Oregon anti-meth law would require prescriptions - Yahoo! News

What idiot thought this one up?

For Oregon to make Sudafed, Nyquil, and any other cold/allergy medicine that contains pseudoephendrine in it, illegal without a prescription is like forcing people to have a police authority to buy fertilizer just because a few idiots use it to make bombs.

This does not fix the problem and only ends up hurting the masses who largely are only using the medicine for colds and allergies. They just created a black market for Sudafed in Oregon, and who needs to make meth if they can just sell pharmaceuticals.

Have they even thought how they will deal with visitors that might not have a doctor in the state to get a prescription from? Am I going to get searched the next time I fly into Oregon because I might have some Sudafed in my bag?

The Oklahoma law sounds much more like what needs to occur in Oregon. It makes sense to require ID and limit purchasing (just like they do for fertilizer in a few states, by the way).

Next Blog Please

Apparently, late night blogging is the trend.

I was getting ready to call it a night and decided to check my blog one last time (I just recently put a new counter on it that gives me lots of info and I find it cool to see who is reading). I also just put a little thing that tells me how many people are on it at one time....

I have refreshed twice now in five minutes and it still says there are 5 people on my blog. So I went to my counter and refreshed the details a few times and each time I do, a new person pops up.

Looks like most of them are just doing the "next blog" button because the referring websites are sometimes those annoying advertising blogs and some are just other blogs that are not related to me in any way.

Anyhow, I didn't realize how much the "next blog" button gets used late on Saturday nights....very interesting...

Beano Works

Last week, I made this easy recipe a friend gave me for Taco Soup. Unfortunately something in it gives gas to individuals in this household that shall remain unnamed.

So when I took the second half out of the freezer (the recipe makes a lot so I end up freezing half right off), I decided to give Beano a chance. I have used it in the past in a precautionary capacity but didn't know for sure if it was working or if whatever I made just wasn't gas producing...you know how some things affect people in different ways.

Anyhow, knowing in advance that this recipe would cause "toots", we did the Beano and I have to say the house remained gas free....so if you ever wondered if it works, it does.

By the way, this is reference to the liquid version that you put on your first bite...I don't know how well the pills work.

Physical Evidence

Well, here is evidence of what our easement looked like again this morning after a late afternoon and all night rainstorm...looks a lot like the before picture on the other post, huh?

I talked to J last night about it, and funny because when he got home, he thought to himself that I just didn't get to it...little did he know that I did and it was all for nothing.

We figured out that the water has to cross our street somewhere, and so today, I am going to try to force it to start crossing before it hits our property but I am not putting any vegetation back until I am sure how it is going to go, so I will just be piling it in our yard for now. Fortunately today, not as much sand was moved so I don't have as much heavy reconstruction to do but I do plan to some.

I have to head out to Lowe's to get a round point shovel as the square point shovel I used yesterday is great for what I used it for but not so great for digging trenches (which is what I have to do on the undeveloped neighboring easement to get the water to cross early. I might pick up some extra pinestraw to dress up some other areas in the yard as well.

J might have at least part of tomorrow off, and even though I have a soccer tournament out of town, he might be able to devote some time to finish up or make changes depending on the results from today.

I wish we could just build a retaining wall, level our yard, and fill the ditch with big rocks....but I don't think that is in the plan or budget at this time.

___________________
Update: I did finally get my ass outside to work on the yard after purchasing the shovel. I made some progress, found a bunch of rocks that were hidden under sand (some of which I used to build a little dam and shore up the side of our driveway), but didn't get enough done to take any pictures. When I stopped, the sky had clouded over and I could hear thunder in the background so we will see how much rain we get tonight...

What Not To Wear

Is it just me or do the hosts of this show on TLC really have no fashion sense...today the lady was wearing an animal print shirt with kelly green shiny elbow length gloves...

Work Wasted

Right now I am so mad I can barely type.

This is what the easement in front of my house and my driveway looked like this morning after a completely awesome (house rattling awesome) lightening and thunder storm (that included way too much rain) last night at 1am. I was awake for it because it was so awesome and I could see during the lightening that it was going to be a mess this morning but I had no idea that most of our easement would be in the street.

