Misc. ramblings....

I have a few posts in mind but really, what are they without pictures? So for those you'll have to wait, I'll have pics of the HUGE gap in my daughter's lack of front teeth soon (yeah, she lost another and can't eat worth a damn). Today you get my random musings, observations of nothing. Kind of like a Seinfeld episode (who the hell wasted their time watching those stupid shows?). First off, I got the kid to school on time. A first for this week, she was late yesterday. This is the norm when I take her to school, I'm a bad mom. I've been driving the Jeep with the top off because it's the only way I get any pleasure out of driving the pain in the ass. The hubby loves it, me not so much. I had him put the top up last night (because I'm short and it's a bitch to do when you're short) since they were calling for rain today. Mind you, it was 85 degrees and stupid bright and sunny yesterday. Freakin Texas weather. I guess I shouldn't complain though, others up in the Dakotas and whatnot are getting inches of snow. Screw that yo, I stick to the skitzoid sunbelt thanks. So I get the kid ready for school. She is putting on her shoes and I am looking outside. It's damn windy and kinda cloudy so I know weather is coming but that's why I had the hubby put the top back on the Jeep right?

By the time the kid finally gets her shoes on, yeah it takes awhile, it's raining. I let her go like 6 months with slip on tennis shoes and apparently tying ones shoe laces is not like riding a bike. You can forget.... Anyway it's raining pretty damn hard all at once. OK, it's Texas, we're used to this. We get in the Jeep, pull out of the garage (oh yeah, we use our garage for our cars, novel huh?) and get the kid the 1/8th mile to school, the rain is making odd sounds on the car. No really! I've never actually driven in hail before and certainly not in a soft top. The kid is squealing like she's being beaten in the back seat. Not sure why so I had to tell her to shut it. Annoying when you're in line behind 1000 soccer moms trying to drop off their children in the rain and hail. Because, as we all know, rain makes it so people, straight up, can't function. Morons. Soccer moms are bad enough drivers normally, no water needed. It was chaos. Good thing I was there early huh? I then go back home, put Jeep back in the garage but of course the hail is over. I get ready for work, leave and it's barely drizzling. I guess the parents were being entertained by mother nature only while dropping off kids and that was to be the end. I know this because I have been outside for lunch and you know what? It's beautiful out. 71 and sunny, should be 80 by 4pm. Hello, this isn't the Dakotas that's for sure. It'll be in the mid 80's until Saturday when it'll be 90. YEGAK. Ah Texas...

Moving on, I won one of those blog giveaway thingies. First time ever! It was through Primp and Tell. OK ya'll know I don't actually put time into how I look when leaving the house right? My hair goes into a pony tail (so I don't have to blow dry) and I wear scrubs every day of the week. Recently I have been considering wearing make up. Get out. No I'm serious. And we'll see just how serious if/when? I actually do it. Mid thirties and just starting to consider being girlie, what has the world come to? I do own everything I need btw, I just find my morning sleep to be precious and already get to work an hour later than most. Adding stuff to the morning routine will only happen if I don't have to lose sleep for it. Yeah, we'll see how that works out right? The thingy I won was a plumping lipcolor. Do ya'll know how big my lips are already? I may end up looking botoxed but I am still game for the adventure right? Plus these gals gave it to me for free so I have to give a shout out to them. I've read some of their back pages and I am going to try a few things out too. This eyeliner (I already bought it even, it sits there waiting for me to make the effort...) and I want to try this scrub too, mainly because the packaging is adorable. And last but not least this foundation, but I have a foundation love so it's going to have to be awesome. I went and got the magazine for this mascara deal but they didn't have the mascara. I'll have to go to some other stores it seems...

All right was that random enough for ya'll? Yeah once my brain gets more organized I will post about my busy ass weekend I had last weekend. Really it's Tuesday and I already feel like it's Thursday, that's how busy it was. And can I just say? I think this is going to be a loooong week.

I knew I’d never have her patience, role models part II

But it was at least something that I could set as a goal. Points for trying right? As I watched Tabitha interact with her children I saw what a mother was supposed to be. I had never really seen it before. My mother, from as far back as I could remember, had no patience with me. She would tell me I was mean. That I was a mean mean child and no one liked me because I was so mean and I didn’t socialize well. Can you see the vicious circle with this one? Tell this to a 5 yr old and they are going to be terrified to socialize. They are told they are a mean child that no one wants to play with well then they aren’t very likely to have the self confidence to go out and make friends now are they? So this was the example I had growing up. I didn’t go over to other kid’s houses much, my parents chose to raise me in a beach community. Partying college crowd had few to no children so I was limited in selection. There for I had no other parenting role models. When I started to hang around Tabitha more and more often I got to see her interact with her children and as much as she said her parents were less than stellar (and I’m sure they were) they must have either a) had a helluva lot more parenting skills than my mother or b) Tabitha somewhere in herself had the patience of an angel. I have no proof but I’m betting on the latter. We all have our shortcomings but as far as I’m concerned if you can be an awesome parent then you’ve made it in the world. And if you fail completely due to lack of trying you are a total waste of oxygen.

Tabitha would be with her son (the oldest) and he’d be wild or crazy and she’d just calmly talk him down. She didn’t chase him like a dog that got out, there were no threats of beatings, and even better, no insults. She’d always tell them that she loved them and hug them or kiss them or even better both. My first look at positive reinforcement parenting. Did I ever tell you guys that I (like my crazy dog) don’t like being touched? And no, my mother didn’t love on me, she didn’t let me sit next to her and snuggle, she’d get up and leave. I didn’t realize this until my dad told it to me like a few years ago. He was the only one I snuggled with because he was the only one that was willing to do it. To this day, even when getting off the phone, if I don’t say I love you to my mom she won’t. Sometimes I even surprise her like she doesn’t want to say it back but does so grudgingly. I stopped telling her that, no need to lie. In Tabitha I saw what people were supposed to do, love their children. So odd to me at that time. I didn’t dislike children back then, I just didn’t know what people were supposed to do with them. My dad was a love but the negative from my mom was so much more prominent. Poor dad, his mom didn't want to have kids either so he didn't have it much better growing up.

