Boy, That Was Some Good Peein'

And speaking of my birthday, as the Big 4-0 quickly approaches I am becoming increasingly aware that I have less and less time to get into shape. Its now or never.

I have lost the baby weight from Bunny, but big woo. She'll be two in September. Celebrities lose their baby weight in mere weeks. Besides, my pre-pregnancy weight was about 10 pounds more than I was comfortable with anyway. And it was 20 pounds more than would make me gleeful and conceited.

So SSB and I have been working out and cutting carbs. The other day we went to the gym and I alternated between walking and running on the treadmill for the longest 20 minutes of my damn life and then I lifted weights. Triceps and quads and calves. Oh my. When I got home I re-weighed myself, just for farts and giggles and was happy to see I had lost 4 tenths of a pound. I'll take it. I did a little happy dance to the shower and was doing my best Gene Kelly impersonation, splashing and soft-shoeing, when SSB came in the bathroom. He weighed himself, turned around and took a piss and then weighed again and lost 6 TENTHS OF A POUND. Just like that. I had to almost kill myself and all he had to do was pee. And he has the bladder of an INFANT. Its not like he pulled a Jimmy Dugan or anything.

If only it were really that easy always.

This Ain't A Scene, It's My Pretend Birthday

Happy Birthday to MEEEE!
Happy Birthday TO MEEE!
Happy BIRTH - wait.
It's not my birthday.

But that did not stop ArtistMommy from giving me a birthday present! Why? Because she's just cool like that.


Yes! It is Petey's book from his childhood nightmares that I've been wanting to add to my crush collection. She took the (oh so subtle) hint and pwned you all!

As for the story itself he says right up front that it has no point. And he's right. Its kind of like his songs, which IMHO are crybaby wah-wah, o woe is me. But that's the stuff from which songs are made and he's apparently good at it. I hope for Ashlee's sake he's not that whiny in real life though.

I LOVE celebrating my birthday when its not my birthday!! As far as friends go, ArtistMommy is totally boss. She is the cheese to my macaroni. And, I know people are supposed to actually meet before they become friends but . . . I guess normalcy isn't really our style. Its like we've known each other forever and have lived parallel lives. We keep finding quirky little things that are same about us and our past. I don't usually even have FRIENDS, let alone twin soul-type friends so I've decided neither of us is ever moving. Ever. We're going to Lucy and Ethel it right here on this block.

Keep On A-Rockin' Me Baby

The Rock Band 2 setlist came out yesterday and I can hardly contain myself. Last night I dreamed about all the songs to come. How am I going to wait until September??

Alanis Morissette "You Oughta Know". Are you kidding me?? I'd buy it JUST for that song.

Billy Idol "White Wedding". Too bad its not Mony Mony, but it'll do.

Offspring "Come Out & Play". You gotta keep 'em separated!

Red Hot Chili Peppers "Give It Away". I'm already warming up my tongue for that one.

Joan Jett "Bad Reputation". Ahhh. The memories.

Ratt "Round and Round". I know a chick from Sapaloopa that will be over here to play THAT one as soon as she can. :)

System of a Down "Chop Suey". Creepy but fun to sing.

Bikini Kill "Rebel Girl". Yikes, but yay! And Nirvana "Drain You" which it is said Kurt Cobain wrote it about Tobi Vail from Bikini Kill. I don't like Nirvana anyway and don't know if I can sing about chewing your meat for you without gagging.

The list goes on and on. 84 songs, all master recordings, plus 20 available for download later. I'm crossing my fingers hoping for "Welcome to the Jungle".

It's Finger-Lookin' Good!

I was looking at Pootie's finger over the weekend and was pleasantly surprised to find that the snakebite wound has healed over. Her surgeon had wanted to do a skin graft last week or the week before but there was no opening until July 25th and now I think its too late.

This morning I left a message for him to call me so we could discuss it. I got a call back within an hour, which was another pleasant surprise. A woman transferred me to another woman who asked if she could help me first. I told her what was going on and she said, "Oh. You better talk to him about that."

But then she came back on the phone and said, "OK. We'll cancel the surgery. He does want to see her one more time though" and made us an appointment. Wow. That was easy. I was thinking I'd take her down to see him before the surgery so HE could determine if she still needed it or not, but its fine with me.

