Maxine Monday

My scheduled post - did not post!
Here she is, better late than never!

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Who is next for goodness sakes???

By MITCH STACY, Associated Press Writer Mitch Stacy, Associated Press Writer – 4 mins ago

TAMPA, Fla. – Billy Mays, the burly, bearded television pitchman whose boisterous hawking of products such as Orange Glo and OxiClean made him a pop-culture icon, has died. He was 50.

Tampa police said Mays was found unresponsive by his wife Sunday morning. A fire rescue crew pronounced him dead at 7:45 a.m. It was not immediately clear how he died. He said he was hit on the head when an airplane he was on made a rough landing Saturday, and Mays' wife told investigators the TV personality didn't feel well before he went to bed that night.

There were no signs of a break-in at the home, and investigators do not suspect foul play, said Lt. Brian Dugan of the Tampa Police Department, who wouldn't answer any more questions about how Mays' body was found because of the ongoing investigation. The coroner's office expects to have an autopsy done by Monday afternoon.

Mays' wife, Deborah Mays, told investigators that her husband had complained he didn't feel well before he went to bed some time after 10 p.m. Saturday night, Tampa police spokeswoman Laura McElroy said.

"Although Billy lived a public life, we don't anticipate making any public statements over the next couple of days," Deborah Mays said in a statement Sunday. "Our family asks that you respect our privacy during these difficult times."

I can't carry a tune

But he can - and I don't think he can speak English either!

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Cat butts, hot flashes and toilets. Fun!

Crabby old man cat had to go to the vet yesterday and nothing goes better together than 90 degree sweaty skin and cat hair. Yum! I literally had to grab a tissue and wipe my brow as well as dip down into the cleavage. I’m getting used to the varying temperatures of my body lately but c’mon, at the vet??

They took Riley’s blood, used a little pediatric blood pressure cuff on him to get his pressure, managed to get some urine from him and put some stain in his eye because he was doing the pirate thing again. The stain is for a better look. I need to start giving him the eye ointment again. Also came home with some glucosamine for him (arthritis) and of course – he won’t have anything to do with it.

Heard back from the doc today – his blood work looks good and so does his urine and she needs to see his eye again in a few days. Oh, did I mention she asked if I wipe his butt for him? Um no, I mean, I dipped his backend in the tub once when he was having some problems but generally, no. So she went on to tell me about how old cats get arthritic and have trouble cleaning themselves well and how he would appreciate it if I got some baby wipes and wiped his butt maybe once a day for him. Um . . ? Is this necessary? I mean the cat is spoiled enough, you tell me to feed him whenever he wants me to, and now you want me to wipe his butt? How much is he payin’ you Doc, I’ll double it!

I mean really!

Then today was all about the bathroom at my house. My daughter is visiting and my son is home (week off from work) so with one bathroom it can get uncomfortable. But with NO bathroom it’s unacceptable. Which is why both of my children left and I got to stay home not daring to eat anything and mentally constipating myself. Fun!!! But – now the bathroom is working again, I caulked around the bottom of the toilet and put the fancy new seat on the throne the BF bought for me. Very nice! So now maybe all of us can get back to normal.

But . . . . I just don’t know if I’m going to rush right out and get those baby wipes any time soon, I’ll have to think about that one! I have to draw the line somewhere, right?

Now I have a reason

I have mentioned this before. But it needs to be said again. If you like to shop online, find a way to do it safely. My recommendation? PayPal plug-in. I used it for a while and I loved it, but then I upgraded to the newest version of Firefox and it wasn’t available. So I just started shopping the old fashioned way, using my debit card wherever I was buying.

The PayPal plug-in puts a P on your toolbar at the top of your screen. When you start to check out in any shop PayPal drops down a box so you can check out with PayPal. Even if it’s a site that does not have the PayPal option normally. But what PayPal does is every time you use this plug-in it generates a virtual credit card number which is tied to the financial information you have supplied only to PayPal. So if you buy things from 10 stores – generally only 1 or 2 will regularly give you the option to use PayPal. If you have the plug-in, you can use it at every one of those sites. And PayPal is reputable and I trust them.

