Long couple of days...

So, yesterday sometime, Odysseus got sick.  Really sick.  Stomach virus sick.  And he didn't tell me until after we'd gone to Sam's Club, and after he'd assembled his new desk. 

He's spent most of yesterday late afternoon and evening in bed.  He's spent most of today in bed.  I've been running after hyper kids, dealing with fractious cats (one's a goober, and the other's been beating her up for it), trying to get caught up on housework I got behind in while I was sick for two full weeks, and running back to check on a sick hubby. 

I'm just about done for the day, and I'm not done for the day.

I've got another fifteen minutes before the kids go to bed, and then I've got more work in the kitchen to do. 

After that, I'm going to finish another chapter of my book, deal with feeding the pets and getting them ready for bed, and then I'm gonna hit the sack. 

I suppose I might not be as tired if I weren't a little anemic.  But...them's the breaks.  I'll deal. 

I spoke too soon...

The pens quit working again, except for the one with the green ink that I'd bought for the dragon pen.  Since that one works as well as it does, and the others all had a different brand/type of ink, I got suspicious.

It wasn't the pens.  It was the ink.  I found Dr. Ph Martin's Bombay Ink in 1 oz bottles at our local Hobby Lobby for $5/bottle, so I bought three. 

It clogs.  It dries into clots in the nibs. The nibs have since been thoroughly cleaned in Windex and hot water.  One of the nibs had the entire feeder channel filled with a clot, which came out looking like a blue worm.  Another had so much clotted into it that it took soaking in five different cups of clean water--after the Windex--to get the rinse water to come out clear.

I've since tested them with the Waterman ink...and they work fine.  So I've ordered three more colors: a standard blue, one described by reviewers as turquoise, and a red. 

(And, as a side note, a Chinese medium nib is about the same as an American fine nib.  Which happens to be my personal preference.)

So, the Hobby Lobby ink will be reserved for when I have the time (and lack of chaos elements under my elbows) and inclination to use my dip pen to create calligraphy.  Because the ink colors?  Yeah, they're really, really pretty, and work perfect with that dip pen (which hadn't worked at all for me with a different type of ink). 

Overheard in the living room...

So, I was fussing with the DVD player (cheap pos that barely acknowledges its remote), trying to get the stupid thing to do what I was telling it to do, and the imp nearly cracked me up.

Me: What the bloody...?

Imp: It's a bloody TV, is what it is.

Keep in mind, he'll be six in October. 

I thought I was going to choke, trying not to laugh at that.

Further pen review...

My dragon pen's nib came apart at the wrong place.  I went to add ink to the reservoir, and had the nib come apart above the metal ring where it joins the pen, instead of having the metal ring unscrew.

Made a mess, it did.

It's a beautiful pen, and I have since completed repairs*, but it is not at all a practical piece. 

So, Odysseus got me a set of four Jinhao pens for practical, everyday carry and use.  These four (Jinhao model 250):



I have blue ink in the black pen and the silver pen, green ink in the pen with red marbling, and purple ink in the burgundy pen.

There was a minor problem with the pens, though: the ink wasn't flowing well in two of the four--the silver one and the burgundy one. 

So, I started searching online to see if I could figure out how to fix the pens.  They're quite comfortable to write with, considering that they're heavier than plastic, and a nice bit chunkier, making it less hard on my poor, sore knuckles to write with.  Nice pens.  I'd hate for something that could be fixed to cause me to set them up as display pieces only.

Turns out...the fix was simple.  The problem was that the ink wasn't feeding.  I searched that problem online, and found this site.  The metal part of the nib fit too tightly against the plastic part, which is what feeds the ink.  Easy fix: I just gently laid the metal part against a pad of paper, and pressed down to separate the nib from the feeder, just a bit. 

And now...all of the pens work.  And work well. 

And I am happy.

*The fix for the dragon pen was simple: I took a frozen bottle of water and held it against the metal ring the nib wasn't supposed to come off of,  and it came right off.  After I cleaned up the spilled ink, I applied a bit of super glue to the threads of the gold metal ring that the nib screwed onto, and put the pieces together.  That shouldn't happen again. 

