Once again, there isn't a great deal I was able to find out that would validate the claims made for another spice I use a lot - hing.

Here's what I did find out.

I was surprised to learn that hing has been called some pretty uncomplimentary names in many languages, usually alluding to the devil: merde du diable (devil's shit) in French, devil's dung and stinking gum in English, Dyvelsträck in Swedish, and Seytantersi in Turkish, among others!

I quite like the aroma of this spice (admittedly quite strong) even before it is added to oil or hot water.  So this was news to me, that to so many people the smell of raw hing is not appealing at all. However, the flavor released after hing has been fried in a little bit of oil is described variously as being akin to that of shallots/leeks/garlic, and in fact the spice seems to be used by many - such as those communities in India that do not use onions and garlic in their cooking - for this reason.

The English name for hing -Asoefetida- is derived from the Persian word "aza", which means resin, and the Latin foetidus, for "stinking".

This spice, reddish brown or yellow in color, is a gum resin obtained from the sap of the giant fennel plant Ferula Asoefetida , of the family Umbelliferae.  The entire plant gets used as a vegetable, and all its parts give off a strong odor, a result of the sulfur compounds that it contains. This plant is native to Iran and Afghanistan, though most of the raw asoefetida from these places is sent to India for further processing. In India this plant is grown in Kashmir.

Commercially available forms of this spice include both hard pieces of the resin, as well as a powder form in which the resin is mixed with rice flour and gum arabic, after being crushed.

Asoefetida, believed to aid digestion, is commonly used in Indian cooking, albeit usually only a pinch at a time, to prevent flatulence. It is also believed to be an effective anti-spasmodic.

In traditional medicine it is often used as an antidote to brochitis,asthma, bronchitis and whooping cough. In earlier times in Europe, it's strong smell was thought to repel germs, and to help calm episodes of hysteria.

And apparently court singers in the Mughal empire would habitually eat a spoon of asoefetida with butter in the belief that it improved their singing voice.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/37633/asafetida

http://www.theepicentre.com/Spices/asafetid.html

http://www.kurma.net/glossary/g1.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asafoetida

Roman

Mom is exhausted, as usual.  She's hoping tomorrow's Procrit injection will help.  She's talking about going out to lunch with a friend tomorrow, but she may be too tired.

She's reminiscing a lot.  She keeps talking about all the things she would have done differently, and how much she regrets her actions, or more often lack of action.  She doesn't talk much about smoking, but I know that's been one of her regrets.

I saw someone I care very much about tonight.  She's thought about quitting smoking but hasn't done it yet.  She has the same cough my mother used to have.  I watched her whole body shake from that nasty wet cough, and I had to fight the urge to grab her by the shoulders and shake her.

If her family has to go through what my family is living through, it will destroy them.

Then Saturday night we went to our nephew's 10th birthday party.  We had a really good time there.  While we were there, we were eating watermelon and I had cut some up for Ariyana.  She was eating them just fine, then my sister-in-law picked her up and i continued to feed her.  All of a sudden she acted like she was choking and then she just started throwing up....all in my hand and then in the kitchen sink.  Luckily we were standing in the kitchen next to the sink.  Other than that, the party was good.

On Sunday we went down to Melissa's (my sister) to take Ariyana's one year old pictures after church.  Ariyana still had her cough and it was still getting worse.  The church nursery said that they could tell Ariyana wasn't feeling well.  They said she is always such a happy baby and today she was just clingy and not happy.  We asked them when she would move up to the next room there because the one she is in is for birth to crawlers and she is now walking.  They said that it was really up to us, but that we could keep her in that room for a little longer until she was good at walking.  They said the next room has some big kids and they are a little rougher so it would be good if Ariyana could hold her own before she moved up.  The lady that watched her during the service said that she didn't want Ariyana to move to it because she really enjoyed watching her and would be jealous if she was over there.

