AUTHOR: Morticia TITLE: Weddings & Lab Envy STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 1 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Furry family members CATEGORY: Furry family members DATE: 06/28/2004 04:29:47 AM ----- BODY: Another part of our weekend was attending the wedding of a good friend of ours. I was a little worried because it was billed as an outdoors wedding and "summer casual" dress, which I don't really own, but the groom OK'd nice jeans and I was not the only one wearing them, thank goodness. And we (at least Sparky and I) got to spend most of the evening indoors. The back yard and pool were really beautiful, but it's too hot here! We were almost too late, he had told us to arrive a little after the time on the invite, and it was across town from our home, so we ended up actually walking into the backyard just before the ceremony started. Very lovely, very informal ceremony (the bride & groom have been there before, as have a lot of our friends including me & Sparky). The home was really beautiful, and instead of photos of kids there were photos of the owners two Labs all around. When Sparky found out they were actually there on the premises he went nuts. He's been having Lab withdrawal since out 16 year old baby passed away. I have also, though Phoebe keeps us both so busy we're still very undecided about getting another dog. ----- EXTENDED BODY: The dogs were caged in the back of the house and when we went back to see them they were so excited. Our dog had been very calm and quiet in her last years (though her mate, a lab/sheperd mix had been very hyper) and it was strange to have two enormous full bred very happy male Labs rushing at me. They are so lovable, but SO big and so active. We pet them and Sparky drooled over them, and then they went back in their cages for the majority of the evening. Very well-behaved and well-trained dogs, just a bandanna on their necks, not that a collar and leash could have controlled them if they wanted their way. In my first marriage we had gotten a dog (my beautiful male mix breed) who had been my baby. He was very hyper & active, though, and after a year we thought he could use some company, and went and got another black Lab mix female. I was actually planning on getting another male, but Tala picked me out. Together they were an enormous handful, especially after I got divorced. Having two large dogs meant I always had to have a house with a yard, couldn't travel, and just a lot of responsibility. We'd always had dogs growing up, but my dad did most of the work. My dogs were barely trained (they could sit and shake paws for treats), the male could jump 5 and 6 foot fences and the female could climb chain link fences, so I was on constant worry mode. They both made it out of the yard several times each, the female just walked around to front of the house and scratched on the door (smart dog). The male went running out into traffic, once I had to chase him down still wearing a motorcycle helmet and full leathers. Near the end of the party, someone (not us, we were across the house with the hosts fortunately) let the dogs out of their cages and into the main house. Which delighted my husband but caused a panic with the hostess, who had to run around closing off rooms and transferring food out of reach. One of the dogs plunged head first into a bag of garbage, bringing back more memories (the reason I originally bought my kitchen trash can with the step-on lid). We rubbed and petted them both till we got "doggy hands" (more memories, constantly washing our hands, Labs have very oily coats). Most of the people we spoke with at the party (mostly 30-50 range) had either kids or cats. And one woman said as soon as her kid went off to college whe wasn't having anything at all, not a cat, dog, fish or even houseplant. I can sympathize. I never wanted kids, I actually always wanted a cat but didn't grow up with them so I ended up with two high-maintenance dogs instead. Now that I'm a kitty mama, I really am happy, she's not low-maintenance, though, she's Burmese. Sort of like having a tiny Border Collie. But, she's an indoor pet, I don't have to go out in the heat, the rain or the cold in the middle of the night anymore. I do have to be careful what I leave out because she has managed to reach just about every square inch of the house (up to the ceiling itself) which is a new experience. But for now, we're still on the fence, and enjoying the air conditioning... ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Morticia TITLE: Fahrenheit 9/11 STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 1 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Politics CATEGORY: Politics DATE: 06/27/2004 04:27:30 AM ----- BODY: Late entry... though I did begin it on time, my internet service decided to freak out, then my Mac went completely bananas. Further proof of the vast right-wing conspiracy in action ;-) OK, Sparky and I went to see Fahrenheit 9/11 opening night. Very minimal line, but we saw it way out in the burbs, but by the time the film began the theater was completely full, which is pretty impressive for the biggest screen in a 24 screen megaplex. The stunning pre-credit sequence rolled and then the credits began. The audience is too quiet... Michael Moore's name came up on the screen (a pin dropped..). Dammit, I started clapping from the top row, and got a tentative wave of applause going around the house. And, also from the top row, some boos? Wow, why are here? Do you enjoy spending money on films by people you don't like, or did you sneak in after the first showing of "White Chicks" let out? Of course, Sparky yelled back at them, that's all I need (sigh). But the cheers and applause (and gasps and tears) superceded the boos for the rest of the film, it would be hard not to watch little Arab children being blown up (and US soldiers also) and not feel a little remorse and respect. There was so much ground to cover, the Bush connections were just mind-blowing, the editing on this film must have been the hardest part. Sparky and I differed on his representation of 9/11, he thought they should have shown the footage of the buildings, but I honestly think the darkness and screaming, swirls of papers raining down non-stop and the reactions of the observers were more moving. Because everyone has their own memories of that day running through their heads, I think it was more effective to let people use their own imaginations. I think it should have gotten a PG-13, though from what I've seen a lot of theater owners are enforcing their own rating system (remember the "Passion of the Christ", anyone see South Park's take on that?) and letting more teens in. It was the number one film this weekend and the top-grossing documentary ever, yeah, I'd say it's an important film. Back in the 80's, I remember going to a local college to see a film on Bush Sr. and such things as how he deliberately delayed the release of the hostages so that they would be free as soon as Reagan came into office, and thinking "Why isn't anyone paying attention to this information?". So let the teens come and watch and form their own opinions, let's encourage thinking in the next generation, that would be a nice change... Maybe it will be "cool" to question authority again. Definition of Liberal as a noun from my 1980 edition of Webster's dictionary: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: CP EMAIL: wurligirli@yahoo.com IP: 141.155.154.235 URL: DATE: 07/01/2004 09:41:56 AM A startling, if not sad, comment: A couple of weeks ago, my children (5 and 7) were playing as usual with their assorted dolls, figurines and action figures, setting up various "scenes," when my daughter said to my son, "and this is Homeland Security." While she may not have known what it meant, exactly, seeing that she treated it as a physical place, this scenario demonstrates how the term has worked its way into the conciousness of even the youngest of citizens. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tish EMAIL: tish@wenesdays-child.com IP: 24.167.95.100 URL: http://www.wednesdays-child.com/ DATE: 07/04/2004 04:12:47 AM That really is scary... During the 90's I worked with a lot of young people coming in as interns and such from college and they just seemed to have a whole different mindset than us "older" folks. Very conservative, very materialistic and very shallow & self-centered. And no patience at all for things like work... But this was the era of get rich quick day traders and Enron scale corruption, it's one of the reasons I left the corporate world, it was getting kind of creepy. I'm hoping the kids that are growing up now haven't been too messed up by the last four years, Reagan and friends had a lot longer to work on the youngsters of that era. Maybe if we can turn all this around in fall we can end up with some well-balanced young people for the next generation (who'll be taking care of us ;-) ----- -------- AUTHOR: Morticia TITLE: And the winner is... Opera! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 1 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Techno Rambles CATEGORY: Techno Rambles DATE: 06/27/2004 03:47:52 AM ----- BODY: OK, after much downloading, testing, crashing and swearing my new browser of choice is Opera 7. Mozilla and Netscape kept fighting with each other's preferences and Firefox would not even install, it just completely freaked out on me. Awhile back when I tried to play with Opera (version 6 I believe) I could never get it to run right, but version 7+ seems to be doing beautifully. It took some work to figure out how to remove and add some toolbar buttons, and even to navigate correctly but in just a few days I've got it pretty well customized to my liking. They have a free version but I went ahead and registered it to get rid of the ads, which aren't that bad, but the targeted ones are sort of unnerving. And I'm super easily distracted these days, I hate seeing things flashing even in my peripheral vision. I had read in several forums that Opera was even faster than Mozilla and how antiquated IE for Mac had become, I thought it was just me having problems, doh! Apple's Safari browser is not acting right and I'm having what I've finally determined is a font conflict with the Arial family which makes a lot of pages (including parts of my own) display very weirdly. But after playing with Opera this week it really is noticeably faster, especially on eBay, which is worth the price for me alone. Then this evening everything starts dragging again, then my mail times out (sigh). It's not me, though, it's Time Warner (again) so I sit on hold on the phone for half an hour watching my cable modem lights blink, go dead, then come back on. I finally get an customer service agent and we test it and it really is working slow (at the time they are checking it, what are the chances?). It's running at like half of the minimum speed and I have a "25% packet loss". So service tech coming out midweek, I told her to make sure he brings a replacement modem, this one is 5 years old, the new ones have GOT to be at least a little better. But after the last 3 1/2 day crash, I'd rather not take any chances. She said I could get a business account and they would come out 24/7 but it would "cost extra". Maybe when I win the lottery, I can barely afford the residential account at like $50+ a month now. It irks me to see the commercials they are running for Roadrunner now, "get 6 months at only $29.95 a month". But anyone using a cable modem for six months is not going back to dial-up, so they've got them hooked. Another good investment that I actually paid for is Spamfire, I've been averaging about 200 messages daily and about 80% of those seem to be garbage and it catches most of them. I need to play with the email program for Opera, I'm using Entourage now, which has lots of great features, but has been acting unstable lately (again, I thought I'd debugged it). I got my first randy comment the other day, actually I just found it, it's been hiding for a couple of weeks. At least I know how the IP block thing works now, I need to install MT Blacklist, it's supposed to be very good at blocking spammer comments. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Morticia TITLE: Dental Diaries - Part Three STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 1 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Health, or Lack Thereof CATEGORY: Health, or Lack Thereof DATE: 06/22/2004 04:11:36 AM ----- BODY: Damn, I was thinking I didn't have to go back in till later this week... Well, another tooth down, several more to go. We did the molar next to the one I just got a new root canal on last week, so I got yet another temp crown for the left side. My poor jaw had not recovered from last week yet, I stopped by the grocery store on the way home today to get more soft food I shouldn't be having on my diet. At least the ice cream is sugar free ;-) The tooth today was a pretty recent white composite crown that had been done about three years ago (by another dentist...) to cover a root canal and keep my tooth full of old silver fillings from crumbling. Unfortunately the last dentist left the silver in the tooth, and did a weird job of the crown (it was apparently pressing on the surrounding gum, no wonder it hurt so much), and the area where the silver was had started to decay making the bottom of the tooth turn grey. I had told the dentist before we started that the local injections he gave me last week had made my hand swell up, but he dismissed that, and gave me several more of the same today. So after I came home and took a nap, I awoke with both hands full of hives and bumps and swelling quickly (sigh). They hurt worse than the tooth, dammit, and last week they took about three days to go back down... I'm glad it's only Monday, we're going to a friend's wedding this weekend. What does one wear to a casual indoor/outdoor wedding in June here in the swamplands? The invite said "no shorts please", but I don't think I even own a skirt and I'm unsure whether even nice jeans would be appropriate. I don't want to get too formal, it's bloody hot outside, most of my "nice" things are not for June... Because of my lack of eating full meals last week I actually lost some weight, despite the fact that I was literally force-feeding myself to keep from getting too run down (or nauseous from the medicine). I did get a few weird bursts of energy, though, dusted the bedroom one night, filed some stuff... so the week wasn't a total bust. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Morticia TITLE: Movable Type Revises their Pricing, Browser Bitching STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 1 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Techno Rambles CATEGORY: Techno Rambles DATE: 06/18/2004 06:00:08 AM ----- BODY: I just found out that Movable Type has revised their pricing and licensing for the new version, perhaps I'll be upgrading after all. Glad I didn't jump on it too fast, though right now I don't have an extra $70 bucks. I haven't even upgraded to the free version of 3.x yet, though, I like to let other people find the bugs first. Ironically several days before they switched to the new program I actually tried to buy a license but they had stopped selling 2.6x licenses because of the impending release of the new version. I was playing with browsers earlier... I've been trying to determine which problems are Mac related and which are browser shortcomings. Been having a lot of IE problems lately, they haven't updated the Mac version in ages, I have a bad feeling about this... I've been playing with Mozilla, but can't seem to keep the damn bookmarks in place for some reason. But for example, I hit on two websites today that would not work correctly with IE, so I checked them out under Mozilla and Netscape. B4RB.com has a cute logo and design, but under IE the flashing title at top kept manically refreshing my browser to the point nothing else would work correctly. OK under Mozilla and Netscape, though I couldn't get the webcams to load. (Missing plug-in). Then I landed on Kadyellebee's wonderful site, and all of her type was shoved to the right column and the main column wasn't spacing correctly, lots of type overlap. Also most of her image links at the top were not even showing up under IE. Still some type overlap in the right column under Netscape, but at least I can read the main column and see the navigation. Oops, now I've gone to the main page and reloaded and things have stopped overlapping. Very strange... Just checked it in Mozilla and it's loading correctly in it (it was doing the same thing as Netscape). Why are Mozilla & Netscape sharing the same user profile? I hardly ever use either of them, but they seem to really be fighting with each other since I installed Mozilla. I stopped using Netscape because so many pages wouldn't load correctly and now IE is giving me problems, I'm very confused. And no, I don't want to try Opera, besides having to pay for the damn thing I don't like the way it looks and it's buggy on my Mac. I'm going to bed now, this is giving me a headache... ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Conservative Hater EMAIL: liberalamerican2002@yahoo.co.in IP: 24.62.1.134 URL: DATE: 06/21/2004 09:33:17 PM I absoloutely hate conservatives. Just look at this one, republicanvoices.org . Flood him with some hate mail please. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Snaps EMAIL: snapsofnote@mac.com IP: 24.242.241.189 URL: DATE: 06/21/2004 11:13:33 PM Just happened across your blog, but wanted to let you know that Microsoft no longer supports IE for the Mac. They announced a while ago that they will no longer be updating it. Mainly because of Apple's Safari which I use. If a web page designer only designs for the PC version of IE and doesn't use web standards (Microsoft does not support standards) then things won't show up right in Safari, but I rarely have that problem. You might want to give it a try. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tish EMAIL: tish@wednesdays-child.com IP: 24.167.95.100 URL: http://www.wednesdays-child.com/ DATE: 06/22/2004 03:29:22 AM Yikes, don't go there... bad HTML and his popups ate the reply I was typing, now that's censorship! Refresh your palette at www.alternet.org, I was flipping through it earlier this evening. I seem to remember reading something awhile back that IE was dying, must be why I downloaded all the alternative browsers (for the umpteenth time). Mozilla seemed the most promising except for the bookmark problem, yesterday I downloaded it's upgrade, Firefox, but it just went bonkers crashing over and over again when I tried to install it. The times I've (been forced by my Mac) to use Safari it hasn't impressed me that much, but I haven't given it a fair trial really. I hope Microsoft keeps working with Entourage, I've gotten very spoiled by it the last few years. And (knock on wood) it hasn't corrupted my mail archives like Netscape mail used to do regularly until I got sick of it... I got fed up with Netscape (after using it for about 10 years straight) when the Gecko version came out, it was just a mess. And the older versions could not display weblogs and DHTML correctly. I guess it's back to it for awhile, though... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Morticia TITLE: 4 Drown in Logan's Run Water Park STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 1 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Daily Diatribes CATEGORY: Daily Diatribes DATE: 06/18/2004 04:46:59 AM ----- BODY: OK, the swelling in my hands has gone down some to the point where typing is less painful, and I had to mention this weird story I saw on the the evening news tonight. I have actually changed my opinion on the story since I originally saw it after doing a bit of research on it... In Fort Worth Texas, there is a large water park area where portions of the 70's sci-fi film Logan's Run were filmed when it was new and shiny and ultra modern. I live in Texas, but we rarely went to the DFW area when I was a kid and I've never seen this place in person. Being fans of the movie, though, both my hubby and I recognized it right away. When I saw Dan Rather discussing the story today, the first thing I though was "who the hell would let little children near such a dangerous place?". The story is the kids went there to play because the pool at their motel was closed. But this isn't a wading fountain, this is a huge series of cascading water falls made of concrete and stone. There also appear to be several calmer, shallower pools that seem a little safer for 8 year old children. But I don't care how hot it is, I'm not jumping into a public fountain, yuck... Then I Google around for info on the Forth Worth Water Gardens, and they have photos of families walking around on the edge of the damn thing! This is obviously a dangerous, slippery, slimy area that may be pretty to look at, but no way would I get down to the edge of the drop off to the lower fountain, which is churning away like an angry river. Apparently one little girl "fell in" (wearing a swimsuit), and then three other people who were trying to save her (and each other) ended up being sucked underneath by the fountain's water pumps. I can't imagine the city not having some sort of railing at least around the thing. Or maybe a ladder or steps to help someone climb back out. There are no swimming signs posted, but gee... But apparently this is the first incident they've ever had at the park, and on the news they were already talking lawsuit and have drained the pools. I'm amazed nothing has happened before, but I'm very wary of things like fast moving water... ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Morticia TITLE: Day Four - Dental Diaries Part Two STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 1 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Health, or Lack Thereof CATEGORY: Health, or Lack Thereof DATE: 06/17/2004 08:49:17 PM ----- BODY: My morning/afternoon... drifting in and out, I can hear the TV in the den, Sparky moving around, car keys jangling... Weird dreams, for some reason my cat is suddenly part ferret and a woman is threatening to call the police on her because she got out of the house unattended for a few minutes... I can't find a toilet that has a door on the stall, recurring dream, means I gotta pee... Awake! Why am I propped half up on two pillows? What time is it? Ow, my jaw hurts... oh yeah, dental surgery yesterday. Or is it still yesterday? The sun appears to be up, the clock says it's 1:10, wow. Slowly turn the dimmer on the lamp up... Why is my glass case open and sitting on top of the alarm clock, I only put it there when I'm reading in bed... Why aren't my glasses in it? Crap, where are my glasses? Last waking memory - I was reading, Sookie had just rescued her boyfriend from the vampires who were holding him hostage and she was driving out of the plantation, trying to sweet talk the werewolf who was guarding the gate, zzzzzzz.... Oh! I fell asleep reading, dammit. My book is on the shelf on my nightstand, but where are my glasses? Move slowly, they might be in bed with me still. At least this is just one of many backup pairs I have and not one of my prescription pairs. They're not on the nightstand, not on the ottoman next to the bed, hmmm. Sit up, put my feet carefully onto the floor... There they are!... in my house shoe? Usually the only thing I find in my shoes are stuffed mice, whatever, at least they're not broken. I was just joking about passing out, but apparently I actually did. I rarely fall asleep reading, and never suddenly like that, I usually at least am alert enough to turn the light out and put my things on the nightstand. Sparky, on the other hand, can fall asleep mid-sentence with the TV blaring. He's snoring away right now. But if I turn the TV off, he'll wake up immediately. My hands are still swollen, actually mostly my left hand, so I think the dental injections must be the culprit there since all the work was done on my left side. I stupidly then went back to bed, and spent several more hours tossing and turning restlessly. But that's what I do when I feel bad, sleep, or at least lay in bed. It usually makes the time pass faster and encourages healing, but this afternoon seemed three times as long as it actually was. My neck is all stiff today, not sure if that's from sleeping in such a weird position or from trying to hold my head in one position for hours at a time yesterday, probably both. I ate more two chicken salad sandwiches for breakfast/dinner so far today. We watched MSNBC while we ate (Sparky had spaghetti left over from last night), listened to the newest 9/11 tapes, Jesus, that's a whole new entry, not today, though... I need to get some work done tonight, even with the swollen hand(s). I've only taken one codeine pill so far today, I'm trying to cut back, I think I was probably getting addicted to them because of the constant pain in my jaw. Hopefully, when the soreness wears off most of that will be gone, even though I still have several more teeth to be done. OK, typing is too hard right now, but my brain is still too sluggish to do much of anything useful... ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Morticia TITLE: Dental Diaries - Part One STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 1 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Health, or Lack Thereof CATEGORY: Health, or Lack Thereof DATE: 06/15/2004 07:10:41 PM ----- BODY: OK, working on knocking another major "to do" off my list, getting my teeth back in a state of repair. I thought it had only been two years since I went to the dentist (i.e. when our dental insurance ran out), but it has actually been three years (gulp). I called to make an appointment to have mine and Sparky's teeth cleaned at the same time, but since I was in pain they agreed to see me earlier. So Monday afternoon I go in to see my new dentist, who is endorsed by my mother and only like a mile from out house, unlike my last dentist, who was about 18 miles away (hubby's family dentist). Nice offices, nice staff, nice dentist. So far, so good. Got an exam, lots of x-rays, and was told to come back the next morning for my cleaning, come in early Wednesday to get started on the construction work, and to see his endodontic specialist to check a root canal to see if it was causing the pain on my left side. Got the cleaning the next morning (only got like 3 hours sleep, had to be there at 9am), they didn't have nitrous! Oh well, that's the best part and keeps me from clenching my entire body while they are scraping metal objects on my sensitive teeth. But it wasn't bad after all, even for three years of plaque. The hygienist used an ultrasonic cleaner and then only actually scraped a little bit and my teeth were actually whiter looking for the first time in my life. Got home, called the endodontist, they have an opening the next day... at 8:30 am. OK, gotta take it, get this crap all over with ASAP. Then I napped for several hours, my poor jaw aching from TMJ from keeping my mouth open just for the cleaning. Got up at 7:30 am today, the cat actually woke me just before she stepped on my alarm clock and turned it off. I was only 10 minutes late to the endodontist's office (that's good for me), really ritzy place, nice view, very quiet... His assistant gets me situated and takes an x-ray of the bad side, which then immediately pops up on a 19 inch computer monitor, I'm impressed. They don't have nitrous either, dammit, soemthing about an OSHA regulation about having to vent the area, grrrr.. The doctor comes in, thumps on my teeth, doesn't get a good enough reaction so he takes a little metal rod and sprays it to freeze it and tells me to let him know it I feel anything when he touches my teeth. I actually came about halfway out of my chair, found the problem! ----- EXTENDED BODY: Not the tooth with the three year old root canal, but the bicuspid in front of it.... The suspected tooth (with recent root canal and crown) is decaying beneath the lovely white crown, though, which explains why the bottom has turned grey. But only one root canal is needed instead of having to redo the molar's existing root canal, which I guess is a good thing. Eventually I will have no roots left in any of my teeth (hey, no pain!). So I asked if he should do the new root canal or my dentist, same price, he's can do it right now, so I let the specialist do it. Quick and easy, only one canal, done in less than an hour. $750 bites the dust... Then back home for an hour, and off to my other dentist, who seems a bit peeved that the other doc got to do the root canal, but hey, he referred me. He got me back, though, the next exciting event was drilling out the temporary filling the endodontist has just put in like an hour before. Then he went to work on the upper tooth just above it, a gold crown which I had chewed through and was also apparently rapidly decaying beneath the crown. I really do brush every day, I just also grind my teeth and have bad genetics, must be the British part of my DNA... So several hours and another $1900 later, I've got two temporary crowns and get to go back next week to work on both my lower left and upper right sides to replace two more useless crowns (sigh), more money down the drain. Hopefully the new crowns will last more than three years... Jeez, xylocaine injections in both sides of my mouth, that should be attractive. I came home and went to bed again after todays ordeals were finished, only to awake with all of my codeine worn off and the root canal area throbbing. But since all I'd had to eat all day was an Atkins shake, I had to maneuver another one down before I could take any more meds. After a few hours (and several more pills), I actually managed to eat some soy ice cream and chicken salad with success. I did plan ahead and make sure I had liquid and some soft food available. The throbbing stopped pretty quickly, thank goodness, years ago, back when they had to do root canals in two stages, I thought I was going to die from the throbbing when the local anaesthesia wore off. And I didn't have any actual narcotics at the time, I plan ahead now, just in case... My jaw is still semi-locked, I've bitten the crap out of the inside of my mouth, my hands have swollen up and are itching like crazy (probably from the dozen or so injections I got today), but at least I'm halfway there. "Three to four weeks" before my crowns come in, but I'm hoping I've gotten rid of what was most likely a major source of the pain in my jaw (and probably some of my ear & sinus problems on that side). So what else did I do after I got up this evening? Watched TV and then decided to file a bag full of dusty papers in my bedroom. No, I don't know why either and it was not easy with my hands swollen, but filing is comforting to me and it distracted me for a few hours. And got my major bedroom dusting obstacle up and off the floor, which made me feel better :-) After the teeth are finished, on to working on my vision (RGP contacts are the plan so far), then maybe my poor car (if Sparky hasn't divorced me yet, I can't help it... at least HE has good teeth). Getting loopy now, must go shower before I pass out... ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Morticia TITLE: What Not To Wear Obsession STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: The Women's Room CATEGORY: Shopping CATEGORY: The Women's Room DATE: 06/12/2004 03:43:03 AM ----- BODY: OK, I know I've been watching a lot of makeover type shows lately, but most of them involved home design. Now I've become obsessed with TLC's What Not To Wear, the US version, which is an hour long and is on almost every day it seems. I'm honestly not a trend or fashion freak, I've just always had a really hard time personally finding clothing that fit and looked good on me (and was comfortable) and this show is fascinating to me. Even when I was 98 pounds I had trouble finding jeans that fit properly, and had large shoulders, which, at 5'1", means sleeves and hemlines never fit correctly. I have a half dozen pair of pants hanging on my closet door right now that need hemming. I also worked in the retail & fashion world for years and handled so much clothing that I know too much about it now to be able to buy really bad clothes. I've been trying really hard to upgrade my own wardrobe to have clothing that actually fits me and isn't too baggy, at least in public ;-) I missed most of the Memorial Day marathon, only caught a couple, poor Niya, a young urban black woman who bought clothes based on their original price tag and percentage off as opposed to whether they fit her. Or covered her. She had to lay on the bed to zip up her favorite skirt which was about 4 sizes too small and made her look six months pregnant. Then they gave her $5000 and sent her off alone in NYC and told her not to buy anything that would make her look like a hoochie mama when that's all she'd been wearing and her idea of a good outfit was based on the number of honks she got at the gas station. I always feel sorry for them on day one, especially the women who don't shop on a regular basis, they're so overwhelmed and get very discouraged. Shopping is hard, I'm sorry, it really is. I love clothes but I hate shopping. Especially shoes and pants, too much stress. My arms will hurt for days afterwards from carrying stacks of clothes in various sizes because the fashion industry's sizing standards are so varied. And I want to try on as many things as possible at once to get it over with and be able to try and keep straight in my head what looks good and what doesn't. And I would not want to start my wardrobe over from scratch, even for $5000. I've finally gotten it down to things I either really, really like or just can't bear to part with for sentimental reasons (though often never wear, they're in storage). Even if they have good opinions, I don't like going by other people's rules for how to look. I wouldn't want a home makeover, either, unless my house was a total dump and I didn't own anything nice but it's fun to watch. ----- EXTENDED BODY: I went and looked at the website to get a link for this article and am really hooked now, besides having photos and info on all the shows, they have listings of what they bought, where, makeup and hair colors used, how much they spent... it's an OCD nightmare, yikes! But they also have the listing schedule and who is featured in which show, which will actually make my life a little easier because I can skip the shows I've seen, I've been having trouble trying to figure out their oddball weekly schedule. Unfortunately it's often on at midnight here which is about the time Sparky wants the big TV back, and he complains enough about having to watch Clean Sweep every week. I like that show even though everyone is a little too perky, though it seems kind of a cheat because they make the people throw like three fourths of their stuff out and then it's pretty easy to get the remainder back into their house... HGTV's Mission Organization is more challenging, IHMO. I'm very bad about following shows, especially one hour ones, usually Sparky timesets all of our one hour shows so we can watch them back without commercials, because about the only time I usually sit and watch TV is during dinner. I'm always looking for women who have the same problems I do, I don't feel too sorry for the girls with cute little bodies and just bad taste. They had one girl on during the marathon with a Playboy figure (Irene) who was wearing basically stripper clothes to work (and her husband was complaining, go figure!), but all she needed was more coverage and better quality clothing, she would look good in anything. I did sympathize with Alisha, who wore her husband's clothes, no makeup and thought skirts were fussy. I've always been a tomboy too, though I've learned that wearing boys tops really is not a good look for me. I still don't like skirts, though. It's not a modesty issue, skirts just aren't practical or comfortable in my opinion. Don't like pantyhose, if I don't wear pantyhose everything sticks together (it's hot in Houston!), and I'm not good at wearing shoes without socks (narrow heels, I just end up with blisters). Alisha is a taller girl, though, and not too busy so she could wear pretty things like empire waists, which I can't wear. Looks like I missed the episode with Misti the Goth girl, I hope it comes around again. She's short like I am, though the photos of her wardrobe look awfully colorful for a Goth. I'm not real fond of the clothes they put her in, though she's ten years younger than me and they do look cute on her. The 6/16 episode with Mary looks promising, she looks like she's going to be challenging and I like the looks they picked for her. She also looks to be short and busty without being too thin, so perhaps I'll learn something. I'd invest more money in clothing, but I have trouble justifying it when I feel like I still need to lose another 20 pounds. My big jump lately has been finding some jeans that fit (low waist jeans don't cut off my circulation, yippee!), and I actually own several nice belts and have worn them without going into a panic. I don't like anything tight around my waist, but since the pants hit lower the belts aren't too bad. (I'm very short, straight-waisted, all the weight loss in the world won't change that). One of the women, I think it may have been Kimberly H., struck a note with me by saying that she had always worn her hair long to be more feminine and remembered being referred to as a boy by someone when she was young. That happened to me in about 6th grade, wearing jeans, a tee and a windbreaker I was looking at comic books when a clerk said "Little boy, don't read the comics". Now, everyone had long hair in the 70's, and I was a tomboy, but still... I think that may have played into my fear of cutting my hair for so many years. I still don't like the pointy shoes and clutch purses they like to assign everyone, they look cute but are impractical. But I've seen myself in a lot of these women, long baggy shirts that just make me look bigger, pants that are too tapered, too short, big chunky shoes (no stilettos for me, sorry!), long scraggly hair (I cut it myself for years), no makeup, too much black... No wonder I don't like to be photographed, thank God I at least have cheekbones and good skin. More later, I'm going to try and beat Sparky to the bedroom so I can read a bit before trying to sleep. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Morticia TITLE: Inner Brit STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 1 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Q & A CATEGORY: Q & A DATE: 06/12/2004 02:16:39 AM ----- BODY: Withering heights? Oh well, the rest of the description fits well, I am English, Irish and German, and the UK is on the top of my "visit someday" list: What's Your True Nationality? ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Morticia TITLE: Homework - Dusting Disaster STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 1 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Q & A CATEGORY: Q & A DATE: 06/11/2004 11:52:16 PM ----- BODY: Homework: A Household Meme current questions... HomeWork: Week 19 Take a good look around you. What's the most pressing disaster brewing in your house? A mammoth pile of laundry? A Leaning Tower of Dishes? A junk closet about to explode? Do you have any immediate plans for dealing with it, or is it hidden enough that you can ignore it a while longer? I don't even have to think about that one, the entire bedroom needs major dusting. Both sets of floor to ceiling drapes, the floors, the crowded bookcase, the top of the armoire, the ceiling fan, under the bed, yuck! I know it doesn't sound that major, but we can't really start till we get the drapes done and they're relatively new (and dark cobalt blue), so we're sort of unsure where to begin. And anything we do will make me ill for days from all the dust :-( ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Morticia TITLE: Back Online... Finally STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 1 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Techno Rambles CATEGORY: Techno Rambles DATE: 06/11/2004 11:19:28 PM ----- BODY: Just so no one out there thinks I've died, my cable modem has been acting up all week and completely crashed a few days ago but (knock on wood) seems to be back up and running now. The Roadrunner people first said it was my whole area, then just me, then the area again... And they had me scheduled for a service call next Monday (gee thanks!), but this morning called and woke me up three times to see if I was up again, who says whining loudly doesn't pay off ;-) I had decided earlier in the week to take a short hiatus from eBay to catch up on things and rest, so luckily I didn't have any regular auctions running. I had placed bids on three items in advance, and won one of them. I managed to get some of my email to come through and got my invoice for the auction I won, and then had to set my email on a schedule and leave it running all day to get a message back out to the seller that I was having problems and would pay her as soon as everything came back up. I didn't want her to think I was ignoring her. I was actually to the point of driving down to the library to see if they had internet access, I probably should check that out for future emergencies. I still didn't get anything read, I mostly played with my computer and rearranged files and watched the damn cable light blinking on and off out of the corner of my eye in hopes I could at least download all of my mail during the millisecond it came up. I had a bunch of auctions actually all written up in advance and listed them tonight, but I missed .10 cent listing day yesterday, dammit! And no mail service today, which was actually a good thing because I couldn't print postage with no internet connection anyway. Oh well, probably the Goddess telling me to slow down, I've been too busy lately and we have a busy weekend coming. OK, let's see what I missed this week so far... ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Morticia TITLE: Got My Balls Today! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Health, or Lack Thereof CATEGORY: Health, or Lack Thereof CATEGORY: Shopping DATE: 06/08/2004 10:00:31 PM ----- BODY: OK, I admit I'm rambling tonight, I still feel like my brains are not all assembled in the same room. And now my hands ache, I got my Yamuna Body Rolling Balls in the mail today and just spent the last hour or so inflating them. The little green one wasn't too bad, you have to use a hand pump (sold separately) to inflate them, they are shipped flattened, but I didn't think I'd ever get the larger red ball inflated. I'm still not quite sure if I've done them correctly, the book said not to overinflate them and I have no memory of how to properly deflate rubber balls, though it says you can flatten them and bring them with you when you travel. Right now neither is perfectly round but a bit more oval, I'm just waiting for my husband to walk by and say "Hey you didn't inflate these all the way!". I'm glad I invested in the name brand therapy balls, though, instead of getting a similar cheaper one I saw on eBay. These really are very good quality and heavy duty. I also have a strange fear of things bursting, I hate balloons, and the one on eBay said "no pump needed, inflates with a straw" which doesn't sound either safe or logical. I did finally take a step towards fixing my poor teeth, I made an appointment for my husband and myself to go in for a cleaning (together, so I can hold his hand). They couldn't see us at the same time till the end of the month, though, so I mentioned I had a couple of teeth that were painful (the magic word for dentists) and I get to go in to be looked over this Monday. We're trying a new dentist that my mother has used, and is two miles from the house vs. 20 miles, where my husband's family dentist is. He's the reason my teeth are currently so messed up, he replaced several gold crowns with pretty white resin crowns and my molars have felt "off" ever since to the point where I've ground through at least two of my upper gold crowns. Also the resin feels rough to me, despite his attempts at smoothing them, which is a constant irritant. I hope the new dentist is good, and has nitrous. I actually have a very high pain tolerance, and have had enough major dental work to make most people faint at the thought, but I also have super sensitive teeth when it comes to cold and pressure and the nitrous keeps me from inadvertantly biting the poor dentist. Plus it's the only time in my life I've ever actually felt relaxed. I agreed to let the last guy do a gingivectomy while under it's influence, it must be pretty good stuff. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Morticia TITLE: Torture Not Productive Enough STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 1 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Politics CATEGORY: Politics DATE: 06/08/2004 09:32:56 PM ----- BODY: The front page of today's Houston Chronicle had an article from the NY Times near the bottom of the page with the title Memo said Bush could OK torture of prisoners. Later in the day, though, the article had been replaced on their website with Ashcroft: 'This administration rejects torture', and I had to hunt for the first article. I've got to give them credit for printing it, at least. I think the country is so shell shocked that even something like Bush Sells Soul to Satan probably wouldn't make much of an impact anymore. Weird quote of the day from Ashcroft: Gee, what could we do that would be even more efficient and productive, that's kind of a scary thought. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Morticia TITLE: California Scheming STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 1 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Politics CATEGORY: Politics DATE: 06/08/2004 09:10:57 PM ----- BODY: Sorry for the pun, it was an easy shot. Fresh from the evening news tonight, more wacky antics from those lovable Enron traders, just adding further proof to justify Bill Hick's observation that marketers really are Satan's little helpers. Wow. So for all you conspiracy theorists out there, it has now been officially proven that Enron worked very hard at deliberately screwing over California. So maybe the Davis Power Crisis should be renamed, hmmm... ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Morticia TITLE: Site up & down... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 1 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Site Updates & Info CATEGORY: Site Updates & Info DATE: 06/08/2004 06:10:48 AM ----- BODY: My main server has been going up and down all night, so if you click on a link and get a 404 error, check back in a few minutes... ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Morticia TITLE: Homework - A Household Meme Q&A STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 1 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Q & A CATEGORY: Q & A CATEGORY: Reading Material CATEGORY: The Women's Room DATE: 06/08/2004 05:42:24 AM ----- BODY: Homework: A Household Meme current questions. I told myself I wasn’t going to do this one, because I don’t really consider myself a housewife, but the questions are too fun to pass up. And I’m am wife who works from home, so... I went back and did some of the archived questions also (click Read More below), there are some really interesting ones. HomeWork: Week 18 The phone rings. You've got unexpected company coming over in an hour! Look around your house. Is it company-ready? What can you do in an hour to get it up to the level that would make you comfortable? Make the bed, straighten my office a bit (it’s in the living room), swish out the toilet, put new hand towels & toilet paper out, close the shower curtain, stuff anything into the closets that looks junky sitting out... Try and wipe some of the baby powder out of the hall bathroom, the stuff goes everywhere :-( Make sure I have a few cokes in the fridge. Our house isn’t usually dirty, mostly cluttered, working at home I often have a lot of “things” laying around in progress. Hopefully there won’t be any dishes in the sink... HomeWork: Week 15 What is your favorite thing about your current house/apartment/domicile of other sort? What's your least favorite? Probably the layout, for both questions. Our house has really good flow between the rooms, but my office has no privacy because it’s the living room. Someday I’ll figure out how to add pocket doors or something... Also the wood floors are pretty, one of the reasons we bought the house, but they are also hard and get very dusty. We upgraded to storm windows a few years ago and that has been great, it makes the house nice and quiet and temperature controlled :-) HomeWork: Week 13 Do you own any tried-and-true housework manuals or books? Have you belonged to any housekeeping or organizational groups, such as FlyLady? How have these worked for you? I have Too Busy to Clean? which has good tips, and Home Comforts - the Art and Science of Keeping House which is a massive reference tome. (Ha! I just saw your mention at the beginning of the archives, I’m no Martha Stewart either ;-) I also have several organizing and closet books (because I’m obsessed with organizing). I have Julie Morgenstern’s Organizing From the Inside Out and get her newsletter, which is fun. I’m also addicted to the Home & Garden Channel, and always try to catch Mission Organization and TLC’s Clean Sweep. I also have a book called Spiritual Housecleaning, but I haven’t read it yet. The single most useful household book I have is my old Fannie Farmer Cookbook my grandmother gave me when I moved into my first apartment. When you forget how long to boil eggs or bake potatoes, it's nice to have around. ----- EXTENDED BODY: HomeWork: Week 12 When was the last time you moved house? How long did it take you to pack? How long did it take you to get out of the boxes? Does your unpacking method more closely resemble the "get it all done as quickly as possible" style or the "do it slowly, do it right" one? We just celebrated our sixth anniversary in our house, and we lived in our last house for seven years. Before I met my husband I used to move a lot and it was all very haphazard. My first big move out of town broke me of that, though, when it took me over a week to find my bath towels! When we bought our house we had to wait an agonizing three months to move, so we packed and labeled everything to death. And it still took us 12 hours with two professional movers to get everything from one house to the other (just a few miles apart). We had a ton of stuff, and actually got rid of a lot of things at a pre-moving garage sale. We unpacked most of the boxes (lots went straight into storage) within a few days of moving, because it drives both of us nuts to be tripping over boxes. The only unfortunate thing is that the people we bought the house from were literally moving out when we were moving in, so we couldn’t bring in anything over in advance or do anything like paint the walls. HomeWork: Week 8 How often do you grocery shop? Do you have a usual day or time for shopping? What's your budget for a typical grocery run? I try for just once a week, but I go to the neighborhood supermarket and Sam’s Club. And, when I get a chance, Whole Foods. I don’t have a set day, it’s usually when we start running out of the important things, like my husband’s Mountain Dew, toilet paper, bottled water. I average about $200 bucks for the weekly basic groceries, but we don’t eat out a lot and I do buy some convenience foods, mostly from Sam’s. I like to go in the evenings, but a lot of times the stock is lacking, especially in fresh things like bagged salads. HomeWork: Week 4 When you were a child, did you keep your room neat, or was it a disaster area? Why do you think that was? It was organized but very cluttered. Lots of books, lots of Barbie stuff, many horses... I’ve always been a book fiend, that’s usually the majority of my clutter, books and papers. I hated having to make the bed and little things like that, though. Nothing nasty laying around, though, like old food (we have huge roaches in Houston!). My parents house was fairly spartan, though, so in comparison I was pretty messy. HomeWork: Week 3 If you live with other people, how do you divide the housework? If you live alone, what chores would you like to give away, and which would you keep? My husband is obsessed with vacuuming, so I let him. He’s also good at doing the dishes, but I don’t mind putting them up. I HATE dusting, it kills my allergies for days afterwards. I also don’t like cleaning the bathroom, though I’m pretty good about swishing the toilet out regularly. I’m rotten at sweeping too, we have lots of wood floors, hubby usually ends up doing that. Week One How often do you... ...clean your bedroom? It’s SOO dusty, very neat, but dusty. We need to have a pro in there to do the curtains so we don’t ruin them (that’s our excuse, at least) ...wash your sheets? Not often enough, every few weeks maybe. I’ll do the pillowcases every week or so, though. ...mop the kitchen floor? Usually when something breaks and we have to pick up bits of glass anyway. ...vacuum? Hubby vacuums several times a week, when we had an indoor dog he would do it almost daily. I think it’s therapeutic to him... ...dust? When it gets so bad we can’t stand it, or when we’re going to have major guests over. We have over 20 bookcases in the house and every one of them is full (sigh). ...clean the toilets? I do mine regularly, whenever anything starts appearing that shouldn’t. My husband does his every few months when it gets downright scary. His bathroom seems to have less air circulation of something, luckily it’s not the guest bathroom. ...scrub the tub? Mine stays pretty clean, except for a bit of mildew around the caulk. His looks like the shroud of turin and is a major undertaking that he only does about 3 or 4 times a year. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Morticia TITLE: Talk Shows - TV Tuesday meme STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 1 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Q & A CATEGORY: Q & A DATE: 06/08/2004 04:27:57 AM ----- BODY: TV Tuesday questions for this week, first time... 1. Do you watch daytime talk TV? If so, which shows do you watch? Do you prefer the calm shows like Oprah or the wilder side like Jerry Springer? When I wake up early enough I’ll watch Oprah and Dr. Phil. Oprah’s been doing too many celebrity interview type things lately, though, which bore me. I watch more night time talk & news shows, I like shows that are useful and entertaining. I can’t stand the “yelling, screaming, fake drama” shows like Jerry Springer. I’d probably watch Ellen if I were awake when she was on. 2. Which daytime talk TV show would you like to be on? What would the topic be? Probably Oprah, but I’d be scared to death... 