I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

1Athena1

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our esteemed thread leader!

crazy4carrots

Happy Belated Birthday Greetings dear Blue!

3monstmama

Belated Happy Birthday Blue!  Hope it was splendid.

Wait!  I just remembered!  In our family we celebrate the month of your birthday.  So your celebration should have started yesterday and must carry on for the next month!

Have a great celebration!

rosemary-b

Woo hoo anybody out there?

We all seem to be posting less. Sigh...

Orac's blog moved and changed formats yesterday. There are a lot of familiar complaints there.

208sandy

Hi Rosemary - didn't want you to feel all alone out there.  I am posting less but lurking more...

Sandy

Bren-2007

Hi Rosemary and Sandy!

It is quiet around here these days.  Wonder where everybody went.

It's been overcast and humid all day ... too damp out to mow.  I haven't had any ticks since I started spraying my pants with tick repellant.

Rosemary .. Who is Orac?

Hope everyone is doing well,

hugs,

Bren

rosemary-b

Orac is the nom de blog of a breast surgeon who writes a blog called "Respectful Insolence". It is very pro science based medicine and antiwoo.

I did yard work for about two hours today. Then the allergies got to me. I took a hot bath, changed my clothes and took a nap. I am supposed to work half a day tomorrow and am trying to figure out how to stay home all day. Work all day Friday? Maybe.

jancie

Another one here just lurking more than anything.  I don't mind the new format so much other than my eyes get so flipping tired after about 10 minutes.  I guess I am getting used to doing things differently.

Yesterday I went to the barn and rode my horse.  Today I spent 5 hours clearing out my two flower beds in the front yard of overgrown grass and weeds.  It was the perfect day - sun shining - no breeze and about 55 degrees all day.  I should have done this a month ago but couldn't bring myself to doing it as I really hate yard work.

Learning to sew - made one dress and am working on a 2nd one.  I bought some beautiful fabric to make a long sun dress for our trip to Florida.

Anybody here in the Destin area?

Anybody hear from Blue?

YramAL

Jancie- I am not from Destin, but I visited there last summer. The beach is beautiful, and there are some great restaurants there. Is that where you are going?

Mary 

jancie

Mary - my BIL lives in Destin and my FIL lives in Santa Rosa Beach.  We will be going for 2 weeks in the freaking heat of the summer and neither one of them has a pool!

My BIL lives 200 yards from the beach - his house was actually beach front property when he bought his land 25 years ago but then the big hotels bought up the land in front of him and so now he has a view of the huge hotels along the beach.  There is a cluster of 6 houses together amongst the huge hotels.  It really is sad what happened.

My niece is stationed at Pensocola Naval Air Base so we will also be visiting her while we are there.

The last time we went was just last December and the weather was perfect.  Unfortunately dh can't take off again in November or December and this was the best time for him to take off of work.

I think I will have to hibernate inside during the day.

YramAL

We stayed in a condo down by the Backporch restaurant. I remember thinking it very odd that there were some apparently abandoned condos right on the beach. Their roofs were starting to fall in and a lot of the windows were broken. Why would someone abandon waterfront homes?? That's terrible what happened to your BIL.

Have you been to the original Dewey Destin's? The fish place that's down a dirt road and out on a pier. I had softshell crabs there. Yum.

Mary 

jancie

Mary - I figured all of the empty condos in December were due to people having them as second homes and visiting in the summer.  The beach was pretty much empty in December which was nice.  I expect it will be a zoo in June.

I am sure my BIL knows all about Dewey Destins but I don't like seafood so my dh and I haven't eaten there.

My BIL goes to a fish market in Pensacola to get his seafood - this place has been around for years and years and is well known.  I just don't remember the name of it.

rosemary-b

Oh crap

My sister in law has multiple myeloma. I just found out. I think it is a really bad cancer.

jancie

((((Rosemary and Sister))))))

rosemary-b

I really do hate cancer. I consulted Dr. Google and it is a bad one. Damn it. F*#$@#$ cancer.

kad2kar

Rosemary------Hugs and Prayers!!!-----kad2kar

rosemary-b

Thnks

I found out through the family grape vine. I realy can't talk to her about it until she tells me.

Bren-2007

Well .. I spoke too soon.  I found a tick stuck to my ankle this morning.  SOB wouldn't come out.  I tried using tweasers and rubbing alcohol but could only get half of the thing out.  Tim will be home later today and maybe he will have better luck getting the rest of the tick out of me.  I hate ticks.  And snakes ... and there are way too many of both of them this year.

Just got back from Sam's Club in Roanoke.  My sis treated us to a bunch of groceries and some gorgeous steaks.  Yum!

Rosemary .. I am so sorry to hear about your SIL.  I will keep both of you in my thoughts.

hugs to all,

Bren

jancie

Bren - what we did years ago was put some olive oil on the tick as it would sufficate and have to release to get air.  You might want to try that.

