I like my coffee....

I like my coffee like I like my men __________.


Ground up and put in the freezer.


Chock full O' nuts.


Sweet, rich, and blonde.

Lulu's Puppy Diary

Today daddy left for work, I don't like it when he goes it makes me cry. At least I have mommy here, but she keeps saying my name over and over Lululululululululu almost like she's singing, what does she want from me? I come running and she pets me, but I'm not sure about the weird singing thing.

I'm still adjusting to my new home here, the people seem nice, and there's always something interesting happening. The most amazing thing is yesterday I watch mommy take a bath, I'm not quite sure about this bath thing, it is compelling, but I'm definitely cautious about it.

Today there was a beam of light that came in through the curtain, the kind where you can see the dust particles floating. I don't trust it, but maybe if I sniff it I'll figure it out.

Zoey's Puppy Diary

Dear Puppy Diary:

Today is a quiet day, mommy is boring especially when she's on the computer. I'm still adjusting to the new addition Lulu, that is what the people call her. She sleeps by mommy and daddy's heads which obstructs my way to getting under the covers from the top and I am not happy about this, but the people seem to find a way to let me in. I really like having a little sister, but sometimes she can be sooooo annoying. She lets the people hold her and carry her around like a baby, where is her spunk and free will. I would never let them do that it would just not be right. Thankfully she doesn't appreciate the wonders of sucking the peoples' thumbs, she totally doesn't know what she's missing there! More for me!

Health updates

So a brief update into the health issues. I'm still using CPAP, and I'm feeling sooo much better. It wasn't nearly as quick as I would have liked, but I'm very thankful for my sleep gadget. After seriously analyzing my sleep history, I'm pretty convinced I've been suffering from sleep apnea for much of my adult life. I remember at around 18 yrs old a boyfriend complaining of my horrid loud snoring. I know that my whole life I've not been much of a sleeper, even as a kid I was up at the crack of dawn regardless of what time I went to sleep, and as a teenager would sometimes go days without sleep.

It's interesting what such a simple thing as good restful sleep can do for you. I find myself much clearer in my thinking these days, my memory has improved (although there is a block of time I don't have a lot of memory of, during my sickest time). I'm much more active than I have been in years keeping up my home and I even started a garden last spring, it wasn't a terribly successful garden and I didn't get everything done I planned to do, but it was definitely an improvement. I'm actually cooking healthy meals, and I'm able to spend more quality time with my family.

A real revelation came to me when I saw a picture of when we first got our dog Zoey, and how sickly and half dead I really looked then. It was a bit horrifying. I am definitely not the most photogenic person in the world, and when cameras are pointed at me I generally don't know quite what to do with my face and contort it in unnatural ways..the smile doesn't look right, the eyes too wild or something, but this was pretty telling, the dark circles under my eyes were very pronounced, my skin was almost gray. I'm certainly not any prettier in photos these days, but at least I don't look like I'm on death's doorstep.

The diabetes for the most part is under control, I've lost some weight not nearly as much as I need to but it's a start. Over all feeling much better!

Movie Reccomendations

Television is not a big part of our lives here at my home. We've not had cable in years and for the most part we don't miss it. We do however keep hundreds of movies. Movies are an amazing way to escape into a story for 2 hours, learn about something you didn't know, create social awareness, or just be captivated by beauty. Here's my ongoing list of my favorite movies and why I feel like they are a must see.

Social Awareness:

Zeitgeist: The Movie
Zeitgeist: Addendum
http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/
You can watch these both for free via their website. If even a portion of the claims made by this movie are true (which I encourage you to find out for yourself, and don't intend to preach here) Then we desperately need to change our actions and views of things. This is not a comfortable movie to watch, and may shatter false beliefs, or create denial. But I think regardless it is important to open the dialogue.


Requeim for a Dream
An amazing look into the world of addiction.

Schindler's List
Obvious.

The Shawshank Redemption
My very favorite Stephen King story. It explores the humanity and society of the people in our criminal justice system, and the flaws within it.

Philidephia
Obvious.

Inherit The Wind
A dramatization of the Scopes Monkey Trial, it shows the politics, media circus, and court process surrounding one of the most interesting and important arguements of our time.

Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price
Watch and decide for yourself.

What Dreams May Come
A beautiful perspective on the possibilities of life and death and our roles in relation to others.

Pure Entertainment: (With at least some redeeming social value)

Lord of The Rings (all of them)
Pirates of the Carribean (the first one)
Harry Potter (all of them)

There are definitely more and I'll add to this as time goes by, but for now I'm tired and brainfried.

The Black Lotus and You

Black Lotus is still very useful for making flasks even in Burning Crusade. It's still rare, and expensive.

I've learned a good farming system for aquiring the black lotus, and can collect usually abut 4 an hour this way.

On our server black lotus sells for 25-50 gold a piece.

One thing I love about farming black lotus is because there is some travel time between places it allows me to get up, do a little housework, grab coffee, sign homework etc, even watch a movie half heartedly.

Things to know about how BL spawns:

It spawns one time per hour if it is picked, in one of roughly 14 spawn points in 4 zones. What does this mean exactly? If you pick the one in Eastern Plaguelands there will not be another spawn in that zone for another hour, move on to the next zone. Make note of the time you pick the first one on your route, so that you know that you have waited an hour and don't waste your time checking empty spawn points.

How I do it:

I start in Eastern Plaguelands, so I go Shattrath to Isle of Que'l Danas and fly to EPL. From Light Hopes Chapel, I go toward Bowman hill and hit all the points between there and Strat. Run back down by Blackwind lake, and hit the spawn points by WPL and hit all the points between there and back to LHC. Once I find my Lotus, whichever spawn point it is at, I move on to Burning Steppes:

Once at Burning Steppes the route is a little more of a circle, thankfully. Starting from Morgan's Vigil I travel south and check Pillar of Ash spawn points, make my way up to the altar, and around Black Rock Mountain then east towards ogre mound and back to Morgan's. Once I find my Lotus, there are two options. I hearth to shat and either take the port to Darnassus, and go to Winterspring. Or you can hearth to Shat and Zephyr to Tanaris and fly to Silithus. Either way you have one long flight ahead of you between the next two zones. If you are a druid, you could zephyr to Tanaris then port to moonglade and save yourself a nasty flight. I personally like the long flights because I can actually do something else for a sec. So I go Winterspring next.

Once in Winterspring the circut gets a little fruity again. I start right by Everlook and hit all the nodes to the south first then work my way back up to the middle of the map, and hit west side and then lastly if I have still not found my lotus, I hit that one far up north. Most of the lotus I have found in this zone has been south of Everlook, but it is random which node it spawns at. Once I find the lotus in this zone I head to Silithus.

On the long flight here, takes several minutes this is when I hit the potty, refill my coffee, and run a load of dishes or something. Once here I hit the North West portion of the map first, work my way south, then run all the southern points and work my way north again along the eastern side of the map. Once I have my lotus for this zone, I either hearth back to Shat and start over or fly to Theramore and boat back to MH and start over that way, depends on if my hearth is up and how lazy I feel.

In closing I'm sure there is a more efficient path, but really efficiency isn't the key here, because the circut must take at least an hour or your first zone will not have spawned a new lotus. So the idea is to make sure dawdle a bit if you find a few quick lotus and are under your hour, pick a few herbs along your path for bonus gold.

I hope this is useful for someone.

Copy Red Leader

In May I was diagnosed with severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea. Which basically means my soft palate or my throat blocks my airway and causes me to stop breathing in my sleep. During my sleep study, they found out that I stopped breathing 95 times an hour while I slept. No wonder I felt like hell.

This is the contraption I sleep with at night, and yes I'm much too vain to post a pic of myself with it on. The idea of this contraption is that it forces air into my airway and keeps the soft palate and throat from relaxing and collapsing.

My husband says I look like I'm about to blow up the death star, and calls me Red Leader.

After a few months on this thing, I do feel some better. I feel more rested, and I actually sleep a full 6-7 hrs a night.

The mask is uncomfortable and sucks ass, but I'm getting used to it. There are days I wake up annoyed with it and yell at it, call it bad names and throw it down and resign myself to being awake. But for the most part I'm just really glad to be getting a full night's sleep.

On occassion when I nap I rebel and don't put it on, but I make sure that it's a short nap.