Furby Wranglings

Last week and a half was crammed with bad news: Thanksgiving went all right, had a nice visit/meal with Husband's Aunt. I'd planned to go visit Mom on Saturday, but Riza started acting up about 20 minutes into the trip. It started with the Cruise Control suddenly conking out; I tried a couple times to reset it, but it didn't take. A little later Riza started experiencing odd jerks and surges; my immediate thought was transmission problems (I admit it, I'm paranoid about my cars' transmission systems). While I might have made it to Mom's, I didn't like the idea of driving 90 miles home in the dark under those conditions. So I pulled over at the next exit, stopped the car, turned off the engine and called both Mom and Husband to let them know I was turning around and why. I was very disappointed, because as I told Mom, 'I had a cooler full of Thanksgiving I wanted to share with her'. Oddly enough, there were NO problems during the trip back, which leads me to think (and my Goodyear mechanic to provisionally agree) that it may have been my cruise control still acting up, because I did try to re-set it several times before pulling over and turning off the engine, which would have cancelled any CC commands in the system. My mechanic advised me NOT to take any trips out of town until he could check it out, which will be this coming Wednesday.

One good thing that resulted: Husband took me to see "Ghostbusters-Afterlife" that evening to make up for my disappointment. Great movie! I thoroughly enjoyed it. Cast, Director and Special Effects were all A +....

The REAL bad news starts here.

Older sister is in the hospital. Before Thanksgiving she'd finally gone in to get those odd masses in her lungs biopsied. Still don't know what they actually are, other than slightly larger than five years ago. But following the Biopsy procedure, Older Sister was in almost constant pain and occasionally coughing up blood. Mom and Younger Sister basically forced her to the doctor's office Wednesday (after she tried to cancel the follow-up visit 'because she hurt too much') and she was admitted. Several scans later, they discovered fluid not in her lungs, but in the lung cavity. The plan was to transfer her to a larger hospital where they could drain the fluid, and maybe start treatment for whatever is going on with the lungs. But, larger hospital had no beds available, so Friday local hospital did their best to drain the fluid with some success, but Older Sister is still in some pain. Mom is worried, I'm worried, Younger sister is Worried. Maybe by Monday the doctors will have some idea on how to go forward.

Thursday, we heard about college friends: Rafe, who was on the college radio station staff, bookstore frequenter, Friday night D & D player, and one of the founding members of our local SCA chapter, and his 2nd wife were apparently murdered by her adult son sometime over the Thanksgiving weekend. One of their local friends had asked the county sheriff to do a welfare check, and the bodies were discovered Wednesday. I actually was not that close to Rafe (Husband barely knew him outside the SCA), but he was one of the core members of the group I tended to hang out with in college; Bree, Emtae and Cobett had all reconnected with him over Facebook in the last five years or so and would occasionally share news with the rest of us. We had supper with Bree Friday night and reminisced about the college days; she plans to go to the services on December 18th.

From Bree we heard details about our friend Julie, who is in the hospital in St. Louis with seizures. About 10 years ago she'd had surgery to remove a tumor from an optic nerve, with the immediate result of seizures (they had to go in through her brain) and blindness. Eventually she regained vision in one eye, and the seizures were under control, and for the past five years or so she'd been doing really well. From what we were told, the doctors were trying to reduce one or more of her meds to alleviate some unwanted side effects. Poor Julie! Her husband (another college friend) has been a rock of support. It just isn't fair that they have to go through this again!

Aaannnnd, closer to home: Cobett's general health has deteriorated to the point where he is actively considering going into Assisted Living Care.

Can we start the month over??? This is too much for the beginning of December!!!

At least Jethro's ear infection has finally cleared up.... and I thought Bel was fussy about the daily ear drops!

... Probably because of the post- Thanksgiving snow.

Wow, last week was great! Three of my long-time friends from LJ turned up suddenly; I'm sorry that the recent Tumblr problems seem to be the catalyst, but I can't help being glad. mister_terrific, nenya85, and imagines  -- so good to see you all....  Actually, all three of you predate my LJ involvement, so that's twice we've re-connected..... It would be wonderful if more of the old crowd from Doctor Who, RGB  and YGO fandoms showed up eventually, but for now I'll count my blessings.

ETA: And dragondancer5150  turned up Tuesday after being MIA for about 8 months.... *waves 'Hi!'*

I spent part of this past weekend getting odd looks from passing drivers, because of the HUGE Toy Bear in Adric's back seat.  Husband and I picked him up Thursday evening at COSTCO as a 'we love you' present for a friend who has had a rough time ever since her husband passed away two years ago -- most recently undergoing chemotherapy for cancer.  The Bear pretty much stayed in the car overnight and during the day on Friday, because we really had nowhere else to stash him, although Friday night he had to come inside because Husband and I went out for supper with friends.  J's reaction when Husband gave her The Bear Saturday night --- first she laughed, almost ROTFL, then she cried a little, and then she started laughing again while Husband  had a pseudo conversation with The Bear about whether he thought we needed to buy more honey next time we shopped for groceries. That was a BIG Toy Bear; he would have been taller than Husband if he'd been standing up!  J thought he was wonderful.

As I mentioned to someone recently, I tried to clear out our manga closet not that long ago with the intention of taking the manga that we (make that 'I', because I don't dare touch Husband's collection) no longer had an interest in (mostly discontinued by American publishers, or Yaoi which I am now a bit embarrassed in that I acquired so much of it), and take the various titles in to Books A Million' s used book buyer.  This past weekend I managed to purge the rest of the shelves and hauled away three large totes and two smaller bags nearly overflowing.  The B.A.M. person took them all, including the 'Boys Love' books, which surprised me a bit.... $37 worth, which promptly went into the Christmas Shopping billfold.  I sort of wish Husband would go through HIS stacks -- at least one or two of them.... it's so tempting to say,"'He'll never miss these; probably doesn't even remember he has them", but knowing him he'd ask me 6 months from now if I 'd  seen such and such, and I've always been a lousy liar.  Better not to go there.

On the family front: Husband is currently on his annual 'Use it or Lose it' vacation time, and trying to catch up on his sleep again before January.  Daughter has been working an average of three days a week -- the company won't assign more hours because then they'd have to pay benefits to Full Time employees.... Youngest Sister and her Husband came up to Mom's for Thanksgiving because Da Niece went to her boyfriend's parents, and Da Nephew was doing the away-game marching band thing in West Virginia, I think it was.... We had a long day, because first we went up to Aunt Marie's, then swung down and around to Mom's for Supper.  Older Sister and Younger Sister were there as well, and it was generally a pretty good family visit.  

On the knitting front: Currently have a cowl for Friend S, plus the second of a pair of slipper socks for Older Sister on the needles; both intended for Christmas prezzies. 3 hats, two pairs of mittens, and two pairs of socks ended up of the PW Mitten (& Socks & Hats) Tree.  I need more practice (and simpler patterns) with the socks, I think.  That second pair looked a bit odd, but hopefully it will fit someone. I have  SO  MUCH  YARN  its not funny!  And it seems like every time I try to clean, I find MORE!!!

Books: Older sister gave me a bag of books to take to the Used Book Store, and of course I went through them first.  A bunch of supernatural romances (which I'm not interested in) and volumes 1 through 6 of Naomi Novik's 'Temeraire' series (did I spell that right?) which were once described to me as "Dragonriders of Pern meet the Sharpe Saga". Well, they aren't, which is good, because that description, left me going 'meh'; they aren't too bad, actually. Another series I've discovered are by Alan Bradley  -- which I've described to others as being like "Wednesday Addams does the 'Miss Marple' thing".... 

Can't really think of anything else to add right now.  

Love you all!!!

Well, I think I've heard directly or indirectly from all my family and friends in the path of this past week's horrible weather -- WHEW!

( Run Away NOW if You Have NO Interest in YGO or TW crackfic )


Well, I guess it's time to get out the bleach and disinfectant and go to work on the basement. Ugh.

Later!

