After driving for two days, we made it to Houston! Saw Min and the family briefly - had a great meal at a Mexican restaurant and we are getting ready to take a quick exploratory trip around Houston before heading to Dry Cleaning Aunt's place.
My husband tends to be more open minded than I about most things - he's always ready to send $29.95 to Ron Popeel for the newest invention and when the Bach Flowers person says to put vinegar under your tongue to cure elephantiasis, he's ready to try it out.
Not me! I want DRUGS!
More than 20 years ago when I was living in Germany I found a cold remedy at the pharmacy that worked beautifully. No sniffles no cough and the whole thing was over in just a couple of days. It was great! I've been looking for that Eldorado ever since.
So when I caught this eensy weensy little cold and then it turned like a werewolf at full moon into a not so tiny but monstrous thing, I was ready to continue the search. Surely in 20 years science had come up with some clinically proven boon to alleviate at least the symptoms of sufferers of the common cold! (Yes, I know that no one yet has cured the common cold).
So, I insisted my husband drive me through the throngs of frustrated gift-buyers to the drug store to take a look at the newest offerings. Holy Canoli, Batman! There were only about a thousand products lined up and down across a whole aisle!Well, let the work begin! I only had one requirement - new modern product - well, okay that and no acetaminophen. I immediately threw out anything with Pseudofed (sick!) in it as that stuff has never done anything for me. I vetoed all the new improved versions of all the old standbys and then got down to the 854 products that were left. I even had to enlist the help of my husband for this part (and maybe that was my fatal error).
By the time we had weeded through all those medications and eliminated those containing tylenol, we were down to one brand:
It sounded good. Of course it was more expensive than I wanted to pay for an experiment, but all those TV drug ads had had their effect on me and it sounded so much like those marvelous medications that cure ED, COPD and FXSTD that I felt sure this was the one.
I got it home and eagerly picked up the package - oh my word! What was that on the bottom corner?! It couldn't be, but it was:
Homeopathic! NOOOOOOOOOO! I'd gotten some ancient, old wives' tale, phony-baloney, snake-oil remedy!! (And of course I didn't even know about the lawsuit for anosmia then!!) What was I going to do!! It was two days before Christmas eve and we had already slogged through the crowds and cars and dis-spirited people to get these pills. I couldn't face going back. I just couldn't!! "Oh, go on, give it a try!" said my eternally optimistic husband. So I read the instructions and took the dive (er...pill).
Well, all I can say is that stuff works great!! I've had less congestion and almost no coughing and usually my body likes to host a cold for around two weeks. I've been able to think and get things done and even if the cold does last two weeks, it is a relatively minor discomfort compared to two days ago. I guess those old wives knew a thing or two!
Who would have thought this bloke would still be around!? I can't believe I forgot to congratulate him on birthday number 64 on December 18. Here's to the guy that keeps the Stones rolling along!! Stay away from those palm trees!
I have one of those inconvenient teensy tiny little colds - that make you feel bad for feeling bad because it isn't really all that bad. Sore throat slight fatigue and no real excuse for goldbricking! Is that something I can complain about?
I come from a family of artists! My mother is an amazing painter. My sister is a writer and noted blogger and her children too are following in the family footsteps. One of my sister's children is an animator-to-be (currently in college) and her other is a gifted guitarist. The latter, a son, has just entered his garage band, Colossal, in Fitzgerald's Battle of the Bands where they beat out older, more experienced and slicker bands to be the top band of the night. They will continue on to the finals in early Spring! Check them out at their My Space page and listen to a bit of their song, Fallen here.
Rock on!
A friend of mine (Scott Johnson) pointed out a recent New York Times article, which noted the following:
"You would be hard pressed to find five admissions officers or five professors or five marketing experts that could guarantee you 100 new, paying male students in one year," said Shenandoah's athletic director, John Hill. "But you can hire five football coaches and they can do it. In fact, they can find you 200 if you want. Those boys just want to play."
""When you recruit a halfback, you get a few of his male friends, maybe his sister and his sister's boyfriend, too," said JoAnne Boyle, president of Seton Hill University. "
“Officials at small colleges say that adding football raises campus morale and alumni contributions and gives an institution exposure in local or statewide media. But the biggest attraction remains football's ability to bring in male applicants.”
"Heck, guys who play football just like to hit somebody, and the guys not playing like to watch the guys who are hitting each other," said Trey Kern, who was raised in Winchester near Shenandoah ..."
Rats! All 600 Walmarts have sold out of the Talking Jesus action figure. If you are desparate, Amazon has a couple of vendors who have inflated the price and still seem to have some available. If you are not particular you could order a Pope John Paul II or better yet, Moses from the same company (among others).
Lest you think the company Timecapsule toys that distributes these dolls for toymaker "Messengers of Faith" is altruistic in spreading the true word to the world, you will be relieved to know that they also carry Ben Franklin, a scrawny little Winston Churchill and oh yeah, there is this secular savior of the Western World:
Eternity is a mere moment, just long enough for a joke. Hermann Hesse
In this time of stress right before the holidays this may be a good thing to remember.
Happy Birthday to my Sister Min!
What a sad comment we make to the world by imprisoning people in Guantanamo and then not allowing them to have a fair trial. We call them detainees and they have been detained for as much as six years without even knowing what evidence is being held against them.This means they can not mount a defence and perhaps it doesn't matter, for there is no real provision for finding them innocent. Just another trial if the results aren't what the government would like. Surely we can do better than this in a country that prides itself on fairness and democratic action.
Seen on a car outside the co-op:
This is what I have been spending my time on:
This seems to be what I do best - Make interesting sheets of colors without any real purpose:
