J.R. Watkins Lemon Cream

At Hokulea's blog, Christmas cancelled, she writes about trying to help customers whose orders have expired. Although I don't understand the procedures or what she does, it sounds like sometimes you can get a caring, kind representative like Hoku at a large company. And it doesn't hurt that she has a very specialized skill (makes jewelry) and knew what to do to expedite a ring. So here's my try--again--to get a cream I like that has been discontinued, only I wrote a paper letter and put it in an envelope with a first class stamp, and hope I get a Hokulea clone:

Dear J. R. Watkins Customer Service, I apparently sent my daughter on a wild goose chase when I asked for your Shea Butter Lemon Cream in a jar (4.6 oz.). This product no longer is available, anywhere, either from your sales staff or local stores like Walgreens. So she purchased Shea Butter Body Cream in a tube (3.3 oz.) which the web site more or less said was the same thing. It isn’t. Read the label. I know ingredients are listed in order of quantity, and although many are the same in the two products, many are different in quantity and type. The first five of the jar product are water, shea butter, glycerol stearate, PEG-100 stearate, and steric acid. The first five in the tube are water, shea butter, glycerol stearate, steric acid and cetearyl alcohol. Both lists are followed by Macadamia seed oil. Both PEG-100 stearate and cetearyl alcohol are an emollient, an emulsifier, and a moisturizer, and the cetearyl alcohol is also an opacifier and a thickener. That’s the difference I see on the label, and probably makes the tube product work. But I don’t like tube products--too much of the product is left inside the tube, plus I just like the jar product. You don’t mention on the label that it is a moisturizer for the face, but I use it on my face, and it doesn’t interact with my cosmetics. Do you still have some in the vault of discontinued products that I could buy? I’m 70, and not to give you a sob story, but I think my skin looks fine for my age, and I don’t want to try something new. Please check around for me, and get back to me soon--I only have 2.5 jars left (plus 2 tubes). The lavender is OK, but I love the Lemon Cream.

Update: Here's something I wouldn't have thought of when thinking Watkins--an architectural tour.

Update 2: I now have 3 more jars of Lemon Cream Shea Butter sent to me by Lynne at Seasons for Success. Excellent service!

New Christmas carol for the troops

Matt Hodge, a Campbellsville University graduate student, has dedicated this new carol to the troops. It was recorded by the Campbellsville University Choir.

Campbellsville University is a private, comprehensive institution located in South Central Kentucky open to all denominations. Founded in 1906 by the Russell Creek Baptist Association, Campbellsville University is affiliated with the Kentucky Baptist Convention and has an enrollment of 2,601 students who represent 93 Kentucky counties, 27 states and 31 foreign nations.

Santa Clauses in the cash for cloture deal

Michelle Malkin in Beltway Christmas peeks inside this Congress' stimulus spending where more money went to higher income areas than low income and then analyzes the costs to the taxpayer for the fatso, flatulent Demcare. She reports Democratic districts have raked in nearly twice as much porkulus money as GOP districts -- without regard to the actual economic suffering and job loss in those districts.

• $54 million no-bid contract was awarded to a firm with little experience to relocate a luxury Bay Area wine train due to flood concerns. [Pelosi]
  
  
• $1 billion for the dubious FutureGen near-zero emissions "clean coal" plant earmark championed by disgraced Democrat and former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin. [Burris]
  
  
• billions in high-speed rail stimulus earmarks to fund a pie-in-the-sky public transportation line from Los Angeles to Las Vegas [Reid]
  
  
• Wall Street regulatory "reform" bill larded with $4 billion in payoffs to minority special interests -- including former failed Air America radio partner Inner City Broadcasting Corp run by Percy Sutton [Rangel and Sharpton and Frank]
  
  
• $12 million in TARP funds for OneUnited, a minority-owned bank that is one of her key campaign donors and a company in which both Maxine Waters and her husband own massive amounts of stock.[Waters]

Then she looks inside Santa's bag for all the goodies we just had to have before the Christmas recess.

