My newest love in life...

Well, I've now got a little man in my life that I simply love and adore. It's my new shih tzu puppy Oliver. :) We got him over the weekend while we were in South Carolina. We've been talking about getting a puppy for a while now and we wanted a little small dog. Oliver seems to be adjusting well to us.

Waxing or Waning?

LOL! Ok, so this past Friday I decided I would give into peer pressure and curiosity...I got my eyebrows waxed. This was quite an interesting experience. Mom's told me for years I needed to wax my eyebrows, and if I hadn't been in a salon and it had been more than what I paid, I'd have never done it. I really didn't know exactly what to expect. The wax actually felt kind of good when they put it on, it's just when they ripped it off, that's when it hurt. MAN did it sting. As you can see by the picture below, my skin was in total shock and NOT happy! hah! And believe it or not, I had to be out at a bridesmaid luncheon about 2 hrs after I did this! lol! :) I doubt I'll do it again, but I can say I'm glad I did it! heh! :)

Weighloss Drugs

Lord if you are considering taking any weight loss drugs, I'd advise reading the article below first. This particularly applies for the drug "Alli" but I'm sure most all drugs of this kind have the same effects... ROFLMAO!!! I could hardly contain myself while reading this.

Alli Side Effects In Layman's Terms
by Jeff Kay

Alli is a new over-the-counter weight-loss pill which, predictably enough, has proven to be a massive best-seller from the moment it became available. The drug, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline, reportedly works by blocking the absorption of excess fats by the body. And folks are waddling, not walking, to their local drug stores for a chance to start on the Alli "program."

As is the case with most drugs, Alli comes with a risk of certain side effects. Or, as they're known on the company website, treatment effects.

A person is reportedly limited to 15 grams of fat per meal, and if they go over (or even if they don't), there's a significant chance they'll find themselves out behind a shopping center somewhere, crying and clutching a wad of horrifyingly soiled undergarments, searching for a place to ditch it.

As best as I can tell, anyway...

Since a lot of this stuff is couched in language that is technically truthful, but very carefully worded, I've taken it upon myself to go through the list of side (treatment) effects and warnings, and translate it all into layman's terms.

I'm no scientist or doctor, and don't pretend to have any special knowledge. I'm just a person who's fairly good with words and reading between the lines... The highlighted phrases below are direct quotes from the Alli website, with my translations in between.


Undigested fat cannot be absorbed and passes through the body naturally. The excess fat is not harmful. In fact, you may recognize it in the toilet as something that looks like the oil on top of a pizza.

Here the drug makers are trying to soothe the nerves of the skeptical fatty, by speaking their language. Pizza is something fatties understand, and a big part of the reason they’re interested in Alli to begin with. Pizza is good, pizza is reassuring… even when it’s flowing from your ass like molten lava.

The website mentions seeing the undigested fat in a toilet, but that’s clearly a best case scenario. You might also see it on the tops of your shoes, across the hood of a car, or way up the shower curtain, near the loops.

The fat passes out of your body, so you may have bowel changes, known as treatment effects.

Bowel changes. Notice how they phrase that? It means stuff will be happening the likes of which you could never have imagined. It’ll be like a daily Dean Koontz novel inside your underwear.

You may get:

gas with oily spotting

You’ll be farting Wesson oil straight through your Dockers…

loose stools

and having violent chipped beef explosions...

more frequent stools that may be hard to control

all the time, with a sphincter that can no longer be counted as a friend.

Eating a low-fat diet lowers the chance of these bowel changes. Limit fat intake in your meals to an average of 15 grams.

The McDonald’s Big Mac has 34 grams of fat, and the Burger King Whopper has 40. Eat either of these while taking Alli, and you’ll very likely be transformed into a diarrhea cannon.

Learning how to manage treatment effects is an important part of being successful with alli. Here's how to take control:

Start trimming fat from your diet now, even before you begin taking alli. Then pick a day to begin taking alli, such as a weekend day so you can stay close to home if you experience a treatment effect. Make the timing work for you. If you're getting ready to travel or attend a social event, hold off on starting with alli until the event is over

Blowing liquid feces down a row of bridesmaids, for instance, could be viewed negatively in certain circles. Further, an unexpected bout of the power-squirts while riding “The Bullet” at the county fair might not ingratiate you with your friends. Or anyone on the fairway. Or the folks in the parking lot walking to their cars.

