Today would have been my mother's 91st birthday.
It's snowing.
Took my last Arimidex this morning. Start Femara tomorrow. Googled Femara this morning and am not happy that side effects seem to be equally as bad. Forgot that weight gain is side effect for both drugs so being fat is totally not my fault.
Read all my old entries today (somebody's gotta do it) and see a trend toward cutting and pasting, then commenting on mostly political news. This is not supposed to be a political blog. I hate politics after 30 years of government employment.
My very favorite quote is, "Opinions are like assholes. Everybody's got one." Or maybe its tied with, "Farts smell so deaf people can enjoy them too." That may not be PC but I still find it ROTFLMAO funny.
Had surgery a week ago. Now have nipples. See new internist Monday for high cholesterol and triglycerides (another bonus from Femara to add to my list) Have to remember to check if Arimidex could be contributor. Nothing is ever my fault.
Saw geneticist this past week to find out if I am at risk for ovarian cancer also.
Thank God for Prozac. I am becoming one of those people who talk about nothing but their health issues. Must Find More Interesting Things To Write About...
Received my copy of Sherlock Holmes, Volume One, that I bought off of eBay this week. Complained to my husband that it smelled like old people. He thinks it smells like mothballs so I guess the two are synonymous in my mind. Anyway, it's in a plastic bag with cedar chips to hopefully eliminate the odor. I've heard burying items in clean cat litter also helps. Hey, this turned into a helpful hints post. Maybe there's hope for this blog yet.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Honeymoon Over Already?
I was reading the comments on yesterday's Obama post at MamaPop: http://www.mamapop.com/mamapop/2009/03/it-took-us-a-co.html
I was expecting fawning devotion and was surprised to see dissenting opinions of our POTUS. Where is all the pre-election love? I can't wait to see the reaction to his announcement to send 4000 new troops to Afghanistan.
I was expecting fawning devotion and was surprised to see dissenting opinions of our POTUS. Where is all the pre-election love? I can't wait to see the reaction to his announcement to send 4000 new troops to Afghanistan.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Death Spiral?
In business there is a phenomenon known as the death spiral, in which the measures intended to rescue a company or industry not only fail to stem the losses, they actually accelerate the decline. In the case of newspapers, the loss of readers and advertisers led to cuts in content and features and greater irrelevancy, which led to more lost readers and advertisers, which led to still more cuts, which led to ...
Which leads to the present, potentially fatal predicament for newspapers, or at least the one you're reading now.
What is the lesson for the rest of the business world?
No business or industry is exempt from challenges and competitive threats (what business hasn't been upended by the Internet, or the economy, or both?). None is promised, much less guaranteed, perpetual survival. What matters is not the nature or severity of those challenges, but how well prepared the company or industry is to evade, counter or adapt to those threats. Newspapers weren't; now they're facing the consequences.
By Bill Virgin, Seattle PI columnist. Full article: http://www.seattlepi.com/virgin/403824_virgin17.html?source=mypi
Just got a cold feeling in the pit of my stomach that the above could be applied to the United States and our economic situation. Is China going to own us before this is over?
Which leads to the present, potentially fatal predicament for newspapers, or at least the one you're reading now.
What is the lesson for the rest of the business world?
No business or industry is exempt from challenges and competitive threats (what business hasn't been upended by the Internet, or the economy, or both?). None is promised, much less guaranteed, perpetual survival. What matters is not the nature or severity of those challenges, but how well prepared the company or industry is to evade, counter or adapt to those threats. Newspapers weren't; now they're facing the consequences.
By Bill Virgin, Seattle PI columnist. Full article: http://www.seattlepi.com/virgin/403824_virgin17.html?source=mypi
Just got a cold feeling in the pit of my stomach that the above could be applied to the United States and our economic situation. Is China going to own us before this is over?
Friday, March 13, 2009
Dangerous Breeds
IMPORTANT
If you are an owner of a dog that belongs to a 'dangerous breed' category and you also have a small child please take this as a warning. Don't leave your dog with the child unattended under any circumstances.
Only a moment was enough for this to happen.
Legalizing Marijuana in California
In response, retired Orange County Superior Court Judge James Gray, a longtime proponent of legalization, estimates that legalizing pot and thus ceasing to arrest, prosecute and imprison non-violent offenders could save the state an additional $1 billion a year. "We couldn't make this drug any more available if we tried," he says. "Not only do we have those problems, along with glamorizing it by making it illegal, but we also have the crime and corruption that go along with it." He adds, "Unfortunately, every society in the history of mankind has had some form of mind-altering, sometimes addictive substances to use, to misuse, abuse or get addicted to. Get used to it. They're here to stay. So, let's try to reduce those harms and right now we couldn't do it worse if we tried."
