e'sa’s Neighborhood

It'll be here in about two weeks. I'm going to take a nap on it.

:-)

From a recent Feingold.org newsletter:

McDonald's has been in touch with the CSPI (Center for Science in
the Public Interest) and has told them that they really aren't sure that
Americans are concerned about the fact that their food contains synthetic
dyes.  McDonald's has asked their nutrition & labeling manager, Julia Braun,
to gather information on whether or not consumers have any interest in this
area.

Julia says that McDonald's rarely does anything unless they can document a
consumer demand, so she has invited parents to write to her and share their
feelings about food dyes, and she has provided information below on how to
reach her.

    Email:  julia.braun@us.mcd.com  

    Julia Braun, MPH, RD
    Nutrition & Labeling Manager
    2111 McDonald's Drive
    Oak Brook, IL  60523

Maybe you don't have any children who are as markedly affected by preservatives as mine, but are concerned about what you do put in your kids' bodies in terms of artificial colorings and preservatives. This is a good opportunity to let a major corporation know what you think of those booby traps in some of the food they sell! While I realize that fries aren't health food, it sure would be nice if we could let NM eat them as a treat and know he won't have any repercussions the next day. It seems that no preservatives in oil is such a small and doable step for a company that's trying to attract more clients, even those who may not normally consider McD's.

On to the guv'mint:

Feingold is also recommending we contact our good congress folk and encourage a ban on artificial colorings and preservatives in food being sold in the US by major corporations. There is a ban proposed in the UK currently; US companies with interests in the UK are voluntarily replacing artificial colorings with naturally derived ones.

I'm not opposed to companies doing this voluntarily but I'm not so sure about doing an across-the-board ban. But I'd much prefer the FDA a comprehensive listing of all ingredients because not everyone has the same issue with artificial preservatives we do. People should have a choice to partake or not. After all, to remove the iffy preservatives from our food would likely cause significant increases (been to a health food store lately?).

Currently, the loopholes allowed in the food label laws are huge, you can drive a Mac truck through them. Think your organic, non-fat milk is perfectly good for you? Well, they don't tell you that Vitamin A Palmitate is most likely preserved with BHT or one of its kin. Hardly organic stuff. But unless you have contacted the dairy to find out where it gets its source of Vitamin A is, and then checked out that source, you wouldn't know. The amounts are miniscule by legal standards so the preservative isn't listed.

But of course, if Snickers had to list everything it really has in it, the label probably wouldn't have much room for the logo! And what about Twinkies? Snoballs? DingDongs? PopTarts? Ok, no, they're not really healthy things but a surprising number of "health foods" do contain artificials in them but don't list them because they don't have to.

Cute Puppeh!
Originally uploaded by Phisch

A few more photos/videos here.

We hung out in the back yard last night making soccer videos. Someone---err, somedog---was really happy about that.

Note the dead and dying grass. Our temps have been quite high lately! We're only allowed to water 2x a week on designated days. I cheated and watered a day early because the trees were looking a little worse for wear.

J was so tired last night. We'd make a video, he'd insist on watching it and then he'd laugh, and laugh and laugh so hard he was red in the face. We had fun!

This is what I have thus far:

I have a mirror like this somewhere:

Mirror

And I ordered some ceiling tiles to do something with:

 I may do some DIY stuff with some paper from www.paper-source.com LOVE that stuff.

And last but not least I like these from www.art.com. The artist is actually a friend of my dad's!

Oh no, not at all.

The collar? Meh. It's itchy but that's about it.

But the leash? Oh, my heavens, the leash. It was and will be a power struggle for a long time, I think. She hates it. She fell asleep resisting it, get that one. I have no idea how she did it.

From here on out, it is going to be a lesson in the pack hierarchy for Sprocket. Sprocket of the soft laps and front-and-center of the alpha male's desk. It's hard because I want to play with her and to puppies, that means "we're even" and not at all "you're in charge." It probably didn't help that she saw me cleaning up her poop, yet another hierarchy issue. The sight of that kind of startled her, I think.

I have to get hubby to help me remember how we trained our first dog together. After all, that one set up a dog run on her own, could fetch a toy from several when we named it and was class valedictorian of the doggy training class.

We're definately getting my couch, only in the dark fabric:

Mammoth

And I hope we get these pillows from www.etsy.com

Tree

Hmgbrd

Blsm

Now you all need to help me with art and curtains!

Edit: What do you think of these curtains?

Sage curtains

In honor of the upcoming Olympics, what could you win a gold medal in?
Submitted by TheFiercestCalm.

Most consistently spacey brain. It's hard work, but I forget I how I do it.

We had tix, even. But, we couldn't leave any earlier than an hour before the movie cuz Pippin can't be left that long yet.

We foolishly thought that having tix to a show at 9:15 on a Saturday morning meant not many people would be there.

Ha. It was sold out, so by the time we got there the line wrapped around the theater. We tried to get seats but gave up and got vouchers to go back another time. No one in their right mind wants to watch an IMAX movie from the front row.

So now I"m thinking maybe I'll take the dog to my mom's house and then camp out for a show some evening this week.

Having a puppy can be a lot like having a baby. :-)