Saturday, January 31, 2009

Dammit People! Do You know what Today is??

Today is Saturday, and as you know, OR SHOULD KNOW, Saturday night is MOVE NIGHT!!
from September through January, every Saturday we pop in an episode of Smallville. Tonight is the finale for season seven.

Doesn't that make you want to just CRY?

Now we have to wait til next September to get season eight!

In mere minutes hubs will be done his cigarette and we will head in from the garage (I love my laptop!!) to start the final episode.

While I look forward to actually seeing the episode, the knowledge that i will have to wait for months and months to see the next episode just gnaws on my brain.

It is a very sad day people!

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Killing Time

I stole this iTunes meme from Gwen - and I don't feel guilty for doing it either! Not One Bit!
iTunes

How many songs total: 1765
How many hours or days of music: 4.5 Days

Sort by song title
First Song: A-Tisket, A-Tasket
Last Song: 99 Luft Balloons

Sort by time
Shortest Song: Home of Rock, Steven Write, Reservoir Dogs (o:o7)
Longest Song: Seek&Destroy, Metallica, Live Shit ;Binge and Purge (disk 2, Live) (18:08)

Sort by album
First album: Ac/Dc , Thunderstruck (live)
Last album: The countdown kids, 50 Silly Songs

First song that comes up on Shuffle: I dunno how to turn shuffle on!

Search the following and state how many songs come up
Death - 17
Life - 13
Love - 79
Hate - 5
You - 221
Sex - 2

keep in mind, all five of us have iPods and so all of our music has been uploaded into one iTunes account!

Friday, January 23, 2009

New Blog Idea

Some days I think about setting up a blog just so that I can talk about the stupid things our pets do. Other days I realize I am too busy to handle caring for another blog the way a blog should be cared for, and on those days, you get stuck with posts like the one to come.

We have, as you may know, three pets, not counting the fish. (Singular on the fish part, Fishum met his maker VIA a sewer pipe last week.) This one is all about the cat.

Tigger is our cat, and she is a FAT cat. She is limited to one can of cat food a day, wet, no dry. We give her half the can at lunch time, and half the can at midnight when we go to bed. She has been on this diet for a year now, but it hasn't helped her at all. She hasn't lost an ounce, in fact - she has GAINED weight! Hubs, I and Tigger's vet were all a bit confused about that. The key word there? WERE. At this point, not even the best diet pills will help her. Want to know why?

I feel Logan his lunch at 11AM to make sure he is done, washed and dressed in time to be at school for 12:30. Tigger feels that if a person is eating, she should also be eating. I feel she should wait until noon, like always. Today I was taking my dish to the sink - I eat lunch at the same time as Logan, when I heard a strange noise.

I decided to investigate the noise. This is what I found:



That's the big Tupperware bin we use to store the Dog's food in.....So much for her diet!

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

What Ever happened to...

The written word. Or the lettered sign as it were?

I was miserable driving home tonight.... I had taken my six year old son in for an appointment with his optometrist, and we headed home right around twilight. I suffer from a mild to sever form of night vision blindness, depending on the type and amount of lights surrounding me.

On the highways where it is just me and my headlights I am OK, but driving in the city, with all the digital signage around just kills me!

There is one sign in particular that bothers me the most, its right on the edge of the city, and I drive past it on a four lane highway, so there is no chance of me stopping to take a picture of it, you will just have to take my word for it.

The problem is, I think it is using those new LED lights because that sucker is BRIGHT. And distracting becuase it flashes different things on it, but the worst is the blue/white lights, those super bright ones, just freak my eyes out and as long as it is in my vision, I can barely see!

I generally try my damndest to NOT be on the roads at night, but sometimes, like tonight, it cannot be helped!

Are you curious as to how Blakes Optometrist apppointment went? Check here for Updates!

Friday, January 16, 2009

Nummers!

When I went to bed last night, I already knew that I would be sending the boys to school and then popping a movie into the bedroom TV for Logan so I could take a nap. In the morning, however, there are a few things I need to do, Well, not NEED, but feel I should do, online.

First thing is always, ALWAYS check my email. Always. I love email. Then I head over to Facebook to see whats new and interesting there (and to play my scratch and win app). Usually, by this time, the boys are off down the road, Or I have driven them, depending on the temperatures, and I head back to bed.

Unfortunately, this morning, we were running behind and I had to assist the boys with lunch making instead of fooling around on the computer. What this means, if you are looking for the short version, is that it is 10:30 now, and way too late for a nap.

*sob*

So instead of laying in my warm (it's heated) bed right now, snuggled into the blankets I washed just yesterday afternoon, and cuddling my boy, I clicked over to check my google reader.

I'm pretty new to "food" blogs, I actually explored my first one just the other day. So I clicked over to True Travel Treasures with a bit of trepidation, but, after all, a friend had asked us to click, and if I'm going to go through the hassle of clicking, I might as well read a bit, right?

I gotta say people, I think Annie needs to warn her readers to bring diet pills when they come to her website, becuase man oh man, am I ever hungry now! I particularly got a kick out of reading her "Afternoon Tea" reviews. Tea Time sounds so formal and.. well... neat! I would love to go for a full sit down tea with all the goodies that come with it! Especially the Scones!

Mmmmmm!

I wonder if I can fool my tongue into thinking a toasted English muffin is the same as a scone? Probably not!

You know, when I stop and think about it, I'm not so sure I've ever actually had a scone...have I? Is this something I would particularly remember? I'm going to go search the vast Google database for a scone recipe. Unless....Do YOU have one?

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

One Week Later

It's been one full week now since I began my face care regiment. I am seeing a slight improvement in terms of the rash after shower, and a huge improvement with the itching and dry flaky skin patches from the eczema, but the biggest improvement is with my acne.

I really hesitate to use that word. Acne. I know that My doctor told me I have it - albeit a mild case, but still, to me acne is deeper, disfiguring even. These were just huge out breaks of very large and painful zits.

Anyway. Twice a day, Morning and night, I have been washing my face with Spectro Derm Moisturizing Skin cleaner (for dry sensitive skin) (Link) and twice a day, right after washing, I have been applying the Spectro Acne care (Vanishing Lotion for sensitive skin) (Link).

I have seen a HUGE improvement not only in the size of pimple I get, becuase I am still getting them, but also in the time it takes for them to go away. My face looks Much clearer, about the only thing I am unhappy with now, is that my face still reddens after the shower, but that is from the eczema.

I'm kind of glad I chose to go with Spectro products, and really, the only reason I went with them, becuase I had never heard of them before, as the price. There were about 1/4 of the price of the other acne products, I think the vanishing cream was about 5 dollars and the face was was six or so.

So yeah, awesome news!

EDIT: I was just at the Spectro website and noticed they have two products specifically designed to fight eczema! They carry a Medicated Cream (Link) and an Intense Re-hydration Cream (Link) Which is supposed to

  • Spectro Eczema Care Intense Rehydration Cream soothes and helps prevent itchy, red, dry skin prone to eczema/dermatitis
  • Replenishes lost moisture and helps retain moisture deep within the skin allowing skin time to repair itself

Next time I manage to get into the city I will have to try and find these two products! And, as usual, I will report back how they work after I give them a try!!

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

YES! (VERY long post)

So I managed a few weeks back to get my doctor to squeeze me in and see me at the same time he evaluated my son.

I have been having some pretty nasty skin issues in the last year or so. When i shower - and only when I shower, baths and the pool and washing dishes and washing my face and everything else involving wet, doesn't affect me, ONLY when I shower, I come out and I have huge raised red blotches on my face and arms and very very occasionally, on my sides.

When it first started, it was just a very slight redness that I ignored, and in fact I have successfully ignored it up to the past few months when it suddenly got way way worse. A few months ago, the skin that would get raised and red began to also get itchy and dry - and then flake off. This, to me, was horrifying, becuase most of it occurs on my face.

I spent a LOT of time trying different lotions and moisturizers to help, but nothing was working and the red patches only seemed to be getting worse. During My youngest sons annual in June I casually mentioned this to my doctor and he gave me some samples of an ointment called Protopic.

I used the sample as soon as I got him that day and about three hours later, hopped in the shower. I told myself, in the shower, that one application will surely do nothing, that I will have to be patient and wait to see if the sample cream worked. But then I got out of the shower and the redness was barely there. Well the redness was still there, but the raised part of the rash was gone, the red went away before I was fully dried and dressed and the skin did not dry out where it had rashed.

I kept telling myself to make an appointment with my doctor to get a prescription, the cream is 90$ for a small tube so the doctor wanted me to try the sample to see that it worked before having me spend that much money on it. This and that and that and this happened, and I never got in, until just recently that is.

I didn't have time to take a shower today, I had a bath instead, so I cannot tell you yet if the cream is working, I do know that I can see !! already!! a difference in the size of one of the dry patches on my upper arm, so I expect to see an improvement tomorrow morning after my shower.

I wanted to write this post becuase I spent a lot of time on the internet searching "red rash after shower" and found a lot of other people asking the same thing - what is wrong with me!! I hope that by putting this here, someone else searching for answers about a strange rash after showering will get an answer.

My doctor told me it is eczema, he prescribed Protopic - it's very pricey BUT, unlike other eczema creams, it is NOT a steroid, it can safely be use don the face - even on the eye lids!

As time goes on, I will occasionally update on the state of my rash. The information packet on the cream says it can take up to four weeks to see an improvement - although I have had improvements in terms of less itching and reduction in size of a patch of eczema already. it can only get better from here on out, now, can't it?

The other problem I am having is Acne. becuase of all the moisturizers and lotions I slathered on my face - often multiple times a day, I have developed acne. I bought Spectro Sensitive Skin face wash and Spectro Vanishing Cream to help combat that. I like the face wash a lot, It definately does NOT dry my skin out, nor leave it greasy. it jsut feels..good, ya know?

One thing I like about the Spectro Face wash is that you rub it in a circular motion on your face for 30 seconds, then wipe it off, no harsh scrubbing, yet my face feels clean! I can't even begin to say anything on the Vanishing cream as I have only applied it twice so far, but I was treading on the interwebs the ingredients for proactive and I know that a lot of people swear by proactive, Spectro vanishing Cream contains many of the same ingredients as the Proactive does, so I honestly am expecting an improvement.

In any case, it feels good to know that while I am not yet in the clear skin stage, I am on my way to it, that I am doing something besides bitching to the interwebs that I have acne and dry skin.

This pleases me!