We're getting new family pictures taken this weekend, and also Zeke's third birthday pictures. I think it's been almost exactly a year since we got our last family picture taken. Now I just have to find something decent to wear that looks alright. Ugh. I bought a cute maternity dress off of my friend, though...so I may try that on and see how it fits. Maybe they can photoshop out my acne. haha.

Nothing tastes good right now. Oh, the joys of pregnancy! I've been able to hold down cereal and soup today, that's about it. But tomorrow could be a whole different story. Some days I'm ravenously hungry, eating everything in my path...other days I spend in a toilet, the thought of food FAR from my mind.

Hubby is working late tonight and I am attempting to clean my disaster of a house. I've folded all the clothes I washed today and they just need to be put away. The dishwasher needs unloaded and can be reloaded. I picked up all the toys, although Zeke's room I just gave up on. I really want to get things organized so we can start working on Baby Number Two's room.

Alright, enough procrastinating.

We just got the news that the airline we will be using for a trip in the fall, Midwest Express, is canceling a large percentage of flights. Our flight is most likely included, from the report we are reading.

Since we absolutely need to make our trip, I currently have my computer mouse hovering over another decent deal for airline tickets, surrounding by scary-looking prices of other flights. However, as we are not rich, I need the confirmation that our flight is indeed canceled, and our purchase of the first tickets has been refunded.

I tried to check the status of the flight online, where I was given this error message:

We're sorry we are unable to process your request. There has been a schedule change to your reservation. Please call the Midwest Airlines Scheduling Change Desk at 866-613-1390.

While I was online checking, I had already called customer service, and after hearing the busy signal quite a few times, I finally got through to their customer service department, where I have sat, on-hold, ever since.

That was a little after noon. It is now almost 2 pm.

I just hope Little Dude continues to nap until I make it through, and that I'm able to confirm decent-priced tickets on another airline if needed.

p.s. I will admit the phone has now been attached to my ear for one bathroom break, one snack and I am debating a small nap...

Now, I can handle bugs - most bugs, that is. I've lived in apartments above bars/restaurants before and was accustomed to having cockroaches crawl about my body whilst drunkenly passed out on my futon...and was also accustomed to watching said insects scurry in swarms down my drain when I turned on the kitchen light. No big deal.

Here's the problem. I live in New York...not Florida, not Arizona...not in a state that is commonly known for LARGE, mutant insects. If a bug is larger than my thumb then there's a problem. It should be living in another state. Not here.

So, when I go to swat this insect off of my foot and feel its sticky, squishy body, I, of course, investigate. To my shock and horror it is some horrific, prehistoric looking thing. It plays dead as I remove it from my foot.

It's just nasty, nasty...would you want that mofo clinging to your foot? I think not.

The dogs hear me freaking out so they come to investigate.

Ridley starts salivating immediately (you can see little specks of dog spit on the deck) because he loves bugs and thinks he's about to have a meal.

I love this photo - he thinks if he looks at it out of the corner of his eye the bug won't notice him.

The dogs LOVE bugs. Ridley has been known to play with cicadas for hours and hours...just watching them flutter and hiss and spin. Ick. Gus, he likes the big, nasty scarab beetles that somehow find their way into my house. He got one last week and I couldn't, for the life of me, figure out why he was foaming at the mouth. My daughter yelled, "Oh no, he has rabies". Um, no. Eventually, I found the culprit. Another fine black scarab specimen.

The first such scarab that we found in the house was captured, put in a jar and fondly named "Midnight". My daughter insisted we keep him/her. I, of course, refused. We set it free in the back yard as she cried, "Goodbye, Midnight, I'll miss you." Goodbye is right. And don't come back.

A few months later I stumbled upon an Oleander Hawk Moth. Now, the moth was not as bad. It was quite interesting and I even let the thing crawl around on my hand for a photo op.

THAT was a BIG frickin' insect. Just look at the wing span!

