kristinbear

Yeah, it got me right on. And yes, vague & bag *do* ryhme and they both sound funny, so stop laughing at me. :)

happy easter everyone!

this morning was a bit interesting. first, i slipped and fell down half a flight of stairs, landing really hard on my bum. there's not visible bruising, but it does hurt a bit. then, ryan and i were working on making snicker apple salad for easter brunch at church. i was coring the apples and he was cutting them into pieces. he ended up cutting right into his thumb, so we had to take a trip to urgent care. luckily there is one about 5 minutes away. they put some surgi strips on his thumb and wrapped it up really well. it only took an hour, so we managed to make it to church for the last 10 minutes or so.

the weather was beautiful this morning, low 60s and sunny. now the clouds have come in and it has cooled off some, but it's way better than snow! :)

i'm off to continue work on a knitting project for ryan's cousin, who had her baby this week!

i'll give ryan credit for my bracket being awesome as i asked him some questions while filling it out blindly (ok, i looked at the rankings, who doesn't?) i ended up #233 in the espn.com tournament challenge out of something crazy like 3 million. i was even close on the score of the final game! it was 84-75 and i predicted 83-76.

I'm off to Michigan. My uncle is picking me up in about 40 minutes. I can never decide if I like taking the red eye flight or not. I lose less time, but I also don't really get to sleep much and end up very tired by the next evening. Maybe that just helps with the time change, since it's 3 hours later there...

Right now I'm watching the Rock & Awe: Countdown to Guitarmagedon on the Colbert Report. I <3 the Decemberists. :-D They are one of my very favorite bands. Of course they are going to lose, but hey, free publicity. I love the Report (and the Daily Show too!) I like that the prize is a copy of the Crane Wife, the Decemberists latest cd. Maybe I'll listen to that on the plane. I forgot my headphones at work though, so I only have my one ear headset for the phone... oh well.

Things are still not back to normal around here after last Thursday's wind storm. 200,000 people are still without power, including Ryan (his apartment is down to about 45 degrees right now). I am lucky to have power since only 3 of the 7 buildings in my apartment complex have it. They said it could still be a few more days before they fix it. There is a 2 foot diameter pine tree across the road up the hill, which is where power to the 4 buildings without power apparently comes from.

There are tress down everywhere, and lots of roads were closed for several days due to downed trees, many across power lines that they hadn't cleared yet. The large tree up the road was cleared from the road on Sunday, but Coal Creek and 900 were both still closed yesterday. All of Issaquah was without power until yesterday. There are parts of Mercer Island that are still close to inaccessible because of all the downed trees.

My power was out for about 22 hours. It came back on late Friday evening. Cell phones weren't working well (you could sometimes pick up a bar) because most of the towers were down. I think they brought in a generator to the nearest one, because service picked up on Saturday afternoon. My land line was out until Saturday. I just got cable and internet back last night around 11 pm.

The first day or two after the storm were nuts. People do *not* know how to drive. Normally I hate driving here, but people are insane when there is any sort of problem. How hard is the concept of a 4-way stop??! I went to my friend's place for dinner out in Issaquah. Tom & Jenn had power, but most of the surrounding area did not. It was really hard to even see stoplights at night especially if you don't know they are coming. They are all black boxes too, instead of yellow, making it that much more difficult. Some people were just blowing through intersections, which was extremely dangerous. Other people just couldn't figure out the concept of waiting your turn... And of course there were no temporary stop signs put up, even after a few days.

