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mdlbear1226 Su * up 7:10; W=197; drugs, nose, teeth; coffee & change flight due to weather: now Monday 1pm @ Free Kindle Books: A Guide @ Blizzard Warning for New York City, Boston, New England, East Coast - Weather Forecast Calls for Snow - Metropolis - WSJ @ Placebos Plus Positive Thinking May Be Enough The authors do make a point that this study was small compared to many investigative studies of this kind, but it does in fact open a dialogue about whether or not placebos are effective even for the fully informed patient. Such a hypothesis will need to be confirmed in larger trials hopefully on a much bigger international scale to take into consideration the differences and relations between traditional and holistic methods of treatment. * added earlybird checkin. Means I won't have to try to find a net connection on Wednesday, so win. @ French Toast Alert System | Universal Hub & Cleverly spilled my coffee - knocked over by a book while taking the nanoITX board down to see if it has a SATA port (it does). The floor needed mopping anyway. : The wool/poly pants are actually quite comfortable without a belt. We'll see whether they itch after wearing them for a few hours. ! 11:50 - many second thoughts about the flight, which is on its way now. On the gripping hand, I'll have time for some last-minute calls tomorrow. * walk: around Rose Garden Slightly lagging pace. * print boarding pass A57 even with Early Bird checkin. Whew! & Shopping with Colleen - Joanne's for fabric, WF for GF bagels etc. * missing BT headset turned up on my bedroom chair under a business card. @ WANT: Indamixx 2, Music-Focused Tablet Powered by Linux, Unveils Beta Program @ haikujaguar: My E-Fiction Offerings @ Charlie's true history moves out from the underground - The Boston Globe @ The Rose by Amanda McBroom - guitar chords and lyrics Lyrics + info 1227 Mo * awake 5; snuggle * up 6; W=197; drugs, nose, teeth @ The Rose (song) - I think this would be good for Tempered Glass Amanda McBroom's The Rose - background and lyrics YouTube - The Rose performed by the songwriter * Colleen wants 1# lox and a dozen bagels @ How New Entrepreneurs Are Taking Advantage of the Great Reset A lot of truth in it, but it seems misleading as well. Everyone may be an "enterprise of one", but most startups don't make it. * there's time to call Hewitt (Flex) and the dentist this morning well, maybe just hewitt. 2718 Crappy website. Infuriating trying to get information out or a complaint in. ! FURIOUS Tried multiple times to give password, which was only way the person on the *phone* could access my info. And in spite of the 7-7 central time business hours, the call center is out of the country. Which is illegal under HIPPA, I believe. So's the SS# ID. Doesn't work on Chrome because Chrome has really good popup blocking. Duh. * flex overpayments -- something denied on YD's Lenscrafter claim. ??? call 1-800-953-2526 to speak with a rep. Representatives are available between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., Central time, Monday through Friday. ->The problem was that eyemed supposedly paid some of it. Weird. @ ebonypearl: The Commercial Hoopla can Stay The only people warring on Christmas are Christians. The rest of us want to make peace and celebrate family, love, joy, good fellowship, good food, and to be charitable towards those less fortunate than ourselves. We wish people "Happy Holidays" because we wish to make peace, not war. We wish people "Happy Holidays" because the reason for the season is axial tilt, and the reasons for all the festivities are myriad and diverse and there are many different holy days during these weeks. * 11:30 leave for airport * 1pm fly to NC X45WZZ San Jose, CA to Raleigh, NC Monday, December 27, 2010 6 h 15 m #752 Depart San Jose, CA (SJC) 1:00 PM Arrive in Raleigh/Durham, NC (RDU) 10:15 PM ~ call Susan (arriving at 11:35) and take RDU Taxi. @ Zen Toolworks - CNC Mill kit Jim & Aud Ackerman : ride to Galloway Ridge with the Ackermans * bed ~1ish in Beverly C.'s appartment 1228 Tu & slept fitfully; some BPH; until after 5am * up 8:05ish; drugs, nose; coffee * Long day. Too many people to remember them all. Breakfast with family; lunch with Barb's family; wine & cheese with ~200 people; dinner with family and close friends. All in celebration of Mom's 90th bday. @ osewalrus: Happy Story or Sad Story for The Economy in 2011? 1229 We * up ~8am & good talk with Beverly over coffee @ oup.com Very Short Introductions series ~ Colleen: humira -> Thursday @ ebonypearl: Kombucha (fermented tea) @ A Superpower in Decline: Is the American Dream Over? - SPIEGEL ONLINE @ called Cisco about Mom's Valet M10 router. Long, but got the passwords. The main one still doesn't work in my netbook :( but the guest one, which is web based, does. @ LRB · Eliot Weinberger · "Damn right," I said Scathing review of GWB's ghost-written autobiography. Via filkertom & very quiet afternoon catching up, after Al and Caroline left. @ <a="http://www.cowboylyrics.com/tabs/twitty-conway/the-rose-1074.html">Conway Twitty, The Rose Tabs, Chords, Lyrics (chords inline) & Quiet evening in Mom's apartment @ household uses of hydrogen peroxide. @ Amanda McBroom Discography " (11:32:36 PM) me: I should have brought Cyrano along -- my inflatable neck pillow is much less comfortable. 1230 Th * up 8am * Breakfast (coffee, yogurt, fruit) with Beverly Cairns. Sang "The River", which was a perfect choice. * Breakfast (coffee, eggs with onion and lox, half GF bagel w\ cream cheese) with Mom. ! driving through the woods had a sudden pang of nostalgia for the brook that ran through our property in CT * 12:30 pickup X45WZZ Raleigh, NC to San Jose, CA Thursday, December 30, 2010 8 h 50 m #1030 Depart Raleigh/Durham, NC (RDU) 2:25 PM Arrive in Phoenix, AZ (PHX) 5:30 PM #228 Change in Phoenix, AZ (PHX) 7:20 PM Arrive in San Jose, CA (SJC) 8:15 PM * Met Heather (Barb's ?daughter) in airport & found a tea book for Colleen in the "A Southern Season" shop in RDU % not nearly as prepared as usual - no snack bag and only one tums in my shoulder bag. And a 5-hour trip, not 3. But didn't tap snacks anyway. * Finished Naamah's Kiss. @ Dear Second and Third Wave Feminists With Publicly Recognizable Names @ naamah_darling: Mental Illness 101 % can't locate pill boxes. :( -> left at Beverly's; Mom will mail : complete set of Amphigorey books for anniversary from Colleen * bath; bed ~12:30
So, once again... My excuse this time is that I was traveling, and so did all of my to.do updating offline. At least that covers Monday through Thursday. Not much excuse for Sunday -- I'd intended to be traveling then, but put it off because there was a possibility that RDU would be shut down. It wasn't, but as seen from two hours before flight time it was a lot more iffy.
It also gave me time Monday morning to spend on the phone to the company that runs my "flexible" medical spending account -- I wonder if I should put in a claim for extra blood pressure medication. Infuriating; most of the time was spent trying to point out problems with their website (which doesn't work at all on Chrome because Chrome "has really effective popup blockers"). Fixed width layout with pretty much every link coming up in a new window. Right. Yes, they'll take my comments. No, they won't respond to them. Or, probably, even look at them.
The call I made to Cisco's tech support to retrieve the password for Mom's Valet M10 router was a lot more successful. Or maybe I was just in a better mood. And they seemed a lot more willing to take my bug report about their application (which said to "remove the flash drive" in a couple of places, without mentioning the need for unmounting it first).
The actual trip, for Mom's 90th birthday, was great. Lots of good conversations. Starting with the person sitting next to me on the plane, who turned out to be someone who knew Mom, and gave me a ride from the airport. Too many to keep track of. The one sad note was that my nephew couldn't come -- there were no flights at all out of Boston.
Wednesday, Mom's actual birthday, was basicly end-to-end parties. The wine-and-cheese "cocktail" party for all of Galloway Ridge's residents had about 200 people. A little surprisingly, I didn't feel peopled out or overloaded at all, though all the standing hurt my back and I occasionally found myself slightly "swapped out" when I wasn't interacting with people.
I also spent most of the week with Amanda McBroom's The Rose running through my head, thanks to Kyburg's Advent, Day 25 post.
Next time I travel I have to be sure to remember to bring Cyrano, my stuffed rhino. The inflatable neck pillow I did bring was a lot less comfortable.
Also worth noting was the sudden pang of nostalgia, while riding through a wooded area on the way to the airport, for the little brook that ran through our old property in Connecticut.
I'd slept badly the whole time I was in North Carolina, and slept like a lump on my return. Mostly the 3-hour time change, I suspect.
The usual collection of links under the cut.