4s

I snipped this from Kathryn - hee hee :) (I added some stuff too)
http://bloggiemcgee.blogspot.com/

4 Jobs You Have Had in Your Life
1. Making Ice Cream at Dairy Queen
2. Easter Bunny
3. Assistant Band Director
4. working in a finance department

4 Movies You Would Watch Over and Over
1. Deep Impact
2. Lord of the Rings Trilogy
3. Uptown Girls
4. The Patriot (Mel Gibson & Heath Ledger version)

4 Places You Have Lived
1. Greenville, SC - sorry folks, that's it!
2.
3.
4.

4 TV Shows You Love to Watch
1. Law & Order
2. Dateline NBC
3. House
4. The Office (just got into that, but it's hilarious!)

4 Places You Have Been on Vacation
1. Virginia Beach, Virginia
2. Gatlinburg, Tennessee
3. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
4. Gulf of Mexico (not exactly sure where, I was young)

4 Websites You Visit Daily
1. www.neopets.com
2. www.myspace.com/2piddies (just for the pids' sakes - it's their site!)
3.
4.

4 Favorite Foods
1. Wendy's Cheeseburgers
2. Chicken Cordon Bleu
3. My mom's chicken casserole
4. Ice cream!

4 Places You Would Rather Be Right Now
1. Home sleeping!!
2. Barnes & Noble
3. Having a root canal
4. Music practice

4 Songs you could listen to over and over (added by me!):
1. We Don't Need Another Hero (Tina Turner)
2. If We Could Remember (Yolanda Adams)
3. The Remedy (Jason Mraz)
4. Hello (Evanescence)

4 kids you've babysat (added by me!):
1. Ryan
2. Anthony
3. David
4. Lauren

4 names of pets you've had (added by me!):
1. Ernie the Turtle
2. Doc Holliday the Turtle
3. Macy the Cat
4. Lucy the Cat

4 People You Tag to complete this
1. nah - if you read it, you'll probably do it in your head anyway
2.
3.
4.

Copyright © 1999- 2006 Google (well, most of it)

Running out of vacation days

As it turns out, I must now have a root canal on the tooth the quack screwed up (officially known as #19). Wouldn't you know? B/c of leaving some decay in the bottom for over a year without my knowledge (of course I would have taken care of it if I had known that was a possibility), it caused it to get worse. It's actually starting to abcess, which I found out today. If it had been done correctly the first time, I wouldn't be losing half of my tooth. I've prided myself on my dental hygiene and this really gets under my skin.

If I ever wished to communicate with him again, I'd love to demand payment for my upcoming procedure. It ticks me off. My out-of-pocket cost (I doubt this includes the crown, thank you very much) is $250-$300. Nice...

Oh yeah - this is cool too - I had what I thought was going to my last procedure on Monday to finish off the other hurt tooth. I was numbed ALOT b/c my anesthesia tolerance is high (actually, almost my whole family is like that). Believe it or not, I am still numb on my right side. It's borderline annoying by now.

I hate to keep harping on my teeth, but they've been my main topic for about 2 months now, considering I've had 6 trips to the dentist since then (3 of them were specifically for #19 - fyi)

Other news:
Danielle is hosting a girly sleepover tomorrow night. Josh is probably going to have a movie night with his best friend, so I'm covered! We're all going to have dinner, watch some movies, and have some well-deserved beverages. The pids will have to live with only having their Daddy for one night LOL.

Alright - that's it for me - goodnight!

Lucy likes Reese Witherspoon.

You know you love my enticing stare. Get in mah belleh!

Ice Pics

Well, I finally posted ice storm pics!

This was a SOLID sheet of ice on my car. It took me a whole minute to crack through it (just a quarter size area).

Then it took me about an hour to get the windows clear. My wipers were frozen to my windshield.

This actually doesn't look that bad, but think about this: you're looking at the weight of about 4-5 ice cubes on a 2 ounce piece f limb (imagine how much heavier that makes a small branch).

I hate that this one wasn't in focus...

This one didn't show the ice, but you can see how the limbs are hanging low.

These were originally laying all the way on my trunk, but I was playing with them and chipped some ice off.

Somebody's Jeep from my apartment complex. If you maximize the pic you can see the icicles better.

