Body Worlds 3!
I went to Body Worlds 3 today with Tarrah. It was soooo cool! We learned so many new things. Tarrah thought she’d be grossed out, but surprised she wasn’t. Few random facts we didn’t know:
- Capillaries are thinner than a strand of hair, it takes 20 capillaries to equal the thickness of hair!
- Your right lung is slightly larger than your left lung.
- Lance Armstrong is super human, his heart is 30% larger than the average human heart… so he can get oxygenated blood to his legs and other muscles faster and for longer periods of time than most!
- There’s a disease called Smoker’s leg, that is common in smokers. Their capillaries in the peripheral arteries will clot causing the leg to turn grey/black… it can be treated but also results in amputation commonly. ICK!
- A baby embryo at 4 weeks old looks a lot like a worm.
- The spleen is way smaller than you think… but can balloon up to like 6x it’s size if you have leukemia.
- The funny bone is actually a nerve very close to the surface of the skin.
- The human heart will continue to beat, even when out of the body and cut into pieces. An electric impulse causes it to beat. (the biggest challenge in artificial hearts - an energy source to keep it beating)
The exhibit totally made me want to apologize to my body and try to treat it better. I feel like I’ve been torturing it with not enough excercise. I’ll never smoke in my life though.. wow… you see photos and videos of black lungs of smokers but nothing compares to seeing real human lungs of a smoker… photos and videos don’t do it justice. It was appalling it looked like it could not be alive in your body in that state. The human body is so risilient! I’m shocked at some of the conditions of the organs we saw. There were several aortas shown of people with normal to high cholesterol and it was so disgusting what high cholesterol does to your aorta and that’s the largest artery! It turned into a lumpy spongy fat curly mess instead of a clean smooth artery for blood to flow through. I can’t imagine what the smaller arteries must look like!
I recommend it to anyone. It’s totally worth seeing. At the end of the exhibit they added an ostrich and girafe, which were also very cool. It was neat to see how feathers grow out of a bird.
I’ll never take my body for granted again…
Save trees! Get rid of the phone book!
Most people don’t use the phone book anymore… with internet resources like maps.google.com and yp.yahoo.com there really is no need. The phone book can’t keep up with business updates as fast as the internet can. So why not save a tree! Opt out of receiving the phone book:
3 pet peeves… in one day
1. Super busy gas station where all pumps have a car at them… I get in line behind the only car at the pump without a line behind it. Looks good the 40 something year old guy is coming back from the store with drinks, chips and everything he could possibly fit in his arms without a bag. So he’s done pumping his gas right? NO! He drops all his stuff off at the passenger seat with his wife for a few minutes then strolls over to the pump makes eye contact with me and proceeds to read the entire pump and watch the commercial playing above it on the tv screen before starting to make an effort to pump gas! He puts the pump in and then gets back in his car to sit in the A/C. I gave up after 5 minutes, did a 20 point turn as soon as it cleared out and pulled into the spot next to him and left at the same time as him.
2. I opened what I thought was important mail and got a papercut! And it was junk mail. ugh a wound for something as unimportant as junk mail!
3. New cell phone law goes into affect today and it is illegal to hold a cell phone to your ear and drive… buuuut it is legal to hold your phone and text message. WTF?! Looking at road holding cell phone to ear vs. looking at phone holding cell phone in hand. Neither should be legal.
Where the bike path led me…
I went on a bike ride yesterday evening and stopped by the new Bridgeport plaza that’s opening up in Valencia. The big shots in the plaza are going to be a Walgreens, Bristol Farms, Kabuki, and I think it’s called Athena’s, a Greek restaurant. This plaza is so visually stimulating though. There’s a large pond at the corner with bridges and decking over it. There are huge sails coming out of the pond and a neat bird scuplture. Not to mention the smaller water features and landscaping around the plaza. So, I brought my camera and took some pics of it…
Happy Earth Day!
Today (and yesterday) to celebrate Earth Day, several supermarkets are giving away a free reusable bag to each customer while supplies last. The bags are made out of recycled material. Just realized it’s state law that super markets offer plastic bag recycling and they must sell reusable bags. Stores like Ikea charge you a nickel for the plastic bag they give you when you check out, if you have a reusable bag then no charge 
I think that’s the only way the reusable bag thing will start catching on!
