So I laughed pretty hard on Monday about that comic.... then this one arrived (they only post on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays)... and I nearly wet myself... (being a former marching band person)
and the hidden funny for this one says : "You can identify them ahead-of-time -- they lead with their left foot when the music starts." !!
Love Love LOVE this guy!!!
For a very long time now, I have been following via rss feed the brilliant comics of www.xkcd.com -- The sense of humor is fantastic and the fact that it's stick figures sometimes makes it even funnier... especially when the stick figures are showing facial expressions... But the thing that makes me laugh most is the combination of geekiness and humor and this bizarre twist of psychotic tendencies... I love it... a few days ago he (I think it's a he?) posted this one titled "Fuck Grapefruit" (apologies for the f-bomb!!)
But the best part about these comics is that he always hides one last funny -- in the properties.... so that when you hover over the image, up pops the punchline or a second punchline...
for this particular comic it was "Coconuts are so far down to the left they couldn't be fit on the chart. Ever spent half an hour trying to open a coconut with a rock? Fuck coconuts." (again apologies for the f-bomb!)
first of all let me start by saying.... the new movable type = YUCK!!! and also EWW!! (it's heinous uglyyyy)
okay back to the real reason I came on here: to share a funny story bout Mom...
We're at the Mystery Sock Group tonight at Temptations (meets once a month) and having a great time with like 9 other ladies round the table -- all knitting on this pattern given to us row by row -- great fun... but it can be a very distracting environment...
as evidenced by my Mom's quote... she had made an error in her knitting somehow and we were asking her what had happened and she says
"I don't know.... I can't yarn and talk at the same time!!"
At which point I die laughing and she grins but hasn't realized what she said... so I tease her with it and she starts laughing and then the rest of the table wanted to know what she'd said...
That might be my next t-shirt idea....
recent (like half an hour ago) conversation here in the house...
K: Try this -- (hands A a spoonful of a delicious concoction she made yesterday)
A: Mmm it's nice. It tastes like something I've had recently....
K: Yeah -- it's the stuff from the restaurant on Tuesday, only I didn't make mine green.
A: You sure this is the same stuff?
K: Yeah.
A: It's nice but the pineapple is a bit............fibrous.
K: That's because it's coconut.
Special thanks go to Kenny (a guy I met in the game who it turns out used to live in Longview TX at the exact same time I was there -- our apartment complexes were a stone's throw from each other and we both adored the same mexican restaurant in town -- chances are we were there at the same time at one point or another) -- for being my opponent in this very special game... and he really did try to beat me too...
Nothing new to report on the eye situation -- it's as bad as it was last Tuesday, no changes whatsoever, good, bad or otherwise. Which kind of frightens me -- I guess I was kind of hoping that it would just kind of slowly go back to normal over the last week and that by now I'd be just fine and laughing about my pirate days.
Nope -- pirate girl still owning boys all over the internet in online golf. Big time. Last night was playing with some great friends in a kind of sister-guild to ours (since nobody in my guild plays anymore it seems) and it was me vs. 2 boys (one of whom was the poor soul I said the pirate girl line to) and we were also on Skype at the same time and were playing six holes together... on the fifth hole I did this amazing shot that went in for eagle and which won me the game (funny thing is that even if I had just gotten close but missed I would still have won b/c they BOTH missed their putts!! -- so they both parred)... so pirate girl, owning blokes on t'internet since feb 08...
I go back to the opthamalogist on Monday so who knows what that will bring.
the pharmacy i go to.
it makes me want to throw myself in front of a bus.
I normally try to get my prescriptions filled a few at a time (because I'm on so many it's a pain in the azz to go to the pharmacy 7 times a month etc.) -- and usually I go through the drive thru that way I don't have anyone standing behind me impatiently waiting because they've screwed it up YET again.......