After spending 5 hours pulling weeds and 2' tall grass out of two flower beds yesterday I went to Home Depot this morning and bought flowers and planted those.  DH is going to be so happy with me!

I also bought 2 sweet basil plants and will put those in tomorrow along with some tomatoe plants in the other flower bed.  I can't grow vegetables in the back of the house as the dogs will eat them.

Bren-2007

Jancie .. your garden sounds beautiful.  The deer eat the vegetables if I plant them, so this year I'm not growing any food.  Those silly deer even got into my begonias the other day.  I'm going to miss fresh tomatoes!

Tim will be home later today, so it seems like Friday to me.  What is everyone doing for the long holiday weekend?

hugs,

Bren

otter

I thought dogs were carnivores!  That's what we get, for allowing them to watch all those yuppie dog food commercials on TV.

dang it, rosemary -- I am so sorry to hear about your sister-in-law's dx.  There are drugs to treat multiple myeloma, and it can be fought back into remission for a good long time.  It sux, though, no doubt about it.

Bren, you're supposed to pull out the whole tick. (Obviously.)  I think that's why I've heard admonitions against using a tweezer -- it's too easy to tear 'em apart.  Once you pinch the little monster with a tweezer, it's not likely to be encouraged to let go. A slow, steady, gentle pull without much squeezing, and its mouthparts (jaws) get tired.  Or, so I've been told...  

otter

 

Marple

I got one of these the other day.  I hope I never have to use it.  It's supposed to aid with removal of the little critter in one piece.

otter

ALERT! ALERT!

So much for believing what I thought I'd been told.  I did a quick Google search for "tick removal," and the number-one method recommended by nearly every source was... a fine-tipped tweezer.  The key is to tweeze the tick way down by the skin, and then to pull gently and steadily, without twisting.  I guess.

The method recommended by the CDC:  http://www.cdc.gov/ticks/removing_a_tick.html

The method recommended by Drs. Foster and Smith, as applicable to pets but which ought to work for their owners (IMHO):  http://www.drsfostersmith.com/pic/article.cfm?aid=62

The method recommended by the NIH via their "NLM" site:  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/007211.htm

The method recommended in an article published in the journal of the American Academy of Family Physicians:  http://www.aafp.org/afp/2002/0815/p643.html  (Be sure to look at the pics, which show simulated removal of a simulated tick.  Yeah, right.)

And finally, a really interesting but somewhat gross research paper out of The Ohio State University, looking at the effectiveness of different methods of tick removal.  They used rabbits as subjects, so if you're against using animals in biomedical research, don't go there:  http://www.biosci.ohio-state.edu/~acarolog/needham/tickgone.htm

otter

rosemary-b

Wel...l...l... at least they didn't use otters.

suzieq60

The one time I got a tick, I went to the doctor - do it Bren.

Had to move desks the other day - now on the new project which runs until next April. I'm the only female, so the smell of testosterone is quite strong. I have my little Chinese boy with me. I've been mentoring him for some time now, so they sent him with me. I couldn't find him the other day and here he was clearing the desks we were moving to and cleaning them. After we moved my stuff he cleaned my old desk for me - what a sweetie.

Sad news Rosemary (((((((((((HUGS)))))))))))

gardengumby

otter - dogs are omnivores (like bears) - cats are carnivores...    at least so I was told by my biology teachers way back when....

I'm going to try to never get a tick on me - all of it looks completely disgusting.

We planted zucchini and tomatoes this year.  That's it.  The tomatoes are thriving and the zucchini's are struggling, so we'll see what we actually get in food.  No deer problems, but plenty of bunny rabbits around.

For memorial weekend I'm having a one-day garage sale to try to get rid of some stuff.  My husband has threatened me with dis-memberment if I bring anything home as we're trying to get rid of STUFF.  Everywhere I look is STUFF.  We promised each other that anything that doesn't sell goes immediately to the GoodWill.

otter

Otters bite. [ETA:  That was in reference to Rosemary's comment on the previous page.]

Marple

LMBO @ Rosemary's comment.

rosemary-b

Re otter's comment: I would to.

riley702

I just took three garbage bags of clothes to Goodwill today. Yeesh. I even found a few non-mastectomy bras I hadn't even realized were still around, although those went into the trash. I'm currently done for the moment with the weeds and flowers and am caught up on laundry. Whee! Must be the new sleeping pill (Lunesta). I've never been a morning person, but I've been up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, although peak productivity is still after noon. Still. I've been very productive this week and am still really wanting to do the spring cleaning thing. Tomorrow, my youngest niece graduates from high school and will be having an open-house party at my brother's in lieu of going out and howling at the moon like we did when we were her age.  Then I go back to work for the weekend.