Random ramblings

The imp got to spend a couple of nights with Grandma and Grandpa, this past week.  Grandma asked me to pack his swimsuit, and I've heard tales of going to their local town's swimming pool.  Lots and lots of tales of such. 

He's greatly looking forward to kindergarten.  I'm very glad of that, because it's only a few weeks away.  I haven't been able to do much with working on reading, unfortunately--I have been, until recently, far too sick. 

He's starting to really get a firm grasp on base 10.  Odysseus helped him count to fifty, yesterday, and he did it with little trouble (naming the tens), and only a very little prompting.  I'm deeply impressed with my boy.

The pixie has found her other new dress that her grandparents found on their last trip (a bus tour of the national parks in the Southwest).  It's way, way too big for her--goes down to her ankles--but she's worn it for three days, now.

I've noted a cue for when she's getting tired and ready for bed (nap or sleep): she starts putting her baby dolls down for sleep.  And her stuffed animals.

I'm feeling a lot better than I was.  There's still some lingering congestion, but not much, and I can do some housework without having a coughing fit that steals my breath. Odysseus is almost completely recovered. 

The weather has been so hot the past couple of days (and is projected to be at least as bad today, if not worse) that I've gone out and gotten the dog around lunch time and brought her in until supper (or later).  She has not been a happy dog.  She hates being inside so badly that she does things* that she thinks will get her booted out--unfortunately for her, when it's this hot, all it gets her is booted to her crate until it's cool enough to go back out.

The cats have been cats.  Shadow gets in odd places and odd positions to sleep, or else takes over the top of my table and pushes everything else off onto the floor.  Cricket is completely spastic, and acts affection starved--but doesn't seem to realize that all she'd need to do was actually crawl into someone's lap to get the affection she's so crazy for.  Instead, she walks all over people, yowling and headbutting them.  She does it to the kids (who giggle), Odysseus, TinCan Assassin when he's over here, and me (upon whom she drools, because she's so happy she purrs with her mouth hanging open). 

Speaking of the cats, we really need to put more flea stuff on them.  We were too damn sick the day it was supposed to be done.

Classes start back up for me on 8/18.  My class site will be built on Monday, so I'll need to spend some time customizing it for my classes.  I'll also need to email the admin for the course sites to request both of my classes be placed in one shell. 

Last, but not least...I've finally felt good enough to pick back up on the writing.  I've written two chapters for Fire and Forge in the past week, and aim to try for another one tonight.  Word count is up from 15,000 to 21,500.  The chapters are an average of 3,000 words each (and the published version in the size I use has around 300 words per page).  We'll see what I can do about finishing a first draft before mid-August. 

*Dog hates being inside, so she'll piss or shit on the carpet, eat the kids' toys or clothes, chase the cats, or chase the kids.  There have been a few times that she's done all of the above.

FFOT: *cough, choke, cough*

I'm better, but this lingering bit of chest congestion can fuck the fucking fuck off.  With knobs.  And cheese.

Something interesting from yesterday...

I pay cash at the doctor's office.  I pay cash, because our insurance doesn't cover them--not that it would pay before the deductible anyway, but hey.  I like them. 

The billing specialist for the office was the one that dealt with me checking out and paying for services yesterday.  She was really surprised that we continued to use their office, despite paying for it out of pocket, and asked if we had insurance.  And then asked why we hadn't changed healthcare providers.  I mentioned that we liked them, preferred to save them the trouble of billing an insurance that won't pay them, and that health care was a line item in the family budget.

She frowned--more confused and befuddled than anything else--and said, "Huh.  Weird.  I don't think I've ever even heard of that.  In your budget?  Wow."

And, as she'd rambling on in this vein, I'm thinking, "And that's why we got saddled with the 'Affordable' Care Act."

The worse I feel, the less I complain.

I have been, and still am, feeling terrible.  Complaining takes energy, and I don't have any to spare. 

Yes, I have gone to the doctor.  It is, at worst, just bronchitis.  The NP thought that it was viral, and gave me a sample inhaler of Albuterol, and a hard copy 'scrip of antibiotics that she doesn't want me to fill unless I'm feeling no better within three days (or if I feel worse, or if I start running a fever). 

I'm feeling slightly worse today than I did yesterday.  Too much energy expended, not enough rest.  And we need to go to Sam's Club today, so...yeah. 

