~A Bitter Swallow~

Ok.. I admit.. I'm cheating. I've never actively gone to the You-Tube site. But I was starting to feel like a slacker, and I don't like that feeling... LOL However, I've gotten barrels of links to various videos on there that I've opened and watched. My boyfriend is the biggest contributor to my You-Tube video surveilance. He is a bonafide You-Tube fanatic. He spends oodles of time on that site.

While never personally visiting the site, I have gotten many a laughs, or "oooh"s and "ahhh"'s from my friend's links. I digress... I believe I did "surf" the site after I got one link. What it was about my memory fails to remember, but I do remember being relatively amused and bored (sometimes a dire combination), and searching for various topics throughout the site. Wow.. there is EVERYTHING on there. And sometimes it can be rather shocking when you open up something you thought was something completely different!! (We'll not go into any details on THAT one!).


Okay, Okay... so I wrote a cheater's post on You Tube.. At some point during the weekend I'll try to get on and actually do the real thing, and do all the links and all that. I promise to try and not direct you to something you THINK is going to be something else... and POW! hahaha.....

Now, like most kids, some pretty interesting and funny (not to mention many times scary) things have come from the precious lips of my dear children. My daughter most definitely seems to have the more twisted line of thought processes.

Just a couple days ago, my two children, my boyfriend and myself were around our fish tank oogling the appearance of a cute little baby fish. My boyfriend and I were discussing a previous batch of babies that had mysteriously disappeared overnight one night, and our sneaky suspicions of a less-than-treasured shark we have haven eaten them. We then began discussing how he doesn't seem to be growing though. My daughter, being 7 years old, and paying attention at the times you would least expect, tells us in a more-than-I-know-it-all way, "Well DUH.. it's a SHARK!!" , because of course, that is OBVIOUSLY why it must have eaten those cute little babies. Some adults.. (insert shaking of head). She proceeds to ask questions about how big the shark will get. Dustin (my boyfriend) shows her, by demonstrating size against the tank, how big it will get ( estimated at 3 feet). She then gets an evil little grin on her face, licks her lips, and promptly asks most vehemently : "When it's that big, can we EAT it???".... *blink... blink*

So, while you chew that one over, I thought I'd share a couple of her more interesting comments...

(let me set the scene...) I am sitting at my computer desk and my kids are sitting in the living room behind me playing with my daughter's barbies on the coffee table. My daughter -who is about 5 or 6 at this time- is playing the "mommy" doll, and my son- who is about 8 or 9- is playing the "kid" doll. (Now, at this point, I must for my son's sake inject that his beloved sister is the only person that is able to convince him to submit to such doll play. Or any other kind of "girl" play for that matter.) Suddenly, I hear the *mom* exclaim to the *child* : "NO BODY PARTS IN THE LIVING ROOM! HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU NO BODY PARTS IN THE LIVING ROOM?!?! TAKE THEM OUTSIDE!" The "child" doll pulls the whole "Oh, alright... "
Me- *blink...blink*...*locks bedroom door that night*


Another instance.. again, I am on the computer, and my daughter walks up behind me. "Mom, I bit my lip". She says it calmly.. then she says. "Mom, it's bleeding." I turn around and expect her to freak out.. because she's a 6 year old little girl, and there is blood. Instead.. she starts slurping at her lip.. "Mmmm.... blood is good. I like blood. Blood is yummy." She walks off, still slurping on her lip. I go and hide the knives, and once again lock my bedroom door that night.

My son is pretty low key. Most of his eeriness comes with his play. He is sitting at their table one day playing with his G.I. Joe guys, and his play dough. My boy, at 10, is pretty into the whole army, war, shoot-em-up stuff. So, naturally, he's having a war scene at the table. There is a lot of spittle flying as he gives the sounds effects of rattling gunfire. My boyfriend (not my boyfriend at the time, though) walks over to watch. He let's out something along the lines of "Oh my god... " and tells me I have to come see this, while he runs to grab his camera. I go over, and there is my son's GI Joe, lying sprawled on the table, atop a great gob of red play dough, convincingly spread out to resemble major blood loss from the guy, complete with a dab under his head. That isn't the creepy part. The creepy part is that he was so detailed in his display, that he actual included the splatter from the brain ... "injury". If I remember, and I'm able, when I get home I will find and post that picture. It's... interesting. I wasn't the only one who slept with my door locked that night!

Another time the two of them were playing together: My daughter with her Barbie, my son with his barbie sized GI Joe. Scene of my daughter's Barbie chasing my son's GI Joe.. "I'm a vampire Barbie, and I want to suck your blood!!!!" *insert slurping sounds here*. Then, a few minutes later, both kids, with both dolls, running around slurping the necks of everything exclaiming they are vampires...


So there you have it. Those are some of the things you will see and / or hear from my sweet, adorable, angelic, innocent children. Perhaps the people are right.. maybe they are devil spawn!! That's okay though, I love them anyways. And if nothing else, it definitely keeps us entertained!!

Many of you (at least those of you at PT), have heard me discussing my step-father's latest stint in the hospital. I figured with all these posts I've been reading about zombies, and dieting, that I would share an update. Those of you in the two previous mentioned categories should appreciate this. Or hate me. Or both. Let me know.

Anyways... back to my step-dad, and what his hospital stay has to do with zombies and dieting. A couple weeks ago he bumped his hand. Now, keep in mind he didn't smash it or anything. He bumped it, and got a little surface scratch. His hand hurt horribly after a while. It swelled. They figured (they, being him and my mom) that they would wait until morning and see if it went down any. They were thinking maybe he bumped and bruised a vein or something. My mom went to the football game. She got home a few hours later, to my step-dad standing in the door, holding out what appeared to be a latex glove someone had blown up. It was his hand. They decided not to wait until morning, and went on out to the emergency room.

Of course, they ran the usual suspect tests.. looking for broken bones, sprains, etc etc etc. They were perplexed. My mom jokingly told my sister that it looked like that "flesh-eating thing". We mused here at work that perhaps a doctor or nurse overheard and decided to check it out. Fifteen minutes or so later, they come in to tell my mom they have to fly my step-dad over to Harborview because she was correct. It had spread through his hand, and was starting up his arm. necrotizing fasciitis- aka the flesh-eating disease. Here's a link. http://www.healthatoz.com/healthatoz/Atoz/common/standard/transform.jsp?requestURI=/healthatoz/Atoz/ency/flesh-eating_disease.jsp

Ok.. I suppose for those of you (who are like me) and are too lazy to click open the links and read it.. I should give you a little background on what this thing is. Because I'm lazy I'm going to copy and paste some tidbits from the link:
"Flesh-eating disease is more properly called necrotizing fasciitis, a rare condition in which bacteria destroy tissues underlying the skin. This tissue death, called necrosis or gangrene, spreads rapidly. This disease can be fatal in as little as 12 to 24 hours."
There are two different types, according to the link, and I'm pretty sure he has type II. Apparantly it is caused by a bacteria in our own bodies that reacts to another bacteria entering. It is a prominent case of everything being present at the right time.. or rather, at the wrong time.

It gets gruesome, so if you are weak in the tummy, you may want to turn away now. You are all lucky I am not on my home computer typing this up, because I have pictures. They are enough to turn even the most demanding carnivore vegan. Those of you who are dieting.. stay tuned. I'm here to help.

They had to cut his arm open to drain. I'm not talking about little puncture wounds here. They slit his arm from palm to elbow (underside of the arm), and have it spread open (it's about I'd say 6-9 inches wide). He said when they first cut into it.. it just kind of popped open with one of those slushy sludgy sounds.. a true puss pod popping open. The doctors and nurses all wear full-blown face masks when dealing with him now. Can't say I blame them.

So, he is in the burn unit for the first week or so. It's a serious open wound, so that is the department they keep him in. He is now moved down into the trauma ward. I think I might know his roommate from school. Poor thing was in a car wreck and has some severe head trauma. It was sad.. I still need to look his name up in my year book.

I went to visit my step-dad this past Sunday. For those of you not keeping track of posting dates, that was the 11th of Novemeber, 2007. They say it's looking much better. I'll have to post pictures for those of you brave enough to wager your lunches on the view. But at the same time, it's amazing. To think one can sit there for two weeks now with thier arm wide open. And the packing of it.. wow. They have this foam (yes- foam) that the cut to fit the wound. They place it on there, wrap it in a celophane looking tape, put a couple hoses on it, and vacuum seal it. Yep.. you heard me. ( We have video of this as well ). He carries around a little vacuum attached to his arm that continually sucks anything that shows up in there out. It's gross, and astonishing, at the same time.

The inside of the arm is much meatier than I originally figured. So- for the zombies.. good starting point.

