Well, for those of you I haven't bitched to about my back lately (please excuse the vast amount of details and minutae, since I am using this just as much as a record for myself as to have a good rant):

  A few months ago, I started having more problems with my back after the 2003 Laminectomy for a ruptured disc and 2006 diagnosis of Degenerative Disc Disease (DDD) of discs L3-S1 in 2006.  The disc problems of the past had left me with permanent bad back (Primarily in my lower back), sciatica, and, rarely, pain in my right ankle.  Fibromylagia pain made it overall mild...highly tolerable with occasional flare ups from nerve damage. Basically, I had little gel in my discs, so I didn't have cushioning and my vertebrae were compressed causing tiny little fractures in my spine...basically, my vertebrae are begining to disintegrate.

  Fast forward to present time:  Intense pain in lower back on both sides of spine, pain radiating down both sides of butt like electric zaps, pain like zaps down from pelvis to knee in front, intense pain in hips, pins and needles in front of legs down to knee, and pain more often in both ankles.  The pain travels...I don't have all the symptoms at once, but every day something plagues me.  For example, today is left side pain in my back and down front left and pins and needles on right front leg if I stand for more than a few minutes...so annoying, and hard to work, especially when I lift toddlers all day.

  I figured something is going on with my DDD when the pain became the worst its been in years about a month ago...so I broke down and made an appointment with my spine doctor, who left me with: "go to physical therapy and come back when things get worse" in 2006.  I had an appt on Friday with him, where I got an MRI ordered (with contrast) and a prescription for pain pills since self care would often not help.

  I had my MRI yesterday and was it fun (she said sarcastically).  I don't have claustrophobia, but there were moments I almost lost it.  All I could think about was "what if zombies stormed the room and I wouldn't know until they started attacking the part of my legs sticking out of the machine and I would be trapped?" and played differing zombie scenarios over and over in my head.  Yes, this is how I think.  Forty minutes of trying not to move a hair and laying in one position was not fun either.  I barely fit in the damn machine...anyone with more bulk than me would not have fit.  I had to have an IV line put in for the contrast dye...ten minutes for the tech to find my ever elusive veins.   The totally adorable African fellow (Awad) who was my radiologist asked my if I brought my veins with.  He got the response: "they came along but are shy"   Yikes, they were hiding a lot yesterday. 

  The tech said my spine doctor should have the results by this afternoon.  When they called me to confirm I had went to radiology at Fairview Ridges, I asked them to fax me a copy of the report.  I was then told that it's not their policy to release reports to patients before their appts (mine in Wed, the 18th) because people don't know what the language used means, freak out, blah, blah, blah.  She went on for a minute and then asked me if it was ok.  Well, duh...why would I bother to argue their policy?  Besides, after I hung up I remembered I don't have access to my fax any more since I dropped our phone service from our bundle.  (We had been paying $170 a month for phone, digital cable with DVR, and wireless internet...$170!  We didn't even use our home phone, which was $40 of it!)  So I drove over to Fairview and got and released a copy of the report to myself.  Screw you, Midwest Spine Institute! You were foiled!

  In the car, I settled in to read the findings.  Here is the pertinent part:

"L3-L4: There is disc dehydration.  There is mild disc height loss. Surgical changes of right hemilaminetomy are again seen.  This level is unchanged.

L4-L5:   There is disc dehydration and moderate disc height loss.  There is a prominent disc bulge and a superimposed moderate-sized broad based central disc protusion which has increased in size since the previous study.  This results in what is now severe central canal stenosis, advanced since the previous study. Mild to moderate bilateral neural foraminal stenosis has slightly progressed since the previous study.

L5-S1:  Same as L3-L4, except there is a moderate sized focal central disc protusion which is similar to the previous study."

  Actually, better than I thought! I believe the ruptured disc was in L4-L5 so it makes sense I continue to have the worst problems there.  Still, any further progression SUCKS.  So, we will see what the doctor tells me...worst fear:  spinal fusion which would have me off my feet and in a back brace for at least 12 (yes, 12) weeks.  Umm, yeah.  I don't have disability insurance at work, and I cannot lose four or more months of pay at ths point.  I'm sure other avenues will be explored before surgery is considered, but this damage is permanent, and will it continue to progress the same speed it has been every three years?

This is my world.  Sigh.

Guess who just pre-ordered the new Diana Gabaldon, An Echo in the Bone?? Now, I just have to wait til the end of September to get it.
www.cco.caltech.edu/~gatti/gabaldon/gabaldon.html

So, figured I would post for the first time in a million years.  I have managed to be pretty busy the last few weeks, first by being sick last week with a bad sore throat and sinus issues, then partying at Al and Christy's Top of the Hill Party. 

For those of you not in the know, we thankfully found a no pet household for Celia shortly after moving her outside to stay.  The family lives up north and has an older son, and they seemed very happy to find such a pretty cat.  I gave them tons of supplies and my phone number for them to let me know if there were any problems...but there have been no phone calls in the several weeks she's been there. Yippee!  We were SO happy to find her a good home.

While she was here, however, there were some fun times besides the not so fun times.  One night I had (for a brief amount of time) all four kitties in bed with Almie and me while watching TV and thought, "it's fun to have four cats!"  So, after we found Celia her home we contemplated getting another cat for a bit.  When my friend Diane in Belle Plaine told me about her neighbor's cat having a litter and she wanted us to go over and see the two she had picked out to take home, we fell in love with all the then-four week old kittens.  There was only one male available though, and Al insisted on a male.  

So, we decided to give it some more thought without fully committing to take a kitten since there were a few more weeks before they would be ready to go.  Just as I was telling Amy and Leah about the kitten and the names we were contemplating, I got a text from Diane (Al had invited them, but they were going to Chanhassen that night) saying the mother was refusing to nurse the kittens anymore, and could we get him ASAP?

We went over to Belle Plaine on Sunday afternoon and brought Onslow home.  We were coming up with names on our car ride home from meeting the kitties the week before, and "Onslow" stuck.  I wanted to name him "Mrs. Slocombe", but Al said absolutely not.  Heh.   I have decided that we should name all our pets names from British sitcoms or mysteries.  "Ollie" is from My Hero and "Onslow" is from Keeping Up Appearances.  I still have "Lenin" from Good Neighbors, "Hugo" from The Vicar of Dibley, "Father Jack" from Father Ted, "Hercule" from Hercule Poirot, "Lionel" from As Time Goes By, and "Tiberius" from Rosemary and Thyme on my mind for the future...along with many other possibilities.  British TV is awesome, and I find it is a passion for me.

Anyways, Onslow wouldn't eat much the first few days, which was worrying.  He was exhausted from the adventures of his homecoming. He didn't understand how to lap up water, or eat the wet kitten food we gave him.  We went on Monday morning to the pet store to get formula and a bottle and he has been nursing that way.  I have also been working on getting him on solid food (he is almost 6 weeks old now).  He doesn't care for the wet food much but I have been able to get him to eat tiny bites of turkey and roast beef.  Today he lapped up water for the first time since we showed him last night and this morning what it was.  I ran for the camera on Monday to take a picture of his first potty in his little litter box, and today he went in ON HIS OWN and made poo.  I have a picture of that as well.  So proud!

We put the baby gate up to keep him contained in the bathroom with food, water, bed, and toilet while I was at work today and I thought about how sad he must be without me today millions of times at work.  :(  Which makes me even more motivated to be a stay at home mommy when I have a human baby...But he was napping when I got home and was happy to come out and run around.  

We keep him in a rubbermaid with a blanket next to our bed at night, but I have taken to let him roam the living room when I am home.  He discovered how to get up the couch last night...today he was perched on the top of the couch and when I saw I almost had a heart attack before I grabbed him off and put him on the floor again.  If he fell of it would be like falling off a 20 story building!

Ollie has reservations about this boy, but Patches thinks he's pretty fun, and Micki is curious, but cautious.  It is so much fun having a kitten in the house, even though we had to get up early to bottle feed him this a.m.  I sterilized the bottle and heated the formula, and ALMIE fed it to him...Aww!  That's my Kitty Daddy.

