being grown up is massively overrated. being a good daughter is priceless, and I tell you that as the proud and blessed parent of one. good on you.

I'm glad you said it. You and your mom will be in our thoughts.

Thanks you all.

really, i'm just in the right spot to do this. It isn't that much...we just do the best we can do, right? I feel like i've belittled the situation just talking about it. I really only have a couple friends i let loose too. I guess i'm realizing we're all trying to do the best we can.

i was blessed with great parents and believe me, i've been th most trouble of us 3 kids. but there was never a question about being loved.

life is damn hard and beautiful. Conundrum. :)

Hugs your way, infi.

Thinking of you and your family, Infi.

OSHA HQ is in the Department of Labor building right by the Capitol. Do you work in downtown DC? We should definitely try to meet up!

Yep. Downtown by the convention center. Let's meet for lunch some time. My schedule is pretty flexible so I can hop on the Metro to meet you.

Sounds good. I'll pm you once I get my schedule.

I wish my {{{{{hug}}}}}} was in person Infi.

I'm so pleased it's good news for your Ma.
Much love to you and your family.

Posting about your Mum potentially facing death on an internet forum probably would belittle the situation. The internet is transitory and cancer and its ramifications are incredibly complex.

But you didn't just post on an internet forum.
You came here.
We are family. Like us or loathe us or anything in between, most of us have a sincere emotional conection. And cancer is something many of us have been touched by. My Mum got off easy in comparison, but some of her friends did not.
There are Dwellars that wish they could have the disease instead of the ones they love, and those who are slogging through it and just worrying about how it affects those who love them. No-one can ever live another person's life, but our combined experience comes close to understanding.

You are doing the best you can. And from one black sheep to another we always worry about how much we have to make up for. I'm slowly learning that "being normal" isn't the be all and end all. Sometimes being there without other commitments turns out to be a good thing.

We have so much thrown at us in the media about what a fulfilled life is, what success is, what a good life looks like. I'm glad for those who meet that ideal.
But there is a place for those of us in the minority. We just don't see it in adverts, in sitcoms, in magazines.

We're strange and we're beautiful.

Chin up Infi.
You're coping.

You know those things people do, "click on this to help me win" whatever, and no one you know ever actually wins?

I actually know a woman who won. Her son has an obsession with planes, and some folks (not me, admittedly, because I don't do Facebook) helped her family win 4 plane tickets to Europe on Lufthansa. They do some more plane-related stuff when they get there, I don't know. But she actually won the damn thing.

I had a similar experience earlier this year, where a woman who has end-stage metastatic breast cancer asked people who follow her blog to vote for it in a contest. She planned to put the prize money, if she won, in her son's college fund. He has another year of high school. I've never voted for things like that, but I voted for her every day. So did quite a few others, apparently, because she won the contest on Valentine's Day.

today's happiness is brought to you by the concept of recursion.


Attachment 45388

I get happy when I see orthodoc's name as the most recent poster in the what's making me happy thread.

Aden now has a license and a car. That means a lot less driving for me and a lot more opportunities for him. He passed his test with flying colours. 100%! I was very pleased for him. :)

Cowboys win.

I went to bed at half time. What a weird first half. At one point, it looked like Eli was going to cry.

Good on Aden!
With Hebe having a licence too I am beginning to feel so old...

He looks like a little kid. But he's a good qb

That's so nice of you, V! :)

J is home from Euro vacation today. I miss her. And thanks to the Interwebs I can track her flight precisely, and see that her plane is over Newfoundland, right now. It's an Airbus A330-200, flying at 436 kts (planned: 399 kts), at 38,000 feet.

They serve brunch on the flight.

I bet they are trying to get her to sign up for their credit card right now.

Her flight has arrived without incident and she is probably picking up luggage right now

Why are you not there to greet her?

there was a prior agreement with her daughter's partner or something

Just spent two hours giggling like school girls with an old friend. My face and ribs hurt from laughing. Life is good.

Just got back from a nice lunch with orthodoc.

She's as friendly and intelligent in person as she is here on the Cellar. And she's looking great!

Sorry, but I didn't think to get pictures until I was posting this. So no pics.

Very nice to meet you, orthodoc!

!

Wonderful!

It was such a pleasure to meet you, glatt!

We had lunch at the National Building Museum - what a gorgeous building! Glatt gave me the inside scoop on things to see and do around Arlington/DC. And I learned some cool things, such as the fact that glatt is an accomplished ice skater!

I also forgot about pics until it was too late - but really, honestly, lunch happened. :)

Wait, what? I want ice skating pictures!

My significant other made me dinner, and for dessert warmed Baklava mmmmm

My doc was awesome today. I may stop hating on the entire medical profession. maybe ;) Not only did she call me at home because she wanted a blood test redone, but on learning I was toying with cancelling my apt tomorrow, she did almost an entire consultation over the phone to save time in the morning, and then she called back a few minutes later and told me she's persuaded her nurse to start a little earlier tomorrow so I could go in earlier and be able to make it to chaperone Thor's field trip afterwards. happy. for the first time in a long while. which also makes me happy

That is pretty cool of her.

monster, that's fantastic. That sounds like a wonderful doctor. I hope you enjoy the field trip today.

Good doctors are hard to find, and burn out fast. Make sure to add her to your Christmas card mailing list. :)

I just completed the last of my HR type training thingies (FERPA, bullying, et al) I only got one question wrong! Apparently, harass is not two words.

(That one never gets old)

It'll be a few pay cycles before I can spring for a laptop and a bottle of Windex, but then I hope to be around more.

Infi, I was sorry to read about your mom. I hope she is doing better. I need to get caught up.

