So tomorrow Lisa and I will be trying

"Meld yoga, meditation, and movement technique as you learn to connect to your goddess through belly dance. This six week course is an amazing way to connect with the indwelling feminine spirit in a friendly and fun atmosphere.

Women of all shapes and sizes should feel beautiful and sensual, and healthy and happy above all else."



Tomorrow is Introduction to Oriental Dance, with Inari

Inari (稲荷, Inari^? also Oinari) is the Japanese kami of fertility, rice, agriculture, foxes, industry, and worldly success.

It should be interesting.

Historic Al Stewart

I was lamenting to a Toronto friend that I couldn't be there and see Al this week so they sent me this clip:


This has got to be at least 30 yrs old. Al still sounds this good. I have the t-shirt Al is wearing only in red ;)
If that is Peter White playing the keyboards, not the piano, he looks SO young, almost too young!
Can anyone identify the other people playing?

Barry and the glass alternative

So much of what I knew of Barry through our conversations over the years was neatly summed by Anna on a ASML post:

barry had a third alternative to the glass being either half empty or
half full:

"is anybody drinking this?"

Goodbye Bear

My friend Anna's partner, Barry, died from a stroke this past week at age 44. A friend of theirs put this slide tape thing together:

So I kept saying I got a rash when I went to the dentist

but no one believed me for quite a while...

but after a few months of fun that included but not limited to:
dehydration
hives
ER
shock
bacteria
toxins
spores
more antibiotics
no belly dancing :-(
pro-biotics
bananas
and zinc
it turned out I was correct. The rash was connected to my dental visits as were all the rest. It took a while for it all to get connected, and I kept thinking ok this is it, like the hives, its over but it wasn't.

What I learned:

• Clindamycin is not a good dental pre-med, and is notorious for this particular bacteria.
• There is a high relapse rate.
  
• Too many dental appointments close together are not wise esp. if you take pre-meds.
• Bananas are your friend. Fresh, powdered, or dehydrated are best. Chips don't work as well.
• ER's in the middle of the day are not as good as going on a holiday, weekend or wee hours.
• Sometimes its worth leaving an ER even if your hives are continuing to spread down your nerve pathways.
• Bathroom mirrors make nice dry erase boards.
• Zofran is amazing and wonderful (and I still have some!)
• Benadryl keeps the hives from swelling as much.
• I no longer need pre-meds.

A couple weeks ago, I won a major Susan vs bacteria battle and felt reasonably well enough to attend the parties at a sci fi fantasy convention. I had a blast! I was there until about 1:30am the first night and left reluctantly at 4:30am Sunday on the second.
I saw the usual suspects, had tea, watched belly dancing, partied with some defenders of an allied nation and got to try on the coolest headgear ever! I will post more about this later.

Tuesday, I woke up with a sore throat. Lucky me, 2 days of health and I get the flu. Due to the above, my medication options were limited. I had been reading about Elderberry extract and its use in the prospective pandemic, so I tried that.
For the first few days, I took Elderberry & Zinc lozenges (10 per day) and rode out the fever. Then I switched to Elderberry capsules (3/day) for a day, and then a combo of both. They actually seemed to work, the really bad flu stuff lasted about 3 days, I was still getting pretty wiped out for another few days but no fever. 3 days ago I walked over 12000 steps and survived fine. Its now been 9 days, I still am getting a bit more tired earlier in the evening but otherwise feeling quite healthy.

Today I discovered that Ikea has cute little stuff guinea pigs! They are even machine washable and only $3.99. Is that cool or what?