Joke of the Day

What I particularly love about this is how it opens with a little springboard story about the importance of creativity at work (which is basically the mission of my day job). Enjoy!

The boss of a Madison Avenue advertising agency called a spontaneous staff meeting in the middle of a particularly stressful week. When everyone gathered, the boss, who understood the benefits of having fun, told the burnt out staff the purpose of the meeting was to have a quick contest.

The theme was Viagra advertising slogans. The only rule was that they had to use past ad slogans, originally written for other products, that captured the essence of Viagra. Slight variations were acceptable. About seven minutes later, they turned in their suggestions and created a Top Ten List.

With all the laughter and camaraderie, the rest of the week went very well for everyone.

10. Viagra, Whaazzzz up!

9. Viagra, The quicker pecker upper.

8. Viagra, Like a rock!

7. Viagra, when it absolutely, positively has to be there over night.

6. Viagra, Be all that you can be.

5. Viagra, Reach out and touch someone.

4. Viagra, Strong enough for a man, but made for a woman.

3. Viagra, home of the whopper!

2. Viagra, We bring good things to Life!

And the unanimous number one slogan:

1. This is your penis. This is your penis on drugs.

A Query

How do you manage all your usernames and passwords?

I'll tell you how I manage mine. My (very old) cellphone has a feature whereby I can designate a contact as "secret." When I do this, I need to put in an access code to open that contact info. So, by remembering one access code, I can access all my usernames and passwords. It's a really good system. It works. It's portable. It's convenient.

So what's the problem, you ask? I'll tell you. My very old cell phone is dying and none of the new ones have this feature (as far as I've been able to tell).

I have to be honest. My current system works so well and seems like the obvious, convenient solution that I cannot fathom why there wasn't protesting in the streets when the secret feature was phased out.

Clearly, I'm missing something. Please clue me in.

The REVISED Final Countdown

or, "How 7 8 9..."

Yesterday was the last radiation to my full boob.

Today is the last radiation to my supra clavicle nodes.

Today is my first of 6 "boosts" to the incision site.

Which means I will finish radiation ONE DAY SOONER THAN EXPECTED--Thursday, Dec 6th instead of Friday, December 7th.

To commemorate this unexpected good news, I give you this not-really-relevant clip from Sesame Street:

Quick Update

Radiation: It's the final countdown...only 9 to go!

Wrist: Got the stitches out yesterday and the hard cast put on. Doc said it needs to be on 3 weeks, so I go back on Dec 17th. Which means it should be off in time for our trip to London!

What I'm Thankful For...

Being 2/3 done with radiation as of today!

(There's obviously other stuff too, but typing w/one hand sucks...)

My First Meme*!

*A blog meme is a type of Internet meme that requires active participation by the blogger and rarely traces back to an originating source. It's often a series of questions that a blogger answers to share some personal perspective or experience on random topics.

Rob tagged me with the "Happiness Meme of Happy Happiness," the instructions for which are Just create a post about any number of things that have made you happy recently. Then tag any number of people and have them post this meme on their blogs.

So, here goes. Things that have made me happy recently:
1. My wrist isn't hurting.
2. The surgeon was able to get the bones lined up "perfectly."
3. I made it to radiation on Thurs and Fri and so am still on track to finish on Dec 7.
4. My boob is not red or otherwise irritated from the radiation.
5. On Wed, I'll be 2/3 done with radiation.
6. I didn't break the dominant wrist and so am not entirely paralyzed.
7. I got to see a bunch of movies that I'd wanted to see this past weekend.
8. I'm married to a great guy who has been totally supportive through this calamitous year.
9. I have excellent health insurance.
10. My treatment center is conveniently located near the subway, the PATH station, and the Source.
11. I am almost done with the major elements of my bc treatment.
12. Thanksgiving is Thursday (yummy!)
13. Christmas is coming and I think I've figured out a workable gift strategy.

I could probably go on, but that's enough for now. So, I tag Keith, Tash, and Andi.

4/7 Done!

4 weeks of rads down, 3 to go!

I was able to make it on the day of my wrist surgery (thanks Dad!) and the day after on my own, so I am ON TRACK.

Woo-hoo!

Wrist Update

I'm having surgery tomorrow. I know you're probably all tapped out on good vibes, but I'll take whatever I can get.

The short update is that w/o surgery I could lose up to 30% of the range of motion in the wrist. Surgery can reduce that to 10%. And surgery actually shortens the time I need to be in a cast.

So, better outcome and shorter recovery time make it sort of a no-brainer decision for me.

It's outpatient surgery and I can go back to work as soon as the pain is under control (right now it doesn't hurt at all really).

I can't resist posting this--it's a pic of me in the ER with my arm literally weighted down to get the bones back into place. Ah, modern medicine!

I Don't Freakin' Believe This

And you won't either.

Are you ready?

I broke my wrist. (No, Keith, thankfully not my scaphoid, but it still may need surgery.)

Also thankfully, not my left wrist, as that would truly suck. (Again, sorry Keith.)

Reasons I'm pissed (oh, let me count the ways):
1. I'm currently stocked up on doctor's appointments, thank you.
2. I just started going to yoga again--and loving it--a couple of weeks ago. Looks like that's off the menu for awhile.
3. It was my first time using my brand-new ice skates.
3a. My friend and I had been skating for an hour and were about 5 steps from being off the ice--done for the day.
3b. My mom and hubby are not going to let me live this down.

On the positive side, after all the crap I've been thru this year, I was able to handle the whole thing pretty calmly. (Ok, so the pain meds help with that, but still.)

The funniest thing I've read lately...

was this blog post:

http://15minutelunch.blogspot.com/2007/10/strap-in-shut-up-and-hold-on-were-going.html

Trust me, it's worth it.

Happy Friday!

I'm 1/3 Done!

Yesterday was my 11th radiation treatment, so "only" 22 to go! Woo-hoo!

So far, so good: no redness or skin irritation (I've been using the Calendula lotion religiously) and no fatigue as far as I can tell.

Keep those good vibes comin!

Election Day!

Calling all (any) Hudson County readers!

Protest the lack of choice in today's election and write in "Keith Gosselin." (Full disclosure: we're related.)

Go here for more info: http://nataliyagosselin.blogspot.com/2007/11/election-day.html

***

In an effort to be a responsible voter, I have just spent the past 1/2 hour trying to find info on the 4 referendum questions on the ballot. It wasn't easy. For you NJ voters, this appears to be the best summary: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20071102_No_sure_answers_for_ballot_questions.html

As the article mentions, question #4 is the least controversial. It concerns the denial of the right to vote and proposes to replace the phrase "idiot or insane person" with "a person who has been adjudicated by a court...to lack the capacity to understand the act of voting."

The hubby and I agreed that the use of "idiot or insane person" could lead to a number of people we know being denied the right to vote, including him.

Quote of the Day

There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers.
- Richard Feynman, physicist, Nobel Laureate

Since Feynman died in 1988, this is clearly not a recent quote. And it wouldn't have been true in the latter part of the Clinton administration, when we were actually RUNNING A SURPLUS.

But, thanks to the present administration and the big mistake in Iraq our numbers are back in the astronomical range.

So how big is the national deficit? This was actually harder to find than I expected it to be. According to the Administration it's approximately $163 billion. But according to this site, that doesn't take into account the money we're "borrowing" from Social Security. With that added, it's more like $600 billion.

What about the national debt (i.e., the cumulative total of our deficits)? $9 trillion and counting. So approximately the number of stars in 90 galaxies...