Photographic Memory

Strange Times

My God, it's been three weeks since my last post.  Not such a good way to keep what few readersI have, huh?  It's been a strange three weeks. 

A co-worker I've become close to recently lost her 26 year old brother to cancer.  He'd been battling it for years.  Over the last year, he'd discovered it was cropping up all over his body and was given 6 weeks to live about 4 weeks ago.  It has been a sad, strange time at work as a result.  

Two days after that, a good friend from high school lost his wife to cancer.  She was 40 and they had two small children.  He was understandably very angry.  People in the community convinced him to have a small gathering at church because he didn't want to do anything.  He didn't want a service, nothing.  Hoardes of people showed up and cooked, cleaned, took care of him and the kids.  It's times like this you realize how your problems aren't as big as you think.

A week ago I had to leave work early twice due to migraines.  I finally had to hit the ER.  Damn generic Imitrex.  It just doesn't work for me.  I can stand a lot of pain, but pain in my head?  Not so much.  God bless morphine.  

We had a good deal of snow on March the 2nd.  Less than a week later it was 80 degrees.  We are just riding the weather roller coaster here in Virginia, folks.  It got so bad a few nights ago that I had to turn the air conditioner on just to get get my sinuses to calm down.  The next night I froze my ass off.  Is some climate stability too much to ask?

We fly to Orlando Sunday morning (my birthday!) and will be there for a week.  I am so ready to be waited on hand and foot for a change.  The things I look forward to the most while we're in Florida are the small things: no laundry, no dishes, no driving, no work, no worries.  The most responsibility I face is what to wear.  While we are there, we will see the International Flower and Garden Show at Epcot.  We have heard it's fabulous and are so excited to see it finally.

If I don't get back before Sunday, have a great week!!!            

Random Paragraphing

a) The homework my daughter has had lately has been unreal.  It is killing me.  She got in trouble last week for lying and saying she had less homework than she actually had.  She got punished more for the lying than anything.  But good Lord, I understand why it would dawn on her to lie about it.  The workload has been really getting to her.  They must be cramming as much in as they can because they're having SOL's soon.  

b) When I arrived at work this morning it was like a wall of heat hit me.  It's pretty bad that the second floor in a good 5 to 10 degrees cooler than the first.  

c) There is a fashion trend that perplexes me.  I have seen a lot of (mainly) young girls with headbands on that aren't holding the hair back.  I thought the whole purpose of the headband was to hold the hair off the face.  They sometimes have side swept bangs that they are constantly smoothing aside and the headband isn't helping at all.  It's as if it's there for decoration, but I haven't seen many so far that seemed anything other than ordinary.  Not judging, just don't understand.  Can anyone shed some light on this?

d) Why do they let American Idol contestants look directly at the camera?  I was always told it was bad form and that you weren't supposed to look directly at the camera when you perform.  I have to admit, it seems a little cheesy because a lot of them are trying so hard to look seductive.  

e)  I started a new book.  Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke.  This was on the bestseller list a few years back and I found a hardback copy in good shape for $7 at a local thrift store.  I heard great things about it so we'll see how it goes.  (I'm still reading What Buddha Never Taught bit by bit because that's more of a story to read when I want to feel calm and recharge my batteries.) 

f) Orlando countdown: 25 days.

g) Does anyone know of a good website that can help me work up a custom banner for my blog?  I am pretty computer savvy, just not when it comes to this sort of thing.  I need help that uses layman's terms.  My nephew was supposed to help me do it, but he's 20 and is never available.

h) I think perhaps I shall wear short sleeves under my jacket tomorrow to work...........   

   

Hot & Cold

*Disclaimer: This post is in no way meant to offend anyone who is cold-intolerant.*

 

In the world, there are two kinds of people.  Hot-natured and cold-natured.  This simple fact causes nothing short of all-out war at the bank.  We have seven employees that are hot-natured.  (I am one.)  We have seven who are cold-natured.  Even-steven.  You see the dilemma, right?

