I eradicated Christmas

It's gone, baby. Not a light or a candle or a sprig of evergreen to be seen. Feels good.

E-readers

I asked for an e-reader for Christmas, and after checking out all the options, Dave got me an iPad. He said it does so much more for the slightly larger investment that he couldn't justify buying another type of device. Anyway, as an e-reader, I love it! I've already downloaded and read two books, and am shopping for a third!

I wouldn't have believed it could be so "book-like" to read on an electronic screen! And I love the instant gratification--no drive to Borders, no waiting for Amazon.

With all that said, I can't see myself ever completely giving up real books. I hope books stay around forever.

As far as the iPad goes, I haven't tried to use any of its other functions other than reading. Where technology is concerned, I move slowly.

A huge weight has been lifted

I finished my out-of-town family Christmas shopping today and will ship it tomorrow.

Now I can be happy!

Very Cool!

A fun and amazing use of youtube!

Click here, and make your own kind of music!

Shades of 4th grade...

Hallie has joined a kickball league. Yes. Kickball. For adults.

Apparently, it's a HUGE kickball league, with something like forty teams. And it's part of a national kickball association. For reals.

I just can't get my head wrapped around it. In fourth grade, the whole idea of kickball was very, very clear to me, though I was not a particularly savvy youth. Kickball was invented by P.E. teachers. It was invented so that clumsy, unathletic children (read: me) who had absolutely no prayer of hitting a small ball in flight with a narrow piece of wood, could at least learn (unwillingly and with no enthusiasm) the basic concepts of sportsmanship and team play. I remember squatting in the outfield, looking for four-leaf clovers amongst the school-yard weeds and hoping one of the big boys didn't kick a ball in my general direction. I seem to recall that my nickname was "Easy Out." These aren't good memories.

So this whole notion of 20-somethings gathering in large groups to play competitive kickball is just boggling my noggin a little.

(I should point out though, that following the games on Kickball Night, there is a very large happy hour at a local bar, attended by hundreds of young single folks. So maybe I DO get it...but I don't see why they couldn't just have the happy hour and skip the kickball part.)

Happy Quasi-holiday?

So I've been thinking about this whole Labor Day thing. It's the kind of holiday-that's-not-really-a-holiday, along with its friend and partner, Memorial Day, that makes me vaguely uncomfortable, year after year. I mean, it's not REALLY a holiday. No gifts. No religious or family significance. No one flies cross-country so they won't have to be away from their family on Labor Day.

What it mostly is is a day off from work for office workers. (On the other hand it's a day of MORE work for retail, restaurant and other service industry folks.)

So why is there this pressure surrounding these types of 3-day weekends? Why do I always feel vaguely defensive about NOT planning to grill things and drink copious amounts of beer and hang around in a swimsuit all day? Why do I feel I let people down when they ask, "Got any big plans for Labor Day?" and I sheepishly reply, "Well...I guess we'll watch some tv, maybe do a couple of loads of laundry, maybe go out for some tacos later on." Clearly, based on the response I get from this reply, this is not the sort of big Labor Day plans they expected to hear about.

Fortunately the Dubious Holidays are over for a nice long spell. (But don't even get me started about Valentine's Day, the "holiday" where no matter WHAT you do for your loved one, you feel like a failure...)

Belly. Rusty. With spots.

Two Words:

COLLEGE FOOTBALL!!!!

25 years ago today

She entered the world, and she's made my world a sunnier place every day since then!

Happy, happy birthday to my beautiful Hallie!

More stuff

1. Bare Minerals: This isn't news to anyone, but I still love the stuff. No oil slick on my face, no "line" around my jawline, no fake look. It just makes you look better. And it's naturally SPF 15, to boot.

2. Benefit concealers and brow products: These are a perfect partnership with my Bare Minerals. I dab on the concealing and highlighting products first, then dust the Bare Minerals on top of that. I especially like the brow kit and the Eye Bright product. And if you use the Boing cream concealer and then set it with a little bit of the wonderful Bare Minerals Bisque powder concealer, you can hide ANYTHING, all day.

The brow kit contains a wax that you brush onto your brows, then a powder that adheres to the wax. (I use a Bare Minerals charcoal colored powder instead of theirs--brown powder doesn't blend at all well with my black eyebrows.) But I love the way the wax stuff keeps my eyebrows neat and in line all day, and the combo of the wax and powder hides thin spots and graying eyebrows and stays on all day. It's amazing how nice eyebrows make your eyes pop!

