Christmas Wrap Up

Well here we are, December 26th. I managed to make it through all the christmas music, wrapping paper and food. Oh man was there some good food! I have officially gained 4.5 pounds in the last three days but it was worth it.

For those that don't know, Bean has a rather large family. At least on his mom's side that is. Go here for more info, but she's one of 8 kids. Most of whom had at least two kids of their own who are now grown and have families of their own, so there's a lot of people that get together for the annual christmas eve get together. This year, I started to feel bad because while I know most names, there are still some that I get confused or just can't remember and I've been hanging around this family for two solid years now. I was feeling bad until I ran into a couple of other spouses who have been around the family much longer and they said they still have the same problem. Talk about a load off! One of them even said they've just given up on trying because we just don't see these people but once or twice a year. Good point. I'm not to the point that I'm going to just give up, but I do feel better knowing that I'm not the only one who doesn't know everybody.

What did I get you ask? Well since you asked, I got a couple of those candle warmer thingys, lots of candles, some clothes, some bar stuff and a dyson vacuum; this one, to be exact. In hindsite, asking for and getting excited about this gift makes me feel old. I can't believe that I actually wanted a vacuum for christmas. Geeze. Don't get me wrong, it's a good one for sure and I'm happy Ben bought it (even though that sorta went over the $50 self-imposed limit for each other) and you won't be seeing cat hair on our floors anymore. It just doesn't leave room for that "Aww, I can't believe he got you that" reaction. It would be more like, "Uhh, did you ask for that?". I'd like to also mention that our friend Steve went with him and allegedly said, "For this much money, I know something else that better never loose suction!"...good one Steve.

So now we're on to New Year's Eve. We currently have some options, but nothing nailed down yet. Anyone got anything going on?

Not It!

I'm going to try to write this using my best duck language. We'll see what happens.

Last, last weekend there was a get together of some ducks, wifs and others at the bbq. In my opinion, good tims are almost always garunteeed when three or more ducks are in the same room. So anyway the Saturday started with M1 swinging by Che' Schy so as to car-pool for mo betta tims and gas saving capabilities-ization. Due to the ice storm in previous days, M1 decided that it might be better if he drives; what with his ABS and just generally nicer car. M1, always on the cutting edge of technology, also brought along his trusty laptop with a map to Dooleys that was slightly off. We got to the bbq around 3:15 with the Tennis's and TP already there.

We sat around, talked, drank I think Busch, and ate good food. Then sometime around 4:30, I took a shot of Goldschlager. Normally, I would wait until the sun goes down before subjecting myself to that kind of alcohol, but there was a lull in activities so I thought that would help get the party started. After it was noted that I took the shot, someone said something about the next shot and automatically there were 5 or 6 "Not it"'s blurted out. But, as we all know, someone did step up and take the next shot. This continued on for the rest of the night. At some point, we were watching tv and all someone had to do was walk by and mummble "shot" or "next" and immediately there would be an onslaught of "Not It"'s. It was quiet humorous, I think there were a few times when there was no instigation, but someone was either paranoid or just wanting a quick laugh. But "Not It" came out every time. It was funny.

After the white trash elephant gift exchange, the guys immediately went outside to light some stuff on fire. And by some stuff, I mean some of the gifts that were received; except for a certain nativity scene. While they were outside, some of the other women there (Angie's friends) where in disbelief that the guys were really out there burning stuff and running around, like it was something unusual? I don't think they had ever been around ducks before. Burning things is commonplace around my house; along with shooting things out of a homemade potato/water cannon (like mashed potatoes), but maybe we're the weird ones.

Anyway, we watched SNL and went to sleep. M1 snored loudly that night. Angie made us kick-ass muffins and cinnamon rolls the next morning. It was a good time!

Made Up Words

I've been having a lot of pain in my lower back in the last month. In October I had similar pains and found out it was due to an infected cyst on my tailbone. I could get into all the gross details, but I won't; it grosses me out just to think about some of the stuff that transpired back there. Anyway, last week I went to my doctor cause the pain was getting to the point that I couldn't sleep well. She promptly sent me to get an x-ray at the hospital and gave me some muscle relaxers and antibiotics (just in case it's an infection again). Two days later my doctor's office calls me to tell me a bunch of medical terms about what the x-ray pertained and that she now wants me to get an MRI and they went ahead and scheduled it for me. Thanks.

Last Friday I went to Kentuckiana Diagnostics to have the MRI done. I was nervous about it since I have some issues with being confined in small spaces. I managed to make it through the twenty minute procedure with minimal panic attacks. Good thing I didn't have to be strapped down like I thought you did for one of these, so that helped. Have you ever had this done? I totally wasn't expecting the noises the machine made. I figured out where the sound effects for those cheesy 60's & 70's outer space movies came from. On Tuesday my doctor's office called back to tell me what they found (again with a bunch of medical, made-up sounding terms) and that now she's referring me to a Neurologist. Thanks again.

Wednesday I decided that I wanted to know, specifically and in layman's terms, what my diagnosis was. I stopped by the MRI place and asked for a copy of the report and films from my mri. They were happy to provide me with both in about twenty minutes. I was so excited! I got back in my car and headed back to work. As soon as I sat down at my desk I pulled out the films first and decided that I didn't know what the hell I was looking at other than various views of my spine. Then I decided that maybe the report would help break down the pictures better.

I'm not going to copy the whole report, but let me just give you a few sentences:
"....mild impression on the dural sac and there is also a small annular rent."
"A Schmorl's node was noted in the superior aspect of the S1 vertebral body. The conus was normal."
"First degree spondylolisthesis at L5-S1 causing mild central spinal stenosis..."

Where to start?

-First of all, there are no spelling errors in those quotes. The words in question are spelled correctly.

-I have had a hard time finding anything in Google or WebMD for any of this stuff.

-Annular Rent?? When I read that, I think I thought something like, Yeah, I'm pretty sure our annular rent is about $12,000, but maybe they think it should be more. I cannot convey how much Ben and I have laughed about that.

Thank God that at least the conus was normal! (If anyone knows what that means, please let me know)

If I can figure out the scanner at work, I'll post a copy of the report. Until then, habba enjoy! And let me know if anyone can decipher any of the above listed items.

Updates

Here are some updates for your reading pleasure.

I've decided that those anonymous comments about my history class did not come from anyone in the class. Just really random, anonymous tarkers. At least, if it did come from someone in the class they have in no way made themselves known. Case closed in my book.

I got an A- on my trenchwarfare paper. The prof was, we'll say impressed, that I knew so much about the topic since I didn't site a lot of sources. What can I say? There's a lot of useless knowledge up in this head, but there's a lot more useful things, it's just sorting them out that's difficult.

Ben and I watched the Billboard music awards last night, and by watched I mean he played his banjo and I flipped between that and an episode of America's Next Top Model (we don't have cable). And we decided that there are more collaborations in music than there should be. Almost every song had "featuring...some random musician" can no one produce good music on their own anymore? I don't listen to much current, popular music, but if what I heard last night was any indication, I'm not missing much. They had Ashley Simpson singing one of her songs with some Latin rapper featuring some other rapper. What that amounted to was two terrible songs combined into one really horrible attempt at a live performance. I think they took two people who suck and paired them together hoping that something good would come from it. It didn't work. Please do NOT leave me comments about how Ashley Simpson is the best singer and person in the world--I truly don't care. Anyway, there were other live performances like that, but I can't remember them and don't want to waste space on them. Tom Petty got their century award. I've always been a silent fan of his, don't own any albums, but I've always liked what I've heard from him. It's weird to think that he was popular even before I was born, he's been around that long making music. Props to Tom and the Heartbreakers.

Also at the award show I noticed Carrot Top in the crowd. WTF? I really hate that guy. He's not funny, not even if I were really drunk or tired. Why is it that that guy gets to be famous and not me? I think I'm by far funnier than him. Christmas music and Carrot Top, they're both up there on my list of things I don't like.