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I love TED Talks.  I have for years.  TED is one of those things that I come back to year after year... watching a handful of talks for a week or so only to forget about it for a year or so.  However, this past academic year has been different.  I recently discovered collections of TED Talks on my Netflix! (Go Netflix, go!) After watching a few (these 5 to 20 minute talks are just about perfect for my attention span these days!) I decided I was going to try to watch 4 to 5 talks a week and keep a notebook detailing a nugget of knowledge important to my life!  I have to admit I am not doing such a fabulous job on that!  But I am still watching! 

This afternoon at lunch I wanted to email my department chair the link to a particularly brilliant presentation about how our body language not only shapes how others perceive us it shapes the way we PERCEIVE ourselves! Click here to view Amy Cuddy's TED Talk. While I was tracking down the URL, I found a talk on happiness. 

I would like you to take about six minutes to meet Graham Hill of Tree Hugger and Life Edited.  He eloquently describes having a smaller footprint and fewer things to clutter our lives can lead to greater happiness. 

Less is more!  (< = >) 

https://www.ted.com/talks/graham_hill_less_stuff_more_happiness/transcript?language=en  

Are you ready for the irony?  I have just reserved a U-Haul to carry some precious furniture (things my brother has made or stuff that has been the family for years) from Fayetteville, AR to Middle Tennessee!

Fifteen Months

Fifteen months.  It has been 15 long months since I have blogged (save for the recent fix of the failed January attempt!).  Fifteen months is too long.  A great deal can happen in 15 months.  A person's life can change dramatically.  For instance:  taking a new job in Tennessee, packing and moving 575 miles in ten days, family illnesses, family celebrations, holidays, gaining three stepdaughters and two new nieces, teaching 13 classes and learning eight new preps, and a trip to Florida via Atlanta, Georgia. This brings me to the new year- the new school year that is. 

What does this year hold?  If the past year is indication the future is unclear!  I must remember to sit back, hold on, and enjoy the ride.  And I must make a commitment to read more and to write more. 

Organization Personality

Ever wonder what type of organization personality you have? Yeah, me neither. But while surfing Better Homes and Gardens for kitchen decorating ideas I found a quiz. If you're interested in finding out what organization personality you have you too can take the quiz. It seems I have the "schoolteacher's organization personality" so I had to share! Take the quiz and leave a comment letting me know what style you are. I am curious.

Thy Neighbor's Goods

So I was hanging with my friends Jen and Aaron (and I am kind of long term hanging with them now) when I discovered that they had a most righteous, plastic, orange strainer (pictured above). I was jealous; literally green with envy. I offered to buy it. I begged to buy it. The price ($1,000,000) was a bit steep. I couldn't swing it. I had to place the beautiful, orange strainer in the cabinet. I was feeling bereft, dejected, hopeless.

These feelings did not last. Just a few days later I found an amazing, gorgeous, green strainer (pictured below). The price tag ($2) was closer to my budget. And the green totally goes with my new kitchen decor. Woot!

John Muir

Day 62

Many of you have sent email and asked why I my postings this fall have been sporadic and less than creative. I think my trip to the doctor's office today sums it up.

Pneumonia still present.
Double ear infection.
Sinus infection.
A fourth round of Levaquin (another 7 days)!
More Albuterol.
More cough medicine.
More vitamins.
More inhalers.
No more steroids... Yet!
I have had a TB test.
I am going to present my next sputum sample to the lab. Joy!
And the cherry on top?
A CT scan! What? ("Afterall, non smokers can have lung cancer too!" WTF?! Yes, my doctor actually said that to me!)

Joy!

I swear. Not only is this illness draining my check book, it is sucking the creativity from my soul!

Day 34

Better, but not 100%!

I am finally finished with my third round of antibiotics. And I must say, I am feeling much better. My lungs are nearly clear. I only have a bit of crud, early in the morning and late in the evening. I still have some stuffy head, nose, and ear symptoms.

I made it to work today just around 7:00. I had every intention of leaving at noon. I ended up spending the day until 5:15. What was I thinking? I dragged myself home by way of the high school (picked up Orion from wrestling) and promptly sat down.

I am beat. I am exhausted. And I won't do that again! I promised myself HALF days! Does it matter that the ONLY thing I did was wade through 200 unread email messages and clean out my in box?

