Planning a Green Baby Shower

It’s easy to throw an eco-friendly baby shower with a few quick adjustments to the usual routine. Start off right — go paperless! The pre-designed cards at Punchbowl (www.punchbowl.com) are cute and easy to manipulate — five minutes from start to send. Comparable services exist at www.pingg.com and www.evite.com. Your matching set of custom save […]

Perfect Pizza

Perfect Pizza   Crust Approximate prep time: 20 minutes Yield: 2 small crusts or 1 large Difficulty level: moderate 2 tablespoons instant yeast* 2 cups ice water 2 cups white whole wheat flour 2 cups unbleached flour 2 tablespoons olive oil 2 tablespoons ground flax 1 teaspoon salt Place all ingredients in a Bosch or […]

Is Road Biking for You?

Thanks in part to Lance Armstrong, road biking has become an increasingly popular sport in the United States. It is a specialized sport, because the design and intent of the bike limit you to paved roads. While road bikes are not as versatile as mountain bikes, they do allow you to travel much longer distances […]

You Can Do It

If you need a stellar reference to preserving food that makes it easy to sleuth out your options, whether canning, freezing, dehydrating or digging a root cellar, grab The Beginner’s Guide to Preserving Food at Home: Easy Techniques for the Freshest Flavors in Jams, Jellies, Pickles, Relishes, Salsas, Sauces, and Frozen and Dried Fruits and […]

Review: Lucid Food

Lucid Food arrives, already a present, gorgeous with scrolling artwork and vibrant images, wrapped and ready. I am enamored. Also, I am hungry. Thumbing past photography for Chickpea Cakes with a verdant green Cilantro-Jalapeno Sauce, Fall Fruit Focaccia succulent with apple wedges, Crispy Yuba Rolls that look toasty brown and crunchy, ready to dip, I […]

Review: A Million Miles in a Thousand Years

I read Blue Like Jazz, Miller’s first and wildly successful memoir, in what seems now another life and another frame of mind. But Donald Miller is travelling with me in a freakish parallel universe. A Million Miles in a Thousand Years tracks Miller learning to view his life through a camera lens. This hook, life […]

Review: Good Mail Day

Innovative, bright ways to re-invent your junk mail and build relationships via the old-fashioned art of correspondence wait for you in this book. Gone are the days of the pony express, sadly. Yet we humans still loiter around the mailbox, rallying our hopes if the postal worker’s bundle looks interesting. If I received any of […]

Natural Help for Fibromyalgia

Natural Help for FibromyalgiaWe all get tired. Most of us have experienced sadness or mild depression at times. And who doesn’t feel achy and stiff every now and then, especially after a weekend of sports or yard work? But for those with fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS), these debilitating symptoms occur daily for months to years on end, and are relentless, causing poor quality of life.

What is Fibromyalgia Syndrome?

Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is a complex rheumatic-type disorder characterized by widespread pain, decreased pain threshold, and incapacitating fatigue. These symptoms affect millions of Americans, mostly women ages 25 to 60. In fact, women are 10 times more likely to get this disease than men. While there is no specific laboratory test or abnormal X-ray finding to diagnose fibromyalgia, the symptoms of the disease can be successfully treated once a proper diagnosis is made by a physician.

Years ago it became apparent to doctors that patients (usually women) who told of having muscle pain, achiness, fatigue, disordered sleep, anxiety, and depression were harboring a distinct syndrome, or collection of symptoms, that make a disease. Yet in test after test the results were always normal. Even in recent years doctors simply sent these patients home.
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Rx: BFF

Recently when my schedule was particularly hectic, a friend sent me a greeting card advertising a hotline for stressed-out people. To reach this hotline one dialed 1-Need-to-Cope, and the following automated menu came on the line:

To hear a primal scream, press 1.

To record your own primal scream, press 2.

To play it back, press 3.

For a list of ideas on how to get revenge, press 4.

To order a stress survival kit for $500, press 5.

When I opened the card, it read “To reach a friend who’ll understand, dial my number.” Under my friend’s signature was his phone number.

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