There was suprisingly little blood. I figure this had to do with the vacuum. He's right.. it does look like something familiar, but can't yet put my finger on it. One of us will figure it out eventually. And then there will go another food item down the drain. Come to think of it.. it kind of looks like curdled milk- the goo that comes down that vacuum tube. Yum.

Luckily, he is losing no body parts. They were able to catch it in time before it spread to badly for that. He IS losing some flesh, but skin graphs will help that. We were rather disappointed to hear they will not be removing flesh from his butt to put on his arm, so our teasing name of "stink arm" will not apply. However, yet another amazing medical advancement brought to our attention to learn that it is a synthetic "skin". I'll update on that later once I gain more info.

They hope to have him out in time for Thanksgiving. He has to heal, and get the graphs, and go through a lot of physical therapy, but I'm sure some of that can be done in doctor visits. Hopefully.

I'll post more as it comes to me. I think I've eaten my brain cells typing this tonite. More to come!

I really like this site, and can see me using the heck out of it!! It will take me a bit of time to set it up the way I want, but if I can get it to do what I want.. wowza!

I wish you could set up "catagories" for your own library though. Not sharable "tags" for them, just personal categories within my own site. If this IS possible.. I haven't figured it out yet. I would just LOVE to be able to add a section to put books I want to read.. but haven't yet. I can't properly tag them if I haven't read them... I suppose "want to read" could be the ONLY tag I put on it. That should categorize them within my own searching... I'll have to give that a whirl and see how it goes.

My site is here: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/Thaydra

We were having this conversation here at work the other day. Why is it that we readers feel the necessity to finish a book that we hate?? It doesn't seem to matter whether we are at the beginning, middle, or near the end of the book. We hate it. We can't stand it. Yet we HAVE to see it through until the end.

Perhaps we could use this on our resumes? A clear example of how obsessively we see tasks through? Of course, if only I could transfer that crazy obsession to other areas, such as housework. I must see the cleaning out of my garage through to the end! It's an unfinished book! I wonder if that approach would work at all.

I have grand plans to clean out my kids' rooms this coming weekend (not today end of the weekend, but next weekend. My procrastination hasn't yet started. Or maybe it has but I'm procrastinating in acknowledging it). I will view this project as an Unfinished Book. The Book of Does My Daughter REALLY Have A Floor??

I'll let you know how that turns out....

I'm sure you all understand. Those of you with kids maybe more-so.

I stand there at the check-in counter, checking out (and in, of course) all those books our lovely readers bring back. And it never fails, I see some come through that just look so PERFECT for my kids. Today- for instance. I was at work for a mere 2.5 hours. I came home with like- 7 books. I thought my arm was going to fall off ( so I'm weak! Gimmie a break!). Sooo.. I lug them home, and add them to the 2 billion other books and dvds I've already brought home for my spoiled rotten minions.. I mean kids. (I don't take back the "spoiled rotten" part... that part is absolutely true. Ok- so maybe the minion part is too, but I'm not to blame... *whistles innocently*).

I have put a gazillion Bill Nye movies on hold for my son. Serious, I put about 25 of them on hold, before realizing they were all going to come in at the same time. Sure enough.. within a couple days, I had Bill Nye movies up to my ears. So, we are all getting our fair share of science lectures.

My daughter, a bit easier. Her tastes are pretty culturally popular, so there are more holds on what I find for her, which makes them come in a bit slower. But- you throw all those Bill Nye movies in with it, and I think I'm 10 again. Really. I can't remember the last "adult' movie I watched (no .. not THAT kind of "adult" movie.. jeez..buncha pervs!). At least it's not dumbing down my IQ. I feel almost smarter.

So now I've switched to books. Not because my kids are such avid readers. Getting them to read is about the cliche equivalent of pulling teeth. Nope- they are because I think they look fun. I have wonderful visions of reading them to a rapt audience of my 7 and 10 year olds. Can we say "pipe dream"? All together now... 1... 2.. 3.... PIPE DREAM. Hey.. I get some fun reads.

Ok.. I'm done for now. I'm actually bringing some of that mound back to the library tomorrow. Not enough to really make a dent.. but at least I feel like I can breathe a little!

Yeah, I know... I'll just end up bringing twice as much home with me tomorrow. Oh well.....

Ok- so not really. I have my own website that I have something of a blog on. But you guys don't get to see it! LOL.

This is work, after all. Can't go around throwing out all my personal business for you'all to see. We haven't known each other THAT long! Sheesh.... =P

Anyways, here we go. My first blog for the super-duper KRL2.0!!

Do I get my cookie now?