Well, back down to 242 today. That’s down to just a pound over my low and where I was before I went traveling and got sick plus time of the month.

Not too bad, overall.

252 – Start Weight
242 – Today
(10) – Net
102 – To Go

Today is Mr. Maura and my 10th anniversary. I told him at this point we’re stuck with each other because no one else would want either of us! LOL

But I love him and he’s hugely supportive of my writing and my day job. He’s a great dad and a wonderful husband.

Happy Anniversary!

One of my personal issues, pretty much my entire life, has been my teeth. I have great big teeth with not enough jaw to put them in. I had braces as a teenager and 4 teeth extracted and, like a lot of teens, didn’t wear my retainer enough so my teeth both moved around and I had a great case of TMJ from bad orthodontics.

I also have a dental-phobia. I strongly feel it’s related to the fact I’m highly resistant to any caine drugs and even when given them in sufficient quantity, I burn through them quickly. I bet some dentist in my childhood thought I was faking things still hurting and went ahead anyway. Wish I knew who – I might go back and bite him.

But it’s left me with a fear so bad that for a while I couldn’t bring myself to go in. Then I could only do it with valium and gas. With a great deal of coaxing, nice care from my current dentist and just gut-wrenching stubbornness, I finally got all the dental work I needed to have done completed. Some nice crowns (I have crappy teeth and TMJ so I stress fractured them) and some fillings.

Then I decided to take advantage of the fact I had some orthodontic benefits and try to reduce my overbite while straightening the rest of them. I really want to have non-embarassing teeth so I can smile and not feel like gumby or bucky-beaver. My dentist is a certified orthodontist and does Invisalign so I had an evaluation. We can do what I really want with Invisalign which is a blessing to my cheeks – regular braces chewed the heck out of them.

Today I picked up my first aligners. They are tight but you can’t see too much of them. There are about 10 little attachments that look like rice on the surfaces of various teeth to give the aligners somewhere to grip. I took them off once to eat and the attachment on my porcelain crown popped right off – something I’d read of before – so I called the dentist and left a message. I’ll deal with it Monday if need be.

I am breaking the rules a little and drinking coffee with them in but my dentist said it was okay as long as I brush the aligners when I take them out for eating or to brush my teeth before bed. Right now I have 18 aligner sets. It’s always possible that corrections are needed, or refinements, but at every 2 weeks or two average, that’s about 9 months. I figured about a year so I may be close there.

In the meantime, my teeth and jaw ache and I just popped some Advil. Next time I put new aligners in at night and take a couple of Advil before I go to bed.

After my treatment is over, I can use the trays for bleach gel. :)

Another band member from Bran’s Visions. Meet Liam.

I’m putting it up early this week because I’m really trying to get back on a real Friday schedule and I’ve had no time for the flashes the last week or two. So his week it’s early – Hope you enjoy it.

(Archives are on the website, if you want to read the offerings of past weeks)

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Rhythm of the Ancestors
(c) 2008 by Maura Anderson

The sun was almost to the horizon, autumn colors blooming around the golden disc and turning the brilliant blue surf a deeper blue, then purple as it set. The earlier rain was gone, leaving only the clean smell of rain and salt water behind to tease his senses. The tide was coming in with waves cresting higher and higher, just begging to be ridden.

Read the rest of this entry »

I have to admit, I had a great time at Lora Leigh’s Reader Appreciation Weekend (RAW). That woman can sure throw a party!

I’ve already told you about the power co-incidence :) We were in a fun part of Huntington, WV at the Pullman Plaza hotel. Across the street was a nice little set of shops where I discovered just how much gel I needed to be a carrier for Way Too Much glitter. I may be finding glitter and stars for months. There was a chili cookoff on Saturday and a lot of us wandered through that – lots of fun and live music.

The fact that we had the mornings free was terrific. I’m really not much of a morning person so trying to be up for 8am meetings or breakfasts really sucks for me. 10am was SO much better!

We had a great pajama party on Friday where I wore my spoiled kitty pajamas and there was a huge variety of fun pajamas there. Fuzzy socks are the most comfortable dancing shoes ever, I must admit. After the pajama party, we went back to Jacki Franks suite and continued partying. She makes a really yummy butterscotch martini and I won an arc.

There were amazing costumes at the Saturday night Mardi Gras party – I was in awe. Maybe next year I’ll try to wear a costume instead of just party clothes.

There were great basket raffles with (I think) over $1000 raised for charity. I bought tickets but didn’t win anything, probably just as well considering what happened trying to get home last night.

I loved being able to sit on the patio with my laptop and my little Asus eee to read email and play show-n-tell. Asus should give me a free computer – I think I sold at least 5-6 people on getting one and that includes a hotel staff member.

We were doing well until we started for home. It was a long wait for the valet to fetch the car but Jo and I had allowed a lot of extra time to get back to the airport in Columbus. We managed to drive back to the Columbus airport, gas up the rental and get checked in without too much trouble. Then my small-child-karma kicked in. There was only one small child on the flight, probably about 1.5 or 2, and having a fit. Guess who I was assigned to sit directly in front of.

Yep, you got it.

Luckily, the flight was only about half full so I was able to at least move so she wasn’t kicking my seat but the yelling and crying continued. I kept reminding myself it was a short flight, only 90 minutes or so. We made it to our layover in Chicago and from there things went nuts.

We stopped for some food and got to our gate to find there was a plane there for Miami that wasn’t moving very fast. We were supposed to start boarding at 7:25 to depart at 7:55 but since it was 7:00 and they’d not boarded the Miami flight, we knew it wasn’t going to be on time.

They finally started working on our flight to Seattle and began announcing that it was oversold and trying to find volunteers to take a $300 voucher and a free overnight hotel room to travel the next morning at 7am to St Luis and THEN to Seattle. Seemed awfully cheap to add a day to your plans and 7 hours to your flight time. YUCK

Shortly after all this, they make an announcement that they were moving our flight to a new gate “just around the corner.” Okay, that airline person LIED. Try down two entire concourses, THEN around the corner. It took us about ten minutes to walk there at a good pace! Then we had another bout of hurry up and wait. There was still another plane there that wasn’t ours. They were still trying for volunteers and now all the passengers were annoyed and tired.

We finally boarded at 9:10. The entire plane was full. This was an American Airlines flight and American charges for any checked bags. So almost everyone had a roller suitcase with them. There is NOT enough room for all those on the plane. They did take away the ones that were oversize, at least. I kid you not, I saw some guy with a FULL SIZE suitcase trying to take it as carryon! Even so, they ran out of room before the last 10-12 rows boarded at all.

I got 3 ebooks read on the flight but was crabby and just wanted to be home. No food unless you wanted to spend $6 for a wrap or $3 for a little cookie. I was really glad I’d eaten before we left O’Hare though I could only do lower-carb and my weight has suffered over this trip a bit.

We finally got to SeaTac at about 11:30. We went to get our luggage and sat. And sat. And sat. Finally there was an announcement that we were having a “luggage delay”. What the heck is a luggage delay? About 12:10 we actually had our bags and were off to wait for our parking shuttle.

I’m glad to be home. I got to the house at 1:15 or so and petted and fed the cats before collapsing into bed. Today I’ll worry about unpacking and doing some laundry. Now I have to get back into the swing of things to go to work tomorrow, blech.

But I’m home and had a GREAT time at RAW!!