3. Is there a daytime talk TV show you miss that's no longer on the air? Is there someone you'd like to see get a daytime talk TV show? Not daytime, but I really miss Phil Donahue. I miss Johnny Carson too. I liked Rosie’s show, but she seemed a little stressed out towards the end. Bonus- Before talk TV took over game shows ruled the airways during the day, which do you prefer? Or are you a soap opera fan? The only actual soap opera I ever seriously watched was Dark Shadows. When I was in college I got sucked into General Hospital for a short time during the Luke & Laura epic (it was fun to sit in a room full of women talking back to the TV). I loved game shows as a kid, but they were completely different. I mean, “Let’s Make a Deal”, what’s not to love! For last week’s question, I watched part of TV Land’s "Addams Family" marathon, and part of TLC’s “What Not to Wear” marathon. I actually try not to watch as much TV anymore, but I’ve sat and watched it all day in my youth, till the National Anthem played, zzzzzz... Dark Shadows had the biggest influence on me growing up. I have vivid memories of watching it with our housekeeper when I was very young and hiding behind the couch when Barnabas would appear. After that Bewitched, The Munsters and Addams Family, I Dream of Jeannie, classic Star Trek. Lots of memories of watching the Carol Burnett Show also. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Insane Faery EMAIL: insanefaery@nopam-cox.net IP: 68.102.206.106 URL: http://insanefaery.com/journal/index.html DATE: 06/08/2004 05:21:07 PM Wanted to thank you for playing TV Tuesday!! *hugs* Have a wonderful week!! Hope you'll be back next week! :) ----- -------- AUTHOR: Morticia TITLE: Filling the Void STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Daily Diatribes CATEGORY: Daily Diatribes CATEGORY: Shopping DATE: 06/08/2004 03:11:10 AM ----- BODY: I've been having that nagging shopping "urge" lately, glad I don't have any credit cards left. I have bought some useful things, though, yet more clothes, two "real" leather belts, two new pairs of house shoes (all they had were pastels, aagghh!), some shorter socks for summer, and a bottle of my Clarins lotion. Everything was on sale, though, except for the lotion, which cost almost as much as the others combined. I got my Chi straightening iron in the mail today and played with it. It really did do a nice job, much better than my Conair, and it heated up superfast like it claimed. I wasn't very happy with how the girl shipped it, though, she just threw it in a Tyvek Priority envelope and sent it out at the two pound rate (and charge me about 3 times that much). I knew I was being overcharge for postage but a little bubble wrap would have been nice, I thought it would at least be in a box with some newspaper at the least. People on eBay really like to charge out the ass for any electronics, I've been charged $7 to ship a camera memory stick the size of a piece of gum. I guess they figure since everyone else is doing it it must be OK (sigh). The scariest one I got was a phone that the guy just slapped address labels & postage right on the manufacturer's box and threw it in the mail, didn't even bother to tape up the edges of the box. I went through and purged some of my old worn out clothes the other night, and rearranged my closet. I still have two bags in my trunk from the last clothing purge, all of our clothing donation boxes have vanished recently, I don't know what to do with them... I feel like I need to get rid of (i.e. sell) some more of my dressy & work clothes since I never wear them any more, but I'm down to that point where I've gotten rid of most of the extras and just have things I like (and hope to fit into again) left. But we never go out anywhere, I never wear my rayon and silk stuff, Houston is a very casual (and very hot & humid) city. I'd actually like to buy more really nice quality casual stuff, but I can't justify it until I lose some more weight (which is a good way to save money, I guess ;-) I think I'm going to go look at my memes and see if there's anything my poor tired brain can handle... I've been doing way too much eBay lately, I'm trying to take a short break from selling, but now I've started looking at things to buy. I have to keep reminding myself "where are you going to put it?". All of the shelves in the house are full (and must be dusted, dammit), but I'm still lacking some wall decorations in the bedroom (where no movie posters are allowed), so maybe I can find something suitably kitschy to fill in the blanks, it's the only room in the house with any wall space left... ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Morticia TITLE: Weird late night activities... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 1 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Daily Diatribes CATEGORY: Daily Diatribes DATE: 06/05/2004 04:08:07 AM ----- BODY: It's so nice and quiet, and it's a Friday night so there's nothing urgent I actually have to do :-) THe rain seems to have moved on (though I like listening to the rain), Sparky's quietly (for him) snoring away in the next room, and I'm getting little "to do" things done. Finishing up my last load of laundry, this is the time-consuming one where I have to air dry everything and then hang them up in the bathroom. I accidentally dried one of my new pairs of pants in the last load, I'm sure now they are really capris. I have a couple of really old brown glass mist bottles from back when I used Beconase nasal spray (from what I remember, it smelled like roses), and I fished them out and cleaned them up tonight so I can reload one with saline and the other with part saline, part Afrin. I've had a lot of other nasal spray bottles since I got these but they've all been plastic and for some reason they just don't work as well. I stupidly used the one with Afrin last night when I was having my sinus attack, and after I opened them up and looked at them today, I'm surprised it didn't make it worse (yuck, in other words). My hair salon finally wrote back to tell me what kind of straightening iron they had used on my hair last week, they said it was HairArt, not Chi, but the stylist mentioned Chi at least three times to me. They look to be comparable in quality and price, I hope mine arrives tomorrow, I can't wait to play with it. I just ate my 4 am chicken salad sandwich, the kitty helps me with the crust. She's an odd cat, she pulls my salad leaves out of the bowl, devours bread, and loves yoghurt and my Atkins shakes. When I had dogs I was used to having at least one head in my lap looking sadly up at me, but a cat? She doesn't lower herself to beg, though, she just grabs what she wants. She is a princess, after all. Maybe when the laundry finishes up I can beat Sparky to the bedroom (he likes his La-Z-Boy) and read a bit. I'm actually sort of sleepy already, which is unusual for me. I think I'm going to go back to Old Navy tomorrow and get a couple more of their tees, the heathered ones are unbelievably soft, still afraid to put them in the dryer, though... I desperately need new Dearfoams too, Foley's is having coupon days, I wonder if I can find any with backs in June. I have flat feet and can't wear the backless ones, but have to wear something with these wood floors or end up with tendonitis in my heels. Ramble, ramble... Gonna go respond to comments now :-) ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: CP EMAIL: wurligirli@yahoo.com IP: 162.84.163.61 URL: DATE: 06/05/2004 06:20:11 AM My husband would LOVE a recliner; I have a problem with the esthetics of the ones he would prefer. The uglier they are, the more comfortable they are. We were in a La-Z-Boy gallery several months ago, and I saw a big leather one that I can honestly say was actually attractive. Of course, it was immediately vetoed in favor of a big pouffy corduroy number that he sank into and began orgasmically sighing. I need to see an orthopedist about my right heel; I can barely stand any pressure on it. I would venture to guess that I either have plantar fasciitis or a spur. Combine that with my chronic back pain and fatigue...well, what a package I am these days! Our cat loves spaghetti sauce for some reason, ever since she was a wee kitten. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tish EMAIL: tish@wednesdays-child.com IP: 24.167.95.100 URL: http://www.wednesdays-child.com/ DATE: 06/08/2004 01:57:31 AM La-Z-Boy has wonderful things, our couch, two of our chairs and our big coffee table are from there. Of course they've added all the really stylish stuff since we bought ours... My husband is on his third recliner since we've been together, we just picked him out the biggest one they made, "The Atlas". It's not at all stylish but too hideous. We're both big on comfort, but I try and keep everything sort of simple and modern because our house is so busy with collectibles and posters and such... That's the word I was trying to think of, fasciitis. I've had that before and I think I have it again (also in my right heel). All I could do about it last time was lots of stretching and those gel heel inserts. My husband is five years older than me, weighs more proportionally, eats worse and never exercises and is in better health, it's not fair. Lower cholesterol, better teeth, better vision, just better genes, lucky him. He's a rotten patient, though, so I guess lucky me too ;-) Our kitty likes spaghetti but I've never tried the sauce on her... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: CP EMAIL: wurligirli@yahoo.com IP: 141.155.128.176 URL: DATE: 06/08/2004 10:21:54 AM I guess that when it comes to truly cushy, comfortable recliners, function will always come out over form. Our house is chock full of antiques, so there, too, a cushy recliner would look a bit out of place. Now, a mission style recliner...oh, well -- that's definitely form over function! My heel has been killing me for months. You'd think that by now I would have gone to see an orthopedist, but frankly I'm tired of seeing doctors. If it's not my heel, it's my knee; if not my knee, it's my hip; if not my hip, it's my back...all the way up to my root-canaled, crown covered molars. My husband, too, is not exactly a health freak. He drinks gallons of soda a day, eats Chinese food and pizza just as regularly, and -- this one is a charmer -- brushes his teeth maybe ONCE a day. The result? Good health (thankfully) and not a filling in sight. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Morticia TITLE: Better or Not? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 1 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Health, or Lack Thereof CATEGORY: Health, or Lack Thereof DATE: 06/04/2004 11:58:55 PM ----- BODY: Well, I sat down to type that I was sick as a dog all day yesterday and today I'm feeling better... and then I sneezed (duh, duh, duhhh!). So I went into the bedroom and got my arsenal of nose sprays and took a Singulair, which is the only type of oral medicine I can take (I'm allergic to antihistamines). And got a new box of kleenex from the garage, I went through an entire box yesterday. I've had bad allergies my entire life, and a couple of times a year I'll just start sneezing non-stop and I know I'm coming down with a sinus infection. Lucky for me, my best friend's husband is a doctor and he gives me a prescription for a season's worth of antibiotics at a time so I can head them off when I feel one coming on. I need to use my nasal saline more often, I've found that's one of the best deterrants to getting sick. So I spent the entire day yesterday basically sneezing, blowing my nose, and coughing, which makes it difficult to do much of anything else. I managed to wrap all of my packages for eBay so Sparky could bring them in today, but I stayed up till 7am doing so and was too tired (and dizzy) to even take a shower by that point. So I took lots of Keflex last night and before bed, used some Afrin to make my nose temporarily stop dripping, took a couple of codeine for the headache and coughing, and half a valium to make sure I actually slept because that's the only way my body knows to heal. And I did feel much better when I woke up, thank goodness. Still stuffy nose and ears, swollen lymph nodes, sore throat and sore ribs but so far only one sneeze (knock on wood). And to compound matters last night, my postage program, Endicia, which makes my life SO much easier, was down for monthly maintenance and was supposed to be back up at 4 am CST, and didn't come up till 6:30 am (grumble). So no packing tonight, I think I'm going to be lazy and go watch TLC's "What Not to Wear". I hope they're doing a girl, the guys are no fun at all... ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: CP EMAIL: wurligirli@yahoo.com IP: 162.84.163.61 URL: DATE: 06/05/2004 06:22:12 AM I'm on Zithromax for basically the same symptoms, and still feel pretty lousy. Blech. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Morticia TITLE: Thunder & lightning STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 1 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Photos - welcome to my world CATEGORY: Furry family members CATEGORY: Photos - welcome to my world DATE: 06/04/2004 10:02:39 PM ----- BODY: Lots of rain, hail and lightning today, and the power actually stayed on! Fearless Phoebe enjoys watching the storm rage in nice, dry air-conditioned comfort.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Morticia TITLE: Enron Tapes & Dubya Gets a Lawyer! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 1 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Politics CATEGORY: Politics DATE: 06/03/2004 04:55:22 AM ----- BODY: In other news, more dirt this week on the White House. Dan Rather played some of the audio tapes of the idiots at Enron bragging about deliberately shutting down plants to increase oil prices and cheering on the California fires. And they had some mention of Cheney and Bush in the mix, which is somewhat satisfying since Houston was so screwed over by these greedy corporate bastards. I knew in the late 90's that the US was spiraling towards some sort of corporate Soddom and Gomorrah (sp?) after watching the company I worked for be taken over and corrupted in a period of about five years. And walking past the CEO's always brand new imported Mercedes on the ground floor of the parking garage daily. And the news today was that Dubya has now got himself a lawyer because of the CIA "leak" about Joseph Wilson's wife. Didn't that used to be a treasonous offense, telling the public who our CIA secret agents are? I think they can write all the books they want about the scandals that are breaking daily, but they'd be more effective if they made TV movies so people would actually pay attention. As long as they didn't put it in the same slot as Fear Factor (sigh). Though I do think it was hilarious that none of the major networks would carry Dubya's speech last week, it's sweeps period for God's sake! Also, go sign the petition to have paper backups of the new electronic voting machines, don't let Diebold pick the next President! ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: CP EMAIL: wurligirli@yahoo.com IP: 162.83.159.222 URL: DATE: 06/03/2004 08:24:15 PM The longer I live, the more convinced I become that perhaps those people who believe the moon shots were staged aren't all that crazy after all. I'm starting to wonder about the WTC, too. Paranoid? Perhaps. But maybe, just maybe, rightfully so. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tish EMAIL: tish@wednesdays-child.com IP: 24.167.95.100 URL: http://www.wednesdays-child.com/ DATE: 06/03/2004 11:50:45 PM Shades of Capricorn One, eh? Same here, though, in this Photoshop/CGI world we live in I have a great deal of difficulty believing much of anything I see. Everything can be faked, forged and fabricated. I've always been a big personal privacy rights advocate and all of this James Bond technology scares the crap out of me. The government has been hiding things from us for ages, for some reason this administration just doesn't seem to be very good at it and all of their dirt is leaking out now. I think their problem had to do with ego, they didn't feel like they really had to cover their tracks that well, no one would dare look under the carpet. I've always wondered about the WTC also. The story is that the government knew about Pearl Harbor in advance but didn't stop it because they knew America had to get involved in WWII or it would be even worse. But to use 9/11 as a tool to simply forward corporate interests and an excuse to invade a country that didn't even attack us, I can't even begin to rationalize that much coordinated evil... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: CP EMAIL: wurligirli@yahoo.com IP: 162.84.134.81 URL: DATE: 06/04/2004 05:53:22 AM They ARE a sloppy administration, aren't they? Well, when you have a president with a borderline-normal IQ at the helm...lord, how in hell did this guy get in, but what's more, how stupid are people that they actually think he's doing a great job? About 9/11...my husband was invited to the computer technology conference at Windows on the World that morning (he's a Wall Streeter at a major firm) and luckily -- as usual -- had way too much work to be bothered with attending yet another conference. What a day that was. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tish EMAIL: tish@wednesdays-child.com IP: 24.167.95.100 URL: http://www.wednesdays-child.com/ DATE: 06/05/2004 04:24:20 AM They really are, he doesn't have his daddy's skill at being sneaky and looking dignified at the same time. I still think Dubya is mainly a puppet who repeats what he is told and that Cheney is the man behind the curtain (which is why they have him in hiding all the time). Dubya really screwed our state up bigtime when he was governor, I'm glad I don't have kids, I'd be afraid to send them to public school, ours are so bad off now. OMG, glad your hubby was too busy that day, that's so eerie. My husband used to attend Dark Shadows conventions at the WTC Marriott, and there was one right at the end of August of 2001, but he decided not to go. It was really strange for him to see all the images of the destruction and recognize places he's seen many times before, especially of the hotel lobby. That was a surreal day for us because I was actually awake when it all began happening, we had appointments to go in for our annual physicals that morning so we're sitting there drinking coffee and tea and watching skyscrapers fall down on TV... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: CP EMAIL: wurligirli@yahoo.com IP: 141.155.142.143 URL: DATE: 06/05/2004 06:35:57 AM I was at a kindergarten orientation (of all things) for my son, when the principal interrupted the proceeding with an announcement that the trade center had been hit by a plane and that one of the towers was down. It just didn't seem possible to me. The reaction of all of us was a collective intake of breath...after that, everything seemed to move in slow motion for me, and probably for all of us there that day. I had left my son at a friend's house with her husband who happens to be a local politician and activist (it was the orientation for parents), and when I got there, he was staring at the TV in shock. By that time, both towers were down. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Phone service was virtually non-existant. My husband did get through to me in the early afternoon, and true to form, told me that he had no intention of leaving the office (which is several blocks north of where the WTC stood); that the fact that it had emptied out afforded him the opportunity of getting a hell of a lot of work done. He's a hoot and a half, that guy of mine. But it still took him hours to get home, even after the initial rush out of the city was over. I remember standing on the lawn, long after the kids were asleep, just waiting...he finally arrived and I couldn't stop holding him. He said that the eeriest experience of all for him was wading through a sea of swirling papers, many of which bore the name of Cantor-Fitzgerald. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Morticia TITLE: Farouk Chi Straightening Iron Splurge STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: The Women's Room CATEGORY: Shopping CATEGORY: The Women's Room DATE: 06/03/2004 04:19:56 AM ----- BODY: OK, after almost a week with my new short hair I've finally snapped to the two things that really made it look look so gorgeous after my stylist worked on it. The First is the styling spray he used, which is Smooth and Seal by Straight Sexy Hair, which is really an incredible product. It does leave some of that mega hairspray smell behind (and in the bathroom!), though, which is not good for me all the time because I do my hair before bed usually. But it's fabulous stuff, really, adds a lot of shine. I also realized that the two hot irons I had were not going to work real well with my new hair. Or my hairbrushes, I had to get new smaller ones. I have a Conair round iron that is usable, but kind of rough on my hair and dangerously hot. And I had bought a fabulous Babyliss straightening iron about a year ago, but it's over 2 inches wide and just won't work. But I kept thinking I'm missing something and after some research figured out what it is. I didn't have my glasses on while my hair was being styled (and wasn't allowed to look), but when I mentioned I had a straightening iron my stylist asked what kind of Chi I had, which I thought I heard wrong, but then he mentioned it a few more times. So after some Google searches, I found out he meant a Farouk Chi flat iron, which is top of the line professional and very pricey. It also has ceramic plates and lots of safety features that let him get right up to my scalp without burning me like my Conair does. But I'm determined to recreate the super straight, shiny hair I had a week ago, so I looked around on eBay and found them for sale for about 2/3 of the retail price. After more reading up, I decided to get the new Turbo version, which has variable heat settings and some added features the older version (there are many of the older one on eBay) didn't have. So I bought a one inch iron and will hopefully get it in the mail this week, the seller was one of two salons that had them for Buy It Now, and both promised same day Priority shipping. Some of the big discount type sellers were kind of vague in their shipping, and also sold things like bed linens so I decided to stick with a specialized seller. I'm a big believer in getting the best you can afford for things you use all the time and rely on so we'll see how this does. I think I'm going to have to play with my haircolor, though, the red is looking much too coppery, which I didn't want, I think I'm going to have to add some blue based dark red to it. I should just dye it black again, but then I'd be back where I started. But I'm going to wait till the semi-perm dark brown washes out a bit more. It's really nice having someone else do the dirty work on my hair color, but I think I may invest more money in keeping my cut in good shape and do my color myself. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: CP EMAIL: wurligirli@yahoo.com IP: 162.83.177.211 URL: DATE: 06/06/2004 02:59:23 PM Haven't gone the hair coloring route yet; I actually like my natural brown color a lot. But more and more lately, I'm finding white -- not grey, mind you, but WHITE! -- hairs sticking up at the top of my head. And if I dig through a bit, I can come up with a whole lot more. As far as styling my hair goes, I mix some Sebastian Grip with a dab of Sebastian Laminates Smoothing Gel in my hand, comb it through, finger style, and I'm good to go. My hair, however, has a mind of its own, and some days are better than others. But at this point in my life, I don't care. I hardly ever wear makeup, and only look in the mirror when I need to (mainly in the morning). And I hide the scale in the back of my closet! :-O ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tish EMAIL: tish@wednesdays-child.com IP: 24.167.95.100 URL: http://www.wednesdays-child.com/ DATE: 06/08/2004 05:59:59 PM Oops, I missed this one... I've been coloring my hair since I was about 18, I've never liked my natural brown, it makes my skin look sallow for some reason. This red is not working with my complexion, though, and it's "enhancing" my natural rosacea... I'm getting those weird white hairs too, even in my eyebrows. And some softer silver hairs. If I go all white, I wonder if my hair will be thicker, those little guys look pretty coarse. I have to have a really good excuse to wear makeup these days, I have lots of it, but I'm lucky to get a bit of concealer on. I like eyeshadow and liner, but it tends to irritate my already irritated eyes so I usually skip it. My scale lives under the dresser at the back of my closet also, I wouldn't want to accidentally step on it ;-) ----- -------- AUTHOR: Morticia TITLE: Getting Caught up - Shopping Spree - Body Rolling STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: The Women's Room CATEGORY: Health, or Lack Thereof CATEGORY: Shopping CATEGORY: The Women's Room DATE: 06/03/2004 03:30:40 AM ----- BODY: I feel somewhat caught up (and slightly broke) after taking care of business the last few days. I try really hard whenever I get a bit ahead financially to actually buy things I need and that are on my wishlist instead of things I didn't know I needed. It seems like when I does have money, I can't think of anything I really need, but as soon as I get low it's really obvious. I had bought a second book on Body Rolling, which required a different sized ball than the ones I already have (they sell them online, of course), but the exercises are completely different in the first book I got. So I ended up buying two of the balls from Yamuna Zake's website, I saw some on eBay that were similar and cheaper, but didn't really want to chance it. Had to buy a damn pump too, but I guess it's a good thing to have. The Miracle Balls I've been using have really been wonderful, great for both my fibromyalgia and the muscle tension from my MS. And they don't cost $60 an hour ;-) Back when I was rich (ha!) from working two jobs, I would try and go to a massage therapist every two weeks or so, but I'm one of those people that is so tight that it never really did a lot of good. But I'm having a lot of fun and getting good results from rolling, and who wouldn't like an exercise you do primarily laying down. What else... got semi caught up on meds and groceries today, at least the refrigerator is full and Sparky has lunchmeat, bread, Diet Mountain Dew and bottled water, so he's happy. Sam's Club had more of my favorite Tropical Chicken Salad, they haven't discontinued it yet as I feared, awesome stuff to snack on! Plus an easy dinner for tonight, cold shrimp and potato salad, an all-time favorite with both of us. And a case of canned green beans, which should hold us for awhile (I'm a lazy cook, BTW). Also ran into Old Navy today to try and find a belt for my poor jeans that won't stay up (maybe I really am losing weight, but I think it's more of a Lycra issue), and ended up also buying half a dozen of their Perfect Fit tees (two for $15!) which are actually sized big enough that adults can wear them and they are thick enough that they don't look like underwear. I even got some that weren't black. I wanted some Navy ones but they were sold out of anything above Medium, just looked online and they're out too, dammit. With the weather so hot I'm already tired of walking around in long oversized tees. I also got a couple more pair of their Just Lounge Capris (only the long ones are on their website but these look like just like the Capris), which hit me at the ankle and are great around the house (also on sale, yippee!). I used to buy their Yoga Capris but they're making them shorter now. They're really comfy for around the house, but they wear out pretty quickly, but for $15 what the heck. Did get belt, I wanted a leather one, but found a black and white brocade fabric belt that is very adjustable, plus comfy and attractive and got it. And I paid Sparky back for the last few weeks of utility bills, and bought more mailing supplies. And... I bought a new curling iron (see next entry for info!). ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: CP EMAIL: wurligirli@yahoo.com IP: 162.83.200.188 URL: DATE: 06/04/2004 07:37:57 AM My favorite exercise? Walking back and forth to, and opening and closing, the refrigerator. I, too, buy clothing I like in multiples; I got some really great t-shirts from The Gap a couple of summers ago, in really luscious colors -- and on sale! Also, I have several of their split neck ribbed-knit tees in various colors. I dare not wear stretch anything on my lower half; too much jiggle these days, I'm afraid! Jeans (men's fit me best), and in the summer I often wear polo dresses and t-shirt dresses from LL Bean. Needless to say, purchased from their sale section and in several colors each. I'm also a clog and sandals addict. And a shearling boots addict. And a vintage jewelry addict. Vintage diamond jewelry, to be precise. I also love watches. Unfortunately, not inexpensive ones. And best of all, a husband who heartily endorses it all -- especially if it's marked Tiffany & Co! Hell, who am I to argue with THAT, lol? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tish EMAIL: tish@wednesdays-child.com IP: 24.167.95.100 URL: http://www.wednesdays-child.com/ DATE: 06/05/2004 04:41:26 AM I like Fossil watches, I have like 8 of the things. I have one expensive CItizen watch, because I thought I ought to have at least one "nice" watch, but I didn't realize till I'd picked it out and decided to buy it that it's one of those darn light powered watches. I think I've killed it about six times so far from lack of light. When I worked at a department store I was a costume jewelry addict, I still have way too much of the stuff and rarely wear any of it. I've sold a lot of it on eBay, I need to get rid of some more, I'm tired of dusting all these earrings that I never wear :-) I'm so hard to fit I always buy multiples of things I love when I can. Lots of black, it's easy and hides a lot of things. I always wore boys jeans too, I'm really short-waisted. I hadn't worn jeans in years, but got brave and went looking around recently and found that a lot of the low waisted styles (with Lycra) actually fit me without hitting me in the ribs. But then the damn things stretch out after you've been wearing them for an hour, which is not fun at the grocery store. I like any shoe that's really comfy (and usually expensive). Echoes, Rockports, Clark's... My feet are so flat I can't wear clogs and I'm not big on sandals. And it get so hot here, I'm sort of paranoid about protecting my feet. I used to wear a lot of boots, now that I can wear jeans again I ought to get another pair of cowboy boots just for grins. My husband doesn't believe in expensive jewelry, so I'm glad my tastes are pretty affordable. But he helps me get my big toys, like a new Mac when I need it. And he believes in well-made furniture, and little things that make the house more comfortable. Now if I can just convince him that it's important to have a reliable car also (especially since I usually drive us everywhere). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: CP EMAIL: wurligirli@yahoo.com IP: 162.84.163.61 URL: DATE: 06/05/2004 06:07:11 AM I honestly believe there's no such thing as a reliable car anymore. We had an Acura that was a prblem from day one, a PT Cruiser that we dumped after 7,000 miles...I could go on and on. Our latest car, a BMW 325i, actually died in the driveway the same week we got it. They replaced the alternator, and it's been fine ever since. But still, there are occasional quirks that occur, like the navigational screen not popping on as it should (only happened once so far), and the back-up mirror not responding (like, pretty much all the time). But it's the greatest-responding car I've ever driven. I'm usually one to grip the steering wheel with both hands; with the beemer, it's with a finger or two! We have a minivan that has also had its problems, but it's great for hauling stuff like the pinball machines my husband collects. I used to say that any car is fine with me, and that was true -- until I got spoiled driving the BMW, lol! ----- --------