Monsters

I have been noticing that our house must be haunted, or possibly we have some invisible monsters that only come out when I'm not in the room (I guess they wouldn't need to be invisible then....). Whenever I go out of the room after folding a load of laundry, I come back and my piles are destroyed. Since I know that my kids would NEVER be messy or make extra work for me, I have concluded that, like I said, our house must be haunted with some angry ghosts.

Again with the Migraines

I love it when I get a comment requesting more information on something that I talked about. It is interesting to think about people (I mean those other then Kyle, who comments on everything) reading my blog. Thanks Christine for the question to get me typing some more.

The new medication that I have started for the bane of my health is Atenolol (ah-TEN-o-lol). They warned me about certain side effects. But so far I haven't felt any difference. The Doctor said that I would feel lethargic, perhaps a bit of dizziness, and easily light-headed. So far I really havn't felt anything, so I wonder if the doctor will increase my dosage (I have an appointment for a physical in the middle of December, I'll probably have a lot to talk about after that). It is a beta-blocker, which means that it is primarily used for treating angina and high blood pressure. It works by lowering the blood pressure, reducing the amount of work that the heart has to do. I'm not sure why, possibly something to do with the way that atenolol interacts with the blood vessels on the surface of the brain, where migraine pain is from. My doctor was saying that he has had some great success helping people with this drug, but sometimes finding the right dosage can sometime be a little tricky.

The great thing about the atenolol, I can still take my zomig as needed. And even Tylenol (the wussy drug) whenever I might feel something. The only interesting thing is that I can't take ibuprophen (Advil) any more.

Cooking

I have been watching some episodes of Iron Chef America lately. I really like seeing what happens when professional chefs work to put 5 dishes together in 60 minutes. The effort that goes into each dish, and the detail that they pay attention to when they are plating. (I kinda like that Bobby Flay usually looses. On the show he seems a little too smug and pompous.) It always makes me want to walk out to the kitchen and try some of what they do. However, on the show the pros have 2 sous chefs. My 2 sous chefs have a little less of an attention span. They are really great at wisking, but they need a little more work on reaching things in the fridge (they tend to get too many things out). Of course, them not being allowed to touch the stove really cramps their cooking style. I think Ryan is destined for more along the lines of Southwestern flavors, but Holly really like Eastern cuisine.

Kyle, Kyle, oh, Kyle.

Sitcom - A situation comedy (Think Friends, typically filmed with four camera, hence the episode of Scrubs entitled "My Life in Four Cameras").

From IMDB - Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Genre: Action, Drama, Fantasy, Horror.

Calling Buffy a sitcom is like saying roasting is the same thing as searing.

Oh Kyle, I can see I still have so much left to teach you.

Well, there isn't anything to report about the success of the new medication. The king of the potato people told me not to worry about the tu-tu's falling off of the dancing pink elephants.

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(Dictionary links provided for Kyle!)
I have been watching another show that Kyle is going to mock me out for indulging in. But I know a couple other people that are into Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so I feel a little solidarity. I have made it through the first two seasons and I am already impressed by the evolution of the show. The character development has been enjoyable as well, when the show started Buffy was a somewhat insolent, self-absorbed and depressed character(well, she was a sixteen year old girl starting at a new high school). But by the end of the second season Buffy and her friends have all been through some entertaining, enjoyable and sometimes disgusting adventures. I seriously enjoy when the episodes are not all independent stories, but they are subtly interconnected (Early in the first season there is an obsessed cheerleader Mom that switches bodies with her daughter to "relive" her glory days, but when dust from the fighting settles the Mom is trapped for eternity as the metal figure on top of a cheerleading trophy. Late in the second season, one of the new recurring characters is standing in front of the trophy swaying from side to side and expresses his amazement at the fact that the trophy's eyes seem to follow you. That kind of thing is awesome, it only takes a couple seconds on the show, but seriously tickles me.)
But something that I didn't really think about until I read an article in Entertainment Weekly. The article was reviewing Buffy the Vampire Slayer - The Chosen. It is a boxed DVD set that, I think, contains all the episodes from all seven season. But in the article they talk about how a lot of the plots are allegories for teen issues. One of the most overt of these types of plots was when a girl who was ignored, and seriously left out of everything turned invisible. If you are not familiar with the show, the town is built on a hellmouth: A convergence of mystical energy that means that freaky and bizarre things are pretty commonplace. More allegories include episodes where the swim team's coach is giving them all inhaled steroids, and they start turning into real monsters. Or when Buffy sleeps with her boyfriend, he is transformed into a violent demon. But the lore that is slowly introduced (there is potential for some overloaded viewers) is nice. Like the fact that vampires disintegrate when exposed to sunlight. Or turn to ash when you stake them, or that they can't come into your home unless you invite them. And some of them drive around during the day, but their cars have all blacked out windows to keep the pesky sunlight out. Fun times.

