New favorite website

Don't have time to watch tv or forget what channel everything is on? Don't have tivo and hate commercials, but wouldn't mind 2 or three? Don't have cable or have a bad reception? Love watching things on ABC? You must go here!!!! It's the best thing ever invented!!!

Things to try to add to your chili

Late yesterday, I prepared chili for the work pot luck chili day. I tried something different just for fun and found it to be quite the interesting idea. I'm also including ideas from other chillies that I tasted:

My random (they are always random) chili included the usual, but last night I tried: cinnamon, brown sugar (small amount), curry, Ragu spaghetti sauce (I just needed a little more tomato sauce and I ran out), and jalapeno pepper juice (not the pepper just a little bit of a small jar of juice). It resulted in a smooth tasting chili that was sweet at first, but was then spicy (spicy enough for spicy people, but not long lasting enough so that your mouth was burning when you were done.) YUM!

Veggie Chili: I learned something about adding a tablespoon and a half of vinegar makes the difference in this kind of chili.

Tomato Soup: Another chili I had definitely had Campbell's tomato soup for the base. Interesting, but yummy.

I had three favorites that I tried today at work, mine, the one next to mine, and the chili with what tasted like tomato soup.

Let me know what interesting things you put in your chili :)

Brain Attack (formerly known as Stroke)

Did you know that brain attack (stroke) is the 3rd leading cause of death in the U.S.? Main cause is heart attack, 2nd is cancer, 3rd is stroke. Don't think it can't happen to you.

Nonmodifiable risk factors (you can't do anything about them):
Heredity, Gender, Age (older usually), Race (African-American, Asian), Diabetis Mellitus, Artheroscerosis.

Here are risk factors you can control:
Hypertension: HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE IS THE LEADING CAUSE!
Obesity, SMOKING, Hyperlipidemia (high cholesterol), Heavy ETOH (alcohol) intake, Physical inactivity, Cocaine abuse, Carotid stenosis (occlusion in carotid arteries-plaque), oral contraceptives (thicken the blood), and atrial fibrillation (irregular heart beat.)

If you have more than one factor here, especially modifiable you might want to rethink your lifestyle. I'm not saying I'm perfect, I'm just learning this stuff and though you'd want to know. It's pretty scary if you think about it.

Here's how to decrease your chances: Control B/P to below 120/80. Stop smoking. Exercise as noted below. Maintain ideal body weight. > 50 years old should take a baby asparin q day. Eat fish 2-3x a week. Don't take B.C. if you smoke. < ETOH. Take Vit. E and B. < your salt intake.

Now exercise is considered to be adequate at 30-60 minutes 5-6 days per week. Guess I really need to work on that one :)

Hangin' in there

I can't believe that after the conclusion of next week it will be March. How crazy is that?! Keep things flying... that's what I say. I more week and I'll have another 4.0 cr hrs under my belt. 8 more weeks and the Spring semester is complete, and I managed to not have a life for most of it :)

Found out some disconcerting news at work today. I don't know what it means for my future. When I figure it out, I'm sure I might say something here.

I've had a long day. Time to retire for the evening.

Sad News

Hank was my Dad's uncle, read on. By HAL BOCK, AP Sports Writer NEW YORK (AP) -- Hank Bauer, the hard-nosed ex-Marine who returned to baseball after being wounded during World War II and went on to become a cornerstone of the New York Yankees dynasty of the 1950s, died Friday. He was 84. Bauer died of cancer in Shawnee Mission, Kan., said the Baltimore Orioles. Bauer managed the 1966 Orioles to their first World Series title. A three-time All-Star outfielder, Bauer played on Yankees teams that won nine American League pennants and seven World Series in 10 years. He set the Series record with a 17-game hitting streak, a mark that still stands. "Hank Bauer is an emblem of a generation that helped shape the landscape of our country," Yankees owner George Steinbrenner said in a statement. "He was a natural leader and a teammate in every sense of the word, and his contributions went well beyond the baseball field. His service to the Yankees, his country, and his family shows why I have been so privileged to call him a friend." Surrounded by sluggers such as Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra, Bauer was a major ingredient in the Yankees' success during his years in New York from 1948-59.

Bauer was wounded at Okinawa, hit in the left thigh by shrapnel in his 53rd day on the island.

"We went in with 64 and six of us came out," Bauer said.

After he was discharged, Bauer signed with the Yankees minor league affiliate at Kansas City and after two .300 seasons there, he moved to New York in 1948. A year later, Casey Stengel became the manager and Bauer moved into the lineup as the Yankees began their run.

Bauer batted .320 in his second full season and became a fixture in the Yankee outfield alongside Mantle. The two outfielders became close friends, and Bauer was a pallbearer at Mantle's funeral in 1995.

Equipped with a strong arm, Bauer was a dead pull fastball hitter, a disadvantage at Yankee Stadium with its spacious left field. He once said that if he hit a ball to right field, it was an accident.

Bauer batted .277 with 164 homers and 703 RBIs. It was in the World Series that he excelled, from a Series-ending catch at his knees against the New York Giants in 1951 to his final Series appearance in 1958, when he hit .323 with four homers and eight RBIs as the Yankees beat the Milwaukee Braves in seven games.

"Maybe I bore down a lot more in the Series," Bauer said. "I had my luck. I had my good days and bad ones. I played for the right organization."

In 1959, after the Yankees finished behind the Chicago White Sox, Bauer was part of a seven-player trade with Kansas City that delivered a young Roger Maris to New York. Two years later, Maris set a season record with 61 homers, a mark that stood until 1998.

Bauer kept his Marine Corps crewcut through his baseball career and beyond. After he retired, he returned home to the Kansas City area, where he scouted for the Yankees and the Royals. Later, he was a regular at Yankee annual Old-Timers' Days, an opportunity to reunite with friends from those championship seasons.

Follow Through

I have to vent because it really irks me and almost hurts my feelings. Everyone knows that if you commit yourself to doing something, especially for someone else, especially a friend, you should follow through. This particular instance just made me feel like a certain person could give a crap less about me. Fine, chose not to offer to do anything for me, whatever. But when a request is made, say no and/or ignore it all together. I would get the hint. Don't say something back in several different instances like "Sure no problem" when you have no intention of following through on your offer. It's no skin off my back that you did not help me, it's the fact that you didn't follow through is what hurts.

(edited)

I guess I'm out then. Thinking about why is a waste of my precious study time and space. I have people and friends who truly care and follow through. I've even had people go way out of their way during my personal emergencies to help me. I asked for a favor on one, small tiny insignificant thing, and it is completely clouding my ability to ever accept you again. Friends follow through and are there for each other. Where were you?

Needed to hear this today

I am worn down. This song inspiries me to keep going on.

Another great work for me (although I have not a copy of the music)

English text
by Colonel Henry Heveningham

If music be the food of love,
sing on till I am fill'd with joy;
for then my list'ning soul you move
with pleasures that can never cloy,
your eyes, your mien, your tongue declare
that you are music ev'rywhere.

Pleasures invade both eye and ear,
so fierce the transports are, they wound,
and all my senses feasted are,
tho' yet the treat is only sound.
Sure I must perish by our charms,
unless you save me in your arms.