Pickles and Poison

What an interesting week this has been...

As it turns out, the hot peppers were not the worst thing in my "Hands of Hellfire Soup" (see previous blog post!). I'm sure you have all heard word about the current milk crisis in China. Thousands of infants have been hospitalized, and several deaths have occurred, due to baby formula tainted with the industrial chemical Melamine. Recently, it has been discovered that is is not only the milk powder that is tainted, but all dairy products from many major dairy brands.

In Hong Kong, officials conducted independent tests of milk products in stores and banned one brand in particular after finding traces of melamine in several of their products. It just so happens, that is the brand that we have been drinking for our past month here in China.

Do not fret, however - I have contacted the Poison Control Centre in Canada and there seems to be little to no risk to myself and Miss Lily, at this point (Daniel hadn't really been consuming the milk). Still, it's quite disappointing that I now have no way to get my required calcium intake.

Aside from slowly poisoning myself, things are mostly A-OK! We've booked a trip for our Fall Break to Shanghai and are looking forward to taking in the sights. Unfortunately, there is a slight chance that our trip will have to be cancelled due to visa issues. Our visas should have been processed quite some time ago now, but the lady in charge of that process quit very suddenly and everything came to a halt. We are assured that they are now working hard to get us our visas so we can be on our way to Shanghai come Sunday!

I am also happy to report that I am still completing goals from my list on a regular basis. So far, since my last update:

98) Celebrate Moon Festival - COMPLETE!

Also known as "Mid-Autumn Festival", the Moon Festival is a cultural celebration here in China which and is attached to many legends and stories. To learn more about the Mid Autumn Festival, you can visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Autumn_Festival.

For our celebration, we joined several friends on the beach, ate moon cakes, set off fireworks, and admired the moon. It was beautiful...

82) Enter a Writing Contest - COMPLETE!

One of my more exciting accomplishments this week is that I have joined an online community for freelance writers . Here members write articles, on a plethora of topics, which can then be entered into contests, submitted to publishers, and enjoyed by all via the the Internet.

This week, I have dedicated my writing energies to one of their contests, in which contestants submit articles to a variety of titles on a given topic. The winner in each category receives a cash prize at the end of voting. Thus far, each of the five articles I have written have reached the number one spot out of all of the articles written to that title. Combine, that puts me as the winner for this week's contest, if I can maintain my rating! If you're curious, you can visit my page here.

50) Make dill Pickles - COMPLETE!

The most exciting of all of my accomplishments thus far, I have managed to make myself three beautiful jars of homemade dill pickles! With the help of my neighbour Merilee (who assisted my supplying jars and dill) I spent part of my weekend making wonderful, delicious garlic dills.

I had almost resigned myself to the fact that I would not see another dill pickle until I returned to Canada when I realized that I could make them myself! I scoured the Internet for recipes and, much to my disappointment, found that any recipe required a waiting time of at least a month after canning. that would just not do - I wanted pickles now! So, I created a recipe for "Speedy Dills" which would be ready for eating in under a week. To my delight, it work! I am now rationing two jars of very yummy pickles (the third was given to the nice neighbour who supplied the jars and dill) and looking forward to the next batch!

Aside from that, it has been a relatively uneventful week, aside from a brief bought of fever. Baby Lily is very active and doing well, I go for my first visit to the hospital on Friday, and Daniel is still enjoying his job here in China!

I am happy to report that all is well, and I can only see it getting better and better!