And as little of these products as you need to use, these kits are probably a better approach than buying full-sized packages of the products.

I love makeup. But you knew that.

Some stuff I like:

1. Aquafor: it's sort of like super-vaseline. I often put it on my feet, which tend to be dry, before I go to sleep at night. But I use it anywhere I have dry skin. I put it on my face, around my mouth, outside corners of my eyes, any place easily irritated, before I put on my Retin A at night. In the winter when I get REALLY dry, I will put it on all over when I'm still damp from the tub, and it stays moisturized all day. It's an excellent lip balm/chapstick substitute. It is a wonderful, all-purpose intense moisturizer.

2. Vaseline Sheer Infusion lotion: This is the most astounding body lotion I have ever encountered. I don't know what sort of revolutionary ingredient they came up with, but all their claims are true. I've been using this all over, all summer, but especially on my legs and arms with their fading Mexico tan, and it's just...well, almost weird how damp and moist feeling it leaves your skin, and it stays this way all day, until it's washed off. I've never seen anything like it. Hallie got me a bottle and said "Mom, you won't believe me if I tell you about this stuff--you just have to try it." I'm hooked. If you're going to use anything on my little list, use this.

Now why don't they make something using this breakthrough for the face????

3. Badger Balm Sleep Balm: Ok, so maybe it's a placebo effect, but I SWEAR I sleep noticeably better when I rub a little of this below my nose and on my temples. And it smells SO wonderful--lavender and herbs. Somebody put this in my Christmas stocking, and it was instant love.

More to come.

I thought I should say something that didn't involve meat or corn syrup

So last night Dave and Hallie and I went to Taco Tuesday at the Mexican joint down the hill. While I was waiting in the bar with Dave (margaritas are half price on taco Tuesday!), I saw a stocky, smug-looking young gent sitting at the bar with his tattooed buddies, sporting with seeming pride a t-shirt that proclaimed, in huge white capital letters on a black shirt, "Don't Blame Me, I Voted for the White Guy."

Honestly, sometimes I'm just sick that I'm even a human.

And to piggyback off of Urb's comments about foodmakers adding sweetness when they cut fat:

God almighty. Check out THIS article:

Cancer cells slurp up fructose, U.S. study finds

August 2, 2010

REUTERS

WASHINGTON—Pancreatic tumour cells use fructose to divide and proliferate, U.S. researchers said Monday in a study that challenges the common wisdom that all sugars are the same.

Tumour cells fed both glucose and fructose used the two sugars in two different ways, the team at the University of California Los Angeles found.

They said their finding, published in the journal Cancer Research, may help explain other studies that have linked fructose intake with pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest cancer types.

“These findings show that cancer cells can readily metabolize fructose to increase proliferation,” Dr. Anthony Heaney of UCLA’s Jonsson Cancer Center and colleagues wrote.

“They have major significance for cancer patients given dietary refined fructose consumption, and indicate that efforts to reduce refined fructose intake or inhibit fructose-mediated actions may disrupt cancer growth.”

Americans take in large amounts of fructose, mainly in high fructose corn syrup, a mix of fructose and glucose that is used in soft drinks, bread and a range of other foods.

Politicians, regulators, health experts and the industry have debated whether high fructose corn syrup and other ingredients have been helping make Americans fatter and less healthy.

Too much sugar of any kind not only adds pounds, but is also a key culprit in diabetes, heart disease and stroke, according to the American Heart Association.

Several states, including New York and California, have weighed a tax on sweetened soft drinks to defray the cost of treating obesity-related diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

The American Beverage Association, whose members include Coca-Cola and Kraft Foods have strongly, and successfully, opposed efforts to tax soda.

The industry has also argued that sugar is sugar.

Heaney said his team found otherwise. They grew pancreatic cancer cells in lab dishes and fed them both glucose and fructose.

Tumour cells thrive on sugar but they used the fructose to proliferate. “Importantly, fructose and glucose metabolism are quite different,” Heaney’s team wrote.

“I think this paper has a lot of public health implications. Hopefully, at the federal level there will be some effort to step back on the amount of high fructose corn syrup in our diets,” Heaney said in a statement.

