Well when life throws your a curve ball, and the ball smacks you right in the face, breaking your nose or causing a orbital blow out fracture, it’s a little hard to see it as “a blessing in disguise.” Then again you really can not appreciate the situation until your nose stops bleeding, and you regain your eye sight. No worries, I did not get smacked in the head by a ball, but it feels more like a kick in the nuts. Eitherway, such things heal, and life goes on.
I will not go into specifics, but the adage “do not put all your eggs in one basket” does appear to hold true. In life make sure you have a back up plan of some sorts. I am not saying never invest all your heart into something. I’m saying you have to keep your mind open for opportunities. When you develop tunnel vision on only one outcome, you will freak out when you have to take a detour.
It appears I am just rambling on aimlessly now. I started out wanting to interject the pent up frustration I have had over the past month, but I do realize that in a public forum, I have to be cognoscente of what I display online. On that note maybe I will just end this thought here and now. I will update this fully once I figure out if my blessing in disguise truly is a blessing or just truly a kick in the nuts.
In a followup to my Biscuit and Honey post. I figured I would just buy frozen biscuits and a honey bear from Kroger. Can NOT beat fresh Biscuits and Honey. Just need to keep the honey away from the baby. PSA: no honey for babies, or you get a floppy baby… then a dead baby. That is no good.
Seriously, what the heck is with all the spam comments. None are getting posted because my spam filter on WordPress is catching them all, but holy crap. I’ve deleted over 70 spam posts today. If I really had so many hits, I’d be flattered that people are coming to my site, but… not so much.
Please stop spamming. I will not approve your useless comments about Viagra or Tiberland or Acer, nor will I promote your useless blogpages that are selling medications or whatever.
Maybe this is falling on deaf ears since most spam is probably created by spambots. Only if this spam was the type people could eat, then the world would never go hungry… EVAR!
P.S. your comments will never be displayed spammers, so why bother?
can the right incentive shed the pounds (for good)?Just Dance 3 (for XBOX360)
I am sure people already have some fangled setup using the kinect to lose weight, but I wonder if we can actually entice patients to lose weight more effectively using video games. They are more fun, and would more likely keep attentions spans longer.
Games like Dance Central and Just Dance are very exhausting, yet still fun. Other cool thing is your progress is tracked, and I think you should be able to share the progress online via the XBox Live. I am pondering if we can do a study that would have people play the kinect consistently every day for about 30 minutes a day, and eat a healthy diet. Maybe there would be more compliance and success with weightloss. You might think, “duh, if you exercise and eat right you will lose weight.” That is a no brainer, but the hardest part about doing that is… doing it. I’ve tried many times to finish P90X, but it just gets kinda of boring. It’s a great workout and I have no doubt if I stuck with it every day, I’d have
"X ME!"
Abs like Thanh Nguyen. Also if I had no obligation every day, I would definitely not mind spending 90minutes a day with Tony Horton and him telling me to “x” him.
They were trying to see if people would have more compliance/success with weight loss if there was a monetary incentive/benefit. Their conclusion:
The use of economic incentives produced significant weight loss during the 16 weeks of intervention that was not fully sustained. The longer-term use of incentives should be evaluated.
Employees of Ohiohealth who have the employee health insurance are able to enroll in this “Health Miles Program”. You get this pedometer and you can get money back if you log a certain amount of steps/activity every day throughout the year. You can get up to 500$. There is no cost for you to enroll either. Now you would think this is a great incentive to stay active, but I never made it to the $500. Some days I was too busy to wear it, and there were many days that I was still just too lazy to stay active. Another drawback is people cheat, I have see many people [at least when it first started] that sit there on the hospital floor and just shake the pedometer in their hand…. yah. anyway.
Maybe my friend, we’ll call him Qi, has the right idea, and compete with your friends in “the biggest loser” contests, where you win something for losing the most weight. Then again, the goal should be to be healthy and lose weight, not get fat as you can and then crash diet to win the contest.
