking done. We're definitely going to have to start organizing a few things in the garage before the flakes start falling. And I start school this coming week. Looks like it's going to be a busy upcoming week.


Feast One Hundred & Twelve
Appetizer
Measured in minutes or hours, how much exercise have you had in the last week?
I guess about 2 hours or so when I was hauling wood earlier this week.

Soup
If you had to change your blog title to something else, what would it be?
Caseydilla's Casa de Blog

Salad
Name one television show you watched when you were 9-12 years old.
I remember watching The Brady Bunch in primetime.

Main Course
If someone gave you $50 to spend with the one condition that it had to be educational, what would you purchase?
I'd convert it into quarters & use it for the pop machines in the breakroom.

Dessert
Do you tend to prefer dark colors, neutral shades, or lighter/pastel hues?
I guess pastels.

Hump Day

Camel
Originally uploaded by wahoo1265.

Although today is technically hump day, it's still only my Tuesday night. And at work, no less! I woke up early this afternoon to take Vic to her doctor's appointment (she's doing fine, by the way) and decided to check my email before leaving the house. Oh but NO, it seems that sometime while I was sleeping my computer decided to poop out on me! Windows will not load due to some fatal plague-induced error only carried by the SouthEast Michigan Tsetse fly. After returning from the doctor, I called our computer guy who told me that it sounded like we had some sort of hardware problem. He's a really nice guy & has helped us with computer issues in the past, but let's face it, this is his job so I know this is going to cost a few bucks and we're going to be computerless for at least a couple of days. So, needless to say, I'm really looking forward to getting over the Wednesday hump and struggling thru the remaining few days until the weekend finally gets here. Hopefully I'll be over my cold, our computer will be happy again and we'll finally tackle painting the bathroom. Or Vic & I will just nap all weekend and talk about all the stuff we really need to do NEXT weekend.

Perfect Day

Our weekend was spent, once again, not finishing the bathroom. BUT, I have a pretty good excuse this time. I was sick the whole weekend. I caught some kind of late Summer cold and have had a leaky nose all weekend. So we didn't get around to completing the bathroom, but we did gather wood for our stove for the upcoming Winter. The neighbor behind us abandoned his house and all the firewood in the backyard, so I hopped the fence (it was more like flung myself haphazardly over the fence) and we procured a big portion of their wood. The next day some inmates from the county jail were there cutting the grass and throwing stuff out, so Vic got them to fling the remaining wood over our fence. We spent Saturday afternoon hauling and stacking wood and the rest of the day napping because we're both a little under the weather.

Sunday we didn't do much and now it's Monday and has been rainy all day. AND, I just burned two of my fingers while cooking in the kitchen! (Cooking for me is removing the frozen pizza from the oven.) So, because it's still raining, my nose is still leaking, my fingers hurt and I have to go back to work tonight, I'm going to take a nice nap. This is the perfect day for it, wouldn't you agree?

"You're Never Too Old To Learn To Something New"

For the last month or so I've been wrestling with the idea of whether or not I should go back to school. With Vic's help I finally decided to make a go of it...again. I enrolled in classes for the Fall quarter and am going to pursue a degree as a Surgical Technician, which will hopefully lead to a degree (down the road) as an RN. I just don't think I want to spend the rest of my working-life as a dispatcher and my job at the PD, although secure now, isn't 100% secure for the next 10 years or so of my future. I think a career in the medical field is pretty much a sure bet ~ I like the idea of being able to get an RN position just about anywhere in the country and I also like the fact that eventually I'll be able to make my own hours. So, next week I'll start the year & a half trek down the Surg Tech path to a brighter future. And homework. Wish me luck!

Feast One Hundred & Eleven
Appetizer
What was the very last song you listened to?
"Dancing Days" a remake of a Led Zeppelin song by Stone Temple Pilots (on AOL XM radio).

Soup
What is one company/store/corporation you would recommend that people stay away from?
HezbollahMart

Salad
On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being highest, how much do you enjoy having your picture made?
Before the palsy, 10 After the palsy, 1

Main Course
Besides a bookmark, what is something you've used to keep your place in a book?
Postcards from Ireland and toilet paper (from Michigan).

Dessert
Name a food that you like that most people don't.
Pretzels dinked in chocolate pudding.

I'm Turning Vampire (I Really Think So)

Count von Count
Originally uploaded by wahoo1265.

One of the suckiest things about working midnights is that I can't fall asleep at night. It's like I've become a vampire! On the weekends, when I'm off, I'll stay up until 4 or 5 in the morning and then toss & turn in bed until at least 7am before I can finally fall asleep. In the last 3 hours I've cross-stitched, worked on the scrapbook and read about 100 pages in my book. I guess I've gotten so used to going to bed when it's light out that my body just can't adjust to the outside dark any more. The sucky part is that I go to sleep so late (or early, depending on how you look at it) that I end up sleeping until mid afternoon and waste perfectly good play-outside weather. During the Winter I don't mind sleeping more ~ as a matter of fact, there was about a 4 week period last Winter that I slept 12 or 13 hours a day! I think this need for more sleep had something to do with Seasonal Dyfunction Disorder. But it's not Winter now and I'm a little peeved. So, would you like to read about what I did this weekend?

We finally got the bathroom walls textured. We'll wait a week until they dry completely and then paint them Bali Sand. The effect is going to be like something you'd see in a Mexican restaurant. I also cut the grass (it's supposed to rain later this week), worked on the London scrapbook (we're actually out of Savannah & in London now!) and almost completed my most recent cross-stitch project. I also took Vic for a ride. She spent all week stuck in the house, so I thought she might like to get out for a while. We just went to Chili's for dinner ~ no big deal, but I'm sure she enjoyed just being out of the house for a few hours.

I see it's now just past 8am, so I think I should be able to fall asleep with little effort. I've got my alarm set for 10:30 which means that at 10:37 I'll just say "screw it!", turn off the snooze and roll over. I've really got to win the lottery and quit all the work stuff!

A Different Circle of People

This morning we arrested some loser for alledgedly breaking into cars. When they brought this guy back to the station for booking I experienced a new level of body odor that I'm sure I will never be exposed to again. This guy's feet (I'm assuming the green funk was coming from his feet and not somewhere else nasty) smelled so bad that my sargeant had to keep taking breaks during the booking process so he could leave the room to get some fresh air. We douched the whole station with air freshener, which of course then made it smell like really nasty feet flowers had yakked all over the place. How can anybody let their body odor get that far out of control? Just think about all the people you interact with on a regular basis. Unless you have a job where you deal with the dregs of society, all of your friends and people you associate with are probably somewhat clean and non-disgusting, or else you wouldn't have anything to do with them! But in my job I get to experience an entire new circle of losers ~ and on an almost daily basis! Just think about all the whackos who are floating just outside of your circle. You just don't know how close you are to different degrees of disgustingness. Law enforcement is a real eye-opener.

Feast One Hundred & Ten
Appetizer
Name 3 things that you are wearing today.
Tigers tshirt, blue jeans shorts, mousse.

Soup
Who was the last person you hugged?
Vickie

Salad
What do you like to order from your favorite fast food place?
#1 with no onions

Main Course
What time of day do you usually feel most energized?
Between 5pm-7pm.

Dessert
Using the letters in your first name, write a sentence. (Example: Sweet unusual spaniels are nice.)
Cute And Sassy Elves Yodeling.

Movies vs Books

Tea & Green Ribbons
Originally uploaded by wahoo1265.

I am currently reading "Tea & Green Ribbons," by Evelyn Doyle. It's the true story of how her father fought the Irish Supreme Court for sole custody of his 6 children. It's a really good book, but an even better movie (the movie version is called "Evelyn" and stars Pierce Brosnan). Most books are better than the movies they're made into, but sometimes a movie turns out to be better than the original book and "Tea & Green Ribbons" got me to thinking about some of the movies I felt were better than the book. The following is my list:

Slightly Better Than The Book
* Evelyn (Tea & Green Ribbons)
* Pride & Prejudice (Colin Firth version)
* Agnes Browne (The Mammy)
* all of the Lord of the Rings movies
* The Joy Luck Club
* Mystic River
* The Graduate

Heaps Better Than The Book
* Under the Tuscan Sun
* Shawshank Redemption
* Forrest Gump
* Schindler's List
* The Hours
* The Talented Mr. Ripley

Then of course there are all the movies made from Shakespearean plays. Although I enjoy reading the plays, the movie versions are a heck of a lot easier to understand!