Complete article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090313/us_time/08599188495600
Okay, dude. Forget about right and wrong. We're losing the battle so let's just throw in the towel. What a selfish, ignorant response this is. Thank God he's retired.
Complete article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090313/us_time/08599188495600
Okay, dude. Forget about right and wrong. We're losing the battle so let's just throw in the towel. What a selfish, ignorant response this is. Thank God he's retired.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
I'm Not Old. Just Mature
Today at the drugstore, the clerk was a gent.
From my purchase this chap took off ten percent.
I asked for the cause of a lesser amount;
And he answered, Because of the Seniors Discount.
I went to McDonald's for a burger and fries;
And there, once again, got quite a surprise.
The clerk poured some coffee which he handed to me.
He said, For you, Seniors, the coffee is free.
Understand---I'm not old---I'm merely mature;
But some things are changing, temporarily, I'm sure.
The newspaper print gets smaller each day,
And people speak softer---can't hear what they say.
My teeth are my own (I have the receipt.),
And my glasses identify people I meet.
Oh, I've slowed down a bit...not a lot, I am sure.
You see, I'm not old...I'm only mature.
The gold in my hair has been bleached by the sun.
You should see all the damage that chlorine has done.
Washing my hair has turned it all white,
But don't call it gray...saying blonde is just right.
My car is all paid for...not a nickel is owed.
Yet a kid yells, "Old duffer...get off of the road!"
My car has no scratches...not even a dent.
Still I get all that guff from a punk who's hell bent.
My friends all get older...much faster than me.
They seem much more wrinkled, from what I can see.
I've got character lines, not wrinkles...for sure,
But don't call me old...just call me mature.
The steps in the houses they're building today
Are so high that they take...your breath all away;
And the streets are much steeper than ten years ago.
That should explain why my walking is slow.
But I'm keeping up on what's hip and what's new (Thanks MamaPop)
And I think I can still dance a mean boogaloo.
I'm still in the running...in this I'm secure,
I'm not really old...I'm only mature
From my purchase this chap took off ten percent.
I asked for the cause of a lesser amount;
And he answered, Because of the Seniors Discount.
I went to McDonald's for a burger and fries;
And there, once again, got quite a surprise.
The clerk poured some coffee which he handed to me.
He said, For you, Seniors, the coffee is free.
Understand---I'm not old---I'm merely mature;
But some things are changing, temporarily, I'm sure.
The newspaper print gets smaller each day,
And people speak softer---can't hear what they say.
My teeth are my own (I have the receipt.),
And my glasses identify people I meet.
Oh, I've slowed down a bit...not a lot, I am sure.
You see, I'm not old...I'm only mature.
The gold in my hair has been bleached by the sun.
You should see all the damage that chlorine has done.
Washing my hair has turned it all white,
But don't call it gray...saying blonde is just right.
My car is all paid for...not a nickel is owed.
Yet a kid yells, "Old duffer...get off of the road!"
My car has no scratches...not even a dent.
Still I get all that guff from a punk who's hell bent.
My friends all get older...much faster than me.
They seem much more wrinkled, from what I can see.
I've got character lines, not wrinkles...for sure,
But don't call me old...just call me mature.
The steps in the houses they're building today
Are so high that they take...your breath all away;
And the streets are much steeper than ten years ago.
That should explain why my walking is slow.
But I'm keeping up on what's hip and what's new (Thanks MamaPop)
And I think I can still dance a mean boogaloo.
I'm still in the running...in this I'm secure,
I'm not really old...I'm only mature
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Human Nature
I heard about the mess that the 1.5 million who attended the inauguration left..... Just like NO, they just trash everything, because someone else will take care of them. When will we learn? $21,000,000 Cleanup..... That's 1,500,000 X $14.00!
This is not about politics, this is just plain courtesy, respect, and being proud to be an American. What you see here is not the America I've always been proud of!
From a received e-mail.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Hoover, Truman & Eisenhower
What do Hoover, Truman & Eisenhower have in common? A great way to lower unemployment!
Here is something that should be of great interest for you to pass around.
I didn't know of this until it was pointed out to me.
Back during The Great Depression, President Herbert Hoover ordered the deportation of ALL illegal aliens in order to make jobs available to American citizens that desperately needed work.
Harry Truman deported over two million illegal's after WWII to create jobs for returning veterans.
And then again in 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower deported 13 million Mexican nationals! The program was called 'Operation Wetback' so that American WWII and Korean veterans had a better chance at jobs. It took 2 Years, but they deported them!
Now, if they could deport the illegal's back then, they can sure do it today!! lf you have doubts about the veracity of this information, enter Operation Wetback into your favorite search engine and confirm it for yourself.
