the toothy revolt of 2008-9

The title there… refers to my actual teeth. The ones in my head. The ones that have decided it’s time to turn bad. In the past couple of years I have gone from normal tiny no big deal cavities to two root canals, which include caps for each, and additional good size cavities to boot. That is why I was beginning to get suspicious of an ache in the gum around one of my supposed already dead teeth. It’s dead, I’m not supposed to be feeling anything up there. Nothing. Nada.

So I go to the dentist today. They adjust the bite, that’s not the problem I said. They took an x-ray. Guess what… abscess. That’s right, it’s infected. The tooth that is supposed to be dead and out of my hair is now a problem. The x-ray proves it.

The offending tooth is the one on the left. The obvious evil is that dark spot on the left root… it’s friend is on the middle root. Not so obvious from my really great iPhone photo.

Tomorrow I go to an endodontist for a consultation to see if they can perform an apicoectomy. Awesome! Well, at least I am on some crazy horse pill of an antibiotic that I have fondly named yeast infection in a bottle. Seriously, 875 mg twice a day. No flora or fauna can survive that onslaught. My only bright spot is that I discovered this well in advance of my trip to Europe. Can you imagine if this had happened over there? I can see it now… excuse me do you speak English? Yes? Great, I need a referral for a local endodontist… thanks!

over easter weekend

Thankfully we were given Friday off, which was super awesome cause it gave me more time to spend up in WV with the family. Hadn’t been up for a visit since Christmas so it was long overdue. So what did I do the entire weekend? I knit. Knitted like a crazed woman on a mission. I also learned to spit splice, which is also related to said knitting. Oh, and I spent a lot of time winding and rewinding balls of yarn in order to keep the color scheme correct. In the midst of all the knitting I did get to visit with extended family on Saturday (one of which sent me a cool knitting link) and spent some time with the in-laws as well.

  

My brothers and Dad spent a lot of time going over maps of Europe attempting to plan a route for us to drive while we are there at the end of May. I’m a bit disappointed with all the planning… I had been bragging to my friends that they always just randomly drove around when they went. Now, nothing but a plan. I was sorta looking forward to having to spend the night in a rental car cause we didn’t get a hotel room early enough and all the inns were closed. I guess I’ll have to find adventure through some other venue. OK, so I’m not complaining since I know we will have a fabulous time and all, but now I have to explain that this time there is an agenda. No randomness this time. Oh, one good thing we sorted out this weekend is that Joe will go a few days before I do and meet up with part of my family and tool around with them. He will then meet up with me and spend part of a Friday and Saturday with me in Pairs. This is great since he wasn’t going to be going at all cause this was a family trip and all. It will be nice to spend a few days with him at least!

mountains…

I came across this article on CNN today and it made me think that maybe the solutions to our problems are not as insurmountable as they seem. This guy solved a major problem for  a huge amount of people in his backyard, essentially as part of a science experiment. For five dollars. Seriously. Why had no one thought of this before?

Makes me think that my life and my problems are really not what I think they are. Not that my life is this big batch of problems that I am constantly working on, but it does put things in perspective. I know, personally, that I tend to make the solutions much harder than they need to be. Then that causes me to stall out and go nowhere. Simplify. Sounds so cliché. True none-the-less.

threats

I understand the need for anti-virus software and we typically keep it updated, but ours expired recently. Below is the message we received... click to embiggen...

For your benefit I have enclosed the offending language in a nice red box for your safety. It's amazing that they think that immediately upon expiration of their product all of the nasties of the internets are going to find you and have a party on your computer. I guess if you were wanting to destroy our computer this is the time. Ooops! Too late... it's been updated. The relief is overwhelming!

