I think I'm in love with Coupon Chief!

I am in Heaven!

I love, love, love coupons, in a way that's almost frightening. It amazes me that more people don't take advantage of these wonderful money-savers. Yes, you do have to put a little thought into it -- they only save you money if you're using them for things you were going to buy anyway -- but you'd be surprised how many of those things have some form of a coupon attached to them.

There is a fabulous site called Coupon Chief that has a ton of coupons and coupon codes on offer, and it couldn't come at a better time, since Easter is just around the corner and there are Easter baskets and gifts and whatnot to be purchased. Coupon Chief can definitely make that a little less painful, financially speaking. For instance, if you were wanting to pick up some Easter baskets for the kids or Easter decorations, you might want to check out the Target coupons they have there. If you were looking for a nice Easter outfit for you and your kids or an Easter gift for someone special, you might want to look at the Overstock coupons as well because that will save you some serious coin!

Or, if you were thinking about taking a last-minute trip to have Easter dinner with your family, they have some sweet Travelocity deals as well. That last is especially welcome to me. As I've mentioned before, I spend a lot of time traveling to be with my fiance (next trip is in April, hooray!) and I am always looking for ways to make that a little cheaper. I've literally saved hundreds of dollars by taking advantage of coupon codes for travel sites. It can make a huge difference. Definitely give Coupon Chief a look, I think you'll like it as much as I do!


Elle

Bits and Pieces

Hello, everybody :)

As you can see, I've made significant changes to aesthetics of this site. I took a standard template and tinkered with it until I got the end product you see here. I personally love the color orange, hence the color palette. I just wish I could wear it, but it doesn't go with my skin tone so very well. Anyway. Comments, suggestions? I use Firefox for my browser, but I also tested it in Explorer and it seems to work there as well. I've also increased the number of posts per page to twelve. On some days I'll post up to six times, so I thought I'd increase it so those who read here can just scroll down instead of having to hit "older posts" all the time.

Have a Happy Leap Day, everyone!

Elle

Great Skin Care Site -- Skin Health Today!

I came across an interesting Skin care site today. It's called "Skin Health Today" and what's really different about it is that they have their own radio show with free streaming that covers a weekly topic, such as Weighing in on Stress, Diet, and Skin Health and Acne, Not Just for Teens Any More, among other aspects of skin health that you can find in their radio show guide. There's also a ton of information in the Skin Health Digest section of the site, a Beauty Workout Club and a blog. Incidentally, there's also an email list you can subscribe to by going to the blog.

I'm very lucky, I have pretty good skin for my age, and have good genes on both sides, though it's something I always have to keep on top of. I do get the occasional acne outbreak, but they are few and far between, thank goodness. I did notice that when I started low-carbing, way back in the day, my skin got a lot better. I'm convinced that one of the reasons why is because of all the water I started drinking, and continue to drink to this day. Good hydration is one of the best things you can do for your skin.


If you're concerned about your skin and its health, as well as its general appearance, you may want to bookmark Skin Health Today. It's definitely worth a look!

Elle

Welcome, Amy B!

And congratulations on your escape from the Kimpound. ;)

Amy B is a new blogger. While her blog, thus far, deals with you-know-who, I won't call Amy an anti-kimkins blogger. That's for her to decide. We're just glad she's out. Right now, she's sharing those parts of her story she feels comfortable relating. What she tells, how much she tells, and who she tells is entirely up to her.

As to what she's related so far -- well, it shouldn't be a surprise, and yet, I was shocked. This is the tale of a master manipulator and an object lesson in why Captain Morgan and internet activities do not mix. I guess when you're busy hiding ill-gotten assets and covering your considerable rear end it's hard to remember which intemperate and thoroughly moronic email you've sent to whom even without the alcoholic haze getting in your way.

You know, I've often referred to Heidi as "intelligent' but I may have to reassess that. Anyone with the brains and common sense God gifted the average goat with would have known better than to commit to email phrases like, "No more talk about your hair. You have hair so stop talking about it. It cannot be falling out that much" and "I do not want any talk about your Dr telling you to add foods back in. That will just make you gain weight. NO talk of vitamins. No medical issues at all."

That's some pretty tough talk from a hairless, diabetic, overweight woman who couldn't lose weight on her own plan. Especially one who was being sued at the time this email was sent for being a lying fraud whose diet was causing hair loss and medical issues. Then there is her latest ill-advised attempts, in concert with a pack of equally stupid accomplices, to dig up what she perceives as 'dirt' on some of the lawsuit principles. Even if there were dirt to be dug, it wouldn't matter. Ted Bundy could be part of this lawsuit and it wouldn't do a thing to change the facts of the case against her.

ETA: Prudentia made a good point in the comments -- Heidi and her mouth-breathing cohorts may be digging dirt in an attempt to scare some of the lawsuit principles into dropping out. If that's true, she's even dumber than I thought. That's witness tampering, and it is a felony.

None of this, of course, matter to her. She's backed into a corner and she's desperate. Booting well-loved members from the Kimpound, especially members who have been on the receiving end of her particular brand of nastygrams may be her dumbest and most desperate move yet. And I'm willing to bet, this will prove to be her ultimate undoing.

Elle

CostCaptain.com - Great Academic Software Site!

One of the benefits of working in higher education, besides the snow days, is the various educator discounts available. There's several sites out there that offer different things with an academic discount, and one really great site is CostCaptain.com, a Microsoft authorized educational reseller. CostCaptain.com sells the academic versions of things like Microsoft Office, and Adobe, among many other things.

Keep in mind, the "academic version" of all this stuff is the same thing as the commercial version. Also keep in mind that this Microsoft Office and Vista software isn't limited to universities, it also applies to research labs (that would be me), libraries, high schools, middle schools, elementary schools, and -- wait for it -- home schools! All you have to do is provide proof of academic eligibility. They've got some really good prices, too -- Microsoft Office 2007 prices from $129, and you can get a Vista Upgrade from $89. Not bad at all!

As the newly frugal person that I am, I really do recommend that people take advantage of all the discounts they're entitled to, because all those little bits really add up in the end. If you work in education, including home-schooling your kids, you may want to check out CostCaptain.com, and see if their great prices can't help save you some money.

Elle

PS: They also offer gift certificates!

Seven Random/Weird Things About Me

I was indirectly tagged with this meme, from another blog I read. No one ever tags me directly :(

Anyway, here are seven random/weird things about me:

1. My twelfth-great-grandmother on my mother's side was a Moroccan concubine.
2. I have an Anatolian Ridge on the back of my head. Dancing in Socks Guy (affectionately) calls me "knothead" because of this.
3. I took three years of ice-skating lessons, just to learn how to stand up on the ice.
4. I have scoliosis. I spent 4 years in a Milwaukee brace as a kid because of it.
5. I speak four languages, with varying degrees of fluency. These are: English, Spanish, French, and Italian. I also know a little Mandarin.
6. I play the autoharp.
7. I can stand with my feet at 180 degree angles from each other. It's due to very flexible hip joints, not from ballet or anything like that.

There's plenty more, but the meme calls for seven so I'll stop there. I love memes like this. Sometimes, when I have more time, I'll do the 101 things about me list. I'm sure you'll all be waiting for that with baited breath ;)

In the interim, consider yourselves all indirectly tagged!

Elle

Borba Skin Care -- Inner Health, Outer Beauty

Borba has a fabulous page about skin care. They've got information on acne solutions, dry skin, oily skin, normal/combination skin, body firming, and aging skin and wrinkles. The acne solutions page is especially good if you're like me. That is, an adult who still gets the occasional acne break out. Yes, it's not just for teenagers, but the kind of treatments adult skin needs is quite different than that of younger skin.

But Borba has a ton of great products. They have this fabulous-sounding Age Defying Micro-Diamond Cleanser that I want to try, along with the Clarifying Complexion Shield. And, since they are offering a special promotion to site visitors who spend $100 or more, I may have to try these sooner rather that later. You can see this month's promotion here.

What I like about these products is that they are nutraceutical-based formulas, which makes these ... cosmeceuticals. The Borba website says that Borba is where "inner health meets outer beauty" and it's easy to see why that is. It would appear from their In the News section that, as often is the case, I'm behind on my beauty news because they're getting a lof of buzz about their products. Well, better late than never, I guess! Borba is deinitely worth checking out, if you're interested!

Elle

*Guffaw*

A joke, courtesy of best friend S:

There were these two guys in a bar, located on the 20th floor of a building. The first man says to the second, " I bet you $100 I can jump out that window and come straight back in!"

The second man says "Okay, sure." and the barman holds the bet. The first man jumps out the window and disappears for a second before jumping straight back in.

Disappointed about losing the $100, the second man says: " I'll bet you another $100 you can't do it again." So the barman holds the bet. Sure enough, the first man jumps out the window, disappears for a second, then jumps straight back in.

Thinking he must have caught a freak gust of wind, or be landing on a ledge just outside the window, the second man says "Okay, I bet you $300 I can jump out the window and come straight back in."

The first man says, "Go for it!"

The second man jumps out the window and falls to the ground below, and is instantly killed.

Back up in the bar, the barman says to the first man " Gee, you can be a jerk when you're drunk, Superman!"


Elle

Good debt and financial site -- Destroydebt.com

I found an interesting article over on Destroydebt.com. This article talks about debt statute of limitations, and gives a pretty comprehensive overview as to how long a creditor has to collect a debt from you. Not, mind you, that this should be used as a way of getting out of paying what you owe, but it's a great resource to have because it's not at all unusual for a past creditor to contact you out of the blue and tell you you still owe something on an old account. That happened to me about a year ago with an old insurance bill (stupid co-pays, why can't anyone figure out who is supposed to pay what when?). Luckily I could prove that it had been paid, but sometimes you just don't have that information at hand. So, it's useful to know how long a creditor has to collect, depending on what state you're in.

This site also has a forum dedicated to bankruptcy, for those of you who need it, and I sincerely hope you don't. As a member, you can start your own "debt blog" in which members can share in any revenue generated through said blog -- quite helpful, if you've got debt you want to pay down. It's quite easy to get into debt with credit cards etc. and these days, it's getting proportionally harder to climb out of debt. If you're interested, check out Destroydebt.com, and see if any of the ideas there can be put to work for you.

Elle

Attention: Former Kimkins Members in San Diego!

If you are a former Kimkins member, and you live in San Diego County, California, John Tiedt would like to hear from you ASAP. Please email John at jtiedt@tiedtlaw.com.

If you have not already joined the lawsuit, it's not too late! Visit the Kimkins Lawsuit page for more information. If you have joined the lawsuit, be sure to get your affidavit in to John, you can get the forms for that here.

