Catch Up

Ok, filling in the details of the reminders now.

The fuzzy nakie blankets are what Ember and I call the super-soft blankets we got from Walmart. Ember had one first, and after I felt hers several years ago I fell in love with it and had to get my own. They used to be marketed as "Micro-Mink" but they’ve since changed it to "Micro-Plush" probably because some PETA idiot didn’t realize they are made from totally artificial ingredients (I think they are made from recycled bottles or something similar) and the "Mink" designation was an indication of its softness/smoothness. I don’t know this for a fact though. What I do know is that not all the micro-plush batches are the same softness, and I was lucky to find a batch that matched the micro-mink blanket I already had. They didn’t have any Cream colored ones left in King size, so I got black instead. The totally weird thing about them is from Twin all the way up to King they are all the same price. That’s very unusual in the world of bedding for those of you who don’t know. I’ve mentioned the blankets in passing in several entries since I started the diary, but somehow never used the "fuzzy nakie" designator until the 01/02/2010 entry. Not sure how that happened.

I hurt my finger at work on 12/23/2009. Not entirely certain how, but I got my right ring finger caught in a bread rack on the bakery sales floor. I felt my finger get caught, but I couldn’t stop in time to prevent it from twisting/bending the wrong way. Ouch. I originally thought it was just bruised, but the next day it started turning purple and going numb so I went to the ER. They said it was just jammed, not broken or dislocated. It still hurt like hell. Still hurts when I make a fist, I’ll probably have Dr. K take a look at it next time I’m up there. I’m of the opinion that the Worker’s Comp doctors we have to use won’t admit anything is serious unless a bone or internal organ is sticking out, and then they might argue the point…

And now for the other thing. A few months back I bought a cheap Styrofoam (and who knew that was a proper noun? Seriously?) cooler at Food Lion because my parents had left some refrigerated/frozen items that had to bring back to my place. I already had a cooler that I had saved after my dad got an Omaha Steaks gift set one Christmas from one of his sales reps. And if you’ve never encountered one those are some really nice Styrofoam coolers people: two or three inches thick with a lid that fits exactly into place. I guess they have to be when you’re shipping meat packed in dry ice all over the country.

Anyway, it always seemed the cooler was never where I needed it: if I needed to take stuff up it was already up there and if I needed to bring stuff back it was already down here. The reason I wasn’t really stressed about it was I never had anything that was particularly time/temperature sensitive, and I almost always went straight to my destination and moved the items into the fridge/freezer as soon as I got there. This time though I knew I wasn’t going to be going straight home and there was milk and mayonnaise to bring back so after much consternation I spent the two dollars on a cooler. So, it was just a normal one-time-use cooler, but I intended to use it more than once or twice, and took pretty good care of it. It ended up being left up at the cabin since I had used it to take some stuff up that I didn’t need to bring back. So somehow my parents came across it (it was probably in the kitchen, where I would expect to use it) and not only did they just throw it out on the back porch, but it got cracked in the process and is now completely useless. Again, it was a two dollar cooler, not anything someone would normally care about if it got damaged, but IT WASN’T THEIRS TO NOT CARE ABOUT. They knew it was mine. They knew what I used it for. They could easily have taken it downstairs while they had company to get it out of the way, but they didn’t, and for some reason it aggravates me.

Fortunately I recently purchased a seventy quart cooler in order to take Christmas groceries up to the cabin. It’s a nice one, a Coleman Xtreme 5 Day cooler (as a side note, never buy one from the Coleman web site, I only paid half that at my store and it wasn’t even on sale) so it isn’t like I’m hurting for the loss of the cheap cooler, but still. I don’t know, maybe I’m just looking for something to get cranky about. I’d like to think I’m not that petty but still. The upside of it all is now I can drive to a Sam’s Club and stock up on frozen items and not worry about them thawing. I couldn’t do that before because the nearest Sam’s Club is at least an hour away, and that’s just too long to have frozen/refrigerated items out of the zone, especially since I’m allegedly a certified food safety professional and should know better.

My plants are suffering from the cold, even though they are inside. I think there is just too much air leaking around the windows and doors I had them next to for them to stay warm, but if I pull them into the interior of the apartment they won’t get as much sun as I know they need. Crap. I really hope I don’t end up killing them, I just bought two of them and one of them is from my grandmother’s funeral arrangement. I’m not really worried too much about the ferns, they always get a little puny when I bring them inside, and they are actually doing really well this year; there’s actually some new growth sprouting.

Went to a late lunch with Critter yesterday, that was fun. I still have her cheese sticks as a matter of fact. She left them in the truck when we were done. They are the massive IHOP cheese sticks (my remark upon seeing them for the first time was, "those aren’t cheese sticks those are cheese logs.") so I may have them for lunch today if she doesn’t call and claim them.

She’s having some issues with OtherGuy. Actually they are the same issues, and she knows what she has to do but for some reason she just won’t do it. Oh well. I’m here if she needs me, and she knows it.