Welcome to the Commenting Pixie Party!
Hey! I'm 92% Massachusetts--not bad for someone born and bred in the south. I have to admit I guessed a few times--but I knew Billerica!
No whine just yet, but it's early!
Yay, I'm 100% from Massachusetts, too! And at the moment, I'm wishing even more that I could live in your blue state again, Phantom... Unlike Mr. Blue, I am not hopeful about my own fair state. It's like a family curse - every candidate we support loses. You're just lucky my parents no longer vote in Massachusetts! (And my sister, though in Massachusetts, DOES NOT VOTE. At least, the last time it came up, she had never voted. I am ashamed!)
And you know, I knew that the anti-gay amendment would pass, but did it have to pass by SUCH an overwhelming majority? Sometimes I really hate the people of this state.
(I have all sorts of this-week-is-crazy whines, but for the moment I'm going to worry about the big picture.)
Whines:
Bigot Amendment - passed.
Wolf - re-elected.
Allen - probably re-elected. WTF are people thinking????
Antiwhines:
Wolf/Feder race much closer than anyone thought possible several months ago.
Allen/Webb race a squeaker.
NO votes on the bigot amendment over 40%!
Whines:
18 to 20 year olds who can't be bothered to vote
Anti-whines: 16 to 76 year olds who volunteer at the polls handing out sample ballots in the rain.
Whines: People who snarl at volunteers "Go away! I'm a republican!"
Anti-whines: People who high-five volunteers and proudly say, "I'm a recovering republican!"
Anti-whines: Voter turnout so high that the polls have to order in more ballots.
Hmmm...I am a mere 37% from Massachusetts (even had to scroll up to remind myself how to spell it), which ain`t bad considering I was born in an obscure town in the north of England.
Election anti-whine: My hometown of Jane Austen's Village, Virginia, voted overwhelmingly for Webb. I feel better knowing that. (So did my other past homes there: Alexandria, Billsburg and Mr. Jefferson's University Town.)
Anti-whine/whine in one: At 12:48 less than 2000 votes separate Webb from Allen. Heavy dem regions still reporting. Automatic recount in the offing due to small margin. Green candidate has 25000 votes. Grrrrrr. I hope Webb wins, I hope Webb wins, I hope Webb wins.
I manage to be 82% Massachusetts without ever having lived there.
Anti-whine: McCaskell!
Whine: 2:30am and I manage, somehow, still to be charged up from seeing Webb go ahead, and now cannot sleep. Even though the ultimate result won't be known until morning.
Anti-whine: I'm too pleased to put any real effort into the whines.
Are we allowed to whine about anything besides elections this week?
My summary of Baby E's medical history was featured in this week's Pediatric Grand Rounds as the "medical puzzler" with an invitation for doctors to guess what might be wrong with her. As an intellectual exercise, you know, just imagining what they might suspect if a patient turned up with similar symptoms in their office. Lots of them are looking.
But none of the doctors are giving any input at all, that I can tell. Lots are reading but not commenting either on my blog or on PGR.
Antiwhine (or whine, I'm not sure which): I'm getting lots of suggestions in comments and e-mails from laypeople about rare and serious disorders that I've never even heard of that her symptoms could possibly point to.
It gives me more things to check out, but some of them sound pretty scary and I don't like it when I read up on them and think, "Hmmm, her symptoms actually could fit that. Ugh."
Right now I'm just really frustrated with pediatricians. And allergists. And gastroenterologists too.
Antiwhine: Baby E was a level 1 all day today, for probably the first time in 3 weeks. Hooray!
Whine: I've taken on a huge task of compiling and charting data on Baby E's health, and I hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew.
I also feel really ill myself. Could be the sleep deprivation--or the fact that due to the allergist telling me I couldn't possibly really have a problem with milk, I've been testing his theory by eating yogurt the last few days. Now I'm really sick and itchy too. Grrr.
I still vote in Alaska, despite not EVER having been there on polling day since I turned 18. It's a pretty conservative state, but I keep turning in my absentee ballots and hoping. And, to be honest, having my hopes crushed again and again. For example, the good people of the 49th state just elected a pro-life, pro-creationism-in-science-class governor. PRO-FIREPLACING-CREATIONISM. This makes me want to move to Massachusetts and never look back, but I cant. Alaska is home and the place where my cousins are growing up and I want to live someday, so I just cant cede it over to the current majority without at least registering my dissent. And someday someone I vote for will wins something at the state or national level. Right? Pretty please?
Purple Kangaroo, is Pediatric Grand Rounds a website? Is it typical for questions to be answered there directly?
I would be curious to know whether it would even be ethical for a doctor to comment directly on your blog, although I understand your eagerness for help at this point.
Sorry to hear the yogurt seems to be bothering you.
our scary candidate (next district over, I didn't get to vote against her) got voted in so now she'll be nationally scary.
but at least our new senator shines.
Of course we're allowed to whine about non-election topics, PK. For example, here's one from me: progesterone hates me. Hates me, I tell you. This has been amply proved by my pregnancies, but now that I'm menstruating regularly again, let me tell you, I am SO OVER progesterone. The zits! Oh my god, the zits! The bloating! I look like I'm 4 months pregnant! (And then I feel terrible about myself, so I eat more. Excellent.) And, the past few days, the nightmares!
I hate progesterone, and it hates me. Is it time for menopause yet?
That's odd. I'm 48% from Massachussetts. Kinda off for someone who regularly scores 100% from Dixie and 100% Southern. Pure Georgia. Those kinds of things. Ah well - Mass people are good people too. 
To the whines: Georgia is seriously effed up y'all. Please tell me it will change! The only Republican I wanted to win, lost. The rest, they won. Sighs all around.
Antiwhine is that the rest of the nation seems to be smarter than Georgia, so that's allright, I reckon! And another is that I do live in a very heavily Democratic area, which makes me feel at home.
Whine: My friend lost her race in FL, in a district that elected the dude whose main qualification is that his dad held the seat for a few decades.
Antiwhine: I don't live in that place any more, which is perhaps even more effed up than Georgia.
Whine: My dear Mr. Mac's feets are so cold. Can you pixies recommend warm socks for Santa to find? I'm inclined toward the Merino Wool Ragg Socks at LL Bean. I have heard talk of Smartwool being the answer. But please, for the sake of the every-day whining in this house, share more about the warm socks for my honey.
Whine: Nasty, awful, horrific cold, and now Miss Baby seems to suffer from it too. I've been sick with it for 10 days now. I'm coughing so much my abs are sore, and I'm up nights. It's horrific and it won't go away.
Antiwhine: Zithromax.
Whine: Unemployment sucks. I'm so bored! We're so broke!
Antiwhine: Daddy assured me that Santa would be visiting the girls at Christmastime, no matter what. I love Daddy.
Antiwhine again: Big University in town looks to be extremely interested in my services in their business school. I have to go before a big committee and stuff. Positive vibes, to say the least. Fingers crossed.
Biggest antiwhine of all: My nephew was born last Monday (10/30), and he's healthy and thriving. I'm just so thankful. We all are.
So there ya go pixies. I'll be back later to vote. First, I must take adorable Miss Baby for her first haircut. Talk about mulletitious? Yowza!
Whine: feeling blue. Can't get motivated, work is slipping, the house is a disaster, I'm eating crap which is making me feel worse. (Sympathy on the progestrone poisoning, Phantom!)
I really think I'm losing IQ points and am getting dumber by the day. This morning, buying my usual at my usual place, I realized I was THAT WOMAN fumbling in her change purse for the exact change, about fifteen people behind me shifting anxiously in line, waiting for me to get my reluctant fingers on a penny and pay the nice lady already. Hmfph, and I thought I was a little young to be getting feeble already.
November blahs anyone?
Devilmacdawg, I have one word for you: SmartWool! They are the best socks ever, and totally worth the money.
I was going to have a whiny whine about the baby who was up 4x last night (including every hour from 4:45 on), and the plugged duct that is traveling from one side to the other.
But in addition to all the political rejoicing I have this major personal antiwhine: my dad's cardiac catheterization went extremely well this morning. He was done by 8 am, with a major blockage cleared and a stent in place. The docs are thrilled with how it went, and I feel like I can unclench my shoulders from my ears. Now if only that duct will unplug itself...
Oh, and I'm 100% Massachusetts, too, despite only living there for one year. (Bizarrely, I am only 92% NJ, where I spent the first 18 years of my life.)
Antiwhine: I went to bed with the Dems controlling the House and I woke up and they were still controlling the house! (Not like the last presential election...)
Whine: I cannot seem to kick this cold! And I keep getting this heavy feeling in my chest that makes it hard to breathe...perhaps I should call the doctor. 
Antiwhine: I, probably naively, feel so inspired by all the gains the Dems won last night! Please don't let us down!!
Phantom-I enjoyed your play by play last night. It's very exciting all around.
78% from Massachussetts. Lived there for 5 years, so I guess it made a mark.
No whines today. Though I can say, Phantom, that I too am hating the menstrual cycle these days. I have about 4-6 days a month in which I don't feel yucky in one way or another.
Another antiwhine!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/1561...613198?
GT1=8717
Didn't take the Massachusetts test, just the "which accent do you have?" test:
"You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
Um, no to the last sentence, but other than that... I was born in Missouri, lived in various Southern places until age 11, then lived in Missouri again except for a detour through El-Lay and Surrey in the mid-90s.
Political anti-whines: McCaskill! (Damn, that was close. Thought for sure that Talent would challenge.) Stem cell amendment! Minimum wage increase!
Political whines: Now we have to listen to the talking heads dissect the election for a day or two. Then we have to listen to the Administration complain for two years. And the tobacco tax amendment failed.
Oh, multiple dittos on the SmartWool socks.
Anti-whine: 100% from Massachusetts.
