Let's rewind...

The easiest way to do this is to go over my interactions by day and with each person individually from my new job...

Monday was the first day and all the summer hires were in the same room to begin with. We were separated into two groups, which I later identified as professional office type workers versus the stupid college kids. I was originally in the first group, but because of a doctors appointment I had to switch. The kids in this group were working in places like outdoor rec, the gym and the youth center and they were barely able to fill out their own paperwork. They were told to get help from their parents before hand, yet in one instance, someone seriously tried to put their shortened name instead of their full name. (That would be like me filling out my I-9 using Jessi instead of Jessica.) Since I wasn't in the same group as them, I did the paperwork at the and then went to meet with my new supervisor.

I soon found out that my new supervisor was not in the office on Monday. She got called for jury duty. I met an older woman who I assumed to be the right hand man of the supervisor. She answers the main phone number at least. I stopped in and basically said "Hey, nice to meet you, see you tomorrow!" We chatted a bit and after her declaration of how short handed they are, I mentioned that I had been applying for all sorts of jobs via the usajobs website and they should let me know if they have official openings because it would be awesome to work there if I was going to already have the experience. She sort of gave me a bitter vibe after that and later included a comment along the lines of "___ might be the supervisor, but I've been here the longest..." I brushed it off and went on to finish the rest of my paperwork. I discovered at the next stop that I would not be able to get my ID card, the one that lets me on the computers, until Friday. The afternoon was filled with a briefing about the importance of maintaining an equal opportunity work environment. No thug speak, racial slang terms or sexual harassment. Got it.

Tuesday came early, but I got to work on time. I came in to discover that my supervisor was still not done with jury duty and that they didn't realize that I wouldn't have an ID yet. Older lady introduced to me to the only two active military personnel in the office and then was on crazy mode with the supervisor being gone and a lingering newspaper deadline. I hang out in there waiting for something to do. she lets me double check the spelling and alphabetization of the June promotions list before she sends it to press. She mentions a giant book I need to read, but decided to take me down the hall to meet everyone else.

First, there was the graphics girl. She seemed pretty cool and I sat in on them recording the news thing. I bumped into one of the lights while turning around and moved it back where they had it. When they fired up the rest of the lights for the actual recording, I mentioned something about it being cool that they backlit the "anchor" to help with the green screen and the shadowing issues. I happily pressed the arrow buttons on the slideshow and then we went into the room to edit.

This is where I met the media guy. I'm really not sure what he does besides update the local access station and rip vhs tapes onto dvd for the guys in the missile field. The news thing is really new, so I guess he does part of that now too. Anyway, they get the file all captured from the tape and the graphics girl shows me this wicked cool thing with the green screen. It's literally like maybe five clicks and POW you've got your person standing in a makeshift newsroom. While that's saving, a long process I guess, the graphics chick goes off and checks her facebook on what I can only assume is not a computer on government lockdown. The media guy and me are chatting while he's looking at the weather and news on another one of the computers I also assume is not on hardcore government lockdown. I tell her when it's done and she slaps it into Premier, which being an Adobe product I am familiar with, is like my fifth child, only proceeded by the other Adobe programs, which I can use in my sleep, and my actual child. She is editing stuff; splicing the footage in between the existing stories already edited by the media guy. I'm watching and sort of repeating stuff that she's doing in a verbal note style and then, once I've seen it, saying it out loud as she's doing it to sort of reinforce. I'm not GREAT at Premier, so I'm liking seeing her mess with it. The only better way for me to learn would be to actually get to DO it, but I'm not taking the mouse from her on my first day of course! At one point in time, she has an issue with something she added not rendering and the media guy was all "huh that's weird". I see what the problem is, the beginning marker along the top got moved to the middle of the segment somehow, so I say "I'm pretty sure if you move that arrow in the gray bar back it should work." It does, she continues muttering something about how it happened. I say nothing, but I had saw her move the marker right before the rendering issue. Watching them gets sort of boring after I've seen them do the same 12 things over and over; copy, paste, increase volume, decrease volume, add cgi name banners, repeat.

I wander out back to the graphics room to go find the other graphics guy. He's older and apparently used to be like a legit illustrator FOR the Air Force. We talk about computer stuff and the giant equipment all over the room. I notice his Prismacolor markers and we get to talking about the art stuff we've done. He has suspiciously got his personal files all over the government computer and prints of his work stashed all over the work area, but he's really damn good and I think we hit it off nicely.

Lunch happened, I checked in with older lady, she gave me a giant book to read, so I return to the graphics guy's desk to read it A guy came in to get a copy of his group's shield or something and so the graphics guy opened it up and was all "ugh" because it was an Illustrator file and he wasn't able to click on the text to fix it. We had discussed earlier about how he was unfamiliar with Illustrator, being taught on Corel, so I was like "Oh, hey! I know how that works," and he let me have the mouse. Shit was grouped funny and a font didn't show up right, so I had to get into the direct selection tool, but I fixed it in like a minute. He saved out the file in the format the guy needed and sent it off. I went back to reading the giant book and he was messing with the file some more in Illustrator. I looked up and said something about it and he was talking about how Corel had a thing where you could just smooth out the lines. I showed him where the one in Illustrator was, but it didn't do it well. He mentioned it would probably be easier to just redraw it and I showed him my favorite tool, the pencil tool. He made a comment about how it was a lot smoother and he messed around with it for a bit more and I went back to the book.

Graphics guy leaves, so I go linger over graphics chick. She's not doing anything worth watching, so I read more. I get finished with the giant book and go wander over to the photo guy. I learn there are usually two, but the other guy is gone because he's in the guard and they are doing a thing this week. He's got some pictures lying out and I ask if I can use the slidey paper cutter and help him. He shows me the white gloves and the gist of the specifics of the cropping that needs to be done and I go to town. He says there will be lots more tomorrow and I tell him I'll be there. Day ends and I'm feeling pretty good.

This morning I had to take Lilah to daycare, so I was later than I would have liked to have been. I walk up to the building and someone is coming in behind me that I don't recognize. I put my stuff in the photo guys' room and go take a peek to see who it is. I discover it's the supervisor, who seems pretty cool. She talks about how busy her morning is and how she wants to get with me to sit down and talk. Not being at work for two days when important crap is going down is obviously the main thing on her mind and I totally get that. She wants me to reread the web part of the giant book, because I "couldn't have possibly read it all already" and "just observe" because they "have been doing this for years" which is frustrating, but I don't argue. I tell her about my doctor appointment and she says awesome and goes and does her supervisor thing.

First, I linger behind the photo guy. I ask what he's working on and discover it is some images for a training powerpoint. He took them all on a tripod so they don't change from slide to slide but has to remove a guy's hand from them. They are sort of taken from an angle, but shows me this cool lens filter that basically lets you skew with precision. I'm pretty much in awe. He stops for a sec and is talking about cropping them all to the same size and I suggest putting them all in layers inside one file, cropping that, turning a layer on one at a time and saving the files with the same names as the ones he started with. I tell him that's how I did my hacky sacks and some other things that needed to remain the same size and he's like "Yeah, I could do it like that." So I'm feeling pretty good, but he leaves for a meeting soon after.

Next, I go linger behind the graphics guy. He shows me this wicked cool thing in Photoshop called content aware scaling, we watch a tutorial on it and then and we talk about this portrait program he found that he really likes. Enter my previous blog post here. A bit later, we got into talking about house renovations too and before I knew it, it was time for my doc appointment.

I take a long lunch because I needed some time to vent. I got the impression that the old lady and the graphics chick didn't really like me from the interactions with them so far and it sort of seemed like they might have thought I was telling them what to do. I somehow KNEW this was going to be a thing because of the way the supervisor spoke to me that morning, but I tried to blow it off.