After church we headed to Melissa's house.  When we got there Ariyana went right to Melissa, which is usually a good sign that she will be okay for the pictures.  We decided to do the cupcake picture first just in case she wasn't feeling well enough to do other pictures.  We put her in her white onsie and put the cupcake in front of her.  It was chocolate with pink icing.   She looked at it and put her finger in it.  Then she looked at her hand like what the crap is this on my hand.  She looked over at me and started to whine a little.  Then I took some icing and tried to put it in her mouth but she just turned away...I can't believe Ariyana didn't want food.  Anyway, then she stuck her foot in the icing and then her leg.....Needless to say she had it all over her leg but didn't eat any.  After I washed all the icing off, we put her in the GT cheerleading outfit and took some pics.  She wouldn't be still for them so we would stand her as far back on the paper as we could and then get out of the way and she would start walking toward Melissa and she would snap the pics.  Then we did some pictures in the Georgia cheerleading outfit and did the same thing. Then we put her birthday outfit on and finished up the session.  Through all this, her cough continued to get worse.

We got home and fed Ariyana dinner.  While I was feeding her she did the same thing as Saturday night, she acted like she was choking and then started throwing up everything.  It startled her so bad that she started crying....it was sad :(  It was also the nastiest thing....she covered her whole high chair tray with throw up....I thought Zach and me were going to lose it too.  It was hard to swallow.  After we cleaned all that up and her, we decided to give her some puffs and cheerios (because they are a little more solid so if they came back up it wouldn't be as nasty).  Well some of them came back up too.  It was a rough night to say the least.  Then she was so congested she couldn't sleep, she was up til 1am crying.  She would stop if we held her but as soon as we put her down, she started to cry again.  I gave her a bottle at 12am because I thought she might be hungry since she didn't keep her dinner down...It seemed to help her because from 12am to 1am she was awake but not crying....just laying in her crib talking to herself and animals.

There’s nothing like a breath of fresh air. Living in the Houston, Texas area, especially living in the central part of the city doesn’t give you much of a chance to take a breath of fresh air – but fortunately I live in the north Houston area where we have trees, spaces and not as much population so we are not plagued with a lot of pollution. We can breathe fresh air almost all the time . Our fact for today concerns our breathing.

Our lungs inhale over two million litres of air every day, without even thinking. They are large enough to cover a tennis court.

Several months ago a friend of mind suffered what he thought was a heart attack because of the severity and location of a pain in his chest. After taking a shower and the pain continuing to escalate, he drove himself to the hospital, contacting his doctor on the way. After several tests, it was discovered that he did not have a heart attack, but a collapsed lung. He is not a smoker, a drinker or a druggie – a very healthy, strong and health conscious man. He had was they call a Spontaneous pneumothorax, which occurs when the lung collapses with no apparent injury of trauma. It seems that there are small air-filled sacs in the lung called “blebs” and they can rupture and leak air into the pleural space. Apparently there is no way of knowing when this might occur, if it ever does – it just happens.

Craig Fruedenrich, PhD wrote an article which can be found in http://www.howstuffworks.health.com/lung.htm in which he states that a person breathes in and out anywhere from 10 to 25 times per minute and at a faster rate when you exercise, and fortunately you can’t stop yourself from breathing even if you try. Of course, we all know the function of the lungs – to get rid of the carbon dioxide (which is bad gas) in our body in exchange for oxygen (which is good gas). This is a very informative article and gives a lot of useful information on the function of the lungs as well as how to keep them healthy.

Our lungs are one of the organs in our body that we take for granted because they work and we never give it a thought unless we become short of breath because of exercising, or a common cold with a cough or are unfortunate enough to have a lung disease such as asthma, cystic fibrosis or some other lung problem that requires constant medical attention.

A short, cursory search for any correlation between healthy lungs and diet did not afford much information – one study indicated that apples were a deterrent for lung dysfunction and several studies proposed that Vitamin C and E are good for the lungs, but everyone agrees that even a minimum amount of exercise is the best thing one can do to insure that their lungs will work well – so here we are again, back to a healthy diet, and light to moderate exercise.

Think Thin Thoughts!

Adinear

Leah has a terrible, terrible cough. It all started with a simple cold about two weeks ago and now we are having to give her breathing treatments. I actually had a lady in the bathroom at the fair give me advice as to what to give her for her cough.

Why is it then that doctors prescribe antibiotics for these illnesses?  Sometimes doctors prescribe them simply because you want them.  Why then do you get better after taking some of the antibiotic?  Because the disease has run its course and it just happens to coincide with your use of antibiotics.  Sometimes they prescribe them because the illness has drug on for close to a week and they want to make sure it has not turned into a bacterial infection.  They are "covering their butts", so to speak or covering all the basis.  Sometimes they can tell from your symptoms that you have acquired a bacterial infection along with your virus. 

