My Sister Won't be Home for Christmas :( -EDIT

Hi Everyone, I hope you're all having a great time preparing for sharing the holidays with loved ones. I'm looking forward to the trip up to northern California to spend the time with my husband's family and my son who will be flying in from Seattle, WA.  So excited to see the young man, haven't seen him since April!!!

My sister, on the other hand, won't be home for Christmas this year. She was struck by a passenger truck while crossing the street on her way to the bus station to get to work last Tuesday morning. :(  She's so lucky to be alive and have no broken bones.  She's got some really bad torn muscles that are going to take a while to heal and there will be plenty of physical therapy in the meantime. She lives in Las Vegas so it's not an easy trek for me to get there to help out. I am however, helping to the best of my ability: making necessary phone calls, keeping her son on track (he's got what used to be called Asperger's Syndrome), and whatever I can do from a distance. She's got a few friends, but mostly just co-workers and her son. I figure I can do my best for her if I wait til they send her home. Then I'll get out there and help her out at home and get everyone into a routine.

Say some prayers, send happy thoughts, whatever you do to contact the higher power you believe in. I'm praying for an excellent recovery with no after issues. I'm praying that all her expenses will be covered by the auto insurance of the person who hit her. I'm hoping she'll be fine again soon.

I have one favor to ask of my readers and friends:
It would be awesome if she got a bunch of get well or better yet "Merry Christmas" cards from anyone who wants to send them: (edited because I had the wrong room number dammit!)
Constance Moore
Las Vegas Healthcare and Rehab Center
2832 S. Maryland Parkway Room 105
Las Vegas, NV  89109

If you have time and can spare a stamp and a card, I'd be forever grateful for any cheer you can add to her not so fabulous Christmas.

I'm home, I'm good!

Everything went well! I got a little scare when they mentioned I'd have to stay overnight IF the doctor had to put a pacemaker in. He had told me that but I conveniently forgot it probably so I'd show up this morning. :)

I'm ok, resting. Just wanted to post this up. More to come.
~Lizard

My Stash, My Heart, My Passion for Polish!

I know I've told most of you, and it's no big deal (I thought it was when I first got the news but I've adjusted since) but I will be going into the hospital on Wednesday, November 10 at 6:30 am local time for a procedure in my heart at 8:30 am. It's called Cardiac Ablation. It's not a "surgery" per se but a "procedure" LOL... they'll go up thru my artery (from my groin) to the heart with three skinny wires: one to stimulate the suspect problem and cause the problem reliably...one to see what they're doing, and one to do the freeze burn of the offending cells. Takes a minimum of 1.5 hours, maximum of 2. Then I'll be in the hospital for the rest of the day under observation to make sure they didn't break anything. They say I should be able to return to work the next day and I won't have to take medication for this problem EVER AGAIN!!! I am soooo looking forward to that, the meds make me retain unhealthy amounts of water and I have fat lower legs, ankles and feet. I'll probably lose 20 lbs the first couple weeks just from water retention. :)

No more meds, no more worries about SVT, hiking and biking can resume without worry, (just attention to injury prevention) and that will be a very very good thing.

So that is what I'm focusing on, but once in a while...the scary stuff creeps in and I just remember that there are good people out there thinking happy thoughts for me and it helps calm me down. Odds are in my favor, not fantastic, but not bad. So keep a happy thought for me tomorrow, okay?

After the Nail Polish Party with my co-workers, I had to reorganize my stash. So I dumped it out, sorted it and took some photos. I have not yet taken photos of my organizational choice, I guess I need to get to that next.

I do sort by color family, I find it easiest for me in my super tiny space. I have no need to sort by brand then color, just put the color families together and I know where to go for a purple, red, pink, blue or whatever thank-you-very-much.

Here begins the spam...bail now if your computer is slow. :) Remember: all of my pictures are clickable for your viewing pleasure. :)



So here's the stash in all it's not so organized glory: I sorted them by brand first but here's the whole shebang!

 Then we have all the China Glaze

 Followed by the lovely Zoya

 The nail polish pile of a price I swore I would never pay for a bottle of polish...and a stray bottle of Poshe?

 My beloved Essie collection.

 The "not found in drugstores but maybe sometimes in other lands" pile

 The Diamond Cosmetics pile...oh so small

 The "what I can get at my local drugstores" pile (lots of Orly in there)

The pathetically small OPI collection. (Told you, I am NOT a fan.)

 My Del Sols. I love these...I live where it's more sunny than anything else...except for the odd 10th year or so. These polishes belong here. It's just too bad that so many of them just turn the same shade of purple.

 Ahhhh, Nubar, my loves

 Sweet Color Clubs, such a great formula, such great pigments, so affordable!

 My favorite treatments, base and top coats (the rest were in the drugstore pile)

Then I sorted thru some of the piles, starting with the "I will never pay that much for nail polish" pile

Here are my Lippmann's, but one of them (the one beside the box) isn't really mine. I just took it out of the box to get a bottle shot. That's "Don't Tell Mama" and it belongs to someone else..yeah, you know who you are! The rest, left to right: Hit Me With Your Best Shot (I had to, I am a HUGE Benatar Fan), Wicked Game, Across the Universe (LOVE), Bad Romance (meh)

 My Rescue Beauties. 3 I won, 1 I got in a swap. I'll have a few more soon! Not many though...just um...6 I think?

 Who doesn't love Nfu Oh?

 Models Own...purchased during the 50% off sale. So far, from the ones I've tried, I like them. I think Peacock Green is my favorite. It's the exact color of that 'eye' of the peacock feather. 

 Assorted others that I only have ONE bottle from the makers. I think it's pretty funny that the one color I did bring home from my trip to Seattle last April out of all the polish I bought up there, I brought home the SH LE dupe. I didn't even know it, just really liked it and hadn't worn it yet. :) 

After I pulled out the Models Own, Miss Marion (you've seen that entire collection already) The 3 Misa's I own, the Gosh and the Finger paints, this is what was left. (I thought I took pics of those too, but apparently not.) Many of these were attained through swaps with some really great new friends. I wish I knew where my H&M Bella's Choice went off to...I'm sure it's around here somewhere.

There you have it, my stash. So far. I don't need a Helmer...don't have the space for one. As it is, this is too much for my little home, but I love them and so I let them crowd me a little...for now. But who knows? Maybe there will be an amazing blog sale at some point. I have to say, probably 50% (or more) of these are untried!  Do you see one I should try soon? Which one?

I'm Going Under

Under the knife that is...to get the knee fixed. Yay and eek!

Thursday afternoon, 1pm Pacific Daylight Time...think of me and wish me well and a good recuperation from anesthesia (I hate that part!) and I'll be laid up for a few days so I'll have plenty of time to catch up on posts.

In the meantime, enjoy this: