Apropos of Nothing v.10

I'll bet Phoenix will be up to her normal mischief by the end of the day. A nice nap in the sun with mom close is JUST the thing.

Pony, how are you feeling today?

BH, I find it crazy that another female has a "natural" tattoo! I have one on the top of my middle finger on my left hand from a birthday camping trip in 1991 when I was stacking firewood under the motorhome and sliced my finger on the tip of the exhaust. Cleaned as good as humanly possible, but still have a black spot on the top of my finger.

I don't think that it is as much an age thing as what you are able to wrap your mind comfortably around. With the massive changes in technology in the last couple of decades, there are some things that I think are just fantastic, and some things (artifical intelligence) that kind of creep me out. I don't think that I would be able to abide having a microchip put in me (although DH would probably be an advocate for the same reason that I had one put into Phoenix!), but I do have a tattoo and that never gave me a second though past the "what am I willing to live with forever" part.

Weird how the mind works....

DITTO to 'weird how the mind works' ^_^

I just want to curl up next to her in that sunbeam. Very windy, rainy and raw today. Tonight supposed to be below 30. AACCCKKKK!!!

Oh, Jan, noooooooo. If it's any consolation, we're having rain, rain and more rain for the foreseeable future . . .

I'd rather have a chip than a tattoo - I guess because you can't see it and because chips aren't liquid . . . huh. I know they make chips now that you can program to open your car or house door. How cool would that be - never having to remember your keys again?

My word - so much to catch up on!!!!

Phoenix, take care, watch a little tv, have a read and fall asleep. Drink a few nice hot drinks, ooops no that for humans, okay - some nice water, and have another sleep. You will feel much better by morning. Poor little puppy.

Koka looks lovely in the snow, and what a treat a whole extended family to shush through the snow with. Excellent dog holiday.

And I can't even remember the rest: hope Pony is feeling better, hope the hummingbirds are still humming, sweetpea, and......... too much, I'm going for a hot bath, and thank you Summerkid, I don't know what I did/said to be considered a perfect candidate as a next door neighbour, but I will accept the compliment gladly - but alas, england has my heart.

TTFN, another good gardening day is done.

I never lock anything, therefore never have to think about keys. In fact, the only key I own, that I can think of anyway, sits in the truck ignition. Very easy to find.

Pix, I have no qualms about traveling to Long Beach with someone I don't know that well. I know him well enough & he's old-school. Our first "date" this weekend has to wait till he gets out of church in Portland. 99% of the men on this planet are fine people, and I like them. The only risk, really, is being bored to tears, like the time I was in Pennsylvania & didn't want to make the 2-day drive back to Chicago by myself so on a lark emailed this guy I'd talked to via Match.com & asked him to fly out & drive with me. Amazingly, he did, & met me in Pittsburgh, which boded well for his sense of adventure, except that he brought his pen collection & kept asking me, "What are you thinking," which made me want to run him over, but in the end he did do most of the driving.

My worry about the clams is that, once I've caught one & dragged it out of its innocent little home & then killed it, I'll no longer be able to eat them, and I eat precious little as it is.

Does anybody know when morel season starts?

Has anyone here read "Woodswoman" by Anne LaBastille?

Bonehead, I think your concerns about chipping would fly out the window the first time you find a tired old husky in your yard, leaving bloody tracks in the snow & Animal Control finds that magic chip & you hear the tears of relief on the other end of the phone from a family that has been frantically searching for their beloved pet, miles away on the other side of town.

SK, innocent little home? Have you ever seen a geoduck?

Susy, not in real life! Just on "Iron Chef America."

Picture an intimate picture of a horse's anatomy.

How big of a shell?

hee hee -- they ARE funny looking.

Back from da doctor. I got my new thyroid meds, picked up my liquid D3 suppliment, and I have to have another MRI for my back. We were looking at the images from my last MRI, and he still doesn't think an epidural would do me much good because the pain isn't coming from the spinal column nerve bundle, it's from the damaged vertebra. He wants a new scan to see how much the degeneration has progressed- he says I may actually be a candidate for fusion if it's gotten significantly worse. Eek. o.0 I hope not- I really don't want to go there.