Those ground-cover plants are usually brown, not white LOL.

That huge broken branch on the left actually severely brushed the hood and top of my car when I went under it. The bottom of the broken branch is about three feet from the ground.

Heavy tree above my car ::shudder::

The railing for my walkway

Railing #2

Railing 3

Last one - this really shows the amount of ice on everything if you maximize the pic.

Yo

I'm doing well with my promised once-a-week post! Here I am! :)

Our landlords are doing a mandatory appliance inspection to make sure nothing's breaking down on all of us today. The pids are locked up with Josh in the bedroom. LOL - Poor Josh... I can just imagine them running all over the place! I have to go let them out at lunch (well, IF they're done with the inspections, that is). For obvious reasons, we put the litterbox in there but not the food. :) They'll be hungry... poor babies!

Josh lost his dang cell phone LATE Friday night. He was at Wally World and it popped off his belt clip. I left a note with Wally World and kept calling and txting the phone, but to no avail. Oh yeah, and I KNOW someone got it, even though they weren't answering the phone, because they were receiving the text messages (you can tell on ours if someone doesn't press view vs. actually viewing the message). Turds. I even sent notes saying that the phone was needed for medical reasons and we needed it immediately, and to please call as soon as they could. Jerks.

Truthfully, it's probably a toy in some toddler's baby purse now, you figure? Either that, or it's an electronic spot on the Wally World blacktop.

Luckily, we have insurance, but I forgot we had it until I was trying to find the # to have the phone turned off and found the insurance policy. Woo-hoo! It only cost him $50 (yeah, him and not me - I wasn't paying it!) instead of $300. To tell the truth, I never thought we had it, but the guy who wrote out our policy must have added it and forgotten we said no. It's on there, so, excellent! I finished the claim on Sunday night at 6:30 and we had the phone on Tuesday morning. Talk about quick service!

LOL - I feel better - rants are fun.

Someone say hi!! I might actually write more today, believe it or not. :)

Quote for the day

"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."

Martin Luther King Jr.,

Strength to Love, 1963

A New Year

iPod update: 608 songs - I really have nothing better to do - LOL.

Belated Happy New Year, by the way! We had a really nice time on the 31st. First, we went out to Monterrey's (mexican) restaurant with Josh's parents. After that, we were heading to Dani's house to see them, but they weren't home yet, so we skipped ahead and went to Adam & Wanda's get-together. It was us, Wanda, Adam, Kiley, Mom, Dad, Alisha (Wanda's sister), her boyfriend, his two girls: Bailey & Hannah, and Wanda's mom & stepdad. Quite a crowd, but their house can handle it. Our 1-bedroom apt, however, might burst open!

I would post my Christmas and new pid pictures, but a battery burst in my wireless mouse last night (scared the crap out of me, FYI), so the only place I can post is at work until I clean it out and make sure it's not damaged. Talk about crapola.

Oh yeah, we've "stopped cursing" courtesy of Josh... sort of. He doesn't let them fly quite as much, and I mostly don't do it anymore. Occasionally, if I've tripped over something the pids have dragged around or burned myself w/ plastic like I did last night, I'll let something go. Dani gave us a potpourri burner for Christmas and instead of doing a massive search for the scissors, I used a candle lighter to burn the swing tag that was wrapped around part of it. I pulled it out of the diffuser hole and 3 beads of melted plastic landed on my fingers. That stung, just in case you want to know.

Well, I've been begging for something to do at work for the past couple of days, and when I get on here, I finally get work LOL.

I have another dentist appt today to deal with the two cavityful teeth on the right side. Status on left side is still pending. I have the temp stuff in and it'll be done at a later date. FYI: still REALLY tired of chewing on my right side only. Therefore, I get to eat lunch today and nothing else until the sensitivity goes away on the right side after I have the fillings done there. Besides, I'm not biting the crap out of my tongue like I did last time.

Later...

Ahh… long weekend over. I had yesterday off, so I’m back at work today. I’ll have Friday off too. I was here while a lot of other people weren't during the power outage, so those of us who showed up got to take an extra day off in the future. I figured I'd take it soon since Josh is off this week... dirty rat.

We get to dress down all this week. Nice… that means I can delay washing clothes even longer LOL.

Josh really spoiled me this Christmas:
iPod Mini
Nintendo DS
Mystic River DVD
Troy DVD

He was going to get me a 5000 song iPod, but he thought he could get me two things for the price of one by getting a mall one and the DS also. He’s so sweet.

I got him a black and orange leather jacket he’s been dying to buy (I’ll post a pic as soon as I can), Jak & Daxter III game, Shadow of the Colossus game, a hand-crank radio (can you tell we’re trying to be prepared for the next power outage?), and a really nice leather belt clip for his keys. I loved seeing his face when he opened up the box for the jacket. He really was surprised!!

My sis-in-law made my grandparents a family tree quilt. It has all of our pictures on one side and about 10 or so pictures of them on the other side. It is so beautiful. I actually took pictures of that too, so whoever reads this will get to see it.

I’ve been listening to my iPod all weekend. We opened up gifts on Christmas Eve (weird for me, that was a first, since we’ve always had gifts on Christmas Day), and ever since then, I’ve been playing with it, adding songs, etc. I already have 341 songs out of 1000 on it, so that shows how easy it is to add them.

I have this affinity for songs by Massive Attack lately, so I have about 20-30 of them on the iPod now. Fun!!

More later, maybe.

Merry Christmas!!!!!

Day 5

Wow- some people here have been without power now for 5 days, some reaching 6, depending on when they lost it last week. Our main power company is the brunt of most people's anger, claiming they are acting too slowly. I am middle-of-the-road myself, as always (I like to argue both sides):

On one hand, I can understand that being without power blows hard. We were out from sometime Thursday morning to 3:30pm Saturday, so don't think I haven't gained perspective on it. After all, I am still suffering from winter cold #2 due to the apartment temperature during the outage. Though, I have to applaud taking vitamins... I would be much worse if not for my multi-vitamin and vitamin C! When I feel myself getting sick, I'll chow down extra vitamin C, and every time I do, my colds are about half as bad as normal.

On the other hand, there were over 350,000 buildings without power, which adds up to about 650,000-700,000 people. I doubt that it was mathematically possible to get everyone back up immediately when you're looking at it from that angle. It's not like power was just OFF. Poles had fallen over, traffic lights were laying in the middle of intersections, cars drove over power lines that had fallen, transformers blew (some to pieces, I've heard), etc etc. I even saw a picture of one pole that had been ripped in half and the top of it was hanging from the line over a road near Mom and Dad's house.

We've had out-of-state power companies coming in to help, but there's only so much they can do at a time. We can look at it either like this: "the lines should be buried already and we wouldn't have had so much trouble" or this: "deal with the problem at hand, not with what we should have done".

If people ever thought ice was a minor weather issue, take a look and think again.

All of my grandparents finally got power on Monday night. It blows that they were the last in the family to get power, but were the ones who needed it the most.

Oh yeah, and my co-worker's house as of 10:39AM today STILL has a tree and a power line laying on it. He can't go home, and this is day 5.
___________________________________

Good note: One of the sales divisions brought me and co-worker cookies! Usually, it's an entire department thing, but this time, it's just us!

Other good note: My jaw is finally feeling better. The tooth never hurt, it's just that the dentist gave me so many shots that I couldn't open my mouth all the way (much to some people's delight LOL). I can't chew on my left side, though, b/c I am not allowed to floss. I opened my big mouth and told them the tooth had been hurting, so they put on a medicated filling first, then will fill it permanently later on in January. I am ALREADY tired of chewing on my left side, and it has only been a week LOL.

Other other good note: I found an all-in-one hand-crank radio/cellphone charger/flashlight/emergency weatherband for $50.00 at Bed, Bath & Beyond. They were highly scarce last week and expensive, so finding one now was a blessing. That's exactly what we needed last week: cellphone battery power, a flashlight, and a freakin' outlet to the outside world. At least we'll be prepared next time, right? You just watch - I won't be able to find it when I need it LOL... normal Carri.

Maybe more later - I still owe you some pictures. :)

I'm baaack!

And you thought you got rid of me for at least awhile, huh? Fat chance!!

Ice Update:
Well, our power finally came back on at 3:30pm on Saturday. My parents got their power back at 6:30pm on Sunday. We stayed at home every night, but Mom and Dad had been staying at my aunt's (they had a generator). My grandparents STILL don't have power as of the time I'm writing this (their entire neighborhood is nothing but senior citizens, so you'd think they'd be on the high priority list above any of us).

Trees falling were INSANE around here. I never witnessed a tree falling, and I'm glad, b/c I might have run off the road out of fear. One huge tree actually fell on someone's truck while he was driving down a main road. I didn't hear if they were hurt or not.

The reason why my grandparents are the last to have power in the family is probably b/c they literally had a tree down every 10 feet. Mom said she and my uncle had a difficult time getting past all the debris to get to their house.

Duke Power, our power company, called it the worst ice storm in Greenville history.

Apparently, we got hit the worst as far as power outages are concerned. We had a storm similar to this about 4 or so years ago, and I was still living at Mom and Dad's. We never lost power, if that tells you anything. About 1/4 to 1/3 of Greenville did, though. This time, it seemed like 3/4 of the city did. It had to be like that, b/c I only know of two people at work who never lost power at all over the past five days.

We went to Danielle's on Friday, got showered and refreshed, thank goodness. :) LONG OVERDUE, let me tell you. I am a camper, and am used to having times where you can't always be totally clean, but I'm not a winter camper!!

I was supposed to have dinner with Mom and a friend, but considering the circumstances, we cancelled, so Josh and I stayed and partied with Danielle for our co-workers divorce party LOL. Josh got sh**-faced and I had to drag his butt back home. He woke up with a HUGE hangover (barely slept, actually), and I made him get up and go to the mall to help finish Christmas shopping with my parents LOL!! Which, by the way, we are almost done with... if the ice storm hadn't stopped us, we'd have been done last week. Now we only have 2 more people to buy for and we're finished. Later than I'd hoped, but considering everything... not too bad.

I got sick from sleeping in the cold air, too. By the time we got back from the mall on Saturday, I was running a fever. It got up as far as 103, so I was feeling quite crummy. I had a band concert on Sunday night, where I mainly played piccolo, but I sucked it up long enough to get through the concert. I'm feeling a lot better today. Non-drowsy cold meds work wonders!

We lost everything in our freezer except for Butterscotch Schnapps and frozen orange juice - thank goodness we already ate our cake! Most of the stuff in the frig was ok; it was mainly condiments that we leave out all the time anyway... ketchup, butter, etc.

Pid pics coming up tonight!
Kathryn - thanks for the well wishes!!

ICE

Here's proof that we Southerners are not as crazy drivers as you might like to think. You might drive on snow, but we get solid ICE!!

Check this out:
http://www.wyff4.com/news/5544255/detail.html
http://www.wyff4.com/news/5545459/detail.html
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,178916,00.html
http://greenvilleonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage
http://greenvilleonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051215/NEWS0701/51215007
http://greenvilleonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051216/NEWS0701/51216001

Yeah well... we aren't lucky enough to have gas logs. I'm at work... the only power source for me until this all gets solved. Our power's out at home, so you won't hear from me again until I'm back at work Monday, unless we get lucky and get power back before that. I figure it's better here, even if I am working. I'm the only one here from my team. My co-worker had a power line and tree fall on his house (thank goodness he's only renting), so he's in western NC with family.

There is a power line down about 10 feet from the turn-in to our complex. It is sitting across the road. I rolled over it once, not know what it was. It scared me to death after I found out it was a power line. I can only assume it is OUR line, since it crosses the road toward us. Plus, the power was on and that line wasn't down yesterday morning. When I came home for lunch to check on Doc and the pids, the line was down and our power was out. I called this morning about the line, and I was apparently the first to do so. They acted surprised to hear it.

Trees are down EVERYWHERE. If you go backward from those links above from www.greenvilleonline.com, you'll find about 300 photographs residents have taken. It's caaaarrrazy over here!

Josh attempted to go to Mickey D's for me last night before he went to work (both our jobs have generators, so we luckily haven't lost any time there), but the line was too long and he had to come back empty-handed. I went out later, wanting to go to Wendy's or something, but I passed by Fatz Cafe before that, LOL, so I had a pretty nice meal in the dark! :)

Our frig is just about warm. We've lost most everything in the frig part, but the freezer is still above 40. We ditched our Milk and Popsicles, though. If we're going to be without power for six more days (that's the Duke Power forecast as of last night), we'll have to ditch pretty much everything. We JUST went to the store, also, and we don't really have extra $$ to replace it all. Figures...

