Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Totally Useless StitchAlong
Lots of orts, not all from this little project. Also hand appliqued many circles for a quilt, of which the next picture is less than half. The others are on the outer border, which I am not finished with yet.
Friday, November 27, 2009
From EWG
Not in my cosmetics: The Series
NOVEMBER 23, 2009
By Leeann Brown with Travis Mitchell
If you love EWG's Skin Deep database, then this series is for you. If you've never even heard of our Skin Deep database, this series is also for you. And for pretty much anyone else on the planet who uses toothpaste, shampoo, diaper cream, lipstick, cologne, shaving cream, nail polish and basically any other "personal care product" you can think of.
We're kicking off the series with a True-False Quiz because, well, so few people know how bad it really is in the cosmetics aisles. How wildly unregulated. So if you get them all wrong, you're not alone. But you do need help. Ready?
QUESTION 1: Ingredients in personal care products are required to be proven safe for use before being sold in the US.
FALSE! "Cosmetic products and ingredients are not subject to FDA premarket approval authority, with the exception of color additives." - Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Nearly 80 percent of the 10,500 ingredients used in personal care products have not been evaluated for safety by the Cosmetic Ingredient Review, the industry's own public research organization, the FDA or any publicly accountable institution.
QUESTION 2. If you use a product without having a noticeable adverse reaction, it's safe.
FALSE! As you can tell from the first question, we really don't know. What is known is that common ingredients in personal care products have been linked to various concerns, such as reproductive issues, cancers and allergies. We also know that some of these ingredients can accumulate in our bodies. For example, phthalates, a group of common plasticizer, have been found in breast cancer tissue.
QUESTION 3. Avoiding a few key toxic ingredients will allow you to reduce your toxic exposure.
TRUE! While you can't shop your way around chemical exposures completely, you can avoid key cosmetic ingredient offenders, like fragrance and triclosan. You'll be doing yourself and the environment a huge favor. Hint - sign off one ingredient at a time. It's a lot more manageable, and allows you to focus your attention on one area while shopping, instead of examining every 15-letter word on the label.
QUESTION 4. Products labeled as having "natural" and "organic" ingredients are always safer than conventional ones.
FALSE! Just as ingredients aren't required to be tested for safety, there is no recognized standard for organic personal care products, either. A "natural" ingredient is not automatically safe. These ingredients can still be biologically active, and thus, have a strong effect on the human body, e.g. poison ivy.
Your best bet is to go with companies that fully disclose formulations, many of which proudly advertise certain missing toxic ingredients.
QUESTION 5. Personal care products can make their way inside your body.
TRUE! Whether a chemical is soaked in through the skin, or an aerosol spray is inhaled or suds wash down the drain and back into the drinking water supply - they can easily end up in your body. The musk xylene, which is commonly found in fragrances (and paint thinners!) has been found in human fat (link: http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/research/whythismatters.php).
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) lists the skin as the "most common path of toxic substance exposure." No wonder, as it is the body's largest organ and has impressive absorption abilities. Medicinal dermal patches are an example of how reliable of an exposure route it really is. No need to swallow, inhale or inject - just apply to a small area and the skin will do the rest.
Stay tuned for future installments of Not in my cosmetics: The Series. Got a question you hope we include? Stop hoping and tell us - in the comments, please!
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Bloglines - Experiential Gifts for the Holidays
Bloglines user ajw1981@live.com has sent this item to you, with the following personal message:
Check these out for those who don't want to buy consumer goods for the holidays.
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Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Friday, November 06, 2009
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Emailing: OctNov2009 007 Totally Useless SAL
| Online pictures are available for 30 days |
I have mostly been knitting on this simple shawl since finishing a wedding quilt last week. Too dark in front of the DVD player to do much needlepoint.
Thursday, November 05, 2009
From the NY Times
A new type of visitor came to the National Mall this year, flitting past monuments and museums in favor of trees, flowers and plants. But this wasn’t just some horticultural tour; no, this was work. Each day they were abuzz, gathering and pollinating before returning home to modest quarters with tremendous security near Lafayette Park.
Meet the White House honeybee.
Numbering more than 65,000 at one point, the bees produced a bumper crop of honey this year, the first time honey has ever been made on White House grounds. The hive, located on the South Lawn, is a key part of First LadyMichelle Obama’s organic kitchen garden project.
Basswood and cherry trees helped create a unique taste for White House honey.The total haul was 134 pounds of honey, or roughly 11 gallons. Charlie Brandts, the White House beekeeper, couldn’t be more pleased. “I figured they would make 30 or so pounds of honey,” he said. “They surprised me.”
That access to the National Mall is one reason. “It’s just an abundance of blooms,” Mr. Brandts said, noting the local flowers, plants and trees were ripe with bee-attracting nectar. “The Ellipse and monument grounds are just a great source of clover. It’s like having a huge pasture.”
A White House carpenter for the past 25 years, Mr. Brandts started beekeeping in the backyard of his Maryland home three years ago.
The natural honey his hives produced drew the attention of White House chefs, who introduced him to Sam Kass, the Chicago chef who followed the Obamas from their hometown to the White House. Mr. Kass wondered whether beehives could be part of the White House garden.
“I said ‘I think it would be very doable,’ ” Mr. Brandt said, recalling the conversation. “It was that simple. It just gets complicated after that.”
For one, the beehive sits in the flight path of Marine One, President Obama’s helicopter. “We don’t worry about just the lid blowing off, we worry about the hive blowing over,” Mr. Brandts said.
Mr. Brandts lent the White House bee swarms from his own backyard, setting up the new hive in late March. The bees –which travel as far as three miles from the hive– started bringing in nectar in April.
“These bees on the South Grounds are such sweet bees,” Mr. Brandts said. “I don’t know if it’s because they are down there by themselves or they are just the best bees.”
In June, Mr. Brandts collected 42 pounds of honey in the first extraction. (Since he uses a handheld smoker to placate the bees, he alerts the Secret Service beforehand.) At first, the bees produced a mild, delicately flavored honey lightly tan in color. The Mall’s cherry trees, which bloomed in early April, provided some nectar for that first batch. Clover, black locust and basswood could also be detected. As the summer progressed, the honey’s color darkened, with the fifth and final extraction revealing honey almost chestnut in color.
“We really only got two pounds of that, it’s a rarity,” Mr. Brandts said, noting that one flower on the grounds could have had an influence. “The whole fountain had red salvia planted around it, and it was always covered with bees. I suspect it was from that.”
Now that the weather has cooled, the bees’ production has slowed, and Mr. Brandts hopes to keep them alive, however, sleepily, through the winter.
As for the abundance of honey, the White House has kept some for both the residence and for official events. During a Halloween party hosted by the White House on Saturday night, trick-or-treaters received a honey-sweetened shortbread cookie. And at Latin American concert last month, the menu included desserts made with honey.
In addition, spouses of world leaders received special jars of the honey as one of the gifts from Mrs. Obama at the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh earlier this fall. Miriam’s Kitchen, a local food bank which serves meals to the homeless, has received honey along with produce from the garden.
“It doesn’t take a lot to make a difference,” said Steve Badt, kitchen operations director at Miriam’s Kitchen, where they have made fruit smoothies finished with a drizzle of White House honey. “Each blenderful gets a tablespoon or so. It’s a nice little touch, just like tea.”
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Sunday, November 01, 2009
Who’s on Board?
Who’s on Board?
See this about avoiding the use of plastic. I have been trying to do this for a while, but its time to get serious!!
Sunday, October 25, 2009
From EWG
Something is amiss with our children
OCTOBER 22, 2009
Written by Alice Shabecoff, co-author with her husband Philip of Poisoned Profits: The Toxic Assault on our Children
As we watched each of our five grandchildren and their friends enter this world and begin their life's journey, it became more and more clear that something is amiss with this generation. How are your children and your friends' children doing?
Most likely, one in three of the children you know in this generation suffers from a chronic illness. Perhaps it's cancer, or birth defects, perhaps asthma, or a problem that affects the child's mind and behavior, such as Downs Syndrome, learning disorders, ADHD or autism. Though one in three may sound exaggerated, unbelievable, the figures are there amidst various government files.
This generation is different.
Childhood cancer, once a medical rarity, has grown 67 percent since 1950. Asthma has increased 140 percent in the last twenty years and autism rates without a doubt have increased at least 200 percent. Miscarriages and premature births are also on the rise, while the ratio of male babies dwindles and teenage girls face endometriosis.
The generations born from 1970 on are the first to be raised in a truly toxified world. Even before conception and on into adulthood, the assault is everywhere: heavy metals and carcinogenic particles in air pollution; industrial solvents, household detergents, prozac and radioactive wastes in drinking water; pesticides in flea collars; artificial growth hormones in beef, arsenic in chicken; synthetic hormones in bottles, teething rings and medical devices; formaldehyde in cribs and nail polish, and even rocket fuel in lettuce. Pacifiers are now manufactured with nanoparticles from silver, to be sold as 'antibacterial.'
What's wrong with rinsing a pacifier in soapy water?
Despite naysayers (who pays them to say nay?--that's a whole story in itself), it's clear there is both an association and a causative connection between the vast explosion of poisons in our everyday lives and our childrens' "issues."
