Posted 5:57 PM by Bonnie

Housewarming: A friend and his fiance had a housewarming today to welcome friends and family to their new home in Alcalu, SC. What a hoot! Good food, good friends, and a lot of fun. And as they say a picture speaks a thousand words so to see all the photos I shot while there just go here.

Posted 1:16 PM by Bonnie

Posted 3:46 PM by Bonnie

Goodbye my friend: It's funny how an obituary can make a persons life seem so trivial and unimportant. My neighbor and friend, from the old apartment complex, died Monday after two weeks in a coma. The obituary doesn't mention the years she dedicated to nursing, even after having a kidney transplant some ten years ago. Or how she suffered from diabetes due to the transplant. It doesn't talk about how she loved her ferrets and would drive all the way to Columbia to get care for them. Not one word is mentioned of what a good friend she was and how she listened and cared and helped me with the stray cats even though, due to her kidney transplant she couldn't have cats of her own. We named many a stray cat together. Shortly before we moved her kidney started rejecting and she was getting sicker and sicker. One day she told me she was tired of feeling so sick and tired and helpless all the time. She didn't want to go through dialysis again. She didn't want to go through another transplant. She was tired of fighting.

After we moved I would drop by but she was always sleeping, or if she was up she was too tired for company. I would call but she never felt like talking. I wanted to tell her about the two stray cats that were coming around here. The large white and gray male with the scarred up face we named Scarface, and the little gray and white female who follows him around adoringly we named Little Friend. Pam loved movies and would have appreciated the reference.

Two weeks ago her blood sugar jumped to over a thousand and she began to seizure. She was rushed to the hospital where she was in an out of a coma. On Monday Pam died and it's odd to think I'll never see her again and now I'll never get to tell her about Scarface and Little Friend. Rest in peace Pam you will be missed.


Goodbye My Friend Lyrics by Karla Bonoff

Oh we never know where life will take us
I know it's just a ride on the wheel
And we never know when death will shake us
And we wonder how it will feel

So goodbye my friend
I know I'll never see you again
But the time together through all the years
Will take away these tears
It's okay now
Goodbye my friend

I've seen a lot things that make me crazy
And I guess I held on to you
We could've run away and left well maybe
But it wasn't time and we both knew

So goodbye my friend
I know I'll never see you again
But the love you gave me through all the years
Will take away these tears
I'm okay now
Goodbye my friend

Life's so fragile and love's so pure
We can't hold on but we try
We watch how quickly it disappears
And we never know why

But I'm okay now
Goodbye my friend
You can go now
Goodbye my friend

Posted 4:55 PM by Bonnie

Click here for some fun :-).

Posted 1:14 PM by Bonnie

TOPS #SC 236 meeting: Had a super meeting today. First I lost another 1/2 pound and the way I look at it the losses aren't big, but I've lost 3 weeks in a row since returning to this group and 1/2 lb. a week is 26 pounds a year.

And of course, today was the big drawing day. As I said before we went around and collected donations of items from local businesses, put the items in a basket, sold tickets for a drawing and the drawing was today. The winner gets the basket and other items on the table in the picture, and we raised $500.00 selling the tickets for the Katrina victims relocated to Shaw AFB here in Sumter, SC. Shaw AFB was kind enough to send two representatives to help with the drawing.

And!! Now The Item, our local paper, wants to do a feature on TOPS #SC236 and will be meeting with our leader to get information and then they will come to a meeting to take pictures. How cool is that? :-).

I've posted a couple pictures here and to view the rest of the pictures and see a current one of me :-) go here.

Posted 8:14 AM by Bonnie

FYI: This was passed on to me by a friend and member of my TOPS group and thought it was interesting and important enough to post. After all, we are reaching the age where our bodies will start needing some of these drugs. I am so grateful I only need my arthritis and asthma medications, while others like my husband are taking more drugs than food to keep functioning. So, for those who have a Costco in there area this should be interesting reading material. Go Costco!!

Let's hear it for Costco!! (This is just mind-boggling!) Make sure
you read all the way past the list of the drugs
The woman that signed below is a Budget Analyst out of federal
Washington, DC offices.

Did you ever wonder how much it costs a drug company for the active
ingredient in prescription medications? Some people think it must cost a lot, since
many drugs sell for more than $2.00 per tablet. We did a search of
offshore chemical synthesizers that supply the active ingredients found
in drugs approved by the FDA. As we have revealed in past issues of
Life Extension, a significant percentage of drugs sold in the United
States contain active ingredients made in other countries. In our
independent investigation of how much profit drug companies really make,
we obtained the actual price of active ingredients used in some
of the most popular drugs sold in America.


