Wednesday, October 28, 2015

IF IT AIN'T ONE THING....

Evidently my new goal is to see just how many times I'll need antibiotics this year. I've stopped counting.

Last Wednesday after work I cleaned the house, and then Kev and I sat down to watch some of the 8,000 programs on the dvr. Nothing out of the ordinary there. Sometime before we went to bed I had a pain in my lower back, but I didn't really give it too much thought. When I got up on Thursday, I could hardly move. I figured maybe I tweaked it when I was cleaning or something. I grabbed the heating pad and eased myself into the chair, happy in the knowledge that I didn't have anything strenuous to do.

The heating pad and a Vicodin made a huge difference, but on Friday it still wasn't feeling good. As Friday moved into the night, I just didn't feel right. I grabbed my thermometer and discovered a temp of 103.6. Um.....that ain't groovy. I was feeling progressively worse so I took some Excedrin Migraine. That brought the fever down, but between the fever and the back pain, I started thinking kidney infection.

On Saturday I felt awful. So awful that I dragged my scuzzy, unshowered self to the walk-in clinic at 11:00 a.m. To my surprise I was the only one there, which was awesome! My self-diagnosis was, as usual, correct. But a kidney infection? Seriously? I haven't had one in over 35 years. I also had no symptoms of any kind before that knife in my back.

So now I'm on the antibiotic from hell. I've been nauseous every second, everything I try to eat tastes disgusting and now the inside of my mouth is sore.  This ten day prescription can't end soon enough for me, and I'm only on day 5.

Overall, I'm just tired and a little weirded out by these random infections that keep showing up for no apparent reason. It's why I've been absent so much, though. My enthusiasm for anything has pretty much vanished right along with what I formerly thought of as my pretty decent health.

My nails are badly in need of reapplication. I'm not even sure what's keeping them on at this point. I did this mani quickly on Monday night. I'm hoping to remove it and soak off my nails sometime before next Monday.
Sinful Colors Smoke, Mundo de Unas Black, Uber Chic 5-03 stamp
I'm limited to using dark colors because of grow out, so I went with Sinful Colors Smoke and then stamped using Mundo de Unas Black and my new Uber Chic 5-03 stamping plate.

Uber Chic is going to be the death of any no buy. I had managed to talk myself out of buying the 3 series, but when this 5 series came out, I ended up buying both sets. I just saw someone post that they are coming out with more in November.

Sometimes I wish I could block myself from websites.

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

A QUICK HALLOWEEN NOD

My week so far has been pretty uneventful. I'll call that a good thing. I'm already looking forward to tomorrow because even though it's only Wednesday, that's my Friday. I'm gonna' work and then go home and clean the house. My life is almost too exciting, I know. I will have Seven for the weekend again, so I do have that as an actual plan. I've been missing her so I'm happy she's coming back again.

On Sunday night I went through my stamping plates with spooky images and was uninspired. I'm just not feeling the whole Halloween mani thing this year. Maybe next week I'll feel like doing something.

I did think these witches hats were kind of cute.
Sally Hansen Peach of Cake, Revlon Siren, American Apparel Poppy, gradient, Ali Express 12-50 stamp, Halloween
I started off by doing a gradient with Sally Hansen Peach of Cake, Revlon Siren and American Apparel Poppy. Even on its own, I kind of liked it, especially after I used my Butter London Matte Topcoat. I really felt like I should do what I planned, though, so I used the witchy hats from the Ali Express 12-50 stamping plate.

I think it's pretty cute, actually. If I don't bother doing anything more elaborate, at least I can say I did one Halloween mani.  

The UPS man at the office liked 'em. And when it comes right down to it, isn't that all that really matters?

Thursday, October 15, 2015

BIG OLD ROSES

Gawd, I need some kind of a mood-lifter. For the most part, all of last week completely sucked, and other than a high point of going out for a great dinner last night with Seven's owners, this week hasn't been much better.

