Month: August 2012

  • *Happy Dance Happy Dance* :D

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    The Spider’s Web and the Yin Yang, both to the same customer. WOOT!!!! :D

  • June 24, 2011 – “We Have a Very Important Guest”

     

     

     

    Transferring my “Zeebers Chronicles” over from M’Ply to Xanga – no WAY I want to lose these, lmao! It was TOO much fun! laughing

     

     

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    I got a phone call from the Post Office yesterday lunchtime from one of the girls working there. “Mrs Varner, I don’t mean to alarm you, but I really think you need to come and pick up whatever mail you have in your box immediately! It’s quite unnerving…” She sounded so alarmed, we jumped in the car and dashed over there at once!!

    Well, what a commotion! Even before I stepped in the door I could hear muffled banging and crashing about, and an irate, funny sounding little voice (not so little right then, I can tell you!) screeching and a-hollering… Omigod! WTF??!

    “LET ME OUT!! LET ME OUT!! I’M SUFFOCATING IN HERE!!”

    Tentatively I put my key in the lock and slowly opened the door. Well, tried to! The minute the lock turned…

    Out crashed ZEEBERS!!!

    WOOT!!! For those of you unfamiliar with this little guy, Zeebers, or “Lil’ Z”, is the legendary Traveling Troll. He lives in Georgia with our good friend Tapewormz, and since November last year has been on a tour of States near and far, visiting Multiply friends for a week or so at a time and enjoying the different lifestyles, sights and sounds we all have to offer. Once the USA visits are exhausted, he’s even venturing abroad! Lucky little bugger… :)

    But for now he’s HERE IN THORNVILLE!! WOOT!!

    We collected the box full of all the presents he’s picked up along the way (which were strewn everywhere in the Post Office!), and brought him home. :)

    Zeebers’ first view of where he’s staying, with us…

    “Wow… all the way up THERE?”  Yes hon… all the way up there. :)


    Welcome to the Tree Farm, Zeebers. :)

    I’ll be posting a photo album of Zeebers’ first day here yesterday, in a minute or two… link will be added in my comment here on the blog. :)   We had SUCH a fun time, and I’m thoroughly looking forward to being Zeebers’ host for the next few days!

    (And many thanks to our neighbour, Roger, who has lent me his Olympus. My camera decided to go kaput on me today… bloody brilliant timing, not! But I can continue to record Zeebers’ adventures on his, while kicking mine all around the farm… :)

     

     

     

  • Would this be naughty? *Giggles*

     

     

     

    As some of you know, I’ve been drilling and painting dried gourds and making birdhouses out of them. I put a few up for sale on eBay a bit back, and did quite well, selling four out of the seven I had in just over a week. But I was shocked to see how much commission eBay took. I was selling them for $20 inc. shipping, which would just about have covered my costs and made a couple of bucks profit. But by the time they took their cut – which averaged $3 per gourd, I’d actually sold them at a LOSS. BUMMER!

    So I cancelled the remaining gourds on eBay and opened an Etsy shop. MUCH more financially viable! Only 20c to list each item instead of 50c on eBay, plus your listing stays up for four months instead of 30 days. AND they take only a small % for their commission. YAY!!

    But Etsy doesn’t have as large a customer base as eBay, and none of the gourds I’ve listed there have sold yet. BUMMER!

    But Shane had an idea yesterday – list them again on eBay but this time for $30 plus shipping. BUT – add a message at the bottom of each listing… “If you really like this item and do want to buy it, I’m selling the same item cheaper on Etsy. Take a look!” And add a link to the Etsy account. YAY!!

    I like the idea, and there’s really nothing to lose. If eBay decide to spank my bottom for it, then what the hell. They’re grabbers anyway, right? :D

    I took this pic a couple of days ago… I loved how the lowering sun was shining onto my happy campers. I’ve tweaked it a bit in Photobucket – just messing around with their editing tools. :)

     

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     On Etsy, they’re listed for $20 plus $5 shipping for one, with an additional $3 each for sales of two or more. Fair? I think so. :)

    Those are all the ones up on Etsy at the moment. Here’s the link to my site. :)

     

     

     

  • LOOK! LOOK! This is MEEEEE!!!! ROFLMAO!!!

     

     

     

    Is it stupid to be quite so excited? LMAO!!! :D

    Thanks for letting me know, Z Man! :D

     

     

     

     

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    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

     

     

     

  • Miss XangAmerica Round 1 – Introducing Me :)

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    ME.

    Well, hello out there! I’m Mouse, Mousie, Tater, Spudrat, Rodent, or just Susan, whichever takes your fancy. :)   I’m a Multiply “refugee”, as they’re shutting up the Blogging Shop and evicting us in December, just as Yahoo 360 did way back when. Is there anywhere that lasts forever?! I’ve found my new virtual home here at Xanga and am thoroughly enjoying unpacking my stuff and wandering around my new neighbourhood. Some very interesting peeps around, I see! And what better way to meet my neighbours that entering this competition, no sooner has my virtual coffee finished brewing? The timing couldn’t have been better! (Just please excuse the mess and don’t break a leg tripping over anything… ;)

    I’m a gregarious, garrulous, 46 year old Registered Nurse – something I don’t regard as a job, but a profession, and I throw my all into it when I’m at work. On my days off I forget about it completely and spend my time chilling out to the point where I’ve gone for two days without even brushing my hair or getting dressed. I’m a voracious reader of practically every genre except Romantic Fiction, which I detest. I love to take my point-and-shoot out and about with me, then to spend time editing my “blah” photos into something more akin to “art”. (In my mind, anyway!). I will forever mourn the demise of Picnik.com. Arts and crafts have become a hugely therapeutic way of de-stressing, my current fad being making and selling handpainted birdhouses out of dried gourds. My living room is a plethora of multi-coloured paints and brushes and glitter and drill bits and Dremel tools – I told you to watch where you step! :D   I don’t know how my hubby puts up with it, but he’s a trucker and often away for several days at a time, so I don’t think it impinges on him too much. And besides, he indulges me. :)

    I love nature. I love people. I love living. My husband says I’m Dafter than the Recommended Daily Allowance, but I love him too, anyway :)   I have two dictums by which I live my life – firstly, “treat others as you would like to be treated yourself and tread lightly on the Earth”. Secondly – “do not make me throw a possum in your face”. Depends which side of the bed I get out of, and whether there’s still coffee in the pot. :)

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    MY FAIRY TALE


    It’s so difficult to know what to say here, without knowing what the next two challenges will consist of, lmao!! I have ideas floating in my head, very solid ideas – but I could fall flat on my face and find they’re completely worthless! But if I outline the characters in too much detail, then something I have in mind will already be “out there”. So I’ll try to keep it interesting, but succinct. God help me, lol!


    The two characters are not “imaginary” fairy tale people, but as real flesh and blood as you are. Through the power of their love for each other, they transcend bureaucracy, red tape and blue water with no outside help at all except for the support of friends they’d never met. A few decades ago, their story may have been dismissed as improbable Science Fiction – but these days, anything is possible if you want it badly enough. Even Romantic Fiction. ;)

    (PLEEEEEEASE let there be a “creative writing” element to this!! :D )

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    Here’s the link to the Miss XangAmerica Round 1 entry site –

    please call over to @firetyger and recommend and vote on your favourite entry.

    Good luck to everyone!

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • My very first EVAR blog, way back on Y360.

    And that’s the only reason I’m keeping it. I’m a sentimental old sod. :)

     

    30/08/06 – MRSA And Other Nasties.

     

    Right, I feel a blog coming on – a subject close to my heart. (And for those of you who know me well, not a drop of vino has passed my lips, this is serious for once). Simon, I have not forgotten your advice re: work-related blogs, but what the hell.

    I’ve just been watching the excellent Kim and Aggie (supercleaners extraordinaire) doing their thing around Ealing Hospital here in the UK, looking into standards of cleanliness and highlighting the appalling state of our NHS hospitals. (“When Kim and Aggie Went to Hospital” – Channel 4 television, 30/08/06). As we all know, MRSA and other hospital-aquired infections (HAIs) have been news periodically for some time, they cost the NHS thousands, if not millions of pounds each year for screening and treatment, and campaigns to stamp them out are always at the top of the agenda.

    I’m sorry to say, it is never going to happen, for umpteen reasons. Many healthy people carry the MRSA bug naturally, with no ill effects. For example, if they screened all potential nursing staff before hiring them, there would not be enough nurses left to carry out the job. It is only if a person becomes sick and therefore immunely compromised that it becomes a problem, especially for the elderly or very young. I don’t profess to know all the ins and outs of this bug, but I know from personal experience of nursing patients with the bug that if it finds its way into the bloodstream it can cause severe illness, and on a more superficial level can delay wound-healing by weeks.

    Right, to the gritty business of how to prevent it, and hold it in check. MRSA is passed from individual to individual by touch, so the most important preventionary measure is STRICT handwashing techniques. As students, we were all taught the “Ayliffe” technique of handwashing, ensuring that no area is missed, such as fingertips, in between the fingers, the balls of the thumbs etc. (Unfortunately I am on holiday at the moment so could not ‘aquire’ a pamphlet of the said technique to include. My computer skills are also limited, so I was unable to copy and paste anything. My apologies). A big problem here is that, while nursing staff may know this technique inside out, it is not taught to patients themselves, visitors, cleaning staff and so on.

    Every ward in my hospital has a container of antiseptic gel outside the door, for EVERYBODY to use before entering, and on leaving the ward. Kim and Aggie surveyed how many people actually used the gel, and the numbers were disappointing to say the least. These gel bottles are also available in every bay of the ward, and we nurses carry a small bottle attatched to our iniforms at all times. Having the gel available literally everywhere is not the answer – we have to eduacte people to actually USE the stuff. Apparently at Ealing, Doctors were the worst offenders, with a staggering 93% failing to use the gel on entering the ward they highlighted. (I will get to Doctors in more depth later).

    Our hospital cleaners bear the brunt of a lot of criticism – a lot of the public see them as the main cause of the spread of bugs such as MRSA because of the poor standards of hygiene in NHS hospitals throughout the country. I feel damn sorry for them, and would not trade places for a million pounds. They have a mammoth task, trying to keep every nook and cranny of the wards in a respectably clean condition, in the time they have to do it. It simply is not possible. On my ward in particular, we have a group of superb cleaners who work their arses off, and deserve recognition for this. But I know this is not the norm. Cleaning staff are the epitomy of the phrase “overworked and underpaid”, to such a degree that some of them have no heart whatsoever for the work they are doing, and just go through the motions. While this is obviously not ideal, it is nonetheless a fact. Cleaning staff should be recognised for what they are – an integral part of the MDT (multi-disciplinary team), a term that seems to be used for everybody else – nurses, doctors, physios, dieticians, clinicians etc, but seems to exclude them. Poor cleaners. What an unfair load they carry.

    The next step in containing MRSA is patient isolation. We have three side rooms which we reserve exclusively for the use of patients with infectious conditions such as MRSA. To what extent we can, we try and keep the bug isolated. But we are always pressed to remember, and assure the patients also, that it is the BUG we are isolating, and NOT the patient themselves. Many patients, once they discover they have MRSA, become totally distressed and feel like lepers – largely due to the hype in the general media. Many of them are scared out of their minds about what is going to happen to them, and take what precaution they can not to spread the bug to others.

    But isolation does NOT mean imprisonment. It is more than common for patients with MRSA being nursed in side rooms to visit the canteen, the hospital shop, etc etc. Not only are they free to visit these places, but obviously they have to have the means to get there in the first place – i.e. the hospital lifts to the ground floor, which are often crowded with other patients, staff, visitors and so on. Also for their own care, theymay need to visit the x-ray department, ultrasound etc. Which is obviously their right – please do not think I’m advocating sticking them in a side room, never to emerge, for their entire hospital stay. I’m just trying to highlight the fact that ‘isolation’ does not mean ‘isolation’.

    Even if it did, and patients with HAIs stayed in their little room and had anything they needed brought to them by nursing staff, relatives and so on, the problem would not end there. All isolated patients have, outside their rooms, disposabe plastic aprons and gloves, which are supposed to be put on before entering the room, and discarded in the bin inside the room before leaving. I don’t understand why I have such a hard time explaining this to relatives, who seem to ‘forget’ every time they visit (not all of them, I hasten to add – most are very scrupulous in adhering to this advice), and, even worse, Doctors. Many of whom seem to think that they are above such regulations. On one occasion I had to phone the on-call night doctor to review an isolated patient I was concerned about. I reminded them on the phone that the patient was infectious and required the donning of gloves and apron before entering the room. I reminded them AGAIN when they arrived on the ward. I may have well saved my breath as the next thing I saw was this doctor entering the room without any plastic coverings, just his scrubs. When I stuck my head around the door to remind him, he looked at me like I was something stuck to the bottomof his shoe. How DARE I? A mere nurse!! Unfortunately this is par for the course with a lot of medical staff, who seem to think themselves above it all. God alone knows how many other patients that particular arsehole infected with MRSA that night.

    And it’s not just lack of care that causes the spread of HAIs. The most common bug we come across after MRSA is “CDT” – Clostridium Difficile Toxin. This is a bug which causes severe gastro-intestinal problems, specifically profuse diarrhoea. Unfortunately it is a common side-effect of the use of antibiotics which the patient is prescribed for another infection. The bug is airborne-carried via its spores, which are released once the patient uses the toilet, or, more commonly, the commode as they are often too debilitated to reach their toilet. While we are provided with the usual gowns and gloves to put on before entering the isolation room, I have often commented to my colleagues that perhaps the use of facial paper masks may be appropriate? A lot of sickness amongst staff seems to be due to “D&V” – diarrhoea and vomiting. I wonder how much of this we actually catch from the airborne spores from the CDT bacteria? However, facial masks are not provided for our use when treating these patients.

    Some months ago, I phoned a radio talk show about this subject, when it was their topic for the night. (Talksport.net – available just about everywhere via the internet and highly recommended, especially after 10pm when the phone-ins are not just about sport. James Whale and Mike Dicken are a couple of hosts you should listen in on). Anyway, I got the feeling I ranted on for a tad too long, as I was was eventually gently eased out and cut off. I feel the same may be applicable here. For those of you who have managed to read all of this, a pat on the back for your efforts. As for me, I’m off for a cold shower before my blood boils RIGHT over. Many thanks.

  • Privacy on the Net


    Many thanks to Keir, my awesome little tech-head, for posting these links on his page so I could steal them for you lot. Cool little add-ons for Firefox.

    http://www.abine.com/googlesharing/

    Stop Google taking your data without your consent. Click here to read more.

    http://www.abine.com/dntdetail.php 

    Do Not Track (tell 3rd party sites you do NOT want to be tracked by Blocking them) – How it works, it blocks the 3rd party cookies from getting into your system and prevents 3rd party ad’s from appearing on your webpages.
    Fantastic add-on for FireFox. Click here for this one.

    (This one also works for Chrome, Safari and IE.)

  • Gourdgeous Gourds!

     Mel just reminded me – I haven’t advertised my new Etsy site HERE yet. D’uh!

    Well here it is – my Gourdgeous Gourd Store!

    No sales since moving from eBay to Etsy, but with Etsy your items are listed for FOUR MONTHS for 20c,

    as opposed to the 30 days for 50c at eBay.

     

    I’m a patient Mouse. :)

     

    Clicky the Linky if you want to have a nosey. :)

     

     

     

     

     

  • How has Xanga changed or impacted your life?

    I just want to know why the “featured question of the day” has been running for the last two… or three…? Come on Xanga! Get CREATIVE here!

    Any suggestions for a “question of the day”? ;D
       

    I just answered this Featured Question; you can answer it too!

  • ASSHOLE REPELLENT!

     

     

     

     

    My very first REAL blog at Xanga, lmao!!

    Prompted by Joe’s comment on my recent pulse – thanks Joe!

    I’ve taken your advice and got me some of this… anyone who wants to borrow it, feel free.

    Just give it me back afterwards. ;)