A fellow canvasser got a paper cut and it bled profusely.

He reminds me of my annoying little brother.

I miss my annoying little brother.

1. My manicure is chipped.

2. My kitchen sink has not fully drained since last week.

and
3. I bought the kind of grapes that have seeds.

1. Oncological surgeon or clinical oncologist?
2. Duke or UNC?
3. Red wine or white wine?

1. The possible wart on my finger is all white and icky looking, but hopefully that means that the magic bandaids are working.

2. I'm nervous about this second test that I have to get done. Probably because it will involve drawing blood. I hate having blood drawn. It hurts.

3. My mother is apparently pissed at me. What I did, I don't know. Seriously, I've barely exchanged 10 words with her in the past several days.

Red wine. Beaujolais. Yum.

1. I'm weeding part of the front landscaping today and amongst the Indian Hawthornes I see a foot-and-a-half long snake's molting. I gingerly picked it up and brought it into the house for the kids to look at. I put it in the center of the kitchen table and forgot about it. A couple hours later the kids and I were bringing in groceries and setting them on the table. The snake was camouflaged against the print tablecloth. I freaked out for a second.

2. I am in one of those moods were I think my husband is so handsome and hunky and I'm trying not to hang on him every second of the day. He just left for a two hour meeting. Hurry home, my hunk of burning love.

3. My friend is coming over to borrow an air mattress. I must commence to vacuuming tons of dog hair so she can sit down.

I did some weeding and planting on Sunday. I do not like to wear gardening gloves. I came inside and washed my hands and arms thoroughly with soap.

Today I have shiny white sores on my hands and wrists that look suspiciously like my nemesis, poison ivy. One of them has hardened to a big ugly blood-blister-lookin thing on my finger. Nasty. And itchy. And I just read this article about the power of THE ITCH and now I'm scratching double.

I guess that was only one point, but with the impact of three.

Sciatica, I haz it. :(

EEEEEEhhh

Actually, it's been one of my better days...

1. I went for a walk, despite the heat, bought some yummy nectarines, at 4 for a dollar (they smell so sweet!), and discovered a cute new sushi place in the neighborhood.

2. I played my clarinet for the first time in a long, long time, and darn if I still didn't sound surprisingly good (despite the air leaking out of my cheeks at the end of an hour, but hey, it can't hurt to strengthen those cheek muscles -- instant facelift! Now if I could just do something about my butt).

3. I also started writing again. A saying I heard or read somewhere recently (was it here?): It's never too late to be what you might have been. (I'm not one for sayings, but I like that one.)

(sorry for all the boo-boos, ej... I'd offer to kiss them for you, but I think you have someone better ; )

1. In the morning I had to deal with two drunk, smelly homeless guys who chattered relentlessly in my ear trying to ingratiate themselves with me, while my boss gave me the eye to signal that I should do everything I could to hustle them out fast, since they had about 5 big boxes of books that looked like someone had let a pack of dogs loose on them. I came this close to saying "I don't make the decisions, you don't have to suck up to me.

2. Later we did a 40 box lot of worthless, dusty, scrawled on books. we kept maybe 10% of them. The boss was disgusted, he said "The guy said they were in good condition.." "This is good condition?" I said "What the hell were they throwing a way?"

3. Walking to the subway I was listening to "Hey Ya" on my iPod and passed a spastic person with a walker who was tremoring roughly in time to the music on my earbuds. Yes, I'm horrible, but that lifted my spirits.

Pips, I hear that if you repeatedly squeeze your butt cheeks, it's an excercise. Seriously!! Why are you looking at me like that? Try it while you're standing washing dishes or something.

LoriFLA, WHERE DID YOU FIND THAT???!!!! Actually it's pretty cool.

1. Checked Idiot Daughter's MyWaste place. No changes, nothing new.
2. Felt like doing...nothing today. Did pay bills, but it was a challenge.
3. Think I'm PMSing, 'cause nothing makes me feel good today. I'm not even in the mood for ice cream. Now that ain't right.

