Ankle Gone Again

The saga of my right foot progresses -- just sprained it again less than 30 minutes ago going out to the mailbox. Also managed to skin my left knee and the palm of my hand.

I'm so tired of being in pain. It's been since New Years. As the first sprain on New Years healed, I ended up with plantar fasciitis and it's chronic stabbing pain. I get up out of bed in the morning and put even a little weight on my foot and it's like stepping on a knife blade that goes right into the bone. Standing up after sitting for a while, ditto. Walking any distance, ditto.

My night splint for the plantar fasciitis was delivered today down at Willa's since there's someone home there all the time and that's not the case here. I was looking forward to sleeping in it for the next 6-8 weeks in the hopes that it would be an effective treatment for me.

Earlier working with my friend Alley doing yard work and doing just dandy thank you very much. I didn't mind the slight sunburn I got either.

Yes, I'm crying. Dammit. I mind this. I mind it very much.

Heel Stuff

So, my frellin' battle with plantar fasciitis continues. After months of trying different shoe inserts, I finally found one that lets me be comfortably on my feet for more than a couple of hours & lets me walk more than half a mile without pain.

Picture me weeping with near joy. It's not as good as an orgasm or a good book but it's still darned good. Being mostly off my feet the last few months because of the pain from this has really been a drag and interfered with my exercise routines... where I could walk 2-4 miles a day comfortably, I've barely been able to manage .5 to 1 mile a day. Thus I've also gained back some of the weight I was losing too. 'Tis one of the insults of being middle aged. The mind says "Ah, you are but a youngster!" The body betrays the mind. Sigh.

I also am getting a decent brand new night splint that I got off eBay for less than half the price I could find anywhere else. $30.00 including shipping was a lot cheaper than 49.99, 59.99 or 69.99 PLUS shipping for similar splints in health care/rehab catalogs.. The pic is of the same splint I'm expecting. I reckon I'll have to wear it while sleeping for about 6 weeks. Charming.

Mom's Getting A Birthday Prezzie

My mother-in-law's birthday is in a week. I've actually gotten her present ordered & paid for. I requested delivery on her birthday. should arrive on her birthday. So I feel good about that. I ran across a place where they do "pajamagrams" and they deliver pjs & a few other indulgent goodies in a pretty lil' hatbox. I hope she likes the gown I picked and had monogrammed. It's the cutest thing and doesn't have "old lady" stamped all over it.

Granted MIL is pushing hard on 80 now but a flattering up-to-date nightgown is a nice thing. If she hadn't had a couple of broken hips over the last few years, I'd have chosen a top/bottoms set with an oriental blue and white motif cos' it was smashing, so a gown is a concession to the reality that balance matters.

One Brave Man

Dennis Kucinich is looking to have Bush impeached! How wonderfully brave! I just wish he'd done so sooner. Lots sooner. But that's just me not being fully satisfied with the Bush presidency. I'd like to see a successful impeachment of Bush... followed by him having to go the Hague to face a war crimes trial.

Iron Man's Suit Is Coveted

Jim and me went to see Iron Man at the late show last night. It was especially fun because I'm an old Marvel fan-girl from way back. Ok.. so we didn't see it the first few weeks that it came out... tough. I still had fun and got to laugh at all the inside jokes that er.. pepper the movie. That suit of armor was too fun and I sure wouldn't mind having it for my own.

My Linguistic Profile

I did this out of curiosity after running into the link on Aunt Purls' blog.

Your Linguistic Profile:

50% General American English 25% Yankee 15% Dixie 5% Upper Midwestern 0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

SteamPunk Recycles

I happen to admire the Steampunk movement that Jake von Slatt (who I have in my Good Links section) is part of. I accidentally ran across him sometime last year or so and thought his stuff was PFM -- Pure Frelling Magic combining the artistic whimsy of the Victorian era with modern technology.

In his recent blog which you can get to by clicking today's article title, he talks about not being able to acquire materials from the local dump because officials fear the spread of disease... which sucks. But so many older items like old typewriters, lanterns, trunks, boilers and so on are sent to the dump instead of places where they can be bought and repurposed into the marvelous meld that is SteamPunk.