Then again we have the people who see me for the first time and want to talk about weight loss. They tell me “I don’t eat anything” and “never lose weight”, and ask me to prescribe Adipex (weight loss pill, stimulant, more or less not good for you). I usually ask them to keep a food diary/activity log so they can visualize how much they “are not eating” or rather ARE eating. Of course, I would say 99% of the people don’t follow through, or don’t come back. Endocrine disorders aside, it’s really simple math. Calories in minus calories out. If you get a positive number, you are taking in too much or not using enough. If you get a negative number, then you really should be on your way to shedding weight, (or you are logging your cals wrong).
I am not a big fan of diet pills because of the dangerous side effects. I wouldn’t want my patient’s heart to explode because they were too rev’d up from the diet pills. I mean there is a place (I suppose) for the use of these medications, but if you are not going to make an effort at watching what you eat and try to exercise… a diet pill is not going to do it for you. It’s the same for the bariatric surgeries, some people expect the surgery to do all the work. They don’t change their life style, and they end up gaining their weight back.
Well, I think I got a little side track with this post. Maybe I will see if MommyMD will give me some stimulants so I can lose weight too, and forget about this P90X and Tony Horton can just X himself. (I jest).
which shall be hired? why not all of the above?Sundew
With my ventures in cultivating tropical plants and building a koi pond indoors, I’ve noticed that I also somehow generate hundreds of gnats. I assume it may be from over-watering, decaying vegetation. Maybe if I keep the area cleaner, this wouldnt be an issue. Now they are running amuck on the 1st floor as well as the second floor. In the past I thought it would be a genius idea to start keeping carnivorous plants as well (mainly sundews). Logic dicates that the gnats would be controlled with these predatory photosynthesizers. It actually worked fairly well, but I was too cheap to keep them in a proper container. They actually grew too well and caught a lot of gnats. Then the gnat level died down and I am not sure what happened, but I could not keep my precious bug eaters alive. I think part of the problem was my basement was 1. too cold, 2. too dry.
nasty fungus gnat
With the winter upon us, I deal with the insect annoyance I have today. I have my Prized Mango and Coffee plant on the 1st floor, and noticed that gnats have been haunting the soil. This is putting MommyMD on edge, so I finally set up this portable bug zapper she had purchased. It actually seems to be working, because every so often you will hear a zap. This (for whatever reason) scares the crap out of Combo (the Pomeranian). The gnats dont seem to be terribly attracted to the light, so I’d say it somewhat works. What has worked in the past (aside from the Sundews) was using insect sticky tape, so we went to HomeDepot and got some. In the basement I am getting ready to plug in another bug zapper as well. I’d rather use a Sundew, but if I order one online, I am afraid the cold weather will kill it in-transit.
kermit
So this brings me to another idea, the motivation of this post. What about putting a frog in the pond? Obviously a thought is that the frog will jump out and disappear. I say this is a non issue. 1. The frog will want to stay by the water. If it leave, it will come back sooner or later (I mean he’s stuck in my basement). 2. Kermit will want to go to where the food is, and the gnats are around the pond. I mean how could this be a bad idea?
froggie could hop away and never be found again (and die and rot somewhere)
froggie could slather it’s salmonella body all over the basement, and ViviBear could contract salmonella and develop meningitis/sepsis
froggie could make its way upstairs and do as above.
someone could step on froggie
froggie will multiple and then I will have a frog infestation
the frog will defecate over my basement (what does frog poo look like?
I suppose those are valid concerns, but maybe the frog will just stay in the pond? Are the above really rational/reasonable concerns?
What do you guys think? I guess I am talking to myself here. I don’t think I really have that many people that venture to this blog. Amazingly when I consulted MommyMD she did not object to the idea. Maybe that is the sign for a go.
