Lackawanna County Voting, part 1

Okay, I've been trying to find information about a measure on the Primary ballot. It's been rather difficult. Lackawanna County has no website or other type of information about the elections and candidates that I can find. I'll be picking up a ballot tomorrow to find out who is actually running for what and what ballot measures are on there.

There are some helpful websites, but some you have to take with a grain of salt.

Information on Act One: As an aside, it seems that Scranton School District voters don't have to vote yes or no. I don't know if that's good or bad.
PICPA Fact Sheet
LWV Fact Sheet

The League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania - deals with Pennsylvania statewide, rather than Lackawanna County specifically. Here's another LWV page that has statewide judicial races listed.
The Lu Lac Political Letter - a blog about politics in Luzerne and Lackawanna Counties
Lackawanna County Department Listing - just a telephone and email directory of the various county agencies and departments.
Doherty Deceit - a blog about politics in Scranton (obviously, very unhappy with the job Mayor Doherty is doing)
Scranton Online Discussion - message board about all things Scranton
Gort42 - blog about local politics (and baseball)
The Independent, Conservative, Common Sense Oasis - conservative blog about local politics
Jennifer D. Wade - local blog with some political stuff
Wilkes-Barre Political Scene - Wilkes-Barre political blog (obviously)

Some of the candidates: (alphabetical order) - I know there are a lot more that I'm missing. Tomorrow I'll add them after I get the ballot.
Evie Rafalko McNulty (Democrat for County Commissioner)
AJ Munchak & Robert Cordaro (Republicans for re-election as County Commissioner)
Corey O'Brien (Democrat of County Commissioner)

Here's a LWV Voter's Guide for Luzerne County, at least.

Generic Pennsylvania politics sites:
IssuesPA
PoliticsPA
GrassrotsPA

Work errata

Okay, there's a lady at work that I actually like most of the time. She's nice. She's also forty years old (looks like she's about twenty-five, tops), lives with her parents (pays nothing toward bills or rent) and consistently does the exact opposite of what she's supposed to do at work. She has tendonitis, so she doesn't want to pull or backstock anything because it hurts her elbow. She has sinus problems and calls off if they're bothering her. The newest ailment is bursitis in her hip and now she can't do the comp shopping because walking around Wally-world is too much for her. Nor can she climb ladders. Today, she was doing something that required nothing more than standing and reaching up or down. She left early.

As I said, I like her. She's a nice girl (if I can call a forty-year-old a girl). However, if she can't do the work (she came to my team from customer service because she doesn't like the customers) either fire her or put her on disability and give us someone who will do the work required, dammit! One of my other team-mates has had both hips replaced and walks with a hitched step. He's also damned efficient and hard-working. One of the older ladies needs her knees replaced, but she can't afford it. She's also terrified of heights and isn't very high herself *coughshortshitcough*. She makes herself go up the ladders. Another has arm problems and tires easily and makes herself do the work needed. The lady next oldest to me has blinding migraines and cysts on her ovaries that keep her in constant pain. Yes, we're a very healthy bunch. *snort* But we do the damned work!
I know, I've called off due to illness before. I won't deny it. I've left early when I was sick. However, constantly leaving or making others do tasks you just don't like is plain wrong. She needs a wake-up call. I wish my supervisor would actually do something about it, rather than just shake her head and look the other way out of fear we won't get anyone to replace her. Frankly, she's useless to us at the moment. This has gone on long enough.

Argh Redux

So much for a good thing. Mrs. Hyde is back. Grandma's been listless lately and now the bitch is back. Between her and Mom I'm ready to murder.

Thank the Gods I got out last night, at least. I saw Spiderman 3. It was better than I thought it would be, but not as good as I hoped.

My timing just sucks...

Do I have shitty timing or what? A few weeks ago I found out about a museum in NYC (Cooper-Hewitt) that has major holdings of textile arts, like needlework samplers, lacework and tapestries. Since Mom has been talking about visiting Corning on Mother's Day weekend I figured this would be a great time to go there instead. I just found out that they ask for two weeks notice to see their holdings. OK. Maybe I could have worked around that with the fact that I didn't know they existed until two weeks ago. However, it's hard to work around the fact that they are packing up all of those wonderful things I wanted to see and will be storing them off-site for at least a year!

The woman suggested I go to the Washington exhibits since they are one of the Smithsonian Museums, but looking at the Smithsonian site, the only place I can find that seems to have the textile exhibits I want is the American Museum, which is closed for renovation until Summer 2008.

Yeesh!

I wonder where we'll end up. Maybe the planetarium in Schenectady? I just feel like going somewhere unusual for us, you know? Maybe I should just convince Mom to go somewhere with my brother and enjoy a weekend with absolutely no one around.

Insane Stitcher

I'm working on a new cross-stitch design. Well, two of them, really. One is going to be an accordion-style pattern book done to keep a record of my blackwork patterns and the other is an attempt to recreate an origami fortune teller in fabric and stitches. The pattern book is fairly normal. The other? Um, not so much. We'll see how well I succeed at them.

In the meantime, I still have to work on the Temple, the Chameleon and Kwan Yin. Kwan Yin is being shunted to the side for a while, as the recipient has moved and hasn't provided me with a new address yet, anyway. If I look at my grand plan for the year, I've already violated it in so many ways. I've done way more small projects than I said I would and haven't worked on my main projects enough OR the Dragon Dreams ornies for myself. *sigh* I have no discipline. I do, however, have two gifts and one exchange project ready to be given away. I also have a yearning to do these for everyone's Christmas gifts. Heidi liked my biscornu scissor fob, so I might make one for her (as a sachet) for shits and giggles. Ahem, after I finish more stitching on my main projects. Also, I really want to try these - third picture down. Well, Kim, would you like one?

Good Days

Yesterday was a Grandma Day. We had fun going through old documents in her security box. She cracked some jokes and I teased her about some things and Mom teased us both. She remembered a few things and is actually going to let me copy the tax receipts I found for the genealogy. Much coolness. I haven't really talked to her much today, so I can't say what it'll end up being.

I made out like a fat cat on Saturday at the Weinberg Library sale. $15.50 worth of books, most of them either hardcovers or Greek classics. *sigh* I love library book sales. Also, the ladies at the library are going to stay on the lookout for any books on Gregg Shorthand for me. I really want to relearn it. I went out on Friday and Saturday nights. This has been a really good couple of days. Oh, and congrats to my friend, Noelle, who got her black belt on Friday!

Human for Sale

gakked from WyckedKittie

I am worth $1,461,130 on HumanForSale.com
How much are you worth?

irony or fate?

Yesterday I mentioned to the counselor that my cousins never come over to visit Grandma and that it really annoyed me. My second-oldest just walked through the door and is downstairs talking to her now. Weird.

Update - it turns out she came over only because she promised my brother she'd drop something off for my mother.

Forget litterbugs...

There's a squirrel littering in the park across the street from my house. He's diving into and out of the trash bin, removing items like paper each time. He plays with them for a bit, shaking them around and turning them inside out and upside down before dropping them on the ground outside the bin. Then he jumps in and grabs something else.

Limbo no longer...

The dude did something right for a change. Pope Benedict, whom I truly dislike, has changed the teaching on unbaptized Catholic infants. Instead of saying they go to Limbo, they now have their Get-out-of-jail-free cards and go to Heaven, after all.

"It stressed that none of its findings should be taken as diminishing the need for parents to baptize infants.

'Rather ... they provide strong grounds for hope that God will save infants when we have not been able to do for them what we would have wished to do, namely, to baptize them into the faith and life of the church.'

Vatican watchers hailed the decision as both a sensitive and significant move by Benedict. "

Bravo, Pope Benedict. There might be hope for you yet.

you are very sleeeeeeepy

I am tired. The keyboard is actually a little blurry if I don't concentrate on it.

So, why am I up? Why not sleep a little, especially since Mom is off work today? Because she and my brother went out and I had to wake up after two and a half hours of sleep to sit downstairs with Grandma. My brother had to go to the VA hospital for a follow-up on his leg and Mom needed to file her passport information and do something else that I can't locate in my muzzy brain right now.

*sigh* Why couldn't they at least have waited two more hours? Four hours of sleep after a hellish week of overnights and various other drama would have been sooooooo nice.

Well, at last the laptop is fixed again. If I worked on cross-stitch, I'd end up frogging everything the minute I could actually open my eyes for real.

I'm actually calmer now...

Barb from AAA talked to Mom and has listed the accusations as "unfounded". Great, wonderful, but they're still there and that's going to fester a bit, I think. Supposedly, she's going to try to find out what aide has been bringing food. We think the cold and the ceiling tile thing came from Lynn, Grandma's caseworker. However, we're off the hook as far as any investigation or anything like that.

