I bought my first laptop on ebay. I'm poor now for a while...but damn! Nice machine.
Retail – Brand New – Sealed In Factory Box
**Not Refurbished / Not Used / Not Opened**
DELL Inspiron 6000 Laptop
Come with Full Manufactory Warranty
Highlight
Centrino Technology Fast/Save Power
Intel Pentium? M Processor 760 2.0 GHz (2MB Cache/533MHz FSB)
Large Wide 15.4 inch WXGA LCD Panel !
1GB DDR2 SDRAM (Up to 2GB MAX)
100GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive
8x DVD±RW Burner Double Layer
128MB ATI Mobility Radeon X300 Video Card
Intel? PRO/Wireless 2200 Internal Wireless (802.11 b/g, 54Mbps)
10/100Mbps Internet NIC & 56K Modem
6 Month FREE AOL
MicroSoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005
1 Year Dell Full Warranty
In Stock and Ready for Shipment!
+ Bonus FREE 5 DVD+R !
+ Bonus FREE 512MB Flashdrive !
Description
Processor Intel Pentium M Processor 760 (2.0 GHz/2MB Cache/533MHz FSB)
LCD 15.4 inch WXGA LCD Panel
Video Card 128MB ATI Mobility Radeon X300 Video Card
Memory 1GB DDR2 SDRAM 2 Dimms
Hard Drive 100GB Utral ATA Hard Drive
CD or DVD Drive 8x DVD±RW / CDRW Burner
Support Dual Layer
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005
Wireless Intel PRO/Wireless 2200 Internal Wireless (802.11 b/g, 54Mbps)
Primary Battery 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery (53 WHr)
Up to 4 hours 20 minutes with Pentium M processor
Network Card Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem
Internet access
6 Months of America Online Membership Included
Warranty/Service
1Year Ltd Warranty, 1Yr Mail-in Service, and 1Yr 24X7 Technical Support
Other Software
* Corel WordPerfect 12 plus Trial of Quartro Pro and Presentations
* Adobe? Acrobat? Reader 6.0
* Dell Jukebox - easy-to-use music player and CD burning software
* Paint Shop Photo Album™ 5.1 Standard
* Dell Media Experience,v2.1
* CyberLink PowerDVD v5.5, Decoding Sofware for DVD Drives,for Inspiron
* Windows Media Player 10
* Music Match 9.0 Basic 7 day OnDemand
* Image Restore
* Quickbooks 2005 Special SimpleStart Edition
* NETZERO ISP
* AOL ISP
* Trend Micro PC-cillin InternetSecurity, English, 90-day Trial
* I/O Ports
* IEEE 1394
* 4-USB 2.0 (Universal Serial Bus) compliant 4-pin connectors
* Flash Memory Slot - Secure Digital (SD) and SD/IO compliant
* Video: 15-pin monitor connector
* S-Video: 7-pin mini-DIN connector
* Audio jacks: Stereo headphones/speakers mini-connector (same as line-out), microphone mini-connector
Well shit. I was all prepared for some ass-kickin to commence and my boss just made that impossible. Before I even arrived at the office he'd already gone to the higher-ups and kicked his own ass, and the asses of the two others I was plannin to kick. No fair. I guess I still get to kick a little bit of ass later on when I give the reprimand to the staff, but I won't be alone in the meeting.
So here's what happened:
An employee didn't show up to her shift, and the two other people responsible for checking in with staff arrivals just...didn't...bother. I got a call from an outside agency that this consumer was all alone at home with no one to take care of her, and I had to JAM out there, give her the correct medications, feed her, and then do a shitload of paperwork about the whole situation. The consumer was all right, and not even upset, but that is NOT the fucking point, excuse me very much. What happened today is a case of neglect, and I won't stand for it. Well, I didn't stand for it. While I was there I called my boss and said I was mad as hell and I wanted heads to roll.
What I did not expect was that to happen so quickly! My boss told the higher-ups that he and the other person on management staff responsible for dropping the ball would both take verbal reprimands in their personnel files, and that we are also going to give the staff a verbal reprimand for not calling the emergency pager to say she wouldn't be in. Her side of it was that she called and left me a message telling me she wouldn't be in. Well, she did leave a message...which she phoned in the middle of me listening to it and so I just deleted it. Staff usually repeat every message they leave, so I wasn't concerned that I'd missed anything important by deleting it, especially since I had her on the phone!
OK... That's beside the point. Company policy states that an employee has to call the pager before 9pm if they are not going to be at their morning shift. Period. I've asked them to also leave me an FYI message if they don't make a shift so I can be correct with time sheets/sick pay. One does not preclude the other. I told this woman that it doesn't matter who she leaves a message with, because if she doesn't call the pager then she'd better be at her shift! I don't even care if people find someone to work for them and don't let me know right away...just don't leave us open to a County case of neglect, for fuck's sake! She actually tried to get snippity with me but I was so pissed I ended the call, fast. I have no desire to speak with her any further today, and I'm sure she's gonna have left a message or something for me.
Between the staff and management pager staff each dropping the ball on three occasions today, I've really had it. Mainly because it was at this poor woman's expense. Further because we could have a serious problem if her family or broker were to walk in, see this, and pull her from the company. Fuckity fuck! Actually we're *not* off the hook here, because I still have to notify the broker that this happened and look like TOTAL SHIT and the company will look like TOTAL SHIT too. This is one part of the job that I fucking hate...taking complete responsibility for every mistake anyone else makes. I have no illusions there, however. It's my job.
Ok - time to face this particular music. Blechhhh.
Jesus Christ. Why the hell do they keep putting out crap like this? They're trying to scare us all into thinking we're gonna die from ANY-fucking-THING out there. No fucking wonder Americans buy guns in record numbers and vote God instead of the Constitution. They did a study comparing the daily fear of Canadians v. Americans and we win hand over fist. We're all scared to death of germs, of bombs, of whatever! And the news media keeps perpetrating these fucked up stories to keep us scared. I'm so fed up.
Dr. Katwala rocks. Seriously. This guy is so sharp.
He said we should forget about a repeat colonoscopy... WOOOOOOT!
He said we should taper off the Prednisone... WOOOOOOOOOOOOT!
He said I can loosen up on the low-residue diet... WOOOOOOOOT!
He said I can have "a little bit of margaritas." ... WOOOOOOOOOOT!
And I don't have to see him again until May 1st. I do have to go back for some blood tests in 6 weeks, but that's no big deal. I'm going to permanently be on:
Pentasa (16 pills/day) as an anti-inflammatory
Imuran (1 pill/day) as an immune-system suppressant
Prilosec OTC (1 pill/day) as an acid-reducer (instead of Protonix, which is literally 5 times more expensive because it doesn't come in a generic form.)
My other med for the arthritis is being discontinued after I'm done with it. Dr. Katwala recommended I take over the counter Glucosamine-Chondroitin for the pain and to let him know if it stops it.
Mostly though, I am okay with that. The Prednisone (read=fucking steroid!!) is the worst of it and I will be off it as soon as I taper down. That will take five weeks. Ouch. But the stuff is seriously potent, and if I were to just go off suddenly I'd be sicker than a dog. The directions are so complicated too. I'm going down by half for seven days, then half again for seven days, et al. until I'm at zero. I get to break pills in half. Woo hoo! I get to break shit! ha!
Ring of Status, given me by Prince Vittorio Jakoba, the dark sheep of the Triskellani nobility, upon our engagement.
Worth: 8000gp.
Named: Hearts of the Mountain.
Age: 875 years
Made of: Mithril & Amethyst
Crafted in: Jakoba Mountains by Anastasia Monte-Jakoba.
Purpose: To provide information about the wearer.
"The wearer of this ring is watched over by the bearer of the Primary ring as if they had the spell Status permanently cast on them."
So of course I haven't listed my entire household in Triskellian, or my greenhouse, servants, etc. This is just a working list for in game.
How the levels work: I have 6 levels in Wizard, 1 level in Rogue, and 4 levels in Mistress of the Flowers, a prestige class. This affords me two more effective levels in Wizard, because I level up every other time. So my casting level is 8. In order to be able to take the prestige class I had to have a certain amount of ranks in Wilderness Lore- but since I didn't have any, the DM allowed that it could be Knowledge Nature instead. I also have ranks in Herbalism, and the spell Feat: Plant Bind - which is like Scribe Scroll, only I'm using it to imbue plants with spells at a much lower cost to my pocketbook and XP. The only downside is that the spells don't last more than a week uncast. That is no problem, because I am the "premiere" supplier of this decadent town's birth control supply. The spell is called Block the Seed, and I get 180gp each time I sell 3 castings to the local apothecary shop. I know, I know, menial tasks for a woman of the Ton. Well, Claire comes from Avoir du Pois, and they are sensible folks. Besides which, Claire really likes to be a rebel. Supplying birth control to the nobles of the town and pissing off her family (of nobles) is just damn good fun.
Iraqi Invasion: A Text Misadventure
..write something. What was that saying, a writer writes, always? Well I suppose it's good to stay in practice. I can't imagine what work is going to be like tomorrow. I sure as hell know I can't sleep tonight so it'll be a long assed day. After work will be fun because my friends' band is playing an early show at the High Noon Saloon. They rock and I am excited. Of course that'll be if I can stick out the day. I'm just way fucking tired out and yet I can't sleep a wink. Instead of lying around the house today Bill and I went out walking and shopping, etc. I was totally beat in a couple of hours, but I couldn't let that beautiful sunny warm day pass me by without enjoying the outdoors. It was great to leave the car at home and trod about, hand in hand with my honey. I can only imagine that people get cavities just being around us, we're so freaking sweet. *ha*
Tonight I watched High Fidelity and was really impressed. I read the book years ago and loved it. Of course the movie was not at all like the book, but in spite of that I really enjoyed the flick. There were tons of cameos by big name stars, the best of which was Tim Robbins as the hippie weirdo Ian. The scenes where he was facing off with John Cusack freaking killed me, they were so funny. I also forgot that Jack Black was in the movie, and he always kills. I noticed one or two plot points where the movie followed the book ...loosely... but for the most part it felt like an original. I have been avoiding this movie for years, simply because I was afraid they would not be true to Nick Hornby's novel. I was right, and they were not. Still and all, I highly recommend this movie.
I now intend to take sleeping pills and hope for the best.
What you see circled are the actual ulcers. The bloody part is where they took a biopsy to check me for colon cancer. I am, mercifully, cancer-free. I had NO idea they could see everything so clearly with the colonoscopy cam. Wow. I was completely asleep, by the way.
Ya, I'm at Meriter hospital, and wearing Dory's Martha Stewart Poncho. I freaking LOVE this thing! Plus, by checking email and writing in my blog I can avoid my hospital room awhile and pound down some green tea. Yum. Much better than that shit they call Go Lightly which is a prep for the cam-up-da-butt which I'll have to endure later. I do believe they will sedate me appropriately this time round, or so I've been told. Whether I trust them is another matter. I'm drugged quite well from doses of dilauded, so everything is blurry, including judgement.
Thus another reason to be on this internet connection, so I can look up this drug and find out if it's really causing all this itching.
Ok! There's my pre-colonoscopy blog post. We'll have to see how the rest of the day goes.
Apparently I woke up shouting "ai yi yi yi yi yi!!!!!" at Bill. Isn't that odd. I don't recall the event but I'm sure it was fucking hilarious.
Spent the day with Ida at the hospital, and knitted most of a blue chenille scarf. Took a break round noonish for lunch with the Mob. Ellie made ravioliolios and I was happy.
More time with Ida and the crowd at St. Mary's hospital. Nice bunch, really, but still and all I wouldn't want treatment from a Catholic hospital. Call me prejudiced if you like, but it weirds me out. I actually went there once long ago for some stomach trouble which may have been a partial blockage, but I turned out okay and they sent me home. Crohn's sucketh mightily.
Speaking of that dreaded thing, I went to the Whole foods for our tour and meeting and it was a good time. The butcher dudes are pretty hot...but anyway!! Weirdly enough one of the girls, Amanda, asked if anyone else has trouble with their hands not working, and/or joints aching. She was diagnosed in '04 and I've seen her a handful of times. We have almost identical resection scars, except mine goes aaaaaaall the way down and hers is only to her lower belly. Because I have pain in my hands almost daily upon waking, I piped up at her question, but I noticed that lots of other people have the exact same thing happen to their hands. My trouble is mostly in the am, but everyone else has trouble at the end of the day/evening. One person said to drink ginger tea, and another said that her friend (another Crohn's patient) has hand issues in the morning and she goes directly to the gym and works out and that makes it better. Now I know that when I work out regularly I have less trouble with my joints in general, but I don't notice that my hands are affected at all. I may try this if I'm able. I'm not what you'd call a morning person. I'm more like a wet cat in a paper bag, fumbling around pissy and disoriented. Maybe this is something I can try.
After the tour, eating, and the meeting I went shopping for groceries, etc. The food I ate hit me around 15 minutes later and was extremely painful for awhile. I found some liquid capsules of flax seed oil and also zinc. I should be able to digest those, and hopefully the oil will reduce my pain and suffering around mealtimes. The zinc is so I don't pick up any more colds! After using those Cold-eeze lozenges I'm sold on the stuff. I also picked up some totally cheap ass food! I've been to Copps, Cub, and Woodman's, and on price comparison a lot of the food was cheaper. And organic! Whole Foods has their own brand now which is still organic, etc... but dirt cheap. I got a big box of healthy cereal for 2.99. The milk is a bit more, but the veggies were seriously cheap. I got fresh, organic mushrooms for about half what I pay normally at Copps, and I buy a LOT of mushrooms, so I was impressed. I got some chili beef, doubly ground instead of triple (according to the meatcase adonis), and some canned goods, also cheap. I wish there was a Whole Foods nearer to me, but I guess if I'm going shopping once a week I can head over there after work and get what I need. I like the fact that they sell recycled products which are earth-friendly. I was heartened to see that a lot of what I already buy is organic and apparently up to their standards. All in all a good shopping venture.
I am worried about my honey. He's been getting bad headaches and his blood pressure is too high. He's a generally active, healthy dude, so it has to be stress. I want to help but I guess I don't know what else to do besides keep him calm, and maybe toss in a neck massage when I can. I was seriously worried that he was going to stroke and die the other night. I know I'm an alarmist because I've had too many people close to me die suddenly, but it scared the hell out of me when he said there was pain in his eye and the top of his head. I know aspirin helps with blood flow so I suggested that to him, and I'm glad he agreed to take some. I kept flashing on our time together and how much I care about him and how I would be crushed utterly if he suddenly keeled over with a stroke. It was a quick flashing but it was enough to freak me out. I am probably worrying unnecessarily but people die all the time, and I can vouch for how quickly and unexpectedly it can happen. My aunt Jackie, Scotty from the group home, my mom, and Trish all went suddenly and without warning and they were all younger than he is now. Yeah, I'm worrying here and that never helps anything but I still can't help but do it, and encourage him to fucking take it easy on himself at work already and go see the doctor before I give myself a coronary.
This woman is fucking nuts.
Not much to write about it seems. I've been busy as hell but now there's nothing I feel like writing. Still, a writer writes, right? Ha. No, if I let this blog go too many days without posting I'll never come back to it.
I will be spending the whole day in a hospital with one of my clients and I plan to knit the whole time. I spent $42 on yarn and a new set of needles last night and I have five scarves to knit this week. I can do it, cause I did half of one in just a couple of hours last night.
Tonight I have my Crohn's support group, and I am always torn when it comes to attending a meeting. I like to go, but these people are usually talking about a cure, and I'm more in the acceptance phase of things. I'm not looking for the fix, I'm just living with it. These people are so desperate for a miracle it makes me sad, and also angry because I think they're ultimately being stupid. There isn't a miracle cure for Crohn's. There's no worm you can swallow or bacteria you can drink. I do know that some vitamins make things more comfortable, such as vitamin E capsules. Oh well. I am going tonight because we'll be talking about nutrition and something called probiotics. I'm not clear on what that is. I hope it's not some other "miracle" crohn's treatment where they stick more tubes up your ass. When I was first diagnosed I went to all these holistic web places and wanted to find out all I could about naturally being healthier. All I found were people saying Crohn's was my own fault because I didn't have enough enemas or something. Cleanse your colon more and you won't have symptoms!! Jesus. Blame the patient, why don't you. Bah. Whenever I hear anyone say that kind of crap I shut them down immediately. And I *have* heard that in support group meetings. One guy even brought this crazy hocus pocus pseudo doctor who was only there to sell us crap. That patient ended up in the hospital for two months with an intestine that looked like a pretzel. I saw the pictures from surgery- he was twisted and sick and almost died. I really hope he got away from that quack.