Kim’s Comments (group member since Sep 17, 2008)

Kim’s comments from the Runs with scissors group.

For right now,the extra bits seem to be what we need. It has been agreed that no more really tiny ones will be in this cage. The other 2 are a little too big to fit. We think that this was an accidental escape and not on purpose. Narzain is used to slightly older mice. This was my pick. I'm still learning....

In a few more days or weeks she will have grown and eaten enough to keep this from being a problem anymore. They grow fast, so I'm not too worried, but we are thinking for future reference that we may have to get a mesh cover, but will have to be thick enough that they can't chew through it either.

Ahh the joys of being a mouse mom.

So, Wednesday was supposed to be our first class,but due to a car break down and a very late class mate, class was canceled for the day. I found out after I got there to swim, that the music we use for class is owned by our instructor and that we had none.

I own quite a bit of Yoga/meditation/relaxation music that I believe will work for us. I was playing potential discs in my car yesterday I believe that I may have found at least 1 to start with and I found 2 more in my collection later in the afternoon yesterday. (I had miss filed a few).

Today we will try again.

No problem! It's good to hear from you. The fine mesh cover is an idea that we are batting around if this becomes more of a problem. The top opening latch is how we access the food dish, so it will have to remove easily. Mice grow up quickly, so we hope that this will not be a problem for long.

I was told the other day about the accidental escape that "my child was trying to shave years off of his (Narzain's) life!"

I seem to pick the lively ones.....

In all of the recent excitement, I forgot to post about our newest addition. On Monday, I took the leap and decided to become a pet parent once again. (Narzain bought Luna and Cloud and I named Luna.) I got the cutest little (and I mean little) mouse and have named her Etoile which means "star" in french. She is a brown-gray color with a white belly,and a band of white that looks like a belt.

She was well accepted by the other 2 and they are all getting along well. The only problem is that because she is so tiny, she is able to fit between the bars. Narzain has jury-rigged every spare piece of the old cage trying to foil her.

Lesson, no more tiny mice just because they are cute.....

Well, this week I swam a total of 1 and 1/4 miles. I spread it out as 50 lengths over 2 days each. I also have some good news on the Tai Chi front. We spoke with John (the Aquatic's director) yesterday and he said that he will leave us on the schedule at least through the end of the year. If he is forced to make it open swim, he will make it "rope in" which will discourage lap swimmers (the rope goes the width of the pool for those of you not familiar.) This means that we are now a volunteer lead class. You are now looking at the new volunteer instructor of the Aqua Tai Chi class. This until A) I go back to work, B) we are forced out completely, or C) the class falls apart by itself.

I am still going to try the other Y as and see how it goes.

It's kinda like cat scorn, but on a much smaller scale.

Yesterday I was handed a hic-cup. Tomorrow will be my last Aqua Tai Chi class.

The WestPark YMCA that I go to is getting rid of it due to lack of participants. New rules have come down from on high to cut corners. Now, you need a minimum of 8 people per class instead of 6. We average 4-5 on a regular basis, although there are in theory 12 people in the class.

I am not out of options, it is just that it will mean a minor adjustment to my schedule for now. My instructor does teach the same class at the same time on 2 different days at another nearby facility in Lakewood. This is the same distance as the Y I go to now, but it is not as easy to get to as mine. (Mine is a straight shot from my house, and Lakewood will be more twists and turns.)

I am willing to give it a try as Lakewood and WestPark are/were the only Y's that offer the class nearby. I will still continue my swimming each week on the same days and may have to push Tai Chi to 1 day instead of 2 if I have to go to 2 different places.

*Sigh*

Yesterday,Narzain and I go new pet mice. Yumi, the anti-social one and remaining mouse, passed on about 2 weeks ago, and neither of us was too upset. It was not that we didn't care about her, she just never warmed up to us the way the others have in the past (and that includes the mice Narain has owned before we met.)

So, yesterday we acquired Cloud a white female with brown spots, including one that goes over one of her eyes, and Luna, a small white female who reminds me a little of the much missed Jasmine. We put Willow and Yumi to rest in the morning and had the new ones settled a few hours later. We plan on getting at least 1 more this weekend since they only had a few females to pick from.

Last night, Luna gave the two of us a cardio work out. Narzain called to tell me that he was home and I asked how the girls were. He couldn't find Luna. We were afraid that she had somehow gotten loose, or even worse, had passed on because she was perhaps too little to be sold. He had to call me back because he needed 2 hands. He found her, sound asleep, in the plastic house on the top floor of the cage (it has 2 balcony's). This meant un-screwing the house from the cage bars, and lifting it out of the cage. She slept through the whole ordeal, and upon waking, looked at Narzain like he was a moron.

I would rather that look than have harm done.

Whew!

O.K. rumor is that the Cleveland Clinic is at again.
This time the bug up the rear is bottled water. Someone on high wants to get rid of it in all the vending machines and shops in all of the hospitals and the main campus. Now, this is the same place that brought us "if you work here and smoke, you're fired", no more "un-healthy" snacks will be sold in our buildings (except for the McDonald's at the main campus), only dark chocolate will be allowed, and nothing but diet sodas are to be sold within our doors. (The idea behind these was that mostly employees are the ones who buy the majority of these items.)

The reasoning for getting rid of the bottled water: the waste the bottles make.

So, the pop bottles are o.k.?

Here is a place that wastes a LOT of paper every day that is not recycled: office, news, etc. That's o.k., but water bottles are not? On my recent trip down to the main campus (the day I was helping out a friends mom) I was in the cafeteria having some bottled water and a granola bar as a snack, and I only saw 1 recycling bin for plastic.

They said that if people want a drink of water,they can use a drinking fountain. (Which are far and few.) Last year, the Cleveland Cavaliers tried taking OUT all the drinking fountains at the Q,claiming concerns for public health due to H1N1 and offered free cups of water at the concession stands along with bottled. The Health Department made them put the fountains back because it violated health codes. So, if everyone is made to use drinking fountains (which can be VERY unsanitary) in a hospital during flu season, how is that in the public's best interest? Think about that a minute. Bottles are much more sanitary.....

Here's and idea, instead of contributing to the waste, provide more recycle bins, recycle the paper that is wasted on a daily basis! That would be more of a help than taking away a *gasp* HEALTHY CHOICE!

I don't know which of Dr.Oz's siamese twins is behind this (Dr. Roizen (wellness director) or Cosgrove (CEO)) but I think he's lost his tiny little mind!

The clinic claims to "walk the walk and talk the talk" but this time I think they are full of hot air.

I am currently in the midst of my fall allergies and an not able to swim.

However,my doctor's appointment on Friday went well. I was in the exam room with the "cranky scale" scale as the nurse put it, so I don't know if I have lost any more weight, but I have other progress. My LDL numbers are down, my HDL are good, and my 3 month averaged blood sugar went down from 6.2 to 5.3! I am very proud of myself.

I think you take away from it which ever perspective you think is right, like "Doubt."

Well folks, break out the bubbly, strike up the band, and throw the confetti!


I DID A MILE TODAY! Yes, you read that correctly. I SWAM 1 MILE TODAY! That is 88 lengths or 44 laps. I did it in a little under and hour and 20 minutes. That is with rest breaks and stopping to stretch upon occasion.

I am VERY proud of myself. I did it 2 months ahead of schedule.

Now my goal is to swim have a 3/4 mile be my norm.

There is a book group on here that was inspired by a blog post of someone who wants to read a million pages in their life-time. I think I have surpassed that and then some. I do not know if the count is only books and ones that are a first reading or what. I have read well over the 3,000+ plus books that I have recorded here, there are a lot I can't remember,and some that I have yet to read. I figure that by the time I die, and this includes instructions, cook book recipes, and such, I will have read well over 10 million pages of text.

I started reading at a young age and have never been without a book since.

So, what do the rest of you think you have read so far in your lives and what do you think you will read by the time you pass on?

Voltaire said,"Dare to think for yourself." I think that says it all.

George Orwell was the pen name for Eric Blair. Blair was a democratic socialist who almost died in the Spanish Revolution when he was there to protest Stalin's treatment of Leo Trotsky. He wrote "Animal Farm" in rebuttal of Stalin and his take over of Russia.

For those of you who haven't read this before, I am probably going to have a few spoilers here, so read on at your own risk.



Snowball and Napoleon rise to power after a coup of the farm animals against a cruel farmer, since pigs are naturally intelligent animals to begin with. This makes sense from a lot of perspectives since pigs are also greedy which is proved time and time again on a daily basis on the farm. When Napoleon runs Snowball off, he blames all bad things on Snowball and takes credit for all good things.

The "lesser" animals are taught to read so that they may be equal. Not everyone can read as well as others and after a while, those who can read, forget to look at the, literally, writing on the wall as time goes on. Complacency settles in along with strong arm (or is that strong trotter) tactics take over.

While Snowball had been around, 7 ideas or Animalisms were founded for all of the animals to follow. One of which became "Four legs good, two legs bad." Every single one of these gets changed and chipped away at by Napoleon every time the pigs want something new, or decide that they wish to be "better" than others.

In the end, the animals and humans are hard to tell apart. Now, this was first published in 1945 about communist reform, but still stands today, as a parallel to modern politics. ("Patriot Act" ring any bells?)

Human nature. Gotta love it!

All yours Narzain.

Take it away Paul.

Just what it says. Whomever is ready, you can post.

Thanks. She posted "one last time" and reiterated that I am making excuses and until I make my own money I "will never have power". What bull cookies! I have power. I am a very good nanny, and I am working on making my life better through my health.

The original question was blurred and twisted into something I never meant it to be. The other day, it hit me so hard, that I was ready to give up on this site. I was ready to give up the group that started this mess, this group, and the other 2 I created. I felt that maybe, just maybe she was right and I am making excuses. Maybe I am just not trying hard enough. My boyfriend set me strait, for which I am grateful.

See, I have power. I have the power not to let some person who does not know me, judge me. Let whomever wishes to judge me go ahead and think what they like. I am me, and I know what I am capable of and that is all I need to know.

I was ripped a new one in another group for this thread,where it had grown beyond what I was intended for, which was the question to others who are not working if they felt the way I did about taking help from loved ones. I have been accused of not trying and that I am making excuses, that I should take any job. I asked for the thread to be taken down since it no longer served it's original purpose.

Now, I have been nailed for taking down the thread and the person has jumped into my other thread regarding my journey to being healthy. I did and do not appreciate that, and have politely asked then to drop the job search subject. I hope they will listen.

I felt that they were harsh in their words to me since they don't know me.

Was I wrong to ask the that the thread be removed? Or am I being too sensitive?