and we're back. [Walt, Wizards, and....Woolungasaurus?]

[bumbershoot]

Oh yes the amount of vegetable oil was astonishing! I didn't really think about it *before* because I'm a naughty person who can't remember her nutrition classes when hungry, but after, especially while reading the comments, I realized it.

I didn't look at the portion size info, because our waffle maker isn't normal so I couldn't extrapolate. The batter is thick and doesn't come out easily so I had to kind of force it around the iron, and I never get a full waffle. But we split the waffles in 4ths b/c they are huge if I could ever get a full waffle.

Tracey did you ever go to Caffe Minnie's in Seattle near the Needle? It's gone now, and honestly it was getting pretty nasty towards the end, but they made the most incredible waffles. Skinny waffles, not belgian, and they put butter and powdered sugar, and then had lemons to squeeze on them, and they were *incredible*. Robert and my first date's third stop was there (after meeting for drinks then seeing a mutual friend/coworker/future wedding officiant's play). Anyway, one of the comments about the waffles was that she added lemon zest, and someone else talked about adding lemon extract, and mmmmm both sounded so good. Once I have a normal waffle maker, though.


I'll find the thread! Thanks for letting me know!

 

[bumbershoot]

"I want you to be nice until it's time to not be nice. " -Dalton, Patrick Swayze's character in Roadhouse


I am putting this quote into an email to my stepdad's wife in response to her continued public forwarded emails ("public" because she broadcasts everyone's email address).

It's not fun to do this! Moral support, please?

 

[kaoden39]

"I want you to be nice until it's time to not be nice. " -Dalton, Patrick Swayze's character in Roadhouse


I am putting this quote into an email to my stepdad's wife in response to her continued public forwarded emails ("public" because she broadcasts everyone's email address).

It's not fun to do this! Moral support, please?

My father in law used to do that we emailed with each other. He got mad when I told him to stop sending me inflammatory emails about my political choices. My cousin does it too. What is so hard about getting rid of all that? I stand in solidarity.

 

[bumbershoot]

I now have 3 emails started.

I don't know what to send.

Because I don't know what I want.

And I can't/don't want to get into it all that much here, b/c I don't want to offend, just like I don't want to offend her, even though she has NO problem repeatedly offending me.

Do I want to just tell her I'm blocking her email and then do it once I send the email? Do I want to tell her I *will* block her if she keeps doing it? But if I do that, then she might reply, and I know I won't read her reply (b/c I'm a weenie).

But I don't care about her.

Yet I hate burning bridges (having done it at two jobs...one b/c I absolutely could not go there one more day, the other b/c my mental health was at stake).

I'm just confused. No one can really help with this, so I'm just whining, and I DO appreciate the solidarity!!!!!

It just sucks that I'm actually quite respectful of her and my stepdad (so much so that we took some more "out there" stuff from our wedding vows so as to not offend...and then she didn't leave the hotel to come to our wedding/reception), but they are blatantly, vehemently, rabidly NOT respectful.

Sigh.




Oh, and I don't want to just delete her emails because that feels more disrespectful than actually discussing it with her. I know I'm abnormal.

 

[QueenDoOver]

They are the ones that have Mickey Mouse on the handle. I am guessing that they normally sell them during the fireworks and such.

We have one of those in our collection too!

Molly, never went to Minnie's, but after your description, I regret it! I admire your abnormality and need to discuss before acting. I am a coward and would go with delete, or block without discussion. PS My Dad sends me those, but I continually do not respond, and they have dwindled. Of course he does not ever send a chatty email to which I could respond. I likewise receive a lot of jokes, animal and cute kid pictures, good luck things etc. all of which I ignore and don't forward. Drives me batty really. Whatever you decide, I'm behind ya 100%!

PS I get the bad mother award today, as I sent my son to soccer camp with no sunscreen on and he got a sunburn. He did have his raincoat with him though! He assures me that he is ok though.

 

[bumbershoot]

My conviction has started to wane over the night. Didn't help that I had a long anxiety-filled dream that had my mom and my stepdad there with me...and I woke up directly from a conversation with my mom into the real world, and realized I seem to have developed a sneezy cold. Sigh.

