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May 06 Does Scratched Teflon Cause Cancer?The hot new debate at the Scoble house has nothing to do with Barack or Hillary, or whose turn it is to change the baby's diapers. We are above politics and poop and are talking pots and pans. We are discussing non stick cookware and whether when scratched it can cause cancer or not. I have already gotten rid of a few pots and pans that had scrtches on them, because I think they can cause cancer. Robert says I need to show him scientific proof before throwing away perfectly good pots and pans. Our recycling containers are getting heavy for him to lift :)
I've done some research and while the American Cancer society does not advise against cooking with non-stick pots and pans, they say it is best to avoid using the old and scratched ones. Some environmental and alternative health sites though have lots of negative things to say about non-stick cookware and the checmicals used to make them. So what do you think and what do you use? May 05 Happy Cinco De MayoGot this in email and had to share. Apparently what I learned about Cinco de Mayo in history books was wrong.
Most people don't know that back in 1912, Hellmann's mayonnaise was manufactured in England . In fact, the Titanic was carrying 12,000 jars of the condiment scheduled for delivery in Vera Cruz, Mexico , which was to be the next port of call for the great ship after its stop in New York . This would have been the largest single shipment of mayonnaise ever delivered to Mexico . But as we know, the great ship did not make it to New York . The ship hit an iceberg and sank, and the cargo was lost. The people of Mexico , who were crazy about mayonnaise, and were eagerly awaiting its delivery, were disconsolate at the loss. Their anguish was so great, that they declared a National Day of Mourning, which they still observe to this day. The National Day of Mourning occurs each year on May 5th and is known, of course as... Sinko de Mayo Book MemeI've been an avid reader all my life, and being an English major have had to read many books, but recently with the baby haven't had a chance to read much. I am missing that part of my life and have to somehow get that back into my daily life. Thanks to Alfred I found this list and had to fill it out. Looks like I've got some reading to do. I love Toni Morrison, Josef Heller, Nabakov, Virginia Wolfe, and Neil Gaiman. Milan Kundera has to be one of my all time favorite writers. I named my son after him :) I hated having to read Jane Austen for my classes though. I honestly don't know why everyone makes such a big deal about her writing. BORING, that's all I have to say. According to a LibraryThing survey, these 106 works are the
ones most often marked as “unread,” meaning they sit on the shelf to
make you look smart or well-rounded. Here are the rules: Bold the ones you’ve read, underline the ones read solely as a curriculum requirement, italicize the ones you started, but didn’t finish.
The name of the Rose* Don Quixote* Collapse: How societies choose to fail or succeed Cloud Atlas Ok, it's your turn. May 03 How to tell if you are married...Got this via email from a fellow married girlfriend and had to share:
Three women: one engaged, one married and one a mistress, are chatting about their relationships and decided to amaze their men. That night all three will wear black leather bras, stiletto heels and a mask over their eyes.
After a few days they meet up for lunch. The engaged woman: The other night when my boyfriend came over he found me with a black leather bodice, tall stilettos and a mask. He saw me and said, "You are the woman of my life. I love you." Then we made love all night long. The mistress: Me too! The other night I met my lover at his office and I was wearing the leather bodice, heels, mask over my eyes and a raincoat. When I opened the raincoat he didn't say a word, but we had wild sex all night. The married woman: I sent the kids to stay at my mother's house for the night. When my husband came home I was wearing the leather bodice, black stockings, stilettos and a mask over my eyes. As soon as he came in the door and saw me he said, "What's for dinner, Batman?" Seven tips for new momsEvery day it seems that I learn something new about parenting since my baby has been born, but these seven things are worth mentioning. So here are a list of seven things I have learned after seven months of being a mother:
Number one--Cradle cap is not one of those cute little pink or blue caps that newborns wear to keep their little cute heads warm and covered. Cradle cap is yellowish, oily, thick and crusty patches on the baby's scalp. It is definitely not cute. They don't know what causes it and though harmless and only lasting for the first few months of life, it's nothing pretty to look at. I hear Tea Tree Oil is helpful.
Number two--Babies can sleep through the loudest musicals, huge parties, and TV and radio blasting off. Their cue to wake up is usually when you silently sit down to take the first bite of your meal.
Number three--It doesn't matter how sound of a sleeper you are; your baby's cry will wake you up. I slept through the Iraqi bomb campaign in Tehran during Iran and Iraq war. When Milan whimpers at night, I jump up.
Number four--No matter how much you think your mom loves you, she will love your baby more. There is no way you can compete. I asked my mom once if Milan resembled me when I was a baby. My mom laughed it off and said, oh no way, he is so much cuter.
Number five--On the other hand, you will appreciate your mom and understand her a lot more, once you become a mother yourself.
Number six--If you are going to go out, change and feed the baby before you put that new outfit on. It is highly possible that the baby might barf on you, pee on you or poop on you. If you are like me, most probably all will happen to you within a few minutes of putting that new outfit on.
Number seven--You can still do everything you did before you had a baby. You just have to plan it, be patient and a lot more flexible. Your life isn't over just because you had a baby. It has just begun. May 01 A Can of Diet Pepsi in the Freezer Here's a tip for you, if you want a cold can of diet Pepsi, you can either pour some of it in a glass full of ice or leave the can in the fridge a while before you plan to consume it. Better yet, just don't drink soda. It's not good for you anyway. Yeah I know that is pretty obvious, but what you need to do is realize that never under any circumstances should you leave the said can in the freezer, telling yourself that you will remember to take it out in a few minutes. You may remember to do it a few times, but it is enough just once for you to forget and leave the can there overnight like I did. The sad thing is I don't even drink soda. I left it there for Robert and was going to give to him when I served dinner, but I forgot. The next day when I opened the freezer to get some ice, I was greeted with a frozen black liquid that was splashed all over the freezer. After cursing my own stupidity, the laws of physics, and every single can of soda that exists, diet and regular, I decided to clean the freezer. It was hard to scratch the frozen soda pieces from the freezer. Here's where I had my next brilliant idea which should promptly land me in an episode of Jackass. I thought I would turn the freezer off and wait until it got slushy and soft before removing the splashed soda icicles. So my second tip for you is never do what I just told you that I did. What happened next was that the soda started trickling down all over the freezer, and now everything was black, sticky and requiring lots of effort to clean up. It took me a few hours to clean the freezer and all its contents. I have decided never to bring home a can of soda. I don't care if it was my fault to begin with. April 22 How do you get rid of the rats?They say there is more than one way to skin a cat; apparently there is also more than one way to get rid of a rat. I have talked to four different pest control specialists and each has given me a different story and a different price estimate.
The first one wanted to take out all the floor boards in the attic and install new insulation pads, set rodent traps everywhere and seal up all the little openings in the roof to rodent proof the house for the total of 3600 dollars. I had a small heart attack when I heard that price.
The second one said he wanted 125 dollars just to come and inspect the place before giving us a price estimate. I figured if I had to pay 125 dollars just to get him to come down here, I probably couldn't afford him.
The third one said that he wanted 250 to get rid of the rats and 56 dollars per month for a year to come and keep checking to make sure we won't have nay more problems with the rats.
The last one said that the rats were coming from underneath the house as well as from the roof. He wants to poison them, set traps for the ones that won't die of the poison and then seal the openings underneath and on top of the house. He will then clean and deoderize the attic and the crawl space and guarantee that we won't have any more problems for the next two years. All for the price of 1200 dollars.
