It’s official, I’m going to have to seek therapy this winter when my hummingbirds leave. I moved the feeder right up next to our front window, cleaned the window reeeealy good, and voila. They’re still here. And they hover right in front of the window, right in my face, and I know they’re saying something, what are they saying remains to be determined. You tell me!
Updated I just have to add more pics!
I didn’t cry. Honestly. I did NOT. CRY. Nut-uh. No, I didn’t. I swear I didn’t. ::sniffle:: THAT was not crying. I just, I think I’m coming down with a cold or something, that’s all. Truly.
(waaaahhhhh! Everybody LEFT me! WAAAAAAAAHHHHH!)
Not crying. Still not crying. Wanna. But not gonna. Phew. Okay. Deep breath. Ooh, I know! I can go shopping now! That will make me feel MUCH better!
I’ve been taking pics of our hummingbirds all morning. Unfortunately, I can’t figure out what settings will give me a great still of their wings in motion. Fortunately, I have “movie mode”, so now you can see what I see out my front window!
This is a large QuickTime movie, it will take some time to load. Can’t change the format folks, sorry about that! Click the pic to watch the movie.
Today, I’ll be playing the role of Michele.
I get to recommend a new site for Michele’s blogroll, so I picked someone special.
Inquiring minds also would like some input on NASA, cause their last launch and landing had me nervous.
I’m (as Michele) also curious to know who is to thank for your Awesomeness, so you can answer that question here.
Last but not least, What’s your talent?
Now I’ve done all of this wearing my prettiest shoes, in compliance with the terms of the program. Now I must take my shoes off (nice legs, Michele, I wish I could have borrowed those too. Next time? Okay. Thanks!), and share an illustration that I doodled the other day.
This doodle is for a friend of mine who is going to be famous, I tell you. She writes. And she writes well, and her name is Mir.
You should really go read her blog if you don’t already. She’s already on my blogroll, already on Michele’s, so she has all necessary approvals, I think?
Tell her I said hi, and that her kids are cute!
I’ll be doodling again today, and (crossing my fingers) uploading a couple of others into my Graphic Illustration gallery that you haven’t seen before.
This is for Taba, and whoever else might find this remotely interesting. Seriously, I don’t care for/am not seeking pity or “omg that looks awful”, I am captivated by the human body. How much I’ve managed to screw mine up is really beside the point for the purpose of this discussion. 😆
For reference, let’s start with the good discs! Those can be found within the yellow circle, or L1-L4. See how the discs look like little hamburgers between the vertebrae? That’s almost normal. They are degenerating, but so far they’re not as ugly as the rest of my spine. There’s a good point of reference for you then. Those within the yellow circle are decent, not bulging, not causing any interruption. Good boys. Sit. Stay.
Alrightie then, that about covers the good stuff. That seems to be a trend this week anyway, so may as well end the week the way it started, right? Right. Moving on.
See that green line on the left, the nice curvy one? Well that, my friends, is the curve of a normal spine in this area. See the actual image? The curve is going bye-bye. Slowly but surely, the curvature in the lumbar region is diminishing, causing even more stress to the sqwished up mess going on there.
Let’s move on now to the red circles. Wee!
Between the Sacrum (S1) and L5, we’ve got one giant ugly mess. What’s happening here is that the vertebrae are squishing the hamburger, and the ketchup is dripping down the leg of the table. You catch my drift? This disc also has what’s been described as a “teenie tiny herniation”. Me? Any herniation is a bad herniation, but I’m not a doctor now am I? No. There is a defined interruption between the drippy ketchup and the nerve bundle, and that’d probably be why sometimes I drag my left leg behind me like Egor. But I digress.
The upstairs neighbor to L5 is getting pretty ticked off about all the screaming from its downstairs neighbor, and boy he’s about ready to go down there and join the fight. He’s really annoying my right leg in the process, so if he’d just put some earplugs in or something and ignore all the screaming downstairs? I’d be most grateful. Translated, L4 is also bulging, pinching nerves, and almost acting like L5.
Well then we have some peace and quiet in the yellow region. Ahh. Enjoy the silence.
From L1 up, through all the T’s we have minor bulging, which since my boob job uh… breast reduction er… reduction mammoplasty hasn’t bothered me at all. Fortunately, removing 2 pounds from the front of me probably saved the back of me from what’s happening below the waistline. Crazy how the body works, isn’t it?
To sum it up: Hamburgers good, big black hole bad.
I knew that getting Chickeymonkey registered for school would take a little while, but I was thinking in terms of hours.
I was not prepared to spend the entire evening lastnight, and the entire day today, in preschool preparation.
Free Country? The United States? Pfft! You are not free to raise your children as you see fit. This means that you had better get every injection that the government demands you shove into your little babies bodies in the first two years of their life, because God forbid you delay until you feel their bodies can better handle the immunizations, they will NOT be able to go to a public school!
Yes, there are waivers. But for a federally funded preschool program? You have to write an essay about how your religious beliefs conflict with immunizations, and if you score poorly on that essay? Out you and your child go. I was informed that all I would need – since I wasn’t waiving them but just delaying them – was an immunization schedule from our physician. I got that at the beginning of the week.
So here I go into this thing thinking I was prepared lastnight and boy, was I not prepared at all.
