Visit the kelpforest....

Where candy corn comes from?

California Adventure
Dismalland, Anaheim CA
Sharp VE-CG30
28 September 2008

( Requisite Family shot... )

Yesterday was our 13th anniversary. Given the year we've been having, that's probably appropriate. Anyhow, it was pretty low key, given that we are broke until payday. The last thing I bought was my bus pass and while I was at the grocery store getting it, my gaze fell upon these silly little figures with a tillandsia glued on the side in the plant section. The figure I spied was a pair of blue rainforest frogs, and they struck me as looking like a fat, middle-aged couple, leaning on each other and holding each other up. Perfect. A whole $4. I've never given John a plant before; although he's been know to give his mother a cactus for gifting occasions ("Because you're prickly, and you're a thorn in my side!"). I didn't give it to him until this morning, because he confessed to not having gotten me anything either, and didn't want me to. However, the little plant was getting squished in my purse, so I gave it to him anyway, and it made him laugh.

I wasn't really expecting anything, but actually, I was kind of wondering if he'd gotten me a camera or something. My great aunt's estate sent me $800 last month, apparently the last bit left after all the taxes and all had been paid, and I told John we needed to put it aside and not spend it, so we could put it toward the trip he wants to take later this summer. It seems to be gone already, and I have no clue where it went. I know I havn't really made any big purchases, and neither has he, that I know of. And I'm quite sure we didn't spring for pizza that often. I mentioned this to VT on our walk at lunch and she offered to send me a spreadsheet she uses for a family budget - not that they always stick to it but it helps. Something we should have started a long time ago, I know - I'll try to put it to use.

Anyway, when I got home, the house was empty, except for Dad, who said "Happy Anniversary!" and explained that he'd sprung for Chinese take-out. When John got back with our regular orders, he laughed and told me the woman at the counter is always happy to see us and remarks on how the kids have grown, but her husband in the kitchen gets cranky, because he knows he's gonna have to cook something; most of their customers just seem to order off the steam table - but I like to order something off the menu, usually mu shu. So she yells into the kitchen and he yells back. We don't know Chinese, but it sure sounds like he's swearing.

So, thirteen years. Where has the time gone?

Rock tumbler experiment - runsamuck got us a family present (read, one he can play around with himself) These are just rocks and pebbles found lying around the yard. We're trying to get them shiny and polished - so far they're nice and smooth, but just getting smaller and smaller. A few are really sparkly, though.

When I finally got home, runsamuck was sick and depressed, and asked me to go get him some comfort food. And make him Kraft mac & cheese...

Lest you think runsamuck only makes/eats junk food...

...well, not really; they're frozen from the grocery store, but they bring back memories of his Michigan childhood. He'd eat a whole box by himself if we didn't make him share.

(btw, has anyone tried the new editing at Flickr; some of it is really handy)
( this is what this looked like originally... )

runsamuck shows Gareth how to make flowers out of vegetables - radishes, tomatos and Brussel sprouts.

( Finished products )

Good grief. If it's not one damn thing it's another. The school year starts and of course, the kids start bringing home all the virulent viruses, so one of us gets sick after another. I had to take time off last week because John was sick, then on Monday he stepped in a hole while walking the kids home from school, and sprained his ankle. At least, we hope it's just sprained. I stayed home Tuesday to make sure he went to the doctor - and he really couldn't drive anyway because it's his right foot - and get an x-ray, as well as drop off and pick up the kids from school, and run to the store to pick up whatever he happens to be craving at the moment. Although we could only get an appointment with the physician's assistant because the doctor was completely booked up, the doctor did look in during John's appointment and prescribe the x-ray because he thought the amount of bruising might indicate a torn tendon or a fracture. However, he didn't prescribe any kind of brace, just an ACE bandage. The last time I badly sprained my ankle, I got yelled at for waiting so long to come in, had a brace and was on crutches for a week.

We're supposed to hear back about the x-ray today. In addition to being very dark purple under his ankle bone, I think the swelling on the top of his foot has gotten worse, and he's getting more bruising showing up around his toes and the top of his ankle. He was moaning last night about "No! I won't go under the knife!" and I told him if it's necessary, he'll do it if I have to take a 2x4 to the side his head. Although he amended that with "Now that's love, when someone makes you do something that needs to be done." Sometimes I think he says stuff like that just to get a rise out me.

