On being human

I received this posting from Heidi Thomas, author of Cowgirl Dreams this morning and felt that it was worth sharing with you all. Hope you enjoy. E :)

Invisible ants who invade

It seems we have had an invasion of ants in the last few weeks or so. They are everywhere - all over the property, in the house but can't see them and in my car, even inside the groove of the trunk area.

They are buggers for sure. I brush off the bed before getting in it. Can't see the darned little things or feel them crawling on me but I can feel the after effects - the bites. I tried to sleep for over two hours only to feel the bites. I finally decided whatever, no sleep tonight. So decided to get up and blog about the stupid things.

I don't know what to do about them. I've tried sprays and powders and other poisons to get rid of them but without knowing where they are coming from, it is hard to get rid of them.

09/09/09 - and 20 years

I'm not really blogging about the significance of today's date to numerologists as it has been done many times already, I'm sure. I'm really blogging about co-existing with a person for 20 years on this date. Today is my 20th anniversary and for the past 10 years of married life, we have pretty much co-existed in the same household and not much else. I still do all the grocery shopping and pretty much preparing the food or making sure that he gets fed when we eat out. I don't do his laundry (thank goodness). I run all the errands because he works third shift and is too lazy to do anything unless he absolutely positively has to because I have an important meeting to attend. We don't communicate much unless he feels I really need to know something. I, on the other hand, don't really see a need to tell him much because I know he doesn't listen to anything I have to say nor does he care.

So why not get a divorce? Hmmm - the thought has occurred to me but I financially couldn't make it on my own with kids and all. I don't make enough to support myself and the kids even if he were to pay child support and alimony. It is less costly this way and the kids still have their father around, not that they spend much time with him as it is since he works third shift (has worked second and first since moving to this area) and they are in school during the day and he usually sleeps until about noon or so and then goes outside to the creek (he's a sun worshipper and will take any sunny day over a cloudy one; those are the days he just sleeps and watches TV all the time until dinner and then sleeps until he leaves for work).

If my books ever become self-supporting or I get a sponsor (Jeopardy would be nice to have as a sponsor) and all, I would probably get the divorce, but at this late stage, it would be mostly paperwork than anything else. Finding a place to live and all would be easy and since Benjamin just started high school this year, no sense in doing anything until he completes high school. That way the kids are out of the house and the divorce would be pretty simple. I wouldn't ask for much - as long as my books are supporting me by then.

So now you know - I co-exist on the same plane in the same house (not even on the same floor as I live in the basement and he lives on the second floor) and have done so for half of my married life - See you all in the postings - E :)

So busy (in other words - too much to do and so little time to do it in)

A lot has happened since I last posted. Let's see - a friend of Hailie's family moved; she is also in band with Hailie and so I've been granted temporary guardianship so that she could continue in band and not mess things up for the program; Benjamin had decided at the end of the school year he wanted to play football (against my wishes that he participate in something safer) and then after band camp had started, he decided he wanted to go back into marching band. The first week of band camp was an 8 to 12 week; the girls attended Monday and Tuesday, then Wednesday, Trish's throat started bleeding from her tonsillectomy (scab came off and she was bleeding not as much as she thought) I had to run up the road to take Trish to the on-call doctor for the group that had done her tonsillectomy. Cauterized the bleeding spot and sent her on her way (told her to rest, not be active in the colorguard until this week). Thursday took the girls up to practice (they had to be there after lunch for a bit) and when I picked them up, the colorguard director (if you want to call her that) came over to my car and told me to leave Trish at home (she sat and observed, did not participate) because she (the director) had her nieces and nephew and daughter up there and she was worried that Trish might be contagious and didn't want to chance her infant/toddler niece would get something (hello - Trish had her tonsils taken out and is no longer contagious; the whole reason for taking them out was to prevent her from contracting strep throat and other diseases as is. Her bleeding is not contagious; just a part of the healing process. So how stupid of the director to say something like this.)