I'll be back when I feel better.  Just wanted to let y'all know that I was (for the most part) okay. 

Food for thought...

One of my students from last semester posted something interesting on Facebook:

"If a jet is shot down, then how can they consider it a plane crash?"

Good question.  The answer is both simple, and complex.

The simple answer: language shapes perception.  If they keep calling it a crash on the news channels and evening news, then people will eventually forget that a jet carrying passengers--including American civilians--on the way to an AIDS conference was purposely shot down by a ground-to-air missile.

The complex answer is to the unstated, but assumed, question of why are they doing this?

Why, indeed. 

Language does control perception.  "Plane crash" is much less threatening than "jet shot down."  Plane crashes happen all the time: it's an accident.  A tragedy.  Pilot error, or mechanical stress.  A missile hitting a passenger jet, on the other hand, is a deliberate act of war. 

And it's a war we're not capable of starting, much less fighting and winning. 

Part of that is because of the way spending has tipped.  Since Vietnam and Johnson's tenure as POTUS, national spending has gone from being majority what was listed in the U.S. Constitution as federal responsibilities (infrastructure and defense) to more than half being spent on welfare programs, both corporate and individual.  Without a major shift in mentality from "gimme, gimme, gimme" to "Oh shit, we all gonna die," we will not be able to free up the funding to pay for what's needed to stomp those fuckers flat. 

So, our illustrious leaders tell the media to shift perceptions.  "Plane crash," indeed.

The other issue is with the "stomp the fuckers flat." 

We haven't done that since August of 1945.  There has not been a single use of overwhelming force going in and making the other side concede that they have been decisively defeated since we fucked Japan with a sandpaper condom without lube.  There is no political will to win, and honestly hasn't been since then.

Not even after 9/11/01.  Otherwise, we would have gone in with overwhelming force and destroyed any semblance of culture and/or government everywhere in every Islamofascist-controlled country, and taken over for the next ten generations.  Since we didn't do that, we have lost.  And they're forcing us to bleed ourselves to death.

We are overextended.  Thanks to the policies put in place by Truman (full credit, here: I understand why he didn't want to push too hard, and have to use nukes again) that prevented full victory in Korea.  That set the precedent for the flat-out loss in Vietnam.  And for what's going on in the Middle East, now that the POTUS has decided that the job there is done (it isn't, and won't be, until every Muslim over the age of two is dead). 

With the lack of funding for the military (which is mandated by the U.S. Constitution) because of the welfare funding for everything else (which is forbidden by the U.S. Constitution), we cannot simply field more units.  Without the political will to win, we can't stomp the old fuckers flat before we move on to stomp these new fuckers flat. 

And so...we have the media working their asses off to slant our perceptions, and cover the asses of their political masters. 

Random Ramblings

Ever get (and stay) so sick that it starts making you feel stupid because you can't even focus on what you're trying to read or write?  Yeah...that sucks. 

Especially when the kids are, for the most part, already over what made everybody sick, and are, once again, lively enough to be difficult to keep track of when I'm healthy.

Odysseus has a doc's appt. on Monday.  I've been putting off scheduling one for myself because one day, I'll feel terrible; the next, I'll be feeling better enough to be trying to do the things that NEED to be done in a household (i.e., dishes, feeding all of us, etc.); and the day after that, I'll be feeling terrible again.  And on, and on.  And on. 

But yeah, the kids are still hacking and coughing somewhat, but they're feeling a whole lot better, and aren't really congested much anymore. 

Cats have been clingy pests...dog has been the happiest dog in the world, since we had that cool snap last week.  She's been outside ALL day, rather than getting dragged in over the hottest part of mid-day (at which point she's ready to come in...but forgets why within an hour, and wants back OUT).

I'm...stalled...on writing.  I know where I want the next chapter to go, but I look at the screen, and can't squeeze any words out.  And writing it long-hand, which usually helps, isn't too much better. 

That's pretty much it.  We've all been in various stages of sick since Tuesday.

FFOT:

This bloody chest cold can fuck the fucking fuck off.  My ribs and abs are killing me from the constant hacking and coughing. 

So.

In the middle of July, the weather is downright cool.  How cool?  In SW MO, the most recent official reading has us at 74 degrees as of 1:53 p.m. today. 