Well, turns out Almie's parents are now coming out the last weekend of July.  Wish they would pick a week and stick with it.  I guess they are using frequent flyer miles so that is probably part of the reason, but geez.  I guess I have another week to get ready...

Hi everyone! I haven't been around for almost a week as I recovered from a very angry insect (spider?) bite this past weekend and then I have spent all week doing work around the house.  Al's parents will be coming in next week Thursday and staying til Monday morning when they will be continuing their vacation traveling to see Al's grandma.  I have been cleaning the house top to bottom, steam cleaning carpets, laying a new downstairs bathroom floor, and getting the guest room ship shape.  We also have finally finished planting our perennial garden (or at least the first year's planting) and I love how it looks.  On that note, need to get back to work...thinking of running garage sale if Jen or Christy are interested in coming down to hang out with me...let me know.  Christy, did you see the post in twin cities community about the Wienery having vegan dogs?  Let's go soon.

I got an insect bite sometime late this week, probably on Wednesday or Thursday and scratched and scratched it.  I thought it was just a mosquito bite, but by the time we got back from Dulono's on Thursday evening I had half a baseball size swelling on the side of my leg so I am wondering if it was a spider bite.  Of course I haven't wanted to go to the doctor, so I have been putting anti-itch cream and on it and started taking Benadryl Friday...it is just now starting to help. I have slept the whole weekend away so far because of the Benadryl.  :(  I probably should have went in to urgent care, but I was afraid they would have given me steroids.  I had them before when I got exposed to poison ivy in NJ and I hated it.

So, we have Joe and Diane coming over today and I have nothing ready for the cookout.  We are doing surf and turf this time and then later we are having a fire and making s'mores.  We were going to put our perennial garden in yesterday, but I guess we'll do that this a.m.  Got to go wake up Almie now.  Hope everyone is having a great 4th of July weekend so far.

So we finished setting up tables last night in the garage for our sale today.  The weather is not great, but a big improvement over the downpour of rain aorund eight this morning. We haven't had many people and sold only a few things (maybe due to the lack of traffic on the street in front of our house?), but we are going to run the sale on a few Saturdays over the next month or so.  There is still time for you guys to bring over any things you need to sell...the more stuff the bigger the draw, so bring it on over!  Christy, miss you today! Hope you are catching up on your rest and look forward to hanging out soon.

On another front, Celia will now be staying outside in our fenced in back yard until there is space for her at the no-kill cat shelter.  At first I was thinking she would not do well outside and was having some  ; (  feelings about banning her from the house but my parents have urged us to do it.  They say we have done everything we can to deal with the situation.  We have failed in our attempts to find her a home on Craigslist.  I know people are reluctant to take in a cat that pees everywhere, and she can be not so nice as everyone knows.  The only interest on CL was from a terrible man who was going to make her live at a farm and mouse for her kibble....if the foxes or rabid animals around the farm didn't get her. 

She has her claws and can stay either under the deck or in the shed for shelter from heat/rain and we have a good supply of food and water out for her.  She has not only been peeing on the walls and floor and futon in Al's office, I think she's been going behind the dollhouse in my office on the carpet.  And the last straw was peeing in our bed on my brand new fleece sheets from The Company Store.  Sigh.  In some ways I miss having her inside but mostly it is a relief to have her out.  The other kitties have been extra loving and purr-y.  Micki has been back upstairs...within an hour of her going out he was around looking for attention and sleeping in our bed again.  It is amazing how much of a difference I saw within such a short time in my cats...it's obvious she was territorial and her presence was making my cats unhappy.  :(   Unfortunately, this fostering experience has been terrible and heart wrenching for us.  Poor Almie felt so guilty visiting the shelter...We will never foster a cat for someone again without laying down strict guidelines about how long we can foster and a contingency plan for what will happen if the cat doesn't work in our household.  I guess I am too tenderhearted.  I can't just shove her back in her carrier and insist her owner take her back like many have suggested.  It's such an uncomfortable siuation to be in.  Oh, well, you guys have heard it before.

