Yay! My clothes feel better

The result of the first week on South Beach, even with a tiny bit of carbs here and there the first few days (I gradually went to no-carbs, rather than all at once, so I had a tortilla one day, an ice cream sandwich another, that sort of thing):

272.5 lbs, meaning I've lost nearly 8 pounds this week. Granted, it's probably water weight, and it might have something to do with where I was in my menstrual cycle, but it is encouraging.

Last night I had some time just to myself, so I did a typical girl thing...went to Kroger and got a temporary hair rinse to take care of my then-two-toned hair, found some sugar-free popsicles/fudgesicles/creamsickles that are okay on the diet, and signed up at the video counter and rented The Grudge and Hero. The first is set in Japan, the second in ancient China. Later I went over to a friend's to watch the anime 'S-cry-ed', so it was an Asian night all around.

Hero was, of course, visually stunning, but I find that the more they use the harnesses to get those impossible moves, the more I long for old-fashioned martial arts movies that focus on what is humanly possible. Also, in this movie it did not seem effortless; in many places it was obvious how the scene was shot. But overall, I enjoyed it.

The Grudge is based on a Japanese film and its creator was also involved in this one. It was suitably weird, I learnt a little Japanese (I'm glad that they presented the Americans as the outsiders, with subtitles for much of the Japanese being spoken to and around them. It makes ever so much more sense than to just have everyone speaking English), and the relentless curse of the house was suitably spooky. I liked the non-linear quality of the plot, too. It wasn't a masterpiece of horror by any means, but a spooky movie to watch in the dark.

Speaking of dark, my hair turned quite brunette with the rinse. Apparently I have very light brown hair (with bits of blonde and red) and the medium brown was too dark in terms of trying to get close to my natural colour. But it does look good, I've already received compliments...it's just that I don't recognise myself in the mirror, and I look even paler than normal, but not in a bad way...it actually makes me look a bit like Snow White...even my lips seem redder. It does make my eyes look even lighter and more green than brown.

I also took a nap and read some of the latest Amelia Peabody mystery. Overall it was a restful night. Cerys had stayed home that day since I was only gone for a few hours, and this morning she was excited to be heading off to doggie daycare; she actually trotted into the house and was all perky and full of life. :)

Well, that's an update, I suppose. I went ahead and applied for school and have worked out a schedule that I can do even if the other part-time job comes through. I'm going to drop off the application fee and transcript next week. So, this fall--assuming I can get the classes--I'll be doing a variety of computer classes including Visual Basic, Operating Systems, Electronic Hardware Maintenance, plus the Introductory Logic class I never got around to taking before. They run from 1700 to about 2120 at the latest. Wish me luck. That's a full schedule if I'm working full-time, but a decent one if I'm still part-time. We'll see.

Amen

In BBC NEWS | Have Your Say | London explosions: Your accounts, Julien from Paris said:

Yesterday, we were annoyed with Londoners and English people. London won the games and Paris lost them. And today we wake up. We realise that these little fights between old friends are for spoilt children. We are all facing a huge challenge. We have all to fight terrorism. We are all Londoners today. We all feel sad and share the pain of the one who are suffering today. Do not worry my friends, we will be with you in this fight and we will win it.

It's things like this, and the care people give each other at these times of crisis, that renew my faith in my fellow humans.

I'm so sorry

to hear of the explosions and resulting injuries on the Underground and a bus in London. I came to the news late, hearing it on Bob & Sheri as I drove in this morning. Obviously I went right online to check the latest news. In addition, I checked London Underground Tube Diary - Going Underground's Blog, a blog I've read for some time, as they're trying to post updates as they hear them.

For those of you in Britain or with family or friends who may be travelling, my thoughts and prayers are with you. Please take care and may as many people as possible come home safely. Reports of deaths are still quite tentative...I've heard everything from 2 to 40 so far. But every death is important, and every statistic represents lives and families changed forever. And may they find each and every coward who targeted civilians with bombs.

Mission accomplished

I was able to get Spock's ashes yesterday, although for a moment there I thought they might have lost them. My thanks to my benefactress in paying the bill; I couldn't have done it any time soon without that help.

It's so strange to be given a small white box that hardly weighs anything and realise that a short time ago you had a big lunk of a cat who loved you so very much, and now you have this as a reminder, and there's a bit of his essence there, but otherwise the animal's spirit is somewhere else entirely. All I know is that I'll miss him terribly, but I have to smile when I think of him playing with the big tunnel of light (or whatever cats experience) on his way to a place without pain or suffering. And regardless of where we all go, he'll live in my memory for as long as I live. He was a very special companion, and my life was made richer by his presence. Goodbye, Spocker.

Filed with the Better Business Bureau

On 6/14 I took a cat I'd had for 17 years to the vet with problems breathing. I was obviously upset and unlike in the past, no amounts or the option of putting the cat to sleep were discussed. I had been a customer for many years and had worked out payment options and the vet and her staff were aware of my limited funds and desire not to let the animal suffer. Diagnostic and treatment came to $363, which I could not pay at the time but would try to bring in as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, two days after this, the cat died of this breathing problem. I took the cat to the vet for cremation, and a friend paid for the cremation up front and in full, specifically paying for the return of the cremains. When we returned to pick them up, I went to make a partial payment on my bill and was told:

1) that the person could not accept a partial payment (although she later told the office manager differently, both my friend and I heard her say she couldn't take it)
2) that although the cremains had been paid for, she could not hand them over until the vet bill was paid. My friend insisted these were separate issues, as he had paid for the remains and were due them, but they refused to give them.

I can understand the desire of the company to receive payment. I do not understand why they would not take payment on the account and furthermore find it unethical to hold the remains of a beloved pet hostage for money that frankly should not have been charged in the first place. If I had realised how expensive the treatment would be, I would have asked that he be put to sleep, given his age, suffering, and lack of long-term prognosis. Instead, I believe that the vet and her office staff took advantage of my emotions to milk as large a bill as possible, and the withholding of the remains was cruel. I cannot imagine the cremains of a person being withheld by a mortuary in this way because payment was due on a funeral, for example.

Fortunately a friend of the family is helping to meet the bill and I will hopefully be able to pick up the cremains in a day or two. I will make sure they have the cremains and that they will hand them over before paying in full, because at this point I would not be surprised if they disposed of the remains and would take my payment before 'discovering' that problem. Frankly my trust of this company is nil at the moment, which is unfortunate, because I came to this vet years ago after seeing how well my friend was treated during the deaths of his pets.

I cannot describe how utterly wrenching it was on Friday when I went to get Spock's cremains and the vet office held his ashes hostage for payment of my bill. The cremation and the return of the remains, for one, were already paid for and really a separate transaction from the office visit. A friend had paid for that and he should have been able to pick up the cremains. Instead, I was told that they would hold them until payment was received in full, and when I had tried to make a partial payment, the vet tech had specifically said, 'I can't take that'.

I can understand withholding a product until it has been paid for...but this had been. Also, this wasn't a product. This was a beloved 17-year-old cat who had just died gasping for breath in my arms two weeks before.

A friend of the family, upon hearing this--who also has been with this vet for years and years--was especially concerned that at no point were finances discussed during the office visit. I went into that visit fully expecting to have to put Spock to sleep; that was never an issue and frankly I was so upset that when hope was given I clung to it. She believes that they used my emotions to pump up the amount as much as possible. She is also afraid they'll get rid of the cremains if it goes on very long, so she's helping me out with the bill so I can pick them up in the next couple of days.

The thing is, I've been with this vet for years, have always paid them (although we've had to do payment arrangments several times). They knew that I didn't have this sort of money to spend on a lot of tests and treatments that in the end might not do a bit of good (and didn't) for an ancient cat. What's sad is I changed to this vet based on how well I saw a friend treated when his animals had to be put to sleep. Neither with Spock or with Buns have I had the same sort of care given as that which brought me to the place in the first place. I have to admit, I'm pretty angry about that. At this point, I want to pay and 'never darken their door again' to quote the friend of the family, and neither I nor my friend want these people touching our animals again if money means more than appropriate care or ethics.

I'll keep you posted on how it goes. I should reiterate that I dealt with a vet tech and office manager; the vet herself would not come out and talk with us. This weekend, before I got the call about help with the bill, my friend and I fully expected to have to launch a 'Free Spock' campaign--and I'm not joking. I was going to contact my EAP (Employee Assistance Programme) for legal advice as to whether what they were doing is legal. It looks like that may not be necessary, but I did still file with the BBB, because if it could happen to me, it could happen to someone else. In the meantime, the vet has lost at least two customers over this. They may not care about that, but I do.

Oh, and just so you know...here's the details of the vet office:

Dr Kimberly Sears
Village Drive Animal Hospital
1825 Alexandria Drive
Lexington, KY 40504
859-252-4917

They don't have a website that I can find. But just for the record, this was my experience. Your results may vary. In the meantime, if anyone knows of a good vet on the eastern side of Lexington, let me know. I live off of Richmond Road and Man o'War.

My thanks to those who have helped me through this situation. I couldn't have made it without you. And thanks to YKWIA for being there with me at the office to serve as a witness, be my voice, and giving them the hell they deserved.

Ah, politics, tourism, and gay buying power with a library at the centre of it all :)

LISNews.com Gay-pride controversy began over library poster

For more news stories, try: these Google hits.

Ironically (well, maybe not so surprisingly, since June was Gay Pride Month), there's been good news on the gay rights front from Spain). The Europeans must think a lot of Americans are Puritanical, frigid people who can't abide anything to do with sexuality--even something as very basic to a human's life as sexual orientation--but have no trouble exposing youth to extreme violence in a variety of media. I'm beginning to agree. One of these days I hope the days of discrimination against gays will be looked on with as much favour as we have for anti-Semitism or those who hated people who dared to interracially marry or march for civil rights.

People are people. We may not always agree with others' ideas, but that doesn't mean we should attack them for differences or fundamentally label them as cultural or social denigrates. Being gay isn't shameful and for that matter isn't really about sex, yet there are many who can never get past that and see gayness as an essential element in a person's makeup...perhaps because that narrow-mindedness precludes treating someone like a person at all. We are all unique individuals. Gays vary in beliefs, practises, faith, and in all the same ways that straight people do. They're not all liberal. They're not all interested in bar-hopping or other stereotypical behaviour. They don't all have keen fashion sense, for that matter. What they are people in our lives...our neighbour, son, mother, accountant, dentist, whatever, each with her or his own aspirations, struggles, loves, and wants from life. Isn't that what we all want, in the end, no matter if we're black, gay, Jewish, whatever--to go through a life full of love, happiness, and hope as best as we can, to make a difference in the lives of others and live life as fully as possible? Or am I naïve with that idea? I wish the county commissioners had thought about this before making what they thought was a mundane, everyday decision that turned out to have a surprising scope of reaction.

Those of you in the UK

have an opportunity to access free TV footage, films, and sounds from the BBC media archives under the Creative Archive Licence Group. You can only use it for non-commercial reasons within the United Kingdom, so those of us in other parts of the world are out of luck, although there's also the Creative Commons internationally.

Free Biomedical Literature Resources

a list maintained by the National Library of Medicine

Well, I've made it through seven hours

of the South Beach Diet. So far:

4 am: 1/2 c. non-fat cottage cheese
7 am: 2 hard-boiled vegetarian-fed, cage-free brown eggs
10 am: 1 low-fat mozzarella string cheese stick

Plan for the rest of the day:

Lunch: 1 vegan burger, slice cheese, skim milk, salad, vegetables
Afternoon snack: 1 hard-boiled egg
Dinner: Sesame tofu and broccoli sans rice
Evening snack: Mozzarella stick
Bedtime snack: 1/2 c. cottage cheese

Hey, I'm working on a limited budget and taking baby steps here. Don't worry, I won't blog my daily intake--I'm keeping a food diary on my PDA. But since today is the official start of the diet, I thought I'd put today's choices in, along with my weight, which was 280.4 lbs as of this morning. Gack! But on the plus side, I was up to 282.5, but the water must have sloshed out of my system in the meantime.

The good news is I feel alert and not hungry except when it's time to eat again. No blood sugar dips, etc. Wish me luck. My short-term goal is 20 lbs over 3 months, but eventually the idea is to get down to 150 lbs...a long way in the future. I'd actually be happy just to be under 200, you know? Wish me luck!

An article of interest to medical librarians

In The Lancet (You can only view it online if you have a subscription. For the rest of us, it's interlibrary loan time.)

Here's the citation:

Literature searches: look before you leap
Summerskill W
The Lancet - Vol. 366, Issue 9479, 2 July 2005, Pages 13-14

It's not in PubMed yet, but I'll try to update with its ID when it is.

My thanks to Laurel K. Graham of the American Dietetic Association for the head's up on this.