Micheal Jackson, R.I.P.

I came back to the blogosphere to pay my respect to the King of Pop.

Micheal, I will always feel sorry for him, I hope now that he is dead that he can find some sort of peace.

This was a kid who was beaten everyday with his brothers when Joe came home from work to toughen them up. If they said anything out of line, or didn't clean their plates, etc, they would be made to move a concrete block pile from one spot in the yard to another.
Micheal had so many self image issues it is horrible.

He was the true talent in the family. He kept everyone of them in the luxury they felt they deserved. When he would be with other children, he was trying to get his childhood back, I don't think he liked or trusted adults.

Do I think he acted wrong with the children...perhaps but I don't really think so. The biggest issue here is why would the parents of these kids let them be with Micheal if he was a proven pedophile?
They saw possible dollar signs, to me that makes them the truly evil people.

Micheal had mental problems and there was no one there to help him, they were all there to suckle from the money tit of MJ Enterprises.

There are a big faction of people on this planet that adored him, they shut down part of the internet last night with all the newscripts coming in for info.

All Micheal really wanted was to be loved and who really loved him? His fans.

Like I said before, I hope he has finally found peace.

Soon to be goodbye

I really cannot take this new Blogger.
Where I could at one time put my own html in the thing I now have to fight an unfriendly interface.
I am now in the process of looking for a new free blogging site.
I have been with blogger since, what does it say on the left side of the page here, 2004?
If they had only left it alone. Why can't people leave things alone that already work?

So, if any of you are on a cool blogging site and it is free, I will be paying a monthly fee for my website and I don't need another fee, let me hear it!

In the meantime, thanks to Heather, Lee and I will be leaving the Lowcountry behind this weekend and heading north to Myrtle Beach. I got Summer's kenneling scheduled (including her bath, shh, don't tell her!) and I am looking for a 4 star hotel on the "Deal Stallion" on Priceline. Medieval Times, Dicks Last Resort, Kiss Coffeehouse all better watch out!
Of course just to be fun, our car decided to give me a problem over the weekend.

Lee and I went out for a romantic meal at what has become our favorite Italian Restaurant, Amalfie's. The food is outstanding! They bring you bread and a plate of olive oil and balsamic vinegar while you look over the menu. Lee ordered a large steak stromboli for himself and I took the waiter's suggestions (lots of pressure on him!) of Chicken parm with a start of tomato bisque soup. It was delicious. The bisque was yummy with chunks of tomato, onion and basil floating in the creamy broth. Then there was this huge platter that comes to the table of the chicken parm. Lee and I both took halvies home!! The waiter was happy that I loved everything he suggested. Trythfully, he couldn't have disappointed me. The menu was great. Last week Lee and I went there for lunch and I had the meatballs. OMG!! Heaven was a place on earth when I bit into those meatballs! I may have Irish blood but there is pasta runing through my veins as well!

We had repeat of those meals last night for diner and they were just as good the next day. Lee said his stromboli had very light crust and it wasn't soggy at all like some stromboli's can get (cough, Bucks, cough). He even got his marinara on the side...which got dumped on my spaghetti last night!
Back to the car, I am still driving these days although Lee's foot is getting better. We are driving down 26 at about 60-65 mph and I notice a bad vibration in the frame of the car. Lee does't notice it but I have always had a feel for cars. I was born a gear head.
So to prove it to him, I took my hands off the wheel for a second ad the car definitley pulled right, severely right. SO I am going to have to check for missing tire weights, the tire pressures and the treads before I take it into Eagle Automotive (they are great there!!!), but it needs fixed before our romantic weekend getaway.
It is always something!!

I have a committee meeting tonight at Bon Secours St Francis Hospital for the Charleston County Relay for Life. It isn't too late to make up a team, you know and survivors, if you know of any survivors or patients or caregivers, please bring them to the Relay.
There are survivor registration forms on our website here and there will be a diner for the survivors earlier this year that what it has been. The dinner will be at 5PM at the West Ashley High School Cafeteria and the survivors lap will be at 7PM followed by the caregivers lap.
At 10PM we have the Luminaria ceremony which is a stunning representation of those lives that have been touched by cancer. Buy a luminary here to honor those who are fighting the fight and for those we have lost.
If any of you out there want to make up a team, contact me and I will get you a team captain's kit OR you can come to the meeting tonight. We take the stuff with us whereever we go!!
I should figure out how to put the Relay newsletter, which I write on this blog, hmmm.