Robert is working from home today, because he has a dental appointment today for work, and he has phobias, so took a valium last night and has to take another in a few minutes in preparation for not running screaming from the office. Anyway, so he was here to hang out with Eamon, so I could get a bit more sleep.

But it doesn't help my being bummed out about what I'm going to do about this person!

One email tries to reason, one email is nearly screaming at her, and the third email is a lecture.

I should just block her, but one of the issues is that she's just blindly forwarding, as most people do, which means I get a huge list of email addresses, and her contact list gets a huge list of emails including mine, and I just cannot stand that. I am SO careful with the email addresses of my friends and family. And she actually got a big computer virus and blamed it on hotmail, switching over to yahoo...never once thinking that it was those forwards that caused it!

 

[Brady's Mom]

This is the face I make when I get those forwarded emails. I HATE them! I finally told my mom to quit sending them to me - I didn't read them, ever and I hated having my email out there for everyone to see. I know that doesn't really help you since you don't have a very good relationship - but maybe simple will work.

"I NEVER read the forwarded emails that you send, because I think they are a waste of time and would appreciate it if you would take me off your forward list. I don't want a whole bunch of people I don't know to have my email address." Could work??? Maybe??? I don't know??? Just a thought.

Then, if she doesn't, you could block her. Forever. And Ever.

I hope R had a good dental visit. We totally love our dentist and he has done some super good work for my DH, who has some teeth issues. He's even done a root canal on my oldest's front tooth without anesthesia. He said the shots would hurt more than the pressure from the drill and the work he was doing since the root was already dead. He was right!

And, living in a house full of boys we seem to always have epic battles and great imaginative play. Lots of fighting and winning and fort building and such. DS 21 still has a great imagination.

 

[bumbershoot]

Shannon, that might work. Though I've already explained clearly about the email address thing, and she promised to "change her wicked ways", but she never did.

I'm just too nice to family. I will give them a million chances. If I really dug down deep, I would say that I don't care if I ever see my stepdad or his wife again...but the problem is that stepdad is actually also a stepcousin (divorced people with grown kids and grandkids remarried a billion years ago, linking the families and making my him and my mom stepcousins), so he's in my family...

He also did quite a bit for my brother, and, sort of, for me.

And there's a health complication with her, and I don't know if she's just desperate to do anything but think about her situation while waiting for chemo or surgery...I don't want to upset her (though she has no issues upsetting me repeatedly...I did mention she chose to not leave the hotel room for our wedding, yes?).

AUGH.

But yours is probably the most calm.

Though I do want to lecture her. The problem was...one of the emails she sent was titled "wedding photo", and I thought it was a wedding photo! But all it was was a forwarded email of a supposed religious wedding (not HER religion of course) with around 10 couples, making nasty fun of the clothing the brides were wearing. And that's just too mean for me to deal with. (and it was one of SIX forwarded emails, with no personal note from her, just that DAY)

PLus, most of her forwards are complete fabrications. She's a total grownup, she should know better!



Because I've been off kilter all day, and because R was on valium, neither of us made sure to bring the flex card to the dental appt. So we had to pay the entire amount we owed, instead of just the third we were going to pay OOP (and in TWO appointments, Robert's dental insurance is tapped out until next April, UGH). And that has made my universe MUCH more complicated.


But the appointment went well, and I don't think he's as phobic anymore. I really hope he doesn't have to be on valium for the next appt.

Of course, who knows when that will be? Eh I'll just have to make room in the budget. It's not cool to have a big Disney trip while neglecting his teeth. But he has two more 2 hour appointments, which will cost over 1000 each, and then one smaller appointment for a few hundred. That's if we do it before the next plan year and pay OOP.

And then, once everything is fixed? The 3 teeth-scraping (root planing?) appointments.


I gotta fix the bank account mess I made...then maybe I'll be able to think about WDW etc!

 

[Brady's Mom]

Double YIKES!! I hate it when stuff like that happens. And reading about how much $$ this is for you OOP makes me even more grateful for our Dental plan. It is staying the same this Fiscal Year, but our Health coverage is changing drastically and it is freaking me out! I can feel your health care pain!

