Kate

It's been awhile since I've done a real update, so let's see if I can catch everyone up.

Mer is supposed to graduate on June 13th. Hurrah!

silverstardance and elle_blessing will be in town from June 14th-20th. Woot! They're staying with amazonmink, but I'm taking a couple days off work to hang out. leigh_adams is supposed to be up around that time, too. Wenchfest! Now to get my apartment in some semblance of presentable.

I went to a bridal shower this weekend. Mer's aunt Tracey is getting married to her very long time boyfriend on June 20th. This is the aunt Mer lived with for most of the school year. She moved back in with me a few weeks ago.

I'm taking a fitness class. If you follow me on Twitter, you already know that because I griped for days after the first class. Oh my goodness, my legs were SO sore. How did it come about that I got off my butt and decided to work out? My office hired a trainer to do a 13 week course. We each paid $100 for 26 classes (plus one free one). If we miss three classes or less, we get $50 back. The fee for employees is really just so that we'll have a vested interest in attending. They didn't want a bunch of people to sign up and no one to show. The trainer is fun, and he gave us each a workout mat and resistance band.

I'm two classes in, and I'm really having a good time. There are about 25 people in the class and we're all across the spectrum as far as fitness goes. Everybody's supportive and fun. I'm pleasantly surprised by how well I'm doing. Given my extreme ability to sit around and do nothing, I anticipated that I'd have a really hard time keeping up. It is difficult, and I'm having to push myself, and I've definitely got a long way to go, but I'm doing it. I have a goal, and I'm working towards it. Overall, I'm very pleased and proud of my performance. Let's hope it continues for the next twelve weeks.

That's about all for now. Hope you're all well!

I'm way behind the curve on this, but if you haven't seen the clip of Susan Boyle singing on Britain's Got Talent the first time, you need to watch it. Seriously, if only for Simon Cowell's expressions. How much do I love this woman? She's spunky and fun and I hereby dub her Shirley Valentine. (If you don't know why I'd call her that, you need to go rent Shirley Valentine at your local video store. Right now.)

Susan's first appearance on Britain's Got Talent

After that, you need to watch this clip from the semi-final, where Simon gives Susan a standing ovation and apologizes for how he treated her before hearing her sing the first night.

I was reminded of my love for Stephen Lynch tonight by a commercial for Valtrex. So, for the uninitiated, I give you - STEPHEN LYNCH! (Note: There is cursing in some of these songs.)

Singing 'D&D' with Mark Teich



( Two more below! )

So, for those of you who aren't Twitter friends of Elle's Matt, I bring you the amusement he supplied today.

Contractor Awards.

ETA: The word 'cremains' creeps me out.

My silver dragon doesn't want to grow up. If you have a second, would you click it? (I'm hoping for a boy, my other silvers are all female. Think blue thoughts!)

I'm not sure how much I'll be around this weekend. I'm taking my mom over to the hospital shortly because she's still having a lot of breathing trouble. If they admit her, I'll be staying at her house with my brother Kenny while she's in the hospital. There's a computer there, but I don't know how much time I'd have to be on it. And it's slow.

I bought my tickets for Paolo Nutini at the 9:30 Club this weekend! Yay! I haven't been to a concert in probably a decade. And my work buddy Dawn says she'll go with me, if I want, because I don't know any other local Paolo fans. Oh, excitement!

Swine flu panic, it sweeps through doctor's offices and emergency rooms, schools, offices, and even through the heart of our not-so-stalwart, moronic Vice President.

Every year the regular flu virus kills 36,000 people. In the U.S., there's been ONE confirmed death from the swine flu, a 2 year old Mexican child. You know, because it's the very young, very old, and those with poor immune systems that are most susceptible. There are only 109 confirmed cases in this country, and the treatment is pretty much the exact same as treatment for the regular flu, but everyone's in an uproar.
Mer called me this morning and told me she was sick. "I know this sounds ridiculous, but my friend told me to look up swine flu on the internet, and I have the symptoms. Can we go to the doctor and get it checked out?"

I assured her she didn't have swine flu, if she was sick she could stay home from school, but let's wait and see before rushing off to the doctor because unless she had an infection, there wasn't much they could do for her. Besides, it's spring in the allergy capitol of the universe and we went from temperatures in the 90s to temperatures in the 50s this week. People always get sick in changing weather.

She went to school, walked into her class looking a little flushed and coughing. The teacher didn't even let her sit down before she sent her out of the classroom and to the clinic. The nurse called me and wanted me to take Mer to the doctor to get a nasal swab to test for swine flu, just in case. Could we get an appointment today because they won't let her back in school without a note from the doctor saying she doesn't have it. *headdesk* Okay.

We go to the doctor, who is right there with us in the eye-rolling. The office is hopping because EVERYONE thinks they've got frickin' swine flu. He looks her over and says he thinks she's got bronchitis and allergies, but if we want him to, he'll prescribe Tamiflu, which doesn't actually cure the swine flu but just shortens the length of time you have it and reduces symptoms.

I don't really want to give her a drug she doesn't need, and I ask about the nasal swab, explaining that she has to have a note declaring her swine-flue-free to go back to school. Dr. V rolls his eyes. "The nasal swab tests for the regular flu. The only way to test for swine flu is to do a blood draw, send it to the CDC, and wait a week for a negative result."

So we're in between a rock and a hard place. Mer doesn't have swine flu, but the doctor can't provide us a written statement saying that because she hasn't been tested. We have the Tamiflu prescription, but I'm not going to fill it until I talk to the school nurse. She needs to know she's giving out bad information, and that Meredith can't miss her night school class if she's going to graduate. I'll be damned if I'm going to have her sit out a week for no reason. She'll stay home tomorrow because she is sick, but come Monday, I want her back in school. God help them if they give me a hard time.

People need to chill out and try to look at this with a tiny bit of perspective. And WHO needs quit trying to scare people over bullshit.

The first TEN people to comment in this post get to request a drabble of any pairing/character of their choosing from me.* In return, they have to post this in their journal, regardless of their ability level.

Note: I'd like to keep this limited to either RP characters (Susan/Romy/Sam/Miles/Bishop/Callum/Cassandra/Emma/Reilly/Graham) or D/G. Because that's what I know.

(Yeah, yeah, I know I bailed on the last round. I promise to do better this time.)

*giggles* Look! My two little hatchlings on the right look like someone's used Levicorpus on them!



I'm such a geek. Feel free to click on my eggs and hatchlings if you feel like it.

Must get up now and get ready for work. Starbucks ho!