The controversy over Lyme Disease update….a gathering storm?

There's no medicine for someone like you...

I wanted to thank all of you who wrote responses to my blog entry about contracting Lyme Disease…the more I’ve read about this disease, and it is scary, let me tell you…the more I realize how fortunate I am to have 1. developed a rash, and 2. gotten treatment right away. I was so happy when I recently took my last dose of Doryx!!( And it was expensive…$150 even with prescription coverage..the lady at Giant Pharmacy said “whew” when she rang it up-I soon found out why.) These are just a few comments I’ve received….from Lucy:

“Dear Donna,

Thank you for your anticipated upcoming effort to educate others concerning Lyme and tick borne diseases.I am happy to hear you got the rash so it could alert you to the fact you had a problem. I am also happy to hear and that you saw the rash and acted promptly (approximately 50 percent of those infected don’t get the rash in Maryland- and less than 10 percent of children get a rash).I am thankful that your doctor was able to recognise the rash and you were treated promptly. (This isn’t always the case and the rash is often misdiagnosed as a spider bite or ring worm or some other malady.)”

And oddly enough, before I saw my doctor, I thought maybe it was a spider bite too!

And starting this Friday night, July 10th, at The Senator Theatre on York Road, an award winning documentary about Lyme Disease called Under Our Skin-the Untold Story of Lyme Disease will be showing for a week(click here if you want to see the film trailer-wow)….I plan to see the film with my family, and I hope you do too. Being unaware of Lyme Disease and its dangers , is a risky ignorance. I hope you’ll see it. Linda Brace, the mother of a young woman featured in the documentary wrote me this:

” Dear Ms. Hamilton:  I am the mother of Mandy Hughes, who is featured in the documentary “Under Our Skin” and frequently the spokesperson at events and screenings related to the documentary.

As a parent, I had/have all the hopes that my vibrant, healthy and intelligent child would grow up and thrive. Going from a dream of working in the profession of her choice, to within a few short years, wheelchair bound and in extreme pain, which you have seen in the documentary, cripples an entire family.

What is not seen are the personal struggles/tolls taken on families both emotionally and financially seeking out treatments that the Healthcare community refuses to acknowledge in hopes that this will all “just go away”. The fact is that it will not go away and neither can we.”

And don’t forget, it’s not just humans who get Lyme Disease…your pets can also be victims…perhaps more easily than you.

Adventures in Lyme Disease….and the Big Apple…

Waitin' for the big blowout on the Hudson...

I was going to blog today simply about my weekend in New York for the 4th… but this morning…. I saw it…a promo on our air, about my recent bout with Lyme Disease, which airs tomorrow night. Knowing the story was airing pretty soon, I hadn’t written about it here. But now that the promo is gonna be seen…maybe a lot…I just want to tell readers I am OK!  I was happy to do the story, because I thought it would help other people, but the thing I dreaded about it was the immediate large number of friends and neighbors and co-workers, who I never told about it(I mean what do you say? Oh, I have Lyme Disease, by the way) who will now say, “How are you? I had no idea!”

Funny sign and pig nose in a costume shop..

And what is it about New York and Lyme Disease?? That’s where I was…in NYC for my son’s wedding… when I discovered the odd looking rash…the very morning of the wedding, so I really didn’t have any time to cogitate it at all. But I did know I needed to see a doctor as soon as I got home. And I did. My dermatologist, Dr. Eva Simmons-Obrien took one look at it and said, “Lyme Disease.” And it was right after I got home from this weekend’s  trip to NYC that I saw the promo, which kind of brought it all back. Film at 11, as they say.

It was lovely in the Big Apple this weekend, just like it was here in  Baltie….cool at night, warm breezy days. The fireworks over the Hudson were spectacular, though we were about 10 blocks south of where the six barges on the Hudson River actually began. I could see three of the six…and when I saw the video the next day on tv from television’s always privileged advantage point…they looked even more fabulous. But it was nice being at the waterfront with thousands of other people who just wanted to see it for themselves. Everyone was in a good mood, and friendly…lots of families, romantic couples, all ages and descriptions…New York.

Chocolate milkshake at Sweetiepie!

