JustLisa

I'm trying very hard to devote one hour every day to weight lifting and walking. Still not losing any weight but am seeing muscle definition in my arms. I'm thinking about bumping this up to two hours a day which would mean getting up even earlier than the butt crack of dawn. That seems ridiculous to me but for whatever reason, my body is not cooperating. A lot of people insist it's because I do not eat enough and my body is holding onto what it thinks it's going to need. Maybe I need to get up an extra hour early to eat more. Ha. Seriously aggravating as I was skin on bones skinny 37 of my 40 years. I'd like to be somewhere in the middle. Wouldn't we all??

If you are looking for aftermarket car accessories, Yo Car sells interior and exterior accessories and performance parts to pimp your ride. When I first saw the site, I got excited about the installation videos. That is one of things we often use the internet for; looking up how to instructions and diagrams. Must haves for the do it yourself crowd.

The site is still growing so they don't actually have any videos up yet but that will be a very helpful feature for their customers when it's up and running. Ohhhh, they also have a blog with entries containing nice pictures and more detailed descriptions.

My aunt Dolly passed away this week. She was the last of my grandmother's siblings so that generation of my family is now gone. It seems strange to think about. I remember spending a lot of time with my great aunt when I was younger. I guess that is the same situation Christopher is in right now with my aunt. They spend a lot of time together fishing and road tripping to Walmart or great grandpa's farm. I hope he is paying attention so that he can cherish the memories when he is older.

My aunt and her husband have sold antiques for as long as I can remember. They lived in two homes that I know of and both were exquisitely decorated with antiques that she liked too well to part with. When I was really little I thought they were so rich because they had a dining room table that stretched forever and the most regal looking chairs. The chairs at each end were particularly fancy and I always wanted to eat in that dining room. I don't think we ever did. Instead food was eaten in the kitchen at a marble topped soda fountain sort of table that my mom really liked. I thought it was just a silly, simple little table. My taste has always ran more towards extravagant.

My uncle called me Liza Jane when I was small and it just drove me crazy. I would cringe as I made my way up the walk, hoping desperately with every step that he would say "Lisa!!" but every time he'd holler "Well look Dolls, it's Lizaaa Jane!!" and I thought he must be so dumb. Now I think back and laugh. I bet she scolded him after we left for teasing me. I can just hear her saying "Dad! You shouldn't pick on her like that!" As I grew older, he stopped doing that and started being very serious with me. In recent years, he would talk about their lives as if they were about over and always said there was nothing more they wanted at the end stage of their lives than to have the younger family come for visits.

Emily loved to go to their house and listen to my aunt talk. She had a voice very much like Katherine Hepburn and dark brown eyes that would just snap if she was getting fired up. There was a fellow who came to the shop often and tried to talk my uncle down on his prices or make a crazy trade. She called him "the weasel" and if she had a story to tell about him, her eyes would change and she'd end each sentence with a firm jaw, forehead locked in a frown and she'd shake her head. I was always thankful she never got mad at me.

I am glad I have these memories but once again I am wishing I'd have taken more time to be with her when she was alive.

Aunt Rosetta, I know you will read this and probably cry a little. I wish you lived closer so I could see you more often but I think you know I love you soooo very much. Consider yourself hugged from afar. Maybe as you recollect your memories, you could email them to me. I love those stories!

Christopher pretty much refuses to go funerals or visitations as he hates to see sad people. I asked him last night if he would go with me to visitation and he said "Mom. No. You know I don't do that." Later I heard him on the phone with my mom, "Grandma, I don't like those things and you know that."

Emily had initially said she wasn't going because she didn't want to cry so I was prepared to go alone. A last minute change of heart from Emily had me scrambling to make time to pick her up but I was so glad she decided to go. When we got to the funeral home, I sat by my uncle and explained that C. just couldn't bring himself to come. He kinda nodded and said "It's a good thing he didn't see her in the end. She had to go through Hell to find her peace. Yes, she did and it's good he didn't see that. She looks good now. Almost smiling. Looks better than the last time he saw her."

