Prescription abuse to pass illicit drugs

Abuse of prescription drugs is about to exceed the use of illicit street narcotics worldwide, and the shift has spawned a lethal new trade in counterfeit painkillers, sedatives and other medicines potent enough to kill, a global watchdog warned Wednesday.

OK, I'm not really cheering for prescription drug abuse, but that headline brought out the latent sports fan in me. I gotta go find my pom poms....

Labels: newsworthy

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  but I love to read about climbing expeditions on Mt. Everest. I don't know why, I guess I have the heart of an adventurer in a romantic sense, but not in a cardiac sense!

I just finished Ghosts of Everest: The Search for Mallory & Irvine by Jochen Hemmleb, Larry A. Johnson, Eric R. Simonson, William E. Nothdurft. It's the story of the 1999 expedition to try to find any clues as to whether George Mallory and Sandy Irvine actually reached the summit in 1924 before dying on the mountain.

It's actually a pretty neat mystery. While there are various clues that suggest they may well have summitted, there's just no conclusive proof. If they did, they beat out the next summit team (Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay) by nearly 30 years, and with some pretty sorry equipment to boot.

While the 1999 expedition didn't find any proof that they were successful in reaching the summit, they did find George Mallory's body, and the book treats us to some interesting photos. Not that looking at corpses is a fun thing, but you could tell a lot about his last minutes by looking at his position. Also, they are able to make compelling arguments of how he spent the day based on what he carried and what he didn't.

This book is really worth a read.

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  The Oscar winners are in, and I've only seen one of the movies. And that was because we took the kids to see Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, the winner for best visual effects.

This too shall pass, and someday we'll be wishing the kids would come home and see movies with us, instead of trying to line up sitters whenever we want to see a grownup movie. At least that's what they tell us. Until then, we're OK with PG and kids in our laps :-)

Labels: newsworthy

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  I was watching some shows that had recorded on my DVR this week, during the whole cat trauma, etc. (Still no car, but the cats do seem to like me a LITTLE better now.)

I'd never seen the show Most Evil on the Discovery Channel before, but I'm going to keep an eye out for it now!

The show is based on forensic psychiatrist Michael Stone's Scale of Evil, where he ranks murderers into catagories based on the circumstances involved in their crimes. For instance, he ranks as 01 as "Those who kill in self-defense and do not show psychopathic tendencies" and then goes up to his highest ranking of 22, which he describes as "Psychopathic torture-murderers, with torture their primary motive." He gives familiar examples of these along the way.

Obviously it's a subjective list, there's no way to avoid that, but I think it's a worthy subject to delve into. Fascinating.

Labels: crime

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  If I lived in Rhode Island, I would join this club.



I am hopelessly not as cool as this when I'm knitting, but I think the theme music goes a long way, too. Maybe I need to work on getting my own, supercool, soundtrack. Then I'd be unstoppable!

On the home front, it's become apparent that the new girl kitty is in heat. They had us take her home before she was spayed, with instructions to bring her back in the next week to get it taken care of. Only now we can't...because she's sick. So, we have to wait until she's done with her medicine, and until then we have to deal with her yowling and rubbing her butt on everything. And she still hates me. :-( Somebody tell me that this will get better?

Labels: knitting, pets

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  We found a home for the guinea pigs, and adopted two kitties instead. Kitties weren't my first choice, but it's not all about me (darn it!) and we know the kids aren't allergic to cats.

The kitties got very ill shortly after we brought them home. Thankfully, they're getting better, but they're requiring a ton of medication to do so. They both get an antiviral 2x a day. One gets an antibiotic at the same times, and the other gets eye drops for a herpes infection in her eye (people can't catch this kind.) That's 3x a day. So, we have these really neat kitties, and they're starting to HATE me. I sort of want to cry. At least it's nothing that will cause long term problems, and these are pretty common among cats who've been on the street or in a shelter.