Now the team hopes to develop a drug that might stop tumour cells from making use of fructose.

U.S. consumption of high fructose corn syrup went up 1,000 percent between 1970 and 1990, researchers reported in 2004 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Why low fat diets simply don't work:

I know you guys get sick of me harping on this, but here it is, yet AGAIN.

Dietary fat DOES NOT create body fat.

Fat is not, and has never been, the enemy. Sugar is.

Catne-gate 2010 continues

I'm still giving the cat anti-biotics and scrubbing his chin with acne wash daily. It's become so difficult that Hallie has to come over and help me now. I've had to close off every room in the house that has a door, otherwise he'll go under a bed and literally not come out for 24 hours. The idiot would rather starve than have his chin washed, apparently.

In other news, after over six months of steadfast dieting with absolutely no weight lost, I referred myself to an endocrinologist and requested a thyroid work-up. He immediately noted that I have "multinodular goiter" (bumps on my thyroid, for all you non-doctors), so I had to have an ultrasound of my thyroid gland. I also have to have some blood tests for Hashimoto's disease, but they're supposed to be fasting, and every single day, today included, I wake starving and say to myself "heck, I'll just eat breakfast today and go do the test tomorrow."

In closing, may I just say that I LOVE my Sonicare electric toothbrush. Dave and I have small arguments, when one of us goes out of town, about who gets to have the toothbrush. It's to the point where to keep the peace, we may each have to have our own toothbrush base and charging station.

That is all.

Pancho's

Yes, our friends DID bring a lot of teenagers!

Why you don't wear a long skirt on the beach....

I think I carried about 5 gallons of water plus a goodly load of sand in my hemline around with me for the rest of that day. Did I mention that cotton knit dries VERY slowly?

Cat-ne

Hallie and I just got back from five days in Cabo. Our friends had a villa at Sunset Beach for two weeks and invited us to join them for a few days. It was relaxing, but I've honestly had enough Mexico/margaritas/sand in my crack to do me for this year. So it's just as well that I'm home for the duration now.

When we got back, we noticed that sweet Mickey, our very shy and gentle tuxedo cat, had an explosion of red lumps and bumps all over his chin. The verdict from the vet--Mickey has cat acne. They had to shave his poor chin, then they popped all his zits and sent him home with a bottle of acne wash and 21 days worth of antibiotics. It's like 8th grade all over again.

here you go, Em (hee hee)

we're back

and it was glorious

hooray for vacay!

We're off for a week South of the Border.

The airport shuttle is picking us up at 4:50 tomorrow morning.

See you broards in a week!

It's all about the timing...

And mine was bad today. I was putting along happily enough in my brave little toaster (Honda Element), headed eastbound on the dreaded 91 freeway. Why is it dreaded? Well, because it is the only way for the millions and millions of residents of Orange County and the southerly parts of Los Angeles County to get through the pass in the Santa Ana mountains and proceed in an easternly fashion. In other words, it's the only way to get to Vegas, Palm Springs, Lake Havisu and all the other getaway places that Angelenos go on holiday weekends.

But was I worried? No way--it was only 10:00 in the morning, and traffic was light. It's not a trip I'd make after noon on a Friday, but it was plenty early. I was headed toward a store I really like in another town, that was having a one-day 40% off sale. I literally have to wedge new purchases into my closet at this point, but gosh, I hate to miss a sale. This is one I was most certainly meant to miss.

Suddenly, on the highway about 20-30 cars ahead of me, I see THIS: a huge fireball suddenly appeared, and black smoke billowed everywhere. Brakes flew on all around me, and we all came screeching to a sudden halt. An oil tanker a quarter mile ahead of me had overturned and exploded into a gigantic ball of flame.

Two hours later, we were still there. It was like some kind of surreal picnic. Car doors stood open and people milled about, chatting. Some cars got themselves turned sideways, and some even backwards in the hope of somehow reaching the on-ramp behind us and getting off the highway. The guys in the car behind me passed out water bottles to those in need. I befriended the truckers in the vehicles next to me, and they regularly updated me about what they were hearing on their radios. (Road closed for possibly 8 hours, maybe more?)

People started getting a little panicky. Some little kids were crying for a bathroom. An enterprising group of strong guys pushed a concrete barrier over, and people scrambled over it to use the port-a-potty at a construction site along the highway. A lady with a baby in her arms was walking around crying. Meanwhile, the ball of flame and the black smoke just got bigger.

It was oddly quiet, because no traffic could get through on the six lanes of the west-bound side. They were empty. In the other six lanes on our side, everyone had long-since turned off their engines to save fuel. All you could hear was a half dozen news helicopters circling overhead.

Suddenly, a buzz arose in the crowd. Behind us, to the west, you could see the large trucks begin cautiously backing down the road. A space had been cleared, and cars were taking turns either backing, or if they were small enough, turning around to drive normally down the on-ramp a half-mile or so behind us. My little Element was easy enough to turn around in a small space, so I got myself pointed backwards and ready to go the wrong way down the on-ramp, when my turn finally came. Once I finally got off the highway, finding a way to get across and get back on it toward home was my next challenge. There are no surface streets through the Santa Ana Canyon, so I had to continue eastward until I was out of the canyon, get across to the other side, and then find a way on (along with the thousands of other cars who'd been diverted off the freeway.

Three hours after my adventure began, at 1:00, I finally found myself pointed back to the west, and was able to quickly return the five miles or so back to home. Traffic on the 91 is backed up for dozens of miles in both directions. As I made my way back toward LA and away from the desert, I could see RV's and toy-haulers and campers, and of course the ever-present 18 wheelers stretched in an unending line as far as the eye could see.

I would not be surprised if they are still there at midnight, trying desperately to get out of the city.

And I have learned my lesson about unnecessary shopping expeditions.

Mmmmmm.......Easter eggs......

Just to make you smile.

Pentecost

Here's my art project: a "doves and tongues of fire" mobile for the chancel of my church. I also decorated the Table with seven red candles (for the seven gifts of the Spirit), a dove, and a collection of bells representing the rush of wind described in Acts 2.

I thought it came out very, very well!

Tits and such

I have suddenly realized that I am really, REALLY tired of those hard, molded foam, violently-thrusting-forward bras. I look back longingly on the days of soft, stretchy bras that didn't stand up all by themselves. You could tell there were some actual breasts in there somewhere.

From this day forward, I'm going to just Say No to Foam.

More Betsy

Heeeeeeere's Betsy!

We got a new kitty!

Her name is Betsy and she looks a little bit like an ocelot. Pictures tomorrow.

Kitty Shopping

Hallie and I went to Petsmart today to get a new kitty. They had quite a few sad-looking adult cats, who tore my heart out, but I want a kitten. I think it'll be easier on Mickey that way.

The only kittens they had were two pairs of siblings--two very young gray kittens, a male and a female, and two slightly older brothers, one tuxedo and one a strangely colored siamese mix. They brothers were SO cute--absolutely insane, doing cartwheels and summersaults and flying all over the little room they were being kept in. Hallie had a FIT over them, and was bound and determined that we'd take them, but I just don't want three cats. I think bringing home two crazy, boisterous little boys would do poor, shy Mickey in. I tried to talk them into letting me take the pale one, but the Cats in Need ladies refused to split up the brothers.

So we came home with no cat (and a very mad Hallie.)

Maybe next Saturday.

Book Club panic

My book club will be here in little over 3 hours. My house is a whirlwind of shoes, newspapers, empty coffee mugs and glasses, piles of junk mail.

Am I getting ready? No. I'm sitting here talking to you. What's wrong with me, anyway?

Time to go fire up the vacuum.

Update for Spidey

Here I am, with an update for Spidey, but I haven't got much to say.

Christmas is put away, and rapidly fading into memory. We went to our last party last night--an annual staff Epiphany party. (We can't really have a staff Christmas party. Much like retail workers, church workers work more and harder in December than any other time.)

I am in a long stall with my weight loss efforts. I think moving forward from this point is going to take some serious focus, so I'm working on drumming that up.

I'm thinking about getting another kitty so Mickey won't be lonely (although frankly, he seems thrilled to be an only child), but I don't feel quite ready to do it. I'm not through mourning for Bubsy yet.

It is sunny and windy here, and predicted to get near 80 degrees. Forgive me, midwesterners, but I just don't miss midwestern winters at all. I hope you all thaw very soon.

That's all!