By the skin of my teeth*

(*because I couldn't title this post "By the seat of my pants")

Faithful readers may recall that earlier this year I expressed the suspicion that I had cracked a molar. And, typical of events involving a likely large outlay of cash and/or encounters with the medical establishment, I waited to do something about it until I had to do something about it. About a month ago a chunk of said tooth broke off one day while I was snacking at work, and to make a long story short, over the last few weeks I have spent about 5 hours and a couple months' pay rehabilitating said tooth.


(If you're wondering whether that's a seriously damaged tooth, or whether I'm seriously underpaid, you're right!)

Yesterday I had root canal part deux, followed by some minor surgery (lasers to trim the gum tissue -- cool! drills to cut the bone -- not so much!) and felt entitled to be a wimp today, what with the pain and not sleeping much last night. So I stayed home from work, and after a breakfast of scrambled eggs I dozed off an on to the Science Channel.


I'm trying not to be pessimistic about this, but with my knee episode last week, and now this, it seems like my warranty is about to expire. It doesn't help that on Thursday I get to have one last birthday before the AARP membership applications start littering my mailbox.


Yes, this is a shameless ploy for sympathy. You know I'd do the same for you . . .

Gratuitous Kitten Photo

Ooh, look at the kitties! A temporary distraction from the less-than-cuddly realities of life.

The cosmos seems intent on delivering a message of some sort to me; during the past 24 hours I have been visited by what I consider to be more than my fair share of annoyances.

First, I started yesterday with one of those ice-pick-in-the-eye-socket sinus headaches that changes in the weather seem to bring on. That made me even tireder and grumper than I would normally be upon returning to work after a 5-day break.

I have been pondering how far I can go in pushing for the salary increase that I was supposed to get LAST January. Yep, that's January 2008. Because of bureaucreatic bovine by-products, not only has my pay stayed the same, but I can't even get reclassified to the proper job title on paper (or on computer, as the case may be) because the salary I am paid is below the minimum starting pay for the classification of the job I actually perform but can't get paid for because . . . oh, hell. Anyway, yesterday I was seriously considering just cleaning out my office, taking up my old position at the front desk, and wondering what the consequences would be. But because of the sinus thing, I just couldn't be bothered.

And with all that on my mind, last night I sat down to finish the paper for my Research Methods class only to discover that the folder with my notes in is 25 miles away, in my office. I did what work I could on the paper (i.e., figured out how to number the table of contents and abstract pages with Roman numerals while numbering the pages of the body of the paper in Arabic numerals -- just ask if you want to know!), and then decided to call it a night.

I went into my bedroom, and saw the dog chewing intently on . . . the pants to my ONE suit that I can't afford to replace. Yeah, I should have hung the pants up instead of draping them on the bed, but was in a rush to make dinner & get started working on that paper, remember? And anyway, our "geriatric" dachshund hasn't been getting up on beds unassisted for a number of months now. I guess there was just something about my trousers that made it worth the effort. (Now there's a line I never typed before!)

And the fun continues. This morning, in my pre-caffeinated daze, I miscalculated while going down the stairs and missed the bottom step, consequently wrenching my "good" knee. Looks like I won't be kicking any @ss at the office today . . .

At least it's Thursday already.

Random rant with reward (see post)

I could have saved my boss a lot of time and trouble last week. He need not have gone to the trouble to get a colonoscopy; most of us in the office could easily have diagnosed his recto-cranial inversion.

Grumble. Bitch. Piss. And moan. One of these days I'll learn not to check my work e-mail account over the weekend.... Don't worry, I still have a job (and am still not getting the raise I was due in January 2008). I'm just less and less enthusiastic about the whole enterprise. Good thing I have a 5-day weekend coming up SOON!

At any rate, an apology is offered to my faithful readers who've suffered, wench-less, these past several weeks. Things in the real world are busying-up: Prom and graduation for intellikid are fast approaching, I myself have a paper due & a final exam coming up that require plenty of attention on my part, and various of my family members are experiencing medical challenges of their own. With the exception of lunch-hour glimpses at my favourites' blogs, when time permits, I've been tending to escape in the pages of books, rather than in the ether of the interweb. (One of these days, jennifer, I'll get around to putting my GoodReads shelf over on the sidebar...)

But oh, on those occasions when I do venture online, the treasures I find. (Do not stop watching when she winds down about 3 minutes in . . . )

I got to see Ella perform in the summer of 1986, accompanied by Joe Pass for the second set. Lordy.

However, just now I've got some thighs to marinate (not mine, sillies -- I'm making chicken satay for dinner), several more mugs of coffee to drink, two loads of laundry to wash, two bathrooms to clean, a chapter to read, two online quizzes to master, some yard work to do (and it's supposed to frikkin' snow here tomorrow through Wednesday!), and other numerous tasks to try and accomplish. I'll try and make the blog rounds, too...