On The Importance Of Weighing Yourself After You Have A Dump

In our house my husband and I weigh ourselves a lot. Personally, I weigh myself every day. Other people tend to think this practice is obsessive. All I know is that if I miss weighing myself I am also in danger of having my weight creep up with a vengeance. I have an eating disorder and I keep it under control by weighing every day. My husband also weighs himself, though I’m not sure he does it every day.

That said, I weighed myself this morning before I’d had my dump. This violates the number one rule in our house of when you weigh yourself in the morning, but I was in a hurry. I recorded the weight and moved on with my morning routine.

Eventually, nature called and after I was done I figured I’d weigh myself again. It could be like a scientific experiment, before dump weight and after dump weight. DeeDude refers to this as BDW and ADW. He said ADW is what you want to do.

Lo and behold there was a 6 ounce difference in the recorded weights. DeeDude was passing by the bathroom right then and I called him in to see the results of the experiment. His comment was, “I always knew you were full of shit.”

Ham Psychic Hit

Yesterday morning I made my lunch for work. It was a very simple ham sandwich: ham, cheese, butter and bread. The ham DeeDude got for us at Costco are humongo slices, way too large for one sandwich. So, I thought I’d use some of the remaining ham to sit on the English muffins I planned to have for breakfast. The ham sat on the plate and as I looked at it I got a very clear image in my head of one of the cats up on the counter licking away at my ham. I shook my head and thought to myself, “how silly you are.”

Right.

So, I turned from my odd vision to busy myself in the refrigerator getting out my English muffin. As I shut the door and turned around I saw Shelby, one of our cats, industriously licking away at my ham.

That was a psychic hit.

My next inclination was to eat the ham anyway. Kitty licks don’t bother me all that much, though she had managed to cover the entire bit even before I could shoo her off of the counter. I figured if I was going to do that I really ought to rinse it off. Then, it came to me that the ham was hers not mine. I moved with that one and parceled it out to all the cats.

Sam wasn’t around though and as I neared the end of the slice I figured she was just going to have to miss this particular treat. But, she showed up right as I had two bits left. She moved right into drinking at the water dish and seemed to be real busy. I had things to do and didn’t want to wait for her to notice I had a couple of treats of ham for her.

Now, Samantha is a funny cat. She grew up to be a no human contact cat inside the house. Outside she’s fine and you can pet her and pull on her tail as she welcomes you home and escorts you up the steps. But, once you get inside the house you better not touch her because she’s lightning quick and will turn and claw the living daylights out of you if you’re not careful.

So, she is taking her own sweet time having a drink and I want to get rid of this ham. I poked her in the side to get her attention. I was taking a chance, but it worked. She turned to see who dared to poke her and saw the ham. She gave it a careful kitty sniff to make sure it was okay and I figured she was all set to get it. I released it and it dropped to the bottom of the water dish.

I have never seen such a study in consternation ever in a cat as she closed in on the surface of the water dish, like Snoopy used to do in the cartoons, and studied that bit of ham sitting under 2 inches of water. I fished it out for her and gave her the other piece, but the whole episode was interesting to me and certainly a nice way to start my day.

Cross Blog

An introduction to this photo. I have a book blog going where I review the books I read. I mostly find them at the library. This morning I wrote a review for "A is for Alibi" by Sue Grafton. I absolutely love the Alaphabet mysteries. The heroine is Kinsey Millhone. Anyway, what I've been doing lately is to illustrate each review with a picture I take myself rather than snagging one off of the internet all the time. I've been trying to get our cats involved too.

So, Miss Mattie here is one of the rejects. Even though this was a sort of cute situation where she's trying to bite the book mark I'd made and stuck in the book it came out kind of scary looking. But, I still wanted to show her off.

Happy Saturday everybody.

Being Psychic Didn't Help Here

You know it’s time to vacuum your house when you come home from a visit with a friend to discover a piece of kitty litter stuck to your forehead….and she doesn’t have cats…you do.

Online Kaleidoscope - ZE Frank

This is a kick. I'm always on the lookout for neat things to do online. This is a kaleidoscope. Go to the root directory for lots and lots of things to do to waste time and have fun.

http://www.zefrank.com/dtoy_vs_byokal/index.html


And, the man in motion at TED.

Our Governor

Two Elderly Women Fighting

Where I Get Busy

So, on my week off I’ve been trying to do things that are fun interspersed with projects/chores that have been too long ignored. Yesterday, after my dental cleaning, I popped over to the shopping center a couple of blocks away and bought two pair of shoes at the Payless. They were having a buy one get the second pair 50% off, which was a nice deal. I have been wearing rubbery garden clogs for several years and because I’m diabetic I wear white socks. They look silly. I’ve also been losing a bit of weight and the jeans I wear every day to work are getting baggier and baggier looking. Altogether not a real fashion look and certainly not good office wear. Since I’m moving into a position to be our office manager I figured I should look a bit spiffier, so I was pleased to find the shoes.

Next stop was Sears. They were having a sale on a lot of clothing and I found some black slacks…a step up from my grungy jeans. Turns out they didn’t fit and I had to move DOWN a size. Wooo!!!! So, I bought 4 pair at $19 each. It sort of bit into the checking account, but I figured I need them now. Two pair in black, one in blue and one in brown. They didn’t have any woman’s petite sizes, so I’ll need to hem them…unless the shoes I got lift me up high enough that the hems don’t drag.

Then, I went to Oakland’s China Town. It was a bear finding parking, but I finally managed it. I almost didn’t go because my hip was hurting by then with all the walking I’d done, but I’m glad I did. I popped into a few grocery stores. I got a couple of barbeque pork buns, my favorite. DeeDude hasn’t found his yet. He didn’t get home until 10 PM last night and I was already asleep, so I’ll tell him about it this morning and if he isn’t interested….It’s mine!

In one of the stores I purchased some dried plum bits. The package was $5 so it wasn’t something to sneeze at. I had absolutely no idea what these things were going to taste like, but there was a Guide at my elbow in the store urging me to put back the candied ginger I had in my basket and go with the plums instead. I do listen these days when they make suggestions and we ended up with the plums. I had one last night. Very intensely sweet so you don’t need to eat a lot of them at once. DeeDude tried one last night and when I asked him how he liked it said he didn’t care for it. Which leads me to this morning’s project:

I haven’t put anything up on Spirited Recipes in awhile and I think it would be cool to collaborate with the Guides on something to make using the plums. Also, DeeDude said that I ruined a block of Lucky brand cream cheese. He always says for me to get the Philadelphia brand, but I persist in trying to save money. Anyway, I was moved to sweeten the cheese with some Agave syrup. That went over like a fart in church, so maybe I could use that in whatever we’re going to do with the plums.

This is a photo of a flower I took recently from one of the bouquets DeeDude got for me. He doesn't wait for special occasions.

I am on vacation for the entire next week. Wooo Wooo Happy Happpy Happy. Plan to do a lot of reading, taking naps, lots of writing and working on Talking to Spirit. New flower picture...learning about Photoshop. Consolidating and streamlining the menu. Cutting out all the verbiage from the front page and finding places for it within the site.

There is a lot more work, but if I can get it started this week it will be easier for me to continue working on it once I'm back to work again. It's been such an overwhelming project that I just couldn't seem to get started on it properly. One of the major holdups was working with my blue flower in Photoshop. I never really learned the program and that, right there, is the problem. Spent about 5 hours or so on it this last week after work every evening hammering away at it.

This is what I've got so far and somehow it doesn't quite please me yet.

A Swashbuckling Funny

This is a little insight into how I do my psychic channeling. It isn’t something that takes place in a specified area; it’s all the time. So, to lead into this recounting a bit of background info; it used to be that I thought best when I was smoking a cigarette. Then, some 9 years ago I quit. I needed a new thinking place and oddly enough that became my bathroom. In the bathroom you’ve got a bit of privacy. There aren’t that many distractions and I’ve also heard some writers say some of their best ideas come while they were in the shower.