Should I keep asking more people? Should I choose one of the above? Should I buy a cat? How do I get rid of the rats? April 19 The Rodent SpecialistIt took him less than half an hour to search through our attic, take some floorboards out and rummage through the insulation pads to find the rodent nest and the baby rat that had died in it and caused the aweful smell. It cost us three hundred dollars. He tells me that it will cost another 3600 bucks to make our house rodent proof by closing all the openings where they are coming through, cleaning and disinfecting the attic and installing new insulation pads. We have a huge rat infestation problem. I am trying to get some other quotes as I choked on the price estimate he gave me, but I can't live with these rats either. Last year we had the voles, this year we have the rats, I am wondering what it will be next year. He tells me that our neighbors had called him in for their racoon problem, so I guess next year is the year of the racoons. If the snakes come, I am leaving town. April 15 Ratz! How does that saying go again? When the cat is away, the rats will play? It doesn't really matter. We have RATS people, RATZ! My brother has left traps all over the kitchen and in the living room as well and we've caught two mice and one big rat already. One of the traps had gone off though and the rat had escaped. I think it went and died somewhere in the attic. We have not been able to find the body yet, but the stench comes through the vents and is pretty nasty. Tonight we had a search party in the attic but we couldn't find anything. That stench though...it's driving me nutz! Is there a CSI unit for rats and mice? I guess I need to call pest control. Yes I did see Ratatouille, but these rats are not cute and they certainly don't cook. They steal our food, leave their dirty droppings and are pretty nasty. Maybe I should buy a cat? April 09 What happened at Camp? Johnson's Camp Baby Report Day 2 and 3What started with a great session on the mystery of getting your baby to sleep by Dr. Jodi Mindell bright and early in day 2 ended with a generous Johnson & Johnson product expo and sampling right around noon on the third day. In between sleeping tips and sampling picks, we learned about the Johnson's commitment to the environment and the safety of their products, The InfantSee program which provides free vision care for infants and children, The dirt on germs, emerging lifestyle trends for moms, nutritional advice and tips on healthy cooking and eating, as well as a discussion on sensitive gynecological issues and a fun hair braiding session. Stop right there! No, the gynecological session and the hair braiding session were two different sessions and had nothing to do with eachother. They even had a session dedicated to get feedback from bloggers on their products and the company as a whole.
For entertainment, we got to go out to a nice and trendy restaurant in the evening of day 2 and had a wonderful breakfast at J and J plant in the morning of day 3. GM provided transportation for the bloggers to the restaurant and the J and J plant as well as rides to and from the airport in rocking brand new cars (we love our Saturn), and Nintendo brought out Wii stations to the restaurant so we could play before dinner and they also gave away Nintendo DS to every single one of us. Woohoo! (We are soooooooooo buying a Wii)!!!!
J & J might have needed a refresher course in sending out invitations, but when it came to planning and executing the event, they certainly had it hands-down. They certainly spared no expense in making sure that the bloggers got there in the most convenient way possible. Once there, we were treated courteously and with the utmost care and respect. The hotel was modern and nice, the beds fluffly and soft, food and refreshments were available frequently and plentifully and the sessions were informational and enjoyable.
What I enjoyed most from the event though was the opportunity to meet and bond with so many amazing women who happen to be mommy bloggers. I hope that J & J continues to do more Camp Babies, and allow more individuals (other mommy bloggers, more women of color, even daddy bloggers too) to enjoy the incredible experience that we had last week at Camp Baby. Special thanks to Lori Dolginoff and team for treating us to such an amazing experience. Milan might not be the new face for Johnson and Johnson but he certainly has been using Johnson and Johnson products from the first day he came home to us from the hospital. Thanks! April 02 Johnson's Camp Baby Report, First Night, Wine tasting session Johnson's Camp Baby's first night was quite a hit with charming and funny Ted Allen, from Top Chef leading a wine tasting session and answering questions about his stint at Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, what's happening with Top Chef and what future projects he is working on. While teaching us tips about different wines, and what foods they should go with, he had us laughing with impromptu funny remarks, but he got the whole room roaring at the end when he said, now that I have answered all your questions, I have one for you: Sooooooo what's twitter? I guess celebrities and experts can learn a few things from bloggers too :) I don't drink much; I am not a big fan of white wines, but I like a little red wine now and then and yet the Chardonnay from Clos Du Bois Collection that they had us taste, Calcaire was amazing. And so here is what I learned, 1) Sauvignon Blanc tastes better with Lemon chicken as the citrus taste in the wine complements the chicken's flavor, while plain chicken tastes better with Chardonnay as the buttery taste of Chardonnay adds to the chicken's flavor. 2) Merlot is better with Spagetti and tomato sauce while Cabernet is better with Steak, because it can cut throught the richness. 3) Zin tastes good with Chocolate. 4) One shouldn't pay too much for Pinot Grigio 5) If you are going to a dinner party and want to pick up a bottle in the grocery store, you can be safe with a 18-20 dollars bottle of Robert Mondavi or Gallo wine. Meeting Mommy Bloggers, listening to Ted Allen, and being wined and dined has been fun so far. Thanks to Johnson and Johnson for paying for this trip and hosting us. I am looking forward to the full day of session and activities on Thursday. Will report more tomorrow night. April 01 New Baby Face for Johnson & JohnsonWe are here in New Jersey a day early for Johnson & Johnson's Camp Baby. Although the actual camp starts tomorrow, some of the executives and PR people wanted to meet with me earlier. They have asked me to keep the contents of the meeting confidential until further notice, but I just can't hold the secret in any longer. Just walked out of the meeting and Johnson & Johnson wants our baby to be the poster boy for all their baby products. Milan's smiling face will appear on all the baby products including the Shampoos and baby lotion and baby oil and powder. The have been looking for a baby with that multi ethnic look to represent the many faces of babies growing up in the US. I love Johnson's products; have used them long before I ever had a baby and will continue to use them now for Milan. In fact we are getting a life time supply of any of our choice products now that Milan is Johnson's new baby face.
Although I have been already rewarded so much for coming to Camp Baby, I can't wait to see all the Mommy Bloggers and hang out with Johnson's team during the next couple of days. At any rate, just wanted to share the good news, say hello from Jersey to you all and yell out April fool's! March 30 Skinning TroutThe traditional meal for Persian New year dinner or Nowrouz is Green Rice and Pan-Fried Trout or Sabzi Polo and Mahi. The Green rice is Basmati rice cooked with herbs such as dill, cilantro, parsley and a few others. Since you can buy the herbs already cleaned, dried and chopped up and steam the rice in the rice cooker, that part wasn't so hard. The hard part is the trout which comes with skin, head, tails and fins attached, and full of invisible, little flexible bones that are waiting for a chance to choke you when you bite the pan fried fish. A few years ago, long before Internet time, I decided to invite some friends over in the absence of my Mom for Persian new year's dinner. Making the rice like I said, wasn't too much of a problem. Cleaning and preparing the trout took me hours, had me in tears and made me wish I had invited everybody out to dinner. Even though I was a student at the time and couldn't afford it, it was worth paying for the dinner rather than trying to clean and fry that blasted fish. This year we invited a dozen friends and family and I knew I had to make the traditional meal. My mom is older now and can't be expected to make a meal for such a big group. She asked me how I was going to clean and prepare all the fish that I had bought. She knew about the disasterous dinner of few years ago. I told her not to worry, I would find it in the Internet. And found it I did. This You Tube Video of How to Skin a Trout is amazing. It is not as easy as he makes it look, but I was able to prepare the fish in time. After cleaning and skinning it, I patted it with some flour and pan fried it. I served it with some fresh lemon and saffron along the rice and it was a real hit. My mom was heard saying several times over the dinner, you know you can learn anything on the Internet. March 19 Happy Norouz! Happy Spring! Happy Easter!Norouz which means New day in Farsi, is the Iranian New year which coincides with Spring Solctice and is usually very close to Easter as well. My mom and I have been busy with spring cleaning and shopping for the celebrations which will start tonight at 10:50 PM. Last night we jumped over the fire for chaharshanbehsuri or the wednesday feast (which ironically takes place on the last tuesday night of the year), and we just had some fish with my family who are here to ring in the new year with us. We have set our Haftsin or the table with seven things that begin with the letter S and our wearing our new clothes. My mom will give every one money when the new year begins and on Friday night we'll have a whole bunch of family and friends who will visit for the new year.
This is Milan's first Norouz and first spring with us. We'll have Patrick over for this week as he is off for his spring break as well. I am looking forward to celebrating the spring wiht my family and hope that you all have a great spring and a great year ahead as well! Goin' to Camp, Johnson's Baby CampI overhear my husband, an influential tech blogger, on the phone laughing as he tells a start-up CEO, "your product is probably not worth much, if you don't manage to piss off an influentiual blogger or two. I wouldn't have even wanted to try your product if I hadn't read that it made Mike (here he refers to another influential tech blogger) rant so vigorously. As soon as I read his post though, my interest was peeked and I had to check your software out." Robert gets hundreds of calls from PR agencies and tech companies to write about and review their products so that his readers (which are atleast a few hundred thousand) would know about the product. He is giving the business person some good advice while calming him down about the recent controversy regarding the comapny's product. He is probably referring to the well known fact, all PR is good PR, but I also think that he is reffering to another fact of life, every crisis gives the opportunity for improvement and for great leaders to emerge. I wish Lori Dolginoff, in charge of creating Johnson's Camp Baby, had heard his words after the blogstorm broke out in the mommy blogosphere about why two influential mommy bloggers had been disinvited from their event.
If I had any doubts about going to Camp Baby it all disappeared after talking to Lori yesterday. She is a take charge, transparent, accept responsibility and learn from mistakes kind of person and I applaud her for that. She was faced with a blogstorm when two influential mommy bloggers wrote about how they had been disinvited from Camp Baby for not being able to attend the full program and get this, for daring to want to bring their baby to Camp Baby. Neither one of these had happened if the PR agency had chosen a personal approach to the bloggers, if they knew who their target bloggers were, and if the wording of the invitation and the naming of the event had been more clear.
I didn't receive the first two invitations because they were sent as general emails sent to all kind of mail that ended up in my junk mail due to the spam filter. The third email though came from an actual person from the PR agency who nicely wrote to me about how the camp was filling up and they would really want me to come and please RSVP as soon as possible. I went back to my junk mail box and found the original invitation. Then like every good blogger I did a little research. Nothing on the Johnson's website or any of their ad agencies about this program that I could find. Was this a phishing scam or was somebody playing a joke on me? So I digged a little deeper and went to the Mommy blogs to find out if any one else was talking about this and of course wanted to know who else was going? There I found some good chatter about the excitement about going to Camp Baby. Ok so this was legit and all kinds of mommy bloggers were attending. I started to get excited and I responded affirmitively. I am event planner though and when attending an event I never take things for granted and I need to check everything out.
The event was called "Camp Baby" and they were reaching out to Mommy bloggers most of whom had attended execellent Blogher events and were used to having child care available at the events and it was a Johnson & Johnson's event for Gods sake so I thought I should and could bring my baby with me. Since there was nothing written about the details of child care, however, and the registration website seemed to be closed off due to the capacity being full, I thought I would research the blogs and see what other moms were doing. That's when I read about one of the mommy bloggers being disinvited because she wanted to take her baby with her. How could you invite a nursing mother to an event about babies and expect her to come sans baby? A company that makes baby products should know their audience better. Johnson was losing a great opportunity to reach out to nursing mothers and in fact was shunning them.
That wasn't the only thing though, another mommy blogger was being disinvited because she couldn't attend the full program as she was speaking at the Blogher conference which happened to be taking place at the same time as Camp Baby. Having the Johnson's event coincide with a very popular mommy blogging event was bad enough, but inviting a speaker from this event and treating her well could have given Johnson an opportunity to expose their comapny to all the audience at the Blogher event. Instead they were kicking the speaker out of their program. Another clear marketing loss.
Reading these posts made my heart ache for whoever was behind organizing this event. It was clear they had their heart in the right place. They wanted to reach out to mommy bloggers and let them have a great time while giving them an opportunity to try out some of the company's products. It was obvious they had worked very hard to organize this event, but it seemed they had made a couple of mistakes which had backfired in a blazing blogstorm. Being an event planner and having made mistakes in my own time, I wish I could tell them, hey people are much harsher online than they are in person. Just pick up the phone and reach out to them. The key to dealing wiht bloggers is all about the personal touch. You'll see that they are only human and will be much nicer to you in person. And as my husband had said, this was a great opportunity for any company to show how they can handle a PR crisis, make friends with bloggers by reaching out and learning from their mistakes and come out even stronger.
I am so glad Lori called me, so I could talk to her (it seems she already knew about the personal appraoch and learning from mistakes and was on the right track). From what I have read it seems that Johnson has started on the right track and I can't wait to see what they will be presenting at their camp. Oh and I am taking my baby with me. I am paying my Mom's way to come with me and stay at the hotel. My mom will be staying at the hotel room with my baby, so she can take care of him while I attend the sessions and I will break away every once in a while to check on them. I realize I am lucky to have my mom come along with me and I am looking forward to posting about what I learn from camp baby and to meet Lori and her team.
March 18 Four reasons I *Heart* Rob La GesseRob La Gesse has tagged me to blog about the 4x4 theme that is going on right now, and I am too lazy and too fickle to do that, so I will write about four reasons I
 Rob La Gesse.1) Rob La Gesse is a great story teller. I like reading his Motorcycle diaries, or stories about his kids, his previous bosses and co workers and all kinds of crazy experiences he has had. He makes me smile and he makes me think like all great story tellers do.
2) Rob La Gesse is a good and generous friend. He has been very generous to me and my family, but I also know that he helps out any one of his friends in need. When I was pregnant he gave me a G.C. for a spa treatment, that was honestly one of the best gifts I received, and he just gave Patrick an Apple Newton that Patrick has proudly added to his Apple musuem.
3) Rob La Gesse inspires me to be a better blogger. He inspires me by his stories, by his comments and by his emails, but also by just being my friend and supporting me.
4) Rob La Gesse is a geek. You all know I love geeks right? Especially those geeks who help out their community like Rob just did by inviting Robert to interview many local Tech businesses in San Antonio and getting their stories out.
Keep on bloggin' Rob! March 14 The Ultimnate Peep ShowGot this in email yesterday and had to share!
For all my favorite 'peeps' :)
Happy Easter! March 12 Funny Pick Up Lines I was visiting my brother and his family over the weekend and when we arrived my niece and nephew started to tease me with the new funny pick up lines they had learned. I know there are entire sites on the internet about these, but these few were G-rated and cute, so I thought I would share. As I sat down my niece reached behind my neck to check the tag of my shirt and then smiled and said, "Aaaaaaah, it reads, Made in Heaven!" I started to laugh, but my nephew tapped me on the shoulder and said, "I have a better one for you. Do you have a map?" "And before I could answer, he added, "because I am lost in your eyes!" My niece finished the lines off by asking me if I was tired and again before I could answer, she said, "Because you've been running in my mind all day long!" And then they asked baby Milan if his Dad was a baker. And when I asked why, they answered, because he is a cutiepie! Hey maybe I will try these on Robert when he comes back from his trip. March 09 Problems with Toys R Us Babies R Us Return PolicyI strongly suggest you reconsider registering for your baby at Babies R Us or buy anything at Toys R us. We did that and I completely regret the money we and our friends and loved ones gave them. Oh, don't get me wrong. We love everything that we bought or received. It's their return policy that sucks. Sometimes people buy you items from the list and forget to check them off, so you may get two or three of the same item. If they don't give you a receipt for the gifts, you can forget about being able to return them. No receipt, No return. Not even exchanging anything is possible without a receipt. They won't take anything back without a receipt even if a huge Toys R Us tag is on the item you are trying to get credit for. You know I can somewhat understand that. But the problem is even if you have a receipt, you only have 90 days to return the items. This one I have a hard time with. The first three months of having a baby is so chaotic that you hardly have time to return items. Some people have baby showers a month or two before the baby arrives, and by the time you figure out you received two of the same items or you don't really need that fancy mobile and would rather get some more onsies, your 90 days is over and you are SOL.
It's going to be a long time before I walk into Toys R Us again. I am taking my baby and my money and am shopping anywhere but...take that you cheap, penny pinching Girrafe. March 06 Robert Scoble welcomes You to Fast Company TVI loved watching Robert's intro to Fast Company TV. It is a short clip, so if you get a chance give it a shot. This video was shot on the beach and you will see Robert gazing into the waves, and hopping around the rocks. I have to warn you, this is no episode of Baywatch. He does talk about his new gig though and some of the stuff that he and his rocking editor, Rocky and the rest of their great team are working on. And they need your feedback to make some cool new shows.
I am looking forward to seeing Robert's new advetures at his new job. He really loves what he does; he doesn't even think of it as work. It's just who he is: A goofy geeky white boy who loves hanging out with geeks and technologists and trying out new software and playing with new gagdgets.
Anyway it's late at night and Robert is away on a business trip so I miss him and am getting all mushy on the blog. Congrats to my husband on the launch of his new show. |
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