It's raining and icky here. Actually, it goes back and forth between rain and snow. At least the rain keeps the snow from sticking. But, mostly, it's just icky.

It's snowing here and it is sticking. Yuck. I am so sick of this.

I'm off to drive very very slowly to my hairdresser's place. Have a good day Bitches!

Sorry about the icky. We have had a lot of dreary rain, but not really a bad winter, except for the ice storm that left a good size chunk of my neighbor's dead tree in my backyard. I have to get back there with the chainsaw, but it's one of those jobs that is so big that you look at it a while, then go back inside and lie down.

It's mostly snow here, and we're supposed to go to a family meeting sort of thing at in-laws (siblings, not parents), tonight. It's a long story, and it's ostensibly to plan something happy, but there's been tensions in the planning. The meeting is in a town closer to Somerville, where they've mostly had rain. They thought dh was being difficult when he suggested postponing it due to the weather. *sigh*

I really love my in-laws (siblings and parents), but sometimes, they make me ecstatic to have been an only child.

Ok...I'm starting on one of my projects. Wish me luck! I'm taking apart a blanket so I can put a quilt batting in it, tie it, then put it back together. This is gonna be a pain in the ass.

Shock of all shocks -- I went to the drugstore near my apartment, and they actually had what I was looking for! (This is a first, btw. They are the worst stocked "convenience store" in the history of the universe. But they had latex gloves.)

Am now bleaching. Will dye in 20 minutes.

Luck, vw!

It snowed here yesterday. At first I was a little peeved, what with being so sick of snow and it's March already, dagnabit. But, it was such a pretty snow. One of those where the flakes stick together so they come down like big lacy doilies that drape themselves over your head. I felt quite decorated in the time it took me to get from the car to the stairwell. It's renewed the layer of snow outside and it really looks quite pretty. And not enought to be a real nuisance. I think I can live with it for a few more days.

From Traverse City, huh? Hey, maybe it's P-C who almost had a new republican boyfriend!

I don't think so. Traverse City is the gay captial of the Midwest. Second in gay population to Key West, FL. I'm willing to bet it's pretty darn blue in voting habits.

Susan, much ~ma to your dad and your family. One way that heart damage can cause strokes is that if the rhythm is irregular, the blood can pool in a chamber of the heart long enough to form clots that, when the heart beats again, are sent out into the bloodstream.

I just called the hospital, and my Aunt Brenda was there--by training she's a nurse, and before she retired she was a fairly important administrative type at that very hospital, so she knows her stuff, and doctors know better than to be evasive around her. Anyway, that's exactly what she described. One of the scans/tests they ran on his heart showed that the damaged part isn't moving properly (I promise this sounded more medical and logical when she explained it, but I can't remember the terms she used), so they think that's causing the clots.

I also spoke to Dad, and he's in good spirits. He seems a tiny bit out of it, though. He didn't recognize my voice immediately, but I'm choosing to blame the phone for that, since different phones, especially cheap ones, can change tone quality, and he's quite a bit hard of hearing. (Family trait--mine's a bit subpar already, and I'm 40+ years younger than he is.) Also, he thought Dylan must be at work, which meant his days of the week are a bit scrambled, but the same thing happened to me when I was in the hospital having Annabel. You lose a lot of your cues in that environment.

Anyway, they're running a test on Monday that hopefully will determine once and for all that it's the heart damage rather than cancer. And it's the kind of test where they know and analyze the results right away, which is always good.

I'm so thoroughly convinced it's not cancer after talking to Aunt Brenda that I'm not worried about that part. I figure this is a treatable thing, and we'll go on. But I still hate these reminders that my parents are in their 70's, and mortality is a looming cloud rather than a distant shadow. I just hope they both live long enough and stay of sound mind long enough for Annabel to be able to remember them.

Susan, glad to hear the news on your dad is sounding positive.

If it's still bad when you get home, though, I would probably call the emergency number or try to find an animal ER.

I'm back from my test, obviously. Toby is still limping and holding his paw in the air, but he's moving around now. He got up to see me when I came in the door and that's a good sign, too. Also, my neighbor carried him down the stairs (he's too big for me right now) so he could pee and brought him back in. I think I'll hold off on the ER for now since he seems to have perked up some.

I am en-caffeinating myself, and hoping it will actually wake me up. I have stuff to do today, dang it. I slept kind of badly, partly b/c my nose kept getting stuffed up and I would wake up because I couldn't, you know, *breathe,* and partly b/c my dreams were annoying. One dream I had involved me posting a long rant to LJ about how broke I was right now, including my credit card balance and credit available, along with how much I have in my bank account right now. (The funny -- or sad -- part is that the amounts were correct. I think I need to stop obsessing about my finances.)

Need to take a walk today, and then I'm volunteering at the big-ass wine festival downtown. The "Grand Tasting" is tonight -- 150 wineries, with 600 wines that a person could taste, if such a thing were possible. The tasting is $60, which is actually reasonable for that much wine (as well as lots of finger food, small dessert-y things, and lots of coffee), AND half of that goes to charity. However, if a person volunteers to work a 2-hour shift (handing out glasses, checking IDs, etc.), that person can taste wine to her heart's content during the remainder of the time, all for $0.

The tricksy part for me this year is that my shift is the second half of the evening, which means I can taste wine for about an hour *before* my shift. That means I REALLY need to exercise moderation and not get shitfaced, because I don't think the organizers would appreciate me showing up to work my shift if I can't even stand up.

I know, exercising moderation in tasting wine shouldn't be difficult for an adult. And that's true, if you're not me. But faced with all that (mostly) good wine, my id kicks in and says "Want!!! Want!!! All of it!!! ALL OF IT!!!!"