Anyway, this morning I was sitting on the pot. I am reading a terrific romance by Nora Roberts called “Charmed and Enchanted”. It’s one of those 2 books in one and I am into the second one, “Enchanted”. The heroine has had a bit of a problem with realizing her dreams. I know I used to have the same sort of problem. Anyway, I set the book aside to finish up and my thoughts drifted to something I might write about.

Realizing Dreams.

I was wondering about unrealistic dreams people sometimes have and, how they might realize those dreams even though the dreams might be unrealistic. The example that came to me was somebody who wanted to be a pirate. I thought of myself. I work a 40 hour a week job in an office that has nothing at all to do with my psychic self and yet I feel fulfilled as a psychic. I don’t yearn to surround myself with other psychics or with things psychic, but still am wonderfully happy. How could somebody with unrealized dreams, which can certainly make for a great deal of frustration in somebody’s life, somehow come to terms with the idea that they can’t leave their 8 to 5 job to become a pirate and yet have that very same dream fulfilled?

The answer, I considered, might be more along the lines where they immerse themselves in things piratical. They read a lot about pirates, both non fiction and fiction. They could watch a lot of pirate movies. My mind was on a roll with this and I was struggling like a hen about to lay an egg with my next example when Seth, my guide, said, “And, they could go around saying, Yar.” I snorted and laughed at the same time, something a pirate would never do. And that is a quiet look into my life.

Trying to Write

There are two ways to get things done. You can wait for inspiration to strike or you can just hold your nose and plunge into the project.

I tend to wait.

This doesn’t always accomplish very much.

So, today, I decided to just plunge in. The point of the exercise is to write 3 very small articles for my next newsletter. Sometimes I am so full of ideas I just can’t write them down fast enough. Other times, like lately, I’m veering off in other directions of interest and the urge to write just isn’t there. This, however, just is not going to work because I have made a commitment to myself that I will write these articles each month.

They don’t need to be long, just about a normal blog length. Say something in a very short period of time and be sincere about it.

I’m waiting.

Right, still nothing coming. Well, I suppose I could call this a blog entry on the process of creativity and out of it gather 3 weeney newsletter articles. I have about 250 people who have signed up to receive my email. I must not fail them now.

Okay, so let’s get to basics. I’m a psychic. Or, at least a so-so one. I do, however kick ass in the channeling department. I’ve never really thought of that as being psychic, though other people have assured me that it is. I just sort of accepted it as a fabulous thing that happened to me. But, again, that’s got nothing to do with my newsletter.

Anyway, what I think, the people who are reading my newsletter expect is guidance. Why else does anybody come to read my stuff? I’m certainly not a riveting writer. I’m not a fabulous psychic. I do care, though. And, I can channel. I do know what it’s like to talk to Folk in Spirit. This morning I was getting on my scales. This is not normally a fun thing to do, but I do it every day. It’s a necessary evil for me. I am not a normally skinny person. So, I don’t think like one. I think like a fat person and anybody who is a fat person knows that it’s important to get on the scales every day whether you want to or not. Why? Because if you don’t the next time you do climb on you will discover, to your dismay, that you’ve suddenly packed on 15 pounds and you really, honestly don’t remember how that could have happened. I know. It’s happened to me. Anyway, everyday on the scales. And, for some reason this morning I started cursing even before my feet landed on the scale. Maybe I stepped on some kitty litter. I don’t even remember. Anyway, I said, “G** D*** it. C***** Almighty.” And, somebody said, “What?”

You don’t know how fast that can take the wind out of your sails. Anyway, I apologized. I don’t really think they minded so much as wanted to bring to my attention my candy mouth. I mean, technically, I really should learn to keep that under control. Why? Well, I just think it would be a more mature and psychologically sound practice.

