The Christmas Gift Ledger
Topic: Personal
Christmas has come and gone...here are my current year's rakings:

from grandparents, $75 in cash. Fantabulous! Money is always great.

from R's parents, Elizabeth Arden Green Tea perfume. I was impressed - I had the hardest time finding this scent in the department store counters I went to, I must have been trying the wrong stores, not only did my MIL find the perfume but matching lotion and shower gel. I had initially thought this must only be available in the Asian market, as I bought my current (nearly out) bottle of scent on a China Airlines flight from Taipei to Sydney...but it must have entered the US market in the meantime.

also from in-laws, a vacuum bot! I named him Frank. Vacuuming will never be the same again!

I had asked for an Emily the Strange hooded Kitty sweatshirt But for some reason the stores in the malls only carry the XL-XXXL sizes for girls. Obviously, not going to work for me. So, MIL gave me $100 - I suppose so I can go buy it myself? Also fantabulous.

R's aunt gave me a neat little gift box filled with food-flavored body care products - gingerbread flavored masque, sugar-cookie flavored lip balm, and cinnamon-bun flavored bodywash, all from Philosophy and in a little cardboard gingerbread house. Quelle adorable! Delicious too - two of my favorite themes blended into one - food and bodycare products. Not that I'm complaining, because I really do use these products - love lotions etc, can't get enough - but even people who don't know about my fondness for bodycare products buy me bodycare, esp. lotions and creams. Do I look scaly?

from my loving and romantic engineer husband - a new windshield! He has also promised me new tires for Valentine's Day.

R made out with several new video games, thank god, as I am rapidly approaching insanity from hearing the soundtrack from the same video games over and over again emanating from his PS2. Another boxed set of James Bond DVDs, and a Best Buy gift card.

We gave the following presents:

FIL: Horseshoe set, Harley-Davidson shirt (it's great when someone has a known hobby - it makes gift purchases so much easier).

MIL: High-performance running shoes. She had asked for walking shoes, but walking shoes seem so flimsy compared with the solid construction of running shoes. So, she got running shoes. Fortunate for shopping, that we have the same shoe size, eh? Also added a pair of cashmere blend gloves and matching muffler.

BIL: Tennis racquet and gas card. A most welcome present for he who drive a gas-guzzling truck. Although to be fair, it did come in handy when we moved.

Grandpa K: a stained-glass sign that says "Billiards" for his new pool room. Yes, I know billiards and pool are not the same game, but it's close enough for me.

NN & PP: GC to a local restaurant. After 60 years I can imagine NN is tired of cooking. Plus, a little good luck bamboo for their new abode.

Topic: Fun
A young man was sitting in class when the professor asked him if he knew what the Roe vs. Wade decision was. He sat quietly, pondering this profound question. Finally, after giving it a lot of thought, he sighed and said, "I think this was the decision George Washington made prior to crossing the Delaware."

Topic: Fun
What is organic cooking anyways? Organic = containing carbon. Isn't all cooking then, organic cooking? I mean, the only inorganic cooking I can think of is when I boil salt water.

Hmmm...deep thoughts in the kitchen.

Topic: Opinion
Obesity as a Disease?

I don't think so. Except in extreme cases where the sufferer has a genetic or medical condition that causes them to gain weight uncontrollably - a thyroid abnomality, for example - Unlike cancer or even the flu, most obesity is self-inflicted. Don't want to be so overweight that your health is in danger? Don't sue the fast-food restaurants, try this - eat less, exercise more.

Although people who can't help it - those with genetic or medical conditions over which they have no control - should be able to get medical treatment, I'm not for this condition to be classified as a 'disease' in a fell swoop - if any person who brought the condition on themselves through lack of self control can force the insurance companies to pay for expensive surgery, then what's the motivation to have a healthier lifestyle? And why should the other policy holders who do not do their bodies the disservice of an unhealthy life-eating-style be punished for the bad choices of those who do? Most people know that if they eat too much they will get fat. You reap what you sow!

Happy Holidays!
Topic: Personal

Topic: Review
Is another Flu Pandemic upon us? This is really terrifying - when we are on the dawn of a new scientific age, where daily people search for a cure for cancer and a vaccine for AIDS, there is still no stopping the flu from spreading across the globe. With all our modern medical defenses, we can do nothing but wring our hands in the face of such virulence.

According to this CNN article, "It's estimated that in the industrialized nations alone, the next pandemic is likely to send 1 million to 2.3 million people to the hospital and kill 280,000 to 650,000, according to the World Health Organization." V. frightening; "The pandemic of 1918-19, known as the Spanish flu, sickened an estimated 20 percent to 40 percent of the worldwide population, with a death toll believed to exceed 20 million. In the United States alone, some 500,000 people died. An ordinary flu epidemic kills an average of 36,000 Americans.

The next pandemic, the Asian flu of 1957-58, killed about 70,000 in the United States, while the 1968-69 Hong Kong flu led to about 34,000 deaths in the United States. "

In related news, the US manufacturers of the flu vaccine has run out of supplies. The Slate article has a great Explainer on how this can be and why it's so hard to make flu vaccine: "Because specially purified and fertilized chicken eggs--the kind manufacturers grow the vaccines in--are hard to come by. There are two stages to creating the influenza vaccine each year. First, researchers working with the Food and Drug Administration and the World Health Organization predict which three strains of the flu will hit heaviest in the coming winter. Then, they develop three seed strains--benign versions of each virus for inclusion in the vaccine.

When the seed strains are ready, they need to go forth and multiply. But viruses can't reproduce on their own: They require a host organism, and that's where the eggs come in. The FDA sends the seed strains to manufacturers, who inject them into millions of specially purified fertilized chicken eggs. (Check out this video on the process.) Each egg incubates just one of the three seed strains, which replicate themselves vigorously therein. Then the strains are harvested, tested, and blended together to create the season's influenza vaccine cocktail. All in all, the process can take six months or more. "

Patriotism and Criticism, I
Topic: Opinion
It's patriotic to pay attention to how things are going in the country, to seek out good information, to vote, to insist on clean elections, to campaign for issues, to run for office, to raise one's voice. Critics who dwell on ways that America falls short of its ideals are not being un-American. They're doing necessary American work. If they're wrong, their criticism will lose steam--that's the American faith: that truth has power.

Citizens who disagree with elected American leaders shouldn't have to defend their patriotism. The consent of the governed is what gives our leaders strength, and there can be no true consent without latitude for true dissent--"yes" means little if "no" is not an option.

.................Tamim Ansary, Contemporary American Writer

Topic: Fun
If a Seventh Day Adventist Church were to buid a gym next to their chapel, would they call it Jehovah's Fitness?

fawning all over
Topic: Cute
A mother deer "hid" her fawn on the front steps of a home in Bend, Oregon, last spring. The family took this photo and, knowing that deer hide their babies while they go off and forage, they left the baby alone. It remained there all morning, motionless, until Mama finally came back for it. The white specks on the steps are apple blossom petals.

Cute, eh?

Topic: Review
Fun optical illusions!