Regardless it was through these little bits of interactions that I saw what parenting should be like. You should be happy to have a child in your life, they are supposed to bring you joy at least some of the time. I knew she had it rough and at times it was very trying with school so it’s not like I’m saying it was all fun and roses. I knew they tried her patience daily, as did her husband (don't worry Trailboss, she eventually left that moron). The difference was that I never ever saw her lose her patience and take it out on them. That’s a rarity. We lose our patience all the time with the kid. We try not to, more now than ever but still, it’s hard. I don’t know how she came up with all that patience at that young age. She was in her early 20’s, I didn’t have patience with myself at that age. What little bits I learned from her are invaluable to me today. I think they gave me hope too, that if she could have crappy parents and be such a parenting success I too could get over the pathetic role model my mom was for me, look only at what my dad gave me, learn a bit of patience, and move on.

By the time I finally became a parent it was not due to a planned decision but keeping my baby was. And for that little insight I was given I will always be thankful. I will never have Tabitha’s patience but it is something I strive for. I don’t always succeed but such is life. As parents you are rarely going to 100% right, aiming for it is the best you can do.

These are her 3 kids now, I only met the oldest 2. Her youngest was born the year I left Maryland. It goes from oldest to youngest left to right, it was the youngest's b-day in this pic.



This is how the oldest 2 looked when I left MD. It's been awhile.

There was a button, so I clicked on it

Yeah, a button that said something like Adsense or somesuch, I wasn't really paying that much attention. Ads on your blog, ok I am not Dooce so I am not really one of those high traffic generating sites. I was game to try it though so I added them on. If they annoy me I'll take them off. Really, no skin off my nose and I'm all about trying something new. Do I make money off of them? Theoretically I think that's the point. Realistically I seriously doubt it. If they bother you let me know. I don't expect much from them but since they aren't in my way I'll continue to let them coexist. They annoy me though and they'll get the boot.

Old friends and mothering role models, part I

My apologies for being so lax in my posting. I’ve been stupid busy at work and I no longer am able to post daily like I prefer. Ah life is such a pain in the ass. Regardless I promised my old friend Tabitha that I would post my story about her next and I have been trying to gather my thoughts on it. This is something I’ve been sitting on the back burner for months now but she posted a note on her Facebook account and I just had to sit down and write it. Yup, I’m a slacker. Plus this one may take a few posts because doing it in just one is going to be darn long. I ramble, I know.

A little back story, I was dumped in the state of Maryland (it’s where I finally divorced my first husband, he was military) for most of my 20’s. Got there in 1994 or so and left in just after the turn of the century (isn’t it wild that we can actually use that turn in our lifetime?). While there I was going to college and I refused to leave until I finally got my degree. 9 years and 7 colleges after graduating high school I did get that degree. Regardless I did it on my own which means a boat load of student loans and working. A lot. At a job that had hours around odd school hours. BTW I never ever want to go back to school again, I’m so done. I went through a ton of jobs but ultimately I ended up being a vet tech. Wild work and you meet a lot of people. One of the girls I met was Tabitha, she was a tech with me. She is such a beautiful woman (more on that soon) and she’s had a kind of rough life in her younger years filled with a not so bright mom and an abusive father. It happens and I am surprised at how the human spirit can survive some of the crap that gets thrown at it. Those people that commit crimes and then blame it on their upbringing are so full of crap. I see beautiful people like Tabitha and I know there is no excuse for not being a positive influence on society no matter your upbringing.

When I first started working with Tab she was single and a wild child. Parties, boyfriends, the whole nine but with a good head on her shoulders. I left her be about the lifestyle, she’s a few years younger than me and I know some just need to get that out of their system. She was going to the same community college as me (the one The Blair Witch Project came out of, ick) and she had a boxer named CeCe (yes Trailboss, another boxer lover, we’re everywhere). I’ll fast forward a few years here for the sake of boredom, eventually she got a boyfriend that was a math teacher/coach at a high school (why are math teachers always coaches?) and accidently got pregnant. It happens, trust me I know. So they became a couple but he was Korean, do you know anything about Koreans? They don’t respect women much and he was exactly the pompass ass that you’d expect from a classic Korean man. I did not like him. He didn’t respect Tabitha at all as a person much less a significant other.

She used a her student loan as a down payment and they bought a townhouse together and moved in. She got pregnant with her second child and he decided to marry her. Beautiful fall ceremony and he was very sweet through it. Then he, not so slowly, went back to being an insulting ass. Tabitha and I took a calculus II class over the summer after that second child was born. It was BRUTAL. I could barely hack it, note to anyone out there, never ever take any calculus (esp calc II) over a summer course. There is not enough time to fully grasp what the hell the concepts are. I remember staying up late nights at her dining room table trying to wrap our heads around the stuff and I don’t think I ever understood it. I ended up taking it over later and it was awesome, I love math. Tabitha had it harder, she had 2 young babies and a husband who didn’t believe in her. He didn’t think she could do it and told her straight up. Told her she was stupid too. God I did not like that man. I have no respect for people who call other people stupid when they are trying to educate themselves. I mean hell she was taking calc II and raising 2 young children. I don’t think there were 2 years between her kids, or maybe just barely. The only thing stupid she was doing was staying with his dumb ass. It is my belief that you can judge the value of a man by the woman in his life and how he treats her. If he doesn’t have respect for his significant other then he’s just not that much of a man. You following me there? Yeah.