I picked up a kite at REI today. I ordered it on the website and had it sent to the store. It's a bright green parafoil with a 20-foot tail. I can't wait until I feel better so I can go fly a kite! :)

Deb! The honeysuckle came today- awesome packaging job! I've got them in water now. Thank you! :D

So the sore back is no longer a sore subject?
If fusion would improve the situation, then it's something to consider. If not, then not.

Oh, I just get pissy when people make suggestions. I'm snotty like that. ;p

Yeah, I know. Was being snarky myself.

So you must feel kinda good, having some concrete things to focus on? I think that's good. Do you notice any improvement with the weather? I'm curious, being new to this climate.

Sunny days do make me perk up a little, but not enough to make me feel like I have more energy... it just kind of lifts my mood, ya know? I love sunshine.

It is good to have something to focus on healthwise. I have mixed feelings about the upcoming MRI- part of me hopes that the surgeons will look at it and say "Time for fusion!" and another part of me hopes they won't. Having lumbar spinal fusion is heavy stuff, and I'm a big chicken. byock byock. But if they recommend it, I'll do it.

A SIL of mine and a stepson recently had their necks fused. Neither one had any problems and they feel much better. Stepson is now waiting to have his lower back fused also. He was a marine in Vietnam and was injured.

I would assume that any fusing leads to some decrease in range of motion?

Yeah, Summer- but not a lot. Trouble is, when you have fusion, the vertebra around the fused ones take more strain and can become damaged over time as a result.

And I suppose that, even though there are strong muscle bands around the spine, you can't work them without aggravating the newly vulnerable spots?

I can't say for sure. I would imagine PT would be a part of recovery from fusion for that exact reason, but all I can tell you with any certainty is that studies show that the cessation of mobility in one place in the spine increases the stress and motion on other places and can cause damage down the road. That's why they reserve the surgery as pretty much a last resort. They're much more willing to do it for elderly patients than younger, more active ones.

OK this is APro of Nothing. MICHIGAN STATE IS IN THE FINAL 4!!!!!!!!! What a game and I am soooo excited. There I feel better. Now back to gardening or whatever. I am going through all of my beds this week and sucking everything but top soil and laying down manure and compost and blowing back the mulch all ready for the summer.

GO SPARTANS!!! I was glued to that game, which probably seemed rude to the guy who drove all the way from Portland to spend the afternoon with me as a first date -- he brought firewood, flowers, wine & huckleberry jam, and I made him sit quietly at the kitchen counter for 20 minutes while I watched the rest of the game. He was probably praying that it didn't go into overtime or I'd banish him to his car for the duration.

I was driving home from working in Bellevue WA and had the game on my cell phone. Well it died as I entered the mountains in Idaho and after being totally confused on the radio play by play stopped in Wallace and ran into a small bar where I had to have them turn on the game so I could watch. After all of my screaming in the back of the bar everyone came over and joined in. We were all screaming and hooping at the end. I left thanking them for the beer and good luck Wallace gave the Spartans. I now have 15 more MSU fans in Wallace.

Isn't that great! That's what March Madness is all about! I go into deep depression every April. OK, back to the Baylor game, which I taped so I could actually be civil to my poor date ...

You are a sensitive person Summer. I hope your date went well.

Thanks, Sofer! It went OK, but note to any men out there listening: DO NOT IGNORE a woman's dog. If you pretend that the dog does not exist while your date is showing how the dog's paw appears to be bruised, even if you're just waiting till the attention can be turned back to you, that will bother her because she is worried about the dog's sudden limp.

I REPEAT: The only thing to do on a first date is to love all over her dog. Or pretend to.

Ruh row..... first date ignored dog! Bad sign.
Sofer, that sounds like quite a drive! I'm glad you are entertained so well in the car, and I'm thinking it was a good idea to go for a pit stop to watch the rest of the game.
Ah, Baylor. My family alma mater. I got my letter of acceptance from them upon my birth. But I would never have fit in there, so I didn't go. I'm not sure my parents ever really got over that. Come to think of it, neither of my sisters went there either. Maybe by the third child they had given up hope for good. I have a fond memory of visiting the campus as a very young child, watching the Baylor Bears. The real ones. Not on any court.

