Buy Retin-A Without Prescription

I gave blood tonight in my hand-me-down Speed Racer shirt (funny how last year's entry also focused on the outfit), the third time being the charm after failing the iron requirement twice in the last few weeks. I'm at 39% hematocrit now, baby! A couple of vitamins and a couple extra weeks must be the ticket for me. It really was Speed Bleeding because I think I set a personal record with my six-minute pint time. This is much better than the time they kicked me out after half an hour having not produced enough blood in the bag. Want to save three lives and maybe win a gift card or a resort stay in Florida? You can enter Manic Mommy's contest too! Just give blood by the 28th and get your picture doing it.

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In other scintillating news (would you believe we get to use a variant of that word a lot at work), Casper came home all dopey from the groomer with a bandanna AND a bow. And, showing off my new haircut and the cool sweater my mom made me (twice), we have this not particularly flattering picture of my apparently thick midsection (I swear it's not).

It's the return of Manic Mommy's Virtual Blog Blood Drive! Click here for details. The basics: donate blood from Jan 1 to Feb 28, 2009, get your picture taken while donating, and send the pic to Manic Mommy to enter the contest! It doesn't matter where you live, just go to your local blood bank or blood drive and get your picture taken. First prize is a week at a Florida resort, and there are gift cards and stuff too. I won last year though it wasn't a big enough contest at that point to give away a vacation! A couple notes for those of you who have been rejected for low iron: I learned that 'normal' hematocrit is 35-45% but (at least around here) the blood bank requires at least 38% to be eligible to donate. They test this by a simple finger prick. Your iron level can fluctuate a lot so if you just supplement/focus your diet a bit before you go, or do that if you get rejected and then you can even go back the next day to try again, you may just be eligible after all! I also learned that 75% of people are able to get back to this iron level in the eight weeks required between donations and it's harder for women than men, so you might need to focus your diet/wait just a bit longer if you have recently donated. Just because you've been rejected before does not mean you will be if you try again! In central Indiana, you can even schedule appointments online, get points and prizes, and track your donations and cholesterol over time. I just signed up last week and the system knew my last 1.5 gallons and cholesterol readings from the last few years. Of course you can do walk-in donations too! Check out DonorPoint.org. Some other upcoming events I'm considering: Komen Race for the Cure for my friend Dawn's mom, April 18 (run, walk, or donate), and cycling around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for Tour de Cure for diabetes, June 13. Who's in?

I've had my mouth guard for a little over a year. I'm supposed to sleep in it every night and probably only remember/bother about ten percent of the time. Well, I ate through it already. Check out the cracks all along the molars. I had to get a new set of impressions today to have another one made. The last one was $400... Told you I needed new teeth for a reason. Plus now I risk cracking the porcelain on all my expensive fake teeth, hence the pricey guard with softer plastic on the inside and hard on the outside. Not hard enough, apparently. Meanwhile the assistant at the dentist's office today seemed pretty new. She commented how awful it is to have impressions made. Are you kidding me? Do you know what I've had done to my teeth so far? At this point I think root canals are a piece of cake, and impressions are way easier and more comfortable than a routine cleaning. She had to do the upper and lower twice because she messed them up, which I predicted when I felt the trays in the wrong place. Can't say much with a mouthful of goop though. I'm not sure the end result was correct but we'll see after the lab tries to make the guard. Before my appointment I traveled several miles out of my way to go to the post office that serves my old house. I had a postage due note for a mystery letter from Carmel. After driving to BFE, I discovered it was from a realtor trying to woo me away as my home listing had expired. I refused it and you can bet I'll let them know how I feel about being inconvenienced and asked to PAY for their solicitation. Walt gets close in the office chair again.

