Friday, June 30, 2006

30 Minutes

Only 30 minutes left in my work day. Since my brain has been off since at least Wednesday, I am so ready to leave. Plus my boss and I are the only ones left in the office.

We get a four day weekend coming up. I am so looking forward to that. I think lots and lots of vegging are in order. If I get the house cleaned tonight. I am hosting game night tomorrow.

Unfortunately, I will have to come in and do a little work Monday. With today being the last day of the fiscal year, I will put together a deposit. Then I'll process our credit card transactions from the weekend and the first of the month credit card donations. I figure it will only be an hour or two's work. Still, it means I'll have to leave the house every day of the weekend. A day at home doing nothing really sounds nice.

I don't know why I'm so burned out right now, but I am. This rest will be good.

In other news, I actually haven't read in over 48 hours. That's right. My roommate and I are having a contest. During July and August, he's going to try to read 3 books and I'm going to try to read 1o. Considering he doesn't read at all and I read a book a week, this will be a challenge for both of us. We'll see how it goes.

But I am going to cheat. I am going to start my next book tonight when I crawl into bed. I just can't help myself. I'm going through withdrawls!

And I'm getting discouraged with my wound. I'm trying not to be overly sensative, but the small progress it is making is driving me crazy. Have I mentioned recently that I am ready to go swimming? I'm tired of having my life on hold for this. It's been six months!

I need to give it to God. I know that. But I keep taking it back again.

Needless to say, patience has never been a virture I've had an abundance of.

Of course, this is rather ironic considering that on Wednesday, I gave my parents a pep talk about how fine it was going and not to panic and demand more from the doctor. What a difference 48 hours can make.

I'm down to 25 minutes. Probably by the time I finish up the credit card batch for the day, I can leave.

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Thursday Threesome for June 29th

Welcome to this week's Thursday Threesome. This week's edition is brought to us by nature and The Back Porch.

Onesome: Butterflies-- June 21st has come and gone; it's Summer, and the Monarchs have pretty much finished their migration. How about you? Any travel plans? ...or are you staying "safe and sane" on the 4th?
I'm sticking close to home. Probably watch some movies. We get the 3rd and 4th off, but I'm planning to come in for a little while on the third and process credit card transactions, such as first of the month donations.

Twosome: are-- What are you reading this Summer? Do you have any recommendations for the gang?
Well of course I recommend the latest Trixie reprint. :) Yesterday, I finished Shamus in the Green Room and loved it. I'll get the newest Monk novel in a couple weeks. Can't wait to read that one!

Threesome: free!-- As we do every so often: Have you found any free software or cool extensions lately to share with each other? Fonts? Butterflies?
No, but thanks for asking.

Monday, June 26, 2006

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

Wow, it's been almost two weeks since I updated about my life. Can't believe it's been so long!

I'll start by updating you on what you all really want to know. I won our game of Yahtzee on Saturday night at game night! (I think I spelled it right. Fortunately, I didn't have to spell it to win.)

Wait, that wasn't what you wanted to hear about? :)

I seem to be recovering from my surgery more quickly this go around, which makes me very happy. The doctor has been encouraging as well. I'm basically to the point I was before the surgery three weeks ago. Yes, still a spot that's deeper then the rest. And none of it has scarred over yet, but the rest is very shallow. I must admit to being very nervous about it actually finishing up right now. Translation, I hope we got the problem licked this go around. As I say, the doctor thinks things are going well, so we'll have to wait and see, I guess.

Meantime, it has really heated up around here. Decided it's summer. And I so want to go swimming that not being able to is driving me crazy.

Actually, I've been pretty busy in real life this last week. Went to Kurt and Kellie's Tuesday night and hung out with some of Kurt's friends, meaning former jr. highers I haven't seen in years since they've left the church to attent other churches now. It was nice to see them again.

Wednesday, we took the jr. highers to see Cars. Enjoyed it just as much the second time around.

