BugNuts, Peanut Butter, and Honey Bunches of Ugh

Last night, I'm eating some pistachios. I've had a craving for pistachios for weeks, and finally got some at the grocery store last night. With pistachios, you have to be careful, you know, because sometimes, you get a bad nut. Usually, it just tastes "off," or it has a weird color, or it's harder than the other nuts. But last night, I got a nut that was really hard, and seemed to be in two pieces. I was watching TV, mind you, and not inspecting each nut. I spit out the larger, harder piece. Then felt the other piece in my mouth and it felt weird, so I spit that one out. It was a worm. A gross, largish, dead, salty worm.

The worm looked like this: Since it was dead, and since I really like pistachios, and since I didn't actually eat or even bite the worm (just licked the salt off), I looked at the bowl of pistachios for a couple of minutes, then proceded to eat the rest of them, inspecting them a little better this time, and hoping that was the only one.

In doing some research later, I thought it was a waxworm, but looking into it more, I moved to thinking it was a meal worm, because they are more commonly found in cereal and grains. Upon even more research, I determined that it was, in fact, a Navel Orange Worm (larval stage of the Amyelois transitella moth, at right), because they can be a particular problem in almonds and pistachios. Information on this worm is hard to come by, but a thread on a bulletin board apparently for nut lovers confirmed that this does sometimes happen and that it's apparently not harmful to eat them. Furthermore, I was lucky that my worm was dead - a lot of times, they are still alive in there. And people have eaten them alive. Actually, all of these kind of larval worms are considered good protein and not at all harmful to people. They're just a pain if you get a live infestation.

Then, today, I got a call from my Scrapbook Goddess. There was a big recall recently on Peter Pan peanut butter because of the risk of salmonella associated with certain jars. I called her back, she said she had brownies with the offending peanut butter at our recent crop and wanted us to be warned. I hadn't eaten a brownie, but then asked about the peanut butter. Scrapbook Goddess is a wealth of information, so of course she had the information about which peanut butter had been recalled, and of course we had a jar of it in the cupboard - with the evil number "2111" on the lid. Scrapbook Goddess even had the address for ConAgra foods where you could get a refund! She's so good!

After hanging up the phone, I remembered that I was the only person who had eaten out of that jar of peanut butter, and I had, in fact, had diarrhea for a couple of days, with some intense cramping. As I relayed my hysteria to my husband, he said, "Oh come on! You really think that was the cause of your diarrhea? If the sun comes up, you have diarrhea!" I guess he was right, but I do recall thinking I had eaten something bad. When I told my husband about sending the lid in for a refund, he said, "Cool! I get my money back AND I get to eat the peanut butter!" Always thinking of how to save a buck, that guy, even if it means getting sick.

All of this reminded me of a time several years ago when I was a nanny. One day for breakfast I had some cereal. I should have known something was amiss when there was a box of Honey Bunches of Oats in the cupboard amidst the mountain of sugar cereals. I noticed a few web-like things on the shelf, but figured it was just a spider or something. Halfway through the bowl, when you get to the point where there is more milkd left than cereal, I saw these little greenish yellow things floating up. I saw them when I first started eating the cereal, but I had assumed they were like little dried apple slices or something. Well, the floating greenish yellow things were moving. As I looked closer, I realized they were little worms, little larval worms (see photo at left).

I immediately started spitting and gagging into the sink upon realizing that I had probably already eaten a healthy amount of the live worms. After that day, I realized that any healthy cereal in that house with 5 kids would probably have been sitting there for a long time and I only ate sugary cereal from then on.

Since then, I've determined that these worms were another grain moth larva called Indian Meal Moth (see photo of moth at right). Not generally harmful in small amounts unless the infestation is accompanied by fungus, which sometimes does happen.

This website was particularly informative about identifying bugs:
What's That Bug?

Any Name of Mine

My new nephew was born last month. He's the sweetest, cutest little thing! It's amazing how instantly you can fall in love with a brand new human being. I love my other nephew so much, sometimes you wonder, "Will I love the new baby as much?" But, somehow you do. There's no cap on the amount of love we are capable of.

My brother and sister-in-law named the new baby an unusual name. I love it and think it is such a great and unique name. I could not believe the flack they received over this name. Some people just said, "Oh..." and my grandma even chewed out my brother about how they could do this to the kid and how he's going to be made fun of, etc.

Why is it that everyone thinks they can weigh in on what you name your child? Why is it a valid excuse that other kids may make fun of him when he gets older? I don't know about everyone else, but all kids are made fun of - no matter what their name is. It's just a right of passage. If I thought a kids name could save them from being made fun of, I'd be all for it, but it's just not.

My nephew's name isn't that unusual, in my opinion - it's not "Blanket" or "Coco" or "Apple." But it's also not in the top 100 most popular baby names. Which is one of both my brother and my criteria for naming a kid - do we really need another Jacob, Alexander, Zachary, Madison, Alexis, or Brianna? And yes, those names are all among most popular names in the last few years. I think people really think they are being unique when they choose these names, but they're going to find that their kid is going to be called Brianna M. or Brianna T. for the rest of her life in school.

I did a little research into baby names, and found this really great site: Baby's Named a Bad, Bad, Thing. This page is a collection of postings made on baby name bulletin boards accompanied by this person's snide remarks, which are actually pretty funny. S/he has organized these into fun catagories such as "Brought to you by the letter Y" or "God wants you to name a baby after him" or "Big Chief Mucous Stink." I could spend all day reading through these, they are hilarious!

