Removing Vongo - Take 3

I received this comment last night from Richard Brownrigg:

"Floreksa,

I am the VP of Technology for Starz Entertainment and my team built Vongo. I am sorry that you have had a difficult consumer experience with Vongo on your HP.

I appreciate you offering me a forum to correct a few of the statements in your blog with some additional insights. While I appreciate and sympathize with your frustration and displeasure, without this additional context, I feel the statements posted here are inaccurate and unfair.

There are a number of items you reference from other sites and just like those sites, had you contacted us, we could have explained what the issue was and how it happened. Thank you for letting me do it here.

I am not here to argue the point of whether or not software should be preinstalled on an OEM PC. I am going to address what happen with the installation of Vongo on the HP laptops.

We built Vongo using what I thought to be enterprise grade tools and components (which should mean superior performance for consumers). Two of those tools were from Macrovision – InstallShield and Software Update Services. The Software Update Services tool has issues with its architecture. Macrovision engineers have admitted responsibility to us for this, but unfortunately they can not give an update to us at this time

Here is what happened.

HP decided to install software from Sonic and us. We both use the Macrovision’s InstallShield and Software Update Services. Sonic was installed first on the HP laptops followed by Vongo. During the installation of Vongo, the Macrovision InstallShield failed to see that another version of the Macrovision Software Update Services was installed on the machine and proceeded to overwrite some of the Software Update Services components.

If the user never tires to uninstall Vongo everything is fine. It is when someone tries to remove Vongo that the problem occurs and the same problem would happen if the user tried to uninstall Sonic, which they probably won’t since it is the CD / DVD burning software.

This might be a bit complex, but the problem is with the InstallShield Uninstall and the Software Update Services. When the consumer uses the Macrovision Uninstall routines to uninstall an application that installed the application and the Macrovision Software Update Services, the uninstaller ONLY uninstalls the software and not the associated registry settings and components of the Software Update Services. There are over 100 registry entries that are written but the installation of the Software Update Service will NEVER be removed.

So, in a nutshell, since the Vongo InstallShield installation overwrote some of the components of the Software Update Services that Sonic installed, the Software Update service thinks the Vongo install is broken and it tries to repair it by reinstalling Vongo.

Again, we have tried to work with Macrovision to fix the problem, but Macrovision indicates that there is not a way for them to remedy the situation because of the complex nature of how they install the Software Update Services. This could have happened to any program using Installshield/Software Update Services and unfortunately we just so happened to be the one whose service was primarily affected. Unfortunately you are a consumer who was impacted by this as well and for that I apologize, but I do feel incumbent to at least share with you and your readers what exactly happened here and the story as to why it happened.

We have temporary “work arounds” on our web site, which I can understand does not address the long term issue, but it is all we can do at this time.

As far as the long-term steps that we have taken,

1) We have also decided to drop the use of all Macrovision products form our code base. With the March release, we no longer use the Software Update Services, and in the summer we will drop the InstallShield tools altogether as well.

We also do not delete any programs or invoke any DLLs other than ours, and we do not hijack any running process. Yes, our service uses port 2005 to communicate out bound to our services, but we do not hide it. We actually tell users what ports we use and how to configure their firewalls to support it.

So, you can see why categorizing us as “spyware” is antithetical to everything that I have done in designing and crafting my service.


Thanks for reading. "

If this is all true, VONGO and HP should have been MUCH MORE forthcoming with this information. Google "Removing Vongo" and my blog, PRIMARILY about Type 1 diabetes and motherhood is the number 5 hit, behind 3 other blogs and CNET. I get more hits per day from my 2 other entries regarding Vongo, then I get from my "regular" readers. Nowhere does Vongo's site show up in that Google search.

If this is true, WHY has it taken Vongo so long to make any sort of effort to rebute what has been said, over and over and over again? And where is HP in all of this?

I find it AMAZINGLY frustrating that not a SINGLE person at HP EVER relayed this information. Their "stock" response has always been to just "delete it in safe mode" and act surprised when it doesn't work.

Personally, as a "computer techie" I can understand the intricacies of programming and the seemingly endless possibilities for programs to unexpectedly "go bad" because of issues with other software. I almost feel sorry for Vongo. Almost.

As a consumer, this has probably been one of the most frustrating experiences ever. Regardless of who is at fault, I still want Vongo off of my computer.


Take it or leave it, folks, but at least we have an answer.

CGMS

I want one. NOW! I don't know which though. I'm fairly positive I could present myself as a "test" case for the insurance (and that they love DH enough to let me...but you never know).

Anywhoo. I want one, but I have no idea which one. I don't have any cozy feelings with MiniMed, but if that's the best, I'd push for it. I've heard good things about DexCom, but also that their PC software sucks the big one. Abbott is a crap shoot as its still awaiting approval - AND it needs FreeStyle strips which are a 3rd tier drug for me.

I'm so confused. So if you've got a CGMS, sell me on your brand. If you hate it, tell me that too. If you think CGMS is a waste altogether, bring it on! LOL I need the good, the bad and the ugly.

Anger Management

The current award for "Most Bizarre Google Search Leading to My Blog":

"elmo's slicing their throat"

This post of mine came up as the #5 hit. Be afraid, be very, very afraid.

I don't even want to hazard a guess as to what this person was actually looking for.

Removing Vongo - take 2

This is the best explanation that I've seen so far regarding WHY Vongo is IMPOSSIBLE to uninstall completely.

(taken from Vinny Carpenter's blog in the comments section)



“Because it uses special encryption software to keep buyers from pirating the movies, Vongo must run at all times. That’s why the software installs those iron-clad anti-removal barriers that makes it reinstall itself whenever a user removes it using the Add or Remove Programs Control Panel available under the Start menu.”

and...


"According to a few anti-virus sites, Vongo is spyware. Only HP and Vongo seem to be denying this. Here’s the reason sites say this based on activity analysis of what Vongo is doing:

Known activities:

installs programs
deletes programs
invokes dll components
communicates with websites using httpout protocols
hijacks running processes
hides outbound communications

Perhaps the most worrisome is that there is a “strong possibility of keystroke logging” taking place.

This article confirms that pre-installed Vongo cannot be removed from an existing system unless a clean copy of the OS is installed."

To add to the fun, HP supposedly DOES NOT have "clean" copies of the OS. So if you have a laptop and go out and buy a clean version, you're going to spend hours hunting for the HP specific drivers to run your laptop.

At this point, my advice:

1) if you just bought the laptop/desktop - RETURN IT. Buy a different brand. I can no longer recommend HP because of this fiasco.

2) if you can't return it - follow the instructions here . Vongo will still be there, but at the very least you shouldn't be bothered by install errors. If you are going to need multiple "new users" created, make sure to create the default user profile.

3). I personally believe a Class Action suit should be brought against Vongo and HP. I paid for ALL of the resources on my laptop, and Vongo is taking some from me.

Hold tight

I'm not even sure words can express my anger and utter heartache right now. An internet friend lost her sweet, little girl Sunday night, suddenly, unexpectedly. I can't even imagine what her life is like at the moment.

I find I don't even want to try to imagine.
The thought is too numbing.

Please, hug your children today. Find the good through all the bad. Cherish every laugh, smile, word. Tuck them in, kiss them, hug them. Tomorrow may never come.

Questions from julia

1. What does blogging do for you?
When I started I didn't think it would "do" anything for me. I thought that I was funny and that people would trip over one another to read my blog (ok kidding). I was really just looking for a way to write about Ally so that I'd have some sort of record of her life (her baby book is dismally empty). Then I found the OC and the blog changed direction. It allowed me to open up my frustrations regarding T1 to a group that understood. It also lead to better A1c's, my 1st ever participation in "the walk" and a better appreciation of myself as a person with T1.

I desperately NEED to get back to blogging. In retrospect, blogging was therapeutic. I let life get in the way, though. I was busy helping to get the forum up and running and before I knew it months passed and I hadn't said a word. Its funny how something that came so naturally for so long was quickly gone. I find myself starting post after post, but failing to write anything of merit, I'd just delete it.

I need to come back.


2. Do you have any tattoos? If so, what of and what do
they represent? If not, would you?
No tattoos. WAY.TOO.PERMANENT. I couldn't do it. I have trouble enjoying something for a week, never mind the rest of my life. If I did get one, I'm not really sure what it would be. I'm corny enough to get a small Mickey Mouse (I was going to marry him when I was 3) or maybe a small Kermit the Frog, hidden on my shoulder or the small of my back. Wish I had some profound, earth-shattering symbol, but nope.

3. If you could live anywhere else in the world,
where would that be?

As much as I gripe about Winter, I don't think I would enjoy an area without 4 seasons. I'd want to say somewhere romantic like Paris or Rome, but honestly, outside of Canada, I've never left the US, so I have no idea if I'd truly be happy there.

I LOVED Alaska, but there's no way I could handle the winters or the hummingbird sized mosquitoes. Maybe Australia? But again, with the whole, I've never even been there.

Probably makes me boring but I really do LOVE the area I'm in. Do I love exactly where my house is, not really. I want to move to the "fringe" rural areas, maybe outer Westfield, Southwick, Southampton or Granby. Somewhere were I could feel secluded, but have every major convenience within a 20 minute drive.

4. Name five celebrities you'd like to invite over
for dinner - they all have to come at the same time.
And what would you serve them?

Oh, boy
1) Angelina Jolie - I think she can be beyond bizarre, but I love the "activist" in her. I think she could inspire me to get involved.
2) Kirstie Alley - Anyone who can be that open about their weight (whether they initially wanted to or not) AND wear a bikini on Oprah is worth my time.

Going to step out of reality with the next two.

3) Walt Disney and 4) Jim Henson - I truly believe these men were "in it" only for the pure satisfaction of entertaining children and making the world a better place. Maybe my rose colored glasses are a little too dark, but I want to meet them to find out.