Thanks foot.

Hey, I am typing from my first ever self-owned laptop. I needed something, a computer that works, so I splurged out of my retirement money. This way, I can go to Clown College Online because I am seriously thinking of Medical Coding/Transcription. I wouldn't have to talk to too many humans.

Best of luck to you foot! I didn't know harass was only one word either. Did you scream out "well FUCK ME" when you found out your answer was wrong?

Two months after full-knee replacement surgery, my wife is " continent and contented" :cheerldr:

There is still pain but it's on the downhill side... for the next 9 or 10 months.

Caveat: Oxycodone is a miserable drug, given out by surgeons a way too freely,
without the necessary and sufficient warnings of dose-escalation and constipation.
It took about 4 weeks of withdrawal to overcome the side effects,
and for her to get back to the simple and sufficient doses of tylenol
for pain and normal bodily functions.
Our house no longer has the look and feel of a hospital room.

We are both happy !

P.S. Our G-son, Max, posted on his FB that "Gramma is pooping" :facepalm:

w00t! Go Gramma!

A friend of mine was addicted to Oxy and was seeing snow storms in July. Not to mention the constipation. It made her so woozy she would walk into the door frames. She thought she was losing her mind and would forget she took the dose so would take another.
When she called the pharmacist to tell her about the 'storm' outside, she was told to stop taking it. It was 6 weeks before the original pain went away, because of the tolerance she'd built up and then had to temporarily take Morphine to overcome it.

Yeah, oxy is weird shit. You have to drink a lot of water and chow fistfuls of Senna tablets. Also you have to really monitor if your liver can keep up with your dosing. You gotta take the minimum you can get away with.

Ah well. Glad that's over and Mrs. Lighter is, well, lighter.

:D

Aden has an interview for a job at the local McDonalds. Mav already works at the other one, so it looks like both of them will be working there soon. Aden has a car and license so i wont have to drive him whichis great. :). The other good part is that he can start paying for his own fuel!

Lamp, thats good news about ur wife. :). I like ur grandson. Hehe

"World War Z" in T-minus 1 hour(ish)!!!!

buckle the fuck up. that movie is hyperkinetic.

Made microwave mug brownies. Scooped ice cream on top. Heaven.

I looked at a number of microwave mug recipes, and I can't go and buy the ingredients or I'd be lost. But - glad to hear that the brownies were heaven. I'll enjoy vicariously. :)

The one I made was 4 Tbsp flour, 4 Tbsp sugar, 2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa. Pinch of salt, dash of vanilla. 2 Tbsp water, 2 Tbsp vegetable oil. Give it a good stir and micro for one minute.

My husband didn't think we had all the ingredients, and I was like "um, hello? I'm a baker now, remember? OF COURSE we have the ingredients!" :)

I once made microwave brownie, and it was not good at all. I'll try your recipe one day since you said it turned out good. :-)

Lola, it's definitely nothing like a "real" brownie, but it fits the bill to solve a chocolate craving without having a whole tray of brownies in the house.

ETA: I am super happy today because I got four new movies AND both seasons of BBC Sherlock on BluRay today after trading in 140 movies.

I hit something there if anyone gets a private message-oops!:o
I made a dozen chewy oatmeal raisin coconut cookies today--mmmmm

I've got a solution to a whole tray of brownies in the house...

Popdigr ended a dry spell yesterday evening.

Attachment 45483

Prolly 3½-4½ yrs old.

Number 70 73 for ol Popdigr;

7 point rack;

Dressed out exactly 207 lbs.

Double-lung-far shoulder pass through shot at 21 yards, the deer ran about 20 yards, and went back to eating...Having just turned 71, Popdigr's still got it!

I think this one will be called "Ol' Triple Seven", "777" (sevensevenseven), or maybe "The Good Luck Buck"?

Wow. I have purchased two (2) movies in my lifetime. "Lonesome Dove" on VHS (still the greatest thing ever shown on broadcast tv, imho) and "Dances With Wolves".

Not counting porn, of course.;)

For the record, only 10 of those were mine. The other 130 belonged to my husband's in laws. They brought their entire movie collection down because they only watch movies once, and thought we might want some of them. (A: no.)

I am baffled that they do not seem to have taken advantage of the Netflix account we got them a few years back.

I'm going to assume that this is someone married into your husband's family, and not a fancy way of naming your own parents. :) My dad's the same way. Used to rent movies from the box stores, but ever since they went under he just buys whatever he wants to watch. I have tried to talk him into using Netflix, but he's an old dog who refuses to learn new tricks.

That is some high clover! ;)

Nice shot Pop!

D'OH! I meant to say my husband's parents -- MY in-laws. Must've gotten distracted while typing. OOOOH, shiny...

Yesterday, my G-son and I "planted" 4x4 PT posts around his back yard for a new fence.
Today, the rails went on.

We finished the posts by mid-afternoon yesterday, and so started
laying the new white vinyl (Allure) flooring in his kitchen.
Today, the final panel when down. :cheerldr:

When we started the flooring, we had to take up the carpeting the previous owners had installed.
We were astounded that they had installed the carpeting wall to wall in an empty kitchen room.
Then, they installed all the new cabinets, dishwasher, stove, and frig on top of the carpet.

Of course, everyone know you replace your kitchen cabinetry
much more often than you change your kitchen carpet ! :thepain:

Popdigr went to the doc yesterday...just a check-up, everything's cool...and he got weighed. He sets our bathroom scale by what the doc's scale says.

I told you that, to tell you this:

By the new 'correct setting', I'm down to 225lbs! ~Two years ago, I was 306!!!!

Yay diebeetus!