She did stay with him though. She was in an out of school and basically doing what I was but with babies and without the help or support from her husband. Oh and his lovely college friends? They treated her like shit and talked behind her back. Their wives did at least, I didn’t like them either. Right before she had her second I threw her a surprise baby shower and invited the bitches. Foul little women. I know you aren’t ‘supposed’ to have a baby shower with a second child but her first was a boy and her second a girl. Plus if you have a friend you love I don’t care how many babies they have, a baby shower is in honor of them, a celebration of new life. These girls were nasty and complained before Tabitha came home for us to surprise her. I hadn’t dealt with people like this since high school and it was unpleasant then, needless to say it didn’t get any better with age. They shaped up after the party started though, they were obviously used to faking it. No surprise there. I never mentioned it to Tabitha, she was busy trying to keep her life together. Oh did I mention her husband hated the dog? Yeah eventually she had to get rid of her. Grounds for divorce right Trailboss? She found Cece a nice home with another family. Sad, that dog got on with the kids so well. They would conspire to get into the treats and snacks together. The oldest boy would climb on top of the dog and get into stuff in the kitchen. Boxers are such great family dogs.

I am going to save the more personal nitty gritty part of this story for the next installment. I read an article once where it was talking about how people bemoan not having a decent mother. It went through an explanation of how you need to pick people in your life to be your mothering role model. It was a great article and since I had a pathetic mother with no redeeming qualities to speak of I thought it pertained to me. Tabitha was my first role model. From very early on I saw in her what a mother was supposed to be.

Happy happy joy joy!

My crazy dog Jayne is on prozac. He tends to attack the other dogs, he's kinda autistic like that. In the industry they like to use the word 'reactive', like he tends to react. Yeah, sure, react, that's the word I would use. He's ok most of the time until he sees the need to resource guard, be it food, people, attention, whatever. He gets all weird and he flips out. He also doesn't like strangers and he will bite them. He doesn't actually clamp down and draw blood but his sound and fury is an intense sound. He also doesn't like being touched or touching living things, highly sensitive this guy is.

We put him on Prozac about a year ago, 1 pill once a day, it took the edge off. Kinda. His outbursts were limited to about 1 every month maybe every other month. He still wasn't good with strange dogs and strange people so we keep him somewhat isolated. He ran out of pills last week and I didn't want to call in for a refill because it's been over a year since we've taken him to see the doctor. I love our vet, she's holistic but if I ask for something overly conventional (like Prozac) she's still game. She'll voice her concerns but knows I go for mostly peace luvin hippie stuff so she cuts me some slack. Well so the soonest I can get his butt in there is next Friday. That's 2 weeks off of the mood changing drugs.

You know I have a friend or two on antidepressants and they are each on either end of the spectrum. Both can not live in normal society with out them, one knows this and believes in his drugs. The other knows this but hates her drugs. They, apparently, hide your personality and place a fog around your world. It has it's pluses and minuses. She sometimes decides to stop taking her drugs. Cold turkey. Apparently you're not supposed to cold turkey these drugs, it whacks you out. Poor Jaynie went cold turkey. Of course they have a long half life so there is probably some residual druggage going on.

Regardless I think that Jaynie has seen the world for the first time in color. It's like while on meds he learned that some things just aren't that stressful (he used to stress about everything, you know, like the wind blowing) and he learned to like human touch. He cuddles now. He never even wanted to be touched before, now he will lay on top of a person and use his whole body. Unheard of. He spent this evening running around the house like a deer who just met spring for the first time ever. Prancing about like something out of Fantasia. It was just too cute!

If he can handle it and not have any large amount of violent out bursts (we haven't seen any yet, a good sign) I don't think we'll put him back on the meds. He still needs to go in for a refill of heart worm meds but he can handle it, the hubby will be taking him in the Jeep and that dog and master were made for riding with the top down. Jeeps were built for twosomes like this. So we'll see if we can't keep this dog happy, that was the main reason I had for adopting this bat shit crazy dog. That and no one else was going to handle his whacked out ass.

Daisey Duke style

This is a brief essay on how it goes down in my household. Why? Again, because I'm obviously on a mission to bring down the hood. My white collar hood and our blue (gray?) collar selves. And, it's kinda entertaining and involves that damn Jeep I have named 'Trick'. All my trucks have been named, starting with the one my dad bought when I was, oh 5 maybe? Regular pick ups are always Trucky-Wucky, in honor of that first dad truck I named. Regular cars have no name, I don't really do cars. This one is a Jeep and has enough of a truck quality to name so it's Trick. I never liked Jeeps as I think I went over that before. They are hot, small and just an all around uncomfortable ride. I only really like them with the top down and during really sunny days you get one serious sun burn so even then it's less than ideal. Lately the weather has been warm (80's that's warm here, hot is over 95) and a bit overcast so the top down thing has been perfect.

Now mind you putting the top down on the Jeep is not as easy as it looks. The back window and the back side windows come off and are put in the house. Then we are able to push the top back and down into the 'trunk' area. And you don't want to watch that thing put back up by a short person with short arms. It is a comedy routine. A really really bad one if you're the short armed one but probably hilarious for the neighbors. So lets say you're out running errands and the sky decides to open up? You're pretty much S.O.L, you can get the top proper up (eventually) but the back sides and back are still wide open. Not the best car for Florida. I basically leave the top removal and re-construction up to the hubby since it takes me about 100 times as long to get even halfway. Plus he doesn't mind, he loves his Jeep so much sometimes I catch him stroking the steering wheel like a cat. Seriously.