We are making a huge difference here, in bringing down a lying, cheating, thoroughly vicious scammer. Together, we can see that she's held accountable for her scams. The orchestra has been warming up, and shortly Heidi will be facing the music.


Elle

Be Oyster Aware!

Two oysters walk into a bar. The bartender takes one look at them, and says, "Sorry, guys, we don't serve food in here."

There's a great site about Gulf oysters, called "Be Oyster Aware." This is a great, informative site on several topics, including Vibrio vulnificus, a gram-negative bacterium found in warm, unpolluted sea water. This presents no problem to healthy people, but there are a few individuals who are at risk, and this site does a great job of explaining this.

Of course, I'm a science geek so all that is interesting to me, but for those who would like something else, check out their recipe page. The oyster quiche sounds especially yummy! So does the oyster cornbread dressing. And the oyster cakes, and the oysters dip and the ...

Elle

Those Hand-Sanitizer Dispensers Are Not Going to Fill Themselves, University

Dear University,

Some time last summer I noticed that hand-sanitizer dispensers were cropping up all over the place. By the doors, by the elevators, in random spots along the hallways -- they multiplied like rabbits.

Don't get me wrong, University, I was glad to see this. Working at a State U is similar to working in a day-care center in more ways than one. One similarity is the ease with which colds get passed around. I haven't gotten sick this often since I used to ride the subway into work every day. I know that I'm washing my hands, but I think this plethora of hand-sanitizer dispensers serves as a great reminder to those who may need a little extra prompting.

Or they would, if they actually had some form of sanitizing agent in them.

There's the rub, University, the darn things have been empty since you installed them, thus significantly decreasing their efficacy. I took it upon myself to ask someone on the maintenance staff why this was. The answer surprised me, though it should not -- you only budgeted for the dispensers, not the sanitizing agent. That line item goes in next fiscal year, so we'll have to wait till July.

Fie, University! I appreciate frugality as much as the next person, but this is ridiculous. I also know that perhaps a small decrease in the amount you had budgeted for that massive move a good chunk of administration's making to the offices over on Satellite (aka "Prettier") Campus would have covered the cost of the sanitizing agent. It's enough to make me want to go over there and cough all over your faux-mahogany-finish desks.

And since I feel a cold coming on, it might happen sooner than you think.

Love,

Elle

The ULTIMATE Paintball Store!

Oh my word! Check out this online paintball store!

I love paintball, though I don't get to do it as often as I'd like. A funny (and true) story -- a few years ago, when I was working at BadScienceXgen, upper management decided the best way to shore up flagging morale amongst their over-worked and under-appreciated staff was to do one of those team-building exercises, in this case, paintball. Not that I minded giving over an afternoon to a favorite activity, but a little respect and a bonus check would have been nice as well. Anyway, as was their wont, upper management compounded the initial problem by choosing the most disliked people in the company to be team captains. We got all of about ten minutes into the exercise when the team captains were summarily fragged with a paintball volley by their totally disloyal foot soldiers.

Oddly enough, that company is about to shut down.

Back to this wonderful online paintball store. Look at all this cool stuff! They've got some great brands on there, including my paintball gun brand of choice, Tippmann. Even sweeter, they offer Tippmann upgrades and Spyder upgrades! One of my brothers is also into paintball (he owes me a game) and I happen to know he needs a new mask, so I'll point him in the general direction of this site, especially since they offer free shipping on orders over $99. If you're into paintball, you should definitely check out the ultimate online paintball store.

Elle

Dear Numbnuts in the Faculty-Staff Parking Lot

Is it really necessary to back your car into the parking space?

I ask because even though I see you there, every day, right at 8:30 AM, valiantly trying to back your Chevette in, you never manage to do it in less than three tries. Since we've been parking lot acquaintances for, oh, a year now, that's approximately 780 times you've tried to back the damn thing in and you still can't do it quite right.

Now, normally your parking preferences would be no business of mine, Numbnuts. But very often you make it my business because you're in my way. Yes, it's not enough that you have to back in, pull out, back in, rinse, repeat. What's really annoying is that during the "pull out" part of this little ordeal, you tend to take a minute or two to study your rear-view mirror, no doubt calculating the necessary vector angles (I think you work in the Math Department) required to get your car into the space in a neat, aligned manner. In the interim, I get to sit there and watch you.

Face it, Numbnuts, we can't all be good at everything. Backing into a parking space is just not your "thing," and you know what? That's okay. I can't parallel park. So, in conclusion, Numbnuts, just park head-first and save us all some time and aggravation. And be grateful I am leaving you this note here, instead of on your car. With my ignition key.

Love,

Elle

Life Lock - Guarantee Your Good Name

Seriously now. Everyone knows it's a good idea to protect your personal information. Yet how many of us actually do anything about it? How many people, for example, make sure their mail is shredded before it goes into the trash? Carefully check bank and credit card statements? Know where their ID is at all time?

The sad thing is, you can do all that and STILL get your identity stolen. Identity thieves are pretty smart, and if someone really wants to, they can get hold of your personal information, such as a social security number, and make your life really, really difficult. That's why a service like lifelock is so useful. Lifelock guarantees your good name by protecting your identity. They contact credit bureaus for you, and ensure that fraud alerts are set up. They make sure those fraud alerts are renewed every ninety days or so (if you request), and also get you off all those "pre-approved" credit offer lists. Those, by the way, are an excellent way to get your identity stolen. Most people just throw them out, and they often contain enough information about you for a clever thief to take advantage of the situation. Lifelock does a bunch of other things as well to protect your identity and keep you from being the victim of fraud. And they back it up with with a $1,000,000 guarantee! It's definitely worth checking out!

Elle

More Great Websites

As you can see, a great deal of my blog roll is given over to anti-Kimkins sites, and I do a fair bit of writing on that subject here. But that's not my only interest.

I visit Snickollet's site every day. Snickollet is a mother of twins, who lost her husband to pancreatic cancer nearly a year ago. Dorcasina is also a young widow, who lost her husband about 2 and a half years ago to esophageal cancer. I defy you to read through their archives and not cry for days. How I wish I had a magic wand I could wave and magically restore their husbands to life for them. As it is, all I can do is read their blogs, send them good thoughts, and use their stories as object lessons in never taking Dancing in Socks Guy for granted. Snickollet may be running ads on her site soon, to help lessen a financial crunch caused by being a single-income family now. I am certain I will find those ads very interesting. I'll let you know when she starts running them, so you can possibly be very interested too. Dorcasina's having plumbing problems, and she could probably use a word or two of comfort right now.

These are two brave women, who didn't deserve the rotten hand life gave them.

Elle

Vista Print Rubber Stamps -- 25% off!

Vista Print is a nifty little website that's got a bunch of different print-related office products on it, such as rubber business stamps. I have to confess, it's the little things at work that make me happy. Yes, to the world at large I may appear to be a fairly competent scientist, but in reality I'm a little kid who enjoys playing with ink stamps. We actually use them quite often, believe it or not, to stamp our notebooks for review, note documents as drafts or what have you. They have a nice selection of such stamps, and you can get up to three lines on them. You can choose up to 18 different designs -- some are the standard kind, like "Paid" and "Fax" and so on. But they also have stamps for "Season's Greeting" and "Thanks You" and what's more, you can customize these stamps to add your own, personalized message as well as your address, if you'd like. One of my aunts is heavily into arts and crafts, especially scrap-booking, and I bet she'd love something like this. AND, they offer a 25% discount! Just use coupon code “Stamp25” at checkout to receive 25% off your stamp order. Not bad! Check them out, and if you're interested, take advantage of that 25% discount!

Elle

Some good posts ...

Medusa has a bunch of excellent posts about eating disorders on her blog. Check out this one, and this one, and this one. You will NOT believe your eyes when you see the video in that first link! We also have another new member of the anti-kimkins (and proud of it) blog roll, Mrs. Menopausal's blog, Weighing the Facts. Excellent blog, please be sure to drop by and comment to welcome her. Mariasol also has some interesting posts up about a certain infamous diet and reinforcing the cult. Finally, our fake blog about a real scam, Yust Yucky, has a cryptic, yet funny, post up about a road trip.

A lot of people don't know how to take Yucky. I just love him/her/it. Maybe it's me, but I love the odd bits of humor Yucky introduces into this whole mess. Given how sad it really is, a little humor now and then is most welcome, as far as I'm concerned.

Nice work, guys!

Elle

Speaking of Frugality ... Great Flight Deals!

I found a website that has some pretty inexpensive flights to Canada from the UK. That may seem counterintuitive, since I live in the USA, but bear with me. My cousin lives in London now (she married a Brit), thus, there is always a place for me to stay. This same cousin's dad lives just about 2 hours away from Toronto, in New York State. I'm thinking -- drive to Uncle M's house (a couple hours), visit with him (as he's always asking me to do), drive to Toronto from there, fly to London, visit S., then reverse the order.

Yeah, I could fly from here but the other advantage is I'd get to see a bit of Toronto, a city I love and don't get to spend nearly enough time in. The last time I had Tim Horton's coffee was ... entirely too long ago. Besides that, there's Yonge Street and the CN Tower and the lake shore, and all kinds of things. And London! I lived there for some time, and you'd think I'd seen enough of it by now, but frankly, that's impossible. I look forward to the day when I, too, live there again. And all the relatives can suddenly miss me and decide to pay me a visit, just as we all miss and constantly want to visit Cousin S :)

Elle

Adventures in Frugality, Part 1

As previously (tediously) mentioned, I am on a quest to pay off ye olde student loans in approximately half the time allotted. In addition to making a budget (and sticking to it), establishing an "emergency fund," working a second, part-time job and doing the odd bit of paid writing, I have also been looking for new and innovative ways to save. I just scored a big with that last one today!

The back story: My car is getting older and odd bits are starting to need replacement. The latest bit is the exhaust system, which is original to the car. It's got a leak somewhere, which in turn is messing with my oxygen sensors, and the engine light is on. I mentioned this to my dad, who in turn mentioned it to our joint mechanic, Tommy, who also happens to be our cousin.

Tommy, being the pro-active soul that he is, called me and asked when I wanted to bring my car in, and said that Dad told him he (Dad) would take care of the bill. I really, really want to get away from my mommy and daddy bailing me out with these little emergencies, so I asked Tommy if we could barter for it instead. I offered to design a website for his business in exchange for his fixing the exhaust and the sensor. And he said yes!

This is so awesome. The website won't take much work, since he basically wants the same design that I did for my dad's business, so it's mostly just editing content. Sweet!

