This morning, I started to make oatmeal with stevia for breakfast. In case you’re not familiar with stevia, it has NO calories and is much safer than artificial sweeteners. It also tastes much better than those artificial sweeteners and is very popular in every other civilized country besides the U.S. There have been a lot of politics involved in the whole situation and Arizona congressman Jon Kyl called the FDA action against stevia “a restraint of trade to benefit the artificial sweetener industry.” There’s a whole lot more information at Wikipedia, in case you’re interested.

Meanwhile, back to my little narrative:

So there I am, half awake, and I spy some Goldfish crackers, lonely and ignored.  So tempting, so tasty. Did I mention crunchy, because they are definitely packed full of crunchy goodness. I pick them up and start reading the label, and just then, BBD decides she is hungry too. Do I give her the Purina One, or maybe… she’d like something else?

She got the Goldfish crackers, I got the oatmeal and both of us were happy. Well, my happiness wasn’t as immediate as hers, and I didn’t wag my tail at all. But I’m glad that I stayed on my gluten free plan, it seems to be helping me a lot. I have to admit that I miss some forms of flour, and at night, I dream of hot buttered toast. I am finding the best way to deal with temptation is to get rid of it as soon as possible. Thankfully, BBD, being a loving and faithful companion, is more than happy to dispose of anything that I give her, she’s so helpful that way.

Darn, I shouldn’t have tackled it when I was tired and staying up late because it took me twice as long to find the offending post as it would as if I hadn’t been so tired. Or at least, that will be my excuse in the morning when I can barely drag myself out of bed.

It looks like Banquet Pot Pies could be linked to over 100 cases of salmonella in dozens of states. CNN is also reporting that ConAgra has voluntarily stopped production and has temporarily closed the Missouri plant where the pot pies are made.

The thing that really bothers me is that there is no word of any of this on the official ConAgra website. How long would it take one of their employees to add a scrolling message that warns the public? Don’t they care that their product could be affecting the health of many of their loyal customers? In my opinion, when a company faces something like this, they should be the first to step up and sound the alert. Right now, I’m not feeling very confident about any of the foods that ConAgra sells, not just because of the possible salmonella, but because of the way they’re handling the situation. Shame on ConAgra for not telling the public in a timely and forthright manner!

The other day, before Karen developed her grape-o-phobia, I was eating grapes. I was about to toss one to the BBD, when I decided to research the idea first. Boy am I glad I did, because I found instances of dogs dying after eating just a few grapes. It’s the same thing for raisins too. They don’t understand why this seems to be a recent occurrence, but they’ll poison a dog no matter if the grapes are commercially grown, home grown, organic or not. If your dog eats a grape, or raisin or even a raisin bagel, call your vet right away. If your vet is unfamiliar with this problem, then try to quickly explain the situation to them, and if they still are unwilling to treat your dog, go elsewhere.

What’s tragic is that many dog handlers and trainers use grapes as little motivating rewards. They don’t know that they’re actually hurting the dog and sometimes don’t find out until its too late.

Several years ago, my children and I were out for a family walk. We came upon a well dressed elderly man that also seemed to be out enjoying the nice Arizona weather. But after exchanging a few sentences with him, I realized that he was lost and had no idea of his surroundings. As a matter of fact, he didn’t know what city he was in, and said that he was trying to walk to the local harbor, even though we were in the metro Phoenix area at the time. Thankfully, the police were able to help him. It turned out that he lived with his daughter and her family. She was trying to care for him, although his Alzheimer’s disease was making it more difficult to care for him on a daily basis. She didn’t even know he had wandered away from home, she thought he was in their back yard, sitting on the porch.

Can you even begin to fathom what it must be like to live with Alzheimer’s, or care for someone with the disease? What would it be like to hear your doctor pronounce his diagnosis, knowing that your brain, your thoughts, your very essence will be stolen from you by this vicious illness? Can you imagine what it would be like to live with a loved one with Alzheimer’s, and the feelings of helplessness someone must go through as their loved one’s mental abilities fade away each day?

