And ... That's How it is Done ...

Take two ladders, one highly energetic guy, one not-so-sure assistant, a bunch of screws, a level, a screwdriver and a hammer. It is nice to note that the highly energetic guy is not afraid of heights and not-so-sure assistant spent the ENTIRE NIGHT waiting for him to plummet to his death ...

Things went rather well:

I even get to keep the clock!

All done - what a relief. I am a worrier and was sure I wouldn't get the math right, or the fake parts would show or we wouldn't be able to stretch on a curve. It is good that Gary doesn't think like me and just assumes that everything will work out perfectly ...


... which it did ...

Getting There

Not bad ... for a couple of amateurs ...

We only have one small fold in the top of the rounded photo - not bad, I thought it was going to be pocked with folds, but it all stretched to the back!

Next step - hang it on the wall and call it done.

Still a bit barfy so off to bed for me ...

Computer Homicide ...

... and other pursuits ...

Saturday - the day we kill all the computers! We are not very generous about donating computers - when the hard drives have all sorts of personal information on them. Sure - we could format them in such a way that every inch is rewritten in 1's and 0's but that would take some study, time and is definitely not as much fun!

Generally by the time we kill a computer, Jessie has had a whack at it and it is amazing what this girl can do to a computer with random (?) clicks of the mouse. She messes up system files, has hosed a computer so badly we had to 'reset to factory settings' just to get it to boot up - and is generally hard on computers - so we don't feel so bad not donating very old computers.

Had a donation after Gary and I cleaned out the attic - a Christmas tree, 3 VCR's and a TV. But - to kill a computer - all you really need to do is kill the hard drive. The first computer seriously had us scratching our heads on how to open it.

Who knew - it swings open like a book! None of us remember this, so probably hadn't opened it since getting it:

Ryan - complete with safety glasses, kids - destroying hard disk for computer number 1:

Computer number 2:

A few whacks:

And he won't be spinning anytime soon:

Gary started the frames with a little trigonometry. He asked me a trig question and I was all: "Are you seriously asking me how to get the sine of something? I seriously never used my math major ... once on the job ..."

Seems to have worked out fine without my help:

These things are huge:

And in his spare time he has been making a lovely cabinet that rolls under that there drill press in the background:

Cleaned out the attic so we could unbury the Christmas trunks. Look! I'm down to 10!

Gary set up the tree as promised to me ... while I lounged in bed and read a book all day:

So: I have 10 trunks in my kitchen just waiting for me to get my act together:

So next week: packing for the Cruise on Friday ... interspersed with Christmas decorating.

I'm pretty sure I can handle all that ...

Thanksgiving Day Drama ...

Our favourite type of turkey - be it baked, fried or smoked - is smoked. Gary was hoping for lots of leftovers when he was shopping for a bird and went with a 20 pounder - a wee bit bigger than we have used in the smoker before.

Calculated the time to the MINUTE on when that baby would be done, got up early, heated up the smoker to 350 degrees and plopped the turkey in:

We noticed that with that much mass, the smoker could not get above 300 degrees and wondered about our schedule ...

Getting close to The Time - and the pop up ... thingy ... isn't popping up:

Table is set:

Guests are waiting ...

But it still was not the allocated time: 12:30. We googled cooking turkeys and I found that the size we had at 325 degrees would be done in 3 1/2 to 4 hours ... so we decided we were doing good and wouldn't kill anyone with botulism ... (we were smoking it for 5 hours)

Put the rolls in, finished mashing the potatoes, went out to get the turkey ... and IT HAD POPPED! No food related deaths in the Hurst household this year!

Carved it up and had a relatively decent (albeit loud) meal.

Jessie got to watch some of a show with Ryan and Allessandra (Ryan's girlfriend) and some of a show with Dad - Mom was in bed - awaiting the NEXT ROUND at a friends home.

