Caffeine During Pregnancy

When I was pregnant with MetaBaby, I remember hearing either (1) don't drink any caffeine or (2) drink one or two cups per day. It was ambiguous, but since I wasn't hooked on caffeine, I just gave it up cold turkey. It was only really difficult on those days when I struggled in waking up...ugh.

But now there's a study confirming the dangers of caffeine during pregnancy. The strange thing is that caffeine in moderate amounts is actually dangerous.

"They found that women who consumed 200 milligrams or more of caffeine daily — the equivalent of two or more cups of coffee or five 12-ounce cans of soda — had twice the risk for miscarriage. Moreover, the study found that even those women who consumed less than 200 milligrams of caffeine daily had about 40 percent increased risk for miscarriage."

That's huge!

More important, 200 milligrams is hard to quantify because it can vary based on various things like the size of the cup of coffee, the roast of the bean, and how the coffee is brewed.

NPR's article listed the caffeine content of some of the more common sources of caffeine, which I found eye-opening.

Coffee & Energy Drinks
Starbucks Latte, 16 oz.: 150 mg
Coffee, brewed, 8 oz.: 95 mg
Red Bull, 8.3 oz.: 76 mg
Espresso, 1 oz.: 64 mg
Instant coffee, 8 oz.: 64 mg
Coffee, decaf, brewed, 8 oz.: 2 mg

Tea
Black tea, 8 oz.: 47 mg
Green tea, 8 oz.: 30-50 mg
Herbal tea, 8 oz.: 0 mg

Sodas
Mountain Dew, 12 oz.: 54 mg
Diet Coke, 12 oz.: 47 mg
Dr Pepper, 12 oz.: 41 mg
Pepsi, 12 oz.: 38 mg
Diet Pepsi, 12 oz.: 35 mg
Coca-Cola Classic, 12 oz.: 35 mg
Barq's Root Beer, 12 oz.: 23
7Up/Sprite, 12 oz.: 0 mg

Other
Excedrin, Extra Strength, 2 tablets: 130 mg
Hershey's Chocolate Bar, 1.55 oz.: 9 mg
Hot cocoa, 8 oz.: 8 mg
Chocolate milk, 8 oz.: 6 mg

Doggies in Need

A friend alerted me to such a tragic story because her neighbor was involved in the rescue efforts. Hundreds of neglected animals were found and rescued on a ranch in Lancaster, California.

Animals Rescued From 'Deplorable' Ranch

If you can afford the space, time, and love, volunteers are desperately in need of doggie parents.

Are Kids' Sugary Drinks Safe?

I'm pretty paranoid about the unknown and questionable ingredients in juices and other drinks marketed to kids. As such, I'm very curious to hear about the Environmental Working Group's data on kids' sugary drinks. If you are too, consider taking their survey. It's ridiculously quick and easy.

Is your child drinking pesticides and benzene? Both have been
found in sugary drinks like juice, sports drinks, and soda.

The government collects data on how much water and milk
children drink, but lumps all sodas and fruit juices together.

Environmental Working Group needs your help to learn about
what your kids are actually drinking -- and how safe it is. I just
took the survey. They'll even send you a free update when
they've analyzed the results.

Click here to take the quick survey:
www.ewg.org/drinksurvey

The Evils of Auto Bill Pay

An interesting situation with regards to automatic billing by Dreamhost, a website hosting company. Their blunder caused customers $7.5 million in grief...so far!

Mrs. Michah's post (via CFO), which sums up the whole story, reminds me of a similar situation my husband faced several years ago. He signed up to automatic billing with Verizon, and all was good. Until they goofed and triple charged him for something to the tune of several hundred dollars. This duplicate amounts were deducted from his account because Verizon was authorized to do so. After about six months of back and forth on the phone, he got his refund. He also canceled all automatic bill payments.

Instead, he signed up for a service with a new company at the time, PayTrust. The idea is similar, but it puts a lot more control in the payees hands. PayTrust receives your bill and scans it in so it's available for viewing any time. The best part is that you can set up rules on whether a bill gets automatically paid. For example:

If balance is less than $100.00, Total due. If balance is $100.00 or over, do not pay this bill, but send me e-mail notification.

or

Recurring, $400.00, Once a Month

We have a manual setup for all credit card payments so we can review them before payment. And we can make a one-time payment to someone in a few clicks. We could do this ourselves, but it's included in the monthly fee, and that's one less stamp we have to use :-)

This also comes in handy for us because when we travel, we don't have to worry about bills getting misplaced, lost, or forgotten. We can schedule stray payments in advance so they get paid regardless of whether we have net access.

