i knew there was a logical reason

adults who struggle with a sweet tooth or battle a lifelong craving for bacon may have something more than weak willpower to blame — at least those with a history of chronic childhood ear infections.

a series of new studies presented this month by taste and hearing experts suggests that repeated infections may damage a vital taste-sensing nerve in kids, perking a preference for rich foods and making them prone to weight gain later.

worse, those who suffer harm to the crucial chorda tympani nerve — which runs through the tongue, along the side of the face and behind the eardrum on its way to the brain — may not realize why they can’t stay away from the small indulgences that pack on pounds.

“they simply like high-fat and high-sweet foods better,” said a scientist with the mcKnight brain institute's center for taste and smell. “the more you like food, the more you weigh.” --- duh. no kidding. ya think! wow. imagine that.

oh yeah - i remember now i always had an ear infection when i was little. right mom! and i'm sure i had chorda tympani nerve damage! (wink, wink)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26391940/ full validating article for those who need proof!

today i am grateful for....

1. that incredibly helpful agent at the konica minolta tech support center, who at first didn't want to help me, but perhaps heard the cry of desperation in my voice and took pity on me. after not having a working printer for over two weeks and not having been able to use wireless printing since windows vista, he had me printing....and printing wireless in less than 1 1/2 hours. there's more to the long saga of this story but bottom line...as geeky as it may seem...a big shout out to damian in alabama! you rock!

2. cool nights. i love sleeping with the doors and windows opened. i love to cuddle under a soft blanket. i just sleep better. fall is swiftly approaching. yippee. we can go to the state fair and look at the quilts and giant pumpkins and pigs and chickens and the world's largest cow and the world's smallest horse and eat delicious candy apples. i can hardly wait.

3. good movies watched under the stars with good friends. last night gram, cinny, reed and i watched a movie on the big screen in their backyard. we ate carmel corn and buttered popcorn and drank ice coke and laughed and cried together. i want a repeat tonight!

4. blogs. these wonderful links allow me to keep in touch with people i love but don't see all the time. i admit i'm a blog stalker. i read people's blogs and they don't even know it. (i'm not sure that's a good thing, but nonetheless i do it.) Other's posts make me happy.

5. good family. good friends.

was that suppose to be a compliment?

tonight we took our first excursion on frontrunner. boarding in farmington we headed to slc, final destination, trolley square, for ali's bday celebration. already on the train sitting near us was a very social, talkative woman. she told us all where she and her family had been and asked where we were going. i politely and in a very friendly manner answered, "dinner in slc to celebrate a 17 year old's birthday". a few precious moments passed in silence. reed and cindy were sitting a few rows away from me and i was facing mom where we sat across the aisle from the talkative women. this creature says "let me guess" and points first to cindy saying "mother" then she turns to me and with a very proud and pleased look says "grandmother" and then points to mom with a nod of her head and says "great grandmother"! i believe my jaw dropped and with a deflated demeanor and ego told her politely, "no, i'm a sister" as i point to cinny! what i really wanted to do was smack her upside the back of the head and say "get your eyes checked, you old bat!" to add insult to injury, when the story was repeated to John Michael his immediate response was not to console his dear auntie and reassure her self image but rather..."way to go cindy!"

i dunno, maybe the women was right, later this night while watching the olympics and the men's gymnastic quest for a medal, the announcer commented on how the latest program was the perhaps the best program of a young man's life....my brother john and I missed it ... we were talking about gout!

it's 3 am, who would you call?

sooooo...it's 3 am and my phone apparently chooses to call the connors and the hones and david's work and my message center and just about everyone else . . . but hillary.
let me back up about 15 hours: have you ever rushed into the bathroom, (at the 5 hour store no less) dancing and desperate because you waited just a little too long and just as you are about to, well you know, your phone drops out of your pocket and into the bowl, ie toilet bowl! you hurry and grab the phone, without thinking and rapidly pull the battery out. then you can think no further beyond that until you finish what you first went to the bathroom to do. then after using all the paper you can get off the stingy commercial toilet paper holder you wrap your device and rush to the sink and yet again immerse the dang thing in water to wash it off! alas - the phone appears dead, but having been experienced with dropping electronic items into water - such as walkie talkies into the lake, while trying to keep the fish on the line - you believe that your lifeline can yet be saved.
you leave the battery out and dry the phone off and wave the phone in the air and blow hot air into every crevise you can find. when you get home you use the hair dryer for more forceful hot air. at 2:45 am you finally decide to go to bed. you look at the phone and attempt to turn it on. it works, sort of, at least the lights are bright but it says the battery needs charging. so very sleepily you plug the phone into the charger and leave it on the couch while you climb the steep stairs and fall into the first available unmade bed in the extra room, because you are too tired to take the decorative pillows and covers off your own bed. now the spare bedroom has no phone in it so as not to disturb any potential guests. and then a very deep, deep sleep sets in. a sleep like you have not had in say months.
then . . . the cell phone demons do their thing. the phone starts dialing random numbers in your phone directory. your neighbor is called at 3 am, your brother in laws work is called minutes later, with fortunately no lasting issues because, well he is not at work, and then it grabs your sisters number and dials her home every other minute for say....15 or 20 minutes. when your sister tries calling the phone back, there is no answer, and when she tries to call your home phone, 3 times, you don't hear that either because you are fast asleep in a room with no phone. your brother in law then gets dressed and your sister is panicked because she thinks something has happened to you and her mother, and they come up and enter a very dark and quiet house, except for an eerie glow coming from the couch where your possessed cell phone is continually dialing "connors home"! your sister first checks on mom to make sure all is ok, then rips the battery out of the phone, leaves you a note to find in the morning and returns home, unable now to sleep herself until well after 5 am. (sorry cori!!!!)
well if this happens to you - do not plug the device in or attach the battery until you are sure it will function properly or it is during a decent hour of the day! after googling i now know i should have immersed the phone in to 90% alcohol - (does bourbon count!). oh well, live and learn.