Anyway, this week I've been having to come in late because of getting the kids to school, then leave to pick them up when they're done. So probably less than half day some days. I feel really lucky I work in a place that allows me to do this - plus my boss has kids, so he understands dealing with them. However, I can't help remembering a previous boss, after some very bad asthma attacks, telling me "If this is a regular occurrence, you're going to have to find some kind of alternative child care." She also called me to come in at noon when I was really sick once. I keep thinking that's going to happen here, too, and it makes John think I'm neglecting him when I say I need to go back to work after I pick the kids up from school. I know he can't walk, but Dad is there, too. I know he's more of a frustration than a help sometimes, but at least another adult is there.

On another note, re: John's health, the last time he was having digestive problems, I did some searching regarding his symptoms, i.e. bloating, gas, sulfurous belching, malaise, recurring general crappiness, and the only thing that came up - especially for the burping - was giardia! While I know giardia is pretty widespread and inhabits just about every stream, I'm not sure where he could have come across it. We haven't been camping and we live in a city with treated water. So, ??? Still think he sould be tested for it. And of course I forgot to take that little sheet along when he went in, so now he won't ask about it until next time he goes in.

Update (finally!): As of today, the final word on the x-ray is extensive soft tissue damage. It is still very swollen and puffy and he has discoloration on the other side of his ankle and his lower calf as well. I'm going to look into getting one of those inflatable Velcro splints when I get off work, so at least his ankle has more support when he trieswalks.

runsamuck helped Gareth put together this airplane. Or is it a boat?

While I was making dinner last night, Angus decided that, in the middle of his regular galumphing back and forth in the living room, it would be a good idea to stand on the glass coffee table in the living room to get a better look at the portait of his grandmother hanging over the fireplace, never mind that there are better, unbreakable things to stand on, such as the solid sandstone front of the fireplace.  As a matter of fact, I don't think he just stood on it; what I heard from the kitchen was thumpity-thumpity-thumpity-thump,  thumpity-thumpity-thumpity-thump, thumpity-thumpity-thumpity-CRASH-thumpity, by which time I thumping out into the living room myself, to see the largest section of the coffee table shattered, and Angus hopping around the other side of the room on one foot, holding the toes of his other foot and looking anxious. So he may have jumped on it, but that's a bit out of character for him; he does not, as a rule, jump very often.

I hustled him into the bathroom clean his foot off and see how bad the damage was; apart from an initial exclamation of "Is it squirting?!" he seemed to take it pretty well. Gareth was more upset than he was. The cuts were bleeding pretty badly and I couldn't see how deep they were; when I called John (at the neighbors) we thought we should go to the emergency room, just in case. Of course they stopped bleeding by the time we got there, and by the time we got in, an hour later, I could tell the intern was internally snickering as he again cleaned off Angus's foot. He got a total of a band-aid on his toe and a note excusing him from PE for the rest of the week. Didn't need a tetanus shot because his immunizations are all up to date. I felt pretty silly, but the nurse told me better safe than sorry.

John is again being short with me, possibly because after dropping my insurance card on the floor for fourth time I shoved it at him as I jumped up to check on Angus in the restroom; he had forgotten to latch the door and two people walked in on him. Since this occurred just before dinner, John was hungry, and went across the street to the gas station to get something to eat. He came back with a giant cookie and although there were signs all over the waiting room about "NO FOOD OR DRINK" began shoving pieces of cookie at us. I was not hungry and when I mentioned the signs, he said "Eff that!" and continued. It wasn't a very good cookie and and I guess I handed him the pieces at the same time as the insurance card, rather abruptly. While we waiting for our paperwork, I mentioned something that maybe I have overreacted and we might not have needed to come, and he grunted, "Yeah, you did." What? I called him to ask if we needed to go - he could have said "no, we don't need to" at any time - Angus was bandaged up and in the car within about five minutes of him coming home. Last time, I got in trouble for not thinking it was serious enough - now I am for being not being able to tell how deep they were when bleeding all over the place?

When we got home, Dad had almost let the soup burn - it's all solidified now, like when you open a can of split pea soup and have to add water to it. He had also begun picking up the broken glass as we left, but as it turned out only picked up the largest pieces. John had to finish and vacuum the floor, so that didn't make him any happier.