Now, as an accountant, I like to think I'm pretty good at managing payments and such so that we shouldn't need this service. And I made the point to my husband early on. However, here's why we still have it:

• It's an invaluable resource when we travel.
  
• They also scan in all of our bills so we don't have to, and we can order a copy of the year's bills on a CD for $19.95.
  
• We never made a late payment during those scatterbrained days of my pregnancy, or during the sleepless ones once MetaBaby hit the scene.
  
• MetaDaddy, who's very on top of our financial situation as well, has access to the website. It's a foothold in reality to remind him of where we stand. And when he gets home, he can peruse Quicken to further settle his curiosity.

At $10.95 per month ($131.40 per year), some might think it too expensive and not worth it. But for us at this point in our lives, it's definitely than worth it. And far safer than auto bill pay.

High-Tech Trash

Just an important reminder to recycle and avoid waste, especially some kind. We really are liable for the contribution of so many toxic elements to underdeveloped nations. We'd be irresponsible to claim that we donate money and resources to those in need if we also serve to destroy their ecosystem.

Toxic components of discarded electronics are ending up overseas.

"In a poor suburb of New Delhi, India, where informal e-waste processing is a common household business, a man pours molten lead smelted from circuit boards. His family uses the same pots for cooking—a potentially deadly practice."

Please dispose of your old computers, monitors, etc. in an environmentally conscious way. Contact your city about local household hazardous waste programs.

Santa Monica Household Hazardous Waste - Recycling & Disposal

The Economy of Scarves

I love scarves. They're fun and versatile, and I can even manage to use them in Los Angeles weather, which many would argue is scarf-proof. I'm a sweater sort of girl, so I can find away. Snow, you say? Ya, can't handle that. You can't have it all, I suppose.

So I love browsing at scarves. I hear about a lovely new one, and I want to see a picture, or run it through my grubby little fingers. When I read about Leigh and Luca at Daily Candy, I was tempted. Until I saw the inconspicuous price tags ranging from about $500 to $800.

WHO SPENDS THAT ON A SCARF?!?

I can imagine there are a relative handful of people who can actually afford that price tag. People to whom money is no object. However, most people don't fall into that category. And yet, ridiculously expensive fashion items get sold every day. Yes, the softening of the economy has brought it all to a slow down, but that actually reinforces my theory that people who couldn't afford the purchases were driving the sales. Now that they can't afford the luxury items, sales have slowed. Tiffany, Coach, and Burberry, to name a few, have all felt the pinch.

I worked at a business management firm that had wealthy celebrity clients. The best thing I learned was that some of the people who were impeccably dressed and earning stellar money were spending more than they could realistically afford. $10K a month on clothes is one house per year in some places. You could see on paper that they could never afford to stop working because of their spending habits. Obviously, if they reduced their spending, they'd be pretty well off financially in the long term. But it just reinforces my point of view that the luxuries that people buy today are funded with tomorrow's retirement accounts.

And all for a fancy scarf.

How Fast Do You Type?

This is fun, but annoyingly addictive.

Learn to Type

If you prefer a different language or keyboard (e.g., UK keyboard), click the "pause" to start, and click on "[star]English(US)" at the middle of the top of the page. Select your preferred options and click start.

Once you start typing the text as it appears at the top of the screen, the website gives you an idea of how many words you type per minutes, as well as your errors...not that you make any errors ;-)

The biggest thing to get past is that the words are not always real, so you have to type without reading.

Oh, and obviously, this is a good tool to learn to type, too!

Via Green LA Girl

Christmas Card Ideas

I saw the best Christmas card ever at my doctor's office's wall. The border was a sweet string of "Merry Christmas." The center was a photo of who I can only imagine are the sender's two girls (ages ~6 months and ~2 to 3 years). The girls are sitting next to each other on a bench. However, this is where it gets good. They are both crying. I mean full on shrieking. The 6 month old is bright red, and you can practically see the tongue quaking with all of it's precious baby-ness. And the toddler looks like she's trying to escape from the baby.

I'm not saying it's a pretty scene, but it's full of reality. And though we don't have the fearful duty of caring for a toddler and infant, I can only imagine that this photo is a lot more representative of a family Christmas than the sweetly posed pair we've all seen.

