What To Do?

I have an extreme case of Arachnophobia, stemming from a frightening overnight trip to the ER at the tender young age of sixteen. I awoke around two AM with a horrible stomach ache, decided to take a bath and blacked out. Thankfully the noise had awoken my mother, who pulled me up out of the tub and brought me too.

To make a long story short, I had to have a shot of epinephrine, because I couldn't breathe and was just ill and out of it. We tried to figure out what had caused the episode, until later that week I discovered a large spot on my leg. Turned out to be a brown recluse bite that had caused all of the drama. Ever since then I see a spider and freak out.

The weather was really warm this weekend and then dropped a good fifteen degrees. Which of course made the spiders want to fuck with me!! No kidding, I was cleaning the bathroom to look up and see a good sized brown spider right in front of my face, I run to wake Joey up to come save me, he came in, took care of it and returned to bed. I go about cleaning again, and screamed so loud my neighbors banged on the wall!! It was back!! The dogs are barking, i'm screaming, and the neighbors are knocking on the wall, and Joey sleeps right through this! I rouse him again to finish the job. Then............

I move on to the kitchen to find another one on my ceiling! I left this one alone till it was actually time for Joey to get up. Now, I know not all spiders are bad, and I know that they do a lot of good. And being a vegetarian I really feel bad killing bugs, but I just cannot see a spider without freaking out! Any suggestions?

Thanks for the suggestions and understanding!! I don't think I have the balls for the catch and release method, but I am going to try to not scream anymore!! And hope for no more spiders!

I must say that due to all of my MIL's health conditions, that it is nice how far medical technology has come. Back when she was a young woman, wife and mother they were not aware of how dangerous some of their daily habits were for their health. I feel so bad that she has to suffer the way she is, but she is one tough lady.


Back in the day people smoked on a daily basis going through God knows how many packs of cigarettes a week(or day in some cases), vitamin supplements were heard of but not recommended, the food was cooked with real lard and real butter, and nobody knew about the damage that your kidney can receive due to excessive drinking. It is quite frightening to think about everything that we know now that they didn't.


I mean, after having five kids with no calcium her bones are completely decalcified, she has suffered numerous fractures and breaks, survived skin cancer and numerous heart attacks. I feel saddened that her generation didn't know what we do now.

It begs the question of what will they know by the time our generation is in our seventies that they don't know yet?

Do You Ever Stop and Think?

About how much has changed in technological advances since you were a child? was a kid I remember having a Commodore 64(No, I am not that old, it was mid to late 80's) and I just remember playing some video game that was addictive. Cell phones were the size of footballs and were for the extremely well to do. You had your choice of either cassettes or cd's to listen to, and vcr's were "the thing to have". There was a short craze of laser disc's, which I know hardly anything about. And cameras, oh my God were they huge, I doubt that few people under the young age of 2o even know how to load film.

We actually had to entertain ourselves rather than technology entertaining us. I was and still am a huge reader, looking forward to weekly trips to the library. I was also in the kitchen alot. I should have known that I would always enjoy cooking and baking. I was ambitious enough to be making cream puffs and fried apple pies by 11 or 12 years of age. (Hey I had a thing for sweets!) And I never left home without my portable cd player.

Hell, eleven years ago when I was first married, we had to go to my brother in law's to use the computer, I didn't have an e-mail account, and blogs where unheard of!

Now however I would lose my mind without my MP3 player, internet access and digital camera. Cell phonee, I don't live for, in fact mine is only for emergencies. DVD's are so much better than video tapes.

So while I am enjoying some of the advances, doesn't it seem as if due to some of them we have opened ourselves to a whole new set of problems? With sexting(hate that term), and obssesive texting, okay so maybe it's just cell phones I have a problem with. There is nothing quite like having the guy standing next to you telling whomever he's on the phone with that he just came from the doctor's office with a bad case of strep throat, or the lady bitching at her husband for being drunk so early in the afternoon, or the people who are not paying attention while driving and cause numerous wrecks.

I wouldn't trade the good just to be rid of the bad, just ask for peoplee to be more responsible for their own actions, instead of living in a society that passes the blame to anyone but themselves.

Anything anyone else remembers that have changed drastically?

Foods I used to Hate!!!

I was pondering the other day foods I refused to eat before becoming a vegetarian, and was surprised at how much my tastes have changed.

1.Black Beans: Hated the smell, taste and texture! Though some of that hatred could stem from having dumped a whole cambro upon myself when I was serving at Chili's. You think? Now however I adore them and eat them frequently.

2. Hummus: I just thought it looked and smelled funny, till I tasted it and then it was another story.

3. Bell Peppers:This I cannot fathom!! I still don't know where I began that hatred. Now I have them on hand at all times.

4.Soy Milk: Let me explain that when I was a child, my mother had us using soy milk and I hated it. Then again this was during the late 80's early 90's before soy milk had been nearly perfected.

Now I have realized the error of my ways and enjoy all of the above foods on a regular basis. And continue too experiment. I think becoming vegetarian expands your mind and taste buds as well. Anyone else have foods they hated and now love?

B+++

That would be my score for the scones. While being tasty, I know I could do a better job from scratch. Not very much kick at all. I wanted more of the spices to shine through the pumpkin taste. Great on texture though.