Later I was up front with my mom and I saw Todd in the back entry way, signing the book and talking to the funeral director. That was shocking enough as he doesn't do funeral home things either. Dragging reluctantly behind him was my kid. I walked over to my uncle with him and said "Look who decided to come after all." and my uncle hugged him and said "You wouldn't let me go through this without you, would you? No sir, I knew you wouldn't." C. just about lost it when he told him he needed to go up there and get a long, hard look at her because she looked good and that would be the last time he'd ever lay eyes on her.

When we got ready to leave, C. wanted to go say one more thing so I kind of hung back as he made his way through the people. I heard him ask "What are you doing Sunday?" and my uncle said "Well, I've not given it a lot of thought I guess. What are you doing Sunday?" and C. said "I think we should go fishing." My uncle immediately started telling the people around him that he had a fishing buddy for Sunday, by God.

His teenage years are already driving me crazy but really, how cool is that?

I've been spending time in the evenings trying to plan a vacation to the yet-to-be determined destination. I was looking at a new driving directions site that has public transportation best routes and walking directions. Unfortunately, it does not cover any of our potential destinations but just for fun, I plugged in our Boston office address to my boss' laundromat/dryclean business and it mapped out a walking route for me.

I also tried the bus route and subway route. On the walking and bus routes, I could choose shopping, dining or nearby attractions which brings up a page of those. That is really cool. If I walked from the office to the laundro, I could stop at Boston Lobsters and you can bet I would!

For the bus or driving, it shows traffic alerts along the route. There is a backup on one of the freeways and traffic is going 10MPH. My boss could use that information when he goes out to clients. So far it only covers 14 major US cities and also has London, England.

As the time draws near for our vacation, it's becoming apparent we won't be able to go far. Todd only gets a week off and I may need my vacation time for hand surgery. (I hope not!!) We all agree it needs to be somewhere with a cabin and probably mountains. Water is necessary be it a river or lake. Must have pool table and ping pong for the kids. My only big requirement is that it have either a porch with a swing or a hammock in the trees. Todd has no requirements I guess. He prefers to vacation without kids since we never get time alone. I won't vacation without my babies so he just has to deal. ha! Maybe next year just he and I can get up the guts to fly somewhere.

Another thing on the list to show the boss would be online backup. When your business is data, as our business is, you have to protect it as the data is your most important asset I feel better when we have our files backed up at least two ways.

iDrive is an online network drive whereby your online backup area appears as a local network drive. This allows for drag and drop of files you want to copy to your online storage. That level of convenience and ease of use is what sells me. In our busy environment, I would be less likely to stop my work, make an FTP connection and transfer files. Dragging and dropping I would definitely do.

iDrive also features transfer resume on temporary disconnects. This wouldn't be an issue on our T1 at work but would be handy for home users who experience temporary drops. At $99.50 per year for 5GB of data, this would be a tremendous value for the home user who keeps financial records or family photos that would be forever lost in the event of a virus or hard drive failure.

They make use of open file technology so files in use are also backed up. This is very important on the business level. I fought that some last week when transferring data that was being used.

Security is a non-issue as all transfer uses 128 bit encryption. According to the site, "Periodic third party scans and audits are carried out to test the integrity of the infrastructure and applications."

That same weather system that leveled Greenburg, Kansas has also been wreaking havoc in Iowa. I was up at 5AM watching the weather ticker as it said our county should stay away from windows as high winds had flattened a barn in our area. The only injury I received was from holding the cat when lightning hit our transformer and the electricity went out. If you are holding a cat during a violent storm, they will use you as a launch pad when lightning hits. My belly button is peirced now.

Anywayyyyy, Todd noticed later this morning that our ceiling was leaking in the living room. It takes torrential rains blowing out of just the right direction to make this happen so we patch the fireplace chimney and cannot tell if it fixed it until years later when the right elements line up again. Well, it's not fixed and as a result, one of the moose got wet. (We've had moose on extended stay from Alaska and they sit in the living room watching all the goings on.)

I don't know what happens to rain soaked moose in Alaska, but in Iowa, we bathe them in Woolite.