A letter of acceptance upon birth! My gosh, Pix, you sound like landed gentry! American royalty!
I dearly wanted to go to Stanford but after my mom kicked me out of the house my junior year, I had to quit high school. Fortunately, I'd already taken the SAT & the University of Montana offered me a full ride the next fall. I would have flunked out of Stanford anyway so that all worked out OK.

You're right. Even if I want to give Mark the benefit of the doubt & he was clearly besotted & nervous & maybe distracted, I'd never be happy with someone who didn't want to kiss all my animals & know their names. OK, he's history. He DID hire me to fix/run his Web site & Amazon sales at a pretty good stipend+percentage, so that's a decent outcome for my afternoon's investment.

Definitely! Plus, it's always best not to date the boss, anyway. Makes for hard feelings later.
Gee whiz! I'll have to forward your comments about landed gentry to my mom! Oh, she will be smitten with you, having always wanted to be a member of royalty and never even qualified to be a member of the D.A.R. Not only did I NOT go to Baylor, I didn't show the least bit of interest in joining Eastern Star or Rainbow Girls. I fear I was a dreadful disappointment on that front. I think that is one reason why I snubbed my nose at Baylor, which is a great school, of course. There was something about making my own way, going to a school I chose for me, not because my parents went there. To get accepted somewhere just because my parents went there felt a little like getting a job just because I'm a woman. Not acceptable on some deep level. I don't think I would have flunked out, but they probably would have ended up kicking me out. Much better to keep my parent's good name intact. LOL!
Come to think of it, my daughter could have gone to University of Montana for practically nothing. I can't remember why she didn't. May have had something to do with being so far from home. I had completely forgotten about that until you mentioned your experience. They were 'courting' her because of her SAT scores.

I haven't clue what is going on, will go back and read up on the thread later, but I am done with report cards for another 3 months. Yeah!! I'm sure that is not nearly as exciting as anybody else's life just now, but oh well. I never get to watch basketball, because I am always in a report card marathon at the end of March.

Next time, just give everyone A's. You'll be a hero.

Oh - gawd - report cards! I used to spend the entire day sick to my stomach on report card day - I was always sure it would be catastrophe! It didn't matter what I would get, all I could see was "could have done better" - and my teachers, on the whole, were nice sensitive teachers. arrrrrrgggggggggghhhhhhhhhh - and its never gone away! Even my pedometer comes up with "could have done better" - 19.7 kilometers, you should have done 20! There has to be a better way. AND that's after years of therapy - which I should have done better......

Yeah, you're a mess, Laurie. Thank goodness you don't live anywhere near me. I don't have a pedometer, but I'll bet I do 25-30 kilometers, easy. Uphill even, sometimes.

LOL Well, Laurie, you have certainly done the bestest in your gardens. No 'could have done better' report card from us.

MHF, I know just what you mean. DH just went through that. He is exhausted this year from teaching. He gets to school at 6:30 and usually doesn't get home til after 5, has a couple hours to fit in a run, dinner, and sometimes a meeting, then 3 hrs. at his desk doing schoolwork. The second AP calculus course is doing him in or maybe it's the 3 chemistry classes, then again it could be the physics class. He is looking forward to Spring break next week.

Pixy, I remember seeing my mom all dressed up to go to Eastern Star. I never showed any interest at all in Rainbow Girls either. After we moved to NJ mom didn't get involved there, but kept in touch with her PA ladies.
AAAHHH those legacy babies. Glad you went your own way.

Summer, I can just see your afternoon in my head and am chuckling.

Sofer, so glad you made your pit stop. How exciting to have some new hoop buddies! Sad to say I didn't watch one game. When the hosue was full of growing boys it would always be on.

OK I'm stupid. What and where is Baylor U? I have heard of it but never knew its location. And what is Eastern Star, Rainbow Girls? You are talking Greek to me.

Oh, sofer, thank you I didn't like to ask - assumed I was supposed to know - too close to a 'could have done better' situation. Thank you Jan, much appreciated. And thank you too, SK, who needs a pedometer when I have you!

All I know is that St.Mary's(alumni) lost to Baylor on Friday. If a friend had not told me they were in the play offs I would have never known. Really don't care. Not a sports nut..can you tell?