Edit; Something new, I joined Humblevoice.com. Seems pretty neat; a little place for artists! Add me if you like. Add +.

Ugh! I am so sick of this cold! I wish it’d go away already! There is so much pressure around my eyes and forehead, even down into my ears and neck! The pressure in my ears is starting to make it very sore. I was starting to think I had an ear infection! My dad picked up some over-the-counter eardrops this morning after I woke up crying! I didn’t even think to tell him to make sure there wasn’t Sulfa in it and unfortunately, the only eardrops they had over-the-counter.. ALL had Sulfa in them! I’m allergic to Sulfa, as of about a year ago and I so don’t feel like going through the allergic reaction I had with my eyes, in my ears! Ouch! I decided to try Tylenol, which is always a last resort and thankfully it’s helping! Now if this pressure will go away and take the coughing with it!

I was going to go to the ER if it didn’t get any better. My Aunt is head of the ER so I figured maybe I could see the MD on the “downlow”! lol!! It was too busy though and I didn’t feel like driving all the way to Douglas, GA (an hour away) to see one of the MD’s I worked with there. Besides, there’s this new “policy” being enforced there. If you are a self pay patient (as I am at the moment), you are required to pay a $200 deposit to the registrars in order to be seen and treated! What a crock of bull! I asked a co-worker how that’s going to swing, considering you really can’t make a proper assessment of someone’s illness all the time. Someone could have a simple stomach ache and it could be something more than just that. However, you can’t look at someone on the outside (on most occasions) and assume a spoonfull of Pepto is going to cure their problem. It could take lab work or an x-ray to properly diagnose them. I know they’re trying to get control over their “frequent flyer” issue but really, making someone pay $200 before you’ll treat them (unless it’s life or death) isn’t exactly fair to everyone. Eventually someone’s going to come in and be treated as if their problem isn’t an emergency through their emergency assessment and it’s going to be something bad. Then I imagine they’ll be lawsuits left and right. Sure there’s the walk-in clinic for the minor things, where they can always be seen but the walk-in clinic isn’t opened 24 hours a day! It’s open for maybe 8 hours a day. And what about on the weekends, when everyone’s primary care physician’s office is closed or their primary care physician isn’t on-call?! I sense a big stink!

As I said in a previous post, the healthcare system here is so screwed up!

I think my fish is thawed, time to get ‘er seasoned up and marinated!! Mmm!

I’ve just been going through some photos, finally, from Newfounland. I figured I’d share the few I’ve browsed through and resized thus far! There’ll be more added to my flickr at a later date!

These are from the lighthouse at Twillingate, Newfoundland. I want to go back in the early summer to see the icebergs and whales! Click the photos to see the larger ones! I’ll get these uploaded to flickr later on tonight, pending whether or not flickr will function on dialup! haha!

I have so many more to go through, I don’t even know where to begin! I’ll get to that later in the week, I think!

I’m also going to try and start back with the Flickr 365 Days thing. Once I’d missed so many days of it, I figured I’d just restart. I’m thinking of picking it back up on February 1st! I’d go on and start now but I’m still fighting off this cold, which means I can’t be around my grandmother (since she’s prone to illnesses). She lives with my mom and that’s where my camera’s been since last weekend. Pffth!

Anyway! My feet are getting cold, I bet it’s in the twenties outside! Think I’ll go slide my tootsies into some socks!

I think I’ll steer away from my usual everyday entries and write up something different. What, with all the talk on healthcare and blame on fast food companies for obesity. Should make for some good blogging! If you’d like, feel free to skip this entry and read something else.

Where to begin.

I was watching the news and there was this bit about how parents are blaming fast food restaurants for their childrens obesity. Maybe some people agree with them but I find this entire blame game incredibly funny! I mean, how many children can drive themselves to the local McDonalds to pick up a Happy Meal for themselves? I’m certainly not suggesting that these places serve “healthy” foods, in fact.. I think everyone can agree they do not. It seems to me that the problem lies in the hands of the parents that choose to hit up the local fast food places because it’s easier than coming home and cooking up something. That’s not to say I’ve never treated my nephews and niece to a Happy Meal, I have on a couple of occasions but it isn’t something our family has ever made a habbit out of! I just can’t comprehend how some people will blame and point the finger at everyone but themselves!

Now, onto the healthcare!

You all may recall some entries regarding my grandmother before my site took a crap! Well, her hospital bill was over $45k. Then I started to think about how incredibly screwed up our countries health system is. You have things like Medicaid and Medicare, which in my opinion, I feel their benefits should be switched/reversed (ie; Medicare having coverage that Medicaid does). Now, before someone flies off the handle.. I’m not saying that Medicaid shouldn’t exist. Not at all, in fact, I’m glad it does. Especially for children because I think they’re the ones who should be benefiting from it (outside of say, the disabled or women who are pregnant or just gave birth). It seems, however, too many people are on it.. that shouldn’t be which leads to the abuse of the system.

With that, it’s also disgusting to me that there are people who live off of the government, people who are capable of working and supporting themselves and allow those who actually need the system, the resources to do so. I know of a few people doing this (through other friends) and it’s really disturbing to think if I know of a few, just how many are there?!! It’s a shame that hardworking citizens are supporting other people, for no good reason (speaking of those that I personally know of). These people get their rent paid, utilities paid, groceries purchased and in most cases, healthcare provided.. at no expense to them, only to those working and providing the system to them.

Considering there’s an upcoming election, I really hope that some of this becomes a part of the candidate’s platforms (as well as Global Warming)! It’s something that really needs to be looked into and tweaked!

Well, there was quite a bit more I thought I was going to write up but I’ve exhausted myself trying to figure it out. hahaha! Maybe I’ll pick it up where I left off another time! :]

I know a lot of you reading my blog, also use vox.com. Maybe you have my friended, maybe you don’t. But if you don’t, then you missed an entry I posted about Vox banners.

I decided to create a few banners for the users. Yes, they’re free, obviously but I’d still like to keep up with people using them (unless for some strange reason too many people become interested haha). If you’re interested in using banners created by me, leave me a note here, on my vox or send a private message on vox or to my inbox. I’ve only uploaded one example banner so far, I’ll add more later. If you’d like to check it out, feel free to check out my vox blog!

Now I must go make Rice Krispie Treats! My sister Nikki, her fiance and the kids are coming over tonight.. on top of my dad’s girlfriend, Kim! We’re making dinner for everyone! We’re cooking up teriyaki chicken, mac & cheese, cream corn & buttermilk biscuits! Yummy! Guess I’ll get cracking on that. :]

Well, this makes the second straight year that we’ve actually gotten money back on our taxes. As titled, “Hooorahhh”!!! I’m very happy. We actually got nearly every penny we paid out! This will help with funding our move! Not only getting there (hotels, gas, meals) but also getting furniture, since we’ve sold every piece that we had in our house, including electronics but minus my computer. I did ditch the bulky monitor though, I’ll stick witht he flat screen.. thank you very much. I kind of like the idea of starting anew, at least in this sense (getting to re-decorate and such).

I’ll be going through everything in my dad’s garage over the next couple of days. I know there’s a few junk boxes. I have no idea why he felt the need to save the things we marked as “junk” or “trash” but to pacify him, we’ll sort through it once more. Haha! I’ll wait until the first weekend in February to do my garage/yard sale. The first of each month is the best time for those. I’m hoping to make at least an additional $400 on the remaining items.

Well, I think I’m going to call it a night. I am exhausted from visiting my sister and the rugrats, that’s on top of this rotten cold/flu! Hopefully the Theraflu is going to kick in soon! Can’t wait to hop into bed and drift off to la la land!

I decided to check my stats for herbrokentoy.com, since I hadn’t in two or more months. I scrolled down and got to the stats for searches and low and behold, I had “Big boobs”. Now, that’s quite funny, considering that is a photography portfolio and considering there is no nude photography there. I’m not sure how that happened but it made me giggle quite a bit!

We’re going to try and get our taxes done today, hopefully we’re going to get everything paid out, back. I haven’t worked in a year, outside of doing the photography thing. That’s also one of the biggest reasons we’re moving back to Calgary. The city is booming right now and they’re paying extremely well. For instance, the job I did at the hospital in Douglas pays between $9-13 depending on shift difs, in Calgary, the same job pays around $23. That’s a huge difference, even with the Canadian dollar being worth slightly less (though more than in recent years) the USD. We are both really excited about this move!

I need to figure out how we’re going to get the cats up there. It’s going to take anywhere from 3-5 days driving up, depending on weather and what have you. I know they make tranquilizers for pets, for things like this. I’m not sure I want to go that route and if we did, I’m not sure how that would work on such a long drive. I’m going to call their Vet later on today, see what he can suggest!

Let’s see, what else??

Guess I’ll get started on going through the photos from our trip to Newfoundland today, well, tonight. We’re going to Nikki’s (youngest sister) for “dinner & a movie”!

I’ve been so busy!!! I’ve been staying at my mom’s the last couple of days, while Jo’s finishing up work. I say finishing because he’s going to transfer to a location in Calgary, Alberta once all is said and done. There’s not much left to pack, besides a few odds and ends but it just seems like we can’t slow down long enough to relax at all.

I miss relaxation. I think all this running around is what’s keeping me so weak and sick. Pffth. It just hit me all of a sudden! Now I’m coughing, congested, having trouble breathing and on top of that, I’m a little weak and sore all over. I’m hoping it isn’t that nasty flu. Then again, if it is, maybe it’ll go as fast as it came, so I won’t be sick when we’re driving up to Calgary.

Speaking of Calgary… I cannot wait for the roadtrip there. I hope the wintery weather that’s going on throughout the area we’re travelling will be over with, at least for the few days we’re driving up. I’m hoping to get some nice pictures on the way, especially when we get to Colorado and Montana (Which is GORGEOUS!). I also need to get the photos from Newfoundland up. Maybe I’ll work on that later on this week! I need to go through them all. Hopefully there’s some nice shots to share!

Well, I think that does it for now. In case you haven’t noticed, the theme is up. It’s the Dusk theme by Becca. I modified it quite a bit and I’m still working on some kinks. I used an older daily links table, so I’ll be modifying that a bit throughout today and tomorrow, to make sure all my links are up to date! For now, I’m going to take some dayquil, not that it works or anything. haha!

PS; GO BEARS! It’d be nice to see Adrian Peterson get to play! Why? Because he’s formerly of the Georgia Southern Eagles, the only football team I really watch. haha! Jason must be doing cartwheels!

Ok, finally it’s installed.? I can’t work miracles on dial-up, so please allow me a few more days to get a proper theme up and running.? I cannot stand looking at the default themes at all, so it shouldn’t take me long to finish up the theme I’m working on.

I won’t update in this entry, dial-up is lame.? I hate the lagging and do not have the patience to wait on everything to load.? tehe.

The most important thing though, it’s finally back up! ;]