Woo Girls

Yesterday turned out to be a fairly lazy day. I got some things done, but at a very slow pace in between a lot of slacking off.

Finished our seating chart for the wedding, and it looks pretty damn professional if I do say so myself. Which, is admittedly pretty unnecessary considering it's for me. It's not like I'm making it for a client, but hey, it's pretty! We have roughly 95 guests coming to our wedding, roughly twenty of them being children.

It's a bit higher of a count than I expected, and it doesn't seem like that many people looking at the list. It is though; I double counted.

Got a letter in the mail from Geisinger today that they're cancelling my insurance as of 9/30 for non-payment, and to call by 10/31 to avoid cancellation.

Extra Virgin

I was so tired last night. I was a bit worried I'd read the blog I wrote last night and what I thought was an account of my day would read more like 'purple unicorns glitter gasodjoiwi pizza woijiodfjso cheesecake'. Thankfully that was not the case. We went to bed and Chris put on Scream because he's in Halloween mode and I've never seen it. I'm a child when it comes to horror movies. I'm always paranoid I'm going to have nightmares and what not.

Wedding Hair

Wow, today has been insanely busy. There's so much more that I would have liked to get accomplished, but just not enough time or spoons in a day.

Woke up about a half hour before the alarm would have went off and did some things around the house. Tinkered around with the blog a bit and discovered all types of cool features I didn't realize existed. You'll be seeing the layout and features here gradually changing, and a great deal of things under construction until after the wedding when I have more time to really dedicate to making everything look fabulous. I'm really excited about it. It lets me share more with all of you even more effectively while simultaneously making this endeavor even more enjoyable and profitable for me. Win/win!

The day started out with my bagillionth wedding dress fitting. My dress is getting really pretty, but they weren't nearly as far with it as I expected them to be by now. They don't have much to get done yet though, so I expect to get it shortly after my final fitting next week. It's pretty. I just hope Chris is wowed by it. Every girl wants that 'Oh my gosh' reaction from their husband when they walk down the aisle. I mean, I can't exactly certify that fact, but I'm running with it.

My poor Mom, they altered her dress and put the shoulder straps together wrong totally flipping the angle of the dress and making it look terrible. I don't know how they did it. Luckily they still had the same dress in another size that I think fits her perfectly fine.

Due to cold weather by our wedding day everyone's breaking out shrugs for their dresses, but they're busting them out in the wrong colors. Mostly white ones are appearing. I haven't been bridezillay about much, but I don't want my wedding party looking like a purple and white mismatched Easter basket. Go shopping for gray peoples! Gosh! Hahah.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Pancakes

Today's been a really great day here. Chris and I went to bed super late once again. We started watching Food Network's 'Worst Cooks in America' last night on Netflix. We watched eight episodes last night. It's a really fun show to watch. You learn some great cooking tips, feel a great deal better about your own cooking skills (hopefully), and get to laugh at all the ridiculous stuff they do.

Chris and I have had some good laughs together watching it, and it's fun to try to pick who's going to win, and who's going to get kicked off next.

Chris helped me get the chores done around the house, and things got knocked out pretty quickly. Laundry was put away, pets were fed, dishes were washed, straightened the house.

After some ridiculous cravings last night resulting from surrendering on my steroid taper and going back to 15mgs, I decided to make chocolate chip pumpkin pancakes. Chris was really excited about the chocolate chip part. He was even nice enough to peel, cube, and boil a neck pumpkin from our garden for me. Knife work with dense food items are very hard on my hands because of the rheumatoid arthritis. So I never refuse help when it's available.

This recipe was a bit of an experiment for me, and I'm pretty proud of it. They're really tasty.

Man's Unborn Twin is the Biological Father of his Son

So I was reading this article: Man Fails Paternity Test Because Unborn Twin Is The Biological Father Of His Son

And while it sounds like a headline you'd read on the front of one of those trashy magazines right next to 'My Pet Cat Controls my Husband's Mind', it's actually real. Mind blown.

