Grammar fails all around

Seen at a church junk sale on a rainy, sad day.

More like barfs.

Holy cow.  This is why you really need to pay attention in grammar class.  If you don't, someone will come along when you are older and take a picture of you abusing apostrophes (and capitalization) and put your hideousness online.  (Yeah, and why was that guy staring at me as I took this picture while shuddering and making visibly distressed expressions accompanied by gagging noises?  You must document these wrongs for posterity!)

My eyes are nearly bleeding at the sight of it.

Go and do not do likewise.

Peace, love and you couldn't convince me to buy anything out of that grammar failing box,

Ms. Daisy

The Worst Fall Sickness: Buck Fever and Other Related Hunting Disorders

Hello lovelies!  I am wondering if any of you know or have experienced the condition that is called "Hunting Widowhood"?

I believe it is defined as the condition of being married to a person who has an overall general obsession with hunting, sometimes also accompanied by buck fever.  Buck fever is the extreme end of the condition and is usually accompanies the most desperate symptoms.

There are many ways to determine if someone you love is suffering with buck fever or the general hunting obsession.  It comes out mainly in how every part of life can be somehow related to desire to hunt.  Everyday common conversations are even affected and quite severely at that.

This can be seen even in things as docile as conversations on the weather.  "Hello, looks like a lovely day, isn't it?  It's a bit cold, but I'm glad the sun is out."

Proper response: "Yes, I love sunshine."

Buck fever response:  "This is the perfect weather to go hunting in.  I think the moon is also corresponding to a good time for the bucks to be on the move.  And especially with this changing weather pattern...I gotta get out there.  Tonight.  NOW!  Honey, don't wait for me for dinner!"  (As person trails off to the basement to collect bins of specially dirt-scented clothing.)

It is a sad thing indeed.  Many people are affected by this initially innocuous disease.

It starts of innocent enough, "I just love spending time outside!"  It progresses sometimes very quickly.  It is also characterized by a loss of money (as it leaves your pocketbook to line those of Gander Mountain's) for absolutely and completely unnecessary specialty items that target their prey (those sick with buck fever) as they massage the ears and make suggestions that by purchasing this (ridiculous) thing, your chances of getting that dream buck are increasing exponentially.

You can check for symptoms through the purchases of such things as dirt-scented deodorant, dirt-scented silver laundry detergent, 234897492374983 mega pixel trail cameras, Mossy Oak brand camouflage, Mathew's Bows (can I please get the newest one, dear?), and Rage broadheads (this one causes sudden turrets-like outbursts in the form of, "Rage in the cage, baby!!").  You may also notice such things as pictures of deer as the background wallpaper on a work laptop, inordinate amounts of time spent on youtube looking up other deer-slayers and their adventures, finding small pieces of cut up cloth that are supposed to be tied to trees, talking about deer with other hunters, talking about deer with people who don't hunt, thinking about deer, dreaming about deer, debating which tree stand would be a better choice for this day over another, the hounding and lamenting over the need for new bow strings and ghost blinds, and even in severe cases - finding your loved one firing their bow and arrow into targets in your basement.  ("It's just to see if my pins are good!")


You may hear of the obsessions over the debate whether or not one should turn up the pressure on their bow to make it a 70 pound pullback, or would it be better, especially when it is so cold out and you are covered in bulky clothing to perhaps turn it down to 66?  And how many fps (that's feet per second) are you sacrificing in each instance?  And don't you think the 100 grain arrows are much better than the 150's?

Or perhaps this sickness will rear its head in the form of enticing manipulations.  "If I get to go hunting tonight, deer, I mean DEAR, I'll bring one of the children with me!  Don't you think it's important for me to have bonding time with my children?  Don't you think this is an excellent opportunity for us to do so?  Are you against family bonding time, honey?  I think I ought to go!"

This is the disease at its lowest.  Sometimes at this stage, it begins to spread.  You may wake up to a kiss on the cheek with the whisper, "Going duck hunting this morning, dear.  See you later."

The next thing you've got is a text with a picture of your beloved holding a dead goose.

This is also characterized by the complete lack of being aware of anything else going on in the rest of the world.  I have heard many hunting widows use this time as a great opportunity to purchase that diamond ring they've been wanting for the last year or two or to hire an entire workload of people to come in to repaint the entire house, redo the floors and buy all new furniture and go on thousand dollar shopping sprees because those affected with buck fever won't even notice!  

Come to mama, my pretty!

You could have a conversation to your dear beloved - you, standing in the kitchen, he, sitting in the living room in front of the TV or computer.  As long as their is a buck, an elk, a duck, a moose, anything to be hunted on said electronics, you can pretty much say anything you want and get an "uh-huh" from your sick little puppy.

You:  "Honey, I've been thinking about dyeing my hair pink and getting a nose ring.  I also wanted to tattoo the face of Ron Paul on my chest, what do you think?"

Sick puppy: "Uh-huh.  That's fine."

You:  "Great!  Thanks.  Also, would you mind if I bought a new Ferrari tonight?"

Sick puppy: "That's fine, deer.  Dear!"

You:  "Thanks.  And also, I planned a trip for us to go shopping at the Mall of America so we could spend an entire day looking through Nordstrom's racks."

Sick puppy: "Uh-huh."

As you can see, this disease is serious.  It affects many.  I don't even know any natural remedies for it.  I would say perhaps it can be alleviated by allowing the sick to go out and hunt, but really, that just strums up more desires that are lodged deep down in their sick little hearts.  

The good news is that eventually it will pass.  The season must come to an end (thank you, DNR.).  When it does, you will get your beloved back.  That is, until three or four months before the season starts up again and they once again wander out into the woods to make sure the tree stands are in good locations, do not need to be repaired, to go check the trail cams, and tell you once a week or so that they had a dream about hunting.

May you be rewarded by free-range organic meat for all of your patience.

Peace, love and goose meat,
Ms. Daisy

Quicksters

Just a quickie today.  Here was my passing thought as I prepared lunch:

Bread is the means by which I have an excuse to eat loads of lovely (Kerrygold) butter.

It's deeeeeeeeeeeeelicious.

Spread (ha!) the love on your sourdough loaf and have a happy day.

Now get outside and go pick up your leaves.

Peace, love and perhaps I shall have a butter sandwich,
Ms. Daisy

Zits: the joy of all joys

Lovely title, isn't it?  Oh, yes.  Well, let's get real.  Zits are a fact of life.

Pop that thing, girl!

Some people get loads of them while they go through their teenage years and then are relieved when they hit their twenties and the zits seemingly stop.  I, however, think I had four zits from the time I was 13 until I was 21 and then get them now more frequently in my thirties.  It's a wonderful life.


But now - as of these last three or so months, I have almost eradicated the nasties from my face completely!  I don't know exactly all of the causes, but I did only one thing dramatically different.  This caused me to wonder if this change was indeed quite helpful.

At any rate, I thought I'd share it with you so that if you'd like to try it out, you may.  Perhaps it will bring you a measure of success (and I hope it does!).

Now, most of you know that I already make my own eye makeup remover and facial cleanser.  They're both simple recipes - the eye makeup remover is nearly 50% witch hazel and 50% organic extra-virgin olive oil.  Pour those into a little container, shake 'em up, squirt on a cotton round.  The facial cleanser is witch hazel steeped with thyme leaves.  (Thyme is a natural anti-inflammatory agent, thus a zit-shrinker.)

Until a few months ago, I was using a store-bought moisturizer.  I need a moisturizer because I slather my face in chlorine every other day and without it, I have that feeling of your skin being ripped to shreds if you attempt smiling or speaking.  It's lovely.  I hope you've experienced such loveliness to know what I mean.  Now, the moisturizer was labeled 100% natural (which, you know, means totally nothing), but I was using it anyway - mostly because it was somewhat inexpensive ($17, not $70) and I could pronounce the ingredients.

Store-bought 100% natural moisturizer.

But I think there was something in there that just bugged my face.  I would get a zit like clockwork (girls, you know what I mean) and I chalked it up to hormones.  (Indeed, I think it was.  But the other half of the story is that I don't think I was helping myself any with what I was putting on my face.)

So I ran out of my moisturizer and as I went to the store to get more, they didn't carry the item anymore!  What the heck!  I went to a couple other stores and they didn't have it either.  Usually this means it's time to go find it on ebay or amazon, but I went a different direction.  I thought, "Well, what the heck.  I already make the eye makeup remover and the facial cleanser, what if I try making a moisturizer?  It's worth a shot."  

I didn't really know what to make it out of, so I went to my favorite crunchy granola hippie health store and looked at their $70 facial moisturizers.  I read their ingredients.  Some of them contained questionable ingredients that I wouldn't really want to put on my face, especially since I would have been paying ridiculous amounts of money for it.  I noticed a thread of ingredients and decided I would just go with simple and try mixing up the basics.

I used three ingredients: coconut oil, jojoba oil and shea butter.  If you know anything about these ditties, you know that two of them are solids at room temperature.  That is all good and grand, but it makes it a bit more difficult to combine with an oil and rub on your face in any good way.  So, I did the Crunchy Betty thing and melted them up and mixed them together.

I wish that I could remember the exact proportions, but I never even use exact proportions for baking, so I lament to you that you may be out of luck for this if you're into the precise.  I can give you an idea, though.  I would say I went about equal measures of the coconut oil and the shea butter and then did a few squirts of the jojoba at the end.

I used a stainless steel pot to melt the coconut oil first and then added in the shea butter.  I remembered from a Crunchy Betty recipe once that she said if you let it go too long, you can get weird grainy results with your shea butter, so I just mixed it all together until it was a liquid and then took it off heat.  This was when I made a hopeful squinty face and squirted in the jojoba oil.

I put it into a glass facial moisturizer bottle I cleaned out for just that purpose and stuck it in the fridge to get it to solidify.  (Now it lives in my makeup bag like a good little moisturizer.)

If you're used to having white colored facial moisturizers, then you may be a bit weirded out that this puppy is yellow (due to the shea butter), but I can assure you that your face does not turn yellow.

And dudes.  I totally don't get zits anymore.  It was just what my face needed.  

(Is this so ironic?  Wasn't your first reaction to "put oil on your face" the exact opposite?  I'M GOING TO GET A THOUSAND ZITS!  I know.  But I haven't.  And it was in all of those expensive mixes, so maybe it's just cheeseburger oil you don't want to rub on your face.)

If you want it to come out liquidy, you have to heat up your bottle under hot tap water and then squirt it out (which I did initially because I was brainwashed into thinking this is the only way to get moisturizer on your face).  I switched over after about two weeks of doing that to just opening up the bottle, lifting the straw-like thing up and wiping a little blob onto my finger.  Works like a charm.  The warmth of your hands and face turn it into a liquid anyway (since coconut oil is a liquid above 76 F).


It's really lovely!  I say if you're out of yours and you're up for mixing it up in the kitchen that you give it a try.  It sure is a heck of a lot cheaper than $70, $17 or even $7.  I haven't figured the price, but I'd say it cost under $2 to make that batch, and even perhaps under $1.

Knowing your ingredients, knowing how to do it, saving money - what's cooler than that in the world of facial moisturizing!?

Peace, love and let us always bond together to fight the good fight against the attack of the zits,
Ms. Daisy

Should you get the flu shot?

Ello, dears!

This one has been brewing a bit for a while.  A few people brought this up to my attention asking me what I thought of it and I thought maybe we could chat on it here a bit.

The topic: the flu shot

The question: Whyfor should I get or not get it?  

Do you already have a firm stance in your head?  Perhaps you do.  Today I'd like to explore the whole can of worms.  Ready to jump in?  Yum.  Worms.

(Watch the nightcrawlers.  And if you get a handful, toss them over here so I can convert my compost to vermicompost.)

So, here's my first thought.  Whatever the thing is that has potential for entering into my bloodstream, digestive system or dermal layer - I ask one question.  What is in this?  Is this food/product man-made or is it something naturally occurring in God's green earth?  If it is something that is seemingly naturally occurring, has it been modified by people in any way?  What way?

Usually those questions get straight to if I'm going to allow a substance or disallow it.

So, let's have a look at this in regards to the flu shot.  You've got to find the ingredients of this bad boy to even ponder thoughts about it in the first place.  It may be challenging to find the ingredients, but it isn't impossible.

For this year's flu shot (2013), they're trying to protect against H1N1, H3N2, and influenza B.  As you likely know, vaccinations come with a little bit of either a live or dead strain of the thing-a-ma-jigger that you want to wake your body up to killing off by way of producing antibodies for that little naughty.  This one is a split influenza virus, inactivated strains.

Don't take my word for what's inside this bugger, go check it out for yourself here.

http://www.fda.gov/downloads/BiologicsBloodVaccines/Vaccines/ApprovedProducts/UCM305089.pdf

The first thing that you may be slightly alarmed at is the fact that it contains thimerosal (read: MERCURY), but it also contains formaldehyde (carcinogen).  What you will also be very impressed with is that it is FDuh approved.  What a relief.  If the FDA approves it, it must be good for you!

Let's take a look at thimerosal. As you likely know, many people link this neurotoxin to the increasing percentages within the population who are now listed on the spectrum for autism.  (See studies here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/69427.php )  Because mercury is the strongest neurotoxin known to man, it seems no wonder that there has been much alarm concerning this preservative for intramuscular vaccinations.  In fact, when it caught so much media attention for the danger that it poses to society, many companies dropped thimerosal as a preservative and begain proclaiming triumphantly that theirs was a formulation without the dangerous toxin.

The flu shot of 2013 makes no such claims.  And rightly so, as you can see in black in white that it contains thimerosal (see page 14 of the leaflet).  According to the leaflet, anyone aged 36 months or older is going to get 25 mcg of mercury with their handy-dandy flu shot.

If you would like to see exactly how mercury is a neurotoxin and causes neurodegeneration, take a look at this film-strippy video made by the University of Calgary (Alberta).  They did trials of different heavy metals and found that only mercury destroyed the structure of the brain neurons.  

The next alarming ingredient is formaldehyde.  If you're older than 3 years old, you're going to get 100 mcg of that bad boy.  The CDC doesn't make any qualms about telling you how this is a carcinogen.  http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/81-111/

Oooh, inject away!

The other ingredients in there are octylphenol ethoxylate (up to 150 mcg), gelatin (0.05%), and sodium phosphate-buffered isotonic sodium chloride solution (quantity sufficient to appropriate volume).  

Octylphenol ethoxylate is also known as Triton X-100 and is made by the Dow chemical company (that same darling company that poisoned millions of people in India not so very long ago and made the land impossible to support life).  Octylphenol ethoxylate is a known endocrine distruptor and is especially harmful to aquatic life.  The Scottish EPA has a page on it for you to read up: http://apps.sepa.org.uk/spripa/Pages/SubstanceInformation.aspx?pid=156

As you may also know, the increase of sodium phosphates has been a nutritional problem in that phosphorus and calcium have to be in a balance in your body.  If you have an overabundance of phosphates (it's in stuff like pop), you lose the ability to absorb calcium.  That's the how behind "pop will rot your bones/teeth out!"

I spoke with a pediatric D.O. regarding vaccinations and he suggested that the mercury that was used in such things was a "safer" version of mercury, that is to say that  it is ethyl mercury, not methyl mercury.  Here is an interesting article on that exact subject.  Unfortunately for those taking comfort in the fact that they feel they've injected themselves with a safer mercury, this article does not support that it is safe.  http://www.decodedscience.com/ethyl-methyl-mercury-difference/25234

To be quite frank, whether or not the ethyl mercury is indeed "safer" than methyl mercury, I would honestly rather steer clear of having any of it injected directly into my body.  You can make your own decisions for such things, and I encourage you to do your research so that you may be able to speak in an ecucated way regarding such things.

At any rate, the efficacy rate for the flu shot overall is somewhere between 56-60%.  That is slightly over the 50/50 chance that it will be helpful to you.  Think about that a while.  Do the risks outweigh the benefits?  That is the question you need to think  about for yourself and for your loved ones.

But apparently CVS is all about helping you make your decision in favor of the flu shot - they'll give you 20% off of your entire purchase if you get one.  To that, I mutter my own version of specially reserved comments.  Perhaps you can purchase the pretend food they have there and support quality companies like MonSatan.  They're FDA approved!  (Heck, they ARE the FDA!  Want to see the horror?  Read here: http://rense.com/general33/fd.htm)  

Make your decision and make sure you're educated.  

Peace, love and I just might take my chances on the barfs,
Ms. Daisy  

Reading Club Connection

Hey Pink's Thinkers, I just put up a post for all-a-y'all over on Ms. Daisy's Reading Club.  If you're into the health and food aspect of Pink's Thinks, I think you'll be interested to check out the book I'm reading.

It's called Salt, Sugar, Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Michael Moss.  I think you'll find it really interesting.  Have you read it?  What did you think?  

If you want to check it out, here is the link: http://daisyreadspinkglitter.blogspot.com/2013/10/salt-sugar-fat-how-food-giants-hooked.html

Peace, love and read up!
Ms. Daisy

Happy Food Day! Woo!

Happy October, peeps!

Do you just love free stuff?  No, I don't mean the usual free stuff - like "Free sticker of our company when you buy $354 worth of our product!" kind of free.  I mean stuff that you actually use.  Rare.  Totally.  I know.

But today was a hit for just that.

So it started off from a text from my hubster that he began his deer hunting season by actually getting a deer!  This does not usually happen.  I am glad it did, though, because the freezer was looking sad and empty.  We had the last grass-fed beef roast last night for dinner and it was nothing but a sea of vegetables down there.  A freezer full!  What is wrong with me?  But I digress.  (Don't tell my hubby.)  And now we'll have some meat for a while.  Hooray.  Much better than having to sort through the Nothing You Can Eat Anyway at the grocery store.

I go to through the usual motions today and there is a bread giveaway - people had too much and had to get rid of it before it went bad - and it's the sandwich bread we use from Trader Joe's.  Dude.  No way.  But it was.  So I got some fabulous bread!

Then, after I picked up my free-ranging eggs from the backyard chickens (not mine, someone else's), I drove past that old country spot that has wild apple trees growing to see if there were any left.  DUUUUUUUUDE.  There were.  I totally got a bag full of rather yucky-looking but yummy tasting apples.  Bring on more applesauce, baby.  It is on like Donkey Kong!

Needless to say, I am happy.  It is nice to be blessed with food.  Thank you, God!

And now, I better go clean out the freezer and make space for the incoming meat.

Peace, love and how about frozen veg for dinner?
Ms. Daisy