And the city was quiet, except for that night. Lots of residents beat feet out of town I suppose, leaving the tranquil streets for the rest of us to enjoy. I engaged in a lot of walking around….my favorite thing there…each trip I go I learn that huge beast of a city a little bit better. Going to New York used to be something I rather dreaded, because…I just didn’t know where to start. Know what I mean? You know everything you can imagine is there, but you’re not sure where it is or how to get there. I’m much better now. And we had some great grub…though a lunch at the much talked about Sweetiepie Restaurant in Greenwich Village, was kind of a disaster(though the food was pretty good). And I knew it was gonna be rough the moment we stepped throught  the door. Filled with screaming small children and mommies…it was a cruel thing to do to the hubby…and he got a nosebleed(how perfect is that?) right at the end of lunch. Blood pouring…so he leaves my daughter and I to pay up…only we cannot for the life of us  get the check. So I head to the marble ice cream counter where a beleaguered waiter is making(and spilling) two Bloody Marys for some parents that needed something to soothe their jagged nerves. A woman marches up to the counter and demands those drinks…”We’ve been waiting for those Bloody Marys for a half hour. That’s ridiculous!!”  Yeah, I hear you lady, but I want my check first…I need to blow this joint and fast.  Eating was uphill from there….El Charro in the village for a fabulous paella and sangria….The Spotted Pig for some, well… pig …the next night, and we actually got a table within 30 minutes!

We Megabused up and back…traffic made it a little longer on the return, but hey, it’s all good.

Hats off !…a Fourth of July remembrance….

Hat's Off! The Flag is Passing By....

Sometimes I have the most amazing chats with my 89 year old Mommy. For every mundane how are you feeling, what did you have for dinner, what are you doing today conversation, she still has the ability to surprise me. Like this morning….she was describing a little 4th of July party at her assisted living facility, at which she recited a poem, Hats Off!! , that she had memorized in the 4th grade, (that would be about 80 years ago)and still remembers by heart!! She recited it to me over the phone….perfectly…I asked her who wrote it, she replied, “Oh, I don’t remember that.” But I looked it up online…and found it in 20 seconds (which amazed my non-computer literate Mom)…Hat’s Off ! was written by Henry Holcomb Bennett in 1900, but the poem didn’t become well known until 1919, when it was published in Women’s World magazine…it became very popular during the depression. I now pass it along to you, compliments of HHB….it is quite stirring when read aloud….perhaps you and you kids can recite it at your barbecue(though presumably not by heart♥). Certainly reminds one what the holiday is all about. Enjoy, and Happy Fourth of July everyone…Be nice, and come home safe.

Hats off!
Along the street there comes
A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums,
A flash of color beneath the sky:
Hats off!
The flag is passing by!

Blue and crimson and white it shines,
Over the steel-tipped, ordered lines.
Hats off!
The colors before us fly;
But more than the flag is passing by.

Sea-fights and land-fights, grim and great,
Fought to make and to save the State;
Weary marches and sinking ships;
Cheers of victory on dying lips;

Days of plenty and years of peace,
March of a strong land’s swift increase:
Equal justice, right and law,
Stately honor and reverent awe;

Sign of a nation, great and strong,
To ward her people from foreign wrong;
Pride and glory and honor, all
Live in the colors to stand or fall.

Hats off!
Along the street there comes
A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums,
And loyal hearts are beating high:
Hats off!
The flag is passing by!

Wink it out? I really have to stop scratching my back with a pen….

Can these ink marks be removed from a fav sweater?

Yesterday as I left the news set and Marianne Banister was sitting down, she said, “You have ink marks all over your pretty sweater..it looks like the bad boy in class has been sitting behind you!”. Except, the bad boy was me…I had a little itch during the news, right in the center of my back, and the only way to reach it was with a pen, which I thought didn’t have the inky tip out. Wrongo.(I am not the only doing this, btw….meterologist Tom Tasselmyer says he has done this to many, many shirts.)

Does WINK really work?

And I was sad, because I haven’t had a lot of luck getting ink out, and I really love this little coral J. Crew cardigan. Then I remembered a product in the laundry room, which I bought a long time ago at the supermarket and never tried….it’s called WINK…and supposedly, it melts ink stains. But hey, it’s worth a try.

Last night I followed the directions and rubbed WINK into the stain, rubbed it a little bit and put it in the wash….the ink was already fading. Out of the washer…good as new. No ink!  I pass this along to all of you who may also…have an itch in a hard to reach place…and use ink pens indiscriminately. It’s worth noting that one cleaning website  says nothing removes all inks…but they have lots of ideas including hairspray and rubbing alcohol(?), and some stains they say are indeed a lost cause. But Wink worked for me!

