For next year, I'd like to continue to write here every now and again, to keep up with the knitting, to keep loml around.  Basically I want a year of status quo - a year where nothing huge happens.  I also am already planning on doing more for myself.  My first three areas of attack are:

• Coding improvements.  I'm taking a Ruby on Rails program in winter. I know I code for my living, but I often feel like I don't actually do much coding.  Sharepoint sort of stole that from me.  And so I'm going to try a few certificate programs and learn some new languages.
• Hobby improvements.  I'm taking an embroidery class from Lill Street.  I've wanted to try classes there for years and now it's on my way home from work.  There's no reason I shouldn't try stuff out there.
• Body improvements.  Since getting the IUD I've gained a shit ton of weight.  You go on the pill, you gain weight.  You go off, you gain weight.  It's all very frustrating.  So I'd like to get in a routine where my exercise is just part of my day and I only eat cookies once or twice a week, not every day.  That seems doable and will hopefully aid in shedding a few of those pounds.

I hope you all have a lovely NYE, whatever you may be doing.  

I can't believe 2010 is over.  It sometimes is amazing to me how quickly and sometimes slowly a year goes.  Here's my quick year-end review.  I cheated and googled "year end review meme" and came up with this list.  I feel pressed for time as I only have 18 minutes left in December 30 to do this for you, so here's my quickfire:

1. What did you do in 2010 that you'd never done before? I bought a house, lived with a boy.  Huge things.
2.  Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I looked on my blog, and I made some hobby resolutions, that I wanted to hobby more.  And I think I did that pretty successfully.  Seven finished knitting projects, with a move.  I also stated that I wanted to write here more, which I mostly did.  And to keep loml around...and here we are.  Sitting on the couch together.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth? No.
4. Did anyone close to you die? No. 
5. What countries did you visit? Er.  None.  I don't even think I left the state last year?  Oh my goodness, that's sad.
6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010? I am pretty content, though the last question shamed me, so how about some vacations?
7. What date from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? URGH, my memory kills me.  I want to say the day I signed the mortgage, but I already can't remember it.  And I am close to the day we moved in, but again, I think I'm off by a day or two.  Date memories are just lost on me.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Definitely buying a house without completely losing my mind.
9. What was your biggest failure? I think I didn't do enough for myself still - I wanted to take classes of some kind forever (art, etc) and just never did.  I had nothing but time between January and July and did nothing with it.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?  Yes.  For a while there I thought I was dying of some unknown lung problem.  I am not.  
11. What was the best thing you bought? HOUSE!
12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Boku?  This is a weird question.  Boku is becoming a real cat slowly.  Here's proof.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?  Republicans.  
14. Where did most of your money go? HOUSE!
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? HOUSE!  (how boring is this becoming?)
16. What song will always remind you of 2010? Again, my memory really prevents this from being true.  I just...don't really have this kind of song memory.  Maybe 'Dancing on my Own' by Robyn.  Or some other pop number.  Like a G6?
17. Compared to this time last year, are you: - happier or sadder? I hate this kind of question.  I was happy last year.  I am happy this year.  Any happy is good.  Why should I qualify one against the other?  I think I'm probably the same or happier but meh...
18. What do you wish you'd done more of? Exercise. 
19.  What do you wish you'd done less of? Stress.
20. How did you spend the holidays? Thanksgiving with loml's, eve with mine, day with both.
21. Did you fall in love in 2010? Not anymore than already.
22. How many one-night stands? Uh.  Now I feel like it's 5 years ago and this blog was awesome and new and I was doing random memes all the time.  Zero. 
23. What was your favorite TV program?  I like 30 Rock, How I Met Your Mother, Modern Family, etc.
24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? No.  
25. What was the best book you read?  Hmmmm.  I really liked the Hunger Games trilogy.  That's the first I thought of.
26. What was your favorite film of this year? Harry Potter!  I think it's the only one I saw in the theater this year.  
27. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010? Comfort above style, aka, why don't any of my pants fiiiit (whiny voice)?
28. Whom did you miss?  Hmm.  No one?
29. Who was the best new person you met?  Is it weird if i say I didn't meet anyone? 
30. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010.  It's midnight.  I failed because I can't answer this one quickly enough.  Something cheesy about home is where the heart is?