I think I might go to one of the restaurants in the strip malls across from my apartments for lunch today. Should I get Thai food, Chinese food, or Mexican food? I wonder if any of them have a lunch menu.

we've had a few storms roll through in the past few days. we're getting another one today. by "storm" i mean heavy rain and high winds (some areas have gotten some thunder/lighting and hail, but storms here are not like the storms i'm used to.) unfortunately the only good thing about lots of rain here is snow in the mountains, and since i've just had surgery i can't go skiing for a while yet. *pout* two nights ago we had strong winds, with gusts up to around 50 mph. it was still windy yesterday, but tapered off in the afternoon. tonight's storm is supposed to be even worse, with sustained winds 30-35 mph with gusts up to 62 mph. they are telling us to expect power outages. it's already pouring rain here and has been for an hour. out on the coast, seas are supposed to be 25-40 feet with gusts up to 100 mph.

i'm healing well. i'm a bit tired of sitting around, but i have been getting out some. i'm planning to go back to work on thursday of next week. our vacation starts on friday though, so it will only be one day before coming back in january. random story i forgot to mention before: when i was in the hospital, i had one of those buttons that released extra pain medication. i was hitting it occasionally, maybe once an hour (it would release a dose up to 6 times an hour) and that night they had me hit it a few times before sitting up for the first time (i ended up getting up and walking all the way to the bathroom 10 feet from my bed, woohoo!) sometime in the morning, they realized that the machine hadn't been turned on. i was getting the regular IV, but nothing had been happening when i hit the button for extra meds. i guess i wasn't in that much pain, so i didn't notice it wasn't really getting better after i thought i was giving myself a dose. everything else went smoothly though, except my skin reacting to the surgi-strips, and getting a huge rash (which I think was just eczema) on my leg where I had socks on for 2 straight days.

on the christmas front, i'm close to done with gifts. i have a few small things to take care of, but i'm done with most of my knitting projects. i have completed 10 items, with the exception of some finishing touches on two of them. i just have one to go, and of course that's the largest one in terms of time. my christmas cards are also languishing. :)

i like this guy:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=wojciechowski_gene&id=2685195

i guess the consolation is that the rose bowl will be big 10 v. pac 10 as it should be!

i spent most of the day in bed, as i probably should. :) i actually showered today and put real clothes on. yay! i got my mom to take me to joann to get needles for a hat, but they didn't have any of the size i needed left, so we went to the knittery in renton instead. we went to ryan's apartment to help (ok, i mostly watched) him put up his new fake christmas tree. it's a really nice douglas fir from target. :) then we watched the polar express on tv.

i'm not allowed to go back to work for at least 3 weeks, although somehow the disability insurance people had december 11 down as my return date according to my doctor last week... so they are going to call again and try to get that fixed. my pastor and my elder from church both called today to see how i was doing, which was really nice.

so far the pain has been pretty ok. my tummy is still really bloated though, so i look like i'm either carrying around a lot of belly fat or am pregnant. lol. and the tape over my belly button and the one incision is starting to make my skin itch. it's all pink and raised around the edges. i also have two other spots that reacted with the tape where the larger dressing was and blistered. blech. my doctor asked if i had ever had a reaction to tape before when she took off the dressing. hmm, i don't stick tape to myself on a regular basis, so no. :-p

oh sarah, i will be in grand rapids from the 22nd through the 29th.

update on me:
I had surgery on monday to remove cysts (they took 3 cysts off one ovary and drained one on the other) and scar tissue caused by endometriosis. I was in the hospital two nights and came home last night around 8 pm. My mom is out here helping me out, which is really nice since I can't do much on my own. I have a 5 inch incision across my tummy, as well as a hole in my belly button and one between my belly button and the incision. I'm off work until basically the end of the year (I'm planning to go back the day before our break starts.)

I got new meds today because the Tylenol 3 (tylenol with codeine) they had me on was making me nauseous. I have to take it every 4 hours, along with Ibuprofen every 6. So overnight, all the medicine in my tummy with only some saltines got to me, and by the morning dose, I felt terrible. It happened on Wednesday, and they gave me a shot in the butt for the nausea. It happened again this morning. Let me just say that throwing up with an incision through your abs is *not* fun. So my mom called the doctor and they gave me darvoset instead of the tylenol. So far it's been ok, but I've had food the one time I've taken it.

I'm off to bed now because I really should be laying down.

