Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Powering Through a Headache and a Plea for Help

I think I am allergic to humidity.  The humidity in Las Vegas has been hanging around 6% for months until a couple of days ago when it shot up to near 60%.  I immediately got a sinus headache and it felt like someone was tap dancing on my forehead.  I probably have a minor sinus infection which I used to get but haven't had since we moved here so I will wait it out for a few days and see if it passes.  Ugh.  This is what I'm doing today:

  • I'm going to make chocolate chip cookies.  We have decided to do all of our shopping one day a week and shopping day isn't until tomorrow (which happens to coincide with half-off senior Wednesdays at the Goodwill).  For the past few weeks we were shopping nearly everyday, mostly in order to get the house decorated and also because we always needed little things like ziploc bags or we would run out of things like cooking oil or vinegar.  Last week we said "enough" and decided we would only shop one day a week and if we ran out of something we would just go without until the next shopping day.  Today I am out of snacks and I am craving something tasty so I will have to whip out the mixing bowl and make some cookies.
  • I am trying to think of a way to make a quick $200 so I can attend the DEFCON conference which will be held in Las Vegas on July 26th.  That clearly doesn't qualify as an emergency so I wouldn't even think of taking it out of our (currently puny) emergency fund.  Although I am not much of a hacker (my only claim to fame was hacking into my college's mainframe back in the dark ages; it was quite by accident and I don't even know if they had passwords back then) but it looks like it will be a really interesting event.
  • I made myself a new website because I was bored.
  • I am currently reading Karen Ranny's 'A Scandalous Scot'.  She is one of my favorite writers!
  • Two links to share with you:  this guy's story looked interesting and this is one of my favorite, informative, positive websites.
  • Finally, I am working away on my family genealogy project.  While I have traced one line of the family back to the 1500s (I recently found out that I am a direct descendant of the Barney family...as in Smith Barney...and that some of my ancestors were movers and shakers in England as well as early Massachusetts.  They would seriously be spinning in their graves if they saw the family now but anyway...).  So while this is documented, I now need to put together the actual paper trail complete with official documentation such as birth certificates, death certificates, etc.  I sent off for my mother's birth and death certificates as a starting point, but it looks like it will be an expensive undertaking because each certificate is around $20! Yikes!
And a plea for help...
  • I decided to start doing some sort of monthly project to help others.  My first project is to send a box of books to a needy school in the Philippines (info here).  If you would like to help, that would be great!  Next month I want to send them a box of school supplies.  In September I want to do something for school kids here in Las Vegas.  After that I am undecided but I know that around Christmas time, I want to hand out $20 bills to random people (unless I get rich by then it which case it will be $100 bills!).

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for the support today! The right kind of support. I am allergic to air conditioning I swear. Every time I am exposed for a long period of time I get sick, sinus infection. I think it is great that you are willing to help others. I know you helped me feel better. Sorry I was such a grouch.

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  2. I regularly use a saline nasal spray to keep my sinuses hydrated and lubricated. I live in south Texas where the humidity is relatively low, but it helps with the dryness and dust here as well as when I visit humid areas.

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  3. Hmm....I'm assuming this is somethng you just want to do yourself and are looking for ideas-as opposed to doing an organizational thing. I know you say you are sending something afar next month, but consider the fact that kids have no free lunch or breakfast in the summer and check out your local food bank. Even if you are not crafty, consider giving or asking others to make quilts or blankets for premies or injured soldiers. shelters are notoriously short on personal care supplies, especailly the small trial size things that folks can take with them. or if your shelter is allowed to take homemade food (my church provides a meal once a week) consider baking cookies or taking fruit, which they are often short of. Adopt a family anonomously (sp) for either thanksgiving or christmas. Im sure I will have more,

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