It's been ages since I've posted - lost of personal stuff I can't
really talk about here. However, I wanted to take a moment to share
this.
At the time of this writing, it's actually at $1,997,432USD (the amount changed between my post here, and my cross post at Moving On), raised of $2,100,000 goal, 95% and 5
days left. They are so close to raising the funding to tell the story
the media has ignored. Even pro-choicers should be clamouring to put an
end to stuff like this (and Gosnell is by no means an outlier) and get
this story told, if they truly believe in women's health and safety.
My
budget is tight, but I just made a second $25 donation today, but
donations as small as $1 can be made. Every penny counts! Please click
on the graphic above and donate whatever you can afford.
Thank you.
Showing posts with label misc.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label misc.. Show all posts
Thursday, May 08, 2014
Saturday, November 03, 2012
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Things are picking up
Well, our busy season seems to be kicking in faster than usual this year!
This whole past year has been an odd one for us. Some things dropped off entirely, such as our park days and Youngest's singing lessons. Others are new, such as her guitar lessons, while still others just aren't what they were, such as our library days. Those have gone from regular one-day-a-week things to perhaps none one week to 3 or 4 visits the next! The kids are as likely to go without me these days - or even without each other.
Of course, having Raider King living with us for a while changed our habits, but that's to be expected. Now that he's got his own place, things just haven't gone back the way they were, really. Though I suppose I never really expected them to.
This weekend is a double whammy for us. Our co-op is doing another garage/craft/bake sale. I don't know why I bother signing up for a table. Only the very first one I did was any success - and I was one of the few that made any money! The others have been utterly dead. I really ought to set up in actual craft sales, rather than our co-op sales, but the craft sales that are around are pretty huge and require a substantial amount of money to book a spot. For one of them, there was a group of my fellow crafters that considered getting a spot together, but at a cost of $400, it was just too much. The crazy thing is that, even though they have so many people booking spaces (for some local crafters, these two sales a year are all they do!) at such a high cost, the place still charges an admission from customers just to walk in the door!
Anyhow.
So I've got the sale on both Saturday and Sunday. Meanwhile, the art festival Eldest is booked for in the summer is having an advance "block party" sale to promote the event. It's very small, with space for only a handful of artists to set up, so it was great that Eldest could get a spot at all. It's just for the one day, and the hours are the same as for my sale! Which means Dh is going to have to do the driving to get Eldest and her supplies out there. She's been busy choosing and preparing which paintings she will include for this small sale, with some framed pieces while others are without. For those, she picked up some special plastic bags to protect them. Though Dh will have to drive her, he won't be able to help her set up. His back went nasty on him a few days ago. He ended up missing three days of work and is walking with a cane again. He's banned from lifting anything right now. Even driving will be uncomfortable for him, but the alternative is for him to sit with my stuff at the sale, and that won't be any easier on his back than driving. It'll be okay, though. Eldest needs to figure out how to set up in the spot she's been allocated (and a good spot, it is!), and it'll be easier for her to figure it out on her own, anyhow. Hopefully, he'll be able to swing by later on, though, and take over at least long enough for her to have a bathroom break! That's the down side of these events. Unless you've got someone with you to help out, you're stuck watching over your own merchandise for the entire time. Granted, the artists tend to keep an eye out for each other, and are known to watch their neighbours' stuff so they have a chance to get something to eat or answer the call of nature.
Youngest might be joining me off an on over the weekend. She's got a few of her own pieces in the sale, too. Of course, anything of hers that sells, I'll keep the money separate for her. Like my stuff, however, hers really should be in a different sort of sale. She's got a lovely triangle shawl in the sale that was made with a really neat yarn that has a metallic thread running through it for a bit of sparkle. It has to be priced to at least cover the cost of the yarn, and that stuff wasn't cheap. Garage sale goers, on the other hand, do tend to be cheap - after all, bargains are what people are going to garage sales for. That this is also a craft and baking sale doesn't change that much. People still aren't likely to care that something was hand made with high quality materials, excellent workmanship, and is an original design. That's boutique stuff. Well, I hope at least her little child-size hats sell. They're adorable.
