Finding my identity through my family's history
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Posted by Dawn-Ann on June 1, 2009
Teachers and parents alike will enjoy inkythink.com. It’s just getting rolling but Kimberli, the site owner and reviewer, has already written several children’s book reviews. I find her writing style intelligent, yet endearing.
If you’re wondering what to get that special child in your life, you can’t go wrong with a book. Take a little time and browse some of these!
Posted by Dawn-Ann on April 30, 2009
It seems as though so much of my life has been brought to question lately. Enough that I’ve started evaluating every area of it for what is true and what is not – sometimes with surprising answers. So, what if? What if everything I’ve been believing is a lie?
It doesn’t matter about family history; it doesn’t matter about the future.
There is nothing after we die; we’re just worm food.
Blood is just blood; family ties are common and unimportant.
I am going to die young and poor and alone, having accomplished nothing of value with my life.
Watching TV and buying “stuff” are all that really matters.
I can’t help anyone; the world’s going to hell in a handbasket, with or without me.
I don’t need to be healthy; smoking and eating greasy foods is good for people.
Thank goodness I don’t REALLY believe those things and I’ll keep putting one foot in front of the other for the time being. And eating fruits and veggies. And loving my family and its history. And eating out at Brewsters with my Honey.
Whew! I feel better already.
Posted by Dawn-Ann on April 25, 2009
I’ve been theorizing for a little while that animals are evolving intellectually (except for yappy little dogs, who have IQs of -3). Seriously, though. Doesn’t it seem that way to you? Or are we just more aware of some animals’ higher intelligence now, with the availability of the Internet?
Whatever it is, I’m always really amazed and tickled when I see something like this. This will blow you away.
Posted by Dawn-Ann on February 1, 2009
Although winters in Canada are characteristically long, here in Calgary we have milder ones than most other areas besides the left coast. Still, it’s nice to see the first hints of spring appearing, even though we likely have several more weeks of cold.
This morning my heart was warmed by the sight of a flock of little sparrows playing and scavenging for food in the back yard. While it’s true sparrows don’t go anywhere in the winter, you rarely see them all flocked together like this in the dead of winter, so I was tickled.
Little sparrows on the back walk
Posted by Dawn-Ann on January 4, 2009
I was talking to someone the other day about Internet relationships and how “safe” they are – or not. I think people were surprised to know that I have had a few such relationships that began online, the last of which has provided me with a dozen or so years of blissful couple-ness.
Relationships that begin online can work, and work well. In fact, when I look back on my past relationships, one in three serious ones that began online turned out successful and long term. On the other hand, zero percent of the loves I met in real life panned out. So there you go. Empirical evidence it ain’t, but I’m convinced.
I learned a few things as I went along and I’d like to pass along six rules for online dating. I’d be interested to hear if anyone has anything to add.
There you have it! Reasonable, yet progressive. Maybe someday you’ll be able to say you have shared a dozen or so years of blissful couple-ness with someone you met online!
Posted by Dawn-Ann on December 6, 2008
My host is moving this site to a new server, probably sometime today, so I’m going to refrain from writing anything for a day or so. Catch you on the flip-flop!
Posted by Dawn-Ann on
I should be adding to my Adventures page more often. I’ve gone to L.A. and Scotland, but just haven’t written about them yet. Oh, and how could I forget Isaac’s and my road trip across Canada and the U.S.? Anyway, if you haven’t had a look at what I have written yet, please do. Follow this link to get there. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You’ll be inspired! ;)
Posted by Dawn-Ann on November 30, 2008
Have you ever putzed around the ‘Net and looked at eerie pictures of “real” ghosts and orbs and the like? Some of them are pretty freaky, but I am always suspicious. It is just too easy these days to fake or Photoshop a picture. Some folks are really clever about making a photo look like something it’s not, but even amateurs and accidents can account for some weird ones.
Following are a few I found on my own harddrive!
Caught in low light, just as Odessa was about to blow out her candles.
My son Isaac created this "ghost" with a moving sheet in low light causing the blur.
So-called "orbs" are often caused by dust or ice crystals catching the light of a camera's flash, creating eerie looking little balls of light. They'll often occur in dry, dusty halls, such as where this Medieval Feast was held.
Isaac created this "ghost" by spraying an aerosol spray in front of the camera.
Isaac caught in the act while Kim looks on. :)
Posted by Dawn-Ann on November 29, 2008
I have had a loaf of bread sitting on my counter for a week now. My husband and I have been eating it in fits and starts – a piece of toast to go with my oatmeal one morning, a couple of slices of French toast another. Each time I used it, the bread seemed fresh and soft. Even this morning when I finally threw it out it was still un-moldy and Wonder-squeezable and it seemed a shame to waste, but my goodness… It was a week old!
I don’t know about you, but I am highly suspicious of bread that doesn’t go bad. In the REAL world, it should go stale and dry after a few days, possibly even sprouting the blue fuzzies. I should be able to take that stale bread, dry it on the counter, and then use it for stuffing or more French toast. What the heck is IN our bread nowadays that makes it last so long? I decided to check.
In my research I found others who said things like, “I don’t want to eat the bread because it can’t be good to have lasted that long.” Someone suggested that this person check the ingredients – a fine idea! I dug out another loaf of the same bread I’d just thrown out, bought at the same time and frozen. It had the usual ingredients, flour and milk and the like, but it had a few things that had me scratching my head; items such as sodium stearoyl-2-lactylate and L-cysteine hydrochloride. I decided to find out what they were.
Sodium stearoyl-2-lactylate is used as an emulsifier, plasticizer, or surface-action agent (plasticizer?). It is used in many things, including bread and meat batters (meat batters?). It is prepared from lactic acids and fatty acids. Sounds fairly harmless, actually. The Canadian Food and Drug Regulations allow for the use of use of sodium stearoyl-2-lactylate at levels from 0.05 to 2 percent. I got the impression from my research that it is a relatively new ingredient that has no real data backing it yet. Even the doom and gloom websites that said to avoid it couldn’t say why. As near as I could tell, it is a form of lactic acid which can sometimes cause headaches, intestinal upset and skin disorders in sensitive people. Folks who are lactose intolerant should avoid it, too. Iffy stuff, but I doubt that’s what is making the shelf life of my bread unnaturally long.
L-cysteine hydrochloride is an amino acid. From what I can tell, it is actually good for you and some people take it as a dietary supplement. The only possible negative effect I could find was that it could possibly cause chelation (removal) of minerals. It is used as an “improving agent” in bread, whatever that means.
Neither of these things seemed particularly dangerous to eat in small quantities and neither could explain why my loaf of bread had lasted so long. One source suggested maybe I just didn’t have any mold spores floating around my home, but I know I do. Other things go moldy. And what about the fresh, soft texture? What has prevented the bread from drying out and going stale? Even the taste was still fresh-ish (though admittedly not the perfection of hot-out-of-the-oven goodness).
So then I got thinking about some things I’d heard about irradiated wheat flour. Could that be it? According to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s website, wheat and wheat flour, among other things, are approved for irradiation in Canada. The ingredients list does not have to mention an irradiated ingredient to the consumer unless it comprises more than 10% of the finished product. I suspect flour comprises more than ten percent of a loaf of bread and my ingredients list didn’t mention it, so we should be okay on that score. Besides, would irradiation of the flour cause the bread to remain mold-free? I doubt it.
As an aside, the jury is still out for me as to whether irradiated food is harmful to eat. Some sources state that vitamins are killed in the process and turned into carcinogens, which kind of makes sense, knowing a little about how gamma radiation works, but that’s the subject of another post.
In the end, I haven’t answered my question about why my bread doesn’t go bad, but I will say one thing. I do feel a little bit better about the ingredients!
Posted by Dawn-Ann on November 12, 2008
The title says it all – men beware. You can go read one of my other posts about urban homesteading or something. It’s from The Daily Blonde and I swear, it’s the funniest thing I’ve read in a long time. I just wish I could remember who I was recently telling about the dreaded belt. Women over 45 or so will definitely relate!