Poison Ivy - Part 2

The plant got me good. I still haven't figured out exactly how I came into contact with it, but on Tuesday May 25th I was cutting shrubs, etc in the back of my house around my pool using an electric hedge-trimmer. When bagging I must of grabbed the poison ivy that I had just cut and started rubbing it all over my body. That is a little bit of an exageration, but as you will see in the pictures below it spread on me pretty good, getting both legs, both arms, shoulders, stomach, chest, slightly on my lower back, and fingers. So it has been about 12 days since first contact and 10 days since I first noticecd an itch, and I have finally started noticing the healing process over the past 2 days. The itching has died down considerably. I am on my last day of steroids, so I think I am out of the woods and should be good for my Portugal trip next week.

I didn't take pictures until the 7th day after exposure because I didn't think it was a big deal....until it kept spreading. I am only showing one arm and the stomach.

June 1 - 36 hours after cortizone injection, still getting worse - Arm Stomach

June 1 (in the evening, you can see a difference from earlier, this kind of scared me a bit) Arm

June 2 - Still getting worse, blisters at their worse, decide today to get more drugs - Arm Stomach

June 3 - Still bad, but now on steroid pack - Arm Stomach

June 4 - blisters start drying and scabbing - Arm Stomach

June 5 - blisters continue to dry up, healing is happening now - Arm Stomach

June 6 - almost there, another few days and this will be gone - Arm Stomach


The Movies:
Fog of War - Grade: A - Ok, this is a scary and fascinating look at Robert McNamara and his time as Secratary of Defense in the 1960s. His honesty amazed me, but I what would you expect from an 85 year old man who has lived such an extraordinary life. I wish the special features would have told us how the filmaker got a hold of the tapes of McNamara's phone conversations with Kennedy and LBJ. A peak behind the scenes at how close the world was to nuclear war. Highly recommended.


Osama - Grade: C - This movie won best foreign film oscar, or maybe was just nominated, but I don't think it deserved it. It got nominated simply because the film was able to be made, the first made in post-Taliban Afganistan. Anyway, not much character development, and the main character really isn't the strong character you would exepect in such a film. You want the director to prove that gender difference is only skin deep, but he goes a different route basically showing that girls and boys are not equal.


Girl with the Pearl Earing - Grade: C - A fairly interesting story line that never really got the finish line. Many long silences. It captured 17th century Holland beautifully. Very detailed. Probably a few painting references that went over my head. I had higher expectations of this.

Elephant Grade: C - Great premise, but I felt left out by being only an observer with no insight into the minds of any of these kids. It was a great looking film, but I am not really sure what kind of statement was made.



Paycheck Grade: C - The plot in this movies is superb.....for the first 45 minutes, then the film toilets. I was very excited about the premise, but the writers didn't have anywhere for the film to go. The last scene was just so cheesy Hollywood that I was glad the movie was over at that point. If the power would have just went out after 45 minutes I would have claimed this the best movie of the year. Damn, very unfortunate it got so corny. Strange that Uma would agree to do this film.


Downloads
Clem Snide (Pete and Eef only) Live at the Onion's Christmas Party, Bradford Beach Club, Milwaukee, WI 12-19-2003
Part 1 (80mb zip Part 2 (70mb zip)

Preston School of Industry - some mp3s on their site
Ambulance LTD: "Primitive (The Way I Treat You)"
The Libertines - Up the Bracket - Great Song