Labor Day

HPPD
Originally uploaded by wahoo1265.

I will be spending this Labor Day much the same way as I've spent every Labor Day since the dawn of man ~ laboring. Since I don't start work until 11pm, I guess technically I've still got the actually day part of Labor Day off, but I still have to go in later, so that shouldn't count. With the exception of a few months last year, I've worked midnights for about 8 straight years now. There are pros and cons to working mids (I guess that's the way it is with everything), but for me the pros far outweigh the cons. One big disadvantage is that my sleeping schedule is at odds with the entire rest of the planet. For instance, insist on cutting the grass and weed whacking in the middle of my night! Why can't that wait until about 3am to do this? I was up working on scrapbook stuff this morning around 6am. I wasn't up because I woke up early, I was up because I hadn't been to bed yet! I hate sleeping during the day when the weather is nice outside because I feel like I'm missing out on something. I have no problem, however, sleeping all day during the Winter. But still, working during the day means you have to put up with a lot more people, a lot more work and a lot more noise. I like having a nice quiet area to work in, with just a couple of people around to keep me awake. So this Labor Day during the day I'll probably work on the scrapbook a little or read and at night I'll put up with all the drunks who were off of work and spent all day at the bar. They couldn't have picked a better day than Monday to put Labor Day on.

Tis The Season

Sparty
Originally uploaded by wahoo1265.

College football started today and it was the perfect weather for it, at least at our house anyway. There was an annoying rainy drizzle all afternoon, but with it came a cool Autumn-like breeze. The temperature is in the 60s and I'm watching football in my sweatpants and wooly socks. This is the time of year I love! Soon the leaves will change color and we'll be awash in brilliant reds, oranges & yellows everywhere we go! Vic should be well enough to travel next month when all the cider mills start operating. There's nothing better than sitting on a huge pumpkin sipping hot cider on a crisp Fall day! These couple of months between Summer and Winter are a wonderful time to be living in the Midwest. Go Spartans & Wolverines! And Buckeyes!

London & My Bathroom

Well, I finally got around to starting the London scrapbook and so far I'm pretty pleased with it. Our trip actually started in Savannah, so that's where the scrapbook starts, too. I just finished documenting our brief stay in the SAV last night, so with a little luck I might actually make it into Europe this weekend! Of course, we've also got plans to paint the bathroom this weekend, so England may have to wait a bit longer. We bought the paint and other painting crap earlier this week and I made sure to leave it all right by the bathroom so I couldn't conveniently forget about our little project. Looks like it may be a busy weekend either way!

Feast One Hundred & Nine

Appetizer
What are some lyrics you have misheard (such as, instead of "Gettin' Jiggy With It" you heard "Kick a chicken with it")?
From "Up On the Housetop" "Oh, oh, oh, who wouldn't go" still sounds like "Oh, oh, oh, whoo winds blow" Whoo winds are winds that make that "whoooo" sounds when they blow!

Soup
What is the worst movie you have ever seen?
"Shining Through" This also happens to be maybe my very favorite book ever, so isn't it quite the coincidence that it's also the absolute worst movie ever made?

Salad
Using the letters from your favorite number, write a sentence. Example: Tomorrow has really easy experiences.
Only Nemo Escaped.

Main Course
What was the most interesting news story you have heard this week?
The de-planetizing of Pluto. Poor little guy.

Dessert
Which word(s) would you choose to describe your wardrobe?
Tigers T-Shirts.

Bacon & Eggs

Bacon & Eggs
Originally uploaded by wahoo1265.

Bacon & Eggs walk into a bar. The bartender says, "Hey, stop right there! You know we don't serve breakfast here!"