Thursday was youth Bible study followed by career Bible study Friday night. Yep, I finally made it back for the second time this year. Speaking of which, I also decided last week I didn't need to join my church's men's Bible study on Monday nights. I think I have enough Bible studies in my life, couples with church and chapel during the school year. That and the fact that Monday was the only night I was home last week.

Saturday was the aforementioned game night and last night we had a youth staff meeting. Changes are in the works, and I think they'll be good. We'll just have to see what the time table is.

In spite of all that, I also read Murder on the Rocks last week. Decent mystery set at a bed and breakfast, but I really wish I could have gotten a feel for the town earlier. The beginning could have been better written, but on the whole I enjoyed it.

Friday, June 23, 2006

Biases in All of Us

New Note - Angelique has read one of the books by Elaine Viets I read and pointed out the women in that one come across very shallow. So Elaine really is an equal opportunity basher, which makes the majority of my rant meaningless. I do still maintain that life isn't fair, however.

***

I'm going to do something different today. I know I owe an update about my life (short answer is, I'm doing ok and healing), I'm going to talk about a subject hot in the mystery blog world right now. It's just something I have to get off my chest. I bet only one person who reads my blog will find this remotely interesting (Hi, Angelique!), but here goes anyway.

You see, the awards for the first annual International Triller Writers have been announced recently. And all the nominees are men. I was first made aware of this when I headed over to The Lipstick Chronicles and read the this post by Elaine Viets. In it, she rakes the judges over the coals for this outcome. And the comments are interesting, with both sides saying their piece and frankly not listening to each other very much. The one comment I found most interesting was by someone named Donna. She pointed out that this year's nominees for the big Agatha awards were all women. Where was the outcry there?

Reaction to the post has been mostly harsh everywhere but on Lipstick. JA Konrath went a little too far while still offering some good counter arguements. And one of the judges, a female judge, who selected the nominees weighs in here.

It's all interesting and certainly worth thinking about. The awards for the next few years have been tainted by this no matter who wins or is nominated, however.

But I have a comment I simply must get off my chest. Maybe I'm taking the cowards way out by putting it on my own blog and not putting it somewhere where more people will see it. But I don't feel like hijacking anyone else's comments to say it.

When looking at who started this discussion, you must consider the source.

I have read two of Eliane's books. They were ok. One of my problems was a stupid main character. While supposedly humorous, I found them more depressing then funny. But my biggest complain against them was that they were male bashing.

All of the male characters in the second book were scum. Not one of them had any redeeming qualities what-so-ever. Naturally, this helped turn me off to her books and is one of the reasons I don't plan to read any more in the near future.

Now normally, I don't pay attention. I honestly couldn't tell you the ratio of male to female killers in the books I read. But when every single male character is rotten, it tends to stick out.

What does this have to do with the current controversy? Frankly, I find charges of sexism hard to swallow when coming from someone who is obviously anti-man.

Ok, so I'm being very over the top right now. I don't know Elaine, have never met her (and after this probably shouldn't). She has written about a dozen books, and I am basing my comments on two of them, so that is hardly fair to her.

However, that's what she is doing. This is the first year the awards have been given. Yet she is accusing everyone involved with sexism because only men were nominated. Let's wait a couple of years before we even begin to think of that.

I find it hard to believe that if all the nominees were women, we would be having the same discussion. That's what worries me.

And before anyone says anything, yes, women have had to fight back to get the rights they have today. No, things are not equal. But things never will be. See, LIFE ISN'T FAIR! Making sure women are nominated in equal numbers for all awards is a slap in the face to the man who wrote a great book that can't be considered to get a woman's book nominated.

Of course, the reverse is true. Back to the Agatha's for a moment. I wouldn't want to see one of this year's nominees left off the list in favor of a man's book. Frankly, I have a very hard time finding male "cozy" writers. There is one I regularly read, but his work is not award nomation material. I would hate for people to think they had to include him just for equality.

