Musings
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Crap
Does this mean I have to give up my diet coke addiction? I have a lot of the risk factors for osteoporosis…but on the other hand, I don’t want to turn into one of those people that overreact every time a medical report comes out warning of the dangers of this or that. So if a report says don’t eat butter, I look at the evidence, and try to decide whether or not I’ll eat butter. Generally, my motto is moderation in all things, and you’re fine. But I don’t drink diet coke in moderation. I drink 4 or 5 diet cokes a day. It clears my head and gets…
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Time for Bloggy Love
Last month, I was on the ball, and gave a ‘perfect post’ award. I kind of thought of doing that again, but for me to do that would mean keeping the idea in the back of my head all dang month, and remembering which blog would be worthy, and comparing it to others that would be worthy, etc. etc. etc. I know, I can copy and paste the URL into a draft, or I could go all 20th century and write them down on a piece of PAPER or something, but instead, I just think, “Wow, that was good stuff”, leave my comment, and move on. I read great stuff…
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Autumn
raindrops pattering cool crisp air in our faces first rain of the year That was my first attempt at a haiku. Sorry ’bout that. For those of you who live in green states, meaning states where it doesn’t turn brown and dry and brittle in the summer, where you get rain or snow all year round, you don’t know how refreshing it is to know that the green hills will be returning…it’s nice. Last night was our first rain this season…we went out for a walk in the drizzle, and listened to it pattering down on our umbrellas. We had to towel off the dog when we got home. We…
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Fashion DON’TS
You all know of my obsession with What Not To Wear. I love to see them take a person with a misguided sense of fashion, and turn them into a lemming fashion plate in one short week. Really, for all that the folks DO tend to come out looking a bit cookie-cutterish, they ALWAYS look 150X better than they did going in. Well, after a particulary entertaining episode yesterday, when the victim participant (Eddie, over there on the left) reminded me of no-one so much as Bobcat Goldthwait in Scrooged, I had to go look at the website. While there, I saw that one of the host/stylists, Clinton Kelly, had…
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Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Did anyone watch Ellen yesterday? I don’t usually watch that format of TV, no Oprah, no Ellen, etc., but for some reason yesterday, after I knocked off from work, I turned it on. Her guest was Sheryl Crow, talking about her fight with Breast Cancer. When she went for her mammogram, they told her they had concerns, and she should come back in 6 months for a follow up. Thankfully, her OB/GYN didn’t think waiting was such a good idea, and she got her treatment started right away. Coincidentally (or maybe not, since October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month), the other day I was flipping channels, and came across…
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Weekend Wrap Up
This was one of those weekends where we didn’t do a whole lot. I like those weekends. I like busy weekends, too, but they’re definitely a different experience. I spent entirely too much time working on my blog. I finally got through all 350+ posts and have them categorized the way I want them. I didn’t have a lot of luck with photos…seems like if I want them to be there, I’m going to have to upload them to flickr. Bah, what a pain in the butt.  Might not happen. Don’t hold your breath, just in case. 😉 I had some reading in mind…I bought a few magazines at the store…
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Determined by an actual conversation in my house…
Meat/Animals I will eat: Chicken Beef Buffalo Turkey Lamb Venison Fish (including oysters, clams, crab, etc.) Rattlesnake Iguana Meat/Animals I will NOT eat: Veal Brains, Liver, etc. Cat Dog Horse Mr. Spock (because he’s 1/2 human, DUH) The Blob from Outer Space (don’t know what it is….might make me sick) Cylons from Battlestar Galactica UPDATED TO ADD: I will not eat eyeballs of any kind, squirrels, or possum. For those of you wanting to know. ;)Â
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Misc. Friday Stuff
1st off, I’m really enjoying Maya’s caterpiller. Yesterday, I thought it was getting ready to go into its little cocoon, so I moved it into my ‘office’ so I could watch it. (Maya was at school all day, so she wasn’t missing it or anything.) It didn’t cocoon, though, it was just molting, but it was very cool to watch it eat eat eat all day. It’s a VERY hungry caterpiller. I tried to take a beautiful picture of it, but my camera isn’t up to the task, and they all came out blurry. If you want to see a beautiful picture of what I was going for, check here. (Used without…
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New Digs
Welcome to my new home. I still have some moving in to do…I’m going to try to bring over my HaloScan comments (maybe…that seems kind of daunting, actually), and then I have to go through my entire blog, post by post, categorize them, and clean up any broken pictures, that kind of thing. But I kind of thought, I would rather just move over, so I can get started. If you’re wondering WHY I moved, it was a combination of things. Blogger has a lot of problems, and I’m hoping to have better luck on my own domain here. Blogger beta has categories, but I haven’t tried it yet, so…
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Killer Popcorn?