Between that, and Odysseus and I both feeling like crap with whatever crud we have, I'm making chili for supper.

Great...

My head cold is moving into my chest.  So are the kids' colds.  I'm gonna have to keep a very close eye on the pixie, since she had pneumonia earlier this summer.

And Odysseus has caught it, too.

Edited for clarification: Odysseus has caught the head cold that turned into a chest cold, the same as the rest of us.

Ugh...

First, the imp gets sick (summer cold, seems like).  Then me (how I knew it was a cold).  Now the pixie is sick, too, but she's running a low-grade fever. 

I haven't checked, but I feel like I am: hot and cold in turns, and my skin hurts. 

Can I go to bed now, and just wake up when we're all feeling better?  Please?

Wow.

I just have to say, I love my new fountain pen.  This pen.



My red and gold Jinhao fountain pen that Odysseus got me for our anniversary completely rocks.  Their medium nib seems to be more of a fine nib (which gets me curious about what their "diamond fine" nib is like).  The entire pen, except for the refillable cartridge and the back part of the nib where the ink channels down the the point, is metal.  The pen is startlingly weighty.  Not flimsy at all.

I've also discovered that I like the refillable cartridge quite a lot.  I got some green ink for this particular pen--just because.  I inspected the nib (no detritus left from manufacture or from shipping), and immediately filled the cartridge...and it was actually a little easier than puncturing a disposable cartridge with the back end of the nib, and not much messier.   Along with that, a package of cartridges for the Parker pens I have (Parker Vector, which is okay, but not spectacular, despite the one I bought in grad school in '03 still working like a champ) costs around $5, and I can't find them locally.  They hold maybe a mL of ink, and last about a week of heavy use (and yes, they do get heavy use--I hate ball-points and roller ball pens).  They come in blue or black, so not a lot of choice.  A 50 mL bottle of ink also costs around $5...and come in about thirty different colors of India ink at Hobby Lobby.  Yes, I'll have to refill the cartridge a bit more often, but...I think it's well worth the trouble, and easily worth it financially. 

I have learned something interesting, using this pen: heavier pens make for less pain in the bad joint at the base of my index finger.  Yes, it makes the rest of my hand more tired and faster, but something about the balance and weight makes it easier to control, and I end up not using that specific joint as much as I do when I'm using my plastic fountain pen.

I really, really love this pen.  I don't think I will ever buy a plastic pen again.  Especially not since the Jinhao pens are so relatively inexpensive. 

random ramblings

It's Saturday, again.  I am listening intently to music over my headphones plugged into my computer to keep from howling with laughter.  The kids are watching Sesame Street Classic, once again, and the Count was singing his song.  And all I could think of was this:


The kids didn't do well spending the night at Grandma and Grandpa's together.  The pixie doesn't go to sleep until very late, and the imp is up at the ass-crack of dawn.  One kept the other up two hours later than he usually goes to sleep, and the other got the first one up two hours before she usually gets up.

This bodes...ill...for school for the pixie.  Her half-day preschool is the first half of the day.

But...despite that, Thursday night/Friday morning was awesome for us.  I actually slept until 9:30 Friday morning.  I very rarely sleep that long--I'm lucky if the kids are quiet until 8:30.

I'm going to be working with the imp, starting Monday, to start the Hooked on Phonics program, since he seems to have a firm grasp on letter sounds (which he refused to work on with me).  Hopefully, he'll be reading a little bit by the time school starts.

The pixie may be wearing size 5 by the time school starts.  Her size 5 dress fits perfectly, and her size 4 dresses...are about a half an inch to an inch and a half above her knees, depending on the dress. 

The cats decided they were going to sleep in the cat tree on Thursday.  When we left, Shadow, the black cat, was sleeping in the top shelf, stretched out on her back, dangling from both ends of the curved shelf.  When we got back...Shadow was sleeping in the top shelf, stretched out on her back, dangling from both ends of the curved shelf.  We went back to pet her to make sure she hadn't croaked during the course of the day.  Woke her up, and she griped at us until we started petting her belly, at which point she started purring.

Cricket just spent the entire evening trying to get on my chest to sleep on me.  I say trying, but she succeeded twice, and got pitched onto the couch (about two feet from me) twice for excessive drool, which she has a nasty habit of slinging all over everything, because being on my chest means I'm breathing on her ears...which tickles.

The dog came in the house around three, yesterday, got a big long drink of fresh, cool water, and then went to sleep until around 10:00 or so, at which point I fed her.  She's outside right now, since it's supposed to be very hot, her pen has no shade from about noon to about seven, and she's a black dog.  I'll probably bring her in around 12-1:00, and put her back out at 7:00.   She'll probably be quite happy, later this week, when the projected polar vortex hits and takes the temps back down into the low 80's.

I'm still working on Fire and Forge.  I'm having to do a lot of it long-hand, because every time I sit down to the laptop to work in Word, I pull a blank.  I don't know if it's stress, or what, but that's what's going on.  That, and I tend to get distracted quite badly.

I think that's all for the week, for the most part. 

FFOT: Cancer.

My cousin has breast cancer.  Had a mastectomy.  Her oncologist said they didn't get it all, and that she's at stage 1.  That can fuck off with a rusty chainsaw.

A good friend has stage 3 or 4 inflammatory breast cancer.  Her doctors didn't catch it very quickly, because she was breastfeeding at the time, and they thought the initial symptoms were either mastitis, or blocked ducts.  She's had four months of chemo, and they said she needs three more before they can attempt a mastectomy to try to get it under control.

That kind of cancer has a 34% chance of not recurring within five years. 

And that kind of cancer can chainsawdomize itself with a rusty chainsaw.

Anniversary

We had a wonderful day--and Grandma and Grandpa have the kids tonight.

We gave each other gifts:

His

Hers


We went up to the other good-sized town in the area after we dropped off the kids and had lunch, then went to a prepper's store (didn't have what we wanted), and an military surplus store (found something we didn't know we needed--isn't that always the way, though).

And then, we came back and went to a bookstore--something that isn't easy with book-loving kids.  And a hobby store.  And a liquor store, where I found something I've been wanting: Buffalo Trace Bourbon Cream. 

We ended up the day out at the place where we got married, and stood and watched the water (and water creatures, including at least one if not two otters) for a while.  It was lovely, and peaceful.  I wanna do it again, soon. 

Not the gifts (though Odysseus is just happy he's found a good go-to gift for when I can't think of anything I want, and he can't think of anything else to give me--Jinhao fountain pens are very nice, and affordable).  The afternoon with no kids to supervise (and yell at when they misbehave), and time spent with my best friend, and the other half of my soul. 

Ten years.

Ten years ago today, at seven in the evening, I married my best friend. 

Better day, today.

The imp's pre-kindergarten camp teacher gave the imp a package of fruit snacks yesterday that had red food coloring in them.  We took a box of his usual fruit snacks (Mott's Medley have no artificial colors or flavors) so that there'd be enough for him and the rest of the kids. 

The teacher was horrified nearly to tears when she found out this morning that red food coloring turns the imp into a monster.  She honestly hadn't known...not that I'd suspected she did that knowingly. 

So, today was a bit better...except for where homework was concerned.  He had letters to write...and two three letter words.  And it took Odysseus an hour between lunch and nap to do A and B...and me two hours to do C, D, and E, two copies of each of the two words, and one copy of his name. 

The kids have had their baths, and they're in bed.  Only just about fifteen minutes ago did the pixie actually fall asleep.  I'm beginning to wonder if her circadian rhythm is just that different from the imp's, who's always happy to go to bed at eight, and be up with the fucking sun, every fucking morning, because she will, at least, sleep until eight or half past in the mornings, now.

I actually accomplished a lot, today.  Odysseus took care of the laundry--it's fairly simple to do, and keeps him off of his feet, for the most part.  I, on the other hand, tackled the kitchen.  One cabinet has been rearranged, the counter top to the east of the sink has been cleared off and rearranged.  And then, later in the afternoon (after pixie woke up, and from just before the imp woke up to a little bit after), I did the other side of the counter, and started on the table.  That needs a bit more done, and then it's good. 

And then...we put out the bait gel and kill off the damn bugs.

