Postatem obscuri lateris nescitis.
“You do not know the power of the DarkSide.”
There are two possibilities:
you are a Star Wars geek,
or you are unreasoningly scary.

Which Weird Latin Phrase Are You?
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Had an interesting weekend. Michael ended up having to work Saturday and Sunday (Murphy’s Law: Whatever can possibly go wrong, will, and did.) which was bad, but on the other end of the spectrum, not only did I get to see Del and family for the smallest one’s birthday (Two. A very important birthday!) Andy and Heather were also in briefly, so I got to see them as well.

It was a strange weekend. No husband for most of the weekend, but I got to see old friends. Enjoyed seeing old friends, but felt strangely disconnected, as our lives are so different now it’s always a bit of a shock when memory and reality collide. The whole thing left me with a strange feeling of loneliness.

Of course my mood could partially be due to the fact that I have a midterm in 30 minutes, and have felt no inclination to study.

Also, tonight Barry Scheck from the Innocence Project speaks for the Festival of Ideas. 7:30 at the Mountainlair. We’re going, but right now, as tired as we are, I’m not 100% certain we’ll stay for the entire thing.

You are Rerun!
Which Peanuts Character are You?
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Odd dream again last night. I pulled out one of the more coherent and amusing parts to write up.

There were even stranger parts about the house filling up with foam as a result, but that was weird even for me, so I left everything else out.

And in case it isn’t clear, this was one of those dreams where I was a guy. Not a clue, of course, as to what I looked like. I hope it was ruggedly handsome.

I don’t know if it’s the weather, or not getting enough sleep over the weekend, but I just feel tired today. And tired makes me feel stupid–as if my brain has dribble out my ears.

I had aspirations of spending today’s down-time working on school projects, but I fear that anything I may have written probably borders of gobbledy-gook, and will need major damage control when my brain comes back from vacation.

I’d go for a caffeine infusion, except that 1) My co-workers have forbidden me to have caffeine while they must be around me and 2) I have to sit still for three hours of policy class this afternoon.

Let’s hope that my habit of constantly asking questions in class will let me off the hook for today, and that I can sit there and remain quiet without saying something that will make me look like a fool.

Perhaps.

Grandmom looked surprisingly good, and was in good spirits. This was a tremendous relief, although she did say she was still a little tired.

I am, however, more worried than ever about her going up and down the basement stairs to do laundry. If she were to suffer a bout of weakness while going up or down the stairs, she could tumble down and no one would know until Aunt Doris called and Grandmom didn’t answer. I realized that this means someone would probably be alerted within the hour, but it still worries me. (Yes, Aunt Doris really does call that frequently.)

It was also very good to see her. Just because.

On the food front, Dad got take-out from G & M’s on Saturday (crabcakes) and we stopped at Kibbie’s on the way out of town (crabcakes again).

For an unexpected trip it was pleasant, although tiring.

Grandmom is doing okay. Her pluse rate has slowed to about 80, although her heart rate is still irregular. She hopes to get out of the hospital today, but won’t know for certain until she talks to the doctor.

Plans are that my Dad and I will go to Baltimore over the weekend. Michael is on call so he can’t leave town, and he needs the car in case he gets a call, so if Dad can’t go, then I’ll stay home.

If I go Michael gets to give Slate her medication all by herself. (Ha!) But it’s tuna flavored, so it might be okay. I gave her the first dose yesterday, and she didn’t seem to care for having the dropper forced into her mouth, but didn’t seem to mind the medicine. I suppose we’ll get quite good at it as time goes on.

And that’s about it. Agatha Christie beat out the brownies, which is healthier I suppose, but I still want yummy sweets.

And that’s the update. I’ve been keeping an ear on what’s been happening with the Democratic Primary, but it’s unlikey we get any say in the matter, so it’s hard to care much. Just as long as the Democrats elect someone who can beat Bush. That’s all I care about.

Talk about being a single issue voter.

Had a bizarre dream last night. Most of it was incoherent bits and pieces taken from things I read throughout the day, making my normally surreal dreams even moreso. One part, however, stuck with me long after waking.

Walked in the door after picking Michael up from work and the phone almost immediately started ringing. Never a good sign.

Grandmom is in the hospital. She went to the doctor today (regular appointment) and after an EKG, her doctor put her in the hospital. Not ambulanced over kind of emergency, but she’ll be there until Friday at least.