We finally locked in our vacation so I'm working on bookkeeping items this morning to make sure I have sufficient funds for the journey. Ironically, as I am cursing under my breath, trying to download transactions from my bank account, I came across a posting for quickbooks accounting.

Anyone who has known me for longer than ten minutes knows that I despise money and suck at math. I completely rely on software and online banking to keep somewhat normal looking books. When the online banking isn't working, like today, I am fit to be tied. It would be nice to have someone take care of this for me. On their "why us" page, they say "We basically want you to outsource your headaches to us!" AMEN! I'd love to give this headache to them.

I was looking at their payroll services and was a little confused about how full service could cost less than self service then realized that they reference the full service cost per month and the self service as per pay period. Still at $3 per month per pay period, that's a bargain if you don't have the time or patience for monetary matters.

Every time I hear about rising gas prices, I just want to cry. As I said earlier, we did lock in our vacation and it's going to make things very tight. We discussed details today such as how we will pack food in the cooler rather than eating on the road. If gas prices go up too far, we may have to ration how much we eat.

Anyone have good advice for saving money on vacation? We already have most of our lodging reserved. I think I will throw out the idea of taking a tent so we can camp two nights as we make our way down and back. Dont know if there will be room for camping gear if we have to take food. bleh. Some day I want to have enough money that I can just plan without stress.

In related news, I am going to keep the house about ten degrees warmer this summer and start shutting down all the office equipment at night. That will be aggravating in the mornings since I don't have patience for machines to come up. It will be worth it in the long run. Not only will I save money but I will reduce our carbon footprint.

I don't much about marketing in general but I've had to learn the basics of customer relationship management and how that ties to a company's web presence - specifically, site visitors signing up at a website and what to do with the information that is collected in that process.

AIMPromote automates the behind the scenes tasks of lead management such as setting up triggers and running jobs based on the triggers. This cuts down on administrative time for an employee charged with tracking leads. They also have campaign and visitor tracking to track how users go through your site and if your sales technique to attract them to your site actually resulted in a sale.

We've now had four night of storms and rain. The rain is incredible and really hurting the farmers who need to be in the fields right now. Actually, I think most farmers are generally done with planting by this time.

We went around the lake last night where the water continues to rise. 15 years ago, the lake was out of it's banks and Christopher was conceived. There was still water everywhere when he was born the next summer. I hope we aren't setting up for a repeat of that... neither the water everywhere or a new baby are wanted 'round here. Unless it's a visiting baby who leaves. heh.

So I'm taking a break from important stuff, like chasing the dog out of the mud and have started reading about how Atlantis Was a Real Place, the Americas as per the following press release.

Press Release
Atlantis Was a Real Place, the Americas

The kingdom of Atlantis included North, South, and Central America. It was divided into ten countries or kingdoms and each country had its own King. One of the kingdoms was also called Atlantis. The King of Atlantis was the ruler over the other nine Kingdoms. The first ruler of the Kingdom was called Atlas. This is how Atlantis got its name.

The royal city of the kingdom was located within the country of Atlantis. Within the royal city there was a royal palace. Originally, three different moats surrounded the royal palace. Plato referred to the moat formation as three zones of water and two zones of land.

As time went by they covered over the moats and cut three canals through the peninsula on which the royal palace was located. The construction of the canals divided the peninsula and formed two triangular shaped islands. The island that held the royal palace was called Atlantis. That is why Atlantis is referred to as a continent, and city, and an island.

Read the short version of Plato’s story at www.atlantiskingdom.com to learn more about Atlantis and the Americas. Then read Plato’s Timaeus and Critias to get the complete story.

I have matched the terrain features that Plato wrote about with present terrain features found in the Tampa Bay area. Research shows that Plato described Harbour Island as the small island of Atlantis. You will find that Plato recorded and published the story just as it was told. He even recorded the discussions leading up to the story. You will also notice several obvious mistakes made in translating the story from Egyptian to Greek and from Greek to English. The biggest mistake occurred when travelers came upon a shoal of mud and thought it was left over from the sunken island. They were wrong. The continent of Atlantis did not sink.

You are invited to review the facts to see for yourself that the Americas, from South America to Alaska were once the kingdom of Atlantis, a single nation. The land formation is still laid out the same as it was over 11,000 years ago. It is best viewed from the air. See image.

