January 29, 2004
Quote of the day
"People can deal with sick stomachs, but they absolutely dread the idea of rotting brains." ~From a New York Times article on plastic cutting boards vs. wood cutting boards.
In the words of Carson, "yuh DUH!"
January 28, 2004
The Fat Myth
Why Aren't the French Fat Like Us?
VERY interesting article on the suspected reasons the French are healthier than the low-fat and fat-free obsessed American public.
Parental responsibility
Do people not realize how asinine they sound sometimes? Now, I realize that we're all capable of making asinine comments from time to time (myself definitely included), but I just don't get this one.
I just got a call from a customer who wanted to cancel her brand-new DSL service because she's "not satisfied" with it. I asked her what the problem seemed to be and get this - there's not a problem with the actual service itself, she wants to cancel because we don't have a screen name pull-down menu like AOL, and it's too hard for her 5-year-old daughter to check her e-mail because she needs to type it in every time, because they have two e-mail addresses.
EXCUSE ME?!?!?! What the hell is your 5-year-old doing unsupervised on the compute rin the first place, AND with her own e-mail address? Don't parents have any idea of what's available on the internet and what kind of crap shows up in random e-mail boxes? I don't care how much filtering software you have, there is always going to be stuff that gets through.
{{shaking head}} Just one more episode in the "I Can't Be Trusted to Raise My Own Child, So I Need Others to do it For Me" series, available in a suburb or urban setting near you. If there would ever be a reason I'd be afraid to have kids, it's this. I'd be afraid that my brain would somehow get pushed out in the birthing process and I'd instantly become RetardoMom.
Why doesn't this surprise me?
How Would YOU Take Over the World?
Weird
I know Mel had this issue as well. I posted a few entries yesterday. They showed up just fine when I posted them. Now they're gone. Fuckers.
January 24, 2004
Step away from the Big Mac
I'm just gonna post the whole article here... it's worth the read. Frightening, but worth it.
By MEGAN LEHMANN
January 22, 2004 -- LAST February, Morgan Spurlock decided to become a gastronomical guinea pig.
His mission: To eat three meals a day for 30 days at McDonald's and document the impact on his health.
Scores of cheeseburgers, hundreds of fries and dozens of chocolate shakes later, the formerly strapping 6-foot-2 New Yorker - who started out at a healthy 185 pounds - had packed on 25 pounds.
But his supersized shape was the least of his problems.
Within a few days of beginning his drive-through diet, Spurlock, 33, was vomiting out the window of his car, and doctors who examined him were shocked at how rapidly Spurlock's entire body deteriorated.
"It was really crazy - my body basically fell apart over the course of 30 days," Spurlock told The Post.
His liver became toxic, his cholesterol shot up from a low 165 to 230, his libido flagged and he suffered headaches and depression.
Spurlock charted his journey from fit to flab in a tongue-in-cheek documentary, which he has taken to the Sundance Film Festival with the hopes of getting a distribution deal.
"Super Size Me" explores the obesity epidemic that plagues America today - a sort of "Bowling for Columbine" for fast food.
As well as documenting his own burger-fueled bulk-up, Spurlock travels to 20 cities across America, interviewing people on the street, health experts and a lobbyist for the fast-food industry.
Despite making dozens of phone calls, Spurlock fails to get anyone from McDonald's to agree to an on-camera interview.
A spokeswoman for McDonald's told The Post yesterday that no representatives from the corporation had seen "Super Size Me."
"Consumers can achieve balance in their daily dining decisions by choosing from our array of quality offerings and range of portion sizes to meet their taste and nutrition goals," McDonald's said in a statement.
Over the course of the film, Spurlock is regularly examined by a gastroenterologist, a cardiologist and SoHo-based general practitioner Dr. Daryl Isaacs.
"He was an extremely healthy person who got very sick eating this McDonald's diet," Dr. Isaacs told The Post.
"None of us imagined he could deteriorate this badly - he looked terrible. The liver test was the most shocking thing - it became very, very abnormal."
Spurlock has since returned to normal health. "The treatment was to just stop doing what he was doing," Dr. Isaacs says.
Spurlock, who says he ate at McDonald's only sporadically before his total immersion in the Mickey D's menu, says he even began craving fat and sugar fixes between meals.
