The last ten movies I watched

1) Black Hole (1979) - I found the soundtrack LP to this movie in a thrift store maybe a year ago.  John Barry is the composer.  Space music is always nice.  I had some drinks while watching this which helped a bit with the movie.  The late seventies special effects are what you'd expect.  I rate this movie a "Strong Meh".

2) 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) - Seen bits and pieces of this over the years, never the whole thing.  This has been on my list to watch for years (keep a list, it will help with all your obsessions).  Stanley Kubrick did a nice job with this Aurthur C. Clarke story.  This one is well worth watching.  But seriously, what the fuck is the ending all about?  I had some drinks watching this and got up to piss a few times.  I couldn't find the remote control so I didn't bother with pausing it.  Maybe I missed something but is Jupiter just one big embryo?  I might have to IMDB this one, I don't quite understand it.  Scratching my head, I rate this movie as "Watch This Shit, Homie".

3) Dog Day Afternoon (1975) - This is when people with balls made movies.  I have seen this a number of times.  I find acting pretentious and bad acting down right insulting.  This movie is neither.   It's about a bank robbery gone bad.  If you haven't seen this this you should remove your shoe and smack yourself on the head with it.  I rate this movie as "You Should Have Already Seen This".

4) Tell Them Who You Are (2005) - This movie is about Haskell Wexler.  Wexler was known for being a camera man with a bad attitude.  He also did some directing.  He was fired from the filming of One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest.  He comes across as a cranky old man.  His son made this movie and should listen to his fathers constant yacking at him about lighting and sound.  This does not come across as made by a pro.  Unless you are somehow related to Wexler I don't know why this would be interesting to anyone.  I rate this "Yawn".

5) Secret of NIMH (1982) - I used to catch this cartoon movie on television throughout my youth.  I found it terrifying, fascinating and down right awesome.  It appealed to me on so many level as a kid in the 80's.  It's not too long and moves quickly.  Go out and watch it if ya can.  I rate this "Watch This Shit, Homie".

6) Nashville (1975) - Very long movie satire about Nashville at the height of country music.  The big joke is summarized at the beginning of the movie when all there is a traffic jam due to an accident.  Everyone gets out of their vehicles only to realize they are all country stars or aspiring country stars.  That's all you really need to know about this movie.  I rate is a "Strong Meh".

7) Jeremiah Johnson (1972) - Great movie about a dude who goes out into the wilderness to become (I think) a fur trapper.  Staring Robert Redford.  He encounters friendly and hostile Indians, an eccentric bear hunter, a dude buried up to his head in sand and a dude frozen to a tree.  My only complaint is that there is too much talking in this movie.  That's a joke.  There is not much dialogue.  I rate this movie as "Watch this Shit, Homie." 

8) The Endless Summer (1966) - Perhaps my favorite documentary of all time.  This film follows two California surfers who chase summer, and the perfect wave, across the globe.  You don't have to be a surfer to enjoy this film.  I've never surfed in my life.  In fact the film appears to be aimed at people who don't surf.  This movie is hilarious.  You have got to stop reading this and go watch it.  I rate this as "You Should Have Already Seen This".

9) Land of the Lost (2009) - Will Ferrell has a few decent moments as he tends to do, but this movie was boring.  I got drunk and fell asleep writing in my man-diary to this movie.  Think it has something to do with dinosaurs. I rate this a "Strong Meh". 

10) Never Been Done (2004) - This is the story of pro skater Jon Comer.  It's an inspiring story of a young man who lost a foot as a kid but became a pro skater against all odds.  That's really all there is to tell you.  Comer has a good sense of humor and seems like a decent and humble hardworking fellow.  I rate this "Watch this Instead of the Mighty Ducks Next Time You're in the Mood for an Underdog Story".

Thanks for reading.  Billy Falls for Look Everyone I Wrote a Blog Productions.  2011.

so thankful

i wanted to write a big long thankfulness blog for today, with lots of heartwarming pictures. but, my SD card on my camera is acting up, and it won't let me upload anything. and i can't remember all the happy crappy thankfulness stuff i was going to write about before. and maybe it was meant to be, because the truth is, this is not an easy time for my family. we are extremely limited in what we can do. some of the people i love are sick. i wasn't able to go to my aunt's thanksgiving dinner like i normally would. but i did make a rockin' turkey dinner for me and billy and aaron, and rowan got to eat his first jar of baby-food turkey dinner. i got to see my dad and my sister, who are both doing well. and considering last year on this day i woke up 21 weeks pregnant in a pool of my own blood, on my 6th week of bedrest, just praying like hell to make it to 24 weeks (babies born before that gestational age are usually not resuscitated), it's pretty easy for me to say i'm thankful. i'm thankful for my ability to get out of bed and make dinner. i'm thankful to be able to clean my own house. i'm thankful to be able to walk my dog. i'm thankful for my family. and i'm so thankful for my sweet baby boy. happy thanksgiving. love, erin

recipe for the best pumpkin pie in the WORLD

aunt becky's pumpkin pie

use a longneck pumpkin or butternut squash. cut into 2-3 inch slices. remove seeds. place in pan (face-down) with a little water in the bottom for 45 minutes or until "fork soft" (meaning you can poke throught it easily with a fork). cut out the meat and crush it lightly with a fork.

for each pie, use:


1 1/4 cups cooked pumpkin
2 tbsp butter
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp flour
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 can evaporated milk

mix the wet ingredients together, then add the pumpkin, then add the dry ingredients.

bake at 425 for the first ten minutes
bake at 350 for an additional 30-40 minutes

the pie is done when it is "springy"

sprinkle the top with cinnamon while hot

and there you have it folks, there is the recipe for the pumpkin pie i've been lucky enough to have eaten every thanksgiving for my entire life, made possible by my awesome aunt Becky. trust me, this is the best pumpkin pie in the WORLD!

lots has happened in the three or so months since i've updated this site, but i definitely don't have time to share it all while i'm here at work and (once again) writing from behind a breastpump. yes...i am still pumping. my goal is to make it through the winter...to hopefully help rowan fight off any nasty cold/flu viruses he may encounter. i probably won't know what to do with myself after i stop i'll have so much time on my hands...(yeah right.) but anyway, the biggest news is that rowan's home vent nurse practitioner told me that she anticipates being able to start the vent weaning process when we go back to visit in january.

WOOT

WOOT!

supposedly weaning is a long process...we were told 6 months or so if all goes well, but it will be so very exciting to start. to even unhook him from that big heavy machine for fifteen minutes and just carry him around the house will be such a joy. right now i can't do that without getting a major backache, because it's baby in one arm, vent hanging off the other. if i had time for a chiropractor or some PT i could really use it, because my back is KILLING me!

in other news, rowan is sitting up almost all by himself, for a minute or so at a time. we still keep our arms around him, or at least have soft pillows around him, in case of a topple, but he is doing great. he is playing with all kinds of toys, pulling mom's hair, and taking off his own diapers. he has also been successful at removing his mickey button with the balloon still up. while this is not exactly a good thing, it is a sign of a healthy active baby, so i can't get too upset about it. he can also disconnect his vent circuits from time to time. he hasn't pulled out his trach yet, but we are keeping a close eye on him because i'm pretty sure he could if left to his own devices.

okay, that's all i can really update for now because break-time is over, and i gotta go save some lives.

later!

awesome. the basement flooded. again.

and as you can see from the above picture, we have a lot of crap down there. luckily i am awake with rowan all night (no nurses) and noticed it before it got too bad. so i woke billy up and he, aaron, and i all hoofed stuff up to the main floor. there are men with large fans coming tomorrow morning to try and dry the carpet back out. i'm sure that will involve a lot more moving of things, but at that point i'm thinking i will be asleep. when we called the landlord her reaction was "wow, that hasn't happened in twenty years!" which is the same exact thing she said when it flooded last march. whatever. as long as everybody is okay there's not much that can phase me. the rest is just details.

billy and i got a chance to hang out in the basement last night after the night nurse came. he wrote in his journal and drew stuff on me while i played super mario brothers. here's the artwork i now sport on my left ankle:

we were really into the panorama setting on the camera last night, can you tell?

well the basement probably won't be functional now for at least a month, so i'm glad we enjoyed an evening down there last night. if a third of the house is out of order for a month, do you think we should get a third of the rent discounted? here's to hoping...

saline and toilet paper dreams

i'm not entirely sure, but i think last night i might have had a dream about normal saline and toiliet paper.

                                                            

i don't think you'll find that one in the dream interpretation books. i think it is a reflection of how my life is being over-run by medical things. one reason i became a nurse was because i felt it was a job that you didn't have to take home with you. you clock in, do your shift, clock out, and leave. the rest is up to you. i guess the joke's on me! i never dreamed i would be running a mini-intensive care unit out of my living room with my son as the patient. but it's okay, i'll just be uber-medical-girl for a while until this is all behind us.

i cut back on our home-health nursing hours today, and BOY do i feel awesome about it. now the nurses will just basically be here when we need to sleep, and not while i'm awake and perfectly capable of taking care of Rowan all by my mommy self. i wish i would have done that a long time ago, but i didn't even know that i could. and i suppose it was nice to have some extra coverage while we adjusted to everything at home. but hopefully, with a little help from friends and family, we won't need all the nurses up in our face all the time and Rowan can go back to being a sweet little mommy's boy for a while :) ever since Rowan's been born there has been a nurse of one sort or another messing with him in some way or telling me and billy what to do with him. between the NICU nurses, the rehab nurses, and the home health nurses, the boy could definitely use a reduction in the RN factor in his life. and so can mom. when Rowan cries in the middle of a nap, i feel like i have to race a nurse to get to him first. when i want to hold him, i want to pick him up off wherever he happens to be sitting without someone hovering over me saying "do you need help?" i realize this may sound ungrateful and rude. i realize these people are just trying to do the best they can to help out. but it gets really REALLY old really fast. i don't think you could ever imagine what it's like to have nursing in your house unless you have it. and 16 hours a day. that's 2/3 of the day, of your LIFE, that these people are in your house. i wouldn't even want my best friend in my house that much, let alone a stranger i never met who happens to have RN behind their name! the vent, the medical supplies, the medical procedures, the oxygen, the tubes and wires attached to my baby, i can handle all of it. what i can't handle so well is ALL THE FRIGGIN NURSES UP IN MY GRILL ALL THE DAMN TIME!

okay. good. glad i got that off my chest. so hopefully this reduction of nursing hours will do me some good and keep me out of the looney bin, which is where i was headed. and hopefully my brain can stop torturing me with these saline and toilet paper dreams!

a pretty funny book

actually, anything with the name McSweeney's or Dave Eggers on it is usually pretty entertaining. this is a funny book of random lists, including "desserts to avoid at last meals," and "embarrassing things that happen while using a lightsaber." i just brought it to work with me tonight (good thing, because it's not very busy in the ER at the moment) to start reading. here's a good one i just came across:

THINGS THEY SHOULD DO:

     they should let people sleep in restaurants

     they should show people how to kill ghosts

     they should not let children kill pigeons

     they should give blind people free flowers

     they should bring back dinosaurs for military purposes

     they should design a motorcycle that runs on urine

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ha!

i think i could write a companion book of lists pertaining to all the ridiculous shit that occurs here in the emergency department. double ha!