Yesterday, on the way home from the burbs/zoo, loml was fiesty (probably due to the gigantic pop he had at dinner).  He has very sharp elbows and enjoys "dancing" in the car which mainly involves flailing his arm in front of me and elbowing me with his awfully sharp elbow.  I had had just about enough and was saying as much, when we had this conversation:

me: GAAAAHHHH.  Stop it.
loml: Who would have thought that you would be the one that needed time alone?
me:  ME.
loml: Who would have thought?  

And even right now, he's talking to me about what this post is going to be about and I want lip zippers to actually exist.  Sometimes, as a person used to being alone, I get super annoyed and want to chop off his arm right above his exceedingly sharp elbow.  This, my friends, is what happens when you have an easily annoyed person living with someone who is really great at annoying.

I even warned him of my crabbiness:  the "plumber" came today from my contractor to look at the basement shower (not getting hot enough).  Only it wasn't really a plumber, it was the catch-all man who did various and sundry in our basement.  This annoyed me after already waking up crabby.  I woke up crabby because I generally sleep with a fan pointed at me at night to cool my 1000 degree sleeping temp.  Loml is concerned about the amount of white noise and so we attempted without.  I slept, but fitfully.  Tossed and turned a lot.  

As for the icicle situation, contractor deemed that "ice/snow build up, not diagnosable by him as shoddy work until spring".  Even though loml and I both saw the water leaking out of the joint between gutters.  Bah.  Bullshit.

Zoo lights!  Tonight I finally got to see Brookfield's take on zoo lights.  It's pretty much the same as Lincoln Park Zoo, only on a grander scale.  And the grander scale was cool and definitely worth seeing.  Plus, now we own three holiday Mold-A-Rama's: a reindeer, an angel and a snowman.  I love them; they are awesome.  The middle fountain in the zoo has trees "dancing" all around it.  Basically that just means the lights turn off and on to the music.  But it was worth walking by as we made our way around (it was too cold to loiter).

Also.  There was this.  Love.  

Two brief and basic reviews for today. 

One.
This afternoon I dragged loml to see the latest HP movie: Deathly Hallows the first.  I was going to see it with a fellow HP lover but movie times failed us.  Apparently if you wait a month to see a movie you don't have all that many options.  Anyway, I think it was fantastically done.  The last movie was OK, enjoyable, but I thought there were too many liberties taken (like the burning down of the Weasley's house which apparently had magically reappeared in the same form in this film).  It was also kind of fun to see what questions loml had about what happened in the film: what are snatchers?  what year is it now?  etc etc.  Also, no, the "naked silver twilight makeout" scene was not like that in the book.  It is fun to imagine how JK Rowling would have written that though...

Two.
I recently finished Tess of the D'urbervilles.  It was a smooth read; I read it and was interested in what was going to happen almost the whole way through.  But this book made me confront something about myself:  I do not enjoy unhappy books.  And I especially don't like an unhappy end.  I've thought of a few exceptions to this rule, but overall I'd rather read a happy ending.  And while Tess was clearly engaging due to how well written it was, my goodness what a depressing book.  What am I supposed to take out of it?  That pride prevents people from being happy or that blind devotion does?  That having no true faith will lead you to toil and gloom?  And really, who would ever say this is their favorite book?  That is the part that baffles me the most.  Who reads this and thinks, well, it was engaging and depressing but MAN did I enjoy all that time that I felt depressed while reading it?

What a lovely two days.  I hope yours was everything you wanted.  And if not that, then better.  And if not that, then not so terrible that you were full of hate.  I haven't done much of anything today.  Read a book.  Knitted.  Put some things away.  Knitted more.  Ate leftovers.  Made loml try the Kinect with me.  Then pushed him out of the basement while I played it and Lego Harry Potter.  The downstairs TV just became much more popular.  Also, everyone looks stupid playing the Kinect.

Oh, I also wrote an email to my "done with the job" contractor because his shoddy work is causing the icicle of death:

What are the chances that he fixes that?  It's his gutter work that's leaking...maybe in a few days I'll have a non-recommendation for a contractor for you all.  With a list of everything that we feel was done half-assedly.

Otherwise, I have plans to write about a book I finished recently, my New Year's Resolutions and maybe a quick 2010 wrap up before the end of the year. Anything else I promised that I forgot?

What a lovely, lovely day.  I slept for at least 9 hours last night (there's no telling how long as I was up for a set of hours in the middle having a tantrum at loml for staying up so late).  I tidied and watched movies (Big is still an amazing movie.  Did you hear about the morgans was exactly as terrible as I expected).  I did loads of laundry (if you're ever in the market for a new dryer, DO NOT buy one where the lint trap pulls out of the top of the machine.  It causes lint dirtiness everywhere).  And I spent hours wrapping presents.

I have two particular favorites this year.  It was a good one.  Though I feel like I had more presents in the past.  

I'll not be even attempting to blog tomorrow or Saturday.  So if you celebrate, Merry Christmas!  Either way, I hope you have a lovely two days without me.

It's crazy to realize that I moved in to this house only three months ago.  We drove by my old apartment on Saturday and I felt a slight pang of nostalgia, maybe a moment of sadness...but it was only a moment.  It feels like we've been living in this house for as long as I can remember (though maybe we have...if we're using my memory as the compass).  I think this house quickly became a home.  It's not a place I live, it's the place I want to go to at the end of a bad day and the place that I'm most comfortable.  I wasn't sure how having a roommate would affect my ability to feel at home here, but if anything he's made it easier.  If I don't stop myself now, I'll start writing in cheesy cliches and then next stop, vinyl wall art.

There are weird things I love about this house (the tiny window in the bedroom closet) and habits I can't seem to break from having an apartment.  I can't stop stock-piling laundry...I need to do it every few days, not every few weeks.  

This is sort of a round-about post.  I meant to write about how I want to settle in more next week (I have the week off).  To move my clothes into the closet in the basement and start showering down there.  And, maybe (gasp) look for a lamp for the side table and a towel bar/holder for the basement downstairs.  Big plans!  Super exciting!  Running low on topics!

There are some days when I really want to talk about work on this blog.  I have almost entirely, if not entirely, abstained from talking about my current workplace on this blog.  It is too easy to find me and connect me to say anything at all anonymously.  And I really like my job - enough that I don't want to ever leave under weird or uncomfortable circumstances.  So here are a few things that I would say openly if given the opportunity:

• There is such a thing as dead weight.  Firing is not a healthy thing in the workplace, but neither is 50% (or more) of our workers doing, almost obviously, nothing.
• Communication, even of stupid items, makes the little folks, the cogs, feel loved.  It is a problem if different departments within the same division are given different levels of information.  If X department is told all the details of something while Y department is left in the dark, Y will feel bitter.
• People can be awesome, nice, great people and still suck at their job.
• There is a level of respect that everyone should be afforded.  If you get frustrated with your work, it is not helpful nor polite to take it out on your coworker

That all sounds bad, but I really do like my job.  It seems that every job has it's problems.  My last full-time/real job had more problems with the people than this one...and I have to say I prefer it this way.

***

I now have two completely unrelated side notes.

There are weird adult moments involved in living with someone.  Like getting Christmas cards addressed to both of you.  I would like it noted, for the record, that I asked loml if he wanted to be signed on to the cards I sent.  He said "no.  what did i do to deserve that?"  And so, my name only.  More scary than Christmas cards: the check book that came with both of our names on the checks.  We're not even really using it as a joint account.  It's more like...a money pass through for rent.  But it was still a heavy moment.