If you have a PayPal account I would suggest signing in and downloading the plug-in. It now works in the newest version of Firefox and IE. It will save receipts for you and everything, it’s really useful. Keep the records of your purchases all in one place, great, huh?

So why am I suggesting this? Because some slimy bottom feeder made a feeble attempt to rip me off. These crooks out there get your credit or debit card info and try it out by sending a tiny charge to it. Like say .90 cents for pizza at 3:00am. If the charge goes through they know they can hunker down and start shopping for what they really want. Luckily the little charge they sent to my card had already been flagged as fraudulent so when it hit my card it sent up red flags. My card was immediately turned off and a message was left on my answering machine at home. Unfortunately I didn’t get the phone message until I had my card denied at the grocery store on my way home from work, and luckily had one, count ‘em one check in my purse to pay for my groceries!

So now I am being issued a new card. Pain. In. The. Butt. But better than having to deal with a bunch of charges and the mess that would have caused. So tonight I went back to PayPal to download the plug-in and found that it WAS available for Firefox now, so you’re looking at (uh .. reading) a happy gal now. No excuses not to be safe. For me anyway.

Practice safe shopping, people! It’s for your own good. Really

Wii and Mii

I finally got around to doing some Wii Fit today. My poor little "Mii" turned a bit chubby when I was weighed and my BMI calculated, and after the balance test I was told "it looks like balance games aren't your forte." Ha! Ya think?

I hula-hooped and I stepped and I ran. My daughter had done it earlier and I only beat her score in the running. I have no idea how that happened, she must have been tired when she got to the running because I doubled her score! I found the running amusing, what with little puppies coming toward me and people passing me, butterflies in the air and a waterfall to run past. I was smiling while I was doing it. That's just weird. I don't like exertion. But I'm sure it's all part of my being easily distracted by shiny objects, or puppies, butterflies, and waterfalls as the case may be.

I didn't take a picture of my chubby little Mii, but I was relieved to see it didn't blimp out as much as I thought it would, considering I was declared obese. That alone is enough to discourage anybody.

When you start you have to set up your Mii, give it your age, height, and the things weighs you itself, I'm thinking it knows that's the only way to get an honest answer. Anyway, Dani went to set herself up and she put in her height and age and stepped onto the exercise board and it weighed her. It was a weight she was quite pleased with, even though she knew it wasn't right. She figured out that she had the board facing away from the Wii when it should be facing the Wii. Once she turned it around and stepped back on it said "it appears you are holding something that weighs 32 pounds." Lol! Um no, it was just weighing her for real. I was laughing so hard when she told me this when I got home from work, it was just too funny.

I did enjoy it but the key thing is doing it over and over.
Consistency. We will see. Took me 3 days for my butt muscles to stop hurting after playing tennis once! But I
know me. Baby steps. Just baby steps.

After that - toddler steps and . . .

Maxine Monday

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A simple ipod.

Friday I knew I was going to be alone in my shared office room at work. I can’t get much on the radio there, so I brought my ipod. I don’t listen to music like I did when I was younger, and hadn’t heard everything I loaded on my ipod. I realized that some of the songs I downloaded using a file sharing site, weren’t very good. Too quiet, or various other things. So I decided to spend some of this weekend checking out everything I had in my itunes play lists.

I literally spent all day Saturday deleting and loading music directly from my own CD’s. Much, much better. But now I think I know why I don’t listen to music very much. It doesn’t bring me a lot of joy. It hurts my heart.

There are songs that bring me all the way back to grade school, songs I know because my older brother used to play them on his stereo when I was a kid. Like the music of Simon and Garfunkel. Songs that put me right back in the hallway outside the gym in 8th grade when I was painting banners for the basketball team. Songs like “Me and Mrs Jones” by Sly and the Family Stone. I heard things that didn’t necessarily put me in a specific place or with a specific person, but are attached to emotions from the time period that bring me pain. Bread. The best of Bread.

I have always been very emotional, and as I’ve written before – I have struggled with depression my whole adult life and probably through my teen years as well. And listening to music was something I did to find the words to voice my pain when I couldn’t do it any other way. It made me feel like I wasn’t alone, there were other people out there who felt the same way I did. Seeing how I always felt like some kind of over-emotional freak – music commiserated with me in a way my friends or family couldn’t.

