We were shopping for storage on Saturday.  As we were looking at spaces, some were looking a bit small for the size we were being told they were.  For example: at one storage place, the 8×10 measured out to be more like 6 1/2 x 8-something of MY feet (I wear an average size for a woman).  After looking at a few spaces that looked suspiciously smaller than the quoted size, we decided to go home for a tape measure.  Not to be difficult, but because I want to maximize the space I’m going to be renting, so I’m going to line the walls with gorilla racks, wardrobe boxes, and the center with bakers racks on wheels.  Exact measurements are needed to figure out what size space I need to rent.

The tape measure turned out to be quite useful and helped later when I was laying out the floor plan and comparing costs.  The salespeople at both places watched us suspiciously until we explained why we were measuring.  Who cares what they think anyway, they aren’t the ones paying for it….

The moral of the story, don’t believe everything you hear or read.  Sometimes you have to check for yourself.  Don’t believe everything you hear or read. Companies often provide misleading information until they are caught, if they ever are.

I found this new product in a magazine while I was at the gym a couple weeks ago.  We ordered them and tried them out for the first time last night.  Supposedly they are supposed to correct a number of foot issues including bunyons, morton’s neuroma, as well as stretch and realignment the toes.  Initially you’re only supposed to wear them for 10-15 minutes, so Keven and I wore them for over an hour (an hour & a half+ for me).  They were a little awkward for me to get on because my toes have been squished together for so long.  Overall they were pretty comfortable, but you are supposed to sit while you wear them…I was walking around in mine which is like walking in flimsy pedicure sandals… a little precarious. 

If you know me even slightly, you’re probably aware stem cells are a strong interest of mine and most definitely a hot topic.  I follow new discoveries and information quite a bit.  I have a million or so of my own in storage at Fred Hutchinson which were donated during my battle with Leukemia.

Before I excitedly get started on stem cells, let me say there are not nearly enough bone marrow donors, especially among the Asian communities as well as the minorities.  If you are interested in donating, but have heard horror stories about the bone marrow extraction process, consider donating stem cells which is tremendously invaluable.  Keeping in mind that I’ve been through the procedure myself, it was easy and painless.  If I could donate for someone else, I would do it in a heartbeat.   The process is similar to giving blood.  If you want more information or would like to talk about this further, please email me or leave a comment and I will get you informed.

In a nutshell, stem cells are baby blood cells that researchers are still discovering their abilities.  There has been much hype and misinformation which suggest that only stem cells from aborted fetal tissue and umbilical cords are valuable, but that is in fact false.  We all have quite a large number of stem cells in our bodies.  Cells can be injected into various organs for the purpose of healing and/or regeneration of organs or tissue.  Using one’s own stem cells is also beneficial because the risk of graft vs host issues are not a factor.  Some are now referring to stem cells as personalized medicine. 

For me, stem cells were a measure of potential self-preservation as I have no siblings (there’s only a 1 in 4 chance of matching anyway).  I went into remission and stayed there for a sufficient amount of time that I was able to talk the doctors into doing the procedure.  I can tell you I breathed a serious sigh of relief when I knew I had them safe and sound into storage.

Anyway, on the news tonight, there was an interesting story about a heart being grown from stem cells <<see link>.  Keep in mind that by the time any health information hits any form of the media, it’s already quite old information.  But the idea is to build a human heart out of a pig heart after injecting it with human stem cells.  Once this is mastered, there is discussion about a future with other organs including liver, pancreas, lungs, etc.  How cool is that.  Imagine not losing loved ones because of the race against the clock for locating replacement organs.

What I’m curious about though, is if they would use the stem cells from the intended the recipient, as in a so-to-speak custom made organ or from an unrelated donor.  I also wonder if the organ, say using a pig heart, injected with the recipient’s stem cells would remove the issue of graft vs. host.

http://www.king5.com/health/stories/NW_011408HEB_rat_heart_beating_LJ.212dbb18.html

I’ve also found US News & World Reports to be a consistent, accurate, but not inflammatory source of information about the stem cell progress.  There is an interesting article in this week’s edition.  Check it out.  

http://www.usnews.com/articles/opinion/bhealy/2008/01/02/a-stem-cell-victory.html 

So almost exactly one week after her first offense, Squid got herself into trouble again.  Only this time it involved the library and her access to Myspace.  Over the past few years she’s gotten into trouble repeatedly for im’ing with people she didn’t know and her multiple inappropriate Myspace pages.  Since about the age of 6 or 7, she’s always been hard headed so regardless of the infraction or the punishment. 5 minutes after the punishment would be over, she’d do the same thing again.  Needless to say, she got her 3 strikes and lost rights to the computer or the internet were revoked quite some time ago.It took us a few days to come up with another good punishment since we’d taken everything of value away with the first situation.  With the exception of Halloween.  Hmmm.  She lost out on some other Halloween related activities at school, but was given the choice, either lose Halloween itself and trick-or-treating or take plan b.She chose plan b, and as promised, we came up with something quite creative, somewhat painful and hopefully something she’ll learn from. Thanks to Carleen…Squid now will now be sitting through 2 documentaries on subjects of our choice followed by written report.  Right now it’s looking it will be something we watched on Sunday about the decrease in the bee population, either the thing about the polar bear situation (apparently they’re eating each other), or Al Gore’s documentary on global warming.Also, she will be reading 2 or 3 books of our choice again followed by written reports.  We’re compiling a reading list including some classics as well some other good reads.  So far we’ve got Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, Rebecca, the Joy Luck Club, Flowers in the Attic, Kristin Lavransdatter, and Catcher in the Rye. So this weekend we’ll be going to get the first book.  Keven wants a second copy so he can read along too.