Tomorrow's project?  The living room...which is in nowhere near as bad of shape.  I have managed to set and make stick a rule that toys go back into bedrooms immediately upon being put down.  I tried no toys in the living room at all, but that...just didn't seem right.  It is, after all, their home, too.

And then...we put out bait gel in the living room and kill the damn bugs in here, too.  And probably spray the Ortho stuff in here, tomorrow night after the kids go to bed and the cats get put back.

Okay...

Less done than usual, thanks to a pixie that picked fights and fluttered and floated, and wouldn't stay in her room (despite having been sent there), and then refused to go to sleep until after ten o'clock. 

I got the dishes done, and a chapter set up to move quickly tomorrow, but...

I didn't get the clean clothes put up. 

I didn't get the rest of the dirty clothes gathered up.

I didn't get the dirty clothes that I had gathered up washed.

So, that means the pixie won't have her new favorite dress to wear tomorrow.  And it's her own fault. 

I'm heading off to bed.  I'll try to get caught up with the rest of it tomorrow. 

Here's an earworm that's a blast from the past.

I have this stuck in my head, thanks to my daughter watching classic Sesame Street  this morning, squealing over the frog in the video, and then wanting to watch it again.  Immediately.  And squeal over the frog some more.  So, here.  You guys can suffer with me.

As seen on Facebook:

International relations explained with a fly and cup of coffee...

WHEN A FLY FALLS INTO A CUP OF COFFEE

The Italian – throws the cup, breaks it and walks away in a fit of rage.

The German – carefully washes the cup, sterilizes it and makes a new cup of coffee.

The Frenchman – takes out the fly and drinks the coffee.

The Chinese - eats the fly and throws away the coffee.

The Russian - drinks the coffee with the fly, since it came with no extra charge.

The Israeli - sells the coffee to the Frenchman, sells the fly to the Chinese, sells the cup to the Italian, drinks a cup of tea and uses the extra money to invent a device that prevents flies from falling into coffee.

The Palestinian – blames the Israeli for the fly falling into his coffee, protests the act to the UN as an act of aggression, takes a loan from the European Union to buy a new cup of coffee, uses the money to purchase explosives and then blows up the coffee house where the Italian, Frenchman, Chinese, German and Russian are all trying to explain to the Israeli that he should give his cup of tea to the Palestinian.

FFOT: yet another list

• Fleas.  Fleas can FTFO.  I am so done with flea season that it's not funny.  

• Learning the hard way that I'm better off with SA handguns.  That can also fuck off.  The joint of my right index finger where it meets my hand still aches and is a bit stiff.  Meant that I didn't get any writing done yesterday.  Judging by how much it still aches, probably not much today, either.

• Finding out how much it will cost to replace the small DAO deep concealment piece with something I can use can also FTFO.  That's around three times the cost

• The children screaming about the Hobby Lobby decision can FTFO.  No one gets all of their needs provided for by someone else except children.  Wake the fuck up and smell the coffee, people: You are supposed to be adults.  Responsible for yourselves.  Sell your iPhone, shut off your cable, and stop eating out if you can't afford your birth control on your own!

• Politicians can fuck off, just on general principals.

Long, busy day yesterday

Odysseus and I sent the kids up to spend the day at my mother's, yesterday.  We had things to do that we needed them out from under foot to do. 

First thing I did, while Odysseus was taking the kids up to my mother's, was put Advantix II on the dog.  I was expecting it to be more difficult than it was, but the dog is smart enough to realize that the fleas died back after the last time we put that stuff on her, and she just leaned into me and grunted.  She was very still, and a very good dog.

I also stripped the kids' beds and re-washed their bedding, because we didn't manage to get all of the fleas in their rooms.  I also found the source: their stuffed toys.  The imp has a huge collection of critters, and the pixie has critters and cloth-bodied, stuffed baby dolls. 

After that was other work--fun work.  We got a new magazine for a small, deep concealment gun, and needed to test that out (and Odysseus wanted some practice with his main carry piece, too).  I found out that a DAO trigger is not good for me.  I ended up, after five seven-round magazines, with the joint where my index finger meets my hand, swollen to the point where I couldn't close my hand, and was incredibly painful.  After that, I wasn't able to write.  Or type. 

So.  Good to know. 

Hopefully, I'll find something more interesting to write about than my day, later today.

Cool...