Because I really don’t feel about writing about my trip to the dentist (which was fine–but it was a trip to the dentist), I thought I’d take a trip down memory lane.

When I was at William and Mary, there were a number of a cappella groups on campus.  The best of which was the Gentlemen of the College. I did a little search on YouTube and found this video.  Obviously, the group is completely different from when I was in the ‘Burg, but they are stil fab!  Enjoy!

I can’t say that I have anything too exciting to write about today, so I thought I would write about, well, blogging.

First thing on my mind, I know I’m way behind the curve on this one but I just recently learned how to subscribe to RSS feeds. I absolutely adore having blog posts from (some) of my favorite blogs delivered right to my outlook box! However, this only works on some blogs—mostly blogger blogs. IN fact, I don’t know if I’d even know how to subscribe to this blog. Oh well!

Secondly, I recently figured out how to write my posts in Word and send them over to WordPress. Normally, this isn’t a huge thing, but lately WordPress has been acting up so typing things in Word has been a lifesaver.

Finally, I noticed today that my old blog, which I haven’t updated since May, is getting more hits than this one. Apparently, people are still reading my review of Loving Frank by Nancy Horan (I didn’t especially like it). Go figure!

So, I’m redoing a lot (well, all) of my pictures and, as a result, those of you checking my Flickr site will see some changes.  Right now, I’m in the process of taking all the pictures from January 2009 and earlier off.  They will show up again, but not right away.  I’ll also be repacing the pictures that are staying there (at least the good ones, I’ll be pemanently deleting the not so good ones) as I get to them.  Any comments that were left on the pictures will be lost (which is too bad, since I reallylike getting the comments).  Also, October is gone, but it will be back soon (hopefully tomorrow) with edited pictures. 

Anyway, that’s what I’ve been up to during Lillie’s naptimes….playing with pictures!

Pat liked the chili last night, which is a good thing since he has a lot of it to eat.  I did not like it–I don’t think there was anything wrong with it but I’m picky.  So, I’m going back to my tried and true crockpot recipe.

Also, for those of you checking my Flickr site….I haven’t uploaded many pictures lately because I’m trying to edit them first and I’m going to just put the best up there.  Bear with me, it may take me a little while!

It’s very good weather for chili here lately–overcast and blustery.  I found a new recipe that I’m going to try tonight and it turns out I’m going to have to double it.  The problem is bean, dried kidney beans to be exact.

You see, I’ve always used canned beans for recipes, and now I know why!  I got my package of beans home yesterday and read the instructions.  First you soak them overnight and then, because the recipe calls for cooked beans, I have to simmer them for 2 hours.  I immediately started complaining about how labor intensive this was until Pat said, “Dude!  It’s water!”  Okay, point taken.

So, I put the 1-1/2 cups of beans needed for the recipe in a bowl of water last night and today–I had twice as many beans as I thought.  Yikes!  So, yes, I’m making 12 servings of chili tonight.  Otherwise, Pat has a lot of mediocre chili to eat!

Of course, I’m also going to make at least one kind of cookie to send down to Mom to speed up (or something) her recovery.  I’m thinking Kerry’s Oatmeal Cookies…man, those are good!

and Lillie’s first tooth is here!  Pat (well, okay, me too) thought it was coming in around the time she hit 4 months.  After all, she was drooling a lot and I got my first tooth at 4 months.  Then…it never arrived.  I later learned that all babies drool at about that age because their saliva (salivary?) glands kick in and they have learned how to suck the spit back into their mouths.

Anyway, this is not a surprise.  First of all, we have been expecting this any day now for the past 5 months.  Also, while LIllie has still been relatively good-natured for the past few days, we could tell she was teething.  She was chewing on everything and finding spitting to be quite fun.

Yes, I will take a picture–you can’t really see the tooth yet, only feel it.  However, I wanted to post this now so I would remember the date when I get to that page in her baby book (I’m only in August with it right now).

