Holy cow.....

Courtesy New York Times ~ South Buffalo, NY

What the???  This incredible snow storm, of which you have most likely already seen/heard of has buried Buffalo in a huge blanket of snow.  When I look at this photo, the first thing I notice is that their front door is basically covered by snow.  I can't imagine how long it will take to dig out! Looks like none of these folks will be going to work today!  Looks very pretty, if all you have to do is look at the photo, and not deal with the snow blower/shovel.  Makes me quite thankful to live here in Albuquerque, when not much else is!

I am trying to concentrate on my class work, but I keep getting distracted.  So much to think about & do.  I texted my x-coworker about some things I forgot to take with me (hair spray, contact lens cleaner, yogurt in fridge), and I'm trying not to freak out that I haven't heard back from her yet...although I'm sure she is scrambling to keep up with work.  

Well, back to reading Developmental Origins of Adult Function & Health: Evolutionary Hypotheses. Doesn't that sound like exciting material?  

Love, 365

And so it goes......

Cloud Godzilla! 

I filed for unemployment benefits today.  How humiliating is that?  I'm grateful and all, but wow, I wasn't expecting it.  I had a little trouble creating a login, because it took me awhile to notice that it has to be ALL numbers or letters, and of course any other login is a collection of numbers & letters, right?  Well, you have to remember this is a government thing, and they have to do things differently.

I saw my hairdresser today, who is sadly going through a painful & difficult divorce, and we were sharing stories....all in all a pretty weird day so far.  I called the bank and made arrangements for my 401k to be transferred, since my x-boss said they would call me today ~ so far, nothin.  I'm not worried about that though, because I know I will hear from them this week.

Today is registration day for next semester, and I think, for me, this is the part that gets me down, as I won't be able to afford to go until I'm employed again.  Another delay....sigh. I still need to e-mail my current professor and inquire about employment, although I'm sure he isn't in charge, I thought it couldn't hurt.

If you have any suggestions that might help, please feel free!  It's been a very long time since I've applied for work, and interviewed (shudder).

Love, 365

Just a little of everything......

It's time.....for the annual Thanksgiving comes first campaign.  If you have Facebook, check out their page, where they are keeping us appraised of which stores are honoring this important day for families to get together.  They also allow you to sign petitions (if you wanna).  The fight continues!

This semester is going well, somehow I am managing to write 2 one to two page pieces each week and currently have an A, and recently the professor asked me if I was planning on graduate school, and that he would support me if I decided to apply.  I replied that because I'm currently working full time, it's taking me forever to finish my bachelor's degree & that if he's still working at UNM when I graduate, I'll take him up on his offer.  It really made my week :-)

I love fall here in New Mexico.  This one has met all my expectations so far ~ sunny skies, temp's from 65 to 75.  Haven't begun to plan for Thanksgiving yet, although turkey is on the menu.  Yesterday I made Louisiana gumbo, and tried out Red Lobster biscuit mix, which was a big hit.  Must be the butter you drizzle on em' when they come out of the oven, lol.  Something about fall makes me want to cook and bake.  Later I'm making an apple pie, which should make the house smell lovely....

I am already sick of Christmas.  The decor is everywhere.  I went to Lowe's a week ago to look at bathroom sinks, and was overwhelmed by plastic prelit trees, inflatable Santas and Snowmen, and every type of decoration you can imagine.  Ugh.

Well, gotta go.....have a wonderful week!
Love, 365

ARGHHH!

Look familiar????  (google images)

I've been catching up on my blog reading, and Ami wrote something about her brain keeping her up, and I thought YES, I know how that goes, and why won't you SHUT UP!  (this is my brain I'm talking to, lol)  I have this happen sometimes.  A long time ago, I read an article about it, and there was a suggestion to not have a clock within visual range by the bed, so that you don't do what the person in the cartoon is doing.....it's 2:46am......it's 2:52am......ad nauseam.  You may find this list familiar too....

Did I lock the front door?

What was that noise?  I better go downstairs & check.

OMG, did I forget to call so and so and wish them happy birthday?

If I fall asleep right now I will get approximately 6 hours and 17 minutes of sleep.

I'm too hot.

"      "   cold.

How does he fall asleep in 10 minutes, when it takes me an hour?

I have to pee.

Did my phone just vibrate?  What now???

Did I set my alarm? 

Oh, look, I have 5 Facebook messages, I'll just check real quick.

If I fall asleep now I will get approximately 5 hours and 20 minutes of sleep.

Did I remember to pay the utlility bill?

I hope my Mom is doing OK.

WAS THAT A BUG?  no, it's just a tissue from under the pillow

I'm hungry/thirsty.  

If I fall asleep right now I will get approximately 4 hours and 45 minutes of sleep.

No kidding, folks........

Whew! We all survived....

Obviously borrowed from jantoo...lol.  If you can't read the sign, it says "variations on a theme, next 825 miles.  I can relate.

This will be a real quickie....I was working on my homework, and am ready to hit the sack...got work tomorrow at 7am.  
***
(the next day, lol )

I was too tired.  I'm still tired, but it's mostly just the level of today's activity, and house cleaning.  Man, how I hate house cleaning.  If I leave it all to Romeo, I have to admit it leaves a bit to be desired.  What we need is for one of us to get a massive raise so that I can have someone come out every 2 weeks and clean it for us.  As if.....

The wedding was wonderful.  Here's a photo of the bride & groom:

So, in case you're unfamiliar, this is my oldest son.  As you can see, her dress was really stunning.  She had pretty shoes on too, but you couldn't see them with the dress.  My sister and her husband went with me and we had a good time....even had a whiskey shot (& I'm not much of a drinker, but the occasion seemed to call for alcohol!).  And you know what?  The strapless bra didn't bug me at all ~ even before the drinks.  :-)

The one big drag about the trip was the drive.  It was exhausting.  And for some reason we decided to take hwy 285, which turned out to be a big mistake.  There is a lot of oil/fracking going on around the New Mexico and Texas border, so we had to deal with semi's and big pick-ups.  Sometimes the semi's would drive on the shoulder of the road to give us a chance to pass, and as they were doing that, they were throwing all kinds of stones.  And we nearly got creamed by a semi that we thought was letting us get by, but actually had pulled over to the shoulder of the road to turn into a gas station.  After that, we decided we wouldn't return by the same route.  The drive home was just boring, boring, boring.  10 to 11 hours in the car, no matter how comfortable, is just a big ol' drag.  I don't recommend it.

Well, I need to finish my homework (due tonight by 12am).  Have a wonderful week!
Love, 365

Man, where has the time gone.....

ha ha.....(Google images)

Well, this isn't exactly the type of busy I have goin' on.  But close, lol.

I have lots to do at work ~ I am supposed to make things as easy for my co-worker as I can, but since it's been a slow month, it hasn't been too bad.  However, for those of you that hold your breath until my next post ~ yeah, right ~ I probably won't be...posting that is.....until I return from the wedding.  Which is next week.  And I'm not at all ready.  Remember?  I'm a lethal procrastinator.  There's nothing like a deadline to get the ol' juices flowing.  

I have the dress, the shoes, the stupid strapless bra (which is OK, but I know I'll be rearranging it until I have enough alcohol in my system to where I simply won't give a damn).  We're driving (so that ought to be fun..12 hours or less) so we will have lots of time to catch up on conversation.  Hmph.

At least my professor is giving me an extra week to post my assignments, which I was so happy about and grateful for his generosity.  

Now, I just have to gear myself up for 5 days of staying with my Mom, who is a perfectly lovely person, for about 3 days.  Ha ha, no not really.  I just like to dish it out.  

If you don't see any writing after a couple of weeks.....just wait a little longer.  :-)

Love, 365

Eat like a cave man....

This week in class, we were discussing the Paleo-diet, or Stone Age diet.  It was pretty interesting reading, but I won't bore you with the exciting details (pages and pages.....).  However, I will bore you with what I gleaned from it all.

The Stone Age (or paleo-diet) is stupid.  Of course, so is the grapefruit diet, the rice diet, the smoothie diet, ......  The problem is, we have a huge number of people who are very over-weight or obese, and these folks are becoming sick with diseases like type II diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, oh, and the list just go on and on.  I know why, though.

We are busy.  Did you realize that families with young children end up eating about 20-30% of meals in their car?  We just don't have time to sit around the table and eat, much less cook the food ourselves.  The kids have soccer practice, band practice, karate, guitar lessons, and on and on.

We are busy.  Go to the grocery store and stock up on fresh meat, veggies, fruit and then go home and cook a meal everyone wants to eat?  Get outta here....

We are busy.  Hey, I know!  Let's go by McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Schlotzky's, Burger King, Dairy Queen, Church's Fried Chicken, and get dinner.  It'll be so much easier, right?

We are busy.  At the end of the week, the last thing we want to do is cook.  I just want to sit in front of the TV and mindlessly eat big bowls of ice cream or popcorn or chocolate or french fries .... the list does go on and on.

What ever happened to common sense?  Oh, yeah, I ate it and washed it down with a 48 ounce cola.