I unpacked the board games before the housewarming party and now I want to play.  Who wants to join me?  Or us?  Either way works... I have off all of next week. 

Speaking of traditions....Santa Claus....

I love Christmas.  I love the time I spend with my family and Christmas decorations and shopping for gifts and snow and everything.  I find it magical at times (fun real mail daily!  holiday train!  happy kiddies everywhere!  wrapping presents with pretty bows!).  And part of that magic, at least for me, is Santa Claus.  I loved Santa as a kid, I still feel a little bit of joy when I see kids seeing Santa.  And honestly, I don't remember being all that distraught when we found out Santa was not real.  I have a bad memory in general, so please don't assume I wasn't distraught, it just didn't make a big enough impact to be memorable.  I remember other events in my childhood far more clearly (mostly physical pain events).  

So here's the thing.  Santa Claus is a lie.  I know this, you know this, we all know this now.  But if I have kids, I want them to know Christmas joy.  Is it possible to have the joy without Santa?  Loml doesn't want to do Santa Claus if he has kids...because it's lying to your children, it teaches them that parents are liars.

But what about the magic?  What shall we do if we continue this thing and take it to a new level involving little ones?  Can I give up Santa?  Can he lie to his kids?

It's Christmas cookie baking day!  Every year my Mom, sister and I get together and bake dozens of cookies.  Actually, it's probably more like hundreds.  Hundreds of cookies.  This year our schedules failed us and my Mom and sister baked cookies together Friday and Saturday.  I was unable to join, so my Mom is coming over today to finish up.

I've been thinking a lot about tradition.  What holiday traditions I have, my family has, what holiday traditions loml and his family have...and how to combine them all without killing any.  Last year we didn't combine holidays at all.  It was just easier and we were new.  But this year, I felt really strongly that I wanted our holidays to be shared.  Unfortunately, a lot of our traditions overlap...it's been tricky.  I think loml doesn't hold much with traditions - but I know his parents do.

It really makes me curious about how everyone does this.

Aaaaand I flat out forgot yesterday. I went to dinner/the Hawks game right after work and had no time to consider blogging about anything.  I was super tired when we got home and got in bed pretty quickly.

Now I'm awake, listening to the glass guys replace the mirror downstairs.  There was a weird mark/imperfection on it right at my eye level.  I'm basically waiting for the mirror to break into pieces.  I can't imagine they can get it off in one piece, can they?

I was not ready to be up this morning.  I have been pretty exhausted lately and I'm starting to suspect it's because I am so spectacularly out of shape.   I hate to be one of those, but in 2011 I need to get into the habit of being active.  I would like to lose a few pounds as well, but mostly I need to get my muscles and lungs back into fighting form.  As I'm getting older, it's becoming kind of obvious that my body is getting older and more crotchety.  I know I'm still young, but if I don't nip this in the bud now, will I ever? 

So...let's all pretend I didn't eat a cupcake for breakfast.

FO Number eight!  Sealing the year up by completing my set.  Hat and mittens preceded it.

I made it extra long - the pattern called for 9 repeats. I did 15. I really enjoyed this knit. The cable could be a pain in the ass sometimes (to pull 10 on the cable needle was a bit much) but overall, I loved watching the braid happen. It's super thick yarn and can be looped multiples...and so it should be warm. I'm excited to break this out. Just need a day that isn't so damn cold that I'm wearing so many layers. My nice coat looks sausagy with too many layers.

Also, I'm running out of projects. So if you have something you want to own, of a hand-knit nature, shoot me a note. I even have a lot of yarn that has no purpose...

Yay, it's TMI IUD time!

But first, I spoke to my doctor today and the MRA was normal.  So.  I either had pneumonia and the antibiotics did the job, or the xray was wrong, or my lung spontaneously healed itself.  Or i just have an anomaly in my lung.  Either way I'm not currently dying, as far as I know.  So: phew.

