Enemy of Entropy
Book Joy! And Stuff
I’m so tickled! In the last two weeks, I’ve found not one, but two books that Sam and I have wanted for ages at good prices on eBay!
First, I’ve been looking for
Seeing Red: The Rapture of Redheads by Howard Schatz for years and years. Seriously, it has to be at least five years since Sam first mentioned that he’d love to have it. Unfortunately, it’s out of print, and the only thing I found for the longest time were used copies for $150 or more. It’s a gorgeous book, but that’s far more than I could pay for it.
I had the book on my wish list at Half.com, which is part of eBay, but for some reason I also set up an eBay search a few months back, and finally got found a copy going for $35.1 I didn’t happen to see the email until a day later, and by then the seller had dropped the price further for some reason. It was more than I pay for most books, but after five years, it was more than worth it. We received it in the mail earlier this week, and it is just a beautiful as any new copy.
That gave me an idea, so I set up a search for another book I’ve wanted for a while, but couldn’t afford. John C. Lowe’s tome Your Guide to Metabolic Health came out in 2003, and I haven’t ever found it in stock anywhere. It must have gone out of stock quickly, because Amazon has only ever had used copies that I’ve seen. And again, they were always pricey — $180 was the price I’d seen most recently.2
Today, eBay came through again! The “buy it now” price was very reasonable, so Sam encouraged me to go ahead and get it instead of chancing the auction route.
Dr. Lowe has also written another book that’s specifically about the metabolic treatment of fibromyalgia, but it runs over $500. Apparently, that one is intended for physicians, rather than laypeople. I have an eBay search going, but I’m fairly certain the book I bought today has the information I need in it. From what I’ve heard, it’s mainly about fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome.3
I’m busily reading my ARC of Women, Work and Autoimmune Disease: Keep Working, Girlfriend! It’s good stuff.
1 For what it’s worth, Half.com still shows only the higher prices. Weird.
2 It’s available more cheaply now, but I still got a deal.
3 Aha — the publisher actually sells the latest version of that one for $99.95. Why would anybody pay the used price? Why do the used sellers think they can demand so much?
Bookcase Bedroom!
I suppose it could be called a Bookcase Tree, because of its iasic deisngn. It wouldn’t be the best choice of design for sleeping quarters for a claustrophone lke me, and procratinators wpuld find it even harder to quit reading and go to sleep. I would love to have this for a little one
Brief Update and Review of Witch Way to Murder
I’ve been doing so much reading because I’ve been sick and unable to do much else. We did get the girl to her doctor, so we know there’s no strep around here. The doctor wouldn’t rule out mono, but wouldn’t test for it either. (I don’t really like this woman, and we usually try to go when the nicer physician is there.) She said that since they don’t do anything but treat the symptoms if it is mono, and the contagion period would have been 60 – 90 days ago, she doesn’t see any reason to run a test.
Read on…
Boo Sickness! Recipe, Word Geeking, Reviews
This not-flu or whatever is exceedingly tiresome. I should think it would be enough to live with the day to day stuff, let alone put up with this. Then again, nobody has ever claimed in my hearing that the world is fair.
I haven’t succeeded in holding any thoughts in my head long, so you’re in for randomness again this entry.
I have no idea why the main article was linked from ZDNet, but doesn’t this cheddar and apple sandwich seem yummy? I wonder how it would be with ham? I used to have a really good recipe for a sausage and apples dish, but I know I haven’t cooked it in the last decade. Maybe I could dig it out of my ancient recipe box? There are few ways to go wrong with cooked apples, as far as I can tell.
Read on…
Happy Car Day!
Well, that’s what it felt like. Poor Sam had to take time off from work, because it was Pain Doc Day. The pain doctor is off in the wilds of Cobb County, because that’s where we lived when I started seeing a pain doctor, and it’s darn near impossible to get a reference to a new one (much less trust that a new one will, in fact, keep writing prescriptions for the meds that actually work). Then we headed to Big Warehouse Store to get the RXs filled, and also hit the bank and the post office because they’re just so much fun! And then it was time to go see the friendly therapist lady.
Happily, we were able to game off and on during the day, which made the whole business far more pleasant than it would have been otherwise. And we picked up a great big bag of fat-lady clothes from a nice freecycler! Some of them are so cool the girl is eying them covetously, so I need to be sure they go to my room and don’t wander off to hers.
While we were gone, though, a sweet fairy girl washed our quilt and comforter! Sam put fresh sheets on the bed, so I’ll be crawling into a nice, clean bed next to a freshly-showered, cuddly man soon. That part of the day, I’m looking forward to!
Read on…