I talked to a counselor today. I'll talk to her again next week and I think I might try to keep it up. I don't know how much it'll cost, but I think I need it. She asked me what I really want right now if I could have it and the answers were simple: more time to myself that I don't feel like I'm "stealing" and time to go back to school face to face, not just by computer. I enjoy school. I love going to classes and being with other students. It's fun. Of course, the only way either of those two goals would be accomplished is if: A, Mom gives up any life she has or B, the relatives start taking some responsibility for their mother/grandmother. Now, since the first is totally unfair to Mom and the second is almost an impossibility, I'll just have to keep doing what I'm doing. I'm just hoping I get out of this whole situation still loving my grandmother and not hating her for what we've gone through for the past five years.

*snort* I told her about the last two times I tried counseling and the unmitigated disasters that ensued and she promised me she wouldn't recommend letter or journal writing, so what am I doing now? No, I need to reclaim my writing, no matter what else happens in my life. It's a piece of my soul that I've been missing for far too long.

On a good note, except for the idiocy with the accusations, today and yesterday have been Grandma Days. Mrs. Hyde is nowhere to be seen. She's been talking to us, making jokes, starting conversation. She just ate some soup without a fight because she was cold. Usually I get at least token resistance about soup, no matter how freezing she is. Yesterday when we talked to her about the accusations she scoffed at them. On Grandma Days she knows we are here to take care of her. She's pretty cool on those days. Two in a row! It's when Mrs. Hyde is visiting that I stay in my room. We just ate in the kitchen together, talking nicely. She had her soup and I had a ham sandwich. It was nice.

Oh, I also finished my needle roll for my cross-stitch exchange. I really like how it turned out. The designs are based on Aesop's Fables. When the recipient gets it, I'll post a picture. Hee-hee. I worked on some of it while I was talking to Penny (the counselor). I even told her. She didn't say anything about it, so I don't think she minded. I just hate sitting around doing nothing with my hands while I'm on the phone or watching television for a long period of time. That reminds me, Mom is supposed to try to teach me how to crochet again...

Warning: Extreme Grandma Rant!

I don't know if I can truly express how angry and upset I am right now. I just received a call from the Area Agency on Aging. Apparently, Grandma's caseworker had some concerns about Mom and I when she visited last for two reasons.

1. The ceiling tiles in the bathroom need repair. They do, and my uncle has been promising to do it for the last two years. Mom and I simply don't have the knowledge to fix them. We replaced the roof a few years ago and had to rip out the old tiles. We were able to get most of them replaced before we ran into a snag that we couldn't fix. My uncle keeps saying he'll come out, but never seems to have the time. We have been slowly removing those that look like they have a tenuous hold on anti-gravity. I guess the case-worker saw them and is afraid they'll all come down and bonk grandma on the head. Fine, we've been trying to get them fixed, but I guess we should have, I don't know, hog-tied one of my uncles or the cousin who've been in construction, dragged them over and forced them to help take care of their mother/grandmother.

2. (And this is the one that really burns my ass) Supposedly, some of the aides have been bringing Grandma food because she says "there is none in the house". We buy food for her before and a hell of a lot more often than we buy it for ourselves. The pantry is full, so is the refrigerator. The problem lies in the fact that she simply doesn't want to eat anything other than chips, butter pecan ice cream, jello and fruit, with her diet soda washing it down. Mom and I buy stuff that's nutritious and filling, therefore it doesn't exist in Grandma's eyes. She eats it when she feels like it, if she feels like it and I guess none of the aides are pushing the issue with her like we have to. Of course, when TAFH is in, she eats whatever is put in front of her, because TAFH is taking care of her and dancing constant attendance.

I'm pissed, truly and utterly pissed. I'm shaking so hard that I have to keep hitting the backspace key to erase typing mistakes. I may not enjoy taking care of Grandma nine times out of ten, but I took on this responsibility and I will be damned if someone tells me I'm not taking care of her correctly. I give her more care and attention than I give my own health and mental well-being. Mom cries herself to sleep many nights. I just don't know what else to say. To think someone doesn't believe I'm taking care of her is mind-boggling.

They can live with her and try to get her to eat, bathe and change clothing. They can put up with her glaring at you if you dare to stay downstairs and watch television with her. They can learn to ignore constant insults about your weight and the fact that you "read too much" and "have too many books" and do those stupid crafts all the time (the only fucking things keeping me sane since I can't go back to school and get my degree because, surprise surprise, all the relatives are too fucking busy with their lives to let me go to classes). They can see what it's like to have one of the nicest people in your young life turn into Mrs. Hyde on you when you try to help her. They can come here and see the difference in her personality when there is anybody here but Mom and I. She's an entirely different woman: personable, sweet, nice, kind. Everyone always tells me, "Oh, your Grandma is so nice and sweet." Yeah? Live with her. She's crabby, cold, unfeeling and a plain old bitch about four days out of the week. Two of the other days, she's just totally ignoring us because we made her eat something she didn't like or had to go somewhere and made her leave the house to sit in the car with the heat on full blast (she refuses to enter stores, so we rush around like mad chickens getting stuff done and out quickly) and maybe, just maybe, she'll actually be nice to us on the seventh day. We live for those days. On those days, my Grandma is back. My real Grandma - not the ready-to-die woman I've been living with for going on five years.

Ooh, I'll bet the fact that all Grandma wants to do is sleep on the couch all day is our fault, too. Maybe we should drag her up and out of the couch and somehow force her to do exercises. Anyone have a remote-operated, body-control device I can use?

This has not helped cool me down, especially since I know, logically, that the AAA was doing what they are meant to do and I'm grateful for their existence. They do a lot of good and are extremely necessary. I just never would have thought they'd think Mom and I don't take care of Grandma right. I'm crying now. I'm going to go break my diet and have some chocolate.

Diets and Women's Sizes

I'm on a diet. It's been mildly successful so far. I've lost 2 .75 inches around my waist in a few weeks. I consider this a major step forward. It's a damn good thing I actually like salads.

I've been trying to figure out my end goal (size 12) and what I need to lose to get there. The problem is there are quite a few different measurement charts to go by. The US Standard size chart, which the clothing manufacturers in the United States aren't required to use, for some reason, states thus:

Size 10 (might be cool to be this tiny again): bust - 32.5, waist - 25, hips - 34.5

Size 12 (ultimate goal): bust - 34, waist - 26.5, hips - 36

Size 14 (goal for vacation at the end of July): bust - 36, waist - 28, hips - 38

Apparently, this sizing standard is falling into disuse by everyone because of its age, vanity sizing (yes, I believe it exists) and designers whims.

By contrast, the majority of catalog sales measure sizes thusly:

Size 10 : bust - 37, waist - 28, hips - 38.5
Size 12 : bust - 38.5, waist - 29.5, hips - 40

Size 14 : bust - 40, waist - 31, hips - 41.5

I would love to make it to the US Standards idea of size 12. I'd feel so skinny it's not even funny. However, just to get to their size 14 waist, I'd still have 15.5 inches to go in three months. I think the catalog one is a little more doable. It makes me wonder, though, I'm already wearing size 18. It doesn't take dropping almost 16 inches to lose two sizes, does it?

Oh, did I mention I keep putting off the exercise portion... *stupid stupid*

LibraryThing addiction

Well, I've passed 1000 books. I haven't tagged them all yet, but I'm getting to it. Can I just state now and for the record that LibraryThing is almost as addictive as LiveJournal. It's so fun just perusing others' libraries, especially if they have a lot of the same books I have.

I pretty much knew it would happen, but my tagging efforts are bringing home just how much fluff I read and re-read. So far my tag for contemporary romance is leading the pack, thanks to all those silly Harlequin and Silhouettes I buy. I was hoping my history tag would be able to win, but I really knew it wasn't going to happen. Oh, well. If I didn't re-read these books and wasn't going through and getting rid of books I no longer have any interest in whatsoever, I'd feel guilty. As it is, I do re-read them and am only keeping those I feel I really will read again.

I'm posting most of the books I no longer want on the PaperbackSwap website. There will be some I just bring to the Book Swap, though. Those are the books that I really don't think anyone will want - Harlequins and such.

Hah! The fun part now is opening up all of my downloaded e-books and finding the ISBNs that will work in the files. For some reason, those listed in the "front page" don't register with Amazon.com, so you have to find the books in a very backwards way or manually input them yourself. It's a good thing I'm patient.

Feminism and Dinosaurs

I have this thing about the movie Jurassic Park. I absolutely adore it. I got hooked on dinosaurs when I was a wee, little thing. Well, young and short, anyway. I've never been wee or little. Despite the movie's scientific inaccuracies or improbabilities it is one of the double handful of movies I have seen repeatedly in the theater (Aladdin [3 times], JP [6 times], all four HPs [too many to count between them]).