Source: Dennis Brooks
www.atlantiskingdom.com

Now personally I believe that all the continents used to be one giant land mass that became separated over the centuries due to floods (don't get me started on the flooding!) and plate shift near the earth's core. Not sure I buy this Atlantis theory though.

Some of the research is very interesting, particulary the Bimini Road findings. After seeing the destruction that less than an hour of bad weather can cause, I am willing to believe almost anything. I read that Tampa, Florida may have been the former city of Atlantis and I'd think they would have found a lot of evidence of a prior existence when building the city of Tampa. In Iowa, they are constantly finding fossils from thousands of years ago every time they excavate for new roadways. Maybe they don't dig deep in Florida due to the water table.

I've not studied much about Plato or his writings so this is all pretty new to me. It's an interesting concept for sure and one that will give people something to discuss for years to come.

I saw a hand specialist last week who said I needed very concentrated therapy to regain mobility, strength and coordination in my hand and finger again. He promised it would be incredibly painful and prescribed vicodin to be taken right before each session. Tonight was session one of six and he did not lie. It hurt very, very much but I was able to breathe through it with the help of only one vicodin rather than two. I have to continue working with my hand in between sessions with the pros. For this I will probably need two vicodin to get over the pain and the fact that I know when it's coming since I'm doing it to myself. I really don't have patience for this crap.

I remember in high school we did a project where we pretended to trade stocks. It was like math and I sucked. I didn't understand it and still don't. What is intraday options strategy? My friend Kurt would know but if you are like me, you probably don't have a clue. I didn't even know what OEX meant until I looked it up. It's the ticker symbol for the Standard & Poor 100. Still confused? I am.

The OEX Options site does a good job of explaining the overall gist of stock trading by comparing stocks to fruit and you to a fruit vendor. You want the best fruit and you want to sell it for as high a price as possible. They also have other teaching articles that go into more depth about blue chip stock, profits and losses, etc. If you subscribe to OEX Options, you get notifications alerting you to the best trades as well as teaching the hows and the whys of being a better stock trader.

Nine days left of school. Twenty until vacation. I am so excited and determined to have a really good time.

Taking a lunch break and a moment to remind people why I love blog advertising. I did lose some readers and had a handful of complaints when I started doing PayPerPost but as I've said before, you do what you have to do. I try to keep our medical stuff separate from everything else which means paying for the orthodontist and the toe out of a different pot of money. This works really well as it allows us to do things like take a short family vacation.

Problem was I was tapped out and when Julie turned me on to PPP, I thought what a great idea. I don't need to make a living from it. I just need to bring in that bit of extra a month to pay things that aren't on the budget. Who budgets for a broken toe or my stupid finger? (Yes! STILL with the finger!!)

It's worked out great so far. I'm in my sixth month of doing it and have made a little over $500. Put some of that back to pay the tax man, donate every tenth opportunity to Habitat for Humanity and it leaves enough to fill in the gap. Sometimes I wish I was able to take the bigger money opportunities but then I am reminded that I have what I need. If you need more and have a high traffic site, it's a good way use what you already have to make some bucks.

The weather has been so great that I have been able to use the trail again early in the morning to run. I lost a lot over the winter and my much older knees are protesting loudly. I don't push too hard due to a fear of pulling something before vacation but I do want to be able to run far before summer is over. Christopher can actually run further than I can. Whose idea was it for that kid to go out for track?? It's a great activity that we can do together but what a blow to my ego to stop and gasp for air like a fish out of water while he continues on. What a show off.

My aunt is the luckiest person I know. She can go to the casino and turn a nickel into $50. I can go through $5 worth of nickels in under 15 minutes and have on every occasion. Nonetheless, I'm trying out the contests at whogets.com. Any site that offers potentially free stuff and promises not to spam me to death is worth checking out. I've already entered two contests. After the initial signup, it's easy to enter. If you don't want to wait to see if you win something, you can go ahead and buy it. Cool concept and actually kind of fun.

