configuring

no time for posting...
I have to get my desktop color coordinated, get my fonts all back to the way I like them. Oh...yeah and I suppose I could do that Oracle install too... well, we'll just see if we have time for that after I download custom screen savers and desktop themes.

Stepford-ized

Today (hopefully today) I am getting a sparky new machine here at work.
Our company was acquired recently and the new parent company is upgrading all of our machines, and standardizing them in the process.
I hear from others who have already been converted that the process is not necessarily painful, but there is an adjustment period.
There will be conformity, from the OS to the applications that we can install. There will be new limits imposed and certain software that we will no longer be able to use. Sounds a little restrictive, but those who are finished with their conversions seem to be ... well happier, more productive, even their cubicles are more tidy and efficient.
If I blog next week about how much I love my job and seem to be spending time trying to improve my corporate persona... please send help.

Yet another reason for Paxil

This should be a series of posts for me… “Reasons Weese needs Paxil”
Lets just say I have …issues.
Today’s anxiety brought to you by… snow.
Wait – let me explain.
I like snow. I find it pleasing to look at. I enjoy using my snow thrower - quite a bit actually. I like shoveling (well to an extent…which is why I have the snow thrower). I have no problems driving in snow. It's fun to play in and to walk in. I do love a good blizzard… getting snowed in at my favorite place, with my favorite people.
All that said, here is where it all falls apart.
Dirty snow.
Sheer torture for Weese.

The roads are completely covered in brown slush right now. There is literally 6 inches of evenly browned snow on the streets.
That brown slush gets into the driveway on our car tires and from the town plows.
It then drops in great smooshy, clumpy piles into the garage. These piles get stepped in…and you know what happens next. Yup. It gets tracked up my nice neatly shoveled and swept walk…onto our lovely tongue and groove fir porch floor... and then, THEN, it gets into the house! (wfhuu fhuuu… I am breathing into a small paper bag right now, whuuu fhuuu). Of course-- I require that shoes be removed, and I have a fleet of little rugs to catch what they can. But some gets through, you can’t be everywhere at every moment. Things happen…it does get in.
Then it leaves those filthy dried puddles of what was dirty snow, caked and gritty on the floor. And do you know what happens when you then step in that …oooooh yes,…it can get carried to other rooms. And the floors in those other rooms will then get gritty. You know this ruins the finish on the wood floors (which is a fantastically ridiculous thing to say…in light of living with the Free Dog – who by the way, gets her paws wiped every time she comes in when its raining or snowing or muddy, and is remarkably patient about it) not to mention that I can feel it underfoot. Grating. Gritty. Dirty.
Guess what I am doing tonight.
Vacuuming, mopping, shaking rugs… with my ever so patient wife wishing for Paxil.

squeeezed for time...again

SO much to say - no time to say it.
(by the time I find time...of course I will have forgotten what I wanted to say)

More to say tomorrow...if I remember.

Charles

Transplanting

Remember what I said about putting down roots and deciding to stay near where I grew up...and what a wonderful feeling it was to have such history in the same place, where my grandparents settled and my parents grew up and now my kids are growing up here...and blahdy blahdy blah....

Welp, it was 2 degrees yesterday, it's gonna be '-something' tomorrow, and I hear we are getting a foot and half of snow over the weekend.

Pulling up the roots and hauling them off to Miami is starting to sound really good.

Alma Mater

This weekend Ferris' wrestling tournament brought us to the high school I graduated from.
I have been back there over the years many times for other sporting events, and each year we attend the fireworks there and sit in the baseball field. But this is the first time in ... I believe since graduation, that I have been inside.
Of course we spent most of the day in a room I have very few memories of. Let's just say I was (am) not much of an athlete. Not to mention the HID-e-OUS gym uniforms we were required to wear back in the 70's (David...back me up here). Really, how could I subject myself to such humiliation each week. I had a reputation to keep up... and granted - those girls who were so fit and athletically inclined actually pulled it off in the poly-blend striped atrocities.... me... not so much. There was nothing attractive about me in a gym uniform.
Spending the hour outside in the smoking lounge suited me much more. (yes, we had a smoking lounge at high school...it was the 70's).
From the brief look I had outside the gym, everything looked pretty much the same. Actually, it looked exactly the same. Kinda scary.