So, I'm going to ask if you read this and have any old fashioned appliances, tools, gadgets that may seem possibly Victorian that you consider keeping them out of the landfills and metal recyclers and contact your favorite steampunks so they can repurpose them into the magickal blend of beauty, form and function that they create.

Yum! Dessert

One of my favorite places for an after dinner indulgence is The Flying Star... They're a locally started and grown restaurant chain here in Albuquerque. They've always had a focus on good food and even better desserts. Also, they're pretty darn socially and environmentally conscious and have been throughout their 20 year history.

Now, I haven't sampled the entire dessert menu as I already have too many favorites: chocolate mousse cake, giant eclairs (enough to share with 2-3 other friends), creme brulee, apple pie, key lime pie, and a bread pudding to die for. Some desserts I indulge in every few weeks.. like the 3x Ginger cookies or apple pie. Others, like the eclairs, tiramisu, and chocolate based goodies I try to keep as rarer treats so I don't tire of them.

So click on the title and see what the Flying Star has to offer and if you make your way to Albuquerque, then give them a try... and have dessert!

Ya Think ?!?!?

From the AP today , we have a story that Scott McClellan, the former White House Press Secretary is disenchanted with Bush and that in a memoir wrote "that President Bush relied on an aggressive "political propaganda campaign" instead of the truth to sell the Iraq war, and that the decision to invade pushed Bush's presidency "terribly off course.' The Bush White House made "a decision to turn away from candor and honesty when those qualities were most needed" — a time when the nation was on the brink of war, McClellan writes in the book entitled "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception."

The way Bush managed the Iraq issue "almost guaranteed that the use of force would become the only feasible option."

"In the permanent campaign era, it was all about manipulating sources of public opinion to the president's advantage."

Of course we knew this. We've know this for years. We didn't respect the lies & manipulation then either. Now the new press secretary's spin is that McClellan has an axe to grind or something. Whoop. Te. Do.

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20080528/D90UNQ2O1.html

So I'm Thinking....

... there's a fug of a lot of crap going on out there.

The big elections are mostly out of the way. The news said that Dems are discretely suggesting she call it quits, that the numbers "aren't there" and that she can't possibly make them up in the last two elections in Montana and Wyoming. Yah. I once thought an Obama/Clinton ticket could prove to be real sweet, but with the acrimony of the last few weeks, I'm not so sure. Depends on what kinda chops the lady really has as a politician. If Hillary's a 'statesman' and not just a pol and is asked to share the ticket as veep, then yeah they could make a powerful great team.

I'm still wrapping my head around what that Austrian guy Fritzl did to his daughter for nearly 25 years. It beggars the imagination to think what she went through. How do you conceive of not seeing the sun or feeling as though you've been buried alive? Of course she wants guarantees she'll never have to see his face again in her life. I'd want it like that. I think, though, that once he is convicted, as he surely will be, that instead of being hidden from view in a prison, that he should be put on full public view for the duration of his sentence. Put him in a secure, climate controlled room with a minimum of two glass wall so he has no privacy whatsoever during his sentence. He eats in public, he shits into a toilet in open view... all of it, from his first waking moment to him sleeping through the night. And it shouldn't matter if people throw rotten tomatoes or other stuff at him either. The glass walls would shield him, but he'd get to see it comin' at him.

Did I ever mention that I have odd revenge fantasies???

I've been reading about the mess in Philly with a group of cops wailing on some drug suspects following the murder of another cop a few days earlier. I hope my one of my blog buddies (from another blog place) neighborhood isn't involved and is safe for him to be in. I understand things are very, very tense. There has to be some value in hewing to a higher standard of better behavior when one is a cop. Police violence was bad form in the 60's when practiced against the hippies and protesters and it's still bad form when practiced against idiot criminals today.

Myanmar is so screwed right now. Of course, maybe the dictatorship there will have it's death knell in the aftermath. That's another thing that is pretty incomprehensible. The likelihood of 100,000 or more dead from the storm. There's hardly any clean water there now which is a hazard even more dangerous than the storm... bad water can fuel outbreaks of cholera, dysentery, possibly malaria and yellow fever which would lead to even more deaths. Gods grace and bless all the local relief workers there, whether the monks in their temples and monasteries or anyone else lending a hand because the junta isn't allowing outside aid workers entry at all.