5) Clive Owen - purely for the eye candy ;)

What would I serve? Hmmm. I've never been a "formal, sit down" kind of girl. I'm thinking an outdoor "lobster boil" at night. Lobsters and steamers, grilled salmon and sea scallops. Grilled corn on the cob, zucchini, portobello mushrooms, eggplant, tomatoes, leeks and peppers. Sliced potatoes with onions, cole slaw (oh, great I'm hungry now). For dessert, homemade vanilla, chocolate banana or chocolate peanut better ice creams and then s'mores.

5. What's your favourite thing to do on a rainy day?
With kids and without kids.

By myself - snuggle up with a good book and just let the day lazily pass by. If its summer and a good thunderstorm, I LOVE sitting out on the porch at our cottage watching it.

With Ally - I have to admit, I absolutely LOVE lying in bed with her watching a movie. After that though, I'd have to get out of the house and head somewhere, anywhere, which generally means the Mall or Yankee Candle.

Taken from Kassie

THE SEVEN THINGS TO DO BEFORE I DIE (not necessarily in this order)
1. Cruise the Greek Isles
2. See my kids into adulthood
3. Improve my photography skills
4. Sell a portrait that I've taken
5. Become "untethered"
6. Quit my job
7. Live on a horse farm (I have no idea why, but I REALLY want to live on a farm).

SEVEN THINGS I CANNOT DO
1. Clean
2. Write Poetry
3. Be Mean for the sake of it
4. Apparently keep up with this blog
5. Quit my job
6. Cook if the kitchen is a mess
7. Wear heels - unlike Kassie, I could careless about height, I just can't walk in them :)

SEVEN THINGS THAT I FIND ATTRACTIVE OTHERS (in no particular order)
1. Humor
2. Kindness
3. Patience
4. Honesty
5. Being able to laugh at themself
6. Loving
7. Nice looking arms ;)

SEVEN THINGS I'VE BEEN KNOWN TO SAY
1. "What the..........!!!!!!!!!!"
2. "Crapity"
3. "Pick that up! Now!"
4. "What's the Rule Ally? No picking and no...?"
5. "Crappity, crap-crap" (do you see a theme here?)
6. "WHATcha doooo-in?"

SEVEN BOOKS I'VE READ AND RECOMMEND TO OTHERS

1. Dances with Wolves - Michael Blake
2. The Oxbow Incident - Walter Van Tilburg Clark
3. Pudd'nhead Wilson - Mark Twain
4. A Passage to India - E.M. Forster
5. Eyes of the Dragon - Stephen King
6.I.am.so.pathetic Those are all books I've read YEARS ago, but the only ones I can remember REALLY loving.
7.

SEVEN FAVORITE MOVIES (no particular order)
1. Mr. & Mrs. Smith (so bad, yet soooooooooooooo good!)
2. The Princess Bride
3. Chitty-Chitty, Bang-Bang
4. Auntie Mame (with Rosalind Russel)
5. The Last Unicorn
6. Turner & Hooch
7. Muppets Christmas Carol / Grinch / Rudolph

Couldn't Resist

One of Ally's favorite skits on Sesame Street has been the alphabet done with a ballerina (ballerino - what the heck do you call a male ballerina?). She LOVES it. Its the only time I hear her attempt to say the alphabet.

I caught this the other day:

......And I'm Back!

Things have been incredibly busy here at Casa de Sarah.

Like I've said, I've been helping set up a new Mommy Forum called Mommy-Zone and can I just say that it ROCKS!!! We're really taking off to. Over 600 members and the site's been live for only a week now. Its been a lot of work though, and still more to come.

On the D front, I got my a1c back - 7.2% Not as great as I'd like, but still better then I've ever done none pg. I owe that all to the D blog world! Seriously, before I started this blog, 8% was my "normal". Since blogging, <7.5% has been my "normal". Sure some could say that its the residual pregnancy regime that's still with me. I can honestly say "uh NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" to that one! I fell so hard and so fast from the preg regime that I'm pretty sure if someone had done an A1c during the 1st 9 months after Ally, I'd have been in the 10's%.

Nope, my D control can be 100% linked to the community here. You all inspire to keep on top of things, to test and just to be "aware" of my D.

I thank you for that!

Been gone for so long!

Whew, just realized that I've been completely neglecting this blog. Shame on me!

I've been up to my armpits in phpBB. I'm helping to set up a forum and am the "technical" person. Scary thought. Actually it all seems very straightforward, but still new, so been doing tons of research.

Other then that, I'm getting the cold from hell. A's finished off her 10 day round of Augmentin and I'm pretty sure her ear is re-infecting as we speak, so it looks like tubes for her soon. I was actually afraid she had croup the other night. She "barked" once, but that seemed to be it.

Other then that, not much else to report here. Sorry for the incredibly boring post.

A god somewhere is crapping on me

Seriously, I'm tired of this shit.

A's got pink eye in BOTH eyes. That's the "good" news of the Ped visit.

The bad is that it's probably from the RAGING EI in her right ear. So bad that the drum is bulging and probably will burst today. GRRRR...Ya, I know I mentioned she might have had an EI...Most honestly, she mentioned her ear hurt just.that.one.day!

And now, while I can post....I can't get to my blog. I get an error EVERY TIME.

If you can read this post, please comment.

Is my UltraSmart dying?

So we all know I was 523 last night (yikes!). I raged bolused like no ones business. Seriously, I took enough to kill some people, 45 units, broken into 2 different shots.

1 hour later my UltraSmart read 532. WTF?!!!!!!!!!!

I test again - 437

I test again - 402

Within 1 minute my meter ranged over 103 points. Technically, I believe that that is still within the 20% range (or just slightly higher), but honestly, what if I took the 532 at face value, assumed my insulin was bad, switched out and injected MORE insulin?

As it was I was 142 2 hours later, and 46 2 hours after that. I shudder to think what would have happened if the little voice in my head hadn't said "NO WAY man, test again, NO WAY did you go UP."

Its also really beginning to bother me that I've had 2 RIDICULOUS highs in the past 2 weeks and I didn't feel that sick with them. I was fine. Oh sure my mouth was drier then a desert, but I wasn't the "holy crap, I'm dying of the flu" sick that I normally am.

Ugh.

I really think I'm going to push for a CGMS. I'm hopefully that I can get it pushed through insurance (its nice having a good "in" with them).

What me, stress??

Grampa still in hospital...

Possibility that my cousin has a cancerous tumor in her leg that the local Drs won't touch with a 10ft pool, so she has to wait until later this week to see a Dr in Boston...

2 yr old another possible ear infection + really mucousy, wet cough. Thoughts of the pneumonia that is spreading like wildfire through the kids around here...

Dishwasher full of water. Water not leaving. FIL coming over tomorrow to look. Possibilities - clogged hose (doubtful, we already looked). Crapped out solenoid which opens the drain (sounding like the winner), something else?...Chance of FIL trying to fix solenoid of dishwasher that is louder then an F-7, instead of just letting us buy a damn new one that will be QUIET - close to 100%

Dishes covering ever square inch of the kitchen because of said water issue.

Me, I'm feeling a tad frayed, a little buzzy, slightly fuzzy. Wait, crap, I better test.

534

I can't catch a freaking break.

I.WANT.A.DEXCOM

Prayers and Positive Thoughts Requested

My grandfather had triple by-pass surgery done about a week ago. I didn't write about it, but at the time it was a shock. He had gone to the hospital with chest pains. The smaller hospital here decided that he needed angioplasty and sent him to the larger hospital. Turns out it was much, MUCH worse and he actually needed quadruple bypass.

During the surgery, it was decided that because of his age and the increased chance of stroke, they only bypassed 3.

He had been doing AMAZINGLY well. So much so he was transferred out of Cardiac ICU days before schedule, and was actually transferred back to the smaller hospital earlier this week for some rehab before being sent home.

We've just gotten a call that he is being rushed back to the larger hospital. That he may have pneumonia and that "something may have come loose". I know so little right now that I'm going crazy and trying not to cry at my desk is requiring me to hold my breath.

Please pray for my grandfather.

Cozmo Upgrade

I'd been wondering where the "letter" that I was going to get about Cozmo upgrade was. So I went to their webpage to chat with a Rep. They actually have an online form setup to request the upgrade.

As a public service ;) Here it is

http://www.cozmore.com/default.cfm?PID=1.45

Bribery....Its a good thing

So I had the day from hell today. Just one of those, no matter which way you turn the work piles up and not a single phone call has good news. Where the stress is so bad it honestly hurts. Your jaw, your shoulders, your back...

Then I go and pick up a SCREAMING child who does not want to go home with me. Grrr-F'ing-eat! I cracked. It was either cry right there at the daycare providers home, runaway never to pick A up again, or bribe her. I bribed. A's been asking for "schobby foo". We couldn't figure out what in the heck she was saying. I figured it out yesterday... "Schobby foo, schobby foo Where ARE you?" Oooooooohhhhhhhhhhh.

So ya, I promised her some Scooby Doo. I stopped at Blockbuster and bought her a movie. It bought me 1 hour of pure silence.



In other news DON'T EVER SIGN UP WITH LOWERMYBILLS.COM
Up to 4 lenders MY ASS. At last count, I've been contacted by 12, yes 12 different lenders (update - its 14 now). Do you have any idea how many phone calls per night that is?!?!?!?!?!?! Seriously. Way.too.many.

Of course in my infinite wisdom, I put the phone on Do Not Disturb. I thought I was oh, so smart. HA. I'll let you in on the punchline now, but when a person leaves a voicemail on my VOIP line instead of my actual answering machine, it makes the phone ring, just 1 annoying time.

I forgot about this.