"I got desperately ill," he says. "My face was splotchy and I had this huge gut, which I've never had in my life.
"My knees started to hurt from the extra weight coming on so quickly. It was amazing - and really frightening."
Spurlock's girlfriend, Alex Jamieson, was horrified - she's a vegan chef.
"She was completely disgusted by me, not happy at all," he says. "But she realized what my goals were in trying to educate people."
Spurlock, a film producer who grew up in West Virginia and studied ballet for eight years, was spurred to make his first feature film while watching TV on Thanksgiving Day, 2002.
"I was feeling like a typical American on Thanksgiving - very bloated and happy on the couch - and at some point on the news they were talking about two women who were suing McDonald's.
"People from the food industry were saying, 'You can't link kids being fat to our food - our food is nutritious.'
"I said, 'How nutritious is it really? Let's find out."
Not surprisingly, Spurlock has steered clear of the Golden Arches since filming wrapped.
"I have not had McDonald's for seven months, but yesterday, during an interview, I had a bite of a Big Mac," he says.
"I chewed it up, swallowed it and I said, 'You know what, I'm pretty much done after that bite.' "
January 23, 2004
Interesting...
Found elsewhere on the internet...
The next time you hear a politician use the word "billion" casually, think about whether you want that politician spending your tax money.
A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into perspective in one of its releases...
- A billion seconds ago, it was 1959.
- A billion minutes ago, Jesus was alive.
- A billion hours ago, our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.
- A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate Washington spends it.
Closure?
ME: Final WTC death toll 2,749
The official list of those missing for the first time matches the number of death certificates the city has issued for victims in the attack...I suppose this is supposed to be a good thing, but I'm just sad.
Heh
Gay Marriage Poll Gets Annulled
Seems the AFA wasn't too happy that their link to their little poll got into "the wrong hands." Yeah, too bad ignorant fundies weren't the only ones participating in a poll that was intended to be presented to Congress.
Damn shame, really.
/sarcasm
January 22, 2004
Good morning, everyone!
It's currently -8 degrees Fahrenheit in my town, according to my weather.com Weather Desktop.
To the uninitiated, that's DAMN COLD!!!!!
January 21, 2004
The good, the bad and the ugly
The Good: I still have a job. The meeting went well. I was one point below where they wanted me to be, but said that I showed such dramatic improvement over the course of my probation that it's okay.
The Bad: I'm still on eggshells, because if I ever have a problem with my stats again, they "reserve the right" to fire me with no warning. I've decided that I'll be looking for a new job, becasue I don't always want to be watching my back. I want to do my job, do it well, and be left the fuck alone. But I won't be looking until after raise and bonus time (end of April), because I worked too damn hard in 2003 to give up my bonus, and my raise might give me a little more salary leverage.
The Ugly: I don't know why they even had to say that anyway, considering Wisconsin is an at-will state, meaning that they can fire me at any time for any reason anyway. And Little Miss Makeup (HR chick) was all sweet and smiley (see aforementioned "syrup on shit" quote) while reminding me that I didn't meet the goal, so the possibility for termination had still been on the table, even though I did so well.
January 20, 2004
Quote
An acquaintance of ours told me this one, courtesy of one of his older relatives:
"It doesn't matter how much syrup you put on a pile of shit, it doesn't make it taste like a pancake."
January 19, 2004
Grrrrrrrr
I'm so frustrated. I've got a little situation going on here at work where I'm on sort of a "stat probation." They didn't feel my phone stats were good enough (despite taking just as many calls as everyone else AND being one of the top sellers for 2003). Anyhoo, so today I was supposed to have my meeting to find out if I've done well enough on my stat probation to keep my job. This meeting was supposed to take place an hour from now. I JUST got notification from the HR chick that she's had some sort of scheduling conflict and needs to move the meeting to tomorrow. An HOUR before the meeting and she only knows NOW?!?!
Dammit, I already lost enough sleep last night.
January 13, 2004
Back it up
They now think FIL may have had a small stroke. His heart is fine, no sign of a heart attack, according to Bryan (he just got back from the hospital).
This makes sense, considering. FIL was experiencing blurred and double vision at various points today, the first being maybe about half an hour before he started having pains.
I hate not knowing, and I hate knowing that they don't know. They're calling in a neurologist.