My HDTV says “Peace out!”…goodbye my friend…

Such a sad sight....awaiting recycling...or repair? Is that possible?

There was a little mourning in our house yesterday…our 37″ Polaroid HDTV, which was only about 5 years old, finally said, “Peace out” yesterday. Honestly, it didn’t come as a terrible shock…it had been unwell for some time. When our son was home earlier this year at Easter, he looked at our tv….he has one just like it…(we bought two, years ago at a big C-Mart sale-still miss you C-Mart)….and said, “You guys really need a new tv!”  What inspired the comment was the fact that it had a big dark ”bruise” down the right side of the screen(from where I don’t know) that  yes, had gotten a little bigger over time, but honestly, it  didn’t really bother me that much, and hey… when it was a nighttime scene, you didn’t see it at all! But it wasn’t the bruise that was the demise of our electronic buddy….my tv guru at work, Howard Melnick told me our tv’s “warmer upper”(he called it something else but you get the idea), the thing that keeps a set warm enough to come on immediately when you want to watch it, was broken. We had learned not to turn the tv off-off…..you could turn the system off to save a little electricity, but not the set itself. If you walked in and it was a dark screen, not a blue one, you knew what you were in for. A 15 minute(and it got longer as time went on) stretch of having to repeatedly turn the tv on. Each time it would start to come on, it would immediately turn itself back off, in a huff it seemed. “Oh, I wasn’t good enough for you last night? Well, I don’t feel like being stared at this morning, so take that, lady!” This could go on for some time, but when it finally warmed up a little, then it would go into some sort of digital hell, with the picture doing all sorts of crazy digital things and making a truly hideous screeching noise. I learned to avoid the screeching by muting  the tv and just listening through sound system. And even when it working well picture wise(not including the bruise of course), if it wasn’t on “mute”, you would hear a snap, crackle pop sound like it had a bowl of Rice Krispies in there. Honestly this tv was just…peculiar and became more so over time.

So, yesterday morning, we discovered we had a power outage  during the night. That turned our tempermental tv OFF. And this time…this time…15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes of repeatedly turning the set back on did no good at all. My daughter tried it for an hour during the day(that’s true desperation)…so last night(because of course, no one can survive a night without their tv), we trudged off to Sam’s Club and then to Best Buy, not just look at sets. No way. We were bringing one of those babies HOME WITH US.

Final choice...40" Samsung!

We had established the guidelines before setting out. No tv over 42 inches would even be considered. Yes, I know, I know… you guys out there with your 52 inch, 72 inch behemoths towering over everything in the room…not for me…I mean it’s just too much tv unless you’re in a HUGE room.  And here’s the truth…. in Sam’s Club, a 37 inch television  like we had before, looked positively puny. My daughter kept saying “It looks so tiny…it’s pathetic!” I kept reminding her that the room our tv inhabits is a  smaller than the Sam’s Club by several hundred thousand square feet….that it wouldn’t look tiny in our house.

So we cruised down seeminly endless aisles of tvs that looked almost identical.  Big rectangular hunks of gleaming black plastic with pretty pictures in the frame. And the stores don’t miss a trick….it’s clever putting on outdoor programming …I’ve always thought that’s where HD really shines. Golf, nature shots, a football game….just gorgeous in high definition.

Final decision? A Samsung 40 inch set….not the least expensive, but my Father-in-law had given us the sage advice to “Get a Samsung…that Samsung makes a good tv“. And of the 3 finalists we were considering, the sales guy at Best Buy said, he would pick the Samsung. So, we bought it. It has some ridiculously high contrast ratio like 60,000 to one…whatever that means.

My daughter and I carried it in(the hubby has a hurt ankle which got him out of physical duty and I think dampened his ardor for a larger tv…pain rendered him more malleable in this regard)…and a relatively small amount of consternation about what plug goes where later(guru Howie who helped put in our first HDTV had made this considerably easier by labeling all the plugs about what letter they were-thanks Howard), and voila, we are watching a lovely lovely new HDTV with sharp colors and crisp definition.   So, it’s all good… except for the AMEX bill that comes sailing in a monthfrom now….yeah, there’s that. But sometimes you just gotta pay the piper, or in this case, Best Buy.

A Little Role Reversal…

Hmmmm...Craigslist, any good jobs today?

