Grab Bag “Oh, Good God”:

“… when will it end?”

We’ve been diligent about throwing out old sport bottles, shopping for the right baby bottles, and generally eradicating the plastic villain BPA from our lives…. or that’s what we THINK. Check out this article from MyPlasticFreeLife.com. Here’s a teaser:

When people talk about polycarbonate bottles, they talk about nanogram quantities of BPA [leaching out]…. The average cash register receipt that’s out there and uses the BPA technology will have 60 to 100 milligrams of free BPA.

But not all receipts contain BPA. In a study this year, the Environmental Working Group found high levels of BPA on 40 percent of receipts sampled from “major U.S. businesses and services, including outlets of McDonald’s, CVS, KFC, Whole Foods, WalMart, Safeway and the U.S. Postal Service.” But receipts from Target, Starbucks, Bank of America ATMs and others were BPA-free or contained only trace amounts.

Read more about the recently-released (Dec. 2010) research findings of BPA-laced receipts and how they are absorbed through the skin in this article on Science News.

So…. “I’ll have the BPA-free can of beans and the stainless steel water bottle, please , and put them here in my own bag that I just pulled out of my purse, and can you just write the total on my hand?”

To be honest, this week I have:

1. Stocked my car with packets of alcohol-based wipes, and

2. Used them at least once per trip if I am pushing shopping carts, grabbing and folding receipts and wanting to use my cell phone.

3. Told a saleswoman behind the counter at large linen chain store, as she was re-loading the register with more thermal paper, that in a recently released study, the highest levels of BPA were found in the bloodstreams of cashiers. She may not care, but she should know.

4. Decided to begin a habit of donning latex gloves when doing something like assembling a “Made in China” metal shelving unit, ‘cuz I dunno WHAT is used on stuff like that, but I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t want it in my bloodstream.

Grab Bag Travel Tips:

With a tip o’ the hat to Reader’s Digest, here are 8 useful tips for traveling:

1. Go to Flickr.com and search for the vacation spot you are considering to see real people in real photos in real places to help get a sense of what it’s like.

2. Check your airline’s foreign partner, which may have a cheaper fare for the very same flight.

3. If you’re taking the dog, take a Frisbee… it provides exercise and doubles as a water dish.

4. Clip restaurant and fast-food coupons and toss them in your glove compartment so you’ll have them for the inevitable stop to fuel up.

5. Before you leave the U.S., look at your health insurance card and if there is only an 800 number, call it and ask what number to call from the country you will be visiting, as 800 numbers generally do NOT work from overseas destinations.

6. If you plan on returning to a particular hotel, and want an insider’s opinion, ask the housekeeper which room to request for your next visit.

7. In developing (read sketchy) locations, ask a pharmacist for restaurant recommendations; they tend to speak English and know the safest places to eat.

8. Someone in your travel party get stung by a bee? Try toothpaste on it.

Grab Bag Your Shape:

Clever site, MyShape.com. This is a big boon for those who:

A) Hate shopping for clothes

B) Don’t trust what you’ll get if you shop for clothes online

C) Just want to narrow down your online choices to stuff you KNOW will fit

D) All of the above

With your input about likes and dislikes on style and fit, as well as a detailed list of your measurements, this site can deliver to your doorstep (via your keyboard) clothes that

A) you will like.

B) will fit well.

MyShape.com has researched the measurements of the sizing models used by a large number of clothing lines, compares your measurements to those the line uses, and recommends only those items that will fit the way you like them to fit.

Give it a try. All you have to loose is a few returns….. or not 🙂

Grab Bag Cute Stuff:

Grab Bag Brain Game:

Some logic puzzles for you to ponder from Rinkworks.com:

1.If you put a coin in an empty bottle and insert a cork into the neck of the bottle, how could you remove the coin without taking the cork out or breaking the bottle?

Solution 1.

2. You want to send a valuable object to a friend securely. You have a box which can be fitted with multiple locks, and you have several locks and their corresponding keys. However, your friend does not have any keys to your locks, and if you send a key in an unlocked box, the key could be copied en route. How can you send the object securely?

Solution 2.

3. You’ve been sentenced to death in an obscure foreign country which has a strange law. Before the sentence is carried out, two papers — one with “LIFE” written on it and one with “DEATH” written on it — are folded up and placed in a hat. You are permitted to pick out one of the papers (without looking), and if you choose the one with “LIFE” written on it, you are set free. Otherwise, the death sentence is carried out. On this occasion, a mean-spirited acquaintenance of yours, bent on your demise, has substituted the paper with “LIFE” written on it with another one with “DEATH” written on it. This person gleefully informs you of what he has done and that you are doomed to die. You are not permitted to speak to anyone about this misdeed, nor will you have a chance to switch the papers or the hat yourself in time. How will you avoid certain death?

Solution 3.

4. Why is it better to have round manhole covers than square ones?

Solution 4.

Grab Bag Funny Stuff:

Ten Thoughts to Ponder

Number 10 • Life is sexually transmitted.

Number 9 • Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.

Number 8 • Men have two emotions: Hungry and Horny. If you see him without an erection, make him a sandwich.

Number 7 • Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day. Teach a person to use the Internet and they won’t bother you for weeks.

Number 6 • Some people are like a Slinky-not really good for anything, but you still can’t help but smile when you shove them down the stairs.

Number 5 • Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals, dying of nothing.

Number 4 • All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.

Number 3 • Why does a slight tax increase cost you $800.00, and a substantial tax cut saves you $30.00?

Number 2 • In the 60’s, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.

And The Number 1 Thought •  Life is like a jar of Jalapeno peppers–what you do today might burn your ass tomorrow.

– – – and a parting thought: “Don’t worry about old age–it doesn’t last long.”

Thanks to sis Shel G. for these 😮