I guess even I am judgemental of what people name their kids. I tend to question the lack of creativity and imagination people have if they name their kid something from the "Top 100" list. Isn't your child the most unique person to ever walk the earth? Shouldn't their name reflect that? At the same time, I don't think you should name your kid after inanimate objects or food. Save those names for pets. And speaking of pets, I don't believe pets should have "people" names. It just weirds me out.

If you decide to name your daughter Precious, Candy, Ginger, Peaches, or Diamond, be prepared for her to become a stripper.

I do understand the struggle to find the perfect name. I had to name my son, and since he was born still, it was an emotional and difficult decision. We weren't able to get to know him and look in his little eyes and decide on his name. Fortunately, my husband and I had discussed some names and agreed on one - Eroll. Sometimes people wonder why I spelled it that way. As I sat in Labor & Delivery writing down the name for the nurse, it occurred to me that spelling it the traditional way, Errol, looked too close to the word "error" in my opinion. I didn't ever want anyone to think of this much hoped-for and much loved child as an error. So I switched it up a little. Since then, I've come across names of European people who spell it Erol, which I also like.

It's not easy, I totally get that. If you have a husband or partner, you're going to have to contend with what they think. If you dare to share the name ideas with family and friends, be prepared for them to offer their opinions, sometimes not-so-subtlely. And there are times when you want to honor a family member or someone you admire by naming your child after that person. I understand that, too.

I've been pretty impressed with the names chosen by people close to me for their children. Unique, sometimes unusual, but very cool names. If anyone tells me what they are thinking of naming their kid, I try to be supportive and objective. Parents get enough people telling them how to name their kid, and I just want to be supportive of whatever that name will be. Although, secretly, I'm cringing if it's another Logan...

A long, cold January...

This is just an entry of excuse and apology. For my loyal readers (all 2 of you), you may be wondering where I've been. Here are my excuses for being AWOL lately...

• In the beginning of January, I was sick. I thought I had the flu. Puke, diarrhea and cold-like feeling, but nothing like what I'll tell you about if you keep reading...


• In the second week of January, I traveled to Florida for work meetings


• Not long after returning from Florida, I got REALLY sick with the dreaded norovirus. I guess it was going around, because they closed schools and everything. I can't remember when I've ever been that sick before. I was up all night with puking and diarrhea, and eventually fell into bed with exhaustion and fever-like feelings. I spent the whole next day sweating and sleeping deeply. The next evening, I drank a little gatorade and some broth and was able to sit up to watch some TV.
  
  Interestingly enough, my sister-in-law had similar symptoms that sent her to the hospital about 3 weeks early to have her baby. I was able to see the baby briefly before being attacked by the virus, but I was also helping out with my 2-year-old nephew, so being incapacitated by sickness put a kink into the plans. It all worked out with help from the family. I swear it took me 2+ weeks to start feeling normal again, and for most of that time I was on what I called "The Gatorade Diet" - a Gatorade for breakfast, a Gatorade for lunch, and a healthy dinner! I will say my pants are fitting more losely now.
  
  In doing some research on the norovirus, which is short for "Norwalk Virus." They classify all these kinds of viruses (virusi?) as "noroviruses." And the "Norwalk Virus" is named after an outbreak in 1968 that occurred in Norwalk, Ohio, a place I frequented quite a bit on my way to visit my now-husband when he was in college. In any event, these kinds of viruses often occur on cruise ships or restaurants where many people are in close contact and they are highly contagious.
  
  From the CDC website: "The symptoms of norovirus illness usually include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and some stomach cramping. Sometimes people additionally have a low-grade fever, chills, headache, muscle aches, and a general sense of tiredness. The illness often begins suddenly, and the infected person may feel very sick. In most people the illness is self-limiting with symptoms lasting for about 1 or 2 days." Yep, that sounds right. I stayed home from work for 3 days, although I was feeling a lot better by day 3, but still not eating and feeling just exhausted.


• In the midst of the illness time, my brother, sister-in-law, nephew welcomed my new nephew! He is just adorable and everyone in the family fell instantly in love!


• Soon after the illness, my friend Depressionista and her husband and son came to visit me and, luckily, I was feeling better by the time they arrived. It was a GREAT visit!


• And then, January was over, and now it's February!

An Alarming Morning

My husband and I were awakened this morning at about 4:45am by the phone ringing. The same thing happened yesterday and the day before. It was the security company for the store where my husband works. A motion detector had sensed movement inside the store. The first day, we didn't get the phone and by the time the security company got a hold of someone, there was already someone at the store.

But yesterday, we answered the phone. My husband is first on the list because he is one of the managers and also lives the closest to the store. He figured it was just the heat coming on (which happens about that time every day) and blowing something around, setting off the motion detectors. After settling back into bed, the phone rang again. It was the police, and they wanted my husband to meet them at the store.

When he came home a couple of hours later, I learned that the motion sensor had gone off in the gun room (he works at a sporting goods store). This room has loose guns and ammo. My husband said it was quite a scene as he opened the door and got out of the way, surrounded by all of the cops rushing in with their guns drawn. Freaky!

He still thinks it was a mouse or the heat coming on and knocking something over or blowing something around. But it sure made for an exciting 3 mornings!