How to Temporarily Distract a Migraine

Ingredients:

1 12oz Coke Zero, consumed while driving to work from a blue Aladdin insulated-cup-thingy
1 Little Debbie Apple Pie, consumed while driving back to work from the gas station
2 Excedrin extra-strength coated tablets, purchased at the aforementioned gas station
1 20oz Diet Mountain Dew, purchased prior to the Excedrin in vain attempt to avoid taking medicine by using caffiene (diet because we're watching our calories...never mind the apple pie), all in an effort to ward off the blistering pain over my left eye
1 Huxtable's Beef Shepherd's Pie, otherwise known as The Ambrosia of The Gods of the Walmart Deli Case

I'm not sure, but I think the shepherd's pie coupled with a four word story including "they called him...Tater Salad" from the Lost Boys Gathering Place forums MIGHT have done the trick...though the monitor still has a funny aura around it and my ears are ringing louder than the Carol of the Bells...

On the Road Again

My dear Thug brought up a good point the other day on the phone. She said "You sure do travel a lot!" She had called me twice in as many days and both times caught me on the road to Georgia. I was thinking about how much I drive this morning as I was driving from Greenville to Anderson for work.

Tomorrow I will be driving almost to North Carolina to pick up said Thug. Then Saturday I will be driving to Lawrenceville for a Lost Boys concert at...gulp...a comic book convention. Once the merriment and revelry are done, Thug and I will drive back up to my house in Greenville for the night.

But wait, there's more...

The following weekend, I will be returning to Georgia to attend a party thrown by my sister and her husband, but it will be a tad less stressful because I can take my dogs with me to their house. Christmas I worried the entire time because I can't take my dogs to my parents' house. Also, I may be able to see my friend ebeth while I'm there...I can't believe it's been almost ten years since I've seen her in person, and I'm so incredibly excited at the possiblity of meeting Andrew and MC in person!

I travel a lot...but my life is never dull, I suppose.

And to all a good haul!

Santa Was Here
Originally uploaded by NanLassiter.

Here's a photo of my parents' den this year on Christmas Day. Note the picture of my sister over the mantle, and how mine was carefully not included...

Hope everyone's day was merry and bright...is it 2006 yet?

The Day After The Day After Christmas

I know some of you are back at work today. I'm so terribly sorry. I don't have to go back to work until Thursday, and then after working for two days will have another day off for New Year's. You may commence the tomato hurling....now.

I now have a fridge in my kitchen, and it has food in it! This morning I had a marvelous breakfast of blueberry bagel with butter and a latte with dulce de leche creamer. Yeah, so I'll start my diet tomorrow...

Christmas was grand fun, and will continue tomorrow when I venture back to Georgia to see Susan and Dave who were visiting his family in Alabama over the actual Christmas weekend.

I really feel like my house is home now. My cats are here, my dogs are here...and I have a new DVD player to learn how to use (thanks to Mom and Daddy) as well as a new VCR so no more missed Days of Our Lives!!

Another Quiz, Thanks to my Thug

Not really a surprise, not at all...Thanks Kalyne for the linky.

Reflections of the Spirit? You reflect the sadness of the spirit. You have been wronged by life and are troubled by the spirit's journey, yet find strength in this. This is a temporary reflection and once time has past you will find that you have a new reflection and show others that they too can rise above their depression.
Take this quiz!

Merry Christmas

My Christmas Tree
Originally uploaded by NanLassiter.

So I'm not really a Scrooge after all...thanks to my sister and brother in law for coming up here yesterday and reminding me what Christmas is about.

Oh, and to my sister, for keeping my pseudo ADD in check while we shopped in MOBBED stores...thanks Sooz. She even helped with my tree, and the Nuclear Powered Angel you see in the picture.

I hope everyone is warm and happy and with loved ones this weekend.

There's No Four Day Weekend for Crazy

(thanks to Charles for the title of the post...)

I am in a state of complete denial that Christmas is this weekend. With everything that has happened over the past month, I'm not even sure where I am half the time, let alone how many shopping days left there are or what Christmas movie will be on TV tonight. Is it really December 22nd?

I am thankful that my power is on. I am thankful that I have heat. I am thankful that all six of my critters are still with me this Christmas.

And yet through all that thankfulness I am reminded that I still only have 2.5 shopping days till Christmas and so far I've bought ONE gift. One. I think you know where I'll be once I leave work today.

A Quick Quiz

I am 79% (Dixie). "Your neck must be at least pink!" I am not sure that this is really a surprise.

Thanks to Amy for the linky...Are You a Yankee or a Rebel?

All Hail to the Duke

Duke Power that is...

Man alive, have they had a job to do. This is a quote from their website (linked in the title above, if you missed it in my last post):

Peak Outages: 700,000

Total Customers Restored: 593,700

Total Remaining Customer Outages: 106,300
In North Carolina: 16,300
In South Carolina: 90,000

County Name/Total Customer Power Outage
Anderson, S.C./2,200
Burke, N.C./Complete except for scattered outages
Catawba, N.C./Complete except for scattered outages
Cherokee, S.C./750
Cleveland, N.C./Complete except for scattered outages
Greenville, S.C./56,700
Henderson, N.C./10,000
Pickens, S.C./1,100
Polk, N.C./1,700
Rutherford, N.C./3,200
Spartanburg, S.C./28,400
Transylvania, N.C./550

Someone asked me yesterday what on earth could be taking "them" so long to restore power. Well, according to "them"...

At this point, crews often are forced to clear entire trees before they can replace a pole, cross arm, transformer and wire that may result in only a few more customers being restored.

Restoring power to some homes in a neighborhood doesn’t necessarily mean all will be restored. The structure of electrical lines doesn’t always follow the layout of neighborhoods and streets. There may be occasions where restoring a circuit results in electricity to some homes or businesses, but nearby locations served by different circuits remain without power.

Pretty much that's what happened to my neighborhood. I live off of a fairly busy street in Greenville, and the businesses on that street have had power since Friday I think. My neighborhood is still dark.

I have seen Duke Power trucks all over the place over the past 6 days, and I have to say that I take back some of the harsh things I've said about the company over the years. I saw guys out on Thursday, in the freezing rain that continued to come down for most of the day, working while bundled up to their eyeballs. It can't be an easy job, and I appreciate all the work they are doing.

Now, having said that, I'm sure that I have a different perspective because I have heat and power. I'm sure that those that are living in cold houses for the 6th day in a row, using fireplaces and blankets to keep warm and taking cold showers in the dark before work every morning aren't as understanding as I am about how long it's taking to restore power.

I just hope that Charter is as fast as Duke Power...

A Cold Lesson in Humility

I'm back...probably not many of you noticed I was gone, but I'm back...sorta.

Last Wednesday evening/early Thursday morning, an ice storm hit the Carolinas. As usual, Greenville was one of the harder hit areas (just lucky, I guess?) of South Carolina. I'm not sure about North Carolina, but when I checked the Duke Power website today (first day I've had access to the internet since Wednesday!), there were still 76,000 reported customers without power in the Greenville area. The next one down the list was Spartanburg who still has 45,000 customers without power.

My neighborhood was hit pretty hard. We have power lines STILL down across one of the streets, there is a line dangling in my yard (but we think it isn't a power line, maybe phone, doesn't connect to my house at all), and I cleared a pile of limbs (some as big around as my arm!) out of my yard that now stands taller than I do. There was a huge limb (prolly about 2 feet in diameter) that fell on my roof, but luckily it didn't have far to fall so it just kinda came to rest up there and didn't puncture the roof. My landlord got up there with a chain saw and cut off what he could to lessen the weight on the roof until a tree service can get there...with all the downed trees in Greenville they are booked solid.

I can't complain though...I still have "the country house" which has power and heat...just no TV or internet or phone. I've been watching a lot of movies since Wednesday of last week... A lot of the people in my neighborhood don't have anywhere else to go, and I've seen more firewood stacked on porches there these past few days than I have since I started moving in! At least I have hot water and heat and lights, and all my animals are safe and warm as well. We only lost power in the "country house" for a few hours on Thursday morning.

Here is a link to some images from the ice storm courtesy of Duke Power, they don't tell you where the pictures are, but it was pretty much the same all over I think. I don't know when my internet will be back...the lines leading to my house look to be solid so maybe that will happen as soon as the power does. It is a little disconcerting to have to drive off the road to avoid the power line that someone has propped up on a street sign to keep it from completely blocking the road...

But on to the lesson...as I said above, I have a warm place to be. I have power. I have lights. I have my animals with me and my house in Greenville wasn't damaged. I have it so much better than so many other people, even those just down the street from me. So for that, I am thankful...even if it means no Christmas decorations this year.

Profile and Jeany's Big Adventure

(As originally posted on a message board, 12/05/05)

I had the life scared out of me yesterday, and was reminded why I'm so thankful that I'll be taking all three of the doggies with me when we finally settle in the new house this week.

I was loading boxes in the car and had the gate open. I was interrupted by a phone call from my sister, and sat down to talk to her a sec. After about half an hour on the phone, my doorbell rang. My neighbor was at the door and said the words that none of us ever want to hear:

"One of your dogs is out of the fence."

He went on to say "It's the little one, and she won't come to me." I dropped the phone and ran out the front door to see Jeany running back and forth along the fence across the street. I called her and she flirted a bit, then thankfully ran to my neighbor...but not before she darted toward the busy street. I walked her back to the house and put her in the yard, then went to find Mr. Lassiter. He hadn't checked the gate and just let her out the basement door.

Okay, I've recovered, I'm loading boxes again, this time having driven the Element inside the fence to avoid another escape. Jeany and Hunky are dancing around me, inspecting the car and trying to hop UP to GO for a RIDEINTHECAR.

Where's Profile? I head back in and ask Mr. Lassiter. He doesn't know, he says. "Isn't he out there with you?" I head back upstairs and check the bedroom. No Profile. PANIC.

I fly back down the stairs and confront Mr. Lassiter who "can't remember" if Profile went out when Jeany did. He's yelling at me to find the squawker and I'm yelling at him to get his (very ugly language omitted) outside to help me look for my dog. I run outside, fully losing my composure and screaming for Profile when I see His Royal Silliness across the street down by the lake. He comes flying back up to the house and bypasses my waiting arms to poke his nose through the gate, waiting to be let back in the yard.

Thank goodness both of them are still safe with me...and thank goodness we should be in our new home by the end of the week or there might be a homicide. I will admit to sometimes not looking to make sure the gate is closed before I let the dogs out, but at least I know which dog is where.

And where was Hunky through all this? Snoozing on the sofa.

See, that's why the other post is called "Mommy is an Idiot..." but should be called "Padlock your Gates."

Mommy is an Idiot or Profile's Big Adventure Part Two

Stupid people really make me mad, especially when it's me that's stupid.

There is a gentleman working for my landlord that is painting the outside of my house. On several occasions I have mentioned to him that when I have the dogs living here full time (almost there, not quite, still no fridge ), he has got to make absolutely sure that every time he comes into or goes out of the back yard he closes the gates behind him.

You can see where this is going, I'm sure.

Yesterday he was supposed to paint my front porch and iron railing and front door. This was to be done with oil based exterior paint, so he was going to leave a trail for me to get to the door that would be painted later. I get here last night, nothing has been done. Nada. Zip.

Or so I think...

I went back to the old house to spend the night last night and then came early this morning to leave the doggies here before I went to work. Being the good mom I am, I let them out in the yard before I left them here.

Yeah, this is the part where I'm stupid.

I didn't look before I opened the sliding glass door that leads to the backyard. All three dogs sprinted for the back of the yard to do various and sundry doggie business. I walked out on the deck and that's when I saw the gate standing wide open...unfortunately Profile saw it the same time I did and decided to go exploring.

Apparently the guy had been painting the back of my house, rather than the front like he told me.

For those familiar with the Greenville, SC area, my road is off Laurens Road, otherwise known as HIGHWAY 276, otherwise known as A VERY BUSY ROAD. I jumped off the deck, ran after Profee (shutting the gate as I went through it) and when I got out of the yard I couldn't see him. I was screaming for him...no Profile. I ran out into my street, no Profile...but the gate leading to my neighbor's yard was open. Sure enough, Mr. File had gone to check out their back yard. I ran in, shut the gate, and resisted pinching his little head off long enough to drag him back to my yard...then I hugged the stuffing out of him until he growled at me to let him go.

I'm buying a padlock for my gate.

Two steps forward, one step back

A new house with freshly painted walls and nice sofa slipcovers and new beautiful dishes that match the aforementioned walls and a snazzy desk and beautiful hardwood floors and a fireplace that works all mean nothing when you hate being alone. That would be my thought for the day.

Don't post a comment to talk me out of it or tell me it will get better, it's how I feel right this second and there's nothing wrong with that. Cranky? Yep. Every so often the enormity of what I'm doing hits me in the head and I get a bit cranky after.

You know you're exhausted when...

...you can fall asleep sitting straight up in your desk chair while playing Everquest.

...you can fall asleep on the sofa watching Comedy Central when your allergies are so bad your lungs feel like they are full of wet cotton.

...you can fall asleep in the desk chair at work even though the back of the chair only just covers the lumbar region of your back.

...you can sleep soundly in a double bed with two greyhounds pinning you to the mattress (and a third voicing objection to the new digs by sleeping alone in the guest room).

