Making good on my threat!

DH isn't a fan of being on my blog.  But today he deserves the spotlight and I told him I would do this...so here it is.

Today we went to the Rockies game.  When we arrived at the parking lot and parked; I started to place the sun shield up in the windshield.  Apparently, that made it too dark in the car for DH so he... um let me jump ahead first and then come back to this.

As we are walking from the car to Coors Field, DH realizes that he has left his sunglasses in the car.  We hadn't gone that far really and he could have run back to the car to get them, but instead he decides to blame ME for him forgetting the glasses.  now back to where I was before...

When I placed the sun shield up on the car apparently it made the car too dark for DH and he took off the sunglasses, leaving them in the cup holder (because I haven't bought a clip for them yet).  So DH is implying that the reason HE forgot HIS sunglasses is that I made the car too dark for him to keep them on.

I rolled my eyes at him, but they were behind sunglasses.  I then told him that this was SOOOOOOOOOOO going on my blog.  He didn't seem to care.

However, lucky for DH we found that our seats were in the shade today and he didn't really need the sunglasses.  We were all relieved because the last time we went to the Rockies game our seats were not in the shade and it was unbearably hot.  Today was almost too cold.

Unfortunately, the Rockies lost 3-4 to the Dodgers...but we kept Manny Ramirez from scoring.  YAY!

So Frustrating!

you'll all remember how sick DH got back in January when we went to Michigan.  Well along with all that fun there were a few things that came up that have caused DH to still be making multiple trips to see doctors...trips that he is getting frustrated and tired of.

While DH was hospitalized he developed a few blood clots.  The clots were in his arms around his IV ports.  He was told to move around by his doctors and told to NOT MOVE AT ALL by his nurses.  We were sure that the clots were formed because he was made to stay in the bed and because they had pumped so much fluid into him.  Now 4 months later one of the many blood tests that he has had to take has pretty much proven that we were right.  He does have a hereditary condition that makes him predisposed to getting blood clots when he is stationary for long periods of time with IV needles stuck in his arms. 

Another thing that was discovered in the hospital (but we already knew this as it comes up every time DH changes doctors) is that DH has a low white blood cell count.  In the hospital it freaked them out so much they tested him for AIDS!  But we already knew he had this because it is hereditary...his mother and his older sister also have this same low white blood cell count.  DH was sent to see a hematologist who is still trying to figure out why his white blood cell count is so low.  (Note: when DH was in the hospital and his one doctor was speaking to him about his low white blood cell count, I mentioned that it is normally low and the doctor gave me a dirty look and ignored me!)

A few weeks ago we got a call from the doctor's office stating that the doc wanted him to go in for more blood tests because his white blood cell count came back really low.  "HELLO???  Have you not even read his chart?  THIS IS NORMAL FOR HIM!"  DH refused to take the new blood test. 

So at his doctor's appointment yesterday the doc and him discuss the state of his blood and the doc is just baffled by the white blood cell count.  So now he wants to do a bone marrow test.  I assume this will check to see that he has enough white blood cell producing bone marrow cells.  But we'll see.  DH realized yesterday that he should put off the test for a few more days after he originally scheduled it because if he waits it will be cheaper.  I just realized that he should put it off because I'm going out of town the day afterward.  We'll see.

However it seems silly to keep running all these tests.  Every doctor before has been satisfied that the low white blood cell count is normal for him in his family.  His mother and sister have never had to go through all of this.  The doctor seems to want to find some way to treat DH for this, but I wasn't able to find online any way for him to do that.

Thank goodness for insurance.  Imagine how much fun this would be without it?

Windy Weekend!

This weekend Darly & I went up to the Girl Scout campground to help them get set up for the summer camping season.  As this was our first time ever to do this, we had no idea what to expect...other than we would be getting the camp ready and probably cleaning...a lot of cleaning!

So we were supposed to get there between 5 & 8pm on Friday.  I figured that since we live a bit over an hour away, we would leave the house at 5, grab dinner about halfway there and then drive the rest of the way.  However, DH reminded me of how terrible traffic heading that direction is at 5pm and suggested that we eat dinner at home instead.  This seemed like a very good idea as we could have dinner with DH before we go.  But alas DH worked late on Friday and we had dinner alone...but at least it was at home and it did save us from the terrible traffic.