And then there were the cicada killer wasps. *Gulp* I seriously thought that I had stepped into "Land of the Lost" when I walked into my kitchen one evening to find a wasp the size of a small bird swooping around the ceiling. My first instinct was to run like hell. But I was in my own home, where would I go?

Nope, that's not my hand holding the nasty wasps...are you kidding? I will only go so far for the sake of a photo op...and holding giant wasps would be going too far for this damsel.

Now, I will say that I don't really like to kill bees of any sort but the first time I encountered the cicada killer wasp I was so panicked that I grabbed a broom and a can of bug spray and shot the sucker out of the sky then beat it with a broom. I was literally shaking...and trying to figure out why my house had been selected for this mutant insect experiment conspiracy.

That was not the only cicada killer wasp incident. I still get them every so often. But at least now I know what they are so I stifle the scream and just deal with them.

The bug this evening was not that big compared to what I've witnessed in the past. It was just...nasty looking, plus it was crawling on my leg and it had no business doing that. Eeeewwww.

I let the pooches play with it - only because I wanted to get some interesting photos to share with you so you, too, can be creeped out. You're welcome.

It didn't flutter, didn't hiss, didn't flop about. It just played dead so they lost interest and I took a stick and swatted it into the yard. Ick. No more big bugs, please. I'd be very happy if I didn't see another insectus giganticus this year.

...and I'm not gonna lie, I'm disgusted by it.

I can't be told nothin' as of right now, ass has hung out and as a woman an understanding has been made.  I see it for what it is, and I know now.  It's hella triflin' and pitiful at the same time.  But whatever, I guess it is what it is, and people are gonna be who they are...

I'm applying for a certification relating to my career, which involved a fairly brief form, easily answered by using an up-to-date copy of my resume, as well as a few write-ups regarding projects in which I've been involved. It took a bit of time and effort, but it wasn't the worst application I've had to complete.

And then I came to this part of the rules for application:

"Include a recent photograph and brief biography (250 words or less) for potential use in presentation materials."

Aak.

I know I blog, and enjoy sharing stories about me, the Hubby, Little Dude, Supercat, the world around us, my opinions, etc., but to seriously write a career-related biography? Ick. Ick. Ick. And they want a recent picture? (Did I mention, "ick?")

First, regarding the biography - when I write about myself, I'm used to being funny and poking fun at the mistakes I've made. If you look at my list of 100 things, most of it has to do with my likes and dislikes, my goofiness and sentimental side, and it is just for fun. I really have a difficult time bragging about my professional career and accomplishments, because I'm pretty certain someone is about to smack me up aside the head if I do, and tell me to stop being so full of myself.

Sadly, I knew they probably wouldn't accept, "I went to school. I got a degree. I became gainfully employed within this industry and have been here ever since."

In the end, I wrote up something fairly cheesy (I think), asked one of my copywriting friends to proof it (she didn't laugh too much, but did leave little teary-eyed faces near the area where I waxed poetic regarding our current employer), and that is that. Truthfully, I don't think it really described me - at least not the real me.

As for the picture, don't get me started on that, but hopefully this one works.

Yes, Bee, that is your necklace I'm wearing!

Even though I'm a procrastinator, I'm happy to say the application went in the mail on Tuesday, and it was due to its destination on Friday. Via the US Postal Service's tracking device, it appears my package was delivered yesterday, nicely ahead of schedule.

For now I hope I'm approved, and wait until September or October to find out if I'm certified. At the same time, I sit and stew over that biography and picture. Ick.

Have you ever had to write a biography about yourself (excluding the "about you" section in your blog)? Is there an easy way to do this?

Don't quit your day job, Humor Boy. I shout back. “The sluggies and earwiggies have had their morning beer.”

Really. I planted a small garden of edibles amongst the perennials this year. The tomatoes are thriving, but the lettuces and peppers are being dined on nightly by the slug-wiggie crowd. I decided to go the humane route -- let the little suckers drink their body weight in beer and go gently into that good night. Apologies to Dylan Thomas.