You'll have to read the article for yourself to get all the details of it, but the short version is that the guy in question got fertility treatment with his wife done at a clinic. Originally they assumed samples got mixed up when the babies blood type was off based upon that of the parent's.

After lots of testing they discovered the father was a chimera. Two separate DNA's in one person. His semen was 90% his DNA, and 10% the DNA of his twin brother, that is part of him.

Crazy right?

I can't imagine getting news like that. Finding out that my twin is literally part of me. It makes me curious about some cases of multiple personality disorder. I wonder if a small portion of them are a result of chimerism?

We don't really know where consciousness is stored, and if a body can hold two separate DNA's what's to say there can't be two separate consciousnesses? I can't imagine how confusing that would be.

Floid, a Maine Coon Chimera

There's tons of cases of conjoined twins, some of them more extreme than others, but in those cases it's obvious there is more than one being present. In a case like this though it's the existence of two separate people in one otherwise seemingly normal body.

Turtle Power!

We've only been awake for about four hours so far and today has already been crazy. We stayed up pretty late last night, and I actually slept really good for a change which was nice. We got up at about one, Chris helped me do some chores around the house, and then we had to scurry off to my rheumatology appointment.

I love having Chris with at my appointments. He remembers things that I forget about. Also I have a bad habit of downgrading my symptoms and pain for some reason. While I might tell the doctor that I've been okay, Chris is quick to jump in and say that I've been struggling to wash dishes all week because my hands hurt.

The doctor was actually running pretty on time. He's usually running extremely late, but we never mind because he's one of the few doctors that runs late because he actually spends time with his patients. They really should schedule his appointments differently though, but oh well.

Anne was his nurse today and I haven't seen her in ages. He usually has Ashley, she must be on vacation or something. Anne was excited to hear about the wedding. She checked my vitals, my BP was great, 110/70. My temperature on the other hand was 101 for some reason. Not sure why because I feel fine. Well, no worse than usually that is. Haha.

Griffin came in and we talked about Jefferson and how I was feeling. He agrees with their erythromelalgia and fibromyalgia diagnosis. We played the 'does this hurt?' game. He's keeping me on the Xeljanz, upped my Rasuvo dose to 25mgs. I told him how the longer I was down to 10mgs of steroids the worse I was starting to feel instead of getting better with time. He says I've been on steroids for years so as the dose starts to get lower it's going to be harder and harder. He said I should wait until after the wedding and start doing 15mgs two days in a row, and then 10mgs, and then 15mgs two days in a row, so on and so forth. Then starting the new year start doing every other day switch between 15mgs and 10mgs. I'm determined to get off of this crap, and I'm glad he's supportive of it. Chris brought up what a jerk Kolva was about us getting married, Griffin was like well that's not very nice. He was like I think that just shows just how meant to be you guys are. He gave me some scripts for the next two months so I don't have to worry about stopping in until my next appointment. And some samples to hold me over until he gets some things put through and changed with the specialty pharmacies.

Griffin was amused by my Ninja Turtle Band-Aids I had on.

I love wearing fun Band-Aids. People can be way too serious. Why not make something sucky (a booboo) more positive?

Salmon with Lemon Dill Sauce

Tonight for dinner I'm making us salmon with lemon dill sauce. So far it's been an awesome dish to make.

To make it, take a medium baking pan whether it be throw away aluminum or glass and lightly butter it. Melt 1/4 cup butter or margarine (half a stick) in the microwave. I've found 30 seconds does a good job of it.

Mix 5 tablespoons of lemon juice, a tablespoon of dill weed, 1 and a half minced garlic cloves, a dash of onion powder, and however much sea salt and pepper make your little heart happy into the butter.

Put a pound of salmon (generally four store bought filets) into the baking dish and pour the mixture over it. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 25 minutes in an oven that's been preheated to 350 degrees. The salmon should flake easily with a fork when it's finished.