I get back and photo guy has a pile more pictures to trim, so I've got plenty to do and I'm pretty jacked about that. He shows me how to put the finished things up on the desk when they are awaiting pick up, he shows me how they fill out and file the work orders and then he starts doing his paperwork part of said work orders and lets me plug them into their tracking spreadsheet. I feel exceptionally productive and much better about the day. Supervisor comes in and is all "Oh, super!" because I found something to do and then she asks if I have a minute.

She apologized for not being able to get with me earlier, but we both know it's been chaotic. Then she tells me that some people have come to her with some concerns and she suggests I have gotten off on a bad foot. I apparently told the older lady that I was expecting a job this fall there from of this internship. Another specific complaint was that I told someone (graphics chick I assume) where to put the lighting for the recording of the news thing. She expressed concern in the exact same thing I was worried about; me telling them how to do their jobs. Basically, its the same problems I have ran into before. I have a SEVERE problem not doing anything and just sitting back collecting a paycheck, not to mention a longstanding distaste for the inevitable slew of catty females talking behind people's backs. Even though I knew this was sort of impending, it made me very upset. She reassured me that she had not really seen what the other people were talking about and that was why she wanted to talk to me about it.

I explained that the older lady just seemed bitter and stressed out, understandable when she was playing boss for the last two days and with a newspaper deadline, so I tried to stay out of her hair and that all I had said about a job was that I would be very interested if their shorthandedness meant there was an opening beyond that of this summer thing. I told her I really didn't know how I could have been telling them where to put lights, but apologized for the misunderstanding. I told her that I am a bigtime hands on learner and also very verbal, so I wasn't trying to tell people how to to their job, but I could see where misinterpretation could have been conceived. I told her that while I understand they operate in the way that they do and they have the experience that they do, I sort of felt like they were treating me like a stupid college kid that was hired on to shred papers all summer. She assured me that they knew I had the knowledge and the skills to do lots of the things they do in that office and that's why they picked me, but didn't want this drama to affect the working environment. I felt like telling her that it was too damn late for that, but I rephrased my thoughts into saying that it was like she was saying "Oh, everyone hates you after only your first day, and by the way nice to meet you." She said that it wasn't like that at all, but since people came to her it was her job to ask me about it and that she thinks maybe my eagerness about the job might have gotten me ahead of myself and taken others aback a little. I also told her that I felt a little upset when she said I couldn't have possibly read the giant book already, which she apologized for and said that it makes sense I could have read it all since I didn't have an ID or anything else to do. She added that I probably had read more of it than her now. After that, she said if I have anything to say or ask while in observation mode to maybe think about how to phrase it to not step on any toes and that if I had any concerns to come to her.

So the plan is that tomorrow is a new day. My plan is to win them all back with an apology for "getting ahead of myself" and an assortment delectable baked goods.

So they hate me...

I sat down with the supervisor today. Basically, its the same problems I have ran into before. Catty females talking behind people's backs and people being taken aback by my madd skills. I apparently told them I was expecting a job out of this internship, told them where to put the lighting for the recording of the news thing and telling them how to do their jobs. I know two people for sure who complained. The lady that determined I was expecting a job seems bitter and made sure to tell me that she had been there longer than the supervisor. suspicious of two others that I thought I had sort of hit it off with. Two couldn't have possibly been the so called rat, one being the photo guy that I've not met and the other being the supervisor I just met today. The remaining two are actual military people  and I'm not worried about them. In fact, from what I've seen so far, I think the whole office would run a lot smoother and be less of a pissing contest about who's had more military experience if there were more current active military personnel rather than civilian employees.

Shoot me in the head...

Third day of the new job today. Monday was in-processing and meetings and stuff, yesterday was a lot of looming around watching people and today more of the same. Yesterday, I got to change the slides for the anchor during the recording of the little on base news program. Today I trimmed the edges off pictures of important people. The photo guy just came back so maybe he will have some more of that for me to do soon. I have this feeling that once I get my cac I'm going to run circles around all these people. The "manager" is maybe a couple years older than me and is having me reread the same shit I read yesterday because I "couldn't have possibly read it all already" and just observe everyone else because they "have been doing it for years." Think photoshopping like Teajai did. I really wish they would have put me in an office I didn't have as much experience in, so I could feel like I was actually learning something new. I need to remember the unofficial military motto; hurry up and wait. Back to reading!

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Gallbladder?

A couple weeks ago, I had the pleasure of experiencing what the emergency room doctor thought to be a gallbladder attack. While I do fall under two of the three "you are more likely to have this wrong with you" factors, I never even thought the tightness, pressure, difficulty breathing and odd pain would have anything to do with my gallbladder, let alone knew what the hell it did before that night. Apparently, fertile women usually beyond their thirties are common victims of gallbladder issues, but it can happen to anyone in the form of a one time attack (a spasm usually triggered by something), gallstones (calcified bile) or even a rupture.

They drugged me up and sent me home with instructions to eat blandly and decrease my fat intake. The funny thing is that I was eating a damn salad at the time the "attack" happened. So I've been doing some googling here and there to see what might be up with this gallbladder thing. Some websites were trying to sell miracle gallstone cleanse crap, others were legit medical professionals describing the surgery process and I even came across one article about how the removal of the gallbladder should be avoided at all costs because it's maladies can be treated in other ways.

One of those other ways is through certain foods, or so I've read. Pretty much if it's green, you can eat it. Beets, endive, zucchini, celery, etc. Citrus, apple and grape juices are also recommended, as is getting enough water every day. A good friend of mine goes by the "half your body weight in ounces" rule, which is a lot for me, but I'm trying. One website had a soup recipe, which I snapped a screen-cap of on my phone for future reference.

I bought all of the stuff, including some other essential items, last week at Albertson's. I've been having some pains here and there that are similar to the attack, so I figured I should get around to making it. The back of my fridge is apparently very cold, so I had to trim the frozen parts of the celery off. I used my Pampered Chef Micro Cooker to steam each vegetable separately, which made me regret not buying the larger one last order. I drained the excess water each time and dumped it all into my amazing blender and pressed the soup button. My blender overheated the last time I used it so I stopped it before it was done, but it was thoroughly soupy. I busted out my funnel and an old apple juice bottle I had washed out and set aside and now it's living in my fridge, waiting to be consumed over the next couple days.

I am a little perturbed that the blender is overheating to begin with, given they can blend up iPads and shit, so I'm registering it as we speak and contacting support as soon as I'm done typing this. Here's to my gallbladder's health and my blender's functionality!

WTF?!

The night before last, I dreamt I had invisible nipples on my knees and every time I bent them, they would lactate. I've got problems.

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Employment Proposition

After toning circle at the library tonight, Sarah and I were bad and we went to Sonic for greasy burgers and fried things. While placing my order, I started to tell them I wanted a Sonic Size tater tot, buy interrupted myself and asked, "What are the sizes on the tots again?" The guy responded, "Small, medium or large." I said, "Yeah that's right. I used to work at Sonic back when there was a Sonic Size. I'll take a large." The guy said something about working for them for like 16 years and I shared a smidge of my history, mostly explaining that working there made me very particular about how I liked some things, and I went on with the order. The carhop delivered and we were tearing into the bag o tasty and the manager, who was the guy on the speaker, came out and we chatted some more. I showed him my flare I still have in my car. Then he was all like "So what are you doing now?" and "We are always looking for enthusiastic people with experience." I told him my only hold ups would be my availibility only within daycare hours and time off for the vaca back home, which he eagerly told me he could work around all that and said I should roll back by and fill out an app sometime. I asked him to grab me one and told him I would chat with the hubby. Hub's response was something along the lines of, "remember how picky you are about the way things are ran and the people you work with." I probably got my store manager and assistant manager fired for taking out the 16 year old carhops and getting them trashed on school nights when they were tellig their mommies they were working when I was the only one there. Maybe I was a little antsy with the carhop/fountain division in Winfield that was causing food to just sit on the trays while people inside stood around with their thumbs up their ass. I may have been pissed off at the last Sonic I worked at because I was making less than when I started four years before that, so I just stopped showing up when they refused to try and get me more. In theory, if this dude has been working for Sonic for 16 years, he should know how to operate the store by now. I think I will go in and chat with him sometime

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Dream Log

I was running across a field on what seemed like a road, sidewalk or maybe even a dirt path. The wind was blowing like crazy, bending all sorts of different trees over at ridiculously impossible angles. I say all sorts of trees because they were trees that shouldn't have been together; coniferous, deciduous and palms. As I was running, I was worried about the trees uprooting and hitting me. I neared a hallway towards a building type thing that looked more like a bunker from Jurassic Park than any normal building. It had a glass door I couldn't see through that I had to push to get through. I pushed the door with ease because the angular cement on each side of me blocked the wind. On the other side, there was a beach. It was sunny, but the wind was even worse. It was forming a cyclone in the nook in front of the door, sort of like a giant version of a similar phenomena that occurred at select doorways in and out of my grade school. As the swirling wind got more pronounced and louder, similar to a tornado, I tried to get back through the glass door to the other side, but found I could not open the door.

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Memories

I stumbled across the pictures of my car wreck while doing this "All About Me" powerpoint assignment tonight. I found my x-rays a couple weeks ago too. (Found similar ones on this site, but mine didn't take near as long to heal as this guy's.)

Is it horrible that I remember so very little between then and now? Is it weird that at times I sometimes wonder when the hell I'm going to wake up and be back 5-10 years in the past? Going by in this dis-associative state really fucks with one's head.

It's been a while...

Last week was rough. Missed like every appointment I had scheduled and if I didn't miss it, I was late. We were eating out or otherwise not eating real dinner most of the week too. I started out well, logging my food in the Lose It! app and eating carrots and shit, but it went downhill from there. I've been hella tired too. Luckily, it was spring break, so I didn't get behind in any classes. Troy made this boxed Alfredo thing that was not too great last night.
Tonight, we made chili as a family. Lilah helped me cut up the celery and onions, hub cooked the ground turkey, I spiced it up and Lilah dumped in all the canned items. Delish!

Haiku

Cat purr resonates,
A cold wind whistles outside.
My heart beats loudly.

To Homeschool or Not To Homeschool...

Since Lilah's birthday falls funny on the calendar, she will be almost 6 before she is able to go to kindergarten. Considering how smart she is, I fell like she should not have to wait this long. The hub and I talked about homeschooling her for preschool so she can test in and get into kindergarten with other kids her age. This was a while back and we had just got her back in daycare so it was, in my mind, something far off. She's doing awesome at the CDC and I love her teachers and the interaction she gets with the other kids in the class. Sure, theres the down side of some kids being bullies or the occasional bit of exclusionary play for whatever reason, but overall I am happy and think its doing her more good than bad.

Fast forward to now. Troy sent me a text today asking if I was still planning on homeschooling Lilah. He then said that if I was, he thinks her last month at the CDC should be May. I was sort of taken aback at this. She hasn't even been there a year, why would I take her out now? Then I realized why he said May. We are planning on going back home for a long vacation in June and if I'm not mistaken, we will probably have to pay while we are gone to hold her spot. That tacks on another $300 to the vaca budget, which is lame. Not that we wouldn't be spending it if we weren't on vacation, but... You get the idea. If I homeschool her in order to get her into kindergarten a year early, when she is almost five, I will have to start this fall, when she is almost four. Yikes, my kid is almost four! I guess I just didn't realize it was that imminent. 

So I found a website I like and printed out a bunch of information. The website Time4Learning was suggested on that website for curriculum and also recommended by my friend Jenni, who is homeschooling her daughter as well, but for other reasons. I need to talk to the school district here and see what the rules are and what kind of testing she would need in order to be able to attend kindergarten when I want her to as well. If I can just keep her at the CDC and work with her here and there on our time and have her test anyway, I would like that the most. 