We've done a bunch of DL trips and put some other things on the back burner, and now we are handling those, but I would just sometimes rather keep them on the back burner instead and just go to DL!

And can I just vent that having a dominant personality 21 yr. old in my house after him being gone for 2 years is requiring some adjustment on my part!! I love, love, love the boy, but he needs to make some serious goals instead of moping around about his life - he's driving me crazy!

He's a big picture before details kind of guy and hasn't decided on his big picture, yet. He has a possible direction - but hasn't decided whether that's the way he wants to go and then he waffles and thinks that maybe he should go this other direction. And he hates his job, and he wants a girlfriend, and he wants more money, and school is driving him crazy.......sigh....

Okay, thanks for the space to vent....we now return to our regularly scheduled pre-trip report.....

 

[bumbershoot]

He's a big picture before details kind of guy and hasn't decided on his big picture, yet.

Definitely not a fun place to be for him.

And similar to this issue with my stepdad's wife! I need the big picture; what do I want for the future of this relationship, before I can figure out what to say to her.


When I was in college and coming home etc etc, I never realized the impact that I must have had on the family. I never realized the impact of my being *gone* was having, until just this year, when I finally started thinking about it. It must have been so weird... And I was a huge pain b/c they had moved to the east coast while I went to school on the west, so I would stay on west coast time for most of the break. Bedtime around 3am, waking up, unless I was working early (I always worked over summer breaks, always), around noon...what a pain I must have been!

 

[kaoden39]

I am always amazed at the price of the dentist. Nothing like being a captive audience.

 

[bumbershoot]

Well, he had neglected his teeth quite a bit. And most of the cavities are in between teeth, which takes longer.

That said...a lot of it is genetics. I neglected my teeth for nearly as long, and had no problems like he's had. On the other hand, after his last dental appointment when E was new, he drank a LOT of sodas, before realizing that he really cannot have mainstream (HFCS) soda, and can only have cane sugar soda in extreme moderation (is there such a thing?). So maybe that soda destroyed things?

Heck, maybe the last dentist, in the extreme, ONE visit, deep cleaning of his teeth, messed them up BIG time, thereby causing this to happen? We can't find a dentist who will do it in ONE visit, they all insist on at least 3, so maybe she had lost her mind and did it wrong?

I dunno. But it's a lot of work, a lot of cavities, and a lot of moola! That's why it has taken me a year to talk him into starting, because he hated the idea of spending even more money on his health, plus he wasn't sure that he trusted my dentist (who is also my best friend's dentist).

Poor dude.

 

[kaoden39]

Poor guy. I feel for him. When I was so sick in 2006/2007 and was constantly (to put this as delicately as I can)praying to the porcelain God, my teeth really suffered through it. They have broken and degraded down to awfulness. I am going to have to have them all pulled and get dentures. I have held off as long as I can. I got hurt real bad by a dentist as a child and I have not been real good about going back since being sick. So I really feel for R.

 

[QueenDoOver]

Oh Dear. I can't keep up! I do agree that teeth are a lot about genetics though and also offer my sympathies to R and to the bank account. Poor Nathan has very defective enamal and even sealants won't stick to it. Already he has to have his back molars filled, and they just came in! It makes me feel bad as a Mom though!

 

[bumbershoot]

Poor guy. I feel for him. When I was so sick in 2006/2007 and was constantly (to put this as delicately as I can)praying to the porcelain God, my teeth really suffered through it. They have broken and degraded down to awfulness. I am going to have to have them all pulled and get dentures. I have held off as long as I can. I got hurt real bad by a dentist as a child and I have not been real good about going back since being sick. So I really feel for R.

Oh you poor thing! I'm sure your dentist isn't a big fan of the denture idea...I was having pain in one tooth (for over a year, and he never found anything wrong, but then the pain just stopped) and was saying "oh just pull it" and he nearly fell over, thinking about purposely pulling teeth.

But if they really got that bad, then there might be no choice... Being hurt as a child is why Robert hates the dentist so much. And it's why he's got two valiums in his system by the time he goes there, to keep him calm. Thankfully they prop his mouth open, because he falls asleep! Which is better than being wide awake, feeling everything, because they missed his nerves and wouldn't believe him...