Have any of you heard of the dangers of microwave popcorn? I first read of it at Pureland Mountain, though I can’t link to the post anymore. On Saturday, I heard a story on NPR about the dangers of working at popcorn plants. The danger comes from the butter flavoring that is added to some microwave popcorn, and the danger is to the employees who work there. Some people have died, and many others are suffering from serious health effects to their lungs. Some popcorn manufacturers have voluntarily imposed safer methods of making their popcorn, while others are ignoring the danger, and I suspect won’t make any changes until federal…
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Romantic? Or Realist?
Every once in awhile, I’ll be talking to someone, and they’ll mention that someone is (or isn’t) their ‘soulmate’. The idea, the way I understand it, is that there is one person out there, who is perfect for you, and assuming you want to be in a relationship, you have to find them. I find this difficult to believe. Also, somewhat depressing. What if they’re perfect for you, but they get hit by a car, and you never get to meet them? What if they’re already married? What if they’re perfect for you, but they’re in Sudan, and you’re in Stockton, and you never have a chance to meet? What…
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Elephant Appreciation
Yesterday was Elephant Appreciation Day*. I thought it was September 23rd, but I was wrong, and thus, I missed it. But really, is it ever too late to appreciate elephants? And, since elephants in the wild are pretty much in Africa and India and Southeastern Asian countries, shouldn’t I have celebrated on Thursday night? Do elephants care about such things? I’ll admit that I never had much of an opinion about elephants growing up. I mean, they’re big, and they’re kind of prehistoric looking, but what else? Dumbo? Dumbo’s cute. That’s about as far as I went. Then, when I was an International Relations major in college, we watched a…
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Calling all Gramarians
Awhile ago, I posted a list of thirteen grammar mistakes that bug me. If you like that kind of thing, you might enjoy listening to this. It’s “To The Best Of Our Knowledge”, from NPR, and it talks about IM and text messaging, but also about changes to grammar in general. My favorite part so far is an interview with the author of “Woe is I“. I’m about 2/3 through (Have it on my iPod, and I listen while I walk the dog…), and I’m enjoying it. Hope you do as well.
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My Horse Picture
When I was maybe 7 or 8 years old, my mom worked as both a Montessori school teacher, and because we all know how well teaching pays (esp a private school), she also worked at a local restaurant. The restaurant, as I remember it, was next door to a small art gallery, where they sold paintings by local artists. I’m not sure how we ended up going inside the gallery, but we did, and I fell in love with one of the paintings. It was of two horses, running in a field, and it was painted on a piece of wood. My love of horses knew no bounds, and this…
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Dealbreakers
I was reading Dooce yesterday. I don’t usually read her blog, because when someone gets 400+ comments on a post about nothing at all, I get a little jealous, and I don’t want to hang with them anymore. Of course, she never knew I was hanging with her to begin with. Anyway, once in awhile, I’ll come back and check out her blog, and see what’s new in Dooceland. On this particular day, she was talking about her friend Maggie (who is cousin to a friend of ours), another big time blogger, and how she has a book out called No One Cares What You Had for Lunch: 100 Ideas…