Welcome to the new year and a snotty nose. I have been sick for nearly a week. Fortunately I didn't have to go to work during this time, but it's not like I got to enjoy many of the days off--plus work kept calling and paging me anyway. I did see a lot of crappy TV when I wasn't knocked out with Nyquil (who knew Tori Spelling had a reality show, or that there was a lobster-catching show as well as the crab-catching show?), and today my aches had declined sufficiently to leave the house for a veggie burger at Denny's. I thought I was on the mend a couple of days ago and met Nicole at the gym and then for a nice dinner, but whoops, I wasn't so well. Even David got part of the sickness. My exciting purchase this week is a new office chair, which I'm not sitting in because we've been too ill to carry it downstairs. I'm excited about it because it met all my ergonomic requirements (I don't take that stuff for granted anymore... I guess I'm old) AND it's 60% recycled AND it's not leather! Awesome. AND I had an awesome coupon! I even paid eight bucks to have them assemble it for me because I just didn't feel like doing it. I must have arrived at wealthy status, because the old Amy would never have paid someone to do what she can do herself. Now if it were twenty bucks that would have been different. Right after I spent too much on a chair, our microwave died. I no longer find the microwave to be super essential (meaning buy it the same day it dies) but it's still pretty essential (within a couple of weeks). David has hated my microwave from the start, he being a person who probably wouldn't have one if I hadn't brought it with me, but we agree it's nice to have. The discussions now are where it will go--in the wall? Over the stove? We have to know these things so we know what microwave to buy. But I'm just pissed that my microwave died after only two 3.5 years (yes, I looked it up...time sure flies). I thought I bought a fancy 1200-Watt unit so it would last (maybe not as long as the twenty years the previous one lasted, but still), and here we are having to decide about an appliance together. Are we ready for this kind of commitment, people!? Guess who's 30 today? My baby brother!

A meme that's been making the rounds, including at Chubby Mummy and Must Be Motherhood. I changed the one about things I like about autumn to my list of crap to do because while I like autumn, I really need the accountability more. And I combined the things on the wish list with the things needed/wanted because really, those seem the same, and I just don't want that much stuff. 8 TV Shows I Love to Watch: (I don't really love watching TV... but I like it on in the background while I do other stuff or fall asleep on the couch. Consequently I miss the end of at least 25% of what I watch. Thank goodness for TiVo.) => Suze Orman Show => Daily Show => The Office => King of the Hill => Breaking Bad => Battlestar Galactica => Living With Ed (has that been canceled?) => 30 Days (canceled?) 8 Favorite Places to Eat: => Shalimar (Indian) => Donatos carryout, especially with the $5-off-a-large online coupon! => Mediterrano Cafe (Middle Eastern) => The cafeterias at work where the chefs hook me up with hummus, vegetarian soups, tofu on the pasta bar, beans for the burritos, and other good stuff every day => Broad Ripple Brewpub, because at least half their stuff is vegetarian => Machu Picchu (Peruvian) => Yats (Cajun/Creole, always good veggie options) => Red Robin or Denny's for great veggie burgers! 8 Things That Happened Yesterday: => Flexed off some work hours to vote and get other stuff done => Bought 11 bottles of wine (I love the new boxed options, both for price and environmental/resource concerns) => Had Yats for dinner => President OBAMA!! => Drank too much wine and fell asleep during the acceptance speech => Cleaned the guinea pig cage => Put the soil back in my pot of mums that some creature dug out => Went to two meetings and didn't get much of anything accomplished in either of them except scheduling more meetings! (Today: SAME THING) 8 Things I Look Forward To: => Wearing fall and winter clothes => Selling my house => Just-planted bulbs blooming in the spring => Marking a bunch of items off my to-do list => Travel => Visiting family => Bonded bunnies => Peace 8 Things on my To Do List: => Replace Jetta glow plug to get the engine light off => Repair Jeep flat tire => Take bike in for tune-up => Organize recipes => Rehome all the crap I don't want anymore => Work with investment guy, make a plan => Administer fluids to my friends' cat => Finish digging out roots and planting shrubs/bulbs 8 Things on my Wish List/Needs/Wants: => New office chair (ideally meeting ergonomic, non-leather, recycled, space demands!) => A clean house => Yakima racks on the car (purchased, just not yet installed) => Co-op membership => New pants for work => New cell battery => Better time mgmt/less procrastination (or just learning to deal with that aspect of myself) => More sleep 8 Things I’m Passionate About: => Animal welfare => Hunger/homelessness => GLBT rights => Peace => Grammar/spelling! => Lessening my environmental impact; sustainability => Adopting, not breeding, pets => Leading by example 8 Words or Phrases I Use Often: => What the heck => Nice driving, *sshole => Are you huuuuuungry? => Casper, shut up. => Did you just fart? => That can be recycled. => You can't do that! => Your mom 8 Places I Would Love to Go or See or Visit: => Iceland => Thailand => Vancouver => Montreal (or was it Toronto?) => The Grand Canyon => Farm Sanctuary => Best Friends => Tropical beach 8 Things I Have Learned From My Past: => Don’t mouth off to people in charge => Don't date anyone at work => People are generally good => Everyone is equal and deserving of respect => Eat dinner as a family (and cook it at home) => Go to college. It's worth it for the experience, the pride/sense of accomplishment, and the extra income! Then push yourself to learn more => Work really hard. It impresses people and gives you a leg to stand on when you do need a break => Listen to your dentist

