iHope

iHope there is a good announcement on 1/26/09.


Because, iWant an iTablet!

checked out

I've mentally taken a break the last two days. I haven't done much except read bad novels on my Kindle iPhone App. I have completed two in this series. I downloaded that one (Darkfever) eons ago when it was free and I just read it. It sucked me in so I paid $6 for the second one in the series. I want to go buy the third one, but I think I'll check to see if our local library has it first.

I haven't been this sucked into bad novels for so long. It's lovely. This morning, I even skipped Zumba, mostly because of the bad dark novel. Oh, no! The bad dark novel has me under its power. I plan to go to Zumba tomorrow morning. I rode the exercise bike this morning for 30 minutes (while reading the novel) so I did something, at least. Hrm.... Maybe I can make myself ride more if I allow myself the treat of the bad novel when I ride.

So, I have this knee... I think I've spoken about it before. It still hurts. It isn't horrible, in fact, it feels a lot better than it did back in July, but I want "perfect knees." Occasionally, I still have them. Physical Therapy has helped, but there is still something wrong. Or, actually, I think there are still (at least) two things wrong with my knee. I don't know if the knee is taking forever to heal because of the weird blood test results that indicate I have antibodies showing that parts of me attack other parts of me or if it's just regular old arthritis and I am just getting older and it's never going to heal.

There's a doctor, a plane ride away, who has done a lot of research on the thing I have antibodies for, and I am wondering if I shouldn't go see him and just talk with him. As the doctor who I saw last fall told me, "You have NOTHING wrong with you, so forget it, but I'd like to see you again to educate you on what might go wrong." Um, contradictory much?

There's nothing the doctor I saw can do for me because she doesn't subscribe to the treatment the other doctor (the plane ride away) does--we'll call him Dr. PlaneRide just to keep things straight and we'll call her Dr. NICDFY (short for Nothing I can do for you). Dr. NICDFY's treatments are high risk and cause much worse side-effects than what I have wrong with me (which is nothing according to her). Anyway, Dr. PlaneRide's treatment is very low-risk, minimal side-effects, seems to work for about 2/3s of the people he treats, and is more successful when done early... I'm so early that I don't even have the problem, I just know I have antibodies....and I shouldn't even know about the antibodies in my blood (my OB/GYN ordered the test when it shouldn't have been ordered). It's weird to have knowledge like this. It could be NOTHING or it could be an early warning. Oh, what to do with the information.

Should I go visit him and see if I should do the treatment now? Or, is it to early? Do I just keep eating really well, working out, sleeping a lot and stressing as little as possible because those behaviors may prevent the "thing" from ever occurring? Is that the better treatment? Or are my knees a "first sign" that something is wrong with me? It's probably worth a phone call to Dr. PlaneRide's office, but I'm scared he won't take me seriously.

One thing I learned on the trip to see MWH's family, it's hard to eat vegan, to exercise, and to not stress while traveling*. Sigh.

Now I need to go start thinking about work again. Bleh.


*Actually, I knew all that, but I was painfully reminded of it.

4

This was our fourth Christmas at our new house... I guess it's not really "new" anymore, eh? I feel so behind in blogging, and everything else. I hate feeling that way, but I'm not really going to think about it. I'm just going to write for 10 minutes to get things started...

Speaking of 10, this year was the first time since 1999 that we travelled at Christmas. I like staying home better. We went to visit MWH's family, and while I like them all just fine, I don't like traveling and I don't particularly like staying with them.

MWH did all he could to make it a decent visit for me, but I am whiny when I travel. He went and bought a vaporizer (good grief, how dry the air was), and a mattress topper for the bed (the bed is SO hard). The vaporizer and the mattress topper helped, but was I ever happy to get home to our bed! (And my shower...for some reason, the water there is VERY CHLORINATED, and the shower was difficult to take... my skin was soooo dry!)

The trip was fine. We traveled on Christmas Day and it wasn't too crowded. We came back yesterday, and again, not too crowded. I'll post pictures and do a re-cap of the day and all of the presents on "the other blog" later.

Boy, this is boring... The girls loved the trip and all of the attention. Did I ever tell you what a charmer Three-a is? Okay... end this post NOW.

P.S. I found shoes that I wanted, but then it turned out I didn't need them after all. I bought them and even though I didn't wear them I will keep them for the next occasion so I don't have to stress out over shoes again.

Also, for some reason, my knee hurt much worse on our trip than at home. Could the 10 degree cooler weather caused the pain? As soon as we got home, it felt better. Crazy! (But I'm glad it doesn't hurt as much.)

Bah

As in Humbug.

I went shopping this afternoon.... I've done my Christmas shopping and most of it was done online, but I needed to go find shoes to go with a dress and I figured it would be easy. I wanted navy, silver, or gold pumps. That should be easy, right? NO...I FOUND ZERO. So then, I decided, maybe I should just get a new black dress and wear shoes I already own.

Ugh.

