The Dino-Aspie Ex-Café (for Those 40+... or feeling creaky)

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Moving from muffins: Just harvested a large bowl of black currents. They are sitting on the stove all cooked with instant oatmeal and Splenda and cinnamon. Yummmm.

Lurking and stimming as usual.....

I think the gentle weirdness of dogs and cats in yoga poses is appropriate for the Cafe: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/gallery/2010/aug/11/downward-dogs-chilled-out-cats

Hello, I'm over 40 and indeed creaky. Thought I would drop in.

Hello. I'm back again.

Hi, guys! I blame the unpleasantly hot weather for the lack of welcomes/welcome backs...

Sorry for the delay in social niceties, Newbies. I've been laid up recovering from a whopping case of food poisoning we (the Kid and I) managed to pick up at IHop a couple of weeks ago. When combined with "the back thing" and "the lung thing" and the recent tragic and prolonged demise of the Kid's pet cat, added to the current heatwave, I'm feeling rather antisocial.

In any event, welcome. And watch out for Postie, he's dangerous. Especially where muffins and duck tape are concerned.

Somebody else take it from here, I'm out for a while.

Oh, Nan! Yuck!
I haven't been posting much anywhere either as I have been in bed 20 hrs a day as my way of dealing with grief. My sister-in-law died in Rwanda while on a mission there with Come And See Africa. My husband is now president of CASA. She had a wonderful funeral with people from her university, Korea, Rwanda, church, and families all speak. We are all dealing with much fall out from the car wreck. Many expensive plane tickets. Many emails. The blessing of large extended families on both sides. Getting to see relatives from far away. Getting to eat some great Korean food. Getting to see a church pull together to support their pastor, husband's brother. We'll be heading down in a week or so to spend more time with brother in Yosemite.
Which reminds me, how have the CA fires been for you this year, Nan? Reading about the forest fires in Russia has been sad.

Lelia, I'm SO sorry to hear of your loss. Just so sorry. It's so sad when someone passes away, and such a shock when it's unexpected. She was doing what she loved, so you might, I hope, take some comfort in that. Time... I know it's such a cliche, but time will help - more the longer it goes. It never really all leaves, though. My grandmother, with whom I was very close, died almost 30 years ago. But I still, sometimes, shed a tear for her.

We think the food poisoning (both of us shared an egg dish) was due to the national samonella contamination problem - now. We went to IHOP and tried some of their crepes for the first time and it hit later that day. They seemed a bit underdone, and it was the only food we shared, and all the symptoms fit. That was a nasty couple of days - I don't remember ever being that sick, or, at least, not since I was a kid. Plus I'm a bit immunocompromised at present. Blown disc hurt at the best of times and narcotics, but hurling into a bucket while glued to the toilet for hours, with fever and chills, was just a nasty, nasty thing. Good thing we have two bathrooms in this home! Put my spine's recuperation back several weeks, as well. Never had a blown disc before (nevermind one with more of them bulging badly), and had no idea of the kind of pain it could produce. I kept trying to explain in the E.R. that it felt worse than when I was in labor. Then it would just stop almost completely for unknown reasons, then come slamming back. This all started on April 20, so I'm really, REALLY ready for it to stop. I trot myself in to physical therapy twice a week and they tell me I'm doing very well and working very hard, and I guess I am getting better, but I forgot to take my pain pills on Monday in the afternoon and by the time I got to PT I was almost in tears from the pain. One would think that if I was getting better the pain would not require so much meds, four months later.... oh, well. Thank goodness I have the never-ending bucket of vicodin and ibuprofen.

On the good side, the lungs are doing very, very well and we're trying to wean my system off the prednisone. Almost there, almost there.... sad that the birds, especially Spikey, had to go. But it was keep them and die, or rehome them. Not really much of a choice there. Heard last week that they'd been able to introduce Spike to another female of her species and that they had hit it off well enough to share a cage. I'm so pleased! When she was around me she would not interact with other birds, and I was afraid she'd spend most of her life alone in a cage. This is so much better for her! She's made a friend!

Fires. Sigh. It's that time. We were driving home from my work (kid came with me to use the library) last Friday evening, came over the big hill, and there was smoke all over the place in the distance. We could smell it, too. Put us both in "OMG" mode and kind of ruined the weekend - we kept checking the news every couple of hours for updates, and the bastards didn't air any until the 10pm news! They got that fire put out in a couple of days, but it's activated the "overly alert" thing we do. There have been a number of smaller fires around here, but nothing major and as long as we have no Santa Anna winds, we can sleep at night. It's been terribly hot all week, but cooler is projected for the weekend, so the kid can go outside in daylight then. I'm hoping there will be no smoke smell in the air so we can just relax and enjoy the time.

We first came out here in 1987. It wasn't until just the last 7 or 8 years that we've had any serious issues with fires, really, anywhere near us. We're prepared, the cars are always at least half-full of gasoline and there's spare clothes and cat food/kitty litter in the trunk of mine. It will be so nice when Halloween passes, that's usually the point at which we're safe for another year. I can't even watch the news about the fires in Russia, have to change the channel.

So, before I start talking about more health things that the entire world REALLY doesn't need to know about, I'll sign off and say that I'll probably be away from the board for a while. It's not comfortable to sit up for long and I have to do it for 8 hours every day at work, so sitting up at home after hours is unlikely for a while. Ya'll take care, see ya when it's over... or they give me something stronger than vicodin.

Enjoy Yosemite, be sure to go up to the high meadows. They are beautiful this time of year.

Hooray for Spike!! ! Long may she live!
I'll miss her stories about her.
Get well....

Hello there. As a person over 50, I guess I belong here. Hopefully all of you will be well soon, and I look forward to interacting with you.

Welcome to the cafe, Oren! Help yourself to the coffee and muffins (I think we have the evil muffins locked up in a Tupperware dish now, don't we?).

Sorry I haven't been posting in this thread too much, guys - not much changing here. Slowly recovering from the surgery that fixed my arm, watching bills I can't even begin to pay mount up while the state declines to assist me because I don't have an easily-defined physical disability (and besides, their medical program is rapidly running out of money anyway), looking forward to school starting ('Gana starts in a new school in two weeks, Iain goes back to preschool in three), and spending a lot of my time cleaning up around here and arguing theology and the Constitution with various people online (did you know that quoting the United States Constitution, word for word, means you're a "liberal"?).

Oh, yeah, tis the season.

Not far from our place and not what I want to be seeing while at work across town where I can't get home to get the freaking cat and rat out of there.... This is down the street, actually. Or would be if the street went down off the mesa from our home. This is looking up towards our neighborhood (the slightly more well-heeled folks live where the photog was standing).

Sigh. COME ON HALLOWEEN! (And GO Helicopter Pilot Guys, GO!! ! Woooooot wooooot, great drops!! ! KEEPATIT!! !!)

http://www.10news.com/image/24786423/detail.html

http://www.am600kogo.com/cc-common/mlib ... 582668.jpg

And evacuations are ordered for that area, I'm hearing. Kid rode over to this part of town with me today, no idea where she's wandering. And is the Kid answering her cell phone? No, she is not. So I have no freaking idea where she is now that I need to reach her and so I cannot find her to let her know what's going on. Oh, sigh.... Just sigh. It freaking never ends!! !! ! Kid's friend has called to see if she needs to break into our house to get the cat and the rat out. Told her no, I'm on the way. And with that, I'm going to COSTCO to buy a big bag of marshmallows and will see you kiddos in a few weeks. Byee again. (But you've read that before, huh? )

Nan.... oh dear oh dear.
Um....don't forget the chocolate bars and graham crackers.

Lurking......and Stimming....

W
• Walters' Rule All airline flights depart from the gates most distant from the center of the terminal. Nobody ever had a reservation on a plane that left Gate 1.
• Watson's Law The reliability of machinery is inversely proportional to the number and significance of any persons watching it.
• "We'll look into it" By the time the wheels make a full turn, we assume you will have forgotten about it, too.
• weapon, n. An index of the lack of development of a culture.
• Weed's Axiom Never ask two questions in a business letter. The reply will discuss the one in which you are least interested and say nothing about the other.
• Weiler's Law Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself.
• Weinberg's First Law Progress is only made on alternate Fridays.
• Weinberg's Principle An expert is a person who avoids the small errors while sweeping on to the grand fallacy.
• Weinberg's Second Law If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization.
• Weiner's Law of Libraries There are no answers, only cross references.
• well-adjusted, adj. The ability to play bridge or golf as if they were games.
• Westheimer's Discovery A couple of months in the laboratory can frequently save a couple of hours in the library.
• When asked the definition of "pi" The Mathematician: Pi is the number expressing the relationship between the circumference of a circle and its diameter. The Physicist: Pi is 3.1415927, plus or minus 0.000000005. The Engineer: Pi is about 3.
• Whistler's Law You never know who is right, but you always know who is in charge.
• White's Statement Don't lose heart! Owen's Commentary on White's Statement: ...they might want to cut it out... Byrd's Addition to Owen's Commentary: ...and they want to avoid a lengthy search.
• Whitehead's Law The obvious answer is always overlooked.
• Wiker's Law Government expands to absorb revenue and then some.
• Wilcox's Law A pat on the back is only a few centimeters from a kick in the pants.
• William Safire's Rules for Writers Remember to never split an infinitive. The passive voice should never be used. Do not put statements in the negative form. Verbs have to agree with their subjects. Proofread carefully to see if you words out. If you reread your work, you can find on rereading a great deal of repetition can be avoided by rereading and editing. A writer must not shift your point of view. And don't start a sentence with a conjunction. (Remember, too, a preposition is a terrible word to end a sentence with.) Don't overuse exclamation marks!! Place pronouns as close as possible, especially in long sentences, as of 10 or more words, to their antecedents. Writing carefully, dangling participles must be avoided. If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is. Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing metaphors. Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky. Everyone should be careful to use a singular pronoun with singular nouns in their writing. Always pick on the correct idiom. The adverb always follows the verb. Last but not least, avoid cliches like the plague; seek viable alternatives.
• Williams and Holland's Law If enough data is collected, anything may be proven by statistical methods.
• Wilner's Observation All conversations with a potato should be conducted in private.
• wok, n. Something to thwow at a wabbit.
• wolf, n. A man who knows all the ankles.
• Woodward's Law A theory is better than its explanation.
• Woolsey-Swanson Rule People would rather live with a problem they cannot solve rather than accept a solution they cannot understand.
• Work Rule: Leave of Absence (for an Operation) We are no longer allowing this practice. We wish to discourage any thoughts that you may not need all of whatever you have, and you should not consider having anything removed. We hired you as you are, and to have anything removed would certainly make you less than we bargained for.
• work, n. The blessed respite from screaming kids and soap operas for which you actually get paid.
• Worst Response To A Crisis, 1985 From a readers' Q and A column in TV GUIDE: "If we get involved in a nuclear war, would the electromagnetic pulses from exploding bombs damage my videotapes?"