Getting off that subject---looks like it will be spring before I go back to school.  When you have only three classes left to take and can only go in the evenings, sometimes the class schedule doesn't work in your favor...I guess I get to enjoy freedom for longer!

Garden is doing fabulous.  The only thing that isn't thriving is our watermelons.  Blueberries and strawberries have produced already the first year a little!  The strawberries are sweet and rich.  Rhubarb has been a little slow after transplanting, but looks promising. Muskmelon, tomatoes and bell pepper are doing well, and pumpkins...all I can say is WOW!  I picked up a few cucumber plants and well see, it's a little late to add...grapes are starting to leaf and our neigbor will hopefully share his raspberries.  Pretty cool.  Looks like pollinators weren't necessary after all...my father has always had a great garden without, so I figured I would try to do my garden without adding flowers.

Almie and I have been painting our green shed white.  I bought a trellis and a wrought iron wall decoration and my mother gave me a hummingbird feeder to put on it.  We will be putting a perennial garen in front of it.  I have tiger lilies, a peony, daylilies, irises, hydrangea, lupines, russian sage, hens and chicks, lily of valley, hostas (of course) and I am probably forgetting some.  Mother and I are going to Bachman's in a bit and I may get a foxglove and some other stuff.  I should also get some spirea or barberry plants for the front bed. Fun!

Well, that's all I got!

Well, the latest in the drama that is little Celia...as I mentioned earlier she went to the vet for a rabies vaccination and then last week she has been having peeing issues (other than the normal abnormal ones of turning our offices and bath tub into litterboxes).  Turns out she has some sort of infection in her bladder, so after forking out for the urinalysis we got medicine and painkillers for her.  The vet says it could be a silent UTI, a stone, or something else possibly caused (at least in part) by her anxiety and unhappiness. If and when these antibiotics clear up her infection (it appears after two doses to be better, to judge by the normal color and copious amounts of kitty pee she left all over Al's futon and office floor tonight), she will be surrendered to a no kill animal shelter, unless I get some leads from Craigslist.  I have already published the ad I have had prepared for several weeks..  If she stays with us the vet says it will be a necessity to have her on daily anxiety medication which I don't want to do for a variety of reasons.  It is terrible to surrender a pet...I am always so committed to my animals, and I ADORE having four kitties, but she has never been a good fit for our family.  Sigh.  I am so gutted by this situation...even though I have never fully bonded with her I hate giving up on her.

The work of putting in my garden and weeding it has been well worth it---I already have cherry tomatoes started and I have gotten three strawberries off of my strawberry plant (super sweet and rich, dark red)...yay!  Bell Pepper and Pumpkin plants are also doing well.  Al and I also redid the left bed in the front of the house and I clipped the green bushes...next project is clearing rocks from the right side.

I also am in LOVE with my new Keens.

Micki apparently has pink eye, and Celia was very naughty at the vet and tried to bite everyone, she practically needed a muzzle...the vet suggested anxiety meds...not sure how I feel about that yet.  I was very embarassed at the vet, like she was my child misbehaving...strange...but I do love her...I am still reluctant to give her up  :(

Central air is now fixed (read "fixed"), I am daring it to act up again and I again til I can get my warranty company to spring for a new unit. ;)

We will soon be off to WI then ultimately Illinois for a wedding reception...I have Monday off and it is our 7th wedding anniversary.

Did I mention how much I love my new Keens and am going to buy more ASAP?

That is all.

Talk about an awesome weekend filled with fun, friends, parties and WAY too many noms!  Even though I am very tired, it was the best Memorial Day Weekend I have had in long time! I was quite the social butterfly.

On another front, still having issues with my central air, but YAY for home warranties!

BTW, Amy: thanks for the ramps...you rock!    :)

So, Al and I have been doing work around the house tonight, and a little before ten we headed out to grab Subway.  On  the way, I was going to turn left and didn't see a motorcycle.  I realized before collision and stopped, but to my utter dismay the guy turned around and confronted us in the parking lot of Subway.  He yelled at me that I almost killed him and I was like, I didn't see you, I feel terrible, my husband rides a motorcycle, etc.  He's like does that make it ok? And Al's like no, of course, but she feels terrible, she didn't see you.  He yelled for a little longer, with his passenger, a girl, trying to get him to leave.  I am like, do you want to have a fight about it??? And then he leaves.  Needless to say, I do feel terrible.  I have a good driving record, although I do sometimes speed five miles over the speed limit I am always very careful especially around motorcycles and kids.  In fact, I always think to myself how terrible it would be to hurt someone on the road!  I was not driving recklessly, or distractedly...just genuinely did not see him, and (he was on a 'crotch rocket' and going very fast) do feel terrible but jesus, does him confronting me and screaming profanities going to help the situation?  Needless to say I am feeling rather yucky right now.  ;(

Tipper let me know my cake is on the bakery website at www.misssarascakery.com if you care to take a look.   My cake is famous!

I had the BEST birthday party ever!  It was so worth the work.  Although the cake was probably most expensive one I've ever bought (except for my wedding, of course) it was definitely yummy and looked exactly as I envisioned.  Thanks to everyone for coming, and the gifts.  Thanks to Christy for all her help, too! About 6 people weren't able to make it, but we still had over twenty people at my house at one point, so good turnout!  The food turned out pretty delish too.  So, in all, SUCCESS!  Jen and BR stopped by yesterday with a gift card for me to Archiver's while I was recovering on the couch (I slept all day yesterday. Heh.)

I forgot to mention...I got my birthday present today too, but I can't have it til we have cake at my party ;(
Still, I am a lucky girl.

So, plans are all set for our BFF roadtrip to IA to see New Kids on the Block!!!  Tipper has taken care of tickets and reservations (Thanks, hon!) and we will be seeing NKOTB again in just a few weeks. I am so very excited!  AND I am planning on a birthday party for my 32cnd to be on April 4th, you guys will be getting invites soon.  I flirted with the idea of getting a coach bag 3-d birthday cake from a bakery in Hastings that does some really awesome looking cakes a la Charm City Cakes but then decided on Tiffany blue, white and silver as a color scheme.  I guess I could always change my mind again and have a NKOTB themed party.  I wonder if the cake lady could sculpt and decorate a cake to look like Jordan? Heh (I am kidding...just).

Thanks to BR and Jen for coming over tonight and for BR assisting Almie in putting in the bathroom light fixture AND helping Alm to fix the pipe so we can easily install the sink (had not planned to do this tonight, but was found to be necessary to figure out where the light needed to be centered and you know how one thing leads to another...)  It feels like it was really the jump start I needed to get going on the bathroom.  I am going to start working on the walls tomorrow and see when I can get around to painting.  Excited at the idea of having my bathroom useable AND pretty in the near future!!!  I wish I had all weekend to devote to the work but I have a very complex exam to start studying for this weekend.  I must keep reminding myself, "just three more classes after this semester to finsh my bachelor's" over and over. 
*sigh*

In all an interesting vacuum demonstration experience...as you see from Almie's post earlier he was a little grouchy when the demonstrator left.  It was basically 3 hours of listening to a hyperactive little fellow bestow us with the knowledge of how awesome Kirby is and how sucky my Dyson is with a persistent (and excruciatingly apparent) speech impediment.  I was repeatedly called by two names different than my own.   Often I was on the receiving end of, "Don't you expec-silly think so, Crystal?"  After the second time of reminding him about my correct name, I gave up.
  
I actually felt bad when he wouldn't give up doing the used car-salesman-schtick of calling his boss over the phone to work the best deal possible for us (two times) despite the fact I told him he would be more likely to sell the vacuum cleaner to Ollie.  To those of you not acquainted with Ollie, he is a cat...and I don't think he would qualify for financing even if he could human-speak.

I will be banning Al from opening the door to strangers from now on. Heh. 

I am sitting watching a kirby vacuum demonstration because my husband let them in the door...SIGH.

The TransSiberian Orchestra was great.  I really enjoyed it, and my husband had a good time as well.  Probably my third favorite concert ever.  First is New Kids on the Block that I saw with Tipper in October (yes, my favorite concert EVER!), second was Black Sabbath I saw in New Jersey about ten years ago.