Jessie decided to pull the Exorcist stunt on us again - solidifying another trip to a restaurant on Sunday and not home - but with a promise to visit my friends house - stopped all the water works and pleading to stay and jumped right into the truck. By this time I was going to lose my first dinner (sort of like the Hobbits - second dinner was coming up at 4:00) out of sheer guilt and stress of Jessie pleading - AND SHE CAN TURN IT OFF IN A HEARTBEAT - apparently I cannot.

Gary took Jessie back and Ryan, Allessandra and I piled into Ryan's truck for our Second Dinner. It was wonderful and much better than my lowly meal (my friend is a phenomenal cook). An hour into that meal - Ryan and Allessandra left (we were done) and headed to their THIRD DINNER - this being voluntary on their part! I hope they survived.

I am home now and the drama has seemed to die down, my stomach might just survive the abuse - and off to bed early ...



... for Black Friday? Hell, no! You know me - I abhor shopping - Black Friday, for me is a day to lock my doors, hunker down and stay inside all day ...



Heres hoping your day was great!

Thanksgiving

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For heath and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.

~ Ralph Waldo Emmerson




Wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Busy Day

I am not sure if Fed Ex and UPS love us or hate us ...


... but today was THE DAY. I think that Fed Ex showed up twice and UPS once - all deliveries being at least 3 boxes or tubes. That all our crap showed up today is odd - being ordered for weeks. It's like they saved it all up or something.

Goin' cruisin in a week and a few days - so we are happy our snorkeling gear came in:

And I have apparently been busy with my photos ... AND IT ALL CAME TODAY.

My blog book:

Made some calendars:

And - my canvas prints came!!! I was SO NERVOUS for these - having a totally fake photo ... a few pieces are totally made by CS5 with Content Aware Fill - I can see it and was nervous that it was going to be totally obvious. I wouldn't have hung it on the wall - but I worked HARD to make it look good and blend into the photo.

So - nervous opening the tube, but seriously - I CAN'T FIND THE FAKE PARTS on the canvas!!!

Whew! And they are ginormous! They could be made into a bedspread. I think we will stick with gallery wrap frames, though:

Gary finished his beast and we carried it in. The flowers just wanted their photo taken:

Ryan got here and we finished Season 1 of Glee. I saw one of thier performances on You Tube and didn't know about it at all - a disadvantage of not watching TV except on DVD. Straight up ordered it from Amazon and it showed up on Saturday. We have been actively 'Glee'ing' for a few days and now I am not sure what we do. Finished Dexter that Gary had DVR'ed and now Glee is gone!

Suggestions: anyone?

"Mean thing about Ryan"

Ryan just came over to check and see if I "wrote anything mean about him" ... so I did ...

Holiday countdown commences tommorrow - then I will just holding my shit together ...

Conversation

Gary: (walking in the door) "Lori?"

Lori: Just a minute I am finishing up ordering ...

.
.
.

Lori: You caught me finishing up the order of my computer I am getting for Christmas. I owe you $$$ for my second 1.5TB internal hard drive. (yes, I said SECOND - and 3 Terra Bytes of internal memory will seem small soon enough ...)

Gary: Nah, seems like a reasonable price.

(apparently my Christmas can be 5X the price of Garys ... sort of doesn't seem fair ...)

.
.
.

Gary: (heading back to the garage) So, do you want to come out and sing the "I'm Spoiled" song while I finish the desk?

Lori: I HAVE an "I'm Spoiled" song ... but I don't really know how the tune goes ... and what have you been doing for TWO HOURS if not finishing the desk?

Gary: Avoiding finishing the desk, cleaning up, taking apart the spare drawers to recover the wood, you know the usual.

Lori: OK, well I've been spending money.

Gary: Well then, we are both doing something we excel at!

Husband of the Year Award ...

... goes to Gary Hurst.

I REALLY, REALLY didn't want to grocery shop for Thanksgiving dinner. I don't know why I hate grocery shopping, but add anxiety that I will get the wrong turkey, or whatever (I generally screw up big time when shopping - even with a list) so I asked Gary on Saturday if he would go with me on Monday ... he said yes. And this on top of him telling me he would make the ENTIRE Thanksgiving dinner (yeah, yeah, I will help anyway - but he is the much better cook)!

