alliekatgal

alliekatgal @ 2009-08-09T22:59:00

2009-08-10T03:15:45Z

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!!!!

Brimfield Fair

2009-07-16T00:47:56Z

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. :)

Star Trek, Mr. Spock song

2009-06-24T21:29:47Z

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

Plot Bunnies

2009-06-02T02:55:48Z

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. :)

alliekatgal @ 2009-05-28T14:03:00

2009-05-28T18:12:42Z

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.

alliekatgal @ 2009-05-14T21:37:00

2009-05-15T01:46:08Z

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. :)

alliekatgal @ 2009-03-16T19:46:00

2009-03-16T23:51:35Z

*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.

Ice Dam-age

2009-02-03T19:24:09Z

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.

Homemade Granola Bars

2009-01-16T15:30:44Z

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. :)

Chocolate!

2008-12-28T02:39:58Z

A HUGE Thank-You to 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

alliekatgal @ 2008-12-17T23:04:00

2008-12-18T04:21:12Z

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!

alliekatgal @ 2008-11-20T17:58:00

2008-11-20T23:12:21Z

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

Toe Ickiness

2008-11-10T15:59:58Z

When I was 12, I was taking a log off the wood pile in our basement, barefoot, when I dropped the log on my toe. Ouch. Ever since, the toenail has been chronically ingrown. I have managed to take care of it mostly by myself, with only two surgeries in 30 years. About two weeks ago it became inflamed and infected and hurt just to walk. Ten days of antibiotics, and it was a bit better, but still not great.

I finally went to the foot doctor this morning. I probably scared off whoever was in the waiting room when I yelped during the shots to numb the toe. I hate that feeling when they hit a nerve. The actual surgery part was fine, but now it's starting to burn and hurt. And blood is seeping through my sock. I'm fine with having moles removed and dealing with stitches, but I hate having work done on my toes or my teeth. No doubt because I'm at the dentist every three months having fillings or root canals. I think if this happens once more, I'll probably just have the nail removed. Not my first choice, but I don't think I want to go through this again.

I was going to rake leaves today, but now I have decided to be completely lazy and watch movies all day. And maybe work on my smut swap assignment. Because smut makes everything better. :)

President Obama

2008-11-05T04:56:00Z

How fucking cool is that. :D

I VOTED!!

2008-11-04T19:38:22Z

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.

HBP Trailer

2008-10-28T23:05:38Z

Nice long trailer for Half Blood Prince. If only it was still coming out next month. :(

Vacation in Maine

2008-08-12T01:43:34Z

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!!

Film Night at Tanglewood

2008-07-28T02:22:59Z

Last night was film night at Tanglewood. We were there when the gates opened at 5:30, and set up chairs and a blanket, and played games and read while we waited for the 8:30 program to start.

At about 7:30 the skies opened up and it poured on us for about 20 minutes. Despite the umbrellas and raincoats, we all ended up pretty wet. We had packed two blankets for later, and ended up using one as our picnic blanket. We spent a small fortune buying dry sweatshirts for everyone, and a small man's t-shirt for our youngest to wear as a dress, as her shorts were completely wet.

The first half of the evening was a mix of various John Williams scores (Close Encounters!), but the second half was entirely Indiana Jones music. Stephen Spielburg was the host for the second half, and Karen Allen and Kate Capshaw made brief appearances. All the film clips were from the first three movies, with just a few stills of the new movie, mainly some shots of Kate Blanchett.

The symphony was great, and it's always fun to be out on the lawn at Tanglewood, and film night is amazing because there are acres of people, all with their chairs and picnics, just there to enjoy a quiet night of music.

We are taking advantage of living so close, and going several times this summer. We went for Prairie Home Companion last month, and we'll be going to a Beethoven concert next month. We have one more set of tickets to use, so we may squeeze in another concert next month. Hopefully the weather will be better.

Gluten-Free Links?

2008-07-24T17:42:33Z

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! :)

Food Poisoning

2008-06-04T10:56:09Z

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.

Hellboy

2008-05-22T02:27:25Z

I just saw an ad for Hellboy II - The Golden Army. July 11th!

The ad had a clip where Prince Nuada (at least I think it's him; his hair looks suspiciously like Lucius Malfoy's) asks Hellboy what his weapon of choice is, and Hellboy replies 'Five fingered Mary' as he holds up his stone fist. Of course, then all I could think about was Hellboy wanking with that hand. Yow!
The trailer unfortunately doesn't have this part. :(

Now I need an icon of Red's fist!!!

alliekatgal @ 2008-04-22T17:55:00

2008-04-22T22:12:37Z

Many thanks and smooches to eeyore9990 for giving us a link to Kita's amazingly hot Die Hard fic On the Mating Habits of MIddle Aged Action Heroes. The story is John/Matt. Matt is from the fourth Die Hard movie, Live Free or Die Hard. In that movie, Matt is played by Justin Long, who was the leader of the nerdy group in Galaxy Quest.

Completely hot story, and John is so in character. Go read!

alliekatgal @ 2008-04-12T20:10:00

2008-04-13T00:19:40Z

We have tickets to Equus!!!!

We are going to a matinee during Columbus Day weekend, because we are leaving the kids with a sitter, and this way we'll be back around their bedtime. I thought we were closer to NYC, but it will be close to four hours, half by car and half by train. Very small chance we'll spend the night there, but it could happen.

So excited!!!

Soon to be a full-time student (again)

2008-04-06T01:58:33Z

I have been taking courses for the past year in hopes of getting into a two-year program for Clinical Laboratory Science - and I just found out I was accepted!!

Actually, I was planning on applying into an Ultrasound program, but then I did the required day of observation, and changed my mind. I worked in Biotech for ten years, and have always liked doing the wet work in a lab. This program will allow me to work in a medical/hospital lab, which will work out well for job opportunities and hours.

The first year will be fairly light, with only five credits the first semester, and 11 credits the second semester. Semester three will be 13 credits, then 8 for the last semester. The second year includes three clinical practicums, including the summer after year 2. There would have been three semesters of 20 credits each, but I have already done A&P I, A&P II, Medical Terminology, Public Speaking, Technical Report Writing, and Computers. I'll be taking Statistics over the summer. So excited!!

In other news, I totally blame drachenmina for getting me addicted to Petshop of Horrors. Yes, I have read the fics on pj's list, and so far I have bought two volumes of the manga. My fingers are twitching just thinking about getting more! I have only seen one episode of the anime, but hopefully tonight I'll have a chance to see more. *wishes the manga was in color because of D's oh-so-pretty eyes!*

alliekatgal @ 2008-03-13T23:50:00

2008-03-14T03:51:53Z

My daughter is in second grade, and she has a list of spelling words to work on each week. This week's list included:

do
hold
most
blow
load
toe

Is it just me, or this almost a drabble? Instead of studying for tomorrow's Anatomy practical, I'll be writing insane little snippets of Harry having his toes sucked on, which in turn will lead to him exploring much more interesting parts of Snape's anatomy. So much better than memorizing arteries!