Suncoast Scribe

It can be a challenge to properly medicate a young child these days.

Gigi woke up with her head badly congested and it quite quickly moved into a sinus headache. The poor kid has probably only ever had a headache before the last time she had the flu. Today was a struggle for her to stay happy and energetic. As someone who get frequent headaches, I really felt bad for her.

I sat in the La-Z-Boy with her and rubbed her temples while I asked her to just keep her head still by focusing on the wall sconce across the room. Eventually, she closed her eyes and relaxed a little but, but every time she would move her head would hurt again.

I was able to find one chewable Sudafed in my box of tricks, but it was the last of the pack. Since the FDA has led the crusade in removing pretty much every single over the counter medication that really worked for nasal decongestion from the store shelves, I was out of luck by the time we got to the store. The Pharmacy was closed and most everything we needed was locked up. Also, this past week most stores pulled cold medications off the shelf if they were formulated for children.

I did find one combination congestion/cough medication for Gigi that seems to be helping her head feel better. But, when it comes down to it, you have little in the way of options if you want to find something at the store to give a child with a cold or congestion. In fact, antihistamines are under fire right now as well. Prescriptions are an option, but not on a Saturday night.

She seems to be feeling better. I gave her the congestion /cough liquid along with something for headaches.

Last night we had a simple dinner of collard greens and homemade macaroni and cheese. The Mac and cheese was penne with a simple white sauce infused with mild cheddar. Simple, delicious and quick.

I also had a glass of sweet tea.

Within minutes of finishing my meal I began to crash. I have been noticing lately that sometimes after I eat, I suddenly feel a wash of fatigue come over me. So, I have decided it is time to begin keeping a food diary. I assume it was either the sugar in the tea or the pasta that caused me to crash. Either ay,. There is something that needs to come out of my regular diet and I am determined to find it.

Now, I just need to find a good flourless, sugarless chocolate cake and I will be happy.

On one of my old blogs, I wrote a long missive about my obsession with having my legs smooth, freshly shaved. I said that I can be out camping in the woods, be sweaty and hot and as long as my legs are smooth, I still feel clean. There is nothing, and I mean absolutely NOTHING, like sliding into abed between clean, cool cotton sheets when you have just shaved your legs.

The thing is, you need to make sure your razor has a good, sharp blade. If you actually change your razor blade as often as you should, things can get pretty expensive.

The Infinity Razor is supposed to have blades that never get dull and never need to be replaced. If the blades do go dull, you can get the entire thing replaced for free. Seems like a good enough deal to me, considering that the entire razor cost about what I pay for one box of blades. This is a lifetime guarantee, so that would mean I would not have to purchase blades again, ever. Seriously, I cannot think of a better frugality solution than this.

Have any of you tried the infinity razor? I’d love some feedback, because I am getting ready to put it on my Christmas list.

When I think about lead-based makeup, I usually think of the thick, white face paint used by the Geisha in days of old. Surely our world is far past the use of lead n makeup now, right?

Actually, the correct answer is Nope.

It turns out that lipstick being made right here in the Untied States has more than a little problem with high levels of lead, according to the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics yesterday.

The CSC says a full 61% of the brand-name lipsticks they tested contained detectable levels of lead. In fact, a third of the lipsticks tested had higher levels of lead than the top level of lead allowed in candy by the FDA. Lead, as you know, can be toxic if ingested. Lipstick is worn on the lips and if you are anything like me, you tend to unknowingly chew said lipstick off without hours.

The Reds seem to have the biggest problems with the lead. Top levels were found in L’Oréal Colour Riche “True Red,” L’Oréal Colour Riche “Classic Wine,” Cover Girl Incredifull Lipcolor “Maximum Red” and Dior Addict “Positive Red.”

I’d like to see a list of safe lipsticks, personally.

I did not know you could get the Nobel Prize for works of fiction or unsubstantiated pseudo-science? How disappointing to hear that Al Gore has been tossed a massive wad of cash for his pathetic efforts to distort the middle-ground when it comes to the issue of global warming.

I have never seen the leftist view of global warming as legitimate. Gore and his ilk have never once acknowledged that our records of world temps started being recorded at the end of a mini ice-age and therefore OF COURSE temps have appeared to go up. And, our planet has a funny little quirk about fluctuating between hot and cold era for untold zillions of years.

It’s not that I mind Gore going on his little crusade. What bothers me is that non-thinkers all over the pale are declaring him a hero. He is simply giving you one side of the issue. Other scientists are out there ready to give you the other side of the issue and the actual truth is somewhere in the middle. Why reward one extremist view? It’s nuts.

Also, why is Gore being heralded from amongst the vast pool of actual scientists that were considered? The man never got his hands dirty with actual scientific experimentation. He simply compiles research and made a Hollywood-style film. I suppose money buys acclaim? What about the scientists that have toiled for decades in harsh environments or on shoestring grant budgets? Where is the praise for the rest of the people named in this award? Once again, Gore swallows up all of the glory and leaves those who supported him to scrabble after the crumbs.

Why is the award called the Nobel PEACE prize if it is going to be given to a politician based on his stance on the environment? Like a resounding gong, the Nobel is empty of all real meaning anymore.

To sum it all up, what a tool.

We are well into our second week of October, which means that if you are looking to take advantage of the buying frenzy that surrounds the holidays, you need to start… well, yesterday.

Its common knowledge that a typical brick and mortar store sees the bunk of its annual revenue pour in around Christmas or as many people who are afraid of the word Christmas might call it, the winter holiday). Now that shoppers are doing more and more of their shopping online, you can look for that same kind of upward sales trend on your own website.

The question is: will your website be ready for the busiest shopping season of the entire year?

Network Solutions® (who initially make their name back in the day by acting at THE domain name registrar) has a new Ecommerce Whitepaper available online called “Is Your Site Holiday-Ready? 7 Steps to Improve Your Online Holiday Sales”.

If you have an Ecommerce site (and I know that many of my readers do) then there are several things you can do to make sure YOUR site is where people come to buy in your niche. How can you drive more shoppers to your store? What can you do to make sure you show up in the right position on the search engines? How can you add holiday flair to your website? What are you going to do to successfully shine the spotlight on seasonal merchandise? Will your visitors feel safe purchasing from you?

Tonight Gigi jumped off the diving board at the pool for the first time. She stood at the end of the board, shivering, crying, and pleading with her instructor that she could not do it. I stood nearby, encouraging her to try. Her instructor reached up and encouraged her as well.

All of the sudden, SPLASH, she jumped in and plunged deep under the water.

When she came up she was laughing and shouting, “Again! Again!” I guess her fears weren’t ultimately realized.

The only thing I regret is that Thursdays are the nights her father spends with her for a few hours and he was supposed to be at her lesson. Usually, he takes her on Thursdays, but he called me to tell me he would be late and could I take her, that he would meet us there. He never showed up. She is at dinner with him now, but he missed a HUGE event in her life. She was thrilled to tell him all about it, but sad that he had not seen it.

I have my fair share of computers. I have an old Mac, my favorite Dell desktop, some older Dells, and my Dell laptop. The laptop has taken some spills, because I used to use it on the couch a lot when Gigi was small. Nothing ever seemed to be fully out of her reach. The poor thing is very unstable right now, so I need to go ahead and replace some parts to get it back up to 100%.

My laptop is ready for both a new power cable and a new battery. Batteries, though they do recharge, still wear down with time. Think about any device that uses a rechargeable battery, like a lap top, a cell phone or your digital camera. The life of the laptop battery just doesn’t seem to be as generous as the years go by. From time to time, you are doing yourself a huge favor by purchasing fresh laptop batteries.

I’m poking around on the Laptops for Less website and they have batteries for just about any laptop model you can imagine. Plus, they’ve got the adaptor I need. Their selection is impressive, but I suppose when you focus on one sector of the electronics market, you’re able to become super specialized like that.

The other night I was watching some shows and I realized I had forgotten o program my DVR to record The Journeyman. It was already about 19 minutes into the show and although I started it recording, there was nothing I could do about the part I had missed.

Bright House Networks is starting a new service in our area t the end of the year called “Start Over”. It will be free for all digital cable customers and you won’t even need to have the DVR to use it. If you turn on the TV or to a channel and realize a show you want to watch is already well into its broadcast, you will be able to restart the program from the beginning.

I’m excited about this! I cannot tell you how often I watch a movie or a show having not seen the first 10-15 minutes. I sure could have used it for The Journeyman the other night.

I wrote earlier this week about how October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and how it means so much to me, because both my paternal grandmother and aunt are survivors. My grandmother survived it twice, back in the days when medicine was still in the proverbial dark ages. She is 84 now and so vibrantly alive it’s inspiring.

1 in 8 women in America are diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetimes. My individual risk level is higher, due to the line of heredity on my family. I draw courage and strength, though, through the women I love who have survived this illness.

That’s why it’s my pleasure, honestly, to highlight companies I find that are donating proceeds to breast cancer research this month. HolidayLEDs is actually donating a full 5% of ALL October sales to BreastCancer.org. They are not just donating proceeds from select items, but everything they sell for the entire month.

That’s inspiring.

On top of the donations HolidayLEDs is making to battle breast cancer, I’m also a fan of their LED mini lights. Their LED Christmas lights are long-lasing and cool to the touch. They are safer than hot-burning traditional lights AND they use 90% less energy. It’s win-win all around.