Love, 365

Never, ever.

Ugh.....(image from toonvectors.com)

I have been a bad, bad girl.  Letting myself get caught up in other stuff & procrastinating class assignments.  I started out good, reading the material on Monday, when it's first available.  Read some more during the week, but waited until last night to write my discussion post......when the migraine came on.  Had to hurry through the post so I could finish puking and go to bed.  I will never ever wait until Friday to write my post again.  Never.      Ever.

I
Hate
Migraines.

Once I have one, I simply have to sleep.  I've never had a medication that helped.  They come on too fast, and when they happen I become very nauseated and can't drink anything.

So, lesson learned!!!

Writing, writing, writing.......

Images: Google

Well, I don't smoke anymore...but I thought the look on her face mirrors my own.  "How do I start?  Will it make sense?  Can I stretch it to 2 pages?"  

When I began this class, I had no idea that there would be so much writing.  I figured like most classes there would be quizzes & tests & a bit of writing.  And, although I don't miss quizzes and tests, the writing is soooo difficult.  The most difficult part is understanding what the Prof. wants.  And apparently he wants us to show we read the material, and give our opinions about it.  Which is cool, I guess.  I've posted 5 so far, with good results. I recall another class where we had to write a lot, and I complained then too.  And figured that it would be great practice if I had another class like it.  No.  No, it didn't help at all, because the *#%*^ parameters are different.  But the material is great.  Evolutionary medicine will help our Dr's and health care professionals treat our problems more effectively....eventually.  

Otherwise, all is going along.  Romeo is still having hits & misses with his culinary endeavors.  Last week he made green chile stew....with bacon.  Sounds good, right?  Except he didn't precook the bacon, so it was slimy and digusting.  I ate around the bacon as well as I could, but no one ever went back for seconds, so it was thrown out.  I think we need to discuss doing ONE new idea per week instead of 3 or 4!  

He had asked me to buy bell peppers in order to make stuffed peppers for dinner, which is fairly straight forward.  Only the bell peppers were humongous. I've never seen an entire bin of green peppers that were all so huge.  I bought them with reservations.....figuring he might be a bit upset if I didn't get them....you know, they were on the "list".  He made them on Saturday, and we finished them off for dinner on Sunday.  When I say they were huge, I wasn't exaggerating.  On the plus side, they were very good!

Let's try a little humor.....

and finally.....

Did Neanderthals leave behind abstract art?

From Science Daily, 9/4/14.

This is a first ~ rock engravings by Neanderthals.  Buried under sediment at the back of a cave, subsequently dated 39,000 years old, and was found in Gibraltar.  It's significant because it's the first example found of Neanderthal cave art.  Boy, do the Neanderthals get a bad rap from science, although it's improved in the last decade ~ from the heavy brow ridge and shown hairy as a gorilla, he has been "updated" to looking very much like us.  

From the Smithsonian

I tried to find a drawing of how science used to view Neanderthals, but I couldn't find one.  Drat!

They used to be depicted as dumb, strong brutes, that had no language or culture.  We have since discovered that they were very much like Homo Sapiens...have a look at the "family tree".

I know this is rather small & hard to see ~ The Neanderthals are just below and to the right of the "you are here" circle.  For a larger view go here...

Now for my interpretation of the cave art.......
Doesn't it look like a tic-tac-toe game?  

Maybe they were just waiting for the weather to improve before going hunting.

Love, 365

Car remote ...... broken. No biggie, right?

Nah, mine doesn't look quite like this, but similar....(courtesy Google images)

As you might have already guessed, my remote stopped working last week.  Every day I would get home, telling myself I would replace the batteries.  But, then something would happen, and the result is a whole week before I finally got around to it.  Except....when I opened the the case, I had a couple of tiny little pieces fall out, and after I put it back together, it didn't work.  At least I have another one, and after replacing the batteries, it worked just fine.  

What really surprised me was just how dependant I had become on it.  I would keep forgetting that I couldn't walk away and lock it, I had to keep going back and locking manually....and then I would check at least 2 doors to make sure it "took".  Funny ~ I wouldn't have thought that I would feel more secure on the "beep" of the car horn than manually locking it.  I guess I've become more secure in technology than I thought!  I kept feeling irritated that I had forgotten to fix my remote, then feeling ridiculous that I trusted my remote more than locking with my own hand!  Weird.  

Considering they are now 12 years old, and have been dropped, stashed in my bag with no thought, been wet from rain and other hazards, I feel lucky that it worked as long as it did.  Maybe the remaining remote will last long enough to get me to a new vehicle in 3 to 4 years.....

Love, 365