Like a turtle

I spent almost three hours of my afternoon yesterday flat on my back in an MRI.  I was previously unaware that getting an MRI done isn't exactly like having a snapshot taken with a camera.  I've had a CAT scan before but I don't remember that taking nearly as long.

I had to get three actual MRIs (MRI pictures? Not sure what the nomenclature is) done and each one took around 45 minutes.  I had to hold perfectly still and lay on my back.  These are not things I am good at.  By the end of the day my back was about to spasm into the next solar system.

They say that these magnetic fields and radio frequencies don't affect you biologically, but I swear I could feel it.  It wasn't unpleasant and it was a hell of a lot more comfortable than the contrast they inject/make you drink when you need a CAT scan.  That stuff makes you feel like you're peeing your pants.  The MRI made me feel like I was shifting a few inches to the side out of my body.

I didn't get to take any reading material in there with me so I just dozed off and thought about random bits of nothing the whole time.

I hope I never have to do that again.  I ran out of stuff to think about by the end.

I don't get to find out what the results are for another two weeks.  So in the meantime I have to continue not moving around too much because my knee has gotten so bad that even walking across the office sets it off.  Not being able to exercise is driving me crazy.  So much for getting on my skates again.

Ugh.  I just know I'll need surgery or something on my knee.  Ugh.  Ugh.  Ugh.  And again, ugh.

Mama Thursday (Friday) - Week 41: The Home Stretch, and Cake

The past couple of weeks have been filled with sickness and exhaustion. Lily started running a fever and had a terrible runny/stuffy nose. She's always a little trooper, my ray of sunshine, even when she's sick. She puts on a happy face for as long as she can stand it and goes about her business of being cute and playing with toys.  The only time we really know that something is going on with her is when she gets very quiet.

We finally brought her to the doctor when the daycare lady said she was running a temp of almost 104.  She had previously peaked at around 101 but Tylenol took care of it.  Turns out she had a double ear infection.  I experienced the mother's guilt of "why didn't I take her in sooner!" and "how did I not know?" and all that.  The truth is that she never gave us any indication that her ears were bothering her.  It just looked like a bad cold.

I got sick about half a week after she did.  I ended up with a sinus infection.  So between us there was a lot of antibiotics, Kleenex, poop, and snot.  Poor Husband got to walk into a cloud of infirmity every day after work.  No wonder he got sick too.

We're all better now and I can focus on Lily's birthday party this weekend.

Can we talk about cake for a minute?  I was trying to decide what kind of cake to make and of course stumbled across a bunch of parenting sites.  Apparently people aren't supposed to make "real" cake for their babies anymore.  You're supposed to make some kind of pseudocake with carrots and no sugar and some kind of mashed banana glaze stuff instead of frosting (!).

Screw that.  You had cake on your first birthday.  I had cake on my first birthday.  Your parents and grandparents had cake on their birthdays.  We all survived and were happier for it.  Lily is getting a white cake with raspberry filling and cream cheese frosting.  It's going to be a two tier affair and the entire 6" top tier is all hers.  Sugar and all.

Dear guy in the elevator this morning

I thought you and I had a moment.  A human connection.  Especially since you were talking to the other guy who just stepped off the elevator not a moment before.  So when you said, "Okay..." and I said, "Yeah, ha ha!" I thought you were referring to the abnormally long time the elevator was taking to get moving again.

Turns out you were just a douche with a Bluetooth device for his phone.  Fuck you and the weird look you gave me, douchebag.

Love,
PPC

Foodie Tuesday: A Triumphant Return

I haven't cooked anything of note lately because of a wave of sickness that has come over our house.  I finally made a couple of decent meals this week.

First: Herbed Pasta Primavera.  I don't remember where I found this recipe but evidently it's all over the Internet.  I used whole wheat linguine, fresh pea pods, and cashews.  I'm eating the leftovers for lunch right now.

Next: Baked Sesame Teriyaki Tofu Over Veggies and Rice

Holy crap was this good.  Husband declared the tofu to be the best ever, and it's really hard to get a tofu compliment out of him.  Our new rice cooker/steamer makes the BEST rice.  This was just awesome all around.

I had leftover parts from the pasta primavera so I thinly cut a carrot on the bias, cut half a pound of asparagus into 1" pieces, and sliced up a red bell pepper.  The wok was already out so I stir fried these in a little oil and finished them off with salt, pepper, cayenne, fresh grated ginger, and chopped green onions.

I had a little incident where I dropped half of the veggies on the floor but I managed to rinse them off and re-wok-ify them after plenty of swearing and pushing the dog away.  By the way, we're fostering a dog who has an unnatural taste for vegetables.

This went over a pile of sticky white rice and was topped off by the tofu.  It was lovely and filling and light and wonderful.  The only change I made to the tofu recipe was brushing both sides with sesame oil.  Because sesame oil is the shit.  Oh, and I just used plain ol' Kikkoman teriyaki sauce.

This would make an awesome bento lunch.

Our day has come!

I've been a little behind as far as the news goes lately because of a sick kid.  I just found out yesterday that US health care reform passed.  I'm ecstatic!  Finally!  Common decency rules!

I've been reading the details here.  It's a remarkably neutral article on the subject and I highly recommend it.

I'm not seeing anything bad here.  I hope someone can explain to me what all the politicized hoopla is about.  I wish the banning of pre-existing condition exclusions for adults would happen sooner than 2014 but I suppose beggars can't be choosers in this world of Tea Party imbeciles and lobbyist succubi.