Over 80,000 industrial chemicals (tested only by the manufacturer) are in commerce in this country, produced or imported at 15 trillion pounds a year. Pesticide use has leaped from the troubling 400 million pounds Rachel Carson wrote about in the 1960s to the mind-boggling 4.4 billion pounds in use today. Nuclear power plants, aging and under-maintained, increasingly leak wastes, often without notifying their community.
What could be more elemental than our desire to protect our children? Children and fetuses, because of their undeveloped defense systems, are ten to sixty-five times more susceptible to specific toxics than adults. These toxics diminish the capacities of our children...the future of our families, our communities, our nation.
Illness does not necessarily show up in childhood. Environmental exposures, from conception to early life, can set a person´s cellular code for life and can cause disease at any time, through old age. This accounts for the rise in Parkinson´s and Alzheimer´s diseases, prostate and breast cancer.
A message of hope and optimism
Yet this is not the dispiriting 'Bad News' it might seem. It is, actually, a message of hope and optimism. We are fearful only when we are ignorant and powerless. Now that we know what is happening, we can determine not to let it happen further.
These poisons are manmade; manufacturers can take them out of our children´s lives and make profits from safe products. 'Green chemistry' can replace toxic molecules with harmless ones. We can connect global climate change actions to environmental health strategies. If we replace coal-fired power, in the process we reduce not only carbon but also emissions of the tons of lead, mercury, hydrochloric acid, chromium, arsenic, sulfur and nitrogen oxides that cause autism, Alzheimer's and other public health menaces.
In a riff on Pogo, let's say, "We have met the heroes and it is us." We cannot bury our heads and hope it will all go away. We cannot leave the job to someone else. Some may feel the problem is so massive, it's best to pretend it doesn't exist. But it isn't more massive than we allow it to be. It's totally within our reach.
We can make each other smarter and stronger. It is in our power to learn about what harms our children and to share our knowledge. It is in our power as a community of citizens and parents to demand action against the current harmful policies and practices and against the indiscriminate use of processes and practices that destroy and degrade all life on our planet.
Read EWG's review of the book and learn more about the Shabecoffs and Poisoned Profits here.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
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Saturday, October 17, 2009
Still sick
The occ health doctor listened to my lungs and refused to let me go back to work. He was actually very rude about it; said my lungs were full of junk and to go see my doctor. Since it was nearly 5 PM on a Friday, I asked if he could write me a prescription himself, but he said no, to go to Urgent Care if I couldn't go to my own doctor. One of those people who has never heard of anyone NOT having health insurance to pay the bills with, I guess.
In retrospective, I realize that he was just tired, overworked, and afraid of catching something from me, probably, but he is the first person I have encountered working for my new employer that has been anything but nice.
I was lucky. I did drive straight to my doctor's office and he agreed to see me right then. I was the very last person in the door. My own doctor also said my lungs are terrible, but he gave me a week's supply of a very pricey antibiotic and a script for a cheap steroid to get me started healing. So at least I didn't have to go another 2 or 3 days before getting on the road to health again.
My boss did say on the phone that another one of us has been out for 3 weeks already. I hope to be back at work by the middle of next week.
read this
Blog for Rural America
Spaghetti Feeds Emphasize Broken System
Fri, 10/16/2009 - 15:03 — Steph LarsenWhen Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack spoke at the Community Food Security Coalition conference in Des Moines on Tuesday, one of the things he spoke about was the sense of community one gets from living in a small town. An example he used was the phenomenon of holding a fundraiser such as a spaghetti feed for someone who gets sick and has high medical bills to pay.
It's true, in some communities this is a regular occurrrence. In the year I've lived in Lyons, I can think of several such events both here and in neighboring communities. One was for a newborn with a large numberof birth defects, another was for a man with cancer.
While it is a good example of how people come together in a crisis, it is the blaring evidence of how broken our rural health care system is. If we had affordable, accessible, and equitable health care in rural areas, no one would have to ask their community to hold a fundraiser so they could pay for medical treatments.
Unfortunately, this might become an even more common occurrence - there is evidence to suggest thatmortality is more common rural America compared to urban areas. According to the Economic Research Service, the rate of death has been decreasing for both urban and rural residents, but around 1989 the rate for rural areas decreased less than urban areas, and the trend has continued since then.
The most startling thing is that no one can put a finger on exactly why:
Nobody has determined why the difference in mortality rates is widening. "A possible explanation for the emergence of the nonmetropolitan mortality penalty is based on the observation that access to health care is the most pervasive health disparity in the nonmetropolitan United States," Cosby wrote in 2008. "If healthcare is becoming significantly more effective in prolonging life, then limited access to healthcare is becoming profoundly harmful to the nonmetropolitan US population, hence, the nonmetropolitan mortality penalty."
