We start with the trailer for Tommy Tricker and the Stamp Traveler (a film we all enjoyed in our youth.) It’s followed by a link to a bit more of same, and then…an appropriate song from The Electric Company.

(a bit more Tommy Tricker here.)

And just for fun:

Here we see my little sister in The Dress. (My dad bought it. It was might fine for twirling in.) I think that my Mum made the one I’m wearing.

And yes. I’ll say it. Dude. My folks look so young! I’m pretty sure that they’re younger than me in these photos.

This recipe was found in a book called Galley Finale: A Collection of Mariner Soups, Sloops, and Other Incredible Edibles it was put out by The Presbyterian Church of Fair Oaks, Ca in 1978.

Tangy Pork Chops by Mrs. Leon Catlin

4 pork chops
4 onion slices
1 can tomato soup
4 green pepper rings
Dash of pepper

Brown chops in skillet on both sides. Place a slice of onion and green pepper on each and pour soup over. Cover and cook over low heat about 45 minutes. Stir or baste now and then.

Me again.

It looks like my Mother-in-Law may actually be coming home on Sunday. (As in later today after my latest attempt at that sleep thing.) This is our third theoretical release date for her, so here’s hoping that the third time is a charm. And as you may imagine, we have been in a flurry of cleaning here in my “not normally that tidy” but considering recent events grown into “more along the lines of chaos incarnate” place.

Here is a quick list of some actual housework that has occurred here recently: (the following list is based on true events. please remain seated while reading said list to prevent fainting from shock.)

* The sheets on her bed are new and clean.
* The second floor has been vacuumed (except in my messy room.)
* We have a new towel rack (to replace the one in bits lurking about the bathroom.)
* A new shower curtain liner was purchased and hung up.
* The bathtub was cleaned and now sports non-slip duckies.
* The stairs are clean of the usual debris (a.k.a. stuff found downstairs that belongs upstairs.)
* The infamous entryway where I have slipped and fallen twice now has a new rubber-backed rug.
* A new rubber-backed rug lurks at the back door.
* Much kitchen/dining area stuff have been moved about.
* and lots of laundry has been done…and put away!

*whew!* So…yeah. I’m hoping that at the very least she’ll be able to move around the place with the walker I’m told is coming home with her.

In other news, did I mention that I am not taking any fertility drugs this month? Nope. I have managed to develop not one, not two, but three cysts. Bleh. But really, it’s great timing. I just don’t have the time this month. I declare it to be divine intervention, and will now move on to my next newsbyte….

My interview for the job-possibility-I’m-not-saying-much-about is on February 10. Please send any/all prayers and good thoughts my way.

And finally…I have a new cell phone. Why do I have a new phone? Well…it was free. Relatively-speaking, of course. You see, Koshvader needed a new phone as his had started to come over all wonky. And after much debate, he chose a Motorola Droid. Well, said Droid came with a free Droid Eris. So, I ended up upgrading too, though I had not planned to yet.

Let’s pause for a minute to discuss this phone:

1) It’s way more modern that anything phone-like I’ve ever had. I mean, come on, I’ve never even downloaded a ringtone before. I keep discovering new things and hurting my brain.
2) It vibrates when you push its little virtual buttons. Let it be here noted that I hate things that vibrate, as they make my bones ache. Yes. That includes those coaster things they give you at restaurants while you are waiting. (And nope. Apparently you can turn that off in the other Droid, but not in mine.)
3) It’s named Eris. I mean…come on. Who named the phone after the goddess of discord?
“Eris is the Greek goddess of discord and strife. She is Ares’ constant companion and follows him everywhere. Eris is sinister and mean, and her greatest joy is to make trouble.” – Encyclopedia Mythica

But honestly, I can get used to all of this cell phone…usefulness. It’s turning out that I’m using Eris to tame a bunch of the chaos in which I find myself in the new year.

And in the meantime? I’m giving lots of folks their own ringtones. Be afraid.

(So, my friends have a shoulder cat. That’s me that she’s resting on.)

So, remember my hope that 2010 would be better than 2009?

Yeah. Not so much.

On New Year’s Eve we had to take my Mother-in-Law to the ER. Catslyn and Eideann were coming over to spend the holiday with us, so they came along to hang out in the waiting room with us. (Have I mentioned that I have some of the best friends in the world? Well…I do.) It turned out that she was feeling crappy because her colon had blown up like a balloon. Something was blocking it. So, they admitted her and we went home. (She told us later that they came over the intercom at midnight to wish everyone a Happy New Year.)

The next day she went in for surgery, and the four of us hung out in the surgery waiting room playing Apples to Apples and Blockus. (Both really fun games.) It turned out that her ovary, now the size of a softball, had been blocking her colon. But that wasn’t the worst part. No. My Mother-in-Law has colon cancer. They’re saying stage four. (So, yeah. It’s been there a while.) It spread to her ovaries, but not her liver or anything she can’t live without (or so it looks right now.) The current plan in healing up from the ick removal surgery, then some chemo. And then…we’ll see.