So, maybe I could write a short ditty on saying bad words? And, how their negative energies start affecting things around you. And, people around you. When I was a kid I can remember wanting to curse like my father. I’d be more like him. I’d be more grown up. Later I settled upon smoking and drinking to prove my advanced years. So, that’s a thought. Well, folks, I gotta go to work. So, in the absence of anything more productive I will post this and pick up the threads tonight when I get home from being a formerly cranky secretary. I’m not anymore because the Prozac is working wonders. Tah…

Stop Smoking

Ask me what one of the hardest things I ever did in my life was and I will tell you it was when I quit smoking. I also know that if I was able to do it so can you.

Smoking is a filthy habit. I know because I smoked for 30 years. I loved every puff. Although it’s been 9 years since I quit smoking (a pack and a half a day) I still crave one every once in awhile. Here are some of the things I learned when I was able to finally stop smoking.

Every time you quit and do not succeed it is another step in the process of quitting. You didn’t fail. You took another step. I must have quit 120 times before it finally worked.

The early days are hard. Do a new trick each day to distract yourself. On the first day I drank black coffee and sucked mentholated cherry cough drops. This resulted in a horrible taste in my mouth but was similar to having just had a cigarette.

Other days I chewed gum all day until my temples were sore from all the chewing.

Other days I sucked cough drop after cough drop.

The most intense time of it lasted about a week. It might not have been the most ideal way to get through that week, but it worked for me. Another thing I did was to reward myself for going through such a horrible experience and I practiced shopping therapy for awhile.

And, although I wouldn’t admit it at the time I did sneak a few cigarettes along the way. Trying to quit this terribly addictive disease was really horrible and there were times when I just couldn’t stand it anymore and I snuck a few. That lasted maybe the first month or so.

After that I was over the worst of it.

On the bright side? Food suddenly tasted wonderful. I mean I couldn’t believe how good a simple bowl of corn flakes tasted. Everything I ate was absolutely delicious. I ate a lot. And, gained 50 pounds, which I’m still struggling to lose. So, if you can see that you’ve set your feet upon a path of weight gain in the early days you can also counter that with an increase in exercise. The endorphins produced with the exercise will help with the whole process too.

I stopped coughing. I didn’t realize it but I had a smoker’s cough for years. I just thought I coughed a lot and, of course, while I was smoking I wouldn’t have admitted to it in a million years. There was an awful lot of denial going on.

Another plus was that I smelled better. On the downside I could smell everybody else better too. I had a particularly nauseating moment once on a crowded bus when one of the passengers smelled like he hadn’t had a bath in 6 months.

My car and my clothes smelled better too. I just had not realized how the stink of cigarettes had clung to everything around me.

They are passing lots of very strict laws in California. I believe you can’t smoke within 20 feet of a business. You can’t smoke in businesses. You can’t smoke in apartments anymore. You can’t smoke in restaurants or bars. You can’t smoke outside if your smoke drifts into anybody else’s house. You can’t smoke in the presence of a minor in a moving vehicle.

Look on the internet to get a counter sort of program for yourself. I have something called LastQuit. I don’t think it’s available anymore, but I still have it there to tell me based on my smoking a pack and a half every day how I’ve been doing:

How Long It’s Been Since I Quit: 9 Years, 3 Months, 4 Weeks, 12 Hours, 26 Minutes and 19 Seconds.
How Many Cigarettes I Have Not Smoked: 102,166
How Much Money I Have Saved: $21,403.95
How Much Life I Have Reclaimed: 11 Months, 2 Weeks, 5 Days, 17 Hours and 50 Minutes.

Good luck to anybody out there who is contemplating or who is already in the throws of quitting smoking. I will be thinking of you.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to you. However you celebrate I hope you have fun.

For The Birds

What "Pauline" Means

You Are Charming and Eloquent

You are influential and persuasive. You tend to have a lot of power over people. Generally, you use your powers for good. You excel at solving other people's problems. Occasionally, you do get a little selfish and persuade people to do things that are only in your interest.

