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Category Archives: Personal
What is a Tea Towel
If your house is anything like mine, you probably have a host of tea towels lying around: There’s one by the kitchen sink, another hanging in the powder room, and five more tucked away in a drawer, ready to rotate in when the others need to be thrown in the wash.
But what actually makes a tea towel a tea towel, and why are they called tea towels in the first place?
The main difference comes down to the material: Unlike your run-of-the-mill, super-absorbent bath or hand towels, tea towels are generally flat-woven from linen or cotton, rather than made of a higher-pile material like terry cloth, so as not to leave lint or streaks behind.
While tea towels are nearly ubiquitous these days, the tea towel’s beginnings were far from humble. It’s thought that they first became popular in 18th century England, when textiles became more easily accessible. Often made from soft linen, tea towels were a favorite accessory amongst the upper echelons of English society, as the ladies of the house used them during tea service and for drying cherished china. (This was apparently one of the jobs they didn’t pass off to servants, as they didn’t want to risk any broken saucers. The horror!) The linen tea towels were also a way for women to show off their decorative stitching skills, as they would embroider them to coordinate with the rest of their table linens.
Continue readingGeorge Bush – 20 Years Later
Wisdom from a very smart human being….
Adoption Timeline – Give them a chance!
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4,098 new cases, 63 resident deaths
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Covid Update – Feb 2, 2021
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Vitamin D eyed as possible new tool in fight against coronavirus
Boston researchers are studying another potential weapon in the coronavirus fight.
Brigham and Women’s Hospital will look at whether vitamin D can lessen the severity of COVID-19 symptoms.
Researchers are also studying whether vitamin D supplements reduce the chance of becoming infected if you have been exposed to someone in your household who tested positive for COVID-19.
Vitamin D is already known as an immune system booster.
The study ( https://www.vividtrial.org/) will focus on patients age 30 or older who have been recently diagnosed with the virus within the previous five days.
Participants will be asked to take the vitamin D or placebo study capsules every day for 28 days, provide at-home blood samples by fingerprick and complete questionnaires.
Studies have suggested that vitamin D may reduce the risk of respiratory tract infections.
Researchers said, “the potential role of vitamin D to protect against infection by the novel coronavirus that leads to COVID-19 is promising but unknown.”
33 million Californians face COVID-19 stay-at-home order that will restrict movements and business
A new stay-at-home order will be imposed on Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley Sunday night, as the coronavirus crisis spirals out of control with a speed that has exceeded health officials’ most dire projections.
Some 33 million Californians will be subject to the new order, representing 84% of the state’s population. The state mandated the restrictions in the Southland and Central Valley as capacity at hospitals’ intensive care units hit dangerously low levels. Five Bay Area counties will also begin lockdown restrictions in the coming days despite not yet reaching the threshold at which such action is mandated by the state.
The rules are less sweeping than California’s pioneering stay-at-home order in the spring, which is credited with slowing the first COVID-19 wave. But the new order will change daily life for many, especially in suburban Southern California counties like Orange and Ventura, which so far have enjoyed more open economies than hard-hit Los Angeles County.
Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley will implement the order Sunday at 11:59 p.m. Restaurants must halt in-person dining and can offer food only for delivery and takeout. Gatherings of people from different households will be prohibited, except for outdoor church services and political demonstrations. Affected communities will be required to close hair and nail salons, playgrounds, zoos, museums, card rooms, aquariums and wineries. Nonessential travel and use of hotels for leisure will be banned, as will overnight, short-term stays at campgrounds. All retail can remain open, but at 20% capacity.
Continue readingWhat’s More Risky, Going to a Bar or Opening the Mail?
By now you probably have a good idea of which activities pose a greater risk catching COVID-19, so this might have been easy.
The Texas Medical Association COVID-19 Task Force and Committee on Infectious Diseases have created a chart that ranks activities on their risk level for COVID-19. The levels are based on input from the physician members of the task force and the committee, who worked from the assumption that – no matter the activity – participants were taking as many safety precautions as they can.
And remember that no matter what we do, it’s best if we stay home if possible, wear a mask and maintain at least 6 feet of distance when we have to go out, and above all practice safe hand hygiene.
Remember the board game Risk, where the goal was basically to take over the world?
Well, let’s play Risk COVID-19, in which you try to guess which activities put people more at risk for contracting the coronavirus that causes the disease.
- Spending an hour at a playground or grocery shopping?
- Going to a beach or going camping?
- Working a week in an office building or staying two nights in a hotel?
- Going to a hair salon/barbershop or visiting a library/museum?
- Going to a bar or sitting in a doctor’s waiting room?
Download the chart in pdf form here: