...awhile before anyone talks to me again. I'm totally cracked out on Lost. I started with the pilot and I'm working my way up to current, since I haven't watched it before. I'm waaaaaaaaaaaay into it. Damn addictive ass shows.

This diet and exercise program rocks!

Starting Weight: 167
Current Weight: 158

Today was the first day without food. I thought I would be all sorts of crabby and generally annoyed with everything/everyone. But, to be honest, I have never felt better. I have more energy than I have had in years. Hopefully this will continue. :o)

Okay, so for the last 2 years I have been battling weight issues. I'm naturally a smallish frame girl and at most would weigh 120 lbs. Well, my Endometriosis got to the point where my options were menopause, pregnancy, or hysterectomy. Since the last 2 weren't overly appealing, I chose menopause in the form of Lupron. I enjoyed the 6 month of not being in constant pain. What I did not enjoy was the hormonal weight gain. Even after stopping the Lupron I just couldn't seem to get that weight off. Beyond frustrating when your own body feels foreign to you.

After my appendix ruptured, I managed to lose abit of weight and was starting to feel better about myself, but, didn't seem to last. So, now I'm trying something new that leads to amazing results (from what I've seen). Tomorrow I'm starting a liquid meal replacement diet. Medically supervised/approved, of course. I'm so excited. That, with exercise, I'm hoping to return to my normal weight and then be able to manage it with proper diet/exercise.

I may or may not keep this up to date with my progress. I'll weigh in tonight and then weigh weekly. We'll see how it goes. It's going to be tough, especially since mom just went and bought all sorts of yummy groceries. My will is strong, damnit!

My newest hermie, Garth, has passed away. Poor thing wasn't strong enough to survive her molt. Shelly is pretty bummed about it and is now stress molting. Poor chicka. When she's finished, I'll get her a new playmate.


Also, tonight, I was bitten by a fire ant. Which always sucks, but, apparently this was a different species then I am used to because I almost instantly broke out in hives. That was fun. A bottle of children's Benedryl (all we had and the dose for adults was massive considering) later and I feel great.

Photo's of the little monsters...

( Click Me )

I fucking hope 2008 is better than 2007...

Shelly has officially molted!


.....yes,I'm easily amused. Don't judge me.

About damn time,too. She moped long enough about it. Anyway,this morning around 0600 I decided to peep her hiding spot and saw something that looked like this:


I knew about all about molting,but,that caught me off-guard.I wasn't sure if she were alive,but,trusty google assured me that I should check inside her shell and when I did I found..


I really thought her molted exoskeleton would look differently.I mean,it looks exactly like her and you can't even tell where she climbed out of it. Weird.But,I'm happy she's finally done it and she's already eaten half of it,so she's well on her way. I also noticed some of her potential new shells had been moved around,so I guess she felt well enough to try them on. I'll try and get pictures once she's fully clothed again. ;o)

Crabs are funny little things,aren't they?

..was actually not that bad. Everyone got along great and we had lots of food and booze. Of course we had lots of booze,it was an Irish/Jewish Thanksgiving feast. Damn alcoholics! :o)

Plus it snowed! I couldn't believe it. I had actually gone to take abit of a post-turkey nap,w00t Tryptophane/insomnia,and about 20 minutes into it just as I'm dozing off my mom bursts into the room and says "Get downstairs,it's snowing!"(she's easily amused). I seriously thought it was a deranged ploy just to get me downstairs to socialize with the family.But,I go downstairs and see big beautiful snowflakes falling. Ahh,it was a nice holiday surprise.Hard to believe it was in the 80's just 2 days ago. Gotta love Texas weather.My brother and sister in law brought this 4 month old Pit/Lab mix they're dog-sitting and she was outside chasing and trying to eat the snow. Not very bright,but,cute none the less. Another big plus to the day was that everyone was outta the house by 5pm. :oD

I am a little worried about how this sudden drop in temperature is affecting Shelly though. She requires her crabitat to be a nice warm place with 70-80 humidity and that's not easy to achieve when my bedroom temp is a cool 65. Gotta love the vent system in this house. :o| I think I might have to wrap a towel around the crabitat to contain the heat inside...I think that would work..not sure. If not I may have to get creative with some towels and heating pad and put the crabitat on top of that,I'm worried that might make it too hot,though. Oi...I really don't know.

My insomnia is really starting to irk me. I've run out of dvds to watch and books to read. I is not happy. :o(

I realized today that I really just don't like Thanksgiving,such a pointless bullshit holiday. I hate that you have to spend a fortune for ONE meal! Yes,usually you have leftovers,but it still fucking sucks.Meh,just not looking forward to it. If I were living alone I'd so just order a pizza.Anyway,my mom's brother Jimmy and his wife are coming over,err stopping by I should say. He's a truck driver and will just be popping in for food and heading back out again. I just want this holiday to be over.

On the bright side of this crappy holiday season,I'm just a few gifts shy of having ALL my christmas shopping finished!!!! I got an obscenely early start because I hate leaving the house this time of year and having to deal with all the crowds and retards insisting on waiting for parking spaces. You know those kind that you get stuck behind for like 20 minutes because they're waiting on a space in which the family is still unloading things. Just another thing I hate about driving,seriously unless you have a medical condition/disability why does it matter if you're parked up front. Really? Who cares,just fucking park and get out of the way! Really makes me mental.

Umm...what else is going on....Oh,I got my nose re-pierced. When my Appendix ruptured in January the doctor thought it was fairly probable I might die during the operation and made me remove my piercings. Struck me as sort of silly. I mean,if I died during the operation then wouldn't a singed nostril(from the defib) be the least of my problems? Anyway,it closed up in the couple of hours the surgery took. I went to a new shop to have it done and the guy was super nice. The piercing itself,like last time,wasn't bad. I barely felt it,but,my nose is apparently a giant blood vessel and just poured. It looked like he'd punched me from the amount of blood coming out of my nose. Took about an hour to get it to stop bleeding. Was lovely.Thankfully for the piercer/shop owner I was the only customer,I'm sure that would have scared anyone else away. ;o)

Shelly(thanks,Techie.) is doing well,I guess. She's molting so I'm not seeing much of her these days. I think the molting thing is stressing me out more than her. It's just a weird process. She digs herself a hole and stays there for a good 2'ish weeks. You can't move them or anything as you could harm them. So,I'm totally stressed about whether everything is normal or not. I guess because I can't tell her progress. I suppose I won't be able to until she's finished. This first time molting thing is going to be the death of me.

Just a quick update. Not going to go into detail really,as I'm too tired,so here are the basics.

- State Farm Insurance sucks a lot and refuses to fix my car.
- Upgraded my insurance to full coverage,with that and some retro-action,car will be fixed.
- Uncle from England is doing some job training in Dallas,so we're hanging out.
- I have a new pet Hermit Crab.I have no idea what to name her. So suggestions?
- I'm thoroughly engrossed in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books. I picked the entire series up at Half Price Books today for $12. I just started book 2. (The Restuarant At The End of The Universe)
- My sinuses hate me. Wtf is with allergies in November?
- I picked up Spidey 3 on dvd,I liked it even less the second watch.
- Current tv show addictions:
Heroes
Reaper
Pushing Daisies(most brilliant show on tv,possibly ever)
- My bro gave me his Xbox(complete with games) when he upgraded to 360,I'm kicking major ass in Halo 2.
- Bone spur in my foot is back. Damned inheriting my dad's weird walk! Doctors appointment on Thursday.


Okay,that's all I can think of. I'll try and get pictures of the crab tomorrow. She's kinda shy. ;o)

Yesterday my beautiful new Malibu was smashed. :o(

My dad was using it to go to Dallas because his van is being serviced. He was going 70 down the expressway when a guy crossed 4 lanes of traffic and hit my car.Thankfully,my dad wasn't injured. The guy claims a "truck clipped his tail light" causing him to veer. The reason I say claims is because there are no witnesses to that happening.No one ever saw a truck hit the guy. Just saw him lose control of his car. Anyway,he gave us his insurance info,we call and they tell us to find the phantom truck driver and have him fix it. fucking pricks,man. I mean,he hit my car,I don't give a shit what caused him to lose control. Point is that he failed to maintain control of his vehicle and the result of that damaged my car. Even PD says he's 100% at fault. So,I told the insurance company that if they want to be dicks about it then I'll happily take my dad to a doctor(his elbow is sore and bruised),hire a lawyer and make them pay a fuckload. I mean come on. I just want my car fixed. Either way,the Insurance company will be paying to fix it no matter how we play it.

Here's how my Malibu looked before:


( Smashed Malibu.. )

So,it's been quite awhile since I've posted a real update. I've been insanely busy lately with all sorts of weirdness. For some reason,i can't seem to escape random relatives from my mothers side of the family. Her parents,who I've disowned came for a visit. They stayed a whole 4 hours! Which amuses me because they drove like 6 hours to get here.They pulled their usual BS of claiming to be broke,yet offered to build us a house in Tennessee AND mentioned how they just had a helicopter landing pad put in. Wtf??? They're broke,but,they can build a house and a helicopter pad. What the hell do they need a helicopter pad for? I'm pretty sure they don't have a helicopter. Whatever. Fuck them. They're both douchebags. Not even going to go into why I hate them so much here,but,some of you already know.

( Cut since it's a long post )

The anti-rape female condom was invented by Sonette Ehlers, a South African woman for the purpose of preventing rape.

The device is a latex sheath held firm by shafts of sharp, inward-facing microscopic barbs that would be worn by a woman in her vagina like a tampon. Should an attacker attempt vaginal rape, the penis would penetrate the latex and be bailed by the barbs, causing the attacker pain and (ideally) giving the victim time to escape. The condom would remain bailed to the attacker's body and could be removed only surgically, which would, hypothetically, alert hospital staff and police.

The Rapex would also act as a preventative measure if an attacker had any sexually transmitted diseases
The device was unveiled on August 31, 2005 in South Africa. Mass production was scheduled to begin in April 2007.

Critics, women included, have objected to Ehlers's invention as "medieval" and "vengeful, horrible, and disgusting" and oppose its planned sale in drugstores.

It is like we are going back to the days where women were forced to wear chastity belts. It is a terrifying thought that women are being made to adapt to rape by wearing these devices ... Women would have to wear this every minute of their lives on the off-chance that they would be raped.
—Lisa Vetten (Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, South Africa)

Others, refer to it simply as a "Vaginal Bear Trap," as it inflicts severe pain on the attacker. Since the wearer of the condom exhibits no visible signals that she is using the condom, there is no visible deterrence for a prospective attacker, which adds to criticisms that the device is vindictive.

This concern for the well-being of a violent rapist has garnered even harsher responses from proponents of the device. However, the device has furthermore caused concern that it could be worn for consensual sex as part of a malicious act of revenge or cruelty.

Others fear that use of the device would enrage an attacker and further jeopardize the victim.
Some contend that a would-be-rapist could feel with his fingers before entering the vagina, use a dildo to remove it, or demand oral and/or anal sex instead.

An apartment complex in San Antonio that turned away a married couple because of their tattoos defends its policy banning large tattoos and other body art can legally do that, Texas housing officials said.
Gilbert Carrillo is proud of his tattoos, which regularly draw compliments. One of his tattoos was featured in a magazine.

"Ever since I was 18, to now, 25, is little bit by bit, just covering up here, covering up there," Carrillo said.

But last month, Carrillo's tattoos kept him and his wife, Melissa, from moving into The Villas apartment complex.

"We liked the apartment, we brought them a check for the deposit and a check for the application fee," Carrillo said.

But one day after Carrillo went to see the apartment wearing a short-sleeve shirt, he was told he didn't qualify to live there. The management said his tattoos violated the complex's policy on personal appearance.
"For them to be so judgmental upon a person's appearance, and for them to judge somebody based upon them having a tattoo is just ridiculous, you know," Carrillo said.

Not only do the Carrillos feel that the policy is discriminatory, they were also upset that the manager refused to refund the couple's full $70 application fee.
The manager of the complex, Daisy Salazar, told a reporter with WOAI-TV that she was not allowed to talk about the policy or the lack of the refund.

One of the owners of the apartment, a southern California physician named Edward Frankel, replied to an e-mail about the policy saying his complexes do "reject prospective tenants who have... tattoos exposed on the neck, head, hands and wrists, or large tattoos that cover over 40 percent of the lower or upper arm."
Frankel and his partners have purchased a number of upscale apartment complexes in San Antonio and Dallas, where they have also banned pierced tongues and eyebrows and tenants can't have more than one nose piercing or five earrings.

But Frankel said the policy is not discriminatory. "The above applies to persons of any race, color, gender, etc," Frankel wrote.

Texas housing officials said the rules may be unusual, but are not illegal.

"Refusing to rent to somebody because they have tattoos may be unfair, but is not necessarily discrimination under the Fair Housing Act, unless the tattoos are specific to the person's religion or national origin," said Sandy Tamez of the San Antonio Fair Housing Council.

After the San Antonio television station began asking questions about the case, the complex did refund the Carrillos' full application fee, but the couple is still angry that a landlord would consider body art to be the mark of a bad tenant.

Editor's Note: Okay,wtf? I have 11 tattoos(2 of which are on my neck),4 piercings(none of which are visible) and now it's possible that I won't be able to rent a place to live. What kind of fucked up world are we living in that the 2 small shamrocks celebrating my heritage on my neck could prevent me from having shelter?! Also,how the fuck is this not illegal?! That's clearly discrimination! I mean if I can sue over being denied employment and/or fired because of my tattoos,the same as if it were because of my gender/race,then why is this different? How is it discrimination for a job,but,not for housing. Fucking Texas. Bending the law to suit it's own agenda. I fucking hate this state.I'm so offended and in 'shock' by this that I really can't even convey how I really feel.

I took a small break from the DS to watch Reign Over Me. That movie is soooo fucking heartbreaking and really beautiful. Adam Sandler gave such an amazing performance. I don't get why people get all weird about 'comedians' taking on serious roles. Sure it hasn't really worked for everyone (*ahem*Ashton Kutcher),but,Sandler does it brilliantly. While Spanglish wasn't an overly fantastic film,his performance in it was reason enough to adore the flick. I would really love to see him take on more dramatic roles,it suits him.

So,if you haven't seen Reign Over Me,I highly recommend it. If you're a wuss like me,keep tissues near by. There is a VERY tiny list of movies that have made me cry and Reign Over Me has now been added.

DAMN YOU SANDLER!

Mommy just surprised me with a Nintendo DS Lite!

So,um,I'll be playing with my new toy until further notice.

You're To Kill a Mockingbird!

by Harper Lee

Perceived as a revolutionary and groundbreaking person, you have
changed the minds of many people. While questioning the authority around you, you've
also taken a significant amount of flack. But you've had the admirable guts to
persevere. There's a weird guy in the neighborhood using dubious means to protect you,
but you're pretty sure it's worth it in the end. In the end, it remains unclear to you
whether finches and mockingbirds get along in real life.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Hmm....not sure how I feel about this one hehe

I have 2 hardcore crushes right now and both boys live in Norway. The dating gods hate me.

Her parents must be so proud!