The crazy lady strikes again for Monday, November 20, 2006

I had blood drawn to monitor my medical condition after my transplant. Most of my blood work looks stable, with the exception of my creatinine, calcium and phosphorus levels. (For the newbies amongst us, creatinine is the breakdown product of creatine, an energy source used by muscles and found in health-food stores in supplement form - and watch the spelling! The simple addition of an extra "in" changes an energy source into a waste product.) As far as calcium and phosphorus are concerned, they... Sign in to see full entry.

I got off the phone to my landlord not too long before I started this entry, and he told me approximately how much we (my husband and I) owed him after the money order we have right now is applied to our back balance. I'm grateful for all the clicks and unique page views I'm getting to this blog, because that's helping, but it's not going to be enough. I have several sources of emergency assistance in mind, and I plan on tapping those sources of emergency assistance as soon as possible. I don't... Sign in to see full entry.

Well, I killed two birds with one stone since my last entry in this blog (less than an hour ago as of this writing). A village official backed up a pickup truck filled with Thanksgiving dinners for a group of families in the neighborhood (us included). I figured that since I had the ear of a village official, I'd bend said ear with my tale of a malfunctioning smoke alarm. They promised to contact building management on my behalf with the problem. These people have leverage. They can tell my... Sign in to see full entry.

I've gone into some detail about my problems with my smoke alarm over the past 24 hours. I'm freezing because I can't have the heater on. Putting the heater on - even using the popcorn popper - sets off the smoke alarm, as does putting a pot of water on to heat up the apartment. Even the simple act of taking a nice, hot shower sets the thing off, yet, for reasons I've detailed in my last entry, I can't disable my smoke alarm (unless I want a very upset landlord and a firestorm of controversy in... Sign in to see full entry.

In the comments section to yesterday's blog entry, someone mentioned that she had to disable her smoke alarm because it would go off at all sorts of inappropriate times - for example, when she would take a long, hot shower, or broil a steak. That's not an option here, for one reason. Our landlord inspects our smoke alarms monthly to make sure they're working. Therefore, he would be the second - after us - to know if it had been disabled for any reason. He would want to know why it had been... Sign in to see full entry.