Sunday, December 6, 2009
Netflix will be the death of me
I have a wonderful friend who got my a 3 month subscription to Netfilx for Christmas! I woke up on Friday morning, and there it was...sitting in my email inbox just waiting for me. So I went online and claimed my gift as fast as my hot little hands would type, and next thing I knew I had 22 movies in my que, 13 in my "instant que", and one already on the way to my house! They had that puppy shipped out before I even had a chance to log out. And sure enough, first thing Saturday morning, I had a brand new movie sitting in my mailbox (which I haven't even taken out of the envelope because I've watched 6 instant movies in the last two days!). I look up, and hours have gone by. Today alone, I watched two Thomas the Tank Engine movies with Alex, Short Circuit, and The Corpse Bride with Dante, and I've got plans for a few more after Aaron finishes playing Call of Duty (issues with lagging). Yesterday it was Spongebob season 3, Labyrinth, and two collections of Saturday Night Live. This is going to be really dangerous, and if I have made any recent commitments to anyone, you might need to call me to make sure that a) I still remember what they are, and b) that I'm not stuck at the computer with my eyes glued to a Netfilx movie, knitting a sock.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Free-ish manicures and pedicures! Come and get 'em
This year, I am adopting a ward family and I really need your help. On the right of this blog post, you will see a small list titled Adopt a Family. There is a list of some things that this family really needs (check often because this list is subject to change), and I am offering manicures and pedicures for donations of canned goods, gift certificates to places like walmart, job lot, price rite, save-a-lot, and payless shoes, or other items on the list. If you're interested in getting a manicure or pedicure and would like to help me make Christmas for a family that will not otherwise have one, I would greatly appreciate it. Just call me, email me, or comment on this post and I'll schedule an appointment for you. I also do artificial nails, but that is a bigger investment of time and product so I would be looking for a larger donation if you want to have acrylics done. (For those who don't know, I am a licensed manicurist with 10 years experience, and a master technician with Creative Nail Design. Credentials available from their web site.)
I will be taking appointments through Tuesday, December 22 so that I can get everything over to their house in time for Christmas. If you are a knitter reading this, and you don't live near enough for a mani, pedi, or set of nails but you still want to help out, email me and I'll send you my home address, and a set of hand made stitch markers for your donation. There may also be a stash sale, depending on how well the fund raiser is going, and how much time I can take away from homework to sort through the stash, lol.
Now, if you want to know what you can do this holiday season to help...here's my idea. Look at the list of women that you visit teach (or that you know if you aren't a Mormon and don't have a visiting teaching program). Is there a sister on your list who really needs help and won't be able to provide a Christmas to her family this year? If so, talk to your companion to see how you can help. If not, talk to another member of the ward to see if you can help them with their sisters. If you're not in a position financially to help out (and this applies to many of us), try to provide service to that family. I don't have a problem admitting that I'm broke, but I have skills that I can use to try to help out, so that's what I usually do. We all have something that we can do for another person that will really help them out, even if it's simply going over and babysitting for a single mother so that she can go to a Relief Society activity once in a while, child free. Maybe we can go through out closet and give the clothes that we've (cough) outgrown so that newer sisters can have skirts to wear to Sacrament meeting. Maybe we just bake cookies, and go visit. What ever it is...what ever you can do, do it! If we just look at our lists, we can find someone who could use some help, and if we can't, we can ask around to see who does have a sister in need and we can help out.
I will be taking appointments through Tuesday, December 22 so that I can get everything over to their house in time for Christmas. If you are a knitter reading this, and you don't live near enough for a mani, pedi, or set of nails but you still want to help out, email me and I'll send you my home address, and a set of hand made stitch markers for your donation. There may also be a stash sale, depending on how well the fund raiser is going, and how much time I can take away from homework to sort through the stash, lol.
Now, if you want to know what you can do this holiday season to help...here's my idea. Look at the list of women that you visit teach (or that you know if you aren't a Mormon and don't have a visiting teaching program). Is there a sister on your list who really needs help and won't be able to provide a Christmas to her family this year? If so, talk to your companion to see how you can help. If not, talk to another member of the ward to see if you can help them with their sisters. If you're not in a position financially to help out (and this applies to many of us), try to provide service to that family. I don't have a problem admitting that I'm broke, but I have skills that I can use to try to help out, so that's what I usually do. We all have something that we can do for another person that will really help them out, even if it's simply going over and babysitting for a single mother so that she can go to a Relief Society activity once in a while, child free. Maybe we can go through out closet and give the clothes that we've (cough) outgrown so that newer sisters can have skirts to wear to Sacrament meeting. Maybe we just bake cookies, and go visit. What ever it is...what ever you can do, do it! If we just look at our lists, we can find someone who could use some help, and if we can't, we can ask around to see who does have a sister in need and we can help out.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Indignation
This is not a post, it's a rant. You've been warned.
