Tuesday, May 27, 2008

a boy and his daddy


guess i have been thinking about the great relationship my husband and son have

it's really sweet how he snuggles up to his daddy at night

or if he wakes in the wee hours, a walk on daddy's shoulder gets him back to sleep

it is a beautiful thing to see

daddy's little buddy!

Thursday, May 22, 2008

jetblue hits the toilet

i don't often get so many comments to articles i write, and i have with this one so thought i'd put it in my blog for posterity's sake:

JetBlue's Jet Blues - Buddy Pass Passenger Takes His Seat on the Toilet
The incident of a passenger who was allegedly forced to sit on a toilet for several hours on a cross-country JetBlue flight is an interesting one. It has had a lot of media play as the affected passenger has decided to sue the airline. What doesn't seem to get as much play is the fact that the passenger was traveling on a buddy pass - essentially, a standby pass.

Most airlines have pass privileges for employees, and some sort of allotment of passes for non-airline personnel. An airline employee is able to give a pass then to a friend or family member to fly at a very reduced rate, on a standby basis. These standby passes are not always easy to use as seats are only allotted after every revenue passenger is put on the flight, and then the vast majority of airlines start doling out the remaining seats on a seniority basis. The order is usually employee/partner/spouse, dependents, parents, and then buddy pass travel.

So it seems in this incident an employee agreed to take a jump seat so that someone with a much lower priority made it on the flight. It appears too, that if the employee hadn't taken the jump seat, the passenger suing JetBlue would not have made it on the flight at all.

So who is to blame? There are a lot of parties involved.

Should the employee who took the jump seat have been allowed to rescind that offer during the flight because the jump seat wasn't comfortable? Probably not, what isn't as clear is if any laws were broken, or whether it violated JetBlue policy for staff travel.

Is the crew of the flight to blame? I would say the jury is out. In the airline industry in general, the captain often has the last word in scenarios that involve their flights, particularly once it is taken off the bridge and is now in active status. Their plane is is their jurisdiction. This doesn't always mean they'll make the "right" decision, but they have to consider safety standards and make a choice. In this situation, it would be interesting to know whether the captain was clearly aware that said passenger would be relegated to the lavatory for a good portion of the flight.

Should the employee who gave the buddy pass be blamed? It is hard to know whether the employee clearly made the rules of standby travel known to the passenger who used a pass, but certainly an incident of sitting on a toilet for part of a flight was not a possibility that an airline employee would think was even possible.

Should the airline be blamed? If the toilet seating option is one that is not clearly banned by the airline regarding employee standby travel, then perhaps they will need to clarify contingent travel rules for their employees, and their respective buddies.

Should the passenger share in the blame? It's difficult to know exactly what happened. Whether a jump seat might have been offered, or whether a seat was secured for the essential take-off and landing periods.

I do think that suing for a huge amount of money is a bit off base when traveling on a buddy pass. I am not condoning the treatment of the passenger, but honestly when I travel on an employee pass I usually feel grateful to get a seat. I know that until the door of that aircraft closes, we've pushed from the gate, and are airborne, that my seat could be taken away for a revenue passenger, or someone with a higher staff travel priority than me.

Those on buddy passes don't often understand this part of pass travel - that your seat is not guaranteed, that you simply are not always afforded the same treatment of a paying passenger. Granted, it being a seat on the toilet is shocking, and the safety issue of it is what needs to be the focus.

I suppose I would feel the multimillion dollar suit would be justified if this was a regular, revenue passenger, but having used employee travel passes for well over a dozen years, I don't know if that kind of monetary compensation is warranted.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

what the world eats - in pictures

i found this photo essay from time so interesting

it shows the foods and weekly expenditures for average families around the world. a human study in pictures...

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1626519_1373664,00.html

Sunday, May 18, 2008

do not do this at home

well steve did slightly soft boiled eggs for cal
so we thought...hmm let's be lazy and finish cooking them in the mw oven
well we should have removed the shell maybe
because within a minute
smoke
pop
door flies open and an explosion of egg teemed out

don't try this at home

Friday, May 16, 2008

chronic fatigue

i'm always interested to read more about pain/stress pathologies. chronic fatigue is interesting because of how differently you have to treat a client. too long or too deep a massage and you could plunge them into a prolonged increased sense of fatigue.

interesting article on possible causes of chronic fatigue - http://naturalmedicine.suite101.com/article.cfm/causes_of_chronic_fatigue
interesting too, as it doesn't mention the epstein barr virus which has been put forth as a possible cause in the past.

Monday, May 12, 2008

ah sprouting

so my latest thing is learning how to do sprouting

i go through so much fenugreek that i thought i'd try sprouting it at home

and good old internet i found a wonderful link with tonnes of info about sprouting...

http://www.sproutpeople.net/

Saturday, May 10, 2008

digital scrapbooking

so i am finding it a fun diversion, in between writing and blogging for work, to do some digital scrapbooking


not only is it a blast, but you can fix the mistakes without using up any supplies!


here is the first one i made to send to someone - my mom!


Friday, May 09, 2008

food and god's little clues...

interesting forward i received...

A sliced Carrot looks like the human eye The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye...and YES science now shows that carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes.

A Tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart is red and has four chambers. All of the research shows tomatoes are indeed pure heart and blood food.

Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell and all of the research today shows that grapes are also profound heart and blood vitalizing food.

A Walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums. Even the wrinkles or folds are on the nut just like the neo-cortex. We now know that walnuts help develop over 3 dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function.

Kidney Beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exactly like the human kidneys.

Celery, Bok Choy, Rhubarb and more look just like bones. These foods specifically target bone strength. Bones are 23% sodium and these foods are 23% sodium. If you don't have enough sodium in your diet the body pulls it from the bones, making them weak. These foods replenish the skeletal needs of the body.

Eggplant, Avocadoes and Pears target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female - they look just like these organs. Today's research shows that when a woman eats 1 avocado a week, it balances hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight and prevents cervical cancers And how profound is this? .... It takes exactly 9 months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit. There are over 14,000 photolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each one of these foods (modern science has only studied and named about 141 of them).

Figs are full of seeds and hang in twos when they grow. Figs increase the motility of male sperm and increase the numbers of Sperm to swell to overcome male sterility.


Sweet Potatoes look like the pancreas and actually balance the glycemic index of diabetics.

Olives assist the health and function of the ovaries

Grapefruits, Oranges, and other Citrus fruits look just like the mammary glands of the female and actually assist the health of the breasts and the movement of lymph in and out of the breasts.

Onions look like body cells. Today's research shows that onions help clear waste materials from all of the body cells. They even produce tears which wash the epithelial layers of the eyes

Thursday, May 08, 2008

scrapbooking


so i have been trying to learn how to scrapbook online


my first effort....

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

more good news about breastfeeding

http://www.thestar.com/article/421708

stories like this make the struggle to get breastfeeding established with callum oh so worthwhile

we've joined the small legion of extended breastfeeders having passed the year mark a little while ago.

a bit of the article...
"Children who are breast-fed are smarter than those who aren't. And children who nurse longer and more intensely are smarter still, according to the largest ever study on lactation and intelligence."

yay...now no more asking me when i am going to stop breastfeeding my child...

Monday, May 05, 2008

my laundry soap

this is my recipe...
in a 4 litre pail i add 1c borax, 1c baking soda, 1c castille soap 1/4 tsp tea tree oil and the rest is water. i use 1/2 c per wash and add a few tbsp of vinegar in the fabric softener compartment of my front loader.
i sometimes add a few drops of essential oils - usually grapefruit, sometimes sweet orange or lavender.
takes no time to make it and i give it a quick stir before each use - and obviously no extra stuff in it . oh not only is it gentle environmentally but it is inexpensive to make...
examples
2kg borax at natural food store = 7.99
green baking soda about 1.20 for 1kg
1l of castile soap = 5.29
60ml tea tree oil about 10$
if the clothes are badly stained i wet the stained spots and rub in baking soda before putting them in the wash

Saturday, May 03, 2008

because he isn't featured enough...

looking at the past few months on this blog, i kinda realize that callum hasn't made it into too many posts. so i think it's time to get him in here more often...starting now!


i'll start posting some of the early pics of him first.



our failed early attempts on the breast...








still stuck with the gauvage tube in the nicu

Friday, May 02, 2008

buying organic

i can't say we are 100% organic with our food purchases but it definitely is a big percentage of our food budget

there is a really good article about organics - Organics: Are they worth it

in particular, it has a list of must buys, maybe buys and up to you buys in terms of organic produce
here's the lists -
"

Preferably Organic—Most Commonly Contaminated

Peaches

Strawberries

Apples

Spinach

Nectarines

Celery

Pears

Cherries

Potatoes

Bell peppers

Raspberries

Grapes (imported)

If Budget Allows, Buy Organic

Carrots

Green beans

Hot peppers

Oranges

Apricots

Cucumbers

Tomatoes

Collard greens

Grapes (domestic)

Turnip greens

Honeydew melon

Lettuce

Kale

Mushrooms

Cantaloupe

Sweet potatoes

Grapefruit

Winter squash

Blueberries

Watermelon

Plums

Tangerines

Cabbage

It's Your Call—Least Commonly Contaminated

Papaya

Kiwi

Bananas

Broccoli

Onions

Asparagus

Peas

Mango

Cauliflower

Pineapple

Avocado

Corn"

and the link - http://food.yahoo.com/articles/eatingwell/20576/organics-are-they-worth-it

Thursday, May 01, 2008

my beautiful boy

a few recent pics from picnics and our front steps...1yrs old and counting








staring out at the water...
































checking out the ducks and dirt






















fun on the front steps















...more pics to come!
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