And She Was...

Two reasons I love my spouse, even when he frustrates me...

He laughs at me just the right amount when I tell him that watching the Space Shuttle launch makes me want to jump him.

He said to me, when discussing the cake I brought to a party on Friday night (which was incredibly well recieved) "I want to be known as the husband of the woman who bakes That Cake."


It's been a busy-ish weekend. I baked the layers for a buttermilk chocolate cake on Thursday, and also made chocolate buttercream icing for it, but I was tired, so I decided to leave frosting the cake for the next day. Friday I marinated some chicken in a sweet and sour type sauce, to grill at the party we were going to that evening, and baked a lemon-raspberry tart. I drove to the party and met zedrikcayne there, but my route took me in such a way that I had a pretty fantastic view of the Space Shuttle as it went up, though I must still get to KSC for an actual launch one day.(For locals, I was driving along 434 towards Country Club Road.) Sadly, the party was a going away party for people I'm quite fond of, who are heading back to California. Still, good food, good conversation, and it was determined by an impartial audience that dropping a cup containing a urine sample during the fertility testing process (someone else's story) is not nearly as bad as our fertility testing horror story. Oddly, both did in part, involve pee. And I did hear a few stories about the doctors we're likely to see if I'm not pregnant by this fall.

Saturday, I went to a yard sale, where I bought two cherry bookcases, which, will at least temporarily, take up residence in my living room, though they may not remain. I also scored a Trivial Pursuit game, a cute wooden shelf that will work nicely in our living room, a cool glass citrus juicer and a piece of the Pier 1 wine rack that we've got. I also scored a box and a half of Pre-Seed. (The yard sale hosts were the same friends for whom there was a going away party the previous night, who are also dealing with their own fertility issues, but are much further along the intervention route than we are at the moment.)

Cayne's worked pretty much all weekend, but we got some stuff done around the house this morning. I got a bunch of homework done, after much arguing with the text editor to not realign my paragraphs, and to bold only the parts I want bold. I wish he'd been able to take Tuesday off to spend our anniversary together, but not this year. That's okay. I need to get all the stuff together for our trip up north, and find a gift and a dress for the baby shower that we've got to go to. (My cousin's wife is pregnant, apparently there's a baby shower on June 23rd, so we're going since we'll be at my Mom and Dad's. Mom however, has mentioned that the baby has a cleft palate and hole in the heart, and may have other issues, though mentally the baby should be fine. This spurred an interesting conversation with my Mom about how she didn't think she was brave enough to continue a pregnancy knowing that the baby faced serious health problems, and I pointed out that with Stephan's MS, and the unpredictability of MS, they may have felt like their opportunities were limited, but that everyone has different feelings on coping with that news, and if they went forward with it, all we really could do was support them and hope for the best. I, however, am not a big fan of this particular cousin.)

And so, it's now Sunday night, and I've got laundry in the dryer (sheets and towels on the weekend, when Cayne's home to help remake the bed) the Retro music channel on the TV, and I'm playing backgammon with Cayne (who is still at work, but has a lot of downtime right now in between fixing things and waiting for the testers to break them again.)

I'm amazed at the cost of text books. I'm taking two business classes this summer, and I paid over $300 for two text books. Text books have always been expensive, but this just seems to be outrageous. Had I not decided so late to take summer classes, I could have probably purchased them for less, but that was not to be this term. Perhaps if I'm taking more classes in the fall it will be possible.

Then again, it also amazes me that a professor needs to include the following in his syllabus:

• Never end your sentence with a preposition like ‘to, from, by, with, between, before, after or during’. (e.g. The company could not have anticipated where the threat came from.)
• Always use italics for the name of a source (magazine, book or newspaper title) e.g. Wall St. Journal
• Know the difference between ‘there’ (indicating destination like “I’m not going there.”) and ‘their’ (indicating possession like “That is their problem.”)
• Always capitalize the first letter of proper names.