So here I am, Monday morning, it's gray out but we aren't supposed to get rain until Wednesday. Oh and I get up late. This is no big surprise, I am horrible at getting the kid to school on time. We normally just barely make it or she may be a few minutes late. Her daddy is much better than I. So we jump in the Jeep, I drive her the 1/8th of a mile to school and we're late, no one is in the drop off lane so at least I have that going for me. I drive up and tell the kid to hop out. Yeah like just on out, don't push the seat forward, I trust you know how to unbuckle yourself and be careful, you're wearing a skirt. Redneck much? Full on Daisey Duke style, minus the shorts. It's probably a good thing the teachers and principal were already gone inside since this wasn't going to get me the parent of the year award. Right?

The sky as I got to work, I parked it farther away, in the covered parking garage.


Oh well, as far as the kid is concerned the jumping out of the back with out using any doors is the only redeeming feature left in the Jeep. The picture at the top is what it looks like from her perspective, the main launch point of the jump. The honeymoon is over and she no longer thinks it's fun to ride in. Because the back seat is a bit noisy and wind blown compared to the front and she is a prima donna. At least now she can enjoy the jump out of the back action. Soon one of her classmates will see her in action though and think it's cool. Then all of a sudden the Jeep will be her preferred ride. It's all about the image baby...

Varmit problems

We live in a subdivision in suburbia, it still has a wee bit of wild life left over. Not a lot, just a wee little bit. Rabbits mostly and the squirrels that normally live closer to the green belts. My neighbor came up to me yesterday and told me that I have 3 baby squirrels living in my front doorway. ? We don't use the front door, we are one of the few families that actually park both cars in the garage so we always go in through the garage door. Consequently I have no idea how long these 3 adolescent squirrels have been mooching off of my porch. Sadly they are totally unafraid of humans and small dogs. My neighbor figured out there were their because their maltese came over and was sniffing at them. And they didn't move. He thinks someone has been feeding them because they don't go out and forage, they just hang out on my porch. I went out late last night and sure enough they were sleeping out there. On the ground. Suicidal much? I don't think they are long for this world if they don't run from predators. They get irritated with you if you get within 2 feet of them. 2 feet. Hello I can snatch them up fast enough from that distance and there isn't much they could do about it. Not that I would mind you. They don't even run when we hose them down, yeah we tried that yesterday.

So anyone know of a good way to get these buggers back up in a tree and not mooching off my mortgage?

This really is how close I can get to the bugger. I don't know how to use the zoom on my camera so it's real life close.



See him here on the right halfway up the column? I wanted to show this picture so you know where they live in relation to my front door. They live on the inside of that column he's attached to which is where the above picture was taken.

It amazes me that children can eat

in the first few years of their school years. I mean really. Once you lose a tooth or two in the front the rest of them fall on out. She lost her 2 bottom teeth awhile ago and, thankfully, they are partly grown in. I say this because the little girl lost 2 more within a week of each other. The tooth fairy was running out of cash. Did I tell you she tried to write the tooth fairy a note asking for $100? No lie. I told her the tooth fairy doesn't carry that kind of cash. Because, well, she doesn't.

So the kid sucked it up and took out her dollar request. I was kind of appalled that she had put one in but she goes to a wealthy school and all of her classmates are totally money centric. Drives us nuts! I know a few other parents that, like us, have a more blue collar income and it drives them nuts too. I only know a few of the parents in the larger homes with ridiculously large incomes and it doesn't seem to affect them. I wonder if their kids always get their material wishes fulfilled and this is the cause of the problems. They get all this stuff, inundated with stupid amounts of toys and whatnot, and then go to school and brag. Our kids come home, ask for it, we look at them like "hell no" and then they go back to school with out every newest latest and greatest toy. Just plain dumb.

I know for a fact that one of the girls in her after school gym class made fun of her for having only 1 gymnastics leotard. She is only in that class maybe 2-3 days a week and I wash it in between. Do you know how much those little tiny pieces of fabric cost? The cheapest you can find them at the store is $46 each. WTF? She's in her after school care 2-3 days a week, only 2.5 hours each time. She's growing and will only fit into this leotard for a limited time right? Just how many do I want to invest in per size? Yeah exactly. I won't buy the cheap ones at Target, one of the other moms already told me they are a waste of money and don't survive the laundry. The whole getting made fun of for fashion though, we just can't be having that. The kid is a fashionista and that is not ok in her world. I found an online store that had a clearance section. This I can deal with. If it wasn't for the fact that she wont fit in the damn things in oh, 2 months I'd be more likely to invest in a bunch of pretty ones.

Children's clothing has such a short lifespan. Just like their baby teeth, they only stay for a short while to be replaced with something more durable.

The ups and downs of my work day

You know I like my work. It has it's downsides sometimes, mainly that doctors in general a raving morons and the more I work with them the more I believe we should all go back to the old school way of doing things. I can not believe what they do to people, put them on meds because the patient's blood work says something and of course that medicine has x amount of side affects. That require more meds. With more side affects and consequently more meds. The cycle continues until the patient is either dead or so dosed up that they are medically frail and half dead. These people are not doing well and I am really unsure if the doctors are doing them any favors. I work at the Diabetes and Glandular Disease Clinic (did I mention that before?) and most of our clients are either diabetic or have thyroid issues. There is also a pediatric clinic down stairs which serves children that, for the most part, are pretty ill.