Swearing, lots of it when my phone rang 1 annoying time, every 10 minutes. WTF?! All I can think is WHY IN THE HELL would they program a phone to ring 1 time every time someone calls when its on DND....AND WHY ARE THEY STILL CALLING?
DH was about ready to shot me with a bazooka and had me shut DND off, only the phone kept ringing 1 annoying time. It took me over an hour to figure it out. Not good times.

Add to the fact that blogger is F'ing with me and its been one hell of a day.

Removing Vongo Installer

Ok, for those of you out there trying to get rid of the dreaded Vongo crap that's come installed on your HP computer. Here's the trick that worked for me.

Make sure to remove all files and folders related to Vongo (most likely they're gone if you used the Uninstall feature).

Now you have to run the Windows Installation Cleanup Utility, this will remove the registry entries for the Software.

You can download the Utility from the given below link:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/e/9/d/e9d80355-7ab4-45b8-80e8-983a48d5e1bd/msicuu2.exe

You will see an instance of Vongo. Highlight and remove it. So far its been working for me.

You'll see other sites that tell you to mess with C:\Program Files\Common Files\InstallShield\UpdateService\isuspm.exe. This is NOT a fix to your problem. It shuts down the InstallShield completely and it will no longer search for updates for other products that may use the same updater. Basically its like permanently removing the waterline to your house to stop a leak under the sink. The program itself is not critical to your computer, and will stop Vongo from trying to reinstall itself, but I'd much rather fix the true problem, then mask it.

Why Today?

Today started off fine. Heck I didn't even mind coming into to work. Get here and WOW do I have to pee. Hmm, that's weird I can normally go pretty much all day without visiting the ladies room. 1 hour later for a return trip.

Something's up. I can't be high though. No cotton mouth, no sweater-y teeth, no brain fog. I feel just fine.

442 - HoOOOoooo-ly SHIT!

Take a massive rage bolus injection. 1 site could not handle what I just separated into 3 jabs.

Well that was uncalled for. Trip back to the ladies room to look at site. Site that is now almost 100% out AND bleeding like a sieve. Lovely.

Back to desk, retrieve last Comfort set from desk and begin the non-unto awkward task of putting in a site at work, a Comfort no less, with its big scary needle that I'm suppose to somehow just poke into me, like its nothing. Have you seen the size of that needle? Really, have you?!?! And its not like you can just not look and jab away because it has to go in at a 45 degree angle and seriously how do you judge 45 degrees when you're looking down and using your thigh?

What happens? You ask...The sticky part in the back is almost 100% stuck to itself, so the only thing holding it down at the moment is the front part and a wee little corner in the back.

I'm not...I'm not....I'm not...Crap, don't you just hate it when your grasp of the English language suddenly flies out the door. Seriously, I can't think of the word I want. I'm not optimistic(YAY!) that its gonna hold.

Ok, I guess I do have a bit of brain fog, and ya, teeth are pulling on a sweater as we speak. Would also explain the nice dry cough I've got going on suddenly.

Off to down one of the 5 gallon water jugs.

But I'm not dead yet!

I'm very, very close to it though.

My body has be ransacked. It all started on a fateful Sunday. You see A, A decided that she was going to reinfect her right ear and not wanting the other to feel left out, allowed the infection to spread across her skull to the other side too. This of course all happened AFTER the Ped's after hours. Nurse on call said to use "Olive oil drops" Ya, right

Sunday morning we were at the Ped's FOR.AN.HOUR. at which point I must've picked up Black Death. It started Sunday night.

Now I had already resigned myself that I would be using one of my 4, yes 4! sick days on Monday to care for Ally, little did I know that 2 more would be tacking themselves on. Lets just say I made frequent trips to the ladies Room.

Monday morning, I sent DH on his way, plopped Ally in front of the tv and crawled onto the couch. By 11:30am, I had DH heading home because I was now incapable of caring for anything more demanding then a pet rock.

Tuesday was no better. Wednesday I dragged my sorry self to work, which was a mistake. Thursday I was pretty sure my stomach was attempting to eat itself and today, well, today I've been hit by a Mac Truck, but I think I'll live.

I had a stomach bug AND the flu. TOGETHER. AT.THE.SAME.TIME Fever, chills, aches and pains, trips to the Ladies Room, coughing, sneezing (which caused gagging), running nose, lord help me! Calgon, could not take that away.

I think I'm on the downside now. I pray I'm on the downside now, because honestly, I can't go on like this much more.

Oh, ya puking + constant low blood sugar = NOT FUN

Grading the Mom

I often obsess wonder if I am somehow failing A in our "teaching" of her.

Should I be buying DVD's that claim to have her reading by 3? Should I be worried that every color is purple right now and ABC's and counting to 5 only occur if she's repeating what I say? That I'm not even sure if she has the concept of shapes, never mind the names? That she prefers a good, cuddle-time "rocka" (rocking) to a bedtime story and that I oblige her with it. Should I really be forcing the 1 millionth reiteration of Good Night Moon instead?

Each day I read posts by mom's who guise their brags in the form of an "Is this normal?" post.

My child can draw circles, squares and elephants,recite the alphabet, knows all his colors in English, Spanish and French, including chartreuse. He's 14 months old. Is this normal?"

Well, crap if it is, then my daughter is destined to be featured on Dirty Jobs.

Am I missing something, here? My daughter plays, says "No" relentlessly often and picks her nose. She chases the cats and purposely falls off the couch. She hits herself, then asks for a kiss for the boo-boo. She cooks with every piece of Tupperware I own and eats "doc ducks" (hot dogs). She colors, sometimes even in her coloring books, and cares for her baby's by stealing all of their "dubbys"(pacifiers)for her own personal use.

Should I be grilling my daughter each night after work with flashcards and electric shocks? Isn't Sesame Street enough? Cause really, if I'm watching all this Elmo for no reason, I'm turning Mr. and Mrs. Smith back on. There's a life lesson for A. Women can be beautiful, rich AND hired assassins, just like men.

Honestly its the bigger concepts we're trying to teach A. Things like emptying the dishwasher and washing the car. Laundry will have to wait until she's a little taller older. These are the important lessons. Cause really, why have children if not for the free labor?

Let them eat......Bread!

Yum! Yum! And so darn easy!



Oh, the smell, the wonderful smell!



Crispy crust, airy texture....drool

Why I love my job - OR - A Day in the Life of the Hell That I Live

Ok, just need to freak for a second.

Background - Today is my assistant's last day. I was planning on taking her to lunch as her "goodbye" since this company thinks that you're committing Treason if you ever leave for greener pastures. Boss decides that he wants to get her a cake (which is shocking, but he's only being this generous because she's moving, not just up and leaving) and he'll have Wife pick it up (he does not tell me. HR tells me this). He doesn't tell said Wife anything about it, either. I ask/remind her yesterday. She flips out because Boss never mentioned it to her. I try to stay completely out of it, while dodging the shrapnel (she's pissed off as it is because Boss has her covering the phones while my sister is on Maternity - that's a WHOLE other story, but can I just say LEARN HOW TO TRANSFER INTO VOICEMAIL!!!!).

Fast-forward to today...

Boss's Wife comes to me after lunch saying that she has the cake and she's going to go get it out of the car, but then she pulls out attitude because SHE:

"shouldn't be the one doing this"

and that there were

"6 other people who quit and we didn't do anything for them"

and that SHE

"shouldn't have been the one responsible for getting the cake"

and that if

"you people want to do stuff like this then YOU need to do it on our own".

(like nails on a chalk board when she says that to customers..."You people owe us money"...)

WHOA, take a step back before I put you in your place!!!!!!!!!!!!

First off, HONEY! - YOUR HUSBAND, the BOSS, told HR that HE wanted to get a cake for my Assistant. HR told him that he SHOULDN'T because it sets a precedent and unless he's going to do it for everyone, he shouldn't do it for anyone. He announced that he was anyway and that Wife would get it.

2nd - NO ONE ASKED ME and I'm her Boss! If you asked me, all this trouble could've been avoided.

Now she's throwing all this attitude at me today. BULLSHIT. She bought a freaking tiny cake, She wants nothing to do with it, HR wants nothing to do with it and I have NO FREAKING CLUE what to do with it. I can't tell everybody to come because there's not enough cake, but there's WAY too much for just Me, Assistant, 2nd Assistant and replacement person.....UGH! I was just going to take her to lunch, easy-peasy, no one else the wiser, good-bye, good luck.

Don't even get me started on Boss's Wife's feelings on "going away parties".

I'm a moron

I've been freaking out. My counter has registered 0 hits for 2 days now. I suddenly thought that everyone hated me. I couldn't believe the speed at which I went back to that shy girl in High School who thought nobody cared about what she said.

Um, ya...No Sarah! Heck you got comments yesterday! That should have tipped me off.

I forgot to put the meters back up on the new template. Oopsie. They're back. Now I can go back to my regularly scheduled mania over whether my daily hits stay around my average daily hits...LOL

New Low

I don't know if its the end of the year blahs, my depression returning, or just my plain, deep-seated annoyance and hatred of work, but I actually went out to lunch and ate by myself today. It was LIBERATING (if not a little bit embarrassing).

I've seen others eat by them self, never giving it another thought, but usually they have a newspaper, book or work with them. Not me! I just sat there, me, myself and I.

A lump on a log, loser, but you know what? It sure as hell beat staying at work!

This morning I had the grand pleasure of cleaning out the fridges at work. NOT.PLEASANT There was a horrid smell that would penetrate the entire kitchen every time one of the doors would open. I found:
1) a bottle of cream which expired Nov 2.
2) Salad which had lost its solid form and was now a liquefied bag of green jelly.
3) a petrified donut
4) Beef and Broccoli, only it wasn't the broccoli that was green (it had taken on a lovely poop brown color). I'm pretty sure it was alive and pissed at me.

