Grocery Stores, Q2C, H1N1,

I've only been back from vacation a month and I finally remembered to write to our local grocery company, Loblaws, who own many different grocery chains, to mention to them something I thought was brilliant in North Carolina, bearing in mind the present health climate, disinfected wipes for the handle on your shopping cart. When you see what happens to some of those handles, not least when you have kids riding in the carts, particularly those with colds, not to mention what adults can be like sometimes, I think it is a stupendous idea and one that all groceries should follow. I suggest you campaign in your own area - unless you are in NC where they have them already, lucky you. I have been passing a large tent in Waterloo with signs all over it and around town about Q2C or Quantam to Cosmos. I kept forgetting to look it up and have finally done so this morning. Now the whole this is just about ended, I wish I had gone to see some of the events, it sounds absolutely fascinating. I must check out the TVO station to see if they are still showing anything about the programme. If you want to read about it click here, it sounds very interesting with new thoughts and ideas on science. It finishes tomorrow so I have basically missed the whole thing. Watching GMA weekend this morning, they were concentrating a lot on the recent book Super Freakonomics and what it had to say about hospitals and disease. The thrust being about going to hospital for a simple operation and ending up seriously ill with something contracted in the hospital, such as flesh eating disease (or Necrotizing fasciitis to give it the proper name) or any other disease which can be picked up there. There is an article, click here which concentrates on washing of hands by doctors. They also mentioned how germ laden ties are and how they have been banned from British hospitals. Something you would never think about. How often do ties get cleaned? With all the H1N1 scares around, the Catholic churches are banning the communion cup and the shaking of hands. I wondered why they couldn't serve the wine in Dixie cups or something similar. Of course Matt was saying that despite all the efforts in hygiene and hand washing, you can't prevent a baby from sucking its thumb or touching things all around it. I guess that means you should put extra effort into keeping the area germ free. One argument against that, the baby would then be unable to build up its own immunities. I now have a new modem for my computers which enables me to wander around the apartment with my laptop or at least sit in the living room and be on the internet whilst Matt is using the desktop machine to play word games. Funny; I exchanged the modems and set the new one up but had problems so called tech support. First he set up the laptop for me, easy peasy, then we worked on the desk top and absolutely nothing he suggested was working - he was probably tearing his hair out, I was getting there. I kept referring to my router and then I said I really didn't need it anyway. He suddenly clicked that I had my new modem plugged into my own router. Turns out the new modem has a built in router and mine was unnecessary and the reason why things were not working. I unplugged it; lo and behold I had the internet. Phew. The instructions were not very clear on the paperwork and it certainly didn't tell me it was a router in its own right. Another good sounding soup for using up turkey leftovers which many Americans will have next month. This came from dLife News once again which as I mentioned before is a Diabetic newsletter. Turkey Gumbo Soup Hearty Cajun style vegetable and turkey stew. Source: dLife Servings 9 Ingredients 4 cup low fat unsalted chicken broth 1 yellow onion, chopped 1 medium green bell peppers, chopped 2 Celery, stalk, fresh, medium, thinly sliced 14 1/2 oz Tomatoes, red, stewed, canned, crushed 8 oz Sausage, kielbasa, polish, turkey & beef, smoked, diced 2 bay leaves 1 1/2 tsp cajun seasoning 1/2 tsp ground thyme 8 oz skinless cooked turkey breast, diced (or chicken) 1 Okra, frozen, 10oz package (I would use fresh) 1 cup Rice, brown, whole grain, instant Directions 1 Mix the broth, onion, green pepper, celery, tomatoes, sausage, bay leaves, Cajun seasoning, and thyme together in a 3-quart pot and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. 2 Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes. 3 Mix in the turkey or chicken, okra, and rice, and bring to a boil. Then reduce heat to low, cover, and let simmer for about 10 minutes. 4 Remove the bay leaves from the soup, and throw away. 5 Ladle the soup into individual serving bowls and serve. Have a great weekend.