All posts by ihatehardware.

Quick Defense

In the interest of full disclosure, I don’t get paid for talking about any products on this blog (unless you count door closers and locks because technically I get a paycheck for those).  I don’t have boxes of free BMDs showing up at my door for testing, or even a free bottle of Vodka Mist.  But when I try a product and it works, I like to tell my friends about it.  Plus when I want to buy it again and can’t remember the name of it, I know I can come to the blog and find it.

Ever since I’ve had kids, every cold I get turns into bronchitis or walking pneumonia.  Once I had both at the same time.  When I was pregnant I basically had bronchitis the entire time.  Every time I had a coughing fit the people around me stepped back in case I sprung a leak or shot the baby out.

A few months ago I felt another cold coming on, and for whatever reason I REALLY couldn’t afford to get sick.  Maybe I had a presentation coming up or a trip planned, but whatever the reason, it was enough to send me to Whole Foods to find a treatment that would cut my cold short before it could develop into something bigger.

I bought Quick Defense that day, and it worked.  I didn’t take 10 capsules per day as directed…I took about 4 per day for a couple of days.  I figured it might be a coincidence so I didn’t run out and tell everyone about it, but I have now used it to head off 4 colds.  I really think it works!  I started to get a cold this week and I couldn’t find my bottle of Quick Defense for about 24 hours, but it still worked.  I took 4 capsules yesterday and the cold is basically gone.  It’s mostly echinacea, but you can check the Gaia website for a full list of ingredients. 

Next time you feel the first signs of a cold, run out to Whole Foods for some Quick Defense!  For kids, Gaia has echinacea drops that contain some of the same ingredients.  If I can reduce the number of days I have to look at snot-covered faces and crusty boogers, it’s definitely worth a try!   
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Sign of the Times? :-(

Korean couple let baby starve to death while caring for virtual child

An internet-obsessed Korean couple allegedly allowed their infant daughter to starve to death while they cared for their virtual child, police said on Friday.

Kim Yoo-chul, 41, and his partner Choi Mi-sun, 25, fed their three-month-old baby only on visits home between 12-hour sessions at a neighbourhood internet cafe, where they were raising an avatar daughter in a Second-Life-style game called Prius online, police said.

Leaving their real daughter at their home in a suburb of Seoul to fend for herself, the pair, who were unemployed, spent hours role-playing in the virtual reality game, which allows users to choose a career and friends, granting them offspring as a reward for passing a certain level.

The pair became obsessed with nurturing their virtual daughter, called Anima, but neglected their real daughter, who was not named.

Eventually, the couple returned home after one 12-hour session in September to find the child dead and called police. The pair were arrested on Friday after an autopsy showed that the baby died from prolonged malnutrition.

“The couple seemed to have lost their will to live a normal life, because they didn’t have jobs and gave birth to a premature baby,” Chung Jin-won, a police officer in Suwon, the Seoul suburb, told the Yonhap news agency.

“They indulged themselves in the online game of raising a virtual character so as to escape from reality, which led to the death of their real baby.”
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School Reorg

I walked in the door at almost midnight tonight, 5 hours after I left for the school committee meeting.  I’m pretty sure Ben thought I went out to get smashed with my friends, but nope…I was sitting in the freezing cold King Building and I’ve got the sore ass to prove it.  If that’s not enough proof, Lana kept texting me to tell me that she could see me on public access TV, asking me whether I was wearing a bra, and offering me money to fart or pretend to puke.

The good news is that the Two-Way Program isn’t moving or changing.  We are staying in our current building.  And surprise, surprise, our English Language Learner (ELL) programs seem to have been moved to the back burner now that people have less incentive to attack the reorg plan.  The school that everyone was up in arms about has been taken out of the pairings, so there’s not a whole lot left for people to complain about.  After discussing ELL on Facebook for the entire week last week, and constantly saying how expensive the Two-Way Program is (it’s not), ELL was barely mentioned at the meeting tonight.

Last week was rough but I feel like we’ve successfully defended our terrific program, and hopefully I’ll never have to see a comment like this again:

“Lori, I think you should get the facts about the 2 way program before you assume it is being used as a punching bag. For the English speaking kids it’s a great program but How long do you think your children should ride on the backs of all the latino kids in this community. A program is suppose to work for everyone not just the white middle class.  I understand after 6 months your child was speaking spanish and you were so excited but were the latino kids in your child’s class speaking English in 6 months. If your biggest issue is a bus ride you should be thrilled..what happens to these spanish speaking kids after your child moves on fluent in spanish? do you even care? You should because if it wasn’t for them your child wouldn’t have this program.”

I was extremely hurt by that completely false accusation from someone who doesn’t know anything about me or our school.  After some tears, a vow to swear off Facebook for good, and a couple of phone calls and emails from friends, I posted this response:

“Ouch. If you actually knew me, you’d know that I do care very much, and I would never want my children to benefit at the expense of anyone else. During our 3 years in the Two-Way, I have asked the teachers and principal many questions about how the native Spanish speakers learn, and their answers have assured me that the current model is benefiting all of the kids, not just mine. Luckily, the people who DO know me (many of whom are the Latino families that everyone keeps talking about) know how much I care. Frankly, I think it’s insulting to the Latino families to say that they’re allowing us to ride on their backs or benefit at their expense, or to assume that we are going to use them and then leave them behind.  My point about the location was that we are not exempt from the re-org. Not that I expect to be allowed to make a point here.”

I really hope we can move on now.  Anyone want to buy a t-shirt?  🙂

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1-2 Punch

Adlani started his first day of Taekwon-Do today.  I’m hoping that it helps with his impulsiveness and his lack of self-control.  If we didn’t find some sort of activity for him I’m afraid he would spend every waking moment plotting how to watch Sponge Bob without us knowing.  So far, so good…he came home REALLY tired and he enjoyed the class, except for the push-ups.

He’s always thinking though.  Each time the kids attend a class they get a colored paper clip to put on their belt.  When they have a certain number of paper clips, they get a star for their uniform.  On the way out after class, Adlani told me about the star, and then said, “So we can just go buy some colorful paper clips, and I’ll have a gold star by midnight!”  😛

In other Adlani-related news…he had a really horrible-looking fang coming in through the front of his gum because his baby tooth hadn’t fallen out.  The dentist said the baby tooth had to come out so we made an appointment, but I kept hoping it would fall out on its own. The weekend before his appointment, a different tooth fell out.  The tooth fairy left him this note along with a couple bucks:

Dear Adlani, 

You need to do a better job of brushing your teeth. If you do, maybe I’ll leave you more money next time.

From, the Tooth Fairy

A few days later, the dentist pulled out the tooth that Adlani has been calling “my dirty tooth.”  He had a filling in it two years ago and the dentist (a different one) did a terrible job because we were literally holding him down while she tried to quickly fill the tooth with Adlani screaming and writhing around in the chair.  The tooth fairy left Adlani $1 and a note that said:

Dear Adlani,
I’m sorry.  I don’t pay full price for teeth with holes in them.  Please brush more thoroughly so the sugar bugs stop eating your teeth.

From, the Tooth Fairy

I have a feeling we have another set of braces in our future.  🙁
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