Here is the potential future habitat for my green friend
drowning aint fun; O, I'm OPEN!bumblebee man (Simpsons)
There are defintetly a couple of things that I fear. One is Bees, and the other is drowning. O, I guess another would be wrestling practice [for another time]. I just dont like bees because they can/will sting you just for the hell of it and it will hurt like a mofo. I dont think I actually have been stung before, but to the point, it’s annoyig how they follow you around and wont leave if you shoo them. It may actually piss them off and they will sting you. It’s like, who the hell are you to get up on me and invade my personal space. I really hate it when they hover around because you have food (mainly seems when I have a hotdog with ketchup). It’s sort of like when a person comes off the street and asks you for a dollar, and gets up in your face at night. You are not sure what to do at first, and may even fear they will whack you.
This post is not about my fear(hatred) of bees, alas. This is about the dreaded abyss. The home of neptune. The aqueous hell that stand in the way of graduating from highschool (I’ll get more into this later). If you havent figured it out yet, I’m talking about swimming.
"not going in!"
I wouldn’t say I am afraid of water, probably more likely afraid of the prospect of drowning. Ever since I was a child, I’ve been afraid of water that was higher than my head. This would be problematic at water parks, lakes, oceans etc. I spent a lot of my time at the kiddy pool. Maybe if they had a 3-4ft depth section, I would be able to venture into the waters (when I was at least 1 ft length above the water with feet on ground. So one would ask “cant you swim?”
Well no I cant. Actually that is not accurate either, I am just not good at swimming. Well if it was prior to highschool, I guess I’d have to say yah, I did not know how to swim you a-hole. From what I can recall, my mom first enrolled me in swim lessons when I was around 5 or 6 at the Josephinum Pontifical College in Worthington (Ohio). I refused to go into the pool (wasting my mom’s money for the class). My brother initially afraid as well. She tried to bribe us with these pens that were personalized with out names on it. My brother was easily coerced and was soon jumping off the diving bored. The ingrate that I was, I took the pen and stayed on dryland with mommy.
Second try was in Taiwan, where my mom enrolled us yet again in swim classes. The thing I didnt like about pools in Taiwan was that we had to wear these swim caps. I felt they made me look stupid (not like the wake up and go bedhead/asian kid look wasnt stupid). I did go in the pool, but I never did learn how to swim well. I just remember practicing kicking while holding onto the wall. Most of the time I was too afraid of ingesting the chlorinated water.
I then remember all the times we went to Wyndotte Lake, a water park in Columbus now known as Zoombezie Bay (sp). I hated the wave pool, and spent all of my time at the shallow end.
One summer in Cali, my aunt took my brother and I to a water park. There was this thing where you would climb across the water holding on to a rope and step on the floating foam platforms. Well my upper body strength was never great and of course I fell in. Unfortunately the water was probably 6 ft, and I was likely 4’6″ at the time. I remember almost drowning and splashing around. The life gaurd was a little pissed off at me. Asshole didnt jump in but luckily some pushed me to the edge and I climbed out. I was told not to go in anymore if I can not swim. Makes sense, but that was embarrassing.
Another time in Hawaii (my dad used to go to a lot of conferences and took us with him) we were at this awesome resort. I went on this waterslide, but I did not know how deep the water at the other end was. Well again it was over my head and I remember frantically splashing around to stay afloat. I dont really remember how I got out of that one.
Now both these times I was trying to get over my fear of water (and I didnt realize how deep the water was).
Now these near drowning experiences always left a bad chlorine taste in my mouth so to speak.
I figured if I stayed land locked, I would never really have to worry about the water issue, but for whatever freak’n reason my high school had a mandatory swim test. You had to pass in order to graduate. For those who know me, I do get anxious about many things, neurotic to a point. With this looming over my head freshman year was not fun. When it came time, we all had to jump in, swim a length of the pool down, swim a length back and then tread water for 5 minutes. Well I was one of the first ones in. I tried my hardest to swim down the length. Slowly my classmates passed me by, then passed me again on their way back. My buddy Dennis had knee surgery not long ago, and was one of the last ones in. He also passed me and again on his way back. I actually splashed and flailed my way to one end and back to the other. The problem was the treading water. I was definitely panicking (I was doing this the whole time mind you), and I started to go under a couple of times. You’ve probably seen it on TV where the poor sap starts to dip under the water, head will bob out, hands flail, water splashes, then head goes under again. I started to drag some people down, but Eddie Haas was nice enough to push me to the edge of the pool. Suffice it to say I failed the swim test that day. I had to then take a remedial swimming course during gym time. That was probably a good thing since I was able to learn how to properly tread water and not freak out while in the pool. If anything I learned to drown calmly.
Vivienne's Next Activity
Now this brings me to the original inspiration for this post. I wonder if Vivienne is going to have an issue with water, and how should I go about making sure she learns to swim. I heard that with babies, you should be able to throw them in a pool, and they naturally know to hold their breath underwater. Something to do with the fact that they were swimming for about 9 months (less I supposed if you don’t count the embryo stages) prior to being pushed out into this dry/eczematous world.
They offer classes at my highschool, as well as the local gym. Maybe I should just ask a friend who swims. I guess MommyMD knows how to swim anyway – by the way, she is a horrible swim teacher. When she goes swimming with me she just comments “I don’t understand why you cant swim”. Not very productive if you ask me- She will likely have a different approach with the ViviBear.
Now I found this picture on the right via a google search. It seems they strap these babies (and I only saw asian babies with this) head only in, and let them float. It actually seems like some form of torture, but they don’t appear to be unhappy.
-edit- after reading stell’s comment, I decided to actually read the page that I jacked this photo from. no mention of CP for those asian heads, just “development”. –
Overall ViviBear seems fine with bath time:
I figure maybe I will take lessons with ViviBear. I think my problem with swimming really is the fact that I dont like the feeling of not breathing. I hate ingesting chlorine water, because it’s dirty. So far my records is doing 10 laps total. (not continuous).
If any of you have any suggestions, I am all ears. Feel free to post a comment or something as well. I just keep getting these spam comments selling viagra and some other diet pills.
O yah, after the remedial swim course I did pass the swim test (hence graduating). Still not a fan of swimming. or bees. or wrastl’n.
“happy new year, be rich and prosperous! Give me the red envelope!”
Happy year of the dragon.
Do you know what would be better than one dragon? 2 dragons!
"Dragons"
Anyone know this reference?
Some may be familiar with Chinese New Year and the traditions entailed. Actually some people do not even realize there was even a Chinese New Year. There are multiple different new years depending on the culture which I definitely am not familiar with. A quick google search will bring up many results. The day of the Chinese New Year always changes relative to the roman calender we all use, since the Chinese New Year follows the Lunar Calender. My parents always seem to know when it is (probably because they seem to always have a lunar calender), but with the help of google, I can find that it is actually: Monday, January 23, 2012. [If you havent noticed yet, I am a huge fan of google]
The most familiar with the Chinese New Year is what my family mainly followed. Aside from that my knowledge is limited. What I do know is that every time this year, I could count on one thing: Getting the “Hong Bao” [紅包], or red envelope. It has been Chinese tradition to hand out red envelopes of money to children during the new year. Something to do with good fortune and prosperity.
"Hong Bao" - the Red Envelope that bears fortunes
From what I understood kids get the envelopes, and they are usually given by parents or other adults. Criteria would be once you have your own kids, you no longer get the envelopes, and if you have kids, you are expected to give out envelopes. This is just from what I gathered, and I don’t think is by far any credence to this. There probably also isn’t any hard fast rules at all. A mighty google search brings up some history behind this blessed envelope. That link will give you a more adequate explanation.
So what we had to do was get on our knees and in a sense beg/kowtow to our parents and exclaim: “恭禧發財! 紅包拿來!” or “be rich and prosperous! Give me the red envelope!”
So to the point, can I still expect to receive these red treasures? Am I supposed to be giving them out now?
I guess if you are within the criteria (younger generation) and kowtow to me and exclaim the magic words (in Chinese), you may find yourself the owner of a red envelope.
***** disclaimer ********** it is my medical opinion to NOT carry your child in a laundry basket ***********
It is almost impossible to get anything done when the little ragamuffin is mobile. Luckily ViviBear is only crawling and cruising. I have no idea where the walking will get her. I can strap her down to her baby chairs but that is not very mobile. I could leave her in the playpen or the arena, but sooner or later she gets bored and starts to cry.
last night I was trying to brush my teeth I came across an epiphany to put ViviBear in the laundry basket. she seemed to enjoy it so I carted her around in it. I have tried this with combo before but she did not like it.
ViviBear just sits there in her chariot. maybe she actually is terrified but either way she stays there quietly and appears happy.
Traveling around the house:
At first it looked fun and great, but I knew things would go awry if she decided to stand up in the basket. For whatever reason the basket had a calming effect on her… for like 10 minutes. She started to try to stand up. I knew this would not work. No worries she did not hurt herself. I guess it is any fun means of transport, but it is not very effective. It makes it harder to carry this already heavy ViviBear, and just think if you lose your grip or trip and fall while they are in the basket. ack. You can check out the travels we did around the house today.
in the penguin room
Baking tater tots and fish sticks with me in the Kitchen
in a basket by the pond
"whats going on outside"
"what's going on and why does it smell in here"
I do NOT recommend carrying a baby in a laundry basket
So we took ViviBear for her 9mo checkup, and in the waiting room, there was this lady with a newborn. From behind her hair was well-groomed, and she dressed well, but when she turned around, I was expecting a rather attractive young mom (not that I am gawking, MommyMD was with me). To my surprise, the first thought was, is this grandma? I really wanted to make a comment to MommyMD next to me, but I figured knowing my sly incognito mannerisms, I didn’t want to make it too obvious that I am an a-hole.
Fake Baking
Later that night, MommyMD brought the lady up, because the baby had some cute fluffy booties on, but she also noticed the weathered mother. Granted there are some older moms out there, and I understand that pushing a baby out for many hours, then having more hours of sleepless night can wear down someone’s complexion, but too many times have I seen people who look 20-30 years older than their actual age. This mommy was well-baked and had much makeup on. Either she was an 50 year old wearing the garb of a 25 year old, or she was a 25 year old that had been smoking and tanning since she was 10 years old hence looking like a 50 year old.
I’ll admit people look great with a good tan on, but it’s too bad that the consequences of looking good leads to such drastic results (skin cancer, wrinkles, looking a wrinkly baked turkey). The smoking part on the other hand is just a vice that smells and causes cancer.
It just boggles my mind when I meet people and I assume they are 70s or so, my first thought is, I hope you’ve had your osteoporosis screening Colonoscopy. Then I find out there 40 years old. Things that should tip you off that the person you talking to is like older than their age if they:
stinky
1. Smell like smoke: I mean reek of smoke to where it fills the whole room up. We’ve all met people, or have friends (or family) that have the nasty musty old smoke smell imbedded in their clothes and hair. No matter how much they wash, it wont go away (which makes me actually wonder if they do wash).
Snookie - guaranteeing to look 70 @ 50.
2. Have the complexion of an orange, or maybe… I don’t even know what to call it. Lets just say Snookie Complexion. I do suppose you can spray tan and appear orange as well, but you know what I am talking about.
Ah heck, I’ve been told I look like I am 40 (Clement you asshole). I don’t tan nor do I smoke. Maybe it’s the stress from all the ladies I am around (Combo, MommyMD, ViviBear). not likely. I just have a scholarly look:)
On that note, make sure you wear your sun block if you do go tanning, and just don’t smoke. If you do smoke, consider quitting. Otherwise don’t get offended when you are asked for your golden buckeye card at 40 years old.
since I am watching my baby today it is very difficult for me to get to a computer let alone blog with the baby trying to take away the keyboard and trying to write her own blog. I feel like 1 of the radiologist using the dragon speak software. I spoke too soon baby has come to confiscate my phone.
I must say google android system has a very sophisticated speech recognition program.
