Bye Hy

I penned a ode to Hytop. This economical brand is leaving the shelves of the local market:
Oh great cheap brand of premium quality. You of great strength and value with added savings to my Thank You Card, who will take your place to help me feed my family so I can save enough to put $4 gasoline into my mini van?

On the bright side I have tasted the new brand's no-salt canned corn. Food Club tastes good. By the way what's up with canned corn? Regular not only has salt but sugar added. To get non-sweetened corn you have to go the no-salt route. Food Club apparently also has organic items in its line. (Kathryn)

Spring Clean

Charlie's been cleaning. Moving couches and firing up the attachments to the vacuum. It's the sap rising and him not taking any carbamazepine.

Spring seems to be the time when he's most manic. In past years he's gone several months without sleep. For the last several years he has had a good psychiatrist watching over him. But Dr. B quit practicing in November. Charlie finally got in to see a new psychiatrist yesterday. In the meantime juices are flowing, deep cleaning continues along with Dollar Tree kitchen remodel. (Kathryn)

Blizzard-o

Snow is in the forecast for SB Land. We have no provisions. It is the day before pay day. Pray for our souls.

Meanwhile... Charlie's min pin Skye is tucked under the electric heating pad awaiting the blizzard. (Kathryn)

Return

I work at a riverboat casino in the Shreveport Bossier area. This is our busy time of the year. It's because folks are spending their returns with us. Is it better to spend it with us or buy some more junk? Modern day life confounds me.

More SB Land casino adventures here here here here here. (Kathryn)

Money Draw House

I'm trying to squeeze in making more art. These photos are from a new piece called Money Draw House. The photos are of the little palm sized book attached to the fabric strips of the house.

I'm feeling a renewed urge to produce after hearing about Shreveport artist Frances Drew passing away. Four of my pieces will possibly be a part of the exhibit called The Money Show at artspace in March.

I'm trying to convince Charlie to team up with me to submit ideas for the Katfish4Kids project. He knows finishes and loves to paint. (Kathryn)

Forgetting Sickness

How would it be to wake up one day and not have bipolar illness and the costs that come with it in our lives? Sometimes this thing is heavy to drag around and other days it's barely there but it is always lurking.

At least I'm not in denial. My brother was supposed to come here and get help with his alcoholism (but my family of origin (FOO) won't even call it this). Maybe treatment. Instead he's job hunting and has found one where he has to commute two hours a day even though he doesn't have a car. And even though the reason his wife kicked him out was because he was driving drunk with her kids in the car. My parents would have to let him drive one of their vehicles. And FOO people are thinking this is a good idea. (Kathryn)

Sugary Treats

Lately, the only reason I pull into a Southern Maid parking lot is to take pictures, not buy hot pastries. I'm trying to eat healthier and that means donuts are no longer one of my main food groups. Not that I miss them. Although my favorite Southern Maids are the chocolates with cream cheese filling.

This location is in Bossier City near Bossier Parish Community College. I have a crush on Highway 80. I want to write a screenplay that centers around The Strip. (Kathryn)

Discuss

There is a young man in Baton Rouge we are worried about. He's been arrested for arguing with the police after drinking, drugging and driving.

While Charlie and Katee discussed the grief this fella is causing his family I spied and snapped pictures. And while I share their concern, I stood inside the house being thankful. (Kathryn)

Words

We've been writing notes to each other this week. Charlie's (pictured on the left) tend to be nicer than mine. I'm pretty hateful. Katee even wrote me a tender missive and left it on my pillow.

In this time of text messaging and voice mail it was ironic that a chunk of our chosen form of communication involved paper. How retro were are. But still out of touch. Charlie needed stamps today and even though I had them I couldn't tell him what the current rate is for first class post. So we stuck two 33 cent stamps on the front and clipped the the letter to our mailbox.

Negotiations are underway for a nicer version of my note to go on the thermostat. (Kathryn)

Kitchen Update

My brother came over to help paint the kitchen ceiling. He and Charlie used a paint that starts out purple and then becomes white when it dries. I was disappointed because it was a pale, pale purple. I guess I wanted Jolly Rancher Grape.

From the cheap remodel department: Charlie is redoing the floor with tiles he's purchasing from Dollar Tree. I promise pictures this week of the frugal floor. Who needs a $50,000 makeover when you can shop the everything's a buck store? Only the best over here at white trash central. (Kathryn)

Puffy Chair

My new favorite movie -- The Puffy Chair. How can you not love a movie with it has its own myspace page? The makers of the flick grew up in New Orleans.

Besides that movie chair looks like it could be related to a chair we used to own. (Kathryn)

The picture above is not the movie chair. It's just curbside trash in my 'hood.

Gone

People with bipolar disorder are at great risk for suicide if they are not getting treatment. The National Mental Health Association reports that 30%-70% of suicide victims have suffered from a form of depression. Men commit almost 75% of suicides, even though twice as many women attempt it.