Elle

I bet this isn't how you expected to make your debut on MSN, Heidi :)

The MSN Money Blog picked up the ConsumerAffairs.com story;

Kimkins diet rolls on despite founder's excess poundage

It really sucks to be you right now, Heidi. You know there's no way out for you, right? You do understand that the lawsuit isn't going away, and that the ducks are going to to keep going until your site is shut down and you've faced every bit of justice there is, right? This is just the beginning.

Elle

Interesting site --The Sedona Method

I've been reading through The Sedona Method website recently. I've seen it mentioned before, and I know I cruised by it at least once, but I finally had the time to take more than a quick look. I have to say, it's rather interesting. Here's a quote from their presence awareness page:

The Sedona Method is a simple, powerful, easy to learn and duplicate technique that shows you how to uncover your natural ability to surrender – or let go. It naturally shows you how to let go of the tendencies that cause you to flee from freedom as opposed to whole heartedly embracing it.

The presence awareness page has a LOT of information on it about this method, especially about "conscious awareness" and the ego. This is continued in the Beingness-Presence-Awareness page, in which there's an article on a recent retreat (this page needs to be fixed BTW, the body wrap is too many pixels wide, so the content ends up way at the bottom of the page) which talks about "welcoming" and "releasing." Then there is a page which describes how The Sedona Method is spreading happiness worldwide, and how many people worldwide are using this method as a tool for peaceful revolution in consciousness.

Basically, this method appears to be about spiritual enlightenment, and transcending the ego, as well as the "pain body." They also offer a Free DVD and CD on this method, so if you're interested, be sure to visit The Sedona Method and check it out.


Elle

Black is the color of my true love's hair

Here's a video of one of my favorite folk songs ever. Beautiful.



Here are the lyrics:

Black is the colour of my true love's hair.
Her lips are like a rose so fair.
She's got the sweetest face and the gentlest hands.
I love the ground whereon she stands.

I love my love and well she knows.
I love the ground whereon she goes.
And how I wish the day would come
when she and I can be as one.

I go to the Clyde and mourn and weep
satisfied I never will sleep.
I 'll write her a letter, just a few short lines
And suffer death ten thousand times.

As it happens, black is the color of my true love's hair too :)

Back about ten million years ago, I sang in my school's chorus, and what was called "Concertquire" as well. The former anyone could join (for credit, it was a class), the second was by audition only, and I was just barely talented enough to make it in. Vocally speaking, I'm a full soprano, but I spent most of my time singing contralto, or "second soprano" in chorus and concertquire. This was one of the songs we sang, and I just adore its minor key. I also play the autoharp, and I just found the music for this, so there's something new to learn :)

Elle

Flashbackdata.com -- Data Recovery and Computer Forensics

This is a pretty cool site. Especially if you're me and you still haven't learned to back things up. Important things, like, oh, say, data files or financial records. And if you tend to do things to your system that make it crash, which I, uh, kind of do all the time.

Luckily for me, and others like me, it is possible to recover lost files and data. Flashbackdata.com offers several services, such as data recovery from your hard drive or flash drives (another thing I manage to mess up on a fairly routine basis). They also do media conversions and remote backup (I could use that), among other things.

One of those "other things" is Computer Forensics, a service in which they assist in forensic investigations. It's surprising how many people don't realize that simply deleting things doesn't make them go away forever.

Anyway, they have a nice site design, and they offer quite a few useful services. Definitely worth checking out!

Elle

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

Word has come in from the Kimpound that lying, scamming fraud Heidi K. Diaz banned not one, but two members from kimkins.com some time between now and yesterday. The first was banned for having the temerity to ask Heidi about her photos (always a sensitive subject for our Kimmer) and the second was banned for protesting the first banning. Or so the story goes, I'm getting this information second-hand.

Heidi's trigger finger must be getting itchy again. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose, I guess. I think you may have screwed up big-time with these bannings, Heidi. The last thing you need to do right now is prove that everything said about you in the lawsuit is correct, including your penchant for banning anyone who disagrees with you.

Well, banned Kimkinites, if you happen to be reading here -- you're not the first, you won't be the last. Although I wish you'd never gotten mixed up with her, I'm sorry this happened to you. Believe me, none of us over on "the other side" enjoy being right about Kimmer. And no, none of us are judging you, or laughing at you, or saying you got what you deserved. We know better. Believe me, all of us are very familiar with Kimmer and her ability to suck good, smart people into her web of lies. She's very good at it. Most sociopaths are.

Come visit us at Low Carb Friends, where you will find kindness and support, and can learn for yourselves that we're nothing like Kimmer told you we were.

Elle

Help with Search Engine Optimization

I'm in the process of updating my dad's company website (it's a small business, and the site was designed by a friend of my brother's who clearly doesn't know much about websites). One of the things Dad asked me to do was to make sure the site was optimized for search engines. Well, what he actually said was "Make sure you do those meta-whatevers and get me in some search engines!"

I said I would but it's often easier said than done. What kind of search engine matters a lot, they are not all created equal. That's why sites like Submitsitenow.com are so useful, they make sure you're listed in the most important search engines, and avoid repetition. For instance, Yahoo is powered by the Google search engine. Submitting to both Yahoo AND Google is a waste of time and money, because if you list on Google, you'll automatically be listed on Yahoo. that's probably why Submitsitenow.com is so cheap -- $19.95! You easily pay much more than that with other SEO sites. Check it out, and if you like what you see, why not Sign Up Now To Get Massive Hits To Your Website!

Elle

Watched the Oscars tonight ...

... with my best friend, S. Well, sort of -- we always watched it together when we were roommates, lo those many years ago. but, for the last ten years, we have literally lived on opposite sides of the country, so now we "watch" the Oscars by phone.

Here's the deal: We each assemble sufficient snackies and beverages for the broadcast, get our hands-free headsets out, plug in our cellies and yap away. We begin with the fashion shows and go all the way till the end, with running commentary the whole way through. It ends up being a six to eight hour phone call, but hey ... it's Oscar Night!

And it's one of those little rituals that I really, really prize. It's why we're best friends :)

Elle

Sparkly!

Mmmm. Diamonds!

I don't wear a lot of jewelry during the day, since I work in a lab. i have gloves on 60% of the time, and when you work with chemicals you want to be sure you're not wearing extra bits that could trap anything that might splash on you. Not to mention it's a good way to wreck your good jewelry. But I love it, I have tons. Some I bought on my own, some I inherited from my grandmother.

What i don't have yet is my engagement ring, we haven't bought it yet, mostly because we're still deciding what we want, both for the engagement ring and the wedding bands. This site has a bunch of Diamond Engagement Rings that are really, really nice (and sparkly!) and they have a pretty good selection. I really like how they're sorted by price right on the page, and they've got a nice range of pre-set rings as well as the option to design your own.

I love sites like this, well-designed and lots of choices -- they even have antique-look presets, which is what I'm leaning towards for my own ring. Nice!

Elle

Consumer Affairs rips Heidi a new one!

Y'all HAVE to read this article, postedby Medusa:

Kimkins Diet Rolls On Despite Founder's Excess Poundage

This is a great article -- they make several points I had never thought of. For instance, that Heidi allegedly "worked with" the Woman's World "dieticians" to come up with these menu plans. And that Heidi "smiled" in response to something, indicating she was actually in the room when they interviewed her. Which she was not, as Consumer Affairs points out, if she was they might have noticed she was a 300+ lbs woman, not the 118 lb sylph she claimed to be.

Sucks to be you lately, Heidi!

Elle

O'Snap! Leprechaun Tees!

I came across another cool site, Leprechaun Gifts. While I usually identify myself as Italian, that's only half the story. Specifically, my dad's half of the story. My mother is a muti-ethnic mutt, and one chunk of that is Irish. Like everyone else, I'm Irish on St. Patrick's day except, it's true, I really AM Irish, albeit about 1/8th.

There are some very cool designs here, including the usual slightly risque "Pog Mo Thoin" which, for those who don't speak/read Celtic, is an invitation to kiss a certain part of the anatomy. I have to say, I really like the "O'Snap" tee, and my friend's son was born on St. Patrick's day so I may need to get him one of the "birthday boy" shirts.

Lots of really cool stuff on here, a TON of designs! God, the temptation to buy bunches. I love me a funny tee shirt!

Elle

Phun with Photoshop

The fabulous Honeybee just posted a little something on Low Carb Friends, showing how Heidi (or her son) photoshopped her latest update picture. You can see the permalink here but I know she won't mind if i post it here:

(Photo courtesy of Honeybee)

There is an odd line around both arms, and around her neck. That's because that torso and legs very likely belong to someone else, someone with a slightly lighter skin tone. There's also a lot of pixelation around the legs.

ETA: Yeah, I know, there may be other explanations for the lines. This doesn't become me as a scientist, but seriously -- my gut feeling is this has been altered.

This is a total fake. Heidi, Brandon -- you know, you *are* going to be asked under oath about this stuff. And Heidi, you could lose 200 lbs but it will not change a thing about the lawsuit, you know. As it is, I am betting you haven't lost anything, and you're just up to your old tricks again.

So lame.

The real reason Heidi took herself off the "watch us lose" roster

Everyone's favorite discredited diet guru, Heidi K. Diaz aka Kimmer recently removed her 264lb self from the roster of "watch us lose!" members on the front page of kimkins.com. Her explanation? It was time to give "other people a turn." The real reason? The printed retraction from Woman's World Magazine regarding Heidi and her fraud:

(No rags purchased. Photo taken while standing in line at the checkout.)

She *knew* it was going to be printed. Whatever else Heidi is, she's certainly not stupid and she very likely surmised that she'd get some traffic out of this since they printed her site address. And she's just bright enough to realized that seeing the site owner on the front page, weighing 264 lbs was probably not the best advertisement for her diet. Thus, a much more "successful" member was substituted in her place. Of course, that member is at serious risk for deadly cardiac complications, but whatever.

ETA: After a visit here (I can see you, Heidi), guess whose (photoshopped) picture is back up?

Elle

Layout Futzing

As you may have noticed, I've been playing with the site template. I'm working on my own template, and in the process am tinkering with the various template options on blogger. I know a lot about html, but not so much about css/style sheets and all that, thus there will probably be a few more iterations before I'm done.

Your patience is appreciated :)

Elle

Basketball Diaries

Dancing in Socks Guy is a big Phoenix Suns fan, and since we've been together, they have become my favorite team as well, even though I'm from Boston. In my defense, up until this season, the Celtics just haven't been worth watching.

So, Boston is at Phoenix tonight and we're "watching" the game together, with him calling me at the quarters. One thing we noticed in the pre-game stuff was Steve Nash talking about the Shaquille O'Neal trade -- the usual stuff, like (paraphrasing) "this is great" and "it's a bold trade but just what we need."

So I said to Dancing in Socks Guy, "You know how meaningless that is, right? They could sign 4'9" Mary Lou Retton and Nash would say something about how out-of-the-box and original this is and that everyone thinks in terms of getting someone who can shoot over people's heads but not of someone who could shoot from between their legs, and this is just what they needed and blah blah blah ..."

I made him snort beer with that one :)

Elle

Doggie T-shirts!

Check out these dog t-shirts!

OMG. These are just too, too cute! I don't have a dog right now (work too much) but these are giving me some great ideas for the other dogs in my life, such as my dad's two Shih Tzus (Shih'Tzu? Shi Tzu? Shi'Tzu?) who are often dressed up with bandannas and little coats and stuff like that by my dad and stepmother.

For Dad's little Rocky, I am thinking of this "so cute, so evil" shirt because Rocket J. Pup is very cute, yet when you look into those liquid brown eyes of his, you see plans for World Domination. Another good choice for Rocky might be the "Michael Vick Official Hate Club" shirt. There are not enough bad things that can happen to Michael Vick as far as I'm concerned.



For CJ, Dad's other Shih Tzu, I like both the "so many squirrels, so little time" and "The Dogfather" shirts. The first, because CJ never met a squirrel he didn't want to chase or bark his head off at, the second because we're Italian, and presumably, so are the dogs, by adoption anyway. Anyway, these shirts and hoodies are adorable (I love the argyle hoodie!), and they even have a photo page.

We're the kind of family who buys Christmas presents etc. for our pets (I celebrate the cat's birthday on my own, they get a little cat toy or whatever) and I know two dogs who may find something from Doggietshirts.com in their stockings next Christmas.

Elle

Speaking of helpful hints ...

... this one goes out to my best friend, S.

S., you see, is newly enciente, and is stressing about it, mainly because it happened right when she and her husband started trying. She assumed it would take a few months before she got pregnant, and she'd have some time to adjust to the idea.

Apparently, someone wasn't listening in sex. ed. It's true, S., all it takes is one time!

(Hrk Hrk Hrk!)

Anyway, she's due at the end of the summer, and it appears at this writing that neither her family or his will be immediately available to help out, so I will come out a few days after it's born to lend a hand. I don't have children, but I've been around one newborn human and tons of kittens, which makes me ... the best she's got. But there will be a gap of at least a few days between The Spawning and when I arrive, so in the interim, I am posting these helpful hints for her:

Instrucciones para cuidar un bebé

(Translation: Instructions for the care of a baby)

:D

Elle

Review: Power Tool Heaven at Ohio Power Tool

I have to confess. I'm a female who loves power tools.

I'm the only female in a family of three children. My dad tended to treat us all the same, thus, I have a love for a lot of things often associated with males -- wrestling, Kung Fu movies, and power tools.

Ohio Power Tool has a nifty little site, with a lot of cool tools, including the MicroRay IR-100. I should mention that the other reason why I love stuff like this is my work -- science isn't always about funny-looking glassware and equipment with lots of lights and little buttons. It's also about drills, wrenches, and all kinds of stuff needed to install that glassware and equipment, as well as secondary measuring instruments to verify that things are working. Such as the MicroRay IR-100, a digital thermometer that utilizes infrared technology to accurately measure temperature. It also has "smart" technology that accounts for the emissive properties of different surfaces, which greatly increases its accuracy. That's pretty useful, especially when you're me and part of your job is ensuring that pieces of laboratory equipment are not exceeding their operating temperature ranges. Love the design of this tool as well.

Ohio Power Tool also has their own blog, Power Tool Authority, which is pretty cool as well, offering in-depth posts about various tools they offer. I love the design of their blog as well -- nice and clean. Very well done, Ohio Power Tool!

Some helpful hints for Heidi!

I just saw on Low Carb Friends that Heidi Diaz aka Kimmer's latest hearing in the lawsuit against her has been continued to March 21, 2008. This is the second such continuance for the same hearing. Since this is a hearing in which Heidi is trying to quash the writ of attachment against her ill-gotten assets, and since in various court filings she's claimed that this writ has made it impossible for her to 1.) Run her "business" 2.) Make repairs to the house she bought with money garnered through fraud 3.) Afford her diabates medication, she can't be too happy about this, regardless of what the reason for a second continuance may be.

Someone on Low Carb Friends asked if this meant Heidi will have to go hungry until March 21. It occurs to me that the Kimkins starvation diet is just perfect for someone in Heidi's position. By following her own plan, Heidi can easily weather the financial difficulties of waiting until the next hearing. How? Well, the more generous end of the Kimkins plan allows for around 800 calories a day. She has to wait until March 21 for the next hearing, so that's 28 days from now. Thus, she only needs to purchase enough food to provide her with 22,400 calories between now and then.

What will that cost? Well, here's a few suggestions:

• $48.76 worth of Sugar Cookies. Specifically, 294 Sugar Cookies at a little over 76 calories/cookie. A dozen sugar cookies cost about $1.99 around here, so that's 24.5 dozen at $1.99 per dozen. A bargain!
• $150.31 worth of Quarter Pounders with Cheese. Specifically, 30.3 Double Quarter Pounders with Cheese, at 740 calories each. That's about $5.00 per sandwich. Not as much of a bargain as the sugar cookies, but still works out to a little over $5 a day. Besides, there's more protein in a Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese. Not bad!
• $108 worth of General Tso's Chicken. Specifically, 27 two-cup servings at 830 calories per serving. I'm estimating about $4 a serving, based on prices around here (opposite coast, similar cost of living). Still pricier than the sugar cookies, but it has vegetables and it's just the thing when Heidi's in the mood for a little spice!
• $180 worth of Captain Morgan Spiced Rum. Specifically, 373 oz of Captain Morgan Spiced Rum at 60 calories an ounce. A 25.36 oz (750 ml) bottle will run about $12 a bottle. So, that's about 15 bottles at $12 a bottle. Oooh. That's the most expensive thing on the list! But it may be worth it -- after all, you deserve a little treat now and again.
  

So, there you go, Heidi. It looks like the sugar cookies are your best bet when it comes to bargain, Kimkins Friendly food shopping. You could have around 10 cookies a day, but you could certainly mix and match to add in a little variety. Maybe a shot of Captain for breakfast, a sugar cookie for lunch, some General Tso's chicken for supper? Why, there's 4! (4 factorial = 1x2x3x4) or 24 possible combinations so you should have no trouble at all following Kimkins and a budget at the same time!

You're welcome :)

Elle

PS: There is an update on the lawsuit on the Kimkins Lawsuit Site. Thanks, J.!

Snow Day!

You know, as much as I find some aspects of working in academia to be annoying -- the operatic personalities, the molasses-like speed at which things move, the utterly baffling concept of "overhead" -- it's not all bad. In fact, there are some significant perks. Take today, for example. It's snowing! It's only just now started to get bad, but we all decided yesterday that it was going to be a "work from home" day because no one wanted to drive home in the coming mess. As it happens, school was canceled anyway, but seriously -- if I were working in industry right now, I'd be stressing about how I was going to get home and how awful it was going to be, because there are no snow days in industry. It's almost enough to make me forget the fact that the university is going to start making us pay for parking.

Other stuff. I've added a disclosure policy for this site, since there is paid content. Because I can't control certain aspects of this content, such as what may appear in the inline ads, I have made it clear that this may occasionally represent a conflict of interest. Just so you know, all paid posts will be filed under "sponsored posts" or "uncategorized."

As mentioned in the "about me" section, I am on a frugalicious crusade to pay off my student loans in half the time allotted. The paid content here goes towards that. I do appreciate the fact that anyone reads here at all, and I hope you don't mind the extra stuff. It's not a lot, but every bit helps. One thing that I have done in this crusade is change the way I look at money. Sure, something may only cost me $12 a week, say, coffee from my favorite chain. And yeah, while I'm not rolling in cash, I am adequately compensated for what I do, and $12 a week isn't a lot when compared to my monthly salary.

Then I realized that $12 a week is $624 a year, which in turn is basically a monthly student loan payment. And that I have my own perfectly good coffee maker at home. In the same way, I would never be able to stop working based on any revenue this site brings, as I'm no Dooce or Petite Anglaise -- nor would I, I didn't spend a hundred years in college and get a terminal degree to switch careers at this late date. Besides, I love what I do. But even, say, $50 a month is $600 a year, which is ... well, you get the idea.

The new domain name, www.grilledcheesewithpickles.com should be accessible to nearly everyone now or by tomorrow at the latest as DNS servers 'round the world update. If you link to me, please update the address to that, if you have time. Anything linking to the old blogspot address will still come here, as it's still hosted on blogspot, but changing the address to www.grilledcheesewithpickles.com will update my page rank. But you don't have to :)

Have a great day, readers!

Elle

Courtesy of Dancing in Socks Guy's best friend

Don't hate me, but you're going to have the music from this stuck in your head forever. But you won't mind it :)




Elle

Debt Solutions

I came across an interesting website on Debt Solutions, from Abacus, a UK debt management company. I like the way their website is designed, and I admit to a nostalgic fondness when I read things like "Call freephone."

As you may have noticed in the "about me" section, I am in the middle of trying to clear a significant student loan debt. Luckily for me, this is entirely do-able with my salary, and I don't have a lot of other debt. My mania about clearing it stems mainly from not wanting it to hang over my head, and the knowledge that it would be not quite so large if I had made better choices (note to everyone who has such a loan -- don't defer unless you absolutely must). But, you can't un-ring a bell, and things happen. Abacus has a section with case studies that illustrate just how easy it is to get into debt without meaning to, and how hard it can be to claw your way out.

I'm very fortunate -- by assiduously avoiding use of my credit cards (I was never that bad with them, but they're frozen -- literally frozen -- in a baggie of ice in my freezer), recording everything I spend, and making and sticking to a realistic budget, I can pay this off. Other people have a much harder time of it, and may need to pursue other options. The worst thing, it seems -- and this is just common sense -- is to do nothing at all and hope it goes away. It won't!

Elle

Announcement!

Just so you all know, I got my own domain name. Thus, grilledcheesewithpickles.blogspot.com is now www.grilledcheesewithpickles.com! But fear not -- grilledcheesewithpickles.blogspot.com will redirect automatically to the new domain (in a few days -- I have to move some stuff). So, you don't have to change your links or anything :)

Thanks to everyone who reads here, going on 10,000 of you who have visited. You made it worth the $10 (earned by paid blogging) it cost me to register the name. You all rock!

