Incoherent ramblings of the stomach bug kind.

Lost my entire post just now. I didn't need that tonight.

Long story summed up as short as I can manage tonight.

I don't feel well today. Got sick from the heat, but it could be a 24 hour bug. I don't think I was in the heat long enough to have gotten sick from it, so I think it's something else. Besides. It wasn't even that hot when I was outside. It was only in the low 80s. It felt like it was 100° to me, but it really wasn't all that bad. The air conditioners did a wonderful job keeping the house comfortable today. They didn't kick the breaker off at all, so we're very, very thankful we replaced the breaker box/circuit panel when we did. The rest of the week is supposed to be hot, hot, hot!

Last week the key lock on our car door disappeared almost all the way inside the car door. We've never had this happen on a car before in our lives, but the same thing happened to our daughter a year or two ago. Strangest thing. It just wasn't tightened down enough at the factory, and the lock came loose and disappeared. So my husband decided to try and fix it before he left for work.

The car door panel is still taken apart tonight. It's sitting in the back of the car waiting patiently to be re-affixed. So I was out trying to help him a little with it, and the heat really got to me. I was only outside a total of about 15 minutes. And while I'm fair skinned enough that I have been known to sunburn that quickly, it's odd for me to feel sick from 15 minutes of 80° weather.

But it really affected me emotionally. I was in total despair over the house and all that has to be done. I was totally overwhelmed just wondering how I would ever be able to get anything done this summer at all. It's the first I've really felt despair since I realized I was a hoarder back in January when I started this journey. It was disconcerting and depressing both.

Then I realized that I haven't taken my medicines and vitamins every day since we got back from vacation a week ago. I've taken some religiously. Others have been very hit and miss, though. And the hit and miss ones definitely affect my outlook when they're missed. So I'm writing a note to make sure I get all my medicines and vitamins ready for the week and remember to take them every day. They're just so much easier to be on top of when I'm feeling well, and they help me feel well, so it's imperative I get back on my schedule with them.

I didn't get much of anything done with the way that I was feeling today. I've had chills off and on all day. I forced myself to get as busy as I could, and I did at least get 3 loads of laundry done. So the day wasn't a complete waste.

If this is a stomach bug of some sort that made me feel so sensitive to the heat this morning, then I'm sure I'm not alone with it. It would go far to explain why Hopper has been so incredibly emotional. She was much better today than she was yesterday, so that was good. We haven't missed any of her meds at all. Even the night I wondered if the hubster had given her the Theanine he had, so I'm sure it has to do with some sort of a stomach bug.

So I'm off to bed now hoping I can get some decent sleep and feel better when I wake up in the morning.

Cool cats

I think I'm almost as excited as the girls tonight. We finally got the ceiling fan installed in their bedroom. It's going to make such a huge difference in how hot their room is, and it's just such a relief to have it done!

Before we could work on the fan we did have to go through and label all the breakers in the new circuit panel. It took awhile, but it's worth knowing what breaker controls what light or outlet. The only thing? There are now 3 unlabeled breakers. We have no idea what they control. We probably need to find out.

Oh! And neither air conditioner has popped the breaker since we had all the work done. The house feels darn right chilly at 76° today! Yay!

Calamity found out today that Bubster and Bugster are going to be going for guardianship of Frank. I'll leave it at this: it wasn't pretty. I really hope she doesn't give the kids too much trouble over it. The boys' dad is all for it, and since he has had custody for the last 3 years, he's hoping he can somehow transfer guardianship to the kids and help them avoid having to pay an attorney.

The whole thing just totally turns my stomach. I'm very thankful Frank isn't going to the state. I'm very thankful and proud of the kids that they're stepping up and taking responsibility. But my heart aches for Frank. I'm sure he's feeling a bit disposable.

I'm going to go spend some time with my wonderful husband and forget all my worries for awhile. Worry-free nights are good.

Of royalty and service men.

