Pawprints From Space

So. Monday is Valentine's Day. For those of us who are single with not even a casual companion on the horizon... this pretty much sucks. For those who have loved and lost (especially through death) this is painful, depressing and/or one of the worst days of the year. I've gone beyond the fresh pain of the day, it is more of a dull ache now. Depression is a factor still and probably always will be. Self-pity plays its walk-on role with a certain malicious glee. I'll be working Valentine's night, eating fast food between one meeting and another. No sparkling wine and chocolates here, no great dinner out, flowers, jewelry or stuffed animals. Not even a sappy letter. If it weren't so damned cold and icy I'd go find myself a swing set and idle away some time under a starry sky. It is a contrived holiday really. Retailers enjoy it. Jewelers, florists, candy shops and Victoria's Secret no doubt make out like the bandits they are. Men feel all sorts of pressure t...

Is it just me or has there been over the last few years an increase in vomit? Yes you read that correctly. Vomit. Once again tonight, there was a scene on television where we viewers had to witness a character throwing up. This is not necessary. The character in question was upset certainly. Oh and I suppose tears wouldn't have been powerful enough or maybe too "girly" but really rushing into the bathroom and throwing up was not necessary to convey the stress and anxiety.  Then there are the cartoon shows on Sunday night where several characters vomit in copious amounts all over the "set"... a lot. This is supposed to be funny. And of course it is to an 8 year old boy. But the audience isn't only 8 year old boys. And I used to like the comedy on Sunday nights, have not been able to watch in years. Tried to a few months ago. Once again, too much vomit. In films too, vomit has become commonplace. And not just in the sophomoric comedy fare. It has gotten ri...

Trip to Australia was amazing, wonderful and way too short. I'm thinking it is a good idea to travel to the southern hemisphere when it is the dead of winter in the northern hemisphere. If there was enough $$ and I had my own plane I think I would travel so that I never had to spend more than a few days in winter. Get a small snow fix and then ZOOM back to 80+ degrees F. Ahhhhh! But of course no such luck. So after 10 days of wonderful warmth back to dark short days, temps below freezing and three layers of clothes. House survived while I was gone, kitties were Velcro attached to me for several days after I got back. Still are to a degree.  Surprise that in this economy I got a raise this year. 5% increase. Consistently billed in the top 10 in the company all year and ended the year in the top 4. Only complaint is that I don't go out and snag new clients. From where? NO ONE is snagging new clients. And besides I was told when I was hired that we don't cold call, ever. Fi...

Due to upcoming global jaunts the kitties will have no Christmas tree to harass/destroy/play with this year. Seems silly to put up a tree only to take it down the day after the holiday. Leaving it up would only be asking for trouble. They do not seem too broken up about it. In fact, not a little bit of depression to be seen in the usual antics of zooming around, knocking things over and otherwise terrorizing each other. In fact, I don't think they have noticed what time of year it is. All they know is that suddenly it got too cold for mama to let them out on the porch for longer than a few minutes at a time.   If there was ever any doubt that cold December air is invigorating to some, all you have to do is let your normally inside cat out onto the enclosed porch or into the garage for oh about 10 minutes (older cats will want back inside at about 5 minutes). When they come back in they will zoom through the house at near super sonic speed. No furniture surfaces will be spared fro...

Before anyone gets all up in arms over the "Xmas" in the title of this post, here is a little background for you: The "X" comes from the Greek letter Chi, which is the first letter of the Greek word Χριστός, translated as "Christ" and the New Testament was originally written in Greek - the symb ol below is the labarum used since 312 A.D. (starting with the  Emperor  Constantine) to represent Christ ans uses the first two letters of His name in Greek Chi (X) and Rho (P) This symbol can also be found on the walls in the catacombs in Rome. The Vatican uses a version to this day wherein the X is the crossed keys to the kingdom of heaven as given to St. Peter and the Pope's "hat" (miter) sits atop where the Rho is here.  Okay, so that said Xmas is an abbreviation of Christmas that does NOT cross the Christ out of Christmas. Actually you aren't supposed to say "X - mas" you really should speak the word properly as Christmas. Eur...

Once again Discovery's mission has been put on hold ( click here ). As mentioned earlier, I find this worrisome. If we are not going to fund the space program properly the ext discoveries will go to other nations, or perhaps to the private sector. Is that what we want? We are already losing ground in so many other ways (e.g. manufacturing) and our children do not measure up in the sciences with the rest of the world. Will we be the next (last?) "great" power to fall? While not an "empire" on the scale of England, let alone China or Rome the United States has been an influential "empire" across the globe for quite some time which isn't bad for a relatively young nation but... is that time ending? Is the step back from human space exploration a symptom of a larger ailment?

Beginning to wonder if the shuttle Discovery should fly again.  So many delays, so many potentially awful problems found and (hopefully) fixed. The launch date is now December 3, 2010.  http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html These remaining spacecraft are not aging gracefully. Due to budget cuts over the years new craft have not been funded and you can only repair the old vehicle so many times before it just isn't workable any longer. And with the dangers inherent in space flight are we really willing to risk lives for a few final missions? I'm not sure we should. And I am a huge supporter of the space program. I think it is a shame the program is dying. I think there is so much left to learn. And while I adore the rovers tooling around Mars I think the real value in knowledge gained is through human exploration. But I do not think that risking lives in an aging space craft is a good idea. With apologies to Princess Leia: "They went up in ...

If you are looking for something different to do with cranberries for Thanksgiving (or Christmas) try this: 1 tablespoon unsalted butter 2 tablespoons freshly grated ginger 16 ounces cranberries (fresh or frozen NO CANS!) 2/3 cup sugar 1 cup fresh orange  juice 1/2 cup apricot preserves In a saucepan, over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the ginger and cook, stirring for 2 minutes. Stir in the cranberries, sugar, orange juice and preserves. Cook, stirring occassionally  until  the cranberries burst and the sauce thickens, about 20 minutes. Transfer to bowl and serve warm. You can make this up to two days in advance without distorting the flavors

Another personal tragedy has brought up the question yet again: what the hell is wrong with humans? Back story : I have NEVER been 100% convinced that people are the best things on this planet. As a species we are cruel, petty, concerned with ourselves above all else and seemingly convinced that we are masters of all we survey. Which is complete, utter bullshit. People, humanity, kill each other without regard for the sanctity of life. Not just human life mind you, but all life. We devalue anything that is not "us" or "me". God (or whatever name you give the creative force) created all life on this planet (or allowed it to come into being if you will). All life is sacred. Not just human life. It is beyond arrogant to think otherwise in my opinion. God's creations include the smallest microbe on up to the most complex creatures. And that dear reader includes our companion animals. Dogs AND cats. Do no harm does not apply only to people. The Buddhists ha...

Once upon a time... the Land of Social Media was nice and all the applications played well together. The Lady Blog spoke kindly to the Lord Facebook and he granted her access to the pages via the fey application Simplaris so that more friends and relatives could read her words with ease and without having to navigate the vast and confusing Web to find those words. But lo! Time passed and the Lord Facebook embraced greed and jealousy. Too many were using his pages to peer into realms he did not control. They bypassed his embedded aps, games and assorted tools of addiction and looked beyond to the sphere in which the Lady Blog and others like her dwelt. He could not allow this! It was not right! It challenged his authority as Lord and master of Social Media and besides, he was not getting a kick-back... this must be stopped! Were not his notes pages worthy of reading? Could not the friends and relatives find the words on his pages? Why did they need to seek the Lady Blog's words el...

Since our last adventure no real news resulting in answers has developed. There's been an echo cardiogram which has ruled out any heart related fluid retention issues. So that's again a good news/bad news item: good news your heart is fine... bad news we still have no clue what is wrong. Had a bit of keratosis "sliced" off my back that is being tested too. But after more than the required 10 days I called for the results only to find out that they don't have the results yet. Really? Funny... I have the EOB telling me what a ridiculous amount of money THAT is going to cost me. Cost? Let moi tell vous about cost. We have a high deductible HSA as I think I've mentioned before. Well TA DA I have hit the first $3,000 and the HRA is supposed to reimburse me the last $2,000 above that... uh-huh, problem is.... the EOB says they should owe me $608; the HRA people say no it's really $373 less than that because (get this) the EOB is wrong! Really? So when they...

It doesn't seem all THAT long ago that I moved to Ohio. But it has been nearly 17 years. I came here from Poughkeepsie NY leaving a very fun job with WaRP graphics (the publishers of ElfQuest) to get married and start a new life. When I arrived I kept up my comic connections and wrote reviews of independent artists/writers/publishers and their work for the now defunct  Indy Magazine (among other publications). I met some fabulous people along the way both via WaRP and Indy. Yes I am a girl AND a lapsed collector of comic books. Suddenly I feel awful for not having set foot in a comic shop in years. Does this mean being a lapsed comic book collector is akin to being a lapsed member of a religious group? Today I saw a post on Facebook from someone I met during my comic book publishing days, someone whose work I enjoyed a great deal. One of Terry Moore's characters from Strangers in Paradise (Darcy Parker) has made the list of the Top Seven Most Evilest Lesbian Exes (in...

Hard to believe that the summer is almost gone. School will be starting in a couple of weeks. All the school supplies are in the stores. SO tempting to buy a box of crayons - the big one with the sharpener in the back. I don't even know if they make that one any more, haven't checked. If I do I will come home with the crayons. Notebook paper, folders with cool pictures on them, pens and pencils... but the best was the smell of a new box of crayons. I miss school. There was so much potential at the beginning of the year. The possibilities, the things to learn and explore. New friends, new experiences, new textbooks - textbooks that I never sold back are still in boxes in the basement full of notes and yellow highlighter marks. Yearbooks and textbooks. College ruled notebook paper, not the wide lined paper - you can get more on the page that way. So exciting that first day of school. In grade school you are all fired up and there's so much potential. In high school al...

The results of the latest ultrasound are in and the answer is.... there is no answer! Are we any of us surprised? Probably not. What to do? What to do? I asked and the answer was annoying at best: track the symptoms in a calendar/log until the next regularly scheduled appointment... IN JANUARY!!! Asked if the last problem is to reoccur should I call? No, just track it. Apparently I am only to call if the symptoms worsen, there is pain, etc. I feel as though I am getting that classic response of "silly woman, it is all in your head". It's a wonder that they didn't try to give me a Valium or something to calm me down. Nothing has been solved here. Little has been ruled out. We are not amused. The leg swelling issue remains as well. If I stop taking the water pill for two days POOF! it comes back. I can skip one day but not two. I have one more refill left on the 'script and then I am going to have to (again) talk to a doctor who has no clue. As I had to ...

And here we go again. There will be yet another ultrasound on Tuesday to find out what is going on "in there". At this point I'm not sure I'd be all that upset if they started talking about a hysterectomy. Just so long as it fixed the problems. Oh who am I kidding of COURSE I'd be upset but considering what the blood work had to say about hormone levels and the functionality of that particular organ all it appears to be doing at the moment is taking up space and it isn't doing that all that well. Damn it. That'll be another $200+ bucks thank you. The bill isn't in yet for the massive blood work done in early May. I'm pretty sure that'll be an ugly one even with the preferred lab "discount". Soooo, at present I am less than $500 away from the first $3,000 of the deductible. You see, we cough up the first $3,000 via the HSA, the last $2,000 comes from an employer funded HRA. So really I am not out of pocket the full $5,000 but I hav...

So we are treating symptoms but not finding solutions or the reasons for these issues in the first place. There's a water pill for the leg swelling which I can skip one day on but not two (experiment today proved that one, damn it) but there is only one more refill one those (only got two) and then God only knows what. No one has a clue about that one. Extensive blood testing showed very low Vitamin D so now I am taking 2000 IUs of Vitamin D3 a day. I was kind of hoping that was tied into the swelling since there are many things that impacts. No dice there. Also indicated was low iron saturation which my GP is blowing off because all the other iron indicators are good. Web browsing would beg to differ but who knows how accurate general info is on blog comments. Let's put it this way the preferred level for that is oh, one hell of a lot higher than the "7" I currently clock in with... something is wrong and no one is listening. In other areas... while the cycl...

It seems to have taken forever but at long last sunshine and warmth. We're running slightly ahead on rainfall for the month which explains the joy with which I greet the sun. It also explains the "lush" (i.e. gone crazy) plant life, most especially the weeds. Flowers not normally "popping" yet have done so, the roses for example look more like June than May. The peonies are fabulous. However the catmint is looking yellowed from too much water. I guess you can't have everything. The frogs in the park can be heard every night, louder than I've heard them in the 13 years on this street. Perhaps it is wet enough for some of them to have moved a little closer. No crickets yet but the frogs sure sound happy every night. Must be plenty of mosquitoes to snap up. A small possum and his mama live under my deck, she may have moved on as I haven't seen her in a few days but he's beyond cute and so little! Yet large enough to be out of the pouch and amb...

Despite not having gotten very far at all with the list of chores dinner time still managed to show up and demand to be dealt with immediately. Naturally with the kitchen full of food I had no idea what the heck to do. So I thawed out a salmon fillet, boiled an ear of corn, some whole wheat (omega 3 added) pasta, made an olive oil and rice vinegar (with Mrs Dash garlic and herb) dressing and some edamame. Have no idea how it is going to turn out since parts are still boiling but hey... if it IS good then I have lunch for a few days this week. Of course with enough white wine I won't much care how it turns out (ha ha). Opps! First buzzer has gone off... stay by Okay pasta DONE, fish DONE, corn DONE, edamame almost... fish needs to cool a bit so I can flake it. Oh yeah, there will be feta sprinkled over all of this. Rumba can't WAIT to get her paws on the salmon (as usual) although she did turn up her whiskers at a bit of the raw fish. And she calls herself a kitty! Second ...

So today was the follow-up appointment for the leg incident with the general practitioner. It is rather disconcerting when after you explain what happened to the doctor the comment you get is "well, that's bizarre". Bottom line? No one has ANY idea why my leg swelled up like that, if it is going to do it again and how to prevent it from doing it again. We've ruled out blood clots. We've hypothesized that it might be related the last knee surgery in 1982 - but the GP this morning thought that was rather unlikely or at the very least rather remote. He thinks it is more likely to be a hyper-allergic reaction to a bug bite/sting. Which might make sense if there was any evidence of such. No bump, itch, hole that I could find and true I didn't look all that closely, I was too busy freaking out. Adding insult to annoyance, I got a bill from the chiropractor today. Last month I paid the full invoice due of $295 and change. This month I get a bill for over $400. ...

So on Thursday evening I had the "pleasure" of traversing the local health care system. Upon arriving home around 9:30 p.m. I noticed that my right leg - and ONLY my right leg - was oddly swollen. It freaked me out as you might imagine. My leg all the way up from my foot was nearly twice its normal size. So I called the local 'Call A Nurse' phone line. After sitting on hold for more than 15 minutes the system hung up on me telling me they were busy and to leave my name and number and they'd get back to me "within the hour". So I did what anyone would do. I called my mommy. She told me to try the nurse line again and I did and this time got through. After playing 20,000 questions it was decided I needed to go to the ER and that I shouldn't drive myself. So Mom came over and off we went. I did get right back into the treatment area, got the whole temp and blood pressure thing and then off to a "room" a supposedly "fast track" ...