Since the obvious concern arose about what to do if she got her reward (Halloween) without fulfilling her end of the bargain, we are holding her Halloween candy stash until her debt is paid in full!!

Final Score:  Parents 2, Teenager 0

Final Score:  Parents 1, Teenager 0

Keven talked about Squid’s first official offense on the eve of his birthday.  We kicked into high gear and put a tough punishment into place.  Txt messaging shut off at the phone company, cellphone, Ipod, fun afterschool activities with friends taken away until Halloween, no hair straightener.  She also had to write a letter of apology to her friend’s parents and a composition to us addressing a variety of issues she’d been instructed to.  Well, both of the items had reasonable deadlines, but she just decided she wasn’t going to do them, citing that she’d done the letter on the computer at her dad’s and since he was on his 3 week honeymoon, unless I drove her all the way over there to get it, it was going to wait until he got back.  You can imagine how well that went over.  We talked to her a couple of times about this and how the letter was to be hand-written and it would take her about 15 minutes to write one.  She was obstinate in her position that she wasn’t going to do it.  Period.  Oh really!  We had an intervention of sorts or maybe more like a forewarning.  Since her hair straightener and cellphone are her most prized possessions (Ipod coming in at a close 3rd), that gave us some leverage.  We told her for each day she was late on each item, an extra day would be added to the punishment.  She dug in her heels, basically she heatedly and stubbornly said she wasn’t going to do it.  Fine.  The next day, Keven came home early and called to tell me without conversation, she’d started writing her apology letter.  By the time I’d gotten home, she’d finished her paper for us.  And they were done well.  We were quite pleased.  Then we did the tally.  An extra 8 days were added to her original punishment end date.  Since she wasn’t going to be able to go to her dad’s, there was no way either or them could worm out of it or manipulate it.  New estimated release date, November 8th.

Today, in my ongoing employment search, I ran across a position with some rather odd qualification requirements considering the business and position.  It was for a client manager at a food and beverage company.  The company was asking for an engineering degree plus 15 years experience.  I found this to be odd enough that I sent my resume in just for the helluvit…I figured between Keven & I, we’ve got it made.  I’ve got the 15+ years experience. If anyone asks, I’ve decided I’ve got a social engineering degree.

king5.http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/ODD_SPAIN_STRESS_THERAPY?SITE=KING&TEMPLATE=STRANGEHEADS.html&SECTION=HOME

Keven and I were at the grocery store last night contemplating and comparing the nutritional values of the various cereals.  While we were initially mislead by the colorful buzz words on the packages like “heart smart”, “good for you”, “healthy”, “cholesterol lowering”, etc., after carefully reading and comparing the contents of the various cereals, we discovered that not only did “Captain Crunch” have lower carbs, but when we inspected the list of contents, was actually better for us nutritionally than the others.  “Peanut Butter Captain Crunch” was even better than the plain!

So after all these years of guilt over eating junk (or not), it turns out we weren’t doing so bad after all!  So for those of you big kids like me, enjoy!

A few weeks ago Squid went to her oral professional (snickering aside), who is solely a pediatric dentist.  He was saying 3 teeth need to be pulled and referred her to an orthodontist suggesting that she needs braces, or might.  Ever since she’s had teeth and had them cared for by this man, he’s always said, with the aid of x-rays, that she would most likely not need orthodontia of any kind.  Keep in mind too, that if you look at her teeth, with the exception of one, the rest are pretty damn straight. 

I balked at this idea and took her to see my dentist, whom I’ve been going to since I was in the 4th grade, and who also happens to be the one that Keven raved about for his crown work.  He took a look, didn’t see a reason to pull the three teeth, and thinks he can straighten the one tooth by designing a retainer of sorts (he referred to it as an appliance) that will have a piece on the back side of her tooth, that in a couple months will hopefully straighten it out.  The price, you ask?  $150!  The total of all her dental work will still add up a bit since she needs to have some cavities filled, but overall still massively cheaper than braces.  He said she may possibly still be a candidate, but her teeth are so damn straight, I don’t think I could logically convince myself to commit to the time and money it would take to, what, straighten her already straight teeth!  How straight do you want them?!  She, of course, is disappointed because she wants braces!!  She thinks they look cool.  Go figure.

I was also in for cleaning and a checkup.  If you haven’t looked inside my mouth recently, my teeth are naturally pretty straight and historically my dentists have always raved about how lucky I was to not need braces.  While  I was getting cleaned yesterday, the hygenist suggested that I could do Invisaline Express if I wanted to straighten them up!  That cracked me up…I have one slightly turned tooth, the rest of them in alignment.  So again I ask, how much straighter could they be…why fix what isn’t broken?  It’s kind of like painting your toenails when you’ve just gotten a pedicure…

My other internal laugh…this dentist is an avid biker (as in bicycle), etc.  My foot is having issues so I thought he’d be a perfect guy to ask for a referral to a podiatrist.  He, of course, had someone…and the thought occurred to me how funny it would be if I had insurance that requires a referral, to have that referral written by a dentist rather than a primary care physician. 

I am only as strong as the coffee I drink, the hairspray I use and the friends I have.