I am now off to cruise the blogging sites for a bit, then work on more business stuff. Bad time to start a new business but orders are coming in!

AHHHH! Help!!!!

I updated my web page per Blogger's request and look what happened!!!
Where is my graphics, my links anything??!!!!

Blogger said they saved a copy of the old blog, now how the hell do I find it?!

I feel like I have to start over with my blog now. As I said in an earlier post I barely have time for myself these days and now I have to rebuild my blog?

As I was going to add a link to my ew website but I have to fix this first!

It has been so long...

I cannot take in all I have missed to spew on!
Banks, Barney Franks, raises and bonuses, the four way stop by my apartments, AHHHH!
Let's start with why I haven't been around so much.

Phase I - Shortly after my last February post Lee broke his foot. An emulsion fracture isn't a clean break. It is a chunk broken from the bone. It is going to take a long time to heal. We have a car with a clutch, I am now the chauffeur for Lee now. My day is divided into sections. The morning section is between dropping Lee off and going after him for lunch. The afternoon chunk is after I drop him back off from lunch and picking him back up at night.

Phase II - Add to the mix the dreaded and very hated around here DST. We hate it, despise it and wish it were dead along with all those who love being morning people. Vampires and Werewolves do not like the light. I am definitely of the Vampire class.
I have made over $1000 in jewelry recently due to a really hefty order I received from Fire Mountain Minerals. So I have been both busy at my design table and at my key board because of...

Phase III - I am the Charleston County Relay for Life Publicity/Newsletter Committee Chair! Whew, that alone is a lot to type! Every month, I gather stories from all over the cancer world and info concerning the teams and such and put it in a fun newsletter!
My personal Relay page is located here if you care to donate or buy a Luminaria bag.
If you can come to the relay at all, try to see the Luminaria ceremony at sundown. We will scroll the names of those "in honor of" and "in memorial of" on a large screen near the DJ.
The survivors dinner will be held earlier this year for those who do not know. The forms to join us for the survivor laps are here and that is no charge and you get a tee shirt and a ticket for the survivors dinner.
Please come and show the rest of the world cancer can be fought and beaten.
This year, I will be wearing a bright orange COMMITTEE shirt and not a survivor shirt. I will probably be helping out with the dinner or signing in the new people.
There is still time to sign up a team and our next meeting will be March 23rd at Bon Secours St Francis Hospital on Teckleburg Rd here in West Ashley from 6:30 to 7:30 in Mall class room 1.
Come and meet the other team captains and get some info on how to help make your team a success!
Uh-oh, got into preachy mode there, sorry.

Phase IV - I had a bad patch recently. After many blood tests and doctors visits it was a concern that I might have had another brush with cancer. They were doing tests to see why my blood counts were all low and consistently low for 3 months of blood tests. They started (not really wanting to) the words Aplastic Aemia. That is a blood cancer. My pelvic bone remeber was irradiated enough to destroy my lowers spine and cauda equina. The pelvis is also responsible for the majority of your white cells. They took all of this into account and was about to do the diagnosis when my last groups of blood work came back with a bad ANA reading. It was decided to do another blood test for ANA and TA-DA! The ANA came backbad and another diagnosis was made. the pretty name is SLE or Systemic Lupus Erythematosis.
The signs were all there. I had a butterfly on my cheek which is an outward sign of Lupus, low grade fever, aches in the joints themselves and really bad fatigue. I could wake up from 12 hours of sleep and be absolutely wrung out and loss of appetite. I have lost 24lbs since Jauary. My favorite bell bottoms are too big. THAT is upsetting!
The thing is, Lupus is bad but it flares. I may not have another flare for months. Right now, I am flaring. Hopefully, it will go away soon. I have had to adjust all of my meds. I am now on a steroid...YUCK!!!

Let's see, I think that is it for why I haven't been around much. Lee is still looking at 4 months of healing or so. Although he did need to drive himself one day due to me being flat out on my back. His foot was swollen after that.
So hopefully, I will find time in my chunks of time to blog a bit. DId I mention that I have a facebook page too that is being ignored? I also have a garden to weed and some tilling of my pots to do, Ostara is Friday!

