Still need your myCoke rewards

Hey, my brother is still collecting myCoke rewards codes. If you have any that you won't be using yourself, we'd be thrilled if you'd give them to him.

The reward codes come on most Coke products, including Minute Maid juices, PowerAde, and Dansani water in 20 oz. bottles. They're found inside the bottlecap or the 12-packs.

You can donate your codes via the web - he's made a webpage where you can post your codes directly. No signup or screen name needed - you can even post your codes anonymously.

Thanks much in advance, and please spread the word to anyone you think might be interested in helping!

Seriously. BABIES. EVERYWHERE.

Stay away from me if you don't want to get knocked up! Apparently I am harboring some sort of pregnancy-inducing virus that only I am immune to. Because EVERYONE I KNOW? IS PREGNANT. Seriously, even males of my acquaintance should start steering clear, just in case.

Today I got a call from my cousin H3...turns out, she's pregnant too! Kisses and congratulations to her and Mr. H3...I'm so excited for them. ♥ And wouldn't it be so cool if I could manage to get myself sprogged relatively soon so that we can be preggers together? Eee! C'mon, body, get with the program! *shakes fist*

Oh! And I forgot to mention previously that my friend Michelle just had her second baby on Tuesday - a little girl named Morgan Paige. Aww. Now can I have one of my own?

No, really! It's me!

Last night someone I know pretty well but haven't seen in about eight months didn't recognize me. Heh.

I was at a bar with my good friend Vader*, and our buddy Kevin who we used to play poker with once a week walked in. Vader called him over and they exchanged hellos, and then Kevin turned to me, stuck out his hand and introduced himself. I laughed and told him it was me and he was absolutely shocked. Like, surprised into momentary silence. He said he thought I was Vader's new girlfriend! And then he apologized all over the place until I explained that no, really, it's a compliment.

[dork]Made me feel good, especially to know that I am apparently cute enough to be a hot guy's girlfriend. [/dork]

*Not his real name.

Babies, babies everywhere. Except here.

I recently had the following conversation with my dad. He was asking me about how things were going on the finally-getting-him-a-grandkid front and wanted to know about the, er, process as far as the surgery and the PCOS and everything.

Me: blah blah a year after surgery blah blah OBGYN said to go off birth control and use an alternate method for a month.
Dad: Alternate method? What's that?
Me: Non-hormonal.
Dad: What do you mean?
Me: *leading* Something different from the pill that doesn't use hormones...
Dad: ...
Me: CONDOMS, Dad. *headdesk*
Dad: Oh! Right.

God love him. And please don't make me ever have to say "condoms" to my dad again.

In related news, you may be pleased to know that I have finally gotten my period. Only 17 days late! Oh body, how I curse your wackiness. In similar related news, WHY IS EVERYONE PREGNANT BUT ME? We just got back from my friend Erin's daughter Georgia's first birthday party. Erin is due with her second on October 8. My friend Sarah is due with her second on November 3. And my friend Cherie is due with her third in like a month. This is like when you buy a new car and suddenly realize that everybody else has that same car. SIGH.

*\o/* Well done, California.

California ban on same-sex marriage struck down

Iron Man

Saw Iron Man. LOVED IT.

Seriously, it had some problems but I DIDN'T CARE. I'm a total sucker for big hardware. I love explosions and battles and things that fly and Iron Man had all of that. And it had a cleaned-up version of Robert Downey Jr. who was HOT LIKE FIRE. Yum.

So, yes, a couple of problems - [SPOILER ALERT] (highlight to read) the plot was a bit predictable, the explanation about the heart thing didn't make sense later, because they said it would take a week to kill him and then when the bad guy stole it, Stark was immediately feeling the effects. I tried to chalk it up to the pain he must obviously be experiencing. And at the end, it took Stane exactly no time to figure out how to use the super-suit when it took Stark a good while to master his. [/SPOILER]

Other than that, I was completely GLEEFUL through the entire thing. There was much squeeful bouncing and clapping and intent starting at the screen.