I'm just saying.

Bracing Myself

Sometimes I do things that I regret as soon as it's too late to back out.

I'm getting braces.

I'm in my 30s, with a husband and kid, and I'm getting braces. Funny enough, I just heard a story on NPR about adults who go to the trouble and expense of cosmetic dentistry. One person said she had braces as a teenager, but now at 53, her teeth have reverted back to their crooked positions. Apparently, teeth have a good memory. Maybe they can help me find my phone the next time it's ringing during MetaBoy's nap.

And here's another article where a 47-year old woman detailed her experiences with braces...after forcing her son to endure the torture. He had his fun with that ;-)

But I digress.

Some background. Obviously, I didn't get braces as a teenager...otherwise, I probably wouldn't be posting about this. My teeth are only slightly crooked, but they're pretty compacted. How bad is it? I hate flossing because it leaves my teeth hurting for the rest of the day. So I floss infrequently and at night. I've also come to notice that since my upper molars don't sit flat on my lower molars, my lower teeth are wearing down at an angle, which will likely lead to problems down the road. Oh, and one tooth is crooked and bothers me aesthetically. However, there's no way I would do this if it was just for that one tooth. I'm just saying.

A couple of other reasons for giving in to this ridiculous whim of mine:

• My orthodontist said it should take about 8 months, which really didn't seem like a significant time commitment...at the time.
  
• We had enough FSA money left over in 2007 that it was worth looking into what we could benefit from spending it on. This was added to the fact that our dental plan is pretty generous with orthodontia.
  
• I'm not working, which means I don't have to convince people to respect my authority despite my height, gender, and youthful appearance. Braces would not have worked to my advantage at work, so this is as good a time as ever to follow through with it.
  
• My husband's theory is that if I'm happy, everyone's happy. Truly the mark of a smart man.

As for the gear, I chose braces over Invisalign, which are a series of trays that fits over your teeth to slowly move them into place. While I was a candidate for them, my orthodontist pointed out that they take longer and are on average only 80% effective. He's had patients who need braces for a couple of months after Invisalign to attain a healthy bite. That meant that it would have costed more, taken longer, and might not have yielded final results.

Soooooo...here I am.

This past week, I had spacers put in, which are 8 teeny tiny rubber bands inserted between 4 molars. They're put in place with floss, which was actually a challenge because it's hard enough to get floss in at the best of times. Nevermind if you're leaving little rubber bands behind. A couple of days after I could feel my teeth had moved because my bite feels misaligned. Between that and the movement of the teeth in general, chewing is actually quite a challenge right now. I can't chew anything hard. I can hardly chew soft things, mostly opting for MetaBaby-soft food. An interesting side-effect is that I truly appreciate Boogie's teething pain more than ever. I also shrink at the thought of people who go for years with dental pain, and don't get it fixed. MetaDaddy apparently spent 10 years chewing on one side because he was avoiding a root canal. Yes, a root canal sucks. But 10 years of chewing on one side? Seriously?!?

Had I known the pain was going to start once the spacers were in, I would have had a ridiculous buffet send-off of hard, sticky, chewy foods like steak, ribs, apples, gum, cucumber...ugh, and how I miss salad.

Next week, the hardware.

Our Hitting Toddler

My most recent Google search? Toddler Hitting.

The most applicable result: Why Does My Toddler Hit Me?

He'll walk over to one of us and hit...and hit and hit and hit. Then, the laughter starts. We stop him, and firmly address his behavior, but he just seems to find the whole thing laugh-out-loud funny. Über frustrating. Are we doing something wrong? He stops doing other naughty things after one or two requests, so why is this behavior so hard to break?

Per this website, it turns out he's testing boundaries. So when he hits us and laughs, we're meant to firmly say "no hitting" while looking him in the eyes so he focuses. Keep cool and be consistent. He will continue hitting...I guess until he gets over the novelty of it.

Ugh.

Any other experiences out there? How did/are you handling it?

Around the Internet

Organize Cable with Paper Towel Tubes - Ah, brilliant moments in frugality. Cables, cords, and Christmas lights all wrangled with something most of us having lying around.

A Brief Overview of the Alternative Minimum Tax - I've been hearing about AMT for years, but only because we've been subject to it lately. While it was originally meant to assure that the wealthy paid their fair share, AMT, which wasn't tied to inflation, has really turned into a burden on the middle class. In fact, our accountant pointed out that AMT could affect tax payers earning $50,000 per year. Even worse, those earning in excess of $3 million would be able to bypass it all together. Tell me it doesn't hurt to hear that.

