Amy’s Gripping Commentary

Because I know you all can’t get enough of my dental escapades, I’m making sure to give you an update. I’ll change up the format to make it seem different and exciting. Highlights:

Yesterday I was in the chair for over four hours. This included more of the same impressions prep, including the lower right molars for the fifth time, at which point my dentist had to leave and announced I needed electrosurgery to make it work and we’d do it next week.

The assistant then took two hours to put my fourteen temporary plastic teeth back on my exposed stubs. The top ones had never been numbed and the follies took so long that the bottom ones all awakened from their anesthetic buzz (which never took all the way in the first place), resulting in a very painful and sensitive experience. Each time the teeth didn’t fit they had to be pried off and the excess cement had to be scraped away to start again.

Now I have blisters between my gums and cheeks, tenderness along the tissues at the teeth where I was all scraped and bloody yesterday, and general jaw pain from holding my mouth open for four hours.

Last week I discovered my dental insurance is changing from no limit (hello $30k restoration) to two grand a year, from 80% coverage to 50% on all this restorative stuff, and from pick-yer-dentist to a network which does not include the one who is doing all this work.

I finally tracked down why I haven’t been reimbursed the $1200 I thought I was owed from flexible benefits (that magical tax shelter for medical procedures paid out of pocket). After a tricky conversation with the cranky lady at Anthem, I found out insurance pays just dandy for veneers, but alas, they are considered cosmetic surgery by flexible benefits (IRS I think?) and so sorry, you can’t have that tax-deferred. Uh, how often does insurance cover cosmetic surgery, especially when the government says they shouldn’t? Note I’m not complaining that loudly in case the insurance folks change their minds.

Have I mentioned this is not cosmetic? Good grief, I don’t even comb my hair. I don’t think anyone could make the case that I care enough about my teeth to spend thirty thousand dollars on them to make them pretty. They looked fine before all this!

One piece of good news: I found out Tuesday that I still have two original teeth in my head! I thought they’d all gone the way of the crown. That’s a couple grand saved!

It’s nice to know I’m a cool nerd! I’m sure my sci-fi knowledge is by association with nerdier folks. Thanks to Nicole for the quiz.

I’m leaving today for Philly. Unfortunately it looks like there will be a lot of rain on Saturday during the race. I think I’d rather have snow! We’re excited nonetheless and I hope to hit a good (i.e. unique veg) restaurant while I’m out there too.

Meanwhile I’ve been suffering from some intestinal thing since Saturday and the insides of my cheeks are full of blisters from some more horrible dental impressions with the nasty chemical tissue retraction the other day, but I think I’m healing on both counts. Just slowly. I won’t let it get me down!

Before I go, the Halloween retrospective inspired by Mymsie:

My mom made our costumes (except for the previously displayed self-made sundae and my brother was once a self-made boom box), but since they were so much work, we were required to wear them for two years.

1984, including my accessories from going to Feast of the Hunters Moon with the Little Hoosiers Club (I still know the chanty honor code):

1986. Note that my guinea pig Frisky is also dressed as a bat. I think I was in tears trying to explain to my mom that I wanted six-foot-wide wings in my costume and she was coming up with floppy wings. A couple of dowel rods later, I won. The wings were quilted and very cool.

Skip ahead to 1993, my first year of college (I don’t have a lot of pictures at my house!). My roommate Jae was a baby and I was static cling. Obviously Mom did not make these.

And the grand finale! Yes, my mother made this for me in ninth grade at my request after scaling it up from a toddler pattern.

This is:

a. A lovely manicure KNH is sporting
b. Bright, colorful, healthy stir fry!
c. The world’s giantest wok
d. When David said, “Last night I peed on my dog”

Today was annual pumpkin carving! Mine may have been an angry drunk, but it looked better than Nicole’s oral-fixation pumpkin caressing the bottle. The pumpkinhead pictures aren’t at the best angle but maybe Nicole will have better ones I can steal.

We raced at the Head of the Eagle in Indianapolis this weekend. Our quad was the only entry in our event (I guess there aren’t enough other old ladies wanting to try it), and a result of 16:56 for a 3-ish mile race put us behind a University of Louisville women’s boat but ahead of the high schools (both genders) that raced. We also put together a four (for you non-rowers, that’s four rowers, one oar each, and a coxswain), and we beat Xavier and University of Chicago in that event but three U. of Louisville boats were ahead of us. The weather was overall beautiful but very windy, and whitecaps make rowing challenging. At least it wasn’t close to last Thursday’s weather when we went out in a tornado watch and nearly Edmund Fitzgeralded by the 56th Street bridge!

Results (Races 6C and 19B)
Lots of boats launching:

A couple of quad pics. Apparently Caryn and I were joking around while Shawn and Nancy were doing what they were supposed to be doing! The racecourse is too far from shore to get action shots.

Saw this cool moth on my maple tree. His body was at least four inches long and had yellow bands on it. Casper tried to eat him but I distracted her so I wouldn’t be cleaning up doggy puke later.

And everyone should appreciate that I try not to go around in my hillbilly teeth very often. Sometimes those temps fall out, though.

I have some rowing pics to post, but here’s Casper in the meantime, giving me The Paw the other day.

Stole this meme from Nicole.

My secret names:
1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet’s name and current car)
Frisky Jetta
2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie)
Mint Chip Chocolate Chip (huh? Maybe Chip Chippy Dogg?)
3. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal)
Brown Bunny (should that be reversed?)
4. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (Last 3 letters of my brother’s name and first two letters of my mom’s name; use whatever names you like and where they came from)
HewCh (I hope that’s not pronounced hoochie)
5. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink)
The Blue Amaretto
6. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers)
Harold Gordon (Jeff’s relative?)
7. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter)
Jackson Jacksonville (This isn’t a stretch since the teacher’s name was Jack Jackson and South Bend had a weatherman at that time named Jeff Jeffers)
8. SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, flower)
Autumn Daisy
9. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”)
Apple Panty (HAHAHA… and I never say “panty” but I had to here!)
10. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree)
Wheatbread Oak (that name inspires regularity)
11. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”)
The Rescue Snowstorm Tour

I guess it’s a slow week around here. Dad drove down today to pick up his riding mower (how dare he take away my his yard equipment! What, does he have leaves to rake or something?) and we had lunch together. He appreciated my buy-one-get-one meal deal with a deal card we got for free from one of David’s exes! No one appreciates my deals like Dad.

The new book
Disapproving Rabbits is out. The premise is that she has pictures of lots of grumpy-looking rabbits and then captions the “disapproval.” I find the posts on her website quite funny, especially since I have my own disapproving rabbit, Arliss, as my personal example. I submitted her picture to the Disapproving Rabbits blog, though she has not yet been deemed cranky enough to appear!

David and I went to a hogroast (yes, I see the irony) on Saturday at his HVAC guy’s farmhouse. David made friends with a goat and we finally met Jim’s wife and daughter who have just moved here from China.

Today we went hiking at Clifty Falls in southern Indiana. I hadn’t been there since I was a kid. We did find some rugged trails and put our hiking boots to work, especially when we got lost and went up the creekbed the wrong way. I didn’t think it would take me the ten seconds of my camera’s timer to get on that rock so one picture is, well, not what I intended. With a lot of zooming the picture includes David’s rear as he climbs, too. At least we have some action shots!

It was a really nice day for a hike (sure beats yardwork!) and we’re glad we forced ourselves to go, even though we felt like having a lazy Sunday for awhile.

Finally got pictures today of this gem on Mass Ave. To my delight there were additional signs on the building; can you see the tiny “not responsible” part?

In that spirit, I want to share my new favorite sites, The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks, and Apostrophe Abuse. Dad and Nicole, you have to visit them. And I’m so excited to have another outlet for all my “findings” in “Indianapolis.”

Hey Nicole: I think it was with the “cheeseball” that someone brought.

First I discovered that one of my absolutely favorite places to eat, Nothing But Noodles, is no more. (KNH, I guess it’s no longer Misnomered Noodles.) Noodles & Co. bought them and closed their restaurants or rebranded them to the new name and menu. Granted, I have not tried Noodles & Co. yet, and they do offer tofu and a lot of similar-sounding entrees, so maybe it’s good. But I loved Nothing But Noodles.