You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality.

You are a very lucky person. Things just always seem to go your way. And because you're so lucky, you don't really have a lot of worries. You just hope for the best in life. You're sometimes a little guilty of being greedy. Spread your luck around a little to people who need it.

You are relaxed, chill, and very likely to go with the flow. You are light hearted and accepting. You don't get worked up easily. Well adjusted and incredibly happy, many people wonder what your secret to life is.

You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing. You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long. You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start.

You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people. You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts. You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals.

You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone. You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together. At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

Time Slipping Away

You know how time can slip away from you? I realized this morning that it had been almost 3 months since I had written in one of my blogs. My first reaction was panic. This is a good blog. The material I put there is almost a cut above the material I use for my other blogs. I was appalled. Then, a wave of resentment crashed over me because work (my daytime job) has been absolutely frenetic. I mean it is insane. And, it just got more insane yesterday. I keep saying to myself, “I’m lucky to have a job. I’m lucky to have a job.” But, the focus of my attention has been there and obviously not where I would like it to be.

So, what to do? I think I need to devise better ways to calm down. I also need to loosen up on what I put in that blog. People are still reading it. It’s got a really nice page rank on it. But, as I’ve allowed more stress into my life I’ve also sort of frozen up as to my writing output. It’s got to be good or it doesn’t get in. Well, that sort of counts out 75% of what I’ve been whining about lately.

I fell back on the old adage my mother used to say to us, “If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” That’s me. Clammed up these days.

This isn’t good. So, I’m not exactly coming up with a new resolution sooner than I need to…I’m just recognizing that I’ve let a good blog down, I’ve let people who are wanting to learn how to channel down, and I’ve let myself down.

I will make the time to come up with something of quality for Learn to Channel that I can post this weekend.

Cheryl Wheeler - Is it Peace or is it Prozac?

My 200th Post - About Cleaning

I’ve never managed the knack of how my mother kept house, though my husband and I did develop what we call Company Coming Cleaning in the early days of our marriage. It’s actually pretty simple. You start at one end of your place and work your way to the other end picking up things as quickly as possible. What you do with the stuff you pick up is you throw it into closets as you go. In 20 minutes you can get your house into a presentable position for company to come calling.

What do you do about dust? Dim the lights. No, I’m kidding. Get the canned air that you have for your computer and aim it at some of the book shelves. If there is time do a little vacuuming. Spray a little air freshener around. Before you begin the pick up empty the cat’s litter box of anything she’s left there. At the end of your whirl wind cleaning she will have left another deposit in the clean box that you can pick up too.

If you don’t have any air freshener you could sprinkle a little cinnamon into a saucepan half full of water. Set it on a burner on the stove and the house will be on its way to smelling better by the time you are finished picking up. If you go the cinnamon route you should probably dispense with the air freshener. Too many smells can be annoying rather than evocative.

By the way, this is my 200th post.

Musing

When tears rise up
they burn for a moment
or two
But, if the tears that rise up
are there because of some bittersweet
memory
or two
Think of the sweet part
If you can


Life is hard and
Life is cold
But, life however it
Turns out
When you share it
With those
You love
Is a life well lived

Logan

It's been awhile since I've posted here. I've been sort of down in the dumps. Coming out of it now. Bless Prozac. Some odd side effects, but I just tell people it's the medicine.

In any case, I wanted to share this video with you. I just saw it at d76blade and wanted to pass it along to my own readers. It really struck a nerve for me. Perhaps it will for you too.

Pick a Day....Any Day

This morning I got up at my regular time. I was a little off because Shelby, our smallest cat, didn’t make her usual foray into our bedroom to bat at the pictures and walk all over us. I figured she was still pissed off at me for putting her flea collar back on. Either that or she was having a reaction to it and wasn’t feeling well. I decided, first chance I got, to take it off of her.