1. Leaf blower is acting up, just when I need it for cleanup after a storm. Machinery hates me. I don't know why that is, but no matter what I do in terms of preventive maintenance, engines blow up, driveshafts crack, and so forth. For instance, we bought an old Ariens snowblower from the guy across the street. It gave him many, many years of reliable service without a glitch. The first time I used it, something broke, all the oil leaked out, and it seized up -- ruining the engine. (At least with a new engine, at $250+, we are still ahead -- these are $1200+ new.) I really am jinxed.

2. Dad had an EEG today on the way to getting a diagnosis for his dementia. He's awake only a couple of hours a day, but still wants to maintain 100% control over the money, and my mom is getting panicked since there have been "universal default" notices arriving indicating interest rates being jacked up and credit lines being reduced. It's basically impossible to avoid him becoming petulant and territorial about all of this, and he likes to blame my mom (who earns a salary, still) for "spending" it, causing him "bookkeeping" work. For him, in the past, this has consisted of insanely over-the-top item-by-item marking of receipts, so that he can show someone, some day, how much it cost to raise my brother's special-needs kids. I'm not sure what showing it to them is supposed to do, but he really wanted to do it. But in his present state he can't even keep up with incoming mail.

3. The tenants who said they would be out "by July 2" are still in place and showing no signs of carting things out bit by bit or anything. Need to get in there and start fixing things up. (This is an apartment building my dad insisted on buying, but which she -- and my brother and now me -- have done practically all the work on. It has appliances from the 1950s, crappy electrical, and an unfinished double-glazed window project that my dad managed to reach an impasse with his carpenter on -- eight or more years ago. I'm hoping I'll have time to rectify some of the worst problems.... and that we'll get some non-problem tenants.)

1. It's hot.
2. It's hot.
3. It's hot.

1. Came home and the corked 3/4s bottle of nice white wine I had in my bag had come uncorked and spilled in bag. Bag now in washer, wine wasted.

2. New paperback was in bag with wine. Paperback now soaked in white wine, unreadable for at least a few days while it dries out. Except it won't dry fast because it's so damn humid.

3. Attempted to soothe self by making nice cool pitcher of iced tea with mint in my beautiful and newly acquired vintage painted glass pitcher. Tea brewing water too hot, pitcher cracked and broke, no more pitcher. Worst part? I know better than to put hot water directly into a glass pitcher. Duh. Lazy.

3.

New paperback was in bag with wine. Paperback now soaked in white wine, unreadable for at least a few days while it dries out.

PLEASE, don't try to sell it at my store.

I'm doing a boot camp and everything hurts. Like,

1. my quads
2. my calves
3. my triceps
4. MY HAIR.

Oy vey.

1. The smoke briefly cleared up this weekend, so I washed my car. It was covered in ash when I went outside this morning.
2. It's hot.
3. We found a cute little house with a yard and amazing view that we'd like to rent, but the landlord wants to move someone in sooner than the end of August. Also, there's an occupied in-law unit, and the utility sharing would get weird.

Pips, I hear that if you repeatedly squeeze your butt cheeks, it's an excercise.

And a one, and a two... (Hey, why not? : )

I have a weird whatevers-in-the-fridge casserole in the oven for a late supper. A layer of broken up corn muffins on the bottom, then black beans and rice, cut up leftover pork chops and chicken, refried beans, and mozzarella. Enough hot sauce and anything can taste good, I say. (Apple Jacks are on standby.)

A. I spent july 4th in the emergency room instead of experiencing an authentic american barbecue as I had hoped to. I had bust my knee while mountain biking north of SF. Ignominious failure for the polder boy unused to gravelly dry hills.

1. I saw a convict in orange jumpsuit and manacles brought in.
2. A homeless person on a stretcher kept repeating that he had only done 2 grams of heroin.
3. A skater was brought in by a friend; he had collided with another skater and fractured front parts of his skull. Later on I saw 5 docters and interns studying his RMI very carefully.
4. Policemen were a permanent part of the ER staff. I had never seen that.
5. People in the US, even hard working normally successful people, worry about what getting treated will cost. Tourists should too since care is expensive.
6. 8 hours later after much waiting I was back. Only empty champagne bottles gave a clue of a barbecue that had transpired.

B. Californias coast north of SF is amazing. Lots of seadogs (name in Dutch, seals you'd call them) and sealions. Beatiful forests and bluffs. We found a dilapidated farm in a field. No graffiti, no partial burning, no vandalism. Just withered and blanched in a great field.

C. I have some work to do (write an article) but it's hard to get going while on holiday. Ach it's so easy to put things off and read online about Stephen Wolfram, cellular automata, constraint logic, sequents, logic programming etc. etc.

D. there was a 'konijntjes' phrase on one of the SF shout-out cards. As in 'bunnies' but in Dutch. I'm sure you metachatties appreciate this.

E. there's something rumbling behind the Atlantic, a storm is building; a pan-European metafilter meetup is brewing... All mefites will be invited.

(Yay! The casserole's yummy... Jon just went back for seconds. Corn muffin bottom got all crispy, and the canned refried beans really makes it. I would've prefered cheddar cheese, I think, but the mozzarella worked well enough. Add a little sour cream, and we're in business.)

Jouke, I'm sorry you experienced an American ER, but I'm so glad you got to experience the beauty north of SF. It is truly one of the most beautiful, fantastical places on earth.

Hey mudpuppie, actually it was an interesting experience that gave me some insight in the US. It's rare that you get that kind of insight into a country when visiting as a tourist.
And the care was good.
It would have been nice to attend the barbecue of course.

I saw you've been camping north of Truckee near Sierra City. I'm still looking for nice sites to go camping on short notice. Hopefully we'll find something as nice.

Yeah, you can be really proud of your nature here.

If you want camping recommendations, email me. I might be able to help. (Or maybe not. But I'll try.)

The Gold Country is beautiful and interesting. Lots of history there. Very California.

I'm lamed by a scrape. Bad scrape on the top of my foot, hurts like a mofo, and is ugly and infected. So now I'm taking antibiotics, soaking my foot in saltwater a zillion times a day, and mostly laying on the couch with my foot on a pillow. Too hot to have the laptop on my lap... which is why I'm hardly around at the moment. boo.

The dog has, by necessity, been introduced to the joys of potty in the courtyard, which she doesn't like one little bit. No.

My body hates me, I must have done something truly horrible for which I now must pay. The details are putrid, but I can't move, I'm way too hot and having wicked, pressured fever dreams, and I'm leaking strange fluids - and this is improving!

The human body can be a disgusting, foul, wretched thing, exacerbated by the fact that pretty much all I've been up to for the past three days, physically and intellectually, is lie on the couch and watch Beverly Hills 90210.

I'll give all the poor sickies and sories a hug from afar:



((((poor thing, have some soup))))

Taz you need to move it lots so the blood is really moving around there, eat lots of protein and take a zinc supplement if you can.

Goo, sweetie, do you have Manflu???

((((HUGS))) for all the other boo-boos!

Goo, sweetie, do you have Manflu???

Lordy, no - staph. And it's gross.

1) I ate so many pretzels last Friday that I got a salt burn in the corner of my lip. Now it won't stop cracking open and it hurts like a billion mofos. And looks gross.

2) one of my teammates, the skinny fast mountain bike kid, dragged me around by the neck up, down and around a mountain for 2 and a half hours last night. Now it feels like he simply ripped my legs off and beat me with them. To add insult to injury, like all goddamn kids these days, he retains zero respect for his elders, thus his response to my plea for mercy was: "oh quit whining, this is why you can lap the field in women's 35+ races..." Which is essentially true, but that thought doesn't improve the actual process.

3) [not mine but in spirit of jouke] another teammate, this one also my colleague, crashed his bike in Sunday's gorefest criterium and ripped all the skin off his right buttcheek. Poor boy even had to get a couple stitches in his ass. he's otherwise okay but it's simultanously hilarious and pitiful watching him hobble around at work, and his discreet attempts to avoid sitting on the wounded bits. Been there, done that.

I have a weird whatevers-in-the-fridge casserole in the oven for a late supper.

DUMPSTER CASSEROLE! OM NOM NOM!!! Gosh, I need to make me some of that.

I've walked several miles each day since I came to Zurich and I'm still bloated. My dry eye is still bothering me and I think it's the result of the drops I was given for pinkeye. ("this happens as women get older, don't worry about it." Goddamnit, I'm still getting my period regularly!)

It's been only the last two days that I've wanted to eat traditional Swiss food--though I'm passing on fondue since I don't like those kinds of cheeses.

Chewing gum is called "cow-gum" here.