drumming, reading, watching

As I sit here, there is much drumming. 

School starts next week for the local kids. I've noticed activity has begun at the nearby high school. This morning, on my morning jog, a large pack of teenagers -  x-country practice, no doubt - made their way along the path. 

And now, the drumming. Marching band percussion sectional happening. Yep, summer break's as good as done.

My two-week break is coming to a close as well. I've enjoyed the lack of commitments. As mentioned, my reading challenge continues. I've completed 31 of 26 (goal) books so far this year. Here are the latest titles since the last report.

Bad Tourists was a mystery thriller that I audiobooked while doing boring things around the house. The rest were book books. I've started writing down quotes that I like from books I'm reading. I'm not much into the mystery thrillers, but will get an audiobook, figuring there won't be anything I particularly care to write down.

Note that there were a pile of DNF's in the meantime, and none of these 6 that made the cut disappointed me.

Hotshot and Wildfire Days were both memoirs written by women firefighters. I learned some stuff about fire suppression and mitigation while also getting some good drama. I am currently reading [Lab Girl] by Hope Jahren - another memoir with stuff to teach me about plants and dirt.

So speaking of which, Magnum and took another play day and went up to Helms Deep yesterday to commune with the plants and dirt. 

I love the quiet up there - no sounds but our struggles and wheezing as we smooth out a few areas for us humans - along with the animal noises. No cows this time, but some deer came along to be nosey. Adolescents loosing their fluffy fawn fur in patches. A couple of hawks circled overhead looking for lunch/sizing us up.

We have a trail cam in place, and had several captures - mostly deer.

See the twins trailing Mom?

Daddy?

Trail cam also picked up a few individual members of this strange pack.

granny and square

I was stressed out in kindergarten. 

I still feel the anxiety from it, 55 years after the fact. The cause? I didn't know how to tie my shoes. 

I knew that learning to tie shoes was on the kindergarten syllabus. However, I didn't realize that a lot of my classmates would already know how to accomplish this feat. This was in the ancient times - before velcro shoes. 

So there I was. Behind the curve. 

We were each provided a flat cardboard "shoe" - adorned with our name - with actual laces so as to learn by doing. Once we accomplished the task successfully, our shoes were pinned to the bulletin board of fame.

I watched in apprehension as a good number of classmates made their neat little bows, and their honorific shoes were pinned. Meanwhile, I struggled. Eventually, I tied an ugly but functional bow, and my shoe made the bulletin board at last.

Just recently, only about a month ago, I learned I've been doing it wrong this whole time. Who knew?!

"Square knot" is the correct way, and I've been doing "Granny knot" this whole time. 

In short, if your first knot is right over left, your "bunny ears" knot should be left over right or vice versa. The knots should be opposite direction, never right - right or left - left. 

This link provides a quick demo:

https://youtube.com/shorts/sCEaXpOLFlo?si=Dsf8i1dg0JuItOJV

All these years, I'd been a right-righter. But no more! And no more having to double tie! So freeing.

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This week was grey and cold here, but we can't complain while watching what's going on in LA.  My Father-in-law and his wife evacuated from their home in Pasadena to stay with Step-mother-in-law's daughter, not that far away. Apparently, they've been cleared to return home.

And today is sunny and clear here. I went out for a pleasant escapist run this morning - shoes expertly tied. 

We get an average of 300 days of sunshine per year here, so we're spoiled and get whiney on overcast days. I was so enjoying the sun, I stopped to get a pic of this horse's ass.

smell something?

Happy Memorial Day, to honor fallen servicemen and women - not to mention the unofficial kick-off to summer - to the Americans.

On Saturday, Magnum and I took a bike ride and stopped by the university to see Cosmo the Corpse flower. We rolled right up to a small inconspicuous building, racked the bikes, and walked on in amid the anticipation of the big smelly bloom.

It was a lovely setting, this little white building in the middle of campus. I've probably bicycled passed it many times, not knowing of the treasures inside.

We were there around noonish, and while Cosmo was clearly up to something, no bloom to be seen nor smelt.  As it happened, it bloomed full out later that evening, becoming most putrid around 10:30pm

SOURCE

I got this screen grab from the livestream in case we find ourselves in need of an alibi.

The building was a smallish tropical residence for Cosmo and his roommates. There was a banana tree - I'd never seen one before - as well as a pomogranate bush? Tree? Not sure, but there were pomogranates growing from it. And lots of other cool plants certainly not native to Colorado.

This is Bruno the slider turtle, hanging out in the Koi pond, probably wondering what all the hubbub was about.

So we enjoyed the tour of the little place, geeking out a bit on all of the science going on. Among other things, there was a "proton-transfer-reaction chemical ionization mass spectrometer (PTR-MS)" set up to detect and analyze the awful smells about to emerge.

As expected, the little building was descended upon yesterday by the masses who'd been following Cosmo's progress. We rode by and the line wrapped around a corner with no end in sight. Observers were told to bring water and snacks and sunscreen as the wait would be a long one. We kept on a-ridin'.

Cosmo's bloom is already flopping away as seen in the continuing [livestream], and the plant will soon whither and go dormant in the fall. 

See ya, Cosmo. Another 8 years?

the heat

I'm off of work and scheduled a furnace tune for today. It's supposed to happen "sometime between 8am and noon". It is now a little after 9am. So I wait. I guess I'll do this little mid-week debrief exercise:

1. Name one new thing you learned this week

I learned that dogs should NOT eat grapes/ grape products. Who knew??

Someone on NextDoor posted that her dog ate a grape. She was quite worried, wondering what to do on the weekend since her vet office was closed. And I was all, "Dog ate one grape? What's the fuss?"  Well, now I know!

2. Acknowledge someone for a job well done.

I'll give a shout out to Work Study - our student employee at work. She's a military veteran who now gets paid by the VA to go to school. She admittedly is not passionate about being a student, but realizes it's probably the right thing to do, plus it pays the rent. 

In the meantime, she's trying to figure out what to be when she "grows up" while taking general classes. She comes in to work a few hours each week and is a total people-person - has a way of engaging people in conversation and taking their minds off of the stressful testing environment.

3. Describe a good idea you heard.

I didn't actually "hear" this idea, it's something that I discovered while decluttering. So maybe I heard it from some decluttering angel? 

Anyway, here's my tip: I used to keep shoes I didn't wear regularly in their respective boxes in my closet. Dress shoes, winter boots, summer sandals, etc. I decided to get a small shoe shelf and chuck the boxes. In so doing, I unboxed shoes I realized I didn't want anymore. Keeping them in boxes was outta sight, outta mind, and I'd forget I had them. 

Once I shelved them, I saw I had redundant / unwanted shoes that went into the donation box instead. I mean, now many pairs of black business casual shoes or casual canvas sneakers does one need?! 

4. Describe a feeling you experienced.

Sarge told us a story about a time earlier in his life when he briefly worked as a repo man for a rental center. The worst repo he ever did:

They were sent to a home to repossess a large entertainment center, complete with big screen TV and gaming console. When they got there, young kids were sitting there, holding their game controllers and crying. It was right after Christmas.

The mom made a dramatic scene in front of the kids about how she hadn't received her child support check that month, so all that new stuff from Christmas had to go. Sarge said it was almost as if she'd planned the whole thing - buy all that stuff on credit only to have it repoed in order to make the dad out to be the Grinch. 

I doubt the dad was innocent in the whole thing, but Sarge's story just gave us so many feels, and not the good kind. Disgust, anger, sadness, blech. Some people.

5. Describe something that pushed you outisde your comfort zone.

I've not done anything particularly "uncomfortable" lately. After covid precautions lifted enough, I transferred to a local [P.E.O.] chapter, and shortly after that, they asked if I would serve as chapter president when this next year rolls around. I said, "uh, okay?". The P.E.O. year ends/ starts in March, which is coming up. My turn at prez is right around the corner. Uh, okay?

6. How will you apply what you've learned?

Be careful with the grape-dog combo!

onward and back

 Ah, Monday after a holiday break!  Can you feel the boundless enthusiasm?

Well, it will be good to get back into the routine of things, I suppose.

I will be going into work later today, and right now, I was planning to watch some more video of my final module for the gardening course I've been doing this semester.  The course has been useful and educational, and one of the main things I learned is that one cannot get very in depth on these topics in a one-semester course.  

Aha, maybe that's how they getcha?  Scratch the surface on a variety of topics that serve to suck us down a deep, expensive, and time consuming rabbit hole!  

It's all interesting, naturally, and I realized that I'm going to miss "tuning in" to these courses now that they're coming to a close.  Would I like to take more courses?  Yes.  Do I want to pay for  more courses? Eh...

Way back when I was in real college, a friend talked me into taking a Life Drawing class.  "A nice break from all the technical classes", he'd said and was right.  I think the class met one evening a week.  No books, no calculators.  Just our drawing toys to balance life out.

Live models would come and sit while we students would draw.  Traditional life drawing classes have
nude models, but thank gawd this class did not.  Neither my small town nor we immature students would've handled that very well.

Things I learned from that class have mostly stuck with me over the many years, and every now and then I like to draw a (fully clothed) random person.  

So I did this pencil drawing while learning about nasty plant diseases today.

Maybe someday I'll be able to successfully grow a decent plant.

no dark sarcasm

Last night, I was walking the dogs and could hear much football activity from the high school.  The school is less than half a mile from our house, and its stadium is THE stadium for the school district.  Each of the four district high schools' home football games and other events are held there.  

The announcer announced, the band played, the cheerleaders cheered, the crowd roared.  It all sounded very similar to when I was in high school several years ago - brought on feelings of reminiscence.  

I remember reading, somewhere, that our high school memories are usually so vivid because they're made during a time of big changes.  Although typically lasting only 4 years, high school takes us from awkward adolescence to early adulthood.  

What would a yearbook photo be without someone (not even covertly) flipping the bird?
Find  the Abby? (not flipping the bird)

I have no desire to return to high school or adolescence, but I miss certain things from that time of life.  

• I miss having a bunch of friends at the ready to hang out with, anytime.
• I miss the extra bonding that comes from competing on a sports team and performing in a band/ choir.
• I miss making frequent measurable progress in school subjects.
  
  

Then there was college.  College could be a grind, and I wasn't as involved in "student life" at a big university as I was at my small high school.  I was an undergrad back when most students didn't own  their own computers.  We walked around carrying our projects on disks and hoping for a decent vacant computer in one of the computer labs.

I remember one night near finals when final projects were coming due. I was in a full computer lab around midnight.  The air was thick with anxiety. There were no other sounds but that of clicking on keyboards.  Out of the clicking burst a classmate, Mary, 

"OH MY GOD, THIS SUCKS!"

STEM students are typically rather quiet and reserved.  Yeah... Mary wasn't one of those.

But still, from those days...

• I miss having a bunch of friends at the ready to hang out with, anytime.
• I miss the extra bonding that (hopefully) comes from meeting new roommates and completing group projects.
• I miss being focused on something that would (most likely) propel me to a professional career.

I recently started my coursework for a gardening program offered as an extension through the university.  I know so little about growing healthy plants.  A nice thing about this program is that it also provides information specific to Colorado growers.

I plan to use my acquired knowledge as a hobby and, among other things, do something with our yard.

All the courses are online.  I'm not "graded", but will receive a certificate of completion.  There's really no schedule, and I can work through the courses in any order.  I like the relatively low level of complexity and pressure and instantly related to this meme when I saw it:

Yeah, just gimme the basics

There are certainly things I don't miss about school.  Pressure and confusion being a couple of them.

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Linking up this week with Mama Kat for the prompt:

2. Write about what you miss most about going to school.

not to be blunt...

I walked into the room for a little information gathering.  Back in high school, I don't remember what year it was.  I grew up in a small town, but our high school still had a handful of extracurricular clubs and activities.  Horticulture club was meeting for the first time of the school year - prospective members were urged to attend.

I had a passing interest in horticulture although I hadn't done much "gardening" myself.  My mom had quite a green thumb and kept various plants in a sunny section of the house as well as maintained some outdoor foliage.  I could remember going to the local greenhouse with her as a kid and finding it an interesting place.

So I thought, "Hmm, horticulture club.  That could be fun - learn some plant biology, soil chemistry, greenhousing..."

I'd stopped by the after-school meeting, mostly on a whim.  As such, I was by myself as opposed to part of a group like most things in high school.  I was a bit surprised to see I hardly knew anyone there.  I mean, it was a small town, so I knew of the other kids there, but none of them were in any of my circles.  In fact, I was surprised at the attendees, they weren't the kids who usually joined clubs.

"Interesting", I thought to myself, "all the kids here are known stoners.  Wonder why they're in the horticu... OH!"

DUH.  Here I went into it thinking "science" as opposed to "grow-your-own-weed".  Nerd alert!

Suffice to say, I didn't join the high school horticulture club, and that marked the end of my horticultural education.

Last week, a coworker told me about a large greenhouse operation in the area.  She owns a rental property and does all the landscaping and visits the business often.  Magnum and I went on a little field trip on Saturday to check the place out.  

It was huge and impressive and rekindled my adolescent interest in horticulture as well as my wanting to do "something" with our boring yard space.  

We managed not to purchase anything, just scouted out the place to get some ideas.  I learned that the university here offers a gardening extension program specific to Colorado conditions.  It's part of a program available in all 50 states, and I'm planning to sign up.  

Now, 30+ years after my short foray into horticulture, recreational pot is legal here.  I could learn how to grow a decent crop of my own...

don't bet on that bud.

oh m- m- m- my

My freshman year of high school.  Everybody knew and loved the song.  We bought the album because, back then, you bought whole albums to listen to one song.  And it was such a catchy tune, energizing, fun!  

It appropriately reached number one on the Billboard charts and remained for six weeks.  It went on to be number one on Billboard's 1979 top pop singles year-end chart.  Remember?

My Sharona, the debut single from The Knack.

The novel I'm currently reading makes a teeny reference to "My Sharona", and I learned something new.  

The novel is "My Dark Vanessa".  Heard of it?  Read it?  It came out last year and tells the story of an inappropriate relationship between a 15-year-old girl and her high school English teacher.  

Told from the student's point of view, who is currently in her early 30's, via flashbacks and her current life, it's obviously disturbing.  I want to shake some sense into her 15-year-old self as well as her early 30's self.

But then, there'd be no book...

Anyway, during one scene, she's in the car with her parents who are streaming some of their fave tunes, one of which is "My Sharona".  She finds it amusing that her father is be-bopping along to the catchy song, unknowing of its origin and also unknowing of the nasty stuff going on between her and her teacher.

"My Sharona" was written by Doug Fieger, rhythm guitarist and lead vocalist of The Knack who, "instantly fell in love" with Sharona Alperin when he first met her.  He was 26 and in a relationship, she was 17 and had a boyfriend.  He apparently cranked out the song in about 15 minutes.  And yes, that's the real-life - braless and chilly? - Sharona in the iconic image of her holding the album.

The novel points out the lyrics:

Never gonna stop, give it up.
Such a dirty mind. 
Always get it up for the touch
Of the younger kind...

Okay, so 9 years age difference doesn't seem so bad if it's say, 56 and 47, or even 36 and 27.  But 26 and 17?  Hmmm.  And actually, Doug Fierger and Sharona Alperin went on to be a couple for about 4 years and were engaged for a time before splitting up.  (I learned this stuff when I dug deeper after the book reference).

I guess I never paid close attention to those lyrics, or at least those coupla lines. I heard that Fieger later stated in an interview that he wrote My Sharona from the point of view of a 14-year-old boy, but seems he was trying to cover his butt, given that reference to "...the younger kind".  

Not gonna lie, though.  I still like the song.

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Linking up this week with Mama Kat for the prompt:
1. Write about something new you learned recently.

sun's out, dust bunnies out

The excitement of the day is that I rearranged my desk.  Woooo...
Well, I like it anyway.  It's good to change things up every now and then.

Since school got out for summer, I've been tidying and spring cleaning and clearing the mothballs from my brain since I've reopened the tutor biz.  Summer is typically a slow time for tuting since most students are on break and have little sense of urgency to learn anything.

But I'm thankful to currently have one student - a high school senior wanting to get a jump on her college prospects.  And I don't want to get too booked because I do need to work some of the kinks out since clearly, I didn't do any calculus during my recent lunch lady stint.  And while the lunch lady higher ups are floating managerial positions my way, I'm not sure that I will go that route, because now I'm high on speed!

Or... rather... I'm on higher speed?

Within the last month, our internet provider quadrupled our available internet speed!  Our neighborhood didn't rank very high, apparently, but they finally got around to boosting us into the 21st century.

Really, it was fine before for the day-to-day stuff, but I had to put up with gripes from Meego, the gamer.  And when Wolfgang, the gamer, was living here too - I had to hear it in both ears.

"This is the fastest we can get in our neighborhood", I assured them.  Maybe I should've just put a sign on my forehead that said that.

But now, we are flying down the internet speedway!  And now, it can be all about ME.

See, I contract my tuting out to companies who match students with tutors.  They all offer online tuting as well as face-to-face, but my internet was so slow, I stopped taking the online jobs as more bells and whistles were added to those platforms, making the lag so horrible.

So while I'm refreshing my subject skills and tidying my workspace, I'm also cleaning and setting up my virtual classrooms, now that I've got the speed for them.

It's a bit lonely in there at present.   But at least the parking's free.

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Linking up with Mama Kat for the prompt:

4. Write a blog post the ends with the word: free

Or maybe it's:

1. Share a photo that best represents your June

ugly is in the eye of the beholder

There's a quaint duck pond not far from where we live.  Magnum and I walk passed it regularly on our old folks' walks.  It's where the goose families live.  It's where kids take their prom photos. It's where Meego crashed his bicycle that time he discovered the low coefficient of friction of fresh goose poop after a rain.  It's a fave little neighborhood spot as the pond also contains fish, and cute little kids go there hoping to catch one.

During one recent jaunt, we spotted this guy:

He stood out because he looks so different from the typical population of mallards - large and spotted with a red face and bumpy thing on his nose/beak.  Not being a duck expert, I wondered if he was another breed of duck or some sort of mutant.

I tried to learn about his differentness and googled "big duck" images in hopes of tracking it down.  That led mostly to...

Uhm.... no.

So I mentioned to Magnum that I couldn't yet find out the deal with that duck (which I have since learned is the term for females.  Males are drakes).  He punched something into his phone, and in a couple of seconds said,

"It's a Muscovy duck".

I looked at his phone to see a whole bunch of images similar to the big lumbering thing at the pond.

I was all, "What did you search on??"

And he said, "'Ugly duck', why what did you search on?"

"'Ugly duck didn't seem very nice, so I searched on 'big duck'"  (Note:  be careful of typos when doing a search on "Big Duck"...)

Besides, I really don't think Mr. Muscovy is ugly.  He's sort of big and badass looking really.  To me, anyways. And I learned that they make for nice pets and don't quack-quack-quack like mallards.  I wonder if he's an escapee from someone's property as Muscovies are not typically native to Colorado.

I guess we'll never know.  He's not talking.

reform school

I mentioned how this past couple of weeks have been pretty sluggish schedule-wise for me.  End of the school year/semester, and hardly anyone wants a tutor. *sob*

I've found myself with some extra time on my hands, like a little vacation. Oh, I'm still hunting around for a full-time job, but my phone isn't exactly ringing off the hook with offers. In the meantime, the house is strangely clean, and on nice-weather days, I have taken bike rides to nowhere in particular, which strangely, is not perceived as strange at all...

And y'know we have that gym membership, which we actually do use with some regularity.  A couple of times a week, I get emails from them with "exclusive" offers for fancy things like complementary personal training sessions or couple's massage or a mani-pedi - none of which I take them up on.

Last week I got a similar email and decided to take them up on the free exclusive offer.  I thought, "What else I got to do?"  Plus, it sounded downright tasty.  Oops






Today I went in and had an hour's worth of free pilates - NOT pie and lattes.







It was advertised as a one-on-one session, but when I arrived at my appointed time, the instructor told me she'd overbooked and there would actually be three of us.  This was fine with me, and in hindsight, it would've been kinda weird to be just me and the instructor, so yay for overbooking!

I've never done pilates and knew absolutely nothing.  There's an area at the gym with these weird contraptions that I think are for pilates.   The instructor took us back to this cave-like room with several large contraptions called Reformers.  In no time, we were Pilate-ing away and looking darn good doing it!

Okay, I lied.  It was much more this

ANYWAY... it was a pretty good time.  I was a total kindergartner in the Pilates school, but so were my two companions - a man and woman, both around their late 30s I'd guess.  The guy actually was rehabing a pretty intense back injury.  I was curious as to what happened to him, but didn't ask.

I thought it similar to yoga, in that form is very important.  Also, the machinery isn't necessary, there are a lot of pilates moves just done on a mat, like yoga, or that incorporate those big exercise balls.  We did some things with a ring that looks like a steering wheel, and made me feel like a total weakling.

Also, similar to yoga, the instructor told us to do confusing things like "knit your ribs together", "open your collarbone", "maintain a neutral pelvis"... wha?

Other times, she'd use more simple universal terms like, "tighten just below the boobies"...

As far as what it felt like?

Yeah, it burned.  She'd get us doing some Pilates-thing, and then go over to help one of use while we others were burning.  Were we supposed to keep doing the thing?

We were all little obedient newbies, and just did whatever she told us to do, despite the burn, until she told us to stop.

Thank God for stop.



So that was my little staycation adventure today.  What'd you do with your spare time?

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Linking up with Mama Kat this week for the prompt:
4. Write a blog post inspired by the word: staycation.

smokey, hot, poor, and clean

Describe yourself in four words?  Actually, I wouldn't use those four in the title, but they feel about right in a spontaneous kind of way.

First of all, "smokey" since I live in Colorado.  No, I'm not referring to pot smoke.  Legal or not, I haven't touched the stuff since before a certain high school friend of mine cleaned herself up so she could join the army.

She kicked her marijuana habit, then dragged me with her to aerobics classes where we wore Jane Fonda-esque leotards and sweat a lot to further rid her soon-to-be-drug-tested self of any traces of the offending weed.  Apparently it worked.

I seem to have digressed...  "Smokey" is because there are some wildfires burning here and there and the prevailing winds are putting our air quality about on par with that of Beijing, China (are there any other Beijings?).

"Hot", and not in the good way, because it's just darn hot outside.  Remember back when it was all cold and dreary and I was whining about it?  And I recognized that some day soon I would be whining about the heat?  We're heee-eeeere.  So yes, parts of the state are burning, the temperatures are uncomfortably high, plus I'm 51 years old, so make the "hot" connection...

"Poor and clean" really go together.  That's how Chaco jokingly describes my interior decorating.  Now that he has an apartment to furnish, he  notices such things.  His "poor and clean" is my "practical and tidy".  Well, at least he notices that it's clean, thanks to his lower standards on that topic.

Why am I rambling on like this?  I was thinking about that robot.  That robot that's watching me.  Supposedly.  I don't know how often it visits, just when it will strike...

IMDB

See, several months ago, I got an email from a Ph.D. student of Computer Science doing research work on personal blogs.  the email said, in part:

"I’m interested in how the thoughts and experiences written by people like you on weblogs and other 

social media can be used to make conclusions about society as a whole. I am contacting you because 

I am trying to collect reliable data about bloggers’ opinions, experiences, and characteristics 

in order to refine and evaluate my analyses"

The email included links to the department at the university and to his personal research page that further explained his project:

"My research focuses on how people present themselves on the web...  By leveraging the significant amount of text that these web authors provide about themselves, we plan to automatically extract information about them, including a demographic profile..."

So, similarly as to when my army friend got me to smoke pot with her, and then later got me to help her clean herself of the offending weed, I replied, "Okay!"

Really, the research does sound interesting.  In short, this Ph.D.-to-be has a robot reading blogs to see if it can make correct inferences about the authors.  So I had to fill out a questionnaire as part of the study.  I don't remember all of the questions, but several had to do with my political views, for instance.

So even though I don't typically blog about political views, the robot is trying to figure mine out by the stuff I DO blog about.  Get it?  Cool, no?

I do remember that one of the questions asked if I was truthful on my blog.  Which, yes, I am.  Unless I totally make stuff up about trekking in Nepal and making twin babies, later given up for adoption. Because even then, I eventually come clean.

Sometimes I think about that robot.  What is it thinking?  What is it thinking about what I'm thinking?  Would I vote for Hillary Clinton?

I'm tempted to put some comment here to give myself away on that question, but that's for me to know and for Robot to figure out.

.

bloody ups and downs

Despite the title, this isn't about female issues.  Then again, I suppose it kind of is...

See, I got a call from the blood people this week.  Remember a couple of weeks ago?  I donated blood at the university blood drive?

So this very friendly blood woman called and said, in a very nice way, "your blood sucks", or something like that.

Come to think of it, I think what she actually said was, "We ask that you don't donate to the blood supply anymore", which to me sounded like

"your blood sucks" or

"don't let the door hit you on the way out".

*sigh*



As she very nicely explained, women who have been pregnant, often develop certain antibodies.  These antibodies have shown in recent years to be quite dangerous to certain people who have certain underlying illnesses when those certain people receive blood transfusions containing the antibodies.

By "quite dangerous", it means they usually die.

It's a rare thing, but to play it safe, the blood people throw out the been-pregnant-lady-antibody blood.  She explained that the antibodies are of no harm to me, but I will have them for the rest of my life, hence the "don't come back".

Oh, darn.

I perked up when she said,

"But...

there is research being done to determine the cause of this particular reaction.  Your blood would be useful for such research"

Oh, good!

"But...

there isn't any research currently being done in Colorado."

Oh, darn

"But...

there will likely be research in Colorado in the near future."

Oh, good!

She asked if I'd like to be added to a database of people willing to donate for research, and I said I would.  So maybe all is not lost.

And I suppose if I have to choose between having my kids and being useful as a blood donor, it's an easy choice.

future queen

Bless me, blog.  It's been six days since my last bee sting.

