Thread Drift

[DebW]

BMo3, please be cautious and careful. But I hope you are able to ride again soon.

AllezGirl, maybe I'll see you in Missouri. I'll be there the 24th-28th. If there is good weather and I can escape, maybe I'll go rent a bike and ride the Katy Trail for a few hours. I have finally wised up and decided that visits with my parents will last no more than 4 days. But this visit can't be too bad - I will be coming home with Sturmey Archer Oil!

Nanci, how great that Inez has joined the Tame Snakes Club. And how lucky Krusty is that you are caring for him.

Happy Solstice, everyone!

[Xrayted]

X-I want medical clearance for you first.

Who me? Shhh. I'm just fine.

Knot/Mimi - I can vouch that BMo3 likes deep tissue massages. Kit and I tag teamed a neck/shoulder massage on her Sunday night. I've never massaged anyone even close to that tight across the shoulders. And Kit started on her before I took over. WOW!! Now if she could just wrangle one out of the family everyday...

[Kitsune06]

Hey, fear my massage abilities. ...well, wait. no, don't fear them, that's kind of counter-productive. Embrace my massage abilities. I can vouch that those were *tight* shoulders... but I think we did ok...

[Xrayted]

Nice avatar there BMo3. We did do a good job of polishing that bottle off, didn't we? Three Blind Moose. That describes us exactly, afterwards.

DebW - AG called me tonight. She was just crossing into Ohio from WV. She will be logging in once she gets to her parents house tomorrow sometime.

[salsabike]

somebody just shoot me! PLEASE!! I have done the %@#$%#@ family $%#$% dance all day long and when I finally solved all the problems DH COMPLAINED.
He tossed a lit grenade in my hand and said "Gotta go, I screwed up, deal with it" and i did. I even went out and bought presents for 4 more people no, 5 more.. because of his ahem, well thought out decision. ARGH!!
the good news... My sister is staying FAR FAR away.

just shoot me!! I HATE HOLIDAYS!

(thank you for listening) now back to your regularly scheduled drift.

MIMI! Urg. I can't believe he complained after all that. Auggh. We definitely need another social ride here, girls. For those who don't like riding in the PNW winter, maybe just another Red Hook lunch.

X, are you really coming to visit in April? And Trek in Feb. The rest of you need to start thinking about this...

BMof3---much TD affection to you, you know. I'm glad he didn't say no, so with care, I hope you do go ahead. And in case you want to hop a plane, we do have a tandem, you know.

I'm in Albany helping Mom move to assisted living (brief delay for very mild case of pneumonia on her part; she should be going to new apt in very cool place on Tuesday). Mr. Salsa came home from a long arduous work-related boat trip to find that they had done nothing all week while we and the cats were gone and had started drywalling...today. The place was a shambles and he had to plead with the cat boarder people to keep the cats, when they're already overbooked, and go to a hotel. Where we will have to spend all of our coming "vacation" week, I expect. I am going to kill the contractor.

Nanci, I am glad you already love the new tortoise. Tortoise or turtle? Let me know if you need a donation. I'm not kidding--PM me if you do.

Did I mention that I'm going to kill the contractor?

I have yet to taste Wilbur Buds or cinnamon drops/snaps.

[Kitsune06]

Remember, friends help you move. Real friends help you move bodies.

[crazycanuck]

hey kids!!!

BM- If i had a tandem i'd force you to come out with me...

Weather here is very pleasant....def not 38c! IT's only 18c....apparently this is the first day of sunshine Auckland's had in a while.......

KIt-that thought passed my mind the other day when my bike route took me past a fresh crime scene and later foundout what happened!!!
Have you seen the film " shallow grave"???

Take care kids

c

[KnottedYet]

Just did some desperation xmas shopping. I am soooooooo heartily SICK of the commercial-consumeristic-Christmas thing. Next year I think I'll boycott xmas. I'll celebrate New Year instead. I want Christmas to feel more like Thanksgiving. I'll give presents on New Year's, presents to start the new year with. Just do family-and-friends stuff at xmas. And tree and decorations. No Christmas presents.

Knot-Grumpy-Scrooge

PS: Last year I hand-made a lot of the presents I gave out. This year I tried to buy things. Bleh. Did I mention how much I dislike what has happened to Christmas?

[salsabike]

We sent out a pathetic little email message to family and friends about two weeks ago, saying that given what's happening with my mother, and work trips, and the house, and all, that we just would not be able to manage Christmas present activities this year, so please save whatever you all may have gotten for us until next year, and we love you, etc. I really wanted to donate to wildly liberal charities in everyone's name and have little cards sent to them, but just barely restrained myself.

Kit, that's an excellent thought and I will keep it in the forefront of my mind.

Guys? Have a good whatever holiday.

[DirtDiva]

Shhhh, X has the same horrific thought. I do not want my head drilled into.

They wouldn't actually have to do any drilling, just feed a catheter up a vein from a handier location...

Weather here is very pleasant....def not 38c! IT's only 18c....apparently this is the first day of sunshine Auckland's had in a while.......

Let's just not talk about the weather in Chch of late! I guess it's doing something to prepare me for my return to dreary London... I have a job lined up until the end of July, by the way. If it works out well for all involved, it could well go on beyond that if I want to stay.

[Nanci]

(I need to go make some more Santa's White Christmas coffee!)

BMO3- I hate it that you had to wait so long for results that those who didn't know you were waiting thought it was a whole new scan...That just isn't right. I like my department because the radiologist tells the patient/parents the results immediately, and if he doesn't, I tell him to! They also tell people what was seen in other current radiology exams like ultrasounds, CTs, etc- otherwise I bet the pt would never even know! I got in _so_ much trouble once for looking up my own results for my ultrasound of my heart- but crap- they need to tell people right away. It isn't fair to make them wait. For what. When I get a mammo, I insist that the radiologist tell me the results that second. Of course it helps that I work with them.

But good news that you might be on your bike soon! Maybe DH needs to get a tandem!

Snap- love the bell. It would be perfect. I always wanted a bell!

Salsa, ((((SALSA)))) thank you, but it's not that bad yet. I have $90 left out of my paycheck, after paying Krusty's bill, and he doesn't have to go again. I'm a _little_ worried about the next round of bills next check, but if I make it through that, I think it will be ok. He's a turtle. Florida Box Turtle. Very close relative of Fagalo, Eastern Box Turtle. No relation at all to Koko and Buttercup, Desert Tortoises, who were close relatives of the departed Cracker Chicken, Gopher Tortoise who moved away on his own.

I sponsored a pigeon once, though- a bunch of people on the pigeon rescue list did. She'd been poisoned, on purpose, by a pigeon removal company. How'd you like to be a pigeon rehabber (small scale) and have your building's owners hire a company to kill all the birds in the neighborhood? Treatment was horribly expensive, and she recovered, but died later. Victoria. The friend who needed help was a GYN doc who immigrated here, but couldn't get licensed, (now in nursing school) who eventually got hired by the vet who saw all her pigeon rescues- one of the foremost avian vets in the US, in Miami.)

I'm not doing Christmas presents, either. Luckily, BF already got his present in November- the health club membership payroll deducted from my check. I also bought him a DVD. He's going to be home (here) for Christmas again this year. How nice. (He'd rather be up north with his family, but can't get out of work.) I haven't decorated at all. I wouldn't mind a couple poinsettias. I don't know about a tree- they are so much work, and the snakes live where I put th etree last year. Sometimes I wish I had a real house with windowsills and stuff. ROOM and stuff. STORAGE and stuff.

I figured out my tax return- it's going to be ok. I have to put brakes in my truck, and there is some strange wobbling going on in the front end, and I need to make a downpayment on another shed so the lawn mower can stop living in a tent, having been displaced by the motorcycle. The tent looks like it's been abandoned on Everest or something- it's pathetic.

But I've told all friends that I can't afford presents- hopefully BF will take care of that- I know he bought Swiss Colony stuff. MMMm. I am into the Red Velvet Petit Fours...I tell people "Your present is a share in Krusty's good health."

Oh, BMO3- noticed the avatar instantly. Was it good? I see it all the time. And Four Emus, which I would buy just for the label. Whoever invented the animal label marketing scheme had a direct hit with me. I love the Rex Goliath 40 Pound Rooster label. And the pinot noir is pretty good, too.

