new years resolution

I already have my resolution for 2010.

I resolve to perform at least one hour of yard work per non-rainy weekday, every day that I am home. (can't promise it if I am out of town, sorry).

Between raking, mowing, composting, and removing weeds, this shouldn't be too difficult. The only hard part is sticking to it. I started today even though it was Saturday, it was a great day to start.

In other news, dear daughter and I rescued 13 earthworms from certain death in the gutter. The heavy rain last night was enough to drive a bunch of worms out of the ground, and many ended up drowning in the collected water. The baker's dozen I got surely would have perished when the rainwater dried up. Now they have a comfortable home in my worm bin, eating apple cores, banana peels, orange rinds and bread crusts. Yay worms!

how am I doing?

Pretty good actually. I got my book club book on Monday, and had it finished by Wednesday noon, six hours to spare for book club. Not only that, it was WOnderful, and I never would have picked it on my own, but that is WHY I love book club so much, because I get introduced to these great reads. This one was Sleeping with Schubert by Bonnie Marsden and it was about a woman who becomes co-inhabited by the spirit (mind?) of Franz Schubert. I like some classical music, love music in general, so the premise was appealing, the characters were well-drawn, not always like-able, but realistic, and the writing was very good, fast paced, II never got bored. Do I believe in spirits coinhabiting one body or a 'walk-in' phenomenon if you prefer? I have no opinion to its validity. It hasn't happened to me or anyone I know, but I cannot discount its possibility.
The christmas present acquisition is going slow. I have become reclusive, and so that means I haven't been going out to shop. I know I need to, but I may have to torture my housemates (husband and daughter, not cats) by bringing them along, just to get enough energy to do it. I could use the help. However, I did order stuff on-line, and I did wrap what I have at home, so I am doing well, I think.
I unpacked from the last trip and washed all the laundry. didn't necessarily put it all away...but I just have to pack again anyway, so why NOT let it sit on my bed another night or two rather than having a fun sleepover in the drawers. Think of it as camping...for clothing. Weird, I know.
I did do some fun things: I watched a DVD I have had for two years, and now I finally saw it. I also put on my Vince Guiraldi (Peanuts Christmas) CD because it is the ONE that makes me think of the upcoming season with fondness, nostalgia, and the true meaning of giving gifts. May that peace be with me (and you!) as we shop in the next week...

to do for the next two

I am off on another trip in just eleven days, so not even two weeks. I have a lot to do in that time, also, with Christmas coming up fast...
1. I have to get presents for people out of state
2. Wrap these presents
3. Send these presentses
4. Have to call my cousin and verify that I don't have to buy, wrap, send for her kids. Email may work
5. MUST make a photo book at Snapfish for a gift before December 2nd, because it is half off then. Rachel Ray special was a 50% off coupon, and that photo book would be good for the uncles.
6. Must read my book club book by December 3rd. (Don't have it yet, but did order it)
7. fix the cat's water fountain.
8. LAundry
9. Pack for trip
10. go to the bank so I have money for the trip
11. not forget Daisy Scouts on Wednesdays.
12 mount my Magellan GPS on my dashboard.
13 unpack from the last trip
14. make parking reservations for the trip.
15 clean up my email and trip email so I can post on the trip
16 make sure my netbook is set up for email to send and receive

I think thats all for now, but I am sure I will think of more things.
In the mean time, its good to be home. Its soooo good to be in my bed. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming swimming swimming, what do we do? we swim..swim

phone numbers

I have still so much crap on my desk...like phone numbers from twenty years ago!
From former coworkers who not only haven't worked where I worked seven years ago, but had moved on to other jobs other cities, even other careers.
Why haven't I trashed these numbers? So that I can remember Jody had a memorable one (pallindromic!) when she lived in Florida?
I have the number for AT&T written out! Don't they just provide it with every bill they send?!
1-866-286-3443
Go ahead!
The slimshots number is 1-888-312-3232 but it won't help, because they don't really work.
I even have a phone book with numbers from classmates. Only one hasn't changed, and even that one is iffy in this age of cell phones. Not many land lines left. I guess I am old school.

how did I do?