This is sad. My dad is a 3rd grade teacher:

"This week we have been exploring different fruits and vegetables during break time. We took a poll of what snacks we had brought to school to eat at break time. All of them were processed snacks or candies or cookies. Not one was a fruit or vegetable! So I brought in carrots, celery, and brocolli and made my kids try them. The art teacher said she asked one of my girls to draw a carrot so she drew an oval shape. She did not know that carrots grow pointed at the end. What else is sad is that I bought some REAL carrots, a green pepper, and radishes. The cashier turned to me and asked "What are these called?" I said Radishes."

i never post anymore. tomorrow is my birthday. for some reason lj says it's already november 10, maybe UTC? anyway, i'm going to have some people over from work to play board games and hang out. i'm so cool. :)

i just made puppy chow to take in to work for a treat. (puppy chow = crispix or chex coated with a mixture of butter, chocolate, and peanut butter, and then tossed in powdered sugar) i've made it quite a bit recently.

question for all (ok, probably only girls): do you have a preferred brand of makeup? if so, what is it? i have mostly Clinique right now, but i'm willing to branch out, and i'd like some opinions. i've heard good things about MAC and Origins as well. really i just need new eye shadow base, but it's fun to look. :)

i'm also looking for new shoes. i need brown dress shoes, and i probably should start looking for new black ones as well. i *hate* shoe shopping. i can't ever find shoes that seem to fit. i will only wear sensible shoes with a small heel or no heel and no pointy toes, which to be honest are not always easy to find. i don't care if people make fun of my shoes... i'd rather be comfortable! i think i must have a narrow heel too, because i will find shoes that fit lengthwise, but i will walk right out of them. and i can't wear backless shoes because they really aggravate my plantar fasciitis. *sigh* i guess i am just difficult.

btw, the DSW is now open, but they didn't have anything that fit. i'll probably try again in a month.

The Tigers are going to the World Series. Yay!!! (Yes, I'm 100% a bandwagon fan, what can I say.) I think I'm going to go out and buy a Tiger hat. I got home from work just in time to see the 9th inning. Walkoff homeruns to win series are always so exciting (unless your team is on the losing end, i.e. Sox v. Yankees 2003.)

I leave for Palmdale, CA tomorrow morning. I still have a hundred things to do before then, so I'm off.

there was a shooting tonight in grand rapids at the small grocery store where i worked in high school (which happens to be quite close to my parent's house.) apparently three people tried to rob the store and the manager shot at least one of them. the suspect later died. that is just crazy! i really want to know which manager it was. i can't believe jeff (who was a manager when i worked there and is still there) would have done that.

http://fox17.trb.com/101306-wxmi-shooting,0,5937984.story?coll=wxmi-home-2

i like snow patrol. i bought the new decemberists cd this week. i also want to here more sufjan stevens.

i'm going to california for flight testing again. i leave on sunday. i have so much to get done before that.

i filled a prescription for the generic brand of seasonale (3 month b.c.) last night at rite aid. i got it home and i looked in the package and weeks 1-4 were missing. *grr* not to mention the packaging for the generic, called quasense, is total crap. it's box with two open sides and 3 cards held together at one corner sit inside the box. you rotate the card out of the open side to get out a pill. the box is flimsy plastic, and the cards are hard to pull out of the box. i would just separate the cards and cut off the corner of the one that has a plastic thing through it to hold it in the box, but then it would just be a blister pack with no protection from getting damaged if i put in with my toiletries or in my purse. *grumbles* if the boxes weren't so big, i wouldn't be as annoyed. i don't know why they can't package the 3 months separately, and not put them in a 4"x3"x1" box. not exactly discrete. btw, the seasonale box is the same size, but at least it's a real box and has 3 levels of pills that hinge on the back and the whole thing snaps shut (http://www.seasonale.com/).

so tonight after working a 12 hour day, i had to go back to the pharmacy and ask them to fix my prescription. apparently the missing card was just sitting out with the other quasense prescriptions. the pharmacist didn't even pull apart the packaging to put the card where it belonged, he just said he couldn't get it in and handed the card to me.... at least he apologized.