On the other hand, can you imagine how joyous the world will be when the cure for Alzheimer’s is discovered? Everyone will be celebrating and rejoicing when this vicious illness is defeated. I don’t know how soon the cure will be discovered, but I know that you and I can help make it happen. By joining in on the Alzheimer’s Association Memory Walk, you can be part of the nation’s largest event to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimer care, support and research. You can help out by becoming either a Team Captain, Team Walker, or an Independent Walker.

The Memory Walk is a nationwide event, but I’d like to discuss what’s happening in my area to give everyone a better idea of the process. I clicked on the link for Memory Walk 2007 and saw several options, including “Sign up for a walk”, “start or join a team”, or “volunteer”. The Alzheimer’s Association web site is very easy to use, and it allows visitors several ways to get involved. I decided to choose “Find A Walk” and entered my zip code. I found that a local chapter has scheduled their walk for October at a central Phoenix location. Statewide, I found that there will be other walks in cities such as Tucson, Prescott, Cottonwood, and Sun City West.

If you can’t walk, then you can sponsor someone who can. You can also tell everyone you know about your local walk as well. Send everyone you know to look at the Alzheimer’s Association website so they can help spread the word too. Whatever you decide to do, make sure you do something. If we all work together, then we can hope that soon, Alzheimer’s disease will become a thing of the past.

I am really hesitant about mentioning this because I don’t want to give this so called “condition”, African American Incidental UV Transference (AAIT), any publicity. However, a google search shows over 70 results for the term in quotes, so it looks like some scum is going around the net spreading their hatred under the guise of medical discussions. They seem to be saying the same thing over and over, leaving comments on a wide range of sites. I’m hoping that this post helps a bit to squelch the questions they seem to be causing, while pretending to raise legitimate concerns.

I found all this out because I was reading a story at my local newspaper’s site and saw a “user’s comment” that referenced a link between skin cancer and this new term, AAIT. I did a search for AAIT, and found a site (a wordpress blog) that supposedly belongs to a dermatologist. I say supposedly because he misspelled some key medical terms that any first year biology student would know. I’m not going to correct his spelling here, but if you really want to know, post a comment and I’ll fill you in.

I am not going to give any sort of link to this fraud that is trying to use the internet to spread hatred and dissension. Instead, I’d rather link to an excellent site that proves that exposure to Blacks in the work place or anywhere else for that matter does NOT cause any sort of skin reaction or skin cancer. They discuss this purported “condition” and say,”It is not real. It doesn’t even scientifically make sense. Humans do not store UV rays in their original form in order to release them later on. The body converts UV light to vitamin D. They can’t magically convert it back and start shooting UV rays at their coworkers like some kind of biological death ray. This is some idiot’s attempt at trying to manufacture a medical reason to be racist.”

I would definitely urge everyone to read the entire post at the site I quoted because they do a far more eloquent job than I. They’ve done a magnificent job of proving that AAIT doesn’t exist in any way, shape or form. I applaud them for taking the time to do their research and make it available for public benefit.

And the ones that are spreading this horrific rumor online?

May God have mercy on your souls

Well, I managed to avoid my son’s onion/garlic/Tabasco soup last night, mostly because I convinced him that we didn’t have all the necessary ingredients on hand. Incidentally, I discovered that chocolate pudding has amazing restorative powers. I have to admit that just the thought of all those onions in one bowl did amazing things to my constitution, and I assured him that I was in no need of any rehabilitative foods.

I just now hopped online to look something up, next thing I know I’m looking at a few favorite blogs, and I found this great recipe for Quick and Easy Chunky Tomato Soup. It sounds terrific and its probably a lot better than anything I could buy in a can. I think it would be a great meal for me and my family, we could all customize it to suit our tastes. I’d like it just the way it’s described in the recipe, but my daughter would probably love it with some bacon bits. My son would definitely spice it up, that is, he would if he could ever figure out where I hid the Tabasco sauce.