Monday, December 29, 2008

I am the ALPHA and the OMEGA 3...


If I take any more fish oil I will either grow scales or have mercury poisioning. Neither is appealing.


Sunday, December 28, 2008

Birthday!

Celebrated my birthday by bowling with my brother, then meeting him, Anica, Mom and DH for dinner at Hawthorne. It was a nice laid back meal, with some fab gifts. A funny card from Kevin, and a gift card to the local liquor store (nicer!), plus an aromatherapy unit from Mom with lavender and citrus oils. Now I can get some wine AND relax...awesome!

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

HOLIDAYS!


javi0137_n
Originally uploaded by dehmystic

The Holiday has officially started for us, we're off from work until Monday! We had our Departmental (I.S. and Accounting) Holiday lunch this afternoon at Hawthorne and headed out after that. Made a couple of quick stops around town then headed home for some last minute email and work related stuff...then hoping to relax a bit, make another cheesecake, and make sure all the gifts are wrapped and plans for tomorrow and the next day are set.

Monday, December 22, 2008

Thyroid Holidays

I found this old post on http://www.bigdumptruck.com/thyroid/ and thought it was pretty funny and timely.

And what holiday season would be complete without listening to Christmas Carols? None! Thyroid disease sufferers, whether over- or underactive, love nothing more than hunkering down in an overstuffed comfy chair with that special blankie and some snacks, to listen to holiday music and watch holiday specials on television. I could just do that all day…and I have!

And the more thyroid-specific, the better, right? Here is a list of my favorite Thyroid Carols:

All I Want for Christmas is my 2 TSH
Silent Night Sweats
What Diet is This
Goiter to the World
Little Saint Neck
Little Gland of Bethlehem
Away in a Brain Fog
Oh Come All Ye Top Docs
Oh Holy Nodule
Oh Thyroid Gland
Have Yourself a Hypo Little Christmas
Little Endocrinologist Boy

Not available in any store!

Here's a few more funny thyroid stories:
http://thyroid.about.com/cs/personalpages/a/hypobarbie.htm
http://thyroid.about.com/library/weekly/aa121301a.htm

Help Support the Franklin County Humane Society

Here's a copy of an email that a friend sent me today, please help with this cause. It only takes a few moments to get signed up!

Hey, all!

Consider joining the following website to vote for the Franklin County Humane Society to win a million dollar makeover. This is where we adopted Bog from, so of course it is close to our heart! :-)

http://www.zootoo.com

When you head to the site, there is a link by a red heart called "Help Your Shelter Win a Makeover!" and you sign up and then confirm your subscription. This automatically gets the shelter 50 points. You can do additional stuff to get more points! Even the top 20 shelters get $5,000. There was an article in the paper that stated that our shelter was at #37 - but when I registered, they were up to #35! :-)

Feel free to spread the word!

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Even colder....Brrrrrrrrr

Holy Crap it's COLD!

Mom's Snowman Wreath

My Mom made this adorable wreath for a benefit raffle at the hospital.
They judged the wreaths before raffling them off and she won a First
Place Blue Ribbon!

Friday, December 19, 2008

Tis' the season

Sign

Sign on the women's restroom at Jimmy Johns sub shop. The women's
"can" I suppose. There's a mens version too!

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Thinking about money...

This is the time of year when many people overspend because of the Holidays. This year, due to the economic situations, this appears to be less likely. Due to our personal experiences of having our own business and nearly going broke from it, I have a keen interest in money management and financial security. I also witnessed many arguments between my parents as I was growing up which centered around money. I won't go into that here but I did find a web site that dicusses financial topics in a clear, concise and down to earth way. check it out at:

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/

A recent post had this to say and I think they're rules to live by:

"I’d go so far to argue that dishonesty is at the root of almost every significant personal finance problem people have. Let’s walk through some of them.

Not planning ahead for the future If you tell yourself that you’ll always be young, your health will always hold out, and things will take care of themselves, you’re lying to yourself. Everyone ages. Everyone has misfortunes in life. Choosing not to plan for them to at least a degree is lying to yourself, nothing more, nothing less.

Arguing with your spouse about money Almost every spousal disagreement about money results from some level of dishonesty from one person or another. Either one partner is directly lying by hiding information or mis-stating facts or is indirectly lying by hiding expectations and hopes from their partner.

Spending money to feel better about yourself If you spend money on a regular basis in an attempt to make yourself feel happy - or even merely feel adequate - you’re lying to yourself by telling yourself that these material purchases will make you feel better. True happiness comes from within - external signals merely confuse you and mislead you.

Making poor investment choices Even poor investment decisions are a form of dishonesty. If you don’t adequately research your investment choices and invest the time to come up with a plan, you’re investing blindly and convincing yourself that blind investing decisions are good ones. The only way to invest honestly is to do the footwork - know what you’re buying and why, not just following everyone else.

When you fall into each of these traps - and many others - you’re falling into the trap of dishonesty. You’re convincing yourself - or attempting to convince others - of something that’s untrue (or, at the least, unfounded). Every time you fall into that trap, you end up hurting your own financial future.

Here are some tactics to add honesty to your life and decision-making processes.

Strive to always tell the truth about money, especially to your partner. Tell your partner the truth at all times. If you make a spending mistake and charge up a bill, tell your partner. If you’re unsure about your financial state, talk it over. Don’t hide things - be open with the information and with your feelings about it.

Face the real numbers at all times. When you get a credit card statement, don’t avoid looking at it. Look at the real numbers and face it. Keep track of your net worth and update it every month so you can see your real progress - and aren’t just relying on telling yourself everything is okay.

Don’t buy without a concrete reason. Work hard to separate emotional and tangential reasons from your buying. Every time you go to make a purchase, think about it carefully. Ask yourself why you’re making that purchase, and don’t make it unless you have a real reason for doing so.

Don’t make a financial move unless you know exactly what you’re doing and why. If you’re investing in something and you don’t know why, find out why. Research your investments, know your reasons for having them (both in terms of what’s good about the investment and what your goals are and how this investment will help you reach it), and if it doesn’t feel right, don’t do it.

Being honest with yourself and with those around you can go a very long way towards keeping your nose clean in terms of financial issues. As Mark Twain put it, “Honesty is the best policy - when there is money in it.”

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Dinner with friends...

We had a great dinner and visit with some friends in STL tonight. The
wine, food and conversation were amazing!

Sent from my iPhone

Sunday, December 07, 2008

T4 on the down low...

Why oh why did my Doc decide to schedule a Thyroid Scan for January?! Now I am facing the Holidays without any supplemental thyroid hormones save for some T3 which I'm afraid to take too much of due to side effects....like sweating and tachycardia...ugh. I have been off the T4 for a week and half and I already feel like someone has beat me about the arms and legs with a rubber hose. Saturday was a total waste...I slept in until 9:30am, got up, drank coffee, fed the dogs, took them out, then took a NAP UNTIL 1pm. WHAT?! Then I was cranky and DH convinced me we needed to get out, so he drove me to dinner and to see Javi. We had a good time but I slept all the way home.

I know it is not Lacubrious at all to be complaining on a blog like this, but it's my blog and I can do what I want! Oh oh, here comes the irritability! Anyhow, I am feeling down but I only have 4 more weeks to go and then I can get back on track with my meds and hopefully the scan will show everything is normal. In the meantime, God help those who have to deal with me. I am using as much restraint as possible to avoid ripping you a new one if you annoy me the least little bit, but the process really exhausts me. Hopefully my Friday's off of work will help....a little anyway.

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Thanksgiving...

We had a nice Thanksgiving this year...tried to plan ahead to ward off the craziness.


DH and I have both been sick so I put off any shopping until the Tuesday night before, ran out and picked up everything I needed, then came home and proceeded to make broccoli rice casserole and a cheesecake with strawberry swirl.


On Wednesday night I had to bowl league, plus it was pre-Turkey Day happy hour so I kicked back a couple of drinks with the girls before calling it a night. Had a bit of a scare with Grandma getting a ride to the E.R. then back again, all okay there.


Thursday morning I got up, packed up the wine, took the dogs for a nice walk, then got ready to head over to my Aunt's and Uncle's place to meet everyone for dinner. Deep fried turkey this year, it was TASTY! Actually everything was good. Finished off the wine along with dessert. Mom's apple pie and pumpkin pie, Holly's birthday cupcakes, and cheesecake.


Then we vegged in front of the TV until 7-ish and then rolled home.


DH and I picked up a redbox movie (Get Smart) and went home to watch it.


On Friday we got up and headed to Williamsburg to see DH's Mom and Brother and have ANOTHER meal. All good there.....got to see Doug and Joyce's little dog Jocko. So Cute!



On Saturday, we went to Lowe's to pick up some stuff then DH convinced me to go bowl a few. My heart wasn't in it so the results were poor, but at least I got some practice in.

On Sunday, we met my Bro at the bowling alley for our every other week bowling bonding time. I kicked his butt...amazingly enough breaking 100 on all three games. Wish I could do that on league night!!!

After that DH and I went to see Quantum of Solace...then headed out for some Mexican food. That's when it really got crazy and we called the Weber's out for a little happy hour, which turned into a happy hours and concluded with ANOTHER bowling match, just 2 games a piece and a couple of drinks. Good thing I had Monday off from work! Whew!

Jason Mraz Show - 11/23/08


2008-09-23-mraz-FinePix 060_n
Originally uploaded by dehmystic

IT ROCKED!!! DH and I barely got tickets because I waited so long to call. We were on balcony 2 at the Fox Theater. DH got this great shot by dorking with the settings on our little point and shoot Fuji camera....amazing! So wish he could have brought the 30D.

One cool thing is that they were running a backdrop on stage that let you email a picture to it and it would randomly appear with whatever text you input. I sent one of DH and I that I took right there in our seats. The usher near us was in awe of our "skillz".