Anyway, I have a doctor’s appointment Monday morning so I took an especial care with my toilet just because my mother always said you should when you are seeing your doctor. My second “off” for the day was when I tested my blood sugar and the date showed as 10/26. I thought to myself, “I thought it was the 27th. Something must have gone wrong with my meter.” Later on I was wondering how long it’s been off on the date, why I hadn't noticed before this and how that’s going to affect all my readings. Also, when I recorded my weight this morning I noticed that I hadn’t recorded it Friday morning, but then I did a lot of things different Friday because I didn’t go into work that day. Just a nice day off.

So, I got dressed, made my lunch and fixed a bite of breakfast for myself. I’m watching the clock because my appointment is at 8:30 am. Figuring on traffic, finding a parking place and anticipating a bit of a line to get processed at the doctor’s office I thought I would leave the house about 7:15.

Minutes before I was to go I sat down with a piece of toast and the rest of my coffee and flipped on the television. I wanted to catch the headlines before I left. I put it on channel 2 for the KTVU news and watched a man and a lady working a vacuum cleaner all over a rug with tons of crap to suck up. It went on and on; far longer than a normal commercial. This is where I thought I’d landed on the wrong channel. I hit the guide button on the remote and saw it was paid programming. It was channel 2 all right, but no news. So, I looked at the other programs. This wasn’t right at all. There should be news on the first 5 channels. You know what I thought? I thought there had been a terrorist attack and television programming had been screwed up. That’s what I thought. I mean, my heart was in my throat. I started looking at the other listings and the word “Sunday” caught my eye. That’s when it started dawning on me that maybe it wasn’t Monday after all.

I was so excited to have another day off where I didn’t have to go to work, but could do anything my heart desired. I’m still jazzed.

Yum....Coffee

Our coffee pot may be on the fritz. For some time now water would puddle on the counter. I had thought it was just us not being all that careful as we poured water into the well. Yesterday, after my husband insisted something was wrong with it, I watched water trickling from it as it brewed a cup.

My husband and I drink different brands of coffee. Our coffee maker is only a 4 cup job and once one person gets their coffee then the other person brews their particular brand. It might sound like a pain in the behind, but we’ve gotten used to this routine.

A long time ago I became entranced with using a French Coffee Press. They had one on an episode of, “As Time Goes By” and I thought it was really neat. I bought one. However, there were always a few grounds that slipped through. The advertised number of cups per pot wasn’t enough to fill our big mugs, the coffee cooled off quickly and eventually the carafe broke. I hadn’t gotten another because of all those problems, but I still considered it to be sort of neat.

Then, farting around on Amazon one day I saw that folks had started making thermos versions of the coffee presses.

And, this morning I purchased a cornflower blue version by Planetary Designs from Amazon. This looks really neat and if it works well I will get another one so we can both have our own.

Celtic Tranqulity Meditation

This is Probably Something I Can Work On

One of the things I like to do occasionally is to just pick up and leave. I think this feeling to flee comes from my years as an Army Brat when I could look forward to a move every year or so. What all this moving did was to allow me to run away from problems rather than to try to sort them out. Consequently there is a deeply bred abhorrence in me to face up to situations which require me to have some backbone. Sorry, I’m a wimp. Wimpy Psychic at your service.

So, yesterday I had a situation where I became absolutely furious at the fuckups at my HMO. Kaiser is switching to a more computerized, less paperwork sort of system. The doctor orders labs and the patient shows up in the laboratory for blood draws.

It actually didn’t work that way. And, not only that but I think they did the wrong tests for me. The results are in already and these are tests I’ve never heard of. I mean they could have changed the tests, but I think the lady just picked stuff out to do based upon me telling her I needed diabetic tests done.

So, not only was the trip to the lab all screwed up, but the appointment I thought was in place for Friday of this week was non-existent. Did I have the paper confirming the appointment? No. I didn’t think I needed it. I didn’t realize it would become so important.