RDJ was totally hot, he looks so good now. And he got seriously ripped for this part - his arms and chest looked fantastic. And can we talk about the Iron Man suit? The suit fucking ROCKED. All the versions of it - and that's something else I really loved, watching him make each version. Again, geek for hardware. And his awesome computer system/CAD/butler/AI thingy was super cool. Gwyneth Paltrow didn't bug me at all, Jeff Bridges was great, and I suprisingly adored Terrence Howard as Tony Stark's buddy/mentoree, Jim Rhodes.

For your Iron Man needs, check out Inside The Suit. It's an LG phone promo, but if you enter the code LG883, you can access some nifty extras - video, stills, wallpapers, etc. Plus, I entered the contest to win the cool Iron Man phone.

Update on my brother: NED

No, not my brother Ned, my brother Steve. But NED is what they called him at our oncologist appointment on Tuesday. NED means No Evidence of Disease - and is as close as they'll come to saying he's cured of the cancer. So, yay! NED FTW. *\o/* He'll still have to have follow ups every three months for the next while to make sure nothing pops up, but this is excellent news.

Tuesday was a busy day. We also saw the infection guy and they took out the PICC line and declared him over the mysterious infection. And we saw the thorassic surgeon who said everything's healing fine and he hopes to never see us again. (That's apparently a surgeon joke.)

Still have a couple more doctor's appointments coming up, with the brain surgeon and the case manager, but in general, things are looking great. Things are really, really great.

I'm back! And better than ever, baby!

Got back yesterday from a long weekend in Grand Lake. Went with my cousins (H1, H2, H3, T, Ginger and Susan) for our Try-to-Make-it-Annually girl's trip. It was a really great time and something I definitely needed.

The cabin in Grand Lake was beautiful, with a fabulous deck that looked out at the lake. We spent most of Saturday on the deck drinking mimosas and now I've got a wicked sunburn. T kept telling me to put on sunblock and I was like, "Bah! I don't care if I fry!" Hmph. Well, I care now. Too much champagne makes a girl irresponsible.

Anyway, my face is now a piece of beef jerky. My nose especially, and I'm all puffy. Ugh. It's not going to be pretty when it all peels off. Even so, it was a heck of a lot of fun, just hanging out with the girls, drinking and telling outrageous stories. I wish I got to spend more time with all of them.
What I love about my cousins is that they are each fantastic in their own way and I have a different relationship with each of them. H1, H2 and H3 are all sisters and for much of my life, they pretty much came as a single unit. But now that we're not kids anymore, I also really enjoy spending time with them each separately. I like the focused attention – we're a pretty loud bunch and when you get us all together, it's pretty crazy. Hella fun, but hard to have much of a conversation with anyone in particular.

So we did a lot of drinking and talking and either I'm getting sick or I talked too much because I've sort of lost my voice. And we were going to go in the hot tub but it turned out to be not all that hot so the rest of us skipped that after H2 bravely tested the waters for us. 87 degrees? That's not even a warm bath. Pfft.

H1 & T made an awesome dinner on Saturday – best mashed potatoes I've ever had. Must find out what was in those! (Or truthfully, I prolly really don't want to know and should just keep eating them when she makes them.)

And I'm a huge sappy dork, but I was away from Mr. Fantastic for three days and really, really missed him. A lot. I was so excited to see him when I got home. I think I actually made a little "eee" noise when I jumped out of the car to hug him.

What a great trip, and just what I needed right now. I didn't think about Dad or Steve or anything – just focused on the girls and having fun. I'd be totally relaxed right now if it didn't hurt when I moved my face. Anyone have any sunburn tips? I'm doing aloe, cool cloths and some kind of pain-relieving spray on thing.

The Leopard Print Dress

Interesting thoughts about what we do and don't allow ourselves to wear, weight and body image. And a reminder that there's nothing sexier than confidence.

The Dress

Icing, meet cake.

Sigh. Siiiigh. Why is it that just when things are looking up, something else happens?

My brother is doing well, I have finally started to relax and feel good about his progress. So of course that means there's room on my plate for more crap to deal with. Such as my father getting another DUI. That makes 3 now. Not to mention the other couple times they've taken him to detox without actually charging him. *headdesk* It's sad, the number of phone calls I've received from my father to come pick him up from detox.

