Rondo Alla Turca...

It finally came today! After just a few short days, my Mendini violin finally arrived! I had so much excitement going through my mind at the time, I didn't even bother to turn the computer on for almost 2 hours after I woke up.

Everything was intact and accounted for when I opened the violin case. The strings were all in place, the bridge was up, and everything seemed to be in working order. Unfortunately, the rosin they sent is a piece of broken crap. It's cracked all to hell and barely usable. After about 10-15 minutes of putting rosin on the bow, I finally got it to make some sound. Not necessarily a good sound, but sound all the same.

The tuner they sent is nice, but semi-complicated. I'm not too familiar with metronome tuners, so it took some time getting used to it. After figuring that out, I was finally able to start tuning the violin! This was no easy task, especially considering every time I would get a cord tuned, the peg would slip causing it to go right back out of tune. I think it took me an hour to get them in the right key, even though they were both sharp and/or flat.

I gave up after a couple hours and decided to call it a day. As much as I love the violin, it's not what I expected. It could be that I have absolutely NO idea what I'm dealing with, but it could also be due to the fact that it's a very, very cheaply made violin. I mean, I knew I was taking a chance buying a violin online to begin with, but I figured the quality would be a teeny bit better.

Oh well. You win some, you loose some.

Okay, well, I guess that's all for now. Today has been a pretty boring day, aside from the violin arriving. So, I guess that's all. Until next time...

Love & Peace

-Megan

Well, here it is:

The entire violin set-up.

The metronome tuner.

Shoulder rest.

And the actual violin.

Dead in the water...

As exhausted as we still were yesterday evening, we still ended up going to town. We were too dead to stop anywhere Tuesday evening, so we just put everything off. Luckily, we just needed a few necessities, the rest was just see and grab type of things.

Believe it or not, 90% of those things were for our rats! We've been looking at all kinds of homemade rat toys online, so we decided to give some of them a try. We ended up winging the majority of everything we made, but that was half the fun.

After we returned home, goodies in hand, we made a few toys, then gave the rat's cage a nice deep cleaning. All of their fleecy items were dirty at the time, so they didn't have their double hammock and long hammocks, but they had so much else to keep them occupied, I don't think they even noticed.

In package news, we received our MRE today. In a word... awesome! We ordered the chili mac sauce stuff, which pairs famously with pizza -- which we were having for dinner -- so we decided to go ahead and give it a try. I recorded a video of it, but who knows when I'll get that uploaded. The flameless ration heater did what it says it would do and heated the MRE. It didn't get as warm as I would have liked, but that's our own fault for not letting it cook longer. Forgive us for being impatient and not being able to contain our excitement.

I definitely see more MRE's in our future!

We also got our suture kits today. Before your mind starts running 100s of ideas through your head, I'm going to go ahead and stop you and explain exactly WHY we received suture kits in the mail. It's pretty simple actually, they're for our bug-out bags. Or survival kits, whatever you want to call them. Part of me... who am I kidding, all of me wants to call it a Z-Day kit, but I'm going to keep myself grounded. Plus, I don't want to scare away what few readers I have. Unless you're just as paranoid as I am (wink, wink).

LaVaughn's huge lot of E.L.F. makeup arrived today. Wow, I don't think I've ever seen so much makeup in one box, lol. She did get a lot of nice stuff, though. Some stuff that I may even steal myself.

Now all I need is my violin. Ah yes, my beautifully stringed instrument. I hope picking up the violin for the first time is like me holding a camera, which is the most comfortable and effortless thing I can do/use. I hope it comes as easy to me as the piano did. Not that it came easy, but, you know.

Okay, I believe that's all for now. I still feel like I'm in a dream and get exhausted if I think too fast. I think I need another 10 hours of sleep. Until next time...

Love & Peace

-Megan

Photos from last night:

A light-up ball we bough. It's given us hours of priceless fun.

Box of rat goodies.

Dude, childhood flashback! Tell me you remember the Magic Grow dinosaurs!? I've 'planted' one in a glass, but he hasn't grown very large as of yet. It says 400% larger in just a few short hours, but I'm thinking it's going to be like a few short days. Even with their faults, I still love them.

Eggs filled with goodies for the rats!

The rats' Easter box of fun.

Their temp cage set up.

Hanging Peeps.

