Whew!

The man made it through another cancer screening with flying colors. Hooray!!! He's super happy today...me too  :-)

non-consequential things

Have you ever wondered why you get brain freeze?

So what actually causes brain freeze? Researchers suggest it is a combination of your body's overreaction to cold stimuli, freezing of a cluster of nerves above the palate and a sudden influx of warm blood to the brain. Eating all of that ice cream or slushy drink too quickly didn't help matters, either. In fact, it was the initial contact between the cold food and the roof of your mouth which set all of this brain freeze activity in motion.


When you took an extra large bite of ice cream, some of it reached the roof of your mouth, also known as the hard palate. Behind this hard palate lies a cluster of nerves which act as a protective thermostat of sorts for your brain. The main nerve is called the sphenopalatine nerve, and it's extremely sensitive to abrupt changes in temperature. Once the ice cream or other frozen food causes the sphenopalatine nerve to cool down, it sends out a warning to the other nerves in the cluster. Essentially, your brain has now been told to expect a major freeze, so it had better prepare itself.

While all of these blood vessels are busy shrinking and reopening with warm blood, the nerves are also contributing to the pain of brain freeze. The pain receptors near the sphenopalatine nerve cluster sense the freezing of the palate, but the pain itself is referred to another area deeper in the skull. This is why you feel brain freeze deep inside your head and not in the roof of your mouth.

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Have you ever wondered why your fingers and toes wrinkle when they're wet?

If you find yourself wearing flip-flops around a pool this weekend, consider this: You may already come equipped with skid-resistant footwear, thanks to evolution. New research suggests that our toes and fingers prune up when they're exposed to water because that temporarily gives us the equivalent of treaded all-weather tires.

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Here's the link to an article I wanted to say something about;

http://beta.news.yahoo.com/no-him-her-preschool-fights-gender-bias-122541829.html

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I saw this on Suzy Toronto's website ~ soooo cute;

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There is a couple who started dating on 06-07-08. So they decided that they're going to get married on 09-10-11, at 12:13 pm. That's pretty creative :-)

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And last but not least, did you see these pictures of the Yellow Sea, in China? There are 200 square miles covered in green algae. ewwwww!

how hot is it?

Real hot.
SUPER hot.
Damn hot.
OMG hot.
Too hot for coffee in the morning.
Hotter than hades hot.

The heat index (w/humidity) is going to reach 105 to 116. Booooooooooo. To top it off, it appears that all the rain we got last spring was it for the rest of the year! Everything is brown and/or dying. Even in the posh neighborhoods. It sucks.

So what do you do when it's that hot out? We'll probably work on some finishing touches in the bathroom. We still need to get a shower head. Tomorrow night, Mom and I are taking the man to his new favorite sushi place for dinner. Sunday we're going to Harry Potter. Plus, there's lots of quilling to do!! And I still have movies on the DVR to watch. I'm actually looking forward to a nice weekend indoors :-)

Bee cool everybody!

lets celebrate!!!

TODAY IS NATIONAL JUNK FOOD DAY!!!!

:-)

I wanna know...

...what love is...
No I'm just kidding. But that song just popped into my head when I was typing the title.

I wanna know, when you (a woman) get dressed in the morning, do you look at yourself? Now, I don't want to pick on women, seeing as I am one, but c'mon ladies! I see some pretty 'not ready for prime time' garb when I'm out and about. For instance, when you try on a skirt that's above the knee and has a slit in the back, do you ever turn around and look at your back side in the mirror? You know what I'm talking about. You've seen them, those skirts with slit that stops right below your butt. Ewwww. And if you're overweight, don't even bother trying those on!!! We don't want to see your ass. There's nothing professional about your attire unless you're a street walker! And speaking of, isn't it ridiculous that our work dress code actually has to tell us not to expose our midriffs or too much of our breasts or thighs in the workplace? It's amazing how many women come to work dressed like they're going to a club.

The other thing that I wonder about is your tote bag(s). When I'm walking into work in the morning, I see women with a purse and a cute little insulated lunch bag. But then I see A LOT of women with a huge purse, a cute little insulated lunch bag and a tote bag. And sometimes TWO tote bags. I carry a lot of crap in my purse but seriously, what in the world are you carrying around with you?? To work??? I don't mean your gym clothes either. I was kind of a tomboy growing up and definitely not a girly girl so I just don't get it. I don't even carry a brush or a make up bag in my purse. But I do have a pocket knife, a tape measure, a great little multi tool thingy and a flashlight ;-)

hooray!