On the face of it these are small potato sorts of things. I made another appointment for the end of this month. I’m figuring it will be okay for work. That way I go to the doctor on Monday and the dentist on Tuesday. Also, not something I’m all that thrilled about, but what the heck. It’s only a minor inconvenience that sort of flared up into something that had me livid for several hours.

Oh, and the day began with me spraying gasoline all over the side of my car at our local service station. I should have known better because this is the same pump that has done that to me before. Also, there is no getting a receipt out of that particular pump. Twits. A little Chinese lady came out to see why I wasn’t moving along and why I had pen and paper out writing down what I’d pumped, the price and how much it cost off of the readings of the pump. I tried to pantomime to her what had happened. She just smiled at me pleasantly and intimated that I didn’t know how to pump gas.

I should go check my biorhythms. I’ll bet something sucked yesterday. By the way, if you'd like to check out your own biorhythms I've got a link at www.talkingtospirit.com down toward the bottom of the page. And, I'd be honored if you'd stop by and see what I do when I'm being psychic.

My Left Boob

Well, this is a new wrinkle to menopause. My boob hurts. Sharp, shooting pains. Off and on. Lots yesterday. Not so many today. What gives with that? Doing a bit of research on the internet come to find out it might be hormonal. Lovely. What nex?

Caution - Funny Video (On the Raunchy Side)

Oh, funny. I'm looking for new videos for www.zdaily.com this morning and came upon this one. I'm not going to add it to the collection because it's a bit on the raunchy side, but I thought it was hilarious. Enjoy.

Toothpaste

Toothpaste can be used to treat your pimples. Zap the zit by applying a tiny dab of white cream toothpaste. Best to apply it in the evening or when you aren’t planning on going out in public.

Toothpaste can also be used (the white kind) to spackle nail holes in the walls of your apartment. When we were kids that was our job as we got ready to leave one set of quarters for another. Once things are dry you can paint right over where the holes were.

Using the baking soda kind of toothpaste apply to a CD or a DVD that’s got a scratch on it. Rub gently, wipe with a clean cloth and the scratch is repaired.

Relieve bug bites. Good for bee stings and for mosquito bites.

Use toothpaste and your husband’s toothbrush to clean your jewelry. Likewise, you can use toothpaste to clean the faucet and handles made of chrome in the bathroom. Only use your husband’s toothbrush for this job if you’re really ticked off at him. You can also use toothpaste to sparkle up the mirror. It’s got a nice side effect of rendering the mirror fog free when you take a shower.


Toothpaste really freshens up a person's breath. It stands to reason that it would do the same for your dog who has really raunchy doggy breath. You want to be careful, though, not to mask what might be a serious problem for Poochie. Could be they've got some bad teeth issues, or general health problems, so if their breath is knock you on your back bad do take them to the vet for a checkup.

Here’s a fun way to get your kids to brush their teeth. Kids learn by watching, so demonstrate how it is that you want them to brush. Now, for the fun part…really get a mouthful of foam going, like you’re a mad dog. And, for the next few weeks, every time they brush their teeth you brush yours with them. That way there won’t be any backsliding or wetting of the toothbrush for show like we used to do when we were kids.

Christian The Lion - Video

I guarantee there won't be a dry eye in the house after you've watched this one. In addition to the clip below you can go to YouTube and watch an entire movie in 9 parts about Christian the lion. There is even a 2 part interview of the original owners, John Rendall and Anthony Bourke 35 years after. The interviewer asks them towards the end of the clip, "What are we supposed to learn from all of this?" Someone in Spirit said to me right then, "That animals have souls too."

Apply Heat and Then Shake

We have been having hot weather around here. I’m not sure exactly what, but night before last I went out to our patio around 10 pm and it was 80 degrees F. That’s hot. The only time, though, that it really bothers me is in the late part of the afternoon at work. I just slow down and get really stupid. Sorry. Can’t help it. It’s hot. We all try to do as much of our work, the work where we really have to apply ourselves in the cool of the day. Anyway, it won’t last long.