I felt very dissatisfied with my body after being in the dressing room and trying on the dresses. Dressing room lights are awful, we all know that, but really, those lights couldn't have made me feel less attractive. I would think that having better lights in the dressing room might make people feel better about themselves and buy MORE. How's that for a crazy idea? Hey stores, re-do your dressing rooms! Put in flattering lighting! As it was, I just wanted to curl up in the fetal position.

So, after 3 hours at a mall, I left with only a new pair of workout pants. I wasn't going to let the ENTIRE day be a waste. They were on sale! But, I have nothing to wear on Sunday. That is a problem. We may have to hit a different mall tomorrow. (Double ugh.)

The really annoying thing is that I SHOULD have just ordered shoes from Zappos last week... Why did I not think of that? Now, since I need the shoes by Sunday, I can't get them from Zappos. I waited too late. Unless Zappos has a way to do Saturday deliveries. I should call them. Hrm. They don't. Hey Zappos...You should think about Saturday deliveries.

closing in

Christmas is quickly closing in on us. Highlights from the week:

1. I spoke to a friend who loves Christmas. She didn't know I was so Bah humbug-y (see the last point on that post). I think she's a bit annoyed with me now, because I really was negative in our conversation, but really, I'm not into Christmas. I keep wondering, if work wasn't so busy, would I like Christmas more... I don't know is the answer, but I don't think I would... Who knows!

2. The girls make me dislike Christmas a little less. At the beginning of the month, we took them to Target to have them show each other what they wanted for Christmas. It took up most of an afternoon. oNe loves to give presents to her sisters. Watching oNe love buying and thinking about her sisters makes me so happy. twoK is sort of starting to get it, and Three-a (4), well, she still wants to get herself a present. We're working on it. I think it's just her age. She's four. Four is a hard age... remind me to do a post on that.

3. At work, on Friday, I got an email from someone who is a "rock star" in our field. I was all a-twitter. He was asking me to do something on one of his projects. After I fainted, I consulted with my awesome current supervisor. The reason the rock star emailed me was because of former supervisor. Former Supervisor (FS) was very well-known in the field. I know the rock star would have never found me if it hadn't been for FS. It's flattering to get the email, and now I have an opportunity to interact with rock star and do good work and who knows...Hopefully good for the career!

4. I finished one project for work. Woo! It was a project that had no budget, and I finished it "under budget." I wish I would have charge 1 or 2 more hours to it, because I did work that many more, but I thought we had no more money--It turns out there was about 2 more days of money on it---ARGH! Oh well, the project lead is happy with me and he sent me a nice email. 1 or 2 hours more is not that big of a deal.

5. I have started Holiday Cards. I have a lot to do. I plan to get them all done before New Years. Someone in the blogosphere has a Christmas Card "scoring system" and points are deducted if yours arrive after Christmas. Whatevs. I'm lucky to get them sent.

6. Should go make dinner now... Spicy Peanut Sauce.... Yum!

Still

Start of day

I am still coughing and feel kind of bleh. Yesterday, I was worried that it was bronchitis, so I went to the doctor. The good news is my chest sounded good, so now I just wait and hope I can recover without getting sicker. I'm so tired. I hope to be all better SOON. I know I have a lot of work to do at work and the stress is not helping the situation.

oNe has the cold now and doesn't seem very sick. Three-a sounds like she has a little something going on, but she really doesn't seem sick. Apparently this virus likes to hit adults harder. MWH still sounds pretty bad and he's still tired--though I'm sad he's not 100%, it's nice not to be miserable alone.

Dinner Time
It's been several hours since I started the post and now I'm cooking dinner. I got some T-time today... Three-a and I ran an errand.

I have learned how to make Garbanzo beans (no more cans!) from scratch (not hard, but it involves A LOT of time... Last time I made them, I simmered the beans in water for about 4 hours and they still weren't soft, so I let them soak in the water in the fridge. I had them in there for 2 days before I used them--I don't know when they got nice and soft). Anyway, I'm making them again so I can make super yummy, homemade hummus this week.

Girls in bed (almost)

It's bedtime now. It's been a lazy weekend. Three-a and I ran to the mall, but we weren't really shopping. MWH and I aren't doing presents, we are getting a new _______, and I don't like to go crazy on the gift thing. I need to do cards, but I'm not stressing about them. At the moment, I feel better than I did earlier in the day. This happened yesterday too--around 9 pm, I felt GREAT. Then, bleh this morning. Bleh in the morning and good at night. I am a night owl.

Vitamin D3

It's amazing and important.

My healthy bloggy friend will tell you all about it.

If you want the very brief version, know that the Recommended Daily Allowance of Vitamin D is 400 IU, but that is probably too low. The leading expert researcher on Vitamin D takes 4,000 IU a day. I take between 4,000 and 7,000 (usually around 5,000) because of my weird autoimmune issues*. If you're pregnant or nursing you probably need to supplement ('cause you're getting it SUCKED out of you--literally). You want to have plenty of it for the baby.