I've even contemplated applying at the CDC, which I believe would get me even cheaper rates if not free, or maybe volunteering. I have the sub job already, and it's nice and everything, but if I homeschool, I won't be able to do it anyway. At the CDC, I'd be around younger kids, which I am fond of. Little kids like me too, always have. 

If I don't keep her in the CDC, I could search for a part time preschool program somewhere to balance out the mommy time. Now that she is mostly potty trained, it's a lot easier to find something. There is one at the gymnastics place downtown that is $200 per month, three days a week, from either 8:30-11:30am or 12-3pm. (They should trade me preschool for website work...) I also know a few gals on base here doing the in home daycare thing and could probably work out a part time or as needed schedule with them given they have the openings. One elementary school has a Pre-K program as far as I can tell from the district website, despite a directory site saying all the elementary schools offer it. There are a bunch of "private" schools, all of which, of course, are church-y. There are a few others that are the local drop in places, and a few that are just "private" preschools with no religious affiliation I can tell; Falls Junior Academy, Discoveryland and the Montessori school. 

Part of this is also that recurring back and forth desire to spend more or less time with her. It was all the time with her when she was born, then I started working again, then hub left and it was just us. I took her out of daycare before we moved here and it carried on in the first few months we were here. When there was an opening at the CDC, I had just gotten the sub position so it seemed logical to put her back in daycare otherwise I wouldn't be able to work. I'm not working as much as I originally planned and, as I mentioned before, sucking at school. Now there's the nagging feeling in the back of my head that I should spend more time with her again, especially with all this homeschool talk.

I love that little bug so much and I just want good things for her. I want her to be smart, successful and have the opportunities to do whatever she wants. I want to be there for her, but not be all up in her business. I want to be a good momma, but how to go about that best right now is somewhat unclear.

Fat Tuesday!

The original plan was to go out for dinner this evening, but there was only this one expensive place doing a buffet and this Cajun place that's not very good but would surely be packed. So I did some recipe hunting and did my own Mardi Gras dinner! I made a king cake, chicken étouffée, corn fritters and we are mixing up cheap hurricanes with Hawaiian punch and rum. Happy Mardi Gras!

Tuition Assistance...

... finally hit the bank account!
The plan is to pay off debts, purchase glasses and obtain something to work out on. There was an elliptical on sale at sears for a friggin' steal, so pending pickup, that part is done. (The theory behind this is that if it is staring me in the face, it will be easy to get on it every day.) Glasses are more complex, as I am very picky about how they look on me and I want to shop around since the damn insurance doesn't cover any of it. Debts are hub's repo, my credit card and an extremely past due daycare balance back home I keep forgetting about.
There are also some family members we sort of owe money to also, but two of the three parties have repeatedly said to not "worry about it" and in my book that means consider it a gift. The third party was going to get repaid, but due to recent events, that indirectly became classified as a "don't worry about it" also.
How ironic that on the night I actually got the money to pay my uncle back, his battle with cancer ended up taking a turn for the worse. Sadly to say, he is no longer with us, but I am confident that, when compared to how he was living his last days, his soul must have gone someplace better. Rest in peace, A-Bill, and thank you dearly for helping Troy and I out when we needed it.
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Fudgey Cappuccino Crinkles

I was in a mood to bake. Well, not so much bake as use my stand mixer. The result is both delicious and low fat! (BHG cookbook, 12th edition, page 217) Also, I need to name my stand mixer. I love him so much!

Lunch Report

The Healthy Choice General Tso's Chicken Steamer is way delicious. The right amount of spicy for me to drink a whole glass of milk and an adequate chicken to veggie ratio, despite my dislike of peas. I ate them anyway.

And on the other side of the table, hub and bug are enjoying some green eggs and ham!

Why the hell can't I do this?

