alien invasion

When Logan was over on Tuesday, he was looking thru my scary monster book and asked me to make him the alien for his birthday. Since it was only a few days before his birth, I moaned and groaned, especially since I have not been in the mood to make ANYTHING at all. Yet, it only took about a half hour. He even picked the yarn.

happy birthday Logan!

Love,

Anne

Book!

I read a few non-fiction books this week.

First, I read the Kitty Kelly Oprah bio, which was okay. It was WAY longer than it had to be!! Some of the stuff she told three or four times. I got bored. If you want the gist, Oprah is mean in person, thinks only of herself, switches "on" when a camera comes, doesn't give away barely any money compared to what she has... um.... lies about her past, she was no where near as dirt poor as she claims. She and Stedman may or may not be dating each other to cover that they are gay. She gave Gayle about a billion dollars in presents, and Gayle's ex husband ended up divorcing her cuz he couldn't compete. yada yada

But! If you are thinking about donating your body to science, or a loved one's body, you must must must read


Body brokers : inside the underground trade in human remains / Annie Cheney

Some med schools get more bodies than they need, and SELL the extras. You could end up being blown up by the military to test body armor, or parts of you could end up duct taped to tables in hotel conference rooms while medical supply companies teach doctors to use their products.

And, if you don't donate your body to science, it is a booming business for funeral parlors and cremation places. They just might chop you up and sell off some of your parts. Your family may or may not get any of your actual ash back.

In fact, your body may earn up to 200,000 dollars after your death, with NONE of it going to your family.

If you are squeamish, you might want to skip parts. But it is a fascinating book, with actual names named like "the University of Michigan"!!!!

Also, tissue and bone donation is discussed. Did you know even the doctor that is using cadaver bone or tissue in your surgery doesn't know where it came from? And you could get sick, or even die as a man from ST. CLOUD, MINNESOTA did after a knee surgery?? (Okay, it might have been St. Paul, I think it was St. Cloud!)

Interesting reading all around.

Anne

Book!

tv

Most nights when I am watching tv I am raging at it. :) Since I have no one to discuss my rages with, I am going to post some of them here. Just for fun. HA!

***

Last night was the season finale of LA Ink. I have watched this show since it started. In the beginning, it was about a lady, Kat, who was opening a tattoo shop in Hollywood. The show focused on the people working there, but really seemed to be about the people coming for tattoos. They would tell why they picked the tattoo, what it meant to them, stuff like that. (A lot of people get tattoos after deaths of friends or family.)

Then last season, the shop got a new manager, and a few new tattoo artists, that didn't work out. Most of the season focused on why they didn't fit in "the family" and eventually they got fired. More drama, but more boredom.

This season, yet again Kat hires a manager that "doesn't fit in the family". The whole season is about her and eventually she gets fired. Clearly the show now is about adding someone for drama and, strangely enough, they also focused part of every show on the manager that got fired LAST SEASON and the shop she works at now. So like a third of the show isn't even about LA Ink. But, also, the show focused on Kat, who is way more selfish, always so busy and tired and has so much to do, and very whiny about it. I actually didn't even like her anymore by the end of the show. I just got irritated every time I watched, so I am glad it is over and hopefully I won't notice when the new season starts. :)

***

Thursday is also "Real Housewives of New York" night. I just have to say that when I heard the "countess" has a new single out called "Money Doesn't Buy You Class" I was really hoping she realized she does NOT have ANY class. But sadly I think I am wrong. She is saying no one but her has class. Sigh.

Also this year I realize I don't like Jill. I used to like her, I thought she was sarcastic and funny, but this year I realize she is just... mean. Not as much fun.

****

Just a random rant about House Hunters. I like this show, especially the International ones, but it seems like the realitors never actually listen. If a client says they want 3 bedrooms and 2 baths, why bother showing them houses that don't have that??? Okay, sometimes the person does pick a house that doesn't match what they requested, but it still bothers me. Are there really no houses in France that have what the client says?? Must they settle for 2 bedrooms?? sigh.

