Suzanne Calling

I love to cook. Since I was three (yes, really), I've had fun exploring in the kitchen. I learned a lot by observing and experimenting. My parents encouraged any efforts we kids made in the kitchen. Dad made it a point to take my sister and me to white tablecloth restaurants so that we could appreciate fine dining. When other kids were content with Spaghettios, we were having Mom's homemade marinara sauce. It spoiled me. A good friend in elementary school's favorite way to have chicken was when her mom bought the box of Banquet fried chicken from the grocer's freezer. I was lucky, my mom made a homemade fried chicken cutlet in her grandma's cast iron skillet. Damn, it was good stuff, served with drawn butter. When I was in junior high, I took over the nightly cooking duties. My brother made the world's worst meatloaf one Tuesday night and dad turned to me and said "You're cooking dinner." See, Mom worked nights and Dad was there with us ...

The fairy tale we envisioned: We'd move to Florida We'd have family to help us and provide support for our issues We'd have them around the dinner table often We'd do things together, visit theme parks, zoos, tourist sites The reality: We are the caretakers of ALL We are watching someone slowly die because they think it is too hard to take care of themselves We don't get a break We never have people to our house We are constantly bailing out others of their frequent crises (but don't get the same in return) Frankly, it fucking sucks. I am tired of it. I wrote a long post, but the party it is directed at probably won't listen to the blunt message contained in it, even though she reads the blog every morning. I feel like Ed and I never catch a damn break...when do we get our fairy tale, our vacation cruise, our disney passes, our company, our relief? The question is, do I give up trying to make a difference, or do I post a message that is long overdue? Or do...

(with apologies to Monty Hall) Today, I am chosen from the studio audience to be a contestant on "Let's See What Works on Your Leg Today". This is a special game show for medical freaks with various unexplained vascular issues that are not responding to the normal treatments. For treatment options today, I get to choose from the lovely cart of medical supplies: Drawer number one: The Unna Boot Drawer number two: the Oasis, Acticoat or Proform Light Drawer number three: The debridement crap or Drawer number four: DuoDERM I get asked "Have we used the DuoDerm on you before?" We haven't, but we HAVE tried all the other things. Of course, I choose from the yet untested Drawer number four! (and the crowd approves of the choice, while the hostess and contestant laugh at the insanity of it all) Of course, the requisite questioning must occur before I can claim my prize: "Are you allergic to anything in this?" (Hmm, don't know) "Will the adh...

I was over at Project Mommy and she mentioned finding your celebrity lookalikes here . They never come up with anyone who looks remotely like me. Hello? I do NOT look like Sandra Bullock. I wish I did, but that doesn't mean I do! I went and did it. This time, the biggest female name they came up with that resembled me was Ashley Tisdale. I guess that would be pre nose job. (Oh wait, that was surgery to fix a deviated septum!). It's pretty sad when it comes up with things like Rob Schneider, Jimmy Stewart and Roald Dahl.

The new Lego magazine showed up at our house today. This, my friends, is a banner day for us. Both boys will read those magazines until they fall apart. They dream, the are inspired, they tell us the $5,489,656.92 of Lego product they want now. Of course, this means those Lego pieces will show up on the floor for the parental units to step on. In my case, they are only stepped on by the LEFT foot and in the part of the foot that hates stepping on something as small as a crumb. Good times. Ed announced this new arrival with glee, as he is the first to peruse this edition. (Note to self: go to the post office and pick up the other two copies that are in the box). It is best for us to keep abreast of the new sets and make note of which ones the boys keep mentioning in conversation. Anyway, Ed reminded me of one of the then frustrating, now funny Lego requests of yesteryear. Chef Jr was about three years old and Christmas was approaching. We'd ask him what he wanted and he...

Today was inventory day at work. thanks to some issues with the auditing software, it took FOREVER to get audit reports. I arrived at 5:30 am and didn't leave until 8:30 pm-and it still wasn't done. Thankfully, we only do this once a year! The child leaving comments on my blog got a reprieve-I'll be stopping in at the smoothy place and UT tomorrow. I left his comment up so his boss and UT can see it. However, I've switched to moderated comments. It's temporary until this issue is resolved. Tomorrow, I go back to Nurse M. I'm not sure if I'll get a new Unna Boot. The back of the calf is all scratched from the boot rubbing, and there a big purple bruise where the foot meets the leg. When the RSD is flaring this bad, Nurse M doesn't like to put a new boot on.

My kids play a lot of video games. They also watch several movies over and over. As a result, I end up hearing a LOT of soundtracks. (Never mind the ones I like, today, we focus on this topic!) There are a couple of movies my kids watch over and over. They spend a time on a series and then move to the next one. As a result, I see a lot of the six Star Wars movies, the three Indiana Jones, and the four Harry Potter movies we own. Throw in ET, since Chef Jr *loves* that movie. What do all of those movies have in common? Composer John Williams. With the Wii, the kids got Lego Star Wars:The Complete Saga. It made sense, since each of them had Lego Star Wars 1 and 2 for their Game Boy Advances. The difference is that I don't hear the GBA's all that much. We have a rule in the car: no sound or no gameboy, mainly so I didn't have to hear that hokey Mario music over and over. At home, I can't pull that rule, so I end up hearing the music from the games. They've...