Just from being a mom, I don't have any medical training so this is NOT medical advice,  here are the symptoms and signs that you or your child might have a bacterial infection and need to see a doctor.

• Green snot, boogers, discharge- whatever you want to call it.  If the stuff coming out of your nose or being coughed up is green, you probably need to see a doctor.
• Ear pain- not to be confused with the feeling that they are plugged.  However, children cannot tell the difference.  Little babies who cannot talk will rub their ear constantly, tug on it, cry a lot, scream when the ear is touched (sometimes)
• High fever- For children, their temperature can go quite high when their body is fighting a virus.  Even up to 103 with none of the other symptoms in my list could mean their body is just doing its job.  If they have high fever and it scares you, call your doctor.  Adults, anything over 101 is probably a sign of needing to see the doctor.  Adults bodies handle viruses differently than children and high fevers are in the "need to see the doctor" realm at a much lower range.
• Severe headache in the front of the head or in the face- could be signs of a sinus infection.  If a hot shower does not help and moving around makes it feel like your face is going to fall right off your head and it has lasted for several days, call the doctor.  Dark circles under the eyes or puffiness in the face sometimes occurs with this sinus pain.
• Symptoms of Croup in children-Croup almost always occurs at night.  Children with croup bark like a seal.  It's a little more high pitched than the bronchitis-like bark that we hear more often.  Their breathing sounds raspy like they can't get enough air.  They may complain that it hurts in their throat and chest area but differently than the "I have a sore throat" complaints.  Croup also causes "chest retraction".  Normal breathing in children, the stomach portion of their body naturally puffs outward when they inhale.  When a child has croup, it does the opposite.  The stomach sucks way in and the rib area puffs out a little as the lungs try to suck in air that won't come in very easily.  Children with severe croup may have a gray tinge to their skin or their lips may be blue.  If the gray tinge or blue lips is present, this is an emergency.  If there skin and lips are normal color, you can try something.  Take the child outside into the cool night air.  If you are concerned about the cold temperatures, wrap them up but leave their face out so the cold, moist night air can get into their lungs.  If their barking does not subside, you can also turn the shower on hot and let it run while your child sits in the bathroom (not in the hot shower, silly) for 10 min. or so.  As soon as you turn the shower off, take the child immediately outside.  This sort of shocks the bronchial tubes and sometimes works better than just going outside.

Anyway, back to the home remedies for cold and flu season:

1. Hot beverages- with children, make them warm, not hot.
2. No dairy- dairy increases mucus/snot
3. Chicken soup- really!  Studies show that something in chicken soup really does work but they don't know what it is. . ..
4. Vicks Vapor Rub- rub on chest, back, or even feet to thin mucus. 
5. Hot Shower- in childern, make it warm but a shower will have more ongoing steam than a bath.  Then wrap up really warm and take a nap.
6. Sleep sitting closer to upright position to reduce coughing.  Sleep with 2 pillows or in your recliner.  With infants, place a folded blanket underneath their crib mattress on one end.  Do not put it in with the infant but between the mattress and springy part.
7. Rest

Sure, why not...every other crazy thing gets its designated holiday. January has Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day and May has National Nutty Fudge Day (make up your own jokes). Festivus!

It seems that every patron who comes in is celebrating National Wet, Hacking Cough Month (in their own special, phlegmy way). And what ever happened to covering when you cough, anyway? Ick.

Skipped core meeting ‘coz going to Manila from the office is so much stressful. The least thing I could do. I just won’t stretch myself too much this weekend. Good thing Garry, Petus, Cherrie, Louie and Ate Eunice are just so nice to excuse me. Then I know, they’re wondering what am I up to. How am I not just physically. I’m sure they just get that feel when I’m not OK. And they’re gracious enough to give me a breather. Hay, sorry ah. Minsan lang naman to.

I have been hanging out outside of The Loop.

I have still to hear Palin speak. I haven't been able to download even a quick and dirty sneak peek at any of the election debates. The simplest Youtube takes roughly 10 years to download. Blog buzz tells me that Palin will make my vagina wince and Obama is cleaning McCain's old man clock. But nothing made me beam with joy and excitment as much as this (somewhat shocking) West Virgina presidential election polls. My god. Life is Definately on the upswing.

This one's full of a lot of personal health information. If you're here for the recipes and fitness updates, feel free to skip.

I don't have any secrets. To my coworkers who are reading, this includes telling people at work. PLEASE DO tell them where I am and how I'm doing if they ask.

There's bad news and good news today.

You all know by now I spent most of Friday night in the E.R. and have had some serious problems getting "asthma" under control for 3 weeks now. I saw a pulmonologist today. I saw Dr. Derel Finch at Minor & James. I have to tell you Dr. Finch is a WONDERFUL doctor. I truly lucked out in finding him. If you ever have any need for a pulmonologist in the Seattle area, I could not recommend him any more highly. He was personable and truly cared about the issue at hand, its treatment, and how all of the above would potentially effect my life. As you know, these qualities aren't all that common in many specialists. Add to that his exceptional knowledge, and he's a keeper for sure.

His first inclination was possibly viral bronchiolitis or pertussis (aka whooping cough). However, due to the treatments I've already had over the last 2-3 weeks, he fairly quickly eliminated both of those as they would have cleared with the medications I've been taking. He mentioned some possibilities at this point of severe bronchiolitis combined with asthma, or various autoimmune-related inflammatory lung diseases. He said my wheezing did sound a bit like asthma, but it hadn't responded to treatment as he'd expect asthma to, and there's still a low rumbly crackle in the lower left lung. For those who don't know, O2 saturation is how much oxygen is in my blood compared to how much should be there. It's a percentage, and goes up to 100. Mine is still hovering around 94-96, with occasional lower drops, so not great but not terrible either. In the ER it was down to 93, which is not good. He is pretty certain that there is some overlap with the Ankylosing Spondylitis and this lung thing, so he's really looking into inflammatory issues. He mentioned Interstitial Lung Disease, which frankly scared the crap out of me.

He had me get a CT Scan as well as do bloodwork. He ordered a CBC, CRP (inflammation marker) and basic metabolic along with some standard other inflammation tests. He wants to eliminate the pertussis possibility, so is also checking for antibodies. Lastly, he ordered something that I remember as aVLA? I think, from the Googling I did, that it's to check for antibodies that would show my immune system attacking my lungs. But I am not sure I have the initials right.

He called me himself this evening with the CT scan results and told me that "there's nothing devastating" on the CT, and we're narrowing it down, but it's treatable. So that's GREAT news. The film has not been read by the radiologist yet, but in looking at it himself, he saw some pretty major inflammation in my bronchioles. A disease called BOOP (even more here) is currently the most likely diagnosis. The only real downside of that is that fairly standard treatment is up to a year of high-dose prednisone. But at this point, whatever works!

I am to see him again on Monday afternoon. He doesn't want me to even consider going back to work this week, and I am to lie low and watch tv or read, essentially. Anyone got any DVD's I can borrow?

One piece of good news: despite all the puffiness in my face and extremities from the prednisone, I'm still down at 222 fully clothed in the doc's office, and 221 this morning in PJ's. So once the pred-puff goes down, I should be down around 210! I started at 232. I'm pretty proud of that. Sometimes, it's the little things :-) Honestly I cannot wait to be able to exercise again. After stopping coughing and starting breathing, re-ramping up the exercise is a HUGE goal. I will ask the doc on Monday if I can at least do the "chair workouts" that are made for folks with arthritis so I can try to keep up some strength.

Lastly, re medications, he had me do some "consolidating" - it's still a LOT of medication, but as he said, we have to do whatever we have to do to get this under control.

This is what I am on now. Feel free to fill me in on any experiences you may have had with any of them:

MORNING:
Spironolactone 200mg
Armour Thyroid 65mcg
Zyrtec 10mg
Albuterol 2 puffs
Prednisone 60mg (until I see him next week and we will re-discuss)
Brovana 15mcg in nebulizer (new)
Pulmocort Respules .5mg in nebulizer (new)

PRN:
Albuterol inhaler - 2 puffs as needed
Hydromet (Hycodan) - 1 tsp every 4 hours to control cough

EVENING:
Trazadone 50-100mg as needed for sleep
Singulair
Benadryl 25-50mg as needed
Hydromet (Hycodan) - 1 tsp every 4 hours
Brovana 15mcg in nebulizer (new)
Pulmocort Respules .5mg in nebulizer (new)

I can haz a break now?

