Forecast: 6-14
Attained: 8-14

The Beatles posed the question, 'Why don't we do it in the road?'.
I say - gravel rash...

~=o>
I'm reading Damaged Goods, by Helen Black. At one point our protagonist ventures in to a sex shop in search of information. She peruses a display cabinet of dildos, some unfeasibly large, the biggest being over 20cm and tartan...

Bwhwhwhhahaha! I see what you did there! :)

Forecast: 7-13
Attained: 8-13

I should probly do something about my skittering sleep patterns. I suspect the solution will have something to do with being 'disciplined', which means I'll shy away from it for as long as possible, or until the discomfort of change is less than the discomfort of staying the same. I haz a philosophical. :)

~=o>

Yup.

Forecast: 13-18
Attained: 13-20

Heh, I'm all geared up for it to be Friday tomorrow. My body and a goodly proportion of my brain are convinced this is so...

~=o>
Cos I was working at the close campus today I indulged a little, turned off the secondary alarm and decided to get a bit more sleep. Two or three bouts of ten minute snooze-alarm should do.
The dreams got more intense and vivid (Soulsis, her chiks, cubs and I heading to the moon in a station wagon? Really? Craig Daniel* in a London thieves' den? Really?) and I eventually dragged myself out of sleep to find I'd been out for an extra hour. Of course, now I was running late and had to scramble to get out of the house: fortunately I'd made my lunch the night before. Still found a parking spot not too far away and got to work on time anyway. :)


[*Edit: that should of course been Daniel Craig.]

~=o>
Whoa.

Forecast: 9-19
Attained: 9-17

Having time off work is all very well but holiday/sick leave only covers the days I'm contracted for, that is, 3 days a week. I've been working an extra day most weeks for several months now but the two weeks sick leave I took for my surgery inconveniently fell within one pay fortnight. The pay difference between a 6 day fortnight and an 8 day fortnight is significant...

~=o>
Mwhaahaha. I've managed to connect my 'phone up to the wifi at work. I can use that to download stuff instead of my bandwidth. Mwhahahah.

Forecast: 7-17
Attained: 7-15

Happyhappyhappyhappyhappyhappyhappy!
The ear surgery has restored enough hearing to my bad ear I can listen to the Beatles on headphones again! [happy dance] There's still some imbalance but nowhere near the previous 'grrrrarrr-half-the-track-is-gone' aggravation. Listened to Abbey Road this evening while shopping. My goofy grin got me some looks... :)

~=o>
Second dentist appointment today and another $250 down. [wince] This was the worst of the fillings though so the rest shouldn't be so bad. Essentially the old amalgam filling had to come out then what was left of the tooth - not a lot after chipping - was repacked with new ceramicy stuff. There's a chance the tooth will continue to chip but for the moment it's more stable than it was. Having a crown put on it would prevent more chipping but considering the cost of the procedure is roughly equal to a month's rent, it's not financially practical just at the moment.

Forecast: 8-14
Attained: 9-15

Meant to do a number of things this weekend but did none of them. Clearly this was because I didn't make A List.

~=o>
Onion jam is nom but next time I'll caramelise the onions first.

This one's a mixture of brown and red (Tuscan) onions, cos that's what I had but the recipe does have quite a lot of sugar - 1 cup to 1kg of onions. I've another recipe that only uses a couple of tablespoons of brown suger for 600g of onions; will try that one next. :)

Forecast: 7-16
Attained: 7-14

I did get a tax refund, nice and quick, too. Most of it's going to have to go on sensible things but I indulged a little with sushi last night, and bought myself a really neat compilation CD: Queeny Rocks the Party.
I've already got or have had a number of the tracks - heck, some of them I've had in various formats since they were first released! - but the rest are ones I've wanted or don't mind having. :)

~=o>
New water bottle. Iz pretty.

It's made of steel, which is currently in vogue for water bottles cos there's no leaching of chemicals but, it does make the water taste metallic. Eh, we'll see how it goes.

Forecast: 7-14
Attained: 8-14

Had the surgical packing hoiked out of my ear this morning at the outpatient clinic. It was only a small blob of stuff but it felt much larger in situ.
Doctor said the fact I'd noticed an improvement in my hearing despite the swelling, and the packing, was very encouraging. :)
Don't have to use the eardrops anymore but will still have to keep my ear dry for another week. Fortunately I've become quite adept at washing my hair without getting water near my ear.

~=o>

Forecast: 11-17
Attained: 13-18

First day back at work. Wow, was completely knackered by 3.30. Was a nice easy day, though, and I hadn't forgotten everything. :)

~=o>

Saw a giant cardboard poster/promo thing for this at the cinema yesterday...