Whine: Had to vote in Tennessee.
Anti Whine: Steve Cohen
Whine: Bob Corker
So proud of y'all in MA, Phantom.
mc, glad to hear your dad is doing well.
DMD, I recommend sierratradingpost and campmor for finding nice socks at non-ridiculous prices.
Whine: stayed up too late last night, and have to talk coherently about performance measurement in a couple of hours.
Anti-whine: Dems winning the House, maybe winning the Senate, minimum wage increases passing in all 6 states, SD abortion law being rejected.
Not going to report how I scored on the Massachussetts test. I'll just note that I've only travelled east of Columbus, OH twice in my life. And y'all do have funny names for towns. Why can't you use normal names like Gnaw Bone? Or French Lick?
A whine: I'm sick of my job again. The pettiness, pixies. It kills me.
An unrelated anti-whine: I cut Joe's hair last night and really screwed it up, but he didn't seem to notice or care. Yay!
Whine: sick baby. sick baby at hospital getting a spinal tap, being poked with needles, husband having to leave hospital to go on a business trip. No known cause of illness
Anti-whine: baby is not back to normal but is starting to feel better.
A smaller whine: my mom is here to help and she is messy. My house is a huge mess.
I'm now taking a deep breath and delurking to whine, finally, after months and months of reading all the whines. I have phone phobia AND comment phobia - how lame is that?
First big anti-whine: DEVAL!
Anti-whine #2: THE HOUSE!
Anti-whine with bated breath: MAYBE THE SENATE!
Great big anti-whine: 100% Massachusetts and wicked pissa proud.
Well my whine is that I scored 100% from Massachusetts and I'm stuck here in Red State in Middle of Country.
But antiwhine: Arizona turned down a marriage amendment. Yay.
I'm 43 percent. Basically, I know what jimmies are (I think that's a northeastern thing, 'cause I learned it from my mom) and how to pronounce Worchester (although the quiz didn't offer my exact pronounciation of it, which is more like WUSS-tah--is that right?)
No Red Sox questions? No Patriots questions? WTF?
Anti-whine: I'm going out drinking with the girls tonight. WOOHOO! Watch out, everybody! (OK, so I'm only having one beer, but STILL!)
Whine: (courtesy of BNL) Who needs sleep? Well, you're never gonna get it. Who needs sleep? Tell me what's that for. Who needs sleep?
Anti-whines, with dittos to above: New governors! SD has struck back! Santorum is gone!
Whine: VA (my home state) is still counting and re-counting.
PK, I hope you feel better. Did your allergist have a reason for assuming you aren't really allergic to milk?
DMD, the wool socks are indeed very toasty! Fleece socks are nice too if wool is too itchy- they're everywhere, Target included.
And a small, not-a-whine sadness: My grandpa fell into a coma Sunday and passed away on Monday. He had been very ill for many years with Parkinson's, and the kind, witty, caring person we all loved was long gone, so in many ways it was a kindness for him to go quietly. But we miss him.
parental notification went down in CA! on the other hand, governator. crossing fingers about those last couple of senate races.
antiwhine: in the continuing saga of Son's Automotive Miseries, i sprung for a diagnostic by an actual mechanic so son could find out what exactly is wrong with the ancient lemon he bought. the bad news includes the engine [V-8! $4,000 to replace!], head gasket, radiator, muffler, and a few more things.
the good news is that mr. mechanic delivered all the bad news to son directly and in full harmony, no parental units in sight. son has come to believe the car isn't fixable after all, saving us from months of fruitless efforts to repair and a garageful of lemon. i love mr. mechanic.
Welcome to the whiners' ball, Tequila Fog! It's a wicked pleasure to have you here!
On the phone-phobia front, another anti-whine from me: I called to arrange a playdate. I only stressed about it for like 10 minutes before I did it. Yeah! I rock!
((((CCW))))
Sympathy on your grandpa's death, JF.
hugs to PK, ccw, and jf, scientist.
35% Massachusetts, which bums me out because I love MA but I've never lived there.
And I've really got nothing to whine about at the moment. I'll get back to you in a few weeks with something I'm sure.
Anti-whine: (can I anti-whine if I didn't whine?) GOODBYE RICK SANTORUM, BANE OF MY EXISTANCE!
I'm sorry about your grampa JF
Returning to anti-whine about the delights of seeing Santorum eat it last night. Whee for concession speeches!
But I still must whine over Casey...cause I am not impressed by adding another pro-life voice to our gov't.
But my whine for information is this..what does morning sickness feel like? Is it a kinda dizzy-lightheaded-woozy-I-might-never-eat-again feeling? Because if so, I've got it.
Waah.
As someone else has already said, hugs, to PK, mc, and JF.
I am 69% from Massachusetts, "probably from Boston or something." Huh. I guess I should visit it, or something.
Anti-whine: all the good news. And, my city passed an initiative focused on improving city transit.
Tiny whine: I seem to need 9-10 hours of sleep each night. Somehow, I'm managing to get things done, for the moment, but I'm worried that I won't keep managing that.
