So, here is my finished baby gift. That's the hat, mittens (with the ribbon ties) and booties on the right side of the afghan. Not sure how good the colors are, but the afghan is a lavender & white (obviously, the white). Anyway, I'm not going to make it to the baby shower, however. And not because I didn't get the gift done in time. No.... the shower is at 2 pm tomorrow. Sunday. My day with my dad. My last Sunday with my dad until next summer. Next week he & sis & niece will be down in Anchorage for the weekend. The following weekend, I start back to working Sundays. I like that schedual, but it doesn't leave me much time with my dad. Ok, so I guess that's part of the reason I DO like that schedual. Less time with my dad means less time that he has to nag at me. About anything. And lately it hasn't been chuch, it hasn't even been MY health. Instead he's been nagging at me about my husband's health. As if I have any say in the matter.

But no.... between my hubby's beer belly, my hubby's tooth issues (which will be resolved 9 am on Monday morning), and my hubby's new ulcer (thanks to the painkillers he's been on for that tooth)..... My dad is after me about why doesn't hubby lose weight, and get that tooth fixed, and if he'd just get that tooth fixed he wouldn't have the ulcer..... NO SHIT!!! Like DH doesn't know that. And like he isn't adult enough to make those choices for himself. And of course, Dad feels the need to tell me that it's because _I_ have ice-cream in the house so that DD and I can have a serving each weekend, that's the reason DH is overweight. Not the fact that DH is the one choosing to eat said ice-cream (1/2 gallon tubs) in 3 sittings, without saving any for DD & I. I'm not shoveling it down his throat, that's for damn sure. Then of course, there was DH's ambulance ride to the ER this week. That tooth I mentioned??? It's a wisdom tooth that's gotten infected as it comes in. Anyway, he saw a dentist while he was in Valdez on that fishing trip of his a couple of weeks ago, and that dentist told him to get that tooth yanked as soon as he got back to town. Thing is, DH doesn't have a regular dentist, and my dentist doesn't do extractions. So, we'd been discussing who he'd like to go to, and he'd been hemming & hawing about going. As I said, he's an adult, he can make his own choices. Most of the time. Well, Tuesday night that tooth was really bugging him again, so he took 3 advil at about 2 am, woke up at 4:30 in pain again, and I gave him a Tylenol 3 I had left from my surgery. Thanks to that surgery I know that Advil liquid-gels & T3 can be combined, provided you seperate the dosages by a couple of hours. Advil is an Ibuprofrin product, T3 is obviously, tylenol. Any mom should be able to tell you that they can be alternated to bring down a fever or for painkiller, without overdosing on either one. So I did. Gave him a T3, and we both fell asleep. Till about 6 am, when he woke up with a WHOLE different kind of pain. This pain was in his chest, and it was so bad that he was doubled over, writhing in agony on the bed. He was clammy, and nauseous, and lightheaded. No arm or leg pain, so I wasn't sure if it was his heart (he IS 32) but I called for the ambulance based on how much pain he was in, and how it really didn't look like _I_ would be able to get him to the hospital anyway. Sure enough, they got here and suggested he get in, like, now. He went with them, I woke up Tay & dropped her off at my dad's, then ran on into town to the hospital myself. Turns out, all that advil he's been taking for years for this bad tooth, and others, has given him an ulcer. He was directed by the Dr. to take a Nexium every morning for the ulcer (at least until he gets off painkillers altogether), some Clidimycin for the infection (the Valdez dentist had given him basic penicillin, but that wasn't strong enough), and some Percocet for the pain (another Tylenol & codein product). He's been doing better since then, but as I said, he's going in for an emergency extraction on Monday morning. Do ya THINK that's good enough for my dad?!?!?! Guess what, it's not! Nope, according to him I should have nagged DH into seeing a dentist AGES ago. And on top of that, supposedly this scare with the ulcer should be giving DH second thoughts about how big he is, and that he should be losing weight. Now, don't get me wrong, DH is a big guy, but only by about 50 pounds. Not an incredible amount, really, when you figure that 200 lbs is his ideal weight (years of skating means he's mostly muscle, except for that beer belly). But, again, it's ME my dad chooses to nag, about my Dh's weight. Not DH, and not that it's ANY of my dad's business anyway.

