I have a great ebay story.... I have both bought and sold, but my favorite was a family bible that I found on Ebay, with a lot of genealogy information in it. I wanted to purchase it for my cousin for Christmas. We are both genealogy nuts, and this bible was from his direct family. As it goes, this huge coffee table bible was a steal at $25.00 but at the last minute, some person came in a we went head to head on this until the price reached $75.00. I had to stop because it was out of my price range, and I was honestly sick to my stomache that I had lost this priceless piece of family history to who knows? I was crushed to say the least. I sent the person an email the next day and told him that I was crushed, but could he possibly photocopy the family info in the bible for me for my family history? Turns out he is a pastor that re-constructs old bibles in his spare time. He said he would sell me the bible, for his cost on one condition....that he would fix the binding and the brass lock on it and mail it to me in perfect condition. I was thrilled ! I got the bible, it was about 8 inches thick and about 100 years old. A real beauty. The pastor would not allow me to pay him for his work or shipping. I sent the bible to my cousin after Christmas, but it was truly a wonderful ebay experience after all. Trin

I'm copying and pasting this update posted on FB by one of Kat's friends: Just called Kathy, and she is in pain from the shingles and can't function to use the computer. She has shingles all over her face, mouth, head and ears. She has been on anti-viral since Tues. for 5 days. She has been sleeping during the day and then not able to sleep at night. Can't imagine the pain she is going through. I told her about all the messages on FB with all her friends being so concerned. She is better than a week ago, but has a ways to go. She thanks everyone for there concerned, and will be back online when she can.

OH....and did you fall off your porch in front of anyone? No, my only witness was the cat whose escape out the front door I was trying to prevent when I fell. He just kept going and didn't even ask if I was okay. Alisande,,how long has it been since you have had a tetanus shot? They are good for 10 yrs. I'm pretty sure it's been less than 10 years, but definitely more than five. Five is the deciding number following an injury. My DH knew someone who died of tetanus after somehow getting injured from a cast iron frying pan, of all things. Have you tried any nasal/sinus rinses for your nose? Yes, I use a neti pot. I just realized I've had this same one for 27 years! This is the first year I've been using it with distilled water. Plus you got a tick bite last month, wasn't it? Heavens--how could I have forgotten about the tick bite?? I got another bite after that, earlier this month. This latest one was a nymph, so small I couldn't tell it was a tick until I looked at it under a strong magnifying glass. I'm still dealing with tick issues. Based on symptoms like night sweats, which I have every night, and others, I'm fairly certain I have Babesiosis. Babesia is a parasite that invades the red blood cells. It is not familiar to most of the medical community, but it has invaded the Red Cross blood supply in the northeast, which is a serious concern and indicates how prevalent it is in our area. Tests for it are not only wildly expensive (my doctor ordered them, but I was quoted $3,000) but unreliable as well, so unless another way is found to deal with the problem it is likely to get worse. Babesiosis is related to malaria, and the treatment includes a drug related to quinine. This, too, is wildly expensive ($1,030 for a small bottle), so I'm going to try a Chinese herb the folks at LymeNet recommend as an alternative. Anyway, my immune system was already battling this, or something like it, when the chest cold (?) came along. I was already dragging; now I feel dragged out. :-) One more thing about the ticks: It's increasingly clear that the deer tick situation bears more than a passing resemblance to a plague. Yet we have no vaccines, no cures, not even a consensus on how to treat it. Medical science is really going to have to step up to the plate. They seem to have their heads in the sand, and want the public to stick theirs in too.

I also get sucked into genealogy, running down leads and finding the unexpected. Here's a short story about my ggrandmother Ella. In 1904, she had 6 young children (including 2 year old twins, one of which was my grandmother). For some reason I have not been able to discover, her husband died. Several months later, she was "compelled," a newspaper story said, to surrender three of the children as she couldn't provide for them. The article was called, "A Mother's Sad Thanksgiving." The twins were split up, each going to one of their deceased father's sisters. Now, here's where it gets REALLY interesting. Apparently ggrandmother was living with a gentleman who was nearly 30 years older than her, keeping his house, I assume. I found a news story telling of, as it said, "A Dastardly Plot" by a young man and 2 of his friends who were quite fond of my ggrandmother. They conspired to kill the man she was living with, shooting both him and his dog. The man did not die, and subsequent newspaper stories claimed the shooter was convicted of the deed BY THE DOG, who growled and was very aggressive toward the shooter. LOL!!! Anyway, to make a long story short, ggrandmother married the older gentleman. 7 months later, she gave birth to another child. I remember ggrandmother Ella - she died when I was 10 or so. And she remained active in my grandmother's life, even though she didn't raise her. She was quite feisty and full of life. Now I know at least SOME of the rest of her story. I am looking for still more on her. How every interesting to learn these things!