Because some of us are awake already, a Place Holder MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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For Shortdrum and anyone else really interested.

Had a good day at the clean-out house yesterday. I got 5 full Vue loads (including front passenger seat) of good things to a church for their rummage sale. Brand new pots and pans, dishes, clothes and lots of little decorative things. I also found some gold jewelry (fine gold) for the estate to off-set bills. 40 bags of true rubbish are now gone (picked up this AM) and a full ton pick-up load of recyclable metal went out. Including a pot-bellied stove someone had tossed water on at one point; the whole back had a crack in it you could get your fingers through. Me and the guy who moved it figure it went ap 400# alone.

Got into the Time Capsule Bedroom. I hope to get pictures before going too far in there. Its amazing. Being in the basement the humidity has combined with the dust and everything is basically plaster coated. There are several phonographs of vintage 1920 to say 1950. Several typewriters of the same date span. One looks (still can’t quite get to it) could be a pre-qwerty model. Clothes still in the drawers and in the wardrobes. Some of the suits could have some use to a costume house or one of the local college theater groups. Am going to investigate. The $.57 in change on his nightstand when he died is still there.

R&R for me until next week. Now that I have a small empty space to work from I hope to be able to pick up the pace a little.

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You got rid of that much stuff and you still only have a small space to work from?
This is fascinating. Do you do this regularly or is this for a friend? Do you think you’ve found enough yet to help the family with the money issue?

123

Afternoon all!

Being bored due to out-of-work brokeness, I’ve been trying to find interestin’ stuff to do- and one of my ideas was to try and organise a seed swap.

I dunno what the rules are in other countries, but here there’s a list of seed varieties it’s legal to sell- which someone has to pay to put them on, as well as meet purity and other requirements. Anythin’ not on the list, you can own, and grow, (unless it’s restricted, obviously) but you can’t buy or sell- not even on ebay or car boot sales and the like. There is, however, no restriction whatsoever on giving them away- or swapping ‘em, so seed swaps can be a really nice way of getting local an’ interestin’ varieties, and are pretty much the only way of getting 'em.

So, I called a local hippy shop with a decent size cafe which sometimes does free evening community events to see if they’d be up for hosting it some evening next february.
The lady I spoke to not only sounded really keen on the idea, (though she will have to check with the manager before it’s a definite go), she actually suggested that, as it’s a small venue, it might get a too bit busy, so why don’t I run it every weekend for a month! :eek:

I might have a lot of free time at the moment, but I didn’t plan to sign up for that! Apart from anything else, I’m helping run a circus convention on one of those saturdays! Anyone feel like giving me a hand!? :smiley:

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Whew - that was not fun. The hose from the mulcher/vac got clogged. I did everything I could think of to clear it, then tried to detach the end at the impeller. It would not come free. I’m not all that strong, and it hasn’t been apart since we bought it 4 or 5 years ago. And when I tried to restart it, hoping to shake stuff loose, it wouldn’t start. I’m good on gas and oil - I suspect something is jammed in the impeller, and until we can get the hose off, it’ll remain jammed/clogged. grrrrrrr So I parked it back behind the shed and ran the mower over the leaves in the back yard, chopping them up. Not ideal, but better than piles of leaves in the yard.

I also cleaned the garage, sorta. I threw a lot of stuff out, organized the aquarium stuff, set aside several boxes for **FCD **to sort - if I had my way, they’d all go to recycling - and did a quick sweepdown. I’ve also loaded the wagon with stuff to go to his workshop, but I need his help taking it down - otherwise, I see boxes toppling all along the way. Last biggie is to get the old computers into my car so I can take them to Mark, if he wants them - I need to drop him an email.

Supper tonight will be beef stew that I’ve got in the freezer. Yay for easy suppers! :smiley:

And it looks like back surgery #5 will be happening before too long. :frowning: My poor sweetie…

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We just got our oil tank topped off. 157 gallons for just under $600. :eek: I think it’s time to get some firewood…

Apple crisp in the oven - that will taste good after the stew. So supper is taken care of. Yay!

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faints

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:eek::eek::eek: JEEBUS!!! How long will that last you? That’s just crazy. I’m so glad we don’t have to rely on oil. My house uses natural gas for heat.

128

Okay, so it appears my glands are out to get me.

Two lumps, well under my skin, appear in the last week. One is behind my ear, and the other is deep in my groin - places where lymph nodes like to congregate.

Very carefully not freaking, I scheduled an appointment with my old GP. I think I managed to keep repetition of the word “lump” down to about 549. So, I go in, doc looks at the one behind my ear and says: “hang on, I’m going to need my magnifying glass.”

