The Hex Files

Yesterday, I was grateful to good friends who share their recipes with me. Mmmm...pulled pork.

Today, I am grateful to Joker for having so much love inside him that he can't contain it. Even when my face is completely covered, he somehow manages to snake his Tongue of Doom {tm} through a crack and lick me. OK, so sometimes it's a pain...but mostly, it's how he expresses his affection.

Today I am grateful to Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker for overturning Proposition 8 in California...

...I only hope it holds up.

The Gratitude Project was begun several years ago by estaratshirai. The rules are simple. Every day between Lammas and Mabon one must find something to be grateful for in life. No repeats - one can be grateful to people more than once, but it has be for different reasons.

Day 1: I'm grateful to be getting together with kin for a Sabbat. It's been a LONG time.

Day 2: I'm grateful to these same kin for allowing Liana and I to enjoy their company and hospitality. We had a delightful time with "our bois".

...isn't really all that easy. I'm pre-cooking all of the food for our Midsummer camping trip. I figured it would be easier than cooking from scratch; all I have to do is reheat the dishes and freezing them will keep all the other stuff cold as well.

But, that means I'm prepping for:

Chicken penne ala vodka.
Athenian frittata.
Potato salad, cranberry-chicken salad, and tuna mac sans mayonnaise, which will be added before eating to keep it from going bad.
Two loaves of sourdough bread.
Lemon/blueberry scones and maybe some orange cranberry scones as well.
Massive amounts of iced tea.

Most of all this will be prepared and put into trays or plastic bags for mixing together at our campsite.

So yeah, it'll be easier at the campground but it's a lot of work now.

I know you're busy and all that, but I'd like to ask one small favor. May I have a few good days where I'm not exhausted and burning in pain?

And, if you could, can you help Joker not to be such a klutz? I've now twice stepped on his foot, he's fallen off the stairs and he's slammed his head into the door. He needs to figure out how his body works.

I do want to thank you for having Harley finally learn where she can go potty -- and that's not in the house. And thank you for allowing Will's project to succeed.

But yeah, I'd really appreciate having a body that didn't betray me all the time. And please, allow it to be healthy for my trip up to Louisville.

Thank you,

Me

Today is Do Dah Day here in Birmingham. Will and I brought the pups out and walked in the parade. I have to share just how proud I am of Joker (Harley too).

Joker was so friendly, affectionate and sweet. As we walked the route, people stopped us to pet him and ask questions. I informed them that yes, he is a pit bull. Little kids, older folks and in between gushed at how cute/handsome/pretty he is and how well-behaved he was. He was friendly to people, dogs and other animals and totally wowed the crowd. Harley did too, to a lesser extent, as she seems to get a bit overwhelmed by a lot of people and activity.

It just felt really good to be there with my pibble, using a regular collar and leash while surrounded by dogs and people of all ages and sizes. He really showed the public what a "regular" pit bull can be like. There were a few people there with their American Bullies, replete with chains and spiked collars...and those poor dogs were having such a hard time in the heat. I'm just glad that I had plenty of water and a bowl to share it with the dogs that needed it.

And glad that I could help repudiate some of the negative views of pit bulls, even in a small way. :D

to brock_tn

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Wait. Wait one cotton-picking minute. These animal rights activists are spending their time, energy and money to combat a word that conveys the responsibility in keeping a pet?

Wouldn't animal rights be better served in fighting abuse, overpopulation, and educating people on how to be responsible pet owners...er...guardians...er...parents....umm....

Are these the same folks who object to pets being called "pets", and want them to be called "companion animals" or some such?

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Joker would say: Mommy. I love my mommy. My mommy is a great mommy. Do you know my mommy? Have you seen my mommy. Where's my mommy. Oh, there's my mommy. Hi mommy, I love you mommy. Mommy.

Harley would say: Mine. That's mine, too. I have to go out. Psych! I peed on the floor instead. Oh, that's mine. Mine. Mine. Gimme that, it's mine. Oh hi, I'm so cute...dontcha love me? Oh, that poop on the floor? That's mine. Mine. You're mine, he's mine, that's mine. ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US.

Pfizer to pay $142M for drug fraud
Sales of drug total $300M annually in Canada
Last Updated: Friday, March 26, 2010 | 3:28 PM ET Comments95Recommend88
CBC News

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has been ordered to pay $142 million US in damages for fraudulently marketing gabapentin, an anti-seizure drug marketed under the name Neurontin.

A federal jury in Boston ruled Thursday that Pfizer fraudulently marketed the drug and promoted it for unapproved uses. The jury sided with California-based Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc. and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, the first to try a gabapentin case against Pfizer.

Data revealed in a string of U.S. lawsuits indicates the drug was promoted by the drug company as a treatment for for pain, migraines and bipolar disorder — even though it wasn't effective in treating these conditions and was actually toxic in certain cases, according to the Therapautics Initiative, an independent drug research group at the University of British Columbia.

The trials forced the company to release all of its studies on the drug, including the ones it kept hidden.

A new analysis of those unpublished trials by the Therapeutics Initiative suggests that gabapentin works for one out of every six or eight people who use it, at best. The review also concluded that one in eight people had an adverse reaction to the drug.

"The much larger majority of people will not get any benefit and many of them will have chronic neurotoxicity or poisoning of the brain," said Dr. Tom Perry of the Therapeutics Initiative.

Dr. Harry Pollett, a pain specialist in North Sydney, N.S., calls gabapentin a so-so drug with potentially serious side-effects for patients. These include drowsiness, balance problems, fogginess and edema, or swelling.

"Weight gain is a very common problem and I see that a lot," Pollett said.

The drugs represent a waste of money for Canada's health-care system, said Perry, who questioned why some doctors continue to encourage people to take the drug even though the patients are not benefiting.

"We have been using probably somewhere in the order of around $300 million a year in Canada recently and this drug has been overused since the late 1990s," Perry said. "So, do the math. It's probably well in excess of a billion dollars."

Pfizer defends its actions and its drug. The company has already been hit with $430 million in penalties and fines for fraudulently promoting gabapentin in the U.S.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2010/03/25/gabapentin-ubc.html#ixzz0jW5a7uKt

I had been taking gabapentin for oh...3 or more years. *sigh*