And, last night we had an earthquake. You’d think after having lived here all these years I’d have gotten accustomed to them, but every time I’m like a deer in the headlights. DeeDude was off covering a ball game. He was there to write a story and take pictures. He’s got a new job at The Alameda Sun (shameless plug!). He said nobody there felt it. I sure felt it here.

It was a 4.0 centered about 10 miles deep about 3 miles northeast of Alamo. I suppose that’s about 15 miles from here. I went to the USGS site for quakes just now to see that 11,112 people have reported their experiences with the quake. It was classified as light to moderate; I’ve heard both terms used. I, as noted above, was scared shitless. And, do you think I did the proper thing for an earthquake like run to a doorway? No. I got up and I sat down again holding onto the table. Our two parakeets had gone ballistic just seconds before it started. I remember wondering what the hell was wrong and then it hit. Early bird warning.

It seemed to last most of 10 seconds. Rolling. Lateral movement. Jolted. The whole house moved. Yikes. I know me. I’m going to be washing my hair in a hurry for the next few weeks. That always happens. Where’s the worst place you could be during an earthquake? Lathered up, soap in your eyes, buck naked in the shower. Right, I can’t imagine a worse place. Unless you’re taking a dump.

Today is my Birthday!

Hey, today is my birthday. I'm 53 if anybody wants to know. I decided every day of our extended weekend was going to be a celebration. That's the new rule in our house....everybody gets more than one day to do neato stuff for their birthdays. DeeDude has his coming up next month.

Here is the bouquet of roses I got this morning! I was so surprised! We had steak last night and went out for Chinese dinner the evening before.

I'm putting off my birthday present. DeeDude has promised me that he will help me get the study organized so I can work on my crafts. I'm really looking forward to it.

And, lovely, lovely, I had a birthday dream this morning: I was in a house, a new house and locked myself out. I was really irritated at myself because I’d always been the one to caution people against doing that and here I went and did it myself. It was an apartment and I wandered downstairs to tell my story to some people there. They weren’t all that sympathetic. I looked at the clock and could see that my sister would be getting home in an hour’s time, so if I just waited around for a little bit she’d let me in. But, I thought I might check in the management’s office to see if they wouldn’t let me in. The problem as somebody told me was they were going to be asking to see some photo ID and not only had I no key I also had no identification on me.

So, I wandered away from the commotion of the folks there at the apartment, at my home.

I found myself at the top of a really steep hill. It was covered with snow and there were kids sledding and flying down the hill on the seats of their pants. I thought I might do that too. The attraction was a huge carnival or amusement arcade at the bottom of the hill out on a wharf. So, I slid partway down, but came upon two large pipes sticking out of the hill that I was likely to crash into. So, I stopped and carefully made my way past them and went on down the hill.

At the amusement place there were tons of people. All over the place. I was a little uncomfortable, but soon became used to having them all near me. I wanted to put my hands up against the back of somebody’s head. They were a little taken aback, but I asked them if I could try it. They said okay and as I took my hands away from their head I could see this wonderful light green light and stars sparkling on one of my hands. I wondered what it was. I showed it to them. Then, I said to them, let me try it again, but this time I want to do your shoulders. They agreed and I spent a bit more time on their head and then their shoulders. They turned around and said that they felt a little better.

I looked at my hands and both hands held more of the green light and sparkling stars. I said, “Here, let me try this. Let me play with this for a minute.” I cupped my hands as if I were making a snow ball. I then drew my cupped hands apart, put them back together again and drew them out farther and farther each time. I could feel the energies I had cupped in my hands growing stronger each time. Finally, I paused with my hands held maybe a foot apart from each other, one on top the other on the bottom still cupped and I was able to see things in the green light. The first thing I saw was a dollar bill sign: $. I said to the person: “You will be able to make a living here.” Then, I saw other things, things I don’t remember now, but I said them to the person: “You will be happy here.” Then, I saw all sorts of animals, all sorts of wonderful animals and I said, “Oh, look at all these animals.” I was so pleased to see them. It was delightful.