...you grab everything you could possibly need to shower and get dressed back at the old house EXCEPT for your hairdryer.

...you can't figure out the lock on the sliding glass door to let the dogs out.


I am still living between two houses and I'm so tired I barely know my name, but I think it's coming along well. I was making progress on setting up things (with Scott's help to get my blinds up and slats cut for my bed) yesterday until I had to leave to go to Katy's for a dinner party. Now, before that, I had to feed the dogs and since I don't have a fridge yet I had to run to the store to get something for just that one meal.

My new house is just off of a fairly busy road in Greenville that has EVERYTHING...except a grocery store. I rode for at least fifteen minutes before I remembered a grocery store on Roper Mtn Road, so I headed for that...via Greenville Hospital Patewood Campus and 385. I chalked it up to being in a new town and scampered into the grocery store to get my long suffering puppies some dinner. Easy, right?

Since when do butchers NOT package chicken leg quarters in quantities of less than a zillion? Luckily I found one tray that only had 5 quarters so I grabbed that. The problem was that I have 3 dogs so I'd have to do something with the other two quarters. Cooking them up was not an option as the stove is still hanging out with the fridge, so I got creative. In addition to the leg quarters, I bought a new litter box for the cats and a bag of ice. After I fed three of the leg quarters to the dogs, I wrapped the other two (which were still a bit frozen) in 2 walmart bags, put them in the litter box, and then put the bag of ice on top. (No, there isn't cat litter in the box yet.) That stayed in my sink while I went to Katy's and had a marvelous time with some good friends and even better chili!! I got home around 9:30 and sat down to play some Everquest and revel in the fact that it only took me FIFTEEN minutes to get home from Katy and Kurt's house. The leg quarters which were still cold went out onto the porch, still in the litter box and still covered with the bag of ice.

At around 10pm, I had a weird allergy attack and took some benadryl. As sure as clockwork, when the four hours that the medicine keeps me in a sleepy stupor and free of allergy symptoms were up, so was I, wide awake on the couch and gasping for each breath. (Those who don't have respiratory allergies can't fully appreciate the literally choking fear of feeling like each breath you take fills your lungs with damp cotton rather than air. Relaxing enough to fall asleep during an attack is just impossible.) Two more benadryl, check the clock and sigh loudly when I realize it's 2:30am, turn on the computer and play City of Heroes until I AGAIN fall asleep in my desk chair...get up, stumble to the bedroom and fall onto my now HUGE bed (thanks to my beautiful sister Sooz for the most gooshy-comfy mattress on the planet!) but this time I managed to sleep past the four hour mark and didn't wake up until 8:30am!!

Did I mention I was supposed to be in Anderson at 9am?

Did I mention that I forgot to take my alarm clock to Greenville?

Thank goodness my co-worker had agreed to cover for me in Anderson until I could get myself together and into work. She is a blessing.

Somehow I convinced the dogs that it wasn't time to be HUNGRY and we would EAT when we got HOME but first we had to GO for a RIDEINTHECAR. Herding cats isn't as hard as re-arranging three sleepy and hungry greyhounds. It took a good five minutes to coax Jeany out from under the covers in the guest room bed!

I realized I didn't have my hairdryer just as I got off the interstate in Anderson...too late to turn back now. The dogs had a fast breakfast of...GULP...Pedigree canned food (hey, I don't have to sit in that house and smell the after-effects today!), the cats got fed, and I got clean and dressed and headed out with my wet hair plastered to my head.

Right now if I took it out of the ponytail I would most likely look like one of those Troll Dolls, circa 1975, that someone shook violently until its hair stood on end. Hell hath no fury like naturally almost-curly hair devoid of PRODUCT.

So the first night in the house wasn't too bad. I think the allergy attack was brought on by a sweatshirt I found in a box and put on...that I haven't worn in a LONG time and might have been stored in the basement in Anderson. Once I took it off I slept like a baby...well, a baby with allergies, lots of drugs, and a bedspread made of sleeping greyhounds.

I don't know where I'll be sleeping tonight, but you can bet I'm going to the store to look for a longer acting benadryl today.

Where I will be living...

Where I will be living...
Originally uploaded by NanLassiter.

Yep, the first thing up in the house is the computer...Just wanted to share a photo of the most amazing transformation...look in the set for the Bleckley Ave house for a picture of "my office" to see this same room before it turned blue. Thanks to my Daddy for painting it in record time while Mom and I were at the store, and to Amy and Charles for this smashing desk...that only took me 4.5 hours to put together!