Monday, January 05, 2009

All sorts of random babble, including an award and kiddo funnies

I wait two days to post, again, and look what happens. Amy at The Sleepy Reader endowed me with the Butterfly Award. Then, so did April of Cafe of Dreams.

Thank you, Amy and April! I don't pass on awards because I discovered early on that I feel guilty passing up anyone at all, when awards are doled out. I love all my blogger friends! Yes, I'm a spoil sport.

In other news:

I totally forgot to share how I acquired my copy of Fifteen Minutes of Shame by Lisa Daily -- which I loved but did not review because it wasn't an ARC and I was really into that business about staying away from the computer as much as humanly possible over the holiday break (which, incidentally, has not ended for us because of the inane new transitioning-to-year-round school schedule). It was so easy and fun acquiring a copy. I signed up for the Dishing up Books 24/8 mailing list and let Falise know my top 3 reads from 2008. Check the Blue Plate Specials page for details.

Favorite word verifications of the day, with my fake definitions:

Hermisto - a young, Spanish hermit

Aleatort - a type of civil wrong specifically effecting women with the name Alea

Not great, but that's the best I can come up with. I'm not succeeding at keeping up with my Google Reader/blog-hopping, but I'll keep trying -- sporadically, 'cause of the balance thing.

Kiddo got his wisdom teeth out, yesterday. I got to sit on a nice, plush leather couch while he got his teeth removed. There, I read 30 pages of The Coasts of Canada by Lesley Choyce, in spite of the fact that they were piping in an unspeakably awful FM radio station (pop music that included Amy Grant's most annoying song, "Baby, Baby" and Cher . . . need I say more?). I love music but that particular station drove me bazonkers.

After that nice stretch of reading joy, the dental dictators then moved me to a hard, folding chair to wait for Kiddo to wake up. He awakened briefly and totally pissed off, then he started to lift his head up and down, up and down. I said, "What are you doing?" Kiddo replied, (wait for it, wait for it) . . .

"Thit-upth."

He went back to sleep and they really wanted to get rid of him but wouldn't send him home sleepy, so I had to sit on that miserable chair in the semi-darkness, uncomfortable and without enough light to read. Eventually, I got sick of the piped-in music, peeled back the electric blanket and stomped my feet to wake him up. On the way to the car, he giggled once -- just once! -- "A-heh-heh."

It took two of us to guide him to the car. But, when we got home, I said I'd go put my bags inside and come back for him. Kiddo said, with uncharacteristic venom, "I CAN WALK!" and stomped to the front porch. Off to the futon to sleep, the cat curled up on his legs in drugged-human warmth heaven. I woke him up to ask if he wanted some jell-o and pills or just more sleep, after a time. He held up 3 fingers. I said, "I don't understand 3 fingers. What's that mean?" He held up 3 fingers, again. I asked if that meant "Option 3: Go away and leave me alone??" Nod, nod.

Husband says, "So, he wouldn't be a fun drunk?" I think not.

Eventually, Kiddo rolled over and the cat literally went flying backwards off the futon, all wide-eyed, trying to hang onto the comforter with the claws. It did not work -- the comforter went part way with her, she skidded down the end of the futon and plopped on the floor, then shook herself off and casually got a drink of water because cats, as all people who are owned by them know, refuse to admit that they're embarrassed.

I've now finished my third book of the year, We're In This Boat Together by Camille F. Bishop, Ph.D. I'll try to get the review of that book, as well as my review of I Choose to Be Happy by Missy Jenkins, ASAP. Don't want to fall too far behind because I'm supposed to be working on balance, you know!!

At the moment, I'm getting "internal error" messages from Blogger and unable to update my sidebar to reflect the new books I've added to my current reads, but in addition to the 2 Civil War books (one fiction, one social history) and The Coasts of Canada (which is amazing history, not the slightest bit dry), I'm reading Written in Blood by Sheila Lowe. I haven't recently sat down with Alpine Americas by Olaf Soot, but I've read and immersed myself in the mountainy beauty of about the first 50 pages and can tell you it's simply breathtaking and written from a slightly different perpective than I expected. I hope to finish that and review it, later this week.

I was also planning to upload a photo of my cat eating her veggies (monkey grass, outside) but Blogger hates me and gave me yet another "internal error" message, so pardon the lack of lovely illustrations. At least you've got that nice butterfly to enjoy. Back soon with reviews!

28 comments:

  1. Anonymous3:56 PM

    Congratulations on the awards. I don't pass them on either, because it would be so easy to overlook someone.

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  2. Kathy,

    Exactly. I don't want to hurt any feelings. This year, I'm going to try to keep up with at least thanking people for awards, though!

