nekosensei

This weekend has been just a whirl of activity. On Friday night, doomsey and I went to James and Carrie's wedding. I'm sure doomsey had a good time talking with friends, but I had a blast. There may have been a bit too much alcohol consumed and a lot of dancing.

( More on the wedding and on Pagan Pride )

As soon as we got home, I got a call from my parents. My sister was in the hospital because she was having chest pains and tingling in her left arm. By the time the news got to me, they had managed to rule out both a heart attack and a blood clot. They kept her overnight for observation and to run more tests. This morning, I called my parents back to see if there had been any more developments and found out that she had been released from the hospital. The doctors believe that she had an anxiety attack of sorts (and she has been under a lot of stress lately). The doctors did order an echocardiogram, but I guess she's not going to get the results from that until tomorrow. I hope she follows up with her doctor and/or a cardiologist to make sure that it's just anxiety and not anything more worrying.

My sister apparently told my parents that she felt "foolish" over going to the hospital and finding out it was nothing, but honestly, it's better to get things checked out and have it turn out to be nothing than to have something wrong and not get it treated. When I woke up after having my embolism, I tried to tell doomsey not to call the hospital and that we should wait a bit to see if the problem clears up. Yeah, I would have been in deep doo-doo if I had done that because I had another episode of sorts while I was in the ambulance and almost blacked out again. I think the only reasons I didn't faint again is because I was on oxygen and the paramedic told me how to breathe to avoid passing out. So...I plan to call up my sister plan to call up my sister later this afternoon and reassure her that she did do the right thing considering the fact that she has two little ones to look after.

To end things on a less pessimistic note...LINK DUMP!!!

-Hurr durr -- Dumbing down of American education anyone?

-If Historical Events had Facebook Statuses (Swiped from cedarseed)

-This? Yeah...not a good idea.

* Yesterday afternoon, doomsey and I went to see the play, "The Sins of Sor Juana," at the Goodman Theater. My in-laws really liked the play and told me that I was going to enjoy it, but neither doomsey nor I were very impressed. I think part of the problem is that I'm familiar with her history and her writings and I didn't feel as if the play really did her any justice.

* After the play, doomsey and I went down to 79th Street to get dinner at Yassa, a Sengalese restaurant. I ordered what I always get when I go there: Maffe. Yes...it is that good that I only order that and nothing else when I go there. *drools at the thought of eating her leftovers Wednesday night*

* My crappy neck muscles have been triggering more headaches / migraines. I had another one last night and wasn't able to go out on my walk.

* This evening I went for my usual walk and saw what I thought were three squirrels climbing a tree. The thing is, they were a little bit too big to be squirrels. I turned on my little flashlight-- great for avoiding skunks and getting hit by cars in general-- and saw three young raccoons blinking down at me. So cute! Too bad I didn't have a decent camera.

* Speaking of walks, I'm down between 15 and 20 pounds thanks to all the exercise I've been getting. Whee!

Reposting this here because Twitpic is being flaky:

Cosette likes to sit with her paws crossed, just like a little lady...

( Cut for image )

Link:
Here's an article on how the Cajuns living near the Gulf have been affected by the oil spill. Very sad. (Link via rm)

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

I wish life weren't so crazy busy that I can sit down and read my LJ. Unfortunately, I've only been able to read things here and there when I get a chance. If there's anything going on with you that you'd like to share, drop me a note in the comments.

( What I've been up to )

Hmmm...this got kind of long. Maybe I'll write about what went on this week in another post.

Since I can't decide what I'm doing today, I'm going to let my friends list decide for me.

Should I go to a party, get skunked, and maybe play Rock Band (note: me getting skunked may or may not end with me crying in a corner somewhere) or should I have dinner with my sister-in-law?

[Poll #1555262]

* Wow did I have a bad dream last night. A group of tea-baggers were holding a demonstration so liberals in support of health care reform decided to hold a counter-demonstration. What the liberals did not know was that some of the tea baggers came armed. A couple of nut jobs pulled out their guns and started shooting at the liberals. Before you knew it, everybody was shooting, and the end result was a blood bath with the liberals getting the worst of it because so few of them were armed. This eventually touched off a coup d'état with a far right wing group taking over the government by force. Once they had control of the country, the first thing they did was repeal the health care reform bill. At that point, I told doomsey to pick a country; we were leaving.

