Category: Uncategorized (Page 17 of 114)

Yeah, I’m a self-proclaimed princess. My dad called me princess my whole life. So I guess it’s only fitting that I get a crown, right?

eeeeyeah.
Hrmph.

Have to admit, I was hoping for something more along the lines of precious metals and jewels (which, I suppose is still possible if I get a grill), but indeed, I am destined for a crown of the porcelain nature. Sigh. My dentist showed me the crack in my tooth (going from the inside outward), and it did look pretty bad. (My liberal arts training right there, who needs to study all those books…..) He was a bit on the fence, it was right at the minimum (or maximum), depending on how you look at it, but in the long run, I’d be risking a root canal, and those cost more than crowns, are more painful & have a greater exposure for infection.
SO! Crown it is. Someone, somewhere, in a lab far, far away, is crafting me a custom-fit crown for my molar, and I’ll be getting it installed early June.

My jaw is nice & sore today, from the drilling out of the old cavity, and of course having a syringe the size of an ice pick inserted into my lower mandible. I have remnant stress, too, from tensing my muscles. Good times! I feel like I’m entering the phase of life where all we do is shuffle from one specialist and medical situation to the next. You know, the phase that happens right before DEATH. At least I’ve had three nights of cough-free sleep! But my doctor still hasn’t gotten my new prescription phoned in, so I’m trying to reduce my stress and not skyrocket my blood pressure. Jesus. I’m seriously one step away from talking about bursitis and heel spurs, aren’t I????

In any event, the sun has reappeared for at least a short time, and I think everyone in town is just a smidge happier because of it. We were seriously getting close to flood levels of yesteryear, and the Weather Channel has been having calf upon foal in our area, what with the tornadoes and rainfall and flooding. I don’t want to speak for everyone (but I will), when I say that I think we all just want a little normal right now. Just a day or three. Normal, level everything. Weather, health, gas prices, general human interactions. I’ll truly just settle for the weather right now, and if anyone can make that happen, it’s Jim Cantore. C’mon Jim. Thousands are counting on you. I’ll even make you a weather crown.

Well, it’s a Monday, that’s for sure. I have a dentist appointment today (one that I’ve already rescheduled once), to get a cavity pried out & either re-filled, or a crown put on. For the first time in my life, I don’t want a crown!

Add to that a nasty headache that resists all forms of treatment – Excederin, Water…. and work things are bursting into flame, so I just want to bury my head in a pillow (possibly bite it) and sleep, sleep, sleep. The bonus is that I’ve now had two nights of blissful, cough-free sleep. Go allergist dude for identifying the meds as the culprit!

Oof. It’s a Monday all right. I’ve got a case of ’em, too.

Shit, that’s what they’d probably put on my tombstone, if I were to have one. Except I guess it would have to say ‘Large & Not In Charge Anymore’. And speaking of tombstones, I don’t want one, fyi. Back to taking the reins, sometimes when you feel really off-kilter and out-of-sorts, the best thing you can do is TAKE CHARGE. And that’s what I did today. Bam! Boom! Thwack! (No people or animals were harmed in the Taking of the Charge.) Felt good. Got rid of the crazies that were fluttering around like drunken moths obscuring the light from my soul.

Speaking of crazy, My Friend Kristin has some sort of restraint. Yesterday on HER morning commute, a crazy woman stood in the middle of the intersection and started taking her clothes off while talking wildly to noone in particular. If :I: had seen that, you bet your bippity I’d have had my camera phone out so fast you wouldn’t have even had time to SPELL crazy. Blog Fodder, posting by 9 a.m.! Crazy People! Disrobing! Not me for once!

Well, it’s day #139 of overcast and rainy, and yes, that’s a grotesque exaggeration, it’s only been two days of it, but still. I know we all need rain and clouds and April Showers Bring May Flowers, but embroider that shit on a pillow, I need some SUN! Not baking, broiling, stifling heat (we had to put the a/c on for one. whole. day!) but just nice beams of sunshine and Vitamin D and a little drying out and really, in the end, this is all about the tempo of the wiper blades. When it’s not pouring rain, you put the wipers on “intermittent”. And then there’s a gauge for “super long pause intermittent” on one end, and “why aren’t you just kicking it up to regular wiper speed intermittent”. And finding the perfect balance in-between, the exact point where the wipers clear your windshield without allowing too much rain to collect, people, this is frustrating to find. And I’m tired of playing the What’s My Proper Wiper Speed game while I’m trying to drive, and slowing for school zones and looking at Ward Parkway and then add to that, I’m now on watch for insane people pulling their shirts off. The burdens. How does one smaller than I bear them, I ask you? :sniff: It’s difficult to even imagine it.

(I’m feeling verbose AND dramatic and that can only lead to one thing: bizarro blog entries!)

Unbeknownst to me last Saturday night, I witnessed a burglary.