Amy

I am torn between having fun and a social life, and the busyness of everything else. I really like to be busy, and I welcome new activities and people to hang out with and building better friendships, but man it makes me tired. I have to be careful to not make myself overly busy. 

I have a lot of projects due next week.

And I think I'm going to bake sugar skulls for my Latin American art history class day of the dead alter project (I know, weird) with my friend Kat.

Should be fun.

Ernest seems to enjoy the icepacks very much. We still don't know how he concocted Down Syndrome. There has been a response from one doctor who says he may just have a high fever, but we all know doctors are silly. It's the shamen from the Nordic lands that you have to trust.

You think I'm joking. Well I kid you not. One time my partner was injured in the field by a obese baby sea elephant. We had been kayaking to the villain's secret lair when Charles, my partner, let out a great whooping cry. It seems his marriage had been too much of a strain on him. Not everyone can afford to trust their spouse with the secret of their job. I, however, trust my family enough not to blab what I do to the world. Although Ernest has come close many a time.

The obese baby sea elephant, thinking that the whooping cry was the noise of his favorite toy, jumped at Charles and squashed him. Hearing the noise, the evil villain came out to see what the fuss was. I called for a Shaman, who sprinkled paprika on the scene while chanting "Colors of the Wind". Miraculously, Charles awoke and the baby sea lion was dead. That night we had some sea lion fat shishkabob. I passed, it just seemed a bit too crude for my tastes. But I did manage to inject poison into the villain's portion of sea elephant fat.

Ernest is crying again. Better go calm him down before he wets himself too much. That would be disastrous.

Did I also tell you that Ernest has started to wet himself in the usual sense of the word as well? It's life-endangering for him. Grapes is so worried. Oh, this troublesome Down Syndrome.

So the past two weeks I've been pretty sick fighting a cold, the flu, and now bronchitis. I topically never get sick, but this bug somehow got me. Least I don't have pneumonia or anything.Saturday after conference I slept at my sisters house. I didn't even get to sleep a wink that night. In the morning my wonderful mom took me to the doctor to get me checked up (that has never happened in 25 years). And the doctor told me that I had bronchitis. So now I have cough syrup and an inhaler. Yep, an inhaler. I was against the inhaler but my dear ol' mom made me get it.

Definition: Bronchitis is an inflammation of the main air passages to the lungs.

Causes: Acute bronchitis generally follows a viral respiratory infection. Initially, it affects your nose, sinuses, and throat and then spreads to the lungs. Sometimes, you may get another (secondary) bacterial infection in the airways. This means that bacteria infect the airways, in addition to the virus.

]]> http://rainbowpodsquad.wordpress.com/?p=1577 Mon, 06 Oct 2008 13:45:46 +0000 Tom in Thailand http://rainbowpodsquad.hi.wordpress.com/2008/10/06/tit-episode-12-political-mess/

•    Welcome, to episode 12
•    October is finally here…
•    Seasonal sickness is universal
•    Why do dry coughs linger?
•    Hello to my new listener Khristina!
•    Comments from PizzaBabe and Ms. Bulah!
•    Halloween is Tom’s 2nd favorite holiday
•    Freddy or Jason?
•    Hooray!!! Tigger is Back!
•    Strained conversations with my brother
•    Update on the new condo
•    Preparing to move
•    Is there anything more unpleasant than moving?
•    Markup prices in retail stores
•    Tom’s 2 cents on Palin
•    The cute card is all she’s got
•    This isn’t a job you can learn as you go!
•    The hot mess of an interview
•    Her logic means I’ve experience with Burma, Laos, and Vietnam
•    Did their plan backfire on them?
•    This isn’t a Mother of the Year contest!
•    More political laughs here in Thailand
•    Fugitive Ex PM and wife seek political asylum in Britain
•    Shame on Britain if they accept them!
•    Isn’t his brother-in-law Prime Minister now?
•    Why is politics such a dirty business?  It just bothers me.
•    Public Service announcement from Kiko!
•    Closing remarks and love
•    Email or Comment!
•    Please call and leave me a message or I’ll lose the line

Email me at tomnthai@gmail.com or comment or you can call my voice line and leave me a message.  I promise I’ll play it and respond on the next episode!

Also, Better make sure you go check out my fellow podcasters at the Rainbowpodsquad and the Freak Network cause there are some really excellent shows over there to suit your tastes no matter who you are.

For Direct Download: Right Click Here | The Freak Network | The RainbowPodSquad

Subscribe to Tom in Thailand in Itunes: Click here

[audio http://media.libsyn.com/media/tominthailand/T.I.T._Podcast_Episode_12-Political_Mess.mp3]

•    Welcome, to episode 12
•    October is finally here…
•    Seasonal sickness is universal
•    Why do dry coughs linger?
•    Hello to my new listener Khristina!
•    Comments from PizzaBabe and Ms. Bulah!
•    Halloween is Tom’s 2nd favorite holiday
•    Freddy or Jason?
•    Hooray!!! Tigger is Back!
•    Strained conversations with my brother
•    Update on the new condo
•    Preparing to move
•    Is there anything more unpleasant than moving?
•    Markup prices in retail stores
•    Tom’s 2 cents on Palin
•    The cute card is all she’s got
•    This isn’t a job you can learn as you go!
•    The hot mess of an interview
•    Her logic means I’ve experience with Burma, Laos, and Vietnam
•    Did their plan backfire on them?
•    This isn’t a Mother of the Year contest!
•    More political laughs here in Thailand
•    Fugitive Ex PM and wife seek political asylum in Britain
•    Shame on Britain if they accept them!
•    Isn’t his brother-in-law Prime Minister now?
•    Why is politics such a dirty business?  It just bothers me.
•    Public Service announcement from Kiko!
•    Closing remarks and love
•    Email or Comment!
•    Please call and leave me a message or I’ll lose the line

Email me at tomnthai@gmail.com or comment or you can call my voice line and leave me a message.  I promise I’ll play it and respond on the next episode!

Also, Better make sure you go check out my fellow podcasters at the Rainbowpodsquad and the Freak Network cause there are some really excellent shows over there to suit your tastes no matter who you are.

For Direct Download: Right Click Here | The Freak Network | The RainbowPodSquad

Subscribe to Tom in Thailand in Itunes: Click here

[audio http://media.libsyn.com/media/tominthailand/T.I.T._Podcast_Episode_12-Political_Mess.mp3]

I am sorry!

To anyone and anything that I have ever harmed, offended, hurt, lied to, pissed off, beat-up, injured, maimed, killed, insulted, wounded, etc.
I am S.O.R.R.Y.

Please, please, please forgive me and remove the blessed puking curse that has taken over my household.

Last night the Little One fussed for a couple minutes, then coughed and then was quiet. I didn't even get up to check on her because the entire episode lasted all of three minutes. She wasn't wailing, gagging, wretching or anything else that resembled the telltale puking signs. She fussed and coughed and then seemingly went back to sleep oblivion.

Oblivion, my butt. This is what it looked liked in her room at 7:15 when I went to get her up.
And the smell is beyond any words that I can even come up with.

As disgusting as this all is, it is further proof that the Little One is the sweetest child on the face of the Earth. Would you smile like this if you were covered in caked-on puke?

It must be 5 o'clock somewhere, right?

When I picked up the nebulizer a couple of hours ago, I had to pay out of pocket. Insurance Co. wanted me to drive to Lynnwood to go get it at their "preferred" place for medical supplies. Crazy. Driving 30 miles during an asthma attack is NOT realistic. Seriously people, just pay the $125 in order to try to prevent an ER visit...

TMI detail: don't say i didn't warn you! This is "cough variant asthma" where I go into uncontrollable coughing fits, and often don't stop coughing til I throw up. I also lose bladder control when I cough so hard. I was joking with Luis a bit this morning that I'm bringing sexy back with Poise pads.

I could use the power of prayer right now, as this is a little scary.

Over the past few days I have been down with the flu (from hell), you know the symptoms fuzziness in my head, I could hardly concentrate on anything, the fever, the aches and pains (I promise you I could feel all my joints AT THE SAME TIME), the itchiness in your ears, eyes and throat and the cough, the never ending cough that makes me want to lynch off my lungs and rinse them in cool water.

And it is the moments of the temporarily insanity caused by high fever that you think you have super powers, so as I sat in my sweat drenched bed (thanks to the fever) thinking on how to make my otherwise miserable feeling self feel better; I started going through all the superpowers I know, and landed on my all time favorite TELEPORTATION, I wish I could move through time and space.

Why time you may ask, well because I would go a few years back to watch my mom prepare her flu-cure and note all the ingredients down; this is a concoction that healed you at the thought of it only; it was greenish and I know it had ginger and lemons, to make it better my mom would add honey (trust me it did not help, it was bitter that quinine) after two glasses of that concoction and an hour of sweating (as the ‘medicine’ worked) you were good to go; and although all the four of us screamt and scuamed as the lethal liquid was forced down our throats, I now totally appreciate it. And that’s why I want to teleport myself to my mother’s house at the moment, because knowing I wouldn’t be busy complaining because of a cough she and her remedies would be on top gear towards my recovery and although I would never tell her this (teenage rebellion) I did appreciate all the care she showed me (at the moment I thought she was plain ruthless) and right now if only I could have super powers I would teleport myself home, to that green concoction and mothers un-ending love.

ciao

You know what I mean.  I'm sitting here with our handsome 7 mo old, admiring our work and all the while he's passing gas.  Not a care in the world that his mommy's blaming me for the strange, but somehow familiar smell that's overtaking the entire room.  I swear, it's a daily event here.

It must be daddy's fault.  He's definitely his father's son.  God, he stinks like you.  I've heard it all now.

The cute little buggers can laugh and play and be so cute then, BANG!  Another smell crushes your senses and it's diaper change time.  I really hate that.  He'll just giggle away while I have to clean something I don't even like doing for myself!  Stinky, stinky, stinky!

And what is it with boys that like to spray everywhere?  The first couple of changes were challenging as this is my first child and I've never had to change diapers.  DO NOT, under ANY circumstances, leave a boy exposed to the air.  There's something about air and exposed flesh that cause near instantaneous fountains of urine that's sure to go all over the place including you, your cloths, sofa, carpet, wall, etc.

For number ones, I've learned to position the new diaper under him, then quickly slide the spoiled one out and cover with the new one.  Clean as needed.

Number twos are risky.  I get the replacement diaper ready and set next to the boy, but out of reach, otherwise he'll grab it and the whole plan goes in the toilet....

Then I pull out and position a few wipes on the otherside of him, slide the old diaper down some, wipe down and put nasty wipes on spoiled diaper covering the mess so he doesn't roll into it.  During this whole ordeal I'm coughing and gagging, but making my way through it just praying he doesn't spray.  I can't wait to get the new diaper on him.

I'm always relieved when another change goes without a hitch.  Or better still, his mama changes it.  Yeah, that's my favorite!

I love this little monster child, but this boy sure can be gross.  Time give him a kiss.

Her record is so extreme that she has perhaps done more harm to animals than any other current governor in the United States

Palin is not only a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association, but is also a close ally of Safari Club International. These radical groups don’t represent rank-and-file hunters, but instead lobby on behalf of their elitist, wealthy members to defend despicable and unsporting practices such as captive trophy hunts, bear baiting, and steel-jawed leghold traps—practices that real hunters agree are inhumane and unacceptable. And the Palin Administration, in lock-step with these extreme anti-conservationists, has waged an all-out war on Alaska’s predators to artificially boost the populations of moose and caribou for trophy hunters. Palin has tried to pass legislation making it easier for state officials to gun down wolves and bears from the sky, and even offered a $150 bounty for the left foreleg of each dead wolf as an economic incentive for pilots and aerial gunners to kill more of the animals.

Leading up to last week’s statewide vote on Measure 2 to stop the aerial shooting of wolves and bears, Palin’s Board of Game spent $400,000 of public money on brochures and radio ads to influence the election. She not only took an inhumane and unsporting position at odds with the principles of wildlife management and fair chase, but did it in an undemocratic and underhanded way.

Since Alaska is not protecting its wolves from aerial hunting, the U.S. Congress has stepped in and is now considering the Protect America’s Wildlife (PAW) Act, which would close a loophole in federal law that allows the shooting of animals from airplanes and helicopters. But Gov. Palin has attacked that effort, too, and used her office to criticize the federal legislation. She wrote in a press release that the bill’s author “doesn’t understand rural Alaska and “doesn’t comprehend wildlife management in the North.”