How did I do on my to-do list?
Well, I finished the one batch of minis and I'm doing well on this weeks batch
Didn't win a thing on ebay this week, got outbid on every single ipod. Of course, I don't want to spend much. Rethinking. May have to just sell mine for parts to someone else!
I did do more painting in the kitchen, finishing the three of four corners - not bad!
Finally finished grouting. yes, there is one little spot I missed, but do not care to do any more.
Even finished grouting the project. Pictures to come later.
didn't finish the self hypnosis project
didn't write my letter
didn't do any studying
read two books. Oops, that wasn't on the to do list!
I Did start the crocheting
and I did start the surfboard work (see redtekbek blog)
Pressure washing? Pah! the weather was too good for something that dirty and boring.
Overall, not bad.

todo list for 2nd week of Nov09

Here is my to do list for the coming week:

Minis (of course, as I actually get paid for them)
Ebay (still looking for an ipod cheap for parts to fix one I have)
the kid's laundry
finish painting the corners of the kitchen
finish grouting the back-splash (there are just a few touchups that need done)
as well as grout (with the same stuff) my art project that I did this weekend (mosaic birdbath). Maybe I will take pictures of it and post it.
Letter to my Denver aunt and uncle
finish writing my self-hypnosis dialogue
record myself reading my self-hypnosis dialogue without actually hypnotizing myself while reading it. That'll be tricky
read more continuing education material for my licence
start crocheting a baby blanket for a friend
fix the surfboard
and
pressure wash the outside of the house

dosage

Now here is a sad story...
I have a slip of paper that I used to work out the dosage (concentration) of Codeine in generic Tylenol #3 for kids. The reason I did this is because when my daughter broke her arm, I went to the pharmacy and got the prescribed pain medication for her and dosed her. However, it became very clear that the pharmacy solution was not controlling her pain. We were all hazy, sleep deprived and worried, and so it took a little while to understand that there wasn't enough acetaminophen in her Tylenol. I didn't want to overdose her, because acetaminophen can easily be fatal if you double up doses. Neither did I want to OD her on the codeine part, even though I have a suspicion that she is resistant to opioids (as is her father and his mother). How does one test this, anyway, except by horrible trial and error. So I finally had the sense to google the dose concentration to figure out how much she was getting.

There was 120mg of acetaminophen and 12mg of codeine per 5 mL dose, and she was only allowed one dose per six hours. Well...120 is well below the recommended dose for regular tylenol. So no wonder she was getting no pain relief. Especially if she couldn't get help from the codeine. I switched her to plain tylenol and got much better pain control.
So that left this nice bottle of #3, if I could figure out how to use it. I calculated that an adult could take a 15mL dose up to six times a day (every four hours) with no toxic effect. So we saved it for possible future use.

So trust your gut, but do the math to confirm.

A Poem

I had forgotten about this, but this is a poem Brianna made up about her Gramma:

Grammas

They don't like to sleep in a tent
They don't want to sleep in a car
They'd rather sleep in a hotel
Preferably at least three star


Can you tell my daughter has been on a few trips?!

Also the SpongeBob Lyrics:
Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?
SpongeBob SquarePants
Absorbent and yellow and porous is he?
SBSQ
If Nautical Nonsense is something you wish
Then Drop on the Deck and Flop like a fish
etc..

Now you know

my favorite shorts ever

I still have my favorite shorts, but the fabric is so thin in some places that you can read newsprint through it. Of course they were bought a decade ago. And the brand-name of the tag was cut off because they were purchased at Beall's Outlet or someplace like it where they are allowed to resell it as long as its not branded. I would love to find another pair just like them, but I think I am out of luck. Just in case, here are the numbers from the remaining tag:

RN# 42340
Style W5415328
Color Seacrest
UPC:03979416774

And, yes, I did look up the UPC, but there was no listing.

