New Additions

This is Borrowed Daughter and her new little friend Revlis. (Borrowed Daughter is the one on the left.)

Borrowed Daughter has decided to brave the wilds here in BananaLand so she can go to school. She wants to be a chef, and wants to attend Le Cordon Bleu. And they happen to have a campus in this area, so we offered her the opportunity of living amongst us in order to go to school.

Silly girl, I mean brave girl, thought that sounded like a good idea.

Revlis is to help make the transition a little easier. She had to leave behind her 2 cats in order to come here. Grown cats don't transplant well, especially to a house that already has pets.

Surly Teenagers friend's cat had had a litter of kittens. Surly Teenager had snuck the kitty into her room and it had been living here for a couple of days before I even noticed. When I started to turn blue and my head started to spin around in circles Surly Teenager said all innocently, batting her eyes, "But we could give it to Borrowed Daughter, so she won't be sad."

Hmph. Pretty sneaky sis.

Unstuffed

All going bye-bye.

I-N-T-R-O-D-U-C-I-N-G.........

(....drumroll please....)

The newest FF/EMT-P for Burnet Texas:

Maybe

My acid reflux got worse. Even with taking the Prilosec my doctor
recommended. I even increased the dose to 2 a day. That helped some.
But one night I woke up choking from spaghetti flavored "vurpy"
stuff burning my throat.

Plus that Prilosec is fairly expensive.

I called the doctor and made an appointment to get some fluid removed
from my band, to see if that would help. He removed .2 cc's.

And the reflux went away.

But so did all of my restriction. I can eat any amount of anything.
And I am hungry again. All. The. Time.

I called my insurance company and explained to them how I have
developed the hiatal hernia, but in order to have it fixed, my lap
band has to be removed. Not because it is defective and I need a new
one. Not because I want an upgrade to the lastest version (well, I
do, but not just because of that). But because it is in the way for
the surgeon to do the hernia repair. And because the lap bands are
designed as a use once item, once it is "opened" to be removed, he
can't just put it back on. He has to put in a different one.

Will it be covered?

I was put on hold for quite awhile. The answer they came back with: MAYBE.

They recommended that my doctor submit a request for predetermination
and then I will get a yes or no in 4-6 weeks.

So basically, my fate will depend on who gets the request and what
mood they are in on the day they read it. Are they happy because they
are about to leave on vacation, so they are just sitting at their desk
day dreaming of being on a beach somewhere, and just stamping APPROVED
on everything that comes across their desk because it is easier?

Or are they pissed off because they didn't get a raise, they had a
fight with their spouse that morning before leaving the house and it
made them feel insignificant, so in order to prove the have POWER,
they just stamp DENIED on everything that crosses their desk. Just
because they can.

All I know is that I can't stnd being hungry all the time like this.
I got used to NOT being hungry, except when I should be.

If I let him do the surgery to fix the hernia, and he takes out my
band. It would only be a matter of time before I put the weight back
on and then met the criteria to have another lap band put in. It
would save a lot of time and aggrivation if they would just go ahead
and pay for it.

Buried Alive

I love my puppy doggie Haylie.

She is a really good dog. She doesn't hardly ever bark, so when she does I know she means it. She doesn't lick your face, so I don't have to worry about the nasty "doggie french kiss" that can happen with overly licky dogs. She is good about staying off of the furniture - well except for Hubby's recliner and that's his own fault for letting her sit up there in his lap. She doesn't get in the garbage or eat food left in her reach - unless it's popcorn, whatever you do DO NOT set your popcorn bowl on the floor if you get up to go to the bathroom. She rides well in the car. She will either lay down on the seat or look out the window and is not the least bit interested in sticking her head out the window. If you roll down a window for her she will look at you like "why are making it windy in here?" and lay down.

She has one major flaw though - HAIR. Oh my goodness the shedding!

It never goes completely away but in the spring and summer, holy moly do we get buried alive in the dog hair.

We went out of town Friday midmorning. Before I left I went around and picked up the big dog hair clumps. We came home the next night. We were gone maybe 36 hours. Look at all the hair that accumulated in that time. (The can is for size reference.)

Then this morning I again went around and picked up the dog hair clumps. This is about 9 hours after the first round-up.

In the past 48 hours, she has shed enough hair to make a Chihuahua.

Gots To Have Your Priorities

A homeless person. See the cart of stuff.

On their LAPTOP.

Sitting outside of a restaurant with free WiFi.

I guess being able to update your Facebook status is more important than having a roof over your head.

ESCAPE!

My mom is doing rehab in a nursing home after a bout of pneumonia. The nursing home she is in is an older one, and smaller than previous ones she has stayed in. But it does have some dementia patients, so all the exits have electronic keypads and you have to key in a code to be able to leave without setting off the alarm.

I went to visit my mom tonight and had a couple of bags of requested stuff in my hands. I go in the front door, being sure to keep hold of the door so I can pull it closed so no one could escape.

I practically get ran over by a little old black lady as she tries to get around me.

I pulled the door closer to me and don't let her pass. She says something to me as she tries to go around me. I think she said something about needing me to hold the door for her but I wasn't sure because she had her head down and she was about 6 inches shorter than me and I am pretty sure I am going deaf in my old age.

I said politely, no ma'am I don't think I can do that, and I tried to pull the door closed.

She said something else I couldn't make out, so I bent over some so I could hear her better (and I noticed her slippered feet) and asked her what she had said. She repeated that she had to get home, she lived right around the corner.

I told her I didn't think so and she was all surprised and said what, but I live around the corner. I pointed at her feet and said but you're wearing slippers.

At this point, in the back of my mind, I started wondering if I was wrong and if maybe she was just visiting and did just live around the corner. I look around for someone else to ask if she is a resident or not, but no one is there.

Luckily, by this time the alarm on the door has started to go off because I have been holding the door open for longer than 15 seconds.

And then she shoved me! She didn't look like she would be very strong but she knocked me off balance and went zipping out the door.

I had a moment of indecision then. Do I go after her and try and bring her back? Just how much can I do without getting in trouble since I don't work for the nursing home?

I looked back at the lady and she was doing a fairly slow old lady shuffle, so I decided she wouldn't be able to get too far. I took off down the hallway to find someone who did work there.

Someone was already running towards the front door and the alarm. I told them I was just coming to get help and that she was right outside the front door. When the worker opened the door to go out I could see the lady, so I was right, she hadn't gotten far, thank goodness.

But let this be a lesson to you: Never under estimate the power of crazy - especially when they are making a break for FREEDOM!