Her blood pressure was relatively low for her (still too high, but…) and her pulse was fast. The doctor said her heart was fibrillating, which is bad, because if they don’t control it, she could have a stroke. That definitely falls into the realm of Bad Things. They’re keeping her, she said, until Friday at least, and putting her on coumadin and Something Else, and they don’t want her to leave until they get things stabilized.

However, she sounded good, although tired when I called her. Aunt Doris and cousin Pat were there, and my Aunt was on her way, although she told my Aunt not to come up, that it wasn’t serious. I’m planning on calling my dad in a little bit, to find out if he’s going up, perhaps this weekend.

And, when talking to Grandmom, she handed the phone to cousin Pat, so she could tell me her latest oncologist report, which is that although her surgical spots looked good, the CAT scan found a spot on her lung and a spot on her liver. Don’t know anything more than that, except that this too falls into the category of Bad Thing.

Right now it’s a toss up between making a pan of brownies, or a hot shower and curling up in bed with one of my favorite books.

Well, they say that the morning is wiser than the evening. We’ll hope that is so.

Your Brain Usage Profile

Auditory : 41%
Visual : 58%
Left : 61%
Right : 38%

michelle, you are somewhat left-hemisphere dominant and show a preference for visual learning, although not extreme in either characteristic. You probably tend to do most things in moderation, but not always.

Your left-hemisphere dominance implies that your learning style is organized and structured, detail oriented and logical. Your visual preference, though, has you seeking stimulation and multiple data. Such an outlook can overwhelm structure and logic and create an almost continuous state of uncertainty and agitation. You may well suffer a feeling of continually trying to “catch up” with yourself.

Your tendency to be organized and logical and attend to details is reasonably well-established which should afford you success regardless of your chosen field of endeavor. You can “size up” situations and take in information rapidly. However, you must then subject that data to being classified and organized which causes you to “lose touch” with the immediacy of the problem.

Your logical and methodical nature hamper you in this regard though in the long run it may work to your advantage since you “learn from experience” and can go through the process more rapidly on subsequent occasions.

You remain predominantly functional in your orientation and practical. Abstraction and theory are secondary to application. In keeping with this, you focus on details until they manifest themselves in a unique pattern and only then work with the “larger whole.”

With regards to your career choices, you have a mentality that would be good as a scientist, coach, athlete, design consultant, or an engineering technician. You can “see where you want to go” and even be able to “tell yourself,” but find that you are “fighting yourself” at the darndest times.

I used to be more right brained when I took tests like this. I suppose this is what working with computers all the time does to you.

And, ahem… Tendency to be organized? Tendency? (giggle)

(via Old Oligarch)

Very nice Valentine’s Day Eve post from Eve at Body and Soul.

She says it far more succinctly and eloquently than I can.

You’d better not drive in Finland.

Yup. It’s the weekend. Slacking has occurred.

Highlight was stopping by the comic book store to see Erin yesterday. She’s working at the comic book store and tending bar part time, so you have to hunt her down if you want to see her. We finally cornered her at the comic book store. Well, okay, I went to see Erin, Michael went to peruse the goods. He purchased something, but don’t ask me what, since I don’t have a clue, other than it was Japanese, and I think you have to read it backwards.

Have not yet heard anything from the vet, I presume that will happen tomorrow.

ACK!

I just glanced at the calendar, and realized that there are a bunch of birthdays coming up, several of which require me to get packages in the mail, since the gifts are for kids. I knew I should have been in the kid’s section last time we were at the book store. Three kid’s books this month, another next month, then I get a break until May when it seems like everyone has a kid with a birthday. Any good suggestions for kid’s books (five and under) will be appreciated!

And that’s the end of the excitement. Made a pot of chili and a lasagna and Michael made a batch of hummus, so dinner is taken care of for the week. At least I hope so. My cooking doesn’t often involve receipes, so my last batch of chili wasn’t very good. I tried to be moderate this time. (Secret: Unsweetened chocolate.) I added a little less molasses, and more olive oil. We’ll see.

It snowed off and on yesterday, and although the snow was quite pretty, there wasn’t a lot of it, and you could see the grass poking through in the yard. Of course this doesn’t displease Michael, since he’s the one that has to shovel the snow. (Don’t misunderstand me, I can, and do shovel snow, but unfortunately I shovel snow about as well as I chop wood. I can get the job done, but it takes me a ridiculously long time compared to a normal human being.)

Oh yeah, the cooking reminds me, I’m looking for a receipe for lemon cake (besides a box cake) I love lemon cake, but can’t seem to find a receipe for one. If anyone has a suggestion for one they’ve tried, please let me know.