I thought it only fitting to send them off with one of my fave Pilsners -- Steam Whistle -- brewed at The Roundhouse in Toronto. I've yet to see one of their fleet, but I live in hope. If you're ever in Toronto, have a Steam Whistle. Go ahead. Take a tour.

There is one teensy glitch. Given the state of her breath and overall laid-back demeanor of late, I suspect our Golden pup, Gracie, has developed a taste for Steam Whistle, too. That would be with a side of dead slug and earwig. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Something tells me I'm going to need a cloaking device for the Slug-Wiggie Beer Tent.

Elen

I call it the Route 28 bus, but some people might call it revolting.

I can honestly say that I never again wish to stand next to a guy who has been drinking and smoking and probably hasn't showered in the past 3 days.

Apparently, studies by Federal scientists found virtually no difference between cloned foods when compared to food from conventional livestock. In a recent CNN.com article, “FDA: Cloned Livestock Is Safe To Eat,” Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine, stated “Meat and milk from cattle, swine and goat clones is as safe to eat as the food we eat every day.”

Do you remember back to September 2000, when Kraft Foods voluntarily recalled Taco Bell brand taco shells because they were believed to contain a protein from an insect-resistant corn called Starlink, approved for animal feed, but not for human consumption? If Starlink livestock feed isn’t safe for human consumption via the meat we eat, doesn’t it seem hundreds of steps backward to consider cloned meat and dairy to be safe? Nothing further was ever reported about the taco shell incident, but the fact is when cows eat the controlled corn, the chemical properties of food the animal eats, feeds the muscle that we consume as meat or dairy.

Consider some little known information about cloned meat and the practice of cloning:
There are many different types of cloning and the basic technology for cloning can be used for purposes other than creating a genetic twin. For instance, therapeutic cloning, or embryo cloning, is used to harvest stem cells for medical research. With all the stem cell controversy today, it should position therapeutic cloning as an acceptable alternative for creating replacement cells to treat Alzheimer’s, cancer, heart disease, and other life-altering diseases.

Reproductive cloning is the process used to create the food our government is about to introduce into the general food supply, unlabeled. As you may know, reproductive cloning creates an animal, such as Dolly the sheep, with the same nuclear DNA as another existing animal. Dolly was originally created so that cloned organs could be transplanted into humans. She was born on July 5, 1996 and unveiled in 1997 after 277 failed attempts by Ian Wilmut, an embryologist at the Roslyn Institute near Edinburgh, Scotland, the team leader on the project. [caption id="attachment_13" align="alignright" width="128" caption="Dolly the Sheep"][/caption]

Cloned animals come about through a process called “somatic cell nuclear transfer” (SCNT) where the genetic material from the nucleus of an adult donor cell is transferred to an egg whose genetic material has been removed. This newly reconstructed egg is then treated with chemicals or electric current in order to stimulate cell division. Once the cloned embryo reaches a safe stage, it is transferred to the uterus of a female host where it continues to develop until birth.

Unfortunately, if the reprogramming process goes awry then deformity, disability, and death occur. And cows frequently spontaneously abort, or worse, end up with 30-40 pounds of fluid in their bellies due to the abnormally large size of the fetus, which causes great distress to the mother. Other irregularities are premature death at many different stages of life, respiratory failure, absence of an immune response, and inadequate kidney function occur, but these defects do not become apparent until long after birth.

And therein opens another can of what, cloned worms? Ask yourself…just how safe is the food we are eating today? And, exactly what are we eating now?

There certainly are controversies. Let us remember that testing hasn’t been conducted long enough to record the health risks, and most of the tests are being done by the companies doing the cloning. Without even considering the moral implications of cloning, putting cloned meat and milk into our general food supply is experimenting with the public welfare, and most definitely, we are not guinea pigs.

