OMG in the Local GOODwill

Okay, those of you who know me know I am not a fan of technology. I own no gadgets, no cell phone, no flat screen TV, no smart phone, no iPod, no MP3 player, no video games, no TiVo, no DVR, no satellite, no Dish, no SmartMeter, no tablet, no other fancy schmancy techno shit. I do have a digital camera (very outdated at this point), an iMac, and a Honda with beeping key. That's the extent of it, just a toe in the 21st century and I'm fine with that.

But today in Goodwill was the first time EVER that I have truly felt the lack as I really Really REALLY wanted to use a camera phone!!

You go to Goodwill for the bargain hunting.

The man I observed in the book section today apparently didn't receive the correct memo, he got the good wood hunting one instead. Or he got the bargain hunting memo and chose to interpret it as Goodwill was the place to pick up women for a bargain.

I seriously have retina burn from what he was wearing! Not to mention I threw up in my mental mouth a little.

And this is why I SO needed a camera phone so I could have covertly taken a pic of him because there is no way in hell I am going to be able to accurately describe what I saw that is going to sear your retinas.

So you will just have to imagine a big athletic guy (think no fat, tall, muscles but not in a Hulk way nor was he lithe) in a baseball hat wearing a short sweatshirt that ended at the waist and then something I have never seen on a man in a public community locale although I have seen similar clothing (if we can even call it that) on runners/bikers/swimmers and mostly on women at locations where one is engaging in a sport that does not involve the potential to hump another person.

He had on black Spandex leggings but they were so tight and so thin (opaque) that it was literally like he had on a coat of shiny black enamel paint from his waist (high) to his socks.

And ladies, what to men have that we don't have? Which becomes so VERY obvious when one wears a layer of shiny black enamel paint from the waist down?

Packaging.

And all I can say is...

• - he wasn't keeping anything back
• - his "soul" (if you will) was laid bare
• - the detailing was all there for the world to see
• - what you saw is what you'd get
• - Mr. DeMille, he's ready for his close-up
• - Lucy, he's home
• - rock climbers could have rested on it
• - he brings Donkey Kong to real life
• - villagers, lock up your women-folk and cattle
• - he'll be blinding someone with "science"
• - he's going to have some serious issues with his sperm count
• - and finally, the early '90s called to say they want their Spandex back as Madonna doesn't shoot those questionable Justify My Love videos anymore.

Please don't get me wrong, I did NOT stare, nor did I do a double take. I saw him out of the corner of my eye, couldn't believe what I saw so I tossed my hair out of my eyes, naturally got a better although brief look, and when I looked away the image was burnt into my brain. I continued to look at the books while he postured around the book section - I think he was trying to make me look again - and took himself to the bathroom, came out, checked to see if I would look that time which I did not (I had my contacts in so good peripheral vision, not to mention he had my ICK radar pinging like mad), spent a brief time in the book section, and then I have no clue where he went after that.

Damn, this post would have been "made" with a shot of him. But I will direct you to the People of Wal-Mart website so you can experience vicarious retina burn...

Have Three Cats, Life is Triple Good.

Yesterday was Moomin's birthday, he's a black St. Paddy's Day cat. Double lucky with double paws on all four feet. He got lots of kisses and head rubs (his favorite) and Doodle even deigned to wash his face (his ultimate favorite).

We are all off to bed to sleep some more, this Spring Forward time change is seriously kicking all four of our asses. Hopefully this week will be better. I'd really like to be able to get out of bed on time.

Have Books, Life is Good

In an effort to make my blog a wee bit more cohesive and not scattered all over the place (tho that is still going to happen regardless of plans), I will post a pic of a book when I finish it with a commentary on it. Not a review because I am not gifted analytically, despised that part of my college English classes - compare/contrast/infer/analyze/pick the reading apart so that you will never ever want to read it again. So I will just "comment" on what I read.

I just finished this book last night, part of my Barnes&Noble haul from last weekend.

I very much enjoy reading H.P. Lovecraft and the older publishings of other authors exploring the Cthulhu Mythos. There is just something about them, they are stories that have a wealth of detail, most of them contain journal writings from other characters (which I love), they dwell/take time on plot/characters/history/happenings. They are not fast gulp 'em-down reads which is one of my soap boxes: while there are authors today that clearly enjoy writing and spend time on their books/short stories, there are too many that don't seem to do so - it's like they slap-dashed something together, used big print to make the book fat, there are no details, it's hurried and fast and lacks depth, and it's like reading an outline (you know, those things we were taught in upper elem and middle school to use for your papers).

Now don't get me wrong, Ray Bradbury was an artist when it came to economy of words but his stories are in no way/shape/form of an outline and his word choices/how he put them together, well you can just tell he spent time putting the words in the absolute gem-perfect way to get what he was trying to convey across to the reader. When he describes a glass of milk, damnit I can see, smell, and taste it. Not many authors nowadays can do this.

So where am I going with this and what does it have to do with the book I'm supposed to be commenting on? Everything. While I enjoyed entering the world of Cthulhu again and glad I got the book to add to my collection, it was not up to the standards the older stories/authors have set. The book contains new (meaning current decade) short stories about Cthulhu and his host actually making it "thru" and what happens when they do.

Which I found interesting as most of what I've read is all about prevention, how to stop Cthulhu getting "thru".

Which is why I bought the book despite the rather large print for a paperback. Seeing the print told me I was not going to be treated to a wealth of details as of olden days, but I wanted to see where the stories would go. And it was interesting to see what a new crop of writers did with H.P. Lovecraft's mythic theme. They did catch my attention and I enjoyed reading them.

But while the stories themselves were not bad, they were missing something - the closest I can come is they were missing a "flavor" and a "flow" to a certain extent.

Regarding flavor: I always compare my love of reading with eating. To me, books have flavors and the best of them is like a full-on meal or appetizer or dessert that is so frickin' good you just can't stop eating it and savoring the tastes. (And books don't have calories.) The older books/stories have that "mind flavor" that gets the brain tastebuds going and you just want the story to never end because the writing "tastes" so good.

Regarding flow: when a book sucks you into the story so hard that you are "there"- you can feel/taste/hear/see the story, where it's at, what's going on, and the characters are people. It's no longer about words on a page, you have no awareness that you are reading a book, and you are "there", now that's flow. Nothing more crappy than reading, starting to get sucked in and all of a sudden you are shocked back out of the story because some author did something to make you aware you were reading - a typo, a poor choice of words, a character did something that didn't fit the flow, the dialogue was stilted, whatever.

Another thing, some of the stories had unanswered questions/loose ends or seemed "unfinished" at the end. I find it rather frustrating to not have a hint of the answers/directions of the loose ends if the author chooses not to "tie things up". I don't insist on having everything spelled or explained out, but I do like some idea of where things could possibly go instead of some ending that causes me to read the story again several times (which I actually don't mind as I am a re-reader) but makes me question my reading abilities because I still can't get any ideas on what is going on or going to happen.

Overall for me: it's a good "beach read" - enjoyable, caught my attention but not to the point where it would make me stay up all night reading it. And I like adding it to my collection.

Finally My Week is OVER!

It's cold and cloudy today so I went into my summer beach pictures to try to remember what it was like...

The foam is like beach snow.

I had an awful week at work full of non-stop crises and month-end deadline work. I spent the last two days on the computer straight for 23 hours (broken up to 9hrs/14hrs). Not to mention all the other stuff related to the job. It's nice to just gaze on the waves.

Squird and Birrel TV

One of my clients likes to ask me if I have "any new cat stories" every time I visit. She finds my high maintenance feline adventures to be very humorous.

Today I was describing to her about how much the cats have been enjoying real life television thru the deck windows because I've been feeding the birds and the big fat juicy squirrels have been butting in - 7 of them today, going after the stale cashews I'd sprinkled all over the deck yesterday morning, damn fatties (I didn't use these exact words with her!) kept taking turns dashing around the deck and after grabbing a big cashew, shoving it in their mouths, they would drive-by the window putting Moo in a hunting frenzy as they jumped off the edge to go bury them in the snow which means I'm going to find cashews all over the yard once it melts, poor Moo tried so hard to osmosis himself thru the glass! I tried to tell her they were watching the "bird and squirrel TV" channel but my tongue got all twisted up and it came out as "squird and birrel TV". We laughed and she told me I should write it down. I did and thought it would make a great post title.

Moomin finally decided biting a distracted Doodle was WAY more interesting than the juicy squirrels he couldn't catch.

Angry Birds

I DID it.

After playing from 11pm to 4:20am, I did it.

I completed all 3 levelsets with every single level in each of them on the free Angry Birds game! Level 13 on the third set was a major bitch with just three birds and buttload of concrete but after an hour+ with no hints (not going to pay .99 cents) I managed to get the four nasty sneering little piggies.

I thought there was going to be a big celebration, you know: music, lights, maybe some fireworks, some bruised/battered/contrite green pigs, and some dancing Happy Birds at the end...

But no,

All that happened was the credits. boring with a lower case "b".

At the very least they could have had confetti.

Alcatraz

Giving this series a whirl now that I have plenty of time to myself and can watch all and any friggin' show on TV that I want to watch for as many hours at a time as I want to watch.

Yeah me.

It's got the elements I like: supernaturalistic possibilities, science fiction, crime, murder, mystery, strong female lead, humor, did I mention crime?

We'll see, first two hours weren't bad.

JJ Abrams (Bad Robot) produced it, so we have lots of time-switching/flashbacking. I don't mind but it does make for one of those shows where you have to start watching from the beginning or you are just... LOST (yeah I went there! Bad pun, I know, couldn't resist, I can do these now too, all I friggin' want.)

Me being gritchy. New word I made up, cross between grouchy and bitchy, that seems to be my state of mind right now.

High On Book Crack!

And do I mean BOOK CRACK!

I went to my favorite local used book store today. Wandered around, found a few books, no big deal, but my book radar was still pinging like mad so I was confused as to why I wasn't finding anything. I woke up this morning with the very strong urge to go and it wasn't panning out which is strange because my book feelings are always on target.

The owner swung around the corner and let me know he'd recently been to a home of an 80 yr old man with the beginnings of senile dementia who's now living in nursing home and some lawyer-y executive-type hired by the family came in and took all the hardback books (mostly first editions/signed = lots of moolah for the family) and left all the paperbacks which the owner bought.

Paperbacks from the 50's, 60's, and 70's.

30+ boxes.

My time zone and categories of interest: science fiction and mysteries!

OH MY GOD - I was there from 10am to 3pm going through the 15 or so boxes the owner had brought to the store.

I found some absolutely fabulous finds (looking at you Solar Pons/Basil Copper), things I'd been looking for for years (SF anthologies edited by Judith Merrill), many things I didn't even know I was looking for (mysteries by romance authors), and just random awesome books (medical mysteries, ooh).

I left there with the smell of books up my nose, the taste of books in my mouth, and box of books in my arms. No better feeling in the world to a book lover like me.

Mom, thanks for the Santa Cash, could not have been a better gift. I am so highly happy right now.

My Version of the NewYr's Ball and Fireworks

It may not be a million dollar+ crystal ball with built in light-display but it's much prettier!

Since we have a ban on fireworks in our town AND it was rainy, these color bursts work just fine.

Happy New Year!

Hope this year is much better than last although the Mayans had some pretty serious predictions for this year, life-changing - I'm not sure if it's going to be on an individual level or a human race level. I guess we'll just have to see!

NewYr's Eve Amendment

Moo is done with the crows so he's wiggled his way into a two-way catdonut with Doodle.

Here's How the Crew is Spending NewYr's Eve

Huddling for warmth and sleeping with nose tucked into blankets.

Curled up in a catdonut and sleeping with nose tucked under paws.

Gazing raptly out at crows.

And I'm still in my PJs.

Busy Christmas Day!

I had to wrap some more gifts, seems to be a tradition with me: waiting until Xmas Day morning to wrap my parents/Riley's gifts. I like it, feels holidayish. Then jumped in the shower and got ready to go have Chinese food lunch with Mr. L's family: that's one of their traditions and they invited me along. Then home to get gifts. Then off to my parents' house. It worked out for them, they got to dawdle, walk Riley, have lunch, and relax before I came over. Mr. L came over for Xmas Burritos which he loved but he LOVED my mom's pulled pork more. I can make him practically swoon with some of the things I make, but I don't have anything on my mom's pulled pork.

Here's my mom's tree, she dubbed it Fatso. She likes vintage-y ornaments, ones that are slightly worn and tarnished.

Riley got his "smart dog" gift from me. He didn't do what the dog on the box was doing (using his paws to move the covers over) but tried to bite them off and the combination of his wet nose and super-saturated tongue started to break down the less-then-quality wood the thing was made of. I'm sure my father could make a more awesome one with better wood to withstand nipping teeth that can disembowel a stuffed animal in less then a minute.

Riley got his bone finally which made him very happy and he worked on that for three hours straight! One tired pup! You can see one of the Hello Kitty-stuffed Hello Kitty bags I got my mom - just filled with all sorts of HK items. I had so much fun shopping for her. I'm SOOO glad she loves the wristlet purse, that was one of my last finds and oooh was it a good one. Hope she posts a pic of it! I made my dad his usual bucketloads of pretzels, Heath-bit flavored. He'll be in Party Pretzel Heaven 'til Easter!

A view of my parents' living room. I was trying to get the tree light reflections in the window, sort of succeeded but the photo set-up is nice, inviting, like you just want to crawl in the photo and join us.

I got exactly what I wanted this Christmas:

• A mini feather pillow
• A new sturdy ladder
• Dark chocolate malt balls
• Cozy mittens
• Scarf
• Sparkly aqua earrings from Mr. L
• Time with my family
• Time with Mr. L and his family
• Time at home with my kittos

It was a lovely holiday. I'm happy.

Catmouse Eve with Tissue Paper

Here's the most beautiful Christmas tree I've had yet. So straight and symmetrical for a wild tree, hard to believe no-one snapped it up. When I look for a tree, I tend to exasperate the sales people because I make them show me a bunch before I find "The Tree", I can't tell you what it is exactly because it's not perfection or symmetry (although I lucked out this Xmas) that determines "The Tree" but a "feeling", a feeling that this particular tree was meant for me and to grace my home for the holidays.

Now this tree... quite a little story. I arrived to find the selection of wild trees was very small and I thought I might end up with a tall version of the Charlie Brown tree or sometree that did not "speak" to me. The DooBee helping had shown me 6 trees that were no-go and one that was meh-be when we started a second go-around the wild tree pile. A tree practically threw itself at our feet, it was too tall, but I said since it fell at my feet I had to look at it. DooBee propped it up and my immediate reaction was NO! I always feel bad about taking so long so I said "let me see the tree that was behind it" (still leaning up against the wood frame). He moved the NO tree out of the way and brought the behind tree up.

OMG, that was "THE TREE".

Just stunningly perfect - straight trunk, every branch in place and perfectly balanced with other branches all around, tons of nooks and crannies for ornaments, and just the right shape going from skirt to tip. Now, I firmly believe it knew it was the tree for me and just kicked that NO tree out of the way so I would find it. It was way too tall, but I had him take some off the bottom and ended up taking about 5 inches off the top (boohoo), but it was gorgeous. I got it home, set it up, watered it, and just stood looking at for a hour. Then, to give it time to settle, I put lights and ornaments on it about 4 days later. I don't know how, but I improved upon perfection and spent my days hurrying home so I could get lost in looking at it. And smelling it.

The poopers have been enjoying the tree, zooming under it, messing up the sparkly tree skirt, and knocking off the random icicle, but not having as much fun as catnipped-up tissue paper! As evidenced below. This is how they spent Christmas Eve as I wrapped gifts.

Can't wait for Christmas Day!

Weekend Wildlife

It's been a LONG time. Just too much time on the computer at work, so much so I can't bear to be on it at home. But the weekend was good and I wanted to share the wildlife that I have been feeding! I will let you guess who the uninvited diner is...

This is the Lman in a "meat stupor". Trader Joe's American-style Kobe Beef Burger stupor...

This Post Brought To You By The Letter "B"

A BumbleBee enjoying the weekend sun on a red Bloom. Finally!

My newBie Bush has Blossoms and it's not even a year old. Yippee!

And finally I managed to Bake my Bits on Sunday and got a Bit of a sunBurn on my arms and Butt. I forgot I still have fishBelly-colored skin. That will learn me!

Moomifer Settling for Fake Sunshine

Moomin dreaming of the sun he should be catalounging in.

I don't think it's going to get sunny today, so here's some fake sunshine to brighten things up.

Yellow flowers and blue skies.

Yin and Yang: As Interpreted by Doodle and Hobbes

It's cloudy AGAIN today, not sure if it's going to burn off or not, the last few mornings it has, but cloudy doesn't stop the Miss Bug and Mr Bear from both trying to be in the napper under one of the bedroom windows.

I managed to stay in bed til 9am. I needed it. I hate getting tired so easily after what seems to be so little because I've always been one of those Energizer Bunny people who can be moving and doing the whole day (I chose not to do so all the time, but I had the ability) but I know the golden side of the coin is that my immune system is no longer in overdrive 24/7 (which it had been for years thus the butt-dragging-can't-get-out-of-bed feeling every morning) so my current fatigue is due to not having any reserves built back up. Trying to eat more protein myself per the doctor/nurse's post surgery healing recommendations. No where near what my mom Wednesday's Child is doing, but more so than usual for me. I have to say, Cashew Butter ROCKS, I'm on my third jar! So yummy with Apple Butter on crackers. It's a great lunch - easy to bring and easy to make and there's lots of it. Dinners have been mostly chicken with something, right now sweet potato fries from Alexia, all natural with just sea salt, crisped up in the oven.

So Many Blog Posts in My Head

But just not getting on the blog.

Case in point, this photo is of my recent local find... what a wonderful rocky cliffy vista of the coast! And very close by!

Some other examples of titles of entries that didn't get shared:

No More AM Butt Dragging Since Surgery

Short Term Disability is a Fantasy

Still Enjoying Some Fat Free Finds (but not FFRanch, can you say Mucus?!)

Chickadees and Duck Butts

There's a Tick in My Head

The Diva Bitch Has Left the Building

I Killed My Neighbor's Mower

Finds at a Yard Sale

MrL Has Hooked Me On Jeopardy

Why Are Guys Like They Are?

What's With the Snakebite and Scorpion? Seriously!

My Summer Goal: DeepDish ExtraBaconTopping Pizza

Spring Has Finally Sprung (would show kaleidoscope pics of my early flowers)

Sorry you missed them but after going back to work and being on a computer practically all the time, I don't want to be on it when I come home. And I'm wiped when I get home. And all I wanna do is read, watch Jeopardy, and spend my evenings with MrL. Oh, and curl up with the cats. That's the thing I miss most going back to work, laying around with a pile of cats on me and all of us napping in peaceful quietitude.

It's a Wild and Wooly Day

The wind has been very blustery, so strong it pushed my heavy plastic Andirondack chair away from the house and into the middle of my driveway. MrL said his parents have lost their awning and "there's shit all over the place." Not to mention a huge fire on the block of apts/businesses where I get my hair cut that re-routed him from getting home to shower and to work this morning. I tried looking the fire up but it's too early for anything to be posted or reported on. MrL said the flames were pretty intense from what he could see. Will have to check later.

