Adventures in the middle of the night

Listening to 'Lost Highway' by Bon Jovi. (Embedding disabled).

This time with a wintry mix of snow, then freezing rain, then sleet. For awhile, as I slowly made my way up the road on slush to pick someone up from UK at midnight, the precipitation was freezing as soon as it hit my windshield and forming ice that I could barely see through. I did a lot of driving by sheer intution.

I think we're supposed to continue this stuff into the morning, then have rain, then get it back tomorrow night, with a 90% chance of precipitation with possible thunder.

In the meantime, I am cooking some Zatarain's red beans and rice (one of the few things I have left in the house, as I'm out of bread for my peanut butter sandwiches and have a hoppin' john mix and some plain pasta and saffron rice, plus my mom's home canned green beans and tomatoes. The cereal and tuna helper require milk, which I don't have (and presumably tuna for the mix)). That's it except for little packages of raisins and some dried chickpeas and rice. I am so going to the grocery on Thursday when I get paid.

So once I eat, I'm going to go to bed and stay warm. Good night and stay safe.

Bothered when you see a dog who spends all its time outside on a chain or in a pen?

Received this in my e-mail today:

We are striving to raise awareness for chained and penned dogs in a positive way...by delivering Valentines, a brochure and a treat coupon to dogs living outside all over the U.S. and into other countries where we have representation, such as Canada and Australia.

Send addresses for Chained or Penned Dogs. This is so CRUCIAL! Please, take the time to find out the address of that chained or penned dog near you, even though it takes a little time.

To make our goal, we need to mail at least 10,000 Valentines. Send address via mail, call 877.636.1408 to report addresses, e-mail them to info@dogsdeservebetter.org. or fill out the form, at http://www.dogsdeservebetter.com/Valentines2008.html (preferred). You remain anonymous!

PLEASE GO TO THIS LINK FOR MORE INFO
http://www.dogsdeservebetter.com/Valentines2008.html

Thanks & pass it on!

Off from work today and came across this quote

from the Chatty Librarians' list:

"Then I used the most valuable and unlauded investigative resource in the United States, the lowly reference librarian. Their salaries are wretched and they receive credit for nothing. Their desks are usually tucked away in the stacks or in a remote corner where they have to shush noisy high school students or put up with street people blowing wine in their faces or snoring in the stuffed chairs. But their ability to find obscure information is remarkable and they persevere like Spartans."

James Lee Burke
Tin Roof Blowdown, 2007

Thanks to Magnoire La Chouette for the quote.

Okay, time to go to doctor's appointment #2 for the day.

Listening to

'Scarborough Fair/Canticle' by Simon & Garfunkel (this one also has Andy Williams)


('Canticle' is just as important to me, so I had to find a version with both. I like the addition of Andy Williams in this one, so I replaced the original one I had here.)

'Richard Cory' by Simon & Garfunkel


Depressing, I suppose, but I like it. Of course, I also like their 'A Most Peculiar Man' which also features suicide. I've always thought Paul Simon had personal experience with depression, given some of his writing. I don't know if that's true, although he's listed on those 'famous people with depression'-type lists.

'One Tin Soldier' by Coven


'The Trees They Grow High' by Pentangle


(I couldn't find the Joan Baez version, but I love Pentangle, too. :)

It's a shame I couldn't find a video of Loreena McKennitt's 'Annachie Gordon'; it would fit well with this song. But I did find the audio online. :)

One last thing

Listening to:

'Love Song' by Sara Bareilles (I can't embed it; that's been disabled).

YKWIA, I think you might like this. Pretty decent for someone without formal training in voice or piano, at least according to Wikipedia's biography.

I stayed up to 5 am Saturday morning

doing my taxes, and I'm going to have to pay again, to the tune of $800. I really need to check my W-4s because something's screwy. I'm not totally finished, because I have to get a file I keep in my desk at work of my medical expenditures. The deductions don't help for federal but they do for Kentucky's state, since they exceed the standard deduction. Also, this year I found a version of TurboTax that is free for both my federal and state returns due to my income and where I live.

