So today I have good news, I received both my admissions letter for the Medical Administrative Assistant Technology program at Cincinnati State, as well as my financial award letters. So I called today and set an appointment with my academic advisor for Monday the 18th. I’m looking forward to getting the ball rolling.

I thought long & hard before deciding that I didn’t want to go into IT. Basically it boiled down to not wanting to hate computers. As of right now I love working with computers and enjoy learning new things about them but I know if I were to make a career out of it I would essentially end up hating it & I really don’t want to do that. Also by going this route within a couple of years I can have an Associate of Applied Business degree and then continue on to a Bachelor’s degree if I want.

Some things can only be fixed with a spoon full of Nutella topped with Redi Whip…. So That’s what I decided to have! 10/10 Would highly recommend!

So for the past month I’ve been dealing with some kind of Rash that initially started on my leg as what appeared to be a small water filled bump. One night in my sleep I scratched it open. This lead to an open wound. For most people no big deal, for someone with both Graves Disease and Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis (ie…me), this is a problem. My already compromised immune system means that not only will my wounds heal more slowly there is a greater possibility of infection. But anyway I decided to wait a few days to see how things with my leg would pan out. During that time my leg began to itch horribly. To the point that when We finally decided to take me to Urgent care a huge part of my lower right leg was very red and very sore. So the Urgent care doctor gave me a prescription for Antibiotics and an Anti fungal.  For the next two weeks I took these and finished them, however at this point I now also had itchy rashes on my upper leg areas, on my stomach and chest as well as on both arms. I tried hydrocortisone, Gold Bond rapid relief, Gold Bond multi symptom with lidocaine, and Benedryl anti itch gel. Nothing worked to stop my itch.

With none of that working and things only getting worse, We finally decided it was time for me to see my doctor, So in we went. After examining me and being shown the prescriptions I already took, it was decided that I should have another round of antibiotics & anti-fungal medication. The doctor explained that because of my already weakened immune system I needed extra time for my body to heal and repair itself. She also told me I could take two oral benadryl per dose to help with the itching. But honestly it didn’t do much good. The only way I found any kind of relief was taking a shower and moisturizing afterwards. That would relieve my itching for a least a few hours, but this was also drying my skin out. In fact on one day I think I took at least 5 showers. Then I remembered that when I was a child, I had suffered through chicken pox. I remembered that my mom had used calamine lotion for the itching. I also noticed how dry my skin had become from all the showering. This is a problem, because my skin already dries and cracks easily due to my Graves Disease. So When Mark called me on his lunch break, I told him to pick up some Cotton Balls, Calamine Lotion, and Baby oil on his way home from work.  It’s been six days now and I’m actually seeing results. I think the Antibiotics are doing their job and the calamine has helped with the itching. Applying baby oil after showering has helped me to keep my skin from drying out. Today my arms and legs look much better and I’m finally not really itching. I’m just spot using the calamine at this point, so if a little area itch’s I just put some calamine on and it is helping.

Having an itch you can’t scratch is a miserable thing and when it’s been going on for so long it’s enough to drive you insane. I’m just so glad that it actually appears to be over now..hopefully soon enough my skin we be normal again.

So for about 2 years or so I’ve been using Crashplan to have a remote backup of our home computers. It worked great for $15.00 a month I had unlimited storage for up to 10 computers. All total I was/am backing up about two and half terabytes of data. Yesterday the news went out that Crashplan will no longer be offering a consumer version of their service. I have until November 5th to figure out another option. The problem is there really is no other option, at least not one that doesn’t cost and arm and leg and that actually has a Linux client. I’m doing my best to follow the 3-2-1 rule of thumb and having a very difficult time doing so.

Just so you know the 3-2-1 rule is

• Have 3 copies of your data
• Have 2 local copies on different storage types (one is the original, and the other is a copy on a local external drive or Network attached storage system)
• Have 1 backup off-site in another location.

Following this, if the original gets lost you can restore from your local copy, and if anything catastrophic ever happens (fire, lighting strike etc..etc..etc.) then you can get your data from the off-site backup. The problem is I’m running out of cost effective ways to have off-site backup.  I’m possibly looking into using Google Cloud storage, or Amazons S3. But I’m not quite sure yet.