So, things are a bit stressful around here right now. Which isn’t fab, as I had my IUI on Monday. I looks like the reason I had been feeling ill the previous week was either a) a reaction to one of the new meds, one of which has a fake sugar in it or b)a mysterious ailment which doesn’t include a fever. Either way, on Saturday it looked already like I was doomed to have some ovarian hyperstimulation. My ovaries were a bit…unhappy. Actually, the NP on Saturday made it sound like I already had a mild case. *shrug* I started to feel a bit ill when I got home this evening, so I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

Enough with the bad stuff, here are a couple good things to counteract the bad:

1) The 2010 Mustang has heated front seats. Catslyn drives one. Shiny thing.

2) The Vig and his wife will be in town this weekend. We plan to have dinner together.

And now, I’m going to pass out…after a few game of solitaire on my shiny new ipod touch.

On the fertility front:

I’ve started the next round of treatment…this time with a nasal spray in addition to the ever popular belly stabbing needle thing. So, now I have the “icky taste in the back of my throat” added to the process. Bleh. In addition, at the end of the year I will no longer be double covered by Kaiser so I need to find out how much it will cost to continue this whole fertility thing. If y’all could please keep your fingers crossed/pray for me? Thanks.

In other news:

After dinner at my parents’ place on Christmas (more on that and my shiny cool presents later) Koshvader and I drove up the mountain to get my Mother in Law. She’s ill again, and this way we managed to avoid the rain/snow of the following day. I was a bit useless at work on Saturday, but I was there and awake. That worked out well enough. And now, today I’m taking her to an Urgent Care appointment. I’ll be heading in to work when I can. At least this means that I had time to run my pants through the dryer. No emergency back up black pants for me today!

Well, I’d best go get a bit of something to eat before I have to leave. Have a Happy New Year/Hogmanay if I forget to mention it later.

Look! My Daddy is Santa!

Well, really, my Dad and Mum recently played Mr. and Mrs. Claus for a bunch of kids at a neighborhood party. So cool! I’m proud of them for doing this and stepping out of their comfort zone. Also? How cool is it that my daddy is dressed as Santa?

In other news, I’ve started a new blog. Yeah, I know, yet another blog. But this one happens to be on a topic that I can’t shut up about: Books being adapted to film. It’s called Did They Film it? (http://www.didtheyfilmit.com/). I hope that, among other things, I can help out those kids that are told to read a book that hasn’t been made into a movie. See? Now I have a place to babble.

And I think I’ll finish this up with a video that is infamous in my family. I like to sing the song really fast.

Thayerism: A term used in my family to refer to those of us that move someplace and never move again. In the case of some of my family, this can mean staying for several generations.

The opposite of Thayerism is the Gypsy-esque habit of moving every couple of years. The latter being how I grew up until the second half of Elementary School. Yes. I went to five different Elementary schools, if you count Preschool. All in the same general area, too.

For a long time now I’ve seen myself as a bit more Thayeresque, preferring to stay in one place over moving on every couple of years. But this morning on my way to work I had a bit of a revelation. The folks in my family with Thayerism are content. They like where they are and want to stay there. It’s not just a case of hating to move and deal with all of that annoyingness. They just don’t feel that restlessness that comes from the desire to find a place that is better somehow. They aren’t looking for something, they already found it.

It turns out that I’m not as prone to Thayerism as I thought. I’ve lived in the same place for the last three and a half years or so, and I really hate moving…but I’m growing restless. I want a house with a yard and a garage. I want someplace that I can really nest in. Heck, I’d love to buy my own place…but that is so not going to happen in the SF Bay Area any time soon. Sigh. I’ve thought about moving a bit more north, up Sebastopol way, but I’d miss my friends and I’d need to find a new job… Yeah. Economy again. So yeah. Restless and frustrated. Not content,

Apparently, blood will tell after all. Hunh. Who knew?

(Photos by me)

On Saturday we went up the eerie mountain to pick up my Mother in Law and bring her back to our place for the holidays. There was much in the way of traffic, so…we went the back way, as you can see above.

Eventually (as in a couple of hours later) we reached our turn-off. Yes, you read the sign correctly. It’s [tag]Hells Hollow Road[/tag].

And here, for those of you that have asked, is the front of Koshvader’s childhood home.

Did I mention that I got up early to get brand new, extremely good tires put on my Subaru? Well, I did. See the snow in the picture above? Well, the main roads get plowed, but the road up to the house looks like this:

Have I mentioned that I love my car? She handled the entire trip like a pro (as did my hubby who was driving.) We made it home fine, if quite late. (In the interest of avoiding the rain/snow on Sunday we made the whole trip in one day. Ugh.)