The scent was so horrid I came dangerously close to adding my own "personal" blend to the mix. Nasty, and I shouldn't have had to deal with it, but I did, just like I do with everything else.

Messing Around

I'm updating my template, so please excuse the mess. Hoping to piece everything back together this afternoon.

Can anyone tell my why my stupid bloglines roll isn't working?

Merry Christmas!!

Since I can't possibly send each and every one of my cyber-friends a Christmas Card, I'll just post it here for all to enjoy!

Merry Christmas
Happy Hanukkah
Happy Kwanza
Merry Festivus

Whatever you celebrate (or not) I hope that you have a great weekend and a wonderful Monday!

Christmas Card 2006, originally uploaded by floreksa.

Damn Germs

So A's still sick and has added a whopper of an ear infection to her cold. 10 out of a 10 the Ped said. Grrrrr-eat! I've apparently stuck my head in mud because I can't hear, and every time I swallow my ears pop. JOY.

Not much has been happening that has been post worthy. Its still absolutely freezing at work. I've been told that the "furnace is broken" and "we haven't had time to fix it"....Um, HELLO, December here. We're in New England. It ain't gonna get warmer out! Whatever. I'm now wearing a thermal tank top, sweater and sitting on top of my electric heater (which isn't on HIGH). So I'm ok, the rest of the bastards who don't complain can freeze.

In one of my Mom's groups there been a thread about this bread recipe from the NYTimes. I've been DYING to try it. Finally going to give it a go starting on Friday, so that we can have some nice, crusty bread at dinner on Sat.

I've even created life out of flour and water! Bwha-ha-ha-haaaaaaa I created a sour dough started and shit if it didn't actually work! It did take 2 tries as DH threw the first attempt out at the end of day 2, not knowing that the pancake looking batter that smelt slightly beer-y SHOULD be there. But, he was informed and I've had an awesome 2nd try which has been growing amazingly well. Can't wait to use it in the bread!

Well I guess that's it. Nothing Shakespearian from me today. Sorry.

And its done

I'm 30. I did it, I turned 30. It was pretty painless. I think it happened sometime early this morning. I didn't wake up when it happened. It just sort of happened.

30 should be one of those birthday's where the entire day is a gimme!

Gimme a day off! PAID
Gimme a shopping spree!
Gimme a day with no screaming, sick, crying, whining, clinging toddler!
Gimme a stress free, fun filled day!
Gimme a day off of diabetes, with effortless, awesome bgs.

Its not though.

So I'm at work (freezing!). I'm broke (I won't even get into the "Shit on Sarah" financial week I've been having). A is still sicker then sick and INCREDIBLY whiny this morning. As noted above, I'm at work, so that whole stress free thing, ya that's not happening and I'm currently running a horrendous 214!

So I guess "Happy Birthday to Me!" and TGIF!

WTF

There are seriously days when I wonder why I work where I work. Ok most days I wonder that, but this past week....Geez

Monday, I had the day from hell.
* A woke up sick. I drugged her and sent her off to daycare, being the caring mother that I am who is also out of paid time off. I get 2 weeks vacation and 4 personal days. I've worked here, full time, since 1999. 7.5 yrs and I still only have 2 weeks vacation!
* I realized AFTER I got to work, that my pump was just about bone dry and the bottle of insulin in my pocketbook was even drier. Driving home at lunch took my entire lunch, so I skipped lunch.
* I had the mother of headaches brewing (got another one today, I swear its this place!)
* and the piece de resistance - got to work and there was.no.heat. Zip, zero, zilch. Somehow the utility had screwed up our gas line. It was absolutely freezing. Did we go home? NOooooooooooOOOOOOOoooo, I was handed a small, portable heater and told not to put it on high. The scary thing. NO ONE NOTICED UNTIL 9am! We froze our asses off for over an hour (technically longer since some people come in for 6am) before people began to notice that it was NOTICEABLY colder then normal.

Somehow my boss thinks its perfectly normal to see people wearing their coats, INDOORS, while working. This has been my only "real" job out of college, so I don't know. Is this normal? Every morning I come in and promptly put on my big fleece coat and wear it. ALL.DAY.LONG. It doesn't come off until its time to go home.

I'm NOT a tiny person. I've got fat on my fat, so there's plenty insulation on me. Its just constantly freezing here. We play the thermostat game. One of us bumps up the setting, then we all take bets as to when "the man" sets it back down. I've even ask him for "another coal for the fire, sir?" He laughs.

Its not funny.

2 days left of 20's

I'm turning 30. How the hell did that happen? I distinctly remember turning 18 and then turning 25, but 26, 27, 28 and 29...Where did those years go? Does 30 mean that I have to actually be an adult now, because I'm not ready to grow up. I'm still not sure what I want to be.

In all honesty, I haven't given 30 much thought. Somehow it really doesn't seem to be the big deal that some people make it out to be. I mean really, will I be all that different Friday morning, then I was Thursday night?

I'm pretty sure that we are going out to my favorite restaurant Friday night to celebrate...Zoe's Fish and Chop House...YUMMY. I've already planned my menu. Some Main crab cakes and coconut battered shrimp for starters, surf and turf (filet mignon and stuffed shrimp), salad bar and baked potato and then Chocolate Lovin Spoon Cake. drooling already. Insulin will be bolused like its going out of style, but I.Don't.Care.

Is it Friday yet?

How Sesame Street has touched me today

I don't think I can adequately express how much I REALLY like this song!

Let the season of sharing begin

And it has started. I foolishly thought last week that we were in the clear. It was December, by god, and she was still healthy, still disease free. I flaunted it. I tempted fate and laughed in its face. I mean really, by this time last yr, I was pretty sure the wrath of baby germs would burn our house to the ground, or at the very least open a time portal to the 3rd circle of hell.

I shouldn't have been so arrogant. Those germs, they're sneaky. They wait in hiding, until just the right moment. Apparently yesterday was a good moment. A pulled out her sexy, I just finished 6 packs of Cools mom, voice. She looked like the puppies at the Pet Store in the Mall. She was laying it on thick. She even begged for a nap at daycare.

Today, fever of 101 and I'm taking yet another unpaid day off to watch Dora - oh how I despise Dora. The last thing I want is my daughter to grow up thinking she needs help with EVERYTHING she is going to try to do.

While I have no symptoms, I must be feverish too, as I stupidly thought that I would take this opportunity, this time when A IS SICK to wash her blankie. What the hell is wrong with me? I told her the blankie needed a bath. So now not only do I have a sick child whining for her blankie, but one who is also whining for a bath of her own. Not my brightest parenting moment.

Aw, gosh...LOL

my thanks to Allison!

nanowrimo

Well, I did better then I thought, but no where even close to goal.

First off, please go give Kerri huge congrats for finishing.

Me, a measly 7,843 words.

I do like my story though. Its not exactly where I started out, and quite honestly I have to go back and rewrite the first 2,000 words since they no longer make any sense with the last 5,000, but I did enjoy the experience. Its the most ambitious writing I've ever done (hey, I was an Econ major for crips-sake!). Give me numbers ANY day! LOL

The scary thing, NaNoWriMo, is that I'll be back. I WILL hit 50,000 at least once. Maybe not next year (I'm praying there will be a newborn in my arms by then), but soon.

Anyone got packing peanuts?

Found the perfect solution to all my 2 yr old troubles...................


UPS!!!!



Sign, sealed, delivered! She'll be at my mom's sometime on Tuesday.




I suppose I'll miss the smile.......................maybe..................

No Time, Must Bullet

Its been forever and a day since I last posted. Sorry for the drive-by bullet post..

• My nephew is here!!!!!!!!! He was born on Thanksgiving day and my sister went through hell and back to have him, but he's gorgeous and they're both doing great. 8lbs 1.9oz and 22 inches.
• A has decided to hit the "terrible 2's". I thought it was bad before. She's taken it to a whole new level. It tiring and frusterating and I hate the parent that I am most of the time. All I do is yell.
• Cozmo's upgrade should be available soon, very soon. I'm incredibly excited! Already talked with my rep. Supposedly, instead of a download of the software, they're actually just going to send out new pumps. Might pay the $99 to upgrade to the cool new green color!

Why I shouldn't be in charge

I've discovered today that I should not be allowed to be in charge of a little person. I'll list the reasons for you.

1) I eat raw cookie dough. Wrong on too many levels to list.
2) I eat whipped cream out of the can, straight into my mouth. Very simple. Shake can, tilt head, enjoy.
3) 1 & 2 would constitute dinner if I was left to my own devices.
4) I LOVE freeze pops and still routinely enjoy them even though its below freezing out. They accompany cookie dough and whipped cream amazingly. Perfect finish to a perfect meal.
5) Neon Blue freeze pop, beige carpet. 2 yr old who has no concept of gravity or stains, spinning in a very tight circle, while her mom surfs the net, mindlessly enjoying the veggie song from Sesame Street playing in the background.

I'm now the proud owner of a nice art deco beige carpet with blue spots randomly distributed in an oval, whiplash manner.


Note to self, give the 2 yr old the light pink freeze pop. YOU eat the neon blue one.




"some plants grow above the ground, some plants grow below.....Plants can grow HIGH, Plants can grow low, some grow above the ground, some grow below...."

Flying High

I've got issues, huge issues, not seeing anything in the 100's issues (expect the quick juant to 60 and back up again this morning).

I seriously don't know what's wrong. I've been in the 200's for at least a month now. CONSTANT 200s.

I'd been riding a beautiful average of about 114 last month, now. I've changed sites, thrown out insulin, increased basal (crap if I increase them anymore, I might as well load the whole damn bottle into my Cozmo).

This is ridiculous and its driving.me.insane.