In spite of greeting the receptionist and dentist with my best royalty wave*, I did not get my crowns today. Shoot. I didn't even get a tiara. The dentist was dry fitting the crowns before permanently cementing them in and had me bite down. I don't know, if it was just the angle of the bite or what, but we actually heard the one crown crack, so it had to be sent back to have the porcelain redone on it.

So. I opened my handy dandy coin purse on my wallet and pulled out the temporary crown that had fallen off during our vacation. After scraping the old cement out of it and cleaning it up a bit, the temporary crown was put back on my peg leg tooth. I'm glad I hadn't accidentally set it down on Mom's table or something and totally forgotten it. Thankfully, I'll get the new crowns next week, and it should be a completely painless procedure. Yay.

The guys came out and cleaned the air conditioners. There were big clumps of fuzz and dust that they removed from inside the backs of the air conditioners. In spite of me keeping the accessible part of the air conditioners clean, the gunk in the back really affected the performance. They ended up not needing to charge the coolant, and now we know what we have to do to the air conditioners once the extended warranty has expired. They said that the gunk is a result of the cotton from the cottonwood trees being sucked into the backs of the a/c units when they're running. I wish we could prevent it.

I was busy when the technicians were here, so my hubby handled everything, and overall everything went smoothly. However, there's a little knob that needs to be pulled in for fresh air or pushed out to recirculate the air in the house that they may have lost. It's gone on both units, though, so I'm hoping they're just hiding behind the front covers of the air conditioners. I supposed I'll try to locate them really quick before we call them out again. No sense in them coming out, if we can fix it relatively easy. However, we'll be calling, if we can't find the knobs or can't fix them ourselves.

Ok. Took a couple of minutes and fixed the one, so I know I'll be able to fix the other air conditioner. (The knobs were indeed hiding behind the front covers). Good. I really don't like having strangers in my house. It's not something I liked even when my house was clean in the good ol' days! Now all we have to do is take a few minutes to fix the other air conditioner and spray some new insulating foam to seal them, and we're done. It will be nice to be able to check it off our ever expanding list of things to do.

Speaking of things to do...I have laundry calling me names...er...calling my name, but sometimes I think it I can hear it cursing, if I listen very carefully.

Guess I'd better get busy.

*Yes. I *did* do the royalty wave at the dentist's office. My sister dared me to, and I'm not much for stepping back from a dare. :D

I need a swift kick in the pants.

I'm plumb worn out tonight. Not sure exactly why, but I'm hoping tomorrow dawns with a bit me a bit more energized. Tried to take a small nap today, but I made the mistake of having Scooter lie down at the same time. I don't think more than 2 minutes went by without her hitting me or poking me to show her displeasure at having to attempt a nap.

I do have to say that I'm thrilled beyond thrilled that the electrician got the new breaker box/electrical panel installed today. It's huge compared to the old one-2 to 3 times the size. So it's got plenty of room for more breakers to be installed, if we need them, and it's got plenty of breathing room to help keep things cooler in there. Now I'm almost anxious for Friday, since it's going to be warmer, and we can see how the air conditioners work. Mostly though, I'm just anxious for Friday, because it means I can sleep in a little, because I won't have to get up for anything.

The service techs will be here in the morning to clean the air conditioners. I'm hoping they don't take too long. Then I have to go to the dentist and get my permanent crowns put on. They said it should take about half an hour. I lost one of my temporary crowns while I was on vacation, so I'm sort of looking forward to having something that looks more like a tooth when I smile instead of looking like I have a really short peg leg in my mouth.

I'm going to bed now, so I can some sleep. I just need to reboot.

Melting children.

So. We found out today that we need to replace the electrical panel. Remember how the window air conditioners kept flipping the breaker? Well, even though we had dedicated outlets installed shortly before we left on vacation, the breakers are still flipping. The outlets are rated 15amp (although tomorrow they will be 20amp after the upgrade), and the air conditioners are only rated 11.5amp, so they shouldn't be overwhelming the circuits at all even now. But we're still having a problem with the breakers flipping. Apparently, it is because the current electrical panel is as old as dirt and is overheating enough that it's flipping the breakers when it shouldn't.

