Scribblings

Small Update

It's been another lovely weekend, even nicer than the last one because of the milder temperatures. TB and Kristin continued working on our garden. Check it out so far:

Linda worked on a project of her own...painting the bedroom she shares with Little T!

Kennan and T spent the weekend together and had a wonderful time. Tomas has begun to run and jump! He also can blow hard enough on his pinwheel to make it spin. He's really coming a long way since this time last year!

Still, there are ups and downs. It was pretty clear T did not want to come home after such a great weekend with his dad. It's hard enough on any kid who has to go back and forth between households but I guess it's even moreso for T because he can't tell us yet how he feels. With time and work, we are hoping and praying he'll have plenty of words to tell us.

Feline Friday: Mommy, make him move!

First Amber discovered the cozy benefits of lounging in front of my computer screen. Then Mouse saw what a good deal she had and began arriving before she did to plop himself in the coveted spot. Amber wasn't interested in fighting with Mouse and so he got used this being "his" spot.

Newcomer Kosmo also likes to plop in front of the computer. Usually it's not an issue as they jump up at different times...except for this one particular day. For quite a few long seconds, neither one was going to give way to the other but then finally Kosmo gave it up and came back later.

Want more cat blogging? Check out:

Wordless Wednesday for more Kosmo
Amber chills in the heat
Cat Planet
Friday Ark
and Carnival of the Cats

Where's the next carnival? It will be at Catymology!

Wordless Wednesday

Lost: Sneak Peek

Go ahead and look...it's a really cool clip that with just one tiny little bitty spoiler! You know you want to ....

Ten on Tuesday

Ten on Tuesday

Top 10 Things You Like to Do Alone

1. Go to the bathroom. Does that seem strange? I know that some don't mind company in the bathroom be it a spouse in a house but not me! The door is closed and we can talk later. Same thing for the infamous ladies' room. I prefer to travel alone there and not in a gaggle because all I want to do is do my business and get out.

2. Read
3. Drive
4. Shop
5. Listen to music
6. Go sit on the beach and think
7. Go to a movie
8. Daydream
9. Pay bills
10. Eat

Bear in mind that I can do all of the above (except #1 for reasons previously stated ) with other people--I just enjoy doing these things alone too!

Amber chills in the heat

Why are very hot days just called "dog days"? Amber knows how to get through the heat--don't move! She doesn't quite have room to show all of her tummy in its splendiferous glory but feels we should be happy we get this much. For the last several weeks she's been in hiding much of the time, sulking over the new kitty in the family, Indigo.

More Tuesday cat blogging? Try:

Cat Tuesday
and
Lisaviolet's Tummy Tuesday!

Since When Can't You Just Pay Your Doctor?

Apparently if you are covered by some insurance company your doctor doesn't take...especially one associated with Medicaid!

Linda is really sick. Her insurance is from Medicaid now and the primary assigned to her no longer takes that insurance! Well, that figures--outdated information and misinformation is one of the many things wrong with any provider. There is no doctor locally who takes that insurance and when Linda called the provider, they told her to go to the emergency room! Yey, way to drive up everyone's medical expenses, thanks for nothing!

Linda called the doctor she'd been seeing for the last several years, explained what happened and offerd to pay cash for seeing the doctor. The person she talked to said okay and so she went all the way out there to see the doctor only to learn from the office manager that they weren't "legally allowed" to see Linda because of her insurance.

What! Since when has having any insurance at all made a difference if you could pay in cash? I swear, the whole health system is totally fercockt! So Linda is now at the emergency room.

I have a memory that goes back to January 1965. We'd just moved to Maryland from New York and my brother (he was 10 at the time) got really sick on the way to school one morning. As it turned out, his appendix ruptured and my parents took him to the nearest hospital. The admitting person asked my father about his health insurance and my dad lied and said we had it. In truth, it hadn't kicked in yet. My parents were afraid if they told the truth my brother would be turned away and sent to a hospital that treated the insured further away and in a bad part of the city. When the officials found out my father wasn't insured after all, they were totally furious but it was too late. By then my brother had had his surgery. My dad just shrugged and said sorry, I misunderstood the question, deaf and dumb, you know?

My how times change.

Rachel Carson: Why We Have Earth Day

Silent Spring was one of the most powerfully frightening books I've ever read--it's all true. Rachel Carson warned us about using pesticides and what it would do to our environment and although she was labelled a crackpot she was fortunate enough to have found a supporter in President John Kennedy. I remember reading that anyone born after 1954 will have DDT in their livers, that's how long the poison stays in the environment. I also remember she warned about mutations in species because of pollutions and that's why we have 2 headed fish and frogs. That's why we have no life in lakes and streams poisoned by acid rain. I'm sure this is why our weather is whacked out. It's not DDT now, no--except in poor countries around the world. Now what we have is "the solution to pollution is dilution." I think Rachel Carson's book is a classic--read it if you dare.

The Legacy Of "Silent Spring"

NEW YORK, April 22, 2007
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(CBS) In her groundbreaking book "Silent Spring," Rachel Carson jolted a prosperous post-war America — a country confident that science and technology were leading the way to a future in which disease and hunger could be overcome, in no small part thanks to a new generation of powerful pesticides.