"Intersections became games of chicken with traffic lights out." - quote from greenvilleonline.com
You've got that right. The state law is that if a traffic light is out, then the intersection automatically becomes a four-way stop. Yeah right - try doing that on Pelham Road. Those buttholes just keep coming. There are only two lights I've seen out of about 30 that are actually working. I've found myself making extreme efforts to make all right-handed turns, avoiding lefts, if at all possible. There are some intersections I've passed that treat it as if their light just changed, and the whole side stops for the opposite side to send out about 20 cars, and so on. That's what I mainly see.

Danielle is lucky enough to have power. She lives in a forest, so I don't know how she was THAT lucky, but she has given Josh and me permission to come over and shower. Thank goodness... Josh worked last night, and still smells like rubber (tire plant). He had to go to bed like that, too. Eww.

I've got both phones, a huge Jurassic Park flashlight, and the Gameboy at work charging up LOL. Our phone batteries only last two days WITHOUT use, and they both went out last night. In fact, I'd set the alarm on mine for this morning, and the battery died before the alarm could sound. So I woke up at 8:30 (work-time), and strolled in here about 9:15ish.

Oh, there's also no way into the apartment complex. There is a HUGE tree bent over, but not broken, in the way of the entrance. Luckily, though, there is a separate exit. People going in and out have to share the exit. It's a little unnerving in the daylight, b/c you can see headlights at night.

We are supposed to have a Christmas dinner with my grandma in Seneca tomorrow. However, the only people who have power are my aunt and uncle. Grandma included, no one else has power, and we're all supposed to cook something!

Well, I might write later before I leave if I have time.
Oh yeah, a couple of pics I took are coming up when we have power at home.

Maybe this time the tooth fairy will leave a quarter?

Well, today's the day I go to the dentist again. I have to deal with that crappy tooth the quack messed up. They're going to pull out the old filling and see IF I need a root canal. I wouldn't have that possibility in front of me if that first dentist did his job right. Truthfully, it shouldn't cost me a thing, IMO, but I don't know how that would ever be rectified, you know?

I haven't written in awhile because I've come to the conclusion that I spend more time writing about my experiences than I do having experiences. LOL - however, that won't keep me from writing here. Just writing more in one sitting than usual.

So don't worry - your friendly neighborhood Phantom will be here to stay. :)

Wish me luck at the dentist. :)

PidSite

Check out the website totally devoted to our babies - http://www.myspace.com/2piddies - you'll find us there if we're not here!

Wow

Lucy will be 8 months old on Sunday, and can you believe it? She weighs 7.6 lbs!!!

Don't drink out of your sippy cup and drive!

This is just sad -


www.ananova.com
Police stop toddler for driving toy car

A two-year-old boy has been pulled over by police while driving his toy car.

Oliver Smith was driving his toy car at 2mph on the pavement when he was pulled over by a policeman reports the Mirror.

Oliver's grandad Derek was warned by the policeman that the boy could be charged for having no tax or MoT certificate.

Oliver's father Richard from Leyland Lancs said: "My dad thought it a was joke at first - he was expecting Jeremy Beadle to turn up. The officer said the buggy could damage a parked car. He gave a warning and drove off.

"I think it's utterly ridiculous. It's the funniest thing I have heard in my life because you can actually walk faster than these things. This one has a top speed of 2.5mph.

"All the shops selling them should have signs to say you need driving documents to use them in a public place. Because of their size, you can't just use them in a garden."

Lancashire Police said: "We cannot comment on the individual case but a child's toy car that can only travel 2-3mph does not come under motor vehicle legislation. Having said that, we would always advise children not to play near to the highway.

"The ideal place for toys is in a driveway, supervised by a responsible adult."

The tooth fairy didn't show up.

I have to vent. I had a dentist appointment this morning, which made me happy.

To understand why I could possibly be happy having gone to the dentist, let me explain:
The only dentist I had ever had was my pediatric dentist until I was 17 or 18 years old. Yeah, I’ve been slack, but for most of those years, I didn’t have any dental insurance. Paying full non-insured price was out of the question. I slacked off and gained a few cavities in the process.

I wasn’t even going to go last year until I felt a ridge on one of my teeth. I found out later, it was a cracked tooth due to my wisdom teeth compressing my bottom jaw. Over time, my weakest tooth cracked (having a cavity there didn’t help) and that’s what the ridge was. Finally, I had a hole back there and had to deal with it. Talk about sensitive, too!

I basically picked a dentist out of the phone book to have that procedure done, since it was an emergency. I couldn’t find my pediatric dentist anymore, so I didn’t have a choice.

I have increasingly sensitive teeth since my wisdom teeth have wreaked serious havoc on my whole mouth… especially my bottom row, which has moved forward about ½ cm since then. My once decent row of almost straight teeth now look like my car floorboard when I have to slam on the brakes and all of my belongings in the passenger seat go crashing to the floor. LOL

Due to sensitivity, I can’t even have happy 6-month cleanings without pain. Dental floss is an avoidable situation there as well. I do it at home b/c I know how much I can handle, but they don’t know that there.

Anyway, I went to the “throw a dart in the phone book” dentist, where everything seemed to be ok, but he wouldn’t use the gas to prep me for shots b/c “he didn’t believe in it” and wouldn’t give me enough shots in my jaw anyway. I guess he thought I was a junkie when I told him I needed more. Bad thing is this: I have a low tolerance for pain, but a high tolerance against medication.. Anything, if it even works in the 1st place, has to be taken at double after the first dosage or I get no effects. Finally, he decided to give me more when AFTER he drilled, I had tears coming out of my eyes. He had to rebuild the broken tooth, so I was there awhile and the shots started wearing off, too. The good thing is that he did refer me to a wonderful plastic surgeon for the wisdom teeth surgery (why it was a plastic surgeon, I’ll never know, but he really took care of me).

I told my co-worker, Danielle, about my dental nightmare yesterday. Today I went to Danielle’s dentist as a referral. Here’s my experience:

I showed up, filled out new patient paperwork and waited an acceptable amount of time to be seen. I sat down and noticed that the chair had a BACK MASSAGER/HEATER on it. Oh, I was in heaven! They used the “happy gas” on me for my cleaning, which relaxed me to the point where I didn’t care that they were scraping my already sensitive teeth, which normally feels like they’re pulling the root out from the top.

Other dart-dentist news: He didn’t completely get rid of the decay from the broken tooth. I found that out today, which is why I said “vent” earlier. So now I have a cavity under my filling. A filling which, by the way, I didn’t even want as a metal filling, but as a white, but he “didn’t believe in that either.” Geez…

I had better not need a root canal… it’s a possibility.

Grr.

I shopped anyway

Well, since I didn't have enough $$ to shop like I wanted, I had every intention of staying home on Friday, but Pier One Imports has this brilliant marketing scheme called subscription email that beckons me to go shop anyway.

The bad thing is that Pier One is in the same vicinity as the mall, which brings up parking issues and Josh's mall temptation.

I have not really like the mall since two SHOOTINGS have occurred there. I avoid it while school is out (both have been gang-related, but there are slight odds that those kids might be in school every once in awhile). Police monitoring has not seemed to quash the problem, so I typically avoid the mall unless it's midday in the week.

Josh just wanted to go, though; so I indulged him. Parking was a b****. I finally found a spot after avoiding oncoming idiots rubbernecking to find a spot while attempting to drive. In the mall, shopping was not bad, since ppl were divided among many different shops. I did find presents for my grandparents and another huge idea for Josh, so the trip wasn't a bust.

Oh yeah... Lucy has started pulling ornaments off the tree. I already have a 1/4 naked tree (the bottom 1/4) due to trying to avoid these problems, but she actually gets up on her hind legs (we call it prairie-doggin') and goes for the higher ones.

Macy hasn't touched the tree yet. I think he learned his lesson last year.

Pid Bloggin'

Mommy, I want to help trim the tree!



New stuff to chew on!



1st attempt at photographing the elusive "Christmas Tree"



2nd attempt: Got the lights this time!



Fun with the new toy... er, tree!



Nappy time/hide my face in a cute way after a hard night of tree-trimming



How cute is this?



Aww!!



Goodness!



Mommy taking advantage of the situation - making a Christmas Kitty!