Friday had to run Hailie to the doctor to have this lump (inflamed lymph node probably) on her neck checked out. Found out sheh as tonsilitis and will need a tonsillectomy and lymph node resection. The doctor also checked Trish's ears (not a patient and not on the schedule) because she was complaining of her throat up to her ears hurting and I was going to have to run her up to the Urgent Care or one of those facilities and I'd forgotten to have the ENT look at her when he cauterized her throat Wednesday; Hailie's ENT doctor was very nice and just checked her out and said it was all part of the healing process from the tonsillectomy, advised her on what she needed to do and that the pain would go away (by Monday night or Tuesday morning the pain had disappeared which was two weeks postoperative for Trish). After the doctor's appointments had to get a bit of shopping done, then meet with Trish's mother to sign the papers and get them notarized and get Hailie back up to practice to play catch up.


Band camp long week started this past Monday. It seems I had something to do Monday but I don't remember at this point. Tuesday I had to take Trish to the doctor in the opposite direction for her followup appointment with the ENT who did her tonsillectomy. Got her back right at lunch time which was good timing on my part, lol. I had to go see my doctor in the afternoon due to a toothache and needing an antibiotic.

This week they have been up at the school from 8 AM to 8 PM, with an hour for lunch and 45 minutes for dinner (band booster club provides them with supper which is usually donated from our local businesses). They are so worn out, it's a miracle they can even take their showers when returning in the evening. I only live 5 minutes from the school but by time they get out (has been after 8 when they are finished so far) and I take the rider home (yes I have a full car every day - three girls and Benjamin in the Focus), and possibly pick up a quick snack type food and get home, it has been about 9 or later.

Yesterday, I did another presentation at the Belton Center for the Arts in their summer camp program (theme this year is storybook time). I read from State of Wilderness and let the kids guess the state, but Stephanie would rather just tell them the state and not let them buy the book and figure it out on their own, so she wants me to read clue #25 (which is my giveaway clue on all my states I hope) and let them guess. This group didn't seem as enthused as the first group I did a couple of weeks ago. Overall, it was good though. I dropped off three press releases to the local newspaper next door to the Center for the Arts and am awaiting a picture from Stephanie to post on the other blog.

Today, the kids decided they didn't want to bring their lunches so they want me to go to Burger King and take their lunches to them. So in a bit, I'm heading out to hit the pavement again to pick up lunches and check mail.

State #2 has some progress made - I've got 5 clues with dialogue and interaction with my characters and the bonus clue in place; I've added 6 more clues that are at the end but not added anything else yet (since each state will have 27 clues and I know what the last two clues for each state are going to be, I will put those in automatically. The 25th clue in each book should be the giveaway clue (something that is common knowledge and just seems so trivial you don't think about it). I'm going to include a silly law (State #1's is - It is illegal to give another citizen in this state a box of candy weighing more than 50 pounds. State #2's is a good one (remember to pronounce your states properly or you could go to jail) but I shall wait to reveal it later.

Okay - that's how busy I've been lately - see you all in the postings - E :)

Life got in the way

I've been slack of late in my postings but I've had a good reason. Work and writing and other things - life in general. Okay - not really a good reason but it should account for something.

Before the middle of March, we were basically told that the one account I had been working on since starting with this company wasn't sending us any work or very little and that were all (I believe there were 70 MTs on that account at one point) were welcome to try other accounts within the company if we wanted to. I have been inquiring since October for other accounts to work on but had been told there wasn't anything available. My line counts dropped by about half; no big deal if you are paid by the hour or salaried, but when you are paid on what your produce, half of normal line counts means your paycheck is closer to one-third of normal (being paid on a tiered payscale, those lines really make a difference - how that worked was for the first 3000 lines I typed, I was paid 6-1/2 cents per line; the next 3000 lines 8-1/2 cents a line and everything over that 9-1/2 cents per line -- so when you are used to doing about 9500 or more lines in a payperiod and you can't even make 6000 lines (sometimes it was hard to even get 5000 lines in)), then without that third tier, your checks look pitiful.