While no one likes experiencing treatment effects, they might help you think twice about eating questionable fat content. If you think of it like that, alli can act like a security guard for your late-night cravings

You see, when you think about it, shitting yourself is actually a positive.

You can't "save fat grams" from lunch and "spend them" at dinner. Spread your daily fat gram allowance of 15 grams on average per meal over the whole day

Cheating can lead to embarrassment, tears, and the introduction of a frantically constructed toilet paper crack-wedge in the bathroom of an Applebee's. It’s simply not worth it.

You may feel an urgent need to go to the bathroom. Until you have a sense of any treatment effects, it's probably a smart idea to wear dark pants, and bring a change of clothes with you to work

Until you get the hang of it, you should probably take along a rolling suitcase full of brown clothes everywhere you go, while taking Alli. Luckily, however, turd-colored clothing is in this season; turd is the new vomit.

If co-workers ask about it, there is no shame in telling the truth. You might be surprised how understanding folks can be if you simply say, “I dress like this to conceal the poop that's constantly soaking through the seat of my pants.”

You may not usually get gassy, but it's a possibility when you take alli. The bathroom is really the best place to go when that happens

Showboating is not recommended.

You can use a food journal to recognize what foods can lead to treatment effects. For example, writing down what you eat may help you learn that marinara sauce is a better option than Alfredo sauce

In addition to a handcart full of extra pants designed to camouflage your anal leakage, it might also be a good idea to carry a schematic and information wheel, so you don't repeat past mistakes and have a treatment effect halfway up your back.

I hope this information has proven to be valuable.

"Special Comment"

Dad, this one is for you.

::Begin rant::

If you're at all conflicted about who to vote for in the fall, watch the video below. This is just one sliver of why NOT to vote for John McCain...

This man is NOTHING more than a carbon copy of George W. Bush. The country has arrived at the gates of hell in a hand basket and if you wish to actually plunge down into the never ending pits of hell, proceed and check the box on your ballot in November for senator John McCain. As for myself, the only thing that is keeping me from SERIOUSLY looking at moving out of this country and denouncing my citizenship is my mother, father, brother and his wife, my 4 nieces, 2 nephews and two more nephews on the way in addition to Jeremy's parents and brother and sister.

::end rant::

Day with Chloe!

Holy cow, I'm not sure I believe it still but my brother is finally going to get a son! :) We found out Saturday that their 4th child is finally a boy. After 3 girls, he's finally getting a boy! :) We are all so very excited about this! :) Finally my mom can buy boy clothes! hah! :) Saturday was our 'special' day with our oldest niece Chloe. We had such fun taking her to Marbles museum and also the museum of natural science.




Our day with Chloe was lots of fun! Our trip to Marbles was fun. They had a station set up where kids could dress a boy or girl on paper with fabric scraps and whatnot. So as Chloe was making hers Jeremy got in on the action. He created a little doublet and pants. LOL! Jeremy starts his training young! lol!!!!

Vacation 2008: New Orleans!!

Boy was this fun! I'd been to New Orleans once before in 2004 for Mardi Gras. I had a blast then, but man this time was SO much fun. I think it might have been more fun than the last time. The last time we were there we did the Mardi Gras thing with parades and all that. We hit Bourbon st but it was really crowded it was hard to really move. This time, while it was definitely HOT HOT HOT (and humid) it was less crowded and the city wasn't on party mode 24/7. Not to mention this time we had 7 days instead of the 3-4 we had during Mardi Gras. We saw many many funny shirts while we were there. One of which was just too good not to take a picture of it. Not worthy really of purchasing b/c it's not the kind of shirt I'd actually wear, just something to document! heh!

