Excuse the 1st: The tendonitis in my hand flared up something awful.

---- You know those neat little Levaquin class-action lawsuit commercials you may have seen on TV lately? They dramatically go on about people getting ruptured tendons and tendonitis from taking Levaquin? And you should call their 800 # immediately to SUE SUE SUE! Well, yeah. I took the Levaquin (when I had that awful staph infection). And then? Look! I have tendonitis in my hand! That came from nowhere! So. Fun. At least I know what prompted it. The flare-up this week was from handwriting. I was working on my plot and BAM! Pain. Since then it's been heat wraps and Lidocaine patches. Yay.

It seems I may no longer write long-hand but have to take up typing my manuscript again. ERG! I love my new computer but I hate hate hate the new keyboard; it's very FLAT.

Excuse the 2nd: I have been in a MAJOR FUNK and I do not really like to share my funk with the world.

---- There have been some across-the-board "respect" issues in our house lately, to the point I shut down completely and announced "If things do not change here, I am packing a bag and going to the most expensive hotel I can find, where I will hang out and play Home Alone, ringing up the most massive room-service bill you ever saw!" It worked. And I did not even have to pack to prove my seriousness. But in the meantime, blogging was not my thing.

Excuse the 3rd: Mr. Clean snores.

---- When Mr. Clean and I first got married, he had this pillow... Oh My God, that pillow. It was this hideous hard foam thing straight from the 70's (though new at the time). It was heavy and hard and I could not figure out for the life of me how he slept on that thing. Fast forward some years... He STILL had that pillow. I became convinced that there was NO WAY a pillow more than 15 years old was NOT teeming with some sort of dust mite or bed bug or.... EWWWWW. SO I convinced Mr. Clean the pillow of joy and dreaming Had. To. Go. because I was sleeping right next to it and did not want invisible creepy-crawlies near my head or nose or mouth.

The pillow was tossed. A new one was bought. And the snoring started. I did not mind at the time because see, I snore. Badly. So I could not hear his snores over my snores. Heh.

Then, I had to start wearing a little mouth guard at night because I like to crunch-crunch-crunch my teeth and give myself the TMJ (tendonitis, again. What is it with me?!). Once I started wearing the pretty-footballer-esqe mouth gear.... no snoring on my part. Ever. Again.

Now three pillows and a year later, Mr. Clean's snoring has gotten to the point I do not go to bed until almost 4am. Sometimes 5am. I kick him (gently-ish) in his sleep to get him to stop. I push him over. I dream about holding my hand over his mouth and nose. And some nights, it's so bad, I shove him out of bed and make him sleep on the couch. Really, folks. I'm not an awful person. The snoring is HIDEOUS LOUD (this WITH the Breath-Right strips)!

One night, I had this horrible, earth-shattering mind-numbing pee-your-pants nightmare that I fallen into a DITCH and a growling zombie was pinning me down, attempting to eat out my brains. I woke up to find Mr. Clean had rolled over onto my arm and was snoring in my face. Of course, since I had just woken from a nightmare, I SCREAMED and borked the bejezus out of him. Because... hello! Zombie! Eating my brain! And then he woke up and screamed and borked me back because he dreamt someone was attacking him... Go. Figure.

So. I have not slept much lately... or not good solid rest-your-body-and-brain sleep. And a non-rested Dragonfly = a Dragonfly who is too stinkin' tired to blog (and cranky, to boot). You can actually track - on the blog - where the posts started to fall off the chart. That's when my sleep became jacked up.

Yesterday, I spent $80.00 on a PILLOW. A memory foam stop-your-partner-from-snoring expensive as sh*t pillow. And I tell you what... if it stops that ghastly noise? It is SO worth it. If not? *sigh* I will then spend another $80+ on another pillow that claims it will stop the snoring. And if that doesn't work? You will see me on Nancy Grace, having smothered my husband to death in his sleep.

In almost 19 years of marriage, there is one thing I have learned exponentially... messing with a person's sleep is... OMG... one of the worst obstacles a marriage can deal with. I can't even express the occasional loathing that I have experienced with this issue. And it makes me feel awful but DUDE! I Need! To! Sleep! You know?

So. That's why I have not been blogging.

And in a complete 180 degree turn... Tonight is the Season Premiere of TRUE BLOOD, Season 2!!! Yay! I am SO hooked on this show. Last season, we started True Blood Sundays... which involve a nice dinner and dessert and then True Blood viewing pleasure. Tonight I am cooking Beef Stroganoff w/ buttered parsley noodles. No dessert, unless C-Boy brings it because... Well, I don't have an excuse for that one. I don't feel like going to the store to get dessert items? Because my behind is too big for dessert? *shrug*

Either way - dessert or no - tonight is going to ROCK. I'm so excited!