The funniest thing (or saddest)

I was on my way out of Fry's and running the gauntlet of junk foods,
gadgets, and chocolates when my eye happened across Ghiradeli labeled
bottles.

Once upon a time, not that long ago, Ghiradeli chocolates were a well
respected chocolatier, or at least somewhat. This latest invention
though has put to rest any remaining respect I might still have held
onto since going corn-free (aka no able to actually eat it anymore).

Curious about this "white sauce" they were selling, I picked up the
bottle and read the ingredients hoping to vicariously "taste" the
sauce from the ingredient list. I expected to find milk, sugar,
vanilla, and maybe cocobutter on it. It looked tasty & the Ghiradeli
name made my taste buds water for the last time.

On the back of the bottle was listed the ingredients. I read it
rapidly at first scanning for what I was hoping to see. Of course the
first ingredient was HFCS, so I skimmed further. Maltodextrin. Hmm
nothing yummy there. Artificial flavors & some things I can't
pronounce let alone spell. I skimmed the list again still not finding
an actual tasty ingredient. Puzzled I read it again slower, I was
sure it had to have something to it besides corn & chemicals, but I
found nothing.

Then I laughed. I laughed a cackle not unlike that which brings evil
old ladies and witches to mind. It was an insane laugh & then I smiled.

At least I am no longer one of their fools who just buy crap because
the label says "this is good stuff". I know what's going in my body,
and it isn't any of that.

Funny how close they can make nothing seem like something special.

-V
Out & About - Sent from iPhone

Glade Plugins Are Evil!

Last night I thought I'd be brave & try to go to a new friends house for a movie night. It wasn't too far away & since I don't have many friends here I've been trying to work on getting out & being social. This group we're both in was doing a movie & pizza night (without popcorn) so I thought I'd chance it.

I figured it's a short drive & since she knew vaguely of my allergies I wouldn't offend her if I had to leave early or if I reqested something like blowing out candles or whatever. Mostly we all had been meeting at neutral places such as bookstores & eateries that don't serve much corny stuff.

Anyway all was great as we sat outside & chatted (& they ate). But then the movie started & we went inside. I noticed a vanilla scent & secretly tried to find the source, when I saw some candles were lit in the corner I asked her if they were the source of the scent & she said yes & was very ok if I needed them blown out. She's really nice.

Unfortunately, either she forgot or most likely didn't think about it (I think if she'd have known she'd have unplugged it), there was a Glade Plugin in the corner of the room which really was the source of the scent. I of course didn't notice it there until the movie was about over & until then couldn't for the life of me figure out why my nose kept running & my breathing was getting labored. We were watching a teary chick flick as well so watery eyes & runny nose could partly be from that, so I kept debating "Am I reacting? or just enjoying the movie?". Anyway the lights were dimmed & when I finally noticed enough chest congestion that I KNEW it was a definite reaction I looked around more carefully and saw the glowing plugin & muttered cuss words in my head. 5 mins of the movie left, most of the damage was already done so I just waited for the movie to end & politely ran out. Omg fresh air was never so GOOD!

I got through last night with some prednisone & still having lung trouble (among other things - thermometer says 96.8 - crazy) today, but hoping benadryl takes care of it. If not I guess more prednisone.

(see more comments @ Delphi "Avoiding Corn" Forum)

Some Days!

Some days I really dislike my dog. Despite what the photo shows I just
vaccumed yesterday & it looked pretty nice still today until I let the
dog in and went into my office to answer the pile of emails that built
up yesterday.

I was in my office maybe an hour? I come out to the living room &
voilà!

Dirt dirt everywhere!

So not happy with puppy right now!

A New Game

I've been playing a new game online & since I'm "hosting" this months edition of it, I thought I'd share it here with you to see if any of you are up to the challenge.

In the empty space on that table in the picture is placed a "Mystery Item". It cannot be fully concealed if you held it in both hands, but it isn't much larger than that.

Please feel free to guess the item by using the comments feature below. Good Luck!

New Stuff

Well believe it or not, I've now joined the official ranks of the "Technology Yuppies" with a purchase of an iPhone.

Ok, so now that they're all cheaper, its not so much of a yuppy thing though I do have the 16gig one.

So this passed weekend, amid some major brainfog, I got an iPhone, signed up for a MobileMe free trial (which so far is sucking, but stay tuned), updated to Leopard (for some reason is required for MobileMe?), and am now trying to get my MAC back into where it was.

Of course the look of everything is different, which of course bugs me. :)

But so far so good. The phone is awesome btw.

Just a couple complaints.

iPhone - Addresses in calendar - like events you're going to, and other things, you can't click on them to bring up the map program (aka map it). You instead have to remember the addy and then open map and enter it in manually.

iPhone - Email - you can email photos, if you go to your camera or photos, go through a couple screens, click the photo, click another thing to click there to attach it to an email. However, you cannot attach anything to an email from the actual email programme. Odd.

MobileMe - Does not sync pictures. So you still have to sync your phone to your computer. Then you can buy iPhoto 08 (known as the iLife 08 package $99) in order to easily use the MobileMe picture album thing on your iPhone, in which you then can send pictures one by one to your MobileMe album. Easier - just use friggin Flickr.

Anyway, I haven't quite figured out the in's and out's of everything yet, but it seems every time I want to do something easily.. I can't.

Oh and YAHOO - Friggin make a real chat app for iPhone. AOL has. It can't be THAT hard.

ok.. I'm done. For now. :)

Too much computer learning lately, and all while I was brain foggy.. so it might actually be easier than I let on. Who knows.