KatScan

I'm tearing my closet and drawers apart, looking in the teens clothes too, desperately searching for my jeans.
I can't find my damn jeans!
What I did find though was a barcode scanner thing from when I did a food purchase thing for a survey company.
I had to scan in all of my groceries every single time that I went shopping.
At the end of each quarter, they paid us for our work, for scanning all of our purchases.
It wasn't just food, it was everything that we bought, they used the data to help companies figure out what people were buying, so that companies could do their advertising better, stuff like that.
I also found an old telephone, an old pair of shoes, heels that I can no longer wear.
Finding all kinds of stuff but what I'm freaking searching for.
Ugh!

One of the cats marked their territory on my small electric heater, the only thing that keeps the house warm during the winter when it gets really super cold here.
Yes, I'm super furious, but luckily it wasn't really expensive, it was only about $35, so at least I am not out a ton of money.
I noticed that whichever cat did it, did it after I came home from a friend's house that has dogs, and I had been with the friend and her dogs for hours, I had pet the dogs, played with them let them lick me, so yeah, one of my cats was all hell no, and made sure that if the dogs who licked me ever came in the house, that they would know that this was a house for cats, not dogs.

But now this means that I have no heater for the future winters if it gets super cold.
I saw an infomercial for a handmade wood and  electric fireplace, and I was like wow, I like that.
It provides heat and looks good, I like it.
But if I did something like that, if I was going to spend money on an electric fireplace, I would want a really good looking one that is also more functional than just a heater.
I found this one that would perfectly match my coffee and end tables that are a gorgeous dark cherry finish.
I've had them for about 8-9 years now, and they are still in totally awesome shape.
The coffee table is 5 feet long, it has a drawer and a hidden storage compartment.
If you have never seen the table before, you would never know that it's there, heck, I have forgotten that it's there a few times.
 The tables are all solid dark cherry like I said, and they have wrought iron legs, and a wrought iron shelf underneath each one, they are really beautiful tables.
Anyway, this electric fireplace that I found would look really good with my table set, and it has storage for a tv on top, my vcr and dvd player, and even more shelves for all of our dvds and vcr tapes.
The storage areas and the "fireplace" are all behind glass doors too, this would look so good in here with my tables and couches.



















It's a little more money than I will have in a very long time, but maybe an income tax return some one of these years could help pay for a really good looking and functional new addition to my furniture.

I'm learning all about blood clots, one type known as DVT, what medications are out there to treat it, what can be done so as to not have a pulmonary embolism, stuff like that.

I have learned that it is dangerous to fly if you already have DVT

Someone told me that, I didn't know, so I decided to Google it.

I Googled "DVT + airplane".

This is what I found, same answer, thousands of websites.

What is deep vein thrombosis (DVT)?

People who have a history of cardiovascular disease, stroke or thrombotic episodes (blood clots) are at risk of getting blood clots in their legs during airplane flights of 10 hours or more.  But these aren't the only people who can have this problem.  This condition, known as deep vein thrombosis (DVT), also can affect healthy people, even athletes.

What is economy-class syndrome?

Developing DVT after long plane rides is often called "economy-class syndrome" or "coach-class syndrome," because seating and leg room are particularly cramped for passengers in economy class.   However, first-class and business-class passengers also get DVT, so this problem isn't solely due to sitting still in tight quarters for many hours.  Other factors -- such as low cabin pressure, low humidity and dehydration -- all may contribute.   These factors are constant throughout the plane.

_________________________________
 
Can someone please point out the exit signs?
I'm so ready to get off of this ride that I'm on.
 
It's far too scary for me.

The teens and I have so much to do before we go to Maine, so many things to take with us because of how long we'll be there, so many things to take care of here at the house too, that it feels like I should just hire a long distance moving company to help me pack and organize it all.
I have to go to a store and buy myself a pair of jeans, I don't own any, I wear shorts or cotton capri pants all year round here, or I have been borrowing Mark's jeans when it's cold and I need to go somewhere.
While at the store, I need to get a few t-shirts, and a package of tube socks for the 3 of us to share.
I have to get help putting on my socks and boots while in Maine, but it's better than having freezing feet the whole time.
I need to make my list of everything that I need to take, medicines, personal care items, I need to get all of my medical cards ready for the airport, that's always so much fun going through security, so I just make sure that I have everything in my hand to show them.
I need to make sure that the teens have enough warm `clothes and socks too.

I also need to get the netbook and stuff ready to go, that will be in my carry-on, not in a suitcase, not even going to risk it.
I need to finish programming all of my contacts into my new cell phone, and learn as much about using it as I can, take the manual with me anyway.
And then I need to have Mindy come over so that we can go over everything about the cats feeding and stuff because she's watching them and the house for us while we're gone.

There's so much more too that I can't even remember right now, but I will, and then as soon as I remember it, I need to add it to the list so I don't forget it again.

I don't need any products like a  fat burner to help me lose weight right now,because on top of my foot issue, I now have a cold.
Actually, both of the teens have colds too.
All 3 of us are coughing and hacking, have stiff and achy muscles, and basically, just feel miserable.
Because of my spine fusions, it hurts to cough.
When you cough, your lungs inhale and exhale very quickly, and this causes them to expand and shrink again, very rapidly, which uses all of the muscles in your rib cage, which is both the front and back of your body.
Coughing uses all of the muscles surrounding your entire rib cage, so every single time I cough, it pulls all of those muscles and hurts like hell.

I tried to eat, but I kept coughing, so I ended up choking on whatever I tried to eat, even soup.
Take a spoonful of soup, cough, have it go down the wrong way, and start choking on it.
Choking on soup.
I don't need to take anything to help me control my appetite, because I can't even eat or I'll choke.
I am staying hydrated though, I am drinking plenty of fluids, just very small sips through a straw, (as always) and so at least I'm not going to get dehydrated during this cold.
I may try drinking my soup through a straw later, I am wicked hungry, so maybe drinking it through a straw like I am with my juice, will allow me to "eat" something.

It really sucks that I have a cold and am coughing like this every 30 seconds.
It started yesterday about mid to late afternoon, it wasn't that bad then, but it still hurt whenever I did cough.
Then it started to get worse just as I was setting up my camera to do a video product review that I need to get done.
I am already seriously late getting it done, and when I say seriously late, I mean seriously late.
It was due at the very end of December, but the company had to change when they shipped them due to the holiday, so I didn't actually get it until the 2nd week of January.
Then I got really wicked sick for the next almost 3 weeks, with a horrid stomach thing from hell, and then thing after thing just kept happening to prevent me from doing it.
I was using the product though, it is something that I use every single day as it replaces something that I do everyday, so I used all of the product up and needed to order more.
So I ordered more, waited for them to get here, and then when they arrived, something else came up to prevent me from doing the video review.
Now here we are, I had every single intention to do the video review last night, but I was coughing so loud, that doing the video review, especially for the product that I'm using and reviewing, it would not have been ok at all.
Then I thought that maybe the coughing would be over by today, or at least lessened enough that each cough was about 5-10 minutes apart, far enough apart that I could get through a few minutes of recording myself without hacking up a lung.
But nooooo, the coughing just was so much worse when I woke up, I'm coughing every 30 seconds or so, it's a loud, barking, and "wet" sounding cough, so yeah, again not a good way to be for making a video review of the product that I'm using.

I will get it done, I just have no idea when now.
I feel absolutely horrible about it too.
I have never, ever been this late on completing any work before.
I know how bad this looks, and even though my health issues are a perfectly legitimate excuse for why my review isn't done or had been done closer to the due date, but I do know that this looks really, really bad on me.
I am ashamed of myself for not getting it done yet, I know that I have had numerous health issues that prevented me from doing it, but I still can't help feel absolutely terrible about this. 

I have a PayPal debit card, a State of Florida child support debit card, and an Amscot card.
They are all used for various things, like Paypal is for work payments, the child support card is for obvious reasons, and the Amscot card is for my SSDI to be direct deposited.
I had to get both my SSDI and my child support checks direct deposited to cards, because someone once stole a child support check from my mailbox, and even though it was a piddly little $21.05, I couldn't risk someone stealing those every week as it's court ordered, (not that he pays every week as court ordered) and I certainly didn't want to risk my SSDI checks being stolen.

I can deposit any kind of check or money order, in any amount, deposited to my Amscot card, but I can't always get there, so I usually have to wait until I can get a ride there to deposit things like that.
If I get cash, it's the same thing, I can deposit it, but I can't always get there to do so.
I don't like carrying cash with me, I don't like using cash, it's really dirty and I already wash my hands (OCD) a lot so yeah, I don't like to carry or use cash unless I absolutely have to.
I also don't like banks.
I take great issue with the government being able to access all of our private financial information if they feel like it, if they decide that you or I are a threat, or have possible ties to terrorism.
I don't like that banks require so much of your personal and private information to open an account, and for you to update your information so that they comply with the regulations of the governments "protect the home front" policies.
None of the cards that I currently use, have ever asked me for the same kind of information that banks do, as a matter of fact, I think several of the cards only have my name, date of birth, and phone number(s).
Banks also charge crazy fees for every single transaction that you do no matter how small, and now some even charge you a fee (I've heard this fee can be as much as $10)  for physically going in to the bank and interacting with a human teller, whose job it is to help you deposit or withdraw your money. 
So when I had some cash this week that I didn't want to carry with me, have it sit in my wallet driving me crazy that I can't get up to Amscot to deposit it, so I decided to try a new pre-paid debit card that I can get re-load cards from right at 7 eleven.

