I have one! I have one! OH MY GOD I have one! And it’s blue, and it’s wonderful, and Mr. Brett gave it to me because he’s totally superior in every way, and I love it!
It’s my brand new Apple iPod mini, and YES IT IS every bit as tiny and geeky and cute as you’re thinking it is! Oh joy and happiness! I’m in heaven!
(Yes, we realize you’re supposed to wait until Christmas to open gifts, but hell – we’re both over 30 and we don’t care. Whee!)
I hate trying to buy ebooks for Microsoft Reader.
I only do it when I want a particular book that isn’t offered in any other format – today, for instance, it was Robin Hobb’s Assassin’s Apprentice/Royal Assasin bundle – and even then it’s almost not worth it.
After you purchase the book, the site contacts your computer to see if you have a registered copy of Reader installed. If you’re not using Internet Explorer, it tells you that you must install, upgrade, or register Reader in order to download the book you just paid for. Then you’re blithely pointed to MS’s site… to download an 8-11 MB file you don’t need. Wouldn’t it be better if the site just said, “Hey, you need to use IE for this ’cause that’s how MS is.”
If you’re lucky enough to figure out that you should try with IE instead of your beloved Firefox, it saves you an hour of downloading software you already have.
And if you’re me, you must have Reader open and running or IE can’t find it!
After the book is downloaded, you can’t find it to copy it to your PPC because Windows stashes it in an unbelievably obscure system subdirectory and Reader doesn’t have a built-in “transfer to PPC” option.
On top of all of that, Reader for PPC is a resource hog, takes forever to load, and only displays about half as many words per page as other readers. And God help you if your device decides to crash in the middle of a giant book!
Reader is inelegant, awkward, and I look forward to the day when all ebooks are offered in other formats.
A few more pictures of Parker are now in the gallery.
Check out her royal red-headedness in pics from hospital and home!
I figured it was time for another uterine update. (This may be TMI for some of you delicate readers, but there isn’t anything terribly gross if you want to plunge on ahead.)
My midwife thinks – and I agree – that what I’m experiencing is a blighted ovum, or anembryonic pregnancy. This means that due to a chromosomal anomaly, the gestational sac grows but there’s no baby inhabiting it – it’s an empty placenta, basically.
Spontaneous abortion in this situation takes a long time, because the placenta can continue to grow and support itself without a baby for up to two months, and so body-fooling pregnancy hormone levels exist for quite awhile. Loss of pregnancy symptoms, “not feeling pregnant,” and spotting and bleeding are common experiences with this condition.
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Morning people are the dominant bio-type, and they set the attitudinal tone of the entire culture. They’ve decided that morning is the best time of the day, and that people who are not naturally bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at the very ass crack of dawn are in some way lazy and unfocussed.
Well, screw that.
Morning is not the best time of day. It’s a fine time of day of course, but it isn’t inherently better than any other time. Getting up early does not mean you’re more productive or a better member of society. Being on time during the pre-noon hours doesn’t mean you care more or that you’re a better person.
As a night person, I’ve been chronically late to morning events my entire life. I’ve been told my tardiness proves my lack of commitment or concern about jobs, classes, and friends. It’s been condescendingly explained to me that if I just “made an effort” to go to bed on time I’d be on the “right” schedule and would find myself reaping the benefits of a morning person lifestyle.
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Does ‘Spotting’ Foretell a Miscarriage?
Yes.
Fuck yes it does. All those articles to the contrary are bullshit, designed to minimize panic. The simple truth is that when you’re pregnant and you bleed, you’re about to have a miscarriage. Trust me, I’m an expert on this.
I just went pee and there it was: a tiny little bit of pink on the TP. This is exactly how it started last time. First, an innocent streak of color. Next, bleeding… days and daysof light bleeding. Then weird, dark bleeding.
Then horrible, gut-wrenching cramps, and then my period will really start.
In a few days my hormones will be so utterly fucked up that I won’t be able to work or see anyone other than Brett, and him I’ll just cry all over. The poor, poor man.
Miscarriage makes you insane. Literally. It’s a state of temporary insanity. You know you’re acting nuts, but you can’t stop it ’cause your brain is full of weird hormones and chemicals and you can’t tell if you’re coming or going.
You know what? Screw this. I obviously can’t have a baby because my hormones are too fucked up, and I’m beginning to get too old for a first child anyway. I do get bummed about losing potential babies, but not half as much as I hate going through the suffering of the purely physical aspects of miscarriage: it’s hard and it hurts.
I should get my tubes tied and resign myself to a life of spending all our money on ourselves and our dogs.
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I am aware that there are problems with comments.
This problem is the fault of spammers, who are bastards all, and deserve seeping venerial diseases for filling my server up with such total crap.
Because of spammers, I have to run a plugin called MT-Blacklist, and MT-Blacklist occasionally just freaks out and stops working properly. I personally read through my entire list and couldn’t find anything that should be blocking comments from, for instance, “Cooter”. So I shut off the plugin, deleted the list, and installed the latest one.
Please send a carrier pigeon if you continue to experience problems with comments.
This morning when I came downstairs, Brett turned to me and said, “We need wood.”
I turned groggily to look at the wheelbarrow, which was full of logs and kindling, and looked sleepily back at him.
He smiled. “We don’t have enough to make it through the winter,” he explained.
My brain shuddered into motion. “Oh, yeah, we need wood. Definitely.”
Brett drove around the property this fall and pulled out all the fallen trees; so our woods don’t have much more to offer this year. We used to get screamin’ deals on wood from our friends’ parents, but the grandpa had a stroke this year and I don’t even know if his woods are even being managed. (I guess they have hundreds of acres, a very well husbanded plantation. They’d ring their trees and let them stand a year before cutting them down so they were all aged and dry. It was a really healthy, good looking forest. Brett would drive out there and they’d load his truck full of logs and he’d bring them home and split it all pretty much by hand. Have I mentioned my man’s my hero?)
It’s pretty expensive to buy those little loads of split wood you see advertised on pin boards around town; what we need is about a dozen entire trees to get us through the winter – wood heat is our primary heat source. I think we have about enough to get us through the next three weeks. Ugh. Trying to heat with propane would cost about a zillion dollars!
I think I’m going to take a stab at the upcoming Wisbar/PocketBreeze contest. I’m no Juni of course, but no harm in trying. Especially since the prizes are so great. This’ll be my first attempt at skinning PocketBreeze icons, but I read the tutorial last night and I don’t think it’s too impossible. Right now I’m working on two skins with the intention of submitting the best. If they’re both good I’ll turn them both in. Wish me luck!
Juice of 1 lemon
Cinnamon stick
Raw honey
boiling water
Place the juice of one lemon in a deep mug. Add honey to taste.
Pour boiling water to fill and stir with cinnamon stick. Give to ailing person, saying, “This is Mush’s grandma’s recipe. You’ll feel better soon.”
You may also add a chunk of peeled ginger, or some whiskey.
Servings: 1
Ready in: 5 minutes
Recipe Source
Author: Me!
Source: Here!