What do you think?

RAK Hijack

My friend from Oklahoma and her two boys came down for the 4th of July and spent about a week here. We had a lot of fun and our kids were disappointed to see them go because "we did something every day and now we're just going to sit here and do nothing again." Hmmph.

Her kids want to move here because there is always someone to play with "and if you get bored with one kid, just move on to another." :)

One of the things we did was go to a Rangers game Tuesday night. I didn't think any of my kids would be interested in going, but they did (with the exception of Bugaboo because she had to work). As we drove toward Arlington we saw the clouds a-comin' but pressed ahead anyway. As we got to the parking lot it started to POUR and the kids were griping that the game would be canceled.

We pulled into the open lot where an attendant was standing in the downpour. SSB rolled the window down to fork over the $12 and the guy asked if we were with the people ahead of us. We had taken two cars but my friend's car was beside us, not in front of us so there was a moment of confusion. The attendant said the car in front of us had paid for us already but since we had said we weren't with them he said maybe they meant the one behind us.

As we pulled ahead I looked back and the car behind us paid for themselves too so now I'm wondering what that was all about. Was the person ahead of us performing a Random Act of Kindness and it got screwed it up? Did the guy keep an extra $12 that was to go toward their karma? Or was he just testing us to see if we'd say yes, we were with them so let us in?

With my mind running in all these directions I didn't even pay attention to what kind of car was in front of us so I could find them and thank them, if it had it been a RAK, and I feel bad about that.

I Look and I Sound Like the Letter $$$$$$$$$$

Update on the snake bite drama.

Pootie has most of her range of motion back in her finger. It doesn't straighten all the way or bend all the way when making a fist, but the hand surgeon is pleased with what she CAN do even though it is still somewhat numb. He said it probably damaged some of her nerves but he didn't say if she'll regain any sensation or not. However, her wound where the little sucker actually bit her has not healed up on its own enough and she is scheduled for outpatient surgery to have a skin graft on July 25. Luckily, not TOO much tendon is showing and he doesn't have to do the cross-finger flap he thought he might have to do and it will just be a regular skin graft, probably taking the skin from somewhere on her thigh or hip.

In related news we got another statement from the insurance company. Children's Medical Center charged Cigna $189,926.50 just for the ER and inpatient part of her hospital stay (doesn't include doctor charges, ambulance, etc.). $99,999.00 of that was just for the Cro-Fab (anti-venin). If you read my original post about this, you'll know that I took home the information sheet that the ER sent up to the nurses on the floor about it and one of the things it said was that each vial of Cro-Fab costs the hospital $900 and I wondered how much they were going to charge the insurance company. My answer is $3333.33 if she got 30 vials. (I lost track and know she got between 24 and 30 vials but for math purposes we'll say it was 30.) Cigna only allowed for about $58,000, meaning they paid about $1900 a vial. Quite a profit for the hospital.

E-Care charged my credit card $100 the night it happened and I don't know how much they charged the insurance company but another $250 was automatically paid out of our flexible spending account (cafeteria plan). I don't know what they could charge for though because all that place did was call an ambulance. That is ALL they did. The ambulance took her from E-Care to the local hospital 7.7 miles away (even though that hospital wasn't equipped to do anything about her injury) and we just got a bill for $485.00 for that pointless ride. That's almost $63 a mile. It's crazy.

$tay away from $nakes!

In a Wad

Guess what?

I'm wearing panties!!!

But it wasn't a successful endeavor. She baptized two pair in half an hour. Oh well. It was a start.

Guinea Puppy

SSB got a wild hair the other day and took Diego (the guinea pig) out of his cage so Sofine could have her way with him. He was feeling sorry for her after her initial contact with him, which you can read about here.

SSB held Diego and Dupree held Sofine's collar. All was well so he let Diego walk around on the ottoman by himself. Sofine didn't take her eyes off of him. She just stared and stared as he came closer to her. He came over and sniffed her.

And he cuddled up to her.

He pretty much accepted her maternal advances like when she nudged him around like a newborn puppy.

And they were both very happy. But I'm not quite ready to just let them both loose together. Not yet anyway.