Day 28

Will this crap ever end? Probably not. At least not any time soon! Today I had a follow up visit with my wonderful doctor. I had both good news and bad news. But I suppose in the grand scheme of things it's really closer to good news and could be worse news, than truly bad news.

The good news is that my lungs are clearing. And I didn't need a doctor to tell me that. I can tell.

The could be worse news is that I am still green. And I still have a slight wheeze or whistle by the end of the day, especially if I push myself. Therefore the doctor has extended my antibiotics- another five days of Levaquin! Hooray! And the Prednisone- (psychotic music hits a crescendo). Yippee! I will also continue playing with the nebulizer as needed.

Overall, I am feeling much better. Last night was the first time I attempted to sleep lying nearly flat. I didn't get much sleep, but it had little to do with my position and more to do with the drugs I am using. I have also been slowly cleaning the house. Each day I pick a room to attack. Two days ago it was the dining room. Yesterday it was the library. Today I think I bit off too much. The Dirty Romance Room was not a terrible mess, but I think the combination of very little sleep last night, waiting two hours to see my doctor, the quick but necessary trip to Wal-Mart, the run by the pharmacy, and making a simple pot of rice to go with Manisha's tandoori chicken did me in. Even with Orion's help I gave up just short of vacuuming the room. I could tell by the slight wheeze and the pain in my chest that if I had reached for the vacuum, I'd be paying double for it tomorrow. So the Dirty Romance Room has been dusted and neated, but vacuuming will have to wait for another day.

Tomorrow's room will most likely include vacuuming of the entire house and cleaning of the hallway closet. The boys will be in charge of neating the kitchen and cleaning their bathroom with the mandatory bleach and fire.

Day 19

Ten days of illness and isolation (as suggested by the Health Dept. and CDC). Tenth day doctor diagnoses pneumonia prescribes Tessalon & Levaquin. Day 14 sees no real improvement; doctor adds more Levaquin and breathing treatments via a nebulizer. Day 18 brings severe pain when breathing. Day 19 doctor orders Sunday visit to ER for another x-ray and blood work. Breathing improved. Pneumonia still present. Possibly viral. Doctor doubles orders for breathing treatments and adds codeine cough syrup for pain (!) and a month of steroids. Good news: I am not admitted. Bad news: I freakin' hurt like hell and it looks like I am going to miss another week of work.

I miss Andromeda!

Flu Update

Thank you friends for the get well wishes! Every day is a step closer to the light (of daylight, sunshine, and bike riding!). :-)

Tuesday's visit to the doctor and x-rays revealed that the pneumonia is still very present. While there were indications of healing, the doctor extended my Levaquin prescription by five more days and added a medicine to be inhaled via a nebulizer (Thank you V.J. for lending me your nebulizer!) three to four times a day. The Albuterol makes me terribly jittery. Yikes!

I must say that the constant bed rest has improved the condition of my glaucoma-ridden ankles, but my Beriberi is really acting up.

Orion is about half way through with his second round of antibiotics. John has just started his second round of antibiotics and is on his second day of Tamiflu. All this time I was blaming the boys for getting me sick, perhaps I infected them. I just hope they don't catch my Beriberi.

Oink! Oink!

Cough, cough...

Wheeze, wheeze!

Anyway you look at it, pneumonia sucks. I've missed over a week of school and by the looks of it I may end up missing another week.

At least I won't have any STI's after I finish this impressive round of antibiotics AND perhaps the glaucoma in my ankles will improve.

Computer Mishap

A few weeks ago I mentioned the Camera Mishap that left me without a digital camera and feeling quite miserable. Well, it seems my little laptop, Hello Kitty, is seriously ill. Her only symptoms were some odd error messages on Saturday night followed by the Blue Screen of Death (!) on Sunday morning ~sob~. I can only hope that she is able to be fixed.

Ugh!

So this evening's bowling was not nearly as stellar as last week's, much to my chagrin. I must admit, however, that this week has been a trial. From technical issues Monday during class, to sick family members and rude billing folks at the doctor's office. Include a week's worth of insufficient sleep and today's wardrobe malfunction (Dark tea all over my white blouse before I had to observe student teachers for five hours!) combined with a house that is in such desperate need of a good cleaning that it smells funky!

Am I making excuses? Perhaps. But here are this week's scores. You know the motto: "Bloggin' my pain; bloggin' my shame!