Consider Charlton Heston’s 1973 movie, Soylent Green which takes place in 2020-- a mere 12 years away--when fruit, vegetables, and meat were extinct. To feed 40 million starving people, a new green food from the Soylent Company appears on the market. As the tale unfolds, the viewer finds that the secret ingredient in this food tab is – well, um, dead humans. And that’s definitely the ICK heard round the world!

Just be safe and don’t mess with Mother Nature!

But, (and it has to be said because I'm a big girl too) its not sexy and/or bootylicious to be rockin' a swimsuit under your jeans with your rolls hangin' out.

Matter of fact, wearing a swimsuit and jeans like you're suited and booted is NOT all the rage in Paris.

Thought of the day: Just say no, kids. Just say no.

What do I do about the foot pain?!?!?!?!?

The mouth blisters? Painful and you lose your appetite, yes, but manageable. The hand blisters? Annoying and make me overly sensitive to any temperatures or textures, but again, manageable. The foot blisters? I JUST WANT TO CUT MY FEET OFF ABOVE THE ANKLES! SERIOUSLY.

I spent my day laughing at myself, or I would have been crying, as it has to be the most bizarre sight to watch me walk across the house at any given time. I look like I'm learning to walk or someone stole the walker I should be using, and I wince at the slightest misstep. We won't even mention the screams of agony if someone, like a cute young man, accidentally steps on me or shoves a toy into my foot. It hurts so much! (Does anyone have a walker they would be willing to share for a bit? Just kidding...)

I'm not writing this to garner sympathy, as much as I wanted to share with parents this fact, just in case Hand, Foot and Mouth visits a child near to their hearts. Be aware that even if you can barely see a blister or two on the feet, chances are there are more, and yes, it truly hurts to walk - even just a little bit.

After going through this, I totally understand why Little Dude was so upset shortly after the rash/blisters appeared. This is total misery, and if I had someone to carry me, I would so be in my bed right now. But, I'm here in the office, getting up the courage to finish that walk to the bedroom, and giving my aching feet a rest.

Did you guess Supercat? He is a cat, and the rest of us pretend to be are humans. Wrong answer, though... (And he thinks he is a human, or a dog, or any other species out there...)

Did you guess me?I'm the only female in the house, although poor Supercat does kind-of walk the non-gender-specific line, due to a little procedure he had way back when, but wrong again...

Did you guess Little Dude? The other three of us are in our adult years, so he is the only truly young one in the group. That is not the correct answer though.

I guess that leaves the Hubby. And how, may you ask, is he different than the rest?

(And Wordpress is having issues with paragraph-spacing today, so I've had to go through and do a little manual HTML coding... Not my strong suit, but it reminds me that I need to go get some training to advance my Web skills, as it helps in my profession. I feel stressed and sick right now and didn't need that reminder...)

Secondly-I've been asked by a few people if my store is one of the ones targeted for closure. The answer is fortunately, NO. We have some of the highest numbers in the district and people would get seriously violent if we closed our doors. Plus, we're right near a major highway-we get TONS of traffic, as evidinced by July 3rd's rush that had our drive thru snaking around the building and the line inside the building to the door...There are 3 stores in this area that I've heard to be closing. The district and regional managers are fighting one. The other 2 are goners. Hopefully, we'll get some of the GOOD ones from those 2 stores at our store. Plus, they're opening another store off the highway about 20 minutes up the road. That store needs staff...so there will be options...but my green apron is safe for now.

So, My 4th of July went like this....

4:15-alarm goes off. Get up, shower and put on the Barista clothes.

4:45-4:50-leave the house for what I THINK is a 5:15 start to my shift.

5:00-get to work-see SuperShift's car-FREAK OUT thinking I'm 15 minutes late. Knock on door, get let in and apologize for being late-get told that she thought it was 4:45 too, and it really was 5:15, and we're just going to open the store SLOWLY, and take our sweet time, so clock in and let's get going.

