Now at 6 ft. 1 1/2 in my son is not exactly a midget but then neither is he nor does he ascribe to be of gigantic stature. He just needs to, has to, must, reach 6ft 2in. because of course he could then look his father directly in the eye. Secretly I am rooting for him to make it to 6 ft 3 in which is why I have stopped nagging him to get out of bed. You see he has brought it to my attention that sleep is essential to growth as it is during sleep that the growth hormone is secreted. So he is sleeping and sleeping and sleeping. Apart from the growth argument I have to recognize that the high school junior year is demanding, especially in the month of May during which there are AP's and SAT's running parallel with regular classes and extracurricular activities. It is no wonder he is sleeping so much; during most of the school year he seems to be seriously sleep deprived.

Then there is the food consumption. Breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack, snack, snack then of course sleep. Do they eat more during the summer vacation? When I ask this I am reminded about the Dutch who are reputed to be the world's tallest people and who consume a high dairy and protein diet. I hear the average Dutch man is 6' 1", so he is above average, isn't that enough? No, no because he has got to equal the father's height. So summer sees us stocking up on among other things cheese and meat. Wish they could power the car too.

Then the exercise. My yoga mat is often missing only to be found in his room. No I won't catch him doing the warrior pose or any such thing, but stretches, crunches, leg lifts, calf raises coupled with bicep curls are the order of the day. In addition, now that the national trials for the Beijing Olympics are on, discussions range from authoritative declarations on endurance, how to avoid injury and the ideal body for sprinting. Of course our 100 metres world record holder Usain Bolt looks like a giant on the track, all 6'5" of him so for all I know soon some bastardized version of Usain's training schedule will be attempted at home.

Meanwhile measurements are taken regularly. Last week I was informed that it was really above 6'1 1/2", slightly. I think he was standing a little too tall on purpose.

If you enjoy playing around with clipart and images or if you have problems finding the perfect one and don't wish to use your own photos or spend precious time on Photoshop, how about checking out a sign generator. For those of you who are already familiar with this I crave your indulgence but my son just brought it to my attention and I think it is really a nifty tool.

A sign generator is just what is says. It allows you to generate a sign using an image as a template. In most cases there are a range of images each of which includes a blank canvas ideal for you to add your own text. Check out this Funny Sign Generator site which allows you to choose images from several categories such as: Animals, People, Protesters and so on. If I click on People and select the image of "Guy in front of some street" I can add my own words "Please Buy My Home" to the blank slate and produce this:

My favourite is this site which has over 500 sign generators. You can create your own free clipart, graphics, e-card from this vast list of image templates which can even include your own photographs. I used this one with the familiar Message in a bottle theme thanks to Image Shack.
















Of course you also have the option of making your sign using your own photos. Remember I had used this photo courtesy of my husband Paul for my Picture of the month in February. Here it is with text attached. Of course they have embedded their url. Good advertising for the sign generator.














The best thing about these sign generators is the speed at which you are able to create them. No lengthy inserting of text box, sending text back or any such complicated thing. You select your image generator be it tattoo name, computer keyboard key or a simple stop sign generator - remember there are 500. Then you insert your text, change the font size, name and colour and click change the text et voila you see a preview of your sign. You can edit as you like before you save or get html code.

Bloggers can use this as a useful tool to create blog headers too. Enjoy.

In an earlier post I had given some tips on how to keep the skin soft especially during the harsh winter months. Now that it is summer my son is still using the immune perfect to maintain his skin tone and it works so well I need to get some of my own but then I saw this declaration: Reduce Wrinkles While You Sleep With Frownies! and I wondered,

"Can this piece of paper really get rid of wrinkles?"

They call them facial pads but they really are pieces of paper with sticky backs and you paste them on your wrinkles, go to sleep and remove them in the morning. They have them in shapes to fit your forehead and the corners of your eyes and mouth where you traditionally get wrinkles. I was skeptical and clicked on the how they work section to discover that there is supposedly some biological explanation to this seemingly simple wrinkle fighting plan. They explain that repeated facial movements like frowning, smiling and squinting damage the skin tissues and this makes it easy for muscles to press the skin together eh voila you have got a wrinkle. Now the Frownies that you paste on at night are supposed to form a splint holding the layer of skin smooth and flat overnight while the skin cells reposition themselves supporting the natural, smooth, healthy-looking skin. So you are training or re-training the muscles to relax so that the wrinkles will vanish.

I don't know, I am still skeptical. I mean isn't that what Botox does, relaxes the muscles and you look good for a few months and then..... they're back! So how could this paper thingamajig work?

Still doubtful I looked here, here and here. Then I looked at the Frownies' testimonials and saw where Rene Russo claims to use this product. Here is the quote:

"So I go to the drugstore, and get these things that have been around forever called Frownies. They have adhesive on one side, like a glue. You lick that side, separate your crease, put it on the crease, and sleep with it. And the next morning you look better. I swear by them."

And we all know that Rene Russo looks good. Remember the Thomas Crown Affair? But here is the thing. Don't you get the impression that Russo still uses them? It isn't like she is saying she used to have wrinkles then she used Frownies and now they are gone. She is saying, you put them on at night and when you wake up you look better and I suspect she puts them on the next night too and the next and the next. So I suspect that Frownies has a temporary effect and that if they are to have any kind of long lasting effect then you have to keep on using them.

This may not be a bad idea especially if you don't want to use needles or face the surgeon's knife. If anyone has used it, let me know. I might as well give it a try and yes I'll let you know. On the other hand I may go for the duct tape, it's paper with adhesive on one side, isn't it?

Did you know that plums are members of the Rose family. Is it any wonder they smell so sweet? There are said to be thousands of varieties of plums as a result of hybridization or cross breeding.

In Jamaica we have a fruit which we simply call plum. The color ranges from yellow to red to deep red or purplish. My son begged me to buy some yesterday, not having seen it for quite some time. By the time we arrived home the car was fragrant with the scent causing us both to salivate.

This plum which of course has its season from late spring to summer smells good and its taste is not disappointing. Sweet with a tart tangy quality, the pulp is snugly attached to the seed which is like a large stone with a fibrous cover. This fruit once ripe does not last long. We don't mind though as it is so delicious who can wait to eat it. If you wish you can store it in the refrigerator where it will last for a while.

What is interesting is that I hear that this fruit is not really a plum. It is a relative of the mango and you can actually see the resemblance, despite its small size. It has a soft sometimes leathery skin(which is eaten) like the mango and a single hard seed.

The tree which bears this fruit can grow very tall. If you look at the picture you will note that the fruits grow in clusters right from the branches the leaves having been shed. They are hardly cultivated yet are found in abundance throughout tropical America especially in the Caribbean islands.

Some of the names which it is known by are: yellow mombin or hog plum, Hog plum, Java plum, tropical plum, marapa, Spanish plum, acaiba, mopé, jobo, hobo, ubo, yellow mombin, prune d'or, tapiriba, Ashanti plum, True yellow mombin, Jamaica plum, Spanish plum, Thorny hog plum, Mombin à fruits jaunes, Mombin franc, Gelbe Mombinpflaume, Acaiba , Acaja. But what's in a name?

In keeping with my promotion of summer reading I am filching from the Well Read Hostess today. I am even adopting her general statement of opinion as if it were my own, simply because I think parents should encourage their children to read and reading with them is one way of doing so. Well read says:

I have to also repeat Well Read's endorsement of Elizabeth George's Inspector Lynley's series with the latest being Careless in Red. Her characters are so lifelike and well developed. Start from A Great Deliverance and you will see what I mean.

Saturday, June 7 marks the last test day for this academic year for students sitting the SAT reasoning and subject tests. Bet you thought I was going to blog about Father's day. Well yes that is coming soon but some kids have asked some questions about the SAT subject test. Some concerns are:

I know this because my son and his friends are taking the test and some questions came up. One final thing I learned too was that if you wish to cancel the score for a test you can but you must do so by the Wednesday after the test date; and in the case of the subject tests all of the Subject Tests taken on that date are canceled while in the case of the SAT reasoning test all scores from all sections of the test are canceled.

Tranny Head is the funniest lawyer-mom I know. Well she is not quite a lawyer yet but in a few weeks she'll have her degree. She alerted me to this site which gives us four questions to help up discover our mothering personality type. To be honest I never feel quite right when answering these quizzes. Sometimes I feel that the options are limited and I may be a little bit of each but of course you have to choose one of only two options. Oh well. Let me know your results. I ended up being the "how to" mother - ESTJ.


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Like a Bolt of Lightning

I wonder what mothering personality type is Jennifer Bolt. This is one lady who has confidence in her son, Usain Bolt the Jamaican sprinting sensation who smashed Asafa Powell's 100m record of 9.74 on Saturday night at Icahn Stadium in New York. Soaking up the strong outpouring of Jamaican support, Bolt stormed down the wet track and dried up his competitors leaving them, especially American Tyson Gay, with damp spirits and more than enough time to watch as he seared .02 seconds off Powell's previous world record.

One major newspaper called his world record run mind-boggling another referred to him as superlative. Regardless of the descriptions we were thrilled to watch (over and over and over again) the 21 year old, 6 ft 5 in. athlete, gain such an unprecedented achievement and will be there to watch as he and Asafa meet again at the Jamaica national trials at the end of this month as they prepare to head to Beijing.

June 1 marks the beginning of the hurricane season. We will be having hurricane preparedness week and a hurricane expo this month all in the hope of reducing the effects of this disaster should we get hit again. Our Office of Disaster Preparedness says that 16 hurricanes are predicted this year and 2-5 are expected to become major hurricanes.

Since hurricanes are a part of life in this part of the world we have to take warnings seriously and be prepared. The National Hurricane Center website has a list of useful tips which can help to understand how to prepare for this kind of disaster.

As I child I remember being somewhat excited about the prospect of a hurricane. Obviously I didn't consider the probable devastating consequences. Now I am caught up in securing our home (windows, gutters, windows, roof), stocking up on non-perishables, buying batteries, charging cell phones and so on.

A major hurricane can be a real frightening experience - I wish I had the ability to describe those fierce roaring winds - and even when it is over picking up the pieces is just as frightening if not worse. Hopefully our mighty mountains will keep them away this year.