Basically, Leslie sits at her desk with her personal fan running all day and sweats.  I have resorted to wearing almost summer clothing.  Which honestly?  Pisses me off!  I am a winter girl as far as what I feel comfortable in clothing-wise.  I love, love, love wearing my assortment of turtleneck sweaters tucked in with a nice pair of tweedy wide-legged pants and a blazer.  I have a great selection of classic, timeless pieces for winter.  (I have a much harder time dressing up in the summer.  It's a problem I'm constantly working on year after year.)  I feel I should be able to wear my winter clothes in the winter.  (Again, no offense to the coldies.)

Interestingly enough, the other half of the bank wears the flimsiest stuff to work.  I have seen everything from thin silk shirts to mini skirts to - no lie - gauzy summer dresses.   The heater-huggers are always chattering even with personal heaters running on the "burn you alive" setting at their desks.  They also sneak around and tap the heat up on the sly even though it is policy to have it set at 70.  Our branch also has a lot of large glass windows.  So by 2 or 3 o'clock, we're baking with the greenhouse effect and this drives the temperature up to about 76-77. 

I have given up and have resorted to sneaking around and tapping the thermostats back down.  Since my position has some office-manager type duties involved, I feel I am justified.  Don't get me wrong, I am cold and sick of winter just like everyone else - just not while at work in the bank/greenhouse.  I do sympathize with the other half of the staff.  Hell, I'm wrapped up like a mummy as I sit here and write this.  However, I am covered up people!  

So I finish tonight with a little public service announcement to the cold-natured people out there in the work force.  Put some damn clothes on!!!  I can't go to work in the nude.  And if I could?  It would not be pretty.            

Bloomers

My brother-in-law is a wizard with a camera.  He has taken some great shots of my orchids before and I got him to take some of my new favorite plant this weekend.  I had all but given up on this little fella because I though he just wasn't thriving.  I thought for sure he should have been bigger by now and since I'd never had an orchid quite this small before, I had assumed he was stunted.  The name pretty much says it all: Ascocentrum miniatum.  To give you an idea of how small it really is, the pot is the height of a fifty cent piece.

 

Late one night I was watering in the greenhouse and I kept smelling something reminiscent of lemon Pledge.  I soon found the source: Rhyncholaelia digbyana.  This plant was tucked in a corner and although I cared for it the way I had been told, in my mind it was a goner and was headed for the trash heap.  I was producing new leads but looked horrific.  Apparently for this orchid, looking horrible is no indicator of plant health.  Interestingly, she has no smell whatsoever during the day because the pollinator for this plant is a moth.

    

Here is an overall view of some of the plants in bloom right now:

   

And then there is my sleepy dog:

 

Prissy has done so well since Billie has been gone.  She has been a real trooper and seems undaunted by being solo for the first time ever.  We never cared much for her name when we first adopted her but we felt we couldn't change it since that's what she's known for the past 5 years.  Since we are nickname fools, the inevitable has happened.  We have a nickname for her that she seems to really respond to.  Muffin.  We have no clue why we started calling her Muffin, but looking at her now as I type this, her rear-end does rather look like a muffin top. 

P.S. I call all my orchids by name and they are each distinctly male or female to me.  Because I have a nickname fetish, they each have nicknames that only me or my sister-in-law understand.  A lot of them are just referred to by the second part of their name.  I refer to the one at the top as simply "miniatum" and the second one is simply "digbyana".  There are other multi-generic orchids I have such lengthy names, so I call them whatever strikes my fancy.  It cannot be stressed enough that John and I are total nicknames nerds.  At the time of her death, Billie had collected somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 different nicknames.   

A Book Review

I am almost finished with Scarpetta by Patricia Cornwell.  Although I have always enjoyed the Kay Scarpetta series, this book has me perplexed.  It is a big departure from all of the other Kay Scarpetta books.  It seem almot disjointed in a way.   