Elle

Mortgage worries around the world

As I'm sure you've heard, the whole Mortgages crisis isn't just limited to the states. Northern Rock, a UK bank, now needs bailing out, due in part to what's happening on this side of the Atlantic. However, according to Money Magic, those who hold mortgages with Northern Rock don't need to be especially worried. This article quotes the editor of Moneywise Magazine as saying, "For mortgage borrowers it shouldn''t be too much of a problem, it''s just the case that when the time comes around for them to re-mortgage they need to shop around across the whole of the market." She also goes on to state that Northern Rock shareholders are much more likely to be affected than those who hold mortgages. That's great for people holding mortgages, not so great for those who own shares, I guess.

According to the article, North Rock has been "nationalised" (that's British for "bailed out by the government") and the cost of that nationalization has been added to the UK's national debt. Northern Rock apparently has issued a statement saying that customers will not be affected by this nationalization, and that they are conducting business as usual.

We've been hearing a lot about the "global village" thing, for what seems like ... well, it seems like forever. So much so that it's become a tired, old verbal saw. But every so often, something like this comes up and you realize that, sadly, it's all too true.

Elle

America's Next Top Kitty Model

OMG!!! I love this!!!

As much as I love all my kitties, I have to admit that of the four, only one would make the cut as America's next top kitty model. Thundercat is too jowly, plus he'd sleep through the shoot. Morsel is a beautiful orange tabby, but he's scared of his own shadow. Something as minor as a paper page falling over in the kitchen is enough to send him running under my bed. Minx technically isn't even a cat, she's a minx (a very rare creature which looks like a cat, but doesn't act like one). Only my lovely Lilly, a long-haired calico, would make the grade. But Lilly has an ... attitude. If she were a human model she'd make Naomi Campbell blanch. But we love her anyway.

So, yeah, I have to agree here ... Donut would never make it as a kitty model. But what a great name for a cat!

Elle

The heck with my car, I would live in one of these!

Dancing in Socks Guy are planning a move to the UK in the distant future. I've already lived there, as a student for a year, and have visited extensively in the time since. My cousin married a British guy and currently lives just outside of London, thus, there is always a couch there with my name on it. Dancing in Socks Guy has never been, poor lad.

Anyway, one of the things we often talk about is where we'll live. By that time we will both have doctorates and presumably should be able to both draw decent salaries. However, London is an expensive city in which to live so we often joke about which side of the Thames we'll be stowing our refrigerator box on. I don't think things will be quite that bad, I think we may even be able to afford a small house (outside of London) and if that happens, I want a Sectional Garage!

Seriously, look at these things -- they're so cool! They even come in a Georgian Style, which will be very helpful should we end up living in Bath. They've even got a line of sheds, which is going to make the possessor of the Y chromosome in this relationship very happy. He's such a guy when it comes to that kind of thing!

These are very cool, and may come in handy when a bunch of our relatives flock over to "visit" with "us" the same way I go to London just because I miss cousin Sarah (I do miss you, Sarah!) but it won't matter, because we'll have a lovely garage/shed to put them in.

Elle

Anorexia is not a fashion accesory, Elle Magazine.

It's a disease.

Kimorexia tipped me off to a disgusting story that's appearing in the March issue of Elle Magazine. I can't seem to load the original link to this story, but I did find a quote on it here:

"You know that whole thing about how being superskinny is an ideal originated by the fashion industry and perpetuated by female competitiveness and like, totally NOT AT ALL what men are interested in etc. etc.? Well that’s bullshit, says a story in the March Elle by Amanda Fortini, a 5′6 woman who dropped to 100 pounds a few years back. “Many men, I quickly learned, really do like frighteningly lean women, whatever they may claim to the controversy. As an average, medium-size young woman, I was unremarkable, innocuous. As a skinny slip of a thing, I was something of a sensation. In restaurants and at parties, men flirted at me extravagantly…As a male friend once put it to me, semifacetiously,” she writes, ‘A little anorexia is hot.’"

Bullsh*t.

You know, if any guy out there thinks that osteoporosis, hair loss, amenorrhea, eroded tooth enamel, dry and flaking skin, lanugo, constipation, bloating, liver failure, bloodshot eyes, vomit in the hair, constant abrasions on the knuckles, swollen salivary glands, sore throats, poor wound healing, dizziness and fainting and any and all of the side effects associated with eating disorders are hot ... please leave a comment, so we know you exist. Be sure to tell us what you find attractive about these things. I, personally, would love to know.

Elle Magazine, you should be ashamed of yourself. I may have to change my signature.

L

Homeowner Loans and Parental Assistance

According to magicloans.co.uk, a Homeowner Loan site in the UK, many new homeowners get the down payment for their mortgage from their parents. Alternately, parents are serving as co-signers on various such loans when their children run into trouble paying their mortgages.

Actually, my dad helped one of my brothers in this way -- gave him an advance on his "inheritance" in the form of a down payment on J's house. Which is interesting, because he's the youngest and the article states that parents are more likely to provide the eldest child (that would be me, Dad) with this kind of assistance. According to the article, seventeen percent of first-borns (again, that's me, Dad) are given financial assistance by their parents towards buying a home (I wonder what that's like) whereas twelve percent of second-borns receive the same (as far as I know, you didn't help M. out with his house either, Dad) and just nine percent of third-borns will receive a big, honking check towards the purchase of a home. A check which has "You were always my favorite!" written in the memo.

The sort of check I imagine our youngest brother got.

Hey, Dad. I think you owe me a check! ;)

Elle

Watch me lose kill myself!

Honeybee2 posted some information regarding one of the members featured on the "watch us lose" section of the kimkins.com front page. This story, if true, is extremely disturbing. From the Low Carb Friends "Fascination" threads:

What came as a huge, I mean huge, shock to me was the posts I read about the new member on the front page. The member looks wonder and I think she truly has lost the weight. She does appear to be legit in her success in losing the weight.

However, I was distressed when I read that the member had started KK on 1-25-07 and 6 months later became ill in August of that year. She was having breathing difficulties and thought she had asthma, but then ended up in the hospital. The diagnosis- CHF -CONGESTIVE HEART FAILURE! She posted about this diagnosis on 8-23-07 or so and then was gone from kimkins.

She returned in 12-27-07 and started back posting about doing kimkins. Her plan was to do bootcamp for a week, K/E for a week and then get right back into Kimkins. She is doing KK with exercising/weight lifting and to say the least I am deeply concerned that she is doing more harm to her already struggling heart.

I'm concerned too. This woman is in grave danger.

To that kimkins.com member: I'm not a medical doctor. But I know a lot about congestive heart failure, having nursed a beloved cat through the feline version of it for nearly two years, and you are risking your life. I don't know what caused your initial bout with CHF, but I can tell you this much -- if you use this very-low calorie diet, and you for whatever reason suddenly increase your calories, you can trigger another round with it. It's called refeeding syndrome, first noticed in survivors of Nazi concentration camps who were allowed free access to food. It's a long story as to what happens, but in the case of congestive heart failure, an increase in electrolytes after a period of depletion leads to uncontrolled edema. Some links on the subject:

New England Journal of Medicine
Pediatrics
Facts and Comparisons

You need to tell your physicians what you are doing by way of a diet, immediately. Whatever you do, don't go off Kimkins by yourself, you need to do this under medical supervision.

Heidi, I know you read here. Let me tell you this right now, I know you don't care about your members but you do care about what happens to you. You tell this woman to get off your "diet" right now and to do it under the supervision of a physician. If something happens to her, you're going to be held criminally liable for it, regardless of your small-print disclaimers. She has a known medical condition for which a very-low calorie diet, like yours, is contraindicated. And you know it.

For all that that I've ever said that Kimkins was going to kill someone, someday, I always hoped I was wrong about that.

Elle

IVA -- Help with Debt

Ah, debt. My constant companion. My nemesis.

While I never had a lot of credit card debt (less than $500) I have a big student loan debt, mainly because I deferred it like an idiot when I didn't need to and let the interest compound. Still, I can pay everything but somehow, even though I theoretically should be ahead, I never was. A little while back I decided to figure out just why the heck that was. I sat down and wrote down, with brutal honesty, everything I owed to everyone. Then I wrote down what I made. Then I worked out how much needed to be paid and when. Then I made a budget and I've been sticking to it. And I'm clipping coupons, and entering into a spreadsheet every last penny I spend. I'm paying off my debt in ever-increasing amounts as a result, and also am saving a bit each paycheck to weather those unforeseen financial storms. And it's working. Last month was the first time in a long time when my debt didn't increase due to compounded interest.

To be clear about this: I'm not facing bankruptcy or anything like that. I actually make a very decent salary. But, I'm like a lot of people, I live paycheck to paycheck and even though I pay my debts I never seem to get ahead. Something always came up ... car repairs, sick cats, or what have you. I was lucky, I was always able to make the minimum payments.

Other people are not so fortunate, and for them there are options such as an IVA. An IVA (Individual Voluntary Arrangement) is, according to the website www.cleardebt.co.uk:

A legally binding agreement between you and all the people and organisations you owe money to (your creditors). You can try to arrange an IVA when there is no real prospect of paying off all your debts

You can read more about that here. Many people turn to bankruptcy when faced with debt they can't pay; but personally, I think it's a better idea to explore all your options before taking such a drastic step. Most creditors are willing to work with you, and things like an IVA are one way to help get your finances back on track.


Elle

Dear Satan's Own pH Meter

WTF is your problem?

I've tried to calibrate you about twenty times this morning, and yet you still won't work properly. Is today "Let's give Elle every single message error extant Day" and nobody told me? Sensitivity error. Zero error. Drift error.

Why, pH meter? Why?

Okay, yeah, someone (it may have been me) forgot to cover the fill hole between now and a week ago when you were calibrated last and all the potassium chloride solution evaporated, leaving the probe sheathed in a perfect little casing of salt. But I fixed that, pH meter. I cleaned the probe, I rinsed out the inside per your instructions, filled it up again and lovingly placed it in a 60 degree water bath, releasing all those air bubbles. Let's face it, this is not the first time we've been through this, and this make-up maintenance has always smoothed things over before. But not this time, pH meter.

You know, that probe -- it's not made of gold, baby! It's about three dollars worth of glass and plastic, and yet it cost upwards of $1,200 US and I'm supposed to treat it like it's a precision piece of equipment. For that much money, I should be able to pick my nose with it, kimwipe it clean and use it ten seconds later to get a quick, accurate pH on something. But no. Somehow you seem to realize that when I put said probe in pH 4 buffer and it reads 3.25 that you are still, in fact, reading pH 4 buffer. But when I put it in pH 7 buffer and it reads 6.89 you're all, "UNKNOWN BUFFER, REPEAT MEASUREMENT."