First, that whole face infection hurt like a bitch. Picture having a throbbing toothache....in all 32 of your teeth. Yeah. That's what it felt like. Then on Friday the sweetheart that owns Comet, one of my pups from last year, lost her 8 year old Golden to cancer suddenly with no warning whatsoever. I don't remember the last time I cried that hard. The family is devastated, and poor little Comet is completely lost and confused without his buddy. So once again I think to myself that I just need to unfriend every person I know that has a pet to avoid being sad when something bad happens.

Then it occurs to me that I have seven puppies out there in the world and have a semi-panic attack thinking about something bad happening to one of them. Pet ownership can really be a bitch.

In all honesty, a couple of good things did happen. Seven got dropped off on Tuesday night, and I got to keep her until almost 11 p.m. on Sunday. So I had a ton of time with that little love-bug. She finally decided to let her mom sleep in bed with us by the end of the visit. So nice of her. 

I also looked almost normal enough to be out in public, so on Saturday I took a ride to Marinette. My granddaughter was in a musical, Aladdin. She played "Lago" and did just a fantastic job. She's such a talented little girl and makes me proud every time I see her perform. 

It was also homecoming night so I got to see my grandson all dressed up and met his girlfriend. Adorable. Both of them. Ridiculously so.

Then out of the blue the front door opened, and there was my other daughter from Illinois!! I had talked to her earlier in the day for about an hour, and she conveniently left out how she was on her way to Toni's house. She wanted to just show up and surprise us all. It worked. I actually got a little teary-eyed.

Peyton was already at the theater so she had no clue Tyler was in town. When she walked on stage for the first time during the performance and saw Tyler sitting in the second row, she could barely contain her smile. Unfortunately, she wasn't supposed to be smiling. She fought off a full-blown smile and had a comical smirk on throughout the rest of the show. It was pretty funny watching her try to have a serious face. She was just too happy that Tyler made the 5 hour drive just to see the play and to see Treyson before homecoming. 

That's a dedicated auntie right there. She drove the 5 hours, saw the show, hung around for a couple hours after that and then drove the 5 hours back home. I think I got a text from her around 4:30 a.m. telling me she made it. Love that sneaky girl.

I haven't really spent  any time at all doing nails. This is one from a few weeks back.
Square Hue Deep Space

Square Hue Deep Space, Essie Good as Gold,  Bundle Monster BM XL07 stamp
I know it appears to be black, but it's actually a very dark brown with a nice golden shimmer to it, Square Hue Deep Space. I used Essie Good as Gold to stamp with, and the roses are from the Bundle Monster BM XL07 stamping plate.

For whatever reason, I just felt like doing gold roses that day. I'm not positive, but I don't think this one ever left the house.

Friday, October 9, 2015

LORDIE....NOT AGAIN!

After my oh, so nice time last weekend, the difference from Sunday to Monday sucked. I went to bed with a normal face on Sunday night and woke up Monday morning with a fat, swollen lip, a swollen chin, a swollen jaw and pain for days.

WTF. By the end of the day it was very painfully obvious that my face was doing a repeat performance of that infection I got last March. I'm so confused by this bullshit. After that last nightmare I just assumed that was going to be a one-time fluke. Guess not.

I immediately sent a message to the doctor's office, and on Tuesday they had an antibiotic all ready for me. On Wednesday I didn't even make it through the day at work because the throbbing pain through the entire lower half of my face was pretty awful. My normal 4 a day Vicodin jumped up to 8; my normal 2 Excedrin Migraine jumped up to 8; and the rest of the fun came from microwaving a wet washcloth every so often and plastering it on my face.

After barely being able to function for 4 days, I'm starting to feel a bit more normal. I won't go into detail on how I look. I wish someone could explain why this happened once, let alone twice, because I'd do just about anything to avoid it. I went through more pain meds this week than I did after having surgery. That's how bad it is.

Because of it, I'm still wearing that grey and pink mani. I'm hoping that maybe later tonight I'll take that off if I'm feeling up to it. Of course, I'm also hoping I'll feel good enough to clean the house since that didn't get done on Wednesday, and it's driving me nuts.

