WHAT MADE YOU GRIMACE & GRIT YOUR TEETH TODAY?

That it isn't raining so I have to work in the yard (ugh)

Here it's too cold today for Ms. Grumpy to work in the yard.. and the yard is in the middle of conducting a war between beginning to look good and where neighbors should call the city about weeds. I've gardened forever, and don't completely hate weeding as there is a meditative aspect to it. But I'm getting lazier if it's too hot, too cold, too windy, bla blah.

I'm bavk!

Cat yelled at me for an hour when I picked her up...happy now.

Our team psychiatrist and I got lost and made us late for the aircraft.

The pilot was so stressed by the lateness he made a spooky landing at Pt Pirie!!!

A case containing stuff for kids was hit by a four-wheel drive as said team psychiatrist was making a dash to pick up other team members in said four-wheel drive and spilled paint all over the chartered plane's cargo carpet. Man, did we get told off!

It is now sitting in my living room in a plastic garbage bag when I should be cleaning it up.

Ferk it.

Things went pretty well.

Now they want me to spend one week in every fortnight there for the next six months (IF the Powers That Be make that possible) with a small team.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

On the one hand, I would like to do it, on the other hand that makes my life extremely difficult in numerous ways.

Also, I am only here for four of those months and than I am OS.

We wait and see.

So I see! Good to see you again, Deb. I missed you!



I'm delighted to hear that! They could've been quite awkward & messy!



That is what I call being extremely stretched!
All that coming & going, say nothing of continually putting what you've been doing (at both locations) on hold.
Nah, too messy. Too demanding of your personal & professional resources.
It sounds like they need someone on the spot, full-time. (Don't tell me. I already know: financial constraints. )

Another thought: who is supposed to look after your poor cat every second week? She is NOT going to like this!

Wow, every other week? I'm picturing a travelling cat, but that probably has a lot of counterindications to it.

Oh my yes! It does.

I have a whole new drama!!!

My browser (Chrome) has been acting a bit twitchy when I go to Amazon.

Earlier today I was looking at a whole bunch of books from Amazon's recommendations when the browser crashed.

Over the last 30 minutes, I have been receiving email after email from Amazon confirming orders I never made.

Yep...every single book that was open in my browser (and a bunch that weren't, but are in my wish list) has been ordered.

I can't cancel them on the site because "they are being processed".

I tried to call them, but was on hold for so long I had to give up as it was looking to cost me too much to make sense.

I am emailing them desperately as the orders come in, and have cancelled my credit card with them......but oh boy...I daren't check how much money has come out of my account.

Hi Deb... there is a live chat facility on Amazon.com - I had a problem with an order the other day and went onto the live chat facility via my email... they sorted the problem immediately... hope you can get some success.

you need to go into the order and in the search box type live chat... it will come back saying no results found, on the right hand side of that page scroll down and there is a "contact us" box and when you click on it it comes up with a tab with "live chat" as the 4th tab along

Thank you...but nothing came up when I searched for live chat.

It only has email or phone.

oh, so sorry, tried to go onto it to see if I could get hold of them to find...

Live Chat is currently closed. Our hours are:


Monday-Friday:8:00 AM - 10:00 PM (Pacific)You may also contact us by phone or email.

hope you manage to get it resolved.... infuriating for sure.

I like "House." I watch it from time to time -- maybe a dozen episodes total so far. I've always liked Hugh Laurie and the show is enjoyable.

Just turned it on, it was an episode with signing -- deaf people! Cool!

I'm really appalled at the way it is going, though. I understand that all of these shows are not actually as medically expert as they appear to be but this was so extremely off.

For one thing, the guy who was forcibly implanted (!! passed off as House being House, a cad but ultimately the one who has the guts to do the right thing) could hear and understand voices right off -- that's just not how it works.

"My patient is opting in to a handicap." Cochlear implants are not glasses!!! They don't just magically "heal" your hearing. They require a lot of training and then... maybe... or maybe not... there will be some useful hearing. Very often there won't be any useful hearing -- just sound. (Is it a motorcycle or a bee? Who knows?)

I'm so so so tired of this narrative -- that deaf people reject cochlear implants because of some backwards and primitive love for Deaf culture. Cochlear implants are far from a sure thing. They're expensive, they're invasive, they get infected, they're THERE -- and they just don't actually work that often. They do sometimes, and man do those sometimes get a lot of publicity. I'm so tired of that being taken as the baseline though... I personally know so so so many people who got them and were unhappy with them. Not because of some cultural bullshit, but because the implants didn't work.

/end rant

Cool rant!!!

I guess it's a glass House, eh?

Where do I start.

1. I got new glasses yesterday...which, not only do I hate, are stronger. I have discovered that my apparently youthful and blooming skin was merely an artifact of blurry vision.

2. Mind you, I am on my fifth sinus infection since commencing small aircraft flights up to beyond the black stump...I confidently (despite frenzied applications of sinus washes and supposedly efficacious sinus healtherisers) await the usual sore throat and bronchitis that follows...so I don't look quite my best.

3. Said infection has again delayed my "look better for New York" campaign, and I remain a puffy blob of glup.

4. An urban legends post led to the discovery that one may now buy cosmetics to give one's nether lips a youthful pink colour.

MY LABIA ARE GOING TO GO SOME WEIRD COLOUR AND I'M SUPPOSED TO CARE?!!!

I mean, I don't even know what colour they are NOW!

I didn't sign on for this ****.


May I add that one can purchase one's nether lippy at AMAZON.

http://www.mynewpinkbutton.com/content/Product_List.htm

designed by a female certified Paramedical Esthetician

What the?

certified female?

Sounds like she paints dead people.

And that so ought to be aesthaetician.

It's the "paramedical" that gets the hell out of me!

I saw that episode a few days ago and thought of you.

On the one hand, why bother? The medicine in House is no worse than the physics in science fiction series. On the other hand, junk medicine on TV can have personal consequences for you and for people you love; junk physics on TV has no consequences for me. So I appreciate your rant.

May I just add another theme that annoys me about House? (Otherwise I like it, too.) It's the doctors' irritation when their patients research their symptoms on the internet. Based on my experience with America's medical system so far, this irritation is not borne out by the doctors' superior competence. Patients who know how to search the PubMed and NHI websites can easily learn more about their own illness than their doctors know.

Not that there's any shame in that—there's thousands of illnesses out there, and no doctor could possibly be an expert on them all. Nevertheless, America's authoritarianism about medicine is unbecoming of the "Land of the Free". TV shows shouldn't promote it.

I'm staying at a friend's place down the coast (long weekend!)

Had a shower this morning, got out and started to dry myself off. Towel seems damper than expected..but - not to worry - but then - peeewwww!

Hmmmm - bloody cat had peed on my towel - and I was wiping it all over me. Race out, grab a fresh towel - back in the shower again.

That cat looks like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth and I can't really strangle the cat of my host, can I?

Bleeeaaaahhhh!

Deb - welcome to the new glasses club! How did we age so suddenly?

and here is the little monster:

Ack.