59 posts tagged “family”
So even though our b-day isn't until Thursday, I sent my sister an Amazon gift card early. Let's face it Amazon rocks in that their shipping estimates are always for like 3 weeks away and then, at least here and when I lived in PDX both, I'd get stuff with a week. So while I was thinking of it I thought nah, why wait. Send it now. She can shop and if lucky get stuff within days of our birthday.
Keeping with the tradition she sends me one back. Brian laughs. I told him I'm sure it doesn't count as re-gifting as I don't think that you can use gift cards to buy gift cards. My first thought was she had to top me this year. When I give mom a present for the last year or two she'll ask mom what we got her and if she can't top it (the computer) she curses us. So the gift card she had sent me was bigger than the one I'd sent her. Damn her! Then I figured well fine, I'll let her win. Silly girl. She can't afford it, should be helping mom, etc. And also it's from her, Keegan, and mom. So okay.
But what amused me the most, was the attached note -- Happy B-day! Keegan is upset he can't deliver your spankings! So he is going to store up all your spankings from all the b-days he's missed and dish them out the next time he sees you
I told them that since Karina shares my birthday that he doesn't need to save them up! He can just let her have mind and deliver them all to his mom for me ;) I also told her to be glad that Brian didn't pick her present. She works in a Halloween store. There was a controversy about the store selling an "illegal alien mask". For the record, they did pull the mask off the shelves because it was offensive to Mexicans (picture below). Personally I think it looks like a trucker or gas station employee and when mom posted it I was like wtf? I didn't associate it with any race, didn't know what it was until she explained. Brian thought since had to deal with the headache of protesters calling to ask if they sold it, we should order it online and send that to her. He totally can't pick presents for chicks. He is picking good presents for Keegan for Christmas though. Not using my card yet, I told Brian to get me one too -- since we've already established he can't be trusted to order chick presents.
Couldn't sleep, so I stayed up reading American Gods
There, you're all caught up with life in LA and beyond since my brother lives in OR still.
They're roasting in PDX. My mom's twitter was explaining her plans for getting cool... So we were chatting via Twitter, but she had to call to tell me a funny Keegan story, which was unrelated and too long for Twitter.
They have a lot of stuff to get rid of. Karina, while on the phone had called her a "hoarder". They get off of the phone. Keegan is quite upset and tells his mom that she's not to call his grandma a "whore". Karina has to explain, "No, not a WHORE, I called her a HOARDER". He doesn't know what a hoarder is, so Karina explained what she meant by that. Well, with that cleared up, he was happy, so long as she doesn't call his grandma a WHORE, he's happy HA. Aww I love that kid. I told mom, "At least he's defending your honor."
Now then, if it stays 100+ degrees out, mom may decide to run around town naked. We'll see how Keegan feels then.
Home:
Got a lot done. House looks a mess though because there are tons of empty tubs laying around and 4-5 tubs of stuff to give away to charity (was gonna do that this weekend, but have so much to do already that we're saving that for the weekend after). This apartment will soon look like an actual apartment. Only taking what 4, 5, 6 months? With Brian's schedule and my Brain aliens, it takes awhile. Still when we moved in we predicted that we'd be done about the time they tore these apartments down, so we're way ahead of schedule as that's what a year+ away still.
Meds:
Last night was shot #2 of Rebif. I do feel a bit off shortly after taking it but nothing like when I was on Avonex. This is of course a fraction of the regular dose so it's hard to tell if this is how I'll react to the full dose or not but so far it's tolerable. Mostly I just feel a bit blech, then tired, but it fades by the next day. Fingers crossed that it stays this way including during week three when the dose goes up.
Family:
Talked to mom, Karina, and Keegan tonight. From mom and Karina I got the usual love, etc. From Keegan? I found out that he was shooting Grandma with a toy gun. So I tell him that's not very nice. He informed me that it's okay it's just a toy. I asked him what he'd do when Grandma took the gun from him and started shooting him instead, would that be nice? He said she couldn't get it from him. Oohhh really. I told him that both Grandma and his mom were bigger and stronger than him and either of them could get that gun from him if they wanted to. He informs me sure, if they gang up on him. So I asked him was he gonna tell him that to their faces? He said "Oh, I think they can hear me". LOL. When I talked to them? His mom found it to be a challenge and grandma informed me she'd already taken that gun from him several times today. HA! Silly little boy talking big. He was also upset he isn't allowed to jump off a certain stair of the pool until he's ten, I told him only a couple of years. He told me yeah "1 year and 24 months" Aww, cute, but his math is a little off. And then I told him not to feel bad since he's probably almost the height of ten year olds and he told me "Yeah I'm closing in on that range". He's adorable but I'm glad I missed seeing his idea of how to wear pajama bottoms, I hear it wasn't attractive.
