Monday, June 16, 2008

Surreal

I'm sitting here at ttk's work...I have a drs appointment with Dr. Mahadevan, my IBD specialist.
He's been introducing me to people here at his work, and they all say, "oh, you're cobalt." or "I love your chickens..." or "your pictures are great..." Hey! What are all these people doing knowing me? I commented to ttk that he's told them all about me, and he said "It's easier than talking about me."
Ooookay...

I'm not too thrilled about seeing this doctor...she's the one who said, two years ago, "oh, you're under control, no need to go on any of the stronger medications..." (there's no such thing as being cured with this disease--it's either quiescent or in a flare-up)...and then I proceeded to get worse and worse, and lost 40 pounds and went through a year of pain before getting onto the Remicaid back in September. My guess is that she sees SUCH severe cases of Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn's Disease that mine seemed minor in comparison. I think she kind of forgot the patient behind the disease. So now I get to go in, tell her I've been on Remicade, and ask her if I should be on it for a year, or for 2 years. We'll see what she says.

In other news, I had a salad Saturday, and for the first time in more than 2 years I didn't get hurt or the dreaded D word from it. Wooo! Though the drug has got the disease into remission in like, a month, my intestines still weren't healed and I couldn't immediately begin eating. I've gained back 15 of the 40 I lost, and I'm really not happy about that, but I expect that the weight gain will stop once we move and I have a larger space to deal with. I know the whole exercise machine thing tends to be a totally useless purchase for the most part, but it's tempting to get something like a stationary bike and put it in our studio.

On the house front, we meet with the contractor tomorrow to discuss the repairs we need to make before we can move in. The electrical is NOT safe, so that's my main concern, plus drywalling the garage and tenting the studio for termites. We were going to (okay, I was going to) renovate the kitchen, but upon the advice of my best friend, i am going to wait until after we've lived there a few months to really get a sense of what I want before changing what's there.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Let them eat crow...

We just had a weird thing happen...lots of noise in the coop this morning, early, and I came out to find a very dead crow. Neck was broken. It wasn't there last night/dusk, and from the chicken's behavior when they woke up, it was there at that time, so sometime between dusk and dawn (sounds like a bad movie--oh wait, it is!) something killed the crow but then didn't eat it. It wasn't a juvenile, either. The chickens were VERY disturbed by it--there was a large live crow cawing like mad from the tree near the coop, and everyone was in a tizzy. The crows come down and eat the eggs, and kill chicks, so I went out to run it off, and that's when I found its dead buddy.

Kinda sad, because I like crows--had a pet one, when I was a kid: my uncle had found a baby that had fallen out of its nest near his work, and brought it to my mom. We kept it inside and fed it wet dog food every time we walked by, and when he had his first solo flight attempt across the kitchen my uncle got us a HUGE cage from Mexico, and we moved Caw outside...then we started leaving the cage open, and he would hang out in the cage, and then fly around the yard, and then come down and land on you.

It was so cool to bring friends over after school, and when we got to my street I would throw my arm up and yell, "CAW! CAW!" and this huge black bird would come flying down off a tree or telephone pole and land on my arm. So much fun!

Wow, off down memory lane, there...

Anyway, you know my penchant for skulls? I had ttk cut the head off and I gave it to my beetles...who instantly swarmed it and are doing an efficient job of cleaning it for me.
And you thought those things were just gecko food...

Friday, June 6, 2008

Interlude 124

Me (looking at our cat, Max): Is he still alive?

TTK: Yeah, he's alive. The dead don't snore.

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Touchdown, we have touchdown...

WE CLOSED ESCROW!!!!


As of June 2, 2008 we are now landowners. Houseowners.
Slaves, as one of my friends said. Slaves to a house, yes, but no longer slaves to a land lord.

The sellers are still living there, though--in the contract they asked for a rentback until June 15th.

So, we're not fully in possession, yet.

And when they move out, we can't just move in...there's a lot of work to be done before we can...

We need to tent the studio for termites, replace its roof, tear out the carpeting, and paint the outside and a few other things. I dunno how long I can wait, though--some of the work (like renovating the kitchen) may just have to wait until AFTER we've moved in: I want OUT of this house so bad, I just can't stand it.
I cannot wait 2 more months or really even a month--I want to move NOW. I want to move YESTERDAY. I want a garden. I want a nice chicken coop for my chickens. I want to get my snakes out of their slum lord housing and into nice cages and setups. I want a desk that is not stuck on the end of the couch. I want a real couch, not an ancient futon on a cheap wooden frame.
I want I want I want I want.
{isigh}


With ttk's new job I get to see him for about an hour a night during the week--I don't know how I am going to do this alone. that's what it feels like--that he is so exhausted from work that I am going to be the one organizing our move, getting a contractor, getting a housecleaner for both places, getting stuff packed, purged, prepped, moved, organized, sorted, settled. Getting the house painted and floors installed. I don't know if I can do this.
Well, do it I must, but I just had to vent...I'm a little scared. No buyer's remorse, though--we've had too much time in escrow for that.
We're not giving notice for a few months so we can get all the work done, and have time to move calmly, although we seem to get more done under pressure. I won't say "work well" because we barely hold it together, and make stupid mistakes, but we seem to waste a lot of time before we knuckle down and get to it. With extra time, that's just extra worry time and lazing time.


We shall see, right?