This one I did a couple of weeks ago.
Wet n Wild Putting on Airs, Mundo de Unas Violet, LeaLac LLC-A stamp
I didn't have any particular plan when I did this one other than thinking that I wanted blue and purple. So Wet n Wild Putting on Airs, Mundo de Unas Violet and the LeaLac LLC-A plate just ended up being what I grabbed. 

That design has always been one of my favorites so I was happy with this one.

Right now I'm going to toss a toy for Seven. She got here Tuesday night and will be here until Sunday. She really likes to play. A lot. Like all the time. But she is such a good girl to have around. 

Well, she wasn't great Tuesday night. I decided to sleep in the recliner because I thought it would help the swelling stay down. She wasn't sure what to do with that. So throughout the night she wandered around a lot, deposited different toys in my lap 5 or 6 times, climbed up and laid on me 3 times.....just not a lot of sleeping going on.

Wednesday night I decided to sleep in the spare room, and she was back to her normal, bed hogging self. I much prefer that.

Sunday, October 4, 2015

NOT THE PLAN BUT LOVE IT

Last night was fun. I had a sleepover with my daughter, two of the grandkids and their friends. They had come to town to go to a play and since it got over pretty late, they decided they would spend the night with me. 

I made a pan of brownies figuring they might want a snack. One pan of brownies with two 16 year old boys does not go very far. I don't even know if the girls had any, but there's only one small brownie left. I lost count of how many cans of Dr. Pepper disappeared.

They didn't even get here until almost 11 p.m., and overall, it was just kind of a silly night. We played with free ghost hunting apps on our phones, and I told stories of the different strange happenings that went on in a couple of the houses we lived in. Unfortunately, my current house is ghost free, much to the disappointment of all but Peyton's friend.

Earlier in the day I had swatched the new Square Hue polishes that came. I wanted to do a water marble with two of them, but the three colors I tried were too dark together. Epic fail.

I did still decide to use the dark grey.
Square Hue Y2K, Mundo de Unas Pink, LeaLac LLC-B stamp
After I painted with Square Hue Y2K, I stamped with Mundo de Unas Pink and the LeaLac LLC-B plate. After that I did one coat of a holographic topcoat. I kind of thought the light pink was just a bit stark and flat looking without it. I really like what the holo topcoat did to it.

When I was doing my nails, I figured it would come off tonight so I could do something else to wear to work tomorrow. That's not going to happen because I really like this one a lot.

Hopefully your weekend was a good one, too!


Thursday, October 1, 2015

BYE-BYE BIRDIES

It's a beautiful, sunny day. Sitting here and glancing out the window, it's deceiving. It looks warm out, but it's only 57 degrees, and my phone for the past few days is just constantly popping up with frost warnings. 

Even though my last hummer sighting was on September 21st, I've left my feeders up on the off chance that some stragglers come through on their way south. Unfortunately the only thing I've been seeing are wasps. And they're so big I catch them out of the corner of my eye and hurry up and look over, hoping I'm going to see a bird. No such luck.

On Sunday night I noticed that the DRK Themes Enlaced plate has a couple of hummingbirds. Thought I'd give it a try.
Essie Sand Tropez, Mundo de Unas Black, DRK Themes Enlaced stamping plate
I started with Essie Sand Tropez and decided to just go with Mundo de Unas black for the stamping.

This one gave me a lot of trouble, and by the time I finished, I was so over it. For some reason I kept messing up the base, and I think I re-did the Essie on several fingers more than once. I don't know what my problem was.

The stamping didn't go very well, either. Parts of the background kept refusing to transfer to my nails so I had to keep re-doing that, too.

Mabes I was just having an off night. Not only did the painting and stamping not go so well, photographing didn't go so hot, either. I snapped my usual shots but didn't take the time to see how the pictures turned out until today. 

Mistake. Two of the four pics were blurry, and I guess I really should have photographed my right hand so the hummingbird's face showed in all the pics. Unfortunately I didn't realize that before I took this off.

Lesson learned.