• $300 million "Louisiana Purchase" [Landrieu]
  
  
• $45 million "Cornhusker Kickback" [Nelson]
  
  
• cash for cloture votes also included a Hospital Helper of $100 million [Dodd ]
  
  
• bennies for insurance companies and hospitals in Michigan
  
  
• "frontier freebies" for hospitals in Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota and Wyoming
  
  
• New England's Special Syrup for Vermont and Massachusetts -- similar to Nebraska--$1.2 billion over 10 years. $10 billion to Vermont for “community health clinics”. [Sanders]
  
  ACORN/community organizer-friendly provision for minority health bureaucracies in Illinois [Burris]
  
  $10 billion socialized medicine sop to Vermont for "community health clinics" serving in essence as universal health care satellite offices. [Sanders]

HT Bill L.

Last minute shopping on the 24th

Today my husband was putting away the wrapping paper and ribbons when he found a gift card from last Christmas that had a receipt on it and it had been tossed into the sack. Beginning 1 year after purchase (12/24/08) a $2 monthly charge would go into affect. By this time I was a bit gooey from slathering the turkey and cooking the liver for the kitty (oh, she loves it), so I suggested he run up to Barnes and Noble (1/2 mile) and buy himself a book. He did that about 1:30 p.m., but when he got back, he wouldn't let me see what it was, so I suspect he didn't buy a gift for himself. This was really last minute shopping.

Google’s PageRank

I was using the command, "link:collectingmythoughts," and came across Who links to me site and it reported that my Google PageRank was 6. So I looked that up. It doesn’t get its name from “page,” as I thought, but the surname of one of the founders of Google, Larry Page. It‘s been patented and sold to Stanford University for stock worth many millions, but Google gets to use it. I glanced through the formula/algorithms, but I'm math challenged.

“PageRank is an independent measure of Google’s perception of the quality/authority/credibility of an individual web page. It does not depend on any particular search phrase. For the public (you and me), Google conveniently reports this as a number from 0-10 (10 being the best).”

Well, that’s nice, I guess. Six is better than five or four. Given all the webpages out there, it's nice to know I rank that high. Probably nicer if I were selling something. Anyway, if I ever ask you to be a guest blogger, don't mess up my ranking.

My solution for the health care dilemma

I haven't crunched the numbers, but just knowing how the government pads everything and costs go up everywhere when their sticky fingers go into the pie, I think my plan would not only be better, please everyone but would also be cheaper.

First, it would only be for U.S. citizens, native or naturalized.

Second, it would be clear and easy for anyone to understand; changes would have to fit into 10 pages or less.

Third, it would be the best health care found anywhere in the world based on the life expectancy and useful working years of a 40 year old.

Fourth, it would be completely portable and not dependent on an employer or a union.

Fifth, the federal government, not the states, would be responsible for the poor, and no pork would be allowed in determining those benefits, and children would need to be under age 18. The states, however, would have the task to getting the poor into the proper, competitive, market-driven program.

Sixth, Medicare is such a mess, I haven't figured that one out, because my generation has become accustomed to socialized medicine and don't want any claw backs. But then, neither has your esteemed and brilliant Congress. Whatever I come up with couldn't be worse than the current overpriced and easily scammed system.

So what is it?

The current health care system for federal employees.

"The Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program can help you and your family meet your health care needs. Federal employees, retirees and their survivors enjoy the widest selection of health plans in the country. You can choose from among Consumer-Driven and High Deductible plans that offer catastrophic risk protection with higher deductibles, health savings/reimbursable accounts and lower premiums, or Fee-for-Service (FFS) plans, and their Preferred Provider Organizations (PPO), or Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO) if you live (or sometimes if you work) within the area serviced by the plan."

Just the choices and options and the number of companies providing the services would bring costs down drastically. If a federal worker moves from HHS to HUD, she doesn't lose her insurance--it's portable. If he's unmarried and has no risky behavior, why shouldn't he take a high deductible and save oodles? If she wants tattoo removal and lasix surgery, she'd be able to buy it with her health savings plan (that's going away under the new take over). If genetic testing shows there's a problem down the road, she'll have plenty of notice.