I just noticed something today while watching it for what must be the thousandth time (JP marathon - Wahoo!). When Hammond picks up the phone in the bunker, he automatically assumes it's Grant on the other end. Now I thought Grant was lost in the park with the kids and Ellie and Muldoon were resetting the controls. At no time in the action does it show Ellie letting Hammond know that Muldoon is dead and she met up with Grant and the kids. Now, after her verbal bitch-slap of Hammond and his "sexism in survival situations", you would assume he'd just think it was Ellie, right?

Am I just over-analyzing this? Probably. I blame my friends Sinspired and Morchades, of course. I've been reading their journals way too often if my brain is starting to process throwaway lines with a feminist slant.

Although, if you really think about it, the whole movie is a feminist heaven. Except for the dinos in the wild, which they didn't use, all of them are female. That includes the T-rex that chomps Gennaro's ass and the velociraptors that ambush Muldoon (who really should have known better since he called them a pride to begin with and knows pack-hunting behavior!). Also, the girls really get to do a lot of the heroic stuff. Ellie foils the velociraptor chasing her in the control shed - sorta. She gets to do all sorts of action-hero stuff, while giving Hammond something to think about in regards to sexism. She gets to be the wise elder of the piece with her conversation with Hammond when Grant and the kids are still missing.

Lexie, in the book, was a bratty little sister who played with a baseball and annoyed her older brother, contributing absolutely nothing. Tim in the book was the older brother who was the dinosaur expert and the computer whiz. Thankfully, in the movie they split Tim's role - or I would have suggested offering Lexie up as an offering to the velociraptors' gods. Lexie was the computer nerd/hacker who managed to get the systems rebooted while the adults were fending off one of the velociraptors. Except for her girly-ickishness regarding the brachiosaur sneezing and the T-rex trying to eat her (like we'd all react well to that), she managed to come out as a smart character who could save the day.

Most of the guys actually got the short end of the stick. Hammond got killed in the book, but just ended up as a sort of broken, old man in the movie. He had some clever lines and funny moments, but he came off as the overzealous, unthinking person who gets what he deserves. Gennaro gets chomped on by the T-rex, which he has coming to him for running out on the kids. Muldoon, well, see the parentheses above about the velociraptor. *fumes* Nedry gets eaten by dilophosaurs after betraying Hammond and setting everything into motion. John Arnold's family might be able to bury his arm someday, even though he never really did anything in the movie to deserve his fate. Malcom gets injured, has some really funny lines, leads the t-rex away from the kids and leads Ellie to the right place, but his defining contribution is his character's moralistic viewpoint. Wu and Harding get away, which I like, especially since I have a soft spot in my heart for B.D. Wong.

Grant and Tim come off the best of all of the guys. Grant, of course, saves the kids (with Malcom's assistance) and gets them home. He softens up towards children and gets to be all kick-ass with the shotgun. He notes the fact that the dinos are breeding (which never comes up again, damnit!) and gets to do the whole looking at the future and the past in the last shots of the movie. Little kids can be so annoying in movies. Tim comes off well. They gave his character the dinosaur smarts, which he uses to identify the "meatasauruses" from the "veggiesauruses" for his sister, getting them out of trouble. He gets to be the annoying little brother a few times, but is also the one who first realizes the danger of the T-rex. He even gets the best stunt.

Ah, well. A little semi-feminist snippet from someone who is now going back to enjoy the second JP movie and all the clever quips that are to come. Cheers.

Celiac Disease and AIDS false positive results

For any Celiacs actually reading this blog, I came across a link to an article regarding various auto-immune disorders and possible false positives for AIDS. Personally, I have Epstein-Barr Virus on top of Celiac Disease. EBV is listed as a possible cause for false positives. Oh, joy.

The article is from 1996, so there is probably a lot more current data, but it's an interesting read. There are a lot of illnesses that might throw off the readings.

Ageism is alive and well these days...

Today I encountered a woman who put my back up in the worst way. Our very cool bus driver asked her how she was doing when we got on and somehow she ended up in a rant about young people these days. The only reason I didn't say anything was because of her age and the general rule I have about respecting old people and not calling them out for being obnoxious assholes. (This one was a nasty old bat, not an elderly person!) She went off about young people not being taught manners or respect, then just had to mention a neighbor of hers who was a slut (her words) and the children she had, all three of whom are also sluts. When Joe (the bus driver) kind of just uh-huhed her she had to mention that one of the slutty children was a man in his thirties. She then wished that he'd get AIDs because he deserves it. Of course, then the topic had to change to the fact that the taxpayers have to pay for all the children of these slutty young people, who have sex before marriage and all that.

I guess every single person of her generation (both genders) was a virgin before marriage. No pre-marital sex in the Thirties, Forties and Fifties.

I was amazed by the vitriol spewing from the mouth of this small, kindly-looking woman. I commented to Joe later something along the lines of her being the picture of Christian charity and good will. He just shrugged and said that he just lets people like her go, because he has to face them each day. He's right, the poor guy.

I would love it if, for once, some older person didn't lay the blame for everything on the younger people. I'm thirty. I have manners (mostly good) and a decent respect for the elderly (Count the holes in my tongue from not telling the old bat where she could stick her prejudices!) and my mother's generation. I also try to respect my contemporaries and the generation after me. Why is it that I am somehow less deserving of the respect due the elderly? Do these people who treat younger generations like crap not have any clue as to what they did when they were young and what happened in their own times and those before them? It must be selective memory/ignorance because some of the things my mother and great-relatives have told me about I wouldn't try if you paid me a million dollars.

Just a side note: when looking up "ageism" for the Wikipedia link, I encountered a lot more links relating to discrimination against the elderly. There were some nice links dealing with discrimination towards teens and such, though. You just have to look for them. You know, at this point there are a lot more advocates for the discrimination against the elderly than there are for discrimination against youth, although neither seem to be getting much accomplished in regards to either problem.

Nerd Type

Okay, this was too good not to post. I have found out what type of nerd I am. It's not a book nerd, despite the fact that I found this quiz while taking a short break from entering books on LibraryThing (636 books and counting). I am...

What Be Your Nerd Type? Your Result: Drama Nerd You sure do love the spotlight and probably have a very out-going and loud personality. Or not. That's just a stereotype, of course. Participation in the theatre is something to be very proud of. Whether you have a great voice for musicals, or astounding skills for dramas/comedies; keep up the good work. We need more entertainment these days that isn't television and video games (not that these things are bad, necessarily.)
Social Nerd
Literature Nerd
Artistic Nerd
Gamer/Computer Nerd
Science/Math Nerd
Musician
Anime Nerd
What Be Your Nerd Type? Quizzes for MySpace

Of all things, a drama nerd?! *swishes hair back dramatically* How absurd!

;p

Adding a few things

Okay, I'm adding an In-between and a Down.

In-between: I just found out that when the gentleman at Sleepy's swiped my card for the last payment, it didn't go through. I'm calling this an In-between, not a down, because I can still pay the delivery guys tomorrow. *sigh* I just really wanted it all paid off, you know.

Down: There's a rocket launch at Kennedy Space Center...on August 3rd, the last day of our cruise. I'm going to be so close to a real launch and still miss the blasted thing! Pun intended, of course.

A week of ups, downs and in-betweens

Up: Mom and I put a down-payment on our cruise at the end of July to the Caribbean. Also, we'll go a day early and see Kennedy Space Center before we cruise.

Down: Grandma had a sugar-spike episode in the middle of Old Country Buffet on Tuesday.

Up: I paid off my mattress and it's being delivered this Saturday between noon and 4pm.

Down: I have to finish reorganizing my room in two days so the guys can actually deliver the blamed thing. (So why are you on the computer, idiot?)

Up: Reorganizing my room will give me more space to work with (if I can move the dresser) and let me sort through my books; get rid of those I don't want on PaperbackSwap (Shameless plug - check out the link on the list on the right) and actually catalog the rest on LibraryThing.

In-Between: I have decided to go on a diet to lose two sizes (at least) before the cruise. Blech! It's a good thing I actually like salads and rice cakes.

Down: My brother was just here pirating our wireless for his job hunt and received a call from my oldest cousin, asking him if he wanted to go out for drinks. She has never asked me and I feel a little (a lot!) depressed at always being the odd cousin out. Oh, and when she was told where my brother was, she didn't bother asking how Grandma was doing or ask to talk to her.

Up: My brother and I had a normal conversation while he was here and he didn't, for once, try to tell me how to live my life. He was actually pretty nice for the most part and kept his snide remarks to a minimum.