This is my wall next to my computer. I see it every day and I know why I put these papers here. On these papers is my entire course schedule of the four classes I'm taking online thru Fort Hays State University. Intro to computer information systems, elements of statistics, ethical issues in the professions and business and intro to sociology, each their own column, left to right. These are calendars I personally set up inside google with every assignment, test, discussion board and reading I am supposed to do. I set them up to not only print out this master schedule of everything in the proper order, but also to email myself reminders when things are coming up due, typically in increments of 3 days before and 10 hours before. So the combination of this being in my direct line of sight on a daily basis and the slew of emails bombarding my inbox should be enough for me to actually be able to do the work on time. Yet I suck and cannot seem to keep my dates straight or my time zones and am beginning to think I should just scrap this semester and plead insanity.

I am going to bring all of this up at my crazy doctor appointment on Thursday and see if we are ready to move forward with my neuropsych evaluation. The new meds are good so far and I have noticed I'm not as moody and am freaking out over small things less, but I still can't seem to wrap my head around the simple self organization of doing ALL of my homework ON time and getting a damn degree already. I've changed majors to something I'm really getting interested in, sociology, yet somehow my kid has been sick every other week and indirectly overthrown my mental focus causing me to miss like everything that's been substantial grade wise in the FIRST class of my new major. My instructor is also my advisor and I have asked for some advising. I don't want to screw up my financial aid for next semester, but it's looking like I might just have to withdraw from a class or two.

Ideally, the neuropsych evaluation will say I am nuts and there's actually something wrong with the wiring that is making what used to be easy so daunting and I'll be able to hook up on some ADA compliance shit with the FHSU DSS office. If the advisor advice and/or discovering my own mental deficiencies don't set things in the right direction, I'm ready to be completely done with college.

About damn time...

I googled the croup crap Lilah is supposed to have and it said that if the fever comes back after it's been gone for 24 hours, another call to the doc is in order. We went to the walk in clinic over by the hospital and the lady listened to her and said that it sounded like she'd been coughing her head off and that it sounded kinda gross in one of her lungs. Gross in the lung is doctor speak for bronchitis. They put in a prescription for Zithromax, which is apparently the uber antibiotic. It's cherry flavored, so I gotta give them props for that. She will probably have to stay home again tomorrow, but by Monday she should be fine. She just coughed up some snotty lemonade grossness. *cringe* Words cannot describe how much I love my husband for being the cleaner of gross things. I can handle blood, but anything else is like ewie.

Lunch Report

The Healthy Choice Mediterranean lemon garlic chicken and shrimp was significantly more bland than I would have liked. Not very lemony or garlicy either. I finally made some tea and I've been using my Splenda with fiber in it instead of sugar. Now I'm sending hub to the store for Indian food fixins, Italian soup stuff and beer. No, we aren't partying, I just need to make some bread!

Also, Lilah is sick still. She didn't have a fever yesterday, but was rockin' 103 this morning again. My poor bug! 

I'm going to try and commit to this blogging thing...

I used to update my livejournal quite a bit, but someone hacked it and deleted all my cool user pics and changed the display one to a rather crude, graphic depiction of fornication. I'll probably still bitch occasionally on there about more personal things, but this is going to be out for everyone to see.

It's good for me to get my thoughts out of my head sometimes. I set up both the mobile feature where I can text to post AND the email feature where I can email a secret email address to post, so I have no excuse to not do this. I hopefully can remember to journal my dreams this way, take pictures of fabulous dinners I cook or capture Lilah being adorable and share it with the universe. We will see how it goes.

The first thing I am going to share is the recipe for naan I found. It's delicious. I made it for the first time topped with minced garlic on Saturday night to consume with Chicken Tikka Masala. I made it again tonight, topped with squeeze basil and fresh cracked black pepper to accompany the spaghetti and homemade meatballs.

And yes, I said squeeze basil... If you have never experienced the majesty of squeeze herbs, go check it out now! Click on the image or here to visit the Gourmet Garden website. They have 11 herbs (Basil, Chili Pepper, Cilantro, Dill, Garlic & Chunky Garlic, Ginger, Italian Herbs, Lemon Grass, Oregano and Parsley) and 6 blended varieties (Thai, Mediterranean, Moroccan, Mexican, Steak and Poultry) although I've never seen the blends anywhere and also have yet to see Chunky Garlic, Oregano or Parsley.