The Pyrrhblog

Ghost Ship (Star Trek The Next Generation, No 1), Diane Carey

A lot of this book was frustrating to me.  Riker is way too wimpy, and Data too emotional, although I can see how both of these points were important to make the story work.  Picard tends towards angry outbursts, and Geordi swears too much.  None of these seem congruous to the characters in the actual series, but even in the television show it took a while for the characters to develop a real depth and personality to them.  There are some very pretty metaphors (I love Lt. Yar’s hair being described as a “lemon cuff”) although some passages seemed to sound good but not make any sense.  There is a fascinating section describing an isolation chamber experience, as well as a few very memorable quotes:

Dr. Crusher: “When we cured pneumonia and TB, we altered evolution forever.  Countless millions who were weak and meant to die simply didn’t anymore.  When glasses were invented, all the millions of nearsighted people who would’ve been functionally blind in an earlier century suddenly were completely normal.  They not only lived, but prospered, mated, had more nearsighted children.  Mankind’s been circumventing natural selection for so long that it’s become immoral not to.”

Worf: “This thing is a coward and a bully.  There is no honor in fighting it.”
Riker:  “You wouldn’t feel obliged to fight it if you could find a way to escape it?”
Worf:  “No more than I would feel obliged to fight a thunderstorm, sir.”

Captain Picard to Wesley Crusher:  “Your ability exceeds your wisdom, young man.  You’ll eventually learn the unforgiving lesson that the people around you are worth more in their experience than you are in your gifts, and you shall, like everyone else, have to wait your turn.  Now mind your place, close your mouth, and follow me to engineering, where you will put your gift to use and let others do the same.”

I’d have to give this book three stars.  Despite the characters being a little bit out of kilter, the writing style is very creative and easy to read, and the story quite interesting.

Well, it has been a nice two weeks off, but it is back to work in the morning.  Hopefully I can still get some WoW time in without sacrificing too much sleep.  Dot will welcome the schedule again, I am sure.  It is hard to plan a menu when you don’t feel that great about food, though!

Today I fixed the water main to the toilet (it needed a flexible hose to allow for the Cat Genie attachment to fit nicely) and puttied the holes in the toilet area.  It seemed like there was a LOT of pressure in the walls; even the tiniest holes would squeeze my putty back out!  There must be a real hurricane in there!

Today I spent a lot of time getting Dot’s blog updated and I did a lot of work on her media.

I spent about 45 minutes at the beginning of naptime and got the toilet area of the bathroom sanded and cleaned, ready for some putty and plumbing tomorrow.  I’m going to try and devote the same time every day to getting the remodeling done so I can start work on the new flooring in January.

This afternoon during naptime, instead of working, I spent three hours making chocolate mice with Hershey’s kisses, chocolate chips, melted chocolate, and marachino cherries.  Aren’t they adorable?  They will make a good dark chocolate snack in the afternoon!

The dentist went over my treatment plan today, which basically entails 9 top temporary crowns on the first visit, 6 bottom temporary crowns on the second visit, then waiting a while and adjusting the temps until everything feels just right.  Afterwards there will be three visits to create and seat the real crowns.  He did a little adjustment to file off some high points and determine whether an existing crown needed to be replaced (it does), and then we picked out shades.  My teeth are going to be so pretty and white, and even!  The temps may look a little bit toilet-bowl white since they aren’t translucent like normal teeth, but the crowns will look more natural.  And he actually paints the real crowns to shade them towards the gums to make them as real looking as possible, so it is better that I am starting a bit whiter than I probably want.  In fact, painting is one of his hobbies; he has a beautiful watercolor hidden in the back of his office that is truly stunning.  His assistant says he can spend an entire day just painting a few crowns to get them looking perfect.  I am so excited!  The new look is just a bonus, of course; the real issue here is fixing my bite so it stops ruining my jaw.  I’ve been wearing a splint for nearly two years now and my jaw has finally healed.  I have had TMJ pain since I was a teenager, primarily because my teeth do not fit together.  Not only was I ruining my jaw, I was cracking and breaking my teeth because I had to mash so hard to get anything to fit right.  It will be wonderful to not have to cut my meat into microscopic pieces anymore.  It is hard to eat healthy when I can’t munch on raw vegetables, too.  I am SO excited to finally get all this going!

Workout #127, 45 minute cardio/upper body, 243 calories

I usually enjoy the upper body workouts, and this was no exception.  I think the calorie count may be off since Maya did half of the exercises without weights!  I really wish they had a patch to fix that, although it is easy enough to know that I want to use weights during those exercises.  It doesn’t look like I will be checking out the new version for the Wii anytime soon.  I like the convenience of the PC more, anyway.

I spent a lot of work yesterday reviewing my control journal and housecleaning schedule.  I’ve developed a new list that I can print out so if family members want or need to help they can easily see what needs to be done.  There is one page for daily and weekly chores, and another page for monthly chores including a special column for duties specific to that particular month.  There is also space to write down special things for each area; if I think of something during the day, I can write it down and get to it during that room’s allotted time.  I’ll be testing it out for the rest of this month!  On the daily/weekly list, I have a section that details what I try to get done during my “Daily Room Rescue” – that is an hour after dinner that I devote five to ten minutes to each room, primarily daily tasks.  (This was originally developed from FlyLady’s 5 minute Room Rescue; I’ve expanded it to include the whole house at once.)  Grandma helps Dot clean her toys up during that time.  I have been doing this for a few weeks now and it is going quite well; even when I have to skip a day or quit early for various reasons, the house still looks great.  I am truly amazed at what just five minutes nearly every day can do.  I’m getting pretty good at doing the daily tasks, and move on to weekly and monthly chores in that room if I get finished before my timer goes off.  Even so, I may allow each room a ten-minute day on a rotating basis so I can get to more of the monthly list.  That still allows about ten minutes extra that I can devote to extra cleaning, special projects, or just personal time!

Here are links to my Daily and December schedules as they are now in rough draft form.  Many of the things on the monthly list need to be shuffled around because they really do not need to be done every single month; I’m not certain how I want to do this yet.

If this works, I will eventually be keeping my entire house clean in less than six hours per week!

Yourself! Fitness Workout #126, 45 minute cardio/cardio, 347 calories

347 calories!  No wonder I was starting to drag towards the end of that long cardio session!  I saw frog leaps, which I’ve only seen once before, and again with too many one leg bridges on the yoga ball.  I wonder what it means when Maya says “I want you to feel muscle fatigue with this” and afterwards adds yet another set of the same exercise?  The calf raises are fun but pretty easy – I do those every single day in the rocking chair with a 23-pound toddler on my lap!

Guns going off in the back yard at naptime AGAIN.  This time it is a rapid fire thing.  Very loud, sounds like the are shooting AT our back yard.  This week I’m making sure I have the police non-emergency number programmed into my phone and I am calling them as soon as the first shot goes off next weekend.  Hopefully they get here in time to find out who is doing it and can make sure they are being safe. Great, now it is even a louder gun, in addition to music blaring and all the dogs barking.  I really want to move, it scares me that they might be shooting out there when we are outside playing.