What's for Christmas dinner

Most of the food is ready. I dashed into Giant Eagle this morning--ran out of butter and milk of all things. Don't like that store, but it was close. I thought I'd beat the crowd since it was still dark. For our Christmas Eve dinner we're having roast turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, colorful green beans (with red peppers and white mushrooms, onions and bacon), carrots with a dab of honey and herbs, and my daughter is bringing a sugar free cherry pie with real whipped cream. Yes, I know it's not terribly original, but the left-overs are good. Church service is at 9 p.m. at Lytham Road. Then tomorrow we're serving communion at 10 a.m., so I'm serving two kinds of soup--broccoli and chili (already made and ready to be warmed up) with assorted spreads on bread and crackers, a few sweet sour meatballs, and probably some homemade applesauce if I have enough apples. I think we'll skip a rich dessert since none of us really need it. Only one member of the family lost weight in 2009, and the rest of us are enlarging our footprint and our sitprint.

I've had a real problem with my chili. For years, I made it with Brooks chili beans which has a nice sauce and flavoring. That was a tip from my mother-in-law 50 years ago--she never used anything else and always made fabulous chili. After 3-4 stores and not finding it, I bought another brand. The beans were pale, the sauce tasteless, so I've added a can of dark red kidney beans, and now it looks like something a new bride would make with the neighbors pitching in.

Now all I have to do is shift a little clutter and vacuum. I woke up about 1:30 thinking of everything I needed to do, but most of it I've forgotten. Oh well. I never have been a list maker.

Senator Brown responds

Just so we know. . . "there is continued debate related to provisions that would establish a public option, insurance reforms, tax credits, and an excise tax on “Cadillac” insurance plans. Additionally, the Senate continues its dialogue on Medicare issues, including provider payment rates, program eligibility, patient access, medical malpractice, and further improving Medicare benefits for the more than 44 million current enrollees."

In other words, they have no idea what they are voting for because no one can figure out the bill, nor have they read it. There's no bone here for pro-lifers, probably because he doesn't have my position on record (I think pro-lifers are being tricked into voting for Reid's bill and Pelosi's), but there is an oblique reference to tort reform, and lots of squishy phrases like "patient access" and "provider payment rates." All I asked was why he didn't get a huge bribe for Ohioans like Nebraska and Louisiana and caved so early in this game of the government buying up and running private industries.

Ornament for the White House tree

We've been hearing some stories about some of the odd and hyper-political ornaments on the White House Tree--like Obama's face on Mt. Rushmore, Mao Tse Tung and drag performer Hedda Lettuce. The left wing bloggers/journalists are criticizing the right for being upset (although they don't refer to themselves as left wing). Actually, Mao wouldn't be the first marxist at the White House. Last year the only ornament out of 370 submitted that was rejected was political. The artists was anti-everything, including life, and that's not particularly appropriate for a Bush Christmas tree. That the Obamas kept the highly political ornaments that pleased and agreed with them, reflects their tastes.

Too bad bloggers at both ends don't focus on some of the really great ornaments, like my friend Jeanie's, a local artist, retired teacher and member of my church. She created an ornament to reflect the history of the Ohio Theater in downtown Columbus.

"The tree on which Auseon's bulb hangs is one of several trees First Lady Michelle Obama asked artists nationwide to help decorate. Obama said she wanted as much input from the country as possible when it came to celebrating the holidays in the White House.

That meant recycling about 800 ornaments left over from previous administrations and sending them out to community groups nationwide for artists to decorate. . .

She artfully covered the orb in glittery red and green ribbon and rhinestones, mixing in pictures and facts about the theater's history in three days.

"It's very ornate," she said of the piece which incorporates decoupage vintage photo of the theater on the bulb's face and nearly a foot of hanging ribbon.