--------------------
UPDATE: FIL had a SINUS INFECTION. The dizziness and blurry/double vision was caused by a massive sinus infection. God knows where the chest pain came from, but he had a sinus infection.
The thing that made it worse is that they still kept him in the hospital for another 24 hours after they determined that it was a sinus infection, so it must have been pretty bad.
Scary stuff...
There's a possibility that my FIL may have had a heart attack this morning. They're not sure yet what really happened, but he's in ICU resting comfortably right now. They're saying he's very lucky he got to the hospital when he did, and that if it was indeed a mild heart attack, it may be the precursor to "the big one."
What a coincidence that we planned on shopping for a recumbent exercise bicycle this weekend, huh?
It also made me realize that Bryan's parents aren't as young as mine (well, I KNEW that, but things like this make you realize certain things, y'know?). All the way to the hospital (an hour ride, since I was already at work when I got the call) all I could think was "you're not allowed to die - you don't have a grandbaby yet!" And Bryan was thinking that he needs to start getting paid what he's worth, so we can get out of debt and buy a house already. We'd already come to the conclusion quite a while ago that we'd start TTC when we sign mortgage papers (after watching my parents struggle so long as renters, I will NOT have a baby before I own a home), but we've been saying "oh, it'll happen in about two years" for almost a year and a half now. I was just telling my mom last night that I think I'd be lucky to give birth to my first by the time I'm 30, and my 30th birthday puts Bryan just 2 1/2 months short of his 35th.
Time to get crackin'. I want us to try our damndest to make sure we turn his parents into grandparents while they're still around.
So, no TTC yet, but we're hoping to try to make that happen a little faster.
January 12, 2004
Don'tcha just hate it?
What do you do when someone is so passive aggressive that, knowing you read their blog, they feel the need to blog that they're keeping their mouth shut about something to be nice, when you KNOW they want to say something?
Now, I don't have confirmation that it's about me, but I'd have to be stupid to think otherwise.
What a crock of shit. Are we in furking high school? Why are women so furking immature?
January 10, 2004
I love The Beatles
Let It Be
!!!!!!!!!!!!!which BEATLES song are you?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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This could explain a few things
Angry Girl
What kind of little girl were YOU?
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January 09, 2004
Soup for me!!!
I found a really yummy-looking recipe on the web and I can't wait to make it. And Kim, it's cheap!!! :)
Curried Lentil Soup
Makes 8 cups
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup finely chopped red onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons curry powder
6 cups vegetable stock
1 ½ cups dried brown lentils
2 carrots, finely chopped
One 15-ounce can diced tomatoes with juice
½ cup Merlot or other or other medium-bodied red wine
¼ cup minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
¼ teaspoon salt, or to taste
¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper, or to taste
Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion; cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and curry powder; stir constantly for 1 minute.
Add the vegetable stock, lentils, and carrots; bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to low; cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the lentils are tender, about 45 minutes.
Stir in the tomatoes with juice, wine, parsley, salt, and pepper. Taste and adjust the seasoning.
January 07, 2004
January 06, 2004
Screw fresh!!!
Some people won't eat fish unless it's fresh. I love fish, but fresh breaks my budget. I'd rather have frozen fish than no fish at all. And I'm not just talking about fish sticks, either (though I LOVE fish sticks).
Check out what I got at Save A Lot last week...
- 1lb. salmon filets (4-4oz. filets - one package, $2.99)
- 1lb. tilapia filets (4-4oz. filets - one package, $2.99)
- 1.5lb. tuna steaks (6-4oz. steaks - two packages, $2.99 each)
- 1lb. pollock filets (one package, $1.99)
All for the low low price of $13.95!! We're trying to be healthier, so this sounds good to me.
I get very excited about inexpensive seafood. Carry on...
Well, doesn't that just suck?
So, the ATM ate my debit card last night. I put the card in, and it said "please enter your PIN number," blah, blah, blah. So I press the first digit of my PIN, and suddenly it says "this location is being serviced, please visit one of our other locations." And it doesn't spit my card back out!! I called the credit union this morning, and I said "this is going to sound weird, but there's 'x' amount of money in my account, but the ATM ate my debit card last night." She said "is it a Visa check card?" I told her that it is, and she said "we've already called a service person and they'll be here some time this afternoon." I said "I guess I'm not the only one then?" and she said that every time the phone has rung (rang) this morning, it's been someone whose card had been angrily consumed by the ATM.