What is the health care access like in your community? If something minor were to happen to you or your family, how far would you have to travel? What about something major?
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Bloglines - Hey! MSN Money Picked Up My Article!
Bloglines user ajw1981@live.com has sent this item to you, with the following personal message:
Dub, think of the concept. Only have what you can keep in the house you already have.
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Wednesday, October 14, 2009
New job, out sick
I started my new job in the ER on the 28th, and it was like coming home. It took me a while to gain some proficiency on the computer software, but the patient interviewing skills were still there, and the whole ER atmosphere is the same. I always loved it and I love it still. The job is much more varied in some ways than it was in the old West Valley ER, and less so in other ways. After all there, are 7 different zones in this ER, each mostly with its own registrar at any particular time, and you mostly just do what is wanted in that zone. In some you only do bedside registration, in a couple the nurses bring the patient to you to register before they are discharged. There is even one zone called Quick Reg that I haven't worked yet where you only put in demographics and what the reason is for coming to the ER, and not allowed to ask anything else. Other zones then follow up on the info you got AFTER the patient is seen by a doctor.
After 2 full weeks, I was finally beginning to feel like I was actually contributing instead of just lowering other peoples' productivity, and then boom, Sunday morning I woke up so sick I could barely raise my head. Cough, fever, congested lungs, etc. I had worked a 12 hours shift on Saturday with what I thought was a steadily worsening cold, but this is much worse than a cold. Chances are pretty good that I am now recovering from the swine flu, since I got a seasonal flu shot the second day after I started. I wasn't scheduled to work Sunday, but I WAS supposed to work Mon, Tues, and today, and I have had to call in sick every day. You can't go back until your temp has been normal for 24 hours or 7 days have passed since your first symptoms, whichever comes later. I am not scheduled to work tomorrow either, but will have to go to Occ Health at work before I can go back to the ER on Friday at 4 PM.
It has been a truly miserable 4 days so far, but I really am on the mend. I even climbed the hill and watched DH feed the chickens tonight, after not leaving the house since Saturday. I bet I have slept 3/4 of the entire hours since I first got sick.
DH is becoming a little sick, but his immune system is much better than mine, and he should be fine. I expected to get sick about 2 weeks into the ER; everybody does, but I didn't expect it to be this bad. Oh well, I'm alive.
Look at the good side; now I don't have to worry about lining up to get one of the precious vaccinations when they finally become available.
Friday, October 02, 2009
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Breakfast with my friend
Yesterday morning I met my friend at JB's and we had breakfast together. We started talking as as soon as we met, and were still talking when we left well over an hour later. The poor waitress had to come back twice before we ever looked at our menus, and all I remember about my food is that it was good. It was great seeing my firend, and doubly good because she filled me in on a lot of corporate culture details about my new place of work that would have taken me weeks or months to find out for myself. I hope to see her a lot more, although it will be mostly just in passing, as she works full-time at night, and I will be mostly working evenings, after the first 2 weeks of training.
My last two days at PetSmart are Saturday and Sunday, only a few hours each day, so it won't hurt to go straight into a solid week of work at my new job.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Getting even more excited
I sure do wish it was tomorrow that I start my new job instead of a week from tomorrow. PetSmart only has me scheduled for 15 hours the whole week, so lots of time to be nervous and not nearly enough money to do anything with. Of course this happens when the car insurance AND the property taxes come due. We will fine of course; DH saves ahead for everything. I am lucky to have him. If it was just me, I'd be a bag lady. Money just slips through my fingers and is GONE when I need it.
Friday, September 18, 2009
AARP.org Article from ajw1981@live.com
AJ thought you would enjoy this article: Retail Clinics Provide Low-Cost, Quality Care - AARP Bulletin Today. This is what they said about it: This sounds like the way to go once I have lost my health insurance.
Laptop died
OK, I am back on the net, thank goodness. My laptop died Wednesday and all I was able to keep was a CSV file of my address book on a stick. At least I have that. I haven't been able to backup or update anything that required a CD drive for months, so everything is a shambles. It will take a while to catch up, if ever.
I bought my first ever desktop computer, having only had laptops in the past. It has twice as much memory for half the cost of a comparable laptop, so this time it was a no-brainer. If I haven't been taking my laptop to school with me this semester, and I haven't, I don't need a laptop.
So I am setting everything up today. Gee, I wish I had kept a paper file somewhere of all my passwords, but I didn't. Grrrrrr!