Hey-the 4th was time and a half. I'm not complaining about the extra time.

6:00 am-Open...SLOW morning. Seriously SLOW morning. When HoursWhore (he calls himself that...) comes in, we dawdle around, do our "tasks" and then make ourselves drinks. It's just dull as dishwater-we come up with drive thru games, and no one even flinches when we play them.

10:47-off the clock I am and heading home. I decide to stop and get bagels-I hear this tidbit from the bagel people "Who the hell needs bagels on the 4th of July!?"

Umm. Me.

So, I came home, ate bagels and proceded to get the family ready for the party that afternoon at my uncle's house. No, not one of the uncles that is related to the trash dressing family that invaded poor Angela's bridal shower a few weeks ago...this is the other side of the family...

This was Isaac's first pool party. He's really only done "water play" at school and other places. The kid loves water. He'll sit there and play in the tub for HOURS upon HOURS.

So, he beelines for the kiddie pool and in about 30 seconds, rips off his rash guard.

(note to self: WHY did I buy the child a rash guard? Oh, yeah. He's PASTY WHITE. Reminder to tell the school to MAKE HIM KEEP IT ON!)

Isaac had a great time hanging with the cousins on the side of the family he's never really gotten to know (because of distance reasons...and because...of stuff my darling mother doesn't want me to put in here. There.)

So, here are the photos...hover over for the explanations.

And not to get off the subject, but what is up with fireworks being held on the third or fifth instead of the fourth? Unless there is some discount to cities for avoiding the actual Fourth of July?

But back to the first subject... Little Dude is sick, and he has his second ear infection. Although his eardrum isn't perforated, the doctor compared the color to the red on the bottom of his sports socks, which is a pretty vivid red.

I feel guilty. Call me crazy, but I've noticed a bad smell. I thought it was just his breath, as I know I get bad breath when I have a cold, due to all of the garbage that accumulates in my throat and dry mouth from not being able to breathe as well through my nose. I noticed last night and this morning, though, that the bad smell it is definitely more noticeable near the infected ear.

Other moms have told me you can sometimes smell when your child is sick, and I never understood this until now. The Hubby says I'm nuts, although he can smell it, too - he just doesn't believe you can use that as a symptom.

I'm guessing this ear infection began during his last cold, last week, and we didn't notice it until now, as his temperature has been fine, and he appeared to be recovering from that cold just fine.

Yesterday, he wouldn't eat lunch, wasn't interested in his snack, and spent a lot of time clinging to us. His temperature was normal in the early afternoon, but by the time I came home from work and running last-minute errands, his temperature was over 101.

I quickly gave him some infant pain reliever, and called my mom, to get a second opinion. She mentioned how he had been playing with his left ear earlier in the week (which happens when he is teething, too, so not a big sign of anything without a fever). As she began telling me this, Little Dude, who was sitting on my lap, began to tug on his left ear.

The Hubby and I loaded Little Dude into the car and headed to our nearest urgent care. Happily, we were the only patients when we got there, so we saw the doctor and were on our way to the pharmacy within 30 minutes. Very impressive!

It was a long night, as I woke Little Dude near midnight, to give him another dose of pain reliever (to keep the fever down), and he woke crying just prior to six, this morning.

His antibiotics, more ear drops and pain reliever calmed him, and he ate a pretty good breakfast, as well as drank some formula this morning. Before nine, however, he was already falling asleep again, so although we are at one nap a day these days, it appears it will be a two-nap-day, at least.

Tomorrow, we will be invaded by family and friends, so I'm hoping that he is feeling much better by tonight, after a full day of antibiotics and rest.