* It's been a gorgeous day today. It went up to 81 degrees! In April! doomsey and I celebrated it by going to the zoo, which was very crowded as a lot of other people had the same idea. It was so packed that we had a hard time even finding a parking spot! I've never seen it that bad! And not enough employees were out directing traffic either. One person told us they were talking about opening up other lots by the children's zoo, but they weren't very helpful about where exactly those lots were. She told us to head closer to the zoo itself, which we did. By sheer chance, we ran into someone else who helped fanagle us a spot on a small patch of grass. She told us that they had so many visitors today that they "had to get creative." Wild! doomsey and I went to Tropic World-- the exhibit where they keep the monkeys-- first and it was packed. Afterwards, I steered us to more of the exhibits that were outside where we would have more room.

* I took a lot of pictures today. I'm going to have to post some once I get a chance to go through them.

* My zoo membership is expiring at the end of this month, and I'm planning on renewing it when it does. I spent about fifteen dollars extra in order to get the version that lets me take a guest with; usually, I drag doomsey with me. This year, we've used it enough that we've more than recouped the money we spent on it.

* ( Cut for disgusting )

* Another amusing April Fool's joke from Think Geek. And hey! Here's a second product I want to see made: the LOST alarm clock. God I love Think Geek! (Via hellziggy)

* If You Voted for Obama, Seek Urologic Care Elsewhere’ -- There are no words. I've gotten into political debates with my doctor before-- she's close friends with my husband's family-- and I know that we don't see eye to eye on politics. I'm a liberal Democrat while she is more of a Libertarian, and she *definitely* doesn't support the health care reform bill. On the other hand, she's a smart lady and an incredible doctor so I continue to see her. I could never in a million years see her pulling something like this though. (Via doomsey)

* And we're off again. doomsey and I are going to Rock Band Night at a friend's house tonight. We're leaving a little bit late because we're going to get dinner on the way there. I think they normally serve pizza at this shindig, but doomsey can't eat it because it's Passover. We're probably going to get Mexican instead.

* Made fudge today for the dinner we're hosting on Sunday. It turned out phenomenally well. Nice and creamy! I think I'm going to go over here *ahem* and perform some more quality control *cough cough* experiments on it. Hey dooms! Be prepared to defend the fudge on Sunday!

* Aside from making fudge, I did laundry and gave both the kitchen and the living room a thorough cleaning. My ankle is killing me. Anybody who tells me to do the cat litter "because they keep dropping things" or anything else that I haven't already planned on doing-- aka finish the laundry-- is going to get shot at dawn.

* Also had the plumber out to do his yearly inspection thingy. (It was part of the package we got when we hired this particular company to do the sewer lining last spring. We're canceling it after this spring because we don't want to pay the extra $60 a year). He fixed some leaks under the kitchen sink and one of the bathroom sinks. He also pointed out that the fill-valve on our upstairs toilet was wonky and our fifteen year old water heater is on its last legs. We already knew both of those things actually. doomsey has been able to fix the fill-valve by himself. He might eventually replace the part, but he doesn't want to do it right now. The water heater is not broken in any way that's going to make it explode. When it does break, we plan on having our home warranty replace it.

* Texan accused of disabling 100 cars over Internet -- Yeah...I make you a bet he thinks his little prank is not so funny anymore... (Link swiped from ginmar)

* Steve Jobs Cheese Head (Swiped from doomsey)

* Kindle for Mac -- I'm going to have to give this a try.

* Last night, doomsey, I, and select friends and family went to see "The Long Red Road," directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman, at the Goodman Theater. Long story short, the play was about a family with very serious issues. doomsey thought it was over-bearing, but I loved it. On our way home, he asked me if people were really that crazy. My answer? Yes. After the play, we went out to dinner at Reza's, a Persian restaurant. The food was lovely, but once again, I ended up sick to my stomach during dinner. Maybe I shouldn't have tried drinking that mojito. I ended up drinking about a quarter of it and giving the rest to judygs and emygination.

* Oh yeah...when we got out of the car at the restaurant, we saw a couple that looked like they were going at it near the door. Really people? Get a room 'cause we really don't want to see that. There was a party in one of the rooms, and we figured that they were attending said party.

* How to Hang 10 Shirts in 10 Seconds -- I'm going to have to try that some time. (Link swiped from popfiend) [I tried it while doing laundry this afternoon. It works!]

* How to make a Starbuck's Fakeuccino -- I used to love drinking Starbuck's Frappuccino's until I stopped being able to handle caffeine. I'm half tempted to try this using decaf coffee. (Link also swiped from popfiend)

* Paper Rater -- I wonder if this works. I'm going to have to try this sometime.

* I went to google to look up what snowdrops were and where they bloomed, and found a lovely knitting pattern for a snowdrop shawl by chance. God, I love the internet...

* This picture of a tiger amuses me greatly. He looks like he's going to go batshit in 3...2...1...

* And while we're on the topic of photography, I'm really itching to get back to the zoo to take more pictures. Maybe later this month.

* He Who Casts the First Stone -- An organization that calls themselves Repent Amarillo targets a swingers club. And the town of Amarillo does almost nothing about it. Pretty damn frightening. (Link swiped from ginmar)

* Watching last night's opening ceremony for the Olympics online. Okay...let me get this right. Lichtenstein has an Olympic team but Luxembourg doesn't? And why do I care in the first place? Because some of my ancestors hailed from Luxembourg.

* Okay, some of the special effects they used in the ceremony are amazing. I particularly enjoyed the part with the whales swimming across the stadium floor.

* And they have Loreena Mckennitt singing "Old Ways" for the Montreal portion of the ceremony. WIN!!! I LOVE that song.

* Also love the fiddlers and tap dancers. They're also saying that the creative director for this was messed up on a strong drink called Screetch when he saw fiddlers tap dancing in Newfoundland. During that time, he came up with this segment. I have to approve. And yes, you really can come up with some good creative insight when you're drunk off your ass / stoned off your gourd. The music and dance steps remind me a lot of Irish dance. (Can you say River Dance?) I wonder if you had a lot of Irish/Scottish settlers move into that particular area....

* Hey look! It's the Flying...er...Canadian!

* Hah hah hah! Cauldron fail!

* I'm so glad Chicago didn't win the Olympics in 2016. You thought Illinois was in debt now...

* The Slytherin scarf I'm started several months ago is coming along now that I'm finished crocheting that blanket. After this, I think I'm going to make a matching hat, and then a Ravenclaw hat for doomsey. Once I'm finished with all those things, I think either I'm going to try my hand at making a shawl or another project that requires intarsia. Either of those projects should be suitably challenging.

* Speaking of knitting and crochet, I really should take a picture of that afghan...

* I am now on the "Ow! My Tooth Hurts" diet. I wonder what I should have for a late lunch. Shoop? (And only a handful of you will get that reference)

* Enh...going to have noodles instead.

* Sarah Palin Bingo! (Swiped from tx_cronopio

* Making chocolate bread pudding. So good. Must. Not. Eat. All. The. Batter.

* Chocolate bread pudding is done. I think I'm going to heat it up a bit before I leave for the party tomorrow. It tastes better when warm.

* And of course, the wireless had to start acting up when I'm trying to get work done.

* Grrrr...Internet is being flaky. Have to get my fucking work done, godammit!

* Ich habe Hausaufgabe in mein Deutschkurs. Ich studiere Worschatz.

* Thought I had more to post today, but apparently I didn't. Too busy getting work done and studying German.

* Groceries and some much needed odds and ends purchased. Also bought the fixings for bread pudding and fudge for a Superbowl party at a friend's house.

* I love it when people on my friends list are creative. That shouldn't be much of a surprise that I have a lot of artists friended on here. Oh...and let's not forget the two photography communities. Which reminds me that I should start taking the camera out again...

* Oh hey! The email is back up. Slowly getting my email from the past two days or so.

* Still haven't caught up on sleep apparently. Took my three mile walk, came home, put away laundry, and then passed out. Didn't even hear doomsey come home from work.

* Swiped from hakeber. Many Haitians want US to take over. So sad. Unfortunately, there's no way that's going to happen. With the economy the way it is, the US government has enough problems providing for its own people. There's just no way they can take on a devastated territory and rebuild it.

* Awwww...how cute. Unfortunately, cuteoverload and the Daily Mail got their story wrong. The impala wasn't spared; it was eventually killed and eaten. Hmm...me thinks not so cute after all.

* Icons! Since we're on the topic of computer woes, I'm looking for a new computer trouble icon. Is there anyway someone out there can make this into an animated icon? I saw something similar floating around LJ many moons ago. I'm also in the market for a sleep themed icon. Bonus points if it's from one of my favorite tv shows: Buffy, Angel, Doctor Who, Dollhouse, Torchwood, Firefly, Star Trek, Heroes, Supernatural, or True Blood.