The data below speaks for itself.


Celebrex: 100 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $130.27
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.60
Percent markup: 21,712%

Claritin: 10 mg
Consumer Price (100 tablets): $215.17
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.71
Percent markup: 30,306%

Keflex: 250 mg
Consumer Price (100 tablets): $157.39
Cost of general active ingredients: $1.88
Percent markup: 8,372%

Lipitor: 20 mg
Consumer Price (100 tablets): $272.37
Cost of general active ingredients: $5.80
Percent markup: 4,696%

Norvasc: 10 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $188.29
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.14
Percent markup: 134,493%

Paxil: 20 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $220.27
Cost of general active ingredients: $7.60
Percent markup: 2,898%

Prevacid: 30 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $44.77
Cost of general active ingredients: $1.01
Percent markup: 34,136%

Prilosec: 20 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $360.97
Cost of general active ingredients $0.52
Percent markup: 69,417%

Prozac: 20 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets) : $247.47
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.11
Percent markup: 224,973%

Tenormin: 50 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $104.47
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.13
Percent markup: 80,362%

Vasotec: 10 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $102.37
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.20
Percent markup: 51,185%

Xanax: 1 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets) : $136.79
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.024
Percent markup: 569,958%

Zestril: 20 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets) $89.89
Cost of general active ingredients $3.20
Percent markup: 2,809

Zithromax: 600 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $1,482.19
Cost of general active ingredients: $18.78
Percent markup: 7,892%

Zocor: 40 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $350.27
Cost of general active ingredients: $8.63
Percent markup: 4,059%

Zoloft: 50 mg
Consumer price: $206.87
Cost of general active ingredients: $1.75
Percent markup: 11,821%

A note from the person who passed the information onto Madeline:

Since the cost of prescription drugs is so outrageous, I thought
everyone should know about this. Please read the following and pass it on.
It pays to shop around. This helps to solve the mystery as to why they
can afford to put a Walgreen's on every corner. On Monday night,
Steve Wilson, an investigative reporter for Channel 7 News in Detroit,
did a story on generic drug price gouging by pharmacies. He found
in his investigation, that some of these generic drugs were marked up as
much as 3,000% or more. Yes, that's not a typo.....three thousand
percent! So often, we blame the drug companies for the high cost of
drugs, and usually rightfully so. But in this case, the fault clearly
lies with the pharmacies themselves. For example, if you had to buy a prescription
drug, and bought the name brand, you might pay $100 for 100 pills.
The pharmacist might tell you that if you get the generic equivalent,
they would only cost $80, making you think you are "saving" $20. What
the pharmacist is not telling you is that those 100 generic pills may
have only cost him $10!

At the end of the report, one of the anchors asked Mr. Wilson whether or
not there were any pharmacies that did not adhere to this practice,
and he said that Costco consistently charged little over their cost for
the generic drugs.

I went to the Costco site, where you can look up any drug, and get its
online price. It says that the in-store prices are consistent with the
online prices. I was appalled. Just to give you one example from my own
experience, I had to use the drug, Compazine, which helps prevent nausea
in chemo patients.

I used the generic equivalent, which cost $54.99 for
60 pills at CVS. I checked the price at Costco, and I could
have bought 100 pills for $19.89. For 145 of my pain pills, I paid
$72.57. I could have got 150 at Costco for $28.08.

I would like to mention, that although Costco is a "membership" type
store, you do NOT have to be a member to buy prescriptions there,
as it is a federally regulated substance. You just tell them at the door
that you wish to use the pharmacy, and they will let you in. (this is
true)

I went there this past Thursday and asked them. I am asking each of you
to please help me by copying this letter, and passing it into your
own e-mail, and send it to everyone you know with an e-mail address.

Posted 8:57 PM by Bonnie

Delia and the Sylvester pillow: I know I've posted before about Delia carrying around this pillow of the head of Sylvester, but we were discussing this recently as she is still doing it and came to the conclusion she thinks it's Bug. When she first came here she was just a baby and Mr. Bug (our black and white tuxedo cat) would carry her around in his mouth like a mommy cat. He would groom her, carry her to the bedroom and put her on the bed and even lay and let her nurse off him. Well, we realized she is carrying the Sylvester pillow around just like Bug carried her and she too takes it to the bedroom and puts it on the bed. Lately she has been carrying it around and leaving it for Keith. If he is in bed she puts it on him in the bed, if he is the living room watching TV she puts it at his feet there. It is so cute and I still have not been able to get a picture.