Here are the stores offering the free bags:
Albertsons
- 3840 S. Labrea Ave., Los Angeles
- 9022 Balboa St., Northridge
- 6240 Foothill Blvd, Tujunga
- 7224 Mason Ave., Canoga Park
- 2035 Hillhurst Ave., Los Angeles
- 7227 Van Nuys Blvd., Van Nuys
El Super
- 12727 Sherman Way, North Hollywood
- 14620 Parthenia St., Panorama City
Food 4 Less
- 5100 N. Figueroa St., Highland Park
- 5420 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood
- 2750 E. First St., Los Angeles
- 1820 W. Slauson Ave., Los Angeles
Henry’s Farmers Market
- 820 N. Western Ave., San Pedro
Pavilions
- 6534 Platt Ave., West Hills
- 727 N. Vine St., Los Angeles
Ralphs
- 4760 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles
- 12057 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles
- 19871 Rinaldi St., Northridge
- 1050 N. Western, San Pedro
- 21909 Ventura Blvd., Woodland Hills
- 10901 Ventura Blvd., Studio City
- 10861 Le Conte Ave., Westwood
- 14049 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks
- 17250 Saticoy St., Van Nuys
- 10400 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Mission Hills
- 645 W. Ninth St., Los Angeles
Smart & Final
- 3607 Vermont Ave., Los Angeles
Superior Super Warehouse
- 6140 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood
- 9801 N. Laurel Canyon, Pacoima
- 10211 S. Avalon Blvd., Los Angeles
- 8811 S. Western Ave., Los Angeles
- 5824 S. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles
Valu Plus Food Warehouse
- 120 W. Anaheim, Wilmington
- 6820 De Soto Ave., Canoga Park
Vons
- 2511 Daly St., Los Angeles
- 20440 Devonshire St., Chatsworth
- 3461 W. Third St., Los Angeles
- 7311 N. Figueroa St., Eagle Rock
- 1221 Gaffey St., San Pedro
- 7789 Foothill Blvd., Tujunga
- 3118 S. Sepulveda, Los Angeles
- 10321 Sepulveda Blvd., Mission Hills
Mini Takes the States!
I’m so ready for this year! They’re doing a whole weekend thing in several cities and one is LA (August 1-3), so I’m all about it. It’s going to be at the Pasadena Rose Bowl. They have a huge festival goin on there and there will be a Mini Rally Saturday morning. I can’t wait. They even have a small track set up to test drive Minis for the “future Mini owners”.
Other fun stuff:
- MINI Parking Corral at festival grounds
- MINI-Autocross Test Drive
- Live festival entertainment
- Headliner band Saturday night
- The “Bootload of Fun Zone” with activities for all ages
- MINI Vendor Village
- An official MTTS Welcome Kit for each paid attendee
- Friday night Meet & Greet (MINI Owners only)
- Rise and Shine Saturday Rally (MINI Owners only)
Josh is in (mostly for the test drive I think)! Who else is in??
Whoops! Flipped the car…
How does one do this??? This is outside of our neighborhood this morning. During the 30 minutes between when I leave for work and Josh leaves for work.. this accident happend. I’m not sure how it can possibly happen… It’s a straight road for a long way with intersection… no launch ramps.
Josh took the pic with his cell phone.
So this is what it’s like to be blonde again
I finally did it and went blonde. Since I had existing blonde streaks in my hair I couldn’t get all over blonde because it could cause too much damage to already bleached hair… so they pulled my hair and “highlighted” just about 95% of it. I think it looks fantastic! And I had it done at a new salon that is only a few miles from my house. Sure beats the drive to Hollywood for a hair appointment! It cost more but not as much as I’ve paid in the past and it was well worth it… I had it done by Leyla at Shannon Hair in Valencia. Those hairdressers are quite talented AND speedy!
What’s wrong with my car?!
Last Friday morning, I get into my mini cooper to go to work and it doesn’t start. Argh. Not this again. My brand new mini was plagued with problems the first year I had it until they replaced the computer that they say was the cause of the problems. Sad experience for my first new car. Now this. I’ve been having a rough couple of months so this was the last thing I needed. I got a ride with Josh to work, thank goodness I only work 3 miles away. A friend of mine at work drove me back home for Mini Roadside Assistance to tow my car to the dealer.
The dealer called later that afternoon…. the problem… here goes…. a RAT was living under the hood of my car! Three things go through my head:
- Wha?
- The engine barely fits under the hood of a mini cooper, how does a rat find room to live under there?
- Where did this rat come from??
They said this rat lived under there for a while because they found rat droppings (but I drive the car everyday! granted it’s only 10 miles of driving a day… but still!). They also found the rat alive. So they pulled it out and killed it. They say they have photos of this rat because it’s the largest rat they’ve ever seen. I guess it’s a common thing the dealer says they get about 30 of these a year… is it just minis?!
So the rat apparantly did $2000 worth of damage to a few electrical wires as well as the engine harness. It was a Friday at 4 so of course the insurance company is closed. I opened a claim and just today they sent an inspector out there to look at the damage. They say they can now start the repair, but need to order parts. It’s looking like I get my mini back on Friday or Saturday. Glad the insurance covers it and I only pay my $500 deductible. They insist my insurance premiums will not go up, but I find it hard to believe. So I got names of the people that said it won’t!
Photos of said rat to come when I get my car on Friday or Saturday.
Mandy is feeling better
Sadly Mandy was diagnosed with cancer (soft tissue sarcoma) in her abdomen on February 19th. She went in for a CT scan at the veterinary cancer hospital here and when they put her under anesthesia, she somehow lost feeling in her rear right leg. It was sad to see her the first few days when she came back. It was difficult for her to stand and walk and we tried to help her like crazy, but I think our helping only frustrated her. After 2 days she figured it out herself and walked really well. She learned how to swing her foot forward and walks better. Now she’s walking even better, it looks like she regained some movement in the upper parts of her leg. She’s on some nerve pills that are the equivalent of what Josh took when he got in his motorcycle accident. Those should help her leg. She’s also on pain killers and appetite stimulants. She seems a lot like herself and she loves her turkey and mashed potato meals.
She had 4 treatments of radiation so far and has one more on Monday then the following Monday she goes in for a checkup to see if the tumor has shrunk at all.