On top of all this, I have a new job, of sorts. I've been hired by a major craft store franchise to be their crochet instructor and, if things go well, may even start teaching other crafts as well. The reason I say "of sorts" is because I won't have any sort of regular hours and get to make my own schedule, to a certain extent. The classes are a new thing for the store, so there are none actually booked. Until then, I will be doing the occasional demo. That part gets paid by the hour at minimum wage. For the classes themselves, I'll be paid a very generous percentage of the registration fees. Meanwhile, I'll also be taking a distance certification course at home through them. I only need to do the first two levels to get the instructor certification, but if I can do the third level as well, I will get to include the word "professional" in there, too. That part of the course requires, among other things, designing a garment - something I've already done, so it's no big deal for me. The main part for me is that my name gets into a database for North American instructors, which opens me up to other possible contracts. Looking over the course descriptions, there's nothing in them I can't already do. Of course, the group that runs the course gets to determine if I'm actually doing them well enough to be certified.
I'm not too concerned about that. *L*
Dang it. Just looked at the time. I need to get up early to get a start on the sale tomorrow. What am I doing still up at 2 am? Time to go to bed!
Have a good night, all!
This whole past year has been an odd one for us. Some things dropped off entirely, such as our park days and Youngest's singing lessons. Others are new, such as her guitar lessons, while still others just aren't what they were, such as our library days. Those have gone from regular one-day-a-week things to perhaps none one week to 3 or 4 visits the next! The kids are as likely to go without me these days - or even without each other.
Of course, having Raider King living with us for a while changed our habits, but that's to be expected. Now that he's got his own place, things just haven't gone back the way they were, really. Though I suppose I never really expected them to.
This weekend is a double whammy for us. Our co-op is doing another garage/craft/bake sale. I don't know why I bother signing up for a table. Only the very first one I did was any success - and I was one of the few that made any money! The others have been utterly dead. I really ought to set up in actual craft sales, rather than our co-op sales, but the craft sales that are around are pretty huge and require a substantial amount of money to book a spot. For one of them, there was a group of my fellow crafters that considered getting a spot together, but at a cost of $400, it was just too much. The crazy thing is that, even though they have so many people booking spaces (for some local crafters, these two sales a year are all they do!) at such a high cost, the place still charges an admission from customers just to walk in the door!
Anyhow.
So I've got the sale on both Saturday and Sunday. Meanwhile, the art festival Eldest is booked for in the summer is having an advance "block party" sale to promote the event. It's very small, with space for only a handful of artists to set up, so it was great that Eldest could get a spot at all. It's just for the one day, and the hours are the same as for my sale! Which means Dh is going to have to do the driving to get Eldest and her supplies out there. She's been busy choosing and preparing which paintings she will include for this small sale, with some framed pieces while others are without. For those, she picked up some special plastic bags to protect them. Though Dh will have to drive her, he won't be able to help her set up. His back went nasty on him a few days ago. He ended up missing three days of work and is walking with a cane again. He's banned from lifting anything right now. Even driving will be uncomfortable for him, but the alternative is for him to sit with my stuff at the sale, and that won't be any easier on his back than driving. It'll be okay, though. Eldest needs to figure out how to set up in the spot she's been allocated (and a good spot, it is!), and it'll be easier for her to figure it out on her own, anyhow. Hopefully, he'll be able to swing by later on, though, and take over at least long enough for her to have a bathroom break! That's the down side of these events. Unless you've got someone with you to help out, you're stuck watching over your own merchandise for the entire time. Granted, the artists tend to keep an eye out for each other, and are known to watch their neighbours' stuff so they have a chance to get something to eat or answer the call of nature.
Youngest might be joining me off an on over the weekend. She's got a few of her own pieces in the sale, too. Of course, anything of hers that sells, I'll keep the money separate for her. Like my stuff, however, hers really should be in a different sort of sale. She's got a lovely triangle shawl in the sale that was made with a really neat yarn that has a metallic thread running through it for a bit of sparkle. It has to be priced to at least cover the cost of the yarn, and that stuff wasn't cheap. Garage sale goers, on the other hand, do tend to be cheap - after all, bargains are what people are going to garage sales for. That this is also a craft and baking sale doesn't change that much. People still aren't likely to care that something was hand made with high quality materials, excellent workmanship, and is an original design. That's boutique stuff. Well, I hope at least her little child-size hats sell. They're adorable.