Up: I sorta told off (gently) the co-worker who torments me the most after she kept taking the supplies I needed to do my job so she could do hers instead of getting them for herself. I felt good about that.

Up: I'm already pretty far on my nephew's birthday present after less than a week of stitching. I think I'll finish it in a matter of weeks, not months like I'd hoped. The Temple will take longer, but I expected it to take a while.

In-between: Kwan Yin is sort of on hold until I find out if I'll be able to get her to her recipient, as the girl quit where we work and I have no address for her at the moment. I have to email her and make sure she keeps me updated on it.


Wow! There are more ups than downs. I like that.

Hee-hee-hee

Get Your Monster Name

gakked from ntrlstgrl on LiveJournal

Oh, the Drama! And a serious note at the end.

She's home from the hospital. Actually, she came home on Thursday. She's back to her good moments and bad moments, so everything's normal. She has promised to eat vegetables, though and for the past few days, she has. Let's just see how this goes, eh? Of course, the week had to have more drama than just Grandma in the hospital, right?

Here goes, on Wednesday, yours truly decided to cut herself with a box cutter at work and is now typing (and attempting to cross-stitch at times) with two stitches in her left index finger. I had to go to Moses Taylor, where the nurse who stitched me up was so understanding and good about my needle phobia I left her a Reese's cup as a reward for dealing with me. Although, I kind of wish she had just knocked me put with a hammer when she gave me the drug to numb my finger for the stitches. Why is a cure always worse then the injury?

I found out after I got back to work, even though Moses Taylor had called Medcor about it from the hospotal, that I needed a drug test. So after work Mom took me to pee in a cup. Thursday, before Grandma was let out, I went to the company doctor to be told how much could work. Um, I had pretty much done everything I usually do right after getting the stitches and during the day on Thursday, so I've been officially told I can work full-duty. Go figure. The funny thing is that one of the stitches is cutting its way to the actual cut every time I fully extend the finger, so now I just have to make sure I keep it slightly bent.

We found out on Tuesday that a cousin died while on a cruise in the Carribean. The body was still held up and no-one was sure when the funeral was. The worst part is that his aunt has pretty much cut off ties to the family and no-one in New York knew how to get hold of her. We knew where her daughter worked, so Mom was going to go there and leave a message for her. Well, TAFH, who was really close to the deceased cousin, decided to take care of it herself and not let Mom know about it. She called my cousin, who had the daughter's phone number and apparently called her, never telling Mom, who then proceeded to waste part of her morning off going to the place the daughter worked and trying to get hold of her, finally leaving a message for her. Mom + TAFH's arrogance and ignorance = a not-very-happy Mommy.

When TAFH left the funeral last night she called us (Mom did not call her on the carpet) and told us that my deceased cousin actually saved a woman while he himself was drowning. Those of you who have been reading this blog know I try not to call attention to my identity because I'm not always the nicest person to my relatives, but I feel that my cousin, Eric Reistetter, deserves recognition for his selfless act of heroism. He could have been rescued before another person caught in the undertow but he had the rescuers go to her, a panicking woman, before himself. He left behind a wife, two young sons, a father, mother, various siblings and a lot of aunts, uncles, cousins and friends who cared about him. He was a popular man in his community who participated in children's sports and helped people when he could as much as he could. He was a genuinely good man and his loss will be felt deeply.

Drowning victim remembered as hero, friend
BY JULIET CHUNGNewsday Staff WriterMarch 3, 2007, 8:53 PM EST
In his eulogy of Eric Reistetter Saturday, a childhood friend recalled how the pair would often play street hockey while growing up.
Once, when he blew out his knee during a game, Reistetter carried him five blocks to his home, said Greg Martino.
"This was the kind of friend Eric was to me," Martino said before more than 100 mourners gathered at Pinelawn Memorial Center for a burial service.
When he was recuperating from knee surgery years later, Reistetter prescribed him an old-fashioned pain remedy, Martino, of Hauppauge, recalled. He then produced a 23-year-old bottle of Southern Comfort.
"One shot to be taken every four to six minutes until you experience no pain," he read off the homemade label as the crowd chuckled.
"Although my heart is broken for the loss of my friend," Martino said, "the memories I have of Eric will last forever."
The funeral, held under sunshine and clear blue skies, capped days of grieving for Reistetter, 43, a Hauppauge father and baseball coach who drowned off the coast of Anguilla on Feb. 22 after directing rescuers to attend first to another swimmer in distress.
He and his family were on a cruise; Reistetter was swimming when he got caught in an undertow, witnesses said.
Robin Reistetter described her husband's last actions as typical. "I really wanted to be mad at him for what he did, but I can't, because that's who he is."
A shipping manager, Reistetter's real passion lay with his family -- Robin, 41, and sons, Matthew, 14, and Michael, 11 -- and with the boys he coached or refereed as an umpire, family members and friends said.
They were among the nearly 300 mourners who attended the morning funeral Mass at St. Thomas More Roman Catholic Church in Hauppauge. A smaller procession continued to the cemetery, making detours to drive past Reistetter's childhood and family homes and past the ballfield where he coached.
At Pinelawn, mourners showered roses onto Reistetter's coffin, which held a baseball signed by the Long Island Baymen, a baseball team he coached that included his son Michael.
Relatives described Reistetter as the glue that held the family together. Reistetter's fellow coaches and young charges praised him for teaching with a smile.
Brandon DeRamo, 11, said Reistetter made his players laugh, even when they played poorly. He added Reistetter had improved his game."I would never line up my knuckles when I hit and he got me to do that," he said.
Teammate Nick Martin, 11, called Reistetter unforgettable.
"I thought he was a hero."
Copyright 2007 Newsday Inc.

Favorite five movies quiz

Okay, this is a very simple quiz. If you can only watch five movies for the rest of your life (or you're stuck on a desert island with a dvd player, tv, portable generator and five movies), what are they? And why? They can be from any genre, era or country.


Mine would have to be:
1. 1776 - The perfect musical. It has action (cane fights), drama ("The slavery clause has to go."), comedy ("My name is Richard Henry Lee"), romance (John and Abigail Adams are great as long-distance lovers) and of course, a (slightly-flawed) history lesson, all wrapped into two hours of pure bliss.
2. The Mummy - Brendan Fraser, Oded Fehr and Arnold Vosloo for eye candy; Kevin J. and John Hannah for the comic elements and a LIBRARIAN (Rachel Weisz) as the heroine! Need I really say more?
3. Arsenic and Old Lace - Cary Grant being Cary Grant, with Peter Lorre added to the mix in this classic, oh-so-wonderful black comedy.
4. The Creature From the Black Lagoon - Gillman is my favorite classic movie monster. The giant Gila Monster comes cloes, but Gillman is the best. He's human at the same time he's alien. He's the ultimate what-if.
5. Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home - This was a major toss-up between that and Wrath of Khan, let me tell you! However, in the end, that whales of the non-Moby Dick variety had to win out.

It was actually painful to not be able to put movies like the first three Star Wars, the other Star Treks (minus the first, of course) and practically the bulk of Steven Spielberg's work. However, limiting the list to five meant I had to be ruthless. I'm so sorry to: Steve, Dean and Roland, George, Bud and Lou. There are many more actors and directors to apologize to, but I don't have enough room.

My Mother's a Jinx! (A Grandma Update)

We had a day off. TAFH came in for the weekend and Mom and I jumped ship on Saturday. After much wrangling, we decided to go down to Jim Thorpe for the day, stay overnight, then head back this morning. I think Mom jinxed us.

Grandma hasn't been feeling 100% lately. About a month ago she had a bad bout of constipation. The doctor recommended Magnesium Citrate and the problem was solved. He also added Colace to her pills and the problem has pretty much been in control. About the middle of the week, she told us she was constipated again and we used Correctol, which, according to her, helped. She neglected to tell us it didn't totally clear the problem up, which has been getting worse.

When Mom and I were talking about going places, the wretched woman kept saying she didn't want to be too far away in case Grandma went into the hospital. The jinx! Last night we got a call at the hotel from TAFH asking us what we did the last time Grandma had this problem. We elaborated and it turns out that this time it was much worse than the last. TAFH called the doctor's service and was told to take Grandma to the hospital. All of us decided to hold off on that a bit.

Around four in the morning it got too much for Grandma and TAFH brought her to the hospital. It turns out that she has some obstruction in the upper part of her intestines, too high for an enema to reach. Basically, she's on a liquid diet for a few days and lots of suppositories. The docs think it'll clear up on its own after massive doses of liquids added to her suppository indignity. There might be an infection going on in there, so she is going to be at the hospital at least tonight. There is the chance of her coming home tomorrow, but I somehow doubt she will.