Hope everyone is having a healthier Fourth of July than Little Dude!

kubuntu, at least, is beautiful in a fundamental way: for an organisation-categorisation freak like me, my impression of it so far is that it's very intuitive, makes a lot of sense. maplestory, on the other hand, seems fundamentally flawed in every imaginable way. ...but it is cute.

far from being organised and intuitive, maplestory seems to me terribly contrived and arbitrary. Of course, perhaps these are not bad points for those who play it. it is also money-wasting (as i myself evidence... less than a thousand dollars but really not that much less) and time-wasting.

oh, and regards time-wasting, nexon's aim seems (to me, at least) to be to get the player to spend as much time as possible on the game or the site. it achieves this by maintaining a sort of "mystery" around the game (no fault to them, it makes them money after all), for example through opaqueness, uncertainty, an enticing portrayal of "more" (even when it is plain that there is no more), and really quite tiresome complexity (such as, as I recently discovered, a new player quest that requires one to click through every single page of the cash shop until one finds an arbitrary item, which one loses immediately, with the sole purpose of advertising all the shiny new expensive cash shop items to the uninitiated, so one can - yay - start buying them as soon as possible.)....... excessively long sentence. my apologies.

so then, what can i say about linux? well it's open-source. evidently that implies it's non-arbitrary, non-money-wasting, non-time-wasting, non-deceiving, non-unnecessarily-complex, transparent, and purposeful. how full of ♥s.

no surprise, then, that so far, except for people who are using stuff like vmware, maplestory's not compatible with linux (:

Okay, maybe not the plague, but I am definitely not healthy.

Yesterday was spent at home, where I put forth valiant effort in finding materials to shove up my nostrils to stave the constant flow of snot, while drugging myself senseless in an effort to keep my temperature in the normal range for a human and cease the coughing, lest I lose a lung.

I'm feeling slightly better today, and in celebration of my slightly improved health, the National Guard has arrived to assist in the disaster efforts of the flooding.

Okay, so maybe it isn't in celebration of my health, but I am once again able to make it from my home to work - a route that was so flooded yesterday, my only options were offering me an added half hour of travel, at least, on top of the hour commute I already have in each direction. Not a fun prospect. I stayed home and had planned to put in a full day from there, but the plague had me struggling to put in a half day of work.

On top of the addition of the National Guard to our area, FEMA has arrived and is evaluating the flooded towns around this area. Maybe, just maybe, the local governments will receive the much-needed funding and assistance they so desperately can use.

Leaving my house lately, has been a bit surreal. Where we live, we are fine and need not worry about a flooded basement, much less a house.

As I drive south, to the town in which the Hubby and I used to live, and the various areas I've lived around or worked in for most of my life, the destruction of the water is overwhelming. I've heard about how hard other areas have been hit (Iowa), and I know we are small-scale compared to some of what they are experiencing, and it is unreal.

I'm seeing the ice cream stand we used to visit, and now the roof is all that is visible. Many of the houses that stand so proudly, now appear as castles, surrounded by moats, or like mini-houses as several feet of water now covers the bases or the first story. Roads suddenly vanish into water. Fields have been converted into lakes.

We talk about getting from one point to another, and it is a little like a maze right now. You drive so far only to realize you've hit road that is non-existent, due to flooding. We've been staring at the maps of closed roads so long, it is amazing we don't have them all memorized.

But this, what my family and friends are experiencing, is just an inconvenience compared to what others have had to face. We still have safe and dry homes, and our family is all okay.

And I'll get over the plague, eventually. (Just hoping that the Hubby and Little Dude avoid getting this nasty cold, too!)

(C) 2008 BethNoLastName

Poo is not the only thing that gets picked up in New York. According to this article a dog was sucked in to a street cleaner and the only thing the Sanitation Department would say is that people need to watch their dogs more closely.

The owner was watching; as the machine swept up his pet into it's bristles.

Note to Self : No dog walking in New York until the sun is up and the streets are empty.