OKay, earlier today I left a comment on a friend's LJ, basically wishing her a good time at the fan convention she just arrived at, and asking her to say hello to 'the gang' for me, especially Peter if he was attending. A little bit of background: several years ago I was fairly active fannishly in several different fandoms, most notably Real Ghostbusters, Highlander:TS, and the StarWars LARP group at Media*WestCON. People who rarely saw each other except for at MWC but who communicated via smail-mail, letterzines, YAHOO-Lists/Groups, forming unlikely but enduring friendships, yadda yadda yadda....

( only if you're really interested in some weird image association )


(Sometimes, it gets VERY Strange inside my mind)

Last night my husband talked to our friend up at NIU, checking in to see how she was doing (she'd fallen and fractured her wrist in January, plus of course the NIU thing); ironically she'd just gotten home from helping her mom sort flood damaged stuff from the river ice-jam two weeks ago! So after scolding her mildly for hitting town and not calling us, Husband asked her to call our friend (the one with the DJD and protruding disk) and try to talk some sense into him, since SHE'D undergone fused Vertabrae surgery about 15 years ago. See, Husband and Bruce were best buds through Jr. and High school; and Sue, Bruce and I all were English Majors at the same Liberal Arts college --

Any way, tonight Bruce called us and practically the first thing he did was to thank us for asking Sue to call him! She'd also called another local college pal, who then called Bruce too! Long Story short, Bruce seems to be feeling a whole lot better about the whole situation; when he came to supper Saturday evening he was in a VERY morbid mood; so atleast something good came from the weekend!

Tonight we finished putting together the cherry veneer bookcases for the living room and wrestled them into place. We figure large heavy books on the lower shelves and DvDs on the upper shelves, which means we can started hauling boxes and tubs down from the attic and in from the garage and just maybe! we'll find the blasted Title to the Mobile Home so that we can actually LEGALLY sell it!!! Right now, we'd be happy just to recoup the Lot Rent costs for the past three months. It IS livable, especially now that spring and warm weather are around the corner, but it does need work; and while we'd really prefer to sell to someone who'd live in it, we're afraid that we'll end up selling to the Park management who will most likely tear it down, because there are so many other empty trailers in the park in better condition that aren't being rented...

Okay, change subject, I don't want to go to bed depressed again!
Anyone got a fun meme I can filch?

Despite a fairly productive weekend in terms of cleaning, unpacking and rearranging in the house, I am mildly depressed. A dear and longtime friend of both Husband and I was diagnosed this past week as having a degenerative joint disease and a slipped disc in the back. Surgery is most likely imminent and our friend is not coping with it at well....

On the fandom/fanfic front, one of my favorite BBM authors has apparently started deleting her LJ journal, including a delightfully wicked tour de foursome that I wanted to read again, only to discover most of the Journal entries prior to February 2008 were gone! *whimper*

Likewise, one of the incredibly talented BBM fan artists has taken down the galleries of her brilliant RPS graphic novel -- she explained why in her LJ, and I completely understand why, and respect her reasons.... but, again, *whimper*

I thought about working on one of my YGO stories tonight to try to cheer myself up, but I'm tired and smell like a bonfire (we were burning trash this afternoon in the alley) so I think instead I'll take a shower and go to bed.

To Skyla and Lediz!

Hippo birdie two ewes

Hippo birdie two ewes

Hippo birdie deer ewe

Hippo birdie two ewes!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(and don't let the bakasaru eat all the cake; he'll get a tummy-ache)

I know a couple of people on the f-list have complained about Rich Text Format, but the last couple of days I've had a non-functioning "Back" arrow on LJ... WTF?

HUGS to Planetgal... glad you're home safe, dear heart!

b73 - hope you get home safely too! Looking forward to more 'Painter/Rancher Boyz' soon... Hugs!

reziac - GLOMP!

Our power was out for maybe ten hours, due to the Ice Storm over Saturday night... got it back Sunday morning but a lot of people weren't so lucky. Sunday afternoon the roads were clear enough that I took Daughter to see "Ghost Rider" -- I'm not a big Nicholas Cage fan, but he did a good job, and I felt it was one of the better comic-book based movies produced so far. Okay, maybe a little too much icky CGI towards the end, but I'm a bit squeamish when it comes to rapidly disintegrating bodies. I'd give it two thumbs up, over all.

Later!