Reminder. Don't forget to pay your taxes... 12 million Illegal Aliens are depending on you!
Here is something that should be of great interest for you to pass around.
I didn't know of this until it was pointed out to me.
Back during The Great Depression, President Herbert Hoover ordered the deportation of ALL illegal aliens in order to make jobs available to American citizens that desperately needed work.
Harry Truman deported over two million illegal's after WWII to create jobs for returning veterans.
And then again in 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower deported 13 million Mexican nationals! The program was called 'Operation Wetback' so that American WWII and Korean veterans had a better chance at jobs. It took 2 Years, but they deported them!
Now, if they could deport the illegal's back then, they can sure do it today!! lf you have doubts about the veracity of this information, enter Operation Wetback into your favorite search engine and confirm it for yourself.
Reminder. Don't forget to pay your taxes... 12 million Illegal Aliens are depending on you!
Something not political
But I have a couple of doozies I'm thinking about posting...
Urban wildlife challenges Rondy race
By KEVIN KLOTT
kklott@adn.com
Published: March 1st, 2009 10:14 PM
Last Modified: March 2nd, 2009 01:36 AM
If you think the heart of winter is a safe time to travel along the snowy trails of East Anchorage -- what with grizzly bears asleep in their dens and moose minding their own business -- think again.
Anchorage's Big Wild Life was wide awake and dangerously feisty for the weekend's Fur Rendezvous Open World Championship sled dog race.
A grizzly bear was spotted Saturday after the race on the Fur Rondy trail by Jeff Barnhart, an official with the Alaskan Sled Dog & Racing Association. Fortunately, when Barnhart encountered the animal he was on a snowmachine looking for a camera lost along the trail by one of the Rondy mushers.
He and the bear managed to part ways without anyone getting hurt, but the dog team of Curtis Erhart was not so lucky when it ran into a moose on Sunday, the last day of the three-day event. The ornery moose charged Erhart's team on his way back to the finish line downtown.
The moose wasn't as kind to Erhart as the bear was to Barnhart. Several dogs were injured.
"It was like a slow-motion movie," Erhart said. "I got three (dogs) that are hurt pretty good."
The nightmare started about a mile before the Fairbanks musher reached the Tudor Road bridge.
Erhart was enjoying a smooth run along Rondy's 25-mile trail, which starts on the corner of Fourth Avenue and D Street and follows the city's trail system into Far North Bicentennial Park and Campbell Tract, where it turns back around on the same trail.
Erhart met his match on the homebound trail when he looked up and saw a cow moose walk onto the trail along with her calf about three feet in front of his leaders.
The moose almost immediately began stomping through his 10-dog team.
"I stuck my head up and here it comes right at me head on," he said. "I didn't even see it until it was too late."
He wasn't the only musher to encounter an angry moose.
Before the three-day race even began, disaster struck Buddy Streeper's team. He was on his final, pre-Rondy training run Tuesday in Far North Bicentennial Park when his team encountered a very protective cow moose on the trail.
The moose knocked one of his dogs, Issac, unconscious and kicked at others.
Erhart's team suffered even more damage. Three of his dogs were injured by the attack. Erhart, who luckily escaped injury himself, couldn't give details on the extent of their injuries but said they appeared serious.
Still, he considered the team "lucky," as he finished with all 10 dogs.
The cow and her calf bolted through the heart of his team, kicking and snorting.
Their hooves flying, they came back for another round of blows and broke the snaps that keep dogs running in uniform on the gangline.
Canadian Brent Beck, a fellow musher, and his team came upon the madness and Beck stopped to help Erhart, who had three dogs running loose.
He waited for Erhart to re-harness the dogs and took off for downtown. But the pair of moose charged after his team.
They eventually backed off, Erhart said, probably because they didn't feel like keeping up with Beck's pace. Some sprint teams travel up to 20 mph.
"I'm glad (the moose) eventually ran off the trail," Erhart said.
Barnhart said much the same about the bear. He experienced his spine-tingling wildlife encounter about an hour after Saturday's race had finished.
He was combing the trail on a snowmachine, looking for a camera that one of the mushers had lost.
It was around 3:30 p.m., and snow had been falling all day, so he was driving slowly. He scoured the trail where the camera was thought to be, but turned back, empty-handed.
What he found on his way back home blew his mind.
"I was thinking how strange it was that I hadn't seen a moose or anything," he said.
Moment later, he got a look at some real wildlife. He took his finger off the throttle when a tall and thin grizzly stopped in his way about 20 or 30 yards ahead, staring directly at him.
"God, am I seeing things?" he remembers asking himself. "That's not a moose. That's not a dog, either. That's a big brown bear."