On another note, since I am writing this post and not shivering outside a high school, I obviously did not take Lillie for another try at the H1N1 shot today.  It’s pretty windy and cold here today and I just didn’t think it would be a good idea to bring her and her tooth out into that for a couple of hours.  Plus, I think the lines may be a little tamer if we wait a week or two as, supposedly, the state is getting more doses of the vaccine.  We shall see!

Well, it’s a cracked tooth–cracked because, long ago in Boston, someone incorrectly filled a tooth that didn’t need to be filled.  Ugh!  I have to live iwth the pain (which is getting a little worse each day) until next Thursday.  Then I go in the following Wednesday to have another cavity repaired (yes, I need to be better about flossing!) and to check on the new filling in the cracked tooth.  If replacing the filling doesn’t work, I need to get a crown.  If that doesn’t work, then it’s a root canal.  Ugh!

And on that light note! Ha ha!

Other things happening:  Lillie has become a monster sleeper.  She went from 9 hours a night with about 2-3 hours worth of naps a day to 12 hours at night (and that could be more, but we wake her up) to at least 4 hours of naps a day.  I’m not sure what is causing this, and I’m not complaining, but it is interesting and Pat and I are worried that she might just be stocking up sleep for another sleep strike, but only time will tell!

Dentist, that is.

I’m leaving in about 30 minutes for what is scheduled to be a routine cleaning, but what I know will lead to something more as I’m pretty sure, at the very least, I’m going to have a filling replaced.  So, this filling–this is the filling that shouldn’t even be there!  Back when I worked for Boston University, our dental insurance was that we would go to BU Dental School for our care.  Since the “professors” were doing the work and the students were just watching, I wasn’t worried until 2 things happened (thankfully at separate times):

1 – They refused to give me novacain when they did a filling because they said it “wasn’t very deep.”  Well, it was deep and it hurt.

2 – They (the REAL dentist, not one of the students) filled the wrong tooth!  Yeah, it’s that tooth–the one that never had a cavity anyway, which is now giving me dental problems.

Needless to say, when I look for a new dentist, I find out where they went to school and, if it was BU Dental School, I find someone else.  Living out here in Oregon, though, I have yet to find a BU-educated dentist (phew!) and the dentist I have now I quite like, if for no other reason that he has TV’s on the ceiling so you can watch TV while they work on you.  Yes, it’s silly things like that that make me happy.

….long naps afterwards for Lillie! 

Yes, we’re still in swimming lessons and probably will be for, um, the foreseeable future.  Lillie loves them and I think it’s good to get her used to the water.  I don’t really want to be taking breaks from lessons because I want to avoid her forming a fear of water.  Right now, though she loves them…and I love the naps.

I’m debating about trying again for the H1N1 shot on Saturday.  I could go get in line early and then have Pat bring Lillie by before the clinic actually opens, but I don’t know if it’s really worth it at this point.  Supposedly, the state is getting more vaccines and it might be far easier to wait a few weeks.  However, the flu is rampant here now and I’m not sure I want to wait.  Oh well, we’ll have to see how the rest of the week plays out.

Tomorrow, though, it’s off to the dentist for me.  I was supposed to go next Monday, but I think I need to have a filling replaced and am dealing with a lot of sensitivity in that tooth, so I moved my appointment up a bit.  I really don’t like going to the dentist, but I hate this stupid toothache more!

And there is your Wednesday morning randomness!

After waiting in line for 2 hours, Lillie didn’t get the vaccine.  While only “priority groups” were supposed to get the vaccine, they were giving it out willy-nilly.  I asked one of the DHS people about it and she said, “We can’t be the vaccine police.”  Um, not only CAN you be the vaccine police, but you NEED to be the vaccine police!  Ugh!  Anyway, I may try again at a different location on Saturday.  It depends in part on the weather–I don’t want to be waiting outside in bad weather for 2 hours with Lillie.

Don’t you just love the government?