What are you, stupid?

Invariably when I meet someone new and they find out I'm a scientist, they'll say something like, "Oh, you must be so smart!" or "Oh, your work must be so interesting!" Believe me, pH meter, I'd like both to be true, but look at me. Ten years of college education and a Ph.D and I'm writing blog posts to an inanimate object, whose temperamental behavior is the most interesting thing that's happened all day around here. Maybe if I'm really lucky the plate reader will decide to throw me an error code or two later on.

(ETA: The plate reader performed beautifully. But the printer jammed.)

Nonetheless. Look, bitch. You have the upper hand now, but don't get too cocky. There's more where you came from, and if you think I won't use some of that new grant money to replace you, think again. After lunch, when I take you out of the last-ditch-effort soaking solution, I'd best find you working, and working right. If not, I'll buy myself a nice new meter with a trophy ISFET probe on it. If you're lucky I might give you to the new faculty member down the hall, or I might just slap a "broken equipment" label on you and let EHS deal with your attitude. There's no weekly calibrations down in the old equipment room in the basement, you know. Remember that, princess.

Love,

Elle

Australian Jobs Site

As I may have mentioned a time or two, I'm of (partial) Italian descent. One small benefit from this, besides a love of pasta (actually, for me that's a curse) is that I qualify for Italian citizenship, which I'm in the process of getting. I will, of course, retain my US Citizenship, but the Italian citizenship will come in handy. Not only will I be able to flash around two passports, but I will be able to work anywhere in the European Union without all the fuss and bother of work visas and whatnot. This is a longstanding dream for me and Dancing in Socks Guy.

Part of that dream is to work and live all over the world, including New Zealand (where he lived for a while) and Australia. Regretfully, that pretty new passport won't do us much good there, but there is a great website for Australian Jobs that would. This site, jobs.com.au, has a nice, clean design and a ton of information on it. There's the obvious listing of, uh, jobs in many different categories, but it also has useful tools such as a salary calculator and links to recruitment agencies, as well as news and reviews.

Pretty cool. I wonder how much work it would take to get a work visa ...

Elle

Maybe this is why they trust her ...

A post from kimkins.com, provided by Kat (who I thought was posting it for herself, and left me wondering why she'd post something like this when I know she's smarter than that!). The poster's comments are in bold italics, my replies are in regular type.


OKay. My huibs is not doing KK, but I called the doctors office and of course got voicemail, so you guys are my last hope here.

No. That would be the emergency room. Good God, woman, if your plumbing develops a leak, you don't call the landscapers, do you? No. You call a plumber. Likewise, if you or someone else is in the middle of an emergent medical crisis, you seek medical help. You don't post to a message board!

He is on a number of meds including Glucophage and glipizide and something for blood pressure Zocor I think and soemthing for cholestrol and an aspirin. Yep they have him on everything I think.

Nothing to say to this.

Well, I know what to do to raise his sugars but what else can we do to lower them? Not over time, immediately. This morning he had a little too many carbs. Last night his levels were like 62 though and then he had a snack and went to bed shortly after that. Well, this morning he wanted Chick-Fil-A OKay not the best choice fries (not a lot though) and a sandwich on a wheat bun with about 7 ozs OJ and 7 ozs milk. Within an hour they were 236 and 20 minutes later 259. I am freaking out. He has shutdown. Asleep on the bed. I am hoping someone reading this can help.

Well, I know you didn't mean me, but here's my advice. If his sugar is that high and he's passed out from it, call an ambulance or otherwise get him to the hospital. There is nothing you can do at home to lower his blood sugar, save making him get up and walk around, and even that won't help much. The last place you should be looking for help in dealing with a diabetic crisis is on a message board run by a lying fraud with no medical training whatsoever. If you were hoping Kimmer could help you, you're going to be disappointed. She's in court today, over that lawsuit.

The title of this post refers to what your husband ate today and your reaction to it. None of what he ate was okay, Original Poster, He had a LOT too many carbs, and that you don't recognize this and why a diabetic should be avoiding those foods in the first place explains why Kimmer can get away with what she does with the few followers she has left. You don't know any better, and she can tell you anything and you'll believe it.

For your edification: Diabetics, like us carb-challenged people, need to stay away from white carbs altogether. Fries are out. So is that "wheat bun" because even if it's whole-wheat, it likely still has white flour in it somewhere. Same thing with breaded meats -- that breading is probably made with white flour. The orange juice is out completely, for all intents and purposes, it's pure sugar. The milk is probably also not a good idea.

Original Poster, get your husband some medical help, right now. Then talk to his doctor about what your husband should be eating. Then tell him all about your diet, and see what he says. I hope your husband is okay.

Elle

DANGER!!! Kimmer's new "payment plan"

It looks like everyone's favorite discredited diet guru, at least temporarily deprived of her ill-gotten gains, has come up with a new way to supplement her income. This scam-in-the-making involves kimkins.com new "flexible payment plan" in which you send this admitted liar and fraud two personal checks, one live and one postdated by three weeks.

I am begging anyone who is considering this to think twice. Please, please, PLEASE. Don't be that stupid.

Legally, the payee is supposed to wait until the date on the check to deposit it. In a very few states, that is. States like Wisconsin, for example, allow it to be deposited and paid on before the date on the check. Most states will ignore whatever date you write on a check unless you furnish them with written instructions to the contrary.

Besides, the reality is that hardly anyone looks at the date anymore. For that matter, hardly any humans handle checks anymore, the process is largely automated. And in reality, there is very little legal recourse one can take if someone deposits a post-dated check early. But don't take my word for it, check out these links:

All Experts
Banking Questions.com
CCCS
Ckfraud

Or just Google it. Seriously, this woman is an admitted fraud. You send her any kind of personal check and you've sent her your account and routing numbers. You might as well send her your PIN number and debit/credit cards while you're at it because this information is NOT going to a third-party processor who at least might keep it safe. These checks are going directly into the sausage-like fingers of a con-artist who's had her assets frozen, her alimony stopped, and her disability payments cut off (because of fraud, fraud, and fraud again).

She cannot be trusted. Please don't make this mistake.

Think of it like this -- if she were sincere, she'd let you send her ONE money order or cashier's check NOW, and another in three weeks. Not post-dated personal checks. If you don't send the second one, she's not out anything, she can just deactivate your account.

And Heidi, since I know you read here -- if you try cashing all those checks at once, you've committed mail fraud. If you think things suck for you now, they'll only get worse if you try this. What's next, a Western Union scam? Of course, I suspect the reason why you're doing this is your attorney probably told you there is little chance your assets will be un-attached tomorrow. Have a great day! :)

Elle

Why do they trust her?

"They" being the current members of kimkins.com and "her" being the fraud who runs it, Heidi K. Diaz.

I was pondering this last night. Why do they trust her? The truth is out. Even if they're not completely aware of the extent of her lies and fraud, they're certainly aware that the owner/founder of this starvation diet is herself morbidly obese. Her picture and her stats are right there, on the front page of kimkins.com. They know she's lost just fifty-three pounds in about four months -- not bad, but nothing that couldn't be achieved on Atkins or similar plans which don't make you starve yourself. And Heidi's losses to date are very far from the stunning, rapid weight loss she claimed anyone following Kimkins could achieve. I've been told that one big appeal of that site is all the allegedly wonderful support members receive, but the stories posted on Kimkins Survivors tell a different story; a tale of a forum in which dissenters are attacked and summarily banned.

So what are the members of kimkins.com getting for their $59.95-$69.95 lifetime memberships? Leadership by a woman with no medical or scientific credentials whatsoever, a woman who admitted she lied about her alleged weight loss on this plan, a woman who is being sued for this fraud, a woman who is having less than stellar success on her own plan, and the ability to participate in a message board which has all the usual personality quirks, cliques, and internecine warfare available for free in a bunch of other diet support sites. At least if you get banned from one of them you're not out any money.

WTH, Kimkinites?

Look at it this way. Suppose I joined a house-building forum back in 2000, 2001. Suppose I told everyone there that I built myself a mansion for $1,000. Using cardboard and scotch tape. Some people thought I was full of it, but others thought it was possible. Oh, sure, not everyone can have that kind of success, but some people could and hey ... I had pictures of my mansion to prove it! And the way I talk about my success makes it clear that the idea of using traditional methods like boards and nails are just old-fashioned concepts, easily disproved. According to me, anyone could build a cardboard and scotch tape mansion, and those who had problems doing so were just weak. And lazy. And couldn't follow my directions. I gathered a following, and eventually left that house-building forum and started my own site which charged a lifetime membership of $69.95 to teach you the secrets of building your very own cardboard mansion for $1,000.

Now suppose it was revealed that I lied about the whole thing. Not only were the pictures of my alleged mansion fake, it is revealed that in fact, I have never even owned any kind of house and am currently living in a refrigerator box down by the river. Oh, I may know a thing or two about building houses -- who doesn't? But I've never actually built one. I am finally forced to admit my fraud, and mount an "Elle's back on track!" challenge in which I vow to build a cardboard mansion for $1,000, and put up progress pictures on the site which demonstrate ... that all I've managed to do in months of trying is buy a roll of scotch tape.

Maybe one or two people who follow my advice manage to build a cardboard mansion for $1,000, because they already have the land and everything they needed to build the place, save for $1,000 worth of cardboard and scotch tape. But the vast majority of people will have exactly the same success I did -- that is, none at all. And even those who do manage to build something mansion-esque soon discover that this house has the distressing habit of falling apart in the first rainstorm.

Given all that ... why on earth would anyone with half a brain in their head still believe me? And continue to pay me money for it? I can't even do what I'm claiming anyone can do, something common sense would suggest is well-nigh impossible for anyone save those in a very few, very specific circumstances. Like, people who are building their cardboard mansions in atmosphere-controlled bio-domes or something like that. Why?

Just curious.

Elle

HEY RAISIN QUEEN!

Seriously, get any closer and you really will have to buy me dinner.

Thirty-seven Thirty-EIGHT Thirty-NINE FORTY-ONE FORTY-TWO visits in ONE DAY, Raisin Queen? Typing in the address directly, coming from LCF, and just now, from a Yahoo search? In which you spelled "pickles" incorrectly? And visiting again, after claiming you were gone for good?

Do you really like my writing that much?

Look, I was willing to believe you're an interested, if somewhat, shall we say, focused, bystander here. At least I was until visit #37. What reason do you have for doing a Yahoo search on "grilled cheese and pickels"? Maybe you're trying to up my page rank, in which case, thank you, but that's not how it works.