In IUD news, I had my check-up appointment.  Basically my doc just checks to make sure it's still in there, in the right place.  And to make sure I'm not having terrible side effects, which I'm currently not.  I'm about to go way tooooo TMI here.  But my period was really long.  I spotted for a long time before it actually came and then I had it forever.  However, the last pill I was on made me have terrible cramps and so far, not a single one with the IUD.  I'm super excited about that - cramps are supposedly one of the worst side effects of this little piece of copper.  So I'm hopeful that I'm getting off easy.  Except for the part where I have to check that it's still in there once in a while.  I'll let you know how that goes....

So I made it about halfway through December without feeling like I need to pull topics like taffy.  What shall I say today?


I've started ten different entries, but I'm postponing at least three of them for more appropriate dates.  The rest are abandoned to the trash heap.  So it's not that I don't have anything to say...it's just not right today.  So I think I'll leave it.  It's not right today.

I have a very serious sweet tooth.  I have been known to eat cookies for any meal of the day.  And even though he has a video on his phone of me eating cinnamon rolls for dinner that he tortures me with, loml buys me my favorite cookies all the time.  He supports my bad habits.  Santa's favorites are prevalent in this house during the winter.  And it is delightful to be surprised with something you love.

Loml and I have been at this, officially, for a year and a half.  But even before we were together, I got boxes of Santa's Favorites from him for Christmas.  

Part of me wants to stop this post at that - loml brings me cookies when I'm not expecting them.  But I promised you all a sappy post.  There's obviously more to this than cookies.  I mean, the laughs...the laughs from the pushed buttons (mine mostly, but others as well) - I laugh every day.  The stories, he tells stories in a really solid way and I've always preferred listening to talking.  And of course, there's the conversations.  I need to digress here because there is no really good word for chat that doesn't sound trivial or completely cheesy.  Gab?  Heart-to-heart?  Yap?  The only one I'm drawn to is tete-a-tete and that sounds uppity.  Snobbish.  So.  We chat and it is good.

He pushes my buttons, I get mad, we laugh and jabber(?) and eat cookies and sit on our asses.  It's pretty good.

Apologies for the missed day.  I had planned on posting some time in the afternoon yesterday and then I got all kinds of distracted making sure the house looked well enough for the housewarming party.  Thank you to all who came, it was a really lovely evening.

After the party, I told loml we should really get out more - all of our friends are pretty fantastic and I'd like to know some of them better.  And he said, "eh, I think they know why we're shut-ins now.  Our house is awesome."  And so apparently you're all going to have to start coming to us - our doorbell is always working.

But, really, if the party did anything (besides prove that the upstairs will get super warm from body heat while the downstairs remains icy), it inspired me to be really grateful for my family and friends. You all are the best.

And now I will go eat cupcakes, cake, cookies, delicious spicy pretzels, salsa, cucumbers, and pistachios until I feel sick. And then I'll lay down like a big lump and enjoy my Sunday of nothing.

This picture is really tragically bad. But I'm happy and proud to present FO number seven for the year:

My sister's nuptial blanket. It is possibly the softest thing I've ever created (and machine washable/dry-able). And I did an i-cord border which was new. I tried to take a picture of that and failed. 


Congrats sort-of-newlyweds!

Today I had an MRA not an MRI.  Honestly, I'm pretty confused and I have no idea what they're trying to diagnose here.  Blood vessel anomaly in my chest x-ray.  MRA of my chest area.  That's what I know.  I don't get results for 2-3 business days, so check back later.


The MRA itself was an MRI but I think they take images differently.  I got an IV, though they didn't end up shooting anything into it.  So I went through that pain in the ass for nothing.  I did find myself wondering if I'm becoming a swooner: when I got my IUD I got really hot and shaky and dizzy afterwards.  That happened while she was doing the IV (and moving that needle back and forth and wiggling it while it was in my arm which felt terrible and makes my skin crawl even thinking about it).  And now I'm wondering if that hot/shaky thing isn't just the phase right before a faint; maybe I'm only avoiding fainting by sheer force of will.


IV in, I go to the MRI room with my tech, Chris, who was a weird dude.  He was a 20 year old in a 40 year olds body.  Or else he was aging really badly.  He strapped me on to the machine (with 3 stickers/sensors around my heart and a cage above my chest) and in I went.  It honestly wasn't bad.  The machine had a constant noise beat (like a dance beat) and then all of the tests added to the beat to make a new beat.  It was like an MRI song.  I found it intriguing.  Also, the machine gets hot during some of the tests, which was odd.  All in all, fascinating.  At times, it was kind of relaxing.  Sort of like sensory deprivation except I could still hear.  I think it's possible, that if you subtract the IV experience, I kind of enjoyed it.

There are times when I really, really wish I had an iPhone.  Most of the time, I do not care and don't really want you to contact me - I hate phones and cell phones especially.  Also, is it just me or does cell phone somehow seem like an antiquated term?  Should we be calling everything smart phone or mobile device or...something else?  

But when you see the CTA holiday train....honestly, you want to take a picture.  Or a video.  And that's what everyone does while they smile.  Everyone including loml:

Honestly, I wasn't sure what to expect from the train, but I was excited.  Very excited.  And seeing everyone's face while riding the train made it the most joy-filled 50 minutes I can remember.  Christmas music + Christmas smell + low lighting + decorations....it just works.  I think, if you rode for a few stops, the full experience may be lost a bit.  But it will hopefully convince you to take a longer ride next time.

I highly recommend this Chicago holiday experience, though I wouldn't travel in for it.  Just try to catch one near you if you're a Chicagoan.  Loml thought it was just as great as I did.  Tomorrow's commute is going to be really depressing. 

More info on the holiday train...

Loml is currently yelling at the cat while in the bathroom.  Mona views the bathroom as her territory (the bathroom, the purple room and our bedroom) and so wants in whenever anyone is in there.  She paws incessantly at the door and moans.  She's a whiner and it can be annoying. She also has a bad habit of drinking from the toilet.

Apparently loml gives in to her crying because he just coughed and it sounded like he was in the next room.  Which means he was letting Mona lay on the floor in the bathroom while he did his thing with the door open.  When I told him I was going to blog about it, he asked why, said she wouldn't leave and then agreed I can blog about it if it's about what a terrible cat she is.  Mona and loml enjoy private time in the bathroom together.  She's a terrible cat.

***

This is what I saw on Saturday while I was doing laundry.  It was quite lovely.  Windows are awesome.  How did I live in that dark apartment for six years?

Loml and I have completely opposite schedules.  I have the schedule of an old lady (in bed by 10, lights off almost always by 11).  He has the schedule of a crazy college student or of a sickly old lady.  Sometimes he sleeps 6 hours and then naps during the day, sometimes he sleeps 12 hours straight.  He really is a marvel.  Anyway, I digress.  I always knew it was going to be hard to combine our lives.  How do we deal with:

• My need for white noise because of his sleeping noises....vs. his need for quiet because the fan is too loud.
• My getting in bed early and therefore needing his activity levels in other rooms to be quieter.
• His getting in bed later and sometimes jarring me awake.
• My burning, boiling late night temperatures make me want to keep the room at a cool -3 degrees vs his need, as a normal human being, to stay warm at night.

Clearly, we're still working on it.  When I was sick the other night, he slept in a different bed.  And said he got the best night's sleep he's had so far in this house (cue sad face).  But, it's probably true.  I saw a couple on Oprah (these are things that shouldn't be admitted/put in writing, right?) who have slept in separate beds for the entirety of their marriage.  I'm not about to go there with loml, but it's intriguing to me.  Why is it we sleep in the same bed these days, especially if it's causing us to sleep badly?  Besides the obvious bonuses of being in the same bed, I personally refuse to give up the spontaneous chats.