Dogwoman

• 2004 haben wir am 16. Juni schannettes Geburtstag gefeiert (so wie morgen)
• dabei haben wir Deutschlands letztes Gruppenspiel bei der EM geschaut (so wie morgen)
• Deutschland ist mit einem 1:1 gegen Lettland ausgeschieden (... ?)

erschwerend kommt nun hinzu:

• wir fahren jetzt einen Seat Cordoba

ich glaub ich höre gerade wieder diese Stimmen...

Seriously, though, things are getting worse, I'm sorry to say, and my grandmother has been informed that she may have to evacuate from her home, too. I'm hoping the water doesn't creep that close to her, but the face of our surrounding communities have definitely changed over the last week.

In insurance news, we finally have made contact with our claims people and have been authorized to replace our washing machine, garage door opener, network card, TV and baby monitors, as well as a few other of the small items. We are also authorized to have all of our wiring inspected, so we'll know of any other damage, soon, I hope.

Not much to say, except more storms are on the way again, today. We just had a brief storm go through, and I'm concerned at how my commute roads may have worsened. The road I drove to get home last night, and used again this morning, is now partially covered, too.

Here are some pictures from last night and this morning:

This road is actually under construction right now, but as you can see - they probably won't be getting a lot of work done on it at the moment.

This is the road I drove to get home last night - water is creeping closer.

This is the same spot on that road this morning. One lane is now covered (and with more rain happening right now and expected later...).

This front-yard ditch has turned into a pond.

This field is now a lake.

This barn is about to be a houseboat.

And why would someone plant trees in a lake?

This is was actually a popular park for necking, fishing in the dark, launching boats, underage partying, picnicking, and much more. The water from the river is most of the way up the driveway right now.

The picnic shelter of that park is now standing on an island.

And one last view of the island that is the picnic shelter.

I know other communities are facing further devastation and loss, and my sympathies are with them.

My feelings about adoption are biased. I think that it is a wonderful thing to partake in. It isn't about not wanting to give birth, my Mom was told that she wasn't able to have children. After extensive tests she and Dad decided that adoption would be the way that they 'had' children. And so the process began. Mom tells me that it is a very invasive process. Every part of their lives were examined under a microscope to determine that they would make good parents. My brother feels the same way about adoption. We are both thankful that we were adopted by a loving couple that had families that were very supportive about adoption.

When my Mom got pregnant and had my little sister, there was never any doubt in my mind that we would be loved the same. I had no fears that because Little Sister was biologically theirs that they would love her more. And there aren't any differences in the way that we are loved.

I recently told someone that I was planning on adopting at least one child when I was ready to have a family. This person, let's call them J, without thinking said that adopting was possibly the worst thing that could happen to a family. The parents would resent the children and the children would be neglected. I don't think that I have ever been quite so angry before. I know many people involved in the adoption process; from judges and lawyers to parents and the children to the social workers and foster parents. If the process was so horrible and actually resulted in neglect and feelings of resentment then wouldn't one of the many people involved do something about it? I was shocked by J's attitude toward something I feel so passionately about. So, I enquired as to whether or not, J knew that I was adopted as was my brother. J's reply: "I always knew that there was something the matter with you guys!"

It is this attitude that makes me angry at people in general. Why the heck would someone say that? Most people who have feelings about adoption, good or bad, are close to someone that has either been adopted or is adopting a child. It seems that the only people that have anything bad to say about adoption are people that have never been involved in the process at all. Opinionated idiots!

So, for the record, I would just like to state that it improves more lives than it ruins.

Also, yes, everyone that is related to my parents is related to me. Legally. And no I can't marry my cousin. Why would I want to? As far as I am concerned cousins are cousins, it doesn't matter that I am not blood related to them. In my head, where it counts, the ick factor is strong when people suggest that I can marry male cousins. Grow up. Please.

And no, I was found in a cardboard box on my parents front step. They did not buy me. I was not foisted off on them by a relative. My aunt is not really my sister and my mom is not really my grandmother. I live a normal life. I am loved and I have people that I love as well. I don't get paid to be adopted and my parents don't get money for having adopted me. No, I have never met my biological parents, but that doesn't mean that I won't. I don't resent my parents and they don't neglect me. We are a 'normal' family in every sense of that word.

