Rawism...not for every tummy!

Recently I've become friends with a lovely woman and her husband. They are on a raw food diet and had us over for dinner last night. Now before I go on, I should mention that I grew up with a Dad who was a vegetarian for 12 years and ate my very first steak about five years ago...which I enjoyed immensely! SOO, I'm all for veggies! However, I have to say that the meal last night left me with a less than positive experience to go on an all raw food diet. We had "sushi" with raw veggies. It all tasted good! But boy oh boy...I started feeling sick almost immediately. A few hours later, I was glued to the toilet for the next few hours. NOT so fun! Spoke to her today and thanked her for having us over, plus for the nice meal...but I had to ask the embarrassing question, "How were they feeling today?" They were doing just fine, she said. When I told her, she thought that it may have been the sprouts. Another friend of mine thought it was the raw shredded potato that we also ate. Who knows? Maybe we're just a super toxic couple in need of a serious detox with raw foods and juicing? All I know is that I'm not about to go on an all raw food diet...even if we're missing a stove top at the moment and can't really make a good home cooked meal yet, but I promise that I'll still eat my veggies.

Brides BEWARE of DressProvider!

Since I'm getting married, I went On-line to shop for a wedding dress. If I had a lot of money my number one wedding dress maker would hands down be Jim Hjelm, but since I cannot afford to buy a dress from him I found a place that makes dresses in his style for a whole lot less. First, I googled Jim Hjelm Wedding Dresses and up came “Shopping Results for jim hjelm wedding dresses” = dresses at a lot less from eBay and other makers, including from a company called “DressProvider” or "Private Label DressProvider".

I fell in love with a gorgeous lace dress from DressProvider that was rather inexpensive. I looked at it for about a week before deciding to order it. However, after inputting all my personal information and giving them my credit card number the total amount on the final page was over a THOUSAND DOLLARS...about $800.00 more than what it should have cost! SO like any good consumer, I immediately wrote the company an email expressing my concern and giving them the benefit of the doubt, but the email was returned to me with a note that no such email address existed.

My fiance asked me, ”Isn't there a number you could call?” I looked on their website and felt a sinking feeling in my gut! There was NO number! I wrote a second email to their other contact e-mail address under "Contact Us". Again, I expressed my concern, but also let them know that at this point I had already contacted my bank and VISA because I felt that this was a scam and that I would further contact the FBI escam team and write a blog about them if this was indeed the case, but if it wasn't then I sincerely apologized. I heard NOTHING back from them!

My bank informed me, after I closed everything down, that the credit card company that DressProvider uses had indeed “tested out” my credit card with a one dollar amount. In addition, after I had sent them the second email the dress that I had been looking at was pulled from the Google site and so were ALL of their other dresses. Interesting!

It's now been several weeks since the incidence. However, “they” are still in business, so if you're looking for a wedding dress...do yourself a favor and shop locally or from a well-known company that has a legitimate reputation! Even though I ended up not loosing money, this IS still a scam! AND it's not worth the agony nor the stress!!! I've finally found a gorgeous dress at BCBG Maxazria and even though I've paid more for it...at least, I know that I've gotten something for my money.

Fighting a Sore Throat and Body Aches

Most of you know that I work in a "petri dish" of germs! Being a Kinder teacher, I come in contact with (almost) all germs known to mankind...or so it feels! I've been fighting yet another sore throat and body aches. Yesterday, while at the grocery store, I ran into a friendly elderly pharmacist in the Cold Care isle. He gave me some good tips for how to get rid of my aches and pains: 

1. Do not drink orange juice or anything acidic when you have a sore throat. It irritates it!

2. Drink room temperature water or mix in some juice (personally, I am a huge fan of Propel packets!)

3. Rub in some Vicks VapoRub on your throat or chest before going to sleep.

4. Take Cepacol, a sore throat lozenges, which has a numbing agent every 2 hours if needed.

He also recommended cooking up some wild rice with some dark green vegetables, such as broccoli!

For the body aches, he recommended taking two Tylenol Extra Strength every four hours. He also recommended taking Grape Seed Extract, Pycnogenol, and Alpha Lipoic Acid for those of us who get sick often every year! I did not buy these three items yet, but know that I will look into these since I tend to get sick often every winter and into the spring. The secretary at my doctors office swears by gargling twice a day with Listerine. Wash your hands often! And last but not least...Get plenty of rest!!!

I actually feel much better today than I did yesterday! Funny, I had bought a rice cooker just before going to the grocery store, so last night I made myself a batch of wild rice with asparagus!

Please share if you have any other tips that might be helpful to others!

Falske Rygter om dine Facebook Venner

Den anden dag fik jeg en af disse kæde breve fra en bekendt med besked om at hvis de ikke var aktive på Facebook så ville de blive slettet! Fordi jeg hader denne slags mails besluttede jeg mig til at skrive til Mark Zuckerberg selv for at se om det nu også var rigtigt. Faktisk så havde jeg ikke forventet at han personligt ville skrive tilbage til mig om dette, men det gjorde han...og endda også samme dag! Her er hvad han skrev til mig oversat:

Tak fordi du tog tiden og skrev ind. Beskeden du fik var falsk. Venligst besøg vores Facebook Security Page http://www.facebook.com/security for mere information om dette rygte.

Tak, Mark

Så skulle du få en besked om at dine venner bliver slettet hvis de ikke er aktive brugere på Facebook...NU er du informeret og bedes venligst ikke sende den videre, men informere din gode ven som sendte den til dig om at den nu alså ikke er sandt!

Slumdog Millionaire

Up the street from my new place is the coolest little local movie theater. I went there today and watched, "Slumdog Millionaire". The cinematography is excellent and so is the acting. 

Set in India, with "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?" as part of the plot, the film takes us on a tour de force back to Jamal's childhood and forward in time. This film tells the story of his life in the slums, how he and his brother survived, and it is also a love story for a girl named Latika. The film was the Winner of the People's Choice Award at the 2008 Toronto Film Festival. It does not disappoint! I give it 5 stars!

Changes

It's a new year! We left 08 and started 09. No one knows where this year will take any us, but hopefully it can only get better from here! Some of us made big changes in 08 and some were forced to make big changes due to the economic turmoil. I truly feel for all the people who have lost their jobs! Those have not been pleasant changes!

Personally, I am 'absorbing' my new place and adjusting to it all. Some people hold onto what doesn't work or stay in something because they're too afraid to make 'move'. I am not one of those people. 

Life is all about change and how we adjust to it. We can either take it on with a positive attitude or we can wallow around in self pity and handle it with a negative attitude. We always have a choice! What is your choice going to be?

Here's to you and to a New Year with lots of positive changes! Cheers!