Looks aside, the bulb's design is meant to tell a story, Auseon said.

"I just hope that ... they might go up to look more closely at it and, as they look more closely, that the story might reveal itself and that they'll think, 'Hey that's really neat,' " she said." SNP News

From an archival viewpoint, I would have preferred that White House ornaments not be recycled, and I don't know how far back they went (at least the 8 years of the Bush administration) and I don't know if they are federal property or belong to whoever lives there. But it would seem a "blank" canvas ornament/bulb could have been sent to the artists rather than reusing the old ones.

Reid quotes his hero, the other King

After comparing Republicans to opponents of outlawing slavery during Civil War times (remember, that was the forerunners of the current Democrats, but let's ignore history) just days ago, Haughty Heartless Harry Reid now quotes peacemaker Dr. King Rodney King (badly) and asks if we can't all get along. Reid is probably the most contentious politician hiding behind the blandest personality and most unpleasant demeanor I can remember in my life time. Story at Gateway Pundit. He was one of the worst and most vicious of the Bush bashers, declaring the war in Iraq lost and giving comfort to the enemy. Who elects people like this?

The Democrats.
Constant in criticism, sniveling in surrender, but bold against the unborn and the elderly.

Today’s new word--dyad

A dyad consists of two. It’s two units treated as one; a couple, a pair. It comes from the Greek, dyas. I’ve never used this word. Have you? The context was academic, of course.

“The FAST team structures repetitive, positive interactions sequenced in dyads (parent to youth, parent to parent) and in small groups (the youth's family, peer groups for parents, peer groups for youth).” Huh?

Oddies and endies in e-mail

I'm always surprised that so many people in other countries have died and left me, little ol' me, bunches and baskets of money! Here's today's catch. Did you get one?

"On behalf of the Trustees and Executor of the estate of Late Engineer Reinhard Hermann, I once again try to notify you as my earlier letter to you returned undelivered. I hereby attempt to reach you again by this same email address on the WILL. I wish to notify you that Late Engr. R. Hermann made you a Beneficiary to his WILL. He left the sum of Seventeen Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars ($17,500.000.00 USD) to you in the codicil and last testament to his WILL. This may sound strange and unbelievable to you, but it is real and true. Being a widely traveled man, he must have been in contact with you in the past or simply you were recommended to him by one of his numerous Friends abroad who wished you good."

The spelling and sentence structure is improving however, (must have out of work college students employed in these schemes) and this guy was UK not Nigeria, and an engineer, member of the Helicopter Society, and a philanthropist, not just a scumbag prince or potentate. Still, the capitalization of nouns doesn't look right. But maybe that's the UK way.

When Fed Ex called for our address yesterday I was hesitant. That's another scam going around, although that one usually comes via e-mail--a "delivery problem." But in that case, the insurance company had left out part of our street name, and since there are 15 or so streets around here with a similar name, and ours doesn't appaear on some maps because we are private, they couldn't find us.

One of the Christian groups to which I subscribe has apparently sold their mailing list--or maybe an organization went belly up and some other company got possession, because I've been receiving a really odd collection of end-times, money appeals, and book announcements in the past week or two. Groups I've never heard of and haven't visited their web sites. Although data mining is very sophisticated these days. I just hate to visit Amazon and then have the site tell me where I've been and what I looked at. It's just creepy. Like each click has a little RFID embedded. Since I visit Christian bloggers and many of them have ads, and you have to leave an e-mail address to comment, it's possible these companies found me that way.

But Helicopter Society? The UK philanthropist? Who falls for this?

Vote for Grande Conservative Diva Blogger

Gay Patriot is having a poll to vote for your favorite Conservative Diva--I'm not on the list--no one knows who I am, but Tammy Bruce is. Right now, Neoneocon is leading. She got my vote. But I just might vote again.

My note to Sherrod Brown

Ohio Senator--Democrat

"Why didn't you hold out for the bribe and corruption that Nebraska and Louisiana got? What exactly did you get for voting for this mess?"