On top of all this, I have a new job, of sorts. I've been hired by a major craft store franchise to be their crochet instructor and, if things go well, may even start teaching other crafts as well. The reason I say "of sorts" is because I won't have any sort of regular hours and get to make my own schedule, to a certain extent. The classes are a new thing for the store, so there are none actually booked. Until then, I will be doing the occasional demo. That part gets paid by the hour at minimum wage. For the classes themselves, I'll be paid a very generous percentage of the registration fees. Meanwhile, I'll also be taking a distance certification course at home through them. I only need to do the first two levels to get the instructor certification, but if I can do the third level as well, I will get to include the word "professional" in there, too. That part of the course requires, among other things, designing a garment - something I've already done, so it's no big deal for me. The main part for me is that my name gets into a database for North American instructors, which opens me up to other possible contracts. Looking over the course descriptions, there's nothing in them I can't already do. Of course, the group that runs the course gets to determine if I'm actually doing them well enough to be certified.
I'm not too concerned about that. *L*
Dang it. Just looked at the time. I need to get up early to get a start on the sale tomorrow. What am I doing still up at 2 am? Time to go to bed!
Have a good night, all!
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
All is quiet on the Western front...
... but not so quiet in the East. ;-)
We're just wrapping up our Christmas season, as tomorrow is Three Kings Day. Posts might still be a bit light, however. Eldest and I are putting something together right now, but it won't be officially up until the "foundations" are laid.
Thanks for your patience.
We're just wrapping up our Christmas season, as tomorrow is Three Kings Day. Posts might still be a bit light, however. Eldest and I are putting something together right now, but it won't be officially up until the "foundations" are laid.
Thanks for your patience.
Friday, August 01, 2008
100 books
I found this at Boombatti and thought it was interesting. Give it a go, yourself! :-)
The rules:
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline (or mark in a different color) the books you LOVE
4) Reprint this list in your blog.
5) Strikethrough those you hated or couldn’t get through.
The premise of this exercise is that the National Endowment for the Arts apparently believes that the average American has only read 6 books from the list below.
(Note: I can't find how to strike through on this and am feeling too lazy to look up the html for that, so the ones I couldn't get through will be in pale grey. I didn't hate any of them.)
1 Pride and Prejudice- Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible -
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables- LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks94 Watership Down- Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
The rules:
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline (or mark in a different color) the books you LOVE
4) Reprint this list in your blog.
5) Strikethrough those you hated or couldn’t get through.
The premise of this exercise is that the National Endowment for the Arts apparently believes that the average American has only read 6 books from the list below.
(Note: I can't find how to strike through on this and am feeling too lazy to look up the html for that, so the ones I couldn't get through will be in pale grey. I didn't hate any of them.)
1 Pride and Prejudice- Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible -
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables- LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks94 Watership Down- Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
Sunday, June 22, 2008
I've been tagged...
My first tag! *L* From Travelers Journal, here's the meme.
1.Find the book closest to you and turn to page 123
2.Locate the 5th sentence
3.Post in your blog the following three sentences
4.Then challenge five others to do the same
After digging around all the papers on my desk, I found Critical Choices That Change Lives: How Heroes Turn Tragedy into Triumph by Daniel R. Castro
The 5th sentence happens to be the start of a new paragraph.
Tag 5 people? Hmmm... let's try...
Inspiderwiht
Polar Bear
TeeBuck
Montessori Journey and
Mommy Salad
1.Find the book closest to you and turn to page 123
2.Locate the 5th sentence
3.Post in your blog the following three sentences
4.Then challenge five others to do the same
After digging around all the papers on my desk, I found Critical Choices That Change Lives: How Heroes Turn Tragedy into Triumph by Daniel R. Castro
The 5th sentence happens to be the start of a new paragraph.
When was the last time you made a list of things that truly give you satisfaction in life? How often and with what amount of intensity are you currently persuing these things? Are you currently enduring a less than satisfactory situation when you know in your heart you should be doing something else?
Tag 5 people? Hmmm... let's try...
Inspiderwiht
Polar Bear
TeeBuck
Montessori Journey and
Mommy Salad
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
A sick house today...
Dh and I are both sick today. When I saw this picture, it captured how I'm feeling - and our cat's habit of jumping up and getting comfy on my back at the most inopportune moments - perfectly.
see more crazy cat pics
I hope you're having a better day than we are!! *L*
see more crazy cat pics
I hope you're having a better day than we are!! *L*
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
When did Barbie (TM) become classy?
A couple of days ago, the kids and I were in a department store. Youngest likes dolls, so they soon wandered off to see the newest additions they're bringing in for Christmas. Shortly after, they came back to me and dragged me over in disbelief. There was a new Cher doll out - and it actually looked like Cher! What an amazing concept.
Now, when I was a kid, Barbie (TM) was the epitome of everything wrong with toys for girls. She was unrealistically formed, with gigantic breasts, minuscule waist, and deformed hips (though that, at least, could be blamed on the need to attach the movable legs). Then she had all that sexy clothing. She was also promoting a consumerist lifestyle, with houses and cars and toy boys (Ken's gone now, apparently). The list of all the terrible things Barbie (TM) taught our girls was quite long. Personally, as I kid, I hated dolls. I preferred interlocking bricks (no Lego (TM) back then - am I dating myself?), and cars - or better yet, running around outside and playing with sticks. Did you know that you could make a really neat whip that snapped most satisfyingly with a stick and some bale twine? But dolls? Nope. I sneered at those. They were "girl stuff" and I hated girl stuff, whether in toys, clothes or the behavior expected of me.
My kids are a lot more opened minded about such things than I was. *L* They were as comfortable playing with dolls as they were with their tool kits (they each had their own), play houses or cars. My only restrictions were with make up. No toy make up. That stuff is gross. If they were going to have make up, it would be the same stuff that's sold for grown ups.
So it's been interesting to see how they are responding to the dolls that are available to girls today. Barbie (TM) is now pretty much the most realistic, classy doll available right now! The latest Bratz (TM) dolls and their imitators now dominate the shelves, and the girls find them disgusting. The heads are gigantic and misshapen. The faces look deformed. The bodies make Barbie (TM) look realistic. Then there's the clothes and accessories - talk about skank!! They exude a sexiness that's crude, blatant and disturbing.
With what's on the market right now, I'm happy that Youngest prefers the elegant and beautiful Barbie (TM) and friends over the others that are available now.
Man, have things changed.
Now, when I was a kid, Barbie (TM) was the epitome of everything wrong with toys for girls. She was unrealistically formed, with gigantic breasts, minuscule waist, and deformed hips (though that, at least, could be blamed on the need to attach the movable legs). Then she had all that sexy clothing. She was also promoting a consumerist lifestyle, with houses and cars and toy boys (Ken's gone now, apparently). The list of all the terrible things Barbie (TM) taught our girls was quite long. Personally, as I kid, I hated dolls. I preferred interlocking bricks (no Lego (TM) back then - am I dating myself?), and cars - or better yet, running around outside and playing with sticks. Did you know that you could make a really neat whip that snapped most satisfyingly with a stick and some bale twine? But dolls? Nope. I sneered at those. They were "girl stuff" and I hated girl stuff, whether in toys, clothes or the behavior expected of me.
My kids are a lot more opened minded about such things than I was. *L* They were as comfortable playing with dolls as they were with their tool kits (they each had their own), play houses or cars. My only restrictions were with make up. No toy make up. That stuff is gross. If they were going to have make up, it would be the same stuff that's sold for grown ups.
So it's been interesting to see how they are responding to the dolls that are available to girls today. Barbie (TM) is now pretty much the most realistic, classy doll available right now! The latest Bratz (TM) dolls and their imitators now dominate the shelves, and the girls find them disgusting. The heads are gigantic and misshapen. The faces look deformed. The bodies make Barbie (TM) look realistic. Then there's the clothes and accessories - talk about skank!! They exude a sexiness that's crude, blatant and disturbing.
With what's on the market right now, I'm happy that Youngest prefers the elegant and beautiful Barbie (TM) and friends over the others that are available now.
Man, have things changed.