This book finds Kay married to her longtime love, Benton Wesley and in New York City investigating the death of a little person.  Cornwell has jumped forward in time a great deal because as the story progresses, we find out all sorts of things have occurred since Book of the Dead.  Her faithful assistant, Rose has died.  Scarpetta has left South Carolina.  Lucy, her niece, had a mysterious illness that was mentioned in a previous book but there hasn't been mention of it since.  Marino, who completely disappeared at the end of the previous book in an intense cliffhanger, is back with a very brief mention of his time away.

I think the strangest thing about Scarpetta is that the writing style seems to havegreatly changed.  Dialog between characters is almost in code.  It's often as if the reader came in on a conversation already in progress and therefore is out of the loop.  

I am intrigued enoughto keep reading, so I will definitely finish it.  The murders are puzzling enough to ensure that.  (Who are we kidding?  I have OCD.  Of COURSE I'll finish it.)  Also, I suspect there's a cop involved with the murder suspect.  

I have wondered while reading this book just how far Cornwell is going to be able to go with the Kay Scarpetta storyline.  Shoot, I've wondered before.  That said, I keep buying them, reading them and looking for a new one every year.       

A Lame Sucky Post

1. I finally stopped crying about Billie about 4 days after she died.  I don't know why, but it's worse at night.  I still hear her whine and bark randomly at night.  I haven't had a dream about her yet.  It's coming though.  I've always had big dream about every pet we've had shortly after we've lost them.

2. I just realized that I was so out of it when I did by "Farewell Billie" post that I put the category as "science".  Now that just made me laugh!

3. I had our big living room rug sent out to be cleaned.  Towards the end, Billie nailed it a few times.  Kidney failure's a bitch.

4. There are about a million movies out I want to see.  Among them are: Coraline, Bride Wars, He's Just Not That Into You, New In Town, Revolutionary Road, and Taken.   

5. I have recently rediscovered Seinfeld.  Forgot how much I loved that show.

6. In five weeks we fly to ORLANDO.  I am SO ready for some warmth.

7. I have been making good use of our Wii Fit.  It's a fun way to burn some calories.  I have to admit, I do more of the fun/kiddie things than I do the serious exercises.  But hell, if it gets me off the sofa these days....

8. We have new neighbors.  I hate that the house next door is rental property.  We live in a nice little neighborhood and our lot is wooded on three sides.  Of course the only house in the neighborhood that's a rental is next door to us.  With rental property, you never know what you're gonna get.  It's looking like this time we got crap.  

9. I shouldn't even speak these words, but--knock on wood--I've been sleeping great lately. 

10. I can't think of anything else.  Man, I'm boring.  It's a wonder I have any readers at all.  I have been at a loss for blog material lately.  I need to get inspired and breathe new life into this stale blog. 

November 27, 1994 to January 27, 2009

Words cannot express the pain we have felt for the past day.  After all the animals we've had through the years, I think perhaps I will miss Billie the most.  She has faithfully been with us through everything for the past 14 years.  She was truly a special little dog and I am so grateful to have had such an amazing, kind and wonderful creature in my life.  

Good bye my sweet little Pig.  Thank you for all the years of love.

   

Sickness: I Has It

As I lay here watching "Uncle Buck", my mind wanders occasionally to one thought.  "Please don't let me throw up again."  

I have a major sinus infection which is causing my equilibrium to go all wonky and thus is making me nauseus.  Joy to my world.  Other than that, it's been a swell two weeks.  

We had family arrive right after Christmas and all the bad relatives stepped up to the plate and were actually pleasant to be around.  Aunt Barbara couldn't make it (awww, too bad!) and the bad sister-in-law was funny and seemed genuinely cheerful.  The obsessvie-compulsive brother-in-law didn't drive everyone too crazy with his photography wizardry.  The brooding brother-in-law was somewhat personable and at times even polite.  Everything was very nice and I ate my weight in food.  That part was grand.  Fortunately, the sicknesses didn't start until after the holidays. 

We saw "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" on our anniversary.  It was very good.  It was at times depressing though so don't go see it if you're feeling fragile.  From a logical standpoint, I disagreed with some of the main character's descisions, but of course this is a movie...  I was very interested to find out it's based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald.  I'm going to have to read it so I can compare the two.    