Needless to say here in San Antonio we have serious job security. There is no lack of diabetes here and people are, for the most part, what we call 'non-compliant'. Diabetics are terrible about taking care of themselves. They must watch what they eat and exercise. They must pay attention to their bodies every minute of every day for the rest of their lives. I don't know what ya'lls cities are like but here in south central Texas we have fat slovenly people. Yes that's a generalization. Yes it is true. And those of you who find offense at that are going to have to jump serious hoops and come up with a helluva lot of facts to change my mind. There is a test called A1c that tells us the average sugar level of a patient for the past 3 months. These people come in having practically starved themselves the day of their appointment because they think that if they have a stupid low sugar reading that day the doctor won't chastise them for their piss poor diabetes control. Too many breakfast tacos and donuts for breakfast makes the sugar load too high. And we know it because their A1c says so. But that day that they binge starve is a bad day. Every week we have the ambulance there to take someone straight to the hospital. Non-compliant diabetics. Like I said, we have serious job security and they do it to themselves. They just find it too tedious to live a life full of healthy eating habits and getting off the couch. Lord forbid!

Now mind you I am not involved with the patients. I am part of the lab and this place does 99% of all the labs in house. I don't do any of those other labs, they are done by med techs, 4 yr degree (usually biology) and 2 yrs of some sort of med tech certification. I didn't do any of these things, I hated biology and med tech school? No thanks. My job there exists due to the founder's delusions of grandeur. He read an article on how mass spec was the gold standard for testing for vitamin D levels and he just had to have it in house. I do not know how he talked the other partners into it. I think they grossly underestimated a few things, #1 the cost, they had NO CLUE how insanely expensive this venture would be. I think they underestimated it by about, oh a least $50k, maybe more. And #2 how long it would take to get it on line. Average it takes one year to figure out a method. They were not happy once they figured this out but I had it online within 2 months of my lab being built. Yeah they didn't figure they'd have to build a new lab. Dumbasses.

Doctors like to tell people what they want and just have it given to them. They are like spoiled children that are used to being obeyed. I have no respect for that. Others in the clinic jump when they are told to jump. I just avoid them entirely because I know my boss (who I love) will get in trouble if I piss off a doctor. They so don't want to hear what I have to say so I just don't tell them. They believe they bought another black box like the other ones they have in the lab. You want to know why mass spec is the gold standard and no one else has one in their clinic? Because it's a raging pain in the ass that doesn't work like other instruments. You can't just put your sample in the front and have it spit out a number. They, to this day, still have no clue what mass spec is or how it works. None whatsoever. Does this make life harder for me? A little. Really though when they ask me for something all I do is give them the 'this is what it takes to get a vitamin D sample results' lecture. The doctor then looks at me like I'm crazy. As in 'It takes that much fucking effort for one little number?'. Yes, why yes it does.

If they had asked me way back when if I thought that mass spec would be a good idea for them I would have said hell no. Economically speaking of course, and no, I was not around before they bought the instrument. I don't tell them that now of course. Now I just try and keep them on track so they can make some money off of the damn thing because that is all they are interested in. Vitamin D levels are not life threatening levels. Of all the blood tests they run this one is by far the least important. Really I think it's a fad. Just like everyone else in the world doctors follow things like sheep. If so and so says this is something we need to check for than well by all means jump on that bandwagon!

And there you go, most of what I've learned by working with doctors is that they are almost all infantile sheep. My advice? Don't trust them any further than you could chuck them. They haven't a freaking clue how the real world works. Scary as shit.

My schizophrenic web designer friend

I have this friend. He and his wife were San Diegans just like ourselves and a few months before we moved out to become Texans they too transferred out here to the Great State of Heat. Sadly they moved to the DFW region which is hella north of us so we don't see them that often but they did come down and visit us a year or so back when they took that lovely photo you see of the whole family (sans Corbin since he wasn't born yet) in my sidebar.

C.L. (our friend) and his wife Mona have a business in DFW where they do photography, event planning, and web site development, oh and invitations and the like too. Their business is called CLM Creative and the website goes through changes every so often. His blog undergoes changes more frequently which is why I call him schizophrenic. It drives me nuts. He usually calls on his friends to give him feed back on how well it works and tweeks from there. He recently updated the website and I really love it. Also I noticed he put that awesome photo he took of the family up in the pets section of the example photography. I love it, that picture was not taken in a studio nor was it set up other than they said ok all you guys sit over there. It was in our dark little living room, no natural light, just the ceiling fan light. No props, stands, screens, nada. I think he seriously knows how to Photoshop or something. That and a kick ass camera also helps huh?

Regardless I invite ya'll to go have a look see and tell me what you do and do not like about it. Or tell him and say I sent you, he will not only find it amusing but be totally unsurprised at my audacity. He is also and incredible author that sends me stuff to review that he's written so he's used to my total and complete, if not gentle, opinions. Poor man. His writing is STELLAR though and every time he sends me something new (a rarity nowadays, sadly) I get all kinds of excited. Really, it's better than any other authors stuff I obsess over. And btw, I'm a reader of the obsessive kind. If I find a book I like I must read all of the books that person has written. CL is just as good as if not better than all of them.

Go over, look, criticize, tell him where you came from...

She’s not into country, or at least she didn't think she was

Much to my husband’s pleasure the kid decided she didn’t like country music when I started playing it in the car (sans hubby, he can’t stand it). She didn’t seem to mind the radio stations but once I bought a cd (Brad Paisley, Time Well Wasted) she wanted “Peace and Quiet” in the car. She’s not so good at shutting up and this is what her grandmother tells her when she just needs the kid to shut up. Not my mom, the hubby’s mom. It’s the nice way of telling someone to shut up and the kid resorted to this to get rid of Brad Paisley. I was ok with this for the most part, I don’t assume everyone will like all of my music. I just find it amusing that her first favorite song was something by Blink 182 and her favorite album is Nightmare Revisited with Marilyn Manson and Korn playing her 2 fav songs on it. Hey, we’re a darker kind of household, what can I say? I told ya’ll I was goth, it seeps into the music we listen to. A lot. The country thing is new and totally different from the norm here.