Last week's game raised my average to a 108. Tonights games were:
09/17/09 117 101 89

Crock-Pot Mishap ~ Camera Mishap

Wednesdays are days where the crock-pot is in charge of dinner. When things are running smoothly (giggle!) and things are as they should be (snort!) the week look something like this: Monday is Orion's day, Tuesday is my day, Wednesday belongs to the crock-pot, Thursday is whatever (I'm bowling and don't care what or if the boys eat!), Friday and Saturday are John's days (but not always), and Sunday it's back to me. I had rather hoped that the boys would take pity and man crock-pot Wednesday, but alas, I am still hoping. Last week's Lemon Chicken was rather tasty. And while tonight's dinner was edible, I was almost glad the camera wasn't working.

When I began experimenting with the crock-pot years ago, I seemed to have more misses than hits. But after reading several cookbooks and blogs as well as chatting with friends who know and love their crock-pots, I have found that I now have more hits than misses. And I am not quite certain how to classify tonight's dinner.

This afternoon I thought I would give Mongolian Beef a try. I visited Crock-Pot 365 and Recipe Zaar and looked at both of their Mongolian Beef Recipes. How could I go wrong with ginger, garlic, soy, wine, and chicken broth? Right? Well, to start, I dusted the meat in too much corn starch (I'll omit that entirely next time!), and secondly, I used a 3.5 quart crock-pot instead of the larger one. It smelled great. And tasted fine. But looked like something from the black lagoon. Really! (Again, grateful for not having a camera to blog my shame!)

I think I'll retry the recipe, but not any time soon. And as for the left overs, I am not certain what to do with them. But I'm sure I'll come up with something.

Now then, you may wonder about the Camera Mishap part of this post. Sunday I went out with Orion and Shannon to bike for a bit. I took the camera for the sole purpose of snapping picture of my bike and hopefully getting one of my bicycle mates to snap one of me and my baby to share with you! The camera dropped (crash!) and it's toast. We've had the camera for a decade or more (it's a Cannon Cool Pix 4.3 and it has been dropped many times before, but its number was up!). I am hoping to send it off and have it fixed. ~Sob~ I suppose I could dust off my old Cannon AE-1, but just the cost of printing gives me the willies.

Busy Doing Nothing

Holy smokes! Time flies when you're doing a whole lotta nothin'! Since my last post I packed nearly all of my office, snaked the toilet, took a friend on a giant shopping trip to Costco, drove to Conway and spent three days retrieving Orion, snaked the toilet (again), went grocery shopping (I'd forgotten how much he eats!), packed up more of my office, checked out the new paint job (pictures soon!) on the new office, waited for the cable guy and plumber, and knitted with my good friend, Jennifer.

No wonder I'm worn out! And this is supposed to be a vacation!

Tomorrow I plan to return to Costco (they overcharged me about $44), pack up the rest of my office (tall order, I know!), and make dinner! I have to get the "rat killin'" out of the way before I settle back into writing.

I better get some sleep!

What Are Your Thoughts?

Friends, I am in need of some advice. Nearly a year ago I lamented about my G.E. washer needing serious repairs. The repair man suggested junking it as the cost to repair it would come in just under the cost of replacing it. He did tell me I could run it till it stopped working. It's slowing down considerably and I've washed a few loads twice just to get them clean, but it's still chugging along. But the other day the dryer got really hot (too hot) and smelled like all sorts of fiery death (probably more like burning cat hair) and well, we just sort of encouraged her to go to the light.


Well, the weather's been good and I usually use mother nature to dry my laundry, but after a week of off and on rain and nearly 100% humidity, I had to truck my stuff to the laundromat to get them dried. I am going to have to buy a washer and dryer soon.


So I've been shopping.


And reading.


And shopping some more.


And now I wish I hadn't read so much, because now I am confused more than ever.


I pretty much decided to avoid the G.E. and Roper brands because I do not wish to replace the washer and dryer in another five to six years. While front loaders are out of my price range, I have dreamed about them for years and a good friend bought a display set, discontinued color, for a steal! After reading about front loaders' having serious and expensive computer problems, it made those grapes seem less tasty. I found a Maytag that was one or two rungs up from their intro model and thought, "this just might do!" But then a friend told me about Maytag's woes a few years back and I started reading up on them. Oh my! I found a Whirlpool at Coscto, but they now own Maytag. And I believe I read that Kenmore (Sears) are made by the same folks too!

