Burrowing

Husband M bought this chipmunk trap in an effort to capture the ones around our house. We also got some sunflower seeds to lure them into the trap. I know, it looks awful doesn't it?  The plan is to drive them off to a suitable spot maybe 5 miles away. They have burrowed into the side of our house underneath some flowers but we don't want them damaging the foundation walls.

Valsartan medicine recall

Last week I saw on the news that a bunch of blood pressure medications had been recalled by Health Canada due to contamination with a potential carcinogen.  Wouldn't you know that mine is on the list.  It is called Valsartan.  I immediately called my pharmacist as advised.  They had just been notified of the problem themselves.  I was advised to keep taking the medicine for the time being until further notice.  I also have the option of contacting my doctor to discuss alternate medications.

A few days later the pharmacist called, they said they were going to fax a request to my doctor to have the medicine changed. I called my doctor to ensure he didn't put me on a medicine called Coversyl which I had tried in 2006 when I was first getting on Blood pressure meds. It made me cough a lot as a side effect.  The reason I remember the year is based on some old photos I had saved on Shutterfly of a vacation to Quebec City at the time.  I remembered all the coughing at the time.  The doctor's secretary was able to find the medicine in their records based on the year I gave her.

So my new medicine is called OLMESARTAN MEDOX which I have started on and am monitoring.  The pharmacist says this one is in the same family of medicines as Valsartan and has been around for years.

Do you keep a file of your own medical records?  It is a good idea, I started doing that about 5 years ago as it is so easy these days to forget things.

A new product

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Well I was the recipient of a free Oatmeal sample. In return I have promised to provide feedback on what I think about the new product. It contains oats, quinoa and flax seed. You have to add milk up to the line specified on the container,refrigerate overnight, then have it in the morning. It cost $4.79 at the drugstore, but it might be less expensive at the grocery store. 

So it was a granola type cereal, slightly sweet. It has a lot of calories as granola does, while being nutritious. I will share the other container with my friend S who lives on stuff like this. It is not really what I enjoy personally.

In an update to my post on touchscreen running gloves, son K says they work perfectly, he is very happy with them. It was as if he wasn't wearing any gloves, the phone was very responsive.

Something new

I found these garlic scapes at the Chinese grocery store recently, one of my sisters had told me they are good stir fried with beef. She said they call them garlic stems in the Chinese restaurants. Well they called them garlic hearts in this grocery store. I found a simple recipe on youtube. It recommended stir frying for about a minute in a couple of tablespoons of soy sauce, topping with sesame seeds. However it tasted very peppery and the stems were very tough at that point. So I decided to stir fry them for 9 minutes as described in another youtube video and they were sweet and crunchy just like she said! They have a mild garlic taste with the texture of asparagus.

Garlic scapes are the shoots that grow from garlic bulbs.  I found a nice article here.  Further research led me to discover there are 2 types of garlic, hardneck and softneck.  The softneck garlic is the kind we see at the grocery store.  This type has a green onion type of soft stalk.  The hardneck garlic has a sturdy stalk called a scape.

Paint Party Friday - Roses Greeting Card

Welcome to Kristin and Eva's Paint Party Friday! This is a greeting card (3 1/2" x 5") that I did in permanent markers, everyone seems to love flowers, good for all sorts of occasions.

Touchscreen running gloves

I picked up these touchscreen running gloves for son K when I was at Costco the other day. I didn't know they had such features now. May be they will start selling regular touchscreen gloves for us all to wear in the winter!

Scribble Picnic - Stars

Here are my 'stars' around a campfire for Michael's Scribble Picnic. They are done on textured purple cardstock in acrylic (6" x 6").