Friday, January 08, 2010

Winter in Oklahoma . . . or Iowa or Nebraska

Just about anywhere except central Ohio, where we got 4" last night and the streets are clear. My exercise class didn't meet today because the schools are closed. We meet in a church and it's been 15-50 years since most of us were pregnant, including our leader, my husband.

This poem was seen at Staci's, and she borrowed it from her niece who lives in Iowa.

It's winter in Oklahoma
And the gentle breezes blow,
70 miles per hour
at 25 below!

Oh, how I love Oklahoma
When the snow's up to your butt;
You take a breath of winter air
And your nose is frozen shut.

Yes, the weather here is wonderful,
I guess I'll hang around.
I could never leave Oklahoma,
'Cause I'm frozen to the ground.

It's too late for me, but

when they perfect that fat transfer for facial wrinkles and the back of the hands, I'm in!
    The source for the fat [to enlarge breasts] is typically from the thigh, buttocks, or thighs. The fat is usually harvested and prepared in a process right before the fat transfer. The survival rate for the transferred fat cells depends on a number of things. Factors include the method of fat retrieval, the method of fat preparation, and method for depositing the fat cells. Doctors will generally inject more fat cells than what the final desired result will be. This is because a percentage will be naturally reabsorbed by the body.

    Recovery time for breast augmentation using fat transfer is much quicker than other forms of breast augmentation. This is because the process is less invasive than the surgery required for saline implants. Results for breast augmentation using fat transfer so far, so good. link

Thursday, January 07, 2010

Thursday Thirteen Rerun edition

I originally wrote this in December 2006, about 3 years ago; 13 things I was wondering about. Still haven't answered these important questions, some of which were making small headlines that year.


This is the season of wonder, so I've been wondering, in no particular order, while you've all been fighting the crowds at the mall:

1) Have Catholics advanced spiritually more with the vernacular rather than the unifying language of Latin?

2) Do Lutherans, Methodists and Presbyterians have a better grasp of the gospel with loud rock music?

3) If every household now has 2 or 3 fuel efficient cars, are we really better off, environmentally speaking, than when we had one gas hog that could hold six people comfortably?

4) Has bussing children for 45-60 minutes to and from school ever improved the quality of education or even built friendships and understanding among the races and income groups?

5) How many lawyers will get rich from restaurant operators (passing the costs on to us) trying to figure out compliance with Ohio's new minimum wage law (now part of our constitution) and the anti-smoking bans?

6) What do little children strapped into safety seats in automobiles think about or learn listening to mommy chatter on the cell phone while ignoring them?

7) Do restaurant employees really "lávase las manos" before leaving the restroom?

8) Do baseball caps on guys really hide thinning hair, or do they increase the fallout and make it difficult to give their wives a kiss?

9) Will Nicole Kidman change Keith Urban's drinking behavior or has she made another bad marriage?

10) Will the visual quality and intellectual content of YouTube be a passing fad?

11) Do gun enthusiasts, hunters and collectors really need assault weapons?

12) Did George Clooney really share his bed with Max his 300 lb. pet pig and could this be the real reason he's not married?

13) Does sloppy, loose clothing hide weight gain or does it visually add pounds?

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Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others’ comments. It’s easy, and fun!

The husband store

This came from a Chinese-Filipino chat room/forum (I was looking for something else). I think it's old, but oh, so true!
    The Husband Store

    A store that sells husbands has just opened in New York City, where a woman may go to choose a husband.

    Among the instructions at the entrance is a description of how the store operates. You may visit the store ONLY ONCE!

    There are six floors and the attributes of the men increase as the shopper ascends the flights. There is, however, a catch.. you may choose any man from a particular floor, or you may choose to go up a floor, but you cannot go back down except to exit the building.

    So, a woman goes to the Husband Store to find a husband.

    On the first floor the sign on the door reads:

    Floor 1 - These men have jobs and love the Lord.

    The second floor sign reads:

    Floor 2 - These men have jobs, love the Lord, and love kids.

    The third floor sign reads:

    Floor 3 - These men have jobs, love the Lord, love kids, and are extremely good-looking.

    "Wow," she thinks, but feels compelled to keep going.

    She goes to the fourth floor and sign reads:

    Floor 4 - These men have jobs, love the Lord, love kids, are drop-dead good-looking and help with the housework.