It's bad enough that my dad has nagged me since I was 5 about how much I am like his older sister, and how I was bound to wind up diabetic just like she was (she was Juv. onset). I never DID become diabetic. (Not even going to go into him naming me after his sis & mom in hopes that I WOULD be just like them, and his telling me constantly about how he did so in order that he'd always have a part of them near him, even after they died.) Not Juv. onset, not Gest. Diabetic, and not Type 2 (not yet, anyway). But still, my dad goes on and on about how I'm just like her and therefore I'll end up diabetic JUST LIKE HER. Forget the fact that I'm at least 10 years past the point of being able to end up diabetic "JUST LIKE HER". An adult cannot wind up with Juv. onset diabetis. Forget the fact that Gest. Diabetis (even if I HAD been) is NOT "just like" Juv. Onset diabetis. But nope, because in his mind I'm "just like" my aunt, I get a constant nagging about how I've got to be careful of my weight otherwise I'll wind up diabetic "just like" my aunt. She died 10 years ago, btw. And, as an adult I'm NOTHING like her. I take much better care of my health than she ever did (even as a nurse, she took horrible care of herself, was in and out of the hospital herself for diabetic comas & issues). I'm skinnier than she was as a mother of a 9 year old (she packed on the weight shortly after my cousin was born). And I'm a lot healthier cook than she was (very little veggies in her meals, very high on the fattening factor). But nope.... I'm JUST LIKE my Aunt Lynn was. And now I'm getting nagged about how _I_ should have control over NOT just my weight, NOT just my daughter's weight (another skater with more muscle than fat, but a "genetic" beer belly that runs in my DH's family), but also my husband's weight. And not by a Dr...... Oh no, it's not a medical professional doing the nagging, but my father. A mechanic. Who has never been diabetic. Who has a bare understanding of a well-balanced meal (well, certainly a better understanding than his sister, my mom, or my baby sister, but still....). Who thinks the only way to be a healthy weight is to walk 5 or more miles a day, and to eat a very strict diet of whatever-the-heck is recommended at the moment. Of course, HE doesn't eat that way, or exercise that way. He delights in serving salads with lots of dressing, fried foods, and creamy potatoes at meals. But, nope, it's ALL my fault that DD & DH are overweight, as am I. I admit it. We are. I'm working on it. It's not easy, but I do try. I do make sure we have fruits & veggies in the house and served at meals. But my will power only goes so far. I can only ensure what I myself eat, at all hours of all the days of our lives. As I said, I'm getting nagged for DH's weight now, and it's REALLY, REALLY getting tiring. I'm sick & tired of being my dad's nag-magnet. 27 years is a long, long time to put up with somebody nagging at one.

Did I say that I'm GREATLY looking forward to working on Sundays again?!?!? Any questions why?!?!?! *wink* If there still are questions, see the post a few weeks back about my sister, and my rant just now about my dad, and any posts about how terribly busy our Sundays usually are (during the summer). That should explain why I like working on Sundays. SOOOO much less BS to put up with.

Anyway, on to why I won't be going to the baby shower tomorrow. Along with lunch with Dad, we've got a b-day party, right around the block from my dad, at 4 pm. It's the 5th birthday of DH's best-buddy's daughter. Then at 5 pm, we've got to leave THERE for hockey. Then, after hockey (leave town around 7:30 after hockey to head home), we'll swing by the other friend's house to drop off the baby gift.

But, in the end, that's all probably just justification for why I am truly not going to the baby shower. The mommy-to-be-again's mother is the owner of a local strip joint. That is where the baby shower is being held. Sunday, at 2, at a strip joint. Of course I know that the strippers will not be there in their professional capacity. But I'm sorry, I'm just not comfortable with going into a strip joint. And I'm certainly not interested in going into a strip joint where children will be, and acting like there is nothing even remotely odd about children being exposed to women stripping & dancing for the objectification of men. Just can't do it. Just can't pretend like I approve. Anyway, like I said, I've got plenty of excuses for not going. Very valid excuses. So, we'll swing back by the other friend's house on our way back out of town. And considering we've got to swing back by my dad's and pick up my car (both friends live in adjacent neighbourhoods to my dad's) before heading home for the night.

And thinking I'd better take out something quick & easy to make for dinner tomorrow night, as it will be rather late, on a school night, before we get home. *sigh*

Anyway, it's now 8:56, and I still need to find a recipe for Red Snapper, so I can make dinner. Took me till 8 to get that dang baby gift done. And of course this post has taken quite a bit. But I'm hungry now, so I'll sign off.

Have a Blessed Day.