Angry

I took my diagnosis in stride for the sake of my family, never allowing them to see me cry, even if I still wonder if it was all my fault. I had never allowed myself to fully express the anger I have about diabetes. How unfair life can be. Why I had to be the one with it. How much I hate testing, hate the days where my blood sugar is high, my mind a fog and all I want to do is go to sleep. Angry when my life is interrupted because this thing is beeping at me, telling me its time to test, time to change a battery, time to refill the insulin if I want to live for another 3 days. Angry, that I have to be attached to a machine like RoboGirl (even though I wouldn't give up my mechanical pancreas for all the Lantus in the world.)

Angry because my disease interfers not just with my life, but those around me. Times when sites have failed and I have insulin, but no needle with me and now we have to stop what we were doing and go home. Moments when my sugar plummets and locating anything with sugar is now priority #1. When my moods are dictated by what the stupid numbers on a meter say and how my mouth will lash out at those I love most when those numbers are high.

3 years ago I found a group of pregnant women with T1. I couldn't believe that there were so many people out there dealing with the same issues, same anger. I wanted to meet each and everyone (and did meet a bunch , including Kassie!) and suddenly I felt better about this disease, less alone. I could voice my anger and there were people who actually understood. People who wouldn't roll their eyes and say "your sugar must be high" when I voiced any negativity.

Then one year ago, this month, I started this blog, not knowing that there was a whole D Community out there (thanks again Kassie!). My days were suddenly filled with people who understood this whole "life". I didn't have to wait for an email to arrive. I could surf around and read and understand the daily struggles of everyone out there. Without you all, I'd still be hiding the anger of my disease, keeping it shoved beneath the surface, boiling. I'd still be alone and silently scared. I realize now, even though it truly is a small world, its nice to belong somewhere and I'm suddenly less angry.

I can live with this AND enjoy life, because you do.

I can do whatever I want, because you have.

Diabetes won't limit me, because you refuse to let it limit you.

and

I can be angry when I need to be, because you are always there, to listen, to understand and to let me be angry.

Writers Block

Seeing as how I've NEVER written anything as ambitious as NaNoWiMo, I think I'm in a little bit over my head.

I decided to write a "ghost story" of sorts. Basically my main character is going to start her own "ghost hunters" business assuming that its all hogwash, and a quick way to make a buck and learns that she's OH SO WRONG.....

Ok, that's all good, but I need, dear readers, your best "ghost stories" to incorporate, whether true happenings, or made-up campfire stories.

Please help! I don't know if I'll hit 50,000 words, or even be done by Nov 30th, but I'm really interested in doing this.

Tagged, like a deer....

Yikers I've been tagged by Kassie

Ok, 5 things that I haven't already blurbed about myself here.....Hmmmmmmmmmmm

1.) I HATED swimming, yet did so competitively from the time I was 5 or 6 up until my Junior Yr of High School (maybe Hate is too strong, I LOVED practicing, hated the time consuming black hole it was). Swam for my local Y for most of it (up until the end of my Freshman year). I wasn't an awesome swimmer, but held my own. The thought of quitting terrified me, though. I finally quit the local Y team so that I could play my true love, Volleyball through high school.

2.)I've never broken a bone. Not even a teeny-tiny toe. Never had stiches either.

3.)I wore a backbrace for a little over 2 yrs because of lumbardosis when I was around 10. It wrapped completely around my back and stomach and was cinched together in the back. I spent probably 3 or 4 yrs going to Shriners to be treated for it.

4)...ya, um, 4)....I need a life (or need to stop being soo honest all the time)! No....Ok, I don't sleep at night. I have no trouble falling asleep, but staying asleep. Doesn't happen. I toss and turn and toss and turn. Its gotta be genetic because my mom, dad and sister are the same way. Leads to a very grumpy me most days.

5)I NEED people to like me and avoid conflict like the plague. I'm seriously sick that way. If I know someone doesn't like me it drives me insane. Just yesterday, I had to leave negative feedback for an eBay Seller (item was COMPLETELY not as described and STUNK)....I didn't even leave negative, just neutral because he offered to take it back, but wanted ME to pay to ship it back to him (hmmmmmm, $.99 book, already spent $2.50 for him to ship it to me, another $2.50 to send it back??? I'm not the brightest bulb, but $5.00 for a $.99 refund just doesn't add up in my boook....) It kills me now that this guy is pissed at me....Like I said, I need some SERIOUS help!

I'm not sure who has/hasn't done this yet, so I guess I'll just tag:

Rachel
Caren
KJ
and Andrea

Disappearing Sarah

I've been a bad blogger, lately. My heart just isn't in it. Actually the only thing my heart has been "in" lately is the many ways I plot to single-handedly crumble the financial existence of Preferred Mutual Insurance Company (PM).

If I could hang banners from every skyscraper in the world telling people about how crappy they are I would. Its been 43 days since our house was robbed. FORTY-THREE DAYS! I'm not closer to getting my check then the day we were robbed.

The very first time I actually HEARD from someone (other then our contracted adjuster)from PM was TODAY and that was because I finally wrangled a phone number from the adjuster. PM has had our claim for 3 full weeks now with no word from them...3 weeks of me pretty much emailing the adjuster daily and hopefully 3 weeks of him trying to get a hold of PM daily. They FINALLY got back to him yesterday....Their response.."We need a new Police Report".....

YOU WHAT?????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! F(&*%^%#$)$J F*^^*#(^ 3 Fucking weeks and the best you can decide is that you want another fucking police report????????? Why couldn't we decide this THE DAY THE ADJUSTER SUBMITTED IT TO YOU!!!!!!!!!

Seriously, I work with customers. If I ever took a customer's information down and then promptly did NOTHING with it for over 3 weeks, then ASK FOR SOMETHING THEY'VE ALREADY GIVEN ME....I'd be fired and there'd be no way in hell we'd ever be able to sell something to that customer...Fucking ridiculous.

On a light note....

Its A's 2nd birthday today! I tried singing her Happy Birthday, but it was met with emphatic "NO 2!!! NO!".

We also took her Trick or Treating and HOLY SHIT WAS THAT FUNNY!!!! She had her little strut on (she has the cockiest little strut) and would chant "Trick a Treach" up each driveway...form her little hand into the mightiest fist and pound on each door. Then stand their mute...LOL We eventually got "Tank You" and "Bye" out of her. But just watching her walk from house to house was just.too.cute.

Freaking Out

I did it. I broke down and tested A's blood sugar for the 1st time.

I picked her up from daycare with this as the day's report:
"She drank a HUGE amount of water today. She CONSTANTLY wanted water, which of course meant she had really wet diapers. Oh ya, and she ate a TON today, she was constantly asking for food".

To a "normal" mother of my daughter this would be a GREAT day!! Holy cow, she drank AND ate in 1 day!!!! Amazing!

Me, my heart sank and fear overtook me like none I've ever had. Raced home and tested.

118. I'm still not relieved. So dear readers, on a 2 yr old, with no idea when or what she last ate, is this okay?

Somersault

Guess what she figured out how to do last night?

A change of air

http://kevan.org/johari?name=floreksa

I found this over at Diabetic Princess.
Please take a look and fill out so that I'll have something mindless and fun to obsess about instead of the breakin...

Thanks :)

I'd like to get off now

I'm really getting sick of the "our house got broken into and everything was stolen" ride. Thanks, its been fun, but I need to go back to my safe, secure, still in possession of my belongings world now.

I've just emailed the adjuster to get a copy of HIS spreadsheet with the depreciation/holdback amounts they are applying to all of my possessions. I don't know why, but I'm terrified sitting here. I'm 100% expecting him to come back and say "oh, ya, that tv that you bought less then a yr ago, ya, we're gonna give you $100 for that, and oh, those 183 DVD's you had stolen, um ya, worth $0.26"

I.HATE.THIS. I hate worrying about shit that wasn't my fault. We worked HARD for our belongings and some asshole breaks a window, takes it all and WE have to worry if we'll actually be able to replace it. We have a replacement cost rider on our insurance so technically they have to give us whatever it costs to replace, but if we don't replace it, we have to take the depreciated value.

I hate the worry. The worry about what the insurance is going to say is an actual "replacement value" of our items....Worring each day as I drive home wondering "will the door be open today? Is today the day that they come back?"...WHEN THE FUCK WILL OUR WINDOW BE FIXED?!?!?!?!

DH and I have been watching "It Takes a Theif" lately...Although all we do is yell at the TV "YOUR STUFF IS COMING BACK DUMBASS!!!" and "WELL WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU EXPECT LEAVING YOUR HOUSE UNLOCKED!!", but mainly "Your stuff is all coming back". Ya, ours isn't, its gone. Our house wasn't open either. All locked up. Nice and tight. I don't leave doors unlocked. EVER. If my hands on a door knob, its locking it.

I'm tired, I'm angry, and my D control has gone to the crapper.

23 Months

(so I missed 22 months, sue me!)

I can't believe in 1 month you're going to be 2!!! Where has the time gone? Where has my baby gone? I'm now the mommy of a little person with definite wants and needs, your biggest at the moment being THE DUCK.

You want THE DUCK, you need THE DUCK, your very existence depends upon THE DUCK being available at your beck and call. Daddy made the mistake of watching a Looney Tunes movie with you one day (desperation creates madness, and Daddy couldn't take another episode of Little Bear). You latched onto THE DUCK and there's been no looking back.

Each morning I hear you lovingly calling to me through the monitor.

"Ma-mmma! Ma-mmma!!...............
........I WANT DUCK!"

We've watched The Bugs Bunny Road Runner Movie so many times this past month, that I broke down and actually bought you a Thomas the Train movie (that's desperation RIGHT THERE!). Nope, still want THE DUCK.

We had bought a Looney Tunes Collection so that we could at least watch a few different Daffy Duck episodes, but ya, that 1 disk, that disk of life was stollen with everything else, and Bugs Bunny just doesn't it cut it for you!

