bleh
sick of cold
sick of snow
sick of being sick

last week lasted about 1 month
Last week was a very long one for me. Any one else? Most of my co-workers thought it took forever as well. We had a big inspection by district on Tuesday. All of Monday and early Tuesday were prepping for this event. Afterwards, it really felt like we should be done for the week.
My work was extremely varied all week. Almost every department was touched by me in one way or another. I managed to get lippy with my supervisor on more than one occasion, but he seemed to understand it was a tension breaker for the week. And sometimes it wasn't lipping off - it was lipping back. Luckily, neither one of us has the time to carry a grudge.
We are heading into accessories and cosmetics. This is such fine work and so many small labels, I bought new reading glasses just for the occasion. I got to work and friend/co-worker Sandy said, "Look what I bought yesterday!"
We had both bought the same type and style - on the same day. Though we did buy at different stores and we did get different colors. She went with black frames in a red tube. I went for the pewter frames in a matching tube. We were both thinking the metal tubes were a great way to protect our glasses from ourselves when not in use. And easier to store in a pocket.
A Duh Moment
I, of course, managed to lose the top of my tube before the end of day one. I searched the store for my lost top - retracing all my movements. A co-worker finally noticed the top riding along - on the back of my scooter. Where it had landed when it fell out of my back pocket. Duh.
From now on it will go in a front pocket - they're deeper.
Pockets at work are not a fashion statement. On any given day I have a in my left pocket:box cutter, ink pen, and name tag. (Idon't put it on until we open - it tends to get caught on things when you're building stuff.) Right pocket: locker key, chapstick, and change for pop and snacks. (To one of these add my reading glasses now.) Back pockets: Notes, labels, dots, tools, etc......... My team members and I toy with the idea that we should wear tool belts.

medical tests to report
My last blood test showed that I have no ovarian tissue left and I am totally menopausal. That is a good thing. My gyn again asked if I wanted any hormones to help ease the symptoms. The answer will always be "no". He worries that I am suffering needlessly. Compared to RSD - menopause is a cake walk. And hormones are hell on me.
Since we are still looking for the source of the pain - I was given a cat scan this week.
This happened Thursday evening. After arriving at the hospital I got to spend and hour drinking large quantities of barium. Barium is produced by mixing watered down skim milk with a nice tropical tanning oil - then add a nice "almost pudding that won't set up" thickness to it. Afterwards, you get to be given an IV port for a dye injection. Remember this is not my month on the vein front. The young tech in radiology told me she pokes 100 a people a day - don't worry. She couldn't even find a spot she could begin to attempt on. She said she had a friend who was around she considered a iv starter expert. Her "friend" was a Life Flight EMT. He was wonderful and confident and after two unsuccessful tries he called in his partner. She finally got me. I have a few bruises. One attempt was on my right bicep. The vein blowed big. Even my bicep hurts. The bruising is a work of art. I took pictures! The Life Flight techs said I qualified for 'paper certification' as a true "hard stick". They said not many people qualify for that by Life Flight standards.
And no - I don't know what the cat scan showed yet. If it shows growing scar damage - I'll have to have surgery to try to correct it again. If it doesn't show anything, they will probably go in to see what's up. Let's face it - I'm screwed!

hair hell
Willie is again blonder. Yes it is that time of year in the swim season again. Sandra and I took advantage of bleach in the house. I foiled highlights on Sandra and did a nice "top Highlight" on myself. Sandra's looks great. I got to caught up in a movie and waited too long. I resembled Cruella DeVille. That was a past tense statement. It is already corrected. I'm me again. I'm going to add lowlights to Sandra today.

VIRUS ALERT!
There's a new email virus floating around. So far I have recieved 6 in emails - some even from known addresses. (Like from my brother's addresses) The emails have a .zip file attachment. I got so many at once today when I checked my email - I called Mediacom. It is a virus. Delete any suspicious emails!

heavy business
Well I did a full week of nothing but building stuff. And then hauling it to the sales floor. The good news is as of this moment - we are all out of displays to build. This will probably change following Monday's truck.
Yesterday I built two fireplaces, a standing cooler and other various items.
I finished all we had in the building of seasonal. Today I built an arbor, bench, and end table - just for starters. The arbor was really heavy. A lot of things this week were really heavy. And most of it I had to move alone.
I also built lamp displays and got to redo the displays and signing. This was made more fun as the display numbers on the planogram were wrong and I had to match display placements against item numbers as well.
Finished the signing as best I could for seasonal.
And I got to also finish the displays of the new outdoor lighting section. Also made more exciting as numbers were also messed up on this as well.

more work stuff
Rand will get to work all weekend. Again.

interesting reading today
to quote Erma Bombeck - 1988
"Maybe the difference between living together and being married is that the former is a spectator sport and the latter is playing the game by all the rules. Marriage has no guarantees. If that's what you're looking for, go live with a car battery."

the sick list
Ryan is better (cough/cold crap) and Sandra is now down for the count. Neither can manage a sense of humor when they don't feel well. (Hey - I'm a bear - I'm guaranteed to attack! Just remember to play dead and you will be all right.)

hairy
My hair has been showing signs of trying to return to the color of my youth. I was almost white blond as a small child. Since Christmas, there seems to be a very strong change in that direction. Not that I will ever let my brothers see that! I have ways of fixing this!
Along the lines of things hairy - have I mentioned Sandra's make-over? It was her Christmas present. She now has beautiful straight and silky hair. It requires none of junk that she has glooped on for years. After straightening her hair I cut it into a totally new and shorter style. A few days later I colored it and did highlights. I still haven't got a pic to post yet.

the good news
Sandra is fully accepted to Mercy's School of Nursing and starts classes Feb.4th. She had to have a physical and a TB test. She did well with the physical. They finally decided she didn't have a reaction to the TB skin test. She had a reaction to the needle.

my arm
My arm is doing some better. I still have numbness and pain, and sometimes it feels like I've been hit with a stun gun; but I can tell the new drug and a weekend of full rest - helped. I'm plenty sore by the time I get home from work. And I'm still spending quality time with the heating pad. My wrist is swollen. Strange. I suppose it means that both ends of the nerve and everything in between is ticked off.

my gut
I saw my gyn-surgeon last week. He is running tests to see is I am in and/or finished full menopause yet. My current abdominal pain could be remnant ovarian tissue causing problems. The adhesions had really messed up my last ovary. If they didn't get out all the tissue it could be what is causing my pain. If I have not fully finished menopause by now - that is more than likely the problem. They'll use drugs first to stop all ovarian function. If that helps, then more surgery, to try and remove all ovarian tissue - again. Third times a charm.
If I have finished menopause, then I'm probably looking at a cat scan to look for new adhesion-caused damage to muscles, organs, tendons, etc. - or even - possible nerve damage. Goody. Nerve damage.
And this lab tech got me on the first stick and no bruising even!

see Spot sweat
Work this week has mostly been a week of building and lifting heavy furniture into place. (arm karma, obviously.) I worked in small appliances on Monday, built baby furniture on Tuesday, and patio furniture today. Patio furniture is nothing - Ray and I also built a whole huge honking gazebo today. Click on the link to see which one. I had to redo four matching swivel rockers first thing this morning (4am BTW for you "light of day" folks). They were put together by an exec yesterday - three different ways, I noticed - and none of the three ways were correct. I also built half a dozen other chairs and other various items. Tomorrow promises to be another full day of patio furniture with Friday finishing baby furniture.

way too much excitement for a weekend
My arm has been very, very sore all week. I pushed my way through work every day, went home to extreme amounts of Tylenol and my heating pad. Today when I awoke - my arm had really crossed into a new threshold of pain. I gave up and went to the clinic where I got to see a doc who was just subbing this weekend.
Dr. Bender, normally at the Lakeview Clinic in West Des Moines. I highly recommend him to anyone and everyone! He reminded me of Dr. Dickens. Both very caring, highly professional men.
My arm was swollen today and he didn't take that well. He was very concerned I might have a blood clot. I was sent immediately to Methodist Hospital for an ultrasound of my arm. The good news is I don't have a blood clot. Dr. Bender gave me a nice strong anti-inflammatory. My pharamicist warned it could really mess with my stomach, but should help the arm. I am to spend the weekend with my arm elevated, use the heating pad, and rest.
An interesting side-note to this adventure. It turned out I didn't have my cell phone with me -and no one knew where I was. I didn't tell anybody I was leaving or where I was going. The sad part - no one missed me. :(

no truck yet
We couldn't make any financing fly with the truck, because it had over 100,000 miles it. Back to the drawing board.

no road trip
There was a hint of precipitation in the air, so Donna was not going anywhere this weekend. Rand surprised them and went to work instead.

also lost....
Will lost another peer. An acquaintance (past grad of Hoover) took his life New Years Eve.
Rand lost his Aunt Booboo. Buelah Caylor of Lucas died suddenly yesterday of a heart-attack.

road trip?
For Rand anyway. If the weather is favorable he and his mom are headed to St. Paul this weekend to visit his Aunt Jo and cousin Deb. Deb has been in the hospital for a very long time now. It's not looking good. She was recently upgraded to ICU. I didn't know there was anything worse than ICU.

OH SHIT!
I got a call today from my family doctor office. Before my thyroid med could be refilled - I needed to have another blood test. I had planned on taking the Prius in for an oil change after work. The clinic is very close, so I decided to go for the blood test first. Beat the after work sick people.
The lab tech couldn't come up with blood after a few pokes, so she called somebody else in. After a few pokes she gave up, and called in one of my favorite nurses, Liz. Liz got blood on the second poke, but it was an instant burning white pain shooting out my fingertips. We had hit a nerve. I doubled over and she asked if she should pull out. I asked if she had blood. She said yes; so I instructed her to finish. I have never had a vial fill so quickly before.
I went directly to get the oil changed (Our Toyota dealer is just across the road from the clinic.) and while sitting there I came to the conclusion I was not well. The pain was getting worse. I was dizzy, the pain had spread to my shoulder, and I had a headache. My guaranteed 29 minute oil change, of course, took an hour.
As soon as I got home I called the family nurse - Jeff. He agreed they probably hit a nerve and he added it was probably an artery, not a vein they hit. Jeff suggested ice to make sure the bleeding was stopped. And then heat. The heat does help; but my arm is so tender! I'm up to like a triple dose of extra strength Tylenol and still have a headache. I can't stand "touch" on the inside of my arm. My bicep, wrist, fingers, and shoulder still hurt. This should make work tomorrow more interesting. I''m thinking of going to bed very early tonight.
Time for more heat

sad
Tina and Jeff lost the baby.

Happy New Year
2004
Who ever thought we'd live this long? I celebrated New Years Eve with the consumption of meat. WooHoo! My stomach is still a bit shy.

barfy list
I spoke too soon on Wednesday (- that there were no new additions). All of the Pepsi maintenance day shift can be added. (Except for Dan - at last report) Way to go Randus! Ryan's family is now suffering as well. Way to share Sandra!

clearance
That's most of what I did today. Set the Valentines gift gondola and then I condensed clearance. For six hours. It was being shopped so hard it was a non-stop process. We don't have a lot left.
I have all of Christmas cleared from the house. Rand took down the outside lights yesterday. It's nice to be normal again. With all I do retail, I am pretty well sick of Christmas by Christmas.