This is C's dads weekend to have him but according to the court papers, it's my holiday since it's mother's day. I am not a fan of this commercialized holiday so I told his dad to just go ahead and keep him. He gets him four days a month. I am his mother 365 days a year. My blase' attitude seems to rub some the wrong way but really, I've always thought who needs a date picked out on a calendar to celebrate mothers? They should be celebrated in some way every day.

Tonight I started thinking about it and wondered who did pick this particular Sunday in May and why. Turns out, the day was originally about mothers for peace. Did you know that? I sure didn't. There's a whole website dedicated to bringing back the original meaning. A woman named Julia Ward Howe wrote the Mother's Day Proclamation in 1870 (following the civil war), as a call for peace and disarmament.

According to the wikipedia entry, President Woodrow Wilson declared the second Sunday in May to be Mother's Day and it was intended to honor mothers who lost sons in war. That's a far cry from buying mom a bouquet of flowers and a Hallmark card, eh?

Now there's even more reasons to blog for money. In addition to getting paid to promote things you believe in, now there's HDTV Tuesdays. PayPerPost is adding all sorts of cool things to opportunities. Too difficult for me to grab since I am restricted time wise to when I can post here but maybe some of my online pals could get something cool.

Tomorrow they are giving away a Slingbox, Nintendo Wii, Yamaha Surround Sound System or a Logitech universal remote. The HDTV will come later I guess. I could use a Nintendo Wii. For the kids of course. They already gave away a PlayStation 3 which would be my first choice. Me, not the kids.

Special shout out to Bid4Prizes for sponsoring cool things like this. I know there are still some of you who are skeptical. My mother in particular was just sure that PPP was a scam of some sort but I've already collected and spent actual money. It's all above board and the idea of giving free goodies as well as money is a great business model. My only gripe is that there often aren't opportunities I feel comfortable writing about or don't believe in. If I have a problem with it, I just don't take it.

Anyway, Faithie, if you win a Nintendo Wii, I will be mad at you for about ten seconds. After I cool down, I'll ask you if I can please have it. hahaha

Tonight I pissed off one of the "adopted" kids because I pushed too far on the issues of responsibility and being an adult. I have no tolerance for laziness and particularly no tolerance for laziness disguised as something else. I call it as I see it and sometimes (maybe most times) people don't like to hear it. I often wonder if I shouldn't just shut up but then that wouldn't be me being me. I don't like hurting people though. ugh.

Nothing? There's no excuse for that! Even Emily knows how to cook and she's only 12! Seriously though, I love sites offering free recipes. I have a recipe box from when I first struck out on my own and I still prefer to grab a grimey, well used recipe from that box. When I find a new recipe online, I print it and stick it in the box so I especially love cooking sites that have links to print the recipe in various paper sizes.

If you prefer the virtual world, CookSpot has a virtual recipe box that allows you to save your favorite recipes for easy retrieval later. As a registered user you can also save a shopping list, rate and review recipes or submit your own to share.

Not sure what the heck is going on but my stomach is all blech and I'm super tired. Todd came in and said they are having him come into work early tomorrow. Gotta love that since it wakes me up in the middle of the night an extra time. That would be in addition to the times I get woke up by Lucy needing out and C. getting up to go to the bathroom. New parents talk about how their babies don't sleep through the night. "HA!!" I say! My baby will soon be 14 and he still doesn't sleep through the night. /end of whining

American Greetings has redesigned their website. As part of the redesign celebration they are offering free ecards and printable greeting cards as well as craft projects for download. Free is also the word for screensavers and wallpapers but the promotion is only good through May 17. Instead of calling this a "preview" they are calling it "freeview". That's creative.

The new site is much prettier and easier to use. The categories include everything under the sun including Groundhog Day. Todd would appreciate that. He and his friends used to send each other whacky cards on obscure holidays in a lame attempt to outdo each other. The new quick find feature would be handy in assisting him when he gets a crazy idea and needs to find a card fast.

He used to send me cards a lot. Maybe I should send him one to see if it starts anything. (That link goes to a Nat'l BBQ Month card. Told ya they have everything!)

