Mamassage

It's Snowing

Yes.  It is March 29th Yes. I do live in Arizona. That, my friend, is why my husband is driving home from work in a car that has a hole in the top where a sunroof should be.  I have a feeling he'll be taking my car to school tonight.

Update on whole body donation

I got an email today from the Community Education Coordinator of the Donor Network of Arizona. I had written him to ask the same questions I did of all of you. The following are recommendations he made to me for places to start. In fact, here’s the letter in its entirety: Rowan, here are the answers you seek She of course could be an organ donor and if she cannot be or if all is donated then her body can then be transported to an organization that does WHOLE BODY donation.  Most people think you can only do one or the other but you can do both. One does not affect the other.  She would just make the organization aware of her wishes and she should be good to go.  Here are the organizations I'm aware of in AZ that do whole body donation. Life Legacy 1-888-774-4438 Science Care 602-331-3641 University of Arizona   520-626-1801 Hope this helps you out.  Have a great day. So. There you have it. The world is certainly full of interesting possibilities.

And Now for Something Completely Different

Each Wednesday I go knit charity afghans at my local yarn store. And as you might guess, what with it being knitting & Arizona and all, most of the women there are significantly older than I. But I do enjoy the company and all the stories. As would have it, the conversation yesterday turned to death. No, not to the "€œOh mah Gawd, it'€™s so scary"€ kind, but rather the "€œI guess I€'d better figure out what to do with my body"€ kind. So as I sat there cranking out the squares, we discussed local mortuaries, none of which are apparently acceptable, cremation vs. burial, and of course organ donation. Yep, I was present after all.  Well, somewhere along the line, the conversation took an odd turn. It seems that one of these women really doesn'€™t want to "burden"€™ her family with any financial obligation. You see, she's not close enough to them to feel she has the right, but not estranged enough for vindictiveness to factor in. Therefore, she's way into the idea of donation,€“ but feels it'€™s not ENOUGH. It turns out that she wants "€œthem [some institution] to keep my body"€. So we discussed donating to scientific research. But after some research of our own, we found that even they only typically keep a body for three weeks or so. Then it'€™s back to the family. (Organ donation is within a few days & allows for an open casket if desired, by the way.) At this point I'm about ready to tell her to sign up for BodyWorlds 4. I'm just at a loss for ideas. So it is that I turn to you, fair readers, for inspiration. Is there anyone among you who knows how this woman can dispose of her body/ashes for free? Something tasteful is preferred; however, she feels no need for it to end up in any specific local. Me, I want a green burial.  Check it out.  This one's pretty darn cool, too.

Bummer

Kajsa, Tomi and Bashy patiently wait for cake.

Kajsa:  Tomi called me Kajsa Bum ((PAUSE)) So I had to fight to him. Chris:  Get used to it, kid.       I think there's trouble, right here in River City

Your brain on drugs and why I so love living in Arizona

Never mind the geriatric driving conditions and the heat, now I've got Bozos like this guy to look out for. Arizona--  An apartment-dwelling drug-dealer who started a small fire while cooking methamphetamine in his toaster was forced to drive to a nearby Wal-Mart to buy a fire extinguisher after his efforts to quell the blaze proved fruitless. Jonathan Zaletel, 19, was greeted by Maricopa County deputies when he returned to his condominium, extinguisher in hand. The condo’s sprinkler system put out the fire while he was gone, and firefighters located a small meth lab in a bedroom closet. Authorities told   The Arizona Republic   that Zaletel had tried, unsuccessfully, to put out the fire with water and window cleaner before making his trip to Wal-Mart. Zalatel was booked on suspicion of manufacturing dangerous drugs, possession of chemicals and equipment to manufacture dangerous drugs, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of marijuana, and criminal damage Shall we examine this.  He was making meth in his toaster.  I'm sorry, but I must be incredibly behind the times.  I thought you needed an elaborate setup to make the stuff. He sprayed window cleaner at a fire.  Need I say more.  Evidently, this guy's either watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding too many times or he's missing a few hundred brain cells.  Possibly both. He actually went to SprawlMart ( a place he was likely quite familiar with) for a fire extinguisher and thought the blaze would be the same size.  Wow. I can only hope that most sideline methamphetamine dealer/producer wannabes are this incredibly stupid.  With a little luck they, too, will do the cops' jobs for them.

thank  you to Alibi.com

Having a Knit Fit

I mentioned in my last post that I’d been knitting.  “What?” You may ask?  “Why would you want to participate in such an old lady activity?”  And if you did, you’d only be mirroring the comments made by my loving, yet not always understanding husband.  You see he thinks that knitting is a colossal waste of time.  I have to keep reminding him that keeping fish is not my idea of a party, either.  And we do all have our hobbies. But honestly, I find that clicking the old sticks is immensely relaxing…at least most of the time.  I have, though, been heard to chant "Damn, damn, damn!"  if I drop a stitch and need to retrieve it. But I’m nothing compared to these women. Personally, I think I make kind of cool stuff.  Like my latest:  The Alien Illusion Scarf.  It’s knit so that the pattern can only be seen from certain angles.   Now you see it. Now you don’t. Pretty cool, huh? I’ve found a group of illusion knitters through Yahoo and am know learning how to graph my own designs for IK.  I was thinking about a dishcloth with a resistance fist on it.  I think I’d find that satisfying on so many levels. Meanwhile I am making Chris a cool camouflage earflap cap.  Being the baja bug (sans sunroof) driver that he is, I think it’ll get a lot of use.  I went online last night to find a pattern.  I think I’ll use this one, only without the pom pom, and in desert colors. Then I can finally get around to what I want.  And with my somewhat taciturn disposition, I think I’ll produce this lovely.  Dontcha think it’s perfect for me? ... OK.  As it turns out, Chris was a bit taken aback by reading my perception of his feelings re: knitting.  According to him, "Knitting is not a colossal waste of time." So, um, I guess fish can be kinda cool, too.

Hello World!

Didja miss me?  Huh?  Huh?  I know.  The internet was so boring without my perky presence that you were ALL sleeping on your keyboards. I feel like I've been gone forever.  So I finally bit the bullet and signed back up.  Writing is just such a great way to reflect upon the day. Well, Rowan, what's been going on, you may ask.  Let's see: We moved into town.  Maya went to Iowa - and took me with her.  The World Food prize was outstanding.  Chris quit The Home Depot and has been working construction while continuing to study welding.  Speaking of school,Kajsa's going five whole days a week.  If she had her way, it'd be seven.  Furthermore, she's almost completely out of diapers.  (Let's all just take a moment to sigh with relief at that one.) I've submitted my paperwork to get my Massage License back, have been knitting like mad, and am daydreaming regularly about our garden - but haven't been to the nursery yet. I guess that about sums it up.  I'll post more after I've had a chance to properly compose myself.  Meanwhile, here's a fun little movie Chris took of Kajsa a couple of weeks ago at the Kids Count event where I was volunteering at the Donor Network Arizona booth. Enjoy!

Kids Count 2007

Yesterday was a pretty busy day around here.    We got up bright and early so that we could have Maya at Sky Harbor Airport to go see her dad, Paris, for spring break.  We were about 30 minutes into the 2 hour drive when I realized I'd left Maya's flight confirmation number at the house. So, knowing Paris would have it, I quickly called him up.  I ended the call with, "So she takes off at 12:30ish.  Cool."  Just as the phone was cutting off I heard "11:30!" "What?!?" It turns out that we'd all thought wrong and, therefore, left an hour late. Fun! Well, off we went, hightailing it to (and through) Phoenix.  And ultimately, we got Maya to the airport with just enough time to get through the excessively long line and on to her plane.  (You just have to love spring break in the airport.) I hope Maya has a great time in LA. I'll be thinkin' of ya, kiddo. Then it was off to the Kids Count 2007 event at Firebird International Raceway, where Chris and I were scheduled to volunteer at the Donor Network Arizona (DNAZ) booth.  Well…the event had lots of great info, but wasn't well publicized.  So most of the people there were other vendors. There was another volunteer there with us, Ruth.  This was her first volunteer event.  We had a nice time chatting and watching the empty space in front of us where people should have been milling about.  Even so, we managed to sign up 10 new people in our four hour shift.  All things considered, that was a great feat.  So I feel pretty good about it. While Ruth and I worked the table, Chris did a lot of Kajsa entertaining.  She got her face painted, rode a pony – and a roller coaster, and even participated in duck racing.  Yep, PETA's probably gonna rail on me for authorizing such activities, but it is, well, what it is. Unfortunately, due to the lack of general public at this event, all the food vendors raised their prices excessively.  Even a small bottle of water was $6.00.  So we went without.  Next time I'll know and bring a bunch of water with me.  But we did stop at Albertson's on the way out of town to get stuff for a little car picnic on the drive home.  We even stopped at Sunset Point rest area at just the right time. It was truly a good day. Kajsa's Kids Count 2007 on Vimeo