Atropa Belladonna~ Raven (a.k.a. Nightshade)'s Weblog ~
These are the ARCHIVES of January 2007. For more archives, visit the Archives page. For the current Weblog entries, check the Main page.
Atropa Belladonna| Wed, January 3, 2007 (5:15pm) Okay - its been a couple days. I think I've recovered from the party. The Wake was well attended (about 40 people, I think) and it seemed to be well enjoyed. There was gaming, lockpicking, impromptu swordfights, ice cube wars, fabulous babes in corsets (and a few guys in fabulous babes' corsets), Twister, more gaming, and many, many photos. I'm kinda in the middle of sorting through all the photos (working on a project for a friend first, since it's time sensitive) but I hope to post some of the better shots here, eventually. In the meanwhile, I thought I'd actually try to make a couple resolutions this year. I don't usually bother with these things, because I think resolutions are better made as over-all lifestyle changes and not spur-of-the moment,everyone's-doing-it,let's jump-on-the-bandwagon deals. But I think that these are resolutions which I've been leaning towards for a while, and maybe writing them down will give me the impetus to work on them a little more. For a while, at least.
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| Fri, January 5, 2007 (2:25pm) Okay - why is no one* updating their weblogs? Lollybloggers! Don't you realize that you exist merely for my amusement? C'mon! Post something, or I'll be forced to move you to the land of Lollyblogger links! And to show you I mean it, I've decided to cull one link which hasn't been active for over 3 months, and replace it with.... no - I'll let you flip through the links and see what terror lies in store for you. That'll teach ya! And in the meanwhile, here's a (very) few of the pics from the Wake...        * by "no one" I mean "the majority of the links I read daily". Of course, some people have updated recently, and those people will be given places of great honor when I rule the Universe. |
| Mon, January 8, 2007 (9:30am) It's Monday, and the kids are back in school! That means I can go from complaining that no one updates their weblogs, to actually updating my own! Many thanks to the people who updated their weblogs at my request (and even to one person who apparently anticipated my whim and updated while I was posting my demands), and also to the people who wrote/commented to let me know they were still alive, even if they didn't post. Your place in the Grand Heirarchy of My Universe is secure. The last few days have been very busy. On Friday, I teamed up with my Mom to take all the kids swimming. They loved it, and Jasen didn't even scream when the water touched his skin. In fact, the only time he protested was when we were leaving the pool! I think we've managed to bring him around to the whole "water is fun" point of view. Later on Friday (after Jase had had a nap) I took the kids to the mall so they could spend the $10 Christmas money which Oma & Opa had given them. Kalen splurged on icecream and new bracelets. Jasen got new boots (and shared Kale's ice cream) and Connor didn't find anything which caught his fancy. I suspect he's saving his money to blow on CCG's eventually. (grin). Speaking of CCG's, True Dungeon's new batch of Tokens will be coming out soon. Okay - so tokens aren't actually a CCG, but they are laced with the same substance which makes CCGs so addictive. I do volunteer work with True Dungeon, so I've had a chance to see the new tokens designs for this upcoming year, and all I have to say is... um... does anyone have a spare $1000 (U.S.) kicking around which I could borrow? 'Cuz wow - the new tokens are sweet. But seriously - if anyone needs/wants a new cloak (I know lots of LARP'ers and SCA'ers read my weblog), now would be a really good time to hit me up & ask me to make you one. If I sell a dozen cloaks between now and when the tokens go on sale, I might not need to turn to prostitution in order to support my token habit. And really, it would be for a good cause: my sewing room is overflowing with cloth, and if I don't sew a few cloaks sometime soon, there may be an avalanche. If anyone is interested, just email or comment. Oh - yeah... the weekend. I'd been blathering about the past few days when I got distracted by tokens. Forgive, pls - it'll happen. The blathering and the tokens are kind of a theme in my life right now. ...Right. Friday. Um, on Friday we had gamers over and played a really good game of Emira. Then, Saturday, Shades and I took the kids to the Royal Alberta Museum, for cultural enlightenment (and to see the Lego display there!) It was an excellent way to spend the afternoon. Gotta do it again, sometime. On Sunday, we went to Church, and then worked on preparing food for a fabulous dinner. (Since my Mom was coming back from Red Deer, she wasn't going to have time to put on her usual Sunday Feast, so we had offered to do it instead.) It turned out really well, with delicious pulled pork, stuffed potatoes, committee salad (thanks for the recipe, K!), and then for dessert: Creme Brulee! I made Creme Brulee from scratch! Like, with the egg yolks, and the Bain Marie, and everything! And I even got to use a kitchen torch to 'brulee' the sugar on top And you know what? It was good. Really, really good. Better than the store-bought version, which I also whipped up a batch of, just in case the home made version flopped. And people asked for seconds! It was awesome. I will have to make it again, someday, possibly for Friday Gamer Night. But not, I think, for this Friday. I still have to wait for the burns to heal. |