New cars that are fully loaded — with debt - A friend sent me this interesting article. Consumers who can't afford an auto upgrade have found a friend in their auto dealer. Or have they? Some dealerships eager to make a sale will offer zero money down to drive off in a brand new car. Just trade in your old (though likely still new) car and sign on the dotted line. But most buyers probably don't realize they're severely under water in their loan until it's too late. This goes hand in hand with the risky home mortgages Americans have been signing up for, leaving them and the mortgage company in a lose-lose situation. It's likely to hurt the auto industry even more if people realize they can't afford a new car for many, many years.

The Exchange Rate - The Euro vs The Dollar - The Declining Dollar - A dollar earning American's description of how the declining dollar has affected her bottom line while living in France. I can tell you every Euro spent must hurt because it pained us in Ireland, and we were only there for 2 weeks! We're crossing our fingers for a stronger dollar for our next visit...whenever that might be.

Jib Jab's 2007

Jib Jab summarizes the goings on in 2007. Good for a chuckle :-D

Frank Oz on Sesame Street

Wow...despite having directed more than one dozen movies over the years, he still does Sesame Street!

Bert, Grover, Cookie Monster...bringing joy to big & little kids everywhere.

Recipe: Quesadillas and Salsa

Dinner was all about leftovers tonight. We made a roast chicken on Sunday night, which left us with some juicy chicken. But how to keep it from getting boring.

OK, I love quesadillas, but only with the right accompaniments. For me, that would be sour cream, salsa, and gaucamole (though I'm happy enough with just mashed avocado). This was the first time I actually ventured into homemade quesadilla territory. It was good. And we'll be coming back.

Making a quesadilla is only as complicated as the ingredients you set out to use. The cheese was from a pre-grated mix. I also had a jar of smoked bell peppers, which added a rich, smoky flavor. I used 1/2 an onion in making the salsa, so I sliced up the rest and sauteed it in some olive oil until soft.

As for accompaniments, there really wasn't much to that either. I made the salsa (recipe below) because it's pretty quick, easy, and so very tasty. I always have avocado on hand for MetaBoy, but the sour cream was a special purchase. I'm thinking of making a chocolate cake with the leftover sour cream, but we'll see how that goes.

The tortillas was a special purchase, and kind of an experiment. For the best flavor, make stuff yourself, right? Well, of all of the crazy things I've made or considered making at home, tortillas has never made the list. No-siree-bob. Instead, I went to a local favorite Mexican restaurant that makes excellent tortillas and asked about buying a few. I only bought what I needed (instead of a store-bought pack of 2 dozen that inevitably goes to waste).

Quesadilla
Tortillas
Cheese, grated
Chicken, shredded
Roasted bell pepper, jarred
Sauteed onion

Lay the tortilla on a flat surface. Cover half with cheese, and sprinkle on other ingredients, as desired. Close with other half and heat in a pan for about 2 minutes on each side. Cut into 3 wedges with a sharp knife.

Serve with salsa, guacamole, sour cream, or anything else your heart desires ;-)

Salsa
2 tomatoes, diced
1/2 onion, diced
1 garlic clove
1-2 tablespoons chopped cilantro (stems and leaves)
1/2 lime
1 chile, diced small (optional)
Salt to taste

Drain the tomatoes for about 1/2 an hour to reduce fluid in the salsa. For a quicker version, cut the tomato in half, squeeze the pulp out, then dice the tomatoes. Add in all of the other ingredients and mix.

Overall, it went well. If anything, it was too good because I think I ate too much. Oh bother.

Even better, I've got leftover salsa!

Mercedes Roadside Assistance

We don't have a Mercedes Benz, but I found this interesting. Roadside assistance is available for the life of the car. That's pretty cool. Don't know if it's worth actually buying a MB just for the free towing. However, it's good to know if you currently own an aging Mercedes. Of if you're prone to running out of gas :-o

"Throughout the life of your Mercedes-Benz, a Roadside Assistance expert is just a toll-free call away. Call 1-800-FOR-MERCEDES (1-800-367-6372) for assistance any time you're on the road, day or night, if you have a problem related to your Mercedes-Benz."

Travel: A Helpful Hoodie

This is a great idea. A hooded sweatshirt that's made to make your travel easier. Well, easier if you're not traveling with a toddler. In fact, if you had this sweater, you wouldn't even notice those pesky toddlers any more ;-)

I'm just saying.

Some cool features:

• Hidden Stash Pocket with Ear Plugs
  
• Armpit Zippers [for ventilation]
  
• Removable, Inflatable Neck Pillow
  
• Snap-Out Light Shield [to cover your eyes]
  
• Sound Pocket with Headphone Cable Port
  
• Zippered, Internal Passport and Ticket Pocket

Cat Humor

I always wondered what the trombone was connected to...



Via I Can Has Cheezburger

Annoyed? Can't remember that song? Dry Bones ;-)

Traveling with a Cold

Caught a mild cold in Ireland. No biggie. It did however sweep over the household in all of it's mildness. A few sneezes and sniffles, but no more. There were no aches and pains. No severe bouts of exhaustion.

Then, we got on the plane. The sneezing and coughing in a confined space laden with dry, recirculated air is not pleasant. Symptoms were exaggerated, as is my memory of it all. Upon descending on our approach home, my annoying but tolerable sinus pressure hit a high point where sharp pains started attacking my eye. It felt like needles were plunging into my eyebrows, and all I could do was apply pressure to relieve the pain. Incredulous, I was really to drive to my doctor when we got off the plane. MetaDaddy said I should just chalk it up to flying with sinus pressure. Grr.

When we got home, the "mild" cold actually got worse and I started experiencing exhaustion and various other symptoms, surely not aided by jet lag. That night we went to sleep at 7, and after waking several times due to congestion, I woke up for good at 2 A.M. along with MetaToddler. He was seemingly struggling with jet lag, so after spending about an hour with MetaDaddy, I took over for the night (he had work the following day, and I was already awake for the night). MetaToddler didn't go back to sleep until his 11 A.M. nap, and I didn't go back to sleep until 8 that night. Oddly enough, I didn't feel too tired, so I didn't feel like I was unduly pushing myself (despite what MetaDaddy says). Except for MetaDaddy, we all slept a bit better than night. Apparently, I was breathing heavily, on the verge of verbalizing my exhales. I think I heard it a couple of times, but for the most part, I was ignorant to my moans. Poor MetaDaddy!

Thursday went well, until the evening. I suddenly got ridiculously tired, and it was all I could do to drag myself to the dinner table to eat, much less make dinner. Frozen leftovers came in handy there. Mmm...coq au vin, courtesy of MetaDaddy.

While overall I was better, my cough got worse, which is par for the course for me. I forgot what my doctor called it, but when I get a certain kind of cold, I have a kind of asthmatic reaction causing difficulty breathing. It also means I have unproductive coughs, so I cough more often. The result is a severely sore throat after a while, potential coughing attacks where I can't catch my breath, and a cough that lingers for weeks past the initial cold. When I started using an inhaler, it made a huge difference, including reducing the longevity of the lingering cough. However, I don't like the edgy, shaky reaction I get from using it, so I keep it to a minimum. Last night I used it, and sleep went well for everyone, including MetaDaddy.

Fortunately, MetaToddler didn't experience a similar escalation of symptoms like I did. I'm past the worst of it, and should be up and dancing with him in no time.

Good Times!

The Nonsense People Buy

Saw an ad for Special K Protein Water today. OMG...is there nothing people won't buy?


Note: An interesting comment on WiseBread.

Annoyances of Flying

Why do kids and parents get all the dirty looks, but little to no help in coping with the difficulties of flying?

Consider this. If I'm flying with a baby, and you're flying alone with the intention of a peaceful flight, wouldn't it be easier on you if I had the resources to help my child cope with the stresses of flying? Don't give me dirty looks because that only makes me bitter and frustrated. And don't make snide comments to the couple with the lovely, quiet child like "YOU have such a well-behaved child" while glaring at me. If my child is crying, it's probably because he's tired, frustrated, ill, or uncomfortable. He's miserable, and I'm miserable because I can't stand to see him cry. If you want to make it better, make faces or mildly engage him. He's not made of slime.

And if you're really serious about a peaceful, quiet flight, bring a pair of noise-reduction headphones (pretty cheap these days) and wear a hooded sweatshirt. No one will bother you and you won't hear a thing.

So be nice or stay in your corner. You're only making things worse with your unpleasantness.