End Rant.

Slugs don't happen in apartment buildings. I was about to tear up some lettuce for a salad when I noticed a dark dark brown slimy thing on on side of the head. A spark of horrified recognition when out grew those antenna like things and it started moving!

I know I like the colorful underwater ones, and yes they're just as slimy too. But this was just - yuck. I couldn't even bring myself to touch it and remove it from my leaf! And because the ick factor was simply overwhelming, I picked up two barbeque sticks to make like chopsticks, picked it up and put it in a plastic food container. (yes, I couln't bring myself to squash it to death either.) I put some lettuce leaves in with it too. (no, I will not name it - too icky.)

I wish I knew if it was poisonous or not. If it wasn't I'd be happy to feed it to walter.

So now I can't eat my salad. :( And I understand BC completely. No, it's not irrational. The ick just really gets into you and gaaaaaagh.

Who thought the King Kong building would even be fitted with such terrible fire supression mechanisms that could be overwhelmed? Wasn't this supposed to be solved after the 1990 fire?

Oh, wait. Let me backtrack here. For those of you who don't know, Universal Studios Hollywood had a huge fire. Huge in the scope that the entire lower lot is pretty much no more.

No more Back to the Future Clock tower (and 1.21 Gigawats...)

No more New York Street.

No more King Kong.

The last fire there was 1990, and afterwards, what were supposed to be great fire suppression mechanisms were put in place, because the facades are pretty much all timber, and burn like gangbusters-but this time-they didn't work. King Kong and his reign of banana scented ruling are over for the time being.

I've got great memories of this place, laughing at King Kong and Jaws attacking the tram with my family, laughing at all of the great movie props, playing with fake rocks and things. It really is a loss to the entire community to have this part of the working studio burn down.

The vault was a disaster too-but the silver lining in that whole thing is that Universal was SMART. They put copies of everything in different locations. Just because these reels and videos were lost, doesn't mean that they don't exist somewhere else. Hopefully now, they'll make back ups of the back ups.

So, Good night, King Kong.

Hopefully, you'll be back with us soon, so it's not goodbye, it's just goodnight.

.

Last week I had a nasty ear ache and thought I had an ear infection, but it cleared up on it's own without treatment.  Just thought is was an after affect of the first round of the plague........  

Saturday I was so exhausted.  I dragged myself around all day.  Finally around dinner time I felt so tired I had to lay down to take a nap...... ended up getting almost 12 hours sleep.  

Monday night was sleepless with a nasty sore throat that lasted into Tuesday.

Tuesday night mid yoga my head suddenly filled up with fluid and my nose has not stopped running since.  

Wednesday, yesterday, I went home early from work with the ick.  Did not want to expose my colleagues to my germs.  

I called in sick today.  No fever, but the damn nose will not stop running!!! I have zero energy.  And am bored silly.  Daytime TV sucks, but I am too tired to read or be on-line.  I hope to get some good solid sleep tonight and drag my ass to work tomorrow, even if it is for only a portion of the day, I don't want to fall too far behind.  

Oh, and the generous loving partner that I am I shared it with H! That's what love is all about, we share everything.  He called a little while ago to say that he's feeling the start of it again.  

Not that there is ever a good time to be sick, but it figures that we would get the plague redux just in time for the holiday weekend.  

I don't know what this virus is, but it is inconvenient, nasty and just as misery inducing the second time around.    

Why wonderful? It means no screaming babies in 9 months thats why! Especially if your not ready, or you already have your miracles from the joy of childbirth. (Haha! Who made that crap up Hallmark?) So at that point you are so happy to see red once a month. Especially if your late.. which I was this month and was like Oh my God.. I've only done it twice in the last month.. what the heck?

I feel better now... uggg...