Friday Funny

From Passive/Aggressive. Apparently someone tried to microwave ramen without water

Yep we could use some humor here. Such bad weather! Oliver's school district changed the policy of no school if windchill is below minus 15 to no school if it is minus 25 just in time for today: windchill minus 20.

There's a silly adage about there is no bad weather, just bad clothing. I noticed crampon marks on our sidewalk probably the postman's. Unfortunately I lack crampon running shoes. I almost fell just crossing the street yesterday as under a thin coat of snow was wet ice. I waited until the windchill was only zero, right before sunset, to run today. Fortunately at least the days are getting longer.

A few weeks ago, I made a photo calendar for Julie but it never came. The company, after some waiting, let me reorder it for free but didn't want it to be sent to the same address lest my neighborhood be filled with calendar thieves. What probably happened was my dyslexic postman delivered it to the wrong address, probably to those nasty kids next door, who couldn't be troubled to put it back in the mail. We get others mail, including the same kids' (5 young men who never have time to shovel their walk). Who hasn't heard of Ann Arbor? When I complained that I never got what I ordered, they asked if Ann Arbor were a rural community. Well I guess compared to the coast...

We got a visit this morning from Josh on his way to a bachelor party up north with his buddies. So in the last 2 weeks, he has gone to two parties in places even colder than Ann Arbor. This is a skiing bachelor party up in Boyne. I thought that by marrying Julie (who does not ski versus Julia who grew up partially in the Swiss Alps and thus skiied) I wouldn't have to worry about him breaking his neck. Julie will stay behind with the baby though we will relieve her for part of the day tomorrow.

Then later to Shanna's to see Tess and Daniel. Fun to watch their antics.

Things my mother did but I never did as an adult

Nerdy Sue on Sugar, the Palomino, my mother's cousin had. Note cool shirt I sewed myself and wingtip glasses. I think I am 12

• Sew my own clothes. I did this out of necessity as a kid with results such as above. I did make  a pretty quilt for Josh right before he was born but as an adult, I don't wear my creations
• Tat
• Use a mangle. This device was in our basement in New York, useful for ironing sheets(!!?!). Also I rarely iron anything and never sheets.
• Use a washer with a wringer on top. Also in our basement in New York. Both devices did not make the move to Michigan. I think I was allowed to feed the wet clothes into it..sort of fun.
• Darn socks. My mother would stretch the holey sock over a light bulb and carefully weave embroidery floss over the hole. I did this under duress as a kid.
• Patch clothes. Maybe I will sew on a missing button..
• Can food with a pressure cooker. I did have to help a lot as a kid, both picking and preparing the fruit and vegetables for either canning in mason jars or freezing. Now I have picked blueberries and raspberries for freezing.
• Make jam. I helped a lot with this. I especially liked pouring hot paraffin over the jam and playing with that.
• Making Junket...funky rennet based dessert. Easy to digest because it was already digested by bovine enymes

Winter storm Niko was thought to be a no-show by the local schools. Just as the buses hit the highways, it came with a vengeance dumping 6 inches of slippery snow on top of all the other snow that never had a chance to melt. Classes were canceled for the afternoon so no school for Maya. Steve did all the shoveling yesterday. We have been keeping our neighbor's walk cleared too. This time, Steve was spotted. She had assumed that her neighbor on the other side was responsible all this time though that neighbor denied it. She never considered that we might be doing it, least of all me. She still thinks Steve is responsible but I am not going to pipe in that it is usually me and my idea. Meanwhile her husband is running out of options with the stage 4 cancer.

After 2 months, my X-mas tree is finally packed away.

Jumping for joy

 I am not sure what's up with Josh's voice. He usually doesn't sound so froggy
And out my window...all white

Defriended!

One of my clematis vines from warmer days past

My other clematis and me. I think I am Shanna's age here. I had a purple one too.

I keep confusing the  birth  dates of two of my friends so last night I went on Facebook to check on whose birthdate is whose and my friend had disappeared! There is no sign of her anywhere, not even as her kids' friend. So either she has gotten off  FB all together or she specifically made herself invisible to me. Why?

So for my melantonin  experiment, I am starting out with 5 mg, the maximum dose according to the bottle though I know others take more. Still woke up in the middle of the night, though later and only for an hour. No scary dreams ( a side effect) though an annoying one in which I am on the clock to get dressed in under 5 minutes and I keep tangling my clothes and misplacing things and getting more frantic by the second.

There were two interesting studies reported today in the WSJ: one in which tumors grew faster in mice with interrupted sleep. (they were prodded repeatedly as they tried to sleep). The other in which there is significant shrinkage in brains of older adults with mild hearing loss thought to occur because their auditory process centers aren't stimulated. No word if using hearing aids will slow this down or reverse it.

And another big storm coming our way....

Shut-in

Above is my youngest niece frolicking in the snow. Despite growing up in CA, all of my nieces live where there is snow. This one I watched being born 25 years ago. And the white gloves and coat? They wouldn't stay white long with my messy self.

Maximus dumped about 6 inches of snow then a bunch of ice on top of that on Saturday. I did get out early (butt crack of dawn) to run before it became too deep but aside from shoveling, I have stayed indoors until this afternoon. It is sunny and calm but the pathways are still a mess.

How to amuse myself? Well I did get a bit of cleaning done. I've edited some of my old photos,watched TV, had a friend over..

What I should be doing is putting down that X-mas tree.

Melantonin

Another photo for The Year of the Horse though technically this is a  unicorn. This is on the highest point of Isola Bella

Melantonin is a hormone released by the pineal gland in response to darkness. It is thought to regulate circadian rhythms. The amount of melantonin released decreases significantly as one ages, which could account for the sleep disturbances many of us post menopausal people experience. I have no trouble falling asleep; staying asleep is the problem.

Melantonin is also found in plants, notably feverfew and St. John's wort. It is considered a 'natural' cure for depression, sleep disorders and gastroreflux disease. But now, new research suggests that it may inhibit tumor growth too
 (see SOURCE: Bruna Victorasso Jardim-Perassi, Ali S. Arbab, Lívia Carvalho Ferreira, Thaiz Ferraz Borin, Nadimpalli R. S. Varma, A. S. M. Iskander, Adarsh Shankar, Meser M. Ali, Debora Aparecida Pires de Campos Zuccari. Effect of Melatonin on Tumor Growth and Angiogenesis in Xenograft Model of Breast Cancer. PLoS ONE, 2014; 9 (1): e85311 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0085311), particularly TNBC tumors transvected into mice.

Should I add this to my arsenal? Could it hurt? Well it could suppress my libido. The recommended dosage is 10 mg an hour before bedtime. I'll give it a try and at least see if it helps with the insomnia. Whether it inhibits my tumors is another matter.

Memories Maximus

Allie during yesterday's visit. At her 4 month check-up, she was taller and heavier than her father at the same age. She is looking more and more like Julie's mini-me. We hope that at least she will inherit Josh's hair follicles. Julie's did not kick in until she was 4 yrs old.

Guess what? It is snowing yet again. This time the storm is called Maximus. And what a pain in the gluteus maximus it is! I got up at the buttcrack of dawn so that I could get some sort of run in before the snow became too deep trying to fend off snow vertigo.This happens when I am running through a field of snow while it is snowing against a white sky. Suddenly my body does't know what is up or down and I get nauseous. It is a very similar feeling I had when I rode through a long tunnel last summer with no lights only then I saw just black with an increasing pinpoint of light.

But yesterday we had a brief reprieve from winter. Sunny, almost above freezing. Steve and  I went downtown for lunch only our order was lost so we just sat for what seemed forever. We got that lunch free.

Then later, off to Josh's house for a belated birthday dinner at Steve's favorite chain restaurant. The pitcher of blackberry sangria made me happy.What didn't make me happy was a fire alarm  that would not shut off. Allie managed to sleep through it and our dinner.

Josh at one point asked at what age do memories become permanent? I said that he would be in a better position to answer this as he is much closer to childhood than I am. Just what are his first memories anyway? He did remember somethings from when he was 4 but nothing before. I have some very faint memories from when I was 3 but much more from when I was 4. I am developing some major holes though. Just who was my 5th grade teacher anyway? I can't even picture her. I remember the room and where I was sitting (surprisingly near the front no doubt obstructing the view of those behind given my hugeness). I even remember a nasty sub and how she hurt my feelings....

Why did he want to know? He wants to create good memories for Allie but he doesn't want to waste his efforts if she is just going to forget them. They are considering Disney World. So at 4, she will remember for sure, we agreed. But what about her theoretical sibling? So for maximal memories, they should wait for this unconceived sibling to turn 4. And the younger they are, the less it takes to thrill them. I remember how thrilled he was on one of our earliest bike rides to ride through a tunnel, a culvert. And how he was thrilled to watch a tortellini machine do its thing.