And needing that much sleep is a little ominous for someone who's trying to avoid getting mono for the 4th time.
Whine: they're now saying getting closure on the Senate race may take until Christmas. Well, if the Democrats take control, that will give this Jewish girl one hell of a big fat Christmas present.
Hugs to everyone with family illnesses.
Phantom, menopause is just wonderful. No more pain, no more zits, no more headaches, no more eyes bulging out of their sockets, no more "wanting to kill innocent husband for looking crosseyed at me".
Your turn will come.
PS. I am 0% Massachusetts, and proud of it. Sawx suck.
SS, different women experience morning sickness differently. One of my friends said she always felt a little seasick, but never threw up. Another friend was turned off by all foods. Another just couldn't be around certain smells (pizza, coffee). Hope yours passes quickly.
92% Massachusetts. Go Sox and Patriots! I spent enough time living up there, and married a New Englander who knows how to pronounce all the cities and towns.
MC, sympathies on the plugged duct! JF Scientist, so sorry about your grandpa.
83% Massachusetts here.
I lived in Boston for 4th grade and 4 years of college. Still don't know what a "packie" is though. Must relate to something beyond 8 year olds or college students?
Whine: I thought Wisconsin was progressive, but we seem to have passed a very silly constitutional amendment banning civil unions.
Anti-whine: My *very* Republican MIL voted against it. We agree on something! Yeah!
Anti-whine: My six year old daugher, upon finding out about the amendment passage this morning said, "Well, it took them a long time to get the wrongs out of the civil rights. Maybe this will take a long time too." Only 12 years until she can vote....
It's very related to college students, Kristen! It's short for package store. Otherwise known as the friendly neighborhood liquor store.
Major whine: it seems like the construction company who did some work last year are suing people. They gave me an invoice, I disputed it (because they doubled what they estimated, which, no), and I never heard from them again. I am not sure what to do. I can't tell who they're suing -- the condo association, perhaps. My name is not on the docs, it's the old owner's name. But I really cannot afford it.
Anti-whine: parental notification went down in Oregon. South Dakota: Woot! The House! Missouri! Santorum out! The list goes on and on.
Whine: why did the Midterm Midtacular with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert not run live on the West Coast? (And if that's all I'm whining about, you KNOW it was a good night.)
Songbird, PGR is a biweekly carnival of blog posts pertaining to pediatric medicine. I certainly don't expect a doctor to make a diagnosis over the internet, but I would think it would be okay for them to say whether they had or had not seen a similar case, etc.
I actually submitted a different post but the host asked if he could include my summary of Baby E's first 15 months instead. He said that my child obviously has a very complex disease but he was completely stumped as to what it could be, and maybe some of the other doctors would have some ideas if he presented it as an intellectual exercise.
Anyway, I really appreciate the fact that he took an interest and included the post about Baby E even if none of the other doctors have comments. It's getting lots of interest and I've gotten quite a few posts and e-mails saying it sounds similar to what their child went through. Several of them initially thought their kid just had bad allergies but it turned out to be something else (a whole variety of things) instead of or along with the allergies.
Some of them had long-standing or permanent damage because their diagnosis took so long. Some of them haven't gotten completely well even after diagnosis and treatment. But they all had different things.
This is scaring me!
JF, my allergist had 2, no 3, reasons for saying I wasn't allergic to milk: 1. My skin test was negative for all the food allergies we tested, including milk. 2. "Only children are usually allergic to milk. Milk allergies are very rare in adults. And adults especially don't get exczema. So it can't be exczema from a milk allergy that's making your head itch." 3. "You can't blame everything on the food you eat. The fact that you get these symptoms after ingesting milk is just a coincidence because they're not typical allergy symptoms."
He also said that the pinprick-like tiny raised bumps Baby E gets over her entire diaper area within a few minutes of eating corn or soy (even if she hasn't had a BM) can't possibly be related to allergies because "Diaper rash is not an allergy symptom."
Diarrhea and her other symptoms, he said, "can be" allergy symptoms, but they probably aren't usually an allergic reaction in her case. More likely she's just getting one virus after another, several times a week. Or possibly she could have a GI issue, but that's highly unlikely.
The more I think about it the more frustrated I get. I don't know whether to trust his opinions or not.
He is, after all, a pediatric allergist. He should know from allergy reaction, right???
Anti-whine: RUMSFELD OUT!!!
APL, you beat me to it. That may win for biggest anti-whine ever.
DANCIN' IN THE AISLES!
APL! Reporting on the breaking anti-whines before the major papers!
W00t w00t!
don't let the door whack you on the way out, donald!
Good gravy!
The President is sounding, other than his lame joke about drapes, like a guy who got the message last night. Can this be real?
He wants us to think he got the message, but over his mumblings and bumblings he still sounds like a fool!
Doin' a victory dance! Come on Virginia and Montana!!!!