It's not that I dwell on those facts. It's just that they hover over my thoughts daily while I struggle to keep my family well.

About the picture: I do not know Elvin Smith. I took the picture of his memorial wreath at the entry way of a local Wal-Mart. I suppose his co-workers displayed the marker to remember him. It seemed strange to see this in a place so all about consuming and exchanging and daily life. While I took this photo the alarm went off when someone exited the store with a high dollar item and the little security thing hadn't been deactivated. Chaos. And there was Elvin looking surprised. (Kathryn)

Paints

Charlie is painting the kitchen. We're not getting rid of the fish theme. Just toning it down a bit. It's a good winter project. Except when the day he paints the back door turns out to be the coldest of the year and we have to turn the heat off while the door stands wide open to dry.

It's a good thing he's doing the work because this is the perfect project I'd start and never finish. Wee, for having handy boys around the house. (Kathryn)

$hopping

I'm spending way too much money at Wal-Mart. I went there yesterday and again today. Funny thing is we don't buy any drugs there. Those we get from K-Mart, Walgreens, QVL and sometimes CVS.

The scary part of today's trip was I thought we were going for enchilada fixin's but Katee had a list. A Katee list. She requires more beauty products in a year than I've gotten in my entire life. I had one Flicker razor that my mom made me shave with for the entire time I was in high school.

When we tally up the order it's over a hundred dollars. Katee pops up and says "I've got twenty."

"Where'd that come from?"

"Gas. Money. You gave me."

"You better keep that for gas."

"Just thought I'd offer."

We did go to the Family Dollar store and buy dog pee pads. Share my wealth with everyone is my motto. (Kathryn)

Please?

Miss Kitty now has to nibble at the center island since we have a new kitchen table and we are actually eating at it. The old table just used to house clutter and Miss Kitty's feeding station.

Orange tabby is not happy about the change. But then when she first came to live with us, she stayed in the back room for over a year before she decided to come out and explore the rest of the house. (Kathryn)

Work and School

House Hunters on HGTV last night had the story of a young woman who was getting ready to buy her first place. She was looking for a condo in the city where she had gotten her first job. During the course of the show it was revealed she was thirty years old and this would be the first paycheck she'd ever earned.

Granted, she was a medical doctor but this makes me rethink how much we're expecting of folks with bipolar disorder. If a "normal" person made it all the way through school and was never required to work, why do we demand a bipolar person get a job? Are we pushing them to be our definition of normal? Are we expecting too much?

Katee starts at LSUS this semester after completing a couple of semesters at BPCC. BPCC is also where she got her GED. The GED program there with Becky Turberville is awesome. All the work is done on computers and she loved that. (Kathryn)

Totally

When Charlie was in a coma in 1993 he got bedsores on his feet that completely ate away the back of his heels. The left foot patched itself up. The right foot has always had an open wound festering on it.

His new doctor has decided to put him into a "total contact cast" to see if that will cause the open parts of the foot to close. The cast helps sores heal because it protects the skin and prevents pressure from being put on the sore.

He gets a new cast every week and has been wearing one for six weeks. When he goes back Friday to have this one removed the therapist says he might have progressed enough and won't need a another one. (Kathryn)

Glowy Like Holiday Lights

Christmas dinner was Monday at mom's house. We did it the day before xmas because I worked Tuesday. Mom, Dad, Uncle John, Charlie, Katee, Aunt Dawn, her six children (Claire, Alyssa, Bentley, Melanie, Kellen, and Amethyst) and myself squeezed into her trailer. Auguste came by after his work and met the family.

A good time was had by all. The children didn't put their feet on the couch too much and mom's glass top coffee table survived. We are hoping the Claire and Alyssa can spend tomorrow night with us. Katee wants to spend some time with her cousins. They leave out for home early Saturday morning. (Kathryn)

The Anti-Antibiotics

Charlie has a yeast infection in his mouth (it's also called thrush). Could be from recent steriod or antibiotics he was prescribed. Anyway, the doctor wants him to take three weeks of antibiotics.

Before ingesting more evil antibiotics he's trying gargling with tea tree oil, eating yogurt, and taking garlic, vitamin C and acidophilus tablets. And we've radically changed our diets. Smoothie, anyone? (Kathryn)

Seeing Out

Our small bungalow in Highland shares a driveway with the neighboring house. That house's kitchen window faces the driveway. Our kitchen window is on the other side of the house. How much more practical would it have been to place the kitchens across from each other so the meal preparers could smile and shout recipe tips across the way?

Some say it was television that killed community, some say it was air conditioning that pulled us inside and halted interaction with neighbors. I say it was putting the kitchens on the wrong sides of the houses.

There a ton of notes on this picture. Click on it and you will see them. (Kathryn)