The other day I caught her singing in the back seat of the car. She sings a lot so it was no surprise to catch her singing. It was what she was singing, “I’m a country boy” with the accent and all. I asked her what she was singing and she said I’m a country boy and that it was stuck in her head. Now mind you I didn’t own this one, didn’t even know who sang it. She must have heard it on the radio or something, all I know is that the hubby was not going to be thrilled with her singing this one I’m sure. Me? I made it a point to figure out who did that particular song and get it from iTunes. The downside? I still don’t know how the hell to use that function on the computer and get it onto the dang phone, that’s the hubby’s job in the house. So that gig was up, he’d know his kid was listening to some sort of country something or other. One thing the hubby has learned since living with me, it’s how to be flexible. Not like he was going to get on to this country band wagon but that’s ok, we aren’t together in the car that often and we still like all the rest of our songs that are the same.

So last night onto the iPhone went Alan Jackson, who btw, does a duet with Brad Paisley on the Time Well Wasted album I love (Out in the Parkin’ Lot). Now I don’t know many country songs but dang if these things aren’t 1) nothing like I expected even after reading the song title, and 2) damn funny. I was kind of worried when I saw titles like “If Jesus Walked the World” since I am so NOT into preaching songs. What I came to figure out though was the rest of the sentence in the song, If Jesus walked the world today he’d be a hillbilly. Ok now that is funny and so is the whole song. I will no longer judge a book by its cover or a song by its title. I still like bologna? Adorable song. The kid still hasn’t heard the whole cd, I have to burn it (or rather the hubby does), I just have it on my phone so far. Oddly I think she’ll like Alan Jackson more than Brad Paisley, his songs are more ‘perky’ and she can like that along with her love of the morbid tunes. It’s good to be well rounded right?

I'll make a scientist of her yet

Sometimes I need to go in and work on weekends. The clinic isn't open, no one is there, and I don't have any stat samples I need to run. I just have such a back log that it makes sense for me to load up another 70 samples (the max the samples tray can hold) and run them over the weekend when the instrument is not doing anything anyway. It takes me very little time to get the samples into the tray and hit 'play' on the instrument. If I set it up right I can be in and out of there in as little as 15 minutes. I was not that on it this past Friday since I was trying to get out and get us up to Austin to meet some friends from Florida that were in town for South by Southwest. Her husband was doing a talk at the programmers section, I am uber jealous. I want to go to SxSW so I can see the bloggies and all my fav bloggers in real life but the tickets are all inclusive and cost like $400. I don't want to see the damn bands and all the other crap, I want to see the bloggies. Regardless, I did not have all my work set up nice on Friday night so I knew that I would be going in this weekend and spending like 2 hours in there. Also, the hubby is on shift so I had the kid to entertain the whole time.

I know I had to be breaking at least 50 OSHA laws by doing this but in with me she went. Hey, I'm the only chemist in there. If I can't keep my kid safe then I had no business being in there myself. Note, there is something about analytical chemists that ya'll may not know. We put the 'anal' in analytical. Our work areas must be just so and most things shant be touched by anyone but us. That's just the way we are. We need t-shirts that read Does not play well with others. That we are let out in public at all is just a testament to how low society has fallen.

I came prepared though, oh my yes I did. She's been in there before, the picture is actually of the first time she went in to play. I knew what entertained her so I came with what she needed for maximum entertainment time. She really grooved on the pipettors but she wanted chemicals with color. I tried explaining most chemicals looked just like water and didn't have color. I was not about to let her play with chemicals anyway but I wasn't going to bother with that battle when I knew that the color of water would suffice enough for her to lose interest. We're decent parents, we don't let the kid run in traffic or play with toxic chemicals. Instead I happen to have 8 different colors of food coloring at home that I brought with.

You see that little sink behind her in the picture? I set that up as her bench space so that a sink and water was readily available and I could work at my own bench (the one she is standing at in the photo) unimpeded. It worked fabulously. I gave her 8 plastic test tubes I made concentrated colors into, set up 20 more test tubes that were empty. Gave her 2 pipettors and a ton of disposable squeeze bulbs. A few beakers and told her to have at it. I wanted to get ya'll pictures of the mess that insued but after about an hour and a half she declared herself done (she had not bothered me at all in this time period, just chatted a bit) and then proceeded to clean her work area. Without prompting. It was nutty. She is great at places like school and after school care, she is always the one who is helping the teacher clean and what not. At home, oh hell no. She has sadly, gleaned our cleaning habits and on top of that is a collector. Of anything. And strews it about the house at will. Thank God she obviously does not drag this habit outside of her home. Of course this really should not surprise me, like I said, at work I am an insanely anal person when it comes to workspace. Everything must be just so. This seemed to be a genetic trait and I am so ok with that. It's the little things that are important, I got my work done, the kid was fully entertained and no one got hurt.

