cool OP, Haze.
I am still out of it. I mananged to get all my info to my tax guy, but he hasn’t called me yet.
I have a bunch of doctor appointments today, the first of which is that lupus study I’ve been rescheduling. I’ll check in later. I expect to have time this afternoon to play with the photos.
Fantasticly jake job with the OP Haze! I shall have to attempt Lesbian Gingerbread one of these days.
CutiePie the cookies look good enough to eat.
Welcome new peoples!
Up and caffienatin’ here. Runnin’ a little behind but that’s ok cause my sinuses ache and my haid is all fuzzy like this mornin’. Gotta get busy though cause purtification for work must commence soon.
Later Y’all!
Great day in the morning.
The OP makes me hungry. Had it actually been about lesbians it would have still made me hungry for chocolate gingerbread, damn I feel old.
Now I want to change my screen name to Mr Inappropriate, because it somehow seems fitting.
Ok… MMP… Long time lurker but here it goes…
My wife found out her 10yo son has autism last Friday. She said the doctor did not test him for anything, just chatted with him for about 5 minutes and said “Yup, he’s definately autistic, now about this hypotonia”.
I guess I have misunderstood autism, along with fifty bazillion other people. I figured it was either a physical or chemical neurological condition. Turns out that it is neither. As I understand it (and I may still be mistaken) it is a sensory perception condition with variations on which senses are affected, in which direction and to what degree. Because the reaction to the sensory perception is so strong it often masks underlying issues that may be chemical or physical and are treatable. That’s where we stand now. Looking into hypotonia (hypnotoadia?) and working out whether it is neurological or genetic.
Maritial issues are getting better. After a year of individual counceling and marriage counceling we sat down and watched Tyler Perry’s “Why Did I Get Married?” (the theatrical version, not the play). During the whole movie we just sat and looked at each other, somewhat judgementally, and at the end we identified with not only several issues we had internalized but several solutions that we had either overlooked or miscommunicated our needs about. This worked out twice this weekend, once when I took the time to sit down with my ex and explain our house rules. This should have been done long ago but it took confusion and misunderstanding about these rules and a cue from Tyler Perry to “Man Up” and confront the ex to get things straightened out. The second time came from a violation of these rules where my wife tried to communicate her frustration about this violation.
A little background (as little as possible so I don’t overtype this post), in the past my 15yo s-son from the ex has brought bags into the house. These bags have found themselves exploited in the smuggling of both inappropriate material into the house and objects inappropriatly removed from the house. “The Boy” had violated a HUGE rule a couple of years ago and was not allowed back. Recently we have been working on him coming for a little while but with very clear, well defined and strictly enforced rules. One of which was “No Bags”. Lo and behold, the boy brings in a bag on his visit two weeks ago. We discuss this, dicipline him for the violation, determine options and let it go. This weekend he was reluctant to come because “We wouldn’t let him bring his clothes in”. It pissed my ex off, but she was unaware of some of the history and the Bag rule.
It is at this point I sat down with her and explained the history and explained the rules and tied the two together so the rules were not just random judgements. This is something I should have done a long time ago, I have no excuse for not having done it.
This weekend the boy brings in a bag but leaves it in the car. OK, rule followed, situation in hand. Sunday, when he went to take a shower he went to the car to get his clothes and brought in the bag.
My wife flipped out.
She kept saying “He brought a bag into the house, he knows the rules, this needs to be addressed.”
I kept saying “Yeah, I told him to go get his clothes, if this needs addressed it needs addressed with me.”
She said “But HE brought a bag into the house, he knows the rules, this needs to be addressed.”
I said “Yeah, I told him to go get his clothes to take a shower.”
And it continued this way for about 10 minutes.
Now that I type it out I see that it is pretty obvious, but I was oblivious at the time.
Previously this would have escalated into a huge fight over a small issue, possibly leading to violence or homelessness or worse. In steps Tyler Perry and 12+ months of therapy, riding in like the calvery.
I stop, immediately, and breathe. I say “Ok, you are saying the bag issue needs addressed, but I am hearing this is yet another issue that is standing in the way of me spending time with my son.”
She says “No, that is not what I am saying, or at least not what I am meaning. The rule has been violated and needs addressed.”
I say “Ok, so what are your expectation as to how this is addressed?”
She says “The rule is, no bags in the house. He brought a bag into the house, this needs addressed.”
Ok, so the light of reason goes on. The issue is not with the boy or with his clothes. The issue is with the bag and I am a dumbass for not seeing it before (or at least I feel like one). Now step two comes into play, addressing the issue. I know the boy is already sensitive about all of these new rules and feels like he is being treated like a criminal, doesn’t want to come around, etc. So I say to my wife “Ok, I understand, let’s address it together so there is no misunderstanding about our intent and no hurt feelings.”
We go to the boy, explain that the issue is not with the clothes but with the bag, have him take it back out to the car and move on with the day.
Problem solved, I did follow up when I dropped the chillin’s off that night and reminded him to bring clothes, not in a bag, and not to bring a bag in. I can’t wait to talk about this with my therapist tomorrow, some progress, no matter how small, has been made.
Wow, so this is what the MMP is about. Very cathartic and stress relieving to vent like that. I may be back sometime.
I can’t get much farther than uttering ‘lesbian gingerbread’ before I get myself in trouble.
Now that I’ve et and had my first cup o’ mud, I have to report that I’m mad at neighbor Fred today. Yesterday, while I was out early morning fertilizing the yard, he stopped by and asked to borrow $40. Bein’ tax week and all, it hurt, but I gave it to him without question.
Yesterday afternoon, it hit me. He’s going to pay his property taxes with it, and I haven’t had the chance to beat him to the tax office. :mad: :mad: :mad:
VWIfe and I have been at it all weekend, too. For many years, she took Depo-Provera shots because she’d get ovarian cysts, which would then stir up her lupus. Her gyno is a nutcase, and about a year ago refused to give her any more shots. This week for the first time in forever, Aunt Flo came for a visit, and VWife has reverted to her old hormonal psycopath alter-ego, on top of having another lupus flare.
Swampus, there’s a reason I did all that work outside over the weekend. It was to save her life; otherwise I’d’ve put her out of my misery.
Awesome OP, Haze! I will definitely be making Lesbian Chocolate Brownies in the future. They sound fantastic! And I’m glad that you have such a good friend.
Coincidentally, I just got an e-mail from a friend from high school! I haven’t talked with her in quite a while. We’ll have to get together soon.
I love seeing all the new Kids in here! Welcome to the MMP. And feel free to vent, kvetch, brag, drool - whatever your little heart desires! That’s what this place is about.
Welcome to Monday, people!
Glad everyone enjoyed my OP. My secret plan to lure unsuspecting Dopers into the MMP has worked! Mwahahahaha.
rigs, yes, I do miss Scottish Darling lots. I read somewhere that a really close friend is one you feel comfortable being in silence with - she’s one of those few people that I enjoy just being with, even if we’re not actively talking to each other or doing something together.
sturmhauke, that hamburger sounds more like an obstacle than a food dish.
nd_n8, welcome to the MMP! Yes, this is the place to vent or whine or be silly, or all three at once, if you want.
I feel seriously unconcerned about class today. Ah well. I’m sure my students will deal.
Accept no substibootys.
Wonderful OP, HazelNut. Scottish Darling sounds irreplaceable and makes me again miss our own Scotticher, from whom we’ve heard far too little as of late.
I think you should work on going to PhD school in Scotland. Then we could have lesbian baked goods stories for a couple years!
I’m not quite clear on the bag thingy, but glad that the communication is better. I am a bit 
as to autism being diagnosed in a 10 year old just by speaking to him for a few minutes. A lot of assessment can go on just with face to face (are the clothes clean, basic hygiene, tooth decay, grooming, body posture etc–we are watching you, every second!), but this seems a bit much. Especially given his age. I am no autism expert etc, but I’d like a second opinion, please.
I am doing a “Bad Thing” today: I am driving all the way to Trader Joe’s (not close) in order to buy more chocolate edamame and I will tell you why. A small handful of them satisfy my chocolate cravings and (correct me if I’m wrong here) a small handful of chocolate coated soynuts is much better for me than half a pan of brownies. Call me crazy, but I think I’m on to something…
OK, you’re crazy.
Mmmmm… lesbian gingerbread - with chocolate, no less. I’m half-tempted to run home and make a batch right now, though I’m all out of lesbian lovers.
…this OP makes me strangely nostalgic for an old friend from high school. We used to make all sorts of concoctions in her kitchen back in the day, but we started drifting apart a few years after graduation (mostly due to the aftermath of a breakup that did nasty things to our group of friends). I occasionally check Facebook in the hopes she’s joined, but so far, nothing… and I’m a bit wimpy about writing an email out of the blue, since I worry that it would not be welcomed. (and no, no one ever mistook us for lesbians, though we did often get asked if we were sisters by less observant folks who can’t tell the differences between half-asian and half-portuguese).
Pie, I love love love your pint pants cookies. They’re hilarious. I have mad respect for anyone who decorates that many cookies… I wanted to poke my eyes out when I made cookie boobies as a fundraiser for breast cancer research last year. It was worth it to see the reactions people had, but oy, what a sore back I had.
nd, sorry to hear about your troubles. Sounds like things are moving in the right direction all-round, though… once you figure out the underlying problem, it’s possible to begin taking steps to fix it.
Also, I would like to say that I hate Mondays. That is all.
Morning, all. Welcome to the new Cool Kids! Yes indeed, the MMP is for whatever you want it for, as long as you realize that you’ll get hugs when you need them whether or not you want them. 
Great pants cookies, Pie! You are very creative, and far more patient than I could ever be. The only question I have is: Where on earth did you find a pants-shaped cookie cutter? Or were you so talented you did them without one? :eek:
The good thing about a friend like Scottish Darling, Haze, is that you’ll probably just pick right up where you left off when you do get together, forever. My friend K. is like that (she’s the one whose son’s bar mitzvah I went to a few months ago) – we met first week of freshman year of college, and have just been comfortable with each other ever since, no matter how seldom we see each other. It’s like we just pick right up in the middle of a conversation, no awkward or uncomfortable moments, ever. We each know what to keep our mouths’ shut on re the other, too, which is helpful. She’d be a good Mumper if she ever got online, but I don’t expect that to happen till her kids are grown and gone; she’s just too busy to goof off online as much as the rest of us. 
A call has been placed and a message left with Steve the Affordable Computer Repair Guy, so now I’m just waiting for him to call back. And telling myself to get going on taxes on the laptop. I’ll get to them in a bit; I just don’t have sufficient caffeine in me yet. Yup, that’s the problem. Uh-huh. Yup. Fer sher. Rilly.
Update: Steve just called back while I was typing this. So he’ll be by this afternoon. Yay! Which means I don’t have to worry about trying to get set up to get any work done on the laptop, which would involve a lot of aggravation, unless he needs to take my CPU back to his shop. Have I mentioned how much I hate computer crashes?
Moist. And still warm…
I’ll be in my office, please lock the door on your way out?
Mmmm, lesbian gingerbread. That sounds good. Except if I made it, it couldn’t be lesbian. I don’t get along with the wimmins that well. Or at all, really. I came to the conclusion over the weekend that I don’t speak Woman’s Subtext very well and that’s why I hang out with the Fellas.
Still mad about Firday’s ton of bricks at Ref Work. We’ll see how tomorrow goes. I talked about it with Complicated Roommate (who has been a manager many times in his past) and decided that if I feel it necessary (if the discomfort lingers or if my suspicions as to why the ton of bricks fell are correct), then I can switch the majority of my hours to Archive Work and let Ref swing.
Does anyone know what to do for a dog who has the liquid poops? I noticed she was showing symptoms yesterday when we went walkies. This morning I woke up to a (fortunately small) stinky puddle on the floor in my room and a (not so small) pile in front of the TV in the living room. I think she’s been eating a lot of grass and that’s what’s causing it, but dogs don’t eat grass unless they have an upset tummy to begin with.
Just sent off the Finally Finished Comps Paper Rewrite. Later this week I’m going to start the Great Thesis Outlining. It Continues…
Who am I? What am I doing here? Who is Number 1? Oh, right. It’s me, the familiar stranger. The blog is becoming a second full-time job, I tells ya. But it’s making money. Tiny bits here and there, but money just the same. ($110 in under a month – woo! :))
Weather is a bit chilly but gonna be awesome this week, rising into the higher double-digits (°C) as the week goes on. Damn, I love spring! Even in spite of it being Monday.
Hank - Awesome OP! Sounds like you have some great friends there. I sometimes think about friends of the past and how one thing or another separated us, and wish I was able to keep in touch with some of them. But, se a vida é.
That cake sounds … intriguing. As a sweet and sticky treat as much as a spectator sport, with perhaps a certain lean towards the latter. 
I don’t think it would work out quite so well if I tried it. Besides my lack of proficiency for baking (for lack of trying, really), my own best friend would probably punch me in the face if I pinched his ass.
Er … on second thought, he’d probably pinch my ass right back, just to piss me off. I doubt the spectacle would have quite the same effect on viewers, however; the obligatory boom-chicka-wow-wow music in your scenario would be replaced with Yackety Sax in mine.
sturmhauke - No, this is a stupid large burger. Actually, that’s more on the order of a stunningly insane burger, so I guess, yeah, on the graduated scale of excessive burgerage, stupid large could be a step above huge but just below that’s gonna hurt.
Now I want a burger.
BringsPie - I am not going to tell you what I initially imagined “pants cookies” was a colourful euphemism for, but I will tell you that I’m going to add it to my vocabulary for that purpose in the future.