Monday, September 24, 2007
AAAAAAaaaahhhhh!!!!! My Eyes! They BURN!!
But it's self inflicted.
And it's supposed to get better.
You see, today I got a trial pair of contact lenses. I have never before tried contacts, though I've had people telling me for years that I would just love them if I would be willing to give them a try. Dh has had contacts on and off for years. I know plenty of other people who have them. I've seen them experience both the good things and the bad. Until now, I wasn't willing to put up with the bad.
Finally, though, I figured it was time for me to at least try them. If they don't work out, it's no loss, other than the ridiculous cost of getting new glasses, which I've been needing for a few years now. I just don't have half a grand or more lying around for something like that. Yeah, we've got insurance that'll cover 80%, but the company does it by reimbursal, so it's cash up front, first.
Things went well until it was time to actually put the things in. The first lens didn't work at all. It was for my right eye, and it kept flipping. The assistant thought it was behaving strangely, as though it were misshapen, so she got rid of it and found another for me to try. They didn't actually have one exactly like I needed, as I've got astigmatism in that eye, which needs a slightly different lens. The dr. is ordering the correct lens for me tomorrow. Until then...
It wasn't long before I could see the assistant helping me was getting really frustrated. I just couldn't get the lens in! You see, I can't open my eyes very wide. The lens is actually larger than I'm able to do so, even with yanking my lids apart with my fingers. I kept hitting my upper lid when I tried to put it in place, which would make me blink and out goes the lens. It took a while, but I did get it in, though not before my eye was all red and irritated. I actually ended up doing the one handed method, rather than using my other hand to hold open my top lid at the same time. It went in much easier that way, I found. I don't think it took too much longer than usual, though.
Then there was the left eye.
First, she had me trying to put the lens into my eye using my right hand, as I did for my right eye. I'm left handed, which I'd already told her. I kept positioning the lens too far out. She finally commented on it and wondered out loud why that was. I told her flat out, it's because I was using my right hand. Apparently most people, including left handers like me, still tend to do better using their right hand. So I switched hands, which solved the too-far-out problem, but I had an even harder time getting my eye open than with my right eye. I tried two handed and one handed, and it didn't make a difference. I'd have the thing on my eyeball, start moving my eye around to position it, only to blink the thing out repeatedly. At one point, I popped it out onto the carpet! Finally, because it was taking so long, I think, she was going to do it for me, so she could go on to showing me how to take them out.
Can you guess how that worked out?
Right. Not well at all.
Now, it's not like I've never had someone else poke around in my eyeball before. Usually my husband, trying to find and remove a loose eyelash I couldn't find on my own. You'd think that would've prepared me somewhat.
It didn't.
There she is, trying to put the lens in for me, and I'm feeling like someone's taking sandpaper to my eye. She's telling me to relax and not blink. Of course, as soon as she says "don't blink," what do I do? Yup. I'd blink. My whole face was practically spasming in my struggle to NOT blink and pull away - which I still ended up doing.
That experiment didn't last long.
Finally, she got me to try again myself. Eventually, I did get it in.
So there I am, wearing contacts on both eyes for the first time in my life, and what I want to do most at that moment is put on my glasses, so I could see properly! I felt like I just couldn't focus properly, even though my vision was actually clear. Meanwhile, my eyes felt like they were rubbed raw. I then got taken to another room so the dr. could check them and she asks me how I find them. How the heck do I answer that? Worse, I could barely read the eye test letters on the wall across the room, which I'd been able to read clearly with my glasses. I could make them out. I could even make out the row of smaller letters on the bottom she had me looking at, though it was mostly a combination of guessing based on shape, and remembering what they were from earlier. :-P
We're finally done and heading for home, and I'm having a heck of a time. I was actually starting to feel nauseous, like vertigo or seasickness, from not being able to focus properly. I was supposed to keep them in for 4-6 hours, but I only managed 3. The crazy thing is that, with my glasses back on, I *still* feel like I can't focus properly! That and my eyes are still burning like crazy.
I'm really hoping that'll be gone by morning. I'm supposed to wear these things from 6-8 hours tomorrow, and I'm going to be out most of the day.
I'm bringing the kit and my glasses along, just in case.