So, Mom is still at the hospital with my eldest aunt. I bailed around 2pm. I was hungry, had laundry to do for work tomorrow, and had no interest in wearing a hairshirt or proving how devoted I am by staying cooped up in a hospital all day and night. My youngest cousin and her mother had no problem leaving after a visit of less than an hour, so I asked them for a ride home. It's not like Grandma even reacted to my leaving at all. She ignored the kiss I gave her and stared right through me when she realized I wasn't my youngest cousin giving her a kiss goodbye. So be it.

It just means that tomorrow, I'll actually be able to take my time coming home. (Borders, baby!) Grandma may or may not be getting out by the time I do. Mom has to work until at least five. My eldest aunt gets out after school around 3pm, but might have to teach CCD. My uncle works until 6pm. I think that, if she gets out tomorrow, my eldest aunt will pick her up. TAFH had to go home to meet some deadlines for a project she's working on and can't afford to miss by getting stuck here by snow. Good for her, even if she actually feels guilty that Grandma ended up in the hospital on her watch.

*snort* Does that mean I have to feel guilty every time something happens to Grandma when I'm home alone? Nope! I think I'll deal with the guilt I actually deserve and no more. Anyway, that's the latest Grandma Update.

A few things and a very interesting link...

This last weekend was interesting. Grandma was nice, nothing really bad happened. The insurance was taken care of - nothing we did was wrong and the lady had no clue what the heck was going on that we were getting weird calls. In fact, Grandma laid into the insurance people. The Allstate insurance agency on Ravine St. in Dickson City is not handicapped accessible. They don't even have a handicapped parking spot. Grandma nearly tripped getting up the odd steps to their door. She told them to look to their own house before criticizing others'. You go, Grandma! The whole mess started when we were told we had to add a railing to the flight of steps that leads to the sidewalk. That's why we were thrilled when she did that.

While Mom and Grandma were taking care of the insurance, I went into JoAnn's Fabric and got a pattern for either a wedge pillow or an elephant pillow to make for Mom for Christmas with my new little sewing machine. ;) I also grabbed some 32 count linen. The lady sort of laughed when I told her I don't have any. She asked me "You actually know, huh?" I, of course, said yes. As if any cross-stitcher worth her salt doesn't at least have a good idea of what she does and does not have in her stash.

My brother called. He's probably going to be coming home to the DC airport the same weekend I'll be in DC. Wouldn't it be a kick if my friends and I could meet his plane? Along with his new girlfriend...

Sunday morning was interesting. As I was laying in bed I noticed small splashes of color all over the walls and ceiling of my room. The sun was already up and reflecting them off something in my room, but it took me a bit to figure it out. A friend gave me a glass-mosaic candle for Christmas. It's all pastels and those were the colors on the walls and ceiling. I just laid there watching them move as the sun moved in the window. One of the spots ended up on my light fixture and as it moved across the edge, it looked almost like an eclipse, with half of the color on the light and half a short ways away on the ceiling. As I was studying the candle to match up what particular piece was reflecting where, I noticed a swarm of colors on the belly of Seshet. She's in a doll-stand right next to the candle and was getting the full spectrum. It was amazing. I'll have to take a picture of it the next sunny morning and post it.

I made Mom a biscornu last night. It's only one and a half inches. I'm almost there. I'll get to the point where I can make them about an inch yet.

Life...

Good and bad for the New Year...

Bea has told us that she can only work Mondays now. She watches her grandkids for her daughter (for free) and said daughter is looking for a day job and likely to get it soon. If we can't get anyone else that'll mean Mom can only work every weekend and all nights during the week. We can't afford for me to just quit altogether and I've been late and had to call off enough times lately that my next review is going to suck majorly. I might ask if I can cut my hours down to 32 each week. We can't afford it, but until we find a replacement for Bea that might be the only way to fairly work this.

I wonder if I should even visit Sunni and Sheri at the end of the month. Do we really have the money for me to spend on the bus fare and doing things down there? Gods, I hope so. I need the time away. So does Mom, but I can't do anything about that.

There is, as usual, much more going on, from insurance fiascos to Grandma's sugar being totally out of whack for the first time in months. She has agreed to give us a list of foods she'll eat and she was going over them with my cousin and me (mostly my cousin). They're all foods we already know she'll eat for us. If the other relatives think we're not doing our duty by her, they're nucking futs. She has also promised Dr. G that she'll eat three times a day for us. If she can't get the sugar under control in a month, then he adds more pills. She hates pills.

The insurance thing is about our house insurance. We took it over along with the rest of the bills and have been paying it each month thanks to our bank's computer payment system. Well, they now say they issued us a refund when the front step railing thing was handled. Not one of us has received or cashed a check, but they say we owe them almost $400. Worse yet, they don't return Mom's phone calls or leave messages on our machine, but call my aunt and uncle (whose names aren't even on the policy) and discuss the situation with them and ask them to get in touch with us. Isn't there something wrong with this picture?

As for the good, I actually went out for New Year's Eve! *chuckle* Only my friends and their friends would find watching The Muppet Show on New Year's Eve amusing, but it really was. I also fractured my brain watching Jackass 2. I fear I will never get the image of a fully nude midget racing across a table directly toward the camera out of my mind. If only he had been handsome, it wouldn't hurt so much. Kim's friend (the host) likes the Creature from the Black Lagoon as much as I do! Yes!

I crashed at Kim's and ended up staying there all day New Year's Day. The ladies had a small dinner party for Thanksgiving, Christmas and such. It was fun. Mom gave me one instruction: to bring home the cutting board of the cheese thing I brought to the party. I did. So I forgot the bowl I brought the dip in at Kim's house. Next time I see her I'll have to bring it home.

My brother called a few days ago and Mom told him I'd gone out and hadn't gotten home until late the next day. He was shocked, to say the least. Tee-hee. It's nice to know I can surprise him every once in a while. He seemed shocked when Mom reminded him I can't drink. He's known about the fact that I can't drink all of our lives. What a maroon.

He comes home this month. I hope by saying it and typing it I don't jinx him or his fellows. He's an annoying PITA most of the time, but I love him dearly and don't know what I'd do if anything happened to him.

Anyone reading this, please wish him and the others stationed overseas good luck. They need it.

First Fractured Fairy Tales, Now this...

Shadowspun! Why did it have to be Shadowspun?

Which movie was this quote from?

http://thesurrealist.co.uk/movie.php" method="get">Get your own quotes:

Holiday Wishes

Christmas Eve. NO snow.

Happy Yule (belated) to the Pagans, Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate it, Happy Hannukah to the Jewish persuasion, Happy Kwanzaa to the African-Americans who celebrate it. I'm sure I'm forgetting someone's seasonal celebration, so just have a happy holiday - whatever it may be. If you don't celebrate anything then have a happy un-holiday.

On a coolness note: Grandma is going to TAFH's house for a few days after the holiday. Can we say "Vacation"?! I am going to be getting the Superman Boxed Set with my holiday haul, so after work, which will be a major pain in the Christmas-Clearance ass (Please people, buy clearance toys at Target. Stock up for next year's gifts. Buy for next year's Toys for Tots and angel trees.) I'm definitely going to need to unwind. Hey, maybe I'll actually be able to pull some overtime finally.

The current plan is that we'll have New Year's Day off, unless we want to make sure we get 40 hours, in which case we can scrounge hours as cashiers. Yeah, right - and I like getting my eyeballs plucked from my head, too. I'll live with my meager 32 hours for that week. I might even go out New Year's Eve. Anyone know anything about that whole First Night deal? I'll have two, count them, two three-day weekends in a row. How often does that happy occasion occur in a retail-lifetime?

Wait a minute. I was searching for the Superman boxed set to link to and it looks like I may not be able to get it. Apparently, Warner Bros. screwed up and Borders may not be able to order it for me. I have to call them bright and early on Tuesday morning and see what's going on. I have pinned my entire Christmas gift hopes on this one item. Stupid stupid stupid idiot - you know your luck. Well, I will report back on Tuesday night about whether or not I got it.

They're here.

My sister-in-law has arrived. Well, she got here early Monday morning, but it took until Thursday for Mom and I to have the kids - due to our work schedules. They have grown so much in the last few months. My s-i-l has already had to buy my nephew new pants for school. Apparently, the first batch ended up looking like high-waters on him. My niece is still skinny as a rail, but a few inches taller, too. What do they eat out in New Mexico? Plant food?

We get them tonight and tomorrow, too. Tomorrow we're taking them to a late showing of Happy Feet after we go to Schuylkill Haven to visit Grandpa. I'll be dead at work Monday, but who cares? I miss the little buggers.

Oh, I finally met my s-i-l's new husband. He seems nice, if a bit quiet. Maybe he was just nervous meeting me.