I'm doing some running again after a winter of walking only. It's about to kill me but I've lost a couple of pounds in the last two weeks. Stubborn, stubborn pounds that wouldn't succumb to regular exercise. Now if someone would just tell my knees that 40 isn't *that* old and they need to buck up and tough it out...

One more night of finger therapy unless Dr. Not So Nice orders more when I see him on Friday. It hurts just as he promised and there is a point in every session where my fist doubles up (on the good hand) and she knows it's time to quit for the evening. Even though I am quite thankful that it can be fixed easily, I will be so glad when this is over.

What was that creeepy movie that had that line? Pet Semetery?

Anyway, I used to play checkers with my great grandmother a lot and the cousins and I would often pretend to play backgammon at her house but I don't think any of us really knew how to play it.

Now you and I can learn to play backgammon online. Apparently this is already a hot game to play online in North American and now BackgammonMasters.com is expanding worldwide with a particular focus on bringing the online game to Latin America. As such, they are opening offices in Central America to better serve that part of the world. Full press release follows below.

Both sites that I have linked to provide really detailed instructions on the game and the terminology. I didn't even know the game had terminology. When a player immediately redoubles and retains ownership of the cube, it is called a beaver. Who knew? Well, I guess you did if you already play backgammon.

PRESS RELEASE

http://www.BackgammonMasters.com online game company is expanding worldwide, placing its attention and resources on Latin American markets. By being the first-ever and only company to introduce an online version of the popular Spanish dice game, Perudo, (in addition to their poker and backgammon) BackgammonMasters has now established itself as an industry leader in most, if not all, of the world’s major online game playing regions. This increased activity in Latin markets has resulted in the need for the company to open a branch office in Central America.

Report by Gammonish.com – backgammon online resource for news and information. More about backgammon online and online backgammon game rules can be found at http://www.gammonish.com.

Today must have been JT day on the radio or something. He drives me crazy, in particular that song that makes all the weird noises. My Love? UGH! I do love the song with him and Nelly Furtado. She makes him tolerable sort of like vinegar makes spinach edible... or so I've been told.

My favorite flavor of the year, John Mayer, is going to be in Des Moines in June. I think Todd might actually consider sitting through his show. Too bad all of our money is tied up in the vacation. Well, no, it's not too bad. I am getting soooo excited!

I am a huge fan of distance learning since I got my start in web developing that way. The technology has changed alot since I took HTML and various scripting classes via the internet 10 years ago. Now they use Video Conference Equipment to deliver high definition video.

In the public sector, video conferencing would be an awesome replacement to conferences requiring people to travel long distances, particularly since they just raised gas another ten cents here today.

Last night was Eva's graduation party. Much fun! Great music, CAKE!!! and good friends. What more could a person ask for? Pictures to follow later today maybe.

I had quite a long wait in the doctor's office yesterday so I passed the time flipping through magazines. One of them had a cover blurb "The most important insurance you don't have". The article was about long term care insurance but after dealing with my dad's death, I would have thought it would have been life insurance. My dad was in long term care that was covered by the state but his burial expenses were left to his children to cover. Thankfully he had taken a small policy that was enough to cover a funeral leaving just the headstone for us to buy out of our pockets. He waited too long until his health had declined so much that he couldn't purchase a larger policy. It's important to buy life insurance while you are you younger and in good health to get a really good rate.
If you'd like information about purchasing life insurance online, visit SecureInsuranceQuotes.com.

I think it's about time for us to shop for a new health insurance company but I need to stick it out until this past years string of injuries drops off. The doc ordered even more therapy for my finger over the next few weeks and I hate to think what that is going to cost us.

Eva is big on hugging the people she loves. Not just hugging, but attacking by leaping. It's still cute even though she's a full grown adult now.

I have the best friends. The one on the left is Eva's mammy. On the right is her Auntie Lori. These two made her the awesome person she is.

She is a kisser and a licker too. heh.

Then she whispers creepy things and freaks people out. HELP!!

I have lost another half pound this past week through incredibly hard work and lots of icky sweating. I know there is no magic pill but maybe subliminal CDs would help with motivation and acceptance of this body I have now.

With an extensive catalog of titles covering just about everything you can control with your mind, you are sure to find something. I could use one or two from every category. Mathematical Genius? I am not sure if a voice telling me I loved arithmetic would work but if the speaker had an accent like Cal's, I'd sure listen. The demo clip I listened to had a similar British flavor. They offer 100% money back guarantee so if you buy something and are not satisfied, just let them know.

So the Whirrett kid got into some poison ivy or sumac or something and it did a real number on his face. Looked like someone dumped gasoline on his face and threw a match at him. It's also on his chest and arms and *ahem* other areas... but it's his face that looks the worse. I told him I could slap him silly and no one would even know the difference right now. It got so close to his eye that I took him to the ER and the doc gave him some prednisone pills. Ain't he cute?

I didn't even know such a thing existed. I just recently did a balance transfer because I wasn't making much leeway on my balance and another company offered a year with no interest.

There is now a search engine to find Low Interest Credit Cards as well as balance transfer cards, cards for poor credit, gas cards and cards that give rewards or airline miles. Some have zero percent for balance transfers which is just an awesome deal if you find yourself a slave to 15% interest or more.

Art Tatum was totally blind in one eye and partially blind in the other yet taught himself to play jazz piano. His method was based on the stylings of Fats Waller. Since he was blind, he didn't know he was learning to play two parts. A sighted person most likely would not have even considered trying to learn two parts at once. We truly can do anything if we don't get in our own way.

To read more about Art and listen to some beautiful piano, watch this video.

One of the many complaints I have about my Kyocera is the battery life. We used to always keep an extra cell phone battery for each phone but neither of us got one with our latest phones. I'm getting a new one now after having to plug my phone in twice to make it through the day.

Finding accessories for my phone was easy since there really arent many but this case with a wrist strap would come in handy. This morning I found myself on the trail ready to run with no pocket to put my phone in. I just carried it in my hand but that could go bad fast.

It's a useful feature to be able to search by cellphone carrier and then by phones available to that carrier. That's handy when shopping for a new phone so you can see which cases and fun things are available.

After a pretty much sleepless night, the boy's poison whatever is clearing up. This is the end of his third day on Prednisone and I'm glad there's finally improvement. The ER doc said to get him to our family doc if it wasn't better by the end of the third day. I am getting tired of medical bills.

I wonder how people without insurance get by. Although interestingly enough, there was a guy at the counter when I was checking out and the gal said she had no insurance on file for him. He said he had none and she said he was all set then. When it was my turn she said I had to give her a $10 co-pay again. Something screwy in that equation.

Dyslexics of the world, UNTIE! Have you ever seen that on a t-shirt? I have and while it's sort of haha funny, it's not at all funny to those suffering for it. Ex hubby #1 (also referred to as the guy who taught me how to get properly divorced) had that in school and it was very frustrating for him. I suspect I know others who have it as well.

Back when I was working with children, I took a few courses on it and there wasn't a whole lot that could be done to actually "fix" it. Now there is free help for dyslexia. Children with dyslexia quickly learn how to compensate to the best of their ability making it hard to notice at first glance. Since it's such a hard disorder to detect in the school environment, parents need to be very diligent in reading with their children and paying attention to see if there are any signs of a problem. If you think you might need to spend some extra time reading with your child to help them feel comfortable and confident, download the free courses and give it a try.

Press Release:
Dyslexia? Now there is Free Help

Now there is free online help for people who have dyslexia or simply did not learn to read well while going to school. It is a click-‘n-learn program. Students and adults may learn decoding, basic reading skills, and advanced reading skills all with the click of a mouse.

The program is called ReadingBySix. It provides a systematic approach to helping people defeat dyslexia and related reading problems. You will notice measurable progress from week to week provided participants are active in their studies and do their assignments. The online courses are virtually free when you give a small donation. If you choose not to donate, they are completely free.

Dyslexia is a distinct learning disability characterized by difficulties in decoding individual words. These difficulties may not show up in other cognitive and academic abilities. Dyslexia results from the confusion caused by the brain’s inability to associate abstract symbols with abstract ideas. This includes associating letters and words with the sounds they represent. The key to defeating dyslexia is learning to decode English sounds.

