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White willow (Salix alba) is a natural source of salicylic acid

I was yapping on the phone with my Mom about stomach issues having had a share of problems of my own on Friday. She was complaining about her stomach being upset for not very obvious reasons. So I was giving her my $100/hr pre- Dr.’s visit diagnosis. You see she’s already been tested for a number of issues and thus far the Doctors have found nothing. My diagnosis was some form of food allergy or the obvious one stress. Anyway, we got to discussing what she was cooking for the evening, she was getting ready to make Stew peas and rice a tasty Jamaican dish with a lot of kidney beans in it. Now I know that both of us have had some issues with the kidney beans in the past. We like kidney beans but kidney beans does not like us very much and all sort of stomach woes tend to result within minutes after consumption.  My Mom told me that she can have the tasty dish it with Beano or Maalox. I looked up the ingredients for Maalox and found a host of inactive ingredients I could not pronounce and a few for which I know I’m allergic to. One warning on the label got me thinking:

“Allergy alert:Contains salicylate. Do not take if you are

• allergic to salicylates (including aspirin)
• taking other salicylate products

I looked up some more info on the Salicylate business and found a host of info here including foods and other common goods that contain Salicylate. The list of foods that may contain this ingredient had me wondering about some of my own stomach troubles…

There is a  food guide here that rate foods and drinks according to the amount of Salicylate in them. Now I have no idea what’s up with my Mom’s stomach issues and I’m not saying it has to do with any Salicylate sensitivity of any kind but I came across this info and perhaps it might help someone out there who has been having some stomach and other issues of late.

I rolled out of bed this morning after the alarm went off a couple of times and did my usual looked out the window to see what was up outside… To my utter shock my car was door deep in snow. Lots of words I can’t utter here ensued especially since all I could see was snow everywhere.

I decided if I was going to deal with this situation I needed some breakfast so I dragged myself downstairs grabbed some breakfast and a cup of  Uprising and opened my door Snow was packed up in square like form against the door. Hmmmf….crud… I went downstairs to get the broom and a excavator shovel since the snow shovel was buried in the yard somewhere. Had to locate that soon.  I was wishing that I had a sled or inner tube to at least have a bit of fun but no luck there. I decided to pass up the cardboard and mat laying on the floor. First order of business was to dig my way to the car… Luckily I didn’t park that far from the house. I battled against nature for a while and after my hands and toes started going numb, I came back inside to warm up… Mon! In addition to the snow it’s quite cold and windy outside. My hands are quite warm now so I’m back out for round 2. There are others out there in tractors cleaning off the road coz not sure if we will get any snow plows up here for a while the folks are doing what they can to dig themselves out.

Buried Car

Round 2 After Another 1/2 hour warming up I headed back outside to finish up the job I started. I came in a few times to warm up and

changed my boots… By this time, A green tractor appeared after I was on side three of digging out the car and was almost done with the fourth side. The guy started working on the driveway… and my next door neighbor was pulling a smaller car back into their driveway with his hummer. The wheels on the little car which is about the size of mine was spinning. I’m thinking that they didn’t have good snow tires on it or the hit a patch of ice or something.

They got out and started to hand shovel by this time the tractor had cleaned out a spot for me to move my car to so he could back up the snow that was infront of my walkway (the area I spent a few few hours digging my car out of before he arrived on the scene). Someone showed up with hot

chocolate and goodies for the guy in the tractor and I’m like that’s it I’m so done with this I’m going back in the house to get some more hot liquid and eat something. Its was after 1 by this time.

My oh My! Its been a while since I updated this blog. I’ve been busy to say the least. Since my last post the iPhone 4 is on preorder, iOS 4 is out with over 100 new features even for us 3G and 3GS users, oh and the Mac Mini has a bit of refresh with its new Unibody self. Bummer its no longer available for $599 entry price it seems to have gone up by $100 (what’s up with that?) Apparently BP repositioned a containment cap on the underwater gulf gusher that’s been causing all kinds of health problems and other issues for those folks living in the affected areas. Hope that the cap holds this time. We’re worried about oil around these parts ourselves mainly gas drilling and hydrofracking.