By noon tomorrow we should have stable breakers that don't flip every 10 minutes. I'm very much looking forward to that. It will be nice not to have to stop what I'm doing to go push the breaker back on. Yep. It's going to be nice. Thankfully, both tomorrow and Thursday are supposed to be cooler, so it won't be too hard to deal with the complete lack of cooled air for a few hours.

The technician came out today to look at the air conditioners as part of the extended warranty protection. The one air conditioner isn't working worth a darn. He figures it's because it needs removed from it's case and cleaned well inside. He and someone else will be coming back out on Thursday morning to thoroughly clean the units. If that doesn't make the one window unit cool like it's supposed to, he'll charge the coolant. We may make it through summer after all!

I'm so glad we'll be able to have a cooler house in the next few days. I need to make a birthday cake for Scooter. Can't believe our baby will be 17 already.

It's been a very long, emotional day. I'm glad it's over. I had to deal with a couple of melting children today. I am thinking they maybe the hubster forgot to give them their Theanine last night. I need to check with him to make sure. It would definitely explain the meltdowns they both had today.

I'm looking for the new start that the morning brings, a cool house, and no melting children!

I'm under attack.

Yesterday we turned the air conditioners for awhile in the afternoon, because it was just a bit too warm not to. Granted, they didn't get the workout they'd have gotten, if it had been 100°, but they still got a bit of a workout. But it was also the first time that we got an idea of how much of a difference the roller shade made in keeping the house cool.

Normally the kitchen/dining room area of the house are fairly warm compared to the rest of the house. And the bathroom right next door that also has a west facing window is usually a little bit warmer than the kitchen. When I walked into the bathroom yesterday when the house was at it's warmest, it was at least 15 degrees warmer than the kitchen.-

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Our apologies. We interrupt this post due to a big fat hairy speedy spider crashing our mellow otherwise known as running across our desk, falling onto our keyboard, trying to hide under our keyboard to eat us at a later date and then falling quickly to the floor when we accidentally knocked the entire keyboard tray out of the desk and onto the ground knocking 3 keys out of the keyboard. Again. Our apologies. Including referring to ourselves in the plural and not erasing what our keyboard decided was a good thing to type when we had no control over it.

Now. Back to your regularly scheduled post:

Shoot. I've totally forgotten where I was going with this. I guess I'll just leave it at the fact that I noticed a huge difference in the temperature inside the house with the roller shade in the window. We'll likely be getting one for the bathroom, too.

I just hope I don't see speedy black hairy spiders when I close my eyes to go to bed tonight.

Crap.

My nose is broken.

Well. At least the smelling part is.

I baked 9 dozen gingersnaps today, and I couldn't even smell them. Fine. It was only 8.75 dozen. I can't roll them all evenly. Ok? To add insult to injury, they didn't taste right, either. It wasn't the spices. They were brand new. It's this broken smeller I have. I wish I had a warranty on it. I'd return it for a refund.

The electrician did get the dedicated outlets hooked up today. I so hope it helps keep the breakers from popping all the time! Thankfully, it's cool enough today we didn't have to have the air on at all, even with me baking. That was nice.

The hubster got the roller shade yesterday. Had it cut especially for the window. It's a tad on the narrow side, as we still get a little sunlight on the sides of the shade, but overall we're very pleased. We had a decent little rain earlier, but now the sun is out. So I decided to feel behind the shade to see, if it made a difference. It does. Yay! It was much warmer on the other side of the shade.

I think this will help a lot this summer. I'll miss the light that it blocks out, but I figure I'll still get some, if I leave the shade up in the morning and pull it down when the sun goes around to that side of the house. We decided to leave the mini blinds up in front of the shade. At least for now. Two layers should be better than one. Right?

