CupTeaLuv?

Got an answering machine from the Endocrinologist’s office today to say the test results/scans came back negative so that means I’m all clear again — so woooooot — no more radiated iodine for ME!

*happy dancing*

andy said he fixed it — so it wouldn’t try to get re-routed etc. and end up with the 404 error…

this past week was pretty awful but it’s done — and I survived — so yay… the good news is that I’m not in quarantine (silly doctor’s office sent the wrong paperwork — apparently the type of radioactive isotope that they gave me is only for the pictures part of it, not the killing cells, and therefore doesn’t have any restrictions!) — so my reaction was like 95% wooot (woohoo in geekspeak) and 5% annoyance — you’ve got to be kidding me, all that rescheduling of appointments, warning to friends, planning of meals, etc etc etc — all that drama for nothing… oh well!! at least I have my freedom!!!

And I have been enjoying that freedom! Mom and I went to the Yarnmarket over in Pickerington — had a fun lunch at Steak & Shake (which I didn’t realize was an old-fashionedy style diner inside — sit-down kind of place). Got some more of these square Kollage needles that I’ve fallen in love with… getting more people hooked on them too… hahaha…

Thurs I went for the scans (another very very very early morning) — got there at 8am (mind you I stayed up all night tuesday night, got no sleep whatsoever) — and they have you lie down on this platform to go underneath this giant plate that takes pictures — the room is darkened (thankfully, otherwise you’d end up with one hell of a headache!!) and you have to lie still for about 35-40 minutes… then back out to an uber-full-uber-tiny waiting area with a tv tuned into Regis and Kelly (kill me now) and the only available chair being RIGHT below the tv… so I popped my iPod earphones in and tried to tune out the obnoxious show… about 45 mins later I get called for the second part of the scan — the closeup of the neck… another 20 mins on a different table in a different machine… then back out to wait for the doctor to tell me the results/decide if I need to have more scans done or not… He says it all looks normal and that the real decider is the bloodwork (to be done friday).

Friday’s bloodwork was a bit of a nightmare — this woman has drawn my blood about 4 times, and she’s hit and miss, literally… sometimes she’s straight in and it doesn’t hurt, others she misses badly and I end up with a raised bump and major bruising where she went in… This was one of those times — I came home and iced my arm with frozen peas — the bruise is really dark.

Yesterday I must have been ready to catch up on my sleep… I slept until about 1:30pm It was crazy — the worst thing was I felt like I could have gone back to bed and slept some more still…

Same today — woke up around 12 noon and still felt like I could go back for more…

Not really doing well on this CPAP machine though I put it on every night but because I toss and turn so much, it wakes me up cause of bumping my nose or cheek (and also I’m getting slight acne from the points where the mask’s straps touch my face)

Looking forward — this week I’m “on vacation” — that’s what I told andy anyhow — cause all the meals are planned and the ingredients bought and they are all simple meals…

Brian and I are supposed to hang out Monday — we have fun adventures together…

Friday is our 10th wedding anniversary… whoa where does the time go?

So today was kind of crazy… I picked up Mom and Harriet at 10, and we set off to the Franklin Park Conservatory for the annual Central Ohio Orchid Society’s orchid show — yay for free shows to see amazingly beautiful flowers…

We arrived at the Conservatory and went in only to find that… there were no tables set up and no people. So we asked at the front desk — turns out the show is at the Airport Marriott hotel…

So off we went to the Marriott and since we were driving through Bexley, we of course had to stop for some Blocks Bagels!!

We got to the airport area, drove the airport loop and saw just about every hotel chain *except* Marriott… after another stop and a brief phone call, we learned their location and finally arrived about an hour and a half after we’d meant to!!

I am convinced that orchids are the most beautiful flowers on earth. They are simply amazing — all the different varieties, sizes, colors, shapes, everything. I am especially fascinated with the miniature ones — and hopefully will be able to keep this lil girl that I purchased alive!!

i’ve had my cafepress shop (www.cafepress.com/kksdesigncafe) for a year and 2 months…  last year it made over $300 in commission.  It’s been a super fun experience and i’ve seen orders coming in from all over the country… and the world!!

I’ve had 2 orders from Australia, 2 from Canada, 2 from England, and now orders from Denmark and Switzerland!!!  I should make a list of all the states that I’ve had orders from and the other countries cause I’m thinking I forgot at least one other fun one…

so yeah — i’ve been gone to Atlanta twice in the last 3 months — first time just to visit and then this last week i was there to help out with the baby while Katie was in Dallas for a training… it was so much fun but so exhausting… i had a lot of “old woman” days in that week (and this one) — old woman days are where i wake up and have no energy and just feel like doing nothing but puttering around (even though i fight that — i always try and get out of the house or get things done) …

i promise.
and i’m another year older
we went to NC for 2 week vacation this month and it was very enjoyable — fun with family (Elizabeth cracked me up — good times), good food, beautiful sunsets, wonderful hottub (man we gotta get one of those!)
still kind of circling in the same holding pattern — juggling meds, tweaking them here and there to try and find the right combination of chemistry to bring Kristen back… not found it just yet… and start counseling on weds for the depression etc. hopefully that will help?
not much else new really — we drove the Bug to NC — she did great — she’s in dire need of a bath right now though… that’s one of my goals for tomorrow
read a few books on vacation… The Wheel of Darkness by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (love these guys — excellent books) and also Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett — a SUPERB read recommended to me (and even sent to me by my good friend Dash) — we have plans to read the sequel when it hits paperback in October (Ends of the Earth I think it’s called)
getting really really really really really tired of politics… (and we’re just about to hit the “big push”) oh yay.
still playing golf online — most every day — occasionally will spend a lil bit on another game here and there but mostly still into golf… been playing it for almost 2 years — crazy! started after Thanksgiving in 2006 — like the beginning of December sometime…
*pokepoke* so i’m still alive… how about you??