I had gone to pick up some dinner, kind of late, because I’d gotten all wrapped up again in my plantings, so it was around 7:30, 7:45. As I headed for 99th Street, I looked over to where the KC Gardener’s Association plant sale had been, and saw people loading the plants into their cars. Of course, I thought they were volunteers, because every year after the plant sale, the leftover plants are taken to the association chair’s home, where they are sold at half price. The Wo and his buddy Eric were going to go over to his house Monday after work, and I even remember thinking, “Wow, they had a lot of plants leftover, the guys will have fun on Monday looking at them all!”

Nope.

Jerkballs, thieves, assholes, you pick the noun – they loaded up all the plants into their cars and STOLE THEM. From a non-profit organization. $7,000 worth of plants. James and Eric discovered this when they went by the chair’s house last night. And imagine my surprise to discover I’d watched it happen.

I said to James this morning, “Well, certainly the police will investigate that, given how much the plants were….” and I trailed off, because of course, the value of the things stolen from OUR home last year was more than that. And nobody ever followed up or did anything to make me feel like an ounce of effort was being put into finding the culprits. So I’m just saying. When I rule the world, things like this will be given the attention they deserve. Part of me wishes I’d been feeling my usual chatty self and gone over and chirped at those people, maybe gotten a better look or even an inkling that they were up to no good. Of course, who knows. They might have been armed plant robbers, and god only knows how badly they wanted all these plants. It’s just a damn shame, because it’s their only fundraiser and you want to believe that the hobbies of gardening, or knitting, attract and retain only good moral people, but we know people steal yarn, steal knitted samples, and now we know they steal plants.

Maybe instead of a head smack, they should get a cactus smackin’. Where it counts.

Finished Object:

I finished the second chemo cap for my co-worker; the yarn is Noro Lily (silk/cotton) and it’s simply scrumptious. It took just over one skein to make the hat. The pattern is the Amelia Earhart Aviator Cap and I think it’s super cute. The lines are really unique, and the pattern is VERY well-written. I love when a pattern says “repeat rows 2 & 3 thirteen times” – and then gives you the row-by-row steps anyway. It whipped right up over the weekend, and now I’m on to the third (and final) hat out of mercerized cotton. It’s like penance, really, all this knitting with cotton.

Tonight’s going to be fun – the Wo and I are headed up to Sugar Creek to take our class to be certified KC BBQ judges! I have no idea what to expect, and I am a little afraid I will have to learn cuts of meat under pressure. I always have to look up the diagram to understand where exactly what particular cut comes from which section. Hope there isn’t a test at the end! Oh, lord. Now I’m over-thinking it and starting to stress out. Heh. I did a search yesterday to find the building where the class is located, and I landed on a web page that was titled, “Original Village People to appear at Sugar Creek Slavic Festival”. I seriously read the page three times, searching for more information about the Original Village People, because who doesn’t love the campy “YMCA” and the costumes???? Ohhhhh. They meant something else. They are just featuring PEOPLE. From a VILLAGE. ORIGINALLY. I tell ya, it just shows how we process information, we start with what we THINK we know and what we expect to see, and it can take you places far, far removed from the truth and reality of a situation! I must admit, the Slavic Festival seemed like a strange venue for the Village People.

And last, but not least, Shanny had this on her blog, and I decided to take the little quiz. Turns out she and I are polar opposites, and are warned to beware each other. I guess it means you shouldn’t make your friends based on quizzes!!!

You Are the Thumb

You’re unique and flexible. And you defy any category. Mentally strong and agile, you do things your own way. And you do them well. You are a natural leader… but also truly a loner. You inspire many but connect with few. You get along well with: The Middle Finger Stay away from: The Pinky

I’m simply shocked I’m not THE middle finger.

That’s just a word of caution, in case you wanna woo-sahhhh with me in person. I had a slice of garlic bread at lunch and the vampires will be steering clear of me for the rest of the day, undoubtedly! God, I love me the Cupini’s…..

I keep forgetting it’s Friday the 13th, and while I’m not terribly superstitious, I’m pretty adamant about nothing bad happening today. Or if it does have to happen, then it’s gotta be TODAY. I am ready for the past seven days to be over with, because they were drama-filled, stupid, and irritating. I keep erasing what I’d LIKE to say, because there’s nothing to be gained from it. I need to move on from the stupidity, I’m just going to let it go. Garlic Wooooooo saaaahhhhhhh. Having a clear conscience and the support of great friends helps a lot.

I taught my class last night at The Studio, and Chelle, Molly & Julie all were great students. Laura was also a huge help! We had lots of laughs, I showed them a couple little tricks & shared my notes and thoughts on Lizard Ridge & things to keep in mind – and was so glad I had this blog to go back over, since most of my notes were in posts as I made it. There was a crazy moment when everyone had left & I was turning out the lights where I realized…. I’m alone. In a yarn shop. (Am I dreaming?) Usually when I go there, it’s over lunch or right after work, and there’s almost always a handful (or if there’s a sale, a gobful) of people there and sometimes you do the back-and-forth hustle dance with someone who’s coming the other direction and is also interested in the sock yarn :) It was so quiet, and if I hadn’t been hungry for dinner, I bet I’d have given some of my favorite yarns a zen-moment petting….. probably for the best I didn’t indulge, because right after I left, the manager’s husband showed up to take care of a couple things, and it would have been really dorky to be caught with my head in a tub of cashmere….. Hi there! Just me! Bobbin’ for Artyarns! aaaaand guess who’ll never teach in this town again?! (Can’t you hear the whispers? “She was on the floor with all the Noro….” “I heard she was wearing a Colinette kit like a wig!”)