So I was hoping that when my endocrinologist called in a new dose of this Rocalcitrol (some kind of vitamin D drug that does what my parathyroids are supposed to do -- apparently they have been permanently damaged and are no longer functioning -- which means that the calcium and vitamin D are not being absorbed by my body they way they should and that affects a LOT of things) and my family doctor had upped my antidepressant (b/c the blues have been very deep lately). So I lived in hope that it would just work smoothly and yet the skeptic in me knew it wouldn't -- so I called yesterday afternoon to see if the prescription from the endocrinologist had been received. They had received one prescription (she sent in a new one for my synthroid so I wouldn't have to worry about how many refills I had left) and she upped the Rocalcitrol... well they got the Synthroid one, but not the Rocalcitrol... which was the really important one because I had taken my last one of those two nights ago. So I had to call the endo office back (did I mention that when I went for my appt that I forgot my purse? yeah. totally forgot it -- had to run back to the house after the appt and drive back to the office to pay) -- at this point the receptionist must have been thinking "sheesh lady -- get a life and go away!!!" -- but they were super cool and said they faxed it over to the pharmacy but would send it again just in case.
So later on I called to make sure the pharmacy got the second fax.
They did --- BUT they were out of that, had to order more, it would be in Friday.
So today is Friday -- I'm on my way home from knitting -- I figure "hey -- they should have everything all set for me, I'll swing by there and pick it up"
I walk into the store (b/c I had to buy other stuff too) and behind the counter is the one person at that pharmacy that I just absolutely despise. She has no people skills, has a hard time remembering things (although today she was pretty on it) and just is not great with customer service -- rude, short, and just kind of snotty. So inwardly I sigh and approach the counter (I'm sure that she does the same with me -- she must dread me coming in there all the time -- b/c of my luck with nothing ever going as planned)... So I tell her my last name and she pulls out a prescription for me... but it's the generic and I take the brand... strike one.
She hands it back to the pharmacist who happily changes it out for brand (while people's eyes bore into the back of my head b/c there is now a nice long line)... so then the girl gets it back and we try again. She scans my loyalty card, puts the lil stickers in the book & tells me to sign, then rings up the 3 prescriptions... and says "boy that's expensive!!" and I'm thinking "yeah no kidding lady I pay that about 3 times a month" when she says "that will be $311.62" and I was like "ummm no. there is some mistake -- it's expensive, but not THAT expensive!!!"
So then she say "has your insurance run out? Did you get a new card? Have you changed carriers?" (no. no. and no.) So then she says "let me go see what the computer says"... and I'm thinking TOO RIGHT YOU WILL YOU EVIL WOMAN!!! So she goes over, stands there befuddled for about 8 mins (more eyes boring into the back of my head, if looks could kill) -- then prints something out and brings it over to show me -- the insurance won't pay for it because the refills are being filled "too soon" (even though the drugs are changes in dosage called in directly from my doctors???) -- so I tell her that and she says "do you want me to call them?" (I presume she means the insurance people) -- I say yes please in a half "DUHHH" sort of voice.
So more eyes boring hatred holes in the back of my head while Princess Charming is on the phone and finally comes back and says that they will pay for the 2 changed ones but not the other -- which I didn't need anyhow -- which wasn't the issue!! argh.
Anyhow so finally we get on the right track and get things paid for and I can get the heck outta there!!!!!!!
sheesh. why can't anything be simple?
Okay -- so Andy posted a tiny bit about the other day with my fun trips to the doctors... here's the more-detailed version...
Tuesday morning I woke up and found that I couldn't see very well out of my right eye. It scared me to death. I called Andy and called the doctor (family doctor) to find out if I should go to them or an eye doc or to the ER. She said it was my choice -- that if I did go there, they could refer me to an eye doc etc. so I went and got their 9am appointment with one of the other doctors in the practice (my doc isn't in on Tuesdays). The nurse did a basic eye exam on me (I couldn't see hardly anything out of that eye -- it was not only blurry but it seemed like only about 30% of the light was getting in -- if I closed my right eye and then opened it and closed the left, it was like someone took the lights in the room and turned the down low with a dimmer switch or something. So the doctor came in and said that she would call across the street to the opthamologist and get me right in. So across the street we went (originally I was thinking "wow what a waste of $15" but they had taken my BP which proved to be helpful later).