tonight was the mystery sock group (which this month was the mystery mitten group — they’re doing this fun “christmas in July” thing at that knitting shop) — and it was a blast. I usually do have a good time at those because a lot of my knitting friends go and I have made some new friends too and also my Mom goes to it and we have a good time together!
Tonight we were learning how to make mittens (for many of us the first time)…
IT WAS GREAT!! She taught us how to do a basic cable — and let me tell you I was so excited to learn this!! I’ll post a pic of the mittens when I can — need new batteries for the camera!
funny story as we were leaving — Mom and Kay and I were standing up getting ready to leave when suddenly someone’s car alarm starts going off in the parking lot beside the shop…
My mom says “who’s alarm is that??” and we have this lil discussion about car alarms etc. and how she is no stranger to accidentally setting hers off by pressing the panic button.
We step outside the shop and the alarm is still going off… we round the corner as Mom is saying “Who’s car is that!?!??!” and Kay says “It’s yours you big goof!” and we all laugh because somehow (THRU THE WALL no less!) Mom had set off her car alarm with the panic button… yet again…
toooo funny.

cause that’s all it seems to be — weeks in between postings and then the posts seem to all be whinges about health issues…
lemme tell you that this is not fun. I look back at the past year and a half and think “o my word what the heck has happened to me!!??!”
First the more interesting stuff –
last post (*cough* almost a month ago *cough*) was about DIY here at Chez Helsby — even as I type this Andy is cutting and nailing down the small wooden trim that goes on top of the floor to hide the tiny gap you have to leave for the floor to float… Why you may ask has it taken so long for this room to be finished? Well, for a number of reasons — when we took the baseboard off we discovered a moldy area, which Andy peeled back some of the drywall from and sprayed mold killer and worked on that — but the baseboard that used to be in front of it had deteriorated too much — it needed to be replaced.
Andy hates the DIY stores as much as I do. I don’t know what happened to both of us, but the DIY bug skipped us both entirely. Andy’s sister and her hubby and his parents are all about the DIY and they’re good at it too! My folks — not so much all about the DIY, they do it occasionally but if it is a big job, they’re more inclined to let someone with more experience do it. My brothers — it’s too soon to tell really — the one has only been a homeowner for 2 years and the other brother is renting a house because they’re not sure where they want to settle just yet and with this market being as it is, it is wiser to rent and wait than to buy and have to sell in the bad market.
So Andy makes many trips to the DIY stores (between needing things for the mower — which is a whole entire other story which can be summed up as follows… Kristen should never have ever tried to help out by using the riding mower… ever. and from this point forward… WILL never ever try to help out again using the mower…) and he picks up the trim and the new section of baseboard (because the rest of the baseboard seemed fine) and a mitre guide.
Insert lots of time where poor Andy is miserable with allergies and right at the end of May had taken 2 of the MCSE exams (and passed them — he’s full MCSE now!! way to go LOVE!!) and was feeling fairly stressed out/exhausted/miserable/not motivated…
flash forward to last weekend… in a couple hours we’re going to head over to Mom and Dad’s house for Father’s Day dinner on Sunday — Andy is getting ready to nail down the last of the baseboard and cut and attach the trim… he realizes he might need longer nails… so he heads down to the basement where his workbench is…. only to shout up to me frantically.
There’s #*&$#*#$^ water everywhere. In every room of the basement…. water.
I cannot believe it… I mean, we JUST had this waterproofing done!!! HOW can there be water down there….
So I go down and he starts the mopping job (we only have one lousy mop — make mental note to buy better mop!!) and finds that its better to just mop it up with an old towel and wring out the water into a bucket. I’m wandering around the basement trying to figure out where the water has come from… I mean — we haven’t had much rain lately — so what in the world is going on!!!?!?
(now you can understand why we both hate DIY and it takes us AGES to complete something!!)
long story short… it’s the air conditioner…. AGAIN. Same thing happened 2 years ago and again last year. Basically the tray that catches the condensation drains out into a pipe that goes into the ground… well that pipe clogs… (we have REALLY hard water — well water) and the tray fills up and fills up and doesn’t drain and then just overflows…. out of the unit… onto the floor…
and since the basement guys had been here… (and the hot water hose to the washer which they detatched to move the washer out of the way — the connection on the hose that attaches to the washer was stripped and would have leaked… I buy new hoses, attach the cold water one myself no problem… the hot water one is basically RUSTED to the hot water spout… I try…. my dad tries…. my dad and I try…. finally I call the plumber (because also the shower is clogged — 2 birds one trip)… he takes a week and a half to get here b/c of being on vacation and also it’s his “spare time” job — he works full time as something else (plumbing inspector).
So for more than 2 weeks… no one has set foot in that basement. I can’t do laundry (thankfully Mom and Dad live nearby and I can go use their machines) … and there’s not many other reasons to go down there…
So for more than 2 weeks… water has been trickling out of the a/c unit… across the floor and across the basement… it was a LOT of water.
Andy got it all mopped up and we headed over to Mom and Dads — I called the a/c guys the next day — they can’t come out for another 2 1/2 weeks… (thankfully this past week has been very mild and we’ve had the windows open and been ok).
All of that to say…. so right now Andy is putting finishing touches on the cat room and we can get them back into there and my house will look more like a house and less like one giant cat room….. phew STINKY. swine cats.