The IT Crowd

My new favorite show, people. It combines my affection for geeks with my love of British comedy. Enjoy a laugh!

Kinda Done With Summer

My fabulous thigh after another daily injection. Now I know this photo may spark a few questions, so I'll take the liberty to address the one that is most pressing on your minds: No, I did not borrow those shorts from my grandma. I bought them at a department store in the JUNIORS sleep wear section! They're totally trendy, the sign said so. There. Glad I could set you all at ease about that.

It's been a very hot month and as a result my symptoms and side effects have been significantly exacerbated. Heat is to MS what the Daleks are to Doctor Who. Not a sci-fi fan? Try Voldemort to Harry Potter. Superman's Kryptonite. Skeletor to that homosexually charged cartoon fella. You get the idea. Hot summer weather combined with MS equals bad news bears.

So in addition to injection lumps that render me reminiscent of a certain Ex-Galactic President (Are you counting the geeky cult references in this post? There will be a quiz at the end.), I'm finding myself walking around like a drunken pirate. Balance is always the first thing to go with me. That in itself isn't so bad, but pair that with slurred speech and head twitches from muscle spasms in my neck and I appear to have escaped from Arkham Asylum. One of these days I'm gonna have some real fun and, with a few head twitches, ask some random person sitting next to me if they are aware that Major League Baseball is spying on us all.

Most days it's all rather amusing, though it hardly seems fair I should experience the effects of a bottle of rum without actually enjoying any. Some days, however, it all gets rather exhausting. Still, I try to keep it in perspective. It could be, and has been, much much worse and I'm grateful it's all down to what I consider to be a dull roar. Still, sometimes it's the little things I've had to give up that I miss. And on those days where I can actually make it through the day in a pair of dress sandals and my hands stop trembling enough for me to apply eye shadow...I kind of feel like a normal person again. And normalcy, my friends, can be a real treat.

More Garden Blooms

It's like a burst of golden sunshine.

This is my leg after one of my daily injections.

Some might say it's pretty gross, but as a glass-half-full kinda girl, I like to take advantage of the liquid bubbling up underneath my skin and entertain myself by looking for shapes and animals. You know, like we did as kids with clouds or like crazy people do with toast. I'm waiting for the face of Jesus to appear on my ass.

Okay, seriously though....why am I posting this? I've been wanting to do a photo project about MS for a while now to give insight to those who may be curious and also to chronicle some of my experiences.

It's also an excellent excuse to take pictures of naked parts of my body and post them on the internet. Yeah. Stay tuned.

Oh, Hello.

This little bun was found in my friend Mindy's back yard. He was skinny, dirty and hungry. She has kindly taken him in and today my sister Amy, a bunny lover and veterinary technician, gave him a bath and a manicure. We've been calling him George.

He has such a sweet disposition and is quite friendly. Marbles wasn't quite sure what to make of this new creature, but he quickly became comfortable with him.

Honestly, if I didn't already have three cats I'd seriously consider giving this guy a home. Whoever lost this little bunny (or possibly abandoned him) is really missing out on a super sweet pal.


Paws up!

Cupcakes!

I am out of control.

I think the apron transforms me.

Like when Peter Parker puts on the Spidey suit, only with cupcakes instead of ass-kicking.



Look, I had left over frosting! So I whipped up some red velvet cupcakes and picked all of the blue stars out of the jar of assorted cake decorations.















And when I ran out of frosting, I got creative with the confectioners sugar...

So....I've got three dozen cupcakes. Who wants some?

Homemade Cards

I made these cards to send as thank yous to our family in Vermont. This is only my second attempt at card making, and I'm having fun experimenting with different patterns, ribbons and embellishments. I am quite pleased at how these turned out!

Fireworks

The fireworks display at Sugarhouse Park as seen from Travis and Lissa's front yard. Thanks for having us over, guys!

Happy Birthday, America!

I've been on a very creative streak lately. I've also been obsessed with food blogs. While catching up on my usual blogs this morning I found this gem of a recipe and decided I must bake today. I've been wanting to do more baking and decided a holiday was as good an excuse as any. This was also an opportunity to wear my new apron I purchased at a quaint little kitchen shop in Vermont. It's so cute, I just love it!

But gosh...my arms aren't what they used to be and this recipe calls for a lot of flour.

"Honey....I want a KitchenAid mixer."

"Okay, done."

"Really?! Sweet, can we go now?"

So off we went to the store....

I love my new toy, I've been wanting one for ages. And oh, it made mixing batter an absolute dream! Three cups of flour? Ha! I laugh in the face of flour!

So after a trip to the grocery store to procure several pounds of butter and cream cheese and sugar it was time to start baking (where others choose to say it with cards, I choose to say it with high cholesterol).

The gooey and ever so delightful batter.

Spreading and piping the made-from-scratch cream cheese frosting. There should be a surgeon generals warning on this stuff...it will kill you. But oh Lord, is it ever divine.

I know because I sampled some. Okay, I sampled a lot. My tummy feels sick.

Some fresh raspberry "stripes" and some blueberry "stars" and voila!

Happy Independence Day!