I ran the numbers and there's no way to have all of it by April 15th, so I'll have to continue paying on a payment plan. That rebate we're supposed to get may just wind up going back to the government, which I think defeats the purpose of the rebate. I also don't know how much I'll get. At one point the house bill was $300 under $23,000 and $600 above, but the combined bill is more complicated and they really didn't explain what was meant by 'seniors, disabled veterans, and OTHER LOWER-INCOME' people getting only $300. Turns out I'm right BELOW $23,000, so if it's the same, I'm screwed, even though it's a matter of about $400 difference in income. We'll see.

Anyway, I've been up late two nights in a row (although at least on Saturday I got to sleep until 1 pm, but I had to work from 2-10). Time for bed. Good night.

So I went onto Gmail to check for a message from someone

and wound up spending 1 1/2 hours going through the whole thing, about 2000 e-mails in my inbox, a bunch of spam, a lot of unread mail that needed to be categorised, etc.

But I now have a total of 3 e-mails in my inbox, and everything has been either deleted or marked read (even if I didn't actually read it, I can search for things to read later).

Whew!

Listening to

'These Hard Times' by Matchbox Twenty


and from the 80s--
'What's on Your Mind (Pure Energy)' from Information Society


I woke up cramping and promptly vomited a couple of times because I started my period. It happens sometimes that I get really nauseous, usually when the cramping is bad. But I feel rather lucky. One co-worker's husband had an appendectomy, another co-worker had 2 feet of her colon resected due to a tumour (and she's in her 20s!), and then one of my friends is having a hysterectomy/a bit resected from her colon, too, next week. What is it with the GI tracts? Seriously, I hope everyone does well with their surgeries, and it made me feel better about just dealing with a little cramping and nausea.

I feel better now, although I'm a little sore (I had a box fall on my head at the gas station today, and although I think everything's alright, my neck's bothering me a little) and the cramping has eased but settled into my back. I'm headed to bed. The worst thing about picking up a friend from a second shift job is that when he gets paid, we go grocery shopping in the middle of the night. Fortunately the store knows us and opens up a lane when we come up with two cartfuls of stuff. I'm glad we only do it a couple of times a month. I just got bread tonight. I can't imagine actually having a stocked kitchen--or at least it hasn't been in awhile. I hope to rectify that next week. But I'm ready for bed tonight--so much so, that I'm going to do my religious obligations tomorrow night (I can do so within the first three days of my menstruation).

So, good night. Remind me that I have a story about pheromones to tell you tomorrow. Oh, well, I might as well give you the link, now...

Scents and Sensibility

Summation:

The secret to sexual attraction is in our genes, specifically in the sequence of more than 100 immune system genes known as the MHC, or major histocompatibility complex. Their main job seems to be helping the immune system recognise pathogens. But they also play a big role in choosing a mate. In tests, people chose others based on having some genes in common, but otherwise a very different matrix. That selects for diversity, without being so different as to be alien. They also found that those with too similar of an MHC tended to have higher divorce and adultery rates, as well as miscarriage and fertility problems. Here's the kicker: all this is based on smell, but our society is obsessed with perfumes and scents in practically every product we use, which undermines the MHC's role. And even more interesting, being on birth control pills makes men less attracted to the women, and women more attracted to men with similar MHC patterns, probably because hormonally the Pill mimics early pregnancy. Strippers, conversely, garnered far more tips if they 1) weren't on the Pill and 2) were ovulating. Oh, and women had a more discriminating sense of smell than men in terms of choosing a mate.

Interesting, huh? No word on whether this works for homosexual couples. But I guess the upshot is use unscented products and if you're looking for a mate, don't use the Pill for awhile but rather other means of birth control.

Another way HIV is spread

HIV can be passed to babies in pre-chewed food

In developing countries without access to packaged baby foods, this is a normal practice. It's not the saliva that does it--it's blood from bleeding gums in the saliva. The CDC have confirmed three cases here in the United States.

Hmm...

Patients getting aggressive diabetes treatment have higher death risk