I'm doing a happy dance to the sounds of all of my music at the moment. My IRS return was in the bank last night when Kim and I went to the movies, so we took a detour and bought my iPod! It's a black 80 gb, which will be more than sufficient for my purposes and allow me to download podcasts and such. So now I just have to upload about 250 cds onto the silly thing.
After I bought my new toy we went to the Cinemark and had to choose between Vantage Point and Jumper. We really wanted to see both...so we did! I paid for the tickets for Vantage Point and Kim paid for Jumper. Before we went to Vantage Point we got something to eat: almost $6 for a hot dog with no bun, bag of chips and they forgot my pickle. Oh, well. It was a fun night.
Vantage Point was the best of the two, although I did really like Jumper. If you haven't read anything about Vantage Point, here's a small warning. The movie is told from the perspective of about six or seven people or groups of people, hence it resets at 11:59:57 every fifteen or so minutes until the last where all is told. It resets about five times. The audience we were with didn't know this. It was so funny. The guy next to me told his wife, "I didn't know it was Groundhog Day." Most of us were laughing or groaning when it reset, including the guy next to me. Kim caught something in the promos I hadn't so she figured one thing out before I did, but I figured a different twist out before she did. It was fun and very well done. The resets serve the story extremely well. I'll be buying it.
Jumper is a fun adventure. Hold your breath for a scene in Tokyo. Whew! Samuel L. is, of course, awesome. Does he ever do a bad job? If so, I need to see it. I think Christian Haydensen had fun with this one. The idea itself is neat. If you could teleport yourself anywhere in the world, where would you go? We were talking about it after the movie. Kim brought up the fact that you'd never be late for work. I like that. I, being the pathetically devoted person I am, said that my first visit would be to the crown and torch of the Statue of Liberty. That would be the only way I'd ever see them because the stupid National Park Service won't open her up to the public like they should, the jerks.
Anyway, back to the uploading. It's going to take me a few days to get everything on there and sorted.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Baghdad blog
I just have to pass on this blog: Baghdad Burning. It's amazing. The author has moved to Syria and the last post was made in October of 2007, but reading her earlier posts are stunning.
the house needs fixed... ;p
Mom is making plans again. Supposedly Grandma is going to be going to TAFH's house for a week in March. Mom has taken it off as a vacation week (she gets two, the *itch!) and is going to be working on the floor in the kitchen. Personally, I would wait until we were sure the skunk had moved out of the crawlspace under there, but that's just me and my wish to never be sprayed by one of the little stinkers. She says I can have some time to go to the library for research, but we'll see if that actually materializes. I have a feeling I'll be doing a ton of repair work instead.
To be fair, the floor needs to be replaced. It's old and looks it. The idea is to replace the kitchen flooring and at some point this summer, raise the floor in the bathroom, fixing the shitty remodel my uncle did years ago and give it a new floor as well. Thanks to the skunk we also have to dig up the foundation of the house, add 15 inches of galvanized steel around it (and out, like an L) so the little buggers don't crawl under next winter. Oh, and did I mention Mom's plan to use chicken wire instead of galvanized steel for the front half of the house that the skunk has never approached before? It'll be less expensive, so hopefully we can do that for a good bit. That $600 rebate is all spoken for.
If I listed all of the items that need to be repaired in this house, any reader would blanch. A partial list reads thusly:
1. replace floor in kitchen, bath, pantry
2. raise floor in bathroom and repair the bathtub/shower area so it stops leaking down the wall
3. finish the ceiling in bathroom
4. reinforce the porch which is being held up by crumbling bricks
5. replace porch steps
6. fix upstairs windows to block off the holes my uncle left that you can see through right to the outside
Should we just demolish the house and start all over?
To be fair, the floor needs to be replaced. It's old and looks it. The idea is to replace the kitchen flooring and at some point this summer, raise the floor in the bathroom, fixing the shitty remodel my uncle did years ago and give it a new floor as well. Thanks to the skunk we also have to dig up the foundation of the house, add 15 inches of galvanized steel around it (and out, like an L) so the little buggers don't crawl under next winter. Oh, and did I mention Mom's plan to use chicken wire instead of galvanized steel for the front half of the house that the skunk has never approached before? It'll be less expensive, so hopefully we can do that for a good bit. That $600 rebate is all spoken for.
If I listed all of the items that need to be repaired in this house, any reader would blanch. A partial list reads thusly:
1. replace floor in kitchen, bath, pantry
2. raise floor in bathroom and repair the bathtub/shower area so it stops leaking down the wall
3. finish the ceiling in bathroom
4. reinforce the porch which is being held up by crumbling bricks
5. replace porch steps
6. fix upstairs windows to block off the holes my uncle left that you can see through right to the outside
Should we just demolish the house and start all over?
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Time is Unimportant
I've come to the conclusion that we should no longer tell Grandma if she's going somewhere until it's literally time to leave. This includes weekend trips to stay with TAFH. She's driving me nuts.
Almost every hour she's asking if it's time to go yet. She keeps putting on her shoes (or only one of them) and takes off her Lifeline pendant. Her pills and apron have been packed a number of times. *sigh* No matter how often we tell her she's not leaving until Thursday, it's just not sinking in that today is NOT the day she leaves. I suggested to Mom once that we mark big X's off the calendar, but she told me she doubted Grandma would even look at it. She's right.
Beyond that, she seems to be really spiteful lately. She's also upset with Mom for working nights so often lately. Mom can't help it. She lost a manager and has to take up the slack. Oy. I need a few days off. We're even having caregiver trouble right now an d have none for the week at all. In all likelihood, I'm going to be calling off work Thursday and making up as much of it as possible by working as late as I can stand it on Friday. It never rains, but it pours.
I hate dementia. I want my Grandma back.
Almost every hour she's asking if it's time to go yet. She keeps putting on her shoes (or only one of them) and takes off her Lifeline pendant. Her pills and apron have been packed a number of times. *sigh* No matter how often we tell her she's not leaving until Thursday, it's just not sinking in that today is NOT the day she leaves. I suggested to Mom once that we mark big X's off the calendar, but she told me she doubted Grandma would even look at it. She's right.
Beyond that, she seems to be really spiteful lately. She's also upset with Mom for working nights so often lately. Mom can't help it. She lost a manager and has to take up the slack. Oy. I need a few days off. We're even having caregiver trouble right now an d have none for the week at all. In all likelihood, I'm going to be calling off work Thursday and making up as much of it as possible by working as late as I can stand it on Friday. It never rains, but it pours.
I hate dementia. I want my Grandma back.
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Successful Recipe
I made some Au Gratin Potatoes tonight from a recipe I found on a website. Grandma wanted seconds!
I fiddled with some of the ingredients to make sure it was GF, but it still turned out well.
May I repeat? She asked for seconds!
I fiddled with some of the ingredients to make sure it was GF, but it still turned out well.
May I repeat? She asked for seconds!
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Poison Gas
FYI - If you use a homemade recipe to get rid of skunk smell don't mix Aldi's Reeva Citrus Splash dishwashing liquid, chlorine bleach, water and baking soda. Mom just tried and we had the whole toxic gas thing going on. This, of course, happens right as the lady comes to give Grandma a bath in the same bathroom Mom just gassed. Thankfully, the lady was pretty cool and had done something like that herself once.
We're not quite positive as to what caused the interaction, but don't even try it. We think it was the Reeva since it probably has some acid in it to give it the citrusy smell.
We're not quite positive as to what caused the interaction, but don't even try it. We think it was the Reeva since it probably has some acid in it to give it the citrusy smell.
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