There are songs that are bittersweet for me now, songs that were the background for events in my life that were good at the time, but soured later. Boz Scaggs, or “Temptation Eyes” by The Grass Roots. I must have always attached a lot of emotions to the music I have listened to in my life, and now it is hard to listen.

Having reached this point in my life I felt I have handled many things well, or at least come to understand why I have done some things and come to terms with other things, people, choices I've made. But I'm thinking I have just hardened my heart to the point where the disappointments and wounds don't hurt anymore. I've put a wall up that is pretty impenetrable now.

Apparently music is something that is able to pierce that protective cover I have built around my heart.

So I don't listen much.

We took a drive. . .

All of the pics are clickable to see them larger.

Have you ever driven up or down Illinois? This is mostly what you see.

There is a nice family farm back there.

One of our exceptionally clean Illinois rest stops.

Illinois is serious about it’s refuse.

Ah, the destination! Makeup being applied.

The outfit – check!

Aren’t they adorable?

We find our seats. And that lady with the sparkly hat arrives.

The graduates file in.

My daughter IS in the picture. And so it the sparkly hat lady.

Look! You can almost see her!!

Dani is on the jumbo-tron! And on the stage as well.

The lady with the sparkly hat looks for a good snapshot.

I took this picture using the glow from the lady’s hat!

Yay!! Different hats! Much better hats. Woo Hoo!!!!

On the road again . . .

We had a good time. Andy and I drove down the night before and stayed in a Super (not) 8 motel so we didn’t have to drive 5 hours that morning. After the graduation we went back to Dani’s and Dan’s house, where they served a lovely meal and I got to meet Dan’s family. Conversation flowed and we had some good laughs, it was a good time. Over all too soon, of course and off we went back home.

And speaking of Dani and Dan - they have a new website - see the badge on my left sidebar? Yeah, that's the 2 of them sticking their tongues out at each other. Click on it and have a peek!

It's getting a tad bit easier. Really.

I have been writing a lot more on my 'Fat' blog than here lately. I'm sure it's because I have been insanely intense about trying to change my diet, forever. Let's face it. I grew up on Beefaroni, Mac n' cheese and tomato soup. After my parents divorced when I was 11 and it was pretty much just my mom and me, I ate what was available and what I wanted. My mom didn't get home from work till 7:30 in the evening and I was hungry way before that. So I would eat a can of something, make a box of something, or every once in a while I would broil a thinly cut steak. No microwaves back then yknow. Although I did eat frozen dinners, the ones that were in the foil trays. There was always a little cobbler or muffin or some kind of dessert-like portion, and you can imagine where the vegetables went. Not in my mouth, that's for sure. A lot of the time dinner was simply a Velveeta cheese sandwich on soft white bread with mayo. Mmm-m-m . . .

Every once in a great while my mom would leave some instructions and I would make a pot roast or some spaghetti with meat sauce for the the two of us. But that was rare.

And there was always chocolate ice cream and chocolate syrup in the house. Always. That was a food group all it's own in my house. Funny thing, I didn't really develop a taste for ice cream until well after I moved out of the house.

Today I posted about how I have been opting for natural foods, fresh foods, and God help me - even raw foods, over folded spindled and mutilated foods. I have been able to talk myself out of stopping on my way home from work and getting something to eat that's bad for me, and to enjoy the sweetness of a date or a cherry instead of a candy bar or donut.

There is very little doubt that I will continue to eat some of those bad things. I have not totally converted. But if I continue to eat the good things the majority of the time, having something bad now and then isn't going to be so bad. I just cannot allow myself to get to the point of being diabetic with high blood pressure and heart disease because of my weight. It's simply not acceptable to me anymore. If I end up with any of those things - I at least want to know it's not because I couldn't make myself get disciplined about what I stick in my mouth. There are other ways to develop those conditions but in my case - it's my weight. It's not a symptom of something else, it's the cause of things I am teetering on the edge of having.

This is the first time ever, that I feel like learning to eat in a healthy way is within my grasp. Of course it's always been out there. Obviously. But this is the first time I think I may be able to do this. And I'm kind of amazed!

Maxine Monday

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Is there hope for me?

I just bought a Wii. I know I'm late to this party but I had to wait until I had the money to buy said Wii, without getting the phone turned off or God forbid - the internet! So yeah. I just bought it. And I am excited.

I also bought Wii Fit to go with it because honestly that's what it's all about for me. Finding ways to move my body that don't completely feel like torture. Sometimes I think I need to remove all comfortable furniture from my house so maybe I would be forced to stop sitting. all. the. time.

I'm looking forward to stepping on the thingy and letting it calculate my BMI while watching my little personalized Wii character blow up into something resembling Jabba the Hutt. Okay, maybe not looking forward to that part. But I am looking forward to trying the things I've heard other people talking about. I'm sure that for a lot of people Wii Fit turns into the electronic version of the treadmill with laundry hanging on it and it may become that for me too. But I need to find that out for myself.

What I wanted to know from anyone who has the game system, what else do I need to get right away? I bought the game console which comes with Wii Sports. Then I tacked on Wii Fit. It will probably only be me using it but there is the possibility I may rope my son or BF into doing it with me sometime. So do I need to buy extra remotes, a charger, any of that kind of thing? I'm just looking for recommendations. I am assuming that the 2 things I bought comes with what you need to use it. But since I've never even seen one before, I have no idea what one needs to use it!!!

So, if anyone can tell me what I need I would appreciate the info and it would be wonderful to hear from somebody who LOVES their Wii and who has lost loads of weight using Wii Fit. Success stories, if you will. Anybody? Buehler?

What mind?

So what do I do with a daughter who comments on my blog and I can't tell it's her? Each time she has done it I'm like "ooh, a new reader, cool!" I click on the name of the commenter and it doesn't go anywhere. And I am disapointed that I am not able to see this new person who visited my place on the web.

Actually, now that I think about it, my BF has done it too a couple of times. I recognized him one of the times, but not the next time or 2. He was surprised I didn't know it was him because he apparently threw something into his comment that I would pick up on. Uh . . . no.

My daughter too. This last time she called herself "D. B. Mergle Gurgle" and I replied to her as D.B.M-G - . She laughed and posted again - Mom! That was me! She thought I would catch the D.B. which are her initials. Uh . . . no.

Now I'm starting to wonder if my son has done it . . . no, pretty sure he couldn't be bothered. Okay well, I'm on the lookout now. But really - it's not much of an accomplishment to put something like that over on me. Afterall, I have been known to be easily confused and distracted by shiny objects.

Is this something that happens to other people - or is it just me?

Really???

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I have never been a fan of Peta, but this is a horrible comparison. They will never gain my support by doing things like this.

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Maxine Monday

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Get ready to say aww-w-w-w-w ....

TIRED

SO-o-o-o tired. Like I don’t even want to get up to pee tired. It was an awful no, goofy, it was a bizarre day at work today. I stayed late and still barely got a thing done all day. Can you say VERSION CHANGE?? Yeah. ‘Nuff said about that.

Went to the grocery story on my way home and bought copious amounts of fruit and some vegetables, all things that are good for me. Well, I did sneak in one frozen pizza, a little one. Other than that I gave the cashier fits as he was in training and you know what produce can be like. Poor guy.

I realized I must have crossed some kind of threshold when the young checker called me Ma’am and I didn’t cringe, and I felt compelled to encourage the boy - that he’ll be doing it with his eyes closed in no time. Like a Mom.

By the time I got home and got everybody fed and groceries put away, it was all I could do to wash some cherries and sit down and read a few blogs. With Cherries. But what did I find as I rounded the sofa … puke. Cat puke. Not a lot, THAT was over by my bedroom door. No, this was small but not unobtrusive by any means. It was right across my laptop power cord. You can thank me at any time for not taking a picture for you. I thought about it while I was cussing under my breath and having fantasies of posting this and having people come from far and wide to give my cats better homes where people don’t mind the puke, the pill giving, the hair everywhere and the patting their face while they sleep.

It’s just a fantasy I know. In real life I clean up all the puke and get turned into the ASPCA for thinking bad thoughts about my cats.

An orange jumpsuit doesn’t seem so bad about now.

Maxine Monday

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