Plans

Geez, what a short weekend! It seems like I was just at work yesterday and here I am going back in tonight. There just isn't enough time to do the stuff I want to do. I try to plan an outing for us every weekend, but since is confined to the house I think I'm going to use this down time to work around the house. I organized my desk and the master bedroom this past weekend (two big chores, to say the least!) and I think I'm going to finally tackle the bathroom this coming weekend. Our bathroom is painted this hideous yellow that we've hated since the day we moved in over a year ago! We finally agreed on a color scheme and picked out a color swatch (always a fun word to say!), so now I just need to buy the actual paint and slap it on the walls. I guess I've been putting it off because I absolutely hate to paint, but it's got to get done and now seems like the perfect time to do it. Of course, the weekend is 5 days away, so I'm sure I'll come up with at least a dozen excuses why I can't paint before then!

I've been kind've lax with my wogging lately. There's always some excuse ~ taking care of Vic, working overtime, rain. I think it's just the act of lacing up shoes & leaving the house that I find the hardest. I'd really like to get a treadmill or even an exercise bike for the house, but they're all really expensive. I'm hoping I can find a good used one for cheap, so I've been checking out Craigslist for the last couple of weeks. There have been quite a few treadmills & bikes posted, but nothing quite right yet. Maybe I'll find something soon. I think that would be a great way to workout while watching the Tigers games. :: Side Note ~ The Tigers play the Yankees on Tuesday in New York. Too bad for the Yankees!

Busy Week

I'm really looking forward to Saturday when I can just plop my butt down and relax for a while. It seems like I've had something to do every day this week! I worked some overtime at work on Thurs. & Fri. and that leaves me very little time to do much of anything else. I could really use a vacation. Somewhere in Europe would be nice. I'll have to work on that.

Feast One Hundred & Eight
Appetizer
If you could have a free subscription to any magazine, which one would you like to have?
Reader's Digest & Budget Travel, both of which I currently receive, but I really like them both & free is always nice!

Soup
Describe your living room (furnishings, colors, etc.).
We have 3 bookcases, 2 recliners, a couch, TV, a bunch of DVDs and an aquarium where Gordon, our gecko sleeps.

Salad
What does the shape of a circle make you think of?
A bright yellow, happy sun.

Main Course
Name 3 things in your life that you consider to be absolute necessities.
There are a ton, but 3 would be:
1. cross-stitch stuff
2. my Jeep
3. the internet

Dessert
What was the last really funny movie you watched?
I just watched "Little Black Book" the other night on really late night TV. It was more charming than funny, but it had some really humorous scenes & I ended up pleasantly surprised by it. I like that Brittany Murphy.

Vic Update

squirrels
Originally uploaded by wahoo1265.

Most of Vic's days are spent sleeping, which is great because I'm sure her body really needs the rest. She's graduated from mooshy yogurt-type foods to soft throat-friendly foods in teeny bite size morsels. And she's spending more time outside, which the birdies and squirrels really appreciate ~ I think the squirrels were actually forming some kind of hezbollah nut takeover if their person didn't start feeding them again soon. So, all in all, she's still pretty puny, but her spirits are up and she's getting alot of the rest she needs. I, on the other hand, am trying to adjust to having her around the house all the time. During the week she usually leaves for work about an hour after I get up, so all Vic all the time, although nice, is still quite an adjustment. Luckily for me she's still too weak to protest watching baseball every night. Go Tigers!

Tapioca & Fruit Cups

After one full day at home, Vic seems to be doing quite well. She spends most of the day napping, but has made the monumental move from the bed to the couch, so I think that for now we're taking baby steps on the road to recovery. It's still pretty difficult for her to swallow, so she drinks everything thru a straw. Luckily, we have an abundance of bendy straws! We also have a refrigerator full of tapioca pudding, applesauce & fruit cups ~ I actually had to throw a few things out just to make room for all the "sick food" we now have! The doctor prescribed Valium and Norco for pain, so she's usually pretty sleepy most of the time which gives me plenty of time to catch up on reading & scrapbooking. As a matter of fact, I'm headed to the craft room right now, so I'll post again tomorrow or Monday and keep you all up to date on her recovery.

