alliekatgal

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August 9th, 2009

8/9/09 10:59 pm
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We just got home from a week of camping in Maine.  We had gorgeous weather, warm days, cool nights, and thankfully no rain.

We managed to go hiking, mountain biking, and canoeing.  We played mini-golf, saw Half Blood Prince on the big screen of a very old theater, and fit in a few brief trips to the beach to search for sand dollars and beach glass.  The ocean is COLD in Bar Harbor, so we never do more than go wading there. 

We came home with plenty of wild blueberries, trinketies from the shops, and a small collection of shells and glass.  We also came home with mounds of dirty clothes, so tomorrow will be spent trying to get laundry done and mow the grass, which grew a ridiculous amount while we were gone.

And now I get to look at all the lovely fics all of you have posted while we were gone!  I need my fix of Kirk/McCoy!!!!
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July 15th, 2009

Brimfield Fair

7/15/09 08:41 pm
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I took my oldest daughter with me to the Brimfield Antiques Fair today.  The vendor area covers almost a mile of the main road, and something like 100 acres.  We walked around for 3 1/2 hours, and maybe saw about 1/4 to 1/3 of the areas.  We bought lots of great glass beads, and have been madly making bracelets this evening.  

We also saw a  William Shatner Captain Kirk doll, still in the original sealed box.  I don't know how old it was, but the box was in pretty bad shape.  If they had had Spock, we would have bought them both, but Captain Kirk all by himself just didn't call to us enough.  My daughter bought beautiful inlaid chopsticks.  

They  had a booth where you could sign up for the Bone Marrow Registry, so we both had our cheeks swabbed and are now on the list.  So, three and a half hours of walking today, lots of loot, and we are signed up to be potential donors.  Great day.  :)
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June 24th, 2009

Star Trek, Mr. Spock song

6/24/09 05:25 pm
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I took my kids to see Star Trek, twice, and now they are a bit obsessed with Star Trek.  They have been watching episodes at cbs.com, and during one of my daughter's searches for all things Spock, she came across this song.  I should warn you it is impossible to get it out of your head once you've heard it!  The chorus is a riot.  

Mr. Spock song

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June 1st, 2009

Plot Bunnies

6/1/09 10:50 pm
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I was cleaning out my docs folder tonight, and came across several little plot bunnies I had jotted down and forgotten.  Here's one:

Harry has been captured by Voldemort, but rather than the traditional torture, Voldemort had gone a rather muggle route – dosing Harry with estrogen!  Harry begins to lose his muscle tone, his skin softens, and he develops small breasts.  Severus, of course, rescues him, but he can’t resist that soft, pale skin or those beguiling little breasts Harry now sports.

I'm not sure whether to laugh or try to write it!  I have a folder full of mostly written fics which I am hoping to finish now that I have a few months without classes.  Watch out, boys, because you'll be busy this summer.  :)

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May 28th, 2009

5/28/09 02:03 pm
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We saw Star Trek on Sunday.  Loved it, especially Spock and McCoy!!  I loved the humor in this movie, and Spock was delicious.

My son apparently decided he is part Vulcan.  Yesterday he was very irritable, and one kid in particular kept pestering him.  He must have decided it would be a great time to try out the Vulcan nerve pinch or whatever it is called.  Hmm, didn't work.  Let's try it again.  And again.  And again.  Yup, all caught on tape on the school playground.  He is now home on suspension.

I have to wonder if his meds are the cause of this.  He is never an aggressive kid.  He gets easily frustrated, yes, but he has never had issues of going after other kids at school.  Two weeks ago, he repeatedly kept pushing another kid into a wall.  Yesterday, it was the neck pinch.

  I don't know why the other kid kept standing around and allowing Jack to do this again and again, or why my kid didn't walk away from it, but one side effect of Ritalin appears to be aggression and anger, and his dose was just increased 50% five weeks ago.  I'm going to keep him off it for a few days, then go back to the dose he has been on for the past three years.  Getting A's and being incredibly attentive at school is not a good trade-off for ending up with an angry aggressive child.  
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May 14th, 2009

5/14/09 09:37 pm
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DONE!!!  
Third and final exam was this afternoon.  First two grades already came back, so I was thrilled to see A's for those classes.  Not too worried about the third class.  Now I have more than three months off!!  Well, you know, from school anyway.  I already bought my books for the fall, so hopefully I can get some reading done this summer.  I'm so looking forward to getting some sleep.  :)
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March 16th, 2009

3/16/09 07:46 pm
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*squeeee!!!!*   I finally discovered how to download videos to my ipod!!!  Alan Rickman at my fingertips!  I love the video for Texas, In Demand, and I forsee draining down my ipod quickly from watching it.  Happiness is watching him tango.
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February 3rd, 2009

Ice Dam-age

2/3/09 02:09 pm
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We woke up this past Thursday morning to water dripping out of the window casings in both our back bedrooms.  There is a dormer across the back, and an ice dam has built up all along the edge.  The windows were not too bad, but my daughter's bedroom ceiling also split open and has been steadily leaking water since then. 

