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      Sunday, July 08, 2007


otherstuff
05:47 PM - 07/08/2007

The topic: Why won’t it play?

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Brian finally got the door handles on the Ranger fixed. Well, not so that you can put a lot of weight on them, but they’re not just hanging there like the old ones were.  He couldn’t find replacement handles, so he had to make some. He started on that project a couple of years ago and I just stopped driving the truck.

Well, now it looks much nicer and I’m back in it.   I turned on the stereo and it needed some major adjusting of the sound settings. That all done, I put in one of the compilation CDs I’ve burned.  Didn’t read.  This isn’t good. 

I come inside and get a factory burned disk.  Worked like a charm.  Tried one of the other compilations.  Nothing.  Tried another. Still nothing.  Used a laser cleaning. Still won’t play a burned disk, but has no problem with one from the factory.

Hey, maybe it’s just the disks burned on the computer.  Gonna try one burned on an audio burner.

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Woohoo!  It worked!  Yay!  I’m sure glad I never got rid of the CD burners I got for my audio system.  And I’ve still got all of the blank audio disks, too.  Just what I needed. Another project.  *lol*  Ah, well, I can do that while I work on my beading, right?


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otherstuff
05:16 PM - 07/08/2007

The topic: Alli

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I’m sure lots of you have heard about it.  Some may have even tried it.  Some would never try it because of the “side effects”.

I bought a starter pack the week it came out. And let me tell you about the side effects. If you don’t overindulge in fatty foods, there are none. 

The recommended limit on fat grams per meal, with Alli is 15 grams. That’s per meal. Since I’d already cut back on most fat in the diet, it wasn’t a problem.  Some sort of high fiber cereal consisting of dirt, sticks, grass and leaves for breakfast.  Lean Cuisines, Subway sandwiches or something from the local Mexican eatery for lunch. And since it’s been so hot, I’ve just been skipping dinner, maybe having a piece of fruit. And lots of water.

Last April, when I split out the ass in my largest pair of pants, I figured it was time to do something.  I’d vowed to never buy a larger size than I had on and the only alternative (besides wearing dresses or skirts or going naked) was to lose weight.  And that’s what I started to do.

I did pretty good to start, but in May, the sun was absent.  The clouds just hung around day after day.  My spirits took a nosedive.  I need the sun.  It’s a necessary part of my being.  They call it “May grey”.  I hoped we wouldn’t also get lots of “June gloom”.  The beaches get it more than we do inland, because of the marine layer. 

And I baked. And I ate what I baked.  I made dinners.  And I ate dinners.  And I gained back half of what I’d lost.

Then the sun came out. And it was good.  My spirits lifted, my resolve came back. And the weight loss was back within reach.  Then Alli came out for sale without a prescription.

Well, let me tell you, I like it.  Even when I don’t think I’m going to lose anything, I’m losing.  Maybe only two pounds a week, but that’s better than putting on two pounds a week.  And the Alli keeps you honest about what you’re eating. 

Because, once, just once, I got hit with the “side effects”.  We’d been shopping all morning and on the way home stopped at McDonalds. I got a Big N Tasty with cheese (22 grams of fat) and fries (20 grams of fat).  Then I took my Alli.

Felt great the rest of the day.  Fast forward to Sunday morning.  And my first visit to the bathroom. I just started laughing.  I told Brian I was seeing one of the “side effects” of the previous day’s lunch.  It wasn’t pretty.  I was glad I was at home.  And that pair of panties ended up in the trash.

But I haven’t had a burger since.  Nor have I had French fries.  I have had Subway sandwiches with avocado.  I have had bacon and eggs and potatoes fried in butter and buttered English muffins.  I’ve had cheese enchiladas and rolled tacos with guacamole.  I’ve had cheese pizza (I love cheese pizza). I’ve had Coldstone ice cream.  I’ve had Taco Bell taco supremes. And I’ve had no “side effects” from any of this.  I wonder if I’d just had the fries or just had the burger, what the result might have been. 

I’m not in a big hurry to find out.  And I guess, that’s the point of the Alli.

And, oh yeah, at Friday’s weigh in?  I was down sixteen pounds.


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otherstuff
04:49 PM - 07/08/2007

The topic: Unlimited long distance

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Okay, I’m not known for my lengthy phone conversations.  But one of the reasons is because we don’t have long distance.  We do have anytime minutes with our cell phone service and rollover minutes.  We’ve got over 3500 rollover minutes stored at this point.