| Wed, January 10, 2007 (5:10pm) with comment added at 7:30pm Why do they eat dead men? That is the sum total of the text I got in one email message, today. No subject line, no quote or reference to any web page or article I'd written, or anything. Just "Why do they eat dead men?" I wonder if it's spam? It's certainly as bizarre as many spam messages which end up in my inbox... but the difference is that spam uses a weird subject line to catch your attention and then the text of the email tries to sell you something. This has no links, or graphics, or special offers included. Just that single line. It could be someone phishing for active email addies, to target for future spamming, I guess. If so, they used a very effective phish... for me, at least. I mean, doesn't a question like that just beg a response? Most likely, it's some kid who found my crows and ravens web page via Google, while trying to gather information for a school project. Or maybe it's an adult with more curiousity than English skills, who stumbled across The Aviary while surfing the web. Who knows? I figure that if they took the time to type out an email (which may be short, but is at least spelled correctly), then they deserve some sort of an answer. Probably a short one. So after carefully weighing the possibility of increasing my daily spam dosage with this reply, I fired it off anyways: "Because people are made out of meat." |
Krys has this Public comment:
Comments : I would have thought it was because the live ones squirmed too much.... - - - Yeah, Krys, that one crossed my mind, too! About a second after I hit the send button. L'Esprit d'Emailier, I guess. |
| Sun, January 14, 2007 (12:50pm) It's been a busy few days. Kids started swimming lessons two days per week. Connor still doesn't have a therapist (though one is filling in on occasional Mondays and Fridays) so I'm trying to work as his therapist part-time. Housework is getting done in the evenings, or whenever I might otherwise have 'Free' time... except when I don't feel like it, and ignore it in favor of a good book. Meetings and consults go on as usual for the 'special needs' kids in our family. I picked up an extra work shift on top of all that. I'm kinda beat. I talked with my manager at work yesterday, and told her that I was going to need more time off. I want to cut down to working every other weekend, as an alternative to falling apart and needing to go on stress leave. January's schedule is already made (and half-way over) so I'm going to keep those shifts. In February I've already booked a weekend off for our Anniversary. March will see me in Vancouver for an Autism conference, so I hope that will be a nice stress-release. April is when my every-other-weekend schedule will start. I think I can keep it together 'til then. Especially if Shades and I can get back into a routine of going out on 'respite' nights. (Note to self: contact Respite sitters and set up a schedule.) Monday morning will be the start of Jasen's 3-day P.A.S. referral at the Glenrose. I remember it being a gruelling period of tests and screens and consultations when we went through it with Connor, but Jasen's won't be quite as intense (because they aren't as concerned about Autism). I'm not quite as wound up about it, either, since I've gone through it before and know what to expect... and also because Jasen is doing so well in his current program. In case I haven't mentioned it, Jasen's speech has really improved. He's using a lot of 2-word phrases. He can follow simple directions ("Clear your plate", "Put monkey in the basket"). He's also listening to the speech of people around him, and if we mention something like 'snack' or juice' in casual conversation, he'll rush to the table and wait to be served. Kalen has had the first of her assessments as recommended by her school. Dr. Paton said he's not particularly concerned about her being "on the Spectrum", although she might have some ADD. Nothing to worry about at this stage, though. The school is going to go through with another referral, though, by an education specialist of some sort. Mmm.... I smell turkey soup. I'm gonna go have lunch. |