Anyhoo, the rest of the trip... We definitely did some drinking on this trip. There were many things we did besides partied though while we were there. :) One of the first things we did was go on a swamp boat tour of the bayou. We got to see what it looks like out there and the one thing I was hoping we would see, we saw plenty of! :)










We even got to hold one! :)



The food down there is incredible. We had some WONDERFUL meals. The restaurants are really incredible there, and I'm sure before Katrina there were even more that were beyond description.
One of the places we went that I TRULY enjoyed was Brennan's. They are famous for their breakfast, so that's what we went for there. I think I absolutely adored everything I put in my mouth there. I started off with fresh OJ, which was just delicious. Then I had some coffee. Then for the food, I started with simply perfect strawberries that were sitting in double cream which when I ordered it, I thought it was just whipped cream, but this was actually not it. It was just sweetened cream. When it arrived, I wasn't sure about it, but as I tasted it, oh my was it incredible! The next thing I had was our 'main course' - Eggs Benedict! I'd never had this before but it sounded delicious. Eggs, ham, bread, hollandaise sauce, ::sigh:: that was just heaven. :) We ended our breakfast/brunch with dessert. Jeremy had bananas foster and I had chocolate layer cake. Needless to say after this meal we didn't eat again for QUITE a while. :) While I'm on the subject of food, while down there this time we got the opportunity to go to a cooking class at the New Orleans school of cooking.

This was a class where we observed the cooking of jambalya, gumbo, pralines, and bread pudding. So essentially we watched someone cook a full cajun/new orleans style meal. :) Man was this good. The woman that was cooking for us and showing us all how things were done was a hoot. She had such a wonderful personality and was full of all kinds of stories. She was a native of New Orleans. When she was done cooking we got to eat what was cooked and man was it good. We also got copies of the recipes of the food made. I think my favorite was the gumbo. Jer and I definitely plan to try out some of the recipes. :)

Still on the subject of food, we got to go eat at the place where Emeril Lagasse got his start: Commanders Palace!

The food here was amazing. While Emeril is no longer the executive chef here, the food was outstanding, and it was great to get to see where he got his start. :)

Another place we ate while we were down there was the Acme Oyster House.

This was an awesome great place for seafood. Jeremy had oysters, raw and chargrilled. I actually tried an oyster shooter and a chargrilled oyster. The chargrilled oyster wasn't too bad. With the seasonings they had on it, really made it taste kind of good. Now the oyster shooter, eh, that's probably not something I'll do again... at least not anytime too soon. heh :) Jer got some crawdaddies and they are 'kind of' like shrimp, though there eating a bit differently. You can get stuff with just the meat of the tail which is really tasty! But you can also get them whole, yes, heads and all. They look like little lobsters. hehe! So Jer got some and we decided to try eating them the way they do down there. "Suck the head and pinch the tail". Which is really what you do. The head was a bit weird, but the tail meat was delicious, though it's way too much work for so little meat. :) Here's how I documented our experience with this! :)

Our final food stop was the Cafe Du Monde. ::sigh:: The famous cafe au lait. Half coffee, half steamed milk. For those who like creamy coffee (such as myself) this is just heaven in a cup. They have this awesome coffee with chicory. Without milk/creamer and sugar, the stuff is probably the strongest coffee you'll ever have however the way that Cafe Du Monde fixes it is perfect for me. Add some sugar and it's simply divine! Then you add a plate of their famous beignets (which are really just fried dough or DONUTS!) and I'm not sure you could make me happier. :) Everyone knows I simply adore donuts!!

I'm pretty sure this draws our food journey to a close. In fact my trip is almost done. One thing I failed to mention earlier was while we strolled down Bourbon St, we stumbled upon a karaoke club. So of course we went in. What's better than watching people do karaoke when alcohol is involved. ha! :) So after a drink, I gathered up the nerve to go up there myself. I ended up doing 2 songs by the end of the night. Both were great fun and here's documented proof of it:

And wonder of wonders, there is actually documented video footage of me karaoking! If you'd like to see that, feel free to visit my youtube page: http://www.youtube.com/user/abclos

Well, in conclusion, the most recent vacation to New Orleans was a total blast and I can't wait to go back! Maybe next time we'll have some of our friends with us to enjoy and share the fun! :)

Fun Fun Fun

Well, I stumbled across this somehow, but it looked like total fun! :) Not sure how often I'll blog, but you can now hear about my adventures and fun events, heh! :)