See, I warned you that this blog might be lame!

anime list

Okay! Okay! I am on a roll here, people. I also have been reading too much Barbara Park lately. My next random slip of paper is my list of Anime movies or series that I at least want to see, if not own. This is compiled from other people's lists and descriptions that interested me. It is not meant to be any kind of definitive list of good anime, just my personal interest list. Feel free to comment if you think any are particularly good or should be avoided.

Perfect Blue
Ninja Scroll
Akira
Shinkai Collection
Voices of a Distant Star
The Place Promised in Our Early Days
Final Fantasy Spirits Within
Origin Spirits of the Past
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
Steinboy
OOOPS, that's Steamboy, cannot read my own writing, altho' maybe steinboy might be good
Wings of Hohneamise
Metropolis
Mushi-shi
Tokyo Godfathers
Kanon
and of course, High School Rumble

okay, I'm back

I had abandoned this blog, but didn't want to dismantle it. Now I have a new purpose for it. I am going to make this my mental bulletin board, my virtual post-it note for things that I have on annoying little slips of paper in my house that I cannot keep track of. I hope that if I post them here, then maybe I don't need to keep the little lists and oughta-do's that litter my workspace. So, if you care to read it, I won't stop you. I will just warn you: This will be the blog that other bloggers warn you about...the one where I may inventory my lunch, or my closet or other mind numbingly boring things like that. I may still crack a joke here or there, but don't count on understanding my humor.

Now that you've been warned, onto the first boring posting:

My Cox communications McAfee antivirus receipt number is 4621801600065825201151106
Now why in the bluddyfuk do I need a receipt number for something that I get FREE included with my internet. Don't get me wrong, I mostly rely on virusscan to keep the badbugs out of my hard drive. But seriously, a receipt?!? WHat am I going to do? Call up Cox and say, 'well my receipt number is this, so fix my computer!' They will laugh and say, 'just download McAfee again and get another receipt number.' That I felt the need to write the number down on a piece of paper just shows my insecurity about security. Okay. One down, a thousand more to go

Last Dance

I don't want to delete this blog. After all, it has some of my favorite things on it. I really just meant to change the name. Being new to blogging, I couldn't really figure out how to do that and get away from the old name without really screwing it all up. So, I am closing down this blog, and now writing new posts at: www.redtekbek.blogspot.com
After all, I haven't worked at the hospital lab in six years, haven't seen Vance in ten , and haven't called my husband a 'butthead' in fifteen years. So the old name is old news. Out with the old.
In with the new!
I will try to post more often!
I will try to finish writing about my trip that happened a Freakin' Year ago!
I will try to finish captioning my photos, sending links, and ordering prints about the trip on Snapfish!
Really!
You believe me, right?

ABC's of me

A - Age: 40
B - Bed size: queen
C - Chore you hate: scrubbing the floor
D - Dad's Name: William
E - Essential start your day item: Coffee
F - Favorite actor(s): Scarlett Johansen
G - Goal you've set: Decluttering the house more (yay freecycle)
H - Height: 5'5"
I - Instruments you play(ed): flute and guitar
J - Job title: Craft Painter/SAHM
K - Kid(s): Brianna
L - Lasting Memory: the sky at Turn-Again Arm looked just like a Maxfield Parrish painting.
M - Mom's name: Katherine
N - Nicknames: Bec, Rebec, Becca
O - Overnight hospital stay other than birth: Splenectomy
P - Pet Peeve(s): intollerant people, typing errors and other computer junk like popups and spam
Q - Quotes you like: "Together we stand, divided we fall" trite, but still true
R - Right or left handed: right, but pretty good with my left, too
S - Siblings: 2 awesome step-brothers
T - Traits—good or bad ones? Good: I'm a peace-maker, I like finding solutions. Bad: still swear too much, but it is getting better
V - Vegetable you hate: yellow and/or crook-neck squash, turnips suck too.
W - Worst Habit: keeping too many papers, books, magazines and procrastination about everything, including throwing stuff out.
X - X-rays you've had: left wrist twice, right collarbone
Y - Yummy food you make: thanksgiving turkey w/everything, chicken divan
Z - Zodiac: Leo (traditional) Monkey (chinese)