Okay, I really don't want to beat this dead bee to death, but this bee sting business has been on my mind lately.  At least I can say that the frontal gelatinous pudge has nicely abated.  There is still some lingering frontal pudge, but I think I must now accept the fact that it's not from the bee venom.

From ShadowRun's reminder, I decided to check to see if there were any positive aspects to being bee stung.  While the evidence is inconclusive if it helps pain of arthritis and symptoms of MS, it does seem that be venom is good for something.  It's good for making people less sensitive to bee venom!  Yay, so, each time I get stung, it's like getting a booster shot to make me less sensitive!

Judging from the latest gelatinous pudge, and my weekend spent mostly hugging an ice pack, we're not quite there yet.  I need more inoculation.

But at least I'm not dreading further stings.  I feel like I actually welcome them now.  Maybe I'm just getting loopy from it all, a strange addiction forming?  I happily ride along now, sending my message of love to the trail bees:

"BITE ME!"  (okay, I know they sting instead of bite, but that phrase has a nice ring).

Plus, in my extensive research - about 10 minutes of googling - I learned that Kate Middleton and Gwyneth Paltrow use the bee juice to make them purdy.

hell to the no

Maybe it's my calling.  "Princess of the Bees" or something.  Although, "Lord of the Flies" seems more fitting, and that wasn't nice at all. 

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Power

This week's Illustration Friday prompt is "power", so naturally, I drew this little fish.

With the end of summer upon us, our minds are (hopefully) turning to thoughts of school and learning.  My tuting schedule is chock full as I want it to be with the test prep season in full swing, and the kids are getting their schedules and supplies in order.  And oh yeah, I've got the student thing going on too.

Knowledge is power.

I've also been schooling myself in fish - ha... get it?? *sorry*.  Recall that my little fish tank recently went all Armageddon on me.  Since then, I've been trying to learn what went wrong.  During this education, I've become bound and determined to foster an aquarium rebirth like no other.

So I've been google schooling and youtube schooling and turning into the resident fish geek.  I explained to Magnum how, as our nest is becoming empty, I am satisfying my need to take care of SOMEthing.  Fish it is.

Yesterday, Meego, Wolfgang, and I visited a local fish shop (I'm still keeping Fridays dumb)  that I learned of.  The building was just a hole in the wall, but we walked inside and it was like a Marine Dream.  BEAU-tiful aquariums, a lovely assortment of fish and other reef dwellers...

I stood in front of the buncha-gallons tank as the fish swam around, giving me the eye.

"Think you could keep me alive and happy like this?  Do you have the POWER??", they asked.

Yes?
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dirty pictures

I read a story this morning about a woman who was sickened when she found out that photos she'd posted on her blog had ended up on some suspected pedophile site.  The photos were of her bottomless toddler boys engrossed in potty training.  Emphasis on gross.

I honestly don't have a whole lot of sympathy for her because (1) it's the internet, (2) I don't care to watch kids (or anyone else) taking care of their personal bodily functions and don't find such photos "cute", (3) it's the internet, (4) there are sickos out there who will be all over pics of bottomless toddlers, and (5) it's the internet!  If someone wants photos to be seen by only a select few, they don't post them where the entire developed world has access to them.

As I read, I learned a few things.  I learned that I could search my own photos by simply dragging them to the search box in google images.  Did you know that??  I didn't know until reading about the potty trainer.

Out of curiosity, I did a spot check of a few photos.  Thankfully, my blog was the only place they showed up.  Interestingly, the search also calls up "visually similar images".  Allow me to share some of my results:

My image 1

visually similar image 1

How so very flattering.

My image 2

Visutally similar image 2

It's Brittany, Bitch!

My image 3

Visually similar image 3

Okay, this match is shockingly accurate.

Have you googled yourself lately?  It's not a sin, it's only natural and healthy.
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since we're sharing...

Last week, I made the trek down to Magnum's workplace.  In my trenchcoat...

Just kidding.

I went there because it was employee health-screening-for-money time.  Spouses too.  They offer cash incentives for jumping through certain health hoops, so we jump.  One of the hoops is a pretty simple health screening:  height, weight, blood glucose, total cholesterol, hdl cholesterol, blood pressure.  This year they added waist measurement.

Anyway, I arrived and there was a significant line, but no worries.  I had an appointed time.  So when I saw that the appointed times didn't mean anything, that they were just taking first-come-first-served, I think my blood pressure went up.

After all, I didn't actually work there.  I was just a moocher spouse.  I had a crosswalk waiting with my name on it.  In the end, I managed to get myself moved to the front of the line (good thing I was in that trenchcoat - Just kidding).  My blood pressure came in within acceptable range, despite the high pressure situation.

