How Healthy are the Products You Use Everyday? GoodGuide App Helps You Buy Smarter

I've recently been concerned about the everyday products I ingest through the air or through my skin everyday such as makeup, lotions, hair products, air fresheners, candles, etc.  Things we don't usually think much about, but use repeatedly.

Trying to buy smarter is challenging.  It takes a chemist to interpret ingredients listed on a label.  It takes a lobbyist or activist to interpret a company's environmental stance.

Not anymore!  Try the GoodGuide App.  This app has all the product information you want with the touch of a button.

I just downloaded the GoodGuide app and scanned my Crest Toothpaste.....

Popinjay: Guilty

guilty

: responsible for committing a crime or doing something bad or wrong

: showing that you know you have done something bad or wrong

: feeling bad because you have done something bad or wrong or because you believe you have done something bad or wrong

Best Snack for Christmas and New Year's Parties

I should have given this to ya'll a few weeks ago, but I totally forgot.  This has been one of the best snack recipes I've ever had.  These are easy to make, can look very fancy if you drizzle the white chocolate carefully, and are always a crowd pleaser.   May I present . . .

Pretzel Turtle Snacks.

Have a very Merry Christmas Eve, enjoy your friends and family and take time to worship baby Jesus!

Saving Mr. Banks, Movie Review

 
In Saving Mr. Banks, Tom Hanks plays Walt Disney as he persuaded author P. L. Travers ("Mrs. Travers!") to release her beloved Mary Poppins as a light-hearted musical.  Travers, played amazingly by Emma Thompson, wants to protect her Mary Poppins, safely hidden away in a safe world without frivolity.  Disney helps Travers work through her childhood issues which are the underpinning of her beloved Mary Poppins.

I came out of the movie crying like a baby; the dragon slayer -- gets me every time.....

NASA 2013 in Review

NASA has posted an excellent video that summarizes what they've accomplished this year.  I consider it a privilege that I was able to be there in person for one of these events.  I'm grateful to NASA not only for their advancements, but also for the way they invite social media users to come behind the scenes at various events.
My review of NASA's Mobile Launcher
My tour at the Grand Opening of NASA's SwampWorks Research Lab
My view of The Atlas V Launch
My other NASA Adventures

The Supreme Macaroni Company, Adriana Trigiani, Book Review

So, Adriana Trigiani has produced another book, The Supreme Macaroni Company, that I am currently devouring like a bag of biscotti at breakfast.

This story continues the saga about the Roncalli and Vechiarelli families and their Italian laden lives that revolve around the Angelini Shoe Company we all remember so well from The Shoemaker's Wife.

Trigiani's books are vivid tales about Italian life in America and in Italy that will leave you feeling like you just spent a few days in a house of twenty strong personalities with your time spent mostly in the kitchen.  You'll come out exhausted, but well loved.

So I'm reading, I'm only on page 50 of 240 and already feeling the need to share.  Valentine's roommate, Gabriel comments on Valentine's wedding planning process:

"That's my dream, a mutually satisfying committed relationship that takes place over iPhone.  Just odd symbols and snippets of thoughts and feelings punched into the phone with my thumbs and no one in my face bugging me for actual conversation.  That, I could sustain.  I could do that.  A text-y marriage."

I have to smile.  I just love the characters in this book.  If you haven't read The Shoemaker's Wife, quick - go read that first, it was incredible.  Then grab this one and gobble it down.