The greenhouse is full of blooms now and it's so nice to enjoy the 80 degree heat in the dead of winter.  And it's so bright throught the glass!!  I;m going to have to post a little video tour as soon as I can.  It's absolutely amazing. 

I ordered some orchid seedlings from my favorite new blogger.  If any of you are really into plants like me (specifically orchids!) go over to Plant Geek Chronicles and check it out! 

   

Merry Ho Ho

It has been a busy time to ay the least.  I'm done with work for a while and it's so nice to have the break.  All the rushing around is done and I can finally sit and relax.  I've been looking forward to this time so much.  Not only do I just look forward to the time off, but I welcome the simple things like the smell of the frasier fir throughout the house, the warm glow of the candles burning, the twinkle of the beautiful tree in my living room.  But my most favorite thing is the look of wonder and joy on my daughter's face in anticipation of Christmas morning.......

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and are able to find something magical in your day, no matter how small.

Oh, Just Shoot Me - With Bullets!

• Christmas is upon us now and it has been a whirlwind of a month so far.  I didn't kill Aunt Barbara at Thanksgiving.  She was a total ass, but I rose above it all and only made three sarcastic comments all day like the good girl I am.  I still firmly believe she is the anti-Christ.
• I am trying desperately to NOT stuff my face on a daily basis and save face-stuffing moments for those holiday events that are worthy of face-stuffing.  Not an easy task.  I took a quiz online last week and I have 16 of the 20 signs of a food addict.  Nice.  One item that I have recently become addicted to: Orange Vitamin Water.  I adore them.  I wonder perhaps if it's because it tastes sort of like Tang.  Anyone remember Tang?
• On the upside, my new job is so much easier on my feet.  So much so that I have been able to walk the dogs almost every night this week.  I have also been able to get so much done around the house because I'm not so spent at the end of the day.   
• Although I am 99.9% done with Christmas shopping, I haven't wrapped the first thing.  I know I will regret this when I get around to wrapping.  (Wrap as you go along, moron!)  The .01% is stocking stuffers.  John, Carter and I always wait until the weekend right before Christmas to go to Merchant's Square in Colonial Williamsburg to shop for stocking stuffers.  It's so nice and we get to enjoy the great stores and buy good candy at Wythe for the stockings.  
• There are so many movies out that I want to see.  I need to catch up.  I am having serious movie and popcorn withdrawal.  
• The house looks extra nice this year.  We are pretty classic/traditional in our Christmas decor, but this year I added a garland around the front door that has a ton of white lights of varying sizes in it.  Just a little something different.  The lights have ten settings on them, but we like the "slow twinkle" effect.  It gives a good stars-in-the-sky kind of twinkle without getting too Vegas-y.  
• We bought a huge humidifier for our bedroom.  We put our old one in Carter's room and pitched her old small one.  It makes the air so yummy.  (Central heating is a bitch on the old sinuses.)
• Back by popular demand: the cleaning lady!!!  She came just before Thanksgiving as a sort of an early Christmas gift to me from John.  We will have her come one more time the Monday before Christmas.  I have most of the week off between Christmas and New Years, so I will be so glad to have one less thing to keep track of during the holidays.
• We got Carter a Wii for Christmas.  She will FREAK OUT.  We're giving Wii Fit to one another for our anniversary which is on the 28th.  I can't believe we will be celebrating our 15th Wedding Anniversary.  (Sniff!)
• I got Harry Connick, Jr.'s new Christmas CD.  Maybe I'm just not that into it yet and need to give it more time, but I don't like it as much as the first two.
• I am so bummed that the first season of True Blood is over.  That show is so freaking good.  I love a good vamp story.  I found out it's based on a series of vampire books by Charlaine Harris.  I think I may have found my new vampire series.       
• I got my hair chopped off.  It is very short.  I am still in shock a little.  I may or may not post a picture over the weekend.