We arrived at camp a bit after 7pm and found that instead of checking in at the Program Center that we needed to go to the dining hall (the staff was at dinner!)  LOL!  So we go up there and get our room assignment.  No work for Friday, just get ourselves situated.  We should start a fire because they were bringing us supplies to make Banana boats in a while.  (Banana boats = split a banana with the peel still on, stuff it with marshmallows & chocolate chips, wrap it in foil and roast it in the coals of the fire until all mushy.)  I learned that I'm not a fan of hot bananas!  So I tossed it and had marshmallows & chocolate chips.  YUM!

Sleeping the first night was AWFUL!!!  Our beds were 3 inch mattresses on press wood platforms.  UGH!  My hips kept sinking down to the wood and then these things were the noisiest things on earth...every time that Darly moved it made noise and the same for me.  I think when I finally did get to sleep, I either had to get up to go to the bathroom or our cabin mates had woken up at 5:30 and weren't very good at staying quiet at all.

So we were up bright and early on Saturday morning...breakfast wasn't until 8:30.  No coffee for 2 hours after waking up!  I wasn't a happy girl!  But we were finally able to get breakfast and COFFEE!!!  For breakfast we were treated to french toast & bacon.  Yogurt, oatmeal & cereal were also available.  Now feeling human we learned our work assignments.

Because Darly is older (there were A LOT of young kids there!) we were put on the tent setting up crew.  The camp has platform tents.  The platform looks a bit like a wooden deck with the tent itself strapped to the railing.  Steps for putting up a platform tent:

sweep off all pine needles, sticks and other debris

move cot frames off the platforms
get the cot frames legs upright (they're folded down for winter...some rusted stuck!)
get mattresses out of shed & to the tents
set up tent

move cot frames into the set up tent

move mattresses onto the cot frames

clean the mattresses (note the mattresses are covered in vinyl so we just sprayed them with bleach water and wiped them down)

Other jobs in the camp site were:
clean the Biffys (Biffy = Bathroom in forest for you.  aka: Outhouse)
clean the hand washing troff
clean the field kitchen 

There were a lot of folks to help with all the jobs and at the first campsite it took a bit of time to figure out who should do what job and learn the job in some cases.  But by the time we got to the second camp site we had it all down!   the highlighted jobs are ones that Darly & I did.

At the second campsite the tents were going up quickly and Darly & I were the cot moving crew!  We had two other folks helping us but we had it down to a science now.  However once we got started on our 4th tent our crew suffered a major set back.  A very strong gust of wind blew down tent #3!  The tent knocked over two of the cots as well!

So the folks who were actually setting up the tents rushed over after finishing the tent they were working on.  We weren't going to get much done until tent #3 could be fixed, so the rest of us headed to the dining hall for lunch.  Of course we didn't actually get to eat lunch until the rest of our crew got there, so we just sat for a bit...but that was okay as we were able to refill our water bottles and try to drink as much water as we could.  I think that I consumed an entire pitcher.

After lunch (baked potato "bar" chili or broccoli and salad bar) it was decided that part of our crew would return to finish the last few tents and that the rest of us would go to the game field to get it set up.  Once at the game field we learned that there really wasn't a lot to do.  We were supposed to set up the archery range...but the wind blew the targets over and we had no idea how to set up the red zone boundaries.  We were supposed to organize the supply closet, but it was already organized.  We did put air in all the balls with the two air pumps.  Imagine if you will, 5 children + 2 air pumps.  That was fun!

Once we had that all sorted out we were "free" for the afternoon!  Darly wanted to go to the barn to see the animals.  When we got there we were able to help collect the chicken eggs (note: we collected about 16 eggs that they are not allowed to feed to campers or guests.  Only staff is allowed to eat the eggs produced at the camp.  Campers can only have store bought eggs.  How dumb is that?)  We were greeted by Oreo, a mini-horse that likes to nibble on fingers.  We chose to not feed him our fingers.  We also found that the barn had some more work that we could do.  I helped unpack and label brand new riding helmets.  We were then invited to go horseback riding. 