You are invited to review the website and take a few of the courses for practice and learn how the program works. Then use it to teach your children or students to read. It can be used for preschool, home school, grade school, or high school. Students, adults, and children can use it. It teaches reading 100% of the time and it’s all electronic. If you know of people who need help, please tell them about ReadingBySix: http://www.dyslexiadecoded.com/

Source: Dyslexia Decoded

T minus 4 days until vacation and my mood has gone from absolutely estatic to desperate and is heading towards defeat. If you hit the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold on. Doing that now. Every year something happens and our grand vacation plans get whittled back to yet another 3 hour trip to another place just like this only it will boast a zoo or a bigger lake. I have both heels dug in trying to not let that happen again. We've already cut this trip in half once and I will not do it again. Right now we are looking at having $7 a day per person to eat on. Everyone will learn to love bologna. We will have no money to actually do anything other than sit in the cabin and take in the surroundings. They will learn to appreciate the mountain views.

I said earlier that I was going to the beach come Hell or high water. Now I am simply whispering "Please God, let us have this one trip and deliver us home safely."

I am cleaning. That is how I deal with stress since I stopped smoking years ago. I clean and clean. I have washed a couple of walls, taken the birds outside and hosed them down and thoroughly cleaned their area of the living room. I scrubbed the shower and tub and the front entryway. I grew tired of cleaning so in a fit of optimism, I've begun to pack for vacation. It just has to happen. If it doesn't, my bottom will fall out. I'm so not kidding.

In the continuing effort to make money blogging, I welcome any new opportunities that allow me to recoup some hosting fees and make some extra for the boys teeth.

The former PPP system only allowed for bloggers to login and browse the opps they were qualified for. More often than not, an opportunity had already been used up by the time I got to it late in the evening so I missed all the good stuff.

PayPerPost Direct makes it possible for advertisers to contact bloggers directly. I can still browse the opportunities available on the PPP site and try to take them as they fit into my time and expertise but now, in addition, if an advertiser likes my blog and writing style, they can click on the PPP Direct badge on my site and make me an offer.

PayPerPost has worked out a system to handle the transaction without interfering with the terms. The price and wordcount and all other details are worked out exclusively between the advertiser and the blogger. Other sites charge a lot of overhead for this feature but PayPerPost only takes a ten percent service fee. About half of that fee goes to PayPal for handling the financial portion of the transactions. Sounds like a great deal to me!

I had therapy again tonight and the progress is becoming very apparent now. The funky finger issue is also quite apparent. If I try to make a fist, my DIP joint (the last joint nearest the fingernail) will not bend at all. If someone stabilizes the PIP joint (the middle joint) then the DIP joint has some range of motion. Not the 90 degrees I'd like to see but more like 40 degrees. Still better than nothing which is what I get when using both joints together.

The other funky finger issue is that if the therapist forefully bends just the DIP joint, it does not hurt. Same with the PIP joint. However, if she moves both together as if I were making a fist, the pain is just incredible. Even with Vicodin it is just absolutely unbearable. People, I gave birth to a baby with NO pain meds so I know my pain tolerance is quite high. This finger thing if done just right can make me swear like a trooper and bawl like a baby. It is really getting better though. Just not fast enough to suit me!

Tonight I started working out at a different place that has nicer equipment than I do at home. First time ever for me on a stepper, elliptical and recumbent bike. I split an hour up between those three machines and finished with a half hour on the treadmill. My hips already hurt. I burned less calories than if I had rode my bike, ran some stairs and jogged on the trail but I can tell that the workout affected different parts of my body. Change is good. Not to mention working out in an air conditioned room with a television is just awesome. Tomorrow I will go back and use the weight stations and see if that is much different than my free weights at home.

One more day until vacation. I'm very quietly pumped.

So the weather forecast for our vacation is thunderstorms. Every day. Until the day we leave. Then it will be sunny for three days. We'll be home then. If lightning strikes the hot tub that you're lounging around in outside, does it kill you? What if I wear rubber shoes? heh. I'm really only half kidding. I'm getting in the hot tub. Lightning be damned!