I think that’s when the first gland started singing “SucKER”.

Turns out that the first lump was not a lymph node gone rogue, but a sebaceous gland gone rogue, stretched out, and filled with sebum. Everybody with me now: EEeeeeeuuuuuwwww. Unless I opt for cosmetic surgery at some point, I get to keep it forever. Evacuating it would just encourage it to start over.

The second one - which required a pelvic exam to find, and my poor GP hasn’t done one in ages - appears to be a block Bartholin’s gland. Again, not a rogue lymph node. Again, probably stretched out, filled with stuff, and would need a - get this - marsupial surgery to correct.

Yes, I would have to go kangaroo.

After having been sick on and off for the past year and a half with a list of crappy, nebulous, ill-defined symptoms the length of my arm and then finding two lumps in wildly different parts of my body, I honestly thought “oh, shit, I’ve got lymphoma.”

No, I just have very stupid glands. sigh

I’m so glad I didn’t tell my parents about this.

129

Howdy Y’all! Home from irk and had two hot dawgs for dindin. OYKW is still at irk. It’s closeout day, so natch, there was a computer crash at the corporate office so there he sits waitin’ on that to get fixed so he can closeout for October, poor thing. This happens far too often it seems.

I shall go over to the church house shortly. Today is “All Soul’s Day” so folks were asked to bring mementos of loved ones no longer with us to lay on the Altar. I have a pocketknife that belonged to my father, a spent shotgun shell from a twenty-one gun salute at an uncle’s funeral and I’m wearin’ a shirt that belonged to my younger brother. I did the same thing last year. Just seems a fit thing to do.

ruble fascinatin’! Mind you, I’m glad it’s you and not me but I look forward to tales of found woundrous treasures. :smiley:

phouka (we need to work on a nickname) of course you should tell your parents. After all, they’re the ones who gave you the genes so who better to blame. :smiley:

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**Taters **- in January, we got a fill of 153 gallons, so this fill should get us thru most of the heating season, especially if we get some firewood. This assumes our winter isn’t extremely and stupidly cold. But if we get wood, I can keep it going all day, and that’ll help reduce the amount of oil we’ll burn.

Yay for non-lethal lumps! (Or does that sound too weird??) :smiley:

Stew has been ingested. We’ll have apple crisp later. Much knitting will ensue tonight.

131

Wow, and I was bitching because it’s freaking windy and it’s supposed to rain.

My stomach is being really bad this week. Yesterday I got up too late to have breakfast so I packed what I thought was a good lunch (peanut butter on crackers and grapes.) I had lunch a bit earlier than I usually do because my blood sugar was really low. Apparently the grapes made it spike because I felt even sicker.

Then I threw up. Didn’t make it to the bathroom, threw up in the trashcan at my desk. The odd thing? Apparently no one noticed. Anyway, tied up the bag and took it to the dumpster and felt better. For a while. Decided at three that there was no way I was going to make it to five, and a hour drive home. Had to pull over to throw up again - and that scoured the hell out of my throat, let me tell you.

Got home, ate some leftover white rice, laid down for about ten minutes until my Dad got home. Ate some saltines. Laid down again. Dozed. Felt fine. Had a burrito for dinner. My stomach’s been kinda achey and I got nauseous after breakfast this morning, which isn’t too uncommon. Had a little tiny lunch, and just had a snack that I could only eat half of before my stomach started protesting. (Me: grrr! You were saying you were hungry! Stomach: I changed my mind. If you eat more, you will gag. Me: Can I have some crackers? Stomach: Yeah, I guess).

Anyway, I have a job interview tomorrow, which means I’m not working (when I said morning I meant, y’know, eight or nine. Not 11:30…). But it’s the same town I’m in, so no more hour commute each way, and it’s in my field. With any luck it pays more too, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Even if the pay is the same, I’ll save money. I just hope I get it.

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Well, just remember, the original is pronounced “POOH-kuh”, and go from there.

And I blame each parent for every thing I can, just to the other parent. Dad and maternal Grandma get blamed for the genetic stuff. Mom gets blamed for neuroses rooted in childhood.

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I was going to make some joke about so long as their brains are not rotten and insane, but now I’ve got “Lump” by Presidents of the USA running through my head.

CURSE YOU, EARWORM!

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Considering the mention of marsupial surgery, I vote for Kanga. :smiley:

135

Allergies, just another way of saying snuffling, eye dripping, itchy, mouth breathing, sneezy, cotton headed, chapped nose, cracked lipped misery.

Why? WHY?

Glurck…

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Kanga I like! So shall Phouka henceforth be Kanga? What say ye mumpers?

Home from Evenin’ Prayer. 'Twas a nice service of rememberance of those who have gone before us. However, I did duuuuuuuumb on the way back to da cave. I got off the expressway one exit too soon. No biggie but it did add a mile to the ride home. Plus it makes me go :smack: on myself.

I think I shall go lie upon the bed and watch teevee.

Nitey Nite Y’all!

137

Intervention Specialist. The school I was at today is an interesting place. It’s a private school which is for students with special needs, specifically autism, students who have been bullied elsewhere, and any other student who wants to attend just because. All told I think they have about 50-60 students K-12. I really enjoyed going there.

How about you? What are you studying?

Enough already! :mad:

:sigh: I’ve also got stupid glands. I had one removed once because it was in an inconvenient location and was somewhat painful. And, surprise! Two more returned to take its place. And since I no longer have health insurance, these babies are here to stay. :rolleyes: But I know the feeling. I was completely freaked out the first time around.
Today has been a very long day and I should be working on tomorrow’s presentation. Unfortunately, I’m having a very hard time focusing on my work lately. But I guess I’d better try to get back to it now.

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I felt like such an idiot when the doctor said “Hang on, let me get my magnifying glass.” I mean, that’s it. Unless something in my body falls off or explodes, I’m ignoring it.

And Kanga? I am both delighted and aghast, if that’s possible.

Also? Dad was flipping channels and stopped on Bill O’Reilly, who was talking with a Muslim doctor about religion and science. I know this, because Dad is almost completely deaf and has the tv turned up as loud as it will go. Even if I close my bedroom door, I hear every pompous word with perfect clarity.

I managed to stay silent for almost thirty seconds before I started screaming back.

(Yes, Mr. O’Reilly, humans have had the ability to make human cells since . . . well, basically since there were humans. It’s called cell replication. I don’t have to think about it. I just do it. And if you want to get picky and talk about whether or not humans are able to create cells in laboratory conditions, the answer is “YES, YOU UNBELIEVABLY FUCKED UP EXCUSE FOR O[SUB]2[/SUB]-TO-CO[SUB]2[/SUB] CONVERTION!"” If it were up to me, Mr. O’Reilly would be condemned to remedial 7th grade science classes for the rest of his unnatural (since he can’t make his own human cells) life. GAH!)

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If that’s the case, then Harvey is the perfect nickname.

140

Not only do I like Kanga, I like the reason for it. Gross medical stuff is awesome.
Mooooooom - must be nice living in warm and cozy Maryland. I just filled my tank by adding 180 gallons (nearly $700) and I’ll consider myself lucky if it gets me to my birthday in January. The same goes for the $400 worth of firewood (just under 2 cords).

Soapy - So sorry you’re still out of power. That massively blows. My offer still stands if you need to return to civilization for a while.

Bobbio - Isn’t your wife still recovering from surgery? Poor lady. Got any pictures? :smiley:

Sticks and Scones - Right now I’m just finishing up my AA in Liberal Arts. I’m transferring to UConn in January to finish my BS in Pathobiology (the study of animal diseases). I’d like to get a Master of Pathology Assisting to be a forensic pathology assistant (which is why I get excited about gross medical stuff).
Got the car (again) and it’s running so perfectly. It’s smooth and quiet and it is just wonderful. I accidentally hit 85 MPH because it was so smooth that it felt like 45. After that I made sure I checked my speed more than usual because I have no clue how the car feels any more. Getting the spark plug wetness issue fixed didn’t cost anything and Firestone is an AAA repair shop so the manager there was just as pissed as everyone else to find about the extortion from the tow truck driver. He had me fill out a customer review card to mention what happened.

I gave in to the need for new clothing today. I hate clothes shopping. I’m short and fat and that’s not a good combination, especially not with jeans. But, my only pair of jeans (that fit) have mysteriously developed a gaping hole in the crotch so I didn’t really have a choice. All my other clothes are sweat pants and at some point I’m going to have to start dressing my age. So, I stopped at the fatty store (Lane Bryant) and I got 2 pairs of jeans (40% off!) which fit me perfectly and should keep me out of clothing stores for another 2 or 3 years.
Need to get up early tomorrow because I need to visit Wal-Mart. It’s the only place left in the area that might sell replacement coffee pots for a Bunn and I can’t handle any more coffee from the spare coffee pot. I want my Bunn back and I know Sweetie does too. I hope they have one. They sell the machine so they should have replacement pots. I still can’t believe I broke it. I have never broken a coffee pot before.