My horse Harvey was new to camp this year. The camp leases the horses so that they only have to take care of them during the camping season.  They normally get back the same horses, but this year the camp will be offering horseback riding for the first time in 30 years, so more horses were needed.  Some horses are trained to follow voice commands, others are reign trained.  It seems that Harvey was used to being led around as he didn't listen to me at all and just followed our guide.

Darly got to ride on Denver who was also new to camp.  He was better trained and Darly got to take him around the ring herself.  I could be in trouble for more horse riding lessons.

Now that we were thoroughly grubby, it was time for dinner.  For dinner we had a kind of "mexican" seasoned beef with rice, beans, tortillas & corn chips.  They also had the salad bar out where we learned they had salsa, cheese & guacamole.  At our table for dinner most of the folks were vegetarians so there was a lot of the meat left over that was heading for the trash can.  I requested to take it home and it is going to be our dinner tonight.

After dinner we had a camp fire with skits & smores.  I had the thought that Darly & I should head back to our lodge and grab our showers early, but we stayed for the show.  Showering wasn't too bad and it was nice to finally get all that dirt off of us.  I felt as if that was the dirtiest I had ever been in my life...although I'm sure now that I've been worse.

This morning all that was left to do was clean the lodges that we stayed in and with 13 of us that went very quickly.  It could have gone much faster if we had a real vacuum instead of a shop vac...I may have to donate one to them.

We had a yummy breakfast of eggs, sausage, hashbrowns & biscuits.  I had two cups of coffee!  Then we made our way home.

Laundry can wait...I may take a nap.

Part of my inheritance

I wonder if I should consider this my Mother's Day gift too? LOL!

Today DH and his brother brought over part of what we have inherited from his folks.




Originally my BIL also wanted this, but I guess he figured it wasn't worth the effort to move it and then find a place for it in his house. I don't think it turned out to be quite that hard to move (but then I didn't have to lift the bugger!)

Some history about this...

When MIL & FIL first bought their house the neighborhood was under construction. Each time that FIL would take their dog for a walk he would notice items in the construction dumpsters that were still very usable but for one reason or another weren't going into the homes that were being built. FIL was a very personable person and he ended up chatting with the construction workers (asking if he could have the "trash") and eventually they would just leave the good stuff for FIL off to the side so he didn't have to dumpster dive any more.

The bottom of this is 3 sets of cabinets, the top must have been from the shelves that are like what my in-laws had in their family room.

DH still has to bring the rest of it here (YES! There's more!) as they took out the drawers, shelves and filing cabinets out of it to make it lighter to carry. So far all this has cost me is making lunch for the guys (and I cheated at that...I just put out sandwich fixins and let them make what they wanted). Course I think part of my payment will be some more of the items that DH wants to bring home. We already had an argument about a clock he had to have. Oh well, some things are worth it.

V-E-T for Lilly

This week I finally broke down and called up the V-E-T to set up an appointment for Lilly.  She was well overdue for a checkup and I also wanted to get her teeth cleaned as our running joke when she came near was "I smell dead things!"

I had wanted to try to set this up as all one big trip to get it over and done with, but the V-E-T doesn't work like that...of course, of course!

So we went in on Monday to have her exam and shots.  Lilly is a happy traveler and doesn't complain about getting into the car.  It's once she realizes where she's going that she gets nervous.  See my dog is pretty smart.  A short car trip can only mean a trip to the groomer or the V-E-T...both are terrible places.  A long trip is good though.  So as soon as we pulled into the parking spot at the V-E-T she started whining!

I took her in and had her go sit on the scale.  hummm I thought my dog had gained some weight and I was feeding her more, well she hasn't!  In fact she weighs almost exactly what she did at her last V-E-T visit.  too much floof I guess.

Well now that my dog is approaching old age the V-E-T recommends a yearly blood test to make sure her kidney & liver functions are going well.  I agreed to this because the blood test checks everything.  So poor Lilly had to go in the back with the awful vet tech to see the vampire and have something shoved up her bum.  When she got back she seemed to hold no ill will for me.
Then we waited for the V-E-T to come see us.  (side note: I never find out what V-E-T we'll be seeing when we go there.  Most of the time we get the same one but once we had a different guy.  This time it was our regular guy.)  I mentioned that Lilly isn't as lively as she used to be, she gets tired out more quickly.  So he was sure to be extra careful checking everything...and told me that everything seemed normal.  Even offered to check her thyroid on her blood test (for more money) if I really wanted him to, but that her thyroid felt just fine and he didn't think that she needed it.  Then we were done.  I set the dental cleaning for Friday.

We went home and I was to keep an eye on her cuz two of her shots could cause a reaction.  She was fine.

The V-E-T called us Tuesday with her blood work results...all perfectly normal.

So Friday I loaded Lilly back into the car for her dental cleaning.  She went in at 8:15am.  She would have her procedure between 10 & 2 and they would call me to let me know how she was...then I could pick her up after 4.  I got a call about noon saying that everything went well, no tooth extractions, but that she had some puss in there and the doc prescribed an anti-biotic for her to take for a week.  I could pick her up after 3:30.

When I first pulled into the parking lot, I parked near the employee entrance.  I am pretty sure I heard Lilly barking.  I think she might have recognized our car.  It took a bit to actually get her but when they brought her out, I'm not quite sure she knew who I was...she didn't seem to be running at me.  As soon as she was brought to me though she was all over me.

She slept a lot the rest of the day, but she wanted to play when she saw dad.  She quickly dropped her ball though...I'm sure her teeth hurt her.

I tried to see if she would just eat her anti-biotic pill (some dogs will) but she didn't...so I shoved it in a spoon of peanut butter.  she ate it right up.

She's pretty much back to normal now, although I think her anti-biotic might be upsetting her tummy.  I may go get her some yogurt later.

Irritating

ya know I should really write these right after I've been irritated, it would be so much easier to remember why I'm mad about them. LOL!

I'm irritated by the group of adults with the school group who thought that it would be appropriate to wait for their bus to arrive in the middle of the lobby of the theater. Totally blocking the exit (ever hear of fire codes?) so that I couldn't leave. When the kids would have been perfectly happy seated in the theater or against the walls away from the doors. gah!

I'm sure these are the same folks who leave their carts in the way while grocery shopping and then stand in front of the display for 5 minutes while locating the item they're searching for and talking on the cell phone. Note: they're blocking the way with their body AND their cart...two blockages here! These folks seem especially prolific during busy shopping times!

The lady (or ladies, I never did figure out who was responsible for this group) who brought in the group of school aged boys (why weren't they in school?) who decided to play "cowboys & indians" in the lazy river at the pool. The boys constant lack of attention to anything around them caused them to bump into us and the walls of the pool quite frequently. grrr! I suppose though that they did provide extra heart rate and obsticles for me.

The town I live in who should really hire a full time city planner (and if they already have one fire this person and get someone who knows what they're doing!). It seems each year they tear up the same bit of road to change it. Currently they're tearing up the road near town hall to put in the roads they need for the new civic center (that was planned 5 years ago, before this road was put in!) It also appears that they we redesign the traffic circle to a two lane traffic circle... umm all the roads going into the circle are only one lane.

and also the genius who blocked off two of the three lanes of traffic for 4 miles so they could work on the last block. I'm sure all the folks who had to work that late were just over joyed at being made to sit in traffic that much longer before going home that night.

The current election going on in my town for the water district. Thanks town for the head's up on this one. I hope it goes well because I'm not wasting my time on it.

Speaking of elections what are all these other folks running for? Their constant ads don't say. They also don't do us the kind favor of at least telling us what party they're in...the ads all seem to be generic enough to dupe us into voting for the wrong person if we aren't paying attention...and seeing that this isn't a presidential election, and I can't tell what office they're running for, does it matter? all this talk about voter apathy...

I think I'm done for now... but stay tuned.