"Workin' for the man ev'ry night and day..."

Okay...

Here are the highlights of the weekend adventures with Pappy and Mara.  Emily needs to come home more often...

Love gone wrong...sadly

 Wing-ed rat...creepy glowing red eyes - staring at me...

The cat that we realized wasn't a cat - but a ripped window blind...

Everyone thought it was a beautiful day for a stroll in the park...

I see you...

 St. Elmo's without the fire (thankfully)...

This one's not doing too much "rollin' on the river"...

Goodwill creepiness x's 2...

First ice cream of the season (I almost couldn't finish it!!)...

 I love trees...

" Though it's cold and lonely in the deep dark night..."

So...

Shenanigans going on at work this past week or so.  They removed my supervisor without so much as a howdy-do.  The company I work for has a policy in which they will remove people from their posts but they will not inform anyone as to why.  So...here we go.  More overtime to cover the missing person - as if 7 days a week weren't enough already.  Now I get some 12 hour days in there, too.  Whatever happened to job security, where a company took care of it's associates, treated them like people and not just a warm body to fill a position?  I don't feel quite as stressed at this post, but it always seems like we are "out of sight, out of mind".

Anyway...this dumb brace is interfering with my relationship with Chuck.  I am having a difficult time maintaining a cuddling embrace on my main man's sturdy little body.  The result - a couple of barely in focus photos of the Phlox and Azaleas in the front yard.  (Well...maybe if I had put down my 10lb. purse and 20lb. backpack, too...)  It will just take a little time to adjust - I hope.

I can't decide if the colors are so ridiculously blown out here or if it is just my computer (or eyes).  I mean, the Phlox are a bright pink variegated and the Azaleas are a shocking magenta/fuchsia and the early morning sun makes the color explode but the photos look like they are strobing off the monitor.  I don't know...maybe it's just me but every time I take a photo of these Azaleas it looks wonky.  I threw a B&W one in there, too, for comparison - meh.  The last one kind of make the stamens look like little glowing fiber optics.

Get Along, Little Dogies...

So...

You know I'm hurting a little when we spend the whole day treasure hunting and I only manage to shoot 27 photos...total.  Hopefully, this situation will improve and my thumb will recover adequately. 

Nevertheless...here are today's gems.  Pure silliness - all around.  At least we're enjoying ourselves.

Pinecone = free range...

Why, yes...it does.  Very, very much...

And Pappy, scouring the booths for his Raylan Givens look (I think he needs a chin strap)...

"Yer a persistent cuss, Pilgrim...."

No words....

Lil' devil...

And my own little Pancho Villa..

Now I know it's spring...Dogwoods are blooming...

And what's with all the IHop-ing?  That place should be my mortal enemy!!  Filled with all that "Devil's Blood"...

“Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.”

So...

This has been a particularly boring week.  I mean really boring.  The only significant bit was my appointment with the hand surgeon.  The reason I can no longer hold Chuck comfortably is because I have osteoarthritis in my thumb.  

First, the P.A. lady was wriggling my thumb around making it hurt, then the Xray chick was moving it in weird positions (I told her it hurt and when she did it again I said, "I can reach you, ya know...").  When the Doctor came in he had the P.A. cut off all of my bracelets and then HE dug in.  Yikes.  O.M.G.  He actually made me cry...not by the diagnosis but by repeatedly "manipulating" the area where the pain originates.  No lie...it hurt my heart.  I remember him saying something about wearing a soft splint for 3 weeks and coming back for a steroid injection in the joint but I can't really be sure.  I was in a daze staring out the window, cradling my poor arm and trying to keep the snot from running down my face.  I know I made an appointment (and that nice lady gave me some tissues) so I guess we'll see in 3 weeks.  I requested my xrays be added to my patient profile online so if they do it I'll post them on here....they're cool looking.

Well...here are all THREE (weak) photos I have.  The first is from the stormy night and me taking photos of the diamonds on the door.  The second is from more thrifting adventures and the third is Mr. Peepers - eyeballing me while we waited an interminable amount of time in Taco Bell's drive-thru.  The person two cars ahead of us must have ordered something exotic (come on...it's freaking Taco Bell!!).  I think they had to go out back and kill the tacos for their order or something.  Geez.  As you can probably tell...I am an Immediate Gratification Queen - of the drive-thru.

While visions of Sugar Plums danced in their head...

So....

It was a weekend of adventures.  We went: thrifting, Saturday driving, visiting, IHOP-ing, Sunday driving, more thrifting, Taco Bell-ing and Kroger-ing.  Somewhere in there I worked and slept a few hours.

"And Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeiiiiiiieeeeiiiiiii Will Always Loooove Youuuuuuuooouuuu......"

Holy. Crap.

What a fool I was today to listen to ANY rendition of that song...thanks little German girl with the voice of an angel.  Butthead.  (I like Dolly's version best.)

Well...it's been a quiet couple of days.  Work.  Jungle Jim's field trip.  Lunch at Panera.  Picking up Mara from school.  Lunch in the car.  Doctor appointments for Mara and me.

Mara is doing fine.  This doctor (not the surgeon) told her if the tumor had been removed at the originally specified location, such a large empty area would have been left that an implant would have been required to fill it.  So...she is perfectly happy with a scar and no implant.

My doctor is sending me to a hand surgeon for my poor thumb.  I have been at the point, for some time, where I can hardly hold Chuck.  The joint is so swollen that it is the cause of some concern to Dr. Tracy.  I told him I thought it was just arthritis and the sweet little fellow told me I'm just too young to be having that ailment.  What a nice guy!!  Well....we'll see what the other dude says. 

So...here are the photos from the weekend and such.

At work, we have this funky camera which seems to have a mind of its own.  It is Pan/Tilt/Zoom and it does all 3 functions randomly...all - day - long.  It's very annoying and can make your head hurt if you stare at it too long.  Here is one really cool shot I saw out of the corner of my eye the other night.

Jungle Jim's trip (I'm like a maniac shopping there...geesh)...

It's odd I didn't take many more photos...I was consumed with finding THE perfect Jam (and eating samples).  After several hours of shopping, Mara, Pappy and I stopped for lunch at Panera.  Mmmm...Turkey Chili and a Mediterranean Chicken Flatbead sandwich. 

Pure silliness...

Sorry about all of the following photos of our drinks.  The sun was casting some gorgeous light on our table and the colors and shadows made my head spin (which is a good thing in this instance - promise).

Look at what you might possibly see when you visit NKU's campus...all kinds of shenanigans.

And cool stuff just sitting in the car eating our "classy" lunch (listening to WGUC).

 

 

And a windsock....