Maybe you're up to something slightly less charitable. With a little time and effort it wouldn't be all that hard to figure out who I am, and try to cause trouble. If so, well, you and everyone else who comes here is logged and now you're screen-shot as well.

WTF are you up to, Raisin Queen? You know I know when you're here. You know I know your IP address, which leads right back to you. If you're up to f*ckery, you may want to think twice about whatever it is you're planning. If this is your idea of fun ... well, you still need to think twice. As you would say, "your wierd!"

:)

Elle

I don't accept your apology, Woman's World Magazine

In the "it's about damn time" category, we have a retraction/apology from Woman's World Magazine for publishing their Kimkins article, conveniently posted on their otherwise unused website.




Below, the text in bold italics with my comments:

A statement from Woman's World Magazine

At least six months after you were informed of this fraud.

Please accept our apology

No.

We at Woman’s World pride ourselves on finding inspiring diet successes to share with our readers every week.

There's a WONDER DIET in every issue, is there not? A WONDER DIET which is inevitably revolutionary in concept, better than anything that has come before, right? A brand-new WONDER DIET capable of blasting off weight at light speed, no? Perhaps the onus of finding 52 such diets each and every year makes it impossible to do the kind of due diligence needed to verify the claims they make. Then again, it's probably easier to just let the hyperbole slide and hope no one notices the very slender evidence and specious statements by alleged "experts" present in these articles. We know Kimkins is a complete and total fraud, but what we don't know is how many other such wonder diets you've gushed about in the past -- or will gush about in the future -- are just as fradulent. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof, jackasses.

That’s why we were so distressed to learn that Kim Drake, the founder of Kimkins.com, gave us inaccurate information about herself and her weight loss.

As previously mentioned, you've known about this for months. If your distress was genuine, I suspect you would have issued this apology/retraction long ere this. I also suspect your distress lays not so much in the possibility that your readership was duped and harmed by Heidi Diaz aka Kim Drake, but in the possibility that your magazine may incur some legal liability as a result. Call me a cynic, but your protracted silence on this issue, coupled with the fact that no print publication enjoys printing retractions unless absolutely necessary, makes me think that this apology springs not from the heart, but from an earnest (and understandable) desire not to be sued for publishing the article in the first place. Those lawsuits and structured settlements and whatnot are a bitch, aren't they?

This is how distressed you were back in July 2007 when the former business partner of Heidi Diaz (aka Kim Drake) wrote to you regarding this diet: You replied with a cease-and-desist letter demanding that her husband remove the image of the magazine cover featuring Kimkins from his site. Not a word about the potential fraud and issues she raised. Way to go!

Though the article appeared several months ago, in our June 12, 2007 issue, and nutritionists assure us the diet information we provided was accurate, we deeply regret having shared with you a story we can’t stand behind.

There is no way any nutritionist gave this diet a pass, even a low-carb friendly nutritionist. No ethical, licensed nutritionist would recommend this starvation diet, even the munged beyond recognition Kimkins plan you actually published, which though the higher end of Kimkins-friendly, is still nutritionally deficient. In fact, someone mentioned you've had trouble with these "expert opinions" in the past. I only skimmed the article while in the checkout line, but others have read it carefully and noticed that nearly all of these expert opinions lead back to the gaping maw of Heidi Diaz aka Kim Drake herself.

These "expert opinions" can be illusory anyway. You could, in theory, pay me to give an expert opinion on all these wonder diets, dear Woman's World Magazine. You could call me Dr. Elle and technically, you'd be right. I am a doctor. I hold a doctorate in Biochemistry. Of course, my area of expertise is in the realm of polymer-protein interactions, not medical biochemistry, but I suspect you'd probably refrain from mentioning that or even specify that I'm not a medical doctor.

But in reality, you couldn't actually pay me to endorse any of these wonder diets. I may owe ten gazillion dollars in student loans but I'd never be willing to compromise what few standards I have to earn a couple bucks towards paying them off by allowing you to misrepresent my credentials and cherry-pick bits and bobs from whatever I said about Wonder Diet X to make it fit the tone of your article. Unfortunately for your readership, not every person with initials in front and in back of their names feels the same way.

Your trust means everything to us, and we want to bring you the very best magazine we can, each and every week.

I think you meant, "Your money means everything to us, and we want you to buy our magazine, each and every week."

You're not actually apologizing to me, Woman's World Magazine, because I don't buy your rag. But I'm not accepting it anyway.

Elle

If it looks like a duck ...

There was a recent incident on the Kimmer Fascination Threads, in which it appeared we had a drive-by trolling. This alleged troll was of the "you ladies need to get a life" variety, and used a very familiar writing/spelling/grammar style. There was the usual spate of posts and responses until the admins stepped in and deleted most of it. Par for the course.

A fellow anti-kimkins blogger I respect, Prudentia, states that this person was not in fact a troll, and is in fact a potential "genuine and viable asset" in the cause of taking down Heidi Diaz and her dangerous starvation diet. Prudentia makes a very good point when she says that we should think twice before leaping to conclusions, and avoid speculation as to identity and motives. Another blogger I respect, Mariasol, also posted about this issue of internet trolls, and asks an important question -- how are we supposed to know if it's a troll or not without "feeding" it?

Full disclosure: I helped feed this "troll." It looked like a troll. It acted like a troll. It posted like a troll. It was in my opinion, reasonable to assume that this person was, in fact, a troll. If this person (MM) is not a troll, as Prudentia suggests, then I'm sorry. But I don't know whatever it is that Prudentia knows about this person, and nothing about MM thus far has led me to change my opinion. MM certainly seemed to know a lot about the whole Kimkins mess, including the lawsuit. If MM does, in fact, have information that would be helpful in taking down Kimmer, great. I'm sorry I called you Hulon and thought you were a troll. Contact John Tiedt and tell him whatever it is you know, anonymously if you wish.

But don't consider this to be an unequivocal apology, because knowing as much as you apparently do about this subject, MM, you should have known to do that in the first place, rather than going on a bizarrely-worded posting spree on LCF and various anti-Kimkins blogs. OBVIOUSLY that kind of behavior was going to be taken for trolling -- seriously, how did you think what you were saying and how you were saying it was going to be received? As the saying goes, when you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras. That said, in the future I will try to keep Prudentia's advice in mind and not react so quickly.

Elle

It's a nephew!

Got an email from my sister-in-law today, the new baby is a boy! They already have a nearly 2-year-old boy, my first nephew, M. This is great, mainly for my niece, C.

There's a story behind this. C was the first grandchild/nipote (Italian for both niece and nephew, much easier than niece-nephew) born to our side of her family. As such, she got a lot of attention, and she and I are especially close (even though she displaced me from my status as Only Girl in the family). We have a tradition of close auntie-niece relationships in our family, and C. and I are pretty tight. Since she was born I've been telling her she's my favorite niece which was at once sweet of Auntie Elle and stupid, because ... what if another niece showed up somewhere along the way? This became an issue before we found out M. was a boy; C's reaction on learning she was going to have a new cousin was, "Now I won't be Auntie Elle's favorite niece any more!"

Ooopsies.

So, in the category of There Was Probably a Better Way to Handle That, I told her that no matter what, she would always be special because she was the first niece, and that no matter how many nieces I have, I'd always love her just the teensiest bit more because of this ... so long as she kept that to herself.

Then we learned M. was a boy, and so is New Baby, which obviates the whole niece thing, at least from the Indiana contingent, since that's probably it for kids from that brother and sister-in-law. C's father could, in theory, screw this up, but his live-in girlfriend already has a little boy, Other C and C's mother's boyfriend (this gets complicated) has two grown children already. Of course, any kid they had wouldn't technically be my niece by blood, but C's mom is like a sister to me, so they'd be as much my nipote as C is, but I've been told that's probably not going to happen. Besides, C's mother's sister's daughter, T (who also happens to be my second cousin -- I told you this was complicated) already calls me Auntie Elle, which C is fine with.

Anyway. New nephew! More books to buy! On principle, I don't buy my various nipote and pseudo-nipote toys, I am the Auntie Who Gives Books. There's the obvious choices for infants and toddlers, which they all have in spades. Since I myself was once a little girl, I'm pretty set on how to fill C's library over the next few years. The problem is the boys, a problem I came up against when picking Other C's Christmas presents this year. I have no idea what books little boys are into, particularly boys reading at or above the fourth grade level. Suggestions? Other C isn't even in first grade yet, but he's a reading prodigy (I like that kid) and he literally danced with joy, yelling OMG! AUNTIE ELLE GOT ME CHAPTER BOOKS!!! when he opened his presents

As I said, I like that kid.

Elle

Happy Belated Valentine's Day!

For all my friends on the Internets, a Valentine's Day Card, thoughtfully sent to me by my real-life best friend:





I like it :) This card, more than anything, is a perfect example of why S and I are best friends.

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day. Mine was perfect except my Valentine is 2000+ miles away right now. But in just a few weeks I'll be out there with him.

Elle

Online Casino

Or, adventures in web design.

This is a casino site, and it's got a very slick design. A lot of similar sites tend to be eye-gouging in terms of their design and layout; entirely too busy and with obnoxious color palettes. Not so joylandcasino.com. The content is located in the center, surrounded by clean, white space which draws the eye to said content, the online casino games.

Many sites are so poorly designed that it's impossible to see what they're offering, but here it's obvious -- it's an online casino, offering a wide assortment of games, such as:

• Video Poker
• Blackjack
• Progressive Slot Jackpots
• Video Slots
• Multi-line slots
• Single-line slots
• Caribbean Poker
• Craps
• Roulette
• Baccarat
• Keno
• Arcade Games

They apparently also do a lot of bonus offers and promotions including a $808 Welcome Bonus for new players. The games aside, I am really liking this site's design. I'm re-doing my dad's business website (I do the occasional small-business site) and this has given me some ideas.

Elle

The Chicken Flies at Midnight!

The chickens are restless!

After a blessed few weeks of silence, Bonnie Luper, former chandler (that's someone who makes candles, Bonnie) extraordinaire and now founder of the Magic Chicken Diet decided to address the issue of the anti-kimkins bloggers who had questions regarding what, if any, ties Ms. Luper and her super protective family may have had to Kimkins. Below, reproduced from a post on Low Carb Friends, is Bonnie's statement, written with her typical folksy style and creative disregard for grammatical conventions:

"Q: I am one of your members (11 weeks now) and I helped to enlist you guys 4 new members. I am real excited because my husband has actually noticed me again and even complimented me and said how beautiful I looked the other evening. I had to throw that in but now my question why is there such awful stuff on the internet?