For those who love f00d...
My brother, the chef, now has joined the world of blogs and I shall pimp his out for him:
http://gastronomic-adventures.blogspot.com/
I got an email from my sister that sort of surprised me and sort of didn't. Oh, my. I won't get into it for now. Just drama. Not her. If I were a betting gal with money however, and if there were an opportunity to place bets on the outcome of the situation she sent me, well I could make a pretty penny placing my bet. Or not, doubt the odds on my bet would pay very much, it's so obvious.
Oh no. Vince, the Sham Wow guy was arrested. In his defense, if I was paying a hooker 1k and all she did for me was bite my tongue and not let go? I might hit her to make her let go too! And apparently he was nice enough to be the one to call the cops if I read that police report right. What a gentleman. I guess I should tag this with tv. That guy is classic tv by now! Still say his you're gonna love my nuts / don't have boring tuna commercial is too much. Oh.
Um, hm. I guess that's it. There's drama all around and none of it is mine, it never is. Once upon a time I had my share. Now Sham Wow guy and people connected to my family can have it! I'm just glad my sister has grown out of it and this drama is more something that only semi affects her.
First the important stuff: Portland is trying to be a mess again, light snow I guess expected to turn to rain. Mom got stuff from her shed to her friend's storage in Salem before it hit. One van load. For now it seems they're ok but better safe than sorry. They've packed or will pack more just in case this week gets rough again and she'll be ready to drive it and her and Karina and Keegan and the computers and whatever they can get in car out if the park floods again. So for now, it's ok. Karina checked the water behind them before it got dark tonight and they had about 2" before the water raises to the drainage pipe. So unless it hits hard they're ok until the next round and the way Portland is lately who knows that 2" may not come or may sneak up on them. Fingers crossed. My brother who lives in Portland and has to know hey Mom is in Clackamas where the flooding is hasn't bothered to check on her. He's a horrible family member. In fairness, I've given up on keeping up with him in return. I love him because he's my brother but that's about it. Even my sister, who as some of you know was horrible just years ago, I KNOW she loves us... My brother? we could be dying and he'd probably not care.
Spent some time at the vet tonight. Lister is spending the night there He's full of poop, literally... again so they're doing one maybe two enemas to see if that fixes him since he kept trying to vomit and then wouldn't and instead would just kind of spasm and plop on floor and do nothing. Hopefully this fixes him. He also has one kidney smaller than the other but the vet doesn't think that's an issue since like us cats only need one. Brian okayed blood work just in case they need to do two enemas and that will tell us if there is a kidney prob too (the vet said blood work isn't necessary unless a second enema is needed because then they use anesthesia) but he told them just do it anyway for the kidney tests and well Lister is backed up enough they may need two enemas -- so just get it over with. He was also dehydrated so he's getting IV fluids. Dutchie hisses at him when he gets home from the vet every time. Tomorrow should be fun. She's looking around now like erm what'd you guys do with him :/ Brian's upset he had to leave him overnight and realizes oh, he'll probably live to 12, and he's already 8... so he's having them do just everything to be sure he's 100%.
Rest of the weekend: Since the water heater was drained I've been living in relative silence. It made some knocking when it first heated and now... nothing. After Brian's second shower, the first after the knocking had stopped, I asked him if he had a warm shower or not. He looked at me like I was nuts, what did I expect of course he did. Well I had gone years thinking noise was normal, weeks with a lot of noise, and several nights hearing sounds I can't truly explain but it sounded horrific. TOTAL silence made me wonder if it had died after it was drained and heated the one time with the initial knocking sounds. At this point I had believed water heaters (or this one anyway) had to be noisy. It does take longer to heat now and doesn't get as hot but we'll hopefully move soon'ish so I can tolerate that til then in exchange for my peace of mind.
Went to B&N when we were bored last night, I'm on a vamp kick at the moment. But not into traditional vampy stories, those bore the hell out of me. I liked the Sookie series so much I already pre-ordered book 9 and pre-ordered True Blood season 1 on dvd. Had already ordered some other books from some other vamp series that sound fun too to tide me over, but was hoping to find something else fun and totally different. So I checked the comic book aisle. Didn't check Batman or Superman as their selection was lacking this time (B&N selection varies a lot -- really good or really crap). No, was looking more at newer, non traditional comics. Blah nothing looked fun or unique enough. So hit the art section. There was one reference book on poses that I'd have liked maybe, had it been done slightly differently. So meh. Nothing was jumping out at me. Finally settled for Blood Lite: An Anthology of Humorous Horror Stories as it looked like it could be a fun read (I've read one story already tonight and it does seem like a nice enough read). I needed something to read before I crack open A Wizard Abroad as I seem to need to read something in between the young wizard books, can't seem to read them right in a row.
as it looked like it could be a fun read (I've read one story already tonight and it does seem like a nice enough read). I needed something to read before I crack open 
as I seem to need to read something in between the young wizard books, can't seem to read them right in a row. Friend prob left me with bad dreams last night.
So yeah life is crazy and I'm reading mostly wizards and vampy stuff to get me through the insanity.
stolen word for word from mom's livejournal:
They brought in pumps and the water is going down a tad, might be able to drive out of here by 4 or 5... no more rain expected till Sunday or Monday. Oregon keeps giving me warning shots... like the warning I had my carport was in trouble during the snow. 18 other people were not so lucky. We are going to get a truck tomorrow morning and move what we care about to higher ground, just in case... that way when the rain comes back, we can get out fast if we have too. So for now, we are okay, unless it starts to rain hard again before Sunday.
So they're ok and their stuff is ok for now, but it's Portland, it could be sunny and nice or flooding with rain again -- you never know from minute to minute. Never did know why they bothered with weather people up there ;)
First my life:
Last night our water heater kicked on. The burner usually kicks on for maybe 5 minutes and sounds like someone is pounding on the inside of the tank. Last night it did that for a good 40 minutes or so and the flame sounded like a giant WHOOOOOOOOOSH the whole time, instead of the little poof. I decided it was surely gonna blow up and had to get out of the friggin house. It did not sound right. So Brian called the landlord, who had planned to send someone on Monday to look at it as the sounds were already making me crazy. They showed up this morning at 9. Drained it and a bunch of white crap came out once the water finally did start dripping out. After that did get out the water poured out. He said it was set too hot, so he turned it down (I wouldn't know -- I try not to touch stuff that can blow up so it was set to whatever it was always set to).
At first he thought they'd have to replace it. For now he said give it a week, it's still gonna knock for awhile while heating but the crap is either gone or mostly gone, so it should be better. If after a week it's still doing the knocking too loudly or if it's making the knocking sounds for 1/2 hour at a time again well that's NOT normal as it should only do that for just for a few minutes at a time while heating. So HA, I wasn't crazy. Just my it'll blow up was, but hey it sounded scary as hell. :P He also turned on our bathroom sink and announced there's rust in our water, yeah, I figure all our pipes here suck, I get rashes right after showers and the water smells sometimes. We're planning to move soon'ish though we have good neighbors in OUR building and a nice landlord we wanna be somewhere newer and with less cop activity in the nearby buildings and no torchings in the alley (nearby buildings not ours).
Family life:
If you've seen the news today you might have seen that Oregon is now facing flooding, my family is affected. My mom cannot get out of the park she lives in at the moment. It's flooded. She lost work due to the snow / ice. Her car can't drive out of the park. The loss of money meant she is stuck. We sent her money in hope she can get a truck in to tow her car out and their computers and some clothes and pictures etc. They're not yet under evacuation orders but nearby parks are and she has a creek behind her home. It doesn't look good and she doesn't have insurance. We're hoping for the best, we did send enough she should be able to get car out. I told her get it, computers, clothes, and pics out and go. If the worst happens she just loses the trailer and well we figure it out then. Still paying for that damn thing but it's just money, least they'll be ok.
