The thingies you put on your paper...

These things (in the picture)!! There is NO good name for them. You ask for paper clips...EEEEVERYONE knows what you're talking about. You ask for reinforcers or paper reinforcements and NOOOOOBODY knows what you're talking about. As a person who owns 503,248 3-ring binders that get used almost daily, these things are essential in life.

I walk into Meijer today to buy some. That was my first mistake. I should have gone to an office supply store, but after a long day at work I was looking for one stop shopping. It's nice to buy dinner, pillows, sidewalk chalk, and ring reinforcements all in one trip...but I am getting side tracked.

I ask the Meijer associate currently working in the office supplies section where I can find paper reinforcements...I promise you the look on her face almost convinced me that I had just asked her where to find the one horned purple elephants by mistake. She had NOOO idea what I was talking about and was clearly disgusted that I could not explain myself properly (in her opinion). After she made sure to display her annoyance with me for a good couple of seconds she sent me to the PARTY/CARD center section to look for them. I went because I was a bit scare of her, but as soon as I was out of her sight I took off from the store. Tomorrow...I will get them. And I might even ask a (friendly) Staples or Office Max associate what in the world I am supposed to call them.

Catching Up

It's been a long time without blogging. I am going to try to catch up with what I have missed...slowly.

The first thing to report...

The chompers are out and the pain is gone. My mouth still feels funny and I have a lingering stitch that doesn't want to dissolve. But the swelling and bruising is gone and I have long been off the Vicodin. I am glad it is over and definitely glad I did it during the summer. It would not have been pleasant to have to return to the classroom to talk for 8 hours a day shortly after surgery.

The Chompers are Coming Out

Surgery occurs tomorrow at 9:30am. I wasn't nervous about it until I started looking through the google images of wisdom teeth. Then I saw a whole bunch of people with swollen faces and gauze sticking out of their mouths. This cute carton makes me feel better, though. It almost looks fun with all of those teeth smiling. Unfortunately, I know better. I will be put to sleep, and they will remove all four. The bottom ones will be the least fun. They are pointing in various directions. The top two shouldn't be as bad. Let's hope surgery is a smooth ride tomorrow. And if not, let's hope the medicine is very, very strong.

PRIDE

I am truly one that is deficient when it comes to repairs on my house. I am one of those people that called Gary, the repair man, at my old apartment when my outside light burned out (I could handle the inside ones - I am not sure what the difference was). Incidentally, I was incredibly proud of myself yesterday when I learned a new skill that is house related...caulking.

I invited one of my teacher friends, Tina, over to show me the new skill. Tina and her husband renovated a 70 year old home a few years ago and have, what I consider, fairly impressive repair skills. I bought Tina lunch...she showed me how to caulk. I am now an expert. OK...maybe not...but I did have visions of starting my own caulking business if teaching turns sour. If this happens be prepared, I will use my blog to market.

Afterthought: I am sure the novelty of this skill will wear off. Give me until window #7.
Afterthought #2: I also spackle (sp?) like a pro. Perhaps I can include that in addition to caulking on my postcards that I send out to future clients. Any possible names for the future caulking/spackling business?

Chicken Broth Latte

I got this e-mail from my cousin the other day. I asked if I may share it, and she agreed to let me post it to my blog. Enjoy...I know I did. Sorry, cuz, that it was at your expense.

Well, tonight I inadvertently gulped down a huge swallow of a chicken broth latte! I would not recommend it under any circumstance. I was hungry for a chai latte and so I mixed up the concoction, prepared for the yummy goodness, and was greeted by a most horrible mixture of chicken broth and milk capped off with ice cubes. Apparently I grabbed my "organic chicken broth" which comes in a similarly sized box as chai, and mixed up the proper proportions of what I thought was chai and milk. Much to my surprise it was not. If you have ever gotten sprite when you expected water you will know how difficult it is to adjust your cognitions mid swallow. At leas sprite is a pleasant surprise, chicken broth latte is not. I couldn't run to the sink fast enough to spit it out that I partially spit some on my kitchen counter.

YUCK!!

Ah...Too Be Young Again

Since the beginning of November I have had constant hip pain and sporadic back pain. Finally after pitifully limping around one weekend in March, I decided to go to my trusty nurse practitioner who referred me to a "spine specialist". The spine specialist told me I had something similar to tendinitis and gave me the fashionable SI Loc pictured above.

Here are the lovely advantages of wearing the SI Loc...

1) It seems to be helping, although there are some days that seem better than others in regard to pain. (Unfortunately yesterday and today were not some of them.)

2) It's a constant hug.

Here are the unfortunate disadvantages of wearing the SI Loc...

