Update on Cousin M

Thought I should give you an update on Urban Shaman's cousin M. Last I mentioned on this blog, he was in a coma after a snowmobile versus truck collision.

We waited 3 weeks without hearing any news about him -- the last bit of news is that he was still in a coma, his leg was still pretty bad, and he had double pneumonia. Yikes.

Finally after 3 weeks, I emailed my MIL to ask about cousin M. The response "Oh, he got out of the hospital yesterday! He starts physical therapy this week."

Very good news. But seriously, we go from thinking he's on his deathbed to being released from the hospital? It's like this family only shares the drama/bad news. I was just a little peeved. A little. But very happy for cousin M. Although I am still wondering how he is doing, since I haven't had any further news for a month. Oh well, I suppose if he was dying again or something, they'd let us know.

I have such weird in-laws.

You Shall Have Joy, Dammit!

The thing about having in-laws who are Mormon is that it can occasionally be amusing. Note I said occasionally, sometimes it is annoying.

The other day Urban Shaman received a care package from his mother in the mail. It contained some very cool, very hippie t-shirts, some DVD movies, books, and the following crap literature.

Finding Faith in Christ. With an enclosed booklet entitled "The Plan of Salvation" accompanied by a DVD.
Yes, so very important. Except those of us who live in the household at which the package was addressed are not even remotely practicing, let alone interested in this type of thing. Both Urban Shaman and myself grew up attending Jesus-oriented churches, so it is not like we are ignorant of this, it's just that we have chosen a different way of believing in and expressing our feelings about... you know... all that sort of stuff. I honestly wonder what they think when they see pictures of us all decked out at the Oregon Country Fair or having gone to Brazil for the spiritual workshop. Oh yeah... they probably think "holy moly, they need The Plan of Salvation!"

But that isn't all. Luckily a piece of more amusing crap literature was also present in the box.

And They Shall Have Joy. But wait! It's *gasp* all in American Sign Language! With real deaf actors! Wow.



Yup.

My Thanksgiving

We're on our own for Thanksgiving this year. Thought we might have friends come up, but that didn't happen. That's okay, I'm just glad we won't be with family this year. (I think this will be a 3rd Thanksgiving without family?)

I love my family, and I love holidays with them, but not this holiday. My mom insists on making all of the traditional fare every single year, and it is a very non-vegan spread. And she tries not to feel offended, but she is anyway, and I just get annoyed by all the food that is in front of me that I don't really want to eat, and the fact that I am regulated to a dish or two plus what *I* bring.

So since we are on our own, I get to completely plan my own, delicious menu.

This year we are having a corn chowder that I make every time we have Thanksgiving on our own. It is sooooo yummy. I also brought a small-size Tofurky -- can you believe that I have NEVER tried Tofurky before?!? I decided we should try it this year for fun.

Corn Chowder
Tofurky
Green Salad
Homemade bread (possibly millet cornbread)

And then I need to try to make a pumpkin pie. My past attempts at vegan pumpkin pies have been total failures. However, I think it just might work and be yummy if this year I use the eggs I get from the farmer's market plus hemp milk which is just about as thick and sweet as that condensed milk that you are supposed to put in those pies. I am excited to try this and see how it turns out. Urban Shaman really wants pumpkin pie.

More than you wanted to know

Poor, neglected blog. Doing NaBloPoMo on my other blog, so this one is getting the short end of the stick. Plus today, when I FINALLY am able to rest, rather than run around and do 234,232,380 things, I am sick. But not with a cold. Actually, a cold would be nice at this point -- much better than having a nauseous and queasy stomach all day. Thank goodness I work from home all this week so I can recover from this and my emotional coaster week last week.

Want to hear about it? Yes, I thought so.

So last week was the election (duh). Election night I was alone in a hotel room. I was awake when they announced that Obama was president-elect, but went to sleep before seeing McCain's concession speech and Obama's acceptance speech. So, when I went to sleep I wasn't yet feeling 100% sure about the results, and was actually really nervous that I was going to wake up in the morning and find them saying, "oh, we don't actually know -- (insert state name here) had problems at the polls" etc. So when I did wake up, I decided to shower first before turning on the TV. When I finally did allow myself to peak at the TV, I started to cry (in happiness). It was a good thing I hadn't put on my makeup yet.

It was also my first night away from Il Tonino. I did really well, being so busy and so tired and having the election to take things off my mind. I did, however, cry when I called my Mom (who had Il Tonino with her at that time). Il Tonino had a much harder time with me being gone and we had a rough adjustment once I was back home.

The day after I got back from my trip, I took both my cats to the vet for dental cleaning. They both have horrible tartar on their teeth, and since they are 6 years old, it was time to get it taken care of before it caused worse problems (and a bigger hole in my wallet). Even though it was not a big deal, they still got the whole anethesia thing and they were on my mind. Once they were home, though, it was fun to watch dopey, wobbly cats walking around in a drug-influenced daze. They are fine now.

While away, I got notification that my checking account was $0 and they had to use my overdraft protection. WTF!?! I had PLENTY of money in there. The day was spent beating myself up for being so careless with my fiances and not paying greater attention. It was a huge relief when the Urban Shaman figured out that the bank had withdrawn $4070 on a check that was written for $1420. Dude! That is a HUGE difference. $2650 to be exact. I had to call them and they told me they saw the error and it would go to the research department and take up to 5 (yes, FIVE) business days to resolve this. Uh, no. Give me my money back NOW! Luckily, I got it back the next day, in time to pay a credit card bill that was due. Man.

My brother and sister in-law showed up the day after I got back from my trip to stay at my house for awhile. It is a good thing I love being with them. (Actually, it is awesome to have relatives that I adore that are not actually related by blood.)

Now, who wants to come over and rake the leaves off my lawn?