Signs are popping up all over the place that summer is over and fall is on its way. There are a handful of leaves on the ground. The farmers market has pie pumpkins, sweet potatoes and gourds. There is pre-season football and we had our fantasy football draft. Halloween stuff is going out in stores. There is rumor that the pumpkin latte is about to return to Starbucks. Most of these signs are welcome. Unfortunately, the sign of fall that I most look forward to just does not want to come -- cooler weather. Today was over 90 degrees. I walked out for lunch and immediately felt like I couldn't breath (I am not sure if that is the temperature alone or the air quality warning). I want the cool bite of frost in the morning and the fresh crispness of fall. I boo this heat.
Fall means a few other things as well. September 1st means that we are about 2/3 of the way through 2010. I think its probably a good time to evaluate how I am doing on my new years resolutions. After all, there is still time to make progress.
(1) Get Organized!!This was my biggest goal of the year, and I knew it would be a big challenge, but I did not realize how difficult it would be to even get started. I am not ready to give up on this though. I have four months left, I should make atleast SOME progress on it. I still hardly know where to start though! I am just not an organized individual. I don't have a plan for how I am going to work on this, but I am going to try again.
(2) Cook More, Eat HealthierWhile I have been cooking more in the past few weeks, I overall have been failing at this. Part of it is the above - ORGANIZATION. Part of it is our current social habits. There is typically at least two nights a week where I am meeting people at a restaurant. However, I hope to continue what I have been doing the last two weeks (and perhaps improve upon it).
(3) ReadingI was kicking this challenge's butt, now I am just keeping pace. If you recall the goal was to read 40,000 pgs this year. My latest stat is that with 64% of the year gone I have read 62% of the needed pages. This means that I am about 800 pages behind. I am confident I will catch up and do fine on this goal. I have taken a "break" from reading somewhat this summer because I have been busy with other things, but I still am going along at a decent pace, and usually the start of the new season motivates me (new seasonal reading challenge). I am currently in the middle of two books, which if I finish them quickly will be enough to catch me up.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
Yesterday Sucked, like a Dyson
I am my parents child.
My parents have massively different sleep habits and requirements. While my mom requires lots of sleep and tends to have a relatively early bedtime, my father has had various arguments with insomnia throughout his life and frequently gets up ridiculously early, yet still remains fully functional.
I say I am my parents child because like my Dad, I don't require THAT much sleep. 7 hrs is ideal. 6 hrs is OK. But, like my mom, I do NEED it. If I don't get a full night of sleep, lets say 6 hrs, I become ridiculously nonfunctional.
Wednesday night we went to trivia. We got home around 10:15pm and took River out of the crate. As expected, even after a late night walk she was not quite ready to settle down for the night, even though Aaron and I were. The result was that I was up half the night - stepped on by the puppy, keeping puppy from playing with the cat door, keeping puppy from chewing thing she shouldn't, trying to get puppy to lie down. I am a bit ridiculously patient with her, I really should just crate her on such evenings, but I feel bad doing that when its our fault that she has extra energy. Anyways, I did not get much sleep, and not much continuous sleep.
When I woke up in the morning I did not feel that grumpy or that tired, but within a few hours my minor sleep deprevation would raise its ugly head. By 11:00am at work I wanted desperately to go home sick, to just walk out, because of some minor things going wrong that would normally not phase me. I took lunch early and struggled through the rest of the day, arriving home ready to collapse in a heap and not deal with anything else. My poor judgement continued after work. I proceeded to take the dogs to the park, as planned. When there, River had one of her incedents (resource guarding), and in another show of poor judgement I did not immediately remove her. The result was a dog fight. Both dogs actually in the fight were fine once we got them seperated, but someone, a third dog that I did not even notice near the fight got bit in the ear? I don't know if this third dog stuck her head into the middle of it when I did not notice or what. I of course left the dog park at this point, even more distressed, and of course River cannot go back to the dog park, at least not that dog park where she has clearly shown the resources are an issue. I may still take her to the swimming dog park where she has never shown any resource guarding issues (the resource she guards at the closer dog park is the water bowl, which is not an issue when there is an entire lake there...) We will see. I also hope to (1) get river into doggy daycare on Wednesday's where they will help work on her behavior issues and help burn off extra energy and (2) start taking her to my cousin's house who has a fenced yard and lots of dogs so perhaps we can specifically work on the water guarding thing in a more controlled environment.