Bowing to the gods of caffeine

After this weekend's time change I've been having a small problem getting going in the mornings. Not terribly abnormal for me, I am not a morning person but usually I have tea when I get to work and I'm good. For whatever reason, this week I've been feeling the call of coffee. I don't normally drink coffee mainly because I don't like the taste, too bitter. I LOVE the smell though and the flavor when added to things like cakes and chocolates is just divine. So we get Starbucks delivered every morning at my work by the drug reps and it comes with a cup of creamer. So my mornings this week could be judged by percentages,
Monday 20% coffee, 20% sugar, 60% cream, it was a rough Monday
Tuesday 25% coffee 15% sugar, 60% creamer, a bit better than the day before
Wednesday 40% coffee 20% sugar, 40% creamer, this one was a bit strong for me
Thursday I just went to Starbucks and got the Latte and oatmeal special. I put a lot of sugar in the latte. The oatmeal I took with brown sugar and fruit, no nuts. It was good. The conclusion though? Full on creamer is better than foamy milk. I have probably gained some weight to prove that point but at least I can function in the morning!

Rockin the hoop making!

So apparently I have started some interest in the hoop making! Or rather acquiring them as I make them. I made a cute little one for the kid's friend whose birthday it was. I am tired of shopping for useless toys for all the birthdays that go on for the bazillion kids she's friends with. From now on they get a custom hoop. I am also selling them to friends and that includes you bloggy friends. Train Wreck has already ordered her sparkly red one which I am making this week. Kimmie has that purple one I made and took a pic of earlier. That girl I made on for her birthday has a little sister who wants one and that's going to be made this week too (purple with sparkly pink). I have another girlfriend with 2 kids and she wants 3, one for each of them. And then my fried from Florida is in Austin this week for SxSW and I'm making 2 for her. I'm just LOVING the hoop interest!

So for a limited time only I am offering my friends a special deelio on hoops. $25 for ya'll plus actual shipping (I'll have to look that up) if you want a hoop. The ones I ship will be the collapsible kind so you don't get a jacked up hoop in the mail. USPS is brutal on full sized hoops and it's depressing to get a new toy that is bent to hell. Let me know if you want one (email is on the side bar) and I'll send you a list of the colors I have. It's a fun little hobby for me to do and I'd love to get more people having fun with the hoop love!

Let me know if anyone else wants a hoop, I'll be crunching out a ton this week and I'll take pictures too.

Where do they get off charging so much for bathing suits?

No, that's not me, that's the suit I'd like to get. It's $68. For how much fabric? Oh please shoot me now.
See now this is why I haven't bought one in oh, maybe 4 years? It's not as bad as bra shopping but only because I am not shopping for them in real life. My goal, of course, is to find something flattering. That suit that I bought 4 years ago was just a plain black speedo, a competition suit. That is basically what my suit buying was reduced to, a 'Can't go wrong with this' suit. It has served me well for many years but dang, don't ya'll think it's about time I grew up a bit and got something with a little bit more than a competition suit? I am not ambitious enough to go out and try some on. Plus I am not in So Cal, the variety available in stores here is not so faboo.

I'm going to be honest here though, I have no chest. None what so ever. Never had never will and that basically cuts out about 99.99% of suits out there. I am loving the whole retro suit too. You know, Marilyn Monroe era? When women were supposed to be a size 8 or higher? Yeah and I am in one of those fat times in life, apparently the living an Texas and being lazy is not a good thing for ones waist line. Fancy that! Yeah, maybe someday I'll learn. Until then I'm looking at suits for flat chested fat chicks. Alright I'm not that fat but I don't think I've ever ventured all the way in to size 8 land. Bad bad bad. I'm not going to ignore it though, I'll be wearing clothing that fits right and looks cute. Not happy about it but I'll survive and probably loose the weight. I usually do and I try not to stress since that doesn't make me lose weight, just sleep.

The best contender is the one I have pictured above, The Bettie one piece from Pin Up Girl Clothing. They have a few others but this one is the one that first caught my eye. There are a few others out there but they aren't as appealing to me as this one and the cost about the same. There's the Esther Williams, nice but still, about the same price. An entire page of retro suits at My Baby Jo, a bit more expensive but still damn cute. I love them all but I just don't like spending so much on so little. I grew up in San Diego, this conundrum is one I've had my whole life. I remember going shopping at least once a year for a new suit since back in the day I lived within walking distance of the beach and at least then those suits got serious wear time. Ah how real life takes it's toll on ones sun bathing time....

I found these shoes today...

And they looked sooo sexy on! The ones in the store had a slim satin ribbon for laces and it was absolutely perfect. I was shopping for scarves, the Jeep has this wind factor and the hair ties in knots so I really wanted scarves to wear. I didn't want to spend and insane amount so I went to TJ Maxx and of course, there were all these other sections there...
Shoes, they'll get me every time. Plus these were Tahari and for what ever reason Tahari shoes and clothes fit me SO well. Perfect almost every time. Drives me nuts because Tahari is just not an inexpensive brand. Plus where in the world would I wear these things? The bedroom? I wear scrubs 5 days a week and the hubby is normally working on weekends. The weekends he's not working he's too tired to bother leaving the house and still goes to bed near 9pm. We have no night life, no reason to get dressed up. So after much emotional debate I put them back on the shelf. I did find a nice pair of tall black boots. For $7. Couldn't pass those up.

I also cam across this cute belt. It was an Ed Hardy and Ed is like my fav Rockabilly brand. It was pink and white with rhinestones and a chysanthemum painted on it. Same price as the shoes. I figured it was a choice of one or the other but I wasn't going to get both, that's just too much. Of course the belt was in an xs size and you know, I am no longer and xs gal. I had to at least try it on though, just in case, you never know! Off to the jeans section I went to find a pair of jeans like the ones I have at home and lo and behold there was a whole rack of Lucky Jeans. Lovely! I picked out a pair and then another inexpensive pair of another brand of jean with a regular waist. The Luckys (like mine at home) are those low waist things where the belt basically holds the jeans up around your waist because, lets face it, shape wise the jeans should fall off your ass when they are that low. If you have a waist. And I do. And then some. In the dressing room I went with 2 pairs of jeans and a belt. Funny, the belt fit, even in the Luckys. Well kinda in the Luckys. It made serious muffin top (I'm at my chunkiest right now, winters in Texas does my ass no favors) but the other jeans? Higher waisted, belt fit perfect. The jeans I really like too. Probably because it's been at least 10 years since I've found jeans that didn't fit below my natural waist line and didn't look like granny pants. So now, now I have me a pair of fat jeans. You know, every woman has a pair. A pair of jeans that no matter what, will always fit comfortably? This pair even has a bit of stretch to them. Rockin....

The end count by the time I made it to the register? 1 pair of jeans, 1 stupid expensive belt (still cheaper than the hubby's belt though so no big) 1 pair of tall black boots, and 4 scarves. My recommendation to all of you? Don't go shopping. It's like the gateway drug, only bad things will happen when you go shopping.

The belt, in all it's pink sparklie obnoxious glory...




Yes, that's one of those tigers like you see on tattoos, it's an Ed Hardey thing. Very Rockabilly.


Two of the 4 scarves. These are the pretty ones, the other two are black and brown, very plain but great for every day use



The $7 boots. Not nearly as awesome as the Tahari heels but a wee bit more practical in price and, sadly, will probably get more wear time too.

Ever wonder what if you did something else when you grew up?

One of the things my hunny makes fun of is the fact that I am one of the only people we know that actually does what they went to school for. I personally believe that is a direct result of not being a trust fund baby. I worked my ass off to get my degree, was married too an ass hat in the military, transferred in and out of a total of 7 colleges, yes 7, before completing my bachelors of science. I did get my associates in there somewhere. I paid for it all myself, including living expenses, so each and every semester unit was of my own doing. Yes, I'll be paying off my student loan well into my 50's but I didn't take one minute of that grueling battle for granted. No one, not one single soul, can tell me that they never had a chance at getting a college degree. I am living proof that you can do it on your own. It sucks but it can be done.

I have been thinking lately (not seriously) of what else I'd do if I wasn't doing what I was doing now. I had a discussion with a co-worker of mine today and he was talking about how college degree people were now working at places like McDonalds and that the services in places like these were now incredibly better. I haven't experienced this yet, our job market here is better than most so we still have the same raving morons working at the drive throughs but I could see how this could be an interesting twist. Fortunately for myself I have a few bazillion options for me that I've trained for if something bad would happen and I lost my job, before I would have to resort to Micky D's. Going through 9 years of college and several moves gives you a background in a plethora of job skills.

Anyway I was thinking, if I wanted to switch what I was doing, what is it that I would like to try? I've been an optimetric technician, a bank teller, a dog trainer, a vet tech (this is by far the best back up, there's always a need), and a bank teller (a very fun job), to name a few. But I contacted a friend from college recently. She is still trudging her way through college but she has 3 young kids so kudos to her for still being in. She is the purchasing person for Flying Dog Brewery. When I found that out I was like, OMG how cool is that!? I don't drink beer but I always had a fascination for it. In college one of our chemistry class field trips/assignments was to a local brewery (not Flying Dog, I don't know if they were even around then) but something like Blue Mountain I think. I can't remember, I'm too old and the hard drive that is my brain is too archaic and too small a capacity. Anyway that's when I learned that most brew meisters are chemists. I assumed they were either ex-frat boys or microbiologists. Silly me. Ever since then I've had this wild dream to be a brew meister. My husband would be so stoked, Irishman that he is.

So this prompts me to ask, what is it you'd pick now that you are grown up to be when you grow up? It may not be like me, who is geek enough to admit that I'd still desire to be something chemistry-y. No I mean if you had the chance and financial capability to be a tour guide for Disneyland, that kind of idea. Cruise ship driver? Fashion model photographer? Go ahead, your wildest insane job. The economy is shit, you may just get a chance to throw real practical jobs out the window. People are doing all over the place, I just read an article in CNN about it. Electrical Engineer loses her job and opens her own hair salon. I'm loving the changes and hope there are some good things to this crap economy like people who had these wild dream jobs but went with the conservative ones instead only to be tossed out when things got rough. Nothing quite like a forced second chance! So fess up, what do you want to be now that you're grown up?

Longhorns or Aggies?

It seems to be the big question in Texas. Since we are neither real Texans nor sports fans we really don't give a hoot but we see it all over. That and the Spurs. We find it really creepy when people have those full size Spurs players silhouettes in the back windows of their cars. WEIRD. Whatever.

Anyway I was looking at the hoop tape colors I had and realized I had both the Aggie and Longhorn colors and thought hey, that might be kind of entertaining for some you know, Texan? So I wrapped them and voila! I like the Aggies colors better, maroon and white is so much prettier than shit brown and orange don't you think? I covered most of the brown though with the fat sparklie orange and the slim white. The brown is just a wee bit of back ground now. I decided that the maroon was too subtle a tape, it's hockey tape (awesome stuff, great for hoops, sticks to the body wonderfully!) so it's a mat finish and really not all that spectacular as far as looks go so I made the base color for the hoop silver. Much more bling. Also the Aggies one I made as a collapsible hoop. It has 2 connectors so you can twist it in half and fold it much like those car shade covers. It's a stout tubing though and I haven't folded it a lot so I had to hold it down to take the picture, pardon the footsie. Sadly this is the most entertaining thing going on here, me taping up hoops while the dogs snore it up on my bed. Wazzup with that?




Oh and also, my friend Kim asked for me to make her one, her daughter likes purple so I wrapped one in a purple base. Kinda looks like grape kool aid color doesn't it?