ROTD -- Return of the Dawn

I'm still at the rehab facility healing my broken bones (work in that area is progressing slowly, but it is progressing), but the corporate office had blocked a lot of networking/blogging sites, thus my absence. However, my laptop crashed Saturday, necessitating the need to purchase a new one. I picked out a sweet little number -- a Sony Vaio with 6 GB of RAM, a 640 GB hard drive, and amazing graphics with which to measure my fish heads -- and I decided to splurge on a mobile broadband device so I can do the Internet my way. I feel like I'm channeling my techno-geek brother.

In other news -- my most recent fishy paper has been accepted for publication! After four and a half years, at least a dozen revisions, and three journals, it's finally in! ::D does the happy dance:: It should be published electronically sometime this week, but I'm not sure when it will be in print.

How are all of you?

Received an email this morning

Dear Dawn M. Allenbach,

We have received the reports from our advisors on your manuscript, "Improving Fluctuating Asymmetry Studies Using Recommendations From a Fish Literature Review", which you submitted to Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries.

Based on the advice received, I feel that your manuscript could be reconsidered for publication should you be prepared to incorporate major revisions. When preparing your revised manuscript, you are asked to carefully consider the reviewer comments which are attached, and submit a list of responses to the comments.

. . .

Your revision is due on: 29 Jul 2010

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript within eight weeks.

With kind regards,
J.N.
Editor in Chief


It's gonna be a lot of work, but . . .

::happy Luta dance::

Mom was right. Third time was the charm!

I woke up too early = SILLINESS

::Dawn singing along with the CD::

Her hair was green as seaweed
Her skin was blue and pale
Her face it was a work of art
I loved that girl with all my heart
But I only liked the upper part
I did not like the tail

--"The Mermaid Song"


And if the devil would take her
I'd thank him for his pain
I swear to God I'll hang meself
If I get married again

--"The Scolding Wife"


Oh me! Oh my! I heard me ol' wife cry
Oh me! Oh my! I think I'm gonna die!
Oh me! Oh my! I heard me ol' wife say
I wish I'd never taken this excursion around the bay!

--"Excursion Around the Bay"

Fun Disability Products

Postcards

It Was A Witch's Curse: Disability by incurablehippie
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Speedy Chair Postcard by hobble
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Keychains

MFH2: I FIGHT FOR DISABILITY RIGHTS KEYCHAIN by MothersFromHell2
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Disabled People by goldnsun
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Nothing About Us Without Us! by incurablehippie
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Mugs

disthis mug by kikodawgz
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DISABLED IN SPACE by Sofia_Youshi
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More tomorrow.

Attention Downing Street!!!

Thanks to Mark at The 19th Floor for the head's up, er . . . for pointing out, um . . . for mentioning this technique for ratifying the UN's Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Two days of Halloween

Aaarrrrrr! These are from the 30th. Costume put together with stuff I already had.

Front:




Side, to show off my piratey hair tie:






Look! It's a Hummer! It's a tank! It's Supergimp! From the 31st. Thanks to Sarah for making the shirt and to Kim for loaning me my curtain-cape.

Check it out

You have to have to HAVE TO see this photo.

At least folks have to wait for a request

From Kay at The Gimp Parade, this funny vandalized sign.

Now I have images of drooling, hungrily grinning ABs with cutlery stalking PWDs dancing in my head.

Who's the idiot here?

As seen via another blog, a story about a man cranked off about to whom his donated computer was given and the rebuilder's response to the jackass.

The Wienie Wagon gets TOSSED!!!

This afternoon, my mom drove me into town for my physical therapy appointment at the hospital. I've been going there twice a week since I got home to stretch the muscles in my lower back and relieve some of the pain I'm experiencing from squished spinal nerves (the result of almost 37 years of sitting in a wheelchair).

First, let me give you a picture of my ride while I'm home. Some of you know the Wienie Wagon well (only TOO well, you might say), but for those of you who don't: it's a 1974 extended Dodge Maxivan with a turtle top that's painted like an ambulance (all white with a broad orange stripe down the side) because that's what it was for 20+ years before my brother bought it for $800. My dad stripped it of the extra lights and the siren and replaced the backwards-reading "AMBULANCE" sign on the turtle top's front with a new sign which reads, "WIENIE WAGON" (wienie being one of my brother's familial nicknames). It still contains cabinets down one side for storage (complete with non-operating switches for non-existent oxygen), ceiling hooks for hanging I.V. bags, and a jumpseat in the back which still has its seatbelt.

So, the town we drove to is one of those smallish towns which are "big" for Kansas, and very rarely do people bother rolling up the windows or locking the doors on certain vehicles while they go into the grocery store, vet, or P.T. appointment (at the hospital). I mean, who thinks they're getting very far with a 3/4 ton van with a hydraulic wheelchair lift in the side and a "WIENIE WAGON" sign on the turtle top -- especially when the driver has turned off the batteries?

So, we came out after P.T., and Mom opened the side doors to let down the lift. We noticed that the battery charger which is normally stored in a box at the back was sitting just behind the front seats where I park my wheelchair. I got in the van, and as Mom stowed my transfer lift in the back, I noticed all kinds of things in new places -- a power steering fluid bottle that had been under the seat was also where I park, the horse dewormers were lying in different positions, and a tissue box which had been under the seat was on the console. I pointed out all this to Mom when she climbed into the driver's seat along with a bunch of trash out of its container lying between the seats. She started putting things back to rights, and that's when she noticed something missing.

A small brown prescription bottle.

The sneaky punks made off with . . .








THE DOG DEWORMER!!!

::falls out of wheelchair laughing::

You know SOMEWHERE in McPherson somebody is wondering why s/he's not high right now -- because you KNOW they were thinking, "Ambulance. Windows down. Let's get their good stuff!"

Secret Pleasures

Watching somebody actually get a ticket for illegally parking on the blue hatched lines next to a handicapped parking spot, effectively blocking the PWD owner of the van legally parked in the handicapped parking spot from using the van's wheelchair lift AND blocking the only ramp the PWD could use to get off the apartment sidewalk to walk to campus.

We won't tell him who called the cops on him.