You are drinking your crap

The top headline at CNN.com this morning was Pharmaceuticals Found in US Drinking Water. From the article: "People take pills. Their bodies absorb some of the medication, but the rest of it passes through and is flushed down the toilet. The wastewater is treated before it is discharged into reservoirs, rivers or lakes. Then, some of the water is cleansed again at drinking water treatment plants and piped to consumers. But most treatments do not remove all drug residue."

Okay, I'm not dumb. I knew that toilet and sink water went to treatment plants and was treated and returned to the water supply. Now that I've read that though it seems so ridiculous and so completely gross. And, I'm wondering what exactly the filter I have installed on my sink actually filters for - I assume not shit and drugs. Hmmm. I've been really trying to move back towards filtered tap water (with my new reusable water cup that I won from Greenstyle Moms contest with SIGG bottles) and away from plastic water bottles. I guess it doesn't matter, b/c a lot of the bottled water is also treated tap water and no one is treating water for trace amounts of drugs anyway.

Sidebar...I'm also thinking about the time we took a trip with some friends in an RV and had to stop at one of those treatment plants. There is NOTHING more disgusting and simultaneously hilarious than being completely hungover, pulling into a shit factory (literally), having it be 90+ degrees, seeing a shit monitor guy riding his bike around the pools and wheels of shit, and watching 2 of your friends emptying the bathroom tank and dry-heave at the same time. Probably one of the funniest experiences of my life - we still crack up about it to this day. And throw up a little in our mouths.

Back to the topic at hand...it seems to reason that you shouldn't flush or throw out your old medications - RX or OTC. I was curious what you should do so I googled how to dispose of medication. The white house says to separate drugs from their original containers, render them unusable (some other sites also suggest to crush pills, mix w/ glue, mix w/ kitty litter) and throw them in the trash, except for a list of specific drugs which should be flushed like Oxycodone, Percocet, Morphine (seriously?). Another site called Ecocycle cited this same policy officially; but they also answered an inquiry with the suggestion that you might not want to flush them rather to try to take them back to the pharmacy for "proper disposal" (whatever that means). I guess only certain pharmacies will accept unfinished/expired meds, so you'd have to find one and who knows if they'd take an RX that wasn't dispensed by them originally. Plus, then someone other than you would know that you didn't actually finish all 10 days of that antibiotic (do you ever?). There are apparantly some programs that will recycle medications to third world countries and all that, but my problem is usually expired medication and not unused ones.

Happy Birthday, my Sweet 6-yr old Nephew

I cannot believe my nephew is 6 today. It seems like yesterday that I was sitting up all night holding him so my sister and brother-in-law could get a good nights sleep only 2 weeks or so after he was born. I didn't have to stay up all night, but I could not take my eyes off of him, nor could I bear to put him down. I just stared at him all night long and touched his little fingers and toes and lips. Never has a child looked so exactly like his parent (my BIL) and what a sweet angel baby he was. No matter how long it has been since I've seen him or how far apart I have lived from him, he has always greeted me like we saw each other everyday.

My sister is younger than me; but she was married before me and became a mother before me. At that time I remember never having felt as much pride and awe as when I watched her holding her son for the first time. We don't see eye to eye some of the time, but all of that melted away when she became a mother and I saw her in a whole new light.

I remember being pregnant with Shelagh and actually wondering if I would love my baby as much as I loved my nephew, who was 2 when Shelagh was born. I hadn't really had any babies in my life since my youngest sister was born. I think at the time, as an adult, I was so surprised about this whole other category of love that I hadn't experienced before. I was blown away and actually didn't know if it was possible to feel more. Of course, when Shelagh was born it was an overwhelming and amazing love that you feel when you become a mother that is indescribable and my doubt disappeared. But, there is always a place in my heart for my nephew who opened up this secret supply of love that I didn't know I had. Happy Birthday, J!

Movie: Margot at the Wedding

My friend visiting me and I watched Margot at the Wedding last night with a nice bottle of red wine. I really loved this movie. Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Jason Leigh play sisters with a complicated relationship coming together after a long period of not having seen each other. Nicole Kidman is the older sister who is more rigid, thinks things should be a certain way, is more judgemental, and more standoffish. JJL is the younger sister who is more carefree and looks up to her sister yet also slightly resents her and feels sorry for her. It was a fascinating depiction of the complexity and subtle intricacy that is the connection between sisters. It reminded me a bit of the movie Hilary and Jackie, another great movie about the sister bond. This movie just really got at the raw nerves that sisters can aggravate in each other; yet simultaneously, there is no one in the world that understands what you've come from like that person. Anyway, it was intense, but also light (thank you, Jack Black) and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Pocohantas

I just watched this with Shelagh and cried. I'm ridiculous. She said "Mommy, are you happy crying?" She didn't even blink an eye and I was blubbering. Then I had to handle the slew of questions concerning John Smith and Pocohantas and who was hurt and why John Smith had to go back to "English" (meaning England) and all that. I finally told her I'd answer her questions tomorrow and she reiterated saying we could talk about the whole movie and all the parts tomorrow. I should have paid closer attention to the details instead of reading People magazine b/c who knows what silliness I'll have to make up now to answer her endless curiosities.

Good Day & Devasted Crying Child

I got a lot accomplished today. I have a friend coming up this weekend with her son, who is a few months younger than Rory. It motivated me to clean and despite the fact that Shelagh boycotted nap today, she did a great job occupying herself and I finished what I needed to for the most part: 4 loads of laundry (none left overnight in the washer inadvertantly which is huge), vacuuming, wiped down both bathrooms, and cleaned the frig and kitchen.

It's just me and the kids tonight for dinner. I'm going to eat with them and watch Rory NOT eat a lovely pork chop dinner with chopped broccoli and whole wheat angel hair pasta with pesto. He's actually done ok the last couple of days after having gone 4 nights in a row without a bite of dinner. He ate mac & cheese last night; ate sweet potato fries the night before unknowingly of course; asked to try a mushroom today while I was unpacking groceries; and asked to try a cherry tomato. He didn't like either, but at least he asked!

Okay, I spoke too soon. He is bawling his eyes out right now with his head on his hands at the table saying "I NOT A BUMMER". Shelagh said she thought he was a bummer b/c he had naughty behavior today. I wish I had the camera to get this on film, but Joe has it. What am I going to do with this kid.

Movie: Candy

I'm embarrassed to report that I spent over an hour on Facebook last night. Doing what? Who knows. There is not much do on there, yet once again I looked up and too much time had gone by. Answering messages, writing on walls, poking, looking at pictures, and - my favorite - taking silly and random movie quizzes.

Then I watched Candy, a movie Heath Ledger made after Brokeback Mountain. It was about a couple who are heroin addicts and just completely come apart. It was an intense and really well done movie. It reminded me a bit of Rush (another great couple-stuck-in-addiction drug movie), but with less drama. Both Heath Ledger and Abbie Cornish did a superb job...It was really more about their relationship while falling into and being stuck in addiction. I hadn't heard of her before, other than hearing she might have been involved with Ryan Phillippe when he and Reese Witherspoon broke up. She's coming out with some films soon too, so I look forward to seeing her more. Anyway, I recommend it although I think it's on Long Wait on Netflix right now due to the untimely death of HL.

Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

After talking with a friend the other day about cinnamon rolls, I decided to try the Homemade Cinnamon Roll recipe that Molly wrote about over at Orangette a few weeks ago. The recipe was actually posted in Bon Appetit March 2008 issue and her article about it was great - I had clipped it out and bought the ingredients for it, but hadn't made it yet. It focused on being afraid of baking with yeast which is completely my problem. I am so bad at dealing with dough. As a result, I don't bake bread, I don't make pizza dough, I don't make my own pie crust. I also don't have a standing mixer, but rather only a food processor and a hand mixer. It's probably ridiculous and not difficult at all. So, I decided to give it a whirl. I used the plastic blade on my food processor and it wasn't hard to make the dough. My confidence is rising (no pun intended, but I'm pretty pleased I just came up with that).

I wrote the above after the dough was finished while it was rising. Here's how it ACTUALLY panned out

Looking back, it did take significantly less time to work it into a smooth dough than I expected. I probably added too much flour on the counter while I was kneading it. Red Flag #1. I set it out to rise with rapid rise yeast and it should have doubled in 1 1/2 to 2 hours. At 3 hours it hadn't done much at all. Red Flag #2. I panicked and called my mom "What the hell do I do???? The dough hasn't risen and I even put it on top of a warm stove to help it along. I swear I measured everything out the way you're supposed to...spoon the dry ingredients in and use a knife to smooth out the top. I knew I'd f* up the dough. THIS is why I don't make things requiring dough. DAMMIT." Yes, dough really stresses me out. I think it's b/c I'm a math/science type of person and the fact that I can't figure this out pisses me off. In all fairness, I've mostly given up and not tried it again though, so I'll have to work at it more I guess. Cooking is just easier for me than baking.

Anyway, Shelagh helped me roll it out, put the filling in, roll it up and get it into the baking dishes. Once again, it didn't rise after 1 1/2 hours. DAMMIT. Red Flag #3. I just said "screw it" and baked them. They came out with good color and the frosting was perfect (I love cream cheese frosting), so I slathered the extra frosting on top to make up for what was bound to not be a good roll. Final result...they weren't too bad, but not what I was going for. The roll was too bready...more of a tough texture than a moist, wet type of texture that I like. Either way, they went over fine at home (Shelagh will eat anything with sugar in it and love it. Joe liked them too, but agreed with me on the texture) and went over fine at work this morning. Here's a picture of 1 roll. As you can see, I compensated for the roll with the frosting. If I made them again, I would also increase the brown sugar/cinnamon/ butter filling. I like them a bit more gooey too.