So after sitting for a few minutes in this opthamologist's office (where apparently one of the doctor's does oil painting -- and I hope he never reads this b/c I thought they weren't very good -- and Andy said it was ironic that here are all these "blurry" paintings (b/c they're oil) in an eye docs office)... they got me in and I went into a different waiting room (Andy stayed out in the main one with his laptop and at least got some work done -- poor guy). After sitting awhile there, a nice gal came and got me and did a basic eye exam on me, putting drops in my eyes that burned like crazy, then checked them, then put drops in to dilate my pupils -- then did all kinds of checks with shining lights into my eyes.
The ironic thing was that she would apologize for the brightness of the light and she would check my right eye (the bad one) and I would not even blink, then she would move the machine over to check my left eye and I would practically be jumping out of the chair because the light was blinding me. Crazy.
The opthamologist came in (friendly chap -- NOT) and had a look and immediately said something about occlusion... and then they started talking about having to take photographs of my retina and the veins -- and injecting dye so that the veins show up better in the pictures (and meanwhile I'm thinking "just WHERE are you gonna be doing this INJECTING???" -- turns out its your arm heh heh)... he explains that they haven't seen this in someone younger than 65, and that it's usally caused by hardening of the arteries -- the artery hardens, and pushes on the vein, then the flow through the vein is slowed, so the retina isn't getting enough blood and therefore isn't working at full capacity. He was asking do I have diabetes (no), high blood pressure (no -- in fact when they took it that am at the family doc it was 120/80 -- PERFECT), high cholesterol (I don't know) etc. etc. etc. He explains that if this doesn't correct itself they can fix it by doing a laser procedure, or surgery. When he said the "S" word (the poor guy had no idea what I've been through in the last year) I had tears running down my face... he looked a bit lost, then reached over and took ONE of the "doctor's-office-tissues" (which are all of 6 inches square) and handed it to me.
Back out to the lobby for more waiting (and more crying)... about 15 minutes later the photograph room was ready -- they called me back. The whole process was pretty cool and I did come home with a printout of what they took -- you can clearly see the difference between my left eye -- the veins are like a roadmap, mostly straight and spread out -- and my right eye -- which looked like a plate of ramen noodles, all twisted up and freaking out...
(I think Andy will probly upload the scan of this printout -- but he did mention that it's not as clear as the original)
So he sent me away with his nurse calling my family doc to set up more tests and an appointment for the next day that I had to confirm. And made a follow-up appointment with his office in about 2 weeks.
Next day I go to family doc again -- this time my doctor is in, and I enjoy explaining (yet again) what has happened etc. and all that he said etc.. She orders a gazillion blood tests (so many that they had to draw SEVEN vials of blood) and is testing me for everything under the sun.
Went next door for my second blood draw in less than 2 weeks (am really starting to DREAD these) and the girl says "ummm do they normally ask for THIS much blood from you????" and I explain no, that it's something wrong etc. She gets me on stick number two and fills the vials up (I took a pic on my phone of this -- will post it later). She was really nice and did a good job.
I was on my way soon enough -- they said that the results of the tests would kind of trickle in -- some of the tests are common but some are fairly rare ones that they don't run all the time -- they wait til they have a few of them to do together, so those might take up to a week before we get results.
As far as my eye is concerned -- I'm wearing this big black patch over it when I do things like drive or knit or read or use the pc (it made for VERY funny jokes when I still beat some guys at online golf with ONE eye!!! "man -- you must really stink if you got owned by a GIRL... not just any girl... a pirate girl!!!"). My friends have given me grief (and my family too) it's become a bit of a joke -- today at knitting when people came in and asked what happened to my eye I told them Mary popped me one (Mary is this sweet lady who is in her 70s I think who wouldn't hurt a fly) and she'd grin really big and start telling a story about how I was in this bar partying last night and how I picked a fight with some big guy... she's a riot!!!