So what have I been doing these past months. I’ve been diving into the ESRI Flex World a bit mainly for work and also just getting some away time from my computer. Its been fun but I’m seriously wiped out. I’m off to get some shut-eye long day tomorrow. One more thing… there are now 4 groundhogs that have taken up residence on my property we have a bit of an understanding so they stick to the un-mowed areas of the grass. At some point there will be too many of these creatures to manage so I’m looking into a way to deal with their case…

I finally had a chance to see the movie Avatar this weekend. I didn’t really know what to expect because I did not pay any attention to the reviews beforehand. I wanted to see it on the big screen though and they had two versions, the 3D and the regular version. I saw the regular version because I had woof down my dinner and did not want to get sick on the 3D version. Anyway, my friend and I arrived at the theatre a bit early so we saw all the previews beforehand and was more than happy when the film finally started. I won’t give anything away there is enough of that going around all I have to say is that I was immersed in another world for over two hours. The colors and scenes before me were grand and imaginative, the story was complex but simple and the underlying messages were clear. From a techie standpoint there was plenty to gawk at. I especially liked those thin flat screens in the lab and other places, the networking concept on Pandora was also cool. I thought that the acting was really good everyone seem to really be into it and the whole Avatar idea was well executed. When it was over we got up and clapped… I can’t wait for this one to come out on video and is hoping for an Avatar 2.  All in all it was a fine way to spend $10 and 2+ hours on a rainy, foggy night in an otherwise stuffy theatre.

Since I was stuck at home today with some sort of stomach bug that’s been going around, I did what I normally do when I’m stuck at home… take the opportunity to clean. My first order of business was to vacuum so I got out the vacuum cleaner and went to work. I noticed that my carpets had a medicinal smell that I did not like and no I don’t smoke so don’t even go there. I felt strongly that some sort of deodorizer was needed and I was not about to go out to get any. Other than my stomach issue other deodorizers tend to make me stuffy, and I have issues with particular strong scents, so I was looking for something a bit more natural than carpet fresh. I fired up the ole computer and did a search on natural deodorizers and the next thing I knew I was in the kitchen mixing up a batch. My particular mix consisted of :

• 1/2 cup of baking soda (I used the aluminum free kind)
• 1/2 cup of borax (yes the same stuff you use to clean your laundry)
• 5 or 6 drops of Now 100 % Natural Tea Tree Oil (happen to have some of this in my medicine cabinet)
• Couple drops of vanilla extract (I was looking for almond but thought the vanilla would be interesting)
• A few shakes of cinnamon (before I remembered the cinnamon sticks on the lower shelf- use the sticks next time)
• A few pieces (3 or 4) of cinnamon sticks
• A few shakes of dried rosemary leaves (straight off my spice rack)
• A few shakes of dried mint leaves (also off my spice rack)

Combine ingredients above and make sure that the liquid stuff (oil, extracts) don’t get your mix all beady, the idea is to keep the consistent powder form… The oils and other goodies made the otherwise bland baking soda and borax smell really nice. Ooooh the fragrant offering of natural goodness… I found a container for mine (a rounded tin can that once held tea), threw a thick piece of printing paper on top of it, wrapped a make shift rubber band of sorts around said piece of paper to hold it to the container, and poked some holes in it with a fork real quick. Obviously when I make it out of the house next few days I’ll try to find a more appropriate container for my fragrant concoction.  Anyway, I sprinkled my fragrant offerings on the carpets and left it for an hour (you can leave it for 20 minutes or so) then vacuumed with delight. The whole house is smelling really nice and fresh! I can’t wait to mix up another batch using some other essential oils that I like (yes I enjoyed doing this).  If you are not into mixing up concoctions in your kitchen and prefer to purchase a natural deodorizer, I found two in my brief search: Citrus Magic- Carpet and Room Freshener (particularly for those with pets) and Matt Carpet Deodorizer by Eco-Me. Can’t speak for any of those but I noticed that Matt had baking soda, cornstarch, and essential oils (Roman Chamomile, Grapefruit, Clary Sage) as its ingredients.