Went to the doc today, and got two new prescriptions.

One is for an SSRI I’ve been on before. The other is for an older anti-depressant that I am to take a small dose of before bed, to see if sleeping better also makes me feel better.

All I can say is this couldn’t come soon enough, because I am really damned tired of being irritable and depressed.

Lemon Jumbles

Michael wanted lemon cookies, and the other recipe I love required refrigeration, so I decided to try lemon jumbles again.

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Temperatures are in the mid to low 50s. It’s raining.

I suggest we cancel the remainder of the day and all go back bed.

And all from my yard.

We have several lavender plants along the driveway. It’s nice to be able to stop and smell the lavender on the way to work.
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Today has been busy in a rather boring way. The biggest excitement was getting “Furminator” for Kat and taking him outside for a good brushing. I highly recommend the Furminator for cats if you have a cat with a thick coat. Kit’s fur is thin and fine, so the tool won’t be going near her, but Kat has a very thick coat and sheds like nobody’s business.

Otherwise, we spent four hours getting lunch and running errands with Grandmom. No gardening done yet–perhaps around six or so. Or perhaps I’ll just nap.

If you desperately want something to read, I do have two new book reviews up.

Hope your Saturday has been pleasant.

When she doesn’t think we’re going to grab her and put her in the basement, Kit can really relax.

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Switching back to mysteries, another series I’ve thoroughly enjoyed recently is Donna Leon‘s Commissario Guido Brunetti series. The books are set in Venice, where Brunetti lives with his wife and two children, and is a vice-Commissario of the Venice police.

First of all, Brunetti loves Venice, so we get lots of descriptions of the city, from someone who recognizes the many flaws of his home, but loves it anyway.

Second of all, Brunetti loves to eat, so we got lots of descriptions of meals and food.

Third, Italy is a very different place from the US, and corruption that would astonish Americans is par for the course. Bribes are the way to get things done, and who you know is often far more important than what you know and what your abilities are. As such, these stories are often quite different from American mysteries, in that we may learn who the criminal was, but it is rare that true justice is served.

This is not, however, as depressing as it sounds. Brunetti is a good father, a good husband, and a good man. He recognizes that he lives and works in an imperfect state, but does his job anyway. Additionally, Donna Leon writes with a light touch, and subjects that could become overwhelmingly depressing are lightened up to a small degree by Brunetti’s love for his city (and for his family).

And of course the mysteries are good. In the first book in the series, the murder occurs at La Fenice, the world famous opera house in Venice. (This setting became even more interesting after reading John Berendt‘s City of Falling Angels, which looks in some detail at the fire that burned down La Fenice and the reconstruction afterward.

But one of the best things in the stories is Brunetti’s relationship with Paola. Despite having teenage children, Guildo and his wife remain in love with each other. Not to say they don’t have their ups and downs, but it’s nice to read a mystery where the marriage is one of the strengths of the books, even while that relationship is not idealized. (Both Paola and Brunetti can be difficult and irritate each other, but it never lasts.) And I think that relationship makes the resolution (or lack there of) of the mysteries easier to take.

Commissario Guido Brunetti: Death at La Fenice (1992), Death in a Strange Country (1993), Dressed for Death (1994), Death and Judgment (1995), Acqua Alta (1996), Quietly in Their Sleep (1997), Friends in High Places (2000), Uniform Justice (2003), Doctored Evidence (2004), Blood from a Stone (2005), Through a Glass, Darkly (2006), Suffer the Little Children (2007)

If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you’ll see that I’ve finally managed to get the footer look the way I want it.

Like the content section and sidebars, the bottom section floats to the left, and I used the background element in the style sheet to make the image stretch across the page (except in very very very wide monitors).

IE doesn’t look quite right, but this isn’t unusual, and really, if you have the option, switch to Firefox or Safari or even (gag) Opera. They’re much better browsers and will render HTML, XHTML, and CSS correctly, which IE simply remains unable to do.

I’ve got nothing. I’ve got less than nothing.

Have a game of word association.

And today we’ll start with…

pudding

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No, I’m not mad at you. Unless you’re GW Bush or Dick Cheney, in which case I’ve still got some residual hostility, so you should probably stay away.

I am, however, still feeling crappy and brain dead and the depression decided to add a good dose of paranoid to the mix, so I’m pretty much not commenting much right now, because everything I say sounds wrong or mean or just plain horrible. So I’m not dissing your site, I just don’t have anything coherent to say.

I’m extremely tired of this stupid crap my brain is pulling on me.

I hate the fact that guilt is the determining factor for my getting out of bed and eating lunch and doing just about anything right now. People depend upon me, so that gets me out of bed and to work and through the day.

But I know–I remember–that there can be more to life that acting simply to stave off guilt.

Anyway, what do you feel guilty about? Anyone care to out petty me?

I’m currently at the point where it feels like every day is a struggle.

Saturday night I didn’t even want to get off the sofa to shower and go to bed–and a hot shower is usually my favorite point of the day. I’ve got a week and a half till I go back to the doc and can hopefully get my meds changed.

Wish it was this week, because I am really sick and tired of being cranky and irritable and miserable and incoherent and just plain depressed.

To add insult to injury, Grandmom keeps thinking I’m mad at her, because I’m not talkative. It’s almost enough to make me want to take up residence in the basement, just so I’m not reminded of how badly I’m failing to deal with this damned bout of depression.

But it’s the start of another week, and I will keep plodding, knowing that at some point I get to switch from existing to truly living.

That day cannot come soon enough.

I’ll keep posting throughout the week, but don’t expect brilliance or anything. At the very least I’ll try to post pictures.

Or if you’re really unlucky, I’ll post code.

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