Suzanne Calling

Yesterday was the first day in my graduate program, the major that I've been waiting nearly two years to begin. Three courses, two in person and one online-and this is considered full time. When you're a geek, like me, you start stalking Blackboard as soon as those courses show up, hoping the professors start putting up content. The first professor sent an email and started building the content the day after Christmas, while the other two followed suit last week. The web class is basically Internet 101, with nine tasks designed to familiarize students with search engines and basic tools. For instance, I'll have to create a simple web page, make a Google map, write a blog (ha!) and manipulate a picture in Photoshop. Nothing too challenging. I took a peek at the discussion boards, which many professors forget to scrub if they reuse templates from semester to semester. By doing so, I saw examples of all nine projects and feel confident that I will do well in the course...

Among all the quirky health issues that I have in my life, one is Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo , which was diagnosed in early 2002. Back then, when it first hit me, it was scary to wake up at 3 in the morning. I needed to use the bathroom, and was feeling like I was going to vomit. I was having this sensation that my head was a lead weight, all the while feeling like I was on a merry go round that was spinning at triple speed. How I made it into the bathroom without major injury (gouged my index finger really bad that morning) I'll never know. While I somehow got there upright, I ended up on the floor-and stayed there. I can't remember whether I actually did vomit, but I held onto the toilet for dear life for a while, then crawled back to bed on the other side of the room. I just realized, and I don't know why, but Ed and I seem to swap which side of the bed is ours and he always seems to take the side closer to the toilet. Weird. Somehow, later that morning...

It seems to follow a pattern. I park my car, head into a business establishment and the words "I really LOVE your car!" are spoken. The majority of the time, it's a baby boomer male. The next thing you know, we're talking Beetles, turbo engines, color rims, the location of the engine and all things old school and new bugs. I get nods of agreement that, like the designated hitter, automatic Volkswagens just shouldn't be sold. Though I guess I should be glad they're not, because I probably wouldn't be able to drive mine if it had a clutch. It's one of those things that if you're a shy person, might drive you nuts. However, just about every person I know with a new Beetle seems to be the bubbly, outgoing sort. It seems that it's the rims on my car that tip the guys over from just looking at it and admiring to actually telling me. Friends with stock colors tell me they only seem to hear those words from teens. As it happened again today, I ...

When we spent the money on the grill, (with tax, almost 200 dollars more than I'd had in mind), I knew that it'd pay for itself in under a year with our desire to use it and eat at home more often. Little did I think that we'd do it in five months. By my calculations, the net difference between getting pizza take out and making it at home (less that 5 bucks on ingredients and pellets vs. $25.00 for the equivalent amount of pizzas), we've saved the value of the grill by having them at home. Besides, grilled pizza kicks butt compared to all the chain restaurants, anyway. There's only one place in town that makes a pizza that meets our standards. Heck, at that, half the time Ed tells me he prefers my grilled pizza over getting a pie at Romeo's. I'm so glad that we walked into the grill place five months ago and was intoxicated by the smell of 'que. Who would ever think that we'd spend more time making pizza on the thing?

If you're on Facebook, I'm sure you see the annoying ads on the side of your page. Many of them are tied to your status updates, but some make you wonder what you said that made you get that particular message. Then there's this: I'm sure there are 365 things in Lakeland to see before I die, but I'm also pretty sure that the Niagara Falls are not one of them. The other three make some sense, as I have kids, am an Education major and like wine, but if you want me to do things IN Lakeland, don't you think the ad should be something actually located in the city?

Which is to say, it's nice, but it won't last. Somehow, the social worker (miracle worker, more like) appealed to her director, who appealed to the director of the rehabilitation center. Jane was given seven days (and seven days only, Vasily) to get as much therapy in before being sent home. Jane neglected to inform us of that tidbit when she left messages for me and Ed and actually got to talk to Betsy live. Jane was informed repeatedly that she has to work her ass off in that short period of time she gets. The social worker also told her that she has to stay out of the hospital for 60 days or Medicare won't pay and that honestly, she is incapable of living on her own and should consider a skilled nursing facility. Gee, this is the same thing she was told by a different social worker in October. What I really liked about this one is that she actually went back and looked through the notes and made the phone calls to get the big picture, even calling Jane's old ass...

Yes, you read that right. After a long hiatus, I'll be doing WFDW again. No pictures this week, but I'll probably take one the next time I make it and add one. When I make a ham, there are a few tried and true recipes for the leftovers. Homemade macs and cheese with ham, my ultimate comfort food meal of au gratin potatoes with ham chunks and well, that's about it. I've cut off slices and warmed them up, but really, I didn't have anything else. Ed and GameTeen love having that ham in omelets, but Chef and I don't eat those. What to do with the ham we had in the fridge, that was the question. Ed and I were discussing this and I could tell that he was less than thrilled with the idea of a gratin, since I'd already done the above mentioned macs and cheese and a roast pork lo mein. He wanted something different. I had the potatoes, so I started thinking. What about making ham hash? (His mom used to make steak hash with leftovers, and it is something he l...