I bought a Green Dot pre-paid Visa debit card at 7 eleven for $4.95*, and a money pack re-load card, also for $4.95*
I gave the cashier the amount of cash that I wanted to load onto my pre-paid Visa debit card, and he added that amount through the cash register's POS systems card reader.
I came home, logged onto the Green Dot website, entered in the Visa debit card number, the expiration date, created a password, and logged in to load the card.
Loading the debit card from the money pack was really easy, and now I have all of my cash, all of my income sources, on debit cards, 2 of them are pre-paid, and 2 are not.
I only have to touch cash when absolutely necessary, when I get it, and when I hand it to the cashier, so now I don't have to be grossed out by the thought of handling very dirty paper money for too long.

Once I've used the Green Dot card for awhile, I will give it a proper product review, but so far, it gets 4 out of 5 stars for it's ease of use, fast money transfers from the money pack to the debit card, (the time it takes you to type in the numbers from the debit card and money pack) and the fee refunds.
The only downside is that they are not available everywhere yet.
While they can be purchased at over 50,000 retailers nationwide like CVS, 7 eleven, Kmart and Walgreen's, it will/would be really nice if they were also available at grocery stores as I go to Publix far more often than I go to 7 eleven, and I hate that place because while convenient, they charge excessive prices on almost every single item that they sell. 

* The $4.95 that you pay to buy the card and the money pack re-load cards, are credited back to your account (refund!) in about 1 business week, and the only fees for using the Green Dot pre-paid card is a monthly service charge of $5.95, and fees if you use an ATM, and those fees are just .50cents per transaction.
I don't plan on using any of those, so just $5.95 per month to help me control my OCD is ok with me.

**EDIT
My first fee (bought on 3/2/2010) refund was posted to my account today, 3/6/2010.

 

Mark will be attending college starting this summer, and he's also going to work on getting his license, finally.
After the license, comes finding a car and figuring out how to pay for it, and also getting an auto insurance quote for a new and young driver.
I know that the insurance is what's going to be what costs us the most.
He's only 18, never had a license, no work history, no credit history, so yeah, the insurance for him is probably going to cost quite a bit to start with.
I think the prices go down after he's had a license for 6 months or so.
I think.
That's what I've heard anyway.
My sister Jo said that she would put him on her insurance, so he would have insurance when he was driving her car anyway, but we have to wait for 6 months to 1 year of him having his license before the price of insurance goes down.

The new cell phone that I bought myself for my birthday!
According to the FedEx ground tracking info, it should be here tomorrow, and once it's here, I will need to pop the battery in, charge the phone up, then call Virgin Mobile and have them transfer my cell number from my really old phone, a Flasher V7,  to my awesome new phone, a Kyocera X-tc.
I'm so excited!
Ha!
If you follow me on Facebook*, then you already know that I've said "I'm so excited!" like a gazillion times in the last few days, but really, there's so many things to be excited about!

I bought our plane tickets to Maine yesterday, Wednesday, we're flying with Jet Blue, and I got a super awesome wicked good deal, ONLY $84 per person round trip, so a total of $504, and then you add in the taxes and stuff, and it came to $632.40, which is still a wicked heck of a deal.
And it's Jet Blue, who the Today Show flew us to NYC with on 9/22/09 to be on the show and meet my bio-sibs for the first time ever, and Sebastian and I just loved the flights, comfy seats and tvs in every seat!

And speaking of my bio-sibs, I got a call from my sister Joanne while I was out at the doc's yesterday and almost being killed by an elderly driver, and the boys didn't tell me what she said, just to call her back.
So I call her back, get no answer, so I send her a text message by email, and she calls me back to say that her and Jamie, her fiance, were about an hour and a half away from Sarasota!
They're here now!
They spent the night at a local Holiday Inn Express, and I am going to go out with them in about 45 minutes, and hang out and stuff.
I get to see my sister for the first time since September!
I'm so excited!

Ha!
Told ya I keep saying it a lot, but really, I do have so so much to be excited about, and I will tell you all about the rest of it when I get back from hanging out with my sister!