Then last night I drove all the way up to Fishers to meet David and then drove to the Carmel Claddagh, his favorite place for fish-n-chips, and my favorite place for the best veggie burger in town. Except they changed their menu and there’s no more veggie burger! I had a pesto pasta which was pretty good but 1. not the way to satisfy a burger craving and 2. pesto pasta is something I can get at the Aristocrat and Machu Picchu and it’s better at those places too. They added a portobello sandwich which does not excite me (everyone has those and I’m not big on giant mushrooms) and even the server said they were still tweaking the recipe. Frankly, I turned instantly cranky and depressed when I learned there would be no burger for me and I doubt I’ll go there again. :’(

And let’s have a work rant too. Lately our area has decided to implement complicated business processes to fix the ones that weren’t working… because they were complicated. How many forms do I need to fill out, folks? The attack-the-problem-with-a-study-team approach has successfully drawn attention to big problems but so far has just confused all the people using the new systems.

Josie the guinea pig just got home from her Monday surgery. We suspected uterine cancer based on her symptoms last week. When my vet spayed her, she found cysts on both ovaries, a growth on one of the ducts from the ovaries, unidentified white spots all over the uterus, and cervical cancer. Poor piggie is five or six years old but came through surgery well. She’s finally eating and pooping a little better and I think the incision looks great. The narcotic that helped her with pain is what makes her not eat, so now she’s only on aspirin! She seemed really happy to be home and likes being near her piggy friend Cappy, though she’s in a recovery cage for the time being.

I figured I was in trouble when my dentist asked me yesterday if I had a pacemaker.

The outcome of such a question is that she ran an electric current from one of those nondescript electronics-looking boxes with dials (one actually said “cut” as the operation you’d get from the setting) through a probe to cut and cauterize my gums. The pacemaker question was because I had to lie on the grounding pad while said current was happily completing the circuit.

Fortunately (if you want to look at it that way) I had already received about eight anesthetic injections, including in the roof of my mouth (always fun), so I didn’t feel the cauterization. However, it smelled like she was cooking. It smelled exactly like the fake steak charring during a stir fry we made a couple of weeks ago!

I still say the crown lengthening was a lot worse, but this was an escalated version of prepping-for-impressions by retracting the gum tissue that sucked last time too. The extra special part is that it didn’t work right yesterday so we have to redo part of it next week, and I get to have it done to the rest of my teeth to be prepped. That’s at least 12 more chances, assuming they all work on the first try. In the meantime I have to swish warm salt water and take ibuprofen to further reduce the tissues. Oh, and the astringent chemicals used to shrink the tissues taste NAS-TAY. I’d rather smell the stir fry.

We raced in Dayton yesterday (results). Our quad (I’m on the far left) did ok, though it wasn’t our best performance. No one else was in our event, so we can only compare times to what we think we should have done or against other events’ times, and actually of the 11 quads racing yesterday, only one beat us. At one point someone in our men’s quad made a comment that they should finish faster than us, and when the results came back we beat them by almost thirty seconds, 8:13 vs 8:41!

Our eight (I’m on the far right) got third. We had a couple of less experienced people this year so just finishing without disaster was good for some folks. The record high temperature and bright sun left me burnt and exhausted. Based on fluid intake and lack of bathroom trips, I think I sweated at least 80 ounces. Sweat was just dripping off of us and sitting in the sun on the reflective water waiting for the event to start wasn’t helping. I had a lot of sleep last night but I am not all there yet today.

David and I picked fresh tomatoes, basil, and thyme in the yard by flashlight last night and he made a fabulous marinara sauce. I was falling asleep in my pasta but it sure was yummy!

Get out your cameras and your favorite doggie! ASPCA Photo Contest

I’ve always liked this one.

I spent another six grand at the dentist this week when they installed six top front teeth. That puts me at 12 of the 28 I need, and all of the front ones are done so my overall appearance won’t change much now. It will be a few weeks before the next set is made. The new teeth look good (we sent them back for tweaking) and feel good, too. I just had an eye exam, too. I’m thinking I’ll get new glasses and no one will recognize me! Especially if I comb my hair… But I don’t want to go too far.

Poor little Josie the guinea pig is at the vet with uterine cancer. She’s been bumped from her spay by emergencies, and now she’s reacting to the heavy pain killer they gave her pre-surgery-that-never-happened such that she probably can’t have surgery now. At least she wasn’t feeling ill when I took her in, but I don’t know how long she can wait nor how advanced the cancer is. I think at least 80% of my female piggies have had reproductive issues ranging from ovarian cysts to uterine and cervical cancer. Josie’s buddy Cappy (who had the same surgery last year) is at home all by herself hogging the food and Pigloos.