I was planning on shopping with him when he called after getting his hair cut and said to text him what I remembered we needed other than Thanksgiving dinner and he was stopping at the store. Yeah! Entered his number, texted:

"Bananas, swiss cheese, ... oatmeal"

A minute later I get a text back:

"Nice grocery list ... wrong number"

Oooops!

"SO SORRY!"

"No problem"

New texting friend made! I used half of Ryans number and half of Garys ... go figure.

Retexted Gary and he did the shopping. When he got back I went out to help carry the groceries in and found Gary carrying these:

AND he bought dinner and dessert for tonight!


Dude is SERIOUSLY a keeper!

Blue Moon

This morning, lying in bed, stunned that it was 6:17 and I HAD SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT ... I did what I normally do and picked up my iTouch, clicked on CNN and started perusing the news of the day. I noticed there was an article about tonights moon being a 'blue moon'. It tried hard to explain why - using some weird Farmers Almanac verbiage and I decided to take their word for it and didn't finish the article.

I had noticed the moon shining outside my window in front of my desk the night before - with puffy clouds lazily floating past. It was incredibly beautiful and peaceful. So - I was in a Moon Vibe today.

We picked up Jessie after church, and since we are chickens and still traumatized from last Sunday - decided not to bring her home, but to take her out to dinner instead. In the back of my mind I was thinking this was a really, really bad idea - yeah - lets have her behaviours from last Sunday - but IN PUBLIC. This could either go smoothly ... or a swat team would have to be called in. I was a wee bit tense ...

Gary was confident that she would not do that because she likes eating out so much - so off we went. She was a perfect - albeit rather loud - angel. And as Gary said driving home: "A bloodless meal" ... oh, so very cool in the Hurst Household ...

And the moon was out. I told Gary that it was a blue moon and couldn't explain why it was. It looked beautiful shining on our lake, so I went to take photos. Came back and Wiki'ed it. A blue moon is simply the third full moon in a season with four full moons. It was that it was the THIRD one and not the last one that was throwing me off ...

And for your information - we are having our blue moon tonight ... then the next one will occur:

21 August 2013

the one after that?

21 May 2016

So when they say once in a blue moon - they really, really mean not very often!

And, in a quirk of my large Canon - I was totally creeped out when I pulled my photos off my camera and found this:

Dudes, seriously - I DIDN'T PHOTOSHOP THIS. AND IT IS BLUE - HOW COOL IT THAT!?! I find it very generous of my camera to have a 'halo blue moon' appended to a couple of my photos. It was really getting into the spirit of the night.



I am sort of wondering how it happened ...

For Sale by Owner ...

Gary has declared the desk complete. Just needs to put a coat of finish on it and as he puts it - "Get it out of my sight". To say the man does not like it is putting it mildly - 'loathe' comes to mind. I am unsure if it is the design, the trouble he had with a panel or just the overall experience - but he has decided it is not going to live in the guest room and he gets to build another desk for there.

This is going in Jessie's room. And, no Ryan - I don't know why it is "Jessie's Room" and "Guest Room" since neither of you sleep in them except occasionally - I guess I might be a bit miffed too that there is no longer a "Ryan's Room". Get over it.

I personally think it is adorable so into Jessie's room it will go (it's not really for sale ... I don't think ...)

But, come on - isn't it the cutest little Mission Style desk you ever did see?



*sigh*

Getting my House in Order ...

Well - I am NOT going into the 'Sleep Report' any more. Note that it does not bode well that I am blogging at 5:30 am having just completed an 'exhausting' endeavour: Getting my house in order.

My house? Haaail, no! I don't have to do that until Tuesday morning and then I don't have to clean it - just pick up - Alma does all the rest. Gotta LOVE Alma ...

No ...

This House:Lori's Mental Health house. My house that if it is clean and in order and the world is crashing down around me - it just doesn't matter - because my house is in order ... it makes sense to me.

The house was in a horrendous disarray - what with the great hurricane "Jessie" of 2009 and "The Great Move" (from the shelves we donated to the dresser top) of 2010 - things were in bad shape for Mr. & Mrs. Dollhouse-People and their quintuplets.

Tonight was the night. Partly because of Santa up there on the roof. Ryan will be home next week for Thanksgiving and I wouldn't want to disappoint him.

Got a text from him yesterday (after he apparently read my blog):
"I agree with dad, I want mom to come back. Not this Christmas loving weirdo."

I texted him back and blamed sleep deprivation and that I would be back to my 'bah humbug' old self forthwith. We will get back to Santa in a minute.

Just to assure you all is well with the Dollhouse-People family and their staff:

Three of the quints happily playing in their messy bedroom:

Mom and a quint (they just go by quint - sorry) having a lovely close moment in the master bedroom.

And a shot of the bathroom just because it is so freaking adorable. And note: THE TOILET PAPER ROLL GOES UNDER - like it does in all proper homes ...

A quint helping out in the kitchen with his favourite cook:

NOT ready for Thanksgiving, I see ... that makes two of us ...

Mr Dollhouse-People relaxing a bit and having tea, but with his mother in law pacing the room - a little tense, but he is OK with this.

So - see - no violence here. Ryan and I would set up famous murder scenes after the kids grew out of the dollhouse - the best? Lizzie Borden - got the period house, the bedroom beside the dresser for mom, and the couch downstairs for Dad ... what? OK, so I admit ... I might not have been the most conventional mom ... but Ryan turned out perfect AND can recite details of famous murders ...

Why the dollhouse is still up is beyond me ... OH, yeah that forever child I keep forgetting about - but she rarely plays anything with it but 'Hurricane'. I guess it is just up for me - I can't bear to take it and its box of munitions down - really helps with the rage ...

So - alls peaceful at the Playhouse-People home - well, except for maybe the roof...

BUT! Santa is only holding a pistol! That is VERY TAME for Santa. Just you wait until Christmas comes closer - the shotgun will surely be out, as will the machetes, axes and knives. Go figure - it is just a part of Christmas at the Hurst Holiday Home.

Would so hate to disappoint Ryan ...

How Long is Long Enough?

I know, I know - you SO DON'T CARE about whether I sleep or not. Or you do ... and that is so sweet! I should change the name of my blog to "Lori's Sleep Blog" or "Lori's Lack of Sleep Blog". But it is my blog and so I can write what I want ...

I really do have a question. How long is long enough - just laying in bed waiting for sleep to come? My only example is Gary and the nights he has trouble sleeping - it is usually for about 1/2 hour. Seems reasonable. It can take me 1 - 2 hours - usually - to fall asleep. Not pretty, but I try not to get all worked up about it and tell myself that I am at least getting rest if not sleep - and I eventually drift off. I am thinking this is a bit unusual ... So ... what is the norm? When do you actually say 'the hell with this' and just get up already? Do something productive? Get out of that horrific situation of just LAYING THERE ... staring at nothing in the dark - or watching the red light blink on the smoke detector a thousand times ... or naming all the states in the US in alphabetical order - 10, 20 times, just to be sure you have it down? When do I get to say - it is OK to get up? I so feel like a 5 year old who's parents have sent them to bed ... early ...

I have been so screwed up since Sunday night I don't know what it is going to take to reset my system. I am hoping a system sleep reboot does not involve a serious illness, hospitalization, you know - the usual for me - I HAVE A CRUISE IN TWO WEEKS! I was in the ER twice last year - nada so far for this year and I am hoping to make it through ER free - I am on some medical insurance 'watch list' and it is annoying ...

I went to bed at about 10:30 - and laid there until 3:00. And I TRIED. I REALLY, REALLY TRIED. I seriously don't know what it is going to take for me to get some sleep. That ship has so sailed for tonight ... *sigh*



***********************
NEW TOPIC!!!!
***********************

Telephone conversation yesterday afternoon with Gary:

Lori: I need to ask you a favor.

Gary: OK

Lori: Will you help me put up the Christmas tree on Saturday after Thanksgiving?

Gary:

Lori: Are you there?

Gary: Where is my wife and what have you done with her?

Lori: Seriously

Gary: Me too - WHERE IS SHE?

Lori: I just told myself that I needed to decorate for Christmas this year and I might as well get started ...

Gary: Could you just call her to the phone, you know, to reassure me that she is still around ...

Lori: I'm not talking to you anymore

Gary: Good ... go get LORI ... let me talk to her ...

Lori: Bye

Gary: Seriously ...

We'll see how long we can keep this up ...

I'll Take It

Nine O'clock rolled around last night and Gary declared that he was going to bed. My panic started up again. NO! I couldn't stand the thoughts of just laying there for hours - I wasn't mentally prepared for the effort it took ... so I told him I would be in later.

Puttered around doing nothing for an hour and decided I might as well just bite the bullet and start already. Gary was reading - so no sneaking about needed. Took two sleeping pills and two muscle relaxants (NOTE: DO NOT DO THIS AT HOME ...) and thought smugly (and with wee bit of maniacal panic) that THIS WAS GOING TO WORK! Got in bed and told myself 'NO iTOUCH!'. I have a sneaking suspicion that surfing the web, checking out facebook, the news, the weather - does not help one get all that drowsy.

I told Gary that if he immediately fell asleep, I was not responsible for my actions ... which I implied would be slugging him in the head (that jealousy thing - how that man falls asleep at the drop of a hat, well, is a secret I'm willing to pay a LOT to find out). He immediately falls asleep, I DON'T slug him in the head, but sigh. And lose the 'no iTouch' battle and start surfing. Put it away noting it had been 30 minutes since laying down.

One hour in I gave it up and in one sneaky movement, grabbed my iTouch, glasses and rolled off the bed. And upstairs to my craft room. Decided to make something - sunflowers came to mind so I found a sort of pattern and let the rhythmic stitching lull me into some sort of exhausted stupor:

Done ... just have to clip the threads ....

Next step - the trash can. No use for it other than babysitting me for forty five minutes ...

Took the advice of my sister in law and went to sleep in the guest bed - one less thing to worry about - no 'three strikes and your out' rule - I wouldn't wake Gary up this way. I have been going to bed in the guest bed for some time for this very reason ... and to date had not fallen asleep there - I was starting to think it was cursed ...

Surfed on my good buddy for a while - noted it was 1:30am and shut it off for that excruciating time of just LAYING THERE - emptying my mind of anything but trivialities, trying to ignore the pain and relax, and just somehow get through the night. Didn't work.

So I got retro on myself. Remembered WAAAY back to when I was horribly ill, bedridden, hadn't found my current doctor (and thus my supply of morphine) and practiced some severe relaxation exercises just to keep from shooting myself in the head ... um, seriously. Things were bad and all I had was books to help me since the doctors just thought it was all in my head and really didn't give a shit anyway - what's one sick person to them? Oh, sorry - going off on a rant about something that happened years ago - I digress - but a difficult time - being so ill, so in pain and no one listening to my shouting.

So - I lay down, flat on my back - not a position that I EVER fall asleep in - I am more a fetal position, curled up holding two pillows type of gal. And I start some very painful muscle contractions - starting from my toes, to the top of my head. Contract, relax, move up an inch, contract, relax. The 'relax' part of that series is the important part - the rule is to relax the muscle you just really contracted hard as relaxed as you could get it - seriously envisioning the muscles turning to butter, melting - what ever floats your boat and helps totally relax the muscle. At the same time - the biofeedback tricks that I used to practice daily (I can lower my blood pressure by a TON using this trick - comes in handy in a doctors office) to relax and control pain kicked in and I got into my old fashioned relaxation groove.

And the next thing you know ....


... well, I don't really know - I FELL ASLEEP. Just needed all that exhausting relaxation exercises to get the ball rolling. I estimate I was doing that for a half an hour - so fell asleep around 2:00am and woke up - completely stunned at 5:14 (my iTouch is very good with that time thing).

OVER 3 HOURS!!!