In other news….. I went and took my placement test yesterday for college. Turns out I need two math classes. The bad news is they have no online math classes and I don’t know how I’m going to be able to the math credits I need. I’m still working on figuring that out…..

So today, I’m going to take my Placement test at Cincinnati State. Hopefully that means it wont’ be much longer before I can start classes. I’m hoping I don’t have to take too many math classes, but I’m positive there will be some as math has never been my best subject.

I was reading through the Facebook page of my local channel 9 news station and I came across the article they did about Heather Heyer’s (The poor woman who lost her life in Charlottesville Virgina) Mother and her refusal to speak with Trump after she saw him on the news and heard his own words. There were 162 comments on that article and a huge portion of them were denigrating the woman, accusing her of being paid off and a number of other insults were heaped at this poor mother who recently went through the horror of losing her daughter to hate. I just don’t understand how people can be so filled with hate and Anger. You don’t fight hate and anger with hate in anger it never works and it’s a horrible thing to propagate.

I also can’t believe how well that south has done at selling the story of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy So many people, even people who have never been to south have bought into this narrative that the south fought a heroic battle against great odds. It has definitely had a lasting effect on our social conscious. The Confederates were not heroes they were enemies of the state and they should be remembered for that alone.

I like to by a whole chicken and  toss it in my slow cooker. Normally I just put in there by itself with some Basil, Oregano, Rosemary, Onion Powder, Thyme, Salt and pepper. From that chicken We’ll have legs & thighs for dinner. Then I remove the skin and cut up the rest of the chicken a make a couple of dishes with that over the next few days. One of our houses favorites is chicken noodle soup.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/2 medium chopped sweet onion
• 2 large stalks of chopped celery
• 64 ounces of chicken broth (Normally two of the box’s of broth)
• 16 ounces of vegetable broth
• 1/2 to 1 pound chopped cooked chicken breast (Use your own judgement based on how chunky you like your soup)
• 12 ounce bag of egg noodles
• 2 large sliced carrots
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. In a large pot over medium heat, melt butter.
2. Cook onion and celery in butter until just tender, 5 minutes.
3. Pour in chicken and vegetable broths
4. Stir in chicken, noodles, carrots, basil, oregano, salt and pepper.
5. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes before serving.

This page from the Library of Congress allows you to hear in their own words the voices of those who were enslaved, who the confederacy fought to keep enslaved. It’s surreal to me to listen to Fountain Hughes talk about how his grandfather was owned by Thomas Jefferson. I’m so glad that slavery no longer exists but we still have a long way to go to remove the stain of hate from such a legacy. Removing monuments & plaques which seek to honor those who fought to preserve such an oppressive existence is just the beginning.

The Voices from the Days of Slavery Collection provides sound recordings of former slaves describing their lives. The former slaves discuss how they felt about slavery, slaveholders, how slaves were coerced, their families, and freedom. Those interviewed spoke sixty or more years after the end of their enslavement, and it is their full lives, rather than their lives during slavery, that are reflected in these audio interviews.

Source: Voices from the Days of Slavery – Faces and Voices from the Presentation (American Memory from the Library of Congress)

As an Ohioan I’m utterly ashamed of anyone who would advocate for anything honoring the confederacy. Ohio raised nearly 320,000 soldiers for the Union army, third behind only New York and Pennsylvania in total manpower contributed to the military. Ohio played an important part in the Underground Railroad prior to the war, and remained a haven for escaped and runaway slaves during the war years. Several leading generals were from Ohio, including Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman, and Philip H. Sheridan. Five Ohio-born Civil War officers would later serve as the President of the United States. Anyone fighting for the confederacy was a traitor to our country and while we shouldn’t forget what happened we should not honor them by giving them monuments and plaques in places of honor, those things should be in museums where people can learn & ask questions.

Someone stuck a sign in the ground where a Confederate plaque once stood in Franklin.

Source: Sign placed where Confederate monument was removed in Franklin – WCPO Cincinnati, OH

Tonight I made Homemade Lasagna & Cheesy Garlic Bread, the recipes are after the break.