You are also quite demanding with snacks, french fries (said with a definte chinese accent - "frewn frews")and just lately hugs. The last one melted my heart right then and there. I got you out of your crib, demanding my morning kiss, and when I went to put you onto your changing table you promptly threw the mother of all fits. It took me a little while to realize it, but you were saying "want hug". If I could have I would have given you THE DUCK, french fries and a snack right then and there!



Its amazing the way your vocabulary exploded during the last 2 months. I can understand close to 80% of what you are saying to me now. I may not get it the 1st or 2nd time, but you are persistant enough to keep saying it until I understand.

You still love, love, love the potty! But you also still do absolutely nothing on it. One day you'll get it.

Meme

Since I'm still the proud owner of nothing, and really still have nothing to say....maybe actually getting a full nights sleep (hear that SWCAL - night time is for SLEEP, NOT french fries!) will return my thoughts. Oh ya and if I could stop worrying about insurance / alarms / money that insurance may or may not give us... Anyway, I figured I could handle a meme...

1. Do you still have tonsils?

Amazingly Yes. I was threatened multiple times that I would have them removed (strep 10 times in 6 months). Turned out my dad was a symptomless carrier, one round of antibiotics on him and I was a new girl!

2. Would you bungee jump?

Not unless I was drugged, dragged, and tossed off.

3. If You Could Do Anything In The World For A Living What Would It Be?

I have no idea what, but it would be something creative that I enjoyed every second of, could do on my own schedule and allowed me to stay home with SWCA. Maybe something to do with baking.

4. How many tattoos do you have?

none....WAY too permenant for me.

5. Your favorite fictional animal?

Mickey Mouse. Was going to marry him when I was little and it wasn't a pretty sight when I was told I couldn't marry a cartoon.

6. One person that never fails to make you laugh?

My DH.

7. Do you consider yourself well organized?

Not.At.All

8. Any Addictions?

Sugar....Scary thought, huh?

9. From what news source do you receive the bulk of your news?

CNN, I guess. Internet. Don't read the paper. Too difficult to manage.

10. Would you rather go to a carnival or circus?

A carnival-- more fun, more to see/do.

11. When you were twelve years old, what did you want to be when you grew up?

A pilot with the Blue Angels.

12. Best Movie You've Seen This Year?

Is it sad that I can't think of any, even though we get Blockbuster Online?

I think I saw Crash this yr. OMG, I've never had such a physical response to a movie in my life. I honestly hurt after watching it.

Guilty Pleasure Best Movie - Mr. and Mrs. Smith I don't know why, but I.LOVE.THIS.MOVIE

13.Favorite alcoholic drink

Not a big drinker. Its gotta taste like Kool-Aid for me to enjoy it.

14. What is the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning?

Check email while I brush my teeth.

15. Siblings?

1 sister

16. What is the best thing about your job?

getting paid on Friday.

17. Have you ever gone to therapy?

Nope, but probably should.

18. If you could have one super power what would it be?

Maybe the ability to manipulate time.

19. Do you own any furniture from Ikea?

Nope.

20. Have you ever gone camping?

Not in years. We used to go every summer when I was little. Problem now is that my definition of camping (in which a bathroom is within walking distance) is FAR from DH's.

21. Gas prices! First thought?

Going down

22. Your favorite cartoon character?

Scooby Doo.

23. What was your first car?

A used 89 Chevy Cavalier.

24. Do you think marriage is an outdated ritual?

Absolutely not.

25. The Cosby Show or the Simpsons?

I guess Cosby Show.

26. Do you go to church?

No.

27. What famous person would you like to have dinner with?

Walt Disney

28. What errand/chore do you despise?

All.Of.Them

Every last one.

29. First thought when the alarm went off this morning?

I woke before it. Like I always do.

30. Last time you puked from drinking?

Never have.

31. What is your heritage?

French, French-Canadian, Irish and English.

Mostly French/French Canadian, though.

32. Favorite flower?

Tulips

33. Disney or Warner Bros?

Warner Bros. Definitely Warner Bros.

34. What is your best childhood memory?

Any memory from the lazy days at the camp, at the lake just spending the day on the water with our friends. Nights spent playing kick the bucket and walking around the lake in the dark trying to scare one another.

35. Your favorite potato chip?

Eat Smart Veggie Crisps
Hope those count

36. What is your favorite candy?

Dark Chocolate.

37. Do you burn or tan?

Tan

38. Astrological sign?

Sagittarius

39. Do you own a gun?

No.

40. What do you think of hot dogs?
Not my favorite.

The Cats are all home!

I found the 3rd cat a few minutes after posting. I was sitting in the computer room and thought I kept hearing a box just barely move. I knew that all of that had been tossed, ever so gently, all over the room by "The assholes" (formerly known as robbers), so deep down I knew it wasn't the cat, but had to look anyway.

Of course he wasn't there, but as soon as I sat back down, I saw his glorious little black nose peaking out of the closet. So thankfully, even though our side door was wide open from 12pm until 4:45pm, all 3 stayed in the house! (and OK, neighbor, how the hell do you not notice THAT?!?!?)

We were able to narrow the time of the crime to 11-12pm. One neighbor saw the car on the street with a guy walking the street at 11am, and is PISSED that he didn't call the cops (he always does - we live on a dead end, so we ALL known when a car belongs here or not), and the OTHER neighbor saw it in our driveway probably between 11:30 and 12pm. No license plate numbers, just a red/maroon Olds sedan with front fender damage. SO the cops have that.

julia - I'm right up the street from the library in your town(I think you're in the same town as Deb), on one of the side streets by the river.

Intrusion

We fucking got broken into today!!!!!!!! Everything's gone. Out Wide screen tv, the receiver, the dvd player, all the speakers, all our cameras, our laptop, our PHONES (who the fuck steals phones???)...Fucking EVERYTHING!!!

Worst off all we're still down a cat....MY cat :cry: :cry:

I came home and the side door was wide open. I left Ally in the car cursing that we mustn't have closed the door tight enough, but just in case. Walked in and immediately noticed that the tv was gone and lost it. I called John Hysterical, then my dad (my dad works minutes from my house), then the cops.

Oh fucking BEST thing, one neighbor watched the WHOLE DAMN THING and never called the cops!!!!!! What the fuck is that???!!!! Did you not get suspicious when EVERY piece of electronics was being unloaded from our house into a car you've never seen before??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

The broke the window in our kitchen in the back of our house to get in.

At this point I just want my cat back!

I completely lost it when we thought all 3 were gone. We found 2 of them in the house about 2 hours later, so we're hopeful the 3rd is still here just hiding really well.

No rest for the weary

Cancel the Tylenol PM and the blow to the head.

A's sicker then a dog right now. Kind of came out of left field. She's sleeping right now, but I put her to bed with a fever of at least 103F (it was 102F and change under her arm with her squirming). She also MASSIVELY congested and when she coughs (oh thank the heavenly lord it isn't often), it seems to last for 5 mintues, sounds like she's drowning and FREAKS.THE.HELL.OUT.OF.ME.

We're giving the tylenol an hour to do its magic. If she hasn't come down to a more respectable 100F, we'll be off to Urgent Care....Or if she has another coughing attack, I'll be taking her in.

It just doesn't sound right. She doesn't really have the sniffles and all this congestion is just lodged in her chest. You can hear it in her voice and breathing...Fears of pneumonia are cursing through me at the moment. Monitor is cranked by the bed. Off to get maybe 1/2hr of sleep.

Project: Screw Sleep

Data Log - Day 7

Sleep still nowhere to be found.

Sheets covered in cat hairball - 8pm. Lying on mattress.

Out of the blue high reading 8:30pm. Bolus. Still high at 9:45pm (5 points HIGHER to be exact). Another F&^%ing bad quickset site. New site, Rage bolus and low at 12am.

Lie on couch for 2 hours. Sleep for 1.

Lie in bed for 3 hours, sleep for 15 minutes.

Getting crankier by the minute. Want out.

I'm either taking Tylenol PM tonight, or just cracking myself in the head with a sledgehammer.

9/11

I wasn't sure if I could write about today.  I wasn't even sure I wanted to.  I'm compelled though to write what I probably will never be able to say.

5 yrs ago, I was sitting at work and answered the phone.  It was my boss's sister.  She told me a small plane had hit the World Trade Center.  Then his daughter called, then my cozy, safe world came crashing down.

We had workers in and around NYC, including my boss's son.  I began the ardurous task of trying to get a hold of them.  Cell phones were pretty much useless in the Northeast, but I kept dialing and dialing.  I finally got a hold of them.  They were all together, they were safe and they were trying to get out.  The made it over the bridges, one of the last cars to leave the city.  We later learned they watched it all happen from the roof they were on.

We turned on the tiny TV that we have here and watched.  I wasn't sure what to do with myself.  Do I work, do I go home?  News came of military actions and my thoughts suddenly turned to my sister.  At the time she was living on the Air Force Academy.  I called her immediately.  Didn't care if my boss said anything about calling Colorado from work.  I NEEDED to know she was safe.  She was, but the entire base was completely locked down, her husband was on duty and she was alone and terrified.

DH called around noon because his car wouldn't start.  He worked for a 24/7 call center for TTY users and HAD to get to work.  They were understandably swamped.  I left to pick him up and drive him in.

I drove past an auto dealership with the largest American Flag I'd ever seen, billowing in the wind.  I had driven past that flag thousands of times before and never noticed it.  And suddenly it hit me, that this was real and happening HERE, not half way around the world in some country I couldn't pronounce and would never visit.  Thousands of people who had gotten up, gone to work like any other Tuesday, weren't going to come home.   And I couldn't explain why they weren't...Why this had happened...Why here.

