the stars behind my eyes

[maDRigal] although i've got a bit of a culture clash going
[maDRigal] i'm writing liturgy for a germanic spring equinox rite reading the icelandic poetic edda listening to irish drinking music :)
[G] That's not a clash, that's cultural whiplash.

I am listing the 5 most effective things to bribe me with. If you get tagged, your mission is to do the same, then tag 5 or more people. The assumption stands that lots & lots of money is always a good bribe.

1. mead.
2. cappuccinos.
3. mead.
4. jamesons.
5. mead.

i tag everyone :)

So, probably 4 years ago, i was having lunch with the debutante in the facutly dining room, and she got up to leave. I said, "See you back at the ranch." She found that delightfully funny (as only an aging debutante could) and i thought she was just being polite, because that's just what one does...

here it is many years later, and she INVARIABLY, when leaving the dining room before me, or when i leave before her (i try to avoid the walk back to our building together) will say "see you back at the ranch."

it's not THAT funny, is it?

YOU CAN'T FOOL ME SPRING....i can tell you are right around the corner. the ducks have returned to the pond near our house, we saw the first robin, the geese are back and pairing off. no little white fluffly things falling from the sky can change that fact!!

the lilies are starting to come up, but no sign of the daffodils or 'goth tulips.' i hope they didn't die over the winter.

i need to finish up some imbolc stuff and GET MY ASS TO WORK on ostara. mostly writing shit down. it's all in my brain. it's like since we got 'news' my brain has realized there are all these OTHER things to work on besides worrying and we'll just work on them ALL AT ONCE! must prioritize!

i may have screwed up....we had department meeting yesterday, and i didn't go. now, i had a good reason: it was the dreaded "Day 2" and i basically bled through everything i brought with me (and wore!) by 3pm, so i HAD to go home. either that, or i feared leaving a trail behind me for CSI to investigate. so, a quick e-mail to tweak (who had not sent an agenda, it should be noted) and i was gone. i didn't really explain (b/c for some reason telling her is different from telling you all and whatever random strangers are reading this? yeah, doesn't make sense...)

so, i don't know what if anything was decided. who knows, perhaps i'm out of a program :) whatever.

AHNOLD FITNESS EXPO this weekend!!! i'm planning for SURE on being their sunday, but i kinda wanna go saturday too, especially since mistw02 is going saturday, and maybe my friend E.

and i get to meet batista, which i've already expounded upon... :D

i also get to do 'media deprivation day.' i'm making my pop culture students go 24 hours w/o television, radio, internet (except for school use...no getting out of a paper b/c of my class!). they hate it :) but i promised i'd do it too, and while saturday is my day to catch up school work, it's ALSO my day to catch up on thinks i've recorded....soooooooooooooooooo.....i'll be behind. but spring break is coming up, and i can catch up then...

OOO...battlestar galactica!! cut for spoilers... ( Read more... )

(apologies to those what get to see this multiple times, but i'm typing once and then pasting into various venues)

well, that was a big waste of time.

we took the entire afternoon off so the doctor could read the results AS WE WERE SITTING THERE (quite possibly for the first time) and be very blase about the whole thing.

i know they see these things daily, but a little bit of interest would have been nice.

anyway, i DID snag 2 copies of the catscan and ultrasound report.

some highlights:

Jim's spleen is unremarkable. this caused me to giggle :) (but not, of course, to remark)

okay, the IMPORTANT stuff. i'm gonna quote it b/c i know many of you speak "medicalese" and can interpret, but i think it's 'guardedly good.'

"FINDINGS: There is a low density rounded lesion involving the left adrenal gland ... measuring 3.6 x 4.3 cm in dimension. This has Hounsfield units of 11 compatible with either fluid or a fat containing structure such as an adenoma. The lesion did appear to be cystic on the previous exam [i'm assuming the ultrasound]. ... The hounsfield units on the delayed images were only 18 indicating no sigificant enhancement of the lesion.

"IMPRESSION: The patient has a nonenhancing cyst involving the left adrenal gland as descrbed above. This could be related to a residual cyst from a previous hemorrhage. Theoretically, this could be related to a fat containing adrenal adenoma. In either case, it appears benign. As an extra check, a six month follow-up ultrasound of the kidneys to include the left adrenal gland could be considered for further evaluation."

so, guardedly good news. the only hesitation we have has to do with size. the cyst is the size of a quarter, and 'they' say larger cysts/masses are more likely to be Bad (tm), SO, rather than accepting the radiologist's "let's see if it gets worse in 6 months" recommendation (and we had to argue the doctor for this), we...okay JIM is getting an MRI in the next couple of weeks, just to be SURE it's benign.

so....i'm breathing a bit of a sigh of relief, but we're not totally relaxed yet...

THANKS SO MUCH for everyone's support and vibes and spells and prayers and whatever, cos we really have felt them.

lees

at the peedee. the IT flunkies discovered whatever loophole existed that allowed us to get at yahoo mail a month or so ago and fixed it. bastages...

rey mysterio IS going to be wrestling for the heavyweight title at WMXXII, but in a TRIPLE THREAT MATCH with randy orton (yawn) and angle. i guess this MIGHT make the match interesting, but as Young Randall has the mic skills of a houseplant, and the charisma of same, i'm not sure angle and mysterio can bring enough entertainment to match. Young Randall is okay in the ring, but it took them like a year to figure out he made a much better heel than face.

it's too bad they fired orton's dad Cowboy Bob Orton b/c Young Randall's nickname of "The Legend Killer" practically allowed for a storyline where he targets his father as his next legend-victim to write itself....

it could be worse...they could have added Chris F. Masters, the best way invented yet to suck all excitement out of an arena...

(this is turning into a sports post....)

watching the olympics. ( i'll put in a cut here, to guard spoilers )

and then tomorrow a.m....MEN'S HOCKEY GOLD MEDAL GAME! at least a blue jacket comes home with a medal :)

bail now :)

so, the card for wrestlemania is getting stupider and stupider. on the raw side, Triple H has won the 'number one contender spot against John Cena. this is stupid because HHH has already been WWE Champion a bunch of times. this is also stupid because it's believed by most smarks that the only reason HHH still is getting any kind of championship contention is because he's married to a certain Stephanie McMahon who happens to be the daughter of Vince McMahon, who runs WWE.

the only possible fun that can come out of this is that we can see how small HHH muscles get. since the post-eddie guerrero death ban on 'performance enhancing substances,' a number of wrestlers are....well, let's say they aren't quite "being all they been." and HHH is one of them.

i'm really just bitching b/c my Source for Wrestling News, Online Onslaught STILL has not posted a recap of the Smackdown ppv from sunday night. it's really telling, quality-wise, that NONE of the staff watched the PPV in enough detail to do a recap. the problem is, i don't know what the set up is for tonight's Smackdown. i do know (i think) that Rey Mysterio is challenging Kurt Angle for the heavyweight belt. if you even have bothered to read this far and have even bothered to check the link, you'll see how silly THAT is given rey's size....or lack thereof....

i also know that kurt angle was supposed to be at the arnold fitness expo next weekend, and i was going to get to meet him (thru some sort of GNC vendor's reception that vitaminJ has to attend). but due to his heavyweight title responsibilities (whatever the hell those are), someone else is coming in his place....

Dave Batista

and while that link does NOT have his best picture on it (the man looks amazing in a suit), i am pretty much okay with this. :D

behind the cut, the enneagram meme

( Read more... )

Great guinness toast: reminder, eh? alas, though, they've been advertising it on local radio stations, so i fear there will be several non-regulars at the pub and while watching people who never drink guinness drink it as if it were bud light is amusing for a while, it gets old quick.

i'm also afraid it'll be crowded. so seamus_mcnasty and i will be getting there probably earlier than usual for pizza and darts. and more importantly, parking and seats. we'll try to save room, but if it gets too crowded and you aren't there....well, we'll do our best, but please don't be mad if we can't save seats.

bret hart's wwe return: it occurred to me as we were watching RAW last night that the hall of fame induction ceremonies are held the day before wrestlemania. wrestlemania is on april 2. that means that the induction ceremonies are on april 1.

april fool's day.

(okay, it didn't just occur to me...it was an advertisement hyping the whole thing.)

so, i see four likely scenarios with this:

1. wwe inducts bret hart w/o incident (other than maybe some snide comments and such) and w/o appearance at wrestlemania itself.

2. wwe inducts bret hart, behind the scenes they talk him into appearing at wrestlemania, and he appears as "surprise special referee" in a shawn michaels v. vince mcmahon and screws either one of them (i would love for it to be vince). they could even have him run in as a replacement ref after the original ref takes a bump and is out for maximum swervy goodness.

3. wwe, in the 'spirit of april fools' day' gets bret up to the podium at the induction ceremony, and then denies him the induction.

4. wwe, in the 'spirit of april fool's day' plays bret's music and video montage chronicling his career, and then announces that he was never going to be inducted, he's not here, and boy didn't we pull a fast one on you fans!!!

i'd say the #2 is the least likely option, and my most favorite. I'm torn between which of 1, 3, and 4 i think is the most likely.

i know none of you care about this, but i've got time to kill before my exam. although, if you want invites to the FIFTH ANNUAL WRESTLEMANIA PARTY (in 44 days) you should at least PRETEND :D

gods how i love thee!

last weekend i watched four hockey games straight 2 days in a row. it's a good thing i have employment, otherwise i'd be in some sort of hockey induced coma :)

i discovered that a former student of mine from OSU is playing on the Italy team! (Andre Signorelli). i tried yesterday to find an e-mail address, to no avail. even a team-italy website would have maybe had a generic contact information.

andre is a defender (see earlier post re: defensemen) and had 1 SOG and 1 penalty today. they lost.

i fear that team canada will win the women's division. they've been slaughtering their opponents, whereas team USA has been merely beating them.

team usa men are once again choking. sheesh. go czech republic. and italy :)

and OMG!~ CURLING! ROCKS!

in other sports news, bret hart will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame and actually APPEAR there, but not at Wrestlemania XXII. for reasons why this is significant, go here although this one has a very interesting take from bret's perspective. here's hoping once there, vince can 'wear him down' (again) and he can maybe screw shawn michaels :)

in other sports news