1) It does not fit nicely under the dress clothes I wear to work. Everyday I have to wake up and make the decision as to whether I am going with function or fashion.

2) No woman wants more "girth" around her middle section.

3) I am a restless sleeper. I toss and I turn. Unfortunately as tight as I may tug on the SI Loc before I go to bed so that it says around my hips, it never stays in place. It usually creeps up somewhere around my shoulders by morning. It's not a pleasant thing to wake up to.

But regardless of the disadvantages...today I make a vow to wear my SI Loc 23.5 hours a day as my doctor told me to. I am tired of pain and I realize that in order to fix this thing, I am going to have to do as I am told. I will try to swallow my pride and pick function over fashion every day until the six weeks is up. For those of you that I see and talk to, please keep me accountable. Thank you in advance for your help.

Mole Man

My husband is obessed with our lawn. His obsession is not the "roll, seed, and aerate the grass" type obsession (Yes, T, I am making a reference to you). Instead my husband is obsessed with catching the moles that make the unsightly tunnels through our yard. Nothing could make his day better than ridding our yard of one of the pesky vermits. I swear, rain or shine, he is out perusing our yard for new tunnels and checking his trap to see if he caught one of the elusive critters. Today was his lucky day. He comes home from work ...I, of course, am asleep on the couch taking my (almost) daily nap. He is hungry and he's trying to push me out the door. "Wifey, let's go." I move slowly, I'm not feeling the best today. He resigns to my sluggish manner and decides to change his clothes and check his mole trap. I finally gather myself together, grab our coupons for shopping and open the door to the garage. When I step into the garage I am shocked to see T. kneeling over something that is blocked from my view with his cell phone camera aimed at the unknown object. "Stop, Wifey, I don't think you want to see this" he tells me, "I got one!" I know what he's talking about so I shut the door and let him bask in his glory while he cleans up the poor rodent and proudly sends the picture to his dad. I putter around the house until I feel a safe enough time has elapsed for me to enter my garage again. This time when I open the door he is still standing there admiring his kill. When he sees me he starts punching his fist in the air in a victory dance. "This is my fourth one, Wifey. It's not as big as the others, but that's not what matters. Do you want to look at it?" "No, please clean it up," I tell him. But curiosity gets the better of me and I look after he assures me there is no blood and guts. "Oooo, it's cute," I say. T is offended, he feels like I have taken the mole's side and he lets me know. He finally gets the lifeless mole cleaned off our driveway and we get in the car to run our errands. In the car he is still celebrating. "Four! Wifey! I owe all of my success to my dad and mole man on the internet." He is still beaming hours later...and I have to admit, as cute as the little guy was (the mole) I am not saddened by the fact that he will no longer turn our backyard into his wonderland of fun. So the moral of the story...moles of our neighborhood beware...my husband is on the prowl. It is best, for your sake, to pick another yard.

Canvas Bag - Take Two

I did it. I remembered my canvas shopping bags. I can't say it's the first time I went shopping since the last canvas bag blog, but it doesn't matter. I remembered to take the things out of my trunk and use them. Day 1 of my 27 days of forming a habit. The trick now - put them back in my trunk so that I may have them for the next trip. And for the record, I am pretty sure I saw the cashier cussing under her breath as the bags refused to stay upright in the grocery loading position (just as my friends had reminisced on the earlier blog). I wonder just how many cashiers I will be able to annoy on my mission to rid the earth of my plastic bags.

It's the thought, right?

I was excited Monday. At the end of my grocery shopping excursion at Giant Eagle I ran into some canvas shopping bags.

"That's it!!" I thought to myself.

Canvas shopping bags...it's the item I am going to add to my life for Lent. (See blog from February.) I know...sounds silly and trivial. But, although I do little to actually reuse, reduce, or recycle, I am interested in environmental issues. I felt canvas shopping bags were something I could successfully add into my life routine while doing my part to reduce the number of plastic bags I use. I think I will be successful with adding this habit into my life...it just isn't going to happen today.

I was visiting the doctor (story for a later blog) today and then headed in the grocery store. I had my mantra..."Don't forget the canvas bags...Don't forget the canvas bags." Of course, you know what I do...I forget the canvas bags in my trunk. Somewhere between picking up the jar of mushrooms and the bottle of Windex, I remember the bags. For a moment, a brief moment, I envision myself leaving my very full grocery cart in the aisle so that I can quickly snatch the bags from the back of my car. Alas, my desire to do my part for the earth was overcome by the fear that my grocery cart and everything in it would be captured and put away before I could return. So I will save practicing my new habit for a later date. It will happen. Fly Lady, author of Sink Reflections and my personal home organizing hero, told me it will take 27 days to develop a habit. I guess the 27 days starts to tomorrow.