Oh Dear. I can't keep up! I do agree that teeth are a lot about genetics though and also offer my sympathies to R and to the bank account. Poor Nathan has very defective enamal and even sealants won't stick to it. Already he has to have his back molars filled, and they just came in! It makes me feel bad as a Mom though!

Oh I know it makes you feel bad. Even when it's just not your fault. You know, I haven't gone to extreme measures, but there are people who talk about some serious nutrition methods to help teeth heal from things like what Nathan is experiencing. I am a member (though I don't participate anymore) of a yahoo group called "veryyoungkidsteeth", and they talk about all sorts of wild things. And they are big proponents of xylitol gum, even for little kids.

Hey, in case you're in the market for a new ped dentist and want to venture to Edmonds (you're north of it, right?), E's dentist is going to be starting full time at his own practice (he's leaving the near-Tacoma practice where he was an associate while starting his own practice which is finally "taking off") up there. Ben Sun is his name and he's wonderful. And he likes Disney. He's young though! Since he's only been out of school a few years, he might have some new tricks for Nathan...maybe.

 

[kaoden39]

No, he isn't but my teeth are so degraded after all the acids that they have had to deal with.

 

[heatherleigh]

Your poor hubby! I can relate. I don't take any medication ahead of time, but I'm always sure to get nitrous (even for cleanings). I am not certain why I have such a fear of the dentist... I didn't get my first cavity until 2 1/2 yrs ago, which I attribute to one of my pregnancies. I got another one the following year as well. I did have to get a few teeth pulled because of crowding when I was younger, so that may have contributed to my fears.

I cannot believe what the pediatric dentist charges here. Fortunately we have good insurance, but they charged over $700 for 4 small fillings on my 4-yr old. I have a feeling they over-billed the insurance co.

 

[bumbershoot]

I cannot believe what the pediatric dentist charges here. Fortunately we have good insurance, but they charged over $700 for 4 small fillings on my 4-yr old. I have a feeling they over-billed the insurance co.

Yowza!

 

[bumbershoot]

Just posted this in Sherry's report, don't think I mentioned it here:


The other day Eamon told me that I was "addicted" to beer because I have one "almost every day". He said it loudly and clearly, and there were others in the aisle. The beer aisle.

Let me reiterate that I will have ONE, 1, on most days. One! Sometimes none. Every so often, two. And I'm not altered by it. And I left the aisle with NO beer, because my preferred brand (Newcastle) wasn't there. Harumph!



Worked out 5 days this week, wow! And Robert worked out 3, which is great! I've been insisting that we get him hotels with pools and/or workout rooms, and he's getting better about working out on trips, but it's still hard to combat travel fatigue, long airplane trips and the dehydration that goes along with those, and restaurant foods. He wants to get back into a habit, because he has goals (not being ashamed, not worrying about plane trips, going on Harry Potter's Forbidden Journey, fitting in to all of his clothes again, impressing his endocrinologist, and many others), and I'm trying to support him, so even though I was really tired after just a few minutes, I stuck it out and did the hour (as did he!) on the elliptical while E played in their free playroom (it's all sort of a family-friendly workout room).


I've been slowly reading my Passporter, page by page. It's going slow. But I'm sure it will be worth it in the end. Strangely, I keep getting called away from it by a book I'm reading, Emma by Jane Austen. Doesn't seem I ever read it in school, though of course I've read P&P, and I never saw Emma either. I know now that it's the basis of Clueless, which amuses me. I just am constantly amazed at how little really changes, even while clothes, ways of communication, modesty, and behaviour change. Aren't half the threads on the Community Board about women who are as self-centered as Mrs Elton???


I tell you, we are so lucky to have this place for as long as we rent it... I'm sitting in the dining room at the table, and there's a window right in my eyesight.

Just enough zoom to get rid of the mess around it...

And tilting the camera while tossing some more zoom on it...my view.

So stinking lucky.

 

[kaoden39]

What a great view. Wow. Great work out too.