Dragonhaven by Robin McKinley

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Dragonhaven

"Dragonhaven" by Robin McKinley is the story of a young boy who has grown up in a rather unusual situation. He lives on a dragon preserve! There aren't very many dragons left in the world, so there have been several preserves created, and Jake's Dad runs one.

Jake has also been rather sheltered, not only does he live on a preserve far away from normal civilization, his Dad tends to over protect him because his mother died a few years ago. But, finally, Jake gets permission to go out on his first over night trek into the preserve. Unfortunately, tragedy strikes. Jake comes across a dead dragon mother, the poacher that killed her, and her dead babies. But wait, one of the babies isn't dead! And that's how Jake becomes a dinosaur Mom.

The story is written entirely from Jake's perspective, and that can be quite interesting at times! I'm not sure how McKinley managed to get inside the head of a teenage boy, but I think she did a really good job. Watching Jake and the dragonlet grow together is a lot of fun!

Muddling Through This Thing We Call Life

There's been a lot going on this last week, and I figured it was about time I updated everyone! It's been awhile since I've updated on my medical stuff anyway I think...

This week all my appointments seemed to pile up on top of each other. I'm not sure how that happened, but it did! The first was my bi-weekly xolair shot that took up all of my Tuesday morning. Now that Jack is no where near as portable I just took my slightly defunct mp3 player and my knitting. Um, yah, apparently I was tired. I fell asleep. That was at the START of my week.

Wednesday I saw my regular physician to talk to him about my blood sugar levels and my hair. We're going to try and see if we can get the insurance to pay for me to go talk with a dietitian because things are just getting way to complicated and its hard to balance my blood sugar, keep on a low sodium diet, and everything else I have to keep track of.... I also asked for another fasting blood test to make sure I'm not getting any closer to actual diabetes instead of just pre-diabetes like I've been at.

Hair. Ok, this is a tough one. I knew I'd lost some hair volume over the last year or so but I hadn't really thought much of it because I had a LOT of hair and I know people do that sometimes right? Well the other day Mom mentioned it, and then I realized just how much I'd lost. Um, I've lost over half the volume of my hair. I talked to my doctor about it and it's probably from the steroids I'm on for my asthma that are keeping out of the hospital. I'm going to go see a dermatologist, but it sounds like there's not much we can do about it. Joy 'eh?

Wednesday I also did an ultrasound. No, I'm not pregnant, it was to check up on my kidneys and bladder. Follow up on the kidney stones I had in Sept. I won't go into details so I don't gross you out, but I've now seen the majority of the organs in my body on one type of scan or another!

Thursday morning I saw my urologist to find out what they found on the ultrasound and what they learned from some other tests they had previously done on me. Good news is my kidneys and bladder are fine. Bad news is that, from my tests, he would normally tell me to take less calcium and eat less protein to avoid kidney stones in the future. The problem with that is that I have osteopenia (the stage before osteoperosis) so I have to be on a high level of calcium to prevent that from progressing. As for the less protein? Well, when my regular doc and I were talking about my blood sugar one of the things he told me was less carbs and more protein! So we decided there wasn't much we could do there. Pretty much the only things we could come up with that were constructive were continue to work on watching my sodium intake and drink LOTS of water. Oh, and pray that I don't get too many more kidney stones :P

Immediately following that appointment I saw my neurologist (I TOLD you these were all stacked up didn't I?). We're taking me off the medication that I was on because it wasn't working, and we're going to put me on a new one as soon as I've worked off of this one. It's a seizure medication and a little scary because it's got a lot of potential side-effects and I've already got enough to deal with! On the other hand - I also need to function and daily migraines do not lend them selves to that.

In the mean time, I've gotten to the point where I'm having so many migraines and I've had to treat them so frequently that I'm now probably having medication overdose migraines in addition to my normal migraines. Loverly eh? Well, to get rid of those he gave me a 7 day course of treatment that's supposed to get rid of the overdose headaches - but in the mean time I can't take ANYTHING for my migraines. That was like an invitation for the migraine monster to come in and play. The last three days have been miserable. I'm really hoping he's right and it'll be worth it when this week is over with...

The Doors of His Face the Lamps of His Mouth by Roger Zelazny

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The Doors of His Face, The Lamp of His Mouth

"The Doors of His Face the Lamps of His Mouth" is a collection of short stories by Roger Zelazny. As with any series of stories, there were some that I liked more than others. However, the one advantage that this has over other anthologies, is that it only has one author, and I tend to like his work! So even with the one's that I wasn't as thrilled with, they we're still pretty good stories.