What I want is for everyone who was nominated for an award to be able to feel like it was an accomplishment. I know 15 men who probably wish they hadn't been nominated right now. And next year? When a woman is nominated (and you know at least one will be after this), she will always have the question in the back of her mind if she really deserved it or if it was only an equal opportunity thing.

So there's my two cents on the matter.

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Thursday Threesome for June 22nd

Brought to you by Tuesday docter's appointment and The Back Porch.

Onesome: Hurry- What kind of driver are you? Always in a hurry, speeding to your destination, or going along with the flow whilst sticking to the speed limit exactly? Or are you somewhere in between? If you don't drive, are you always in a hurry, more laid back or some where in between, personally?
Usually in a hurry, but sometimes driving slowly. I try to stick close to the speed of traffic since no one drives the speed limit here in SoCal.

Twosome: up- What drives you up a wall when you are driving? If you don't drive, just tell us your biggest pet peeve.
People running red lights because they don't want to wait for a signal. We'll sometimes have two or three cars do after the light turns green for someone else. Along similar lines, getting into the shorter lane knowing you'll have to merge, thereby jumping five cars ahead of where you were but slowing everyone else down.

Threesome: and wait- You rushed to get where you needed to go on time, and now you face a wait. Your date's not ready, your table in the restaurant you booked isn't ready, or the doctor is running behind, whatever it is, you were on time, but they aren't. How do you react? Do you complain, sit and wait, all the while silently fuming, or just settle in and wait, accepting it as part of life?
It depends on my mood and what else I have going on. Tuesday, I rushed to a dr. appointment after work, got there early, then waited an hour for him to finally see me, making me 20 minutes late to my friends' house. I would have had plenty of time if the doctor has seen me on time.

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Happy Flag Day!

A couple weeks ago, I noticed a flag kit at Albertson's when I had finished grocery shopping. I kept forgetting to buy it until last night. Once I got home, I realized it was perfect timing since today is Flag Day.

The best part is, the bracket I would need to attach to my balcony was already there from a previous owner. So all I had to do was put the pole together and put the flag out. Putting the pole together took a little work, but I did it.

I'm quite happy. Can you tell?

In health news, I'm doing better every day. I found that sitting at my computer too much last week hurt, so I limited my computer time. It started doing better Sunday night, which was perfect for me to come back to work on Monday. Although I think my chair here at work is different enough it wouldn't have been a problem.

Went to the doctor Monday night. He's happy with how it is progressing. Almost. It is draining a light brownish high smelly gunk that is a little worrysome. At least to me. He says it means my body is draining an infection and should go away. But considering I've been doing it for months, I hope he's right. He does want me showering twice a day to clean the area out. But after the last couple days, I think I really should be showering all three times I change the dressing.

Of course, that makes the skin around the area more tender. It's really getting red, or was as of this morning.

Can this all be over already?

I am feeling stronger again and have no real pain, so that's good. As long as it heals this time relatively quickly I'll be happy. The pool is so calling me.

The only thing I've done other then work or stay at home was Saturday. I probably did too much, but it was fun.

First was the launch party for Laura Levine's new book, The PMS Murder. Even though I'd already bought, read, and reviewed it, I had to go. Lots of fun.

Then there was game night. Debbie, Kristine, Angelique (who was also at the launch party), and I went to see Cars. It was a fabulous movie! Of course, I didn't expect anything less from Pixar. All four of us really enjoyed it. Then we headed over to Hometown Buffet for dinner. I was turned and hurting by the time I came home, but it was completely worth it.

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

I Have Survived

Ok, so I actually made it to the hospital at 6:40. Still plenty early enough.

Went up to pre-op and waited. But they actually took me into surgery at 8:30. I was glad I didn't have several hours to wait like last time.

They actually put me all the under again, which made me plenty happy. Came to in recovery at 10 and they were rolling me into a room before 11.

Pastor Jon came and visited with me for a little while. Then Nick and Jenny came and took me home. All told, I was home by 1 PM. Not bad.

And I did very well yesterday afternoon. Lots of energy. Even walked over to vote. (It's right next door to my complex.)