****

I officially no longer claim any Finnish heritage. For weeks I have seen ads for a show coming to MTV called the Dudesons or some such name. It basically is like Jackass. The guys do stupid things and almost kill themselves and laugh like crazy. Stuff that makes me really think about the state of people today. Then I read in the paper that they are from.... Finland. Joy. Don't you feel special now if your ancestors came from that land?


Have a great week,
Anne

random stuff

I was going to call this post "random things that irritate me" but I might have the energy to talk about myofascial massage at the end, and that is not irritating, lol.

First, I hate the commercial that claims that the soap dispenser is the germiest thing in the world. I don't mind touchless soap dispensers, but you touch the dispenser BEFORE you wash your hands. Who cares if it is germy? You are just washing your hands anyways. What you should worry about is the faucet. You turn the water on with your germy hands, wash them, then turn the water off, transferring the very germs you wanted to rid yourself of BACK to your hands!! Think about that one.

Second, I hate commercials that use actors when they could/should use real people. Yesterday I saw a commercial for one of those business school type places, and they had two lovely girls talking about how it changed their lives. Except the bottom of the screen said they did NOT graduate from the school and were NOT students. Why not just use actual students? You pry wouldn't even have to pay them, they would be so excited to be on tv. I do appreciate the Restatis (however it is spelled) eye drop commercial because the lady in it is actually a doctor and does use the drops. Makes the commercial more believable to me. Even tho I refuse to use any drops and have terrible dry eyes. :)


****


I can't member what else I feel like ranting about, so I will talk about the myofascial stuff. My hand therapist taught my SIL Julie some to help my back. (I may have posted about this.) Since then, Julie took a several day class, and came over Friday to work on me. She spent over two hours, and only managed to do a few areas, because, in her own words, I am "a brick".

She focused on my back first, including the very low back, where I have had bad pain, mostly associated with my period, which for the past ten-ish years was continuous. (It takes a few weeks off now and then since I started getting Depo shots 2 years ago.) She spent TONS of time before she could get any movement at all. It was interesting- when it gets moving, it feels like she is twisting you and it burns like electricity. Not really hurts, but you feel something.

After my back, she did my head/neck some, my feet and also the back of my legs below the knees. I had told her that I had noticed years ago that when I lay down on my back (I always sleep that way) it feels like my lower legs are really tense and they don't really relax. Of course, they also were brick like.

During the treatment, she asked me to tell her if I felt tingling or anything in other areas than the one she was working on. When she did my upper back, my jaw started trembling wildly. After she finished, we went upstairs and ate supper. I took one bite of my sandwich and howled "oowww! My teeth HURT!" For some reason, it just hurt to chew. Strange, huh? I also found myself walking with a strange hunch because my lower back really hurt. My teeth were fine the next day tho.

That night when I went to bed, I started laughing. My left leg felt about half relaxed, the right was, as usual, not at all, so it felt like I was tipping over. When it feels like one leg is pressing down more on the bed than the other, you feel like you are twisting and falling.... I thought it was a good sign tho!

Julie called to check on me the next day and reminded me in some cases, like if you are a brick, it takes many sessions and can feel worse before it gets better. I assured her I knew. That day I was just off in general, and still hunched.

By Sunday I was feeling normal for me. Then I started to get a burning pain between my shoulder blades- a really painful spot for me. Otherwise my back seemed less sensitive. Usually when I lay down I have to make sure there are no wrinkles in the sheets or my jammas, becuz wrinkles HURT. So that was nice.

Monday morning when I woke up and lay in bed trying to think of a reason to actually get out of bed, I realized that sometime during the night my right lower leg had relaxed some and was not as stiff- not as much as the left, but definitely an improvement! I laugh when I think of the millions of stretches and exercises I have done trying to loosen up my legs- when I really needed Julie to work on them. Maybe after the next treatment they will actually feel normal? And not stiff??? Wouldn't that be fun. :)

I do recommend Myofacial treatments for all. Julie is not treating the public yet, but her sister Shari, who is also a massage therapist, has completed all three myofascial classes and is taking patients!