I bought my first ever desktop computer, having only had laptops in the past. It has twice as much memory for half the cost of a comparable laptop, so this time it was a no-brainer. If I haven't been taking my laptop to school with me this semester, and I haven't, I don't need a laptop.
So I am setting everything up today. Gee, I wish I had kept a paper file somewhere of all my passwords, but I didn't. Grrrrrr!
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Bright sunshiny day
This link is sent to you from http://www.hcn.org
You are receiving this mail because someone read a page at
High Country News
and thought it might interest you.
"Arizona is actually in the good news."
Bright sunshiny day
Arizona's solar industry is finally picking up steam.
http://www.hcn.org/blogs/goat/bright-sunshiny-day
--
High Country News
Monday, September 14, 2009
Getting nervous
As the time to do paperwork and get shots, etc. for my new job approaches, I am getting more and more nervous. Dh asks what I have to be nervous about, since I already got hired, but he just doesn't understand. To a worrier like me, the very lack of having something to worry about is worth worrying about. Either you the reader get it, or you don't. Obviously he doesn't.
At the same time, I just can't wait to get back to doing a real job for real reasons, not just urging people to buy more and more of whatever they need and even whatever they don't need. I mean, there is no way I'm going to try and talk an ER patient into getting 2 casts on his legs, when he only broke one of them and only needs 1 cast. That is a labored analogy, but you get it.
I wish I could start tomorrow.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Walgreens vs. Target
I just switched pharmacies, since I have been to the doctor and obtained new scripts for my medications. I also had to switch migraine meds, since the Maxalt I have been taking for years is sooo bloody expensive, and isn't even covered under my insurance (which I only have for 2 more weeks anyway). The Maxalt doesn't have a generic yet, and it has been costing over $275 for 9 pills. NINE PILLS!!!
And I have had nothing but trouble with Walgreens since I lost my good insurance in April. They delay and delay filling my scripts, even when I call and email and tell them to fill them right now. Then 3 days later, they call again to make sure I really want the refill because they haven't bothered to fill it yet.
No more.
I went to the Target near my PetSmart and gave them my new scripts. The tramadol I have been paying $43.99 for at Walgreens cost me $8, and Target apologized because it isn't covered under the $4 discount program. The trazodone IS on the $4 program, and my new migraine meds, generic Imitrex, was $35.40. Target said they ran it through a different discount card in order to give it to me at a reasonable price. I was so shocked and happy. I asked if I had to buy into the discount program or something, and they said oh no, and I will continue to get these meds at these prices.
They have definitely made a Target Pharmacy customer out of me.
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
I got the job!!!!
I was on my way to the doctor a couple of hours ago, just for my B-12 and to get new prescriptions, when my cell phone rang. I pulled over so I could write stuff down, because it was BANNER ESTRELLA HR!!!!!!! She offered me the pool ED registration position and said most of my shifts would be evenings. This is fine; anything to get hired. And my starting pay is almost exactly twice what I am making at PetSmart.
I start September 28, a Monday, but have to go to the hospital next Tuesday morning for the pee test, TB test, Hepatitis B titer, occupations health questionairre, etc. I can do that.
I went straight to PetSmart on my way home to give my notice. Both Don and David were there, so I am sure it will not be forgotten when it comes to schedule time. I am so happy I could burst. I always LOVED the ER, and I know I will like it even better now that there are others to spread the work around, and you don't have to sit there in front of all the people waiting to be seen without being able to do anything about it.
Gotta go. I have to do some other things.
Sunday, September 06, 2009
Friday, September 04, 2009
Job interview
I had an interview for an ER registration pool position at my chosen hospital yesterday, and I feel very good about the interview. I was there for 1.5 hours and was given a tour of the ER toward the end of the interview. I really liked the manager who interviewed me, and there was also a supervisor who sat in on the interview but didn't say much. At one point I asked the supervisor if she had any questions for me, but she said no she was just a listener. We turned out to have many mutual acquaintances among my former co-workers who now work at this hospital. A couple of them in PFS and others in nursing, with one of my previous managers running the OB department. So there are plenty of references if this interviewer wants to check up on my work ethic. I am not worried about that part of my presentation at all. She even told me about the pay scale and the on-call pay and how the assignment of shifts for pool people works, and showed me people wearing the new uniform. I was savvy enough, thanks to my instructor at school NOT to ask about any of that, so the information was volunteered. She told me about the changes that have happened since I last worked in the ER.
I have to wait a week for her decision and fully expect to have a lot of trouble sleeping until then. I know I barely slept at all last night. Luckily I have the day off from PetSmart today.
Love,
AJ
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