I'm currently searching out chameleon cross-stitch patterns for my nephew. That's what he wants me to stitch for him, so that's what he'll get. My niece's Mermaid will be finished in time. I'm ahead of schedule on John's Starbuck's logo. The ornaments just have to be given out and I'll start the bookmarks for my exchange after the Mermaid is done and the Calla Lily will be finished after I do two or three of the bookmarks. Then I get to start back on Kwan Yin, start the chameleon and the Temple design for the Art Show and I'll do some little projects in between them. Once I finish the chameleon and the Temple I'll keep working on Kwan Yin, finish a Santa and some ornaments I started a couple of years ago and finally finish one of my Charles Wysocki's. I'm hoping to clean out a bunch of the small projects in my WIP bag this next year, so I can make fresh starts on the projects running about in my brain.

Quiz - What American Accent do you have?

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
Philadelphia
The South
The Inland North
The West
The Northeast
Boston
North Central
What'>http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_american_accent_do_you_have">What American accent do you have? Quiz'>http://www.gotoquiz.com/">Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

A Logophile's Lament

I am a logophile. I love words. I love the look of words. I love the sound of words and the feel of them rolling off my tongue. (Try saying “squish” quickly a few times while letting yourself gently drag out the “sh” at the end. Total fun.) If I had synesthesia and words evoked a smell or taste when I heard them, I’d love that. I feel that words are to be treasured. They are the basis of all societies, whether they be spoken, signed or written (by letters or pictograph). Unlike a dragon hoarding his gold and jewels, words are a treasure that must be shared to be truly appreciated.

Words have their own appeal, whether it be visual or aural - both evocative of emotions. I hate (not just dislike) the spelling “gray” but love “grey”. I don’t know why it just seems so much better to me. I’m an American, so I get funny looks when I spell the word the British way, but that doesn’t stop me. Look at the word “hope”. Really look at it. Doesn’t it look funny? It’s only the emotion behind the word that makes it at all appealing. It has an extra letter it doesn't need and it's only that extra letter away from "hop" - a totally undignified action if I've ever seen one. Now say it. The ugly spelling goes away when you say it, but the emotion is there - an uplifting of your soul; a feeling that no matter what happens, we can be happy in this world. How about the old standard - “knife"? Kuh-niff-uh? Nope. You know, we really could just drop the “k” and the “e” and the meaning behind the word would be fine. It would also be extremely boring. The funky spelling makes this word. Just like kuh-nig-it. Wouldn’t Lancelot be proud? There is also the ever-popular expletive. These are usually extremely idiotic-looking words; but oh, so nice to have around when that one person you just can’t stand, but have to work with every day, does something to really annoy you.

I use "big" words in normal conversation. I can’t help it. I actually enjoy reading the dictionary (you nerd!) and have absorbed far too many words for them not to show up in my everyday speech. I was chastised (What a kind word for publicly humiliated.) today by my co-workers for yet again using the word “facetious”, which basically means using a word or phrase in a way meant to be funny. I was told to use English. Normal English. Idiot English, I guess. Am I supposed to break down my speech into one syllable increments to please people (Adults, no less!) who can’t be bothered to learn anything now that they are out of school? It frustrates me that I can’t even use what I consider normal speech in my everyday life. I don’t think learning a new word every once in a while will kill a person. I don’t think it’s that difficult to figure out what a person is saying by actually listening to the context of their speech.

All I really do know is that words and the concepts behind words are the only way for us to really communicate in everyday life. Body language alone (barring Sign Language - a true thing of beauty) is not sufficient for asking the price of the toaster you want to buy Aunt Mabel for her birthday. Mathematics are great for determining the nature of the cosmos, but binary number sequences and algebraic equations can’t be used efficiently to ask that gorgeous guy you just met out on a date. Can you imagine a newspaper article that was nothing but a long binary sequence zipping past your eyes? Ugh! Although, there is one concept that symbols spell out the best: #@*&!!!

Again, I love words. They encapsulate all that we are and can be in their sheer descriptiveness. They help a person teach. They can make a person cry or laugh. Words can make you angry like nothing else. It's untrue that "words can never hurt me". Words can hurt far more than any stick or stone ever can. Physical bruises fade; emotional scars never do. Yet, words can heal almost anything or at least make the wounds less painful. They can make enemies of lifelong friends and friends of lifelong enemies. Words can be used to tell a person what the weather is like, such a simple thing. Words can be used to tell the truth, lies and those little things in-between. Words are precious. Words tell people how precious they are to others. They say "please", "thank you" and "you're welcome"; the cornerstones of politeness we all learned at our parents' knees. Words are used to tell stories: stories of our lives, our dreams, our disappointments, our pains and pleasures. We are made up of words - words like cranium, epidermis, heart, foot. Soul. Without words, humanity is nothing.

National Sexual Offender Public Website

While researching bits of my last post, I came across this but forgot to include it. It's the National Sexual Offender Listing. In Scranton itself eight registered offenders either reside or work.

Wilkes-Barre's proposed sex-offender law

Alright, I'm going to get yelled at for this post.

On the radio this morning there was an article about Wilkes-Barre passing a law banning registered sex offenders from living within 1500 feet of any area children congregate. The law is still in the planning stage, but it follows two others in Luzerne County in a short time. The version in Wyoming Township literally bans all sex offenders from the city, since there is no place that they may live that doesn't fall within the forbidden zones. Apparently, this law will also ban them from living within 1500 feet of "any school, child care building, public park or recreational facility". I wonder what this will leave for them.

A pedophile will still be a pedophile, no matter where they live. They will still find a place to stalk children. A violent sexual predator will still be a violent sexual predator. They will still find a place to stalk the men or women they intend to attack. If these people have served their time for their crimes (even given the fact that such impulses are likely to persist) then can we keep punishing them? Doesn't this fall under "cruel and unusual punishment"?

I know someone will say I must have no idea how horrible these people can be and they'd be wrong. Very wrong. I have been very much impacted by pedophiles in my life. I am not soft on them. I know they cannot be cured at this time. I just worry about the civil rights issue. If they are so unwelcome, then they should never have been released by the prison system. Why don't we just set up modern-day leper colonies, shove them all there and be done with the fiddling and fussing. How about bringing back the internment camps that we stuck the Japanese-Americans in during WWII? Hey, why not go even further and set aside some land in each state and call it a reservation. We can stick them all in there, let them have some sort of industry so we don't have to support them through welfare and just forget about them. We can use Bush's pet border fence to keep them there, even.

I definitely agree that something must be done to find a way to reduce the number of sexual predators out there. We need to find a way to treat such pathological behavior and end it. We need to find a way to protect both children and adults alike from these jerks. I just don't know if laws like this are going to work. Already sex offenders are skipping out on the registries for fear of being driven out of the homes and jobs they've found.

Do we stop convicted bank robbers from ever stepping in another bank? Do we have a law legally separating victims and domestic abusers? What about people convicted of other violent crimes? Do we forbid them from ever going near other people again? No. We put them on probation for a while and then cut them loose when that probation is finished. Where do we draw the line? Sex offenders need to be monitored, yes. This is why laws exist to track them. Parents and families also need to monitor their children and surroundings. Responsibility does not only lay with the law and government.

However, and this is where I look past the things done to me and slip on my rose-colored specs, I think we must also give those offenders who have truly rehabilitated a real chance at another life. I would hope they use that second chance wisely and well, just as I hope for the same with all criminals released from prison.

Another thing, this only deals with those sexual predators that have been caught and successfully convicted. So, this will just force them to roam further afield than before to find victims. It doesn't even cover those we've not caught or convicted.

On a side note, Dunmore also has one affecting sex-offenders moving into the area. They passed it on October 24th. It allows those who already live there to remain, but no new sex-offenders can move in at all because this one "prohibits a person listed on the state sex-offender registry from living near (within 2500 feet) any 'school, child care facility, open space, community center, public park or recreational facility.' " Throop is considering following their lead.

This is being played out nationwide. Here's the one garnering most of the attention, though. Check it out, folks. By the way, read the text of the law. It's given me fodder for an entirely new post.

I grieve with thee...

To the family of Jane Wyatt, I'm sorry that such a classy lady is gone. I'm not old enough to have known her in her most famous role, but she made one hell of an impression on me as Amanda Grayson. Spock's Mom was just so cool. She was graceful and elegant and at the same time could totally put her son and husband in their places. She may have tried to control her emotions a little more than most humans out of deference to her husband's culture, but she was certainly not averse to letting them show when needed to make a point.

Amanda Grayson could have been a two-dimensional, silly character were it not for Jane Wyatt's splendid portrayal of a woman standing in two ver different cultures, respecting both and respected by both. Ms. Wyatt's acting skills brought Amanda Grayson to life. She brought her into my home and heart. Amanda has always been one of my favorite Star Trek character, even if she had such a small onscreen time comparatively.

Thank you, Ms. Wyatt.

IDIC

And now for something really special...

Well, utterly absurd anyway. Watch it without any sound and it's even stranger.

Disney Orgy - Minnie, Goofy, Mickey and a few others getting a little frisky before showtime. The actors have, of course, been fired.

*hiccup*

Does anyone know of a way that a person allergic to alcohol can get mind-numbingly drunk? If so, let me know. Please.

Quick update on Grandma

Just a quickie.

It appears Grandma is not eligible yet for the Waiver program because she actually has too much money. She has about $4000 over the limit of liquifiable assets. TAFH found a funky insurance policy/investment from MetLife or something like that that has a cash value and Grandma's regular insurance policy (intended for burial costs) is considered part of her assets because she could cash it out. So, we're going to try the whole paying for the burial in advance thing and then cash out the MetLife thing. This will give us working capital to pay Bea for a bit, then apply again for the waiver once Grandma gets under the limit. The program will supposedly pay for someone to come in while Mom and I are at work - not Bea, but that's not my problem.

At the moment, we're doing Option #2. Mom's working six days, all weekend. Since she's working that schedule, she gets out of work at either 3pm or goes in at 2pm during the week and works all day Saturday and Sunday. This means no weekends off for me, but we are arranging with the oldest aunt to let us have an upcoming Sunday night to ourselves to visit Roba's.

At least now we aren't, as TAFH put it before she left (after actually having been sort of nice the entire weekend) "using 'Bea' like water."

Pink Lady Hell

Have you ever thought something was going to turn out really nice and when you finished creating it started to shake in horror?

That happened to me today. I was trying my hand at designing a biscornu and decided to go with pinks for Spring. Big mistake. It went from bold to light pink and when I was done with the design I could only stare at it. I'm not a fan of pink to begin with but this was just horrible. It's almost worth stitching up just so I can show you how pink the design actually ended up.

I changed most of the pinks to purples and breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Here's a way you can get an idea of how pink we're talking. Go to this page, click on the first color card and look for the run of colors starting at 605 and going through to 3804. Those were the colors I used at first. I ended up only using 603, 604 and 3806, plus the purples I saved my sanity with.

Small Steps Back and Forth

Well, a solution to one problem has been found. Of course, it is going to create another big one for Mom down the line, but we can't worry about that now, I guess.

TAFH is coming in this weekend (Friday through Monday! Ack!). Since she is going to be very ticked off at everyone in this household, I will be avoiding her like the plague. Long story short, she was yelling at Mom over the phone and Mom hung up on her. We then refused to answer the phone the next four times she called and she refused to leave a message. She hasn't called back. So, when she actually gets here, she'll have been stewing about the fact that Mom grew some cajones and actually stood up to her little sister. (I was so proud of my mother!)

I'm going out with a friend on Saturday and staying away from the house for as long as humanly possible. I'll help my friend move, we'll watch a movie and TAFH can glory in telling Grandma what horrible care-takers we are.

As for Grandma, she just went to the doc and he gave her as good a bill of health as she can expect with her numerous ailments. She "forgot" her purse, so Mom paid the co-pay and the meds. We have a feeling she's going to keep doing this. We're taking over the rest of the bills so she only has to worry about spending her money on paying "Bea". She stopped paying for any groceries over a year ago. Since Mom and I tend to eat at work or on the way to or from work, this means we've been buying all of her food. Not that she actually eats what we make her. She usually tells me she doesn't want it after I make it and I go through about two or three things before she agrees to eat what I make. Then she tells you that you should have asked her what she wanted in the first place. When you do ask her first or ask her after you've attempted something already, she always says, "Nothing."

Don't I sound greedy? I'm not. I just get annoyed when the relatives say that Mom and I live here rent-free, trouble-free (Hah!). We pay for all of the food. We did pay half of the bills, now we'll be paying for all of them. We pay for Lifeline. The only thing we won't be paying for (at this time, anyway) are her meds, Bea and the property taxes.

Anyway, the current monetary emergency is settled. TAFH is coming in because she scheduled an assessment for some sort of waiver program. No, she never bothered to warn us that she was doing this or when she scheduled it. She never asked us if we had plans with Grandma on Monday. She scheduled it when it was convenient for her to be here and simply "knew" that everyone else would fall into step with her. We don't even know what this waiver program is or does. Is it a state program? County? Federal? What services could it provide: day care, bathing, monetary assistance? TAFH hasn't bothered to enlighten us yet. Maybe she will on Friday if we're good, little children and do exactly what Mommy Dearest says.

I just called the other Aunt, asking her if she knew what the waiver program was and she told me she had no idea, either. She did, however, tell me that she went to Grandma's doc and got a paper today that verified that Grandma can't be alone. Dr. G didn't tell Mom about this when they were there. This means that if we can't pay Bea, then either Grandma gets institutionalized or I get to quit my job and stay home 24/7. We really can't afford either option. Keep your fingers crossed that this waiver thing will pay for a home attendant.

Smile

I have a fool-proof method of cheering myself up. All I have to do is turn on the movie 1776. I have almost the entire movie memorized and can recite most of it verbatim.

Life Sucks...

This might come off as a stream of consciousness exercise, but I'm trying to get things together in my head.

Grandma is broke. Her accounts are pretty much drained dry from paying "Bea" to watch her. We've been paying her $10 an hour under the table. The last check, which bounced and led us to this revelation, was for almost $400.

So, our options stand thusly:
1. Somehow we convince Bea to accept less money.
2. Mom works six days a week, the 3-11 shift so that when I'm getting home, she's just leaving. She would schedule herself off every Wednesday (or whatever day is before the truck arrives at her store).
3. We somehow convince Grandma to go to a day-care program.
4. She goes in a home.
5. We win the fucking Powerball and never have to worry about how to pay for a thing.

Problems:
1. This is Bea's livelihood. She will neither want to work for less nor will she be convinced to leave early to save some money.
2. Mom and I will be totally burned out. (And this is different from now, how?) Also, if Mom is actually offered the regional manager position she'll have to turn it down.
3. Grandma refuses to go and they don't even start until 7 or 8 AM anyway.
4. Grandma would hate Mom for putting her away. Also, Grandma never put the house in anyone else's name (Mom and I don't give a rat's ass about whose) so if she goes into a home it'll be taken to pay for the care. Theoretically, we could live here until she died, but after her death the state would give us first refusal. There's also the fact that, while she needs help with certain things, she's not bad enough yet to need other things. Assisted Living is too independent for her, but she's not yet in need of a true nursing home.
5. Well, except for the fact that I have no way of intuiting the numbers, I see no problem with this solution.

Mom thinks TAFH jumped the gun with the whole "Grandma can't be alone" thing. I thought it was a doctor who said this, but Mom says it was one of TAFH's proclamations. There have definitely been times Grandma was well enough to be on her own and definitely times when she's been unsteady, so who knows? If it's the case that TAFH/whoever jumped the gun, then we could have held off having a constant companion for a little while and the money would have lasted a bit longer.

Mom and I really didn't think she'd last this long. I know that sounds horrible to admit, but we never thought the situation would end up like this. The way it looks, Mom's going to turn down her dream job (if it's offered to her) and work six days a week. Neither of us will have another night out again, unless one of the relatives is kind enough to offer to to watch her on a day neither of us will really have the luxury of taking advantage of. If Mom's day off is during the week, I can't go out because my work starts at 4AM. If her day off is on a weekend, we might have a chance.

One of the things that's really bugging me, though, is that it means putting off college once again. I really thought I could manage to enroll for this Spring. This means we'll have to take on not just more of the bills (which I really don't have a problem with) but all of the bills. I'm going to keep my layaway for my new mattress. I have to. I can't sleep on this one very well with all of the springs poking me. Mom is not going to be able to start a new computer payment, so yet again, I get shafted that way. She has a nice laptop, I get to use it on occasion and have to use the dinosaur as my computer. (How petty that sounds, not sorry one bit.) I'm going to stop the iPod layaway at Wal*Mart. Mom doesn't really need a 30gb iPod when she hardly listens to music outside the car.

We're going to start looking at apartments, just in case, but I really think the only choice is going to be option 2 and just hope that my stupid relatives see that we're burning ourselves out and actually help us like they fucking said they would when we took on this responsibility.