P_K, if it is a teeny tiny bit of help, I can tell you I knew another family where diaper rash was their child's allergic reaction to corn.
Also, to quote the pharmacist I spoke to the night I had an allergic reaction to the antifungal cream they give you for thrush (yes, that was a fun night!) "Anyone can be allergic to anything." So there, silly allergist.
By the way, does anyone else think Bush constantly looks like he's about to bust out laughing?
Phantom, what can I say? I have connections. (It helps if your husband's desk is surrounded by televsions tuned to cable news & sports.)
PK, I am a mystery to allergists and dermatologists everywhere. I have violent bouts of eczema and unexplained wheezing. The very good allergist who last evaluated me concluded, "You are not allergic and you are not asthmatic. You have hyper-sensitive skin and a reactive airway." What all that ends up meaning is treating the symptoms (although I had very good luck with UVB light treatments for the eczema itself).
Last week I apparently ate something that created a reaction, which led to itchy, puffy eyes (swelling most attractively, i might add). I'll avoid the mustard pretzels in the future, just the way I avoid Doritos, but no one will say I'm allergic to the dye or whatever else might be causing the reaction.
I spent years seeking a solution to the problem, blaming myself for having some underlying spiritual problem that caused the trouble, blaming myself for eating the wrong things, convincing myself I was allergic to this or that or the other. When the allergist made the statement above, when the dermatologist said, "Sometimes eczema is a reactive immune system and sometimes it's just hypersensitive skin," I stopped blaming myself. It didn't take the problems away (although some of the treatments helped), but it did help me cope.
None of that helps with having a sick baby, however, and I hope your query on PGR will yield fruit.
they decided to make rumsfeld the fall guy for the whole mess. wasn't bush just doing a "heckuva job, rummy" thing a few days ago?
i'll start believing he's serious about getting the message when he fires cheney and rove, and publicly abandons the view that executive powers extend to any damned thing he wants to do. on which occasion, we will also see flying pigs.
And Montana was just called for the Democrat. So just Virginia to wait for. (And Montana won't have a recount -- the Times says the law there is "must be less than 0.25% margin to have a recount.")
PK, has anyone asked for stool samples from Baby E? Because, from what you've blogged about her poopies, I'm surprised if anyone doesn't think that there are GI issues worth investigating.
ANTIWHINE!!!
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS...feld/
index.html
Nope, PS. The absolute only tests she's had are the allergy skin-prick testing and half of a celiac blood screening, both of which happened only at my insistence.
The doctors keep telling me that because she doesn't look sick and they can't diagnose any specific illness, she must be healthy.
I feel like I'm trapped in a bad movie.
Wait, PK, My brother-in-law's fiancee is allergic to milk (casein). And she (as far as I'm aware) is an adult.
Whine: So tired. So, so tired. Blood tests come back tomorrow, and I hope they elucidate, well, anything.
Antiwhine: Maybe I'll admit Americanity once more!
Hugs to CCW and the baby. I hope you all feel better soon.
PS, that sounds like no fun at all.
Wolfa, ick! Much skeeziness!
PK, I was curious because my family *has* a true adult milk allergy: me, my mother, and one of my sisters. It does, in fact, make us itch, (my mom, who's a PA, says b/c of heightened responses to Everything Else). I'm with Songbird on reacting to foods etc.- sometimes the line between allergic and really, really sensitive is kind of narrow, and when you're the one puffing up, does it matter if it's an IgE mediated reaction or not? Still itches.
It's so hard to figure out how much to trust doctors (someday I will blog the last five egregious diagnoses I got, and about that time in the hospital where they nearly killed my friend through not paying attention). I'm sorry it's been so hard for you to figure out what's going on. What I've seen happen a lot- which sounds kind of like what you're going through- is that they don't know what's normal for you, so they insist everything is within normal range. What we all need is more doctors who really listen, and then work with the patients! If you'd like some of us pixies to come throw stuff at the next doctor who tells you nothing's wrong... I'm sure it can be arranged. Lots of sympathy and hugs, as usual.
Alas that VA will for sure have a recount.
I'm so glad my mom voted (in VA, that would be) before she left for the funeral. Thank you all for the condolences on my grandpa; it was really a mercy, but it's never easy, all the same.
Yankee Transferred, a fellow resident of Tennessee?!?! Glad to know I'm not alone.
I second the whine about Bob Corker. I've been saying this for months, so it's not just the bitterness, but doesn't "Bob Corker" sound like a great name for a pr0n star? I used to giggle every time I saw a campaign sign for him. Now, I'm going to cry every time I think about Senator Corker.
In our local state representative race, we had a nutjob called David Massengill running against another guy who was almost as much of a nutjob. We got Massengill's brochure and saw what he stood for, and my husband said, "What a douchebag!" (Doubly funny because of his name, although the product name may be spelled slightly differently.)
And then I cry to think that 81% of Tennessee voters are bigots whose marriages are "threatened" by same-sex marriage. Because 50% of all marriages end in HOMOSEXUALITY, of course. Yeah, gays are the reason our next-door neighbors scream at each other. If everybody were just heterosexual, they would get along PERFECTLY.