Amazingly, I called the insurance company on Friday, and today the adjustor came and took a look and dropped off a preliminary check.  We'll need a new ceiling in one room, new insulation, and perhaps new back walls in both rooms.  Insurance will cover that, but we'll have to spring for a new roof come spring.  Of course, the windows were just put in in July, but only the window casing is wood, and the double hung windows are vinyl.  We keep changing towels on the windows and have a bucket under the opening in the ceiling.  

Nothing was ruined by the water, and it's a pretty small amount coming through right now.  We had two bathrooms replaced last summer, so our contractor has already been out to take a look, and will do the interior work.  Now we just have to try to get someone to clear the ice.  Apparently there have been so many claims, our adjustor was flown up from Texas to New England for a month to deal with them.   Snow is always nice, but the ice?  We hates it. 


ETA: Contractor is coming out this weekend to clear the ice out. He has already contacted someone who does restoration who will be coming out Thursday to take a look and see how bad it might be. He'll dry out the rooms so the contractor can come back in and replace sheetrock and insulation. Here's hoping for a small break in the cold weather.
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January 16th, 2009

Homemade Granola Bars

1/16/09 10:13 am
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It's frickin cold here, so what better way to warm up than to bake?  I found this recipe in the back of one of my cookbooks last week.  Handwritten, so no idea where it came from. 

I make these as gluten-free bars, using sweet rice flour and gluten-free rice cereal.  I know some people who avoid gluten don't eat oatmeal, but I also have a friend with Celiac Disease who does eat oatmeal, but at least for me they are gluten free!

Granola Bars

1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup honey
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups crisp rice cereal
2 cups rolled oats
1/4 cup flour
1 cup dried fruit bits

Heat oven to 350.
Melt butter.  Remove from heat.  Add ingredients in order, mixing after each addition.  Pat into 9x13 baking pan.
Bake 20 minutes.  Cool in pan 1 hour.

I have used a mix of raisins and dried pineapple for the fruit, and they were really good.  Sweet, and a bit chewy where the pineapple was.  Today I am trying butterscotch chips, chocolate chips, and raisins.   I open the oven after ten minutes and use the back of a spatula to compress the bars because I wanted them to be dense  bars. 

Overcook them if you want them really crisp, like packaged bars.  I cooked the first batch for 30 minutes, which I thought was perfect.  I'll try 20 minutes today, which I think will make a moister, chewy bar.   Either way, they are yummy.  :)


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December 27th, 2008

Chocolate!

12/27/08 09:14 pm
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A HUGE Thank-You to [info]the_con_cept for the delicious chocolate!!  Thank you, sweetie!!  I was so surprised to find a package on my doorstep today, and then I opened it to find a tower of boxes, full of chocolate!!!  I'm already addicted to the chocolate covered caramel.  You made my day!
And a very belated Thank you for the great card and the Obama sticker.  :D
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December 17th, 2008

12/17/08 11:04 pm
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Yay, the semester is over!  It was actually a light semester, but one class was very intense.  Now I have one month to try to get control of my house (the piles of papers are taking over!) and get ready for a full schedule next semester.

I found a new author today.  I haven't read that much fantasy for the past decade.  I think I starting reading  Jim Butcher's Dresden Files a year or so ago.  I love Harry Dresden, I think in part because he isn't the perfect hero.  He's tall and lanky and despite being a wizard he gets his butt kicked on a regular basis.  I especially love when he creates his potions.

Today I read a book by Kim Harrison.  Sort-of kind-of a female counterpart of Harry Dresden.  She's a witch, and there's plenty of potion mixing, seductive vamps, and feisty pixies.  Works for me.  If I manage to get out of jury duty early I may zip into the library and see if I can find more books, especially since it looks like we are in for a shitload of snow Friday night.  Yes, we'll be hauling in plenty of wood tomorrow afternoon.

I'm really not ready for Christmas.  I have packages that have yet to be sent, and gifts that still need to be purchased.  At least the tree is up and the kids each have a few boxes tucked under it.  Hopefully we can spend the weekend making cookies and playing in the snow!
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November 20th, 2008

11/20/08 05:58 pm
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I did my first blood draw today!  Actually, it was my second, but the first time I panicked.   I had the needle in, but the label on the tube was blocking my view of blood coming into the vacutainer.  When I tried to turn the blood tube I ended up twisting the needle a bit, so I  pulled out and only got a bit of blood in the tube.  Fortunately, today was perfect!

I'm in a two year Clinical Lab Science program, so we have five weeks of Phlebotomy.  We won't actually be using these skills much until Jan. 2010, when we go out on internships, but maybe we'll use them a bit during Hematology.  Yes, I'm probably doing things backwards by getting an associate's degree after my bachelor's,  but this is something I really want to do, and you now have to be certified to work in a hospital lab, at least to do the testing I want to do.