| Tues, January 16, 2007 (10:30pm) My baby is made of Awesome! Some days, nothing goes right. Days like when you've got a P.A.S appointment for your 2-yr old - an appointment which you have waited over half a year to get - and the kid comes down with a cold. He's hacking and coughing, and you're running a bit late (dealing with a sick kid will do that) but you manage to get him all dressed and cute anyways, and are in the van driving down the Yellowhead thinking that if nothing else goes wrong, you might just make it to the appointment on time, and then you hear the kid start to go into a spastic coughing fit. Anyone who has cared for a sick child through a particularly nasty cold will realize the risk of this sort of coughing: the kid is likely to cough 'til he throws up. (Stop reading this paragraph if the previous sentence offended you. It only gets worse from here) The puke will be mostly slime and phlegm, the sort which sticks to everything with an extra-slimey-gooey-sticky-grossness. It is not the sort of thing which you want to have happen while driving, because it'll run down the kid's coat (inside it and out) and down to his pants, and pool in the crotch region, seeping slowly (or quickly) between the legs, and get all over the car seat and/or buckling mechanism, and you can't do anything about it because you're driving. The moisture will be absorbed by the clothing/outerwear/upholstery, and when you can finally pull over (or get to your destination, because really, the damage is pretty much done before you can pull over) you will be stuck with the slug trails until you can give the kid a bath and full change of clothes. The thing which really got to me, is that I carry a large flannel cloth in the van for precisely this sort of situation. I can tuck it in near the kid's neck and drape it over their lap like a giant napkin, and it'll catch most of the vomit. But, of course, I didn't bother to drape Jasen, because we were in a rush to get out the door. And now I will be spending the next 5 hours showing off my slime-coated baby to professionals, and carrying my slime-coated baby around between various doctors' offices, and of course becoming slime-coated myself. Did I mention some of these assessments get video-taped? Because that's really how I want to look in front of a camera. While I am mentally berating myself, and wondering how far out of reach that flannel cloth is (didn't I put it on the seat right next to Jase?) and whether I could unfold it and toss it over his lap (probably not while driving) and calculating the odds of causing an accident if I pulled over right there on the Yellowhead Fwy at the Fort Road interchange (answer: extremely high), I glance backwards... And there's my dear sweet baby, with a large flannel cloth draped carefully over his lap, holding up the free edge directly under his chin. And between coughs, he smiles at me. I turned my attention back to the road, and thought to myself that this, this is proof that God really exists. Then the sound of Jasen's cough turned into the sound of retching. And the flannel blanket caught it all. Jasen even folded the clean end over the dirty part when he was done, so I could pick the bundle off his lap afterwards. We made it to the appointment on time, slime-free, and smiling. So... absolutely nothing bad can come out of this P.A.S. assessment. Even if they tell me my child has a learning disability, I know that he has already learned the important things in life: How to think ahead, how to respond appropriately to problems using the materials at hand, and how to clean up after himself. There are grown adults who have not yet learned these things. Yeah. My baby is made of awesome. |
| Wed, January 17, 2007 (3:10pm) Provisional Diagnosis: Autism Spectrum Disorder We'll need to bring Jasen back to see the Doctor again in May, but for the time being, they are giving us a provisional diagnosis of ASD. Apparently, Jasen scored very poorly on the Autism screening test. It's not a definitive test by any means, but given our family history and his delayed development (he didn't make a lot of progress between age 1yr and 2yrs), it is quite probable that Jase is "on the spectrum". It feels kind of weird. I know Autism is a spectrum, but since most of my experience has been on the side of the spectrum where Connor is, the other side is an unfamiliar neighbourhood. In fact, Jase and Connor feel like they live in different cities, as far as Autism goes. It's good to know that I won't have to buy another library's worth of books on some unrelated disorder, though! Okay, I'm tired of tests & doctors appointments, now. I'm going to go back to my regularly scheduled geekery of playing Sims 2, hanging out on the True Dungeon Forums, and working on my fiendish plan to finance my Token habit. |
| Thurs, January 18, 2007 (7:50pm) My "tokin' " habit? Okay - there's a lot more to it than this, but it sounds cooler without the explanation: I think I might be able to finance my token addiction with drug money! No, really - it's a very cool idea, and might even work. Shades was the one who suggested it. Or if he didn't, he's the one I'm blaming it on anyways, because it's just that cool of an idea. |
| Sun, January 21, 2007 (2:20pm) The kids are sick again. This is fundamentally unfair. After the December we went through, we should all have enough 'Get out of illness, Free!' cards to last for the next half year. But no - it's back to fevers, and runny noses, and forcing medicine down Connor's throat with a syringe while he kicks and screams and spits it out. The really frustrating thing (other than torturing my child while trying to explain that we're doing this because we love him) is that the medicine which he reviles and sprays across the kitchen, well, it costs about 3 dollars per milliliter. He spat nearly $10 of medication across my shirt this morning. In the past 2 weeks, we've spent $300 on medication (part of which was for my migraine meds, at $20 per pill). We spent even more than that in December. In fact, the last half year has seen us spend an awful lot of money on various medicines to keep our kids breathing, and me from lying on the floor in pain. It's a bloody good thing that we have drug coverage through Shades' work. The only annoying thing about that coverage is that we have to pay for our meds up front, and then submit the receipts in order to get back 80% of the cost. The paperwork is a pain in the butt. It often gets left for several months, until I get on Shades' case to submit the receipts so we can get out money back. (Shades is not fond of paperwork. I am not fond of being a nag. I'd do it myself, except that if I do it - even once - it will probably become my job for the rest of our marriage. Since I am the one who already gets the sucky job of taking care of sick kids, I don't feel like dealing with the sucky job of paperwork.) But we've got nearly $1000 in receipts to submit. Someone ought to do it. I mentioned it to Shades (and thus stepped into the initial phase of the nag sequence). He was driving at the time, so I couldn't see his eyes, but I'm pretty sure he rolled them (thus fulfilling the obligations on his side of the nag sequence). I pointed out that there was a lot we could do with that money - like pay bills, or go out for a very nice dinner, or... maybe... buy tokens! Shades countered with the suggestion that maybe if I wanted to buy tokens with the re-imbursement from our drug plan, then maybe I should do the paperwork. Wait - was that just a tacit agreement that our re-imbursement could be use for tokens, if I was willing to do the paperwork? Hrmmm.... The nag quickly derailed into a discussion of what, exactly, was involved in submitting receipts, and was it something I could do entirely on my own, or would I need his signature at some point? So, although it's not necessarily a solid agreement, I seem to have permission to consider spending our "drug money" on tokens. Perhaps the paperwork won't be so bad as all that. Perhaps this year we will circumvent the great nag-fest, and celebrate our new found understanding, whilst sorting through piles of pretty colored gaming pieces. This could work. Maybe. |
| Tues, January 23, 2007 (11:40pm) Bah. Tonight feels like a waste. It wasn't, really, but I only got 2 things crossed off my 7-item List of Things To Do, Today. The fact that one of those items accomplished was a really big annoying thing which I'd been putting off for the better part of a week, that doesn't seem to count in my mind, even though it was probably more time-consuming than all the other items put together. The other thing I crossed off was a simple thing, and fun: Talk to the Hotel MacDonald about renting a room for our Anniversary. We've confirmed that the Governor General suite (our first choice at present) is available. But so is the Premiere suite. And so is the Royal Suite, at merely $3000+ per night! (Okay, we're not really considering the Royal Suite... but think of it! We could rent it!) So, instead of making the booking right then and there, Shades and I have elected to go view the suites tomorrow night (our "date night") and make our decision then. Maybe I'll sneak a camera along, and post pics later. |
| Wed, January 24, 2007 (10:50pm) Shades and I went to the Hotel Mac today. They didn't actually have any suites for us to view - they were all in use - but we were able to book the Governor General suite for the 17th. I'm sure there will be photos a-plenty after the Anniversary. The two of us went out for dinner afterwards, and reminisced, and discussed plans, and were generally sweet and in love. Every now and then, I'd say something... and Shades' eyes would light up... and he would grin... and he'd reach for his cell phone, saying "Incoming message! Maybe it's my Purgatory turn!" Yes, that's right. He has set his computer at home to forward to his work account, and incoming email to the work account causes his BlackBerry to vibrate, so he could check for his monthly gaming results write-up (due out tonight!) while we were on our date. I love my geek. |
| Thurs, January 25, 2007 (3:15pm) I've always loved the 'hacker' mystique. You know - the way those computer savvy individuals could look at a program, hit a few keys, and suddenly have access to its inner workings! Voila! You can change your high-score, or make the pop-up messages spout cryptic movie quotes, or bypass the security features which require valid registration codes before playing cool games. My own skill with the computer is rather limited. For example, yesterday I wanted to play Spaceward Ho! but was foiled by the simple lack of a login name. Grrr. Shades and I downloaded the game a few years ago, and bought a totally legitimate registration code for it. It was a lot of fun for several months, but eventually took a back seat to work, and child care, and the latest videogame at the time. Fast forward 2 (or 3? or 4?) years, and I've got a new computer, but suddenly feel like playing some of the good old games. So I got Spaceward Ho! up and running again, and asked Shades for the registration code (which had been saved in his email) and plugged it in. Unfortunately, the registration screen also asks for your login name, and Shades couldn't remember it. The login name hadn't been saved with the registration code email. It wasn't 'Raven' or 'Shades' or 'blankshield' or his real name or my real name or his favorite login ID or mine, or any combination of the above. I spent nearly an hour throwing random aliases at the login screen, and becoming increasing frustrated. I did not want to have to purchase another registration code. I bet Wally would have known what to do in this situation. He's probably got a code of his own, and maybe one for a friend, and he'd know where to go online to get codes for people, who - for completely legitimate reasons, no doubt - wanted a code without paying for it. In fact, I bet Wally would just do something like pull up some saved data file, look at it with his uber-hacker-goggles-of-true-sight, and announce "Your login ID is: blah." 