Dear Blogosphere,

I wouldn't blame you if you never spoke to me again. I wish I could be a better correspondent these days, but... alas! I wish I had pithy things to tell you and could entertain you with all the silly antics that make up my life these days, but they too have escaped.

The moments of my day have been reduced to waking up at 4 AMish with a panicky feeling that I will never finish all of my school work. Only two more weeks and still a ton of homework, tests, and experiments to do.

I feed the dogs and try to get some work done. Then one of two things happens. I get too sleepy and have to go back to bed again, or I just keep studying. Or both.

Image by web.mit.edu


The laundry is never done, the dust bunnies have formed a union and are claiming I never pay them any attention. The dogs need baths and the husband need acknowledgment and a good home-cooked meal.

Occasionally, I join Stud Muffin for a trip out to the grocery, especially if we run out of bread (we've been eating a lot of cold sandwiches here) or milk. A hot lunch out may be involved. Then it is home for more studying.

On Thanksgiving, I cooked our dinner while learning more than I ever wanted to about urine formation. The turkey cooked faster than I expected and it almost ended up like the turkey from "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation."

This is NOT my turkey! Image by farm1.static.flickr.com

I fully expected it to pop open and form a dust-dry cavern when I cut into the bird. But all was okay. Except that I had to study about urine formation.

Yesterday, one of the dogs from up the street came strolling down our drive. It happens regularly, maybe one dog, maybe three. But yesterday, Dixie just stood around outside of the house. She wandered back and forth, stopping, then going a bit further. Drove my dogs nuts! Finally, Dixie honed in on my raised vegetable beds. She peered in and around, sniffed, and finally climbed into one of the beds and pulled out an entire deer leg! From MY vegetable bed!

Who stashed a deer leg (with meat) in my vegetable bed?? Is there a three-legged deer hopping through the forest looking for it?? I suspect Dixie stashed it herself, not wanting to share with the others, because I have found random animal parts in the beds before. Well, she dragged this thing out of the bed and trotted off down the drive with it. My beds will never be the same. Guess I am glad I didn't go out there to inspect the garlic that has already started sprouting!

And that, dear blogosphere, is the extent of my existence. Urinalysis and a dry turkey, and a dead animal leg coming from my garden.

I wouldn't blame you for breaking up with me. But if you did, you would never get to hear about all the terrible things I will be doing to the mannequin patients in nursing school. Which starts is a little over a month!

I will NOT be breaking up with you, however, since reading other's blogs lets me know that there is life after school!

I'm sorry...

Found at samtoman.files.wordpress.com


I am such a bad blogger. But my excuse is that I am sooooo boring these days! All I do these days is schoolwork, and wreck lawn equipment, and ignore my husband, so there isn't really anything to blog about!

And since none of you have offered to help me with Chemistry or Anatomy, I'm sure you don't want to hear how much it all sucks and that I CAN'T wait for the semester to be over with!!

I will tell you this. Almost Grown has decided that she wants to go to nursing school too. She has been in contact with her local community college and it boils down to the following: She has a four year degree from a prestigious private (read: still paying off the loans) university, but the community college won't give her credit for the two math classes, including statistics, that she took during college.

By www.portfolioweekly,com

They insist that she not only take Fundamentals of Math for College Dummies, but first, the prerequisite to that class. Until she does, she can't register for any beginning biology classes. And she needs four bio classes before she can even think about applying to the nursing school. As it stands now, it will take her 6 semesters to get all the prereqs done (only one can be taken at a time, in order!) before she can apply. Unless she moves to a different town with a better community college, I'm afraid she will qualify for Social Security before she's qualified for the nursing program!

We got the lawn mower back after trailering it to the engine repair place to have them clean out the carburetor. Works like a champ now, and they even found a broken choke cable, so it is even better than new. Just in time to sit in the shop all winter!

Meals have sunk to a new low, mainly consisting of frozen pizza and canned peaches. I have barely started any Christmas crafts, so my children are likely to get a sack with a half finished gift in it. If I didn't shoot you out of my body like an over-sized pot roast, don't hold your breath on getting a gift from me this year! I mean, really! Did you help me with Chemistry??? Did ya?

But I did get my physical done for my nursing school paperwork. Apparently, I will live to see another day... as a pincushion. I had blood work done, got a tetanus shot, a Hepatitis B shot, a H1N1 shot, and a TB test. When I was asked if I have any mental issues or concerns, I said, "I want to die asleep like my grandfather. Not screaming in terror like the passengers in his car." That shut them up! Thanks Cindy for the line!

See? This is why there have been no new posts up here.

A very bad day :(

I hope today goes away and stays there.

It started with a trip uptown for some groceries. Stud Muffin drove me past the steakhouse restaurant where we celebrated our 25 wedding anniversary in August. On Monday night, the place burned down.



Not just a little bit charred. Nothing left to save.



And it was the only (sort of) decent steak house around here.

We got home, with a pot roast to make for dinner tonight. After I took a Psychology test, I decided to avoid Anatomy for a while and give the backyard a final mowing for the season.

A word of warning for all you boys and girls...Always label your fuel containers. And never, ever pour diesel fuel into a gasoline-powered mower.

I DON'T want to talk about it!!

But I will say that Studly and I spent the rest of the afternoon draining the fuel tank, buying a new fuel filter, reconnecting everything. And it still won't start. Now we are charging the battery and will try again tomorrow.

I am tired, still have the crud, and it's too late to make the pot roast.

Photo by advancelifeskills.com

And I smell like gasoline and diesel.

Think the CPR dummy will notice tomorrow???

Pimp My Ride... and other stuff

The Bad Boy Buggy came home a while back, but I just haven't gotten around to posting about it.

Studly is happy to have it back.

The owner of the place that did all the upgrades and repair work had never bought a red one for his lot, but after seeing how nice it looked being towed behind his bright red truck, has decided he must have one!



Look at them shiny wheels!

I missed my buggy so much while he was gone. But now he has new batteries, tires and wheels, and a new battery filling setup that will make them much easier to keep topped off.

In other news, I went to my Nursing School orientation on Friday. I was there for 4 1/2 hours filling out paperwork, agreeing to background checks and drug tests, and basically being told that they own my life for the next two years. We signed tons of documents, signed up for CPR courses and hospital orientation dates, and registered for classes.



I am in the middle of trying to get some Psychology classes waived based on the fact that... HELLO!... I already HAVE a degree in Psychology. There are not making it easy, though, and insisted that I sign up for the required Developmental Psych class. ARG!

So, I oriented, signed up and signed off, and then promptly lost most of my paperwork. Yeah, I'm going to really good at this stuff! I have bought my hospital uniform and stethoscope, white leather shoes and $400 worth of used textbooks. And today, I woke up with the "crud". Coincidence? I think not!

But I better get over my snot-filled self pretty darn quick, because I have to go huff and puff and pound on a blow-up CPR doll on Friday and I need all my lung capacity and then some!

Napus Interruptus

The setup: I was minding my own business, thoroughly enjoying a Sunday afternoon nap on a bed with clean, line-dried sheets, when Nick launched himself off of the bed. Stud Muffin had made some toast and Nick was determined to have his share. Next comes frantic barking... mostly Nick, but Sassy chiming in too. I hear the screen door open and two dogs scrabbling off the porch.



More barking, but sporadic this time. The door opens again and two dogs come tearing into the house. Next thing I know, Nick has jumped back on the bed and was practically sitting on my head! As I extricated my face from under a hairy, but just washed doggie, Stud Muffin entered the bedroom to give me the report.




The story: Nick had caught a glimpse of the white plastic that I had been using to solarize the vegetable beds hanging over the fence drying. Then it moved. He had been out with me as I draped said killer plastic on the fence but I guess it made a threatening flutter and he needed to warn it away from his sleeping mistress.

You show it who's boss, Nick!

Studly reported that Nick barked then approached the plastic. It moved again and Nick got scared and high-tailed it back to the porch, where he barked at it some more. Then he came in and jumped on my face. To protect me.



Another happy, but hairy pet-owner safe from marauding plastic drop cloths!