I guess I know I'm even busier than my usual busy when I can't come up with the time to post here. The last few days I've been getting home late and falling asleep on the couch. I'm only checking email or using my home computer a couple of minutes in the morning... Once again, I either get enough sleep or I get everything done. Sleep wins this week! I've ridden my new bike to work twice this week. It's very light, agile, and fast (weighs at least 10 lbs less than my old bike) and I'm enjoying my time on it. Well, the way home still isn't that much fun after a long day, but coming to work is zippy so far. It's been fast enough that I am having to learn to pay more attention to obstacles, pedestrians, and traffic (like the school bus that nearly ran me down today) because I'm coming upon them more quickly and have less time to react. My first ride on the new Bianchi was with people from work when we did a 20+ mile route around town, and while it wasn't as fast as many road cyclists like to go, I felt able to keep up on my new contraption even while I was learning a totally new system of brakes, shifting, and steering. Even coming down the left lane of Meridian Street! One big benefit (and one of the reasons I chose this bike instead of another flat handlebar bike, which I thought I wanted) is that the rotated hand position above the forward-most set of front brakes makes my ergonomic injury (basically tennis elbow) feel MUCH better, instead of aggravating it like the traditional positions of using a mouse, rowing, and riding a flat bar bike do. I think I'm actually stretching the muscles in a way that combats my computer use! I have a few brightly-colored wicking shirts and tanks which I wear to hopefully avoid getting smushed by inattentive drivers. A 10-year-old girl yelled from her porch the other day, "I like your shirt!" This is great because David HATES that pink shirt (like most pink things) and I trust a little girl's fashion sense more. I yelled my thanks. In other news, I recently had the chance to attend a benefit dinner for Lambda Legal through a ticket I won at work. I don't discuss this topic much here, but GLBT rights are something I feel strongly about. I decided to go despite my discomfort with more formal, social occasions, primarily because I knew it was a good development opportunity. Even introverts should be able to interact and network with executives from their company. Finding a suit that still fit was a humorous affair, but fortunately I had one in my closet that worked. It was a lovely dinner--my eating preferences were even accommodated without too much hassle--and I met several vice presidents from my company. Bart Peterson, Indy's former mayor, received an award for his work to make our city a more just place to live. Would you believe it's only been in the last couple of years that it's no longer legal to fire or evict someone in Indianapolis because he's gay? Lambda Legal represents cases like these, or when HIV-positive people are denied government employment based on their health status, or lesbians who are denied fertility treatments because their doctors decide it's morally wrong to let them raise children. What century is this?? The next night I met friends for Meatout, which was held at City Market this year instead of a church basement. The venue was much more pleasant but the event seemed rather sparsely attended. I don't think it's advertised all that well. Some of the food was kind of blah, but I really enjoy going because I can eat ANYTHING there and it's great to hang out with like-minded folks. Amanda and I staffed a table for IHRS and I carpooled with Nicole and Ainsley, who didn't fall through the upstairs railing! I even won a Whole Foods Market raffle prize, which included a book I'd been wanting to read by a cattle rancher who went vegan, plus a cookbook, spatula, and a couple of snacks in a reusable shopping bag. The rest of life has been bunny stuff lately, and a bit of experimental cooking. I tried a new recipe this week with spaghetti squash, spinach, chickpeas, sun-dried tomatoes, basil, and of course garlic and onion. A little salt and some cheese and that's it! It was weird but pretty good.

I didn't lose the six pounds in six weeks, but I lost half of them and my body fat percentage went down a bit, so I choose to feel happy about the progress. I focused more on exercise, hooray. Nicole and Oz both made it!

This week marked two years since I stopped eating meat. So, time for my annual tally!

