Noel by Josh Groban

The local radio stations (Sunny 100 in particular) have started playing all Christmas music already which I actually enjoy as it gets me in the mood for all the preparations necessary at this time of year. I've noticed that although the radio station has included a couple of older Josh Groban Christmas songs in the playlist, they've totally ignored what is clearly the best Christmas album ever, NOEL by Josh Groban. This album was #1 on Bilboard 200 for FIVE weeks straight in 2007 which was a first in history. The album is listed as #1 again on several of Bilboard's charts this year and currently is listed in the top 10 best sellers by both Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Strange that the local radio stations would not include even one song from the album. I thought payola was dead but that's the only reason I can think of for not including any of the songs from this album in their playlist. Oh well, over four million copies have been sold since mid October 2007, 35 thousand just last week and it's a year old so lots of people are enjoying it, airplay or not.

End of the World?

I was talking to someone at work today and he mentioned something he planned to do in about five years to which I replied that according to the Discovery Channel, the world may come to an end as we know it on December 21, 2012, so maybe he should revise his time-line, lol. It seems that all the ancient calendars end on that day even though the people who created them were in different parts of the world and had no contact with each other. Spooky! There was some discussion about the flip-flop of the magnetic poles and the fact that this has happened before and may happen again with catastrophic results and that this may be the reason for the end of the calendars. Nothing you can do to prepare for such an event. Maybe I should give some thought to retiring earlier than six years from now, lol, or I may never get a chance.

NEvergreen

One of my co-workers was in a really bad auto accident about a year ago and the doctors had to reattach her ankle. For several months since she came back to work she's been in excruciating pain and knew she needed either an ankle replacement or fusion and the best doctor in the area certified to do this type surgery doesn't operate at the hospital approved by our Evergreen (called Nevergreen by the health community) insurance so the insurance company wanted her to see a less qualified doctor. This stalling by the insurance went on for months while she was walking around with a cane and apparently a broken leg since that's what the surgeon found when he finally operated Monday morning. Maybe now her leg will finally heal and she'll get some relief from the constant pain.

I really believe that only the very rich get adequate health care and the rest of us just have to make do with mediocre health care or no health care at all and those who're in a position to do something about it don't feel pressured to do so because all their health care is provided at little to no costs to them. It's amazing that the US is one of the greatest countries but probably has the worst health care system of any major power and all you hear is rhetoric about changing this situation, no actual changes.

Remembering Family Veterans

Eighteen members of my family served in World War II and although all were involved in the hot spots of action, incredibly all returned alive. They've all passed away now but I'm still alive to remember them and hopefully with my scrapbooking maybe my grandchildren will honor them too.

Barack Obama Has A Tough Job Ahead

Corporate and individual greed have just about wrecked the economy, we're in a war we have no business being in, and we're definitely in a recession if not an actual depression. Yes, tough job ahead for him but having read the stand on the various issues by both Obama and McCain, I think Obama's attitude of taking action stands a better chance of improving the situation than McCains "do nothing, wait and see what happens" attitude.

Musical Surprise

The other day my teenage grandson needed to use my computer to re-download some purchased music to his Zune since he doesn't have internet at home. Imagine my surprise when my wonderful Josh Groban song ended and Led Zeppelin started playing. Apparently the downloaded music is still on my computer and my grandson says his Zune is now filled up with Josh Groban music in addition to his own selections. Maybe his musical taste will be improved, lol, but actually he downloaded some pretty good music. Not exactly my thing but good for an occasional listen.

Left Blinker

OK someone told my husband that one of the rear lights was out on his car so he's got me sitting at the wheel pumping the brakes so he can figure out which one. No luck there so he asked me to turn on the left turn signal (lever on left of steering wheel) and I flipped the lever on the right and turned on the wind shield wipers. My husband is flabbergasted and asked me how could I not know which lever to flip when I use the turn signal every day. Well I was reading a book and distracted but still tried female logic on him and said that this was his car not mine. That didn't fly either 'cause we drive identical 2005 Prius Hybrids (mine's gold and his is silver). At this point my husband is standing there looking at me like I've got two heads....or maybe no head. Well, I'm not usually so feather-brained and no, I'm not blond....just not too clever with auto gadgets. My sister asked me one time if I even knew where to put gas in my car. I told her I'm not stupid (just spoiled) and there's a perfectly good manual in the glove box that I could use to figure it out if I ever have to. I've been driving this car for three years now and haven't had to yet since I only need to fill up every other week and my husband takes care of it. Probably couldn't get away with this if the car didn't get 42 to 50 miles/gal around town and 60 on the highway.

Humorous Medley on Emmys

Last night on the Emmy Awards Josh Groban did a wonderful humorous medley of snippets from 26 old TV show themes including the voice of Animal from Sesame Street (hope he didn't hurt his vocal cords). He was so cute and did an amazing job of imitating a dozen different voices and singing that many or more different singing styles. Don't know how he did it, especially since he was in Boston three days earlier appearing with the Boston Pops for the taping of Chris Botti's PBS special and singing with Sting. Josh's voice is way too powerful for an effective duet with Sting even tho Josh wasn't singing full voice so the engineers will need to make adjustments on the CD/DVD.

Josh has been really busy this year which is not surprising since he was the top selling artist of 2007 and had the top selling album of 2007. In addition to the events already mentioned he also played the Russian in the musical Chess at the Royal Albert Hall in London (hear Anthem and Where I Want to Be), sang La Boheme on Charles Aznavour's new CD, and recorded a duet on Placido Domingo's new CD as well. But that's Josh for you, he's multi-talented and also very funny and fun-loving.

Well enough of rapsodizing about Josh, it's late and I need to get to bed. It's been a good day...no one wore overpowering scent to the office and I was able to get a ton of work done. It's amazing how much more you can get accomplished when you don't have to battle the fatigue and headache caused by the toxins from scent. Guess only someone else with MCS would understand what I mean but trust me, it does make a difference. Even tho we're like the canaries in the mine and are affected more than others, the toxins have to be affecting everyone to some extent, they just don't realize it.

Can't believe I was seduced by a TV ad

Family and friends know I don't watch much TV so it's a wonder I even saw the ad in the first place let alone fell victim to it....but I did. On a whim I bought Spray 'n Wash with Resolve Power and boy was I sorry. If you have MCS like me, DON'T BUY SPRAY 'N WASH 'cause it's loaded with scent and will make you sick. Oh, it works...but so does Shout and without all the scent. What possessed the manufacturers to go to the extra expense of adding a ton of scent to a stain remover? Obviously you're going to wash the item and use detergent and fabric softener (both usually scented) so why would you need scent in stain remover. It boggles the mind. Anyway it took five washings to get the scent out of the item my husband used it on and then he just thru the whole bottle away so no one would use it again and give me another three-day migraine.

Symphony

We went to dinner with friends Saturday night and then to the symphony (Columbus Symphony Orchestra or CSO for short). The Eroica Trio played with the CSO and were really good. Hear them if you get a chance. Of course it seemed as if everyone there took a bath in perfume, cologne, strong-scented deodorant or hair products, or used a ton of smelly fabric softener. Maybe I have a different perspective since I have Multiple Chemical Sensitivity and the toxins emmitted by these chemical scents cause me to be ill. Had to take medication to make it through the event and by the time we got to our friend's home for after-symphony desert & coffee, I felt like a zombie. I love music and we have season tickets but boy, sometimes I wonder if it's worth the pain.

Easter Seals Day Care

My 20 month old grandchild started going to the Easter Seals Day Care for four hours/day on Monday and it was really traumatic for her (and her mom). My daughter said when she picked Grayson up, she was wimpering in her sleep and started wailing when awakened until Kristie held Grayson's head to force her to look and see that it was her mom. In addition to multiple physical problems, Grayson is autistic and won't look directly at you. The staff at Easter Seals have infinite patience and know how to work with chalenged children. We're all hoping this will help Grayson learn a bit how to deal with a structured environment and play around other children. She'll have to continue individual therapy but this group interaction should help.

Multiple Chemical Sensitivity

Sick today. Bummer but I have MCS (Multiple Chemical Sensitivity) and someone who's cube is close to mine wore perfume yesterday and triggered a migraine. Could definitely do without that lol. Felt a little better this evening after the toxins emmited by the scent had time to work out of my bod so hubby and I went out to dinner and to buy some cute end-of-season clothes for our youngest grandchild. She's almost two and will be going to a special school beginning in a few days and needed clothes. She's cute as a button but has some health problems that prevent her going to a regular nursery. Anyway it's late and I'm tired so that's it for now.

Nite nite,
Jan

New Info!

Already posted once today but just found out some wonderful info and had to share it. If you've been frustrated by not being able to extract rar format downloads not to mention worrying about purchasing a digital scrapbooking kit only to find out it's in rar format and you can't extract it, then worry no more. Mozz at Forever More Creations had a link to Extract NOW and I downloaded it and guess what . . . it works!!!!!! You can extract multiple rar and zip files at the same time and almost instantaneously. Off to find the rar freebies I've been missing lol.

Get your own,
Jan

First Post

Trying to get into this blogging thing since it seems to be all the rage now. Don't want to be left too far behind in this digital world. I've been looking at a lot of blogs lately and keep going back to several to see what's happing in that blogger's world. Funny how someone else's life always appears to be more interesting than your own. "Grass is greener" syndrome or something.

Anyway, one of my favorite blogs to read is by Kim Broedelet (kimbsdesigns.blogspot.com). She's a fantastic digital scrapbooking designer who lives in South Africa and has such a wonderful sense of humor that clearly show's through in her blogging. Guess you can tell from this that I'm into digiscrapping, not designing though. Afraid my skills are somewhat limited in this area but fortunately for me there are a plethora of great digital designers in cyberland just waiting to share or sell their designs. When I figure out how, I'll list some links to my favorites.


Guess this blog post is living up to my header but I actually do live in a city by a river. In fact my office building is right next to the river so I see it every day and frequently take pictures from the parking garage to show my husband. This is because he's always wanting to go down to the Riverwalk in the evenings and I just came from there so I show him the picture taken an hour earlier to pacify him. Doesn't always work so I'll try to post a picture taken one evening recently.

Bye for now,
Jan