Posted 8:54 PM by Bonnie

Comments: Just reset my comments section to allow anyone to leave comments. I will try this for awhile, but if things get nasty I will have to reset it back to only registered users. Some people who visit here are not registered users, but I trust them to leave good comments and not use this as a sounding board to get mean. Let's give it a try.

Posted 7:32 PM by Bonnie

Saturday; I know this blog is getting terribly crowded with pictures, and links, and all sorts of stuff, but with so much happening I guess the blog sort of resembles my life. Packed full of stuff :-). I don't know yet exactly when I will start my new job, but I know it will be sometime in December. I see the vocational rehab person this Thursday - another packed day - TOPS with the Katrina drawing in the morning, lunch with the women, then my rehab appointment. She will be happy to learn I have a job that I can do inspite of the down time with the arthritis - especially since there is little down time now thanks to the new meds. I'm even typing faster again!! I feel so much more alive. Anyway...last time I was there she was telling me I was too intelligent for the type of work they train people for there and I would be bored, but if nothing else it would be a paycheck. But, now I have a job that will use my skills and I will be doing a service at the same time. So I am happy.

Now, if Keith's ankle would get better I would be really happy! We got the new inserts Friday, so of course, there hasn't been time to determine if they will help. But, it does help there is football on all weekend so he has no trouble keeping off it as he is supposed to. As he says it's hard to teach math sitting down, so he stands when he should be sitting and off the ankle.

And to top everything off we've reconnected with a very dear friend from PA! He is now in Iraq and we reconnected over the internet - no matter what else is said about the internet I have found more lost friends through it. This is a person who was and is very dear to both of us so we are thrilled to have reconnected and we IM for a bit on Saturdays. Of course, it's about 6 hours later there so I am going to have to start getting on earlier so he won't be up at midnight when he should be sleeping.

That's about it for today...nothing exciting - nothing earth shattering - just happy thoughts.

Posted 9:48 PM by Bonnie

Who let the cat out of the bag?

Posted 2:25 PM by Bonnie

TOPS Day: Today was my second meeting back with the old group. It was auction week so had a lot of fun! I ended up winning a single cup coffee maker that I brought over to my husband for his office at the college. He already made a cup and loves it! I knew he would. Next week is the drawing for the Katrina victims basket. Someone wins the basket and all the money (almost $500 - and hopefully $500 or more by next thursday) goes to the Shaw AFB. They have a group of Katrina victims there and this money will go towards holiday food and such for them. Someone from the AFB will be there to do the drawing and two newspapers will be there to take pictures and get the story for their papers. Someone is the group is going to take a picture and write an article for The Item so there will be quite a bit of coverage on it. Hey, in a small town this is a big event. We're all excited about it.

Went to lunch with a group of the women after and learned of another job offer for me, so I guess when they say when it rains it pours they mean it. I'll be hearing from the person doing the hiring soon and could start that one in December. So, now I don't have to worry about turning down the November one due to Keith's foot and ankle injury and my needing to drive him around, because another job is waiting. It's funny how long I looked and now 3 possibilities pop up in the same time period.

I could still get the other one, but it's better to have too many offers than none :-).

I'll keep you posted.

Posted 8:30 PM by Bonnie

Just a note! For those of you who are wondering why the heck I am posting those old pictures of me, plus the current one, although I have lost about 20 pounds since that one was taken and need a new one....anyway...if you are wondering why the pictures it's because my 40th!! yes, my 40th HS reunion is this summer and there is a great web page for the SVHS class of '66 (see link on this page) and people are coming from there to visit. The pictures are for the fun and benefit of the old highschool friends visiting the page. If any one wants to visit my HS graduation class homepage just click on the SVHS link at the side. It's a pretty cool site and worth the visit.

Posted 2:07 PM by Bonnie

Cotton Candy Morning: Looked out the window this morning and watched the fog roll in until our little part of the world was wrapped in cotton candy clouds. It felt as if we were cut off from the rest of the world and nothing could reach us or touch us here. We had it all to ourselves. As we drove it was like we were in a different world all together. Surreal and soft and all encompassing. Later the sun came out and burned the fog off and the rest of the world reappeard, but for that moment we were wrapped in cotton candy and all was well with our little world.