A: We are aware of what you are talking about and we are not sure, as we received some strange emails from some strange characters and have our lawyers Ross & Matthews of Ft. Worth, Texas looking in to this. We were told to stand by. We will keep our members posted and thanks for the concern. Just remember to stay Positive, as those kind of people are better known as battery drainers."

Oh goodness. Not ... *gasp* ... LAWYERS!

All I have to say to that is this:


I know you've been litigious in the past, Bonnie, and threats like that may work on people like Hulon (is he still your fake son-in-law?) but other people find implied threats like that funny. And lame. And desperate. I've personally never wasted a single electron sending you any email, but anyone who did probably has nothing to worry about. Nice try, though!

Elle

Review of Francesco Vitetta Wedding Speeches

This is a sponsored post.

Today I will be reviewing Francesco Vitetta Wedding Speeches, which can be viewed here:

http://www.brideheaven.com/index.php?p=Francesco_Vitetta_Wedding_Speeches_Ebook

Let's see if they're serious about wanting honest reviews. This website needs a serious amount of work.

The idea itself, an eBook filled with wedding speeches, is a great idea. I was actually at a wedding today in which I sat through one particularly excruciating speech, and the sad thing was, I knew the person giving it had put a lot of work into it. So, something like Francesco Vitetta Wedding Speeches eBook could be quite useful.

Useful, that is, if the website design were improved, which includes cleaning up the grammar and spelling errors on the website. I won't bother pointing them out, but there are more than a few, and they are very distracting. It's also probably not the best sales tool when you're trying to market a product like this. It's also not necessary to list every last kind of wedding speech in this eBook, but what would be useful is if a sample speech or two were available. There are a few short blurbs here, but nothing which rises to the level of a "speech." By providing a sample speech or two the prospective buyer could have a look and decide for themselves whether or not the quality warrants the price. I'd tell you what that is, except it doesn't seem to be listed on the page. In fact, the only place you can order it is from an obscure little link on the main page, Bride Heaven. The site owners should address this; I'm no marketing genius, but if I have to hunt to find out how much something costs or jump through hoops to order it, I'll probably decide not to buy it.

There are several pages on this site, one for the bride, one for the groom, one for the aforementioned speeches, and one for wedding gifts. They all offer a lot of tips and suggestions for planning a wedding, which is a nice touch. But again, the erratic grammar, capitalization, and spelling distract from the message. The multiple ads are distracting as well, and site owner, this is coming from someone who is doing paid blogging and also has ads. Too many are distracting, and they do nothing to give your site credibility. Basically, this site looks amateurish at best, as if it were being done by someone for a little extra beer money.

So, here's my advice. Clean up the spelling and grammar. That's a nice banner at the top, but the rest of the color palette makes it hard to read. There is entirely too much content in certain places, and not enough in others. If the main product is the eBook, then links to where it can be purchased should be prominently located, which will have the salutary effect of forcing the removal of some of those ads. Make this site look professional, and improved sales should follow. Because, and I hate to say this, as a bride-to-be, there's no way I'd buy that book with a website like this.

Elle

That's some turbo weight loss, Heidi!

I checked in on the Kimkins webpage earlier today, and saw that Heidi is reporting a total weight loss of 50 lbs thus far. What she's actually lost, if anything, is debatable, but let's just assume for a moment that this is true. She's been "back on track" since she was exposed as a fraud on national television during the Mike and Juliet show back on 12 November 2007. That's the day she posted a notice on her website that she was not in fact a lithe 120 lbs Russian Bride named Kim Drake who lost 198 lbs in 11 months, but rather an 300+ lb conwoman named Heidi Diaz. She said in that same statement that she had "lost 100 lbs in six months" though no mention was made of when that supposedly happened (like after that weight loss surgery she had).

We know the 198 lbs in 11 months claim was bogus, and I doubt the 100 lbs in six months claim is true as well. But, let's give Heidi the benefit of the doubt, and say she did lose 100 lbs in six months, which represents a weight loss of ~16.7 lbs a month (198 lbs in 11 months is ~18 lbs per month). I am sure this is just a coincidence, but Kimmer has been "back on track" for nearly three months, and guess what her average weight loss is based on her alleged 50 lb loss? That's right -- 16.7 lbs per month!

And do you know what else? If she continues to lose at a rate of 16.7 lbs per month (unlikely), in just nine more months she would be down to around 120 lbs, approximately the weight she claimed to have been for years. Total time on this (imaginary) weight loss journey: 12 months, just one month more than her original imaginary weight loss journey.

The coincidence is impressive, even if the alleged weight loss is nothing special. Seriously, people lose like that all the time on Atkins. Heck, some people do even better than that, *I* lost 21 lbs my first month on Atkins. And I ate bacon! My weight loss slowed as I got smaller, which is to be expected, and I wasn't that heavy to begin with. I didn't starve, and I lost the weight anyway. Lots of people do.

It's just too bad for Heidi that those ongoing court appearances get in the way of posting more fake after pix this time. She's forced to be somewhat honest now, though reports from people forced to be in the same space as her indicate that whatever weight she's lost isn't all that obvious. Given that she's started a pinky-swear challenge in response to her admitted cheating, I suspect she's looking for excused to explain the pictures of her she knows will eventually leak out, and will blame her lapses on the lawsuit and the antikimkins bloggers.

Whatever.

Elle

Spanish Holiday

So, I might be going to Spain later this year. Might.One good reason not to go is that I am on a new mission to be as frugal as possible. I'm hardly a spendthrift, but I still owe a considerable amount in student loans (and unlike some people, I'm paying them back), and given that I've already been to Spain, it seems foolish to spend money like that. Especially since this trip would include my champagne-tastes mother. However, I wouldn't be going for the whole time -- mom and one auntie will be there for three weeks, but I and another auntie would just meet them there for the last week. Luckily, Auntie D. has the same beer budget I do, so we were thinking of renting a holiday apartment or hotel room there of which there are ten gazillion there, including ones run by a company I used before on my first trip to Spain, www.cheaperthanhotels.co.uk.

This first visit to Spain was a slightly unusual one, I was accompanying a friend who went there for weight-loss surgery. Because I'm a good friend like that. And I speak Spanish. That meant the first week of that 'vacation' was spent in a clinica in a sleepy, but beautiful little town in the interior. That was different, and strangely enough, fun in its own way. The next week was spent in Alicante, on the Costa del Sol. There are a lot of Alicante Hotels on the www.cheaperthanhotels.co.uk, including the one I stayed at before. Alicante was lovely, but I find myself leaning towards staying in Benidorm because 1.) If you look at Benidorm Hotels you see it's pretty cheap and 2.) Sylvia Plath lived there for a summer. But the same goes for the Costa Brava Hotels and the Costa del Sol Hotels so in theory we could stay anywhere in that area.


I would, however, like to go someplace I haven't already been if I'm going re-visit a country, so I'd personally like to go to Barcelona (which can be expensive, but there are cheaper areas like Las Ramblas, or at least it looks that way from Barcelona Las Ramblas Hotels). Yeah, these places are most assuredly "European-style hotels" but seriously, I love that. It's so different than what we have here. In the U.S., you've stayed at one BlahBlah Inn, you've stayed at them all. Not so in Europe.


I have a feeling though that Alicante it will be, which is hardly the worst outcome. It's one of the more beautiful places I've been, and helpful for the non-Spanish speaking among us (Mom. Aunt A. Aunt D.) is the fact that there is a MASSIVE influx of Brits there, as it's an incredibly popular holiday destination for them, and most of the locals speak enough English for the non-polyglots to get along. And, in certain quarters, you can actually get authentic British pub food. THAT is how many Brits holiday there! Aunt D. was a little worried about what these places "are like" but I have assured here they are perfectly clean and as safe as anywhere is likely to be. My friend and I ended up staying in a HUGE holiday flat right next to the beach for then then-equivalent of $30 each per night. Try finding that in the states. So, we'll see if my love for travel overcomes my need to be cheap.

If I do go, I would love to bring Dancing in Socks guy with, because he's never been and it is just so beautiful and romantic and lovely there. I really can't describe it -- you wake up in the morning to the smell of the ocean and the sound of tourists, normally annoying but somehow not in that place. You eat breakfast, you go down to the beautiful white sand beaches, you maybe walk around town, you have a siesta, you wake up and eat again, then walk on the beach and watch the incredible sunsets, then go to sleep again to the sound of the ocean and the smell of the salt air. That's it, but it's more than enough. And if you pick the right travel service (hint, think like a British person and use a travel service like www.cheaperthanhotels.co.uk) it's totally do-able.

Elle

When you look at it like this ...

... you understand why there are so many anti-kimkins bloggers out there, fighting this menace.

"This" is is a post by the fabulous Mariasol which graphically depicts the true amount of food Heidi K. Diaz aka Kimmer, a morbidly obese woman with no medical background whatsoever is telling her subscribers to eat. If you read no other blog post this week, you must read this one.

I am taking the liberty of reproducing some of the images from Mariasol's post here, because these images are so stunning and are the very best representation I have seen as to exactly what this starvation diet really represents, but for the full impact you should read her wonderfully informative post.

Here is the amount of food allowed in a single day on the Kimkins Bootcamp Option:



And here is the amount of food allowed in a single day on the Kimmer Experiment Option:


I repeat, this is the food allotment for the entire day. Not the food allotment for a single meal. And, in case you were wondering, Kimmer says you can stay on the Kimmer's Experiment Option as long as you like!

This is what Kimkins Subscribers are paying nearly $70.00 for, the opportunity to be taught how to starve themselves by a woman who is in no way qualified to hand out such advice and who never even lost weight following her own plan.

Unphxckingbelievable!

Kimkins Subscribers, this way lies madness. No one knows better than the anti-kimkins bloggers how weight issues and self-loathing go hand-in-hand, and why it's easy for you to do this to yourself. But try to look at this objectively. Would you, for one minute, put someone you loved on this diet?

You will get sick on this. For one of the many reasons why, visit Kimkins Diet Truth, where there is another excellent and informative post on how Kimkins is deficient in essential fatty acids, and what the consequences of that deficiency are. They are called "essential" for a reason guys -- you can't make them, you can't store them, you have to consume them, and if you are on Kimkins, you are not getting them.

Big, big huzzahs for Mariasol and Kimkins Diet Truth for their continuing efforts to shed light on the Kimkins menace. And they are but a few of many. Your day of reckoning is coming, Kimmer, and when it does, it's going to be Biblical in scope.

Elle