Our re-incarnation factor is up to at least a gecko now. Perhaps even a tree frog.

I couldn’t pry one of Sarah’s books out of her hands as a contribution. She was, however, gracious enough (after thrashing on the floor is a tantrum screaming, “My books! My books!”) to purchase a lovely five book set of the Newbery Medal winning The Dark Is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper.

Personally we feel this is going to be a much more rewarding gift than some of the other things the kids were requesting - nail polish sets, bratz dolls, razor scooters. But each book geek (or non book geek) to his or her own..

A spot of tea… For my nose…

A Wish for Joy

Since I really don’t want to be re-incarnated as a potato bug, I figured it was time for my annual karma boost. This years opportunity came while buying a hazelnut and white chocolate latte at my new favorite coffee shop, Zoka.

The red cards on the tree are for less fortunate children asking for gifts. Upon gazing onto it I saw a red sea of “Barbies”, “Transformers”, etc. This one, however, stuck out from the crowd. The mental image of a 12 year old being asked to pick “any” present he would like and him answering “a book” warms the cockles and sub-cockles of my heart.

So, later tonight we will wrap up a book or two (stolen from Sarah’s collection) and we’ll head down and place it under the tree for the so-called less fortunate child that loves to read. I see it as an investment in a literate society.

I realized my new phone makes a horrible video camera.  This was the end to a wonderful find in Bellevue Square mall.  A three story store called JZ Rose where Sarah and I could easily spend several million dollars in one shopping spree..

My new T-Mobile Shadow smartphone thought a soft salmon pink was the perfect lighting conditions for this picture, so I went with it and sepiafied the hell out of it.

What you should notice on this third day after the surgery is that scrunched, tense look in my eyes. That’s three days of fitful sleeping. Pretty much the only way to sleep when both nostrils are completely clogged up. Add to that a nice dull, continuous headache and there you go.

Those are silicon tubes hanging out of my nose. They’re called splints, look like clear banana slugs, and are supposed to help the cartilage remember its new position. Mostly, they feel like they are just applying direct pressure to my brain. I was suffering through them as I thought I was getting them out today. Appears Sarah misheard the doctor and he just wanted me to call and schedule an appointment for today. They will come out on Wednesday.

It was after that call that I couldn’t take it and “cheated”. Not too bad though - Afrin can be used for control of light bleeding - just shoot a spray or two up there as needed. I’m really supposed to be shooting saline up their regularly though to keep the area moist. However, moist leads to a complete lack of air movement. So I cheated and put a few shots of afrin up the nostrils and tubes. It did me wonders and probably got me sanely through the day today.

So, next report on Wednesday, after the banana slugs come out…

[additions: i’m done with demerol.  corner-of-the-eye hallucinations and being unable to urinate are bad things. first solid food today was a painful experience - it appears the weight of my nose assists in chewing..] 

I was bored today, so I went and got major surgery.

Okay, not really. Might seem like that to you blog readers, though, as I went from injecting liquid calcium in my nose to this. Just haven’t been in a posting mood.

So, to catch everyone up. The injections had no effect, I was still left with between 0%-5% breathing capacity in each nostril. I ended up opting for the surgery.

And yes, I was scared shitless this morning as I walked into the hospital. Luckily everyone was extremely helpful, and seemed genuinely caring of my needs. I can easily say the most painful thing of the surgery was the local anesthetic they gave me in my hand before putting in my IV.

I remember nothing other than moving myself from the gurney to operating table. I was on the table for about 15 seconds and then I woke up in the recovery area.

The pain is actually quite minimal. The toughest thing I had to deal with so far is a sore throat from being intubated. That’s already clearing up though. Bleeding was to be expected, but has already reduced to almost nothing. I have two plastic splints in each nostril that I will have removed on Monday.

So, it seems like a total success - I’m already breathing freely through it [update: that lasted all of thirty minutes.  See my next post.]. As a bonus, I swear my nose actually looks a little better after the re-aligning of the cartilage. I’ll post some before and after pictures next week..

I so missed the boat on this one. I used to search monthly for signs that another Harry Potter game was being released for Mac. I guess I finally gave up hope because I missed the release of this.

Behold HP and the Order of the Phoenix in all its awesome glory. The only thing that pisses me off about this (pay attention, EA) is that this doubtless means if I ever want to play Prisoner of Azkaban or Goblet of Fire I’ll need to go out and a) buy a PC or b) buy a gaming system such as a Playstation. Neither of which interests me. I’m quite happy with my little Apple laptop and the last thing I want is a whole game system cluttering up my already limited space.

If there’s a Santa Claus, I’ll not only find HP and the Order of Phoenix in my stocking, but he and his 8 butch bouncer reindeer will go kick the EA execs in the pants to get them to release the other 2 games for Mac. I shouldn’t be punished for having an aversion to Windows. (Fenestraphobia?)

So Rowan has this perfectly lovely little yarn called Tapestry. I especially like their Moorland color - soft creams and pale blues - and was picturing it as a soft, yummy scarf for yours truly. So when I found it at a good price at Now and Zen online, I snapped it up.

I came home last night, all excited about opening up my box of yarn - oohing over the softness and aahing over the colors. So you can imagine my disappointment when I opened the box to find the wrong color. Instead of sending me Moorland as ordered, I received Highland - a dusky purple. Anyone who knows me, knows that pinks and purples are at the absolute bottom of my list colorwise. I left those colors behind when I was about six.

So I sent the following email:

Hi Christine -
I received my yarn order this afternoon (minus the promised pattern, by the way), but you’ve sent me the wrong colorway. I ordered Rowan Tapestry in Moorland (blue and cream) and you’ve sent me Highland (dusky pinky purple). While the yarn is lovely, I have a project planned for Moorland and would like to return the Highland yarn to you.

Thank you

I’ve had some pretty bad experiences with customer service in the past, so here I was, fully prepared to do battle with someone who could really care less about what they did or did not send me. But then I received the following response:

Dear Sarah;

Now and Zen Yarns

Ok, I thought. Fair enough. This is better than I was expecting - I can have a refund minus any fuss. But then she emailed me again:

Hi again Sarah;

Best Wishes,
Now and Zen Yarns

What? Really? I can’t remember the last time in my experience that customer service 1) owned up to a mistake, 2) offered reasonable restitution, and then 3) offered restitution above and beyond what was expected. You mean there are people out there who care what you think even if you’re on opposite coasts? There is such a thing as good customer service?

So I emailed:

Wow. It’s really unfortunate that good customer service is so hard to come by these days, so that when it happens, I’m blown away by it. I truly appreciate your offer of letting me keep the yarn without charge, but I wouldn’t feel right doing so. Especially since you’re going out of your way to keep me a happy consumer. Please consider the order filled. I will keep the yarn, but there’s no need to refund the charge to my card. I will set Highland aside for some future project and track down Moorland for my planned project.

PS - I’m glad that your yarn shop is doing so well online.

I figure mom likes purple-y things. I just won’t use the yarn for myself.

NWA - perhaps you could learn something from Christine at Now and Zen about how customers should be treated? Just a thought…