The schedule is no good if your child hasn’t even had MMR and Chickenpox vax, and I hate those. And she’d need a lead screening which was just an added “wtf” to the day. I swear, you’d think I was a first time mom or something. Lastnight was all about finding out what my schedule would consist of today.
We started off to the doctor’s office for the “official” form, which wasn’t included in the package. We got that, stopped and had her lead screen test (ouch!) then headed to the grocery store for some school supplies and things, then to drop off her form at the school. Where we are told that “nut-uh, she has to have these other two to even get on the bus.” Sure, okay, I didn’t have anything else I wanted to get done today! We went home, unpacked groceries, had some lunch and scheduled the appointment for those other two vax.
Great news! I get to go pick up the Chickenpox at the hospital pharmacy and take it to the doctor’s office! YAY!
Even better! My insurance told the gal they wouldn’t pay for it if it were billed by the hospital pharmacy so I got to spend $88.86 out of pocket, too!
Bonus! On your mark, get set, GO! I had 20 minutes from the time I received the vax to get it injected into my teenie little Chickeymonkey.
At the doctor’s office, I handed them my checkbook purely out of guilt and asked them to “please, keep it. It’s all yours, anyway.” They thanked me for my offer but declined. So now I have this checkbook, and it’s empty, and who wants it? There’s nothing left.
At the school with the completed form with all required immunizations? The preschool letter-inner shook my hand and thanked me, because apparently I was one of few parents who got my stuff together and took care of things in a timely manner. And I told her if my kid had a temp from these stupid shots and couldn’t attend the first day of school, I would hunt her down and smack her silly. I also told her that I was on the verge of a mental breakdown and seriously considering moving to another country, so if she made me do one more thing to send my child to school I would sit on the floor right there and cry.
I’m not kidding, it’s like enlisting a 3 year old into the Army. I’ll probably get put in jail for failure to include her social security number on the forms, for crying out loud.
So the good news? I lost another half pound yesterday. That’d be about it for the good news, though. 😆
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My other Thirteens 1. I’m switching hosting accounts! Yay! 2. I’ve been debating scanning and posting the MRI of my back. I haven’t done it, thinking “who on earth really wants to see that?” LOL 3. Lots of people (wonderful people!) played Thursday Thirteen last week, and I smiled really big, and got to “meet” a couple of new folks. (Make sure you link my 13 so I can go visit your friends, and their friends!) 4. My sweaters arrived from Coldwater Creek and now I would like it to get just a little chilly outside so I can wear them. 5. I’m going to be preparing for a garage sale today! 6. I have ants in my studio. 7. I had the pest control folks out to spray the other day, and he bought a dresser that I was going to put in the garage sale! 8. I’ve lost almost 5 pounds since last Friday. 9. I’ve got 25-35 pounds to lose before I’m back where I was 15 years ago, all in an effort to make my back stop hurting and being stressed. (I’ve lost 40+ since March 2004!) 10. I love Dobbie from Harry Potter. I can totally relate to Dobbie. I didn’t think I would like HP at all until I watched the movies! So I probably spelled his character name wrong. 11. I have a very strong urge to go buy something pretty. Right. Now. 12. I’ll resist the urge, because I don’t go anywhere that requires me to BE pretty. Really. Comfort comes first. (Right Paige?) 13. I totally forgot to fix the Thursday Thirteen code until late yesterday afternoon, so I hurried fast and hope it works for everyone who uses it! My host and I have not been having a very good week, call me stressed! Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. Lily’s Thirteen |
Thirteen things is all I ask for, and what do you get in return? Linkage! If you do it, leave a comment here and link me to your Thursday Thirteen. I will be sure to update my entry with links to yours, and then you can continue the chain if you like! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
TECHNORATI TAG: Thursday Thirteen
Today’s Catybug’s first day of 4th grade.
Finally.
Oh it’s not that I don’t love the little bug, but boy she was ready to go back! She was bored. Oh, so very bored with everything. I don’t think magic tricks would have entertained her that last week of summer vacation!
One down, one to go. Tomorrow I’ll register Chickeymonkey, and she’ll be starting preschool in a couple of weeks. Phew. They grow so fast, don’t they?
Me, I’m ready for it. I’ll be starting therapy after the Chick heads off to school and hopefully in about 5-6 weeks I won’t be writhing in pain most of the day. I had an appointment yesterday at Neck To Back, and they have this neat stretchy machine that will give my 2 bulging discs space to de-bulge. I’m also going to begin swimming (prior to therapy sessions) for 30 minutes a day, because it’s about the only thing left that I can do until I’m healed.
For now, I’m over here scurring about like the madwoman I usually am! I’ve been getting kids ready for school, finishing one custom graphic illustration and starting another, updating pages in my gallery, maintaining a constant (and long) to-do list, and planning out a last-minute garage sale I’m going to have this weekend.
Those of you who experience Fall, the trees are changing color. Have you noticed? This, I believe, is what has me in a tizzy over here. Once the chill hits the air, I hate being outside. Runny noses, goosebumps (aka “growing”!), layers upon layers of clothes. Blechy. Now I’m going to cram all of those things I’ve been wanting and needing to get done into the next week or three!
For your eye candy today, I took this photograph in downtown Rock Island this past weekend. I thought the composition was striking and interesting, and of course the bonus is that it’s art! It’s just not my art, but hey! It’s still purdyful!