Random Acts of Kindness

Once the stiffness wore off I actually got a lot done today. Anyone with RA will tell you that if you stay in one place for too long (like bed) it takes awhile to grease up the joints.

Got all the little trash cans collected, cleaned up Tux's mess (masterpiece), collected the laundry, made two gallons of juice, and straightened the house. Chris took the scrap out and burned it for me, and is going to take out the garbage and recycling.

We watched The Flash for awhile. We really enjoy this show. I suggest it. It makes sense whether or not you watch other Marvel shows, but if you do there's some pieces that'll excite you more. I'm thinking we're going to likely finish the first season today.

The Giants beat the Cowboys yesterday which was fun. Chris is a Cowboys fan; I'm a Giants fan. So, it's always fun here when they play against each other.

I planned our dinner for tonight: Salmon with Lemon Dill Sauce, Rice Pilaf, and a vegetable yet to be determined. Got a pound of salmon out of the freezer to thaw. I'll let you know if it's a rave or a bust.

Chris and I went to the store for my missing ingredient, dill weed. Also to grab a bag of chips and some rice pilaf for a side.

Tuxcasso?

I managed some determination to at least get the dishes done last night, and Chris was kind enough to cook dinner. Now of course, it looks like I did no dishes. I got a whole lot of nothing done yesterday. Today seems a bit more promising, but I'm still not back to what I usually do in a day.

Relaxing when I feel like garbage is really hard for me. I feel like I need to tough through it. Show the disease who's boss! All that really does though is make me feel like garbage for even longer.When I just rest though I wind up getting anxious about all the things that aren't getting done that are going to pile up into a monstrous disaster. 

Chris is really great about helping me with things that I need done. When it comes to regular chores though he's the King of 'It can wait till later'. He doesn't understand how the piling recycling, dishes, and laundry lying about cause me anxiety. Things are easier for me to accomplish in small doses. Mountains of shit to do all at once make me sad. So as I watch them turn into mountains it makes me anxious.

But I'm trying to let it go until I feel back to normal. Trying.

White Flag

Tux is extremely talkative today.

He's usually only this talkative when he wants something, but he has all the basics so I'm not sure what he's up to.

He was laying on top of Daisy earlier giving her a bath. It was adorable, and in his defense she really does need one.

I woke up this morning feeling awful. I've been down to 10mgs of steroids for a little over a week now and I assumed it would get better with time. Instead though it's getting worse.

My joints were all ridiculously stiff and painful this morning, and it's not letting up. I don't want to feel like crap for our wedding and honeymoon so I surrendered and went back to 15mgs.

Honestly, feeling like this makes me worry how I'm ever going to tolerate totally getting off of them. Which sucks, because I really want to.

The way I'm feeling today not much is going to get accomplished.

For the Aspiring Cult Leader

This news article is ridiculous!

A friend of mine shared a news article about a real estate listing in Texas for this house:

It has 46 bedrooms, and 26 full bathrooms.

What the fuck does one do with that much space?

Semi-Homemade Apple Galette

Man am I on a roll of doing stuff today. Unfortunately, I'm not getting anything done that I need to do, but there's time. We got a ton of Fuji apples at the farmers market and I've been craving something sweet and fall themed. So, I decided to tackle this Apple Galette.

We had to run to the store again today because I was missing ingredients. I needed lemon juice, heavy whipping cream, and raw sugar. I've never baked with raw sugar so I was a bit intrigued about that.

It honestly wasn't very hard at all, and clean-up was minimal. Chris peeled four small Fuji apples for me. I used an apple corer/slicer to cut them, and then cut the slices in half again. I put three and a half small apples into a mixing bowl and added 1/4 cup granulated sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp lemon juice, and a sprinkle of cinnamon and mixed it up.

I put a piece of parchment paper on a baking tray and unrolled a piece of Pillsbury pre-made pie crust.