I can't get it back until Friday or Saturday, either - they're going to hold the cards at the branch, and I get home too late during the week to go get it.
Fun stuff!!!
Holy shit it's cold!
It was -7F when I got to work this morning. I've *just* managed to warm up, and even so, not completely. BRRRR!!!
Remind me again why I moved here?
January 05, 2004
Okay, this is it
Gotta lose weight. My current goal is to not have to have an extra panel sewn into my bridesmaid gown for Carrie's wedding (it didn't come in my size, so I had to order extra fabric). I'm scared. I'm dealing with my first-ever obesity-related health problems (i.e., I've been in denial until very recently that I could have some serious problems), and I'm scared.
We're buying a bike (recumbent exercise bicycle) next time I get paid.
Another one...
 .
You're sweet, but not naive - though you like to be babied like a child at times. You prefer to have a bad boy by your side, but sometimes have problems understanding why he has to run off to take care of business. You want to settle down, yet deep down inside, you are excited by the surprises life throws your way.
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Quiz time again!
Not sure if I ever posted this one... I found the code copied and pasted in a text file on my desktop at work. I took it again today and got a different answer. My original answer is first, my "today" answer is second. I guess I keep getting younger.
My inner child is six years old!
Look what I can do! I can walk, I can run, I can read! I like to do stuff, and there's a whole big world out there to do it in. Just so long as I can take my blankie and my Mommy and my three best friends with me, of course.
How Old is Your Inner Child?
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Now for my "today" answer...
My inner child is one year old!
Everything is new to me. I like watching the world
go by around me, and I don't sweat the small stuff--or the large stuff, either. Just so long as I stay warm and safe and dry, life's pretty good.
How Old is Your Inner Child?
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January 02, 2004
Hey, by the way... I'm married
It has been brought to my attention that anyone reading this blog who doesn't know me very well might not have such a hard time assuming that I live by myself and that I don't have a man in my life. This couldn't be further from the truth. I have a wonderful husband named Bryan. We have been together for almost 6 years (today is actually the 5 1/2 year anniversay of the day I moved to Wisconsin to be with him), married for a little over 16 months.
He is one of the people the most influential person in helping me to become who I am today. He is the light of my life and I cannot imagine being without him. I love you pumpkin!!!
August 31, 2002
The Ranting
Oy. I'll put this in an extended entry, so those who don't wish to read it can just skim...
My immediate family pissed me off.
The house is still a disaster, because my dad and sister both expect my mom to do EVERYTHING, she doesn't do much to enforce anything otherwise, and they destroy it faster than she can clean it, because she's furking exhausted. My sister is furking unemployed, with a car loan and insurance that my mom pays because she co-signed the loan and my sister claims she has no money AT ALL, even though she's always buying designer makeup on eBay, and selling things on eBay that don't belong to her. So if the loan doesn't get paid, mom's credit goes down the shitter. And since the car is registered mom's name, she's legally responsible for insuring it. And NYS law requires that a car with a loan HAS to be insured, whether or not it has plates on it, so it's not like she can just garage it to get out of paying the insurance. She won't sell it, because she got a good deal on it and it's a good car ('98 Camry that had under 30,000 miles on it when she bought it). She said the only person she'd consider selling it to is my sister's boyfriend, because his car is crap - personally, I don't think he'd want to get stuck in the middle of the war that would ensue between his girlfriend and her mother if he bought "her" car, but we'll see...
The original arrangement between my parents when they bought the house in 1990 was that she'd take care of the inside of the house and he'd do the outside. But the backyard looks like someone's back alley in the South Bronx, because when it comes time to do something, he's too busy with homework, despite the fact that he's got all the time in the world to go to all of my high school's football games, whether they're at home or at a school an hour away, and a few hours every Saturday BSing with his friends who own the local beverage center. My mom bought a shed 12 years ago that he never put together, for which the box is still leaning up against the back of the house in all of its now-rotted cardboard glory - 12 YEARS later. He does things like that on "his own time," despite the fact that "his own time" can sometimes mean never. My mom wants to rent a dumpster to get rid of the 13 years of crap they've accumulated since moving into the house - the kind that they park in front of your house, that you fill up and then they come take it away and dispose of your crap for you - but my father won't hear of it, because he doesn't want the front of their house looking like they live in the ghetto. He doesn't seem to care about the inside of the house though - and if he does, he certainly doesn't show it, or else maybe he'd take less time for himself and more for his family and their belongings. All of my life growing up, he always told me that chores and the upkeep of the house were things you participated in because you're part of a household and everyone in the household is responsible for it. I guess that doesn't pertain the the adults that live there though. Or maybe it just doesn't pertain to him, since he seems to expect my mom to do it all.
