2:21AM - Natural Would Healing

I slammed my thumb into a door this afternoon, and peeled of a deep layer of skin. It hurts like heck! It's pretty disgusting too, and took a long time to stop bleeding. I'm worried about infection - what should I be doing to speed up the healing process? Any supplements I should take? Should I keep it moist, covered or take the bandage off and let the air dry it out? I'd appreciate any answers a lot, I've never had such a wound before!

I post this here because I don't have health insurance, so I need to take a natural approach to this to heal. :-)
Best !

1:52AM - M10 limited impressions

So after having played in the prerelease this weekend, I figured I would offer my advice to all those who wish to play. I wont spoil any specific cards, in case anyone is waiting for the actual release to see the cards, but by now they are all on magicthegathering.com so feel free to look them up if you so wish.

First off, all of the colors seem to be playable, provided you get the right cards for them. This is not saying very much, but what i mean is that the card quality among the 5 colors is pretty balanced, with no one color being hugely better than the other. Yes, there is lightning bolt in red, but it seems to be one of those "rare" commons, ones that dont show up very often, with no one in the prerelease, at least that I saw, having more than 1. Every color has removal too, except for blue but it does have a nice package of common counters to work with, with even the green removal entangling vines being playable in most situations.

So, all in all so far, from initial impressions, seems pretty balanced right? Ehh, not as much as youd like to think. The lack of significant removal spells in the format make it tough to deal with fat creatures, and regeneration is nuts, meaning cards like cudgel troll are first pickable anytime. Large creatures are also hard to come by.

Unfortunately, for this set more than any Ive seen in the past, it suffers HUGELY from what has now, as of shards block, turned into what I'd like to call "mythic luck". Almost every mythic rare in the set is a game defining bomb, with the exception of maybe darksteel colossus who is actually pretty hilarious to hardcast in game. This means that there will be times where you open in a sealed/draft deck a very nice deck but with no mythics only to be crushed by the kid who opened a baneslayer angel and Garruk. In my personal opinion, I feel as though the lack of balance in limited formats largely caused by the introduction of the mythic rarity has added WAY too much luck into the limited portion of the game. All the best decks at the prerelease were those that happened to open up pairs of mythic rares and ride them to 4-1 or 5-0 records.

Although, for all you doubters out there, yes, those werent 100 percent of the decks that were the best of the best during my prerelease experience, though they were about 80 percent of them.

The other 20 percent had Ant Queen...

1:24AM - Removing stains from clothes, whitening whites without chlorine bleach

I can mostly manage to do my laundry without a bunch of toxic stuff, but the one thing I haven't sorted out is what I might use to pre-treat stains that isn't icky.

My mother, from whom I learned most of my homemaking skills, uses Shout spray and powdered non-chlorine bleach (Clorox 2) to treat stains, and I must say, it works. I have found very few stains I cannot remove with that combination.

But I'm concerned about the crap I'm breathing when I treat the stains, and I would really prefer to use something with ingredients that don't require a degree in chemistry to identify.

I still occasionally use chlorine bleach on my whites, although if I could find a reasonably priced and effective alternative, I'd go for it in a minute. (I can't hang things to dry in the sun; my neighborhood for some stupid reason prohibits clotheslines.)

(I have to confess, I do occasionally sacrifice "natural" for "effective", but I would rather use something non-toxic if it will work. I also occasionally have to sacrifice "natural" for "affordable".)

Most of the stains I'm concerned with are food stains of some sort. Plain old dirt comes out of fabric with a good washing, unless it's really ground-in dirt, but that's not much of a concern. I launder clothes for four people, two of whom work in IT, one who is a paramedic (who, somehow, manages not to get his uniforms messed up too much), and myself (I'm disabled).

So does anybody have any suggestions for removing stains from clothes without using nasty chemicals?

11:55PM - Carrollton area book stores

I've noticed a severe lack of bookstores in Carrollton proper. Sure, there's Lewisvilles, Addison, Richardson, Plano and other surrounding municipalities willing to pick up the slack, but still, it's a damned shame that you end up having to go out of your way to find a bookstore.

Well now, it appears that Half Price Books wants to open a store at Trinity Mills/PGBT & Josey, in the shopping center which also houses Target, Chili's, Ross, Petco, among other businesses. While shopping for cat supplies at Petco this weekend, I noticed that they have a petition sitting at the register, to allow Half Price Books to move into the shopping center. I would strongly urge anyone in the area (not just Carrollton resident, but Farmer's Branch, Dallas, Plano, etc) to go in and sign the petition, so that we can at long last have a bookstore within reasonable distance.

Other than the Petco, I don't know if any of the other businesses have a petition book available on site to sign (feel free to comment if you know one, and I'll update the post with the name of the business), but by all means, please go sign the petition, and let the elected officials know that we want books, and we'd like to buy them close to home.

11:55PM - Carrollton area book stores

I've noticed a severe lack of bookstores in Carrollton proper. Sure, there's Lewisvilles, Addison, Richardson, Plano and other surrounding municipalities willing to pick up the slack, but still, it's a damned shame that you end up having to go out of your way to find a bookstore.

Well now, it appears that Half Price Books wants to open a store at Trinity Mills/PGBT & Josey, in the shopping center which also houses Target, Chili's, Ross, Petco, among other businesses. While shopping for cat supplies at Petco this weekend, I noticed that they have a petition sitting at the register, to allow Half Price Books to move into the shopping center. I would strongly urge anyone in the area (not just Carrollton resident, but Farmer's Branch, Dallas, Plano, etc) to go in and sign the petition, so that we can at long last have a bookstore within reasonable distance.

Other than the Petco, I don't know if any of the other businesses have a petition book available on site to sign (feel free to comment if you know one, and I'll update the post with the name of the business), but by all means, please go sign the petition, and let the elected officials know that we want books, and we'd like to buy them close to home.

9:47PM - No-Poo Update, 10 days in

Just wanted to thank this community again - my hair is doing great.  I can just feel my scalp sigh with relief - my lifelong dandruff problem has gone away, and my lifelong shedding problem has been reduced by at least 50%.  I used to have hair come out in handfuls when I ran my hands through my hair.  I could not grow my hair long because of the shedding.  I don't shed like that anymore.   I never thought that simple baking soda and vinegar could fix all that.  As for the hair itself, it still looks good - or at least, it would if I had a decent haircut.  I asked a friend to conduct a "sniff test" and she informed me, with a great deal of perplexity, that my hair smells like fabric softener.  Must be the towels I dry it with.  In any case, fabric softener smell is something I can live with.

I've been trying to stretch out my washes to once every 3 days, and I don't think my hair is quite ready for that.  But every other day seems to work quite well. 

Now I just need to figure out how to travel with strange white powders in my luggage... I've got a lot of traveling coming up.  Any ideas?

2:51PM - childrens vegan cookbooks - x-posted

hi just wondering if anyone knows of any vegan cookbooks specifically aimed at kids? there seems to be a couple of vegetarian ones but i cant find any vegan ones.

any suggestions greatly appreciated!

thanks,

ash

9:30PM - Plum preserves!

[posted to serene and serenecooking]

12 quarts of whole golden plums = 20 cups of diced/pitted plums

20 cups of plums + 16 cups of sugar + 4 cups of water = 4 batches of plum preserves

4 batches of plum preserves = 24 half-pint jars (plus three or so cups left over) of amber-colored goodness. It's sweet and tangy, and very good.

(I'll try to take pictures of it tomorrow, but after a day spent over a bunch of boiling pots of goo, I just need to crash now.)

7:03PM - DIY Soda for Summer

9:50PM - Notes on the New Bike

First, I'm loving not having to shift gears. You just get on and start pedaling - no worrying about whether you left it in the right gear, whether it'll be too loose or too tight to get going, you just go. If there's a hill, it's harder to pedal, if it's downhill, it's easier. Simple.

Second, it has a kick stand. I cannot express how awesome that is. For years now the "cool" bikes did not come with kick stands (and probably still don't). And certainly, if you were using your bike for racing (which I've done on each of my other bikes), you didn't want a kick stand, for practical as well as "cool" reasons. But being able to prop the bike up on its own while I fumble with getting the lock and cable out and in place? Priceless.

The brakes are still a little noisy, especially on a quick stop, but I'm sure that'll work out as they get worn in.

The other bike store I tried also did not have shoes in my size (grrr!), so it looks like I may have to order some from online. Not my favorite choice, as my feet seem are odd enough that I pretty much always want to try shoes on right in the store to ensure proper fit, without endless back and forth shipping of shoes. Blah. But not having clips on the pedals, while not fatal, was kind of annoying. I wanted the increased power of being able to do the full rotation of the pedal and not just mash down on them; I'm definitely far more comfortable being clipped in as it gives one a better control over pedaling and balance.

Anyway, so far so good. Won't be able to bike to work tomorrow as I have a long night planned with my friend Drew beginning right after work, but I do look forward to trying it out on the morning and evening commutes.

Originally published at Of Moose And Men.

7:39PM - Curry sauce and Freezing yogurt

I made this curry sauce tonight to have in pita bread.  I tasted it when it was done, but it didn't really have much taste, so i added a few spices (can't remember which) but it just did not turn out well at all.  Which makes me really sad.  I was really excited about it.  What would you have done to improve the tempeh and curry a bit? Oh, and I didn't put the onion in.  I forgot about it until it was too late.

Tempeh in Curry Sauce

Total servings: 4

Recipe ingredients

400 g tempeh, cut in 2 cm cubes

1 cup soymilk (or milk)

1 tsp butter

1 onion

1/2 tsp cumin

1 tsp curry powder

1 Tbs white flour

1/4 cup fresh peas

4 cups cooked rice

Recipe directions

Steam the tempeh for 10 minutes.

Cook the onions in the butter until soft. Add the flour, cumin and curry and stir. Add slowly the soymilk while stirring. Add the tempeh and peas and boil on low heat for 1 minute.

Serve with rice. 
(it's from tempeh.com)


Second, I have been making these wonderful fruit salads for breakfast.  I throw some soy yogurt in and some flax seeds and it makes a great start to my day.  However, I would like to try something new now.  I would love to make them into smoothies for breakfast or lunch (when I have access to a freezer to keep it in during the day).  I would also like to make them into smoothies so that I can put some chocolate protein powder into them since I haven't been eating too well lately.  Can I still put the yogurt in?  Basically, I would be making them at night and sticking them in the freezer overnight.  Will the yogurt work with it?  I don't know how soy yogurt would behave in the freezer.  Or should I just use a little bit of soymilk?  I don't have any fruit juices to put in.

thank you so much!!!

8:57PM - Fear of car

( How can I get my dog to stop being afraid of the car? )

5:07PM - Not exactly a training question, but close.

This is I suppose more about behavior, but I wonder if y'all can help me.

My Basenji mix Yoshi (whom you may remember as the scaredy dog who is less motivated by treats or pleasing humans then you'd think) started barking up a storm last night at around 2 am. Barks, yodels, yip-howls, shrieks, you name it. I went into the living room to his crate ready to fight burglars, treat an injured dog, or attempt behavior modification [positive only, don't worry!] to get him to STFU. I got over to his crate, and...

He was asleep. Sound asleep in a little donut, but barking. It was cute, but I worried for my neighbors, so I woke him up. After snarking at me for a second, he curled back up and went to sleep again, this time with no sound.

Does anyone else's dog do this? Are there any ways to keep him from sleep-barking us right into an eviction notice?

6:33PM - Becoming Pesco?

I have been a vegetarian for almost four years now. Recently however, I have been considering including some seafood in my diet. I live in a coastal area abundant in fresh, local seafood, and because I am vegetarian mainly for environmental reasons and public and personal health reasons, it is becoming harder for me to justify abstaining from eating what I enjoy and what would support my local economy.

So my question is, have any of you made this transition? Any tips or starting points?

Thanks =)

11:23PM - Planning crisis...

Soooo, I have a big family do on Saturday, it's a 'teddy bear's picnic' where you all bring food and drinks are provided. My family haven't really come round to my giving up meat yet, and they don't even know about my giving up the rest (easing them in gently...), so I really need to impress them with my offerings this weekend! To add to this and make my life just that bit more difficult, I don't live near them any more, it's a 2 and a half hour train journey, so I would have to take the food on the train (with changes including the London Underground). I've transported cakes in this way before and it's not fun. So I came up with a cunning plan - take Friday off work, get the train up to my mum's Thursday evening and spend Friday cooking. Sorted! But wait... I have no transport, she lives in the middle of nowhere, she can't even take me to the shops because se'll be at my sister's graduation 200 miles away... So now I have to buy the ingredients on Wednesday, and haul them all the way there on the train. Fun times.

Cupcakes (carrot, from the genius Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World) are my only definite so far. I'd like to do the yummy smoked tofu salad I found last week, but transporting salad items... not so good. There's always the old favourite, roasted veg, but I'd like to be a bit more creative.

Any bright ideas, anyone?

5:19PM - Vegan lemon yogurt muffins

Vegan lemon yogurt muffins

( Recipe here )

5:10PM - Yasai Itame soup from wagamama

Does anyone here have access to this recipe? I'd buy their cook book but it's mainly comprised of meat based recipes. please help, as I am highly addicted to this strange and wonderful soup ;] (cross posted)

5:10PM - Yasai Itame soup from wagamama

Does anyone here have access to this recipe? I'd buy their cook book but it's mainly comprised of meat based recipes. please help, as I am highly addicted to this strange and wonderful soup ;] (cross posted)

1:16PM - Jack in the Box Tacos

I've always heard that the tacos at Jack in the Box don't have meat in them, that they're some sort of soy something or other.

Can anyone confirm this?

I really like them a lot.

3:09PM - Great article!

From The Sunday Times
May 14, 2006
Children 'should sleep with parents until they're five'
Sian Griffiths