random picture from the frederik meijer gardens in grand rapids. go nature's engineer!

hi everyone. i haven't dropped off the face of the earth, really. i just don't post very often.

i have been knitting a lot lately, and i just posted some pictures of finished projects on flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kristinbear/

i had a good weekend. i finished the black afghan i've been working on friday night and watched the tigers beat up on the yankees. saturday i went to the museum of flight with my little sister. today i went to church. this afternoon i saw fly boys and went to rock bottom brewery for dinner. i probably should have done some work, but i needed my weekend. i've been really stressed with lots to do, so i really need to try hard to work some extra hours this week to get caught up on some things.

btw, go tigers! i am officially jumping back on the tiger bandwagon. i have always been a tiger supporter, but i stopped watching baseball after the strike and then when i picked it back up i was in boston and i was wooed by the red sox. i am still a red sox fan, but i will always have a place in my heart for the tigers. it was so great to hear ernie harwell do some announcing during the game on friday night. i <3 ernie harwell. i wish today's announcers were more like him and less obnoxious. i swear i need to learn spanish so i can listen on SAP instead of to the idiots on fox and espn. i especially can't stand joe morgan. it's like they are all in love with the yankees, even when the yankees lose. i digress. go tigers!

i'm off to bed. it's already past my bedtime. *grumbles* i hate the real world sometimes.

i've been hanging out watching football all day. i skipped heading to boeing field to watch the LCF land, because it was really early, and i'll get to see it when we're doing testing anyway. besides, the plane looks like a twinkie with 747 filling (http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2006/q3/060916a1_pr.html). i swear it will look better once it's painted in boeing livery, which is actually really pretty.

sweet, i was just looking for a picture of the boeing livery, and i found this corn maze up in snohomish! (http://www.stockerfarms.com/html/corn.asp) last year i went with kristine to the washington state corn maze (http://www.thefarm1.com/page2967.asp?pagename=Our%20Corn%20Maze) i'd like to get a group together and go again this year.

two new drinks that i like: i bought some juice + sparkling water called izze at costco. the flavors are clementine, blackberry, and pomegranate. it's really tasty. i am also trying a malt beverage today called peels. it's 100% fruit juice + alcohol. i bought a 4-pack of blueberry pomegranate. it's also tasty.

ok, i'm back to separation saturday and knitting a sweater for my cousin aaron & patrice's new little one, thomas. :-D

Last night I went to REI to see if they had any ski stuff yet. They were having their super clearance, and this softshell Marmot jacket was $42 on sale from $170. I couldn't resist.

i've joined the skiing community. i took skiing PE at school back in 2003, and i really enjoyed it, so i know i like skiing and want to do it more often. most of my friends out here ski or snowboard already. three of my mit friends all took lessons together last year, but i didn't go because i didn't really have the money to spend. now i can't say i really *should* spend money on skis and lift tickets, but i am anyway...

i went to skibonkers, a big tent sale this weekend. actually, i went friday night with shana, jose, and andrea, where i just looked around and others bought things. shana mostly wanted to go to buy a season pass for snoqualmie. i went back on saturday with ryan and agonized over whether is should buy skis or just do a season rental or something. jose, andrea, and shana all did that last year, but they all ended up buying their own gear at the end of the season. ryan ended up buying skis and boots and bindings on saturday, and because they were about to close we decided to come back today to get poles and a helmet for him and revisit the ski buying thing for me. so i slept on it, and i decided to just buy skis. *sigh* i'm really excited for skiing, but i'm loathe to spend lots of money. anyway, i bought skis and bindings ($280), boots ($190), poles ($35), socks ($10), and a helmet ($60 +tax for everything, so about $640 total). i also got a weekday ski pass for snoqualmie for $240 (it will pay for itself if we go 7 times).

now i'm back at work and should actually get something done. :)