Have a great week,
Anne

america

This morning my parents and I had a discussion on America. They said it is a Christian nation, I say I believe in separation of church and state. I quit giving my point of view as soon as they got upset, as always, but Dad did end by telling me to read the constitution. So I did.

(Isn't google great?)

Constitution

I did NOT find any mention of God, except that it was signed "the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven".

Even the President's Oath of Office does not mention God.

Then, while doing a bit more googling, I found that John Adams and the US Senate signed a treaty with Tripoly in 1797 that specifically said "the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion".

treaty with tripoly

Interesting, huh? They were trying to avoid problems with Muslims, no less. HA!


Have a good week,
Anne

Cat brushing

Julie commented she is bored because I haven't posted, but the only thing I have done besides read books for the past few weeks is brush the cat. I do have some good info tho, if you ever were to obtain a cat and wish to brush it!

Most of our cats have been short haired and not brushed. My current cat has semi-long hair, and she sheds like crazy, so I try to brush her at least every other day.

At first I used a brush with bristles like a regular hair brush. It is fairly useless, just picking up any random hairs that are already almost falling off the cat. So when I saw the commercial for the "shedender" or "furminator", I thought they sounded fabulous. The one I purchased, I don't remember which, claimed you only had to brush ONCE every SIX months. Wow! What a bargain! The problem is that the cat does NOT stop shedding for six months. She shed the exact same amount, no matter how many fist fulls of hair I removed with the high tech tool. Eventually, in fact, she started getting bald spots. And still shed just as much.

Then I thought, what if I trimmed her hair shorter? Perhaps we didn't notice the other cats' hair cuz it was shorter! After much research, I bought a comb (for people hair) that had a razor in it. It is supposed to cut as you comb. Frankly, it did a nice brush job, but except for one whisker I accidentally caught, I don't think it cut her hair at all. Perhaps cat hair is too soft? The other end of the razor comb was a plain comb. I tried that, and it got just as much hair as the other types.

I also have tried, at some point, the gloves that have rubber nubs and are supposed to groom as you stroke. I haven't found a cat yet that likes them at all.

So my recommendation is to purchase a cheap fine tooth comb. And go at it!

Also, the pet hair velcro roller thing works well on the back of drapes...

Or, don't get a black cat.

Happy now Julie?

Have a great week,
Anne

book of the month

I haven't recommended any books lately, cuz I have mostly been reading fiction. I don't like to recommend fiction choices because everyone likes different stuff. With non-fiction, if you are interested in the subject, you are good.

Sway: the irresistible pull of irrational behavior
by Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman

I just liked this book. It has lots of psych studies, which I enjoy. It explains why we do such stupid things at times- and how to avoid this.

One funny section involved "who wants to be a millionaire". In France, one contestant blanked on "what revolves around the earth? mars, venus, sun or moon" and had to ask the audience. 56 percent said the sun, and he went with it, and the audience LAUGHED. They had lied, on purpose, cuz they thought he was too dumb to deserve the money. In Russia, contestants never use the ask the audience, because they always lie. They don't think anyone deserves money "on the backs of others". Interesting, huh?

Another good study was done with 2 people. One was giving money, say a hundred bucks, and told to divide it up with another person he had no contact with. The other person could accept it, or deny. If denied, no one got money. In America, most divided it 50/50 and were accepted. If they divided it ANYTHING less than that, the second person was willing to walk away with NOTHING instead of less than half, just on the "it's not fair" principle. In a small bush town in Africa, the most common division was 85/15 on the principle that the 2nd person didn't really deserve anything, so any amount was a gift, and it was almost always accepted. The only people that rejected it were found to have spent time with Americans and felt fifty fifty was fair. Would you give up, say, 40 bucks on principle? Or just take it happily?

An all around interesting book!

Have a good weekend!

Anne

stupid commercials

I have been really sick, so I am easily irritated. Here is a list of commercials that make me want to scream.