It took me a long time to calm down after the dog park. On a normal evening I would be pissed (mostly at myself), but would get over it quickly and move on, but I was so overly tired that I just totally over-reacted and broke down over it. It was a mess. I was a mess.
When I did straighten myself out I continued my evening as planned. I went to the library and picked up a new audiobook (A Great and Terrible Beauty), I called my friend T who I had not seen in ages to see what was up with him and if he wanted to do something, and I went to the fabric store and got supplies for the next three blankets I am making for my two helpers and coworkers. Back at home we took the dogs for another late walk (which is sort of becoming habit, a good habit I think as it gets both us and the dogs moving), and headed to bed very early. River snuggled up and slept. I slept. I feel much more well rested today, and hopefully today goes much better. So far, its looking good.
My parents have massively different sleep habits and requirements. While my mom requires lots of sleep and tends to have a relatively early bedtime, my father has had various arguments with insomnia throughout his life and frequently gets up ridiculously early, yet still remains fully functional.
I say I am my parents child because like my Dad, I don't require THAT much sleep. 7 hrs is ideal. 6 hrs is OK. But, like my mom, I do NEED it. If I don't get a full night of sleep, lets say 6 hrs, I become ridiculously nonfunctional.
Wednesday night we went to trivia. We got home around 10:15pm and took River out of the crate. As expected, even after a late night walk she was not quite ready to settle down for the night, even though Aaron and I were. The result was that I was up half the night - stepped on by the puppy, keeping puppy from playing with the cat door, keeping puppy from chewing thing she shouldn't, trying to get puppy to lie down. I am a bit ridiculously patient with her, I really should just crate her on such evenings, but I feel bad doing that when its our fault that she has extra energy. Anyways, I did not get much sleep, and not much continuous sleep.
When I woke up in the morning I did not feel that grumpy or that tired, but within a few hours my minor sleep deprevation would raise its ugly head. By 11:00am at work I wanted desperately to go home sick, to just walk out, because of some minor things going wrong that would normally not phase me. I took lunch early and struggled through the rest of the day, arriving home ready to collapse in a heap and not deal with anything else. My poor judgement continued after work. I proceeded to take the dogs to the park, as planned. When there, River had one of her incedents (resource guarding), and in another show of poor judgement I did not immediately remove her. The result was a dog fight. Both dogs actually in the fight were fine once we got them seperated, but someone, a third dog that I did not even notice near the fight got bit in the ear? I don't know if this third dog stuck her head into the middle of it when I did not notice or what. I of course left the dog park at this point, even more distressed, and of course River cannot go back to the dog park, at least not that dog park where she has clearly shown the resources are an issue. I may still take her to the swimming dog park where she has never shown any resource guarding issues (the resource she guards at the closer dog park is the water bowl, which is not an issue when there is an entire lake there...) We will see. I also hope to (1) get river into doggy daycare on Wednesday's where they will help work on her behavior issues and help burn off extra energy and (2) start taking her to my cousin's house who has a fenced yard and lots of dogs so perhaps we can specifically work on the water guarding thing in a more controlled environment.
It took me a long time to calm down after the dog park. On a normal evening I would be pissed (mostly at myself), but would get over it quickly and move on, but I was so overly tired that I just totally over-reacted and broke down over it. It was a mess. I was a mess.
When I did straighten myself out I continued my evening as planned. I went to the library and picked up a new audiobook (A Great and Terrible Beauty), I called my friend T who I had not seen in ages to see what was up with him and if he wanted to do something, and I went to the fabric store and got supplies for the next three blankets I am making for my two helpers and coworkers. Back at home we took the dogs for another late walk (which is sort of becoming habit, a good habit I think as it gets both us and the dogs moving), and headed to bed very early. River snuggled up and slept. I slept. I feel much more well rested today, and hopefully today goes much better. So far, its looking good.
Friday, August 20, 2010
The Birthday "Surprise"
It occured to me this morning that I still have not posted about last weekend and my Birthday Surprise for DH!!
DH does not like surprises. This *does not compute* for me. My family does surprises, and we are the kind of family where finding out about a surprise in advance (like finding your christmas present, or even guessing them for example), is something to feel guilty about. However, DH is totally different. He hates surprises and he stresses until you cave and tell him. I remember one time I told him I got him his present about a month out and he made me tell him right there and then (it was a video game, nothing to stress over!). Anyways, so when I told him 6 weeks ago I was planning a surprise for his Birthday I expected he would waste no time in getting me to tell him. However, he held off. He did not comment on it, did not seem to be thinking about it too much, and I was impressed. Turns out this attempted at ignoring it was only a temporary measure because about a week before his birthday he went over the edge and started begging to be told. I ended up giving in the night before. I almost wish he had just begged me to tell him months ago so it wasn't SO CLOSE to being a real surprise.
That aside- it was a good weekend. Saturday, after dropping my little sister off at the airport, we headed north to Canton to go to the Pro-Football Hall of Fame. It was pretty exciting. I wore my Vikings Jersey and DH wore his Lions jersey. We spent about 3 hrs there. Overall, it was a lot of fun. They had some really cool stuff. Of course, being the critical person I am I also had some complaints. They have a theater that plays a video called "Road to the Super Bowl". While the video turned out to be interesting, it wasn't what I expected and was the most ridiculos waste of technology I have seen. Someone must have built it in the 70s and said "this will be SOOO cool!". Basically, half way through the movie the theater roated 180 degrees to a different screen. The new screen was playing the exact same video and quality as the first screen, and during the turn you missed part of the video. Ridiculous. Also, with the title, I thought the video would be about the hx of the Super Bowl or what it takes to get there. Instead it was a recap of the most recent NFL season for the Saint's and Colt's, which, by the way included a painful recap of the Viking's playoff loss last year. Besides the ridiculous theater there were some other shortcomings. There were some unlabelled displays, and displays that looked like they were meant to rotate so you could see a different part that did not work. They also had a tendency to start the narratives as if you already knew what was going on, which was rarely the case. "Team X, who is famous for the scandal in 1906, had a second problem in 1910 when blank happened", screw 1910, I want to know what the scandal was!! DH's main complaint was that they did not provide much information that is not readily available online - he was looking for anecdotes and interesting stories about the famous players rather than just stats. As I said, overall it was very interesting, it just could have been better.
After that we headed off to Pittsburgh. We had tickets for the Pre-Season opener between the Detroit Lions and Pittsburgh Stealers. My previous experience with Pittsburgh is limited to briefly driving through and stopping at the Carnegie Mellon campus back in 2001 during my grand college tour of the Eastern US. In that 2 hrs, I formed the impression that it was a beautiful city with awesome views and built-in green space. This second visit confirmed that, and showed me that its a very active city w/lots going on. We stayed at the Radisson just throught he tunnel from downtown (great location, but based on some other problems relating to food and elevators, I don't recommend it). We parked downtown about 2 hrs before kickoff and walked around, across the bridge, and along the river to the Stadium. I was very impressed with the carnival atmosphere surrounding the game - everyone was having a great time, and there were so many people out celebrating the start of the season. The stadium is impressive and beautiful. It includes a hall of fame and houses the Super Bowl trophies (which they have several of). It overlooks the river. DH only got heckled once in his Barry Sanders jersey. We enjoyed the first half of the game. 3/4 of the way through the first half I went to the bathroom and heard on the radio that big storms were moving in. Shortly after that a rumor went around that they were going to have to call the game for lightning. Shortly after that, it started raining. DH and I got soaked. Shortly after that, they put the game on hold. DH and I, as wet as we were, decided to call it a night and head back to the car and hotel rather than waiting to see if the game would restart. By the time the game did end up restarting we were back in the hotel bar in dry clothes, and did not regret the decision. In the morning we ended up hitting up a place for brunch and heading back to Columbus.
It was not exactly the way I planned it, but it was still fund and I am sure we will remember it for a long time. I am never going to try to surprise DH with more than a small present again, and he owes me a surprise in return for not letting me surprise him!!
Monday, August 16, 2010
Questions and Answers
Here is a MeMe going around. Thought I would jump in.
Hi, my name is Amanda. Duh.
I've never been to a night club, and I don't have a desire to try.
I hate it when I forget to do something and have to admit to people how disorganized I am.
The one person who can drive me nuts is Bob Dylan. LOL. Actually, lots of people drive me nuts, I am not a very patient person.
When I'm nervous I am fidgety and bouncy
The last song I listened to was something country on the radio when I was driving home from Pittsburgh.
If I were to get married today my maid of honor/best man would my older sister LEKT (still)
My hair is long and brown, I think I am growing it out again. I think.
When I was 5 I loved Kindergarten, I got my first pet (a white rabbit named Buttercup after a picture book), I started playing the Violin.
Last Christmas was spent in Duluth and was tons of fun. We bought mom a gajillion Agatha Christie books.
I should be doing dishes, doing laundry, being a responsible adult.
When I look down I will probably run into something.
The happiest recent event was having my little sister visit for 2 weeks
My current annoyance is not being able to get Sunday Ticket unless I agree to pay Direct TVs high prices for atleast a full year.
I have a hard time understanding how people can be so irrational.
There's this girl that I know who lived in a tree, Knock Knock!! (inside joke...)
The thing I want to buy is new flooring for the front room.
Most recent thing I've bought myself feta cheese and cous cous to make a yummy lunch!
Most recent thing someone else bought me was caribou coffee, thanks MMK!
My middle name is not something I post on the internet, especially since its also my maiden name.
Last night I was watching Giants vs Jets, then my guilty pleasure - Secret Life of the American Teenager, while reading Middlemarch
If I was an animal I'd be probably a Panda, because I love them so much and they have easy lives as long as they are on a preserve.
Tomorrow I am going to trivia in the evening, should be fun!!
Tonight I am doing pretty much nothing, and doing it well.
Hi, my name is Amanda. Duh.
I've never been to a night club, and I don't have a desire to try.
I hate it when I forget to do something and have to admit to people how disorganized I am.
The one person who can drive me nuts is Bob Dylan. LOL. Actually, lots of people drive me nuts, I am not a very patient person.
When I'm nervous I am fidgety and bouncy
The last song I listened to was something country on the radio when I was driving home from Pittsburgh.
If I were to get married today my maid of honor/best man would my older sister LEKT (still)
My hair is long and brown, I think I am growing it out again. I think.
When I was 5 I loved Kindergarten, I got my first pet (a white rabbit named Buttercup after a picture book), I started playing the Violin.
Last Christmas was spent in Duluth and was tons of fun. We bought mom a gajillion Agatha Christie books.
I should be doing dishes, doing laundry, being a responsible adult.
When I look down I will probably run into something.
The happiest recent event was having my little sister visit for 2 weeks
My current annoyance is not being able to get Sunday Ticket unless I agree to pay Direct TVs high prices for atleast a full year.
I have a hard time understanding how people can be so irrational.
There's this girl that I know who lived in a tree, Knock Knock!! (inside joke...)
The thing I want to buy is new flooring for the front room.
Most recent thing I've bought myself feta cheese and cous cous to make a yummy lunch!
Most recent thing someone else bought me was caribou coffee, thanks MMK!
My middle name is not something I post on the internet, especially since its also my maiden name.
Last night I was watching Giants vs Jets, then my guilty pleasure - Secret Life of the American Teenager, while reading Middlemarch
If I was an animal I'd be probably a Panda, because I love them so much and they have easy lives as long as they are on a preserve.
Tomorrow I am going to trivia in the evening, should be fun!!
Tonight I am doing pretty much nothing, and doing it well.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Sister's Stay in Review
I haven't posted in a while, besides that aside. I have been too busy showing my little sis a good time. We packed A LOT into two weeks. In lieu of a normal linear summary, I have reviewed all of the places we went and things we did. Enjoy!!
Frankie's Cafe ** Had Nestie Dinner hear on Tuesday night. We went to this as it was advertised as a Mexican restaurant, but on all the websites I can find on it, it is called an Italian restaurant. The menu was a bit schizophrenic. The food was not bad, but I think they need Chef Ramsey's help.
Lucky's Grille **** Trivia on Wednesday night. Always decent food, good game, great service.
City BBQ **** We just love BBQ and this is a Columbus classic
Rock Band ***** I managed to get my sis addicted very quickly. Incedently, when I went on this website to make this link, I also read up on the upcoming Rock Band 3. I am SOO excited. It is going to have Crazy Train and Smash Mouth and other good things, and it adds a Key board, and harmony, and a play game feature that actually teaches you the instruments.
Ohio State Fair **** My sis enjoyed this so much we went back for a second day. It was a lot of fun, though a bit hot and I can't help but think its not as good as the MN fair.
TGIFRidays **** I had a really delicious tropical salad and Hurricane, and my sis's salad was good, but they did not do very well with DHs ribs - not really a half rack, and my shrimp was much better than his!
Columbus Bowling Palace **** Clean and friendly, my first time bowling here in Columbus and I am sure we will be back more often now that we know its a good place. Dh and sis liked it so much they went back for some after-midnight bowling the night before sis left. I was in bed.
Zoombezi Bay I am torn on the rating for this, they have some really great rides, I would say ***** for ride quality, but unfortunately it got way overcrowded as the afternoon progressed and their line management was horrendous (like having to wait in the same line as a popular ride for a less popular ride). I think it would be a great weekday activity.
Bamboo Cafe ***** Inadvertant discovery on Bethel Rd when my sis vetoed the vegitarian Banana Leaf Cafe we were headed for. It is in the same strip mall, and is surprisingly relaxing and posh given the surroundings, and the food was deliciously fresh.
Gallery Hop **** We also inadvertantly did this, guess it was an inadvertant night. We went down to the Short North and then realized it was the first Saturday of the month. It was a particularly good one, with lots of street musicians and a generally jovial atmosphere.
Jeni's Ice Cream ***** Always a good decision, even with the crowds the employees were great about giving samples and the summer selection was amazing. After sampling the Cucumber Sake and a number of other flavors, I went with Goat Cheese Cherry and Queen City Cayenne, a wonderful conversation if I may say so. Everyone got something delicious.
Sugar Daddy's *** This is a brownie store. I am only giving them three stars because they have short hours and we had some issues getting to them. Sis ended up picking up three brownies for us - Rasberry, Mint, and Peanut Butter. The rasberry and mint were delicious, but the peanut butter was too strong and we did not even finish it.
Tranquility ***** This is where my little sister took me for a surprise massage and I was very impressed with the atmosphere and service.
Caribou Coffee ***** Sis and I also indulged in this a few times. I heart their Campfire Mocha!
Red Robin ***** This has become my ideal burger. So delicious!!
Chili's Resteraunt ** OK, so their queso is still tasty, but we were disapointed with pretty much everything else we got.
Scioto Downs ** Yes. We took my 16 yr old sis to the track. She was better at picking horses than me or DH!! I always have guilt trip issues with gambling, so only two stars.
Pig Iron *** normally Pig Iron gets 4-5 stars, but their corn pudding was too bready this time and they lose some points because of it, as that is my favorite part of any bbq restaurant!
Magic Mountain *** Went here for mini golf. A bit overcrowded, but a challenging and fun course, inside they had a kids playland that I would have gone gaga for if I was a kid.
Frankie's Cafe ** Had Nestie Dinner hear on Tuesday night. We went to this as it was advertised as a Mexican restaurant, but on all the websites I can find on it, it is called an Italian restaurant. The menu was a bit schizophrenic. The food was not bad, but I think they need Chef Ramsey's help.
Lucky's Grille **** Trivia on Wednesday night. Always decent food, good game, great service.
City BBQ **** We just love BBQ and this is a Columbus classic
Rock Band ***** I managed to get my sis addicted very quickly. Incedently, when I went on this website to make this link, I also read up on the upcoming Rock Band 3. I am SOO excited. It is going to have Crazy Train and Smash Mouth and other good things, and it adds a Key board, and harmony, and a play game feature that actually teaches you the instruments.
Ohio State Fair **** My sis enjoyed this so much we went back for a second day. It was a lot of fun, though a bit hot and I can't help but think its not as good as the MN fair.
TGIFRidays **** I had a really delicious tropical salad and Hurricane, and my sis's salad was good, but they did not do very well with DHs ribs - not really a half rack, and my shrimp was much better than his!
Columbus Bowling Palace **** Clean and friendly, my first time bowling here in Columbus and I am sure we will be back more often now that we know its a good place. Dh and sis liked it so much they went back for some after-midnight bowling the night before sis left. I was in bed.
Zoombezi Bay I am torn on the rating for this, they have some really great rides, I would say ***** for ride quality, but unfortunately it got way overcrowded as the afternoon progressed and their line management was horrendous (like having to wait in the same line as a popular ride for a less popular ride). I think it would be a great weekday activity.
Bamboo Cafe ***** Inadvertant discovery on Bethel Rd when my sis vetoed the vegitarian Banana Leaf Cafe we were headed for. It is in the same strip mall, and is surprisingly relaxing and posh given the surroundings, and the food was deliciously fresh.
Gallery Hop **** We also inadvertantly did this, guess it was an inadvertant night. We went down to the Short North and then realized it was the first Saturday of the month. It was a particularly good one, with lots of street musicians and a generally jovial atmosphere.
Jeni's Ice Cream ***** Always a good decision, even with the crowds the employees were great about giving samples and the summer selection was amazing. After sampling the Cucumber Sake and a number of other flavors, I went with Goat Cheese Cherry and Queen City Cayenne, a wonderful conversation if I may say so. Everyone got something delicious.
Sugar Daddy's *** This is a brownie store. I am only giving them three stars because they have short hours and we had some issues getting to them. Sis ended up picking up three brownies for us - Rasberry, Mint, and Peanut Butter. The rasberry and mint were delicious, but the peanut butter was too strong and we did not even finish it.
Tranquility ***** This is where my little sister took me for a surprise massage and I was very impressed with the atmosphere and service.
Caribou Coffee ***** Sis and I also indulged in this a few times. I heart their Campfire Mocha!
Red Robin ***** This has become my ideal burger. So delicious!!
Chili's Resteraunt ** OK, so their queso is still tasty, but we were disapointed with pretty much everything else we got.
Scioto Downs ** Yes. We took my 16 yr old sis to the track. She was better at picking horses than me or DH!! I always have guilt trip issues with gambling, so only two stars.
Pig Iron *** normally Pig Iron gets 4-5 stars, but their corn pudding was too bready this time and they lose some points because of it, as that is my favorite part of any bbq restaurant!
Magic Mountain *** Went here for mini golf. A bit overcrowded, but a challenging and fun course, inside they had a kids playland that I would have gone gaga for if I was a kid.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
A Political Science Aside...
In political science they sometimes study the difference between what people learn and what people remember, between what people know and what they think they know. In general, a lot of results show that people remember only the facts that support their position, and construct views around those "facts" they do know, or whatever information stuck with them best. This, by the way, is an argument AGAINST democracy - it is essentially impossible for people to be fully informed.
Anyways, the reason I bring this up is because I am a living example of how this happens. Not in politics, where I try to stay relatively well informed and keep an "open" mind when it comes to facts. BUT, I am a good example of this at work. Three times recently I have had one "fact" stick in my mind about a case and had it cause me to construct a reality about the case that simply was not supported by the totality of evidence. In all three of these cases there was some exam of the claimant that's report made me feel like the claimant's condition but surely be very severe and they would likely be allowances. In all three cases, when I went to meet with a DR about it, or sent it to be reviewed by a doctor, they asked "where is the evidence that they are telling the truth?" or, in one case "where is the evidence they have ANY medical condition?" I had completely neglected the fact that despite one exam where they were presenting as in pain/very psychologically distressed, there was no evidence of an ongoing issue or of it being severe as the claimant alleged. I had constructed a reality of the case around the idea that the claimant was suffering. Once the Drs pointed out my errors, thorough review of the evidence showed that in all three cases, everything besides the one "fact" I had picked out indicated the case was not that severe and that these people could work.
I feel like I need to step back, take a breath, and return to looking at the totality of the evidence.
Anyways, the reason I bring this up is because I am a living example of how this happens. Not in politics, where I try to stay relatively well informed and keep an "open" mind when it comes to facts. BUT, I am a good example of this at work. Three times recently I have had one "fact" stick in my mind about a case and had it cause me to construct a reality about the case that simply was not supported by the totality of evidence. In all three of these cases there was some exam of the claimant that's report made me feel like the claimant's condition but surely be very severe and they would likely be allowances. In all three cases, when I went to meet with a DR about it, or sent it to be reviewed by a doctor, they asked "where is the evidence that they are telling the truth?" or, in one case "where is the evidence they have ANY medical condition?" I had completely neglected the fact that despite one exam where they were presenting as in pain/very psychologically distressed, there was no evidence of an ongoing issue or of it being severe as the claimant alleged. I had constructed a reality of the case around the idea that the claimant was suffering. Once the Drs pointed out my errors, thorough review of the evidence showed that in all three cases, everything besides the one "fact" I had picked out indicated the case was not that severe and that these people could work.
I feel like I need to step back, take a breath, and return to looking at the totality of the evidence.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Family Ties
I apparently don't talk about my family enough, because at the recent nestie dinner I went to a couple of people who read my blog did not know that I had a brother. Family is a fitting topic for today anyways as my mom just underwent a total knee arthroplasty (replacement) a few days ago and is home recooperating quickly.
The knee surgery has been coming for a LONG time. She wrecked her knee cross-country skiing when she was pregnant with my older sister LEKT some 28 yrs ago and has been dealing with it ever since. While surgery is never fun, my mom sort of has an advantage over some other patients- she is an orthopaedic nurse at the hospital where she is having the surgery. This means that she stayed on the floor she works on, and as far as I can tell, they gave her the royal treatment, starting with giving her one of the nice rooms with a lake view. (I love Duluth, you can get a hospital room with a lake view!). All reports indicate the surgery went well and now she just faces some boredom while she is stuck waiting for it to heal, and then some hard rehab. I really hope everything goes smoothly. I am in the awkward position where 95% of what I know about joint replacement surgeries comes from cases that went wrong. Hopefully my mom can teach me about what it is like when the surgery goes right, which it does in most cases.
With that as a prompt, a bit about my family:
My parents are both from Ohio, they met at Kent State University, got married, and moved to Northern Minnesota for my Dad's job. My dad is a professor of Sports Physiology. He is 6'4". He loves basketball. When I was growing up he ran Grandma's Marathon in Duluth every year. I like that he is tall because it maintains the same physical father-daughter relationship that I have had my whole life with him. He will always be literally the "large" figure in my life, completely different from giving DH a hug. He likes Garrison Keilor, what I call "old time" country music (ala Willie Nelson etc, which he has pointed out was not old when he started listening to it!!), and makes fun of pop music. His midlife crisis consisted of having my brother install a really loud exhaust system in his Mazda 626. He spends a lot of time mowing the lawn and fixing fences, which he claims to hate, but I think that if he tried to live somewhere he had less of it to do he would miss it immensly, just like the way he claimed to not care about the cats until we had gone without one for a year or so, and then he wanted another. (Unfortunately there are no cats anymore because they are up to 400 lbs of dog in the house, 75 lbs of which enjoys chasing cats up trees and has even been seen climbing the trees after the cat!).
My mom is an RN. I have her skin - I don't burn, I tan, which is nice. She has been riding horses since she was a kid in Cleveland and bought two horses this year that she claims are her last, but I don't believe it. She likes big dogs because you don't have to bend over to pet them. She likes John Denver, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Mandy Patinkin and Jason Mraz. She shielded us as children from pretty much anything that involved swearing or sex, and still seems to despise shows and movies that have these as prominent themes (which is a lot of them by the way). She imparted such philosophies to me as: "if you swear all the time, then when you are really angry you will have no way to express it" and "don't use the word hate unless you want that thing or person to die/be removed from earth". I think these are both good lessons and even used one with my younger cousin last week when he told us he hated us because we played a Draw 2 Cards on him in Uno.
My older sister, LEKT, is a Veterinarian specializing in large animal. She just moved back to Minnesota. I don't think I need to provide too many details because I wrote a pretty in-depth post about her not to long ago. We are very much alike in many regards, and very different in others.
My brother MAK is three years younger than me, exactly. We share a birthday. I always used to joke he was the worse birthday present I ever got, this was mainly backlash to people telling me he was the best present I ever got. That is not what a 5 yr old wants to hear when she now has to share her birthday. Now that we are both adult types, sharing a birthday is kind of fun, makes for some good jokes. For example, this year he claims to have gotten us the Chrysler for my birthday, where as I claim to have bought him one of his jalopies. Speaking of his jalopies, my brother is a car-buying addict. He is mechanically inclined and is net +6 cars on the year. He buys them because they are cheap and he thinks he can fix them up, or use them for parts to fix other things up. As far as I can tell, sometimes this happens, most of the time it doesn't. MAK is the family comedian, and I have listed him as the funniest person I know on multiple surveys. His humor is totally random and wonderful. He lives with a great girlfriend and two dogs on a rural lot outside of Duluth.
My little sister, MMK, is 16. I was almost ten years old when she was born. When she was little I played the role of the live-in babysitter by choice. I took care of her SO often, and I loved it. I liked the responsability and I liked taking care of a baby. She is not so much a baby anymore, though she is still the baby of the family. Both my parents and she openly admit that she is spoiled because she is the youngest. She seems to be turning out well despite this... I mean just the fact she realizes how spoiled she is shows she is pretty bright and reasonable. She is a soccer fiend, still rides horses (unlike myself who dropped this sport around 8th grade). She likes to drive a lot. She is much more aware of fashion and makeup than I ever was. Her brain works a bit different than mine - more spacial I think. She is better at geometry than I was (my worst class in high school), and she is better at learning directions by driving places (whereas I prefer maps).
That is my entire nuclear human family. We won't even get into their 8? horses and 6? dogs, numbers which are relatively current and therefore do not count the vast number of pets I have had in my lifetime. (now there would be an interesting number to try and calculate....)
The knee surgery has been coming for a LONG time. She wrecked her knee cross-country skiing when she was pregnant with my older sister LEKT some 28 yrs ago and has been dealing with it ever since. While surgery is never fun, my mom sort of has an advantage over some other patients- she is an orthopaedic nurse at the hospital where she is having the surgery. This means that she stayed on the floor she works on, and as far as I can tell, they gave her the royal treatment, starting with giving her one of the nice rooms with a lake view. (I love Duluth, you can get a hospital room with a lake view!). All reports indicate the surgery went well and now she just faces some boredom while she is stuck waiting for it to heal, and then some hard rehab. I really hope everything goes smoothly. I am in the awkward position where 95% of what I know about joint replacement surgeries comes from cases that went wrong. Hopefully my mom can teach me about what it is like when the surgery goes right, which it does in most cases.
With that as a prompt, a bit about my family:
My parents are both from Ohio, they met at Kent State University, got married, and moved to Northern Minnesota for my Dad's job. My dad is a professor of Sports Physiology. He is 6'4". He loves basketball. When I was growing up he ran Grandma's Marathon in Duluth every year. I like that he is tall because it maintains the same physical father-daughter relationship that I have had my whole life with him. He will always be literally the "large" figure in my life, completely different from giving DH a hug. He likes Garrison Keilor, what I call "old time" country music (ala Willie Nelson etc, which he has pointed out was not old when he started listening to it!!), and makes fun of pop music. His midlife crisis consisted of having my brother install a really loud exhaust system in his Mazda 626. He spends a lot of time mowing the lawn and fixing fences, which he claims to hate, but I think that if he tried to live somewhere he had less of it to do he would miss it immensly, just like the way he claimed to not care about the cats until we had gone without one for a year or so, and then he wanted another. (Unfortunately there are no cats anymore because they are up to 400 lbs of dog in the house, 75 lbs of which enjoys chasing cats up trees and has even been seen climbing the trees after the cat!).
My mom is an RN. I have her skin - I don't burn, I tan, which is nice. She has been riding horses since she was a kid in Cleveland and bought two horses this year that she claims are her last, but I don't believe it. She likes big dogs because you don't have to bend over to pet them. She likes John Denver, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Mandy Patinkin and Jason Mraz. She shielded us as children from pretty much anything that involved swearing or sex, and still seems to despise shows and movies that have these as prominent themes (which is a lot of them by the way). She imparted such philosophies to me as: "if you swear all the time, then when you are really angry you will have no way to express it" and "don't use the word hate unless you want that thing or person to die/be removed from earth". I think these are both good lessons and even used one with my younger cousin last week when he told us he hated us because we played a Draw 2 Cards on him in Uno.
My older sister, LEKT, is a Veterinarian specializing in large animal. She just moved back to Minnesota. I don't think I need to provide too many details because I wrote a pretty in-depth post about her not to long ago. We are very much alike in many regards, and very different in others.
My brother MAK is three years younger than me, exactly. We share a birthday. I always used to joke he was the worse birthday present I ever got, this was mainly backlash to people telling me he was the best present I ever got. That is not what a 5 yr old wants to hear when she now has to share her birthday. Now that we are both adult types, sharing a birthday is kind of fun, makes for some good jokes. For example, this year he claims to have gotten us the Chrysler for my birthday, where as I claim to have bought him one of his jalopies. Speaking of his jalopies, my brother is a car-buying addict. He is mechanically inclined and is net +6 cars on the year. He buys them because they are cheap and he thinks he can fix them up, or use them for parts to fix other things up. As far as I can tell, sometimes this happens, most of the time it doesn't. MAK is the family comedian, and I have listed him as the funniest person I know on multiple surveys. His humor is totally random and wonderful. He lives with a great girlfriend and two dogs on a rural lot outside of Duluth.
My little sister, MMK, is 16. I was almost ten years old when she was born. When she was little I played the role of the live-in babysitter by choice. I took care of her SO often, and I loved it. I liked the responsability and I liked taking care of a baby. She is not so much a baby anymore, though she is still the baby of the family. Both my parents and she openly admit that she is spoiled because she is the youngest. She seems to be turning out well despite this... I mean just the fact she realizes how spoiled she is shows she is pretty bright and reasonable. She is a soccer fiend, still rides horses (unlike myself who dropped this sport around 8th grade). She likes to drive a lot. She is much more aware of fashion and makeup than I ever was. Her brain works a bit different than mine - more spacial I think. She is better at geometry than I was (my worst class in high school), and she is better at learning directions by driving places (whereas I prefer maps).
That is my entire nuclear human family. We won't even get into their 8? horses and 6? dogs, numbers which are relatively current and therefore do not count the vast number of pets I have had in my lifetime. (now there would be an interesting number to try and calculate....)
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