So today I got one of my peer reviewed papers back and the reviewer missed one of the main points in my thesis, and therefore couldn't understand why I referenced statistics relating to different races and how they are affected by different eating disorders. Then I got to thinking about how she said that my paper was mostly informative rather than persuasive, and I realized that she was probably right. I kept thinking about what I really wanted out of this, and what I want other people to want, and it led me to come downstairs a do some more research. Well, I was just pissed off by what I found (sorry, but there's really no other way to put it) and I realized that I'm going to have to completely rework this paper because there is something I want from this. I want our federal government to actually back research, prevention, and education with some MONEY, and I want the media to take some responsibility for the content that they expose our children to, and I want people to get up and take a STAND about this! I want people to demand better standard, and I want people to insist that insurance companies treat eating disorders with the seriousness they deserve and to fully cover treatment so that doctors no longer have to release patients well before they're ready to be sent home, so that they can relapse. I want a face to go with the cause, and I want people to be aware that anorexia alone has the highest mortality rate of any other mental illness...ANY other mental illness, for adolescent girls, and that it's 12 times higher than ALL OTHER CAUSES OF DEATH for women aged 15-24. I want people to do something, write a letter, complain to someone if they don't like what they see on TV and magazines.
Did you know that the average American woman is 5'4" tall, and weight about 140lbs, and the average model is 5'11" tall, and weighs 117lbs, and according to the NEDA, only 5% of the population naturally fit those standards? Did you know that "officials in Fiji reported a sudden increase in anorexia and bulimia with the arrival of television in their communities", according to the Renfrew Center Foundation for Eating Disorders? Did you know that the National Institute of Mental Health (who controls the allocation of researching funding in the United States) did not allocate ANY funding for the study, education, or treatment of eating disorders in 1999-2000, and that in 1997 they only allocated 1% of their budget, which then had to be split with obesity and diabetes? Up to 24 million people in America suffer from an eating disorder, in relation to 1.2 million who suffer from HIV/AIDS, and the NIMH provided 1.3 billion dollars to AIDS... and in 2005, they have spent roughly $1.20 per person with eating disorders, compared to $159.00 per person on schizophrenia research, and 75% less than on Alzheimer's research (NEDA)!
So why does the government spend so little money on this ridiculously serious issue, you ask? Because there aren't enough people out there demanding it! Americans will spend their money to vote for the next American Idol, they will go to websites to "demand" that a movie come to their area (just like I did with Paranormal Activity), they'll call or email to their cable companies to say that "they want their MTV", but they can't be bothered to write to their congressman or any other local representative to tell them what's on their mind. We just complain in our houses, or to each other, but not to those who can do something about it, and I'm just as guilty but I can tell you that after this paper is done, I'm sending it to a local representative and demanding that something be done to educate children, fund more research, and push the insurance companies to do the right thing! And I'm challenging anyone within eyesight of this blog post to join me to ask for change. An estimated 480,000 people die from anorexia every year (just anorexia, not counting bulimia or "eating disorder, not otherwise specified" as it's defined in the DSM-IV, and this is truly an estimate because there are so many people who don't go looking for help due to the stigma's surrounding eating disorders, and eating disorders and related deaths are not tracked by ANY government agency like other mental illnesses are (Renfrew). So I'm not going to let my anger pass. I'm not going to sit here so upset that I'm crying tears of frustration because this is just so STUPID! I'm going to follow through, rewrite my paper, and send it to someone who can do something, and then I'm going to contact NEDA and see what I can do because I really want to see this cause be pushed into the forefront like other causes so that no one else will have to google for over an hour just to find out how much we as Americans are spending on this, and who the spokespersons are (Jamie Lynn Seigler if you didn't know...cause I didn't know). So if you're feeling just as indignant about this as I am... DO SOMETHING!
So today I got one of my peer reviewed papers back and the reviewer missed one of the main points in my thesis, and therefore couldn't understand why I referenced statistics relating to different races and how they are affected by different eating disorders. Then I got to thinking about how she said that my paper was mostly informative rather than persuasive, and I realized that she was probably right. I kept thinking about what I really wanted out of this, and what I want other people to want, and it led me to come downstairs a do some more research. Well, I was just pissed off by what I found (sorry, but there's really no other way to put it) and I realized that I'm going to have to completely rework this paper because there is something I want from this. I want our federal government to actually back research, prevention, and education with some MONEY, and I want the media to take some responsibility for the content that they expose our children to, and I want people to get up and take a STAND about this! I want people to demand better standard, and I want people to insist that insurance companies treat eating disorders with the seriousness they deserve and to fully cover treatment so that doctors no longer have to release patients well before they're ready to be sent home, so that they can relapse. I want a face to go with the cause, and I want people to be aware that anorexia alone has the highest mortality rate of any other mental illness...ANY other mental illness, for adolescent girls, and that it's 12 times higher than ALL OTHER CAUSES OF DEATH for women aged 15-24. I want people to do something, write a letter, complain to someone if they don't like what they see on TV and magazines.
Did you know that the average American woman is 5'4" tall, and weight about 140lbs, and the average model is 5'11" tall, and weighs 117lbs, and according to the NEDA, only 5% of the population naturally fit those standards? Did you know that "officials in Fiji reported a sudden increase in anorexia and bulimia with the arrival of television in their communities", according to the Renfrew Center Foundation for Eating Disorders? Did you know that the National Institute of Mental Health (who controls the allocation of researching funding in the United States) did not allocate ANY funding for the study, education, or treatment of eating disorders in 1999-2000, and that in 1997 they only allocated 1% of their budget, which then had to be split with obesity and diabetes? Up to 24 million people in America suffer from an eating disorder, in relation to 1.2 million who suffer from HIV/AIDS, and the NIMH provided 1.3 billion dollars to AIDS... and in 2005, they have spent roughly $1.20 per person with eating disorders, compared to $159.00 per person on schizophrenia research, and 75% less than on Alzheimer's research (NEDA)!
So why does the government spend so little money on this ridiculously serious issue, you ask? Because there aren't enough people out there demanding it! Americans will spend their money to vote for the next American Idol, they will go to websites to "demand" that a movie come to their area (just like I did with Paranormal Activity), they'll call or email to their cable companies to say that "they want their MTV", but they can't be bothered to write to their congressman or any other local representative to tell them what's on their mind. We just complain in our houses, or to each other, but not to those who can do something about it, and I'm just as guilty but I can tell you that after this paper is done, I'm sending it to a local representative and demanding that something be done to educate children, fund more research, and push the insurance companies to do the right thing! And I'm challenging anyone within eyesight of this blog post to join me to ask for change. An estimated 480,000 people die from anorexia every year (just anorexia, not counting bulimia or "eating disorder, not otherwise specified" as it's defined in the DSM-IV, and this is truly an estimate because there are so many people who don't go looking for help due to the stigma's surrounding eating disorders, and eating disorders and related deaths are not tracked by ANY government agency like other mental illnesses are (Renfrew). So I'm not going to let my anger pass. I'm not going to sit here so upset that I'm crying tears of frustration because this is just so STUPID! I'm going to follow through, rewrite my paper, and send it to someone who can do something, and then I'm going to contact NEDA and see what I can do because I really want to see this cause be pushed into the forefront like other causes so that no one else will have to google for over an hour just to find out how much we as Americans are spending on this, and who the spokespersons are (Jamie Lynn Seigler if you didn't know...cause I didn't know). So if you're feeling just as indignant about this as I am... DO SOMETHING!
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Happy Thanksgiving!
The blog has been quiet for a while, but I've been working on my paper for my persuasive writing class, working on lab projects for biology, and knitting a shawl for my mother-in-law for Christmas. My father-in-law's socks are finished. So...what are our plans today you ask? Well, I'll tell you. We're going to Aaron's mother's for dinner. She and Jim have been cooking for days (as have I) and there will be turkey for the carnovors, and I made a veggie pot pie courtesy of a generous person on Ravelry for myself and anyone else who's interested. I also baked maple-roasted butternut squash from a recipe from Delish.com, Quick and Buttery Rolls from a recipe from the bees knees blog, and an apple pie from the America's Test Kitchens book that was my all time favorite birthday present from my friend Natalie. We'll be taking that all over, plus the pineapple cream pie that I bought from a former co-worker's child (fundraiser), and drinks for the boys and I. My hope is that we'll get over there in the next hour or so, so that I can get home in time to get Alex to bed by 5:30 a
s he's been waking up at 6am again. So, maybe I should get off the computer and go get a shower... I'll leave you with a photo of some of the stitch markers I've been working on. Have a very Happy Thanksgiving!!
Monday, November 16, 2009
Empty Nest
So we're all starting to feel better here in the Washington house. Aaron and Dante both seem to be fine, Alex is on the mend, and I'm fine except for the fact that I have no voice today. But I cooked and I ate real food today for the first time in about a week and I ate till I almost popped. Breaded eggplant and baked beans! Allergy friendly and yummy. It's been tough to stay with my vegetarianism while being sick because so many of my normal protein sources are no-no's for me when I'm sick. No soy (which I usually avoid but now...soy is dead to me), no milk at all, no nuts. So it's been interesting trying to eat foods that are easy on the tummy, and don't bother my allergies. Yesterday I made a quicky soup with some Better Than Boulioun and some sauteed onion, garlic, mushrooms, and Quorn "chicken". It wasn't perfect, but it worked just fine.
In an attempt to get out of my apartment, and get away from my family, I went to the library to exchange some books and get new movies. I picked up two Olivia books and I just loved them (and so did Alex). She is just like any typical kid and it's really humorous. Then I went to Bella Yarns to replace my 2.5mm needles that I lent out (and have not gotten back yet) so that I could start on Baby's First Fair Isle for one of the two expecting couples (haven't decided who gets the blanket and who gets the pullover). I got to talking to the co-owner Naomi about the Cascade 220 that they carry in the store now, and somehow the conversation turned to my Central Park Hoodie. I let her know that I knit it with Cascade 220 16 months ago and after wearing it almost every day (as most of you will attest) it still looks brand new. Naomi asked me if I'd be interested in lending mine to the shop so I thought about it...and thought about it...and decided that I could part with my favoritest knit ever to help benefit my favoritest yarn shop ever. So today I washed it and blocked it, and it's mostly dry now. I wrote down the needle sizes, the number and color of the skeins that I used, and when I finished it. Tomorrow, I will be dropping it off at the shop and I sort of feel like I'm dropping my child off for their first day at school or something. I adore this sweater. I wear it almost every. single. day. To adjust, I have been trying to wear my February Lady Sweater more often, hoping that I will become accustomed to reaching for it instead of the other. I feel very honored to be asked to loan a garment to the shop as it makes me feel like I have really become a good knitter, but I will miss this sweater a whole lot and I worry that it will be lonely being away from home. Please go visit my sweater at the shop so that it doesn't get too homesick.
In an attempt to get out of my apartment, and get away from my family, I went to the library to exchange some books and get new movies. I picked up two Olivia books and I just loved them (and so did Alex). She is just like any typical kid and it's really humorous. Then I went to Bella Yarns to replace my 2.5mm needles that I lent out (and have not gotten back yet) so that I could start on Baby's First Fair Isle for one of the two expecting couples (haven't decided who gets the blanket and who gets the pullover). I got to talking to the co-owner Naomi about the Cascade 220 that they carry in the store now, and somehow the conversation turned to my Central Park Hoodie. I let her know that I knit it with Cascade 220 16 months ago and after wearing it almost every day (as most of you will attest) it still looks brand new. Naomi asked me if I'd be interested in lending mine to the shop so I thought about it...and thought about it...and decided that I could part with my favoritest knit ever to help benefit my favoritest yarn shop ever. So today I washed it and blocked it, and it's mostly dry now. I wrote down the needle sizes, the number and color of the skeins that I used, and when I finished it. Tomorrow, I will be dropping it off at the shop and I sort of feel like I'm dropping my child off for their first day at school or something. I adore this sweater. I wear it almost every. single. day. To adjust, I have been trying to wear my February Lady Sweater more often, hoping that I will become accustomed to reaching for it instead of the other. I feel very honored to be asked to loan a garment to the shop as it makes me feel like I have really become a good knitter, but I will miss this sweater a whole lot and I worry that it will be lonely being away from home. Please go visit my sweater at the shop so that it doesn't get too homesick.
Friday, November 13, 2009
We're alive...
Dante is basically fine now. He's back to school. Alex is still sick but getting better every day. Aaron is over the worst now and also getting better. I've managed to hold off the flu, but I'm tired and not feeling 100%. We will be better soon, and should be fine for Sunday's Primary Program.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Ground Zero
It's a mess over here right now. Dante came home on Friday sick from school and by Saturday night he had a fever just under 103. Saturday morning I had Alex up to the pediatrician's office for a H1N1 flu clinic, and Sunday morning he was running a fever too. I took them both in and they have a virus, but it's not the flu. Thankfully their fevers broke the same day and they've been fine. Sunday night, Aaron got sick with a fever just barely under 105! I almost took him to emergency but the "on call" doctor suggested that we just stay home and keep an eye on him to make sure he didn't get confused and disoriented, and then take him in to the office in the morning...because by the time he would have been seen in the emergency room...it would have been morning anyway. Well, he went up and they confirmed that he has the flu...and the only flu in the state right now is H1N1. So he should be sick as a dog for at least a week, and I'm tired already and feeling very rundown, and I have another week of this at least. Hopefully I won't wear out because I'm fighting this virus off right now and I really can't afford to be down with the flu when I have school and a primary program next week, and a very demanding 3 year old.
I did manage to finish the baby blanket, but per usual I only got a crappy photo before giving it away. I'll post it later. I also finished a pair of hand warmers for Dante that actually fit him for once. He promptly took them to school and left them there... Why did I bother?
I did manage to finish the baby blanket, but per usual I only got a crappy photo before giving it away. I'll post it later. I also finished a pair of hand warmers for Dante that actually fit him for once. He promptly took them to school and left them there... Why did I bother?
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