It's still pretty much the same -- no better no worse -- the best kind of description I have for what it feels like is that either you have been rubbing your eyes and you get that pattern for a few seconds over your vision -- you can still see the room but the pattern is over top of that.... or
it's like you are wearing a pair of glasses and the left lens is perfectly clear and clean etc. but the right one is smudged all to heck with fingerprints etc. -- you can still see through it but nothing is in focus really.
was fantastic.... he didn't give me too many clues (although by the time I got the "don't wear open-toed shoes or hairspray" I was pretty sure it was something sort of "industrial" in nature -- metalwork, woodwork... Beth had guess glass blowing)... we got there at 6pm (after a nice lil dinner at Jimmy John's a sub place nearby) and once we got to the right part of the building we were shown a demonstration...
We were going to make heart-shaped paperweights!! The gal (I think her name was Kami?) was super sweet and a very good teacher and obviously loved what she does -- she walked us through the steps of taking a long-handled pipe and getting some molten glass (called doing the first "gather") then rolling it in shards of broken colored glass -- tiny tiny pieces of it -- some of the colors were more of a powder... then melting that in the "glory hole" (kid u not -- that's what it was called!!) then doing the second "gather" -- getting another coat of clear molten glass -- rolling it in another color -- melting that all down, then getting the final "gather" and sitting at a special bench with a bucket of water beside us -- with what looked like an old fashioned drinking cup -- it had a long handle and was made of wood -- it was a big slimy because they keep it 100% of the time in the water bucket and they mix a tiny bit of bleach into the water, so it stays sanitary but it also breaks down the wood (hence the slimy). Once we rounded the end, we had to use a tool that looked like a spatula (metal) to make a dent in the glass (the top part of the heart) and then she would turn it slowly and then we would take a large pair of metal tweezer-type things and "pull" the top of the glass to make the pointed bottom part of the heart... then she would use the spatula to flatten our heart a bit on the front and then we put it back into the "glory hole" (called "flashing") to heat it up for the next task... which we used a pair of metal tongs to kind of slide the glass heart further away from the pipe -- until it was about an inch off the pipe (held on by a kind of tail -- still attached to the pipe) and then we flashed it a few more times because your outer layers cool faster than the inner ones and if they cool too much faster than the inner ones, there is a high chance of the glass cracking as it cools -- then we took the pipe over to another section where she tapped on the pipe and the heart dropped off into some sand or silicone or something (it didn't stick to the heart at all) and she used a blow torch to heat the back of the heart and kind of file off any remains of the tail. That part was cool!!! Then she used these special tongs to put the hearts in this big kiln where they would spend the night and part of the next day cooling down from 875degrees to room temp.
We took bunches of pics -- so soon as Andy has these on flickr or whatever -- I'll pop some of them in here!!
We get to pick up our hearts any time after 4pm today -- can't wait to see how they turn out!!
Well done love!! Great idea!!
Just an update that Kristen apparently has Retinal Vein Occlusion. Yesterday she went to the Dr's again and had 7 vials of blood taken for various tests (10 in the past 6 days) and then she'll go back at a later date. The scary thing is that this usually occurs in diabetics or people older than 65. As she's a lot younger than 65 it is concerning that it could be a symptom of diabetes.
In some good news, we are going out somewhere tonight for Valentines day that is a surprise - shes started to get some hints but hopefully not enough to completely guess before the night is over..
Please pray for Kristen - she woke up this morning unable to see (clearly) out of one of her eyes - we spent an hour at the Dr's this morning (although 6 minutes with the Dr) who referred her to an ophthalmologist across the road. Fortunately we were able to get in straight away but she is still being examined (after 2 hours). I'll update more when we find out.
not only did I finish the Moebius bowl (see prior post) -- but I also was able to finish up the Sock Exchange 2008 socks... for Beth!! I can't post a picture here until after we do the exchange (because Beth checks my blog!) much to her dismay... But I hope she will like them!!! I had such a fun time knitting them and I am contemplating knitting a pair for myself!
as a side note -- I'm not entirely sure yet because I haven't had the "official word" from DaCommish -- but I think I actually won the big money ($25 whohooo) on our Fantasy Football League's Playoff round... I sucked during the actual season, and I wasn't even going to pick a playoffs team -- but Dad wouldn't let me not, so he picked some guys and I picked some guys and it looks like they pulled it off!
