Plumpy Nut

CBS reran a story on yesterday's broadcast of 60 Minutes about a ready-to-serve food that children in underdeveloped countries could eat in order to bring them back from a state of malnutrition. Anderson Cooper started the segment by saying that every year malnutrition kills 5 million children. That is one every 6 seconds. He interviewed Dr. Milton Tectonidis, who started Doctors without Borders, and he told about this product developed by a dietician because mothers in countries like Niger can't produce enough milk for the babies, and powdered milk is not helpful because of a lack of clean water. Plumpy Nut is made up of peanut butter, powdered milk, powdered sugar, and enriched with vitamins and minerals. He also interviewed Dr. Susan Shepherd of Butte, Montana who runs Doctors without Borders in Niger. They can now treat 120,000 children with this product, whereas 3 years ago they could treat only 10,000. In one of the pics you can see women in line to pick up PN, and in another you can see one carrying it back to her home. Anderson travelled 12 hours by car from the capital of Niger to get to the village to get this story. He reported that there are approximately 20 million malnurished children in the world and only 3% of them can get a fortified, ready-to-eat food such as Plumpy Nut.

The Pinhos in Raleigh

We were able to see the Pinhos on our trip to Raleigh yesterday. And we had fun playing Wii Sports with all three of them. Of course we knew Zachary would love to play and we love playing with him. I was able to load some Miis on my controllers and bring them to Patrick and Jennifer's Wii.

Signs of Productivity

w


Here we see the first signs of actual veggies bursting forth from Pat's garden. Looks like she just might have a green thumb. I threw in the pics of the marigolds just 'cause they look pretty, I wasn't planning on eating them.

Garden Update

I think you can tell Pat's veggie garden is growing when you compare these pics to the earlier ones. We should be getting produce some time in July.

Know your 48

How well do you know our 48 contiguous states in the USA? You can try to see if your smarter than a 3rd grader here. I was successful on my second try. You have to be careful to get the arrow pointing inside the state, and small ones like Rhode Island can be tricky. I am expecting great things from you teachers out there! I decided to show my score for any unbelievers out there.

Flag Day

As most of you know, Saturday was Flag Day. CBS Sunday Morning did a piece on flags, and particularly the American Flag, or more precisely, the flag of the United States of America. There are many flags shown here, and some of the pics are artwork, and not any flag in our history. I think they are fascinating. I want to know more about them. Don't you? One of the areas we saw at the Smithsonian on one of our visits to DC was Old Glory. The time and the care that is required to mend a very old flag is truly amazing.

Little Garden

We have a little veggie garden this year. First time in a while anyway. It seems to be doing rather well, especially since we have been in a slight drought lately. That is except for Thursday's one whole inch of rain, and yesterday's three tenths. I'll post some more pics in a day or two and you can check out out tomatoes, green peppers and squash.

Again, Andy Trivia

This is going to take some real pros at The Andy Griffeth Show to give the answer to this. Which episode are these two pics from? I know most of us enjoy the black and white epis more, probably because Barney was in those. This is still a good one. I'll start giving hints if no one gets close.

Mailbox post refinishing

Saturday it seemed liked a good day to refinish the post that the mailbox sets on. So I started out with the 50% Clorox solution to get rid of the mildew. I let it stay on for about 5 minutes. Then I rinsed thoroughly with the hose. Then I repeated that since it seemed like it needed it. I couldn't really tell how good of a job I had done, so I mowed the yard and when I checked it again, it looked like it does in the top pic. (Kinda white.) All I had to do then was to put the sealer/stain on. All I could do was the one coat because it becomes waterproof after that. I think it looks OK if I do say so myself.

Dan Metzdorf

Here is a guy we should all get to know. Dan lost his leg from a roadside bomb in Iraq. He had 28 surgeries after the amputation. Now he skydives with the Golden Knights. You can read more about it here.
No one can say he let this slow him down.

The Gerenuk

I am constantly amazed at how little I know about animals in the world. This one is called the Gerenuk, also known as Waller's Gazelle. If I were naming it, I would call it the Anorexic Gazelle. They say that thin is in, at least with models and the Hollywood crowd, and apparently there is an exclusive club for animals such as these. At least I have learned something about the Gerenuk today, and now thanks to me, so have you!

What's up with this weather?

Can you believe this weather? Its not even officially summer yet. I guess we all have to believe that global warming is for real.

007 to the Rescue

Today I was having lunch (at Whole Foods) with my good friend the old paratrooper, and another friend came up to the table and sat down for just a moment. He asked if we were finished eating, (which we were) and then he proceded to tell us that he was driving his wife's car, and didn't have a spare key in his pocket. He was kind enough to leave the windows down a fraction of an inch, and also to leave the keys to this car in the driver's seat. Bottom line: he had locked himself out of the car. So the old paratrooper tried a little trick with some line and a pair tweezer-type pliers. It didn't work. I gave him a minute to see if he was going to be successful. He wasn't. I then proceded to try to obtain the old-fashioned style of coathanger: solid, heavy-duty metal wire. Adam from Whole Foods even provided the coathager as well as a tool to cut the hanger like we wanted. At first I had attempted to push the power unlock button, but even this wire tool didn't seem to have the required rigidity. So I immediately went to the driver's side and attempted to obtain the keys. It was good that one of the keyrings was up at such an angle that I could hook it and bring the keys through the opening in the window. The old paratrooper warned me, "Don't sneeze!!" as soon as I hooked the keys with the hanger. At the moment that I brought them up to the opening, I did receive some small measure of applause, which really wasn't necessary. Helping a friend was reward enough, and I am only posting this story on the insistence of the old paratrooper. This really can happen to anyone. The old paratrooper told our friend, "Next tme I'll lock my keys in the car and we can all enjoy getting my car unlocked."