My coffee pot went kaput, so I bought a new one. The new one leaks.

The ‘Check Engine’ light came on in my van. I took it to Jiffy Lube for an oil change and engine diagnostics. Apparently my van has a faulty EGR valve and Knock Sensor… and a small oil leak.

The switch on my dishwasher went out. *Gasp!* I’ve had to hand-wash my dishes for three days, while waiting on the part to come in. Mind you, I spent an entire childhood washing everyone’s dirty dishes by hand, three years of that spent melting snow in a pot on a wood-burning stove just so that I could have hot water to wash the dishes in. So. If I want to bemoan a broken dishwasher at this stage in my life… I’ve got every right to do so without being judged.

So there!

My daughter came into my room the other day to tell me that her front tooth was loose. I checked, and sure enough, it was. I took her in to see the dentist (because it was a permanent tooth!) and found out that not only does she have three loose teeth (instead of one), but the cause was due to one of her permanent teeth growing horizontally behind the others. It has blunted the roots of the other teeth, which has caused them to loosen.

It’s a full grown tooth, impacted in her gums; the baby tooth that it was supposed to replace is still in place. If I take her to an oral surgeon to remove the impacted/horizontal tooth (which I’m told needs to be done), she might lose the baby tooth as well, resulting in a big gap in her front teeth. To fix this, she would need braces.

It just so happens that we don’t have insurance to cover braces. The Orthodontist casually informed us that it will cost around $6,000 (roughly $250 a month) to fix my daughter’s teeth.

Did I mention that my husband is currently unemployed?

The alternative: Hope and pray (that after paying an oral surgeon $1,000 to remove the impacted tooth) the baby tooth will be spared, thusly keeping my daughter from having a gap in her smile.
(Translation: $6,000 for braces! OMGawd! That totally bites!)

Bah!

That was my week. How was yours?

Paint Shop Pro, baby!

Heh.

I created this image for a fellow gamer (which represents a character played in an RPoL game). I searched Google images to find all the elements that make up the character; big pointy ears, large tooth-filled mouth, pointy nose, unruly hair, dark clothes. Then I altered the images to suit my needs, combined them all into one, and…

Voila!

Meet my version of “Dark Finn”, aka “Phineous Darke”.

Isn’t he cute!

Mwah-hahahahahahaha….

Manda: “Mom… Why do old people call flip-flops thongs?”

Me: “Because, dear, when ‘old people’ were young, that’s what they were called.”

Manda: “That’s weird. Why did they change the name to flip-flops then?”

Me: “Well, I suppose that was so us ‘old folks’ wouldn’t get confused and try to stuff our thongs up our butts.”

Manda: {laughs} “That’s why I love you, Mom. You’re so funny.”

In other news…

“Dorannes’ Google hits plummet due to lackluster posting! But who cares? I have a blog award from JQ!”

The “Let’s Be Friends” Award represents:

“These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind of bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this written text into the body of their award.”

Thanks, Java Queen! You’ve made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Kinda like the first time I experienced the burning goodness of five glorious shots of Jose Cuervo Gold and… OMGawd! Was that a worm!?!

*cough-cough-ahem*

Maybe that wasn’t such a good example. But anyway…

Regardless of Life’s little intoxicated worms, it’s nice to know that somewhere along the blog parade I’ve actually earned a loyal reader (or three… you know who you are). …A blog pal who loves me for me even when I forget to post for eons at a time. …Someone who challenges my brain by using words like “self-aggrandizement”, thereby causing me to Google the definition of said word, and now I’m all that much more learned because of it. …Someone who gets my kinda funny and keeps coming back for more. Why? Because you’re incredibly awesome… and apparently …so am I!

Thanks, JQ! You rock! Consider yourself one of the eight I’m supposed to deliver this nifty award to. As for the other seven…

Christa (link to follow soon… soon as I fix it… or find it. Bah. Where’d you go, Christa?)
Yay! Here she is! Christa
MetalMom
Mrs. Flipphead
P.S.
SudieGirl
Skittles
Wendy’s Whimsies
Nello

Ha! I’m a rebel. I listed nine! (Translation: I can’t count.)

You know, in perusing my blogroll it has come to my attention that I’m not the only blogger slacking off lately. It would seem that nearly everyone is doing it!

Yay! Blog slackers unite!

…and pass the procrastination, would ya. My cup seems to have run dry.

Technorati Tags: flip-flops, thongs, blog award, Let’s Be Friends, self-aggrandizement

For her thoughtfulness told me so…

Fortunately, when I was around twelve years old and in desperate need of a new winter coat, my mother bought one for me.

Unfortunately, we lived deep in the Idaho woods, it was hunting season, and my coat was two-tone brown.

I never complained, mind you. I was thrilled to be wrapped in warmth, as the walk to the bus stop was a long, dark, and frigid one in the winter. But I have to tell ya (for the entire mile and a half long trek… three miles there and back), I sang at the top of my lungs so that I wouldn’t be mistaken for a deer.

Fortunately, my crooning didn’t draw out the hunter’s bow in search of a pack of howling wolves.

Unfortunately, no one mistook me for Susan Boyle, either.

Wasn’t that woman fantastic!?

P.S. This site will be down (Monday, April 20th, between 12am & 2am) for server maintenance.

You dream that you are the caretaker for a dwarf-sized nun and you run across your father in town, wearing a hospital gown and an irritated frown?

Just as my father was about to tell me something in my dream, my husband woke me up.

Argh!

Dad. If you’re reading this today… Um… Whazzup?