Short update.

For the second time in two weeks the entire town that I live in has no water. Last week it was a water main break, but this week I haven't bothered to call about it yet. We are lucky that I have a big water container that I used to use for camping, now we just keep it filled in the bathroom closet. It is only about 5 gallons, so it is only good for 2 or 3 flushes, but that is better then nothing. You never realize the luxury of flushing a toilet until you are staring down wondering how long it will be before you can press the lever and make it go away.

We have a water reserve for the kitchen a couple gallons worth of water in assorted sizes of containers. It is usually enough for a day or two for the 4 of us. We have enough milk, and juice to help ease the burden of water.

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On a completely different topic, I have started on a prescription for migraine prevention. After 4 fruitless visits to the chiropractor I decided that enough was enough (I decided while in bed with a migraine, after I had ran out of the prescription that I take as needed for the pain). I had tried the chiropractor because I had luck ten years ago (seriously, a decade???!!!!) with accupressure and massage, but I didn't seem to have any luck this time. The chiropractor was very knowledgeable and I think I would recommend a visit to most people I know because he was just what I needed to help with back pain, and he had this massage type of machine that he called a G-5. Wow, it was great.

The medicine that I am on now is actually an accidental migraine prevention tool which should take one or two weeks to reach it's full effectiveness. I have slightly high blood pressure too, which is actually good, because the drug is a beta-blocker which lowers the blood pressure. It just means that now I have to be all attentive to other drugs that I take. For example, no more ibuprophen for me. And certain cough and cold drugs are listed on the printout as possible to cause complications. Fun, fun, fun.

Money

I have decided that, should I ever become independently wealth, I will not change my standard of living at all, except I will wear brand-new socks every day. There is nothing at all in the world like sliding your foot into a virgin sock.

Trees

I was thinking today while I was driving in to work. Strange habit, I know.

I was thinking about something that I never really noticed before. I guess before I couldn't see the trees for the forest. I was thinking about how different trees loose their leaves at different times. Beyond this being an incredibly obvious statement, I was seeing that some trees have completely lost their leaves, not a single one is left. The tree that is next to our house, however, has lost hardly any leaves at all. It is pretty interesting that trees, like people, have their own timetable on when it is time to shed their leaves.

Kiddos

It is funny how Ryan and Holly have developed somewhat complimentary personalities. For example: take you typical Bologna sandwich. To a normal individual this would be a meal or at least a snack. For Holly and Ryan the first order of business with a sandwich is to dismantle it. This activity sometimes make me wonder why I don't just put all the sandwich pieces separately on their plates and save everyone some time.

Another example is at storytime at the library. Michelle's storytimes are REALLY gaining in popularity now that they word is spreading about how the kids all get a few stories, and then do a craft at the end. The first couple weeks there was only a total (including Holly and Ryan) of 4 kids. But some people must have found out and spread the word (they keep approaching and complimenting Michelle after the program) and now they are averaging 8 to 10 kids. I'm sure that it is going to even grow a little more, but I wouldn't be surprised if it topped out around 15. What a major success it would be if she had to schedule another time to accommodate all the kids who want to come in. Anyway, it is a great thing to see Holly and Ryan interacting with the other kids, especially this other little girl that always give Holly a hug before leaving.

And another, it struck me, when talking to Holly at 10:15pm this evening, trying to convince her that sleep was really not something that Michelle and I cooked up to just to make children angry, that despite Holly and Ryan coming in to see Michelle and I bleary-eyed in bed in the morning, they think that we don't really sleep. It makes sense, I mean, we put them in bed first, and then come out and watch TV and make a general amount of noise and they fall asleep and THEN we go to bed, so they don't realize that we eventually turn the lights off and turn in ourselves.

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I wish I had a better memory, maybe I should start doing mental exercises (brain push-ups?) to work on that. For years I have insisted, to many a rolled-eye and "yeah, okay!" that I have had and forgotten more great and interesting ideas than most people have in a lifetime.

I just wish I could remember more then I do. I have tons of things I wish I blogged about, but when I don't write them down it evaporates before I can sit and document it. I really need to buy a notepad or something.