    "Oh, mercy me!" she exclaims, "I can hardly stand it!"

    Still, she goes to the fifth floor and sign reads:

    Floor 5 - These men have jobs, love the Lord, love kids, are drop-dead gorgeous, help with the housework, and have a strong romantic streak.

    She is so tempted to stay, but she goes to the sixth floor and the sign reads:

    Floor 6 - You are visitor 4,363,012 to this floor. There are no men on this floor. This floor exists solely as proof that women are impossible to please.

    Thank you for shopping at the Husband Store. Watch your step as you exit the building, and have a nice day!

Random Dozen from Lazy Daisy

1. On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being a cranky-baby-hissy-fitter, how much of a complainer are you? I’m definitely an 8 or a 9. You pick the topic, I’ll complain.

2. When someone else is talking, do you listen, or are you thinking about what you're going to say in response? Not such a good listener. And the harder I concentrate on listening, the worse it gets. I call it a learning disability--auditory dyslexia--sounds better and more PC than interrupting.

3. I just deleted 1062 messages from my email account. Do you have any plans for a clean sweep this month--of anything? After my bruce dot six ended up with several hundred, I cleaned up a few every day and then finally began reusing it. Terrible spam at that account. Now I clean out everyday. The basement storage areas are waiting--last did that 3 years ago.

4. Tell us about your perfume. Was it a gift? What does it remind you of? Do you have a signature scent? Rarely use it because my favorites are no longer made. But do occasionally use Cachet.

5. What is your best organizing tip for the new year? I’m not sure this is organizational, but I did bring the exercycle in from the garage to my office. The garage looks better, and if I work at it, so will I. In the winter it's 10 degrees in the garage and in the summer it's about 90 and I'm at Lakeside!



6. What is your favorite comic strip? I’ve never followed comic strips.

7. Do you sleep with a fluffy or flat pillow? For years I used a down pillow, then discovered if I went to flat and firm, my arm was no longer numb in the morning.

8. What color is your kitchen? Why did you choose that color? Beige, Khaki and cream. I’m a rather dull person, so it suits. I love deep rich colors in others' homes, but don't want to live with them. If I could find this wall paper, I’d do it over. One of the previous owners installed it.

9. What‘s the most interesting bumper sticker you’ve seen? Oh, I love all the liberal ones. They’re so snarky and clever and full of self-righteousness. They make me laugh remembering my past.

10. Do you prefer an expensive writing tool or whatever is lying around? (Are you a Montblanc or a Papermate?) I’m definitely a #2 BIC--have them in all colors and sizes. I carry them with me for my blogging drafts.

11. What chore doesn’t feel like a chore you just enjoy it (at least most of the time)? Writing letters. I’d rather write than pick up the phone. I have most of the letters I wrote to my parents over 40 years, and boy are they a snooze, but I know every slip up and accomplishment I ever made.

12. If your parents often repeated themselves, what is something one of them said more than once? My parents, both of them, were just full of advice, so I come by it naturally. I could count on my father to remind me to put on an apron even when I was 60. Mom always subtly tried to get me to lower the volume (she was deaf when I was growing up) and be more gentle. She was a good example, but apparently that’s not what it takes. Genes matter. But I do usually wear an apron now.

Why the kids got gift cards for Christmas

This is really cute--didn't see it in time for Christmas.



However, they gave us some neat stuff--subscription/memberships, ink cartridges for my printer, a beautiful framed replica of the Declaration of Independence, an itsy-bitsy TV, under the cabinet radio/cd player, hand cream, a right-size skillet, and of course an afternoon of their time, which is always the best gift for anyone.

HT Writers dogs, and Germans

Winter Weddings

Doesn't that sound romantic? This morning at the coffee shop I heard a couple discussing a winter wedding where they sang up near Cleveland the day after New Year's in extreme weather--but it all turned out well. The church was near the hotel where all the other events took place and the men were even able to gather early for the football games. The worst winter wedding I attended was that of Cheri and Donal O'Mathuna, and it was during one of Columbus' freak April blizzards. At one of my other blogs, Lynne is guest blogger and writes about attending our classmate Ebba's wedding during a 24" snow storm in 1964. It looks like Illinois is being socked in again today--our snow is expected a little later today.