a weekend in charleston…. sc

Let’s see… where to begin? This weekend was loads of fun. Joe, myself and a few friends drove down to Charleston, SC for the weekend. Unbeknownst to us when we planned this trip, the Bridge Run was scheduled for the same weekend. Luckily, we were able to get  a decently priced room at the Embassy Suites, which, by the way, is an excellent place to stay. We were really close to everything especially King St where all the really great shopping occurs! Joe and I went to the Steve Madden store on Friday and got some great deals! I bought two pair of clearance shoes that were under $20 apiece once all the markdowns were done. Ah-Ma-Zing! Love shoes and it was great fun picking them out and trying them on. Oh, before we stopped there Joe walked with me over to Knit, the local yarn store, which again, was only a few blocks from the hotel (we are totally staying there next time we go). I bought some great Rowan Summer Tweed in a really pretty shade of green that will soon be made into a nice summer stole. Well, after I finish the Clapotis I’m working on. The Clapotis that I completely ripped out this afternoon. That is another story… back to Charleston. Friday night we ate dinner at Tristan and all I can say is MMMMM. If there weren’t another 3872 restaurants I want to try I would be going back there every time. It was delicious and had spectacular service!

Saturday we got a bit of a late start. We ended up heading over to the Bigelow Tea Plantation. The ONLY tea plantation in the US. The tour was only about 25 minutes, but I really learned a lot about the plants/processing etc. I would recommend this if you have any interest in tea or some type of botany. Otherwise, it probably wouldn’t be worth the drive out there.

The rest of the weekend consisted of a lot of walking and a lot of coffee consumption. Oh, and Saturday afternoon we had a late lunch at Social Wine Bar. A really nice place to chill out and try some outstanding food and wine.

Sunday we drove all over the Battery and googled several of the homes for sale to see if they were within our range… anyone want to move down there and co-own a really beautiful home with us down there??? I’m sure it would be amazing!

slacker

I have my second Chemistry test tomorrow and right now I should be studying. I really should have been studying the past few days, possibly the past week. Not studying has then caused me to not get other things done… it’s like a chain reaction of denial and procrastination. So I sit here and wonder why I do this to myself, I mean this is nothing new for me. Somehow I seem to make it through in spite of myself.

This months NaBloPoMo them is Growing(Up) and that seems to be a very timely topic for me at the moment. I have a lot of things I need to contemplate and decisions I need to make about my future. To my family and friends: no need to worry, it’s not as dramatic as it sounds. This is more about the internal than say, leaving my husband and running off to a foreign land. Do you ever feel like you haven’t quite grown up (see how I can place the theme right in there without even trying? Seriously, it’s an art…) or maybe it’s more like the feeling of needing to give more and make a bigger impact on the world or even just one person. I think the cube sitting is starting to take a toll on my brain.

the great purge of 2009

This is long overdue. It's not like there isn't room for all this stuff, I mean I could jam it all in a closet but it's all extra. Just stuff here and there and it is time for it to GO. Clutter has left the building! Tonight I came home and put out the call... EBay, Freecycle, and a bag full of things to go to Amvets. I already have responses and one scheduled pickup for the Freecycle items. I am always amazed at how fast people respond to those things. When an item is hot, its HOT. Now I just let some of these other hooks dangle a bit and then start the next load in a few days. It feels good to let some of the excess go... Now maybe I can get my guestroom to look like an actual guestroom and not like a garage sale.

Speaking of the guestroom, Joe and I went to the ginormous new IKEA that opened up North. Seriously, I think you could lose about 30 pounds just walking around in that place. All that walking around gave me some ideas on how to turn the garage sale-a-thon room into an actual room you might want to spend some time in. It's nice when things start to come together. Just need to keep the exodus moving along in a timely manner.

finis

Here it is, in all it's glory! I started this in September '08 and finished it up this morning. I am on fire!

a little dna

Through rain or sleet or SNOW the Fed Ex package arrived today.

This is the package that will send my DNA through the mail and to the NMDP to see if I am a complete match for the person they have tentatively matched me with.

I just swabbed a few minutes ago and sealed up my package. It will be sent out to them tomorrow. I wonder how long it will take for me to get the results? I will call them tomorrow to see cause otherwise I will be sitting around wondering if the test is done or not.

On a completely different note... I have been working on this project for a while and I am pretty close to finishing it up. Since I had another snow day today I got a lot done. All that is left is that little square there at the bottom.

snow!

I mean real snow, not the wet melty stuff we normally get around here. Real live snow! Here is photographic evidence...



Another shot out the backdoor. It is chilly out there!