Deb- I had Inez out last night to see if she'd remember. I always feel badly when I get her out. She prefers to sleep in this thing that kind of looks like a mini-Ayers Rock (Uluru!) but inside it, she somehow gets up on a little shelf thing, so when I pick it up, she falls off the shelf onto her aspen bedding, disgruntled right from the start. So I had her out, of course she musked me, but after only a few minutes I tried to get her to do the hand-to-hand thing. It was like, she's hanging down, I have her gently pinched to keep her speed under control, she's going down toward my other hand, but first she has to whip back and forth, then she gives up and goes, then I hold out the other hand under, and she has to whip around osme more and try to go down the back, not my palm, and this goes on for several minutes, so she's _sort of_ got the hang of it, but she still has to flail in between each step. Finally after 30 minutes she was back to going smoothly again. She feeds tonight, so she has a break for 48 hours from handling.

Oh God, DD was on the phone last night. Prescious Roy is stabilized in his collar and doing ok. She talked forever, and eventually we were talking about food, and I said "We've been eating catfood all week for dinner" and she burst out screaming "MOM!!!!!!!!!!" and laughing and then I started laughing, because I had actually said "cashews" but she heard "catfood." She'd pictured us with a 50# bag, in the living room, munching handfuls...Which is pretty much what we're doing with the cashews- it's so out of control...

MP- when do you get back on teh bike? (If you already have, and I missed it, I apologize...)

Ok, back to snake land.

NAnci

[Nanci]

PS- I hate it when you can't do stuff by Internet, when you have to send in an actual check, like for an RUSA membership...Or the local cycling club. Get with the times!!

Nanci

PSS, am I the only person in the world who doesn't think Dave Chapelle is hilarious??

[Kitsune06]

ok going to say right now that the stent idea does not 'feel' like a good idea. I'd say 'yeah! Sure! Whatever!' if this was a leg vein or something similar, but this is an artery in the skull. Even if CC is correct in accessing it, the risk of creating an anyurism would be enough (and the difficulty of treating an anyurism up there, the risk of collateral damage- swelling of the brain, etc) that I'm iffy on the whole idea. This is my sister we're all theoretically poking! And TRUST me she needs all the brain-power she can get!

*runs and hides!*

...oh, and BMo3- X and I were discussing your brain last night to come up with the above conclusion...

oh, and Nanci- You may well be. Dave Chapelle is HILARIOUS! My kingdom for Comedy Central again....

[mimitabby]

Yeah, Nanci
you can really get the sympathy going telling your kids you are eating catfood for supper. That's hilarious. Read with interest your snake training description.
my son and GF found a python at a PETCO and despite all that was said, they are thinking of buying it. When gf was in college, she worked in a science museum sort of place and got to know all the reptiles, so she is an expert and knws this python is a nice little guy (her words) in their defense, they did go to the website you gave us and spent a lot of time there.

I hate christmas too. The part ihate the most is you can't see ANYONE around xmas time without each party feeling obligated to give a gift.

Salsa, DH was not in such a good place. I don't think he was thinking it through when he complained. I appreciate you guys letting me let of steam. We're on the same page again (I think)

[KnottedYet]

coffee is my friend.

I have to go xmas shopping again this morning. The gardening store. Much more serenity than the maul. So I will be a nicer, happier person when I'm done.

Need to get something for my SIL. I'm thinking a forcing-bulb kit or a hummingbird feeder. (she could always regift the hummingbird feeder if she doesn't want to put it in her garden/koi pond area)

Need to get something for my mom, who is an avid gardener and owns pretty much everything she *needs* so I gotta find something fun she might *want*.

I like the garden store.

Tomorrow is the huge annual Christmas Eve party my mom's friends have been having for the last 30 or 40 years. They pack their house with so many people and so much food that you can hardly move. Someone always plays the piano, we sing "Oh Christmas Tree" and the host lights real candles on the tree. The host is an amazing artist, and he bakes gingerbread cookies and decorates each one with plain piped icing. As each guest leaves they get a cookie to hang on their tree. They are very cool: he uses regular cookie cutters, but draws something else on the cookie. I had a wreath cookie one year that he decorated as a leaping salmon. The cookie I had from last year was a snowman that he decorated as a naked dancing woman.

My mom manages to save her cookies for years, mine fall prey to the dog or tumble from the tree and shatter.

Last year's cookie: