Do you know about...

GoodSearch? I didn't until I stumbled upon it recently, it's a great search engine that raises money for a charity of your choice at the same time.

Check out the home page...you can set your charity of choice and download an extension that will make it the default search on your browser. Granted we're talking pennies per search, but if you use the internet like I do all those pennies can start to add up.

There's also the partner site, Goodshop, for all of you internet shopping junkies, if you start your search and purchase from select vendors your charity gets even more money. Bonus! Plus sometimes they have special deals, coupons, and discounts just for Goodshop users.

So what are you waiting for???

Ok PSA time over, back to work...

PSA...Make a Difference in 30 seconds

Allstate Insurance Company ("Allstate") will make a $15,000 donation to one local charity organization-The winning organization will be determined by online voting. Simply vote by going to www.allstate.com/yourchoicecharity. You can vote once each day between now and December 10, 2008.

There are 3 charities to choose from: Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Denver, Junior Acheivement, and Facing History and Ourselves. All totally worthy so I won't preach to you on which one, you can email me if you want my humble opinion.

Make sure to go down to the bottom of the screen and choose Denver and then your charity.

PSA...Clean Your Closet

Japanese woman caught living in man's closet

By MARI YAMAGUCHI, Associated Press WriterFri May 30, 3:21 PM ET

A homeless woman who sneaked into a man's house and lived undetected in his closet for a year was arrested in Japan after he became suspicious when food mysteriously began disappearing.

Police found the 58-year-old woman Thursday hiding in the top compartment of the man's closet and arrested her for trespassing, police spokesman Hiroki Itakura from southern Kasuya town said Friday.

The resident of the home installed security cameras that transmitted images to his mobile phone after becoming puzzled by food disappearing from his kitchen over the past several months.

One of the cameras captured someone moving inside his home Thursday after he had left, and he called police believing it was a burglar. However, when they arrived they found the door locked and all windows closed.

"We searched the house ... checking everywhere someone could possibly hide," Itakura said. "When we slid open the shelf closet, there she was, nervously curled up on her side."

The woman told police she had no place to live and first sneaked into the man's house about a year ago when he left it unlocked.

She had moved a mattress into the small closet space and even took showers, Itakura said, calling the woman "neat and clean."

I guess it's a good thing I cleaned mine out last weekend. What about you, when was the last time you cleaned yours?

Video Thursday PSA

So did you see the bear?

I thought this was a great reminder to watch out for cyclists. It's amazing how fast an accident can happen. An Alaska friend was hit by a car (ok more than a car. a 3/4 ton chevy truck)a few years ago while he was riding his bike. The asshole that hit him, tried to take off...luckily witness followed and he was caught. That didn't help my friend who after being struck, suffered a seizure was taken to the hospital by ambulance where it was discovered that he had a fractured skull which caused bruising and swelling of his brain and still years later still has remaining memory problems. In addition to a brain injury, he had numerous broken bones including separated shoulders and a fractured pelvis. It took a long time, but I know he's riding and racing again and some blessings came along with the heart ache. It was a lesson for all of us that life is fragile and you can't ever take anything for granted.

In honor of Kevin I'll leave you with one of his favorite quotes that I also happen to love...

Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion... you must set yourself on fire

Saturday?

Where did the week go? Seems like it was just yesterday when I was preparing for the week ahead. I'm excited because I have a rare --- no work at either job weekend. I don't know what to do with myself. I'm going to head up the hills to visit baby girl and her family and if the weather cooperates we'll all head down to Pueblo to celebrate Connor's 1st birthday. Of course that's a big IF for a Sunday in March in Colorado, as proven by last Sunday's blizzard.

Here's another layout from last week or maybe two weeks, I can't remember. The pictures of Sienna are some from her first 'fashion shoot' in a dress about a month ago.

Here's your PSA for the month: Don't forget to 'Spring Forward' tonight.

I'm not usually a fan of daylight savings, but am looking forward to having some light at the end of the day. As I was searching to make sure I had my dates right (seems so early) I came across this headline "Daylight-saving not good for cows". My alter ego 'random girl' couldn't resist, I had to click on the link. The deal with the cows is not really in the spring, but the fall when they have to hold their milk for an hour longer. Not exactly the humorous angle I was hoping for, having been around many breastfeeding mommies, I can imagine this might be painful for the poor cows.

The article goes on with a little but of history about DLS came to be, I always knew it was money, but thought it was related to the agricultural industry. Not so much...here's a quick excerpt

The biannual spring/fall time adjustment has been in effect for most of the past 90 years, ever since World War I prompted Congress to find a dramatic way to save Americans money and stimulate the economy. Washington's logic: With more daylight hours, households would spend less on bills for lighting and electricity; also, factories would be more efficient because workers would be refreshed with the extra daylight hours they had for unwinding.

After President Bush signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which extended daylight-saving time by a month, the Department of Energy touted the benefits of energy savings, but Michael Downing, who detailed the history of daylight-saving time in a 2005 book, says the U.S. government has misled Americans on the economic benefits of the time switch. The biggest beneficiaries of the spring clock change aren't consumers but retailers. People shop more when there's more light at night.

"There's a reason that the first and most persistent lobby for daylight-saving was the Chamber of Commerce on behalf of retailers and merchants," says Downing, a lecturer at Tufts University outside Boston. "People really bought more goods after work when they were given light. And that effect persists. As recently as 1986, when we went from six months of daylight saving to seven, that extra month, according to industry estimates, was worth $200 million-$400 million to the golf industry alone, and $150 million to the barbecue industry."

Here's hoping it will bring a boost to Scrapbook Destination sales too! Have a great weekend!

A Little PSA...

saw a quick blurb about this on the news last night.

Doctor warns consumers of popcorn fumes

Consumers, not just factory workers, may be in danger from fumes from buttery flavoring in microwave popcorn, according to a warning letter to federal regulators from a doctor at a leading lung research hospital.

A pulmonary specialist at Denver's National Jewish Medical and Research Center has written to federal agencies to say doctors there believe they have the first case of a consumer who developed lung disease from the fumes of microwaving popcorn several times a day for years.
"We cannot be sure that this patient's exposure to butter flavored microwave popcorn from daily heavy preparation has caused his lung disease," cautioned Dr. Cecile Rose. "However, we have no other plausible explanation."

The July letter, made public Tuesday by a public health policy blog, refers to a potentially fatal disease commonly called popcorn lung that has been the subject of lawsuits by hundreds of workers at food factories exposed to chemicals used for flavoring.

In response to Rose's finding, the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association issued a statement Tuesday recommending that its members reduce "to the extent possible" the amount of diacetyl in butter flavorings they make. It noted that diacetyl is approved for use in flavors by the federal Food and Drug Administration.

One national popcorn manufacturer, Weaver Popcorn Co. of Indianapolis, said last week it would replace the butter flavoring ingredient because of consumer concern. Congress has also been debating new safety measures for workers in food processing plants exposed to diacetyl.
The FDA said in an e-mail it is evaluating Rose's letter and "carefully considering the safety and regulatory issues it raises."

Fred Blosser, spokesman for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, said it is the first case the institute has seen of lung disease apparently linked to popcorn fumes outside the workplace.

The occupational safety arm of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it is working on a response to the letter.

William Allstetter, spokesman for National Jewish Medical, confirmed the letter was sent by Rose, a specialist in occupational and environmental lung diseases and director of the hospital's Occupational and Environmental Medicine Clinic.

"There have been no other cases that we know of other than the industrial occupational ones," Allstetter said.

Rose acknowledged in the letter that it is difficult to confirm through one case that popping buttered microwave popcorn at home can cause lung disease.

However, she said she wanted to alert regulators of the potential public health implications.
Rose said the ailing patient, a man whom she wouldn't identify, consumed "several bags of extra butter flavored microwave popcorn" every day for several years.

He described progressively worsening respiratory symptoms of coughing and shortness of breath. Tests found his ability to exhale was deteriorating, Rose said, although his condition seemed to stabilize after he quit using microwave popcorn.

She said her staff measured airborne levels of diacetyl in the patient's home when he cooked the popcorn. The levels were "similar to those reported in the microwave oven exhaust area" at the quality assurance unit of the popcorn plant where the affected employees worked, she said.
David Michaels, of the George Washington University School of Public Health, who first published Rose's letter on his blog, The Pump Handle, said the finding is another reason for federal regulators to crack down on diacetyl exposure by workers and consumers.

"This letter is a red flag, suggesting that exposure to food flavor chemicals is not just killing workers, but may also be causing disease in people exposed to food flavor chemicals in their kitchens," Michaels wrote on his public health policy blog.

PSA --- Lead Paint in Fisher Price toys

Hi folks...came across this news story when I was checking my email this afternoon. I know a few of you may have kiddos the age where these toys are really cool. I guess I find this particularly troublesome since we have known the effects of lead paint and children's health for so long, that it shouldn't be an issue. Hope none of you are effected, but just in case...

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Toy-maker Fisher-Price is recalling 83 types of toys — including the popular Big Bird, Elmo, Dora and Diego characters — because their paint contains excessive amounts of lead.

The worldwide recall being announced Thursday involves 967,000 plastic preschool toys made by a Chinese vendor and sold in the United States between May and August. It is the latest in a wave of recalls that has heightened global concern about the safety of Chinese-made products.

The recall is the first for Fisher-Price Inc. and parent company Mattel Inc. involving lead paint. It is the largest for Mattel since 1998 when Fisher-Price had to yank about 10 million Power Wheels from toy stores.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday, David Allmark, general manager of Fisher-Price, said the problem was detected by an internal probe and reported to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The recall is particularly alarming since Mattel, known for its strict quality controls, is considered a role model in the toy industry for how it operates in China.

Fisher-Price and the commission issued statements saying parents should keep suspect toys away from children and contact the company.

The commission works with companies to issue recalls when it finds consumer goods that can be harmful. Under current regulations, children's products found to have more than .06 percent lead accessible to users are subject to a recall.

Allmark says the recall was "fast-tracked," which allowed the company to quarantine two-thirds of the toys before they even made it to store shelves. In negotiating details of the recall, Fisher-Price and the government sought to withhold details from the public until Thursday to give stores time to get suspect toys off shelves and Fisher-Price time to get its recall hot line up and running. However, some news organizations prematurely posted an embargoed version of the story online.

Allmark said the recall was troubling because Fisher-Price has had a long-standing relationship with the Chinese vendor, which had applied decorative paint to the toys. Allmark said the company would use this recall as an opportunity to put even better systems in place to monitor vendors whose conduct does not meet Mattel's standards.

He added: "We are still concluding the investigation, how it happened. ... But there will be a dramatic investigation on how this happened. We will learn from this."

The recall follows another high-profile move from toy maker RC2 Corp., which in June voluntarily recalled 1.5 million wooden railroad toys and set parts from its Thomas & Friends Wooden Railway product line. The company said that the surface paint on certain toys and parts made in China between January 2005 and April 2006 contain lead, affecting 26 components and 23 retailers.

"Anytime a company brings a banned hazardous product into the U.S. marketplace, especially one intended for children, it is unacceptable," said Nancy Nord, acting chair of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. "Ensuring that Chinese-made toys are safe for U.S. consumers is one of my highest priorities and is the subject of vital talks currently in place between CPSC and the Chinese government."

Carter Keithley, president of the Toy Industries Association, praised Mattel's quick response to the problem, and suggested Mattel will use this setback as a lesson for not only the company but for the entire industry. However, he expressed concern about how the recall and other toy recalls will play out in consumers' minds in advance of the holiday season.

"We are worried about the public feeling," said Keithley, adding he observed how toy companies are embracing strict controls during a recent toy safety seminar in China. "We have thought all along that (consumers) can be confident in the products," he said. "But if companies like Mattel have this, then you have to ask how did this happen?"

Owners of a recalled toy can exchange it for a voucher for another product of the same value. To see pictures of the recalled toys, visit http://www.service.mattel.com. For more information, call Mattel's recall hot line at 800-916-449

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On a lighter note(ok lighter, if you don't take politics too seriously) the next story on the wire is Gonzales admits testimony 'confusing'. Gee, ya think? I think confusing is putting it gently.