I don't ask for any more than that on any given night. It was a success! So I am up for the day - not as freaked - had some funky dreams the entire time I was sleeping - sad heartbreaking, crying in my sleep dreams that are hazy, but I can tell that I came to some sort of conclusion, resolution, point I can function at in my subconscious - so until I actually have to confront Jessie in person, I think my panic and fear is a wee bit more under control - go figure - I work things out in my sleep, probably why my body rebels doing it so ...

THREE HOURS!!!!

any time, any night, any where ... I'll take it!

Surprise, surprise ...

... another sleepless night.

Two am – I decide I’m going to give it a shot … and go to bed. I am exhausted. Slept an hour two nights ago – chased by horrific dreams for the entire hour … not very restful. Last night I fell into a fitful sleep around 5:00 am only to awake to Gary's alarm going off at 5:30. And the day was upon me.

I’m not stupid – I try to rest during the day. Took two of my horse tablet sleeping pills yesterday afternoon and then proceeded to stare at my bedroom ceiling for an hour before I got so disgusted I got up.

So – two am and I am going to bed. The panic is bubbling to the surface – I need sleep! I realize this is not conducive to actually falling to sleep, but I am too tired to fight the panic that is seeping in. Since these days are steeped in panic, it is just one more thing to add to the list …

Sneak in, quietly get in bed – hoping not to disturb Gary. He stirs a bit, but starts softly snorfling and I know that he is still asleep.

2:05 – I turn on my iTouch to drown out the thoughts in my head. Check for mail, play with photos, anything – anything is better than the wondering, the second guessing, the scared, the general waking nightmare I seem to not be able to shake myself out of.

2:10 – Gary stirs. I hide my iTouch under the covers. Tell myself I have 3 ‘Gary stirs’ and I’m out. He needs his rest – he is still healing and has full days at work.

2:15 – I turn off the iTouch and stash it under my pillow for easy access.

The thoughts return, the pain in my legs is unbearable and it is hard for me to hold still. Gary stirs – strike two. My goal is to stay in bed until 4:00am – either it will be a total bust of a night or I will be asleep by then … that’s my theory.

2:45 – Things are a bit out of control in my head. I start a soothing exercise that empties my head:

Counting on my fingers to make sure I get them all:

Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming ending on my pinkie – must be 50 …

Repeat

Again

Again

Oh hell – just go to sleep already.

3:22 Gary stirs. Three times – and I am out.

Go upstairs and do some administrative duties on my new ‘craft computer’ – like adding me a user name, etc. Turn on XMRadio for some noise.

Sit down, crochet a bit. Yeah, I said crochet …

Look around my craft room. It is soothing to me. I am surrounded by my ‘treasures’ and treasures to be made. The closet door is open and I see my familiar hurricane of a closet … but notice a little something else.

My dreamcatchers.

You know – Dreamcatchers:

“The Dream Catcher Legend
An old Sioux Indian legend says that Dreamcatchers were hung in lodges and teepees to assure peaceful dreams.
The good dreams knowing the way, slip through the webbing and slide down the soft feather to the sleeper.
The bad dreams not knowing the way, become entangled in the web and melt at the first light of day.”

I am sure it will come as no surprise that I collect dream catchers. The above quote is from a dreamcatcher: “Made by a Navajo girl from the Newapi tribe and lives on the Great Navajo Nation”

And I wonder what a Navajo girl is doing making a Sioux dreamcatcher…

And what the HELL am I doing hiding them in my closet? I could use all the help I can get. Maybe one will find its way to my lamp on/off switch by this time tomorrow …


4:30 – Only a half hour before Ron Ross logs onto The Pulse; the station I listen to and I will have a human voice giving me the trivial news of the day.

Gotta get the garbage out and to the curb, unload the dishwasher, bulldoze my desk area, hide Ryan's Christmas presents that have been arriving from Amazon … figure out what to do with my burgeoning supply of stationary ...

A full day ahead.

Not to mention news of the emergency meeting called at RSS about Jessie yesterday. See if we will have some sort of backup plan so that Sunday never happens again …

Can’t wait …


One day - soon - I am going to get some sleep. I can feel it all the way to my bones ....