Bwhahahaha! The Easter Bunny's oztraylian! So inappropriate. :)

Forecast: 10-18
Attained: 13-20

The cubs put up with an awful lot sometimes. This evening for instance they've endured from me random outbursts of delighted squees and delirious exclamations of 'zomg, [censored for spoilerness]!'
We went to see The Dark Knight Rises this afternoon. Aside from a slow spot in the middle - and a very lame fight scene - it was pretty bloody good! Plotty twists and turns; ubercool gadgets. Drama! Tragedy! Very satisfying.
Interestingly though, there were times I had to cover my recently-operated-on ear cos the movie was so loud it hurt! I think that's a good thing...

[happy sigh] Aside from anything pre 1960's, I've managed to see all the Batman movies at the cinema. Time to acquire all the dvds so I can educate the cubs. :)

Forecast: 8-17
Attained: 8-16

A work in progress...

The dresser in the hallway is one of those places where I tend to pile stuff when it has no immediate place to go. It's been bugging me for a long time.

I finally got 'round to doing some sorting.
(Mostly the bottom shelf.)

Hee, I'm finally getting all my green things in one spot. :)

Also, now that I can actually see what/how many grapeish objects I have I'll be able to perhaps do some culling.
We'll see...

Forecast: 8-16
Attained: 9-13

WANT

Rainbow Batman Cake

(Thanks, Penny :)

Forecast: 7-15
Attained: 9-14

I spent most of the day reading or napping again. I'm supposed to be going back to work on Thursday. Should be interesting to see how that goes, getting back in to the routine...

Forecast: 8-14
Attained: 10-13

Oh dear. It's all too easy to buy ebooks with a paypal account...

~=o>
[snicker]

Forecast: 9-13
Attained: 9-11

Well, it's only taken about eight years but I've finally got a paypal account. I've linked it to a reloadable debit card rather than a bank account. Hee, now I'll be able to pick up from overseas those hard-to-find things I can't get in Oz. As long as there's money on the card, that is. (Mwahahaha! I'm looking at you Issues no: 1 & 25 of the Torchwood magazine!)

~=o>
Screencaps of your 'phone, whatever next? :)

This is the 'Pompeii' background of the Koi wallpaper. Quite fond of my fishies...

Forecast: 6-15
Attained: 7-15

Okay, so Batman Forever is not the best of the franchise evah, but neither is it the worst. (Jim Carrey as the Riddler is not an asset - I found myself growling at him to 'Oh, just stop!' - but the Riddler's costuming is superb.)

Robin (Chris O'Donell) looks a bit of orright.

I did enjoy the slashiness: it wasn't particularly subtle (or that could've just been me...)
At one point Two Face (Tommy Lee Jones) had Robin and Chase Meridian (Nicole Kidman) trapped in giant tubes with the intention of making Batman chose which one dies first. (Yeah, this movie was definitely looking backwards to the 60's tv series.) Anyway, Two Face introduces the 'contestants' as 'the love of Batman's life' and I, giggling, finished the statement with, 'and some woman he's been hanging around with'.

... still giggling. :)


~=o>
Last performance of the school musical went well, with Badger receiving lots of congratulations on his convincing German accent, again. There was a cast party afterwards, with pizza and lollies.
The cubs have a curriculum day tomorrow, so no school and the chance of a lie in. I think they both need it.

Forecast: 6-15
Attained: 6-15

This time last week I was realising that I wasn't going to have a comfortable night, post-operatively.

Wow, it's been a week already. I've finished the oral antibots but still have several days of the ear drops to finish.
I still have a small area of numbness on my tongue, and a pretty much constant sort of aftertaste of saccharine. Mildly annoying but not inconvenient. Other than that my sense of taste has more or less returned to normal.

Still can't judge how my hearing has changed, though it clearly has. Some types of sounds are much louder while with others there's been no change at all. I'll be having another hearing test in a few weeks, once everything has hopefully settled down, then I'll have a clearer picture of what's going on.

~=o>
Got my tax sorted today! Put it through online - easy peasy. I believe I'm owed a rebate but exactly how much remains to be seen...

Forecast: 10-16
Attained: 10-14

The coolest souvenir!

It occured to me that I've kept everything, or nearly everything that's been taken out of me in hospitals. I've got this bone, and my wisdom teeth, and ok, didn't keep the tonsils but they grew back, and didn't keep the placenta but I did hang on to the babies. :)

~=o>
For all that the cubs' school is general academic and not performing arts there's definitely some talent there.
Badger did very well, with a convincing German accent. :)

Forecast: 5-18
Attained: 6-16

Ok, so not quite as ready to rejoin the living as I'd thought. Went out for a coffee with Penny then had a browse at JB which I had to cut short cos I started feeling a bit woozy. Still, picked up the 3 'Girl with the dragon tattoo' movies, and a copy of 'Batman Forever'. :)

~=o>
The school musical debuts tomorrow night: Fame Jr. (No link, cos I couldn't find one that didn't have embedded music, or didn't mention the cubs' school.)
Badger has a small speaking role, and he's been hard at work at rehearsals. Barely saw him this weekend. Ah, it brings back memories of my own high school performance thingies...

