Asthma attacks can feel like heart attacks because of the feeling of your lungs being crushed.

And kidney stones can be caused by hard water, with the minerals building up in the urinary tract, that's what causes most of hubby's. He's had lithotripsy for his.

I'm currently sitting in Amsterdam Airport Schiphol waiting for my flight to Oslo. Killing time by re-sizing batches of photos and uploading them to Flickr.

Huh. [link] I wonder what a public dress could would be though.

New couch is here! It seems so..puffy. I think it'll de-puff over time.

It seems so..puffy.

I guess cucumber slices are out of the question.

Is it puffy and comfy?

Yay new couch! Frankie looks forward to breaking it in.

Speaking of the pup, my parents just offered/asked to take care of Frankie while I'm gone.

...I'm kind of afraid they'll break him.

Jeez, don't be hurting, brenda!

This is a concerning trend with the folks rushing to the hospital in great pain: ita, brenda, Polgara, ND.

A round of -ma for my friends, barkeep.

Here's hoping that Polgara is now sleeping the righteous sleep of those who have passed a kidney stone and are no longer in pain.

(Kidney stones aren't all jagged, since they can form out of different minerals -- some are smooth and almost pretty. I know this because I looked 'em up after I had my own kidney stone last year. Which, thank goodness, seems to have been a one-off experience.)

Polgara, quick healing!

brenda, hope for a good diagnosis!

dcp, bon voyage!

Why did my liquid pencils show up so much earlier than everybody elses? Anyway, I am past the acclimation stage and well on into infatuation. My four day erase test still shows the pencil erasable, but it is definitely harder at this point.

Just got back from voting, thanks to the League of Women Voters who sent me a nice postcard telling me independents could vote in Arizona's primaries. Except for the Libertarians, who successfully sued to keep their closed. And thanks to the Clean Elections folks, because I wouldn't have had enough time to do the research without their handy booklet.

Our polling place is at our little community center. It's the honor system lending library (you can bring back the book you took, or another book, whatever) next to our post office. We were in and out there, but there was a steady stream of traffic, so people out doing their civic duty.

As independents, we got to choose our ballot, so the SO & I did our typical canceling each other out. He would have taken Libertarian if he could, and I would have taken Green, except there was a Navajo candidate for secretary of state on the Democratic ballot that I really wanted to support.

I chose based on policy, but I really liked that it turned out this way: I voted for four Hispanics, two women, one Navajo, and only one white guy. But it's a white guy with a handlebar mustache, so. There should be some interesting races, really. Anyway, yay for voting for Latinos in Arizona. Take that, crazy governor lady making insane laws!

It wasn't at the chapter house, so my sticker is in English, though. If I'd lived in the district far out enough for voting at chapter houses, all of my house of representatives candidates would have been Navajo, though, so that's kinda cool to know at least one will be getting in.

Anyway, I'm like a kid in that I did my duty, I got my sticker, so now I'm happy.