But in "Silent Spring," Carson warned that progress had a price.

"These sprays, dusts and aerosols are now applied almost universally to farms, gardens, forests and homes — non-selective chemicals that have the power to kill every insect, the good and the bad, to still the song of birds and the leaping of fish in streams, to coat the leaves with a deadly film and to linger on in soil," she said in a 1962 documentary for CBS News. "All this, though the intended target may be only a few weeds or insects."

At the midpoint of the 20th century, spraying was a familiar sight to many young baby boomers including Robert Kennedy, son of the late New York senator, Robert Kennedy.

"We had sprayers coming — coming down our street, big fogging trucks, you know … to spray for DDT," he told CBS News correspondent Thalia Assuras. "And my brothers and I would go out and play combat in the fog, you know, running in and out of this fog, breathing this stuff."

Kennedy is now an environmental lawyer, and says Rachel Carson was a pioneer who inspired a generation of activists.

"She was the first one to quietly, you know, kind of nudge the American people and say, 'Well, wait a second. There's a cost here that you're not being told about,'" he said.

Carson, an unassuming scientist and writer, was an unlikely activist for sure, but the seeds were planted early in her childhood. She grew up in a modest house just outside of Pittsburgh.

"She enjoyed wandering around in the fields," said Patricia DeMarco, the executive director of the Rachel Carson Homestead. "It was her playground. She just was very fascinated with living things and growing things. From an early age she wanted to be a writer and her mother was teaching her at home a lot."

After earning a college science degree, Carson took a job at the Federal Bureau of Fisheries, which later became the Fish and Wildlife Service.

"While she was put out in the field as an aquatic biologist, soon she was editing other scientists' reports," said Linda Lear, author of a biography on Carson who also contributed to a new book of essays about her legacy.

In her free time, Carson wrote three increasingly successful books about the mysteries of the sea. The books sold so well that she turned to writing full-time. She hoped that her writing would help educate the public about the wonders of nature.

"Always to instill her science writing with an ethic, if you will, of how beautiful nature is," Lear said, "how intricate it is and how everything in nature is related to everything else.

So when Carson saw evidence that pesticides — DDT in particular — were killing birds and other wildlife, she decided that would be the subject of her next book.

It took her four years to write "Silent Spring," based on research from a network of scientists around the country. Finishing the book became a matter of will; she was fighting breast cancer.

Roger Christie, Carson's great-nephew, said he could tell how ill she was and perhaps at some level he knew she was dying. Carson adopted him when he was five and she was just shy of 50.

"I think subconsciously, I knew she was dying," he said.

Through sheer determination, Carson participated in an hour-long CBS News documentary on pesticides, which aired not long after "Silent Spring" became a national best seller.

"Can anyone believe it is possible to lay down such a barrage of poisons on the surface of the Earth without making it unfit for all life?" she said in the documentary.

While Carson didn't contend that chemical insecticides must never be used, she faced harsh opposition.

"Well, the one guy, the chief critic was — as they say, he would have made a great villain in a Bela Lugosi movie," Christie said.

His name was Dr. Robert White-Stevens, a spokesman for the chemical industry.

"The major claims in Miss Rachel Carson's book, 'Silent Spring,' are gross distortions of the actual facts, completely unsupported by scientific experimental evidence, and general practical experience in the field," he told CBS more than four decades ago. "If Man were to faithfully follow the teachings of Miss Carson, we would return to the Dark Ages, and the insects and diseases and vermin would once again inherit the Earth."

"He was way over the top," Christie said. "'If Miss Carson has her way, the — hundreds of thousands of people would be starving in the streets tomorrow!'"

When CBS turned to government experts, the questions were many, but the answers few. Dr. Page Nicholson, water pollution expert, Public Health Service, wasn't able to answer how long pesticides persist in water once they enter or the extent to which pesticides contaminated groundwater supplies.

Even still, Christie said he knew his aunt was having an impact when President John F. Kennedy mentioned the book at a press conference.

"And my Uncle Jack, John F. Kennedy, read her book, and said, 'I'm gonna appoint an independent commission to investigate whether it's true or not," Robert Kennedy said. "That commission met for almost a year. And then at the end of that time period, [they] came out and said that essentially everything in Rachel Carson's book was true."

Rachel Carson died in 1964, just 18 months after "Silent Spring" was published. She would never know that her crusade against pesticides forever changed the way Americans view their environment.

DDT was banned in this country in 1972. Carson's work also led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, and without her pioneering efforts, we might not be marking Earth Day.

"Silent Spring" foreshadowed the debate over global warming, clean energy and organic food.

But to best understand Carson's legacy, there's no better place to look than Catalina Island, just off the coast of southern California — home again to the bald eagle.

The eagles had all but disappeared after DDT was dumped into local waters, which led egg shells to become so thin that chicks couldn't survive. But just this month, for the first time in decades, eggs left in nests in the wild hatched on their own.

Ann Muscat, president of the Catalina Island conservancy, believes the eagles owe it all to Rachel Carson.

"So I think that wherever she is right now, she must be looking down on Catalina and thinking, 'This is really a wonderful occasion,'" Muscat said.

Earth Day at our house

Want to see what TB, Linda and Kristin did to celebrate Earth Day? Click the pic! Heidi was at work today and what did I do? I was the photographer!

Tomorrow is Earth Day

Your Life is 72% Green

You live a very green life, and you're aware of how your actions help the earth. Of course, it's hard to be totally green. But when you make a tradeoff, you know why you're making it.

A sign for autism

What a coincidence! This morning, I was talking to TB about how--when we thought Little T wasn't talking because of a hearing loss--some things just seem to fall into place and out of bad/sad things can come some good. One thing we talked about was that I grew up with Deaf parents and how that sort of set me apart. When we thought T couldn't hear, I realized that once again having Deaf parents and fluency in sign language was going to be helpful. Even when we learned that T's hearing was normal and that he was diagnosed with PDD-NOS, the sign language still was beneficial.

Okay, so today I checked my email and there was an update in a newsletter I subscribe to about Deafness and Deaf Culture. And what do you think I saw? "Acceptable sign for autism?" I clicked on the link and brought up a post, a question posed in the sign language and Deaf Culture forum. It was from a hearing person who said she was autistic and was offended by the sign for autism:

My ASL dictionary gives the sign as two 'C' hands covering the face, to show being 'cut off from the world'. I find that sign offensive, because autistic people are not cut off from the world. This is a common misconception, based on the fact that a) many autistics don't have the same kind of signals for showing that they are paying attention - for example looking at things out of peripheral vision is common, and b) autistics are often interested in different things, so for example they may be noticing a pattern on the floor while ignoring a person nearby.

Wow, she has a point, I thought. The next poster agreed. The poster after that, however, totally astonished me by the attitude taken. First off, the responder doubted the original poster was autistic--saying something to the effect of if you are really autistic then I am a monkey's uncle. What insensitivity! I thought. And if this responder is Deaf, how ironic--Deaf people have been misunderstood and stereotyped by hearing people, you'd think there would be more sensitivity and awareness for other disabilities.

You'd think so.

Well, it turns out that the first poster has PDD-NOS ... the same diagnosis as Tomas. The "Doubting Responder" (I'd say Tom but don't want to associate this person in any way with my little grandson) doesn't think that PDD-NOS is autism, although it's on the spectrum. The Doubting Responder repeatedly referred to PDD-NOS as a "mental illness".

I think there is a lot of ignorance going on around here and it all has to do with how we perceive others. In 20 years, I could imagine our T writing such a letter as the first Poster did. I certainly hope we have a better understanding of what autism is and isn't and how widely different we all are on the human spectrum, never mind those on the "autistic spectrum".

And yeah, let's come up with a better sign for autism!
Here is the first in a series of youtube videos that totally blasted away any stereotypes I had about what it means to be autistic. Watch this and then click on others by the same person, silentmiaow. You'll be amazed!

Feline Friday: Inspection Time!

I just love to inspect the bathroom, sez Kosmo--see Wordless Wednesday if you have any bouts adout it!

I like to make sure the shower is in proper order after Mommy or Daddy has used it!

No moldy mildewy stuff here!

Tub has some tasty drippy drops in it from the showerhead but it's clean!

Everything here is kopacetic!

Want more cat blogging? Try these:

Carnival of the Cats
Friday Ark
Cat Planet

And where is the next Carnival of the Cats? It's going to be at The Scratching Post sometime after 7 or so on Sunday!

The Tragedy at Virginia Tech

Something so awful happens that sometimes I am just speechless and just left feeling sick to my stomach. That's how I felt after the gunmen killed all those little girs at the Amish school and that's how I feel now in the aftermath of the mass killings at Virginia Tech. I also have a feeling of there but for the grace of God, go I.

I worry about my kids in their respective schools. Kristin's high school has been in lock down several times and now the kids are restricted from using all but 2 or 4 of the bathrooms in the whole big building. Billy called not long ago to let me know RPI went into lockdown after a body was found in one of the buildings. It turned out the man had killed himself but it was still kind of scary not knowing what had happened. And even though Heidi goes to community college locally you just never know when something crazy can happen.

And I know it for a fact. When I was 17 and a senior--December 13, 1972--a maintenance man at my high school went berserk. He was armed with a machete, stabbed two security guards and took a 10th grader hostage. He held the girl in the tiny office next to our psychology classroom. I can still hear the girl's voice, screaming and pleading and how insane the man sounded in reply. In the end, he let her go and the SWAT team shot the man to pieces and killed him. I never ever would have dreamed something like that could happen at my school--but it did.

And it keeps happening over and over.

I've tried to stay away from the news story but came upon it again when I was reading Blog d'Elisson's post today. I'd heard that one of the professors at Virginia Tech had protected his students by barricading the door with his own body and I'd wondered about that man--what caused him to sacrifice himself like that? Read Blog D'Elisson's post, it might make you cry as I did.

I don't know what else to say.

Play

We're impatiently waiting for more spring like weather too! Our play has been indoors lately. This picture was taken at the Children's Museum.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Lost Sneak Peeks!

These are from tomorrow Wednesday's episode, "Catch-22"!

Some Days Are Very Hard

Some days are harder than others when I'm taking care of Tomas. I knew this morning would be rough because he's had a spring break and so he'd be transitioning back into a schedule of eat, get dressed, get on the bus, go to school after more than a week off. The Nor'easter we had yesterday closed the schools and threw everyone off too. I'm not even sure T understood why he wasn't going to school last week.

Anyway, everything was fine until it was time to get dressed. Tomas wanted me to raise and lower the blinds in my bedroom. This is a game we've played for several months now with variations on the language: the blinds go up, the blinds go down, open the blinds, close the blinds, pull the cord, etc. He was still in his jammies and needed to have a diaper change. Again, I'm not sure how much of the behavior is related to PDD and how much is related to just wanting to get his own way. I can't think of any 2 or 3 year old that responds well to "not now" or "later".

Tomas took it very badly. He would not allow me to change him and when he does not want something to happen, it usually can't because he fights like his life was in danger. I stayed calm and said we couldn't play until he got dressed. It takes him a while to process things and so I let him alone for about 10 minutes before broaching again "Let's get dressed." I added that when he got dressed, we would be able to open and close the blinds. He didn't like it.

Now, Tomas slept in this morning. Normally he's up and around by 6:45, just when Linda leaves for work. Today he'd slept until 7:30 so I was working with less time than usual to get him ready. On the other days, he'd be ready so fast we'd have an hour to kill before the bus came. It was still rotten outside so I couldn't use "let's go for a walk" to coax him.

I thought, okay, well, let's at least get him out of my room so he won't be tempted by the blinds. He did not want to go and kicked me several times as I carried him into the hall. I closed the door and right away he began fighting me to re-open it. "Tomas, stop" and "we can go back in when you get dressed" didn't penetrate. Heidi heard the commotion and came down to help.

He's learned to open the door by turning the knob and so he was trying to twist my hand and fingers so that he could get to the knob. I had Heidi go into my room and lock the door from the inside. That stopped that skirmish but then came the diaper battle which left my nerves raw and rattled. He's got to have one particular type of diaper and if it's not there he becomes very angry. Of course, the diaper he wanted wasn't there. He didn't want the diaper or the pants...I was thinking I ought to just send him in his PJs and dirty diaper but I just couldn't. He'd been in that thing all night and needed to be changed.

I called Kennan to see if he had some good ideas to calm T and it was right about then everything seemed to go through the baby's brain. It was like flipping a light switch on. All of a sudden, he was all smiles, cooperating with the diaper change, trying to put on his pants...???? Is it the processing time? Was it that I called his dad? I am not sure he was even aware I'd called.

Well, I won't go on and on about it except to say that I really need to learn how to cope with all of these behaviors. I am okay with sending him to school in his PJs if he won't get dressed but not in a dirty diaper. How do you get through to a child with the issues Tomas has? That's what I need to know...

Childhood Idols

Ten on Tuesday

10 Idols/Heroes When You Were a Kid

These would be from about 1960 to 1967, when I was about 6-13.

1. Roy Rogers
2. John Wayne
3. Vic Morrow (Sgt. Saunders from Combat)
4. Lorne Greene (Ben Cartwright from Bonanza)
5. Peter Breck (Nick Barkley from The Big Valley
6. Jonathan Frid (Barnabas Collins from Dark Shadows)
7. My grandmother! I was just thinking...gee all older men and no women so far, what's up with that? And then I remember my grandmother who really should be #1 on this list
8. My geography teacher, Mr. Serio, my male idol under the age of 35
9. William Shatner (Captain Kirk, Star Trek)
10. DeForest Kelley (Dr. McCoy, Star Trek)

Yes, crusty Dr. McCoy made it to my list and not one of the pop teen idols at the time. like Dack Rambo, Jay North, Sajid Khan or the Monkees. I liked all the teen idols but they were not idols or heroes to me, they were more like contemporaries. Looking at the list, it seems like I was looking for a strong father figure mostly.

Just For Ryan

Happy 11th birthday, Ryan, we wish we could be there to celebrate with you! Have a great day! With love from all of us!

Cell

I finished reading Cell by Stephen King a few days ago. I've never been a fan of cell phones and I only use mine to make a call when needed. I have mine turned on in case of an emergency--but it stays in the car. After reading this book, I guess there's a good reason for it! This is a cell phone junkie's worst nightmare--what happens if there is a massive "pulse" and you are on the phone?

We never do learn why there was a pulse. Was it an act of terrorism? Aliens? All we know is that the pulse makes instant murderers out of anyone on a cell phone at the time of the occurrence. It's a very creepy idea indeed. That's about where the originality ended though. Otherwise, the story was much like The Stand--which was a far better book!

People who survived the pulse and who weren't on the cell phones band together and begin travelling in a somewhat common destination--north. They have common dreams about the place they are to go to and about a certain person one character calls "The Raggedy Man".

Cell is unnecessarily bloody and gruesome in several places, an unfortunate trait Stephen King has picked up in the last several years. Still, I liked it better than many of his recent books. Give it a try.

What can we do on a rainy miserable day?

We can play Candy Land!

I was saving the game just for a day like this one...raining cats and dogs and just totally miserable outside.

I opened the game board and took out the pieces and the cards, leaving them out for a little while until Tomas noticed them. He enjoyed the colorful trail leading to the candy palace and marched the people around. For a while, I played the game with all the pieces, moving them from colored space to colored space. Tomas does a lot of watching from the corner of his eye and I'm sure it won't be long before he's playing this game the conventional way as well as his own imaginative Tomas way.

Candy Land is back in my life once again! I played it as a child, played it innumerable times with my kids and now am appreciating it all over again as a nana!

Rain, rain, go away...

I know we need April showers to bring May flowers but this is ridiculous!

These houses being battered are on the south shore of Long Island, not terribly far from where I used to live. That's the Great South Bay knocking at the door, folks!

I don't have any pictures of what the storm is doing here but I can report that we're having lots and lots of rain. I don't hear much wind out there but I've been seeing and hearing the rain. This storm is supposed to hang in the rest of today and tomorrow, too, I guess.

I haven't been outside at all. Today was a great day to just hibernate like a great old bear. Kennan, Linda and Tomas are somewhere out in it--I think they went to the Children's Museum. Rainy days are not for small children. And Heidi's driving home in it from work--yes, she's got her license! It's a mixed blessing.

Here is what CNN has to say about the storm:

Hundreds of flights canceled as storm nears

Story Highlights•

NEW: Storm floods people out of their homes in West Virginia
• Nor'easter could bring worst flooding in 14 years
• New York governor deploys 3,200 National Guard members
• Storm blamed for three deaths in Kansas, two in Texas

NEW YORK (AP) -- Airlines canceled 300 flights Sunday as a hard-blowing nor'easter gathered strength along the East Coast and threatened to deliver some of the worst shore flooding in 14 years.

The storm, already blamed for five deaths on the Plains, also flooded people out of their homes in the middle of the night in West Virginia.

The steady rain has caused the cancellation of more than 400 flights at the New York City region's three major airports. Travelers should check with their airline carrier before heading to Kennedy, LaGuardia or Newark Liberty airports.

Tree limbs are down and power is out for 15-hundred Long Island households as the powerful storm swept up the coast, threatening widespread coastal flooding.

Meteorologists expected sustained wind of 40 mph and a storm surge of 3 to 5 feet, a combination that could cause as much coastal damage to Long Island as a winter storm which wreaked havoc there in late 1992, Gov. Eliot Spitzer said. (Gallery: Storm moves across the U.S.)

New York City opened nine emergency storm shelters in flood-prone locations, and ferry service to Fire Island was canceled due to the storm.

More than 2 inches of rain fell in the New York region by 2 o'clock Sunday afternoon, and forecasters predict a total of 4 to 6 inches by the storm's end this evening.

The National Weather Service says there were sustained winds of 30 to 35 miles per hour and gusts of up to 48 miles per hour at Kennedy Airport.

Sunday night's high tide is likely to bring coastal flooding on Long Island and in parts of New York City.

"This is going to be bad," Shaun Rheinheimer said as he moved furniture to higher spots at his house on New Jersey's low-lying Cedar Bonnet Island. Streets were beginning to flood by late morning and waves splashed over bulkheads into backyards.

Heavy rain and thunderstorms extended from Florida up the coast to southern New England on Sunday and the National Weather Service said Washington's Reagan National Airport had measured 1.43 inches of rain.

Warnings, watches all along the coast
The weather service posted storm warnings and watches all along the East Coast, with flood warnings extending from Virginia north to the New York area. Winter storm warnings were in effect for parts of New England and eastern New York state. (Northeast flood, storm warnings)

The storm also caused flooding in the mountains of southern West Virginia, where emergency services personnel rescued nearly two dozen people from homes and cars in Logan and Boone counties early Sunday. Two people were unaccounted for.

"It's about as bad as it can get," said Logan, West Virginia, Fire Chief Scott Beckett. "This thing came down at 2 or 3 in the morning, when people were sleeping in their beds. They just didn't know what was happening."

About Trackbacks to Scribblings...

...we had to turn them off.

We were getting spammed with hundreds of junk trackbacks and it was using up our bandwidth.

That's why it takes so long sometimes to even get a comment approved. We have to go through hundreds of junk comments too but we didn't want to turn those off because we enjoy them so much!

Feline Friday: Shy Indigo

It's been a couple of weeks since I introduced Indigo and in that time, she's remained reclusive. Heidi, our artist, has the largest and most cluttered room in the house. Indy prefers the artist's lifestyle and spends 99% of her time there. The other day, I thought I would get some updated pictures to share and found Indy on the edge of Heidi's bed.

Oh no you don't, said Indigo, I'm no model! No headshots of me!

She retreated to just outside Heidi's closet, throwing the camera all sorts of evil kitty looks. Heidi went to her and easily picked her up and coaxed her into posing for me.

Heidi has always wanted a cat that would love her and want to spend time with her...and Indy seems to be exactly the kitty for her!

Want more cat blogging? Be sure to check these:

Cat blogging sites I link to on my side bar
Carnival of the Cats
The Friday Ark
Cat Planet

Where is the next Carnival of the Cats? At Books 4 Israel, which not only has adorable felines but also a very worthy cause! Amber loves her cozy knitted by Nina--when the boys let her into my room to lie on it, that is!

Good News!

The results from my biopsy are in: negative! I did a little dance and thanked God for sending me to Dr. Ray Puskas, the plastic surgeon who did my breast reduction. Why? Because (I think I wrote earlier) Dr. Puskas told me that the first time I had a mammogram the radiologist would probably see something "suspicious" and want me to have a biopsy. Go and have the biopsy but don't let yourself get upset about it, he said. Dr. Puskas is one of those rare doctors who tells you everything you need to know--even if you don't think to ask it.

I need to send that man a card.

God also led me to an article online about false positives and CAD screenings. Now, when I'm saying God did this and God did that, it's my faith talking. All of this information is out there floating in cyberspace and maybe this particular story was even covered on TV. I hadn't noticed it. But I do scan the summaries I get and this one hopped out at me. It was like a message to me saying, "Now, remember, don't worry." It could also have been Rich making sure that this article got into my mail box.

Do I sound crazy? I guess I'm just happy.

I got the article much earlier than today, felt reassured, but elected not to say anything about it until now. The article is called CAD Mammograms Often Find Harmless Spots. I had a CAD mammogram. Here's the text of the article:

CAD Mammograms Often Find Harmless Spots By: JEFF DONN (Sat, Apr/07/2007)

BOSTON - A good mammogram reader may do just as well at spotting cancers without expensive new computer systems often used for a second opinion, a new study suggests. Computerized mammography, now used for about a third of the nation's mammograms, too often finds harmless spots that lead to false scares, researchers found. That conflicts with earlier studies showing benefit from the systems.

"It looks like computer-aided detection might not be working like people thought it would," said lead researcher Dr. Joshua Fenton, a family doctor at the University of California-Davis, in Sacramento.

The findings, which appeared Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, touch on a rapidly spreading technology first marketed in 1998.

Known as computer-aided detection or CAD, it consists of a computer coupled with software that identifies suspicious spots on mammograms and visibly marks them.

Here's how it works. When mammograms are taken, radiologists first read the X-rays and make their own judgments. But they can then double-check with the computer system to see if they have missed anything that's worth examining further.

There usually isn't. Still, some studies have shown that CAD can turn up 10 percent to 20 percent more cancers. Patients often have no idea if this new technology is being used.

The researchers in this five-year study , backed by the federal government and the American Cancer Society , analyzed mammograms from medical centers in Washington state, Colorado and New Hampshire. Seven of 43 centers used CAD. The mammograms came from 222,135 women and included 2,351 with a cancer diagnosis within a year of their tests.

The researchers found that with computerized mammography, a third more women were called back for suspicious findings and 20 percent more got biopsies than with ordinary mammograms. That might be a good thing, if enough cancers turned up to justify the minor surgeries and anxiety surrounding them.

Yet the computerized method showed no clear capability to turn up more cancer cases than unaided readings: Four cancers were found for every 1,000 mammograms, whatever screening method was used. That means that CAD would give 156 more unneeded callbacks and 14 more biopsies for every additional cancer it finds. And though these extra cancers tend to be early ones that are easier to treat, many would never be threatening anyway.

Dr. Phil Evans, at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, said that "most radiologists that use computer-aided mammograms understand there are many false positives."

Frustratingly, the study ultimately wasn't big enough to reach fully reliable comparisons between the rates of cancers found by the two methods. That means that bigger studies are needed to clarify whether computerized mammography finds enough additional cancers to make it worth all those false alarms and added cost. While the technology adds just $20 or so to a single mammogram, a CAD unit might cost $50,000 to $75,000.

Even so, Dr. Jay Baker, a Duke University radiologist who has studied the technology, said: "I don't think it's a huge stop sign to using CAD."

"CAD won't go away; it will have a place," agreed Dr. Ferris Hall, a mammogram specialist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, in Boston, who wrote an accompanying editorial. But he added, "This is a setback for it."

Whether computerized or not, periodic mammograms are recommended for healthy women every year or two once they reach age 40. Experts advise women to check the credentials of radiologists at the clinic they plan to use and look for places that do a high volume.

,,,

On the Net:

American Cancer Society: http://www.cancer.org

Hologic (maker of CAD systems in study): http://www.hologic.com

Wordless Wednesday

Spring

Foto Ferrets

This picture was taken last Easter Sunday, a day that was so lovely and mild TB and Kristin just had to start up the garden!

Tummy Tuesday

I am the star of this show, says Kosmo. I have the finest tummy in the whole house!

For more feline tummies, click here!

10 High School Memories

Ten on Tuesday

10 Highschool Memories

1. Our graduating class was so big we had to have our own building in our sophomore year, called the "Annex". It was in this old decrepit building in downtown Baltimore, several miles from the main high school which housed the juniors and seniors. We really developed an attachment to that old building, it was weird moving on to the main school.

2. I remember Mr. Hiller, our oddball guitar teacher. He sang off key but he knew his stuff about playing the guitar!

3. The Ethnomusicologial Society--Mr. Hiller said joining would look great on our resumes and he was right! And basically we were just a roving folk guitar group. We had so much fun with our before-school "coffee houses"

4. I will never forget December 13, 1972: that day, one of our custodians went berserk, stabbed two security guards with a machete, took a girl hostage and barricaded himself in the room next door to our psychology class. When the SWAT team arrived, we had to lie on the cold floor for hours. I could hear the hostage crying and pleading to God to help her and for the man to "get that knife away from her neck". The man sounded crazy and he kept yelling, "There's no God and I'm going to kill you!" He finally let the girl go and the SWAT team blew him away.

5. The seniors had a "lounge" in the cafeteria...made up of smaller cafeteria tables for 4 and only us 12th graders could use it. We felt so cool! It didn't matter that last year it belonged to the seniors and we were so jealous!

6. My psychology teacher would take some of the students to "The Pink Hippo" in downtown Baltimore. I never went but I sure was tempted!

7. When I would play hooky from school, my favorite place to go was the Enoch Pratt Free Library. What a nerd!

8. Our principal was having an affair with our drama teacher!

9. I had to have surgery toward the end of my senior year and missed out on a lot of fun stuff!

10. We wore white formal gowns to our graduation in June, 1973 and it was held at the Baltimore Civic Center.

Happy Easter 2007

It is so cold out today! I heard on a weather report that the high today will not come close to the temperatures we had on Christmas Day. It makes me wonder!

We are off to TB's mom's house for dinner today but first I wanted to wish all my friends and loved ones a Happy Easter and I wanted to show off the lovely flowers in our bedroom.

Yesterday, TB gave me this lovely arrangement:

and then this morning Kristin surprised me with this lovely lily

I so love flowers!

The pictures I've taken for Easter so far are here. I may be adding more later!

Spring Reading Thing

I'm getting started on this a little late but as the saying goes: better late than never!

I am so glad that I found this site. I love to read and so this just fits in with one of my favorite activities.

Here are the rules:

Make a list of books you want to read (or finish reading) this spring. Your list can be as long or as short as you'd like.

Write a blog post containing your list and submit it to this post using the Mr. Linky below.

Get reading! The challenge goes from today, March 21st, through June 21st.

Check out other participants' lists and add to your own to-read-someday pile!

If you're so inclined, write reviews of the books you read along the way.

Write a post about your challenge experience in June, telling us all about whether you reached your goals and how the Spring Reading Thing went for you.

I'm not as fast a reader as I used to be and so my list is going to be modest to start. I figure I can read a book in a week to 10 days.

My list:

Pervasive Developmental Disorder: A Different Perspective by Barbara Quinn & Anthony Malone

I am reading this one to get a better understanding of what is going on with Tomas.

Cell by Stephen King, my favorite horror author. This one is better than many of his books recently written!

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling--I figure I better get this one read before the last one comes out, eh?

Living Well With Depression & Bipolar Disorder: What Your Doctor Doesn't Tell You...That You Need To Know by John McManamy

I'm reading this one because the females in this house have one thing or the other

On the Road by Jack Kerouac. I'm reading this one because my goal has been to read a classic for every 3 other books I read.

Icy Sparks by Gwyn Hyman Rubio because it's on Oprah's list and because it looked like a good read to me. I am drawn to hardship tales told by precious girl/orphan children.

Do you want to participate too? Go to Callapidder Days and sign up!

Feline Friday: Sunning is Hard Work!

Oh my, lying in the sun on a warm day is such hard work! sez Amber

I'd love to have this job, sez I!

More cat blogging? Be sure to check out Tummy Tuesday, Cats on Tuesday, the cat blogs on my side bar, Carnival of the Cats, The Friday Ark,Cat Planet, and be sure to check out the next carnival which will be at Bad Kitty Cats!

Wordless Wednesday

Needle Biopsy

So I had this procedure done this afternoon and TB came along to hold my hand--except the doctor wouldn't let him in the room. It was too small!

When the doctor told me about the needle biopsy, I was thinking needle = hypodermic needle. Ha ha. I suppose if I'd known ahead of time how big this needle was I probably wouldn't have gone for it.

First came several shots of lidocaine, the stick and burn routine. Then the doctor holds up what looks like a giant caulking gun except that I realized that that was the biopsy needle! Lots of pressure and a couple of times some stinging pain as the doctor took samples from what she called "the lesion". Looking at the ultrasound screen, she said "cyst" and so I wondered which was it? She answered that while it had cyst-like qualities she couldn't come out and call it that, nor could she say one way or the other if the tissue looked okay or not. She preferred not to guess and it's better that way.

The nurse kept saying I was doing "excellent" and I wondered briefly what do other women do? Scream? Puke? I just tried to imagine I was at the beach but sometimes it was hard. There was a rather loud SNAP and then a drilling sound--it was sort of like being in a dentist'schair.I was going to ask, is it usual to take so many? But then I decided I didn't want to know.

I think my poor breast looks like Swiss cheese because she took 6 or 8 different samples. Now does that sound stupid? I really would rather just walk around in total ignorance for the next week, until the results come back. I did, however, opt not to schedule my appointment on Friday, April 13th. No way...it just gives me the heebie jeebies.

So I'm sitting here now and the lidocaine's worn off so I have stinging sensations all over. I'm not supposed to take ibuprofen until tomorrow. Well, at least Lost is on tonight.

Happiness Is ...

...precious time spent with family and loved ones!

This picture was taken last July at the Cape May Lighthouse. We sure did enjoy our vacation with three of the grandchildren from Tennessee, Brandon, Ryan & Taylor. We miss them! And Billy, our son who has been away at college, will be home next month!

Lost Sneak Peeks!

If you don't want to be spoiled, don't watch!!!!!

The Movie Meme

Here is something fun I picked up from Red Nose

Meme At The Movies

1. Name a movie that you have seen more than 10 times.

I would love to say Forrest Gump but it's not that. It might be Casablanca but more than likely it is The Great Escape or West Side Story which are 2 family favorites we saw over and over and over again during my childhood and then again when I married Rich and we had the kids.

2. Name a movie that you've seen multiple times in the theater.

As an adult, it was The Jazz Singer with Neil Diamond because I just absolutely love his music. When I was younger I had this inexplicable crush on Charlton Heston and saw Hijacked about 3 times in one day.

3. Name an actor that would make you more inclined to see a movie.

Tom Hanks, he's versatile and can do anything! He is my favorite actor right now.

4. Name an actor that would make you less likely to see a movie.

Adam Sandler

5. Name a movie that you can and do quote from.

Forrest Gump--life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get and stupid is as stupid does!

6. Name a movie musical that you know all of the lyrics to all of the songs.

West Side Story

7. Name a movie that you have been known to sing along with.

Singin in the Rain

8. Name a movie that you would recommend everyone see.

Just one???? There are too many! Definitely Casablanca. Also: To Kill A Mockingbird

9. Name a movie that you own.

I think I've got over 100 DVDs. My most recent purchases: Blood Diamond, Shenendoah, and How the West Was Won

10. Name an actor that launched his/her entertainment career in another medium but who has surprised you with his/her acting chops.

Jamie Foxx--I think he did comedy? And he sings? He sure has impressed me with the movies he's made!

11. Have you ever seen a movie in a drive-in? If so, what?

Many times! I think the last movie I saw at the drive-in was E.T.

12. Ever made out in a movie?

Funny, I never went there on a date!

13. Name a movie that you keep meaning to see but just haven't yet gotten around to it.

Neverland and many others

14. Ever walked out of a movie?

Yes, I had to walk out before the end of Saving Private Ryan because I couldn't handle any more gore. Excellent movie...I just couldn't handle the grisly details.

15. Name a movie that made you cry in the theater.

Several, including Terms of Endearment

16. Popcorn?

Yes, please, large and with extra butter!

17. How often do you go to the movies (as opposed to renting them or watching them at home)?

When Billy worked at the theater, we were going every week. But I have a feeling we haven't been in about a year. The last one we saw .... oops, just saw the next question!

18. What's the last movie you saw in the theater?

King Kong.

19. What's your favorite/preferred genre of movie?

Comedy or Action

20. What's the first movie you remember seeing in the theater?

Snow White

21. What movie do you wish you had never seen?

Some stupid thing about garbagemen with Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen. Yeesh!

22. What is the weirdest movie you enjoyed?

Rocky Horror Picture Show

23. What is the scariest movie you've seen?

The original Night of the Living Dead

24. What is the funniest movie you've seen?

It's hard to pick just one but I'll force myself and choose Harvey

This meme was a lot of fun! If you have a weblog or a place to post, please feel free to borrow this meme and pass it along!

Cats on Tuesday, or boys just like to have fun

About a year ago, I noticed Mouse was infatuated with my stuffed puppy! I'd never seen a cat get so into kneading something!

This was when we still thought Mouse was a female and it was the puppy who helped us figure out Mouse's secret!

Then Kosmo joined the household and the boys tend to hang out together the most. Kosmo is a very observant cat as TB found out one day. He happened to see my camera nearby.

Aw look, Kosmo is kneading too!

Ah, yes, sez Mouse, he learned from the best!

Er ... what's that he's doing now?

Mouse sez, uh, I don't think I showed him that.

Kosmo sez, call of the wild, baby, what can I say?

But we're on camera!

Mouse sez, well, I'm outta here, I'm not that kind of guy! I don't do kitty porn!

Tummy Tuesday

My guys and gals don't like to show off their tummies too often. I got lucky here. I was playing with Kosmo and he rolled back to take a break. Luckily, I whipped out my handy dandy camera, distracted him and snap!

Want more cat tummies? Check out Tummy Tueday at Lisaviolet's diary!

Spring!

Ten on Tuesday

10 Things You Love About Springtime

1. The weather is milder
2. You can go to the beach on a beautiful day and not have to pay to park
3. Blossoming flowers, beginning with the daffodils
4. Robins come back
5. You can go for a walk in a park and not have to worry too much about ticks yet
6. The sun stays out longer
7. Hope comes with each spring as new life grows
8. Outdoor events begin thanks to the milder weather
9. I can go on nice long walks with Tomas before the school bus comes
10. Billy will be home for the summer in May