Don't let them win

I'm officially declaring this week Positivity Week.

The weather has really started to turn around in much of the Northern Hemisphere. It's time to shake off the winter grumpiness and effect some positivity in our lives.

Things to be positive about:
1. You're alive!
2. You have Internet access!
3. You can change your mood right now, and possibly someone else's, for the better!

Things you can do:
1. Compliment someone. Send someone an email, SMS, Twitter, or leave a comment on their blog. Or use your mouth. Tell them how much you appreciate them. No need to write a novel, just tell them in a few words.
2. Write a positive affirmation (Google it) on a sticky note and put it on your monitor. Better yet, put one on someone else's monitor.
3. Wish a stranger on the street a good day.
4. Buy a coffee for the person in line behind you at the coffee shop.
5. Smile for no reason at all.

DO IT! Happy Positivity Week!

Good News Monday

...because this DST is making everyone cranky.  I'm keepin' things positive for once.

• This evil cold/Death Plague is finally on the upswing.
• Tomorrow's my birthday.
• Wednesday is St. Patty's Day and I took the day off.  I'll be with my MNRG homies in the St. Paul parade and then I'll be hanging out with Husband and his brother afterward.  Then home to our annual Irish feast!
• I'm giving blood on Thursday and that always puts me in a good mood.
• The weather in Minneapolis has been beautiful!  We took a long walk yesterday and we had to unzip our hoodies.
• Apart from the 2 AM intestinal distress it caused (silly PPC, you're still lactose intolerant), I had some really great ginger ice cream from Pumphouse Creamery during our walk.
• I'm so stoked to make Lily's birthday cake.  THAT'S RIGHT, I SAID "STOKED".
• Crazy Bread tomorrow!  Hot damn I love me some Crazy Bread.

Someday I'll try a full dose just for fun

I was home sick yesterday because I felt like absolute crap on a stick dipped in more crap.  My throat felt like I was swallowing razor blades and needles.  My head felt like it was going to float right off my body.  Then later in the evening the aches and pains started.  Ugh.

My throat is still raw today and my voice is in and out but at least I don't feel like I'm tripping balls anymore.  I think I drank about a gallon of ginger tea yesterday, no joke.

I took half a dose of Sominex and went to sleep at 8:00.  You know what's messed up?  Hearing Wall-E in the background when you're in a sleeping pill haze.  Those robotic voices aren't so cute when you're half cocked.  Sominex also makes everything I hear seem to be REALLY LOUD so I'm grateful that when I slurred at Husband to turn the TV down he actually turned it off and went to sleep.

I kept waking up all night long, as I am wont to do anyway, because evidently my body thinks that sleep is overrated these days.  Mostly I kept waking up because the dog was creeping further and further up the bed and trying to actually sleep on my pillow.  Again, not what you want to experience when you're high on Sominex and exhausted.

Let's see if I make it through the day.

Foodie Tuesday: Not On Your Life

Look at this.  Just look at it.

This picture has been living on our camera for a while.  This is something that my husband actually ate.  This is: haggis, eggs, and garlic mashed potatoes on toast.

I opted out of this one.

The beginning of the end

Dear body,

I haven't officially turned 30 yet, so could you please hold off on the random and unexplainable aches and pains for another week?

Love,
Me

Last week's exercise report

Last week was a total failure.

Monday: lazy and sore
Tuesday: lazy
Wednesday: HIIT 60/120 x5
Thursday: jogged 1 mile
Friday: sore!

My knee and ankle were KILLING ME all week. 

It is a new week.  Time to start cracking down.  I'm going to start going to derby practice this week too.

Probably never

I am on the precipice of thirty. 

I have a house, a husband, a child, a dog, three vehicles, and a career.

At what point am I supposed to start feeling like an adult?  Because I still feel like I'm somewhere in the vicinity of fourteen.

Mama Thursday: Week 49 - Holy crap it's birthday month

Lily is almost one.

We've kept her alive for almost one whole year!  With very few bumps and bruises!  If she was a peach she would be moved to the bargain bin and NOT the compost!

I have received validation from the daycare lady that she is, in fact, Very Very Smart.  It's not only her parents and her grandma saying these things anymore.

She scribbled with chalk the other day.  Chalk!  We're excited about chalk scribbles!

She is also extremely good at sharing.  She shares her toys with the other daycare kids.  She shares her toys with me.  She shares her Cheerios with me and the dog (she LOVES this).  I'm excited to not have the selfish child at school in the future.

I sorta kinda have a plan for her birthday.  Sort of.  I am way less stressed about it than before because Lily's birthday is exactly one day after my niece's.  Lily's birthday falls on a Monday so we can't do anything that day because she still goes to sleep at 6:00 PM and there's just no keeping her awake past that.  She's very stubborn about her beauty rest.  So Mama has been stressed about taking the thunder out of my niece's birthday but it turns out that it's no big deal anyway.

Then there's the problem of where the heck we are going to have this shindig.  Our house holds maybe four other adults besides ourselves.  We need to provide food and shelter for potentially 22 humans.  That's only immediate family.  The location needs to be neutral so there's no weirdness on either family side.  I have an idea for this that is actually cheap and doesn't involve overpriced crappy food or animatronic creatures.  It doesn't need to be an all-day affair, just a couple of hours, some grub, and a very cute baby in a very cute tutu.

My birthday is also this month, two weeks before Lily's.  That's a whole other thing.

I need a list

…that tells me, moment to moment, what I need to be doing at all times.  My mind is mush and it's difficult to do little more than stare at my keyboard today.