And, we're carless. Davin had a minor accident in the snow a while back, and we've finally gotten everything co-ordinated to get it fixed. Of course, now that they're actually poking around in there, they're finding that there's more damage than we thought. So, they're having to go back to the adjuster and see if we can get the other stuff done, which is a bit tricky since we're very near the "totalled" level of damages.

I'm still trying to clean up a blow pen explosion in my kitchen from yesterday. Tiernan was using a blow pen with the little blow pen pump, and it was going OK until the marker exploded. Now there's blue droplets on my walls, cabinets, stove, refrigerator and dishwasher. The kids say it looks like we murdered an alien in there. I keep scrubbing and cursing, "'Washable,' my butt!"

Other than that, things are going pretty well, how are you?

Labels: car, kids, pets

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  World's most premature baby is thriving, Miami hospital says

The world's most premature living baby, born at 21 weeks and six days, is headed home after spending four months in a neonatal intensive care unit, Baptist Children's Hospital in Miami announced...

When she was born on October 24, Amillia Taylor weighed just 280 grams (10 ounces) and measured 240 centimeters (9.5 inches,) slightly longer than a ballpoint pen, the hospital said.

Those of you who've been reading my blog for a while know that Anya was a preemie. She was born at 24 weeks, weighing one pound, eight ounces. So, compared to baby Amillia, Anya was a giant! I'm just so glad that this family's story is having a happy ending! It's a miracle!

Labels: kids, newsworthy

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  a hospital is one of the better places to be.

A 14-year-old boy chased down a 15-year-old boy and shot him in the face at the entrance to a hospital's emergency room, where the victim immediately sought treatment, authorities said Monday.

Didn't a kid get shot IN the emergency room on ER? I'm thinking that I remember that it was a gang thing...

Labels: crime, newsworthy

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  Trying to find a new home for our guinea pigs. The pediatrician says that the kids' allergic reactions to them won't get any better, and that it's time to move on to a pet that won't cause them any more pain, etc.

We are sooooooo sad. They're awfully neat little pets.

Labels: can't blog, pets

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  Parachutist releases video of near-death fall

A New Zealand parachutist who survived a fall of 15,000 feet after his chute failed to open has released amazing footage of his near-death plummet filmed by a camera attached to his helmet...

At 4,000 feet Holmes discovered his main parachute would not open. The reserve also did not work properly...

In the final seconds of his fall, Holmes waves goodbye and yells "bye," before the chilling image of his shadow growing larger beneath him fills the screen. The screen then goes black.

Just posting something heart-stopping for Valentine's Day. Hope you're all enjoying the holiday!

Labels: holiday, newsworthy

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  Couple looking forward, not back

Jeff Ingram hunches over the countertop and peers at the foreign words in the cookbook: One- and-a-half cups of egg whites.

He should know this. He shoots a puzzled glance at his girlfriend.

"I haven't shown you yet how to separate an egg," she says as she cracks the egg and gently demonstrates how to separate it...

Jeff is 40. In a way, this is his first angel food cake. He used to bake so much that he had a special platter to display his creations. But now he moves about the kitchen a bit unsure...

To Jeff, she is as new in his life as angel food cake. But Penny knew Jeff in another life - before he went missing and wound up on a Denver street with no memory.

"Dissociative fugue," doctors called it, a rare form of amnesia caused by stress or trauma.

Jeff was found, but he had no idea who he was, much less who Penny was. If they were going to stay together, they would have to get to know each other all over again.

I just thought this was really interesting. In my psych classes in college I always found these cases fascinating, because it's hard to conceive of a total loss of the self.

And, isn't it just so sweet to see that they're falling in love with each other all over again? What a wonderful story for Valentine's day. I think I'm getting a little teary.

OK, I promise I'll be less sappy tomorrow... Or the next day...

Labels: newsworthy

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  When we're getting ready to go to the store, we leave a list out and anyone can add anything to it that they need. Apparently, we need to do a little work on the kids' spelling...

Labels: kids

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  Why We Cared About Anna

"No question, she was beautiful," said Behar, of ABC's "The View." "We know people like to watch dysfunction. But beauty gives you something extra to look at. Dysfunction and beauty: Now that's something to watch."

How was she dysfunctional? Really, how wasn't she? Her strange life seemed to veer from one outsized struggle to another. She struggled famously with her weight and with her family. She sometimes even struggled to speak without slurring. She had a TV show that could be so embarrassing you'd want to watch it with dark sunglasses on. Much more tragically, she lost her 20-year-old son. Five months ago she had a baby daughter and now two men claim to be the father.

I've been trying to figure out why Anna Nicole's death kind of bummed me out, considering I never really watched her show or followed her career. I came to the conclusion that I'd admired the fact that she never let anyone hold her down, not even her crazy self. I hope she's at peace now.

Labels: newsworthy

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People that I hope will Vanity Google themselves and get in touch with me! I don't expect that anyone I'm looking for will catch this while it's still on my front page. I'm just hoping that they look themselves up and find this page :-) 1. Timoleon Wilkins/Lee Wilkins 2. Devin Deborah Hooker 3. Cristin Bruce 4. Natalie Kilkenny 5. Chris Leta 6. Tori Stuckless 7. Jane Wallbank 8. Sara Mahate Osborn 9. Zack Reece (or is it Zak?) 10. Peder Hallberg 11. LaDonna Graham 12. Carmel Davis Lombardi 13. These are people I know and have lost contact with, some of them going back to 7th Grade. If you are one of these people, can you get a hold of me at hipmama1970 (at) gmail (dot) com. I promise I turned out pretty normal, in case you're worried ;-) So, if you guys are looking yourselves up, drop me a line!

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Labels: Thursday Thirteen

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  ...watching Lost...

Labels: can't blog

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  This would make a pretty cool "Nightmare Before Valentine's Day" card, don't you think?



Eternal embrace? Couple still hugging 5,000 years on

Archaeologists in Italy have discovered a couple buried 5,000 to 6,000 years ago, hugging each other...

"There has not been a double burial found in the Neolithic period, much less two people hugging -- and they really are hugging."

Right on, Grandma and Grandpa!

Labels: newsworthy

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  Probe of possible connection between cannibal Dahmer and Adam Walsh pushed

The FBI agent assigned to investigate cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer's horrendous murders and other crimes believes a possible connection to the murder of Adam Walsh in 1981 should be re-examined...

Six-year-old Adam vanished from a shopping mall in Hollywood on July 27th, 1981. His head was found in a drainage canal, two weeks later. His body was never found.

Dahmer was living in South Florida when the boy disappeared. And when the trail of Dahmer's notorious crimes unfolded in 1991, Hollywood police asked Milwaukee investigators to question Dahmer about the Walsh case.

It doesn't really sound like they have too much to go on other than the idea that it's possible Dahmer was involved.

Read the article to see who first called America's Most Wanted to say that he felt they needed to look at Jeffrey Dahmer for this murder. I don't know that I have the fortitude to do that, I hope I would, but I don't know. I wonder if Dahmer was alive when the call was made, that would probably make a difference for me.

Labels: crime, newsworthy

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  That is, Star Trek and fart jokes...



Sorry, I'll try to be more grown up in future posts.

Labels: juvenile humor, star trek

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  We're running up to Boulder to go to Celestial Seasonings, then we're going to eat dinner at Juanita's on the Pearl Street Mall.

So, there's not much time for blogging now, but my house will be empty most of the day if you wish to clean it. For once the laundry's caught up, but we need someone to poop scoop the cages for the guinea pigs and mice. If you're very lucky and very quick, it could be you!

Labels: life, pets

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  How are you doing? You're in our prayers...

14 dead as storms sweep through Florida

Storms carrying the state's deadliest tornado in a decade cut a path across central Florida early Friday, killing at least 14 people, damaging hundreds of homes and littering fields with clothes, furniture and splintered lumber.

Labels: newsworthy

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