Today, I was feeling sluggish most of the day. Finally waking up now. :)

Had an appointment with the doctor today and finally got to see the wound for the first time. It's huge! :( He really had to open it up again. I'm looking at several weeks of recovery. I just hope it actually heals this time.

The doctor says there were two problems. First, there was a track that hadn't closed running under an already scarred over area, so he had to cut that all open. And, in the one area that hadn't closed at all, he found a knot of suture that wasn't disolving. Those are the reasons that it hadn't healed before. He's very optimistic that it will heal correctly this time.

I'm supposed to go in again Monday. Hopefully, he'll still be upbeat then.

Monday, June 05, 2006

Quick Update

I really should be getting ready for bed. But I wanted to update really quickly.

My weekend was quiet. Hosted game night. We played Hear Me Out. I won, so it must have been a great night.

Busy day at work trying to get things finished up before I left for my surgery. Got done what I had to get done but not everything I wanted to get done. I would have gotten that done if my boss hadn't had other priorities for me. :)

They called tonight to tell me I am to show up for my surgery at 6:30 AM. In the Morning! Threw me a little since I didn't expect to have to be there that early. But Debbie volunteered to drive me down in the morning even though it was so early. However, she won't need to. I am driving myself down, and Nick and Jenny will pick me up and drive both their car and mine back.

I couldn't do any of this without such wonderful friends. I am so extremely grateful for all of them, including others who I didn't mention who did offer to help. And a co-worker who made me a wonderful looking dinner for tomorrow night.

Sunday, June 04, 2006

Word Association for June 4th

I thought I'd try something different and do one of these on time for a change.

  1. Fraud :: Credit Card
  2. Cure :: Disease
  3. Slate :: Stone
  4. Pretentious :: Fake
  5. Splendid :: Beautiful
  6. Geek :: Computer
  7. Blister :: Hard Work
  8. Pizza :: Yumm!
  9. Revive :: Nap
  10. Visionary :: Wise

Friday, June 02, 2006

Guess Who Gets to Have more Surgery

Yep.

Yesterday was the day I finally got to talk to my doctor again. He's back from vacation and looked at my CT scan. He looked at it, and it looks wonderful. All the problems they operated for in the first place are gone. However, the wound still hasn't completely scarred over. In fact, it hasn't changed a bit in the last month.

I figured he'd be carving into me a little no matter what the test results showed. However, I was surprised that he wanted to do a full OR surgery with it just being a surface issue. But that's what he wants. So we scheduled that for Tuesday of next week, and I took off early yesterday afternoon to go to the pre-op appointment.

Then this morning, he calls to say that he can't do it until the 14th. After I start telling people it's been postponed, he calls back to say there's an earlier opening on the 6th, so I'm having it done that day after all.

Basically, he'll be going in, cleaning out the area around what hasn't healed yet, and seeing if he can figure out why it hasn't closed. He figures there's an infection in there somewhere. It's just a matter of finding it.

This one won't be nearly as bad as the last one. Out patient, no hospital time. Local anestisia (which will make me more nervous since I'll be able to watch them do whatever they are doing). I am planning to be gone all next week, but I hope not to need it.

My boss has been on vacation all week. He's just going to love coming back to this announcement.

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Thursday Threesome for June 1st

Look, I'm doing it early in the day. At least in my time zone.

Brought to us this week by lazy summer days and The Back Porch.

Onesome: Gone-- "Gone with the Wind"? Do you have a new "must see" movie for this Summer?
Absolutely. Actually, I have two. Cars and the second Pirates movie are on my absolute must see lists.

Twosome: Fish-- Do you fish? What, where (and who cleans )?
I have never been fishing in my life. My family doesn't like fish, so we never had a reason.

Threesome: in'-- coming! Do you have any Summer visitors headed your way? ...or are you the one(s) doing the traveling?
My summer is still very much in the air. I don't know what I'm doing when because I still haven't healed yet. I'm tired of my life being on hold like this.