Answers

Well, one answer anyway. The life span of a hair dryer? Less than one day.

I brought the new one home from the store. I washed my hair yesterday morning. Plugged the dryer in. There was a whirring sound, a puff of smoke and then nothing. I didn't even get to warm my hair up. There I am with soaking wet hair and I have to leave for work in 15 minutes.

So I took it back to the store on my lunch break. The lady at the exchange desk took one look at my hair and refunded my money. I won't even post a pic. Dreadful.

Hopefully this new one is up to the task.

Have you ever been worried about washing your hair?

AG out!

Survival!

The event is over and we survived!

My event was to construct and run a golf cart obstacle course. It was very entertaining and the teams had a great time "conquering" it!

Now, I would like to collapse.

Instead I'm going to get dressed and go to work, and finish putting away games and dis-assembling signs and cleaning up my office.

Before I sign off, I would like to thank yesterday's sponsors...

The butt crack of dawn

Sweat

Sunscreen

Water pistols

Darts that bounced off Balloons instead of popping them

Foam dice with round edges that kept rolling and rolling and....

Illegally driving the golf cart down city streets without a ticket

Asthma attacks (mild) that sneak up on you

Camera batteries that die in the middle of the scavenger hunt

Granitas!

Air conditioning on the drive home

Daughters that did the dishes while you were at work

And the last minute sponsor, the 85 degree day instead of the cool 65 and showers that was predicted

Wishing you all a lovely weekend!

AG out!

Wide Open Wednesday

Here's a blurry pic of K3 I snapped going out the door to dinner in Canada. She did a little shopping and was very happy with this outfit. I even loaned her my sandals so she could feel extra groovy. She promptly fell in love with them and inquired about whether I really liked these as much as I thought I did. Twerp.

As an update:

We did not make the deadline for the insurance in terms of getting K3 in for tooth rebuilding. We are now in appeals mode.

The guardianship paperwork is nearly complete. But without a firm diagnosis of her disability, the outcome is iffy.

Thus a referral has been made (Thank you Dr. M for coming through yet again) to a neurologist who will examine K3 and tell us who-knows-what.

I made K3 sit with me and help me fill out the questionnaire the neurologist sent. I don't know which is more depressing, the dang questionnaire or the flippin' guardianship application.

We are seeing more frequent incidents of her disability sneaking into our daily lives... little blank spots that come up when confronted with new challenges... situational anger over changes in her environment, or even discussion of any potential changes. Any rosy picture I had of the guardianship is evolving daily.

I wish I could bury my head in the sand and pretend that we didn't have to deal with this. But instead, I'll keep pretending to be courageous and resolute.

I'm in discussion with one of the other managers at work who deals with the county we live in. It seems like it would be to our advantage to allow K3 to be evaluated by our local government disability counselors following the resolution of guardianship, something I swore I would never do after the birth to three debacle. But, there may be some short term funding available for at least a year. Which would be awesome as I'm totally disgusted with the school districts transition program and would like the funding to access an outside vendor, specifically the agency I work for.

So there you have it... a series of ugly conversations headed our way... doctors, judges, court advocates, disability counselors...

I'm totally and completely gloomed out just thinking about it, but hopeful that it will all benefit K3 in the long run.

She's totally worth it.

AG out!

PS~ In terms of K3 in the pub, we're not encouraging her imbibing alcoholic beverages. She had a sip of cider and that was about it. She prefers soft drinks and is really only there for the pub grub!

I'll take torque wrenches for a thousand, Alex...

Maddie worked her little Chihuahua butt off and got K3 ready for her check up at Dr. J's, her reconstructive surgeon. The nurses are very nice, but sometime I think they're a little jaded about how uncomfortable these bone graft/ implant procedures are...

"Hi K3! You look great! Hopefully it didn't hurt too bad this time..."

"Well, yeah... it hurt a lot. Because it wasn't just the implant, Mom says I had a bone graft too."

"Oh, yes...so you did" flipping through the file, "and apparently we took the screws out of your jaw from the last bone graft too. No wonder it hurt!"

Yeah... no wonder it hurt.

With the six month anniversary of the accident coming up in two weeks, we're trying to complete as much treatment as possible before the insurance closes out our claim. So next Friday, Dr. J says we need to come in to test the implants.

On the more mature implant on top, they plan to do a torque test.

[photo borrowed from these guys]

I know, I cringed too. But apparently that's a standard test for implants. I glanced over at K3 and she didn't understand... I must have had a horrified look on my face (or a torque wrench floating above my head) because they immediately offered to refill her pain meds. On the newest implant, they thankfully just do an ultrasound to make sure it's embedded correctly in the jaw.

Fortunately, Maddie is ready to work double shifts next weekend... talk about dedication!

 Once the implants are tested, the dentist can make new impressions and start building her new "store bought" teeth!

I can't believe it's been almost 6 months since she got hit by the truck...

What a journey...

In the meantime, K3 and I have been discussing the options around the guardianship application. There are variables on how the parties involved want to handle life issues like medical decisions, voting rights and marriage rights. Even issues around her "estate" and how her money will be handled. After a while, we put the paperwork to one side and gave K3 a facial...

Because you want to look good for your torque test...

Sorry, I just can't move past that!

Off to feed K3 breakfast before I go to work. Have a great torque-wrench-free day!

AG out!

The Food Drawer

I don't know if we all have a food drawer at work, but I do... and here it is. I have a food drawer for two reasons:

One: I work on the outskirts of a fairly small town. With no onsite cafeteria or food within walking distance, I have to either bring my lunch or drive into town to buy something. Yes, you would think good planning would be enough, but if I don't bring lunch and the server goes down, I don't get to drive anywhere! I have to rely on what I've got stashed or the kindness of my co-workers!

Two: As an agency that serves people with disabilities, we're required to have emergency non-perishable food on premises in case of a natural disaster. We have the main stash of food, but each employee is encouraged to have their own as well.

Mine has become pathetic. It creeps up on you. You open the drawer and realize that you don't have any fruit cups left, or apple sauce, or soup (just the dehydrated packets). Even the granola bar pickings are getting slim. I'm afraid with all the recent server glitches, I've hit my stash pretty hard!

Do you have a food drawer? Inquiring minds want to know! What's in yours?

Making decisions

It's the day before the super bowl. Last year, I cut my hair off the day before the superbowl and donated it to Locks of Love. That's what I looked like after donating my hair. I could not get my hair into a pony tail even though that was a criteria I expressed that I needed for my summer activities.

This is my hair a year later. It is long, but not long enough to donate. However, I'm still considering cuting it because last time it was long, there were consequences...

And I like the blower dryer I have now, so I don't want to do this again... But I want to donate... but I want it to be long enough to donate... but my stylist says long hair makes me look 10 years older...

My decision matrix looks like this...

Help a girl out... what do you think?

AG out!

I'll be back....

... in a few days. I have some things to take care of!

Be well!

AG out~