Comcast DNS is down - this meant that for 10 minutes just now I thought I was going to write a mea culpa tomorrow for not even making it 5 days.  But I had good luck (or a good boyfriend) and am now using google dns in my router and all is right with the world.

Tonight loml and I went out to the burbs and had a mini holiday celebration with his parents.  They do it every year - attending some kind of wintery/christmasy event.  In the past they've seen the Nutcracker, been to a live nativity, seen the Snow Queen, etc.  We attended "Bending Toward the Light: A Jazz Nativity".  Clearly this is something I never would have considered attending on my own (in a church!).  But I'm really glad I did.  What a weird performance.  Mary did modern dance.  The choral singers "scatted".  But the best, by far, were the three kings.  I don't even know how to lead into this so...The Trumpet King, The Latin Percussion King and the Tap Dancing King.  Each with their own performance during the song.  It was fantastically weird and awesome. 

Still stuffy and sneezy.  Off to take a bit more nyquil and cough in bed all night.  Night kids.

I had a post planned for today.  It was about loml and i.  Because today is an anniversary - we've been together a year and a half now.  It honestly seems like we've been together much longer than that most of the time.  Though I occasionally do find myself thinking - wait, we are together AND live together?  Whoa.


I can't write that sappy post because I can't stop sneezing.  Loml commented, while we were trying to put the laundry away, that he doesn't think he's sneezed as much in his entire life.  And currently, i'm managing to hold the sneezes in - and oh my god it hurts.  This may be the worst cold I've had in years.  Cold symptoms unrelated to lungs.  Though I did hypothesize that when I went to the doctor to get better, it's possible I picked this up.  Sister and brother-in-law who stopped by the house - take some emergen-C now.


SNEEZE.  I'll write a sappy belated anniversary loml post as soon as i stop with the snot.  Nyquil take me away...

My coworker (and katie + blog = fun? devotee...hahahaha) says this blog has been all doom and gloom lately.  Hopefully some of that will be dispelled with blogging every day.  I'll have to blog when crap is going wrong AND when I'm happy.  I really do love this house and loml is great and I have a fun filled December ahead.  It's just way more entertaining to you all (and therapeutic for me) if I tell you of all the wild times.  And lately those have been bad luck related.  I mean, who wants to hear about the mostly fun/best so far holiday work party?  Where I bowled an 81?  And ate pizza and talked to the people I like at work?  Meh, I'm bored even writing it.


And so continues the sometimes gloomy posting.  


I got my test results back from the belabored breathing doctor's appointment and I need more tests.  Exact phrase: "blood vessel anomaly".  Continue with your regularly scheduled program while I wonder what the hell that means and hope for pneumonia and not lymphoma.  These were the only two possibilities my doctor mentioned during the quick chat we had.  She prescribed antibiotics and started the process to get an MRI appointment.  I'm pretty sure I don't have cancer, but I guess you'll all have to wait and see with me.

I present to you, without further explanation, an emotional storm.


This is the gear room.

That door ahead of you opens into the electric meter closet.
This is the meter on the floor while the gas company was working on it (from the very first trip); picture credit: loml instagr.am.

Please note the ledge and it's height off of the floor.  Notice all those pipes on the right blocking easy access.  The meter hangs in the large empty space on the left - pretty much right in front of the ledge.  How and where does a fat cat hurl her body up there and squeeze in?  We will never know.
This is what it looks like when you are sure the cat is in the wall and loml suggests we take a flash picture.

Click on that one to enlarge.  The dark lump in the back is Boku.
I immediately try zoom, then take a picture.

