Pet Food Recalls
This site offers news about some of the latest pet food recalls - a former pet sitting colleague just sent it to me.
Just in case the link is not working (it was not working for me last week), here it is in a written form:
http://www.thepetfoodlist.com/
Friday, April 27, 2007
The "I" Word
"I" is for Interesting & it's a word I like & use a lot. Right now, it feels like the word to use for some of what is going on for me. There's good news too. I'll mix up the two & you can see how things are interesting & good all at the same time.
It's beneficial to have a job that has health insurance attached to it. If you are a Catherine fan as I am & you read her extraordinary blog, you know about health challenges & insurance.
It's good to take care of one's health & when new challenges arise, it's good to have great care.
It's interesting to be among the 1st of your peeps to need to have a health procedure done.
When I was a sophomore in high school (we're talking 1965-ish), I had my ears pierced. It's probably about the only thing that I ever did that put me in the "front" group of my peers - other than that, I have been a late bloomer. My good pal, Cheri, was always ahead of me & w/ our ear piercing, that was true as well.
Now, in my mid 50s, something has come up that will put me out there ahead of my peer group: I am scheduled for cataract surgery. Yes, your eyes are not deceiving you ^..^
My left eye will be the 1st to be done. A number of years ago, my opthamologist told me that I had the start of cataracts. Oh dear, that was a surprise. When I saw him for the next couple of eye exams, Dr. G would say, "They're growing - one's ahead of the other." I switched eye doc offices & recently saw the optometrist for my initial exam. My records from the other office had not yet arrived in spite of my best efforts. So I told Dr. K, as well as I could, about my eye history, including the cataract situation.
After the exam, reviewing my old prescriptions for my glasses & contacts, he came back in & said "We cannot correct your vision to the point that we could make you happy. You need to have cataract surgery." Apparently there are cataracts that can begin early, like in our 20s - 30s & these are different than the ones that folks in their 70s have.
"Oh dear," I said, following it up w/ "Holy shit." He laughed.
He said that I could talk w/ one of the opthamologists there if I wanted (you betcha!), I said yes & he asked one of them to come into the exam room after he briefed her about my eyes. They spoke just outside the exam room to discuss my situation. A couple of years ago I had met one of the docs from this practice at my beloved LYS, the Tangled Web, - she impressed me as an accomplished, fabulous knitter. I held my breath & then in she walked - it was her - the knitting doc walked into my exam room. She's one of us, I tho't. Dr. W is a knitter.
I exhaled & knew I'd be OK, my eyes will be in the hands of a woman who is knitting one of the most beautiful Fair Isle sweaters you have ever seen. (She brought it in to show me before I worked w/the surgery schedulers. "I sat in the parking lot to finish a few more rows before I came into work this AM, " she shared.)
Yes, I do have some nervous butterflies & OK, so it's a tad light to think that things will go well just 'cause she's a knitter. There is just the feeling that I will be OK.
This is going to be a fabulous summer. I have almost never ever looked forward to a Philly summer - they are among the worst on the planet - I can honestly say at this moment that I am so excited about this summer.
~~ I will be working one full time job, not two.
~~ I am having more fun this year than I did last year.
~~ I am in the mood to have a "skirt" summer - I want to wear more skirts this year & while shopping w/my pal, P, recently bought a $60.00 black silk skirt for $30.00 & guess what, it's a size Small - woo hoo! That's great for me!
~~ I will have better eye sight. My eyes used to be 20/500 to maybe /800. That means that what I could see at 20 feet, a normal sighted person could see at 500 to 800 feet. W/ the cataracts right now my eyes are about 20/1000. And hopefully after the surgery, my vision will be somewhere around 20/40 & I'll need glasses only for reading.
Can you believe that? I have been wearing glasses since I was in 3rd grade. This means I will be able to wake up & see the face of the alarm clock & I can wake up & actually see my toes. Wow.
And the doc is a knitter.
It's going to be a great summer! First surgery will be toward the end of May & the other, at the end of June. I'll be asking for your good tho'ts then, if you're willing.
I am thinking of song titles that will bring some humor to all of this - "I can see clearly now" is one. "Tommy" is another. Let me know if you have any ideas.
"I" is for Interesting & it's a word I like & use a lot. Right now, it feels like the word to use for some of what is going on for me. There's good news too. I'll mix up the two & you can see how things are interesting & good all at the same time.
It's beneficial to have a job that has health insurance attached to it. If you are a Catherine fan as I am & you read her extraordinary blog, you know about health challenges & insurance.
It's good to take care of one's health & when new challenges arise, it's good to have great care.
It's interesting to be among the 1st of your peeps to need to have a health procedure done.
When I was a sophomore in high school (we're talking 1965-ish), I had my ears pierced. It's probably about the only thing that I ever did that put me in the "front" group of my peers - other than that, I have been a late bloomer. My good pal, Cheri, was always ahead of me & w/ our ear piercing, that was true as well.
Now, in my mid 50s, something has come up that will put me out there ahead of my peer group: I am scheduled for cataract surgery. Yes, your eyes are not deceiving you ^..^
My left eye will be the 1st to be done. A number of years ago, my opthamologist told me that I had the start of cataracts. Oh dear, that was a surprise. When I saw him for the next couple of eye exams, Dr. G would say, "They're growing - one's ahead of the other." I switched eye doc offices & recently saw the optometrist for my initial exam. My records from the other office had not yet arrived in spite of my best efforts. So I told Dr. K, as well as I could, about my eye history, including the cataract situation.
After the exam, reviewing my old prescriptions for my glasses & contacts, he came back in & said "We cannot correct your vision to the point that we could make you happy. You need to have cataract surgery." Apparently there are cataracts that can begin early, like in our 20s - 30s & these are different than the ones that folks in their 70s have.
"Oh dear," I said, following it up w/ "Holy shit." He laughed.
He said that I could talk w/ one of the opthamologists there if I wanted (you betcha!), I said yes & he asked one of them to come into the exam room after he briefed her about my eyes. They spoke just outside the exam room to discuss my situation. A couple of years ago I had met one of the docs from this practice at my beloved LYS, the Tangled Web, - she impressed me as an accomplished, fabulous knitter. I held my breath & then in she walked - it was her - the knitting doc walked into my exam room. She's one of us, I tho't. Dr. W is a knitter.
I exhaled & knew I'd be OK, my eyes will be in the hands of a woman who is knitting one of the most beautiful Fair Isle sweaters you have ever seen. (She brought it in to show me before I worked w/the surgery schedulers. "I sat in the parking lot to finish a few more rows before I came into work this AM, " she shared.)
Yes, I do have some nervous butterflies & OK, so it's a tad light to think that things will go well just 'cause she's a knitter. There is just the feeling that I will be OK.
This is going to be a fabulous summer. I have almost never ever looked forward to a Philly summer - they are among the worst on the planet - I can honestly say at this moment that I am so excited about this summer.
~~ I will be working one full time job, not two.
~~ I am having more fun this year than I did last year.
~~ I am in the mood to have a "skirt" summer - I want to wear more skirts this year & while shopping w/my pal, P, recently bought a $60.00 black silk skirt for $30.00 & guess what, it's a size Small - woo hoo! That's great for me!
~~ I will have better eye sight. My eyes used to be 20/500 to maybe /800. That means that what I could see at 20 feet, a normal sighted person could see at 500 to 800 feet. W/ the cataracts right now my eyes are about 20/1000. And hopefully after the surgery, my vision will be somewhere around 20/40 & I'll need glasses only for reading.
Can you believe that? I have been wearing glasses since I was in 3rd grade. This means I will be able to wake up & see the face of the alarm clock & I can wake up & actually see my toes. Wow.
And the doc is a knitter.
It's going to be a great summer! First surgery will be toward the end of May & the other, at the end of June. I'll be asking for your good tho'ts then, if you're willing.
I am thinking of song titles that will bring some humor to all of this - "I can see clearly now" is one. "Tommy" is another. Let me know if you have any ideas.
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Today is Earth Day
This week has been extraordinary & our hearts have been saddened, horrified & to paraphrase the lovely Lanea, struck mute. I, for one in remaining quiet, have been moved by Lanea's posts & Purlewe's post re her RA experience when she was in undergrad school. Do check them out if you have not read them.
In an effort to move forward, I am thinking of Earth Day - it's today. Mother Nature supports, nourishes & surrounds us. Who can blame her for being pissed??!!