My most hated is the Swiffer one. First, swiffer is the most chemical laden thing you can bring into your home. The Norwex lady said it is the leading bad product. Second, I thought I HATED the "baby come back" version. I screamed every time I heard the song start. Until, that is, they replaced it with the "who's that lady" version which taught me the real meaning of hatred. Why oh why do I want to listen to the stupid song while the mop and feather duster fall in love??? Stupid, stupid, stupid. I hate it. I cover my ears and close my eyes and scream in my head until it is safe to come out. I can't believe I thought the mop getting on the bus with a suitcase of clothes was dumb. Dusting and cleaning tools having dinner in the garage is WAY worse.

Next is the pregnancy test one where they say "80% of women misread the leading pregnancy test". Every time I hear this I scream "READ THE DIRECTIONS YOU IDIOTS!!" and really hope it is negative cuz they seem too dumb to have kids.

I really really hate all the commercials promising to get you out of paying your back taxes. "Owe fifty billion? We can get the IRS agree to five bucks!!" Why not just pay your freaking taxes? Why is there is a whole industry devoted to NOT paying your taxes???

I also hate the mystyle.com "test drive" commercial for the twenty two dollar SUCKER. They claim the people they polled thought TWENTY TWO dollars was a good price for the sucker cuz it has a bedazzled stick. Who are they polling? Who would drop twenty bucks on a sucker? Obviously someone on drugs....

I really really can't stand the Mr. Clean commercial where one sponge says to the other, "he's cleaning a shoe!" and the second sponge says "what's a sheee ow?" Hello. The first one says it right, but the second one can't???

My current rage is at the Walmart roll back commercial. The nice truck driver says he planned his route better and saved Wal MILLIONS of dollars. Why oh why wouldn't they have done this twenty years ago if it really saved that much money??? How much was that driver spending on gas? A trillion bucks a year? so confusing.

Hope this helps you appreciate tv a bit more,

Anne

card class

Jodi wanted to start a non-buying stuff card club, and asked me to do the projects. For the first class, I decided on graduation and mother's day. The meeting was last friday, and it was much fun. We only had four people total, so everyone got to make as many cards as they wanted. Mange did a neat birthday card using the mother's day supplies, but I didn't have my camera. :)

Next meeting is the 30th, with father's day and birthday as the theme.

This is the first graduation card. It was fun to see the ladies use the supplies in different ways to personalize the cards.

This is the second grad card. I had several different primary colors so they could match school colors for graduates if they wanted.

For the mother's day, I wanted to try my new cuttlebug embossing folders. I had supplies for sanding the cardstock after embossing or inking. The cardstock for these was white-core, so it sands nicely.

This one is a bit romantic for Mom, but would be a good love or wedding card.

Don't you wish you were there? :)

Jodi donated some paper for supplies for next class, and I already have ideas floating around in my head.

Have a great week,

Anne

buying stuff

So I bought a bunch of stuff last month when HSN had free shipping on all craft items. I was feeling a bit badly about it, but today I did a cool project with one of the new tools, and I LOVE IT. I could see doing a million things, and many fam members wanting to also, so it was worth it. :) Okay, so a few other things I haven't tried yet, but I will get to it!

I found out this week that Stampin' Up! is retiring a BUNCH of colors. This caused a huge uproar on the stamping forums, but didn't really affect me until I realize they are retiring Blush Blossom. The paper I use for flesh tones for paper dolls. They have NOTHING else to replace it in peach flesh tones either. And I already have searched all over before buying Blush Blossom, cuz it is expensive for paper dolls. Guess I have to purchase a few packs to have on hand for years to come... I do like the other new colors tho, and I don't worry about matching ink to paper like the other forum people seem to. I purchased light and dark inks of all the colors, not all of them, so I am good there.

Have a great week,

Anne

great giveaways

Samantha, who has a great SU! blog, is giving away masses of free stuff from doing her spring cleaning. Head on over and sign up for some goodies!
It's a way to get some supplies without the cost. :)

http://thescrapmaster.blogspot.com/

Have a great holiday,

Anne