Today’s a bit languid – most of our work is going to hit next week with a vengeance, and both the bosses are out getting Lasik! We’ll be renaming ourselves the Eagle-Eyed Ad Agency if enough people here get it. I can’t wait to hear about their experiences. And, even though it’s going to be totally gross and SNOWY and yecchy, I’m looking forward to spending the weekend getting caught up on my shows, finishing my summer hat & starting on a chemo cap for a co-worker who will undergo three weeks of the nasty stuff. She’s going to do a blog about her experiences & I’ll link to it (if she’d like) when she’s ready. She & her husband just had a baby, and if not for the baby, they wouldn’t have found the cancer, so their little one’s a bit of a miracle bambino, and mom’s prognosis is great because the cancer was still in an early stage. It’s strange how the word “cancer” sometimes makes tears spurt out of my eyes, and then other times, it seems like just another word. I still cope pretty much the same way: knit, knit, knit.

Have a wonderful weekend yourself, and if you’re carrying anger or irritation around in your heart, let yourself get rid of it, if even for only an hour, and see how it feels. We can make our own luck – and mental peace – even on Friday the 13th!

woooooosahhhhhhhhhh and quit backing away from me. ;)

….if there’s a dummy or something else to retrieve. James got her to do her fearless launch from the diving board on the swimming dock this weekend, and I took a series of pictures of both dogs going on retrieves. (Suzy had no desire to get on the diving board!)

The first pictures we took, Polly launched straight at me! She totally splashed me & I love the reflection of her on the water, pre-splash.

You can click through and see the photos on Flickr; we had a really nice weekend at the lake. I got through the anniversary of the day my dad called to tell us he had cancer (April 7. Interestingly enough, his wife Brenda told me she’d gone through it on Wednesday. Dad waited several days to tell me, always his style – protect, slowly reveal, etc.) James’ grandmother gave me an extra-long hug when we left, just to let me know she understood. We talked about how sadness fades a bit, and how time does make things better. I really wasn’t sad this weekend until we started watching the Sopranos last night, and I remembered one of my last conversations with dad, how he wanted to know how it all ended, and would he live to see it. The opening music brought tears to my eyes, and then it passed. The unexpected moments. The nice thing is, they balance out. Watching the sheer zest and drive in my dog was a very joyful thing.

File Under: I Don’t Need To Know Any More, Thanks, originally uploaded by plazajen.

Yeah. If you can’t read the marquee, it says, “We Have All You Need To Do A ‘Master Cleanse'”. Some things just don’t belong on marquees.

Update: HAH! Don’t you love how the light is yellow, and I am in the middle of the intersection? Yet still photographing for posterity. I’m DEDICATED. Plus it was the first chance I’d had to turn. Oncoming traffic was nuts. And yes, JWo, it was a Wild Oats that had the mouse droppings in it (but the other location). Perhaps the “Master Cleansing” requires special ingredients, eh?

Just for the hell of it, I clicked on my “N.W.A., Straight Outta Compton” album in my iTunes. I’m sooooo Michael Bolton from Office Space. (In fact I typed it “Out Of”. I’m SUCH a poser.)

However, my rap-hating office neighbor DID retract his assumptions about my musical taste – for some reason he thought I was ‘All Rap, All The Time’, and then he jumped on my shared folder – all he could say was, “You have the most eclectic collection I’ve ever seen.” Probably the only thing missing is much in the way of country. Just not a c/w kinda gal – more bluegrass and folk if you want to pull something similar & related.

I prefer to think of this as getting in the mood for the long-awaited premiere of “The Shield” tonight on F/X. If you can handle the violence, and haven’t seen this show? Get thee the Netflix series immediately. It’s unequivocally the best show on television, and I also love The Sopranos and The Wire. Vic Mackey, we’re waitin’. Mutha F tha po-lice.

Yeah. I’m bad.

I just got home from a two-day new business road trip adventure.

We stayed in a castle/lodge….. and kept expecting someone to show up wearing a corset and carrying a platter of turkey legs. Our car actually got into town first, and we all went out to dinner – we met the second car back at the hotel, and all galloped at our co-workers on our imaginary horses, ala Monty Python. I think we were just exceptionally punchy by that part of the day……

I switched cars for the ride home and got to experience what exiting – and re-entering – earth’s atmosphere must feel like for the astronauts. My boss drives the Nissan Quest like a rocketship. There were some stretches of road where my fellow astronaut and I joked that the o-rings were going to melt, and he thought he saw some tiles peeling off the sides of the car. Just kidding! But we made excellent time, and really, when all you want is to be home in your pj’s, speed is not a problem.

Now I’m going to bed, and the only thing that would be better than the fact tomorrow’s Friday? Is if it were SATURDAY. Snooze, glorious snooze……