'Cuz Wally is cool, and has powers, and he does stuff like that all the time. Man, I wanna be a Mac Geek when I grow up! As is, I wouldn't know what to do with a saved data file. It's not like you can just read them with Text Edit, can you? (Tap-tap-tap) Oh, uh, actually, you can, if you tell the computer not to open it the usual way, but instead choose 'open with...' from the menu, and go hunting for the TextEdit app. But it's all goobledegook. Not English. It's stuff that, if you could pronounce the unspeakable bits, would sound like this: Zplork, geep, upsidedown 'e', mook, squork, comma, glurch, ratched, square with nothing in it, theraven, square with nothing in it, mook, mook, glorch, e with accent grav, comma, something with a cedilla, gleep, zplork, mook. Waitasec - what was that? Right in the middle there - it says "theraven" doesn't it? How about that? I wonder... no, it couldn't be. Or could it? So I go back to the registration screen which was driving me nuts last night, and I punch in TheRaven as the login ID, and give the registration code which we paid perfectly good money for, and it worked! Just like that! Ooooooh, cool! It's almost like being a hacker! Except, you know, not so hard. |
| Mon, January 29, 2007 (8:15am) My little girl is getting all growed up! She lost her first tooth yesterday. (Mom, if you're reading this from whatever Internet connection you can scramble in Mexico, Kale says Hi, and thanks for the links, and that Grandma has to come and see where her tooth fell out!) Today she's showing absolutely everyone the little hole in her head. It's adorable. Next thing you know, she'll be asking for the car keys. (sigh). |
| Tues, January 30, 2007 (12:40pm) Followed a link from Corin's LiveJournal to a Super-Villian Quiz. I have to admit that I rather like the results. Viktor Von Doom has always been one of my favorite comic book characters, Hero or Villian. (Maybe Lazarus will take the quiz, too, and post to his (lolly)blog. He's a lemming. And unemployed after today, right Laz? Perhaps you should take up a carreer as a Super Villian!) Your results: You are Dr. Doom
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| Wed, January 31, 2007 (11:00am) Things I have Learned by Watching House A Differential Diagnosis is an excellent way to determine what is wrong with a patient, but only if there are so many things wrong that the patient is about to die in the next few hours. As long as you are brilliant, you can be as rude, surly, unkempt and argumentative as you want, and everyone will still hold you in high esteem. (Which is weird, because I learned in High School that you could be as dumb as a post, and as long as you were well dressed, pretty and smiling, everyone would like you.) Stating "your son/daughter/spouse should respond to this medication and get better in a few days" will cause the patient to suddenly react to the medication and go into anaphylaxis/heart failure/seizures. Hospitals have a terrible shortage of Lab and X-ray Technicians, so doctors have to run all their own diagnostic tests. Hospitals also have a terrible shortage of porters. The primary purpose of medication is as a diagnostic tool, not as a treatment. ("Well, let's give him some of this, and if he gets worse, we'll know it's not an auto-immune disorder.") Anaphylaxis can manifest itself in under 20 seconds, but instantly stops within 3 seconds of administering epinephrine (adrenaline). There is no need for any special follow-up after an anaphylactic reaction. Doorknob questions are always the important ones. Doctors routinely perform illegal searches of their patients homes. (I wonder if there's a special billing code for that?) Patients lie. Doctors also lie. Especially about who they're sleeping with. Hospitals have excellent hair dressers on staff, and always keep patients looking their best. No one has bad hair days even when they're on bed rest. No matter how many tubes, IVs, or bandages are taped to a patient, there are never any old tape marks. Apparently every room is stocked with a bottle of adhesive remover, which is used at each dressing change. Pushy doctors can always procure spare organs for their patients. Patients' friends or relatives rarely leave their bedside. They effectively move into the hospital to be with their loved ones, and have no worries like jobs or young kids to occupy their time. On the roles of hospital employees:
And the one big thing I've learned from watching House: Everything is Always about Sex. |