Opened the sweetened condensed milk, so I could make the caramels this afternoon, and it was no longer off white. It looked like it had already been caramelized. Oh yay. Thankfully, Bugster was over at the grocery store and picked some more up for me, so I could get the caramels going. I'm sure I'll be wrapping them for a few hours tonight.

For anyone who makes their own caramels, I have a little tip. You know how they stick to plastic wrap and to waxed paper? Isn't that just so frustrating?? You don't have that problem? Hmmm. Must be something I'm doing wrong. Oh well. I did discover they don't stick to cellophane, so I highly recommend using it. The only problem is that you have to tape each little packaged caramel shut or tie it off on each end. They look superdeeduper cute, if you then tie them like a little gift with curling ribbon whether you tie the ends, or whether you tape the package shut and add the ribbon as a little decoration.

I am a bit frustrated with the spice drop cookies. They're supposed to be rolled into a tube shape in plastic wrap and refrigerated before cutting and baking. The recipe says to cut them 1/4" thick. Uh huh. Go ahead. Try it. Doesn't work. I'll be interested to see how many dozen cookies the doubled recipe makes, because there is no way it will make 18 dozen cookies like purported. Ha. I'll be glad to get 8 to 10 dozen out of it. We shall see.

So. I left my post for a couple hours, and I've come back to finish it up. Bugster came over and helped pour the caramels for me. Trying to pour them pretty much kills my neck and shoulders, so I was very happy to have the assist. They're cooling now, and I will try to get them cut tonight or in the morning and get them wrapped. From the little that was left on the wooden spoon, they taste really good, too.

I'm off to go finish baking the spice drop cookies and clean up my messy kitchen. I think I'll probably finish up the caramels in the morning. I have a feeling I'll absolutely crash once my head hits that pillow tonight. I just hope I don't dream about baking. I think I've had enough for one day. :)

Of pinatas and electricians.

The electrician made it by today. The outlets are installed, but they're not 'hot' just yet. He couldn't hook them up to the electrical panel, because our panel is so outdated that you can't just find a replacement breaker for them anywhere. He has to try to find one on Monday. Thankfully, it's still supposed to be nice and cool on Monday.

The outlets look really nice, even though they had to be put up by the windows, instead of down below like typical outlets are. If they weren't being installed on an outside wall, it would be no big deal, but it would have been a lot more work to have them lower than it was worth, so we'll just deal with it. And like I said. They look nice. And it's going to be super nice to have the air conditioners each on their own dedicated outlet, so they're not popping the breaker every few minutes when it gets hot out!

I finished my meese today! Well, except that I can't post pictures just yet, because I do still have to finish the groom's hat. But it turned out really cute. I think they'll like it. It's full of 7.5 pounds of candy, and it feels like it weighs about 30 pounds tonight. Amazing how heavy things feel when you're tired.

I did etch a cookie jar for Mom's upcoming birthday. It's a 2.5 gallon clear glass canister. It's hard to see in this picture, but there are two ladybugs below the flower*. I'll be doing what I can to bake a bunch of cookies to fill it.

First on the agenda are Spice Drop Cookies. We always had them at Christmas time when we were little. There's something so good about biting into that chewy spice drop goodness in the middle of a cookie. The spice drops have already been sliced and are just waiting to be used.

This gives a bit better view of the ladybugs. It's funny how silver the etching looks in the pictures, because it's not silver at all. Just etched glass.

I realized my great need for bifocals while trying to cut the pattern out for this design. Getting old just isn't all it's cracked up to be. Not that I'd like to be getting younger. There are just certain years I'd never like to live over again. Life just seems to get better and better!

I've got to go to bed. I have to bake tomorrow. And hopefully make caramels that are to die for. It's going to be another really long day, but it will be good.

*Now for the small print. Please do not copy, reprint or reproduce this design in any way, shape, or form, as it is my own personal design, and I'd really rather not see it anywhere else. Thanks!

I discovered something today.

