Worthwhile Read

With the death of Kim Jong Il, I was reminded of this book. It is is one of the most interesting I've read in ages. I was amazed at how little I knew about North Korea.

Definitely worth checking out.

Bad Decision

A few months ago I went to my parent's home and took this picture. But the version you saw on the blog was this:

The difference? Teeth (and a few other PS tricks. But mostly the teeth.) Photoshop whitened in the second shot. After looking at the originals my pearly whites looked more like a yellow brick road. So I learned a new Photoshop trick and viola, a brilliant smile.  If only it were that easy in real life, right? 

About a week later one of my friends was having a charity auction to help bring some orphans from Ukraine to Salt Lake. One of the offerings was Zoom teeth whitening from a local dentist. I wanted to support the cause, and as evidenced by my above handiwork I wanted whiter teeth. I snatched it up. 

Tuesday was my big day. My mom tried to disuade me. Told me how painful it could be. But my mind was made up. I pre-medicated with 1000 mg of Tylenol and 600 mg of Ibuprofen. I showed up at 9 am and halfway through watching Notting Hill on the ceiling I was done. A few little "zingers" but really not bad at all. I was thrilled. 

The rest of the day was jam packed and by 3 pm my teeth started to hurt a bit. I took 600 mg of Ibuprofen and thought I'd be good. By 5 pm I was home and hurting. Bad enough that I took a Lortab (left over from my c-section three years ago--I never take them). By 6 pm I was hurting so much that I had a hard time talking. I took another Tylenol. Didn't touch it. This was the worst pain I've felt in years. I couldn't eat.  I couldn't talk.  I was barely functioning. Ella wanted stories and I was mute. It was awful, and even more so because I had brought it on myself. By 8:45 I was beat and took full doses of Tylenol and Ibuprofen. Thankfully I slept fairly well and by morning I was mostly better. 

Ryan couldn't believe that I had done it. I have weak enamel to begin with, and this was adding insult to injury. Oh, the things we do for beauty. I posted a moan on facebook and a friend (whose husband is a dentist) said "One more plus for teeth colored teeth." Amen, sister. Amen. 

In other (completely unrelated) news, my friend Molly is having a giveaway. And she's giving away a chart from Kimmy's shop. So double worth checking out. I'm smiling brightly just thinking about it.