Posted 8:30 AM by Bonnie

Just for grins:

"Hollaback Girl" Gwen Stefani


What's Your Theme Song?
brought to you by Quizilla

Uh huh, this my shit
All the girls stomp your feet like this

A few times I've been around that track
So it's not just gonna happen like that
Cause I ain't no hollaback girl
I ain't no hollaback girl
[2x]

Oooh, this my Shit , this my Shit [4x]

I heard that you were talking shit
And you didn't think that I would hear it
People hear you talking like that, getting everybody fired up
So I'm ready to attack, gonna lead the pack
Gonna get a touchdown, gonna take you out
That's right, put your pom-poms down, getting everybody fired up

A few times I've been around that track
So it's not just gonna happen like that
Cause I ain't no hollaback girl
I ain't no hollaback girl
[2x]

Oooh, this my Shit , this my Shit [4x]

So that's right dude, meet me at the bleachers
No principals, no student-teachers
Both of us want to be the winner, but there can only be one
So I'm gonna fight, gonna give it my all
Gonna make you fall, gonna sock it to you
That's right, I'm the last one standing, another one bites the dust

A few times I've been around that track
So it's not just gonna happen like that
Cause I ain't no hollaback girl
I ain't no hollaback girl
[2x]

Oooh, this my Shit , this my Shit 4x]

Let me hear you say, this shit is bananas
B-A-N-A-N-A-S
this shit is bananas
B-A-N-A-N-A-S
Again, this shit is bananas
B-A-N-A-N-A-S
This shit is bananas
B-A-N-A-N-A-S

A few times I've been around that track
So it's not just gonna happen like that
Cause I ain't no hollaback girl
I ain't no hollaback girl
[2x]

Oooh, this my Shit , this my Shit [4x]

Posted 6:46 PM by Bonnie

Wal-Mart's plan a sham (for more on the moral bankruptcy of Wal-mart click on one of the links on the side of my page)

By Paul Blank - Editorial in USA Today
November 6, 2005
Wal-Mart's announcements about its health care plan are nothing more than a desperate publicity stunt to salvage a faltering public image. Unfortunately, Wal-Mart's new plan is unlikely to insure one additional worker. Here's why: Wal-Mart refuses to address the fundamental reason half of its workers don't have company health care — extremely high deductibles and strict eligibility requirements.
The cheapest deductible on Wal-Mart's new plan is $1,000 for individual coverage and $3,000 for family coverage. For Wal-Mart workers, many of whom make $12,000 to $15,000 a year, the cost could be as much as 25% of their take-home pay for individual coverage and up to 40% for family coverage.

Second, Wal-Mart has strict eligibility requirements. Unlike managers, who qualify immediately, full-time workers are eligible for health care coverage only after six months, twice the national average. Part-time employees are eligible after two years and are never eligible for family coverage.

In addition, Wal-Mart's health savings accounts shift health care costs from the employer onto the individual and are available only to workers who already have health care. Therefore, by definition, the HSAs don't help any uninsured Wal-Mart workers.

The fact is, despite the company's nearly $10 billion profit last year, more than 600,000 Wal-Mart workers live without company health care. Even though Wal-Mart is the USA's largest corporation, it provides health care to 30% fewer workers than the average company in the S&P 500. And, most disturbing, one of every two children of Wal-Mart workers is either uninsured or relies on public health care.

No wonder Wal-Mart Executive Vice President Susan Chambers admits in a leaked memo, "Our coverage is expensive for low-income families, and Wal-Mart has a significant percentage of associates and their children on public assistance."

Behind Wal-Mart's smiley face, senior executives are hatching out new schemes to cut costs at workers' expense. Wal-Mart's internal memo exposes their plan to cut health care costs by dissuading unhealthy or obese people from applying, pushing out more senior workers, shifting to more part-time employees and cutting spousal benefits.

Americans will see Wal-Mart's announcement for what it is — a company desperate to hide its growing moral bankruptcy.

Posted 5:47 PM by Bonnie

Plumbing update: Well, the plumber did show up early this morning and fix the problem. All he had to do was unscrew the little part at the end of the faucet and remove some tiny pieces of plastic. Now! Had I been told it was that simple I could have done it myself! Sheesh!! At least we have running water in the bathroom again! Halleliah! Keith can shave!

Posted 7:55 PM by Bonnie

You gotta love it! When we moved in here there were some issues that needed repaired. One was the hot water was leaking in the bathtub and the sink in that same bathroom was dripping. We called the landlady and she sent a plumber over who fixed the bathtub issue, but she told them not to fix the sink because they would have to replace the faucet unit and she didn't want to pay too much. Well, okay, we could live with the little drip. But last week the little drip turned into a thin steady stream so once again we contacted the landlady. This time she told them to come over and fix it. The plumber showed up Friday and changed out the faucet and I turned it on and it worked. Okay...so by Saturday the water coming out is barely a thin stream and you couldn't get any pressure. I called the plumber and explained the guy had stopped the leaking but now it wasn't working at all. The woman there seemed a bit perturbed I would call back and said, I understand he swapped the faucet unit out. And I said, yes, he did do that, but now it won't work at all. So, she sighed and said, well, he must have left some trash in there when he replaced it and said she'd get him back out the first of the week. Okay, but what is the first of the week? As soon as she can. Okay...so now we have a faucet that no longer leaks and no longer works at all. Good quality workmanship!