So, last month I decide to get unlimited long distance.  I call Cox Communications, our current provider, on June 15th.  It would add $23.00 to our monthly bill, putting it at over $55 a month.  Hmm, that seems kind of pricey to me, so I do a search online.  (Google is my friend.)

AT&T has an online offer of unlimited long distance and thirteen features for forty bucks a month (hey, if you’re interested in trying this, wait until I get set up and you can use me as a reference and I’ll get a million bazillion dollars…well, maybe not that much, but I do get some sort of thank you from AT&T).  So, I sign up online.  Get to the last page and “we’re experiencing technical difficulties, please call….” and there’s a number.  I call.  She asks questions, I answer them.  She asks what number I’d like and gives me three or four choices.  Uh, no, I want the number I’m calling from right now.  Okay, that will take longer to set up because your current provider has to let us have it. 

No problem, our original service was with AT&T before we went to Cox.  So, it should be pretty simple, right?  I should be hearing something within the next week. As an additional bonus, since I’m switching from a cable company, we’ll be getting an additional ten dollars off a month. For five months.  Or was it ten?  I don’t care.  It was icing on the cake.

On the 23rd, I call AT&T.  “Hey, what’s the status on this?  I haven’t heard anything.”  The guy looks up the records, shows nothing for this phone number.  I give him the confirmation number I was given when I signed up.  He looks it up. Shows a different phone number.  He’s at a loss, says he’s going to transfer me to a supervisor.  Okay, whatever ya have to do.  I just want to get this set up.

I speak with the supervisor and she asks “well, what’s this phone number?” and rattles off the number on the account.

blank

Beats me.  I have no idea.  I tell her I wanted the account set up with our current number.   I give it to her.  I don’t understand why she asked, but she seemed surprised when I told her that number works.  I told her “I’m calling you on it right now.”  So, she goes ahead and sets up a new account and gives me a new confirmation number.  “You should be hearing something from us within the next four or five days.”

When I hadn’t heard anything by the 28th, I called again.  Gave the same information.  Was told “that’s set up for the 5th of July”.  Yay!

Guess what?  No one showed up.  I call.  I tell my long sad story again.  And the woman I spoke with told me the problem was that Cox wasn’t responding to their requests and that she’d put an expedite on it.  And that I should hear from AT&T in twenty four to forty eight hours.  And I did.  Within twenty four hours, I got the message that there will be someone out here on Tuesday, the 10th to do the switchover.

Woohoo!  Unlimited long distance!  Woohoo!

Anybody in the U.S. want a wake up call from lisaviolet?  Won’t cost me a cent!

yippee


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04:38 PM - 07/08/2007

The topic: Feline asthma

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Rory started having signs of the hard breathing again this past week.  What I don’t understand is why she gets so much more active when her breathing is so much harder.  Same thing when I first took her in for this earlier this year.

She waits until late at night and starts rough housing with her brother or bringing her feather boa on a stick into bed at night, fighting with it, dropping it off the edge of the bed, retrieving it and bringing it back to bed (until I grab it and stick it under my pillow).  If she can’t find her FBOAS, she’ll find one of the many rattling mice and bring that into bed and play with it (until I grab it and stick it under my pillow;  under my pillow is a fun place to look each morning).

The vet had warned me that spring and fall would be bad times for her, I think the heat we had this past week was pretty hard, too.  Record temperatures in much of Southern California. 

Friday, I call the vet’s office to recheck the instructions on the meds she’s supposed to be given for a flare up.  I say “yeah, she’s got pred and Brethine, what do I give her?”  Amber checks and comes back “give her the just the Brethine.”  Ah, yes, now I remember, if the Brethine alone doesn’t help, then she gets the course of pred.  I thank her and hang up.  Then I call right back.

When she answers, I don’t identify myself I just say “for how long?”  She starts laughing, says “let me go ask.”  A week.  She’s supposed to be on Brethine for a week.

Let’s hope this helps.  I really would like to not have to give her prednisone.


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lisaviolet is seventy something, married with no kids, takes care of lots of cats, likes taking photographs, loves Southern California weather and spends altogether too much time avoiding her responsibilities.

In her spare time, she makes pretty things to sell in her store.

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