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  3. Anonymous5:21 PM

    Poor kiddo! Hope he feels better soon! Love the cat-falling-off-the-futon part!

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  4. Anonymous5:50 PM

    Thanks for the mention in your post today. 24/8 Book Club is a virtual book club but with no cooking, cleaning or advanced reading. Come in your jammies when you have the time, there is always a open seat waiting for you and never a wait.

    We always talk about the magic found inside of the pages of a book and the Bookfool is another place to remind of that.

    Happy New Book Year to everyone,

    Falise

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  5. Lynne,

    He just finally woke up (has been sleeping since 9am), showered and immediately left for youth, so I guess he's doing okay! Thanks! The cat was hilarious. I wish I'd had a video camera to catch Flying Kitty in the air.

    Hi Falise!

    Thank you for clarifying. I wasn't quite sure if 24/8 was a newsletter or a place to drop in, now and then. Now I know to drop by in my jammies and so do my readers. :)

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  6. Oh Nancy
    I remember getting all four of my wisdom teeth cut out Thanksgiving week my freshman year of college. It was rough. I do not like pain meds and I did not take more than one and then refused anything but advil after that. I was dizzy and I thought I was going to throw up. My three year old cousin Mollie did not want to sit next to me in the car because she thought what I had was contagious. lol :)

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  7. Brittanie,

    Sounds like you had a rotten time! Will has done pretty well. He was hurting and he doesn't like taking medication, either, but he's been in pain so he went ahead and took his painkillers -- just twice, I think. He's pretty much slept for the last two days. When he's up, he's perky till his jaw starts hurting, again. I think he'll be back to normal by tomorrow -- hope so.

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  8. Lesley Choyce is a wonderful author! I haven't read the one that you are reading, but I have read all of his novels. My favourite is The Republic of Nothing. Great book! I really need to reread it one of these days...

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  9. Kailana,

    I got The Coasts of Canada from Mini Book Expo for Bloggers, so I'm assuming it's a fairly new release. I didn't know he's written novels, too! Oh, boy! I'll have to look them up. I know I've got plenty for the Canadian, but his writing is so good that I'll definitely want to try his fiction. Thanks for telling me!!

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  10. First off, congrats on breaking 100K visitors!!

    Secondly, I had my wisdom teeth out three years ago (during the 13 days I was home between living in St. Petersburg, Russia and Krasnodar, Russia...the dentists scared me with the idea of Russian surgery, lol). And when I woke up, my mom told me the nurses (or whatever dentists' assistants are called) had gone for a wheelchair to get me to the car. I was very belligerent about attempting to prove "I can walk," just like your son. :) Needless to say, I ended up using the wheelchair, lol.

    I hope your son doesn't have too much pain-I didn't have to take anything stronger than advil (but I only had them on one side of my mouth and they weren' impacted). I'm totally rambling...the point is your story's hilarious. :D

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  11. Congrats on the award!

    Sometimes Blogger drives me batty. My profile has been broken for ages, and I was told it wouldn't be fixed unless a lot of other people complained about the same problem.

    --Anna
    Diary of an Eccentric

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  12. Congrats on the award. You're right about them. I just did some and I do feel bad because I'd like to list all the blogs I read daily. Hmmmmm, there has to be some way around it all.

    How's the kiddo this morning? Ah, I just read above that he's doing well-that's good. I had mine out when I was 21 and I did good too.

    Love the story about the cat-that has me laughing this morning.

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  13. Eva,

    Thank you for the congrats! And, for visiting me regularly. :)

    That is so funny about you trying to walk on your own. My kiddo had plenty of time to snore before I decided I was tired of the hard chair and the yucky music and started to peel back those warm covers. He says he could walk fine, but he didn't think the nurse would let him.

    He had all 4 removed and 2 were impacted, so he's been in pain, although he pretty much decided to stop taking painkillers after the first day, simply because he doesn't like them. I feel for him, though. He was definitely hurting -- and now his sleep schedule is totally whacked up.

    Anna,

    Thank you!

    Your profile is broken? That's one I hadn't heard of. I hope a lot of other people complain, for your sake!

    Dar,

    Thank you!

    It's really nice knowing I'm not the only one who feels uncomfortable about those awards. I've noticed at least 3 other people who don't pass them on. All of us just acknowledge and thank the giver but don't tag anyone. The longer you blog, the more you realize they go all the way around the blog world, anyway.

