The world's richest bride Petra Ecclestone got married this weekend in Rome . Her father is billionaire Bernie Ecclestone -

They got married at the same castle as Tom and Katie Cruise. Everyone tacky and famous was there. Fergie with the Black Eyed Peas, Alicia Keys and Eric Clapton played. Paris Hilton was there, sigh. The only thing missing was that (e:mike) and I were left of the guest list as an apparent oversight. Someone needs to get fired.

But really oversights like that are to be expected on such a shoe string budget -- it only cost $5,000,000.

At first that figure seems shocking. Like $5,000,000 could feed or blow up a small country (depending who is doing the spending and if we deem the inhabitant terrorists or underprivileged). I know, I know - "its too much excess", "the rich gets richer while the poor get poorer" --- blah, blah, blah but then when you really think about it $5,000,000 seems really like a dollar store wedding for a father with a billion dollar fortune.

I mean guys making $40,000 give their daughters $10,000 - $20,000 weddings. I would expect this guy to at least throw a $20,000,000 wedding and that still really kind of thifty for his fortune. Maybe the problem is really just that nothing is expensive enough.

Sure every guest had Chateau Petrus wine at $6,500 a bottle but any self respecting billionaire dad would have had each guest a personal kegger of cristal.

In a way, the rich splurging like this is a good thing. Think about all the money that changed hands, how many people got paid. Its like we are finally seeing trickle down economics really pay off.

Could it be true, researchers in canada have come up with a Cat allergy vaccine I am not going to bother with weekly painful shots, if this kind of thing might pan out in the near future.

Researchers have developed a new vaccine to desensitize people with a cat allergy that is faster and safer than traditional immunotherapies, according to a study in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. Cat allergy affects up to 10% of the general population and is a key trigger of childhood asthma. Standard treatment involves weekly injections of cat allergen in incremental doses for a year or more, but severe allergic reactions are a risk. The new vaccine, developed in Canada, uses synthetic versions of short peptides from the protein responsible for most cat allergies. The peptides are 1,000 times less allergenic than traditional cat allergen, researchers said. The vaccine was tested on 66 volunteers; another 22 received a placebo. Skin responses, an indicator of the severity of an allergy, were measured after eight hours and compared with reactions to cat allergen. Adverse responses in the vaccinated group were reduced by 40% and 10% in the placebo group. Researchers said the results are comparable to a year of traditional immunotherapy. The vaccine, which is in the final stage of development, is expected to require four shots at the same dose.

I think this is the study here

I have the worst allergies I have had in my entire life starting thursday night after this crazy bike ride with (e:terry) and (e:yesthatcasey). Today I tried the netti pot. One nostral finally got unplugged. The other would not even let the water pass.

It seems like an impossible amount of every kind of allergy including freakin poison ivy - although so far a pretty minor case. The only thing that could make this worse is if I was sealed up in a plastic bag with a cat. The only thing that could make this better is seeing every cat in the world vacuum sealed in plastic bags. I guess that's unfair because I don't think cats had anything to so with it this time.

I am experimenting with the poison ivy, seeing as I have it on multiple sites. I cleaned it up real good with technu right away as it was obvious from past experience what was happening to my arms and legs. Luckily its not as bad as some other cases I have had. I am still debating if I should just burn my clothes or wash them. Same with my bike.

The ones on the arm I tried a benedryl lotion on. The ones on the back of my knee are driving me crazy. I decided to just cut one of the blisters off and see what happens. Sometime I find things are easier when they are healing cuts instead of whatever they were before. I am sure tiny can hear me cheering, Amputate, Amputate.

The worst is that I have gotten to the point where I am allergic to tap water I think. I don't think I am actually allergic to water. But this seems to happen the end of august every year. Maybe whatever pollen or spores gets in the water makes my allergies worse during this short time. Usually, during the rest of the year showering makes everything better.

I found it interesting that my geographic tongue drama did not flare up. It seems to have peaked at WEMF. Maybe it really isn't tied to allergies. At least not the rest of them.

The fact that (e:mike)'s allergies are so horrible also right now makes me feel less alone. I guess it had finally come to the point where next year I need to go to an allergist and try some immunotherapy.

It turned into fall real fast.

We decided to camp at windmill point rock quarry for (e:Terry)'s birthday. I wish everyone could have come. I swam for like 3 hours straight.

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