There are 17 stories in this collection. Some of them are very short, and some are pretty long! My favorites were "A Museum Piece" and "The Graveyard Heart." The first one simply entertained me, and the second one had a fascinating premise to it! We've all heard stories about putting people into a sort of cold sleep - or stasis right? Well what if, instead of doing that to travel between stars or something similar, people went into cold sleep just so they could periodically come out and party? And never be younger? Eternal youth, essentially, while the world around you stares and wonders. It was a pretty interesting story, especially because it's of course much deeper than what I just shared!

I'm a Dork! And that's why you LOVE me :D

I love the fact that I'm finally getting strong enough that not only can I cook on a regular basis again...I can cook meals that have milk based ingredients in them! Woohoo! I've never made hamburger stroganoff for Mo before because I got sick so quickly after we got married, so I was a little nervous (you never know what he'll think) and to my delight - liked it! So did my dear friend La who came over last night :) Of course I didn't remember to pull the camera back out AFTER she got there. *rolls eyes* Here's dinner pictures though :)

The Main Course

The Sexy Cook

The Health Food

The Hubby is His Normal Spot

Black Unicorn by Tanith Lee

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Black Unicorn (Ibooks Fantasy Classics)

"Black Unicorn" is part of a series of books called "Dragonflight." Each book in the Dragonflight series is written by a different author, and dedicated to one of the major themes in fantasy. This one, obviously, deals with unicorns!

"Black Unicorn" takes a rather different approach than most to the subject of unicorns. A young girl named Tanaquil lives in in the desert with her mother, and a few servants. Her mother is a sorceress, and that can cause some rather strange circumstances at times! The tap sometimes produces flowers instead of water, random objects come to life, and some of the creatures around the castle gain extra intelligence.

One of these creatures is called a peeve, and it has fascination for bones. One day it brings a sparkly bone to Tanaquil, and she becomes utterly fascinated by it. Together the two of them search for the rest of the skeleton, unbury it, and then Tanaquil assembles it to show it's original form, a unicorn.

Through a series of entertaining circumstances, the unicorn comes back to life, and that's when things get REALLY interesting!

Tacos, Butts, and the Corpse Bride

Last night I had a fantastic girls night with some of my SISTAH's! Well...and we let Gordon come along for awhile... The only proof that Gordon was there...is that he took the only two pictures that I have! There are two more blurry pictures on facebook, but they are just of Bethie's new hair do. Anyway....

Kat, our beloved sister of the heart (and my super-secret girlfriend, don't try to figure it out, you'll get a headache) moved this fall to live at the beach and go to Bible college. I haven't gotten to see her since! We've chatted (mostly via facebook and texts) but I hadn't SEEN her! Well...she came into town AND I was feeling good so we had a girls night! And since we are super nice we let Gordon come for dinner cuz he luvs her to death as a sister too.

Here we ladies are hard at work.

Kat's on the left de-tailing shrimp.

I'm in the middle, I think I'm grating cheese at the point.

Bethie's on the right making the Lime sauce :)

Once the prep work was done and it was down to cooking up the shrimp, Kat curled up on the floor. We never did figure out why she had a sudden desire to snuggle Bethie's leg, but it was adorable so Gordon took a picture! We also never figured out why he only took butt shots (not normal) last night. I WAS planning on having him take a pic of us three girls smiling for the camera but some how it never happened...

We kicked Gordon out after dinner so we could just be girls...and we ended up curling up to watch the Corpse Bride! Love that movie :) Bethie dressed up at the Corpse Bride for Halloween this year and was absolutely loverly!

Good times we're had by all - although I think we may have traumatized Gordon just a wee bit...

And the best part? I'm a wee bit tired today...but I'm still feeling good and I was out all evening after a long day of working around the house, on business stuff, and running errands! *happy dance* I'm getting stronger and healthier!

Mommy got an Xbox!

My Mommy got an Xbox! Nooo...silly...not the Gaming system. What would my MOM do with that??? Let's get real here people. No, she' got a 2006 Scion XB - which we are calling an X-Box because it looks like a box and the initials make it appropriate :P

Mommy and I outside my Apt

Side view outside my Parents House.

Isn't it Perty? (color, not style)

As you all should know by now, my Mom is super-duper talented, and I already know what I'm getting for my birthday! Why? Because she needs to fit it to me! LOL Here's my loverly purple sweater in progress :) It's farther along than this, should be done by my birthday in two weeks, bu this is the most recent pic I have. I'm so excited! As soon as its done I'll get a modeling picture for you :)