In 733.71 days, you have saved: 0.2760 cows 60.599 chickens 0.6733 pigs 2.0199 turkeys 0.1615 ducks 114.46 fish Total: 178.19 animals Thank you See what 178.19 animals looks like

And then there was this cute popup! This comes from a veg*n calculator, and is discussed a bit here. That two-thirds of a pig reminds me of an irritating ad insert in the paper the other day by some Indiana pork producers' group. It said, roughly, Indiana Pork Feeds Every Hoosier, 5 Million People Around the World, and 15 Million Americans! Sorry, folks, you don't feed me. And there might be a few equally irritated Jews and Muslims in this state. Their website states the group "provides the pork needs for every man, woman, and child" in Indiana, which is better phrased since at least that allows as how I might not have any pork needs. I won't bother giving them a link and increasing their traffic. A fur-free Olympian has been a bit controversial, but I gotta say, she's got the abs needed for her lines of work: Thanks for allowing me to rant today! Back to my tofu.

David called on his way to a client's house. "Well, I finally did something I always thought I'd screw up. Every time I think, Hey, don't forget to do this stupid thing you're going to forget to do. How many garbage disposals have I installed? About {large number which shall remain undisclosed}? Yeah, that's right, about the same number of women I've slept with." This is how I found out the Previous Number of Partners. We haven't really been interested in discussing the numbers in the last four-plus years. It was actually pretty funny, since he just kept going about how he apparently forgot to remove an inlet plug and the client called to say the recently-installed disposal wasn't working, and of course I was at work at the time, which prompted all the guys in our trailer to start discussing this way of relating previous partners to appliance installations, does he give discounts, etc. Meanwhile I was listening to our CEO's voicemail about quarterly earnings, which I had to replay since all this discussion kept interrupting. When I told Nicole later, she admitted she had only installed one garbage disposal and forgot to remove the inlet plug too. I thought this was a sweet euphemistic commitment to her husband, to which she replied, Oh puke.

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Update on the Six Pound Challenge: It's still six to go but in a lot less than six weeks since I regained a couple pounds! Oops.

Proof! Week zero: Week one: Note my Teva-farmer-tanned feet and my pink capri jammies with turtles. That's our very unfinished basement bathroom. Of course tonight David discovered I have cellulite when I sit a certain way. I can't believe this is its first appearance in the last four years. Ah well. This man is in denial about his baldness: Walt snoozes on my pillow on the couch. He's not supposed to be up there. I took the dogs out on the front porch last week. They really enjoyed watching the world go by. Now you can see why we need to paint the porch--we are not responsible for (nor can we remove) that seafoam green. Sorry for the dim lighting... Harry the big bun met the pups a few days ago. He jumped away when Walt licked his nose.

I had dinner with Nicole's family last night (she made great veggie burgers from scratch, including the bulgur I bought at the cult), and we took a walk with little Ainsley after we ate. Nicole announced that she and Oz are having a six-pounds-in-six-weeks weight loss challenge for bragging rights and stamina at GenCon, and since it's always helpful to have a kick in the pants, I decided to join the challenge. I've never worried about my weight, but in the last year I learned it no longer maintains itself--some evil post-30 metabolism drop. I have to watch what I eat to some degree, and go out and get sweaty more often than I really want to, and fortunately that's been enough. Usually. Sometimes I have to get really serious about it, so I'd better do it now before I have to buy new pants. I've been back on fitday.com, a very useful site for tracking what you eat and how you exercise, and I finished the last piece of cheesecake before my weigh-in, so here we go! So, folks, anyone want to join us? I can even give you guest posting access if you'd like to write your own entries about it. :) You do not have to reveal your weight! BTW, exciting dental update: Had a cleaning yesterday and I'm grinding my new teeth! I have to wear the guard or I'm going to crack $30k of work.

I walked 65 MILES last week (Mom had a pedometer) and didn't lose a pound! Maybe that's why I look a bit ragged at Pompeii. (Mom walked that far too!!)

I went mountain biking for the first time in several years today, with someone from the cycling club at work so at least I didn't get lost (or mugged). I did, however, fail to make it all the way up a hill, put my foot down onto nothing, and fell off the side onto a big rock with my bike on top of me and did this: The latter is after David tortured me with Betadine. The Betadine itself doesn't hurt, but rubbing all over the scraped area sure does! The place where I fell was only a couple of minutes from the end of the trail, right before an area named Tetanus Hill because an old rusty car is buried in (and sticking out of) the singletrack. My experienced guide fell off too not long after I did, so I didn't feel like a complete idiot. I don't remember ever getting hurt while biking before! It stings. I suppose it's like running to Mom after scraping your knee. I just hadn't had the pleasure in a long time, and Mom would have been WAY gentler with the cleanup.

No fried chicken for vegetarians, right? Well, after craving some for awhile, I finally made the Al Gore challenge recipe, but I did it in an electric skillet like my parents always used. It seems slightly healthier than dunking the chik'n in a vat of oil (and easier to clean up too). Coating the chik'n (I added some paprika to the recipe and reduced the nutritional yeast) Frying, mmm. For those who were confused, this is FAKE chicken! Not sure if this qualifies as a healthy meal, but it could have been a lot worse! David actually liked it, and he's a pretty harsh critic when anyone cooks. I think I'll brown the chik'n a bit crispier next time and maybe tone down the batter, since it was more seasoned than I used to eat. But it was still good! The basic concept should apply well to my family's chicken tenders recipe, too. And I'm going to try beef burgundy soon! If I haven't mentioned it, one of the best inventions ever is the rice cooker. I rank it pretty close to the top, which includes the internet, tampons, and pay at the pump. Speaking of the pump, Dawn asked in the bike commuting comments about the emissions and money saved by my recent biking. The calculators I've found online assume a gasoline-powered vehicle, and I don't know how much worse my diesel vehicle spews, but the basics for the 50ish miles I biked last week (instead of driving, not "extra" miles at the gym) led to about 2000 calories burned, 50 pounds of toxic emissions not spewed (25 lbs CO2), and about $5.50 saved in fuel. No, not drastic numbers (I do have a very fuel efficient vehicle and that savings is not what spawned this), but I feel healthier already. I hope the planet does too. I liked the bumper sticker I saw today: Live like you live here. Much more positive than this other one I saw (I think that's a gas pump handle): ETA: For the 50 miles vs. my SUV, which I really only drive to haul stuff but did bring to work today so David could use the Jetta for errands which required a lot more driving, I would save $11 in gasoline and 58 lbs of CO2 in the atmosphere. And David's truck would have used $18 in gas and spewed 94 lbs CO2. Amazing how much difference there is from one vehicle to another! A couple of biking calculators: Bike Geek, 511.org

I rode about 50 miles to and from work on my bike in the last week since I started this little commuting project. Observed:

One catcall and one general holler Two cheery guys with booze in paper sacks One muskrat No crashes (did almost fall off this morning and saw one person fall over with a clip incident) Four trips before I even noticed a McDonald's along the way One chunk of broken TV on the giant bridge Two wrong turns Felt short in my compact car after riding so much perched on the bike No near death experiences Zero flats, hooray Twenty-plus pounds of gear in my backpack!

Without my laptop, the backpack isn't that heavy. Well, I guess it still is, but not so painful. I leave a lot of shower and clothing items in the locker room at work, but I do tend to overpack no matter how I'm traveling. I discovered the way in is 150 ft negative elevation change over the whole route, which means riding home is really hard work to recover that (not to mention the up and down of the bridge both ways right by work). That isn't a huge change in elevation, but when you suddenly weigh 180 lbs with all that stuff on your back, you have knobby tires, and there's a headwind, it can take almost an hour to go seven miles! I am ready to get a rack and/or panniers to help with the load. I can probably leave the heavy U-lock behind because no one is going to cut a cable lock at my security-controlled workplace populated with upstanding people. I hope to get a new cross strap for my Timbuk2 bag and just carry it messenger style like it was designed, instead of inside the backpack. I must learn to part with more things. For Bike to Work Day this morning, almost thirty of us left from a bike shop in Irvington to ride together downtown. I was riding just behind the people in the video in the local paper's sidebar coverage. Riders from 11 points in the city met at the circle for breakfast, press conferences, free bike parking... pretty much all of which I missed because our eastside group arrived late at the circle, and my coworkers were leaving together for our plantsites then. The ride in: Michigan Street Waiting forever for a train It was a nice mix of people: racers on road bikes in team spandex, random people like me on mountain bikes, and regular joes in jeans on cruisers. I don't think those groups mix a lot otherwise, but the point was to highlight bike commuting and riding in a group provides safety and camaraderie, even when you don't know anyone else. I liked this shot of my coworkers converging at corporate headquarters for a group picture (which I don't have). I noticed a lot of them are carrying backpacks too so maybe we just need a lot of stuff at our jobs! It was a gorgeous day today and I spent more time on the bike trail for scenery, but the ride home still hurt with all that crap on my back.