So the middle of March, one of the supervisors came to me (I had been doing some psych stuff for her to help out where I could) and asked if I was still looking for another account to help out on. I jumped on the chance. Well, needless to say, I have been hopping since. My line counts for the first payperiod that I worked on the new account rose tremendously (I came to the hand clinic in the middle of a payperiod). The next payperiod - I was amazed at what my lines looked like. Of course since I got reassigned in a sense to the hand clinic, the old clinic decided to find a bunch of the doctor I do exclusively for me and so I've been splitting my time between the two and doing stat psych jobs as needed.

What this means for me is that my "work schedule" is being shifted so that I am no longer really working my original schedule of Sunday through Thursday with the weekends off for my fun stuff, but that will have to change in the fall. The reason is this - the hand clinic work doesn't get downloaded until late evenings on the days they dictate; I've been assigned two doctors and help out on others as needed (am still learning some of the other doctors but overall, it's going pretty good). So basically, my two doctors dictate on Mondays and Fridays and in order to stay within the 48-hour turnaround time, I have to work Monday nights or all day Tuesday and Wednesday to get those Monday dictations done and I have to work all weekend to get the Friday dictations done. Plus throw in the mix of Dr. Bolding and stat jobs, which means I'm working more. But once things get in a nice routine of what I'm doing on a regular basis, then I should be able to go back to a semi-weekend off schedule (Fridays off for now).

I have started the second state story, finally and hope to finish it up tomorrow and go through the editing this week to have it turned in to the publisher soon. I've been told the first one is ready to be illustrated but the illustrator still has other jobs in front of me and she hasn't been paid for her prior work yet, so she's kind of on strike, which is not a good thing. I have been assured that the first state would be out in August. I have my doubts. But maybe I'll be surprised. I can only hope.

So as you can see, life has gotten in the way of things but everything is working out. See you all in the postings - E :)

We have puppies

Spazy Taz girl (the black dog that showed up on our property a few months ago) had puppies yesterday - The best count I can get is seven or eight. Daughter and I went to do a little Christmas shopping yesterday and upon our return, there were three or four already born. We checked her several times in the hour or so after returning and found that one of the puppies was dead - so don't know if it was born dead or died after birth.

Now here is the funny thing - she is black with some brown in her but she looks black from a distance - can't see the brown unless you are right next to her - with one white spot on her chest. Scoobee Doo was totally brown. We have had stray dogs on our property on and off but for the most part Scoobee and she have been the only two dogs around. There look to be two black dogs, two or three brown - can't tell when they are all trying to feed and some are hidden, one grayish looking (blackish with brown throughout it's fur) and one white pup with black spots. Weird. I think the pup that died was black -

Large litter for a first one

Last night I went to bed worried about the pups and Spazy Taz because she was kind of laying on the pups or who knows - the line from Gone with the Wind comes to mind - no Ms. Scarlet, I don't know nothing about birthing no (babies) puppies. I've not had a dog who gave birth to pups since I was 15 but at the time, the dog stayed in the basement and so I wasn't around when the pups were born since they were born during the night and before the first week was over, four of the five had died (three had died during the day while I was at school) and the other one wouldn't feed - we ended up taking the two remaining pups to the vets to help them feed but the little female wouldn't eat. So my puppy birthing experience is really not great.

So I got up this morning to make sure everything was good and had to call the vet for advice - Did you know it was recommended to feed the mama dog puppy chow while she's producing milk? I didn't and this is a good thing - the puppy chow has more nutrients in it and is better for the nursing pups and the mama too - so now I have to figure out how to get some puppy chow - because I just bought some Alpo gravy food and I'm strapped for cash until payday - guess I'll have to get some money from the bear and get her some puppy chow for now - oh well, so goes life.

Anyway - I'll be giving puppies away looks like around the end of January. So if you are in the area and would like a puppy, come on and get them - except one of the ones that looks like Scoobee (since he is no longer around and the kids want to keep one of them). Need to go check on the pups - they are pretty loud and whiny right now - more later (and hopefully I can get some pics of the pups put on here)