Actually, my blood pressure is consistently low - 92/60 this time.  A bit higher than usual no doubt due to my agitated state.  I mention it because I was reading at Anita's, and she mentioned having to go on The Pill... for hypertension. I think if mine were much lower, the professionals would suggest a pill to wake me up.

Like Anita, I hope to remain free from the pharmaceuticals.  So far, I've managed, but that's not to say I shun all  "pills".  She got me thinking about the supplements I take daily.

I've got the multi-vitamin + iron, labeled with my name for protection of the menfolk, since the bottle otherwise looks just like Magnum's.  Then I've got the vitamin D that I take in the winter, the fish oil because Wolfgang heard it's supposed to be good for eyesight (note that we both still need our glasses), glucosamine for joint health,  the calcium/magnesium/zinc pill for... uhm.... superpowers?



Round it out with a 2-bagger mug of tea and a coffee (not shown) with coffeemate.

It's like an old lady ritual!  I'm wondering, when did this all even happen?  I remember taking children's vitamins when I was little.  Remember the Flintstone's chewables?  Tasted like bad rum and coke?

And I do question if they're actually doing anything.  I guess one way to find out would be to just stop taking them for a while and see what happens.  Will I get achy and stupid?  With (worse) blurred vision?

I guess I'll just keep faithfully taking them.  It's not worth raising my blood pressure over.

*note the small prescription drug bottle in the background.  Them's China's - to prepare for her ear thing*
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where the Buffalo roam

Wolfgang and I are off on our quest for knowledge.  At least, I hope/think so.  I prescheduled this blog post so who knows for sure?

Anyway, at this point, we should be deeply engrossed in giving Wolfgang a taste of college life

Oh WAIT!  Not that taste of college life!  I mean...

CU Enginerding Center

He wanted to get in a few college visits and CU-Boulder, Magnum's and my alma mater, was tops on his list.  I don't know how likely it is that he will end up choosing it, but he just wanted to have a look see, so why not?

I haven't really been back since graduating.  How can it be that that was over 20 years ago?  How can it be that I'm back there with my second oldest for a college look see??

Well... at least I think I am.

Go Buff!  .... er... Buffs!
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lesson

Welcome to another episode of Illustration Friday... on a Sunday once again. It's actually SNOWING here. I thought April showers bring May FLOWERS?? Hello???

This week's prompt is "lesson" and I have this house to show for it. I was flattered to be recently asked to draw this, and as I contemplated this fun project, I realized that I've never drawn a house before - not since about second grade or so, where houses were just triangles on top of squares with doors and windows and chimneys with curly-cue smoke.



But, what the heck, I just started in and figured it would be a good lesson, and it was. I could just get lost in these trees - we don't have palm trees here.

Just plugged along, step-by-step, learning along the way.

I'm pretty sure I will draw more houses.

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Silver Liningness Sunday

...on an actual Sunday! It's only right.

First of all, this week was a nice mellow one work-wise. Really, I'm not a work-a-holic at all, I was just posing as one for a while there. I only had two class sessions this week.

One of my tutor students cancelled because of sickness, and another class that was supposed to begin this week was cancelled because only 4 students had enrolled. Normally, these aren't necessarily good things, but I really needed the break. So, while not happy for the sick student or the 4 others that are now scrounging for another class, I'm grateful!

On that note, I'm thankful for the flexibility of my job and also thankful for Magnum and his job, all of which allow me to take a load off as needed.

Wolfgang had his final cross-country meet on Friday as mentioned. It was a nice way to finish out the season. Conditions were perfect - favorable temperatures, slightly overcast skies, the pink shoes.... - he was very pleased, unlike the previous meet where it was an unseasonably hot 80 degrees with the sun boring down and Chipotle for dinner the night before... um, yeah.

As for my activity, I surpassed the 1300 mile mark for my own running on the year this week. Fall is my favorite season for running. Next stop, 1400 miles.

AND, we mustn't forget quality time with las bicicletas! I don't keep track of those miles, but they're all good.

(segue into the learning-to-speak-Spanish thing). Yep, I'm making it a priority to keep up with my spanish lessons each day. Today, for instance, I learned desayuno, almuerzo, y cerna among other things.

In movie news, we watched The Red Baron. I mainly got it because I figured the kids would like the dogfight scenes, which were very well done by the way. But I actually liked it for myself. Gotta love a love story.

Smooches!
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