Time for Action is now!

South Carolina has the lowest cigarette tax of all 50 states. Let's stop this now.
Join the fight to raise the cigarette tax .93 cents.

It is our hope that the higher prices for cigarettes will keep them out of the hands of youth.

The American Cancer Society and the Relay for Life is dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem. It is my life's ambition to see that there isn't another person on the planet who has to suffer radiation ad chemo in order to live.

Why A Cigarette Tax?

Increasing cigarette taxes is a WIN, WIN, WIN solution for states - a health win that reduces smoking and saves lives; a fiscal win that raises revenue and reduces health care costs; and a political win that is popular with the public. It's no wonder that 44 states and the District of Columbia have increased cigarette taxes more than 75 times since January 1, 2002, more than doubling the average state cigarette tax from 43.4 cents to $1.19 a pack.

Win #1: Fewer Kids Smoking

Studies, and experience in state after state, show that higher cigarette taxes are one of the most effective ways to reduce smoking among both youth and adults. Every 10 percent increase in the price of cigarettes will reduce youth smoking by about seven percent and overall cigarette consumption by about four percent.

Win #2: Higher Revenue for States

Every state that has significantly increased its cigarette tax has enjoyed substantial increases in revenue, even while reducing smoking. These funds have helped states balance budgets and fund essential services like health care, education and tobacco prevention programs. Contrary to tobacco industry arguments, cigarette tax increases are a reliable source of revenue for states.

Win #3: Public Support for Tobacco Taxes

In national and state polls across the country, there is overwhelming public support for tobacco tax increases. Democrats, Republicans and Independents alike want elected officials to increase tobacco taxes to help prevent kids from smoking.

Source: Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids

Why a 93-cent Cigarette Tax Increase in South Carolina?

A 93-cent increase in South Carolina's cigarette tax is a WIN-WIN-WIN for South Carolina:

• A WIN for public health because it will reduce smoking, particularly among kids;
• A WIN for the state's fiscal health because it will raise more than $168 million in new annual revenue for the state; and
• A WIN for lawmakers who support it because of overwhelming voter support (71 percent)

A 93-cent cigarette tax increase will generate $168 million dollars in new, recurring revenue for South Carolina. It will decrease the enormous burden on our healthcare system by more than 1 billion dollars, while improving the health of approximately 33,800 current adult smokers who will quit and preventing approximately 29,400 smoking related deaths. Studies also show that teen smoking is reduced in states that increase their cigarette tax. In South Carolina, it is estimated that 64,100 South Carolina kids would never start smoking if our cigarette tax were $1.00 per pack.

In national and state polls across the country, there is overwhelming public support for cigarette tax increases up to $1. Democrats, Republicans and Independents alike want elected officials to increase tobacco taxes to increase revenue, reduce health care costs, and help prevent kids from smoking.

More Information

Please visit scbenefits93centtax.pdf to read more about the benefits of a 93-cent cigarette tax increase in South Carolina.

Please visit sccigtaxandkids.pdf to read about how South Carolina kids would benefit from a cigarette tax increase.

Please visit sctolloftobacco.pdf to learn more about the toll of tobacco in South Carolina.

Help us by sending faxes to your congressmen and senators. Tell them we want this tax passed.
Remember 1 in 3 people will get cancer this year.
Please, don't let it be you.

The stupidity of humans

The birth of octuplets to a California woman last week raised a boatload of issues that can distract us from the central ethical question posed by the case: How do we take children's well-being into account in reproductive medicine?

Yes, it's puzzling why an unemployed single woman who already had six children wanted a passel more. And it is not crazy to wonder who will pay for these children's needs over the years, beginning with what is sure to be a gobsmacking bill for neonatal intensive care.

For now, we can put aside the lifeboat problem: A human uterus is not built for eight passengers; the odds for each child to be born alive and healthy go down as the number in the lifeboat goes up.

Her physicians offered to reduce the number of fetuses she was carrying; citing her moral convictions, she declined. As of the last reports, all eight survived. Still, knowing what we do about the many risks that come with being born too soon and too small, their medical course is likely to be complex and unsteady.

What this case really does is split wide open a fault line running through infertility treatment in American medicine. People who show up at fertility clinics are adults. In the typical case, they've been trying to get pregnant for a year or more without success.

When all goes well, a cycle of IVF (in-vitro fertilization) results in a pregnancy and the birth of one, perhaps two, healthy babies. As a son, a father, and now a grandfather, I can attest that there is no more important or enduring relationship in our lives than the one between parents and children.

Whether that relationship is forged through infertility medicine, adoption or the old-fashioned way matters not at all: What counts is that adults who want to love and raise a child are matched with a child who needs just that love and care.

The point of infertility treatment, after all, is to create a child. But that child-to-be is not the clinic's patient -- the would-be parents are. I believe that the interests of those children deserve at least as much consideration as the wishes of the prospective parents.

The vast majority of infertility patients are no doubt fierce advocates for the well-being of the child they so earnestly seek to bring into their lives. What happens, though, when the client's request shows little consideration or regard for the welfare of the would-be children? What happens if a woman in her early 30s with six children wants eight embryos implanted all at once?

A responsible physician could turn down such a request, citing professional guidelines that counsel implanting one, at most two, embryos in women younger than 35. How Nadya Suleman ended up with eight is a mystery. That's what Nadya Suleman is claiming.

Perhaps there is a physician somewhere willing to defy the wisdom of his or her peers; perhaps Suleman used fertility drugs rather than IVF as she claimed. Whatever the case, this guideline is based on safety. Carrying more than a couple of fetuses is dangerous to the pregnant woman and to the health and survival of the fetuses in her womb.

Citing safety is a prudent way to turn down requests an infertility physician thinks are ill-considered. But sometimes that gambit isn't available.

A psychiatrist friend who conducted intake interviews for a well-respected clinic described a rough-looking couple who carried for their up-front payment thousands of dollars in cash stuffed in a bag -- drug money, she was certain.

She was able to discourage the couple from following through on their plan. Here's the rub: Her concern was the ultimate well-being of the child that the clinic was being asked to help create. But the ideology of American infertility medicine allows physicians to escape from making any judgments about the suitability of prospective parents.

There is understandable worry that cracking the door to considerations about parents' motives and capacities would blast it wide open for nasty, petty stereotypes and prejudices. That would be an awful result.

The American Society for Reproductive Medicine acknowledged in a 2004 report that fertility programs may withhold services when they can provide "well-substantiated judgments" that the child will not receive adequate care. But that same report has a huge loophole.

Providers can abdicate almost all responsibility to anticipate the welfare of the children they help create by claiming "an obligation to treat all patients who would benefit from medical treatment." The statement goes on to say that "except when significant harm to a future child is likely," they "should not be required to make assessments of a patient's child-rearing abilities or other child welfare issues."

It's time for the profession -- and business -- of reproductive medicine to accept their firm, inescapable ethical obligation to give the interests and well-being of the children they help to create the same consideration they give to the desires of the adults they serve.

--Opinions of Dr Thomas Murray and ME!

A new day has dawned

"For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus _ and non-believers." -President Barak Obama Inauguration Address.

An American president admitting that we have non-believers in this country just makes me so happy it is amazing.
There are those of my path who feel he didn't mean us. We believe in something that is different from the mainstream. I feel that he did. He could not stand up there in the freezing cold of DC and start listing every religion in America, just because he didn't say the word "Pagan" means nothing to me.
I see a man standing on the Capital steps who is more intelligent than the government he is leading, i.e. the Chief Justice messing up the words of the Presidential Oath of Office. Hey! The new guy knew the oath, I could have given you the oath as it was taught to us ages ago in high school, but the Chief Justice couldn't say the oath correctly? Hmm

I finally see light shining over our country. A time when perhaps our beliefs in what a person can accomplish has nothing to do with skin color or what their chromosomes are. Perhaps I am wrong in feeling that way I do. Perhaps I am jumping the gun. After all, nothing has changed for me personally since yesterday.
But I just feel awesome about our new President! I have no idea what the stand up comics are going to use for material now. The 8 years of Bushisms are gone.

I woke up this morning to NPR and there was an interview going on I only caught half of. It was about a small town in Oklahoma that were for the most part registered Democrats but this year they voted Republican.
Do you want to know why? It is because they "...don't believe in abortion or same sex marriage and that is what the platform of the Democrats was this time round".
That much I caught.
I can't believe it. The two things that are NONE of anyone business is the reason these people were going to vote Republican.
And since when was the Democratic Platform about abortion and same sex marriage? I hope that it is, but I don't think it was high on their agenda.
Of all of the things that are wrong and going wrong with our country that these people felt this was the most important of all.

So perhaps a light is shining over the land, but the old small minded mentalities are still hiding in the dark.

Pretty much sums it all up for me!

In the words of Lewis Black, "I could be religious, but I have... thoughts", and everyone knows that thoughts are not a good thing in organized religion.

Since I am flooded with Relay work and other side projects along with that, I am not sure if I will be blogging much.

With the new year I should organize myself better and have a set schedule for doing these things, but trying to have schedules with chronic pain is almost impossible. It may work for a few days but then it is all in the crapper again.

The stress of the holidays along with the news we received just added to the levels already rising with tight budgets for gifts. For your Christmas day I was nearly paralyzed with pain. I nearly called my local nurse to ask her opinion, but it comes down to riding it out. It took a long time. Yesterday I was able to call myself over the bad patch...I hope that there is noother big stresses comig my way real soon. *keeping fingers crossed*

This year I need to reopen or find a new website for my jewelry. Etsy is too full for ayoe to get a good look at my stuff. There are so may people on there that you become one of a hundred selling a necklace or what have you. I can sell a few of my beads on Justbeads.com, but I want to sell the finished pieces.

It seems I am adding to my "schedule" doesn't it?

I received a new keyboard for Yule. I have to train myself to go to another button for end ad Home. I had my old keyboard for YEARS and I am so accustomed to hitting about 2: from backspace the end button, now it is 2" from the\ key. Doesn't seem like a big adjustmet until you actually try to do it.

OK back to the newsletter for me, I am still waiting a survivor's story to put in the new newsletter. tick, tick, tick.

Why do the holidays bring out the bad stuff?

My Proof:

1. Thanksgiving 1968 - My father has a heart attack at home and he dies with me on his lap crying for him not to leave.
2. New Years Eve 2003 - We have a house fire that destroys most of my favorite things and displaces us into a really bad situtation. Try to find a house for rent in the winter in VA.
3. Christmas 2006 - We take a train trip to DC and then on to my brother's house where in a day of us getting there he has a heart issue and he goes into the hospital for a few days...including Christmas day.
4. Christmas 2008 - We get word that Lee's mom has acute Leukemia and has "weeks left".

Although we have been preparing for this since we saw her in March of this year, nothing fully prepares you to lose a parent. While she is not mine I see and feel the pain of my husband. Anyone who has been together for nearly 20 years knows when the other is upset. I am even more attuned than most.
So, while trying to have a little fun for ourselves this holiday season, I have the extra thoughts of logistics for another trip to Rhode Island going through my head and trying to keep Lee from thinking too much.
It was agreed that all of her children shouldn't all come visiting at the same time as it would scare her, so we are playing it cool.

The odd thing, and I want you all to make sure you READ your emails before sending them off into the ether, is how the email with this information came to us.
"I hope this gets to you. I am not sure if this is your corrent emaili address or not. Just letting you know that Mom is not doing well please call me at xxx-xxx-xxxx anytime. We are going to JAX for the holidays have a happy holiday."

WHAT?!!!

I mean HUH? Have a happy holiday? Mom is not doing well? You are leaving to go 8 states away while she isn't doing well?! This email was from Lee's sister who has mom living with her.
Of course, Lee calls his sister to confirm some things and that is when we got the full story of the cancer.

So please, in emails, write them as you would a real letter. Use puctuation and seperate your thoughts. Then reread to make sure you aren't scaring the shit out of anyone.

Looks like I will have yet another reason to Relay this year.
In whatever it is you do, meditate, pray, whatever, good thoughts and vibs are always appreciated. Please keep Lee in your thoughts.

Like I said, why do the holidays always bring bad things?

Happy Yule!

To all y'all!!!