Mindful meditation

Your child probably can’t sing Christmas carols at school this time of year, but you will find wide acceptance of Buddhism in classroom exercises, taught as “mindful meditation.” In the western way of thinking, if you’re not “doing” --reading scripture, praying, singing, volunteering--then you’re not technically practicing a religion. But in the eastern way, it’s the technique, not the teaching or the doing, that matters. You can "believe" anything you want. That’s because the godhead is inside, not outside, the body in that faith tradition. Therefore, lots of schools close their doors to our traditional religious practices--prayer, religious symbols in the classrooms, daily Bible readings, Bible stories of heroes, teaching creation, and songs--while welcoming warmly religions from other cultures with wide open arms if they can masquerade as something "healthy" like meditation, thought control for a good purpose, anxiety and stress control, and drug and alcohol reduction tools. It's ignorance of religious thought and teaching on the part of your school board and administration that allows this.

If you are a Christian, "man up" and object to your child being taught that god is within. That's a religion. It's not our religion, it's not our culture, and what's sauce for the Christian is sauce for the Buddhist, Hindu and Humanist. Don't let the word "meditation" fool you. In the Christian and Jewish traditions, that is mediation on God's word. It is content, not a blank mind stilled to allow anything in with the power of suggestion from the teacher or guru.

NYTimes

Meditation therapy

How to, from Shambhala Sun

Alcohol relapse prevention U. of Wisconsin

With children, academic studies

Mindful schools

Mindful techniques to use with children

Staples on a dollar and a head

I was looking for information on whether it is legal to staple a $20 bill to a letter and came across a story from Florida where a woman took her 8 year old to an ER for a small head wound caused by a pillow fight, and left with one staple over the wound and a bill for $1,654, of which $754 was covered by the family's insurance. Both the article and the readers' comments are mostly filled with the outrage over the cost of medical care for such a small accident. Duh! I wonder why?

It appears that few read it, or know anything about insurance, medical care or the costs of doing business--any business. Isn't it odd that other workers seem to want to be paid for their labor, to get their benefits paid by their employer, to receive unemployment and worker's comp, but doctors, nurses, lab techs, schedulers, and janitors in clinics should work for nothing or minimum wage? Isn't it strange that your landlord, electric company, gas and water utilities, gardeners, and street pavers all need to be paid and factored into your business costs, but not hospitals (she took him to the ER) or "doc in a box" clinics. And I found it odd that most people can grasp, when they get the bill, what 4 years of college costs, but are in la-la land about tacking on another 4-8 years of medical school to those costs. It appears from the article that no further testing was done to pad the costs (regardless of what Obama says about wrong foot amputation), so we can assume the doctor recognized from his training that a superficial head wound would bleed--a lot.

That ER where Mrs. Tobio took her child is also treating people who have no regular doctor, no insurance and no intention of ever paying. By law, it has to treat them too. So that cost is picked up by the people who do have insurance. And the doctor that stapled the wound has to carry malpractice insurance so that's factored into his costs--and no tort reform will be included in the current Senate or House bill because the lawyers have a powerful lobby. Also, in order to save costs, and they've already saved a bundle, the Tobios carry a very high deductible policy--$2500--choosing instead to cover the out of pocket expenses and pocket the savings. Some years they win, and some they don't. Even a few months of savings covered that $900 they had to pay. And their state regulates who they can buy from so that reduces competition and increases cost. That too isn't addressed in the current "reform."

When I was a kid, I was jumping on a bed like a trampoline and hit the ceiling cracking my head open. I don't remember if Mom took me to Dr. Dumont or not--there were puddles of blood everywhere so she probably did. Head wounds bleed like crazy. He probably used a needle and thread. I still have a bump and it's covered by my hair. But parents would not settle for that today. Childhood bumps have to have first class, non-scarring treatment. And no one had health insurance.

The reporter did her job--she got the scoop on what the real costs are behind that little staple in Ben Tobios head, but that's at the end. Most readers commenting, never got that far.