    Kiddo's asleep, again!! He is so totally off-schedule, now, that it's going to be hard to get him used to being awake during the daylight hours in time for school, next week. I may have to get a cattle prod and keep zapping him awake. Kidding, but seriously . . . it will be interesting. He has stayed up all night for 2 nights, now, and is sleeping all day. Yikes!

    I'm glad you enjoyed the cat story. The cat still pretends it didn't happen.

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  14. LOL, I think I acted just the same when I got my wisdom teeth out. It was the first time I'd ever been deadened and was totally flipped out by the fact that my eyes were numb. Weeeird!

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  15. Andi,

    That is too weird! I think numb eyes would flip me out, too. I've never had that problem.

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  16. I have so much more sympathy for my high school students who get their wisdom teeth out since having my 3 impacted ones plus the rogue one which decided to break through (when I was 40!) removed a year ago.
    Make sure he rinses out the holes!

    Congrats on the visitor numbers, and enjoy your Canada book.

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  17. Hope the kiddo is feeling well soon. Amy did the same thing when she had her wisdom teeth out, insisting she could walk. The problem was she tried to open the door and start walking before I'd even parked in our driveway!! Scared me to death that she was going to fall out on the street.

    I'm with you on the awards. They're flattering, but I've stopped passing them on, too. I hate to hurt someone's feelings.

    Oh, make sure Will watches out for dry socket. I didn't clean my "sockets" well enough and they got terribly infected. I almost wound up addicted to Vicadin! Good stuff when you're in pain, but not something one should take too much of.

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  18. Raidergirl,

    He rinsed while he was up, took his pills and went right back to bed. Poor thing. He's having a lot of trouble with swelling and still looks like a bit of a chipmunk. I feel for him.

    Thank you! The Canadian book is soooo good. I need to get my bed made so I can read. Today was wash-the-bedding day and it has taken forever for things to dry out.

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  19. Les,

    He's still sleeping a lot and fighting swelling. He's been very, very good about rinsing and taking his antibiotics, though -- better than the other two guys combined. I feel for him; he looks like a little chipmunk. No, make that a big chipmunk. LOL

    That's so scary about Amy! I think some people get upset about being coddled and can do stupid things while they're on medication.

    Yowee on the dry socket thing. I hope that doesn't happen. Daniel got some food down in one of his holes and had to have it reopened to drain the infection. Uck. He used every single one of his painkillers. Will said he's just taking them to try to get the swelling down, at this point.

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  20. Oh no, poor kid. I was hoping he was doing ok. He had all four teeth out right, I had the bottom two that were wrapped around nerves. I was lucky. I had very little swelling-no bruising. Is he all bruised up too? I feel so bad for him. There is not much worse than tooth pain. Lots of happy healing thoughts being sent his way.

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  21. Shoot, I'm under my practice blog playing around. That was me-Dar from Peeking Between the Pages. Sorry, I should pay attention to what blog I'm in.

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  22. Dar,

    Thanks, now you can never sneak in incognito. LOL No, he doesn't look bruised -- just really, really puffy. Thanks for the healing thoughts. I think he needs them. I kept ice on his cheeks while he slept that first day and then, typical male, he turned down the ice pack after he got up. Maybe that was a mistake. It's hitting him pretty hard, so I guess the fact that he's sleeping a lot is good. Yes, he got all 4 out and 2 were impacted.

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  23. I don't know if anyone else has mentioned it but I found frozen veggies-like peas or corn worked better than an ice pack.

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  24. Dar,

    Nobody's mentioned it, but we actually have soft packs because the kiddo is a swimmer and has had to have something that wraps around his bad shoulder. They work well; he just needs to use them! Thanks for mentioning that, though!

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  25. I hope kiddo is feeling better soon. I remember getting my wisdom teeth out, and it wasn't very pretty either.

    I think my favorite part of this post was this: "because cats, as all people who are owned by them know, refuse to admit that they're embarrassed." At first I thought maybe it was a slip that you called cats owners of us, but on second thought, I realized your right--whether you intentionally put it that way or not. :)

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  26. Trish,

    Of the four of us, the kiddo had the worst time with his wisdom teeth. He's doing okay and sometimes he can be quite perky, but he's just not himself, yet. I feel for him.

    That bit about cats was deliberate. You don't own a cat; you are owned by them. They do their best to let you know when the word "STUPID" is flashing in red on your forehead, but two-leggeds are awfully slow.

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  27. Congrats on the award!

    Poor kid, I remember getting my wisdom teeth out. To this day I can't eat anything with the taste of cloves because they used something with cloves to impact where my teeth were.

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  28. Teddy Rose,

    Thank you!

    That is so weird about the cloves. I think a lot of people remember their experience with wisdom teeth as a bad, bad experience.

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