We have the most fascinating dichotomy going on at our house right now. As you know, my daughter graduated from college this May, and moved home earlier this month.  So…she doesn’t have a job, like thousands and thousands of other graduates…and while she is interviewing and applying( at some things that I tell her sound sketchy as hell….NO!), so far, employment has remained elusive.

And having your kid come back home after school is O-V-E-R, not just for the summer, is a different animal. When her older brother graduated, his rent in Philly was paid through the summer. I told him, “After that my friend, if you don’t have a job, you’ll have to come home. We’re not paying rent for you to stay here.” Now let me just say, that was a threat for both of us….as much as he didn’t want to move home, I equally didn’t want him to. As it turns out, he did find a job…not that he stayed there very long, but it enabled him to get a start. Whew….One done.

Now that my baby has graduated in the middle of a recession, with a degree in …. wait for it…..psychology…it’s hard to know in which direction to head. We were going over to a friend’s house for dinner a week or so ago, and my daughter looked at us and asked, “What time will you be home?”  Awkward role reversal!! After a long look back, I said, “Not sure, but not late.” Her-”You know I don’t like to be here alone.” Hmmmmm.

So that’s how it is right now….kinda tough all around. I love having the kid at home, really…she’s good company, and  quite helpful, though she calls the chores I give her to do during the day..laundry, empty dishwasher, cooking( she does make a good spaghetti sauce), running errands, etc., being my slave.   And we only fight over the tv once in a while, as long as I give in every so often to back to back C.S.I. episodes. Yeah. And I know that one day before too long, she will find a job…and get an apartment…and possibly never live with us again, if life goes her way. So, I try to enjoy the good times we have together….sail on past the little irritations we have with each other on a regular basis,  and just be in the present moment, like they try to teach me in yoga class.  It’s all good, right? Though I must admit to the hope of finding no C.S.I. on the DVR when I get home.

A pulled pork weekend….

All you need is a bun or a piece of cornbread!

OK, here’s something I’ve made for the past two weekends in a row….it’s that good(and that easy).  You may remember that I had the caterer make pulled pork barbecue for the Friday night party in New York at my son’s wedding. It was just lovely, and got me to thinking….hey, why can’t I do that? So I looked over a few recipes, and kind of put together several,  for a slow-cooker-weekend-surefire-hit. Oh, and did I mention it’s easy on the budget? Well it is, baby, it is.

First, get a pork shoulder….my slow cooker will take about a 4 pounder, and you can find them at the supermarket for $1.99 a pound or less if they’re on sale.  I cut off any excess fat…though a little is good, let’s be honest. Dice an onion, put half in the bottom of your oiled cooker, plop the pork on top, salt and pepper, the rest of the onion…and maybe a cup or so of your favorite barbeque sauce( I like Baby Ray’s)…and a tiny bit (may a quarter cup) of water. Cook on low for 8 hours or until tender, OR on the high setting for about 5 hours. When the pork is tender, use two forks to pull it into shreds, drain some of the liquid, add more barbeque sauce. Dig in.

Simple, fabulous, thanks Callie...

And for dessert, I made a super-easy cobbler recipe that I found on Callie’s Biscuits website….it’s called  A Cup, A Cup, A Cobbler.  And the title fits…it is pretty much a cup of this and a cup of that, extremely quick to throw together, and in this, the fresh fruit season where my beloved blueberries are yes, cheap, you can even make several and freeze them. And for those of you who who’ve never heard of Callie’s biscuits…I discovered them when I first went to Charleston a few  years back. These pricey, pretty delicacies are soooooo good. They only retailer that carries them in Maryland is Graul’s in Annapolis and St. Michaels. The benefit of not getting them mail order is avoiding the high shipping charges….and the price is high anyway…around $20 a dozen(little)biscuits…yikes….so I put this in the special treat category….that said, they are fabulous. 

Bonus recipe: this recipe from Apartment Therapy for slow cooked pork cooked on top of the stove also looks great…you might want to try it.

Looking back at two legends….

This is how I will remember her....

OK, let me just say, it was one of the heartbreaks of my young life that I did not look like Farrah Fawcett. Look at her in her prime…..LOOK AT HER!  And while it was her blonde, big smile beauty, without question,  that made her a star…to her credit, she went on to also become a serious, Emmy Nominated  actress. She lived her life in the public eye, with a great deal of grace and poise, for the most part. Sure there was the occasional stumble like on David Letterman’s show that time…still not sure what that was about…but she always seemed like a genuinely nice Texas girl, who also happened to be one of the world’s great beauties.  And her documentary Farrah’s Story, watched by 9 million people that night, was a tour de force(if you missed it you can watch it here on Hulu and it’s also airing again tonight on WBAL at 9 pm)….an unflinching look at what it’s like fighting cancer. See her without her hair? Sure no problem. Throwing up in a pan? Bring it. Farrah was in the end a brave, tough lady. R.I.P. F.F.