Vitamin D is essential for neurological (brain and nerve) functioning, a good immune system and strong and healthy bones. It has been shown to help prevent 14 types of cancer. It helps in heart disease. It can help in autoimmune disease, diabetes, inflammation/inflammatory diseases, infection, and osteoporosis. It helps repair DNA damage. And now, researchers are thinking it might help prevent autism in children. (Go read her blog post!)

It's good stuff in a little yellow pill. It's the sunshine vitamin. You can go outside and get sun on your skin and your body will make some, but probably not at this time of the year. It's winter and we don't get enough sun in the Northern hemisphere, so buy a bottle of the little pills. They aren't expensive and potentially could help a lot. The only thing you need to know is to make sure you buy Vitamin D3. If you can't remember the 3, just remember D and my favorite number.



*I'm giving the girls 1,000 IU a day too. MWH is taking 4,000 IU a day.

I love PB

Have I ever mentioned how much I love peanut butter? Well, I do. I eat it every day. Usually for breakfast. Sometimes for a snack.

I love Zumba too, but you all know that.

Why am I telling you these things? I'm still recovering from my cold and I'm trying not to make that the ENTIRE blog post.

Here's the latest. I still feel not so good. I had a moment though today when I realized, I am recovering. My 1 pm (phone) meeting had just been cancelled, and for a brief moment, I though, "Yay, now I can go to Zumba." Heh. Not. As MWH pointed out, "You'd cough up a lung." I'm not actually coughing that much so I disagreed. Instead, I said I'd probably fall over though from the exertion.

Alas. So, no Zumba for me today. (But it'd be super fun!)

I'm hoping by Thursday I can make it to Zumba. I think moving around a bit would be good for me, so later today I'll jump on my exercise bike.

The weirdest thing about this cold is how much my lymph nodes hurt. You know how when you have a sinus infection, and you bend over, how much your head hurts? That's how my neck lymph nodes feel when I bend over. They KILL me. My throat isn't sore. My nose isn't that stuffy... The entire cold is in my ears and lymph nodes.

Okay... working from home today I still need to

1) Read a report on DL
2) Read some more about ___ Analysis

N3nny is sick too. The girls, knock wood, are fine, but I have a feeling they are doomed. This will be one of the first times that we've infected them. The bad thing is that we have to take care of them while they are sick, and that they get whiny. The one thing I'm hoping for is that they get sick BEFORE the holiday.

wah!

I have a bit of a cold. I'm hoping it's gone soon. I had a cold back in October, if you remember... What?! You don't remember? Well, it's true, I did. You can read about it here if you want. I know you want to...

I'm HOPING it's not as bad as that cold. What, you didn't go read about it? Well, it started mildly and then lasted for a week...
It had me at home from work for 2 days. I've stayed home all weekend thus far, but I don't think I'm as sick as I was then. I can't tell if I'm "done" getting worse, or not. I don't feel better than I did yesterday, but I don't think I feel "worse." My ears are stuffy and I HATE that.

MWH had a little cold last weekend, and he didn't whine as much as I'm whining about this one. Does this mean I'm sicker than he was or that I'm getting whinier about colds?

A friend asked....

about a laptop for her 8-year-old for Christmas.

My response is not yet. Take a look at what Common Sense Media says.

We currently have an iMac in our kitchen for the girls. They do lots with it while we're in there. It's great while I'm cooking dinner. They watch "approved" movies from YouTube on it. They visit Starfall a lot. (Most months twoK goes there and makes a calendar--she loves that. She is so organized!) This is one of their favorite sites--it's their favorite series of books.

I'm trying to get oNe to use the computer more for math flashcards, but I haven't found a site I love. (And we have a huge report due on Friday so my homework efforts have been pushed over to the report for now.) I've seen this site (like, okay) and Carrot Sticks (again, just okay).... I'm looking more for a game that does flash cards and times and isn't hard to do. I need to have oNe do them again and get her opinion... She only did them once, so maybe she'll like them better if she does them more. Suggestions?

Okay, I digressed, but it scares me to think of an 8-year-old with a computer all to him or herself that he or she can shut. Also, does an 8-year-old need all the capabilities that a laptop gives you? Probably not. Maybe some 8-year-olds would understand it and use it for good, not evil, but most wouldn't.

Let me know if you have different beliefs or great web sites that you use!

Take time for blue toe nail polish

That's what twoK and Three-a have on their toes. We painted the toes on Tuesday night and I've been touching them up ever since. Three-a is especially sensitive to chips on the toe nail polish. On Wednesday morning, Three-a was asking me to fix the toes and I almost didn't make time to do it, but I did. I decided I shouldn't be so stressed about work that I couldn't take time to fix her toes.

I'm really glad I took the time. I found out today that a friend has colon cancer. I am so sad. She's young. She sounds great and has a great attitude, but how sucky is that? She's diagnosed with Stage IIIb. She has a little girl (younger than my girls). I wish her the best. Her email puts my weird blood test results in perspective. Live life, enjoy, and hope for the best. Spend time with those you love... That's what's important.

Take time for blue toe nail polish!