Click on that one to enlarge.  This is the moment (5:05pm from the timestamp) that I started to completely break down.  Because in that image in kind of looks like Boku is stuck on her back legs.  I can't stop seeing it like that.  Like she was trying to climb to the right and got stuck in a slightly ramped position.  That white bit at the bottom left is her paw.  Does anyone else see that?
From this point until around 5:25 I was inconsolable.  We couldn't get Boku to move or make any noise.  I have almost 20 pictures trying to document some kind of change.  Anything.  Nothing.  Because Boku was dead, remember?

The first glance into the hole.  Still didn't have the best angle/ability to see her.

The second glance.  It was NOT a back paw.  It was white ass hair + insulation = visual trickery.
And then we had this. picture credit: loml instagr.am

Now we have a handy dad fixing up that hole.  It will be mended before any of you will ever get a chance to see it with your own two eyes.  And I am so happy for that.

I really should have done Nablopomo. I know I should have. And last month would have been a banner month to do it. So much random crap happened. And by "random crap happened" I mostly mean "shit went wrong". There are about a dozen stories I should have told you. And now I will distill it all into one post of bullet points.

I'm thinking about writing every day this month. Don't hold me to it, but I need to kickstart my impulse to blog. And what better way than to force it? I should probably "save" up these stories if I truly mean to do this...but I have a hunch a ton of random crap is going to happen again.

• My basement was finished. Stuff was moved in. It's becoming a two floor home.
• Since we've been down there more, we realized it smelled like gas in the gear room *the bedroom will henceforth be the gear room*. Gas company was called. They replaced some apparatus that held the meter in place.
• Next day, couldn't find the cat. The feral mama cat. Boku. Boku, seeing the open door to the meter closet, jumped up to a ledge (2-3 feet off teh ground) and climbed inside the wall. Probably about 7 feet inside the wall. And we only found her because I'm a crazy cat lady and just knew she was in there. She didn't make any noise. We poked her with a tape measure (it was the only thing long enough). No noise. We tapped on the wall. No noise. In our eyes, she had climbed into a dark, quiet spot to die. Boku died. So we had to get her out. Loml was the calm eye stuck in the middle of my emotional storm. He got a saw and proceeded to cut a hole in the wall. And opened it up to Boku staring at him. THAT BITCH WASN'T DEAD. Sorry, just needed to rage there for second. She is alive, well and coaxed out of the hole with some tuna. Ever since the sawing episode, though, she is deathly afraid of Loml. Tides turned? No longer the favorite?
• And then it still smelled like gas. We called again a week later. SURPRISE, the gas is at blow up levels. And since the leak is "on our side" of the piping, they turned off the gas and left. At 2pm on Black Friday. So I called a plumbing company and had to pay emergency rates to get some dudes out to fix it. The gas company comes back (2 hours later. No gas, I was told, is not an emergency). This gas-man (cue taxman by beatles) picked my basement apart; there is a lot wrong in the boiler room. Anyway, he kindly fixed one of the leaks (by tightening a cap) himself and turned our gas on. So far, we haven't smelled gas again.
• My contractor dinged me with an assortment of extra costs. That made me ill for a few days. I bitched it up to him though and cut those extra costs in half. Though I still have extra costs. Sigh.
• Of course, as you know, I got the IUD. And my body is reacting to it in all kinds of ways including, but not limited to, teenage pimple face, crazy mood swings and weird junk I don't want to share. I know my body is getting used to not being on the pill but I'd really like it to cut me a break. Though, bigger picture, I think (as long as it's in the right place still) my reaction has been mild. I'm not in pain or anything (some people have cramps for months). I will say (TMI ahead) that I cannot reach or feel any strings that I'm supposed to be checking. Hopefully my next check up will show that everything is in the right place and I'm set to not have babies.
• I woke up a few nights ago having chest pain. Not sure why I woke up, but it was hurting with every breath. I got a litany of tests today that will hopefully show that I am super healthy and had a random asthma-y thing. No results yet though. As an aside, my general doc asked if i was still on birth control, I explained about the IUD and she just sort of briskly said, oh even better. All doctors love this thing, eh?

I'm sure I'm forgetting things.  For another day...