A roll of toilet paper for endless hours of rat fun.

Peeps made them thirsty!

See how desperate they are?

Emilie was the first to brave the box.

Look at that face, Milla wants a Peep too.

This was when he was first dropped into the water.

He hasn't gotten much bigger today.

Zoe is such a princess. She has to be hand fed.

Photos from today:

LaVaughn's E.L.F. loot.

Shattered eye shadow... not fun.

Look at all them goodies!

Her brush set, that she loves.

Our suture kits in the box.

Aren't they awesome!?

Our MRE main course.

The flameless MRE heater.

The actual package of food.

Come, as you are...

Words cant express how happy I am that yesterday is done and over with! Driving all the way to Cape on 4 hours sleep is not something I would recommend. It wouldn't have been so bad if everything had happened later in the day, but oh no, it had to take place before dawn. Not really, of course.

It was so weird to see the sun in the eastern sky. This is a rare occurrence for me, like seeing a dog walk on its hind legs. Yesterday made me realize just how much I hate and despise mornings.

Anyways, the stent at the hospital was a nightmare from the moment we got there til the moment we left. When my aunt got signed in just before 10, they took her up to the pre-surgery screening room where they drew her blood. This was all done by 10, mind you, when she wasn't even supposed to be there until 10:30.

After 3 hours and 4 people getting called back before her (ones that we're in line behind her), she decided to leave. She told the receptionist that she couldn't wait any longer, so we started walking -- down a mile long hall, I might add. Then, out of nowhere, some nurse shouts, "Mrs. Moss, Mrs. Moss!" We all turned, stopped, and proceeded to walk back.

Then, for the next 10 minutes or so, the nurse explained why everything was taking so long. Saying my aunt was pissed was an understatement. I honestly can't blame her. She hadn't ate since 4 PM Monday evening and only had a couple sips of water here and there. She's a coffee drinker and smoker, both of which hadn't been in her system for well over 12 hours.. I can relate to the kind of anger she was expressing. The nurses called for her and took her back right after that (around 1 PM) and got her prepped and ready for surgery. The actual surgery still didn't take place until around 2, though.

After that all passed, it wasn't so bad. She recovered very quickly and was ready to go in no time. She barely gave the nurses a chance to check on her before she had her clothes back on, luckily they didn't fight her and just released her.

The doctor did come in and talk to us in a private room explaining how the surgery went, how the after care should be, and when she should come back... all in under 10 seconds, I might add. Talk about a fast talker, he didn't even take a breath when he (tried) explained everything.

I'm just so glad that whole ordeal is done and over with. Auntie is doing awesome today, so all is well. All is well on my end too, I finally managed to get some sleep!

I crashed on the over-sized chair around 9 for about 30 minutes, then made it all the way to 2 in the AM before dozing off for another 30 minutes. LaVaughn and I finally had to call it a night around 4 AM this morning. We were dead!

In package news, we finally got The Walking Dead season 3 in the mail yesterday. Of course, on all days. We also got our Mayday bar, again, of course. Why must good things arrive in the mail on stressful days? Anyways, we watched some of TWD last night and tried a bite of our Mayday bar.

The Walking Dead - Awesome!

Mayday Bar - Semi-Awesome!

Okay, I believe I covered everything that happened yesterday and last night. Even though it's only a little after noon, I already managed to get some new pictures of Margie. Be sure to look for those after the gazillion other pictures that I took yesterday. Until next time...

Love & Peace

-Megan

The drive there:

The fountain in the foyer:

The view from the hall:

The pond, fully equipped with several ducks and geese:

Random family with their dog.

See all the ducks and geese!?

The long and creepy waiting room/hall:

LaVaughn's hair:

Aunt Sharon waiting to be called back:

More pond photos:

Flying geese:

Randomness:

The creepiest hallway in the hospital:

Total zombie hallway.

Our Mayday bar:

The Walking Dead season 3:

The opened Mayday bar:

Now for the iPhone photos from yesterday:

Parking garage!

How does one 'tumple' wash?

My poor auntie, pre-surgery.

The creepy hall again.

Depressing tissue box in the consult room.

Overflowing sink water. Yes, this was my doing.

My aunt, post-surgery with coffee in hand.

Her hand all bandaged up.

Her poor fingers were so swollen.

And now for Margie's outdoor photoshoot: