Garden Visitors

Fresh from my garden today! I believe my little visitor is an Ozark Swallowtail. Here's some information on him:

This is an interesting taxon, felt by most to be a legitimate species, more closely related to P machaon (by DNA) than to the sympatric P polyxenes ( to which it also has been ascribed.) The nearest machaon relative would be P. m. bairdi (also felt by some to be a full species.) It is very local in the pine forests of the Ozark Mtns or N Arkansas and S Missouri, and rather rare in general. Some authors continue to place it as a ssp of P machaon

It's a rainy, cool, beautiful day here in KC. Little MJ is having his birthday party tonight. Here's the plan: Three friends (if they all show up), movie, ice cream sundaes & pizza, sleep over and maybe a pinata. Good times!

That means at some point today I need to buy party favors, pick up sundae supplies and...that's it! Not bad.

I also have to make a BBQ salmon for my sister in law. She's having a party for her son's college graduation tonight. She asked her twin brother, (my brother in law) to make the salmon, but he went to the lake. So he called me to see if I'd do it. I'm doing it, but I'm not going to the party, so I have to send it to the party with my mother & father-in-law. Complex!

The highlight of my day yesterday was the Free Rice game. (Freerice.com). I got to level 48! Wowza, did I impress myself or what? I also learned a new game called "Sets" thanks to my buddy MPM. My 11-year-old son David promptly kicked my ass at Sets. But I kicked his tiny hiney in Free Rice, so I guess I deserved it.

This is not a picture of me, but I wish it was. That scar is smaller than mine, and it looks way better, too. Then again, I'm glad I don't have that hair situation going on.

I'm grossing out over the scar on my neck. It looks like I had a close encounter with a guillotine. Sunny side up. It's red, it's big. It's nasty. I can feel the little subcutaneous sutures right beneath my skin. There's a ton of swelling above and below it. So much swelling that I can sometimes feel it jiggle around when I move. WAH! I'm feeling sorry for myself.

Unfortunately, I have a lot of time to dwell on my self pity today, because the kids are home from school and there's not much going on. The girls are baking cookies, and the boys are...somewhere. Oh yeah, they went to the park.

I should do something constructive, but I don't feel like it. Paul just left to go to his Fantasy Football draft. He'll be gone all night. It's a man-thing. They eat BBQ road-kill and drink alcohol and pretend they own a football team. I don't get it.

Drug Screen

I got a new job!

Actually, it's the same damn job I had before, but with an entirely new set of paperwork and a drug screen. That's what happens when you're a government contractor and a new company is awarded your contract. You get to apply all over again and go through all the screenings and, best of all: take a pay cut!

Today I'm taking a drug screen.

Hahahahahahaha!

I wish I could be there when it comes out! Let's see, what's in my pee today?

Darvocet
Xanax
Morphine
Fentanyl
Benadryl
Versed
Compazine
Zofran
Demerol
Pepcid

...and those are the ones I know about! There are probably ten more that I don't remember receiving because I was under anesthesia!

What a waste of time and money. I wonder if they'll make me re-screen when all these drugs are out of my system. I bet they won't. I could be a big narcotic user, and they'd never know because I have a legitimate reason for narcotics in my urine right now.

Whatever.

I was a little worried about showing up positive for marijuana because of that Tom Petty concert in July. No, I wasn't one of the smokers, but there was a group right in front of us with some of that whacky tobacky. THC will stay in your system for a long time, but you wouldn't think second-hand smoke would hang around in your system for three or four weeks, would you?

I wouldn't have worried about it, except the Missouri Nurses Association newsletter came in the mail yesterday. I'm sure there's a lot of important information in such an official looking newsletter, but I always flip to the back pages and read about my fellow nurses with suspended or revoked licenses. There are always pages and pages of nurses with all the nitty gritty details of their revocations. I mean, they print the entire scenario! Even though I don't use drugs, I get very nervous when I read those stories. And sometimes licenses are revoked because of medical errors. Those make me really, really nervous! I would hate to have my name in the newsletter because I did some stupid, bone-headed thing out of pure oversight, with no malice whatsoever. That is the kind of thing I could imagine myself doing. The drugs, not so much. You're not going to accidentally divert morphine for your own personal use. But some nurses are in there because they failed to report a fever to the physician, things like that. When I read about those poor nurses, I'm always tempted to turn in my resignation and apply to be a cashier at The Dime Store. Hey, if they keep cutting my pay, I might as well!

First Day of School and MJ's B-Day

Just a few photos of MJ's 9th Birthday, which coincided with the first day of school. Ironically, I chose his birthday (scheduled C-Section) back in 1999 because I wanted him to be born before school started. Since then, the beginning of school has been pushed up just enough so that his birthday falls on the first day of school, or on one of the very first days of school. On the bright side, he got to kick off the school year by bringing treats for his class, and I think he had a bang-up day despite the whole school gig.

I'm not sure if these pictures really show the contrast between white shirt at the beginning of the day, and white shirt at the end of the day. Make that "gray shirt" at the end of the day.

I love Apple

My iPod died. It was outside the warranty period by a month. The guy at the iPod store: "Don't worry, I'll take care of you."

Translation: FREE, BABY! I'm getting a new iPod for nuttin.

Whew! That really made my day.

So today is Little MJ's birthday. He is nine. My sweet tiny baby is already nine years old. My "100% Man" is getting closer to that reality every day. He has requested "store bought pound cake" for his birthday. I'm trying to not be insulted. I mean, I can bake. My pound cake is delicious. Then again, this is a kid that also wants Jello for his birthday dinner. Not exactly gourmand, is he?

End of Summer Vacation

I miss my iPod! WAH! It just stopped working. No warning...no slow fizzle. I didn't drop it, it didn't get wet, it just stopped. I have an appointment tomorrow at 9:15 to see if it can be fixed. One thing for sure: I can't live without it.

Kathleen is having her back-to-school party today. Actually it started last night, and it continues this morning. She had five friends spend the night. They are the cutest, sweetest girls on the planet. What a wonderful feeling to know that nobody is going to come up to me in tears because somebody else is being mean. For all I care, Kathleen could invite this group over every weekend, they are that good.

Anyway, here it is, the last day of summer vacation. We have to pick up packs of school supplies this morning and that should be it. As long as everybody can find their new school shoes in the morning, we'll get good to go. And then I can see about getting my iPod fixed.

I have the week off work because of my surgery. After that it's back to the salt mines! Yeehaw! Our government contract was bought out, so I'm hoping I still have a job. Kidding...surely I have a job! But I have to renegotiate my salary. And change insurance. Good times!

Tiny Love Letter

Surgery sucks. Believe me, I know. But when you're helpless, in pain, and dependent on other people, you have plenty of time to think about the gift that friends and family bring into your life.

Thanks to Paul, for enduring my cranky mood, listening to me whine, driving me to the hospital, sitting and waiting for me, encouraging me and helping me with every little thing. And for making me a kick-ass chocolate malt when I got home.

Thanks to my kids, for picking flowers, making cards and visiting me, even though it was scary, and for making such a big effort to straighten up the house before I got home.

Thanks to Garth & Susan, for visiting me with the cutest baby in the WWW and bringing me the mystic and precious elixir of Mederma.

Thanks to Laura, for sending such beautiful flowers and making me laugh with her blog.

Thanks to Mom and Al, for visiting and bringing me magazines which kept me entertained when it took me (seemingly) hours to pee.

Thanks to all the people who sent prayers, especially Marty who lifted me up at Taize!

Thanks to Tina and Jaclyn, who visited and brought me roses and the sweetest homemade card.

Thanks to Al for taking the kids to Winsteads while I was still stuck in the hospital.

Thanks to my wonderful mother-in-law, for calling me beforehand with a pep talk and some prayers.

Thanks to N.N. Cheryl, for visiting me while I was in a thick and nauseated narcotic fog.

Thanks to my boss for keeping me in the loop while the contract changed and I needed to send in paperwork STAT.

Thanks to my nurses and even my mean doctor, for dealing with me: the difficult and demanding patient.

Surgery sucks, but I am so blessed and lucky.

Countdown

Countdown to SCHOOL! In one short week, the kids will (blessedly) go back to their academic pursuits. And not a moment too soon! I'm sure I'm counting down these last few days as eagerly as any kid waiting for summer vacation.

This fall I'm going to work more, (three days per week instead of two). Incredibly, I'm looking forward to it. Probably because I'm craving a routine of any sort. I've had enough of the season of sloth.

In the meantime, I'm in the mood for a list. I haven't read ten books this summer, so that's out. (Lists must be in increments of ten.) I've already covered top ten candies in a previous post. Let's see...

TOP TEN MOMENTS OF THE SUMMER, 2008:

1. Arriving at our Mexican condo at the Sea of Cortez and opening our balcony to find a spectacular view of the beach.

2. Walking up to the South rim of the Grand Canyon to see it for the first time through a cool July mist.

3. Spending a weekend at the lake with my old college friend and her family.

4. Harvesting enough basil to make a lovely fresh pesto.

5. The opening ceremonies of the 2008 Olympics; so beautiful they are almost beyond description.

6. A recording session with my choir, during which we sang our best material without benefit of rehearsal and listened to it echo and re-echo through the cathedral dome at the end of each song.

7. The decision to go to Italy with my dear, dear friends.

8. Watching the caladium, hydrangeas and impatiens grow and intertwine as they reach their peak in August.

9. A little visit with my old friend, Tom Petty.

10. Staying up late, eatin' popcorn and watching rented movies with the kids.

Summer: I'm Over It

Here we are, the first week of August. It's 100+ degrees outside. The kids are so bored they're watching the Food Network. I'm making dinner for a neighbor family whose dad had surgery which explains why I'm baking cookies on a day like this. I'm feelng a general sense of malaise and dread because my stupid, stinking surgery is in about a week.

I spent the morning buying school uniforms and school shoes. Three kids got a haircut. I spent over $250.00, and I'm not even finished buying school crap.

WAH!