Twofer: A Hooker Story and a Stripper Story

The poker blogs I read have been writing stories over the last few weeks about hookers and strippers. I didn't think I had any stories that would fit these categories, but, while reading a post from Very Josie, I remembered a couple anecdotes that would fit right into these two themes.

Hooker Story
In my freshman year at Simmons College in Boston in 1973, some friends and I went together to see Aretha Franklin at the Boston Garden. They were coming into town via the subway, and we agreed to meet in front of the only landmark I was sure they'd be able to find -- Madame Tussaud's wax museum, across from the Boston Common -- as we'd gone there together a few years prior.

I got to the meeting place before my friends. I'd guess it was around 6:30 or 7, and it was early winter, so already dark. I was dressed in my usual attire: flannel shirt, jeans, boots and a plaid wool shirt for warmth. No makeup. Long hair tied back in a ponytail. After standing in front of Madame Tussaud's for a while, I realized that the other folks lingering there were, shall we say, ladies of the evening and their clientele. Accidentally, I caught the eye of an older fellow, who raised his eyebrows and gestured with his head as if to say, "come with me." Sheesh! I figured that a tall, fat female dressed like I was (I was straight-identified at the time, but still dressed mannishly) would never be taken for a prostitute, but I was wrong! I moved away from this guy, staying as close to the street as possible, but still in the area for when my friends arrived. After some more loitering, this same guy came over to me, grabbed my arm and said "c'mon, let's go!" After some resistance, he finally got the message and left me alone. I'm sure he was greatly disappointed! .

Soon thereafter, my friends showed up and I was rescued from any further unwelcome advances. We had a good laugh as we headed over to the Garden for the show. The seats sucked but the show was great. Gotta love Aretha.

Stripper Story
This story actually happened to Skip, but it's a goodie worth retelling. In her late 20s, Skip was still healthy and worked as the bar manager at a Japanese restaurant on the waterfront in Boston. We lived in Boston's South End. Sometimes I'd go pick her up after the restaurant closed but other times she'd get a ride from the restaurant manager, a gay guy she was good friends with.

One evening, Jim the manager and she decided to go to a strip club called the Naked I in the Combat Zone, which used to be where Boston's strip clubs were located. The Zone doesn't exist anymore, largely because land values got too high downtown to waste the property with some sleazy bars, brothels, XXX theaters and XXX-rated bookstores. They went to this club because the bartender was an old friend of Jim's. Skip was always ready for an evening out back in the day.

Skip decided she'd buy a drink for one of the strippers, a woman named Misty. Skip wanted to know why Misty had become a stripper. Her answer has faded into the "mists" of time ... this was over 25 years ago ... but they chatted for a bit and then Misty went back to her performing.

Some days later, Skip and Jim went back to the Naked I again. When they arrived, Misty was up on stage doing her thing. Bent over, looking back at the crowd between her spread legs, she saw Skip come in, she waved and shouted out, "Hello, Skip!" Now there's a memorable greeting!

And now, we shall return this blog to its regularly scheduled programming.

It's Almost a Reality

Yep, the house is getting there. Having secured the services of a handyman/painter combo, the handyman projects and painting work is about 80% complete and should wrap this week. My brother and his sidekick completed their project today, building a custom window well cover. It's a thing of beauty! Another friend of my brother's, who's worked with us on cleaning out storage units, has been doing a bunch of odd jobs (like cleaning and organizing the garage, cleaning off the roof and gutters) and he should be done with my to do list for him within 7-10 days. I've still got some work getting things to look a little less cluttered and more organized, but I'd say that's about 75% done. So, you know what that means?!? We're going to list the house before month's end. When I stop and really think about what that means, it's sad, freeing, scary and exciting all at once.

It's sad because this house has been around in the family for virtually my whole life. When I was 7, I came to this houselot with my parents, brother and sister virtually every weekend for months (I think it was that long) and cut down the trees where the house was eventually built. My father wielded the chain saw. When the tree was felled, it was our job to cut off the branches with axes. My dad would cut the logs down to fireplace size. We'd stack up the cordwood in rows between two trees; we had dozens of these log stacks all around the property.

My parents worked with an architect to design the house and, let me tell you, the place is unique. It's a contemporary in the land of colonials. It's built so you enter on the top floor and have to walk downstairs to get to the other floor. This design was used so my parents could live here even as they aged and were less mobile. We moved in in 1964 when I was 7 or 8. Other than boarding school and college, I lived here until 1977. Skip and I moved back here 23 years ago when my parents retired to a house my dad built on Cape Cod. A house that's remarkably like this one in many ways.

So, it'll be a loss to say goodbye to this house when we move out. I hope the next owners appreciate it and learn to love it. I'll have to leave them some information about it, like how the pine paneling in the downstairs playroom/rec room is from some of the logs we cut down to build the house.

It'll be freeing because, in some ways, owning the house was a burdensome responsibility. Let's be honest here, I'm not handy and don't really want to be. Home projects are not my cup of tea. I never yearned to update the kitchen or knock down a wall. In my free time, I don't want to oil a doorsill or paint a room or any of that jazz. We took over this house from the handiest man on earth and I always felt I came up short on the home stewardship front.

If we move to a condo, the exterior of the place is someone else's responsibility. We'll share the cost of maintenance in our monthly fees, but we won't have to do the work.

It's scary because it's a huge change. And, we have some special needs with Skip's disability that limit our housing options. Will we be able to find someplace that meets those needs? We're planning on moving into an "active adult" community. We'll probably be the youngest folks there and, I'll betcha, we'll be the only lesbians. Will we be able to find a place that's the right mix of price, location, accessibility and community that we hope for? Will the dogs be good neighbors or will Addy bark at every sound and person and leaf that blows as she does today, making our neighbors hate her and us?

Exciting is the flipside of scary. All this change has the potential to work out bringing wonderful new possibilities to our lives. Expenses will go down, making it easier for me to focus on caregiving and not trying to cram in a full time job. We'll have neighbors nearby, and it will open up possibilities to make new friends. In a home configured with a more open floorplan than we have today, Skip will have easier access to the whole house. And, it'll just be new and different. A shakeup will be welcome.

So, with all that said, let's get this puppy on the market and see what happens. I think I'm ready!

Foxwoods With Friends

Gary, Josie and me

Yesterday, I had a great day. Met in real life some friends I'd made through blogging. And, I liked them even more in person than online (or at least as much). Won money. Got a break from caregiving and was comfortable knowing that Skip was in the capable hands of the intrepid MW. And, I got to test my new glasses while driving at night.

Josie and Gary - It was only the second time I've ever met anyone in person who'd become a friend through blogging. As I drove down to Foxwoods to meet Very Josie and the Crafty Southpaw (Gary) for some poker, I found myself wondering if we'd like each other in person as much as online. I hoped I wouldn't suck too much at poker, since I have rarely played over the last few years and wasn't the greatest even when playing regularly. And, overall, I found myself being excited at the prospect of meeting new people.

Josie is smart, funny and has a great table persona. Gary is smart, too, and had me laughing all afternoon. I guess Josie liked me because she called me a biatch and, at various times while playing poker, said we were fighting. Gary was very intent when playing a hand and I finally figured out I should stop jabbering when he was doing battle.

Let me just say right here that Josie and Gary are much better players than me. (I'm sure they already know this but were too polite to say it to my face.) I've read a jillion books (okay 15-20) about holdem and Omaha and played tens of thousands of hands online, but truth be told, I just never really had the feel for the game that folks like Josie and Gary do.

Poker - Unlike my last visit to Foxwoods, I had almost no quality starting hands yesterday. A few hours into the day, I had KK but completely misplayed it preflop (as in, I didn't raise out of the big blind and so 5 of us saw the flop) and ended up folding on the turn when the board just got too scary and I knew KK unimproved was no good. My last hand of the day was 99. I had a few suited Aces with crappy kickers. But I managed to make do with hands like 79s, K8c and the like. After starting out losing, I finished up winning a bit over $400 at poker.

Craps - After some dinner together, Josie and Gary headed out. I went into the land of the smoky casino to find an open craps table. If you've never played craps, suffice it to say it's a good way to win or lose money quickly. At a hot table, you can rack up the dough with lightning speed. A couple of cold rolls, and it all slides back to the house. The first table I tried was choppy. Some up, some down rolls. I had the worst roll of the night -- crapping out instantly after setting the point. I stuck with the table for a bit, but each short roll was slowly but surely cutting into the day's winnings.

I picked up my remaining chips with the thought of cashing out and heading home. But, decided I'd try one more table. Went past a few that were too full to get a spot at; the third I came to had some room in the corner nearest one of the dealers. The dice were with a shooter on the other side of the table and he was doing fairly well -- he won us all some dough. After he sevened out, the next shooter did okay, and the trend continued for half a dozen shooters. No great rolls, but all solid, money-making ones. Suddenly, my down $200 at craps was up over $500 and, when the dice came around to me, I passed the option, picked up my chips and happily made my way to the cashier. Time to head home.

I've been wearing my new glasses for about a week. After 10 years wearing only reading glasses, I wasn't happy to find that I needed them full-time. I've had a lot of problems with the middle and reading portions of the progressive lenses. Driving last night, their real value was "driven" home to me -- I saw better at night than I had in years!

Getting home at 11:30, the dogs came out from the bedroom to greet me. Heading into the bedroom, a drowsy Skip greeted me warmly, happy to have me home. I set the clocks ahead and went to bed.

So, Gary and Josie - I'm open every weekend in April (how sad is that!). Just say the word and I'll see you there!

I Got Carded and Other Recent Activities

The last time anyone asked me for ID to prove my age was in my early 30s and a waitress asked to see my license before she'd serve me a beer. I was quite happy to show her how old I was and she seemed a bit sheepish when she realized I was many years past 21. Wednesday, I went with my two realtors to a 55+ condo community to look at some units. The realtor from the listing side didn't believe I was 55 and insisted I show him my license before we started looking around. He was very surprised that I actually was 55. That was fun! Unfortunately, they allow only one pet per unit, so we won't be looking at that development anymore.

It was good to get a view at what 1100 square feet looks like. Oh man, I've got a lot more clean out to do in the garage. The kitchens in those units didn't have much storage, so if we move into a similar kind of space, we'll have a lot more purging to do. For example, we have a few hundred cookbooks that fill one entire set of shelves in the kitchen. Those'll mostly have to go. Of course, I don't really use cookbooks; they are all either from my mother (who left them behind when moving out 23 years ago) or from Skip, who used to be a chef and continued to buy cookbooks for years, even after she'd stopped cooking.

On Tuesday, I went to 3 storage auctions. Bid on a number of units but wasn't willing to go as high on each as other bidders, often by a significant margin. The first auction had 40 attendees and 5 units available. I'd say the crowds were of similar size for the other two and, coincidentally, there were 5 units at each of those as well. The last unit I bid on was the one I wanted most. It was mostly filled with older, wooden furniture. Hanging from pegs on the ceiling were 7 chairs for the kitchen or dining room. Smack dab in the center was a treadle sewing machine. I still have the treadle machine we got last summer at an auction although it was on Craigslist for months and is now in the furniture booth we have in central Mass, so was a bit concerned about the ability to move this one. I figured $300 would be a good price for the unit. The other bidder countered me on every bid and I finally gave up at $500. I couldn't rationalize that I'd make even that on the furniture and I would have other costs as well, including the effort of the guys who'd clear out the heavy stuff.

Ideally, to determine my max bid, I estimate the value of everything I can see and divide it in half. That mode doesn't work very well when most things are in boxes or the unit is very deep and you can only see a small fraction of the stuff. Then, you have to get clues from the way things are packed and cared for and the type of stuff you can see. I am tired of going to auctions and getting nothing, though. Sooner or later, I'm just going to go for the gusto and buy something even if I think it's overpriced.

On Thursday, I got a handyman over to give me a quote on the bits and pieces of work that needs to be done. He brought along a colleague who paints. Their prices were excellent! The repairs and painting begin on Sunday. They're going to paint all of downstairs, the upstairs bathroom, 2 exterior doors, 2 garage door and stain the low fence that surrounds the yard. Whoopee! All the repair and paint work should be completed by mid-week.

On that same Thursday, my brother and the two guys who helped with my mother's move came over to do a variety of projects. They took the entertainment center, a glass front cabinet and a grandfather's clock along with a bunch of boxes over to storage. This really cleared up a lot of space in the living room and dining room, so they look bigger. While my brother and one of the guys worked on building a window well cover, BW (who is a really really hard worker) took it upon himself to organize and clean up the garage. That night, for the first time in 9 months, I pulled The Toaster (aka the Honda Element) into the garage!

Shortly, I'll be leaving the house for a day trip back to Foxwoods. Had so much fun 3 weeks ago, I've decided to go back. And, to make the trip more interesting and fun, I'll be meeting up with 2 folks I've met through blogging, Very Josie and the Crafty Southpaw (both their blogs are on my blogroll to the right).

One final note: I had to put word verification back on because I was getting a ton of spam comments. I figured word verification was the lesser of two evils; the other being not allowing anonymous comments.

New Cranky Reasons #3: Incompetence!

Let's just say it right here and now: I'm good at everything I do (except for handyman projects). Skip often comments that no one does (insert task here) better than me. Which strikes me as funny since I'm the amateur and she has lots of people helping her who are paid professionals.

As noted before, we had to switch to a new agency for visiting nurses and home health aides when Skip came out of the hospital because of the need for IV administration support. We were told the agency Skip had been using for many years did not have that service so we switched over to another provider. We now have home health aides from the new agency M-F for 2 hours a day. They are a lot like the aides from the other agency, except the physical therapist from the new outfit trained them on range of motion exercises for Skip, so they are helping her with that every day. A definite upgrade in my book.

The 5 day a week visits are divided between 2 aides. The one who comes twice a week, MG, is very nice and has figured out that Skip is high maintenance but easy to tease about it. They've developed a good rapport. When MG is here, I can hear the two of them chatting away during Skip's bath. MG has been to the house about 10 times so far. On her 2nd or 3rd visit, when she was emptying Skip's catheter drainage bag, she neglected to close the bag's nozzle. Because the bag was hanging low, just above the rug, it was somewhat out of sight and the problem wasn't discovered for 18 hours! During that entire time, pee was dripping onto the rug. (To add to the annoyance, the rug that was dripped on is an oriental carpet once owned by my great-grandfather.)

I have never called an agency to complain about an aide. But, I had to in this case because they were going to have to reimburse us for the rug cleaning. The next time MG came, she had been spoken to at the office and was quite contrite, apologized and swore it would never happen again. Apparently, never is about 4 weeks long because she did it again yesterday! This morning, while I had the rug rolled up, cleaning the floor, cleaning the rug, getting towels under the rug to protect the floor while the rug dried, etc., I was having a good ol' rant. I was cranky! This woman has been a home health aide for more than 10 years. She must empty drainage bags multiple times a day for multiple clients every single day of work. How does she not close a nozzle twice in 10 visits? Apparently, we can't trust her to do this task right so I'll have to take care of emptying the bag on the days she comes.

We hadn't had the rug professionally cleaned from the first incident yet (I gave it a good cleaning and drying at the time) because we were waiting for Skip to be out of bed and for my brother to come over and help me with furniture moving and rolling it up. Those two events haven't occurred together yet. We haven't decided yet if we're going to inform the agency of the 2nd occurrence. We'll definitely tell MG when next she comes. But, unless we decide we want to ask to have MG be replaced by another aide, we probably won't give her agency a call about it.

Feeling Good Monday #5 (A Bit Late)

Still working on packing up stuff in the house to make it more desirable to prospective buyers. Still trying to get my little projects completed, but my brother now has a parttime job so he's not too available. Will be engaging a handyman shortly. Still selling through eBay and the space I've rented at 3 different multi-dealer shops. So, it's all pretty much status quo, with one exception:

I've lost 19 pounds! Am quite happy about this. The last few weeks I hadn't seen much movement on the scale (figuratively speaking, since I use my Wii balance board to weigh-in), but then a huge drop this morning at my weekly weigh-in. I guess that's why my jeans seem quite loose lately. Will have to buy new ones. I think I'll buy used ones on eBay since I'm hoping I don't wear them for very long.

Back to cranky musings tomorrow. Have a great day!

Word Verification on Comments

I wanted to turn off word verification for comments, since it seems some of my blogging friends are having troubles reading the letters and I'm indifferent if I get a few spam comments here and there. If I look in the "Posts and Comments" section of "Settings," though, there's no way to turn it off. Other than turning on moderation for all comments, does anyone know of a means for turning off word verification?

The Grim Reality: It Won't Get Any Better

There's been a little too much positivity and sweetness and light on this blog of late. Time to get back to some down and dirty crankiness. I was originally writing this as a cranky reason, but really, this reality doesn't make me cranky, more feeling sad with tinges of fear, wondering what's coming next.

Most people who have MS have the relapsing-remitting kind, where symptoms can come and go. Others have progressive forms where what you lose to the ravages of the disease never comes back. That's the form Skip has. It's true she had some sight issues that recovered (thankfully), but other than that, once it was gone it stayed gone.

Flashback 28 years. It's 1984 and we're living in a wonderful apartment on the 4th floor, no elevator, with a cool roof deck in Boston's South End. At the time, it was Boston's gay mecca and we loved living there. I was going to computer programming school and Skip was the bar manager at a Japanese restaurant on the waterfront. She started having feelings of pins and needles on her thigh and lost some sensation in her fingers. She thought it was pinched nerves and went to a chiropractor for a few months. Not surprisingly, the treatment was ineffective. Fast forward to the present and Skip no longer walks, can't even move a toe. Basically, nothing below her armpits works anymore. And, her arms and hands are becoming increasingly weaker. Her left hand doesn't do much of anything anymore. She needs help for just about all tasks of daily living. Even feeding herself is becoming a challenge on many days.

Between then and now, there've been lots of little and large losses, where we've said goodbye and mourned each successive loss. And, most importantly, made accomodations to the new world order. Skip went from the funky sensations she first experienced on to weakness and foot dragging in her left leg. This brought on a cane. As the disease progressed, we went on to a walker (fun for a woman in her 30s), then a manual wheelchair when we were out and about to full-time wheelchair use in the house. And so on.

We have a fairly standard routine whenever a new device comes into the home. I greet it with gusto as I see it as a wonderful boon to Skip's life and it will make my life easier as well. Skip finds its arrival very depressing because it's only necessary due to some new MS symptom and loss of functioning. Eventually, though, she adapts to the new device and is glad for the assist.

Now, I'm thinking about assistive technology devices that we need to replace her hand functionality as it continues to degrade. She's having problems with the tv remote and the computer keyboard. We need to get in an Occupational Therapist to assess the situation and recommend some tools. In fact, there's an OT with the agency that provides visiting nursing and home health aide services. She's on vacation this week but will be contacting us next week so we can begin discussions. Soon to come, I suspect is another round of tools that Skip will be depressed about but eventually accept as she learns to use them and sees how much they help her life.

The First Non-Wound Day

Five and a half weeks ago was Skip's flap surgery. She's been in bed, not sitting up, since then. Yesterday, she went back to Brigham and Women's Hospital to have the stitches out. We rode together in an ambulance so she wouldn't have to sit up en route to her appointment.

Imagine, riding in the stretcher for the brief distance between our front door to the ambulance was Skip's first fresh air since January 13th! I'm glad it was a cool, crisp day with no rain or inclement weather to ruin the moment.

At BWH's Wound Center, the ambulance drivers rolled her right into the examining room. After a short wait, two nurses came in to remove the stitches. The lead nurse was quite pleased to see how well the incision had healed. She mentioned that the last two flap incisions they'd seen had both been failed operations, so she was particularly happy about Skip's great outcome.

Turns out, though, that Skip's not out of the woods yet. She is only supposed to sit in short bursts, increasing a bit every day, until after a month she can sit up for 2 hours at a time. How naive I was ... I thought she'd be back spending a good amount of time in her chair right out of the gate. She's decided to do her sitting in bed for the next few days at least, postponing her first wheelchair sit for now.

In reality, without my realizing it, we've embarked on a new phase of life. Skip really shouldn't spend hours and hours at a time sitting in her wheelchair, even when taking advantage of its tilt and recline functions to change the pressure points. (See below for photo of her chair's capabilities, taken when she got it about 3 years ago.) We'll have to see how that changes things for us going forward. Here's hoping we still get those trips to Fenway and further afield, like Las Vegas and Washington, DC.

Bottom line, though, is that Skip has no pressure sore right now for the first time in a very long time. That is a most wonderful thing and not to be downplayed at all. Woo hoo!

New Cranky Reasons #2: Cranky Needs Glasses

Last fall, I drove to the Cape, sometimes twice a week, to help my siblings pack up my Mom's house. It was a two-hour drive each way. I typically left about 8pm, so was driving after dark the whole trip home. I noticed for the first time that I was having some issues driving at night. I found myself relying on all the road reflectors and lines to find my way more than I ever had. And, if it was raining, night driving became very difficult for me. The shininess of the wet road and signs from my headlight beams really created challenges in making my way along the highway.

Some people would have had an eye examination soon after experiencing such troubles. But not me. I managed to put off the exam until yesterday. Well, bah! I'm near-sighted, far-sighted (I've been wearing reading glasses for 10 years) and have astigmatism. I ordered glasses with progressive lenses as I was assured I had 30 days to return them if they didn't work out. But, oy, they are expensive! I got frames that are virtually indestructible in the hopes I won't destroy them, as I've done with readers many times in the past.

Yeah, I'm cranky. I don't want to wear glasses. Though, I'll be happy if night driving gets much easier.

Feeling Good Monday #4

There's plenty to feel good about today.

• I wrote about my Foxwoods trip on Saturday. I had so much fun, I've already figured out the next time in early March that I can go back!  Having experienced the poker room last time, I can see myself trying out the Omaha tables next time.
• Skip's stitches come out tomorrow! She's been in bed since January 13th and, boy, is she ready to get up. She's been much weaker lately, having some significant problems with her hands, requiring MW or me to help her eat and hold her water bottle while she drinks. We're all hopeful that getting up again will be a positive change, helping her shake off this weakness.
• This house is just filled with stuff to sell. For example, I decided we'd really need to get rid of some of the kitchen stuff we have. In my first look at the cupboards under the counter, I spied in the back a copper bowl used to whisk egg whites for making souffles. This is an artifact from our entertaining days. Skip was a chef before MS and we used to have great dinner parties for our friends back in the day. I haven't whisked an egg in that bowl for more than 20 years, so it's time for it to go. Best of all, on eBay, the used ones like ours sell for between $30 and $50. Woo hoo!
• A load of gold jewelry I had for sale at a local multi-dealer antiques shop sold in one fell swoop. Bam!
• We had some improvements done in closets downstairs. The quote was reasonable and the work was done on schedule as promised and within budget. Yowza!
• We stopped having the house cleaned to save money, which has resulted in a far less clean house than I'd like. To have the place in shape for showing to prospective buyers, we're starting back with the wonderful couple that used to clean it for us. They're coming for a major cleaning on Saturday. It couldn't be soon enough, from my perspective.

Hope you all have a great day!

All Work and No Play Makes Cranky Even Crankier

Caregiving is hard work, let me tell you. It's not continuous effort, but you're always on call to help. There's a strong but invisible tether that keeps you close by so you can lend a hand when needed. Being on call 24/7 is wearing.

So, yesterday I cut the cord for a bit and went to Foxwoods. Skip's aide/friend, the intrepid MW, was staying with her until I got home, so I knew she was in good hands.

I haven't been to a casino since early 2007 when we last went to Las Vegas. And, I stopped playing poker online over a year ago, before the federal government shut down the 2 biggest online poker sites for US players in April 2011.

First, I stopped off in central Mass to drop things off at the two spots where I have stuff for sale. One is associated with a flea market, so the stuff I put there is generally household items and low-end items. I dropped off about 50-75 baseball caps that I'd purchased for Skip over the years. She had me get them wherever I traveled to during my many years of heavy business travel. Then, I went further west to the antiques/collectibles shop where I just set up a small space last week. I brought all the items from our Kennedy memorabilia collection there last week, among other things. It was fun to see that some of the stuff had already sold. Yesterday, I dropped off a bunch of fruit crate labels Skip collected many years ago. I found them shoved away in a closet I cleaned out at home last week. They'd been there for 20 years.

So, following those errands, I headed off to Foxwoods. I realized just how long it was since I'd been there when it came into sight. There was a huge new hotel, the MGM Grand, that wasn't there when last I was. And, all new roadways had been added to make traffic flow around the casinos much better. I swooped right into valet parking and headed into the complex.

The first thing I noticed was the smell of stale smoke. I forgot how casinos are just about the last indoor places that people can smoke. Fortunately, the poker room is completely non-smoking. I wasn't sure whether I'd play poker or craps first, but as I ventured inside, almost the first thing I saw was the poker room entrance, so that was my first stop.

I really prefer pot-limit omaha over all other poker games, but I've never played PLO in a live casino, only online. Online, it's much easier to keep track of the pot size, which is a very important consideration in the betting rounds. Most of the Omaha spread at Foxwoods is limit and is also the high-low variety, neither of which I like anywhere near as much as PLO. So, I wasn't sure if I would play Omaha or just stick with no-limit holdem.

When I got into the poker room, it was huge huge huge. I found the desk for signing up. It being a Saturday of a holiday weekend, there was a dizzying array of games offered. I hate to admit it, but I found the environment a bit intimidating. I signed up for 1/2 PLO, 5-10 Omaha hi-lo limit and 1/2 no-limit holdem. But really, I figured I'd play holdem as that's the simplest game of the 3 and good to start with for my first visit in millions of years.

In about 5 minutes, I got called for the NLHE and went off to a table where I was fortunately seated in the center, across from the dealer, which made viewing the cards on the board easy. I've found in the past that if you're at one of the ends, it can be difficult to see the suits and even occasionally the numbers of the cards. I was 2 from the dealer position on the first hand and posted to get started right away. AQo ... nice! An ace came on the flop. A short-stack in early position went all-in and one other person besides me called. I bet out on the turn and the other guy called that bet, which was fortunate, since the shorty rivered 2 pairs with his A6 so I only won the side pot.

It's funny, in my first 7 hands I got AQo, AQo, xx, AJo, AA, xx and JJ. My $200 buy-in went up to $550 in the blink of an eye. I joked that I'd now seen all the good hands I'd get for the rest of the day and, unfortunately, I was right. Over the next few hours, I managed to give back about half my winnings before I finally picked my remaining chips and headed off to the casino to find a craps table.

In a few minutes, I located a busy craps table that had a spot for me to sneak into next to the stick man (the dealer at the table who holds the stick to move the dice around and who controls the action). The first few folks who rolled the dice did okay, so I made a bit of money. The next shooter was a crazy guy (there's one at every table, it seems). He bet $100 on the pass line and always slowed down the action putting his place bets as he gave poor instructions to the dealer, so there was always confusion to resolve before the game could get moving again. He was a generous soul in an obnoxious way. Every payoff he received, he threw the white ($1) chips back into the center of the table, shouting "dealers!" Great for them to get tipped but a pain for them to retrieve the chips that have knocked other chips around and such. At one point, he took a handful of pinks ($500 chips) out of his pocket to cash one for smaller chips. At least $10k there.

I have a love/hate relationship with rolling the dice. To me, it's all random. I don't carefully position the pips on the dice in certain patterns like some folks do. I just pick them up and throw. I'd guess my experience with dice throwing is similar to everyone else's. Sometimes I completely suck. Based on averages, you have to 7 out immediately after setting the point over 15% of the time. Sometimes I am awesome. I had a roll at the Rio in Las Vegas that I recall where my name was being chanted before every roll. It went on for more than an hour and I made myself well over $1k. Oh, and made everyone else at the table a load of dough. My first roll last night was better than average. I made a few points and the third point I set was the 4, which is hard to make (as in, it's twice as hard to roll a 4 again before rolling a 7). I kept rolling 5's, 6's and 8's, all of which was making us money on place bets. Finally, I sevened out without every making the 4 point, but I'd made all of us a good amount of dough.

I played craps for 2-3 hours and managed to leave with a decent amount of winnings. Not the most of the night, but not at the low point. In fact, thinking about it, since I won the side pot on my first hand at holdem, I had no point during the day where I was losing. Nice!

Getting the car from valet was a snap. I'm doing this if I ever go again. Got out onto the highway. Put on Miles Davis. And headed home. Almost all highway driving. Home about 10:40. It was a fun day and a chance to really get away from the chores and responsibilities of my typical day. I've already suggested to Skip that another trip in March would be fun.

Feeling Good Monday #3

Despite the Pats losing yesterday's Superbowl, it's still a "feel good" Monday here.

• In Massachusetts, your septic system needs a "Title 5" inspection before you can sell it. Ours happened this morning and it passed. The realtors were over this afternoon to review their market analysis with me and were delighted to hear this. They then shared a number of horror stories of homes that required septic system modifications costing thousands of dollars to pass ($20,000 was mentioned in one instance). Phew! That was one big bullet we dodged.
• I'm pretty charged up with the project of house prepping pre-listing. I'm excited about how great the house will be when we're done decluttering and doing a few low cost projects.
• I've expanded the amount of space rented for selling antiques, furniture and flea market-type stuff. This will be a great way to unload some of the crap we've accumulated over the last 22 years.
• Opening day is less than 2 months away. It'll be here before we know it.

Enjoy your week!

House Work

I'm getting all sorts of things in place to get the house ready for showing to prospective buyers. It's exciting to have a new and fun project to work on.

• Title V (septic) inspection is Monday morning. When I spoke with the guy who is doing the work he said they'd either be depressed or euphoric, depending upon what happened during the Superbowl. My kind of contractor!
• We have some closets downstairs that need rebuilding. Had a contractor recommended by our realtors. I called him last Wednesday and left a voicemail, figuring it would be a while before I heard back from him, if at all. He called back in 5 minutes. Said he had a job wrapping that afternoon and he could come over between 3 and 3:30 that day. He showed up right around 3. Gave me a quote on the spot and followed up with a written quote that evening. I'm not used to this kind of responsiveness from contractors. He starts on the 13th.
• My brother came over last Monday and we walked through my punch list of small, handyman type jobs I'm hoping he and a couple of his friends can help on. Also, his friends (who are both younger than us) will also do things just before listing the house like: power washing the house, washing windows inside and out, sweeping off the roof, cleaning out the gutters and cleaning up the yard. Since we're having such a mild winter this year, I think the outdoor handyman work can start up right away.
• I'm renting a large storage unit to store the extra stuff we need to get out of the house to make it show better. I'll wait to rent until we've accumulated a good number of packed boxes and furniture to move in there, probably in late February. The intrepid MW, Skip's companion and friend, is going to help us with the packing.

Let's hope the practically snow-free winter continues so we can get all the external projects and cleaning completed by early March so we can get this house listed for sale!

Feeling Good Monday #2

Is it Monday already? I am continually amazed at how quickly the days speed by. Often, this amazement is coupled with how little I accomplished in the days just passed. This, even with no job competing for my time.

Today's list of feel good items is chock-a-block full of big-time news:

• I'm still working the Weight Watchers plan. I've continued to use the Wii for regular exercising and have been pushing myself to dial up the intensity. At my size, and prior slothfulness, it doesn't take too much additional effort to feel it's higher intensity.
• We are going to sell our house! A pair of realtors came last week to look through the house and they've estimated the "go to market" price to be about 10% higher than I expected. We have a lot to do to prep before it gets listed, and, of course, Skip has to be able to get out of bed so we can skedaddle for viewings and open houses. So, I expect we'll list it in March.
• Then we'll move to a condo! Sadly, having lived for many years with the world's handiest man (my dad), I am not in the least bit handy. I find home fix-it projects to be very intimidating and our house reflects this as it has many projects crying out to be addressed. A condo has great appeal for me because so much of the maintenance will be handled at the association, rather than homeowner, level. I get that if we want to get rid of the wall to wall and put in hardwood floors it's our responsibility. But, taking care of the grounds and exterior maintenance are someone else's responsibility. We're pretty open to the location and type of structure until we start looking at real-life examples. The key is that we're going to move a bit west of our current town, moving to the land of lower property values and much lower property tax.
• I will start working a parttime job in March. Worked out the particulars with my former boss and I'll get started in March after I've had a chance to get the house ready to sell and Skip is out of her period of post-surgery convalescence. It'll be a sales job, marketing my old boss' services. I can work it from home for as many hours a week as I can muster and that I want to do. I 100% do not want to get back into the high-demand rat race I was in for many, many years. This will be a good way to make some dough where I can use the quarter century of knowledge I built up about benefits and benefits administration without having the life sucked out of me at a fulltime job dealing with demanding clients. Honestly, the time demands caring for Skip as she's progress further downhill just make a fulltime job impractical. For self-preservation, I need to avoid having a really stressful job on top of the care demands from Skip. That's a losing proposition for me, as I'll just fail a bit at both. (Phew! I guess I have some strong feelings about that.)
• We've continued to have a very mild winter here in Massachusetts. I am particularly happy about that because no snow means I don't have to snowblow the driveway and I don't have to drive in snow. I am a true chickenshit in snow and, though our Element has frontwheel drive, it doesn't handle particularly well in it. Perhaps the modifications for the wheelchair have changed the weight distribution.

So lots to feel good about today.

Super Duper News

Skip's infectious disease doc called yesterday. He was checking in on the status of her PICC line as she'd had to have a special flush of it yesterday. The flush worked well and the flow was back to where it should be.

While we had him on the phone, Skip asked if the cultures of her bone scrapings were done growing. The doc was waiting for them to determine the severity of the cooties and thus the length of the IV antibiotics administration. Well, the results were finally in, and the cooties aren't too extreme so she only needs a total of 2 weeks of antibiotics! Woo hoo! We're already into the second week of the IV process, so all this will come to an end soon. We've got a good routine going now, but I certainly won't miss it when the antibiotics are done.

The next question is ... how is the PICC line removed? Can it be done in the home? The insertion needs to be done in a fairly sterile environment with access to Xray or ultrasound equipment to check its position in the body. I suspect the removal is much simpler. Just pull!

New Cranky Reasons #1: Lack of Control

When I first started this blog, I documented a number of things that made me cranky in my Cranky Reasons posts. Lest folks think I'm getting happy and have lost the cranky edge, I've decided to start up a new list. I'm not checking the old list, so there may be some repeats, but everything old can be new again ... not just bellbottom jeans, but my cranky reasons.

Without further ado, then, let us start with the cranky reason that's top of mind for me today ...

New cranky reason #1: Lack of control. Primarily, over our personal space. I first thought of naming this reason "Space Invaders," because those are the people that are the primary cause of the loss of control. People are always coming to the house: mostly nurses and home health aides. They provide valuable services when they're here, but they are providing that service here, and that's the problem. You lose your privacy, especially for Skip who, during these visits, is receiving medical attention or a bath. This morning was over the top as we had 2 RN's and 1 LPN here for more than an hour while the nurse who's an IV specialist was working on Skip's PICC line (where her IV goes in). Another was being trained and the third is Skip's case manager. And, they arrived at 7:30!

If the people are new, you never know how they'll react to the dogs going a bit crazy with barking and such when they arrive. Will they close the gate correctly when they go or will it drift open so Addy can escape? And, will they leave the house as they found it (which, admittedly is cluttered and not spotlessly clean)? The answer to the last question is often no, particularly for the aides. They never wipe the counter in the kitchen after preparing Skip a meal, they get water all over the windowsill by the sink so it's now lost some of it's varnish, they leave cabinets and drawers ajar and so on. I've provided feedback to some of them, but it hasn't helped. I'll admit I'd rather just properly close Skip's sock drawer than have to do all the work they do when they're here, but, really, how hard is it just to close it all the way? Every time I do it after they've left, I ask myself, do they leave all the drawers and cabinets open at their own homes?

Feeling Good Monday #1

The last two Mondays, I posted about how starting back on Weight Watchers was making me feel good. Stealing a page from my friend Very Josie (she has an "It's Okay Tuesday" routine), I thought I'd spend a few minutes on Mondays acknowledging those things in my life that are making me feel good. It's sort of the anti-Cranky.

• Of course, tops on the list of feel-good items is the Patriots. They're going to the Superbowl!
• Skip is home. This is more work for me, but I miss her when she's not here. And, she's a lot happier here than in a rehab hospital.
• The new agency we're using for home care doesn't send aides on the weekend, so we didn't have anyone here for two whole days. While it's always great to get their assistance, it's still a welcome change when it's just us for the day.
• I'm still working Weight Watchers. I'm obsessed with food, but in a positive way, as the program guidelines are helping me make the right choices. I've lost 10 pounds so far. And, I've been exercising using my Wii.
• Newt Gingrich won in South Carolina. Who would ever have thought that? I am happy that the Republicans will continue to tear each other apart as they march to the nomination. And, it's possible they'll nominate some whack job who will go down in flames against Obama. If it is Romney who gets the nomination, I wouldn't freak out too much if he won in November.

Enjoy your week. Feel good!

Winter's Finally Arrived

Since the October Nor'easter, we hadn't had any snow up until yesterday. Yesterday, we picked up a couple of fluffy inches. Today, starting before dawn, we got more snow. All told, it probably amounted to 3 more inches. With the combined accumulation, I figured that meant it was time to pull out the snow blower.

Last winter was my first winter being unemployed. I took a look at our expenses and identified a bunch of ways to cut costs. One expense was snow plowing. I figured I could handle the driveway if we bought a snow blower. I'm not handy at all, so I didn't want a big, gasoline-powered snow blower that would need to be maintained and breakdown regularly. I found a great little Toro electric snowblower and bought that along with a long extension cord. It paid for itself about halfway through last winter. For the snowfalls over 8", it took two passes to take care of the entire driveway, but we don't get many storms that pile up that much snow.

This afternoon, when the snow finally tapered off, Addy and I went out while I shoveled paths and pits for the dogs. Then, I coaxed her into the house (for a little tiny dog, she really loves the snow) and pulled out the snowblower. This turned out to be the perfect snowfall for the first effort of the year. Not deep and very powdery. All the routines and approaches I'd figured out last year came back quickly. It was a pleasure to get outside in the clear, fresh air and take care of the driveway. And, of course, the snow blowing counts as exercise in Weight Watchers!

The Longest Day

Wednesday ...

• Up at 6:15 to get ready as the nurse was due at 8 to admit Skip to the new visiting nurse agency and, more importantly, to train me to administer IV antibiotics. Yes, your hero, her Crankiness, has to perform the twice-daily IVs.
• Turn Skip, make coffee, take out the dogs, and so on. Get dressed as I figure I should make an effort to meet the nurse for the first time in street clothes and it's pj's every day thereafter. (Today, I graced the nurse with my leopard print flannels.)
• Nurse calls at 8 to say she is on her way but has to stop at the office. She'll be here at 9.
• I dust and vacuum the bedroom, do some other random cleaning. Throw in the first of 4 laundry loads for the day (lots of sheets and blankets came with Skip from the hospital. Gotta clean those cooties off.)
• Nurse calls again. Yada yada yada. She'll be here at 9:30.
• She shows up at 9:30. Meets dogs out in the front yard. She likes dogs (a plus). Immediately makes a positive impression as she's warm and friendly. I love her professionalism, her knowledge, and she trains me very well on the IV, primarily by not taking over but letting me do it with her observing.
• She leaves around 11:30. Phew! I've got a job interview at 3 and still have to bathe Skip (no aides yet from the new agency), feed her, feed myself and shower. Finally get out of the house just in time to arrive at Starbucks for the interview at 3:01.
• The interview goes well. Really, it's not too much of an interview as this guy works for the guy who was my boss at another company for 11 years so I'm a known quantity. It's a part-time sales job I can do from home. Will know more details soon.
• Home around 5 with a mocha frappucino for Skip. She's in fairly good spirits; still happy just because she's home and not in rehab.
• Skip has slipped down in the bed a bit. I pull her up.
• Do as close to nothing as I can for an hour plus.
• Feed Skip dinner at 7:30. She's pretty weak and we're having a sesame noodle dish (the noodles are hard for her to manage) so I literally feed her. The dogs stand at ready beside her so I can give them lit bits of pupperoni treats.
• More laundry. Dishes.
• On to the second IV. This time solo. I get out the instructions and follow them end to end. Got some bubbles in the line, how I don't know. Worked very hard to flick them out of the line (research online after the IV was started told me the small bubbles are not a big problem). Finally got the IV started. Was supposed to take 2 hours but it went on quite a bit longer. Fiddled with the drop rate to speed things up a bit. Finally done around midnight. Off to dreamland.
• At 2:50am, Skip wakes me up because of a problem she's having. I hate being awakened in the night; fortunately this happens infrequently. However, I hit a very low, highly cranky state. It's 62 in the house and that is cold! Spend about 20 or 30 minutes taking care of Skip. Adjust the alarm from 6:15 to 7:15 to make up for lost sleep time. Addy says, well Mom as long as you're up, why not take me out? Man, it's really cold outside! Then, back to bed. Out pretty quickly.

This morning, the 7:30 nurse visit turned into a 9am arrival (are we sensing an unwelcome trend?). Still no home health aide scheduled. Spoke to scheduler; she just got Skip's info on her desk this morning. Grrrrr. They don't have aides on the weekend!! Grrrrr. Can't wait to drop this agency like a hot rock and go back to the folks we've been using for years when the IV process is done (our prior folks don't do IV's for some reason).