And I have to say that I frequently have to bite my tongue during Phlebotomy lab, because the vocab kills me.  Tying up our patients, being told by our instructor to push it in quickly and to pull out quickly as well as warning our patients that they'll just feel a small prick?  It all sounds pretty pervy to me.  :P 
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November 10th, 2008

Toe Ickiness

11/10/08 10:45 am
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( TMI )
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November 4th, 2008

President Obama

11/4/08 11:51 pm
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How fucking cool is that.  :D
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I VOTED!!

11/4/08 02:25 pm
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Our small city has a total of 12 public schools, including 8 neighborhood elementary schools.  It's beautiful here right now, 60 degrees and sunny, so we walked to the school.  It was busy, but it only took a few minutes for us to check in, get our ballots, vote, and turn them in.  It was fairly festive, with a big bake sale going on (it was being put on by my daughter's third grade class, andyes, we made cupcakes for it) and lots of balloons and cheerful people holding signs.  It's always a bit of a thrill to vote, even after 25 years as a registered voter.  :P

It's interesting to see the ballot questions.  I knew there was a move to try to reduce the state income tax (bad idea) and to change the penalites of being caught possessing pot (good idea), but they also had a movement to get rid of dog racing here.  I'm all for that, too.  Now we can spend our evening glued to the TV, eating popcorn and watching the results roll in. 

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October 28th, 2008

HBP Trailer

10/28/08 07:00 pm
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Nice long trailer for Half Blood Prince.  If only it was still coming out next month.  :(

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August 11th, 2008

Vacation in Maine

8/11/08 09:24 pm
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We spent last week in Bar Harbor, Maine.  It's a good day of driving to get there, but it's one of our favorite places to be in August.  It was a bit cold, and a bit rainy, but we managed to hike a couple of mountains and do two bike rides on the carriage roads, each about six miles long.

We came back with pounds of wild blueberries, as well as a wet pile of tents and sleeping bags.  We added to our growing collection of sand dollars and snail shells, and a fair bit of stonedust from the campsite.  The littlest one fell on the playground on the second day and still has a black eye, although now it is shades of green and purple.  Middle kiddo wiped out on one of the bike trails, but just scraped up his knee.  Yes, all those biking gloves were worth buying.

Only two weeks left before school starts!  Our entire family will be in school again this year.  Hubby will be in his final year of law school, I'm starting a two year program, and there will be one kid in the elementary school, one in middle school, and one in high school.  Spent a small fortune tonight on paper and pens and binders.  We stopped in at LLBean on the way home and got the kids backpacks.  It was pretty much the halfway point, and was fun because there was an outdoor concert going on, with Richie Havens playing beautiful music.

Vacation is always over too soon!!
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July 27th, 2008

Film Night at Tanglewood

7/27/08 10:07 pm
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July 24th, 2008

Gluten-Free Links?

7/24/08 01:28 pm
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Does anyone have a recipe for a tasty gluten-free bread?  I have tried several mixes and some store-bought loaves, and they have been truly bad.  I'd prefer to make something from scratch, and I have a good stockpile of gluten-free ingredients.

I switched to gluten-free foods in May after a year of being anemic, tired, achy, and bloated.  My doctor put me on iron tablets, but six months of those have hardly helped.  A search for more info brought me to a site that talked about non-celiac gluten intolerance, so I took their advice and went gluten-free for a week.  Within days I felt better, and had lots of enery again, something that has been missing for the past year.  I tried adding wheat products back into my life two weeks ago, and was fine for a few days, but then it was the same tiredness and worse, constant GI discomfort.

So, I'm back to gluten free foods, but I really want bread!!  Any links or recipes would be greatly appreciated!  :)

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June 4th, 2008

Food Poisoning

6/4/08 06:28 am
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We had some unwanted excitement here yesterday.  My husband's boss called me at 5 pm to let me know they were sending my husband to the ER by ambulance.  Apparently he was grey, clammy, and sweating heavily when the senior partner came across him in the bathroom and thought he was having a heart attack.  I didn't think it was his heart, because he had emailed me hours earlier complaining that his stomach hurt.  I told him to bag work and come home, but he had work he wanted to finish at the office so it could be filed that day.  I loaded three kids into the car and drove an hour to the hospital where they sent him, which is only a few minutes from where he works.  One benefit, I guess, to working in the biggest city in the state.

Fortunately, it turned out to be food poisoning, which sucks but was so much better than a heart attack.  We spent almost five hours in our little cubby, watching stretcher after stretcher being brought in.  There was a serious car accident, which is partly why he was there for almost six hours.  They pumped him full of anti-nausea medication, did a full blood screening, x-rayed his abdomen, and did an EKG.  Yeah, that bill will be fun, considering we have a 4K deductible, but at least we know he will be fine.  His biggest concern was that his car was still in the parking garage in Hartford.  I say it can stay there for a day or two, until he can drive without passing out.

So that was our evening: one sick Dad, three kids, one chair, five hours in a tiny room, and two hours in the car.  The kids hadn't been fed before we left, and by the time we had an idea what was going on, the only option at the hospital was something out of a vending machine.  

I don't think he will ever eat egg salad again.  Hope you all had a much better evening.
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