Today's new word--Myocardial Infarction

This isn't a new word, but when I see it in print I do slow down--sort of like a "detour ahead" or Big funny words ahead. A myocardial infarction is a heart attack, and ischemia is lack of oxygen to the heart muscle cells, which may have been caused by plaque, a build up of fatty junk, in the arteries which supply the blood to the heart.

Whether or not you listen to Rush Limbaugh, heart attacks (myocardial infarction) have been in the news, either because you heard his confirmation of the excellent care he received from EMTs and at a hospital in Hawaii after experiencing severe chest pain (including aspirin and nitroglycerin tablet before getting to the hospital) or you heard one of the many MSM talkers complaining that he had politicized his emergency by announcing the U.S. has the best health care in the world.



Actually, that's not at all political--although the liberal talkers made it that way. First of all, heart disease is the leading cause of death because our excellent health care and research have pushed it to the top by eliminating so many of the childhood diseases that used to kill or weaken us--scarlet fever, polio, early onset diabetes, measles, etc. Both liberals and conservatives and libertarians should be able to agree that there are many health concerns that only the federal government can tackle--like clean water and air, safe highways, speed limits, and food purity, etc. The political challenge comes in deciding how far can you go in eliminating all risk without destroying people's ability to earn a living so they don't succumb to other health problems--like starvation and freezing for instance.

Secondly, I can't recall ever talking to anyone in the last decade who was rushed to the ER with chest pains who didn't rave about the near miraculous care they received. While Rush was explaining the procedures as he remembered them, a cardiologist from central Illinois called the show (that's called "down state" for those of you not from that area since Chicago overwhelms everything else) and reported that what Rush described was exactly what anyone would receive at his small hospital, regardless of insurance, gender, or celebrity. Rush put his emergency care on his credit card because he's one of the millions of Americans who chooses not to use health insurance, which is his right at this time, but will not be under the new PORK (Pelosi-Obama-Reid-Kennedy) Plan. Liberals continue to quote inaccurate stats--it's not 47 million--and the PORK Plan will not cover all the 10% of our citizens who currently do not have insurance because of choice, neglect to sign up, or being between jobs, or lack of money. Also, no health plan in the world will make Rush exercise more or lose weight or stop smoking cigars--that's the same option we all have regardless of our insurance, lectures from the family doctor, or New Year's Resolutions. He loves his steak, his exercise seems to be limited to golf outings and jaw boning, and he probably doesn't like vegetables. Everyone should know Yo-Yo dieting is unhealthy, but he's a poster child for that method of weight control.

However, he's right about our quality of care. He was treated immediately and didn't need a queue for tests to return when the damage was unrepairable. A free-market economy, whether for heart attacks or building automobiles or publishing on the Internet, is the healthiest way to go for Americans. It is our regulators, unions, creeping socialism in every aspect of life, and our federal bureaucracy that are increasingly plugging up the arteries of our economy with fatty barriers.

BTW, if you google "Myocardial infarction Rush Limbaugh" you get only one hit (now there will be two)--I think it was Money Times (it reports he makes about $50 million a year). You have to use "heart attack" to get all the articles, bizarre comments and smear attacks. That one source linked to over 3,000 that used other language.

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Waffly wedded wife



It's good to have a few laughs.

Wrong question, NPR

"The headlines of the past day and a half, no matter how much Democrats would love to spin them, don't look especially good. Sen. Byron Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota, announces he will retire. Gov. Bill Ritter, Democrat of Colorado, says he won't run again. And now comes the news that Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat who chairs the Senate Banking Committee, declared at noon today that he will pack it in after five terms -- longer than any Connecticut senator in history.

Yesterday afternoon also came the news that Michigan Lt. Gov. John Cherry, the clear Democratic frontrunner to succeed term-limited Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D), withdrew from the race.

And all this comes a week after a freshman Democratic congressman from northern Alabama -- Parker Griffith -- switched to the GOP. It's the first time in history that the district will be represented by a Republican in the House.

What to make of all this?" NPR Political Junkie

Here are my questions. How much are they being paid? What think tank will take them in? Will Reid be next? For whom will they consult? Lobbyists have never been more welcome at the White House. Dodd should be in jail, not in the Senate.

All you have to do is Google, "Dodd Ritter Dorgan"--Cherry and Griffith were by-products.

Atlantic

Air America

Beltway Blips

PrimeBuzz

America Rising

This is better than you'll see in most theaters and Hillbuzz says you better see it quickly because the Obots are coming after it. Hillbuzz also questions the YouTube counter system.

Eating from the pantry

That's the title of today's food blog at the Columbus Dispatch. Occasionally I have to do that, because I don't plan menus, and increasingly have become careless about planning my shopping (I was quite good about planning ahead when I was working). But if there's one diet and budget trick I've learned over the years, it's DO NOT buy in quantity. You need those fresh fruits and vegetables, and you can't expect them to last. Also, every overweight person I know keeps huge stores of food in the house, and always accumulates leftovers, which they use as an excuse to "clean up" (eat). I doubt that it saves much money if you really keep track of prices. The super jumbo size is not always the best buy per ounce or pound. Also, every grocery store has weekly "loss leaders," and even if you avoid coupons the way I do, you can always pick up a good deal with those.

However, on my grocery shopping day, which is usually Monday or Tuesday, I do tend to clean out the tired and poor that have taken up residence in the frig yearning to be free. Monday this week I made sweet potato soup--and I did make it a few weeks ago, but this one was better because I didn't toss in the slightly sharp fresh pineapple that wasn't very fresh anymore. Cooking tip: pineapple is too stringy to go through an old blender that's about 35 years old. So here's the recipe:
    1 can (14 oz) of chicken broth
    1 medium onion, cut in pieces
    1 medium white potato, peeled and cut in pieces
    2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut in pieces
    1 small carrot, peeled and cut in pieces (this is just for color in case your sweet potatoes are pale)
    Bring to boil, reduce heat. After the veggies are tender scoop them out and run through the blender.
    Add about 1 cup of half and half, or can of evaporated milk, or regular milk.

    Return to sauce pan and the remaining broth. Just a smidgen of cinnamon really brings out the flavor.

    The white potato is for thickening, just as in broccoli soup, but I suppose you could use flour or corn starch.
This soup was very hearty and thick. My husband scraped every bit out of his bowl; served with a bowl of fresh fruit and sugar free brownie for dessert.

And that's another item. Pillsbury reduced-sugar brownie mix didn't sit long in the pantry. In fact, I made it on Monday. I would give it a B+. It's very hard to make low or sugar free favorites taste right (uses Splenda), but this was very close, and served with a little sugar-free vanilla ice cream, "it wasn't half bad," as my grandpa use to say.

Where is the transparency?

Not that we knuckle dragging, AGW skeptics and right wing wackos believed that campaign promised, but since he made it and continues to spout it as though it were actually happening, he should be held to it.
    Obama met with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer in the Oval Office [yesterday] and with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin joining via telephone.

    Although they did not share the details of the meeting, Obama and top Democrats are expected to use informal, back-room negotiations to get a final bill without using the conference committee process.

    That's because the process opens up the pro-abortion health care bill to more filibuster attempts in the Senate that could see the defeat of the legislation or postponing it long enough that it can't be approved.

    The process has come under fire from Republicans and pro-life advocates and even CSPAN got involved in the debate by sending a letter asking to cover the conference committee. Life News
And how about that EPA? Actually it is being very transparent--it's just by-passing our elected members of Congress right out in the open. Maybe that's the kind of transparency he really meant? Just openly by-pass the federal laws? Miniscule regulatory poo-bah Czars have enormous power in all areas of our lives, and it didn't start with the current administration.

Let's give Congress one more chance to show a spine and support Republican state senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts against the Democratic flunky to replace Ted Kennedy. A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters in the state finds AG Martha Coakley (huge support from ACORN) ahead of Brown 50% to 41%, but among "certain voters" he's within two points.

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Return to sender--Craig Becker, SEIU

Sneaking Health Care through on Christmas Eve and a terrorist plot on Christmas Day weren't the only events we needed to watch. We could've missed this one.
    "Amid the health care and debt debates on Dec. 24, the Senate conducted a bit of low-profile but welcome business, sending back to the White House a number of controversial nominees made by President Obama.

    Included in the list of too-hot-to-touch nominees is Craig Becker, counsel for the Service Employees International Union nominated to serve on the National Labor Relations Board. Becker has proposed a radical shifting of employee-employer relations to force unionization of workplaces. The National Association of Manufacturers formally opposed his nomination.