Posted 3:53 PM by Bonnie

Too cute!! As you all know we are working on helping one of my older sister's grandchildren with a class project. They are collecting postcards from every state...or at least trying to. My younger sister, Victoria, has a friend, Jim, who is a truck driver. Jim has sent Ashley postcards from 12 or more states and even Mexico. She call him HER truckdriver and is so excited when HER truckdriver sends her another card. She LOVES HER truckdriver. Well, when she got the card from Mexico she sighed and said... "I guess I'll have to marry him!"

Posted 9:38 PM by Bonnie

Something cool: I haven't posted anything about this because I wanted to make sure it was going to work, but I have been working online and not just with my ebay business. This one is a little off the wall, but fun and is actually making some money for me. I am totally surprised by it. If anyone wants to know what I do email me and I will tell you. How's that for a teaser?

Posted 4:36 PM by Bonnie

Congrats to me! Every once in awhile I have to pat myself on the back for a job well done and so here it is... I use a lot of coupons and combine them with store savings and my last trip was a good one. I save over $30 on the in store savings and used $54 in coupons so saved $84.35 in the end with the combined savings. Some of the best buys were Mrs. Pauls fish was on sale 2/$4 ($2 each) and I had coupons for $1 off each package. I got 8 packs at $1 each! I had some Jimmy Dean skillet coupons for $1 off each pkg. and the store already had them special priced at $1 off so that was $2 savings on each pkg. Those are just a couple examples on how I work to save money as long as I'm not working to bring in money. Now if I could just find coupons for fresh fruit, veggies, chicken, fish... ah!! life would be good. I actually got some off ebay for $1 off each pork purchase so will use those soon. But I just had to brag a bit about those savings because that was straight savings! I ended up paying around $76.00 for the rest of the groceries, so saved over 50%! They don't double coupons here. I do miss my coupon days in VT where they triple up to $1.00 coupons!!

Posted 6:23 PM by Bonnie

Postcards from around the U.S.A. update: Spoke with my sister this evening, the grandmother of the little girl who's class is doing the postcard project. So far she has received cards from 44 states and also Asia and Mexico. She doesn't know it but a friend of mine in Ireland is sending one, too. Thank you so much to everyone who has helped with this. She still needs South Dakota, North Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Indiana, and Nebraska. Hopefully, we can get these for her.

Posted 1:56 PM by Bonnie

Thursday Photo Challenge
NOW POSTING for 3NOV05
CURRENT Theme is "CREATIVE"
(Artists, Dancing, Singing, Theatre, Bands, Orchestras, Kids Drawing, Sculpture, Architecture, Graffiti,...)

To see my entry go here!

Posted 12:45 PM by Bonnie

Back to TOPS 236! Today was my first day back to TOPS #SC236 after taking a month off after leaving the last chapter. That just didn't work out the way it was supposed to...sometimes we just have to learn our lessons and move on... which is what I chose to do. It was great getting back with old friends, even though most of us had stayed in touch through emails and cards and phone calls, after I had left last May. Lots of hugs for sure!! They announced they had raised almost $400 for the Katrina victims with the raffle basket and it will continue to be raffled through November 17. So, on my older sister's birthday someone will win that beautiful basket full of goodies! After the meeting a bunch of us went to Seasons and had a great lunch and talked. Now I'm back home waiting for 1 PM so I can call the plumber and schedule a time for them to come fix the drip in the bathroom sink. One nice thing about renting is those bills go to the landlord. Whew!! So, it was great to get back home to the old group and back with friends again.

Posted 4:01 PM by Bonnie

Oh what a beautiful morning!! - oh what a beautiful day!!! Started off with rain, but by late morning the rain had cleared, the sun was out, the air was cool but not chilly and it couldn't have been more perfect. Journal meeting and walk and boy did we walk!!! We added four blocks today because I wanted to go past a certain area to get some information and the best part is my arthritis medication is working so well, even with the extra blocks the walk took an hour and 6 minutes. Last week it was an hour and 15 minutes with fewer blocks. So we are not only walking further but faster! My energy level has been high since the walk. Too bad there isn't more time for fun things like that. We talked and talked and talked so much we didn't even realize how fast we were going until we got back to the starting point and checked the time. It's fun having someone you can have so much fun with just walking and talking. Anyway...back home...but wanted to share the great day with everyone.