Danger Will Robinson!

I walk on the wild side. I laugh in the face of danger. Ha ha ha!*


Every few days I get an email from Quality Health with little known facts and tidbits on health and wellness. Sometimes they are quite amusing, as was today's regarding the 8 risky things we do every day.

Here's what they had to say...


8 Riskiest Things We Do Everyday

Think you’re having a bad day? If you’ve made it out of bed and through breakfast without injury, you’re doing pretty well.

By Valerie Banner, QualityHealth News

If you don't wrestle alligators for a living or spend your free time doing daredevil stunts, you probably think you live a relatively low-risk existence. Perhaps an average morning consists of hitting the snooze button, taking a warm shower, eating a quick breakfast, and then driving to work.

So you might be surprised to learn how many people are injured doing these same seemingly innocuous tasks. What's more, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more people are injured at home than anywhere else. Here, a rundown of the riskiest things we do everyday.

1. Get out of bed. Who knew the first thing you do every day is so dangerous? About 130 people a year are killed by falling out of bed. In addition, you have a 1 in 20,000 chance of getting out of bed, falling, and fracturing your skull so badly that it kills you.

2. Shower. Falling is the leading cause of death caused by injuries and is the biggest reason that older adults end up in the emergency room. About 16,000 people a year die from fall-related injuries, according to the CDC. To help reduce the risk of falling in the shower, place rubber mats on the bottom of the tub, and install a sturdy bar to hold onto.

3. Have sex. Chances are, you don't have sex every day, but when you do, you're probably not thinking about whether it could kill you. Statistics show that people with risk factors for heart disease are twice as likely to suffer a heart attack during sex (or an hour after sex) as those who had not had sex. However, that risk is still very low--findings published in the Journal of the American Medical Association put the risk of sex causing a heart attack at 2 in a million, while the regular risk of heart attack stands at 1 in a million.

4. Drive. Think you're not at risk because you don't drive very far? You may be surprised at how close to home accidents occur. According to auto insurer Progressive, 52 percent of all accidents occur 5 miles or less from home, and 23 percent occur within a mile of home.

5. Cook. Whether you're preparing a meal indoors or out, cooking can be hazardous to your health. For example, about 2,000 people worldwide are injured each year trying to pry apart frozen foods. In the U.S., another 30 people are injured as result of gas grill fires or explosions, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

6. Eat. Congratulations, you've survived the food preparation--but will you make it through the meal? Nearly 5,000 people a year may die due to foodborne illnesses, according to the CDC. An additional 76 million cases of food poisoning will occur, mostly as a result of eating food contaminated with bacteria or viruses.

7. Do yard work. Among adults 65 and older, an injury is most likely to occur while working around the yard, according to the CDC. Mowing the lawn is a particularly dangerous activity. One study found that nearly 80,000 people end up in the hospital each year to be treated for lawn mower-related injuries.

8. Go to work. For every 100,000 employees, about four of them will be killed in a work-related fatality, according to data from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics. Workers most at risk include farmers, fishermen, forestry workers, truck drivers, and construction workers.


So what does this really say? This says, number 1, don't get out of bed in the morning. That would solve everything. But while you're there don't get frisky, you could die!

I think I'll walk on the wild side...carefully get out of bed with a smile on my face, don't jump around in the shower, have some s.e.x., be alert and pay attention when driving (especially when close to home - I can see how you can zone out when you're in super familiar territory), thaw my frozen food before trying to take it apart and cook it, buy my groceries from known local sources, have T-Daddy mow the lawn (I get out of this most of the time due to the fact that he likes it and I'm allergic to grass!) and work from home as a Stay-At-Home-Mom. Whew.


*from the Lion King and one of CiBaby's fav quotes when we tell her something is dangerous. ugh

One year ago today - October 6, 2007

One year ago today I was officially "unemployed" and turning 34 years old. T-Daddy and I woke up early, threw on baseball caps and comfy clothes and headed to the airport to get CiBaby's paper ticket fixed before we actually started our adventure to China. We spent almost 2 hours working with a ticket agent. Talk about a "fun" way to spend your birthday...but it needed to be done.