So I got out nice and early (thankfully it was only super humid today and not super hot as well) and proceeded to work my ass off for 3-4 hours fixing the mess and cleaning our gutters out. Fixing the mess entailed, raking the vegetation all to one area to use later, shoveling all the sand out of the road and back to the easement and then covering the sand after spreading it, with the vegetation. I also managed to save a large amount of our driveway gravel that had been washed into the road, and replaced that as I came across it.

After completing that, I moved onto the gutters that I saw were overflowing last night during the storm. That entailed getting a step ladder out, so I could bring down the attic ladder so I could get to the extension ladder that we keep in the attic (don't ask, it is a discussion we don't even want to go into). Once I got the extension ladder down from the attic (which is a death defying trick in itself), I proceeded to repeatedly put it up against the gutter along the house, climb it, clean the gutter I could reach, climb back down, and then move it along. I was doing it this way because getting on my roof when it is wet from torrential rains will kill you.

All of this (there was some sweeping involved too) took, like I said, about 3-4 hours. I was pleased with myself and my industriousness and went inside to take a shower and eat lunch.

It is now just after 6pm my time, and it has been torrentially raining for 45 minutes and all the work I did on the easement and driveway was for nothing. It is back the way it was this morning if not worse....I am so pissed I could spit nails. Of course it is also lightening and thundering so I can not even start to work on it without a chance of electrocution.

You can bet I will be out there first thing in the morning cleaning it up again (even though it is supposed to continue this weather through the weekend) but I will be diverting my plan a bit. This stupid town we live in, does not have storm drains but I plan to put a ditch into city property tomorrow regardless. The only thing I am hoping, is that the construction crew does not work Saturdays or they will be watching me fix it all over again, laughing to themselves I am sure.

Passing In The Night

I think I saw J for a total of 20 minutes in the last two days. He is just working crazy hours and it seems when he is home, I am at soccer for some reason...hmmmm.

It won't last, it is a temporary thing, but it is still frustrating because he is the only one I have to spill all my exciting daily happenings to (they aren't really that exciting but he knows that I like to fill him in on what happened, what I did and didn't do and what I think about all of it).

I have always been that way, and I am just lucky that I found someone that can tolerate it. I remember when I was a kid, I would jump my parents the second they came in the door to tell them all the stuff that had occured during the day. Many times I was told to wait until they got their coats off, and settled in before blasting them with endless chatter....yep, I was and probably would still be considered a chatterbox.

The only thing I can say is that I think I have gotten better at it and my stories are put together better and hopefully more interesting than when I was younger and I am sure half the story was filled with me saying "uhmmmm" so that I could keep my audience while figuring out what I wanted to say next...

Back Up

I don't know how many of you do this or not...but being the computer geek that I sometimes am, I thought I would mention it.

Back up your writings...if you want them sometime down the line, that is. I just went through all my archives and backed up any of the ones that I would be heartbroken to lose should a big server in the sky go down....(fingers crossed and wood being knocked as I write).

I just cut and paste them into Word, just gives me a piece of mind.

It Is One Or The Other

How is it that my only options for getting rid of my tank top and shorts lines on my skin are to lay out in blistering hot/humid 101 degree heat or during a thunderstorm????

Roses, Roses For Sale

My husband bought me a dozen beautiful roses for our anniversary and when I was putting away the receipt, I found that they were only $6.99....how is that possible? Doesn't it cost over 30 bucks for roses if you buy them from a flower shop?

I asked him about it and he said he too was surprised how inexpensive they were (he got them at a local fresh market), but figured that they must be from local growers and that perhaps explains it.

All I know is that if that is all they cost, I am going to start putting roses in my house each week instead of the carnations that I have been paying over 8 bucks for....why not? The smell alone of roses is worth it.

White House Warns Dems on Roberts Papers - Yahoo! News

They have got to be kidding....this guy is being nominated for a LIFETIME position and I think it is completely "in bounds" to ask for all information including memos from his prior stint as White House staff as well as whether he is a member of the Federal Society.

Not asking would be an injustice to the American people who have to live with this decision long after this administration is out of office. That is like not asking if he is a member of the KKK or something. This is information that Congress needs to know to make an informed decision regardless of whether they agree with his beliefs or not..

Dishonest Practices

It is amazing how when someone is doing something that they know they aren't supposed to be doing, the minute there is a witness, they change their tune.

I have not blogged about the construction going on across the street from my house in some time but it has been progressing, and aside from having to pick up their litter occasionally, it has not been as bad as imagined.

The thing is, that they are almost done with the house now, so last week, a truck from a landscaping company came and dumped a bunch of sand on the lot to be spread at a later date. I might mention here that there was a ton of litter on the lot but rather than clean that up first, they just spread the new dirt/sand right over it...nice huh? But that is the way things are in this part of the country, unfortunately.

Anyhow, today, the little tractor came that is doing the spreading and once that was done, it proceeded to clean up some of the other areas of the yard (mostly yard waste and tree parts). The thing of it was that they were dragging and dumping all this waste onto the adjacent property (which is not developed so only contains trees and undergrowth). I couldn't believe that this was what they were doing, as the little tractor thing is tearing up that piece of property, not to mention the cost to the owner (just because it is not developed doesn't mean it is not owned) to have all that stuff removed at some later date.

So I went out to check my mail and watched for a few minutes from my driveway...as soon as I started doing that, the guy on the ground went to the guy in the tractor to let him know he was being watched and then all of a sudden he started dumping his loads in the dumpster on the property....I didn't even have to say anything. I can't believe the gall of some people. As long as no one is watching, it is okay to throw common decency and consideration out the window.

Happy Anniversary

Today is my 13th wedding anniversary and I couldn't be happier. I just wanted to tell my husband thanks for making me the luckiest person in the world.

Bluebird Tragedy

Well folks, it looks like the eggs are not going to hatch. It has been 5 weeks now, and no chicks. Thing that really made me worry this week is the fact that the parents are not to be found.

According to the website I turned to yesterday for answers, they will often spend a lot of time hoping that a clutch will hatch (rather than giving up and moving on to the next clutch) and I think that might be what happened here. More than likely, the extremely warm weather we have been experiencing was too much for them. I am so disappointed, I really wanted to see these ones take off. I guess the later summer clutches don't hatch as easily as the spring ones do...

Looking at the area schedule, their third hatching is supposed to be in August, so perhaps if I get the nest cleaned out today, they will start a new nest this season and lay some eggs for August...we'll have to see I guess.

Grand Theft Auto

Where do I start with this one....I have so many issues I don't even know where to begin.

Okay, let's walk through this...we have a game that is already rated for 17 years and older because some idiot thinks we need to play at killing cops, stealing cars and creating general mayhem. The rating is there mostly to inform retailers and parents of the content, without having to actually play the game themselves, and to let kids know that this is definitely the game they want because it has all sorts of cool shit on it, right?

So we are assuming (or the rating board is) that at the age of 17 and older (which we know is NOT the age of most users of this game) an individual will know enough to realize that this is just a game and that none of the stuff in it is not meant to actually be done or idolized in any kind of way. I agree with the fact that we have a rating system on games (except that I find it amazing that we even find fun or humor in these types of games, which causes them to exist in the first place).

So now, we find out that there is some hidden sex scenes within the code on this game. NOW we want the rating changed to adult only (thus adding only ONE year to the age that a buyer must be to purchase) and that is going to make it all better. I am sorry, it should have the adult rating for the violence and general nastiness, not the sex....because sorry to say, but by 17 the animated sex on this game is not going to be anything new to the players.

Somehow the rating board, parents and whomever are all in a snit because someone over 17 but not yet 18 might see some animated sex? But it doesn't seem to bother them that killing, stealing, and any number of other felonies are being paraded around like some kind of war medals? This is a perfect example of the major hang ups that US society has as a whole with sex.
Now tell me why is it that the retailers are taking the game off their shelves? The article makes is sound like they are taking some kind of moral highground not stocking Adult Only games. I think it has more to do with the fact that since SEX is involved, they know parents wouldn't dare buy it for their 13 year olds any longer and that means it is just taking up shelf space that some other money making item can use.

Now before anyone who loves this game starts to give me hell in the comment section, let me point out a few things.

I do not believe in censorship of any kind. I am not by any means saying that we should do away with this game or any other game like it (even though I would never buy it, play it or condone it being played in my presence). This is a free market and apparently there is a market for this game and others of its genre. It is sad that this is true but it is.

I also do not believe that garbage about "my kid did it because he saw it on TV" crap. Number one, you are the parent, so you are in charge....turn the damn TV, computer and Play Station off once in a while. Second, talk to your kids and explain to them (in case you bought this game outside of the recommended age bracket) that it is not real, should not be real and that people who do this kind of shit in real life die early or live long in prison.

I absolutely believe that parents are the number one responsible person(s) when it comes to what their children do, learn, and say. I know that it is a hard job and gets harder each day but that is what happens when you procreate, you make the choice to take on that job. It is not up to the rating board, the teachers at your school, or the sports/movie star on TV to teach them right from wrong.

My entire rant really stems from the idea that we are so caught up in warning labels and who to blame in this country for the things that happen to us, that we seem to have forgotten to look in the mirror and take some responsibility. Does changing the rating on this game really do anything "to keep children safe" and help us all sleep better at night? No, it doesn't but what it does do is cost a bunch of people money (retailers, manufacturers, lawmakers, taxpayers...etc), and makes a little sidenote on CNN, and a few blogs.

What exactly are we focusing on, the symptoms or the actual problems?

Green Anole (aka American Chameleon)

I found this lizard (look really close or you won't see him) in my holly bush this spring while trying to photograph the holly flowers for my mother. I didn't know what it was at the time.

I see them all the time around our house these days, and just now I interupted one trying to court (get your mind out of the gutter, there was no sex going on) a female. The female was a browner color, while the male was just like the pics on the title link above. The thing that was really cool was that the male was doing this bobbing up and down thing (part of the courting ritual), and the female was answering with her own bobs...but the male also had this "throat fan" that would pop out after 5 or so bobs...kind of cool.

Ceiling Fans

I love ceiling fans (except when I have to dust them) but I am beginning to think that the lowest setting is just a placebo. You see it turning so you know you must be cooler but I don't think turning that slow is really doing much of anything...

Heat Index

4th straight day of combination temp and humidity for a heat index of 105-110...with chance of afternoon thunderstorms (not really a chance, more of a guarantee), but unfortunately only once has the storm brought rain too.

My poor plants outdoors are requiring daily watering rather than every other day, and the bird bath is just barely staying full enough to drink from.

Carpet Freshener

I don't know if I am the last person on the planet to know this but I thought if I wasn't, then I should pass it on...so here goes.

We have a relatively new vacuum cleaner (6 months) that I absolutely love. This is my first new vacuum in 12 years so I was very particular when I picked it out figuring I would have it for 12 years as well.

Anyhow, it has 3 different filters on it, one of them being a HEPA filter. We chose this because my husband has developed airborne allergies in the last couple of years and thought it might cut down on dust and dander issues.

I do not know if this information will only be pertinent to vacuums with HEPA filters on them, or just any of the new vacuums out there but I have discovered that powdered carpet freshener is bad for my vacuum. It seems to clog the filters and then the vacuum overheats trying to suck air in through the clogs. We have had it overheat and shut off on us twice recently right after treating our cats room with the carpet freshener.

So I just thought I would share that in case anyone else has had problems of unknown origin with their vacuums. As much as I like those fresheners....I can't use them anymore. My poor vacuum just can't take it, and I can't spend the thousands of dollars it takes to replace all those filters every time I vacuum.

Ugh!!!

I don't know what the deal is but I have not gotten a good night's sleep in ages. I have always been a light sleeper and because of that, it seemed like I needed to sleep more hours than most people to feel rested. I am also naturally a night owl so my best sleep seems to be in the morning (which is when most are getting up).

Unfortunately, neither of those work well with real life living these days. A few years ago, I fixed the light sleeping problem by taking melatonin (which I apparently don't produce enough of naturally) and it was amazing. I could sleep and when I woke up after a normal amount of time, I felt refreshed and ready to charge ahead with my day. This seemed to fix the night owl thing as well because I was getting great sleep throughout the entire night.

I think part of my problem right now is that I get up a million times a night to use the potty...haha. This is due in part because I get home from soccer pretty late and end up drinking a lot of fluid before bed...hopefully this will stop when I am done with soccer (in two weeks). The other thing is just that I can't seem to find a comfortable position...I am a tummy and side sleeper mostly although I have migrated onto my back on occasion. I can't sleep on one of my sides much right now because it aggravates a shoulder injury...

Reality is that all of this is probably just a bunch of excuses to explain that I am just to lazy to get up when my alarm goes off like normal people....I need some will power people!!!!