***UPDATED*** I WON!!!! *happy dancing* so $25 will be mine soon as the other guys pay up!! Can you say "yarn monies"???? whohoohooooooooooooooo!!
Last night I was really rooting for this guy --
(image taken from http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/photo;_ylt=Amp4lMmEjdHgCv_If40QrjuP2bYF?slug=9183200580204aeaa1e1d43617f7d970.super_bowl_football_azdp103&prov=ap)
I don't know why I was so into the SuperBowl this year -- or why I really really really wanted him to win it (sorry Mom for blowing out your eardrums with my cheering etc.) but I did -- something about the underdog needing to win -- or something about the bad guys not winning... not sure -- not that I really think the Pats are bad guys -- but they have won enough -- I am SICK of them and wanted someone to beat them -- and that was the colossal upset!!
When the Giants scored that last minute (literally -- there were like what 40 seconds left in the game????) touchdown -- I went nuts (Mom was furious with me and my hooting and hollering) -- and I was so very excited that they'd won...
I think it is just so cool that his brother won last year and he got to win this year -- well done Eli!!!!
Saturday I signed up for a Moebius bowl class (from the Cat Bordhi book A Second Treasury of Magical Knitting).... what's one of them you ask???
Here is the picture of my (drying) moebius bowl... Beth (my favorite sock teacher) was the teacher for the class -- there were 3 of us (a 4th had the cheek to join after the class was more than 2/3rds of the way finished!!) -- myself and two grumpy old ladies... poor Beth!! It was great fun for me -- I love learning new things and this class taught me several new things!! I learned a new casting on technique (casting on is when you add the stitches for the first time to your needles) and also how to do a moebius (the twisted strip) and how to do the handle for the bowl (you actually knit a scrap yarn into the moebius strip and then later pick up stitches either side of that yarn, then you cut the yarn out and that gap creates the mouth opening for the bowl!! So clever!!) and I learned how to do an I-cord bindoff (binding off is when you are taking the stitches off the needle -- finishing the project!) which I really like the look of but flippin' eck it took forrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrevvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvverrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr and it was my first time knitting with huge bulky yarn on huge needles (10.5s) and I got to use my new KnitPicks circular needles and my new KnitPicks 10.5 double pointed needles -- big stuff!! Which is fun because big yarn + big needles = fast completion!! And it was too -- during the class I was able to finish the handle and get two rows of the actual bowl done... then later that evening while Andy and I watched a (pretty rubbish) film called Resident Evil: Extinction (I love how when I'm knitting during a movie it doesn't matter how BAD the movie is!!!)... I finished the bowl part except for the last task.
Then last night I took it over to Mom & Dad's to show Mom what it looked like pre-felting... I cut the thread and wove it through the remaining loops and then pulled it tight and wove it in, and wove in all the other loose ends... and then Mom & I took to the task of felting it in her washing machine -- it only took two times to felt it up, then I put the balloon (!) inside of the bowl, blew it up (so that the bowl comes out nice and rounded) and we put it through a cold rinse. Then I brought it home, Andy took some photos of it (it was his photo-of-the-day) and then I left it aside to dry... when it's sufficiently dry, I will pop the balloon and take it out and we go back in 2 weeks to learn how to do needle-felting to do some sort of design on the outside of the bowl!! Since this one is for Andy's Mum's bday, I will probably either do a flower or an "H" or something... maybe a "S" for Serena -- her name....?
This is one of the comics I have on my google reader on a daily basis... sometimes they are hilarious, sometimes they aren't, and sometimes they just really hit the nail right on the head... like today -- today I am pig....
I have now figured out how to do white text on black/transparent backgrounds... so those of you who wanted dark/black shirts can now order them!! They are online -- KKsCafePress