Today I was able to sleep until 7:30 AM (by a small miracle and the fact that CiBaby was awake for about 2 hours during the night) and then got ready for our day. The original plan was to go to the zoo in our fair city, but plans changed and we hung around the house with some friends we made while in China getting our children. It was a lovely morning/afternoon.

One year ago today I was scrambling to pack our suitcases with all of the necessities for our trip. Not knowing what size our baby was or what the weather or culture would be like made this a bit difficult.

Today we dressed in jeans, t-shirts, sweaters and tennis shoes and didn't worry if we had everything on hand right now. Things were more predictable. And while I wasn't able to spend the day at the spa by myself it was a lovely day, none the less, with my girl...and I'm 35.

Shake Your Booty

You know the song, by KC and the Sunshine Band? Well, so does CiBaby (I taught it to her several weeks ago) and she thought it was hilarious.

Today we were sitting around the living room and all of a sudden she started singing it...so come on everybody, get on the floor and shake that booty!

One year ago today - October 5, 2007

This is going to be an ongoing series over the next few weeks (and beyond). Big changes happened during this stretch of time that I would like to share it all with you, my readers, and CiBaby when she's older.

One year ago today - October 5, 2007.

Last year at this time I was wrapping up my job in the financial industry. It was my last day of a 8AM-5PM job away from home. I was going to be on maternity/adoption leave for 3 months and then I would receive a severance package as my job was being eliminated...talk about good timing!

This day last year I had a great 2 hour lunch out with a couple of coworkers at the St. Paul Hotel...I can still taste that beef tenderloin sandwich with horseradish...mmmmmmmm.

This day last year I stayed at work until around 7PM. I wanted to make sure all of the work I was handing off to my coworkers was in order as I was only going to be reachable for a few days and then unreachable for a couple of weeks...yeah I was dedicated to the bitter end.

Today I spent the day with T-Daddy and our darling child. We had sunbutter and jam sandwiches for lunch and were starting bedtime at 7PM. We had tacos with Gwam and Bopa and CiBaby had us all in stitches with her "Where is she?" and "Wynken, Blynken and Nod" skit*.

*I took video of it on one of our cameras, too bad I didn't know that camera didn't have sound! argh...maybe we can have an encore.

The Frugal Gourmet

I catch a lot of flack from people because I make about 90% of our food from scratch, and most of the time it looks fairly involved. I like to use wonderful, fresh ingredients...preferably organic and local.

When it came to making food for our Harvest Soiree I needed a red pepper, actually 2 red peppers, for the date ratatouille. Instead of waiting until the day of, when the Farmers' Market was going on I ran to the closest grocer and picked up a red pepper. Only one as it ended up being $2 for 1 pepper ($4.99/lb)! Outrageous. I wasn't even going to go for the organic as those were $8.99/lb.

grocery store pepper

As I needed a few things from the Farmers' Market I ran there for a super fast trip and ended up getting a few things I needed, plus the following peppers.

Farmers' Market peppers

In the bowl there are 9, yes 9 peppers...local and organically grown for $3! Sure they aren't as pretty as the other pepper, but who cares?!? Now to clean and freeze them for use during the winter months in soups, stews and sauces!

Moral of the story - if you like to cook and you're on a budget (but who isn't these days?) get thee to your local farmers' markets. Pack your freezer and pantry shelves with awesome local produce for those long winter months.

Harvest Soiree 2008

Last night T-Daddy and I hosted a Soiree to celebrate the harvest and my 35th birthday.

T-Daddy took Friday off and we prepped the house and some of the food for the party. After CiBaby went to bed we popped in a movie and went to painting the pumpkins for the kids' craft the next day.

The morning of the party we had a little issue in the kitchen, the drain was clogged, making it very hard to continue cooking and cleaning up. So the first "guest" to arrive was the Roto-Rooter guy.

On with the par-tay! The food ended up being great and the company, wonderful.

We dined on many veggies (eggplant, zucchini and tomatoes) that came from our garden and made into:

Date Ratatouille
Roasted Cream of Cherry Tomato Soup
Hot/veggie dogs with homemade heirloom tomato ketchup
CzaMama's famous salsa

We also had caramel apples*, pumpkin bars (thanks Kel, they were DELISH!) and lots of beer and wine

The kids did their Autumn craft**

And it was awesome to see friends that I don't get to see often enough.

Thanks for sharing the evening with me everyone! I had a blast.

*if anyone knows how to keep the apples from completely adhering to the waxed paper, please let me know!
**I was walking a guest out and missed pics of the other kids doing their pumpkins...so you only get CiBaby.

The torch has been passed

Tonight KT and I went to a mega consignment sale. We were lucky to get in on the pre-sale as we were considered "first time moms." Woot for us! As we didn't want to be the last in line we met at Panera Bread to get to-go decaf coffee and zipped over to claim our spot.

When we were kids, KTs mom and friend went to the JCC sale every year and got in line early...we're talking the middle of the night. It was a good sale...hehe. Now it's our turn.

All I can say is that CiBaby is SET for Christmas gifts this year at a fraction of the cost.

Tomato picking

It's a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it...

otherwise we wouldn't have wonderfully yummy,

homemade CzaMama salsa!

Inflation has hit the bottom line...

Our little ones' rears, that is.

I recently had to purchase a box of disposable diapers (a must for school). The last time I got a box it was $20.99 for 92 size 4 Huggies Snug & Dry diapers. This time, same price, same diapers but only 88 diapers in the box. I realize it's only 4 diapers, but still. It never ends, does it?

Good chuckle at swimming

Today I went in the pool with CiBaby during swim class. First they started on their bellies with floats, kicks and arms. Then came the back. CiBaby doesn't have a problem floating on her back, but when the instructor said "I want to see 2 ears in the water on everyone"* T-Daddy and I couldn't help but giggle.

*A couple minutes later the instructor came up to me and sheepishly told me that she'd realized her mistake after she said it. It was harmless and a very honest mistake as how many of the kids in her class are one-eared swimmers?

"Minnesota Nice"

I'm sure a lot of you have heard this term. I want to tell you, from the horse's mouth (born and raised Minnesotan), it's a farce/falsehood/lie. It doesn't exist. Oh sure, on the surface people from here seem nice enough, but it's really no different than other places, it's probably worse. People in MN tend to live here a loooong time, thus transplants have a hard time. Why? I have no idea. T-Daddy and I were having this very same discussion the other day...it's still an unanswered question. Both of us are often accused of not "being from here" by transplants. Which, to me, is a great compliment.

Just today I had a run in with "MN Nice." I was out in my backyard, minding my own business, cleaning grapes for jam/juice. School was recently let out and a group had walked by. A woman, whom I see walking every day too and from school with her stroller and gaggle of children, and a goofy guy walked by. All of a sudden the guy comes jogging back to where I could see him and said, "Hey, do you think you could cut your plants back? My friend said it's hard to maneuver her stroller around them."

Now, I pride myself in being a good neighbor. I had never seen it as an obstacle before, but now that I look at it, sure, I can see it. No problem. But WHY didn't she have the guts to tell me this herself and instead talks behind my back and sends her messenger boy?!? We are outside all the time. We both have children...as I'm sure she can see by our plastic playground! I believe I'm a very approachable person.

So if you think people that are exclusionary, passive-aggressive, and talk behind people's back are "nice"*...WELCOME!

*I by no means think all Minnesotans are this way, I just hate the term as I think it's such a lie.

Day 5 of School

It went MUCH better today. Of course there was still clinging, of course there was still crying...but not as much and for not as long. CiBaby was even having such a good time when I arrived after lunch that when she saw me, let out a couple of tears and then went back to playing...and didn't want to leave! Waaaahoooooooo!

Next week we're going to go until after their movie. Stay tuned.