~=o>

Forecast: 9-16
Attained: 10-15

Right, almost feel ready to rejoin the living. :)

Haven't managed to take a pic yet of the teeny ear bone that was replaced, but to demonstrate here's a considerably larger model from Scienceworks, 2008.

It's the stapes, that stirrupey shaped bone in the middle...

Forecast: 9-15
Attained: 9-14

Spent a lot of time asleep again today but I think my sense of taste is improving...

~=o>
And now the continuing saga...

Thursday morning. I'd made it through the night and just wanted to go the hell home. Couldn't do that though until I'd been assessed by the surgeon. 9.30 was the time I was given for being discharged.
So I waited, and had breakfast - cold toast, cereal, tinned fruit. And waited, and listened to the radio. And waited, getting more and more annoyed. The nurses were great, getting cross on my behalf and chasing up the surgeon. :)
He turned up at 11.30. (Apparently he'd been operating at another hospital.) So finally the bloody IV was able to come out, I could get dressed and leave.

The cubs' father gave me a lift home - he'd been waiting around since 9.30 as well - and bought me some Maccas for lunch. It's a worry when takeaway is a step-up from what was served in the hospital.
Penny dropped 'round with some chocolate, and a shower cap, cos while I could have a much needed shower, I couldn't get my ear wet...

Photos!

While I was waiting:

Part of breakfast. The label was a lie, unless, 'Quality' meant 'average'.

Also while I was waiting; cup o' monitor pads. I peeled these off myself.
Found another one in the shower later, and another one the day after, on my shoulder.

Forecast: 8-14
Attained: 9-14

Was only up for a couple of hours this morning before I had to go back to bed for a long nap. I think this is going to take me longer to recover from than anticipated.
Also, my sense of taste seems to have changed. Not an unexpected side effect but disconcerting nonetheless.

~=o>
So, continuing on with my hospital adventure...

Woke up in recovery and the first thing I asked the nurse was whether I'd thrown up or not. There was a reason for this: as I'd thrown up before under anaesthetic it was inevitable it would happen again. (I hadn't been sick this time, as it happens, because I was given something to prevent it. I know exactly when that wore off though...)

Right, so when it was clear I'd survived the surgery I was taken down to the ward for the night.
... I hate hospitals. The temperature is always too high for me and the recycled air makes me feel like I was drowning. As for the food... How can you manage to kill a sandwich?
An interminable night with me being unable to stay asleep for any length of time what with the uncomfortable mattress, and the IV cannula in my arm catching on the hospital gown, and the horrible, dry mouth (a combination of the effects of anaesthetic and the air conditioning) which was barely relieved by the unfiltered tap water I was given to drink...

(Whinge moan complain. I feel I have justification. :)

Fortunately I was able to listen to the radio/music on (a single) headphone; the best distraction possible. If I hadn't have had that I would have undoubtedly gone mad, or had to resort to asking for sleeping tablets.

But, on the plus side, the nursing staff were lovely, I only needed plain panadol for pain relief, and I was already able to hear better in my affected ear.

I got through the night.

(aaaaand again cont'd later. :)

Warning: Potentially icky pic!

I really loathe IVs...

Forecast: no idea
Attained: 8-11

Forecast (yesterday): 10-14
Attained: 9-11

Had the stapendectomy yesterday but had to stay in hospital overnight, which was a bit of an unwelcome surprise. I'd gained the impression - either from me misunderstanding what the surgeon had said, or him not expressing himself clearly - that I would be able to go home the day of the surgery. Eh well, it only took some quick phonecalls to the cubs and their dad to let them know about the change of plans.

I had planned on thriftily taking the bus to the hospital but faced with rain and hail, and already tired out from several days of anxiety, I decided to go by taxi instead.
Went through the admission process quite quickly, gaining an id bracelet or two on the way, as well as a very not flattering hospital gown and dressing gown. I got to keep my shoes on.
Got in at 11 and my op was scheduled for 1.30. Seems like a long time to wait - especially after fasting since 7 am - but time always flies when you're dreading something. :)

Was taken up to the theatre floor, and answered the same set of questions again before being popped on to a gurney. Even more nervous? Oh yes. The theatre staff were great though, they all introduced themselves and were very reassuring.
The dreaded IV was placed, I was wheeled in under the lights, the mask went over my face and I was instructed to breath deeply...

I dreamt while I was under anaesthetic, or was dreaming as I was coming out of it. Intense dreams but I don't remember any details. And then there I was recovery and it was almost 5pm.

... con't tomorrow cos I'm really quite knackered. :)

Forecast: 6-17
Attained: 7-16

Slight change of plan for tomorrow. I don't have to be at the hospital until 11am, plus I can have a very light breakfast instead of fasting all the way through. Mind you, because I have to eat before 7am, if I want to have breakfast I can't sleep in. [hand to forehead] Oh, the trials and tribulations...! :)

~=o>

Forecast: 7-15
Attained: 7-14

It's kind of interesting in my head at the moment.
There's two personalities, if you like: the calm, rational one, who thinks things through, and the other, who (over)reacts emotionally. She's currently flailing about like a muppet over my upcoming surgery, squealing along the lines of: omigod, there's going to be needles, and I'm going to be unconcious in front of strangers, and omigod, I could die, and I don't have a will...!!
[sigh]
The rational one has given up trying to offer well, rational advice - cos frankly it's falling on deaf ears - and is just standing back watching the performance, knowing the emotional one will eventually exhaust herself and shut up. :)

~=o>
Heh, and I finally have all the bits of paper I need to get on with my tax return. My finances are not the least bit convoluted - pay in, donations out - so I'll put it through online again this year.
I'm hoping to get a rebate but not counting on it: not sure how the salary packaging will impact the outcome.

Forecast: 10-16
Attained: 10-17

I entertained myself this afternoon sorting through stuff in my room. Hadn't realised quite how many Professionals 'zines I had. A few are very good and I'll definitely reread those, but not sure what I'm going to do with the rest. Eh, probly just stash them somewhere. Good to have them all in one spot, though. :)

Plus I unearthed a whole lot of pre-digital photos in packets. Some of them are even named and dated. [rolls eyes] 'Oh, I'll remember when that was, I'm sure...'
But at least those are now in one spot, too, or rather, one other spot as they won't fit in the big plastic tub with the other pics.
There were some super adorable photos of the cubs: I'm going to see if they'll let me post some...

(And yet, there's still boxes and boxes of unsorted stuff at Soulsis'. I'm sure there'll be more photos in them...)

Forecast: 8-16
Attained: 11-16

Dinosaurs on a spaceship are pretty cool... :)

Forecast: 8-16
Attained: 9-16

So, all being well, I have one day of work next week then two weeks off. Woohoo! Oh, and there's the surgery, too, I suppose.

~=o>
Gorgeous.

Humans faces??? i know there are alot of humans faces …we never get to know the real face of person..
American photographer Bobb Leland presented his new photo exhibition entitled «Half-Drag» to the public. The heroes of his photo project transvestites involved in a burlesque show and featured a make-up applied only to half of the face. i find it unique and interesting just have a look…

Forecast: 4-14
Attained: 3-12

Hee, thought it was a bit nippy leaving the house this morning...

~=o>
While having the cat sleep across my hands/wrists when I'm at the computer does afford my hands some protection against the cold, it's still bloody awkward to type.

~=o>
Last day of library training today! Got to play around with the cataloguing module. Hoo boy, it's been a while since I've had to think about MARC tags. It'll all come back to me, I'm sure...
Had a very nommy - free - lunch of a beef burger minus the bread roll. Didn't need it, not with the grilled onions and cheese, and cos lettuce, and tomato and mayonaise and relish and potato crisps. Mmmm.
There may be another day of training I can attend but it won't be organised until the boss comes back from holidays.

Forecast: 5-15
Attained: 4-14

I was distressing myself with imaginings the other day, as I am wont to do at times. I think these episodes balance out the unfeasibly sunny optimism.
Anyway, I've found the best way to deal with a distressing is to indulge it for a bit then pull back, break it down and do a dispassionate analysis.
This particular distress was that old chestnut: "omigod! What if we get evicted...!"
Yes, money will be an issue, but enough has always appeared from somewhere. Yes, the rental market is appalling - it took us eight months to get this place - but we've always managed to find somewhere eventually. More importantly though, the packing and moving itself will be an absolute doddle compared to the distressing, gods-forsaken, emotional clusterf*ck of last time. (Which I wouldn't have been able to get through without the help of so many people, but especially the cubs. :)

However, this time I'm won't be trying to sift through and pack ten years of detritus. This time, I won't have anywhere near as much stuff to move. This time, I know how much and what will fit in my car so I'll be able to organise more efficiently.
In conclusion, if I have to move it will be fine. :)