Read the articles that Mom had about fibromyalgia.... hmmm... nope, don't think so. In my opinion, articles like these aren't very reliable.

Uh oh. Mom is doing some magazine article reading again... she's come across 2 articles that describe an autoimmune disease called Fibromyalgia. This disease had symptoms a lot like I'm experiencing with Rhuematoid Arthitis (which is also autoimmune)... which I was diagnosed with a little over 8 months ago. I was told I've got a specific type that moves from joint to joint, not staying and destroying one particular joint. So, Mom's thinking I was misdiagnosed because of these two articles... hmmm... she could be right. The medical profession isn't 100%. I shall ask my doctor when I go in on the 18th... if I can make it that long. I *really* should have gone in this last week, but its so difficult getting an appt. I could have gotten one, I suppose... I've been told I can be a pain in the ass when I want to be. I really hate living on percocet - although its a fun pain medication, I don't like being dependent on it or like feeling goofy all the time. I'm goofy enough naturally, don't need any more in my life. Today (and yesterday) were better days. My right shoulder is bothering me as well as my right jaw. Yeah, figure that one out. I can't open my mouth very far (good thing?!) or bite down. Soft foods for me. I've discovered the hot tub again... haven't used it all summer or last winter because its too blasted hot. Dad is now keeping it at a nice 98 degrees which is PERFECT. I've made good use of the jets (all right - no, not sitting on the jets!!!!) the swirling water. Ahhhh... it may start to become a part of my daily routine. I come out of there so relaxed and fingers and toes all pruny. Then I take a nice long shower to get all the bromide stuff off of my skin. That's the life. Agenda for today: Rest, lots of rest and laundry.

Speaking of Fart machines, this brings a fond memory back to me... My friend L and I found some fart spray and just had to buy it. We thought "Wow, how cool is this? Farts in a can! Oh, the jokes we can play... and just in time for April Fool's Day." Well, turns out WE were the fools. We were out in the hall way at work, walking past all these closed doors to the manager's offices... spraying the fart spray under their doors as we went... laughing almost hysterically... trying to be quiet. We were trying to do the impossible. As we finished the last of the doors, we discovered we could smell this AWFUL smell coming from our hands. The cans LEAKED on our hands! Which of course made us laugh even harder. We could hardly stand. We finally made it to the restroom and washed our hands, washed them several times... we went back to work, and noticed we could still smell this shit (literally!!). We tried lemon juice, scented anti-bacterial gel, anything we could get our hands on... still stunk. A couple hours later, I had a brilliant idea. Try some Formula 409 cleaner. What do you know... it worked! We were so relieved. Went back to work, started smelling it again... smelled our hands, nope, they were OK... finally figured out the smell was coming from our keyboards! We immediately got new keyboards. I think we laughed harder about the stuff getting on our hands than we did spraying the spray under the doors. Hillarious! Happy April Fools' to us. We haven't tried this trick again, but when we get brave enough, we'll use rubber gloves. :-)

What a crap week this has been... glad its over. I will be a good girl and continue to recooperate. UGH. I did find out how the rest of the fart machine story went - after I handed the controls over to Nicole last week. She had me laughing so hard I had tears rolling down my face. Apparently, all Thursday afternoon, Nicole kept setting the fart machine off (hidden in Benjamin's cubical). Every time someone would come in and talk to either Pam or Benjamin, Nicole would set it off. This continued through Friday. At lunch time, Nicole, Janna and Pam all went out to lunch. As soon as they reached the outside door, Pam said (with MUCH relief) that she was sooooo glad to be out of there. When asked why, she replied, "I haven't been able to concentrate on work all day long! That Benjamin keeps farting! Oh, and the SMELL!!" At this point, Nicole and Janna could hardly contain themselves, but they held on... The fart machine is a remarkable toy, but there is NO SMELL. Talk about the power of suggestion!! Pam still has no clue there was ever a fart machine. Benjamin doesn't work there any more, so we can't ask him how he felt about it all... maybe he thought it was Pam and was too big of a gentleman to say anything?? Or... maybe he was taking advantage of the noises and actually making some of his own, which would mean there *really* was a smell?? We may NEVER know...

I made it to work yesterday... had so much stuff to do! Then last night my right wrist flared up... hopefully this is IT for a while... my brother had me try this cool thing that sends electric shocks through your body aligning the electrons (or something!) which forces healing right away. So, I gave it a shot... it was pretty funky at first but took quite a bit of the pain away. I was able to go to work and stay all day today. Its quite sore tonight so I need to ice it again. Gotta love this disease... I can think of other FUN things to do with ice! Yes, use your imagination... ;-)

OK - enough is enough. I had to stay home from work today due to my hip and my left wrist flaring up. It causes the tendons to swell, therefore messing with the mobility of my fingers (and OH the pain!!!!). Its much better now, but fingers are still stiff and hand is hurting. I spent the day in basically in a haze... slept a lot. I hope I can go to work tomorrow!! I don't think I can STAND one more day not being able to do *something*. My cat is taking advantage of my weakened condition... she thinks she can have a treat every time I get out of bed. Or maybe she's just happy that I'm moving??!! Not sure.

So in the middle of the night, my right shoulder decided to hurt... looks like I'll be living on pain pills for the next day or so... HATE this. Achy all over actually... looks like the Rheumatoid Monster is here and is forcing me to behave and not do anything today but ice my shoulders every 20 mins. I LOVE to relax, but not like this. :-( On the brighter side of things, the Leave it to Beaver Fandamonium Marathon is on all weekend! Woohoo! I love this show and am finding my self laughing out loud at a lot of things... hmmmm... is it *really* that funny or is it the pain pills??

Arthritis attack in my left shoulder... on pain pills... feeling quite funky... so I'm not going to Blog while under the influence. No thanks are necessary. ;-)

This is a cool story about Search Dogs that are helping to find survivors of the WTC. (Thanks E for the link!)

Well I made it... I was done working at 12! Woohoo! I busted my butt to get things done (to a point where I couldn't do any more work on the presentation until my boss does his part). So my weekend has begun. I spent the afternoon cleaning so now I can coast the rest of the weekend... just do what ever my little heart desires... not going to be too exciting, so don't get your hopes up... Had a really funny thing happen today... I took a banana and some peanut butter (yes I have a THING for peanut butter). I was dipping the second half of my banana in the peanut butter... took my hand away from the banana and ya know what it looked like?? (That little nobby at the bottom of the banana stayed in the peel, so there was a hole at the end.) Yeah, OK... use your imagination. I instantly started giggling and called my friend S to come see it. My NOSEY cube mate Greg was there... and he asked what I had to call S down to see. Like I was gonna show him! So I made up some lame excuse. Well, it was all funny...maybe you had to be there... or totally tired to appreciate it. Day two of the fart machine went great... they still haven't figured it out. I handed the remote over to Nicole so she could finish the job for the afternoon. She was awstruck by the power...

One more day... just one more day until my weekend starts...oohhh... one more day. I can do it.

My friend S told me that she caught some guy (that I work with) checking out my ass today. Although I'm flattered... I'm having trouble believing that he had the 'look of lusting' on his face. Now THAT is funny! I was wearing a dark purple velvet dress, maybe he liked the way the velvet hugged my butt?! Hmmm... don't know. But I got a huge laugh out of it. Don't get your hopes up, this guy is in his 40's and married with kids. OFF the market.

Had a pretty good day today, although I'm soooo tired! A new fellow prankster Nicole (just moved into a cubical near me) and I set the remote controlled fart machine up to get a lady Pam that sits in the cubical with her. We set it far back behind her desk drawers and kept setting it off every so often through out the day. She still has no clue its a fart machine, but thinks it was a guy that sits by her. She made the comment that he was awfully quiet today, maybe he's not feeling well. Nicole and I just about busted up then, but we held it in... we'll continue on through tomorrow... this is the longest anyone has ever gone without finding the speaker! So funny!!! No, she's not blonde. ;-)

I'm so brain fried, I can't think of anything to say... not even to babble like I usually do!

Ahhhh... one day down, 3 to go. I've decided to get my ass up at 3:30 am so I can get to work at 5:00 am to avoid the rush at the gates of the AF base. I was only in line for about 5 mins this morning... if I were to go at my normal time, 6:00 I'd have a 45 min wait. Hmmmm... I do believe I'd rather just wait 5 and get up early. It gives me an extra hour to work on stuff too when no one bugs me and gives me MORE to do. I made some killer salsa yesterday and also made a 7-layer dip to take to work today with two huge bags of tortilla chips. It was my turn to take birthday treats in. All I can say is SNARF! All of it was gone in less than 20 minutes!! I was glad they enjoyed it though, and I didn't have to bring any home. Everyone said how good it was... ooohhh... pat myself on the back for being a good cook... when I'm in the mood, that is!! :-) One guy challenged me to a salsa making contest, saying he could make it hotter...This salsa was really good, but milder than I normally make since I work with a bunch of geeky engineers who can be whimps. I took his challenge. Although several people said his salsa is good and hot, they said mine had better flavor. I'll kick his butt!

So I've been running around like a mad woman today getting things done so now I can relax and enjoy my Sunday. :-) Just read E's blog... so glad the P is on his making his way home from Logan Airport. YAY!

I think now that K isn't living here in the same house that we can become friends again. She isn't nasty at all - quite nice in fact. But I don't think we'll be as close of sisters as we used to be because she has violated my trust. Used something I told her in confidence against me. I'm not very forgiving when it comes to someone stabbing me in the back. Guess that's something I need to get over. I can forgive (because NO ONE is perfect), but I'm very cautious and tend to be guarded.

What a day for sleep this was! I am so used to waking up at 4:30 every day to go to work, I rarely sleep past 6:30 on the weekends. Today I slept until 8. I got up, ate breakfast, did some crafty stuff, worked out, laid out in the sun (felt sooo nice - not too hot!) then came inside and slept for 2 hours. Then I helped my Mom get dinner ready for the family dinner. We got together to celbrate my bro's B's birthday, and he's now 42. I'm the youngest of the bunch so I can always say they're older than me!! My sister K brought the new baby over. She handed little E over to me and I held her and fed her. K told Mom to get the camera to take a picture of me - like it was a miracle that I was feeding a baby! LOL! I did it all the time when my nephews were little - no big deal, not hard at all. K is the one that has never been the maternal type, but for never having these instincts, she's doing quite well as a mother. K teased me about E making me want my own baby...ummmmm...noooooo thanks. Babies are sweet and everything, but I like to send them home with their parents. Everyone has always said I'd be a good mother, nice - but again... noooo thanks. I'm quite content with my cat as my child!!

I watched the Memorial services on TV today and was truly moved. To see this country and other countries coming together as one against the terrorists warms my heart. I received an e-mail yesterday, as many people did around the US about putting our flags out and putting flags on our cars as a sign of unity and memorium for those who died. It was so amazing to see all the flags, more than you see on the 4th of July. The candle vigils are everywhere, what a tribute. Tears came to my eyes as I was watching them and lit a candle myself.

Here's a link for Useless Knowledge. Some of this knowledge can be useful in some point... interesting site.