getting ready for the long weekend

Today was a bit of an odd day. Dan told me at 3AM last night that we had to go in today to get the mortgage refinanced. We had it refinanced a few years ago when the interest rates were low, and initially it was great. Because we have good credit ratings, our initial rate was less than 2%. But it has been steadily rising over the last couple of years, since it was an ARM, so we went in today and signed a new one, at a decent fixed rate (less than 7%). So we did that, and ate lunch at a noodle place near Arborland Mall.

My period is horrible this month. Last night at work I had an overnight pad on the inside of my underwear, another on the outside of my underwear (thank God for those sticky wings) and I was using a tampon at the same time, but I was still staining through my clothing. And yes, I have been taking the medicine to help decrease the bleeding. It was sort of frightening, and I was seriously considering asking one of the lady pharmacists I was working with to drive me to the nearest ER not in our own hospital. I decided to stick it out, and today it does seem to be better. I am not having those heavy spurts of scalding hot blood today. That was what frightened me yesterday. It has got to be the stress.

I need this break from work, and from the greater stress of having to be around my former friend so often.

So today the kids have been going through and organizing our pantry. They are throwing out expired items and consolidating things (soup on this shelf, baking mixes on that shelf) and washing down the shelves with antibacterial cleaner. They are being absolutely awesome children.

I went to the store and got snacks and drinks for the trip. I have packed nearly all of the clothes, and only have toiletries and books to go. Dan will take Max to the kennel first thing in the morning, and I will sit down and pay the bills tonight so we can drop them in the mail tomorrow.

And then we can find out own little corner of heaven in a cabin in the woods down in Kentucky at Lake Cumberland State Park.

Beethoven's Sixth Symphony

Here are some sites with background on Beethoven and/ or this particular piece of music:
http://inkpot.com/classical/beethsyms.html
and
http://park.org/Guests/Beethoven/6.htm

and I even found a weird spoof site:
http://www.brumm.com/music/Beethoven.html

Now on to my impressions of this piece of music and why I enjoy it.

But first I must get my inner fangirl gushing out of the way.

Beethoven's music is frigging amazing! He was a genius! He has so MUCH passion!!!



As you can tell, the music of Beethoven just does it for me.

My all time favorite piece of music in any genre is his Ninth Symphony, but I am afraid to even try to discuss that, as I am sure that with my nonmusical background I could never even begin to do it justice.

After the Ninth, it is a tossup as to whether I prefer the Fifth, Sixth, or Seventh.

But since it is springtime, I chose to talk about the Sixth this month.

Here in Michigan we have looooooooooong cold snowy winters. It is a rare and special occasion when we get to see the sun in the winter months. We have a lot of cloud cover in this part of the world during the winter. We dream of the sun, of being able to be outside without twenty gazillion layers of clothing, of being able to eat out on our decks, sleep on top of the grass in the sunshine, picnic next to a brook, hear the birds singing.

They must have plenty of crappy winter weather in parts of Germany and Austria, too, because Beethoven captures the great Michigander dream of a perfect spring/summer day out in the country in his Sixth Symphony. It is the musical equivalent of a gorgeous Impressionist painting of a spring day filled with flowers and water.

So come along on this beautiful June day for a picnic in the country. Listen to the babbling brook. Listen to the birds flying around and singing. Maybe a band will play for us, and we can dance. Maybe a storm will pass through ,and we can snuggle up together with a bottle of fine wine and watch the lightning. And then after the storm passes, we can relax some more with some sweet white wine and crusty French bread and delicious gourmet cheese, and plenty of dark chocolate and fresh fruit, and give thanks for our safety and happiness on a beautiful afternoon.

weekend is in sight

I am somehow making it through the week, but it has been a bit rough. Work is strange because of the supervisors' actions. Lots of tension there. My period started a full week early (I am guessing because of the stress) and so I am not feeling the greatest. The cabin in the woods in the park in Kentucky just sounds better to me every day. So peaceful, so lovely, with nothing to do but rest and be surrounded by beauty.

I will pick up some things we need for the trip (bottled water for the cooler and snacks for the kids) tomorrow, and get packed up on Friday. We will leave first thing in the morning on Saturday. It will be heaven.

 

sad

I am sad. The weekend was great, but going back to work tonight was awful. I found out one of my favorite people has accepted a job offer out in Vegas. Lord, I will miss John like crazy. On Friday (when I was thankfully off) lots of poop hit the fan. The supervisors are taking care of a lot of problems. I hate seeing people being disciplined, but on the other hand, I am also weary of having a lot of work continually dumped on me from people who are constantly calling in. I have no problem with people missing now and then for themselves or for their family members, but some of these people literally never make it through a week without missing time. Sort of like my former friend - having to cut things off with him broke my heart and still has me devastated - and I wish him no ill whatsoever - but I just can't take being continually hurt anymore. That is the way it is with these coworkers - I hate seeing them in trouble - I wish them no ill in the world - But I just cannot take the stress of always trying to do all of their work along with my own anymore. It is making me sick and giving me stress diarrhea every time it happens. And it happens way too often.

The weekend was good. On Saturday Dan and Bill were busy working, so I drove Steven out to Clinton for his soccer game. It was really funny, as one of the kids booted a huge shot. The ball sailed over the goal. It sailed over the large picnic shelter behind the goal. It sailed for quite some ways beyond the picnic shelter. It bounced into the Raisin River and headed downstream!   After the game, we stopped off for ice cream at the Dairy Queen in Clinton. 

I also got the vegetables and herbs planted. I was tasting the leaves of the herbs as I planted them. Lord, I love the taste of oregano, rosemary, mint, and cilantro!!! I am thinking of getting some more oregano and rosemary and planting them in pots to grow as house plants. They just taste and smell so good.

Today  I got lots of laundry done, as we have started a great cleaning campaign so the house will be clean for possible out of town guests for Bill's graduation weekend.

 

thank God for the weekend

Well, Dan finally went into the doctor yesterday. It might have started out as a cold, but the cold must have run down his immune system, and he got a secondary bacterial infection in his sinuses. Tonight, after more than 24 hours on antibiotics, he was feeling much better. I am glad, as he was running a high fever the other night, and all of his thrashing kept me awake, and we were both exhausted as a result (it wasn't restful for him, either, needless to say).

Bill survived his wild ride yesterday, and reportedly did spectacularly well on his physics final. Besides describing the effects of the rides on the human body (he threw up twice, so that described the effects pretty well) they also had to estimate the pitches of the hills, the acceleration and speeds, and the heights of the various rides. It rained very hard at different points of the day, and even hailed on the kids for awhile. Dan said when he got home he was soaked to the skin, and he went straight into the bathroom for a hot shower.

One of my sisters-in-law just got back (to her home in Utah) from a wonderful trip to the Southwest, featuring the Grand Canyon. She went in through the east entrance, as I have always done, and climbed the tower for its spectacular views, just as I always do. Reading her emails brought forth some great memories to my mind. Ah, the Canyon is one of my favorite places in all the world.

Today was cloudy, and it rained yet again. I did manage to get to the nursery to get some vegetable plants and herbs. I also got some ferns and hostas to plant back in our woodsy corner of the back yard.

Our garden this year:

blueberries

red raspberries

blackberries

strawberries

blue potatoes

red potatoes

asparagus

grape tomatoes

4 kinds of lettuce

4 kinds of peppers (sweet, medium, and hot)

snow peas

yellow beans

cucumbers

red onions

yellow onions

garlic

broccoli

cilantro

garlic chives

chives

spearmint

orange mint

catnip

peppermint

chocolate mint

rosemary

sage

thyme

oregano

marigolds (they supposedly keep some common garden pests away if you plant them in your vegetable garden - some bugs do not like their odor)

another crazy work week

This is turning into a crazy and difficult week at work. We have a lot of very sick patients and the workload is just crushing. Thank God there is just one more night this week - I hope that the weather will be a bit better, so I can work in my garden at least a little bit on my days off. Today the sun was out for awhile - but it was raining again by nightfall.

Tomorrow is the day Bill will be at the amusement park for his physics final. He is afraid of heights, so I hope he will be OK on his wild ride!!!!!!!!

Poor Dan has been sick all week with  a terrible cold. He just cannot seem to shake it. I have been urging him to go to the doctor, since it has been about a week now.

another week begins

Well, another week began last night. I was in a pretty good mood yesterday until I got to work, then immediately started having stress diarrhea once again. The moment I walked in the door I was handed four grocery sacks of narcotics to deliver to the inpatient units, and that was enough to begin the stress.  At least we are now in the week of the midnight person who very rarely calls in starting tonight, so maybe this week will be better!

Some good things are going on. Dan and I made up that missed breakfast from the weekend by meeting some people for lunch today. Soup, which was great in this cold and wet weather. That particular coffee shop also has pasties, so we will go there on our own for those.

I have Pearl Jam tickets to their upcoming concert.

I discovered that we will be staying across the street from Grant Park the weekend of the Chicago Blues Festival. That will be great! And the second weekend in Chicago will begin a classical music festival, though I do not know if we will have the time to go to any of it. But the blues festival should be fantastic.

I hope this rainy weather ceases soon. On Thursday Bill has his physics final at Cedar Point amusement park down in Ohio. The kids had a choice of going to the park and drawing a wild ride, or taking a written final. The problem is, that if there is lightning, the park closes the taller rides, which includes many of the roller coasters. Bill has drawn a coaster called the Mean Streak. After riding their coaster the kids have to describe the affects of the ride (such as the acceleration and high g-forces) on the human body riding it.