His staple paid for all the things the hospital does not, or cannot under current laws that regulate government programs such as Medicare, charge for, Sullivan said: bed sheets, plastic medical tubing, privacy drapes.

"Staples may be something we can charge for, so those things end up with what looks like a very high charge based on what the cost is," Sullivan said.

"At the same time," he added, "what drives the cost of health care is people get in a facility and they want the best doctors, the nice MRI machine that costs $1.5 million; they want the best of everything because we have very high expectations in a time of need, and there is a cost to that."

If I make coffee at home, it costs about ten cents a cup; if I go to Panera's it's about $1.80 plus my driving costs which includes auto insurance.

Unintended consequences--livestock production

Or was it? New laws in Europe regarding the caging of chickens might destroy the industry and remove a valuable food source from the table.

How to destroy an industry

"Are EU consumers to be deprived of eggs based on the misplaced perceptions of flock wellbeing by extremists intent on destroying established intensive livestock production? Will EU consumers be supplied with eggs from countries with a lower cost of production from cages or cage free systems or even eggs labeled as "cage free or free range" but derived from conventional cages? Either way consumers will be deprived of the nutritional value of eggs or will be required to pay more for their purchases.

We should carefully monitor events in the "old world" and be careful not to emulate the folly of the EU in our industry."

Brr it's cold

Yesterday was the first day of winter, and although we haven't had the snow that the east coast and midwest have experienced, I think my blood has thinned. I checked and still have plenty of fat layers. When browsing my site meter today I found someone looking at this, apparently I had linked to it in the past. Looks mighty good today. Even the prices didn't blow me away. And I don't even like Florida! Time to put on my heavy coat and mittens and go to the coffee shop.

The w.c. is from 7 years ago--you can tell we're all from Indiana and Ohio by the amount of clothing and the umbrellas--and it was a hot day.

New words, familiar sound

Last week when our young Haitian friends were visiting and we were sitting in traffic waiting to get into the Zoo, Frandy and Zeke sang "O Holy Night" for us in French. Here's a treat if you like language--the Christmas album, of Jana Mashonee singing ten traditional carols in different Native American languages – “O Holy Night” in Navajo, “Silent Night” in Arapaho, “Winter Wonderland” in Ojibwe, “Joy to the World” in Chiricahua Apache, etc.



Jana’s website You can hear her new album. In addition to providing all the vocals and piano, Jana wrote and co-produced the album. I think she was on Fox this morning if I got the dates right, although I'm not sure it was local or national. Which ever, I missed it.

For native youth, through her organization Jana's Kids, “Jana addresses the issues of cultural pride and identity, motivation and ambition, education, alcohol, tobacco and drug awareness, and gang association. She proactively involves her audiences in this extraordinary interactive presentation. Music, lecture, questions, answers, and demonstrations are the main components of this educational, entertaining, and motivational program.”

What makes the leftists unhappy about Obama

Although they don't seem to mind his spending trillions for more socialism, it's his spending it and getting the same ol' same ol' that ties their shorts in a knot.

"Somehow the president has managed to turn a base of new and progressive voters he himself energized like no one else could in 2008 into the likely stay-at-home voters of 2010, souring an entire generation of young people to the political process. It isn't hard for them to see that the winners seem to be the same no matter who the voters select (Wall Street, big oil, big Pharma, the insurance industry). In fact, the president's leadership style, combined with the Democratic Congress's penchant for making its sausage in public and producing new and usually more tasteless recipes every day, has had a very high toll far from the left: smack in the center of the political spectrum."

I had that spotted in 2007. Even with strings to a puppet master, it's hard to get an empty suit to dance. Although unlike Drew Westen at Huff'npoof, I think he's still way left of center. I still think he's a marxist; it's just that he had a few ethical, smart and patriotic Democrats in his own party that he hasn't knocked over yet or bribed into silece. And Drew--Joe Wilson still did and said the right thing, "You lie." Only now you libs know it too.