The Road To Wellness

I brought Vic home from the hospital this morning ~ right now she's napping in the guest room surrounded by pillows and kitties. The surgery went pretty much as the doctor expected. It lasted about 90 mins. and then an hour in recovery and then she was in her room by 11ish (we got to the hospital at 6:00). The doctor made the incision in the same place as the first one (so she won't have 2 scars on her throat) and she has to wear a soft collar-type thing for the next several weeks to minimize movement. As expected, her throat is very tender (she really felt every little bump on the ride home) and it hurts to swallow, so it looks like a lot of soup and yogurt for at least a week or two. I think she lost about 20 lbs. after the last surgery! I'm glad I took today off from work because I'm really beat. Neither of us got much sleep the night before the surgery and then I've only gotten a few hours since then, so I'm really looking forward to just sitting and watching the Lions & Tigers games tonight (we should rename the Pistons the Bears!). I'll post pics of Vic when I get some.

Feast One Hundred & Seven
Appetizer
What color is your car?
Black

Soup
If you could wake up tomorrow with full training in another occupation and a job in that field, what would it be?
I've been seriously considering taking classes to become a surgical tech, so I guess I would choose that. It would certainly save me a lot of time & money.

Salad
How many times in your life have you had the flu (or something similar)?
I'm sure it's only been a scant few, but the time that immediately pops to mind is when we were in Ireland and I was sick for almost the entire trip. Geez, I was miserable.

Main Course
What is something that has happened to you this week that you didn't expect?
Nothing comes to mind.

Dessert
How old were you when you had your first kiss?
Not really sure ~ somewhere around 17, I think.

Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life

For todays blogging I would like to share with you some of the mysteries in my life. These are just a few morsels of what astounds me or causes me to shake my head in wonder. It's another beautiful sunny day here in the 313 (actually, I live in the 586 area code, but I'm only about half a mile from the 313). I should be outside doing outside stuff, but instead I'm inside doing laundry and tidying up the house a bit. I was outside earlier reading Vic's "Backyard Living" magazine where I picked up a few Autumn gardening tips and as soon the the clothes get done spinning, I'll head back out there for a bit to water and watch Shannon roll around in the grass. This is a short work week for me ~ I took off Wednesday thru Friday so I could be with Vic for her surgery on Thursday morning. I'm looking forward to the day when I can retire and devote my time to gardening and taking naps in the hammock. I'm also considering changing careers to something more stable and that has a good retirement outlook. I'm tired of dispatching and really don't see myself doing this for the rest of my working life. I'd like to find a career that will allow me to make my own schedule later on in life. More on this in later posts after I continue to do a little research. Don't forget to think happy thoughts on Thursday!

Mysteries In My Life
* Why am only in the mood to scrapbook on bright sunny days instead of on bleak rainy days?
* How can some of the losers we arrest not know their own address?
* Why does Shannon prefer drinking the nasty water from the hose that's been sitting outside in the hot sun to
the nice cool water in the air conditioned house?
* Where does all the dirtly laundry keep coming from?
* Why did Dumbledore have to die in the last Harry Potter book?
* Where do all these friggin' pigeons in our backyard come from?
* Why do baseball tickets cost so much money?
* Why does Shannon tear the butts off all her stuffed animals except for the ones shaped like monsters?
* Why does Shannon love to swim in the water but hate to get squirted with the hose?
* How come Vickie can't pick her socks up off the floor?
* How long has Mike & Ikes candy been around and how come it took me so long to discover it's tastiness?
* Why do I have to continue to be "cursed" monthly if I don't plan on ever having kids?
* Where the heck is that little shelf thing we used to have on the monitor?
* Why does it take an act of god to get Shannon to go potty?
* Why do people call 911 to ask for the non-emergency phone number for the police dept.?
* Why am I having such a hard time finding a dentist?
* What the hell did Star Jones do to herself?
* Why does anyone really care about Jennifer Aniston & Vince Whatshisname?
* Whatever happened to free internet access?