I had thought it would be fun to open up a GLBT-friendly wedding chapel in Gatlinburg. The marriages would not be legally binding, of course, thanks to the bigoted fireplacing handjobs who live in this state, but I would get a certain pleasure from flouting the law.
Rebecca, that's brilliant!!! I'm going to use it on my in-laws next time they go on about same-sex marriage. Half of all marriages end in homosexuality, yeah.
Minor whine: We'll still need to know what a packie is, instead of being able to buy wine at the convenience store like civilized folks.
Antiwhine: I feel a *glimmer* of political hope.
Just a quick note to PK - um, adults don't get excema? Because that would be a shock to my allergist. (Unless of course he meant that adults don't get excema because of milk allergies, which I can't combat, but he sounds less than helpful.)
Whine that's really an anti-whine: the whole glee-over-Rumsfeld resigning is really making it hard for me to concentrate on teaching medieval history in 15 minutes!
Yay yay yay! I'm so stinking proud to be living in Massachusetts that I'm having a hard time coming up with whines!
I'm tired of working, and I'm especially tired of working with assholes. Is that sufficient?
I realize I was late with the news on Rummie, but as soon as I saw it, I had to pop it into the comments and then I went to lunch.
My assessment of the whole thing? Bush is hoping that by using Rummie as a scapegoat we won't notice that nothing else in Iraq is going to change.
And they're counting provisional ballots now in VA, lawyers looking on and everything.
My votes for PK, CCW, and JF Scientist.
I am too tired to whine. I read through about 1/4 of the whines and got tired out.
I just returned from home which was a long rainy 8 hour long car ride. I am grumpy my boyfriends grumpy and my Mom started huge fight with me as I was leaving, which to say the least was not very nice of her.
This weekend was a whirlwind of wake(7 hours over 1,000 people signed the guest book!!) funeral (2 hours, packed church (must have been at least 2 or 3 hundred people at the church) and seeing all the family that was out since my Dad died (happened late last week).
P_K, I think your allergist is crazy. Count me in as another milk-allergic adult. I don't get excema from it (I have all kinds of other weird symptoms from my milk allergy), but I sure am allergic.
Whine: Both Mr. QWP and I ended up crying yesterday. We were big old messes. We made all kinds of complicated plans for going home to Saskatchewan for Christmas -- lots of touring around to visit all the relatives, allergy re-testing on the 27th and 28th, close friend's wedding on the 29th -- and yesterday his work announced that the trainers (including Mr. QWP) only got Christmas day off, and couldn't take any other time off that week. They're going to be booked solid with training classes for the first time ever, and so nobody can sub for him that week. And his class doesn't end until the 29th.
And so we had to make some tough decisions, for a couple of kids far away from our entire families. He was trying to convince me to go without him, but the concept of leaving my husband alone for Christmas set me off sobbing. (I'm all emotional about that holiday anyway.) Okay, and then he spent the day thinking he had convinced me to go without him, which made him an emotional wreck.
We now think we have a new plan, involving staying here until Christmas Day, and then me flying home on the 26th and him following on the 29th, and then having the week following New Year's Day in Saskatchewan, but it's definitely a disappointing plan, especially since classes will have already started back up that week and I'll have to make a lot of arrangements to make that work, and both of us are disappointed about missing out on all of our fun family Christmas stuff back home.
And so, I'm glad that Mr. Q and I decided that we're spending Christmas together, and we'll have fun in this city, but for some reason I've still been a bit weepy about it all day. Growing up sucks.
And now today I have to call both my mother and my mother-in-law, to tell them that our holiday plans have changed drastically, and that I'm now officially missing Big Family Christmas with all the cousins for the first time ever.
Anti-whine: I got an e-mail from a good friend telling me that he's now finally cancer-free! That's a huge weight off my shoulders.
Oh, Mykal, I'm so sorry. ((((((Hug)))))
Oh, Mykal.
((((((((o))))))))
Hugs.
And, I'm 72% from Massachusetts, despite having never set foot in the state. Yay me!
Rummy gone! Oh happy day! Could Cheney be next?
The only whiff of negativity in all the news reports I've heard are the number of Democrats elected who are pro-life and pro-gun. I guess that is the price we have to pay to get the dems back in power now.
I'm so sorry, Mykal. Hugs to you.
I'm so sorry Mykal.
Anti-whine: A friend gave me a gift certificate for a massage, which I had this morning.
Whine: Migraine. Emergency room variety...this one's bad.
{{{Mykal}}}
Here's an anti-whine poem that is sure to win me a prize:
Roses are red
Violets are blue
Nancy Pelosi is Speaker of the House
and Rumsfeld's out on his ass.
Many votes to Poet Laureate Grandma Blue!!!
I'm 0% from Mass. Which is fitting, since I've never been farther north than North Carolina.