[WARNING: Self-indulgent whinging ahead]

Got a call about 9:30 on Thursday night. It was my dad calling from the detox place. He'd been picked up on his way home from the bar about 3 a.m. Wednesday. For those of you unfamiliar with the process (and jesus fuck, I wish I wasn't, gee, thanks, Dad.), they keep you in the drunk tank and won't even let you use the phone until you blow a zero on the breathalyzer. So that means it took him about 18 hours to sober up. 18 HOURS. Christ.

Anyway, the new and added fun factor to this time is that they wouldn't just let him out on his own recognizance. This time there was a $1,000 bond that had to be paid before they'd let him out. So Mr. Fantastic and I had to scrounge up a grand in cash and drive the half-hour out to BFE in Centennial to the "detention facility" to pay it. We got there about 11, forked over the money and then were told it would be another two to four hours for "processing" and that Dad would be able to call me again once he was ready to go. We went back home and went to bed. Dad finally called at 2:45 a.m., so I got up and drove back out to BFE to get him.

Of course he was shamefaced and apologized and thanked me for coming for him. I had been so angry earlier that I was shaking but I had calmed down a lot by then so I didn't yell at him. I just told him he was stupid and how disappointed I was that he has never learned anything from all of the times this has happened. (Hm. At some point, I seem to have turned into my mother.) Ever since last time, we've been telling him repeatedly that if he gets caught again, he'll go to jail, so just don't be stupid. Call a cab. We've all said we would give him money for taxis if he didn't think he could afford it. I don't know why he doesn't seem to be able to do that. I get that he's lonely - he spends so much time all by himself, rattling around that empty house - so I have no problem with him wanting to go out to places and socialize. But he doesn't have to be stupid about it.

I don't know what's going to happen to him. The first time he actually got charged with a DUI he got home detention with the ankle monitor and all. We had really thought last time (just shy of two years ago) there would be no way for him to avoid actual jail time but the cop who arrested him didn't show up for court and there were a bunch of administrative mistakes and the case eventually got thrown out. But in order to get his driver's license back he had to go to alcohol counseling and was still without his license for over a year. (Not that it mattered much, he still drove without it regardless.)

I've seen on several websites that in Colorado, the penalty for a DUI with a previous DUI in the last 5 years is a fine of $500-$1,500, 60-120 hours of community service and jail time of 90 days to a year, with a minimum 10 day mandatory. Plus, both previous times he had to go to the alcohol counseling (not that it helped) so I imagine they'll make him do that too.

Of course, my brother Steve will end up paying for a lawyer and court costs. And I'll have to drive Dad to court appearances and anything else he can't take the bus or light rail to. I was so angry before but I'm trying to be zen about it. It is what it is and I can't do anything about it, so no point in letting it eat me up. It's hard though, because it just reminds me that he's unreliable. I love him and I accept him for who he is, faults and all. But it still hurts that I don't have a parent who functions as a parent. I can't count on him for anything, not even emotional support. He's an alcoholic who only thinks of himself. It took a while, but I learned that it has nothing to do with me - it's not personal, not a reflection of his feelings for me, not something I did wrong - it's him and how his addiction works.

Whatever happens, I'll handle it. That's...just what I do. People always tell me how strong I am. When my mom died, when Steve got sick, when things happen - well, you can either break down or soldier on. But the world isn't slowing down no matter what you do, so I've always just pushed on through. I refuse to let anything beat me. I don't know any other way to be. But sometimes I wish I did.

Things like this remind me why I don't belive in god. Because if there was a god, then either he absolutely does not care about what happens to me or he does and is actively flinging shit at me. Either way, it's personaly insulting and not the kind of god I'd want if there was one. You know what I believe? Shit happens. Life happens. And it doesn't matter if I'm a good person or a bad person, shit's still gonna happen. I learned that when my mom died. One of the most amazing, honest, kind, caring, selfless people I have ever known and she still died no matter how good she was. That's life; that's how it works. You get a free ride just for showing up, but there's no guarantee how long the ride will be or how much fun you'll have.

So. I'm soldiering on and rolling my eyes a lot at the WTFness of it and maybe checking my karmic balance a little, because just in case, I don't want to come back as a bug or anything.