Now, Michael Jackson. There’s a “complicated” legend for you.  And it would seem the redefining of the life has already begun. As announcers, news anchors and commentators kind of tiptoe around the untidy later portion of his life(see? I’m tiptoeing too…), referring to his “weird” life, appearance and “choices”…Vanity Fair’s Maureen Orth,  the late, great Tim Russert’s widow…pretty much said out loud this morning on NBC’s The Today Show, what a lot of people have been thinking, and saying privately. She referred to the victims of Michael Jackson….two boys…the only ones who accused him publicly of child sexual abuse.  One he settled with out of court, reportedly a multi-million dollar settlement…and of the other….the reporter said, “He was exonerated in that trial“. Orth said, “He was exonerated largely on the basis of his celebrity, and a very good lawyer who managed to put the Mother of the boy on trial.” I remember that….the questions were asked…if you thought your little boy was being abused, why did you let him go to stay at MJ’s house? Bad mother, bad!  Good question and possibly she was a mother with questionable motives(hey, parents exploiting their kids ain’t nothing new, alas-check out the breaking news of the Duke University official and his 5 year old adopted son), but it still doesn’t change the fact the child said he was sexually abused by MJ. Most experts agree, kids don’t make this stuff up.  What made the man as peculiaras he was? Carlton Munson, Ph/D,  at the University of Maryland School of Social Work, and an expert in child psychology has researched the impact of trauma on great artists in our time. He said this, “Often, children who grow up as entertainers and on movie sets as adults have a hard time distinguishing between what they do and who they are.”

So what remains of the legend? For those of us who grew up loving his music, his life doesn’t change the fact that he was a brilliant musician who made a huge, lasting impact on the music world…but it sure shades it.

Hot Tip on Sweet Onions!

Get 'em while they're hot...I mean, sweet...

Ok, I just got an email from Garden and Gun Magazine….that’s right, I said Garden and Gun….it’s an upscale southern magazine published in Charleston, SC…and it honestly does have some terrific travel and food articles in it…as any respecting Charleston based publication would have.

Anyway…the tip is about a new kind of super-sweet, southern onion.  I’ve long been a fan of Vidalia Onions…grown in Vidalia, Georgia, of course. Sweet, mild onions that are just soooooo good…but the Low Country Sweet Onion Company from Longstreet Farms claims to rival them(maybe surpass them?).  The scoop is that these onions were first grown privately on a 2 acre patch, for onion connoiseurs…true onion lovers.  L.B. Wannamaker (love the name)from St. Matthews SC is making a limited production of these sweets available for 2009 . This is evidently a pretty small farming company…when I called and ordered a big box($28 including shipping, comes out to about $1.10 a pound), a woman answered the phone and took my name and number and address and said “OK, thank you.” I quickly asked, “Don’t I need to pay for them?” 

Don't these look delicious?

 ”Oh, I don’t usually answer this phone…somebody will call you back with all that. ” So it does seem to be…small and informal, but they say you will be able to tell the difference in these onions, so I’m in…all in. And they have a killer looking Sweet Onion Pie recipe on there….can’t wait to try it. Maybe L.B. will call me back tonight.

Oh, and if want to see a funny video they just posted on youtube that will also make you hungry…click right here, sweetie.

Thank goodness for cell phones…the death of Nada…

Here in the U.S., in our safe insulated  little world, we tend to forget the deadly seriousness of what is going on in protest torn Iran right now….with thousands of demonstrators saying their presidential election was stolen. And to gather and say it out loud,  is very very dangerous indeed.

This is brought home in a shocking manner…by  a cell phone video that captured the death of a young woman named Nada….who seems to have been just watching the demonstrations with her Father, when she was shot…a witness says, by an Iranian policeman or militiaman, on a rooftop.  The video I’m linking to here is graphic…I warn you of that in advance…but it speaks volumes about what’s going on over there. Troubling, dangerous times indeed. If not for cell phone video, and the web….we would have little knowledge of what’s happening….but governments that would do so,  haven’t yet found a way to completely circumvent technology. Thank goodness.