I hadn't cried until then.  I couldn't stop after that.  I cried the whole way home and all the way back.  I pulled it together enough to go back to work, but my heart, my mind, my soul was not there and wouldn't be for weeks.

That night I had planned on staying home, but 5 minutes of CNN and I HAD to get to my parent's house.  There was talk of war and retalliation, of further attacks and I couldn't handle it.  I sat in the cellar with my dad and cried watching the coverage.

I honestly don't remember much about the days and weeks that followed.  I know I cried pretty much every night after work watching Dan Rathers, and every morning before watching CNN.  We learned that one of my closest childhood friends shouldn't be with us today.  She should've been at the bottom of one of the Towers right as the planes were hitting.  She had decided to sleep in that morning and skip a class. 

We got up early that following Sat and stood in a line that streched for blocks and bought a flag.  We prayed for the families who had lost loved ones, for their spouses and children, their mothers and fathers.

9/11 shook me to my core.  It stripped me on an innocence that I'll never get back.  It's not that I'm scared to fly or travel or live my life, but it made me realize how quickly life can be taken.  How the most mundane of days can quickly become life altering and how little control I truly have.

I often wonder if Ally will ever fully comprehend what 9/11 means.  I'm guessing not.  She will learn about it through textbooks and edited videos shown in school, but it won't have the same meaning.

In which I Bore You with a Dream Sequence

I realized as I wrote this to a friend today, that it would make a good post. Ok, a decent post...Ok, ok, I just really want to tell everyone about my dream, and since you can politely "walk away" without me knowing it, I'm posting it here.

I had the WORST nightmare last night.

By far the worst, baby
related/ something happening to Ally nightmare.

It started as one of those no matter how hard you try to hurry and get somewhere you end up further and further behind. Well we were all trying to get to work, and just couldn't seem to get there. Drove around, not getting any closer to work and ended up at my parents. John leaves for work, carrying Ally, and this being a dream, my mom and I stay home and decide to have a party. Its the middle of winter and we're having a grand ole time till John calls (late at night, maybe 11ish). I ask how Ally is and he says "What do you mean? She's with you".

I drop the phone and start running all over screaming for her with my heart in my throat. Screaming and screaming, racing through the house looking for her. Outside, screaming into the wind, in the dark. I don't know what made me look, but I went to my van (I don't even own a van) and sure enough, there's Ally (probably 6 months old), strapped into her car seat, almost frozen (DH had thought I was following them out and put her in the car - we do this every morning. We leave together and he puts her in her carseat in my car). Her face was a gray color and shiney, like it was getting frostbitten.

I.LOST.IT.

Hysterical screaming and crying, crying like I've never cried before.NEVER. My dad was trying to get her out of the seat, my mom screaming "Is she alive?". I grabbed her and ran inside. Thankfully John had her all wrapped up in blankets in the car, so most of her was still somewhat warm and she was still alive. My mom was warming formula for her, trying to get anything warm into her and I was just holding her, rocking and crying.

I woke up bawling and it took quite a while to stop, including 2 trips into her room to make sure she wasn't cold. I'm still shaken when I think of it.

21 Months

HOW DID I FORGET!!!!!!

You turned 21 months the day Daddy and I returned from Vegas. You stayed with your precious memere and oh, ya, that guy called Pepere. Ever since that weekend, every and I mean EVERY time we get in the car, the first thing out of your mouth is "MEM-mem?, MEM-mem?". A no response only leads to you changing your intonation, as if I didn't completely understand, and "Look it lady, I was being polite before, now I WANT mem-MEM!"



Your vocab has skyrocketed. I can no longer count your new words, although there is 1 word, I wish to remove from your mouth. You've learned the F-bomb. We've been pretty good about not saying it around you, but sadly, we didn't even think about all those comedies we thought you were just ignoring. You've latched onto that word and "oh, F*&^!" just flies out willy-nilly. It isn't pretty and mem-mem wasn't impressed.

Your new found facination is with the potty now. You LOVE sitting on the potty, flushing the potty, throwing paper into the potty, calling potty ever so lovingly ever 30 seconds...What you don't do is anything on the potty. No pee-pee, no poop. You just sit "Ayy-yee on potty! Ayy-yee on potty"..."Yes, Ally's on the potty, now how about we go pee-pee"..."NOOOoooooOOOOOOOooooooooOOOOOOOOO". Right.

MIA and WTF?

Ok, so I kindof fell off the face of the earth after last week's pre-Endo visit post.  Sorry about that.  Everything went swimmingly, I'm right on track with where I want to be and I left smiling (which I always do when I meet with her!).  As for why I went MIA.  No idea.  Haven't been very chatty-kathy lately.

For the WTF? - I love reading all the D-bloggers out that, but I've been noticing, there's an inordinately LARGE number of D bloggers within the NorthEast and more specifically right around the MA/CT/RI area.  Is D more prevalent here?  Are we just a more vocal, techie group?

Has anyone else noticed this? (and not sure what my profile says, but that area includes me).  I remember mentioning once to my Endo that I when I was dx'd I found out that there were 5 other kids with D at my high school (1 being a pretty good friend) and 1 more was dx'd a few weeks after me.  That's 7 kids out of probably 800.  Is it just me, or is that astronomically high?

Endo visit

I've got an endo visit this afternoon.  I'm both excited and scared.  Excited because I absolutely LOVE my endo!!!!!  She is amazing, caring and takes tons of time with me (most visits last well over an hour with her).

Scared because since my latest battles with the dreaded Quicksets, I've been somewhat avoiding testing.

I don't handle highs very well.  I see them as tiny examples of how I'm failing and I.HATE.FAILING. 

Didn't help that I also ran out of strips at work yesterday morning.  Didn't see that the new ones had been delivered sometime last night, so there's a huge gaping hole for the past 24 hrs.

I'm also scared because I'm not sure what's going on with my depression.  Most days I really am OK, but then something comes along and I instantly spiral downwards, and that's what scares me, how quickly I can spiral.  The current spiral is over finances, or lack thereof.  I should be proud of DH and myself,  we chopped $110/month off of our expenses, and that was without feeling any pain.  Instead, I'm stuck focusing on what an utter failure I feel like since I apparently can't balance a checkbook any better then A could.  I'm afraid that I need my happy pills again.

I DON'T WANT TO NEED ANOTHER DAMN MEDICATION!!!!!

I'm also excited because I'm working towards getting the go ahead to start trying to conceive again - which also scares me to the bone, and does not lend well to the current finance spiral of hell ;) and I see each appt as one step closer.

I didn't have a lab slip to get another A1C drawn, so I'll have to wait on that.  Hoping that I've pulled my act together enough to see a nice shiney, low 7.  Goal is 6.5 or lower by Nov.

I've printed out my charts (all 17 pages - yes I'm a little OCD about it), I've mentally prepared myself for the scale (that's a whole other post) and I'm getting quite excited.

Quickset Help!!!

I don't know what in the hell I'm doing wrong, but I'm going through Quicksets like their ice cream melting in the sun.

Seriously, I love these sets when they work. I love that they actually stick to me without 3 IV3000's stuck all over.

Lately though....geez. On Saturday I changed my site. I was unexplainably in the 300's so figured I'd change her out a day early.

1st attempt - sticker folded up inside the serter. Looked almost as if the sticker had a larger circumfrence then the serter. Took a while, along with a few swears to get it out. Along with a little mopping of blood from the needle skipping over my skin.

2nd attempt - Same.Fucking.Thing. Clean serter with some goo be gone. Stomach now looks like I got into it with Freddy Kruger.



3rd attempt - goes in fine. Rage bolus BIG TIME. NO regard for insulin on board or correction ratios. I dial in enough to sink Titanic. 2 hours later, I've dropped a whopping 15 points. Rip site out only to realize it was a gusher. Lovely.

4th attempt - good to go. Bottom out at 2am and again at 6am. Thankfully I planned ahead and had a banana waiting by my bed.

Fast forward to today.

I put in a new site about an hour before supper. Eat 1/2 what I was planning on, but had already bolused for full amount. Sit around and wait for the inevitable low. 3 hours later and I'm still waiting (and not testing like a freakin moron). Finally test...404..What.the.fuck! Pull site out and put new one in. Rage bolus with a vegence. 5 units in and I've got a blockage. Another gusher. Fan-fucking-tastic.

I've gone back to my softsets and again look like an IV patient gone mad with IV3000's. I'm too angry to try another quickset at the moment.

So....What am I doing wrong?!!!!!

One Happy Kid

Happy kid, small kid. Outfit she is wearing is 3-6 months. As of last Thursday she officially weighed 22lbs 1 oz (and yes, ounces still count!). She's on the 10% curve (YAY ALLY!), and 33.5 inches - 75% (boo on that one as it puts her weight to length off the curve at 1.5%).

We saw the GI last week. Thankfully her celiac panel came back normal this time. Unfortunately the GI told me it was her tTG test which had initially came back high. All this time I had been researching Anti - IgG (what he had told DH). So what does this mean? I have no clue.

The Anti-IgG is pretty specific to a gluten problem, but not so specific to celiac. The tTG, though, that's pretty darn specific to celiac, but from my research there's a pretty big debate as to its reliability in children under 2 (lots of false negatives).

So where does that leave us? Well the GI doesn't want to put her through an endoscopy right now. He figured that based off of the most recent tests he wouldn't even suspect celiac (A has no "outward" signs of the disease, she's just small). We're in a holding pattern. We continue to see the nutritionist and go back in 4 months.