It is really, really hard to blow up a balloon after you've visited the dentist. Well. Not necessarily if you just visit the dentist. But trying to blow up a balloon when only half your mouth works, because you look like you have Bells Palsy from the numbing agents injected into your cheek and mouth? Yeah. That's hard. I ended up having to put a finger along the side of my mouth to make a tight enough seal that I could blow the balloon up. Yeah. That was embarrassing. But funny. I laughed.

My mouth is a bit sore where he gave me the shots, but I had more than the normal amount again. He was getting 2 teeth ready for their crowns. I had root canals done on these 2 teeth a couple years ago. But get this. Root canals leave the teeth with no feeling, as the nerves/roots have been removed. However, after the first course of shots, I could feel pain. So he gave me a second course. Once again, I could feel pain. So he ended up giving me an entirely different deadening agent, and it worked. It also totally numbed my left ear and my nose completely, and my mouth didn't work for several hours, but at least I could no longer feel anything.

There's just something about the way the nerves run in my face. It's genetic, I think, because several in my family have the same issues. In fact, one brother refuses any sort of deadening when he has to go to the dentist. It just makes his face numb, but it never seems to reach the nerve that is attached to the tooth that needs to be deadened. At least I know I'm not alone.

I finished the meese pinata today. Why is the plural of moose moose when the plural of goose is geese? I personally like 'meese', so I shall henceforce refer to plural moose as 'meese'. So. I finished the meese pinata for the most part. I still have to do the finishing touches and fill it with copious amounts of candy. Like probably 10 pounds of candy. We fill our pinatas well.

I did send a couple of people pictures of the meese as they look right now with only nostrils, ears and antlers. I don't want to post the pictures here until I'm finished with it though. I still have to attach eyes, eyebrows (bushy ones for the groom), long fake eyelashes for the bride, a top hat and bow tie for the boy and a veil and a string of pearls for the girl. When I'm done with all that, I'll post pictures. Right now, they're sitting in front of the fan trying to dry out.

Speaking of fans. It's hot today again. Not quite as sweltering as it's been, but that's okay. We'll get that tomorrow. We'll also get dedicated outlets for the air conditioners tomorrow, so they won't keep popping the breakers! That is going to be so nice! The electrician will be here in the early afternoon. Hubby will be running the line in the attic to help keep the costs down.

I'm really, really hoping that hubby can maybe install the junction box in the girls' room, so we can get the ceiling fan installed that we bought for there a few years ago. That would really help with keeping the house cooler, too. Besides, it has butterflies on it, and you can't go wrong with butterflies. Right? At any rate, I'm really hoping we can get it installed this weekend, if not tomorrow.

We also really need something to keep heat out of the kitchen window now that the tree is gone. I've got some ideas that I'm kicking around. If I can get a roller shade wide enough for the window, I could line it with a space blanket to reflect the light back outside. I'm thinking it might be the most affordable way to do things, but it depends on whether or not I can get the right size. I could trim it, if it was too big for the window. I just don't really care to put two side by side, if I can't find one wide enough. I'll be looking into this option for sure.

Well. It's that time again. Time for me to do something. Sleep, I think is what it is, although my memory is sort of fried in this heat.

I'm sure it will come to me soon enou

Of heat and hot flashes and such.

The only thing that's kept me even somewhat cool today is that my hair has been literally dripping wet most of the day, and it really hasn't helped a lot. We did have record high heat today like they predicted, although it didn't get all the way to 105°. It only got to 101°. That's hot enough.

Of course the little window air conditioners have been totally overwhelmed today. At one point when the one had flipped off, I took about an hour and rewired all the outlets that were on the circuit. Unfortunately, that didn't even help. It was just. too. Here it is 10p.m., and it's still 80°. It's just not cooling off yet, and the air conditioners are still popping off, even though they're set on 78°. It's going to be a long, hot, and miserable night.

As much as I'd wanted to get stuff done downstairs, I didn't. I'd totally forgotten that there is not place down there to sit. None. And I was miserable enough with just the heat issues. I didn't want to add back pain to the misery, so I stayed upstairs and flipped breakers and tried to stay in front of a fan. I was also able to get a couple loads of laundry done, but nothing like I was hoping to accomplish. Maybe tomorrow.