If they have company at all, my mom literally has to take a few days off work to get the house to where it's even mildly presentable, whereas my dad could probably clean up the yard with a few hours of good, hard work and then help my mom with the house. He even promised my mom that he'd help with the room that Bryan and I used while we were there. Nothing doing. Mom finally convinced my sister to do something about the room since it was filled with her crap. She got about 2/3 done, then threw a blanket over a bunch of crap she shoved to one side of the room. Dad? High school sporting events, BSing with friends, homework - in precisely that order.
Heaven knows how I turned out the way I did. I'm at a point in my life now where clutter bothers me, and while I hate cleaning it up, I know that I'm at least 50% responsible for it - because it's OUR HOUSE.
I took my mom to breakfast one morning that we were there, and we were talking about it. She said "and everyone tells me it's partially my fault for allowing it to happen." I looked straigt at her and said "ma, I'm not going to tell you any different." But it doesn't stop me from being pissed off about it. She should know better than to tolerate it, but he should know better than to be that way. I'm about *thisclose* to hiring a cleaning company for her birthday, if there was a way I could afford it.
The Trip
Today is our third full day back from NY, and I haven't really had much time to blog about it yet. It basically went like this: family, bored, annoyed, family, shopping, sleep, family.
I spent a lot of time with family (which is why I didn't call a few people I probably should have called - you know who you are, *cough*Mel and Renee*cough* - I feel like a heel and I'm sorry. The good news is, I'll be back twice more by the end of 2004 (Dawn's wedding and Dad's graduation), so there will be more chances to see my bright smiling face.
My immediate family drove me nuts, but not because of anything they did. It's what they haven't done as far as improving the status quo (ranting on this will be in a separate post).
The rest of the family is doing well.
My cousin Veronica has a very nice man in her life. Bryan and I both liked him a lot, as does the rest of the family. Her dad, my uncle Michael (dad's brother), looked good as well.
My cousins Andrew and Matthew seem to have settled down a bit and are still as lovey as ever, very UN-typical of 13- and almost 12-year-old boys. Both of them ran up to hug me tight, and the first words out of their mouths were "I love you." They also got a dog, a Pekingese named Julie, who is such a little cutie. We joked that she's Grandma's 4th granddaughter. Uncle Andy (dad's brother) and Aunt Violet are doing well also - he's still working in the city, and she's about to graduate with her degree in massage therpay, which she's very happy about.
Grandma looked very happy, though she's not getting around very well due to diabetic neuropathy. She's thinking about giving The Scooter Store a call, but wants to make sure that if she gets a scooter that she'll be able to lift it into and out of the trunk of her car, otherwise it's pretty useless, since she can walk around the house (albeit holding on to things as she goes).
Aunt Louise (grandma's sister) and Peggy (Aunt Louise's best friend and longtime family friend - since before I was born) are doing well, though I didn't get to speak with either one very much. I would have liked to ask what they think of the current woes of the Catholic Church (they're nuns), but there's always another time for that.
Uncle George (Grandma's brother) is working, working, working, and spending a lot of time in the Carolinas with his daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter.
Dawn (who is the big sister I never had, so she's included) is getting married in July, hence my return to NY in about 6 months. I'm so wonderfully happy for her. She's also teaching 7th grade music - some of her students are little monsters, but it sounds like the good ones make it worth it.
All in all, a good trip (save for the aforementioned ranting, which will come soon).
It's good to be home.
Congratulations to Mel and Sean!!!
Mel and Sean celebrated the New Year by getting engaged December 31, 2003. Congratulations, and I can't wait to hear all about the planning!!! I could not be happier for you if I tried. :D
Happy New Year!!
First picture of us in 2004:
Happy New year, my wonderful snuggy hubby pumpkin! I am so glad I found you and that you made the decision to become my husband. 2004 will be the best year yet!