(yes, David... it all looks the same. The commons, the bathrooms, the smoking lounge (altho its smoke free now), the lockers even look original.)

Lazy Friday

I did not blog today.
Instead I spent my lunch hour reading all YOUR blogs.

Also... I need to say
"Hi Sue!"

40 Meeelion Dollars

This is why I avoid the news. This is why I stay out of the political arena.
We have jagumbo deficit, hungry people, crumbling schools…
and yet we spend 40 million dollars on a party.
How is that ok?

A Wrestlers Story

As parents we are fairly involved in our kids sports – I actually plan to blog more about this later in the week... as lesbian parents we are probably …weeell… a bit over the top when it comes to our kids …and sports…and competition…and say …possible injury… --think about your mom, when you were in high school – now double her… scary huh.

But for now …a quick story from a recent wrestling match.
Ferris is a wrestler. He is a Jr. and this is his second year on the Varsity team.
His friday night match starts out and the guys are testing each other, getting a feel for who is stronger. Each trying to snap the other down to the mat. It's clear early on, Ferris is stronger. I have learned to see this moment in him; you can practically watch the realization wash over him.
His opponent is good so, even with Ferris dominating, the match is good to watch.
Coming into the second period Ferris is up by points, suddenly the other guy gets a Take Down. (For those who don’t know, you score two points for taking your opponent down to the mat and controlling him/her.)
So the guy is on top and working very hard to roll him onto his back to attempt a Pin. Ferris is calm – he is not struggling what so ever, as if he is patiently conserving energy. I turn to my clench-fisted wife and say “I think he is …waiting.”
He was. He was waiting for his moment. And when it happened… in one motion he so fluidly rolls his opponent up over his head onto his back wraps his arm around his neck for a headlock and starts to push his shoulders to the floor. Wrestlers often begin spin their opponents at this point to gain leverage to push them down for the pin …which is what Ferris started to do. As he is spinning with his opponent locked in his bent arm with no hope of escape… ever so close to the pin, he spins around to face the crowd….my wife’s telephoto lens trained on him…he lifts his head, looks straight at her – and smiles.
The crowd fell apart laughing.
Yup, that’s our boy.

(We are not yet sure if my wife’s sports lens captured the moment. I promise to post if it did)

Puppies and kittens eventually get old

Be very clear on this when falling in love with those furry little faces. So cute and playful and full of innocence. Of course- they destroy your house as toddlers, we expect this, it’s part of the package. Kittens with their razor sharp claws climbing up the curtains and inside the furniture. And puppies with their occasional piddles and relentless chewing on your slippers, socks and chair legs. We laugh through our annoyance. We say “oh. that little so and so did it again.” And we are grimacing…but then when they crawl into our laps, all tiny and fuzzy and tired --we melt. All is forgiven. Go buy new shoes.

But what we don’t see in their little bright eyes is their last days –when their eating becomes so finicky they are weak and wobbly. They loose their hair, their eyes weep with mucus, their sight is failing, and their cognizance is questionable. When the accidents happen not out of ignorance but of incontinence. They will vomit, and seize and bleed and not sleep through the night. There are no convalescent homes or visiting nurses. There’s no way to ask questions, no way to know how long it will go on. You just keep trying new food, wiping up the mess, helping them out the door because they forgot they had to ‘go’ and wait. Yes, we wait. We wait for the end, or we wait for a sign or we wait to make a decision or we wait …because there is nothing else to do but wait, and clean and wipe and feed and sweep and wait.
Your puppies and kittens will get old.

So much to blog, so little time

My wife and I had what is turning into a regular thing on Friday nights at our house.
We walk in from work and rather than beginning to prepare a meal, she will start cutting up stuff in snack size bites that usually can be eaten with or without a cracker underneath. I open a bottle of red for her and a brew for myself. And there we are in the kitchen, drinking and snacking and talking like we haven't spoken in weeks. Sometimes one or both kids will wander in and snack and/or drink for awhile with us. We often end up sitting on the counters, or on the little step stool we use to reach high cabinets. These nights often spawn some of our funniest, most interesting, deepest or even silliest of conversations. This particular Friday night we never left the kitchen... never got to starting that fire we talked about - we just stayed and talked and talked until it was bed time.
During the twisty, winding course of our conversations we touched upon several subject I wanted to blog about.
Now if I could only find the time.

Pet Hospice - update

Quick update on the state of our pets.

First, a quick review - our pets include:
1) Free Dog, who sheds profusely, has a keen interest in landscaping and enjoys getting 'out' as often as possible - but who is also otherwise healthy.
Then
2) Small Dog, the 6 pound MinPin, is really more like a large rodent than a small dog, who is in kidney failure.
And finally
3) Miracle Cat, who can pull off being cool and aloof while cuddling and purring, living with sinus cancer.

Free Dog has been healthy and has had no recent breakouts. And really...we have spent enough time talking about her lately.

Small Dog, diagnosed last spring with kidney failure, is holding up well. The vet said she would not have long at all if she didn't eat the 'special' kidney food. Well she hasn't eaten it. She is going bald, and pees constantly...but other than that seems rather content.

Then there is the Miracle Cat. He was diagnosed with sinus cancer last winter. He was in really bad shape, the vet suggested we may want to ease his misery. We chose to wait. He started to improve. He started to improve so much in fact that come spring we realized we needed to give him some flea/tick protection. Unfortunately, we made a critical error in dosage, and gave him the dogs dose instead...the big dogs dose. It was horrible, he had seizures and was shaking so bad it was hard to hold him. We called the ASPCA Poison Control Center. They were wonderful, they advised us to put him on muscle relaxers, scrub him with Dawn dish detergent, and wait. Not only did he get through it, but his symptoms from sinus cancer subsided. He started to go outside, catch mice, taunt the dogs...he seemed fine all summer.
We think of it now as his chemo treatment.

About a month ago his symptoms returned. He sounds heavily congested, he drips blood from his nostrils and worst of all last week he stopped eating.
We were very concerned. We started to discuss our 'options'. It was that bad.
My ever patient wife has been trying to feed him all sorts of things with no luck.
Until two days ago - she got him to eat baby food of all things. Yup, pureed lamb in a jar. He loved it. Yesterday, he seemed ravenous. He ate more baby food (beef this time) and cat food as well.
I can't explain it. I won't even try.
So, as usual, we just go along for the ride the universe is taking us on.

Useless Pondering

On my slow ride into work this morning (the roads were slick), I had some time to ponder.
I passed a house with a sign on the front lawn for a decorating/wallpaper company - it seems they were doing work inside this house. Altho, I have no real proof of that...since I didn't see any wallpaper on the outside, or even any new paint.
Now tell me, what is the point then of the sign on the front lawn.

Do they expect me to just drop in on these folks and check out their work?
Perhaps it's that if I admire the exterior of the house I will assume they must have some terrific decorating sense and why wouldn't I want to hire the same wallpaper folks that they used.
Or maybe I am supposed to call the number on the sign and ask if they did a good job there?
Seemed odd to me.

Some light reading this afternoon

Thanks to my wife for these links:

"Twenty-Six Years: Those Magic Words"

Second Generation: LGBT Kids of LGBT Parents

"Learning about the Trans Community"

Good use of cash

I love it when people with money actually use their money wisely.

Tree in a bag?!

Take a LIVE Christmas tree ... a 100%, all natural, bio-degradable Christmas tree... and put it in a HUGE plastic bag by the road.

Ugh.

The dearest of friends

Who's got better friends than us?
When my sniffly wife couldn't keep our New Years plans, our friends simply postponed the event.
Last night was New Years Eve at our house!

We watched Regis counting down in the Big Apple, and were even able to pause at 15 seconds while we called Ferris into the room for the New Years toast.

Fab.