Did we make a major mistake agreeing to help her out when we moved back here? There have been a couple of times that she would most likely have died if one of us wasn't here. But is the life she has now really a blessing? Yes, she has enjoyed seeing the great-grandkids and my cousin's wedding (which came after one of the more serious incidents that I caught), but her life is simply this: she sleeps on a bed downstairs after having been told she can no longer go upstairs in her own house. When she wakes up after 10AM or so, she moves to the couch in the living room and sleeps there all day as she watches a little TV. Sometimes she sits on the porch. She argues with Mom and I about everything she eats.

Speaking of, I will now no longer give her bread. After a bit of heated conversation today she has decided she never wants bread again. So, from now on, I won't make her sandwiches (Shit! Now what do I feed her?) and any hot dogs she gets will be sans bun. If one of the relatives makes her something with bread, I will kindly inform them she doesn't like it. If she argues and says she wants the bread from the relative, then so be it and I will again serve her bread, reminding her ever more that she can't refuse it from only me. Yes, I will be a bitch about it. :)

You know, reading this back I feel like I am one of the most selfish people around. I know it porobably sounds like I hate my grandmother. But I don't. She is one of the strongest women I have ever met. She is intelligent and smart. She did more when faced with major adversity than obviously I am capable of. When my grandfather died she finished raising three kids (my oldest aunt was already in college) by herself. The youngest was six years old. Until the last couple of years, she was involved in her church in every way she could be. She was an amazing card shark whom you dreaded/adored playing Rummy with. She used to joke and laugh.

I just feel like I lost my real grandmother a few years ago when she started going downhill. She doesn't joke anymore. She doesn't play cards or sing with the choir. She doesn't go anywhere. She just sleeps. She just exists. And Mom and I have an existence that revolves around her existence. So, yes, I am selfish. I want my real grandmother back. I want to be able to go back to college and actually make something of myself and my life. I want to date. I want to have more than one or two friends again. I just want everybody to be happy. Is that really so much to ask?

After a "brief" hiatus...(long)

Okay, so it wasn't so brief. I've been in a funk, I admit it.

Mom and I managed to go on our vacation. We went from Scranton to Corning then Rochester; Rochester to Lockport then Niagara/Buffalo; Buffalo to Niagara (Canadian side) then Burlington; Burlington to a few shops between there and Toronto, one verrrry long street in Toronto then Kingston; Kingston to Gananoque then somewhere between Gananoque and Syracuse; somewhere near Syracuse to Lafayette, then Ithaca to Corning to Big Flats; Big Flats to Gilbertsville then Oneonta to East Meredith and back to Scranton.

Phew! Yes, we did all of that in a week - Sunday morning to Saturday night. At Corning we made glass beads (Mom's turned out nicer. *pout*) which we picked up on the way back. We also took in the Ansel Adams exhibit that was at the Rockwell Museum of Western Art. *DROOL* We thought we'd see something at Rochester, but ended up just going to Lockport, where we toured a cave (man-made with some cool growths starting) and took a cruise on the locks of the Erie Canal. Then we hit Niagara on the American side. We went to the Cave of the Winds (which you actually can't go in anymore) and I got drenched. Mom managed to get a picture of me about to be washed away by the Bridal Veil Falls. At the end there's a place where you can donate the sandals they give you to a third world charity. We did. On our quest to find a hotel room for the night we stopped at the Our Lady of Fatima Shrine and lit candles for my brother and a few others we know. We also took pictures of any saints that had bearing on our names, except for my nephew's saint who was conspicuously absent. I guess no patrons have liked Christmas yet.

Tuesday we crossed into Canada. We exchanged a good bit of our currency, since we didn't want to use the check card unless we had to. We went on the Maid of the Mist, a suspended car over the Whirlpool, a walk past the Rapids and saw the Flower Clock and the Butterfly Conservatory. You know, for sheer size and the mist it gives off, Horseshoe Falls is impressive and dramatic, but I think Bridal Veil Falls is just prettier. It has different layers and more happening in a smaller space. But I was most impressed by the Butterfly Conservatory, if that makes any sense at all. As we were taking the shuttle to it, we met a family with ties to this area and the daughter and I started talking books, of course. (Just when you thought you were safe from nerds...) When we did get in, a Blue Morpho landed right on Mom's glasses. Unfortunately, she had the camera and I was unable to get a shot of it, but it was cool. I think we spent an hour there, just marveling at them.

Wednesday we used as a shopping day. There wasn't really anything we wanted to see in Toronto that we couldn't pass on, so we went to a genealogy store (Heaven!), two quilting shops and spent about an hour traveling down one mile of Yonge Street (Toronto's seeming equivalent to Broadway) to get to a needlework shop, where I made out pretty well - bought this in chart-form. YES! Thursday was mixed. We went to a few shops in Kingston, where both of us cleaned up and I got some very good advice about needlework. Then we went to Gananoque and took the three-hour 1000 Islands tour. I relaxed and stitched through most of it. I did fall madly in love with one of the houses on the lake. When I get the film developed, I'll post a picture of it. Mom and I crossed back into the States after that, much to the amusement of the Border guard, I think. When asked if we had anything to declare, ditzy me asked if a Wendy's salad counts. He just shook his head and passed us through. Oh, cool tidbits, we bought my aunt some GF beer called La Messagere and Wal*Marts in Canada sell KinderEggs at the registers!

Friday we picked a bushel of apples (Paula Reds, absolutely delicious) at Beak & Skiff Apple Farm (oh, their caramel apple fudge is to die for!) and on the way to Ithaca to see the Falls (lovely as they were) we lost our damned muffler! Of course, being so close to Syracuse, we had to wander into the garage of a G-Mac fan. I can't get away from that kid for anything! Mom and the mechanic had a fine time talking about him, his prospects and his personal life. I just wanted him to look at the darned car so we could go. *sigh* He ended up taking the muffler (the big tank part) off and we rolled it in one of the ponchos we had gotten at Niagara and stuffed it in the trunk. Then we went to Ithaca and Corning, where we picked up our beads. I guess it's only fair that hers turned out prettier. We both liked my flower better last time.

Oh, and a very important thing happened at Big Flats, beside us getting "all lost and confused". I finally got to go to a bookstore! Let me tell you, I will never ever ever go an entire week without reading at least one book again. I swear I was suffering the DT's.

Our last day was spent in Central New York. We hit another quilt shop in Gilbertsville, the Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta and Hanford Mills in East Meredith. We had time on the way home, so we went to Cinemark and took in a movie (WTC - kinda depressing, but what else can you expect?) . Then we went home.

Okay, I'm totally amazed/amused. I was looking on Yahoo! for a map so I could make sure I wrote down all the places we hit in Canada and found out that you can view a satellite image of an address. I just had to put in my home address. I can see my house! You can see the park and ball-field right across from me and the culm banks with the idiot construction across the road from me and even the place at the crick that I hang out at.

Anway, that's my vacation post, about two weeks overdue...

Cheers!

La-dee-da-dee-da

Okay, I am alive. I've been playing with my niece and nephew (they've gone home now) and working on a stitching project I have to finish as soon as possible. It's on 24 count fabric stitching over one and driving me absolutely berserk.

Anyway, I'm really not online a lot lately. I had 583 emails the other day. Yipes!

I have finally updated History's Shadow. Forget Elvis, I have someone much more fun in mind.

Oh, and I'm going through my books and sorting out those I can part with. I have over fifty posted on Paperbackswap.com already. Of course, the fact that the bookshelf my uncle put up thirty years ago finally gave in to the weight of the approximately 300 books I had shoved on it and collapsed had something to do with me actually getting off my butt and starting the sorting.

So, see you in a few days. I will try to keep up with History's Shadow, most likely updating every other day or daily if I can carve out the research time. Does anyone know how to add a few hours to every day? I could really use about three more per day, four would be better. I might get sleep, then.

Cheers!

She's Here! She's Here!

Okay, anyone reading this for a while knows I'm Pagan and desperately want to be a librarian. So, what could be more fitting than to actually find out who the Goddess of Librarians is, right? Well, her name is Seshat. She was worshipped as a counterpart to Thoth by the Egyptians. She is patroness of libraries, scribes, architects, mathematics (ugh!) and geometry.

Thanks to the wonderful talents of Kelli from Dancing Goddess Dolls, I now have my very own Seshat doll to add to my altar. She's stunning. She's so soft. I now need to decide who to order next. Medusa sounds great, as do about twelve or fifteen other goddesses, but I think it'll be the Green Man or Thoth. I should probably find a god to go with Her. For now, She'll be sharing space with Merlin, Buddha and the Lady.

Check out Kelli's stuff. It's absolutely beautiful. She makes god and goddess dolls, altar cloths, quilt tops, cards and a ton more. Kelli makes everything by hand, so her art is not cheapo, little throw-away junk. They are all well-worth the prices and the pocket goddesses are really neat! I want Cailleach and Hecate! Oh, who am I kidding? I want them all.