Thursday, July 31, 2008

The Next Wave of Healthcare

Last month I interviewed Mary Lou Powell, Rex Healthcare's Senior VP of Patient Care Services and Nursing for an article. She was most interesting to talk to, and said something that makes fuel for a good discussion. When I asked Powell what we could do to improve our hospital care, one answer was that families should come up with a system to be involved with their hospitalized ones. "That will be the wave of the future," Powell said.

Picture a spouse, parent, or adult child competently filing in for an aide. It evokes something out of a Victorian novel where the family keeps a vigil by the bedside of the sick.

Years ago my mother stayed with me five days post surgery. Mostly she hollered for the nurse when I needed something and oversaw that staff did things right. I don't think this is what Powell was thinking.

Then there's family members that can be more needy than the patient. And what about the family caretaker who thinks they know better than the nurse? And doesn't.

How could this type of partnership be made to work?

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Shock and Roll is Here to Stay?

After that 5.4 quake east of LA on Tuesday, I watched CNN for an hour as they tried desperately to find something worthy of "Breaking News". If you want to see some scientific data for the quake area, here's excerpts from the US Geological Survey and Caltech.

Probability of an aftershock in the next 7 days (from July 29):
  • Strong Aftershocks (Magnitude 5 +) 30%
  • Earthquakes larger than the mainshock - approx 5-10%
  • Weak aftershocks (Magnitude 3-5) - approx 12 to 40 quakes

Shake Movie of July 29 event
Courtesy of Caltech Seismological Laboratory

Label Ambush

Some people react badly to MSG (monosodium glutamate). Others think it's a long-term health hazard. (Personally I believe it is toxic to the nervous system.) If you're one of these people, be aware that MSG is, or might be, contained in other additives, so look for these on the label:
- anything with hydrolized, glutamate, protein, enzyme or caseinate in the name
- Textured protein
- Yeast nutrient
- Autolyzed yeast
- Carrageenan
- Natural flavoring

Now that you know what to look for, if you find it's hard to get packaged foods without these additives -- surprise!

Monday, July 28, 2008

Meet One-Hundred Percent Dog

Whereas Princess Dog has a lot of "cat" in her, her companion, One-Hundred Percent Dog, is well . . . just that.

He can't resist a thrown toy, a pack activity, or another dog's bark.

100PDog is a liver-colored Shih Tzu. He has no black on him anywhere, hair or skin. His nose is violet, his eyes brown. When he sits next to Princess Dog they look like photo negatives of each other.

Eating at the Fourth Level of Bliss

When you bring home meat from the grocery store and use it in your most favorite dish, it's wonderful. But that's only eating at the first level of bliss.

Go to the butcher section, or someplace like Fresh Market, and get that same cut of meat (beef, chicken, pork) without antibiotics or hormones and use that in your favorite dish. If you're old enough, you'll say it tastes like meat you remember. Also there are now less antibiotics and hormones in the population. That's the second level with a bonus bliss for all.

Now take it up another notch. Go someplace like Whole Foods and get an organic cut. This may spoil you for grocery store meat because the final dish will be moister with more flavor then you're used to. It may just be healthier too. Third level bliss additions for all: less agricultural pollution, less reliance on foreign oil, better treatment of the animals.

Ready for the fourth level of dining bliss? Look for locally produced and slaughtered, grass-based meat. (Try a farmer's market, or do a web search for CSA or Metropolitan Buying Club.) You are now eating what five-star chefs serve. The bliss bonus: Natural and humane treatment of the animals, much more efficient use of resources, even less reliance on foreign oil, and improved local economy. The best thing? You know where your meat comes from the next time there's an e-coli scare.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Secret Keystrokes for your Cell Phone

There are keystrokes to check your cell phone usage. Dial the code then press CALL. The call is free.

Verizon
To Check Balance #225
To Check Minutes #646
To Check Data Use #3282

T-Mobile
To Check Balance #225#
To Check Minutes #646#
To Check Data Use #674#

AT&T
To Check Balance *225#
To Check Minutes *646#

Sprint/Nextel
Voice Menu for All *4

For Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T, you call, and a report gets text messaged back to your phone. Mine looked like this:
MINs Remaining
As Of: 06/26
Anytime: 650
N&W: 5,000 (Nights & Weekends)
M2M: Unlimited (Mobile to Mobile)
RO: 4,995 (Rollover)
RO exp: 450 on 07/23/07 (Rollover Expiring)

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Princess Dog Part 2

It's time for Princess Dog again, or maybe I should say Empress Dog, since Shih Tzus used to be the exclusive property of the royal Chinese family.

Today Princess Dog is contemplating why there are people in the house, yet her belly's not being rubbed. There's no excuse for it.

My canine breeder-shower friend, Shelley, can tell from a picture how confident a dog is in a situation. This amazes me. But I can tell from a picture how close my dog is to a bark. This one is coming in about 3 seconds.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

How Green Was My Thumb

Robin Lloyd, senior editor at LiveScience.com had an interesting article on Yahoo News yesterday. It seems the botanical classifications for our produce are not what we commonly think. (http://www.livescience.com/health/080722-fruit-what-is.html if you want to read it for yourself.)

I'm a horrible gardener, but each March I feel compelled to seize the opportunity that it's the one time of year to plant and so I do.

Here's my take on how to tell one botanical plant from another:

- If it died because we got a 90 degree day in April, it was probably a legume.
- If it died because I tripped over it, it was probably a berry.
- If the bugs ate it between the time I planted it and the time I got back with the watering can, it was probably a fruit.
- If it never got planted because there isn't enough room, it was probably a leafy green.

This year I do have a successful stevia crop. Guess that's an herb.

Monday, July 21, 2008

The French Delicious

There is something called "The French Paradox" that helps explain why North Americans are bad at weight and diet-related health issues. While in France I enjoyed being on the winning side of the paradox.

Imagine eating dessert like this every day without guilt. Those are individual cream puffs drizzled with caramel.

According to The Omnivore's Dilemma, the French can eat like this because they make meals a lengthy event, don't go back for seconds, and don't eat alone.

"Where's My Road" continues . . .

Photo courtesy of atom.smasher.org
If you look back at my original post, you'll see an update to the rumor. False, I've been told by Town Hall.

But there's good news. The construction company informed me they are ready to put out construction signs next week. After that they start clearing (land?) then the work will begin in conjunction with utility relocation.

Can it really be?

Friday, July 18, 2008

Can you pick the winner?

What will save you more money?
a. Dropping your water heater 20 degrees AND cutting 5 minutes off your shower
b. Brewing you own daily coffee instead of going for a latte at Starbucks
c. Carpooling one day a week.

An article by Lauren Baier Kim in Yahoo Finance gave me the numbers. And I am shocked. Shocked.

Being a good environmental buddy with your utilities only saves $227 a year. Less if you have a gas water heater.

Being a good carbon footprint buddy with your car saves $423 a year (with gas at $4.07 a gallon).

But saying nay to Starbucks, that purveyor of luscious sanity-saving beverages, wins with a savings of $912 a year.

Maybe this explains why Starbucks are starting to close, but we still have global warming.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

BlackBerry Pilaf

One of my users dropped her BlackBerry in a cup of espresso. I though espresso cups were rather small, but this one must have been a stay awake special. Anyway, the space bar stopped working so we had to order a replacement.

She might have saved the day if she knew to put her wet device in a bowl of rice to dry out. That's uncooked rice, everybody.

I understand cat litter will work too, but don't leave it where the cat will get confused.

Picture and grain-related tip courtesy of an article posted on labnol.org by Gammoth.com.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

The Yankee Dollar - Oh là là

We took two trips this year. Here's what we got for about US$160 a night:

In central France










in the Blueridge Mountains











Both places were clean and newly furnished. I am taking the first picture with my back against the wall. What you don't see is the bathroom with a beam slanting from ceiling to floor that you have to duck under to get to the sink.

Here's the inside of the second place:
What you don't see here is the loft bedroom with sitting room and ensuite bath, the eat-in kitchen, second bedroom and bathroom, the large front porch, side porch with eating area, and back porch with hot tub. This is a popular tourist area for people from Charlotte and Atlanta. But it was February, after all.

We were in Europe for nine days to visit family, and only met two other couples from the U.S.

Monday, July 14, 2008

The Hick You Say


One of my Toronto friends said my blog has a very small town feel. I guess he means the kind of town that you can drive through without even knowing you left the town before it. Town Council is trying to fix that. Soon we'll be so homogenized you'll still be able to drive through Morrisville and not know which town you're in, but at least we won't be small anymore.

This is not a picture of where I live, but of where I work. Bambi can be mean if you get too near when her fawn is with her. This one was still learning how to walk.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

The Answer

Did you figure out Friday's puzzle? Here's a closeup.


It's a picture of someone using a PDA. Nadia nailed it, but I don't know about the crotch that she mentioned in her guess. It's a poor quality picture. Maybe IBM had a strict budget for this part of the software development.

Friday, July 11, 2008

The Box Number 4 Mystery

I'm a Lotus Notes administrator. When you start Notes, you get this screen:



If your computer is slow enough, and as a contractor mine is, you spend a lot of time looking at this every day. Eventually you develop names for each box.

Box 1. Artsy-half-faced woman who feels blase about her email;
Box 2. Meaningless-Lotus-patented-color circles;
Box 3. IBM employees with 30 days to find another position frantically searching;
Box 4. Um . . . huh?

What is that? To me it looked like a ballet dancer stretching her leg. Some years ago I asked my co-worker who'd been with IBM for 29 years what box number 4 was. She didn't know either but thought it was someone cleaning a horse's hoof. But we both knew that wasn't the part of a horse that had anything to do with email.

We finally found someone who figured it out. The answer tomorrow.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Where's my road?

UPDATE - July 16
I have heard back through the Morrisville Commissioner whom I contacted that the money rumor is not true. The Town Manager wrote: "Bond proceeds never actually get comingled (sic) with the General Fund." He said audits were also done by the lenders.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I probably shouldn't take it so personally, but WHEN will the town start the Morrisville-Carpenter and Hwy 54 widening project? The road bond passed on election day, 2004 and that Wednesday I was on a lawn chair sipping tea in front of Ben's Bargain Barn waiting for the first concrete truck. Almost four years later, I haven't seen construction worker one.

I know, we had to coordinate with the railroad, and move Billy's Hartness' house first, but... four years? So I did some sleuthing. First, the Town didn't even sell the bond until September, 2007. Second, there's rumors that the money isn't there anymore -- that once they did some consulting work on the intersection, the rest of the $3 million went into the general fund and was subsequently spent on buying property.

Listen, if I sent my kid to the store with $3 million and let him buy a candy bar, I expect some change back.

The sleuthing will continue. I'll keep you posted. Don't go too far.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Princess Dog


"You said there'd be cake."

Ok enough fooling around. Tomorrow I'll start posting deep thoughts.