We have a bathroom! 3 years after we (he) started, but what the heck. It's almost finished now :-)

stuff in my phone...

I snap a lot of pictures with my phone...
There's a canal downtown that's really a nice walk. It goes for miles. Angela and I have walked about 3 miles at lunch. But usually it's the shorter version. This is the canal during St. Patty's day when they dye it green;

This is on the shorter version of the canal walk;

One day I happen to notice something kind of odd. In several places along the canal, I saw these;

They're just pieces of wood with hooks on one end, attached to hooks that have been drilled into the side of the canal. Every day I wondered what they were for. For almost a week it puzzled me. Then I realized...they're there for the ducklings that swim in the canal. They're too small to hop out of the canal so they put these ramps in. I thought that was cool.

This is our street, last winter during the big snow;



And this is a REALLY big stuffed bear!

And here's one of the girls being cute;

They LOVE the big stuffed toys. I think it helps make them feel like BIG dogs :-)

Todays happy thoughts...

I love UP! Russell was the best!

 Mmmmmm, potatoes

sunshine and blue skies and low humidity

 YumO

Every single thing about Hugh Jackman is fantastic!

(hey, it's MY blog)

Yeah I know, it's not Easter. Still...

Yeah I know, it's not Halloween. Still...

This is what I've got going on MP3 player right now. It's kinda nice.

Uh huh, that's right...it's MY blog :-)

Oh, and the man is off work this afternoon so he's going to install the new toilette AND move the vanity in!!! Woohoo!

tile schmile

Good grief. OK, so we went back to Lowe's and complained about the tile grout and the helper chick said, "did it lighten up?" Yeah, you could say that. So she recommended an acid cleaner and stiff brush. Ummm, OK, I'm game. Bright and early Saturday morning I started the arduous task of cleaning out the holes in the tile. After an hour and 3 tiles I said, out loud, loudly, screw this! And back to Lowe's we went. I got grout colorant, which is what I wanted to begin with. Saturday night I was back in the bathroom on my hands and knees coloring the grout lines and speckles. It was A LOT more work than I anticipated and I like to color! I didn't get it finished until Sunday afternoon. The end result makes me happy though.

This is how it was supposed to look -

This is how it dried -

This is colored -

Now we can move on to the vanity and toilet! YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

ooooooo, ahhhhhhh

That's the view from our sun room. There's a big empty space behind our house so we can see the sunset every night.

Now they are building homes behind us :-(  We're REALLY going to miss this view.

so accomplished!

What a great weekend. We got so much done! The bathroom tile is completely grouted and cleaned up now. However...I picked a colored grout, that would go with the tile. Only the real stuff, versus the sample in the store, came out much lighter. I hate it. Soooooo, we're going back to Lowe's to buy some grout stain. It'll be fine but it was very disappointing.

We also got all the yard work done and all the weeds pulled.

Next, I'm finished with the BIG quilled picture!!!! Woohoo! It's taken me 8 months. I can't wait to move on to the next one :-) Only the next won't be so big. This one is 20x30. I think the next one will only be 11x14.

Pity party

Yes, I have my own pity parties too. I had a pretty good one yesterday.

After my appointment with the ENT, I went to Vera Bradley store and bought myself a super cute tote bag. I'm not actually a Vera Bradley fan, but I really like this print. I liked it even more yesterday when I was feeling sorry for myself.

Cute huh?! And I came THIS close to getting a second one because I had trouble deciding which print I liked better. This is the other one...

In the end, I decided to not to get the 2nd one and go over to DSW instead! Then I went home and had a glass of wine and a nap.

Today is a new day and I feel better. I'm looking forward to doing MY part in the bathroom this weekend and getting the tile grouted. Then I'm looking forward to motivating the man to do HIS part and installing the new vanity and sink. Hey, it could happen!

Also, there's the local Independence day fair and ELEPHANT EARS!!! And fireworks too! What could be better :-)

Bee safe everybody!