I have my post-surgical appointment tomorrow. Looking forward to what they will find and say. The glue on my incisions is starting to come off, already off on the incision towards my side, rubbed off in my sleep is what I'm thinking. The itchy bumps are not so itchy and subsiding, yeah!

My dinner did not agree with me last night. One of the nurses told me that there is a good chance that what doesn't agree with me now may agree with me in a month, several months, or a year from now and I should keep tabs on it. It's nice to have hope, but I think my problem yesterday was that I may have had a little too much too soon. I'm trying very hard to stay between 5-10 grams of fat per day and I think my dinner pushed me over the edge a bit last night even tho I ate less then a fourth of it. It was either that or the headache. I'm thinking it was both. I feel much better today but then I TMIed quite a bit before bed and this morning. Anyone want a massive serving of chicken and peapods? I'm definitely not going to finish it!

Hobber has taken a leaf from Riley's "not eating" manual. After not eating Friday, he did finally scarf down his dinner of liver/beef feast (wet food) last night so on my way back from my appointment tomorrow I'm going to pick some more of that up for him as he didn't eat much of his bfast this morning. Rassin'Frassin' picky eaters... Doodle's still hoovering, no issues there.

Well, I've got a book yelling my name and as I'm still not feeling 100%, I'm going to plunk my ass down to read and watch the wind blow. Later.

Gall Bladder Surgery 2.0 Is Complete

I'm not going to say "and a success" just yet for two reasons...

1) My gall bladder was VERY swollen/inflamed and when the surgeon had finally cut thru all the scar tissue/connective adhesions my body had produced over the years trying to wall it off (which is what a healthy immune system is supposed to do and my immune system is apparently top notch/super effective/did it's job almost TOO well!) and tried to grab it to start removing it, it burst and a "whole bunch of pus came out" and they had to flush me three times with saline to make sure they got all the "messy" stuff out. One of the nastiest operations he's had to do and all the nurses knew of me... I was the "nasty gall bladder operation patient, the messy one, and the second worst gall bladder the doctor has operated on", the first being connected to that patient's liver where mine was just connected to everything else but the liver. Small things can be massively good things. So they kept me over night to monitor me for signs of infection, intravenously gave me aggressive antibiotics, and took bloodwork in the morning. I am on an antibiotic regimen for the next seven days. Once I've been cleared of having any infection, then I will label the surgery successful.

2) Also waiting for my post-surgical check-up appointment which is on the 18th. Really, I have to wait for the doctor to give me the "successful" word.

Last night I found that I seem to have developed small itchy bumps on my abdominal region. I'm wondering if it has anything to do with what the OR staff swabbed on me before cutting me open, I could be sensitive to it. I'm not going to worry as the itching is not constant, the bumps are small, seems to not be getting worse, and some of them are going away. I've got a wicked bruise on my side from the last of my heparin shots, the two in my belly weren't bad but the last one was a doozy, burned and stung for about 5 min afterwards and Lman noticed the bruise yesterday, same place as the last shot. I wasn't able to take a shower until yesterday. God was I icky. It wasn't so bad the afternoon after the surgery but the next day, my hair was crispy, I was itchy, dying to put some deodorant and underwear on, and by the time the Lman had come to get me, the washcloth bath (most of which was administered by me, the nurse did my back) was ridiculously ineffective (just made me itchier) but I finally got to have undies/deodorant on. By the evening of the 8th and the morning of the 9th, my hair was the consistency of bacon grease. Thankfully Lman said I was still beautiful to him: greasy hair, "pink belly" (that's what he calls my poor twice-operated-on abdomen), and all.

I certainly had to face my "modesty" issues this time around. The nurses all saw my butt numerous times whenever I exited the bed to use the bathroom, they needed to escort me so that my IV came with me/that I didn't fall and nicely made sure my backside was properly covered, but still! They also had to note "how much urine I produced" which is a nice way of saying they needed to see my pee every time. And one nurse liked my productivity so much she kept giving me "high fives". And we are not going to talk about the gas. Let's just say I'm GLAD my roommate was deaf.