Think about water - how we are polluting it, using it, squandering it, paying for it (ever wonder about the folks who complain about the cost of gasoline & yet go into the gas station or mini mart to buy bottles water that per gallon costs more than the gasoline?), who has good water to drink & who does not have any. Al Gore, love that man, has done much to bring global warming to the front page of the newspapers & the front of our consciousness.
Here are two on-line sources of great environmental news & commentaries - 1) Grist & 2) Living on Earth. There's plenty of news we can use.
This week has been extraordinary & our hearts have been saddened, horrified & to paraphrase the lovely Lanea, struck mute. I, for one in remaining quiet, have been moved by Lanea's posts & Purlewe's post re her RA experience when she was in undergrad school. Do check them out if you have not read them.
In an effort to move forward, I am thinking of Earth Day - it's today. Mother Nature supports, nourishes & surrounds us. Who can blame her for being pissed??!!
Think about water - how we are polluting it, using it, squandering it, paying for it (ever wonder about the folks who complain about the cost of gasoline & yet go into the gas station or mini mart to buy bottles water that per gallon costs more than the gasoline?), who has good water to drink & who does not have any. Al Gore, love that man, has done much to bring global warming to the front page of the newspapers & the front of our consciousness.
Here are two on-line sources of great environmental news & commentaries - 1) Grist & 2) Living on Earth. There's plenty of news we can use.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
THE KNITTING CIRCLE by Ann Hood
This is a book I read a few weeks ago & my reactions to it have continued to percolate.
In it we meet Mary who is just about incapacitated by the sudden death of her 4 year old daughter, Stella. Sadly for Ann Hood the grounding of this novel is rooted in her own life, not her imagination: she wrote THE KNITTING CIRCLE after her young daughter, Grace, died from a virulent strain of strep. Hood turned to knitting as Mary does.
It's no wonder that the deep sorrow & the ache of emptiness of this story feels so true. Mary shows us what we can sometimes realize: you may truly appreciate & "get" what you had after it is gone, you may not know how good you had it until it's gone, you miss it once it's been taken away. We've all been there & done that, right, from small to large things.
She & her husband take somewhat different paths in their grief - Mary can't write as her job is at an alternative paper. Her publisher continues to call & offer work & for a lengthy perios of time, she lets all the messages go to voice mail. Dylan, her husband, continues to put one foot in front of the other w/his job & tries to comfort Mary when 1) she lets him or 2) he still has the energy. Their sorrow is palpable.
Knitting becomes her lifeline, the connection she uses to find her way to other people. It would not have been what she would have done - her mother, from whom she is somewhat estranged, urges & nags & cajoles her to take up some sticks & yarn to give her something to do, something to focus her energy upon. She finally does.
The LYS she finds is owned by Big Alice & the women she meets there have their own stories of life & loss.
One thing I liked about this book was the realization & reminder that there is no miracle cure - when sadness overtakes us, we need time to heal, time to learn a new reality, space to find our new selves. There's no Rand McNally map for any of this.
The knitting circle at first has only their knitting in common. As time goes on, they come to know that we all have compelling stories, that we need time to truly get what someone else has endured, that we can be supportive & can be listeners for the stories of our friends. We realize that we need reasons to live even when we think our reasons have been taken away.
I am hopeful that if Hollywood comes calling to Ann Hood's door, as I guess they will, that she works w/ someone good, that the story is not sugarcoated, that the losses that sear our hearts take as much time as they need to heal & that they will heal to the degree that they can. Ann Hood seems to know that some wounds may never fully heal - we just go forward w/them.
This is a book I read a few weeks ago & my reactions to it have continued to percolate.
In it we meet Mary who is just about incapacitated by the sudden death of her 4 year old daughter, Stella. Sadly for Ann Hood the grounding of this novel is rooted in her own life, not her imagination: she wrote THE KNITTING CIRCLE after her young daughter, Grace, died from a virulent strain of strep. Hood turned to knitting as Mary does.
It's no wonder that the deep sorrow & the ache of emptiness of this story feels so true. Mary shows us what we can sometimes realize: you may truly appreciate & "get" what you had after it is gone, you may not know how good you had it until it's gone, you miss it once it's been taken away. We've all been there & done that, right, from small to large things.
She & her husband take somewhat different paths in their grief - Mary can't write as her job is at an alternative paper. Her publisher continues to call & offer work & for a lengthy perios of time, she lets all the messages go to voice mail. Dylan, her husband, continues to put one foot in front of the other w/his job & tries to comfort Mary when 1) she lets him or 2) he still has the energy. Their sorrow is palpable.
Knitting becomes her lifeline, the connection she uses to find her way to other people. It would not have been what she would have done - her mother, from whom she is somewhat estranged, urges & nags & cajoles her to take up some sticks & yarn to give her something to do, something to focus her energy upon. She finally does.
The LYS she finds is owned by Big Alice & the women she meets there have their own stories of life & loss.
One thing I liked about this book was the realization & reminder that there is no miracle cure - when sadness overtakes us, we need time to heal, time to learn a new reality, space to find our new selves. There's no Rand McNally map for any of this.
The knitting circle at first has only their knitting in common. As time goes on, they come to know that we all have compelling stories, that we need time to truly get what someone else has endured, that we can be supportive & can be listeners for the stories of our friends. We realize that we need reasons to live even when we think our reasons have been taken away.
I am hopeful that if Hollywood comes calling to Ann Hood's door, as I guess they will, that she works w/ someone good, that the story is not sugarcoated, that the losses that sear our hearts take as much time as they need to heal & that they will heal to the degree that they can. Ann Hood seems to know that some wounds may never fully heal - we just go forward w/them.
Saturday, April 07, 2007
Some tho'ts about the Year of the Golden Pig
Like the Queen often frequently offers Mr. Horoscope's sage advice. In that same vein, I offer up this excerpt from K's most recent emails.
Got an email from one of my qigong masters, Chunyi Lin, telling us that it is the year of the golden pig,
“Only once every six decades do we have the type of energy flow we have entered this year – the Year of the Golden Pig. This is known as a Golden Year because the energy flow is influenced by the most positive aspects of each of the 5 Elements. We will not experience such an energy flow again until the year 2067.
A Golden Year, such as this, is an exceptionally powerful time for development and growth in your professional life and your personal life. The energy flow we are in now through February 6th of 2008 offers great potential for advancement in your healing and energy practice.”
Thought you might enjoy that concept…..
Other than thinking about Golden Pigs, I have been house cleaning, knitting on my Regia sock (a toe up that I began in a Spring 2005 class at the Tangled Web & taught by the Beloved Divine One) & my bag-to-be-felted-later, spending time w/some special people, kitty sitting for three "old" clients, getting more sleep which has been desperately needed, walking, cooking for myself more, playing catch up w/some chores & tasks.
The Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival is a mere few weeks away & I am jones-ing to see some Knitter's Review Retreat pals. As per my usual I will be working w/ Jennifer, Shelia & Bess at the fabulous Jennifer's booth for Spirit Trail Fiberworks - please do come to see us.
Like the Queen often frequently offers Mr. Horoscope's sage advice. In that same vein, I offer up this excerpt from K's most recent emails.
Got an email from one of my qigong masters, Chunyi Lin, telling us that it is the year of the golden pig,
“Only once every six decades do we have the type of energy flow we have entered this year – the Year of the Golden Pig. This is known as a Golden Year because the energy flow is influenced by the most positive aspects of each of the 5 Elements. We will not experience such an energy flow again until the year 2067.
A Golden Year, such as this, is an exceptionally powerful time for development and growth in your professional life and your personal life. The energy flow we are in now through February 6th of 2008 offers great potential for advancement in your healing and energy practice.”
Thought you might enjoy that concept…..
Other than thinking about Golden Pigs, I have been house cleaning, knitting on my Regia sock (a toe up that I began in a Spring 2005 class at the Tangled Web & taught by the Beloved Divine One) & my bag-to-be-felted-later, spending time w/some special people, kitty sitting for three "old" clients, getting more sleep which has been desperately needed, walking, cooking for myself more, playing catch up w/some chores & tasks.
The Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival is a mere few weeks away & I am jones-ing to see some Knitter's Review Retreat pals. As per my usual I will be working w/ Jennifer, Shelia & Bess at the fabulous Jennifer's booth for Spirit Trail Fiberworks - please do come to see us.
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