Bugster did come over after work, and she, Hopper, Scooter and I watched Tooth Fairy. It was silly and cute and helped get our minds off the heat.

Sort of.

Hot. Cold. I wish I'd make up my mind!

What a day today has been. I feel like I got nothing accomplished at all.

It is too hot for the beginning of June. We had record or near record highs today. Regardless, heat in the 90° plus range is just too hot for the first few days of June. July I can see. August and even September I can see. Shoot. I can even see temps in the 90s for the middle or end of June. Just not quite this early.

The heat made quick work of our little window air conditioning units. They just kept popping the breakers. Over. And. Over. Again. I finally left the one off completely and replaced the outlet. I'll be replacing the outlets that are on the rest of the circuit tomorrow hoping that will help. It was just stifling today even with the fans going. I know to a lot of people 83° inside they're house doesn't seem that hot but shoot. We just had snow a couple of weeks ago! It's just hard to think that it was still actually cooler in the house than it was outside at the time.

The breaker blowing also kept me from being on the computer at all. I finally thought of plugging the power strip for the computer into an extension cord that wasn't on the same circuit. I finally had access to the computer around 10:00 tonight. And both window units are set on 69° to try to get the house cooled off. It's slow going, but it's working. Hopefully, we can get it cool enough in here tonight that it will stay cooler tomorrow when it gets so hot.

When I finally got the one air conditioner to stay on in the bedroom, I took advantage of the cool and cleaned out my armoire. I've been putting it off for months, and I'd even started it a few time to finally just throw everything back in and shut the doors. It was a little victory, but one I'll take, since I didn't have many today.

Tomorrow the hubster and the son-in-law are going to get the pair of mammoth trees cut up and out of the backyard. The new chippers will be put to use, and it will be so nice to have the backyard cleared and have plenty of mulch to put in the flower gardens to get the weeds under control. I'm sure the garden plants will appreciate the extra sun, too. I think they've grown a good 2" this last week since they've had more access to the sun.

Right now I'm freezing. I've got my thermal underwear shirt on with a blanket over my head. I'm sitting in the same room as the air conditioner that kept popping me off the computer, and the air conditioner seems to be working quite well right now. But I forgot to dry my hair after my shower tonight, and I'm just aching from getting so cold as a result, so I'm going to go relax with my trusty heating pad for a bit before crawling into bed.

That just sound yummy!

Progress

I cut back a little on the cola today. I the equivalent of 2 cans instead of the typical 3. It has already seemed to make a difference with the neuropathy. I only took 1/2 of 1 vicodin all day, and although my toes are a tingling they're not hurting like they have been. Although, the toes on my right foot are a bit more miserable than they were after Scooter decided to grab on and twist them, because she decided for some reason that was what she wanted to do. Little stinker.

Hopper was feeling much better today. She was sick all day yesterday. Woke us up getting sick to her stomach and then went back to bed. She didn't get back up until this morning, having slept 40 hours straight. It's just how she handles being sick. She needs to sleep whatever it is off. It still a bit unnerving, though. It was good to have her back to her chaotic loud little self today.

Didn't get a lot of anything done today but some laundry and dishes and resetting the breaker. The little window air conditioner keeps popping the circuit. I'm not sure, if we can get something to plug in that would trip the outlet only and leave the circuit working. It kept shutting the computer off after I'd been on for only moments. I really don't want to ruin the computer by having the air conditioner pop the breaker when the computer is on. I'll be leaving the computer off during the day until we can figure something out.

I'm beat tonight. I feel like I've come through the worst of the last couple of weeks and that things will only get better from here. It can be draining when things just play at your mind and body all the time. Glad the focus is coming back in, in spite of the fact that I'm sure I just sound like I'm rambling tonight.

I'll take that as a hint.

I'm off to bed.