If that weren't enough irritation for one day, we may not get the H1B extention approved or the Advance Parole approved in time to reasonably plan to travel this summer. If we don't get it approved, we can still travel within the US, and perhaps we'll do so, but the summer travel plans were rather specific in timing to allow us to attend a wedding in Hamilton, as well as see my family. I realize that the immigration process itself is time consuming, but I'm frustrated that Advanced Parole takes three months or more to approve.

Homework and supper ahead. Cranky behind. I hope.

The name of a local salon? "Mullet Salon and Spa" (for locals, it's on Mills a little north of Colonial.)


So I'm contemplating volunteering at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center-I was over there tonight, and I'm not sure it's a good fit; it seems that about all they have that they can have me doing, is answering phones. I'll give Planned Parenthood a look and see if they have things that actually take advantage of my skills and experience. One thing I've thought about, and that I hate to think that I've had to think about it, is whether or not my involvement with that organization might affect our ability to adopt a child in the future if we wanted to. I hate that I've had to think about that. (Florida is pretty firm in their anti-gay-parent stance. I worry already that being pretty much out and queer will already be a big negative.)

Okay, so I've written about being queer lately. I know there are a bunch of new readers (I noticed it on my info page the other day.) If you feel like it, let me know how you got here (I like to know that.) And for everyone, let me know if you've got questions, or are unclear on something, from what color my hair is (auburn) to where I live (near Orlando Florida) to whom I'm dating (I'm involved with aquariumgirl and I'm married, legally, to zedrikcayne,) to my favorite color (green) to all sorts of stuff in between, let me know, and I'll try and answer you.

Florida has, as many states do, a variety of speciality license plates, with the money going to support various causes. I have, on my car, the Support Education tag on my car. I'm fine with paying a few extra dollars each year to support education.

But some of them, they bother me. I'm all for doing things like supporting reaosnable environmental causes, memorializing astronauts, demonstrating pride in a university or sports team, showing pride in military service or contributing to health promotion efforts.

But some things, some things just cross the line.

Like the Family Values plate. It doesn't express my family's values, for one, but that's pretty obvious. While that makes me uncomfortable, that's something that I can live with-what crosses the line for me, however, is the organization that the fee supports.Sheridan House Family Ministries. (Extra angry points because the state is collecting money for a faith based organization...doesn't matter whether it's one I like or not.) And then there's the Choose Life plate. Money raised by this place supports Crisis Pregnancy Centers, Maternity Homes and not-for-profit adoption agencies.


Okay. Cranky aside. Need to go figure out what's wrong with the cat's eye.

We had a really pleasant weekend. Saturday we spent the day with friends, and it culminated in a spontaneous barbecue, and great conversation about faith, feminism, religion, Florida, atheism, art and comics. Sunday we got stuff done at home.

Monday, zedrikcayne woke up with a nasty cough. In fact, I put my hand on his chest as we were waking up, and stuck my fingers in green mucous, which he apparently coughed up in his sleep. So, I told him to make a doctor's appointment for that afternoon, after the urologist appointment. The poor guy has walking pneumonia. He'll be okay, but he's feeling icky right now...I suppose a few days until he feels better.

Yeah, the urologist. That. The news was less than stellar. Not tragic, but not as good as we'd hoped-there are still issues. Dr W., upon hearing our story of being walked in on in the middle of giving the sample, gave us the horrified home alone face-you know the one with the jaw dropping and hands to cheeks in horror. He commented that it was in fact the "worst semen sample story ever." But yeah. The news could have been better. It could have been a lot worse. It is what it is, Dr W seems to think we can work with it, and I'll talk to Dr. P and see what he says when I see him on April 12. I'm not sure I want to talk more about it right now. I'm angry, sad, upset, frustrated, and more.

Instead, I'll talk about my Passover menu. I'll probably make another, separate post about Passover itself, and doing it on my own this year, but my menu...that's much cheerier than anything else. And that is in fact, what I need at the moment. Cheering.

( tentative non-vegeterian Pesach menu )

Far less complicated than I thought, actually.

First, to the County Clerk in Clinton County who doesn't handle this information. Second to the Court Services Office for Superior Court of Clinton County who didn't have a record of the arrest. Third to the Village of Champlain Courts, and discovered that the phone number was disconnected, and fourth to the Town of Champlain Courts and found that they did in fact have a record of his arrest and the disposition of that arrest.

They want $5 and a letter with his full name and date of birth, and they'll send me two copies (one for me, and one that I'll send to the attorney.)

Interestingly, I've also discovered that you can find my spouse on IMDB and on Wikipedia. He's made me promise, however, not to make him a full fledged Wikipedia Page.

Honeydew melon, while tasty does not satisfy the craving I am having for chocolate covered raisins.

( and in medical news... )

I'm listening to CNN, and someone is talking about how there are people advocating a change in the law to allow Arnold Schwarzenneger to run for presdent. I just don't think I could cope with that without laughing. I suppose, though, it's a similar reaction to what some people felt when Ronald Reagan entered politics.

zedrikcayne says that something is not right with me.

He said "You've been up and down the anger scale twice today." He also pointed out that while we were shopping I kept asking for carbs. I wanted a baguette for lunch (white bread) and sweets.

Not like me. But it's kind of nice that someone knows my habits well enough to know that that's just not my usual behavior.

The background: PCOS is a fertility issue in many ways, and so, in order to determine the best course of treatment, and how much intervention, we're going through a lot of the usual fertility screening stuff. This is a bit awkward and invasive, but it's what we need to do. This meant that zedrikcayne had to go for a semen analysis, and upon recieving the results, had a visit with the urologist who ordered a second semen analysis and some other tests. The urologist (who told us that he and his wife have gone through their own fertility issues) explained that many times, men who go for semen analysis are so uncomfortable with the whole situation, and find it sterile and distressing, and so the first sample is not always an accurate measure of things. And he also suggested that zedrikcayne "bring some pornograhpy" because that often helps encourage a proper count.

So, last night, I tried to figure out how to find an adult store, without getting a screen full of porn, since that's not what I was looking for, and toay we paid a visit to our local porn store.

( not particularly explicit, but sexually oriented discussion follows this cut tag. )

A question: Can anyone explain to me, why is it, that porn that includes women having sex with women,as well has men having sex with women, doesn't get classified as bisexual, but as soon as it involves action between two men, it automatically becomes "bisexual"? It doesn't make sense. I understand the idea of marketing, and that the largest consumers of porn are men who don't want to see men having sex with men, but it just seems silly.

I've got a post brewing about sex, and marriage, and polyamory and kinky stuff. It's not likely to be explicit content, but just chatter and processing and that sort of thing. I've got some filters that this post may appropriately overlap to, but if you think you might like to read it, let me know. I could certainly use the feedback and space to discuss it, but it's not something that I think belongs as public.

fj or veryfineredwine or anyone else...what does the immigration physical actually entail? zedrikcayne has his scheduled for tomorrow.

We've had some birds I can't identify in the yard lately. I enjoy watching them, but I'd love to know what they are. The body shape is similar to this but they have longer, thinner legs (I can't tell if they have webbed feet but I don't think so), they're all white, and they have narrower, pointier beaks. There's also a similar looking bird that comes around but with a longer, narrow, curved beak, which I'd wonder about being a heron, but we're not that close to water. The ones with the pointier beak,

Does anyone know which newspapers Diesel Sweeties is running in?

Funny, but despite the elevated temperatures, I don't have the usual crankiness that I get. I've been hungry like crazy though. I don't think I stopped eating yesterday, though most of what I ate was fruit or veggies. And I've been drinking lots and lots of tea.

Time to consider lunch, though I don't think there's anything interesting to eat.