Light of Islam

Yeah, that’s how Light of Islam operates.  You should know that by now

Anywho, for now and probably at least for a little while this promotion is on the Houston Chronicle’s home page.  Don’t miss the event!

I keep reading how valuable social media like Facebook are in promoting a business, but despite my best efforts (and thanks to my sister for trying to explain it to me) I simply do not understand how.  I finally opened a Facebook account a few days ago and after making a few friend requests I felt really uncomfortable about roaming the Facebook site looking for people I know and requesting their “friendship.”  It seems kind of obnoxious, actually.  This morning after requesting a couple people’s friendships I just felt too weird and the whole thing felt too pointless, so I deactivated my account.  I really don’t understand how any of them will help me, and I can’t justify spending time on Facebook, etc. in addition to the time I spend on my web site, blog, newsletter and other marketing tools.  So I will continue to be antisocial where social media are concerned.

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Light of Islam is a nonprofit bookstore whose mission is to provide the Houston-area community with accurate and accessible information about Islam and Muslims. Find out more at http://www.light-of-islam.org/.

I just signed up for a cool Constant Contact feature, newsletter archiving.  It’s a simple way of showing what has been happening at the bookstore over the past few months, both to inform people about current topics and let them know what has been happening in the past.  I put a link at the bottom of the home page, or you can go there directly.

Don’t forget about Tayyibah Taylor’s visit to LOI on May 17!  I am so excited!

Got the links up and running – check out the sale!

That’s what my daughter used to say when she was little and was impressed by something I had said or done – “Mommy, you are so a genius.”  I’m patting myself on the back because after struggling for a couple of days I finally figured out how to put my clearance sale items on the web site.  I made all the PayPal buttons, which was laborious…but then I just used text to make a list of the books and the buttons were all off kilter and I couldn’t move things around without them becoming misaligned, so I finally figured out to use a “photo album” template page in iWeb and inserted photos of the page covers into the template.  Then I could align the PayPal “add to cart” buttons with the photos, keeping them aligned with the other photos and buttons, and voila!  A polished-looking page and a functioning PayPal sale!  Thank God it’s only 14 items….

I just have to doublecheck the sales tax rates outside Harris County if I ship there and once I confirm that tomorrow I will make it live and link you here!  Such a sense of accomplishment.

Weight update: From my highest home weight till this morning’s home weight, total loss of 17 pounds!

Palate update: The last two mornings still sore when I wake up.  Still feels weird throughout the day (like I have cloth down my throat) and intermittently gets sore during the day.  I still can’t eat normal food.  I had a croissant today and that caused a sore throat, so it was back to Ensure and rice pudding.  (We went to friends’ for dinner tonight and I had some orzo salad and potato salad, though, so I guess as long as it doesn’t have too much texture I’m okay.) I’m going to give it another few days and if I don’t see measurable improvement I’m going to see another doctor.

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Light of Islam is a nonprofit bookstore whose mission is to provide the Houston-area community with accurate and accessible information about Islam and Muslims. Find out more at http://www.light-of-islam.org/.

I’m finally getting to the end point of cleaning up my messy office.  Somehow I always manage to make a mess of my office and then feel disorganized.  I got my new desk last week and that made a huge difference.  Here are some before pictures.

(Hijabi sock monkey is taking a nap on the big chair.)

I just bought those two plastic carts this morning and they are where much – hopefully most – of the mess will go.  I think that I will get rid of that big chair, which I do not want, put the pink chair in my office, and get a new nicer-looking chair for the browsing room.  I also did some extra decoration in the classroom, but I’ll share those photos later.

Saw the doctor this afternoon.  He examined my throat and then used a scope which goes up into the nose and back down to the palate, which was as uncomfortable as it sounds.  He said none of the strips is coming out but my palate is very bruised and I’m just one of the few who has a strong reaction to the procedure.  Ironically, inflammation is a key part of the procedure’s success, since the idea is basically to form scar tissue that hardens the palate.  Unfortunately, in my case I have a little too much inflammation.  I got a shot of depo-medrol and he called in an rx for different steroids than the ones he put me on Monday.  I’ll just keep drinking Ensure and taking pain meds and the steroids at home.  It was funny getting a shot.  I can’t remember the last time I got one, and this was in my hip, so I really felt like a kid.

If there’s a silver lining, it’s that I weighed in 3.4 pounds less than last week at today’s WW meeting.  That makes a total of 13.2 pounds but I’m not celebrating this week because the loss wasn’t due to my own effort.  It gets me a step ahead toward my April 30 goal, though.

I woke up twice last night with the sore throat and took a darvocet.  I then overslept and woke up with my throat still sore.  I’m getting more and more aggravated with the doctor, since he said multiple times I would have a scratchy throat for a couple days.  I’m kind of irritated also that he didn’t call me back yesterday to ask how I was feeling, but perhaps that’s asking too much.  It’s mostly on one side of my throat, which makes me wonder if the pain isn’t from a poorly-placed strip or something.  I just feel cranky and I want to go to work and have everything be normal.  Fortunately the bookstore is five minutes from the doctor’s office, so if necessary I will close the store temporarily and go over there.

After my escape from surgery last year, I went to see another ENT about my sinus/nasal problems, which at this point have diminished – i think in large part because I’m not working from home anymore – but my snoring has worsened and on a home sleep study test I was found to have mild sleep apnea.  The doctor said surgery was not indicated, but offered three options: CPAP, a dental guard, or a relatively new procedure, the pillar procedure.  With this the doctor inserts three small strips of dacron into my soft palate, the idea being that as fibrotic tissue forms around them the soft palate stiffens and doesn’t vibrate as much, lessening snoring.  

Fine.  So I had the procedure yesterday and about an hour after getting home developed a sore throat that got to be excruciating.  I couldn’t swallow without doubling over.  My husband called the doctor’s office and he called in an rx for hydrocodone and a methylprednisolone pack.  I took the codeine every 3 hours from 4 p.m. yesterday to about 3 this afternoon.  I ended up so sick and weak from all the codeine, the pain, and not being able to eat or drink anything, so I didn’t even open the store today.  I stayed home on the sofa all day.  I called the barber next to the bookstore and asked him to put a sign on the door saying I was closed due to illness.  

I had the doctor paged last night and when I talked to him he said he didn’t know why it was so painful, but that I should try adding a throat spray, which my husband was actually on his way to get for me when the doctor called.  My throat is still sore, although not even close to what it was.  Tomorrow afternoon will be 48 hours since the procedure, so if the pain isn’t gone by then I’m going back to the office.  What a wasted two days.