SmartAleq - What’s helped me in the past when it comes to toothaches, aside from 222 tablets (Acetaminopen, Caffeine and Codeine tabs, which are OTC in Canada), is Dequadin oral paint. It works great for abscesses. It’s not an instant relief thing and takes a day or two to kick in enough, but it works. Tastes like crap though, but lesbian gingerbread should help with that. (Actually, swish with mouthwash before you apply it, it really numbs the taste of the Dequadin out of your mouth.)
Tigs - Computers, given their druthers, are evil. Only when used by someone who knows how to kick their digital hynies do they ever behave – most of the time – because they know damn well it does them no good. I say most of the time because eventually they try – they always try, and sometimes it takes a bit to get it working again, but in the end, I usually put the boots to its neck and tell it to behave. However, for those that don’t know how to deal with them, computers are more than happy to revel in their base nature – which is evil.
Okay, back to work, and maybe some blogging. Which, in the end, is also work. So I guess, back to work[sup]2[/sup].
Faaaaaaaaaabulous OP, haze. You really are missing your calling. I think a lesbian cookbook to start. 
'Allo to all who ducked in to post. pprgrl, you become cool simply by posting in the MMP. That is the beauty of it. 
pie, the “panties” are a hoot!
nd_n8, what about a clear plastic bag for the son’s clothes? We have them here for sporting events. Here’s a clear backpack.
bobbio, any reason why vwife hasn’t considered a hysterectomy? If it’s not too personal.
Godfather and Godfather II were on yesterday afternoon and I sort of watched between chores. That was a little too much Puzo, though, because I ended up dreaming that I was driving around my neighborhood in a big old black sedan with hoodlums chasing me. ::insert cookoo smilie here::
That is all I’ve got for now.
Tupug
Mornin’ all. Great OP, Haze. I’ve had a few friends with whom I enjoyed just spending time, but I don’t think I was ever quite so attached to one person. I tend to be pretty shy as well.
Work is grrr this morning. Some of my changes failed to go into the database, and I can’t figure out why. Grrr.
I really really wanted to bake this weekend, but I didn’t. It was a really close thing though. I thought about making some cake batter from a mix (cause I’m lazy like that sometimes), baking 6 cupcakes and freezing the rest of the batter. Has anyone ever frozen cake batter? I think it would work fine, but I’ve never done it. I need more people to feed, darn it!
I have to go to the dentist this afternoon. :rolleyes: It has been quite awhile since I’ve been. I know, I’ve been a bad girl. I’m a bit scared to think of what they may tell me.
Neither do we, (Scottish Darling and I), which is why we were the only girls in a sea of dudes. It’s funny, because we’re both outwardly pretty girly (me moreso than her, especially in terms of shoes and makeup) but we somehow didn’t really fit in with the other girls in our program, and ended up having much more fun drinking with the guys.
Olive had the runs for a week - I ended up taking her to the vet. A few pills and all was well.
Miiiiiiiiiiiiindy! We miss you! Well, I do anyway.
I totally have to try that recipe! Without the lesbian lover though. What’s golden syrup though?
I have to email my best college friend. It’s been a while since we chatted (She moved to Greece!), and I miss her.
I made triple chocolate fudge over the weekend. It’s a layer of semi-sweet chocolate, then white chocolate, and then milk chocolate. I’m not a big fan 'cause I don’t like white chocolate at all, but other people seem to like it. I’ll have to bring what’s left in to work after lunch. I’m apparently getting baking competition at work though - someone else brought in baked goods today. :eek: Don’t they know I’M the Baking Lady??
Lesbian gingerbread, hee! That’s a great OP<, Haze, and now I miss my Best Friend, too. sniff
Welcome, new people. Welcome back, Mork!
Long night. Tired. Anyone got a remedy for a baby that’s started biting? Besides selling him for medical experiments. He’s too cute.
Oh, also- I inherited my aunt’s sewing machine. It works. I’m stunned. I’ve never had a working sewing machine, which I didn’t have to fight, threaten, and cry at. I’m confused. Now if I can just find time to sew…
I’ll be trying out that recipe soon. Great OP HNC!
**LabRat ** and I have been taking things really slow. Almost excruciatingly slow, but I’m letting him pace the relationship. On Sunday morning, I had to help paint our store at the mall, and he volunteered to help with that. So on Saturday night I asked if he was still planning to help, he said yes, so I asked if he wanted to hang out at my place since we had to be at the store at 6am. He said, “I’ll go get my bag out of the car.” I was all, “YAY!” This was a big deal. Then we put on our pajamas and went to sleep. 
The big deal is that he was comfortable enough to sleep over. One day he’ll be ready for the next step. I’m patient.
Have a good week everybody!