Time to go to bed now and give my eyes a chance to heal!
And it's supposed to get better.
You see, today I got a trial pair of contact lenses. I have never before tried contacts, though I've had people telling me for years that I would just love them if I would be willing to give them a try. Dh has had contacts on and off for years. I know plenty of other people who have them. I've seen them experience both the good things and the bad. Until now, I wasn't willing to put up with the bad.
Finally, though, I figured it was time for me to at least try them. If they don't work out, it's no loss, other than the ridiculous cost of getting new glasses, which I've been needing for a few years now. I just don't have half a grand or more lying around for something like that. Yeah, we've got insurance that'll cover 80%, but the company does it by reimbursal, so it's cash up front, first.
Things went well until it was time to actually put the things in. The first lens didn't work at all. It was for my right eye, and it kept flipping. The assistant thought it was behaving strangely, as though it were misshapen, so she got rid of it and found another for me to try. They didn't actually have one exactly like I needed, as I've got astigmatism in that eye, which needs a slightly different lens. The dr. is ordering the correct lens for me tomorrow. Until then...
It wasn't long before I could see the assistant helping me was getting really frustrated. I just couldn't get the lens in! You see, I can't open my eyes very wide. The lens is actually larger than I'm able to do so, even with yanking my lids apart with my fingers. I kept hitting my upper lid when I tried to put it in place, which would make me blink and out goes the lens. It took a while, but I did get it in, though not before my eye was all red and irritated. I actually ended up doing the one handed method, rather than using my other hand to hold open my top lid at the same time. It went in much easier that way, I found. I don't think it took too much longer than usual, though.
Then there was the left eye.
First, she had me trying to put the lens into my eye using my right hand, as I did for my right eye. I'm left handed, which I'd already told her. I kept positioning the lens too far out. She finally commented on it and wondered out loud why that was. I told her flat out, it's because I was using my right hand. Apparently most people, including left handers like me, still tend to do better using their right hand. So I switched hands, which solved the too-far-out problem, but I had an even harder time getting my eye open than with my right eye. I tried two handed and one handed, and it didn't make a difference. I'd have the thing on my eyeball, start moving my eye around to position it, only to blink the thing out repeatedly. At one point, I popped it out onto the carpet! Finally, because it was taking so long, I think, she was going to do it for me, so she could go on to showing me how to take them out.
Can you guess how that worked out?
Right. Not well at all.
Now, it's not like I've never had someone else poke around in my eyeball before. Usually my husband, trying to find and remove a loose eyelash I couldn't find on my own. You'd think that would've prepared me somewhat.
It didn't.
There she is, trying to put the lens in for me, and I'm feeling like someone's taking sandpaper to my eye. She's telling me to relax and not blink. Of course, as soon as she says "don't blink," what do I do? Yup. I'd blink. My whole face was practically spasming in my struggle to NOT blink and pull away - which I still ended up doing.
That experiment didn't last long.
Finally, she got me to try again myself. Eventually, I did get it in.
So there I am, wearing contacts on both eyes for the first time in my life, and what I want to do most at that moment is put on my glasses, so I could see properly! I felt like I just couldn't focus properly, even though my vision was actually clear. Meanwhile, my eyes felt like they were rubbed raw. I then got taken to another room so the dr. could check them and she asks me how I find them. How the heck do I answer that? Worse, I could barely read the eye test letters on the wall across the room, which I'd been able to read clearly with my glasses. I could make them out. I could even make out the row of smaller letters on the bottom she had me looking at, though it was mostly a combination of guessing based on shape, and remembering what they were from earlier. :-P
We're finally done and heading for home, and I'm having a heck of a time. I was actually starting to feel nauseous, like vertigo or seasickness, from not being able to focus properly. I was supposed to keep them in for 4-6 hours, but I only managed 3. The crazy thing is that, with my glasses back on, I *still* feel like I can't focus properly! That and my eyes are still burning like crazy.
I'm really hoping that'll be gone by morning. I'm supposed to wear these things from 6-8 hours tomorrow, and I'm going to be out most of the day.
I'm bringing the kit and my glasses along, just in case.
Time to go to bed now and give my eyes a chance to heal!
Thursday, August 30, 2007
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