JamesG’s Neighborhood

This report was all over TV this morning…

Low carb diets like Atkins beat healthier low fat or Mediterranean-style diets in a weight-loss study that lasted 2 years.  What they don’t want to talk about is that Atkins people lost an average of 12 pounds, Mediterranean-style diet eaters lost an average of 10 pounds.  Only a 2 pound difference.  Let’s see….. I can eat a slab of bacon for breakfast -OR- I can eat my normal bowl of fruit, bowl of “natural” cereal, and low-fat yogurt.   Hmmm…  I just realized the people on Atkins lost more weight because they probably vomited up their breakfasts!  Sorry.  Nobody can take away my pasta, bread, or fruit!  AND…. no matter HOW they try, they will NEVER convince me eating an Atkins style diet is good for me!

Yesterday whilst shopping in the city, my upper lip suddenly started to itch.  I kept sort of squeezing my lips together instead of scratching my lips.  Who scratches their lips anyway?  In any case, it sort of hurt as well.  When I got out to the car I looked into the mirror and, yikes!  My upper lip was very swollen.  I must have been stung or bitten by some kind of insect.  Well, either that or there is a Ninja Cosmetic Surgeon out there giving phantom collagen shots!  Perhaps he leaped out and administered the injection whilst I blinked!  Hmmm…  You can see why I feel unusual, this time!

P.S.  This morning when I got out of bed, my lip was mostly normal again.  Glad I didn’t pay for that collagen injection if it only lasts 12 hours!

I'm on holiday. Have you missed me? Sorry I’ve not written. They don’t allow computers in the asylum. Actually, we’ve been painting our bedroom. Yesterday was the prep work including stripping wallpaper and “masking” the woodwork, and then priming the bare walls. Today we painted the ceiling and walls. Ceiling white, walls a lovely shade of green. We moved the furniture around the room and tomorrow I’ll touch up any bits of wall we missed whilst painting.

Tomorrow I also plan to begin working on the “troll cave,” otherwise known as the basement.

Some holiday, eh? Thursday and Friday, we plan to “play” meaning shopping, eating out, seeing a film. Gonna see “WALL-E”, which my brother says is great. Saturday… not sure yet what we’ll do. Hoping to do some reading as well. I’m reading Jeffrey Deaver’s “Lincoln Rhyme” series. Fantastically creepy and well written. Hoping the Library has “The Coffin Dancer” which is the second in the series.

Gotta go. The Head Nurse insists I get to bed so she can lock down the ward. See you on the other side!

Ben's newest addition! For more photos of Chessie, click here.

Open House at Ben's is over and was successful. Many family members made it to our party, despite the short notice. Everybody was very impressed with our hard work and the end results. There is a lot to do to the exterior of the house but the interior is done. (We really should paint the basement walls but will not be doing that quite yet.) Ben received loads of well wishes and very nice house warming gifts as well. The weather was nearly perfect, and thankfully, cooler. (The day previous we got nearly 4" of rain!) Ben still has to move his office stuff and other bits and bobs, but he has been living there for nearly 2 weeks.

Saturday, the refrigerator was hauled up out of our basement accompanied by a lot of grunting and groaning and bruises. Ben managed to get his "vintage" Chevy pickup running but whilst in town his ignition burned out and battling the pounding rain, he fixed it and drove it home to load the refrigerator into. The fridge finally arrived in Ben's kitchen at about 7:30 P.M. We are grateful it still works after all of the bumping, jerking, and moving it did. Ben is glad to finally have a full sized fridge instead of the dorm sized one he had been using. We also put a chest style freezer in his basement. It is new and is actually lighter than the fridge even though the fridge is smaller than the freezer.

This afternoon, Ben plans to go to Friends of Felines to get a kitten. He will name it "Chessie." (like the railroad.) I can hardly wait but won't see it until tomorrow. Andy is going along though. Life can really be fun!

Sorry. That’s my fave Clint Eastwood quote. Good old Dirty Harry himself.

So, how did the unluckiness of Friday the 13th begin? You can look here for a long article about the unluckiness of Friday the 13th but here are a few examples:

LEGEND HAS IT: If 13 people sit down to dinner together, all will die within the year. The Turks so disliked the number 13 that it was practically expunged from their vocabulary (Brewer, 1894). Many cities do not have a 13th Street or a 13th Avenue. Many buildings don’t have a 13th floor. If you have 13 letters in your name, you will have the devil’s luck (Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Theodore Bundy and Albert De Salvo all have 13 letters in their names). There are 13 witches in a coven.

Personally, I don’t believe in any number being unlucky. (outside of 666 that is.) I hope your Friday the 13th is a good day, full of good fortune and good luck. (if you believe in luck.)

Well, I suppose we’re all hot. At least anybody who lives in the Nothern Hemisphere is. Last night we got some horrendous storms as well. They came at us at 50 MPH! We were grateful, living in a woods, none of our trees came to visit us in our den. We did head underground for about 10 minutes whilst the storms blew through, just in case. All we have are sticks and leaves. In town though, and at library where I work, there was a lot of tree damage. We were very fortunate.