The Itchy and Scratchy Show

No, not the famed cat and mouse show-within-a-show. Nope, this one is starring me, and my dry, pregnant skin. I'm itching people, and its driving me nuts.

I did a little Googling, checked my favourite pregnancy website ( www.babycentrer.com.au , if anyone else finds themselves pregnant ) and i found out that itching skin in pregnancy is not uncommon. Apparently, around 20% of women find there skin becomes more sensitive and they experience a generalised itching that they havent had before, which becomes worse in winter ( when dry skin is already an issue ). Which is little comfort really.

Here's the scenario: the sensation comes and goes but i'm finding myself itchy all over my legs and stomach, and even up on my chest. And its an itch i just cant scratch! I cant get comfortable at home, or find myself needing to scratch inappropriate times in public. I checked with a pharmacist ( who also happens to be a yoga teacher.... ) and she recommended i get something completely natural so its safe for the baby, so after some consultation with a naturopath i've come home with goats milk soap and moisturiser. I'll give it a few days and see how it goes.... otherwise my next alternative is either some natural oils that smells like rotting vegetation, or scratching my skin right off. Neither ones of those sounds particularly appealing.

So - anyone have any remedies they wana share ? Any particular utensils you can recommend for maximum scratch relief ? Any help would be appreciated people....

Ready To Admit It Yet?

When I saw the election results last November I knew it was going to be bad, but I didn’t expect it to be this bad, this fast. Nobody I know did either, but here it is. Congressmen and senators are voting on legislation that spends trillions of our tax dollars - as well as our children’s and our grandchildren’s - without even reading it. If they’re not reading legislation, what the heck are they doing? Who writes the bills legislators don’t read? Staffers? Career civil servants? Who is in charge? Evidently, we’re being governed by nameless, faceless, socialist bureaucrats. Why isn’t the press exposing this? Are voters even aware? Will they reelect these “legislators” in 2010? Have we become a nation of wimps?

Reading a Canadian blog called Small Dead Animals the other day, I saw a link to the US Republican Party about just one of the many horrendous things Obama’s “Cap and Trade” bill would do:

The bill (H.R. 2454) requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to provide monthly cash payments, or “energy stamps”, to low-income households for their estimated “loss in their purchasing power” resulting from the Democrats’ national energy tax. The bill establishes a national standard of eligibility (covering everyone under 150% of the poverty line). Energy stamps would reach an estimated 65 million individuals (about 20 percent of all US residents) – making it a larger program than welfare, food stamps, or even Medicaid. (H.R. 2454, American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, Sec. 431, p. 1193)

While 65 million Americans will be thrilled, 200 million will pay another huge tax and get nothing back. Remember when President Obama promised to cut taxes for 95% of Americans? I knew that was a crock because about 40% of Americans didn’t even pay federal income taxes and many got checks instead under the “Earned Income Tax Credit.” How do you cut taxes on people who don’t pay any?

Newt Gingrich mocked the president in a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) last February, saying “Let me get this straight, we’re not going to raise taxes on anybody making under $250,000 a year, unless they use electricity, [or buy gasoline, heating oil, or natural gas].”

Our only hope is that the Senate won’t pass this “piece of sh--” legislation - as described by Republican Congressman John Boehner (He evidently read it). But then, with 60 Democrats along with our two liberal “Republican” senators from Maine, it probably will.

The most ludicrous thing is: reducing carbon emissions will not affect climate change. Climate has been changing for millions of years with no humans around to influence it - and it will continue to change no matter what we do or we don’t do. Obama, Pelosi and Reid are putting us all on a bus to La-La Land.

Now comes the Democrats' national health care bill. What will it cost? $1.5 trillion? $2 trillion? Where will we get that money when neither China nor any other country wants to lend us any more? Print it, I guess.
So how is all this spending affecting our economy so far? Are we feeling stimulated? Evidently not. Unemployment is rising much faster under President Obama. All this bold New-New Deal legislation is making things worse. Now, unbelievably, Democrats are calling for a second stimulus. About that, Investor’s Business Daily says: “This is a little like a medieval barber bleeding his patients to improve their health, then bleeding them again when they fail to improve.”

If you want to see what the future holds for America under liberal Democrat policies, look at states and cities where they’ve been in power for decades. Check out Detroit for instance. Said Gingrich about that sad city: “Let’s discuss the total failure of the Detroit political system - which has taken a city of 1.8 million, which had the highest per-capita income in the United States, and has driven it into the ground so that there are today fewer than 900,000 people living there with a per-capita income that is 62nd in the United States.” Then there’s California, with the 8th largest economy in the world - bankrupt, paying employees with IOUs banks refuse to accept, and watching entrepreneurs move out of state.

I’m noticing bumper stickers that are signs of the times: One says: “Don’t tell Obama what comes after a trillion” and the other asks: “Ready to admit Obama was a mistake?”

Where are the Locums When You Need Them ?

Dude - this week at work is going to be so poo.

I know that was an incredible use of the English language, but its going to be horrid. I have been away for a week, so going back to work in itself is crappy. But i get back, and poor J has been so busy on her ownesome that we now have some major catching up to do. Thats fine, you say, your both efficient ladies, you can do it!

Well yea, we can.... the thing is we have this one week at work together, and the J is going away. For TWO weeks. Leaving me on my ownesome. Imagine how far behind i'm going to be by then...

Also, after that two week period is up, we will be away from the office for four days while we attend a conference, in Rockhampton. Which, to the unAustralian, is like having ur national conference in Hillbillysville, Red State instead of having it in New York. Granted, its probably not that bad, but its not exactly equivalent to wear the rest of our company had their conference - Star City Casino in Sydney. Ooh, did i mention that i need to prepare a Powerpoint presentation for this conference - during the next three week " the office has gone to hell " period?

Holy freaking Boo Jesus - i may aswell just take maternity leave now and never return....

Student Life @ The Beach

It's early, I'm packed and now I'm at a lack, of what to say and what to do.
Camp day has come, and I know it will be fun, getting to run and hang out at the beach
So as not to prolong this speech, I'll leave you here saying, I'll see ya when, I return.

Okay enough of my early morning poetry.

It is very early in the morning and I normally wouldn't be blogging let alone seeing beyond the inside of my eyelids but yet here I am. It's about 5 a.m. and I can't sleep. I have to be up soon anyway so I thought I'd go ahead and blog. We leave for Student Life on The Beach today at 6 o'clock. It's a long van ride but will be oodles of fun. There's like 27 students from my church going and 5 adults so we're going to have a fun time. We're staying in beach front condos all week instead of the dorm rooms we would normally stay in at a normal student life. I promise to take LOTS of pictures and share them with you when I get back. So for now I'm off to finish getting ready for camp. Talk Later.

Welcome to my Humble Abode....

Wow - the past few days have been muy hectic! I have finally moved into my first, non-rented home over the weekend, so i've spent the last week either:
A) Undercoating and painting;
B) Loading or unloading boxes and furniture; or
C) Unpacking and arranging said boxes and furniture.

I'm so glad i decided to take a week of annual leave to coincide with the move, because otherwise i'd have random boxes sitting around for weeks on end. Don't get me wrong, i still have a few odds and ends to sort through, but for the most part everything is in its new place. Mr Gil and I still have a second coat of paint to put on this weekend, and even though painting has proved to NOT be my favourite job in the world, its well worth it to cover up the colours the previous owners had going on. I'm all for colour, but just couldnt handle the Kermit the Frog hued green of the bathroom, or sunflower yellow of the lounge and dining room. Colour is gorgeous and effective when its splashed about - i'm thinking cushions, photo frames, knick knacks..... its more pyschedelic nightmare-ish when its everywhere. Everywhere. Everywhere!!

I've also been to have a nuchal translucency test - which is, in laymans terms, an ultrasound and blood test to determine my risk of carrying a baby with Down Syndrome or similar chromosomal abnormalites. Its sounds a little scary, but its just your basic ultrasound. Its also the first time i've been able to see my little person looking like a baby, and not a frog. What relief to know i'm carrying a human and not an amphibian! To be serious, the dating scan at 8 weeks shows the baby at quite an early stage - Mr Gil and i nicknamed the baby Stumpy because of the tiny, stump like, froggy looking limbs it was sporting at the time. But this time around, at 12 weeks now, litte Stumpy is recognisably baby like - tiny little fingers and toes, crazy rapid heartbeat, and fully formed and functional organs. I also think Stumpy is practising baby yoga in there - i cant feel any movements for myself yet but waiting half an hour for him/her to get into the right position to have the nuchal photo taken was like watching a tiny, underwater ballet! At one point, he/she even mooned me, so i have half a mind to ground my child as soon as its born.... what a cheeky rat!

And thats been my week thus far - excluding sleep ins and mid afternoon naps. Its going to be tough going back to stupid work next week....

Out of Touch Again

Barack Obama’s inauguration did not thrill me. Michael Jackson’s death did not cause me grief. Could this mean I’m out of touch with my fellow Americans? I’m feeling that way more and more lately, but it started when Elvis Presley died in August of 1977. I’d just moved to Maine and I noticed people were shook up. “The King is Dead” declared headlines in local media. “Hmm,” I thought. His music never did much for me and Elvis was considered a has-been where I’d come from in Massachusetts. Having known many who ruined their lives with drugs and/or alcohol, I looked at his death as simply another in a long line. Thirty years ago “The King” died, and last week “The King of Pop” met his maker.

I felt it again twenty years after Elvis’s demise when Princess Diana died. I looked at her death as just another traffic accident that killed someone I didn’t know, but people around me were profoundly affected. When I noticed a neighbor had been crying, I asked what was wrong. “I watched Princess Di’s funeral this morning,” she said, and I figured there was little I could do for her. I wrote a column about how alienated I felt while witnessing the prolonged, melodramatic hand-wringing of those around me. It wasn’t well received, and it’s likely this one won’t be either. Oh well.

When I saw images of Reverend Al Sharpton doing the bump and grind during a memorial service for Michael Jackson the other day, I had to turn away. This is the guy ran for president looking like a washed-out Elvis impersonator. According to a CBS New report: “[Sharpton] and Director Spike Lee urged the audience to revel in Jackson accomplishments and disregard what they characterized as negative news coverage of the star.”

Yes, ignore the bizarre surgeries, the evidence that Jackson was a transgendered child molester. He was a king. Although we crave a king or a princess to look up to, we can turn on him or her if we perceive flaws. The ancient Irish would only accept as a king or queen someone who was physically unblemished. Maybe it was easier to believe the king really was perfect if he looked that way. People wouldn’t perceive his peccadilloes when he posed in royal robes. But if he should lose a fingertip or scar himself, the illusion would melt away, he would be dumped, and a “perfect” leader put in his place.

About six years into his administration, Americans focused on George Bush’s blemishes and there were more than a few. Eight years in, his flaws were being magnified daily and people started believing that if we could only find the perfect king, our economy and everything else would be fine again. That was certainly true on the first Tuesday of November last year when we elected Barack Obama president. He posed as the rightful king who would put things right and 53% of us believed him.

Returning to my original question - am I out of touch with American culture? Yes - large swathes of it at least, and I don’t want to adapt myself either. That I’m “in it, but not of it” describes my position best, I think. I’ll never be part of the collective hand-wringing or keening that goes on around me when some iconic celebrity dies prematurely. I won’t join the starry-eyed, hero-worshiping throngs enthralled with the new king either. Am I cold? Unfeeling? I don’t think so. Instead, I’m thinking too many people around me are immature, easily manipulated, reluctant to grow up - and that segment of our population has temporarily become the majority.

Some portion of them, however, will mature when they realize their newly-elected perfect king cannot put everything right again, that it was childish to think he could, and that he’s making things vastly worse instead. It will be a heartbreak to face up to this, but recognizing it and dealing with disappointment forces us to grow up, right? That’s the hope and change I’m waiting for.

Though I try to avoid it, saturation coverage of Michael Jackson is all around me, and there’s still his funeral to deal with Friday. Guess it doesn’t matter that our economy is sinking fast in spite of the trillions we’re borrowing and printing to stimulate it, that Iran is in revolt against its Islamofascist terrorist government, that North Korea is trying to touch off another war, that the dollar is collapsing, that communist Cuba’s ally Venezuela is threatening militarily action in Honduras, that Congress is trying to deepen our bankruptcy with socialized medicine and an energy bill to fight a non-existent climate threat. None of that is as important as the death of a cultural/sexual/racial freak.

Yeah, I’m out of touch. It’s the only way to be these days.

I got a new camera!

Here's some pictures I took with my new camera. Enjoy!