    Despite Becker’s outside-the-mainstream views, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee confirmed his nomination without even holding a hearing to hear Becker’s testimony. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) subsequently put a hold on Becker’s nomination." Full story.
ACORN'S Ally--WSJ

A radical by the board

Obama owes SEIU and ACORN

Ready for prime time--the Deka arm

You don't need to be a techie or nerd to find this story of wedding engineering, surgery and computers absolutely fascinating. These dollars are well spent! From the Black Anthem web site.

A career with a future--terrorism studies

There was Russian Language and Area Studies, Black Studies, Women's Studies, and now, a Graduate Certificate in Terrorism Studies

"The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) is a U.S. Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence, tasked by the Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate with using state-of-the-art theories, methods, and data from the social and behavioral sciences to improve understanding of the origins, dynamics, and social and psychological impacts of terrorism. START, based at the University of Maryland, College Park, aims to provide timely guidance on how to disrupt terrorist networks, reduce the incidence of terrorism, and enhance the resilience of U.S. society in the face of the terrorist threat."

Isn't it odd that when an American born Muslim, member of the military with an elite education shoots up a military base and kills and wounds many Americans, the administration doesn't get too worked up about it. But when a foreign Muslim doesn't bring down a plane and doesn't kill anyone, the administration eventually goes into high gear. Perhaps it's because both these guys had the same mentor in Yemen, so their age, ethnicity, nationality and careers weren't the defining similarity. I wonder if this certificate program teaches profiling? Nah.

Monday, January 04, 2010

Monday Memories--New Year's 1946



This was the first entry in my mother's Commonplace Book, a little 5 x 7 leather bound 3 ring notebook where she pasted items that interested her. As a young child I would sit for hours and pour through what she had saved.

Her final hand written entry (in the scanned copy) is undated; but it was near the end of her life--perhaps the end of 1999. She died in January 2000. There is no attribution other than her name.
    If
    Each day we fill a page
    The year a volume makes
    These last ten books are very full
    of joys
    changes
    sorrow
    growth.
    Gently place this year on the shelf--
    if there is room.
    Close the decade.

Cute crafts from a very busy Mom

Lora is a book club friend, an OSU professor of music and mother of two lively boys who need some special help. At her blog she writes, "At the end of the day at our house, if no one has been to the emergency room, Children's Services has not called, my sweater wasn't on inside out at work, and we have eaten something other than poptarts and donuts for at least one meal, I call it good!" I hadn't checked her blog for awhile and see she's taken up the craft of felting--mittens, Christmas stockings, caps, birds, and really fun monsters! Link here.

My retirement blog

My last entry, Nov. 1, was pretty funny. You'd think I'd have more to say--I'm in my 10th year now. My cousin mentioned in her Christmas card that she was retiring as of Jan. 1, 2010, so I think I'll write a "letter blog" to J. on that topic. However, she's been a teacher, and my experience with other retired teachers is that after a month or two, they go into subbing because it's so much fun to do what they love without all the paper work and committees. Norma's Retirement Blog, Growth Industry.

Even if you can't find it. . .

It never goes away in cyberspace.
    Two ions are walking down the road. Suddenly, one ion says: "Damn, I think I lost an electron!" The other ion says: "Are you sure?" The first ion turns to the other ion and replies: "Yeah, I'm positive!"

    “A recent study done in England discovered that subjects who cursed while in pain could tolerate the pain longer. Experimental subjects inserted their hands in a bucket of very cold ice water and told to curse repeatedly. Results showed that subjects who repeated "f--- U" kept their hands in the cold water longer than subjects repeating non-curse words. Wow, maybe Canadian doctors can now recommend cursing while their clients wait 9 months for treatment for back pain. Can tipsters think of other practical applications of cursing?”
These are two of the topics I came across on the TIPS archive for July 2009, a discussion list for the teaching of psychology that can be searched by thread or date. I’m not sure why lists that require a subscription by people interested in a particular topic, then put their archive online for anyone to see. Most of the topics are serious, but I know that some of the off hand remarks I made on discussion lists back in the early 1990s as a librarian are still out there. That’s scary. I was always the one who didn’t stay on topic.