email, fat lips and a sourpuss

I had four new comments on my last two blogs but I didn't know they were there because I'm a ding-a-ling and forgot to change the email address for comment notifications. I wonder how many other things I forgot to change.

Changing an email address can lead to a lot of work. First you have to notify everyone in your email address book that you have a new one. Well, maybe not everyone - if you're changing email addresses to get away from certain people then you don't want to turn around and give them your new address. For the record, I did not create a new email account to get away from anyone in particular ... unless you count all the spammers and such ... they are the exact people I am running from, especially the ones that want me to increase the size of my penis (which, hello, I didn't even know I had one) and lose weight through the magic of their product (hmmm, maybe I should have taken that one more seriously).

After acquiring a new email address you also have to sign on to all the accounts that are associated with your email address and update your contact information . You know what I'm talking about - Facebook, Twitter, etc. and, let's not forget the phone carrier, the utilities, Allstate and Bank of America. For me there was also Evernote, Pinterest and the message board I frequent. Fortunately all my Google stuff like Reader, Documents, Calendar, Picasa, and such all automatically updated (just another plus for having a GMail account).

Whew, sounds like a lot of work doesn't it? Some might even think it's not worth all that work, especially since I've had my Charter email account for a hundred years. The problem was ....

I had an email account with Charter.

Viewing email directly from their webpage was a pain in the patootie; it took forever to load and wasn't very user friendly. Quite awhile ago I downloaded Thunderbird on my computer and used it as my email application. This actually worked great until I got an iPhone and then had the choice to view emails on my phone and on the computer. The only problem was once emails were downloaded to my computer they were no longer available on my phone. I was inevitably finding myself out and about and wanting to refer to an email that was now sitting at home on my computer. Talk about frustrating! I know I could have just used my phone only but when it comes to replying to emails, especially long answers, it's hard for my fat little fingers to type on a phone. Consequently I spent a lot of time running back and forth between the phone and the computer.

Another problem with my charter email account was now everyone and his brother had this address. Despite the filters that could be applied to incoming emails I was still getting a lot of junk and I was tired of it. Once before I was faced with the same dilemma and found it was just easier to start over with a whole new account. So, that's what I did!

I also figured that while I was at it I might as well tweak things up a bit. I have been using saidfraz for a loooooong time. It started back in the very first days of having a computer and internet access at home. I created the name "saidfraz" because it represented a family account. Since then we've been through several internet providers and "aid" have gotten their own email accounts. Saidfraz was mine alone and I thought it was time to claim it just for me - therefore, I now have SinSaidfraz@gmail.com.  Clever huh?

Does it remind you of something else?

Like the name of this blog? 

Doh!

In other news, my week of vacation is winding down. Eddie has been at church camp all week so I've had a whole week to take care of all the projects I've got on my To-Do-List. These projects are things around the house that require me getting down and dirty and I don't like having to stop midstream to pick up a kid. Projects = time + energy + no one asking a thousand questions about what I'm doing. A week of vacation is an excellent time to take care of said projects,  sooooooooooooooo,

can you guess how many of  these projects I have finished?

That would be zero. A direct result of the fact that I actually only started .... zero ... of these projects. Yes, I've managed to whittle away four days and have nothing to say for myself. Next week I'm gonna be kicking myself for wasting the opportunity. My family however is happy because Momma hasn't worked on her To-Do-List and they haven't been forced to live in a house of disarray. I forgot to mention above that Project = CHAOS.

In case you're thinking I'm just sitting around eating bon-bons and watching TV let me assure you I'm NOT that lazy. I've just been working on "behind the scenes" things like the family history blog I'm creating. I've also been doing some photo editing and I'm still learning to navigate using my Bamboo tablet. Maybe one day soon I'll be able to show you the fruits of these labors.

And, speaking of FRUIT

I made a very important discovery last week. I can't believe I didn't share it here though I did manage to shout it out on Facebook and around the dinner table. For most of my adult life I have suffered from weird food allergies. They weren't so bad as to require professional help, I've just learn to abstain and go with it. The foods that affect me - watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew, bananas, and cucumbers. The affect - itching in my mouth, swelling in my throat, tongue and lips, and sometimes a stomach ache.  Well, come to find out all these foods are considered ragweed foods which trigger oral allergy syndrome. Should this be a surprise to me, the queen of seasonal allergies? No!

Evidently these foods contain pollen from the Compositae family (big word, look it up). Something else that falls into that category is honey. Hmmm, I don't eat honey but I use to use Burt's Bees chapstick religiously. That is until a couple of years ago when suddenly my lips started blowing up like a puffer fish. I looked horrible and it felt pretty bad too. I couldn't figure out what was going on. I stopped using my chapstick and switched to several other products just looking for relief and a remedy. It was so bad my ladies Bible study group even prayed specifically for a cure. It took almost a year to get my lips totally back to normal. Once on a whim I tried the BB chapstick again and sure enough my lips blew up. I immediately tossed all of it away (crying all the while 'cause that stuff ain't cheap!). I knew it was the cause, just didn't know why until now.

I'm so glad to have a name for my allergies now, and a complete list of foods and products that can affect me. I'm also very relieved that I can prevent puffer fish lips. I use to have a photo of me with my puffy lips but I deleted it because I didn't want to scare anyone. You'll just have trust me when I say " it ain't pretty!"

As for me, I'm done with Burt's Bees.



I just got this photo from Robert, our family picture made at Mother's 6.8.2012 As you can see here I've replaced the puffy lips with a puffy belly ... just call me Ms Piggy. And in case anyone wonders, this is as close as it comes to getting me to crack a smile ... just call me Sourpuss Ms Piggy.