On Saturday night, Laurel shook her hips and sang "I want to hula hula" (to the tune of "I Like to Move It") while dancing to an electronica version of the can-can. Now she's wandering around wearing the hula skirt over her jeans and dusting things.

...

To fill my desire to label things, I've been tagging past posts in cross_stitch and menstrual_cups. Yes, they're disparate topics, but both communities have embraced tags and I'm all for that.

In the process, I've picked up a pattern request for a sampler of the Greek alphabet (my working copy looks okay but not up to my high standards) and inquired whether an unfinished piece someone was considering selling is still available. Once finished, it would go well with the princess theme Laurel wants and look nice hung in the same room as Faerie Godmother.

I also nearly peed myself laughing at a reply to a post asking about whether pressure changes related to flying would affect the effectiveness of a menstrual cup: "It's fine; I've done it. My cooter didn't blow up." It doesn't help that we watched Kinsey last week, so I keep laughing at seemingly random things. I think I might have actually peed myself a little at the post where someone suggested calling their cup a cuntbucket. *dies laughing*

...

I got an e-mail today from a visitor to my website that started out complimenting the photos on my website, transitioned into talking about high arches (something I like about my feet but makes shoe shopping unnecessarily difficult) and ended with an offer to make a custom reflexology chart for me. Isn't that random?

We had lunch at Clay Pit yesterday. Their buffet is much smaller than Pasand's so there's less chance of me having a Bad Allergy Experience (I'm allergic to an enzyme found in several tropical fruits), but I really need to do some reading so I can pick things to try based on more than looks. *wry grin*

Today we tried another new to me place -- Freeb!rds World Burrito. A little pricey to my inherent frugality, but I could live on them for days. Laurel adored having refritos and rice _in_ her quesadilla and all but inhaled it, which is great for her getting into the habit of actually eating lunch at lunchtime, instead of picking then and eating the leftovers at home later. One of Vogon's coworkers commented that the cycling Lady Liberty made him feel slightly dirty because he could see her bare legs. Heh.

Laurel's potty use has gone down this week but she's not pooping herself, which is good. I think the stickers are really keeping her motivated -- she really likes to count her stickers on the calendar and she was thrilled to see reward stickers in the latest package from my folks (1.5" square Sesame Street and assorted shape/sizes of Belle). She currently has 25 minutes of unredeemed reward minutes, which she'll be able to use on video games tonight after dinner. (I could use some time to watch Y Tu Mama Tambien!)

Just in time for PMS, I've gotten a yeast infection. This is annoying since I shouldn't use my cup until the infection clears (thank goodness for one-day OTC treatments), but it's the impetus I need to finally make some cloth pads. I would be a good little consumer and use disposables, but something in them makes my skin unbearably itchy. So far, I've looked at corniecorn's cloth pad pattern, Debi Elrod's pattern at diapersewing.com, a DIY Cloth Pads Tutorial at craftster.com, and diy_pads. I'll post later with what I wind up making.

Much of the past week has been so strange that if I wrote about it, you'd probably think I'd pulled it out of my ear and rinsed it off for print. Nevertheless, it's good to be home, even if my brain checked out while packing.

Highlights of the bizarre:

• The tampon string tickles constantly. I have no idea how women can stand it, but maybe I'm just weird like that -- I completely removed my Keeper tail but ignore the DivaCup stem. This afternoon, I took a bit of Transpore tape and taped the string to my leg to make it stop tickling me. Worked like a charm! My DivaCup should arrive in the next few days; I plan to make a brightly colored bag for it so I don't forget it again.


• I had the feeling that something was looming over me in my sleep this morning and opened my eyes to find Biko sniffing my face. Apparently she doubles as a feline breathalyser.


• My birthday gift from Vogon arrived later than he'd hoped, but his fears that it might be 'wrong' were unfounded. It's a lovely blue blanket in a nubby waffle weave similar to my worn-to-bits blanket. I'll probably make a separate post about it later in the week.


• I periodically remember to apply Anbesol to the sore spot on my cheek (one of my right molars could really use a cap), but if I'm staying in I've found a shot of 99 Oranges works just as well. It also reminds me that I owe karaksindru some shot glasses. (:


• We made a Blockbuster run for weekend entertainment on Friday and got the "why don't you sign up for a Movie Pass?" pitch. Vogon's passed on it so far since it has a low limit (2 or 3 movies checked out at a time; we usually check out 6-9 movies once a month) and he wants control over who in the household can check out movies so his nerdsprout won't be tempted to skip homework for movies. This time, we got the pitch from someone knowledgeable about Blockbuster's programs, so we're considering their online rental program similar to NetFlix, which has 3, 5, and 8 movies at a time plans. That also means I've been pretending to catch up on recent movies, so I've now seen Kill Bill Vol. 2, Along Came Polly and Daredevil. Whee.


• My sister called to ask how to get a website listed with Google. Apparently her brother-in-law looked up the family clowning business and was amazed to find it was one of Google's first hits for the name. I couldn't remember the URL offhand for where I originally submitted castle.geek.net (my personal site, the clowns, TODCRA and some miscellaneous other stuff are all stowed in my geek.net space) for Google to crawl and index, so I looked it up -- http://www.google.com/addurl.html . I should remember to tell him that I'm not sure how long it's been indexed by Google, but it's been in the same location for three years so I'd be more surprised if Google didn't index it.


• Vogon's niece visited on Friday afternoon and I think her example has again inspired Laurel to try using the potty regularly. I'm hoping for good results again, since I'd really like her to have the socialization of preschool before starting full-day kindergarten next year.

In other news, vogonpoet succeeded in making a Semagic convert of me. Cringe or rejoice as appropriate.

I would like to figuratively hit my ovaries with a two-by-four. Repeatedly.

Now that I've gotten that out, here's why: ( I accidentally left my DivaCup in Colorado so they pulled a fast one on me. Cut to spare folks who don't want to read about feminine hygiene. )

I'm not kidding about my offer to buy you a cup. I have a verified Premier PayPal account (see the link for confirmation) and a 95.2% positive feedback score on eBay if you want proof that I'm serious about my offer. I believe they're an excellent investment and I want you to have that opportunity sooner since you've committed to getting one.

edit, 02 June: Cotton Babies, the store I bought the Divacups from, called me to verify the orders (store practice for orders shipped to a different address from the billing one) and shipped them today to gemfyre and juldea. I hope you guys get at least as much use out of your cups as I have. (:

All in all, it was a pretty interesting year.

( Gross consumerism )

I bought myself a Diva Cup, which has been the best gift of all so far. It came with a purple bag just like my now-retired Keeper, so I'm going to dig through my scraps and see if I can come up with something a little less flowery. I love it so much I want to buy other people Diva Cups, but that has to wait until I have extra spending money.

We spent the afternoon visiting Himself's grandmother (photos to come, I just unloaded them) and when we got home, there were three packages of stuff I'd ordered:
- a back-ordered video from T. Myers;
- an 18" scroll frame from Nordic Needle (it'll make Amy's wedding piece go much faster because my Q-Snap just couldn't keep a good hold on linen); and
- my DivaCup.

The cup is the most exciting of the three because gimping through my last period after the reaction to my beloved Keeper was very unpleasant. I am very thankful for medical-grade silicone now.

Now that I've gotten the obligatory back-posts done and caught up on my friends list, you get a real update.

( Ornery kid, needlework notes, EHS Madrigal Dinner's this weekend, and a little holiday shopping )

When in doubt, call someone who understands why you're so upset about not being taken seriously by the base clinic and a family medical history that complicates that situation.

Laurel and I are going home as soon as we sort out ticketing. (I'll be reimbursing my parents and/or sister, who are helping me on this, since right now we are a day out from payday and still waiting for the corrected tax refund to be direct-deposited.) Once we do I'll be using portability to transfer Laurel and I to Tricare's Central region. If Denver/Evergreen OB-GYN doesn't accept Tricare, I will see my old PCM at Conifer Mountain Family Medicine and either they (I can't say enough about how nice it is to have healthcare providers that treat the problem instead of symptoms) will take care of me or will refer me to a real (not military) doctor that can.

I [had] made my previous post today friends-only since I'm sure readers stumbling across my journal don't need to struggle through my great disappointment in the SJAFB medical clinic. [As of June 2005, it's now public.] In the meanwhile, the great members of the 4th Medical Group can kiss my skinny ass -- and not get any of my every other week's uterine bleeding on them because my Keeper rocks. (It's soon to be replaced an analagous silicone model as the extrra stress on my body of using it 7 of every 14 days has brought my latent latex sensitivity out.)

...and saving all my menstrual blood would just be too gross, although I'm not opposed to the idea. I do need to buy a DivaCup or MoonCup as soon as we can afford it though, since I've developed a latex sensitivity from having to use my Keeper every other week.

I hope Dianne Bailey-Holland [Mean Women's Health Nurse] suffers from anal itching and that Captain TooBusyToSeeMe (even though I waited two weeks for that appointment; her real last name is Locke) actually has no brain.

I've been toying with the idea of faking something so I can at least get some painkillers from the clinic because neither the Motrin (400 and 800mg tabs) nor the aspirin (250mg tabs, coated) is doing a damn thing and I'm out of cramp bark (I didn't have much to begin with) and the local health store charges $15/ounce for it loose, which Himself thinks is too much.

I was talking with revme about faking something to get seen at the clinic since I obviously can't fake being pregnant to be seen and the only other thing they would have seen me expediently for is an STD. He remarked it'd be funny if I did and then said "Ha ha, it doesn't really burn when I pee, it just hurts immensely to just exist! Fooled you! Sucker!" Between that and the sports anchor on the news saying "and the Viagra car goes crashing into the wall!", I actually cracked a smile.

In the meanwhile, what symptoms should I say I have and behavior do I need to do in order to get some painkillers at my appointment on the 4th, assuming I'm not screwed out of seeing someone again? I can live with the fact that the SJAFB clinic sucks my left nut, but I'm ready to do a do-it-yourself hysterectomy as soon as I figure out how to do it without passing out from blood loss. Incidentally, if anyone has directions for that I could use them.