The nutritionist is helpful, but honestly I could put a chocolate frosted, sugar bomb, gold encrusted unicorn in front of A and she'll either eat it, or the napkin sitting next to it. Seriously the kid eats what and when she wants and ain't no'body gonna tell her otherwise. We did find the wonder of strawberry milk this week. Previously A shunned milk of all colors and flavors, but lately, well she's taking a hankering to strawberry milk. Not a normal 2 yr old hankering for it (a GREAT day is still only about 8 oz), but compare that to her normal 1-2oz and heck that's a (1 carry the 2, divide by 3)...That's A LOT more. WAY BETTER.

CIO

Definitely an interesting story.

The debate of crying it out with your baby is slowly starting to brew on one of my Yahoo Groups and this recent story was posted.

If you read the article closely, most of these Drs. are talking about parents who try to "schedule" a young baby (under 6 months, but often even under 3 months) by using CIO. That's ridiculous and I personally consider those parent's insane, or at the very least lacking in parental "intelligence" (this statement coming from a certified conflict-a-phobe!). There is NO reason in my book to allow a child less than 3 months of age to CIO for "scheduling" purposes for any length of time. Babies create their own unique schedule and being a parent means adapting to that schedule.

I can't even count the number of times on different boards, I would read about a parent letting a child cry to the point that the child vomited or was going on 3 hours of all out, hyperventilating screaming in the belief that they were letting him CIO. WAIT, WHAT? Vomited??!! Um, hello! WAY past CIO, you're into abuse there, in my book! Or parent's of 6 week olds asking if it was time to CIO because their child still woke 2x a night. It’s these parents (and wacked out authors who promote scheduling very young children) that have changed the definition of CIO to these all or nothing terms.

I wonder how a person can be so insecure of their parenting that they
grasp onto CIO concepts such as these so blindly that they can't trust their own instincts. It’s these morons that give CIO such a horrible association. Parenting is all about common sense...People need to get some and use it!

I know plenty of people that would argue saying they followed this book or that book successfully, but almost always you'll hear "but I did this or that different because little Johnny needed or has x,y, &z"  THEN you didn't really follow this book or that!  You created a plan with aspects of a certain book, but USED COMMON PARENTING SENSE to direct you and your child (I still say your insane though if you let a very small child cry from hunger).  The problem is with those parents who apparently lack common sense.

My Ped recommends CIO, but only with certain parents. She has to feel out the "parenting level" of her patients, almost the parenting "intelligence".

She advocated CIO with us, only because she knew:
1.) Ally was 8 months old. She wasn't a 3 week old baby that we were CIO with because we wanted her on some pre-determined feeding or bizarre eat, play, sleep schedule. We just wanted A to go to sleep (at night) when we put her in her crib, knowing that she was clean, full, and TIRED.
2.) We wouldn't put Ally in a room, shut the door, walk away and that's it, never to walk in again until the morning (taking CIO absolutely literally).
3.) We were going to CIO using common sense, OUR OWN common sense. We weren’t following a book with rules that told us exactly what we had to do with no regard to our child’s temperament or personal schedule.
3.) We had lived through COLIC in which, to a degree allowing your child to cry, unattended is absolutely necessary to keep a parent sane and "in control". It is also the most difficult thing you can possibly do. Maybe that gave us another layer of understanding of both A's cries and the true heartbreak of listening to a child cry and not responding. +++ I do not define a parent who is at the end of their rope and NEEDS to put a crying child in a safe location and walk away for the child's safety, as letting a child Crying It Out +++

Like I said, when Ally was about 8 months old, DH and I decided to give CIO a try. At this point A had decided "bedtime,shmedtime, it was PARTY TIME!!" DH and I would stand outside her door, and listen to her cries. There was a definite difference between "GET BACK IN HERE MOM, THIS ISN'T GOING TO WORK" and "I really think I need to whine and cry a little to settle down and heck, maybe as a bonus they'll come get me". We responded immediately to the 1st, and more slowly to the 2nd. I can't comprehend how someone would willingly listen to the 1st and not respond immediately (or by 8 months not be able to tell the difference between the 2).

I really don’t know where I stand on CIO. Have I used it? Yes. Was it successful? Yes. Did I use it blindly following some authors book with clear cut rules and time schedules? NO.

I used CIO, but with common sense, a clear understanding of my child, and only when age and situation appropriate. Would I recommend CIO? Probably not. If a parent needs my opinion on the subject to decide whether or not to CIO, then they probably shouldn’t.

So why did I write all this? I don’t know.  I feel very strongly that CIO has its place, mainly for parents using common sense on when, why and how to use CIO.  But also that apparently, in this day and age, CIO is used for all the wrong reasons.

But I can see it from here.....

So Sat night we decided to go see the Freemont Experience in Old Vegas. We didn't make it down there the last time we had gone (wonder if my crying had anything to do with that?)...

Anyway, getting anywhere in Vegas is not exactly easy. Even going from hotel to hotel requires that one lace up their most comfortable pair of walking shoes, cause its a haul. In order to get to Freemont Street we had to:
1) Take the monorail or walk to the Excalibur
2) Take skywalk across to Tropicana
3) Take skywalk across to MGM Grand
4) Go through entire MGM Grand to the main monorail which runs behind the hotels
5) Take main monorail to the end (northbound to Saraha)
6) Walk through entire Sahara to get back out onto the Strip
7) Catch a bus to Freemont Street

Now, yes, I know we could've just taken a taxi, BUT there were 8 of us and DH and I were on an amazingly TIGHT budget of only $200 CASH. So this was the cheapest/quickest route there. (Also could've caught a bus from our hotel, but we'd still be sitting on that bus right now trying to make our way down the Strip).

Freemont Experience is amazing. And I love that there's so much, packed so close together in Old Vegas. Feels more like what I had initally thought Vegas was like - my vision was so very, very different then its reality - I was blown away that the strip is almost like the world's slowest 4-lane highway. I don't know what I thought, but it didn't involve tons and tons of cars driving between the hotels.

So anyway, we had a great time. Time to head back. We get the bus. Get near the Sahara stop and decide that we'll just ride the bus all the way back to the hotel. Traffic doesn't seem that bad...Famous last words. 45 minutes later and we're 2 hotels further down the strip.

Now we start the "What do you want to do?" game. You know "What do you want to do?" "I don't know, what do you want to do?". We decide to get off the bus. We're in between Treasure Island and Mirage.
"Oh, Look! I can see Mandalay Bay from here. Let's just walk"...
I knew this was a bad idea. Every cell in my body was screaming "No, No!! Get back on the bus! NOooooooOOOooooOOOOOO".

So we start walking, and walking and walking and walking....I don't know how far we actually walked, web claims the distance from Mirage to Luxor is a scant 1.6 miles "as the crow flies", but we sure as hell walked MORE then that. By the time we made it back to the Luxor, my jeans were soaking wet and stuck to me, I had no skin left on my ankle from my new sneakers rubbing and I was very, very close to tears again.

We were suppose to travel the Strip on Sunday, taking in the different hotels. We didn't.....

And We're Back!

Well this trip went MUCH better then the last one (July 2004 when I was 7+ months pregnant)! Vegas is a totally different beast when you're pregnant. I wanted to run to each pregnant woman I saw there and beg that she just turn around and go home. Its not worth it!

Needless to say there were no tears on the Strip this time. Close, but none. Trip started off very rocky though. Apparently US Airways really wanted to see if they could make me cry.

We left the house at the ungodly hour of 3:30am (Anxeity level : Low). Dropped the car off and got to the airport for roughly 5am (Anxeity level : Medium). Flight left at 6:10am. Not bad., but wait..Why do our tickets say Pittsburg, we're suppose to be going to Philly. Oh well (Anxeity level : Medium-High) 6:05am rolls around and they still haven't started to board our flight. There's not even an agent at the counter of our gate. (Anxeity level : High). Suddenly - "Attention all passangers on flight 8473 to Pittsburg. There is a dead battery on the plane. We will have to rebook all of your flights" (Anxeity level: THROUGH.THE.ROOF)

Thankfully, she called the passengers with a final destination of Vegas to come up first. According to DH, I shot up there and those in my path were in imminent danger of getting bowled over. I got there first. Of course there was only one other group going on to Vegas, a family of 4 or so...

The agent starts: "well, I can get you on a flight to Charlotte that leaves at 11am" (great, that leaves another 5 hours to entertain ourself at the airport)
"then you'll leave Charlotte at 6pm, getting into Vegas at 7:58pm"
(WAIT!!! did she just say 7PM??? We were originally suppose to get there at 10AM...One whole day, fucking GONE - remain calm Sarah, in through the nose, out through the mouth, don't cry)
"Or..."
( Oh, GOD YES, please give us an OR)
"I can get you into Charlotte for 1pm with an arrival in Vegas at 10pm"
(How the fuck is THAT better??!!)
Me: "Um, we were suppose to get into Vegas at 10 - AM, so the earliest you can get us there would be the best" (annoyed beyond hell that I actually have to say that, but I was still very polite about it) Turn to DH "Thank god we didn't buy tickets for a show tonight!"
"Oh! Charlotte!"
( Yes, Charlotte! I don't even know what that means, but that OH was a pleasantly surprised sounding OH, so yes, please, lets do that!)
"Here are you're tickets, sorry for the delay"

We walk away, trying our hardest to figure out what we're gonna do with ourselves in the tiny gate for the next 6 hours, when DH looks down. "Wait, these tickets say we leave for Charlotte at 6:40am, then leave immediately from there for Vegas. We get into Vegas at 11am" HOLY SHIT! I LOVE that ticket agent!!!!! (Anxeity Level: below radar) I grab the tickets..."Um, honey...Um, we're flying to Charlotte 1st CLASS!!!!!!!!"

I admit it. I had the biggest, shit-ass grin on my face, sitting there in 1st class as all the peons boarded the plane heading to their tiny-ass seats in coach. DH kept reminding me that WE are one of those peons and would be heading back there very soon. Oh well...It was FUN!

Part 2 - But, I can see it from here.... coming soon.