Barnhart had a choice: Put the snowmachine in reverse and follow the trail backwards until he reached an intersection, or go full-throttle forward and hope to scare the bear.
He chose the latter and drove directly at the grizzly.
"She took off and ran up into the hills," he said.
Hopefully headed back for her den. Grizzly bears in the Anchorage area usually stay in hibernation well into April or May, although -- as with bears everywhere -- it is not unheard of for them to wake up during the winter and come out to poke around for a while before going back to sleep.
Urban wildlife challenges Rondy race
By KEVIN KLOTT
kklott@adn.com
Published: March 1st, 2009 10:14 PM
Last Modified: March 2nd, 2009 01:36 AM
If you think the heart of winter is a safe time to travel along the snowy trails of East Anchorage -- what with grizzly bears asleep in their dens and moose minding their own business -- think again.
Anchorage's Big Wild Life was wide awake and dangerously feisty for the weekend's Fur Rendezvous Open World Championship sled dog race.
A grizzly bear was spotted Saturday after the race on the Fur Rondy trail by Jeff Barnhart, an official with the Alaskan Sled Dog & Racing Association. Fortunately, when Barnhart encountered the animal he was on a snowmachine looking for a camera lost along the trail by one of the Rondy mushers.
He and the bear managed to part ways without anyone getting hurt, but the dog team of Curtis Erhart was not so lucky when it ran into a moose on Sunday, the last day of the three-day event. The ornery moose charged Erhart's team on his way back to the finish line downtown.
The moose wasn't as kind to Erhart as the bear was to Barnhart. Several dogs were injured.
"It was like a slow-motion movie," Erhart said. "I got three (dogs) that are hurt pretty good."
The nightmare started about a mile before the Fairbanks musher reached the Tudor Road bridge.
Erhart was enjoying a smooth run along Rondy's 25-mile trail, which starts on the corner of Fourth Avenue and D Street and follows the city's trail system into Far North Bicentennial Park and Campbell Tract, where it turns back around on the same trail.
Erhart met his match on the homebound trail when he looked up and saw a cow moose walk onto the trail along with her calf about three feet in front of his leaders.
The moose almost immediately began stomping through his 10-dog team.
"I stuck my head up and here it comes right at me head on," he said. "I didn't even see it until it was too late."
He wasn't the only musher to encounter an angry moose.
Before the three-day race even began, disaster struck Buddy Streeper's team. He was on his final, pre-Rondy training run Tuesday in Far North Bicentennial Park when his team encountered a very protective cow moose on the trail.
The moose knocked one of his dogs, Issac, unconscious and kicked at others.
Erhart's team suffered even more damage. Three of his dogs were injured by the attack. Erhart, who luckily escaped injury himself, couldn't give details on the extent of their injuries but said they appeared serious.
Still, he considered the team "lucky," as he finished with all 10 dogs.
The cow and her calf bolted through the heart of his team, kicking and snorting.
Their hooves flying, they came back for another round of blows and broke the snaps that keep dogs running in uniform on the gangline.
Canadian Brent Beck, a fellow musher, and his team came upon the madness and Beck stopped to help Erhart, who had three dogs running loose.
He waited for Erhart to re-harness the dogs and took off for downtown. But the pair of moose charged after his team.
They eventually backed off, Erhart said, probably because they didn't feel like keeping up with Beck's pace. Some sprint teams travel up to 20 mph.
"I'm glad (the moose) eventually ran off the trail," Erhart said.
Barnhart said much the same about the bear. He experienced his spine-tingling wildlife encounter about an hour after Saturday's race had finished.
He was combing the trail on a snowmachine, looking for a camera that one of the mushers had lost.
It was around 3:30 p.m., and snow had been falling all day, so he was driving slowly. He scoured the trail where the camera was thought to be, but turned back, empty-handed.
What he found on his way back home blew his mind.
"I was thinking how strange it was that I hadn't seen a moose or anything," he said.
Moment later, he got a look at some real wildlife. He took his finger off the throttle when a tall and thin grizzly stopped in his way about 20 or 30 yards ahead, staring directly at him.
"God, am I seeing things?" he remembers asking himself. "That's not a moose. That's not a dog, either. That's a big brown bear."
Barnhart had a choice: Put the snowmachine in reverse and follow the trail backwards until he reached an intersection, or go full-throttle forward and hope to scare the bear.
He chose the latter and drove directly at the grizzly.
"She took off and ran up into the hills," he said.
Hopefully headed back for her den. Grizzly bears in the Anchorage area usually stay in hibernation well into April or May, although -- as with bears everywhere -- it is not unheard of for them to wake up during the winter and come out to poke around for a while before going back to sleep.
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