And, sorry, all you Mass. people. I do the "Pahk tha cah" thing. I figure I get enough crap for my accent, you should have to hear it, too.
{{{{{Mykal}}}}} So sorry about your dad. Take care.
Grandma Blue--LOL. You definitely deserve an award for that!
go grandma blue! encore, encore!
Votes for PK and CCW and anyone else with sick kids.
Whine is that the part-part-time job that had possiblities of becoming something bigger didn't.
And the bigger antiwhine is that the ovaries responded well to liberal doses of Halloween chocolate. Now waiting.
Mykal, I'm so sorry about your dad. hugs.
This week, I present you with 10 (count 'em, 10) haikus on being sick. And away we go:
hacking for so long
whining about it last week –
am still whining now
coughing for a week
doctor tells me, “have some tea”
tried it – doesn’t help.
so embarrassing.
can't go out with friends, because
they don’t want my germs.
can't get nothin’ done.
dusty library shelves are
no good for my lungs.
uk meds are weak –
sugar, water, not much else.
robitussin, please!
non-drowsy is good,
but, unfortunately,
keeps me up all night.
mom is sending stuff.
hope it is legal to send
meds across the pond.
doctor says “good luck,
i've seen folks who have been sick
for four whole weeks with this.”
how the hell can i
get work done when i am sick
nearly half a term?
think your healthcare sucks?
wait ‘til you see what you get
when the healthcare’s “free.”
((((Mykal))))).
PK, have they done a RAST yet? Your primary care could even order it. My son's was done by our Ped, my daughter's by the allergist. Both at well under 2. Our allergist actually felt that the skin prick was less effective in the three and unders,especially if you had a kid who had sensitive skin, although he also said that the RAST might miss some stuff as well.
And I would suggest finding a new allergist. Your other one might be right (although it sounds rather wrong to me) but he should be doing a better job of explaining to you why it can't be an allergy.
chichimama, it wasn't just that he thought it wasn't allergy . . . he said he thought it very unlikely that I had any kind of milk intolerance; that even lactose intolerance was unlikely.
I think that he thinks I'm desperately trying to find an explanation for every single twinge and illness in the food we're eating. I think I have had more of a tendency to deny that foods could be a problem (mainly because I don't want to stop eating them) until it became so obvious that some of Baby E's symptoms are hugely affected by diet.
As I told him, I don't expect him to fix everything. I don't expect everything to be allergy-related. But I would like some help sorting through what might be allergy-related and what isn't. The problem is that he doesn't seem to think even some of the things that are clearly food reactions could actually be related to what we're eating.
Neither of the allergists we've seen believe in the RAST test. And our main allergest now doesn't want to do any more skin testing becuase he says it's so rare for a child to be allergic to more than 4 foods that there's no point. He says we're likely to get false positives more than useful information at this point.
He also says Baby E is obviously not THAT allergic to any of the foods she tested positive for because her skin welts were so small, and she hasn't had any anaphylactic reactions or things like hives (she's only gotten one full-body rash, and it wasn't obvious hives).
Just wanted to extend my sympathy to PK. So much of medicine appears to be guesswork, to me. My DH has several peculiar, chronic, painful symptoms that nobody can figure out. All tests are negative (well, except for one reflux test which involved putting a wire down his nose into his stomach for 24 hours -- but reflux is just one small piece of the puzzle). His problems are annoying and not debilitating, thank god, but their inability to make head or tails of it has shaken my faith in medicine quite a bit. If "idiopathic neuralgia" (Greek for "self-sickness nerve-pain") is the best diagnosis they can offer, well whoop-de-do.
Confidential to Rebecca: HA-ha! You live in BOB CORKER'S TENNESSEE!
Oh, Mykal, I'm so sorry.
i thought idiopathic meant unknown cause? don't take it personally, just keep looking for what helps. treating symptoms is sometimes all you get, but if it works, who is to argue? xoxox
late-breaking whine:
my dear son, the fool
thinks ten dollar elixer
will fix his damned car.
Get ready for the whiniest of whines:
I've been helping with elementary school homework for three freaking hours. I haaaaaaate hoooomework. Mostly because my kids haaaaaate hooooomework, because it's mostly busy work and because the teacher marks off for handwriting and spelling no matter the subject (math story problems, for heavens' sake!), but I can't say complain out loud because it has to be done anyway and I don't want my crappy attitude to lend weight to their justifiable desire not to do it.
I'm wondering, idly, if it would be possible to kill oneself by self-administered paper cuts from a big pile of worksheets...
Anti-whine: Dems win in both Montana AND Virginia!
Hugs to Mykal. I'm so sorry.
Also, hugs to PK. I also have a family with a mix of eczema/hives/reactive airways. I hope they figure out what's going on soon for you. I know it can make you crazy and feel guilty for no good reason when you aren't sure what's causing it. Hang in there.
Big anti-whine: no more Rick Santorum! Woo hoo!!! And no more Curt Weldon!! And now looks like control of the senate. Yay and double yay.
the weekly work whine: my uberboss wants to build a corridor that would go where--anyone? That's right. Right through my desk. And so, he's talking about moving me and my coworkers not to new swanky offices since we've now been put out twice by construction. No. He wants us to sit in the public lab--without walls or doors--where our phones would ring. The man is crazy. I actually told a manager today that if that happened, I would walk out the door right then and there. Just felt good to tell someone that (but not quite at the antiwhine level).
Since this is the Election Edition of WW, I just have to post as an anti-whine that anyone who hasn't read today's Finslippy really should. My goodness, the funny.
Kathy: it absolutely indicates that the cause is unknown! I was translating the Greek roots literally, because I am some kind of nerd. Idio- self. Pathos- sickness or suffering. Meaning it's something only YOU, yourself, suffer from, and nobody knows how to treat it or what caused it.
oh, if there is an award for funny references, madeleine gets my vote!
rachel -- thanks. "self-sickness" [as a translation of idiopathic] just sounds so, you know, pathological. people are complex beings, and sometimes what's wrong is an overlap of problems, maybe sometimes just the way someone is. but that shouldn't translate to: "you are making this up."
go for what helps. it's great to get a diagnosis, but even better to find out what makes things better, day to day and month to month.
so, hugs to PK, rachel, and all who have idiopathic problems in their spheres. we are all special, no?
and omg, virginia has just been called for dems. what a huge anti-whine.
N is sick. I keep racing to his room to respond to his calls, only to discover that he's still asleep even though he's making awful piteous noises.
Just a wee whine: a creepy scary icky guy was roaming around my office hallway late this afternoon.
How do I know he was creepy scary and icky?
Well, first, he sidled past us (me and some male colleagues) in a very creepy way, looking at us out of the corners of his eyes and clutching his hands.
Then he stood in front of an (empty) classroom gesticulating and talking to himself.
Then he (very clearly not one of our students) opened the door to a class and stuck his head in.
Anti-whine: one of the security guards on campus is a major in our department and happened to be in that class! Anyway, we saw her come out and give him a talking to. She was saying to him, "Haven't I met you before? Haven't I seen you on campus? Aren't you the individual who told a student in the library that you thought she'd be more comfortable if she took her sweater off? We've told you never to come on campus again, and I'm escorting you off the property. Where are you parked?" What was hysterical was that as she was ushering him down the stairs, we heard her say, "Didn't we send you a registered letter telling you not to set foot on campus again?" To which he answered, all cheerfully, "I believe you did." Eeek! Very weird and creepy. Our security student was saying, too, "In two minutes I'm going to call the police and get you arrsted." When I left the building a little later, our student was there with another one of the campus police, and the guy was sitting on a curb with his hands behind him. I couldn't tell if they were cuffed or not, but I wondered if that were the case! Yay for our cool major and her righteous anger.
(I should say that although creepy looking, this guy was also maybe 5' 6" and not especially physically threatening looking. But if a creepy looking guy in his 60s had approached me in my college library to tell me I'd be more comfortable with my sweater off, I'd have been really freaked out. And while some of our students are very quick to freak out about people they think look "weird" or "different," still, a girl should be able to study in the library without feeling threatened!)
I was coming here to let y'all know that the AP has called VA for the Dems but I see that you already know it!!!
And votes for NKH and Elizabeth's N.
Hmm...97% Massachusetts. I guess those four years at Fancy Pants U were good for something.
OK, now I'm going to do the dance. The SPEAKER PELOSI and MAJORITY LEADER REID dance...
Oh, and I don't have a whine today. At least none that matter.
A late vote for Allison, b/c omg I have so been there with the homework issues!
Is it too late to whine? I can't sleep and can barely breathe. Well, I can breathe but it's not comfortable and I'm coughing a lot. Mr. LS observed that this only has been happening around bedtime. I'm not sure he's right as it happened the other night while we were just cuddling on the couch. Ugh. I think I may have to go to the doctor's tomorrow. Blah.
But yay for VA! It's pretty amazing what's happened in the last 24 hours.
Eek! New Kid.
BTW, I saw my window peeper again today. But not peeping in my window -- he was doing yardwork at the apartment building next door. I'd swear it was the same guy, though, both from the baseball cap he was wearing, and the way he looked at me and froze, and then turned away.
Anti-whine: I've discovered that there's a campus bus service that'll take me from my office in the English building straight to my doorstep between 8pm and midnight.
I've read all the whines and my brain is like a sieve after all the tabulating of Baby E data I've been doing tonight.
I can't remember who all I wanted to vote for . . . I know it was CCW (spinal tap on an infant!), those who lost family members, and a few people with general ickiness and scary intruders.
Antiwhine: I finished color-coding calendars for October and November.
Whine: I'm so fried at this point that I don't know if they look like "normal" patterns or not. I'll have to post a scan tomorrow and see what my commenters think.
96% from Mass! cute quiz
Thanks, Kris, and welcome to the commenting pixie party.
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