Marilee J. Layman

04:40 pm: Nice Weather, Too Much Pain
I think the pain is because I didn't scoop seed from the 50-pound bag long enough. I thought I got enough out that it would be safe to lift the bag and pour the rest in. Wednesday night, I'll take the big deal pain meds and see how that works, since I don't need to go out on Thursday.

Tomorrow I'm getting stuck for the lipid panel. I emailed to find out why I hadn't seen results yet and my primary doc is off until mid-July, but the nurse replied that it hadn't been done. I even took a printed list of tests to the lab, and they didn't do the last one! The nurse said she'd give me the results after I get the panel done.

I was out filling the birdfeeder today, putting more water plus a bit of bleach in the fountain, and thinking I should try hacking at more ivy that is advancing on the porch. But I hurt too much and Lucila is coming soon, so maybe Thursday. It's only 81F out there and not very humid, a lovely day for summer.

Remember when I told you about the prisoner found dead in his cell? He was strangled. Seven prison guards and an "undisclosed" number of supervisors had access to him in those 20 minutes. The FBI is investigating it as a civil rights matter and the Maryland State Police are handling the primary investigation.

I didn't finish my BFAC project last night -- between getting online late and Making Light having eight new threads, some with hundreds of posts, I finished online at 3am. But I'm starting much earlier today and hope to finish the project tonight.

Tags: beads, health, politics, weather

08:12 pm: New Holes In My Arm
Shiva didn't hurt me while I gave him his meds (although I had to explain the yelling to Luke), but I didn't direct his escape after very well and his hind claws dug in my right arm for a good takeoff. I'll have to be more careful. We're seeing the dental vet on Tuesday at noon and Shiva has to stop the antibiotics Sunday night and food Monday night (he hasn't started eating solid food yet, still the AD slurry).

I took recycling out and then had lunch at Ruby Tuesday's with chocolate cake and ice cream to remember Henry. Where I was sitting, there was a deep bass rumble, felt and heard, and I asked the waitress about it and she said she hadn't heard it until she listened on my side of the restaurant. The manager came and I told him it was probably an air handler and he pointed to a vent on the line of hearing. I told him vibrating like that was not good for a building, plus it was a low D# which tends to scare people, and he went and turned it down a bit so it stopped. The rain poured just as I left and then stopped. As I got home, a fill-in mailguy was at the clusterboxes before ours, so I kept my shoes on and when he went past, gathered Luke's keys and went to get our mail. The mailguy told me that we may not have a permanent mailperson for about six months and he wished us luck. My last two BFAC wins came -- the "Last Trail" horn & necklace and the Saragaro-style netted necklace. They're really great!

You'd think courting mourning doves -- the male chases the female, trying to peck the back of her neck, and we have four pairs now -- would be enough excitement, but a while ago, one of the four crows wanted badly to eat at the feeder, even though I'd put some seed on the porch. There was a squirrel sitting on one side eating and a mourning dove sitting on the other, also eating, and he started dive-bombing them and they both ignored him and his CAWs. Then he carefully stepped down onto the other end of the side the mourning dove was on, and she flapped her wings at him and made him go. So while the crows and mourning doves usually co-exist, clearly the doves are higher in rank.

I've been planning to set up the porch fountain for a couple of weeks and had to keep moving it down the list, but it looks clear for tomorrow. We're past frost so it's safe, and it's nice to have the sound and look of the fountain, and of course, the birds like it.

Tags: beads, birds, cats, fountain

07:58 pm: More Birdseed, Seedbead, and Catfeed
I had a painful night and didn't get up until late so it was well into the afternoon that I headed out to the other end of the county for birdseed. The company that makes it has changed the bag size from 25 pounds to 20 pounds without changing the price. I went ahead and got two bags since I was sure 40 pounds would fit in my metal container, but I may have to look for cheaper options. On the way back, I stopped at Roma restaurant and had souvlaki and onion rings -- wouldn't hurt me not to eat there again, either!

The beads I bought at Sandi's Saint Paul store on Monday arrived today and I spent some time logging them into my beadbase and then put them in the workroom to put away later. I also went out on the porch just before dusk and glued a blue & purple dichroic cabochon to a badge holder with E6000 and for the first time ever, didn't get any E6000 on me! I'm going to bead around it to give to auction for the Boy Scouts.

I know, me giving to the Boy Scouts? Well, one of the couples in my bookgroup has a son in Boy Scouts and I'm quite fond of him. His group's dinner and auction fundraiser is the same night as our bookgroup in May and we agreed to eat there after group. I asked his mom if they'd like jewelry to auction and she seemed quite happy about it. I already have something strung and I've started on a ponytail holder. It and the badge holder are minor things and then if I think I have time considering my BFAC project, I'll weave a necklace or bracelet, too.

Shiva was annoyed a lot last night, too, and I decided that I should try two plates again, since he's staying in the castle when I come out to feed them. I put Spirit's plate on the floor in the kitchen and she lit into it and I took Shiva's to the entry in front of the castle. As soon as she heard him eating, she dashed over to see what he had. I positioned myself and scolded her back into the kitchen. When they were both mostly done, I put out snackies which they both ate, and then they went and finished each other's plates. If this continues to work, I guess the dishwasher will run more often.

Tags: beads, birds, cats

07:45 pm: Out Gout!
I woke up with a gout flare at the base of my right little toe. I decided to still go to the grocery store, but I won't be trying to make Greek Salad tonight. When I stopped for the mail, my check had come, so I came home, offloaded groceries and put them away, and filled out a deposit slip. I'm surprised they got it here this fast. Usually it turns up on the 28th, and if it arrives after the end of the month, they have to pay us a 10% penalty. So I was thinking the 27th, but the 25th is much better. I went and deposited it and paid all the beginning-of-the-month bills.

I got the right numbers for reading glasses from Zenni last night and ordered them (I was right -- add the Sphere to the Add) -- nice red geeky glasses. I called Kaiser Vision Services this morning and asked about having these adjusted and the clerk said "Yes ma'am! You can bring anything to be adjusted. That's part of your benefits as a Kaiser member." I suspect she meant any glasses; I'm pretty sure they don't do cars. Then I called about the new center in Manassas, but Customer Service couldn't find any evidence of it. The next time I'm at the center, I'll ask around in admin. If they really have to put a brick entryway in, they can at least make a nice concrete walkway in the middle.

I've figured out what I'm going to do for this year's BFAC project! I need to finish what I'm doing now and sketch out what I want and then get going. It has to be turned in by July 15th. A friend who lives in Tucson bought me some new metal mesh ribbon at the Gem Show, in purple, of course, which I expected, but when it arrived today, there was a neat freeform bead, too! As she noted, there are fewer freeform beads these days and she knows I like them.

Tags: beads, glasses, health

08:14 pm: Bureaucracy!
I got a letter with a set of forms from the Social Security Administration office in Greenbelt (about 2 hours from here) a couple of weeks ago and they wanted them filled out and returned in 15 days. Well, I spent part of every weekday during those couple of weeks (except the days Giorgio was at the vet hospital) trying to call the number on the papers. It was either fast busy or it gave me two sets of the initial recording and then rang forever (14 minutes is the longest I let it ring, just to see).

The problem with just filling out the forms was that I was supposed to account for work I'd done and they had one year of the self-employment and 11 years of the private disability insurance all as work income. And the form only let me mark Yes or No to whether I'd worked.

So yesterday, I looked up the 800 number and got an agent and explained to her. She said she could get me an appointment and I asked if I could get it at the Manassas office (about half-a-mile as the crow flies, a bit longer to go under the railroad on a road). She said yes and their first was March 12th. Well, that was a lot longer than 15 days! So she suggested I take my chances at the local office today to get instruction in what to do.

I went over to the office today, where the guard was rude to me ("So you thought you'd just come over?" after I explained that the appointment was too far away, and then I told her "That's what the agent said to do" and she said "Hmph"), and checked the Other Business box on the touch screen and got a slip of paper labelled D400. I went to sit in the front row where there were open seats (the seats were pointed perpendicularly to the counters, which they hadn't been before -- more privacy this way) and started reading an old WashPost. I paid attention to the numbers called and realized that the D numbers rotated and as they called 499, I got ready to stand up.

When the agent called 400, I waved at her and said "just a sec" because it was obvious to me that I couldn't just stand up. The chairs didn't have arms and while I have a method of getting up from unarmed chairs, I was afraid I couldn't do it because I'd been sitting up straight for an hour. So while I was trying different methods of getting a stable boost, a nice man behind me came and helped me up and then over to the counter, since I couldn't walk very well after sitting up straight that long, either.

The woman at the counter asked if I had proof that the income listed was private disability insurance and I showed it to her and explained that I had the private ins. before I got the SSA award, so SSA decreased their award when they gave it to me. Then the private ins. decreased their award because I had the SSA (sneaky insurance people!). That should all be in my record. She didn't know what I should do about the form, and went off to ask her supervisor while I leaned heavily on the counter. The supervisor says to make a big mark at that point and attach a letter that explains it all. Now, I had considered that, but I thought someone might have a fit, which was why I'd been trying to call the Greenbelt office for so long. I put my stuff back in the totebag and started to turn and started to fall. I grabbed the counter and didn't fall, and the nice man walked me out to the van. I managed to get in and stopped partway home to sit in the sunshine and let the warmth and a good chair make my back better, and then came home.

When I picked up the mail, I had a new copy of the forms, and a reminder that this was the second set they sent. I will write a polite letter, but I will also explain to them the problem with their phone number.

There was good news today, I got a pair of earrings I ordered from a friend's Etsy site: these but with siam red crystals in the beadcaps. I like the way they hit my neck when I move my head.

Tags: beads, health, politics

05:39 pm: New BFAC Necklace at Auction
I just put a new necklace on eBay where all the winning bid will go to BFAC. It's beadwoven with a mostly pink base, but a lot of purple in the base and the crystals and the beads. There's a really neat cloisonne centerpiece -- flowers with a little butterfly -- and the findings are 14k gold-filled. I think it turned out really well.

Jay, the friend from bookgroup who started the secretary, dropped by today with his family and he finished it while we talked. (Okay, their 11-year-old slept -- he'd been camping for the weekend.) I've got the meds on the shelves and it looks like it will work just like I wanted it to! Now I never have to put my meds away, the drop desk will be up and everything hidden.

Tags: beads, furniture

04:30 pm: Long Nap
I napped for five hours yesterday evening and night and then was online for five hours and went straight to bed. I was really tired which doesn't make sense since janetmk did all the work on the chest! I have a friend from the bookgroup coming tomorrow to do the secretary and one coming Saturday to do the bed. He's sure he can handle it all by himself.

I bought a spiffy new dragon for myself. All the others I've bought from Celia have been for presents or charity auctions. This one is for me and he came yesterday and he's even better in person!

Tags: beads, health

06:19 pm: Auction
Remember when we did the Beading For a Cure auctions back in March & April? Well, we had some folks who wanted to put up non-challenge auctions for BFAC so we set up some rules and I wrote up instructions on how to do it. In order to demonstrate it, I also made a necklace and put it up:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320147367791

I set it so all the winning bid will go to BFAC; others can set the percentage as they want.

I'm clearly not going to get all the books cataloged and back up on top of bookcases and chests before Tuesday when Lucilla coems to clean, so I think I'll just have to tell her to leave the bookcase area of the bedroom alone. It would be hard to dust without knocking over piles and a damp mop might get the books.

Tags: beads, cataloging

05:50 pm: "Not Lost"
That's the title of my BFAC project, and I expect most of you to know where it comes from when you see it. I'll ship it to the Board member who is doing the photographing, and then not worry about it until I do auctions in March.

In the meantime, the artist who made the cab responded and when she gets home from vacation on Wednesday, she'll make me another one. :::whew::: I'm torn between going ahead and starting the necklace because I know the blue she uses for the tropical ocean or doing things I should do before the movers come. I expect I'll be good and do things I need to do before the movers come. Maybe a little work on the lap afghan I started at Minicon, too.

Tags: beads

05:32 pm: I Lost Something!
I never lose things! I finished my BFAC project Wednesday night (pictures tomorrow) and went to the workroom last night to get a really cool tropical 3D polyclay cab to start a necklace that I've been thinking about for weeks. I spent an hour looking for it, and I can't find it. When I cleaned up the workroom, it should have gone into a box with everything else I had out to use soon and it wasn't there. It wasn't anywhere else, either -- I even moved things. I'm really disappointed because I was so set on making this. I emailed the artist and if she can make me something similar in two weeks, I'll take that. Otherwise, I'll make something else summery.

The painter called last night, so I have the whole shebang scheduled from 7/9 to 7/18. There's a Sunday in there when it will be just me and the cats and I think we may really need that by then.

I saw the nephrologist today and my labs are good -- less protein spilling, so the lower protein is working -- but my sugar is 103 again and it needs to be under 100. Renal patients are at high risk of developing diabetes, and Ghu knows, I don't want that. I don't actually eat many sweet things so it has to be the Gatorade. I'm going to try again to find something with electrolytes that doesn't have sugar, and in the meantime, cut the Lasix in half and have only half as much Gatorade (I think this might have me ending up at the clinic getting an IV, but I'm willing to try it).

I went on to Anita's, a New Mexican/Sonorran restaurant. We used to have one here but it closed and the closest one is 45 miles away, near the nephrologist. I had a good meal, but there were eight teenagers at a table near me with t-shirts that said STAFF on the back and some kind of camp on the front and when I left, they'd already spent 20 minutes trying to figure out who owed what. We had the same waitress and I asked her sotto voce if they imposed a set gratuity for groups, because she probably wasn't going to get one out of the kids otherwise. They called her over to say they'd been billed for two red enchiladas and only got one and when she came back with the new bill, they were upset that it was more instead of less. Then one of the boys noticed the gratuity had been applied. I don't know what happened after that. An hour and a quarter home to AC and cold water.

Tags: beads, condo, health

03:33 pm: The Closing
I was still reading the WashPost early this morning and found that TNT was playing old eps of The Closer before the season premiere tonight. They were just as fascinating as they were the first time I saw them. I had to make myself stop watching and go to bed, since it's Code Orange today and I can't go out anyway. Probably Code Orange tomorrow, too.

I finished all the beadwork on my BFAC project last night and was going to buy a special glue today, but it will have to wait until Wednesday. I have some work to do in the workroom before it gets packed. I have some partial projects lined up on a shelf and most are going to have the seed beads decanted back into their tubes, but one has fragile shells and such and needs to be packed. I also need to pack two areas of stones -- cabs and fans -- so they won't clatter against each other when the drawers are moved.

I have one partial project that I'm going to take apart. The beads came in a swap and I had in mind to do a vase and actually am almost done with it, but it's really just not what I want.

Tags: beads, health

03:37 pm: Auctions!
We have wonderful items this week -- a cabochon necklace, a butterfly brooch, a medallion lariat necklace, a beaded and hand-dyed tote bag, a bead-embroidered Green Man in a frame, and a freeform bracelet. The cabochon necklace is by SFF author Elizabeth Ann Scarborough! You can see them all here.

Tags: beads