Speaking of my roommate... I don't want to give the impression that I wasn't empathetic to her situation - she was in a bad state: has been thru 3 different cancers, on her fourth, just had a kidney removed, gout in her toe, obese, all her extremities were swollen due to retaining water, she was unable to move herself without assistance, partially deaf, gassy, and the afternoon I had been put in her room, they removed her to do an ultrasound and found a blood clot in her leg. So, yeah, in a bad state, but my God was she uber-annoying. When I was telling my mom about her, Mom reminded me of Gramma. That's why it felt so familiar but so annoying at the same time. My roommate had her TV on the ENTIRE time on Talk TV (inflammatory Fox news shit) similar to Talk Radio (just like Gramma) which is highly highly irritating to me, the only time she turned it off was when the hospital doobies were with her. She talked very loudly: I got to vicariously participate in her conversation (obviously while the TV was still on) with her two daughters about the fact she hasn't "pooed" in 2-3 days, how the "urge" left her every time the nurses got her and the bedpan positioned (which by the way she tried twice, I was mortified she was going to take a shit with me in the room to share the joy with her, albeit separated by a curtain but that curtain wasn't going to do much to keep the 2-3 day stench away if she had taken one, thank God she didn't), her daughters' suggestion to the hospital staff of filling their mother up with "the recipe" consisting of warmed prune juice, applesauce, and some other ingredient that my mind has since blocked out (I was thinking the whole time they damn well better not fill her up with that, I didn't want to hear or smell the result), and finally the use of diapers (which is what I was secretly rooting for). Her daughters left and then her son came at 9pm (after visiting hours were over I believe because I heard an announcement before he came asking all visitors to start leaving and this was around 8pm). She talked loudly to him with the TV on for about an hour, so loudly I kept having to turn my TV volume up because I couldn't hear it. Roomie kept her TV on until 1:30-2am with what must have been some Gadawful black+white movie from the 30's or 40's that was a "real people" version of the Jungle Book complete with non-stop screaming, howling, growling, roaring, yelling, hissing, and numerous crowd scenes. When the night nurse came to check my vitals, I'd had it, just had it coz it had been going on for a f-in' hour and a half. When she asked me how I was doing, I was very frank with her - I hadn't slept the night before due to nerves, I was extremely tired, and was sorry to have to complain about the TV noise but I couldn't take anymore and was becoming extremely cranky. The nurse escorted me to the bathroom and while I was in there, she approached my Roomie with headphones. Blessed peace. I was able to doze on and off the rest of the night and didn't watch the clock anymore until the sky lightened outside. Whew. Then it turns out that my Roomie was offended that I said something, I "heard" her say something to the morning nurse and her daughter who came in later. Oh well, as my mom said, when someone is partially deaf they think everyone else is too and keep it loud. I didn't care, I was leaving anyway.

I'm home: having trouble sleeping as I am normally a tummy sleeper and having to sleep in an elevated back position is quite frankly pissing me off and making my shoulder blades ache like the frickin' dickens but I'm happy to report I'm off the Vicoden and just taking Tylenol Extra Strength now. I was given stool softener advice because the narcotic in the Vicoden can result in constipation so I really wanted to stop it as soon as I could because... TMI here, some of you may want to look away: between Auntie M (who thankfully held off until yesterday to arrive, I was so worried she'd come the day of surgery or while I was in the hospital going commando in their ridonkulous johnnies) and the antibiotics, I should be having the Big D, which I did finally yesterday night so I am not going to end up like my ex-Roomie. As Lman said "I have a lot going on down there."

I'm thankful

1) the surgeon was able to remove it laproscopically, I can deal with 3 new holes and a new two inch "smile" added to my belly button.

2) I'm home.

3) I have wonderfully caring people supporting me.

4) I pooped.

5) recovery seems to be moving along like it's supposed to.

And my kitties are very happy to see me. Plethora of purrs for me.