So what I want to know from you (and please, if you're reading this post, take a minute to post a comment!) is: what brand washing machine do you or have you used and what has been your experience! What are your suggestions? Please help! While I am perfectly able to beat my panties on a rock down by the river and hang them on the line to dry, it takes a great deal of time to do so!

An Old Friend

During my tenure at the U of A in Fayetteville I made several wonderful friends. One of them is Shaila Rao. We lived in the same apartment complex; we suffered statistics together; and we became good friends. Shaila left during my second year at Fayetteville and I've not seen her since. We swap Christmas cards and occasional email, but I've not heard from her in ages.

I have been thinking about her a great deal lately, especially with the Indian Entourage visit yesterday. Well tonight, while grading the first Point of View Paper for my Foundations of Education and Field Experience course, one of my students cited a recent paper by Shaila on inclusion of special education children! How fabulous!

I had to email her! Shaila, I miss you!

Beautiful Legs

I hate shaving my legs. Really, I do. I went for nearly two decades without shaving my legs only to start again a few years ago. Why? I don't know. I ask myself that every spring when I remove my winter coat!

This spring I thought I would try something new. I read a review about Nivea Sun-Kissed Beautiful Legs Gradual Tan Moisturizer (a very long name for pigmented lotion!) and thought it sounded like it might work. If used daily, it is suppose to increase the days you can go before shaving again by softening stubble and subtly darken your legs. They have moisturizer for fair skin and medium to dark skin. I picked up a tube for fair skin at Wal-Mart for about $7 a few days ago and decided to give it a whirl.

After exfoliating, shaving, and drying off completely I tossed on a very thin coat and waited for it to dry before dressing. The lotion is smooth, doesn't smell atrocious, and goes on easily. But if felt like it took forever to dry. Honestly, I didn't really notice a change. But I didn't expect to. I mean, isn't that what "gradual" is all about?

Day two I forgot. Rather, I didn't make time for it. The fact that I even have a beauty regimen (albeit mascara and lip gloss) totally slays me. But I did notice that my legs were slightly darker. Darn, I should have taken before, during, and after pictures!

Day three I hopped out of the shower, dried off, and rubbed in a second application. I was careful, or so I thought, to apply the lotion evenly and to let it dry before dressing. By the time I got to work I could definitely tell that the 'tan in a can' was working, but drat if it wasn't a bit darker around the ankles, and lighter on the backside of my calves! But I was uber careful! Crap, I hope nobody noticed! That night I gave my legs, particularly ankles, a good exfoliating, in hopes of riding myself of some of the uneven tan.

Day four I abstained... Really, no pun intended!

Day five, today, I didn't bother- too many other things to do.

Ultimately, the jury is out. The tan is gradual. But not as gradual as I though or as Nivea predicted. I got a day five tan with the second application. (Of course, when you're this pasty, everything else seems like an Amazon tan.) I think I am going to wait till I shave again, and who knows when that will be, before I go with another application. I was very careful the first two times to apply the lotion evenly and not to rub it off before it dried, but my legs tell a different story. Next time I will avoid ankles, but remember the tops of my feet. Perhaps I'll even take photos to "blog my shame"!

Has anyone out there tried Nivea Sun-Kissed Beautiful Legs or any other 'tan in a can' product? Share your story in the comments! You can always post anonymously!

Long Underwear, Down Comforters, and an Evening Chill

Weather in the 'Burg is so interesting to me that I find that I comment on it on a fairly regular basis! But I cannot help myself!

Last week things warmed up a bit! We had lower 80s and upper 70s. The humidity was wicked, but there was still no real need to start up the a/c unit. Then the thunderstorms rolled in! And on their heels, a cold front. After a few evenings of storm watching and enjoying several magnificent lightning displays the cold front arrived!

The lows this weekend were 40! My bedroom thermometer read 60 degrees this morning! And I was most grateful for my down comforter, which I haven't quite had the time or energy to put up yet!

Mother's Day Bonus

Some of my friends call it the Texas Two-step, but I've heard it referred to as the green apple splatter or quite simply the runs. We call it "Number Six." But Shannon calls it "The Bonus!" The Bonus, indeed! Whatever the case, something did not agree with me Saturday and I spent Saturday evening calling Earl on the porcelain phone. Mother's Day consisted of 7-up until dinner!

What did YOU get for Mother's Day?

Oh, I did get an awesome pedicure from Orion!